diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 36131-8.txt | 15168 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 36131-8.zip | bin | 0 -> 336148 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 36131-h.zip | bin | 0 -> 1631407 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 36131-h/36131-h.htm | 15386 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 36131-h/images/i299.png | bin | 0 -> 92404 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 36131-h/images/i300a.png | bin | 0 -> 80366 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 36131-h/images/i300b.png | bin | 0 -> 51195 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 36131-h/images/i301.png | bin | 0 -> 111631 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 36131-h/images/i302.png | bin | 0 -> 107897 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 36131-h/images/i303.png | bin | 0 -> 105211 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 36131-h/images/i304.png | bin | 0 -> 118063 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 36131-h/images/i305.png | bin | 0 -> 103987 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 36131-h/images/i307.png | bin | 0 -> 107955 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 36131-h/images/i310.png | bin | 0 -> 100111 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 36131-h/images/i439.png | bin | 0 -> 81752 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 36131-h/images/i441.png | bin | 0 -> 141104 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 36131-h/images/i442.png | bin | 0 -> 88335 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 36131.txt | 15168 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 36131.zip | bin | 0 -> 335883 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 |
22 files changed, 45738 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/36131-8.txt b/36131-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5371038 --- /dev/null +++ b/36131-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,15168 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The International Monthly, Volume 3, No. 3, +June, 1851, 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: The International Monthly, Volume 3, No. 3, June, 1851 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: May 17, 2011 [EBook #36131] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK INTERNATIONAL MONTHLY, JUNE, 1851 *** + + + + +Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by Cornell University Digital Collections.) + + + + + + + + +THE INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE + +Of Literature, Art, and Science. + +Vol. III. NEW-YORK, JUNE 1, 1851. No. III. + + + + +HENRY WILLIAM HERBERT, "FRANK FORESTER." + +[Illustration] + + +We doubt whether the wood-engravers of this country have ever produced +a finer portrait than the above of the author of "The Brothers," +"Cromwell," "Marmaduke Wyvil," "The Roman Traitor," "The Warwick +Woodlands," "Field Sports," "Fish and Fishing," &c., &c. It is from +one of the most successful daguerreotypes of Brady. + +HENRY WILLIAM HERBERT is the eldest son of the late Hon. and Rev. +William Herbert, Dean of Manchester, and of the Hon. Letitia Allen. +His father was the second son of the second Earl of Carnarvon, who was +of the nearest younger branch of the house of Pembroke. He was a +member of Parliament in the earlier part of his life, and being a +lawyer in Doctors' Commons was largely employed on the part of +American shipmasters previous to the war of 1812. At a later period he +took orders, became Dean of Manchester, was distinguished as a +botanist, and as the author of many eminent works, especially +"Attila," an epic poem of great power and learning. He died about +three years ago. His mother was the second daughter of Joshua, second +Viscount Allen, of Kildare, Ireland,--closely connected with the house +of Leinster. + +Mr. Herbert was born in London on the seventh of April, 1807; he was +educated at home under a private tutor till 1819, and then sent to a +private school near Brighton, kept by the Rev. Dr. Hooker, at which he +remained one year he was then transferred to Eton, and was at that +school from April, 1820, till the summer of 1825, when he left for the +university, and entered Caius College, Cambridge, in October. Here he +obtained two scholarships and several prizes,--though not a +hard-reading man, and spending much of his time in field sports--and +he graduated in the winter of 1829-30, with a distinguished reputation +for talents and scholarship. In November, 1831, he sailed from +Liverpool for New York, and for the last twenty years he has resided +nearly all the time in this city and at his place near Newark in New +Jersey, called the Cedars. + +[Illustration] + +In 1832, in connection with the late A. D. Patterson, he started _The +American Monthly Magazine_, nearly one half the matter of which was +composed by him. After the first year Mr. Patterson retired from it, +and during twelve months it was conducted by Mr. Herbert alone. On the +conclusion of the second year it was sold to Charles F. Hoffman, Mr. +Herbert continuing to act as a joint editor. At the commencement of +the fourth year Park Benjamin being associated in the editorship, it +was contemplated to introduce party politics into the work, and Mr. +Herbert in consequence declined further connection with it. + +[Illustration] + +By this time Mr. Herbert had made a brilliant reputation as a scholar +and as an author. In the _American Monthly_ he had printed the first +chapters of _The Brothers, a Tale of the Fronde_, and the entire novel +was published by the Harpers in 1834, and so well received that the +whole edition was sold in a few weeks. In 1836 and 1837 he edited _The +Magnolia_, the first annual ever printed in America on the system of +entire originality both of the literary matter, and of the +embellishments, which were all executed by American engravers from +American designs. A considerable portion of the matter for both years +was furnished by Mr. Herbert. In 1837 the Harpers published his second +novel, _Cromwell_, which did not sell so rapidly as _The Brothers_, +though generally praised by the reviewers. It 1840 it was reprinted by +Colburn in London, and was eminently successful. In 1843 he published +in New-York and London his third novel, _Marmaduke Wyvil, or the +Maid's Revenge_, a story of the English civil wars, and in 1848 the +most splendid of his romances, _The Roman Traitor_, founded on the +history of Cataline, a work which must be classed with the most +remarkable of those specimens of literary art in which it has been +attempted to illustrate classical scenes, characters, and manners. + +In romantic fiction, besides the above works, Mr. Herbert has written +for the magazines of this country and Great Britain tales and sketches +sufficient to make twenty to thirty stout volumes. The subjects of his +best performances have been drawn from the middle ages and from +southern Europe, and they display besides very eminent capacities for +the historical novel, and a familiarity with the institutions of +chivalry and with contemporary manners hardly equaled in any writer of +the English language. + +In 1839 Mr. Herbert commenced in the New-York _Turf Register_ a series +of papers, under the signature of "Frank Forester," from which have +grown _My Shooting Box, The Warwick Woodlands, Field Sports of the +United States and British Provinces_, and _Fish and Fishing in the +United States and British Provinces_--works which by the general +consent of the sporting world are second to none in their department, +in any of the qualities which should distinguish this sort of writing. +The principal distinction between these and all other sporting works +lies in this, that such works in general treat only of game in the +field and flood, and the modes of killing it, while these are in great +part natural histories, containing minute and carefully digested +accounts of every specie of game, beast, bird, and fish, compiled from +Audubon, Wilson, Giraud, Godman, Agassiz, De Kay, and other +authorities, besides long disquisitions into their habits, times of +migration, breeding, &c., from the personal observation and experience +of the author. Any person is at once enabled by them to distinguish +between any two even closely allied species, and to adopt the proper +nomenclature, with a knowledge of the reason for it. The sporting +precepts are admitted, throughout the western country especially, to +be superior to all others, as well as the papers relating to the +breaking and the kennel and field management of dogs, &c. The same may +be said of what he has written of guns and gunnery. Mr. Herbert has +hunted, shot, and fished during the last twenty years in every state +of the Union, from Maine to Maryland, south of the great lakes, and +from below Quebec to the Sault St. Marie northward of them. Not having +visited the southern or south western states, the accounts of sporting +in those regions are collected from the writings or oral +communications of their best sportsmen, and on these points much +valuable new information, especially as to the prairie shooting and +the sports of the Rocky Mountains, will be contained in the new +edition of the _Field Sports_ to appear in the coming autumn. + +Besides his contributions to romantic and sporting literature, Mr. +Herbert has written largely in criticism, he has done much as a poet, +and his capacities in classical scholarship have been illustrated by +some of the finest examples of Greek and Latin translation that have +appeared in our time. In the aggregate his works would now make +scarcely less than fifty octavo volumes. + +As we have intimated, the portrait at the beginning of this article is +remarkably good. Mr. Herbert is about five feet ten high, of athletic +habits, and an untiring and fast walker; fond, of course, of all field +sports, especially horsemanship and shooting, and priding himself upon +killing as much if not more game than any other gentleman in the +country out of New-York. + +[Illustration] + + + + +TRENTON FALLS + +[Illustration] + + +In a story called _Edith Linsey_, written by Mr. WILLIS, soon after he +left college, occurs the following description of Trenton Falls: + + "Trenton Falls is rather a misnomer. I scarcely know what + you would call it, but the wonder of nature which bears the + name is a tremendous torrent, whose bed, for several miles, + is sunk fathoms deep into the earth--a roaring and dashing + stream, so far below the surface of the forest in which it + is lost, that you would think, as you come suddenly upon the + edge of its long precipice, that it was a river in some + inner world (coiled within ours, as we in the outer circle + of the firmament,) and laid open by some Titanic throe that + had cracked clear asunder the crust of this 'shallow earth.' + The idea is rather assisted if you happen to see below you, + on its abysmal shore, a party of adventurous travellers; + for, at that vast depth, and in contrast with the gigantic + trees and rocks, the same number of well-shaped pismires, + dressed in the last fashions, and philandering upon your + parlor floor, would be about of their apparent size and + distinctness. + + "They showed me at Eleusis the well by which Proserpine + ascends to the regions of day on her annual visit to the + plains of Thessaly--but with the _genius loci_ at my elbow + in the shape of a Greek girl as lovely as Phryne, my memory + reverted to the bared axle of the earth in the bed of this + American river, and I was persuaded (looking the while at + the _feronière_ of gold sequins on the Phidian forehead of + my Katinka) that supposing Hades in the centre of the earth, + you are nearer to it by some fathoms at Trenton. I confess I + have had, since my first descent into those depths, an + uncomfortable doubt of the solidity of the globe--how the + deuse it can hold together with such a crack in its bottom! + + "It was a night to play Endymion, or do any Tomfoolery that + could be laid to the charge of the moon, for a more + omnipresent and radiant atmosphere of moonlight never + sprinkled the wilderness with silver. It was a night in + which to wish it might never be day again--a night to be + enamored of the stars, and bid God bless them like human + creatures on their bright journey--a night to love in, to + dissolve in--to do every thing but what night is made + for--sleep! Oh heaven! when I think how precious is life in + such moments; how the aroma--the celestial bloom and flower + of the soul--the yearning and fast-perishing enthusiasm of + youth--waste themselves in the solitude of such nights on + the senseless and unanswering air; when I wander alone, + unloving and unloved, beneath influences that could inspire + me with the elevation of a seraph, were I at the ear of a + human creature that could summon forth and measure my + limitless capacity of devotion--when I think this, and feel + this, and so waste my existence in vain yearnings--I could + extinguish the divine spark within me like a lamp on an + unvisited shrine, and thank Heaven for an assimilation to + the animals I walk among! And that is the substance of a + speech I made to Job as a sequitur of a well-meant remark of + his own, that 'it was a pity Edith Linsey was not there.' He + took the clause about the 'animals' to himself, and I made + an apology for the same a year after. We sometimes give our + friends, quite innocently, such terrible knocks in our + rhapsodies! + + "Most people talk of the _sublimity_ of Trenton, but I have + haunted it by the week together for its mere loveliness. The + river, in the heart of that fearful chasm, is the most + varied and beautiful assemblage of the thousand forms and + shapes of running water that I know in the world. The soil + and the deep-striking roots of the forest terminate far + above you, looking like a black rim on the inclosing + precipices; the bed of the river and its sky-sustaining + walls are of solid rock, and, with the tremendous descent of + the stream--forming for miles one continuous succession of + falls and rapids--the channel is worn into curves and + cavities which throw the clear waters into forms of + inconceivable brilliancy and variety. It is a sort of half + twilight below, with here and there a long beam of sunshine + reaching down to kiss the lip of an eddy or form a rainbow + over a fall, and the reverberating and changing echoes:-- + + "Like a ring of bells whose sound the wind still alters," + + maintain a constant and most soothing music, varying at + every step with the varying phase of the current. Cascades + of from twenty to thirty feet, over which the river flies + with a single and hurrying leap (not a drop missing from the + glassy and bending sheet), occur frequently as you ascend; + and it is from these that the place takes its name. But the + falls, though beautiful, are only peculiar from the dazzling + and unequaled rapidity with which the waters come to the + leap. If it were not for the leaf which drops wavering down + into the abysm from trees apparently painted on the sky, and + which is caught away by the flashing current as if the + lightning had suddenly crossed it, you would think the vault + of the steadfast heavens a flying element as soon. The spot + in that long gulf of beauty that I best remember is a smooth + descent of some hundred yards, where the river in full and + undivided volume skims over a plane as polished as a table + of scagliola, looking, in its invisible speed, like one + mirror of gleaming but motionless crystal. Just above, there + is a sudden turn in the glen which sends the water like a + catapult against the opposite angle of the rock, and, in the + action of years, it has worn out a cavern of unknown depth, + into which the whole mass of the river plunges with the + abandonment of a flying fiend into hell, and, reappearing + like the angel that has pursued him, glides swiftly but with + divine serenity on its way. (I am indebted for that last + figure to Job, who travelled with a Milton in his pocket, + and had a natural redolence of 'Paradise Lost' in his + conversation.) + + "Much as I detest water in small quantities (to drink), I + have a hydromania in the way of lakes, rivers, and + waterfalls. It is, by much, the _belle_ in the family of the + elements. _Earth_ is never tolerable unless disguised in + green. _Air_ is so thin as only to be visible when she + borrows drapery of water; and _Fire_ is so staringly bright + as to be unpleasant to the eyesight; but water! soft, pure, + graceful water! there is no shape into which you can throw + her that she does not seem lovelier than before. She can + borrow nothing of her sisters. Earth has no jewels in her + lap so brilliant as her own spray pearls and emeralds; Fire + has no rubies like what she steals from the sunset; Air has + no robes like the grace of her fine-woven and ever-changing + drapery of silver. A health (in wine!) to WATER! + +[Illustration] + + "Who is there that did not love some stream in his youth? + Who is there in whose vision of the past there does not + sparkle up, from every picture of childhood, a spring or a + rivulent woven through the darkened and torn woof of first + affections like a thread of unchanged silver? How do you + interpret the instinctive yearning with which you search for + the river-side or the fountain in every scene of nature--the + clinging unaware to the river's course when a truant in the + fields in June--the dull void you find in every landscape of + which it is not the ornament and the centre? For myself, I + hold with the Greek: "Water is the first principle of all + things: we were made from it and we shall be resolved into + it."" + +[Illustration] + +Of subsequent visits to this loveliest of spots, years after, Mr. +Willis has given descriptions in letters addressed to General Morris +for publication in the _Home Journal_, and we are soon to have from +Putnam in a beautiful volume all that he has written on the subject, +together with notices of the manner in which he enjoyed himself at Mr. +Moore's delightful hotel at the Falls, which is represented as +farthest of all summer resorts from the turmoil of the world and +nearest of all to the gates of Paradise. We borrow from these letters +a few characteristic and tempting paragraphs: + + "I was here twenty years ago, but the fairest things slip + easiest out of the memory, and I had half forgotten Trenton. + To tell the truth, I was a little ashamed, to compare the + faded and shabby picture of it in my mind with the reality + before me, and if the waters of the Falls had been, by any + likelihood, the same that flowed over when I was here + before, I should have looked them in the face, I think, with + something of the embarrassment with which one meets, + half-rememberingly, after years of separation, the ladies + one has vowed to love for ever. + + "The peculiarity of Trenton Falls, I fancy, consists a good + deal in the space in which you are compelled to see them. + You walk a few steps from the hotel through the wood, and + come to a descending staircase of a hundred steps, the + different bends of which are so over-grown with wild + shrubbery, that you cannot see the ravine till you are + fairly down upon its rocky floor. Your path hence, up to the + first Fall, is along a ledge cut out of the base of the + cliff that overhangs the torrent, and when you go to the + foot of the descending sheet, you find yourself in very + close quarters with a cataract--rocky walls all round + you--and the appreciation of power and magnitude, perhaps, + somewhat heightened by the confinement of the place--as a + man would have a much more realizing sense of a live lion, + shut up with him in a basement parlor, than he would of the + same object, seen from an elevated and distant point of + view. + + "The usual walk (through this deep cave open at the top) is + about half a mile in length, and its almost subterranean + river, in that distance, plunges over four precipices in + exceedingly beautiful cascades. On the successive rocky + terraces between the falls, the torrent takes every variety + of rapids and whirlpools, and, perhaps, in all the scenery + of the world, there is no river, which, in the same space, + presents so many of the various shapes and beauties of + running and falling water. The Indian name of the stream + (the Kanata, which means the _amber river_) expresses one of + its peculiarities, and, probably from the depth of shade + cast by the two dark and overhanging walls 'twixt which it + flows, the water is everywhere of a peculiarly rich lustre + and color, and, in the edges of one or two of the cascades, + as yellow as gold. Artists, in drawing this river, fail, + somehow, in giving the impression of _deep-down-itude_ which + is produced by the close approach of the two lofty walls of + rock, capped by the overleaning woods, and with the sky + apparently resting, like a ceiling, upon the leafy + architraves.... If there were truly, as the poets say + figuratively, "worlds _within_ worlds," this would look as + if an earthquake had cracked open the outer globe, and + exposed, through the yawning fissure, one of the rivers of + the globe below--the usual underground level of "down among + the dead men," being, as you walk upon its banks, between + you and the daylight. + + "Considering the amount of surprise and pleasure which one + feels in a walk up the ravine at Trenton, it is remarkable + how little one finds to say about it, the day after. Is it + that mere scenery, without history, is enjoyable without + being suggestive, or, amid the tumult of the rushing torrent + at one's feet, is the milk of thought too much agitated for + the cream to rise? I fancied yesterday, as I rested on the + softest rock I could find at the upper end of the ravine, + that I should tumble you out a letter to-day, with ideas + pitching forth like saw-logs over a waterfall; but my memory + has nothing in it to-day but the rocks and rapids it took + in--the talent wrapped in its napkin of delight remaining in + unimproved _statu-quo_-sity. One certainly gets the + impression, while the sight and hearing are so overwhelmed, + that one's mind is famously at work, and that we shall hear + from it to-morrow; but it is Jean Paul, I think, who says + that 'the mill makes the most noise when there is no grist + in the hopper.' + + "We have had the full of the moon and a cloudless sky for + the last two or three nights, and of course we have walked + the ravine till the 'small hours,' seeing with wonder the + transforming effects of moonlight and its black shadows on + the falls and precipices. I have no idea (you will be glad + to know) of trying to reproduce these sublimities on + paper--at least not with my travelling stock of verbs and + adjectives. To 'sandwich the moon in a muffin,' one must + have time and a ladder of dictionaries. But one or two + effects struck me which perhaps are worth briefly naming, + and I will throw into the lot a poetical figure, which you + may use in your next song.... + + "The fourth Fall, (or the one that is flanked by the ruins + of a saw-mill) is, perhaps, a hundred feet across; and its + curve over the upper rock and its break upon the lower one, + form two parallel lines, the water everywhere falling the + same distance with the evenness of an artificial cascade. + The stream not being very full, just now, it came over, in + twenty or thirty places, thicker than elsewhere; and the + effect, from a distance, as the moonlight lay full upon it, + was that of twenty or thirty immovable marble columns + connected by transparent curtains of falling lace, and with + bases in imitation of foam. Now it struck me that this might + suggest a new and fanciful order of architecture, suitable + at least to the structure of green-houses, the glass roofs + of which are curved over and slope to the ground with very + much the contour of a waterfall.... + + "Subterranean as this foaming river looks by day, it looks + like a river in cloud-land by night. The side of the ravine + which is in shadow, is one undistinguishable mass of black, + with its wavy upper edge in strong relief against the sky, + and, as the foaming stream catches the light from the + opposite and moonlit side, it is outlined distinctly on its + bed of darkness, and seems winding its way between hills of + clouds, half black, half luminous. Below, where all is deep + shadow except the river, you might fancy it a silver mine + laid open to your view amid subterranean darkness by the + wand of an enchanter, or (if you prefer a military trope, my + dear General), a long white plume laid lengthwise between + the ridges of a cocked hat." + +[Illustration] + + + + +NEW PROOF OF THE EARTH'S ROTATION. + + +"The earth does move, notwithstanding," whispered Galileo, leaving the +dungeon of the Inquisition: by which he meant his friends to +understand, that if the earth did move, the fact would remain so in +spite of his punishment. But a less orthodox assembly than the +conclave of Cardinals might have been staggered by the novelty of the +new philosophy. According to Laplace, the apparent diurnal phenomena +of the heavens would be the same either from the revolution of the sun +or the earth; and more than one reason made strongly in favor of the +prevalent opinion that the earth, not the sun, was stationary. First, +it was most agreeable to the impression of the senses; and next, to +disbelieve in the fixity of the solid globe, was not only to eject +from its pride of place our little planet, but to disturb the +long-cherished sentiment that we ourselves are the centre--the be-all +and end-all of the universe. However, the truth will out; and this is +its great distinction from error, that while every new discovery adds +to its strength, falsehood is weakened and at last driven from the +field. That the earth revolves round the sun, and rotates on its polar +axis, have long been the settled canons of our system. But the +rotation of the earth has been rendered _visible_ by a practical +demonstration, which has drawn much attention in Paris and London, and +is beginning to excite interest in this country. The inventor is M. +Foucault; and the following description has been given of the mode of +proof: + + "At the centre of the dome of the Panthéon a fine wire is + attached, from which a sphere of metal, four or five inches + in diameter, is suspended so as to hang near the floor of + the building. This apparatus is put in vibration after the + manner of a pendulum. Under and concentrical with it is + placed a circular table, some twenty feet in diameter, the + circumference of which is divided into degrees, minutes, + &c., and the divisions numbered. Now, supposing the earth to + have the diurnal motion imputed to it, and which explains + the phenomena of day and night, the plane in which this + pendulum vibrates will not be affected by this motion, but + the table, over which the pendulum is suspended, will + continually change its position, in virtue of the diurnal + motion, so as to make a complete revolution round its + centre. Since, then, the table thus revolves, and the + pendulum which vibrates over it does not revolve, the + consequence is, that a line traced upon the table by a point + projecting from the bottom of the ball will change its + direction relatively to the table from minute to minute and + from hour to hour, so that if such point were a pencil, and + that paper were spread upon the table, the course formed by + this pencil would form a system of lines radiating from the + centre of the table. The practised eye of a correct + observer, especially if aided by a proper optical + instrument, may actually see the motion which the table has + in common with the earth, under the pendulum between two + successive vibrations. It is, in fact, apparent that the + ball, or rather the point attached to the bottom of the + ball, does not return precisely to the same point of the + circumference of the table after two successive vibrations. + Thus is rendered visible the motion which the table has in + common with the earth." + +Crowds are said to flock daily to the Panthéon to witness this +interesting experiment. It has been successfully repeated by Professor +Ansted at the Russell Institution, in London, in a manner similar to +the experiment at the Panthéon at Paris. The wire, which suspended a +weight of twenty-eight pounds, was of the size of the middle C-string +of a piano. It was thirty feet long, and vibrated over a graduated +table fixed to the floor. The rotation of the table, implying that of +the earth on which it rested, was visible in about five minutes, and +the wonderful spectacle was presented of the rotation of the room +round the pendulum. The experiment excited the astonishment of every +beholder, and many eminent scientific gentlemen who were present +expressed their great delight in witnessing a phenomenon which they +considered the most satisfactory they had witnessed in the whole +course of their lives. + +Although nothing, to minds capable of comprehending it, can add to the +force or clearness of the demonstration by which the rotation of the +earth has been established, yet even the natural philosopher himself +cannot regard the present experiment without feelings of profound +interest and satisfaction; and to the great mass, to whom the +complicated physical phenomena by which the rotation of the earth has +been established are incomprehensible, M. Foucault's very ingenious +illustration is invaluable. + +A correspondent of the Newark _Daily Advertiser_ appears to have +anticipated the experiment of M. Foucault, suspending a fifty-six +pound weight by a small wire from the rafters of a barn. But however +simple and conclusive the illustration, it should be attempted only by +scientific men. Professor Sylvester, writing to the _Times_, of +experiments made in London, says: + + "The experiments connected with the practical demonstration + of the phenomenon require to be conducted with great care; + and some discredit has been brought upon attempts to + illustrate it in England by persons who have not taken the + necessary precautions to protect the motion from the + excentric deviation to which it is liable, and which may, + and indeed must, have the effect of causing, in some cases, + an apparent failure, and in others a still more unfortunate, + because fallacious, success. I believe, from the character + of the persons connected with the experiments, that the true + phenomenon has been accurately produced and observed in + Paris. I doubt whether as much can be said, with entire + confidence, of any of the experiments hitherto performed + here in London. + + "Any want of symmetry in the arrangements for the suspension + of the wire, or in the centering of the weight, exposure to + currents of air, or the tremulous motion occasioned by the + passage of vehicles, may operate to cause a phenomenon to + be brought about curious enough in itself, as a result of + mathematical laws, but quite different from that supposed. + The phenomenon of the progression of the apsides of an oval + orbit, which is here alluded to, is familiar to all students + in mechanics. + + "It is perfectly absurd for persons unacquainted with + mechanical and geometrical science to presume to make the + experiment. Indeed, such efforts deserve rather the name of + conjuring than of experiment; but in this, as in many other + matters of life, it is true that "fools rush in where angels + fear to tread." Perhaps the too hasty rush at the + experimental verification of Foucault's law may account for + some persons in England, whose opinions when given with due + deliberation are entitled to respect, having allowed + themselves to express doubts (which I understand, however, + have been since retracted) as to the truth of the law + itself. In Paris there was no difference of opinion among + such men as Lamé, Poinsol, Binet, Leonville, Sturm, Chasles, + Bruvues, I believe Arago, Hermite, and many others with whom + I conversed on the subject, except as to the best mode of + making the theory popularly intelligible." + +Explanations will be necessary from lecturers and others who give +imitations of M. Foucault's ingenuity to render it intelligible to +those unacquainted with mathematics, or with the laws of gravity and +spherical motion. For instance, it will not be readily understood by +every one why the pendulum should vibrate in the same plane, and not +partake of the earth's rotation in common with the table; but this +could be _shown_ with a bullet suspended by a silkworm's thread. Next, +the apparent horizontal revolution of the table round its centre will +be incomprehensible to many, as representative of its own and the +earth's motion round its axis. + +Doubtless we shall soon have public exhibitions of the demonstration +in all our cities. + +The pendulum is indeed an extraordinary instrument, and has been a +useful handmaid to science. We are familiar with it as the +time-regulator of our clocks, and the ease with which they may be made +to go faster or slower by adjusting its length. But neither this nor +the Panthéon elucidation constitutes its sole application. By it the +latitude may be approximately ascertained, the density of the earth's +strata in different places, and its elliptical eccentricity of figure. +The noble Florentine already quoted was its inventor; and it is +related of Galileo, while a boy, that he was the first to observe how +the height of the vaulted roof of a church might be measured by the +times of the vibration of the chandeliers suspended at different +altitudes. Were the earth perforated from London to our antipodes, and +the air exhausted, a ball dropped through would at the centre acquire +a velocity sufficient to carry it to the opposite side, whence it +would again descend, and so oscillate forward and backwards from one +side of the globe's surface to the other in the manner of a pendulum. +Very likely, the Cardinals of the Vatican would deem this heresy, or +"flat blasphemy." + +[Illustration] + + + + +THE BUTCHERS' LEAP AT MUNICH. + + +A correspondent of the London _Athenæum_, writing from Munich, gives +the following account of the festival of the Butchers' Leap in the +Fountain: "This strange ceremonial, like the _Schäffler Tanz_, is said +to have its origin in the time of the plague. While the Coopers danced +with garlands and music through the streets, the Butchers sprang into +the fountain in the market-place, to show their fellow-citizens that +its water was no longer to be dreaded as poisoned. Perhaps they were +the Sanitary Commissioners of those days; and by bathing themselves in +the water and dashing it about on the crowd would teach the true means +of putting pestilence to flight. + + "Though the Coopers' Dance takes place only once in seven + years, the Butchers' Leap occurs annually, and always on + _Fasching Montag_,--the Monday before Shrove Tuesday. I + believe the ceremony is of great importance to the trade of + the Butchers; as certain privileges granted to them are + annually renewed at this time, and in connection with the + Leap. These two ceremonies--of the Coopers' Dance and the + Butchers' Leap--are now almost the last remains of the + picturesque and quaint customs of old Munich. + + "The Butchers commence proceedings by attending High Mass in + St. Peter's Church,--close to the Schrannien Platz, or + market-place, in which the fountain is situated. It is a + desolate-looking church, this St. Peter's, as seen from + without,--old, decaying, and ugly; within, tawdry + and--though not desolate and decaying--ugly. From staringly + white walls frown down on the spectator torture-pictures, + alternating with huge gilt images of sentimental saints in + clumsy drapery. The altars are masses of golden clouds and + golden cherubs. + + "Music, as from the orchestra of a theatre rather than from + the choir of a church, greeted us as we entered. The + Butchers were just passing out. We caught glimpses of + scarlet coats; and saw two huge silver flagons, covered with + a very panoply of gold and silver medals, borne aloft by + pompous officials clothed in scarlet. Having watched the + procession--some half-dozen tiny butchers' sons, urchins of + five and six years old, with rosy, round faces and chubby + hands, mounted on stalwart horses and dressed in little + scarlet coats, top-boots, and jaunty green velvet + hats--seven butchers' apprentices, the Leapers of the day, + also dressed in scarlet and mounted on horseback--the + musicians,--the long train of master-butchers and journeymen + in long dark cloaks and with huge nosegays in their + hats--and the scarlet officials bearing the decorated + flagons,--having watched, I say, all these good folk wend + their way in long procession up the narrow street leading + from the church, and seen them cross the market-place in the + direction of the Palace, where they are awaited by the + King,--let us look around, and notice the features of the + market-place:--for it is, in fact, a quaint old bit of the + city, and well worth a glimpse. + + "If I love the Ludwig Strasse as the most beautiful portion + of the new Munich, I almost equally love the Schrannien + Platz as about the quaintest part of old Munich. It is long + and narrow as a market-place, but wide as a street. The + houses are old; many of them very handsome, and rich with + ornamental stucco-work,-- + + 'All garlanded with carven imageries + Of fruit and flowers and bunches of knot-grass.' + + The roofs are steep, red tiled, and perforated with rows of + little pent-house windows. The fronts of the houses are of + all imaginable pale tints,--stone colors, pinks, greens, + greys, and tawnies. Three of the four corners of the + market-place are adorned with tall pepper-box towers, with + domed roofs and innumerable narrow windows. At one end is + the fountain; and in the centre a heavy, but quaint + shrine,--a column supporting a gilt figure of the Madonna. + The eye wanders down various picturesque streets which open + into the market-place; and on one hand, above steep roofs, + gaze down the two striking red-brick towers of the _Frauen + Kirche_--the cathedral of Munich:--those two red towers + which are seen in all views of this city, and which belong + as much to Munich as the dome of St. Paul's does to the city + of London,--those towers which in the haze of sunset are + frequently transformed into violet-tinted columns, or about + which in autumn and winter mists cling with a strange + dreariness as if they were desolate mountain peaks! + + "But the quaintest feature of all in the Schrannien Platz is + a sort of arcade which runs around it. Here, beneath the low + and massy arches, are crowded thick upon each other a host + of small shops. What queer, dark little cells they are,--yet + how picturesque! Here is a dealer in crucifixes,--next to + him a woollen-draper, displaying bright striped woollen + goods for the peasants,--then a general dealer, with heaps + and bundles and tubs and chests containing every thing most + heterogeneous,--and next to him a dealer in pipes. There are + bustle and gloom always beneath these heavy low arches,--but + they present a glorious bit of picturesque life. There are + queer wooden booths, too, along one portion of the + Schrannien Platz where it rather narrows, losing its + character of market-place, and descending to that of an + ordinary street. But the booths do not degenerate in their + picturesque character. The earthenware booths--of which + there are several--are truly delicious. Such rows and piles + of dark green, orange, ruddy chocolate-brown, sea-green, + pale yellow, and deep blue and grey vessels of all forms and + sizes--all quaint, all odd--jugs, flagons, pipkins, queer + pots with huge lids, queer tripods for which I know no + name--things which always seem to me to come out of a + witch's kitchen, but by means of which I suspect that my own + dinner is cooked every day. All these heaps of crockery lie + about the doors, and load the windows of the wooden booths, + and line shelves and shelves within the gloom of the little + shops themselves. When I first came here these old crockery + shops were a more frequent study to me than any thing else + in the old town. + + "We ascended a steep, narrow staircase leading out of this + arcade into one of the houses above it, from which we were + to witness the leaping into the fountain. I looked out of + the window on the crowd that began to collect around the + fountain, and noticed the tall roofs and handsome fronts of + the houses opposite, and the crowd of pigeons--scores and + scores of pigeons--assembled just opposite the fountain on + the edge of the steep roof which rose like a red hill-side + behind them. They seemed solemnly met to witness the great + festivities about to be celebrated, and sat in silent + expectation brooding in the sunshine. Then, I wondered what + attraction the icy water could have for the children who + leaned over the fountain's side--dabbling in the water as + though it had been midsummer. The crowd increased and + increased; and seven new white buckets were brought and + placed on a broad plank which extended across one side of + the fountain basin. + + "A shout from the crowd announced the arrival of the + Butchers. First of all came the tender Butcher-infants, in + scarlet coats, top-boots, and green velvet hats, borne in + the arms of their fathers through the crowd in order that + they might witness the fun. Then followed the scarlet + officials:--and then came seven of the queerest beasts man + ever set eyes on. What were they, if human? Were they seven + Esquimaux chiefs, or seven African mumbo-jumbos? They were + the heroes of the day--the seven Butcher-apprentices, + clothed in fur caps and garments--covered from shoulder to + heel with hundreds of dangling calves' tails--red, white, + black, dun! + + "You may imagine the shouts that greeted them,--the peels of + laughter. Up they sprang on the broad plank,--leaping, + dancing, making their tails fly round like trundled mops. + The crowd roared with laughter. A stately scarlet + official--a butcher (_Altgesell_)--stands beside them on the + plank. Ten times they drink the health of the royal family + and prosperity to the butchers' craft. The _Altgesell_ then + striking many blows on the shoulder of the nearest + apprentice, frees him and all the remaining six from their + indentures. They are henceforth full-grown butchers. Then, + they plunge into the very centre of the fountain with a + tremendous splash. The crowd shout,--the startled pigeons + wheel in wild alarm above the heads and laughter of the + crowd. The seven Tritons dash torrents of water on the + multitude,--who fly shrieking and laughing before the + deluge. The seven buckets are plied with untiring + arms;--lads are enticed within aim by showers of nuts flung + by the 'Leapers,' and then are drenched to the skin. It is a + bewilderment of water, flying calves' tails, pelting nuts, + and shrieking urchins. + + "The 'Leapers' then ascend out of their bath,--shake + themselves like shaggy dogs,--have white cloths pinned round + their necks as though they were going to be shaved,--and + have very grand medals hung round their necks suspended by + gaudy ribbons. + + "The procession retires across the market-place to its + '_Herberge_,' and the crowd disperses,--but disperses only + to re-assemble in various public-houses for the merriment of + the afternoon and night. That night and the next day are + 'the maddest, merriest of all the year.' Music is every + where--dancing every where. It is the end of the Carnival. + Ash Wednesday comes,--and then, all is gloom." + + + + +NEGLECT OF THE PRESERVATION OF EGYPTIAN ANTIQUITIES. + + +A writer in the London _Athenæum_, writing from Alexandria, endeavors +to convince those who profess an interest in Egyptian antiquities, +that if their present neglect continues, nothing will remain of the +stupendous relics now lying over the land, but a quantity of +pulverized fragments. The colossal statue at Memphis, said to belong +to the British Museum, for years depended on the precarious protection +of an old Arab woman, who was continually expecting and claiming a +small salary of five or six pounds per annum as guardian. She received +about so much from a variety of consuls, for a time, but the payment +was at last discontinued, and, from what was told her, she based her +hopes on the learned or the powerful in England. "But the learned and +the powerful never, I suppose," says the writer, "heard of her, and +she died, leaving the statue in charge of her son, who, in his turn, +seems to live in hope. There is little prospect of his getting any +thing, however; and very probably, in spite of his unrewarded zeal, +the magnificent statue--by far the finest in Egypt--will ere long be +burnt for lime. The neighboring pyramid of Dashour is being, as I have +already said, worked as a quarry, and I shall be very much surprised +if this handy block of stone escape notice." He suggests the formation +of a committee, consisting of the principal consuls and residents in +Egypt, to watch over the preservation of the monuments of the country, +and to be supplied, by governments or by the voluntary contributions +of the learned, with the funds necessary to pay guardians and +inspectors. + +A very valuable museum of Egyptian antiquities we believe is now on +the way to the United States; but it embraces no such great works as +have been transported to Rome and Paris. Is it not worth while for the +New-York merchants to set up in Union or Washington Square, the great +statue of Memphis? + +Or it would not be altogether inappropriate for the Smithsonian +Institution to have it imported into Washington. How much the +diffusion of "knowledge" would be promoted by such a movement it is +not easy to say: but a figure of this kind on Capitol Hill would have +such an effect on our eloquence! and our juvenile poets could go there +and in its shade invoke the presence of twenty centuries. + + + + +HENRY ROWE SCHOOLCRAFT. + +[Illustration] + + +Mr. Schoolcraft is of English descent by the paternal side, his +great-grandfather having come from England during the wars of Queen +Anne, and settled in what is now Schoharie county in New-York, where +in old age he taught the first English school in that part of the +country, from which circumstance his name was not unnaturally changed +by the usage of the people from Calcraft to Schoolcraft. Our author +recently attempted in his own person to revive the old family name, +but soon abandoned it, and concluded to retain that which was begotten +upon his native soil, and by which he has long been so honorably +distinguished. He is a son of Colonel Lawrence Schoolcraft, who joined +the revolutionary army at seventeen years of age, and participated in +the movements under Montgomery and Schuyler, and the memorable defence +of Fort Stanwix under Gansevoort. He was born in Guilderland, near +Albany, on the twenty-eighth of March, 1793. In a secluded part of the +country, where there were few advantages for education, and scarce any +persons who thought of literature, he had an ardent love of knowledge, +and sat at home with his books and pencils while his equals in age +were at cock-fights and horse-races, for which Guilderland was then +famous. He is still remembered by some of the octogenarians of the +village as the "learned boy." At thirteen he drew subjects in natural +history, and landscapes, which attracted the attention of the late +Lieutenant-Governor Van Rensselaer, then a frequent visitor of his +father, through whose agency he came near being apprenticed to one +Ames, the only portrait-painter at that time in Albany; but as it was +demanded that he should commence with house-painting the plan was +finally abandoned. At fourteen he began to contribute pieces in prose +and verse to the newspapers, and for several years after he pursued +without aid the study of natural history, English literature, Hebrew, +German, and French, and the philosophy of language. + +Mr. Schoolcraft's first work was an elaborate treatise, but partially +known to the public, entitled Vitreology, which was published in 1817. +The design of it was to exhibit the application of chemistry to the +arts in the fusion of siliceous and alkaline substances in the +production of enamels, glass, etc. He had had opportunities of +experimenting largely and freely by his position as conductor for a +series of years of the extensive works of the Ontario Company at +Geneva in New-York, the Vermont Company at Middlebury and Salisbury in +Vermont, and the foundry of crystal glass at Keene in New Hampshire. +In 1818, and the following year, he made a geological survey of +Missouri and Arkansas to the spurs of the Rocky Mountains, and in the +fall of 1819 published in New-York his View of the Lead Mines of +Missouri, which is said by Professor Silliman to have been "the only +elaborate and detailed account of a mining district in the United +States" which had then appeared. It attracted much attention, and +procured for the author the friendship of many eminent men. In the +same year he printed Transallegania, a poetical _jeu d'esprit_ of +which mineralogy is the subject, and which preceded some clever +English attempts in the same vein. It was republished in London by Sir +Richard Phillips in the next year. + +Early in 1820 he published a Journal of a Tour in the Interior of +Missouri and Arkansas, extending from Potosi toward the Rocky +Mountains. His writings having attracted the notice of the government, +he was commissioned by Mr. Calhoun, then Secretary of War, to visit +the copper region of Lake Superior, and to accompany General Cass in +his expedition to the head waters of the Mississippi. His Narrative +Journal of this tour was published in 1821, and was eminently +successful, an edition of twelve hundred copies being sold in a few +weeks. In the same year he was appointed secretary to the commission +for treating with the Indian tribes at Chicago, and on the conclusion +of his labors published his sixth work, entitled Travels in the +Central Portions of the Mississippi Valley, in which he described the +country between the regions of which he had given an account in his +previous works. His reputation was now widely and firmly established +as an explorer, and as a man of science and letters. From this time +his attention was devoted principally to the Red Race, though he still +cultivated natural history, and wrote occasionally for the reviews and +magazines. + +In 1822 he was appointed by President Monroe agent for Indian Affairs, +to reside at St. Mary's, at the foot of Lake Superior. In the years +1825, 1826, and 1827, he attended the important convocations of the +north-west tribes at Prairie du Chien, Pont du Lac, and Buttes des +Morts. In 1831 he was sent on a special embassy, accompanied by +troops, to conciliate the Sioux and Ojibwas, and bring the existing +war between them to a close. In 1832 he proceeded in the same capacity +to the tribes near the head waters of the Mississippi, and availed +himself of the opportunity to trace that river, in small canoes, from +the point where Pike stopped in 1807 and Cass in 1820 to its true +source in Itasca Lake, upon which he entered on the thirteenth of +July, the one hundred and forty-ninth anniversary of the discovery of +the mouth of the river by La Salle. His account of this tour was +published in New-York in 1834, under the title of An Expedition to +Itasca Lake, and attracted much attention in all parts of the country. + +From 1827 to 1831 Mr. Schoolcraft was a member of the legislative +council of Michigan. In 1828 he organized the Michigan Historical +Society, in which he was elected president, on the removal of General +Cass to Washington, in 1831. In the fall of the same year he set on +foot the Algic Society at Detroit, before which he delivered a course +of lectures on the grammatical construction of the Indian +languages,[1] and at its first anniversary a poem on The Indian +Character. Guided by patriotism and good taste, he took a successful +stand in the west against the absurd nomenclature which has elsewhere +made such confusion in geography by repeating over and over the names +of European places and characters, giving us Romes, Berlins, and +Londons in the wilderness, and Hannibals, Scipios, Homers, and +Hectors, wherever there was sufficient learning to make its possessors +ridiculous. He submitted to the legislature of the territory a system +of county and township names based upon the Indian vocabularies with +which he was familiar, and happily secured its general adoption. + +At Sault Ste. Marie Mr. Schoolcraft became acquainted with Mr. John +Johnston, a gentleman from the north of Ireland, who had long resided +there, and in the person of his eldest daughter married a descendant +of the hereditary chief of Lake Superior, or Lake Algoma, as it is +known to the Indians. She had been educated in Europe, and was an +accomplished and highly interesting woman. After a residence there of +eleven years he removed to Michilimackinac, and assumed the joint +agency of the two districts. In 1836 he was appointed by President +Jackson a commissioner to treat with the north-west tribes for their +lands in the region of the upper lakes, and succeeded in effecting a +cession to the United States of some sixteen millions of acres. In the +same year he was appointed acting Superintendent of Indian Affairs for +the Northern Department, and in 1839 principal disbursing agent for +the same district. + +In the last mentioned year he published two volumes of Algic +Researches, comprising Indian Tales and Legends, and soon after, +having passed more than twenty years as a traveller or resident on the +frontiers, he removed to the city of New-York, intending to prepare +for the press the great mass of his original papers which he had +accumulated in this long period. In 1841 he issued proposals for an +Indian Cyclopedia, geographical, historical, philological, etc., of +which only one number was printed, no publisher appearing willing to +undertake so costly and extensive a work of such a description. In +1842 he visited England, France, Germany, Prussia, and Holland. During +his absence his wife died, at Dundee, in Canada West, where she was +visiting her sister. Soon after his return he made another journey to +the west, to examine some of the great mounds, respecting which he has +since communicated a paper to the Royal Geographical Society of +Denmark, of which he was many years ago elected an honorary member, +and soon after published a collection of his poetical writings, under +the title of Alhalla, or the Lord of Talladega, a Tale of the Creek +War, with some miscellanies, chiefly of early date. In 1844 he +commenced in numbers the publication of Oneota, or the Red Race in +America, their History, Traditions, Customs, Poetry, Picture Writing, +etc., in extracts from Notes, Journals, and other unpublished +writings, of which one octavo volume has been completed. In 1845 he +delivered an address before a society known as the "Was-ah +Ho-de-no-sonne, or New Confederacy of the Iroquois," and published +Observations on the Grave Creek Mound in Western Virginia, in the +Transactions of the American Ethnological Society; and early in the +following year presented in the form of a Report to the legislature of +his native state, his Notes on the Iroquois, or Contributions to the +Statistics, Aboriginal History, and General Ethnology of Western +New-York. + +The last and most important of Mr. Schoolcraft's works, the crowning +labor of his life, for the composition of which all his previous +efforts were but notes of preparation, is the Historical and +Statistical Information respecting the History, Condition, and +Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States: Collected and +prepared under the Direction of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, per act +of March 3, 1847. The initial volume of this important national +publication, profusely illustrated with engravings from drawings by +Captain Eastman, of the Army, has lately been issued in a very large +and splendid quarto, by Lippincott. Grambo & Co., of Philadelphia, +under authority of Congress. It embraces the general, national, and +tribal history of the Indian race, with their traditions, manners, +customs, languages, mythology, &c., and when completed will probably +extend to six or seven volumes. Until more of it is published, it will +not be possible to form any exact judgment of it, except such as is +warranted by a knowledge of the author's previous works: but such a +judgment must be in the highest degree favorable. + +Mr. Schoolcraft's ethnological writings are among the most important +contributions that have been made to the literature of this country. +His long and intimate connection with the Indian tribes, and the +knowledge possessed by his wife and her family of the people from whom +they were descended by the maternal side, with his power of examining +their character from the European point of view, have enabled him to +give us more authentic and valuable information respecting their +manners, customs, and physical traits, and more insight into their +moral and intellectual constitution, than can be derived, perhaps, +from all other authors. His works abound in materials for the future +artist and man of letters, and will on this account continue to be +read when the greater portion of the popular literature of the day is +forgotten. With the forests which they inhabited, the red race have +disappeared with astonishing rapidity. Until recently they have rarely +been the subjects of intelligent study; and it began to be regretted, +as they were seen fading from our sight, that there was so little +written respecting them that had any pretensions to fidelity. I would +not be understood to undervalue the productions of Eliot, Loskiel, +Heckewelder, Brainerd, and other early missionaries, but they were +restricted in design, and it is not to be denied that confidence in +their representations has been much impaired, less perhaps from doubts +of their integrity than of their ability and of the advantages of the +points of view from which they made their observations. The works on +Indian philology by Roger Williams and the younger Edwards are more +valuable than any others of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, +but it now appears that these authors knew very little of the +philosophy of the American language. Du Ponceau's knowledge was still +more superficial, and excepting Mr. Gallatin and the late Mr. +Pickering, who made use of the imperfect data furnished by others, I +believe no one besides Mr. Schoolcraft has recently produced any thing +on the subject worthy of consideration. Something has been done by +General Cass, and Mr. McKenny and Mr. Catlin have undoubtedly +accomplished much in this department of ethnography; but allowing all +that can reasonably be claimed for these artist-travellers, Mr. +Schoolcraft must still be regarded as the standard and chief authority +respecting the Algic tribes. + +The influence which the original and peculiar myths and historical +traditions of the Indians is to have on our imaginative literature, +has been recently more than ever exhibited in the works of our +authors. The tendency of the public taste to avail itself of the +American mythology as a basis for the exhibition of "new lines of +fictitious creations" has been remarked by Mr. Schoolcraft himself in +Oneota, and he refers to the tales of Mrs. Oakes Smith, and to the +Wild Scenes in the Forest and the Prairie, and the Vigil of Faith, by +Mr. Charles F. Hoffman, as works in which this tendency is most +distinctly perceptible. In the writings of W. H. C. Hosmer, the +legends of Mr. Whittier, and some of the poems of Mr. Longfellow and +Mr. Lowell, we see manifestations of the same disposition. + +No one who has not had the most ample opportunities of personal +observation should attempt to mould Indian life and mythology to the +purposes of fiction without carefully studying whatever Mr. +Schoolcraft has published respecting them. The chief distinction of +the Algic style with which he has made us acquainted is its wonderful +simplicity and conciseness, with which the common verbosity, redundant +description, false sentiment, and erroneous manners of what are called +Indian tales, are as little in keeping as "English figures in +moccasins, and holding bows and arrows." + +The excellent portrait at the beginning of this article is from a +daguerreotype by Simons, of Philadelphia. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] Two of these lectures were published in 1834, translated into +French by the late Mr. du Ponceau, and subsequently read before the +National Institute of France. + + + + +THE MARGRAVINE OF ANSPACH. + + +The death, in London, a few weeks ago, of a daughter of the celebrated +Lady Craven, afterwards Margravine of Anspach, has recalled attention +to the history of that remarkable and celebrated person, whose life +has the interest of a romance. + +ELIZABETH BERKELEY, Margravine of Anspach, was born in December, 1750. +She was the daughter of Augustus, fourth Earl of Berkeley, by his wife +Elizabeth, daughter of Henry Drax of Charborough. She was brought up +under the care of a native of Switzerland, the wife of a German tutor +of her uncle. She describes herself as having been a delicate, +diminutive child, addicted at an early age to reading, and of timid +and retired habits. She first beheld a play when she was twelve years +old, and from that occasion she dates the growth of her subsequent +partiality for theatrical entertainments. At the age of thirteen she +paid a short visit to France with her mother and her elder sister, and +at fourteen she had been, as she says she afterwards discovered, "in +love without knowing it" with the Marquis de Fitz James. On the 10th +May, 1767, she was married to William Craven, nephew and heir of the +fifth Lord Craven, whom he succeeded in 1769. She professes to have +felt indifference when receiving his addresses, but the marriage was +for some time a happy one, and she says, "My husband seemed to have no +other delight than in procuring for me all the luxuries and enjoyments +within his power, and it was an eternal dispute (how amiable a +dispute!) between us; _he_ always offering presents, and _I_ refusing +whenever I could." Gifted with genius and beauty, both of which she +knew well how to apply; a woman of Lady Craven's rank naturally drew +around her a large circle of admirers. She says of herself very +characteristically, "In London the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough +showed their partiality to me, and Mr. Walpole, afterwards Lord +Orford, Dr. Johnson, Garrick, and his friend Colman, were among my +numerous admirers; and Sir Joshua Reynolds did not conceal his high +opinion of me. Charles Fox almost quarrelled with me because I was +unwilling to interfere with politics--a thing which I always said I +detested, and considered as being out of the province of a woman." + +It appears to have been in the year 1779 that Lady Craven discovered +the infidelities with which she charged her husband, when she +requested of him the favor "that he would not permit his mistress to +call herself Lady Craven." After an interval of about three years +spent in partial reconciliation, a separation took place. The +indifferent tone in which she treats the whole of this transaction, +and her professed readiness to overlook every slight that was not +public and glaring, are a stain on her character, which she has by her +own animated pen exhibited to an age which had forgotten the +accusations to which she was subjected. At the time of her separation +from her husband she was the mother of seven children. + +Lady Craven had in the mean time produced her first play, "The +Sleepwalker," a translation from the French, printed in 1778, at her +friend Walpole's press at Strawberry Hill. In 1779 she published +"Modern Anecdotes of the Family of Kinvervankotsprakengatchdern, a +Tale for Christmas." This was a caricature of the ceremonious +pomposity of the petty German courts; it was dramatized by Mr. M. P. +Andrews. Soon after the separation, she passed some time in France, +where she met with the Margrave of Anspach. They formed a sudden +friendship for each other, and agreed to consider each other (we are +told) as brother and sister. In June, 1785, Lady Craven commenced a +tour, in which, starting from Paris, she passed by the Rhine to Italy, +went thence by the Tyrol to Vienna, passed on to Warsaw, Petersburg, +and Moscow, proceeded by the Don to Turkey, and returned by Vienna, +which she reached in August, 1786. On this occasion she ran, by her +own account, a serious risk of being made Empress of Austria. In 1789 +she published an account of her tour (1 vol. 4to), in letters +addressed to the margrave, saying in the dedication, "Beside +curiosity, my friends will in these letters see, at least for some +time, where the real Lady Craven has been, and where she is to be +found--it having been the practice for some years past for a +Birmingham coin of myself to pass in most of the inns in France, +Switzerland, and England, for the wife of my husband. My arms and +coronet sometimes supporting in some measure this insolent deception; +by which, probably, I may have been seen to behave very improperly." +This work is interesting from the many sketches it contains of eminent +people--such as the Empress Catharine, the Princess Dashcoff, Prince +Potemkin, Count Romanzoff, Admiral Mordvinoff, the Duc de Choiseul, +and others. It is full of accurate observation and lively description, +expressed in clear and simple English--a style from which in later +life she considerably diverged. She descended into the grotto of +Antiparos, being the first female to undertake the adventure. The +French biographers maintain that the tameness of her description of +the scene shows a deficiency of appreciation of the wonderful and +sublime. She does not indeed ornament her description with hyperboles +and exclamations, but it is clear and expressive, and by the +distinctness of the impression which it conveys to the reader, shows +that the scene was fully noticed and comprehended by the writer. After +her return from her journey, she visited England to see her children, +and then proceeded to France, where she joined the margrave and +accompanied him to Anspach. Here, during a residence of a few years, +she established a theatre, which was chiefly supplied with dramatic +entertainments of her own composition. They were collected into two +volumes 8vo, under the title of "Nouveau Théâtre d'Anspach et de +Triesdorf," the latter being the name of a country seat nine miles +from Anspach, where she laid out a park and garden in the English +manner. She established at the same time "a society for the +encouragement of arts and sciences." She soon afterwards visited, in +company with the margrave, the congenial court of Naples, where she +made the acquaintance of Sir William and Lady Hamilton. Her conduct +was the subject of much censure both in England and among the +officials of the court of Anspach, to whom her interference was a +natural subject of distrust; and if it should even be admitted that +her own account of the purity of her motives and conduct is correct, +it cannot be denied that she afforded material for forming the worst +interpretations of them. She maintains that she always opposed the +cession of his dominions to the crown of Prussia by the margrave in +1791, but she was almost his sole adviser on the occasion. She states +that she received the first hint of his design at Naples. One day +while she was dressing for dinner, a servant intimated that the +margrave desired to see her. On her appearance he said, "I must go to +Berlin _incog._--will you go with me? it is the only sacrifice of your +time I will ever require of you." They set out together, and on the +way through Anspach they found the establishment nearly in open revolt +against her influence. The king, however, was kind and generous in the +extreme, and the contracting parties are represented as only striving +to excel each other in generosity. Meanwhile the margrave's first wife +died, and Lord Craven's death occurred six months afterwards, on the +26th September, 1791. Immediately on hearing of this event, Lady +Craven was married to the margrave. "It was six weeks," she says, +"after Lord Craven's decease that I gave my hand to the margrave, +which I should have done six hours after, had I known it at the time." +As the cession of the margraviate to Prussia dates 2d December, 1791, +the marriage must have taken place about three weeks before it. The +nuptials were solemnized at Lisbon, whence the new married pair passed +through Spain and France to England. + +The margrave, on the sale of his principality, resolved to spend his +days with his wife in England. They had no sooner arrived, however, +than the storm of family and public indignation which had been brewing +against the margravine burst upon her head. She received a letter from +her three daughters, saying, "with due deference to the Margravine of +Anspach, the Miss Cravens inform her that, out of respect to their +father, they cannot wait upon her," and her eldest son, Lord Craven, +refused to countenance her. The margrave received a message from the +queen, through the Prussian minister, to the effect that his wife, +though she had received a diploma from the emperor, could not be +received at court as a princess of the empire. She says that she +refused to derogate from her dignity by appearing merely as a peeress +of England; but it is not clear that she would have been received in +that capacity. She addressed a memorial on the subject to the House of +Lords, but they gave her no redress; indeed it would not have been +consistent with the practice of that body to interfere on such an +occasion. Soon after their arrival, the margrave purchased through +trustees, Lord Craven's estate of Benham, and the mansion of +Brandenburgh House, a place celebrated as afterwards affording a +retreat to Queen Caroline, the wife of George IV. Until the margrave's +death in 1806, it was a scene of continued profusion and gayety, in +which the luxuries and amusements of an English mansion were united +with those of a German court, "My whole enjoyment," says the +margravine, "during the margrave's valuable life, was to do every +thing in my power, to make him not only comfortable, but happy. Under +my management, the world imagined that he spent double his income." +Her attachment to her second husband was strong. She speaks of him +with an enthusiasm and devotion which bear the stamp of sincerity. "I +believe," she says, "a better man never existed. There never was a +being who could act upon more sincere principles. Nothing could divert +him from what was right. None could bear with patience, like himself, +the ill conduct of those to whom he was attached. None could more +easily forgive." After his decease, the margravine, who succeeded to +the large property which he left, felt impatient to recommence her +wanderings. On the restoration she sailed for France, and, after being +interrupted in her movements by the reign of the hundred days, reached +Rome, where it was said that she kept open house for all the +revolutionists of all countries who chose to accept her hospitalities. +The King of Naples afterwards presented her with a small estate, in +which she built a palace, where she resided till her death, which +occurred on January 13, 1828. Only two years previously, and when she +was seventy-six years old, she surprised and delighted the English +world by the publication of her well-known memoirs. This work is +perhaps one of the best examples of the French memoirs which English +literature possesses. It is indeed thoroughly French, not only in +spirit but in idiom, and, to the reader, has all the appearance of a +translation from that language. It thus affords, in its style, a +remarkable contrast to the book of travels above noticed. It contains +a vast variety of anecdotes and sketches of character, always amusing +if not always accurate. It has no continuity of narrative, leaping +backwards and forwards through all ages, and among every variety of +subject: from a description of the monument which she erected to the +memory of her husband, she takes occasion to give a rapid sketch of +the history of the art of sculpture. The least pleasing feature in the +work is its intense egotism. The margravine was a woman of +wonderfully versatile genius. She wrote with fluency in French and +German. She was an accomplished musician and actress; and she tells +us, "I have executed many busts myself, and among others one of the +margrave, which is generally allowed to be extremely like him." + + + + +LONDON DESCRIBED BY A PARISIAN. + + +M. Francis Wey, who is a college professor and _litterateur_ of some +eminence in Paris, has published for visitors from the continent to +the Great Exhibition, a volume entitled _Guides à Londres_, composed, +we believe, of a series of articles, _Les Anglais chez Eux_ (the +English at Home), which he had contributed to the _Musée des +Familles_, an old and favorite Parisian journal. It is very amusing to +see the manner in which these things are received by the British +press. The sensitiveness of which the Americans are accused is quite +equalled in that which is displayed in the London criticisms of +Monsieur Wey. And just at this time it is all the more pleasant to us, +for that our amiable Mother-Country critics are quoting with so much +enjoyment the characterizations of us poor United-Statesers, done in +the same way, by a gentleman of the same country. Even _Blackwood_ +does not seem to have a suspicion that a Frenchman could caricature or +in any way exaggerate the publicities or domesticities of New-York; +but all the independent, care-for-nothing John Bulls see only +"rancor," "ill-will," and "absurdity" in the Frenchman's views of +English society. The _Literary Gazette_, the _Weekly News_, and all +the rest, have the same tone. French travellers, it is said-- + + "Instead of patiently collecting their facts, they _invent_ + them. Instead of representing social usages as they really + are, they state them as what they choose to suppose. They + mistake flippancy for wit, and imperturbable assurance for + knowledge. They speak _ex cathedra_ of matters of which they + are profoundly ignorant. And the consequence of all this is + that they commit the drollest blunders, make the most + startling assertions, indulge in the most grotesque + appreciations, and flounder in the most extravagant + absurdities." + +We wonder if a single British reviewer will introduce, with such a +paragraph, his extracts from the Letters on America, by M. XAVIER +MARMIER? Not a bit of it. + +On the English language, M. Wey says-- + + "The Englishman has invented for himself a language adapted + to his placid manners and silent tastes. This language is a + murmur, accompanied by soft hissings; it falls from the + lips, but is scarcely articulated; if the chest or throat be + employed to increase the power of the voice, the words + become changed and scarcely intelligible; if cried aloud, + they are hoarse, and resemble the confused croaking of frogs + in marshes." + + "The English are passionately attached to their language. + They have only consented to borrow one single word from us, + and that is employed by their innkeepers--_table d'hôte_, + which they pronounce _taible dott_. And yet we have taken + hundreds of words from them!" + +English women-- + + "English women give to us the preference over their own + countrymen. Our gallantry is something new to them, and our + politeness touches their hearts. But though they love us, we + are not liked by their lords and masters. There is no + exaggeration in all that has been said of the beauty of + English women--an assemblage of them would realize the + paradise of Mahomet." + +Their dresses-- + + "Many white gowns are to be seen. White is a _recherché_ + luxury in that land of tallow and smoke, where linen becomes + dirty in three hours. However, good taste is making some + progress. Ladies may be met with who are well dressed, + although, generally speaking, a sort of audacity is + displayed in wearing the most irreconcilable colors. What + gives English women a somewhat _bizarre_ appearance, is the + custom they have of swelling out their petticoats, by means + of circles of whalebone or iron:--this causes them to + resemble large bells in movement." + +English manners-- + + "English manners, rigid and cold, and dominated by arid + rationalism, are the work of Cromwell. His bigotry and + hypocrisy, his exterior austerity, his narrow formalism, + suit the Englishman; he keeps up Cromwell's character, and + admires himself in his usages. But he has no pity for his + model--he never forgives Cromwell for having made him what + he is. His spite towards that man is the last cry of nature, + and the vague regret of a liberty of imagination of which + neither the joys or the aspirations have been known since + his time." "They have no grace, no _desinvoltura_, no poesy + in them, but are methodical, reasonable, indefatigable in + work and in amassing lucre." + +How the English love-- + +"They love nothing with the heart; when they do love, it is +exclusively of the head." + +English bankers-- + + "In France we have the love of display; but in London it is + not so. There, some of the principal bankers go every + morning to the butchers' shops to buy their own chops, and + they carry them ostensibly to some tavern in Cheapside or + Fleet Street, where they cook them themselves. Then they buy + three pennyworth of rye-bread, and publicly eat this Spartan + breakfast. The exhibition fills their clients with + admiration. But in the evening these good men make up for + this by taking in their own palaces suppers worthy of + Lucullus." + +Flunkeys-- + + "The English aristocracy are distinguished by the number, + the canes, and the wigs of their lacqueys. Seeing constantly + a footman, well powdered and bewigged, carry horizontally a + large Voltaire cane behind certain sumptuous carriages, I + asked for an explanation; it was soon given--wig, powder, + and cane are aristocratic privileges. Not only must a man + have a certain number of quarterings to be authorized to + make his servants use such things, but he must pay so much + tax for the lacquey, so much for the wig, so much for the + tail to the wig, and so much for the cane." + +What most strikes a Frenchman in London-- + +"The coldness of the men towards the fair sex, and their profound +passion for horses." + +Officers of the life and horse guards-- + +"Cupid seems to have chosen them--they are possessed of such ideal +beauty." + +English taverns-- + + "The Englishman likes to be alone, even at the tavern. He + fastens himself up in a box, where none can see him. There + he drinks with taciturn phlegm. He takes tea, boiling grog, + porter of the color of ink, and beer not less black. He is + very fond of brandy, and drinks large glasses of it at a + draught. He does not go to the tavern to amuse himself, but + because drinking is a grave occupation. The more he swallows + the calmer he is. One can however scarcely decide if his + obstinate moroseness be a precaution against drunkenness, or + the effect of spirituous liquors taken in excess. At some of + the taverns are three gentlemen, dressed in black, with + white cravats, who sing after one of them has struck the + table with a little hammer; they are as serious as + Protestant ministers or money-changers." + +English food-- + + "Thick stupefying beer, meat almost raw and horribly spiced; + strong libations of port wine, followed by + plum-pudding--such is the meat of these islanders." + +How the English eat-- + + "They eat at every hour, every where, and incessantly. The + iron constitution of their complaisant stomachs enables them + to feed in a manner which would satisfy wolves and lions. + The delicate repast of a fair and sentimental young lady + would be too much for a couple of Parisian street porters." + +Stables and museums-- + + "Stables are clean and brilliant as museums ought to be; and + the museums are as filthy as stables in Provence." + +The Queen's stables-- + + "They form a college of horses, with pedantic grooms for + professors, and a harness room for a library:" + +English omnibuses-- + + "The omnibuses of London are worn out, ill built, and + remarkably dirty. Even in wet weather nobody is ever allowed + to enter the interior so long as any places are vacant + outside. We had expected to find them built of mahogany and + lined with velvet." + +London-- + + "London, wholly devoted to private interests, offers nothing + to the heart or mind. The city is too large; a man is lost + in it; you elbow thousands of people without the hope of + meeting any one you know. Even if you have a large fortune + you would be ignored. Originality is there without effect; + vanity without an object; and the desire of shining is + chimerical. Intelligence has therefore only one opening, + politics; pride only one object, the national sentiment; but + as the people must feel enthusiasm for something, they adore + horses; and as they must admire somebody, they burn incense + under Lord Wellington's nose." + +After midnight-- + + "At midnight the English leave the taverns, the public + gardens, the theatres, and the open air balls, and fill up + the supper saloons (not very reputable places), and the + oyster rooms, where they eat till morning. After sunrise, + the policemen are occupied in picking up in the gutters + drunkards of both sexes, and all conditions." + +London rain-- + + "It is tallow melted in water, and perfectly black." + +A bad quarter-- + + "Between Cornhill Street and Thames Street, there lives what + is called the populace of London; there pauperism is + frightful. The wretched inhabitants of that district are + brawlers, drunkards, and prize-fighters." + +At Westminster Abbey-- + + "Shakspeare slumbers at a few steps from Richard II. The + tombs bear traces of Presbyterian mutilations; but in other + places the Calvinists scattered the bones of the deceased + Bishops of Geneva. Such is the intolerance of the + Protestants that they have not admitted the statue of Byron + to the Abbey, and his shadow may be heard groaning at the + door." + +At Her Majesty's Theatre-- + + "To go with a blue cravat is _shocking_. When the doors are + open, blows with the fist and the elbow are given without + regard to age or sex. It is the peculiar fashion of entering + which the natives have. If a Frenchman be recognized the + people cry _French dog_. In the pit, the man behind you will + place his foot on your shoulder. The ladies are plunged up + to the neck in boxes. In the theatre there is an echo, which + produces an abominable effect; but such is the vile musical + taste of the English that they have never found it out. In + the saloon you hear the continual hissing of teakettles." + +The English Parliament-- + + "The House of Commons at present meets in a hole. The peers + are in their new chamber. It is small, not monumental, and + heavily ornamented. It reminds one of our tea shops, or a + _boudoir_. The lords, when assembled, are generally placed + on their backs, or rather lean on the back of the neck, and + keep their legs above their heads. The Queen's throne, like + constitutional royalty, is a gilded cage." + +The new Houses of Parliament-- + + "They are an immense architectural plaything, and the + English only admire them because they cost a vast sum." + +English love of titles-- + + "One of my friends gave me a letter of introduction to Sir + William P----, _Esquire_. I left the letter with my card at + the Reform Club, Pall Mall. Two hours after Sir William came + to my residence; but as I was not at home he wrote a line, + and addressed it to me with the flattering designation of + _Esquire_. England is the country of legal equality; but + this sort of equilibrium does not extend to social usages; + and although our _penchant_ for distinctions seems puerile + to the English, it would be easy to prove that they are not + exempt from it. They have not, as we have, the love of + uniforms, laced coats, epaulettes, or decorations; their + button-holes often carry a flower, but never a rosette or + knot of ribbon. But every body pretends to the title of + _Sir_, which was formerly reserved exclusively to members of + the House of Commons, to Baronets, and to some public + functionaries. As, however, the title _Sir_ has become too + vulgar, every body calls himself _Esquire_ to distinguish + himself from his neighbor. This remark, nevertheless, does + not concern my friend Sir William, for he is really an + Esquire." + +English soldiers-- + + "The noise which announces their approach is very singular. + Picture to yourself the monotonous music of a bear's dance, + executed by twenty fifers, whilst a man beats a big drum. + The coats of the infantry are too short, and are surmounted + with large white epaulettes. The men sway their bodies about + to the beating of the drum, and carry their heads so stiffly + that they appear to be balancing spoons on their noses. All + the officers and non-commissioned officers carry long sticks + with ivory handles." + +Resemblance of Englishmen one to another-- + + "All Englishmen are alike. They live in the same way, are + subject to the same logical rules, condemned to the same + amusements. The proof that there exists only one character + amongst them, and that they have only one way of living, is, + that it is impossible, on seeing them, to divine their + profession. A lord, a minister, a domestic, a street singer, + a merchant, an admiral, a soldier, a general, an artist, a + judge, a prize-fighter, and a clergyman, have all the same + appearance, the same language, the same costume, and the + same bearing. Each one has the air of an Englishman, and + nothing more. They live in the same way, work at the same + hours, eat at the same time, and of the same sort of food, + and are all sequestrated when away from home from the + society of women." + +The French at London-- + + "At London the French labor under two subjects of anxiety, + caused by their national prejudices. Accustomed to consider + themselves as the first people in the world, to dazzle some, + to despise others, and to display every where the confident + pride of their supremacy, they, on treading the British + soil, experience the impression of a greatness not borrowed + from them; they are astonished at finding a people as + remarkable as ours, as original as we are, and carrying to a + still prouder degree the sentiment of their pre-eminence. + Then our countrymen become disquieted; the intolerance of + their national faith becomes mitigated; they are ill at + ease, and for the first time in their lives feel constraint. + Ceasing to believe themselves amongst slaves as in Italy, + amongst vassals as in Belgium, or amongst innkeepers as in + Switzerland or Germany, they endeavor to resemble sovereigns + visiting other sovereigns, and by forced politeness render + them involuntary homage." + +Feeling of the English toward the French-- + + "They honor us with a marked attention, though they are + indifferent to the rest of mankind. Our opinions respecting + them cause them anxiety. They either admire us + enthusiastically, or disparage us bitterly; but, in reality, + they are obsequious and servile toward us!" + +After a good deal of the numerous statues to Wellington, this at +English admiration of Waterloo-- + + "The trumpet of Waterloo which has been sounded in London + every where incessantly, and in every tone, during + thirty-five years, diminishes the grandeur of the English + nation. This intoxication seems that of a people who, never + having won more than one battle, and despairing to conquer a + second time, cannot recover from their surprise, nor bear in + patience an unhoped-for glory." + +How the English judge Napoleon-- + + "Public opinion has avenged the prisoner of St Helena; but + does it follow that in 1815 the English protested with + sufficient energy against his imprisonment! No. Englishmen + are naturally indifferent and indulgent as regards their + foreign neighbors, so long as patriotism or private interest + is not at stake. Napoleon was the most terrible of their + enemies; he placed England within ten steps of bankruptcy, + and seriously menaced national manufactures. Not possessed + of military instinct, the English do not pretend to + chivalrous generosity. On the fall of the Empire, caused by + the implacable perseverance of coalitions, the nation + remembered that the Hundred Days cost its government a + million an hour, and so long as the deficit was not made up, + their resentment underwent no diminution. But now if you + celebrate his glory before them, they will not display + hostility. You must not, however, touch the till of this + tribe of tradesmen, or they will be your bitter enemies. And + the proof that they are nothing but shopkeepers is that + their first functionary sits in a gilded arm chair on a + wool-sack." + + + + +THE BEAUTIFUL STREAMLET AND THE UTILITARIAN. + + +Alphonse Karr's new book, _Travels in my Garden_, is full of social +heresies, but quite as full of wit. We find in _Fraser's Magazine_ for +May translations of some admirable passages, with specimens of his +peculiar speculation. Karr is an ardent lover of Nature; he takes note +of all her caprices, and respects them,--remarks under what shade the +violet loves to dwell, and tells us how certain plants--the volubulis, +the scarlet-runner, and the Westeria, for instance--invariably twine +their spiral tendrils from left to right, whereas hops and +honeysuckles as infallibly twist theirs from right to left. He knows +which are the plants that fold, when evening comes, their leaves in +two, lengthwise,--which are those that close them up like fans, and +which are the careless ones that crumple them up irregularly with +happy impunity, for the next morning's sun smooths them all alike. He +loves Nature in all her details, but with disinterested love, and has +no idea of making her subservient to his pride, or selfishly +monopolizing her; he has evidently no wish to wall in woods and +meadows, and call them a park, or to dam up sparkling, bubbling, +dancing streams, and turn them into cold, spiritless, aristocratic +sheets of water. Indeed, in one of the first chapters of the book, +there is a fanciful bit of sentiment about a happy little stream that +falls into the hands of a pitiless utilitarian, which we are tempted +to quote:-- + + "That stream which runs through my garden gushes from the + side of a furze-covered hill; for a long time it was a happy + little stream; it traversed meadows where all sorts of + lovely wild flowers bathed and mirrored themselves in its + waters, then it entered my garden, and there I was ready to + receive it; I had prepared green tanks for it; on its edge + and in its very bed I had planted those flowers which all + over the world love to bloom on the banks and in the bosom + of pure streams; it flowed through my garden, murmuring its + plaintive song; then, fragrant with my flowers, it left the + garden, crossed another meadow, and flung itself into the + sea, over the precipitous sides of the cliff, which it + covered with foam. + + "It was a happy stream; it had literally nothing to do + beyond what I have said,--to flow, to bubble, to look + limpid, to murmur, amidst flowers and sweet perfumes. It led + the life I have chosen, and that I continue to lead, when + people let me alone, and when knaves and fools and wicked + men do not force me--who am at once the most pacific and the + most battling man on earth--to return to the fight. But + heaven and earth are jealous of the happiness of gentle + indolence. + + "One day my brother Eugene, and Savage, the clever engineer, + were talking together on the banks of the stream, and to a + certain degree abusing it. + + "'There,' said my brother, 'is a fine good-for-nothing + stream for you, forsooth, winding and dawdling about, + dancing in the sunshine, and revelling in the grass instead + of working and paying for the place it takes up, as an + honest stream should. Could it not be made to grind coffee + or pepper?' + + "'Or tools?' added Savage. + + "'Or to saw boards?' said my brother. + + "I trembled for the stream, and broke off the conversation, + complaining loudly that its detractors (its would-be + tyrants) were treading down my forget-me-nots. Alas! it was + but against them alone I could protect it. Before long there + came into our neighborhood a man whom I noticed more than + once hanging about the spot where the stream empties itself + into the sea. The fellow I plainly saw was neither seeking + for rhymes, nor indulging in dreams and memories upon its + banks,--he was not lulling thought to rest with the gentle + murmur of its waters. 'My good friend,' he was saying to the + stream, 'there you are, idling and meandering about, singing + to your heart's content, while I am working and wearing + myself out. I don't see why you should not help me a bit; + you know nothing of the work to be done, but I'll soon show + you. You'll soon know how to set about it. You must find it + dull to stay in this way, doing nothing,--it would be a + change for you to make files or grind knives.' Very soon + wheels of all kinds were brought to the poor stream. From + that day forward it has worked and turned a great wheel, + which turns a little wheel, which turns a grindstone; it + still sings, but no longer the same gently-monotonous song + in its peaceful melancholy. Its song is loud and angry + now,--it leaps and froths and works now,--it grinds knives! + It still crosses the meadow, and my garden, and the next + meadow; but there, the man is on the watch for it, to make + it work. I have done the only thing I could do for it. I + have dug a new bed for it in my garden, so that it may idle + longer there, and leave me a little later; but for all that, + it must go at last and grind knives. Poor stream! thou didst + not sufficiently conceal thy happiness in obscurity,--thou + hast murmured too audibly thy gentle music." + + + + +SIR EMERSON TENNANT ON AMERICAN MISSIONS IN CEYLON. + + +One of the most respectable persons employed in the English colonial +service, is Sir EMERSON TENNANT, LL. D., K. C. B. &c., who was for +many years connected with the administration in Ceylon, and is now, we +believe, Governor of St. Helena. He has recently published a volume +entitled _Christianity in Ceylon_, in which there are some passages of +especial interest to American readers, displaying in a favorable +light, the services rendered to civilization by the missionaries of +this country. These parts of his work have attracted much +consideration. The _Dublin University Magazine_ remarks: + +"We describe the American Mission, which acts under the direction of +one of the oldest and most remarkable of the existing associations for +the dissemination of Christianity, "The American Board of +Commissioners for Foreign Missions," whose head-quarters are at +Boston, in Massachusetts. The first settlers in Massachusetts, like +those of New England generally, were missionary colonists. Their +charter, given by Charles I., states that one of the objects of the +king and of the planters was the conversion of the natives to the true +faith; and the seal of the company thus incorporated bore the device +of a North American Indian, with the motto "_Come over and help us_." +It may be interesting to add, that the "pilgrim fathers" of the New +England States were, indirectly, the cause of the Protestant missions +of the Dutch. They were, as our author states, 'the first pioneers of +the Protestant world, and the first heralds of the Reformed religion +to the heathen of foreign lands. Their mission is more ancient than +the Propaganda of Rome, and it preceded by nearly a century any other +missionary association in Europe. It was encouraged by Cromwell, and +incorporated by Charles II.; and Cotton Mather records that it was the +example of the New England fathers, and their success amongst the +Indians, that first aroused the energy of the Dutch for the conversion +of the natives of Ceylon.' + +"We cannot doubt that amongst the main causes of the prosperity of +North America are, the permanence of religious feeling, and the +blessing attendant on the fact, that the missionary spirit has never +perished. The labors of this great people on their own vast continent +have been conducted with the greatest judgment, and marked by a +success which encouraged their extension in other lands. In the year +1812, they turned their attention to the East, and, under an act of +incorporation from the state of Massachusetts, commenced their +missionary efforts in the Old World. Their first missionaries to India +appeared there in 1812, but were ordered by the Governor-General to +leave Calcutta by the same vessel in which they had arrived. One of +them landing in Ceylon, on his voyage home, was so struck with the +openings which it presented for missionary enterprise, and so much +encouraged by the Governor, Sir Robert Brownrigg, to engage in it, +that, on his representations, the American Board, in 1816, sent out +three clergymen and their wives, who fixed their residence at Jaffina, +which has been ever since the scene of their remarkable labors. These +were reinforced in 1829, and for many years their establishment has +consisted of from seven to eleven ordained ministers, with a +physician, conductors of the press, and other lay assistants; these +are selected from Congregationalists and Presbyterians. It is +gratifying to be enabled to add, that a most cordial good-will and +desire to co-operate has from the beginning prevailed between them and +the other Protestant missionaries in their neighborhood. For thirty +years they have assembled periodically in a "missionary union," to +decide on measures and compare results. "With all of them education +is," as our author says, "a diurnal occupation; whilst in their purely +clerical capacity they have felt the necessity of proceeding with more +cautious circumspection, improving rather than creating opportunities, +relying less upon formal preaching than on familiar discourses, and +trusting more to the intimate exhortation of a few than to the effect +of popular addresses to indiscriminate assemblies.' + + "'The first embryo instruction is communicated by them in + free village schools, scattered everywhere throughout the + district, in which the children of the Tamils are taught in + their own tongue the simplest elements of knowledge, and the + earliest processes of education--to read from translations + of the Christian Scriptures, and to write their own + language, first by tracing the letters on the sand, and + eventually by inscribing them with an iron style upon the + prepared leaves of the _Palmyra palm_. It will afford an + idea of the extent and perseverance with which education has + been pursued in these primitive institutions, that, in the + free schools of the Americans alone, 4,000 pupils, of whom + one-fourth are females, are daily receiving instruction, and + upwards of 90,000 children have been taught in them since + their commencement, a proportion equal to one-half the + present population of the peninsula.'" + +"It was soon seen that, in addition to these primary schools, the +establishment of boarding schools was extremely desirable, for the +purpose of separating the pupils from the influence of idolatry. The +attempt was made, but proved to be attended with difficulties which +would have appeared to many insurmountable. In the first place, the +natives were suspicious, not conceiving that strangers could undertake +such toil, trouble, and expense, without an interested object. The +more positive difficulty was connected with caste, with the reluctance +of parents to permit their children to associate with those of a lower +rank. + + "'This the missionaries overcame, not so much by inveighing + against the absurdity of such distinctions as by practically + ignoring them, except wherever expediency or necessity + required their recognition. In all other cases where the + customs and prejudices of the Tamils were harmless in + themselves, or productive of no inconvenience to others, + they were in no way contravened or prohibited; but as + intelligence increased, and the minds of the pupils became + expanded, the most distinctive and objectionable of them + were voluntarily and almost imperceptibly abandoned. + + "'When the boarders were first admitted to one of the + American schools at Batticotta, a cook-house was obliged to + be erected for them on the adjoining premises of a heathen, + as they would not eat under the roof of a Christian; but + after a twelvemonth's perseverance, the inconvenience + overcame the objection, and they removed to the refectory of + the institution. But here a fresh difficulty was to be + encountered; some of the high caste youths made an objection + to use the same wells which had been common to the whole + establishment; and it was agreed to meet their wishes by + permitting them to clear out one in particular, to be + reserved exclusively for themselves. They worked incessantly + for a day, but finding it hopeless to draw it perfectly dry, + they resolved to accommodate the difficulty, on the + principle, that having drawn off as much water as the well + contained when they began, the remainder must be + sufficiently pure for all ordinary uses.'" + +"In addition to these primary and boarding-schools, the American +Mission, in 1830, established schools for teaching English, and for +elementary instruction of a more advanced description. These were all +under a discipline avowedly Christian, yet the missionaries found that +they were able not only to enforce the fee demanded, but to maintain +their regulations without loss of numbers. + + "'And it is a fact,' says Sir Emerson Tennent, 'suggestive + of curious speculation as to the genius and character of + this anomalous people, that in a heathen school recently + established by Brahmans in the vicinity of Jaffna, the + Hindoo Community actually compelled those who conducted it + to introduce the reading of the Bible as an indispensable + portion of the ordinary course of instruction.'" + +"This does not seem so strange to us. The shrewd Tamils, as we collect +from other observations in the work before us, perceived how the +Bible-reading children had improved in demeanor, conduct, and success +in life. For these same reasons, and possibly in some cases from a +deeper feeling never yet avowed, the Roman Catholic peasantry of +Ireland, before the introduction of the National System of Education, +and previously to, and, in many cases, long after, the expressed +hostility of their priesthood, anxiously sent their children to the +schools of the Kildare-place and the Hibernian Bible Societies. + +"The other missionaries, we need hardly say, were as active as the +Americans. After some years of further experience, they all felt the +necessity of founding educational institutions of a still more +advanced description for the instruction of the natives in their own +language. It became plain to them that, from physical as well as moral +causes, the conversion of the natives could be only hoped for through +the medium of their well-taught and well-trained countrymen. The +niceties of the language and their modes of thought presented +difficulties of a most serious character to others; the very terms of +the ordinary address of a missionary suggested ideas altogether +different from what he intended. Thus, when GOD is spoken of, they +probably understand one of their own deities who yields to every vile +indulgence; by SIN, they mean ceremonial defilement, or evil committed +in a former birth, for which they are not accountable; _hell_ with +them is only a place of temporary punishment; and _heaven_ nothing +more than absorption, or the loss of individuality. Under these +impressions each of the missionary bodies at Jaffna formed for +themselves a collegiate institution, in which the best scholars from +their other schools were admitted to a still more advanced course, and +taught the sciences of Europe. That of the Church Missionary Society +of England was established at Nellore, but subsequently removed to +Chundically; the Wesleyans commenced theirs in the great square of +Jaffna; and that of the Americans was founded at Batticotta, in the +midst of a cultivated country, within sight of the sea, and at a very +few miles distant from the fort." + + "'It was opened in 1823, with about fifty students chosen + from the most successful pupils of all the schools in the + province; and the course of education is so comprehensive as + to extend over a period of eight years of study. With a + special regard to the future usefulness of its alumni in the + conflict with the errors of the Brahmanical system, the + curriculum embraces all the ordinary branches of historical + and classical learning, and all the higher departments of + mathematical and physical science, combined with the most + intricate familiarization with the great principles and + evidences of the Christian religion. + + "'The number which the building can accommodate is limited, + for the present, to one hundred, who reside within its + walls, and take their food in one common hall, sitting to + eat after the custom of the natives. For some years the + students were boarded and clothed at the expense of the + mission; but such is now the eagerness for instruction that + there are a multitude of competitors for every casual + vacancy; and the cost of their maintenance during the whole + period of pupilage is willingly paid in advance, in order to + secure the privilege of admission. + + "'Nearly six hundred students have been under instruction + from time to time since the commencement of the American + Seminary at Batticotta, and of these upwards of four hundred + have completed the established course of education. More + than one-half have made an open profession of Christianity, + and all have been familiarized with its doctrines, and more + or less imbued with its spirit. The majority are now filling + situations of credit and responsibility throughout the + various districts of Ceylon; numbers are employed under the + missionaries themselves, as teachers and catechists, and as + preachers and superintendents of schools; many have + migrated, in similar capacities, to be attached to Christian + missions on the continent of India; others have lent their + assistance to the missions of the Wesleyans and the Church + of England in Ceylon; and amongst those who have attached + themselves to secular occupations, I can bear testimony to + the abilities, the qualifications, and integrity, of the + many students of Jaffna, who have accepted employment in + various offices under the Government of the colony.'" + +"Another of the instruments of conversion adopted by these +indefatigable men is _the press_. They were long obliged to have their +tracts written out on _olahs_, or strips of the Palmyra leaf, which, +when the missionary took for distribution, were strung round the neck +of his horse. The printing establishment of the American Mission has +for many years given constant employment to upwards of eighty Tamil +workmen. Their publications are either religious or educational; and +one of their ulterior objects is to supersede the degraded legends +still in circulation. The natives of Ceylon, like most other Asiatics, +have a strong repugnance to reading. This, however, has been to some +extent already overcome, both on the continent of India and in Ceylon, +as is evident from the facts of the establishment of native presses in +Hindostan, and of the success of a missionary newspaper in Ceylon for +the last seven years, which has now more than seven hundred +subscribers, of whom five-sixths are Tamils. The Church Missionary +Society have also a press amongst the Tamils; the Wesleyans +established theirs in the Singhalese districts, and the Baptists have +one at work in Kandy. One of the greatest, among the many triumphs of +the missionaries in Ceylon, has been in the education of girls. The +position of woman in that island, as in most parts of the East, was +one of inferiority and toil. She was not permitted to sit at table +with the males, or even to eat in the presence of her husband. Her +education was so wholly neglected that, amongst the Tamils, no woman +knew her alphabet, except such as rather gave the accomplishment a bad +name--the dancing girls and prostitutes attached to the temples, who +learned to read and write that they might copy songs and the legends +of their gods. It was, however, plain that no extensive good would be +effected without the education of women. The male converts could not +get suitable wives, and the children would be in the hands of +idolaters. In addition to their natural influence in a family, the +women of the Tamils, where this new attempt in education was first +made, had rights of property, which, notwithstanding the inferiority +of their social position, gave them peculiar influence. + + "'It is, we are told, a paramount object of ambition with + Tamil parents to secure an eligible alliance for their + daughters by the assignment of extravagant marriage + portions. These consist either of land, or of money secured + upon land; and as the law of Ceylon recognizes the absolute + control of the lady over the property thus conveyed to her + sole and separate use, the prevalence of the practice has, + by degrees, thrown an extraordinary extent of the landed + property of the country into the hands of the females, and + invested them with a corresponding proportion of authority + in its management.'" + +Impressed with the urgency of the object, the missionaries attempted +the establishment of female schools, and especially of boarding +schools, where Hindoo girls might be trained, and separated from evil +influences until they could be settled with the approbation of the +guardians. They had at first great difficulty in getting pupils, and +only enticed them by presents of dress, or some such cogent bribe, or +by engagements to give fortunes of five or six pounds to all who +remained in their institutions until suitably married. Even with these +allurements their early efforts promised no success. Parents were +inveighed against for allowing their daughters to be instructed, and +so strong was native prejudice that the children, when learning to +read, blushed with shame. These and other obstacles have been +surmounted, and, as the following extract shows, the missionaries have +no longer to allure, but must select their scholars. The Americans +made the first experiment at Oodooville, a few miles distant from the +fort of Jaffna:-- + + "'The hamlet of Oodooville is in the centre of a tract of + very rich land, and the buildings occupied by the Americans + were originally erected by the Portuguese for a Roman + Catholic church, and the residence of a friar of the order + of St. Francis. It is a beautiful spot, embowered in trees, + and all its grounds and gardens are kept in becoming order, + with the nicest care and attention. + + "'The institution opened in 1824, with about thirty pupils, + between the ages of five and eleven; and this, after eight + years of previous exertion and entreaty, was the utmost + number of female scholars who could be prevailed on to + attend from the whole extent of the province. This + difficulty has been long since overcome. Instead of + solicitations and promises, to allure scholars, the + missionaries have long since been obliged to limit their + admissions to one hundred, the utmost that their buildings + can accommodate; and now, so eager are the natives to secure + education for their daughters, that a short time before my + visit, on the occasion of filling up some vacancies, upwards + of sixty candidates were in anxious attendance, of whom only + seventeen could be selected, there being room for no more. + The earliest inmates of the institution were of low castes + and poor; whereas the pupils and candidates now are, many of + them, of most respectable families, and the daughters of + persons of property and influence in the district. + + "'The course of instruction is in all particulars adapted to + suit the social circumstances of the community; along with a + thorough knowledge of the Scriptures and the principles of + the Christian religion, it embraces all the ordinary + branches of female education, which are communicated both in + Tamil and in English; and combined with this intellectual + culture, the girls are carefully trained, conformably to the + usages of their country, in all the discipline and + acquirements essential to economy and domestic enjoyments at + home. Of two hundred and fifty females who have been thus + brought up at Oodooville, more than half have been since + married to Christians, and are now communicating to their + children the same training and advantages of which they have + so strongly felt the benefit themselves.'" + +"The consequence of these proceedings is, that the number of +households is fast increasing, where the mother, trained in the habits +of civilized life, and instructed in the principles of Christianity, +is anxious to give to her children the like advantages." + + + + +A PAPER OF ... TOBACCO. + + +We find a lively passage on tobacco in the pleasant new book by +Alphonse Karr. It must be borne in mind that, in France, tobacco is a +monopoly--and a very productive one--in the hands of government:-- + + "There is a family of poisonous plants, amongst which we may + notice the henbane, the datura stramonium, and the tobacco + plant. The tobacco plant is perhaps a little less poisonous + than the datura, but it is more so than the henbane, which + is a violent poison. Here is a tobacco plant--as fine a + plant as you can wish to see. It grows to the height of six + feet; and from the centre of a tuft of leaves, of a + beautiful green, shoot out elegant and graceful clusters of + pink flowers. + + "For a long while the tobacco plant grew unknown and + solitary in the wilds of America. The savage to whom we had + given brandy gave us in exchange tobacco, with the smoke of + which they used to intoxicate themselves on grand occasions. + The intercourse between the two worlds began by this amiable + interchange of poisons. + + "Those who first thought of putting tobacco dust up their + noses were first laughed at, and then persecuted more or + less. James I., of England, wrote against snuff-takers a + book entitled _Misocapnos_. Some years later, Pope Urban + VIII. excommunicated all persons who took snuff in churches. + The Empress Elizabeth thought it necessary to add something + to the penalty of excommunication pronounced against those + who used the black dust during divine service, and + authorised the beadles to confiscate the snuff-boxes to + their own use. Amurath IV. forbade the use of snuff under + pain of having the nose cut of. + + "No useful plant could have withstood such attacks. If + before this invention a man had been found to say, Let us + seek the means of filling the coffers of the state by a + voluntary tax; let us set about selling something which + every body will like to do without. In America there is a + plant essentially poisonous; if from its leaves you extract + an empyreumatic oil, a single drop of it will cause an + animal to die in horrible convulsions. Suppose we offer this + plant for sale chopped up or reduced to a powder. We will + sell it very dear, and tell people to stuff the powder up + their noses. + + "'That is to say, I suppose, you will force them to do so by + law?' + + "'Not a bit of it. I spoke of a voluntary tax. As to the + portion we chop up, we will tell them to inhale it, and + swallow a little of the smoke from it besides.' + + "'But it will kill them.' + + "'No; they will become rather pale, perhaps feel giddy, spit + blood, and suffer from colics, or have pains in the + chest--that's all. Besides, you know, although it has been + often said that habit is second nature, people are not yet + aware how completely man resembles the knife, of which the + blade first and then the handle had been changed two or + three times. In man there is no nature left--nothing but + habit remains. People will become like Mithridates, who had + learnt to live on poisons. + + "'The first time that a man will smoke he will feel + sickness, nausea, giddiness, and colics; but that will go + off by degrees, and in time he will get so accustomed to it, + that he will only feel such symptoms now and then--when he + smokes tobacco that is bad, or too strong--or when he is not + well, and in five or six other cases. Those who take it in + powder will sneeze, have a disagreeable smell, lose the + sense of smelling, and establish in their nose a sort of + perpetual blister.' + + "'Then, I suppose it smells very nice.' + + "'Quite the reverse. It has a very unpleasant smell; but, as + I said, we'll sell it very dear, and reserve to ourselves + the monopoly of it.' + + "'My good friend,' one would have said to any one absurd + enough to hold a similar language, 'nobody will envy you the + privilege of selling a weed that no one will care to buy. + You might as well open a shop and write on it: Kicks sold + here; or, Such-a-one sells blows, wholesale and retail. You + will find as many customers as for your poisonous weed.' + + "Well! who would have believed that the first speaker was + right, and that the tobacco speculation would answer + perfectly! The kings of France have written no satires + against snuff, have had no noses cut off, no snuff-boxes + confiscated. Far from it. They have sold tobacco, laid an + impost on noses, and given snuff-boxes to poets with their + portraits on the lid, and diamonds all round. This little + trade has brought them in I don't know how many millions a + year. The potato was far more difficult to popularize, and + has still some adversaries." + + + + +LORD JEFFREY AND JOANNA BAILLIE. + + +Joanna Baillie's first volume of poems was severely criticised in the +_Edinburgh Review_ by Jeffrey. In an article upon the deceased poetess +in _Chambers's Journal_, we have an account of her subsequent +relations with the reviewer. She visited Edinburgh in 1808. + + "As she did not refuse to go into company, she could not be + long in that city without encountering Francis Jeffrey, the + foremost man in the bright train of _beaux-esprits_ which + then adorned the society of the Scottish capital. He would + gladly have been presented to her; and if she had permitted + it, there is little doubt that in the eloquent flow of his + delightful and genial conversation, enough of the admiration + he really felt for her poetry must have been expressed, to + have softened her into listening at least with patience to + his suggestions for her improvement. But in vain did the + friendly Mrs. Betty Hamilton (authoress of 'The Cottagers of + Glenburnie') beg for leave to present him to her when they + met in her hospitable drawing-room; and equally in vain were + the efforts made by the good-natured Duchess of Gordon to + bring about an introduction which she knew was desired at + least by one of the parties. It was civilly but coldly + declined by the poetess; and though the dignified reason + assigned was the propriety of leaving the critic more + entirely at liberty in his future strictures than an + _acquaintance_ might perhaps feel himself, there seems + little reason to doubt that soreness and natural resentment + had something to do with the refusal." + + "It was in the autumn of 1820 that Miss Baillie paid her + last visit to Scotland, and passed those delightful days + with Sir Walter Scott at Abbotsford, the second of which is + so pleasantly given in Mr. Lockhart's life of the bard. Her + friends again perceived a change in her manners. They had + become blander, and much more cordial. She had probably been + now too long admired and reverently looked up to not to + understand her own position, and the encouragement which, + essentially unassuming as she was, would be necessary from + her to reassure the timid and satisfy the proud. She had + magnanimously forgiven and lived down the unjust severity of + her Edinburgh critic, and now no longer refused to be made + personally known to him. He was presented to her by their + mutual friend, the amiable Dr. Morehead. They had much + earnest and interesting talk together, and from that hour to + the end of their lives entertained for each other a mutual + and cordial esteem. After this, Jeffrey seldom visited + London without indulging himself in a friendly pilgrimage to + the shrine of the secluded poetess; and it is pleasing to + find him writing of her in the following cordial way in + later years: "_London_, April 28, 1840.--I forgot to tell + you that we have been twice out to Hampstead to hunt out + Joanna Baillie, and found her the other day as fresh, + natural, and amiable as ever--and as little like a Tragic + Muse. Since old Mrs. Brougham's death, I do not know so nice + an old woman." And again, in January 7, 1842.--"We went to + Hampstead, and paid a very pleasant visit to Joanna Baillie, + who is marvellous in health and spirits, and youthful + freshness and simplicity of feeling, and not a bit deaf, + blind, or torpid."" + + + + +_Authors and Books._ + + +DR. TITUS TOBLER, a Swiss savan, has just published a work entitled +_Golgotha, its Churches and Cloisters_, in the course of which he +undertakes the "Jerusalem question," or the discussion of the probable +localities of the Scripture narrative of the crucifixion. Among the +able German accounts of this treatise, which cannot fail to arrest the +attention of the sacred student, we find the following notice of +Professor Robinson, the first profound and adequate contemporary +authority upon the subject: "Until the American Robinson, all the +early comparisons and criticisms upon the holy sepulchre were based +much more upon instinct and furious sectarianism, than upon a generous +love of truth and a genuine insight into the matter. Only with +wearisome effort, and not without the consent of the whole Church +power, was Robinson's mighty grasp upon pious tradition repelled. In +the main question the learned Yankee was not altogether wrong. But he +is too rash in battle, too impatient, too reckless, too ambitious, and +his armor was evidently not proof in all parts. Even the knowledge of +the Semitic orient, of its antiquities and customs, seems, if we may +say so without offence to transatlantic vanity, a little threadbare. +But the Robinsonian breach in the wall was not to be entirely +plastered up and its traces concealed. This American has first +recognized the right way of breaking into the citadel of tradition; +others, with more or less skill, have followed his track and widened +the breach. But it was reserved for the inflexible ability of Dr. +Tobler to dig up the very foundations, although he is no centaur, no +giant, and in the pride of strength, does not scorn a childlike +faith." + + * * * * * + +Among recent German romances we note second and third editions of +JEREMIAS GOTTHELF'S _Sylvester-Dream_, and the _Peasant's Mirror, or a +Life-History_. The author is not much known beyond Germany, but is +there recognized as having the greatest certainty and correctness in +delineation, the most genial principle, and the soundest and freshest +life of any contemporary writer. The Sylvester-Dream is as vague and +fantastic, and of the same electrical effect, as the similar sparkling +flights of Dickens and Jean Paul. _Uriel the Devil_, a satirical +romance, in eight pictures, bears the name of Kaulbach, but whether +the author is related to William Kaulbach, the great painter, we have +no means of ascertaining. This, with the _Memorabilia of a German +House-Servant_ are spoiled by their imitations of Jean Paul, and the +latter is somewhat strongly infected with Hoffman's Phantasies. But +they are both books of more than common talent. Two romances by two +women are most curtly and contemptuously noticed, in a style of +uncourteous condemnation hardly to be paralleled in England or +America, in which countries the chivalry of private respect for the +fair sex always ameliorates condemnation of their writings. "Of these +two books there is little else to say than that they are moral and +respectable, and extremely well written for women. The former author +has the rare and memorable heroism in a woman to allow her heroine to +reach her thirty-fourth year." + +Levin Schuneking formerly Grand-Master at the Court of the Elector of +Cologne, has just published _The Peasant Prince_, a romance, called in +Germany his best work. + + * * * * * + +KOHL, the traveller or writer of travels, has just published a book +upon the Rhine, which is not of the usual character of his works, as +the author perhaps feared too much the criticising contrast of Victor +Hugo's _Rhine_, to undertake a detailed and sprightly description of +the present life and aspect of the country. The new work is, in fact, +an attempt to portray, according to Ritter's principles, a famous +river region in its geological, historical and statistical relations; +and from this point of view to present it vividly to the mind. The +contents are simple and succinctly arranged, and the book is a signal +success in the popularization of the results of recent geographical +research. It has the same relation to the old river guide books, that +Ritter's philosophical geography has to the old geographies. + + * * * * * + +ANASTASIUS GRUN, the famous German poet, has just edited the poetical +remains of Nicolaus Lenau, of whom Auerbach wrote a graceful +reminiscence for the German _Museum_, under the title of _Lenau's last +Summer_. The chief poem of the collection is entitled _Don Juan_, +which, although not fully finished, the German critics highly extol. +Soon after the death of Lenau, in a madhouse, last year, we gave some +account of him in the _International_. + + * * * * * + +Of Sir CHARLES LYELL'S Second Journey in America, which Mr. E. +Dieffenbach has rendered into German, the Germans say that its +geniality and _gentlemanliness_, its graceful and striking pictures of +the state of society, politics, and religion, and its popular +treatment of scientific subjects, make it altogether charming. A +reviewer notes what Lyell says of the universal tendency to read among +the American laboring classes, and quotes some interesting facts, as +that one house published eighty thousand copies of Eugene Sue's +Wandering Jew, in various forms and at various prices. The same house +had sold forty thousand copies of Macaulay's History of England, at +the end of the first three months, at prices varying from fifty cents +to four dollars, while other houses had sold twenty thousand copies, +and this sale of sixty thousand copies while Longman was selling +fifteen thousand at one pound twelve shillings. + + * * * * * + +The Countess HAHN-HAHN, who for several years has occupied in German +literature a position corresponding to that of George Sand in France, +with whose views of life and society she strongly sympathized, and +whose "Faustina" and other works were republished here, has recently +become a Roman Catholic, as our readers will have seen, and has just +written the following letter to a Hamburg journal: + + "To correct some misapprehension, I feel it to be my duty to + declare that the new edition of my complete works announced + by Alexander Duncker in Berlin is no new series, but an + edition with a new title. A new series of those writings + will never appear, as I no longer recognize as my own the + spirit in which they were written. + + IDA, COUNTESS HAHN-HAHN." + + + + * * * * * + +DAVID COPPERFIELD has been translated into German, with the +peculiarities of speech of the different classes of characters +unattempted. Old Pegotty and Ham speak "pure Castilian." It is easy to +see how the dramatic character of the book is thus lost. Indeed, +Dickens is almost the only very famous English author who is not much +translated. The Battle of Life, one of the least valuable and +characteristic of his works, is well known upon the Continent, because +it was so easy to translate. But what can a descendant of Dante, for +instance, ever know of the drolleries of Sam Weller? Fancy a +_spiritual_ Frenchman trying to catch the fun of Pickwick! + + * * * * * + +Mr. Judd's _Richard Edney_ induces a German critic to say of him, +"This is a new English poet of the Carlyle and Emerson school, who, +inspired by the example of Jean Paul, turn the English language +topsy-turvy, and introduce a jargon that makes us satisfied with our +own romantic barbarism." + + * * * * * + +Mrs. S. C. HALL'S _Sorrows of Women_ has been also translated into +German, and is highly praised. + + * * * * * + +In Vienna, most of the recent publications have more or less relation +to affairs. There is very little of pure literature. M. de Zsedényi, +one of the most capable Hungarian political writers, has published a +work entitled _Responsibility of the Cabinet and the State of +Hungary_. The author of _The Genesis of the Revolution_, (supposed to +be Count Hartig, who was a Minister without portfolio under Prince +Metternich) has again appeared before the public with 146 closely +printed pages of _Night Thoughts_, some of which had better never have +seen the light of day. A Mr. Schwarz has published a work advocating +"protection," and in it he spares neither England nor the Austrian +Minister of Commerce. Free trade notions have indeed been attacked in +a score of books by continental thinkers lately, and free trade +opinions seem to have received, throughout Europe, a most decided +check. + + * * * * * + +The late Prince VALDIMAR, of Russia, made three or four years ago a +journey to India, and besides taking part with the British army in +sundry engagements, occupied himself busily in investigating the +manners and customs of the people, the antiquities, history, and +natural productions of the country. He wrote an account of his +journey, and illustrated it with numerous drawings. His family is now +causing this to be printed and the drawings to be engraved, and in a +short time the work will be completed. Only three hundred copies are +to be struck off, and they are to be presented to royal and +illustrious personages. The getting up of the publication will cost +40,000 thalers. + + * * * * * + +M. LEON DE MONBEILLARD has written a little treatise upon the _Ethics +of Spinoza_, in which--being a spiritualist who admits the dogma of +the creation and of human personality--he is said to have refuted the +great philosopher, yet without calumniating or disfiguring his +doctrines, and with a constant admiration of all that is truly +admirable in Spinoza. + +The work has not yet crossed the sea, but we cannot help thinking that +the colossal views of so great a mind are not to be entirely disproved +in the delicate dimensions of an "_opuscule_," as the able little +treatise of M. Montbeillard is called by the critics. + + * * * * * + +JOSEPH RUSSEGGER, imperial director of the mines at Schemnitz, has +published the results of five years' travel in Europe, Asia, and +Africa, comprising a universal scientific and artistic as well as +social and picturesque view of those countries. It is in four volumes, +very splendidly illustrated in all these departments, and is published +at a cost of forty dollars. + + * * * * * + +Dr. DAVID FRIEDRICH STRAUSS, the famous rationalist, has published a +work entitled _Christian Marklein_, a picture of life and character +from the present time, giving charming if not very new views of the +Wurtemberg theological schools. + + * * * * * + +In the _German Universities_, it appears from the census just taken, +with the exceptions of those of Königsberg, Kiel, and Rostock, the +numbers for which have not been officially returned, there were for +the last term on the registers 11,945 students. The universities may +be classed, according to the number of students at each, in this +order: Berlin, Munich, Bonn, Leipsic, Breslau, Tubingen, Göttingen, +Wurzburg, Halle, Heidelberg, Giessen, Erlangen, Friburg, Jena, +Marburg, Greifswalde. Berlin has 2,107 students, and Greifswalde only +189. The number studying the law is 3,973; of theological students, +2,539; pursuing the study of philosophy and philology, 2,357; medical +students, 2,146; and there are 549 engaged in political economy. Halle +reckons the greatest proportional number of theological students, +there being 330 out of a total of 597; Heidelberg has most students of +law; Wurzburg, most of medicine; and Jena, most students of theology. +The greatest numbers of foreign students are to be found at +Heidelberg, Gottingen, Jena, Wurzburg, and Leipsic. + + * * * * * + +The _Independence Belge_ gives an account of Frau Pfeiffer, a woman +who left Vienna several years ago to travel alone in the most distant +and unfrequented parts of the world. After visiting Palestine and +Egypt, Scandinavia and Iceland, she landed in Brazil, penetrated the +primitive forests, and lived among the natives; from Valparaiso she +traversed the Pacific to Otaheite, thence to China, Singapore, Ceylon, +Hindostan, to the caves of Adjunta and Ellora to Bombay, whence she +sailed up the Tigris, to Bagdad, and then entered upon the arduous +journey to Babylon, Nineveh, and into Kurdistan; and passing to the +Caucasus, she embarked for Constantinople, visiting Greece in her way +home to Germany. She is now in London, visiting the Great Exposition. + + * * * * * + +FERDINAND HILLER, Superintendent of the Cologne Musical Academy, and a +contemporary and friend of Mendelssohn, whom, in the beginning, it was +supposed he would surpass as a composer, has been recently in Paris, +renewing his old experiences. He saw there most of the famous literary +and artistic notabilities, and gossips pleasantly about them in the +_feuilleton_ of a German journal. He saw Henry Heine, whose body is +almost dead, but whose mind is as vigorous as ever. Hiller says that +Heine chatted with him about God and himself, of the King of Prussia, +and of Hiller--of the Frankfort Parliament and his own songs. Heine's +features, he says, are interesting, and even more beautiful than they +were formerly. The fallen cheeks leave the noble oval of the head and +the delicately chiselled nose mournfully apparent. The eyes are +closed. He can only see with the left, by elevating the lid with his +finger. He wears a close-trimmed beard, and his hair is as brown and +luxuriant as ever. The slim white hand is ideally beautiful. It +belongs, according to the doctrine of Carns, to the class of the +purely psychological. Heine had just written a song for a German +composer; and that no poet can sing more sweetly for music, the many +of his verses which Schubert has "married to immortal" tune +sufficiently indicate. Mendelssohn also composed the most dreamily +delicate music to Heine's "Moonlight on the Ganges." + +Ingres, the painter, now seventy years old, the pride and model of the +severe classicists of the French school, is a comely old man, with +rich dark hair, luminous eye, and smooth brow. He is still light and +active in movement, and a genial serenity broods over his whole +character and manner. His love of music is no less enthusiastic than +that of a lover for his mistress. The great German composers are great +gods to Ingres. The remembrance of a beautiful sonata fills his eyes +with tears. Ingres has recently finished a portrait, which is not +inferior to any thing he has ever done. + +Of musical men, Hiller saw Halevy, a successful composer and genial +companion, with a gentle strain of irony in his conversation. Hector +Berlioz has not grown to be fifty without some of the snowy tracks of +time, but the volcanic genius is still alive. His conversation is like +an eruption, now a burning lava-stream of glowing inspiration, now +sulphurous mockery and scorn, and now, wide-flying, a shower of sharp +stones of criticism. He tells the most laughable stories of his London +life, and his musical difficulties and experiences there. In Paris he +is only librarian of the "Conservatoire," and director of great +concerts. + +Jules Janin, the sparkling "J. J." of the _Journal des Débats_, and +the grand seigneur of the Parisian _feuilletonistes_, leads the most +loitering, pleasant life, and grows merry and fat thereby. He sits +upon a luxurious ottoman, wrapped in a gorgeous _robe de chambre_, by +the fire-place of his beautifully adorned study, and there among his +books and bijoux of taste and art, gives audience to all the world. He +has visits without end. He gives instruction and advice, hears all +that every body has to say, applauds extravagantly, as he writes, all +things in this world and some more, until it is time to go to dinner, +or to see a new vaudeville. He has beside a beautiful wife, and +suffers with the gout. Could his cup be fuller? + +The poet Beranger, too, who seems to Hiller the songfullest of +song-writers, charmed him by the gravity, and sweetness, and nobility +of his character. Beranger received him quietly at Passy, near Paris, +where he resides, a hale old man of more than seventy years. His hair +is white, but his face has the freshness of blooming health. In his +features there is a remarkable blending of geniality and intelligent +sharpness. They are largely moulded, and their general expression is +as generous, fine, and graceful as his verses. The perfect simplicity +of his household is very striking. The only hints of any luxury are +some medallion portraits, among which Hiller observed Napoleon and +Lamartine. Yet this severity is so evidently the result of taste and +not of poverty, that it has no unpleasant effect. The beauty and +richness of his conversation filled his visitor with the greatest +regret that he could not record it all. His first great remembrance is +the destruction of the Bastille. His essay in literature was by the +songs which circulated universally in manuscript before they were +printed. But his literary ambition was toward works of great scope and +extent, and it was not until after thirty years of age that he felt +distinctly what he could do best. Of his songs he said, "I present to +myself a song, as a great composition--I sketch a complete plan, +beginning, middle, and end, and make the refrain the quintessence of +the whole." + +While Beranger was finding a letter, he opened a drawer, in which +Hiller saw scraps of song and sketches of poems, which he longed to +seize, as a wistful boy would grab at the money piles in a banker's +window. The following is the letter in which Beranger speaks of the +Marseillaise: + + "I thank you, Madame, for the pleasant letter which you + addressed to me. It has revealed to me a noble heart, and + although I do not believe such hearts as rare as many say, + it is always a fair fortune to meet them. + + "What you say of the Marseillaise is entirely just. But + remember, Madame, that it is the people itself, which always + selects its songs, words, and melodies, uninfluenced by any + one in the world. Once made, this choice endures, with + authority even among the later generations, whose experience + would not have made it. + + "I have often enough thought about a new song of the kind, + but I am too old now, and the circumstances of the time have + robbed my voice of power. You, Madame, saw the true thought + of the song which should be now sung, and I lament that you + find the poetical harness not flexible enough for it. + + "As to your remarks upon my new songs, I must say that I + trouble myself as little about the destiny of my younger + daughters as about that of their elder sisters. And I am + surprised that you speak to me of a Lierman, who should have + known me. Excuse, Madame, my delay in acknowledging and + thanking you for your letter, and believe me your devoted, + + BERANGER." + + + + * * * * * + +A recent Italian translation of the _Diplomats and Diplomacy of +Italy_, which first appeared in Professor Von Raumer's _Pocket Book_ +for 1841, contains three hitherto unprinted MSS. from the Venetian +archives. They are curious and interesting, as indicating the strict +surveillance which the republic maintained, by means of its +ambassadors, over the whole world of the period. + + * * * * * + +MR. WILLIS'S _Hurry-Graphs_ have a French rival in the _Pensées d'un +Emballeur_, by M. Commerson, chief editor of the _Tintamarre_ (Paris +journal.) They are called fantastic, original and forcible. + + * * * * * + +A work to create some surprise, coming from Spain, is the _Persecution +of the Spanish Protestants by Philip the Second_, by Don ADOLPHO DE +CASTRO. The name of Castro is honorably distinguished in Spanish +literature. The present author is a grandson, we believe, of Rodriguez +de Castro, who wrote the BIBLIOTECA ESPAÑOLA. He displays abilities +and a temper suitable for the task he attempted; he has joined to +careful and intelligent research a bravery of characterization which +quite relieves his work from the censures which belong to most Spanish +compositions of its class. That he could print in Madrid a work in +which statecraft and ecclesiastical persecutions are so frankly dealt +with, is a fact of more significance than a dozen such revolutions as +have vexed the slumbers of other states. In Spain, above all +countries, the spread of a taste for historical studies must be +regarded as pregnant with important consequences. It shows that the +barriers of ignorance and self-conceit, which have so long isolated +that country from the rest of Europe, are beginning to be effectually +broken down. To the common Protestant reader, indeed, De Castro's work +will appear studiously moderate, or perhaps timid. But it should be +remembered that it was written for a public which is four or five +centuries behind our own, in all that constitutes true liberty and +enlightenment; and what would appear most gratuitous cowardice here +may easily enough be remarkable courage in Spain. To speak in favor of +Protestantism at all, still more to become the biographer of the +Protestant martyrs, is an undertaking which demands from a Spaniard, +even of the present day, no ordinary amount of resolution. And we +should be by no means surprised to hear that De Castro has been, in +one way or another, made to pay some penalty of his rash enterprise. +That it is both a dangerous and an unpopular one is manifest from the +caution with which historical as well as religious topics are treated. +Compiling what we cannot better characterize than as a Spanish +supplement to Fox's "Book of Martyrs," the author nowhere professes +himself a Protestant. And the slow and gradual way in which he unmasks +the character of Philip II., shows how haughty and sensitive are the +public whom he has undertaken to disabuse of a portion of the +inveterate pride and prejudice which they nourish on all subjects +affecting their church or their country. On the whole, however, though +the Protestant reader will occasionally desiderate a little more +warmth and indignation when chronicling such atrocities, we should say +that the book rather gains than loses by this studied moderation both +in tone and opinions. It certainly gains in dignity and +impressiveness; and it is vastly better adapted to make its way with +the author's countrymen, than if he had betrayed at the outset a +sectarian bias, which would have revolted them, before they had time +to make acquaintance with the sad and sanguinary events of which he is +the historian. The ground gone over is necessarily much the same as in +M'Crie's _History of the Reformation in Spain_, a work which possibly +suggested the undertaking, and to which De Castro gives due credit for +learning and ability. His advantage over the Scottish historian +consists in his command of a variety of documents in print and in +manuscript, to which access could be had only in Spain, especially the +publications of the Spanish reformers themselves, which are +exceedingly rare in consequence of the pains taken to destroy them by +the Inquisition. The most remarkable result obtained by De Castro's +researches, and the feature in his work for which he claims the +greatest credit is the new light he has thrown on the history of Don +Carlos. But unfortunately the question as to the Protestantism of that +prince remains in much the same obscurity as before. His having been +tainted by heretical opinions would aid certainly in accounting for +his father's malignity towards him; but otherwise there seems to be no +proof of the fact; and our own opinion is, that his tolerant views as +to the treatment of the Flemish provinces were misconstrued into bias +towards Protestant doctrines. The inference relied on by De Castro and +others, that if he had remained Catholic he must have shared his +father's extravagant bigotry, is lame. Don Carlos did no more than +follow the usual course of heirs apparent when he disapproved of his +father's tyranny; and his sympathies with Aragon are not less marked +than those with Flanders. + + * * * * * + +LONGWORTH, who distinguished himself in the Hungarian troubles, is +writing a history of them. There is promise of so many books upon the +subject that we shall be able to find out nothing about it. By the +way, we wonder that no one has yet chosen for a motto to place upon +his title-page, this sentence, which Lord Bolingbroke wrote more than +a hundred years ago: + + "_I mean to speak of the troubles in Hungary. Whatever they + become in their progress, they were caused originally by the + usurpations and persecutions of the emperor. And when the + Hungarians were called rebels first, they were called so for + no other reason than this, that they would not be slaves_." + +It is from his _Letters on History_, and occurs where he has been +speaking of the hostility of foreign powers to Austria. + + * * * * * + +A PENNY MAGAZINE, in the Bengalese language, is to be established in +Calcutta, under the editorship of Baboo Rajendralal Mittra, the +librarian of the Asiatic Society. It is to be illustrated by +electrotypes executed in England, of woodcuts which have already +appeared in the _Penny Magazine_, the _Saturday Magazine_, and the +_Illustrated News_. + + * * * * * + +A NATIVE of India has translated the tragedy of _Othello_ into +Bengalee Othello's cognomen in the Oriental version is Moor Bahadoor +(General Moor). + + * * * * * + +IN ITALY, at Turin and Florence, a great number of valuable works have +been issued, illustrative of the recent revolutions. They do not claim +to be histories, for history is impossible, while events are +contemporary and cannot be contemplated from a universal point of +principle and analysis. But these volumes are what the French with +their happy facility would call studies for history. They are the +material from which the great historic artists must compose their +pictures--they are the diary of the movement--they follow all the +changes of the time, hopeful or despondent, with the fidelity and +closeness of an Indian upon the trail. We have seen several of these +publications, and hope ere many months to see a treatise upon the +republican movement in Europe from a pen well able to sketch it, and +which is fed by ink which is never for a moment red. + +The largest and most important of these works is that of M. Gualterio, +just published in Florence, which comprises several letters of the +Austrian lackey, Francis IV., Duke of Modenas, and throws light upon +many of the darkest passages of the dark Austria-Italico policy. Among +other letters, also, one of the most remarkable is that of the +Cardinal Gonsalvi, well known as the able and humane Prime Minister of +Pius VII., and to whose memory there is now upon the walls of St. +Peter's a monument by Thorwaldsen, of which a statue of the Cardinal +is part. This letter speaks of the miserable conduct of the political +trials, and "justice," he says, "charity, the most ordinary decency +demands that all humanity shall not be so trampled under foot. What +will the English and French journals say--not the Austrian, when they +learn of this massacre of the innocents." This was thirty years ago. +But at this moment, were there an able and humane minister at the +Vatican, how truly might he repeat Gonsalvi's words! + +It is in works like these, and in the journals and pamphlets published +during the intensity of the struggle, that the still-surviving Italian +genius, which it has been so long the northern policy to smother and +repress, betrayed itself. Nor among these works, as striking another +key, ought we to omit the Souvenirs of the War of Lombardy by M. de +Talleyrand-Perigord. Duke of Dino--and the history of the Revolution +of Rome by Alphonse Balleydier. The Souvenirs are devoted to the glory +of the unhappy King Charles Albert, the dupe of his own vanity and the +victim of his own weakness. + +Upon the pages of M. le Duc de Dino, however, he blazes very +brilliantly as a martyr--martyr of a cause hopeless even in the first +flush of success--martyr of an army without enthusiasm, of a +liberalism without freedom or heroism. The English royalists, the +reader will remember, were fond of the same title for the unhappy +Charles I. + +In M. Balleydier's history of the Roman revolution, Rossi is the +central figure, in whose fate there was something extremely heroic, +because he had received information, just as he quitted the Pope's +palace to go to the assembly, from a priest who had heard it in +confidence, that he was to be attacked, and he must have known the +Italian, and especially the Roman character, sufficiently to have felt +assured of his fate. After hearing the priest, Rossi said to him +calmly: "I thank you, Monseigneur, the cause of the Pope is the cause +of God," and stepping into his carriage drove to the palace of the +Cancelleria, at whose door he fell dead, by a stroke that wounded much +more mortally the cause which condemned him, than the cause he +espoused. + + * * * * * + +With all our waste of money, and continual boasts of encouraging +individual merit, we have not yet a single pension in this country +except to homicides. "They manage these things better in France." A +return just published in the official _Moniteur_, shows that one +department of the government, that of Public Instruction, distributes +the following pensions to literary persons: five of from $400 to $480 +a year; nine of $300 to $360; twenty-nine of $200 to $240; thirty-four +of $120 to $180; and fifteen of $40 to $100. To the widows and +families of deceased authors, two of $400 to $450; six of $300 to +$360; seventeen of $200 to $240; twenty-five of $120 to $180; and +thirty-one of $40 to $100. In addition to this, it may be mentioned, +that the same department distributes a large sum annually, under the +title of "Encouragements," to authors in temporary distress, or +engaged in works of literary importance and but small pecuniary +profit. It also awards several thousands to learned societies, for +literary and scientific missions, purchases of books, &c. The +department of the Interior gives $2,500 a year in subscriptions to +different works, and nearly $30,000 for "indemnities and assistance to +authors." The other departments of the government also employ +considerable sums in purchasing books, and in otherwise encouraging +literary men. It is said indeed to be no unusual thing for an author, +laboring under temporary inconvenience, to apply for a few hundred, +or, in some cases, thousand francs, and they are almost always +awarded. No shame whatever is attached to the application, and no very +extraordinary credit to the gift. Surely, France must be a Paradise +for authors. + + * * * * * + +A BOOKSELLER in Paris announces: "Reflections upon my conversations +with the Duke de la Vauguyon, by Louis-Augustus Dauphin, (Louis XVI.,) +accompanied by a fac simile of the MS., and with an introduction by M. +FALLOUX, formerly Minister of Public Instruction." Falloux is a +churchman of the stamp of Montalembert. We are apt to doubt the +genuineness of these luckily discovered MSS. of eminent persons. We +have no more faith in this case than we had in that of the Napoleon +novels, mentioned in the last _International_. + + * * * * * + +The late M. De BALZAC, who, besides being one of the cleverest writers +of the age, was a brilliant man of society, and a very notorious +_roué_, left, it appears, voluminous memoirs, to be printed without +erasure or addition, and his friends are much alarmed by the prospect +of their appearance. It is said that his custom of extorting letters +from his friends upon any subject at issue, under pretence of +possessing an imperfect memory, and his method of classing them, will +render his memoirs one of the completest scandalous _tableaux_ of the +nineteenth century that could ever be presented to the contemplation +of another age. Opposition to the publication has already been +offered, but without success, and the princess-widow is busily engaged +with the preparations for printing, intending to have the memoirs +before the world early in June. They extend minutely over more than +twenty years. + + * * * * * + +M. E. QUINET, who was long associated with Michelet, in the College of +France, and who is known as a writer by his _Alemagne et Italie, +Ultramontanisme, Vacances en Espagne_, etc. has published in Paris +_L'Enseignement du Peuple_. "On the 24th day of February, 1848," he +says, "a social miracle places in the hands of France the control of +its destiny. France, openly consulted, replies by taking up a position +in the scale of nations between Portugal and Naples. There must be a +cause of this voluntary servitude; the object of these pages is to +discover this cause, and, if possible, to protect futurity against the +effects of its operation." This is the problem he proposes to solve, +and he concludes that the important secret is in the fact, that the +"national religion is in direct contradiction with the national +revolution." "Chained by the circumstance of its religion to the +middle ages, France believes that it can march onward to the end of a +career opened to it solely because of its protest against every great +principle of government which those ages held sacred." He has worked +ten years, he tells us, to demonstrate two things: The first, that +catholic states are all perishing; the second, that no political +liberty can be realized in those states. "I have shown," he continues, +"Italy the slave of all Europe, Spain a slave within, Portugal a slave +within and without, Ireland a slave to England, Poland a slave to +Russia, Bohemia, Hungary, slaves of Austria--Austria herself, the +mother of all slavery, a slave to Russia. Looking for similar proofs +out of Europe, I have shown in America, on the one hand, the +increasing greatness of the heretical United States; on the other +hand, the slavery of the catholic democracies and monarchies of the +south: _in the former a_ WASHINGTON, _in the second a_ ROSAS." M. +Quinet considers that the only remedy applicable to an evil of this +magnitude is the utter separation of church and state. Leave but the +slightest connection between the two, and the former will inevitably +overpower the latter. The one is a compact, organized, single-minded +body; the other is scattered, loosely put together, swayed to and fro +by every change in the political atmosphere, and can offer no +resistance that is sufficient to oppose the steady, unremittent +attacks of its enemy. The two, therefore, must not be placed in +collision. The very indifference manifested towards the national +religion by the great bulk of the French people is the cause why so +much danger is to be apprehended from the efforts of the church. +Because a religion is dead, says M. Quinet, there is the danger. A +living religion, like that of the puritans, may certainly mould the +government into a despotic form, but it communicates to it, at least, +a portion of its own power and energy, whilst a dead religion +infallibly occasions death to the state and to the people with which +it is politically and organically united. He argues the whole subject +with eloquent force, and with not a little of the earnestness which +reminds the reader of his personal controversies with the Roman +Catholic Church. + + * * * * * + +A history of _Marie Stuart_, by I. M. Dargaud, has just been published +in Paris, and for its brilliancy, completeness, clearness, and +impartiality, attracts much attention. Queen Mary of Scotland was one +of the famously beautiful women whose history is romance. She must be +named with the heroines of history and the figures of poetry, with +Helen, and Aspasia, and Cleopatra. Certainly, we trace no more +sparkling and sorrowful career than hers upon the confused page of +history, and our admiration, condemnation, surprise, sorrow and +delight, fall, summed in a tear, upon her grave. In this work it +appears that she was undoubtedly privy to the death of Darnley. During +his assassination, she was dancing at Holyrood. The fearful +fascination of a brigand like Bothwell, for so proud and passionate a +nature as Mary's, is well explained by M. Dargaud. He is just, also, +to her own tragedy, the long and bitter suffering, the betrayal of +friends; the final despair, and the laying aside two crowns to mount +the scaffold. She died nobly, and as most of the illustrious victims +of history have died; as if nature, unwilling that they should live, +would yet compassionately show the world in their ending, that heroism +and nobility were not altogether unknown to them. + +_Apropos_ of this history of Queen Mary, Lamartine has written a +letter to Beranger, which praises the work exceedingly, but much more +glorifies himself. The letter is a perfect specimen of that vanity, +wherein only Lamartine is sublime: "Ah! if you or I had had such a +heroine at twenty years, what epic poems and what songs would have +been the result!" + + * * * * * + +THE COUNT MONTALEMBERT, the fervid champion of Catholicism in the +French chamber, has just published a work, entitled _The higher and +lower Radicalism: in its enmity to Religion, Right, Freedom and +Justice, in France, Switzerland and Italy_. + + * * * * * + +Although M. GUIZOT appears to be as busily engaged as ever in +politics, the advertisements of the booksellers would induce a belief +that his whole attention is given to literary studies. He has just +published _Etudes Biographiques sur la Révolution de l'Angleterre_, +which, with his sketch of General Monk, he says, "form a sort of +gallery of portraits of the English Revolution, in which personages of +the most different characters appear together--chiefs or champions of +sects or parties, parliamentarians, cavaliers, republicans, levellers, +who, either at the end of the political conflicts in which they were +engaged, or when in retirement towards the close of their lives, +resolved to describe themselves, their own times, and the part they +played therein. In the drawing together of such men," he adds, "and in +the mixture of truth and vanity which characterize such works, there +is, if I do not deceive myself, sufficient to interest persons of +serious and curious minds, especially among us and in these times; for +in spite of the profound diversity of manners, contemporary +comparisons and applications will present themselves at every step, +whatever may be the pains taken not to seek them." The studies here +collected we suppose are not new; they are doubtless the articles +which the author contributed to the _Biographie Universelle_ and other +works before he became a minister--perhaps, as in the cases of his +"Monk" and "Washington," with scarcely a word of alteration. The work +is, however, interesting. The period of English history to which it +refers has been profoundly studied by Guizot, and it would probably be +impossible to select a mode of treating it that would admit of more +effective or attractive delineation. The life of Ludlow appears as the +first of the series. + + * * * * * + +French Literature tends in a remarkable degree towards monarchical +institutions. Guizot and his associates publicly advocate the +Restoration. M. Cousin has published a new argument against +Republicanism, and M. Romieu, whose curious book, which men doubted +whether to receive as a jest or an earnest argument, _The Era of the +Cæsars_--in which he declared his belief that the true and only law +for France is _force_--is before the public again, in a volume +entitled _Le Spectre Rouge de 1852_. He predicts the subversion of all +order, and such terrible scenes as have never been witnessed even in +France, unless some one bold, resolute, scorning all "constitutional" +figments, and relying solely on his soldiers--some one who shall say +_L'état c'est moi!_ shall save France. A Cromwell, a Francia, or in +default of such Louis Napoleon--any one who will constitute himself an +autocrat, will become the saviour of France! + + * * * * * + +The COUNT DE JARNAC, formerly secretary and _chargé d'affaires_ of the +French embassy in London, has published a novel which is well spoken +of, entitled the _Dernier d'Egmont_. + + * * * * * + +A French traveller in upper Egypt has collected for the Parisian +Ethnological Museum copies of many curious inscriptions upon the walls +of the great temple of Philæ. Among others, there is the modern one of +Dessaix, which the Parisians think "reflects the grandiose simplicity +of the Republic." "The sixth year of the Republic, the thirteenth +Messidor, a French army commanded by Bonaparte descended upon +Alexandria; twenty days after, the army having routed the Mamelukes at +the Pyramids, Dessaix, commanding the first division, pursued them +beyond the Cataracts, where he arrived the thirteenth Ventose of the +year seven, with Brigadier-Generals Davoust, Friant, and Belliard. +Donzelot, chief of the staff, La Tournerie, commanding the artillery, +Eppler, Chief of the twenty-first Light Infantry. The thirteenth +Ventose, year seven of the Republic, third March, year of J.C., 1799. +Engraved by Casteix." The last date, however, strikes us as a base +compromise to the _temporal_ prejudices of the world, on the part of +the author of this "simple and grandiose" inscription. + + * * * * * + +M. de Saint Beauve has published in Paris some hitherto inedited MSS. +of MIRABEAU, consisting of _Dialogues_ between the great orator and +the celebrated Sophie (Madame de Monnier), written when Mirabeau was +confined in the fortress of Vincennes, principally, it seems, from the +pleasure he had in reflecting on the object of his passion. He gives +an account of their first meeting, the growth of their love, and their +subsequent adventures, in the language, no doubt, as well as he could +recollect, that had passed between them, in conversation or in +letters. There is not much that is absolutely new in these papers, or +that throws any peculiar light on Mirabeau's character, but nothing +could have been written by him which is without a certain interest, +especially upon the subject of these _Dialogues_. Circulating-library +people had always a morbid desire to see illustrious personages while +under the influence of the tender passion. + + * * * * * + +_Progression Constante de la Démocratie pendant soixante ans_, is the +title of a new Parisian brochure well noticed. Of the same character +is the _Le Mont-Saint-Michel_, by Martin Bernard, a serial publication +devoted to the details of the sufferings of Democratic martyrs. The +author is now in exile, having shown himself too republican for the +present Republic. + + * * * * * + +Victor Hugo's paper, _L'Evènement_, says of Louis Philippe's Gallery +at the Palais Royal, which the heirs now wish to sell, that it has two +paintings of Gericault's, the Chasseur and the Cuirassier, and that +they symbolize the two phases of the Empire, victorious France and the +Invasion. He hopes, therefore, that they will not be permitted to go +out of France. + + * * * * * + +William Howitt is writing a life of George Fox. + + * * * * * + +Mr. Ticknor's _History of Spanish Literature_ is reviewed in _La Revue +des Deux Mondes_ by PROSPER MERIMEE, of whose recent travels in the +United States we have had occasion to speak once or twice in _The +International_. M. Merimee is the author of a _Life of Peter the +Cruel_, of which a translation has been published within a few months +by Bentley in London, and he professes to be thoroughly acquainted +with Spanish literature, from a loving study of it while residing in +Spain. Perhaps he had some thought of writing its history himself; he +certainly seems to bestow unwillingly the praises he is compelled to +give Mr. Ticknor, whose extraordinary merits he however distinctly +admits. "The writer of this History," he says, "has gone into immense +researches; he has applied himself deeply and conscientiously to the +Castilian language and the Spanish authors: he has read, he has +examined, every thing that the English, French, and Germans, had +published on this subject. He possessed an advantage over the critics +of old Europe--that of being able to treat literary questions without +mixing up with them recollections of national rivalries." He concludes +his article by saying, "This work is an inestimable repertory; it must +be eminently useful in a library. It comprises very good biographical +notices of the Spanish authors, and numerous abstracts which obviate +the necessity of reference to the original authorities. The +translations, which are copious, are executed with surpassing taste, +to afford an idea of the style of the Spanish poets. Thanks to the +flexibility of the English language, and the ability or command of the +author in using it, the translations are of signal fidelity and +elegance. The rhythm, the flow, the idiomatic grace and _curiosa +felicitas_, are rendered in the most exact and the happiest manner." + + * * * * * + +By a letter in the London _Times_, signed ERNESTO SUSANNI, it appears +that M. LIBRI may be a very much wronged person. The readers of the +_International_ will remember his trial, a few months ago, and his +condemnation to ten years' imprisonment (in default of judgment), and +deprivation of the various high offices he held, for having, as was +alleged, stolen from the Mazarine Library, besides others, the +following volumes: _Petrarca, gli Triomphi_, 1475: Bologna, in folio; +_Pamphyli poetæ lepidissimi Epigrammatum libri quatuor; Faccio degli +Uberti, opera chiamata Ditta Munde Venezia_, 1501, quarto; _Phalaris +Epistole, traducte del Latino da Bartol: Fontio_, 1471, quarto; +_Dante, Convivio_: Florence, 1490, quarto; &c. M. Susanni alleges that +the learned bibliographer, M. Silvestre, has discovered in the +Mazarine Library that, contrary to the very circumstantial affirmation +of the deed of accusation, the above-mentioned books _are still in +their places on the shelves of that library_, from which they have +never been absent, and where any one may go and see them, and verify +the fact for himself. The persons employed to draw up the charges +against M. Libri never appeared to understand that two different +editions of a work were totally different things, and they have +accused M. Libri of having stolen a work from a public library, simply +because M. Libri possessed an edition of that work, though different +from the one the library had lost, or, better still, which it had +never lost at all. Considering all the circumstances, and the +attention which was attracted to the case throughout the learned +world, this is very curious: it will form one of the most remarkable +of the _causes célèbres_. + + * * * * * + +The new Paris review, _La Politique Nouvelle_, starts bravely its +career as a rival of _La Revue des Deux Mondes_. The leading article, +"La Constitution, c'est l'order," is by M. Marie, who was one of the +chiefs of the Provisional Government, and Henri Martin, Gustave +Cazavan, and Paul Rochery, are among the contributors; but the best +attraction of the work to those who do not care for its politics, is +the beginning of a charming novel by Madame Charles Reybaud, the +authoress of Tales of the Old Convents of Paris. + + * * * * * + +Lamartine's reputation declines with every new attempt of his at +money-making. There was never a man capable of doing well a half of +what he advertises. He is writing a romance on the destruction of the +Janizaries, for the _Pays_, another romance for the _Siecle_, and +occasionally gives _feuilletons_ to other journals; he is re-editing a +complete edition of his own works, writing a history of the +Restoration, and a history of Turkey, and has lately begun to edit a +daily paper. He also continues the monthly pamphlet, of between thirty +and forty pages, the _Conseiller du Peuple_, on political matters, and +produces once a month a periodical, _Les Foyers du Peuple_, in which +he gives an account of his travels, with tales and verses. + + * * * * * + +The Paris correspondent of the London _Literary Gazette_ states, that +an Assyrian, named FURIS SCHYCYAC, is at present attracting some +attention in the literary circles. He had just arrived from London, +where, it appears, he translated the Bible into Arabic, for one of the +religious associations. He has accompanied his _début_ in +Parisian society with a _mudh_, or poem, to Paris, in which he almost +out-Orientals the Orientals in his exaggerated compliments and +gorgeous imagery. Paris, he declares, amongst other things, is the +"terrestrial paradise," the "_séjour_ of houris," and "Eden;" whilst +the people are, _par excellence_, "the strong, the generous, the +brave, the sincere-hearted, with no faults to diminish their virtues." +This master-stroke has opened the Parisian circles to the cunning +Assyrian. + + * * * * * + +M. Leroux has published in Paris a volume of Reminiscences of Travel +and Residence in the United States, with observations on the +Administration of Justice in this country. + + * * * * * + +The last _Edinburgh Review_ has an article on COUSIN, in which a +general survey is taken of his life and of his works, of which he has +just completed the publication of a new edition. The _London Leader_ +says that the critic ingeniously represents all Cousin's plagiarisms +as the consequences of the progressive and _assimilative_ intellect of +the eclectic chief; that it would be easy with the same facts to tell +a very different story; and correct the reviewer's "mistake," where he +talks of Cousin as the translator of Plato. Cousin's name is on the +title-page; but not one dialogue, the _Leader_ avers, did he +translate; it even doubts his ability to translate one. What he did +was to take old translations by De Grow and others, here and there +polishing the style; and the dialogues that were untranslated he gave +to certain clever young men in want of employment and glad of his +patronage. He touched up their style and wrote the Preface to each +Dialogue, for which the work bears his name! _This_ explains the +puzzling fact that the translator of Plato should so completely +misunderstand the purpose of the dialogue he is prefacing. Gigantic +indeed would be the labors of Cousin--if he performed them himself. + + * * * * * + +Walter Savage Landor is now seventy-six years of age. He writes no +more great works, but he is hardly less industrious than a +penny-a-liner in writing upon all sorts of subjects for the journals. +We find his communications almost every week in _The Examiner_, _The +News_, _The Leader_, _Leigh Hunt's Journal_, and other periodicals. +Sometimes he rises to his earlier eloquence, and we hear the voice +that was loudest and sweetest in the "Imaginary Conversations;" but +for the most part his newspaper pieces are feeble and splenetic, +unworthy of him. One of his latest composures has relation to Lord +Lyndhurst, by whose speech against the revolutionary aliens in England +had been excited the ire of the old poet. "In your paper of this day, +April 12," he writes to the editor of _The Examiner_, "I find repeated +an expression of Lord Lyndhurst's, which I am certain will be +offensive to many of your readers. General Klapka, a man illustrious +for his military knowledge, and for his application of it to the +defence of his country and her laws, is contemptuously called _one_ +Klapka. The most obscure and the most despicable (and those only) are +thus designated. Surely to have been called by the acclamations of a +whole people to defend the most important of its fortresses is quite +as exalted a distinction as to be appointed a Lord Chamberlain or a +Lord Chancellor by the favor of one minister, and liable to be +dismissed the next morning by another. With all proper respect for the +cleverness of Lord Lyndhurst, I must entreat your assistance in +discovering one sentence he ever wrote, or spoke, denoting the man of +lofty genius or capacious mind. Memorable things he certainly has +said--such as calling by the name of aliens a third part of our +fellow-subjects in these islands, and by the prefix of a _certain_ to +the name of Klapka. It is strange that sound law should not always be +sound sense; strange that the great seal of equity should make so +faint and indistinct an impression. Klapka will be commemorated and +renowned in history as one beloved by the people, venerated by the +nobility; whose voice was listened to attentively by the magistrate, +enthusiastically by the soldier. The fame of Lord Lyndhurst is +ephemeral, confined to the Court of Chancery and the House of Peers; +dozens have shared it in each, and have gone to dinner and oblivion. +Those, and those alone, are great men whose works or words are +destined to be the heirlooms of many generations. God places them +where time passes them without erasing their footsteps. Kings can +never make them. They, if minded so, could more easily make kings. +England hath installed one Chancellor who might have been consummately +great, had there only been in his composition the two simple elements +of generosity and honesty. Bacon did not hate freedom, or the friends +of freedom; and, although he cautiously kept clear of so dangerous a +vicinity, he never came voluntarily forth, invoking the vindictive +spirit of a dead law to eliminate them in the hour of adversity from +their sanctuary." + + * * * * * + +The Rev. Moses Margoliouth, who was once a Jew, and who last year +published a narrative of a journey to Palestine, under the title of "A +Visit to the Land of My Fathers," has just given to the world, in +three octavos, a _History of the Jews in Great Britain_. The book is +insufferably tame and feeble; the author is of the class called in +England "religious flunkies:" a mastiff to the poor and a spaniel to +the proud. His first book was disgusting for its feebleness and +servility, and this is scarcely better, notwithstanding the richness +of its materials and the curious interest of its subject. A good +History of the Jews in England will be a work worth reading. + + * * * * * + +The _Ecclesiastical History Society_ have published in London +_Strype's Memorials of Cranmer_, _Heylyn's History of the +Reformation_, and _Field's Treatise of the Church_. Strype and Heylyn +are more familiar than Field, whose work is a sort of supplement to +Hooker's _Polity_. Field resembled his illustrious master and friend +in judgment, temper, and learning. In his own day his reputation was +great. James I. regretted, when he heard of his death, that he had not +done more for him; Hall, in reference to his own deanery of Worcester, +which had been sought for Field, speaks of that "better-deserving +divine," who "was well satisfied with greater hopes;" and Fuller, with +his accustomed humor of thoughtfulness, bestows his salutation on +"that learned divine whose memory smelleth like a _field_ that the +Lord hath blessed." + + * * * * * + +THE LIFE OF WORDSWORTH, by Dr. Christopher Wordsworth, has appeared in +London, and with some additions by Professor Henry Reed, of +Philadelphia, will soon be issued by Ticknor, Reed & Fields, of +Boston. From what the critics write of it we suspect it is a poor +affair. The _Leader_ says that, "all things considered, it is perhaps +the worst biographical attempt" it "ever waded through." The +_Examiner_ and other leading papers admit its dulness as a biography, +and its worthlessness in criticism, but claim for it a certain value +as a collection of facts respecting the histories of Wordsworth's +different poems. The work indeed professes to be no more than a +biographical commentary on the poet's writings. It does not even +affect to be critical, or to offer any labored exposition of the +principles on which Wordsworth's poems were composed. The author +describes his illustrious relative as having had no desire that any +such disquisition should be written. "He wished that his poems should +stand by themselves, and plead their own cause before the tribunal of +posterity." Strictly, then, the volumes are so exclusively subordinate +and ministerial to the poetry they illustrate, that apart from the +latter they possess hardly any interest. By enthusiasts for the poems +they will be eagerly read, but to any other class of readers we cannot +see that they present attraction. Dr. Wordsworth's part in them, +though small, is not particularly well done; and the poet's part +almost exclusively consists of personal memoranda connected with his +poems dictated in later life, and seldom by any chance refers to any +thing but himself. + +Nevertheless there are in the volumes many delightful and +characteristic details, much genuine and beautiful criticism (chiefly +in the poet's letters), and occasional passages of fine sentiment and +pure philosophy. Here is Wordsworth's own description of one of his +latest visits to London, and of his appearance at court, in a letter +to an American correspondent: + +"My absence from home lately was not of more than three weeks. I took +the journey to London solely to pay my respects to the Queen, upon my +appointment to the laureateship upon the decease of my friend Mr. +Southey. The weather was very cold, and I caught an inflammation in +one of my eyes, which rendered my stay in the south very +uncomfortable. I nevertheless did, in respect to the object of my +journey, all that was required. The reception given me by the Queen at +her ball was most gracious. Mrs. Everett, the wife of your minister, +among many others, was a witness to it, without knowing who I was. It +moved her to the shedding of tears. This effect was in part produced, +I suppose, by American habits of feeling, as pertaining to a +republican government. To see a gray-haired man of seventy-five years +of age, kneeling down in a large assembly to kiss the hand of a young +woman, is a sight for which institutions essentially democratic do not +prepare a spectator of either sex, and must naturally place the +opinions upon which a republic is founded, and the sentiments which +support it, in strong contrast with a government based and upheld as +ours is. I am not, therefore, surprised that Mrs. Everett was moved, +as she herself described to persons of my acquaintance, among others +to Mr. Rogers the poet. By the by, of this gentleman, now I believe in +his eighty-third year, I saw more than of any other person except my +host, Mr. Moxon, while I was in London. He is singularly fresh and +strong for his years, and his mental faculties (with the exception of +his memory a little) not at all impaired. It is remarkable that he and +the Rev. W. Bowles were both distinguished as poets when I was a +schoolboy, and they have survived almost all their eminent +contemporaries, several of whom came into notice long after them. +Since they became known, Burns, Cowper, Mason the author of +'Caractacus' and friend of Gray, have died. Thomas Warton, Laureate, +then Byron, Shelley, Keats, and a good deal later Scott, Coleridge, +Crabbe, Southey, Lamb, the Ettrick Shepherd, Cary the translator of +Dante, Crowe the author of 'Lewesdon Hill,' and others of more or less +distinction, have disappeared. And now of English poets advanced in +life, I cannot recall any but James Montgomery, Thomas Moore, and +myself, who are living, except the octogenarian with whom I began. I +saw Tennyson, when I was in London, several times. He is decidedly the +first of our living poets, and I hope will live to give the world +still better things. You will be pleased to hear that he expressed in +the strongest terms his gratitude to my writings. To this I was far +from indifferent, though persuaded that he is not much in sympathy +with what I should myself most value in my attempts, viz., the +spirituality with which I have endeavored to invest the material +universe, and the moral relations under which I have wished to exhibit +its most ordinary appearances." + +Of the mention of Alfred Tennyson in the foregoing extract the +_Examiner_ remarks, that it is perhaps the greatest stretch of +appreciation or acknowledgment in regard to any living or contemporary +poet in Wordsworth. His mention of Southey's verses is always reserved +and dry. He takes no pains to conceal his poor opinion of Scott's. His +allusions to Rogers are respectful, but cold. His objection to Byron +may be forgiven. There is less reason for his appearing quite to lose +his ordinarily calm temper when Goethe is even named, or for his +extending this unreasoning dislike to Goethe's great English +expositor, Carlyle. Yet we must not omit, on the other hand, what he +says of Shelley. Shelley, he admits (much to our surprise), to have +been "one of the best artists of us all; I mean in workmanship of +style." + + * * * * * + +The London _Standard of Freedom_ remarks of the article on "Some +American Poets" in the last number of _Blackwood_, that "it assumes +more ignorance in England as to American poetry than actually exists." +Our readers will readily believe this when advised that the critic +regards _Longfellow_ as a greater poet than Bryant! whom he classes +with Mrs. Hemans. + + * * * * * + +M. COMTE has quitted metaphysics to reform the calendar, but probably +will not succeed better than those who attempted the same thing during +the first French revolution. We find a synopsis of his scheme in the +_Leader_. He proposes that each month shall be consecrated to one of +the great names that represent the intellectual and social progress of +humanity. He specializes the names of Moses, Homer, Aristotle, +Archimedes, Cæsar, St. Paul, Charlemagne, Dante, Descartes, Guttenberg +(whom he probably thinks had something to do with the invention of +printing), Columbus and Frederic the Great, as most appropriate for +the designation of the twelve months; recommending, however, +particular fêtes for minor heroes in the months under which they may +best be grouped--for Augustin, Hildebrand, Bernard, and Bossuet, in +St. Paul's month; Alfred and St. Louis, in Charlemagne's month; +Richelieu and Cromwell in the month of Frederic the Great, and so on. +Supplying a defect of Catholicism in this respect, he proposes what he +calls "fêtes of reprobation" for the greatest scoundrels of +history--for such retrogressive men as Julian the Apostate, Philip II. +of Spain, and Bonaparte, (we don't agree to the classification, unless +he means President Louis Napoleon, who indeed is not a _great_ +scoundrel, though disposed to be sufficiently retrogressive.) +According to this new calendar, a follower of Comte, writing a letter +in March, would have to date it as written on such or such a day of +_Aristotle_. We fear the proposal won't do even in France, but this, +at least, may be said for it, that it is as good as the Puseyite +practice of dating by saints' days, besides being novel, and Parisian, +and scientific. Sydney Smith used, in jest of the Puseyite practice, +to date his letters "_Washing Day--Eve of Ironing Day_;" Comte's plan +is better than that of the Puseyites--almost as good as Peter +Plimley's. + + * * * * * + +Among the many books lately printed in England upon the ecclesiastical +controversies, is one entitled _Remonstrance against Romish +Corruptions in the Church, addressed to the People and Parliament of +England in 1395_, now for the first time published, edited by the Rev. +F. Forshall. Biographers of Wycliffe have referred to this tract and +quoted passages in evidence of the Wycliffite heresies; but they +appear to have failed altogether of perceiving its larger scope, or +understanding its political bearing and significance. There can hardly +be a doubt, as Mr. Forshall suggests, that it was drawn up to +influence the famous parliament which met in the eighteenth year of +Richard the Second, and which was a scene of unusual excitement on the +subject of religion from the sudden clash of the old Papal party with +the new and increasing band of patriotic reformers. Wycliffe had then +been dead, and his opinions gradually on the increase, for more than +ten years. The author of the Remonstrance was his friend John Purvey, +who assisted him in the first English version of the Bible, shared +with him the duties of his parish, and attended his death-bed. He was +the most active of the reformers, the most formidable to the +ecclesiastical authorities. Another old MS. from the Cottonian +collection in the British Museum, is the _Chronicle of Battel Abbey, +from 1066 to 1176, now first translated, with Notes, and an Abstract +of the subsequent History of the Establishment_, by Mark Antony Lower. +This is extremely curious, and contains, besides the important +histories of the controversies between the ecclesiastical authorities +and Henry the Second, some very striking exhibitions of manners. + + * * * * * + +The vitality of SCOTT'S popularity is shown by the fact that the +Edinburgh publishers of his _Life_ and _Works_ printed and sold the +following quantities of them during the period from 1st January, 1848, +to 26th March, 1851, viz.: Novels (exclusive of the Abbotsford +edition), 4,760 sets; Poetical Works, 4,360; Prose Writings, 850; +Life, 2,610; Tales of a Grandfather (independently of those included +in the complete sets of the Prose Works), 2,990; and Selections, +4,420. It may serve as a "curiosity of literature" to give a summary +of the printing of the Writings and Life since June, 1829, when they +came under the management of the late proprietor, Mr. Cadell: Waverley +Novels, 78,270 sets; Poetical Works, 41,340; Prose Works, 8,260; Life, +26,860; Tales of a Grandfather (independently of those included in the +complete sets of the Prose Works), 22,190; Selections, 7,550. The +popularity to which the "People's Edition" has attained appears from +the fact that the following numbers, originally published in weekly +sheets, have been printed: Novels, 7,115,197; Poetry, 674,955; Prose, +269,406; Life, 459,291; total sheets, 8,518,849. + +The whole copyrights, stocks, &c., of Scott's works, as possessed for +many years by Cadell, have now been transferred to the hands of +Messrs. Adam and Charles Black. The copyrights and stock have been +acquired by the present purchasers for £27,000, or £10,000 less than +Mr. Cadell paid for copyrights alone. + + * * * * * + +ELIZABETH BARRET BROWNING has published a new poem, _Casa Guidi +Windows_, which gives a vivid picture of the tumult and heroism of +Italian struggles for independence, as seen from the poet's windows, +at Florence, with the fervid commentary of her hopes and aspirations. + + * * * * * + +A novel by MRS. CAROLINE LEE HENTZ, published by Mr. Hart, of +Philadelphia, has been dramatized by Mr. Henry Paul Howard, for the +Haymarket Theatre in London, and brought out in a very splendid style, +with J. W. Wallack in the leading character. + + * * * * * + +COLONEL CUNNINGHAM, a son-in-law of Viscount Hardinge, has just +published in London "Glimpses of the Great Western Republic in the +year 1850." + + * * * * * + +We shall look with much interest for the result of the new scheme for +the encouragement of life assurance, economy, &c., among literary men +and artists in England. To bring this project into general notice, and +to form the commencement of the necessary funds, Sir Edward Bulwer +Lytton, one of its originators, has written and presented to his +associates in the cause, a new comedy in five acts, under the +significant title, _Not So Bad as we Seem_. It was to be produced on +the sixteenth ult., under the management of Mr. Charles Dickens, in a +theatre constructed for the purpose, and performed by Robert Bell, +Wilkie Collins, Dudley Costello, Peter Cunningham, Charles Dickens, +Augustus Egg, A.R.A., John Forster, R. H. Horne, Douglass Jerrold, +Charles Knight, Mark Lemon, J. Westland Marston, Frank Stone, and +others. The tickets were twenty-five dollars each, and the Queen and +Prince Albert were to be present. The comedy is hereafter to be +performed in public; and the promoters of the scheme are sanguine of +its success. Mr. Maclise has offered to paint a picture (the subject +to be connected with the performance of the comedy), and to place it +at the disposal of the guild, for the augmentation of its funds. The +prospects are encouraging. + + * * * * * + +The REV. C. G. FINNEY, so well known in the Presbyterian churches of +this country, has passed some time in London, and an edition of his +_Lectures on Systematic Theology_ has just been published there, with +a preface by the Rev. Dr. Redford, of Worcester, who confesses, that +"when a student he would gladly have bartered half the books in his +library to have gained a single perusal of these Lectures; and he +cannot refrain from expressing the belief, that no young student of +theology will ever regret their purchase or perusal." The book makes +an octavo of 1016 pages. + + * * * * * + +"TALVI," the wife of Professor ROBINSON, will leave New-York in a few +days, we understand, to pass some time in her native country. She will +be absent a year and a half, and will reside chiefly in Berlin. We +have recently given an account of the life and writings of this very +eminent and admirable woman, in the _International_, and are among the +troops of friends who wish her all happiness in the fatherland, and a +safe return to the land of her adoption. We presume the public duties +of Dr. Robinson will prevent him from being absent more than a few +weeks. + + * * * * * + +ALBERT SMITH has dramatised a tale from Washington Irving's "Alhambra" +for the Princess's Theatre--making a burlesque comedy. + + * * * * * + +MRS. SOUTHWORTH must be classed among our most industrious writers. +The Appletons have just published a new novel by her, entitled _The +Mother-in-Law_, and she has two others in press--one of which is +appearing from week to week in the _National Era_. + + * * * * * + +DR. SPRING, whose religious writings appear to be as popular in Great +Britain as in this country, and every where to be regarded as among +the classics of practical religious literature, has issued a second +edition of his two octavos entitled _First Things_. In style, temper, +and all the best qualities of such works, the discourses embraced in +this work are deserving of eminent praise. (M. W. Dodd.) + + * * * * * + +Of HENRY MARTIN, whom the religious world regards with a reverent +affection like that it gives to Cowper and Heber, the hitherto +unpublished _Letters and Journals_ have just appeared, and they seem +to us even more interesting than the so well-known Memoirs of his Life +published soon after he died. (M. W. Dodd.) + + * * * * * + +MRS. SIGOURNEY has published a volume entitled _Letters to my Pupils, +with Narrative and Biographical Sketches_. It embraces reminiscences +of her experience as a teacher, and we have read none of her prose +compositions that are more suggestive or more pleasing. (Robert Carter +& Brothers.) + + * * * * * + +A _Life of Algernon Sydney_, by G. Van Santvoord (a new author), has +been published by Charles Scribner. To describe the history and +writings of this noble republican was a task worthy of an American +scholar. Mr. Van Santvoord has performed it excellently well. + + * * * * * + +BAYARD TAYLOR and R. H. STODDARD have new volumes of poems in the +press of Ticknor, Reed & Fields, of Boston, and that house has never +published original volumes of greater merit, or that will be more +popular. + + * * * * * + +THE POEMS OF WILLIAM P. MULCHINOCK, in one volume, lately published by +Mr. Strong, Nassau-street, appear to have been received with singular +favor by the critics. Mr. Mulchinock has remarkable fluency, and a +genial spirit. His book contains specimens of a great variety of +styles, and some pieces of much merit. + + * * * * * + +TICKNOR & CO. have published a novelette entitled _The Solitary_, by +Santaine, the author of "Picciola." It is of the Robinson Crusoe sort +of books--better than any other imitation of Defoe. + + * * * * * + +The _Pocket Companion, for Machinists, Mechanics, and Engineers_, by +OLIVER BYRNE, is a remarkable specimen of perspicuous condensation. In +a beautiful pocket-book it embraces for the classes for whom it is +designed the pith of two or three ordinary octavos. + + * * * * * + +Among the new volumes of poems is one of Dramatic and Miscellaneous +Pieces, by CHARLES JAMES CANNON, published by Edward Dunigan. Mr. +Cannon is a writer of much cultivation, and, in his dramatic poems, +especially, there are passages of much force and elegance. + + * * * * * + +MR. JOHN E. WARREN, whose pleasant letters from the south of Europe +were a chief attraction of some of the early numbers of the +_International_, has in the press of Putnam, to be published in a few +days, _Paria, or Scenes and Adventures on the Banks of the Amazon_. He +saw that magnificent but little known country under such peculiar +advantages, and he writes with such spirit and so natural a grace, +that we may promise the public one of the most delightful books of the +season in "Paria." Here is a specimen, from the opening chapter. + + "The shades of evening were gathering fast upon the waters, + when the little bark, in which we had safely crossed the + wide expanse of ocean, now quietly anchored in the mighty + river of the Amazons. Through the rich twilight we were able + to discern the white sandy shore, skirting a dense forest of + perennial luxuriance and beauty. Gentle zephyrs, fraught + with the most delightful fragrance from the wilderness of + flowers, softly saluted our senses; while occasionally the + plaintive voices of southern nightingales came with mellowed + sweetness to our ears. The moon, unobscured by a single + cloud, threw an indescribable charm over the enchanting + scene, reflecting her brilliant rays upon the placid surface + of the river, and shrouding the beautiful foliage of the + forest in a drapery of gold. Innumerable stars brightly + glittered in the firmament, and the constellation of the + 'Southern Cross' gleamed above us like a diadem. All around + seemed to be wrapped in the most profound repose. Not a + sound disturbed the silence of the interminable solitude + save the hushed and mournful notes of evening birds, the + distant howling of prowling jaguars, or the rustling of the + wind through the forest trees. Nature appeared to us, for + the first time, in her pristine loveliness, and seemed + indeed, to our excited imagination, to present but a dreamy + picture of fairy land. + + "At an early hour in the morning we weighed anchor, and with + a fresh breeze and strong tide rapidly moved up the noble + river, gliding by the most beautiful scenery that fancy can + conceive. The nearly impenetrable forest which lined the + shore was of a deep emerald green, and consisted of + exceedingly lofty trees, of remarkably curious and grotesque + figures, interlaced together by numerous vines, the + interstices of which were filled up with magnificent + shrubbery. We observed, towering high above the surrounding + trees, many singular species of palms, among which the + far-famed cocoa-nut probably stood pre-eminent. This + beautiful tree gives a peculiar witchery to a tropical + landscape, which those only who have seen it can possibly + realize. The trunk grows up perfectly perpendicular to a + great height, before it throws out its curious branches, + which bend over as gracefully as ostrich plumes, and quiver + in the slightest breeze. Consequently, the general + appearance of the tree at a distance is somewhat similar to + that of an umbrella. + + "As we gradually proceeded, we now and then caught a glimpse + of smiling cottages, with the snug little verandahs and + red-tiled roofs peering from amid the foliage of the river's + banks, and giving, as it were, a character of sociability + and animation to the beauteous scene. Perhaps the most + interesting spot that we noticed was an estate bearing the + name of Pinherios, which had been formerly the site of a + Carmelite convent, but which was lately sold to the + government for a 'Hospital dos Lazaros.' Here also was an + establishment for the manufacture of earthenware tiles, + which are extensively used throughout the Brazilian empire + for roofing houses. + + "So low is the valuation of land in this section of Brazil, + that this immense estate, embracing within its limits nearly + three thousand acres, and situated, as it is, within twenty + miles of the city of Para, was sold for a sum equivalent to + about _four thousand dollars_. This may be taken as a fair + standard of the value of real estate in the vicinity of + Para. That of the neighboring islands is comparatively + trifling; while there are millions of fertile acres now + wholly unappropriated, which offer the richest inducements + to emigrants who may be disposed to direct their fortunes + thither. + + "The city of Para is delightfully situated on the southern + branch of the Amazon, called, for the sake of distinction, + 'The Para River.' It is the principal city of the province + of the same name,--an immense territory, which has very + appropriately been styled 'The Paradise of Brazil.' The + general aspect of the place, with its low venerable looking + buildings of solid stone, its massive churches and + moss-grown ruins, its red-tiled roofs and dingy-white walls, + the beautiful trees of its gardens, and groups of tall + banana plants peeping up here and there among the houses, + constituted certainly a scene of novelty, if not of elegance + and beauty. + + "The first spectacle which arrested our attention on landing + was that of a number of persons of both sexes and all ages + bathing indiscriminately together in the waters of the + river, in a state of entire nudity. We observed among them + several finely-formed Indian girls of exceeding beauty, + dashing about in the water like a troop of happy mermaids. + The heat of the sun was so intense that we ourselves were + almost tempted to seek relief from its overpowering + influence by plunging precipitately amid the joyous throng + of swimmers. But we forbore! + + "The natives of Para are very cleanly, and indulge in daily + ablutions; nor do they confine their baths to the dusky + hours of evening, but may be seen swimming about the public + wharves at all hours of the day. The government has made + several feeble efforts to put a restraint upon these public + exposures, but at the time of our departure all rules and + regulations on the subject were totally disregarded by the + natives. The city is laid out with considerable taste and + regularity, but the streets are very narrow, and miserably + paved with large and uneven stones. The buildings generally + are but of one story in height, and are, with few + exceptions, entirely destitute of glass windows; a kind of + latticed blind is substituted, which is so constructed that + it affords the person within an opportunity of seeing + whatever takes place in the street, without being observed + in return. This lattice opens towards the street, and thus + affords great facilities to the beaux and gentlemen of + gallantry, who, by stepping under this covering, can have an + agreeable _tête-à-tête_ with their fair mistresses, as + secretly almost as if they were in a trellised arbor + together. + + "We noticed several strange spectacles as we slowly walked + through the city. Venders of fruit marching about, with huge + baskets on their heads, filled with luscious oranges, + bananas, mangoes, pineapples, and other choice fruits of the + tropics; groups of blacks, carrying immense burdens in the + same manner; invalids reclining in their hammocks, or ladies + riding in their gay-covered palanquins, supported on men's + shoulders; and water-carriers moving along by the side of + their heavily-laden horses or mules." + +In his excursions along the small streams which penetrate the forests +our traveller met with some magnificent scenes. Here is a description +of one of them: + + "Now the grassy table-land would extend away for miles to + our left, gemmed here and there with solitary trees, waving + their branches mournfully in the wind, and looking like + spectres in the mystic starlight. On the outer side, a + gloomy yet splendid wilderness ran along the margin of the + stream, flinging tall shadows across the water, and adding + grandeur to the imposing landscape. As we advanced the brook + gradually narrowed, and became more and more crooked in its + course, until finally the thick clustering foliage met in a + prolonged arch of verdure over our heads. + + "While winding through this natural labyrinth, the sun + emerged from his oriental couch, and besprinkled us with a + shower of luminous beams, which, falling through the + interstices of the leaves, seemed like the spirits of so + many diamonds. A more divine spectacle of beauty never was + beheld. The most gorgeous creations of the poet's + imagination, if realized, could not surpass in magnificence + this sun-lighted arbor, with its roses and flowers of varied + hues, all set like stars in a canopy of green. Sprightly + humming-birds flitted before us, sparkling like jewels for a + moment, then vanishing away from our sight for ever. + Butterflies with immense wings, and moths of gay and + striking colors, flew also from flower to flower, seeming + like appropriate inhabitants of this little paradise. But + the indefatigable mosquitoes, who were continually pouncing + upon our unprotected faces and hands, as well as the mailed + caymans, who now and then plunged under our canoe with a + terrific snort, preserved in us the conviction of our own + mortality. + + "As we were moving through a wider passage of the stream, a + sudden noise in the bushes on our left arrested our + attention; in a moment after, we perceived a large animal + running as expeditiously as he was able along the banks of + the stream. We immediately raised our guns simultaneously + and fired. Although we evidently gave the creature their + full contents, yet it produced no other visible effect than + to cause him to give a boisterous snort, and then dart away + furiously into the heart of the thicket." + +Here is something much more natural than Melville's introduction of +Fayaway: + + "Among our olive-complexioned neighbors were two young + girls, whose fine forms and pretty faces especially elicited + our admiration. The one was named Teresa, the other Florana. + The former could not have been more than fourteen years of + age, and was rather short in stature, with exquisitely + rounded arms, and a bust of noble development; the latter + was somewhat taller, and at least three years older; they + both, however, had attained their full size. Animated as + they were beautiful, they were always overflowing with + vivacity and life; their conversation, which was incessant, + was like the chirping of nightingales, and their laughter, + like strings of musical pearls. These, then, beloved reader, + were, during our stay at least, decidedly the belles of + Jungcal. At the close of every day we were visited by all + the juveniles in the place, who, in their own sweet tongue, + bade us 'adieus,' and at the same time besought our + blessing, which latter request we only answered by patting + them gently on the head. The pretty maidens we have just + alluded to, instead of shaking hands with us, were + accustomed to salute us at eventide with a kiss on either + cheek. The propriety of this we at first doubted, but the + more we reflected upon the sweetness and innocence of the + damsels, the more inclined were we to pardon them; and, in + fact, we finally began to think their manner much more + sensible and agreeable than that of those who consider any + thing beyond cold and formal shaking of hands a grievous + sin. Besides, it must be borne in mind, that this was a + sacred custom of the place, which it would have been great + rudeness in us to have resisted. Therefore, kind reader, do + not judge us too severely; for know, O chary one! that + extreme bashfulness and modesty have always been considered + two of our principal failings! One day, Teresa and Florana + invited us to take a bathe with them in the stream. This we + declined point-blank. They then charged us with fear of + alligators. This was a poser--our courage was now called in + question, and we were literally forced to submit. Pray what + else could we have done under the circumstances? When they + had once got us into the water they took ample revenge upon + us for the uncourteous manner in which we had at first + treated their request. As we were encumbered by our clothes, + they had altogether the advantage, and, in less than ten + minutes, we cried out lustily for quarter, but no quarter + would they give us, and, to tell the truth, we were somewhat + apprehensive of being drowned by them, to say nothing of + being devoured by bloodthirsty alligators. Emerging from the + water, we walked up to Anzevedo's cottage, revolving in our + mind the severe ordeal through which we had just passed, and + determined henceforth never to refuse any request, sweetened + by the lips of a pretty maiden, unless, perchance (though + highly improbable), she should ask us for our heart! which, + alas! we have not to give...." + + * * * * * + +An _Album_ sent to the great Exhibition by the Emperor of Austria, and +to be presented after the show to Victoria, is thus described by a +Vienna correspondent of the _Times_: "It contains the notes in +manuscript of the national airs and dances, and far surpasses any +thing that I have ever seen in the bookbinding department. On one side +there are fourteen exquisite vignettes in oil colors, representing +different national costumes; the ornaments in enamel, carved ivory, +and ebony, are exquisite. A second album contains the works of the +ancient and modern Austrian composers; the third, Austrian scenery, by +different native artists. The bindings of some of the two hundred and +seventy volumes of Austrian authors will also not fail to excite the +astonishment--I had almost said the envy--of the trade. The whole will +form a truly imperial gift." + + + + +_The Fine Arts._ + + +During the present month there are four Public Exhibitions of +Paintings in the city: that of the NATIONAL ACADEMY, of the ART-UNION, +of the ARTIST'S ASSOCIATION, and the DÜSSELDORF GALLERY. The first +three are composed mainly of the works of native American artists, and +it is impossible to repress an expression of regret that some +arrangement of union has not yet been effected, by which, at least, +the works of the same men should not be exhibited gratis at one place, +and for a charge at another. In the present state of things, the +gallery of the Art-Union and that of the National Academy are brought +into direct opposition, and this, beyond doubt, without the slightest +jealousy on either side, as the works painted for the Academy and +purchased by the Art-Union clearly show. But certainly the fact is +lamentable enough to challenge immediate attention, and to induce a +radical change. A free gallery of the selected works of artists will +be very apt to carry the day against an exhibition at a quarter of a +dollar of the miscellaneous and unselected works of the same men. But +here we do not mean to vex this question farther. We aim at a general +review of the peculiarities and excellences of each exhibition. + +It is undoubtedly in landscape art that American talent is destined +first to excel, and the Academy exhibition and that of the Art-Union +are added proofs of the fact. The landscapes are much the most +distinguishing and distinguished feature. Mr. DURAND contributes +several characteristic works. His style is so uniform and pronounced +that it is never difficult to recognize his pictures. We should hardly +say that he does better this year than usual, but we should certainly +not say that he does worse. In the front rank of this department stand +also KENSETT and CROPSEY, both of whom show beautiful results of +summer study and winter work. Mr. Cropsey is mainly distinguished by a +really gorgeous imagination. Proof of this is to be sought in the +sketches of his portfolio rather than in his finished pictures, for in +these a thousand influences seduce an artist away from the simplicity +and splendor of his study into a care of public approbation and +satisfaction. Mr. Cropsey is as yet too much enamored of the details +and even of the mechanism of his art. And this is a tendency that is +fatal to breadth and largeness of impression. Yet his "Southern +Italy," and a "View in Rockland County," in the exhibition, are great +advances in this respect. On the other hand, the two large American +landscapes at the Art-Union, while the background in one is a splendid +success, and the brilliant atmosphere of the other is no less +successful, yet they are too much detailed, and the interest is +nowhere sufficiently concentrated. Mr. Kensett is remarkable for his +just sentiment and profound appreciation of natural beauty. It is a +sentiment singularly free from sentimentality, and an appreciation as +poetic as it is profound. The very delicacy of his touch and style +indicate the character of his enjoyment and perception of nature. + +Mr. CHURCH, too, is perhaps the other name that we should mention with +these two as full of hope and promise. If he avoids a little +mannerism, to which he seems to be susceptible--not of course +forgetting that all greatness has its own manner--and pursues with the +same devotion as hitherto his studies of sea and sky, a very happy and +brilliant career seems open to him. The works of none of the younger +artists have attracted more attention. And the fame and position of +Turner show the reward of a devoted student and artistic delineator of +the peculiarities of atmospheric phenomena. We exhort Mr. Church to +entire boldness in his attempts. Why should he hope always to please +those who have only a vague susceptibility of natural observation for +their standard of criticism? He is to show us in the splendid play of +the light, and air, and clouds, that which we do not see, or seeing, +do not perceive. + +Messrs. CRANCH, BOUTELLE, GIFFORD, and others, take high rank among +the landscapists, nor must we omit a very beautiful winter piece of +GIGNOUX, at the Academy, in which the crisp clearness of the sharp +air, the brittle outline of the bare boughs, and the quality of ice, +are most accurately and poetically rendered. + +We are arrested by the feeling and promise of Mr. RICHARD'S +contributions, and the very beautiful poetic sentiment of Mr. +HUBBARD'S. Mr. HUNTINGDON is not great, this year. His landscapes are +not natural, and his portraits lack that vigorous moulding to which we +are accustomed upon his canvas. Mr. RANNEY has some characteristic +hunting-pieces. They are getting too much mannered. On a prairie, the +chief interest of art is not a horse or a buffalo, but the sentiment +of space. But we do not yield to any in our satisfaction at the spirit +and vigor of these works. + +Leaving the landscape, we find the figure compositions of the year not +very successful, if we except the "Aztec Princess" of Mr. HICKS, which +we understand is a study from life of a Mexican woman, but which is +treated in so large, and thoughtful, and skilful a manner, that it is +most impressive for character and color, and gives the key to the +whole side of the room upon which it hangs. This artist exhibits also +some portraits, which have never been surpassed by any modern +portraits that we recall. No. 128 upon the Academy Catalogue is the +most brilliantly-colored portrait upon the walls. It is treated with +all the happy heroism of a master, and while many quarrel with its +_spotty_ color, the initiated perceive that easy mastery of the +palette which with genius is the secret of artistic success. No. 405 +is equally remarkable for its vigorous moulding. This portrait shows +the accurate knowledge, as No. 128 reveals the sumptuous sentiment of +the genuine artist. Mr. ELLIOTT'S portraits have the same quiet +truthfulness as heretofore, the same easy success, but we would gladly +see more confidence in color, and a likeness more as the subject +appears to the mind than to the eye. Mr. SHEGOGUE'S productions are +certainly very pastoral. So sheepy are his sheep that all the figures, +trees, and landscape, are unmitigatedly sheepish. Mr. FLAGG'S +portraits are not successful. There is an unnatural smoothness and +hardness in his works. Mr. KELLOGG'S General Scott is vigorous and +effective. The action of the figure seems to require some explanation, +however. It contrasts well with the monotony of its pendant, Mr. +VANDERLYN'S General Taylor; but no spectator in regarding this latter +work has a right to forget that it is the production of one who has +grown gray at his post, and the winter of whose age has not yet +frozen, and can never freeze, the freshness of enthusiasm and +single-hearted devotion to art which are for ever young. + +Mr. LANG'S No. 44 is a very large likeness of a very comely lady, but +the work will hardly live long in the spectator's memory. Mr. ROSSITER +takes the field boldly with "The Ideals, Types of Moral, Intellectual, +and Physical Beauty." Except for the brilliance of color, and a +certain sentiment, by which the light proceeds from the moral type, we +do not much admire the picture. The difficulty with the spectator will +be, we are sure, that he recalls within his own circle of friends +types more beautiful for each ideal. Mr. Rossiter's portraits of his +brother artists, Messrs. DARLEY and DUGGAN, are admirable likenesses, +each somewhat mellowed in expression by the artist. The sharp +intellectual precision of Mr. Duggan's countenance, and the bright +nervous sensibility of Mr. Darley's, are both somewhat subdued upon +the canvas. What we candidly say of these pictures we say boldly, +because we recognize and appreciate the fine feeling which animates +the artist. Mr. GRAY'S No. 54, "King Death," attracts much attention. +But is it the "Jolly Old Fellow," or the "King of Terrors," or the +"easeful death" of which the poet was enamored? There is something +fine in the picture--a strain of Egyptian placidity permeates the +features. And such colossal placidity is full of fate. There is a +latitude allowed the artist in these themes. Yet we do not feel +satisfied, much as we like the picture. Mr. ROTHERMEL'S No. 5, +"Murray's Defence of Toleration," is a very pleasant picture of the +Düsseldorf style. We like one thing in this work, and that is its +preservation of the balance of history, by showing that the Catholics +were not always the persecutors. The contrast of the religious repose +of the rear with the jangling fanaticism of the foreground is in +harmony with the differing qualities of light. It is a thoughtful and +beautiful picture, Mr. FREEMAN'S 359, "Study for an Angel's Head," has +a Titianesque fascination, and the earnest regard of the faces is +extremely lovely. It is none the less charming that it has a mortal +loveliness--if we might say so without treason to the immortality of +all beauty. We have no doubt, in our own critical mind, that any +beautiful woman would make a beautiful angel. Mr. MOUNT'S No. 118, +"Who'll turn Grindstone?" is one of his characteristic Yankee +incidents. It is very true and genuine in feeling, but the picture is +too white and streaked. No. 344 is a natural and spirited portrait of +the poet Stoddard by Mr. PRATT. + +But we must pause here, leaving many works of which we would willingly +speak. At the Düsseldorf Gallery, LESSING'S "Martyrdom of Huss" is +still the great attraction. It is a work so full of careful study and +skilful treatment that we are not surprised at the universal pleasure +in its contemplation. We cannot in this space, however, enter into a +consideration of its artistic claims and character, but must record +our impression that it is not in the highest style of art--if there be +in art a higher style than the adequate representation of the simple +incident. The dexterous detail of the Düsseldorf pictures is +remarkable, but the fault and tendency of the school is to direct +imitation, and consequently to a hopeless struggle with nature. These +pictures are the worst possible models for the student of art. + +The Art-Union Gallery is by no means full, but certainly does not +merit the harsh criticism of the daily press. The pictures are on an +average quite as good as usual. The names of most of the distinguished +artists are on the catalogue, and the specimens of their works are +characteristic and admirable. There are several poor copies of famous +pictures, and these undoubtedly somewhat neutralize the effect of the +native works. Beside, the Art-Union does not profess to open its +gallery with a complete collection. It buys as the pictures are +produced, and the criticisms, thus far, have been no less ignorant +than ill-natured. It does not follow that fifty thousand dollars' +worth of good pictures are annually painted because that sum may be +subscribed to purchase good pictures. Nor is it at all true, as we +would undertake to show, had we the space, that artists are +necessarily the best managers of a popular institution for the advance +of art. + +The Exhibition of the Artists' Association offers little for remark. +We are not sufficiently acquainted with the secret of the origin of +this association to speak of the institution itself, but we observe +many of the names familiar to us at the Academy and the Art-Union, and +can truly wish that the pictures were upon the walls of one of those +galleries. + +On the whole, we remark an unwonted activity and interest in art. It +is impossible not to rejoice at the fact, and at the brilliant proofs +of artistic ability that illuminate the walls of the various +galleries. The contemporary exhibitions of foreign capitals do not, +altogether, surpass those of their younger sister. American books are +now not all unread, and those who delight in galleries in which only +Turner, Kaulbach, and Couture are eminently great, could not be unjust +to these promises of American artistic success. + + * * * * * + +LEUTZE, the artist, has been again distinguishing himself by a work +just exhibited in Düsseldorf, "The Amazon with her Children." It +represents a beautiful and majestic woman, lying half-erect, arms and +neck bare, contemplating the gambols of her two naked children. The +brilliant golden-tone of the complexion is said to be entirely worthy +of the masterly skill in color of the artist, and was perhaps inspired +by the poet's dream, "I will take some savage woman; she shall rear my +dusky race." But in respect of composition and drawing it is called an +attempt to imitate the art of the old Italian virtuosos. The artist is +proceeding with surprising rapidity with his Washington. A portrait of +Roting by Leutze is most highly commended. Roting is in the same +atelier with Leutze, and is busy upon a scene from the life of +Columbus. + + * * * * * + +The Managers of the ART-UNION promise rich returns to the subscribers +for the present year. We quote the _Art-Union Journal_: + + "We have never before offered so many powerful motives to + membership as the programme of the present year affords. The + improvements in the Bulletin render it a publication that is + almost indispensable to those who desire to have in a + convenient form the most recent Art intelligence, as well as + much original matter upon the subject that meets the + constant approbation of instructed readers. The numbers of + this work are furnished gratuitously to each member from the + date of his subscription. He will also be entitled to the + large engraving of _Mexican News_ by JONES, after Woodville, + and to the second part of the _Gallery of American Art_, + which contains five line engravings on steel, by the best + artists, after the following pictures: Cropsey's + _Harvesting_, Kensett's _Mount Washington_, Woodville's _Old + '76 and Young '48_, Ranney's _Marion crossing the Pedee_, + and Mount's _Bargaining for a Horse_. We desire to call + attention again to the fact that these subjects are all + American in their character, illustrating the scenery, + history, or manners of the country. They are also striking + and valuable as pictures, and we should have every reason to + feel proud of them in whatever contrast they might be + placed. + + "This project of presenting a work which shall contain in + process of time the Gems of American Art, is original with + the Art-Union. Its value must be apparent to every reader. + It is a mode by which subscribers in the most distant parts + of the country, who are deprived of the opportunity of + visiting the large towns, may become well acquainted with + the character and progress of our principal artists--and + even those members who have the advantage of resorting to + public galleries, may enjoy here the privilege of studying + many pictures that from their location in private + collections must be accessible to them. The first part of + this work was given to the members of 1850, and is now ready + for distribution, Besides the inducements just enumerated, + there remains a share in the allotment of works of art + purchased by the Association, and which, judging from the + two hundred already obtained, will be the most attractive + collection ever offered by the Art-Union. The importance of + early subscriptions need not be enlarged upon at present. + The opportunity it affords of securing complete sets of the + Bulletin, and better impressions of the engravings, seems to + be recognized in all quarters. The Association at no period + of its history has had so long a roll of members at this + early season." + + * * * * * + +PAUL DELAROCHE has just completed, at Nice, a grand historical +composition, which the most intelligent judges decree to be his _chef +d'oeuvre_. The picture represents a tragical moment in the life of +Marie Antoinette. After a night of anguish before the revolutionary +tribunals the unhappy Queen has just heard the verdict of her guilt. +The President asks her if she has any thing to say in arrest of the +sentence. For her sole answer, she rises calm and majestic, and takes +silently the way back again to her dungeon. The artist has seized this +instant, as she passes erect and still before a crowd of +revolutionists. A man with a tri-colored scarf walks by her side, +regarding her as a tiger gloats upon a lamb. It is the personification +of terror. A single girl, too young to be cruel, yet attracted with +the others, perhaps, to applaud the punishment of the _Widow Capet_, +looks pityingly upon the Queen, her trembling lips murmur a prayer, +and the tears start in her eyes. Upon the lips of the Queen there is +almost a smile, a thought of disdain, for the outrages of men upon a +solitary and defenceless woman. From the descriptions of which we +select the prominent points, it is evident that this is another of the +representations of historical incident for which Paul Delaroche has +made himself so famous a name, as in his Death of Elizabeth, the +Children of Edward in the Tower, Cromwell at the Coffin of Charles I, +the Execution of Strafford, of Lady Jane Grey, Napoleon Crossing the +Alps, &c., &c. And there is no reason that this last work should not +be, as claimed, the greatest, since the artist adds to the greater +cunning of his hand, the sympathies of chivalrous artistic feeling for +the sorrow of a beautiful woman and a Queen of France. The picture is +already sold in London, and will presently be forwarded to its +destination; on the way it will remain a short time in Paris for the +homage of the many admirers of this artist's genius. + + * * * * * + +Mr. MINER K. KELLOGG, who since his professional tours in the East and +long residence in Italy, has spent some half dozen years in his native +country, has just returned to Florence, where, with his companion from +boyhood, Hiram Powers, he will probably pass the remainder of his +life. He is an artist of peculiar and great merits, and there is not +perhaps among American painters a man more uniformly regarded with +respect and affection. + + * * * * * + +The Brussels _Herald_ gives an account of a curious and costly work of +art, which a great landholder of the Walloon Provinces has ordered of +the Depaepes, of Bruges. These artists are instructed to copy in +Gothic letters _L'Imitation de Jésus Christ_, by the Abbé d'Assance. +The work will fill six hundred and seventy pages, each of which will +be about three-quarters of a yard in height, by eighteen inches wide. +They will have to execute one hundred and fourteen engravings, from +the great masters of the Flemish school, Van Eyck, Memling, Pourbus, +Classens, &c. The pages on which will be displayed the _Imitation of +Jesus Christ_, will be encircled with garlands and other ornaments, in +blue and gold. + + * * * * * + +At the last annual meeting of the NATIONAL ACADEMY OF DESIGN, the rank +of _Academician_ was conferred on T. Hicks, G.A. Baker, H.K. Brown, +J.A. Cropsey, T. Addison Richards, R. Gignoux, P.P. Duggan, Alfred +Jones, R.M. Pratt, J.W. Casilear, James Smillie and George W. Flagg. +At the same time, Messrs R.W. Hubbard, J. Thompson, and Vincent +Colyer, were made associates; and Messrs. Darley, Falconer, Lacombe, +Kellogg and Ruggles, honorary members. + + + + +From the Times. + +THE MEETING OF THE NATIONS IN HYDE PARK. + +BY W. M. THACKERAY. + + + But yesterday a naked sod, + The dandies sneered from Rotten-row, + And cantered o'er it to and fro; + And see, 'tis done! + As though 'twere by a wizard's rod, + A blazing arch of lucid glass + Leaps like a fountain from the grass + To meet the sun! + + A quiet green but few days since, + With cattle browsing in the shade, + And lo! long lines of bright arcade + In order raised; + A palace as for fairy prince, + A rare paradise, such as man + Saw never, since mankind began + And built and glazed! + + A peaceful place it was but now, + And lo! within its shining streets. + A multitude, of nations meets: + A countless throng, + I see beneath the crystal bow, + And Gaul and German, Russ and Turk, + Each with his native handiwork, + And busy tongue. + + I felt a thrill of love and awe + To mark the different garb of each, + The changing tongue, the various speech + Together blent. + A thrill, methinks like His who saw + "All people dwelling upon earth + Praising our God with solemn mirth + And one consent." + + High Sovereign in your Royal state! + Captains and Chiefs and Councillors, + Before the lofty palace doors + Are open set. + Hush! ere you pass the shining gate; + Hush! ere the heaving curtain draws, + And let the Royal pageant pause + A moment yet. + + People and Prince, a silence keep! + Bow coronet and kindly crown, + Helmet and plume bow lowly down; + The while the priest + Before the splendid portal step, + While still the wondrous banquet stays, + From Heaven supreme a blessing prays + Upon the feast! + + Then onwards let the triumph march; + Then let the loud artillery roll, + And trumpets ring and joy-bells toll, + And pass the gate; + Pass underneath the shining arch, + 'Neath which the leafy elms are green-- + Ascend unto your throne, O Queen, + And take your State! + + Behold her in her Royal place: + A gentle lady--and the hand + That sways the sceptre of this land + How frail and weak! + Soft is the voice, and fair the face; + She breathes amen to prayer and hymn, + No wonder that her eyes are dim, + And pale her cheek. + + This moment round her empire's shores + The winds of Austral winter sweep, + And thousands lie in midnight sleep + At rest to-day. + O! awful is that crown of yours, + Queen of innumerable realms, + Sitting beneath the budding elms + Of English May! + + A wondrous sceptre 'tis to bear, + Strange mystery of God which set + Upon her brow yon coronet,-- + The foremost crown + Of all the world on one so fair! + That chose her to it from her birth, + And bade the sons of all the earth + To her bow down. + + The representatives of man, + Here from the far Antipodes, + And from the subject Indian seas, + In Congress meet; + From Afric and from Hindostan, + From Western continent and isle, + The envoys of her empire pile + Gifts at her feet. + + Our brethren cross the Atlantic tides, + Loading the gallant decks, which once + Roared a defiance to our guns, + With peaceful store; + Symbol of peace, their vessel rides![2] + O'er English waves float Star and Stripe, + And from their friendly anchors gripe + The father-shore! + + From Rhine and Danube, Rhone and Seine, + As rivers from their sources gush, + The swelling floods of nations rush, + And seaward pour: + From coast to coast in friendly chain, + With countless ships we bridge the straits; + And angry Ocean separates + Europe no more. + + From Mississippi and from Nile-- + From Baltic, Ganges, Bosphorus, + In England's Ark assembled thus + Are friend and guest. + Look down the mighty sunlit aisle, + And see the sumptuous banquet set, + The brotherhood of nations met + Around the feast! + + Along the dazzling colonnade, + Far as the straining eye can gaze, + Gleam cross and fountain, bell, and vase, + In vistas bright. + And statues fair of nymph and maid, + And steeds and pards and Amazons, + Writhing and grappling in the bronze, + In endless fight. + + To deck the glorious roof and dome, + To make the Queen a canopy, + The peaceful hosts of industry + Their standards bear. + Yon are the works of Brahmin loom; + On such a web of Persian thread + The desert Arab bows his head, + And cries his prayer. + + Look yonder where the engines toil; + These England's arms, of conquest are, + The trophies of her bloodless war: + Brave weapons these. + Victorious over wave and soil, + With these she sails, she weaves, she tills + Pierces the everlasting hills, + And spans the seas. + + The engine roars upon its race, + The shuttle whirrs along the woof, + The people hum from floor to roof, + With Babel tongue. + + The fountain in the basin plays, + The chanting organ echoes clear, + An awful chorus 'tis to hear, + A wondrous song! + + Swell organ, swell your trumpet blast, + March, Queen, and Royal pageant, march + By splendid aisle and springing arch + Of this fair Hall: + And see! above the fabric vast, + God's boundless Heaven is bending blue, + God's peaceful Sun is beaming through + And shining over all. + +April 29. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[2] The St. Lawrence. + + + + +THE SECOND WIFE: OR, THE TABLES TURNED. + +WRITTEN FOR THE INTERNATIONAL MONTHLY MAGAZINE. + + +Subordination is the _apparent_ lot of woman. From the domination of +nurses, parents, guardians, and teachers, during infancy and youth, to +the magisterial rule of her lord and master, during married life, and +the softer control of her children, through that valley of the shadow +of death, old age, it rarely ceases, until the neatly-crimped borders +of the death-cap rest upon the icy brow, and the unfortunate subject +is screwed down in one of those exceedingly awkward mahogany +tenements, henceforth "all which it may inhabit." + +There are two ways of meeting this destiny of the sex. One is merely +to kiss the rod, and bend before the will of the oppressor, meekly +turning both cheeks to be smitten at once, and offering to lend both +coat and cloak, even before either is required. The other mode is to +boldly face down the enemy, and by a never-tiring guerilla warfare, to +hamper his movements, cut off his provisions, and finally hem him in, +after a manner that shall cause him ignominiously to surrender, to lay +down his arms, pass under the yoke, and at length--converting his +sword into a pruning-hook--leave his conqueror undisputed possession +of the land. The usual injustice of the world is seen in the success +which ordinarily attends the latter method; while the meek and gentle, +who, it is promised, shall inherit the earth, must look for a new +heaven and a new earth before they can come into their property. +Husbands, it is premised, have no small share in this domestic +despotism. How often do we see--to the shame of the male sex +generally, be it spoken--some rough, coarse-minded tyrant, linked to a +quiet, amiable woman, who after a long period of hectoring and +dragooning, ordering and counter-ordering, sinks into the grave of a +broken heart--or what is worse, a broken spirit. And sometimes--for +fate is sometimes just--the said patient wife is replaced by some +undaunted avenger of her wrongs, who in her turn dragoons, and hectors +Othello, until indeed his "occupation's gone." + +My old acquaintance, Charles Boldenough, was pronounced to be, by the +tutors, as well as by the students of D---- College, "the most +unlicked cub" who ever misconstrued Virgil. Their experience was +undoubtedly great in this species of natural history, but of all the +hard characters who fell under their inspection and jurisdiction, I +question if there were one who could with any share of success, +dispute with him the enviable claim of being the hardest. Tall, +athletic, with a huge frame capable of any fatigue, and health that +never failed him; with a passionate temper, and a stentorian voice +whose thunders were the terror of the younger boys, Charles Boldenough +contrived to overawe with brute force all the small fry, and to +convince the older collegians that it was best to yield passively to +pretensions which could only be contended with any chance of success, +by wrestling powers equal to his own. He was in fact the gladiator of +D----College,--champion I should have called him, were it not that he +was constantly at war with the professors and faculty, who might be +said to represent it. The incorrigible laziness and ignorance which +marked his scholastic career, were fruitful sources of complaint and +reprimand; the frequent boating expeditions, the sporting excursions, +and fishing parties, on which he was absent, sometimes for entire +days, would unquestionably have terminated the course of his studies, +and released the freshmen from their dreaded tyrant, by his early +expulsion, had it not been for the influence of powerful family +connections, and the personal interference of his friends. But in the +course of time, he finished his collegiate labors, with all the +honors, and a scarcity of black eyes, and bloody noses, immediately +prevailed at D----, such as had not occurred for years. + +I separated from him at that time, and heard nothing of him for a long +interval. When I next saw him, he was married. The person whom my +pugnacious acquaintance had made the object of his choice, was a fair +blue-eyed timid little woman, with a frail figure, delicate health, +and temper mild as the summer morning. What could have induced her, to +ally herself with this belligerent power, I never could imagine. +Whether she had fallen in love with that great burly countenance, and +loud voice; or whether, as the youngest of ten children, she had +snatched at the crown matrimonial as affording an escape from a +disagreeable home, or whether some one of her friends compelled her to +do it, I have always found it impossible to determine. I only know +that at the first interview, I saw enough to pity the poor being in my +heart. She hung upon the arm of her Alcides, like a snow-drop on a +rock. My friend had never had many pretensions to beauty; and his +rough red visage and portly figure, bore witness of a right boisterous +and jolly style of living. His first act after his marriage, was to +engage in a violent quarrel with his wife's father and eight stalwart +brothers, the result of which was a total cessation of intercourse +between the two families. His young partner was compelled to receive +the boon companions of her better half, to the entire exclusion of her +own friends. The home of Charles Boldenough was a constant scene of +dinner parties, and oyster suppers innumerable, which, as they +frequently ended by an altercation between the host and his guests, +were a continual source of agitation to his wife. + +A perfect angel of peace and gentleness she was. She bore, with +unexampled resignation, the thraldom which was destroying her health +and comfort. She tried, with patience, every means of pleasing a man +who never allowed her to know what he liked, as it would have taken +away all room for grumbling. With scrupulous care she attended to his +little vexatious wants, his epicurean tastes, his trifling whimsical +peculiarities. If she wished to remain at home, he forced her to go +abroad; if she were desirous of going out, he made her stay within +doors. If she liked a person more than commonly, he, in the words of +the vulgar, "made the house too hot to hold them." If, on the +contrary, she was annoyed by the presence of one of his acquaintances, +she had time and opportunity to get rid of her abhorrence, since she +was continually visited with their company. He scolded, grumbled, and +found fault with every thing she did; with her acts and her intentions +alike. If she ordered a servant to perform any particular duty, he +immediately countermanded the orders; if she made any change, however +slight, in the family arrangements, no penance could expiate the +offence. So she lived on, with almost a struggle for her existence, +having learned the important mythological lesson, that Hymen, like +Janus, wears two faces, and that the temple of the former god, unlike +that of the latter, is _never_ closed. She had several children (who +fortunately all died before their mother), but Boldenough, on the +ground that women were not fit to bring up boys, constantly interfered +in the education of the girls, and made his wife as wretched by this +means as by any other. He punished when she rewarded, and indulged +when she reproved; he sent them to school when she would have educated +them at home, and reaped his reward, by having them secretly fear and +hate him. Poor Mrs. Boldenough complained not, but she grew thinner +and paler every year, and her voice, as if lost amid the loud tones, +forever reverberating in her ears, became so low as to be scarcely +audible. + +At last she died. When it became necessary to inform him of the danger +she was in, he was at first stupefied by the unexpected intelligence, +and the feeling that he was to lose a household object, which time had +rendered not dear, but familiar. Then he flew into a violent rage, +quarreled with the attendants, servants, even the friends and +relatives. Having recovered from the shock in some degree, he set +about persecuting his poor wife during her last moments, in the same +manner he had done while she enjoyed her health, with this difference: +that it was now killing with kindness. He sent away in a rage the +family physician, although his dying wife begged him, almost with +tears, to retain him. He brought strange attendants to wait upon her, +and insisted upon her eating when she had no appetite, and when the +very sight of food created disgust. The sight of his big, cross, burly +countenance, perpetually haunting her, and his loud questions, to +which he _would_ have answers, and the eternal remedies, which he +disturbed her feverish sleep that she might swallow--were causes, as +the nurse averred, which positively sent the poor lady out of the +world--"for he wouldn't," said that worthy person, "he wouldn't have +let her get well, even if she'd been a mind to." + +Poor thing! a man who, as it was universally agreed, had broken his +wife's heart, was not likely to regret her very deeply, or very long. +But he was rougher and ruder than ever; the confusion into which his +family matters immediately fell, the dishonesty of servants, the +diabolical gastronomy of his _cuisine_, and the insufferable dullness +of a home in which there was no family circle to be made uncomfortable +and to be railed at every hour in the day, induced Charles Boldenough +to mingle more freely in society, in order, as it was immediately +said, that he might marry again. Many were the denunciations of wrath +and sorrow to come, which were showered upon the head of that wretched +woman who should accept Charles Boldenough's huge bony hand. He had +the name of the worst of husbands, and it was confidently said that he +would never succeed in contracting a second alliance: an assertion to +which he gave the lie by espousing, one year after the death of the +first Mrs. Boldenough, an intrepid successor, in the person of a +damsel whom he had long been known to admire. + +The second Mrs. Boldenough was a complete and entire contrast to the +first. She was so nearly equal to her husband in stature and in size +that she might almost have succeeded in giving him, what no person had +ever been known to do, and what he certainly had long required: +namely, a good flogging. She had a pair of cheeks like nothing in +_this_ world except two prize Spitzenberg apples, black eyes, fierce +and bright and far-seeing almost to a miracle, and a voice that went +through your head like a milkman's whistle, whilst the continued sound +of her conversation resembled a gong at the great hotels. Boldenough +she was by name, and Boldenough by nature; her carriage, erect and +firm, and rapid as a locomotive, seemed to require the ringing of a +little bell before her, to keep the unwary off the tracks, after the +manner of most railway trains. She was afraid of nothing in the +heavens above, or in the earth beneath, or in the waters under the +earth. She could break the most unruly horse, fire at a mark with a +perfect aim, and collar any man who should show her any impertinence, +with a coolness and strength of limb perfectly wonderful to behold. +Born to command, she was not angry but merely surprised that any one +should dream of controlling her. It was only after a long resistance +to her wishes that the full torrent of her rage burst forth, but with +an overwhelming fury. + +The French say "C'est le coeur qui fait le grenadier." If this be +true, what a very respectable regiment might be formed from the ranks +of the fair sex in all parts of the world, were they but armed and +equipped as the law directs! What an irresistible army would that be +which should be formed of troops like these! My friend, Mrs. +Boldenough, would have made an excellent commander to these imaginary +forces, and would, no doubt, have been as entirely successful in +overrunning the enemy's country and driving him from his last +entrenchments, as she was in the domestic circle triumphant over +husband and servants, and sweeping before her the convivial revellers +of the former by means of the rapid extinction of feudal customs, in +the shape of suppers and dinner parties. + +Mr. Boldenough attempted to make a gallant defence; he stormed, raved, +threatened, commanded, and exhorted; scenes of conflict, dreadful to +witness, took place between the warlike hosts. The lord of the +mansion's burly visage turned pale at finding himself stormed down +with a noise and clatter which almost burst the tympanum of his ears. +If _he_ had scolded _she_ had raved more loudly, if _he_ had thundered +_she_ rang out her high shrill treble with as much force and strength +as a dinner-bell. Fairly beaten and vanquished, he shrunk from the +ground; she, undismayed, "keeping the natural ruby of her cheeks, +while his were pale from fear." + +Voe victis! Wo to the conquered! The reign of Mr. Boldenough was +over; a new dynasty took possession of the throne. The old servants +were packed, bag and baggage, out of the mansion; the old +acquaintances of the host were impressively given to understand that +they were "never to come there no more." + +The longer any arbitrary power is established the more secure its +authority becomes. So it proved with regard to Mrs. Boldenough. There +was no escaping from her military despotism; she was an excellent +housewife, and the best of good managers, and as might have been +expected, she immediately restrained and cut off the lavish +expenditure of the household. Mr. Boldenough made a few faint expiring +efforts in behalf of his favorite luxuries. Not the better part of +valor, is, as he discovered, discretion; for his helpmate held in her +hands the buying and the ordering of his dinners and his daily food, +and if he complained he was sure to find his condition worse than it +was before. In the course of time six sturdy Boldenoughs sprung up, +robust, hardy, noisy, and passionate as their mother, whose authority +they served to confirm and strengthen. Then, indeed, it was that my +friend Charles's shadow perceptibly grew less. He shrank from the +notice of his wife and the bold Titans, his sons. The first Mrs. +Boldenough's memory was certainly avenged. + + * * * * * + +The last time I met my friend he was evidently sinking slowly but +surely into the vale of years. His great rubicund countenance was +sunken and emaciated, his figure bent and meagre, his voice weak and +faint as a whisper, and his hearing _entirely gone_. From what cause +my readers may perhaps imagine. He was, indeed, stone deaf. I +question, however, if this were not almost a mercy, considering the +tower of Babel in which he dwelt. Nobody cared what became of him, for +he had never cared for any body. + +Charles Boldenough departed this life shortly after having survived +his second marriage fifteen years. The physician had the effrontery to +ascribe to paralysis what evidently was no natural death. His end +might have excited some pity from his acquaintances and friends, if it +had not been for two things, namely, that he had no friends, and that +he merely received himself the same treatment which he had given +others. I was not sorry for him, I confess. Justice is so rare in this +world of ours, that I am not disposed to undervalue it when it is +summarily executed. The Amazonian relict of my friend Charles never +re-married. Whether she never found that daring man, who was Van +Amburgh-like enough to put his head in the lioness's mouth without +fear of having it snapped off at one blow, or whether the charge of +her young giants was sufficient for her occupation, or whether she was +conscious of having fulfilled her _mission_, I do not know. She +retained her formidable name to the end of her days. + +Reader! I have done. If you are a woman you may smile, and if a man +you will sneer; but I assure you there is a moral in the _petite +histoire_ of the second wife. Adieu! + + + + +A STORY WITHOUT A NAME[3] + +WRITTEN FOR THE INTERNATIONAL MONTHLY MAGAZINE. + +BY G. P. R. JAMES, ESQ. + +_Continued from page 200._ + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +There are seasons in the life of man, as well as in the course of the +year; and well, unhappily, have many poets painted them in all their +various aspects. But these seasons are subject to variations with +different men, as with different years. The summer of one man is all +bright and calm--a lapse of tranquil sunshine, and soft airs, and +gentle dews. With another, the same season passes in the thunder-storm +of passion--the tempests of war or ambition--and often, the gloomy +days of autumn or of winter overshadowed the rich land, and spoiled +the promised harvest. + +It was an autumn-like period during the next three or four months of +the family of Sir Philip Hastings. For the first time, uncertainty and +doubt fell upon the family generally. There had been differences of +temper and of character. There had been slight inconveniences. There +had been occasional sickness and anxiety. There had been all those +things which in the usual course of events diminished the sum of human +happiness even to the most happy. But there had been nothing the +least like uncertainty of position. There had been no wavering anxiety +from day to day as to what the morrow was to bring forth. There had +been none of that poison-drop in which the keenest shafts of fate are +dipped, "the looking for of evil." + +Now, every day brought some new intelligence, and some new +expectation, and the mass was altogether unfavorable. Had the blow +fallen at once--had any one been in power to say, "Sir Philip +Hastings, you must resign all your paternal estates, and pay back at +once the rents for nearly twenty years--you must give up the rank and +station which you have hitherto held, and occupy a totally different +position in society!" Sir Philip would have submitted at once, and +with less discomfort than most of my readers can imagine. But it was +the wearing, irritating, exciting, yet stupefying progress of a +lawsuit which had a painful and distressing effect upon his mind. One +day, he thought he saw the case quite clearly--could track the tricks +of his adversary, and expose the insecure foundation of his claim; and +then would come two or three days of doubt and discussion, and then +disappointment, and a new turn where every thing had to begin again. +But gradually proofs swelled up, first giving some show of justice to +the pretence that John Ayliffe had some claim, then amounting to a +probability in his favor, then seeming, to unlearned eyes, very +powerful as to his right. + +I am no lawyer, and therefore cannot pursue all the stages of the +proceeding; but John Ayliffe had for his assistants unscrupulous men, +whose only aims were to succeed, and to shield themselves from danger +in case of detection; and their turns, and twists, and new points, +were manifold. + +Sir Philip Hastings was tortured. It affected his spirits and his +temper. He became more gloomy--occasionally irritable, often +suspicious. He learned to pore over law papers, to seek out flaws and +errors, to look for any thing that might convey a double meaning, to +track the tortuous and narrow paths by which that power which bears +the name of Justice reaches the clear light of truth, or falls into +the thorny deep of error. + +All this disturbed and changed him; and these daily anxieties and +discomforts affected his family too--Emily, indeed, but little, except +inasmuch as she was grieved to see her father grieve. But Lady +Hastings was not only pained and mortified herself--she contrived to +communicate a share of all she felt to others. She became +sad--somewhat sullen--and fancied all the time while she was +depressing her husband's spirits, and aggravating all he felt by +despondency and murmurs, instead of cheering and supporting him by +making light of the threatened evils, that she was but participating +sympathetically in his anxieties, and feeling a due share of his +sorrows. She had no idea of the duty of cheerfulness in a wife, and +how often it may prove the very blessing that God intended in giving +man a helpmate. + +Sickness, it is true, had diminished somewhat the light spirits of her +youth, but she had assuredly become a creature of repinings--a +murmurer by habit--fit to double rather than divide any load of +misfortune which fate might cast upon a husband's shoulders. + +Lady Hastings strove rather to look sad, Emily Hastings to be gay and +cheerful, and both did it perhaps a little too much for the mood and +circumstances in which Sir Philip then was. He wondered when he came +home, after an anxious day, that Lady Hastings did nothing to cheer +him--that every word was gloomy and sad--that she seemed far more +affected at the thought of loss of fortune and station than himself. +He wondered also that Emily could be so light and playful, so joyous +and seemingly unconcerned, when he was suffering such anxiety. + +Poor Emily! she was forcing spirits in vain, and playing the kindliest +of hypocrites--fashioning every word, and every look, to win him away +from painful thought, only to be misunderstood. + +But the misunderstanding was heightened and pointed by the hand of +malice. The emotion which Sir Philip had displayed in the court had +not been forgotten by some whom a spirit of revenge rendered keen and +clear-sighted. + +It seemed impossible to mingle Emily's name directly with the law +proceedings which were taking place; but more than once in accidental +correspondence it was insinuated that secret information, which had +led to the development of John Ayliffe's claim, had been obtained from +some near relation of Sir Philip Hastings, and it became generally +rumored and credited in the county, that Emily had indiscreetly +betrayed some secrets of her father's. Of course these rumors did not +reach her ears, but they reached Sir Philip Hastings, and he thought +it strange, and more strange, that Emily had never mentioned to him +her several interviews with John Ayliffe, which he had by this time +learned were more than one. + +Some strange feelings, disguised doubtless by one of those veils which +vanity or selfishness are ever ready to cast over the naked emotions +of the human heart, withheld him from speaking to his child on the +subject which caused him so much pain. Doubtless it was pride--for +pride of a peculiar kind was at the bottom of many of his actions. He +would not condescend to inquire, he thought, into that which she did +not choose to explain herself, and he went on in reality barring the +way against confidence, when, in truth, nothing would have given Emily +more relief than to open her whole heart to her father. + +With Marlow, Sir Philip Hastings was more free and communicative than +with any one else. The young man's clear perceptions, and rapid +comprehensions on any point in the course of the proceedings going +on, his zeal, his anxiety, his thoughtfulness, and his keen sense of +what was just and equitable, raised him every day higher in the +opinion of Sir Philip Hastings, and he would consult with him for +hours, talk the whole matter over in all its bearings, and leave him +to solve various questions of conscience in which he found it +difficult himself to come to a decision. Only on one point Sir Philip +Hastings never spoke to him; and that was Emily's conduct with regard +to young Ayliffe. That, the father could not do; and yet, more than +once, he longed to do it. + +One day, however, towards the end of six months after the first +processes had been issued, Sir Philip Hastings, in one of his morning +consultations with Marlow, recapitulated succinctly all the proofs +which young John Ayliffe had brought forward to establish a valid +marriage between his mother and the elder brother of the baronet. + +"The case is very nearly complete," said Sir Philip. "But two or three +links in the chain of evidence are wanting, and as soon as I become +myself convinced that this young man is, beyond all reasonable doubt, +the legitimate son of my brother John, my course will be soon taken. +It behooves us in the first instance, Marlow, to consider how this may +affect you. You have sought the hand of a rich man's daughter, and now +I shall be a poor man; for although considerable sums have accumulated +since my father's death, they will not more than suffice to pay off +the sums due to this young man if his claim be established, and the +expenses of this suit must be saved by hard economy. The property of +Lady Hastings will still descend to our child, but neither she nor I +have the power to alienate even a part of it for our daughter's dowry. +It is right, therefore, Marlow, that you should be set free from all +engagements." + +"When I first asked your daughter's hand, Sir Philip," replied Marlow, +"I heartily wished that our fortunes were more equal. Fate has granted +that wish, apparently, in making them so; and believe me, I rejoice +rather than regret that it is so, as far as I myself am concerned. We +shall have enough for comfort, Sir Philip, and not too much for +happiness. What need we more? But I cannot help thinking," he +continued, "that this suit may turn out differently from that which +you expect. I believe that the mind has its instincts, which, though +dangerous to trust to, guide us nevertheless, sometimes, more surely +than reason. There is an impression on my mind, which all the evidence +hitherto brought forward has been unable to shake, that this claim of +John Ayliffe is utterly without foundation--that it is, in fact, a +trumped up case, supported by proofs which will fall to pieces under +close examination." + +Sir Philip Hastings shook his head. "But one thing more," he said, +"and I am myself convinced. I will not struggle against conviction, +Marlow; but the moment I feel morally sure that I am defending a bad +cause, that instant I will yield, be the sacrifice what it may. +Nothing on earth," he continued, in a stern abstracted tone, "shall +ever prevent my doing that which I believe right, and which justice +and honor require me to do. Life itself and all that makes life dear +were but a poor sacrifice in the eyes of an honest man; what then a +few thousand acres, and an empty designation?" + +"But, my dear Sir Philip," replied Marlow, "let us suppose for one +moment that this claim is a fictitious one, and that it is supported +by fraud and forgery, you will allow that more than a few months are +required to investigate all the particulars thoroughly, and to detect +the knavery which may have been committed?" + +"My dear Marlow," replied Sir Philip, "conviction comes to each mind +accordingly as it is naturally constituted or habitually regulated. I +trust I have studied the nature of evidence well--well enough to be +satisfied with much less than mere law will require. In regard to all +questions which come under the decision of the law, there are, in +fact, two juries who decide upon the merits of the evidence--one, +selected from our fellow men--the other in the bosom of the parties +before which each man shall scrupulously try the justice of his own +cause, and if the verdict be against him, should look upon himself but +as an officer to carry the verdict into execution. I will never act +against conviction. I will always act with it. My mind will try the +cause itself; and the moment its decision is pronounced, that instant +I will act upon it." + +Marlow knew that it was in vain to argue farther, and could only trust +that something would occur speedily to restore Sir Philip's confidence +in his own rights. + +Sir Philip, however, was now absent very frequently from home. The +unpleasant business in which he was engaged, called him continually to +the county town, and many a long and happy hour might Marlow and Emily +have passed together had not Lady Hastings at this time assumed a +somewhat new character--apparently so only--for it was, in fact, +merely a phase of the old one. She became--as far as health and +indolence would admit--the most prudent and careful mother in the +world. She insinuated that it was highly improper for Emily to walk or +ride alone with her acknowledged lover, and broadly asserted that +their previous rambles had been permitted without her knowledge, and +from inadvertence. During all Marlow's afternoon visits, she took +especial care to sit with them the whole time, and thus she sought to +deprive them of all means of free and unconstrained communication. +Such would have been the result, too, indeed, had it not been for a +few morning hours snatched now and then; partly from a habit of +indulgence, and partly from very delicate health, Lady Hastings was +rarely, if ever, down to breakfast, and generally remained in her +drawing-room till the hour of noon was past. + +The hours of Sir Philip's absence were generally tedious enough to +himself. Sometimes a day of weary and laborious business occupied the +time; but that was a relief rather than otherwise. In general the day +was spent in a visit to the office of his lawyer, in finding the +information he wanted, or the case he had desired to be prepared, not +ready for him, in waiting for it hour after hour, in tedious gloomy +meditation, and very often riding home without it, reflecting on the +evils of a dilatory system which often, by the refusal of _speedy_ +justice, renders ultimate justice unavailable for any thing but the +assertion of an abstract principle. He got tired of this mode of +proceeding: he felt that it irritated and disordered him, and after a +while, whenever he found that he should be detained in suspense, he +mounted his horse again, and rode away to amuse his mind with other +things. + +The house of Mrs. Hazleton being so near, he more than once paid her a +visit during such intervals. His coming frequently was not altogether +convenient to her; for John Ayliffe was not an unfrequent visitor at +her house, and Mrs. Hazleton had to give the young man a hint to let +her see him early in the morning or late in the evening. Nevertheless, +Mrs. Hazleton was not at all displeased to cultivate the friendship of +Sir Philip Hastings. She had her objects, her purposes, to serve, and +with her when she put on her most friendly looks towards the baronet +she was not moved merely by that everyday instinctive hypocrisy which +leads man to cover the passions he is conscious of, with a veil of the +most opposite appearances, but it was a definite hypocrisy, with +objects distinctly seen by herself, and full of purpose. + +Thus, and for these reasons, she received Sir Philip Hastings on all +occasions with the highest distinction--assumed, with a certain +chameleon quality which some persons have, the color and tone of his +mind to a considerable degree, while yet the general features of her +own character were preserved sufficiently to shield her from the +charge of affectation. She was easy, graceful, dignified as ever, with +a certain languid air, and serious quietness which was very engaging. +She never referred in her conversations with Sir Philip to the suit +that was going on against him, and when he spoke of it himself, though +she assumed considerable interest, and seemed to have a personal +feeling in the matter, exclaiming, "If this goes on, nobody's estates +will be secure soon!" she soon suffered the subject to drop, and did +not recur to it again. + +One day after the conversation between Sir Philip and Marlow, part of +which has been already detailed, Sir Philip turned his horse's head +towards Mrs. Hazleton's at a somewhat earlier hour than usual. It was +just half past ten when he dismounted at the door, but he knew her +matutinal habits and did not expect to find her occupied. The servant, +however, instead of showing him into the small room where she usually +sat, took him to the great drawing-room, and as he went, Sir Philip +heard the voices of Mrs. Hazleton and another person in quick and +apparently eager conversation. There was nothing extraordinary in +this, however, and he turned to the window and gazed out into the +park. He heard the servant go into the morning room, and then +immediately all sound of voices ceased. Shortly after, a horse's feet, +beating the ground rapidly, caught the baronet's ear, but the rider +must have mounted in the courtyard and taken the back way out of the +park; for he came not within Sir Philip's sight. A moment or two +after, Mrs. Hazleton appeared, and there was an air of eagerness and +excitement about her which was not at all usual. She seated Sir Philip +beside her, however, with one of her blandest looks, and then laying +her hand on his, said, in a kind and sisterly tone, "Do tell me, Sir +Philip--I am not apt to be curious, or meddle with other people's +affairs; but in this I am deeply interested. A rumor has just reached +me from Hartwell, that you have signified your intention of abandoning +your defence against this ridiculous claim upon your property. Do tell +me if this is true?" + +"Partly, and partly false," replied Sir Philip, "as all rumors are. +Who gave you this information?" + +"Oh, some of the people from Hartwell," she replied, "who came over +upon business." + +"The tidings must have spread fast," replied Sir Philip; "I announced +to my own legal advisers this morning, and told them to announce to +the opposite party, that if they could satisfy me upon one particular +point, I would not protract the suit, putting them to loss and +inconvenience and myself also." + +"A noble and generous proceeding, indeed," said Mrs. Hazleton, with an +enthusiastic burst of admiration. "Ah, dear Emily, I can see your +mediation in this." + +Sir Philip started as if a knife had been plunged into him, and with a +profound internal satisfaction, Mrs. Hazleton saw the emotion she had +produced. + +"May I ask," he said, in a dry cold tone, after he had recovered +himself a little, "May I ask what my daughter can have to do with this +affair?" + +"Oh, really--in truth I don't know," said Mrs. Hazleton, stammering +and hesitating, "I only thought--but I dare say it is all nonsense. +Women are always the peacemakers, you know, Sir Philip, and as Emily +knew both parties well, it seemed natural she should mediate between +them." + +"Well?--" said Sir Philip Hastings to himself, slowly and +thoughtfully, but he only replied to Mrs. Hazleton, "No, my dear +Madam, Emily has had nothing to do with this. It has never formed a +subject of conversation between us, and I trust that she has +sufficient respect for me, and for herself, not to interfere unasked +in my affairs." + +The serpent had done its work; the venom was busy in the veins of Sir +Philip Hastings, corrupting the purest sources of the heart's +feelings, and Mrs. Hazleton saw it and triumphed. + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +Emily was as gay as a lark. The light of love and happiness was in her +eyes, the hue of health was upon her cheek, and a new spirit of hope +and joy seemed to pervade all her fair form. So Sir Philip Hastings +found her on the terrace with Marlow when he returned from Hartwell. +She was dressed in a riding habit, and one word would have explained +all the gaiety of her mood. Lady Hastings, never very consequent in +her actions, had wished for some one of those things which ladies wish +for, and which ladies only can choose. She had felt too unwell to go +for it herself; and although she had not a fortnight before expressed +her strong disapprobation of her daughter and Mr. Marlow even walking +out alone in the park, she had now sent them on horseback to procure +what she wanted. They had enjoyed one of those glorious rides over the +downs, which seem to pour into the heart fresh feelings of delight at +every step, flooding the sense with images of beauty, and making the +blood dance freely in the veins. It seemed also, both to her and +Marlow, that a part of the prohibition was removed, and though they +might not perhaps be permitted to walk out together, Lady Hastings +could hardly for the future forbid them to ride. Thus they had come +back very well pleased, with light hearts within, and gay hopes +fluttering round them. + +Sir Philip Hastings, on the other hand, had passed a day of +bitterness, and hard, painful thought. On his first visit to the +county town, he had, as I have shown, been obliged once more to put +off decision. Then came his conference with Mrs. Hazleton. Then he had +returned to his lawyer's office, and found that the wanting evidence +had been supplied by his opponents. All that he had demanded was +there; and no apparent flaw in the case of his adversary. He had +always announced his attention of withdrawing opposition if such +proofs were afforded, and he did so now, with stern, rigid, and +somewhat hasty determination--but not without bitterness and regret. +His ride home, too, was troubled with dull and grievous thoughts, and +his whole mind was out of tune, and unfit to harmonize with gaiety of +any kind. He forgot that poor Emily could not see what had been +passing in his bosom, could not know all that had occurred to disturb +and annoy him, and her light and cheerful spirits seemed an offence to +him. + +Sir Philip passed on, after he had spoken a few words to Marlow, and +sought Lady Hastings in the room below, where she usually sat after +she came down. Sir Philip, as I have shown, had not been nurtured in a +tender school, and he was not very apt by gentle preparation to soothe +the communication of any bad tidings. Without any circumlocution, +then, or prefatory remarks of any kind, he addressed his wife in the +following words: "This matter is decided, my dear Rachel. I am no +longer Sir Philip Hastings, and it is necessary that we should remove +from this house within a month, to your old home--the Court. It will +be necessary, moreover, that we should look with some degree of +accuracy into the state of our future income, and our expenditure. +With your property, and the estate which I inherit from my mother, +which being settled on the younger children, no one can take from me, +we shall still have more than enough for happiness, but the style of +our living must be altered. We shall have plenty of time to think of +that, however, and to do what we have to do methodically." + +Lady Hastings, or as we should rather call her now, Mistress Hastings, +seemed at first hardly to comprehend her husband's meaning, and she +replied, "You do not mean to say, Philip, that this horrible cause is +decided?" + +"As far as I am concerned, entirely," replied Sir Philip Hastings. "I +shall offer no farther defence." + +Lady Hastings fell into a fit of hysterics, and her husband knowing +that it was useless to argue with her in such circumstances, called +her maid, and left her. + +There was but a dull dinner-party at the Hall that day. Sir Philip was +gloomy and reserved, and the news which had spread over the house, as +to the great loss of property which he had sustained, soon robbed his +daughter of her cheerfulness. + +Marlow, too, was very grave; for he thought his friend had acted, not +only hastily, but imprudently. Lady Hastings did not come down to +dinner, and as soon as the meal was over Emily retired to her mother's +dressing-room, leaving Marlow and her father with their wine. Sir +Philip avoided the subject of his late loss, however, and when Marlow +himself, alluded to it, replied very briefly. + +"It is done," he said, "and I will cast the matter entirely from my +mind, Marlow. I will endeavor, as far as possible, to do in all +circumstances what is right, whatever be the anguish it costs me. +Having done what is right, my next effort shall be to crush every +thing like regret or repining. There is only one thing in life which +could give me any permanent pain, and that would be to have an +unworthy child." + +Marlow did not seem to remark the peculiar tone in which the last +words were uttered, and he replied. "There, at least, you are most +happy, Sir Philip; for surely Emily is a blessing which may well +compensate for any misfortunes." + +"I trust so--I think so," said Sir Philip, in a dry and hasty manner, +and then changing the subject, he added, "Call me merely Philip +Hastings, my good friend. I say with Lord Verulam, 'The Chancellor is +gone.' I mean I am no longer a baronet. That will not distress me, +however, and as to the loss of fortune, I can bear it with the most +perfect indifference." + +Mr. Hastings reckoned in some degree without his host, however. He +knew not all the petty annoyances that were in store for him. The +costs he had to pay, the back-rents which were claimed, the long and +complicated accounts that were to be passed, the eager struggle which +was made to deprive him of many things undoubtedly his own; all were +matters of almost daily trouble and irritation during the next six +months. He had greatly miscalculated the whole amount of expenses. +Having lived always considerably within his income, he had imagined +that he had quite a sufficient amount in ready money to pay all the +demands that could be made upon him. But such was far from being the +case. Before all the debts were paid, and the accounts closed, he was +obliged to raise money upon his life-interest in his mother's +property, and to remain dependent, as it were, upon his wife's income +for his whole means. These daily annoyances had a much greater effect +upon Mr. Hastings than any great and serious misfortune could have +had. He became morose, impatient, gloomy. His mind brooded over all +that had occurred, and all that was occurring. He took perverted views +of many things, and adhered to them with an obstinacy that nothing +could shake. + +In the mean time all the neighbors and friends of the family +endeavored to show their sympathy and kindness by every means in their +power. Even before the family quitted the Hall, the visitors were more +numerous than they had ever been before, and this was some consolation +to Mistress Hastings, though quite the contrary to her husband, who +did not indeed appear very frequently amongst the guests, but remained +in his own study as much as possible. + +It was a very painful day for every one, and for Emily especially, +when they passed the door of the old Hall for the last time, and took +their way through the park towards the Court. The furniture in great +part, the books, the plate, had gone before; the rooms looked vacant +and desolate, and as Emily passed through them one by one, ere she +went down to the carriage, there was certainly nothing very attractive +in their aspect. But there were spots there associated with many dear +memories--feelings--fancies--thoughts--all the bright things of early, +happy youth; and it was very bitter for her to leave them all, and +know that she was never to visit them again. + +She might, and probably would, have fallen into one of her deep +reveries, but she struggled against it, knowing that both her father +and her mother would require comfort and consolation in the coming +hours. She exerted herself, then, steadily and courageously to bear up +without a show of grief, and she succeeded even too well to satisfy +her father. He thought her somewhat light and frivolous, and judged it +very strange that his daughter could quit her birth-place, and her +early home, without, apparently, one regretful sigh. He himself sat +stern, and gloomy, and silent, in the carriage, as it rolled away. +Mistress Hastings leaned back, with her handkerchief over her eyes, +weeping bitterly. Emily alone was calmly cheerful, and she maintained +this demeanor all the way along till they reached the Court, and +separated till dinner-time. Then, however, she wept bitterly and long. + +Before she had descended to meet her parents at dinner, she did her +best to efface all traces of her sad employment for the last hour. She +did not succeed completely, and when she entered the drawing-room, and +spoke cheerfully to her father, he raised his eyes to her face, and +detected, at once, the marks of recent tears on her swollen eyelids. + +"She has been weeping," said Mr. Hastings to himself; "can I have been +mistaken?" + +A gleam of the truth shot through his mind, and comforted him much, +but alas, it was soon to be lost again. + +From feelings of delicacy, Marlow had absented himself that day, but +on the following morning he was there early, and thenceforward was a +daily visitor at the Court. He applied himself particularly to cheer +Emily's father, and often spent many hours with him, withdrawing Mr. +Hastings' mind from all that was painful in his own situation, by +leading it into those discussions of abstract propositions of which he +was so fond. But Marlow was not the only frequent visitor at the +Court. Mrs. Hazleton was there two or three times in the week, and was +all kindness, gentleness, and sympathy. She had tutored herself well, +and she met Mr. Marlow as Emily's affianced husband, with an ease and +indifference which was marvellously well assumed. To Mrs. Hastings she +proved the greatest comfort, although it is not to be asserted that +the counsels which she gave her, proved at all comfortable to the rest +of the household, and yet Mrs. Hazleton never committed herself. Mrs. +Hastings could not have repeated one word that she said, that any one +on earth could have found fault with. She had a mode of insinuating +advice without speaking it--of eking out her words by looks and +gestures full of significance to the person who beheld them, but +perfectly indescribable to others. + +She was not satisfied, however, with being merely the friend and +confidante of Mrs. Hastings. She must win Emily's father also, and she +succeeded so well that Mr. Hastings quite forgot all doubts and +suspicions, and causes of offence, and learned to look upon Mrs. +Hazleton as a really kind and amiable person, and as consistent as +could be expected of any woman. + +Not one word, however, did Mrs. Hazleton say in the hearing of Emily's +father which could tend in any degree to depreciate the character of +Mr. Marlow, or be construed into a disapproval of the proposed +marriage. She was a great deal too wise for that, knowing the +character of Mr. Hastings sufficiently to see that she could effect no +object, and only injure herself by such a course. + +To Emily she was all that was kind and delightful. She was completely +the Mrs. Hazleton of former days; but with the young girl she was less +successful than with her parents. Emily could never forget the visit +to her house, and what had there occurred, and the feelings which she +entertained towards Mrs. Hazleton were always those of doubt. Her +character was a riddle to Emily, as well it might be. There was +nothing upon which she could definitely fix as an indication, of a bad +heart, or of duplicity of nature, and yet she doubted; nor did Marlow +at all assist in clearing her mind; for although they often spoke of +Mrs. Hazleton, and Marlow admitted all her bright and shining +qualities, yet he became very taciturn when Emily entered more deeply +into that lady's character. Marlow likewise had his doubts, and to say +sooth, he was not at all well pleased to see Mrs. Hazleton so +frequently with Mrs. Hastings. He did not well know what it was he +feared, but yet there was a something which instinctively told him +that his interests in Emily's family would not find the most favorable +advocate in Mrs. Hazleton. + +Such was the state of things when one evening there was assembled at +the house of Mr. Hastings, a small dinner party--the first which had +been given since his loss of property. The summer had returned, the +weather was beautiful, the guests were cheerful and intellectual, and +the dinner passed off happily enough. There were several gentlemen and +several ladies present, and amongst the latter was Mrs. Hazleton. +Politics at that time ran high: the people were not satisfied +altogether with the King whom they had themselves chosen, and several +acts of intolerance had proved that promises made before the +attainment of power are not always very strictly maintained when power +has been reached. Mr. Hastings had never meddled in the strife of +party. He had a thorough contempt for policy and politicians, but he +did not at all object to argue upon the general principles of +government, in an abstract manner, and very frequently startled his +hearers by opinions, not only unconstitutional, and wide and far from +any of the received notions of the day, but sometimes also, very +violent, and sometimes at first sight, irreconcilable with each other. +On the present occasion the conversation after dinner took a political +turn, and straying away from their wine, the gentlemen walked out into +the gardens, which were still beautifully kept up, and prolonged their +discussion in the open air. The ladies too--as all pictures show they +were fond of doing in those days--were walking amongst the flowers, +not in groups, but scattered here and there. Marlow was naturally +making his way to the side of Emily, who was tying up a shrub at no +great distance from the door, but Mrs. Hazleton unkindly called him to +her, to tell her the name of a flower which she did not know. In the +mean time Mr. Hastings took his daughter by the arm, leaning gently +upon her, and walking up and down the terrace, while he continued his +discussion with a Northumberland gentleman known in history as Sir +John Fenwick. "The case seems to be this," said Mr. Hastings, in reply +to some question or the other; "all must depend upon the necessity. +Violent means are bad as a remedy for any thing but violent evils, but +the greatness of the evil will often justify any degree of vigor in +the means. Will any one tell me that Brutus was not justified in +stabbing Cæsar? Will any one tell me that William Tell was not +justified in all that he did against the tyrant of his country? I will +not pretend to justify the English regicides, not only because they +condemned a man by a process unknown to our laws, and repugnant to all +justice, but because they committed an act for which there was no +absolute necessity. Where an absolute necessity is shown, +indeed--where no other means can be found of obtaining freedom, +justice and security, I see no reason why a King should not be put to +death as well as any other man. Nay more, he who does the deed with a +full appreciation of its importance, a conscience clear of any private +motives, and a reasoning sense of all the bearings of the act he +commits, merits a monument rather than a gibbet, though in these days +he is sure to obtain the one and not the other." + +"Hush, hush, do not speak so loud, my dear sir," said Sir John +Fenwick; "less than those words brought Sidney's head to the block." + +"I am not afraid of mine," replied Mr. Hastings, with a faint smile; +"mine are mere abstract notions with regard to such things; very +little dangerous to any crowned heads, and if they thought fit to put +down such opinions, they would have to burn more than one half of all +the books we have derived from Rome." + +Sir John Fenwick would not pursue the subject, however, and turned the +conversation in another course. He thought indeed that it had gone far +enough, especially when a young lady was present; for he was one of +those men who have no confidence in any woman's discretion, and he +knew well, though he did not profit much by his knowledge, that things +very slight, when taken abstractedly, may become very dangerous if +forced into connection with events. Philip Hastings would have said +what he did say, before any ears in Europe, without the slightest +fear, but as it proved, he had said too much for his own safety. No +one indeed seemed to have noticed the very strong opinions he had +expressed except Sir John Fenwick himself, and shortly after the party +gathered together again, and the conversation became general and not +very interesting. + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +Men have lived and died in the pursuit of two objects the least +worthy, on which the high mind of man could ever fix, out of all the +vain illusions that lead us forward through existence from youth to +old age: the philosopher's stone, and the elixir of life. Gold, gold, +sordid gold--not competence--not independence, but wealth--profuse, +inexhaustible wealth--the hard food of Croesus; strange that it +should ever form the one great object of an immortal spirit! But +stranger still, that a being born to higher destinies should seek to +pin itself down to this dull earth forever--to dwell in a clay hut, +when a palace gates are open--to linger in a prison, when freedom may +be had--to outlive affections, friendships, hope and happiness--to +remain desolate in a garden where every flower has withered. To seek +the philosopher's stone--even could it have been found--was a madness: +but to desire the elixir of life was a worse insanity. + +There was once, however, in the world's history a search--an eager +search, for that which at first sight may seem nearly the same as the +great elixir; but which was in reality very, very different. + +We are told by the historians of America, that a tradition prevailed +amongst the Indians of Puerto Rico, that in one of the islands on the +coast, there was a fountain which possessed the marvellous power of +restoring, to any one who bathed in its waters, all the vigor and +freshness of youth, and that some of the Spanish adventurers sought it +anxiously, but sought in vain. Here indeed was an object worthy of +desire--here, what the heart might well yearn for, and mourn to find +impossible. + +Oh, that fountain of youth, what might it not give back! The easy +pliancy of limb: the light activity of body: the calm, sweet sleep; +the power of enjoyment and acquisition: the freshness of the heart: +the brightness of the fancy: the brilliant dreams: the glorious +aspirations: the beauty and the gentleness: the innocence: the love. +We, who stand upon the shoal of memory, and look back in our faint +dreams, to the brighter land left far behind, may well long for that +sweet fountain which could renew--not life--but youth. + +Oh youth--youth! Give me but one year of youth again. And it shall +come. I see it there, beyond the skies, that fountain of youth, in the +land where all flowers are immortal. + +It is very strange, however, that with some men, when youth is gone, +its very memories die also. They can so little recollect the feelings +of that brighter time, that they cannot comprehend them in others: +that they become a mystery--a tale written in a tongue they have +forgotten. + +It was so with Philip Hastings, and so also with his wife. Neither +seemed to comprehend the feelings of Marlow and Emily; but her father +understood them least. He had consented to their union: he approved of +her choice; but yet it seemed strange and unpleasant to him, that her +thoughts should be so completely given to her lover. He could hardly +believe that the intense affection she felt for another, was +compatible with love towards her parent. He knew not, or seemed to +have forgotten that the ordinance to leave all and cleave unto her +husband, is written in woman's heart as plainly as in the Book. + +Nevertheless, that which he felt was not the least like +jealousy--although I have seen such a thing even in a parent towards a +child. It was a part of the problem of Emily's character, which he was +always trying to solve without success. + +"Here," he thought, "she has known this young man, but a short +time--no years--not very many months; and yet, it is clear, that in +that short space, she has learned to love him better than those to +whom she is bound by every tie of long enduring affection and +tenderness." + +Had he thought of comparing at all, her conduct and feelings with +those of his own youth, he would still have marvelled; for he would +have said, "I had no tenderness shown me in my young days--I was not +the companion, the friend, the idol, the peculiar loved one of father +or mother, so long as my elder brother lived. I loved her who first +really loved me. From _my_ parents, I had met small affection, and but +little kindness. It was therefore natural that I should fix my love +elsewhere, as they had fixed theirs. But with my child, the case is +very different." + +Yet he loved Marlow well--was fond of his society--was well pleased +that he was to be his daughter's husband; but even in his case, Mr. +Hastings was surprised in a certain degree; for Marlow did not, and +could not conceal that he loved Emily's society better than her +father's--that he would rather a great deal be with her than with +Brutus himself or Cato. + +This desire on the part of Marlow to be ever by her side, was a great +stumbling-block in the way of Mr. Hastings' schemes for re-educating +Marlow, and giving that strength and vigor to his character of which +his future father-in-law had thought it susceptible. He made very +little progress, and perhaps Marlow's society might even have had some +influence upon him--might have softened--mitigated his character; but +that there were counteracting influences continually at work. + +All that had lately happened--the loss of fortune and of station--the +dark and irritating suspicions which had been instilled into his mind +in regard to his child's conduct--the doubts which had been produced +of her frankness and candor--the fact before his eyes, that she loved +another better, far better, than himself, with a kind word, now and +then, from Mrs. Hazleton, spoken to drive the dart deeper into his +heart, had rendered him somewhat morose and gloomy,--apt to take a bad +view of other people's actions, and to judge less fairly than he +always wished to judge. When Marlow hastened away from him to rejoin +Emily, and paint, with her, in all the brightest colors of +imagination, a picture of the glowing future, her father would walk +solitary and thoughtful, giving himself up to dark and unprofitable +reveries. + +Mrs. Hastings in the mean time would take counsel with Mrs. Hazleton, +and they would settle between them that the father was already +dissatisfied with the engagement he had aided to bring about, and that +a little persevering opposition on the part of the mother, would +ultimately bring that engagement to an end. + +Mrs. Hastings, too, thought--or rather seemed to feel, for she did not +reduce it to thought--that she had now a greater right to exercise +some authority in regard to her daughter's marriage, as Emily's whole +fortune must proceed from her own property. She ventured to oppose +more boldly, and to express her opinion against the marriage, both to +her husband and her child. It was against the advice of Mrs. Hazleton +that she did so; for that lady knew Mr. Hastings far better than his +own wife knew him; and while Emily's cheek burned, and her eye swam in +tears, Mr. Hastings replied in so stern and bitter a tone that Mrs. +Hastings shrunk back alarmed at what she herself had done. + +But the word had been spoken: the truth revealed. Both Mr. Hastings +and Emily were thenceforth aware that she wished the engagement +between her daughter and Marlow broken off--she was opposed to the +marriage; and would oppose it. + +The effect of this revelation of her views upon her child and her +husband, was very different. Emily had colored with surprise and +grief--not, as her father thought, with anger; and she resolved +thenceforth to endeavor to soften her mother's feelings towards him +she loved, and to win her consent to that upon which all her own +happiness depended; but in which her own happiness could not be +complete without a mother's approbation. + +Mr. Hastings, on the contrary, entertained no expectation that his +wife would ever change her views, even if she changed her course. Some +knowledge--some comprehension of her character had been forced upon +him during the many years of their union; and he believed that, if all +open remonstrance, and declared opposition had been crushed by his +sharp and resolute answer, there would nevertheless be continual or +ever recurring efforts on Mrs. Hastings' part, to have her own way, +and thwart both his purposes and Emily's affection. He prepared to +encounter that sort of irritating guerrilla warfare of last words, and +sneers, and innuendoes, by which a wife sometimes endeavors to +overcome a husband's resolutions; and he hardened himself to resist. +He knew that she could not conquer in the strife; but he determined to +put an end to the warfare, either by some decided expression of his +anger at such proceedings, or by uniting Emily to Marlow, much sooner +than he had at first proposed. + +The latter seemed the easiest method, and there was a great chance of +the marriage, which it had been agreed should be delayed till Emily +was nineteen, taking place much earlier, when events occurred which +produced even a longer delay. + +One of the first steps taken by Mr. Hastings to show his wife that her +unreasonable opposition would have no effect upon him, was not only to +remove the prohibition of those lovers' rambles which Mrs. Hastings +had forbidden, but to send his daughter and her promised husband forth +together on any pretext that presented itself. He took the opportunity +of doing so, first, when his wife was present, and on the impulse of +the moment, she ventured to object. One look--one word from her +husband, however, silenced her; for they were a look and word too +stern to be trifled with, and Emily went to dress for her walk; but +she went with the tears in her eyes. She was grieved to find that all +that appertained to her happiness was likely to become a cause of +dissension between her father and her mother. Had Marlow not been +concerned--had his happiness not been also at stake--she would have +sacrificed any thing--every thing--to avoid such a result; but she +felt she had no right to yield to caprice, where he was to suffer as +well as herself. + +The walk took place, and it might have been very sweet to both, had +not the scene which had immediately preceded poured a drop of +bitterness into their little cup of joy. Such walks were often renewed +during the month that followed; but Emily was not so happy as she +might have been; for she saw that her father assumed a sterner, colder +tone towards his wife, and believed that she might be the unwilling +cause of this painful alienation. She knew not that it proceeded +partly from another source--that Mr. Hastings had discovered, or +divined, that his wife had some feeling of increased power and +authority from the fact of his having lost his large estates, and of +her property being all that remained to them both. + +Poor Emily! Marlow's love, that dream of joy, seemed destined to +produce, for a time at least, nothing but grief and anxiety. Her +reveries became more frequent, and more deep, and though her lover +could call her from them in a moment, no one else had the power. + +One day, Marlow and his Emily--for whom every day his love increased; +for he knew and comprehended her perfectly, and he was the only +one--had enjoyed a more happy and peaceful ramble than usual, through +green lanes, and up the hill, and amidst the bright scenery which lay +on the confines of the two counties, and they returned slowly towards +the house, not anticipating much comfort there. As they approached, +they saw from the road a carriage standing before the door, dusty, as +if from a long journey, but with the horses still attached. There were +three men, too, with the carriage, besides the driver, and they were +walking their horses up and down the terrace, as if their stay was to +be but short. It was an unusual number of attendants, even in those +days, to accompany a carriage in the country, except upon some visit +of great ceremony; and the vehicle itself--a large, old, rumbling +coach, which had seen better days--gave no indication of any great +state or dignity on the part of its owner. + +Why, she knew not, but a feeling of fear, or at least anxiety, came +over Emily as she gazed, and turning to Marlow, she said, "Who can +these visitors be?" + +"I know not, indeed, dear love," he answered, "but the equipage is +somewhat strange. Were we in France," he added, with a laugh, "I +should think it belonged to an exempt, bearing a _lettre de cachet_." + +Emily smiled also, for the idea of her father having incurred the +anger of any government or violated any law seemed to her quite out of +the question. + +When they approached the door, however, they were met by a servant, +with a grave and anxious countenance, who told her that her father +wished to see her immediately in the dining hull. + +"Is there any one with him?" asked Emily, in some surprise. + +"Yes, Mistress Emily," replied the man, "there is a strange gentleman +with him. But you had better go in at once; for I am afraid things are +not going well." + +Marlow drew her arm through his, and pressed it gently to make her +feel support; and then went into the eating-room, as it was usually +called, by her side. + +When they entered they found the scene a strange and painful one. Mr. +Hastings was seated near a window, with his hat on, and his cloak cast +down on a chair beside him. His wife was placed near him, weeping +bitterly; and at the large table in the middle of the room was a +coarse-looking man, in the garb of a gentleman, but with no other +indication but that of dress of belonging to a superior class. He was +very corpulent, and his face, though shadowed by an enormous wig, was +large and bloated. There was food and wine before him, and to both he +seemed to be doing ample justice, without taking any notice of the +master of the house or his weeping lady. + +Mr. Hastings, however, rose and advanced towards his daughter, as soon +as she entered, and in an instant the eye of the gormandizing guest +was raised from his plate and turned towards the party, with a look of +eager suspicion. + +"Oh, my dear father, what is this?" exclaimed Emily, running towards +him. + +"One of those accidents of life, my child," replied Mr. Hastings, +"from which I had hoped to be exempt--most foolishly. But it seems," +he continued, "no conduct, however reserved, can shield one from the +unjust suspicions of princes and governments." + +"Very good cause for suspicion, sir," said the man at the table, +quaffing a large glass of wine. "Mr. Secretary would not have signed a +warrant without strong evidence. Vernon is a cautious man, sir, a very +cautious man." + +"And who is this person?" asked Marlow, pointing to the personage who +spoke. + +"A messenger of the powers that be," replied Mr. Hastings; "it seems +that because Sir John Fenwick dined here a short time ago, and has +since been accused of some practices against the state, his Majesty's +advisers have thought fit to connect me with his doings, or their own +suspicions, though they might as well have sent down to arrest my +butler or my footman, and I am now to have the benefit of a journey to +the Tower of London under arrest." + +"Or to Newgate," said the messenger, significantly. + +"To London, at all events," replied Mr. Hastings. + +"I will go with you," said Marlow, at once; but before the prisoner +could answer, the messenger interfered, saying, "That I cannot allow." + +"I am afraid you must allow it," replied Marlow, "whether it pleases +you or not." + +"I will have no one in the carriage with my prisoner," said the +messenger, striking the table gently with the haft of his knife. + +"That may be," answered Marlow; "but you will not, I presume, pretend +to prevent my going where I please in my own carriage; and when once +in London, I shall find no difficulty, knowing Mr. Vernon well." + +The latter announcement made a great change in the messenger's +demeanor, and he became much more tame and docile from the moment it +struck his ear. + +Mr. Hastings indeed would fain have persuaded his young friend to +remain where he was, and looked at Emily with some of that tenderer +feeling of a parent which so often prompts to every sacrifice for a +child's sake. But Emily thanked Marlow eagerly for proposing to go; +and Mrs. Hastings, even, expressed some gratitude. + +The arrangements were soon made. There being no time to send for +Marlow's own carriage and horses, it was agreed that he should take a +carriage belonging to Mr. Hastings, with his horses, for the first +stage; the prisoner's valet was to accompany his friend, and immediate +orders were given for the necessary preparations. + +When all was ready, Emily asked some question of her father, in a low +tone, to which he replied, "On no account, my child. I will send for +you and your mother should need be; but do not stir before I do. This +is a mere cloud--a passing shower, which will soon be gone, and leave +the sky as bright as ever. We do not live in an age when kings of +England can play at foot-ball with the heads of innocent men, and I, +as you all know, am innocent." + +He then embraced his wife and child with more tenderness than he was +wont to show, and entering the carriage first, was followed by the +messenger. The other men mounted their horses, and Marlow did not +linger long behind the sad cavalcade. + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + +Philip Hastings had calculated much upon his Roman firmness; and he +could have borne death, or any great and sudden calamity, with +fortitude; but small evils often affect us more than great ones. He +knew not what it is to suffer long imprisonment, to undergo the +wearing, grinding process of life within a prison's walls. He knew not +the effect of long suspense either, of the fretful impatience for some +turn in our fate, of the dull monotony of long continued expectation +and protracted disappointment, of the creeping on of leaden despair, +which craves nothing in the end but some change, be it for better or +for worse. + +They took him to Newgate--the prison of common felons, and there, in a +small room, strictly guarded, he remained for more than two months. At +first he would send for no lawyer, for he fancied that there must +either be some error on the part of the government, or that the +suspicion against him must be so slight as to be easily removable. But +day went by on day, and hour followed hour, without any appearance of +a change in his fate. There came a great alteration, however, in his +character. He became morose, gloomy, irritable. Every dark point in +his own fate and history--every painful event which had occurred for +many years--every doubt or suspicion which had spread gloom and +anxiety through his mind, was now magnified a thousand-fold by long, +brooding, solitary meditation. He pondered such things daily, hourly, +in the broad day, in the dead, still night, when want of exercise +deprived him of sleep, till his brain seemed to turn, and his whole +heart was filled with stern bitterness. + +Marlow, who visited him every day by permission of the Secretary of +State, found him each day much changed, both in appearance and manner; +and even his conversation gave but small relief. He heard with small +emotion the news of the day, or of his own family. He read the letters +of his wife and daughter coldly. He heard even the intelligence that +Sir John Fenwick was condemned for high treason, and to die on a +scaffold, without any appearance of interest. He remained +self-involved and thoughtful. + +At length, after a long interval--for the government was undecided how +to proceed in his and several other cases connected with that famous +conspiracy--a day was appointed for his first examination by the +Secretary of State; for matters were then conducted in a very +different manner from that in which they are treated at present; and +he was carried under guard to Whitehall. + +Vernon was a calm and not unamiable man; and treating the prisoner +with unaffected gentleness, he told him that the government was very +anxious to avoid the effusion of any more blood, and expressed a hope +that Mr. Hastings would afford such explanations of his conduct as +would save the pain of proceeding against him. He did not wish by any +means, he said, to induce him to criminate himself; but merely to give +such explanations as he might think fit. + +Philip Hastings replied, with stern bitterness, that before he could +give any explanations, he must learn what there was in his conduct to +explain. "It has ever been open, plain, and straightforward," he said. +"I have taken no part in conspiracies, very little part in politics. I +have nothing to fear from any thing I myself can utter; for I have +nothing to conceal. Tell me what is the charge against me, and I will +answer it boldly. Ask what questions you please; and I will reply at +once to those to which I can find a reply in my own knowledge." + +"I thought the nature of the charge had been made fully known to you," +replied Vernon. "However, it is soon stated. You are charged, Mr. +Hastings, with having taken a most decided part in the criminal +designs, if not in the criminal acts, of that unfortunate man Sir John +Fenwick. Nay, of having first suggested to him the darkest of all his +designs, namely, the assassination of his Majesty." + +"I suggest the assassination of the King!" exclaimed Mr. Hastings. "I +propose such an act! Sir, the charge is ridiculous. Has not the only +share I ever took in politics been to aid in placing King William upon +the throne, and consistently to support his government since? What the +ministers of the crown can seek by bringing such a charge against me, +I know not; but it is evidently fictitious, and of course has an +object." + +Vernon's cheek grew somewhat red, and he replied warmly, "That is an +over-bold assertion, sir. But I will soon satisfy you that it is +unjust, and that the crown has not acted without cause. Allow me, +then, to tell you, that no sooner had the conspiracy of Sir John +Fenwick been detected, and his apprehension been made known, than +information was privately given--from your own part of the country--to +the following effect;" and he proceeded to read from a paper, which +had evidently been folded in the form of a letter, the ensuing words: +"That on the ---- day of May last, when walking in the gardens of his +own house, called 'The Court,' he--that is yourself, sir--used the +following language to Sir John Fenwick: 'When no other means can be +found of obtaining justice, freedom, and security, I see no reason why +a king should not be put to death as well as any other man. He who +does the deed merits a monument rather than a gibbet.' Such was the +information, sir, on which government first acted in causing your +apprehension." + +The Secretary paused, and for a few moments Mr. Hastings remained +gazing down in silence, like a man utterly confounded. Vernon thought +he had touched him home; but the emotions in the prisoner's bosom, +though very violent, were very different from those which the +Secretary attributed to him. He remembered the conversation well, but +he remembered also that the only one who, besides Sir John Fenwick, +was with him at the moment, was his own child. I will not dwell upon +his feelings, but they absorbed him entirely, till the Secretary went +on, saying--"Not satisfied with such slender information, Mr. +Hastings, the government caused that unhappy criminal, Sir John +Fenwick, to be asked, after his fate was fixed, if he recollected your +having used those words to him, and he replied, 'something very like +them.'" + +"And I reply the same," exclaimed Philip Hastings, sternly. "I did use +those words, or words very like them. But, sir, they were in +connection with others, which, had they been repeated likewise, would +have taken all criminal application from them. May I be permitted to +look at that letter in your hand, to see how much was really told, how +much suppressed?" + +"I have read it all to you," said Mr. Vernon, "but you may look at it +if you please," and he handed it to him across the table. Philip +Hastings spread it out before him, trembling violently, and then drew +another letter from his pocket, and laid them side by side. He ran his +eye from one to the other for a moment or two, and then sunk slowly +down, fainting upon the floor. + +While a turnkey and one of the messengers raised him, and some efforts +were made to bring him back to consciousness, Mr. Vernon walked round +the table and looked at the two letters which were still lying on it. +He compared them eagerly, anxiously. The handwriting of the one was +very similar to that of the other, and in the beginning of that which +Mr. Hastings had taken from his pocket, the Secretary found the words, +"My dear father." It was signed, "Emily Hastings;" and Vernon +instantly comprehended the nature of the terrible emotion he had +witnessed. + +He was really, as I have said, a kind and humane man, and he felt very +much for the prisoner, who was speedily brought to himself again, and +seated in a chair before the table. + +"Perhaps, Mr. Hastings," said Vernon, "we had better not protract this +conversation to-day. I will see you again to-morrow, at this hour, if +you would prefer that arrangement." + +"Not at all, sir," answered the prisoner, "I will answer now, for +though the body be weak, the spirit is strong. Remember, however, that +I am not pleading for life. Life is valueless to me. The block and axe +would be a relief. I am only pleading to prevent my own character from +being stained, and to frustrate this horrible design. I used the words +imputed to me; but if I recollect right, with several qualifications, +even in the sentence which has been extracted. But before that, many +other words had passed which entirely altered the whole bearing of the +question. The conversation began about the regicides of the great +rebellion, and although my father was of the party in arms against the +King, I expressed my unqualified disapprobation of their conduct in +putting their sovereign to death. I then approached as a mere matter +of abstract reasoning, in which, perhaps, I am too apt to indulge, the +subject of man's right to resist by any means an unendurable tyranny, +and I quoted the example of Brutus and William Tell; and it was in the +course of these abstract remarks, that I used the words which have +been cited. I give you my word, however, and pledge my honor, that I +entertained no thought, and had no cause whatever to believe that Sir +John Fenwick who was dining with me as an old acquaintance, +entertained hostile designs against the government of his native +land." + +"Your admitted opinions, Mr. Hastings," said Vernon, "seem to me to be +very dangerous ones." + +"That may be," replied the prisoner, "but in this country at least, +sir, you cannot kill a man for opinions." + +"No; but those opinions, expressed in conversation with others who +proceed to acts," replied Vernon, "place a man in a very dangerous +position, Mr. Hastings. I will not conceal from you that you are in +some peril; but at the same time I am inclined to think that the +evidence, without your admissions this day, might prove insufficient, +and it is not my intention to take advantage of any thing you have +said. I shall report to his Majesty accordingly; but the proceedings +of the government will be guided by the opinion of the law officers of +the crown, and not by mine. I therefore can assure you of nothing +except my sincere grief at the situation in which you are placed." + +"I little heed the result of your report, sir," replied Mr. Hastings; +"life, I say, is valueless to me, and if I am brought to trial for +words very innocently spoken, I shall only make the same defence I +have done this day, and I shall call no witness; the only witness of +the whole," he added with stern, concentrated bitterness, "is probably +on the side of the crown." + +Mr. Hastings was then removed to Newgate, leaving the two letters on +the table behind him, and as soon as he was gone, Mr. Vernon sent a +messenger to an inn near Charing Cross, to say he should be glad to +speak for a few moments with Mr. Marlow. In about half an hour Marlow +was there, and was received by Vernon as an old acquaintance. The door +was immediately closed, and Marlow seated himself near the table, +turning his eyes away, however, as an honorable man from the papers +which lay on it. + +"I have had an interview with your friend, Mr. Marlow," said the +Secretary, "and the scene has been a very painful one. Mr. Hastings +has been more affected than I expected, and actually fainted." + +Marlow's face expressed unutterable astonishment, for the idea of +Philip Hastings fainting under any apprehension whatever, could never +enter into the mind of any one who knew him. + +"Good God!" he exclaimed, "what could be the cause of that? Not fear, +I am sure." + +"Something more painful than even fear, I believe," replied Mr. +Vernon; "Mr. Hastings has a daughter, I believe?" + +"Yes, sir, he has," replied Marlow, somewhat stiffly. + +"Do you know her handwriting?" asked the Secretary. + +"Yes, perfectly well," answered Marlow. + +"Then be so good as to take up that letter next you," said Vernon, +"and tell me if it is in her hand." + +Marlow took up the paper, glanced at it, and at once said, "Yes;" but +the next instant he corrected himself, saying, "No, no--it is very +like Emily's hand--very, very like; but more constrained." + +"May not that proceed from an attempt to disguise her hand?" asked +Vernon. + +"Or from an attempt on the part of some other to imitate it," rejoined +Marlow; "but this is very strange, Mr. Vernon; may I read this +through?" + +"Certainly," replied the Secretary, and Marlow read every word three +or four times over with eager attention. They seemed to affect him +very much, for notwithstanding the Secretary's presence, he started up +and paced the room for a minute or two in thought. + +"I must unravel this dark mystery," he said at length. "Mr. Vernon, +there have been strange things taking place lately in the family of +Mr. Hastings. Things which have created in my mind a suspicion that +some secret and external agency is at work to destroy his peace as +well as to ruin his happiness, and still more, I fear, to ruin the +happiness of his daughter. This letter is but one link in a long chain +of suspicious facts, and I am resolved to sift the whole matter to the +bottom. The time allowed me to do so, must depend upon the course you +determine to pursue towards Mr. Hastings. If you resolve to proceed +against him I must lose no time--although I think I need hardly say, +there is small chance of your success upon such evidence as this;" and +he struck the letter with his fingers. + +"We have more evidence, such as it is," replied Vernon, "and he +himself admits having used those words." + +Marlow paused thoughtfully, and then replied, "He may have used +them--he is very likely to have used them; but it must have been quite +abstractedly, and with no reference to any existing circumstance. I +remember the occasion on which Sir John Fenwick dined with him, +perfectly. I was there myself. Now let me see if I can recall all the +facts. Yes, I can, distinctly. During the whole of dinner--during the +short time we sat after dinner, those words were never used; nor were +conspiracies and treason ever thought of. I remember, too, from a +particular circumstance, that when we went out into the gardens Mr. +Hastings took his daughter's arm, and walked up and down the terrace +with Sir John Fenwick at his side. That must have been the moment. But +I need hardly point out to you, Mr. Vernon, that such was not a time +when any man in his senses, and especially a shrewd, cunning, timid +man, like Sir John Fenwick, would have chosen for the development of +treasonable designs." + +"Were any other persons near?" asked Vernon; "the young lady might +have been in the conspiracy as well as her father." + +Marlow laughed. "There were a dozen near," he answered; "they were +subject to interruption at any moment--nay, they could not have gone +on for three minutes; for that pace of time did not elapse after the +gentlemen entered the garden where the ladies were, before I was at +Emily's side, and not one word of this kind was spoken afterwards." + +"Then what could have induced her to report those words to the +government?" asked Mr. Vernon. + +"She never did so," replied Marlow, earnestly; "this is not her +handwriting, though the imitation is very good--and now, sir," he +continued, "if it be proper, will you explain to me what course you +intend to pursue, that I may act accordingly? For as I before said, I +am resolved to search this mystery out into its darkest recesses. It +has gone on too long already." + +Vernon smiled. "You are asking a good deal," he said, "but yet my +views are so strong upon the subject, that I think I may venture to +state them, even if the case against Mr. Hastings should be carried a +step or two farther--which might be better, in order to insure his not +being troubled on an after occasion. I shall strongly advise that a +_nolle prosequi_ be entered, and I think I may add that my advice will +be taken." + +"You think I have asked much already, Mr. Vernon," said Marlow, "but I +am now going to ask more. Will you allow me to have this letter? I +give you my word of honor that it shall only be used for the purposes +of justice. You have known me from my boyhood, my dear sir; you can +trust me." + +"Perfectly, my young friend," replied Vernon, "but you must not take +the letter to-day. In two days the action of the government will be +determined, and if it be such as I anticipate you shall have the +paper, and I trust it will lead to some discovery of the motives and +circumstances of this strange transaction. Most mysterious it +certainly is; for one can hardly suppose any one but a fiend thus +seeking to bring a father's life into peril." + +"A fiend!" exclaimed Marlow, with a scoff, "much more like an angel, +my dear sir." + +"You seem to think so," said Vernon, smiling, "and I trust, though +love is blind, he may have left you clear-sighted in this instance." + +"I think he has," answered Marlow, "and as this young lady's fate is +soon to be united to mine, it is very necessary I should see clearly. +I entertain no doubt, indeed, and I say boldly, that Emily never wrote +this letter. It will give me, however, a clue which perhaps may lead +me to the end of the labyrinth, though as yet I hardly see my way. But +a strong resolution often does much." + +"Might it not be better for you," asked Vernon, "to express your +doubts in regard to this letter to Mr. Hastings himself? He was +terribly affected, as well he might be, when he saw this document, and +believed it to be his own child's writing." + +Marlow mused for some time ere he replied. "I think not," he answered +at length; "he is a man of peculiar disposition; stern, somewhat +gloomy, but honorable, upright, and candid. Now what I am going to say +may make me appear as stern as himself, but if he is suffering from +doubts of that dear girl, knowing her as well as he does, he is +suffering from his own fault, and deserves it. However, my object is +not to punish him, but thoroughly, completely, and for ever to open +his eyes, and to show him so strongly that he has done his child +injustice, as to prevent his ever doing the like again. This can only +be done by bringing all the proofs upon him at once, and my task is +now to gather them together. To my mere opinion regarding the +handwriting, he would not give the slightest heed, but he will not +shut his eyes to proofs. May I calculate upon having the letter in two +days?" + +"I think you may," replied Vernon. + +"Then when will Mr. Hastings be set free?" asked Marlow; "I should +wish to have some start of him into the country." + +"That will depend upon various circumstances," replied the Secretary; +"I think we shall take some steps towards the trial before we enter +the _nolle prosequi_. It is necessary to check in some way the +expression of such very dangerous opinions as he entertains." + +Marlow made no reply but by a smile, and they soon after parted. + + * * * * * + +One of the writers upon German politics reproduces the story of the +Englishman, Frenchman, and German, who were required by some unknown +power to draw a sketch of a camel. The Frenchman hied him to the +Jardin des Plantes, and came back with his sketch in no time. The more +conscientious Briton at once took ship for the East, and returned with +his drawing from the life of nature. But the German went to the +library of the prince of his country to ascertain what a camel was. He +lived to a great age, with the reputation of being very learned, and a +little crazed with the depth of his researches, and on his death-bed +told his physician in confidence that he did not believe there was +such an animal at all! + +FOOTNOTES: + +[3] Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1850, by G. P. +R. James, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United +States for the Southern District of New-York. + + + + +THE COUNT MONTE-LEONE: OR, THE SPY IN SOCIETY.[4] + +TRANSLATED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL MONTHLY MAGAZINE FROM THE FRENCH OF +H. DE ST. GEORGES. + +_Continued from page 211_ + + +VIII.--THE FOUR PULCINELLI. + +Doctor Matheus, as the reader must have guessed from the previous +chapter, was Freiderick von Apsberg, one of the four Pulcinelli of the +ball of San Carlo, the young German who was the son of the venerable +pastor of the city of Ellogen, in Bohemia. + +Freiderick von Apsberg had been educated in one of the most celebrated +universities of Germany, that of Leipsic,--where he had imbibed that +very social contagion, a passion for detestable demagogic fancies, +with which all those scientific _lazaretti_ of Germany were filled. +The dreamy and often poetic forms in which those ideas were +enunciated, easily touched the heart of that long peaceable nation, +and opened to it a field of mad and resistless hopes which could not +but plunge it into that abyss of disorder, trouble, and crime, in +which it has been recently seen sweltering. + +Freiderick, not thinking his country yet prepared for the propagation +of his principles, sought for an echo among other European nations. +The rising _Carbonarism_ of Italy opened its arms to him, and received +him as one of its future supporters. There he had become acquainted +with Monte-Leone, and participated in the religion of which he was the +high priest. On his return to Germany, after his expulsion from Italy, +he had discovered that the work had advanced during his absence, that +the myth had been personified, and that the seed had germinated. +Germany, especially the _poor_ of Germany, began to be deeply +agitated; the _Carbonaro_ made many proselytes, and won many new +members to the association. The death of his father having endowed him +with some fortune, he completed his studies, and became one of the +most fervent apostles of that mysterious science of which he spoke to +the Duke d'Harcourt; but, being made uncomfortable by the German +police, he left his country, after having established a connection +with the _Vente_ which had been formed there. He then came to France, +where we find him under the name of Doctor Matheus, and living in the +awful No. 13 of Babylonne street;--his house was the rendezvous of the +principal members of the _Vente_ of Paris, where his profession amply +accounted for the many visitors he received. His three friends, +however, fearing that their frequent visits would be remarked, often +had recourse to disguises. Thus it is that we saw the Englishman, the +Auvergnot, and the peasant, so cavalierly treated by Mlle Crepineau. + +"This is the hour of consultation, my dear Doctor," said the Viscount +to Von Apsberg; "where are the patients?" In a serious tone the +latter replied, "In France, Italy, Germany, and all the +continent.--Their disease is a painful oppression, an extreme +lassitude in every member of the social body, a slow fever, and +general feeling of indisposition." + +"What physician will cure so many diseases?" asked the Viscount. + +"_Carbonarism!_" + +"Are you sure of this?" asked d'Harcourt, who, probably for the first +time in his life, said any thing reasonable. This was a doubt, almost +a defection to that cause into which his generous and enthusiastic +nature had cast him. René d'Harcourt had originally formed but a +passing intimacy with Monte-Leone, the object of which was pleasure +alone. The latter, however, soon discovered his friend's courage and +truth, and ultimately initiated him in all his political mysteries and +dreams. D'Harcourt, attracted by the occult power exerted by the Count +over his associates, and led astray to a degree by his specious +theories in relation to national happiness, which Monte-Leone knew how +to dress so well in the most energetic language, was carried away by +the temptation of becoming a political personage; perhaps, also, as la +Felina said at the Etruscan villa, not a little under the influence of +idleness, and the wish to be able to tell wonders of himself, joined +in all these plots. He had become affiliated to the society of which +Monte-Leone was the chief, and when he was expelled from Italy, +represented himself to his particular friends as a martyr of political +faith: he had, by the by, a very faint confidence in it, and cared +very little about it; and this, even, was insensibly lessened when, on +his return to France and his family, he saw the high distinction which +his father enjoyed, and was aware that by rank and birth he would one +day be called on to play a conspicuous part in the history of his +country. He could not understand, therefore, how this country could +demand a general convulsion to obtain a hypothetical better, in place +of a positive good. + +This, as we have said, was the state of his mind, when Monte-Leone, +Taddeo, and Frederick returned to Paris. They talked to him of his +oaths, of the pledge they had taken, of his position as a +_Carbonaro_,--to which he would make no reply. The Viscount a second +time falling under the influence of Monte-Leone, captivated again by +the charms of friendship, and the glory of being the regenerator of +his country, fancied himself also bound by his honor to pursue the +path on which he had entered. He therefore resumed his old chains, and +became the SEIDE of a cause to which he was attracted neither by +sympathy nor by reason. + +The phrase which had escaped from the lips, or rather the good sense +of the young man, sounded to Monte-Leone like a false note in a +chorus. He said, "René, God forbid that we should seek to link you to +our fate if you do not believe in our cause. Remain inactive in the +strife about to ensue; your honor will be a sufficient pledge for your +silence in relation to our secrets. Henceforth be a brother to us only +in love. Von Apsberg, the grand archivest of the association, will +efface your name from our list; and whatever misfortune befall us, I +shall at least have the satisfaction of knowing that you were not +involved in our ruin." + +This offer, instead of being received by René d'Harcourt, increased +his zeal, which otherwise would have died away. + +"Leave you?" said he,--"abandon you, when the hour of danger has +come?--desert the field of battle when the combat is about to begin? +My friendship, my courage, and my honor, all forbid me to do so." + +The four friends clasped their hands, and Monte-Leone said,--"Now +listen to me, for time is precious. The _Vente_ of the kingdom of +Naples, and those of all Italy, of which I refuse to be any longer the +chief, do not on that account distrust me, but have just given me a +striking proof of their confidence. It is so great that I hesitate +even to accept it." + +"Speak," said all the friends at once. + +"I have received this letter," said Monte-Leone. + +"The delegates of all the Italian _Vente_, relying on the prudence, +valor, and judgment of Count Monte-Leone, refer to him the decision of +the time when, and the manner in which, it is proper for them to +manifest their principles. Count Monte-Leone is requested to open a +communication with the Vente of France, that there may be a +simultaneous movement with those of Italy." + +"Thus," said the Count, "in accepting this mission, I become the god, +the sovereign arbiter of this immense work, and have its fate in my +hands." + +Von Apsberg said, "you have that of Italy and Germany--for the _Vente_ +of my country will act when I speak, or rather when you do." + +An expression of pride flashed across Monte-Leone's face. He had +evidently been mortified at not becoming supreme director, yet the +staff of command was again placed in his grasp. It was not now, +though, to confer the command of a single country, but, to use his own +words, he became the all-powerful controller of Europe, and, in his +opinion, the hope of the universe. This strange man, made up of +greatness and littleness, like all the political idealists who erect +altars to the creatures of their dreams, and ignorantly make a +sacrifice of logic, good sense and reason--this man who sighed for +universal liberty, was delighted at the prospect of great, despotic, +and aristocratic power, to be exerted by his will alone in three great +countries. The Count then yielded willingly to the persuasions of his +friends, and promised to fulfil the wishes of the Italian _Vente_. He +said, "The time for action is not come. The French police, in fact, +is busy only with the known enemies of the Government, with +persons who are compromised in these petty plots originated by +self-love--regret for the past, and ambition. Our object is greater; +for we do not serve a man, but an idea, or rather the assemblage of +ideas, to be expanded everywhere at once, and to replace the darkness +of old civilization by torrents of far more dazzling light. The dawn +of that light though has not yet come." + +"Yet," said Von Apsberg, "the notes I receive announce the formation +of new _Vente_ on all sides of us." + +"Paris is filled with Carbonari," added d'Harcourt. "Our secret and +masonic sign reveals the existence of brothers everywhere to me. I see +them in the public places, on the benches of the lawyers, and among +the very judges." + +"True," said Von Apsberg, "and as an evidence of what d'Harcourt says, +look at these voluminous names." The friends examined them carefully. + +"It matters not," said Monte-Leone, "too much precipitation would ruin +all. Remember our device, _an auger piercing the globe_." + +During all this conversation, Taddeo had remained silent and +thoughtful, and the Count at last observed it. + +"My friend," said he, "why are you so sad? Can it be, like d'Harcourt +just now, that you have any doubt or scruple about our cause? Do you +hesitate at the dangers?" + +Taddeo, as if he were aroused from a dream, said: "The dangers I +anxiously invite, as likely to free me from a life which is become a +burden." + +Monte-Leone grew pale at these words, for he knew the reason of his +deep despair; and the iron of remorse pierced his heart. Before, +however, Taddeo's friends could question him, a strange accident +attracted the attention of the actors of this scene. + +A noise, at first faint and then louder, which resembled that of the +spider in its web, suddenly interrupted the conversation. It seemed to +come from the interior of one of the panels. + +"Here it is," said Monte-Leone, pointing at one of the book-cases. + +"Yes," said Von Apsberg, with a sign of admiration. + +"Can we have been overheard?" said d'Harcourt. + +"I think so," said the false Matheus. + +The Visconte and Taddeo at once took pistols from their pockets and +cocked them. + +"It is of no use," said the physician, pointing to the arms of his +friends. "Put on your disguises, for it is unnecessary even that the +brothers should know you. Kant has said, _When there is a secret to be +kept it is desirable that all who are intrusted with it should be +deaf, blind, and dumb_. Let us then tempt no one, and remember there +is no one here but a doctor and two patients." + +"But the Count," said d'Harcourt, "is he forgotten?" + +"Ah," said the doctor, "he must be seen." + +The noise increased, and something of impatience was remarkable in the +little taps on the wood-work. + +"It is he, is it not?" said Monte-Leone. + +"Yes," said Frederick, "for no one else uses that entrance." + +Von Apsberg then approached the library and touched a spring which +threw open a panel on which the books were arranged. With a key the +doctor then opened another door, through which a man entered. The day +was advanced, and the shades of night enwrapped almost all the room. +The scene we describe took place in the most remote and consequently +in the darkest portion of the vast studio. The appearance of the man +assumed a terrible and fantastic air. + +"Ah! what is there so urgent that you trouble thus, my dear Pignana?" +said the Count to the new comer. + +Signor Pignana, our old Neapolitan acquaintance, the pretended tailor +and owner of the Etruscan House, the mysterious guide of the Count +among the ruins of San Paolo, bowed to the earth as he always did +before the Count, and was evidently about to speak, when he stopped +short and pointed to the peasant and my lord, the profiles of whom he +could see distinctly in a moonbeam which came through one of the +windows. + +"They are brethren," said Matheus, "you may speak." + +"Well then," said Pignana, piqued by the brusque manner of the Count, +"I thought the case _urgent_, (he accented the last word,) and +therefore came to warn your excellency of danger." + +"What danger?" asked the Count, with his usual _sang-froid_. + +"And since his excellency," said Pignana, "forbade me to come to his +house, I was obliged to come here, though I believe my appearance is +respectable enough to pass scrutiny anywhere." + +"Signor Pignana, I must now, once for all, tell you the motives of my +conduct. I would not do so in any case were I not satisfied how +devoted you are to me." + +Pignana bowed again. + +"Your appearance," said the Count, "is certainly very honest and +respectable. The _fund_ of honesty is, however, perhaps not so good; +for as a smuggler, a skimmer of the seas----, but I stop here, lest I +should displease you, for you may, after all, have something on your +conscience. There is, you know, a certain Neapolitan Ambassador at +Paris who was once a minister of police in our beautiful country. Now, +Signor Pignana, people never have to do with the police without some +very unpleasant consequences. I have an idea also that the Duke of +Palma, at whose house I was a fortnight ago, did not fail to inform +the Prefect of the Police of the city, of my being in Paris. This is +a delicate attention from one police to another. The Duke, also, +probably pointed out many of my old acquaintances, among whom you have +the honor to be; you will understand, by aid of your knowledge of +_doubtful affairs_, that if it be known that I receive you here, +people will not think you come to teach me to play _the mandoline_, on +which instrument you are, I learn, a great performer. Consequently, +and not to rob myself of your invaluable services, and the care over +my household which you exercise, we have made a means of entrance for +you here, and through him you can communicate with me--how Signor +Pignana, an intelligent man like you, should understand this, without +its being necessary for me to give all these details." + +"I am delighted to be assured," said Signor Pignana, proudly, "that +without these grave reasons the Count would not be unwilling to see +me." + +"But," said Taddeo, "what is the danger of which you spoke just now?" + +"Ah! Signor Taddeo Rovero!" said the shrewd Pignana, who had +recognized the voice of the young man. + +"This is bad!" murmured Frederick. + +"I am delighted to meet Signor Taddeo Rovero," said Pignana, +"especially as what I have to say relates also to him." + +"To me?" said Taddeo. + +"Come to the point, then," said the Count. + +"Thus it is, Monsignore," said Pignana: "I was, in obedience to +orders, hanging about your excellency's house, and until to-day never +saw any thing suspicious. This evening I saw two dark figures planted +opposite to your hotel, at the corner of Verneuil-street. The +motionless position of these men seemed strange, and the manner that +they examined others who came in and out of the hotel was more so, +until at last I became satisfied that they watched you. I was +confirmed in this when approaching them in the dark I heard one of the +men say to his companion: '_He has gone out on foot, his carriage has +not left!_'" + +"Go on," said the Count, "this becomes interesting." + +"This is not all," said Pignana; "the same man said in a brusque tone +to his companion: '_Go to Saint Dominique-street, the other lives +there!_'" + +"That is myself," said Taddeo, "and the Marquis, my sister, and I do +live in that street, in the Hotel of the Prince de Maulear." + +"So I thought," said Pignana, bowing to Taddeo, "and I hurried hither +where I knew Count Monte-Leone was to be found. Your excellency will +now see that it was a matter of importance." + +"Do not go home to-night!" said d'Harcourt. + +"Remain here!" said von Apsberg. + +"Leave Paris!" said Pignana. + +"Why should I not go home? Because it pleases some robber to wait near +my hotel, to rob me? or because some bravo wishes, _a la Venitienne_, +to make a dagger-sheath of my heart? The man must act, too, _on his +own account_, for I know of no enemies in this city. Every where I am +sought for and _fêted_, and our secret associates, with whom the world +is full, and who know my old adventures, secure every day a triumphal +reception for me in the saloons of Paris. But if the mysterious +watchers of whom Signor Pignana speaks, be by chance of the birds of +night--owls who have escaped from the police, I make myself more +liable to suspicion by staying away, than by returning to my hotel. +Then, by ----, as my old friend Pietro used to say--I did not furnish +a house to sleep out of it. To remain here as Von Apsberg suggests, +would be a greater mistake yet; for in this house are all our +documents and the lists of our associates. This is the treasury, the +holy ark of the society, and here, under the name of Matheus, is the +very soul. Let us then beware how we give the huntsman any clue to +this precious deposit, or all will be lost. Pignana proposes that I +should leave Paris, but I will not do so. Here are all our hopes of +probable success. The light which will illumine Paris, must radiate +hence. Besides, gentlemen," continued Monte-Leone, "I find that you +all become easily excited at a very natural thing. In case even of a +judicial investigation, you forget--_The brethren know each other, but +can furnish no evidence of the participation of each other in any +enterprise_. Our records or our deeds alone can betray us; our papers +are here beneath three locks, and our actions are yet to be. Do not, +therefore, be uneasy about my fate, and let Taddeo and myself discover +the explanation of this riddle." + +"Do not be imprudent," said Von Apsberg to Monte-Leone, as he saw him +hurriedly dress himself in the costume of an Auvergnat; "remember that +we are in Paris, where the streets are crowded, and not in +Naples--that a dagger-thrust is a great event here." + +"Do not be uneasy," said the Count, "for I always conform to the +usages and customs of the country in which I am. In Italy I use the +dagger, and in France the stick." + +Taking hold of the baton which Taddeo bore, more completely to assume +the roll of the villager, he brandished and twisted it in his fingers, +well enough to have made Fan-Fan, the king of the stick-players of the +day, envious. + +"Shall I follow your _eccelenza_?" asked Signor Pignana. + +"Certainly," said he, "but as a rear-guard, twenty paces behind me, in +order that you may give evidence, as a mere passer by, that the man I +shall beat to death wished to beat me. This will make me more +interesting in the eyes of the people this difficulty will attract." + +When he saw Signor Pignana about to leave the room with him, he said, +"No! Mademoiselle Crepineau, the Argus of this house, saw only three +men come in; what will she think when she sees four leaving? Go out +then by the secret door, Pignana, and join us at the corner of the +_rue_ Belle-Chasse." + +The door of the library was closed on Signor Pignana. + +"Do you not wish me to go with you?" asked the Vicomte of Monte-Leone. + +"For shame!" said Monte-Leone, "four to one--we would look like the +allied army marching against Monaco. Remain then a few minutes with +the doctor. The consultation of the Milord naturally enough may be +long." + +The Auvergnat and the peasant of the boulirue passed before the chair +of Mademoiselle Crepineau, one with his handkerchief over his cheek, +and the other with a bandage over his eye. Recollecting that they had +been since eight o'clock with the doctor, she could not refrain from +saying, "The doctor is a very skilful man, but he is slow. After all," +added she, "he may have taken a multitude of things from them, though +no one heard them cry out. People of their rank do not mind pain." + +As they approached Verneuil-street, the Count proceeded a few steps in +advance of Taddeo. "Wait for me here," said he, pointing out a house +which stood yet farther back than the others, on the alignment of the +street, "and come to me if I call out." He then left the young man, +assumed a vulgar air, and straggled towards his hotel. Soon he saw in +an angle of the wall opposite to his house a motionless shadow, which +was certainly that of the man Pignana had pointed out to him. The +Count had a quick and keen eye, which recognized objects even in the +dark. He saw the two eyes which watched him, and which were fixed on +his hotel. They were moved from time to time, but only that on turning +again they might more easily recognize every passer. Monte-Leone, with +the presence of mind which never left him, and which characterized all +the decisive actions of his life, no sooner conceived his plan than he +put it into execution. He was anxious to know with what enemies he had +to deal, and could conceive of no better way than to question the man +himself. The question he put, it is true, was rather _brusque_, as +will be seen. When a few paces behind the man, who had not the least +suspicion, and had suffered him to come close to him, the Count faced +about and rushed on the stranger. He clasped his throat with one hand, +and with the other seized the stranger's weapons, which he naturally +enough concluded he wore. The latter uttered a cry, and an only cry, +which, by the by, was terrible. He was then silent. A stranger passing +by might have fancied those men were speaking confidentially together, +but never that one was strangling the other. + +"One word," said Monte-Leone. "Tell me why you are here." + +"On my own business," said the man. + +"That is not true," said the Count. "You are not a robber--you have +been here for two hours. Many persons well dressed have down this +street, yet you did not attack them." The living vice which bound his +throat was again compressed. The man made a sign that he wished to +speak. The Count relaxed his hold. + +"Whom do you watch?" + +"Yourself." + +"You know me, then?" + +"Yes." + +"Who bade you watch me?" + +The stranger was silent. Feeling the iron hand again clasp him, he +muttered, "A great lady sent me." + +"Her name?" said the Count, who began to guess, but who wished to be +sure. + +"The Neapolitan ambassadress." + +"And why does your companion stand in the Rue Saint-Dominique?" + +"Then you know all?" said the wretch. + +"All that I wish to," said the Count. "Speak out," said he, again +clasping his fingers tightly as if they had been a torture-collar. +"Speak now, or you will never do so again." + +"Well," said the man, "my companion is ordered to ascertain if you +were not at the hotel of the Prince de Maulear. Why should I know any +thing about it?" + +"Ah! this is unworthy," said the Count. "When her passions are +concerned nothing restrains this woman." + +A painful sigh was the only reply to this exclamation. The Count +looked around, and saw Taddeo standing by him, pale and trembling. + + +IX.--A LETTER. + +Leaning over the white shoulders of the charming Marquise de Maulear, +we are about to tempt our readers to the commission of a great +indiscretion. We will force them to listen to a letter which that lady +was writing to her mother the Signora Rovero, to inform the latter of +all her secret thoughts, and of what during the last two years had +taken place in her household. She sat, one morning, about nine +o'clock, in a beautiful boudoir, hung with rose-colored silk, over +which were falls of India muslin. This room was on the second floor of +the house, and there, with her head on her hand, Aminta wrote, on a +small table incrusted with Sevres porcelain, the following letter, +exhibiting the most intimate thoughts of her soul: + + "MY KIND MOTHER: Twenty months ago I left Italy and + yourself, to accompany the Marquis de Maulear and his + excellent father to Paris. Since then my letters have not + suffered you to want details of things about which you are + so curious, which occurred in the course of my trip from + Naples hither, and of my reception by my husband's family. + The family of the Marquis, as you already know, is one of + the most important of Paris, both from rank, fortune, and + nobility, and did not therefore dare to receive with + coldness a stranger who came thus to take a place in its + bosom. The tender protection of my father-in-law made it a + duty to them to seem to me what they really were to him, + benevolent, kind, and affectionate. Long ago, I saw that the + sentiments they exhibited were not sincere; and I guessed + that beneath the affectionate manners of my new family, + there was hidden an icy vanity, and want of sympathy with + the young woman who had no ancestors, no birth, and almost + no fortune, who had thus, as it were, come among them to + usurp name, position, and influence, to which no one should + pretend who had not a lineage at least as princely as + theirs. I soon learned how little faith I should have in + their politeness, and the anxiety in my behalf which were + exacted by the _exigences_ of society, and above all by the + paternal protection of the Prince de Maulear. I was eager to + find in the friendship of those with whom I was cast + something of that kind reciprocity of sentiments which I was + anxious to exhibit to them. The first person to whom I + appealed replied to me by cold glances. On this person, dear + mother, I relied, not as a substitute for yourself, but as + one to advise me in the new life I was about to lead amid a + society the customs and language of which I was almost + ignorant of. This person was the Countess of Grandmesnil, + sister of the Prince, and aunt of my husband. The Countess + was passionately fond of my husband, whom she educated, and + perhaps was wounded at the idea of his having married + without consulting her. This union also put an end to hopes + which had long before been formed in relation to a similar + connection with that of the Duke d'Harcourt's, one of the + first families in France. Mademoiselle de Grandmesnil, + therefore, received me with cautious urbanity, repelled my + confidence, and made me look on her whom I had considered an + affectionate protectress as an enemy. The Marquis was not + aware of the Countess's sentiments to me, for when they saw + how fond he was, they redoubled their apparent care and + attention. I did not, though, remain ignorant of the thorn + hidden in the rose. This strange kind of intuition, dear + mother, which you have often remarked in me, was made + apparent by the most unimportant acts of the Countess, in + which she evidently exhibited an expression of her + indifference to me, and dissatisfaction at my marriage; I + armed myself with courage, and promised to contend with the + enemy provided for me by my evil fate. I resolved not to + suffer my husband to know any thing of my troubles, nor to + suffer the Countess's treatment to diminish my husband's + attachment towards the person who had provided for his + youth. To recompense me, however, for this want of + affection, I had two substitutes--the perpetually increasing + love of the Marquis, his tender submission to my smallest + wish, and the attachment of the Prince--an enigma he has + always refused to explain. Beyond all doubt this reason is + powerful and irresistible, for the mention of my father's + name made him open his arms, which, as I told you, he at + first was determined to close hermetically. Strange must + have been those talismanic sounds, changing the + deeply-rooted sentiments of an old man's heart, and making + him abandon the invariable principles of his mind, so as to + induce him to present me, the daughter of a noble of + yesterday, as one descended from a person whose virtues had + won for him an immortal blessing. I must also tell you that + I have seen more than one of the old friends of the Prince + stand, as if they were petrified, at hearing him speak thus. + I have recounted all those happy scenes, dear mother, merely + to compare the past with the present, which presents, alas, + a far different aspect. My brilliant sky is obscured--I see + in the horizon nothing but clouds. Perhaps I am mistaken, + and my too brilliant imagination, against which you have + often warned me, fills my mind with too melancholy ideas. + Were you but with me, could I but cast myself in your arms, + press you to my heart, and imbibe confidence from you! + Listen, then, to words I shall confide to this cold paper, + read it with the eyes of your soul, and tell me if I am + mistaken or menaced with misfortune. + + "During the early portion of my residence in Paris, I lived + amid a whirlwind of pleasures, balls, and entertainments, + which soon resulted in satiety and lassitude. The attention + I attracted, the homage paid to me, flattered my vanity, and + pleased me; for they seemed to increase the Marquis's love, + and to make me more precious to him. After the winter came a + calmer season, and I welcomed it gladly, thinking the + Marquis and myself, to a degree, would live for each other, + and that this feverish, agitated and turbulent life, would + be followed by a period of more happiness. Three months + passed away in that kind of retirement in which those + inhabitants of Paris, who do not leave the city, indulge. + The Prince left us to visit his estates in another part of + France, and the Marquis and myself were alone. The Countess, + it is true, was with us; but her society, instead of adding + to our pleasures, was as annoying as possible. Accustomed + during my whole life to out-door existence, to long + excursions in the picturesque vicinity of our villa, I was + sometimes anxious to take morning strolls in the beautiful + gardens of Paris. The Countess said to my husband, one day, + that a woman of my age should not go out without him. As the + Marquis often rode, an exercise with which I am not + familiar, and as he had friends to see, and political + business to attend to, I was unable to go out but rarely. + Then I will say he offered me his arm anxiously, but this + exercise neither satisfied my taste, nor the demands of + health. There was also a perpetual objection to dramatic + performances, of which I was very fond; Henri did not like + them. The Countess, also, from religious scruples, was + opposed to them, and by various little and ingeniously + contrived excuses, I was utterly deprived of this innocent + amusement. My toilette was also a subject of perpetual + comment. The Countess said that I exaggerated the fashions, + that I looked foreign, and that the court was opposed to + innovations in the toilette, or again that the court + preferred the severe forms of dress. A young and brilliant + princess, though, gives tone to her court, and by her + elegance, luxury and taste, procures a support for crowds of + the Parisian work-people. Henri, over whom his aunt has + never ceased to exercise the same influence she did in + childhood, while he wished to support my ideas, really + supported hers. I saw with regret that the chief defect of + the Marquis was weakness of character, and perpetual + controversies about little matters produced a state of + feeling between us, which subsequently required a kind of + effort for us to overcome. This, however, dear mother, is + nothing; for I have not come to the really painful point of + my confessions. The gay season has returned, and the + principal people of Paris have returned to their hotels. I + liked to see Henri jealous, because this passion was, in my + opinion, an assurance of his love. Henri, who during the + early period of our marriage, would not have left me alone + for the world, now confides me exclusively to the care of + his father. The first time this took place, his absence was + a plausible excuse. He does not now even seek a pretext; a + whim, an appointment, are sufficient motives for him to + leave me. Whither does he go? How does he occupy himself? + This is the subject of my uneasiness and torment--yet he + loves me, he says, but a heart like mine, dear mother, is + not easily deceived. He does not love me as he used to. A + magnificent ball was given during the last month, by the + Neapolitan Ambassador, the Duke of Palma, who married the + famous Felina. Henri left the Prince and myself, as soon as + we came to the rooms; the whole night nearly passed away + without our seeing him. At last, however, he returned, pale + and exhausted. The Prince, who was unacquainted with what + had transpired at Sorrento, between his son and Monte-Leone, + introduced me to him, and asked me to receive him at our + hotel. I hesitated whether I should consent or not; when the + Marquis, with an air which lacerated my very heart, asked + the Count to visit me, assuring him that he would always be + welcome. + + "_Welcome to him!_ dear mother. You understand that this man + had been his rival, and loved me. I will confess to you, + dear mother, as I do to God. He loves me yet, I am sure, + though he never told me so; for his looks are what they + were, and when he spoke, his emotion told me that he was + unaltered. Since that ball, Monte-Leone, thus authorized by + the Marquis, has visited me. My husband is not at all + displeased at it; tell me, do you think he loves me still? + Yesterday, dear mother, I went into my husband's room, to + look for a bottle of salts I had forgotten. The Marquis was + absent, and his secretary was open, a strange disorder + pervaded the room; a few papers were lying about, and among + others, I saw a column of figures; I was about to look at + them, and had already extended my hand towards it, when I + heard a cry, and on turning around saw my husband, pale and + alarmed. He advanced towards me, and seizing my arm + convulsively, said, Signora, who gave you a right to examine + my papers? It is an abuse of confidence which I never can + forgive. I grew pale with surprise and grief. 'Sir, said I, + such a reproach is unmerited, if there be any thing + improper, it is your tone and air.' I left the room, for I + was overpowered, and did not wish to weep before him. One + hour afterwards, on his knees, he besought me to pardon him + for an excitement which he would never be able to pardon + himself. He was once more, dear mother, kind as he had ever + been; he repeated his vows of eternal love, and exhibited + all his former tenderness. His looks hung on me as they used + to, and I began to hope he would continue to love me. A + cruel idea, however, pursued me, what was the secret shut up + in the paper he would not suffer me to read? Why did he, + usually so calm and cold, become so much enraged?" + +Just then the letter of the Marquise de Maulear was interrupted by the +bell which announced the coming of visitors. Aminta remembered that it +was reception day, and persons came to say that several visitors +awaited her. She went down stairs. On the evening of the same day she +resumed her letter. + + "I resume my pen to tell you of a strange circumstance which + occurred to-day. When I broke off so suddenly, I found some + visitors awaiting me. Visiting in Paris is insignificant and + meaningless, performed on certain fixed days. Conversation + on these occasions is commonplace. People only talk of the + pleasure of meeting, and slander is so much the vogue that + it is not prudent to leave certain rooms until every one + else has gone, lest you should be hacked to pieces by those + left behind. My father-in-law came into the room and gave + some life to the conversation. The Prince was not alone, for + Count Monte-Leone came with him. Why, dear mother, should I + conceal from you, that the presence of the Count causes + always an invincible distress? This man is so decided and + resolute that he never seemed to me like other people. He + seems half god and half demon. His keen and often expressive + glance, his firm voice made mild by emotion, the _tout + ensemble_ of his character, seems to call him to great + crimes or sublime actions. + + "The Prince said, 'Do you know, Aminta, that the Count is + the only person in Paris whom I have to beg to come to see + you? I have absolutely to use violence. I had just now + almost to use violence to bring him hither.' + + "'The Prince, Madame,' said the Count, respectfully, 'looks + on respect as reserve. The pleasure of seeing you is too + great for me to run the risk of losing it by abusing the + privilege.' + + "'Bah! bah!' said the Prince, 'mere gallantry, nothing more. + We _emigrés_, from associating with the English, have lost + some of our peculiarities; and I, at least, have contracted + one excellent custom. When an Englishman says to a man, "my + house is yours," he absolutely means what he says, and the + privilege should be used. Your host looks on you as a part + of his family, and people of the neighborhood esteem you as + much a part of the household as the old grandfather's chair + is. You go, come, sit at the table, eat and drink, as if you + were at home. This generous hospitality pleases me, because + it recalls that of our own ancestors.' + + "'Brother,' said the Countess, 'this hospitality can never + be acclimated in France, especially in households where + there are as pretty women as in ours.' + + "'Sister, such privileges are accorded only to people of the + honor of whom we are well-assured, like the Count. Besides, + travellers like ourselves are hard to please in beauty. Not + that the Marquise is not beautiful; but if you had been as + we were at Ceprano, if you had only read the interesting + chapter I have written in relation to that country, you + would see that many perfections are needed to wound hearts + that are so cosmopolitan as ours.' + + "The Count was about to reply, when the doors were opened + and the Duchess of Palma was announced. I looked at + Monte-Leone just then, and he changed countenance at once. I + saw him immediately go to the darkest part of the room. This + was the first time I had ever received the Duchess of Palma. + There seemed no motive for her visit. I had paid mine after + the ball, and there was no obligation between us. The + Duchess is a beautiful, elegant, and dignified woman. It is + said she is of a noble family; and her manners evidently + betoken high cultivation. The Duchess told me kindly that + she had not seen enough of me at the ball, and that I must + take the visit as an evidence of her devotion and + admiration. The Prince of Maulear approached. 'We are + especially flattered, Duchess,' said he, and he emphasized + the word, looking at the same time at some ladies I + received; 'we are especially flattered by the honor you + confer on us. We know how careful you are in the bestowal of + such favors. It is a favor, as pleasant as it is honorable.' + + "'I have been suffering, Prince,' replied the Duchess, 'with + deep distress, and I will not reflect on any one the burden + of my sorrows.' + + "'You are,' said the Prince, 'like those beautiful tropical + flowers, the source of the life of which is the sun, and + which grow pale on their stems in our land. Neapolitans need + Naples, the pure sky, the balmy air, the perfume of orange + groves, and the reflection of the azure gulf. I am + distressed, Duchess, at what you say, and hope you will + content yourself with our country. We will not permit you to + leave it.' + + "'But I am dying,' said the Duchess, in a strange tone. + + "'You are now alive, though,' said the Prince. + + "The uneasy eyes of the Duchess passed around the room, and + when she saw the Count, became strangely animated. 'Ah!' she + remarked, 'here is Count Monte-Leone.' The Count advanced. + + "'The Count,' said the Prince, 'is your compatriot, and one + of your most fervent admirers.' + + "'Do you think so?' said the Duchess, almost ironically. + + "'One,' said the Prince, 'to be any thing else, must neither + have seen nor heard your grace.' + + "'Once, perhaps,' said she, 'I had some means of attraction, + but now all is forgotten; for I am a Duchess like all + others--less even, because I am indebted to chance for my + rank and title.' + + "'You owe thanks to yourself alone,' said the Prince, 'and + the Duke was a lucky man to have it in his power to lay them + at your feet.' + + "'Madame,' said I to the Duchess, 'since you deign to remind + us of your deathless talent, may I venture to ask you to + sing once more?' + + "'Never!' said the Duchess, 'I left my voice on the banks of + the _Lago di Como_, and have not forgotten my last song.' + + "''Twas indeed a sad epoch,' said the Prince, 'If it was the + funeral of your talent.' + + "'I will never sing again!' said the Duchess, 'I remember + that day as I do all the unhappy ones of my life. Ah! they + are far more numerous than our happy days. It was evening, + and in a gay room of my villa, whither I had come still + trembling at having seen a traveller nearly drowned in the + lake. I know not what sad yet pleasant memory was nursed in + my heart, but I went to my piano and sung an air I had sung + for the last time at San Carlo. Tell me, Count + Monte-Leone--you were there--what was it?' + + "'_La Griselda._' + + "'It was. On that evening all my enthusiasm returned to me. + While singing, however, a strange fancy took possession of + me. I thought I saw in the mirror in front of me, the + features of one who had long been dead--dead at least to me. + My emotion was so instinct with terror and happiness, that + since then I have not sung.' + + "'That is a perfect romance,' said the Prince, 'like those + of the dreamy Hoffman I met at Vienna.' + + "'No, sir, it is a fact, or rather the commencement of a + series of facts, which, however, will interest no one here. + For that reason I do not tell it.' + + "The Duchess of Palma rose to leave. The Prince offered her + his hand. + + "'No, Prince,' said she, 'I will not trouble you, for I am + about to ask the Count to accompany me. Excuse me,' said + she, 'excuse me for taking him away, but I need not use + ceremony with a countryman.' + + "Without giving him time to reply, she passed her arm + through his, went out, or rather dragged him out with her. + + "I do not know why, dear mother, I have told you all this + long story, which has led me to write far differently from + what I had intended. I like, though, to talk so much with + you; and then the visit of the Count and that Duchess + agitated me, I know not why. Some instinct tells me those + mysterious beings exert an influence over my life. You think + me foolish and strange--but what can I do? I am now so sad + that I seem to look at life through a dark veil. I am wrong, + am I not? Reassure yourself and tell me what you think of my + husband's conduct. That, most of all, interests + + "Your own AMINTA. + + "P.S.--The Prince, the Countess and myself in vain waited + all day for the Marquis. It is now midnight and he has not + yet come." + + +X.--JEALOUSY. + +A month had passed since the Marquise had written to her mother, +during which time the Marquis, more sedulous in his attentions to +Aminta, had begun to make her forget her fears and suspicions. A new +event, though, aroused them again. + +A magnificent ball had been given by Madame de L----, in her splendid +hotel in the _rue_ d'Antin. M. de L---- aspired to the ministry; and +the fact of his having received the Duke de Bevry at his magnificent +entertainments, the favor he enjoyed at the _château_, and his +frequent entertainments to the _corps diplomatique_, seemed to make +his final success certain. M. de L---- aspired to popularity by +attracting around him all who seemed likely to advance his views. He +delighted to receive and mingle together in his drawing-room all the +political enemies of the tribune and the press, who, meeting as on a +central ground, thought themselves obliged to boast of the wit of +their Amphitryron, beneath whose roof they exchanged all the phrases +of diplomatic politeness to the accompaniment of Collinet's flageolet, +sat together at the card-tables, and courteously bowed at the door of +every room. On this account they did not cease to detest each other, +though their apparent reconciliation being believed at court, +contributed in no little degree to the advancement of M. L----'s +views. + +The Marquis and Aminta were at the ball--and Henri left his wife for +several hours in charge of his father, who was proud of her, and +exhibited her with pride in all the rooms. The Prince heaped attention +on her, as all well-bred persons love to on those who are dear to +them. He carefully waited on her during every waltz and contra-dance; +and with paternal care replaced the spotless ermine on her whiter +shoulders. Then resuming his task of cicerone, he explained to her the +peculiarities of French society, which seemed so brilliant and +singular to a young Italian. The Marquis rejoined his wife about one +o'clock. He was very gay, and Aminta had not for a long time seen him +so amiable and lively. The Prince expressed a desire to return home, +and the young people gladly consented. As they were about to leave the +last room, an Englishman of distinguished air, but pale and agitated, +passed close to the Marquis, and as he did so, said in his native +tongue, "all is agreed." The Marquis replied in the same words, and +the Englishman left. Aminta asked what the stranger had said, "Nothing +of importance," said Henri, "a mere commonplace." + +A quarter of an hour after, the carriage of the young people entered +_rue_ Saint Dominique. The Prince embraced the Marquise and retired to +his room, which was in the left wing of the hotel, and exactly +opposite the apartments of the young couple. About two all the hotel +was quiet. Aminta, though, from some peculiar presentiment, could not +sleep, yet, with her eyes half closed, she fell into that dreamy +torpor in which every passion is exaggerated. In this half-real, +half-fantastic state, Aminta saw pass before her all the important +events of her life, the horrible episode of the _casa di Tasso_, the +coming of Maulear, and the heroic devotion of _Scorpione_. Another +shadow, that of Monte-Leone, glided before her. The looks of this man +were fixed on hers, as if to read the depths of her soul. There came +also a thousand chimeras and countless mad and terrible fictions. La +Felina, pale and white as a spectre, sang, or sought to sing, for +though her lips moved no sound was heard. With her hand raised towards +Aminta, the ducal singer seemed to heap reproaches on her. Alarmed at +these sombre visions, the young woman sought to return to real life, +and arose from her bed; just then she thought she heard a door open. +Terrified, she reached toward a bell near her, but paused. The door +which was opened could be no other than that of the Marquis, for their +apartments, though separate, were side by side. She thought, too, that +the _valet de chambre_ had been detained later than usual with the +Marquis, and unwilling to make an alarm, she repressed her agitation. + +No noise disturbed the profound silence. The clock above struck the +several hours with that slow and monotonous regularity, which is so +painful to those who cannot sleep; she did not, however, win the rest +she was so anxious for. All the fancies which had occupied her just +before had disappeared, but were replaced by a newer fancy, occasioned +by the remark of the Englishman, which she had not understood. The +features of the stranger, so deathly pale, constantly returned to her. +She fancied some danger menaced the man to whom she had devoted her +life; that a strange danger menaced him, and, yielding to a feverish +agitation, which she could not repress, wrapping herself in a shawl, +and afraid almost to breathe, she went to the Marquis's room, when at +the door she paused and thought. + +"What would Henri say, and how could she excuse this strange visit?" +She hesitated and was about to return, when she saw that the door was +not closed, and that she could thus enter his room and satisfy herself +without disturbing him. She decided--the door turned on its hinges, +and Aminta entered. Crossing the antechamber, she had reached the +bedroom, which was separated from it by a curtained door. She advanced +to the bed, which she found had not been slept in. With a faint cry of +terror she sank on an arm-chair. The clock struck four, and when she +had heard the noises which had disturbed her it was nearly two; since +then, therefore, the Marquis had been away. Yet this had occurred when +he was within a few feet of her, and the care and secrecy with which +it was accomplished showed that it had been premeditated. Not a sound +except the opening of the door had reached Aminta's ears. The Marquise +felt the most agonizing distress--no thought of perfidy, however, +annoyed her; the idea of danger only occupying her mind. Just then her +eyes fell on an open note which had doubtless been dropped by Maulear +amid his hurry and trouble. She took it up, saying to herself, this +note doubtless contains a challenge--a rendezvous--she approached the +night lamp, and with difficulty suppressing her agitation, read as +follows--"Dear Marquis, do not fail to come to-night. You know how +anxiously you are expected, + + "FANNY DE BRUNEVAL." + +The letter was indeed a rendezvous, but not of the kind she had +expected. The terms of the note were clear and precise; and the +woman's name dissipated the mist from before her eyes, Maulear had +deserted her and his home in the silence of night for such a person. +She it was whom he deceived--she who had been so loyal and true, she +who sought, even when Maulear asked her hand, to protect him--who +begged him to distrust his impressions and not to act in haste. "I was +right," said she, "to fear the bonds he wished to impose on me--I was +right to object to a marriage which could not make him happy--only two +years," said she, with a voice of half stifled emotion, "and he is +already cold and indifferent to me. He has already abandoned me--and +worse still, he has done so with treachery. Mother! mother! why did +you not keep me with you? This then, is the reward of my generous +devotion. Alas! when I accepted him--when I wrested him from the death +which menaced him--when I gave myself to him, I did not love him, I +did not hesitate when perhaps----" Aminta blushed amid her tears. +"Above all," said she, "I do not wish him to find me here--I do not +wish him to reproach me as he has done with seeking to penetrate his +secrets." She returned to her room, and from exhaustion and tears sank +on her bed. + +Day came at last, and Aminta dressed herself. She wished to conceal +from her servants all that she suffered. Above all, she did not wish +the conduct and disorder of the Marquis to be made a subject of +discussion. When her _femme de chambre_ entered her room, she found +her mistress on her knees at her morning devotions before a crucifix. +Had any persons, however, approached the Marquise, they must have seen +the tears falling on the delicate fingers which covered her face, and +heard her sobs. The bell rang for breakfast. Aminta started as if from +a dream; being thus recalled to real life, she saw that while the +evening before she had been happy and gay, one night had converted all +to sorrow and suffering. Aminta, though ordinarily of strong nerve, +sank beneath the blow. She felt herself wounded in her heart, her +dignity, and in her confidence, by one for whom alone she had lived. +Henceforth her life would be uncertain, and circumstances might lead +her she knew not whither. + +When the Marquise entered, the Prince and Countess were about to go to +the table. The former said, "It is evident, my child, from your face, +that you are fatigued; and that balls are to you what the sun is to +roses. It does not detract from their beauty, but it makes them pale." +And finally, the Countess added, "it withers them completely. That is +the fate of all young women who turn night into day, and who, like my +beautiful niece, only really live between evening and morning." + +"Come," said the Prince, "that will not do. My sister is like the fox +in the fable, she finds the ball too gay to suit herself, or rather +herself too sombre for the ball." + +"A witticism," said the Countess, "is not a reason, but often exactly +the reverse. The one, my brother is familiar with; to the other, I am +sorry to say, he is more a stranger." + +"You see, my child," said the Prince, with an air of submission and +resignation, "it is not well to have any trouble with the Countess, +for she returns shot for shot; though she fires a pistol in reply to a +cannon. Luckily for us, she is not a good shot. But my son does not +come down. Can it be that, though he did not dance, he is more +fatigued than his wife?" + +"A letter for Madame la Marquise, from the Marquis," said a servant. + +Aminta took the letter from the plateau, and looked at the Prince, as +if to ask whether she should read it. + +"Read, my child, read," said her father-in-law, affectionately. "The +letter of a husband loved and loving, for thank God both are true, +should be read without any delay." + +Aminta unsealed the letter, and glanced rapidly over it. Then +succumbing to emotion, deprived of strength and courage, and +especially revolting at what she had read, felt her sight grow dim, +and finally fainted. The Countess, whose mind alone was embittered for +the reasons Aminta had explained to her mother, but whose soul and +heart were generous as possible, ran to the Marquise, took her in her +arms, and was as kind as possible. The Prince, paler than Aminta, +rushed towards the window, which he threw open, and pulled away at the +bell-ropes to call the servants, and send them for the physicians. +The old nobleman exhibited the greatest alarm. The young Marquise was +taken to the drawing-room, and a few moments after she opened her +eyes. Her heart, however, was crushed; and she wept bitter tears. The +Prince was struck with terror and distress. He was alarmed for his +son's sake, and a father's anxiety was apparent. + +"What has happened to my son?" said he, rushing to find the letter, +which Aminta had let fall. He read it anxiously, and when he had +concluded, laughed loud and long. "Indeed," said he, "we have come +back to the days of the Astræa. All reminds us of the _Calprenède_, of +_Urfé_, or _Scudéri_ herself. We are on the _Tendros_. This kind of +love would make that of Cyrus and Mandane trifling. Cyrus writes to +Mandane, that he went out to ride in the Bois de Cologne, and +therefore has to deprive himself of the pleasure of breakfasting with +her. Mandane therefore is suddenly taken ill. This is magnificent and +touching; but my precious child, it is a little exaggerated." + +"What, then, is the matter?" said the Countess, as she handed her +niece the salts. "What a singular man you are! One never knows what +the facts of any thing are from you. You are either in the seventh +heaven or in despair. Your very gayety is enough to destroy our +niece's nerves." + +"Ah!" said the Prince, "how sorry I am for the nerves. Read, however, +the letter yourself, Countess," and he gave it to Mademoiselle +Grandmesuil. "You will see the Marquise is too fond of her husband. +Her love has really become a dangerous passion. She is really +_love-mad_, and if it continues, we shall have a rehearsal of Milon's +ballet, with the exception of _Bigotini_." + +The Countess read as follows: + + "MY DEAR WIFE: I am unwilling to disturb your slumbers, and + have therefore left for the wood at five o'clock, having a + rendezvous with some sportsmen. We will probably breakfast + together, and I will not return until dinner-time. Remember + me affectionately. + + "HENRI." + + + +The habitual coldness of the Countess returned while she read the +letter. "I will say that I think my nephew very likely to inspire deep +love. I cannot however conceive how there can be cause for such +despair. We Frenchwomen have not such an exaggerated devotion as our +niece has. I beg her not to use it up now, for in the career of life +she will find it difficult to do without it." As if regretting that +she had soothed sorrows in which she had no sympathy, the Countess +sent for her prayer-book, and went to mass. As soon as the young +Marquise was alone with the Prince, she arose, threw herself in the +old man's arms, and said: "My father, I am very unhappy." The face of +the Prince at once became serious, and taking Aminta to a sofa, bade +her sit down, and said, kindly as possible, "Excuse my gayety and +irony, my child. _Non est hic locus_, as the sublime Horace, the +favorite of our good king Louis XVIII., once wrote. I repent of my +volatility and trifling, for I should have remembered, when I think of +the elevation of your mind, that something more important than the +absence of your husband for a few hours annoyed you. Speak to me--open +your heart to me--for I love you too well not to have a right to your +confidence and your secrets." + +"He does not love me," said Aminta, leaning her head on the Prince's +shoulder. + +"Alas! my daughter," said M. de Maulear, "I am about to make a strange +confession to you. I am not acquainted with my son. His soul, +sentiments, inclination, and moral nature, are unknown to me. When, +four years ago, I saw the child now twenty-six, whom I had left an +infant, and found his air, manners, and appearance distingué as +possible, and was pleased with him, I was assured that his soul was +exalted, his character true, and his sentiments honorable. I was +therefore satisfied. Two years after, he went to Naples, where I +procured a diplomatic post for him; and consequently I have neither +studied nor fathomed his instincts and habits. What I apprehend in +relation to you, my child, is a capital fault. I have discovered in my +son an extreme weakness of character, which may lead him into error. +For that reason, I wrote to him, that I would have preferred that he +had tasted of the pleasures of life before marriage. I would thus have +had an assurance of his subsequent prudence. Believe me, though, my +child, I will watch over him and you, and if I was able to forgive his +marrying without my consent, when I knew whom he married, I never will +pardon him if he make her unhappy. The deuce! we did not bring you +hither from Italy to break your heart." + +Fearful lest his father should become angry with Maulear, Aminta +restrained the secret which seemed ready to burst from her lips. She +spoke of vague suspicions and anxiety at the Marquis's uneasiness, but +said nothing particular. The Prince, who never in his life had known +what jealousy was, had some difficulty in understanding how it could +create such despair. His attention, however, was not the less vigilant +in relation to the affairs of the young couple. A circumstance which +occurred soon after enabled him to ascertain much. A number of persons +assembled one night at the rooms of the Marquise de Maulear. Count +Monte-Leone had become one of Aminta's most assiduous visitors. The +tacit permission he had received from Aminta, the formal authority of +the Marquis, the sympathy of the old Prince, to whom the pleasant, +energetic character of the Count, and his noble bearing, made him +every day more attractive--all taken in connection with the intimacy +of Taddeo and Monte-Leone, authorized him to visit the Marquise +freely. The devotion of Monte-Leone to Aminta had never been +diminished. He had felt only an inclination towards La Felina, an +error of the senses and imagination, excited by mortified love, and +favored by the isolation of the Lago di Como. His heart had little +share in it. When, therefore, he saw the Marquise de Maulear more +attractive than ever, he discovered that in his whole life he had +loved her alone. The Marquis de Maulear appeared but rarely at the +hotel, coming home at a late hour and going out early. + +Monte-Leone and Taddeo were talking together, and this fragment of +their conversation struck the ear of the old Prince, who seemed +entirely absorbed by a game of whist. + +"Will not the Marquis be here to-night?" said the Count to Taddeo. + +"I doubt it: sometimes the master of the hotel is here less frequently +than any one else." + +"Perhaps he is now," said the Count, "where he goes almost every +night, they say." + +"You jest," said Taddeo; "I think he is here every night." + +"He should, but he is not. All I can say is, that on the night of +M.L.'s ball, he was ... where I saw him." + +"Where was he?" asked Taddeo, impatiently. + +"I will tell you--but come away from the whist-table." + + * * * * * + +"But you do not return my lead," said the Prince's partner, "you +should play hearts." + +"True," said the Prince, musing; and he led hearts. His eyes, though, +followed Taddeo and Monte-Leone. + +The Prince lost five points, much to his partner's discontent. He +played very badly that night, breaking up his suits, mistaking the +cards, and violating every rule, much to the surprise of the +lookers-on, who knew how well he played the game, which the emigrés +had imported from England. At last they stopped, and the Prince sought +for Monte-Leone through all the rooms. The Count and Taddeo, however, +had both left. The Marquis, though, had returned, and the company soon +dispersed. The Prince went to his room, but soon left, well wrapped +up, and with his hat over his face. "Pardieu!" said he, "I will settle +things, and find out where my son passes the nights. Can any place be +more pleasant than the bedchamber of a pretty woman?" Standing at a +little distance from door, he waited about half an hour. His patience +was nearly exhausted, when the Marquis came out. Henri went to the Rue +de Bac, took the quai, crossed the pont Royale, the Carousel, and +entered la Rue de Richelieu. The poor Prince panted after him, and +kept him in sight all the time, cursing his curiosity. Sustained by a +deep interest for his daughter's happiness, he kept on. + +When the Marquis came to the Rue de Menors, he paused, and turned to +see that no one followed him. The Prince had barely time to get behind +a coach which stood at the corner. The Marquis went some distance down +the Rue de Menors, and stopped at No. 7. The door was opened, and +Henri entered. "On my honor," said the Prince, "I would not have come +so far before bed, unless I could also have found out _why_ the +Marquis visits No. 7." The Prince then stopped at the door, and +knocked. The door was opened. + +"What do you want?" said the porter, rather surlily. + +"I wish," said the Prince, and he put a louis d'or in the porter's +hand, "to know why that man has come hither." + +"Indeed," said he, pocketing the louis, "it is a great deal to pay for +so little. The gentleman has gone, as many others go, to see Mlle. +Fanny de Bruneval." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[4] Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1850, by +Stringer & Townsend, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of +the United States for the Southern District of New-York. + + + + +A FESTIVAL UPON THE NEVA. + +TRANSLATED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL MONTHLY MAGAZINE FROM THE FRENCH OF +KAUFMANN. + + +On the banks of a majestic river, where, in later times, has arisen a +city of eight thousand houses, of granite causeways, monuments, +obelisks, and palaces, nothing was to be seen at the commencement of +the eighteenth century but a few huts scattered over a marshy waste. + +On one of those days, when the intense cold had transformed the river +into a plain of ice, a numerous crowd were hastening through the +streets of the young St. Petersburg. Some directed their steps towards +a little cottage; and others, over the frozen waters, towards a +fortified island. Every one looked with a curious eye at the cottage, +and the numerous sledges that were gathering for the escort at hand. +Presently, a sledge drawn by three horses covered with bear-skins, +dashed up to the cottage-gate. It was quickly opened, and an old man +of a high stature and proud bearing came forth, wearing a blue sable. +He slowly advanced and took his place. + +"Pardon me, sir," said one of middle age, who hastened to take a seat +by the side of the former, "the gracious Czar had--" + +"It is sufficient," prince Menzikoff, interrupted the first, in a +quick and stern tone; "I am not much accustomed to wait, but I know, +however, that it is the Czar only who can be the cause of this delay." + +"You see the boyard, Alexis Nicolajewitz Tscherkaski," said one of +those present, in a whisper to his companion. + +"You are not the first to tell me that," replied Nikita. "It is not +sixty years since his grandfather traversed the Caucasus with his +savage Tschetschences. He would be a little surprised if he saw his +son to-day decorated with the golden key of chamberlain, and enjoying +himself at festivals in sacred Russia. But they give the signal of +departure, for they are tying a tame bear to the sledge. Indeed, it is +a strange animal!" + +"I must see him nearer," said the first. "Come, Andyuschka, let us +survey the whole train." + + * * * * * + +They came at last to an edifice such as was never seen before or +since. It was built upon the Neva--but not of stones. The walls, roof, +and partitions, were of solid ice; and the steps leading to the +entrance cut out of one enormous block. Two large cannons made of ice, +pierced with the greatest care, and which they were foolish enough to +charge with powder, were placed in front of this singular palace. The +interior presented an appearance not less novel. A long table, formed +of a single piece of ice, and covered with a hundred exquisite dishes, +was the principal object--oysters, in silver plates, excited the +appetite--sea-fish, of every species, from the gulf of Finland and +Pont-Euxin to the Caspian and frozen seas, disputed the supremacy with +shell-fish from the Istar and Volga. By the side of the hams of +Bayonne were roasts of bear surrounded with citron; and the sturgeon +was placed in the middle of delicious preserves. Many sledges were +filled with bottles. + +But all these cold dishes composed but half the feast. Four kitchens, +built of wood, at some distance from the palace, threw up constantly +clouds of smoke. There boiled stags and elks, pullets of Archangel, +and boars of Podolie. But that which particularly attracted the +attention of the spectators were the large fires where whole oxen +turned round upon spits, for the benefit of the people, to whom were +to be also given tuns of brandy. + +The sun shone yet above the horizon when the great hall of the palace +of crystal was lighted with wax candles in chandeliers of sparkling +ice. A thousand lights were thus reflected and broken upon the +transparent walls and windows. It seemed a fairy scene in the +approaching night. + +While a legion of cooks, with their assistants, worked without +cessation, the two personages, the boyard Tscherkaski and the prince +Menzikoff, were not less busy in the interior of the palace. It was +readily seen that they had the charge of directing the festival about +to commence. The last-mentioned, spreading a bear-skin upon each of +the seats of ice, was addressed by his companion. + +"Truly, Alexandre Michailowitz, the Czar could not have selected a +better manager of the feast than yourself. If I had any thing to do +but to take exclusive charge of the bottles, I am afraid I should +oblige every one to sit upon the naked blocks. What grimaces those +hungry foreign guests would make, such as the Frenchman Lefort, and +those like him, whom the west is ever sending to fatten upon the blood +of Russia. I should like to see them shivering to death, and at the +same time politely struggling to appear pleased in the presence of the +Czar." + +"But do you know how the Czar would regard such pleasantry? You +remember Dimitri Arsenieff?" + +"Arsenieff! I hope you do not compound me with that herd whom a single +glance of the Czar made tremble in their shoes. There was a time, it +is true, but all is changed now--there was a time when those +submissive slaves who filled the courts of the Kremlin, disappeared +when they heard the steps of the old Alexis Nicolajewitz. His services +were once required. He was not idle during the massacre of the +Strelitz; they had need of Tscherkaski then. But all this has passed +away. I have but one wish; it is, that in the hour of trial the swords +of those Frenchmen, or of other foreigners, may leap as slowly from +the scabbard as mine on that day when men of a nobler spirit were +assassinated." + +"The Czar has not forgotten that you have--" + +"O, truly," replied the boyard, with a bitter smile, "the gracious +Czar has made me the first chamberlain. He must have been in a good +humor at that time; for Poliwoi--you know him--he is skilful in +sealing bottles--he was a _valet de chambre_ in his youth--and that +English Melton or Milton, who has imported some good dogs--both of +them, at the same time with myself, received the key of the +chamberlaincy." + +"But you cannot deny, Alexis, that in general the choice of our +sovereign--" + +"Is the best. But what is strange about it is, that he finds so many +excellent men, and that he selects from so large a circle, when others +who, in times of calamity, are no longer considered unworthy, never +obtain their turn for preferment." + +"You appear to be not in a very good humor, to-day, boyard.... Would +you fall into disfavor with the Czar?" + +"Why," exclaimed the boyard, "should I not tell a friend what probably +he will learn to-day, if indeed he is ignorant of it now? You know," +he continued with an affected calmness, "the domain of the crown +adjacent to my lands in Tula?" + +"I do not," said the embarrassed Prince. + +"Indeed you do, Alexandre Michailowitz; or at least you ought to. It +separates my property from yours." + +"Ah! the manor." + +"The same. It is not very extensive, containing only three villages +and a thousand serfs. But its situation suits me and I desire its +possession." + +"Well, you ought to propose to the Czar to sell it. He will not refuse +you." + +"He has already refused. 'I am sorry,' he coldly said, 'that I cannot +grant you the lands you ask; I have disposed of them to another.' I +was about to reply, but turning to speak to some one, he closed our +conversation." + +"And do you know to whom he granted the domain?" + +"Who? Perhaps a vicious flatterer--an intrusive coward--some fellow +from abroad who comes among us to appease his hunger; or, what is +worse, an upstart, whose only pleasure is to overturn my dearest hopes +to fulfil his own. Who is he? One of those who daily make fortunes by +hundreds in our Russia, in place of meeting with the rope which they +merit--one of those who drive out honest men to occupy their places--a +rustic bore, a cobbler, a pastry-cook!" + +The features of the boyard took an expression of the most violent +anger; the muscles of his mouth contracted by a convulsive movement, +and his fiery eye gave sign that he was remembering the sanguinary +vengeance of his brethren, the sons of the Caucasus. + +The countenance of Menzikoff grew dark. The word "pastry-cook," in +bringing to his recollection his former condition, awoke sentiments +whose expression it was difficult for him to restrain. "I had +intended," he said, "to ask the Czar to give me those very lands; but +I am glad that I have not done so. I would have been unhappy in +interfering with your projects, if it were even for the sake of your +amiable daughter, who, in your old days, will reward you largely for +all the grievances you experience at the Court." + +"You think so, eh, Michailowitz? But you are a Russian. You belong not +to those foreign plebeians. Alexis Tscherkaski is a man who never +hides what he thinks, and I confess frankly that I do not love you; I +have never loved you. Yet I do not confound you with those vile +favorites of whom I have spoken. You are the first who has ever said +to my face that I was not born to walk in the slippery paths of a +court. You will have the honor also of offering the first counsel that +I have ever followed. Yes, Prince Menzikoff, I am firmly resolved to +leave the capital in a few days. In my solitude, accompanied only by +my Mary, I hope to forget the Czars, their favors, and all that I have +done to obtain them. Since the death of my Fedor--but let us stop +here--with him all my hopes are buried. My daughter only remains--" + +"Who will be a glory to you in the evening of your life. She will +bloom as the rose, she will be a mother of sons who--" + +"Yes, I desire to see her happy. She will freely choose her husband; +and if she wishes to unite her destiny with none, she shall live with +me, and one day close my eyes in death. It is among the descendants of +the boyards that she will find her beloved. He shall be a noble son of +old and sacred Russia. And I swear by all the saints interred in the +convent of Kiew, that no will, not even that of the Czar, but her own, +shall influence the choice of my daughter." + +The Prince was about to reply, when loud voices were heard in front of +the house. "They come! they come!" + +A long train of sledges took the direction of the Isle of the Neva, +and presented as strange a spectacle as one could well imagine. +Instead of couriers who, according to the usages of the time, took the +lead in this description of festivals, there was a sledge drawn by +four horses of different colors. In it were four men dressed in white +with a red girdle, having in their hands a staff ornamented with +ribbons, and upon their heads a bonnet decorated with plumes. The +oddest thing in this group was, that the youngest was not less than +seventy; two of them wanted a leg; the third was without an arm; and +the fourth, blind. + +Then came two sledges filled with musicians who joyously sounded their +instruments. They were divided into two sections; the first would have +pleased the ear by their performances, if it were not for the second +section, every one of whom was deaf. They could not follow the +movements of the director, and he himself, also deaf, was constantly +behind the time, so that the two companies, although playing the same +air, produced one which we might imagine proceeded from mischievous +demons in a concert prepared in Pandemonium for the benefit of +condemned musicians. + +In a third sledge came a patriarch of eighty years. His long white +beard and hair carefully dressed, the precious ornaments with which he +was covered, and the priests seated at his side, all announced that +the old man was going to celebrate some solemn ceremony. As he was an +intolerable stammerer, who had been released from the public services +of the church during the greater part of his life, he was fitly chosen +to deliver a discourse upon the present occasion. + +The sledge following that of the patriarch's, gave to the cortege the +unmistakeable character of a nuptial festivity; for, of the four +individuals who occupied it, two wore crowns, such as those prescribed +by the Greek church to the newly married. The couple who sat in the +place of honor, and for whom this fête had been prepared were indeed +very curious looking persons. The bridegroom was an old and wrinkled +dwarf, hardly four feet high. His enormous head seemed to weigh down +his slender body, and to bend his legs into the form of sabres. His +toilette was according to the French mode of that period. A frock coat +of silver cloth, a sky blue vest and crimson velvet pantaloons, and +immense ruffles covered his long, sepulchral hands. A perruque with a +long tail, the nuptial crown, and a silver sword, which completed his +dress, confirmed the remark of one of our friends, who compared the +unfortunate bridegroom to a monkey on the rack. + +The dwarf and his affianced resembled each other as two drops of +water. Upon the head of the hump-backed bride also shone the marriage +crown. Her dress was of gold cloth of the most recent Parisian mode. +Their exterior, however, presented a single contrast which rendered +them still more ridiculous; for upon the wide face of the future wife +was a presumptuous smile, while the husband, suffering under some +recent sorrow, made the most frightful grimaces. + +In order better to distinguish the ugliness of this deformed couple, +there were placed upon the second seat of the sledge two children of +angelic beauty--one a girl of five years; the other, a boy of six to +eight. They both wore the ancient Russian costume, which in its +simplicity so well became the celestial sweetness of the countenance +of the rosy-cheeked girl, and the spiritual gayety which beamed from +the large black eyes of the boy. These children appeared destined to +serve as bridesboy and bridesmaid; and certainly Hymen could not have +made a better choice. + +"It is the daughter of the boyard Tscherkaski! It is the little Fedor +Menzikoff!" cried the crowd. + +A large number of sledges passed on. All those who occupied them were +disguised in the strangest manner. By the side of a coarse Kirghese +was a fashionable Parisien. Behind them a Chinese mandarin waited upon +a maiden Tyrolese. In the cortege could be seen not only the costumes +of all the tribes under the sceptre of Peter the Great, but of almost +every nation of Europe and Asia. The masquerade extended even to the +trappings of the horses and sledges. Some of the horses' heads wore +gilded horns of the stag and the elk, and others great wings, which +made them resemble the poet's idea of Pegasus. The last sledge in the +train worthily closed this fantastic procession. It was drawn by three +horses, and contained a single personage. Two horsemen, habited as +Turks, galloped by his side, and announced his high rank. His +thick-set figure was of the ordinary height, his face was full of a +spirit of gayety and frolic, and in the smile with which he responded +to the acclamations of the people could be perceived his satisfaction +in the preparations for the fête of the day. His dress was that of a +northern countryman, and he who had ever seen one would be at a loss +to say whether Peter the Great was an original or a copy. + +The countryman held in his hand a large gold-headed cane, and +tormented a tame bear, which, standing erect upon its hind feet, and +fulfilling the functions of lackey, was from time to time punished for +his unskilfulness, to the amusement of the people. + +The train arrived at the crystal palace; and although all had +descended from the sledges, none had crossed the threshold. Every one +appeared desirous to yield the first entrance to the bridegroom and +his partner, or to him who gave the feast. Prince Menzikoff and the +boyard at last advanced, bare-headed, into the presence of the Czar, +who was still occupied in teasing his bear to divert the multitude. + +"What are you waiting for?" he said, at the same time taking the cap +of the Prince, and replacing it upon his head. "Why these marks of +respect? Have you quite forgotten all the duties of gallantry in thus +permitting the happy couple to wait at the door of the marriage-house? +But I see--and if I did not see, the odors of the dishes and of the +brandy would be evidence of it--that you have well performed your +duties. With this conviction, Alexandre, that you have done well for +the palates of the guests by delicious dishes, and that my old +Tscherkaski does not permit me to have a doubt as to his performances +concerning the cellar--it is, I say, from these considerations that I +pardon you both for forgetting that I am and wish to be nothing more +to-day than Peter, the countryman, who has come to celebrate with his +friends the nuptials of a couple who love each other tenderly. Come, +let us hasten, lest the temperature of the marriage-palace cool our +dinner." + +"As your Majesty wishes," responded the Prince, respectfully. + +"Not Majesty," replied the Emperor, and in the same moment he ran to +excuse himself to the affianced for unintentionally causing them to +wait so long. + +They entered, and very soon the sound of music announced that they +were being seated at table. The Prince, at a sign from the Czar, +conducted the bride and bridegroom to the place of honor, and beside +them the two children. The rest took their places without distinction +of rank. The Holland ambassador sat next the Emperor, and in front of +him the boyard Tscherkaski, and Menzikoff sat next to Tscherkaski. + + +II. + +The conversation, at first grave and little animated, gradually became +more lively. The Czar was in a good humor, a thing which often +occurred at the dinner-table, if nowhere else. Peter the Countryman +was not slow to assail the embarrassed couple with pleasantries, some +more or less good, and others rather equivocal. He at last requested +the old patriarch, who was perspiring with fear at the anticipation of +the request, to repeat the discourse which he had pronounced to the +great pleasure of his Majesty. A noisy gayety filled the hall, and +outside it was at its height. At the moment in which the Emperor +offered a toast to the married couple, the cannon of ice was +discharged. It flew in pieces in every direction, and instead of +producing any serious sensation lest some accident might have +occurred, it only increased the tumultuous hilarity. The wines of +Champagne and Bourgogne ran in streams. The servants were hardly +sufficient to supply the thirst of the guests. The Czar ordered to +their assistance soldiers, who, taking half a dozen bottles under each +arm, rolled them as nine-pins upon the table--a circumstance which the +ambassador of the powerful states thought so remarkable that he +mentioned it in his report à la Haye. + +This intemperate drinking soon showed its effects upon the greater +part of the guests. Peter gave himself up completely to the +infatuation of the vine, and Menzikoff, who preserved his accustomed +sobriety, saw with inquietude the Czar swallow one after another +numerous glasses of Bourgogne. The face of the monarch became +foolish--the perspiration stood upon his forehead in large drops, and +in order to cool himself he took off his perruque, and placed it upon +the head of his neighbor the ambassador, who received the insult +respectfully, but without power to repress a deep sigh. However +pleasant all this might have been, Menzikoff took no part in the +enjoyments of the society, troubled as he was through fears founded +upon an intimate knowledge of the character of his master. Experience +had too often taught him how easily the Czar passed from humor and +hilarity to anger and violence. He knew that such changes took place +almost invariably after indulgences of the bottle, and that a single +word--a single gesture--threw him into a passion that made him +detestable, while by nature he was generous and noble. The event +proved how reasonable were the presentiments of Menzikoff. + +The festival was coming to an end. The Czar arose and commanded +silence. + +"Hitherto," he said, in smiling, "we have only drank to the health of +the happy pair. It is time to give them a substantial token of our +friendship. Since I am myself the originator of this joyful marriage, +I must give the first example--so take that, Alexandre; put in it what +I told you, and pass it round." At these words the Emperor pointed to +a little silver basket that lay on the table. + +Menzikoff took the basket, and drawing from his bosom a draft for 8000 +roubles, and emptying his own purse, passed the basket to his neighbor +the boyard. The latter seemed to reflect a moment, took from his +pocket a handful of gold and silver, and with an air of contempt, cast +an old rouble into the basket, and passed it from him. + +This circumstance did not escape the notice of the Emperor. His brow +darkened, but soon his gayety returned, and he said, smiling, to +Menzikoff: + +"You see, Alexandre, the prudence of our Prince de Tscherkaski. He +gives only a rouble. He means to say by this that he has no very +particular interest in the married parties. It is only a ruse on his +part in order to remove any jealousy that a greater gift might awaken. +I will wager you that to-morrow he will send a present to the young +woman more becoming her rank and position." + +"Your Majesty would lose the wager," responded Tscherkaski, in a +haughty tone. "The farces of fools and jugglers have never amused me, +and I have always pitied those who know not better how to employ their +time than to lose it with such creatures. Thus my contribution is at +the same time conformed to the circumstances and to my rank, since I +do not appreciate beyond measure the office of chamberlain, with which +you have gratified me." + +The Emperor at first smiled at these words, but his countenance became +more stern. + +"Our chamberlain," said he, after a pause, "gets angry to get calm +again. He must be in a bad humor to-day. I hope he will change his +language by the time that another affair occurs, which will interest +him more nearly." + +Tscherkaski did or wished not to understand the words of the Czar. His +wandering and disdainful eyes glanced at the basket offered to the +bride and bridegroom. It was filled with gold, rings, bracelets, +jewels, and other precious gifts. The universal happiness of the +evening had removed from the mind of the Czar the remembrance of the +murmurings of the boyard, and Menzikoff had hardly taken his place +when the Emperor whispered to him: + +"The dispositions you have made to-day in regard to this festivity do +you honor. You have perfectly agreed with my own taste in such +matters. You have surpassed my expectations." + +"It is not I alone," humbly replied the Prince. "The boyard as well as +myself----" + +"Without doubt, you and he have perfectly fulfilled my intentions. I +take not into the account the silver rouble, however," added the Czar, +"let that be as it may, ten years hence this place shall be the scene +of a similar festivity; and to let you see how I can surpass you, I +will myself take charge of the preparations. You may smile, Alexandre, +but you will be forced to admit, that without your aid I can arrange a +nuptial feast. It is besides the less difficult, since the essentials +are already decided upon--the persons to be married." + +These words were overheard by those present, and a profound silence +ensued. + +"Would I be guilty of too much curiosity," said Menzikoff, "if...." + +"Ah! you wish to know the young couple," exclaimed the Emperor. "I +ought, perhaps, to leave you in ten years' uncertainty; but thanks to +this brilliant society whom I invite from to-day, you will know now. +Alexis Nicolajewitz," continued he, in addressing the boyard, "you +asked me the other day for certain lands near Tula, situated between +the boundaries of your property and those of Prince Menzikoff." + +"I did, and your Majesty has thought fit to refuse them." + +"I refused them, because I had reserved them for another. I wish to +give them as a dowry to your daughter." + +The astonishment of the boyard was great He attempted to speak. + +"Silence! I have attached to the grant one condition," said the Czar. + +"Your Majesty will order nothing contrary to my conscience and the +honor of my house. I humbly ask, then...." + +"The condition is, that your daughter shall receive her husband at my +hands." + +"I have sworn upon the tomb of my wife," responded the boyard, after a +pause, "that my daughter shall espouse him only whom she herself +freely chooses. But, she is still a child,... and in ten years...." + +"Indeed," interrupted the Emperor, whose countenance was sorrowful, +"if your daughter should not accept him whom I would propose, the +lands will yet belong to her; are you content now?" + +"And the rank, the condition of the parties?" + +"They are to be the same." + +"A single word from our gracious sovereign, is at any time sufficient +to destroy all inequalities of rank," said one of the guests. + +"You are right, Kurakin," returned the boyard; "as to myself, I rely +upon the word of our monarch, who has just said that there is nothing +to equalize. Every one to his opinion upon that which concerns him." + +"There is a tone of very high pride in your discourse, Alexis +Nicolajewitz," responded Peter, who repressed his anger with +difficulty. "I have a great mind not to name to you to-day the husband +which I, your sovereign, have chosen for the daughter of one of my +subjects. But let your insolent vanity subside. Your future son-in-law +is of birth equal with your's and your daughter's; he is the only son +of a man whom I dearly esteem and honor with distinguished favors. I +say it in his presence, and it is my desire he should be honored by +others. In a word, your future son-in-law is the companion of your +daughter at the feast to-day; he is the little Fedor Menzikoff." + +This name came to the ears of the boyard as a thunder-clap, so great +was his astonishment. The assembly waited in vain his response, but he +was silent. + +"Ah well, Alexis," continued the Czar, "if these two manors are hardly +worth thanks, why should I wait for you to consent to the proposed +union?" + +All eyes were directed to the boyard. No one spoke, and the Czar's +impatience yielded to a furious anger. + +"And what motive," he at last said, "induces you to reject this gift?" + +"The very condition that you have yourself made, gracious sovereign." + +"The condition?" + +"Yes, that condition which requires my daughter to give her hand to +the son of Prince Menzikoff. It can never be fulfilled. It is +impossible to accept the gift of your Majesty." + +"And why?" fiercely demanded Peter. + +"The Czar orders--his servant must obey. Prince Menzikoff is the son +of a serf, but the daughter of Tscherkaski shall never marry a man of +so mean extraction," and the blood mounted to the brow of the boyard. + +"Insolent dog!" exclaimed Peter, striking his hand upon the table. "Do +you not know that a single word from me can make ten serfs ten +Princes, and the least among them superior to you in rank and dignity. +Oh! by my patron, the prince of the Apostles, why should I patiently +listen to this haughty descendant of the brigands of the Caucasus. I +can do more than this, proud boyard; by a breath I can degrade thee +and all thy tribe." + +Hitherto Tscherkaski held his eyes downward, but now he lifted them +and looked steadily at his monarch. + +"Your look braves and menaces me," thundered the Czar, beside himself, +and shaking his fist towards the boyard. "Reply if you dare, and it is +not impossible that your rebellious head rolls from your body this +very night, this hour, this minute." + +"Certainly, I do not doubt your power. How could I doubt the power of +one who, on the same day, without pity and without humanity, cut off +the heads of thousands. Surely, the man who tramples under his feet +those who were once the support of his crown and authority; who has +not only stained his own hands in their blood, but that of his own +son--surely he would not hesitate to destroy an old servant, the +necessary but guilty instrument of his past vengeance. Come! the arm +that was steeped in the massacre of the Kremlin, can hardly take a +redder hue from the blood of an unimportant slave." + +Peter looked with burning eyes upon his adversary. He arose, as by an +impulse, and inclining his head forward, seemed to be engaged in +discovering the meaning of those vehement words. But he was +endeavoring to stay the tempest that was sweeping over his heart. Some +minutes elapsed before he recovered himself from those bitter +recollections; and looking with an affected air of calmness and +dignity upon the astonished assembly, he said-- + +"Faithful Russians! you have heard the serious accusation brought by a +subject against his monarch. Whatever may be the number of the +Strelitz fallen in an unhappy day, I am not at all concerned about it; +they died for the safety and well-being of sacred Russia. If innocent +blood flowed at the Kremlin--if, among so many guilty, the sword +severed the head of one innocent, I am ready to defend the act. It was +from me that the whole transaction originated; it is mine only, and I +take the responsibility of it. I had no other means of saving our +country from the barbarism that encumbered it, and impeded its +elevation to the rank which it should occupy among the nations of +Europe. As the bold boyard has truly said, it is I who have brandished +the sword, and I ask who is the Russian who dares cite me to his +tribunal?" + +The anger of the Czar was rekindled, and he began anew. + +"It is to the tutelary patron of the empire that I am indebted for the +power of having executed a resolution which I judged necessary. A +disease was undermining the constitution of the empire--the evil was +terrible and appeared incurable: like a skilful physician I at once +employed the medicine which could alone be successful in arresting the +progress of the disease. Could I, in the moment of execution, place +the instrument in the trembling hands of a charlatan? No; it was my +own hand that held the knife. I felt the wounds which I made; and I +say to-day, before God and man, it is I to whom the action belongs, +and for which I am ready to answer on earth and on high. Now, as to +you, Tscherkaski, you have audaciously rejected the favor I was +willing to grant. You have not even feared to accuse your sovereign in +the midst of his subjects. If my ancestors were alive your white head +would fall from the block, but far from me the thought of shedding the +blood of an old brother in arms. Retract, and you may pass your days +tranquilly on your own lands. If not," and the voice of the Czar grew +more stern, "I send you this night into eternal exile." + +"Is it permitted me to take with me my daughter?" cooly asked the old +man. + +"The child belongs to its parent," replied the Emperor, surprised and +hesitating. + +"Then, Alexander Michailowitz," said the boyard to Menzikoff, "give me +two of those bear-skins you placed upon the ice-chairs; it is all that +is necessary." + +"Take him away at once; we have had enough of his arrogance and +audacity!" exclaimed the furious Peter, and he repelled Menzikoff, who +was endeavoring to intercede for the boyard. + +"And whither?" asked the prince with a trembling voice. + +"To Bareson upon the Ob----No; to Woksarski upon the Frozen sea," +added Peter, as he beheld the smiling and triumphing air of the +boyard. + +A few moments after the old man and his daughter entered a sledge. A +party of horsemen accompanied them, and away they went with the +swiftness of an eagle towards the dreary regions of the north-west. + +Ten years later, Prince Menzikoff, despoiled of his goods, his honors, +and his rank, came to share the exile of the boyard. Similar +misfortune reconciled two enemies, and the union of their children +accomplished the prediction of the Czar. + + + + +POLITENESS: IN PARIS AND LONDON. + +BY SIR HENRY LYTTON BULWER. + + +"Je me recommande à vous," was said to me the other day by an old +gentleman dressed in very tattered garments, who was thus soliciting a +"sou." The old man was a picture: his long gray hairs fell gracefully +over his shoulders. Tall--he was so bent forward as to take with a +becoming air the position in which he had placed himself. One hand was +pressed to his heart, the other held his hat. His voice, soft and +plaintive, did not want a certain dignity. In that very attitude, and +in that very voice, a nobleman of the ancient "régime" might have +solicited a pension from the Duc de Choiseul in the time of Louis XV. +I confess that I was the more struck by the manner of the venerable +suppliant, from the strong contrast which it formed with the demeanor +of his countrymen in general: for it is rare, now-a-days, I +acknowledge, to meet a Frenchman with the air which Lawrence Sterne +was so enchanted with during the first month, and so wearied with at +the expiration of the first year, which he spent in France. That look +and gesture of the "petit marquis," that sort of studied elegance, +which, at first affected by the court, became at last natural to the +nation, exist no longer, except among two or three "grands seigneurs" +in the Faubourg St. Germain, and as many beggars usually to be found +on the Boulevards. To ask with grace, to beg with as little +self-humility as possible, here perchance is the fundamental idea +which led, in the two extremes of society, to the same results: but +things vicious in their origin are sometimes agreeable in their +practice. + +"Hail, ye small sweet courtesies of life, far smoother do ye make the +road of it--like grace and beauty, which beget inclination at first +sight, 'tis ye who open the door and let the stranger in." I had the +Sentimental Journey in my hand--it was open just at this passage, when +I landed not very long ago on the quay of that town which Horace +Walpole tells us caused him more astonishment than any other he had +met with in his travels. I mean Calais. "Hail, ye small sweet +courtesies of life," was I still muttering to myself, as gently +pushing by a spruce little man, who had already scratched my nose and +nearly poked out my eyes with cards of "Hotel ...," I attempted to +pass on towards the inn of Mons. Dessin. "Nom de D...," said the +Commissionaire, as I touched his elbow, "Nom de D..., Monsieur, _Je +suis Francais_! il ne faut pas me pousser, moi ... _je suis +Francais_!"--and this he said, contracting his brow, and touching a +moustache that only wanted years and black wax to make it truly +formidable. I thought that he was going to offer me his own card +instead of Mr. Meurice's. This indeed would have been little more than +what happened to a friend of mine not long ago. He was going last year +from Dieppe to Paris. He slept at Rouen, and on quitting the house the +following morning found fault with some articles in the bill presented +to him. "Surely there is some mistake here," said he, pointing to the +account. "Mistake, sir," said the _aubergiste_, adjusting his +shoulders with the important air of a man who was going to burthen +them with a quarrel--"mistake, sir, what do you mean?--a mistake--do +you think I charge a sou more than is just? Do you mean to say that? +_Je suis officier, Monsieur, officier Francais, et j'insiste sur ce +que vous me rendiez raison!!_" Now, it is undoubtedly very pleasant to +an Englishman, who has the same idea of a duel that a certain French +marquise had of a lover, when, on her death-bed, she said to her +grand-daughter, "Je ne vous dis pas, ma chère, de ne point avoir +d'amans; je me rappelle ma jeunesse. Il faut seulement n'en prendre +jamais qui soient au-dessous de votre état"--it is doubtless very +unpleasant to an Englishman, who cares much less about fighting than +about the person he fights with, to have his host present him a bill +in one hand and a pistol in the other. In one of the islands which we +ought to discover, whenever the king sneezes all his courtiers are +expected to sneeze also. The country of course imitates the court, and +the empire is at once affected with a general cold. Sneezing here +then becomes an art and an accomplishment. One person prizes himself +on sneezing more gracefully than another, and, by a matter of general +consent, all nations who have not an harmonious manner of vibrating +their nostrils are justly condemned as savages and barbarians. There +is no doubt that the people of this island are right; and there is no +doubt that we are right in considering every people with different +usages from ourselves of very uncivilized and uncomfortable behavior. +We then, decidedly, are the people who ought justly to be deemed the +most polite. + +For instance--you arrive at Paris: how striking the difference between +the reception you receive at your hotel, and that you would find in +London! In London, arrive in your carriage! (_that_ I grant is +necessary)--the landlord meets you at the door, surrounded by his +anxious attendants; he bows profoundly when you alight--calls loudly +for every thing you want, and seems shocked at the idea of your +waiting an instant for the merest trifle you can possibly _imagine_ +that you desire. Now try your Paris hotel--you enter the +courtyard--the proprietor, if he happen to be there, receives you with +careless indifference, and either accompanies you saunteringly +himself, or orders some one to accompany you to the apartments which, +on first seeing you, he determined you should have. It is useless to +expect another. If you find any fault with this apartment, if you +express any wish that it had this little thing, that it had not that, +do not for one moment imagine that your host is likely to say, with an +eager air, that he "will see what can be done"--that he "would do a +great deal to please so respectable a gentleman." In short, do not +suppose him for one moment likely to pour forth any of those little +civilities with which the lips of your English innkeeper would +overflow. On the contrary, be prepared for his lifting up his eyes, +and shrugging up his shoulders, (the shrug is not the courtier-like +shrug of antique days,) and telling you that the apartment is as you +see it, that it is for Monsieur to make up his mind whether he take it +or not. The whole is the affair of the guest, and remains a matter of +perfect indifference to the host. Your landlady, it is true, is not +quite so haughty on these occasions. But you are indebted for her +smile rather to the coquetry of the beauty, than to the civility of +the hostess. She will tell you, adjusting her head-dress in the mirror +standing upon the chimney-piece in the little "salon" she +recommends--"que Monsieur s'y trouvera fort bien, qu'un milord +Anglais, qu'un prince Russe, ou qu'un colonel du ----ième de dragons, +a occupé cette même chambre"--and that there is just by an excellent +restaurateur and a "cabinet de lecture"--and then--her head-dress +being quite in order--the lady expanding her arms with a gentle smile, +says, "Mais après tout, c'est à Monsieur à se décider." It is this +which makes your French gentleman so loud in praise of English +politeness. One was expatiating to me the other day on the admirable +manners of the English. + +"I went," said he, "to the Duke of Devonshire's, '_dans mon pauvre +fiacre_:' never shall I forget the respect with which a stately +gentleman, gorgeously apparelled, opened the creaking door, let down +the steps, and--courtesy of very courtesies--picked, actually picked, +the dirty straws of the ignominious vehicle that I descended from, off +my shoes and stockings." This occurred to the French gentleman at the +Duke of Devonshire's. But let your English gentleman visit a French +"grand seigneur!" He enters the antechamber from the grand escalier. +The servants are at a game of dominos, from which his entrance hardly +disturbs them, and fortunate is he if any one conduct him with a +careless lazy air to the "salon." So, if you go to Boivin's, or if you +go to Howel's and James's, with what politeness, with what celerity, +with what respect your orders are received at the great man's of +Waterloo Place--with what an easy nonchalance you are treated in the +Rue de la Paix! All this is quite true; but there are things more +shocking than all this. I know a gentleman, who called the other day +on a French lady of his acquaintance, who was under the hands of her +"coiffeur." The artiste of the hair was there, armed cap-à-pié, in all +the glories of national-guardism, brandishing his comb with the grace +and dexterity with which he would have wielded a sword, and +recounting, during the operation of the toilette--now a story of +"_Monsieur son Capitaine_"--now an anecdote, equally interesting, of +"_Monsieur son Colonel_"--now a tale of "_Monsieur son Roi_, that +excellent man, on whom he was going to mount guard that very evening." +My unhappy friend's face still bore the most awful aspect of dismay, +as he told his story. "By G--d, there's a country for you," said he; +"can property be safe for a moment in such a country? There can be no +religion, no morality, with such manners--I shall order post-horses +immediately." + +I did not wonder at my friend--at his horror for so fearful a +familiarity. What are our parents always, and no doubt wisely +repeating to us? "You should learn, my dear, to keep _a certain kind +of persons_ at their proper distance." + +In no circumstances are we to forget this important lesson. If the +clouds hurled their thunders upon our heads, if the world tumbled +topsy-turvy about our ears, + + "Si fractus illabatur orbis," + +it is to find the well-bred Englishman as it would have found the just +Roman--and, above all things, it is not to derange the imperturbable +disdain with which he is enfeoffed to his inferiors. Lady D. was going +to Scotland: a violent storm arose. Her ladyship was calmly dressing +her hair, when the steward knocked at the cabin-door. "My lady," said +the man, "I think it right to tell you there is every chance of our +being drowned." "Do not talk to me, you impertinent fellow, +about drowning," said her aristocratical ladyship, perfectly +unmoved--"that's the captain's business, and not mine." + +Our great idea of civility is, that the person who is poor should be +exceedingly civil to the person who is wealthy: and this is the +difference between the neighboring nations. Your Frenchman admits no +one to be quite his equal--your Englishman worships every one richer +than himself as undeniably his superior. Judge us from our servants +and our shopkeepers, it is true we are the politest people in the +world. The servants, who are paid well, and the shopkeepers, who sell +high--scrape, and cringe, and smile. There is no country where those +who have wealth are treated so politely by those to whom it goes; but +at the same time there is no country where those who are well off live +on such cold, and suspicious, and ill-natured, and uncivil terms among +themselves. + +The rich man who travels in France murmurs at every inn and at every +shop; not only is he treated no better for being a rich man--he is +treated worse in many places, from the idea that because he is rich he +is likely to give himself airs. But if the lower classes are more rude +to the higher classes than with us, the higher classes in France are +far less rude to one another. The dandy who did not look at an old +acquaintance, or who looked impertinently at a stranger, would have +his nose pulled and his body run through with a small-sword--or +damaged by a pistol-bullet--before the evening was well over. Where +every man wishes to be higher than he is, there you find people +insolent to their fellows, and exacting obsequiousness from their +inferiors--where men will allow no one to be superior to themselves, +there you see them neither civil to those above them, nor impertinent +to those beneath them, nor yet very courteous to those in the same +station. The manners, checkered in one country by softness and +insolence, are not sufficiently courteous and gentle in the other. +Time was in France, (it existed in England to a late date,) when +politeness was thought to consist in placing every one at his ease. A +quiet sense of their own dignity rendered persons insensible to the +fear of its being momentarily forgotten. Upon these days rested the +shadow of a bygone chivalry, which accounted courtesy as one of the +virtues. The civility of that epoch, as contrasted with the civility +of ours, was not the civility of the domestic or the tradesman, meant +to pamper the pride of their employer, but the civility of the noble +and the gentleman, meant to elevate the modesty of those who +considered themselves in an inferior state. Corrupted by the largesses +of an expensive and intriguing court, the "grand seigneur," after the +reign of Louis XIV., became over-civil and servile to those above him. +Beneath the star of the French minister beat the present heart of the +British mercer--and softly did the great man smile on those from whom +he had any thing to gain. As whatever was taught at Versailles was +learnt in the Rue St. Denis, when the courtier had the air of a +solicitor, every one aped the air of the courtier; and the whole +nation with one hand expressing a request, and the other an +obligation, might have been taken in the attitude of the graceful old +beggar, whose accost made such an impression upon me. + +But a new nobility grew up in rivalry to the elder one; and as the +positions of society became more complicated and uncertain, a supreme +civility to some was seen side by side with a sneering insolence to +others--a revolution in manners, which embittered as it hastened the +revolution of opinions. Thus the manners of the French in the time of +Louis XVI. had one feature of similarity with ours at present. A +moneyed aristocracy was then rising into power in France, as a moneyed +aristocracy is now rising into power in England. This is the +aristocracy which demands obsequious servility--which is jealous and +fearful of being treated with disrespect; this is the aristocracy +which is haughty, insolent, and susceptible; which dreams of affronts +and gives them: this is the aristocracy which measures with an +uncertain eye the height of an acquaintance; this is the aristocracy +which cuts and sneers--this aristocracy, though the aristocracy of the +revolution of July, is now too powerless in France to be more than +vulgar in its pretensions. French manners, then, if they are not +gracious, are at all events not insolent; while ours, unhappily, +testify on one hand the insolence, while they do not on the other +represent the talent and the grace of that society which presided over +the later suppers of the old regime. We have no Monsieur de +Fitz-James, who might be rolled in a gutter all his life, as was said +by a beautiful woman of his time, "without ever contracting a spot of +dirt." We have no Monsieur de Narbonne, who stops in the fiercest of a +duel to pick up the ruffled rose that had slipped in a careless moment +from his lips during the graceful conflict! You see no longer in +France that noble air, that "_great manner_," as it was called, by +which the old nobility strove to keep up the distinction between +themselves and their worse-born associates to the last, and which of +course those associates _assiduously imitated_. + +That manner is gone: the French, so far from being a polite nation at +the present day, want that easiness of behavior which is the first +essential to politeness. Every man you meet is occupied with +maintaining his dignity, and talks to you of _his_ position. There is +an evident effort and struggle, I will not say to appear better than +you are, but to appear _all_ that _you are_, and to allow no person to +think that you consider him better than you. Persons, no longer +ranked by classes, take each by themselves an individual place in +society. They are so many atoms, not forming a congruous or harmonious +whole. They are too apt to strut forward singly, and to say with a +great deal of action, and a great deal of emphasis, "I am--_nobody_." +The French are no longer polite, but in the French nation, as in every +nation, there is an involuntary and traditionary respect which hallows +what is gone-by; and among the marvels of modern France is a religion +which ranks an agreeable smile and a graceful bow as essential virtues +of its creed. + +Nor does the Père Enfantin stand alone. There is something touching in +the language of the old "seigneur," who, placed as it were between two +epochs, looking backwards and forwards to the graces of past times and +the virtues of new, thus expresses himself: + +"Les progrès de la lumière et de la liberté ont certainment fait faire +de grands pas à la raison humaine; mais aussi dans sa route, +n'a-t-elle rien perdu? Moi qui ne suis pas un de ces opiniâtres +prôneurs de ce bon vieux temp qui n'est plus, je ne puis m'empêcher de +regretter ce bon goût, cette grâce, cette fleur d'enjouement et +d'urbanité qui chassait de la societé tout ennui en permettant au bon +sens de sourire et à la sagesse de se parer. Aujourd 'hui beaucoup de +gens ressemblent à un propriétaire morose, qui, ne songeant qu'a +l'utile, bannirait de son jardin les fleurs, et ne voudrait y voir que +du blé, des foins et des fruits." + + + + +From Fraser's Magazine. + +THE LION IN THE TOILS. + +BY C. ASTOR BRISTED. + + +What followed the events related in our last number gave Ashburner a +lesson against making up his mind too hastily on any points of +character, national or individual. A fortnight after his arrival at +Oldport he would have said that the Americans were the most +communicative people he had ever fallen in with, and particularly, +that the men of "our set" were utterly incapable of keeping secret any +act or purpose of their lives, any thing that had happened, or was +going to happen. _Now_ he was surprised at the discretion shown by the +men cognizant of the late row (and they comprised all the fashionables +left in the place, and some of the outsiders, like Simpson); their +dexterity and careful management, first, to prevent the affair from +coming to a fight, and then, if that were impossible, to keep it from +publicity until the parties were safe over the border into Canada, +where they might "shoot each other like gentlemen," as a young +gentleman from Alabama expressed it. Sedley himself, whose +officiousness had precipitated the quarrel, did all in his power to +prevent any further mischief, and was as sedulous for the promotion of +_silencio_ and _misterio_, as if he had been leader of a chorus of +Venetian Senators. _The Sewer_ reporters, who, in their eagerness to +collect every bit of gossip and scandal, would have given the ears +which an outraged community had permitted them to retain for a +knowledge of the fracas and its probable consequences, never had the +least inkling of it. Indeed, so quietly was the whole managed, that +Ashburner never made out the cause of the old feud, nor was able to +form any opinion on the probability of its final issue. On the former +point he could only come to the conclusion from what he heard, that +Hunter had been mythologizing, as his wont was, something to Benson's +discredit several years before, and had been trying to make mischief +between him and some of his friends or relations; but what the exact +offence was, whether Sumner was involved in the quarrel from the +first, and if so, to what extent; and whether the legend about the +horse was a part of, or only an addition to the original +grievance;--on these particulars he remained in the dark. As to the +latter, he knew that Hunter had not challenged Benson, and that he had +left the place, but whether to look up a friend or not, no one seemed +to know, or if they did, no one cared to tell. At any rate, he did not +return for a week and more, during which time Ashburner had full +opportunity of studying the behavior and feelings of a man with a duel +in prospect. + +Those who defend and advocate the practice of duelling, if asked to +explain the motives leading a gentleman to fight, would generally +answer somewhat to this effect: in the first place, personal courage +which induces a man to despise danger and death, in comparison with +any question affecting his own honor, or that of those connected with +him; secondly, a respect for the opinion of the society in which he +moves, which opinion, to a certain extent, supplies and fixes the +definition of honor. Hence it would follow that, given a man who is +neither physically brave, nor bound by any particular respect for the +opinion of his daily associates, and the world he moves in, such a man +would not be likely to give or accept a challenge. The case under +Ashburner's observation afforded a palpable contradiction to this +conclusion. + +Henry Benson was not personally valorous; what courage he possessed +was rather of a moral than a physical kind. Where he appeared to be +daring and heedless, it proved on examination to be the result of +previous knowledge and practice, which gave him confidence and armed +him with impunity. Thus he would drive his trotters at any thing, and +shave through "tight places" on rough and crowded roads, his +whiffle-trees tipping and his hubs grazing the surrounding wheels in a +way that at first made Ashburner shudder in spite of himself; but it +was because his experience in wagon-driving enabled him to measure +distances within half-an-inch, and to catch an available opening +immediately. On the other hand, in their pedestrian trips across +country in Westchester, he was very chary of jumping fences or ditches +till he had ascertained by careful practice his exact capacity for +that sort of exercise. He would ride his black horse, Daredevil, who +was the terror of all the servants and women in his neighborhood, +because he had made himself perfectly acquainted with all the animal's +stock of tricks, and was fully prepared for them as they came; but he +never went the first trip in a new steamboat or railroad line. He ate +and drank many things considered unhealthy, because he understood +exactly from experience what and how much he could take without +injury; but you could not have bribed him to sit fifteen minutes in +wet boots. In short, he was a man who took excellent care of himself, +_canny_ as a Scot or a New-Englander, loving the good things of life, +and not disposed to hazard them on slight grounds. Then as to the +approbation or disapprobation of those about him, he was almost +entirely careless of it. On any point beyond the cut of a coat, the +decoration of a room, the concoction of a dish, or the merits of a +horse, there were not ten people in his own set whose opinion he +heeded. To the remarks of foreigners he was a little more sensitive, +but even these he was more apt to retort upon by a _tu quoque_ than to +be influenced by. Add to all this, that he had the convenient excuse +of being a communicant at church, which, in America, implies something +like a formal profession of religion. Yet at this time he was not only +willing, but most eager to fight. The secret lay in his state of +recklessness. A moment of passion had overturned all his instincts, +principles, and common-sense, and inspired him with the feverish +desire to pay off his old debts to Storey Hunter, at whatever cost. +And as neither the possession of extraordinary personal courage, nor a +high sense of conventional honor, nor a respect for the opinion of +society, necessarily induces a feeling of recklessness, so neither +does the absence of these qualities prevent the presence of this +feeling, exactly the most favorable one to make a man engage in a +duel. Moralists have called such a condition one of temporary madness, +and it has probably as good grounds to be classed with insanity as +many of the pleas known to medical and criminal jurisprudence. + +Be this as it may, Ashburner had a good opportunity of observing--and +the example, it is to be hoped, was of service to him--the +demoralization induced upon a man by the mere impending possibility of +a duel. Benson seemed careless what he did. He danced frantically, and +drank so much at all hours, that the Englishman, though pretty +strong-headed himself, wondered how he could keep sober. He was openly +seen reading _The Blackguard's Own_, a weekly of _The Sewer_ species. +He made up trotting-matches with every man in the place who owned a +"fast crab," and with some acquaintances at a distance, by +correspondence. He kept studiously out of the way of his wife and +child, lest their influence might shake his determination. All this +time he practised pistol-shooting most religiously. Neither of the +belligerents had ever given a public proof of skill in this line. +Hunter's ability was not known, and Benson's shooting so uncertain and +variable when any one looked on, that those in the secret suspected +him of playing dark and disguising his hand. All which added to the +interest of the affair. + +But when eleven days had passed without signs or tidings of Hunter, +and it seemed pretty clear that he had gone away "for good," Benson +started up one morning, and went off himself to New-York, at the same +time with Harrison, whose brief and not very joyous holidays had come +to a conclusion. He accompanied the banker, in accordance with the +true American principle, always to have a lion for your companion when +you can; and as Harrison was still a man of note in Wall-street, +however small might be his influence in his own household, Benson +liked to be seen with him, and to talk any thing--even stocks--to him, +though he had no particular interest in the market at that time. But +whether an American is in business himself or not, the subject of +business is generally an interesting one to him, and he is always +ready to gossip about dollars. The unexampled material development of +the United States is only maintained by a condition of society which +requires every man to take a share in assisting that development, and +the most frivolous and apparently idle men are found sharp enough in +pecuniary matters. This trait of national character lies on the +surface, and foreigners have not been slow to notice it, and to +draw from it unfavorable conclusions. The supplementary and +counterbalancing features of character to be observed in these very +people,--that it is rather the fun of making the money than the money +itself which they care for; that when it is made, they spend it +freely, and part with it more readily than they earned it; that they +are more liberal both in their public and private charities +(considering the amount of their wealth, and of the claims upon it) +than any nation in the world,--all these traits strangers have been +less ready to dwell upon and do justice to. + +Benson was gone, and Ashburner stayed. Why? He had been at Oldport +nearly a month; the place was not particularly beautiful, and the +routine of amusements not at all to his taste. Why did he stay? He had +his secret, too. + +It is a melancholy but indisputable fact, that even in the most +religious and moral country in the world, the bulwark of evangelical +faith, and the home of the domestic virtues (meaning, of course, +England), a great many mothers who have daughters to marry, are not so +anxious about the real welfare, temporal and eternal, of their young +ladies, as solicitous that they should acquire riches, titles, and +other vanities of the world,--nay, that many of the daughters +themselves act as if their everlasting happiness depended on their +securing in matrimony a proper combination of the aforesaid vanities, +and put out of account altogether the greatest prize a woman can +gain--the possession of a true and loving heart, joined to a wise +head. Now, Ashburner being a very good _parti_ at home, and having run +the gauntlet of one or two London seasons, had become very skittish of +mammas, and still more so of daughters. He regarded the unmarried +female as a most dangerous and altogether to be avoided animal, and +when you offered to introduce him to a young lady, looked about as +grateful as if you had invited him to go up in a balloon. He expected +to be rather more persecuted, if any thing, in America than he had +been at home; and when he met Miss Vanderlyn at Ravenswood, if his +first thought had found articulate expression, it would probably have +been something like this:--"Now that young woman is going to set her +cap at me; what a bore it will be!" + +Never was a man more mistaken in his anticipations. He encountered +many pretty girls, not at all timid, ready enough to talk, and flirty +enough among their own set, but not one of them threw herself at him, +and least of all did Miss Vanderlyn. Not that the young lady was the +victim of a romantic attachment, for she was perfectly fancy free and +heart whole; nor, on the other hand, that she was at all insensible to +the advantages of matrimony, for she kept a very fair lookout in that +direction, and had, if not absolutely down on her books, at least +engraved on the recording tablets of her mind, four distinct young +gentlemen, combining the proper requisites, any of whom would suit her +pretty well, and one of whom--she didn't much care which--she was +pretty well resolved to marry within the next two years. And as she +was stylish and rather handsome, clever enough, and tolerably provided +with the root of all evil, besides having that fortunate good humor +and accommodating disposition which go so far towards making a woman a +belle and a favorite, there was a sufficient probability that before +the expiration of that time, one of the four would offer himself. But +all her calculations were founded on shrewd common sense; her +imagination took no flights, and her aspirations only extended to the +ordinary and possible. That this young and strange Englishman, +travelling as a part of education, the son of a great man, and +probably betrothed by proxy to some great man's daughter, or going +into parliament to be a great man himself, and remain a bachelor for +the best part of his life,--that between him and herself there should +by any thing in common, any point of union which could make even a +flirtation feasible, never entered into her head. She would as soon +have expected the King of Dahomey to send an embassy with ostrich +feathers in their caps, and rings in their noses, formally to ask her +hand in marriage. Nay, even if the incredible event had come to pass, +and the young stranger had taken the initiative, even then she would +not by any means have jumped at the bait. For in the first place, she +was fully imbued with the idea that the Vanderlyns were quite as good +as any other people in the world, and that (the ordinary conceit of an +American belle) to whatever man she might give her hand, all the honor +would come from her side, and all the gain be his; therefore she would +not have cared to come into a family who might suspect her of having +inveigled their heir, and look down upon her as something beneath +them, because she came from a country where there were no noblemen. +Secondly, there is a very general feeling among the best classes in +America, that no European worth any thing at home comes to America to +get married. The idea is evidently an imperfect generalization, and +liable to exceptions; but the prevalence of it shows more modesty in +the "Upper Ten's" appreciation of themselves than they usually have +credit for. As soon, therefore, as a foreigner begins to pay attention +to a young lady in good society, it is _primâ facie_ ground of +suspicion against him. The reader will see from all this how little +chance there was of Ashburner's running any danger from the unmarried +women about him. With the married ones the case was somewhat +different. It may be remembered, that at his first introduction to +Mrs. Henry Benson, the startling contrast she exhibited to the +adulation he had been accustomed to receive, totally put him down; and +that afterwards she softened off the rough edge of her satire, and +became very _piquante_ and pleasing to him. And as she greatly amused +him, so he began to suspect that she was rather proud of having such a +lion in her train, as no doubt she was, notwithstanding the somewhat +rough and cub-like stage of his existence. So he began to hang about +her, and follow her around in his green awkward way, and look large +notes of admiration at her; and she was greatly diverted, and not at +all displeased at his attentions. I don't know how far it might have +gone; Ashburner was a very correct and moral young man, as the world +goes, but rather because he had generally business enough on hand to +keep him out of mischief, than from any high religious principle; and +I am afraid that in spite of the claims of propriety, and honor, and +friendship, and the avenging Zeus of hospitality, and every other +restraining motive, he would have fallen very much in love with Mrs. +Benson but for one thing. + +He was hopelessly in love with Mrs. Harrison. How or when it began he +couldn't tell; but he found himself under the influence imperceptibly, +as a man feels himself intoxicated. Sometimes he fancied that there +had been a kind of love at first sight--that with the first glimpse he +had of her, something in his heart told him that that woman was +destined to exert a mastery over him; yet his feelings must have +undergone a change and growth, for he would not now have listened to +any one speaking of her as Benson had done at that time. _Why_ it was, +he could still less divine. His was certainly not the blind +admiration which sees no fault in its idol; he saw her faults plainly +enough, and yet could not help himself. He often asked himself how it +happened that if he _was_ doomed to endure an illicit and unfortunate +passion, it was not for Mrs. Benson rather than Mrs. Harrison; for the +former was at least as clever, certainly handsomer, palpably younger, +indubitably more lady-like, and altogether a higher style of woman. +Yet with this just appreciation of them, there was no comparison as to +his feelings towards the two. The one amused and delighted him when +present; the other, in her absence, was ever rising up before his +mind's eye, and drawing him after her; and when they met, his +heart beat quicker, and he was more than usually awkward and +confused.--Perhaps there had been, in the very origin of his +entanglement and passion, some guiding impulse of honor, some sense +that Benson had been his friend and entertainer, and that to Harrison +he was under no personal obligations. For there are many shades of +honor and dishonor in dishonorable thoughts, and a little principle +goes a great way with some people, like the wind commemorated by Joe +Miller's Irishman, of which there was not much, _but what there was, +was very high_. + +Be this as it may, he was loving to perdition--or thought so, at +least; and it is hard to discriminate in a very young man's case +between the conceit and the reality of love. His whole heart and mind +were taken up with one great, all-pervading idea of Mrs. Harrison, and +he was equally unable to smother and to express his flame. He was +dying to make her a present of something, but he could send nothing +without a fear of exciting suspicion, except bouquets; and of these +floral luxuries, though they were only to be procured at Oldport with +much trouble and expense, she had always a supply from other quarters. +He did not like to be one of a number in his offerings; he wanted to +pay her some peculiar tribute. He would have liked to fight some man +for her, to pick a quarrel with some one who had said something +against her. Proud and sensitive to ridicule as he was, he would have +laid himself down in her way, and let her walk over him, could he have +persuaded himself that she would be gratified by such a proof of +devotion, and that it would help his cause with her. + +Had Benson been in Oldport now, there might have been trouble, +inasmuch as he was not particular about what he said, and not too well +disposed towards Mrs. Harrison, while Ashburner was just in a state of +mind to have fought with his own father on that theme. But Benson was +away, and his absence at this time was not a source of regret to +Ashburner, who felt a little afraid of him, and with some reason, for +our friend Harry was as observant as if he had a fly's allowance of +eyes, and had a knack of finding out things without looking for them, +and of knowing things without asking about them; and he would +assuredly have noticed that Ashburner began to be less closely +attached to his party, and to follow in the train of Mrs. Harrison. As +for Clara Benson, she never troubled herself about the Englishman's +falling off in his attentions to her; if any thing, she was rather +glad of it; her capricious disposition made her tire of a friend in a +short time; she could not endure any one's uninterrupted company--not +even her husband's, who therefore wisely took care to absent himself +from her several times every year. + +Moreover, though Ashburner was seen in attendance on the lioness, it +was not constantly or in a pointed manner. He was still fighting with +himself, and, like a man run away with, who has power to guide his +horse though not to stop him, he was so far able to manage his passion +as to keep it from an open display. So absolutely no one suspected +what was the matter with him, or that there was any thing the matter +with him, except the lady herself. Catch a woman not finding out when +a man is in love with her! Sometimes she may delude herself with +imagining a passion where none exists, but she never makes the +converse mistake of failing to perceive it where it does. And how did +the gay Mrs. Harrison, knowing and perceiving herself to be thus +loved, make use of her knowledge? What alteration did it produce in +her conduct and bearing towards her admirer? Absolutely none at all. +Precisely as she had treated him at their first introduction did she +continue to treat him--as if he were one of her everyday +acquaintances, and nothing more. And it is precisely this line of +action that utterly breaks down a man's defences, and makes him more +hopelessly than ever the slave of his fair conqueror. If a woman +declares open hostilities against him, runs him down behind his back, +snubs him to his face, shuns his society,--this at least shows that +she considers his attachment of some consequence--consequence enough +to take notice of, though the notice be unfavorable. His self-respect +may come to the rescue, or his piqued vanity may save him by +converting love into enmity. But a perseverance in never noticing his +love, and feigning to be ignorant of its existence, completely +establishes her supremacy over him. + +A Frenchman, who has conceived designs against a married lady, only +seeks to throw dust in the husband's eyes, and then if he cannot +succeed in his final object, at least to establish sufficient intimacy +to give him a plausible pretext for saying that he has succeeded; for +in such a matter he is not scrupulous about lying a little--or a great +deal. An American, bad enough for a similar intention (which usually +presupposes a considerable amount of _Parisianization_), acts as much +like a Frenchman--if anything, rather worse. An Englishman is not +usually moved to the desire of an intrigue by vanity, but driven into +it by sheer passion, and his first impulse is to run bodily off with +the object of his misplaced affection; to take her and himself out of +the country, as if he could thereby travel out of his moral +responsibilities. Reader, did you ever notice, or having noticed, did +you ever ponder upon the geographical distribution of morals and +propriety which is so marked and almost peculiar a feature of the +Anglo-Saxon mind? In certain outward looks and habits, the English may +be unchangeable and unmistakeable all over the globe; but their +ethical code is certainly not the same at home and abroad. It is +pretty much so with an American, too, before he has become irreparably +Parisianized. When he puts on his travelling habits, he takes off his +puritan habits, and makes light of doing things abroad which he would +be the first to anathematize at home. Observe, we are not speaking of +the deeply religious, nor yet of the openly profligate class in either +country, but of the general run of respectable men who travel; they +regard a great part of their morality and their manners as intended +solely for home consumption; while a Frenchman or a German, if his +home standard is not so high, lives better up to it abroad. And yet +many Englishmen, and some Americans, wonder why their countrymen are +so unpopular as foreign travellers! + +Ashburner, then, wanted to run away with Mrs. Harrison. How he could +have supported her never entered into his thoughts, nor did he +consider what the effect would be on his own prospects. He did not +reflect, either, how miserably selfish it was in him, after all, to +expect that this woman would give up her fortune and position, her +children, her unbounded legitimate domination over her husband, for +his boyish passion, and how infinitesimally small the probability that +she would do so crazy a thing. Nor did Harrison ever arise before his +mind as a present obstacle or future danger; and this was less frantic +than most of his overlookings. The broker was a strong and courageous +man, and probably had been once very much in love with his wife; but +at that time, so far from putting a straw in the way of any man who +wanted to relieve him of her, he would probably have been willing to +pay his expenses into the bargain. + +But how to declare his passion--that was the question. He saw that the +initiatory steps, and very decided ones, must be taken on his part; +and it was not easy to find the lady alone ten minutes together. +People lived at Newport as if they were in the open air, and the +volunteer police of ordinary gossip made private interviews between +well-known people a matter of extreme difficulty. A Frenchman +similarly placed would have brought the affair to a crisis much +sooner: he would have found a thousand ways of disclosing his +feelings, and at the same time dexterously leaving himself a loop-hole +of escape. Very clever at these things are the Gauls; they will make +an avowal in full ball-room, under cover of the music, if there is no +other chance to be had. But tact in love affairs is not a +characteristic of the Englishman, especially at Ashburner's age. He +had none of this mischievous dexterity; perhaps it is just as well +when a man has not, both for himself and for society. He thought of +writing, and actually began many letters or notes, or billet-doux, or +whatever they might be called; but they always seemed so absurd (as +truly they were), that he invariably tore them up when half-finished. +He thought of serving up his flame in verse (for about this time the +unhappy youth wrote many verses, which on his return to sanity he very +wisely made away with); but his emotion lay too deep for verse, and +his performances seemed even to himself too ridiculous for him to +dream of presenting them. Still he must make a beginning somehow; he +could not ask her to run away with him apropos of nothing. + +One of his great anxieties, you may be sure, was to find out if any +other man stood in his way, and who that man might be. His first +impulses were to be indiscriminately jealous of every man he saw +talking or walking with her; but on studying out alone the result of +his observations, he could not discover that she affected any one man +more than another. For this was one of her happy arts, that she made +herself attractive to all without showing a marked preference for any +one. White, who among his other accomplishments had a knack of quoting +the standard poets, compared her to Pope's Belinda--saying, that her +lively looks disclosed a sprightly mind, and that she extended smiles +to all, and favors to none. So that Ashburner's jealousy could find no +fixed object to light on. At one time he had been terribly afraid of +Le Roi, chiefly from having heard the lady praise him for his +accomplishments and agreeable manners. But once he heard Sedley say, +that Mrs. Harrison had been worrying Le Roi half out of his wits, and +quite out of his temper. + +"How so?" + +"Oh, she was praising you, and saying how much she liked the English +character, and how true and honest your countrymen were--so much more +to be depended on than the French--and more manly, too; and altogether +she worked him up into such a rage against _ces insulaires_, that he +went off ready to swear." + +And then Ashburner suspected what he afterwards became certain +of--that this was only one of the pleasant little ways the woman had +of amusing herself. Whenever she found two men who were enemies, or +rivals, or antagonists in any way, she would praise each to the other, +on purpose to aggravate them: and very successful she was in her +purpose; for she had the greatest appearance of sincerity, and +whatever she said seemed to come right out of her heart. But if any +lingering fears of Le Roi still haunted the Englishman's mind, they +were dispelled by his departure along with the main body of the +exclusives. Though always proud to be seen in the company of a +conspicuous character like Mrs. Harrison, the Vicomte more +particularly cultivated the fashionables proper, and gladly embraced +the opportunity of following, in the train of the Robinsons. + +Perhaps, after all, Ashburner would have preferred being able to +concentrate his suspicions upon one definite person, to feeling a +vague distrust of somebody he knew not whom, especially as the +presence of a rival might have brought the affair to a crisis sooner. +To a crisis it was approaching, nevertheless, for his passion now +began to tell on him. He looked pale, and grew nervous and weak--lay +awake at nights, which he had never done before, except when going in +for the Tripos at Cambridge--and was positively off his feed, which he +had never been at any previous period of his life. He thought of +tearing himself away from the place--the wisest course, doubtless; +but, just as he had made up his mind to go by the next stage, Mrs. +Harrison, as if she divined what he was about, would upset all his +plans by a few words, or a look or smile--some little expression which +meant nothing, and could never be used against her; but which, by a +man in his state, might be interpreted to mean a great deal. + +One morning the crisis came--not that there was any particular reason +for it then more than at any other time, only he could hold out no +longer. It was a beautiful day, and they had been strolling in one of +the few endurable walks the place afforded--a winding alley near the +hotel, but shrouded in trees, and it was just at the time when most of +the inhabitants were at ten-pins, so that they were tolerably alone. +Now, if ever, was the time; but the more he tried to introduce the +subject, the less possible he found it to make a beginning, and all +the while he could not avoid a dim suspicion that Mrs. Harrison knew +perfectly well what he was trying to drive at, and took a mischievous +pleasure in saying nothing to help him along. So they talked about his +travels and hers, and great people in England and France, and all +sorts of people then at Oldport, and the weather even--all manner of +ordinary topics; and then they walked some time without saying +anything, and then they went back to the hotel. There he felt as if +his last chance was slipping away from him, and in a sudden fit of +desperate courage he followed her up to her parlor without waiting for +an invitation. Hardly was the door closed--he would have given the +world to have locked it--when he begged her to listen to him a few +minutes on a subject of the greatest importance. The lady opened her +large round eyes a little wider; it was the only sign she gave of any +thing approaching to surprise. Then the young man unbosomed himself +just as he stood there--not upon his knees; people used to do that--in +books, at least--but nobody does now. He told her how long he had been +in love with her--how he thought of her all day and all night, and how +wretched he was--how he had tried to subdue his passion, knowing it +was very wrong, and so forth; but really he couldn't help it, +and--and--there he stuck fast; for all the time he had been making +this incoherent avowal, like one in a dream, hardly knowing what he +was about, but conscious only of taking a decisive step, and doing a +very serious thing in a very wild way--all this time, nevertheless, he +had most closely watched Mrs. Harrison, to anticipate his sentence in +some look or gesture of hers. And he saw that there did not move a +line in her face, or a muscle in her whole figure--not a fibre of her +dress even stirred. If she had been a great block of white marble, she +could not have shown less feeling, as she stood up there right +opposite him. If he had asked her to choose a waistcoat pattern for +him, she could not have heard him more quietly. As soon as he had +fairly paused, so that she could speak without immediate interruption, +she took up the reply. It was better that he should go no further, as +she had already understood quite enough. She was very sorry to give +him pain--it was always unpleasant to give pain to any one. She was +also very sorry that he had so deceived himself, and so misapprehended +her character, or misunderstood her conversation. He was very young +yet, and had sense enough to get over this very soon. Of course, she +would never hear any repetition of such language from him; and, on her +part, she would never mention what had occurred to any one--especially +not to Mr. Harrison (it was the first time he had ever heard her +allude to the existence of that gentleman); and then she wound up with +a look which said as plainly as the words could have done, "Now, you +may go." + +Ashburner moved off in a more than usual state of confusion. As he +approached the door it opened suddenly, and he nearly walked over one +of the little Bleeckers, a flourishing specimen of Young New-York, +with about three yards of green satin round his throat, and both his +hands full of French novels, which he had been commissioned to bring +from the circulating library. Ashburner felt like choking him, and it +was only by a great effort that he contrived to pass him with a barely +civil species of nod. But as he went out, he could not refrain from +casting one glance back at Mrs. Harrison. She had taken off her bonnet +(which in America is denominated a hat), and was tranquilly arranging +her hair at the glass. + +Somehow or other he found his way down stairs, and rushed off into the +country on a tearing walk, enraged and disgusted with every thing, and +with himself most of all. When a man has made up his mind to commit a +sin, and then has been disappointed in the fruition of it--when he has +sold the birthright of his integrity, without getting the miserable +mess of pottage for it which he expected, his feelings are not the +most enviable. Ashburner was angry enough to marry the first heiress +he met with. First, he half resolved to get up a desperate flirtation +with Mrs. Benson; but the success of his first attempt was not +encouraging to the prosecution of a second. To kill himself was not in +his line; but he felt very like killing some one else. He still +feared he might have been made a screen for some other man. But if the +other man existed, he could only be reached by fighting successively +all the single men of "our set," and a fair sprinkling of those in the +second set. Then he thought he must at least leave the place, but his +pride still revolted at the idea of running away before a woman. +Finally, after walking about ten miles, and losing his dinner, he +sobered down gradually, and thought what a fool he had been; and the +issue of his cogitations was a very wise double conclusion. He formed +a higher opinion of the virtue of American women, and he never +attempted any experiments on another. + + + + +From Sharpe's London Magazine. + +THE MAN OF TACT. + + +There is no distinctive term more frequently employed, and less +generally understood, than the word "Tact." It is in every one's +mouth, and many have a vague notion of its meaning, who yet, if +required, would find no slight difficulty in giving its definition. It +is the application of perceptive common-sense to life's practical +details; the correct adaptation of means to ends, from an intuitive +knowledge of character, blended with a careful concealment, a discreet +evasion of our own, except when amiable faults are avowed, to enhance +the impression of our candor. Cameleon-like, "tact" assumes the color +of contingent circumstances,--is the vague, yet potent spirit, with +its shadowless finger arresting the impulses; an unseen ruler of the +thoughts, winding its gossamer yet adamantine meshes like a spell; the +uncaught "hic et ubique" arbiter of mortal destinies embodied in a +fellow-mortal. + +When we speak of the "man of tact," as of one in whom this quality +predominates,--as hereafter we shall speak of the man of honor, of +genius, and of sense, we must confess that above most other +characteristics, this is especially absorbent in its influence, and +generally usurps the government of the whole man. It collects into its +own stream the channels of other motives, which it renders tributary, +until it pervades the whole moral surface with one obliterating +deluge. If not watched, it will hence induce a general deceptiveness, +for the other impulses will partake of its color, shrewdness will +become cunning, discretion will change into artful dexterity. Its very +progress is sinuous and oblique, never more so than when assuming the +guise of straightforwardness and truth; but if divested of its baser +elements, it will soar into the higher intellectuals, and will claim +affinity to practical observation, or, to speak phrenologically, to +causality. In this view it combines with prudence, also with +self-discipline, in the regulation of the temper; in fact, is the +child of judgment, inheriting with its parent's calmness somewhat of +her coldness too. + +Observe that man sitting in the private room of one of our largest +mercantile establishments. Risen from a low grade to the direction of +a vast concern, at one time intrusted with a mission abroad of a most +important yet delicate character, he owes the eminence he has attained +entirely to tact. The features are now in repose, take your +opportunity to watch them (for they are seldom so, and if he were +aware of observation, would assume a different expression); how the +wear upon nerves, even of such flexibility, imparts to the fatigued +countenance an air of study, ceaseless even in comparative inaction. +The open and bald forehead, clear, expansive, impending over deep-set, +small, yet fathomless eyes, restless and anxious in their motion; the +lips fullish, wearing at the corner a half-contemptuous yet +good-humored self-contentment, which tells of the owner's disdain for +the game of life, and yet of triumphant complacency at his own +successful skill in it. He smiles! Ah! he is thinking of how he +deluded that shallow fop, Lord F----, whom fortune raised kindly to +conceal his puerilites by a coronet; or perhaps (as his eye dilates +with haughtier gaze) he dreams of having struck a nobler quarry, when +he outwitted the subtle Count de P----; for neither thought they were +following aught but the suggestion of their own will. This is the +mystery and mastery of tact. Had his victims seen that smile, the game +would have been lost; but he was different to each, the man was +changed. The lordling saw before him a free hearty abettor of youthful +folly, an Apicius, not a Mentor, one versed in life's vanities, yet +still ready to quaff the draught he satirized; sagacious in +criticising pleasure, yet reckless as the youngest in its pursuit; but +to the Count, the deferential air, the silent evidence of every +action, so sedulously courteous, yet so artless, attesting the +listener's (for he spoke but to inquire as if of an oracle, and +demurred but to render conviction more gracefully attractive) +reverence for the old diplomatist's sagacity; the rejoinder +dexterously introduced to confirm confidence in his visitor that he +was not wasting his instruction,--these and the thousand nameless +points of tact, dipped in the fountain of his own deep counsel, +instilled the wary practiser's motives into the mind of one, +apparently his confessed master in the art of diplomacy, convinced the +Count that he was regarded as the condensation of profound thought, of +astute sagacity; and it so happened, that if there was one +qualification in which the foreigner especially exulted more than any +other, it was upon his dexterity in deciphering disposition--in his +thorough knowledge of human nature! + +We have said he was an adept in listening: indeed it was averred that +he obtained a large estate by the quiet attention with which he +listened to the toothless twaddle of a senile Dowager--age's +garrulity--the echo of an empty hall which thought has quitted. He +rarely, however, in any case interrupts the driest drawler, for he +has tutored attendants who understand not only whom to admit, but also +a hint as to the proper duration of a conference, and these with ready +message cut short the intruder's dull delay. If, also, in public or +private he be himself interrupted, he never loses his temper or the +point; resumes the thread just where it was broken, and with polite, +yet unswerving pertinacity, directs the minds of all to the wished-for +end, in spite of every purposed or involuntary attempt to distract +them into devious channels. Some men, like jackdaws, proclaim with +noisy loquaciousness their most private matters, alarming the public +horizon with egotistical chatter about their own nests: "tact," as the +master of it, Cromwell, knew, acknowledges the "safety of silence," +and like the rat,--a subtle politician!--saps vast fabrics by an +insidious, unheard gnawing underground! + +Briefly, this man listens much, speaks little--mostly the latter when +he would conceal his thoughts--keeps his eyes and ears open, his mouth +and his heart closed. With numerous admirers, he has many enemies--the +latter's hostility is however repressed by fear, and the regard of the +other, somehow, never ripens into love; it may be that selfishness, +the concomitant of tact, forbids affection. We have shown the fair +side of the portrait hitherto drawn from the respectable sphere (as it +is called) of life; but it has its evil counterpart or reverse to be +seen in a notorious receiver of stolen property, ever watched by, yet +ever baffling the police,--one, who, having helped many to the hulks, +has by sheer cunning (tact in motley!) himself escaped. The +consciences of both are similarly guided by the law of public not +private morality--interest is the ruling principle of both; even the +drudgery of each assimilates, for a life of dissimulation is a very +hard one. What actor would be _always_ on the stage? Both are +commercial men in a sense, though one lives at the west-end, the other +near Seven-dials; sometimes they meet,--the rich, upon--the poor, +before, the bench--"the Justice" in silk "frowns" on the speciously +"simple thief" in rags; yet nature has cut the countenances of both +from the same piece, and true it is that her "one touch," the +prevalence of tact, successful here,--in hard confronting +there--renders both "akin." + +Yet not always does "tact" array itself in silken softness, or "stoop +to conquer:" some ply the trade with no less success under the guise +of rough and candid honesty: these men declare loudly that they always +speak their minds: come upon us with a bluff sincerity, disarming +prudence by an appearance of incautious trust and open-heartedness. +They "cannot cog," they cannot sue, they profess noisily to abhor +"humbug," as they term it, in every shape:--a strange ingratitude _to +what they chiefly thrive by_; for certain it is, that though +doubtlessly "all honorable men," these are the most insidious +tacticians, and generally of the worst kind. + +Hitherto we have spoken of "tact" in its deteriorated shape, and +indeed the word seems to have got so bad a name that its bare mention +breathes distrust. Yet there is a medium class of men who, like +William of Orange, reduce violent feelings even to frigidity, and +allowing discretion her widest scope, do not entirely obliterate the +affections. Machiavelli says that "seldom men of mean fortunes attain +to high degrees without force or fraud, and generally rather by the +latter than the former," and hence he recommends guile to be +adopted--but these, to whom we now allude, practise prudence, yet +preserve their guileless sincerity. Here, though the term is rather +univocal, and seems to apply only to our concerns with others, its +healthy action is forcibly evinced on the individual's mind, for it +disciplines the impulses and reviews for ready co-action reason's +powers. So high did the ancients in their sense regard it, that they +elevated it to a divinity--"Nullum numen adest si sit Prudentia," +though, as Addison observes, "this sort of discretion has no place in +private conversation between intimate friends. It occupies a neutral +ground between caution and art, uses expediency instead of integrity, +and hence deceives us by the first, when we look for the consistency +of the latter." Almost ever combined with conceit (the pride of +questionable success), it never possesses the magnanimity to confess +an error; for this detracting from its arrogated infallibility might +deteriorate its influence: it will acknowledge vices (if polite), but +will never plead guilty to mistakes, since the grossest charge against +the "man of tact" at the bar of self, much more of public judgment, is +not the perpetration of a sin--but the commission of a blunder! + + + + +From the "Revue des Deux Mondes." + +A WRECK OF THE OLD FRENCH ARISTOCRACY. + +AN INCIDENT OF TRAVEL IN THE LIMOUSIN. + + +It is truly a great mistake to measure the interest of a journey by +its duration, and that of a country by its remoteness; and one is +deceived in supposing that it is necessary to go afar in quest of +adventures, and make a voyage two years long in order to see curious +sights. There is a certain author who has made "a journey around his +room" more fruitful in incidents of all descriptions than the +numberless voyages of an infinity of sailors that I know; and one may +make, thank heaven! many an interesting trip without passing beyond +the "neighboring shores" from which La Fontaine forbids us to wander. +The only thing is, that it is less easy to travel after this fashion +than the other, and that it requires a lengthened preparation. + +In order to observe skilfully, one must be accustomed to look around +one. We scarcely become curious except after long habit, and, strange +to say, our curiosity seems to increase in proportion as we satisfy +it. When we know a great deal we desire to know still more, and it is +remarkable that those alone desire to see no sights who have never had +any sights to see. Moreover, it is necessary to have contemplated the +grandest spectacles of nature in order to understand and love her +least conspicuous wonders; for nature does not surrender herself to +the first comer. She is a chaste and severe divinity, who admits to +her intimacy those alone who have deserved it by long contemplations +and a constant worship: and I firmly believe that it is necessary to +have travelled round the world in order profitably and agreeably to +make the tour of one's garden. If many years of youth spent in +wandering by land and sea, can render me an authority in regard to +travels, then am I justified in declaring, that in none of my more +distant courses have I found more interest and pleasure than in the +little trip I am now about to narrate. + +There were, then, four of us, all alike young, gay, active, clad in +shooting costume, going straight ahead, without fixed plan or +preconcerted itinerary, marching at hap-hazard in these desert +_landes_, respiring freely the pungent odor of the broom, roaming from +hill to hill without other rallying point than the top of a mountain +which pointed out the direction of the low lands. After four hours' +walk we discovered that this mountain was still very far distant, and +that the sun was sinking below the horizon. We had already left behind +us the wildest part of the department of the _Correze_. To woods of +pine and birch succeeded enormous chestnut-trees; the sterile heath +gave place to cultivated fields. Here and there some houses displayed +their straw-colored roofs, and some scattered laborers beheld us pass +by with gaping suspicion. To tell the truth, we had all of us a +tolerably gallows look. In this wretched country, where every one +lives on from day to day without quitting his little inclosure, +without even hearing an echo from afar, four bearded marauders like +ourselves, avoiding the beaten road, and marching rapidly across +stubble and thicket, presented no ordinary rencontre. All on a sudden +the clouds began to gather, and, by way of varying our sensations, a +terrific tempest burst over our heads. It was the first incident of +our journey. Drenched through in a moment by this diluvian rain, we +rushed, with the ardor of soldiers mounting a breach, towards a +village perched like a magpie's nest on the summit of the hill we were +ascending. A house of capacious size, but of dismal and ruinous +appearance, arose before us. We rushed in at a charging pace, and +found that it was deserted, except that near the hearth, where +smouldered the embers of the most miserable fire in the world, an +infant was deposited in, or rather tied to, his cradle, according to +the fashion of the country. By the aid of a stout bandage they had +swaddled him up like a mummy, and duly sealed him to the planks of the +little box, which served him for a bed. In addition, his head was +carefully turned toward the fire, so that his cranium was in a state +of continual ebullition, such being the appointed regimen of the +neighborhood. At the sight of our strange visages, the little one, +after staring at us for a moment or two, proceeded to utter the most +lamentable outcries. I rocked his cradle with the most paternal +solicitude, but could not succeed in quieting him. On the contrary, +his screams became positively heart-rending, and we were almost ready +to smother him outright in order to put a stop to his roaring. At this +summons a woman entered abruptly into the house, and stared at us with +an expression of alarm. It was incumbent on us to explain that we were +no pilferers, and this was no easy matter. The young mother evidently +looked on us with suspicion. She was not altogether a mere +peasant,--at least she wore, instead of the little straw hat trimmed +with black velvet, which is the ordinary head-dress of the +countrywomen, a bonnet, which in the Limousin is a certain indication +of pretensions to the rank of the _bourgeoise_. Her robe, besides, +however inelegant it might be, was nevertheless town-made. + +These matters I noticed at a glance, whilst one of my companions gave +the needful explanations as to our pacific intentions. Our hostess +pretended to be satisfied. She removed the cradle, threw some shavings +into the fire to revive it, and sat herself down with a cold, +constrained manner, in which I could discover at once considerable +embarrassment, accompanied by a certain air of dignity. Never had I +seen a Limousin peasant take a seat in the presence of _gentlemen_, +and I speedily made another discovery which not a little perplexed me. +The fire as it revived had thrown a glow upon the hearthstone, which +was of cast-iron, and presented a large armorial escutcheon. This +display astonished me. I looked round again at the smoke-dried kitchen +in which we sat; it was a miserable place. The ceiling was falling +piecemeal; in the pavement, disjointed and worn, were three or four +muddy holes but rarely cleared out, the dampness of which was kept up +by the continual dripping of a dozen cream cheeses, suspended in a +long basket of osiers. Two beds, a large table, and a few dilapidated +chairs, composed the furniture of the apartment, which was pervaded by +a sour and offensive smell, apparently very attractive to a huge sow +whose grunting snout was ever and anon thrust into the entrance of the +doorway. Whence, then, this curious hearthstone? I looked more +attentively at the young woman, and discovered in her countenance a +certain air of distinction. I then inquired of her at what place we +were. + +"Monsieur is jesting at me, doubtless," she pretty sharply replied. + +I assured her I had no such intention, and was really ignorant of the +name of the village. + +"It is not a village, sir," she resumed, "it is a town. You are at the +Puy d'Arnac, in the Canton of Beaulieu." + +A native of Marseilles would hardly have named the _Canebiere_ with +greater satisfaction. I knew that the Puy d'Arnac gave its name to a +celebrated growth of the _Correze_, and I thought I understood the +lofty tone of the reply. All on a sudden, one of my companions, whom +we nicknamed the "Broker," because he groped into all sorts of places, +and, with amusing perseverance, hunted out objects of art and +curiosity even in hovels, touched my elbow, and asked me if I had +noticed the picture which was half-hidden under the serge curtains of +one of the beds. I had not yet observed it, and got up to look at it. +It was the portrait of a general officer of the time of Louis XV. The +frame, sculptured and gilt, struck me still more, being really +beautiful. "This is a discovery indeed," said my friend to me, while I +inquired of the young woman where such a portrait could have come +from. + +"Where could it have come from, Monsieur?" she haughtily replied; "it +is the portrait of my grandfather." + +"Aha!" we exclaimed, all four of us, turning ourselves round with +surprise. With one hand our hostess stirred the fire, with an +indifference evidently affected, while with the other she rocked the +little box in which her infant was asleep. + +"Might I presume to inquire the name of Monsieur your grandfather?" +said I, drawing near to her. + +"He was the Count of Anteroches," was her reply. + +"What, the Count of Anteroches, who commanded the French guards at the +battle of Fontenoy?"[5] + +"You have heard him spoken of, then?" resumed the peasant girl, with a +smile. + +My friend the Broker stood as if stupefied before the picture. All of +a sudden he wheeled round, and, gravely removing his cap, repeated +with a theatrical air the celebrated saying of M. d'Anteroches,--"Fire +first, _Messieurs les Anglais_; we are Frenchmen, and must do you the +honors!" + +This anecdote is, to my thinking, the most charming and most +thoroughly stamped with the image of the age of any recorded in +history. With regard to these celebrated sayings uttered in battles, I +must indeed confess that I am very skeptical. Little as I may be of a +soldier, I have a notion that it is not in an engagement as at the +Olympic Circus, and that in the midst of fire, smoke, and musketry, +generals must have other work on their hands than to utter these +pretty epigrams, which there is moreover no shorthand writer at hand +to take down. I know that Cambronne was annoyed when they recalled to +him his splendid exclamation at Waterloo, "_La garde meurt et ne se +rend pas!_" (The guard dies, and does not surrender!) "an invention +the more clumsy," said he, "that I am not yet dead, and that I really +did surrender." I have even discovered that this saying was invented +by a member of the Institute, for the greater satisfaction of the +readers of the "Yellow Dwarf," in which he wrote, in 1815, together +with Benjamin Constant and many other celebrated malcontents.[6] The +speeches of Leonidas find me equally incredulous. But, wheresoever +they may come from, I delight in these anecdotes, which personify an +entire epoch, and engrave it upon the memory with a single stroke. We +may defy the historian who seeks to characterize the end of the last +century and the beginning of the present, to find two epigrams more +striking than the words attributed to Anteroches and Cambronne--to two +French officers--one commanding the French guards, the other the old +guard; both fighting for their country, at an interval of seventy +years, with the same enemy, and on the same ground: for it is a +singular coincidence that Fontenoy and Waterloo are but little distant +from each other, and Heaven saw fit to ordain that the game of success +and reverse should be played out almost upon the same fields. "Fire +first, _Messieurs les Anglais_!" Is it not the type of that easy and +adorable, that ironical and _blasé_ nobility, who pushed the contempt +of life even to insanity, and the worship of courtesy and honor even +to the sublime?--who endowed their country with such a renown for +elegance, high-breeding, and gallantry, that all its demagogic +saturnalia never have effaced it, and never will?--a nobility +reckless, if you please, but assuredly charming, and perfectly French +withal, who gayly passed through life without ever doing the morrow +the honor of thinking about it, and who, beholding one day the earth +give way beneath their feet, looked into the abyss without a wink, +without alarming themselves, without belying themselves, and went down +alive and whole into the gulf, disdaining all defence, "without fear," +if not "without reproach." + +Between the saying of Anteroches and that of Cambronne there is a +great gap; we find that the revolution has passed through it. The +gentleman, refined even to exaggeration, has disappeared, and we have +instead the rude language of democracy--"_La garde meurt et ne se rend +pas_"--this is heroism, no doubt, but heroism of another sort. Never +did the _chauvinism_ of this present time light upon a more cornelian +device, but do you not see in it the theatrical affectation, the +melo-dramatic emphasis of another race? That he had no fear of death, +and no idea of surrendering--this is what the gentleman of Fontenoy +had no intention of declaring; it ought to have been well known--his +followers had already given proof of it for ages past. To be brave +alone to him was nothing--he must be as elegant in battle as he was at +the ball. What signified death to that incomparable race who +afterwards composed madrigals in prison, and ascended the scaffold +with a smile, their step elastic, and their hand in the waistcoat +pocket, a cocked hat under their arm, and a rose-bud between their +lips? This epoch was personified in my eyes by the handsome and gentle +countenance of the Count of Anteroches. After more than a hundred +years I had discovered by chance, myself, an obscure wayfarer, in an +unknown and miserable cabin, where his grand-daughter was living in +the midst of her poultry, the portrait of this brilliant officer, to +whose name will ever attach an elegant and charming renown; for if, +like Cambronne, Anteroches did not really utter the words attributed +to him, they have still been lent to him, and if thus lent, assuredly +because there were grounds for it. + +After these over-lengthy reflections, I turned toward the peasant +woman, who now inspired me with profound commiseration. She continued +to rock to and fro her bandaged infant, who was in very right and deed +the Count of Anteroches. I inquired what was the occupation of her +husband. + +"He is dead," she replied; "I was better off during his lifetime. He +was a _gendarme_, Monsieur." + +"A _gendarme_!" I repeated with surprise. + +"Yes," replied Madame d'Anteroches, who understood not the cause of my +astonishment, "he had even passed as a brigadier during his latter +years: we managed our little affairs very comfortably." + +He was a brigadier of gendarmerie--content to be so--he managed his +little affairs very comfortably--and his grandfather, as I find it in +the "Military Records of France," had been named Marshal on the 25th +of July, 1762; at the same time as the Marquis of Boufflers and the +Duke of Mazarine! Would not the rabble of Paris do well to inquire a +little before exclaiming so loudly against the privileges of the +aristocracy? Moreover, it seems to me that the government of France +should not allow the grandchildren of the Count of Anteroches to be +sunk--as they are--into deplorable indigence. Apocryphal or otherwise +the epigram of Fontenoy should at least be worth subsistence to all +who bear this name. Many enjoy pensions and are maintained by France, +who would find it very difficult to produce a similar claim, and the +new republic would act wisely by repairing, when occasion turns up, +the injustices of her eldest sister. + +But it was now high time for us to leave. It was evident that we +embarrassed our hostess, and since we had discovered her name we were +no less embarrassed ourselves. I could not get over her coarse stuff +gown, her filthy kitchen, and her familiar sow. It would have been +cruel to ask for her hospitality, and how could we offer to pay our +score? Besides, we knew that a rich proprietor of our acquaintance +resided not far from Puy d'Arnac; we, therefore, took our leave of the +high-born peasant with many excuses and thanks. At the moment I passed +the threshold, I cast a parting glance upon the portrait. The fire +lighted it up at that instant with so singular a brilliancy that it +almost appeared animated. It seemed as if the countenance of M. +d'Anteroches was alive, and that the handsome officer looked sadly +down from the height of his gilded frame upon the utter misery of his +descendants. "Oh! decadence! decadence of France!" I exclaimed to +myself, and rushed bravely forth with my companions into the pelting +rain. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[5] Fontenoy, we should here observe, is, we believe, the _only_ +battle in which the English were defeated by the French, and it is, of +course, a subject of no little glorification with our neighbors. + +[6] The well-known burst of the Duke of Wellington at Waterloo, "Up, +guards, and at them!" has been declared, upon the best authority, +namely, his own, to be no less apocryphal than those above-mentioned. + + + + +From Fraser's Magazine + +THE CLOISTER-LIFE OF THE EMPEROR CHARLES V. + + +The 28th of September, 1556, was a great day in the annals of Laredo, +in Biscay. Once a commercial station of the Romans, and, in later +times, the naval arsenal whence St. Ferdinand sailed to the +Guadalquivir and the conquest of Seville, its haven is now so decayed +and sand-choked, that it can scarcely afford shelter to a +fishing-craft. Here, however, on the day in question, three centuries +ago, a fleet of seventy Flemish and Spanish sail cast anchor. From a +frigate bearing the imperial standard of the house of Austria came a +group of gentlemen and ladies, of whom the principal personage was a +spare and sallow man, past the middle age, and plainly attired in +mourning. He was received at the landing-place by the bishop of +Salamanca and some attendants, and being worn with suffering and +fatigue, he was carried up from the boat in a chair. By his side +walked two ladies, in widows' weeds, who appeared to be about the same +age as himself, and whose pale features, both in cast and expression, +strongly resembled his own. Since Columbus stepped ashore at Palos, +with his red men from the New World, Spain had seen no debarkation so +remarkable; for the voyagers were, the emperor Charles V. and his +sisters, Mary queen of Hungary, and Eleanor, queen of Portugal and +France, now on their way from Brussels, where they had made their last +appearance on the stage of the world, to those Spanish cloisters, +wherein they had resolved to await the hour when the curtain should +drop on life itself. + +Charles himself appears to have been powerfully affected by the scene +and circumstances around him. Kneeling upon the long-desired soil of +Spain, he is said to have kissed the earth, ejaculating, "I salute +thee, O common mother! Naked came I forth of the womb to receive the +treasures of the earth, and naked am I about to return to the bosom of +the universal mother." He then drew from his bosom the crucifix which +he always wore, and kissing it devoutly, returned thanks to the +Saviour for having thus brought him in safety to the wished-for haven. +The ocean itself furnished its comment upon the irretraceable step +which he had taken. From Flushing to Laredo, the weather had been +calm, and the voyage prosperous: but the evening of the day of +landing closed with a storm, which shattered and dispersed the fleet, +and sunk the frigate which the emperor had quitted a few hours before. +This accident must have recalled to his recollection a similar escape +which he had made many years before on his coronation-day at Bologna. +There he had just passed through a wooden gallery which connected his +palace with the church where the pope and the crown awaited him, when +the props upon which the structure rested gave way, and it fell with a +sudden crash, killing several persons in the street below. + +The emperor's first care, after landing, was to send a message to the +general of the order of St. Jerome, requiring his attendance at +Valladolid, and desiring that no time might be lost in preparing the +convent of Yuste for his reception. He himself set forward, as soon as +he was able, and was carried sometimes in a horse-litter, sometimes in +a chair on men's shoulders, by slow and painful stages to Burgos. Near +that ancient city he was met by the constable of Castille, Pedro +Fernandez de Velasco, who lodged him for some days in the noble palace +of his family, known as the Casa del Cordon, from a massive cord of +St. Francis, wrought in stone, with which the architect has adorned +and protected the great portal. The little town of Dueñas was the next +resting-place, and there its lord, the count of Buendia, did the +honors of his feudal castle on the adjacent height rising abruptly +from the bare plains of the Arlanzon. At Torquemada, the royal party +was received by the bishop of the diocese, Pedro de Gasca, a divine, +whose skilful diplomacy, in repressing a formidable rebellion, had +saved Peru to Castille, and who had lately been rewarded by the +emperor with the mitre of Palencia. But in spite of these +demonstrations of respect and gratitude, Charles was made painfully +sensible of the change which his own act had wrought in his condition. +The barons and the great churchmen, who, a few months before, would +have flocked from all parts to do him honor, now appeared in very +scanty numbers, or they permitted him to pass unnoticed through the +lands and by the homes which they perhaps owed to his bounty. He and +his sister Eleanor must have remembered with a sigh the time when he +first set foot in Spain, thirty-eight years before, and found the +shores of Asturias, and the highways of Castille, thronged with loyal +crowds, hastening to tender their homage. In the forgetfulness of the +new generation, he may also have been reminded how he himself had +treated, with coldness and slighting, the great cardinal Ximenes, who +had worn out his declining years in defending and maintaining the +prerogatives of the catholic crown. His long and varied experience of +men made him incapable of deriving any pleasure from their applause, +but not altogether incapable of being pained by their neglect. His +pride was hurt at finding himself so quickly forgotten; and he is said +to have evinced a bitter sense of the surprise, by the remark, "I +might well say that I was naked!" It is probable, therefore, that he +declined the honors of a public entry into Valladolid, not merely from +a desire to shun the pomps and vanities of state, but also from a +secret apprehension that it might prove but a pitiful shadow of former +pageants. That the citizens might not be balked of their show, while +the emperor entered privately on the 23rd of October, it was agreed +that the two queens, his sisters, should make their appearance there +in a public manner the next day. + +Valladolid was at that time the opulent and flourishing capital of +Spain, and the seat of government, carried on under the regency of the +emperor's daughter, Juanna. This young princess was the widow of the +prince of Brazil, heir-apparent of the crown of Portugal, and mother +of the unfortunate king Sebastian. She performed the duties of her +high place with great prudence, firmness, and moderation; but with +this peculiarity, that she appeared at her public receptions closely +veiled, allowing her face to be seen only for a moment, that the +foreign ambassadors might be satisfied of her personal identity. With +her nephew, Don Carlos, then a boy of ten years old, by her side, the +Infanta met her father on the staircase of the palace of the Count of +Melito, which he had chosen for his place of sojourn. The day +following, the arrival of the two queens was celebrated by a grand +procession, and by an evening banquet and ball in the royal palace, at +which the emperor appears to have been present. Some few of the +grandees, the Admiral and the Constable of Castille, Benavente, +Astorga, Sesa, and others, were there to do honor to their ancient +lord, whose hand was also kissed in due form by the members of the +council of Castille. At this ball, or perhaps at some later festivity, +Charles caused the wives of all his personal attendants to be +assembled around him, and bade each, in particular, farewell. Perico +de Sant Erbas, a famous jester of the court, passing by at the moment, +the emperor good-humoredly saluted him by taking off his hat. "What! +do you uncover to me?" said the bitter fool; "does it mean that you +are no longer emperor?" "No, Pedro," replied the object of the jest; +"it means that I have nothing to give you beyond this courtesy." + +During his stay of ten days, Charles bestowed but a passing glance on +the machine of government over which he had so long presided, and +which was now directed by his demure daughter. The secretary of the +council, Juan Vazquez de Molina, an old and trusted servant of his +own, was the only public man with whom he held any confidential +converse. The new rooms which he had caused to be erected at Yuste, +and the ordering of his life there, were now of more moment to him +than the movements of the leaguers in Flanders, or the state of +opinion in Germany. He therefore gave frequent audiences to Francisco +de Tofiño, the general of the Jeromites, and to Fray Martin de Angulo, +prior of Yuste. Having resolved that his solitude should be shared by +his natural son, Don Juan of Austria, a nameless lad of ten, then +living in the family of his mayordomo, Luis de Quixada, he despatched +that trusty follower to remove his household from Castille to +Estremadura. + +It was at Valladolid that Charles saw for the first and last time the +ill-fated child who bore his name, and had the prospect one day of +wearing some of his crowns. Although only ten years old, Don Carlos +had already shown symptoms of the mental malady which darkened the +long life of queen Juana, his great-grandmother by the side both of +his father, Philip of Spain, and of his mother, Mary of Portugal. Of a +sullen and passionate temper, he lived in a state of perpetual +rebellion against his aunt, and displayed in the nursery the weakly +mischievous spirit which marked his short career at his father's +court. His grandfather appears not to have suspected that his mind was +diseased, but to have regarded him as a forward and untractable child, +whose future interests would be best served by an unsparing use of the +rod. He therefore recommended increased severity of discipline, and +remarked to his sisters, that he had observed with concern the boy's +unpromising conduct and manners, and that it was very doubtful how the +man would turn out. This opinion was conveyed by queen Eleanor to +Philip II., who had requested his aunt to note carefully the +impression left by his son on the emperor's mind; and it is said to +have laid the foundation for the aversion which the king entertained +towards Carlos. Following the advice of her father, the Infanta soon +after ordered the removal of the prince to Burgos; but the plague +breaking out in that city, he was sent, by an ominous chance, to +Tordesillas, to the palace from whose windows the unhappy Juana, dead +to the living world, had gazed for forty-seven years at the sepulchre +of her fair and faithless lord. + +A sojourn of about ten days at Valladolid sufficed the emperor for +rest, and for the preparations for his journey. His daughter was +occupied with the duties of administration; and of his sisters he +appears to have seen enough on the way from Flanders. Whether it was +that he was weary of these royal matrons, or that he regarded their +society as a worldly enjoyment which he ought to forego, he declined +their proposal to come and reside near his retreat, at Plasencia. +After much debate, they finally chose Guadalaxara as their residence, +where they quarelled with the duke of Infantado for refusing them his +palace, and went to open war with the alcalde for imprisoning one of +their serving-men. + +Early in November,[7] their brother set out on his last earthly +journey. The distance from Valladolid to Yuste was between forty and +fifty leagues, or somewhere between 130 and 150 English miles. The +route taken has not been specified by the emperor's biographers. The +best and the easiest road lay through Salamanca and Plasencia. But as +he does not appear to have passed through the latter city, he probably +likewise avoided the former, and the pageants and orations with which +the doctors of the great university would have delighted to celebrate +his visit. In that case, he must have taken the road by Medina del +Campo and Peñaranda. At Medina he doubtless was lodged in the fine old +palace of the crown, called the Torre de Mota, where, fifty years +before, his grandmother, Isabella the Catholic, ended her noble life +and glorious reign; and at Peñaranda he was probably entertained in +the mansion of the Bracamontes. These two towns rise like islands in +their naked undulating plains, covered partly with corn, partly with +marshy heath. Southward, the country is clothed with straggling woods +of evergreen oak, becoming denser at the base and on the lower slopes +of the wild Sierra of Bejar, the centre of that mountain chain which +forms the backbone of the Peninsula, extending from Moncayo in Aragon, +to the Rock of Lisbon on the Atlantic. At the alpine town of Bejar, +cresting a bold height, and overhanging a tumbling stream, the great +family of the Zuñigas, created dukes of the place by Isabella, and +known to fame in arts and arms and the dedication of Don Quixote, +possess a noble castle, ruined by the French, which there can be +little doubt served as a halting-place for the imperial pilgrim. He +advanced by very short stages, travelling in a litter, and often +suffering great pain. But his spirits rose as he neared the desired +haven. In the craggy gorge of Puertonuevo, as he was being carried +over some unusually difficult ground in a chair, his attendants were +deploring the extreme ruggedness of the pass. "I shall never have to +go through another," said he, "and truly it is worth enduring some +pain to reach so sweet and healthy a resting place as Yuste." Having +crossed the mountains without mischance, he arrived on the eleventh of +November, St. Martin's day, at Xarandilla, a little village at the +foot of the steep Peñanegra, and then, as now, chiefly peopled with +swineherds, whose pigs, feeding in the surrounding forests, maintain +the fame of porciferous Estremadura. Here he took up his abode in the +castle of the count of Oropesa, head of a powerful branch of the great +house of Toledo, and feudal lord of Xarandilla. + +This visit, which was intended to be brief, was prolonged for nearly +three months. Before entering the cloister of Yuste, the emperor +wished to pay off the greater part of his retinue. But for this +purpose money was needful, and money was the one thing always wanting +in the affairs of Spain. The delay which took place in providing it on +this occasion has often been cited as an instance of the ingratitude +of Philip II.; but it is probable that a bare exchequer and a clumsy +system of finance, which crippled his actions as a king, have also +blackened his character as a son. + +The emperor endured the annoyance with his usual coolness. On his +arrival at the castle, he was waited on by the prior of Yuste, with +whom he had already become acquainted at Valladolid. He afterwards +repaid the attention by making a forenoon excursion to Yuste, and +inspecting more carefully the spot which his memory and his hope had +so long pictured as the sweetest nook in a world of disappointment. +This visit took place on the 23d of November, St. Catharine's day. On +alighting at the convent, Charles immediately repaired to the church, +and prayed there awhile; after which, he was conducted over the +monastic buildings, and then over the new apartments which had been +erected for his reception. The plan of this addition had been made by +the architect, Gaspar de Vega, from a sketch, it is said, drawn by the +emperor's own hand. He now expressed himself as quite satisfied with +the accuracy with which his ideas had been wrought out, and returned +through the wintry woods in high good humor. + +The arrival at Xarandilla of Luis Quixada, with Don Juan of Austria, +was another of those little incidents which had become great events in +the life of Charles. As he did not choose during his life to +acknowledge the youth as his son, the future hero of Lepanto passed +for the page of Quixada, and was presented to his father as bearer of +an offering from Doña Magdalena de Ulloa. He was then in his twelfth +year, and was remarkable for his personal beauty and his engaging +manners. These so captivated Charles, that he ever afterwards liked to +have the boy about him; and it was one of the few solaces of his +solitude to note the princely promise of this unknown son of his old +age. + +At length, the tardy treasury messenger arrived, bearing a bag of +thirty thousand ducats for the former possessor of Mexico and Peru. +The emperor was now enabled to pay their wages to the servants whom he +was about to discharge. Some of these he recommended to the notice of +the king or the princess-regent; to others he dispensed sparing +gratuities in money; and so he closed his accounts with the world. + +On the afternoon of the third of February, 1557, being the feast of +St. Blas, he was lifted into his litter for the last time, and was +borne westward along the rough mountain track, beneath the leafless +oaks, to the monastery of Yuste. He was accompanied by the count of +Oropesa, Don Fernando de Toledo, and his own personal suite, including +the followers whom he had just discharged, but who evinced their +respect by attending him to his journey's close. The cavalcade reached +Yuste about five in the evening. Prior Angulo was waiting to receive +his imperial guest at the gate. On alighting, the emperor, being +unable to walk, was placed in a chair, and carried to the door of the +church. At the threshold he was met by the whole brotherhood in +procession, chanting the _Te Deum_ to the music of the organ. The +altars and the aisle were brilliantly lighted up with tapers, and +decked with their richest frontals, hangings, and plate. Borne through +the pomp to the steps of the high altar, Charles knelt down and +returned thanks to God for the happy termination of his journey, and +joined in the vesper service of the brotherhood. When that was ended, +the friars came to be presented to him one by one, each kissing his +hand and receiving his fraternal embrace. During this ceremony, his +departing servants stood round, expressing their emotion by tears and +lamentations, which were still heard late in the evening, around the +gate of the convent. Attended by the count of Oropesa and the +gentlemen of his suite, Charles then retired to take possession of his +new home, and to enter upon that life of prayer and repose for which +he had so long sighed. + +The monastery of Yuste stands on the lower slopes of the lofty +mountain chain which walls towards the north the beautiful Vera, or +valley of Plasencia. The city of Plasencia is seated seven leagues to +the westward in the plains below; the village of Quacos lies about an +English mile to the south, towards the foot of the mountain. The +monastery owes its name to a streamlet which descends from the sierra, +and its origin to the piety of one Sancho Martin of Quacos, who +granted in 1402 a piece of land to two hermits from Plasencia. Here +these holy men built their cells and planted an orchard, and obtained, +in 1408, by the favor of the Infanta Don Fernando, a bull for the +foundation of a Jeromite house in the rule of St. Augustine. In spite, +however, of this authority, while the works were still in progress, +the friars of a neighboring convent, armed with an order from the +bishop of Plasencia, set upon them and dispossessed them of their land +and unfinished walls, an act of violence against which they appealed +to the archbishop of Santiago. The judgment of the primate being given +in their favor, they next applied for aid to their neighbor, Garci +Alvarez de Toledo, lord of Oropesa, who accordingly came forth from +his castle of Xarandilla, and drove out the intruders. Nor was it only +with the strong hand that this noble protected the young community; +for at the chapter of St. Jerome held at Guadalupe in 1415, their +house would not have been received into the order but for his +generosity in guaranteeing a revenue sufficient for the maintenance of +a prior and twelve brethren under a rule in which mendicancy was +forbidden. The buildings were also erected at his cost, and his +subsequent benefactions were large and frequent. He was therefore +constituted by the grateful monks protector of the convent, and the +distinction became hereditary in his descendants, the counts of +Oropesa. + +Their early struggles past, the Jeromites of Yuste grew and prospered. +Gifts and bequests were the chief events in their peaceful annals. +They became patrons of the chapelries and hermitages; they made them +orchards and olive-groves, and their corn and wine increased. Their +hostel, dispensary, and other offices, were patterns of monastic +comfort and order; and in due time, they built a new church, a simple, +solid, and spacious structure, in the pointed style. A few years +before the emperor came to live amongst them, they had added to their +small antique cloister a new quadrangle of stately proportions and +elegant classical design. + +Though more remarkable for the natural beauty around its walls than +for the vigor of the spiritual life within, Yuste did not fail to +boast of its worthies. The prior Jerome, a son of the great house of +Zuniga, was cited as a model of austere and active holiness. The lay +brother, Melchor de Yepes, crippled in felling a huge chesnut-tree in +the forest, was a pattern of bed-ridden patience and piety. Fray +Hernando de Corral was the scholar and book collector of the house; +although he was also, for that reason, perhaps, considered as scarcely +of a sound mind. He left many copious notes in the fly-leaves of his +black-letter folios. Fray Juan de Xeres, an old soldier of the great +Captain, was distinguished by the gift of second-sight, and was nursed +on his death-bed by the eleven thousand virgins. Still more favored +was Fray Rodrigo de Caceres, for the Blessed Mary herself, in answer +to his repeated prayers, came down in visible shape, and received his +spirit on the eve of the feast of her Assumption. And prior Diego de +San Geronimo was so popular in the Vera as a preacher, that when he +grew old and infirm, the people of Garganta la Olla endeavored to lure +him to their pulpit by making a road, which was called that of Fray +Diego. + +In works of charity--that redeeming virtue of the monastic system--the +fathers of Yuste were diligent and bounteous. Six hundred fanegas, or +about one hundred and twenty quarters of wheat, in ordinary years, and +in years of scarcity, as much as fifteen hundred fanegas, were +distributed at the convent-gate; large donations of bread, meat, and +oil, and some money, were made, either publicly or in private, by the +prior, at Easter and other festivals; and the sick poor in the village +of Quacos were freely supplied with food, medicine, and advice. + +The lodging, or palace, as the friars loved to call it, of the +emperor, was constructed under the eye of Fray Antonio de Villacastin, +a brother of the house, and afterwards well known to fame as the +master of the works at the Escorial. The site of it had been inspected +in May, 1554, by Philip II., then on his way to England to marry queen +Mary Tudor. Backed by the massive south wall of the church, the +building presented its simple front of two stories to the garden and +the noontide sun. Each story contained four chambers, two on either +side of a corridor, which traverses the structure from east to west, +and leads at either end into a broad porch, or covered gallery, +supported on pillars, and open to the air. All the rooms were +furnished with ample fire-places, in accordance with the Flemish wants +and ways of the inhabitants. The chambers which look on the garden are +bright and pleasant, but those on the north side are gloomy, and even +dark, the light being admitted only by windows opening on the +corridor, or on the external and deeply-shadowed porches. Charles +inhabited the upper rooms, and slept in that at the north-east corner, +from which a door or window had been cut through the church wall, +within the chancel, and close to the high altar. From the eastern +porch, or gallery, an inclined path led down into the garden, to save +him the fatigue of going up and down stairs. His attendants were, for +the most part, lodged in apartments built for them near the new +cloister; and the hostel of the convent was given up to the physician, +the bakers, and the brewers. His private rooms being surrounded on +three sides by the garden, he took exclusive possession of that, and +put it under the care of gardeners of his own. The friars established +their potherbs in a piece of ground to the eastward, behind some tall +elm trees, and adjoining the emperor's domain, but separated from it +by a high wall, which they caused to be built when they found that he +wished for complete seclusion. + +Time, with its chances and changes, has dealt rudely with this fair +home of the monarch and the monk. Yuste was sacked in 1809 by the +French invader; and in later years, the Spanish reformer has +annihilated the race of picturesque drones, who, for a while, +re-occupied, and might have repaired the ruins of their pleasant hive. +Of the two cloisters, the greater is choked with the rubbish of its +fallen upper story, its richly-carved capitals peeping here and there +from the soil and wild shrubs. Two sides of the smaller and older +cloister still stands, with tottering blackened walls, and rotting +floors and ceilings. The strong, granite-vaulted church is a hollow +shell; the fine wood-work of its stalls has been partly used for fuel, +partly carried off to the parish church of Quacos; and the beautiful +blue and yellow tiles which lined the chancel are fast dropping from +the walls. In the emperor's dwelling, the lower chambers are turned +into a magazine of firewood, and in the rooms above, where he lived +and died, maize and olives are garnered, and the silkworm winds its +cocoon in dust and darkness. But the lovely face of nature, the hill, +the forest, and the field, the generous soil and the genial sky, +remain with charms unchanged, to testify how well the imperial eagle +chose the nest wherein to fold his wearied wings. From the balcony of +Charles's cabinet the eye ranges over a foreground of rounded knolls, +clad in walnut and chestnut, in which the mountain dies gently away +into the broad bosom of the Vera. Not a building is in sight, but a +summer-house, peering above mulberry tops, at the lower side of the +garden, and a hermitage of Our Lady of Solitude, about a mile distant, +hung upon a rocky height, that swells like an isle out of the sea of +forest. Immediately below the windows the garden slopes gently to the +sun, shaded here and there with the massive foliage of the fig, or +feathery almond boughs, and breathing perfume from tall orange-trees, +cuttings of which some monks, themselves transplanted, vainly strove +to keep alive at the bleak Escorial. And beyond the west wall, filling +all the wide space in front of the gates of the convent and the +palace, rises the noble shade of the great walnut-tree, _el nogal +grande_, of Yuste--a forest king, which has seen the hermit's cell +rise into a royal convent, and sink into a ruin; which has seen the +beginning and the end of the Spanish order of Jerome, and the Spanish +dynasty of Austria. + +At Xarandilla, Charles had cast aside the last shreds of the purple. +The annual revenue which he had reserved to himself out of the wealth +of half the world, was twelve thousand ducats, or about fifteen +hundred pounds sterling. His confidential attendants were eleven in +number: Luis Quixada, chamberlain and chief of the household; Martin +Gatzelu, secretary; William Van Male, gentleman of the chamber; Moron, +gentleman of the chamber and almoner; Juan Gaytan, steward; Henrique +Matisio Charles Pubest, usher; and two valets. Juanelo Turiano, an +Italian engineer, who had acquired a considerable reputation by his +hydraulic works to supply water to the Alcazar of Toledo, was engaged +to assist in the philosophical experiments and mechanical labors which +formed the emperor's principal amusement. Last, but not least, a +Jeromite father from Sta. Engracia, at Zaragoza, Fray Juan de Regla, +filled the important post of confessor. The lower rank of servants, +cooks, brewers, bakers, grooms, and scullions, and a couple of +laundresses, swelled the total number of his household to about sixty +persons, an establishment not greater than was then maintained by many +a private hidalgo. + +The mayordomo, Luis Quixada, or, to give him his entire appellation, +Luis Mendez Quixada Manuel de Figueredo y Mendoza, is worthy of +notice, not only as first minister of this tiny court, but as being +closely associated with one of the greatest names in the military +history of Europe. A courtier and soldier from his early youth, he was +heir of an elder brother, slain before Tunis, who had been one of the +most distinguished captains of the famous infantry of Castille; and he +had been himself for many years the tried companion-in-arms and the +trusted personal friend of the emperor. In 1549, he married Doña +Magdalena de Ulloa, a lady of ancient race and gentlest nature, with +whom he retired for a while to his patrimonial lordship of +Villagarcia, near Valladolid. + +On his quitting the court at Brussels, Charles confided to his care +his illegitimate son, Don Juan of Austria, then a boy of four years +old, exacting a promise of strict secrecy as to his parentage. The boy +was accordingly brought up with the tenderest care by the childless +Magdalena: and the secret of his birth so well kept, that she, for +many years, suspected him to be the fruit of some early attachment of +her lord. When the emperor retired to Yuste, Quixada followed him +thither, removing his household from Villagarcia, and establishing it +in the neighborhood of the convent, probably in the village of Quacos. + +He was thus enabled to enjoy somewhat of the society of his wife, and +the emperor had the gratification of seeing his son when he chose. Don +Juan was now a fine lad, in his eleventh year. He passed amongst the +neighbors for Quixada's page, and remained under the guardianship of +Doña Magdalena, whose efforts to imbue him with devotion towards the +Blessed Virgin are supposed by his historians to have borne good fruit +in the banners, embroidered with Our Lady's image, which floated from +his galleys at Lepanto. He likewise exercised in the Yuste forest the +cross-bow, which had dealt destruction amongst the sparrows of +Leganes, his early home in Castille. + +If the number of servants in the train of Charles should savor, in +this age, somewhat of unnecessary parade, the ascetic character of the +recluse will be redeemed by a glance at the interior of his dwelling. +"The palace of Yuste, when prepared for his reception, seemed," says +the historian Sandoval, "rather to have been newly pillaged by the +enemy, than furnished for a great prince." Accustomed from his infancy +to the finest tapestry designed by Italian pencils for the looms of +Flanders, he now lived within walls entirety bare, except in his +bedchamber, which was hung with coarse brown or black cloth. The sole +appliances for rest to be found in his apartments were a bed and an +old arm-chair, not worth four reals. Four silver trenchers of the +plainest kind, for the use of his table, were the only things amongst +his goods and chattels which could tempt a thief to break through and +steal. A few choice pictures alone remained with him, as memorials of +the magnificence which he had foregone, and of the arts which he had +so loved. Over the high altar of the convent church, and within sight +of his bed, he is said to have placed that celebrated composition +known as The Glory of Titian, a picture of the Last Judgment, in which +Charles, his beautiful empress, and their royal children, were +represented, in the great painter's noblest style, as entering the +heavenly mansions of life eternal. He had also brought with him a +portrait of the empress, and a picture of Our Lord's Agony in the +Garden, likewise from the easel of Titian; and there is now at the +Escorial a masterpiece by the same hand--St. Jerome praying in his +garden, which is traditionally reputed to have hung in his oratory at +Yuste. + +From the garden beneath the palace windows the emperor's table was +supplied with fruit and vegetables: and a couple of cows, grazing in +the forest, furnished him with milk. A pony and an old mule composed +the entire stud of the prince, who formerly took peculiar pleasure in +possessing the stoutest chargers of Guelderland, and the fleetest +genets of Cordova. + +To atone, perhaps, for such deficiency of creature comforts, the +general of the Jeromites and the prior of Yuste had been at some pains +to provide their guest with spiritual luxuries. Knowing his passionate +love of music, they had recruited the force of their choir with +fourteen or fifteen brethren, distinguished for their fine voices and +musical skill. And for his sole benefit and delectation, they had +provided no less than three preachers, the most eloquent in the +Spanish fold of Jerome. The first of these, Fray Juan de Açaloras, +harangued his way to the bishopric of the Canaries; the second, Fray +Francisco de Villalva, also obtained by his sermons great fame, and +the post of chaplain to Philip II.; while the third, Fray Juan de +Santandres, though less noted as an orator, was had in reverence as a +prophet, having foretold the exact day and hour of his own death. + +A short time sufficed for the emperor to accustom himself to the +simple and changeless tenor of monastic life. Every morning his +confessor appeared at his bed-side, to inquire how he had passed the +night, and to assist him in his private devotions. At ten he rose, and +was dressed by his valets; after which he heard mass in the convent +church. According to his invariable habit, which in Italy was said to +have given rise to the saying, _dalla messa, alla mensa_ (from mass to +mess), he went from church to dinner, about noon. Eating had ever been +one of his favorite pleasures, and it was now the only physical +gratification which he could still enjoy, or was unable to resist. He +continued, therefore, to dine upon the rich dishes against which his +ancient and trusty confessor, Cardinal Loaysa, had vainly protested a +quarter of a century before. Eel-pasties, anchovies, and frogs were +the savory food which he loved, unwisely and too well, as Frederick +afterwards loved his polenta. The meal was long, for his teeth were +few and far between; and his hands, also, were much disabled by gout, +in spite of which he always chose to carve for himself. His physician +attended him at table, and at least learned the cause of the mischiefs +which his art was to counteract. While he dined, he conversed with the +doctor on matters of science, generally of natural history, and if any +difference of opinion arose between them, the confessor was sent for +to settle the point out of Pliny. When the cloth was drawn, Fray Juan +de Regla came to read to him, generally from one of his favorite +divines,--Augustine, Jerome, or Bernard; an exercise which was +followed by conversation and an hour of slumber. At three o'clock, the +monks were assembled in the convent to hear a sermon delivered by one +of the imperial preachers, or a passage read from the Bible, usually +from the epistle to the Romans, the emperor's favorite book. To these +discourses or readings Charles always listened with profound +attention; and if sickness or letter-writing prevented his attendance, +he never failed to send a formal excuse to the prior, and to require +from his confessor an account of what had been preached or read. The +rest of the afternoon he sometimes whiled away in the workshop of +Turriano, and in the construction of pieces of mechanism, especially +clocks, of which more than a hundred were said, in one rather +improbable account, to tick in the emperor's apartments, and reckon to +a fraction the hours of his retired leisure. Sometimes he fed his pet +birds, which appear to have taken the place of the stately wolf-hounds +that followed at his heel in the days when he sat to Titian; or a +stroll amongst his fruit-trees and flowers filled up the time to +vespers and supper. At the lower end of the garden, approached by a +closely shaded path, there may still be seen the ruins of a little +summer-house, closely enbowered, and looking out upon the woodlands of +the Vera. Beyond this limit the emperor rarely extended his +excursions, which were always made, slowly and painfully, on foot; for +the first time that he mounted his pony he was seized with a violent +giddiness, and almost fell into the arms of his attendants. Such was +the last appearance, in the saddle, of the accomplished cavalier, of +whom his troopers used to say, that had he not been born a king, he +would have been the prince of light-horsemen, and whose seat and hand +excited at Calais gate the admiration of the English knights fresh +from the tournays-- + + "Where England vied with France in pride + On the famous field of gold." + +Music, which had been one of the chief pleasures of his secular life, +continued to solace and cheer him to the last. In the conduct of the +organ and the choir he took the greatest interest, and through the +window which opened from his bedchamber upon the high altar, his voice +might often be heard accompanying the chant of the friars. His ear +never failed to detect a wrong note, and the mouth whence it came; and +he would frequently mutter the name of the offender, with the addition +of "_hideputa bermejo_," or some other epithet which savored rather of +the soldier than the saint. Guerrero, a chapel-master of Seville, +having presented him with his book of masses and motets, he caused one +of the former to be performed before him. When it was ended, he +remarked to his confessor that Guerrero was a cunning thief; and going +over the piece, he pointed out the plagiarisms with which it +abounded, and named the composers whose works had suffered pillage. + +In laying down the sceptre, Charles had resolved to have no farther +personal concern with temporal affairs. The petitioners, who at first +besieged his retreat, soon ceased from troubling when they found +themselves referred to the princess-regent at Valladolid, or to the +king in Flanders. He declined giving any attention to matters beyond +the walls of the convent, unless they concerned the interests of his +children or the church. His advice was, however, frequently asked by +his son and daughter, and couriers often went and came between Yuste +and the courts. But with the patronage of the state he never +interfered, except on two occasions, when he recommended the case of a +Catalonian lady to the favorable consideration of the Infanta, and +asked for an order of knighthood for a veteran brother in arms. + +The rites of religion now formed the business of his life, and he +transacted that business with his usual method and regularity. No +enthusiast novice was ever more solicitous to fulfil to the letter +every law of his rubric. On the first Sunday of his residence at the +convent, as he went to high mass, he observed the friar who was +sprinkling the holy water, hesitate when his turn came to be aspersed. +Taking the hyssop, therefore, from his hand, he bestowed a plentiful +shower upon his own face and clothes, saying as he returned the +instrument, "This, father, is the way you must do it, next time." +Another friar, offering the pyx to his lips in a similar diffident +manner, he took it between his hands, and not only kissed it +fervently, but applied it to his forehead and eyes with true oriental +reverence. Although provided with an indulgence for eating before +communion, he never availed himself of it but when he was suffering +from extreme debility; and he always heard two masses on the days when +he received the eucharist. On Ash Wednesday, he required his entire +household, down to the meanest scullion, to communicate, and on these +occasions he stood on the top step of the altar, to observe that the +muster was complete. For the benefit of his Flemings, he had a +chaplain of their country, who lived at Xarandilla, and came over at +stated times, when his flock were assembled for confession. The +emperor himself usually heard mass from the window of his bedchamber, +which looked into the church; but at complines he went up into the +choir with the fathers, and prayed in a devout and audible tone, in +his tribune. During the season of Lent, which came round twice during +his residence at Yuste, he regularly appeared in his place in the +choir, on Fridays, when it was the custom of the fraternity to perform +their discipline in public; and at the end of the appointed prayers, +extinguishing the taper which he, like the rest, held in his hand, he +flogged himself with such sincerity of purpose, that the scourge was +stained with blood, and the beholders singularly edified. On Good +Friday, he went forth at the head of his household, to adore the holy +cross; and although he was so infirm that he was obliged to be almost +carried by the men on whom he leaned, he insisted upon prostrating +himself three times upon the ground, in the manner of the friars, +before he approached the blessed symbol with his lips. The feast of +St. Matthew, his birthday--a day of great things in his life,--he +always celebrated with peculiar devotion. He appeared at mass, in a +dress of ceremony, and wearing the collar of the Fleece; and at the +time of the offertory, he went forward, and expressed his gratitude to +God by a large donation. The church was thronged with strangers; and +the crowd who could not gain admittance was so great, that one sermon +was preached outside, whilst another was being pronounced before the +emperor and his household within. + +With the friars, his hosts, Charles lived on the most familiar and +friendly footing. When the visitors of the order paid their triennial +visit of inspection to Yuste, they represented to him, with all +respect, that his majesty himself was the only inmate of the convent +with whom they had any fault to find; and they entreated him to +discontinue those benefactions which he was in the habit of bestowing +on the fraternity, and which the rule of St. Jerome did not allow his +children to receive. He knew all the fathers by name and by sight, and +frequently conversed with them, as well as with the prior. One of his +favorites was a lay-brother, called Alonso Mudarra, once a man of rank +and family in the world, and now working out his own salvation in the +humble post of cook to the convent. This worthy had an only daughter, +who did not share her father's contempt for mundane things. When she +came with her husband to visit him at Yuste, Fray Alonso, arrayed in +his dirtiest apron, thus addressed her: "Daughter, behold my gala +apparel; obedience is now my treasure and my pride; for you, in your +silks and vanities, I entertain profound pity." So saying, he returned +to his kitchen, and would never see her more: an effort of holiness to +which he appears to owe his place in the chronicles of the order. + +The emperor was conversing one day with his confessor, Regla, when +that priest chose to speak, in the mitre-shunning cant of his cloth, +of the great reluctance which he had felt in accepting a post of such +weighty responsibility. "Never fear," said Charles, somewhat +maliciously, and as if conscious that he was dealing with a hypocrite; +"before I left Flanders, four doctors were engaged for a whole year in +easing my conscience; so you have nothing to answer for but what +happens here." + +When he had completed a year of residence at the convent, some +good-humored bantering passed between him and the master of the +novices about its being now time for him to make profession; and he +afterwards said that he was prevented from taking the vows of the +order, and becoming a monk in earnest, only by the state of his +health. St. Blas's day, 1558, the anniversary of his arrival, was held +as a festival, and celebrated by masses, the _Te Deum_, a precession +by the fathers, and a sermon by Villalva. In the afternoon, the +emperor gave a sumptuous repast to the whole convent, out in the +fields, it being the custom of the fraternity to celebrate any +accession to their number by a pic-nic. The country people about +Plasencia sent a quantity of partridges and kids to aid the feast, +which was likewise enlivened by the presence of the Flemish servants, +male and female, and his other retainers, from the village of Quacos. +The prior provided a more permanent memorial of the day by opening a +new book for the names of brethren admitted into the convent, on the +first leaf of which the emperor inscribed his name--an autograph which +remained the pride of the archives till their destruction by the +dragoons of Buonaparte. + +The retired emperor had not many visitors in his solitude; and of +these few, Juan de Vega, president of the council of Castille, +was the only personage in high office. He was sent down by the +princess-regent, apparently to see that her father was treated with +due attention by the provincial authorities. But with his neighbors, +great and small, Charles lived in a state of amity which it would have +been well for the world had he been able to maintain with his +fellow-potentates of Christendom. The few nobles and gentry of the +Vera were graciously received when they came to pay their respects at +Yuste. Oropesa and his brothers frequently rode forth from Xarandilla, +to inquire after the health of their former guest. From Plasencia came +a still more distinguished and no less welcome guest, Luis de Avila, +comendador-mayor of Alcantara. Long the _fidus Achates_ of the +emperor, this soldier-courtier had obtained considerable fame by +becoming his Quintus Curtius. His Commentaries on the Wars against the +Protestants of Germany, first published in 1546, had been several +times reprinted, and had already been translated into Latin, French, +Flemish, English, and Italian. Having married the wealthy heiress of +the Zuñigas, he was now living in laurelled ease at Plasencia, in that +fine palace of Mirabel, which is still one of the chief ornaments of +the beautiful city. The memoirs of the campaigns in Africa, which he +is said to have left in manuscript, were perhaps the occupation of his +leisure. Charles always received his historian with kindness, and it +is characteristic of the times, that it was noted as a mark of +singular favor, that he ordered a capon to be reserved for him from +his own well-supplied board. It may seem strange that a retired +prince, who had never been a lover of parade, should not have broken +through the ceremonial law which condemned a monarch to eat alone. But +we must remember that he was a Spaniard living amongst Spaniards; and +that, near a century later, the force of forms was still so strong, +that the great minister of France, when most wanting in ships, +preferred that the Spanish fleet should retire from the blockade of +Rochelle rather than that the admiral should wear his grandee hat in +the Most Christian presence. + +The emperor was fond of talking over his feats of arms with the +veteran who had shared and recorded them. One day, in the course of +such conversation, Don Luis said he had caused a ceiling of his house +to be painted in fresco, with a view of the battle of Renti, and the +Frenchmen flying before the soldiers of Castille. "Not so," said +Charles; "let the painter modify this if he can; for it was no +headlong flight, but an honorable retreat." This was not the less +candid, that French historians claim the victory for their own side. +Considering that the action had been fought only three or four years +before it was said to have been painted, it is possible that Renti has +been substituted for the name of some other less doubtful field. But +Luis de Avila was of easy faith when the honor of Castille was +concerned, and may well be supposed capable of setting down a success +to the wrong account, when he did not hesitate to record it in his +book, that the miracle of Ajalon had been repeated at Muhlberg. Some +years afterwards, the duke of Alva, who had been in that battle, was +asked by the French king whether he had observed that the sun stood +still. "I was so busy that day," said the old soldier, "with what was +passing on earth, that I had no time to notice what took place in +heaven." + +An anecdote of Avila and his master, though not falling within the +period of their retirement to Estremadura, may be related here, as +serving to show the characters of the two men. Some years before his +abdication, Charles had amused the leisure of his sick-room by making +a prose translation of Olivier de la Marches' forgotten allegorical +poem, _Le Chevalier deliberé_. He then employed Fernando de Acunha, a +man of letters attached to the Saxon court, to turn his labors into +Castillian verse, and he finally handed it over to William Van Male, +one of the gentlemen of the chamber, telling him that he might publish +it for his own benefit. Avila and the other Spaniards, hearing of the +concession, wickedly affected the greatest envy at the good fortune of +the Fleming; the historian, in particular, in his quality of author, +assuring the emperor that the publication could not fail to realize a +profit of five hundred crowns. That desire to print, which, more or +less developed, exists in every man who writes, being thus stimulated +by the suggestion, that to gratify that desire, would be to confer a +favor which should cost him nothing, Charles became impatient to see +his lucubrations in type. Insisting that his bounty should be accepted +at once, he turned a deaf ear to the timid hints of Van Male, as to +the risk and expense of the speculation; and the end was, that the +poor man had to pay Jean Steels for printing and publishing two +thousand copies of a book which is now scarce, probably because the +greater part of the impression passed at once from the publisher to +the pastry-cook. The waggery on the part of Avila was the more wicked, +because the victim had translated his Commentaries into Latin for him. +It forms, however, the subject of an agreeable letter, wherein Van +Male complains of the undue expectations raised in the emperor's mind +by his "windy Spaniards," and ruefully looks forward to reaping a +harvest of mere straw and chaff. + +It was not only by calling at Yuste that the noble lieges of the +emperor testified their homage. Mules were driven to his gate laden +with more substantial tokens of loyalty and affection. The Count of +Oropesa kept his table supplied with game from the forest and the +hill; and the prelates of Toledo, Mondoñedo, Segovia, and Salamanca, +offered similar proofs that they had not forgotten the giver of their +mitres. The Jeromites of Guadalupe, rich in sheep and beeves, sent +calves, lambs fattened on bread, and delicate fruits; and from his +sister Catharine, queen of Portugal, there came every fortnight a +supply of conserves and linen. + +The villagers of Quacos alone furnished some exceptions to the respect +in which their imperial neighbor was held. Although they received the +greater part of the hundred ducats which he dispensed every month for +charitable purposes, they poached the trout in the fish-ponds which +had been formed for his service in Garganta la Olla; and they drove +his cows to the parish pound whenever they strayed beyond their +legitimate pastures. One fellow having sold the crop on his +cherry-tree, at double its value, to the emperor's purveyor, when he +found that it was left ungathered for a few days, took the opportunity +of disposing of it a second time to another purchaser, who, of course, +left nothing but bare boughs to the rightful owner of the fruit. +Wearied with these annoyances, the emperor complained to the president +of Castille, who administered to the district judge, one Licentiate +Murga, a severe rebuke, which that functionary, in his turn, visited +upon the unruly rustics. Several culprits were apprehended; but while +Castillian justice was taking its deliberate course, some of them who +were related to friars of Yuste, by the influence of their friends at +court, got the emperor himself to petition that the sentence might be +light. + +To his servants Charles was a kind and lenient master. He bore +patiently with Adrian the cook, though he left the cinnamon that he +loved out of the dishes; and he contented himself with mildly +admonishing Pelayo, the baker, who got drunk and neglected his oven, +of which the result was burnt bread that sorely tried the toothless +gums of his master. His old military habits, however, still adhered to +him, and though gentle in his manner of enforcing it, he was something +of a martinet in maintaining the discipline of his household and the +convent. Nor had he lost that love of petty economies which made him +sit bare-headed in the rain without the walls of Naumburg, saving a +new velvet cap under his arm, while they fetched him an old one from +the town. Observing in his walks, or from his window, that a certain +basket daily came and went between his garden and the garden of the +friars, he caused Moron to institute an examination, which led to the +harmless discovery that his Flemings were in the habit of bartering +egg-plants with the Jeromites for onions. He had also been disturbed +by suspicious gatherings of young women at the convent-gate, who stood +there gossiping under pretence of receiving alms. When the visitors +came their rounds, he therefore brought the matter under their notice. +The result of the complaint was that the conventional dole was ordered +to be sent round in certain portions to the alcaldes of the various +villages, for distribution on the spot; and, moreover, the crier went +down the straggling, uneven street of Quacos, making the ungallant +proclamation, that any woman who should be found nearer to Yuste than +a certain oratory, about two gunshots from the gate, should be +punished with a hundred stripes. + +In the month of September, 1557, the emperor received a visit from his +sisters, the queens Eleanor and Mary. These royal widows, weary of +Guadalaxara, its unyielding duke, and its troublesome alcalde, were +once more in search of a residence. They had cast their eyes on the +banks of the Guadiana, and they were now on their way to that frontier +of Portugal. Neither the convent nor the palace of Yuste being +sufficiently commodious to receive them, they lived at Xarandilla, as +guests of Oropesa. The shattered health of the queen of France +rendered the journey from the castle to the convent, although +performed in a litter, so fatiguing to her, that she accomplished it +only twice. Nor was her brother's strength sufficient to enable him to +return the visits of his favorite sister. But queen Mary was seven +years younger, and still possessed much of the vigor which amazed +Roger Ascham, when he met her galloping into Tongres, far ahead of her +suit, although it was the tenth day she had passed in the saddle. She +therefore mounted her horse almost every day, and rode through the +fading forest to converse with the recluse at Yuste. At the end of a +fortnight, the queens took a sorrowful leave of their brother, and +proceeded on their way to Badajoz, whither the Infanta Mary of +Portugal, daughter of queen Eleanor, had come from Lisbon to receive +them. After this meeting, which was destined to be the last, the +queens returned to the little town of Talaverilla, on the bare plains +of Merida, where they had determined to fix their abode. But they +found there no continuing city. In a few weeks, Eleanor was seized +with a fever, which carried her off on the 25th of February, 1558, the +sixtieth year of her age. When the emperor heard of her illness, he +dispatched Luis Quixada to attend upon her; but she was already at +rest ere the mayordomo reached Talaverilla. Queen Mary went back with +Quixada to Yuste. Her health being much shaken, and the emperor being +unable to move from the convent, she was lodged, on this occasion, in +his apartments. At the end of eight days she bade him a last farewell, +and retired to Cigales, a hamlet two leagues north of Valladolid, and +crowning a vine-clad hill on the western side of the valley of the +Pisuerga. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[7] Sandoval says he left on the 4th November; Cabrera, that he left +on the 1st; and Siguenca gives the end of October as the time of his +departure. + + + + +From Household Words. + +OUR PHANTOM SHIP AMONG THE ICE. + + +Yonder is the coast of Norway; we shall soon be at Spitzbergen. The +"Phantom" is fitted out for Arctic exploration, with instructions to +find her way, by the north-west, to Behring Straits, and take the +South Pole on her passage home. Just now, we steer due north, and +yonder is the coast of Norway. From that coast parted Hugh Willoughby, +three hundred years ago; the first of our countrymen who wrought an +ice-bound highway to Cathay. Two years afterwards his ships were +found, in the haven of Arzina, in Lapland, by some Russian fishermen; +near and about them Willoughby and his companions--seventy dead men. +The ships were freighted with their frozen crews, and sailed for +England; but, "being unstaunch, as it is supposed by their two years' +wintering in Lapland, sunk, by the way, with their dead, and them also +that brought them." + +Ice floats about us now, and here is a whale blowing; a whale, too, +very near Spitzbergen. When first Spitzbergen was discovered, in the +good old times, there were whales here in abundance; then a hundred +Dutch ships in a crowd, might go to work, and boats might jostle with +each other, and the only thing deficient would be stowage room for all +the produce of the fishery. Now one ship may have the whole field to +itself, and travel home with an imperfect cargo. It was fine fun in +the good old times; there was no need to cruise. Coppers and boilers +were fitted on the island, and little colonies about them, in the +fishing season, had nothing to do but tow the whales in, with a boat, +as fast as they were wanted by the copper. No wonder that so enviable +a Tom Tidler's ground was claimed by all who had a love for gold and +silver. The English called it theirs, for they first fished; the Dutch +said, nay, but the island was of their discovery; Danes, Hamburghers, +Biscayans, Spaniards, and French put in their claims; and at length, +it was agreed to make partitions. The numerous bays and harbors which +indent the coast were divided among the rival nations; and to this +day, many of them bear, accordingly, such names as English Bay, Danes +Bay, and so forth. One bay there is, with graves in it, named Sorrow. +For it seemed to the fishers most desirable, if possible, to plant +upon this island permanent establishments, and condemned convicts were +offered, by the Russians, life and pardon, if they would winter in +Spitzbergen. They agreed; but, when they saw the icy mountains and the +stormy sea, repented, and went back, to meet a death exempt from +torture. The Dutch tempted free men, by high rewards, to try the +dangerous experiment. One of their victims left a journal, which +describes his sufferings and that of his companions. Their mouths, he +says, became so sore that, if they had food, they could not eat; their +limbs were swollen and disabled with excruciating pain; they died of +scurvy. Those who died first were coffined by their dying friends; a +row of coffins was found, in the spring, each with a man in it; two +men uncoffined, side by side, were dead upon the floor. The journal +told, how once the traces of a bear excited their hope of fresh meat +and amended health; how, with a lantern, two or three had limped upon +the track, until the light became extinguished, and they came back in +despair to die. We might speak, also, of eight English sailors, left, +by accident, upon Spitzbergen, who lived to return and tell their +winter's tale; but a long journey is before us, and we must not linger +on the way. As for our whalers, it need scarcely be related that the +multitude of whales diminished as the slaughtering went on, until it +was no longer possible to keep the coppers full. The whales had to be +searched for by the vessels, and thereafter it was not worth while to +take the blubber to Spitzbergen to be boiled; and the different +nations, having carried home their coppers, left the apparatus of +those fishing stations to decay. + +Take heed. There is a noise like thunder, and a mountain snaps in two. +The upper half comes, crashing, grinding, down into the sea, and +loosened streams of water follow it. The sea is displaced before the +mighty heap; it boils and scatters up a cloud of spray; it rushes +back, and violently beats upon the shore. The mountain rises from its +bath, sways to and fro, while water pours along its mighty sides; now +it is tolerably quiet, letting crackers off as air escapes out of its +cavities. That is an iceberg, and in that way are all icebergs formed. +Mountains of ice formed by rain and snow--grand Arctic glaciers, +undermined by the sea or by accumulation overbalanced--topple down +upon the slightest provocation (moved by a shout, perhaps) and where +they float, as this black looking fellow does, they need deep water. +This berg in height is about ninety feet, and a due balance requires +that a mass nine times as large as the part visible should be +submerged. Icebergs are seen about us now which rise two hundred feet +above the water's level. + +There are above head plenty of aquatic birds; ashore, or on the ice, +are bears, foxes, reindeer; and in the sea there are innumerable +animals. We shall not see so much life near the North Pole, that is +certain. It would be worth while to go ashore upon an islet there, +near Vogel Sang, to pay a visit to the eider-ducks. Their nests are +so abundant that one cannot avoid treading on them. When the duck is +driven by a hungry fox to leave her eggs, she covers them with down, +in order that they may not cool during her absence, and, moreover, +glues the down into a case with a secretion supplied to her by Nature +for that purpose. The deserted eggs are safe, for that secretion has +an odor very disagreeable to the intruder's nose. + +We still sail northward, among sheets of ice, whose boundaries are not +beyond our vision from the mast-head--these are "floes;" between them +we find easy way, it is fair "sailing ice." In the clear sky to the +north, a streak of lucid white light is the reflection from an icy +surface; that is "ice-blink," in the language of these seas. The glare +from snow is yellow, while open water gives a dark reflection. + +Northward still; but now we are in fog the ice is troublesome; a gale +is rising. Now, if our ship had timbers, they would crack, and if she +had a bell it would be tolling; if we were shouting to each other we +should not hear, the sea is in a fury. With wild force its breakers +dash against a heaped-up wall of broken ice, that grinds and strains +and battles fiercely with the water. This is "the pack," the edge of a +great ice-field broken by the swell. It is a perilous and exciting +thing to push through pack ice in a gale. + +Now there is ice as far as eye can see, that is "an ice-field." Masses +are forced up like colossal tombstones on all sides; our sailors call +them "hummocks;" here and there the broken ice displays large "holes +of water." Shall we go on? Upon this field, in 1827, Parry adventured +with his men, to reach the North Pole, if that should be possible. +With sledges and portable boats they labored on, through snow, and +over hummocks; launching their boats over the larger holes of water. +With stout hearts, undaunted by toil or danger, they went boldly on, +though by degrees it became clear to the leaders of the expedition, +that they were almost like mice upon a treadmill cage, making a great +expenditure of leg for little gain. The ice was floating to the south +with them, as they were walking to the north; still they went on. +Sleeping by day to avoid the glare, and to get greater warmth during +the time of rest, and travelling by night,--watch-makers' days and +nights, for it was all one polar day,--the men soon were unable to +distinguish noon from midnight. The great event of one day on this +dreary waste was the discovery of two flies upon an ice hummock; +these, says Parry, became at once a topic of ridiculous importance. +Presently, after twenty-three miles walking, they only had gone one +mile forward, the ice having industriously floated twenty-two miles in +an opposite direction; and then, after walking forward eleven miles, +they found themselves to be three miles behind the place from which +they started. The party accordingly returned, not having reached the +Pole, not having reached the eighty-third parallel, for the attainment +of which there was a reward of a thousand pounds held out by +government. They reached the parallel of eighty-two degrees, +forty-five minutes, which was, and still is, the most northerly point +trodden by the foot of man. From that point they returned. In those +high latitudes they met with a phenomenon, common in alpine regions, +as well as at the Pole, red snow. The red color being caused by the +abundance of a minute plant, of low development, the last dweller on +the borders of the vegetable kingdom. More interesting to the sailors +was a fat she bear which they killed and devoured with a zeal to be +repented of; for on reaching navigable sea, and pushing in their boats +to Table Island, where some stones were left, they found that the +bears had eaten all their bread, whereon the men agreed that "Bruin +was now square with them." An islet next to Table Island--they are +both mere rocks--is the most northern land discovered. Therefore, +Parry applied to it the name of lieutenant--now Sir James--Ross. This +compliment Sir James Ross has acknowledged in the most emphatic +manner, by discovering on his part, at the other Pole, the most +southern land yet seen, and giving to it the name of Parry: "Parry +Mountains." + +It very probably would not be difficult under such circumstances as +Sir W. Parry has since recommended, to reach the North Pole along this +route. Then (especially if it be true, as many believe, that there is +a region of open sea about the Pole itself) we might find it as easy +to reach Behring Straits, by travelling in a straight line over the +North Pole, as by threading the straits and bays north of America. + +We turn our course until we have in sight a portion of the ice-barred +eastern coast of Greenland, Shannon Island. Somewhere about this spot +in the seventy-fifth parallel is the most northern part of that coast +known to us. Colonel--then Captain--Sabine in the "Griper," was landed +there to make magnetic and other observations; for the same purpose he +had previously visited Sierra Leone. That is where we differ from our +forefathers. They commissioned hardy seamen to encounter peril for the +search of gold ore, or for a near road to Cathay, but our peril is +encountered for the gain of knowledge, for the highest kind of service +that can now be rendered to the human race. + +Before we leave the northern sea, we must not omit to mention the +voyage by Spitzbergen northward, in 1818, of Captain Buchan in the +"Dorothea," accompanied by Lieutenant Franklin, in the "Trent." It was +Sir John Franklin's first voyage to the Arctic regions. This trip +forms the subject of a delightful book by Captain Beechey. + +On our way to the south point of Greenland we pass near Cape North, a +point of Iceland. Iceland, we know, is the centre of a volcanic +region, whereof Norway and Greenland are at opposite points of the +circumference. In connection with this district there is a remarkable +fact; that by the agency of subterranean forces a large portion of +Norway and Sweden is being slowly upheaved. While Greenland, on the +west coast, as gradually sinks into the sea, Norway rises at the rate +of about four feet in a century. In Greenland the sinking is so well +known that the natives never build close to the water's edge, and the +Moravian missionaries more than once have had to move farther inland +the poles on which their boats are rested. + +Our Phantom Ship stands fairly now along the western coast of +Greenland into Davis Straits. We observe that upon this western coast +there is, by a great deal, less ice than on the eastern. That is a +rule generally. Not only the configuration of the straits and bays, +but also the earth's rotation from west to east, causes the currents +here to set towards the west, and wash the western coasts, while they +act very little on the eastern. We steer across Davis Strait, among +"an infinite number of great countreys and islands of yee;" there, +near the entrance, we find Hudson Strait, which does not now concern +us. Islands probably separate this well-known channel from Frobisher +Strait to the north of it, yet unexplored. Here let us recall to mind +the fleet of fifteen sail, under Sir Martin Frobisher, in 1578, +tossing about and parting company among the ice. Let us remember how +the crew of the "Anne Frances," in that expedition, built a pinnace +when their vessel struck upon a rock, although they wanted main timber +and nails. How they made a mimic forge, and "for the easier making of +nails, were forced to break their tongs, gridiron, and fire-shovel, in +pieces." How Master Captain Best, in this frail bark, with its +imperfect timbers held together by the metamorphosed gridiron and +fire-shovel, continued in his duty, and did "depart up the straights +as before was pretended." How a terrific storm arose, and the fleet +parted, and the intrepid captain was towed "in his small pinnace, at +the stern of the 'Michael,' thorow the raging seas; for the bark was +not able to receive or relieve half its company." The "tongs, +gridyron, and fire-shovell," performed their work only for as many +minutes as were absolutely necessary, for "the pinesse came no sooner +aboord the ship, and the men entred, but she presently shivered and +fell in pieces, and sunke at the ship's stern with all the poor men's +furniture." + +Now, too, as we sail up the strait, explored a few years after these +events by Master John Davis, how proudly we remember him as a right +worthy forerunner of those countrymen of his and ours who since have +sailed over his track. Nor ought we to pass without calling to mind +the melancholy fate, in 1606, of Master John Knight, driven, in the +"Hopwell," among huge masses of ice, with a tremendous surf, his +rudder knocked away, his ship half full of water, at the entrance to +these straits. Hoping to find a harbor, he set forth to explore a +large island, and landed, leaving two men to watch the boat, while he, +with three men and the mate, set forth and disappeared over a hill. +For thirteen hours the watchers kept their post; one had his trumpet +with him, for he was a trumpeter, the other had a gun. They trumpeted +often and loudly, they fired, but no answer came. They watched ashore +all night for the return of their captain and his party, "but they +came not at all." + +The season is advanced. As we sail on, the sea steams like a +lime-kiln, "frost-smoke" covers it. The water, cooled less rapidly, is +warmer now than the surrounding air, and yields this vapor in +consequence. By the time our vessel has reached Baffin's Bay, still +coasting along Greenland, in addition to old floes and bergs, the +water is beset with "pancake ice." That is the young ice when it first +begins to cake upon the surface. Innocent enough it seems, but it is +sadly clogging to the ships. It sticks about their sides like treacle +on a fly's wing; collecting unequally, it destroys all equilibrium, +and impedes the efforts of the steersman. Rocks split on the Greenland +coast with loud explosions, and more icebergs fall. Icebergs we soon +shall take our leave of; they are only found where there is a coast on +which glaciers can form; they are good for nothing but to yield fresh +water to the vessels; it will be all field, pack, and salt-water ice +presently. + +Now we are in Baffin's Bay, explored in the voyages of Bylot and +Baffin, 1615-16. When, in 1817, a great movement in the Greenland ice +caused many to believe that the northern passages would be found +comparatively clear; and when, in consequence of this impression, Sir +John Barrow succeeded in setting a-foot that course of modern Arctic +exploration, which has been continued to the present day, Sir John +Ross was the first man sent to find the north-west passage. Buchan and +Parry were commissioned at the same time to attempt the North Sea +route. Sir John Ross did little more on that occasion than effect a +survey of Baffin's Bay, and prove the accuracy of the ancient pilot. +In the extreme north of the bay there is an inlet or a channel, called +by Baffin Smith's Sound; this Sir John saw, but did not enter. It +never has been explored. It may be an inlet only; but it is also very +possible that by this channel ships might get into the Polar Sea, and +sail by the north shore of Greenland to Spitzbergen. Turning that +corner, and descending along the western coast of Baffin's Bay, there +is another inlet called Jones's Sound by Baffin, also unexplored. +These two inlets, with their very British titles, Smith and Jones, are +of exceeding interest. Jones's Sound may lead by a back way to +Melville Island. South of Jones's Sound there is a wide break in the +shore, a great sound, named by Baffin, Lancaster's, which Sir John +Ross, in that first expedition, failed also to explore. Like our +transatlantic friends at the South Pole, he laid down a range of +clouds as mountains, and considered the way impervious; so he came +home. + +Parry went out next year, as a lieutenant, in command of his first and +most successful expedition. He sailed up Lancaster Sound, which was in +that year (1819) unusually clear of ice: and he is the discoverer +whose track we now follow in our Phantom Ship. The whole ground being +new, he had to name the points of country right and left of him. The +way was broad and open, due west, a most prosperous beginning for a +north-west passage. If this continued, he would soon reach Behring +Strait. A broad channel to the right, directed, that is to say, +southward, he entered on the Prince of Wales's birthday, and so called +it the "Prince Regent's Inlet." After exploring this for some miles, +he turned back to resume his western course, for still there was a +broad strait leading westward. This second part of Lancaster Sound, he +called after the Secretary of the Admiralty who had so indefatigably +labored to promote the expeditions, Barrow's Strait. Then he came to a +channel, turning to the right or northward, and he named that +Wellington Channel. Then he had on his right hand ice, islands large +and small, and intervening channels; on the left, ice, and a cape +visible, Cape Walker. At an island, named after the First Lord of the +Admiralty Melville Island, the great frozen wilderness barred further +progress. There he wintered. On the coast of Melville Island they had +passed the latitude of one hundred and ten degrees, and the men had +become entitled to a royal bounty of five thousand pounds. This group +of islands Parry called North Georgian, but they are usually called by +his own name, Parry Islands. This was the first European winter party +in the Arctic circle. Its details are familiar enough. How the men cut +in three days through ice seven inches thick, a canal two miles and a +half long, and so brought the ships into safe harbor. How the genius +of Parry equalled the occasion; how there was established a theatre +and a _North Georgian Gazette_, to cheer the tediousness of a night +which continued for two thousand hours. The dreary dazzling waste in +which there was that little patch of life, the stars, the fog, the +moonlight, the glittering wonder of the northern lights, in which, as +Greenlanders believe, souls of the wicked dance tormented, are +familiar to us. The she-bear stays at home; but the he-bear hungers, +and looks in vain for a stray seal or walrus--woe to the unarmed man +who meets him in his hungry mood! Wolves are abroad, and pretty white +arctic foxes. The reindeer have sought other pasture-ground. The +thermometer runs down to more than sixty degrees below freezing, a +temperature tolerable in calm weather, but distressing in a wind. The +eye-piece of the telescope must be protected now with leather, for the +skin is destroyed that comes in contact with cold metal. The voice at +a mile's distance can be heard distinctly. Happy the day when first +the sun is seen to graze the edge of the horizon; but summer must +come, and the heat of a constant day must accumulate, and summer wane, +before the ice is melted. Then the ice cracks, like cannons +over-charged, and moves with a loud grinding noise. But not yet is +escape to be made with safety. After a detention of ten months, Parry +got free; but, in escaping, narrowly missed the destruction of both +ships, by their being "nipped" between the mighty mass and the +unyielding shore. What animals are found on Melville Island, we may +judge from the results of sport during ten months' detention. The +Island exceeds five thousand miles square, and yielded to the gun, +three musk oxen, twenty-four deer, sixty-eight bears, fifty-three +geese, fifty-nine ducks, and one hundred and forty-four patarmigans, +weighing together three thousand seven hundred and sixty-six +pounds--not quite two ounces of meat per day to every man. Lichens, +stunted grass, saxifrage, and a feeble willow, are the plants of +Melville Island, but in sheltered nooks there are found sorrel, poppy, +and a yellow butter-cup. Halos and double suns are very common +consequences of refraction in this quarter of the world. Franklin +returned from his first and most famous voyage with his men all safe +and sound, except the loss of a few fingers, frost-bitten. We sail +back only as far as Regent's Inlet, being bound for Behring Strait. +The reputation of Sir John Ross being clouded by the discontent +expressed against his first expedition, Mr. Felix Booth, a rich +distiller, provided seventeen thousand pounds to enable his friend to +redeem his credit. Sir John accordingly, in 1829, went out in the +"Victory," provided with steam-machinery that did not answer well. He +was accompanied by Sir James Ross, his nephew. He it was who, on this +occasion, first surveyed Regent's Inlet, down which we are now sailing +with our Phantom Ship. The coast on our right hand, westward, which +Parry saw, is called North Somerset, but farther south, where the +inlet widens, the land is named Boothia Felix. Five years before this, +Parry, in his third voyage, had attempted to pass down Regent's Inlet, +where among ice and storm, one of his ships, the "Hecla," had been +driven violently ashore, and of necessity, abandoned. The stores had +been removed, and Sir John was able now to replenish his own vessel +from them. Rounding a point at the bottom of Prince Regent's Inlet, we +find Felix Harbor, where Sir John Ross wintered. His nephew made from +this point scientific explorations; discovered a strait, called after +him the Strait of James Ross, and on the northern shore of this +strait, on the main land of Boothia, planted the British flag on the +Northern Magnetic Pole. The ice broke up, so did the "Victory;" after +a hairbreadth escape, the party found a searching vessel, and arrived +home after an absence of four years and five months, Sir John Ross +having lost his ship, and won his reputation. The friend in need was +made a baronet for his munificence; Sir John was reimbursed for all +his losses, and the crew liberally taken care of. Sir James Ross had a +rod and flag signifying "Magnetic Pole," given to him for a new crest, +by the Heralds' College, for which he was no doubt greatly the better. + +We have sailed northward to get into Hudson Strait, the high road into +Hudson Bay. Along the shore are Exquimaux in boats, extremely active, +but these filthy creatures we pass by; the Exquimaux in Hudson Strait +are like the negroes of the coast, demoralized by intercourse with +European traders. These are not true pictures of the loving children +of the north. Our "Phantom" floats on the wide waters of Hudson +Bay--the grave of its discoverer. Familiar as the story is of Henry +Hudson's fate, for John King's sake how gladly we repeat it. While +sailing on the waters he discovered, in 1611, his men mutinied; the +mutiny was aided by Henry Green, a prodigal, whom Hudson had +generously shielded from ruin. Hudson, the master, and his son, with +six sick or disabled members of the crew, were driven from their +cabins, forced into a little shallop, and committed helpless to the +water and the ice. But there was one stout man, John King, the +carpenter, who stepped into the boat, abjuring his companions, and +chose rather to die than even passively be partaker in so foul a +crime. John King, we who live after, will remember you. + +Here on an island, Charlton Island, near our entrance to the bay, in +1631, wintered poor Captain James with his wrecked crew. This is a +point outside the Arctic circle, but quite cold enough. Of nights, +with a good fire in the house they built, hoar frost covered their +beds, and the cook's water in a metal pan before the fire, was warm on +one side, and froze on the other. Here "it snowed and froze extremely, +at which time we, looking from the shore towards the ship, she +appeared a piece of ice in the fashion of a ship, or a ship resembling +a piece of ice." Here the gunner, who had lost his leg, besought that, +"for the little time he had to live, he might drink sack altogether." +He died and was buried in the ice far from the vessel, but when +afterwards two more were dead of scurvy, and the others, in a +miserable state, were working with faint hope about their shattered +vessel, the gunner was found to have returned home to the old vessel; +his leg had penetrated through a porthole. They "digged him clear out, +and he was as free from noisomness," the record says, "as when we +first committed him to the sea. This alteration had the ice, and +water, and time, only wrought on him, that his flesh would slip up and +down upon his bones, like a glove on a man's hand. In the evening we +buried him by the others." These worthy souls, laid up with the +agonies of scurvy, knew that in action was their only hope; they +forced their limbs to labor, among ice and water, every day. They set +about the building of a boat, but the hard frozen wood had broken all +their axes, so they made shift with the pieces. To fell a tree, it was +first requisite to light a fire around it, and the carpenter could +only labor with his wood over a fire, or else it was like stone under +his tools. Before the boat was made they buried the carpenter. The +captain exhorted them to put their trust in God; "His will be done. If +it be our fortune to end our days here, we are as near Heaven as in +England. They all protested to work to the utmost of their strength, +and that they would refuse nothing that I should order them to do to +the utmost hazard of their lives. I thanked them all." Truly the North +Pole has its triumphs. If we took no account of the fields of trade +opened by our Arctic explorers, if we thought nothing of the wants of +science in comparison with the lives lost in supplying them, is not +the loss of life a gain, which proves and tests the fortitude of noble +hearts, and teaches us respect for human nature? All the lives that +have been lost among these Polar regions, are less in number than the +dead upon a battle-field. The battle-field inflicted shame upon our +race--is it with shame that our hearts throb in following these Arctic +heroes? March 31st, says Captain James, "was very cold, with snow and +hail, which pinched our sick men more than any time this year. This +evening, being May eve, we returned late from our work to our house, +and made a good fire, and chose ladies, and ceremoniously wore their +names in our caps, endeavoring to revive ourselves by any means. On +the 15th, I manured a little patch of ground that was bare of snow, +and sowed it with pease, hoping to have some shortly to eat, for as +yet we could see no green thing to comfort us." Those pease saved the +party; as they came up the young shoots were boiled and eaten, so +their health began to mend, and they recovered from their scurvy. +Eventually, after other perils, they succeeded making their escape. + +A strait, called Sir Thomas Rowe's Welcome, leads due north out of +Hudson Bay, being parted by Southampton Island from the strait through +which we entered. Its name is quaint, for so was its discoverer, Luke +Fox, a worthy man, addicted much to euphuism. Fox sailed from London +in the same year in which James sailed from Bristol. They were rivals. +Meeting in Davis Straits, Fox dined on board his friendly rival's +vessel, which was very unfit for the service upon which it went. The +sea washed over them and came into the cabin, so says Fox, "sauce +would not have been wanted if there had been roast mutton." Luke Fox +being ice-bound and in peril, writes, "God thinks upon our +imprisonment with a _supersedeas_;" but he was a good and honorable +man as well as euphuist. His "Sir Thomas Rowe's Welcome," leads into +Fox Channel; our "Phantom Ship" is pushing through the welcome passes +on the left-hand Repulse Bay. This portion of the Arctic regions, with +Fox Channel, is extremely perilous. Here Captain Lyon, in the +"Griper," was thrown anchorless upon the mercy of a stormy sea, ice +crashing around him. One island in Fox Channel is called Mill Island, +from the incessant grinding of great masses of ice collected there. In +the northern part of Fox Channel, on the western shore, is Melville +Peninsula, where Parry wintered on his second voyage. Here let us go +ashore and see a little colony of Esquimaux. + +Their huts are built of blocks of snow, and arched, having an ice pane +for a window. They construct their arched entrance and their +hemispherical roof, on the true principles of architecture. Those wise +men, the Egyptians, made their arch by hewing the stones out of shape, +the Esquimaux have the true secret. Here they are, with little food in +winter and great appetites; devouring a whole walrus when they get it, +and taking the chance of hunger for the next eight days--hungry or +full, for ever happy in their lot--here are the Esquimaux. They are +warmly clothed, each in a double suit of skins sewn neatly together. +Some are singing, with good voices, too. Please them, and they +straightway dance; activity is good in a cold climate. Play to them on +the flute, or if you can sing well, sing, or turn a barrel-organ, they +are mute, eager with wonder and delight; their love of music is +intense. Give them a pencil, and, like children, they will draw. Teach +them, and they will learn, oblige them, and they will be grateful. +"Gentle and loving savages," one of our old worthies called them, and +the Portuguese were so much impressed with their teachable and gentle +conduct, that a Venetian ambassador writes, "His serene majesty +contemplates deriving great advantage from the country, not only on +account of the timber, of which he has occasion, but of the +inhabitants, who are admirably calculated for labor, and are the best +I have ever seen." The Esquimaux, of course, will learn vice, and in +the region visited by whale ships, vice enough has certainly been +taught him. Here are the dogs, who will eat old coats, or any thing; +and, near the dwellings, here is a snow-bunting,--robin redbreast of +the Arctic lands. A party of our sailors once, on landing, took some +sticks from a large heap, and uncovered the nest of a snow-bunting +with young, the bird flew to a little distance, but seeing that the +men sat down and harmed her not, continued to seek food and supply her +little ones, with full faith in the good intentions of the party. +Captain Lyon found a child's grave partly uncovered, and a +snow-bunting had built its nest upon the infant's bosom. + +Sailing round Melville Peninsula, we come into the gulf of Akkolee, +through Fury and Hecla Straits, discovered by Parry. So we get back to +the bottom of Regent's Inlet, which we quitted a short time ago, and +sailing in the neighborhood of the magnetic pole, we reach the estuary +of Black's River, on the north-east coast of America. We pass then +through a straight, discovered in 1839, by Dean and Simpson, still +coasting along the northern shore of America, on the Great Stinking +Lake, as Indians call this ocean. Boats, ice permitting, and our +"Phantom Ship," of course, can coast all the way to Behring Strait. +The whole coast has been explored by Sir John Franklin, Sir John +Richardson, and Sir George Back, who have earned their knighthoods +through great peril. As we pass Coronation Gulf--the scene of +Franklin, Richardson, and Back's first exploration from the Coppermine +River--we revert to the romantic story of their journey back, over a +land of snow and frost, subsisting upon lichens, with companions +starved to death; where they plucked wild leaves for tea, and ate +their shoes for supper; the tragedy by the river; the murder of poor +Hood, with a book of prayers in his hand; Franklin at Fort Enterprise, +with two companions at the point of death, himself gaunt, hollow-eyed, +feeding on pounded bones, raked from the dunghill; the arrival of Dr. +Richardson and the brave sailor; their awful story of the cannibal +Michel;--we revert to these things with a shudder. But we must +continue on our route. The current still flows westward, bearing now +large quantities of drift-wood, out of the Mackenzie River. At the +name of Sir Alexander Mackenzie, also, we might pause, and talk over +the bold achievements of another arctic hero; but we pass on, by a +rugged and inhospitable coast, unfit for vessels of large +draught,--pass the broad mouth of the Youcon, pass Point Barrow, Icy +Cape, and are in Behring Strait. Had we passed on, we should have +found the Russian Arctic coast line, traced out by a series of Russian +explorers; of whom the most illustrious--Baron Von Wrangell--states, +that beyond a certain distance to the northward, there is always found +what he calls the _Polynja_ (open water.) This is the fact adduced by +those who adhere to the old fancy that there is a sea about the pole +itself quite free from ice. + +We pass through Behring Straits. Behring, a Dane by birth, but in the +Russian service, died here in 1741, upon the scene of his discovery. +He and his crew, victims of scurvy, were unable to manage their vessel +in a storm; and it was at length wrecked on a barren island, there, +where "want, nakedness, cold, sickness, impatience, and despair were +their daily guests." Behring, his lieutenant, and the master died. + +Now we must put a girdle round the world, and do it with the speed of +Ariel. Here we are already in the heats of the equator. We can do no +more than remark, that if air and water are heated at the equator, and +frozen at the poles, there will be equilibrium destroyed, and +constant currents caused. And so it happens, so we get the prevailing +winds, and all the currents of the ocean. Of these, some of the uses, +but by no means all, are obvious. We urge our "Phantom" fleetly to the +southern pole. Here, over the other hemisphere of the earth, there +shines another hemisphere of heaven. The stars are changed; the +southern cross, the Magellanic clouds, the "coal-sack" in the milky +way, attract our notice. Now we are in the southern latitude that +corresponds to England in the north; nay, at a greater distance, from +the pole, we find Kerguelen's Land, emphatically called "The Isle of +Desolation." Icebergs float much further into the warm sea on this +side of the equator, before they dissolve. The South Pole is evidently +a more thorough refrigerator than the North. Why is this? We shall +soon see. We push through pack-ice, and through floes and fields, by +lofty bergs, by an island or two covered with penguins, until there +lies before us a long range of mountains, nine or ten thousand feet in +height, and all clad in eternal snow. That is a portion of the +Southern Continent. Lieutenant Wilkes, in the American exploring +expedition, first discovered this, and mapped out some part of the +coast, putting a few clouds in likewise,--a mistake easily made by +those who omit to verify every foot of land. Sir James Ross, in his +most successful South Pole Expedition, during the years 1839-43, +sailed over some of this land, and confirmed the rest. The Antarctic, +as well as the Arctic honors he secured for England, by turning a +corner of the land, and sailing far southward, along an impenetrable +icy barrier, to the latitude of seventy-eight degrees, nine minutes. +It is an elevated continent, with many lofty ranges. In the extreme +southern point reached by the ships, a magnificent volcano was seen +spouting fire and smoke out of the everlasting snow. This volcano, +twelve thousand four hundred feet high, was named Mount Erebus; for +the "Erebus" and "Terror," now sought anxiously among the bays, and +sounds, and creeks of the North Pole, then coasted by the solid +ice-walls of the south. Only as "Phantoms" can we cross this land and +live. These lofty mountain-ranges, cold to the marrow, these vast +glaciers, and elevated plains of ice, no wonder that they cast a chill +about their neighborhood. Our very ghosts are cold, and the volcanoes +only make the frost colder by contrast. We descend upon the other +side, take ship again, and float up the Atlantic, through the tropics. +We have been round the world now, and among the ice, and have not +grown much older since we started. + + * * * * * + +Other "Phantoms" are to be added to those thus described. Besides the +expeditions now in the ice regions, from England and America, one, and +perhaps two more, have in the last two months started in the search +for Franklin. + + + + +MADAME DE GENLIS AND MADAME DE STAËL. + + +This curious piece has recently appeared in the _Gazette de France_, +and has excited much remark. It is given out to be the production of +Charles X., when Monsieur, and was communicated to M. Neychens by the +Marquis de la Roche Jacqueleine. + +"Before the Revolution, I was but very slightly acquainted with Mme. +de Genlis, her conduct during that disastrous period having not a +little contributed to sink her in my estimation; and the publication +of her novel, 'The Knights of the Swan' (the _first_ edition), +completed my dislike to a person who had so cruelly aspersed the +character of the queen, my sister-in-law. + +"On my return to France, I received a letter full of the most +passionate expressions of loyalty from beginning to end; the missive +being signed Comtesse de Genlis; but imagining this could be but a +_plaisanterie_ of some intimate friend of my own, I paid no attention +whatever to it. However, in two or three days it was followed by a +second epistle, complaining of my silence, and appealing to the great +sacrifices the writer had made in the interest of my cause, as giving +her a _right_ to my favorable attention. Talleyrand being present, I +asked him if he could explain this enigma. + +"'Nothing is easier,' replied he; 'Mme. de Genlis is unique. She has +lost her own memory, and fancies others have experienced a similar +bereavement.' + +"'She speaks,' pursued I, 'of her virtues, her misfortunes, and +Napoleon's persecutions.' + +"'Hem! In 1789 her husband was quite ruined, so the events of that +period took nothing from _him_; and as to the tyranny of Bonaparte, it +consisted, in the first place, of giving her a magnificent suite of +apartments in the Arsenal; and in the second place, granting her a +pension of six thousand francs a year, upon the sole condition of her +keeping him every month _au courant_ of the literature of the day.' + +"'What shocking ferocity!' replied I, laughing; 'a case of infamous +despotism indeed. And this martyr to our cause asks to see me.' + +"'Yes; and pray let your royal highness grant her an audience, were it +only for once: I assure you she is most amusing.' + +"I followed the advice of M. de Talleyrand, and accorded to the lady +the permission she so pathetically demanded. The evening before she +was to present herself, however, came a third missive, recommending a +certain Casimir, the _phénix_ of the _époque_, and several other +persons besides; all, according to Mme. de Genlis, particularly +celebrated people; and the postscript to this effusion prepared me +also beforehand for the request she intended to make, of being +appointed governess to the children of my son, the Duc de Berry, who +was at that time not even married. + +"Just at this period it so happened that I was besieged by more than a +dozen persons of every rank in regard to Mme. de Staël, formerly +exiled by Bonaparte, and who had rushed to Paris without taking +breath, fully persuaded every one there, and throughout all France, +was impatient to see her again. Mme. de Staël had a double view in +thus introducing herself to me; namely, to direct my proceedings +entirely, and to obtain payment of the two million francs deposited in +the treasury by her father during his ministry. I confess I was not +prepossessed in favor of Mme. de Staël, for she also, in 1789, had +manifested so much hatred towards the Bourbons, that I thought all she +could possibly look to from us, was the liberty of living in Paris +unmolested: but I little knew her. She, on her side, imagined we ought +to be grateful to her for having quarrelled with Bonaparte--her own +pride being, in fact, the sole cause of the rupture. + +"M. de Fontanes and M. de Chàteaubriand were the first who mentioned +her to me; and to the importance with which they treated the matter, I +answered, laughing, 'So, Mme. la Baronne de Staël is then a supreme +power?' + +"'Indeed she is, and it might have very unfavorable effects did your +royal highness overlook her: for what she asserts, every one believes, +and then--she has suffered _so_ much!' + +"'Very likely; but what did she make my poor sister-in-law, the queen, +suffer? Do you think I can forget the abominable things she said, the +falsehoods she told? and was it not in consequence of them, and the +public's belief of them, that she owed the possibility of the +ambassadress of Sweden's being able to dare insult that unfortunate +princess in her very palace?' + +"Mme. de Staël's envoys, who manifested some confusion at the fidelity +of my memory, implored me to forget the past, think only of the +future, and remember that the genius of Mme. de Staël, whose +reputation was European, might be of the utmost advantage, or the +reverse. Tired of disputing I yielded; consented to receive this +_femme célèbre_, as they all called her, and fixed for her reception +the same day I had notified to Mme. de Genlis. + +"My brother has said, 'Punctuality is the politeness of kings'--words +as true and just as they are happily expressed; and the princes of my +family have never been found wanting in good manners; so I was in my +study waiting when Mme. de Genlis was announced. I was astonished at +the sight of a long, dry woman, with a swarthy complexion, dressed in +a printed cotton gown, any thing but clean, and a shawl covered with +dust, her habit-shirt, her hair even bearing marks of great +negligence. I had read her works, and remembering all she said about +neatness, and cleanliness, and proper attention to one's dress, I +thought she added another to the many who fail to add example to their +precepts. While making these reflections, Mme. de Genlis was firing +off a volley of curtsies; and upon finishing what she deemed the +requisite number, she pulled out of a great huge bag four manuscripts +of enormous dimensions. + +"'I bring,' commenced the lady, 'to your royal highness what will +amply repay any kindness you may show to me--No. 1 is a plan of +conduct, and the project of a constitution; No. 2 contains a +collection of speeches in answer to those likely to be addressed to +Monsieur; No. 3, addresses and letters proper to send to foreign +powers, the provinces, &c., and in No. 4, Monsieur will find a plan of +education, the only one proper to be persued by royalty, in reading +which, your royal highness will feel as convinced of the extent of my +acquirements as of the purity of my loyalty.' + +"Many in my place might have been angry; but, on the contrary, I +thanked her with an air of polite sincerity for the treasures she was +so obliging as to confide to me, and then condoled with her upon the +misfortunes she had endured under the tyranny of Bonaparte. + +"'Alas! Monsieur, this abominable despot dared to make a mere +plaything of _me_! and yet I strove, by wise advice, to guide him +right, and teach him to regulate his conduct properly: but he would +not be led. I even offered to mediate between him and the pope, but he +did not even so much as answer me upon this subject; although (being a +most profound theologian) I could have smoothed almost all +difficulties when the Concordat was in question.' + +"This last piece of pretension was almost too much for my gravity. +However, I applauded the zeal of this new mother of the church, and +was going to put an end to the interview, when it came into my head to +ask her if she was well acquainted with Mme. de Staël. + +"'God forbid!' cried she, making a sign of the cross: 'I have no +acquaintance with _such people_; and I but do my duty in warning those +who have not perused the works of that lady, to bear in mind that they +are written in the worst possible taste, and are also extremely +immoral. Let your royal highness turn your thoughts from such books; +you will find in _mine_ all that is necessary to know. I suppose +Monsieur has not yet seen _Little Necker_?' + +"'Mme. la Baronne de Staël Holstein has asked for an audience, and I +even suspect she may be already arrived at the Tuileries.' + +"'Let your royal highness beware of this woman! See in her the +implacable enemy of the Bourbons, and in me their most devoted slave.' + +"This new proof of the want of memory in Madame de Genlis amused me as +much as the other absurdities she had favored me with; and I was in +the act of making her the ordinary salutations of adieu, when I +observed her blush purple, and her proud rival entered. + +"The two ladies exchanged a haughty bow, and the comedy, which had +just finished with the departure of Mme. de Genlis, recommenced under +a different form when Mme. de Staël appeared on the stage. The +baroness was dressed, not certainly dirty, like the countess, but +quite as absurdly. She wore a red satin gown, embroidered with flowers +of gold and silk; a profusion of diamonds; rings enough to stock a +pawnbroker's shop; and, I must add, that I never before saw so low a +cut corsage display less inviting charms. Upon her head was a huge +turban, constructed on the pattern of that worn by the Cumean sybil, +which put a finishing stroke to a costume so little in harmony with +her style of face. I scarcely understand how a woman of genius _can_ +have such a false, vulgar taste. Mme. de Staël began by apologizing +for occupying a few moments which she doubted not I should have +preferred giving to Mme. de Genlis. 'She is one of the illustrations +of the day,' observed she, with a sneering smile--'a colossus of +religious faith, and represents in her person, she fancies, all the +literature of the age. Ah! ah! Monsieur, in the hands of _such people_ +the world would soon retrograde; while it should, on the contrary, be +impelled forward, and your royal highness be the first to put yourself +at the head of this great movement. To you should belong the glory of +giving the impulse, guided by _my experience_.' + +"'Come,' thought I, 'here is another going to plague me with plans of +conduct, and constitutions, and reforms, which I am to persuade the +king my brother to adopt. It seems to be an insanity in France this +composing of new constitutions.' While I was making these reflections, +madame had time to give utterance to a thousand fine phrases, every +one more sublime than the preceding. However, to put an end to them, I +asked her if there was any thing she wished to demand. + +"'Ah, dear!--oh yes, prince!' replied the lady in an indifferent tone. +'A mere trifle--less than nothing--two millions, without counting the +interest at five per cent. But these are matters I leave entirely to +my men of business, being for my own part much more absorbed in +politics and the science of government.' + +"'Alas! madame, the king has arrived in France with his mind made up +upon most subjects, the fruit of twenty-five years' meditation; and I +fear he is not likely to profit by your good intentions.' + +"'Then so much the worse for him and for France! All the world knows +what it cost Bonaparte his refusing to follow my advice, and pay me my +two millions. I have studied the Revolution profoundly, followed it +through all its phases, and I flatter myself I am the only pilot who +can hold with one hand the rudder of the state, if at least I have +Benjamin for steersman.' + +"'Benjamin! Benjamin--who?' asked I in surprise. + +"'It would give me the deepest distress,' replied she, 'to think that +the name of M. le Baron de Rebecque Benjamin de Constant has never +reached the ears of your royal highness. One of his ancestors saved +the life of Henry Quatre. Devoted to the descendants of this good +king, he is ready to serve them; and among several _constitutions_ he +has in his portfolio, you will probably find one with annotations and +reflections by myself, which will suit you. Adopt it, and choose +Benjamin Constant to carry the idea out.' + +"It seemed like a thing resolved--an event decided upon--this proposal +of inventing a constitution for us. I kept as long as I could upon the +defensive, but Mme. de Staël, carried away by her zeal and her +enthusiasm, instead of speaking of what personally concerned herself, +knocked me about with arguments, and crushed me under threats and +menaces; so, tired to death of entertaining, instead of a clever, +humble woman, a roaring politician in petticoats, I finished the +audience, leaving her as little satisfied as myself with the +interview. Mme. de Genlis was ten times less disagreeable, and twenty +times more amusing. + +"That same evening I had M. le Prince de Talleyrand with me, and I was +confounded by hearing him say, 'So, your royal highness has made Mme. +de Staël completely quarrel with me now?' + +"'Me! I never so much as pronounced your name.' + +"'Notwithstanding that, she is convinced that I am the person who +prevents your royal highness from employing her in your political +relations, and that I am jealous of Benjamin Constant. She is resolved +on revenge.' + +"'Ha, ha!--and what can she do?' + +"'A very great deal of mischief, Monseigneur. She has numerous +partisans; and if she declares herself Bonapartiste, we must look to +ourselves.' + +"'That _would_ be curious.' + +"'Oh, I shall take upon myself to prevent her going so far; but she +will be Royalist no longer, and we shall suffer from that.' + +"At this time I had not the remotest idea of what a mere man, still +less a mere woman, could do in France: but now I understand it +perfectly, and if Mme. de Staël was living--Heaven pardon me!--I would +strike up a flirtation with her." + + + + +From Chambers's Edinburgh Journal. + +THE SMUGGLER MALGRE LUI. + + +There is perhaps no more singular anomaly in the history of the human +mind than the very different light in which a fraud is viewed +according to the circumstances in which it is practised. The singular +revelations made to the Chancellor of the Exchequer by a late +deputation will probably be fresh in the remembrance of most of our +readers. Even the learned gentleman himself could hardly maintain his +professional gravity when informed of the ingenious contrivances +adopted for defrauding the revenue. Advertisements floating through +the air attached to balloons, French gloves making their way into the +kingdom in separate detachments of right and left hands, mutilated +clocks travelling without their wheels--such were some of the divers +modes by which the law was declared to be evaded, and the custom-house +officers baffled. We are by no means disposed either to think or speak +with levity of this system of things. However much a man may succeed +in reconciling any fraud to his own conscience, or however leniently +it may be viewed by his fellow-men, it will yet assuredly help to +degrade his moral nature, and its repetition will slowly, but surely, +deaden the silent monitor within his breast. All we affirm is the +well-known fact, that laws are in most cases ineffective, except in so +far as they harmonize with the innate moral convictions of mankind; +and that many a man who would not for worlds cheat his next door +neighbor of a penny, will own without a blush, and perhaps even with a +smile of triumph, that he has cheated the government of thousands! It +is not often, however, that so daring and successful a stroke of this +nature is effected as that which we find related of a celebrated Swiss +jeweller, who actually succeeded in making the French director-general +of the customs act the part of a smuggler! + +Geneva, as must be well known to all our readers, supplies half Europe +with her watches and her jewelry. Three thousand workmen are kept in +continual employment by her master goldsmiths; while seventy-five +thousand ounces of gold, and fifty thousand marks of silver, annually +change their form, and multiply their value beneath their skilful +hands! The most fashionable jeweller's shop in Geneva is +unquestionably that of Beautte; his trinkets are those which beyond +all others excite the longing of the Parisian ladies. A high duty is +charged upon these in crossing the French frontier; but, in +consideration of a brokerage of five per cent., M. Beautte undertakes +to forward them safely to their destination through contraband +channels; and the bargain between the buyer and seller is concluded +with this condition as openly appended and avowed as if there were no +such personages as custom-house officers in the world. + +All this went on smoothly for some years with M. Beautte; but at +length it so happened that M. le Comte de Saint-Cricq, a gentleman of +much ability and vigilance was appointed director-general of the +customs. He heard so much of the skill evinced by M. Beautte in +eluding the vigilance of his agents, that he resolved personally to +investigate the matter, and prove for himself the truth of the +reports. He consequently repaired to Geneva, presented himself at M. +Beautte's shop, and purchased thirty thousand francs' worth of +jewelry, on the express condition that they should be transmitted to +him free of duty on his return to Paris. M. Beautte accepted the +proposed condition with the air of a man who was perfectly accustomed +to arrangements of this description. He, however, presented for +signature to M. de Saint-Cricq a private deed, by which the purchaser +pledged himself to pay the customary five per cent. _smuggling dues_, +in addition to the thirty thousand francs' purchase-money. + +M. de Saint-Cricq smiled, and taking the pen from the jeweller's hand, +affixed to the deed the following signature--"L. de Saint-Cricq, +Director-General of the Customs in France." He then handed the +document back to M. Beautte, who merely glanced at the signature, and +replied with a courteous bow-- + +"_Monsieur le Directeur des Douanes_, I shall take care that the +articles which you have done me the honor of purchasing shall be +handed to you in Paris directly after your arrival." M. de +Saint-Cricq, piqued by the man's cool daring and apparent defiance of +his authority and professional skill, immediately ordered post-horses, +and without the delay of a single hour set out with all speed on the +road to Paris. + +On reaching the frontier, the Director-General made himself known to +the _employés_ who came forward to examine his carriage--informed the +chief officer of the incident which had just occurred, and begged of +him to keep up the strictest surveillance along the whole of the +frontier line, as he felt it to be a matter of the utmost importance +to place some check upon the wholesale system of fraud which had for +some years past been practised upon the revenue by the Geneva +jewellers. He also promised a gratuity of fifty louis-d'ors to +whichever of the _employés_ should be so fortunate as to seize the +prohibited jewels--a promise which had the effect of keeping every +officer on the line wide awake, and in a state of full activity, +during the three succeeding days. + +In the meanwhile M. de Saint-Cricq reached Paris, alighted at his own +residence, and after having embraced his wife and children, and passed +a few moments in their society, retired to his dressing-room, for the +purpose of laying aside his travelling costume. The first thing which +arrested his attention when he entered the apartment was a very +elegant looking casket, which stood upon the mantelpiece, and which he +did not remember to have ever before seen. He approached to examine +it; his name was on the lid; it was addressed in full to "M. le Comte +de Saint-Cricq, Director-General of Customs." He accordingly opened it +without hesitation, and his surprise and dismay may be conceived when, +on examining the contents, he recognized at once the beautiful +trinkets he had so recently purchased in Geneva! + +The count rung for his valet, and inquired from him whether he could +throw any light upon this mysterious occurrence. The valet looked +surprised, and replied, that on opening his master's portmanteau, the +casket in question was one of the first articles which presented +itself to his sight, and its elegant form and elaborate workmanship +having led him to suppose it contained articles of value, he had +carefully laid it aside upon the mantelpiece. The count, who had full +confidence in his valet, and felt assured that he was in no way +concerned in the matter, derived but little satisfaction from this +account, which only served to throw a fresh veil of mystery over the +transaction; and it was only some time afterwards, and after long +investigation, that he succeeded in discovering the real facts of the +case. + +Beautte, the jeweller, had a secret understanding with one of the +servants of the hotel at which the Comte de Saint-Cricq lodged in +Geneva. This man, taking advantage of the hurried preparations for the +count's departure, contrived to slip the casket unperceived into one +of his portmanteaus, and the ingenious jeweller had thus succeeded in +making the Director-General of Customs one of the most successful +_smugglers_ in the kingdom! + + + + +THE TRUE HISTORY OF AGNES SOREL. + +BY R. H. HORNE, AUTHOR OF "ORION," ETC. + + +Agnes Sorel was born in 1409, at the village of Fromenteau, in +Touraine. Her father was the Seigneur de St. Gérand, a gentleman +attached to the house of the Count de Clermont. At the age of fifteen, +she was placed as maid of honor to Isabel of Lorraine, duchess of +Anjou, and accompanied this princess when she went to Paris, in 1431. + +At this period, Agnes Sorel was considered to be the most beautiful +woman of her day. Her conversation and wit were equal to her beauty. +In the "Histoire des Favorites" she is said to have been noble-minded, +full of generosity, with sweetness of manners, and sincerity of heart. +The same writer adds that every body fell in love with her, from the +king to the humblest officers. Charles VII. became passionately +attached to her; and in order to insure her constant presence at +court, he placed her as maid of honor to the queen. The amour was +conducted with secrecy; but the fact became manifest by the favors +which the king lavished upon the relations of Agnes, while she herself +lived in great magnificence amidst a very poor court. She was fond of +splendor, and has been quaintly described by Monstrelet as "having +enjoyed all the pleasures of life, in wearing rich clothes, furred +robes, and golden chains of precious stones, and whatever else she +desired." When she visited Paris, in attendance upon the queen, the +splendor and expense of Agnes were so excessive that the people +murmured greatly; whereupon the proud beauty exclaimed against the +Parisians as churls. + +During the time that the English were actually in possession of a +great part of France, it was in vain that the queen (Mary of Anjou) +endeavored to rouse her husband from his lethargy. That the king was +not deficient in energy and physical courage, is evident from the +manner in which he signalized himself on various occasions. At the +siege of Montereau in 1437, (according to the Chronicle de Charles +VII. par M. Alain Chartier, Nevers, 1594,) he rushed to the assault, +now thrusting with the lance, now assisting the artillery, now +superintending the various military engines for heaving masses of +stone or wood; but during the period above-mentioned he was lost to +all sense of royal glory, and had given himself up entirely to hunting +and all sorts of pleasures. + +He was recalled by Agnes to a sense of what was due to his kingdom. +She told him, one day, says Brantoine, that when she was a girl, an +astrologer had predicted that she would be loved by one of the most +valiant kings of Christendom; that when His Majesty Charles VII. had +done her this honor, she thought, of course, he was the valiant king +who had been predicted; but now, finding he was so weak, and had so +little care as to what became of himself and his affairs, she saw that +she had made a mistake, and that this valiant prince could not be +Charles, but the King of England. Saying these words, Agnes rose, and +bowing reverentially to the king, asked leave to retire to the court +of the English king, since the prophecy pointed at him. "Charles," she +said, "was about to lose his crown, and Henry to unite it to his." By +this rebuke the king was much affected. He gave up his hunting, left +his gardens for the field of battle, and succeeded in driving the +English out of France. This circumstance occasioned Francis I. to make +the following verses, which, it is said, he wrote under a portrait of +Agnes:-- + + "Plus de louange et d'honneur tu mérite, + La cause étant de France recouvrer, + Que ce que peut dedans un cloitre ouvrer, + Close nonnain, ou bien dévol hermite." + +The king lavished gifts and honors upon Agnes. He built a château for +her at Loches; he gave her, besides the comté de Penthièvre, in +Bretagne, the lordships of Roche Servière, of Issoudun, in Berri, and +the Château de Beauté, at the extremity of the wood of Vincennes, that +she might be, as he said, "in deed and in name the Queen of Beauty." +It is believed that she never made a bad use of her influence with the +king for any political purposes or unkind private feelings; +nevertheless, the Dauphin (afterwards Louis XI.) conceived an +implacable jealousy against her, and carried his resentment so far, on +one occasion, as to give her a blow. + +She retired, in 1445, to Loches, and for nearly five years declined +appearing at court; but the king's love for her still continued, and +he took many journeys into Touraine to visit her. But eventually the +queen, who had never forgotten her noble counsels to the king, which +had roused him from his lethargy, persuaded her to return to court. + +The queen appears to have felt no jealousy, but to have had a regard +for her. It seems, also, that Agnes had become very popular, partly +from her beauty and wit, partly because she was considered in a great +measure, to have saved France, and partly because she distributed +large sums in alms to the poor, and to repair decayed churches. + +After the taking of Rouen, and the entire expulsion of the English +from France, the king took up his winter-quarters in the Abbey of +Jumiège. Agnes hastened to the Château de Masnal la Belle, a league +distant from this abbey, for the purpose of warning the king of a +conspiracy. The king only laughed at the intelligence; but the death +of Agnes Sorel, which immediately followed, gives some grounds for +crediting the truth of the information which she communicated. At this +place Agnes, still beautiful, and in perfect health, was suddenly +attacked by a dysentery which carried her off. It is believed that she +was poisoned. Some affirm that it was effected by direction of the +Dauphin; others accuse Jacques Coeur, the king's goldsmith (as the +master of the treasury was then called), and others attribute it to +female jealousy. + +The account given of her death by Monstrelet is to the following +effect: Agnes was suddenly attacked by a dysentery which could not be +cured. She lingered long, and employed the time in prayer and +repentance; she often, as he relates, called upon Mary Magdalen, who +had also been a sinner, and upon God and the blessed Virgin for aid. +After receiving the sacrament, she desired the book of prayers to be +brought her, in which she had written with her own hand the verses of +St. Barnard, and these she repeated. She then made many gifts, which +were put down in writing: and these, including alms and the payment of +her servants, amounted to 60,000 crowns. The fair Agnes, the once +proud beauty, perceiving her end approaching, and now feeling a +disgust to life proportioned to the fulness of her past enjoyment of +all its gayeties, vanities, and pleasures, said to the Lord de la +Tremouille and others, and in the presence of all her damsels, that +our insecure and worldly life was but a foul ordure. She then +requested her confessor to give her absolution, according to a form +she herself dictated, with which he complied. After this, she uttered +a loud shriek, and gave up the ghost. She died on Monday, the 9th day +of February, 1449, about six o'clock in the afternoon, in the fortieth +year of her age. + +This account, though bearing every appearance of probability, is yet +open to some doubts, from the manifestation of a tendency, on the part +of Monstrelet, to give a coloring to the event, and to the character +of Agnes Sorel. He even attempts to throw a doubt upon her having been +the king's mistress, treating the fact as a mere scandal. He says that +the affection of the king was attributable to her good sense, her wit, +her agreeable manners, and gayety, quite as much as to her beauty. +This was, no doubt, the case; but it hardly helps the argument of the +historian. Monstrelet finds it difficult, however, to dispose of the +children that she had by the king: he admits that Agnes had a daughter +which she said was the king's, but that he denied it. The compilation +by Denys Codefroy takes the same view, but nearly the whole account is +copied verbatim from Monstrelet, without acknowledgment. + +The heart and intestines of Agnes were buried at Jumiège. Her body was +placed in the centre of the choir of the collegiate church of the +Château de Loches, which she had greatly enriched. + +Her tomb was in existence at Loches, in 1792. It was of black marble. +The figure of Agnes was in white marble; her head resting upon a +lozenge, supported by angels, and two lambs were at her feet. + +The writer of the life of Agnes Sorel in the "Biographie Universelle," +having access to printed books and MSS. of French history which are +not in the public libraries of this country, the following statements +are taken from that work: the writer does not give his authorities. + +The canons of the church pretended to be scandalized at having the +tomb of Agnes placed in their choir, and begged permission of Louis +XI. to have it removed. "I consent," replied the king, "provided you +give up all you have received from her bounty." + +The poets of the day were profuse in their praises of the memory of +Agnes. One of the most memorable of these is a poem by Baïf, printed +at Paris in 1573. In 1789 the library of the chapter of Loches +possessed a manuscript containing nearly a thousand Latin sonnets in +praise of Agnes, all acrostics, and made by a canon of that city. + +A marble bust of her was long preserved at the Château de Chinon, and +is now placed in the Muséum des Augustins. + +Agnes Sorel had three daughters by Charles VII., who all received +dowries, and were married at the expense of the crown. They received +the title of daughters of France, the name given at that time to the +natural daughters of the kings. An account of the noble families into +which they married, together with the honors bestowed upon the brother +of Agnes, will be found in Moreri's "Dictionnaire Historique." + + + + +From the London Examiner. + +PROSPECTS OF AFRICAN COLONIZATION. + + +Africa has never been propitious to European settlement or +colonization, but quite the contrary. The last founded state of the +Anglo-American Union, of about two years' growth, is alone, at this +moment, worth more than all that has been effected by the European +race in Africa in two-and-twenty centuries. The most respectable +product of African colonization is a Cape boor, and this is certainly +not a finished specimen of humanity. Assuredly, for the last three +hundred years, Africa has done nothing for the nations of Europe but +seduce them into crime, folly, and extravagance. + +The Romans were the first European settlers in Africa; it was at their +very door, and they held it for eight centuries. Now, there is not +left in it hardly a trace of Roman civilization; certainly fewer, at +all events, than the Arabs have left in Spain. The Vandal occupation +of Mediterranean Africa lasted only half a century. We should not have +known that Vandals had ever set their feet on the Continent but for +the written records of civilized men. There is nothing Vandal there, +unless Vandalism in the abstract. The Dutch came next, in order of +time, in another portion of Africa, and we have already alluded to the +indistinct "spoor" which they have left behind them after an +occupation of a hundred and fifty years. + +The English have settled in two different quarters of the African +continent, one of them within eight degrees of the equatorial line, +and the other some thirty-four south of it. The first costs us civil +establishments, forts, garrisons, and squadrons included (for out of +Africa and its people comes the supposed necessity for the squadron), +a good million a year. The most valuable article we get from tropical +Africa is the oil of a certain palm, which contributes largely towards +an excise duty of about a million and a half a year, levied on what +has been justly called a second necessary of life--to wit, soap. + +We have been in possession of the southern promontory of Africa for +above fifty years. In this time, besides its conquest twice over from +a European power, and in addition to fleets and armies, it has cost +us, in mere self-defence against savages, three million pounds, while +at this moment we are engaged in the same kind of defence, with the +tolerable certainty of incurring another million. No one will venture +to say that this sum alone does not far exceed the value of the fee +simple and sovereignty of the southern promontory of Africa. What we +get from it consists chiefly in some purgative aloes, a little +indifferent wool, and a good deal of execrable wine, on the +importation of which we pay a virtual bounty! As for _our subjects_ in +this part of the African continent, they amount to about two hundred +thousand, and are composed of Anglo-Saxons, Dutch, Malays, Hottentots, +Bushmen, Gaikas, Tambookies, Amagarkas, Zulas, and Amazulas, speaking +a very Babel of African, Asiatic, and European tongues, perilous to +delicate organic structures even to listen to. + +Now for French African colonization. If we have not been very wise +ourselves, our neighbors, who have never been eminently happy in their +attempts at colonization, have been much less so. They have been in +possession of an immense territory in Algeria for twenty years, and +have now about fifty thousand colonists there, with an army which has +generally not been less than one hundred thousand, so that every +colonist requires two soldiers to keep his throat from being cut, and +his property from being robbed or stolen. This is about ten times the +regular army that protects twenty-eight millions of Anglo-Americans +from nearly all the savages of North America. The local revenue of +Algeria is half a million sterling; but the annual cost of the +experiment to France amounts to eight times as much as the revenue; +and it has been computed that the whole charge to the French nation, +from first to last (it goes on at the same rate), has been sixty +million pounds. This is without exception the most monstrous attempt +at colonization that has ever been made by man. If war should +unfortunately arise with any maritime power, the matter will be still +worse. At least one hundred thousand of the flower of the French army +will then be worse than lost to France. For, pent up as it will be in +a narrow strip of eighty miles broad along the shore of the +Mediterranean, it may be blockaded from the sea by any superior naval +power; and assuredly will be so, from the side of the desert, by a +native one. To hold Algeria is to cripple France. + +What, then, is the cause of the fatality which has thus ever attended +African colonization by Europeans? In tropical Africa, the heat and +insalubrity, and consequently the total unfitness for European life, +are causes quite sufficient to account for the failure; and the +failure has been eminent with French, Dutch, English, and Danes. But +this will not account for want of success in temperate Africa, whether +beyond the northern or southern tropic. The climate of this last, +especially, is very good; and that of the first being nearly the same +as their own, ought not to be hurtful to the constitutions of southern +Europeans. + +Drought, and the intermixture of deserts and wastes of sand with +fertile lands, after the manner of a chess-board, without the +regularity, is, of course, unpropitious to colonization, but cannot +prevent its advancement, as we see by the progress of our Australian +colonies. These causes, however, combined with the character of the +native or congenial inhabitants of the country, have been quite +sufficient to prove insuperable obstacles to a prosperous +colonization. A nomad and wandering population has in fact been +generated, incapable either of advancement or amalgamation, having +just a sufficient knowledge of the arts to be dangerous neighbors, not +capable of being driven to a distance from the settlers, nor likely to +be destroyed by gunpowder or brandy. The lion and shepherd recede +before the white man in southern Africa, but not the Caffir. + +The inhabitant of northern Africa, whether Arabian or Numidian, is, in +relation to an European colony, only a more formidable Caffir, from +greater numbers and superior skill. Heretofore, a garrison of five +thousand men at the most has been sufficient to protect the Cape +colony, although six thousand miles distant from England. The +territory of Algeria, of about the same extent, requires about twenty +times that number, although within a day's sail of France. Arab and +Numidian seem to be alike untamable both by position and by race. The +Arabs (and it shows they were capable of better things) were a +civilized and industrious people while in the fair regions of Spain; +driven from it, they have degenerated into little more than predatory +shepherds, or freebooters; but they are only the more formidable to +civilized men on this very account. + +What, then, will be the fate of the French and English colonies in +temperate Africa? We confess we can hardly venture to predict. +Assuredly, neither north nor south Africa will ever give birth to a +great or flourishing community, such as North America has done, and as +Australia and New Zealand will certainly do. The Caffirs may possibly +be driven to a distance, after a long course of trouble and expense; +but the Arabs and Kabyles are as inexpungable as the wandering tribes +of Arabia Petræa or Tartary. With them, neither expulsion, nor +extermination, nor amalgamation is practicable. Very likely France and +England will get heartily tired of paying yearly millions for their +unavailable deserts, and there is no knowing what they may be driven +to do in such an extremity. At all events, we may safely assert that +France would have saved sixty millions of pounds, and the interminable +prospect of a proportional annual expenditure, had she confined +herself to the town and fortress of Algiers; and England would have +been richer and wiser, had she kept within the bounds of the original +Dutch colony. The best thing we ourselves can do with our +extra-tropical Africa, is to leave the colonists to govern, and also +to defend themselves from all but enemies by sea: that the French, +unfortunately, cannot do. + + + + +MY NOVEL: + +OR, VARIETIES IN ENGLISH LIFE. + +BY PISISTRATUS CAXTON. + +_Continued from page 269._ + + +BOOK V.--INITIAL CHAPTER. + +"I hope, Pisistratus," said my father, "that you do not intend to be +dull!" + +"Heaven forbid, sir! what could make you ask such a question? +_Intend!_ No! if I am dull it is from innocence." + +"A very long Discourse upon Knowledge!" said my father; "very long. I +should cut it out!" + +I looked upon my father as a Byzantian sage might have looked on a +Vandal. "Cut it out!" + +"Stops the action, sir!" said my father, dogmatically. + +"Action! But a novel is not a drama." + +"No, it is a great deal longer--twenty times as long, I dare say," +replied Mr. Caxton with a sigh. + +"Well, sir--well! I think my Discourse upon Knowledge has much to do +with the subject--is vitally essential to the subject; does not stop +the action--only explains and elucidates the action. And I am +astonished, sir, that you, a scholar, and a cultivator of knowledge--" + +"There--there!" cried my father, deprecatingly; "I yield--I yield. +What better could I expect when I set up for a critic! What author +ever lived that did not fly into a passion--even with his own father, +if his father presumed to say--'Cut out!' _Pacem imploro_--" + +_Mrs. Caxton._--"My dear Austin, I am sure Pisistratus did not mean to +offend you, and I have no doubt he will take your--" + +_Pisistratus_, (hastily.)--"Advice _for the future_, certainly. I will +quicken the action and--" + +"Go on with the Novel," whispered Roland, looking up from his eternal +account-book. "We have lost £200 by our barley!" + +Therewith I plunged my pen into the ink, and my thoughts into the +"Fair Shadowland." + + +CHAPTER II. + +"Halt!" cried a voice; and not a little surprised was Leonard when the +stranger who had accosted him the preceding evening got into the +chaise. + +"Well," said Richard, "I am not the sort of man you expected, eh! Take +time to recover yourself." And with these words Richard drew forth a +book from his pocket, threw himself back, and began to read. Leonard +stole many a glance at the acute, hardy, handsome face of his +companion, and gradually recognized a family likeness to poor John, in +whom, despite age and infirmity, the traces of no common share of +physical beauty were still evident. And, with that quick link in ideas +which mathematical aptitude bestows, the young student at once +conjectured that he saw before him his uncle Richard. He had the +discretion, however, to leave that gentleman free to choose his own +time for introducing himself, and silently revolved the new thoughts +produced by the novelty of his situation. Mr. Richard read with +notable quickness--sometimes cutting the leaves of the book with his +penknife, sometimes tearing them open with his forefinger, sometimes +skipping whole pages altogether. Thus he galloped to the end of the +volume--flung it aside--lighted his cigar, and began to talk. + +He put many questions to Leonard relative to his rearing, and +especially to the mode by which he had acquired his education; and +Leonard, confirmed in the idea that he was replying to a kinsman, +answered frankly. + +Richard did not think it strange that Leonard should have acquired so +much instruction with so little direct tuition. Richard Avenel himself +had been tutor to himself. He had lived too long with our go-ahead +brethren, who stride the world on the other side the Atlantic with the +seven-leagued boots of the Giant-killer, not to have caught their +glorious fever for reading. But it was for a reading wholly different +from that which was familiar to Leonard. The books he read must be +new; to read old books would have seemed to him going back in the +world. He fancied that new books necessarily contained new ideas--a +common mistake--and our lucky adventurer was the man of his day. + +Tired with talking, he at length chucked the book he had run through +to Leonard, and, taking out a pocket-book and pencil, amused himself +with calculations on some detail of his business, after which he fell +into an absorbed train of thought--part pecuniary, part ambitious. + +Leonard found the book interesting; it was one of the numerous works, +half-statistic, half-declamatory, relating to the condition of the +working-classes, which peculiarly distinguish our century, and ought +to bind together rich and poor, by proving the grave attention which +modern society bestows upon all that can affect the welfare of the +last. + +"Dull stuff--theory--clap-trap," said Richard, rousing himself from +his reverie at last: "it can't interest you." + +"All books interest me, I think," said Leonard, "and this especially; +for it relates to the working-class, and I am one of them." + +"You were yesterday, but you mayn't be to-morrow," answered Richard +good-humoredly, and patting him on the shoulder. "You see, my lad, +that it is the middle class which ought to govern the country. What +the book says about the ignorance of country magistrates is very good; +but the man writes pretty considerable trash when he wants to regulate +the number of hours a free-born boy should work at a factory--only ten +hours a-day--pooh! and so lose two to the nation! Labor is wealth: and +if we could get men to work twenty-four hours a-day, we should be just +twice as rich. If the march of civilization is to proceed," continued +Richard, loftily, "men, and boys too, must not lie a-bed doing nothing +_all night_, sir." Then with a complacent tone--"We shall get to the +twenty-four hours at last; and, by gad, we must, or we shan't flog the +Europeans as we do now." + +On arriving at the inn at which Richard had first made acquaintance +with Mr. Dale, the coach by which he had intended to perform the rest +of the journey was found to be full. Richard continued to perform the +journey in post chaises, not without some grumbling at the expense, +and incessant orders to the postboys to make the best of the way. +"Slow country this, in spite of all its brag," said he--"very slow. +Time is money--they know that in the States; for why, they are all men +of business there. Always slow in a country where a parcel of lazy +idle lords, and dukes, and baronets, seem to think 'time is +pleasure.'" + +Towards evening the chaise approached the confines of a very large +town, and Richard began to grow fidgety. His easy cavalier air was +abandoned. He withdrew his legs from the window, out of which they had +been luxuriously dangling; pulled down his waistcoat; buckled more +tightly his stock: it was clear that he was resuming the decorous +dignity that belongs to state. He was like a monarch who, after +travelling happy and incognito, returns to his capital. Leonard +divined at once, that they were nearing their journey's end. + +Humble foot-passengers now looked at the chaise, and touched their +hats. Richard returned the salutation with a nod--a nod less gracious +than condescending. The chaise turned rapidly to the left, and stopped +before a smart lodge, very new, very white, adorned with two Doric +columns in stucco, and flanked by a large pair of gates. "Hollo!" +cried the postboy, and cracked his whip. + +Two children were playing before the lodge, and some clothes were +hanging out to dry on the shrubs and pales round the neat little +building. + +"Hang those brats! they are actually playing," growled Dick. "As I +live, the jade has been washing again! Stop, boy." During this +soliloquy, a good-looking young woman had rushed from the +door--slapped the children, as catching sight of the chaise, they ran +towards the house--opened the gates, and, dropping a curtsey to the +ground, seemed to wish that she could drop into it altogether, so +frightened and so trembling seemed she to shrink from the wrathful +face which the master now put out of the window. + +"Did I tell you, or did I not," said Dick, "that I would not have +these horrid disreputable clubs of yours playing just before my lodge +gates?" + +"Please, sir--" + +"Don't answer me. And did I tell you, or did I not, that the next time +I saw you making a drying-ground of my lilacs, you should go out, neck +and crop--" + +"Oh, please, sir--" + +"You leave my lodge next Saturday: drive on, boy. The ingratitude and +insolence of those common people are disgraceful to human nature," +muttered Richard, with an accent of the bitterest misanthropy. + +The chaise wheeled along the smoothest and freshest of gravel roads, +and through fields of the finest land, in the highest state of +cultivation. Rapid as was Leonard's survey, his rural eye detected the +signs of a master in the art agronomial. Hitherto he had considered +the Squire's model farm as the nearest approach to good husbandry he +had seen: for Jackeymo's finer skill was developed rather on the +minute scale of market-gardening than what can fairly be called +husbandry. But the Squire's farm was degraded by many old fashioned +notions, and concessions to the whim of the eye, which would not be +found in model farms now-a-days,--large tangled hedgerows, which, +though they constitute one of the beauties most picturesque in old +England, make sad deductions from produce; great trees, overshadowing +the corn, and harboring the birds; little patches of rough sward left +to waste; and angles of woodland running into fields, exposing them to +rabbits, and blocking out the sun. These and such like blots on a +gentleman's agriculture, common-sense and Giacomo had made clear to +the acute comprehension of Leonard. No such faults were perceptible in +Richard Avenel's domain. The fields lay in broad divisions, the hedges +were clipped and narrowed into their proper destination of mere +boundaries. Not a blade of wheat withered under the cold shade of a +tree; not a yard of land lay waste; not a weed was to be seen, not a +thistle to waft its baleful seed through the air: some young +plantations were placed, not where the artist would put them, but just +where the farmer wanted a fence from the wind. Was there no beauty in +this? Yes, there was beauty of its kind--beauty at once recognizable +to the initiated--beauty of use and profit--beauty that could bear a +monstrous high rent. And Leonard uttered a cry of admiration which +thrilled through the heart of Richard Avenel. + +"This _is_ farming!" said the villager. + +"Well, I guess it is," answered Richard, all his ill-humor vanishing. +"You should have seen the land when I bought it. But we new men, as +they call us--(damn their impertinence)--are the new blood of this +country." + +Richard Avenel never said any thing more true. Long may the new blood +circulate through the veins of the mighty giantess; but let the grand +heart be the same as it has beat for proud ages. + +The chaise now passed through a pretty shrubbery, and the house came +into gradual view--a house with a portico--all the offices carefully +thrust out of sight. + +The postboy dismounted, and rang the bell. + +"I almost think they are going to keep me waiting," said Mr. Richard, +well-nigh in the very words of Louis XIV. + +But that fear was not realized--the door opened; a well-fed servant +out of livery presented himself. There was no hearty welcoming smile +on his face, but he opened the chaise-door with demure and taciturn +respect. + +"Where's George? why does not he come to the door?" asked Richard, +descending from the chaise slowly, and leaning on the servant's +outstretched arm with as much precaution as if he had had the gout. + +Fortunately, George here came into sight, settling himself hastily +into his livery coat. + +"See to the things, both of you," said Richard, as he paid the +postboy. + +Leonard stood on the gravel sweep, gazing at the square white house. + +"Handsome elevation--classical, I take it--eh?" said Richard, joining +him. "But you should see the offices." + +He then, with familiar kindness, took Leonard by the arm, and drew him +within. He showed him the hall, with a carved mahogany stand for hats; +he showed him the drawing-room, and pointed out its beauties--though +it was summer the drawing-room looked cold, as will look rooms newly +furnished, with walls newly papered, in houses newly built. The +furniture was handsome, and suited to the rank of a rich trader. There +was no pretence about it, and therefore no vulgarity, which is more +than can be said for the houses of many an honorable Mrs. Somebody in +Mayfair, with rooms twelve feet square, chokeful of buhl, that would +have had its proper place in the Tuileries. Then Richard showed him +the library, with mahogany book-cases and plate glass, and the +fashionable authors handsomely bound. Your new men are much better +friends to living authors than your old families who live in the +country, and at most subscribe to a book-club. Then Richard took him +up-stairs, and led him through the bedrooms--all very clean and +comfortable, and with every modern convenience; and, pausing in a very +pretty single gentleman's chamber, said, "This is your den. And now, +can you guess who I am?" + +"No one but my Uncle Richard could be so kind," answered Leonard. + +But the compliment did not flatter Richard. He was extremely +disconcerted and disappointed. He had hoped that he should be taken +for a lord at least, forgetful of all that he had said in +disparagement of lords. + +"Pish!" said he at last, biting his lip--"so you don't think that I +look like a gentleman! Come, now, speak honestly." + +Leonard wonderingly saw he had given pain, and with the good breeding +which comes instinctively from good nature, replied--"I judged you by +your heart, sir, and your likeness to my grandfather--otherwise I +should never have presumed to fancy we could be relations." + +"Hum!" answered Richard. "You can just wash your hands, and then come +down to dinner; you will hear the gong in ten minutes. There's the +bell--ring for what you want." + +With that, he turned on his heel; and, descending the stairs, gave a +look into the dining-room, and admired the plated salver on the +sideboard, and the king's pattern spoons and forks on the table. Then +he walked to the looking-glass over the mantel-piece; and, wishing to +survey the whole effect of his form, mounted a chair. He was just +getting into an attitude which he thought imposing, when the butler +entered, and being London bred, had the discretion to try to escape +unseen; but Richard caught sight of him in the looking-glass, and +colored up to the temples. + +"Jarvis," said he mildly--"Jarvis, put me in mind to have these +inexpressibles altered." + + +CHAPTER III. + +Apropos of the inexpressibles, Mr. Richard did not forget to provide +his nephew with a much larger wardrobe than could have been thrust +into Dr. Riccabocca's knapsack. There was a very good tailor in the +town, and the clothes were very well made. And, but for an air more +ingenuous, and a cheek that, despite study and night vigils, retained +much of the sunburnt bloom of the rustic, Leonard Fairfield might now +have almost passed, without disparaging comment, by the bow-window at +White's. Richard burst into an immoderate fit of laughter when he +first saw the watch which the poor Italian had bestowed upon Leonard; +but, to atone for the laughter, he made him a present of a very pretty +substitute, and bade him "lock up his turnip." Leonard was more hurt +by the jeer at his old patron's gift than pleased by his uncle's. But +Richard Avenel had no conception of sentiment. It was not for many +days that Leonard could reconcile himself to his uncle's manner. Not +that the peasant could pretend to judge of its mere conventional +defects; but there is an ill breeding to which, whatever our rank and +nurture, we are almost equally sensitive--the ill breeding that comes +from want of consideration for others. Now, the Squire was as homely +in his way as Richard Avenel, but the Squire's bluntness rarely hurt +the feelings: and when it did so, the Squire perceived and hastened to +repair his blunder. But Mr. Richard, whether kind or cross, was always +wounding you in some little delicate fibre--not from malice, but from +the absence of any little delicate fibres of his own. He was really, +in many respects, a most excellent man, and certainly a very valuable +citizen. But his merits wanted the fine tints and fluent curves that +constitute beauty of character. He was honest, but sharp in his +practice, and with a keen eye to his interests. He was just, but as a +matter of business. He made no allowances, and did not leave to his +justice the large margin of tenderness and mercy. He was generous, but +rather from an idea of what was due to himself than with much thought +of the pleasure he gave to others; and he even regarded generosity as +a capital put out to interest. He expected a great deal of gratitude +in return, and, when he obliged a man, considered that he had bought a +slave. Every needy voter knew where to come, if he wanted relief or a +loan; but woe to him if he had ventured to express hesitation when Mr. +Avenel told him how he must vote. + +In this town Richard had settled after his return from America, in +which country he had enriched himself--first, by spirit and +industry--lastly, by bold speculation and good luck. He invested his +fortune in business--became a partner in a large brewery--soon bought +out his associates--and then took a principal share in a flourishing +corn-mill. He prospered rapidly--bought a property of some two or +three hundred acres, built a house, and resolved to enjoy himself, and +make a figure. He had now become the leading man of the town, and the +boast to Audley Egerton that he could return one of the members, +perhaps both, was by no means an exaggerated estimate of his power. +Nor was his proposition, according to his own views, so unprincipled +as it appeared to the statesman. He had taken a great dislike to both +the sitting members--a dislike natural to a sensible man of modern +politics, who had something to lose. For Mr. Slappe, the active +member--who was head-over-ears in debt--was one of the furious +democrats rare before the Reform Bill--and whose opinions were held +dangerous even by the mass of a liberal constituency; while Mr. +Sleekie, the gentleman member, who laid by £5000 every year from his +dividends in the Funds, was one of those men whom Richard justly +pronounced to be "humbugs"--men who curry favor with the extreme party +by voting for measures sure not to be carried; while, if there were +the least probability of coming to a decision that would lower the +money market, Mr. Sleekie was seized with a well-timed influenza. +Those politicians are common enough now. Propose to march to the +Millennium, and they are your men. Ask them to march a quarter of a +mile, and they fall to feeling their pockets, and trembling for fear +of the footpads. They are never so joyful as when there is no chance +of a victory. Did they beat the Minister, they would be carried out of +the house in a fit. + +Richard Avenel--despising both these gentlemen, and not taking kindly +to the Whigs since the great Whig leaders were Lords--looked with a +friendly eye to the Government as it then existed, and especially to +Audley Egerton, the enlightened representative of commerce. But in +giving Audley and his colleagues the benefit of his influence, through +conscience, he thought it all fair and right to have a _quid pro quo_, +and, as he had so frankly confessed, it was his whim to rise up "Sir +Richard." For this worthy citizen abused the aristocracy much on the +same principle as the fair Olivia depreciated Squire Thornhill--he had +a sneaking affection for what he abused. The society of Screwstown +was, like most provincial capitals, composed of two classes--the +commercial and the exclusive. These last dwelt chiefly apart, around +the ruins of an old abbey; they affected its antiquity in their +pedigrees, and had much of its ruin in their finances. Widows of rural +thanes in the neighborhood--genteel spinsters--officers retired on +half-pay--younger sons of rich squires, who had now become old +bachelors--in short, a very respectable, proud, aristocratic set--who +thought more of themselves than do all the Gowers and Howards, +Courtenays and Seymours, put together. It had early been the ambition +of Richard Avenel to be admitted into this sublime coterie; and, +strange to say, he had partially succeeded. He was never more happy +than when he was asked to their card-parties, and never more unhappy +than when he was actually there. Various circumstances combined to +raise Mr. Avenel into this elevated society. First, he was unmarried, +still very handsome, and in that society there was a large proportion +of unwedded females. Secondly, he was the only rich trader in +Screwstown who kept a good cook, and professed to give dinners, and +the half-pay captains and colonels swallowed the host for the sake of +the venison. Thirdly, and principally, all these exclusives abhorred +the two sitting members, and "idem nolle idem velle de republica, ea +firma amicitia est;" that is, congeniality in politics pieces +porcelain and crockery together better than the best diamond cement. +The sturdy Richard Avenel--who valued himself on American +independence--held these ladies and gentlemen in an awe that was truly +Brahminical. Whether it was that, in England, all notions, even of +liberty, are mixed up historically, traditionally, socially, with that +fine and subtle element of aristocracy which, like the press, is the +air we breathe; or whether Richard imagined that he really became +magnetically imbued with the virtues of these silver pennies and gold +seven-shilling pieces, distinct from the vulgar coinage in popular +use, it is hard to say. But the truth must be told--Richard Avenel was +a notable tuft-hunter. He had a great longing to marry out of this +society; but he had not yet seen any one sufficiently high-born and +high-bred to satisfy his aspirations. In the mean while, he had +convinced himself that his way would be smooth could he offer to make +his ultimate choice "My Lady;" and he felt that it would be a proud +hour in his life when he could walk before stiff Colonel Pompley to +the sound of "Sir Richard." Still, however disappointed at the ill +success of his bluff diplomacy with Mr. Egerton, and however yet +cherishing the most vindictive resentment against that individual--he +did not, as many would have done, throw up his political convictions +out of personal spite. He resolved still to favor the ungrateful and +undeserving administration; and as Audley Egerton had acted on the +representations of the mayor and deputies, and shaped his bill to meet +their views, so Avenel and the Government rose together in the popular +estimation of the citizens of Screwstown. + +But, duly to appreciate the value of Richard Avenel, and in just +counterpoise to all his foibles, one ought to have seen what he had +effected for the town. Well might he boast of "new blood;" he had done +as much for the town as he had for his fields. His energy, his quick +comprehension of public utility, backed by his wealth, and bold, +bullying, imperious character, had sped the work of civilization as if +with the celerity and force of a steam-engine. + +If the town were so well paved and so well lighted--if half-a-dozen +squalid lanes had been transformed into a stately street--if half the +town no longer depended on tanks for their water--if the poor-rates +were reduced one-third,--praise to the brisk new blood which Richard +Avenel had infused into vestry and corporation. And his example itself +was so contagious! "There was not a plate-glass window in the town +when I came into it," said Richard Avenel; "and now look down the High +Street!" He took the credit to himself, and justly; for, though his +own business did not require windows of plate-glass, he had awakened +the spirit of enterprise which adorns a whole city. + +Mr. Avenel did not present Leonard to his friends for more than a +fortnight. He allowed him to wear off his rust. He then gave a grand +dinner, at which his nephew was formally introduced, and, to his great +wrath and disappointment, never opened his lips. How could he, poor +youth, when Miss Clarina Mowbray only talked upon high life; till +proud Colonel Pompley went in state through the history of the siege +of Seringapatam. + + +CHAPTER IV. + +While Leonard accustoms himself gradually to the splendors that +surround him, and often turns with a sigh to the remembrance of his +mother's cottage and the sparkling fount in the Italian's flowery +garden, we will make with thee, O reader, a rapid flight to the +metropolis, and drop ourselves amidst the gay groups that loiter along +the dusty ground, or loll over the roadside palings of Hyde Park. The +season is still at its height; but the short day of fashionable London +life, which commences two hours after noon, is in its decline. The +crowd in Rotten Row begins to thin. Near the statue of Achilles, and +apart from all other loungers, a gentleman, with one hand thrust into +his waistcoat, and the other resting on his cane, gazed listlessly on +the horsemen and carriages in the brilliant ring. He was still in the +prime of life, at the age when man is usually the most social--when +the acquaintances of youth have ripened into friendship, and a +personage of some rank and fortune has become a well-known feature in +the mobile face of society. But though, when his contemporaries were +boys scarce at college, this gentleman had blazed foremost amongst the +princes of fashion, and though he had all the qualities of nature and +circumstance which either retain fashion to the last, or exchange its +false celebrity for a graver repute, he stood as a stranger in that +throng of his countrymen. Beauties whirled by to the toilet--statesmen +passed on to the senate--dandies took flight to the clubs; and neither +nods, nor becks, nor wreathed smiles, said to the solitary spectator, +"Follow us--thou art one of our set." Now and then, some middle-aged +beau, nearing the post of the loiterer, turned round to look again; +but the second glance seemed to dissipate the recognition of the +first, and the beau silently continued his way. + +"By the tombs of my fathers!" said the solitary to himself, "I know +now what a dead man might feel if he came to life again, and took a +peep at the living." + +Time passed on--the evening shades descended fast. Our stranger in +London had well-nigh the Park to himself. He seemed to breathe more +freely as he saw that the space was so clear. + +"There's oxygen in the atmosphere now," said he, half aloud; "and I +can walk without breathing in the gaseous fumes of the multitude. O +those chemists--what dolts they are! They tell us crowds taint the +air, but they never guess why! Pah, it is not the lungs that poison +the element--it is the reek of bad hearts. When a periwig-pated fellow +breathes on me, I swallow a mouthful of care. _Allons!_ my friend +Nero; now for a stroll." He touched with his cane a large Newfoundland +dog, who lay stretched near his feet; a dog and man went slow through +the growing twilight, and over the brown dry turf. At length our +solitary paused, and threw himself on a bench under a tree. +"Half-past eight!" said he, looking at his watch--"one may smoke one's +cigar without shocking the world." + +He took out his cigar-case, struck a light, and in another moment +reclined at length on the bench--seemed absorbed in regarding the +smoke, that scarce colored ere it vanished into air. + +"It is the most barefaced lie in the world, my Nero," said he, +addressing his dog, "this boasted liberty of man! Now here am I, a +free-born Englishman, a citizen of the world, caring--I often say to +myself--caring not a jot for Kaisar or Mob; and yet I no more dare +smoke this cigar in the Park at half-past six, when all the world is +abroad, than I dare pick my Lord Chancellor's pocket, or hit the +Archbishop of Canterbury a thump on the nose. Yet no law in England +forbids me my cigar, Nero! What is law at half-past eight, was not +crime at six and a-half! Britannia says, 'Man, thou art free,' and she +lies like a commonplace woman. O Nero, Nero! you enviable dog!--you +serve but from liking. No thought of the world costs you one wag of +your tail. Your big heart and true instinct suffice you for reason and +law. You would want nothing to your felicity, if in these moments of +ennui you would but smoke a cigar. Try it, Nero!--try it!" And, rising +from his incumbent posture, he sought to force the end of the weed +between the teeth of the dog. + +While thus gravely engaged, two figures had approached the place. The +one was a man who seemed weak and sickly. His threadbare coat was +buttoned to the chin, but hung large on his shrunken breast. The other +was a girl of about fourteen, on whose arm he leant heavily. Her cheek +was wan, and there was a patient sad look on her face, which seemed so +settled that you would think she could never have known the +mirthfulness of childhood. + +"Pray rest here, papa," said the child softly; and she pointed to the +bench, without taking heed of its pre-occupant, who now, indeed, +confined to one corner of the seat, was almost hidden by the shadow of +a tree. + +The man sat down with a feeble sigh; and then, observing the stranger, +raised his hat, and said in that tone of voice which betrays the +usages of polished society, "Forgive me, if I intrude on you, sir." + +The stranger looked up from his dog, and seeing that the girl was +standing, rose at once, as if to make room for her on the bench. + +But still the girl did not heed him. She hung over her father, and +wiped his brow tenderly with a little kerchief which she took from her +own neck for the purpose. + +Nero, delighted to escape the cigar, had taken to some unwieldy +curvets and gambols, to vent the excitement into which he had been +thrown; and now returning, approached the bench with a low look of +surprise, and sniffed at the intruders on his master's privacy. + +"Come here, sir," said the master. "You need not fear him," he added, +addressing himself to the girl. + +But the girl, without turning round to him, cried in a voice rather of +anguish than alarm, "He has fainted! Father! father!" + +The stranger kicked aside his dog, which was in the way, and loosened +the poor man's stiff military stock. While thus charitably engaged, +the moon broke out, and the light fell full on the pale care-worn face +of the unconscious sufferer. + +"This face seems not unfamiliar to me, though sadly changed," said the +stranger to himself; and bending towards the girl, who had sunk on her +knees and was chafing her father's hands, he asked, "My child, what is +your father's name?" + +The child continued her task, too absorbed to answer. + +The stranger put his hand on her shoulder, and repeated the question. + +"Digby," answered the child, almost unconsciously; and as she spoke, +the man's senses began to return. In a few minutes more he had +sufficiently recovered to falter forth his thanks to the stranger. But +the last took his hand, and said, in a voice at once tremulous and +soothing, "Is it possible that I see once more an old brother in arms? +Algernon Digby, I do not forget you; but it seems England has +forgotten!" + +A hectic flush spread over the soldier's face, and he looked away from +the speaker as he answered-- + +"My name is Digby, it is true, sir; but I do not think we have met +before. Come, Helen, I am well now--we will go home." + +"Try and play with that great dog, my child," said the stranger--"I +want to talk with your father." + +The child bowed her submissive head, and moved away; but she did not +play with the dog. + +"I must re-introduce myself, formally, I see," quoth the stranger. +"You were in the same regiment with myself, and my name is +L'Estrange." + +"My lord," said the soldier, rising, "forgive me that--" + +"I don't think that it was the fashion to call me 'my lord' at the +mess-table. Come, what has happened to you?--on half pay?" + +Mr. Digby shook his head mournfully. + +"Digby, old fellow, can you lend me £100?" said Lord L'Estrange, +clapping his _ci-devant_ brother officer on the shoulder, and in a +tone of voice that seemed like a boy's--so impudent was it and +devil-me-carish. "No! Well, that's lucky, for I can lend it to you." + +Mr. Digby burst into tears. + +Lord L'Estrange did not seem to observe the emotion. "We were both sad +extravagant fellows in our day," said he, "and I dare say I borrowed +of you pretty freely." + +"Me! Oh, Lord L'Estrange?" + +"You have married since then, and reformed, I suppose. Tell me, old +friend, all about it." + +Mr. Digby, who by this time had succeeded in restoring some calm to +his shattered nerves, now rose, and said in brief sentences, but clear +firm tones,-- + +"My Lord, it is idle to talk of me--useless to help me. I am fast +dying. But, my child there, my only child, (he paused an instant, and +went on rapidly.) I have relations in a distant country, if I could +but get to them--I think they would at least provide for her. This has +been for weeks my hope, my dream, my prayer. I cannot afford the +journey except by your help. I have begged without shame for myself; +shall I be ashamed, then, to beg for her?" + +"Digby," said L'Estrange with some grave alteration of manner, "talk +neither of dying, nor begging. You were nearer death when the balls +whistled round you at Waterloo. If soldier meets soldier and says, +'Friend, thy purse,' it is not begging, but brotherhood. Ashamed! By +the soul of Belisarius! if I needed money, I would stand at a crossing +with my Waterloo medal over my breast, and say to each sleek citizen I +had helped to save from the sword of the Frenchman, 'It is your shame +if I starve.' Now, lean upon me; I see you should be at home--which +way?" + +The poor soldier pointed his hand towards Oxford Street, and +reluctantly accepted the proffered arm. + +"And when you return from your relations, you will call on me? +What!--hesitate? Come, promise." + +"I will." + +"On your honor." + +"If I live, on my honor." + +"I am staying at present at Knightsbridge, with my father; but you +will always hear of my address at No. -- Grosvenor Square, Mr. +Egerton's. So you have a long journey before you?" + +"Very long." + +"Do not fatigue yourself--travel slowly. Ho, you foolish child!--I see +you are jealous of me. Your father has another arm to spare you." + +Thus talking, and getting but short answers, Lord L'Estrange continued +to exhibit those whimsical peculiarities of character, which had +obtained for him the repute of heartlessness in the world. Perhaps the +reader may think the world was not in the right. But if ever the world +does judge rightly of the character of a man who does not live for the +world, nor talk of the world, nor feel with the world, it will be +centuries after the soul of Harley L'Estrange has done with this +planet. + + +CHAPTER V. + +Lord L'Estrange parted company with Mr. Digby at the entrance of +Oxford Street. The father and child there took a cabriolet. Mr. Digby +directed the driver to go down the Edgeware Road. He refused to tell +L'Estrange his address, and this with such evident pain, from the +sores of pride, that L'Estrange could not press the point. Reminding +the soldier of his promise to call, Harley thrust a pocket-book into +his hand, and walked off hastily towards Grosvenor Square. + +He reached Audley Egerton's door just as that gentleman was getting +out of his carriage; and the two friends entered the house together. + +"Does the nation take a nap to-night?" asked L'Estrange. "Poor old +lady! She hears so much of her affairs, that she may well boast of her +constitution: it must be of iron." + +"The House is still sitting," answered Audley seriously, and with +small heed of his friend's witticism. "But it is not a Government +motion, and the division will be late, so I came home; and if I had +not found you here, I should have gone into the park to look for you." + +"Yes--one always knows where to find me at this hour, 9 o'clock +P.M.--cigar--Hyde Park. There is not a man in England so regular in +his habits." + +Here the friends reached a drawing-room in which the member of +Parliament seldom sat, for his private apartments were all on the +ground floor. + +"But it is the strangest whim of yours, Harley," said he. + +"What?" + +"To affect detestation of ground-floors." + +"Affect! O sophisticated man, of the earth, earthy! Affect!--nothing +less natural to the human soul than a ground-floor. We are quite far +enough from heaven, mount as many stairs as we will, without +grovelling by preference." + +"According to that symbolical view of the case," said Audley, "you +should lodge in an attic." + +"So I would, but that I abhor new slippers. As for hair-brushes, I am +indifferent!" + +"What have slippers and hair-brushes to do with attics?" + +"Try! Make your bed in an attic, and the next morning you will have +neither slippers nor hair-brushes!" + +"What shall I have done with them?" + +"Shied them at the cats!" + +"What odd things you do say, Harley!" + +"Odd! By Apollo and his nine spinsters! there is no human being who +has so little imagination as a distinguished Member of Parliament. +Answer me this, thou solemn right honorable--Hast thou climbed to the +heights of august contemplation? Hast thou gazed on the stars with the +rapt eye of song? Hast thou dreamed of a love known to the angels, or +sought to seize in the Infinite the mystery of life?" + +"Not I indeed, my poor Harley." + +"Then no wonder, poor Audley, that you cannot conjecture why he who +makes his bed in an attic, disturbed by base catterwauls, shies his +slippers at cats. Bring a chair into the balcony. Nero spoiled my +cigar to-night. I am going to smoke now. You never smoke. You can look +on the shrubs in the Square." + +Audley slightly shrugged his shoulders, but he followed his friend's +counsel and example, and brought his chair into the balcony. Nero +came too, but at sight and smell of the cigar prudently retreated, and +took refuge under the table. + +"Audley Egerton, I want something from Government." + +"I am delighted to hear it." + +"There was a cornet in my regiment, who would have done better not to +have come into it. We were, for the most part of us, puppies and +fops." + +"You all fought well, however." + +"Puppies and fops do fight well. Vanity and valor generally go +together. Cæsar, who scratched his head with due care of his scanty +curls, and, even in dying, thought of the folds in his toga; Walter +Raleigh, who could not walk twenty yards, because of the gems in his +shoes; Alcibiades, who lounged into the Agora with doves in his bosom, +and an apple in his hand; Murat, bedizened in gold lace and furs; and +Demetrius, the City-Taker, who made himself up like a French +_Marquise_,--were all pretty good fellows at fighting. A slovenly hero +like Cromwell is a paradox in nature, and a marvel in history. But to +return to my cornet. We were rich; he was poor. When the pot of clay +swims down the stream with the brass-pots, it is sure of a smash. Men +said Digby was stingy; I saw he was extravagant. But every one, I +fear, would be rather thought stingy than poor. _Bref._--I left the +army, and saw him no more till to-night. There was never shabby poor +gentleman on the stage more awfully shabby, more pathetically +gentleman. But, look ye, this man has fought for England. It was no +child's play at Waterloo, let me tell you, Mr. Egerton; and, but for +such men, you would be at best a _sous-prefet_, and your Parliament a +Provincial Assembly. You must do something for Digby. What shall it +be?" + +"Why, really, my dear Harley, this man was no great friend of +yours--eh?" + +"If he were, he would not want the Government to help him--he would +not be ashamed of taking money from me." + +"That is all very fine, Harley; but there are so many poor officers, +and so little to give. It is the most difficult thing in the world +that which you ask me. Indeed, I know nothing can be done: he has his +half-pay?" + +"I think not; or, if he has it, no doubt it all goes on his debts. +That's nothing to us: the man and his child are starving." + +"But if it is his own fault--if he has been imprudent?" + +"Ah--well, well; where the devil is Nero?" + +"I am so sorry I can't oblige you. If it were any thing else--" + +"There is something else. My valet--I can't turn him adrift--excellent +fellow, but gets drunk now and then. Will you find him a place in the +Stamp Office?" + +"With pleasure." + +"No, now I think of it--the man knows my ways: I must keep him. But my +old wine-merchant--civil man, never dunned--is a bankrupt. I am under +great obligations to him, and he has a very pretty daughter. Do you +think you could thrust him into some small place in the colonies, or +make him a King's Messenger, or something of the sort?" + +"If you very much wish it, no doubt I can." + +"My dear Audley, I am but feeling my way: the fact is, I want +something for myself." + +"Ah, that indeed gives me pleasure!" cried Egerton, with animation. + +"The mission to Florence will soon be vacant--I know it privately. The +place would quite suit me. Pleasant city; the best figs in Italy--very +little to do. You could sound Lord ---- on the subject." + +"I will answer beforehand. Lord ----would be enchanted to secure to +the public service a man so accomplished as yourself, and the son of a +peer like Lord Lansmere." + +Harley L'Estrange sprang to his feet, and flung his cigar in the face +of a stately policeman who was looking up at the balcony. + +"Infamous and bloodless official!" cried Harley L'Estrange; "so you +could provide for a pimple-nosed lackey--for a wine-merchant who has +been poisoning the king's subjects with white-lead or sloe-juice--for +an idle sybarite, who would complain of a crumpled rose-leaf; and +nothing, in all the vast patronage of England, for a broken down +soldier, whose dauntless breast was her rampart!" + +"Harley," said the member of Parliament, with his calm, sensible +smile, "this would be a very good clap-trap at a small theatre; but +there is nothing in which Parliament demands such rigid economy as the +military branch of the public service; and no man for whom it is so +hard to effect what we must plainly call a job, as a subaltern +officer, who has done nothing more than his duty--and all military men +do that. Still, as you take it so earnestly, I will use what interest +I can at the War Office, and get him, perhaps, the mastership of a +barrack." + +"You had better; for if you do not, I swear I will turn radical, and +come down to your own city to oppose you, with Hunt and Cobbett to +canvass for me." + +"I should be very glad to see you come into Parliament, even as a +radical, and at my expense," said Audley, with great kindness. "But +the air is growing cold, and you are not accustomed to our climate. +Nay, if you are too poetic for catarrhs and rheums, I'm not--come in." + + +CHAPTER VI. + +Lord L'Estrange threw himself on a sofa, and leant his cheek on his +hand thoughtfully. Audley Egerton sat near him, with his arms folded, +and gazed on his friend's face with a soft expression of aspect, which +was very unusual to the firm outline of his handsome features. The two +men were as dissimilar in person as the reader will have divined that +they were in character. All about Egerton was so rigid, all about +L'Estrange so easy. In every posture of Harley there was the +unconscious grace of a child. The very fashion of his garments showed +his abhorrence of restraint. His clothes were wide and loose, his +neckcloth tied carelessly, left his throat half bare. You could see +that he had lived much in warm and southern lands, and contracted a +contempt for conventionalities; there was as little in his dress as in +his talk of the formal precision of the north. He was three or four +years younger than Audley, but he looked at least twelve years +younger. In fact, he was one of those men to whom old age seems +impossible--voice, look, figure, had all the charm of youth; and, +perhaps, it was from this gracious youthfulness--at all events, it was +characteristic of the kind of love he inspired--that neither his +parents, nor the few friends admitted into his intimacy, ever called +him, in their habitual intercourse, by the name of his title. He was +not L'Estrange with them, he was Harley; and by that familiar +baptismal I will usually designate him. He was not one of those men +whom author or reader wish to view at a distance, and remember as "my +lord"--it was so rarely that he remembered it himself. For the rest, +it had been said of him by a shrewd wit--"He is so natural, that every +one calls him affected." Harley L'Estrange was not so critically +handsome as Audley Egerton; to a commonplace observer he was, at best, +rather good-looking than otherwise. But women said that he had a +beautiful countenance, and they were not wrong. He wore his hair, +which was of a fair chestnut, long, and in loose curls; and instead of +the Englishman's whiskers, indulged in the foreigner's moustache. His +complexion was delicate, though not effeminate; it was rather the +delicacy of a student than of a woman. But in his clear gray eye there +was wonderful vigor of life. A skilful physiologist, looking only into +that eye, would have recognized rare stamina of constitution--a nature +so rich that, while easily disturbed, it would require all the effects +of time, or all the fell combinations of passion and grief, to exhaust +it. Even now, though so thoughtful, and even so sad, the rays of that +eye were as concentred and stedfast as the light of the diamond. + +"You were only, then, in jest," said Audley, after a long silence, +"when you spoke of this mission to Florence. You have still no idea of +entering into public life. + +"None." + +"I had hoped better things when I got your promise to pass one season +in London. But, indeed, you have kept your promise to the ear to break +it to the spirit. I could not presuppose that you would shun all +society, and be as much of a hermit here as under the vines of Como." + +"I have sat in the Strangers' Gallery, and heard your great speakers; +I have been in the pit of the opera, and seen your fine ladies; I have +walked your streets, I have lounged in your parks, and I say that I +can't fall in love with a faded dowager, because she fills up her +wrinkles with rouge." + +"Of what dowager do you speak?" asked the matter-of-fact Audley. + +"She has a great many titles. Some people call her fashion, you busy +men, politics: it is all one--tricked out and artificial. I mean +London life. No, I can't fall in love with her, fawning old harridan!" + +"I wish you could fall in love with something." + +"I wish I could, with all my heart." + +"But you are so _blasé_." + +"On the contrary, I am so fresh. Look out of the window--what do you +see?" + +"Nothing!" + +"Nothing--" + +"Nothing but houses and dusty lilacs, my coachman dozing on his box, +and two women in pattens crossing the kennel." + +"I see none of that where I lie on the sofa. I see but the stars. And +I feel for them as I did when I was a schoolboy at Eton. It is you who +are _blasé_, not I--enough of this. You do not forget my commission, +with respect to the exile who has married into your brother's family?" + +"No; but here you set me a task more difficult than that of saddling +your cornet on the War Office." + +"I know it is difficult, for the counter influence is vigilant and +strong; but, on the other hand, the enemy is so damnable a traitor +that one must have the Fates and the household gods on one's side." + +"Nevertheless," said the practical Audley, bending over a book on the +table, "I think that the best plan would be to attempt a compromise +with the traitor." + +"To judge of others by myself," answered Harley with spirit, "it were +less bitter to put up with wrong than to palter with it for +compensation. And such wrong! Compromise with the open foe--that may +be done with honor; but with the perjured friend--that were to forgive +the perjury." + +"You are too vindictive," said Egerton; "there may be excuses for the +friend, which palliate even--" + +"Hush! Audley, hush! or I shall think the world has indeed corrupted +you. Excuse for the friend who deceives, who betrays! No, such is the +true outlaw of Humanity; and the Furies surround him even while he +sleeps in the temple." + +The man of the world lifted his eye slowly on the animated face of one +still natural enough for the passions. He then once more returned to +his book, and said, after a pause, "It is time you should marry, +Harley." + +"No," answered L'Estrange, with a smile at this sudden turn in the +conversation--"not time yet; for my chief objection to that change in +life is, that all the women now-a-days are too old for me, or I am too +young for them; a few, indeed, are so infantine that one is ashamed +to be their toy; but most are so knowing that one is a fool to be +their dupe. The first, if they condescend to love you, love you as the +biggest doll they have yet dandled, and for a doll's good +qualities--your pretty blue eyes, and your exquisite millinery. The +last, if they prudently accept you, do so on algebraical principles; +you are but the X or the Y that represents a certain aggregate of +goods matrimonial--pedigree, title, rent-roll, diamonds, pin-money, +opera-box. They cast you up with the help of mamma, and you wake some +morning to find that _plus_ wife _minus_ affection equals--the Devil!" + +"Nonsense," said Audley, with his quiet grave laugh. "I grant that it +is often the misfortune of a man in your station to be married rather +for what he has, than for what he is; but you are tolerably +penetrating, and not likely to be deceived in the character of the +woman you court." + +"Of the woman I _court_?--No! But of the woman I _marry_, very likely +indeed. Woman is a changeable thing, as our Virgil informed us at +school; but her change _par excellence_ is from the fairy you woo to +the brownie you wed. It is not that she has been a hypocrite, +it is that she is a transmigration. You marry a girl for her +accomplishments. She paints charmingly, or plays like St. Cecilia. +Clap a ring on her finger, and she never draws again--except perhaps +your caricature on the back of a letter, and never opens a piano after +the honeymoon. You marry her for her sweet temper; and next year, her +nerves are so shattered that you can't contradict her but you are +whirled into a storm of hysterics. You marry her because she declares +she hates balls and likes quiet; and ten to one but what she becomes a +patroness at Almacks, or a lady in waiting." + +"Yet most men marry, and most men survive the operation." + +"If it were only necessary to live, that would be a consolatory and +encouraging reflection. But to live with peace, to live with dignity, +to live with freedom, to live in harmony with your thoughts, your +habits, your aspirations--and this in the perpetual companionship of a +person to whom you have given the power to wound your peace, to assail +your dignity, to cripple your freedom, to jar on each thought and each +habit, and bring you down to the meanest details of earth, when you +invite her, poor soul, to soar to the spheres--that makes the to be, +or not to be, which is the question." + +"If I were you, Harley, I would do as I have heard the author of +_Sandford and Merton_ did--choose out a child, and educate her +yourself after your own heart." + +"You have hit it," answered Harley, seriously. "That has long been my +idea--a very vague one, I confess. But I fear I shall be an old man +before I find even the child." + +"Ah," he continued, yet more earnestly, while the whole character of +his varying countenance changed again--"ah! if indeed I could discover +what I seek--one who with the heart of a child has the mind of a +woman; one who beholds in nature the variety, the charm, the never +feverish, ever healthful excitement that others vainly seek in the +bastard sentimentalities of a life false with artificial forms; one +who can comprehend, as by intuition, the rich poetry with which +creation is clothed--poetry so clear to the child when enraptured with +the flower, or when wondering at the star? If on me such exquisite +companionship were bestowed--why, then"--he paused, sighed deeply, +and, covering his face with his hand, resumed in faltering accents,-- + +"But once--but once only, did such vision of the Beautiful made human +rise before me--amidst 'golden exhalations of the dawn.' It beggared +my life in vanishing. You know only--you only--how--how"-- + +He bowed his head, and the tears forced themselves through his +clenched fingers. + +"So long ago!" said Audley, sharing his friend's emotion. "Years so +long and so weary, yet still thus tenacious of a mere boyish memory." + +"Away with it, then!" cried Harley, springing to his feet, and with a +laugh of strange merriment. "Your carriage still waits; set me home +before you go to the House." + +Then laying his hand lightly on his friend's shoulder, he said, "Is it +for you, Audley Egerton, to speak sneeringly of boyish memories? What +else is it that binds us together? What else warms my heart when I +meet you? What else draws your thoughts from blue-books and +beer-bills, to waste them on a vagrant like me? Shake hands. Oh, +friend of my boyhood! recollect the oars that we plied and the bats +that we wielded in the old time, or the murmured talk on the +moss-grown bank, as we sat together, building in the summer air +castles mightier than Windsor. Ah! they are strong ties, those boyish +memories, believe me! I remember as if it were yesterday my +translation of that lovely passage in Perseus, beginning--let me +see--ah!-- + + "Quum primum pavido custos mihi purpura cessit," + +that passage on friendship which gushes out so livingly from the stern +heart of the satirist. And when old ---- complimented me on my verses, +my eye sought yours. Verily, I now say as then, + + "Nescio quod, certe est quod me tibi temperet astrum."[8] + +Audley turned away his head as he returned the grasp of his friend's +hand; and while Harley, with his light elastic footstep, descended the +stairs, Egerton lingered behind, and there was no trace of the worldly +man upon his countenance when he took his place in the carriage by his +companion's side. + +Two hours afterwards, weary cries of "Question, question!" "Divide, +divide!" sank into reluctant silence as Audley Egerton rose to +conclude the debate--the man of men to speak late at night, and to +impatient benches: a man who would be heard; whom a Bedlam broke loose +would not have roared down; with a voice clear and sound as a bell, +and a form as firmly set on the ground as a church-tower. And while, +on the dullest of dull questions, Audley Egerton thus, not too lively +himself, enforced attention, where was Harley L'Estrange? Standing +alone by the river at Richmond, and murmuring low fantastic thoughts +as he gazed on the moonlit tide. + +When Audley left him at home, he had joined his parents, made them gay +with his careless gayety, seen the old-fashioned folks retire to rest, +and then--while they, perhaps, deemed him once more the hero of +ball-rooms and the cynosure of clubs--he drove slowly through the soft +summer night, amidst the perfumes of many a garden and many a gleaming +chestnut grove, with no other aim before him than to reach the +loveliest margin of England's loveliest river, at the hour the moon +was fullest and the song of the nightingale most sweet. And so +eccentric a humorist was this man, that I believe, as he there +loitered--no one near to cry "How affected!" or "How romantic!"--he +enjoyed himself more than if he had been exchanging the politest +"how-d'ye-do's" in the hottest of London drawing-rooms, or betting his +hundreds on the odd trick with Lord de R---- for his partner. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[8] "What was the star I know not, but certainly some star it was that +attuned me unto thee." + + + + +From the London Examiner. + +A GLIMPSE OF THE GREAT EXHIBITION. + + +There is one country which is not represented at the Great Exhibition, +one power which refused to send any specimens of its produce, lest the +having done so should be considered as a tribute to the commercial +greatness of England, and lest exhibitors and exhibited should incur +contamination by contact with specimens of the world's industry. One +is not sorry that this should be the case, and that the felon power of +Europe should have thus passed judgment on itself, and of its own +accord placed itself in Coventry. + +The country we allude to is Naples. The horror which the king +entertains of any thing constitutional since his Majesty took the oath +to his own constitution, and since he hanged those who committed the +same crime without afterwards perjuring themselves after the royal +example, has induced him to prohibit the sending of any specimens to +London. Naples, to be sure, has little to exhibit. Industry in that +country, so blessed by nature, has been crushed and annihilated by the +hand of tyranny. Sulphur and other volcanic products, wine which +science has never enabled to bear exportation, silk in its _brut_ +state, with some coarse fabrics of cloth and linen, and hats in +imitation of Tuscany, compose all the industry of one of the finest +countries in Europe. No marvel, therefore, it should have shrunk upon +any pretence from occupying a booth at the Great Exhibition. + +A very different place in that great show is held by Piedmont, which +has furnished a large assortment of raw materials and manufactured +articles. On the other hand, Florence and Venice are far, we fear, +from even keeping up a shadow of their old reputation. The country of +Benvenuto Cellini has lost the gift of the arts with that of freedom; +and the manufactures with which Venice used to pay for the merchandise +of the East are no more. Strange to say, however, Milan supplies one +of the most interesting and perfect compartments of the Exhibition, +that of small sculptures, in which the youth of the region are so +skilled as to distance all competition. + +The United States must be held to have furnished far less valuable +specimens of either art or nature than might have been expected; and +this will be the more evident, as its stall occupies the great +compartment of the Exhibition adjoining the eastern entrance, and +first meeting the eye. France and Germany, especially North Germany, +hold their ground well. One thing, however, seems certain, and the +more remarkable as it was not altogether expected, which is, that +England is not inferior to her competitors in any department. That her +machinery, and the results of her science and skill in working in +metals should distance all competition, might have been looked for. +But what will greatly astonish people, is her very signal success in +so many departments of the ornamental: and whilst of natural +productions her various colonies have supplied specimens the most +novel and most startling, the produce of the looms as well as of the +mines of Indostan offer among the most novel and interesting sights +that the curious could flock to see. + +In a general way it is not yet possible to guess what effect the +Exhibition is likely to have. So many persons will crowd to it with +widely different views, that it is extremely difficult to sum up its +probable impression on the whole. But we believe that those most +gratified will be scientific persons, who can see and compare for the +first time all raw materials and all finished productions gathered +together under the same roof. It is, indeed, as a creator of new +combinations and of new ideas, that the Great Exhibition must in any +permanent sense be chiefly valuable; for it is hardly conceivable but +that many most startling inventions in art manufacture must ultimately +spring from it. But these will be silent enjoyments, and for a long +time secret profits. Those on whose fertile minds the good seed of new +ideas may fall, will silently cherish and allow them to germ in the +shade, and years may elapse ere we see the growth or the fruit. What +meanwhile we may count upon hearing most of for the moment will be the +enjoyment of the curious at the view of the Koh-i-noor, and the other +mere sight-wonders of the Exhibition. + +Let us add that not the least pleasure of this kind is the view which +each race of the human family will be enabled to take of the other. +The crowds now brought together are essentially, the greater part of +them, of the middle and artisan class, although it may be generally of +those already successful and enriched. This is a kind of people that +would never have come amongst us but upon an occasion such as the +present, and whom to see and be seen by, cannot but be productive of +large, friendly, humane, cosmopolitan results. + + + + +From Leigh Hunt's Journal. + +DR. DAVID STRAUSS IN WEIMAR. + + +The Visitor's Book of the Elephant Hotel in Weimar contains, under the +date of the 12th August, a rather remarkable autograph, which the +curious collector would do well to buy, if possible, or, if not +possible, then to beg or steal. Perhaps, among the many distinguished +names which the long series of _Fremdenbücher_ kept at Weimar during +the last fifty years must necessarily exhibit, there are few to which +an earnest, thinking man would attach the same profound, though +somewhat painful degree of interest. It is the name of "_Dr. David +Strauss, aus Ludwigsburg_," written by himself. + +"How!" you exclaim in a mingled tone of surprise and incredulity, "Dr. +Strauss in Weimar? David Strauss among the pilgrims to the tomb of the +poets?" + +It does sound apocryphal--_mythical_, if you will. One would almost as +soon expect to hear of the late Dr. Jordan Faust himself paying a +visit to the ghost of Goethe. Nevertheless, and in spite of all that +learned critics, a thousand years hence, may advance and prove to the +contrary, a veritable fact it is, Strauss actually has been among +us--has been seen here in the body during several days by several +witnesses, the present writer being one. + +It is my intention here briefly to record the impression which I still +retain of my transient intercourse with this celebrated man. Such a +record can scarce be considered as a breach of confidence, an invasion +of the sacred domains of private life: the author of the "_Leben +Jesu_" is a public, I had almost said, an historical character. + +Up to his arrival in Weimar, my relation to Strauss had been merely of +that mystic, invisible, and impersonal description, which usually +subsists between a gifted writer and his readers. But even before I +knew the language, and, by consequence, before I could read the works +of Strauss, I had heard much and often of the young Tubingen +theologian, who, at the age of twenty-seven years, with all the moral +courage of a Luther, all the critical skill, and more than all the +learning of a Lessing, had arisen and _implicitly_ declared to the +whole German nation, and to the world at large, that their belief +rested on a false basis (in his opinion). + +Though educated in a country where every man reads and reverences his +Bible, I had likewise arrived at that, in every sense, _critical_ +period, which is, I suppose, common to all men of an inquiring +disposition. I, too, had eaten of the fruit of the tree of +knowledge--had become as a god in my own conceit, knowing good from +evil. I had passed through the French and English schools of +skepticism, with my orthodoxy, if not intact, at least not vitally +injured. To study Strauss, therefore, seemed a mere matter of course. +Well; I read his celebrated work. It contained nothing absolutely new, +either in assertion or opinion. I had met with the same or similar +elsewhere. And yet the very same _wooden_ arguments I had so often +smiled at in the writings of the French and English free-thinkers, +seemed here to annihilate me. In vain I said to myself, "they are +still wooden!" Strauss had so sheathed and bound them with his triple +fold of _brass_. In other words, had so supported and confirmed them +with his unheard-of array of learning, logic, and science; that +nothing, I thought, could resist them. It seemed as if the world-old, +hereditary feud between faith and reason were here to be terminated +for ever. As I read, the solid earth seemed to be giving way beneath +me; and when I at length closed the ominous volume, I could have +almost cried out with the chorus in Faust: "Woe! woe! thou hast +shattered the lovely world!" + +It is unusual, I believe, to speak out these bosom secrets in this +way; but I thought it necessary to give you this, by no means +exaggerated description of my first spiritual encounter with the +author of the _Leben Jesu_, in order that you might have some idea of +the feelings with which, on the third morning after his arrival in +Weimar, I received and read the following whimsical note: + + _Weimar_, 15th August. + + "A. S. requests the pleasure of Mr. M----'s company to-day, + at two o'clock, to soup and Strauss." + +How busily my fancy was employed the whole of that forenoon, I need +not stop here to tell. Enough, that of all the various pictures she +then drew for me, not one resembled the pale, the slightly made, and, +but for a partial stoop, the somewhat tall, half-lay, half-clerical +figure in spectacles, to whom I was presented on arriving at my +friend's apartments. This was Strauss himself, whose portrait I may as +well go on and finish here at once as well as I can, and so have done +with externals. + +Judging from appearance, Strauss's age might be any where between +forty and fifty. But for his light brown, glossy hair, I should have +said nearer the latter than the former. I have since ascertained, +however, that he is, or was then, exactly forty-one years of age. His +head is the very contrary of massive,--as, indeed, his whole figure is +the opposite of robust or muscular. But it--the head--is of a purely +classical form, having none of those bumps and extravagant +protuberances, which phrenologists delight in. His profile, in +particular, might be called truly Grecian, were it not for the thin +and somewhat pinched lips, which give it an almost ascetical +character. Strange enough, too, this same character of ascetism, or +something akin to it, seems likewise indicated by a peculiar +expression in his otherwise fine, dark-brown eyes. It is not a squint, +as at first sight it appears, but a frequent turning-upward of the +eye-balls, like a Methodist at his devotions, which, in Strauss's +case, is of course involuntary. Perhaps it is to conceal this slight +blemish that he wears spectacles, for his large and lustrous eyes did +not else appear to need them. I have said that Strauss was slightly +made; and, in fact, this is so much the case as to suggest the idea of +a consumptive habit. Nor do his narrow shoulders and hollow breast, +together with a certain swinging serpentine gait when he walks, seem +to contradict the supposition. I have little more to add to this +feeble sketch of Strauss's outward man; for it would, I suppose, be +too trifling a circumstance to mention that I had seldom seen a more +_thorough-bred_ hand and foot than his! + +My entrance had interrupted a conversation, which Strauss presently +resumed, and which proved to be on the eternal topic of politics. His +voice was strong and deep, but he spoke (and it seemed to be a habit +with him) in a subdued tone, and with a very decided Wurtemberg +accent. I was surprised at some of the high-Tory opinions to which he +gave utterance. I had not expected to find the author of the _Leben +Jesu_ on the Conservative side of any question. It seemed +inconsistent. But I recollected that the man was now on the wrong side +of forty; and I could not help thinking that if, instead of publishing +his destructive book at the age of twenty-seven, he had waited with it +till now, he might possibly have postponed it altogether. At table, +our talk was of the usual commonplace description; and it may be worth +while observing, that even Strauss could be commonplace with as good a +grace as any. Our host and he had, it seems, been fellow-students +together, and, of course, there was no want of anecdotes and +reminiscences of those early days, all of which appeared to give him +exquisite pleasure. In particular, I remember that he spoke with much +fervor of the fine mountain scenery in the neighborhood of Heidelberg; +and when a friendly discussion arose amongst us as to whether the +mountains or the ocean were the sublimer spectacle, Strauss argued +warmly in favor of the former. Some one (myself, I believe) happening +to say that, like Goethe and Schiller, they were both _superlative_, +and not to be _compared_--"Bravo!" cried Strauss, and good humoredly +gave up his position. The conversation now naturally turned upon +Goethe, and upon all the localities in and about Weimar, connected +with his memory. Like a pious pilgrim, as he was, Strauss, as I found, +had already been to all these places, with the exception of the +garden-house and garden. It was proposed to conduct him thither +immediately. + +The extreme and almost primitive simplicity of the house in which +Goethe had spent some of the happiest days of his life, seemed to +astonish Strauss. He made few remarks to that effect, however, but +there was no end to his eager questionings. He touched the walls, the +doors, the locks--whatever it might be supposed Goethe had touched. He +peeped into every corner, scrutinized even the minutest details; and +all this with the utmost outward composure, so that, if I had not +closely watched him, it might have escaped my notice! In the garden, I +showed him Goethe's favorite walk, and some oaks and firs planted by +the poet's own hand. He gathered an oak-leaf, and put it in his +pocket-book. He did the same by the flower of a hollyhock, the only +kind of flower remaining, which plant I knew for certain dated its +existence from the time of Goethe. The pocket-book was already full of +such relics. From this time forth, therefore, let no man say that +Strauss is devoid of veneration! Man was made for adoration. He cannot +help it. Pity, only, that he sometimes mistakes the object of it. + +In the mean while Strauss and I had somehow drawn nearer to each +other, and had begun to hold little dialogues apart together. We +talked of England, where he had never been,--of English literature, +which he knew chiefly through the medium of translation. Shakspeare of +course was duly discussed,--for, like all educated Germans, Strauss +was an enthusiast about Shakspeare. He asked me if I had read +Gervinus's new work, and was evidently pleased with the way in which I +spoke of it. By-and-by I ventured to allude to the _Leben Jesu_. It +was not without considerable hesitation. He seemed, I think, to enjoy +my embarrassment,--and told me he had seen several specimens of an +English translation of the _Leben Jesu_, which a young lady, a Miss +Brabant, was preparing for publication! There was something +_Mephistophelian_ in the smile with which he told me this. Such a +work, he continued, was, however, not likely to succeed in England: +for there was Hennel, who had published an amazingly clever work of +the same kind in London, and yet the British public seemed to have +made a point of completely _ignoring_ it. The work had, however, been +translated into German, and he (Strauss himself) had written a preface +to it. As I now perceived that the subject was any thing but a +delicate one with Strauss, I determined upon accepting a proposal he +had made me to accompany him on the morrow to Doornburg and Jena. +There were inconsistencies in his system, which I had the vanity to +think I might convince him of, and a _tête-à-tête_ like the one in +prospect was just what I wanted. + +We returned to _S--'s_ for tea, with the addition to our party of a +distinguished philologian of this town, whose presence seemed to call +forth all the intellectual energies of Strauss, so that, in the course +of the evening, I had more than one occasion to admire the variety and +depth of the man's attainments. It is impossible to recollect every +thing, but what especially excited my attention was, that in a very +learned discussion concerning the comparative merits of the ancient +and modern drama, Strauss suggested the character and fate of Tiberius +as the best subject for a tragedy in the whole compass of history. I +was struck, too, and with reason, I think, with a new and flagrant +instance of the conservative tendency which his mind seems of late to +have fallen into. In talking of Horace, whose works, and particularly +whose odes, he appeared to have at his fingers' ends, he defended the +elder state of the texts with amazing pertinacity, treating with +contempt every change and suggestion of such, which the sacrilegious +commentators of our times have ventured upon. Such opinions in the +mouth of the author of the _Leben Jesu_ sounded strange enough, and +again I could not help saying to myself, "Why the deuce did he publish +that destructive work of his twenty-seventh year?" + +The following day, being prevented by pressing engagements from +leaving town, I prevailed upon Strauss to put off his journey for a +day longer. I saw little of him in the mean time, and had therefore +leisure to bring into some kind of order and method a series of +objections which I had noted down during a second and more critical +perusal of the _Leben Jesu_. On mature reflection, it had occurred to +me that, after all, the Christian religion had, in the course of +eighteen centuries, survived far worse things than even Strauss's +book. This idea now gave me courage to look this Goliah in the face, +and, though I was but a youth (so to speak), and he a "man of war," to +go up against him, if occasion offered, even with my "scrip" and +"sling," and my "five smooth stones out of the brook." + +Next morning, then, in pursuance of our plan, Strauss and I started +with the first train for Apolda, whence we went on foot across the +fields to Doornburg. There we breakfasted in Goethe's room, saw the +poet's handwriting on the wall, walked along his favorite +terrace-walk, where I, for the time as much of a hero-worshipper as +Strauss himself, recited aloud the beautiful song, _Da droben auf +jenem Berge_, &c., which Goethe is said to have composed on this very +spot. I expected Strauss to be moved almost to tears, instead of which +he burst out in a most incontrollable fit of laughter, in which I as +incontrollably joined when he told me the cause, which was this:--In +Munich or Ludwigsburg, I forget which, there was once a house of +public entertainment, called from its sign "The Lamb's Wool," as its +proprietor was called "The Lamb's Wool landlord." This landlord had, +it seems, been one of his own best customers, in consequence of which +he soon became bankrupt, which sad event a poet of the same town, most +probably another of the landlord's best customers, commemorated in a +few stanzas entitled, _Des Lamswollswirthes Klagelied_ (The Host of +the Lamb's Wool's Lament), a parody on the above song of Goethe's, and +suggested, doubtless, by these two lines-- + + "Ich bin _herunter gekommem_, + Und weiss doch selber nicht wie!"[9] + +Nothing could exceed the humor with which Strauss told me this droll +anecdote, and, for my part, I feel that I shall never again be able to +recite Goethe's pathetic song with becoming gravity. + +From Doornburg we walked to Jena, where we arrived to dinner. It +rained torrents, but Strauss was not to be balked of what he came for. +We trudged like _Schwarmer_ (enthusiasts), as he said, through mud and +rain, to all the Goethe and Schiller relics, the library, the +observatory, and, last of all, the Princess's garden, where the statue +of the eagle with its three poetical inscriptions long detained us. +Returned to our inn and about to take a final leave of Strauss; now, I +thought, or never, was the time to fulfil the object for which I had +accompanied him thus far. All day, hitherto, our talk had been of the +poets--Greek, Roman, English, and German, and so much erudition, +taste, and feeling, I had rarely found united. His mind seemed to have +fed on poetry and nothing else; and I know not how it was, but I could +not till now resolve to speak the word which I knew would disenchant +him. Now, however, the probability that we should never see each other +again on this side eternity gave a solemn, perhaps superstitious, turn +to my thoughts. As he sat there in silence before me, like the sphinx +of which he had spoken so mysteriously in descanting that morning on +the master piece of Sophocles, I felt that now I must speak out, or +else look to be devoured. I at once entered on the subject, therefore, +and delivered myself of all the objections I had so elaborately +arranged and prepared. His answer was evasive; and the topic was +changed into an argument. + +Strauss was to leave with the diligence at eight o'clock for +Rudolstadt. I cordially shook hands with him, bade God bless him, and, +hiring a conveyance, drove directly back to Weimar. On the way home, I +conceived the plan of a poem, which, if it were completed, I would +insert here. It will probably never be completed. Instead of it, +therefore, I will communicate something far more interesting--a copy +of verses written by Strauss himself, on returning from his pilgrimage +to the tomb of the poets; and with which I conclude what I had to say +regarding Dr. David Strauss in Weimar. + +[Dr. Strauss, as a poet, being almost a _lusus naturæ_, according to +English ideas of him, we have thought it right to translate this +poem. Here, accordingly, is the best English version possible to us in +the little time allowed by an inexorable printer:--] + + On pilgrim staff I homeward come, + Way worn, but still with pleasure warmed; + At the great prophet's holy tomb, + The pious rites I have performed. + + I, in his garden's shady walk, + Recalled the prints of footsteps lost: + And from the tree his care had raised, + I plucked a greeting from his ghost. + + I saw in letters and in poems, + His honored hand's laborious toil; + And many loving recollections, + Inquiry won me for my spoil. + + Through every chamber, small and homely, + With holy reverence did I roam, + Where oft the gods in radiant concourse + Came thronging to their loved one's home. + + By the bed stood I where the poet + In placid sleep his eyes reposed, + Till summoned to a nobler being + For the last time their lids he closed. + + In reading of the holy places, + Henceforth have I a doubled zeal, + I have a being in the writing, + For all of it I know and feel. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[9] To explain this joke to the un-Germanized reader, it will be +necessary to inform him that the title of Goethe's poem is "The +Shepherd's Lament," wherein a shepherd, leaving his native hills, +gives a lingering look up at the familiar mountain, and sings +regretfully + + "I have to the valley descended, + And how I cannot tell." + +_Herunter kommen_, means also to decline, _to fail_, and upon this +turns the joke. + + + + +From Eliza Cook's Journal + +GREAT MEN'S WIVES. + + +Probably, greatness does not conform with domesticity. The literary +man is wrapped up in his books, and the wife does not brook a divided +affection. He lives in the past or the future, and his mind can with +difficulty be brought to condescend to the carking cares of the +present--perhaps not even to its quiet daily life. His lofty +meditations are disturbed by the puling infant, or it may be, by a +call for house-rent, or the amount of the chandler's bill. Or, take +the leader of some great political or social movement; or the +commander of armies, at whose nod ten thousand swords are unsheathed, +and the air made blatant with the discharge of artillery; can you +expect such a person to subside into the quiet, husband-life, like any +common, ordinary man, and condescend to inquire into the state of the +children's teething, Johnny's progress at school, and the thousand +little domestic attentions which constitute a wife's happiness? + +We shall not, however, discuss the question of whether happiness in +marriage be compatible with genius, or not, but proceed to set forth a +few traits of the wives of great men. + +We shall not dwell on Xantippe, the wife of Socrates, whose name has +become familiar to us almost as a proverb. But she was not without her +uses, for she taught her great husband at least the virtue of +patience. Many of the great Greeks and Romans, like Socrates, were +unhappy in their wives. Possibly, however, we have heard only of the +bad ones among them; for the life of good wives is rarely made matter +of comment by the biographer, either in ancient or modern times. + +The advent of Christianity placed woman in a greatly improved +position, as regarded marriage. Repudiation, as among the Greeks and +Romans, was no longer permitted; the new religion enforced the unity +and indissolubility of marriage; it became a sacrament, dispensed at +the altar, where woman had formerly been a victim, but was now become +an idol. The conjugal union was made a religious contract; the family +was constituted by the priest; the wife was elevated to the function +of Educator of the Family--the _alma mater_; and thus, through her +instrumentality, was the regeneration of the world secured. + +But it did not follow that all women were good, or that all were +happy. Life is but a tangled yarn at the best; there are blanks and +prizes drawn by women still, and not unfrequently "great men" have +proved the greatest of blanks to them. Henry the Eighth was not, +perhaps, entitled to the appellation of a great man, though he was an +author, for which the Pope conferred on him the title, still retained +by our monarchs, of "Defender of the Faith." The history of his six +wives is well known. Nor was the married life of Peter the Great, and +his three wives, of a more creditable complexion. + +LUTHER married Catharine de Bora, an escaped nun--a remarkably +handsome woman. In his letters to his friends, he spoke of her as "My +rib Kitty, my loved Kitty, my Empress Kitty." A year after his +marriage, when struggling with poverty, he said, in one of these +letters, "Catharine, my dear rib, salutes you. She is quite well, +thank God; gentle, obedient, and kind, in all things; quite beyond my +hopes. I would not exchange my poverty with her, for all the riches of +Croesus without her." A dozen years after, he said, "Catharine, thou +hast a pious man, who loves thee; thou art a very empress!" Yet Luther +had his little troubles in connection with his married life. Catharine +was fond of small-talk, and, when Luther was busily engaged in solving +the difficulties of the Bible, she would interrupt him with such +questions as--whether the king of France was richer than his cousin +the emperor of Germany? if the Italian women were more beautiful than +the German? if Rome was as big as Wittenberg? and so on. To escape +these little inquiries, Luther saw no other way than to lock himself +up in his study, with a quantity of bread and cheese, and there hold +to his work. But Catharine still pursued him. One day, when he was +thus locked up, laboring at his translation of the twenty-second +Psalm, the door was assailed by the wife. No answer was given. More +knocking followed, accompanied by Catharine's voice, shouting--"if you +don't open the door, I will go fetch the locksmith." The Doctor +entreated his wife not to interrupt his labors. "Open! open!" repeated +Catharine. The doctor obeyed. "I was afraid," said she, on entering, +"that something had vexed you, locked up in this room alone." To which +Luther replied, "the only thing that vexes me now is yourself." But +Luther, doubtless, entertained a steady, though sober affection for +his wife; and in his will, in which he left her sole executrix, +bequeathing to her all his property, he speaks of her as "always a +gentle, pious, and faithful wife to me, and that has loved me +tenderly. Whatever," he adds, "may happen to her after my death, I +have, I say, full confidence that she will ever conduct herself as a +good mother towards her children, and will conscientiously share with +them whatever she possesses." + +The great Genevese Reformer, CALVIN, proceeded in his search for a +wife in a matter-of-fact way. He wrote to his friends, describing to +them what sort of an article he wanted, and they looked up a proper +person for him. Writing to Farel, one of his correspondents, on this +subject, he said,--"I beseech you ever to bear in mind what I seek for +in a wife. I am not one of your mad kind of lovers, who dote even upon +faults, when once they are taken by beauty of person. The only beauty +that entices me is, that she be chaste, obedient, humble, economical, +patient; and that there be hopes that she wilt be solicitous about my +health. If, therefore, you think it expedient that I should marry, +bestir yourself, lest somebody else anticipate you. But, if you think +otherwise, let us drop the subject altogether." A rich young German +lady, of noble birth, was proposed; but Calvin objected, on the ground +of the high birth. Another was proposed to him, but another failure +resulted. At last a widow, with a considerable family of children, +Odelette de Bures, the relict of a Strasburg Anabaptist, whom he had +converted, was discovered, suited to his notions, and he married her. +Nothing is said about their wedded life, and, therefore, we presume it +went on in the quiet, jog-trot way. At her death, he did not shed a +tear; and he spoke of the event only as an ordinary spectator would +have done. + +The brothers CORNEILLE married the two sisters Lampèrière; and the +love of the whole family was cemented by the double union. They lived +in contiguous houses, which opened into each other, and there they +lived in a community of taste and sentiment. They worked together, and +shared each other's fame; the sisters, happy in the love and +admiration of their husbands, and in each other's sympathy. The poet +Racine was greatly blessed in his wife; she was pious, good, +sweet-tempered, and made his life happy. And yet she had no taste for +poetry, scarcely knowing what verse was; and knew little of her +husband's great tragedies except by name. She had an utter +indifference for money. One day, Racine brought from Versailles a +purse of a thousand golden louis; and running to his wife, embraced +her: "Congratulate me," said he, "here is a purse of a thousand louis +that the king has presented to me!" She complained to him of one of +the children, who would not learn his lessons for two days together. +"Let us talk of that another time," said he, "to-day we give ourselves +up to joy." She again reverted to the disobedient child, and requested +the parent to reprimand him; when Boileau (at whose house she was on a +visit) lost patience, and cried, "what insensibility! Can't you think +of a purse of a thousand louis?" Yet these two characters, though so +opposite, consorted admirably, and they lived long and happily +together. + +To please his friends, LA FONTAINE married Mary Hericat, the daughter +of a lieutenant-general. It was a marriage of convenience, and the two +preferred living separate,--he at Paris, she in the country. Once a +year La Fontaine paid her a visit, in the month of September. If he +did not see her, he returned home as happy as he had gone. He went +some other day. Once, when he visited her house, he was told she was +quite well, and he returned to Paris, and told his friends he had not +seen his wife, because he understood she was in very good health. It +was a state of indifference on both sides. Yet the wife was a woman of +virtue, beauty, and intelligence; and La Fontaine himself was a man of +otherwise irreproachable character. There were many such marriages of +indifference in France in those days. Boileau and Racine both tried to +bring the married pair together, but without success; and, in course +of time La Fontaine almost forgot that he was married. + +MOLIERE was extremely unhappy in his marriage. He espoused an actress, +and she proved a coquette. He became extremely jealous, and, perhaps, +he had reason. Yet he loved her passionately, and bore long with her +frailties. He thus himself describes her: "She has small eyes, but +they are full of fire, brilliant, and the most penetrating in the +world. She has a large mouth, but one can discern beauties in it that +one does not see in other mouths. Her figure is not large, but easy +and well-proportioned. She affects a _nonchalance_ in her speech and +carriage; but there is grace in her every act, and an indescribable +charm about her, by which she never fails to work her way to the +heart. Her mental gifts are exquisite; her conversation is charming, +and, if she be capricious more than any other can be, all sits +gracefully on the beautiful,--one bears any thing from the beautiful." +She was an excellent actress, and was run after by the town. Moliere, +her husband, was neglected by her, and suffered agonies of torture. He +strove against his passion as long as he could. At last, his patience +was exhausted, and a separation took place. + +We know nothing of the married life of SHAKSPEARE; indeed, we know but +little of any portion of that great man's life. But we know that he +married young, and we know the name of his wife, Anne Hathawaye, the +daughter of a yeoman, in the neighborhood of Stratford-on-Avon. He was +little more than eighteen when he married her, and she was twenty-six. +The marriage was hastened by circumstances which need not be explained +here. He seems to have gone alone to London, leaving her with her +little family of children at Stratford-on-Avon, (for her name does not +once appear in his married life;) and yet she survived him seven +years. In his will he left her only his "second-best bed." Judging +from his sonnets one would be disposed to infer that Shakspeare's life +was not more chaste than that of his age; for we find him, in one of +these, excusing his friend for robbing him of his mistress,--a married +woman. One could almost wish, with Mr. Hallam, that Shakspeare had not +written many of those sonnets, beautiful in language and imagery +though they unquestionably are. + +MILTON was three times married,--the first time very unhappily. Mary +Powell was the daughter of a royalist cavalier of Oxfordshire, and +Milton was a zealous republican. He was, moreover, a studious man, +whereas his wife was possessed by a love of gayety and pleasure. They +had only been married a month, when she grew tired of the studious +habits and philosophical seclusion of the republican poet, and +requested his permission to return to her father's house. She went, +but refused to return to him, preferring the dissipated society of the +brawling cavaliers who surrounded her. He beseeched her to come back, +but she persistently refused, treating his messengers with contumely +and contempt. He bore this for a long time; but at last he grew angry, +and repudiated her. He bethought himself of the social mischiefs +resulting from ill-assorted marriages like his own; and, full of the +subject, he composed and published his celebrated treatise on divorce. +On public grounds he pleaded his own cause in this work, which +contains, perhaps, the finest passages that are to be found in his +prose writings. He proceeded to solicit the hand of another young and +beautiful lady, the daughter of Dr. Dawes; but his wife, hearing of +this, became repentant, and, returning to him, fell upon her knees, +and entreated his forgiveness. Milton, like his own Adam, was "fondly +overcome with female charms," and consented. Four children were born +to them, but the wife died in child-bed of the fifth infant. It is to +Milton's honor, that he behaved to his deceased wife's relatives with +great generosity, when, a short time after, they became involved in +ruin in the progress of the civil wars. His second wife, Catharine +Woodcock, also died in child-bed, only a year after marriage. He seems +to have loved her fondly, and most readers will remember his beautiful +sonnet, consecrated to her memory. + +With his third wife he seems to have lived happily; the young wife +devoted herself to his necessities--for he was now blind--"in +darkness, and with dangers compassed round, and solitude." + +DR. RICHARD HOOKER, was very unfortunate in his wife. He was betrayed +into marrying her by his extraordinary simplicity and ignorance of the +world. The circumstances connected with the marriage were these: +Having been appointed to preach at St. Paul's Cross, he went up to +London from Oxford, and proceeded to the house set apart for the +reception of the preachers. He was very wet and weary on his arrival, +and experienced much kindness from the housekeeper. She persuaded him +that he was a man of very tender constitution, and urged that he +ought, above all things, to have a wife, to nurse and take care of +him. She professed to be able to furnish him with such, if he thought +fit to marry. Hooker authorized her to select a wife for him, and the +artful woman presented her own daughter--"a silly, clownish woman, and +withal a mere Xantippe." Hooker, who had promised to marry whomsoever +she should select, thought himself bound to marry her, and he did so. +They led a most uncomfortable life, but he resigned himself as he best +could, lamenting that "saints have usually a double share in the +miseries of this life." When Cranmer and Sandys went to see him at his +rectory in Buckinghamshire, they found him reading Horace and tending +sheep, in the absence of the servant. When they were conversing with +him in the house, his wife would break in upon them, and call him away +to rock the cradle and perform other menial offices. The guests were +glad to get away. This unfortunate wife was long a thorn in his side. + +The famous Earl of ROCHESTER appears in very favorable light in his +letters to his wife: they are remarkably tender, affectionate, and +gentle. In one of them, he says: "'Tis not an easy thing to be +entirely happy; but to be kind is very easy, and that is the greatest +measure of happiness. I say not this to put you in mind of being kind +to me--you have practised that so long, that I have a joyful +confidence you will never forget it--but to show that I myself have a +sense of what the method of my life seemed so utterly to contradict." + +DRYDEN married Elizabeth Howard, daughter of the Earl of Berkshire. +The match added little to his wealth, and less to his happiness. It +was an altogether unhappy union. On one occasion, his wife wished to +be a book, that she might enjoy more of his company. Dryden's reply +was: "Be an almanac, then, my dear, that I may change you once a +year." In his writings afterwards, he constantly inveighed against +matrimony. + +ADDISON also "married discord in a noble wife." He was tutor to the +young Earl of Warwick, and aspired to the hand of the Dowager +Countess. She married him, and treated him like a lacquey. She never +saw in him more than her son's tutor. SWIFT (his contemporary) cruelly +flirted with two admirable women; he heartlessly killed one of them, +and secretly married the other, but never publicly recognized her; +she, too, shortly after died. + +STERNE treated his wife with such severity, that she abandoned him, +and took retreat in a convent with her daughter; she never saw him +after. Who would have suspected this from the author of "Lefevre" and +"The Sentimental Journey?" FARQUHAR, the play-writer, married, early +in life, a woman who deceived him by pretending to be possessed of a +fortune, and he sunk, a victim to disappointment and over-exertion, in +his thirtieth year, leaving behind him "two helpless girls;" his +widow died in the utmost indigence. + +These are rather unhappy instances of the wives of great men; but +there are others of a happier kind. Indeed we hear but little of the +happy unions: it is the brawling, rocky brook that is the most noisy: +the slow, deep waters are dump. Every one will remember the wife of +Lord WILLIAM RUSSELL, whose conduct by the side of her husband, on his +trial, stands out as one of the most beautiful pictures in all +history. How devotedly her husband loved her need not be said: when he +had taken his final farewell, all he could say was: "The bitterness of +death is now past!" She lived many years after the execution of her +husband, and a delightful collection of her letters has since been +published. + +BUNYAN speaks with the greatest tenderness of his wife, who helped to +lead him into the paths of peace. He says: "My mercy was to light upon +a wife, whose father and mother were counted godly: this woman and I, +though we came together as poor as poor might be (not having so much +household stuff as a dish or a spoon betwixt us both); yet this she +had for her part, 'The Plain Man's Pathway to Heaven,' and 'The +Practice of Piety,' which her father had left her when he died." And +the perusal of these books, together with his good wife's kindly +influence, at last implanted in him strong desires to reform his +vicious life, in which he eventually succeeded. + +PARNELL and STEELE were both happy in their wives. The former married +a young woman of beauty and merit, but she lived only a few years, and +his grief at his loss so preyed on his mind, that he never recovered +his wonted spirits and health. STEELE'S letters to his wife, both +before and after his marriage, are imbued with the most tender +feeling, and exhibit his affection for her in the most beautiful +light. YOUNG, the poet, like Dryden and Addison, married into a noble +house, espousing the daughter of the Earl of Litchfield; but he was +happier than they. It was out of the melancholy produced by her death +that his famous "Night Thoughts" took their rise. + +When JOHNSON married Mrs. Porter, her age was twice his own; yet the +union proved a happy one. It was not a love-match, but it was one of +inclination and of reciprocal esteem. Johnson was any thing but +graceful or attractive, yet he possessed admirable qualities. Mrs. +Porter was rather ungainly; but Johnson was very shortsighted, and +could not detect personal faults. In his eyes, she was beautiful; and, +in an affectionate epitaph which he devoted to her, he painted her in +glowing colors. Indeed, his writings contain many proofs of the lively +and sincere affection which he entertained for her. + +While such have been the wives of a few of the great men of past +times, it must be stated that, probably, the greatest of them all led +a single life. The greatest of the philosophers were bachelors, such +as Bacon, Newton, Gassendi, Galileo, Descartes, Bayle, Locke, +Leibnitz, Hume, Gibbon; and many poets also as Pope, Goldsmith, and +Thompson. Bacon says that wife and children are "impediments to great +enterprises;" and that "certainly the best works, and of greatest +merit for the public, have proceeded from the unmarried, or childless +men, which, both in affection and reason, have married and endowed the +public." But these were the words of a bachelor, and, perhaps, not +strictly correct. The great men of more recent times have generally +been married; and, at another time, we shall probably complete this +paper by a brief account of the more distinguished of their wives. + + + + +A LEGEND OF ST. MARY'S. + +BY ALICE CAREY. + + + One night, when bitterer winds than ours + On hill-sides and in valleys low, + Built sepulchres for the dead flowers, + And buried them in sheets of snow,-- + + When over ledges dark and cold, + The sweet moon rising high and higher, + Tipped with a dimly burning gold + St. Mary's old cathedral spire,-- + + The lamp of the confessional, + (God grant it did not burn in vain,) + After the solemn midnight bell, + Streamed redly through the lattice-pane. + + And kneeling at the father's feet, + Whose long and venerable hairs, + Now whiter than the mountain sleet, + Could not have numbered half his prayers, + + Was one--I cannot picture true + The cherub beauty of his guise; + Lilies, and waves of deepest blue, + Were something like his hands and eyes! + + Like yellow mosses on the rocks, + Dashed with the ocean's milk-white spray, + The softness of his golden locks + About his cheek and forehead lay. + + Father, thy tresses, silver-sleet, + Ne'er swept above a form so fair; + Surely the flowers beneath his feet + Have been a rosary of prayer! + + We know not, and we cannot know, + Why swam those meek blue eyes with tears; + But surely guilt, or guiltless wo, + Had bowed him earthward more than years. + + All the long summer that was gone, + A cottage maid, the village pride, + Fainter and fainter smiles had worn, + And on that very night she died! + + As soft the yellow moonbeams streamed + Across her bosom, snowy fair, + She said, (the watchers thought she dreamed,) + "'Tis like the shadow of his hair!" + + And they could hear, who nearest came, + The cross to sign and hope to lend, + The murmur of another name + Than that of mother, brother, friend. + + An hour--and St. Mary's spires, + Like spikes of flame, no longer glow-- + No longer the confessional fires + Shine redly on the drifted snow. + + An hour--and the saints had claimed + That cottage maid, the village pride; + And he, whose name in death she named, + Was darkly weeping by her side. + + White as a spray-wreath lay her brow + Beneath the midnight of her hair, + But all those passionate kisses now + Wake not the faintest crimson there! + + Pride, honor, manhood, cannot check + The vehemence of love's despair-- + No soft hand steals about his neck, + Or bathes its beauty in his hair! + + Almost upon the cabin walls + Wherein the sweet young maiden died, + The shadow of a castle falls, + Where for her young lord waits a bride! + + With clear blue eyes and flaxen hair, + In her high turret still she sits; + But, ah! what scorn her ripe lips wear-- + What shadow to her bosom flits! + + From that low cabin tapers flash, + And, by the shimmering light they spread, + She sees beneath its mountain ash, + Leafless, but all with berries red, + + Impatient of the unclasped rein, + A courser that should not be there-- + The silver whiteness of his mane + Streaming like moonlight on the air! + + Oh, love! thou art avenged too well-- + The young heart, broken and betrayed, + Where thou didst meekly, sweetly dwell, + For all its sufferings is repaid. + + Not the proud beauty, nor the frown + Of her who shares the living years + From her the winding-sheet wraps down, + Can ever buy away the tears! + + + + +From Chambers's Edinburgh Journal. + +MARY KINGSFORD. + +FROM RECOLLECTIONS OF A POLICE-OFFICER. + + +Towards the close of 1836, I was hurriedly dispatched to Liverpool for +the purpose of securing the person of one Charles James Marshall, a +collecting clerk, who, it was suddenly discovered, had absconded with +a considerable sum of money belonging to his employers. I was too +late--Charles James Marshall having sailed in one of the American +liners the day before my arrival in the northern commercial capital. +This fact well ascertained, I immediately set out on my return to +London. Winter had come upon us unusually early; the weather was +bitterly cold; and a piercing wind caused the snow, which had been +falling heavily for several hours, to gyrate in fierce, blinding +eddies, and heaped it up here and there into large and dangerous +drifts. The obstruction offered by the rapidly-congealing snow greatly +delayed our progress between Liverpool and Birmingham; and at a few +miles only distant from the latter city, the leading engine ran off +the line. Fortunately, the rate at which we were travelling was a very +slow one, and no accident of moment occurred. Having no luggage to +care for, I walked on to Birmingham, where I found the parliamentary +train just on the point of starting, and with some hesitation, on +account of the severity of the weather, I took my seat in one of the +then very much exposed and uncomfortable carriages. We travelled +steadily and safely, though slowly along, and reached Rugby Station in +the afternoon, where we were to remain, the guard told us, till a fast +down-train had passed. All of us hurried as quickly as we could to the +large room at this station, where blazing fires and other appliances +soon thawed the half-frozen bodies, and loosened the tongues of the +numerous and motley passengers. After recovering the use of my +benumbed limbs and faculties, I had leisure to look around and survey +the miscellaneous assemblage about me. + +Two persons had travelled in the same compartment with me from +Birmingham, whose exterior, as disclosed by the dim light of the +railway carriage, created some surprise that such finely-attired, +fashionable gentlemen should stoop to journey by the plebeian +penny-a-mile train. I could now observe them in a clearer light, and +surprise at their apparent condescension vanished at once. To an eye +less experienced than mine in the artifices and expedients familiar to +a certain class of "swells," they might perhaps have passed muster for +what they assumed to be, especially amidst the varied crowd of a +"parliamentary;" but their copper finery could not for a moment impose +upon me. The watch-chains were, I saw, mosaic; the watches, so +frequently displayed, gilt; eye-glasses the same; the coats, +fur-collared and cuffed, were ill-fitting and second-hand; ditto of +the varnished boats and renovated velvet waistcoats; while the +luxuriant moustaches and whiskers, and flowing wigs, were unmistakably +mere _pieces d'occasion_--assumed and diversified at pleasure. They +were both apparently about fifty years of age; one of them perhaps one +or two years less than that. I watched them narrowly, the more so from +their making themselves ostentatiously attentive to a young +woman--girl rather she seemed--of a remarkably graceful figure, but +whose face I had not yet obtained a glimpse of. They made boisterous +way for her to the fire, and were profuse and noisy in their offers of +refreshment--all of which, I observed, were peremptorily declined. She +was dressed in deep, unexpensive mourning; and from her timid gestures +and averted head, whenever either of the fellows addressed her, was, +it was evident, terrified as well as annoyed by their rude and +insolent notice. I quietly drew near to the side of the fire-place, at +which she stood, and with some difficulty obtained a sight of her +features. I was struck with extreme surprise--not so much at her +singular beauty, as from an instantaneous conviction that she was +known to me, or at least that I had seen her frequently before, but +where or when I could not at all call to mind. Again I looked, and my +first impression was confirmed. At this moment the elder of the two +men I have partially described placed his hand, with a rude +familiarity, upon the girl's shoulder, proffering at the same time a +glass of hot brandy and water for her acceptance. She turned sharply +and indignantly away from the fellow; and looking round as if for +protection, caught my eagerly-fixed gaze. + +"Mr. Waters!" she said impulsively. "Oh I am so glad!" + +"Yes," I answered, "that is certainly my name; but I scarcely +remember----Stand back, fellow!" I angrily continued, as her +tormentor, emboldened by the spirits he had drank, pressed with a +jeering grin upon his face, towards her, still tendering the brandy +and water. "Stand back!" He replied by a curse and a threat. The next +moment his flowing wig was whirling across the room, and he standing +with his bullet-head bare but for a few locks of iron-gray, in an +attitude of speechless rage and confusion, increased by the peals of +laughter which greeted his ludicrous, unwigged aspect. He quickly put +himself in a fighting attitude, and, backed by his companion, +challenged me to battle. This was quite out of the question; and I was +somewhat at a loss how to proceed, when the bell announcing the +instant departure of the train rang out, my furious antagonist +gathered up and adjusted his wig, and we all sallied forth to take our +places--the young woman holding fast by my arm, and in a low, nervous +voice, begging me not to leave her. I watched the two fellows take +their seats, and then led her to the hindmost carriage, which we had +to ourselves as far as the next station. + +"Are Mrs. Waters and Emily quite well?" said the young woman, coloring +and lowering her eyes beneath my earnest gaze, which she seemed for a +moment to misinterpret. + +"Quite--entirely so," I almost stammered. "You know us, then?" + +"Surely I do," she replied, reassured by my manner. "But you, it +seems," she presently added with a winning smile, "have quite +forgotten little Mary Kingsford." + +"Mary Kingsford!" I exclaimed almost with a shout. "Why, so it is! But +what a transformation a few years have effected!" + +"Do you think so! Not _pretty_ Mary Kingsford now, then?" she added +with a light, pleasant laugh. + +"You know what I mean, you vain creature!" I rejoined; for I was +overjoyed at meeting with the gentle, well-remembered playmate of my +own eldest girl. We were old familiar friends--almost father and +daughter--in an instant. + +Little Mary Kingsford, I should state, was, when I left Yorkshire, one +of the prettiest, most engaging children I had ever seen; and a petted +favorite not only with us, but of every other family in the +neighborhood. She was the only child of Philip and Mary Kingsford--a +humble, worthy, and much-respected couple. The father was gardener to +Sir Pyott Dalzell, and her mother eked out his wages to a respectable +maintenance by keeping a cheap children's school. The change which a +few years had wrought in the beautiful child was quite sufficient to +account for my imperfect recognition of her; but the instant her name +was mentioned, I at once recognised the rare comeliness which had +charmed us all in her childhood. The soft brown eyes were the same, +though now revealing profounder depths, and emitting a more pensive +expression; the hair, though deepened in color, was still golden; her +complexion, lit up as it now was by a sweet blush, was brilliant as +ever; whilst her child-person had became matured and developed into +womanly symmetry and grace. The brilliancy of color vanished from her +cheek as I glanced meaningly at her mourning dress. + +"Yes," she murmured in a sad quivering voice--"yes, father is gone! It +will be six months next Thursday, that he died! Mother is well," she +continued more cheerfully, after a pause: "in health, but poorly off; +and I--and I," she added with a faint effort at a smile, "am going to +London to seek my fortune!" + +"To seek your fortune!" + +"Yes; you know my cousin, Sophy Clark? In one of her letters, she said +she often saw you." + +I nodded without speaking. I knew little of Sophia Clarke, except that +she was the somewhat gay, coquettish shopwoman of a highly-respectable +confectioner in the Strand, whom I shall call by the name of Morris. + +"I am to be Sophy's assistant," continued Mary Kingsford; "not of +course at first at such good wages as she gets. So lucky for me, is it +not, since I _must_ go to service? And so kind, too, of Sophy, to +interest herself for me!" + +"Well, it may be so. But surely I have heard--my wife at least +has--that you and Richard Westlake were engaged? Excuse me, I was not +aware the subject was a painful or unpleasant one." + +"Richard's father," she replied with some spirit, "has higher views +for his son. It is all off between us now," she added; "and perhaps it +is for the best that it should be so." + +I could have rightly interpreted these words without the aid of the +partially-expressed sigh which followed them. The perilous position of +so attractive, so inexperienced, so guileless a young creature, amidst +the temptations and vanities of London, so painfully impressed and +preoccupied me, that I scarcely uttered another word till the +rapidly-diminishing rate of the train announced that we neared a +station, after which it was probable we should have no farther +opportunity for private conversation. + +"Those men--those fellows at Rugby--where did you meet with them?" I +inquired. + +"Thirty or forty miles below Birmingham, where they entered the car in +which I was seated. At Birmingham I managed to avoid them." + +Little more passed between us till we reached London. Sophia Clark +received her cousin at the Euston station, and was profuse of +felicitations and compliments upon her arrival and personal +appearance. After receiving a promise from Mary Kingsford to call and +take tea with my wife and her old playmate, on the following Sunday, I +handed the two young women into a cab in waiting, and they drove off. +I had not moved away from the spot when a voice, a few paces behind +me, which I thought I recognised, called out; "Quick, coachee, or +you'll lose sight of them!" As I turned quickly round, another cab +drove smartly off, which I followed at a run. I found, on reaching +Lower Seymour Street, that I was not mistaken as to the owner of the +voice, nor of his purpose. The fellow I had unwigged at Rugby thrust +his body half out of the cab window, and pointing to the vehicle which +contained the two girls, called out to the driver "to mind and make no +mistake." The man nodded intelligence, and lashed his horse into a +faster pace. Nothing that I might do could prevent the fellows from +ascertaining Mary Kingsford's place of abode; and as that was all +that, for the present at least, need be apprehended, I desisted from +pursuit, and bent my steps homewards. + +Mary Kingsford kept her appointment on the Sunday, and in reply to our +questioning, said she liked her situation very well. Mr. and Mrs. +Morris were exceedingly kind to her; so was Sophia. "Her cousin," she +added in reply to a look which I could not repress, "was perhaps a +little gay and free of manner, but the best-hearted creature in the +world." The two fellows who had followed them had, I found, already +twice visited the shop; but their attentions appeared now to be +exclusively directed towards Sophia Clarke, whose vanity they not a +little gratified. The names they gave were Hartley and Simpson. So +entirely guileless and unsophisticated was the gentle country maiden, +that I saw she scarcely comprehended the hints and warnings which I +threw out. At parting, however, she made me a serious promise that she +would instantly apply to me should any difficulty or perplexity +overtake her. + +I often called in at the confectioner's, and was gratified to find +that Mary's modest propriety of behavior, in a somewhat difficult +position, had gained her the good will of her employers, who +invariably spoke of her with kindness and respect. Nevertheless, the +care of a London life, with its incessant employment and late hours, +soon, I perceived, began to tell upon her health and spirits; and it +was consequently with pleasure I heard from my wife that she had seen +a passage in a letter from Mary's mother, to the effect that the elder +Westlake was betraying symptoms of yielding to the angry and +passionate expostulations of his only son, relative to the engagement +with Mary Kingsford. The blush with which she presented the letter +was, I was told, eloquent. + +One evening, on passing Morris's shop, I observed Hartley and Simpson +there. They were swallowing custards and other confectionary with much +gusto; and, from their new and costly habiliments, seemed to be in +surprisingly good case. They were smiling at the cousins with rude +confidence; and Sophia Clarke, I was grieved to see, repaid their +insulting impertinence by her most elaborate graces. I passed on; and +presently meeting with a brother-detective, who, it struck me, might +know something of the two gentlemen, I turned back with him, and +pointed them out. A glance sufficed him. + +"Hartley and Simpson you say?" he remarked after we had walked away to +some distance: "those are only two of their numerous _aliases_. I +cannot, however, say that I am as yet on very familiar terms with +them; but as I am especially directed to cultivate their acquaintance, +there is no doubt we shall be more intimate with each other before +long. Gamblers, blacklegs, swindlers, I already know them to be; and I +would take odds they are not unfrequently something more, especially +when fortune and the bones run cross with them." + +"They appear in high feather just now," I said. + +"Yes; they are connected, I suspect, with the gang who cleaned out +young Garslade last week in Jermyn Street. I'd lay a trifle," he added +as I turned to leave him, "that one or both of them will wear the +Queen's livery, gray, turned up with yellow, before many weeks are +past. Good-by." + +About a fortnight after this conversation, with my wife I paid a visit +to Astley's, for the gratification of our youngsters, who had long +been promised a sight of the equestrian marvels at that celebrated +amphitheatre. It was the latter end of February; and when we came out, +we found the weather changed; dark and sleety, with a sharp, nipping +wind. I had to call at Scotland-Yard; my wife and children +consequently proceeded home in a cab without me; and after assisting +to quell a slight disturbance originating in a gin-palace close by, I +went on my way over Westminister Bridge. The inclement weather had +cleared the streets and thoroughfares in a surprisingly short time; so +that, excepting myself, no foot-passenger was visible on the bridge +till I had about halfcrossed it, when a female figure, closely muffled +up about the head, and sobbing bitterly, passed rapidly by on the +opposite side. I turned and gazed after the retreating figure; it was +a youthful, symmetrical one; and after a few moments' hesitation, I +determined to follow at a distance, and as unobservedly as I could. On +the woman sped, without pause or hesitation, till she reached +Astley's, where I observed her stop suddenly, and toss her arms in the +air with a gesture of desperation. I quickened my steps, which she +observing, uttered a slight scream, and darted swiftly off again, +moaning as she ran. The momentary glimpse I had obtained of her +features, suggested a frightful apprehension, and I followed at my +utmost speed. She turned at the first cross-street, and I should soon +have overtaken her, but that in darting round the corner where she +disappeared, I ran butt against a stout, elderly gentleman, who was +hurrying smartly along out of the weather. With the suddenness of the +shock and the slipperiness of the pavement, down we both reeled; and +by the time we regained our feet, and growled savagely at each other, +the young woman, whoever she was, had disappeared, and more than half +an hour's eager search after her proved fruitless. At last I bethought +me of hiding at one corner of Westminster Bridge. I had watched +impatiently for about twenty minutes, when I observed the object of my +pursuit stealing timidly and furtively towards the bridge on the +opposite side of the way. As she came nearly abreast of where I stood, +I darted forward; she saw, without recognizing me, and uttered an +exclamation of terror, flew down towards the river, where a number of +pieces of balk and other timber were fastened together, forming a kind +of loose raft. I followed with haste, for I saw that it was indeed +Mary Kingsford and loudly called to her to stop. She did not seem to +hear me, and in a few moments the unhappy girl had gained the end of +the timber raft. One instant she paused, with clasped hands, upon the +brink, and in another had thrown herself into the dark and moaning +river. On reaching the spot where she had disappeared, I could not at +first see her in consequence of the dark mourning dress she had on. +Presently I caught sight of her, still upborne by her spread clothes, +but already carried by the swift current beyond my reach. The only +chance was to crawl along a piece of round timber which projected +farther into the river and by the end of which she must pass. This I +effected with some difficulty; and laying myself out at full length, +vainly endeavored with outstretched, straining arms, to grasp her +dress. There was nothing left for it but to plunge in after her. I +will confess that I hesitated to do so. I was encumbered with a heavy +dress, which there was no time to put off, and moreover, like most +inland men, I was but an indifferent swimmer. My indecision quickly +vanished. The wretched girl, though gradually sinking, had not yet +uttered a cry or appeared to struggle; but when the chilling waters +reached her lips, she seemed to suddenly revive to a consciousness of +the horror of her fate; she fought wildly with the engulfing tide, and +shrieked for help. Before one could count ten, I grasped her by the +arm, and lifted her head above the surface of the river. As I did so, +I felt as if suddenly encased and weighed down by leaden garments, so +quickly had my thick clothing and high boots sucked in the water. +Vainly, thus burdened and impeded, did I endeavor to regain the raft; +the strong tide bore us outwards, and I glared round, in inexpressible +dismay, for some means of extrication from the frightful peril in +which I found myself involved. Happily, right in the direction the +tide was drifting us, a large barge lay moored by a chain-cable. I +seized and twined one arm firmly round it, and thus partially secure, +hallooed with renewed power for assistance. It soon came; a passer had +witnessed the flight of the girl, and my pursuit, and was already +hastening with others to our assistance. A wherry was unmoored; guided +by my voice, they soon reached us; and but a brief interval elapsed +before we were safely housed in an adjoining tavern. + +A change of dress, with which the landlord kindly supplied me, a +blazing fire, and a couple of glasses of hot brandy and water, soon +restored warmth and vigor to my chilled and partially benumbed limbs; +but more than two hours elapsed before Mary, who had swallowed a good +deal of water, was in a condition to be removed. I had just sent for a +cab, when two police officers, well known to me, entered the room with +official briskness. Mary screamed, staggered towards me, and clinging +to my arm, besought me with frantic earnestness to save her. + +"What _is_ the meaning of this?" I exclaimed, addressing one of the +police officers. + +"Merely," said he, "that the young woman that's clinging so tight to +you has been committing an audacious robbery"---- + +"No--no--no!" broke in the terrified girl. + +"Oh! of course you'll say so," continued the officer. "All I know is, +that the diamond brooch was found snugly hid away in her own box. But +come, we have been after you for the last three hours; so you had +better come along at once." + +"Save me!--save me!" she sobbed, tightening her grasp upon my arm and +looking with beseeching agony in my face. + +"Be comforted," I whispered; "you shall go home with me. Calm +yourself, Miss Kingsford," I added in a louder tone: "I no more +believe you have stolen a diamond brooch than that I have." + +"Bless you!--bless you!" she gasped in the intervals of her convulsive +sobs. + +"There is some wretched misapprehension in this business, I am quite +sure," I continued; "but at all events I shall bail her--for this +night at least." + +"Bail her! That is hardly regular." + +"No; but you will tell the superintendent that Mary Kingsford is in my +custody, and that I answer for appearance to-morrow." + +The men hesitated; but I stood too well at head-quarters for them to +do more than hesitate; and the cab I had ordered being just then +announced, I passed with Mary out of the room as quickly as I could, +for I feared her senses were again leaving her. The air revived her +somewhat, and I lifted her into the cab, placing myself beside her. +She appeared to listen in fearful doubt whether I should be allowed to +take her with me; and it was not till the wheels had made a score of +revolutions that her fears vanished; then throwing herself upon my +neck in an ecstacy of gratitude, she burst into tears, and continued +till we reached home crying on my bosom like a broken-hearted child. +She had, I found, been there about ten o'clock to seek me, and being +told that I was gone to Astley's, had started off to find me there. + +She still slept, or at least she had not risen when I left home the +following morning to endeavor to get at the bottom of the strange +accusation preferred against her. I first saw the superintendent, who, +after hearing what I had to say, quite approved of all I had done, and +intrusted the case entirely to my care. I next saw Mr. and Mrs. Morris +and Sophia Clarke, and then waited upon the prosecutor, a youngish +gentleman by the name of Saville, lodging in Essex Street, Strand. One +or two things I heard, made necessary a visit to other officers of +police, incidentally, as I found, mixed up with the affair. By the +time all this was done, and an effectual watch had been placed upon +Mr. Augustus Saville's movements, evening had fallen, and I wended my +way homewards, both to obtain a little rest, and to hear Mary +Kingsford's version of the story. + +The result of my inquiries may be thus summed up. Ten days before. +Sophia Clarke told her cousin that she had orders for Covent-Garden +Theatre; and as it was not one of their busy nights, she thought they +might obtain leave to go. Mary expressed her doubt of this, as both +Mr. and Mrs. Morris, who were strict and somewhat fanatical +Dissenters, disapproved of play-going, especially for young women. +Nevertheless Sophia asked, informed Mary that the required permission +had been readily accorded, and off they went in high spirits; Mary +especially, who had never been to a theatre in her life before. When +there they were joined by Hartley and Simpson, much to Mary's +annoyance and vexation, especially as she saw that her cousin expected +them. She had, in fact, accepted the orders from them. At the +conclusion of the entertainments, they all four came out together, +when suddenly there arose a hustling and confusion, accompanied with +loud outcries, and a violent swaying to and fro of the crowd. The +disturbance was, however, soon quelled; and Mary and her cousin had +reached the outer door, when two police-officers seized Hartley and +his friend, and insisted upon their going with them. A scuffle ensued; +but other officers being at hand, the two men were secured, and +carried off. The cousins, terribly frightened, called a coach, and +were very glad to find themselves safe at home again. And now it came +out that Mr. and Mrs. Morris had been told that they were going to +spend the evening at _my_ house, and had no idea they were going to +the play! Vexed as Mary was at the deception, she was too kindly +tempered to refuse to keep her cousin's secret; especially knowing as +she did that the discovery of the deceit Sophia had practised would in +all probability be followed by her immediate discharge. Hartley and +his friend swaggered on the following afternoon into the shop, and +whispered Sophia that their arrest by the police had arisen from a +strange mistake, for which the most ample apologies had been offered +and accepted. After this matters went on as usual, except that Mary +perceived a growing insolence and familiarity in Hartley's manner +towards her. His language was frequently quite unintelligible, and +once he asked her plainly "if she did not mean that he should go +_shares_ in the prize she had lately found?" Upon Mary replying that +she did not comprehend him, his look became absolutely ferocious, and +he exclaimed; "Oh, that's your game, is it? But don't try it on with +me, my good girl, I advise you." So violent did he become, that Mr. +Morris was attracted by the noise, and ultimately bundled him, neck +and heels, out of the shop. She had not seen either him or his +companion since. + +On the evening of the previous day, a gentleman whom she never +remembered to have seen before, entered the shop, took a seat, and +helped himself to a tart. She observed that after a while he looked at +her very earnestly, and at length approaching quite close, said, "You +were at Covent-Garden Theatre last Tuesday evening week?" Mary was +struck, as she said, all of a heap, for both Mr. and Mrs. Morris were +in the shop, and heard the question. + +"Oh no, no! you mistake," she said hurriedly, and feeling at the same +time her cheeks kindle into flame. + +"Nay, but you were though," rejoined the gentleman. And then lowering +his voice to a whisper, he said, "And let me advise you, if you would +avoid exposure and consign punishment, to restore me the diamond +brooch you robbed me of on that evening." + +Mary screamed with terror, and a regular scene ensued. She was obliged +to confess she had told a falsehood in denying she was at the theatre +on the night in question, and Mr. Morris after that seemed inclined to +believe any thing of her. The gentleman persisted in his charge; but +at the same time vehemently iterating his assurance that all he wanted +was his property; and it was ultimately decided that Mary's boxes, as +well as her person should be searched. This was done; and to her utter +consternation the brooch was found concealed, they said, in a black +silk reticule. Denials, asseverations, were in vain. Mr. Saville +identified the brooch, but once more offered to be content with its +restoration. This Mr. Morris, a just, stern man, would not consent to, +and he went out to summon a police-officer. Before he returned, Mary, +by the advice of both her cousin and Mrs. Morris, had fled the house, +and hurried in a state of distraction to find me, with what result the +reader already knows. + +"It is a wretched business," I observed to my wife, as soon as Mary +Kingsford had retired to rest, at about nine o'clock in the evening. +"Like you, I have no doubt of the poor girl's perfect innocence; but +how to establish it by satisfactory evidence is another matter. I must +take her to Bow Street the day after to-morrow." + +"Good God, how dreadful! Can nothing be done? What does the prosecutor +say the brooch is worth?" + +"His uncle, he says, gave a hundred and twenty guineas for it. But +that signifies little, for were its worth only a hundred and twenty +farthings, compromise is, you know, out of the question." + +"I did not mean that. Can you show it me? I am a pretty good judge of +the value of jewels." + +"Yes, you can see it." I took it out of the desk in which I had locked +it up, and placed it before her. It was a splendid emerald, encircled +by large brilliants. + +My wife twisted and turned it about, holding it in all sorts of +lights, and at last said, "I do not believe that either the emerald +or the brilliants are real--that the brooch is, in fact, worth twenty +shillings intrinsically." + +"Do you say so?" I exclaimed, as I jumped up from my chair, for my +wife's words gave color and consistence to a dim and faint suspicion +which had crossed my mind. "Then this Saville is a manifest liar, and +perhaps confederate with----But give me my hat: I will ascertain this +point at once." + +I hurried to a jeweller's shop, and found that my wife's opinion was +correct. Apart from the workmanship, which was very fine, the brooch +was valueless. Conjectures, suspicions, hopes, fears, chased each +other with bewildering rapidity through my brain, and in order to +collect and arrange my thoughts, I stepped out of the whirl of the +streets into Dolly's Chop-house, and decided, over a quiet glass of +negus, upon my plan of operations. + +The next morning there appeared at the top of the second column of the +"Times" an earnest appeal, worded with careful obscurity, so that only +the person to whom it was addressed should easily understand it, to +the individual who had lost or been robbed of a false stone and +brilliants at the theatre, to communicate with a certain person--whose +address I gave--without delay, in order to save the reputation, +perhaps the life, of an innocent person. + +I was at the address I had given by nine o'clock. Several hours passed +without bringing any one, and I was beginning to despair, when a +gentleman of the name of Bagshawe was announced: I fairly leaped for +joy, for this was beyond my hopes. + +A gentleman presently entered, of about thirty years of age, of a +distinguished, though somewhat dissipated aspect. + +"This brooch is yours?" said I, exhibiting it without delay or +preface. + +"It is; and I am here to know what your singular advertisement means." + +I briefly explained the situation of affairs. + +"The rascals!" he broke in, almost before I had finished. "I will +briefly explain it all. A fellow of the name of Hartley, at least that +was the name he gave, robbed me, I was pretty sure, of this brooch. I +pointed him out to the police, and he was taken into custody; but +nothing being found upon him, he was discharged." + +"Not entirely, Mr. Bagshawe, on that account. You refused, when +arrived at the station-house, to state what you had been robbed of; +and you, moreover, said, in presence of the culprit, that you were to +embark with your regiment for India the next day. That regiment, I +have ascertained, did embark, as you said it would." + +"True; but I had leave of absence, and shall take the overland route. +The truth is, that during the walk to the station-house, I had leisure +to reflect, that if I made a formal charge, it would lead to awkward +disclosures, This brooch is an imitation of one presented me by a +valued relative. Losses at play--since, for this unfortunate young +woman's sake, I _must_ out with it--obliged me to part with the +original; and I wore this, in order to conceal the fact from my +relative's knowledge." + +"This will, sir," I replied, "prove, with a little management, quite +sufficient for all purposes. You have no objection to accompany me to +the superintendent?" + +"Not in the least: only I wish the devil had the brooch, as well as +the fellow that stole it." + +About half-past five o'clock on the same evening, the street-door was +quietly opened by the landlord of the house in which Mr. Saville +lodged, and I walked into the front room on the first floor, where I +found the gentleman I sought languidly reclining on a sofa. He +gathered himself smartly up at my appearance, and looked keenly in my +face. He did not appear to like what he read there. + +"I did not expect to see you to-day," he said, at last. + +"No, perhaps not: but I have news for you. Mr. Bagshawe, the owner of +the hundred-and-twenty guinea brooch your deceased uncle gave you, did +_not_ sail for India, and--" + +The wretched cur, before I could conclude, was on his knees, begging +for mercy with disgusting abjectness. I could have spurned the +scoundrel where he crawled. + +"Come, sir!" I cried, "let us have no snivelling or humbug: mercy is +not in my power, as you ought to know. Strive to deserve it. We want +Hartley and Simpson, and cannot find them: you must aid us." + +"Oh yes; to be sure I will," eagerly rejoined the rascal. "I will go +for them at once," he added, with a kind of hesitating assurance. + +"Nonsense! _Send_ for them, you mean. Do so, and I will wait their +arrival." + +His note was despatched by a sure hand; and meanwhile I arranged the +details of the expected meeting. I, and a friend, whom I momently +expected, would ensconce ourselves behind a large screen in the room, +while Mr. Augustus Saville would run playfully over the charming plot +with his two friends, so that we might be able to fully appreciate its +merits. Mr. Saville agreed. I rang the bell, an officer appeared, and +we took our posts in readiness. We had scarcely done so, when the +street-bell rang, and Saville announced the arrival of his +confederates. There was a twinkle in the fellow's green eyes which I +thought I understood. "Do not try that on, Mr. Augustus Saville," I +quietly remarked: "we are but two here, certainly, but there are +half-a-dozen in waiting below." + +No more was said, and in another minute the friends met. It was a +boisterously jolly meeting, as far as shaking hands and mutual +felicitations on each other's good looks and health went. Saville was, +I thought, the most obstreperously gay of all three. + +"And yet, now I look at you, Saville, closely," said Hartley, "you +don't look quite the thing. Have you seen a ghost?" + +"No; but this cursed brooch affair worries me." + +"Nonsense!--humbug!--it's all right: we are all embarked in the same +boat. It's a regular three-handed game. I prigged it; Simmy here +whipped it into pretty Mary's reticule, which she, I suppose, never +looked into till the row came; and _you_ claimed it--a regular +merry-go-round, eh? Ha! ha! ha!" + +"Quite so, Mr. Hartley," said I, suddenly facing him, and at the same +time stamping on the floor; "as you say, a delightful merry-go-round; +and here, you perceive, I added, as the officers crowded into the +room, are more gentlemen to join in it." + +I must not stain the paper with the curses, imprecations, blasphemies, +which for a brief space resounded through the apartment. The rascals +were safely and separately locked up a quarter of an hour afterwards; +and before a month had passed away, all three were transported. It is +scarcely necessary to remark, that they believed the brooch to be +genuine, and of great value. + +Mary Kingsford did not need to return to her employ. Westlake the +elder withdrew his veto upon his son's choice, and the wedding was +celebrated in the following May with great rejoicing; Mary's old +playmate officiating as bridesmaid, and I as bride's-father. The still +young couple have now a rather numerous family, and a home blessed +with affection, peace, and competence. It was some time, however, +before Mary recovered from the shock of her London adventure; and I am +pretty sure that the disagreeable reminiscences inseparately connected +in her mind with the metropolis will prevent at least _one_ person +from being present at the World's Great Fair. + + + + +_Historical Review of the Month._ + + +THE UNITED STATES. + +Our record of home affairs for the past month presents several points +of more than usual interest. Two different movements, both of which +originated in the Southern States, kept awake the public curiosity for +three or four weeks past, though at the time these sheets are going +through the press both appear to be rapidly subsiding. + +Soon after the withdrawal of the Government prosecution against Gen. +Henderson, Lopez, Gen. Quitman, and the other persons arraigned for +trial as having been engaged in getting up a hostile expedition +against Cuba, rumors of a second attempt being in preparation, began +to be circulated through the country. Little attention was at first +paid to these rumors, but the matter soon assumed a more definite +shape, and the Southern newspapers began to notice the congregation of +suspicious persons at different points on or near the coast. From the +intelligence which the Government received, it became evident that an +extensive expedition, was on foot, the object of which was the +invasion of Cuba. The United States officers were ordered to be on the +watch, for the purpose of obtaining more particular intelligence of +its movements. + +Two or three thousand men had collected in the neighborhood of +Jacksonville, Florida, which had been selected as the principal +rendezvous of the expedition. These men awaited the arrival of a +steamer from New-York, which had been chartered by parties there. The +Government, however, had already received intelligence of their plans, +and instructions were at once sent to the United States Marshal at +New-York, to prevent the departure of the steamer. This officer, +accompanied by a police force, sailed down the bay in search of the +suspected craft. In the mean time it was found that the steamer +Cleopatra, a large boat, formerly employed on the Sound as a passenger +boat, was the vessel indicated. She was then lying at one of the piers +on the North River, and was immediately seized and placed under the +supervision of the United States authorities. She was alleged to be +bound to Galveston, Texas. A large quantity of coal was found on +board, and a great number of water casks, and but few arms or +ammunition of any kind. A file of marines from the Navy Yard was +placed on board, and all communication with the shore forbidden. No +final disposition has yet been made of the vessel, though orders were +received to deliver her cargo to any person who may establish his +ownership to the articles found on board. + +At the same time, notice was received by the Marshal that a number of +Germans and others had assembled at South Amboy for the purpose of +embarking on some secret expedition, and one of the Deputy Marshals +was sent there for the purpose of procuring information. Disguising +himself as a German emigrant, he obtained sufficient evidence to +warrant the arrest of the following six persons: William T. Rogers, +Jr., John L. O'Sullivan, Capt. Lewis, of the steamboat Creole, a +member of the former expedition; Major Louis Schlesinger, one of the +Hungarian refugees; Pedro Sanchez Yznaga, a Cuban refugee; and Dr. +Daniel H. Burtnett. Each of the parties was held to bail in the sum of +$3,000, to appear for examination. + +The movement must have been of considerable magnitude, but there was +evidently a want of concert among its members, which may have led to +its abandonment. From what could be ascertained, it was not the +intention of the leaders to organize the expedition in this country, +but to sail to some point beyond the limits of the United States, and +there concentrate their forces for the invasion. + +The South Carolina State Rights Convention assembled at Charleston on +the 5th of May. The Hon. J. P. Richardson, Ex-Governor of the State, +was appointed President. Forty district associations were represented, +and 431 Delegates took their seats. The President, in his opening +address, reviewed the present position of the South, and considered +that, under existing circumstances, Southern institutions could not +exist twenty years. He discussed at some length the want of affinity +between the two sections of the Union, and expressed his conviction +that those whom God and Nature have put asunder should not be joined +together. On the second day, a letter from the Hon. Langdon Cheves was +read, excusing his non-attendance. He deprecated separate State +action, believing that one State cannot stand alone in the midst of +her sister States. + +A committee of twenty-one was appointed to prepare resolutions and an +address, which were adopted, after considerable discussion. The +following are the resolutions, which embody the sentiments of the +Convention: + +1. _Resolved_, That in the opinion of this meeting the State of South +Carolina cannot submit to the wrongs and aggressions which have been +perpetrated by the Federal Government and the Northern States, without +dishonor and ruin; and that it is necessary for her to relieve herself +therefrom, whether with or without the co-operation of other Southern +States. + +2. _Resolved_, That concert of action with one or more of our sister +States of the South, whether through the proposed Southern Congress, +or in any other manner, is an object worth many sacrifices, but not +the sacrifice involved in submission. + +3. _Resolved_, That we hold the right of secession to be essential to +the sovereignty and freedom of the States of this confederacy; and +that the denial of that right would furnish to an injured State the +strongest additional cause for its exercise. + +4. _Resolved_, That this meeting looks with confidence and hope to the +Convention of the People, to exert the sovereign power of the State in +defence of its rights, at the earliest practicable period and in the +most effectual manner, and to the Legislature, to adopt the most +speedy and effectual measures toward the same end. + +Mr. Barnwell and two other members of the Committee presented a +minority Report, referring the whole matter to the action of the +Legislature. Judge Butler, U. S. Senator, also recommended a +postponement of any decisive step. The original Report, however, was +adopted, and the Convention adjourned _sine die_. The subject has +occasioned but little excitement out of South Carolina, and it is not +anticipated that any other State will pursue a similar course. + +The Mexican Government has made a formal complaint to the President of +the United States, in relation to the Indian outrages along the +frontier, which the United States were bound to suppress, according to +the Treaty of Guadaloupe Hidalgo. It is believed that a demand of a +million of dollars will be made for damages which the Indians have +already caused; besides which, Mexico refuses to ratify the +Tchuantepec Treaty, unless these provisions are fulfilled. At the last +session of Congress, the appropriation asked by the War Department for +this purpose, was not made; besides which, the troops most serviceable +for such a warfare have been disbanded. + +An order has been issued by the President, that the tracts of land in +Iowa, occupied by General Ujhazy and the other Hungarian exiles, shall +be withheld from sale until the end of the next session of Congress, +with a view to making application to that body for a grant of the +lands. + +The Massachusetts Legislature, after a struggle of four months, +succeeded in electing a U. S. Senator on the 24th of April. Charles +Sumner, Esq., the Free Soil Candidate, was chosen on that day, by 193 +votes, precisely the number necessary for election. The Boston Board +of Aldermen, who had passed a resolution refusing the use of Faneuil +Hall for a public address by Daniel Webster, have since then retracted +the step and concurred with the Common Council in inviting Mr. Webster +to address the citizens of Boston. Faneuil Hall, hereafter, is to be +granted on all occasions, at the application of one hundred voters. +Before leaving Boston, Mr. Webster delivered a speech to the citizens +of Boston, from the steps of the Revere House. + +The Legislature of New-York adjourned on the 17th of April. The +question of the enlargement of the Erie Canal was before the Senate, +when twelve of the Democratic members of that body resigned their +seats in order to prevent the passage of the bill, by leaving the +senate without a quorum. The usual annual appropriations had not been +voted, and the Government was thus placed without the means of +sustaining its operations. An extra session of the Legislature has +been called by Governor Hunt, for the 10th of June. Elections have +been ordered, in the mean time, to fill the vacancies caused by the +resignation of the Senators. The Members of the Assembly, of both +parties, published manifestoes in relation to the question. + +The Atlantic Coast and the Lakes have been visited this spring with a +succession of tremendous gales, which have done an immense amount of +damage in various quarters. A storm arose along the Northeastern +coast, on the 15th of April, and at noon on the following day the tide +was higher at Boston than had ever been known before. On the principal +wharves of the city the water was three or four feet deep, and the +streets were so flooded that a large boat could be rowed around the +Custom House. An immense amount of damage was done to private +property, and many lives were lost. The railroad tracks all around the +city were submerged, and in many places torn up and washed away. All +along the coast, from New Bedford to Portland, the gale raged with +nearly equal violence, causing much injury to the shipping. The loss +of property is estimated at more than one million of dollars. + +On the night of the 17th of April, the third day of the storm, the +light-house on Minot's Ledge, at the entrance of Boston harbor, was +carried away, and the two men in it at the time drowned. Mr. Bennett, +the keeper, who had been to Boston, was prevented from returning to it +by the rough sea, and thus escaped. It was formed of wrought iron +bars, riveted into the rock, and rising to the height of sixty feet, +having chambers in the upper part for the keeper and his assistants. +The light-house had been severely tested in the late equinoctial +storm, and was considered secure. + +His Excellency, President Fillmore, accompanied by the Hon. Daniel +Webster, Secretary of State; Hon. William A. Graham, Secretary of the +Navy; Hon. J. J. Crittenden, Attorney General; and Hon. N. K. Hall, +Postmaster General, left Washington on the 12th of May, in order to be +present at the opening of the Erie Railroad from New-York to Dunkirk. +They were received with great enthusiasm on the way; at Baltimore and +Wilmington they were officially welcomed, and were met at the latter +place by the Mayor and Common Council of Philadelphia, who escorted +them to that city. + +Here the people turned out to give them a public reception, and +speeches were made by the President and Mr. Webster. On their way to +New-York they were met at Amboy by the Erie Railroad Company's steamer +and conveyed to the city, saluted on the way by national salutes from +the forts in the harbor, and the military companies of the city, who +were drawn up on the Battery, to receive the distinguished visitors. +The ceremonies of welcome were performed in Castle Garden, where the +President and Secretaries were welcomed by Mayor Kingsland. Eloquent +speeches were made in return by the President, Mr. Webster, and Mr. +Crittenden. A military procession more than a mile in length, was then +formed, and marched through the principal streets, which were thronged +with spectators. Flags were waving from every point, and as the day +was remarkably bright and warm, the spectacle was one of unusual life +and animation. + +The Company's boat left New-York at 6 o'clock on the morning of the +14th, having on board the President and Secretaries, all the principal +State officers except Governor Hunt, the officers of the Erie Railroad +Company, a large representation from the State Senate and Assembly, +and both boards of the Common Council of the city, besides a number of +other distinguished persons. At Piermont, three special trains +received the company, 600 in all, and the grand march of 450 miles, +through what was lately the wilderness of the State, from the Hudson +to Lake Erie, commenced. All along the line of the road the people +turned out _en masse_, cannons were fired and bells rung as the trains +passed, and triumphal arches erected over the road. Brief addresses +were made at the principal stations by the President, Mr. Webster, Mr. +Seward, Mr. Crittenden, and other distinguished guests. The trains +stopped at Elmira for the night, and proceeded next day to Dunkirk, +which they reached in the afternoon. Here the crowning celebration was +made. All the country, far and near, arose to hail the completion of +the greatest railroad enterprise in the world. After the meeting, a +grand barbecue was held: two oxen and ten sheep were roasted whole, +and the company regaled on a magnificent scale. The day following this +opening excursion, the regular passenger trains commenced running from +New-York to Dunkirk. The distance between the Ocean and Lake Erie is +now but a summer's day. + +In the Connecticut Legislature the Democratic candidate for Governor, +Mr. Seymour, was elected by a majority of one vote. The Legislature of +Rhode Island, on the 10th of May, restored to Ex-Gov. Dorr, +(well-known as the leader of "Dorr's Rebellion,") all the rights and +privileges of a citizen. + +M. Bois Le Compte, the French Minister at Washington, who has been +recalled by his Government, took leave of the President on the 2d of +May, and will shortly return to France. + +Jenny Lind reached New-York in the beginning of May, after a +triumphant tour of five months in the South and West. She commenced a +series of farewell concerts on the 7th. She was received with as full +a house and scarcely less enthusiasm than on the night of her first +appearance in America. The Firemen of the city, in return for her +donation of $3000 to the Widows' and Orphans' Fund, have presented her +with a resolution of thanks inclosed in a gold box, and a copy of +Audubon's Birds of America in a rosewood case. + +A fire occurred at Santa Fe, New Mexico, on the 22d of April, which +destroyed the finest hotel in the place. Col. Sumner, who is to take +command of the United States military force in the Department, carries +with him a large amount of seeds, grains, improved stock, farming +utensils, and apparatus for developing the capacity of the soil. It is +designed to make the United States troops in New Mexico support +themselves as far as possible. The Apache Indians have been very +troublesome, but a treaty of amity has been effected with their +principal chief, Chacon. The Mexican citizens are well satisfied with +the establishment of the Territorial Government. + +The California mails of March 15th and April 1st have been received. +The steamers which sailed from San Francisco on those days took away +more than $3,500,000 in gold dust for the Atlantic States. The news is +generally of a very favorable character. The severe drought which had +prevailed through the whole winter, terminated on the 17th of March, +when a succession of heavy showers commenced, the effect of which had +been to revive business of all kinds. The miners in the dry diggings +had a sufficiency of water to wash out their piles of dirt, and the +gold dust, flowing into the centres of trades, soon dissipated the +dulness which had fallen upon business of all kinds. Agricultural +prospects have also brightened, and the crops of California will this +year be an important feature of her products. The odious tax of $20 +per month on all foreign miners has been repealed, and the Mexicans +and Chilians who were last year driven out of the country will +probably return. + +The Legislature still continues in session, and since its futile +attempt to elect a United States Senator, has gone vigorously to work. +The sale of lottery tickets has been prohibited; the sum of $200,000 +appropriated for the pay of persons engaged in military operations +against the Indians, and the State Treasurer authorized to obtain a +loan of $500,000. The District Court of Sacramento has given a +decision sustaining the suitors of claims on all lands on which the +city is located. A fugitive slave case--the first in California--has +been settled at San Francisco. The owner of a slave, who had employed +him in the mines for three or four months, was about to return with +him to the Atlantic States. But as the slave preferred remaining, a +writ of habeas corpus was procured and a hearing had before the Court, +which decided that the negro was at liberty to stay and could not be +removed against his will. + +A fire broke out in a bowling alley in Nevada City, on the 12th of +March, and spread so rapidly that before it could be subdued, the +largest and best portion of the city was in ashes. One hundred and +twenty-eight houses were destroyed, and the entire loss is estimated +at $300,000. + +Accounts from all parts of the gold region give flattering accounts of +the golden harvest for the present year. The richest locality appears +to be the district lying between Feather River and the American Fork, +embracing the Yuba and its tributaries. The northern mines, on +Trinity, Scott's and Klamath Rivers, continue to attract attention. On +the Mokelumne River, gold is found in large quantities on the sides +and summits of the hills. A placer of the precious metal has also been +discovered by the Mexicans near San Diego. The operations in quartz +mining promise to be very profitable. A vein near Nevada City has been +sold for $130,000. Later accounts from the Gold Bluff are more +encouraging. The top sand was washed away during a severe gale, and +the heavy substratum, being washed, was found to yield from three to +eight ounces to each pailful. Messrs. Moffat & Co., who obtained the +Government contract for assaying gold, received deposits of gold dust +amounting to $100,000 in two hours after opening their office. The +operations of the office had such an effect that the bankers of San +Francisco were compelled to raise the price of gold dust to $17 per +ounce, in order to have any share in the trade. + +Professor Forest Shepard, of New-Haven, who has been prosecuting +geological explorations in different parts of California, has +discovered a remarkable valley in the Coast Range, north of Napa +Valley. It is an immense chasm, 1000 feet deep, in the bottom of which +was a large number of boiling springs and jets of steam, with here and +there a fountain of hot water, similar to the geysers of Iceland. +There are more than two hundred in all, within a compass of half a +mile square. The soil of the valley was so warm that, although it was +in the middle of winter, flowers were in full bloom and a luxuriant +vegetation springing on all sides. It is Professor Shepard's intention +to claim a portion of the valley, build a house thereon, and plant +tropical trees in the warm soil. + +The Hon. Samuel R. Thurston, Delegate to Congress from Oregon +Territory, died on the 9th ult., on board the steamer California, +bound from Panama to San Francisco. His remains were taken to Acapulco +for interment. + +Our news from Oregon is to the 22d of March. A discovery has been made +by Capt. George Drew, of a vein of coal on the Cowlitz River, eighteen +miles from its junction with the Columbia, and about one mile from the +main Cowlitz. The vein is two feet thick and about half a mile in +width, fifteen feet above high water mark and about forty feet below +the surface of the bluff mountain. Governor Ogden, of the Hudson's Bay +Company, at Vancouver, sent a boat and crew to bring a quantity away, +that it may be fairly tested. + + +EUROPE. + +The Grand Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations, in the Crystal +Palace at LONDON, was opened on Thursday, May 1, with appropriate and +imposing ceremonies. Just before twelve o'clock, which was the hour +appointed for the arrival of the Queen, the rain that had been falling +at intervals during the day ceased altogether, and the sun shone forth +from a cloudless sky. On the appearance of the Royal cortêge, the +utmost enthusiasm was manifested by the people who thronged the +vicinity of the Palace, and, in the midst of the cheers of the +multitude, and the flourish of military music, the Queen, accompanied +by Prince Albert, the Prince of Wales, and the Princess Royal, was +ushered into the interior of the building. She was welcomed by the +vast assemblage with repeated and universal cheers, ladies waved their +handkerchiefs, gentlemen their hats, and the whole scene presented a +spectacle of unrivalled splendor. After she had ascended the throne, +which was a raised platform surmounted with a blue canopy ornamented +with feathers, the National Anthem was sung by an immense choir under +direction of Sir Henry Bishop. When the music had ceased, Prince +Albert presented to the Queen the report of the proceedings of the +Commissioners, to which she replied in a short speech. The Archbishop +of Canterbury then offered the prayer of inauguration, at the close of +which the Hallelujah Chorus was sung. A procession was now formed, +composed of the architect, contractors, and officials engaged in the +construction of the Crystal Palace, the Foreign Commissioners, the +Royal Commissioners, Foreign Ambassadors, and the members of the Royal +Family. After making the circuit of the building in the procession, +the Queen resumed her seat on the platform, and announced by a herald +that the Exhibition was opened. A flourish of trumpets and a discharge +of artillery proclaimed the fact to the thronging multitudes on the +outside. The Queen, attended by the Court, then withdrew from the +building; the choir again struck up the strain of the National Anthem; +the barriers, which had confined the spectators within certain limits, +were removed; and the whole mass of visitors poured over every part of +the magnificent edifice, eager to gratify a highly excited curiosity. + +The number of exhibitors, whose productions are now displayed in the +Crystal Palace, is about 15,000. One-half of these are British +subjects. The remainder represent the industry of more than forty +other nations, comprising nearly every civilized country on the globe. +The Exhibition is divided into four classes; 1. Raw Materials; 2. +Machinery; 3. Manufactures; 4. Sculpture and the Fine Arts. A further +division is made, according to the geographical position of the +countries represented, those which lie within the warmer latitudes +being placed near the centre of the building, and the colder countries +at the extremities. The Crystal Palace, which was commenced on the +26th of September, and has accordingly been completed in the short +space of seven months, occupies an extent of about 18 acres, measuring +1,851 feet in length, and 556 in breadth, and affords a frontage for +the exhibition of goods amounting in the aggregate to over 10 miles. +It can accommodate at one time 40,000 visitors. + +An interesting debate took place in the BRITISH House of Commons on +the 3d of April, upon a motion by Mr. Herries for the repeal of the +Income Tax. In an elaborate speech supporting his motion, Mr. Herries +maintained that the Income Tax was proposed by Sir Robert Peel in +order to meet a peculiar emergency occasioned by the maladministration +of the Whigs prior to 1841. He presented a minute calculation for the +purpose of showing that two-sevenths of the tax might be remitted +without damage to the financial interests of the nation, and that the +remission of £1,560,000 would be a greater relief than the removal of +the window-tax. In reply to Mr. Herries, the Chancellor of the +Exchequer contended that the measures contemplated in the motion were +of the most disastrous tendency, and recommended the House to vote an +Income Tax for three years. On a division of the House, Mr. Herries' +motion was lost by a majority of 48. + +The subject of Colonial Expenditures has elicited a warm debate in the +House of Commons. Sir William Molesworth argued in favor of giving the +means of local self-government to all colonies which are not military +stations nor convict settlements. The colonies cost the United Kingdom +the enormous sum of £4,000,000 sterling. He believed the military +force maintained in the various colonies might be cut down to less +than half the present establishment without injury to the Government. +Under proper regulations, 17,000 men would be sufficient for the +colonial garrisons, instead of 45,000. For colonial services the +troops should be paid by the colonies--for Imperial purposes, by the +General Government. He contended that in the North American colonies, +the expenditure for military affairs should be reduced £400,000 per +annum, and in the West Indies £250,000. From the Australian colonies +nearly the whole military force might be withdrawn to advantage. +Unless the military operations were discontinued in South Africa, the +war would cost £1,000,000 more than the value of the colony. In +conclusion, he estimated that the adoption of his measures would save +the Government at least £1,800,000 in military and civil expenditure. +The views of Sir William Molesworth were ably sustained by other +members, while, on the contrary, Lord John Russell declared they were +of a ruinous tendency, and earnestly protested against their adoption. +If the plan were carried into effect, the glory of the British nation +would be destroyed. She could no longer maintain her proud position +before the world. The integrity of her empire would be annihilated, +and she would be exposed to the attack of foreign powers. The debate +was finally adjourned without a division. + +The latest intelligence concerning Miss Talbot, whose relation to the +Roman Catholic controversy has produced such a general excitement in +England, is her decision to accept of a proposal of marriage from Lord +Edward Howard, a Catholic nobleman of wealth and character. +Application was made by the friends of the parties for the consent of +the Lord Chancellor, which was given without hesitation. + +The British Government has presented a memorial to the Courts of +Berlin and Vienna, on the subject of admitting non-German territories +into the Confederation, and insisting on a strict adherence to the +Treaty of Vienna. + +A new cabinet has been formed in FRANCE, consisting of Baroche, +Rouher, Fould, Leon-Faucher, Buffet, Chasseloup Laubat, de +Crouseilhes, Randon and Maque. The most prominent of these ministers +are Baroche, Fould, and Leon-Faucher. They are all taken from the +minority of the Assembly, and their choice will increase the +difference between the President and that body. Baroche and Fould were +members of the ministry which was obliged to retire in January last, +before the opposition of the Assembly. Leon-Faucher labors under the +stigma of having used the telegraph for electioneering purposes, for +which he was condemned by the vote of the constituent assembly. Buffet +was minister of commerce and agriculture in the administration of +O'Dillon-Barrot. He is inclined to free trade sentiments, agreeing for +the most part with Leon-Faucher in his commercial views. De +Crouseilhes is a legitimist. He is an ex-peer of France, but has been +more distinguished for his private worth than his political ability. +Chasseloup Laubat has been in official employment since 1828, though +he is still under fifty years of age. The best debater in the new +ministry is undoubtedly Baroche, whose sagacity and mental vigor +cannot be mistaken. + +The political condition of France is still the subject of much +speculation, but no definite conclusions can be arrived at in the +present fluctuations of parties. Every thing shows the uncertainty +which pervades the public mind. The President has renounced the hope +of improving his political prospects, by obtaining a revision of the +constitution. This could not be carried without a majority of +three-fourths of the Assembly, while at least nearly 190 of the most +strenuous republicans are decidedly opposed to the measure. The +government is now sustained by the legitimists, who perceive no +immediate hope of the accomplishment of their favorite plans. The +partisans of Cavaignac are in favor of the speedy resignation of the +President. In their opinion, this is necessary, in order to anticipate +the general election, and thus prevent the difficulties that would +ensue by the dissolution of the Assembly, without an established +executive. Others, on the contrary, are in favor of extending the +Presidential term for the period of ten years. A reconciliation was +about to take place, according to the general rumor, between the +President and General Changarnier. The government has demanded of the +cabinet at London the expulsion of Ledru Rollin and other active +politicians among the French refugees. With the present facilities of +communication between London and Paris, their influence was believed +to be adverse to the policy of the French government, and to increase +the difficulties of the existing crisis. + +An insurrection, headed by the Duke of Saldanha, has been attempted in +Cientra, PORTUGAL. The insurgents were about five thousand in number, +and displayed considerable determination. Their leader is a man of +great energy, and has had no small experience in political +disturbances. He belongs to the reactionary party. The King, who +commands the army in person, has occupied the fortress of Santarem, +and the chances of the insurgents appear desperate, although they are +said to have some friends in the royal army. The garrison at Oporto +have declared for Saldanha, and the inhabitants of that city are +generally on his side. He had decided to abandon the contest, and +embark for England, but was recalled by the insurgents. + +The King of NAPLES has prohibited his subjects from taking part in the +Exhibition of the World's Fair, and from being present at it as +visitors. The King of Sardinia proposes to visit England during the +Exhibition. + +The Emperor of RUSSIA has appointed a Committee of manufacturers and +scientific men, under the Presidency of the Director General of Public +Works to visit the Exhibition, and also to examine the principal +manufacturing establishments of France. He has also given permission +to his subjects who may attend the exhibition, to pass through France +on complying with certain conditions. + +The city of DRONTHEIM has again suffered from a popular outbreak, +although not from political causes. The military and burgher guard +were compelled to interfere, and several arrests took place. The +difficulty originated in the prohibition of the sale of fish by the +peasantry, in compliance with the demands of the licensed fishermen. + +A misunderstanding of a serious nature has occurred between the +Emperor of AUSTRIA and the Sultan of TURKEY. This has resulted in the +withdrawal of the Austrian minister from Constantinople. The Sultan is +charged with refusing to comply with the demands of the Emperor in +regard to Kossuth and the other Hungarian prisoners. He declines +detaining them after the expiration of the year during which he had +promised to hold them in custody. An additional offence is his +presentation of a claim upon the Austrian treasury for the expenses of +the detention. + +At our last dates from TURKEY, the Bosnian insurrection had been +conducted with great activity, although it has probably been +suppressed by Omer Pasha. A sanguinary engagement between the Sultan's +troops and a body of fifteen thousand insurgents has taken place in +the vicinity of Jaicza, in which several hundred of the combatants on +both sides were killed or mortally wounded. The conflict terminated in +favor of the rebels. + + + + +_Recent Deaths._ + + +CAPTAIN J. D. CUNNINGHAM, of the Bengal Engineers, author of the +_History of the Sikhs_, died in India on the twenty-eight of February, +in consequence, it is said, of his removal from the political agency +of Bhopaul, where his services and abilities had been highly valued. +The act of the "Company" fell with peculiar hardship upon an officer +who had passed twenty years of honorable and uninterrupted service in +every climate of India, and whose error (if any were committed by the +publication in question) was certainly not of a character demanding +censure so grave. It will be recollected that the book threw some new +light on the conduct of Lord Hardinge at Sobraon, and that the writer +was dismissed on the charge of having, "without authority," published +documents officially intrusted to his charge. The friends of Captain +Cunningham aver that he had formerly asked permission, and he +construed the reply to be an expression of indifference on the part of +the directors. It was never pretended that an unworthy motive had +influenced him, or that he had acted on any other than a desire +(however mistaken) to promote the welfare of the government to which +he was attached. It is understood that Captain Cunningham's health +broke soon after this painful misunderstanding, and that its effects +pursued him to his death. He was a son of Allan Cunningham, had +distinguished himself greatly in all his Indian employments, and had +not completed his fortieth year. + + * * * * * + +The _Glasgow Citizen_ calls attention to the death of Mr. JOHN +HENNING, the well-known Paisley artist, whose studies from the Elgin +marbles and cartoons after Raphad obtained so much distinction for +himself, and contributed so largely to the diffusion of a general +taste for the fine arts amongst his countrymen. Mr. Henning was a +self-taught sculptor, and devoted twelve years of his life, under +great difficulties, to the restoration of the Greek marbles brought +over by Lord Elgin. His copies of these on a reduced scale are so well +known and esteemed as to render eulogium on their merits here +unnecessary. Many busts of his contemporaries remain to testify +further to the excellence of his hand. He was one of the men whom his +native town "delighted to honor." + + * * * * * + +PADRE ROZAVEN, one of the most famous of modern Jesuits, and +distinguished by divers polemical treatises, as well as by a long +residence and religious warfare in Russia, has just died in Rome in +his eighty-second year. + + * * * * * + +PRINCE WITTGENSTEIN, Minister of the Royal House of Prussia, died on +the 11th April, at Berlin, at the age of eighty-one. He had been in +the service of the state fifty-six years, and had filled the post in +which he died since 1819. + + * * * * * + +HENRY BICKERSTETH, LORD LANGDALE, late Master of the Rolls, died on +Good Friday, at Tunbridge Wells, to which place he had lately repaired +for the benefit of his health--impaired by long-continued mental +labor, resulting in a paralytic stroke, which took place shortly +before his death. He was born on the eighteenth of June, 1783, in the +county of Westmoreland, where his father was possessed of a small +property. Originally destined for the medical profession (of which his +father was a member), in which he had completed his studies, he +visited the Continent with the family of the late Earl of Oxford, by +whose advice he was induced to embark on the career of the bar. He +entered Caius College, Cambridge, where he took his degrees as senior +wrangler in 1808. Three years afterwards he was called to the bar, and +engaged at once in the duties of his profession. He rapidly rose to +great eminence in the Equity Courts, to which he confined his +practice. On the nineteenth of January, 1836, he was appointed to +succeed Lord Cottenham as Master of the Rolls, and was at the same +time called to the House of Peers. But a few months had elapsed after +his accession to the mastership of the rolls when Lord Langdale +delivered in the House of Lords his remarkable speech on the +administration of justice in the Court of Chancery, and on the +appellate jurisdiction of their lordships' house, and to the opinions +expressed in that speech, and in favor of the division of the duties +of the Great Seal, he constantly adhered. On the resignation of Lord +Cottenham last year, the Great Seal was more than once tendered to +Lord Langdale by the head of the present administration; but though he +consented to act as first commissioner, and sat for a short time in +the Lord Chancellor's court, and in the House of Lords, in that +capacity, the intense application to which the state of the Court of +Chancery had condemned him forbade a further stretch of his powers. + + * * * * * + +GENERAL E. J. ROBERTS, for many years conspicuous as an editor and a +politician in the state of New York, died at the age of fifty-five, a +few weeks ago, at Detroit. He formerly edited _The Craftsman_, at +Rochester, and in 1830 was editor of a journal of that title in +Albany. He removed to Michigan in 1834, and filled very important +offices in that state. He was a member of the state senate at the time +of his death. + + * * * * * + +From Stockholm is announced the death, at the age of seventy-one, of +the distinguished botanist and geologist, M. GOREAN-WAHLENBERG, +Professor at the University of Upsal, and director of the botanical +garden in the same institution. M. Wahlenberg is stated to have spent +thirty out of his seventy-one years in scientific journies through the +different countries of Europe; and the results of these travels he has +recorded in a variety of learned works. He left his rich collection +and numerous library to the University of Upsal; in which he was a +student,--and to which he was attached in various capacities during +upwards of forty-three years. + + * * * * * + +We lack room for notices of the lives of Archbishop ECLESTON, of +Baltimore; General BRADY, of the United States Army; and Mr. PHILIP +HONE, three eminent persons who have died since our last publication. + + + + +E. E. MARCY, M.D., AUTHOR OF THE "HOMOEOPATHIC THEORY AND PRACTICE." + +[Illustration] + + +Dr. Marcy is one of the thousand or more physicians of the old school +who have become homoeopathists. With professional eminence, and a +liberal fortune, he joined the converts to the doctrine of Hahnemann, +and at once took rank among the most distinguished physicians of the +new practice. Homoeopathy is one of the grand facts of this age. It +is no longer laughed at, but has reached that condition which enables +it to challenge a respectful consideration from all who would not +themselves be subjects of ridicule. Of educated and thoughtful men, in +our large cities, it is contended that more than one-half are of its +supporters. In Great Britain we see that Archbishop Whately, the +Chevalier Bunsen, and Dr. Scott of Owen's College, constitute a trio +of its literary adherents. Cobden, Leslie, and Wilson, are examples of +its parliamentary partizans. Radetzky, Pulzsky, and General +Farquharson, rank among its numerous military defenders. Leaf, Sugden, +and Forbes, are three of its great London merchants. The Duke of +Hamilton, the Earls of Wilton, Shrewsbury, Erne, and Denbigh, and +Lords Robert Grosvenor, Newport, and Kinnaird, may serve for its guard +of honor. Queen Adelaide was one of its numerous royal and noble +patients, and the Duchess of Kent is the patroness of a great fair to +be held for the benefit of some of its institutions in London during +this present month of June--in the very heyday of the exhibition +season. In France, Guizot, Changarnier, Comte, Lamartine, and some +forty members of the Academy, are among its advocates. Here in +New-York, it is sufficient to say of the character of the society in +which it is received, that it includes Bryant, who has been among the +most active of its lay teachers. + +It is clear that homoeopathy not only spreads apace, but that it +also spreads in all sorts of good directions, through the present +fabric of society. And this fact certainly conveys the idea that there +must be some sort of truth in homoeopathy; whether pure or mixed, +whether negative or affirmative, whether critical of something old, or +declaratory of something new. + +Dr. Marcy is one of the leaders of the sect. He is the son of an +eminent lawyer, who for more than twenty years has been in the +legislature of Massachusetts; he was graduated at Amherst College, +took his degree of Doctor in Medicine at the University of +Pennsylvania, and for ten years devoted himself with great success to +medicine and surgery in Hartford: in surgery, on several occasions, +commanding the applause of both European and American academies. As a +chemist, also, he greatly distinguished himself; and it is not too +much to say, that in the application of chemistry to the arts, he has +been more fortunate than any other American. At length, while +travelling in Europe, he became a convert to the theory, _similia +similibus curantur_, and renouncing his earlier notions, gave himself +up to the study of it. He published, six months ago, in a volume of +six hundred pages, _The Homoeopathic Theory and Practice of +Medicine_, of which a second edition is now in press; and he is +industriously occupied, when not attending to the general business of +his profession, with a voluminous work on _Animal Chemistry_. + +It is admitted by the most wise and profoundly learned physicians of +the allopathic practice, that the laws of that practice are for the +most part vague and uncertain. The cumulative experiences of many ages +have shown indeed that certain substances have certain effects in +certain conditions of the human organism; but the processes by which +these effects are induced are unknown, or not so established as justly +to be regarded as a part of science. Facts have been observed, and +hypotheses have been formed, but there has been no demonstrative +generalization, really no philosophy of disease and cure; and while in +almost every other department, investigation and reflection have led +by a steady and sure advance to the establishment of positive and +immutable principles, medicine has made, except in a few specialities, +no advance at all, unless the theory here disclosed shall prove a +solution of its secrets. Of these specialities, the most important has +been the discovery of the homoeopathic law in the isolated case of +smallpox. Every body knows how difficult and slow was the reception of +the principle of inoculation--of _similia similibus curantur_--in this +disease; but it was received at last universally; and then arose +Hahnemann, to claim for every disorder of the human system the +application of the same principle. Right or wrong, the father of +homoeopathy gave us a system, perfect in its parts, universal in its +fitness, and eminently beautiful in its simplicity. It has been half a +century before the world, and though all the universities have +parleyed and made truce with other innovations and asserted heresies, +and opened against this their heaviest and best plied artillery, it is +not to be denied that homoeopathy has made more rapid, diffusive, +and pervading advances, than were ever before made by any doctrine of +equal importance, either in morals or physics. + +We cannot but admit that we have been accustomed to regard the +theories of Hahnemann with distrust, and that the principle of the +attenuation of drugs, etc., viewed as it was by us through the media +of prejudiced and satirical opposition, seemed to be trivial and +absurd. We heard frequently of remarkable cures by Hahnemann's +disciples, and even witnessed the benefits of their treatment, but so +perfectly had the sharp ridicule of the allopathists warped our +judgment and moulded our feelings, that we felt a sort of humiliation +in confessing an advantage from an "infinitesimal dose." We could +never forget the keen and brilliant wit with which our friend Holmes, +for example, assailed a system which threatened to take away his +practice and patients, deprive him of his income, and consign his +professional erudition and ingenious speculation to oblivion. But the +work of Dr. Marcy displayed these matters to us in an entirely +different light, and guarded by walls of truths and arguments quite +impenetrable by the most finely pointed or most powerful satire. His +well-known abilities, great learning, and long successful experience +as an allopathist, gave us assurance that his conversion to the school +of Hahnemann could have been induced only by inherent elements of +extraordinary force and vitality in its principles, and we looked to +him confidently, when we understood that he was preparing for the +press an exhibition and vindication of homoeopathy, for such a work +as should at least screen the layman who accepted its doctrines from +the reproach of fanatical or credulous weakness. We were not +disappointed. He has given us a simple and powerful appeal to the +common sense upon the whole subject. In language terse, direct, and +perspicuous, and with such bravery as belongs to the consciousness of +a championship for truth, he displays every branch of his law, with +its antagonism, and leads his readers captive to an assenting +conclusion. + +Dr. Marcy's work is the first by an American on the Homoeopathic +Theory and Practice of Medicine; it is at least a very able and +attractive piece of philosophical speculation; and to those who are +still disposed to think with little respect of the Hahnemannic +peculiarities, we specially commend, before they venture another jest +upon the subject, or endure any more needless nausea and torture, or +sacrifice another constitution or life upon the altar of prejudice, +the reading of his capital chapters on Allopathy, Homoeopathy, and +the Attenuation of Drugs and Repetition of Doses. + +The London _Leader_ demands attention to the scholarship of the +homoeopathic physicians, to their respectability as thinkers and as +men, and to the character of their writings; and surveying the +extraordinary and steady advances of the homoeopathic sect, urges +that every thing, which has at any time won for itself a broad footing +in the world, must have been possessed by some spirit of truth. Every +thoughtful person knows that no system stands fast in virtue of the +errors about it. It is the amount of truth it contains, however little +and overlaid that may be, which enables an institution or a doctrine +to keep its ground. The extent and quality of that ground, taken +together with the length of time it is kept, constitute a measure of +the quantity of truth by which a militant institute is inspired and +sustained. + + + + +_Ladies' Fashions for the Season._ + +[Illustration] + + +In Paris and London the chief novelties have been preparations for the +London season. Head-dress is particularly rich, by no means lacking +lively colors, and ornamented with gold, silver, and beads. We only +speak here of fancy head-dress; for diamonds are always very much +admired for a rare and _recherchée parure_. Never have they been so +well set as at the present day, both as regards elegance, lightness, +and convenience. Thus, each night a lady may change the disposition of +her brilliants: to-day she may form them into a band, like a diadem; +to-morrow, a row of pins for the body of her dress; another time she +can place them on a velvet necklace, and so forth. + +Fancy head-dresses are made of lace, blond, silk, gold, or silver. +Flowers of all kinds are also worn, and above all foliage of velvet +and satin, deep shaded, enriched with white or gold beads, and gold or +silver fruit. We have also seen a _coiffure_ of gold blond, forming a +small point at the top of the head, and ornamented on each side with a +branch of green foliage and golden fruit in little flexible bunches. + +Ball dresses have nearly all two skirts, which are ornamented with a +profusion of flounces, trimmed with ribbons or flowers, which follow +the shade of the first or upper skirt; or they are used to raise it at +the sides, or on one side only. We have also seen a dress of white net +with two skirts, the first (the under) trimmed with two net flounces +at the extremity with two gathers through the middle, and satin +ribbon. On each of these flounces was a trimming of Brussels +application lace, with a gather of ribbon at the top, of the same +width as those of the extremity. The second skirt was trimmed at the +bottom with two gathers of ribbon, and one lace flounce with a ribbon +gathering at the top; the body was an intermixture of gathered ribbons +and lace flounces. + +Capotes will be more in vogue than bonnets, their style allowing +spangling, for which bonnets are not suited. We have seen capotes of +taffeta, and ribbon applied like flounces as ornaments to the crown; +these ribbons are cut into teeth or plain, but with a narrow border of +much brighter shade. We have also seen very pretty capotes covered +with net, made of very lively colored taffeta. The tops of all these +bonnets are widened more than they are high; however, they are drawn +near the bottom, and are quite closed. + +Dresses, it is certain, will be open in front and heart-shaped to the +bottom of the waist. Low square-fronted chemisettes suit this kind of +bodice, with breast-plates of embroidery and lace. At concerts, many +dresses are seen either with flounces or apron-shaped fronts; that is +to say, the front breadth has a much richer pattern, and different +from the other breadths of the skirt. This pattern is generally an +immense bouquet, whose branches entwine to the top, diminishing in +size; or there are two large columns of stripes, which form undulating +wreaths. + +Dresses of white or other ground of taffeta warped will be the fashion +this spring for walking; however, we must wait for Longchamps, at the +latter end of April, to decide the question. + +In the illustration on the following page is a lace cap, trimmed with +flowers without foliage; African velvet dress; body with Spanish +basks or skirts cut out into teeth, trimmed with a small white lace, +having at the top a small gathering of ribbon; the body trimmed with +lace facing, edged with a gathering of ribbon; black velvet ribbon +round the neck, fastened with a diamond buckle; bracelets the same. +Bonnet of pink taffeta, very plain; and plain dress of Valencias, with +festooned teeth. Small felt bonnet, with bunch of ribbons; Nacaret +velvet dress; trowsers of cambric muslin, with embroideries; gaiters +of black cloth, and mousquetaire pardessus, trimmed with gimp or lace, +put on flat. + +[Illustration] + +Mantelets will certainly enjoy more than their usual vogue this +season, and from what we have seen of the new forms, we must own they +are very superior to any that have before appeared; the novelty of the +forms, and the taste displayed in the garnitures even of those +intended for common use, show that the progress of _la mode_ is quite +as great as any other sort of progress in this most progressing age. +First, then, for the mantelets in plain walking dress; they are for +the most part composed of black taffeta; several are embroidered in +sentache, and bordered with deep flounces of taffeta; others are +trimmed with fringe of a new and very light kind, and a number, +perhaps indeed the majority, are finished with lace. + +The materials for robes, in plain morning neglige, are silks of a +quiet kind, and some slight woollen materials, as coutil de laine, +balzerine, striped Valencias; some in very small, others in large +stripes; corded muslins, and jaconet muslins, flowered in a variety of +patterns. We cannot yet say any thing positively respecting plain +white muslins for morning dress, but we have reason to believe they +will not be much adopted. + +Taffeta has resumed all its vogue for robes; it is adopted both for +public promenade, half dress, and evening robes. Some of the most +elegant mantelets are of white taffeta. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The International Monthly, Volume 3, +No. 3, June, 1851, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK INTERNATIONAL MONTHLY, JUNE, 1851 *** + +***** This file should be named 36131-8.txt or 36131-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/1/3/36131/ + +Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by Cornell University Digital Collections.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +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 + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/36131-8.zip b/36131-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3cc14e2 --- /dev/null +++ b/36131-8.zip diff --git a/36131-h.zip b/36131-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..da08e79 --- /dev/null +++ b/36131-h.zip diff --git a/36131-h/36131-h.htm b/36131-h/36131-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b7e6972 --- /dev/null +++ b/36131-h/36131-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,15386 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of The International Magazine, Volume 3, No. 3, June 1, 1851. + + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + } /* page numbers */ + + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + .notes {background-color: #eeeeee; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .right {text-align: right;} + + + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .caption {font-weight: bold;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + .figleft {float: left; clear: left; margin-left: 0; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: + 1em; margin-right: 1em; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .figright {float: right; clear: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align: super; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span.i0 {display: block; margin-left: 0em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 1em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 2em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i10 {display: block; margin-left: 5em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i16 {display: block; margin-left: 8em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The International Monthly, Volume 3, No. 3, +June, 1851, 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: The International Monthly, Volume 3, No. 3, June, 1851 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: May 17, 2011 [EBook #36131] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK INTERNATIONAL MONTHLY, JUNE, 1851 *** + + + + +Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by Cornell University Digital Collections.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span></p> + + +<h1>THE INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE</h1> + +<h2>Of Literature, Art, and Science.</h2> + +<h3>Vol. III. NEW-YORK, JUNE 1, 1851. No. III.</h3> + +<p class="notes">Transcriber's Note: Minor typos have been corrected and footnotes moved +to the end of the article. Table of contents has been created for the HTML version.</p> + +<h2>Contents</h2> + +<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. --> +<p> +<a href="#HENRY_WILLIAM_HERBERT_FRANK_FORESTER"><b>HENRY WILLIAM HERBERT, "FRANK FORESTER."</b></a><br /> +<a href="#TRENTON_FALLS_Illustration"><b>TRENTON FALLS.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#NEW_PROOF_OF_THE_EARTHS_ROTATION"><b>NEW PROOF OF THE EARTH'S ROTATION.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#THE_BUTCHERS_LEAP_AT_MUNICH"><b>THE BUTCHERS' LEAP AT MUNICH.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#NEGLECT_OF_THE_PRESERVATION_OF_EGYPTIAN_ANTIQUITIES"><b>NEGLECT OF THE PRESERVATION OF EGYPTIAN ANTIQUITIES.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#HENRY_ROWE_SCHOOLCRAFT"><b>HENRY ROWE SCHOOLCRAFT.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#THE_MARGRAVINE_OF_ANSPACH"><b>THE MARGRAVINE OF ANSPACH.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#LONDON_DESCRIBED_BY_A_PARISIAN"><b>LONDON DESCRIBED BY A PARISIAN.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#THE_BEAUTIFUL_STREAMLET_AND_THE_UTILITARIAN"><b>THE BEAUTIFUL STREAMLET AND THE UTILITARIAN.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#SIR_EMERSON_TENNANT_ON_AMERICAN_MISSIONS_IN_CEYLON"><b>SIR EMERSON TENNANT ON AMERICAN MISSIONS IN CEYLON.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#A_PAPER_OF_TOBACCO"><b>A PAPER OF ... TOBACCO.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#LORD_JEFFREY_AND_JOANNA_BAILLIE"><b>LORD JEFFREY AND JOANNA BAILLIE.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#Authors_and_Books"><b>AUTHORS AND BOOKS.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#The_Fine_Arts"><b>THE FINE ARTS.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#From_the_Times"><b>THE MEETING OF THE NATIONS IN HYDE PARK.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#THE_SECOND_WIFE_OR_THE_TABLES_TURNED"><b>THE SECOND WIFE: OR, THE TABLES TURNED.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#A_STORY_WITHOUT_A_NAME3"><b>A STORY WITHOUT A NAME.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#THE_COUNT_MONTE-LEONE_OR_THE_SPY_IN_SOCIETY4"><b>THE COUNT MONTE-LEONE: OR, THE SPY IN SOCIETY.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#A_FESTIVAL_UPON_THE_NEVA"><b>A FESTIVAL UPON THE NEVA.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#POLITENESS_IN_PARIS_AND_LONDON"><b>POLITENESS: IN PARIS AND LONDON.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#THE_LION_IN_THE_TOILS"><b>THE LION IN THE TOILS.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#THE_MAN_OF_TACT"><b>THE MAN OF TACT.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#A_WRECK_OF_THE_OLD_FRENCH_ARISTOCRACY"><b>A WRECK OF THE OLD FRENCH ARISTOCRACY.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#THE_CLOISTER-LIFE_OF_THE_EMPEROR_CHARLES_V"><b>THE CLOISTER-LIFE OF THE EMPEROR CHARLES V.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#OUR_PHANTOM_SHIP_AMONG_THE_ICE"><b>OUR PHANTOM SHIP AMONG THE ICE.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#MADAME_DE_GENLIS_AND_MADAME_DE_STAEL"><b>MADAME DE GENLIS AND MADAME DE STAËL.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#THE_SMUGGLER_MALGRE_LUI"><b>THE SMUGGLER MALGRE LUI.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#THE_TRUE_HISTORY_OF_AGNES_SOREL"><b>THE TRUE HISTORY OF AGNES SOREL.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#PROSPECTS_OF_AFRICAN_COLONIZATION"><b>PROSPECTS OF AFRICAN COLONIZATION.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#MY_NOVEL"><b>MY NOVEL:</b></a><br /> +<a href="#A_GLIMPSE_OF_THE_GREAT_EXHIBITION"><b>A GLIMPSE OF THE GREAT EXHIBITION.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#DR_DAVID_STRAUSS_IN_WEIMAR"><b>DR. DAVID STRAUSS IN WEIMAR.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#From_Eliza_Cooks_Journal"><b>GREAT MEN'S WIVES.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#A_LEGEND_OF_ST_MARYS"><b>A LEGEND OF ST. MARY'S.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#MARY_KINGSFORD"><b>MARY KINGSFORD.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#Historical_Review_of_the_Month"><b>HISTORICAL REVIEW OF THE MONTH.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#Recent_Deaths"><b>RECENT DEATHS.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#E_E_MARCY_MD_AUTHOR_OF_THE_HOMOEOPATHIC_THEORY_AND_PRACTICE"><b>E. E. MARCY, M.D., AUTHOR OF THE "HOMŒOPATHIC THEORY AND PRACTICE."</b></a><br /> +<a href="#Ladies_Fashions_for_the_Season"><b>LADIES' FASHIONS FOR THE SEASON.</b></a><br /> +</p> +<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. --> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"> +<img src="images/i299.png" width="450" height="517" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><a name="HENRY_WILLIAM_HERBERT_FRANK_FORESTER" id="HENRY_WILLIAM_HERBERT_FRANK_FORESTER"></a>HENRY WILLIAM HERBERT, "FRANK FORESTER."</h2> + +<p>We doubt whether the wood-engravers of this country have ever produced +a finer portrait than the above of the author of "The Brothers," +"Cromwell," "Marmaduke Wyvil," "The Roman Traitor," "The Warwick +Woodlands," "Field Sports," "Fish and Fishing," &c., &c. It is from +one of the most successful daguerreotypes of Brady.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Henry William Herbert</span> is the eldest son of the late Hon. and Rev. +William Herbert, Dean of Manchester, and of the Hon. Letitia Allen. +His father was the second son of the second Earl of Carnarvon, who was +of the nearest younger branch of the house of Pembroke. He was a +member of Parliament in the earlier part of his life, and being a +lawyer in Doctors' Commons was largely employed on the part of +American shipmasters previous to the war of 1812. At a later period he +took orders, became Dean of Manchester, was distinguished as a +botanist, and as the author of many eminent works, especially +"Attila," an epic poem of great power and learning. He died about +three years ago. His mother was the second daughter of Joshua, second +Viscount Allen, of Kildare, Ireland,—closely connected with the house +of Leinster.</p> + +<p>Mr. Herbert was born in London on the seventh of April, 1807; he was +educated at home under a private tutor till 1819, and then sent to a +private school near Brighton, kept by the Rev. Dr. Hooker, at which he +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span>remained one year he was then transferred to Eton, and was at that +school from April, 1820, till the summer of 1825, when he left for the +university, and entered Caius College, Cambridge, in October. Here he +obtained two scholarships and several prizes,—though not a +hard-reading man, and spending much of his time in field sports—and +he graduated in the winter of 1829-30, with a distinguished reputation +for talents and scholarship. In November, 1831, he sailed from +Liverpool for New York, and for the last twenty years he has resided +nearly all the time in this city and at his place near Newark in New +Jersey, called the Cedars.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/i300a.png" width="500" height="422" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p>In 1832, in connection with the late A. D. Patterson, he started <i>The +American Monthly Magazine</i>, nearly one half the matter of which was +composed by him. After the first year Mr. Patterson retired from it, +and during twelve months it was conducted by Mr. Herbert alone. On the +conclusion of the second year it was sold to Charles F. Hoffman, Mr. +Herbert continuing to act as a joint editor. At the commencement of +the fourth year Park Benjamin being associated in the editorship, it +was contemplated to introduce party politics into the work, and Mr. +Herbert in consequence declined further connection with it.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/i300b.png" width="400" height="250" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p>By this time Mr. Herbert had made a brilliant reputation as a scholar +and as an author. In the <i>American Monthly</i> he had printed the first +chapters of <i>The Brothers, a Tale of the Fronde</i>, and the entire novel +was published by the Harpers in 1834, and so well received that the +whole edition was sold in a few weeks. In 1836 and 1837 he edited <i>The +Magnolia</i>, the first annual ever printed in America on the system of +entire originality both of the literary matter, and of the +embellishments, which were all executed by American engravers from +American designs. A considerable portion of the matter for both years +was furnished by Mr. Herbert. In 1837 the Harpers published his second +novel, <i>Cromwell</i>, which did not sell so rapidly as <i>The Brothers</i>, +though generally praised by the reviewers. It 1840 it was reprinted by +Colburn in London, and was eminently successful. In 1843 he published +in New-York and London his third novel, <i>Marmaduke Wyvil, or the +Maid's Revenge</i>, a story of the English civil wars, and in 1848 the +most splendid of his romances, <i>The Roman Traitor</i>, founded<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span> on the +history of Cataline, a work which must be classed with the most +remarkable of those specimens of literary art in which it has been +attempted to illustrate classical scenes, characters, and manners.</p> + +<p>In romantic fiction, besides the above works, Mr. Herbert has written +for the magazines of this country and Great Britain tales and sketches +sufficient to make twenty to thirty stout volumes. The subjects of his +best performances have been drawn from the middle ages and from +southern Europe, and they display besides very eminent capacities for +the historical novel, and a familiarity with the institutions of +chivalry and with contemporary manners hardly equaled in any writer of +the English language.</p> + +<p>In 1839 Mr. Herbert commenced in the New-York <i>Turf Register</i> a series +of papers, under the signature of "Frank Forester," from which have +grown <i>My Shooting Box, The Warwick Woodlands, Field Sports of the +United States and British Provinces</i>, and <i>Fish and Fishing in the +United States and British Provinces</i>—works which by the general +consent of the sporting world are second to none in their department, +in any of the qualities which should distinguish this sort of writing. +The principal distinction between these and all other sporting works +lies in this, that such works in general treat only of game in the +field and flood, and the modes of killing it, while these are in great +part natural histories, containing minute and carefully digested +accounts of every specie of game, beast, bird, and fish, compiled from +Audubon, Wilson, Giraud, Godman, Agassiz, De Kay, and other +authorities, besides long disquisitions into their habits, times of +migration, breeding, &c., from the personal observation and experience +of the author. Any person is at once enabled by them to distinguish +between any two even closely allied species, and to adopt the proper +nomenclature, with a knowledge of the reason for it. The sporting +precepts are admitted, throughout the western country especially, to +be superior to all others, as well as the papers relating to the +breaking and the kennel and field management of dogs, &c. The same may +be said of what he has written of guns and gunnery. Mr. Herbert has +hunted, shot, and fished during the last twenty years in every state +of the Union, from Maine to Maryland, south of the great lakes, and +from below Quebec to the Sault St. Marie northward of them. Not having +visited the southern or south western states, the accounts of sporting +in those regions are collected from the writings or oral +communications of their best sportsmen, and on these points much +valuable new information, especially as to the prairie shooting and +the sports of the Rocky Mountains, will be contained in the new +edition of the <i>Field Sports</i> to appear in the coming autumn.</p> + +<p>Besides his contributions to romantic and sporting literature, Mr. +Herbert has written largely in criticism, he has done much as a poet, +and his capacities in classical scholarship have been illustrated by +some of the finest examples of Greek and Latin translation that have +appeared in our time. In the aggregate his works would now make +scarcely less than fifty octavo volumes.</p> + +<p>As we have intimated, the portrait at the beginning of this article is +remarkably good. Mr. Herbert is about five feet ten high, of athletic +habits, and an untiring and fast walker; fond, of course, of all field +sports, especially horsemanship and shooting, and priding himself upon +killing as much if not more game than any other gentleman in the +country out of New-York.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"> +<img src="images/i301.png" width="450" height="485" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span></p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/i302.png" width="500" height="338" alt="" title="" /> +</div> +<h2><a name="TRENTON_FALLS_Illustration" id="TRENTON_FALLS_Illustration"></a>TRENTON FALLS </h2> + + +<p>In a story called <i>Edith Linsey</i>, written by Mr. <span class="smcap">Willis</span>, soon after he +left college, occurs the following description of Trenton Falls:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Trenton Falls is rather a misnomer. I scarcely know what +you would call it, but the wonder of nature which bears the +name is a tremendous torrent, whose bed, for several miles, +is sunk fathoms deep into the earth—a roaring and dashing +stream, so far below the surface of the forest in which it +is lost, that you would think, as you come suddenly upon the +edge of its long precipice, that it was a river in some +inner world (coiled within ours, as we in the outer circle +of the firmament,) and laid open by some Titanic throe that +had cracked clear asunder the crust of this 'shallow earth.' +The idea is rather assisted if you happen to see below you, +on its abysmal shore, a party of adventurous travellers; +for, at that vast depth, and in contrast with the gigantic +trees and rocks, the same number of well-shaped pismires, +dressed in the last fashions, and philandering upon your +parlor floor, would be about of their apparent size and +distinctness.</p> + +<p>"They showed me at Eleusis the well by which Proserpine +ascends to the regions of day on her annual visit to the +plains of Thessaly—but with the <i>genius loci</i> at my elbow +in the shape of a Greek girl as lovely as Phryne, my memory +reverted to the bared axle of the earth in the bed of this +American river, and I was persuaded (looking the while at +the <i>feronière</i> of gold sequins on the Phidian forehead of +my Katinka) that supposing Hades in the centre of the earth, +you are nearer to it by some fathoms at Trenton. I confess I +have had, since my first descent into those depths, an +uncomfortable doubt of the solidity of the globe—how the +deuse it can hold together with such a crack in its bottom!</p> + +<p>"It was a night to play Endymion, or do any Tomfoolery that +could be laid to the charge of the moon, for a more +omnipresent and radiant atmosphere of moonlight never +sprinkled the wilderness with silver. It was a night in +which to wish it might never be day again—a night to be +enamored of the stars, and bid God bless them like human +creatures on their bright journey—a night to love in, to +dissolve in—to do every thing but what night is made +for—sleep! Oh heaven! when I think how precious is life in +such moments; how the aroma—the celestial bloom and flower +of the soul—the yearning and fast-perishing enthusiasm of +youth—waste themselves in the solitude of such nights on +the senseless and unanswering air; when I wander alone, +unloving and unloved, beneath influences that could inspire +me with the elevation of a seraph, were I at the ear of a +human creature that could summon forth and measure my +limitless capacity of devotion—when I think this, and feel +this, and so waste my existence in vain yearnings—I could +extinguish the divine spark within me like a lamp on an +unvisited shrine, and thank Heaven for an assimilation to +the animals I walk among! And that is the substance of a +speech I made to Job as a sequitur of a well-meant remark of +his own, that 'it was a pity Edith Linsey was not there.' He +took the clause about the 'animals' to himself, and I made +an apology for the same a year after. We sometimes give our +friends, quite innocently, such terrible knocks in our +rhapsodies!</p> + +<p>"Most people talk of the <i>sublimity</i> of Trenton,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span> but I have +haunted it by the week together for its mere loveliness. The +river, in the heart of that fearful chasm, is the most +varied and beautiful assemblage of the thousand forms and +shapes of running water that I know in the world. The soil +and the deep-striking roots of the forest terminate far +above you, looking like a black rim on the inclosing +precipices; the bed of the river and its sky-sustaining +walls are of solid rock, and, with the tremendous descent of +the stream—forming for miles one continuous succession of +falls and rapids—the channel is worn into curves and +cavities which throw the clear waters into forms of +inconceivable brilliancy and variety. It is a sort of half +twilight below, with here and there a long beam of sunshine +reaching down to kiss the lip of an eddy or form a rainbow +over a fall, and the reverberating and changing echoes:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">"Like a ring of bells whose sound the wind still alters,"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>maintain a constant and most soothing music, varying at +every step with the varying phase of the current. Cascades +of from twenty to thirty feet, over which the river flies +with a single and hurrying leap (not a drop missing from the +glassy and bending sheet), occur frequently as you ascend; +and it is from these that the place takes its name. But the +falls, though beautiful, are only peculiar from the dazzling +and unequaled rapidity with which the waters come to the +leap. If it were not for the leaf which drops wavering down +into the abysm from trees apparently painted on the sky, and +which is caught away by the flashing current as if the +lightning had suddenly crossed it, you would think the vault +of the steadfast heavens a flying element as soon. The spot +in that long gulf of beauty that I best remember is a smooth +descent of some hundred yards, where the river in full and +undivided volume skims over a plane as polished as a table +of scagliola, looking, in its invisible speed, like one +mirror of gleaming but motionless crystal. Just above, there +is a sudden turn in the glen which sends the water like a +catapult against the opposite angle of the rock, and, in the +action of years, it has worn out a cavern of unknown depth, +into which the whole mass of the river plunges with the +abandonment of a flying fiend into hell, and, reappearing +like the angel that has pursued him, glides swiftly but with +divine serenity on its way. (I am indebted for that last +figure to Job, who travelled with a Milton in his pocket, +and had a natural redolence of 'Paradise Lost' in his +conversation.)</p> + +<p>"Much as I detest water in small quantities (to drink), I +have a hydromania in the way of lakes, rivers, and +waterfalls. It is, by much, the <i>belle</i> in the family of the +elements. <i>Earth</i> is never tolerable unless disguised in +green. <i>Air</i> is so thin as only to be visible when she +borrows drapery of water; and <i>Fire</i> is so staringly bright +as to be unpleasant to the eyesight; but water! soft, pure, +graceful water! there is no shape into which you can throw +her that she does not seem lovelier than before. She can +borrow nothing of her sisters. Earth has no jewels in her +lap so brilliant as her own spray pearls and emeralds; Fire +has no rubies like what she steals from the sunset; Air has +no robes like the grace of her fine-woven and ever-changing +drapery of silver. A health (in wine!) to <span class="smcap">Water</span>!</p></div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/i303.png" width="500" height="329" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Who is there that did not love some stream in his youth? +Who is there in whose vision of the past there does not +sparkle up, from every picture of childhood, a spring or a +rivulent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span> woven through the darkened and torn woof of first +affections like a thread of unchanged silver? How do you +interpret the instinctive yearning with which you search for +the river-side or the fountain in every scene of nature—the +clinging unaware to the river's course when a truant in the +fields in June—the dull void you find in every landscape of +which it is not the ornament and the centre? For myself, I +hold with the Greek: "Water is the first principle of all +things: we were made from it and we shall be resolved into +it.""</p></div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/i304.png" width="500" height="339" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p>Of subsequent visits to this loveliest of spots, years after, Mr. +Willis has given descriptions in letters addressed to General Morris +for publication in the <i>Home Journal</i>, and we are soon to have from +Putnam in a beautiful volume all that he has written on the subject, +together with notices of the manner in which he enjoyed himself at Mr. +Moore's delightful hotel at the Falls, which is represented as +farthest of all summer resorts from the turmoil of the world and +nearest of all to the gates of Paradise. We borrow from these letters +a few characteristic and tempting paragraphs:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"I was here twenty years ago, but the fairest things slip +easiest out of the memory, and I had half forgotten Trenton. +To tell the truth, I was a little ashamed, to compare the +faded and shabby picture of it in my mind with the reality +before me, and if the waters of the Falls had been, by any +likelihood, the same that flowed over when I was here +before, I should have looked them in the face, I think, with +something of the embarrassment with which one meets, +half-rememberingly, after years of separation, the ladies +one has vowed to love for ever.</p> + +<p>"The peculiarity of Trenton Falls, I fancy, consists a good +deal in the space in which you are compelled to see them. +You walk a few steps from the hotel through the wood, and +come to a descending staircase of a hundred steps, the +different bends of which are so over-grown with wild +shrubbery, that you cannot see the ravine till you are +fairly down upon its rocky floor. Your path hence, up to the +first Fall, is along a ledge cut out of the base of the +cliff that overhangs the torrent, and when you go to the +foot of the descending sheet, you find yourself in very +close quarters with a cataract—rocky walls all round +you—and the appreciation of power and magnitude, perhaps, +somewhat heightened by the confinement of the place—as a +man would have a much more realizing sense of a live lion, +shut up with him in a basement parlor, than he would of the +same object, seen from an elevated and distant point of +view.</p> + +<p>"The usual walk (through this deep cave open at the top) is +about half a mile in length, and its almost subterranean +river, in that distance, plunges over four precipices in +exceedingly beautiful cascades. On the successive rocky +terraces between the falls, the torrent takes every variety +of rapids and whirlpools, and, perhaps, in all the scenery +of the world, there is no river, which, in the same space, +presents so many of the various shapes and beauties of +running and falling water. The Indian name of the stream +(the Kanata, which means the <i>amber river</i>) expresses one of +its peculiarities, and, probably from the depth of shade +cast by the two dark and overhanging walls 'twixt which it +flows, the water is everywhere of a peculiarly rich lustre +and color, and, in the edges of one or two of the cascades, +as yellow as gold. Artists, in drawing this river, fail, +somehow, in giving the impression of <i>deep-down-itude</i> which +is produced by the close approach<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span> of the two lofty walls of +rock, capped by the overleaning woods, and with the sky +apparently resting, like a ceiling, upon the leafy +architraves.... If there were truly, as the poets say +figuratively, "worlds <i>within</i> worlds," this would look as +if an earthquake had cracked open the outer globe, and +exposed, through the yawning fissure, one of the rivers of +the globe below—the usual underground level of "down among +the dead men," being, as you walk upon its banks, between +you and the daylight.</p> + +<p>"Considering the amount of surprise and pleasure which one +feels in a walk up the ravine at Trenton, it is remarkable +how little one finds to say about it, the day after. Is it +that mere scenery, without history, is enjoyable without +being suggestive, or, amid the tumult of the rushing torrent +at one's feet, is the milk of thought too much agitated for +the cream to rise? I fancied yesterday, as I rested on the +softest rock I could find at the upper end of the ravine, +that I should tumble you out a letter to-day, with ideas +pitching forth like saw-logs over a waterfall; but my memory +has nothing in it to-day but the rocks and rapids it took +in—the talent wrapped in its napkin of delight remaining in +unimproved <i>statu-quo</i>-sity. One certainly gets the +impression, while the sight and hearing are so overwhelmed, +that one's mind is famously at work, and that we shall hear +from it to-morrow; but it is Jean Paul, I think, who says +that 'the mill makes the most noise when there is no grist +in the hopper.'</p> + +<p>"We have had the full of the moon and a cloudless sky for +the last two or three nights, and of course we have walked +the ravine till the 'small hours,' seeing with wonder the +transforming effects of moonlight and its black shadows on +the falls and precipices. I have no idea (you will be glad +to know) of trying to reproduce these sublimities on +paper—at least not with my travelling stock of verbs and +adjectives. To 'sandwich the moon in a muffin,' one must +have time and a ladder of dictionaries. But one or two +effects struck me which perhaps are worth briefly naming, +and I will throw into the lot a poetical figure, which you +may use in your next song....</p> + +<p>"The fourth Fall, (or the one that is flanked by the ruins +of a saw-mill) is, perhaps, a hundred feet across; and its +curve over the upper rock and its break upon the lower one, +form two parallel lines, the water everywhere falling the +same distance with the evenness of an artificial cascade. +The stream not being very full, just now, it came over, in +twenty or thirty places, thicker than elsewhere; and the +effect, from a distance, as the moonlight lay full upon it, +was that of twenty or thirty immovable marble columns +connected by transparent curtains of falling lace, and with +bases in imitation of foam. Now it struck me that this might +suggest a new and fanciful order of architecture, suitable +at least to the structure of green-houses, the glass roofs +of which are curved over and slope to the ground with very +much the contour of a waterfall....</p> + +<p>"Subterranean as this foaming river looks by day, it looks +like a river in cloud-land by night. The side of the ravine +which is in shadow, is one undistinguishable mass of black, +with its wavy upper edge in strong relief against the sky, +and, as the foaming stream catches the light from the +opposite and moonlit side, it is outlined distinctly on its +bed of darkness, and seems winding its way between hills of +clouds, half black, half luminous. Below, where all is deep +shadow except the river, you might fancy it a silver mine +laid open to your view amid subterranean darkness by the +wand of an enchanter, or (if you prefer a military trope, my +dear General), a long white plume laid lengthwise between +the ridges of a cocked hat."</p></div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/i305.png" width="500" height="311" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="NEW_PROOF_OF_THE_EARTHS_ROTATION" id="NEW_PROOF_OF_THE_EARTHS_ROTATION"></a>NEW PROOF OF THE EARTH'S ROTATION.</h2> + + +<p>"The earth does move, notwithstanding," whispered Galileo, leaving the +dungeon of the Inquisition: by which he meant his friends to +understand, that if the earth did move, the fact would remain so in +spite of his punishment. But a less orthodox assembly than the +conclave of Cardinals might have been staggered by the novelty of the +new philosophy. According to Laplace, the apparent diurnal phenomena +of the heavens would be the same either from the revolution of the sun +or the earth; and more than one reason made strongly in favor of the +prevalent opinion that the earth, not the sun, was stationary. First, +it was most agreeable to the impression of the senses; and next, to +disbelieve in the fixity of the solid globe, was not only to eject +from its pride of place our little planet, but to disturb the +long-cherished sentiment that we ourselves are the centre—the be-all +and end-all of the universe. However, the truth will out; and this is +its great distinction from error, that while every new discovery adds +to its strength, falsehood is weakened and at last driven from the +field. That the earth revolves round the sun, and rotates on its polar +axis, have long been the settled canons of our system. But the +rotation of the earth has been rendered <i>visible</i> by a practical +demonstration, which has drawn much attention in Paris and London, and +is beginning to excite interest in this country. The inventor is M. +Foucault; and the following description has been given of the mode of +proof:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"At the centre of the dome of the Panthéon a fine wire is +attached, from which a sphere of metal, four or five inches +in diameter, is suspended so as to hang near the floor of +the building. This apparatus is put in vibration after the +manner of a pendulum. Under and concentrical with it is +placed a circular table, some twenty feet in diameter, the +circumference of which is divided into degrees, minutes, +&c., and the divisions numbered. Now, supposing the earth to +have the diurnal motion imputed to it, and which explains +the phenomena of day and night, the plane in which this +pendulum vibrates will not be affected by this motion, but +the table, over which the pendulum is suspended, will +continually change its position, in virtue of the diurnal +motion, so as to make a complete revolution round its +centre. Since, then, the table thus revolves, and the +pendulum which vibrates over it does not revolve, the +consequence is, that a line traced upon the table by a point +projecting from the bottom of the ball will change its +direction relatively to the table from minute to minute and +from hour to hour, so that if such point were a pencil, and +that paper were spread upon the table, the course formed by +this pencil would form a system of lines radiating from the +centre of the table. The practised eye of a correct +observer, especially if aided by a proper optical +instrument, may actually see the motion which the table has +in common with the earth, under the pendulum between two +successive vibrations. It is, in fact, apparent that the +ball, or rather the point attached to the bottom of the +ball, does not return precisely to the same point of the +circumference of the table after two successive vibrations. +Thus is rendered visible the motion which the table has in +common with the earth."</p></div> + +<p>Crowds are said to flock daily to the Panthéon to witness this +interesting experiment. It has been successfully repeated by Professor +Ansted at the Russell Institution, in London, in a manner similar to +the experiment at the Panthéon at Paris. The wire, which suspended a +weight of twenty-eight pounds, was of the size of the middle C-string +of a piano. It was thirty feet long, and vibrated over a graduated +table fixed to the floor. The rotation of the table, implying that of +the earth on which it rested, was visible in about five minutes, and +the wonderful spectacle was presented of the rotation of the room +round the pendulum. The experiment excited the astonishment of every +beholder, and many eminent scientific gentlemen who were present +expressed their great delight in witnessing a phenomenon which they +considered the most satisfactory they had witnessed in the whole +course of their lives.</p> + +<p>Although nothing, to minds capable of comprehending it, can add to the +force or clearness of the demonstration by which the rotation of the +earth has been established, yet even the natural philosopher himself +cannot regard the present experiment without feelings of profound +interest and satisfaction; and to the great mass, to whom the +complicated physical phenomena by which the rotation of the earth has +been established are incomprehensible, M. Foucault's very ingenious +illustration is invaluable.</p> + +<p>A correspondent of the Newark <i>Daily Advertiser</i> appears to have +anticipated the experiment of M. Foucault, suspending a fifty-six +pound weight by a small wire from the rafters of a barn. But however +simple and conclusive the illustration, it should be attempted only by +scientific men. Professor Sylvester, writing to the <i>Times</i>, of +experiments made in London, says:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The experiments connected with the practical demonstration +of the phenomenon require to be conducted with great care; +and some discredit has been brought upon attempts to +illustrate it in England by persons who have not taken the +necessary precautions to protect the motion from the +excentric deviation to which it is liable, and which may, +and indeed must, have the effect of causing, in some cases, +an apparent failure, and in others a still more unfortunate, +because fallacious, success. I believe, from the character +of the persons connected with the experiments, that the true +phenomenon has been accurately produced and observed in +Paris. I doubt whether as much can be said, with entire +confidence, of any of the experiments hitherto performed +here in London.</p> + +<p>"Any want of symmetry in the arrangements for the suspension +of the wire, or in the centering of the weight, exposure to +currents of air, or the tremulous motion occasioned by the +passage of vehicles, may operate to cause a phenomenon to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span> +be brought about curious enough in itself, as a result of +mathematical laws, but quite different from that supposed. +The phenomenon of the progression of the apsides of an oval +orbit, which is here alluded to, is familiar to all students +in mechanics.</p> + +<p>"It is perfectly absurd for persons unacquainted with +mechanical and geometrical science to presume to make the +experiment. Indeed, such efforts deserve rather the name of +conjuring than of experiment; but in this, as in many other +matters of life, it is true that "fools rush in where angels +fear to tread." Perhaps the too hasty rush at the +experimental verification of Foucault's law may account for +some persons in England, whose opinions when given with due +deliberation are entitled to respect, having allowed +themselves to express doubts (which I understand, however, +have been since retracted) as to the truth of the law +itself. In Paris there was no difference of opinion among +such men as Lamé, Poinsol, Binet, Leonville, Sturm, Chasles, +Bruvues, I believe Arago, Hermite, and many others with whom +I conversed on the subject, except as to the best mode of +making the theory popularly intelligible."</p></div> + +<p>Explanations will be necessary from lecturers and others who give +imitations of M. Foucault's ingenuity to render it intelligible to +those unacquainted with mathematics, or with the laws of gravity and +spherical motion. For instance, it will not be readily understood by +every one why the pendulum should vibrate in the same plane, and not +partake of the earth's rotation in common with the table; but this +could be <i>shown</i> with a bullet suspended by a silkworm's thread. Next, +the apparent horizontal revolution of the table round its centre will +be incomprehensible to many, as representative of its own and the +earth's motion round its axis.</p> + +<p>Doubtless we shall soon have public exhibitions of the demonstration +in all our cities.</p> + +<p>The pendulum is indeed an extraordinary instrument, and has been a +useful handmaid to science. We are familiar with it as the +time-regulator of our clocks, and the ease with which they may be made +to go faster or slower by adjusting its length. But neither this nor +the Panthéon elucidation constitutes its sole application. By it the +latitude may be approximately ascertained, the density of the earth's +strata in different places, and its elliptical eccentricity of figure. +The noble Florentine already quoted was its inventor; and it is +related of Galileo, while a boy, that he was the first to observe how +the height of the vaulted roof of a church might be measured by the +times of the vibration of the chandeliers suspended at different +altitudes. Were the earth perforated from London to our antipodes, and +the air exhausted, a ball dropped through would at the centre acquire +a velocity sufficient to carry it to the opposite side, whence it +would again descend, and so oscillate forward and backwards from one +side of the globe's surface to the other in the manner of a pendulum. +Very likely, the Cardinals of the Vatican would deem this heresy, or +"flat blasphemy."</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"> +<img src="images/i307.png" width="450" height="524" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="THE_BUTCHERS_LEAP_AT_MUNICH" id="THE_BUTCHERS_LEAP_AT_MUNICH"></a>THE BUTCHERS' LEAP AT MUNICH.</h2> + + +<p>A correspondent of the London <i>Athenæum</i>, writing from Munich, gives +the following account of the festival of the Butchers' Leap in the +Fountain: "This strange ceremonial, like the <i>Schäffler Tanz</i>, is said +to have its origin in the time of the plague. While the Coopers danced +with garlands and music through the streets, the Butchers sprang into +the fountain in the market-place, to show their fellow-citizens that +its water was no longer to be dreaded as poisoned. Perhaps they were +the Sanitary Commissioners of those days; and by bathing themselves in +the water and dashing it about on the crowd would teach the true means +of putting pestilence to flight.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Though the Coopers' Dance takes place only once in seven +years, the Butchers' Leap occurs annually, and always on +<i>Fasching Montag</i>,—the Monday before Shrove Tuesday. I +believe the ceremony is of great importance to the trade of +the Butchers; as certain privileges granted to them are +annually renewed at this time, and in connection with the +Leap. These two ceremonies—of the Coopers' Dance and the +Butchers' Leap—are now almost the last remains of the +picturesque and quaint customs of old Munich.</p> + +<p>"The Butchers commence proceedings by attending High Mass in +St. Peter's Church,—close to the Schrannien Platz, or +market-place, in which the fountain is situated. It is a +desolate-looking church, this St. Peter's, as seen from +without,—old, decaying, and ugly; within, tawdry +and—though not desolate and decaying—ugly. From staringly +white walls frown down on the spectator torture-pictures, +alternating with huge gilt images of sentimental saints in +clumsy drapery. The altars are masses of golden clouds and +golden cherubs.</p> + +<p>"Music, as from the orchestra of a theatre rather than from +the choir of a church, greeted us as we entered. The +Butchers were just passing out. We caught glimpses of +scarlet coats; and saw two huge silver flagons, covered with +a very panoply of gold and silver medals, borne aloft by +pompous officials clothed in scarlet. Having watched the +procession—some half-dozen tiny butchers' sons, urchins of +five and six years old, with rosy, round faces and chubby +hands, mounted on stalwart horses and dressed in little +scarlet coats, top-boots, and jaunty green velvet +hats—seven butchers' apprentices, the Leapers of the day, +also dressed in scarlet and mounted on horseback—the +musicians,—the long train of master-butchers and journeymen +in long dark cloaks and with huge nosegays in their +hats—and the scarlet officials bearing the decorated +flagons,—having watched, I say, all these good folk wend +their way in long procession up the narrow street leading +from the church, and seen them cross the market-place in the +direction of the Palace, where they are awaited by the +King,—let us look around, and notice the features of the +market-place:—for it is, in fact, a quaint old bit of the +city, and well worth a glimpse.</p> + +<p>"If I love the Ludwig Strasse as the most beautiful portion +of the new Munich, I almost equally love the Schrannien +Platz as about the quaintest part of old Munich. It is long +and narrow as a market-place, but wide as a street. The +houses are old; many of them very handsome, and rich with +ornamental stucco-work,—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">'All garlanded with carven imageries<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Of fruit and flowers and bunches of knot-grass.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The roofs are steep, red tiled, and perforated with rows of +little pent-house windows. The fronts of the houses are of +all imaginable pale tints,—stone colors, pinks, greens, +greys, and tawnies. Three of the four corners of the +market-place are adorned with tall pepper-box towers, with +domed roofs and innumerable narrow windows. At one end is +the fountain; and in the centre a heavy, but quaint +shrine,—a column supporting a gilt figure of the Madonna. +The eye wanders down various picturesque streets which open +into the market-place; and on one hand, above steep roofs, +gaze down the two striking red-brick towers of the <i>Frauen +Kirche</i>—the cathedral of Munich:—those two red towers +which are seen in all views of this city, and which belong +as much to Munich as the dome of St. Paul's does to the city +of London,—those towers which in the haze of sunset are +frequently transformed into violet-tinted columns, or about +which in autumn and winter mists cling with a strange +dreariness as if they were desolate mountain peaks!</p> + +<p>"But the quaintest feature of all in the Schrannien Platz is +a sort of arcade which runs around it. Here, beneath the low +and massy arches, are crowded thick upon each other a host +of small shops. What queer, dark little cells they are,—yet +how picturesque! Here is a dealer in crucifixes,—next to +him a woollen-draper, displaying bright striped woollen +goods for the peasants,—then a general dealer, with heaps +and bundles and tubs and chests containing every thing most +heterogeneous,—and next to him a dealer in pipes. There are +bustle and gloom always beneath these heavy low arches,—but +they present a glorious bit of picturesque life. There are +queer wooden booths, too, along one portion of the +Schrannien Platz where it rather narrows, losing its +character of market-place, and descending to that of an +ordinary street. But the booths do not degenerate in their +picturesque character. The earthenware booths—of which +there are several—are truly delicious. Such rows and piles +of dark green, orange, ruddy chocolate-brown, sea-green, +pale yellow, and deep blue and grey vessels of all forms and +sizes—all quaint, all odd—jugs, flagons, pipkins, queer +pots with huge lids, queer tripods for which I know no +name—things which always seem to me to come out of a +witch's kitchen, but by means of which I suspect that my own +dinner is cooked every day. All these heaps of crockery lie +about the doors, and load the windows of the wooden booths, +and line shelves and shelves within the gloom of the little +shops<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span> themselves. When I first came here these old crockery +shops were a more frequent study to me than any thing else +in the old town.</p> + +<p>"We ascended a steep, narrow staircase leading out of this +arcade into one of the houses above it, from which we were +to witness the leaping into the fountain. I looked out of +the window on the crowd that began to collect around the +fountain, and noticed the tall roofs and handsome fronts of +the houses opposite, and the crowd of pigeons—scores and +scores of pigeons—assembled just opposite the fountain on +the edge of the steep roof which rose like a red hill-side +behind them. They seemed solemnly met to witness the great +festivities about to be celebrated, and sat in silent +expectation brooding in the sunshine. Then, I wondered what +attraction the icy water could have for the children who +leaned over the fountain's side—dabbling in the water as +though it had been midsummer. The crowd increased and +increased; and seven new white buckets were brought and +placed on a broad plank which extended across one side of +the fountain basin.</p> + +<p>"A shout from the crowd announced the arrival of the +Butchers. First of all came the tender Butcher-infants, in +scarlet coats, top-boots, and green velvet hats, borne in +the arms of their fathers through the crowd in order that +they might witness the fun. Then followed the scarlet +officials:—and then came seven of the queerest beasts man +ever set eyes on. What were they, if human? Were they seven +Esquimaux chiefs, or seven African mumbo-jumbos? They were +the heroes of the day—the seven Butcher-apprentices, +clothed in fur caps and garments—covered from shoulder to +heel with hundreds of dangling calves' tails—red, white, +black, dun!</p> + +<p>"You may imagine the shouts that greeted them,—the peels of +laughter. Up they sprang on the broad plank,—leaping, +dancing, making their tails fly round like trundled mops. +The crowd roared with laughter. A stately scarlet +official—a butcher (<i>Altgesell</i>)—stands beside them on the +plank. Ten times they drink the health of the royal family +and prosperity to the butchers' craft. The <i>Altgesell</i> then +striking many blows on the shoulder of the nearest +apprentice, frees him and all the remaining six from their +indentures. They are henceforth full-grown butchers. Then, +they plunge into the very centre of the fountain with a +tremendous splash. The crowd shout,—the startled pigeons +wheel in wild alarm above the heads and laughter of the +crowd. The seven Tritons dash torrents of water on the +multitude,—who fly shrieking and laughing before the +deluge. The seven buckets are plied with untiring +arms;—lads are enticed within aim by showers of nuts flung +by the 'Leapers,' and then are drenched to the skin. It is a +bewilderment of water, flying calves' tails, pelting nuts, +and shrieking urchins.</p> + +<p>"The 'Leapers' then ascend out of their bath,—shake +themselves like shaggy dogs,—have white cloths pinned round +their necks as though they were going to be shaved,—and +have very grand medals hung round their necks suspended by +gaudy ribbons.</p> + +<p>"The procession retires across the market-place to its +'<i>Herberge</i>,' and the crowd disperses,—but disperses only +to re-assemble in various public-houses for the merriment of +the afternoon and night. That night and the next day are +'the maddest, merriest of all the year.' Music is every +where—dancing every where. It is the end of the Carnival. +Ash Wednesday comes,—and then, all is gloom."</p></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="NEGLECT_OF_THE_PRESERVATION_OF_EGYPTIAN_ANTIQUITIES" id="NEGLECT_OF_THE_PRESERVATION_OF_EGYPTIAN_ANTIQUITIES"></a>NEGLECT OF THE PRESERVATION OF EGYPTIAN ANTIQUITIES.</h2> + + +<p>A writer in the London <i>Athenæum</i>, writing from Alexandria, endeavors +to convince those who profess an interest in Egyptian antiquities, +that if their present neglect continues, nothing will remain of the +stupendous relics now lying over the land, but a quantity of +pulverized fragments. The colossal statue at Memphis, said to belong +to the British Museum, for years depended on the precarious protection +of an old Arab woman, who was continually expecting and claiming a +small salary of five or six pounds per annum as guardian. She received +about so much from a variety of consuls, for a time, but the payment +was at last discontinued, and, from what was told her, she based her +hopes on the learned or the powerful in England. "But the learned and +the powerful never, I suppose," says the writer, "heard of her, and +she died, leaving the statue in charge of her son, who, in his turn, +seems to live in hope. There is little prospect of his getting any +thing, however; and very probably, in spite of his unrewarded zeal, +the magnificent statue—by far the finest in Egypt—will ere long be +burnt for lime. The neighboring pyramid of Dashour is being, as I have +already said, worked as a quarry, and I shall be very much surprised +if this handy block of stone escape notice." He suggests the formation +of a committee, consisting of the principal consuls and residents in +Egypt, to watch over the preservation of the monuments of the country, +and to be supplied, by governments or by the voluntary contributions +of the learned, with the funds necessary to pay guardians and +inspectors.</p> + +<p>A very valuable museum of Egyptian antiquities we believe is now on +the way to the United States; but it embraces no such great works as +have been transported to Rome and Paris. Is it not worth while for the +New-York merchants to set up in Union or Washington Square, the great +statue of Memphis?</p> + +<p>Or it would not be altogether inappropriate for the Smithsonian +Institution to have it imported into Washington. How much the +diffusion of "knowledge" would be promoted by such a movement it is +not easy to say: but a figure of this kind on Capitol Hill would have +such an effect on our eloquence! and our juvenile poets could go there +and in its shade invoke the presence of twenty centuries.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="HENRY_ROWE_SCHOOLCRAFT" id="HENRY_ROWE_SCHOOLCRAFT"></a>HENRY ROWE SCHOOLCRAFT.</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"> +<img src="images/i310.png" width="450" height="553" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + + +<p>Mr. Schoolcraft is of English descent by the paternal side, his +great-grandfather having come from England during the wars of Queen +Anne, and settled in what is now Schoharie county in New-York, where +in old age he taught the first English school in that part of the +country, from which circumstance his name was not unnaturally changed +by the usage of the people from Calcraft to Schoolcraft. Our author +recently attempted in his own person to revive the old family name, +but soon abandoned it, and concluded to retain that which was begotten +upon his native soil, and by which he has long been so honorably +distinguished. He is a son of Colonel Lawrence Schoolcraft, who joined +the revolutionary army at seventeen years of age, and participated in +the movements under Montgomery and Schuyler, and the memorable defence +of Fort Stanwix under Gansevoort. He was born in Guilderland, near +Albany, on the twenty-eighth of March, 1793. In a secluded part of the +country, where there were few advantages for education, and scarce any +persons who thought of literature, he had an ardent love of knowledge, +and sat at home with his books and pencils while his equals in age +were at cock-fights and horse-races, for which Guilderland was then +famous. He is still remembered by some of the octogenarians of the +village as the "learned boy." At thirteen he drew subjects in natural +history, and landscapes, which attracted the attention of the late +Lieutenant-Governor Van Rensselaer, then a frequent visitor of his +father, through whose agency he came near being apprenticed to one +Ames, the only portrait-painter at that time in Albany; but as it was +demanded that he should commence with house-painting the plan was +finally abandoned. At fourteen he began to contribute pieces in prose +and verse to the newspapers, and for several years after he pursued +without aid the study of natural history, English literature, Hebrew, +German, and French, and the philosophy of language.</p> + +<p>Mr. Schoolcraft's first work was an elaborate treatise, but partially +known to the public, entitled Vitreology, which was published in 1817. +The design of it was to exhibit the application of chemistry to the +arts in the fusion of siliceous and alkaline substances in the +production of enamels, glass, etc. He had had opportunities of +experimenting largely and freely by his position as conductor for a +series of years of the extensive works of the Ontario Company at +Geneva in New-York, the Vermont Company at Middlebury and Salisbury in +Vermont, and the foundry of crystal glass at Keene in New Hampshire. +In 1818, and the following year, he made a geological survey of +Missouri and Arkansas to the spurs of the Rocky Mountains, and in the +fall of 1819 published in New-York his View of the Lead Mines of +Missouri, which is said by Professor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span> Silliman to have been "the only +elaborate and detailed account of a mining district in the United +States" which had then appeared. It attracted much attention, and +procured for the author the friendship of many eminent men. In the +same year he printed Transallegania, a poetical <i>jeu d'esprit</i> of +which mineralogy is the subject, and which preceded some clever +English attempts in the same vein. It was republished in London by Sir +Richard Phillips in the next year.</p> + +<p>Early in 1820 he published a Journal of a Tour in the Interior of +Missouri and Arkansas, extending from Potosi toward the Rocky +Mountains. His writings having attracted the notice of the government, +he was commissioned by Mr. Calhoun, then Secretary of War, to visit +the copper region of Lake Superior, and to accompany General Cass in +his expedition to the head waters of the Mississippi. His Narrative +Journal of this tour was published in 1821, and was eminently +successful, an edition of twelve hundred copies being sold in a few +weeks. In the same year he was appointed secretary to the commission +for treating with the Indian tribes at Chicago, and on the conclusion +of his labors published his sixth work, entitled Travels in the +Central Portions of the Mississippi Valley, in which he described the +country between the regions of which he had given an account in his +previous works. His reputation was now widely and firmly established +as an explorer, and as a man of science and letters. From this time +his attention was devoted principally to the Red Race, though he still +cultivated natural history, and wrote occasionally for the reviews and +magazines.</p> + +<p>In 1822 he was appointed by President Monroe agent for Indian Affairs, +to reside at St. Mary's, at the foot of Lake Superior. In the years +1825, 1826, and 1827, he attended the important convocations of the +north-west tribes at Prairie du Chien, Pont du Lac, and Buttes des +Morts. In 1831 he was sent on a special embassy, accompanied by +troops, to conciliate the Sioux and Ojibwas, and bring the existing +war between them to a close. In 1832 he proceeded in the same capacity +to the tribes near the head waters of the Mississippi, and availed +himself of the opportunity to trace that river, in small canoes, from +the point where Pike stopped in 1807 and Cass in 1820 to its true +source in Itasca Lake, upon which he entered on the thirteenth of +July, the one hundred and forty-ninth anniversary of the discovery of +the mouth of the river by La Salle. His account of this tour was +published in New-York in 1834, under the title of An Expedition to +Itasca Lake, and attracted much attention in all parts of the country.</p> + +<p>From 1827 to 1831 Mr. Schoolcraft was a member of the legislative +council of Michigan. In 1828 he organized the Michigan Historical +Society, in which he was elected president, on the removal of General +Cass to Washington, in 1831. In the fall of the same year he set on +foot the Algic Society at Detroit, before which he delivered a course +of lectures on the grammatical construction of the Indian +languages,<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> and at its first anniversary a poem on The Indian +Character. Guided by patriotism and good taste, he took a successful +stand in the west against the absurd nomenclature which has elsewhere +made such confusion in geography by repeating over and over the names +of European places and characters, giving us Romes, Berlins, and +Londons in the wilderness, and Hannibals, Scipios, Homers, and +Hectors, wherever there was sufficient learning to make its possessors +ridiculous. He submitted to the legislature of the territory a system +of county and township names based upon the Indian vocabularies with +which he was familiar, and happily secured its general adoption.</p> + +<p>At Sault Ste. Marie Mr. Schoolcraft became acquainted with Mr. John +Johnston, a gentleman from the north of Ireland, who had long resided +there, and in the person of his eldest daughter married a descendant +of the hereditary chief of Lake Superior, or Lake Algoma, as it is +known to the Indians. She had been educated in Europe, and was an +accomplished and highly interesting woman. After a residence there of +eleven years he removed to Michilimackinac, and assumed the joint +agency of the two districts. In 1836 he was appointed by President +Jackson a commissioner to treat with the north-west tribes for their +lands in the region of the upper lakes, and succeeded in effecting a +cession to the United States of some sixteen millions of acres. In the +same year he was appointed acting Superintendent of Indian Affairs for +the Northern Department, and in 1839 principal disbursing agent for +the same district.</p> + +<p>In the last mentioned year he published two volumes of Algic +Researches, comprising Indian Tales and Legends, and soon after, +having passed more than twenty years as a traveller or resident on the +frontiers, he removed to the city of New-York, intending to prepare +for the press the great mass of his original papers which he had +accumulated in this long period. In 1841 he issued proposals for an +Indian Cyclopedia, geographical, historical, philological, etc., of +which only one number was printed, no publisher appearing willing to +undertake so costly and extensive a work of such a description. In +1842 he visited England, France, Germany, Prussia, and Holland. During +his absence his wife died, at Dundee, in Canada West, where she was +visiting her sister. Soon after his return he made another journey to +the west, to examine some of the great mounds, respecting which he has +since communicated a paper to the Royal Geographical Society of +Denmark, of which he was many years ago elected an honorary member, +and soon after published a collection of his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span> poetical writings, under +the title of Alhalla, or the Lord of Talladega, a Tale of the Creek +War, with some miscellanies, chiefly of early date. In 1844 he +commenced in numbers the publication of Oneota, or the Red Race in +America, their History, Traditions, Customs, Poetry, Picture Writing, +etc., in extracts from Notes, Journals, and other unpublished +writings, of which one octavo volume has been completed. In 1845 he +delivered an address before a society known as the "Was-ah +Ho-de-no-sonne, or New Confederacy of the Iroquois," and published +Observations on the Grave Creek Mound in Western Virginia, in the +Transactions of the American Ethnological Society; and early in the +following year presented in the form of a Report to the legislature of +his native state, his Notes on the Iroquois, or Contributions to the +Statistics, Aboriginal History, and General Ethnology of Western +New-York.</p> + +<p>The last and most important of Mr. Schoolcraft's works, the crowning +labor of his life, for the composition of which all his previous +efforts were but notes of preparation, is the Historical and +Statistical Information respecting the History, Condition, and +Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States: Collected and +prepared under the Direction of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, per act +of March 3, 1847. The initial volume of this important national +publication, profusely illustrated with engravings from drawings by +Captain Eastman, of the Army, has lately been issued in a very large +and splendid quarto, by Lippincott. Grambo & Co., of Philadelphia, +under authority of Congress. It embraces the general, national, and +tribal history of the Indian race, with their traditions, manners, +customs, languages, mythology, &c., and when completed will probably +extend to six or seven volumes. Until more of it is published, it will +not be possible to form any exact judgment of it, except such as is +warranted by a knowledge of the author's previous works: but such a +judgment must be in the highest degree favorable.</p> + +<p>Mr. Schoolcraft's ethnological writings are among the most important +contributions that have been made to the literature of this country. +His long and intimate connection with the Indian tribes, and the +knowledge possessed by his wife and her family of the people from whom +they were descended by the maternal side, with his power of examining +their character from the European point of view, have enabled him to +give us more authentic and valuable information respecting their +manners, customs, and physical traits, and more insight into their +moral and intellectual constitution, than can be derived, perhaps, +from all other authors. His works abound in materials for the future +artist and man of letters, and will on this account continue to be +read when the greater portion of the popular literature of the day is +forgotten. With the forests which they inhabited, the red race have +disappeared with astonishing rapidity. Until recently they have rarely +been the subjects of intelligent study; and it began to be regretted, +as they were seen fading from our sight, that there was so little +written respecting them that had any pretensions to fidelity. I would +not be understood to undervalue the productions of Eliot, Loskiel, +Heckewelder, Brainerd, and other early missionaries, but they were +restricted in design, and it is not to be denied that confidence in +their representations has been much impaired, less perhaps from doubts +of their integrity than of their ability and of the advantages of the +points of view from which they made their observations. The works on +Indian philology by Roger Williams and the younger Edwards are more +valuable than any others of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, +but it now appears that these authors knew very little of the +philosophy of the American language. Du Ponceau's knowledge was still +more superficial, and excepting Mr. Gallatin and the late Mr. +Pickering, who made use of the imperfect data furnished by others, I +believe no one besides Mr. Schoolcraft has recently produced any thing +on the subject worthy of consideration. Something has been done by +General Cass, and Mr. McKenny and Mr. Catlin have undoubtedly +accomplished much in this department of ethnography; but allowing all +that can reasonably be claimed for these artist-travellers, Mr. +Schoolcraft must still be regarded as the standard and chief authority +respecting the Algic tribes.</p> + +<p>The influence which the original and peculiar myths and historical +traditions of the Indians is to have on our imaginative literature, +has been recently more than ever exhibited in the works of our +authors. The tendency of the public taste to avail itself of the +American mythology as a basis for the exhibition of "new lines of +fictitious creations" has been remarked by Mr. Schoolcraft himself in +Oneota, and he refers to the tales of Mrs. Oakes Smith, and to the +Wild Scenes in the Forest and the Prairie, and the Vigil of Faith, by +Mr. Charles F. Hoffman, as works in which this tendency is most +distinctly perceptible. In the writings of W. H. C. Hosmer, the +legends of Mr. Whittier, and some of the poems of Mr. Longfellow and +Mr. Lowell, we see manifestations of the same disposition.</p> + +<p>No one who has not had the most ample opportunities of personal +observation should attempt to mould Indian life and mythology to the +purposes of fiction without carefully studying whatever Mr. +Schoolcraft has published respecting them. The chief distinction of +the Algic style with which he has made us acquainted is its wonderful +simplicity and conciseness, with which the common verbosity, redundant +description, false sentiment, and erroneous manners of what are called +Indian tales, are as little in keeping as "English figures in +moccasins, and holding bows and arrows."</p> + +<p>The excellent portrait at the beginning of this article is from a +daguerreotype by Simons, of Philadelphia.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Two of these lectures were published in 1834, translated +into French by the late Mr. du Ponceau, and subsequently read before +the National Institute of France.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="THE_MARGRAVINE_OF_ANSPACH" id="THE_MARGRAVINE_OF_ANSPACH"></a>THE MARGRAVINE OF ANSPACH.</h2> + + +<p>The death, in London, a few weeks ago, of a daughter of the celebrated +Lady Craven, afterwards Margravine of Anspach, has recalled attention +to the history of that remarkable and celebrated person, whose life +has the interest of a romance.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Elizabeth Berkeley</span>, Margravine of Anspach, was born in December, 1750. +She was the daughter of Augustus, fourth Earl of Berkeley, by his wife +Elizabeth, daughter of Henry Drax of Charborough. She was brought up +under the care of a native of Switzerland, the wife of a German tutor +of her uncle. She describes herself as having been a delicate, +diminutive child, addicted at an early age to reading, and of timid +and retired habits. She first beheld a play when she was twelve years +old, and from that occasion she dates the growth of her subsequent +partiality for theatrical entertainments. At the age of thirteen she +paid a short visit to France with her mother and her elder sister, and +at fourteen she had been, as she says she afterwards discovered, "in +love without knowing it" with the Marquis de Fitz James. On the 10th +May, 1767, she was married to William Craven, nephew and heir of the +fifth Lord Craven, whom he succeeded in 1769. She professes to have +felt indifference when receiving his addresses, but the marriage was +for some time a happy one, and she says, "My husband seemed to have no +other delight than in procuring for me all the luxuries and enjoyments +within his power, and it was an eternal dispute (how amiable a +dispute!) between us; <i>he</i> always offering presents, and <i>I</i> refusing +whenever I could." Gifted with genius and beauty, both of which she +knew well how to apply; a woman of Lady Craven's rank naturally drew +around her a large circle of admirers. She says of herself very +characteristically, "In London the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough +showed their partiality to me, and Mr. Walpole, afterwards Lord +Orford, Dr. Johnson, Garrick, and his friend Colman, were among my +numerous admirers; and Sir Joshua Reynolds did not conceal his high +opinion of me. Charles Fox almost quarrelled with me because I was +unwilling to interfere with politics—a thing which I always said I +detested, and considered as being out of the province of a woman."</p> + +<p>It appears to have been in the year 1779 that Lady Craven discovered +the infidelities with which she charged her husband, when she +requested of him the favor "that he would not permit his mistress to +call herself Lady Craven." After an interval of about three years +spent in partial reconciliation, a separation took place. The +indifferent tone in which she treats the whole of this transaction, +and her professed readiness to overlook every slight that was not +public and glaring, are a stain on her character, which she has by her +own animated pen exhibited to an age which had forgotten the +accusations to which she was subjected. At the time of her separation +from her husband she was the mother of seven children.</p> + +<p>Lady Craven had in the mean time produced her first play, "The +Sleepwalker," a translation from the French, printed in 1778, at her +friend Walpole's press at Strawberry Hill. In 1779 she published +"Modern Anecdotes of the Family of Kinvervankotsprakengatchdern, a +Tale for Christmas." This was a caricature of the ceremonious +pomposity of the petty German courts; it was dramatized by Mr. M. P. +Andrews. Soon after the separation, she passed some time in France, +where she met with the Margrave of Anspach. They formed a sudden +friendship for each other, and agreed to consider each other (we are +told) as brother and sister. In June, 1785, Lady Craven commenced a +tour, in which, starting from Paris, she passed by the Rhine to Italy, +went thence by the Tyrol to Vienna, passed on to Warsaw, Petersburg, +and Moscow, proceeded by the Don to Turkey, and returned by Vienna, +which she reached in August, 1786. On this occasion she ran, by her +own account, a serious risk of being made Empress of Austria. In 1789 +she published an account of her tour (1 vol. 4to), in letters +addressed to the margrave, saying in the dedication, "Beside +curiosity, my friends will in these letters see, at least for some +time, where the real Lady Craven has been, and where she is to be +found—it having been the practice for some years past for a +Birmingham coin of myself to pass in most of the inns in France, +Switzerland, and England, for the wife of my husband. My arms and +coronet sometimes supporting in some measure this insolent deception; +by which, probably, I may have been seen to behave very improperly." +This work is interesting from the many sketches it contains of eminent +people—such as the Empress Catharine, the Princess Dashcoff, Prince +Potemkin, Count Romanzoff, Admiral Mordvinoff, the Duc de Choiseul, +and others. It is full of accurate observation and lively description, +expressed in clear and simple English—a style from which in later +life she considerably diverged. She descended into the grotto of +Antiparos, being the first female to undertake the adventure. The +French biographers maintain that the tameness of her description of +the scene shows a deficiency of appreciation of the wonderful and +sublime. She does not indeed ornament her description with hyperboles +and exclamations, but it is clear and expressive, and by the +distinctness of the impression which it conveys to the reader, shows +that the scene was fully noticed and comprehended by the writer. After +her return from her journey, she visited England to see her children, +and then proceeded to France, where she joined the margrave and +accompanied him to Anspach. Here, during a residence of a few years, +she established a theatre, which was chiefly supplied with dramatic +entertainments of her own composition. They were collected into two +volumes 8vo, under the title<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span> of "Nouveau Théâtre d'Anspach et de +Triesdorf," the latter being the name of a country seat nine miles +from Anspach, where she laid out a park and garden in the English +manner. She established at the same time "a society for the +encouragement of arts and sciences." She soon afterwards visited, in +company with the margrave, the congenial court of Naples, where she +made the acquaintance of Sir William and Lady Hamilton. Her conduct +was the subject of much censure both in England and among the +officials of the court of Anspach, to whom her interference was a +natural subject of distrust; and if it should even be admitted that +her own account of the purity of her motives and conduct is correct, +it cannot be denied that she afforded material for forming the worst +interpretations of them. She maintains that she always opposed the +cession of his dominions to the crown of Prussia by the margrave in +1791, but she was almost his sole adviser on the occasion. She states +that she received the first hint of his design at Naples. One day +while she was dressing for dinner, a servant intimated that the +margrave desired to see her. On her appearance he said, "I must go to +Berlin <i>incog.</i>—will you go with me? it is the only sacrifice of your +time I will ever require of you." They set out together, and on the +way through Anspach they found the establishment nearly in open revolt +against her influence. The king, however, was kind and generous in the +extreme, and the contracting parties are represented as only striving +to excel each other in generosity. Meanwhile the margrave's first wife +died, and Lord Craven's death occurred six months afterwards, on the +26th September, 1791. Immediately on hearing of this event, Lady +Craven was married to the margrave. "It was six weeks," she says, +"after Lord Craven's decease that I gave my hand to the margrave, +which I should have done six hours after, had I known it at the time." +As the cession of the margraviate to Prussia dates 2d December, 1791, +the marriage must have taken place about three weeks before it. The +nuptials were solemnized at Lisbon, whence the new married pair passed +through Spain and France to England.</p> + +<p>The margrave, on the sale of his principality, resolved to spend his +days with his wife in England. They had no sooner arrived, however, +than the storm of family and public indignation which had been brewing +against the margravine burst upon her head. She received a letter from +her three daughters, saying, "with due deference to the Margravine of +Anspach, the Miss Cravens inform her that, out of respect to their +father, they cannot wait upon her," and her eldest son, Lord Craven, +refused to countenance her. The margrave received a message from the +queen, through the Prussian minister, to the effect that his wife, +though she had received a diploma from the emperor, could not be +received at court as a princess of the empire. She says that she +refused to derogate from her dignity by appearing merely as a peeress +of England; but it is not clear that she would have been received in +that capacity. She addressed a memorial on the subject to the House of +Lords, but they gave her no redress; indeed it would not have been +consistent with the practice of that body to interfere on such an +occasion. Soon after their arrival, the margrave purchased through +trustees, Lord Craven's estate of Benham, and the mansion of +Brandenburgh House, a place celebrated as afterwards affording a +retreat to Queen Caroline, the wife of George IV. Until the margrave's +death in 1806, it was a scene of continued profusion and gayety, in +which the luxuries and amusements of an English mansion were united +with those of a German court, "My whole enjoyment," says the +margravine, "during the margrave's valuable life, was to do every +thing in my power, to make him not only comfortable, but happy. Under +my management, the world imagined that he spent double his income." +Her attachment to her second husband was strong. She speaks of him +with an enthusiasm and devotion which bear the stamp of sincerity. "I +believe," she says, "a better man never existed. There never was a +being who could act upon more sincere principles. Nothing could divert +him from what was right. None could bear with patience, like himself, +the ill conduct of those to whom he was attached. None could more +easily forgive." After his decease, the margravine, who succeeded to +the large property which he left, felt impatient to recommence her +wanderings. On the restoration she sailed for France, and, after being +interrupted in her movements by the reign of the hundred days, reached +Rome, where it was said that she kept open house for all the +revolutionists of all countries who chose to accept her hospitalities. +The King of Naples afterwards presented her with a small estate, in +which she built a palace, where she resided till her death, which +occurred on January 13, 1828. Only two years previously, and when she +was seventy-six years old, she surprised and delighted the English +world by the publication of her well-known memoirs. This work is +perhaps one of the best examples of the French memoirs which English +literature possesses. It is indeed thoroughly French, not only in +spirit but in idiom, and, to the reader, has all the appearance of a +translation from that language. It thus affords, in its style, a +remarkable contrast to the book of travels above noticed. It contains +a vast variety of anecdotes and sketches of character, always amusing +if not always accurate. It has no continuity of narrative, leaping +backwards and forwards through all ages, and among every variety of +subject: from a description of the monument which she erected to the +memory of her husband, she takes occasion to give a rapid sketch of +the history of the art of sculpture. The least pleasing feature in the +work is its intense egotism. The margravine was a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span> woman of +wonderfully versatile genius. She wrote with fluency in French and +German. She was an accomplished musician and actress; and she tells +us, "I have executed many busts myself, and among others one of the +margrave, which is generally allowed to be extremely like him."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="LONDON_DESCRIBED_BY_A_PARISIAN" id="LONDON_DESCRIBED_BY_A_PARISIAN"></a>LONDON DESCRIBED BY A PARISIAN.</h2> + + +<p>M. Francis Wey, who is a college professor and <i>litterateur</i> of some +eminence in Paris, has published for visitors from the continent to +the Great Exhibition, a volume entitled <i>Guides à Londres</i>, composed, +we believe, of a series of articles, <i>Les Anglais chez Eux</i> (the +English at Home), which he had contributed to the <i>Musée des +Familles</i>, an old and favorite Parisian journal. It is very amusing to +see the manner in which these things are received by the British +press. The sensitiveness of which the Americans are accused is quite +equalled in that which is displayed in the London criticisms of +Monsieur Wey. And just at this time it is all the more pleasant to us, +for that our amiable Mother-Country critics are quoting with so much +enjoyment the characterizations of us poor United-Statesers, done in +the same way, by a gentleman of the same country. Even <i>Blackwood</i> +does not seem to have a suspicion that a Frenchman could caricature or +in any way exaggerate the publicities or domesticities of New-York; +but all the independent, care-for-nothing John Bulls see only +"rancor," "ill-will," and "absurdity" in the Frenchman's views of +English society. The <i>Literary Gazette</i>, the <i>Weekly News</i>, and all +the rest, have the same tone. French travellers, it is said—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Instead of patiently collecting their facts, they <i>invent</i> +them. Instead of representing social usages as they really +are, they state them as what they choose to suppose. They +mistake flippancy for wit, and imperturbable assurance for +knowledge. They speak <i>ex cathedra</i> of matters of which they +are profoundly ignorant. And the consequence of all this is +that they commit the drollest blunders, make the most +startling assertions, indulge in the most grotesque +appreciations, and flounder in the most extravagant +absurdities."</p></div> + +<p>We wonder if a single British reviewer will introduce, with such a +paragraph, his extracts from the Letters on America, by <span class="smcap">M. Xavier +Marmier</span>? Not a bit of it.</p> + +<p>On the English language, M. Wey says—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The Englishman has invented for himself a language adapted +to his placid manners and silent tastes. This language is a +murmur, accompanied by soft hissings; it falls from the +lips, but is scarcely articulated; if the chest or throat be +employed to increase the power of the voice, the words +become changed and scarcely intelligible; if cried aloud, +they are hoarse, and resemble the confused croaking of frogs +in marshes."</p> + +<p>"The English are passionately attached to their language. +They have only consented to borrow one single word from us, +and that is employed by their innkeepers—<i>table d'hôte</i>, +which they pronounce <i>taible dott</i>. And yet we have taken +hundreds of words from them!"</p></div> + +<p>English women—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"English women give to us the preference over their own +countrymen. Our gallantry is something new to them, and our +politeness touches their hearts. But though they love us, we +are not liked by their lords and masters. There is no +exaggeration in all that has been said of the beauty of +English women—an assemblage of them would realize the +paradise of Mahomet."</p></div> + +<p>Their dresses—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Many white gowns are to be seen. White is a <i>recherché</i> +luxury in that land of tallow and smoke, where linen becomes +dirty in three hours. However, good taste is making some +progress. Ladies may be met with who are well dressed, +although, generally speaking, a sort of audacity is +displayed in wearing the most irreconcilable colors. What +gives English women a somewhat <i>bizarre</i> appearance, is the +custom they have of swelling out their petticoats, by means +of circles of whalebone or iron:—this causes them to +resemble large bells in movement."</p></div> + +<p>English manners—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"English manners, rigid and cold, and dominated by arid +rationalism, are the work of Cromwell. His bigotry and +hypocrisy, his exterior austerity, his narrow formalism, +suit the Englishman; he keeps up Cromwell's character, and +admires himself in his usages. But he has no pity for his +model—he never forgives Cromwell for having made him what +he is. His spite towards that man is the last cry of nature, +and the vague regret of a liberty of imagination of which +neither the joys or the aspirations have been known since +his time." "They have no grace, no <i>desinvoltura</i>, no poesy +in them, but are methodical, reasonable, indefatigable in +work and in amassing lucre."</p></div> + +<p>How the English love—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"They love nothing with the heart; when they do love, it is +exclusively of the head."</p></div> + +<p>English bankers—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"In France we have the love of display; but in London it is +not so. There, some of the principal bankers go every +morning to the butchers' shops to buy their own chops, and +they carry them ostensibly to some tavern in Cheapside or +Fleet Street, where they cook them themselves. Then they buy +three pennyworth of rye-bread, and publicly eat this Spartan +breakfast. The exhibition fills their clients with +admiration. But in the evening these good men make up for +this by taking in their own palaces suppers worthy of +Lucullus."</p></div> + +<p>Flunkeys—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The English aristocracy are distinguished by the number, +the canes, and the wigs of their lacqueys. Seeing constantly +a footman, well powdered and bewigged, carry horizontally a +large Voltaire cane behind certain sumptuous carriages, I +asked for an explanation; it was soon given—wig, powder, +and cane are aristocratic privileges. Not only must a man +have a certain number of quarterings to be authorized to +make his servants use such things, but he must pay so much +tax for the lacquey, so much for the wig, so much for the +tail to the wig, and so much for the cane."</p></div> + +<p>What most strikes a Frenchman in London—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The coldness of the men towards the fair sex, and their profound +passion for horses."</p></div> + +<p>Officers of the life and horse guards—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Cupid seems to have chosen them—they are possessed of such ideal +beauty."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span></p></div> + +<p>English taverns—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The Englishman likes to be alone, even at the tavern. He +fastens himself up in a box, where none can see him. There +he drinks with taciturn phlegm. He takes tea, boiling grog, +porter of the color of ink, and beer not less black. He is +very fond of brandy, and drinks large glasses of it at a +draught. He does not go to the tavern to amuse himself, but +because drinking is a grave occupation. The more he swallows +the calmer he is. One can however scarcely decide if his +obstinate moroseness be a precaution against drunkenness, or +the effect of spirituous liquors taken in excess. At some of +the taverns are three gentlemen, dressed in black, with +white cravats, who sing after one of them has struck the +table with a little hammer; they are as serious as +Protestant ministers or money-changers."</p></div> + +<p>English food—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Thick stupefying beer, meat almost raw and horribly spiced; +strong libations of port wine, followed by +plum-pudding—such is the meat of these islanders."</p></div> + +<p>How the English eat—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"They eat at every hour, every where, and incessantly. The +iron constitution of their complaisant stomachs enables them +to feed in a manner which would satisfy wolves and lions. +The delicate repast of a fair and sentimental young lady +would be too much for a couple of Parisian street porters."</p></div> + +<p>Stables and museums—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Stables are clean and brilliant as museums ought to be; and +the museums are as filthy as stables in Provence."</p></div> + +<p>The Queen's stables—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"They form a college of horses, with pedantic grooms for +professors, and a harness room for a library:"</p></div> + +<p>English omnibuses—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The omnibuses of London are worn out, ill built, and +remarkably dirty. Even in wet weather nobody is ever allowed +to enter the interior so long as any places are vacant +outside. We had expected to find them built of mahogany and +lined with velvet."</p></div> + +<p>London—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"London, wholly devoted to private interests, offers nothing +to the heart or mind. The city is too large; a man is lost +in it; you elbow thousands of people without the hope of +meeting any one you know. Even if you have a large fortune +you would be ignored. Originality is there without effect; +vanity without an object; and the desire of shining is +chimerical. Intelligence has therefore only one opening, +politics; pride only one object, the national sentiment; but +as the people must feel enthusiasm for something, they adore +horses; and as they must admire somebody, they burn incense +under Lord Wellington's nose."</p></div> + +<p>After midnight—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"At midnight the English leave the taverns, the public +gardens, the theatres, and the open air balls, and fill up +the supper saloons (not very reputable places), and the +oyster rooms, where they eat till morning. After sunrise, +the policemen are occupied in picking up in the gutters +drunkards of both sexes, and all conditions."</p></div> + +<p>London rain—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"It is tallow melted in water, and perfectly black."</p></div> + +<p>A bad quarter—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Between Cornhill Street and Thames Street, there lives what +is called the populace of London; there pauperism is +frightful. The wretched inhabitants of that district are +brawlers, drunkards, and prize-fighters."</p></div> + +<p>At Westminster Abbey—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Shakspeare slumbers at a few steps from Richard II. The +tombs bear traces of Presbyterian mutilations; but in other +places the Calvinists scattered the bones of the deceased +Bishops of Geneva. Such is the intolerance of the +Protestants that they have not admitted the statue of Byron +to the Abbey, and his shadow may be heard groaning at the +door."</p></div> + +<p>At Her Majesty's Theatre—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"To go with a blue cravat is <i>shocking</i>. When the doors are +open, blows with the fist and the elbow are given without +regard to age or sex. It is the peculiar fashion of entering +which the natives have. If a Frenchman be recognized the +people cry <i>French dog</i>. In the pit, the man behind you will +place his foot on your shoulder. The ladies are plunged up +to the neck in boxes. In the theatre there is an echo, which +produces an abominable effect; but such is the vile musical +taste of the English that they have never found it out. In +the saloon you hear the continual hissing of teakettles."</p></div> + +<p>The English Parliament—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The House of Commons at present meets in a hole. The peers +are in their new chamber. It is small, not monumental, and +heavily ornamented. It reminds one of our tea shops, or a +<i>boudoir</i>. The lords, when assembled, are generally placed +on their backs, or rather lean on the back of the neck, and +keep their legs above their heads. The Queen's throne, like +constitutional royalty, is a gilded cage."</p></div> + +<p>The new Houses of Parliament—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"They are an immense architectural plaything, and the +English only admire them because they cost a vast sum."</p></div> + +<p>English love of titles—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"One of my friends gave me a letter of introduction to Sir +William P——, <i>Esquire</i>. I left the letter with my card at +the Reform Club, Pall Mall. Two hours after Sir William came +to my residence; but as I was not at home he wrote a line, +and addressed it to me with the flattering designation of +<i>Esquire</i>. England is the country of legal equality; but +this sort of equilibrium does not extend to social usages; +and although our <i>penchant</i> for distinctions seems puerile +to the English, it would be easy to prove that they are not +exempt from it. They have not, as we have, the love of +uniforms, laced coats, epaulettes, or decorations; their +button-holes often carry a flower, but never a rosette or +knot of ribbon. But every body pretends to the title of +<i>Sir</i>, which was formerly reserved exclusively to members of +the House of Commons, to Baronets, and to some public +functionaries. As, however, the title <i>Sir</i> has become too +vulgar, every body calls himself <i>Esquire</i> to distinguish +himself from his neighbor. This remark, nevertheless, does +not concern my friend Sir William, for he is really an +Esquire."</p></div> + +<p>English soldiers—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The noise which announces their approach is very singular. +Picture to yourself the monotonous music of a bear's dance, +executed by twenty fifers,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span> whilst a man beats a big drum. +The coats of the infantry are too short, and are surmounted +with large white epaulettes. The men sway their bodies about +to the beating of the drum, and carry their heads so stiffly +that they appear to be balancing spoons on their noses. All +the officers and non-commissioned officers carry long sticks +with ivory handles."</p></div> + +<p>Resemblance of Englishmen one to another—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"All Englishmen are alike. They live in the same way, are +subject to the same logical rules, condemned to the same +amusements. The proof that there exists only one character +amongst them, and that they have only one way of living, is, +that it is impossible, on seeing them, to divine their +profession. A lord, a minister, a domestic, a street singer, +a merchant, an admiral, a soldier, a general, an artist, a +judge, a prize-fighter, and a clergyman, have all the same +appearance, the same language, the same costume, and the +same bearing. Each one has the air of an Englishman, and +nothing more. They live in the same way, work at the same +hours, eat at the same time, and of the same sort of food, +and are all sequestrated when away from home from the +society of women."</p></div> + +<p>The French at London—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"At London the French labor under two subjects of anxiety, +caused by their national prejudices. Accustomed to consider +themselves as the first people in the world, to dazzle some, +to despise others, and to display every where the confident +pride of their supremacy, they, on treading the British +soil, experience the impression of a greatness not borrowed +from them; they are astonished at finding a people as +remarkable as ours, as original as we are, and carrying to a +still prouder degree the sentiment of their pre-eminence. +Then our countrymen become disquieted; the intolerance of +their national faith becomes mitigated; they are ill at +ease, and for the first time in their lives feel constraint. +Ceasing to believe themselves amongst slaves as in Italy, +amongst vassals as in Belgium, or amongst innkeepers as in +Switzerland or Germany, they endeavor to resemble sovereigns +visiting other sovereigns, and by forced politeness render +them involuntary homage."</p></div> + +<p>Feeling of the English toward the French—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"They honor us with a marked attention, though they are +indifferent to the rest of mankind. Our opinions respecting +them cause them anxiety. They either admire us +enthusiastically, or disparage us bitterly; but, in reality, +they are obsequious and servile toward us!"</p></div> + +<p>After a good deal of the numerous statues to Wellington, this at +English admiration of Waterloo—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The trumpet of Waterloo which has been sounded in London +every where incessantly, and in every tone, during +thirty-five years, diminishes the grandeur of the English +nation. This intoxication seems that of a people who, never +having won more than one battle, and despairing to conquer a +second time, cannot recover from their surprise, nor bear in +patience an unhoped-for glory."</p></div> + +<p>How the English judge Napoleon—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Public opinion has avenged the prisoner of St Helena; but +does it follow that in 1815 the English protested with +sufficient energy against his imprisonment! No. Englishmen +are naturally indifferent and indulgent as regards their +foreign neighbors, so long as patriotism or private interest +is not at stake. Napoleon was the most terrible of their +enemies; he placed England within ten steps of bankruptcy, +and seriously menaced national manufactures. Not possessed +of military instinct, the English do not pretend to +chivalrous generosity. On the fall of the Empire, caused by +the implacable perseverance of coalitions, the nation +remembered that the Hundred Days cost its government a +million an hour, and so long as the deficit was not made up, +their resentment underwent no diminution. But now if you +celebrate his glory before them, they will not display +hostility. You must not, however, touch the till of this +tribe of tradesmen, or they will be your bitter enemies. And +the proof that they are nothing but shopkeepers is that +their first functionary sits in a gilded arm chair on a +wool-sack."</p></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_BEAUTIFUL_STREAMLET_AND_THE_UTILITARIAN" id="THE_BEAUTIFUL_STREAMLET_AND_THE_UTILITARIAN"></a>THE BEAUTIFUL STREAMLET AND THE UTILITARIAN.</h2> + + +<p>Alphonse Karr's new book, <i>Travels in my Garden</i>, is full of social +heresies, but quite as full of wit. We find in <i>Fraser's Magazine</i> for +May translations of some admirable passages, with specimens of his +peculiar speculation. Karr is an ardent lover of Nature; he takes note +of all her caprices, and respects them,—remarks under what shade the +violet loves to dwell, and tells us how certain plants—the volubulis, +the scarlet-runner, and the Westeria, for instance—invariably twine +their spiral tendrils from left to right, whereas hops and +honeysuckles as infallibly twist theirs from right to left. He knows +which are the plants that fold, when evening comes, their leaves in +two, lengthwise,—which are those that close them up like fans, and +which are the careless ones that crumple them up irregularly with +happy impunity, for the next morning's sun smooths them all alike. He +loves Nature in all her details, but with disinterested love, and has +no idea of making her subservient to his pride, or selfishly +monopolizing her; he has evidently no wish to wall in woods and +meadows, and call them a park, or to dam up sparkling, bubbling, +dancing streams, and turn them into cold, spiritless, aristocratic +sheets of water. Indeed, in one of the first chapters of the book, +there is a fanciful bit of sentiment about a happy little stream that +falls into the hands of a pitiless utilitarian, which we are tempted +to quote:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"That stream which runs through my garden gushes from the +side of a furze-covered hill; for a long time it was a happy +little stream; it traversed meadows where all sorts of +lovely wild flowers bathed and mirrored themselves in its +waters, then it entered my garden, and there I was ready to +receive it; I had prepared green tanks for it; on its edge +and in its very bed I had planted those flowers which all +over the world love to bloom on the banks and in the bosom +of pure streams; it flowed through my garden, murmuring its +plaintive song; then, fragrant with my flowers, it left the +garden, crossed another meadow, and flung itself into the +sea, over the precipitous sides of the cliff, which it +covered with foam.</p> + +<p>"It was a happy stream; it had literally nothing to do +beyond what I have said,—to flow, to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span> bubble, to look +limpid, to murmur, amidst flowers and sweet perfumes. It led +the life I have chosen, and that I continue to lead, when +people let me alone, and when knaves and fools and wicked +men do not force me—who am at once the most pacific and the +most battling man on earth—to return to the fight. But +heaven and earth are jealous of the happiness of gentle +indolence.</p> + +<p>"One day my brother Eugene, and Savage, the clever engineer, +were talking together on the banks of the stream, and to a +certain degree abusing it.</p> + +<p>"'There,' said my brother, 'is a fine good-for-nothing +stream for you, forsooth, winding and dawdling about, +dancing in the sunshine, and revelling in the grass instead +of working and paying for the place it takes up, as an +honest stream should. Could it not be made to grind coffee +or pepper?'</p> + +<p>"'Or tools?' added Savage.</p> + +<p>"'Or to saw boards?' said my brother.</p> + +<p>"I trembled for the stream, and broke off the conversation, +complaining loudly that its detractors (its would-be +tyrants) were treading down my forget-me-nots. Alas! it was +but against them alone I could protect it. Before long there +came into our neighborhood a man whom I noticed more than +once hanging about the spot where the stream empties itself +into the sea. The fellow I plainly saw was neither seeking +for rhymes, nor indulging in dreams and memories upon its +banks,—he was not lulling thought to rest with the gentle +murmur of its waters. 'My good friend,' he was saying to the +stream, 'there you are, idling and meandering about, singing +to your heart's content, while I am working and wearing +myself out. I don't see why you should not help me a bit; +you know nothing of the work to be done, but I'll soon show +you. You'll soon know how to set about it. You must find it +dull to stay in this way, doing nothing,—it would be a +change for you to make files or grind knives.' Very soon +wheels of all kinds were brought to the poor stream. From +that day forward it has worked and turned a great wheel, +which turns a little wheel, which turns a grindstone; it +still sings, but no longer the same gently-monotonous song +in its peaceful melancholy. Its song is loud and angry +now,—it leaps and froths and works now,—it grinds knives! +It still crosses the meadow, and my garden, and the next +meadow; but there, the man is on the watch for it, to make +it work. I have done the only thing I could do for it. I +have dug a new bed for it in my garden, so that it may idle +longer there, and leave me a little later; but for all that, +it must go at last and grind knives. Poor stream! thou didst +not sufficiently conceal thy happiness in obscurity,—thou +hast murmured too audibly thy gentle music."</p></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="SIR_EMERSON_TENNANT_ON_AMERICAN_MISSIONS_IN_CEYLON" id="SIR_EMERSON_TENNANT_ON_AMERICAN_MISSIONS_IN_CEYLON"></a>SIR EMERSON TENNANT ON AMERICAN MISSIONS IN CEYLON.</h2> + + +<p>One of the most respectable persons employed in the English colonial +service, is Sir <span class="smcap">Emerson Tennant</span>, LL. D., K. C. B. &c., who was for +many years connected with the administration in Ceylon, and is now, we +believe, Governor of St. Helena. He has recently published a volume +entitled <i>Christianity in Ceylon</i>, in which there are some passages of +especial interest to American readers, displaying in a favorable +light, the services rendered to civilization by the missionaries of +this country. These parts of his work have attracted much +consideration. The <i>Dublin University Magazine</i> remarks:</p> + +<p>"We describe the American Mission, which acts under the direction of +one of the oldest and most remarkable of the existing associations for +the dissemination of Christianity, "The American Board of +Commissioners for Foreign Missions," whose head-quarters are at +Boston, in Massachusetts. The first settlers in Massachusetts, like +those of New England generally, were missionary colonists. Their +charter, given by Charles I., states that one of the objects of the +king and of the planters was the conversion of the natives to the true +faith; and the seal of the company thus incorporated bore the device +of a North American Indian, with the motto "<i>Come over and help us</i>." +It may be interesting to add, that the "pilgrim fathers" of the New +England States were, indirectly, the cause of the Protestant missions +of the Dutch. They were, as our author states, 'the first pioneers of +the Protestant world, and the first heralds of the Reformed religion +to the heathen of foreign lands. Their mission is more ancient than +the Propaganda of Rome, and it preceded by nearly a century any other +missionary association in Europe. It was encouraged by Cromwell, and +incorporated by Charles II.; and Cotton Mather records that it was the +example of the New England fathers, and their success amongst the +Indians, that first aroused the energy of the Dutch for the conversion +of the natives of Ceylon.'</p> + +<p>"We cannot doubt that amongst the main causes of the prosperity of +North America are, the permanence of religious feeling, and the +blessing attendant on the fact, that the missionary spirit has never +perished. The labors of this great people on their own vast continent +have been conducted with the greatest judgment, and marked by a +success which encouraged their extension in other lands. In the year +1812, they turned their attention to the East, and, under an act of +incorporation from the state of Massachusetts, commenced their +missionary efforts in the Old World. Their first missionaries to India +appeared there in 1812, but were ordered by the Governor-General to +leave Calcutta by the same vessel in which they had arrived. One of +them landing in Ceylon, on his voyage home, was so struck with the +openings which it presented for missionary enterprise, and so much +encouraged by the Governor, Sir Robert Brownrigg, to engage in it, +that, on his representations, the American Board, in 1816, sent out +three clergymen and their wives, who fixed their residence at Jaffina, +which has been ever since the scene of their remarkable labors. These +were reinforced in 1829, and for many years their establishment has +consisted of from seven to eleven ordained ministers, with a +physician, conductors of the press, and other lay assistants; these +are selected from Congregationalists and Presbyterians. It is +gratifying to be enabled to add, that a most cordial good-will<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span> and +desire to co-operate has from the beginning prevailed between them and +the other Protestant missionaries in their neighborhood. For thirty +years they have assembled periodically in a "missionary union," to +decide on measures and compare results. "With all of them education +is," as our author says, "a diurnal occupation; whilst in their purely +clerical capacity they have felt the necessity of proceeding with more +cautious circumspection, improving rather than creating opportunities, +relying less upon formal preaching than on familiar discourses, and +trusting more to the intimate exhortation of a few than to the effect +of popular addresses to indiscriminate assemblies.'</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"'The first embryo instruction is communicated by them in +free village schools, scattered everywhere throughout the +district, in which the children of the Tamils are taught in +their own tongue the simplest elements of knowledge, and the +earliest processes of education—to read from translations +of the Christian Scriptures, and to write their own +language, first by tracing the letters on the sand, and +eventually by inscribing them with an iron style upon the +prepared leaves of the <i>Palmyra palm</i>. It will afford an +idea of the extent and perseverance with which education has +been pursued in these primitive institutions, that, in the +free schools of the Americans alone, 4,000 pupils, of whom +one-fourth are females, are daily receiving instruction, and +upwards of 90,000 children have been taught in them since +their commencement, a proportion equal to one-half the +present population of the peninsula.'"</p></div> + +<p>"It was soon seen that, in addition to these primary schools, the +establishment of boarding schools was extremely desirable, for the +purpose of separating the pupils from the influence of idolatry. The +attempt was made, but proved to be attended with difficulties which +would have appeared to many insurmountable. In the first place, the +natives were suspicious, not conceiving that strangers could undertake +such toil, trouble, and expense, without an interested object. The +more positive difficulty was connected with caste, with the reluctance +of parents to permit their children to associate with those of a lower +rank.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"'This the missionaries overcame, not so much by inveighing +against the absurdity of such distinctions as by practically +ignoring them, except wherever expediency or necessity +required their recognition. In all other cases where the +customs and prejudices of the Tamils were harmless in +themselves, or productive of no inconvenience to others, +they were in no way contravened or prohibited; but as +intelligence increased, and the minds of the pupils became +expanded, the most distinctive and objectionable of them +were voluntarily and almost imperceptibly abandoned.</p> + +<p>"'When the boarders were first admitted to one of the +American schools at Batticotta, a cook-house was obliged to +be erected for them on the adjoining premises of a heathen, +as they would not eat under the roof of a Christian; but +after a twelvemonth's perseverance, the inconvenience +overcame the objection, and they removed to the refectory of +the institution. But here a fresh difficulty was to be +encountered; some of the high caste youths made an objection +to use the same wells which had been common to the whole +establishment; and it was agreed to meet their wishes by +permitting them to clear out one in particular, to be +reserved exclusively for themselves. They worked incessantly +for a day, but finding it hopeless to draw it perfectly dry, +they resolved to accommodate the difficulty, on the +principle, that having drawn off as much water as the well +contained when they began, the remainder must be +sufficiently pure for all ordinary uses.'"</p></div> + +<p>"In addition to these primary and boarding-schools, the American +Mission, in 1830, established schools for teaching English, and for +elementary instruction of a more advanced description. These were all +under a discipline avowedly Christian, yet the missionaries found that +they were able not only to enforce the fee demanded, but to maintain +their regulations without loss of numbers.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"'And it is a fact,' says Sir Emerson Tennent, 'suggestive +of curious speculation as to the genius and character of +this anomalous people, that in a heathen school recently +established by Brahmans in the vicinity of Jaffna, the +Hindoo Community actually compelled those who conducted it +to introduce the reading of the Bible as an indispensable +portion of the ordinary course of instruction.'"</p></div> + +<p>"This does not seem so strange to us. The shrewd Tamils, as we collect +from other observations in the work before us, perceived how the +Bible-reading children had improved in demeanor, conduct, and success +in life. For these same reasons, and possibly in some cases from a +deeper feeling never yet avowed, the Roman Catholic peasantry of +Ireland, before the introduction of the National System of Education, +and previously to, and, in many cases, long after, the expressed +hostility of their priesthood, anxiously sent their children to the +schools of the Kildare-place and the Hibernian Bible Societies.</p> + +<p>"The other missionaries, we need hardly say, were as active as the +Americans. After some years of further experience, they all felt the +necessity of founding educational institutions of a still more +advanced description for the instruction of the natives in their own +language. It became plain to them that, from physical as well as moral +causes, the conversion of the natives could be only hoped for through +the medium of their well-taught and well-trained countrymen. The +niceties of the language and their modes of thought presented +difficulties of a most serious character to others; the very terms of +the ordinary address of a missionary suggested ideas altogether +different from what he intended. Thus, when <span class="smcap">God</span> is spoken of, they +probably understand one of their own deities who yields to every vile +indulgence; by <span class="smcap">sin</span>, they mean ceremonial defilement, or evil committed +in a former birth, for which they are not accountable; <i>hell</i> with +them is only a place of temporary punishment; and <i>heaven</i> nothing +more than absorption, or the loss of individuality. Under these +impressions<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span> each of the missionary bodies at Jaffna formed for +themselves a collegiate institution, in which the best scholars from +their other schools were admitted to a still more advanced course, and +taught the sciences of Europe. That of the Church Missionary Society +of England was established at Nellore, but subsequently removed to +Chundically; the Wesleyans commenced theirs in the great square of +Jaffna; and that of the Americans was founded at Batticotta, in the +midst of a cultivated country, within sight of the sea, and at a very +few miles distant from the fort."</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"'It was opened in 1823, with about fifty students chosen +from the most successful pupils of all the schools in the +province; and the course of education is so comprehensive as +to extend over a period of eight years of study. With a +special regard to the future usefulness of its alumni in the +conflict with the errors of the Brahmanical system, the +curriculum embraces all the ordinary branches of historical +and classical learning, and all the higher departments of +mathematical and physical science, combined with the most +intricate familiarization with the great principles and +evidences of the Christian religion.</p> + +<p>"'The number which the building can accommodate is limited, +for the present, to one hundred, who reside within its +walls, and take their food in one common hall, sitting to +eat after the custom of the natives. For some years the +students were boarded and clothed at the expense of the +mission; but such is now the eagerness for instruction that +there are a multitude of competitors for every casual +vacancy; and the cost of their maintenance during the whole +period of pupilage is willingly paid in advance, in order to +secure the privilege of admission.</p> + +<p>"'Nearly six hundred students have been under instruction +from time to time since the commencement of the American +Seminary at Batticotta, and of these upwards of four hundred +have completed the established course of education. More +than one-half have made an open profession of Christianity, +and all have been familiarized with its doctrines, and more +or less imbued with its spirit. The majority are now filling +situations of credit and responsibility throughout the +various districts of Ceylon; numbers are employed under the +missionaries themselves, as teachers and catechists, and as +preachers and superintendents of schools; many have +migrated, in similar capacities, to be attached to Christian +missions on the continent of India; others have lent their +assistance to the missions of the Wesleyans and the Church +of England in Ceylon; and amongst those who have attached +themselves to secular occupations, I can bear testimony to +the abilities, the qualifications, and integrity, of the +many students of Jaffna, who have accepted employment in +various offices under the Government of the colony.'"</p></div> + +<p>"Another of the instruments of conversion adopted by these +indefatigable men is <i>the press</i>. They were long obliged to have their +tracts written out on <i>olahs</i>, or strips of the Palmyra leaf, which, +when the missionary took for distribution, were strung round the neck +of his horse. The printing establishment of the American Mission has +for many years given constant employment to upwards of eighty Tamil +workmen. Their publications are either religious or educational; and +one of their ulterior objects is to supersede the degraded legends +still in circulation. The natives of Ceylon, like most other Asiatics, +have a strong repugnance to reading. This, however, has been to some +extent already overcome, both on the continent of India and in Ceylon, +as is evident from the facts of the establishment of native presses in +Hindostan, and of the success of a missionary newspaper in Ceylon for +the last seven years, which has now more than seven hundred +subscribers, of whom five-sixths are Tamils. The Church Missionary +Society have also a press amongst the Tamils; the Wesleyans +established theirs in the Singhalese districts, and the Baptists have +one at work in Kandy. One of the greatest, among the many triumphs of +the missionaries in Ceylon, has been in the education of girls. The +position of woman in that island, as in most parts of the East, was +one of inferiority and toil. She was not permitted to sit at table +with the males, or even to eat in the presence of her husband. Her +education was so wholly neglected that, amongst the Tamils, no woman +knew her alphabet, except such as rather gave the accomplishment a bad +name—the dancing girls and prostitutes attached to the temples, who +learned to read and write that they might copy songs and the legends +of their gods. It was, however, plain that no extensive good would be +effected without the education of women. The male converts could not +get suitable wives, and the children would be in the hands of +idolaters. In addition to their natural influence in a family, the +women of the Tamils, where this new attempt in education was first +made, had rights of property, which, notwithstanding the inferiority +of their social position, gave them peculiar influence.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"'It is, we are told, a paramount object of ambition with +Tamil parents to secure an eligible alliance for their +daughters by the assignment of extravagant marriage +portions. These consist either of land, or of money secured +upon land; and as the law of Ceylon recognizes the absolute +control of the lady over the property thus conveyed to her +sole and separate use, the prevalence of the practice has, +by degrees, thrown an extraordinary extent of the landed +property of the country into the hands of the females, and +invested them with a corresponding proportion of authority +in its management.'"</p></div> + +<p>Impressed with the urgency of the object, the missionaries attempted +the establishment of female schools, and especially of boarding +schools, where Hindoo girls might be trained, and separated from evil +influences until they could be settled with the approbation of the +guardians. They had at first great difficulty in getting pupils, and +only enticed them by presents of dress, or some such cogent bribe, or +by engagements to give fortunes of five or six pounds to all who +remained in their institutions until suitably married. Even with these +allurements their early efforts promised no success. Parents were +inveighed against<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span> for allowing their daughters to be instructed, and +so strong was native prejudice that the children, when learning to +read, blushed with shame. These and other obstacles have been +surmounted, and, as the following extract shows, the missionaries have +no longer to allure, but must select their scholars. The Americans +made the first experiment at Oodooville, a few miles distant from the +fort of Jaffna:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"'The hamlet of Oodooville is in the centre of a tract of +very rich land, and the buildings occupied by the Americans +were originally erected by the Portuguese for a Roman +Catholic church, and the residence of a friar of the order +of St. Francis. It is a beautiful spot, embowered in trees, +and all its grounds and gardens are kept in becoming order, +with the nicest care and attention.</p> + +<p>"'The institution opened in 1824, with about thirty pupils, +between the ages of five and eleven; and this, after eight +years of previous exertion and entreaty, was the utmost +number of female scholars who could be prevailed on to +attend from the whole extent of the province. This +difficulty has been long since overcome. Instead of +solicitations and promises, to allure scholars, the +missionaries have long since been obliged to limit their +admissions to one hundred, the utmost that their buildings +can accommodate; and now, so eager are the natives to secure +education for their daughters, that a short time before my +visit, on the occasion of filling up some vacancies, upwards +of sixty candidates were in anxious attendance, of whom only +seventeen could be selected, there being room for no more. +The earliest inmates of the institution were of low castes +and poor; whereas the pupils and candidates now are, many of +them, of most respectable families, and the daughters of +persons of property and influence in the district.</p> + +<p>"'The course of instruction is in all particulars adapted to +suit the social circumstances of the community; along with a +thorough knowledge of the Scriptures and the principles of +the Christian religion, it embraces all the ordinary +branches of female education, which are communicated both in +Tamil and in English; and combined with this intellectual +culture, the girls are carefully trained, conformably to the +usages of their country, in all the discipline and +acquirements essential to economy and domestic enjoyments at +home. Of two hundred and fifty females who have been thus +brought up at Oodooville, more than half have been since +married to Christians, and are now communicating to their +children the same training and advantages of which they have +so strongly felt the benefit themselves.'"</p></div> + +<p>"The consequence of these proceedings is, that the number of +households is fast increasing, where the mother, trained in the habits +of civilized life, and instructed in the principles of Christianity, +is anxious to give to her children the like advantages."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="A_PAPER_OF_TOBACCO" id="A_PAPER_OF_TOBACCO"></a>A PAPER OF ... TOBACCO.</h2> + + +<p>We find a lively passage on tobacco in the pleasant new book by +Alphonse Karr. It must be borne in mind that, in France, tobacco is a +monopoly—and a very productive one—in the hands of government:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"There is a family of poisonous plants, amongst which we may +notice the henbane, the datura stramonium, and the tobacco +plant. The tobacco plant is perhaps a little less poisonous +than the datura, but it is more so than the henbane, which +is a violent poison. Here is a tobacco plant—as fine a +plant as you can wish to see. It grows to the height of six +feet; and from the centre of a tuft of leaves, of a +beautiful green, shoot out elegant and graceful clusters of +pink flowers.</p> + +<p>"For a long while the tobacco plant grew unknown and +solitary in the wilds of America. The savage to whom we had +given brandy gave us in exchange tobacco, with the smoke of +which they used to intoxicate themselves on grand occasions. +The intercourse between the two worlds began by this amiable +interchange of poisons.</p> + +<p>"Those who first thought of putting tobacco dust up their +noses were first laughed at, and then persecuted more or +less. James I., of England, wrote against snuff-takers a +book entitled <i>Misocapnos</i>. Some years later, Pope Urban +VIII. excommunicated all persons who took snuff in churches. +The Empress Elizabeth thought it necessary to add something +to the penalty of excommunication pronounced against those +who used the black dust during divine service, and +authorised the beadles to confiscate the snuff-boxes to +their own use. Amurath IV. forbade the use of snuff under +pain of having the nose cut of.</p> + +<p>"No useful plant could have withstood such attacks. If +before this invention a man had been found to say, Let us +seek the means of filling the coffers of the state by a +voluntary tax; let us set about selling something which +every body will like to do without. In America there is a +plant essentially poisonous; if from its leaves you extract +an empyreumatic oil, a single drop of it will cause an +animal to die in horrible convulsions. Suppose we offer this +plant for sale chopped up or reduced to a powder. We will +sell it very dear, and tell people to stuff the powder up +their noses.</p> + +<p>"'That is to say, I suppose, you will force them to do so by +law?'</p> + +<p>"'Not a bit of it. I spoke of a voluntary tax. As to the +portion we chop up, we will tell them to inhale it, and +swallow a little of the smoke from it besides.'</p> + +<p>"'But it will kill them.'</p> + +<p>"'No; they will become rather pale, perhaps feel giddy, spit +blood, and suffer from colics, or have pains in the +chest—that's all. Besides, you know, although it has been +often said that habit is second nature, people are not yet +aware how completely man resembles the knife, of which the +blade first and then the handle had been changed two or +three times. In man there is no nature left—nothing but +habit remains. People will become like Mithridates, who had +learnt to live on poisons.</p> + +<p>"'The first time that a man will smoke he will feel +sickness, nausea, giddiness, and colics; but that will go +off by degrees, and in time he will get so accustomed to it, +that he will only feel such symptoms now and then—when he +smokes tobacco that is bad, or too strong—or when he is not +well, and in five or six other cases. Those who take it in +powder will sneeze, have a disagreeable smell, lose the +sense of smelling, and establish in their nose a sort of +perpetual blister.'</p> + +<p>"'Then, I suppose it smells very nice.'</p> + +<p>"'Quite the reverse. It has a very unpleasant smell; but, as +I said, we'll sell it very dear, and reserve to ourselves +the monopoly of it.'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span></p> + +<p>"'My good friend,' one would have said to any one absurd +enough to hold a similar language, 'nobody will envy you the +privilege of selling a weed that no one will care to buy. +You might as well open a shop and write on it: Kicks sold +here; or, Such-a-one sells blows, wholesale and retail. You +will find as many customers as for your poisonous weed.'</p> + +<p>"Well! who would have believed that the first speaker was +right, and that the tobacco speculation would answer +perfectly! The kings of France have written no satires +against snuff, have had no noses cut off, no snuff-boxes +confiscated. Far from it. They have sold tobacco, laid an +impost on noses, and given snuff-boxes to poets with their +portraits on the lid, and diamonds all round. This little +trade has brought them in I don't know how many millions a +year. The potato was far more difficult to popularize, and +has still some adversaries."</p></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="LORD_JEFFREY_AND_JOANNA_BAILLIE" id="LORD_JEFFREY_AND_JOANNA_BAILLIE"></a>LORD JEFFREY AND JOANNA BAILLIE.</h2> + + +<p>Joanna Baillie's first volume of poems was severely criticised in the +<i>Edinburgh Review</i> by Jeffrey. In an article upon the deceased poetess +in <i>Chambers's Journal</i>, we have an account of her subsequent +relations with the reviewer. She visited Edinburgh in 1808.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"As she did not refuse to go into company, she could not be +long in that city without encountering Francis Jeffrey, the +foremost man in the bright train of <i>beaux-esprits</i> which +then adorned the society of the Scottish capital. He would +gladly have been presented to her; and if she had permitted +it, there is little doubt that in the eloquent flow of his +delightful and genial conversation, enough of the admiration +he really felt for her poetry must have been expressed, to +have softened her into listening at least with patience to +his suggestions for her improvement. But in vain did the +friendly Mrs. Betty Hamilton (authoress of 'The Cottagers of +Glenburnie') beg for leave to present him to her when they +met in her hospitable drawing-room; and equally in vain were +the efforts made by the good-natured Duchess of Gordon to +bring about an introduction which she knew was desired at +least by one of the parties. It was civilly but coldly +declined by the poetess; and though the dignified reason +assigned was the propriety of leaving the critic more +entirely at liberty in his future strictures than an +<i>acquaintance</i> might perhaps feel himself, there seems +little reason to doubt that soreness and natural resentment +had something to do with the refusal."</p> + +<p>"It was in the autumn of 1820 that Miss Baillie paid her +last visit to Scotland, and passed those delightful days +with Sir Walter Scott at Abbotsford, the second of which is +so pleasantly given in Mr. Lockhart's life of the bard. Her +friends again perceived a change in her manners. They had +become blander, and much more cordial. She had probably been +now too long admired and reverently looked up to not to +understand her own position, and the encouragement which, +essentially unassuming as she was, would be necessary from +her to reassure the timid and satisfy the proud. She had +magnanimously forgiven and lived down the unjust severity of +her Edinburgh critic, and now no longer refused to be made +personally known to him. He was presented to her by their +mutual friend, the amiable Dr. Morehead. They had much +earnest and interesting talk together, and from that hour to +the end of their lives entertained for each other a mutual +and cordial esteem. After this, Jeffrey seldom visited +London without indulging himself in a friendly pilgrimage to +the shrine of the secluded poetess; and it is pleasing to +find him writing of her in the following cordial way in +later years: "<i>London</i>, April 28, 1840.—I forgot to tell +you that we have been twice out to Hampstead to hunt out +Joanna Baillie, and found her the other day as fresh, +natural, and amiable as ever—and as little like a Tragic +Muse. Since old Mrs. Brougham's death, I do not know so nice +an old woman." And again, in January 7, 1842.—"We went to +Hampstead, and paid a very pleasant visit to Joanna Baillie, +who is marvellous in health and spirits, and youthful +freshness and simplicity of feeling, and not a bit deaf, +blind, or torpid.""</p></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="Authors_and_Books" id="Authors_and_Books"></a><i>Authors and Books.</i></h2> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Titus Tobler</span>, a Swiss savan, has just published a work entitled +<i>Golgotha, its Churches and Cloisters</i>, in the course of which he +undertakes the "Jerusalem question," or the discussion of the probable +localities of the Scripture narrative of the crucifixion. Among the +able German accounts of this treatise, which cannot fail to arrest the +attention of the sacred student, we find the following notice of +Professor Robinson, the first profound and adequate contemporary +authority upon the subject: "Until the American Robinson, all the +early comparisons and criticisms upon the holy sepulchre were based +much more upon instinct and furious sectarianism, than upon a generous +love of truth and a genuine insight into the matter. Only with +wearisome effort, and not without the consent of the whole Church +power, was Robinson's mighty grasp upon pious tradition repelled. In +the main question the learned Yankee was not altogether wrong. But he +is too rash in battle, too impatient, too reckless, too ambitious, and +his armor was evidently not proof in all parts. Even the knowledge of +the Semitic orient, of its antiquities and customs, seems, if we may +say so without offence to transatlantic vanity, a little threadbare. +But the Robinsonian breach in the wall was not to be entirely +plastered up and its traces concealed. This American has first +recognized the right way of breaking into the citadel of tradition; +others, with more or less skill, have followed his track and widened +the breach. But it was reserved for the inflexible ability of Dr. +Tobler to dig up the very foundations, although he is no centaur, no +giant, and in the pride of strength, does not scorn a childlike +faith."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Among recent German romances we note second and third editions of +<span class="smcap">Jeremias Gotthelf's</span> <i>Sylvester-Dream</i>, and the <i>Peasant's Mirror, or a +Life-History</i>. The author is not much known beyond Germany, but is +there recognized as having the greatest certainty and correctness in +delineation, the most genial principle, and the soundest and freshest +life of any contemporary writer. The Sylvester-Dream is as vague and +fantastic, and of the same electrical effect, as the similar sparkling +flights of Dickens and Jean Paul. <i>Uriel the Devil</i>, a satirical +romance, in eight pictures, bears the name of Kaulbach, but whether +the author is related to William Kaulbach, the great painter, we have +no means of ascertaining. This, with the <i>Memorabilia of a German +House-Servant</i> are spoiled by their imitations of Jean Paul, and the +latter is somewhat strongly infected with Hoffman's Phantasies. But +they are both books of more than common talent. Two romances by two +women are most curtly and contemptuously noticed, in a style of +uncourteous condemnation hardly to be paralleled in England or +America, in which countries the chivalry of private respect for the +fair sex always ameliorates condemnation of their writings. "Of these +two books there is little else to say than that they are moral and +respectable, and extremely well written for women. The former author +has the rare and memorable heroism in a woman to allow her heroine to +reach her thirty-fourth year."</p> + +<p>Levin Schuneking formerly Grand-Master at the Court of the Elector of +Cologne, has just published <i>The Peasant Prince</i>, a romance, called in +Germany his best work.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Kohl</span>, the traveller or writer of travels, has just published a book +upon the Rhine, which is not of the usual character of his works, as +the author perhaps feared too much the criticising contrast of Victor +Hugo's <i>Rhine</i>, to undertake a detailed and sprightly description of +the present life and aspect of the country. The new work is, in fact, +an attempt to portray, according to Ritter's principles, a famous +river region in its geological, historical and statistical relations; +and from this point of view to present it vividly to the mind. The +contents are simple and succinctly arranged, and the book is a signal +success in the popularization of the results of recent geographical +research. It has the same relation to the old river guide books, that +Ritter's philosophical geography has to the old geographies.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Anastasius Grun</span>, the famous German poet, has just edited the poetical +remains of Nicolaus Lenau, of whom Auerbach wrote a graceful +reminiscence for the German <i>Museum</i>, under the title of <i>Lenau's last +Summer</i>. The chief poem of the collection is entitled <i>Don Juan</i>, +which, although not fully finished, the German critics highly extol. +Soon after the death of Lenau, in a madhouse, last year, we gave some +account of him in the <i>International</i>.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Of Sir <span class="smcap">Charles Lyell's</span> Second Journey in America, which Mr. E. +Dieffenbach has rendered into German, the Germans say that its +geniality and <i>gentlemanliness</i>, its graceful and striking pictures of +the state of society, politics, and religion, and its popular +treatment of scientific subjects, make it altogether charming. A +reviewer notes what Lyell says of the universal tendency to read among +the American laboring classes, and quotes some interesting facts, as +that one house published eighty thousand copies of Eugene Sue's +Wandering Jew, in various forms and at various prices. The same house +had sold forty thousand copies of Macaulay's History of England, at +the end of the first three months, at prices varying from fifty cents +to four dollars, while other houses had sold twenty thousand copies, +and this sale of sixty thousand copies while Longman was selling +fifteen thousand at one pound twelve shillings.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The Countess <span class="smcap">Hahn-Hahn</span>, who for several years has occupied in German +literature a position corresponding to that of George Sand in France, +with whose views of life and society she strongly sympathized, and +whose "Faustina" and other works were republished here, has recently +become a Roman Catholic, as our readers will have seen, and has just +written the following letter to a Hamburg journal:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"To correct some misapprehension, I feel it to be my duty to +declare that the new edition of my complete works announced +by Alexander Duncker in Berlin is no new series, but an +edition with a new title. A new series of those writings +will never appear, as I no longer recognize as my own the +spirit in which they were written.</p> + +<p class="right"> +<span class="smcap">Ida, Countess Hahn-Hahn.</span>"<br /> +</p> +</div> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">David Copperfield</span> has been translated into German, with the +peculiarities of speech of the different classes of characters +unattempted. Old Pegotty and Ham speak "pure Castilian." It is easy to +see how the dramatic character of the book is thus lost. Indeed, +Dickens is almost the only very famous English author who is not much +translated. The Battle of Life, one of the least valuable and +characteristic of his works, is well known upon the Continent, because +it was so easy to translate. But what can a descendant of Dante, for +instance, ever know of the drolleries of Sam Weller? Fancy a +<i>spiritual</i> Frenchman trying to catch the fun of Pickwick!</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Mr. Judd's <i>Richard Edney</i> induces a German critic to say of him, +"This is a new English poet of the Carlyle and Emerson school, who, +inspired by the example of Jean Paul, turn the English language +topsy-turvy, and introduce a jargon that makes us satisfied with our +own romantic barbarism."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Mrs. <span class="smcap">S. C. Hall's</span> <i>Sorrows of Women</i> has been also translated into +German, and is highly praised.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>In Vienna, most of the recent publications have more or less relation +to affairs. There is very little of pure literature. M. de Zsedényi, +one of the most capable Hungarian political writers, has published a +work entitled <i>Responsibility of the Cabinet and the State of +Hungary</i>. The author of <i>The Genesis of the Revolution</i>, (supposed to +be Count Hartig, who was a Minister without portfolio under Prince +Metternich) has again appeared before the public with 146 closely +printed pages of <i>Night Thoughts</i>, some of which had better never have +seen the light of day. A Mr. Schwarz has published a work advocating +"protection," and in it he spares neither England nor the Austrian +Minister of Commerce. Free trade notions have indeed been attacked in +a score of books by continental thinkers lately, and free trade +opinions seem to have received, throughout Europe, a most decided +check.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The late Prince <span class="smcap">Valdimar</span>, of Russia, made three or four years ago a +journey to India, and besides taking part with the British army in +sundry engagements, occupied himself busily in investigating the +manners and customs of the people, the antiquities, history, and +natural productions of the country. He wrote an account of his +journey, and illustrated it with numerous drawings. His family is now +causing this to be printed and the drawings to be engraved, and in a +short time the work will be completed. Only three hundred copies are +to be struck off, and they are to be presented to royal and +illustrious personages. The getting up of the publication will cost +40,000 thalers.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">M. Leon de Monbeillard</span> has written a little treatise upon the <i>Ethics +of Spinoza</i>, in which—being a spiritualist who admits the dogma of +the creation and of human personality—he is said to have refuted the +great philosopher, yet without calumniating or disfiguring his +doctrines, and with a constant admiration of all that is truly +admirable in Spinoza.</p> + +<p>The work has not yet crossed the sea, but we cannot help thinking that +the colossal views of so great a mind are not to be entirely disproved +in the delicate dimensions of an "<i>opuscule</i>," as the able little +treatise of M. Montbeillard is called by the critics.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Joseph Russegger</span>, imperial director of the mines at Schemnitz, has +published the results of five years' travel in Europe, Asia, and +Africa, comprising a universal scientific and artistic as well as +social and picturesque view of those countries. It is in four volumes, +very splendidly illustrated in all these departments, and is published +at a cost of forty dollars.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Dr. <span class="smcap">David Friedrich Strauss</span>, the famous rationalist, has published a +work entitled <i>Christian Marklein</i>, a picture of life and character +from the present time, giving charming if not very new views of the +Wurtemberg theological schools.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>In the <i>German Universities</i>, it appears from the census just taken, +with the exceptions of those of Königsberg, Kiel, and Rostock, the +numbers for which have not been officially returned, there were for +the last term on the registers 11,945 students. The universities may +be classed, according to the number of students at each, in this +order: Berlin, Munich, Bonn, Leipsic, Breslau, Tubingen, Göttingen, +Wurzburg, Halle, Heidelberg, Giessen, Erlangen, Friburg, Jena, +Marburg, Greifswalde. Berlin has 2,107 students, and Greifswalde only +189. The number studying the law is 3,973; of theological students, +2,539; pursuing the study of philosophy and philology, 2,357; medical +students, 2,146; and there are 549 engaged in political economy. Halle +reckons the greatest proportional number of theological students, +there being 330 out of a total of 597; Heidelberg has most students of +law; Wurzburg, most of medicine; and Jena, most students of theology. +The greatest numbers of foreign students are to be found at +Heidelberg, Gottingen, Jena, Wurzburg, and Leipsic.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The <i>Independence Belge</i> gives an account of Frau Pfeiffer, a woman +who left Vienna several years ago to travel alone in the most distant +and unfrequented parts of the world. After visiting Palestine and +Egypt, Scandinavia and Iceland, she landed in Brazil, penetrated the +primitive forests, and lived among the natives; from Valparaiso she +traversed the Pacific to Otaheite, thence to China, Singapore, Ceylon, +Hindostan, to the caves of Adjunta and Ellora to Bombay, whence she +sailed up the Tigris, to Bagdad, and then entered upon the arduous +journey to Babylon, Nineveh, and into Kurdistan; and passing to the +Caucasus, she embarked for Constantinople, visiting Greece in her way +home to Germany. She is now in London, visiting the Great Exposition.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ferdinand Hiller</span>, Superintendent of the Cologne Musical Academy, and a +contemporary and friend of Mendelssohn, whom, in the beginning, it was +supposed he would surpass as a composer, has been recently in Paris, +renewing his old experiences. He saw there most of the famous literary +and artistic notabilities, and gossips pleasantly about them in the +<i>feuilleton</i> of a German journal. He saw Henry Heine, whose body is +almost dead, but whose mind is as vigorous as ever. Hiller says that +Heine chatted with him about God and himself, of the King of Prussia, +and of Hiller—of the Frankfort Parliament and his own songs. Heine's +features, he says, are interesting, and even more beautiful than they +were formerly. The fallen cheeks leave the noble oval of the head and +the delicately chiselled nose mournfully apparent. The eyes are +closed. He can only see with the left, by elevating the lid with his +finger. He wears a close-trimmed beard, and his hair is as brown and +luxuriant as ever. The slim white hand is ideally beautiful. It +belongs, according to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span> the doctrine of Carns, to the class of the +purely psychological. Heine had just written a song for a German +composer; and that no poet can sing more sweetly for music, the many +of his verses which Schubert has "married to immortal" tune +sufficiently indicate. Mendelssohn also composed the most dreamily +delicate music to Heine's "Moonlight on the Ganges."</p> + +<p>Ingres, the painter, now seventy years old, the pride and model of the +severe classicists of the French school, is a comely old man, with +rich dark hair, luminous eye, and smooth brow. He is still light and +active in movement, and a genial serenity broods over his whole +character and manner. His love of music is no less enthusiastic than +that of a lover for his mistress. The great German composers are great +gods to Ingres. The remembrance of a beautiful sonata fills his eyes +with tears. Ingres has recently finished a portrait, which is not +inferior to any thing he has ever done.</p> + +<p>Of musical men, Hiller saw Halevy, a successful composer and genial +companion, with a gentle strain of irony in his conversation. Hector +Berlioz has not grown to be fifty without some of the snowy tracks of +time, but the volcanic genius is still alive. His conversation is like +an eruption, now a burning lava-stream of glowing inspiration, now +sulphurous mockery and scorn, and now, wide-flying, a shower of sharp +stones of criticism. He tells the most laughable stories of his London +life, and his musical difficulties and experiences there. In Paris he +is only librarian of the "Conservatoire," and director of great +concerts.</p> + +<p>Jules Janin, the sparkling "J. J." of the <i>Journal des Débats</i>, and +the grand seigneur of the Parisian <i>feuilletonistes</i>, leads the most +loitering, pleasant life, and grows merry and fat thereby. He sits +upon a luxurious ottoman, wrapped in a gorgeous <i>robe de chambre</i>, by +the fire-place of his beautifully adorned study, and there among his +books and bijoux of taste and art, gives audience to all the world. He +has visits without end. He gives instruction and advice, hears all +that every body has to say, applauds extravagantly, as he writes, all +things in this world and some more, until it is time to go to dinner, +or to see a new vaudeville. He has beside a beautiful wife, and +suffers with the gout. Could his cup be fuller?</p> + +<p>The poet Beranger, too, who seems to Hiller the songfullest of +song-writers, charmed him by the gravity, and sweetness, and nobility +of his character. Beranger received him quietly at Passy, near Paris, +where he resides, a hale old man of more than seventy years. His hair +is white, but his face has the freshness of blooming health. In his +features there is a remarkable blending of geniality and intelligent +sharpness. They are largely moulded, and their general expression is +as generous, fine, and graceful as his verses. The perfect simplicity +of his household is very striking. The only hints of any luxury are +some medallion portraits, among which Hiller observed Napoleon and +Lamartine. Yet this severity is so evidently the result of taste and +not of poverty, that it has no unpleasant effect. The beauty and +richness of his conversation filled his visitor with the greatest +regret that he could not record it all. His first great remembrance is +the destruction of the Bastille. His essay in literature was by the +songs which circulated universally in manuscript before they were +printed. But his literary ambition was toward works of great scope and +extent, and it was not until after thirty years of age that he felt +distinctly what he could do best. Of his songs he said, "I present to +myself a song, as a great composition—I sketch a complete plan, +beginning, middle, and end, and make the refrain the quintessence of +the whole."</p> + +<p>While Beranger was finding a letter, he opened a drawer, in which +Hiller saw scraps of song and sketches of poems, which he longed to +seize, as a wistful boy would grab at the money piles in a banker's +window. The following is the letter in which Beranger speaks of the +Marseillaise:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"I thank you, Madame, for the pleasant letter which you +addressed to me. It has revealed to me a noble heart, and +although I do not believe such hearts as rare as many say, +it is always a fair fortune to meet them.</p> + +<p>"What you say of the Marseillaise is entirely just. But +remember, Madame, that it is the people itself, which always +selects its songs, words, and melodies, uninfluenced by any +one in the world. Once made, this choice endures, with +authority even among the later generations, whose experience +would not have made it.</p> + +<p>"I have often enough thought about a new song of the kind, +but I am too old now, and the circumstances of the time have +robbed my voice of power. You, Madame, saw the true thought +of the song which should be now sung, and I lament that you +find the poetical harness not flexible enough for it.</p> + +<p>"As to your remarks upon my new songs, I must say that I +trouble myself as little about the destiny of my younger +daughters as about that of their elder sisters. And I am +surprised that you speak to me of a Lierman, who should have +known me. Excuse, Madame, my delay in acknowledging and +thanking you for your letter, and believe me your devoted,</p> + +<p class="right"> +<span class="smcap">Beranger</span>."<br /> +</p> + +</div> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>A recent Italian translation of the <i>Diplomats and Diplomacy of +Italy</i>, which first appeared in Professor Von Raumer's <i>Pocket Book</i> +for 1841, contains three hitherto unprinted MSS. from the Venetian +archives. They are curious and interesting, as indicating the strict +surveillance which the republic maintained, by means of its +ambassadors, over the whole world of the period.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. Willis's</span> <i>Hurry-Graphs</i> have a French rival in the <i>Pensées d'un +Emballeur</i>, by M. Commerson, chief editor of the <i>Tintamarre</i> (Paris +journal.) They are called fantastic, original and forcible.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>A work to create some surprise, coming from Spain, is the <i>Persecution +of the Spanish Protestants by Philip the Second</i>, by Don <span class="smcap">Adolpho de +Castro</span>. The name of Castro is honorably distinguished in Spanish +literature. The present author is a grandson, we believe, of Rodriguez +de Castro, who wrote the <span class="smcap">Biblioteca Española</span>. He displays abilities +and a temper suitable for the task he attempted; he has joined to +careful and intelligent research a bravery of characterization which +quite relieves his work from the censures which belong to most Spanish +compositions of its class. That he could print in Madrid a work in +which statecraft and ecclesiastical persecutions are so frankly dealt +with, is a fact of more significance than a dozen such revolutions as +have vexed the slumbers of other states. In Spain, above all +countries, the spread of a taste for historical studies must be +regarded as pregnant with important consequences. It shows that the +barriers of ignorance and self-conceit, which have so long isolated +that country from the rest of Europe, are beginning to be effectually +broken down. To the common Protestant reader, indeed, De Castro's work +will appear studiously moderate, or perhaps timid. But it should be +remembered that it was written for a public which is four or five +centuries behind our own, in all that constitutes true liberty and +enlightenment; and what would appear most gratuitous cowardice here +may easily enough be remarkable courage in Spain. To speak in favor of +Protestantism at all, still more to become the biographer of the +Protestant martyrs, is an undertaking which demands from a Spaniard, +even of the present day, no ordinary amount of resolution. And we +should be by no means surprised to hear that De Castro has been, in +one way or another, made to pay some penalty of his rash enterprise. +That it is both a dangerous and an unpopular one is manifest from the +caution with which historical as well as religious topics are treated. +Compiling what we cannot better characterize than as a Spanish +supplement to Fox's "Book of Martyrs," the author nowhere professes +himself a Protestant. And the slow and gradual way in which he unmasks +the character of Philip II., shows how haughty and sensitive are the +public whom he has undertaken to disabuse of a portion of the +inveterate pride and prejudice which they nourish on all subjects +affecting their church or their country. On the whole, however, though +the Protestant reader will occasionally desiderate a little more +warmth and indignation when chronicling such atrocities, we should say +that the book rather gains than loses by this studied moderation both +in tone and opinions. It certainly gains in dignity and +impressiveness; and it is vastly better adapted to make its way with +the author's countrymen, than if he had betrayed at the outset a +sectarian bias, which would have revolted them, before they had time +to make acquaintance with the sad and sanguinary events of which he is +the historian. The ground gone over is necessarily much the same as in +M'Crie's <i>History of the Reformation in Spain</i>, a work which possibly +suggested the undertaking, and to which De Castro gives due credit for +learning and ability. His advantage over the Scottish historian +consists in his command of a variety of documents in print and in +manuscript, to which access could be had only in Spain, especially the +publications of the Spanish reformers themselves, which are +exceedingly rare in consequence of the pains taken to destroy them by +the Inquisition. The most remarkable result obtained by De Castro's +researches, and the feature in his work for which he claims the +greatest credit is the new light he has thrown on the history of Don +Carlos. But unfortunately the question as to the Protestantism of that +prince remains in much the same obscurity as before. His having been +tainted by heretical opinions would aid certainly in accounting for +his father's malignity towards him; but otherwise there seems to be no +proof of the fact; and our own opinion is, that his tolerant views as +to the treatment of the Flemish provinces were misconstrued into bias +towards Protestant doctrines. The inference relied on by De Castro and +others, that if he had remained Catholic he must have shared his +father's extravagant bigotry, is lame. Don Carlos did no more than +follow the usual course of heirs apparent when he disapproved of his +father's tyranny; and his sympathies with Aragon are not less marked +than those with Flanders.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Longworth</span>, who distinguished himself in the Hungarian troubles, is +writing a history of them. There is promise of so many books upon the +subject that we shall be able to find out nothing about it. By the +way, we wonder that no one has yet chosen for a motto to place upon +his title-page, this sentence, which Lord Bolingbroke wrote more than +a hundred years ago:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"<i>I mean to speak of the troubles in Hungary. Whatever they +become in their progress, they were caused originally by the +usurpations and persecutions of the emperor. And when the +Hungarians were called rebels first, they were called so for +no other reason than this, that they would not be slaves</i>."</p></div> + +<p>It is from his <i>Letters on History</i>, and occurs where he has been +speaking of the hostility of foreign powers to Austria.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">A penny magazine</span>, in the Bengalese language, is to be established in +Calcutta, under the editorship of Baboo Rajendralal Mittra, the +librarian of the Asiatic Society. It is to be illustrated by +electrotypes executed in England, of woodcuts which have already +appeared in the <i>Penny Magazine</i>, the <i>Saturday Magazine</i>, and the +<i>Illustrated News</i>.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">A native</span> of India has translated the tragedy of <i>Othello</i> into +Bengalee Othello's cognomen in the Oriental version is Moor Bahadoor +(General Moor).<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">In Italy</span>, at Turin and Florence, a great number of valuable works have +been issued, illustrative of the recent revolutions. They do not claim +to be histories, for history is impossible, while events are +contemporary and cannot be contemplated from a universal point of +principle and analysis. But these volumes are what the French with +their happy facility would call studies for history. They are the +material from which the great historic artists must compose their +pictures—they are the diary of the movement—they follow all the +changes of the time, hopeful or despondent, with the fidelity and +closeness of an Indian upon the trail. We have seen several of these +publications, and hope ere many months to see a treatise upon the +republican movement in Europe from a pen well able to sketch it, and +which is fed by ink which is never for a moment red.</p> + +<p>The largest and most important of these works is that of M. Gualterio, +just published in Florence, which comprises several letters of the +Austrian lackey, Francis IV., Duke of Modenas, and throws light upon +many of the darkest passages of the dark Austria-Italico policy. Among +other letters, also, one of the most remarkable is that of the +Cardinal Gonsalvi, well known as the able and humane Prime Minister of +Pius VII., and to whose memory there is now upon the walls of St. +Peter's a monument by Thorwaldsen, of which a statue of the Cardinal +is part. This letter speaks of the miserable conduct of the political +trials, and "justice," he says, "charity, the most ordinary decency +demands that all humanity shall not be so trampled under foot. What +will the English and French journals say—not the Austrian, when they +learn of this massacre of the innocents." This was thirty years ago. +But at this moment, were there an able and humane minister at the +Vatican, how truly might he repeat Gonsalvi's words!</p> + +<p>It is in works like these, and in the journals and pamphlets published +during the intensity of the struggle, that the still-surviving Italian +genius, which it has been so long the northern policy to smother and +repress, betrayed itself. Nor among these works, as striking another +key, ought we to omit the Souvenirs of the War of Lombardy by M. de +Talleyrand-Perigord. Duke of Dino—and the history of the Revolution +of Rome by Alphonse Balleydier. The Souvenirs are devoted to the glory +of the unhappy King Charles Albert, the dupe of his own vanity and the +victim of his own weakness.</p> + +<p>Upon the pages of M. le Duc de Dino, however, he blazes very +brilliantly as a martyr—martyr of a cause hopeless even in the first +flush of success—martyr of an army without enthusiasm, of a +liberalism without freedom or heroism. The English royalists, the +reader will remember, were fond of the same title for the unhappy +Charles I.</p> + +<p>In M. Balleydier's history of the Roman revolution, Rossi is the +central figure, in whose fate there was something extremely heroic, +because he had received information, just as he quitted the Pope's +palace to go to the assembly, from a priest who had heard it in +confidence, that he was to be attacked, and he must have known the +Italian, and especially the Roman character, sufficiently to have felt +assured of his fate. After hearing the priest, Rossi said to him +calmly: "I thank you, Monseigneur, the cause of the Pope is the cause +of God," and stepping into his carriage drove to the palace of the +Cancelleria, at whose door he fell dead, by a stroke that wounded much +more mortally the cause which condemned him, than the cause he +espoused.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>With all our waste of money, and continual boasts of encouraging +individual merit, we have not yet a single pension in this country +except to homicides. "They manage these things better in France." A +return just published in the official <i>Moniteur</i>, shows that one +department of the government, that of Public Instruction, distributes +the following pensions to literary persons: five of from $400 to $480 +a year; nine of $300 to $360; twenty-nine of $200 to $240; thirty-four +of $120 to $180; and fifteen of $40 to $100. To the widows and +families of deceased authors, two of $400 to $450; six of $300 to +$360; seventeen of $200 to $240; twenty-five of $120 to $180; and +thirty-one of $40 to $100. In addition to this, it may be mentioned, +that the same department distributes a large sum annually, under the +title of "Encouragements," to authors in temporary distress, or +engaged in works of literary importance and but small pecuniary +profit. It also awards several thousands to learned societies, for +literary and scientific missions, purchases of books, &c. The +department of the Interior gives $2,500 a year in subscriptions to +different works, and nearly $30,000 for "indemnities and assistance to +authors." The other departments of the government also employ +considerable sums in purchasing books, and in otherwise encouraging +literary men. It is said indeed to be no unusual thing for an author, +laboring under temporary inconvenience, to apply for a few hundred, +or, in some cases, thousand francs, and they are almost always +awarded. No shame whatever is attached to the application, and no very +extraordinary credit to the gift. Surely, France must be a Paradise +for authors.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">A bookseller</span> in Paris announces: "Reflections upon my conversations +with the Duke de la Vauguyon, by Louis-Augustus Dauphin, (Louis XVI.,) +accompanied by a fac simile of the MS., and with an introduction by <span class="smcap">M. +Falloux</span>, formerly Minister of Public Instruction." Falloux is a +churchman of the stamp of Montalembert. We are apt to doubt the +genuineness of these luckily discovered MSS. of eminent persons. We +have no more faith in this case than we had in that of the Napoleon +novels, mentioned in the last <i>International</i>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The late M. De <span class="smcap">Balzac</span>, who, besides being one of the cleverest writers +of the age, was a brilliant man of society, and a very notorious +<i>roué</i>, left, it appears, voluminous memoirs, to be printed without +erasure or addition, and his friends are much alarmed by the prospect +of their appearance. It is said that his custom of extorting letters +from his friends upon any subject at issue, under pretence of +possessing an imperfect memory, and his method of classing them, will +render his memoirs one of the completest scandalous <i>tableaux</i> of the +nineteenth century that could ever be presented to the contemplation +of another age. Opposition to the publication has already been +offered, but without success, and the princess-widow is busily engaged +with the preparations for printing, intending to have the memoirs +before the world early in June. They extend minutely over more than +twenty years.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">M. E. Quinet</span>, who was long associated with Michelet, in the College of +France, and who is known as a writer by his <i>Alemagne et Italie, +Ultramontanisme, Vacances en Espagne</i>, etc. has published in Paris +<i>L'Enseignement du Peuple</i>. "On the 24th day of February, 1848," he +says, "a social miracle places in the hands of France the control of +its destiny. France, openly consulted, replies by taking up a position +in the scale of nations between Portugal and Naples. There must be a +cause of this voluntary servitude; the object of these pages is to +discover this cause, and, if possible, to protect futurity against the +effects of its operation." This is the problem he proposes to solve, +and he concludes that the important secret is in the fact, that the +"national religion is in direct contradiction with the national +revolution." "Chained by the circumstance of its religion to the +middle ages, France believes that it can march onward to the end of a +career opened to it solely because of its protest against every great +principle of government which those ages held sacred." He has worked +ten years, he tells us, to demonstrate two things: The first, that +catholic states are all perishing; the second, that no political +liberty can be realized in those states. "I have shown," he continues, +"Italy the slave of all Europe, Spain a slave within, Portugal a slave +within and without, Ireland a slave to England, Poland a slave to +Russia, Bohemia, Hungary, slaves of Austria—Austria herself, the +mother of all slavery, a slave to Russia. Looking for similar proofs +out of Europe, I have shown in America, on the one hand, the +increasing greatness of the heretical United States; on the other +hand, the slavery of the catholic democracies and monarchies of the +south: <i>in the former a</i> <span class="smcap">Washington</span>, <i>in the second a</i> <span class="smcap">Rosas</span>." M. +Quinet considers that the only remedy applicable to an evil of this +magnitude is the utter separation of church and state. Leave but the +slightest connection between the two, and the former will inevitably +overpower the latter. The one is a compact, organized, single-minded +body; the other is scattered, loosely put together, swayed to and fro +by every change in the political atmosphere, and can offer no +resistance that is sufficient to oppose the steady, unremittent +attacks of its enemy. The two, therefore, must not be placed in +collision. The very indifference manifested towards the national +religion by the great bulk of the French people is the cause why so +much danger is to be apprehended from the efforts of the church. +Because a religion is dead, says M. Quinet, there is the danger. A +living religion, like that of the puritans, may certainly mould the +government into a despotic form, but it communicates to it, at least, +a portion of its own power and energy, whilst a dead religion +infallibly occasions death to the state and to the people with which +it is politically and organically united. He argues the whole subject +with eloquent force, and with not a little of the earnestness which +reminds the reader of his personal controversies with the Roman +Catholic Church.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>A history of <i>Marie Stuart</i>, by I. M. Dargaud, has just been published +in Paris, and for its brilliancy, completeness, clearness, and +impartiality, attracts much attention. Queen Mary of Scotland was one +of the famously beautiful women whose history is romance. She must be +named with the heroines of history and the figures of poetry, with +Helen, and Aspasia, and Cleopatra. Certainly, we trace no more +sparkling and sorrowful career than hers upon the confused page of +history, and our admiration, condemnation, surprise, sorrow and +delight, fall, summed in a tear, upon her grave. In this work it +appears that she was undoubtedly privy to the death of Darnley. During +his assassination, she was dancing at Holyrood. The fearful +fascination of a brigand like Bothwell, for so proud and passionate a +nature as Mary's, is well explained by M. Dargaud. He is just, also, +to her own tragedy, the long and bitter suffering, the betrayal of +friends; the final despair, and the laying aside two crowns to mount +the scaffold. She died nobly, and as most of the illustrious victims +of history have died; as if nature, unwilling that they should live, +would yet compassionately show the world in their ending, that heroism +and nobility were not altogether unknown to them.</p> + +<p><i>Apropos</i> of this history of Queen Mary, Lamartine has written a +letter to Beranger, which praises the work exceedingly, but much more +glorifies himself. The letter is a perfect specimen of that vanity, +wherein only Lamartine is sublime: "Ah! if you or I had had such a +heroine at twenty years, what epic poems and what songs would have +been the result!"</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">The Count Montalembert</span>, the fervid champion of Catholicism in the +French chamber, has just published a work, entitled <i>The higher and +lower Radicalism: in its enmity to Religion, Right, Freedom and +Justice, in France, Switzerland and Italy</i>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Although <span class="smcap">M. Guizot</span> appears to be as busily engaged as ever in +politics, the advertisements of the booksellers would induce a belief +that his whole attention is given to literary studies. He has just +published <i>Etudes Biographiques sur la Révolution de l'Angleterre</i>, +which, with his sketch of General Monk, he says, "form a sort of +gallery of portraits of the English Revolution, in which personages of +the most different characters appear together—chiefs or champions of +sects or parties, parliamentarians, cavaliers, republicans, levellers, +who, either at the end of the political conflicts in which they were +engaged, or when in retirement towards the close of their lives, +resolved to describe themselves, their own times, and the part they +played therein. In the drawing together of such men," he adds, "and in +the mixture of truth and vanity which characterize such works, there +is, if I do not deceive myself, sufficient to interest persons of +serious and curious minds, especially among us and in these times; for +in spite of the profound diversity of manners, contemporary +comparisons and applications will present themselves at every step, +whatever may be the pains taken not to seek them." The studies here +collected we suppose are not new; they are doubtless the articles +which the author contributed to the <i>Biographie Universelle</i> and other +works before he became a minister—perhaps, as in the cases of his +"Monk" and "Washington," with scarcely a word of alteration. The work +is, however, interesting. The period of English history to which it +refers has been profoundly studied by Guizot, and it would probably be +impossible to select a mode of treating it that would admit of more +effective or attractive delineation. The life of Ludlow appears as the +first of the series.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>French Literature tends in a remarkable degree towards monarchical +institutions. Guizot and his associates publicly advocate the +Restoration. M. Cousin has published a new argument against +Republicanism, and M. Romieu, whose curious book, which men doubted +whether to receive as a jest or an earnest argument, <i>The Era of the +Cæsars</i>—in which he declared his belief that the true and only law +for France is <i>force</i>—is before the public again, in a volume +entitled <i>Le Spectre Rouge de 1852</i>. He predicts the subversion of all +order, and such terrible scenes as have never been witnessed even in +France, unless some one bold, resolute, scorning all "constitutional" +figments, and relying solely on his soldiers—some one who shall say +<i>L'état c'est moi!</i> shall save France. A Cromwell, a Francia, or in +default of such Louis Napoleon—any one who will constitute himself an +autocrat, will become the saviour of France!</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The <span class="smcap">Count De Jarnac</span>, formerly secretary and <i>chargé d'affaires</i> of the +French embassy in London, has published a novel which is well spoken +of, entitled the <i>Dernier d'Egmont</i>.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>A French traveller in upper Egypt has collected for the Parisian +Ethnological Museum copies of many curious inscriptions upon the walls +of the great temple of Philæ. Among others, there is the modern one of +Dessaix, which the Parisians think "reflects the grandiose simplicity +of the Republic." "The sixth year of the Republic, the thirteenth +Messidor, a French army commanded by Bonaparte descended upon +Alexandria; twenty days after, the army having routed the Mamelukes at +the Pyramids, Dessaix, commanding the first division, pursued them +beyond the Cataracts, where he arrived the thirteenth Ventose of the +year seven, with Brigadier-Generals Davoust, Friant, and Belliard. +Donzelot, chief of the staff, La Tournerie, commanding the artillery, +Eppler, Chief of the twenty-first Light Infantry. The thirteenth +Ventose, year seven of the Republic, third March, year of J.C., 1799. +Engraved by Casteix." The last date, however, strikes us as a base +compromise to the <i>temporal</i> prejudices of the world, on the part of +the author of this "simple and grandiose" inscription.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>M. de Saint Beauve has published in Paris some hitherto inedited MSS. +of <span class="smcap">Mirabeau</span>, consisting of <i>Dialogues</i> between the great orator and +the celebrated Sophie (Madame de Monnier), written when Mirabeau was +confined in the fortress of Vincennes, principally, it seems, from the +pleasure he had in reflecting on the object of his passion. He gives +an account of their first meeting, the growth of their love, and their +subsequent adventures, in the language, no doubt, as well as he could +recollect, that had passed between them, in conversation or in +letters. There is not much that is absolutely new in these papers, or +that throws any peculiar light on Mirabeau's character, but nothing +could have been written by him which is without a certain interest, +especially upon the subject of these <i>Dialogues</i>. Circulating-library +people had always a morbid desire to see illustrious personages while +under the influence of the tender passion.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><i>Progression Constante de la Démocratie pendant soixante ans</i>, is the +title of a new Parisian brochure well noticed. Of the same character +is the <i>Le Mont-Saint-Michel</i>, by Martin Bernard, a serial publication +devoted to the details of the sufferings of Democratic martyrs. The +author is now in exile, having shown himself too republican for the +present Republic.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Victor Hugo's paper, <i>L'Evènement</i>, says of Louis Philippe's Gallery +at the Palais Royal, which the heirs now wish to sell, that it has two +paintings of Gericault's, the Chasseur and the Cuirassier, and that +they symbolize the two phases of the Empire, victorious France and the +Invasion. He hopes, therefore, that they will not be permitted to go +out of France.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>William Howitt is writing a life of George Fox.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Mr. Ticknor's <i>History of Spanish Literature</i> is reviewed in <i>La Revue +des Deux Mondes</i> by <span class="smcap">Prosper Merimee</span>, of whose recent travels in the +United States we have had occasion to speak once or twice in <i>The +International</i>. M. Merimee is the author of a <i>Life of Peter the +Cruel</i>, of which a translation has been published within a few months +by Bentley in London, and he professes to be thoroughly acquainted +with Spanish literature, from a loving study of it while residing in +Spain. Perhaps he had some thought of writing its history himself; he +certainly seems to bestow unwillingly the praises he is compelled to +give Mr. Ticknor, whose extraordinary merits he however distinctly +admits. "The writer of this History," he says, "has gone into immense +researches; he has applied himself deeply and conscientiously to the +Castilian language and the Spanish authors: he has read, he has +examined, every thing that the English, French, and Germans, had +published on this subject. He possessed an advantage over the critics +of old Europe—that of being able to treat literary questions without +mixing up with them recollections of national rivalries." He concludes +his article by saying, "This work is an inestimable repertory; it must +be eminently useful in a library. It comprises very good biographical +notices of the Spanish authors, and numerous abstracts which obviate +the necessity of reference to the original authorities. The +translations, which are copious, are executed with surpassing taste, +to afford an idea of the style of the Spanish poets. Thanks to the +flexibility of the English language, and the ability or command of the +author in using it, the translations are of signal fidelity and +elegance. The rhythm, the flow, the idiomatic grace and <i>curiosa +felicitas</i>, are rendered in the most exact and the happiest manner."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>By a letter in the London <i>Times</i>, signed <span class="smcap">Ernesto Susanni</span>, it appears +that <span class="smcap">M. Libri</span> may be a very much wronged person. The readers of the +<i>International</i> will remember his trial, a few months ago, and his +condemnation to ten years' imprisonment (in default of judgment), and +deprivation of the various high offices he held, for having, as was +alleged, stolen from the Mazarine Library, besides others, the +following volumes: <i>Petrarca, gli Triomphi</i>, 1475: Bologna, in folio; +<i>Pamphyli poetæ lepidissimi Epigrammatum libri quatuor; Faccio degli +Uberti, opera chiamata Ditta Munde Venezia</i>, 1501, quarto; <i>Phalaris +Epistole, traducte del Latino da Bartol: Fontio</i>, 1471, quarto; +<i>Dante, Convivio</i>: Florence, 1490, quarto; &c. M. Susanni alleges that +the learned bibliographer, M. Silvestre, has discovered in the +Mazarine Library that, contrary to the very circumstantial affirmation +of the deed of accusation, the above-mentioned books <i>are still in +their places on the shelves of that library</i>, from which they have +never been absent, and where any one may go and see them, and verify +the fact for himself. The persons employed to draw up the charges +against M. Libri never appeared to understand that two different +editions of a work were totally different things, and they have +accused M. Libri of having stolen a work from a public library, simply +because M. Libri possessed an edition of that work, though different +from the one the library had lost, or, better still, which it had +never lost at all. Considering all the circumstances, and the +attention which was attracted to the case throughout the learned +world, this is very curious: it will form one of the most remarkable +of the <i>causes célèbres</i>.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The new Paris review, <i>La Politique Nouvelle</i>, starts bravely its +career as a rival of <i>La Revue des Deux Mondes</i>. The leading article, +"La Constitution, c'est l'order," is by M. Marie, who was one of the +chiefs of the Provisional Government, and Henri Martin, Gustave +Cazavan, and Paul Rochery, are among the contributors; but the best +attraction of the work to those who do not care for its politics, is +the beginning of a charming novel by Madame Charles Reybaud, the +authoress of Tales of the Old Convents of Paris.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Lamartine's reputation declines with every new attempt of his at +money-making. There was never a man capable of doing well a half of +what he advertises. He is writing a romance on the destruction of the +Janizaries, for the <i>Pays</i>, another romance for the <i>Siecle</i>, and +occasionally gives <i>feuilletons</i> to other journals; he is re-editing a +complete edition of his own works, writing a history of the +Restoration, and a history of Turkey, and has lately begun to edit a +daily paper. He also continues the monthly pamphlet, of between thirty +and forty pages, the <i>Conseiller du Peuple</i>, on political matters, and +produces once a month a periodical, <i>Les Foyers du Peuple</i>, in which +he gives an account of his travels, with tales and verses.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The Paris correspondent of the London <i>Literary Gazette</i> states, that +an Assyrian, named <span class="smcap">Furis Schycyac</span>, is at present attracting some +attention in the literary circles. He had just arrived from London, +where, it appears, he translated the Bible into Arabic, for one of the +religious associations. He has accompanied his <i>début</i> in +Parisian society with a <i>mudh</i>, or poem, to Paris, in which he almost +out-Orientals the Orientals in his exaggerated compliments and +gorgeous imagery. Paris, he declares, amongst other things, is the +"terrestrial paradise," the "<i>séjour</i> of houris," and "Eden;" whilst +the people are, <i>par excellence</i>, "the strong, the generous, the +brave, the sincere-hearted, with no faults to diminish their virtues." +This master-stroke has opened the Parisian circles to the cunning +Assyrian.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>M. Leroux has published in Paris a volume of Reminiscences of Travel +and Residence in the United States, with observations on the +Administration of Justice in this country.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The last <i>Edinburgh Review</i> has an article on <span class="smcap">Cousin</span>, in which a +general survey is taken of his life and of his works, of which he has +just completed the publication of a new edition. The <i>London Leader</i> +says that the critic ingeniously represents all Cousin's plagiarisms +as the consequences of the progressive and <i>assimilative</i> intellect of +the eclectic chief; that it would be easy with the same facts to tell +a very different story; and correct the reviewer's "mistake," where he +talks of Cousin as the translator of Plato. Cousin's name is on the +title-page; but not one dialogue, the <i>Leader</i> avers, did he +translate; it even doubts his ability to translate one. What he did +was to take old translations by De Grow and others, here and there +polishing the style; and the dialogues that were untranslated he gave +to certain clever young men in want of employment and glad of his +patronage. He touched up their style and wrote the Preface to each +Dialogue, for which the work bears his name! <i>This</i> explains the +puzzling fact that the translator of Plato should so completely +misunderstand the purpose of the dialogue he is prefacing. Gigantic +indeed would be the labors of Cousin—if he performed them himself.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Walter Savage Landor is now seventy-six years of age. He writes no +more great works, but he is hardly less industrious than a +penny-a-liner in writing upon all sorts of subjects for the journals. +We find his communications almost every week in <i>The Examiner</i>, <i>The +News</i>, <i>The Leader</i>, <i>Leigh Hunt's Journal</i>, and other periodicals. +Sometimes he rises to his earlier eloquence, and we hear the voice +that was loudest and sweetest in the "Imaginary Conversations;" but +for the most part his newspaper pieces are feeble and splenetic, +unworthy of him. One of his latest composures has relation to Lord +Lyndhurst, by whose speech against the revolutionary aliens in England +had been excited the ire of the old poet. "In your paper of this day, +April 12," he writes to the editor of <i>The Examiner</i>, "I find repeated +an expression of Lord Lyndhurst's, which I am certain will be +offensive to many of your readers. General Klapka, a man illustrious +for his military knowledge, and for his application of it to the +defence of his country and her laws, is contemptuously called <i>one</i> +Klapka. The most obscure and the most despicable (and those only) are +thus designated. Surely to have been called by the acclamations of a +whole people to defend the most important of its fortresses is quite +as exalted a distinction as to be appointed a Lord Chamberlain or a +Lord Chancellor by the favor of one minister, and liable to be +dismissed the next morning by another. With all proper respect for the +cleverness of Lord Lyndhurst, I must entreat your assistance in +discovering one sentence he ever wrote, or spoke, denoting the man of +lofty genius or capacious mind. Memorable things he certainly has +said—such as calling by the name of aliens a third part of our +fellow-subjects in these islands, and by the prefix of a <i>certain</i> to +the name of Klapka. It is strange that sound law should not always be +sound sense; strange that the great seal of equity should make so +faint and indistinct an impression. Klapka will be commemorated and +renowned in history as one beloved by the people, venerated by the +nobility; whose voice was listened to attentively by the magistrate, +enthusiastically by the soldier. The fame of Lord Lyndhurst is +ephemeral, confined to the Court of Chancery and the House of Peers; +dozens have shared it in each, and have gone to dinner and oblivion. +Those, and those alone, are great men whose works or words are +destined to be the heirlooms of many generations. God places them +where time passes them without erasing their footsteps. Kings can +never make them. They, if minded so, could more easily make kings. +England hath installed one Chancellor who might have been consummately +great, had there only been in his composition the two simple elements +of generosity and honesty. Bacon did not hate freedom, or the friends +of freedom; and, although he cautiously kept clear of so dangerous a +vicinity, he never came voluntarily forth, invoking the vindictive +spirit of a dead law to eliminate them in the hour of adversity from +their sanctuary."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The Rev. Moses Margoliouth, who was once a Jew, and who last year +published a narrative of a journey to Palestine, under the title of "A +Visit to the Land of My Fathers," has just given to the world, in +three octavos, a <i>History of the Jews in Great Britain</i>. The book is +insufferably tame and feeble; the author is of the class called in +England "religious flunkies:" a mastiff to the poor and a spaniel to +the proud. His first book was disgusting for its feebleness and +servility, and this is scarcely better, notwithstanding the richness +of its materials and the curious interest of its subject. A good +History of the Jews in England will be a work worth reading.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The <i>Ecclesiastical History Society</i> have published in London +<i>Strype's Memorials of Cranmer</i>, <i>Heylyn's History of the +Reformation</i>, and <i>Field's Treatise of the Church</i>. Strype and Heylyn +are more familiar than Field, whose work is a sort of supplement to +Hooker's <i>Polity</i>. Field resembled his illustrious master and friend +in judgment, temper, and learning. In his own day his reputation was +great. James I. regretted, when he heard of his death, that he had not +done more for him; Hall, in reference to his own deanery of Worcester, +which had been sought for Field, speaks of that "better-deserving +divine," who "was well satisfied with greater hopes;" and Fuller, with +his accustomed humor of thoughtfulness, bestows his salutation on +"that learned divine whose memory smelleth like a <i>field</i> that the +Lord hath blessed."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">The Life of Wordsworth</span>, by Dr. Christopher Wordsworth, has appeared in +London, and with some additions by Professor Henry Reed, of +Philadelphia, will soon be issued by Ticknor, Reed & Fields, of +Boston. From what the critics write of it we suspect it is a poor +affair. The <i>Leader</i> says that, "all things considered, it is perhaps +the worst biographical attempt" it "ever waded through." The +<i>Examiner</i> and other leading papers admit its dulness as a biography, +and its worthlessness in criticism, but claim for it a certain value +as a collection of facts respecting the histories of Wordsworth's +different poems. The work indeed professes to be no more than a +biographical commentary on the poet's writings. It does not even +affect to be critical, or to offer any labored exposition of the +principles on which Wordsworth's poems were composed. The author +describes his illustrious relative as having had no desire that any +such disquisition should be written. "He wished that his poems should +stand by themselves, and plead their own cause before the tribunal of +posterity." Strictly, then, the volumes are so exclusively subordinate +and ministerial to the poetry they illustrate, that apart from the +latter they possess hardly any interest. By enthusiasts for the poems +they will be eagerly read, but to any other class of readers we cannot +see that they present attraction. Dr. Wordsworth's part in them, +though small, is not particularly well done; and the poet's part +almost exclusively consists of personal memoranda connected with his +poems dictated in later life, and seldom by any chance refers to any +thing but himself.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless there are in the volumes many delightful and +characteristic details, much genuine and beautiful criticism (chiefly +in the poet's letters), and occasional passages of fine sentiment and +pure philosophy. Here is Wordsworth's own description of one of his +latest visits to London, and of his appearance at court, in a letter +to an American correspondent:</p> + +<p>"My absence from home lately was not of more than three weeks. I took +the journey to London solely to pay my respects to the Queen, upon my +appointment to the laureateship upon the decease of my friend Mr. +Southey. The weather was very cold, and I caught an inflammation in +one of my eyes, which rendered my stay in the south very +uncomfortable. I nevertheless did, in respect to the object of my +journey, all that was required. The reception given me by the Queen at +her ball was most gracious. Mrs. Everett, the wife of your minister, +among many others, was a witness to it, without knowing who I was. It +moved her to the shedding of tears. This effect was in part produced, +I suppose, by American habits of feeling, as pertaining to a +republican government. To see a gray-haired man of seventy-five years +of age, kneeling down in a large assembly to kiss the hand of a young +woman, is a sight for which institutions essentially democratic do not +prepare a spectator of either sex, and must naturally place the +opinions upon which a republic is founded, and the sentiments which +support it, in strong contrast with a government based and upheld as +ours is. I am not, therefore, surprised that Mrs. Everett was moved, +as she herself described to persons of my acquaintance, among others +to Mr. Rogers the poet. By the by, of this gentleman, now I believe in +his eighty-third year, I saw more than of any other person except my +host, Mr. Moxon, while I was in London. He is singularly fresh and +strong for his years, and his mental faculties (with the exception of +his memory a little) not at all impaired. It is remarkable that he and +the Rev. W. Bowles were both distinguished as poets when I was a +schoolboy, and they have survived almost all their eminent +contemporaries, several of whom came into notice long after them. +Since they became known, Burns, Cowper, Mason the author of +'Caractacus' and friend of Gray, have died. Thomas Warton, Laureate, +then Byron, Shelley, Keats, and a good deal later Scott, Coleridge, +Crabbe, Southey, Lamb, the Ettrick Shepherd, Cary the translator of +Dante, Crowe the author of 'Lewesdon Hill,' and others of more or less +distinction, have disappeared. And now of English poets advanced in +life, I cannot recall any but James Montgomery, Thomas Moore, and +myself, who are living, except the octogenarian with whom I began. I +saw Tennyson, when I was in London, several times. He is decidedly the +first of our living poets, and I hope will live to give the world +still better things. You will be pleased to hear that he expressed in +the strongest terms his gratitude to my writings. To this I was far +from indifferent, though persuaded that he is not much in sympathy +with what I should myself most value in my attempts, viz., the +spirituality with which I have endeavored to invest the material +universe, and the moral relations under which I have wished to exhibit +its most ordinary appearances."</p> + +<p>Of the mention of Alfred Tennyson in the foregoing extract the +<i>Examiner</i> remarks, that it is perhaps the greatest stretch of +appreciation or acknowledgment in regard to any living or contemporary +poet in Wordsworth. His mention of Southey's verses is always reserved +and dry. He takes no pains to conceal his poor opinion of Scott's. His +allusions to Rogers are respectful, but cold. His objection to Byron +may be forgiven. There is less reason for his appearing quite to lose +his ordinarily calm temper when Goethe is even named, or for his +extending this unreasoning dislike to Goethe's great English +expositor, Carlyle. Yet we must not omit, on the other hand, what he +says of Shelley. Shelley, he admits (much to our surprise), to have +been "one of the best artists of us all; I mean in workmanship of +style."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The London <i>Standard of Freedom</i> remarks of the article on "Some +American Poets" in the last number of <i>Blackwood</i>, that "it assumes +more ignorance in England as to American poetry than actually exists." +Our readers will readily believe this when advised that the critic +regards <i>Longfellow</i> as a greater poet than Bryant! whom he classes +with Mrs. Hemans.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">M. Comte</span> has quitted metaphysics to reform the calendar, but probably +will not succeed better than those who attempted the same thing during +the first French revolution. We find a synopsis of his scheme in the +<i>Leader</i>. He proposes that each month shall be consecrated to one of +the great names that represent the intellectual and social progress of +humanity. He specializes the names of Moses, Homer, Aristotle, +Archimedes, Cæsar, St. Paul, Charlemagne, Dante, Descartes, Guttenberg +(whom he probably thinks had something to do with the invention of +printing), Columbus and Frederic the Great, as most appropriate for +the designation of the twelve months; recommending, however, +particular fêtes for minor heroes in the months under which they may +best be grouped—for Augustin, Hildebrand, Bernard, and Bossuet, in +St. Paul's month; Alfred and St. Louis, in Charlemagne's month; +Richelieu and Cromwell in the month of Frederic the Great, and so on. +Supplying a defect of Catholicism in this respect, he proposes what he +calls "fêtes of reprobation" for the greatest scoundrels of +history—for such retrogressive men as Julian the Apostate, Philip II. +of Spain, and Bonaparte, (we don't agree to the classification, unless +he means President Louis Napoleon, who indeed is not a <i>great</i> +scoundrel, though disposed to be sufficiently retrogressive.) +According to this new calendar, a follower of Comte, writing a letter +in March, would have to date it as written on such or such a day of +<i>Aristotle</i>. We fear the proposal won't do even in France, but this, +at least, may be said for it, that it is as good as the Puseyite +practice of dating by saints' days, besides being novel, and Parisian, +and scientific. Sydney Smith used, in jest of the Puseyite practice, +to date his letters "<i>Washing Day—Eve of Ironing Day</i>;" Comte's plan +is better than that of the Puseyites—almost as good as Peter +Plimley's.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Among the many books lately printed in England upon the ecclesiastical +controversies, is one entitled <i>Remonstrance against Romish +Corruptions in the Church, addressed to the People and Parliament of +England in 1395</i>, now for the first time published, edited by the Rev. +F. Forshall. Biographers of Wycliffe have referred to this tract and +quoted passages in evidence of the Wycliffite heresies; but they +appear to have failed altogether of perceiving its larger scope, or +understanding its political bearing and significance. There can hardly +be a doubt, as Mr. Forshall suggests, that it was drawn up to +influence the famous parliament which met in the eighteenth year of +Richard the Second, and which was a scene of unusual excitement on the +subject of religion from the sudden clash of the old Papal party with +the new and increasing band of patriotic reformers. Wycliffe had then +been dead, and his opinions gradually on the increase, for more than +ten years. The author of the Remonstrance was his friend John Purvey, +who assisted him in the first English version of the Bible, shared +with him the duties of his parish, and attended his death-bed. He was +the most active of the reformers, the most formidable to the +ecclesiastical authorities. Another old MS. from the Cottonian +collection in the British Museum, is the <i>Chronicle of Battel Abbey, +from 1066 to 1176, now first translated, with Notes, and an Abstract +of the subsequent History of the Establishment</i>, by Mark Antony Lower. +This is extremely curious, and contains, besides the important +histories of the controversies between the ecclesiastical authorities +and Henry the Second, some very striking exhibitions of manners.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The vitality of <span class="smcap">Scott's</span> popularity is shown by the fact that the +Edinburgh publishers of his <i>Life</i> and <i>Works</i> printed and sold the +following quantities of them during the period from 1st January, 1848, +to 26th March, 1851, viz.: Novels (exclusive of the Abbotsford +edition), 4,760 sets; Poetical Works, 4,360; Prose Writings, 850; +Life, 2,610; Tales of a Grandfather (independently of those included +in the complete sets of the Prose Works), 2,990; and Selections, +4,420. It may serve as a "curiosity of literature" to give a summary +of the printing of the Writings and Life since June, 1829, when they +came under the management of the late proprietor, Mr. Cadell: Waverley +Novels, 78,270 sets; Poetical Works, 41,340; Prose Works, 8,260; Life, +26,860; Tales of a Grandfather (independently of those included in the +complete sets of the Prose Works), 22,190; Selections, 7,550. The +popularity to which the "People's Edition" has attained appears from +the fact that the following numbers, originally published in weekly +sheets, have been printed: Novels, 7,115,197; Poetry, 674,955; Prose, +269,406; Life, 459,291; total sheets, 8,518,849.</p> + +<p>The whole copyrights, stocks, &c., of Scott's works, as possessed for +many years by Cadell, have now been transferred to the hands of +Messrs. Adam and Charles Black. The copyrights and stock have been +acquired by the present purchasers for £27,000, or £10,000 less than +Mr. Cadell paid for copyrights alone.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Elizabeth Barret Browning</span> has published a new poem, <i>Casa Guidi +Windows</i>, which gives a vivid picture of the tumult and heroism of +Italian struggles for independence, as seen from the poet's windows, +at Florence, with the fervid commentary of her hopes and aspirations.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>A novel by <span class="smcap">Mrs. Caroline Lee Hentz</span>, published by Mr. Hart, of +Philadelphia, has been dramatized by Mr. Henry Paul Howard, for the +Haymarket Theatre in London, and brought out in a very splendid style, +with J. W. Wallack in the leading character.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Colonel Cunningham</span>, a son-in-law of Viscount Hardinge, has just +published in London "Glimpses of the Great Western Republic in the +year 1850."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>We shall look with much interest for the result of the new scheme for +the encouragement of life assurance, economy, &c., among literary men +and artists in England. To bring this project into general notice, and +to form the commencement of the necessary funds, Sir Edward Bulwer +Lytton, one of its originators, has written and presented to his +associates in the cause, a new comedy in five acts, under the +significant title, <i>Not So Bad as we Seem</i>. It was to be produced on +the sixteenth ult., under the management of Mr. Charles Dickens, in a +theatre constructed for the purpose, and performed by Robert Bell, +Wilkie Collins, Dudley Costello, Peter Cunningham, Charles Dickens, +Augustus Egg, A.R.A., John Forster, R. H. Horne, Douglass Jerrold, +Charles Knight, Mark Lemon, J. Westland Marston, Frank Stone, and +others. The tickets were twenty-five dollars each, and the Queen and +Prince Albert were to be present. The comedy is hereafter to be +performed in public; and the promoters of the scheme are sanguine of +its success. Mr. Maclise has offered to paint a picture (the subject +to be connected with the performance of the comedy), and to place it +at the disposal of the guild, for the augmentation of its funds. The +prospects are encouraging.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The <span class="smcap">Rev. C. G. Finney</span>, so well known in the Presbyterian churches of +this country, has passed some time in London, and an edition of his +<i>Lectures on Systematic Theology</i> has just been published there, with +a preface by the Rev. Dr. Redford, of Worcester, who confesses, that +"when a student he would gladly have bartered half the books in his +library to have gained a single perusal of these Lectures; and he +cannot refrain from expressing the belief, that no young student of +theology will ever regret their purchase or perusal." The book makes +an octavo of 1016 pages.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Talvi</span>," the wife of Professor <span class="smcap">Robinson</span>, will leave New-York in a few +days, we understand, to pass some time in her native country. She will +be absent a year and a half, and will reside chiefly in Berlin. We +have recently given an account of the life and writings of this very +eminent and admirable woman, in the <i>International</i>, and are among the +troops of friends who wish her all happiness in the fatherland, and a +safe return to the land of her adoption. We presume the public duties +of Dr. Robinson will prevent him from being absent more than a few +weeks.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Albert Smith</span> has dramatised a tale from Washington Irving's "Alhambra" +for the Princess's Theatre—making a burlesque comedy.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Southworth</span> must be classed among our most industrious writers. +The Appletons have just published a new novel by her, entitled <i>The +Mother-in-Law</i>, and she has two others in press—one of which is +appearing from week to week in the <i>National Era</i>.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Spring</span>, whose religious writings appear to be as popular in Great +Britain as in this country, and every where to be regarded as among +the classics of practical religious literature, has issued a second +edition of his two octavos entitled <i>First Things</i>. In style, temper, +and all the best qualities of such works, the discourses embraced in +this work are deserving of eminent praise. (M. W. Dodd.)</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Of <span class="smcap">Henry Martin</span>, whom the religious world regards with a reverent +affection like that it gives to Cowper and Heber, the hitherto +unpublished <i>Letters and Journals</i> have just appeared, and they seem +to us even more interesting than the so well-known Memoirs of his Life +published soon after he died. (M. W. Dodd.)</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Sigourney</span> has published a volume entitled <i>Letters to my Pupils, +with Narrative and Biographical Sketches</i>. It embraces reminiscences +of her experience as a teacher, and we have read none of her prose +compositions that are more suggestive or more pleasing. (Robert Carter +& Brothers.)</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>A <i>Life of Algernon Sydney</i>, by G. Van Santvoord (a new author), has +been published by Charles Scribner. To describe the history and +writings of this noble republican was a task worthy of an American +scholar. Mr. Van Santvoord has performed it excellently well.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bayard Taylor</span> and <span class="smcap">R. H. Stoddard</span> have new volumes of poems in the +press of Ticknor, Reed & Fields, of Boston, and that house has never +published original volumes of greater merit, or that will be more +popular.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">The Poems of William P. Mulchinock</span>, in one volume, lately published by +Mr. Strong, Nassau-street, appear to have been received with singular +favor by the critics. Mr. Mulchinock has remarkable fluency, and a +genial spirit. His book contains specimens of a great variety of +styles, and some pieces of much merit.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ticknor & Co.</span> have published a novelette entitled <i>The Solitary</i>, by +Santaine, the author of "Picciola." It is of the Robinson Crusoe sort +of books—better than any other imitation of Defoe.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The <i>Pocket Companion, for Machinists, Mechanics, and Engineers</i>, by +<span class="smcap">Oliver Byrne</span>, is a remarkable specimen of perspicuous condensation. In +a beautiful pocket-book it embraces for the classes for whom it is +designed the pith of two or three ordinary octavos.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Among the new volumes of poems is one of Dramatic and Miscellaneous +Pieces, by <span class="smcap">Charles James Cannon</span>, published by Edward Dunigan. Mr. +Cannon is a writer of much cultivation, and, in his dramatic poems, +especially, there are passages of much force and elegance.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. John E. Warren</span>, whose pleasant letters from the south of Europe +were a chief attraction of some of the early numbers of the +<i>International</i>, has in the press of Putnam, to be published in a few +days, <i>Paria, or Scenes and Adventures on the Banks of the Amazon</i>. He +saw that magnificent but little known country under such peculiar +advantages, and he writes with such spirit and so natural a grace, +that we may promise the public one of the most delightful books of the +season in "Paria." Here is a specimen, from the opening chapter.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The shades of evening were gathering fast upon the waters, +when the little bark, in which we had safely crossed the +wide expanse of ocean, now quietly anchored in the mighty +river of the Amazons. Through the rich twilight we were able +to discern the white sandy shore, skirting a dense forest of +perennial luxuriance and beauty. Gentle zephyrs, fraught +with the most delightful fragrance from the wilderness of +flowers, softly saluted our senses; while occasionally the +plaintive voices of southern nightingales came with mellowed +sweetness to our ears. The moon, unobscured by a single +cloud, threw an indescribable charm over the enchanting +scene, reflecting her brilliant rays upon the placid surface +of the river, and shrouding the beautiful foliage of the +forest in a drapery of gold. Innumerable stars brightly +glittered in the firmament, and the constellation of the +'Southern Cross' gleamed above us like a diadem. All around +seemed to be wrapped in the most profound repose. Not a +sound disturbed the silence of the interminable solitude +save the hushed and mournful notes of evening birds, the +distant howling of prowling jaguars, or the rustling of the +wind through the forest trees. Nature appeared to us, for +the first time, in her pristine loveliness, and seemed +indeed, to our excited imagination, to present but a dreamy +picture of fairy land.</p> + +<p>"At an early hour in the morning we weighed anchor, and with +a fresh breeze and strong tide rapidly moved up the noble +river, gliding by the most beautiful scenery that fancy can +conceive. The nearly impenetrable forest which lined the +shore was of a deep emerald green, and consisted of +exceedingly lofty trees, of remarkably curious and grotesque +figures, interlaced together by numerous vines, the +interstices of which were filled up with magnificent +shrubbery. We observed, towering high above the surrounding +trees, many singular species of palms, among which the +far-famed cocoa-nut probably stood pre-eminent. This +beautiful tree gives a peculiar witchery to a tropical +landscape, which those only who have seen it can possibly +realize. The trunk grows up perfectly perpendicular to a +great height, before it throws out its curious branches, +which bend over as gracefully as ostrich plumes, and quiver +in the slightest breeze. Consequently, the general +appearance of the tree at a distance is somewhat similar to +that of an umbrella.</p> + +<p>"As we gradually proceeded, we now and then caught a glimpse +of smiling cottages, with the snug little verandahs and +red-tiled roofs peering from amid the foliage of the river's +banks, and giving, as it were, a character of sociability +and animation to the beauteous scene. Perhaps the most +interesting spot that we noticed was an estate bearing the +name of Pinherios, which had been formerly the site of a +Carmelite convent, but which was lately sold to the +government for a 'Hospital dos Lazaros.' Here also was an +establishment for the manufacture of earthenware tiles, +which are extensively used throughout the Brazilian empire +for roofing houses.</p> + +<p>"So low is the valuation of land in this section of Brazil, +that this immense estate, embracing within its limits nearly +three thousand acres, and situated, as it is, within twenty +miles of the city of Para, was sold for a sum equivalent to +about <i>four thousand dollars</i>. This may be taken as a fair +standard of the value of real estate in the vicinity of +Para. That of the neighboring islands is comparatively +trifling; while there are millions of fertile acres now +wholly unappropriated, which offer the richest inducements +to emigrants who may be disposed to direct their fortunes +thither.</p> + +<p>"The city of Para is delightfully situated on the southern +branch of the Amazon, called, for the sake of distinction, +'The Para River.' It is the principal city of the province +of the same name,—an immense territory, which has very +appropriately been styled 'The Paradise of Brazil.' The +general aspect of the place, with its low venerable looking +buildings of solid stone, its massive churches and +moss-grown ruins, its red-tiled roofs and dingy-white walls, +the beautiful trees of its gardens, and groups of tall +banana plants peeping up here and there among the houses, +constituted certainly a scene of novelty, if not of elegance +and beauty.</p> + +<p>"The first spectacle which arrested our attention on landing +was that of a number of persons of both sexes and all ages +bathing indiscriminately together in the waters of the +river, in a state of entire nudity. We observed among them +several finely-formed Indian girls of exceeding beauty, +dashing about in the water like a troop of happy mermaids. +The heat of the sun was so intense that we ourselves were +almost tempted to seek relief from its overpowering +influence by plunging precipitately amid the joyous throng +of swimmers. But we forbore!</p> + +<p>"The natives of Para are very cleanly, and indulge in daily +ablutions; nor do they confine their baths to the dusky +hours of evening, but may be seen swimming about the public +wharves at all hours of the day. The government has made +several feeble efforts to put a restraint upon these public +exposures, but at the time of our departure all rules and +regulations on the subject were totally disregarded by the +natives. The city is laid out with considerable taste and +regularity, but the streets are very narrow, and miserably +paved with large and uneven stones. The buildings generally +are but of one story in height, and are, with few +exceptions, entirely destitute of glass windows; a kind of +latticed blind is substituted, which is so constructed that +it affords the person within an opportunity of seeing +whatever takes place in the street, without being observed +in return. This lattice opens towards the street, and thus +affords great facilities to the beaux and gentlemen of +gallantry, who, by stepping under this covering, can have an +agreeable <i>tête-à-tête</i> with their fair mistresses, as +secretly almost as if they were in a trellised arbor +together.</p> + +<p>"We noticed several strange spectacles as we slowly walked +through the city. Venders of fruit marching about, with huge +baskets on their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span> heads, filled with luscious oranges, +bananas, mangoes, pineapples, and other choice fruits of the +tropics; groups of blacks, carrying immense burdens in the +same manner; invalids reclining in their hammocks, or ladies +riding in their gay-covered palanquins, supported on men's +shoulders; and water-carriers moving along by the side of +their heavily-laden horses or mules."</p></div> + +<p>In his excursions along the small streams which penetrate the forests +our traveller met with some magnificent scenes. Here is a description +of one of them:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Now the grassy table-land would extend away for miles to +our left, gemmed here and there with solitary trees, waving +their branches mournfully in the wind, and looking like +spectres in the mystic starlight. On the outer side, a +gloomy yet splendid wilderness ran along the margin of the +stream, flinging tall shadows across the water, and adding +grandeur to the imposing landscape. As we advanced the brook +gradually narrowed, and became more and more crooked in its +course, until finally the thick clustering foliage met in a +prolonged arch of verdure over our heads.</p> + +<p>"While winding through this natural labyrinth, the sun +emerged from his oriental couch, and besprinkled us with a +shower of luminous beams, which, falling through the +interstices of the leaves, seemed like the spirits of so +many diamonds. A more divine spectacle of beauty never was +beheld. The most gorgeous creations of the poet's +imagination, if realized, could not surpass in magnificence +this sun-lighted arbor, with its roses and flowers of varied +hues, all set like stars in a canopy of green. Sprightly +humming-birds flitted before us, sparkling like jewels for a +moment, then vanishing away from our sight for ever. +Butterflies with immense wings, and moths of gay and +striking colors, flew also from flower to flower, seeming +like appropriate inhabitants of this little paradise. But +the indefatigable mosquitoes, who were continually pouncing +upon our unprotected faces and hands, as well as the mailed +caymans, who now and then plunged under our canoe with a +terrific snort, preserved in us the conviction of our own +mortality.</p> + +<p>"As we were moving through a wider passage of the stream, a +sudden noise in the bushes on our left arrested our +attention; in a moment after, we perceived a large animal +running as expeditiously as he was able along the banks of +the stream. We immediately raised our guns simultaneously +and fired. Although we evidently gave the creature their +full contents, yet it produced no other visible effect than +to cause him to give a boisterous snort, and then dart away +furiously into the heart of the thicket."</p></div> + +<p>Here is something much more natural than Melville's introduction of +Fayaway:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Among our olive-complexioned neighbors were two young +girls, whose fine forms and pretty faces especially elicited +our admiration. The one was named Teresa, the other Florana. +The former could not have been more than fourteen years of +age, and was rather short in stature, with exquisitely +rounded arms, and a bust of noble development; the latter +was somewhat taller, and at least three years older; they +both, however, had attained their full size. Animated as +they were beautiful, they were always overflowing with +vivacity and life; their conversation, which was incessant, +was like the chirping of nightingales, and their laughter, +like strings of musical pearls. These, then, beloved reader, +were, during our stay at least, decidedly the belles of +Jungcal. At the close of every day we were visited by all +the juveniles in the place, who, in their own sweet tongue, +bade us 'adieus,' and at the same time besought our +blessing, which latter request we only answered by patting +them gently on the head. The pretty maidens we have just +alluded to, instead of shaking hands with us, were +accustomed to salute us at eventide with a kiss on either +cheek. The propriety of this we at first doubted, but the +more we reflected upon the sweetness and innocence of the +damsels, the more inclined were we to pardon them; and, in +fact, we finally began to think their manner much more +sensible and agreeable than that of those who consider any +thing beyond cold and formal shaking of hands a grievous +sin. Besides, it must be borne in mind, that this was a +sacred custom of the place, which it would have been great +rudeness in us to have resisted. Therefore, kind reader, do +not judge us too severely; for know, O chary one! that +extreme bashfulness and modesty have always been considered +two of our principal failings! One day, Teresa and Florana +invited us to take a bathe with them in the stream. This we +declined point-blank. They then charged us with fear of +alligators. This was a poser—our courage was now called in +question, and we were literally forced to submit. Pray what +else could we have done under the circumstances? When they +had once got us into the water they took ample revenge upon +us for the uncourteous manner in which we had at first +treated their request. As we were encumbered by our clothes, +they had altogether the advantage, and, in less than ten +minutes, we cried out lustily for quarter, but no quarter +would they give us, and, to tell the truth, we were somewhat +apprehensive of being drowned by them, to say nothing of +being devoured by bloodthirsty alligators. Emerging from the +water, we walked up to Anzevedo's cottage, revolving in our +mind the severe ordeal through which we had just passed, and +determined henceforth never to refuse any request, sweetened +by the lips of a pretty maiden, unless, perchance (though +highly improbable), she should ask us for our heart! which, +alas! we have not to give...."</p></div> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>An <i>Album</i> sent to the great Exhibition by the Emperor of Austria, and +to be presented after the show to Victoria, is thus described by a +Vienna correspondent of the <i>Times</i>: "It contains the notes in +manuscript of the national airs and dances, and far surpasses any +thing that I have ever seen in the bookbinding department. On one side +there are fourteen exquisite vignettes in oil colors, representing +different national costumes; the ornaments in enamel, carved ivory, +and ebony, are exquisite. A second album contains the works of the +ancient and modern Austrian composers; the third, Austrian scenery, by +different native artists. The bindings of some of the two hundred and +seventy volumes of Austrian authors will also not fail to excite the +astonishment—I had almost said the envy—of the trade. The whole will +form a truly imperial gift."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[Pg 327]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="The_Fine_Arts" id="The_Fine_Arts"></a><i>The Fine Arts.</i></h2> + + +<p>During the present month there are four Public Exhibitions of +Paintings in the city: that of the <span class="smcap">National Academy</span>, of the <span class="smcap">Art-Union</span>, +of the <span class="smcap">Artist's Association</span>, and the <span class="smcap">Düsseldorf Gallery</span>. The first +three are composed mainly of the works of native American artists, and +it is impossible to repress an expression of regret that some +arrangement of union has not yet been effected, by which, at least, +the works of the same men should not be exhibited gratis at one place, +and for a charge at another. In the present state of things, the +gallery of the Art-Union and that of the National Academy are brought +into direct opposition, and this, beyond doubt, without the slightest +jealousy on either side, as the works painted for the Academy and +purchased by the Art-Union clearly show. But certainly the fact is +lamentable enough to challenge immediate attention, and to induce a +radical change. A free gallery of the selected works of artists will +be very apt to carry the day against an exhibition at a quarter of a +dollar of the miscellaneous and unselected works of the same men. But +here we do not mean to vex this question farther. We aim at a general +review of the peculiarities and excellences of each exhibition.</p> + +<p>It is undoubtedly in landscape art that American talent is destined +first to excel, and the Academy exhibition and that of the Art-Union +are added proofs of the fact. The landscapes are much the most +distinguishing and distinguished feature. Mr. <span class="smcap">Durand</span> contributes +several characteristic works. His style is so uniform and pronounced +that it is never difficult to recognize his pictures. We should hardly +say that he does better this year than usual, but we should certainly +not say that he does worse. In the front rank of this department stand +also <span class="smcap">Kensett</span> and <span class="smcap">Cropsey</span>, both of whom show beautiful results of +summer study and winter work. Mr. Cropsey is mainly distinguished by a +really gorgeous imagination. Proof of this is to be sought in the +sketches of his portfolio rather than in his finished pictures, for in +these a thousand influences seduce an artist away from the simplicity +and splendor of his study into a care of public approbation and +satisfaction. Mr. Cropsey is as yet too much enamored of the details +and even of the mechanism of his art. And this is a tendency that is +fatal to breadth and largeness of impression. Yet his "Southern +Italy," and a "View in Rockland County," in the exhibition, are great +advances in this respect. On the other hand, the two large American +landscapes at the Art-Union, while the background in one is a splendid +success, and the brilliant atmosphere of the other is no less +successful, yet they are too much detailed, and the interest is +nowhere sufficiently concentrated. Mr. Kensett is remarkable for his +just sentiment and profound appreciation of natural beauty. It is a +sentiment singularly free from sentimentality, and an appreciation as +poetic as it is profound. The very delicacy of his touch and style +indicate the character of his enjoyment and perception of nature.</p> + +<p>Mr. <span class="smcap">Church</span>, too, is perhaps the other name that we should mention with +these two as full of hope and promise. If he avoids a little +mannerism, to which he seems to be susceptible—not of course +forgetting that all greatness has its own manner—and pursues with the +same devotion as hitherto his studies of sea and sky, a very happy and +brilliant career seems open to him. The works of none of the younger +artists have attracted more attention. And the fame and position of +Turner show the reward of a devoted student and artistic delineator of +the peculiarities of atmospheric phenomena. We exhort Mr. Church to +entire boldness in his attempts. Why should he hope always to please +those who have only a vague susceptibility of natural observation for +their standard of criticism? He is to show us in the splendid play of +the light, and air, and clouds, that which we do not see, or seeing, +do not perceive.</p> + +<p>Messrs. <span class="smcap">Cranch, Boutelle, Gifford</span>, and others, take high rank among +the landscapists, nor must we omit a very beautiful winter piece of +<span class="smcap">Gignoux</span>, at the Academy, in which the crisp clearness of the sharp +air, the brittle outline of the bare boughs, and the quality of ice, +are most accurately and poetically rendered.</p> + +<p>We are arrested by the feeling and promise of Mr. <span class="smcap">Richard's</span> +contributions, and the very beautiful poetic sentiment of Mr. +<span class="smcap">Hubbard's</span>. Mr. <span class="smcap">Huntingdon</span> is not great, this year. His landscapes are +not natural, and his portraits lack that vigorous moulding to which we +are accustomed upon his canvas. Mr. <span class="smcap">Ranney</span> has some characteristic +hunting-pieces. They are getting too much mannered. On a prairie, the +chief interest of art is not a horse or a buffalo, but the sentiment +of space. But we do not yield to any in our satisfaction at the spirit +and vigor of these works.</p> + +<p>Leaving the landscape, we find the figure compositions of the year not +very successful, if we except the "Aztec Princess" of Mr. <span class="smcap">Hicks</span>, which +we understand is a study from life of a Mexican woman, but which is +treated in so large, and thoughtful, and skilful a manner, that it is +most impressive for character and color, and gives the key to the +whole side of the room upon which it hangs. This artist exhibits also +some portraits, which have never been surpassed by any modern +portraits that we recall. No. 128 upon the Academy Catalogue is the +most brilliantly-colored portrait upon the walls. It is treated with +all the happy heroism of a master, and while many quarrel with its +<i>spotty</i> color, the initiated perceive that easy mastery of the +palette which with genius is the secret of artistic success. No. 405 +is equally remarkable for its vigorous moulding. This portrait shows +the accurate knowledge, as No. 128 reveals the sumptuous<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</a></span> sentiment of +the genuine artist. Mr. <span class="smcap">Elliott's</span> portraits have the same quiet +truthfulness as heretofore, the same easy success, but we would gladly +see more confidence in color, and a likeness more as the subject +appears to the mind than to the eye. Mr. <span class="smcap">Shegogue's</span> productions are +certainly very pastoral. So sheepy are his sheep that all the figures, +trees, and landscape, are unmitigatedly sheepish. Mr. <span class="smcap">Flagg's</span> +portraits are not successful. There is an unnatural smoothness and +hardness in his works. Mr. <span class="smcap">Kellogg's</span> General Scott is vigorous and +effective. The action of the figure seems to require some explanation, +however. It contrasts well with the monotony of its pendant, Mr. +<span class="smcap">Vanderlyn's</span> General Taylor; but no spectator in regarding this latter +work has a right to forget that it is the production of one who has +grown gray at his post, and the winter of whose age has not yet +frozen, and can never freeze, the freshness of enthusiasm and +single-hearted devotion to art which are for ever young.</p> + +<p>Mr. <span class="smcap">Lang's</span> No. 44 is a very large likeness of a very comely lady, but +the work will hardly live long in the spectator's memory. Mr. <span class="smcap">Rossiter</span> +takes the field boldly with "The Ideals, Types of Moral, Intellectual, +and Physical Beauty." Except for the brilliance of color, and a +certain sentiment, by which the light proceeds from the moral type, we +do not much admire the picture. The difficulty with the spectator will +be, we are sure, that he recalls within his own circle of friends +types more beautiful for each ideal. Mr. Rossiter's portraits of his +brother artists, Messrs. <span class="smcap">Darley</span> and <span class="smcap">Duggan</span>, are admirable likenesses, +each somewhat mellowed in expression by the artist. The sharp +intellectual precision of Mr. Duggan's countenance, and the bright +nervous sensibility of Mr. Darley's, are both somewhat subdued upon +the canvas. What we candidly say of these pictures we say boldly, +because we recognize and appreciate the fine feeling which animates +the artist. Mr. <span class="smcap">Gray's</span> No. 54, "King Death," attracts much attention. +But is it the "Jolly Old Fellow," or the "King of Terrors," or the +"easeful death" of which the poet was enamored? There is something +fine in the picture—a strain of Egyptian placidity permeates the +features. And such colossal placidity is full of fate. There is a +latitude allowed the artist in these themes. Yet we do not feel +satisfied, much as we like the picture. Mr. <span class="smcap">Rothermel's</span> No. 5, +"Murray's Defence of Toleration," is a very pleasant picture of the +Düsseldorf style. We like one thing in this work, and that is its +preservation of the balance of history, by showing that the Catholics +were not always the persecutors. The contrast of the religious repose +of the rear with the jangling fanaticism of the foreground is in +harmony with the differing qualities of light. It is a thoughtful and +beautiful picture, Mr. <span class="smcap">Freeman's</span> 359, "Study for an Angel's Head," has +a Titianesque fascination, and the earnest regard of the faces is +extremely lovely. It is none the less charming that it has a mortal +loveliness—if we might say so without treason to the immortality of +all beauty. We have no doubt, in our own critical mind, that any +beautiful woman would make a beautiful angel. Mr. <span class="smcap">Mount's</span> No. 118, +"Who'll turn Grindstone?" is one of his characteristic Yankee +incidents. It is very true and genuine in feeling, but the picture is +too white and streaked. No. 344 is a natural and spirited portrait of +the poet Stoddard by Mr. <span class="smcap">Pratt</span>.</p> + +<p>But we must pause here, leaving many works of which we would willingly +speak. At the Düsseldorf Gallery, <span class="smcap">Lessing's</span> "Martyrdom of Huss" is +still the great attraction. It is a work so full of careful study and +skilful treatment that we are not surprised at the universal pleasure +in its contemplation. We cannot in this space, however, enter into a +consideration of its artistic claims and character, but must record +our impression that it is not in the highest style of art—if there be +in art a higher style than the adequate representation of the simple +incident. The dexterous detail of the Düsseldorf pictures is +remarkable, but the fault and tendency of the school is to direct +imitation, and consequently to a hopeless struggle with nature. These +pictures are the worst possible models for the student of art.</p> + +<p>The Art-Union Gallery is by no means full, but certainly does not +merit the harsh criticism of the daily press. The pictures are on an +average quite as good as usual. The names of most of the distinguished +artists are on the catalogue, and the specimens of their works are +characteristic and admirable. There are several poor copies of famous +pictures, and these undoubtedly somewhat neutralize the effect of the +native works. Beside, the Art-Union does not profess to open its +gallery with a complete collection. It buys as the pictures are +produced, and the criticisms, thus far, have been no less ignorant +than ill-natured. It does not follow that fifty thousand dollars' +worth of good pictures are annually painted because that sum may be +subscribed to purchase good pictures. Nor is it at all true, as we +would undertake to show, had we the space, that artists are +necessarily the best managers of a popular institution for the advance +of art.</p> + +<p>The Exhibition of the Artists' Association offers little for remark. +We are not sufficiently acquainted with the secret of the origin of +this association to speak of the institution itself, but we observe +many of the names familiar to us at the Academy and the Art-Union, and +can truly wish that the pictures were upon the walls of one of those +galleries.</p> + +<p>On the whole, we remark an unwonted activity and interest in art. It +is impossible not to rejoice at the fact, and at the brilliant proofs +of artistic ability that illuminate the walls of the various +galleries. The contemporary<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[Pg 329]</a></span> exhibitions of foreign capitals do not, +altogether, surpass those of their younger sister. American books are +now not all unread, and those who delight in galleries in which only +Turner, Kaulbach, and Couture are eminently great, could not be unjust +to these promises of American artistic success.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Leutze</span>, the artist, has been again distinguishing himself by a work +just exhibited in Düsseldorf, "The Amazon with her Children." It +represents a beautiful and majestic woman, lying half-erect, arms and +neck bare, contemplating the gambols of her two naked children. The +brilliant golden-tone of the complexion is said to be entirely worthy +of the masterly skill in color of the artist, and was perhaps inspired +by the poet's dream, "I will take some savage woman; she shall rear my +dusky race." But in respect of composition and drawing it is called an +attempt to imitate the art of the old Italian virtuosos. The artist is +proceeding with surprising rapidity with his Washington. A portrait of +Roting by Leutze is most highly commended. Roting is in the same +atelier with Leutze, and is busy upon a scene from the life of +Columbus.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The Managers of the <span class="smcap">Art-Union</span> promise rich returns to the subscribers +for the present year. We quote the <i>Art-Union Journal</i>:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"We have never before offered so many powerful motives to +membership as the programme of the present year affords. The +improvements in the Bulletin render it a publication that is +almost indispensable to those who desire to have in a +convenient form the most recent Art intelligence, as well as +much original matter upon the subject that meets the +constant approbation of instructed readers. The numbers of +this work are furnished gratuitously to each member from the +date of his subscription. He will also be entitled to the +large engraving of <i>Mexican News</i> by <span class="smcap">Jones</span>, after Woodville, +and to the second part of the <i>Gallery of American Art</i>, +which contains five line engravings on steel, by the best +artists, after the following pictures: Cropsey's +<i>Harvesting</i>, Kensett's <i>Mount Washington</i>, Woodville's <i>Old +'76 and Young '48</i>, Ranney's <i>Marion crossing the Pedee</i>, +and Mount's <i>Bargaining for a Horse</i>. We desire to call +attention again to the fact that these subjects are all +American in their character, illustrating the scenery, +history, or manners of the country. They are also striking +and valuable as pictures, and we should have every reason to +feel proud of them in whatever contrast they might be +placed.</p> + +<p>"This project of presenting a work which shall contain in +process of time the Gems of American Art, is original with +the Art-Union. Its value must be apparent to every reader. +It is a mode by which subscribers in the most distant parts +of the country, who are deprived of the opportunity of +visiting the large towns, may become well acquainted with +the character and progress of our principal artists—and +even those members who have the advantage of resorting to +public galleries, may enjoy here the privilege of studying +many pictures that from their location in private +collections must be accessible to them. The first part of +this work was given to the members of 1850, and is now ready +for distribution, Besides the inducements just enumerated, +there remains a share in the allotment of works of art +purchased by the Association, and which, judging from the +two hundred already obtained, will be the most attractive +collection ever offered by the Art-Union. The importance of +early subscriptions need not be enlarged upon at present. +The opportunity it affords of securing complete sets of the +Bulletin, and better impressions of the engravings, seems to +be recognized in all quarters. The Association at no period +of its history has had so long a roll of members at this +early season."</p></div> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Paul Delaroche</span> has just completed, at Nice, a grand historical +composition, which the most intelligent judges decree to be his <i>chef +d'œuvre</i>. The picture represents a tragical moment in the life of +Marie Antoinette. After a night of anguish before the revolutionary +tribunals the unhappy Queen has just heard the verdict of her guilt. +The President asks her if she has any thing to say in arrest of the +sentence. For her sole answer, she rises calm and majestic, and takes +silently the way back again to her dungeon. The artist has seized this +instant, as she passes erect and still before a crowd of +revolutionists. A man with a tri-colored scarf walks by her side, +regarding her as a tiger gloats upon a lamb. It is the personification +of terror. A single girl, too young to be cruel, yet attracted with +the others, perhaps, to applaud the punishment of the <i>Widow Capet</i>, +looks pityingly upon the Queen, her trembling lips murmur a prayer, +and the tears start in her eyes. Upon the lips of the Queen there is +almost a smile, a thought of disdain, for the outrages of men upon a +solitary and defenceless woman. From the descriptions of which we +select the prominent points, it is evident that this is another of the +representations of historical incident for which Paul Delaroche has +made himself so famous a name, as in his Death of Elizabeth, the +Children of Edward in the Tower, Cromwell at the Coffin of Charles I, +the Execution of Strafford, of Lady Jane Grey, Napoleon Crossing the +Alps, &c., &c. And there is no reason that this last work should not +be, as claimed, the greatest, since the artist adds to the greater +cunning of his hand, the sympathies of chivalrous artistic feeling for +the sorrow of a beautiful woman and a Queen of France. The picture is +already sold in London, and will presently be forwarded to its +destination; on the way it will remain a short time in Paris for the +homage of the many admirers of this artist's genius.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Mr. <span class="smcap">Miner K. Kellogg</span>, who since his professional tours in the East and +long residence in Italy, has spent some half dozen years in his native +country, has just returned to Florence, where, with his companion from +boyhood, Hiram Powers, he will probably pass the remainder of his +life. He is an artist of peculiar and great merits, and there is not +perhaps among American painters a man more uniformly regarded with +respect and affection.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[Pg 330]</a></span></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The Brussels <i>Herald</i> gives an account of a curious and costly work of +art, which a great landholder of the Walloon Provinces has ordered of +the Depaepes, of Bruges. These artists are instructed to copy in +Gothic letters <i>L'Imitation de Jésus Christ</i>, by the Abbé d'Assance. +The work will fill six hundred and seventy pages, each of which will +be about three-quarters of a yard in height, by eighteen inches wide. +They will have to execute one hundred and fourteen engravings, from +the great masters of the Flemish school, Van Eyck, Memling, Pourbus, +Classens, &c. The pages on which will be displayed the <i>Imitation of +Jesus Christ</i>, will be encircled with garlands and other ornaments, in +blue and gold.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>At the last annual meeting of the <span class="smcap">National Academy of Design</span>, the rank +of <i>Academician</i> was conferred on T. Hicks, G.A. Baker, H.K. Brown, +J.A. Cropsey, T. Addison Richards, R. Gignoux, P.P. Duggan, Alfred +Jones, R.M. Pratt, J.W. Casilear, James Smillie and George W. Flagg. +At the same time, Messrs R.W. Hubbard, J. Thompson, and Vincent +Colyer, were made associates; and Messrs. Darley, Falconer, Lacombe, +Kellogg and Ruggles, honorary members.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4><a name="From_the_Times" id="From_the_Times"></a>From the Times.</h4> + +<h2>THE MEETING OF THE NATIONS IN HYDE PARK.</h2> + +<h3>BY W. M. THACKERAY.</h3> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But yesterday a naked sod,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The dandies sneered from Rotten-row,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And cantered o'er it to and fro;<br /></span> +<span class="i10">And see, 'tis done!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As though 'twere by a wizard's rod,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A blazing arch of lucid glass<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Leaps like a fountain from the grass<br /></span> +<span class="i10">To meet the sun!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A quiet green but few days since,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With cattle browsing in the shade,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And lo! long lines of bright arcade<br /></span> +<span class="i10">In order raised;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A palace as for fairy prince,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A rare paradise, such as man<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Saw never, since mankind began<br /></span> +<span class="i10">And built and glazed!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A peaceful place it was but now,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And lo! within its shining streets.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A multitude, of nations meets:<br /></span> +<span class="i10">A countless throng,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I see beneath the crystal bow,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And Gaul and German, Russ and Turk,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Each with his native handiwork,<br /></span> +<span class="i10">And busy tongue.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I felt a thrill of love and awe<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To mark the different garb of each,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The changing tongue, the various speech<br /></span> +<span class="i10">Together blent.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A thrill, methinks like His who saw<br /></span> +<span class="i2">"All people dwelling upon earth<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Praising our God with solemn mirth<br /></span> +<span class="i10">And one consent."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">High Sovereign in your Royal state!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Captains and Chiefs and Councillors,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Before the lofty palace doors<br /></span> +<span class="i10">Are open set.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hush! ere you pass the shining gate;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Hush! ere the heaving curtain draws,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And let the Royal pageant pause<br /></span> +<span class="i10">A moment yet.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">People and Prince, a silence keep!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Bow coronet and kindly crown,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Helmet and plume bow lowly down;<br /></span> +<span class="i10">The while the priest<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Before the splendid portal step,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">While still the wondrous banquet stays,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">From Heaven supreme a blessing prays<br /></span> +<span class="i10">Upon the feast!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then onwards let the triumph march;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Then let the loud artillery roll,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And trumpets ring and joy-bells toll,<br /></span> +<span class="i10">And pass the gate;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pass underneath the shining arch,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">'Neath which the leafy elms are green—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Ascend unto your throne, O Queen,<br /></span> +<span class="i10">And take your State!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Behold her in her Royal place:<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A gentle lady—and the hand<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That sways the sceptre of this land<br /></span> +<span class="i10">How frail and weak!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Soft is the voice, and fair the face;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">She breathes amen to prayer and hymn,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">No wonder that her eyes are dim,<br /></span> +<span class="i10">And pale her cheek.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">This moment round her empire's shores<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The winds of Austral winter sweep,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And thousands lie in midnight sleep<br /></span> +<span class="i10">At rest to-day.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O! awful is that crown of yours,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Queen of innumerable realms,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Sitting beneath the budding elms<br /></span> +<span class="i10">Of English May!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A wondrous sceptre 'tis to bear,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Strange mystery of God which set<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Upon her brow yon coronet,—<br /></span> +<span class="i10">The foremost crown<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of all the world on one so fair!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That chose her to it from her birth,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And bade the sons of all the earth<br /></span> +<span class="i10">To her bow down.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The representatives of man,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Here from the far Antipodes,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And from the subject Indian seas,<br /></span> +<span class="i10">In Congress meet;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From Afric and from Hindostan,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">From Western continent and isle,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The envoys of her empire pile<br /></span> +<span class="i10">Gifts at her feet.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Our brethren cross the Atlantic tides,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Loading the gallant decks, which once<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Roared a defiance to our guns,<br /></span> +<span class="i10">With peaceful store;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Symbol of peace, their vessel rides!<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a><br /></span> +<span class="i2">O'er English waves float Star and Stripe,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And from their friendly anchors gripe<br /></span> +<span class="i10">The father-shore!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">From Rhine and Danube, Rhone and Seine,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As rivers from their sources gush,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The swelling floods of nations rush,<br /></span> +<span class="i10">And seaward pour:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From coast to coast in friendly chain,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With countless ships we bridge the straits;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And angry Ocean separates<br /></span> +<span class="i10">Europe no more.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">From Mississippi and from Nile—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">From Baltic, Ganges, Bosphorus,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In England's Ark assembled thus<br /></span> +<span class="i10">Are friend and guest.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Look down the mighty sunlit aisle,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And see the sumptuous banquet set,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The brotherhood of nations met<br /></span> +<span class="i10">Around the feast!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Along the dazzling colonnade,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Far as the straining eye can gaze,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Gleam cross and fountain, bell, and vase,<br /></span> +<span class="i10">In vistas bright.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And statues fair of nymph and maid,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And steeds and pards and Amazons,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Writhing and grappling in the bronze,<br /></span> +<span class="i10">In endless fight.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">To deck the glorious roof and dome,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To make the Queen a canopy,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The peaceful hosts of industry<br /></span> +<span class="i10">Their standards bear.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yon are the works of Brahmin loom;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">On such a web of Persian thread<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The desert Arab bows his head,<br /></span> +<span class="i10">And cries his prayer.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Look yonder where the engines toil;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">These England's arms, of conquest are,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The trophies of her bloodless war:<br /></span> +<span class="i10">Brave weapons these.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Victorious over wave and soil,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With these she sails, she weaves, she tills<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Pierces the everlasting hills,<br /></span> +<span class="i10">And spans the seas.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The engine roars upon its race,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The shuttle whirrs along the woof,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The people hum from floor to roof,<br /></span> +<span class="i10">With Babel tongue.<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[Pg 331]</a></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The fountain in the basin plays,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The chanting organ echoes clear,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">An awful chorus 'tis to hear,<br /></span> +<span class="i16">A wondrous song!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Swell organ, swell your trumpet blast,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">March, Queen, and Royal pageant, march<br /></span> +<span class="i2">By splendid aisle and springing arch<br /></span> +<span class="i16">Of this fair Hall:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And see! above the fabric vast,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">God's boundless Heaven is bending blue,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">God's peaceful Sun is beaming through<br /></span> +<span class="i10">And shining over all.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>April 29.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> The St. Lawrence.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_SECOND_WIFE_OR_THE_TABLES_TURNED" id="THE_SECOND_WIFE_OR_THE_TABLES_TURNED"></a>THE SECOND WIFE: OR, THE TABLES TURNED.</h2> + +<h4>WRITTEN FOR THE INTERNATIONAL MONTHLY MAGAZINE.</h4> + + +<p>Subordination is the <i>apparent</i> lot of woman. From the domination of +nurses, parents, guardians, and teachers, during infancy and youth, to +the magisterial rule of her lord and master, during married life, and +the softer control of her children, through that valley of the shadow +of death, old age, it rarely ceases, until the neatly-crimped borders +of the death-cap rest upon the icy brow, and the unfortunate subject +is screwed down in one of those exceedingly awkward mahogany +tenements, henceforth "all which it may inhabit."</p> + +<p>There are two ways of meeting this destiny of the sex. One is merely +to kiss the rod, and bend before the will of the oppressor, meekly +turning both cheeks to be smitten at once, and offering to lend both +coat and cloak, even before either is required. The other mode is to +boldly face down the enemy, and by a never-tiring guerilla warfare, to +hamper his movements, cut off his provisions, and finally hem him in, +after a manner that shall cause him ignominiously to surrender, to lay +down his arms, pass under the yoke, and at length—converting his +sword into a pruning-hook—leave his conqueror undisputed possession +of the land. The usual injustice of the world is seen in the success +which ordinarily attends the latter method; while the meek and gentle, +who, it is promised, shall inherit the earth, must look for a new +heaven and a new earth before they can come into their property. +Husbands, it is premised, have no small share in this domestic +despotism. How often do we see—to the shame of the male sex +generally, be it spoken—some rough, coarse-minded tyrant, linked to a +quiet, amiable woman, who after a long period of hectoring and +dragooning, ordering and counter-ordering, sinks into the grave of a +broken heart—or what is worse, a broken spirit. And sometimes—for +fate is sometimes just—the said patient wife is replaced by some +undaunted avenger of her wrongs, who in her turn dragoons, and hectors +Othello, until indeed his "occupation's gone."</p> + +<p>My old acquaintance, Charles Boldenough, was pronounced to be, by the +tutors, as well as by the students of D—— College, "the most +unlicked cub" who ever misconstrued Virgil. Their experience was +undoubtedly great in this species of natural history, but of all the +hard characters who fell under their inspection and jurisdiction, I +question if there were one who could with any share of success, +dispute with him the enviable claim of being the hardest. Tall, +athletic, with a huge frame capable of any fatigue, and health that +never failed him; with a passionate temper, and a stentorian voice +whose thunders were the terror of the younger boys, Charles Boldenough +contrived to overawe with brute force all the small fry, and to +convince the older collegians that it was best to yield passively to +pretensions which could only be contended with any chance of success, +by wrestling powers equal to his own. He was in fact the gladiator of +D——College,—champion I should have called him, were it not that he +was constantly at war with the professors and faculty, who might be +said to represent it. The incorrigible laziness and ignorance which +marked his scholastic career, were fruitful sources of complaint and +reprimand; the frequent boating expeditions, the sporting excursions, +and fishing parties, on which he was absent, sometimes for entire +days, would unquestionably have terminated the course of his studies, +and released the freshmen from their dreaded tyrant, by his early +expulsion, had it not been for the influence of powerful family +connections, and the personal interference of his friends. But in the +course of time, he finished his collegiate labors, with all the +honors, and a scarcity of black eyes, and bloody noses, immediately +prevailed at D——, such as had not occurred for years.</p> + +<p>I separated from him at that time, and heard nothing of him for a long +interval. When I next saw him, he was married. The person whom my +pugnacious acquaintance had made the object of his choice, was a fair +blue-eyed timid little woman, with a frail figure, delicate health, +and temper mild as the summer morning. What could have induced her, to +ally herself with this belligerent power, I never could imagine. +Whether she had fallen in love with that great burly countenance, and +loud voice; or whether, as the youngest of ten children, she had +snatched at the crown matrimonial as affording an escape from a +disagreeable home, or whether some one of her friends compelled her to +do it, I have always found it impossible to determine. I only know +that at the first interview, I saw enough to pity the poor being in my +heart. She hung upon the arm of her Alcides, like a snow-drop on a +rock. My friend had never had many pretensions to beauty; and his +rough red visage and portly figure, bore witness of a right boisterous +and jolly style of living. His first act after his marriage, was to +engage in a violent quarrel with his wife's father and eight stalwart +brothers, the result of which was a total cessation of intercourse +between the two families. His young partner was compelled to receive +the boon companions of her better half, to the entire exclusion of her +own friends. The home of Charles Boldenough was a constant scene of +dinner parties, and oyster suppers innumerable, which, as they +frequently ended by an altercation between the host and his guests, +were a continual source of agitation to his wife.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[Pg 332]</a></span></p> + +<p>A perfect angel of peace and gentleness she was. She bore, with +unexampled resignation, the thraldom which was destroying her health +and comfort. She tried, with patience, every means of pleasing a man +who never allowed her to know what he liked, as it would have taken +away all room for grumbling. With scrupulous care she attended to his +little vexatious wants, his epicurean tastes, his trifling whimsical +peculiarities. If she wished to remain at home, he forced her to go +abroad; if she were desirous of going out, he made her stay within +doors. If she liked a person more than commonly, he, in the words of +the vulgar, "made the house too hot to hold them." If, on the +contrary, she was annoyed by the presence of one of his acquaintances, +she had time and opportunity to get rid of her abhorrence, since she +was continually visited with their company. He scolded, grumbled, and +found fault with every thing she did; with her acts and her intentions +alike. If she ordered a servant to perform any particular duty, he +immediately countermanded the orders; if she made any change, however +slight, in the family arrangements, no penance could expiate the +offence. So she lived on, with almost a struggle for her existence, +having learned the important mythological lesson, that Hymen, like +Janus, wears two faces, and that the temple of the former god, unlike +that of the latter, is <i>never</i> closed. She had several children (who +fortunately all died before their mother), but Boldenough, on the +ground that women were not fit to bring up boys, constantly interfered +in the education of the girls, and made his wife as wretched by this +means as by any other. He punished when she rewarded, and indulged +when she reproved; he sent them to school when she would have educated +them at home, and reaped his reward, by having them secretly fear and +hate him. Poor Mrs. Boldenough complained not, but she grew thinner +and paler every year, and her voice, as if lost amid the loud tones, +forever reverberating in her ears, became so low as to be scarcely +audible.</p> + +<p>At last she died. When it became necessary to inform him of the danger +she was in, he was at first stupefied by the unexpected intelligence, +and the feeling that he was to lose a household object, which time had +rendered not dear, but familiar. Then he flew into a violent rage, +quarreled with the attendants, servants, even the friends and +relatives. Having recovered from the shock in some degree, he set +about persecuting his poor wife during her last moments, in the same +manner he had done while she enjoyed her health, with this difference: +that it was now killing with kindness. He sent away in a rage the +family physician, although his dying wife begged him, almost with +tears, to retain him. He brought strange attendants to wait upon her, +and insisted upon her eating when she had no appetite, and when the +very sight of food created disgust. The sight of his big, cross, burly +countenance, perpetually haunting her, and his loud questions, to +which he <i>would</i> have answers, and the eternal remedies, which he +disturbed her feverish sleep that she might swallow—were causes, as +the nurse averred, which positively sent the poor lady out of the +world—"for he wouldn't," said that worthy person, "he wouldn't have +let her get well, even if she'd been a mind to."</p> + +<p>Poor thing! a man who, as it was universally agreed, had broken his +wife's heart, was not likely to regret her very deeply, or very long. +But he was rougher and ruder than ever; the confusion into which his +family matters immediately fell, the dishonesty of servants, the +diabolical gastronomy of his <i>cuisine</i>, and the insufferable dullness +of a home in which there was no family circle to be made uncomfortable +and to be railed at every hour in the day, induced Charles Boldenough +to mingle more freely in society, in order, as it was immediately +said, that he might marry again. Many were the denunciations of wrath +and sorrow to come, which were showered upon the head of that wretched +woman who should accept Charles Boldenough's huge bony hand. He had +the name of the worst of husbands, and it was confidently said that he +would never succeed in contracting a second alliance: an assertion to +which he gave the lie by espousing, one year after the death of the +first Mrs. Boldenough, an intrepid successor, in the person of a +damsel whom he had long been known to admire.</p> + +<p>The second Mrs. Boldenough was a complete and entire contrast to the +first. She was so nearly equal to her husband in stature and in size +that she might almost have succeeded in giving him, what no person had +ever been known to do, and what he certainly had long required: +namely, a good flogging. She had a pair of cheeks like nothing in +<i>this</i> world except two prize Spitzenberg apples, black eyes, fierce +and bright and far-seeing almost to a miracle, and a voice that went +through your head like a milkman's whistle, whilst the continued sound +of her conversation resembled a gong at the great hotels. Boldenough +she was by name, and Boldenough by nature; her carriage, erect and +firm, and rapid as a locomotive, seemed to require the ringing of a +little bell before her, to keep the unwary off the tracks, after the +manner of most railway trains. She was afraid of nothing in the +heavens above, or in the earth beneath, or in the waters under the +earth. She could break the most unruly horse, fire at a mark with a +perfect aim, and collar any man who should show her any impertinence, +with a coolness and strength of limb perfectly wonderful to behold. +Born to command, she was not angry but merely surprised that any one +should dream of controlling her. It was only after a long resistance +to her wishes that the full torrent of her rage burst forth, but with +an overwhelming fury.</p> + +<p>The French say "C'est le coeur qui fait le grenadier." If this be +true, what a very respectable<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[Pg 333]</a></span> regiment might be formed from the ranks +of the fair sex in all parts of the world, were they but armed and +equipped as the law directs! What an irresistible army would that be +which should be formed of troops like these! My friend, Mrs. +Boldenough, would have made an excellent commander to these imaginary +forces, and would, no doubt, have been as entirely successful in +overrunning the enemy's country and driving him from his last +entrenchments, as she was in the domestic circle triumphant over +husband and servants, and sweeping before her the convivial revellers +of the former by means of the rapid extinction of feudal customs, in +the shape of suppers and dinner parties.</p> + +<p>Mr. Boldenough attempted to make a gallant defence; he stormed, raved, +threatened, commanded, and exhorted; scenes of conflict, dreadful to +witness, took place between the warlike hosts. The lord of the +mansion's burly visage turned pale at finding himself stormed down +with a noise and clatter which almost burst the tympanum of his ears. +If <i>he</i> had scolded <i>she</i> had raved more loudly, if <i>he</i> had thundered +<i>she</i> rang out her high shrill treble with as much force and strength +as a dinner-bell. Fairly beaten and vanquished, he shrunk from the +ground; she, undismayed, "keeping the natural ruby of her cheeks, +while his were pale from fear."</p> + +<p>Vœ victis! Wo to the conquered! The reign of Mr. Boldenough was +over; a new dynasty took possession of the throne. The old servants +were packed, bag and baggage, out of the mansion; the old +acquaintances of the host were impressively given to understand that +they were "never to come there no more."</p> + +<p>The longer any arbitrary power is established the more secure its +authority becomes. So it proved with regard to Mrs. Boldenough. There +was no escaping from her military despotism; she was an excellent +housewife, and the best of good managers, and as might have been +expected, she immediately restrained and cut off the lavish +expenditure of the household. Mr. Boldenough made a few faint expiring +efforts in behalf of his favorite luxuries. Not the better part of +valor, is, as he discovered, discretion; for his helpmate held in her +hands the buying and the ordering of his dinners and his daily food, +and if he complained he was sure to find his condition worse than it +was before. In the course of time six sturdy Boldenoughs sprung up, +robust, hardy, noisy, and passionate as their mother, whose authority +they served to confirm and strengthen. Then, indeed, it was that my +friend Charles's shadow perceptibly grew less. He shrank from the +notice of his wife and the bold Titans, his sons. The first Mrs. +Boldenough's memory was certainly avenged.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The last time I met my friend he was evidently sinking slowly but +surely into the vale of years. His great rubicund countenance was +sunken and emaciated, his figure bent and meagre, his voice weak and +faint as a whisper, and his hearing <i>entirely gone</i>. From what cause +my readers may perhaps imagine. He was, indeed, stone deaf. I +question, however, if this were not almost a mercy, considering the +tower of Babel in which he dwelt. Nobody cared what became of him, for +he had never cared for any body.</p> + +<p>Charles Boldenough departed this life shortly after having survived +his second marriage fifteen years. The physician had the effrontery to +ascribe to paralysis what evidently was no natural death. His end +might have excited some pity from his acquaintances and friends, if it +had not been for two things, namely, that he had no friends, and that +he merely received himself the same treatment which he had given +others. I was not sorry for him, I confess. Justice is so rare in this +world of ours, that I am not disposed to undervalue it when it is +summarily executed. The Amazonian relict of my friend Charles never +re-married. Whether she never found that daring man, who was Van +Amburgh-like enough to put his head in the lioness's mouth without +fear of having it snapped off at one blow, or whether the charge of +her young giants was sufficient for her occupation, or whether she was +conscious of having fulfilled her <i>mission</i>, I do not know. She +retained her formidable name to the end of her days.</p> + +<p>Reader! I have done. If you are a woman you may smile, and if a man +you will sneer; but I assure you there is a moral in the <i>petite +histoire</i> of the second wife. Adieu!</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="A_STORY_WITHOUT_A_NAME3" id="A_STORY_WITHOUT_A_NAME3"></a>A STORY WITHOUT A NAME<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></h2> + +<h4>WRITTEN FOR THE INTERNATIONAL MONTHLY MAGAZINE.</h4> + +<h3>BY G. P. R. JAMES, ESQ.</h3> + +<h4><i>Continued from page 200.</i></h4> + + +<h4>CHAPTER XXVI.</h4> + +<p>There are seasons in the life of man, as well as in the course of the +year; and well, unhappily, have many poets painted them in all their +various aspects. But these seasons are subject to variations with +different men, as with different years. The summer of one man is all +bright and calm—a lapse of tranquil sunshine, and soft airs, and +gentle dews. With another, the same season passes in the thunder-storm +of passion—the tempests of war or ambition—and often, the gloomy +days of autumn or of winter overshadowed the rich land, and spoiled +the promised harvest.</p> + +<p>It was an autumn-like period during the next three or four months of +the family of Sir Philip Hastings. For the first time, uncertainty and +doubt fell upon the family generally. There had been differences of +temper and of character. There had been slight inconveniences. There +had been occasional sickness and anxiety. There had been all those +things which in the usual course of events diminished the sum of human +happiness even to the most happy. But there had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[Pg 334]</a></span> been nothing the +least like uncertainty of position. There had been no wavering anxiety +from day to day as to what the morrow was to bring forth. There had +been none of that poison-drop in which the keenest shafts of fate are +dipped, "the looking for of evil."</p> + +<p>Now, every day brought some new intelligence, and some new +expectation, and the mass was altogether unfavorable. Had the blow +fallen at once—had any one been in power to say, "Sir Philip +Hastings, you must resign all your paternal estates, and pay back at +once the rents for nearly twenty years—you must give up the rank and +station which you have hitherto held, and occupy a totally different +position in society!" Sir Philip would have submitted at once, and +with less discomfort than most of my readers can imagine. But it was +the wearing, irritating, exciting, yet stupefying progress of a +lawsuit which had a painful and distressing effect upon his mind. One +day, he thought he saw the case quite clearly—could track the tricks +of his adversary, and expose the insecure foundation of his claim; and +then would come two or three days of doubt and discussion, and then +disappointment, and a new turn where every thing had to begin again. +But gradually proofs swelled up, first giving some show of justice to +the pretence that John Ayliffe had some claim, then amounting to a +probability in his favor, then seeming, to unlearned eyes, very +powerful as to his right.</p> + +<p>I am no lawyer, and therefore cannot pursue all the stages of the +proceeding; but John Ayliffe had for his assistants unscrupulous men, +whose only aims were to succeed, and to shield themselves from danger +in case of detection; and their turns, and twists, and new points, +were manifold.</p> + +<p>Sir Philip Hastings was tortured. It affected his spirits and his +temper. He became more gloomy—occasionally irritable, often +suspicious. He learned to pore over law papers, to seek out flaws and +errors, to look for any thing that might convey a double meaning, to +track the tortuous and narrow paths by which that power which bears +the name of Justice reaches the clear light of truth, or falls into +the thorny deep of error.</p> + +<p>All this disturbed and changed him; and these daily anxieties and +discomforts affected his family too—Emily, indeed, but little, except +inasmuch as she was grieved to see her father grieve. But Lady +Hastings was not only pained and mortified herself—she contrived to +communicate a share of all she felt to others. She became +sad—somewhat sullen—and fancied all the time while she was +depressing her husband's spirits, and aggravating all he felt by +despondency and murmurs, instead of cheering and supporting him by +making light of the threatened evils, that she was but participating +sympathetically in his anxieties, and feeling a due share of his +sorrows. She had no idea of the duty of cheerfulness in a wife, and +how often it may prove the very blessing that God intended in giving +man a helpmate.</p> + +<p>Sickness, it is true, had diminished somewhat the light spirits of her +youth, but she had assuredly become a creature of repinings—a +murmurer by habit—fit to double rather than divide any load of +misfortune which fate might cast upon a husband's shoulders.</p> + +<p>Lady Hastings strove rather to look sad, Emily Hastings to be gay and +cheerful, and both did it perhaps a little too much for the mood and +circumstances in which Sir Philip then was. He wondered when he came +home, after an anxious day, that Lady Hastings did nothing to cheer +him—that every word was gloomy and sad—that she seemed far more +affected at the thought of loss of fortune and station than himself. +He wondered also that Emily could be so light and playful, so joyous +and seemingly unconcerned, when he was suffering such anxiety.</p> + +<p>Poor Emily! she was forcing spirits in vain, and playing the kindliest +of hypocrites—fashioning every word, and every look, to win him away +from painful thought, only to be misunderstood.</p> + +<p>But the misunderstanding was heightened and pointed by the hand of +malice. The emotion which Sir Philip had displayed in the court had +not been forgotten by some whom a spirit of revenge rendered keen and +clear-sighted.</p> + +<p>It seemed impossible to mingle Emily's name directly with the law +proceedings which were taking place; but more than once in accidental +correspondence it was insinuated that secret information, which had +led to the development of John Ayliffe's claim, had been obtained from +some near relation of Sir Philip Hastings, and it became generally +rumored and credited in the county, that Emily had indiscreetly +betrayed some secrets of her father's. Of course these rumors did not +reach her ears, but they reached Sir Philip Hastings, and he thought +it strange, and more strange, that Emily had never mentioned to him +her several interviews with John Ayliffe, which he had by this time +learned were more than one.</p> + +<p>Some strange feelings, disguised doubtless by one of those veils which +vanity or selfishness are ever ready to cast over the naked emotions +of the human heart, withheld him from speaking to his child on the +subject which caused him so much pain. Doubtless it was pride—for +pride of a peculiar kind was at the bottom of many of his actions. He +would not condescend to inquire, he thought, into that which she did +not choose to explain herself, and he went on in reality barring the +way against confidence, when, in truth, nothing would have given Emily +more relief than to open her whole heart to her father.</p> + +<p>With Marlow, Sir Philip Hastings was more free and communicative than +with any one else. The young man's clear perceptions, and rapid +comprehensions on any point in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[Pg 335]</a></span> course of the proceedings going +on, his zeal, his anxiety, his thoughtfulness, and his keen sense of +what was just and equitable, raised him every day higher in the +opinion of Sir Philip Hastings, and he would consult with him for +hours, talk the whole matter over in all its bearings, and leave him +to solve various questions of conscience in which he found it +difficult himself to come to a decision. Only on one point Sir Philip +Hastings never spoke to him; and that was Emily's conduct with regard +to young Ayliffe. That, the father could not do; and yet, more than +once, he longed to do it.</p> + +<p>One day, however, towards the end of six months after the first +processes had been issued, Sir Philip Hastings, in one of his morning +consultations with Marlow, recapitulated succinctly all the proofs +which young John Ayliffe had brought forward to establish a valid +marriage between his mother and the elder brother of the baronet.</p> + +<p>"The case is very nearly complete," said Sir Philip. "But two or three +links in the chain of evidence are wanting, and as soon as I become +myself convinced that this young man is, beyond all reasonable doubt, +the legitimate son of my brother John, my course will be soon taken. +It behooves us in the first instance, Marlow, to consider how this may +affect you. You have sought the hand of a rich man's daughter, and now +I shall be a poor man; for although considerable sums have accumulated +since my father's death, they will not more than suffice to pay off +the sums due to this young man if his claim be established, and the +expenses of this suit must be saved by hard economy. The property of +Lady Hastings will still descend to our child, but neither she nor I +have the power to alienate even a part of it for our daughter's dowry. +It is right, therefore, Marlow, that you should be set free from all +engagements."</p> + +<p>"When I first asked your daughter's hand, Sir Philip," replied Marlow, +"I heartily wished that our fortunes were more equal. Fate has granted +that wish, apparently, in making them so; and believe me, I rejoice +rather than regret that it is so, as far as I myself am concerned. We +shall have enough for comfort, Sir Philip, and not too much for +happiness. What need we more? But I cannot help thinking," he +continued, "that this suit may turn out differently from that which +you expect. I believe that the mind has its instincts, which, though +dangerous to trust to, guide us nevertheless, sometimes, more surely +than reason. There is an impression on my mind, which all the evidence +hitherto brought forward has been unable to shake, that this claim of +John Ayliffe is utterly without foundation—that it is, in fact, a +trumped up case, supported by proofs which will fall to pieces under +close examination."</p> + +<p>Sir Philip Hastings shook his head. "But one thing more," he said, +"and I am myself convinced. I will not struggle against conviction, +Marlow; but the moment I feel morally sure that I am defending a bad +cause, that instant I will yield, be the sacrifice what it may. +Nothing on earth," he continued, in a stern abstracted tone, "shall +ever prevent my doing that which I believe right, and which justice +and honor require me to do. Life itself and all that makes life dear +were but a poor sacrifice in the eyes of an honest man; what then a +few thousand acres, and an empty designation?"</p> + +<p>"But, my dear Sir Philip," replied Marlow, "let us suppose for one +moment that this claim is a fictitious one, and that it is supported +by fraud and forgery, you will allow that more than a few months are +required to investigate all the particulars thoroughly, and to detect +the knavery which may have been committed?"</p> + +<p>"My dear Marlow," replied Sir Philip, "conviction comes to each mind +accordingly as it is naturally constituted or habitually regulated. I +trust I have studied the nature of evidence well—well enough to be +satisfied with much less than mere law will require. In regard to all +questions which come under the decision of the law, there are, in +fact, two juries who decide upon the merits of the evidence—one, +selected from our fellow men—the other in the bosom of the parties +before which each man shall scrupulously try the justice of his own +cause, and if the verdict be against him, should look upon himself but +as an officer to carry the verdict into execution. I will never act +against conviction. I will always act with it. My mind will try the +cause itself; and the moment its decision is pronounced, that instant +I will act upon it."</p> + +<p>Marlow knew that it was in vain to argue farther, and could only trust +that something would occur speedily to restore Sir Philip's confidence +in his own rights.</p> + +<p>Sir Philip, however, was now absent very frequently from home. The +unpleasant business in which he was engaged, called him continually to +the county town, and many a long and happy hour might Marlow and Emily +have passed together had not Lady Hastings at this time assumed a +somewhat new character—apparently so only—for it was, in fact, +merely a phase of the old one. She became—as far as health and +indolence would admit—the most prudent and careful mother in the +world. She insinuated that it was highly improper for Emily to walk or +ride alone with her acknowledged lover, and broadly asserted that +their previous rambles had been permitted without her knowledge, and +from inadvertence. During all Marlow's afternoon visits, she took +especial care to sit with them the whole time, and thus she sought to +deprive them of all means of free and unconstrained communication. +Such would have been the result, too, indeed, had it not been for a +few morning hours snatched now and then; partly from a habit of +indulgence, and partly from very delicate health, Lady Hastings was +rarely, if ever, down to breakfast, and generally remained in her +drawing-room till the hour of noon was past.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[Pg 336]</a></span></p> + +<p>The hours of Sir Philip's absence were generally tedious enough to +himself. Sometimes a day of weary and laborious business occupied the +time; but that was a relief rather than otherwise. In general the day +was spent in a visit to the office of his lawyer, in finding the +information he wanted, or the case he had desired to be prepared, not +ready for him, in waiting for it hour after hour, in tedious gloomy +meditation, and very often riding home without it, reflecting on the +evils of a dilatory system which often, by the refusal of <i>speedy</i> +justice, renders ultimate justice unavailable for any thing but the +assertion of an abstract principle. He got tired of this mode of +proceeding: he felt that it irritated and disordered him, and after a +while, whenever he found that he should be detained in suspense, he +mounted his horse again, and rode away to amuse his mind with other +things.</p> + +<p>The house of Mrs. Hazleton being so near, he more than once paid her a +visit during such intervals. His coming frequently was not altogether +convenient to her; for John Ayliffe was not an unfrequent visitor at +her house, and Mrs. Hazleton had to give the young man a hint to let +her see him early in the morning or late in the evening. Nevertheless, +Mrs. Hazleton was not at all displeased to cultivate the friendship of +Sir Philip Hastings. She had her objects, her purposes, to serve, and +with her when she put on her most friendly looks towards the baronet +she was not moved merely by that everyday instinctive hypocrisy which +leads man to cover the passions he is conscious of, with a veil of the +most opposite appearances, but it was a definite hypocrisy, with +objects distinctly seen by herself, and full of purpose.</p> + +<p>Thus, and for these reasons, she received Sir Philip Hastings on all +occasions with the highest distinction—assumed, with a certain +chameleon quality which some persons have, the color and tone of his +mind to a considerable degree, while yet the general features of her +own character were preserved sufficiently to shield her from the +charge of affectation. She was easy, graceful, dignified as ever, with +a certain languid air, and serious quietness which was very engaging. +She never referred in her conversations with Sir Philip to the suit +that was going on against him, and when he spoke of it himself, though +she assumed considerable interest, and seemed to have a personal +feeling in the matter, exclaiming, "If this goes on, nobody's estates +will be secure soon!" she soon suffered the subject to drop, and did +not recur to it again.</p> + +<p>One day after the conversation between Sir Philip and Marlow, part of +which has been already detailed, Sir Philip turned his horse's head +towards Mrs. Hazleton's at a somewhat earlier hour than usual. It was +just half past ten when he dismounted at the door, but he knew her +matutinal habits and did not expect to find her occupied. The servant, +however, instead of showing him into the small room where she usually +sat, took him to the great drawing-room, and as he went, Sir Philip +heard the voices of Mrs. Hazleton and another person in quick and +apparently eager conversation. There was nothing extraordinary in +this, however, and he turned to the window and gazed out into the +park. He heard the servant go into the morning room, and then +immediately all sound of voices ceased. Shortly after, a horse's feet, +beating the ground rapidly, caught the baronet's ear, but the rider +must have mounted in the courtyard and taken the back way out of the +park; for he came not within Sir Philip's sight. A moment or two +after, Mrs. Hazleton appeared, and there was an air of eagerness and +excitement about her which was not at all usual. She seated Sir Philip +beside her, however, with one of her blandest looks, and then laying +her hand on his, said, in a kind and sisterly tone, "Do tell me, Sir +Philip—I am not apt to be curious, or meddle with other people's +affairs; but in this I am deeply interested. A rumor has just reached +me from Hartwell, that you have signified your intention of abandoning +your defence against this ridiculous claim upon your property. Do tell +me if this is true?"</p> + +<p>"Partly, and partly false," replied Sir Philip, "as all rumors are. +Who gave you this information?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, some of the people from Hartwell," she replied, "who came over +upon business."</p> + +<p>"The tidings must have spread fast," replied Sir Philip; "I announced +to my own legal advisers this morning, and told them to announce to +the opposite party, that if they could satisfy me upon one particular +point, I would not protract the suit, putting them to loss and +inconvenience and myself also."</p> + +<p>"A noble and generous proceeding, indeed," said Mrs. Hazleton, with an +enthusiastic burst of admiration. "Ah, dear Emily, I can see your +mediation in this."</p> + +<p>Sir Philip started as if a knife had been plunged into him, and with a +profound internal satisfaction, Mrs. Hazleton saw the emotion she had +produced.</p> + +<p>"May I ask," he said, in a dry cold tone, after he had recovered +himself a little, "May I ask what my daughter can have to do with this +affair?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, really—in truth I don't know," said Mrs. Hazleton, stammering +and hesitating, "I only thought—but I dare say it is all nonsense. +Women are always the peacemakers, you know, Sir Philip, and as Emily +knew both parties well, it seemed natural she should mediate between +them."</p> + +<p>"Well?—" said Sir Philip Hastings to himself, slowly and +thoughtfully, but he only replied to Mrs. Hazleton, "No, my dear +Madam, Emily has had nothing to do with this. It has never formed a +subject of conversation between us, and I trust that she has +sufficient respect for me, and for herself, not to interfere unasked +in my affairs."</p> + +<p>The serpent had done its work; the venom<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[Pg 337]</a></span> was busy in the veins of Sir +Philip Hastings, corrupting the purest sources of the heart's +feelings, and Mrs. Hazleton saw it and triumphed.</p> + + +<h4>CHAPTER XXVII.</h4> + +<p>Emily was as gay as a lark. The light of love and happiness was in her +eyes, the hue of health was upon her cheek, and a new spirit of hope +and joy seemed to pervade all her fair form. So Sir Philip Hastings +found her on the terrace with Marlow when he returned from Hartwell. +She was dressed in a riding habit, and one word would have explained +all the gaiety of her mood. Lady Hastings, never very consequent in +her actions, had wished for some one of those things which ladies wish +for, and which ladies only can choose. She had felt too unwell to go +for it herself; and although she had not a fortnight before expressed +her strong disapprobation of her daughter and Mr. Marlow even walking +out alone in the park, she had now sent them on horseback to procure +what she wanted. They had enjoyed one of those glorious rides over the +downs, which seem to pour into the heart fresh feelings of delight at +every step, flooding the sense with images of beauty, and making the +blood dance freely in the veins. It seemed also, both to her and +Marlow, that a part of the prohibition was removed, and though they +might not perhaps be permitted to walk out together, Lady Hastings +could hardly for the future forbid them to ride. Thus they had come +back very well pleased, with light hearts within, and gay hopes +fluttering round them.</p> + +<p>Sir Philip Hastings, on the other hand, had passed a day of +bitterness, and hard, painful thought. On his first visit to the +county town, he had, as I have shown, been obliged once more to put +off decision. Then came his conference with Mrs. Hazleton. Then he had +returned to his lawyer's office, and found that the wanting evidence +had been supplied by his opponents. All that he had demanded was +there; and no apparent flaw in the case of his adversary. He had +always announced his attention of withdrawing opposition if such +proofs were afforded, and he did so now, with stern, rigid, and +somewhat hasty determination—but not without bitterness and regret. +His ride home, too, was troubled with dull and grievous thoughts, and +his whole mind was out of tune, and unfit to harmonize with gaiety of +any kind. He forgot that poor Emily could not see what had been +passing in his bosom, could not know all that had occurred to disturb +and annoy him, and her light and cheerful spirits seemed an offence to +him.</p> + +<p>Sir Philip passed on, after he had spoken a few words to Marlow, and +sought Lady Hastings in the room below, where she usually sat after +she came down. Sir Philip, as I have shown, had not been nurtured in a +tender school, and he was not very apt by gentle preparation to soothe +the communication of any bad tidings. Without any circumlocution, +then, or prefatory remarks of any kind, he addressed his wife in the +following words: "This matter is decided, my dear Rachel. I am no +longer Sir Philip Hastings, and it is necessary that we should remove +from this house within a month, to your old home—the Court. It will +be necessary, moreover, that we should look with some degree of +accuracy into the state of our future income, and our expenditure. +With your property, and the estate which I inherit from my mother, +which being settled on the younger children, no one can take from me, +we shall still have more than enough for happiness, but the style of +our living must be altered. We shall have plenty of time to think of +that, however, and to do what we have to do methodically."</p> + +<p>Lady Hastings, or as we should rather call her now, Mistress Hastings, +seemed at first hardly to comprehend her husband's meaning, and she +replied, "You do not mean to say, Philip, that this horrible cause is +decided?"</p> + +<p>"As far as I am concerned, entirely," replied Sir Philip Hastings. "I +shall offer no farther defence."</p> + +<p>Lady Hastings fell into a fit of hysterics, and her husband knowing +that it was useless to argue with her in such circumstances, called +her maid, and left her.</p> + +<p>There was but a dull dinner-party at the Hall that day. Sir Philip was +gloomy and reserved, and the news which had spread over the house, as +to the great loss of property which he had sustained, soon robbed his +daughter of her cheerfulness.</p> + +<p>Marlow, too, was very grave; for he thought his friend had acted, not +only hastily, but imprudently. Lady Hastings did not come down to +dinner, and as soon as the meal was over Emily retired to her mother's +dressing-room, leaving Marlow and her father with their wine. Sir +Philip avoided the subject of his late loss, however, and when Marlow +himself, alluded to it, replied very briefly.</p> + +<p>"It is done," he said, "and I will cast the matter entirely from my +mind, Marlow. I will endeavor, as far as possible, to do in all +circumstances what is right, whatever be the anguish it costs me. +Having done what is right, my next effort shall be to crush every +thing like regret or repining. There is only one thing in life which +could give me any permanent pain, and that would be to have an +unworthy child."</p> + +<p>Marlow did not seem to remark the peculiar tone in which the last +words were uttered, and he replied. "There, at least, you are most +happy, Sir Philip; for surely Emily is a blessing which may well +compensate for any misfortunes."</p> + +<p>"I trust so—I think so," said Sir Philip, in a dry and hasty manner, +and then changing the subject, he added, "Call me merely Philip +Hastings, my good friend. I say with Lord Verulam, 'The Chancellor is +gone.' I mean I am no longer a baronet. That will not distress<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[Pg 338]</a></span> me, +however, and as to the loss of fortune, I can bear it with the most +perfect indifference."</p> + +<p>Mr. Hastings reckoned in some degree without his host, however. He +knew not all the petty annoyances that were in store for him. The +costs he had to pay, the back-rents which were claimed, the long and +complicated accounts that were to be passed, the eager struggle which +was made to deprive him of many things undoubtedly his own; all were +matters of almost daily trouble and irritation during the next six +months. He had greatly miscalculated the whole amount of expenses. +Having lived always considerably within his income, he had imagined +that he had quite a sufficient amount in ready money to pay all the +demands that could be made upon him. But such was far from being the +case. Before all the debts were paid, and the accounts closed, he was +obliged to raise money upon his life-interest in his mother's +property, and to remain dependent, as it were, upon his wife's income +for his whole means. These daily annoyances had a much greater effect +upon Mr. Hastings than any great and serious misfortune could have +had. He became morose, impatient, gloomy. His mind brooded over all +that had occurred, and all that was occurring. He took perverted views +of many things, and adhered to them with an obstinacy that nothing +could shake.</p> + +<p>In the mean time all the neighbors and friends of the family +endeavored to show their sympathy and kindness by every means in their +power. Even before the family quitted the Hall, the visitors were more +numerous than they had ever been before, and this was some consolation +to Mistress Hastings, though quite the contrary to her husband, who +did not indeed appear very frequently amongst the guests, but remained +in his own study as much as possible.</p> + +<p>It was a very painful day for every one, and for Emily especially, +when they passed the door of the old Hall for the last time, and took +their way through the park towards the Court. The furniture in great +part, the books, the plate, had gone before; the rooms looked vacant +and desolate, and as Emily passed through them one by one, ere she +went down to the carriage, there was certainly nothing very attractive +in their aspect. But there were spots there associated with many dear +memories—feelings—fancies—thoughts—all the bright things of early, +happy youth; and it was very bitter for her to leave them all, and +know that she was never to visit them again.</p> + +<p>She might, and probably would, have fallen into one of her deep +reveries, but she struggled against it, knowing that both her father +and her mother would require comfort and consolation in the coming +hours. She exerted herself, then, steadily and courageously to bear up +without a show of grief, and she succeeded even too well to satisfy +her father. He thought her somewhat light and frivolous, and judged it +very strange that his daughter could quit her birth-place, and her +early home, without, apparently, one regretful sigh. He himself sat +stern, and gloomy, and silent, in the carriage, as it rolled away. +Mistress Hastings leaned back, with her handkerchief over her eyes, +weeping bitterly. Emily alone was calmly cheerful, and she maintained +this demeanor all the way along till they reached the Court, and +separated till dinner-time. Then, however, she wept bitterly and long.</p> + +<p>Before she had descended to meet her parents at dinner, she did her +best to efface all traces of her sad employment for the last hour. She +did not succeed completely, and when she entered the drawing-room, and +spoke cheerfully to her father, he raised his eyes to her face, and +detected, at once, the marks of recent tears on her swollen eyelids.</p> + +<p>"She has been weeping," said Mr. Hastings to himself; "can I have been +mistaken?"</p> + +<p>A gleam of the truth shot through his mind, and comforted him much, +but alas, it was soon to be lost again.</p> + +<p>From feelings of delicacy, Marlow had absented himself that day, but +on the following morning he was there early, and thenceforward was a +daily visitor at the Court. He applied himself particularly to cheer +Emily's father, and often spent many hours with him, withdrawing Mr. +Hastings' mind from all that was painful in his own situation, by +leading it into those discussions of abstract propositions of which he +was so fond. But Marlow was not the only frequent visitor at the +Court. Mrs. Hazleton was there two or three times in the week, and was +all kindness, gentleness, and sympathy. She had tutored herself well, +and she met Mr. Marlow as Emily's affianced husband, with an ease and +indifference which was marvellously well assumed. To Mrs. Hastings she +proved the greatest comfort, although it is not to be asserted that +the counsels which she gave her, proved at all comfortable to the rest +of the household, and yet Mrs. Hazleton never committed herself. Mrs. +Hastings could not have repeated one word that she said, that any one +on earth could have found fault with. She had a mode of insinuating +advice without speaking it—of eking out her words by looks and +gestures full of significance to the person who beheld them, but +perfectly indescribable to others.</p> + +<p>She was not satisfied, however, with being merely the friend and +confidante of Mrs. Hastings. She must win Emily's father also, and she +succeeded so well that Mr. Hastings quite forgot all doubts and +suspicions, and causes of offence, and learned to look upon Mrs. +Hazleton as a really kind and amiable person, and as consistent as +could be expected of any woman.</p> + +<p>Not one word, however, did Mrs. Hazleton say in the hearing of Emily's +father which could tend in any degree to depreciate the character of +Mr. Marlow, or be construed into a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[Pg 339]</a></span> disapproval of the proposed +marriage. She was a great deal too wise for that, knowing the +character of Mr. Hastings sufficiently to see that she could effect no +object, and only injure herself by such a course.</p> + +<p>To Emily she was all that was kind and delightful. She was completely +the Mrs. Hazleton of former days; but with the young girl she was less +successful than with her parents. Emily could never forget the visit +to her house, and what had there occurred, and the feelings which she +entertained towards Mrs. Hazleton were always those of doubt. Her +character was a riddle to Emily, as well it might be. There was +nothing upon which she could definitely fix as an indication, of a bad +heart, or of duplicity of nature, and yet she doubted; nor did Marlow +at all assist in clearing her mind; for although they often spoke of +Mrs. Hazleton, and Marlow admitted all her bright and shining +qualities, yet he became very taciturn when Emily entered more deeply +into that lady's character. Marlow likewise had his doubts, and to say +sooth, he was not at all well pleased to see Mrs. Hazleton so +frequently with Mrs. Hastings. He did not well know what it was he +feared, but yet there was a something which instinctively told him +that his interests in Emily's family would not find the most favorable +advocate in Mrs. Hazleton.</p> + +<p>Such was the state of things when one evening there was assembled at +the house of Mr. Hastings, a small dinner party—the first which had +been given since his loss of property. The summer had returned, the +weather was beautiful, the guests were cheerful and intellectual, and +the dinner passed off happily enough. There were several gentlemen and +several ladies present, and amongst the latter was Mrs. Hazleton. +Politics at that time ran high: the people were not satisfied +altogether with the King whom they had themselves chosen, and several +acts of intolerance had proved that promises made before the +attainment of power are not always very strictly maintained when power +has been reached. Mr. Hastings had never meddled in the strife of +party. He had a thorough contempt for policy and politicians, but he +did not at all object to argue upon the general principles of +government, in an abstract manner, and very frequently startled his +hearers by opinions, not only unconstitutional, and wide and far from +any of the received notions of the day, but sometimes also, very +violent, and sometimes at first sight, irreconcilable with each other. +On the present occasion the conversation after dinner took a political +turn, and straying away from their wine, the gentlemen walked out into +the gardens, which were still beautifully kept up, and prolonged their +discussion in the open air. The ladies too—as all pictures show they +were fond of doing in those days—were walking amongst the flowers, +not in groups, but scattered here and there. Marlow was naturally +making his way to the side of Emily, who was tying up a shrub at no +great distance from the door, but Mrs. Hazleton unkindly called him to +her, to tell her the name of a flower which she did not know. In the +mean time Mr. Hastings took his daughter by the arm, leaning gently +upon her, and walking up and down the terrace, while he continued his +discussion with a Northumberland gentleman known in history as Sir +John Fenwick. "The case seems to be this," said Mr. Hastings, in reply +to some question or the other; "all must depend upon the necessity. +Violent means are bad as a remedy for any thing but violent evils, but +the greatness of the evil will often justify any degree of vigor in +the means. Will any one tell me that Brutus was not justified in +stabbing Cæsar? Will any one tell me that William Tell was not +justified in all that he did against the tyrant of his country? I will +not pretend to justify the English regicides, not only because they +condemned a man by a process unknown to our laws, and repugnant to all +justice, but because they committed an act for which there was no +absolute necessity. Where an absolute necessity is shown, +indeed—where no other means can be found of obtaining freedom, +justice and security, I see no reason why a King should not be put to +death as well as any other man. Nay more, he who does the deed with a +full appreciation of its importance, a conscience clear of any private +motives, and a reasoning sense of all the bearings of the act he +commits, merits a monument rather than a gibbet, though in these days +he is sure to obtain the one and not the other."</p> + +<p>"Hush, hush, do not speak so loud, my dear sir," said Sir John +Fenwick; "less than those words brought Sidney's head to the block."</p> + +<p>"I am not afraid of mine," replied Mr. Hastings, with a faint smile; +"mine are mere abstract notions with regard to such things; very +little dangerous to any crowned heads, and if they thought fit to put +down such opinions, they would have to burn more than one half of all +the books we have derived from Rome."</p> + +<p>Sir John Fenwick would not pursue the subject, however, and turned the +conversation in another course. He thought indeed that it had gone far +enough, especially when a young lady was present; for he was one of +those men who have no confidence in any woman's discretion, and he +knew well, though he did not profit much by his knowledge, that things +very slight, when taken abstractedly, may become very dangerous if +forced into connection with events. Philip Hastings would have said +what he did say, before any ears in Europe, without the slightest +fear, but as it proved, he had said too much for his own safety. No +one indeed seemed to have noticed the very strong opinions he had +expressed except Sir John Fenwick himself, and shortly after the party +gathered together again, and the conversation became general and not +very interesting.</p> + + +<h4>CHAPTER XXVIII.</h4> + +<p>Men have lived and died in the pursuit of two objects the least +worthy, on which the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[Pg 340]</a></span> high mind of man could ever fix, out of all the +vain illusions that lead us forward through existence from youth to +old age: the philosopher's stone, and the elixir of life. Gold, gold, +sordid gold—not competence—not independence, but wealth—profuse, +inexhaustible wealth—the hard food of Crœsus; strange that it +should ever form the one great object of an immortal spirit! But +stranger still, that a being born to higher destinies should seek to +pin itself down to this dull earth forever—to dwell in a clay hut, +when a palace gates are open—to linger in a prison, when freedom may +be had—to outlive affections, friendships, hope and happiness—to +remain desolate in a garden where every flower has withered. To seek +the philosopher's stone—even could it have been found—was a madness: +but to desire the elixir of life was a worse insanity.</p> + +<p>There was once, however, in the world's history a search—an eager +search, for that which at first sight may seem nearly the same as the +great elixir; but which was in reality very, very different.</p> + +<p>We are told by the historians of America, that a tradition prevailed +amongst the Indians of Puerto Rico, that in one of the islands on the +coast, there was a fountain which possessed the marvellous power of +restoring, to any one who bathed in its waters, all the vigor and +freshness of youth, and that some of the Spanish adventurers sought it +anxiously, but sought in vain. Here indeed was an object worthy of +desire—here, what the heart might well yearn for, and mourn to find +impossible.</p> + +<p>Oh, that fountain of youth, what might it not give back! The easy +pliancy of limb: the light activity of body: the calm, sweet sleep; +the power of enjoyment and acquisition: the freshness of the heart: +the brightness of the fancy: the brilliant dreams: the glorious +aspirations: the beauty and the gentleness: the innocence: the love. +We, who stand upon the shoal of memory, and look back in our faint +dreams, to the brighter land left far behind, may well long for that +sweet fountain which could renew—not life—but youth.</p> + +<p>Oh youth—youth! Give me but one year of youth again. And it shall +come. I see it there, beyond the skies, that fountain of youth, in the +land where all flowers are immortal.</p> + +<p>It is very strange, however, that with some men, when youth is gone, +its very memories die also. They can so little recollect the feelings +of that brighter time, that they cannot comprehend them in others: +that they become a mystery—a tale written in a tongue they have +forgotten.</p> + +<p>It was so with Philip Hastings, and so also with his wife. Neither +seemed to comprehend the feelings of Marlow and Emily; but her father +understood them least. He had consented to their union: he approved of +her choice; but yet it seemed strange and unpleasant to him, that her +thoughts should be so completely given to her lover. He could hardly +believe that the intense affection she felt for another, was +compatible with love towards her parent. He knew not, or seemed to +have forgotten that the ordinance to leave all and cleave unto her +husband, is written in woman's heart as plainly as in the Book.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, that which he felt was not the least like +jealousy—although I have seen such a thing even in a parent towards a +child. It was a part of the problem of Emily's character, which he was +always trying to solve without success.</p> + +<p>"Here," he thought, "she has known this young man, but a short +time—no years—not very many months; and yet, it is clear, that in +that short space, she has learned to love him better than those to +whom she is bound by every tie of long enduring affection and +tenderness."</p> + +<p>Had he thought of comparing at all, her conduct and feelings with +those of his own youth, he would still have marvelled; for he would +have said, "I had no tenderness shown me in my young days—I was not +the companion, the friend, the idol, the peculiar loved one of father +or mother, so long as my elder brother lived. I loved her who first +really loved me. From <i>my</i> parents, I had met small affection, and but +little kindness. It was therefore natural that I should fix my love +elsewhere, as they had fixed theirs. But with my child, the case is +very different."</p> + +<p>Yet he loved Marlow well—was fond of his society—was well pleased +that he was to be his daughter's husband; but even in his case, Mr. +Hastings was surprised in a certain degree; for Marlow did not, and +could not conceal that he loved Emily's society better than her +father's—that he would rather a great deal be with her than with +Brutus himself or Cato.</p> + +<p>This desire on the part of Marlow to be ever by her side, was a great +stumbling-block in the way of Mr. Hastings' schemes for re-educating +Marlow, and giving that strength and vigor to his character of which +his future father-in-law had thought it susceptible. He made very +little progress, and perhaps Marlow's society might even have had some +influence upon him—might have softened—mitigated his character; but +that there were counteracting influences continually at work.</p> + +<p>All that had lately happened—the loss of fortune and of station—the +dark and irritating suspicions which had been instilled into his mind +in regard to his child's conduct—the doubts which had been produced +of her frankness and candor—the fact before his eyes, that she loved +another better, far better, than himself, with a kind word, now and +then, from Mrs. Hazleton, spoken to drive the dart deeper into his +heart, had rendered him somewhat morose and gloomy,—apt to take a bad +view of other people's actions, and to judge less fairly than he +always wished to judge. When Marlow hastened away from him to rejoin +Emily, and paint, with her, in all the brightest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[Pg 341]</a></span> colors of +imagination, a picture of the glowing future, her father would walk +solitary and thoughtful, giving himself up to dark and unprofitable +reveries.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Hastings in the mean time would take counsel with Mrs. Hazleton, +and they would settle between them that the father was already +dissatisfied with the engagement he had aided to bring about, and that +a little persevering opposition on the part of the mother, would +ultimately bring that engagement to an end.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Hastings, too, thought—or rather seemed to feel, for she did not +reduce it to thought—that she had now a greater right to exercise +some authority in regard to her daughter's marriage, as Emily's whole +fortune must proceed from her own property. She ventured to oppose +more boldly, and to express her opinion against the marriage, both to +her husband and her child. It was against the advice of Mrs. Hazleton +that she did so; for that lady knew Mr. Hastings far better than his +own wife knew him; and while Emily's cheek burned, and her eye swam in +tears, Mr. Hastings replied in so stern and bitter a tone that Mrs. +Hastings shrunk back alarmed at what she herself had done.</p> + +<p>But the word had been spoken: the truth revealed. Both Mr. Hastings +and Emily were thenceforth aware that she wished the engagement +between her daughter and Marlow broken off—she was opposed to the +marriage; and would oppose it.</p> + +<p>The effect of this revelation of her views upon her child and her +husband, was very different. Emily had colored with surprise and +grief—not, as her father thought, with anger; and she resolved +thenceforth to endeavor to soften her mother's feelings towards him +she loved, and to win her consent to that upon which all her own +happiness depended; but in which her own happiness could not be +complete without a mother's approbation.</p> + +<p>Mr. Hastings, on the contrary, entertained no expectation that his +wife would ever change her views, even if she changed her course. Some +knowledge—some comprehension of her character had been forced upon +him during the many years of their union; and he believed that, if all +open remonstrance, and declared opposition had been crushed by his +sharp and resolute answer, there would nevertheless be continual or +ever recurring efforts on Mrs. Hastings' part, to have her own way, +and thwart both his purposes and Emily's affection. He prepared to +encounter that sort of irritating guerrilla warfare of last words, and +sneers, and innuendoes, by which a wife sometimes endeavors to +overcome a husband's resolutions; and he hardened himself to resist. +He knew that she could not conquer in the strife; but he determined to +put an end to the warfare, either by some decided expression of his +anger at such proceedings, or by uniting Emily to Marlow, much sooner +than he had at first proposed.</p> + +<p>The latter seemed the easiest method, and there was a great chance of +the marriage, which it had been agreed should be delayed till Emily +was nineteen, taking place much earlier, when events occurred which +produced even a longer delay.</p> + +<p>One of the first steps taken by Mr. Hastings to show his wife that her +unreasonable opposition would have no effect upon him, was not only to +remove the prohibition of those lovers' rambles which Mrs. Hastings +had forbidden, but to send his daughter and her promised husband forth +together on any pretext that presented itself. He took the opportunity +of doing so, first, when his wife was present, and on the impulse of +the moment, she ventured to object. One look—one word from her +husband, however, silenced her; for they were a look and word too +stern to be trifled with, and Emily went to dress for her walk; but +she went with the tears in her eyes. She was grieved to find that all +that appertained to her happiness was likely to become a cause of +dissension between her father and her mother. Had Marlow not been +concerned—had his happiness not been also at stake—she would have +sacrificed any thing—every thing—to avoid such a result; but she +felt she had no right to yield to caprice, where he was to suffer as +well as herself.</p> + +<p>The walk took place, and it might have been very sweet to both, had +not the scene which had immediately preceded poured a drop of +bitterness into their little cup of joy. Such walks were often renewed +during the month that followed; but Emily was not so happy as she +might have been; for she saw that her father assumed a sterner, colder +tone towards his wife, and believed that she might be the unwilling +cause of this painful alienation. She knew not that it proceeded +partly from another source—that Mr. Hastings had discovered, or +divined, that his wife had some feeling of increased power and +authority from the fact of his having lost his large estates, and of +her property being all that remained to them both.</p> + +<p>Poor Emily! Marlow's love, that dream of joy, seemed destined to +produce, for a time at least, nothing but grief and anxiety. Her +reveries became more frequent, and more deep, and though her lover +could call her from them in a moment, no one else had the power.</p> + +<p>One day, Marlow and his Emily—for whom every day his love increased; +for he knew and comprehended her perfectly, and he was the only +one—had enjoyed a more happy and peaceful ramble than usual, through +green lanes, and up the hill, and amidst the bright scenery which lay +on the confines of the two counties, and they returned slowly towards +the house, not anticipating much comfort there. As they approached, +they saw from the road a carriage standing before the door, dusty, as +if from a long journey, but with the horses still attached. There were +three men, too,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[Pg 342]</a></span> with the carriage, besides the driver, and they were +walking their horses up and down the terrace, as if their stay was to +be but short. It was an unusual number of attendants, even in those +days, to accompany a carriage in the country, except upon some visit +of great ceremony; and the vehicle itself—a large, old, rumbling +coach, which had seen better days—gave no indication of any great +state or dignity on the part of its owner.</p> + +<p>Why, she knew not, but a feeling of fear, or at least anxiety, came +over Emily as she gazed, and turning to Marlow, she said, "Who can +these visitors be?"</p> + +<p>"I know not, indeed, dear love," he answered, "but the equipage is +somewhat strange. Were we in France," he added, with a laugh, "I +should think it belonged to an exempt, bearing a <i>lettre de cachet</i>."</p> + +<p>Emily smiled also, for the idea of her father having incurred the +anger of any government or violated any law seemed to her quite out of +the question.</p> + +<p>When they approached the door, however, they were met by a servant, +with a grave and anxious countenance, who told her that her father +wished to see her immediately in the dining hull.</p> + +<p>"Is there any one with him?" asked Emily, in some surprise.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Mistress Emily," replied the man, "there is a strange gentleman +with him. But you had better go in at once; for I am afraid things are +not going well."</p> + +<p>Marlow drew her arm through his, and pressed it gently to make her +feel support; and then went into the eating-room, as it was usually +called, by her side.</p> + +<p>When they entered they found the scene a strange and painful one. Mr. +Hastings was seated near a window, with his hat on, and his cloak cast +down on a chair beside him. His wife was placed near him, weeping +bitterly; and at the large table in the middle of the room was a +coarse-looking man, in the garb of a gentleman, but with no other +indication but that of dress of belonging to a superior class. He was +very corpulent, and his face, though shadowed by an enormous wig, was +large and bloated. There was food and wine before him, and to both he +seemed to be doing ample justice, without taking any notice of the +master of the house or his weeping lady.</p> + +<p>Mr. Hastings, however, rose and advanced towards his daughter, as soon +as she entered, and in an instant the eye of the gormandizing guest +was raised from his plate and turned towards the party, with a look of +eager suspicion.</p> + +<p>"Oh, my dear father, what is this?" exclaimed Emily, running towards +him.</p> + +<p>"One of those accidents of life, my child," replied Mr. Hastings, +"from which I had hoped to be exempt—most foolishly. But it seems," +he continued, "no conduct, however reserved, can shield one from the +unjust suspicions of princes and governments."</p> + +<p>"Very good cause for suspicion, sir," said the man at the table, +quaffing a large glass of wine. "Mr. Secretary would not have signed a +warrant without strong evidence. Vernon is a cautious man, sir, a very +cautious man."</p> + +<p>"And who is this person?" asked Marlow, pointing to the personage who +spoke.</p> + +<p>"A messenger of the powers that be," replied Mr. Hastings; "it seems +that because Sir John Fenwick dined here a short time ago, and has +since been accused of some practices against the state, his Majesty's +advisers have thought fit to connect me with his doings, or their own +suspicions, though they might as well have sent down to arrest my +butler or my footman, and I am now to have the benefit of a journey to +the Tower of London under arrest."</p> + +<p>"Or to Newgate," said the messenger, significantly.</p> + +<p>"To London, at all events," replied Mr. Hastings.</p> + +<p>"I will go with you," said Marlow, at once; but before the prisoner +could answer, the messenger interfered, saying, "That I cannot allow."</p> + +<p>"I am afraid you must allow it," replied Marlow, "whether it pleases +you or not."</p> + +<p>"I will have no one in the carriage with my prisoner," said the +messenger, striking the table gently with the haft of his knife.</p> + +<p>"That may be," answered Marlow; "but you will not, I presume, pretend +to prevent my going where I please in my own carriage; and when once +in London, I shall find no difficulty, knowing Mr. Vernon well."</p> + +<p>The latter announcement made a great change in the messenger's +demeanor, and he became much more tame and docile from the moment it +struck his ear.</p> + +<p>Mr. Hastings indeed would fain have persuaded his young friend to +remain where he was, and looked at Emily with some of that tenderer +feeling of a parent which so often prompts to every sacrifice for a +child's sake. But Emily thanked Marlow eagerly for proposing to go; +and Mrs. Hastings, even, expressed some gratitude.</p> + +<p>The arrangements were soon made. There being no time to send for +Marlow's own carriage and horses, it was agreed that he should take a +carriage belonging to Mr. Hastings, with his horses, for the first +stage; the prisoner's valet was to accompany his friend, and immediate +orders were given for the necessary preparations.</p> + +<p>When all was ready, Emily asked some question of her father, in a low +tone, to which he replied, "On no account, my child. I will send for +you and your mother should need be; but do not stir before I do. This +is a mere cloud—a passing shower, which will soon be gone, and leave +the sky as bright as ever. We do not live in an age when kings of +England can play at foot-ball with the heads of innocent men, and I, +as you all know, am innocent."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[Pg 343]</a></span></p> + +<p>He then embraced his wife and child with more tenderness than he was +wont to show, and entering the carriage first, was followed by the +messenger. The other men mounted their horses, and Marlow did not +linger long behind the sad cavalcade.</p> + + +<h4>CHAPTER XXIX.</h4> + +<p>Philip Hastings had calculated much upon his Roman firmness; and he +could have borne death, or any great and sudden calamity, with +fortitude; but small evils often affect us more than great ones. He +knew not what it is to suffer long imprisonment, to undergo the +wearing, grinding process of life within a prison's walls. He knew not +the effect of long suspense either, of the fretful impatience for some +turn in our fate, of the dull monotony of long continued expectation +and protracted disappointment, of the creeping on of leaden despair, +which craves nothing in the end but some change, be it for better or +for worse.</p> + +<p>They took him to Newgate—the prison of common felons, and there, in a +small room, strictly guarded, he remained for more than two months. At +first he would send for no lawyer, for he fancied that there must +either be some error on the part of the government, or that the +suspicion against him must be so slight as to be easily removable. But +day went by on day, and hour followed hour, without any appearance of +a change in his fate. There came a great alteration, however, in his +character. He became morose, gloomy, irritable. Every dark point in +his own fate and history—every painful event which had occurred for +many years—every doubt or suspicion which had spread gloom and +anxiety through his mind, was now magnified a thousand-fold by long, +brooding, solitary meditation. He pondered such things daily, hourly, +in the broad day, in the dead, still night, when want of exercise +deprived him of sleep, till his brain seemed to turn, and his whole +heart was filled with stern bitterness.</p> + +<p>Marlow, who visited him every day by permission of the Secretary of +State, found him each day much changed, both in appearance and manner; +and even his conversation gave but small relief. He heard with small +emotion the news of the day, or of his own family. He read the letters +of his wife and daughter coldly. He heard even the intelligence that +Sir John Fenwick was condemned for high treason, and to die on a +scaffold, without any appearance of interest. He remained +self-involved and thoughtful.</p> + +<p>At length, after a long interval—for the government was undecided how +to proceed in his and several other cases connected with that famous +conspiracy—a day was appointed for his first examination by the +Secretary of State; for matters were then conducted in a very +different manner from that in which they are treated at present; and +he was carried under guard to Whitehall.</p> + +<p>Vernon was a calm and not unamiable man; and treating the prisoner +with unaffected gentleness, he told him that the government was very +anxious to avoid the effusion of any more blood, and expressed a hope +that Mr. Hastings would afford such explanations of his conduct as +would save the pain of proceeding against him. He did not wish by any +means, he said, to induce him to criminate himself; but merely to give +such explanations as he might think fit.</p> + +<p>Philip Hastings replied, with stern bitterness, that before he could +give any explanations, he must learn what there was in his conduct to +explain. "It has ever been open, plain, and straightforward," he said. +"I have taken no part in conspiracies, very little part in politics. I +have nothing to fear from any thing I myself can utter; for I have +nothing to conceal. Tell me what is the charge against me, and I will +answer it boldly. Ask what questions you please; and I will reply at +once to those to which I can find a reply in my own knowledge."</p> + +<p>"I thought the nature of the charge had been made fully known to you," +replied Vernon. "However, it is soon stated. You are charged, Mr. +Hastings, with having taken a most decided part in the criminal +designs, if not in the criminal acts, of that unfortunate man Sir John +Fenwick. Nay, of having first suggested to him the darkest of all his +designs, namely, the assassination of his Majesty."</p> + +<p>"I suggest the assassination of the King!" exclaimed Mr. Hastings. "I +propose such an act! Sir, the charge is ridiculous. Has not the only +share I ever took in politics been to aid in placing King William upon +the throne, and consistently to support his government since? What the +ministers of the crown can seek by bringing such a charge against me, +I know not; but it is evidently fictitious, and of course has an +object."</p> + +<p>Vernon's cheek grew somewhat red, and he replied warmly, "That is an +over-bold assertion, sir. But I will soon satisfy you that it is +unjust, and that the crown has not acted without cause. Allow me, +then, to tell you, that no sooner had the conspiracy of Sir John +Fenwick been detected, and his apprehension been made known, than +information was privately given—from your own part of the country—to +the following effect;" and he proceeded to read from a paper, which +had evidently been folded in the form of a letter, the ensuing words: +"That on the —— day of May last, when walking in the gardens of his +own house, called 'The Court,' he—that is yourself, sir—used the +following language to Sir John Fenwick: 'When no other means can be +found of obtaining justice, freedom, and security, I see no reason why +a king should not be put to death as well as any other man. He who +does the deed merits a monument rather than a gibbet.' Such was the +information, sir, on which government first acted in causing your +apprehension."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[Pg 344]</a></span></p> + +<p>The Secretary paused, and for a few moments Mr. Hastings remained +gazing down in silence, like a man utterly confounded. Vernon thought +he had touched him home; but the emotions in the prisoner's bosom, +though very violent, were very different from those which the +Secretary attributed to him. He remembered the conversation well, but +he remembered also that the only one who, besides Sir John Fenwick, +was with him at the moment, was his own child. I will not dwell upon +his feelings, but they absorbed him entirely, till the Secretary went +on, saying—"Not satisfied with such slender information, Mr. +Hastings, the government caused that unhappy criminal, Sir John +Fenwick, to be asked, after his fate was fixed, if he recollected your +having used those words to him, and he replied, 'something very like +them.'"</p> + +<p>"And I reply the same," exclaimed Philip Hastings, sternly. "I did use +those words, or words very like them. But, sir, they were in +connection with others, which, had they been repeated likewise, would +have taken all criminal application from them. May I be permitted to +look at that letter in your hand, to see how much was really told, how +much suppressed?"</p> + +<p>"I have read it all to you," said Mr. Vernon, "but you may look at it +if you please," and he handed it to him across the table. Philip +Hastings spread it out before him, trembling violently, and then drew +another letter from his pocket, and laid them side by side. He ran his +eye from one to the other for a moment or two, and then sunk slowly +down, fainting upon the floor.</p> + +<p>While a turnkey and one of the messengers raised him, and some efforts +were made to bring him back to consciousness, Mr. Vernon walked round +the table and looked at the two letters which were still lying on it. +He compared them eagerly, anxiously. The handwriting of the one was +very similar to that of the other, and in the beginning of that which +Mr. Hastings had taken from his pocket, the Secretary found the words, +"My dear father." It was signed, "Emily Hastings;" and Vernon +instantly comprehended the nature of the terrible emotion he had +witnessed.</p> + +<p>He was really, as I have said, a kind and humane man, and he felt very +much for the prisoner, who was speedily brought to himself again, and +seated in a chair before the table.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps, Mr. Hastings," said Vernon, "we had better not protract this +conversation to-day. I will see you again to-morrow, at this hour, if +you would prefer that arrangement."</p> + +<p>"Not at all, sir," answered the prisoner, "I will answer now, for +though the body be weak, the spirit is strong. Remember, however, that +I am not pleading for life. Life is valueless to me. The block and axe +would be a relief. I am only pleading to prevent my own character from +being stained, and to frustrate this horrible design. I used the words +imputed to me; but if I recollect right, with several qualifications, +even in the sentence which has been extracted. But before that, many +other words had passed which entirely altered the whole bearing of the +question. The conversation began about the regicides of the great +rebellion, and although my father was of the party in arms against the +King, I expressed my unqualified disapprobation of their conduct in +putting their sovereign to death. I then approached as a mere matter +of abstract reasoning, in which, perhaps, I am too apt to indulge, the +subject of man's right to resist by any means an unendurable tyranny, +and I quoted the example of Brutus and William Tell; and it was in the +course of these abstract remarks, that I used the words which have +been cited. I give you my word, however, and pledge my honor, that I +entertained no thought, and had no cause whatever to believe that Sir +John Fenwick who was dining with me as an old acquaintance, +entertained hostile designs against the government of his native +land."</p> + +<p>"Your admitted opinions, Mr. Hastings," said Vernon, "seem to me to be +very dangerous ones."</p> + +<p>"That may be," replied the prisoner, "but in this country at least, +sir, you cannot kill a man for opinions."</p> + +<p>"No; but those opinions, expressed in conversation with others who +proceed to acts," replied Vernon, "place a man in a very dangerous +position, Mr. Hastings. I will not conceal from you that you are in +some peril; but at the same time I am inclined to think that the +evidence, without your admissions this day, might prove insufficient, +and it is not my intention to take advantage of any thing you have +said. I shall report to his Majesty accordingly; but the proceedings +of the government will be guided by the opinion of the law officers of +the crown, and not by mine. I therefore can assure you of nothing +except my sincere grief at the situation in which you are placed."</p> + +<p>"I little heed the result of your report, sir," replied Mr. Hastings; +"life, I say, is valueless to me, and if I am brought to trial for +words very innocently spoken, I shall only make the same defence I +have done this day, and I shall call no witness; the only witness of +the whole," he added with stern, concentrated bitterness, "is probably +on the side of the crown."</p> + +<p>Mr. Hastings was then removed to Newgate, leaving the two letters on +the table behind him, and as soon as he was gone, Mr. Vernon sent a +messenger to an inn near Charing Cross, to say he should be glad to +speak for a few moments with Mr. Marlow. In about half an hour Marlow +was there, and was received by Vernon as an old acquaintance. The door +was immediately closed, and Marlow seated himself near the table, +turning his eyes away, however, as an honorable man from the papers +which lay on it.</p> + +<p>"I have had an interview with your friend,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[Pg 345]</a></span> Mr. Marlow," said the +Secretary, "and the scene has been a very painful one. Mr. Hastings +has been more affected than I expected, and actually fainted."</p> + +<p>Marlow's face expressed unutterable astonishment, for the idea of +Philip Hastings fainting under any apprehension whatever, could never +enter into the mind of any one who knew him.</p> + +<p>"Good God!" he exclaimed, "what could be the cause of that? Not fear, +I am sure."</p> + +<p>"Something more painful than even fear, I believe," replied Mr. +Vernon; "Mr. Hastings has a daughter, I believe?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir, he has," replied Marlow, somewhat stiffly.</p> + +<p>"Do you know her handwriting?" asked the Secretary.</p> + +<p>"Yes, perfectly well," answered Marlow.</p> + +<p>"Then be so good as to take up that letter next you," said Vernon, +"and tell me if it is in her hand."</p> + +<p>Marlow took up the paper, glanced at it, and at once said, "Yes;" but +the next instant he corrected himself, saying, "No, no—it is very +like Emily's hand—very, very like; but more constrained."</p> + +<p>"May not that proceed from an attempt to disguise her hand?" asked +Vernon.</p> + +<p>"Or from an attempt on the part of some other to imitate it," rejoined +Marlow; "but this is very strange, Mr. Vernon; may I read this +through?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly," replied the Secretary, and Marlow read every word three +or four times over with eager attention. They seemed to affect him +very much, for notwithstanding the Secretary's presence, he started up +and paced the room for a minute or two in thought.</p> + +<p>"I must unravel this dark mystery," he said at length. "Mr. Vernon, +there have been strange things taking place lately in the family of +Mr. Hastings. Things which have created in my mind a suspicion that +some secret and external agency is at work to destroy his peace as +well as to ruin his happiness, and still more, I fear, to ruin the +happiness of his daughter. This letter is but one link in a long chain +of suspicious facts, and I am resolved to sift the whole matter to the +bottom. The time allowed me to do so, must depend upon the course you +determine to pursue towards Mr. Hastings. If you resolve to proceed +against him I must lose no time—although I think I need hardly say, +there is small chance of your success upon such evidence as this;" and +he struck the letter with his fingers.</p> + +<p>"We have more evidence, such as it is," replied Vernon, "and he +himself admits having used those words."</p> + +<p>Marlow paused thoughtfully, and then replied, "He may have used +them—he is very likely to have used them; but it must have been quite +abstractedly, and with no reference to any existing circumstance. I +remember the occasion on which Sir John Fenwick dined with him, +perfectly. I was there myself. Now let me see if I can recall all the +facts. Yes, I can, distinctly. During the whole of dinner—during the +short time we sat after dinner, those words were never used; nor were +conspiracies and treason ever thought of. I remember, too, from a +particular circumstance, that when we went out into the gardens Mr. +Hastings took his daughter's arm, and walked up and down the terrace +with Sir John Fenwick at his side. That must have been the moment. But +I need hardly point out to you, Mr. Vernon, that such was not a time +when any man in his senses, and especially a shrewd, cunning, timid +man, like Sir John Fenwick, would have chosen for the development of +treasonable designs."</p> + +<p>"Were any other persons near?" asked Vernon; "the young lady might +have been in the conspiracy as well as her father."</p> + +<p>Marlow laughed. "There were a dozen near," he answered; "they were +subject to interruption at any moment—nay, they could not have gone +on for three minutes; for that pace of time did not elapse after the +gentlemen entered the garden where the ladies were, before I was at +Emily's side, and not one word of this kind was spoken afterwards."</p> + +<p>"Then what could have induced her to report those words to the +government?" asked Mr. Vernon.</p> + +<p>"She never did so," replied Marlow, earnestly; "this is not her +handwriting, though the imitation is very good—and now, sir," he +continued, "if it be proper, will you explain to me what course you +intend to pursue, that I may act accordingly? For as I before said, I +am resolved to search this mystery out into its darkest recesses. It +has gone on too long already."</p> + +<p>Vernon smiled. "You are asking a good deal," he said, "but yet my +views are so strong upon the subject, that I think I may venture to +state them, even if the case against Mr. Hastings should be carried a +step or two farther—which might be better, in order to insure his not +being troubled on an after occasion. I shall strongly advise that a +<i>nolle prosequi</i> be entered, and I think I may add that my advice will +be taken."</p> + +<p>"You think I have asked much already, Mr. Vernon," said Marlow, "but I +am now going to ask more. Will you allow me to have this letter? I +give you my word of honor that it shall only be used for the purposes +of justice. You have known me from my boyhood, my dear sir; you can +trust me."</p> + +<p>"Perfectly, my young friend," replied Vernon, "but you must not take +the letter to-day. In two days the action of the government will be +determined, and if it be such as I anticipate you shall have the +paper, and I trust it will lead to some discovery of the motives and +circumstances of this strange transaction. Most mysterious it +certainly is; for one can hardly suppose any one but a fiend thus +seeking to bring a father's life into peril."</p> + +<p>"A fiend!" exclaimed Marlow, with a scoff, "much more like an angel, +my dear sir."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[Pg 346]</a></span></p> + +<p>"You seem to think so," said Vernon, smiling, "and I trust, though +love is blind, he may have left you clear-sighted in this instance."</p> + +<p>"I think he has," answered Marlow, "and as this young lady's fate is +soon to be united to mine, it is very necessary I should see clearly. +I entertain no doubt, indeed, and I say boldly, that Emily never wrote +this letter. It will give me, however, a clue which perhaps may lead +me to the end of the labyrinth, though as yet I hardly see my way. But +a strong resolution often does much."</p> + +<p>"Might it not be better for you," asked Vernon, "to express your +doubts in regard to this letter to Mr. Hastings himself? He was +terribly affected, as well he might be, when he saw this document, and +believed it to be his own child's writing."</p> + +<p>Marlow mused for some time ere he replied. "I think not," he answered +at length; "he is a man of peculiar disposition; stern, somewhat +gloomy, but honorable, upright, and candid. Now what I am going to say +may make me appear as stern as himself, but if he is suffering from +doubts of that dear girl, knowing her as well as he does, he is +suffering from his own fault, and deserves it. However, my object is +not to punish him, but thoroughly, completely, and for ever to open +his eyes, and to show him so strongly that he has done his child +injustice, as to prevent his ever doing the like again. This can only +be done by bringing all the proofs upon him at once, and my task is +now to gather them together. To my mere opinion regarding the +handwriting, he would not give the slightest heed, but he will not +shut his eyes to proofs. May I calculate upon having the letter in two +days?"</p> + +<p>"I think you may," replied Vernon.</p> + +<p>"Then when will Mr. Hastings be set free?" asked Marlow; "I should +wish to have some start of him into the country."</p> + +<p>"That will depend upon various circumstances," replied the Secretary; +"I think we shall take some steps towards the trial before we enter +the <i>nolle prosequi</i>. It is necessary to check in some way the +expression of such very dangerous opinions as he entertains."</p> + +<p>Marlow made no reply but by a smile, and they soon after parted.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>One of the writers upon German politics reproduces the story of the +Englishman, Frenchman, and German, who were required by some unknown +power to draw a sketch of a camel. The Frenchman hied him to the +Jardin des Plantes, and came back with his sketch in no time. The more +conscientious Briton at once took ship for the East, and returned with +his drawing from the life of nature. But the German went to the +library of the prince of his country to ascertain what a camel was. He +lived to a great age, with the reputation of being very learned, and a +little crazed with the depth of his researches, and on his death-bed +told his physician in confidence that he did not believe there was +such an animal at all!</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1850, +by G. P. R. James, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the +United States for the Southern District of New-York.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_COUNT_MONTE-LEONE_OR_THE_SPY_IN_SOCIETY4" id="THE_COUNT_MONTE-LEONE_OR_THE_SPY_IN_SOCIETY4"></a>THE COUNT MONTE-LEONE: OR, THE SPY IN SOCIETY.<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></h2> + +<h3>TRANSLATED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL MONTHLY MAGAZINE FROM THE FRENCH OF +H. DE ST. GEORGES.</h3> + +<h4><i>Continued from page 211</i></h4> + + +<h4>VIII.—THE FOUR PULCINELLI.</h4> + +<p>Doctor Matheus, as the reader must have guessed from the previous +chapter, was Freiderick von Apsberg, one of the four Pulcinelli of the +ball of San Carlo, the young German who was the son of the venerable +pastor of the city of Ellogen, in Bohemia.</p> + +<p>Freiderick von Apsberg had been educated in one of the most celebrated +universities of Germany, that of Leipsic,—where he had imbibed that +very social contagion, a passion for detestable demagogic fancies, +with which all those scientific <i>lazaretti</i> of Germany were filled. +The dreamy and often poetic forms in which those ideas were +enunciated, easily touched the heart of that long peaceable nation, +and opened to it a field of mad and resistless hopes which could not +but plunge it into that abyss of disorder, trouble, and crime, in +which it has been recently seen sweltering.</p> + +<p>Freiderick, not thinking his country yet prepared for the propagation +of his principles, sought for an echo among other European nations. +The rising <i>Carbonarism</i> of Italy opened its arms to him, and received +him as one of its future supporters. There he had become acquainted +with Monte-Leone, and participated in the religion of which he was the +high priest. On his return to Germany, after his expulsion from Italy, +he had discovered that the work had advanced during his absence, that +the myth had been personified, and that the seed had germinated. +Germany, especially the <i>poor</i> of Germany, began to be deeply +agitated; the <i>Carbonaro</i> made many proselytes, and won many new +members to the association. The death of his father having endowed him +with some fortune, he completed his studies, and became one of the +most fervent apostles of that mysterious science of which he spoke to +the Duke d'Harcourt; but, being made uncomfortable by the German +police, he left his country, after having established a connection +with the <i>Vente</i> which had been formed there. He then came to France, +where we find him under the name of Doctor Matheus, and living in the +awful No. 13 of Babylonne street;—his house was the rendezvous of the +principal members of the <i>Vente</i> of Paris, where his profession amply +accounted for the many visitors he received. His three friends, +however, fearing that their frequent visits would be remarked, often +had recourse to disguises. Thus it is that we saw the Englishman, the +Auvergnot, and the peasant, so cavalierly treated by Mlle Crepineau.</p> + +<p>"This is the hour of consultation, my dear Doctor," said the Viscount +to Von Apsberg;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[Pg 347]</a></span> "where are the patients?" In a serious tone the +latter replied, "In France, Italy, Germany, and all the +continent.—Their disease is a painful oppression, an extreme +lassitude in every member of the social body, a slow fever, and +general feeling of indisposition."</p> + +<p>"What physician will cure so many diseases?" asked the Viscount.</p> + +<p>"<i>Carbonarism!</i>"</p> + +<p>"Are you sure of this?" asked d'Harcourt, who, probably for the first +time in his life, said any thing reasonable. This was a doubt, almost +a defection to that cause into which his generous and enthusiastic +nature had cast him. René d'Harcourt had originally formed but a +passing intimacy with Monte-Leone, the object of which was pleasure +alone. The latter, however, soon discovered his friend's courage and +truth, and ultimately initiated him in all his political mysteries and +dreams. D'Harcourt, attracted by the occult power exerted by the Count +over his associates, and led astray to a degree by his specious +theories in relation to national happiness, which Monte-Leone knew how +to dress so well in the most energetic language, was carried away by +the temptation of becoming a political personage; perhaps, also, as la +Felina said at the Etruscan villa, not a little under the influence of +idleness, and the wish to be able to tell wonders of himself, joined +in all these plots. He had become affiliated to the society of which +Monte-Leone was the chief, and when he was expelled from Italy, +represented himself to his particular friends as a martyr of political +faith: he had, by the by, a very faint confidence in it, and cared +very little about it; and this, even, was insensibly lessened when, on +his return to France and his family, he saw the high distinction which +his father enjoyed, and was aware that by rank and birth he would one +day be called on to play a conspicuous part in the history of his +country. He could not understand, therefore, how this country could +demand a general convulsion to obtain a hypothetical better, in place +of a positive good.</p> + +<p>This, as we have said, was the state of his mind, when Monte-Leone, +Taddeo, and Frederick returned to Paris. They talked to him of his +oaths, of the pledge they had taken, of his position as a +<i>Carbonaro</i>,—to which he would make no reply. The Viscount a second +time falling under the influence of Monte-Leone, captivated again by +the charms of friendship, and the glory of being the regenerator of +his country, fancied himself also bound by his honor to pursue the +path on which he had entered. He therefore resumed his old chains, and +became the <span class="smcap">Seide</span> of a cause to which he was attracted neither by +sympathy nor by reason.</p> + +<p>The phrase which had escaped from the lips, or rather the good sense +of the young man, sounded to Monte-Leone like a false note in a +chorus. He said, "René, God forbid that we should seek to link you to +our fate if you do not believe in our cause. Remain inactive in the +strife about to ensue; your honor will be a sufficient pledge for your +silence in relation to our secrets. Henceforth be a brother to us only +in love. Von Apsberg, the grand archivest of the association, will +efface your name from our list; and whatever misfortune befall us, I +shall at least have the satisfaction of knowing that you were not +involved in our ruin."</p> + +<p>This offer, instead of being received by René d'Harcourt, increased +his zeal, which otherwise would have died away.</p> + +<p>"Leave you?" said he,—"abandon you, when the hour of danger has +come?—desert the field of battle when the combat is about to begin? +My friendship, my courage, and my honor, all forbid me to do so."</p> + +<p>The four friends clasped their hands, and Monte-Leone said,—"Now +listen to me, for time is precious. The <i>Vente</i> of the kingdom of +Naples, and those of all Italy, of which I refuse to be any longer the +chief, do not on that account distrust me, but have just given me a +striking proof of their confidence. It is so great that I hesitate +even to accept it."</p> + +<p>"Speak," said all the friends at once.</p> + +<p>"I have received this letter," said Monte-Leone.</p> + +<p>"The delegates of all the Italian <i>Vente</i>, relying on the prudence, +valor, and judgment of Count Monte-Leone, refer to him the decision of +the time when, and the manner in which, it is proper for them to +manifest their principles. Count Monte-Leone is requested to open a +communication with the Vente of France, that there may be a +simultaneous movement with those of Italy."</p> + +<p>"Thus," said the Count, "in accepting this mission, I become the god, +the sovereign arbiter of this immense work, and have its fate in my +hands."</p> + +<p>Von Apsberg said, "you have that of Italy and Germany—for the <i>Vente</i> +of my country will act when I speak, or rather when you do."</p> + +<p>An expression of pride flashed across Monte-Leone's face. He had +evidently been mortified at not becoming supreme director, yet the +staff of command was again placed in his grasp. It was not now, +though, to confer the command of a single country, but, to use his own +words, he became the all-powerful controller of Europe, and, in his +opinion, the hope of the universe. This strange man, made up of +greatness and littleness, like all the political idealists who erect +altars to the creatures of their dreams, and ignorantly make a +sacrifice of logic, good sense and reason—this man who sighed for +universal liberty, was delighted at the prospect of great, despotic, +and aristocratic power, to be exerted by his will alone in three great +countries. The Count then yielded willingly to the persuasions of his +friends, and promised to fulfil the wishes of the Italian <i>Vente</i>. He +said, "The time for action<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[Pg 348]</a></span> is not come. The French police, in fact, +is busy only with the known enemies of the Government, with +persons who are compromised in these petty plots originated by +self-love—regret for the past, and ambition. Our object is greater; +for we do not serve a man, but an idea, or rather the assemblage of +ideas, to be expanded everywhere at once, and to replace the darkness +of old civilization by torrents of far more dazzling light. The dawn +of that light though has not yet come."</p> + +<p>"Yet," said Von Apsberg, "the notes I receive announce the formation +of new <i>Vente</i> on all sides of us."</p> + +<p>"Paris is filled with Carbonari," added d'Harcourt. "Our secret and +masonic sign reveals the existence of brothers everywhere to me. I see +them in the public places, on the benches of the lawyers, and among +the very judges."</p> + +<p>"True," said Von Apsberg, "and as an evidence of what d'Harcourt says, +look at these voluminous names." The friends examined them carefully.</p> + +<p>"It matters not," said Monte-Leone, "too much precipitation would ruin +all. Remember our device, <i>an auger piercing the globe</i>."</p> + +<p>During all this conversation, Taddeo had remained silent and +thoughtful, and the Count at last observed it.</p> + +<p>"My friend," said he, "why are you so sad? Can it be, like d'Harcourt +just now, that you have any doubt or scruple about our cause? Do you +hesitate at the dangers?"</p> + +<p>Taddeo, as if he were aroused from a dream, said: "The dangers I +anxiously invite, as likely to free me from a life which is become a +burden."</p> + +<p>Monte-Leone grew pale at these words, for he knew the reason of his +deep despair; and the iron of remorse pierced his heart. Before, +however, Taddeo's friends could question him, a strange accident +attracted the attention of the actors of this scene.</p> + +<p>A noise, at first faint and then louder, which resembled that of the +spider in its web, suddenly interrupted the conversation. It seemed to +come from the interior of one of the panels.</p> + +<p>"Here it is," said Monte-Leone, pointing at one of the book-cases.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Von Apsberg, with a sign of admiration.</p> + +<p>"Can we have been overheard?" said d'Harcourt.</p> + +<p>"I think so," said the false Matheus.</p> + +<p>The Visconte and Taddeo at once took pistols from their pockets and +cocked them.</p> + +<p>"It is of no use," said the physician, pointing to the arms of his +friends. "Put on your disguises, for it is unnecessary even that the +brothers should know you. Kant has said, <i>When there is a secret to be +kept it is desirable that all who are intrusted with it should be +deaf, blind, and dumb</i>. Let us then tempt no one, and remember there +is no one here but a doctor and two patients."</p> + +<p>"But the Count," said d'Harcourt, "is he forgotten?"</p> + +<p>"Ah," said the doctor, "he must be seen."</p> + +<p>The noise increased, and something of impatience was remarkable in the +little taps on the wood-work.</p> + +<p>"It is he, is it not?" said Monte-Leone.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Frederick, "for no one else uses that entrance."</p> + +<p>Von Apsberg then approached the library and touched a spring which +threw open a panel on which the books were arranged. With a key the +doctor then opened another door, through which a man entered. The day +was advanced, and the shades of night enwrapped almost all the room. +The scene we describe took place in the most remote and consequently +in the darkest portion of the vast studio. The appearance of the man +assumed a terrible and fantastic air.</p> + +<p>"Ah! what is there so urgent that you trouble thus, my dear Pignana?" +said the Count to the new comer.</p> + +<p>Signor Pignana, our old Neapolitan acquaintance, the pretended tailor +and owner of the Etruscan House, the mysterious guide of the Count +among the ruins of San Paolo, bowed to the earth as he always did +before the Count, and was evidently about to speak, when he stopped +short and pointed to the peasant and my lord, the profiles of whom he +could see distinctly in a moonbeam which came through one of the +windows.</p> + +<p>"They are brethren," said Matheus, "you may speak."</p> + +<p>"Well then," said Pignana, piqued by the brusque manner of the Count, +"I thought the case <i>urgent</i>, (he accented the last word,) and +therefore came to warn your excellency of danger."</p> + +<p>"What danger?" asked the Count, with his usual <i>sang-froid</i>.</p> + +<p>"And since his excellency," said Pignana, "forbade me to come to his +house, I was obliged to come here, though I believe my appearance is +respectable enough to pass scrutiny anywhere."</p> + +<p>"Signor Pignana, I must now, once for all, tell you the motives of my +conduct. I would not do so in any case were I not satisfied how +devoted you are to me."</p> + +<p>Pignana bowed again.</p> + +<p>"Your appearance," said the Count, "is certainly very honest and +respectable. The <i>fund</i> of honesty is, however, perhaps not so good; +for as a smuggler, a skimmer of the seas——, but I stop here, lest I +should displease you, for you may, after all, have something on your +conscience. There is, you know, a certain Neapolitan Ambassador at +Paris who was once a minister of police in our beautiful country. Now, +Signor Pignana, people never have to do with the police without some +very unpleasant consequences. I have an idea also that the Duke of +Palma, at whose house I was a fortnight ago, did not fail to inform +the Prefect of the Police of the city, of my being in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[Pg 349]</a></span> Paris. This is +a delicate attention from one police to another. The Duke, also, +probably pointed out many of my old acquaintances, among whom you have +the honor to be; you will understand, by aid of your knowledge of +<i>doubtful affairs</i>, that if it be known that I receive you here, +people will not think you come to teach me to play <i>the mandoline</i>, on +which instrument you are, I learn, a great performer. Consequently, +and not to rob myself of your invaluable services, and the care over +my household which you exercise, we have made a means of entrance for +you here, and through him you can communicate with me—how Signor +Pignana, an intelligent man like you, should understand this, without +its being necessary for me to give all these details."</p> + +<p>"I am delighted to be assured," said Signor Pignana, proudly, "that +without these grave reasons the Count would not be unwilling to see +me."</p> + +<p>"But," said Taddeo, "what is the danger of which you spoke just now?"</p> + +<p>"Ah! Signor Taddeo Rovero!" said the shrewd Pignana, who had +recognized the voice of the young man.</p> + +<p>"This is bad!" murmured Frederick.</p> + +<p>"I am delighted to meet Signor Taddeo Rovero," said Pignana, +"especially as what I have to say relates also to him."</p> + +<p>"To me?" said Taddeo.</p> + +<p>"Come to the point, then," said the Count.</p> + +<p>"Thus it is, Monsignore," said Pignana: "I was, in obedience to +orders, hanging about your excellency's house, and until to-day never +saw any thing suspicious. This evening I saw two dark figures planted +opposite to your hotel, at the corner of Verneuil-street. The +motionless position of these men seemed strange, and the manner that +they examined others who came in and out of the hotel was more so, +until at last I became satisfied that they watched you. I was +confirmed in this when approaching them in the dark I heard one of the +men say to his companion: '<i>He has gone out on foot, his carriage has +not left!</i>'"</p> + +<p>"Go on," said the Count, "this becomes interesting."</p> + +<p>"This is not all," said Pignana; "the same man said in a brusque tone +to his companion: '<i>Go to Saint Dominique-street, the other lives +there!</i>'"</p> + +<p>"That is myself," said Taddeo, "and the Marquis, my sister, and I do +live in that street, in the Hotel of the Prince de Maulear."</p> + +<p>"So I thought," said Pignana, bowing to Taddeo, "and I hurried hither +where I knew Count Monte-Leone was to be found. Your excellency will +now see that it was a matter of importance."</p> + +<p>"Do not go home to-night!" said d'Harcourt.</p> + +<p>"Remain here!" said von Apsberg.</p> + +<p>"Leave Paris!" said Pignana.</p> + +<p>"Why should I not go home? Because it pleases some robber to wait near +my hotel, to rob me? or because some bravo wishes, <i>a la Venitienne</i>, +to make a dagger-sheath of my heart? The man must act, too, <i>on his +own account</i>, for I know of no enemies in this city. Every where I am +sought for and <i>fêted</i>, and our secret associates, with whom the world +is full, and who know my old adventures, secure every day a triumphal +reception for me in the saloons of Paris. But if the mysterious +watchers of whom Signor Pignana speaks, be by chance of the birds of +night—owls who have escaped from the police, I make myself more +liable to suspicion by staying away, than by returning to my hotel. +Then, by ——, as my old friend Pietro used to say—I did not furnish +a house to sleep out of it. To remain here as Von Apsberg suggests, +would be a greater mistake yet; for in this house are all our +documents and the lists of our associates. This is the treasury, the +holy ark of the society, and here, under the name of Matheus, is the +very soul. Let us then beware how we give the huntsman any clue to +this precious deposit, or all will be lost. Pignana proposes that I +should leave Paris, but I will not do so. Here are all our hopes of +probable success. The light which will illumine Paris, must radiate +hence. Besides, gentlemen," continued Monte-Leone, "I find that you +all become easily excited at a very natural thing. In case even of a +judicial investigation, you forget—<i>The brethren know each other, but +can furnish no evidence of the participation of each other in any +enterprise</i>. Our records or our deeds alone can betray us; our papers +are here beneath three locks, and our actions are yet to be. Do not, +therefore, be uneasy about my fate, and let Taddeo and myself discover +the explanation of this riddle."</p> + +<p>"Do not be imprudent," said Von Apsberg to Monte-Leone, as he saw him +hurriedly dress himself in the costume of an Auvergnat; "remember that +we are in Paris, where the streets are crowded, and not in +Naples—that a dagger-thrust is a great event here."</p> + +<p>"Do not be uneasy," said the Count, "for I always conform to the +usages and customs of the country in which I am. In Italy I use the +dagger, and in France the stick."</p> + +<p>Taking hold of the baton which Taddeo bore, more completely to assume +the roll of the villager, he brandished and twisted it in his fingers, +well enough to have made Fan-Fan, the king of the stick-players of the +day, envious.</p> + +<p>"Shall I follow your <i>eccelenza</i>?" asked Signor Pignana.</p> + +<p>"Certainly," said he, "but as a rear-guard, twenty paces behind me, in +order that you may give evidence, as a mere passer by, that the man I +shall beat to death wished to beat me. This will make me more +interesting in the eyes of the people this difficulty will attract."</p> + +<p>When he saw Signor Pignana about to leave the room with him, he said, +"No! Mademoiselle Crepineau, the Argus of this house, saw only three +men come in; what will she think when she sees four leaving? Go out +then by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[Pg 350]</a></span> the secret door, Pignana, and join us at the corner of the +<i>rue</i> Belle-Chasse."</p> + +<p>The door of the library was closed on Signor Pignana.</p> + +<p>"Do you not wish me to go with you?" asked the Vicomte of Monte-Leone.</p> + +<p>"For shame!" said Monte-Leone, "four to one—we would look like the +allied army marching against Monaco. Remain then a few minutes with +the doctor. The consultation of the Milord naturally enough may be +long."</p> + +<p>The Auvergnat and the peasant of the boulirue passed before the chair +of Mademoiselle Crepineau, one with his handkerchief over his cheek, +and the other with a bandage over his eye. Recollecting that they had +been since eight o'clock with the doctor, she could not refrain from +saying, "The doctor is a very skilful man, but he is slow. After all," +added she, "he may have taken a multitude of things from them, though +no one heard them cry out. People of their rank do not mind pain."</p> + +<p>As they approached Verneuil-street, the Count proceeded a few steps in +advance of Taddeo. "Wait for me here," said he, pointing out a house +which stood yet farther back than the others, on the alignment of the +street, "and come to me if I call out." He then left the young man, +assumed a vulgar air, and straggled towards his hotel. Soon he saw in +an angle of the wall opposite to his house a motionless shadow, which +was certainly that of the man Pignana had pointed out to him. The +Count had a quick and keen eye, which recognized objects even in the +dark. He saw the two eyes which watched him, and which were fixed on +his hotel. They were moved from time to time, but only that on turning +again they might more easily recognize every passer. Monte-Leone, with +the presence of mind which never left him, and which characterized all +the decisive actions of his life, no sooner conceived his plan than he +put it into execution. He was anxious to know with what enemies he had +to deal, and could conceive of no better way than to question the man +himself. The question he put, it is true, was rather <i>brusque</i>, as +will be seen. When a few paces behind the man, who had not the least +suspicion, and had suffered him to come close to him, the Count faced +about and rushed on the stranger. He clasped his throat with one hand, +and with the other seized the stranger's weapons, which he naturally +enough concluded he wore. The latter uttered a cry, and an only cry, +which, by the by, was terrible. He was then silent. A stranger passing +by might have fancied those men were speaking confidentially together, +but never that one was strangling the other.</p> + +<p>"One word," said Monte-Leone. "Tell me why you are here."</p> + +<p>"On my own business," said the man.</p> + +<p>"That is not true," said the Count. "You are not a robber—you have +been here for two hours. Many persons well dressed have down this +street, yet you did not attack them." The living vice which bound his +throat was again compressed. The man made a sign that he wished to +speak. The Count relaxed his hold.</p> + +<p>"Whom do you watch?"</p> + +<p>"Yourself."</p> + +<p>"You know me, then?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"Who bade you watch me?"</p> + +<p>The stranger was silent. Feeling the iron hand again clasp him, he +muttered, "A great lady sent me."</p> + +<p>"Her name?" said the Count, who began to guess, but who wished to be +sure.</p> + +<p>"The Neapolitan ambassadress."</p> + +<p>"And why does your companion stand in the Rue Saint-Dominique?"</p> + +<p>"Then you know all?" said the wretch.</p> + +<p>"All that I wish to," said the Count. "Speak out," said he, again +clasping his fingers tightly as if they had been a torture-collar. +"Speak now, or you will never do so again."</p> + +<p>"Well," said the man, "my companion is ordered to ascertain if you +were not at the hotel of the Prince de Maulear. Why should I know any +thing about it?"</p> + +<p>"Ah! this is unworthy," said the Count. "When her passions are +concerned nothing restrains this woman."</p> + +<p>A painful sigh was the only reply to this exclamation. The Count +looked around, and saw Taddeo standing by him, pale and trembling.</p> + + +<h4>IX.—A LETTER.</h4> + +<p>Leaning over the white shoulders of the charming Marquise de Maulear, +we are about to tempt our readers to the commission of a great +indiscretion. We will force them to listen to a letter which that lady +was writing to her mother the Signora Rovero, to inform the latter of +all her secret thoughts, and of what during the last two years had +taken place in her household. She sat, one morning, about nine +o'clock, in a beautiful boudoir, hung with rose-colored silk, over +which were falls of India muslin. This room was on the second floor of +the house, and there, with her head on her hand, Aminta wrote, on a +small table incrusted with Sevres porcelain, the following letter, +exhibiting the most intimate thoughts of her soul:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"<span class="smcap">My kind mother</span>: Twenty months ago I left Italy and +yourself, to accompany the Marquis de Maulear and his +excellent father to Paris. Since then my letters have not +suffered you to want details of things about which you are +so curious, which occurred in the course of my trip from +Naples hither, and of my reception by my husband's family. +The family of the Marquis, as you already know, is one of +the most important of Paris, both from rank, fortune, and +nobility, and did not therefore dare to receive with +coldness a stranger who came thus to take a place in its +bosom. The tender protection of my father-in-law made it a +duty to them to seem to me what<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[Pg 351]</a></span> they really were to him, +benevolent, kind, and affectionate. Long ago, I saw that the +sentiments they exhibited were not sincere; and I guessed +that beneath the affectionate manners of my new family, +there was hidden an icy vanity, and want of sympathy with +the young woman who had no ancestors, no birth, and almost +no fortune, who had thus, as it were, come among them to +usurp name, position, and influence, to which no one should +pretend who had not a lineage at least as princely as +theirs. I soon learned how little faith I should have in +their politeness, and the anxiety in my behalf which were +exacted by the <i>exigences</i> of society, and above all by the +paternal protection of the Prince de Maulear. I was eager to +find in the friendship of those with whom I was cast +something of that kind reciprocity of sentiments which I was +anxious to exhibit to them. The first person to whom I +appealed replied to me by cold glances. On this person, dear +mother, I relied, not as a substitute for yourself, but as +one to advise me in the new life I was about to lead amid a +society the customs and language of which I was almost +ignorant of. This person was the Countess of Grandmesnil, +sister of the Prince, and aunt of my husband. The Countess +was passionately fond of my husband, whom she educated, and +perhaps was wounded at the idea of his having married +without consulting her. This union also put an end to hopes +which had long before been formed in relation to a similar +connection with that of the Duke d'Harcourt's, one of the +first families in France. Mademoiselle de Grandmesnil, +therefore, received me with cautious urbanity, repelled my +confidence, and made me look on her whom I had considered an +affectionate protectress as an enemy. The Marquis was not +aware of the Countess's sentiments to me, for when they saw +how fond he was, they redoubled their apparent care and +attention. I did not, though, remain ignorant of the thorn +hidden in the rose. This strange kind of intuition, dear +mother, which you have often remarked in me, was made +apparent by the most unimportant acts of the Countess, in +which she evidently exhibited an expression of her +indifference to me, and dissatisfaction at my marriage; I +armed myself with courage, and promised to contend with the +enemy provided for me by my evil fate. I resolved not to +suffer my husband to know any thing of my troubles, nor to +suffer the Countess's treatment to diminish my husband's +attachment towards the person who had provided for his +youth. To recompense me, however, for this want of +affection, I had two substitutes—the perpetually increasing +love of the Marquis, his tender submission to my smallest +wish, and the attachment of the Prince—an enigma he has +always refused to explain. Beyond all doubt this reason is +powerful and irresistible, for the mention of my father's +name made him open his arms, which, as I told you, he at +first was determined to close hermetically. Strange must +have been those talismanic sounds, changing the +deeply-rooted sentiments of an old man's heart, and making +him abandon the invariable principles of his mind, so as to +induce him to present me, the daughter of a noble of +yesterday, as one descended from a person whose virtues had +won for him an immortal blessing. I must also tell you that +I have seen more than one of the old friends of the Prince +stand, as if they were petrified, at hearing him speak thus. +I have recounted all those happy scenes, dear mother, merely +to compare the past with the present, which presents, alas, +a far different aspect. My brilliant sky is obscured—I see +in the horizon nothing but clouds. Perhaps I am mistaken, +and my too brilliant imagination, against which you have +often warned me, fills my mind with too melancholy ideas. +Were you but with me, could I but cast myself in your arms, +press you to my heart, and imbibe confidence from you! +Listen, then, to words I shall confide to this cold paper, +read it with the eyes of your soul, and tell me if I am +mistaken or menaced with misfortune.</p> + +<p>"During the early portion of my residence in Paris, I lived +amid a whirlwind of pleasures, balls, and entertainments, +which soon resulted in satiety and lassitude. The attention +I attracted, the homage paid to me, flattered my vanity, and +pleased me; for they seemed to increase the Marquis's love, +and to make me more precious to him. After the winter came a +calmer season, and I welcomed it gladly, thinking the +Marquis and myself, to a degree, would live for each other, +and that this feverish, agitated and turbulent life, would +be followed by a period of more happiness. Three months +passed away in that kind of retirement in which those +inhabitants of Paris, who do not leave the city, indulge. +The Prince left us to visit his estates in another part of +France, and the Marquis and myself were alone. The Countess, +it is true, was with us; but her society, instead of adding +to our pleasures, was as annoying as possible. Accustomed +during my whole life to out-door existence, to long +excursions in the picturesque vicinity of our villa, I was +sometimes anxious to take morning strolls in the beautiful +gardens of Paris. The Countess said to my husband, one day, +that a woman of my age should not go out without him. As the +Marquis often rode, an exercise with which I am not +familiar, and as he had friends to see, and political +business to attend to, I was unable to go out but rarely. +Then I will say he offered me his arm anxiously, but this +exercise neither satisfied my taste, nor the demands of +health. There was also a perpetual objection to dramatic +performances, of which I was very fond; Henri did not like +them. The Countess, also, from religious scruples, was +opposed to them, and by various little and ingeniously +contrived excuses, I was utterly deprived of this innocent +amusement. My toilette was also a subject of perpetual +comment. The Countess said that I exaggerated the fashions, +that I looked foreign, and that the court was opposed to +innovations in the toilette, or again that the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[Pg 352]</a></span> court +preferred the severe forms of dress. A young and brilliant +princess, though, gives tone to her court, and by her +elegance, luxury and taste, procures a support for crowds of +the Parisian work-people. Henri, over whom his aunt has +never ceased to exercise the same influence she did in +childhood, while he wished to support my ideas, really +supported hers. I saw with regret that the chief defect of +the Marquis was weakness of character, and perpetual +controversies about little matters produced a state of +feeling between us, which subsequently required a kind of +effort for us to overcome. This, however, dear mother, is +nothing; for I have not come to the really painful point of +my confessions. The gay season has returned, and the +principal people of Paris have returned to their hotels. I +liked to see Henri jealous, because this passion was, in my +opinion, an assurance of his love. Henri, who during the +early period of our marriage, would not have left me alone +for the world, now confides me exclusively to the care of +his father. The first time this took place, his absence was +a plausible excuse. He does not now even seek a pretext; a +whim, an appointment, are sufficient motives for him to +leave me. Whither does he go? How does he occupy himself? +This is the subject of my uneasiness and torment—yet he +loves me, he says, but a heart like mine, dear mother, is +not easily deceived. He does not love me as he used to. A +magnificent ball was given during the last month, by the +Neapolitan Ambassador, the Duke of Palma, who married the +famous Felina. Henri left the Prince and myself, as soon as +we came to the rooms; the whole night nearly passed away +without our seeing him. At last, however, he returned, pale +and exhausted. The Prince, who was unacquainted with what +had transpired at Sorrento, between his son and Monte-Leone, +introduced me to him, and asked me to receive him at our +hotel. I hesitated whether I should consent or not; when the +Marquis, with an air which lacerated my very heart, asked +the Count to visit me, assuring him that he would always be +welcome.</p> + +<p>"<i>Welcome to him!</i> dear mother. You understand that this man +had been his rival, and loved me. I will confess to you, +dear mother, as I do to God. He loves me yet, I am sure, +though he never told me so; for his looks are what they +were, and when he spoke, his emotion told me that he was +unaltered. Since that ball, Monte-Leone, thus authorized by +the Marquis, has visited me. My husband is not at all +displeased at it; tell me, do you think he loves me still? +Yesterday, dear mother, I went into my husband's room, to +look for a bottle of salts I had forgotten. The Marquis was +absent, and his secretary was open, a strange disorder +pervaded the room; a few papers were lying about, and among +others, I saw a column of figures; I was about to look at +them, and had already extended my hand towards it, when I +heard a cry, and on turning around saw my husband, pale and +alarmed. He advanced towards me, and seizing my arm +convulsively, said, Signora, who gave you a right to examine +my papers? It is an abuse of confidence which I never can +forgive. I grew pale with surprise and grief. 'Sir, said I, +such a reproach is unmerited, if there be any thing +improper, it is your tone and air.' I left the room, for I +was overpowered, and did not wish to weep before him. One +hour afterwards, on his knees, he besought me to pardon him +for an excitement which he would never be able to pardon +himself. He was once more, dear mother, kind as he had ever +been; he repeated his vows of eternal love, and exhibited +all his former tenderness. His looks hung on me as they used +to, and I began to hope he would continue to love me. A +cruel idea, however, pursued me, what was the secret shut up +in the paper he would not suffer me to read? Why did he, +usually so calm and cold, become so much enraged?"</p></div> + +<p>Just then the letter of the Marquise de Maulear was interrupted by the +bell which announced the coming of visitors. Aminta remembered that it +was reception day, and persons came to say that several visitors +awaited her. She went down stairs. On the evening of the same day she +resumed her letter.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"I resume my pen to tell you of a strange circumstance which +occurred to-day. When I broke off so suddenly, I found some +visitors awaiting me. Visiting in Paris is insignificant and +meaningless, performed on certain fixed days. Conversation +on these occasions is commonplace. People only talk of the +pleasure of meeting, and slander is so much the vogue that +it is not prudent to leave certain rooms until every one +else has gone, lest you should be hacked to pieces by those +left behind. My father-in-law came into the room and gave +some life to the conversation. The Prince was not alone, for +Count Monte-Leone came with him. Why, dear mother, should I +conceal from you, that the presence of the Count causes +always an invincible distress? This man is so decided and +resolute that he never seemed to me like other people. He +seems half god and half demon. His keen and often expressive +glance, his firm voice made mild by emotion, the <i>tout +ensemble</i> of his character, seems to call him to great +crimes or sublime actions.</p> + +<p>"The Prince said, 'Do you know, Aminta, that the Count is +the only person in Paris whom I have to beg to come to see +you? I have absolutely to use violence. I had just now +almost to use violence to bring him hither.'</p> + +<p>"'The Prince, Madame,' said the Count, respectfully, 'looks +on respect as reserve. The pleasure of seeing you is too +great for me to run the risk of losing it by abusing the +privilege.'</p> + +<p>"'Bah! bah!' said the Prince, 'mere gallantry, nothing more. +We <i>emigrés</i>, from associating with the English, have lost +some of our peculiarities; and I, at least, have contracted +one excellent custom. When an Englishman says to a man, "my +house is yours,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[Pg 353]</a></span> he absolutely means what he says, and the +privilege should be used. Your host looks on you as a part +of his family, and people of the neighborhood esteem you as +much a part of the household as the old grandfather's chair +is. You go, come, sit at the table, eat and drink, as if you +were at home. This generous hospitality pleases me, because +it recalls that of our own ancestors.'</p> + +<p>"'Brother,' said the Countess, 'this hospitality can never +be acclimated in France, especially in households where +there are as pretty women as in ours.'</p> + +<p>"'Sister, such privileges are accorded only to people of the +honor of whom we are well-assured, like the Count. Besides, +travellers like ourselves are hard to please in beauty. Not +that the Marquise is not beautiful; but if you had been as +we were at Ceprano, if you had only read the interesting +chapter I have written in relation to that country, you +would see that many perfections are needed to wound hearts +that are so cosmopolitan as ours.'</p> + +<p>"The Count was about to reply, when the doors were opened +and the Duchess of Palma was announced. I looked at +Monte-Leone just then, and he changed countenance at once. I +saw him immediately go to the darkest part of the room. This +was the first time I had ever received the Duchess of Palma. +There seemed no motive for her visit. I had paid mine after +the ball, and there was no obligation between us. The +Duchess is a beautiful, elegant, and dignified woman. It is +said she is of a noble family; and her manners evidently +betoken high cultivation. The Duchess told me kindly that +she had not seen enough of me at the ball, and that I must +take the visit as an evidence of her devotion and +admiration. The Prince of Maulear approached. 'We are +especially flattered, Duchess,' said he, and he emphasized +the word, looking at the same time at some ladies I +received; 'we are especially flattered by the honor you +confer on us. We know how careful you are in the bestowal of +such favors. It is a favor, as pleasant as it is honorable.'</p> + +<p>"'I have been suffering, Prince,' replied the Duchess, 'with +deep distress, and I will not reflect on any one the burden +of my sorrows.'</p> + +<p>"'You are,' said the Prince, 'like those beautiful tropical +flowers, the source of the life of which is the sun, and +which grow pale on their stems in our land. Neapolitans need +Naples, the pure sky, the balmy air, the perfume of orange +groves, and the reflection of the azure gulf. I am +distressed, Duchess, at what you say, and hope you will +content yourself with our country. We will not permit you to +leave it.'</p> + +<p>"'But I am dying,' said the Duchess, in a strange tone.</p> + +<p>"'You are now alive, though,' said the Prince.</p> + +<p>"The uneasy eyes of the Duchess passed around the room, and +when she saw the Count, became strangely animated. 'Ah!' she +remarked, 'here is Count Monte-Leone.' The Count advanced.</p> + +<p>"'The Count,' said the Prince, 'is your compatriot, and one +of your most fervent admirers.'</p> + +<p>"'Do you think so?' said the Duchess, almost ironically.</p> + +<p>"'One,' said the Prince, 'to be any thing else, must neither +have seen nor heard your grace.'</p> + +<p>"'Once, perhaps,' said she, 'I had some means of attraction, +but now all is forgotten; for I am a Duchess like all +others—less even, because I am indebted to chance for my +rank and title.'</p> + +<p>"'You owe thanks to yourself alone,' said the Prince, 'and +the Duke was a lucky man to have it in his power to lay them +at your feet.'</p> + +<p>"'Madame,' said I to the Duchess, 'since you deign to remind +us of your deathless talent, may I venture to ask you to +sing once more?'</p> + +<p>"'Never!' said the Duchess, 'I left my voice on the banks of +the <i>Lago di Como</i>, and have not forgotten my last song.'</p> + +<p>"''Twas indeed a sad epoch,' said the Prince, 'If it was the +funeral of your talent.'</p> + +<p>"'I will never sing again!' said the Duchess, 'I remember +that day as I do all the unhappy ones of my life. Ah! they +are far more numerous than our happy days. It was evening, +and in a gay room of my villa, whither I had come still +trembling at having seen a traveller nearly drowned in the +lake. I know not what sad yet pleasant memory was nursed in +my heart, but I went to my piano and sung an air I had sung +for the last time at San Carlo. Tell me, Count +Monte-Leone—you were there—what was it?'</p> + +<p>"'<i>La Griselda.</i>'</p> + +<p>"'It was. On that evening all my enthusiasm returned to me. +While singing, however, a strange fancy took possession of +me. I thought I saw in the mirror in front of me, the +features of one who had long been dead—dead at least to me. +My emotion was so instinct with terror and happiness, that +since then I have not sung.'</p> + +<p>"'That is a perfect romance,' said the Prince, 'like those +of the dreamy Hoffman I met at Vienna.'</p> + +<p>"'No, sir, it is a fact, or rather the commencement of a +series of facts, which, however, will interest no one here. +For that reason I do not tell it.'</p> + +<p>"The Duchess of Palma rose to leave. The Prince offered her +his hand.</p> + +<p>"'No, Prince,' said she, 'I will not trouble you, for I am +about to ask the Count to accompany me. Excuse me,' said +she, 'excuse me for taking him away, but I need not use +ceremony with a countryman.'</p> + +<p>"Without giving him time to reply, she passed her arm +through his, went out, or rather dragged him out with her.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[Pg 354]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I do not know why, dear mother, I have told you all this +long story, which has led me to write far differently from +what I had intended. I like, though, to talk so much with +you; and then the visit of the Count and that Duchess +agitated me, I know not why. Some instinct tells me those +mysterious beings exert an influence over my life. You think +me foolish and strange—but what can I do? I am now so sad +that I seem to look at life through a dark veil. I am wrong, +am I not? Reassure yourself and tell me what you think of my +husband's conduct. That, most of all, interests</p> + +<p class="right"> +"Your own <span class="smcap">Aminta</span>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>"P.S.—The Prince, the Countess and myself in vain waited +all day for the Marquis. It is now midnight and he has not +yet come."</p></div> + + +<h4>X.—JEALOUSY.</h4> + +<p>A month had passed since the Marquise had written to her mother, +during which time the Marquis, more sedulous in his attentions to +Aminta, had begun to make her forget her fears and suspicions. A new +event, though, aroused them again.</p> + +<p>A magnificent ball had been given by Madame de L——, in her splendid +hotel in the <i>rue</i> d'Antin. M. de L—— aspired to the ministry; and +the fact of his having received the Duke de Bevry at his magnificent +entertainments, the favor he enjoyed at the <i>château</i>, and his +frequent entertainments to the <i>corps diplomatique</i>, seemed to make +his final success certain. M. de L—— aspired to popularity by +attracting around him all who seemed likely to advance his views. He +delighted to receive and mingle together in his drawing-room all the +political enemies of the tribune and the press, who, meeting as on a +central ground, thought themselves obliged to boast of the wit of +their Amphitryron, beneath whose roof they exchanged all the phrases +of diplomatic politeness to the accompaniment of Collinet's flageolet, +sat together at the card-tables, and courteously bowed at the door of +every room. On this account they did not cease to detest each other, +though their apparent reconciliation being believed at court, +contributed in no little degree to the advancement of M. L——'s +views.</p> + +<p>The Marquis and Aminta were at the ball—and Henri left his wife for +several hours in charge of his father, who was proud of her, and +exhibited her with pride in all the rooms. The Prince heaped attention +on her, as all well-bred persons love to on those who are dear to +them. He carefully waited on her during every waltz and contra-dance; +and with paternal care replaced the spotless ermine on her whiter +shoulders. Then resuming his task of cicerone, he explained to her the +peculiarities of French society, which seemed so brilliant and +singular to a young Italian. The Marquis rejoined his wife about one +o'clock. He was very gay, and Aminta had not for a long time seen him +so amiable and lively. The Prince expressed a desire to return home, +and the young people gladly consented. As they were about to leave the +last room, an Englishman of distinguished air, but pale and agitated, +passed close to the Marquis, and as he did so, said in his native +tongue, "all is agreed." The Marquis replied in the same words, and +the Englishman left. Aminta asked what the stranger had said, "Nothing +of importance," said Henri, "a mere commonplace."</p> + +<p>A quarter of an hour after, the carriage of the young people entered +<i>rue</i> Saint Dominique. The Prince embraced the Marquise and retired to +his room, which was in the left wing of the hotel, and exactly +opposite the apartments of the young couple. About two all the hotel +was quiet. Aminta, though, from some peculiar presentiment, could not +sleep, yet, with her eyes half closed, she fell into that dreamy +torpor in which every passion is exaggerated. In this half-real, +half-fantastic state, Aminta saw pass before her all the important +events of her life, the horrible episode of the <i>casa di Tasso</i>, the +coming of Maulear, and the heroic devotion of <i>Scorpione</i>. Another +shadow, that of Monte-Leone, glided before her. The looks of this man +were fixed on hers, as if to read the depths of her soul. There came +also a thousand chimeras and countless mad and terrible fictions. La +Felina, pale and white as a spectre, sang, or sought to sing, for +though her lips moved no sound was heard. With her hand raised towards +Aminta, the ducal singer seemed to heap reproaches on her. Alarmed at +these sombre visions, the young woman sought to return to real life, +and arose from her bed; just then she thought she heard a door open. +Terrified, she reached toward a bell near her, but paused. The door +which was opened could be no other than that of the Marquis, for their +apartments, though separate, were side by side. She thought, too, that +the <i>valet de chambre</i> had been detained later than usual with the +Marquis, and unwilling to make an alarm, she repressed her agitation.</p> + +<p>No noise disturbed the profound silence. The clock above struck the +several hours with that slow and monotonous regularity, which is so +painful to those who cannot sleep; she did not, however, win the rest +she was so anxious for. All the fancies which had occupied her just +before had disappeared, but were replaced by a newer fancy, occasioned +by the remark of the Englishman, which she had not understood. The +features of the stranger, so deathly pale, constantly returned to her. +She fancied some danger menaced the man to whom she had devoted her +life; that a strange danger menaced him, and, yielding to a feverish +agitation, which she could not repress, wrapping herself in a shawl, +and afraid almost to breathe, she went to the Marquis's room, when at +the door she paused and thought.</p> + +<p>"What would Henri say, and how could she excuse this strange visit?" +She hesitated and was about to return, when she saw that the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[Pg 355]</a></span> door was +not closed, and that she could thus enter his room and satisfy herself +without disturbing him. She decided—the door turned on its hinges, +and Aminta entered. Crossing the antechamber, she had reached the +bedroom, which was separated from it by a curtained door. She advanced +to the bed, which she found had not been slept in. With a faint cry of +terror she sank on an arm-chair. The clock struck four, and when she +had heard the noises which had disturbed her it was nearly two; since +then, therefore, the Marquis had been away. Yet this had occurred when +he was within a few feet of her, and the care and secrecy with which +it was accomplished showed that it had been premeditated. Not a sound +except the opening of the door had reached Aminta's ears. The Marquise +felt the most agonizing distress—no thought of perfidy, however, +annoyed her; the idea of danger only occupying her mind. Just then her +eyes fell on an open note which had doubtless been dropped by Maulear +amid his hurry and trouble. She took it up, saying to herself, this +note doubtless contains a challenge—a rendezvous—she approached the +night lamp, and with difficulty suppressing her agitation, read as +follows—"Dear Marquis, do not fail to come to-night. You know how +anxiously you are expected,</p> + +<p class="right"> +"<span class="smcap">Fanny de Bruneval</span>." +</p> + +<p>The letter was indeed a rendezvous, but not of the kind she had +expected. The terms of the note were clear and precise; and the +woman's name dissipated the mist from before her eyes, Maulear had +deserted her and his home in the silence of night for such a person. +She it was whom he deceived—she who had been so loyal and true, she +who sought, even when Maulear asked her hand, to protect him—who +begged him to distrust his impressions and not to act in haste. "I was +right," said she, "to fear the bonds he wished to impose on me—I was +right to object to a marriage which could not make him happy—only two +years," said she, with a voice of half stifled emotion, "and he is +already cold and indifferent to me. He has already abandoned me—and +worse still, he has done so with treachery. Mother! mother! why did +you not keep me with you? This then, is the reward of my generous +devotion. Alas! when I accepted him—when I wrested him from the death +which menaced him—when I gave myself to him, I did not love him, I +did not hesitate when perhaps——" Aminta blushed amid her tears. +"Above all," said she, "I do not wish him to find me here—I do not +wish him to reproach me as he has done with seeking to penetrate his +secrets." She returned to her room, and from exhaustion and tears sank +on her bed.</p> + +<p>Day came at last, and Aminta dressed herself. She wished to conceal +from her servants all that she suffered. Above all, she did not wish +the conduct and disorder of the Marquis to be made a subject of +discussion. When her <i>femme de chambre</i> entered her room, she found +her mistress on her knees at her morning devotions before a crucifix. +Had any persons, however, approached the Marquise, they must have seen +the tears falling on the delicate fingers which covered her face, and +heard her sobs. The bell rang for breakfast. Aminta started as if from +a dream; being thus recalled to real life, she saw that while the +evening before she had been happy and gay, one night had converted all +to sorrow and suffering. Aminta, though ordinarily of strong nerve, +sank beneath the blow. She felt herself wounded in her heart, her +dignity, and in her confidence, by one for whom alone she had lived. +Henceforth her life would be uncertain, and circumstances might lead +her she knew not whither.</p> + +<p>When the Marquise entered, the Prince and Countess were about to go to +the table. The former said, "It is evident, my child, from your face, +that you are fatigued; and that balls are to you what the sun is to +roses. It does not detract from their beauty, but it makes them pale." +And finally, the Countess added, "it withers them completely. That is +the fate of all young women who turn night into day, and who, like my +beautiful niece, only really live between evening and morning."</p> + +<p>"Come," said the Prince, "that will not do. My sister is like the fox +in the fable, she finds the ball too gay to suit herself, or rather +herself too sombre for the ball."</p> + +<p>"A witticism," said the Countess, "is not a reason, but often exactly +the reverse. The one, my brother is familiar with; to the other, I am +sorry to say, he is more a stranger."</p> + +<p>"You see, my child," said the Prince, with an air of submission and +resignation, "it is not well to have any trouble with the Countess, +for she returns shot for shot; though she fires a pistol in reply to a +cannon. Luckily for us, she is not a good shot. But my son does not +come down. Can it be that, though he did not dance, he is more +fatigued than his wife?"</p> + +<p>"A letter for Madame la Marquise, from the Marquis," said a servant.</p> + +<p>Aminta took the letter from the plateau, and looked at the Prince, as +if to ask whether she should read it.</p> + +<p>"Read, my child, read," said her father-in-law, affectionately. "The +letter of a husband loved and loving, for thank God both are true, +should be read without any delay."</p> + +<p>Aminta unsealed the letter, and glanced rapidly over it. Then +succumbing to emotion, deprived of strength and courage, and +especially revolting at what she had read, felt her sight grow dim, +and finally fainted. The Countess, whose mind alone was embittered for +the reasons Aminta had explained to her mother, but whose soul and +heart were generous as possible, ran to the Marquise, took her in her +arms, and was as kind as possible. The Prince, paler than Aminta, +rushed towards the window, which he threw open, and pulled away at the +bell-ropes to call the servants,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[Pg 356]</a></span> and send them for the physicians. +The old nobleman exhibited the greatest alarm. The young Marquise was +taken to the drawing-room, and a few moments after she opened her +eyes. Her heart, however, was crushed; and she wept bitter tears. The +Prince was struck with terror and distress. He was alarmed for his +son's sake, and a father's anxiety was apparent.</p> + +<p>"What has happened to my son?" said he, rushing to find the letter, +which Aminta had let fall. He read it anxiously, and when he had +concluded, laughed loud and long. "Indeed," said he, "we have come +back to the days of the Astræa. All reminds us of the <i>Calprenède</i>, of +<i>Urfé</i>, or <i>Scudéri</i> herself. We are on the <i>Tendros</i>. This kind of +love would make that of Cyrus and Mandane trifling. Cyrus writes to +Mandane, that he went out to ride in the Bois de Cologne, and +therefore has to deprive himself of the pleasure of breakfasting with +her. Mandane therefore is suddenly taken ill. This is magnificent and +touching; but my precious child, it is a little exaggerated."</p> + +<p>"What, then, is the matter?" said the Countess, as she handed her +niece the salts. "What a singular man you are! One never knows what +the facts of any thing are from you. You are either in the seventh +heaven or in despair. Your very gayety is enough to destroy our +niece's nerves."</p> + +<p>"Ah!" said the Prince, "how sorry I am for the nerves. Read, however, +the letter yourself, Countess," and he gave it to Mademoiselle +Grandmesuil. "You will see the Marquise is too fond of her husband. +Her love has really become a dangerous passion. She is really +<i>love-mad</i>, and if it continues, we shall have a rehearsal of Milon's +ballet, with the exception of <i>Bigotini</i>."</p> + +<p>The Countess read as follows:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"<span class="smcap">My dear Wife</span>: I am unwilling to disturb your slumbers, and +have therefore left for the wood at five o'clock, having a +rendezvous with some sportsmen. We will probably breakfast +together, and I will not return until dinner-time. Remember +me affectionately.</p> + +<p class="right"> +"<span class="smcap">Henri.</span>"<br /> +</p> + +</div> + +<p>The habitual coldness of the Countess returned while she read the +letter. "I will say that I think my nephew very likely to inspire deep +love. I cannot however conceive how there can be cause for such +despair. We Frenchwomen have not such an exaggerated devotion as our +niece has. I beg her not to use it up now, for in the career of life +she will find it difficult to do without it." As if regretting that +she had soothed sorrows in which she had no sympathy, the Countess +sent for her prayer-book, and went to mass. As soon as the young +Marquise was alone with the Prince, she arose, threw herself in the +old man's arms, and said: "My father, I am very unhappy." The face of +the Prince at once became serious, and taking Aminta to a sofa, bade +her sit down, and said, kindly as possible, "Excuse my gayety and +irony, my child. <i>Non est hic locus</i>, as the sublime Horace, the +favorite of our good king Louis XVIII., once wrote. I repent of my +volatility and trifling, for I should have remembered, when I think of +the elevation of your mind, that something more important than the +absence of your husband for a few hours annoyed you. Speak to me—open +your heart to me—for I love you too well not to have a right to your +confidence and your secrets."</p> + +<p>"He does not love me," said Aminta, leaning her head on the Prince's +shoulder.</p> + +<p>"Alas! my daughter," said M. de Maulear, "I am about to make a strange +confession to you. I am not acquainted with my son. His soul, +sentiments, inclination, and moral nature, are unknown to me. When, +four years ago, I saw the child now twenty-six, whom I had left an +infant, and found his air, manners, and appearance distingué as +possible, and was pleased with him, I was assured that his soul was +exalted, his character true, and his sentiments honorable. I was +therefore satisfied. Two years after, he went to Naples, where I +procured a diplomatic post for him; and consequently I have neither +studied nor fathomed his instincts and habits. What I apprehend in +relation to you, my child, is a capital fault. I have discovered in my +son an extreme weakness of character, which may lead him into error. +For that reason, I wrote to him, that I would have preferred that he +had tasted of the pleasures of life before marriage. I would thus have +had an assurance of his subsequent prudence. Believe me, though, my +child, I will watch over him and you, and if I was able to forgive his +marrying without my consent, when I knew whom he married, I never will +pardon him if he make her unhappy. The deuce! we did not bring you +hither from Italy to break your heart."</p> + +<p>Fearful lest his father should become angry with Maulear, Aminta +restrained the secret which seemed ready to burst from her lips. She +spoke of vague suspicions and anxiety at the Marquis's uneasiness, but +said nothing particular. The Prince, who never in his life had known +what jealousy was, had some difficulty in understanding how it could +create such despair. His attention, however, was not the less vigilant +in relation to the affairs of the young couple. A circumstance which +occurred soon after enabled him to ascertain much. A number of persons +assembled one night at the rooms of the Marquise de Maulear. Count +Monte-Leone had become one of Aminta's most assiduous visitors. The +tacit permission he had received from Aminta, the formal authority of +the Marquis, the sympathy of the old Prince, to whom the pleasant, +energetic character of the Count, and his noble bearing, made him +every day more attractive—all taken in connection with the intimacy +of Taddeo and Monte-Leone, authorized him to visit the Marquise +freely. The devotion of Monte-Leone to Aminta had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[Pg 357]</a></span> never been +diminished. He had felt only an inclination towards La Felina, an +error of the senses and imagination, excited by mortified love, and +favored by the isolation of the Lago di Como. His heart had little +share in it. When, therefore, he saw the Marquise de Maulear more +attractive than ever, he discovered that in his whole life he had +loved her alone. The Marquis de Maulear appeared but rarely at the +hotel, coming home at a late hour and going out early.</p> + +<p>Monte-Leone and Taddeo were talking together, and this fragment of +their conversation struck the ear of the old Prince, who seemed +entirely absorbed by a game of whist.</p> + +<p>"Will not the Marquis be here to-night?" said the Count to Taddeo.</p> + +<p>"I doubt it: sometimes the master of the hotel is here less frequently +than any one else."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps he is now," said the Count, "where he goes almost every +night, they say."</p> + +<p>"You jest," said Taddeo; "I think he is here every night."</p> + +<p>"He should, but he is not. All I can say is, that on the night of +M.L.'s ball, he was ... where I saw him."</p> + +<p>"Where was he?" asked Taddeo, impatiently.</p> + +<p>"I will tell you—but come away from the whist-table."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>"But you do not return my lead," said the Prince's partner, "you +should play hearts."</p> + +<p>"True," said the Prince, musing; and he led hearts. His eyes, though, +followed Taddeo and Monte-Leone.</p> + +<p>The Prince lost five points, much to his partner's discontent. He +played very badly that night, breaking up his suits, mistaking the +cards, and violating every rule, much to the surprise of the +lookers-on, who knew how well he played the game, which the emigrés +had imported from England. At last they stopped, and the Prince sought +for Monte-Leone through all the rooms. The Count and Taddeo, however, +had both left. The Marquis, though, had returned, and the company soon +dispersed. The Prince went to his room, but soon left, well wrapped +up, and with his hat over his face. "Pardieu!" said he, "I will settle +things, and find out where my son passes the nights. Can any place be +more pleasant than the bedchamber of a pretty woman?" Standing at a +little distance from door, he waited about half an hour. His patience +was nearly exhausted, when the Marquis came out. Henri went to the Rue +de Bac, took the quai, crossed the pont Royale, the Carousel, and +entered la Rue de Richelieu. The poor Prince panted after him, and +kept him in sight all the time, cursing his curiosity. Sustained by a +deep interest for his daughter's happiness, he kept on.</p> + +<p>When the Marquis came to the Rue de Menors, he paused, and turned to +see that no one followed him. The Prince had barely time to get behind +a coach which stood at the corner. The Marquis went some distance down +the Rue de Menors, and stopped at No. 7. The door was opened, and +Henri entered. "On my honor," said the Prince, "I would not have come +so far before bed, unless I could also have found out <i>why</i> the +Marquis visits No. 7." The Prince then stopped at the door, and +knocked. The door was opened.</p> + +<p>"What do you want?" said the porter, rather surlily.</p> + +<p>"I wish," said the Prince, and he put a louis d'or in the porter's +hand, "to know why that man has come hither."</p> + +<p>"Indeed," said he, pocketing the louis, "it is a great deal to pay for +so little. The gentleman has gone, as many others go, to see Mlle. +Fanny de Bruneval."</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1850, +by Stringer & Townsend, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of +the United States for the Southern District of New-York.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="A_FESTIVAL_UPON_THE_NEVA" id="A_FESTIVAL_UPON_THE_NEVA"></a>A FESTIVAL UPON THE NEVA.</h2> + +<h4>TRANSLATED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL MONTHLY MAGAZINE FROM THE FRENCH OF +KAUFMANN.</h4> + + +<p>On the banks of a majestic river, where, in later times, has arisen a +city of eight thousand houses, of granite causeways, monuments, +obelisks, and palaces, nothing was to be seen at the commencement of +the eighteenth century but a few huts scattered over a marshy waste.</p> + +<p>On one of those days, when the intense cold had transformed the river +into a plain of ice, a numerous crowd were hastening through the +streets of the young St. Petersburg. Some directed their steps towards +a little cottage; and others, over the frozen waters, towards a +fortified island. Every one looked with a curious eye at the cottage, +and the numerous sledges that were gathering for the escort at hand. +Presently, a sledge drawn by three horses covered with bear-skins, +dashed up to the cottage-gate. It was quickly opened, and an old man +of a high stature and proud bearing came forth, wearing a blue sable. +He slowly advanced and took his place.</p> + +<p>"Pardon me, sir," said one of middle age, who hastened to take a seat +by the side of the former, "the gracious Czar had—"</p> + +<p>"It is sufficient," prince Menzikoff, interrupted the first, in a +quick and stern tone; "I am not much accustomed to wait, but I know, +however, that it is the Czar only who can be the cause of this delay."</p> + +<p>"You see the boyard, Alexis Nicolajewitz Tscherkaski," said one of +those present, in a whisper to his companion.</p> + +<p>"You are not the first to tell me that," replied Nikita. "It is not +sixty years since his grandfather traversed the Caucasus with his +savage Tschetschences. He would be a little surprised if he saw his +son to-day decorated with the golden key of chamberlain, and enjoying +himself at festivals in sacred Russia. But they give the signal of +departure, for they are tying a tame bear to the sledge. Indeed, it is +a strange animal!"</p> + +<p>"I must see him nearer," said the first. "Come, Andyuschka, let us +survey the whole train."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>They came at last to an edifice such as was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[Pg 358]</a></span> never seen before or +since. It was built upon the Neva—but not of stones. The walls, roof, +and partitions, were of solid ice; and the steps leading to the +entrance cut out of one enormous block. Two large cannons made of ice, +pierced with the greatest care, and which they were foolish enough to +charge with powder, were placed in front of this singular palace. The +interior presented an appearance not less novel. A long table, formed +of a single piece of ice, and covered with a hundred exquisite dishes, +was the principal object—oysters, in silver plates, excited the +appetite—sea-fish, of every species, from the gulf of Finland and +Pont-Euxin to the Caspian and frozen seas, disputed the supremacy with +shell-fish from the Istar and Volga. By the side of the hams of +Bayonne were roasts of bear surrounded with citron; and the sturgeon +was placed in the middle of delicious preserves. Many sledges were +filled with bottles.</p> + +<p>But all these cold dishes composed but half the feast. Four kitchens, +built of wood, at some distance from the palace, threw up constantly +clouds of smoke. There boiled stags and elks, pullets of Archangel, +and boars of Podolie. But that which particularly attracted the +attention of the spectators were the large fires where whole oxen +turned round upon spits, for the benefit of the people, to whom were +to be also given tuns of brandy.</p> + +<p>The sun shone yet above the horizon when the great hall of the palace +of crystal was lighted with wax candles in chandeliers of sparkling +ice. A thousand lights were thus reflected and broken upon the +transparent walls and windows. It seemed a fairy scene in the +approaching night.</p> + +<p>While a legion of cooks, with their assistants, worked without +cessation, the two personages, the boyard Tscherkaski and the prince +Menzikoff, were not less busy in the interior of the palace. It was +readily seen that they had the charge of directing the festival about +to commence. The last-mentioned, spreading a bear-skin upon each of +the seats of ice, was addressed by his companion.</p> + +<p>"Truly, Alexandre Michailowitz, the Czar could not have selected a +better manager of the feast than yourself. If I had any thing to do +but to take exclusive charge of the bottles, I am afraid I should +oblige every one to sit upon the naked blocks. What grimaces those +hungry foreign guests would make, such as the Frenchman Lefort, and +those like him, whom the west is ever sending to fatten upon the blood +of Russia. I should like to see them shivering to death, and at the +same time politely struggling to appear pleased in the presence of the +Czar."</p> + +<p>"But do you know how the Czar would regard such pleasantry? You +remember Dimitri Arsenieff?"</p> + +<p>"Arsenieff! I hope you do not compound me with that herd whom a single +glance of the Czar made tremble in their shoes. There was a time, it +is true, but all is changed now—there was a time when those +submissive slaves who filled the courts of the Kremlin, disappeared +when they heard the steps of the old Alexis Nicolajewitz. His services +were once required. He was not idle during the massacre of the +Strelitz; they had need of Tscherkaski then. But all this has passed +away. I have but one wish; it is, that in the hour of trial the swords +of those Frenchmen, or of other foreigners, may leap as slowly from +the scabbard as mine on that day when men of a nobler spirit were +assassinated."</p> + +<p>"The Czar has not forgotten that you have—"</p> + +<p>"O, truly," replied the boyard, with a bitter smile, "the gracious +Czar has made me the first chamberlain. He must have been in a good +humor at that time; for Poliwoi—you know him—he is skilful in +sealing bottles—he was a <i>valet de chambre</i> in his youth—and that +English Melton or Milton, who has imported some good dogs—both of +them, at the same time with myself, received the key of the +chamberlaincy."</p> + +<p>"But you cannot deny, Alexis, that in general the choice of our +sovereign—"</p> + +<p>"Is the best. But what is strange about it is, that he finds so many +excellent men, and that he selects from so large a circle, when others +who, in times of calamity, are no longer considered unworthy, never +obtain their turn for preferment."</p> + +<p>"You appear to be not in a very good humor, to-day, boyard.... Would +you fall into disfavor with the Czar?"</p> + +<p>"Why," exclaimed the boyard, "should I not tell a friend what probably +he will learn to-day, if indeed he is ignorant of it now? You know," +he continued with an affected calmness, "the domain of the crown +adjacent to my lands in Tula?"</p> + +<p>"I do not," said the embarrassed Prince.</p> + +<p>"Indeed you do, Alexandre Michailowitz; or at least you ought to. It +separates my property from yours."</p> + +<p>"Ah! the manor."</p> + +<p>"The same. It is not very extensive, containing only three villages +and a thousand serfs. But its situation suits me and I desire its +possession."</p> + +<p>"Well, you ought to propose to the Czar to sell it. He will not refuse +you."</p> + +<p>"He has already refused. 'I am sorry,' he coldly said, 'that I cannot +grant you the lands you ask; I have disposed of them to another.' I +was about to reply, but turning to speak to some one, he closed our +conversation."</p> + +<p>"And do you know to whom he granted the domain?"</p> + +<p>"Who? Perhaps a vicious flatterer—an intrusive coward—some fellow +from abroad who comes among us to appease his hunger; or, what is +worse, an upstart, whose only pleasure is to overturn my dearest hopes +to fulfil his own. Who is he? One of those who daily make fortunes by +hundreds in our Russia, in place of meeting with the rope which they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[Pg 359]</a></span> +merit—one of those who drive out honest men to occupy their places—a +rustic bore, a cobbler, a pastry-cook!"</p> + +<p>The features of the boyard took an expression of the most violent +anger; the muscles of his mouth contracted by a convulsive movement, +and his fiery eye gave sign that he was remembering the sanguinary +vengeance of his brethren, the sons of the Caucasus.</p> + +<p>The countenance of Menzikoff grew dark. The word "pastry-cook," in +bringing to his recollection his former condition, awoke sentiments +whose expression it was difficult for him to restrain. "I had +intended," he said, "to ask the Czar to give me those very lands; but +I am glad that I have not done so. I would have been unhappy in +interfering with your projects, if it were even for the sake of your +amiable daughter, who, in your old days, will reward you largely for +all the grievances you experience at the Court."</p> + +<p>"You think so, eh, Michailowitz? But you are a Russian. You belong not +to those foreign plebeians. Alexis Tscherkaski is a man who never +hides what he thinks, and I confess frankly that I do not love you; I +have never loved you. Yet I do not confound you with those vile +favorites of whom I have spoken. You are the first who has ever said +to my face that I was not born to walk in the slippery paths of a +court. You will have the honor also of offering the first counsel that +I have ever followed. Yes, Prince Menzikoff, I am firmly resolved to +leave the capital in a few days. In my solitude, accompanied only by +my Mary, I hope to forget the Czars, their favors, and all that I have +done to obtain them. Since the death of my Fedor—but let us stop +here—with him all my hopes are buried. My daughter only remains—"</p> + +<p>"Who will be a glory to you in the evening of your life. She will +bloom as the rose, she will be a mother of sons who—"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I desire to see her happy. She will freely choose her husband; +and if she wishes to unite her destiny with none, she shall live with +me, and one day close my eyes in death. It is among the descendants of +the boyards that she will find her beloved. He shall be a noble son of +old and sacred Russia. And I swear by all the saints interred in the +convent of Kiew, that no will, not even that of the Czar, but her own, +shall influence the choice of my daughter."</p> + +<p>The Prince was about to reply, when loud voices were heard in front of +the house. "They come! they come!"</p> + +<p>A long train of sledges took the direction of the Isle of the Neva, +and presented as strange a spectacle as one could well imagine. +Instead of couriers who, according to the usages of the time, took the +lead in this description of festivals, there was a sledge drawn by +four horses of different colors. In it were four men dressed in white +with a red girdle, having in their hands a staff ornamented with +ribbons, and upon their heads a bonnet decorated with plumes. The +oddest thing in this group was, that the youngest was not less than +seventy; two of them wanted a leg; the third was without an arm; and +the fourth, blind.</p> + +<p>Then came two sledges filled with musicians who joyously sounded their +instruments. They were divided into two sections; the first would have +pleased the ear by their performances, if it were not for the second +section, every one of whom was deaf. They could not follow the +movements of the director, and he himself, also deaf, was constantly +behind the time, so that the two companies, although playing the same +air, produced one which we might imagine proceeded from mischievous +demons in a concert prepared in Pandemonium for the benefit of +condemned musicians.</p> + +<p>In a third sledge came a patriarch of eighty years. His long white +beard and hair carefully dressed, the precious ornaments with which he +was covered, and the priests seated at his side, all announced that +the old man was going to celebrate some solemn ceremony. As he was an +intolerable stammerer, who had been released from the public services +of the church during the greater part of his life, he was fitly chosen +to deliver a discourse upon the present occasion.</p> + +<p>The sledge following that of the patriarch's, gave to the cortege the +unmistakeable character of a nuptial festivity; for, of the four +individuals who occupied it, two wore crowns, such as those prescribed +by the Greek church to the newly married. The couple who sat in the +place of honor, and for whom this fête had been prepared were indeed +very curious looking persons. The bridegroom was an old and wrinkled +dwarf, hardly four feet high. His enormous head seemed to weigh down +his slender body, and to bend his legs into the form of sabres. His +toilette was according to the French mode of that period. A frock coat +of silver cloth, a sky blue vest and crimson velvet pantaloons, and +immense ruffles covered his long, sepulchral hands. A perruque with a +long tail, the nuptial crown, and a silver sword, which completed his +dress, confirmed the remark of one of our friends, who compared the +unfortunate bridegroom to a monkey on the rack.</p> + +<p>The dwarf and his affianced resembled each other as two drops of +water. Upon the head of the hump-backed bride also shone the marriage +crown. Her dress was of gold cloth of the most recent Parisian mode. +Their exterior, however, presented a single contrast which rendered +them still more ridiculous; for upon the wide face of the future wife +was a presumptuous smile, while the husband, suffering under some +recent sorrow, made the most frightful grimaces.</p> + +<p>In order better to distinguish the ugliness of this deformed couple, +there were placed upon the second seat of the sledge two children of +angelic beauty—one a girl of five years; the other, a boy of six to +eight. They both wore the ancient Russian costume, which in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[Pg 360]</a></span> its +simplicity so well became the celestial sweetness of the countenance +of the rosy-cheeked girl, and the spiritual gayety which beamed from +the large black eyes of the boy. These children appeared destined to +serve as bridesboy and bridesmaid; and certainly Hymen could not have +made a better choice.</p> + +<p>"It is the daughter of the boyard Tscherkaski! It is the little Fedor +Menzikoff!" cried the crowd.</p> + +<p>A large number of sledges passed on. All those who occupied them were +disguised in the strangest manner. By the side of a coarse Kirghese +was a fashionable Parisien. Behind them a Chinese mandarin waited upon +a maiden Tyrolese. In the cortege could be seen not only the costumes +of all the tribes under the sceptre of Peter the Great, but of almost +every nation of Europe and Asia. The masquerade extended even to the +trappings of the horses and sledges. Some of the horses' heads wore +gilded horns of the stag and the elk, and others great wings, which +made them resemble the poet's idea of Pegasus. The last sledge in the +train worthily closed this fantastic procession. It was drawn by three +horses, and contained a single personage. Two horsemen, habited as +Turks, galloped by his side, and announced his high rank. His +thick-set figure was of the ordinary height, his face was full of a +spirit of gayety and frolic, and in the smile with which he responded +to the acclamations of the people could be perceived his satisfaction +in the preparations for the fête of the day. His dress was that of a +northern countryman, and he who had ever seen one would be at a loss +to say whether Peter the Great was an original or a copy.</p> + +<p>The countryman held in his hand a large gold-headed cane, and +tormented a tame bear, which, standing erect upon its hind feet, and +fulfilling the functions of lackey, was from time to time punished for +his unskilfulness, to the amusement of the people.</p> + +<p>The train arrived at the crystal palace; and although all had +descended from the sledges, none had crossed the threshold. Every one +appeared desirous to yield the first entrance to the bridegroom and +his partner, or to him who gave the feast. Prince Menzikoff and the +boyard at last advanced, bare-headed, into the presence of the Czar, +who was still occupied in teasing his bear to divert the multitude.</p> + +<p>"What are you waiting for?" he said, at the same time taking the cap +of the Prince, and replacing it upon his head. "Why these marks of +respect? Have you quite forgotten all the duties of gallantry in thus +permitting the happy couple to wait at the door of the marriage-house? +But I see—and if I did not see, the odors of the dishes and of the +brandy would be evidence of it—that you have well performed your +duties. With this conviction, Alexandre, that you have done well for +the palates of the guests by delicious dishes, and that my old +Tscherkaski does not permit me to have a doubt as to his performances +concerning the cellar—it is, I say, from these considerations that I +pardon you both for forgetting that I am and wish to be nothing more +to-day than Peter, the countryman, who has come to celebrate with his +friends the nuptials of a couple who love each other tenderly. Come, +let us hasten, lest the temperature of the marriage-palace cool our +dinner."</p> + +<p>"As your Majesty wishes," responded the Prince, respectfully.</p> + +<p>"Not Majesty," replied the Emperor, and in the same moment he ran to +excuse himself to the affianced for unintentionally causing them to +wait so long.</p> + +<p>They entered, and very soon the sound of music announced that they +were being seated at table. The Prince, at a sign from the Czar, +conducted the bride and bridegroom to the place of honor, and beside +them the two children. The rest took their places without distinction +of rank. The Holland ambassador sat next the Emperor, and in front of +him the boyard Tscherkaski, and Menzikoff sat next to Tscherkaski.</p> + + +<h4>II.</h4> + +<p>The conversation, at first grave and little animated, gradually became +more lively. The Czar was in a good humor, a thing which often +occurred at the dinner-table, if nowhere else. Peter the Countryman +was not slow to assail the embarrassed couple with pleasantries, some +more or less good, and others rather equivocal. He at last requested +the old patriarch, who was perspiring with fear at the anticipation of +the request, to repeat the discourse which he had pronounced to the +great pleasure of his Majesty. A noisy gayety filled the hall, and +outside it was at its height. At the moment in which the Emperor +offered a toast to the married couple, the cannon of ice was +discharged. It flew in pieces in every direction, and instead of +producing any serious sensation lest some accident might have +occurred, it only increased the tumultuous hilarity. The wines of +Champagne and Bourgogne ran in streams. The servants were hardly +sufficient to supply the thirst of the guests. The Czar ordered to +their assistance soldiers, who, taking half a dozen bottles under each +arm, rolled them as nine-pins upon the table—a circumstance which the +ambassador of the powerful states thought so remarkable that he +mentioned it in his report à la Haye.</p> + +<p>This intemperate drinking soon showed its effects upon the greater +part of the guests. Peter gave himself up completely to the +infatuation of the vine, and Menzikoff, who preserved his accustomed +sobriety, saw with inquietude the Czar swallow one after another +numerous glasses of Bourgogne. The face of the monarch became +foolish—the perspiration stood upon his forehead in large drops, and +in order to cool himself he took off<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[Pg 361]</a></span> his perruque, and placed it upon +the head of his neighbor the ambassador, who received the insult +respectfully, but without power to repress a deep sigh. However +pleasant all this might have been, Menzikoff took no part in the +enjoyments of the society, troubled as he was through fears founded +upon an intimate knowledge of the character of his master. Experience +had too often taught him how easily the Czar passed from humor and +hilarity to anger and violence. He knew that such changes took place +almost invariably after indulgences of the bottle, and that a single +word—a single gesture—threw him into a passion that made him +detestable, while by nature he was generous and noble. The event +proved how reasonable were the presentiments of Menzikoff.</p> + +<p>The festival was coming to an end. The Czar arose and commanded +silence.</p> + +<p>"Hitherto," he said, in smiling, "we have only drank to the health of +the happy pair. It is time to give them a substantial token of our +friendship. Since I am myself the originator of this joyful marriage, +I must give the first example—so take that, Alexandre; put in it what +I told you, and pass it round." At these words the Emperor pointed to +a little silver basket that lay on the table.</p> + +<p>Menzikoff took the basket, and drawing from his bosom a draft for 8000 +roubles, and emptying his own purse, passed the basket to his neighbor +the boyard. The latter seemed to reflect a moment, took from his +pocket a handful of gold and silver, and with an air of contempt, cast +an old rouble into the basket, and passed it from him.</p> + +<p>This circumstance did not escape the notice of the Emperor. His brow +darkened, but soon his gayety returned, and he said, smiling, to +Menzikoff:</p> + +<p>"You see, Alexandre, the prudence of our Prince de Tscherkaski. He +gives only a rouble. He means to say by this that he has no very +particular interest in the married parties. It is only a ruse on his +part in order to remove any jealousy that a greater gift might awaken. +I will wager you that to-morrow he will send a present to the young +woman more becoming her rank and position."</p> + +<p>"Your Majesty would lose the wager," responded Tscherkaski, in a +haughty tone. "The farces of fools and jugglers have never amused me, +and I have always pitied those who know not better how to employ their +time than to lose it with such creatures. Thus my contribution is at +the same time conformed to the circumstances and to my rank, since I +do not appreciate beyond measure the office of chamberlain, with which +you have gratified me."</p> + +<p>The Emperor at first smiled at these words, but his countenance became +more stern.</p> + +<p>"Our chamberlain," said he, after a pause, "gets angry to get calm +again. He must be in a bad humor to-day. I hope he will change his +language by the time that another affair occurs, which will interest +him more nearly."</p> + +<p>Tscherkaski did or wished not to understand the words of the Czar. His +wandering and disdainful eyes glanced at the basket offered to the +bride and bridegroom. It was filled with gold, rings, bracelets, +jewels, and other precious gifts. The universal happiness of the +evening had removed from the mind of the Czar the remembrance of the +murmurings of the boyard, and Menzikoff had hardly taken his place +when the Emperor whispered to him:</p> + +<p>"The dispositions you have made to-day in regard to this festivity do +you honor. You have perfectly agreed with my own taste in such +matters. You have surpassed my expectations."</p> + +<p>"It is not I alone," humbly replied the Prince. "The boyard as well as +myself——"</p> + +<p>"Without doubt, you and he have perfectly fulfilled my intentions. I +take not into the account the silver rouble, however," added the Czar, +"let that be as it may, ten years hence this place shall be the scene +of a similar festivity; and to let you see how I can surpass you, I +will myself take charge of the preparations. You may smile, Alexandre, +but you will be forced to admit, that without your aid I can arrange a +nuptial feast. It is besides the less difficult, since the essentials +are already decided upon—the persons to be married."</p> + +<p>These words were overheard by those present, and a profound silence +ensued.</p> + +<p>"Would I be guilty of too much curiosity," said Menzikoff, "if...."</p> + +<p>"Ah! you wish to know the young couple," exclaimed the Emperor. "I +ought, perhaps, to leave you in ten years' uncertainty; but thanks to +this brilliant society whom I invite from to-day, you will know now. +Alexis Nicolajewitz," continued he, in addressing the boyard, "you +asked me the other day for certain lands near Tula, situated between +the boundaries of your property and those of Prince Menzikoff."</p> + +<p>"I did, and your Majesty has thought fit to refuse them."</p> + +<p>"I refused them, because I had reserved them for another. I wish to +give them as a dowry to your daughter."</p> + +<p>The astonishment of the boyard was great He attempted to speak.</p> + +<p>"Silence! I have attached to the grant one condition," said the Czar.</p> + +<p>"Your Majesty will order nothing contrary to my conscience and the +honor of my house. I humbly ask, then...."</p> + +<p>"The condition is, that your daughter shall receive her husband at my +hands."</p> + +<p>"I have sworn upon the tomb of my wife," responded the boyard, after a +pause, "that my daughter shall espouse him only whom she herself +freely chooses. But, she is still a child,... and in ten years...."</p> + +<p>"Indeed," interrupted the Emperor, whose countenance was sorrowful, +"if your daughter should not accept him whom I would propose, the +lands will yet belong to her; are you content now?"</p> + +<p>"And the rank, the condition of the parties?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[Pg 362]</a></span> +"They are to be the same."</p> + +<p>"A single word from our gracious sovereign, is at any time sufficient +to destroy all inequalities of rank," said one of the guests.</p> + +<p>"You are right, Kurakin," returned the boyard; "as to myself, I rely +upon the word of our monarch, who has just said that there is nothing +to equalize. Every one to his opinion upon that which concerns him."</p> + +<p>"There is a tone of very high pride in your discourse, Alexis +Nicolajewitz," responded Peter, who repressed his anger with +difficulty. "I have a great mind not to name to you to-day the husband +which I, your sovereign, have chosen for the daughter of one of my +subjects. But let your insolent vanity subside. Your future son-in-law +is of birth equal with your's and your daughter's; he is the only son +of a man whom I dearly esteem and honor with distinguished favors. I +say it in his presence, and it is my desire he should be honored by +others. In a word, your future son-in-law is the companion of your +daughter at the feast to-day; he is the little Fedor Menzikoff."</p> + +<p>This name came to the ears of the boyard as a thunder-clap, so great +was his astonishment. The assembly waited in vain his response, but he +was silent.</p> + +<p>"Ah well, Alexis," continued the Czar, "if these two manors are hardly +worth thanks, why should I wait for you to consent to the proposed +union?"</p> + +<p>All eyes were directed to the boyard. No one spoke, and the Czar's +impatience yielded to a furious anger.</p> + +<p>"And what motive," he at last said, "induces you to reject this gift?"</p> + +<p>"The very condition that you have yourself made, gracious sovereign."</p> + +<p>"The condition?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, that condition which requires my daughter to give her hand to +the son of Prince Menzikoff. It can never be fulfilled. It is +impossible to accept the gift of your Majesty."</p> + +<p>"And why?" fiercely demanded Peter.</p> + +<p>"The Czar orders—his servant must obey. Prince Menzikoff is the son +of a serf, but the daughter of Tscherkaski shall never marry a man of +so mean extraction," and the blood mounted to the brow of the boyard.</p> + +<p>"Insolent dog!" exclaimed Peter, striking his hand upon the table. "Do +you not know that a single word from me can make ten serfs ten +Princes, and the least among them superior to you in rank and dignity. +Oh! by my patron, the prince of the Apostles, why should I patiently +listen to this haughty descendant of the brigands of the Caucasus. I +can do more than this, proud boyard; by a breath I can degrade thee +and all thy tribe."</p> + +<p>Hitherto Tscherkaski held his eyes downward, but now he lifted them +and looked steadily at his monarch.</p> + +<p>"Your look braves and menaces me," thundered the Czar, beside himself, +and shaking his fist towards the boyard. "Reply if you dare, and it is +not impossible that your rebellious head rolls from your body this +very night, this hour, this minute."</p> + +<p>"Certainly, I do not doubt your power. How could I doubt the power of +one who, on the same day, without pity and without humanity, cut off +the heads of thousands. Surely, the man who tramples under his feet +those who were once the support of his crown and authority; who has +not only stained his own hands in their blood, but that of his own +son—surely he would not hesitate to destroy an old servant, the +necessary but guilty instrument of his past vengeance. Come! the arm +that was steeped in the massacre of the Kremlin, can hardly take a +redder hue from the blood of an unimportant slave."</p> + +<p>Peter looked with burning eyes upon his adversary. He arose, as by an +impulse, and inclining his head forward, seemed to be engaged in +discovering the meaning of those vehement words. But he was +endeavoring to stay the tempest that was sweeping over his heart. Some +minutes elapsed before he recovered himself from those bitter +recollections; and looking with an affected air of calmness and +dignity upon the astonished assembly, he said—</p> + +<p>"Faithful Russians! you have heard the serious accusation brought by a +subject against his monarch. Whatever may be the number of the +Strelitz fallen in an unhappy day, I am not at all concerned about it; +they died for the safety and well-being of sacred Russia. If innocent +blood flowed at the Kremlin—if, among so many guilty, the sword +severed the head of one innocent, I am ready to defend the act. It was +from me that the whole transaction originated; it is mine only, and I +take the responsibility of it. I had no other means of saving our +country from the barbarism that encumbered it, and impeded its +elevation to the rank which it should occupy among the nations of +Europe. As the bold boyard has truly said, it is I who have brandished +the sword, and I ask who is the Russian who dares cite me to his +tribunal?"</p> + +<p>The anger of the Czar was rekindled, and he began anew.</p> + +<p>"It is to the tutelary patron of the empire that I am indebted for the +power of having executed a resolution which I judged necessary. A +disease was undermining the constitution of the empire—the evil was +terrible and appeared incurable: like a skilful physician I at once +employed the medicine which could alone be successful in arresting the +progress of the disease. Could I, in the moment of execution, place +the instrument in the trembling hands of a charlatan? No; it was my +own hand that held the knife. I felt the wounds which I made; and I +say to-day, before God and man, it is I to whom the action belongs, +and for which I am ready to answer on earth and on high. Now, as to +you, Tscherkaski, you have audaciously rejected the favor I was +willing to grant. You have not even feared to accuse your sovereign in +the midst of his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[Pg 363]</a></span> subjects. If my ancestors were alive your white head +would fall from the block, but far from me the thought of shedding the +blood of an old brother in arms. Retract, and you may pass your days +tranquilly on your own lands. If not," and the voice of the Czar grew +more stern, "I send you this night into eternal exile."</p> + +<p>"Is it permitted me to take with me my daughter?" cooly asked the old +man.</p> + +<p>"The child belongs to its parent," replied the Emperor, surprised and +hesitating.</p> + +<p>"Then, Alexander Michailowitz," said the boyard to Menzikoff, "give me +two of those bear-skins you placed upon the ice-chairs; it is all that +is necessary."</p> + +<p>"Take him away at once; we have had enough of his arrogance and +audacity!" exclaimed the furious Peter, and he repelled Menzikoff, who +was endeavoring to intercede for the boyard.</p> + +<p>"And whither?" asked the prince with a trembling voice.</p> + +<p>"To Bareson upon the Ob——No; to Woksarski upon the Frozen sea," +added Peter, as he beheld the smiling and triumphing air of the +boyard.</p> + +<p>A few moments after the old man and his daughter entered a sledge. A +party of horsemen accompanied them, and away they went with the +swiftness of an eagle towards the dreary regions of the north-west.</p> + +<p>Ten years later, Prince Menzikoff, despoiled of his goods, his honors, +and his rank, came to share the exile of the boyard. Similar +misfortune reconciled two enemies, and the union of their children +accomplished the prediction of the Czar.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="POLITENESS_IN_PARIS_AND_LONDON" id="POLITENESS_IN_PARIS_AND_LONDON"></a>POLITENESS: IN PARIS AND LONDON.</h2> + +<h3>BY SIR HENRY LYTTON BULWER.</h3> + + +<p>"Je me recommande à vous," was said to me the other day by an old +gentleman dressed in very tattered garments, who was thus soliciting a +"sou." The old man was a picture: his long gray hairs fell gracefully +over his shoulders. Tall—he was so bent forward as to take with a +becoming air the position in which he had placed himself. One hand was +pressed to his heart, the other held his hat. His voice, soft and +plaintive, did not want a certain dignity. In that very attitude, and +in that very voice, a nobleman of the ancient "régime" might have +solicited a pension from the Duc de Choiseul in the time of Louis XV. +I confess that I was the more struck by the manner of the venerable +suppliant, from the strong contrast which it formed with the demeanor +of his countrymen in general: for it is rare, now-a-days, I +acknowledge, to meet a Frenchman with the air which Lawrence Sterne +was so enchanted with during the first month, and so wearied with at +the expiration of the first year, which he spent in France. That look +and gesture of the "petit marquis," that sort of studied elegance, +which, at first affected by the court, became at last natural to the +nation, exist no longer, except among two or three "grands seigneurs" +in the Faubourg St. Germain, and as many beggars usually to be found +on the Boulevards. To ask with grace, to beg with as little +self-humility as possible, here perchance is the fundamental idea +which led, in the two extremes of society, to the same results: but +things vicious in their origin are sometimes agreeable in their +practice.</p> + +<p>"Hail, ye small sweet courtesies of life, far smoother do ye make the +road of it—like grace and beauty, which beget inclination at first +sight, 'tis ye who open the door and let the stranger in." I had the +Sentimental Journey in my hand—it was open just at this passage, when +I landed not very long ago on the quay of that town which Horace +Walpole tells us caused him more astonishment than any other he had +met with in his travels. I mean Calais. "Hail, ye small sweet +courtesies of life," was I still muttering to myself, as gently +pushing by a spruce little man, who had already scratched my nose and +nearly poked out my eyes with cards of "Hotel ...," I attempted to +pass on towards the inn of Mons. Dessin. "Nom de D...," said the +Commissionaire, as I touched his elbow, "Nom de D..., Monsieur, <i>Je +suis Francais</i>! il ne faut pas me pousser, moi ... <i>je suis +Francais</i>!"—and this he said, contracting his brow, and touching a +moustache that only wanted years and black wax to make it truly +formidable. I thought that he was going to offer me his own card +instead of Mr. Meurice's. This indeed would have been little more than +what happened to a friend of mine not long ago. He was going last year +from Dieppe to Paris. He slept at Rouen, and on quitting the house the +following morning found fault with some articles in the bill presented +to him. "Surely there is some mistake here," said he, pointing to the +account. "Mistake, sir," said the <i>aubergiste</i>, adjusting his +shoulders with the important air of a man who was going to burthen +them with a quarrel—"mistake, sir, what do you mean?—a mistake—do +you think I charge a sou more than is just? Do you mean to say that? +<i>Je suis officier, Monsieur, officier Francais, et j'insiste sur ce +que vous me rendiez raison!!</i>" Now, it is undoubtedly very pleasant to +an Englishman, who has the same idea of a duel that a certain French +marquise had of a lover, when, on her death-bed, she said to her +grand-daughter, "Je ne vous dis pas, ma chère, de ne point avoir +d'amans; je me rappelle ma jeunesse. Il faut seulement n'en prendre +jamais qui soient au-dessous de votre état"—it is doubtless very +unpleasant to an Englishman, who cares much less about fighting than +about the person he fights with, to have his host present him a bill +in one hand and a pistol in the other. In one of the islands which we +ought to discover, whenever the king sneezes all his courtiers are +expected to sneeze also. The country of course imitates the court, and +the empire is at once affected with a general<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[Pg 364]</a></span> cold. Sneezing here +then becomes an art and an accomplishment. One person prizes himself +on sneezing more gracefully than another, and, by a matter of general +consent, all nations who have not an harmonious manner of vibrating +their nostrils are justly condemned as savages and barbarians. There +is no doubt that the people of this island are right; and there is no +doubt that we are right in considering every people with different +usages from ourselves of very uncivilized and uncomfortable behavior. +We then, decidedly, are the people who ought justly to be deemed the +most polite.</p> + +<p>For instance—you arrive at Paris: how striking the difference between +the reception you receive at your hotel, and that you would find in +London! In London, arrive in your carriage! (<i>that</i> I grant is +necessary)—the landlord meets you at the door, surrounded by his +anxious attendants; he bows profoundly when you alight—calls loudly +for every thing you want, and seems shocked at the idea of your +waiting an instant for the merest trifle you can possibly <i>imagine</i> +that you desire. Now try your Paris hotel—you enter the +courtyard—the proprietor, if he happen to be there, receives you with +careless indifference, and either accompanies you saunteringly +himself, or orders some one to accompany you to the apartments which, +on first seeing you, he determined you should have. It is useless to +expect another. If you find any fault with this apartment, if you +express any wish that it had this little thing, that it had not that, +do not for one moment imagine that your host is likely to say, with an +eager air, that he "will see what can be done"—that he "would do a +great deal to please so respectable a gentleman." In short, do not +suppose him for one moment likely to pour forth any of those little +civilities with which the lips of your English innkeeper would +overflow. On the contrary, be prepared for his lifting up his eyes, +and shrugging up his shoulders, (the shrug is not the courtier-like +shrug of antique days,) and telling you that the apartment is as you +see it, that it is for Monsieur to make up his mind whether he take it +or not. The whole is the affair of the guest, and remains a matter of +perfect indifference to the host. Your landlady, it is true, is not +quite so haughty on these occasions. But you are indebted for her +smile rather to the coquetry of the beauty, than to the civility of +the hostess. She will tell you, adjusting her head-dress in the mirror +standing upon the chimney-piece in the little "salon" she +recommends—"que Monsieur s'y trouvera fort bien, qu'un milord +Anglais, qu'un prince Russe, ou qu'un colonel du ——ième de dragons, +a occupé cette même chambre"—and that there is just by an excellent +restaurateur and a "cabinet de lecture"—and then—her head-dress +being quite in order—the lady expanding her arms with a gentle smile, +says, "Mais après tout, c'est à Monsieur à se décider." It is this +which makes your French gentleman so loud in praise of English +politeness. One was expatiating to me the other day on the admirable +manners of the English.</p> + +<p>"I went," said he, "to the Duke of Devonshire's, '<i>dans mon pauvre +fiacre</i>:' never shall I forget the respect with which a stately +gentleman, gorgeously apparelled, opened the creaking door, let down +the steps, and—courtesy of very courtesies—picked, actually picked, +the dirty straws of the ignominious vehicle that I descended from, off +my shoes and stockings." This occurred to the French gentleman at the +Duke of Devonshire's. But let your English gentleman visit a French +"grand seigneur!" He enters the antechamber from the grand escalier. +The servants are at a game of dominos, from which his entrance hardly +disturbs them, and fortunate is he if any one conduct him with a +careless lazy air to the "salon." So, if you go to Boivin's, or if you +go to Howel's and James's, with what politeness, with what celerity, +with what respect your orders are received at the great man's of +Waterloo Place—with what an easy nonchalance you are treated in the +Rue de la Paix! All this is quite true; but there are things more +shocking than all this. I know a gentleman, who called the other day +on a French lady of his acquaintance, who was under the hands of her +"coiffeur." The artiste of the hair was there, armed cap-à-pié, in all +the glories of national-guardism, brandishing his comb with the grace +and dexterity with which he would have wielded a sword, and +recounting, during the operation of the toilette—now a story of +"<i>Monsieur son Capitaine</i>"—now an anecdote, equally interesting, of +"<i>Monsieur son Colonel</i>"—now a tale of "<i>Monsieur son Roi</i>, that +excellent man, on whom he was going to mount guard that very evening." +My unhappy friend's face still bore the most awful aspect of dismay, +as he told his story. "By G—d, there's a country for you," said he; +"can property be safe for a moment in such a country? There can be no +religion, no morality, with such manners—I shall order post-horses +immediately."</p> + +<p>I did not wonder at my friend—at his horror for so fearful a +familiarity. What are our parents always, and no doubt wisely +repeating to us? "You should learn, my dear, to keep <i>a certain kind +of persons</i> at their proper distance."</p> + +<p>In no circumstances are we to forget this important lesson. If the +clouds hurled their thunders upon our heads, if the world tumbled +topsy-turvy about our ears,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Si fractus illabatur orbis,"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>it is to find the well-bred Englishman as it would have found the just +Roman—and, above all things, it is not to derange the imperturbable +disdain with which he is enfeoffed to his inferiors. Lady D. was going +to Scotland: a violent storm arose. Her ladyship was calmly dressing +her hair, when the steward<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[Pg 365]</a></span> knocked at the cabin-door. "My lady," said +the man, "I think it right to tell you there is every chance of our +being drowned." "Do not talk to me, you impertinent fellow, +about drowning," said her aristocratical ladyship, perfectly +unmoved—"that's the captain's business, and not mine."</p> + +<p>Our great idea of civility is, that the person who is poor should be +exceedingly civil to the person who is wealthy: and this is the +difference between the neighboring nations. Your Frenchman admits no +one to be quite his equal—your Englishman worships every one richer +than himself as undeniably his superior. Judge us from our servants +and our shopkeepers, it is true we are the politest people in the +world. The servants, who are paid well, and the shopkeepers, who sell +high—scrape, and cringe, and smile. There is no country where those +who have wealth are treated so politely by those to whom it goes; but +at the same time there is no country where those who are well off live +on such cold, and suspicious, and ill-natured, and uncivil terms among +themselves.</p> + +<p>The rich man who travels in France murmurs at every inn and at every +shop; not only is he treated no better for being a rich man—he is +treated worse in many places, from the idea that because he is rich he +is likely to give himself airs. But if the lower classes are more rude +to the higher classes than with us, the higher classes in France are +far less rude to one another. The dandy who did not look at an old +acquaintance, or who looked impertinently at a stranger, would have +his nose pulled and his body run through with a small-sword—or +damaged by a pistol-bullet—before the evening was well over. Where +every man wishes to be higher than he is, there you find people +insolent to their fellows, and exacting obsequiousness from their +inferiors—where men will allow no one to be superior to themselves, +there you see them neither civil to those above them, nor impertinent +to those beneath them, nor yet very courteous to those in the same +station. The manners, checkered in one country by softness and +insolence, are not sufficiently courteous and gentle in the other. +Time was in France, (it existed in England to a late date,) when +politeness was thought to consist in placing every one at his ease. A +quiet sense of their own dignity rendered persons insensible to the +fear of its being momentarily forgotten. Upon these days rested the +shadow of a bygone chivalry, which accounted courtesy as one of the +virtues. The civility of that epoch, as contrasted with the civility +of ours, was not the civility of the domestic or the tradesman, meant +to pamper the pride of their employer, but the civility of the noble +and the gentleman, meant to elevate the modesty of those who +considered themselves in an inferior state. Corrupted by the largesses +of an expensive and intriguing court, the "grand seigneur," after the +reign of Louis XIV., became over-civil and servile to those above him. +Beneath the star of the French minister beat the present heart of the +British mercer—and softly did the great man smile on those from whom +he had any thing to gain. As whatever was taught at Versailles was +learnt in the Rue St. Denis, when the courtier had the air of a +solicitor, every one aped the air of the courtier; and the whole +nation with one hand expressing a request, and the other an +obligation, might have been taken in the attitude of the graceful old +beggar, whose accost made such an impression upon me.</p> + +<p>But a new nobility grew up in rivalry to the elder one; and as the +positions of society became more complicated and uncertain, a supreme +civility to some was seen side by side with a sneering insolence to +others—a revolution in manners, which embittered as it hastened the +revolution of opinions. Thus the manners of the French in the time of +Louis XVI. had one feature of similarity with ours at present. A +moneyed aristocracy was then rising into power in France, as a moneyed +aristocracy is now rising into power in England. This is the +aristocracy which demands obsequious servility—which is jealous and +fearful of being treated with disrespect; this is the aristocracy +which is haughty, insolent, and susceptible; which dreams of affronts +and gives them: this is the aristocracy which measures with an +uncertain eye the height of an acquaintance; this is the aristocracy +which cuts and sneers—this aristocracy, though the aristocracy of the +revolution of July, is now too powerless in France to be more than +vulgar in its pretensions. French manners, then, if they are not +gracious, are at all events not insolent; while ours, unhappily, +testify on one hand the insolence, while they do not on the other +represent the talent and the grace of that society which presided over +the later suppers of the old regime. We have no Monsieur de +Fitz-James, who might be rolled in a gutter all his life, as was said +by a beautiful woman of his time, "without ever contracting a spot of +dirt." We have no Monsieur de Narbonne, who stops in the fiercest of a +duel to pick up the ruffled rose that had slipped in a careless moment +from his lips during the graceful conflict! You see no longer in +France that noble air, that "<i>great manner</i>," as it was called, by +which the old nobility strove to keep up the distinction between +themselves and their worse-born associates to the last, and which of +course those associates <i>assiduously imitated</i>.</p> + +<p>That manner is gone: the French, so far from being a polite nation at +the present day, want that easiness of behavior which is the first +essential to politeness. Every man you meet is occupied with +maintaining his dignity, and talks to you of <i>his</i> position. There is +an evident effort and struggle, I will not say to appear better than +you are, but to appear <i>all</i> that <i>you are</i>, and to allow no person to +think that you consider him better than you. Persons,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[Pg 366]</a></span> no longer +ranked by classes, take each by themselves an individual place in +society. They are so many atoms, not forming a congruous or harmonious +whole. They are too apt to strut forward singly, and to say with a +great deal of action, and a great deal of emphasis, "I am—<i>nobody</i>." +The French are no longer polite, but in the French nation, as in every +nation, there is an involuntary and traditionary respect which hallows +what is gone-by; and among the marvels of modern France is a religion +which ranks an agreeable smile and a graceful bow as essential virtues +of its creed.</p> + +<p>Nor does the Père Enfantin stand alone. There is something touching in +the language of the old "seigneur," who, placed as it were between two +epochs, looking backwards and forwards to the graces of past times and +the virtues of new, thus expresses himself:</p> + +<p>"Les progrès de la lumière et de la liberté ont certainment fait faire +de grands pas à la raison humaine; mais aussi dans sa route, +n'a-t-elle rien perdu? Moi qui ne suis pas un de ces opiniâtres +prôneurs de ce bon vieux temp qui n'est plus, je ne puis m'empêcher de +regretter ce bon goût, cette grâce, cette fleur d'enjouement et +d'urbanité qui chassait de la societé tout ennui en permettant au bon +sens de sourire et à la sagesse de se parer. Aujourd 'hui beaucoup de +gens ressemblent à un propriétaire morose, qui, ne songeant qu'a +l'utile, bannirait de son jardin les fleurs, et ne voudrait y voir que +du blé, des foins et des fruits."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h4>From Fraser's Magazine.</h4> + +<h2><a name="THE_LION_IN_THE_TOILS" id="THE_LION_IN_THE_TOILS"></a>THE LION IN THE TOILS.</h2> + +<h3>BY C. ASTOR BRISTED.</h3> + + + + +<p>What followed the events related in our last number gave Ashburner a +lesson against making up his mind too hastily on any points of +character, national or individual. A fortnight after his arrival at +Oldport he would have said that the Americans were the most +communicative people he had ever fallen in with, and particularly, +that the men of "our set" were utterly incapable of keeping secret any +act or purpose of their lives, any thing that had happened, or was +going to happen. <i>Now</i> he was surprised at the discretion shown by the +men cognizant of the late row (and they comprised all the fashionables +left in the place, and some of the outsiders, like Simpson); their +dexterity and careful management, first, to prevent the affair from +coming to a fight, and then, if that were impossible, to keep it from +publicity until the parties were safe over the border into Canada, +where they might "shoot each other like gentlemen," as a young +gentleman from Alabama expressed it. Sedley himself, whose +officiousness had precipitated the quarrel, did all in his power to +prevent any further mischief, and was as sedulous for the promotion of +<i>silencio</i> and <i>misterio</i>, as if he had been leader of a chorus of +Venetian Senators. <i>The Sewer</i> reporters, who, in their eagerness to +collect every bit of gossip and scandal, would have given the ears +which an outraged community had permitted them to retain for a +knowledge of the fracas and its probable consequences, never had the +least inkling of it. Indeed, so quietly was the whole managed, that +Ashburner never made out the cause of the old feud, nor was able to +form any opinion on the probability of its final issue. On the former +point he could only come to the conclusion from what he heard, that +Hunter had been mythologizing, as his wont was, something to Benson's +discredit several years before, and had been trying to make mischief +between him and some of his friends or relations; but what the exact +offence was, whether Sumner was involved in the quarrel from the +first, and if so, to what extent; and whether the legend about the +horse was a part of, or only an addition to the original +grievance;—on these particulars he remained in the dark. As to the +latter, he knew that Hunter had not challenged Benson, and that he had +left the place, but whether to look up a friend or not, no one seemed +to know, or if they did, no one cared to tell. At any rate, he did not +return for a week and more, during which time Ashburner had full +opportunity of studying the behavior and feelings of a man with a duel +in prospect.</p> + +<p>Those who defend and advocate the practice of duelling, if asked to +explain the motives leading a gentleman to fight, would generally +answer somewhat to this effect: in the first place, personal courage +which induces a man to despise danger and death, in comparison with +any question affecting his own honor, or that of those connected with +him; secondly, a respect for the opinion of the society in which he +moves, which opinion, to a certain extent, supplies and fixes the +definition of honor. Hence it would follow that, given a man who is +neither physically brave, nor bound by any particular respect for the +opinion of his daily associates, and the world he moves in, such a man +would not be likely to give or accept a challenge. The case under +Ashburner's observation afforded a palpable contradiction to this +conclusion.</p> + +<p>Henry Benson was not personally valorous; what courage he possessed +was rather of a moral than a physical kind. Where he appeared to be +daring and heedless, it proved on examination to be the result of +previous knowledge and practice, which gave him confidence and armed +him with impunity. Thus he would drive his trotters at any thing, and +shave through "tight places" on rough and crowded roads, his +whiffle-trees tipping and his hubs grazing the surrounding wheels in a +way that at first made Ashburner shudder in spite of himself; but it +was because his experience in wagon-driving enabled him to measure +distances within half-an-inch, and to catch an available opening +immediately. On the other hand, in their pedestrian trips across +country in Westchester, he was very chary of jumping fences or ditches +till he had ascertained by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[Pg 367]</a></span> careful practice his exact capacity for +that sort of exercise. He would ride his black horse, Daredevil, who +was the terror of all the servants and women in his neighborhood, +because he had made himself perfectly acquainted with all the animal's +stock of tricks, and was fully prepared for them as they came; but he +never went the first trip in a new steamboat or railroad line. He ate +and drank many things considered unhealthy, because he understood +exactly from experience what and how much he could take without +injury; but you could not have bribed him to sit fifteen minutes in +wet boots. In short, he was a man who took excellent care of himself, +<i>canny</i> as a Scot or a New-Englander, loving the good things of life, +and not disposed to hazard them on slight grounds. Then as to the +approbation or disapprobation of those about him, he was almost +entirely careless of it. On any point beyond the cut of a coat, the +decoration of a room, the concoction of a dish, or the merits of a +horse, there were not ten people in his own set whose opinion he +heeded. To the remarks of foreigners he was a little more sensitive, +but even these he was more apt to retort upon by a <i>tu quoque</i> than to +be influenced by. Add to all this, that he had the convenient excuse +of being a communicant at church, which, in America, implies something +like a formal profession of religion. Yet at this time he was not only +willing, but most eager to fight. The secret lay in his state of +recklessness. A moment of passion had overturned all his instincts, +principles, and common-sense, and inspired him with the feverish +desire to pay off his old debts to Storey Hunter, at whatever cost. +And as neither the possession of extraordinary personal courage, nor a +high sense of conventional honor, nor a respect for the opinion of +society, necessarily induces a feeling of recklessness, so neither +does the absence of these qualities prevent the presence of this +feeling, exactly the most favorable one to make a man engage in a +duel. Moralists have called such a condition one of temporary madness, +and it has probably as good grounds to be classed with insanity as +many of the pleas known to medical and criminal jurisprudence.</p> + +<p>Be this as it may, Ashburner had a good opportunity of observing—and +the example, it is to be hoped, was of service to him—the +demoralization induced upon a man by the mere impending possibility of +a duel. Benson seemed careless what he did. He danced frantically, and +drank so much at all hours, that the Englishman, though pretty +strong-headed himself, wondered how he could keep sober. He was openly +seen reading <i>The Blackguard's Own</i>, a weekly of <i>The Sewer</i> species. +He made up trotting-matches with every man in the place who owned a +"fast crab," and with some acquaintances at a distance, by +correspondence. He kept studiously out of the way of his wife and +child, lest their influence might shake his determination. All this +time he practised pistol-shooting most religiously. Neither of the +belligerents had ever given a public proof of skill in this line. +Hunter's ability was not known, and Benson's shooting so uncertain and +variable when any one looked on, that those in the secret suspected +him of playing dark and disguising his hand. All which added to the +interest of the affair.</p> + +<p>But when eleven days had passed without signs or tidings of Hunter, +and it seemed pretty clear that he had gone away "for good," Benson +started up one morning, and went off himself to New-York, at the same +time with Harrison, whose brief and not very joyous holidays had come +to a conclusion. He accompanied the banker, in accordance with the +true American principle, always to have a lion for your companion when +you can; and as Harrison was still a man of note in Wall-street, +however small might be his influence in his own household, Benson +liked to be seen with him, and to talk any thing—even stocks—to him, +though he had no particular interest in the market at that time. But +whether an American is in business himself or not, the subject of +business is generally an interesting one to him, and he is always +ready to gossip about dollars. The unexampled material development of +the United States is only maintained by a condition of society which +requires every man to take a share in assisting that development, and +the most frivolous and apparently idle men are found sharp enough in +pecuniary matters. This trait of national character lies on the +surface, and foreigners have not been slow to notice it, and to +draw from it unfavorable conclusions. The supplementary and +counterbalancing features of character to be observed in these very +people,—that it is rather the fun of making the money than the money +itself which they care for; that when it is made, they spend it +freely, and part with it more readily than they earned it; that they +are more liberal both in their public and private charities +(considering the amount of their wealth, and of the claims upon it) +than any nation in the world,—all these traits strangers have been +less ready to dwell upon and do justice to.</p> + +<p>Benson was gone, and Ashburner stayed. Why? He had been at Oldport +nearly a month; the place was not particularly beautiful, and the +routine of amusements not at all to his taste. Why did he stay? He had +his secret, too.</p> + +<p>It is a melancholy but indisputable fact, that even in the most +religious and moral country in the world, the bulwark of evangelical +faith, and the home of the domestic virtues (meaning, of course, +England), a great many mothers who have daughters to marry, are not so +anxious about the real welfare, temporal and eternal, of their young +ladies, as solicitous that they should acquire riches, titles, and +other vanities of the world,—nay, that many of the daughters +themselves act as if their everlasting happiness depended on their +securing in matrimony a proper combination of the aforesaid<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[Pg 368]</a></span> vanities, +and put out of account altogether the greatest prize a woman can +gain—the possession of a true and loving heart, joined to a wise +head. Now, Ashburner being a very good <i>parti</i> at home, and having run +the gauntlet of one or two London seasons, had become very skittish of +mammas, and still more so of daughters. He regarded the unmarried +female as a most dangerous and altogether to be avoided animal, and +when you offered to introduce him to a young lady, looked about as +grateful as if you had invited him to go up in a balloon. He expected +to be rather more persecuted, if any thing, in America than he had +been at home; and when he met Miss Vanderlyn at Ravenswood, if his +first thought had found articulate expression, it would probably have +been something like this:—"Now that young woman is going to set her +cap at me; what a bore it will be!"</p> + +<p>Never was a man more mistaken in his anticipations. He encountered +many pretty girls, not at all timid, ready enough to talk, and flirty +enough among their own set, but not one of them threw herself at him, +and least of all did Miss Vanderlyn. Not that the young lady was the +victim of a romantic attachment, for she was perfectly fancy free and +heart whole; nor, on the other hand, that she was at all insensible to +the advantages of matrimony, for she kept a very fair lookout in that +direction, and had, if not absolutely down on her books, at least +engraved on the recording tablets of her mind, four distinct young +gentlemen, combining the proper requisites, any of whom would suit her +pretty well, and one of whom—she didn't much care which—she was +pretty well resolved to marry within the next two years. And as she +was stylish and rather handsome, clever enough, and tolerably provided +with the root of all evil, besides having that fortunate good humor +and accommodating disposition which go so far towards making a woman a +belle and a favorite, there was a sufficient probability that before +the expiration of that time, one of the four would offer himself. But +all her calculations were founded on shrewd common sense; her +imagination took no flights, and her aspirations only extended to the +ordinary and possible. That this young and strange Englishman, +travelling as a part of education, the son of a great man, and +probably betrothed by proxy to some great man's daughter, or going +into parliament to be a great man himself, and remain a bachelor for +the best part of his life,—that between him and herself there should +by any thing in common, any point of union which could make even a +flirtation feasible, never entered into her head. She would as soon +have expected the King of Dahomey to send an embassy with ostrich +feathers in their caps, and rings in their noses, formally to ask her +hand in marriage. Nay, even if the incredible event had come to pass, +and the young stranger had taken the initiative, even then she would +not by any means have jumped at the bait. For in the first place, she +was fully imbued with the idea that the Vanderlyns were quite as good +as any other people in the world, and that (the ordinary conceit of an +American belle) to whatever man she might give her hand, all the honor +would come from her side, and all the gain be his; therefore she would +not have cared to come into a family who might suspect her of having +inveigled their heir, and look down upon her as something beneath +them, because she came from a country where there were no noblemen. +Secondly, there is a very general feeling among the best classes in +America, that no European worth any thing at home comes to America to +get married. The idea is evidently an imperfect generalization, and +liable to exceptions; but the prevalence of it shows more modesty in +the "Upper Ten's" appreciation of themselves than they usually have +credit for. As soon, therefore, as a foreigner begins to pay attention +to a young lady in good society, it is <i>primâ facie</i> ground of +suspicion against him. The reader will see from all this how little +chance there was of Ashburner's running any danger from the unmarried +women about him. With the married ones the case was somewhat +different. It may be remembered, that at his first introduction to +Mrs. Henry Benson, the startling contrast she exhibited to the +adulation he had been accustomed to receive, totally put him down; and +that afterwards she softened off the rough edge of her satire, and +became very <i>piquante</i> and pleasing to him. And as she greatly amused +him, so he began to suspect that she was rather proud of having such a +lion in her train, as no doubt she was, notwithstanding the somewhat +rough and cub-like stage of his existence. So he began to hang about +her, and follow her around in his green awkward way, and look large +notes of admiration at her; and she was greatly diverted, and not at +all displeased at his attentions. I don't know how far it might have +gone; Ashburner was a very correct and moral young man, as the world +goes, but rather because he had generally business enough on hand to +keep him out of mischief, than from any high religious principle; and +I am afraid that in spite of the claims of propriety, and honor, and +friendship, and the avenging Zeus of hospitality, and every other +restraining motive, he would have fallen very much in love with Mrs. +Benson but for one thing.</p> + +<p>He was hopelessly in love with Mrs. Harrison. How or when it began he +couldn't tell; but he found himself under the influence imperceptibly, +as a man feels himself intoxicated. Sometimes he fancied that there +had been a kind of love at first sight—that with the first glimpse he +had of her, something in his heart told him that that woman was +destined to exert a mastery over him; yet his feelings must have +undergone a change and growth, for he would not now have listened to +any one speaking of her as Benson had done at that time. <i>Why</i> it was, +he could still<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[Pg 369]</a></span> less divine. His was certainly not the blind +admiration which sees no fault in its idol; he saw her faults plainly +enough, and yet could not help himself. He often asked himself how it +happened that if he <i>was</i> doomed to endure an illicit and unfortunate +passion, it was not for Mrs. Benson rather than Mrs. Harrison; for the +former was at least as clever, certainly handsomer, palpably younger, +indubitably more lady-like, and altogether a higher style of woman. +Yet with this just appreciation of them, there was no comparison as to +his feelings towards the two. The one amused and delighted him when +present; the other, in her absence, was ever rising up before his +mind's eye, and drawing him after her; and when they met, his +heart beat quicker, and he was more than usually awkward and +confused.—Perhaps there had been, in the very origin of his +entanglement and passion, some guiding impulse of honor, some sense +that Benson had been his friend and entertainer, and that to Harrison +he was under no personal obligations. For there are many shades of +honor and dishonor in dishonorable thoughts, and a little principle +goes a great way with some people, like the wind commemorated by Joe +Miller's Irishman, of which there was not much, <i>but what there was, +was very high</i>.</p> + +<p>Be this as it may, he was loving to perdition—or thought so, at +least; and it is hard to discriminate in a very young man's case +between the conceit and the reality of love. His whole heart and mind +were taken up with one great, all-pervading idea of Mrs. Harrison, and +he was equally unable to smother and to express his flame. He was +dying to make her a present of something, but he could send nothing +without a fear of exciting suspicion, except bouquets; and of these +floral luxuries, though they were only to be procured at Oldport with +much trouble and expense, she had always a supply from other quarters. +He did not like to be one of a number in his offerings; he wanted to +pay her some peculiar tribute. He would have liked to fight some man +for her, to pick a quarrel with some one who had said something +against her. Proud and sensitive to ridicule as he was, he would have +laid himself down in her way, and let her walk over him, could he have +persuaded himself that she would be gratified by such a proof of +devotion, and that it would help his cause with her.</p> + +<p>Had Benson been in Oldport now, there might have been trouble, +inasmuch as he was not particular about what he said, and not too well +disposed towards Mrs. Harrison, while Ashburner was just in a state of +mind to have fought with his own father on that theme. But Benson was +away, and his absence at this time was not a source of regret to +Ashburner, who felt a little afraid of him, and with some reason, for +our friend Harry was as observant as if he had a fly's allowance of +eyes, and had a knack of finding out things without looking for them, +and of knowing things without asking about them; and he would +assuredly have noticed that Ashburner began to be less closely +attached to his party, and to follow in the train of Mrs. Harrison. As +for Clara Benson, she never troubled herself about the Englishman's +falling off in his attentions to her; if any thing, she was rather +glad of it; her capricious disposition made her tire of a friend in a +short time; she could not endure any one's uninterrupted company—not +even her husband's, who therefore wisely took care to absent himself +from her several times every year.</p> + +<p>Moreover, though Ashburner was seen in attendance on the lioness, it +was not constantly or in a pointed manner. He was still fighting with +himself, and, like a man run away with, who has power to guide his +horse though not to stop him, he was so far able to manage his passion +as to keep it from an open display. So absolutely no one suspected +what was the matter with him, or that there was any thing the matter +with him, except the lady herself. Catch a woman not finding out when +a man is in love with her! Sometimes she may delude herself with +imagining a passion where none exists, but she never makes the +converse mistake of failing to perceive it where it does. And how did +the gay Mrs. Harrison, knowing and perceiving herself to be thus +loved, make use of her knowledge? What alteration did it produce in +her conduct and bearing towards her admirer? Absolutely none at all. +Precisely as she had treated him at their first introduction did she +continue to treat him—as if he were one of her everyday +acquaintances, and nothing more. And it is precisely this line of +action that utterly breaks down a man's defences, and makes him more +hopelessly than ever the slave of his fair conqueror. If a woman +declares open hostilities against him, runs him down behind his back, +snubs him to his face, shuns his society,—this at least shows that +she considers his attachment of some consequence—consequence enough +to take notice of, though the notice be unfavorable. His self-respect +may come to the rescue, or his piqued vanity may save him by +converting love into enmity. But a perseverance in never noticing his +love, and feigning to be ignorant of its existence, completely +establishes her supremacy over him.</p> + +<p>A Frenchman, who has conceived designs against a married lady, only +seeks to throw dust in the husband's eyes, and then if he cannot +succeed in his final object, at least to establish sufficient intimacy +to give him a plausible pretext for saying that he has succeeded; for +in such a matter he is not scrupulous about lying a little—or a great +deal. An American, bad enough for a similar intention (which usually +presupposes a considerable amount of <i>Parisianization</i>), acts as much +like a Frenchman—if anything, rather worse. An Englishman is not +usually moved to the desire of an intrigue by vanity, but driven into +it by sheer passion, and his first impulse is to run bodily off with +the object of his misplaced affection; to take her and himself out of +the country, as if he could thereby travel out of his moral +responsibilities.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[Pg 370]</a></span> Reader, did you ever notice, or having noticed, did +you ever ponder upon the geographical distribution of morals and +propriety which is so marked and almost peculiar a feature of the +Anglo-Saxon mind? In certain outward looks and habits, the English may +be unchangeable and unmistakeable all over the globe; but their +ethical code is certainly not the same at home and abroad. It is +pretty much so with an American, too, before he has become irreparably +Parisianized. When he puts on his travelling habits, he takes off his +puritan habits, and makes light of doing things abroad which he would +be the first to anathematize at home. Observe, we are not speaking of +the deeply religious, nor yet of the openly profligate class in either +country, but of the general run of respectable men who travel; they +regard a great part of their morality and their manners as intended +solely for home consumption; while a Frenchman or a German, if his +home standard is not so high, lives better up to it abroad. And yet +many Englishmen, and some Americans, wonder why their countrymen are +so unpopular as foreign travellers!</p> + +<p>Ashburner, then, wanted to run away with Mrs. Harrison. How he could +have supported her never entered into his thoughts, nor did he +consider what the effect would be on his own prospects. He did not +reflect, either, how miserably selfish it was in him, after all, to +expect that this woman would give up her fortune and position, her +children, her unbounded legitimate domination over her husband, for +his boyish passion, and how infinitesimally small the probability that +she would do so crazy a thing. Nor did Harrison ever arise before his +mind as a present obstacle or future danger; and this was less frantic +than most of his overlookings. The broker was a strong and courageous +man, and probably had been once very much in love with his wife; but +at that time, so far from putting a straw in the way of any man who +wanted to relieve him of her, he would probably have been willing to +pay his expenses into the bargain.</p> + +<p>But how to declare his passion—that was the question. He saw that the +initiatory steps, and very decided ones, must be taken on his part; +and it was not easy to find the lady alone ten minutes together. +People lived at Newport as if they were in the open air, and the +volunteer police of ordinary gossip made private interviews between +well-known people a matter of extreme difficulty. A Frenchman +similarly placed would have brought the affair to a crisis much +sooner: he would have found a thousand ways of disclosing his +feelings, and at the same time dexterously leaving himself a loop-hole +of escape. Very clever at these things are the Gauls; they will make +an avowal in full ball-room, under cover of the music, if there is no +other chance to be had. But tact in love affairs is not a +characteristic of the Englishman, especially at Ashburner's age. He +had none of this mischievous dexterity; perhaps it is just as well +when a man has not, both for himself and for society. He thought of +writing, and actually began many letters or notes, or billet-doux, or +whatever they might be called; but they always seemed so absurd (as +truly they were), that he invariably tore them up when half-finished. +He thought of serving up his flame in verse (for about this time the +unhappy youth wrote many verses, which on his return to sanity he very +wisely made away with); but his emotion lay too deep for verse, and +his performances seemed even to himself too ridiculous for him to +dream of presenting them. Still he must make a beginning somehow; he +could not ask her to run away with him apropos of nothing.</p> + +<p>One of his great anxieties, you may be sure, was to find out if any +other man stood in his way, and who that man might be. His first +impulses were to be indiscriminately jealous of every man he saw +talking or walking with her; but on studying out alone the result of +his observations, he could not discover that she affected any one man +more than another. For this was one of her happy arts, that she made +herself attractive to all without showing a marked preference for any +one. White, who among his other accomplishments had a knack of quoting +the standard poets, compared her to Pope's Belinda—saying, that her +lively looks disclosed a sprightly mind, and that she extended smiles +to all, and favors to none. So that Ashburner's jealousy could find no +fixed object to light on. At one time he had been terribly afraid of +Le Roi, chiefly from having heard the lady praise him for his +accomplishments and agreeable manners. But once he heard Sedley say, +that Mrs. Harrison had been worrying Le Roi half out of his wits, and +quite out of his temper.</p> + +<p>"How so?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, she was praising you, and saying how much she liked the English +character, and how true and honest your countrymen were—so much more +to be depended on than the French—and more manly, too; and altogether +she worked him up into such a rage against <i>ces insulaires</i>, that he +went off ready to swear."</p> + +<p>And then Ashburner suspected what he afterwards became certain +of—that this was only one of the pleasant little ways the woman had +of amusing herself. Whenever she found two men who were enemies, or +rivals, or antagonists in any way, she would praise each to the other, +on purpose to aggravate them: and very successful she was in her +purpose; for she had the greatest appearance of sincerity, and +whatever she said seemed to come right out of her heart. But if any +lingering fears of Le Roi still haunted the Englishman's mind, they +were dispelled by his departure along with the main body of the +exclusives. Though always proud to be seen in the company of a +conspicuous character like Mrs. Harrison, the Vicomte more +particularly cultivated the fashionables proper, and gladly embraced +the opportunity of following, in the train of the Robinsons.</p> + +<p>Perhaps, after all, Ashburner would have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[Pg 371]</a></span> preferred being able to +concentrate his suspicions upon one definite person, to feeling a +vague distrust of somebody he knew not whom, especially as the +presence of a rival might have brought the affair to a crisis sooner. +To a crisis it was approaching, nevertheless, for his passion now +began to tell on him. He looked pale, and grew nervous and weak—lay +awake at nights, which he had never done before, except when going in +for the Tripos at Cambridge—and was positively off his feed, which he +had never been at any previous period of his life. He thought of +tearing himself away from the place—the wisest course, doubtless; +but, just as he had made up his mind to go by the next stage, Mrs. +Harrison, as if she divined what he was about, would upset all his +plans by a few words, or a look or smile—some little expression which +meant nothing, and could never be used against her; but which, by a +man in his state, might be interpreted to mean a great deal.</p> + +<p>One morning the crisis came—not that there was any particular reason +for it then more than at any other time, only he could hold out no +longer. It was a beautiful day, and they had been strolling in one of +the few endurable walks the place afforded—a winding alley near the +hotel, but shrouded in trees, and it was just at the time when most of +the inhabitants were at ten-pins, so that they were tolerably alone. +Now, if ever, was the time; but the more he tried to introduce the +subject, the less possible he found it to make a beginning, and all +the while he could not avoid a dim suspicion that Mrs. Harrison knew +perfectly well what he was trying to drive at, and took a mischievous +pleasure in saying nothing to help him along. So they talked about his +travels and hers, and great people in England and France, and all +sorts of people then at Oldport, and the weather even—all manner of +ordinary topics; and then they walked some time without saying +anything, and then they went back to the hotel. There he felt as if +his last chance was slipping away from him, and in a sudden fit of +desperate courage he followed her up to her parlor without waiting for +an invitation. Hardly was the door closed—he would have given the +world to have locked it—when he begged her to listen to him a few +minutes on a subject of the greatest importance. The lady opened her +large round eyes a little wider; it was the only sign she gave of any +thing approaching to surprise. Then the young man unbosomed himself +just as he stood there—not upon his knees; people used to do that—in +books, at least—but nobody does now. He told her how long he had been +in love with her—how he thought of her all day and all night, and how +wretched he was—how he had tried to subdue his passion, knowing it +was very wrong, and so forth; but really he couldn't help it, +and—and—there he stuck fast; for all the time he had been making +this incoherent avowal, like one in a dream, hardly knowing what he +was about, but conscious only of taking a decisive step, and doing a +very serious thing in a very wild way—all this time, nevertheless, he +had most closely watched Mrs. Harrison, to anticipate his sentence in +some look or gesture of hers. And he saw that there did not move a +line in her face, or a muscle in her whole figure—not a fibre of her +dress even stirred. If she had been a great block of white marble, she +could not have shown less feeling, as she stood up there right +opposite him. If he had asked her to choose a waistcoat pattern for +him, she could not have heard him more quietly. As soon as he had +fairly paused, so that she could speak without immediate interruption, +she took up the reply. It was better that he should go no further, as +she had already understood quite enough. She was very sorry to give +him pain—it was always unpleasant to give pain to any one. She was +also very sorry that he had so deceived himself, and so misapprehended +her character, or misunderstood her conversation. He was very young +yet, and had sense enough to get over this very soon. Of course, she +would never hear any repetition of such language from him; and, on her +part, she would never mention what had occurred to any one—especially +not to Mr. Harrison (it was the first time he had ever heard her +allude to the existence of that gentleman); and then she wound up with +a look which said as plainly as the words could have done, "Now, you +may go."</p> + +<p>Ashburner moved off in a more than usual state of confusion. As he +approached the door it opened suddenly, and he nearly walked over one +of the little Bleeckers, a flourishing specimen of Young New-York, +with about three yards of green satin round his throat, and both his +hands full of French novels, which he had been commissioned to bring +from the circulating library. Ashburner felt like choking him, and it +was only by a great effort that he contrived to pass him with a barely +civil species of nod. But as he went out, he could not refrain from +casting one glance back at Mrs. Harrison. She had taken off her bonnet +(which in America is denominated a hat), and was tranquilly arranging +her hair at the glass.</p> + +<p>Somehow or other he found his way down stairs, and rushed off into the +country on a tearing walk, enraged and disgusted with every thing, and +with himself most of all. When a man has made up his mind to commit a +sin, and then has been disappointed in the fruition of it—when he has +sold the birthright of his integrity, without getting the miserable +mess of pottage for it which he expected, his feelings are not the +most enviable. Ashburner was angry enough to marry the first heiress +he met with. First, he half resolved to get up a desperate flirtation +with Mrs. Benson; but the success of his first attempt was not +encouraging to the prosecution of a second. To kill himself was not in +his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[Pg 372]</a></span> line; but he felt very like killing some one else. He still +feared he might have been made a screen for some other man. But if the +other man existed, he could only be reached by fighting successively +all the single men of "our set," and a fair sprinkling of those in the +second set. Then he thought he must at least leave the place, but his +pride still revolted at the idea of running away before a woman. +Finally, after walking about ten miles, and losing his dinner, he +sobered down gradually, and thought what a fool he had been; and the +issue of his cogitations was a very wise double conclusion. He formed +a higher opinion of the virtue of American women, and he never +attempted any experiments on another.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h4>From Sharpe's London Magazine.</h4> + +<h2><a name="THE_MAN_OF_TACT" id="THE_MAN_OF_TACT"></a>THE MAN OF TACT.</h2> + +<p>There is no distinctive term more frequently employed, and less +generally understood, than the word "Tact." It is in every one's +mouth, and many have a vague notion of its meaning, who yet, if +required, would find no slight difficulty in giving its definition. It +is the application of perceptive common-sense to life's practical +details; the correct adaptation of means to ends, from an intuitive +knowledge of character, blended with a careful concealment, a discreet +evasion of our own, except when amiable faults are avowed, to enhance +the impression of our candor. Cameleon-like, "tact" assumes the color +of contingent circumstances,—is the vague, yet potent spirit, with +its shadowless finger arresting the impulses; an unseen ruler of the +thoughts, winding its gossamer yet adamantine meshes like a spell; the +uncaught "hic et ubique" arbiter of mortal destinies embodied in a +fellow-mortal.</p> + +<p>When we speak of the "man of tact," as of one in whom this quality +predominates,—as hereafter we shall speak of the man of honor, of +genius, and of sense, we must confess that above most other +characteristics, this is especially absorbent in its influence, and +generally usurps the government of the whole man. It collects into its +own stream the channels of other motives, which it renders tributary, +until it pervades the whole moral surface with one obliterating +deluge. If not watched, it will hence induce a general deceptiveness, +for the other impulses will partake of its color, shrewdness will +become cunning, discretion will change into artful dexterity. Its very +progress is sinuous and oblique, never more so than when assuming the +guise of straightforwardness and truth; but if divested of its baser +elements, it will soar into the higher intellectuals, and will claim +affinity to practical observation, or, to speak phrenologically, to +causality. In this view it combines with prudence, also with +self-discipline, in the regulation of the temper; in fact, is the +child of judgment, inheriting with its parent's calmness somewhat of +her coldness too.</p> + +<p>Observe that man sitting in the private room of one of our largest +mercantile establishments. Risen from a low grade to the direction of +a vast concern, at one time intrusted with a mission abroad of a most +important yet delicate character, he owes the eminence he has attained +entirely to tact. The features are now in repose, take your +opportunity to watch them (for they are seldom so, and if he were +aware of observation, would assume a different expression); how the +wear upon nerves, even of such flexibility, imparts to the fatigued +countenance an air of study, ceaseless even in comparative inaction. +The open and bald forehead, clear, expansive, impending over deep-set, +small, yet fathomless eyes, restless and anxious in their motion; the +lips fullish, wearing at the corner a half-contemptuous yet +good-humored self-contentment, which tells of the owner's disdain for +the game of life, and yet of triumphant complacency at his own +successful skill in it. He smiles! Ah! he is thinking of how he +deluded that shallow fop, Lord F——, whom fortune raised kindly to +conceal his puerilites by a coronet; or perhaps (as his eye dilates +with haughtier gaze) he dreams of having struck a nobler quarry, when +he outwitted the subtle Count de P——; for neither thought they were +following aught but the suggestion of their own will. This is the +mystery and mastery of tact. Had his victims seen that smile, the game +would have been lost; but he was different to each, the man was +changed. The lordling saw before him a free hearty abettor of youthful +folly, an Apicius, not a Mentor, one versed in life's vanities, yet +still ready to quaff the draught he satirized; sagacious in +criticising pleasure, yet reckless as the youngest in its pursuit; but +to the Count, the deferential air, the silent evidence of every +action, so sedulously courteous, yet so artless, attesting the +listener's (for he spoke but to inquire as if of an oracle, and +demurred but to render conviction more gracefully attractive) +reverence for the old diplomatist's sagacity; the rejoinder +dexterously introduced to confirm confidence in his visitor that he +was not wasting his instruction,—these and the thousand nameless +points of tact, dipped in the fountain of his own deep counsel, +instilled the wary practiser's motives into the mind of one, +apparently his confessed master in the art of diplomacy, convinced the +Count that he was regarded as the condensation of profound thought, of +astute sagacity; and it so happened, that if there was one +qualification in which the foreigner especially exulted more than any +other, it was upon his dexterity in deciphering disposition—in his +thorough knowledge of human nature!</p> + +<p>We have said he was an adept in listening: indeed it was averred that +he obtained a large estate by the quiet attention with which he +listened to the toothless twaddle of a senile Dowager—age's +garrulity—the echo of an empty hall which thought has quitted. He +rarely, however, in any case interrupts the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[Pg 373]</a></span> driest drawler, for he +has tutored attendants who understand not only whom to admit, but also +a hint as to the proper duration of a conference, and these with ready +message cut short the intruder's dull delay. If, also, in public or +private he be himself interrupted, he never loses his temper or the +point; resumes the thread just where it was broken, and with polite, +yet unswerving pertinacity, directs the minds of all to the wished-for +end, in spite of every purposed or involuntary attempt to distract +them into devious channels. Some men, like jackdaws, proclaim with +noisy loquaciousness their most private matters, alarming the public +horizon with egotistical chatter about their own nests: "tact," as the +master of it, Cromwell, knew, acknowledges the "safety of silence," +and like the rat,—a subtle politician!—saps vast fabrics by an +insidious, unheard gnawing underground!</p> + +<p>Briefly, this man listens much, speaks little—mostly the latter when +he would conceal his thoughts—keeps his eyes and ears open, his mouth +and his heart closed. With numerous admirers, he has many enemies—the +latter's hostility is however repressed by fear, and the regard of the +other, somehow, never ripens into love; it may be that selfishness, +the concomitant of tact, forbids affection. We have shown the fair +side of the portrait hitherto drawn from the respectable sphere (as it +is called) of life; but it has its evil counterpart or reverse to be +seen in a notorious receiver of stolen property, ever watched by, yet +ever baffling the police,—one, who, having helped many to the hulks, +has by sheer cunning (tact in motley!) himself escaped. The +consciences of both are similarly guided by the law of public not +private morality—interest is the ruling principle of both; even the +drudgery of each assimilates, for a life of dissimulation is a very +hard one. What actor would be <i>always</i> on the stage? Both are +commercial men in a sense, though one lives at the west-end, the other +near Seven-dials; sometimes they meet,—the rich, upon—the poor, +before, the bench—"the Justice" in silk "frowns" on the speciously +"simple thief" in rags; yet nature has cut the countenances of both +from the same piece, and true it is that her "one touch," the +prevalence of tact, successful here,—in hard confronting +there—renders both "akin."</p> + +<p>Yet not always does "tact" array itself in silken softness, or "stoop +to conquer:" some ply the trade with no less success under the guise +of rough and candid honesty: these men declare loudly that they always +speak their minds: come upon us with a bluff sincerity, disarming +prudence by an appearance of incautious trust and open-heartedness. +They "cannot cog," they cannot sue, they profess noisily to abhor +"humbug," as they term it, in every shape:—a strange ingratitude <i>to +what they chiefly thrive by</i>; for certain it is, that though +doubtlessly "all honorable men," these are the most insidious +tacticians, and generally of the worst kind.</p> + +<p>Hitherto we have spoken of "tact" in its deteriorated shape, and +indeed the word seems to have got so bad a name that its bare mention +breathes distrust. Yet there is a medium class of men who, like +William of Orange, reduce violent feelings even to frigidity, and +allowing discretion her widest scope, do not entirely obliterate the +affections. Machiavelli says that "seldom men of mean fortunes attain +to high degrees without force or fraud, and generally rather by the +latter than the former," and hence he recommends guile to be +adopted—but these, to whom we now allude, practise prudence, yet +preserve their guileless sincerity. Here, though the term is rather +univocal, and seems to apply only to our concerns with others, its +healthy action is forcibly evinced on the individual's mind, for it +disciplines the impulses and reviews for ready co-action reason's +powers. So high did the ancients in their sense regard it, that they +elevated it to a divinity—"Nullum numen adest si sit Prudentia," +though, as Addison observes, "this sort of discretion has no place in +private conversation between intimate friends. It occupies a neutral +ground between caution and art, uses expediency instead of integrity, +and hence deceives us by the first, when we look for the consistency +of the latter." Almost ever combined with conceit (the pride of +questionable success), it never possesses the magnanimity to confess +an error; for this detracting from its arrogated infallibility might +deteriorate its influence: it will acknowledge vices (if polite), but +will never plead guilty to mistakes, since the grossest charge against +the "man of tact" at the bar of self, much more of public judgment, is +not the perpetration of a sin—but the commission of a blunder!</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h4>From the "Revue des Deux Mondes."</h4> +<h2><a name="A_WRECK_OF_THE_OLD_FRENCH_ARISTOCRACY" id="A_WRECK_OF_THE_OLD_FRENCH_ARISTOCRACY"></a>A WRECK OF THE OLD FRENCH ARISTOCRACY.</h2> + +<h3>AN INCIDENT OF TRAVEL IN THE LIMOUSIN.</h3> + + +<p>It is truly a great mistake to measure the interest of a journey by +its duration, and that of a country by its remoteness; and one is +deceived in supposing that it is necessary to go afar in quest of +adventures, and make a voyage two years long in order to see curious +sights. There is a certain author who has made "a journey around his +room" more fruitful in incidents of all descriptions than the +numberless voyages of an infinity of sailors that I know; and one may +make, thank heaven! many an interesting trip without passing beyond +the "neighboring shores" from which La Fontaine forbids us to wander. +The only thing is, that it is less easy to travel after this fashion +than the other, and that it requires a lengthened preparation.</p> + +<p>In order to observe skilfully, one must be accustomed to look around +one. We scarcely become curious except after long habit, and, strange +to say, our curiosity seems to increase in proportion as we satisfy +it. When we know a great deal we desire to know still<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[Pg 374]</a></span> more, and it is +remarkable that those alone desire to see no sights who have never had +any sights to see. Moreover, it is necessary to have contemplated the +grandest spectacles of nature in order to understand and love her +least conspicuous wonders; for nature does not surrender herself to +the first comer. She is a chaste and severe divinity, who admits to +her intimacy those alone who have deserved it by long contemplations +and a constant worship: and I firmly believe that it is necessary to +have travelled round the world in order profitably and agreeably to +make the tour of one's garden. If many years of youth spent in +wandering by land and sea, can render me an authority in regard to +travels, then am I justified in declaring, that in none of my more +distant courses have I found more interest and pleasure than in the +little trip I am now about to narrate.</p> + +<p>There were, then, four of us, all alike young, gay, active, clad in +shooting costume, going straight ahead, without fixed plan or +preconcerted itinerary, marching at hap-hazard in these desert +<i>landes</i>, respiring freely the pungent odor of the broom, roaming from +hill to hill without other rallying point than the top of a mountain +which pointed out the direction of the low lands. After four hours' +walk we discovered that this mountain was still very far distant, and +that the sun was sinking below the horizon. We had already left behind +us the wildest part of the department of the <i>Correze</i>. To woods of +pine and birch succeeded enormous chestnut-trees; the sterile heath +gave place to cultivated fields. Here and there some houses displayed +their straw-colored roofs, and some scattered laborers beheld us pass +by with gaping suspicion. To tell the truth, we had all of us a +tolerably gallows look. In this wretched country, where every one +lives on from day to day without quitting his little inclosure, +without even hearing an echo from afar, four bearded marauders like +ourselves, avoiding the beaten road, and marching rapidly across +stubble and thicket, presented no ordinary rencontre. All on a sudden +the clouds began to gather, and, by way of varying our sensations, a +terrific tempest burst over our heads. It was the first incident of +our journey. Drenched through in a moment by this diluvian rain, we +rushed, with the ardor of soldiers mounting a breach, towards a +village perched like a magpie's nest on the summit of the hill we were +ascending. A house of capacious size, but of dismal and ruinous +appearance, arose before us. We rushed in at a charging pace, and +found that it was deserted, except that near the hearth, where +smouldered the embers of the most miserable fire in the world, an +infant was deposited in, or rather tied to, his cradle, according to +the fashion of the country. By the aid of a stout bandage they had +swaddled him up like a mummy, and duly sealed him to the planks of the +little box, which served him for a bed. In addition, his head was +carefully turned toward the fire, so that his cranium was in a state +of continual ebullition, such being the appointed regimen of the +neighborhood. At the sight of our strange visages, the little one, +after staring at us for a moment or two, proceeded to utter the most +lamentable outcries. I rocked his cradle with the most paternal +solicitude, but could not succeed in quieting him. On the contrary, +his screams became positively heart-rending, and we were almost ready +to smother him outright in order to put a stop to his roaring. At this +summons a woman entered abruptly into the house, and stared at us with +an expression of alarm. It was incumbent on us to explain that we were +no pilferers, and this was no easy matter. The young mother evidently +looked on us with suspicion. She was not altogether a mere +peasant,—at least she wore, instead of the little straw hat trimmed +with black velvet, which is the ordinary head-dress of the +countrywomen, a bonnet, which in the Limousin is a certain indication +of pretensions to the rank of the <i>bourgeoise</i>. Her robe, besides, +however inelegant it might be, was nevertheless town-made.</p> + +<p>These matters I noticed at a glance, whilst one of my companions gave +the needful explanations as to our pacific intentions. Our hostess +pretended to be satisfied. She removed the cradle, threw some shavings +into the fire to revive it, and sat herself down with a cold, +constrained manner, in which I could discover at once considerable +embarrassment, accompanied by a certain air of dignity. Never had I +seen a Limousin peasant take a seat in the presence of <i>gentlemen</i>, +and I speedily made another discovery which not a little perplexed me. +The fire as it revived had thrown a glow upon the hearthstone, which +was of cast-iron, and presented a large armorial escutcheon. This +display astonished me. I looked round again at the smoke-dried kitchen +in which we sat; it was a miserable place. The ceiling was falling +piecemeal; in the pavement, disjointed and worn, were three or four +muddy holes but rarely cleared out, the dampness of which was kept up +by the continual dripping of a dozen cream cheeses, suspended in a +long basket of osiers. Two beds, a large table, and a few dilapidated +chairs, composed the furniture of the apartment, which was pervaded by +a sour and offensive smell, apparently very attractive to a huge sow +whose grunting snout was ever and anon thrust into the entrance of the +doorway. Whence, then, this curious hearthstone? I looked more +attentively at the young woman, and discovered in her countenance a +certain air of distinction. I then inquired of her at what place we +were.</p> + +<p>"Monsieur is jesting at me, doubtless," she pretty sharply replied.</p> + +<p>I assured her I had no such intention, and was really ignorant of the +name of the village.</p> + +<p>"It is not a village, sir," she resumed, "it is a town. You are at the +Puy d'Arnac, in the Canton of Beaulieu."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[Pg 375]</a></span></p> + +<p>A native of Marseilles would hardly have named the <i>Canebiere</i> with +greater satisfaction. I knew that the Puy d'Arnac gave its name to a +celebrated growth of the <i>Correze</i>, and I thought I understood the +lofty tone of the reply. All on a sudden, one of my companions, whom +we nicknamed the "Broker," because he groped into all sorts of places, +and, with amusing perseverance, hunted out objects of art and +curiosity even in hovels, touched my elbow, and asked me if I had +noticed the picture which was half-hidden under the serge curtains of +one of the beds. I had not yet observed it, and got up to look at it. +It was the portrait of a general officer of the time of Louis XV. The +frame, sculptured and gilt, struck me still more, being really +beautiful. "This is a discovery indeed," said my friend to me, while I +inquired of the young woman where such a portrait could have come +from.</p> + +<p>"Where could it have come from, Monsieur?" she haughtily replied; "it +is the portrait of my grandfather."</p> + +<p>"Aha!" we exclaimed, all four of us, turning ourselves round with +surprise. With one hand our hostess stirred the fire, with an +indifference evidently affected, while with the other she rocked the +little box in which her infant was asleep.</p> + +<p>"Might I presume to inquire the name of Monsieur your grandfather?" +said I, drawing near to her.</p> + +<p>"He was the Count of Anteroches," was her reply.</p> + +<p>"What, the Count of Anteroches, who commanded the French guards at the +battle of Fontenoy?"<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p> + +<p>"You have heard him spoken of, then?" resumed the peasant girl, with a +smile.</p> + +<p>My friend the Broker stood as if stupefied before the picture. All of +a sudden he wheeled round, and, gravely removing his cap, repeated +with a theatrical air the celebrated saying of M. d'Anteroches,—"Fire +first, <i>Messieurs les Anglais</i>; we are Frenchmen, and must do you the +honors!"</p> + +<p>This anecdote is, to my thinking, the most charming and most +thoroughly stamped with the image of the age of any recorded in +history. With regard to these celebrated sayings uttered in battles, I +must indeed confess that I am very skeptical. Little as I may be of a +soldier, I have a notion that it is not in an engagement as at the +Olympic Circus, and that in the midst of fire, smoke, and musketry, +generals must have other work on their hands than to utter these +pretty epigrams, which there is moreover no shorthand writer at hand +to take down. I know that Cambronne was annoyed when they recalled to +him his splendid exclamation at Waterloo, "<i>La garde meurt et ne se +rend pas!</i>" (The guard dies, and does not surrender!) "an invention +the more clumsy," said he, "that I am not yet dead, and that I really +did surrender." I have even discovered that this saying was invented +by a member of the Institute, for the greater satisfaction of the +readers of the "Yellow Dwarf," in which he wrote, in 1815, together +with Benjamin Constant and many other celebrated malcontents.<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> The +speeches of Leonidas find me equally incredulous. But, wheresoever +they may come from, I delight in these anecdotes, which personify an +entire epoch, and engrave it upon the memory with a single stroke. We +may defy the historian who seeks to characterize the end of the last +century and the beginning of the present, to find two epigrams more +striking than the words attributed to Anteroches and Cambronne—to two +French officers—one commanding the French guards, the other the old +guard; both fighting for their country, at an interval of seventy +years, with the same enemy, and on the same ground: for it is a +singular coincidence that Fontenoy and Waterloo are but little distant +from each other, and Heaven saw fit to ordain that the game of success +and reverse should be played out almost upon the same fields. "Fire +first, <i>Messieurs les Anglais</i>!" Is it not the type of that easy and +adorable, that ironical and <i>blasé</i> nobility, who pushed the contempt +of life even to insanity, and the worship of courtesy and honor even +to the sublime?—who endowed their country with such a renown for +elegance, high-breeding, and gallantry, that all its demagogic +saturnalia never have effaced it, and never will?—a nobility +reckless, if you please, but assuredly charming, and perfectly French +withal, who gayly passed through life without ever doing the morrow +the honor of thinking about it, and who, beholding one day the earth +give way beneath their feet, looked into the abyss without a wink, +without alarming themselves, without belying themselves, and went down +alive and whole into the gulf, disdaining all defence, "without fear," +if not "without reproach."</p> + +<p>Between the saying of Anteroches and that of Cambronne there is a +great gap; we find that the revolution has passed through it. The +gentleman, refined even to exaggeration, has disappeared, and we have +instead the rude language of democracy—"<i>La garde meurt et ne se rend +pas</i>"—this is heroism, no doubt, but heroism of another sort. Never +did the <i>chauvinism</i> of this present time light upon a more cornelian +device, but do you not see in it the theatrical affectation, the +melo-dramatic emphasis of another race? That he had no fear of death, +and no idea of surrendering—this is what the gentleman of Fontenoy +had no intention of declaring; it ought to have been well known—his +followers had already given proof of it for ages past. To be brave +alone to him was nothing—he must be as elegant in battle as he was at +the ball. What signified death to that incomparable race who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[Pg 376]</a></span> +afterwards composed madrigals in prison, and ascended the scaffold +with a smile, their step elastic, and their hand in the waistcoat +pocket, a cocked hat under their arm, and a rose-bud between their +lips? This epoch was personified in my eyes by the handsome and gentle +countenance of the Count of Anteroches. After more than a hundred +years I had discovered by chance, myself, an obscure wayfarer, in an +unknown and miserable cabin, where his grand-daughter was living in +the midst of her poultry, the portrait of this brilliant officer, to +whose name will ever attach an elegant and charming renown; for if, +like Cambronne, Anteroches did not really utter the words attributed +to him, they have still been lent to him, and if thus lent, assuredly +because there were grounds for it.</p> + +<p>After these over-lengthy reflections, I turned toward the peasant +woman, who now inspired me with profound commiseration. She continued +to rock to and fro her bandaged infant, who was in very right and deed +the Count of Anteroches. I inquired what was the occupation of her +husband.</p> + +<p>"He is dead," she replied; "I was better off during his lifetime. He +was a <i>gendarme</i>, Monsieur."</p> + +<p>"A <i>gendarme</i>!" I repeated with surprise.</p> + +<p>"Yes," replied Madame d'Anteroches, who understood not the cause of my +astonishment, "he had even passed as a brigadier during his latter +years: we managed our little affairs very comfortably."</p> + +<p>He was a brigadier of gendarmerie—content to be so—he managed his +little affairs very comfortably—and his grandfather, as I find it in +the "Military Records of France," had been named Marshal on the 25th +of July, 1762; at the same time as the Marquis of Boufflers and the +Duke of Mazarine! Would not the rabble of Paris do well to inquire a +little before exclaiming so loudly against the privileges of the +aristocracy? Moreover, it seems to me that the government of France +should not allow the grandchildren of the Count of Anteroches to be +sunk—as they are—into deplorable indigence. Apocryphal or otherwise +the epigram of Fontenoy should at least be worth subsistence to all +who bear this name. Many enjoy pensions and are maintained by France, +who would find it very difficult to produce a similar claim, and the +new republic would act wisely by repairing, when occasion turns up, +the injustices of her eldest sister.</p> + +<p>But it was now high time for us to leave. It was evident that we +embarrassed our hostess, and since we had discovered her name we were +no less embarrassed ourselves. I could not get over her coarse stuff +gown, her filthy kitchen, and her familiar sow. It would have been +cruel to ask for her hospitality, and how could we offer to pay our +score? Besides, we knew that a rich proprietor of our acquaintance +resided not far from Puy d'Arnac; we, therefore, took our leave of the +high-born peasant with many excuses and thanks. At the moment I passed +the threshold, I cast a parting glance upon the portrait. The fire +lighted it up at that instant with so singular a brilliancy that it +almost appeared animated. It seemed as if the countenance of M. +d'Anteroches was alive, and that the handsome officer looked sadly +down from the height of his gilded frame upon the utter misery of his +descendants. "Oh! decadence! decadence of France!" I exclaimed to +myself, and rushed bravely forth with my companions into the pelting +rain.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> Fontenoy, we should here observe, is, we believe, the +<i>only</i> battle in which the English were defeated by the French, and it +is, of course, a subject of no little glorification with our +neighbors.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> The well-known burst of the Duke of Wellington at +Waterloo, "Up, guards, and at them!" has been declared, upon the best +authority, namely, his own, to be no less apocryphal than those +above-mentioned.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h4>From Fraser's Magazine</h4> +<h2><a name="THE_CLOISTER-LIFE_OF_THE_EMPEROR_CHARLES_V" id="THE_CLOISTER-LIFE_OF_THE_EMPEROR_CHARLES_V"></a>THE CLOISTER-LIFE OF THE EMPEROR CHARLES V.</h2> + + +<p>The 28th of September, 1556, was a great day in the annals of Laredo, +in Biscay. Once a commercial station of the Romans, and, in later +times, the naval arsenal whence St. Ferdinand sailed to the +Guadalquivir and the conquest of Seville, its haven is now so decayed +and sand-choked, that it can scarcely afford shelter to a +fishing-craft. Here, however, on the day in question, three centuries +ago, a fleet of seventy Flemish and Spanish sail cast anchor. From a +frigate bearing the imperial standard of the house of Austria came a +group of gentlemen and ladies, of whom the principal personage was a +spare and sallow man, past the middle age, and plainly attired in +mourning. He was received at the landing-place by the bishop of +Salamanca and some attendants, and being worn with suffering and +fatigue, he was carried up from the boat in a chair. By his side +walked two ladies, in widows' weeds, who appeared to be about the same +age as himself, and whose pale features, both in cast and expression, +strongly resembled his own. Since Columbus stepped ashore at Palos, +with his red men from the New World, Spain had seen no debarkation so +remarkable; for the voyagers were, the emperor Charles V. and his +sisters, Mary queen of Hungary, and Eleanor, queen of Portugal and +France, now on their way from Brussels, where they had made their last +appearance on the stage of the world, to those Spanish cloisters, +wherein they had resolved to await the hour when the curtain should +drop on life itself.</p> + +<p>Charles himself appears to have been powerfully affected by the scene +and circumstances around him. Kneeling upon the long-desired soil of +Spain, he is said to have kissed the earth, ejaculating, "I salute +thee, O common mother! Naked came I forth of the womb to receive the +treasures of the earth, and naked am I about to return to the bosom of +the universal mother." He then drew from his bosom the crucifix which +he always wore, and kissing it devoutly, returned thanks to the +Saviour for having thus brought him in safety to the wished-for haven. +The ocean itself furnished its comment upon the irretraceable step +which he had taken. From Flushing to Laredo, the weather had been +calm, and the voyage prosperous: but the evening of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[Pg 377]</a></span> day of +landing closed with a storm, which shattered and dispersed the fleet, +and sunk the frigate which the emperor had quitted a few hours before. +This accident must have recalled to his recollection a similar escape +which he had made many years before on his coronation-day at Bologna. +There he had just passed through a wooden gallery which connected his +palace with the church where the pope and the crown awaited him, when +the props upon which the structure rested gave way, and it fell with a +sudden crash, killing several persons in the street below.</p> + +<p>The emperor's first care, after landing, was to send a message to the +general of the order of St. Jerome, requiring his attendance at +Valladolid, and desiring that no time might be lost in preparing the +convent of Yuste for his reception. He himself set forward, as soon as +he was able, and was carried sometimes in a horse-litter, sometimes in +a chair on men's shoulders, by slow and painful stages to Burgos. Near +that ancient city he was met by the constable of Castille, Pedro +Fernandez de Velasco, who lodged him for some days in the noble palace +of his family, known as the Casa del Cordon, from a massive cord of +St. Francis, wrought in stone, with which the architect has adorned +and protected the great portal. The little town of Dueñas was the next +resting-place, and there its lord, the count of Buendia, did the +honors of his feudal castle on the adjacent height rising abruptly +from the bare plains of the Arlanzon. At Torquemada, the royal party +was received by the bishop of the diocese, Pedro de Gasca, a divine, +whose skilful diplomacy, in repressing a formidable rebellion, had +saved Peru to Castille, and who had lately been rewarded by the +emperor with the mitre of Palencia. But in spite of these +demonstrations of respect and gratitude, Charles was made painfully +sensible of the change which his own act had wrought in his condition. +The barons and the great churchmen, who, a few months before, would +have flocked from all parts to do him honor, now appeared in very +scanty numbers, or they permitted him to pass unnoticed through the +lands and by the homes which they perhaps owed to his bounty. He and +his sister Eleanor must have remembered with a sigh the time when he +first set foot in Spain, thirty-eight years before, and found the +shores of Asturias, and the highways of Castille, thronged with loyal +crowds, hastening to tender their homage. In the forgetfulness of the +new generation, he may also have been reminded how he himself had +treated, with coldness and slighting, the great cardinal Ximenes, who +had worn out his declining years in defending and maintaining the +prerogatives of the catholic crown. His long and varied experience of +men made him incapable of deriving any pleasure from their applause, +but not altogether incapable of being pained by their neglect. His +pride was hurt at finding himself so quickly forgotten; and he is said +to have evinced a bitter sense of the surprise, by the remark, "I +might well say that I was naked!" It is probable, therefore, that he +declined the honors of a public entry into Valladolid, not merely from +a desire to shun the pomps and vanities of state, but also from a +secret apprehension that it might prove but a pitiful shadow of former +pageants. That the citizens might not be balked of their show, while +the emperor entered privately on the 23rd of October, it was agreed +that the two queens, his sisters, should make their appearance there +in a public manner the next day.</p> + +<p>Valladolid was at that time the opulent and flourishing capital of +Spain, and the seat of government, carried on under the regency of the +emperor's daughter, Juanna. This young princess was the widow of the +prince of Brazil, heir-apparent of the crown of Portugal, and mother +of the unfortunate king Sebastian. She performed the duties of her +high place with great prudence, firmness, and moderation; but with +this peculiarity, that she appeared at her public receptions closely +veiled, allowing her face to be seen only for a moment, that the +foreign ambassadors might be satisfied of her personal identity. With +her nephew, Don Carlos, then a boy of ten years old, by her side, the +Infanta met her father on the staircase of the palace of the Count of +Melito, which he had chosen for his place of sojourn. The day +following, the arrival of the two queens was celebrated by a grand +procession, and by an evening banquet and ball in the royal palace, at +which the emperor appears to have been present. Some few of the +grandees, the Admiral and the Constable of Castille, Benavente, +Astorga, Sesa, and others, were there to do honor to their ancient +lord, whose hand was also kissed in due form by the members of the +council of Castille. At this ball, or perhaps at some later festivity, +Charles caused the wives of all his personal attendants to be +assembled around him, and bade each, in particular, farewell. Perico +de Sant Erbas, a famous jester of the court, passing by at the moment, +the emperor good-humoredly saluted him by taking off his hat. "What! +do you uncover to me?" said the bitter fool; "does it mean that you +are no longer emperor?" "No, Pedro," replied the object of the jest; +"it means that I have nothing to give you beyond this courtesy."</p> + +<p>During his stay of ten days, Charles bestowed but a passing glance on +the machine of government over which he had so long presided, and +which was now directed by his demure daughter. The secretary of the +council, Juan Vazquez de Molina, an old and trusted servant of his +own, was the only public man with whom he held any confidential +converse. The new rooms which he had caused to be erected at Yuste, +and the ordering of his life there, were now of more moment to him +than the movements of the leaguers in Flanders, or the state of +opinion in Germany. He therefore<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[Pg 378]</a></span> gave frequent audiences to Francisco +de Tofiño, the general of the Jeromites, and to Fray Martin de Angulo, +prior of Yuste. Having resolved that his solitude should be shared by +his natural son, Don Juan of Austria, a nameless lad of ten, then +living in the family of his mayordomo, Luis de Quixada, he despatched +that trusty follower to remove his household from Castille to +Estremadura.</p> + +<p>It was at Valladolid that Charles saw for the first and last time the +ill-fated child who bore his name, and had the prospect one day of +wearing some of his crowns. Although only ten years old, Don Carlos +had already shown symptoms of the mental malady which darkened the +long life of queen Juana, his great-grandmother by the side both of +his father, Philip of Spain, and of his mother, Mary of Portugal. Of a +sullen and passionate temper, he lived in a state of perpetual +rebellion against his aunt, and displayed in the nursery the weakly +mischievous spirit which marked his short career at his father's +court. His grandfather appears not to have suspected that his mind was +diseased, but to have regarded him as a forward and untractable child, +whose future interests would be best served by an unsparing use of the +rod. He therefore recommended increased severity of discipline, and +remarked to his sisters, that he had observed with concern the boy's +unpromising conduct and manners, and that it was very doubtful how the +man would turn out. This opinion was conveyed by queen Eleanor to +Philip II., who had requested his aunt to note carefully the +impression left by his son on the emperor's mind; and it is said to +have laid the foundation for the aversion which the king entertained +towards Carlos. Following the advice of her father, the Infanta soon +after ordered the removal of the prince to Burgos; but the plague +breaking out in that city, he was sent, by an ominous chance, to +Tordesillas, to the palace from whose windows the unhappy Juana, dead +to the living world, had gazed for forty-seven years at the sepulchre +of her fair and faithless lord.</p> + +<p>A sojourn of about ten days at Valladolid sufficed the emperor for +rest, and for the preparations for his journey. His daughter was +occupied with the duties of administration; and of his sisters he +appears to have seen enough on the way from Flanders. Whether it was +that he was weary of these royal matrons, or that he regarded their +society as a worldly enjoyment which he ought to forego, he declined +their proposal to come and reside near his retreat, at Plasencia. +After much debate, they finally chose Guadalaxara as their residence, +where they quarelled with the duke of Infantado for refusing them his +palace, and went to open war with the alcalde for imprisoning one of +their serving-men.</p> + +<p>Early in November,<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> their brother set out on his last earthly +journey. The distance from Valladolid to Yuste was between forty and +fifty leagues, or somewhere between 130 and 150 English miles. The +route taken has not been specified by the emperor's biographers. The +best and the easiest road lay through Salamanca and Plasencia. But as +he does not appear to have passed through the latter city, he probably +likewise avoided the former, and the pageants and orations with which +the doctors of the great university would have delighted to celebrate +his visit. In that case, he must have taken the road by Medina del +Campo and Peñaranda. At Medina he doubtless was lodged in the fine old +palace of the crown, called the Torre de Mota, where, fifty years +before, his grandmother, Isabella the Catholic, ended her noble life +and glorious reign; and at Peñaranda he was probably entertained in +the mansion of the Bracamontes. These two towns rise like islands in +their naked undulating plains, covered partly with corn, partly with +marshy heath. Southward, the country is clothed with straggling woods +of evergreen oak, becoming denser at the base and on the lower slopes +of the wild Sierra of Bejar, the centre of that mountain chain which +forms the backbone of the Peninsula, extending from Moncayo in Aragon, +to the Rock of Lisbon on the Atlantic. At the alpine town of Bejar, +cresting a bold height, and overhanging a tumbling stream, the great +family of the Zuñigas, created dukes of the place by Isabella, and +known to fame in arts and arms and the dedication of Don Quixote, +possess a noble castle, ruined by the French, which there can be +little doubt served as a halting-place for the imperial pilgrim. He +advanced by very short stages, travelling in a litter, and often +suffering great pain. But his spirits rose as he neared the desired +haven. In the craggy gorge of Puertonuevo, as he was being carried +over some unusually difficult ground in a chair, his attendants were +deploring the extreme ruggedness of the pass. "I shall never have to +go through another," said he, "and truly it is worth enduring some +pain to reach so sweet and healthy a resting place as Yuste." Having +crossed the mountains without mischance, he arrived on the eleventh of +November, St. Martin's day, at Xarandilla, a little village at the +foot of the steep Peñanegra, and then, as now, chiefly peopled with +swineherds, whose pigs, feeding in the surrounding forests, maintain +the fame of porciferous Estremadura. Here he took up his abode in the +castle of the count of Oropesa, head of a powerful branch of the great +house of Toledo, and feudal lord of Xarandilla.</p> + +<p>This visit, which was intended to be brief, was prolonged for nearly +three months. Before entering the cloister of Yuste, the emperor +wished to pay off the greater part of his retinue. But for this +purpose money was needful, and money was the one thing always wanting +in the affairs of Spain. The delay which took place in providing it on +this occasion has often been cited as an instance of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[Pg 379]</a></span> ingratitude +of Philip II.; but it is probable that a bare exchequer and a clumsy +system of finance, which crippled his actions as a king, have also +blackened his character as a son.</p> + +<p>The emperor endured the annoyance with his usual coolness. On his +arrival at the castle, he was waited on by the prior of Yuste, with +whom he had already become acquainted at Valladolid. He afterwards +repaid the attention by making a forenoon excursion to Yuste, and +inspecting more carefully the spot which his memory and his hope had +so long pictured as the sweetest nook in a world of disappointment. +This visit took place on the 23d of November, St. Catharine's day. On +alighting at the convent, Charles immediately repaired to the church, +and prayed there awhile; after which, he was conducted over the +monastic buildings, and then over the new apartments which had been +erected for his reception. The plan of this addition had been made by +the architect, Gaspar de Vega, from a sketch, it is said, drawn by the +emperor's own hand. He now expressed himself as quite satisfied with +the accuracy with which his ideas had been wrought out, and returned +through the wintry woods in high good humor.</p> + +<p>The arrival at Xarandilla of Luis Quixada, with Don Juan of Austria, +was another of those little incidents which had become great events in +the life of Charles. As he did not choose during his life to +acknowledge the youth as his son, the future hero of Lepanto passed +for the page of Quixada, and was presented to his father as bearer of +an offering from Doña Magdalena de Ulloa. He was then in his twelfth +year, and was remarkable for his personal beauty and his engaging +manners. These so captivated Charles, that he ever afterwards liked to +have the boy about him; and it was one of the few solaces of his +solitude to note the princely promise of this unknown son of his old +age.</p> + +<p>At length, the tardy treasury messenger arrived, bearing a bag of +thirty thousand ducats for the former possessor of Mexico and Peru. +The emperor was now enabled to pay their wages to the servants whom he +was about to discharge. Some of these he recommended to the notice of +the king or the princess-regent; to others he dispensed sparing +gratuities in money; and so he closed his accounts with the world.</p> + +<p>On the afternoon of the third of February, 1557, being the feast of +St. Blas, he was lifted into his litter for the last time, and was +borne westward along the rough mountain track, beneath the leafless +oaks, to the monastery of Yuste. He was accompanied by the count of +Oropesa, Don Fernando de Toledo, and his own personal suite, including +the followers whom he had just discharged, but who evinced their +respect by attending him to his journey's close. The cavalcade reached +Yuste about five in the evening. Prior Angulo was waiting to receive +his imperial guest at the gate. On alighting, the emperor, being +unable to walk, was placed in a chair, and carried to the door of the +church. At the threshold he was met by the whole brotherhood in +procession, chanting the <i>Te Deum</i> to the music of the organ. The +altars and the aisle were brilliantly lighted up with tapers, and +decked with their richest frontals, hangings, and plate. Borne through +the pomp to the steps of the high altar, Charles knelt down and +returned thanks to God for the happy termination of his journey, and +joined in the vesper service of the brotherhood. When that was ended, +the friars came to be presented to him one by one, each kissing his +hand and receiving his fraternal embrace. During this ceremony, his +departing servants stood round, expressing their emotion by tears and +lamentations, which were still heard late in the evening, around the +gate of the convent. Attended by the count of Oropesa and the +gentlemen of his suite, Charles then retired to take possession of his +new home, and to enter upon that life of prayer and repose for which +he had so long sighed.</p> + +<p>The monastery of Yuste stands on the lower slopes of the lofty +mountain chain which walls towards the north the beautiful Vera, or +valley of Plasencia. The city of Plasencia is seated seven leagues to +the westward in the plains below; the village of Quacos lies about an +English mile to the south, towards the foot of the mountain. The +monastery owes its name to a streamlet which descends from the sierra, +and its origin to the piety of one Sancho Martin of Quacos, who +granted in 1402 a piece of land to two hermits from Plasencia. Here +these holy men built their cells and planted an orchard, and obtained, +in 1408, by the favor of the Infanta Don Fernando, a bull for the +foundation of a Jeromite house in the rule of St. Augustine. In spite, +however, of this authority, while the works were still in progress, +the friars of a neighboring convent, armed with an order from the +bishop of Plasencia, set upon them and dispossessed them of their land +and unfinished walls, an act of violence against which they appealed +to the archbishop of Santiago. The judgment of the primate being given +in their favor, they next applied for aid to their neighbor, Garci +Alvarez de Toledo, lord of Oropesa, who accordingly came forth from +his castle of Xarandilla, and drove out the intruders. Nor was it only +with the strong hand that this noble protected the young community; +for at the chapter of St. Jerome held at Guadalupe in 1415, their +house would not have been received into the order but for his +generosity in guaranteeing a revenue sufficient for the maintenance of +a prior and twelve brethren under a rule in which mendicancy was +forbidden. The buildings were also erected at his cost, and his +subsequent benefactions were large and frequent. He was therefore +constituted by the grateful monks protector of the convent, and the +distinction became hereditary in his descendants, the counts of +Oropesa.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[Pg 380]</a></span></p> + +<p>Their early struggles past, the Jeromites of Yuste grew and prospered. +Gifts and bequests were the chief events in their peaceful annals. +They became patrons of the chapelries and hermitages; they made them +orchards and olive-groves, and their corn and wine increased. Their +hostel, dispensary, and other offices, were patterns of monastic +comfort and order; and in due time, they built a new church, a simple, +solid, and spacious structure, in the pointed style. A few years +before the emperor came to live amongst them, they had added to their +small antique cloister a new quadrangle of stately proportions and +elegant classical design.</p> + +<p>Though more remarkable for the natural beauty around its walls than +for the vigor of the spiritual life within, Yuste did not fail to +boast of its worthies. The prior Jerome, a son of the great house of +Zuniga, was cited as a model of austere and active holiness. The lay +brother, Melchor de Yepes, crippled in felling a huge chesnut-tree in +the forest, was a pattern of bed-ridden patience and piety. Fray +Hernando de Corral was the scholar and book collector of the house; +although he was also, for that reason, perhaps, considered as scarcely +of a sound mind. He left many copious notes in the fly-leaves of his +black-letter folios. Fray Juan de Xeres, an old soldier of the great +Captain, was distinguished by the gift of second-sight, and was nursed +on his death-bed by the eleven thousand virgins. Still more favored +was Fray Rodrigo de Caceres, for the Blessed Mary herself, in answer +to his repeated prayers, came down in visible shape, and received his +spirit on the eve of the feast of her Assumption. And prior Diego de +San Geronimo was so popular in the Vera as a preacher, that when he +grew old and infirm, the people of Garganta la Olla endeavored to lure +him to their pulpit by making a road, which was called that of Fray +Diego.</p> + +<p>In works of charity—that redeeming virtue of the monastic system—the +fathers of Yuste were diligent and bounteous. Six hundred fanegas, or +about one hundred and twenty quarters of wheat, in ordinary years, and +in years of scarcity, as much as fifteen hundred fanegas, were +distributed at the convent-gate; large donations of bread, meat, and +oil, and some money, were made, either publicly or in private, by the +prior, at Easter and other festivals; and the sick poor in the village +of Quacos were freely supplied with food, medicine, and advice.</p> + +<p>The lodging, or palace, as the friars loved to call it, of the +emperor, was constructed under the eye of Fray Antonio de Villacastin, +a brother of the house, and afterwards well known to fame as the +master of the works at the Escorial. The site of it had been inspected +in May, 1554, by Philip II., then on his way to England to marry queen +Mary Tudor. Backed by the massive south wall of the church, the +building presented its simple front of two stories to the garden and +the noontide sun. Each story contained four chambers, two on either +side of a corridor, which traverses the structure from east to west, +and leads at either end into a broad porch, or covered gallery, +supported on pillars, and open to the air. All the rooms were +furnished with ample fire-places, in accordance with the Flemish wants +and ways of the inhabitants. The chambers which look on the garden are +bright and pleasant, but those on the north side are gloomy, and even +dark, the light being admitted only by windows opening on the +corridor, or on the external and deeply-shadowed porches. Charles +inhabited the upper rooms, and slept in that at the north-east corner, +from which a door or window had been cut through the church wall, +within the chancel, and close to the high altar. From the eastern +porch, or gallery, an inclined path led down into the garden, to save +him the fatigue of going up and down stairs. His attendants were, for +the most part, lodged in apartments built for them near the new +cloister; and the hostel of the convent was given up to the physician, +the bakers, and the brewers. His private rooms being surrounded on +three sides by the garden, he took exclusive possession of that, and +put it under the care of gardeners of his own. The friars established +their potherbs in a piece of ground to the eastward, behind some tall +elm trees, and adjoining the emperor's domain, but separated from it +by a high wall, which they caused to be built when they found that he +wished for complete seclusion.</p> + +<p>Time, with its chances and changes, has dealt rudely with this fair +home of the monarch and the monk. Yuste was sacked in 1809 by the +French invader; and in later years, the Spanish reformer has +annihilated the race of picturesque drones, who, for a while, +re-occupied, and might have repaired the ruins of their pleasant hive. +Of the two cloisters, the greater is choked with the rubbish of its +fallen upper story, its richly-carved capitals peeping here and there +from the soil and wild shrubs. Two sides of the smaller and older +cloister still stands, with tottering blackened walls, and rotting +floors and ceilings. The strong, granite-vaulted church is a hollow +shell; the fine wood-work of its stalls has been partly used for fuel, +partly carried off to the parish church of Quacos; and the beautiful +blue and yellow tiles which lined the chancel are fast dropping from +the walls. In the emperor's dwelling, the lower chambers are turned +into a magazine of firewood, and in the rooms above, where he lived +and died, maize and olives are garnered, and the silkworm winds its +cocoon in dust and darkness. But the lovely face of nature, the hill, +the forest, and the field, the generous soil and the genial sky, +remain with charms unchanged, to testify how well the imperial eagle +chose the nest wherein to fold his wearied wings. From the balcony of +Charles's cabinet the eye ranges<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[Pg 381]</a></span> over a foreground of rounded knolls, +clad in walnut and chestnut, in which the mountain dies gently away +into the broad bosom of the Vera. Not a building is in sight, but a +summer-house, peering above mulberry tops, at the lower side of the +garden, and a hermitage of Our Lady of Solitude, about a mile distant, +hung upon a rocky height, that swells like an isle out of the sea of +forest. Immediately below the windows the garden slopes gently to the +sun, shaded here and there with the massive foliage of the fig, or +feathery almond boughs, and breathing perfume from tall orange-trees, +cuttings of which some monks, themselves transplanted, vainly strove +to keep alive at the bleak Escorial. And beyond the west wall, filling +all the wide space in front of the gates of the convent and the +palace, rises the noble shade of the great walnut-tree, <i>el nogal +grande</i>, of Yuste—a forest king, which has seen the hermit's cell +rise into a royal convent, and sink into a ruin; which has seen the +beginning and the end of the Spanish order of Jerome, and the Spanish +dynasty of Austria.</p> + +<p>At Xarandilla, Charles had cast aside the last shreds of the purple. +The annual revenue which he had reserved to himself out of the wealth +of half the world, was twelve thousand ducats, or about fifteen +hundred pounds sterling. His confidential attendants were eleven in +number: Luis Quixada, chamberlain and chief of the household; Martin +Gatzelu, secretary; William Van Male, gentleman of the chamber; Moron, +gentleman of the chamber and almoner; Juan Gaytan, steward; Henrique +Matisio Charles Pubest, usher; and two valets. Juanelo Turiano, an +Italian engineer, who had acquired a considerable reputation by his +hydraulic works to supply water to the Alcazar of Toledo, was engaged +to assist in the philosophical experiments and mechanical labors which +formed the emperor's principal amusement. Last, but not least, a +Jeromite father from Sta. Engracia, at Zaragoza, Fray Juan de Regla, +filled the important post of confessor. The lower rank of servants, +cooks, brewers, bakers, grooms, and scullions, and a couple of +laundresses, swelled the total number of his household to about sixty +persons, an establishment not greater than was then maintained by many +a private hidalgo.</p> + +<p>The mayordomo, Luis Quixada, or, to give him his entire appellation, +Luis Mendez Quixada Manuel de Figueredo y Mendoza, is worthy of +notice, not only as first minister of this tiny court, but as being +closely associated with one of the greatest names in the military +history of Europe. A courtier and soldier from his early youth, he was +heir of an elder brother, slain before Tunis, who had been one of the +most distinguished captains of the famous infantry of Castille; and he +had been himself for many years the tried companion-in-arms and the +trusted personal friend of the emperor. In 1549, he married Doña +Magdalena de Ulloa, a lady of ancient race and gentlest nature, with +whom he retired for a while to his patrimonial lordship of +Villagarcia, near Valladolid.</p> + +<p>On his quitting the court at Brussels, Charles confided to his care +his illegitimate son, Don Juan of Austria, then a boy of four years +old, exacting a promise of strict secrecy as to his parentage. The boy +was accordingly brought up with the tenderest care by the childless +Magdalena: and the secret of his birth so well kept, that she, for +many years, suspected him to be the fruit of some early attachment of +her lord. When the emperor retired to Yuste, Quixada followed him +thither, removing his household from Villagarcia, and establishing it +in the neighborhood of the convent, probably in the village of Quacos.</p> + +<p>He was thus enabled to enjoy somewhat of the society of his wife, and +the emperor had the gratification of seeing his son when he chose. Don +Juan was now a fine lad, in his eleventh year. He passed amongst the +neighbors for Quixada's page, and remained under the guardianship of +Doña Magdalena, whose efforts to imbue him with devotion towards the +Blessed Virgin are supposed by his historians to have borne good fruit +in the banners, embroidered with Our Lady's image, which floated from +his galleys at Lepanto. He likewise exercised in the Yuste forest the +cross-bow, which had dealt destruction amongst the sparrows of +Leganes, his early home in Castille.</p> + +<p>If the number of servants in the train of Charles should savor, in +this age, somewhat of unnecessary parade, the ascetic character of the +recluse will be redeemed by a glance at the interior of his dwelling. +"The palace of Yuste, when prepared for his reception, seemed," says +the historian Sandoval, "rather to have been newly pillaged by the +enemy, than furnished for a great prince." Accustomed from his infancy +to the finest tapestry designed by Italian pencils for the looms of +Flanders, he now lived within walls entirety bare, except in his +bedchamber, which was hung with coarse brown or black cloth. The sole +appliances for rest to be found in his apartments were a bed and an +old arm-chair, not worth four reals. Four silver trenchers of the +plainest kind, for the use of his table, were the only things amongst +his goods and chattels which could tempt a thief to break through and +steal. A few choice pictures alone remained with him, as memorials of +the magnificence which he had foregone, and of the arts which he had +so loved. Over the high altar of the convent church, and within sight +of his bed, he is said to have placed that celebrated composition +known as The Glory of Titian, a picture of the Last Judgment, in which +Charles, his beautiful empress, and their royal children, were +represented, in the great painter's noblest style, as entering the +heavenly mansions of life eternal. He had also brought with him a +portrait of the empress,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[Pg 382]</a></span> and a picture of Our Lord's Agony in the +Garden, likewise from the easel of Titian; and there is now at the +Escorial a masterpiece by the same hand—St. Jerome praying in his +garden, which is traditionally reputed to have hung in his oratory at +Yuste.</p> + +<p>From the garden beneath the palace windows the emperor's table was +supplied with fruit and vegetables: and a couple of cows, grazing in +the forest, furnished him with milk. A pony and an old mule composed +the entire stud of the prince, who formerly took peculiar pleasure in +possessing the stoutest chargers of Guelderland, and the fleetest +genets of Cordova.</p> + +<p>To atone, perhaps, for such deficiency of creature comforts, the +general of the Jeromites and the prior of Yuste had been at some pains +to provide their guest with spiritual luxuries. Knowing his passionate +love of music, they had recruited the force of their choir with +fourteen or fifteen brethren, distinguished for their fine voices and +musical skill. And for his sole benefit and delectation, they had +provided no less than three preachers, the most eloquent in the +Spanish fold of Jerome. The first of these, Fray Juan de Açaloras, +harangued his way to the bishopric of the Canaries; the second, Fray +Francisco de Villalva, also obtained by his sermons great fame, and +the post of chaplain to Philip II.; while the third, Fray Juan de +Santandres, though less noted as an orator, was had in reverence as a +prophet, having foretold the exact day and hour of his own death.</p> + +<p>A short time sufficed for the emperor to accustom himself to the +simple and changeless tenor of monastic life. Every morning his +confessor appeared at his bed-side, to inquire how he had passed the +night, and to assist him in his private devotions. At ten he rose, and +was dressed by his valets; after which he heard mass in the convent +church. According to his invariable habit, which in Italy was said to +have given rise to the saying, <i>dalla messa, alla mensa</i> (from mass to +mess), he went from church to dinner, about noon. Eating had ever been +one of his favorite pleasures, and it was now the only physical +gratification which he could still enjoy, or was unable to resist. He +continued, therefore, to dine upon the rich dishes against which his +ancient and trusty confessor, Cardinal Loaysa, had vainly protested a +quarter of a century before. Eel-pasties, anchovies, and frogs were +the savory food which he loved, unwisely and too well, as Frederick +afterwards loved his polenta. The meal was long, for his teeth were +few and far between; and his hands, also, were much disabled by gout, +in spite of which he always chose to carve for himself. His physician +attended him at table, and at least learned the cause of the mischiefs +which his art was to counteract. While he dined, he conversed with the +doctor on matters of science, generally of natural history, and if any +difference of opinion arose between them, the confessor was sent for +to settle the point out of Pliny. When the cloth was drawn, Fray Juan +de Regla came to read to him, generally from one of his favorite +divines,—Augustine, Jerome, or Bernard; an exercise which was +followed by conversation and an hour of slumber. At three o'clock, the +monks were assembled in the convent to hear a sermon delivered by one +of the imperial preachers, or a passage read from the Bible, usually +from the epistle to the Romans, the emperor's favorite book. To these +discourses or readings Charles always listened with profound +attention; and if sickness or letter-writing prevented his attendance, +he never failed to send a formal excuse to the prior, and to require +from his confessor an account of what had been preached or read. The +rest of the afternoon he sometimes whiled away in the workshop of +Turriano, and in the construction of pieces of mechanism, especially +clocks, of which more than a hundred were said, in one rather +improbable account, to tick in the emperor's apartments, and reckon to +a fraction the hours of his retired leisure. Sometimes he fed his pet +birds, which appear to have taken the place of the stately wolf-hounds +that followed at his heel in the days when he sat to Titian; or a +stroll amongst his fruit-trees and flowers filled up the time to +vespers and supper. At the lower end of the garden, approached by a +closely shaded path, there may still be seen the ruins of a little +summer-house, closely enbowered, and looking out upon the woodlands of +the Vera. Beyond this limit the emperor rarely extended his +excursions, which were always made, slowly and painfully, on foot; for +the first time that he mounted his pony he was seized with a violent +giddiness, and almost fell into the arms of his attendants. Such was +the last appearance, in the saddle, of the accomplished cavalier, of +whom his troopers used to say, that had he not been born a king, he +would have been the prince of light-horsemen, and whose seat and hand +excited at Calais gate the admiration of the English knights fresh +from the tournays—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Where England vied with France in pride<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On the famous field of gold."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Music, which had been one of the chief pleasures of his secular life, +continued to solace and cheer him to the last. In the conduct of the +organ and the choir he took the greatest interest, and through the +window which opened from his bedchamber upon the high altar, his voice +might often be heard accompanying the chant of the friars. His ear +never failed to detect a wrong note, and the mouth whence it came; and +he would frequently mutter the name of the offender, with the addition +of "<i>hideputa bermejo</i>," or some other epithet which savored rather of +the soldier than the saint. Guerrero, a chapel-master of Seville, +having presented him with his book of masses and motets, he caused one +of the former to be performed before him. When it was ended, he +remarked to his confessor that Guerrero was a cunning thief; and going +over the piece,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">[Pg 383]</a></span> he pointed out the plagiarisms with which it +abounded, and named the composers whose works had suffered pillage.</p> + +<p>In laying down the sceptre, Charles had resolved to have no farther +personal concern with temporal affairs. The petitioners, who at first +besieged his retreat, soon ceased from troubling when they found +themselves referred to the princess-regent at Valladolid, or to the +king in Flanders. He declined giving any attention to matters beyond +the walls of the convent, unless they concerned the interests of his +children or the church. His advice was, however, frequently asked by +his son and daughter, and couriers often went and came between Yuste +and the courts. But with the patronage of the state he never +interfered, except on two occasions, when he recommended the case of a +Catalonian lady to the favorable consideration of the Infanta, and +asked for an order of knighthood for a veteran brother in arms.</p> + +<p>The rites of religion now formed the business of his life, and he +transacted that business with his usual method and regularity. No +enthusiast novice was ever more solicitous to fulfil to the letter +every law of his rubric. On the first Sunday of his residence at the +convent, as he went to high mass, he observed the friar who was +sprinkling the holy water, hesitate when his turn came to be aspersed. +Taking the hyssop, therefore, from his hand, he bestowed a plentiful +shower upon his own face and clothes, saying as he returned the +instrument, "This, father, is the way you must do it, next time." +Another friar, offering the pyx to his lips in a similar diffident +manner, he took it between his hands, and not only kissed it +fervently, but applied it to his forehead and eyes with true oriental +reverence. Although provided with an indulgence for eating before +communion, he never availed himself of it but when he was suffering +from extreme debility; and he always heard two masses on the days when +he received the eucharist. On Ash Wednesday, he required his entire +household, down to the meanest scullion, to communicate, and on these +occasions he stood on the top step of the altar, to observe that the +muster was complete. For the benefit of his Flemings, he had a +chaplain of their country, who lived at Xarandilla, and came over at +stated times, when his flock were assembled for confession. The +emperor himself usually heard mass from the window of his bedchamber, +which looked into the church; but at complines he went up into the +choir with the fathers, and prayed in a devout and audible tone, in +his tribune. During the season of Lent, which came round twice during +his residence at Yuste, he regularly appeared in his place in the +choir, on Fridays, when it was the custom of the fraternity to perform +their discipline in public; and at the end of the appointed prayers, +extinguishing the taper which he, like the rest, held in his hand, he +flogged himself with such sincerity of purpose, that the scourge was +stained with blood, and the beholders singularly edified. On Good +Friday, he went forth at the head of his household, to adore the holy +cross; and although he was so infirm that he was obliged to be almost +carried by the men on whom he leaned, he insisted upon prostrating +himself three times upon the ground, in the manner of the friars, +before he approached the blessed symbol with his lips. The feast of +St. Matthew, his birthday—a day of great things in his life,—he +always celebrated with peculiar devotion. He appeared at mass, in a +dress of ceremony, and wearing the collar of the Fleece; and at the +time of the offertory, he went forward, and expressed his gratitude to +God by a large donation. The church was thronged with strangers; and +the crowd who could not gain admittance was so great, that one sermon +was preached outside, whilst another was being pronounced before the +emperor and his household within.</p> + +<p>With the friars, his hosts, Charles lived on the most familiar and +friendly footing. When the visitors of the order paid their triennial +visit of inspection to Yuste, they represented to him, with all +respect, that his majesty himself was the only inmate of the convent +with whom they had any fault to find; and they entreated him to +discontinue those benefactions which he was in the habit of bestowing +on the fraternity, and which the rule of St. Jerome did not allow his +children to receive. He knew all the fathers by name and by sight, and +frequently conversed with them, as well as with the prior. One of his +favorites was a lay-brother, called Alonso Mudarra, once a man of rank +and family in the world, and now working out his own salvation in the +humble post of cook to the convent. This worthy had an only daughter, +who did not share her father's contempt for mundane things. When she +came with her husband to visit him at Yuste, Fray Alonso, arrayed in +his dirtiest apron, thus addressed her: "Daughter, behold my gala +apparel; obedience is now my treasure and my pride; for you, in your +silks and vanities, I entertain profound pity." So saying, he returned +to his kitchen, and would never see her more: an effort of holiness to +which he appears to owe his place in the chronicles of the order.</p> + +<p>The emperor was conversing one day with his confessor, Regla, when +that priest chose to speak, in the mitre-shunning cant of his cloth, +of the great reluctance which he had felt in accepting a post of such +weighty responsibility. "Never fear," said Charles, somewhat +maliciously, and as if conscious that he was dealing with a hypocrite; +"before I left Flanders, four doctors were engaged for a whole year in +easing my conscience; so you have nothing to answer for but what +happens here."</p> + +<p>When he had completed a year of residence at the convent, some +good-humored bantering passed between him and the master of the +novices about its being now time for him to make profession; and he +afterwards said that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[Pg 384]</a></span> he was prevented from taking the vows of the +order, and becoming a monk in earnest, only by the state of his +health. St. Blas's day, 1558, the anniversary of his arrival, was held +as a festival, and celebrated by masses, the <i>Te Deum</i>, a precession +by the fathers, and a sermon by Villalva. In the afternoon, the +emperor gave a sumptuous repast to the whole convent, out in the +fields, it being the custom of the fraternity to celebrate any +accession to their number by a pic-nic. The country people about +Plasencia sent a quantity of partridges and kids to aid the feast, +which was likewise enlivened by the presence of the Flemish servants, +male and female, and his other retainers, from the village of Quacos. +The prior provided a more permanent memorial of the day by opening a +new book for the names of brethren admitted into the convent, on the +first leaf of which the emperor inscribed his name—an autograph which +remained the pride of the archives till their destruction by the +dragoons of Buonaparte.</p> + +<p>The retired emperor had not many visitors in his solitude; and of +these few, Juan de Vega, president of the council of Castille, +was the only personage in high office. He was sent down by the +princess-regent, apparently to see that her father was treated with +due attention by the provincial authorities. But with his neighbors, +great and small, Charles lived in a state of amity which it would have +been well for the world had he been able to maintain with his +fellow-potentates of Christendom. The few nobles and gentry of the +Vera were graciously received when they came to pay their respects at +Yuste. Oropesa and his brothers frequently rode forth from Xarandilla, +to inquire after the health of their former guest. From Plasencia came +a still more distinguished and no less welcome guest, Luis de Avila, +comendador-mayor of Alcantara. Long the <i>fidus Achates</i> of the +emperor, this soldier-courtier had obtained considerable fame by +becoming his Quintus Curtius. His Commentaries on the Wars against the +Protestants of Germany, first published in 1546, had been several +times reprinted, and had already been translated into Latin, French, +Flemish, English, and Italian. Having married the wealthy heiress of +the Zuñigas, he was now living in laurelled ease at Plasencia, in that +fine palace of Mirabel, which is still one of the chief ornaments of +the beautiful city. The memoirs of the campaigns in Africa, which he +is said to have left in manuscript, were perhaps the occupation of his +leisure. Charles always received his historian with kindness, and it +is characteristic of the times, that it was noted as a mark of +singular favor, that he ordered a capon to be reserved for him from +his own well-supplied board. It may seem strange that a retired +prince, who had never been a lover of parade, should not have broken +through the ceremonial law which condemned a monarch to eat alone. But +we must remember that he was a Spaniard living amongst Spaniards; and +that, near a century later, the force of forms was still so strong, +that the great minister of France, when most wanting in ships, +preferred that the Spanish fleet should retire from the blockade of +Rochelle rather than that the admiral should wear his grandee hat in +the Most Christian presence.</p> + +<p>The emperor was fond of talking over his feats of arms with the +veteran who had shared and recorded them. One day, in the course of +such conversation, Don Luis said he had caused a ceiling of his house +to be painted in fresco, with a view of the battle of Renti, and the +Frenchmen flying before the soldiers of Castille. "Not so," said +Charles; "let the painter modify this if he can; for it was no +headlong flight, but an honorable retreat." This was not the less +candid, that French historians claim the victory for their own side. +Considering that the action had been fought only three or four years +before it was said to have been painted, it is possible that Renti has +been substituted for the name of some other less doubtful field. But +Luis de Avila was of easy faith when the honor of Castille was +concerned, and may well be supposed capable of setting down a success +to the wrong account, when he did not hesitate to record it in his +book, that the miracle of Ajalon had been repeated at Muhlberg. Some +years afterwards, the duke of Alva, who had been in that battle, was +asked by the French king whether he had observed that the sun stood +still. "I was so busy that day," said the old soldier, "with what was +passing on earth, that I had no time to notice what took place in +heaven."</p> + +<p>An anecdote of Avila and his master, though not falling within the +period of their retirement to Estremadura, may be related here, as +serving to show the characters of the two men. Some years before his +abdication, Charles had amused the leisure of his sick-room by making +a prose translation of Olivier de la Marches' forgotten allegorical +poem, <i>Le Chevalier deliberé</i>. He then employed Fernando de Acunha, a +man of letters attached to the Saxon court, to turn his labors into +Castillian verse, and he finally handed it over to William Van Male, +one of the gentlemen of the chamber, telling him that he might publish +it for his own benefit. Avila and the other Spaniards, hearing of the +concession, wickedly affected the greatest envy at the good fortune of +the Fleming; the historian, in particular, in his quality of author, +assuring the emperor that the publication could not fail to realize a +profit of five hundred crowns. That desire to print, which, more or +less developed, exists in every man who writes, being thus stimulated +by the suggestion, that to gratify that desire, would be to confer a +favor which should cost him nothing, Charles became impatient to see +his lucubrations in type. Insisting that his bounty should be accepted +at once, he turned a deaf ear to the timid hints of Van Male, as to +the risk and expense of the speculation; and the end was, that the +poor man had to pay Jean Steels for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">[Pg 385]</a></span> printing and publishing two +thousand copies of a book which is now scarce, probably because the +greater part of the impression passed at once from the publisher to +the pastry-cook. The waggery on the part of Avila was the more wicked, +because the victim had translated his Commentaries into Latin for him. +It forms, however, the subject of an agreeable letter, wherein Van +Male complains of the undue expectations raised in the emperor's mind +by his "windy Spaniards," and ruefully looks forward to reaping a +harvest of mere straw and chaff.</p> + +<p>It was not only by calling at Yuste that the noble lieges of the +emperor testified their homage. Mules were driven to his gate laden +with more substantial tokens of loyalty and affection. The Count of +Oropesa kept his table supplied with game from the forest and the +hill; and the prelates of Toledo, Mondoñedo, Segovia, and Salamanca, +offered similar proofs that they had not forgotten the giver of their +mitres. The Jeromites of Guadalupe, rich in sheep and beeves, sent +calves, lambs fattened on bread, and delicate fruits; and from his +sister Catharine, queen of Portugal, there came every fortnight a +supply of conserves and linen.</p> + +<p>The villagers of Quacos alone furnished some exceptions to the respect +in which their imperial neighbor was held. Although they received the +greater part of the hundred ducats which he dispensed every month for +charitable purposes, they poached the trout in the fish-ponds which +had been formed for his service in Garganta la Olla; and they drove +his cows to the parish pound whenever they strayed beyond their +legitimate pastures. One fellow having sold the crop on his +cherry-tree, at double its value, to the emperor's purveyor, when he +found that it was left ungathered for a few days, took the opportunity +of disposing of it a second time to another purchaser, who, of course, +left nothing but bare boughs to the rightful owner of the fruit. +Wearied with these annoyances, the emperor complained to the president +of Castille, who administered to the district judge, one Licentiate +Murga, a severe rebuke, which that functionary, in his turn, visited +upon the unruly rustics. Several culprits were apprehended; but while +Castillian justice was taking its deliberate course, some of them who +were related to friars of Yuste, by the influence of their friends at +court, got the emperor himself to petition that the sentence might be +light.</p> + +<p>To his servants Charles was a kind and lenient master. He bore +patiently with Adrian the cook, though he left the cinnamon that he +loved out of the dishes; and he contented himself with mildly +admonishing Pelayo, the baker, who got drunk and neglected his oven, +of which the result was burnt bread that sorely tried the toothless +gums of his master. His old military habits, however, still adhered to +him, and though gentle in his manner of enforcing it, he was something +of a martinet in maintaining the discipline of his household and the +convent. Nor had he lost that love of petty economies which made him +sit bare-headed in the rain without the walls of Naumburg, saving a +new velvet cap under his arm, while they fetched him an old one from +the town. Observing in his walks, or from his window, that a certain +basket daily came and went between his garden and the garden of the +friars, he caused Moron to institute an examination, which led to the +harmless discovery that his Flemings were in the habit of bartering +egg-plants with the Jeromites for onions. He had also been disturbed +by suspicious gatherings of young women at the convent-gate, who stood +there gossiping under pretence of receiving alms. When the visitors +came their rounds, he therefore brought the matter under their notice. +The result of the complaint was that the conventional dole was ordered +to be sent round in certain portions to the alcaldes of the various +villages, for distribution on the spot; and, moreover, the crier went +down the straggling, uneven street of Quacos, making the ungallant +proclamation, that any woman who should be found nearer to Yuste than +a certain oratory, about two gunshots from the gate, should be +punished with a hundred stripes.</p> + +<p>In the month of September, 1557, the emperor received a visit from his +sisters, the queens Eleanor and Mary. These royal widows, weary of +Guadalaxara, its unyielding duke, and its troublesome alcalde, were +once more in search of a residence. They had cast their eyes on the +banks of the Guadiana, and they were now on their way to that frontier +of Portugal. Neither the convent nor the palace of Yuste being +sufficiently commodious to receive them, they lived at Xarandilla, as +guests of Oropesa. The shattered health of the queen of France +rendered the journey from the castle to the convent, although +performed in a litter, so fatiguing to her, that she accomplished it +only twice. Nor was her brother's strength sufficient to enable him to +return the visits of his favorite sister. But queen Mary was seven +years younger, and still possessed much of the vigor which amazed +Roger Ascham, when he met her galloping into Tongres, far ahead of her +suit, although it was the tenth day she had passed in the saddle. She +therefore mounted her horse almost every day, and rode through the +fading forest to converse with the recluse at Yuste. At the end of a +fortnight, the queens took a sorrowful leave of their brother, and +proceeded on their way to Badajoz, whither the Infanta Mary of +Portugal, daughter of queen Eleanor, had come from Lisbon to receive +them. After this meeting, which was destined to be the last, the +queens returned to the little town of Talaverilla, on the bare plains +of Merida, where they had determined to fix their abode. But they +found there no continuing city. In a few weeks, Eleanor was seized +with a fever, which carried her off on the 25th of February, 1558, the +sixtieth year of her age. When the em<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">[Pg 386]</a></span>peror heard of her illness, he +dispatched Luis Quixada to attend upon her; but she was already at +rest ere the mayordomo reached Talaverilla. Queen Mary went back with +Quixada to Yuste. Her health being much shaken, and the emperor being +unable to move from the convent, she was lodged, on this occasion, in +his apartments. At the end of eight days she bade him a last farewell, +and retired to Cigales, a hamlet two leagues north of Valladolid, and +crowning a vine-clad hill on the western side of the valley of the +Pisuerga.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> Sandoval says he left on the 4th November; Cabrera, that +he left on the 1st; and Siguenca gives the end of October as the time +of his departure.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h4>From Household Words.</h4> +<h2><a name="OUR_PHANTOM_SHIP_AMONG_THE_ICE" id="OUR_PHANTOM_SHIP_AMONG_THE_ICE"></a>OUR PHANTOM SHIP AMONG THE ICE.</h2> + + +<p>Yonder is the coast of Norway; we shall soon be at Spitzbergen. The +"Phantom" is fitted out for Arctic exploration, with instructions to +find her way, by the north-west, to Behring Straits, and take the +South Pole on her passage home. Just now, we steer due north, and +yonder is the coast of Norway. From that coast parted Hugh Willoughby, +three hundred years ago; the first of our countrymen who wrought an +ice-bound highway to Cathay. Two years afterwards his ships were +found, in the haven of Arzina, in Lapland, by some Russian fishermen; +near and about them Willoughby and his companions—seventy dead men. +The ships were freighted with their frozen crews, and sailed for +England; but, "being unstaunch, as it is supposed by their two years' +wintering in Lapland, sunk, by the way, with their dead, and them also +that brought them."</p> + +<p>Ice floats about us now, and here is a whale blowing; a whale, too, +very near Spitzbergen. When first Spitzbergen was discovered, in the +good old times, there were whales here in abundance; then a hundred +Dutch ships in a crowd, might go to work, and boats might jostle with +each other, and the only thing deficient would be stowage room for all +the produce of the fishery. Now one ship may have the whole field to +itself, and travel home with an imperfect cargo. It was fine fun in +the good old times; there was no need to cruise. Coppers and boilers +were fitted on the island, and little colonies about them, in the +fishing season, had nothing to do but tow the whales in, with a boat, +as fast as they were wanted by the copper. No wonder that so enviable +a Tom Tidler's ground was claimed by all who had a love for gold and +silver. The English called it theirs, for they first fished; the Dutch +said, nay, but the island was of their discovery; Danes, Hamburghers, +Biscayans, Spaniards, and French put in their claims; and at length, +it was agreed to make partitions. The numerous bays and harbors which +indent the coast were divided among the rival nations; and to this +day, many of them bear, accordingly, such names as English Bay, Danes +Bay, and so forth. One bay there is, with graves in it, named Sorrow. +For it seemed to the fishers most desirable, if possible, to plant +upon this island permanent establishments, and condemned convicts were +offered, by the Russians, life and pardon, if they would winter in +Spitzbergen. They agreed; but, when they saw the icy mountains and the +stormy sea, repented, and went back, to meet a death exempt from +torture. The Dutch tempted free men, by high rewards, to try the +dangerous experiment. One of their victims left a journal, which +describes his sufferings and that of his companions. Their mouths, he +says, became so sore that, if they had food, they could not eat; their +limbs were swollen and disabled with excruciating pain; they died of +scurvy. Those who died first were coffined by their dying friends; a +row of coffins was found, in the spring, each with a man in it; two +men uncoffined, side by side, were dead upon the floor. The journal +told, how once the traces of a bear excited their hope of fresh meat +and amended health; how, with a lantern, two or three had limped upon +the track, until the light became extinguished, and they came back in +despair to die. We might speak, also, of eight English sailors, left, +by accident, upon Spitzbergen, who lived to return and tell their +winter's tale; but a long journey is before us, and we must not linger +on the way. As for our whalers, it need scarcely be related that the +multitude of whales diminished as the slaughtering went on, until it +was no longer possible to keep the coppers full. The whales had to be +searched for by the vessels, and thereafter it was not worth while to +take the blubber to Spitzbergen to be boiled; and the different +nations, having carried home their coppers, left the apparatus of +those fishing stations to decay.</p> + +<p>Take heed. There is a noise like thunder, and a mountain snaps in two. +The upper half comes, crashing, grinding, down into the sea, and +loosened streams of water follow it. The sea is displaced before the +mighty heap; it boils and scatters up a cloud of spray; it rushes +back, and violently beats upon the shore. The mountain rises from its +bath, sways to and fro, while water pours along its mighty sides; now +it is tolerably quiet, letting crackers off as air escapes out of its +cavities. That is an iceberg, and in that way are all icebergs formed. +Mountains of ice formed by rain and snow—grand Arctic glaciers, +undermined by the sea or by accumulation overbalanced—topple down +upon the slightest provocation (moved by a shout, perhaps) and where +they float, as this black looking fellow does, they need deep water. +This berg in height is about ninety feet, and a due balance requires +that a mass nine times as large as the part visible should be +submerged. Icebergs are seen about us now which rise two hundred feet +above the water's level.</p> + +<p>There are above head plenty of aquatic birds; ashore, or on the ice, +are bears, foxes, reindeer; and in the sea there are innumerable +animals. We shall not see so much life near the North Pole, that is +certain. It would be worth while to go ashore upon an islet there, +near Vogel Sang, to pay a visit to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">[Pg 387]</a></span> eider-ducks. Their nests are +so abundant that one cannot avoid treading on them. When the duck is +driven by a hungry fox to leave her eggs, she covers them with down, +in order that they may not cool during her absence, and, moreover, +glues the down into a case with a secretion supplied to her by Nature +for that purpose. The deserted eggs are safe, for that secretion has +an odor very disagreeable to the intruder's nose.</p> + +<p>We still sail northward, among sheets of ice, whose boundaries are not +beyond our vision from the mast-head—these are "floes;" between them +we find easy way, it is fair "sailing ice." In the clear sky to the +north, a streak of lucid white light is the reflection from an icy +surface; that is "ice-blink," in the language of these seas. The glare +from snow is yellow, while open water gives a dark reflection.</p> + +<p>Northward still; but now we are in fog the ice is troublesome; a gale +is rising. Now, if our ship had timbers, they would crack, and if she +had a bell it would be tolling; if we were shouting to each other we +should not hear, the sea is in a fury. With wild force its breakers +dash against a heaped-up wall of broken ice, that grinds and strains +and battles fiercely with the water. This is "the pack," the edge of a +great ice-field broken by the swell. It is a perilous and exciting +thing to push through pack ice in a gale.</p> + +<p>Now there is ice as far as eye can see, that is "an ice-field." Masses +are forced up like colossal tombstones on all sides; our sailors call +them "hummocks;" here and there the broken ice displays large "holes +of water." Shall we go on? Upon this field, in 1827, Parry adventured +with his men, to reach the North Pole, if that should be possible. +With sledges and portable boats they labored on, through snow, and +over hummocks; launching their boats over the larger holes of water. +With stout hearts, undaunted by toil or danger, they went boldly on, +though by degrees it became clear to the leaders of the expedition, +that they were almost like mice upon a treadmill cage, making a great +expenditure of leg for little gain. The ice was floating to the south +with them, as they were walking to the north; still they went on. +Sleeping by day to avoid the glare, and to get greater warmth during +the time of rest, and travelling by night,—watch-makers' days and +nights, for it was all one polar day,—the men soon were unable to +distinguish noon from midnight. The great event of one day on this +dreary waste was the discovery of two flies upon an ice hummock; +these, says Parry, became at once a topic of ridiculous importance. +Presently, after twenty-three miles walking, they only had gone one +mile forward, the ice having industriously floated twenty-two miles in +an opposite direction; and then, after walking forward eleven miles, +they found themselves to be three miles behind the place from which +they started. The party accordingly returned, not having reached the +Pole, not having reached the eighty-third parallel, for the attainment +of which there was a reward of a thousand pounds held out by +government. They reached the parallel of eighty-two degrees, +forty-five minutes, which was, and still is, the most northerly point +trodden by the foot of man. From that point they returned. In those +high latitudes they met with a phenomenon, common in alpine regions, +as well as at the Pole, red snow. The red color being caused by the +abundance of a minute plant, of low development, the last dweller on +the borders of the vegetable kingdom. More interesting to the sailors +was a fat she bear which they killed and devoured with a zeal to be +repented of; for on reaching navigable sea, and pushing in their boats +to Table Island, where some stones were left, they found that the +bears had eaten all their bread, whereon the men agreed that "Bruin +was now square with them." An islet next to Table Island—they are +both mere rocks—is the most northern land discovered. Therefore, +Parry applied to it the name of lieutenant—now Sir James—Ross. This +compliment Sir James Ross has acknowledged in the most emphatic +manner, by discovering on his part, at the other Pole, the most +southern land yet seen, and giving to it the name of Parry: "Parry +Mountains."</p> + +<p>It very probably would not be difficult under such circumstances as +Sir W. Parry has since recommended, to reach the North Pole along this +route. Then (especially if it be true, as many believe, that there is +a region of open sea about the Pole itself) we might find it as easy +to reach Behring Straits, by travelling in a straight line over the +North Pole, as by threading the straits and bays north of America.</p> + +<p>We turn our course until we have in sight a portion of the ice-barred +eastern coast of Greenland, Shannon Island. Somewhere about this spot +in the seventy-fifth parallel is the most northern part of that coast +known to us. Colonel—then Captain—Sabine in the "Griper," was landed +there to make magnetic and other observations; for the same purpose he +had previously visited Sierra Leone. That is where we differ from our +forefathers. They commissioned hardy seamen to encounter peril for the +search of gold ore, or for a near road to Cathay, but our peril is +encountered for the gain of knowledge, for the highest kind of service +that can now be rendered to the human race.</p> + +<p>Before we leave the northern sea, we must not omit to mention the +voyage by Spitzbergen northward, in 1818, of Captain Buchan in the +"Dorothea," accompanied by Lieutenant Franklin, in the "Trent." It was +Sir John Franklin's first voyage to the Arctic regions. This trip +forms the subject of a delightful book by Captain Beechey.</p> + +<p>On our way to the south point of Greenland we pass near Cape North, a +point of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">[Pg 388]</a></span> Iceland. Iceland, we know, is the centre of a volcanic +region, whereof Norway and Greenland are at opposite points of the +circumference. In connection with this district there is a remarkable +fact; that by the agency of subterranean forces a large portion of +Norway and Sweden is being slowly upheaved. While Greenland, on the +west coast, as gradually sinks into the sea, Norway rises at the rate +of about four feet in a century. In Greenland the sinking is so well +known that the natives never build close to the water's edge, and the +Moravian missionaries more than once have had to move farther inland +the poles on which their boats are rested.</p> + +<p>Our Phantom Ship stands fairly now along the western coast of +Greenland into Davis Straits. We observe that upon this western coast +there is, by a great deal, less ice than on the eastern. That is a +rule generally. Not only the configuration of the straits and bays, +but also the earth's rotation from west to east, causes the currents +here to set towards the west, and wash the western coasts, while they +act very little on the eastern. We steer across Davis Strait, among +"an infinite number of great countreys and islands of yee;" there, +near the entrance, we find Hudson Strait, which does not now concern +us. Islands probably separate this well-known channel from Frobisher +Strait to the north of it, yet unexplored. Here let us recall to mind +the fleet of fifteen sail, under Sir Martin Frobisher, in 1578, +tossing about and parting company among the ice. Let us remember how +the crew of the "Anne Frances," in that expedition, built a pinnace +when their vessel struck upon a rock, although they wanted main timber +and nails. How they made a mimic forge, and "for the easier making of +nails, were forced to break their tongs, gridiron, and fire-shovel, in +pieces." How Master Captain Best, in this frail bark, with its +imperfect timbers held together by the metamorphosed gridiron and +fire-shovel, continued in his duty, and did "depart up the straights +as before was pretended." How a terrific storm arose, and the fleet +parted, and the intrepid captain was towed "in his small pinnace, at +the stern of the 'Michael,' thorow the raging seas; for the bark was +not able to receive or relieve half its company." The "tongs, +gridyron, and fire-shovell," performed their work only for as many +minutes as were absolutely necessary, for "the pinesse came no sooner +aboord the ship, and the men entred, but she presently shivered and +fell in pieces, and sunke at the ship's stern with all the poor men's +furniture."</p> + +<p>Now, too, as we sail up the strait, explored a few years after these +events by Master John Davis, how proudly we remember him as a right +worthy forerunner of those countrymen of his and ours who since have +sailed over his track. Nor ought we to pass without calling to mind +the melancholy fate, in 1606, of Master John Knight, driven, in the +"Hopwell," among huge masses of ice, with a tremendous surf, his +rudder knocked away, his ship half full of water, at the entrance to +these straits. Hoping to find a harbor, he set forth to explore a +large island, and landed, leaving two men to watch the boat, while he, +with three men and the mate, set forth and disappeared over a hill. +For thirteen hours the watchers kept their post; one had his trumpet +with him, for he was a trumpeter, the other had a gun. They trumpeted +often and loudly, they fired, but no answer came. They watched ashore +all night for the return of their captain and his party, "but they +came not at all."</p> + +<p>The season is advanced. As we sail on, the sea steams like a +lime-kiln, "frost-smoke" covers it. The water, cooled less rapidly, is +warmer now than the surrounding air, and yields this vapor in +consequence. By the time our vessel has reached Baffin's Bay, still +coasting along Greenland, in addition to old floes and bergs, the +water is beset with "pancake ice." That is the young ice when it first +begins to cake upon the surface. Innocent enough it seems, but it is +sadly clogging to the ships. It sticks about their sides like treacle +on a fly's wing; collecting unequally, it destroys all equilibrium, +and impedes the efforts of the steersman. Rocks split on the Greenland +coast with loud explosions, and more icebergs fall. Icebergs we soon +shall take our leave of; they are only found where there is a coast on +which glaciers can form; they are good for nothing but to yield fresh +water to the vessels; it will be all field, pack, and salt-water ice +presently.</p> + +<p>Now we are in Baffin's Bay, explored in the voyages of Bylot and +Baffin, 1615-16. When, in 1817, a great movement in the Greenland ice +caused many to believe that the northern passages would be found +comparatively clear; and when, in consequence of this impression, Sir +John Barrow succeeded in setting a-foot that course of modern Arctic +exploration, which has been continued to the present day, Sir John +Ross was the first man sent to find the north-west passage. Buchan and +Parry were commissioned at the same time to attempt the North Sea +route. Sir John Ross did little more on that occasion than effect a +survey of Baffin's Bay, and prove the accuracy of the ancient pilot. +In the extreme north of the bay there is an inlet or a channel, called +by Baffin Smith's Sound; this Sir John saw, but did not enter. It +never has been explored. It may be an inlet only; but it is also very +possible that by this channel ships might get into the Polar Sea, and +sail by the north shore of Greenland to Spitzbergen. Turning that +corner, and descending along the western coast of Baffin's Bay, there +is another inlet called Jones's Sound by Baffin, also unexplored. +These two inlets, with their very British titles, Smith and Jones, are +of exceeding interest. Jones's Sound may lead by a back way to +Melville Island. South<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">[Pg 389]</a></span> of Jones's Sound there is a wide break in the +shore, a great sound, named by Baffin, Lancaster's, which Sir John +Ross, in that first expedition, failed also to explore. Like our +transatlantic friends at the South Pole, he laid down a range of +clouds as mountains, and considered the way impervious; so he came +home.</p> + +<p>Parry went out next year, as a lieutenant, in command of his first and +most successful expedition. He sailed up Lancaster Sound, which was in +that year (1819) unusually clear of ice: and he is the discoverer +whose track we now follow in our Phantom Ship. The whole ground being +new, he had to name the points of country right and left of him. The +way was broad and open, due west, a most prosperous beginning for a +north-west passage. If this continued, he would soon reach Behring +Strait. A broad channel to the right, directed, that is to say, +southward, he entered on the Prince of Wales's birthday, and so called +it the "Prince Regent's Inlet." After exploring this for some miles, +he turned back to resume his western course, for still there was a +broad strait leading westward. This second part of Lancaster Sound, he +called after the Secretary of the Admiralty who had so indefatigably +labored to promote the expeditions, Barrow's Strait. Then he came to a +channel, turning to the right or northward, and he named that +Wellington Channel. Then he had on his right hand ice, islands large +and small, and intervening channels; on the left, ice, and a cape +visible, Cape Walker. At an island, named after the First Lord of the +Admiralty Melville Island, the great frozen wilderness barred further +progress. There he wintered. On the coast of Melville Island they had +passed the latitude of one hundred and ten degrees, and the men had +become entitled to a royal bounty of five thousand pounds. This group +of islands Parry called North Georgian, but they are usually called by +his own name, Parry Islands. This was the first European winter party +in the Arctic circle. Its details are familiar enough. How the men cut +in three days through ice seven inches thick, a canal two miles and a +half long, and so brought the ships into safe harbor. How the genius +of Parry equalled the occasion; how there was established a theatre +and a <i>North Georgian Gazette</i>, to cheer the tediousness of a night +which continued for two thousand hours. The dreary dazzling waste in +which there was that little patch of life, the stars, the fog, the +moonlight, the glittering wonder of the northern lights, in which, as +Greenlanders believe, souls of the wicked dance tormented, are +familiar to us. The she-bear stays at home; but the he-bear hungers, +and looks in vain for a stray seal or walrus—woe to the unarmed man +who meets him in his hungry mood! Wolves are abroad, and pretty white +arctic foxes. The reindeer have sought other pasture-ground. The +thermometer runs down to more than sixty degrees below freezing, a +temperature tolerable in calm weather, but distressing in a wind. The +eye-piece of the telescope must be protected now with leather, for the +skin is destroyed that comes in contact with cold metal. The voice at +a mile's distance can be heard distinctly. Happy the day when first +the sun is seen to graze the edge of the horizon; but summer must +come, and the heat of a constant day must accumulate, and summer wane, +before the ice is melted. Then the ice cracks, like cannons +over-charged, and moves with a loud grinding noise. But not yet is +escape to be made with safety. After a detention of ten months, Parry +got free; but, in escaping, narrowly missed the destruction of both +ships, by their being "nipped" between the mighty mass and the +unyielding shore. What animals are found on Melville Island, we may +judge from the results of sport during ten months' detention. The +Island exceeds five thousand miles square, and yielded to the gun, +three musk oxen, twenty-four deer, sixty-eight bears, fifty-three +geese, fifty-nine ducks, and one hundred and forty-four patarmigans, +weighing together three thousand seven hundred and sixty-six +pounds—not quite two ounces of meat per day to every man. Lichens, +stunted grass, saxifrage, and a feeble willow, are the plants of +Melville Island, but in sheltered nooks there are found sorrel, poppy, +and a yellow butter-cup. Halos and double suns are very common +consequences of refraction in this quarter of the world. Franklin +returned from his first and most famous voyage with his men all safe +and sound, except the loss of a few fingers, frost-bitten. We sail +back only as far as Regent's Inlet, being bound for Behring Strait. +The reputation of Sir John Ross being clouded by the discontent +expressed against his first expedition, Mr. Felix Booth, a rich +distiller, provided seventeen thousand pounds to enable his friend to +redeem his credit. Sir John accordingly, in 1829, went out in the +"Victory," provided with steam-machinery that did not answer well. He +was accompanied by Sir James Ross, his nephew. He it was who, on this +occasion, first surveyed Regent's Inlet, down which we are now sailing +with our Phantom Ship. The coast on our right hand, westward, which +Parry saw, is called North Somerset, but farther south, where the +inlet widens, the land is named Boothia Felix. Five years before this, +Parry, in his third voyage, had attempted to pass down Regent's Inlet, +where among ice and storm, one of his ships, the "Hecla," had been +driven violently ashore, and of necessity, abandoned. The stores had +been removed, and Sir John was able now to replenish his own vessel +from them. Rounding a point at the bottom of Prince Regent's Inlet, we +find Felix Harbor, where Sir John Ross wintered. His nephew made from +this point scientific explorations; discovered a strait, called after +him the Strait of James Ross, and on the northern shore of this +strait, on the main land of Boothia, planted the British flag on the +Northern Magnetic Pole. The ice broke up, so did the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">[Pg 390]</a></span> "Victory;" after +a hairbreadth escape, the party found a searching vessel, and arrived +home after an absence of four years and five months, Sir John Ross +having lost his ship, and won his reputation. The friend in need was +made a baronet for his munificence; Sir John was reimbursed for all +his losses, and the crew liberally taken care of. Sir James Ross had a +rod and flag signifying "Magnetic Pole," given to him for a new crest, +by the Heralds' College, for which he was no doubt greatly the better.</p> + +<p>We have sailed northward to get into Hudson Strait, the high road into +Hudson Bay. Along the shore are Exquimaux in boats, extremely active, +but these filthy creatures we pass by; the Exquimaux in Hudson Strait +are like the negroes of the coast, demoralized by intercourse with +European traders. These are not true pictures of the loving children +of the north. Our "Phantom" floats on the wide waters of Hudson +Bay—the grave of its discoverer. Familiar as the story is of Henry +Hudson's fate, for John King's sake how gladly we repeat it. While +sailing on the waters he discovered, in 1611, his men mutinied; the +mutiny was aided by Henry Green, a prodigal, whom Hudson had +generously shielded from ruin. Hudson, the master, and his son, with +six sick or disabled members of the crew, were driven from their +cabins, forced into a little shallop, and committed helpless to the +water and the ice. But there was one stout man, John King, the +carpenter, who stepped into the boat, abjuring his companions, and +chose rather to die than even passively be partaker in so foul a +crime. John King, we who live after, will remember you.</p> + +<p>Here on an island, Charlton Island, near our entrance to the bay, in +1631, wintered poor Captain James with his wrecked crew. This is a +point outside the Arctic circle, but quite cold enough. Of nights, +with a good fire in the house they built, hoar frost covered their +beds, and the cook's water in a metal pan before the fire, was warm on +one side, and froze on the other. Here "it snowed and froze extremely, +at which time we, looking from the shore towards the ship, she +appeared a piece of ice in the fashion of a ship, or a ship resembling +a piece of ice." Here the gunner, who had lost his leg, besought that, +"for the little time he had to live, he might drink sack altogether." +He died and was buried in the ice far from the vessel, but when +afterwards two more were dead of scurvy, and the others, in a +miserable state, were working with faint hope about their shattered +vessel, the gunner was found to have returned home to the old vessel; +his leg had penetrated through a porthole. They "digged him clear out, +and he was as free from noisomness," the record says, "as when we +first committed him to the sea. This alteration had the ice, and +water, and time, only wrought on him, that his flesh would slip up and +down upon his bones, like a glove on a man's hand. In the evening we +buried him by the others." These worthy souls, laid up with the +agonies of scurvy, knew that in action was their only hope; they +forced their limbs to labor, among ice and water, every day. They set +about the building of a boat, but the hard frozen wood had broken all +their axes, so they made shift with the pieces. To fell a tree, it was +first requisite to light a fire around it, and the carpenter could +only labor with his wood over a fire, or else it was like stone under +his tools. Before the boat was made they buried the carpenter. The +captain exhorted them to put their trust in God; "His will be done. If +it be our fortune to end our days here, we are as near Heaven as in +England. They all protested to work to the utmost of their strength, +and that they would refuse nothing that I should order them to do to +the utmost hazard of their lives. I thanked them all." Truly the North +Pole has its triumphs. If we took no account of the fields of trade +opened by our Arctic explorers, if we thought nothing of the wants of +science in comparison with the lives lost in supplying them, is not +the loss of life a gain, which proves and tests the fortitude of noble +hearts, and teaches us respect for human nature? All the lives that +have been lost among these Polar regions, are less in number than the +dead upon a battle-field. The battle-field inflicted shame upon our +race—is it with shame that our hearts throb in following these Arctic +heroes? March 31st, says Captain James, "was very cold, with snow and +hail, which pinched our sick men more than any time this year. This +evening, being May eve, we returned late from our work to our house, +and made a good fire, and chose ladies, and ceremoniously wore their +names in our caps, endeavoring to revive ourselves by any means. On +the 15th, I manured a little patch of ground that was bare of snow, +and sowed it with pease, hoping to have some shortly to eat, for as +yet we could see no green thing to comfort us." Those pease saved the +party; as they came up the young shoots were boiled and eaten, so +their health began to mend, and they recovered from their scurvy. +Eventually, after other perils, they succeeded making their escape.</p> + +<p>A strait, called Sir Thomas Rowe's Welcome, leads due north out of +Hudson Bay, being parted by Southampton Island from the strait through +which we entered. Its name is quaint, for so was its discoverer, Luke +Fox, a worthy man, addicted much to euphuism. Fox sailed from London +in the same year in which James sailed from Bristol. They were rivals. +Meeting in Davis Straits, Fox dined on board his friendly rival's +vessel, which was very unfit for the service upon which it went. The +sea washed over them and came into the cabin, so says Fox, "sauce +would not have been wanted if there had been roast mutton." Luke Fox +being ice-bound and in peril, writes, "God thinks upon our +imprisonment with a <i>supersedeas</i>;" but he was a good and honorable +man as well as euphuist. His "Sir Thomas<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">[Pg 391]</a></span> Rowe's Welcome," leads into +Fox Channel; our "Phantom Ship" is pushing through the welcome passes +on the left-hand Repulse Bay. This portion of the Arctic regions, with +Fox Channel, is extremely perilous. Here Captain Lyon, in the +"Griper," was thrown anchorless upon the mercy of a stormy sea, ice +crashing around him. One island in Fox Channel is called Mill Island, +from the incessant grinding of great masses of ice collected there. In +the northern part of Fox Channel, on the western shore, is Melville +Peninsula, where Parry wintered on his second voyage. Here let us go +ashore and see a little colony of Esquimaux.</p> + +<p>Their huts are built of blocks of snow, and arched, having an ice pane +for a window. They construct their arched entrance and their +hemispherical roof, on the true principles of architecture. Those wise +men, the Egyptians, made their arch by hewing the stones out of shape, +the Esquimaux have the true secret. Here they are, with little food in +winter and great appetites; devouring a whole walrus when they get it, +and taking the chance of hunger for the next eight days—hungry or +full, for ever happy in their lot—here are the Esquimaux. They are +warmly clothed, each in a double suit of skins sewn neatly together. +Some are singing, with good voices, too. Please them, and they +straightway dance; activity is good in a cold climate. Play to them on +the flute, or if you can sing well, sing, or turn a barrel-organ, they +are mute, eager with wonder and delight; their love of music is +intense. Give them a pencil, and, like children, they will draw. Teach +them, and they will learn, oblige them, and they will be grateful. +"Gentle and loving savages," one of our old worthies called them, and +the Portuguese were so much impressed with their teachable and gentle +conduct, that a Venetian ambassador writes, "His serene majesty +contemplates deriving great advantage from the country, not only on +account of the timber, of which he has occasion, but of the +inhabitants, who are admirably calculated for labor, and are the best +I have ever seen." The Esquimaux, of course, will learn vice, and in +the region visited by whale ships, vice enough has certainly been +taught him. Here are the dogs, who will eat old coats, or any thing; +and, near the dwellings, here is a snow-bunting,—robin redbreast of +the Arctic lands. A party of our sailors once, on landing, took some +sticks from a large heap, and uncovered the nest of a snow-bunting +with young, the bird flew to a little distance, but seeing that the +men sat down and harmed her not, continued to seek food and supply her +little ones, with full faith in the good intentions of the party. +Captain Lyon found a child's grave partly uncovered, and a +snow-bunting had built its nest upon the infant's bosom.</p> + +<p>Sailing round Melville Peninsula, we come into the gulf of Akkolee, +through Fury and Hecla Straits, discovered by Parry. So we get back to +the bottom of Regent's Inlet, which we quitted a short time ago, and +sailing in the neighborhood of the magnetic pole, we reach the estuary +of Black's River, on the north-east coast of America. We pass then +through a straight, discovered in 1839, by Dean and Simpson, still +coasting along the northern shore of America, on the Great Stinking +Lake, as Indians call this ocean. Boats, ice permitting, and our +"Phantom Ship," of course, can coast all the way to Behring Strait. +The whole coast has been explored by Sir John Franklin, Sir John +Richardson, and Sir George Back, who have earned their knighthoods +through great peril. As we pass Coronation Gulf—the scene of +Franklin, Richardson, and Back's first exploration from the Coppermine +River—we revert to the romantic story of their journey back, over a +land of snow and frost, subsisting upon lichens, with companions +starved to death; where they plucked wild leaves for tea, and ate +their shoes for supper; the tragedy by the river; the murder of poor +Hood, with a book of prayers in his hand; Franklin at Fort Enterprise, +with two companions at the point of death, himself gaunt, hollow-eyed, +feeding on pounded bones, raked from the dunghill; the arrival of Dr. +Richardson and the brave sailor; their awful story of the cannibal +Michel;—we revert to these things with a shudder. But we must +continue on our route. The current still flows westward, bearing now +large quantities of drift-wood, out of the Mackenzie River. At the +name of Sir Alexander Mackenzie, also, we might pause, and talk over +the bold achievements of another arctic hero; but we pass on, by a +rugged and inhospitable coast, unfit for vessels of large +draught,—pass the broad mouth of the Youcon, pass Point Barrow, Icy +Cape, and are in Behring Strait. Had we passed on, we should have +found the Russian Arctic coast line, traced out by a series of Russian +explorers; of whom the most illustrious—Baron Von Wrangell—states, +that beyond a certain distance to the northward, there is always found +what he calls the <i>Polynja</i> (open water.) This is the fact adduced by +those who adhere to the old fancy that there is a sea about the pole +itself quite free from ice.</p> + +<p>We pass through Behring Straits. Behring, a Dane by birth, but in the +Russian service, died here in 1741, upon the scene of his discovery. +He and his crew, victims of scurvy, were unable to manage their vessel +in a storm; and it was at length wrecked on a barren island, there, +where "want, nakedness, cold, sickness, impatience, and despair were +their daily guests." Behring, his lieutenant, and the master died.</p> + +<p>Now we must put a girdle round the world, and do it with the speed of +Ariel. Here we are already in the heats of the equator. We can do no +more than remark, that if air and water are heated at the equator, and +frozen at the poles, there will be equilibrium destroyed,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">[Pg 392]</a></span> and +constant currents caused. And so it happens, so we get the prevailing +winds, and all the currents of the ocean. Of these, some of the uses, +but by no means all, are obvious. We urge our "Phantom" fleetly to the +southern pole. Here, over the other hemisphere of the earth, there +shines another hemisphere of heaven. The stars are changed; the +southern cross, the Magellanic clouds, the "coal-sack" in the milky +way, attract our notice. Now we are in the southern latitude that +corresponds to England in the north; nay, at a greater distance, from +the pole, we find Kerguelen's Land, emphatically called "The Isle of +Desolation." Icebergs float much further into the warm sea on this +side of the equator, before they dissolve. The South Pole is evidently +a more thorough refrigerator than the North. Why is this? We shall +soon see. We push through pack-ice, and through floes and fields, by +lofty bergs, by an island or two covered with penguins, until there +lies before us a long range of mountains, nine or ten thousand feet in +height, and all clad in eternal snow. That is a portion of the +Southern Continent. Lieutenant Wilkes, in the American exploring +expedition, first discovered this, and mapped out some part of the +coast, putting a few clouds in likewise,—a mistake easily made by +those who omit to verify every foot of land. Sir James Ross, in his +most successful South Pole Expedition, during the years 1839-43, +sailed over some of this land, and confirmed the rest. The Antarctic, +as well as the Arctic honors he secured for England, by turning a +corner of the land, and sailing far southward, along an impenetrable +icy barrier, to the latitude of seventy-eight degrees, nine minutes. +It is an elevated continent, with many lofty ranges. In the extreme +southern point reached by the ships, a magnificent volcano was seen +spouting fire and smoke out of the everlasting snow. This volcano, +twelve thousand four hundred feet high, was named Mount Erebus; for +the "Erebus" and "Terror," now sought anxiously among the bays, and +sounds, and creeks of the North Pole, then coasted by the solid +ice-walls of the south. Only as "Phantoms" can we cross this land and +live. These lofty mountain-ranges, cold to the marrow, these vast +glaciers, and elevated plains of ice, no wonder that they cast a chill +about their neighborhood. Our very ghosts are cold, and the volcanoes +only make the frost colder by contrast. We descend upon the other +side, take ship again, and float up the Atlantic, through the tropics. +We have been round the world now, and among the ice, and have not +grown much older since we started.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Other "Phantoms" are to be added to those thus described. Besides the +expeditions now in the ice regions, from England and America, one, and +perhaps two more, have in the last two months started in the search +for Franklin.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="MADAME_DE_GENLIS_AND_MADAME_DE_STAEL" id="MADAME_DE_GENLIS_AND_MADAME_DE_STAEL"></a>MADAME DE GENLIS AND MADAME DE STAËL.</h2> + + +<p>This curious piece has recently appeared in the <i>Gazette de France</i>, +and has excited much remark. It is given out to be the production of +Charles X., when Monsieur, and was communicated to M. Neychens by the +Marquis de la Roche Jacqueleine.</p> + +<p>"Before the Revolution, I was but very slightly acquainted with Mme. +de Genlis, her conduct during that disastrous period having not a +little contributed to sink her in my estimation; and the publication +of her novel, 'The Knights of the Swan' (the <i>first</i> edition), +completed my dislike to a person who had so cruelly aspersed the +character of the queen, my sister-in-law.</p> + +<p>"On my return to France, I received a letter full of the most +passionate expressions of loyalty from beginning to end; the missive +being signed Comtesse de Genlis; but imagining this could be but a +<i>plaisanterie</i> of some intimate friend of my own, I paid no attention +whatever to it. However, in two or three days it was followed by a +second epistle, complaining of my silence, and appealing to the great +sacrifices the writer had made in the interest of my cause, as giving +her a <i>right</i> to my favorable attention. Talleyrand being present, I +asked him if he could explain this enigma.</p> + +<p>"'Nothing is easier,' replied he; 'Mme. de Genlis is unique. She has +lost her own memory, and fancies others have experienced a similar +bereavement.'</p> + +<p>"'She speaks,' pursued I, 'of her virtues, her misfortunes, and +Napoleon's persecutions.'</p> + +<p>"'Hem! In 1789 her husband was quite ruined, so the events of that +period took nothing from <i>him</i>; and as to the tyranny of Bonaparte, it +consisted, in the first place, of giving her a magnificent suite of +apartments in the Arsenal; and in the second place, granting her a +pension of six thousand francs a year, upon the sole condition of her +keeping him every month <i>au courant</i> of the literature of the day.'</p> + +<p>"'What shocking ferocity!' replied I, laughing; 'a case of infamous +despotism indeed. And this martyr to our cause asks to see me.'</p> + +<p>"'Yes; and pray let your royal highness grant her an audience, were it +only for once: I assure you she is most amusing.'</p> + +<p>"I followed the advice of M. de Talleyrand, and accorded to the lady +the permission she so pathetically demanded. The evening before she +was to present herself, however, came a third missive, recommending a +certain Casimir, the <i>phénix</i> of the <i>époque</i>, and several other +persons besides; all, according to Mme. de Genlis, particularly +celebrated people; and the postscript to this effusion prepared me +also beforehand for the request she intended to make, of being +appointed governess to the children of my son, the Duc de Berry, who +was at that time not even married.</p> + +<p>"Just at this period it so happened that I was besieged by more than a +dozen persons of every rank in regard to Mme. de Staël, formerly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">[Pg 393]</a></span> +exiled by Bonaparte, and who had rushed to Paris without taking +breath, fully persuaded every one there, and throughout all France, +was impatient to see her again. Mme. de Staël had a double view in +thus introducing herself to me; namely, to direct my proceedings +entirely, and to obtain payment of the two million francs deposited in +the treasury by her father during his ministry. I confess I was not +prepossessed in favor of Mme. de Staël, for she also, in 1789, had +manifested so much hatred towards the Bourbons, that I thought all she +could possibly look to from us, was the liberty of living in Paris +unmolested: but I little knew her. She, on her side, imagined we ought +to be grateful to her for having quarrelled with Bonaparte—her own +pride being, in fact, the sole cause of the rupture.</p> + +<p>"M. de Fontanes and M. de Chàteaubriand were the first who mentioned +her to me; and to the importance with which they treated the matter, I +answered, laughing, 'So, Mme. la Baronne de Staël is then a supreme +power?'</p> + +<p>"'Indeed she is, and it might have very unfavorable effects did your +royal highness overlook her: for what she asserts, every one believes, +and then—she has suffered <i>so</i> much!'</p> + +<p>"'Very likely; but what did she make my poor sister-in-law, the queen, +suffer? Do you think I can forget the abominable things she said, the +falsehoods she told? and was it not in consequence of them, and the +public's belief of them, that she owed the possibility of the +ambassadress of Sweden's being able to dare insult that unfortunate +princess in her very palace?'</p> + +<p>"Mme. de Staël's envoys, who manifested some confusion at the fidelity +of my memory, implored me to forget the past, think only of the +future, and remember that the genius of Mme. de Staël, whose +reputation was European, might be of the utmost advantage, or the +reverse. Tired of disputing I yielded; consented to receive this +<i>femme célèbre</i>, as they all called her, and fixed for her reception +the same day I had notified to Mme. de Genlis.</p> + +<p>"My brother has said, 'Punctuality is the politeness of kings'—words +as true and just as they are happily expressed; and the princes of my +family have never been found wanting in good manners; so I was in my +study waiting when Mme. de Genlis was announced. I was astonished at +the sight of a long, dry woman, with a swarthy complexion, dressed in +a printed cotton gown, any thing but clean, and a shawl covered with +dust, her habit-shirt, her hair even bearing marks of great +negligence. I had read her works, and remembering all she said about +neatness, and cleanliness, and proper attention to one's dress, I +thought she added another to the many who fail to add example to their +precepts. While making these reflections, Mme. de Genlis was firing +off a volley of curtsies; and upon finishing what she deemed the +requisite number, she pulled out of a great huge bag four manuscripts +of enormous dimensions.</p> + +<p>"'I bring,' commenced the lady, 'to your royal highness what will +amply repay any kindness you may show to me—No. 1 is a plan of +conduct, and the project of a constitution; No. 2 contains a +collection of speeches in answer to those likely to be addressed to +Monsieur; No. 3, addresses and letters proper to send to foreign +powers, the provinces, &c., and in No. 4, Monsieur will find a plan of +education, the only one proper to be persued by royalty, in reading +which, your royal highness will feel as convinced of the extent of my +acquirements as of the purity of my loyalty.'</p> + +<p>"Many in my place might have been angry; but, on the contrary, I +thanked her with an air of polite sincerity for the treasures she was +so obliging as to confide to me, and then condoled with her upon the +misfortunes she had endured under the tyranny of Bonaparte.</p> + +<p>"'Alas! Monsieur, this abominable despot dared to make a mere +plaything of <i>me</i>! and yet I strove, by wise advice, to guide him +right, and teach him to regulate his conduct properly: but he would +not be led. I even offered to mediate between him and the pope, but he +did not even so much as answer me upon this subject; although (being a +most profound theologian) I could have smoothed almost all +difficulties when the Concordat was in question.'</p> + +<p>"This last piece of pretension was almost too much for my gravity. +However, I applauded the zeal of this new mother of the church, and +was going to put an end to the interview, when it came into my head to +ask her if she was well acquainted with Mme. de Staël.</p> + +<p>"'God forbid!' cried she, making a sign of the cross: 'I have no +acquaintance with <i>such people</i>; and I but do my duty in warning those +who have not perused the works of that lady, to bear in mind that they +are written in the worst possible taste, and are also extremely +immoral. Let your royal highness turn your thoughts from such books; +you will find in <i>mine</i> all that is necessary to know. I suppose +Monsieur has not yet seen <i>Little Necker</i>?'</p> + +<p>"'Mme. la Baronne de Staël Holstein has asked for an audience, and I +even suspect she may be already arrived at the Tuileries.'</p> + +<p>"'Let your royal highness beware of this woman! See in her the +implacable enemy of the Bourbons, and in me their most devoted slave.'</p> + +<p>"This new proof of the want of memory in Madame de Genlis amused me as +much as the other absurdities she had favored me with; and I was in +the act of making her the ordinary salutations of adieu, when I +observed her blush purple, and her proud rival entered.</p> + +<p>"The two ladies exchanged a haughty bow, and the comedy, which had +just finished with the departure of Mme. de Genlis, recommenced<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394">[Pg 394]</a></span> under +a different form when Mme. de Staël appeared on the stage. The +baroness was dressed, not certainly dirty, like the countess, but +quite as absurdly. She wore a red satin gown, embroidered with flowers +of gold and silk; a profusion of diamonds; rings enough to stock a +pawnbroker's shop; and, I must add, that I never before saw so low a +cut corsage display less inviting charms. Upon her head was a huge +turban, constructed on the pattern of that worn by the Cumean sybil, +which put a finishing stroke to a costume so little in harmony with +her style of face. I scarcely understand how a woman of genius <i>can</i> +have such a false, vulgar taste. Mme. de Staël began by apologizing +for occupying a few moments which she doubted not I should have +preferred giving to Mme. de Genlis. 'She is one of the illustrations +of the day,' observed she, with a sneering smile—'a colossus of +religious faith, and represents in her person, she fancies, all the +literature of the age. Ah! ah! Monsieur, in the hands of <i>such people</i> +the world would soon retrograde; while it should, on the contrary, be +impelled forward, and your royal highness be the first to put yourself +at the head of this great movement. To you should belong the glory of +giving the impulse, guided by <i>my experience</i>.'</p> + +<p>"'Come,' thought I, 'here is another going to plague me with plans of +conduct, and constitutions, and reforms, which I am to persuade the +king my brother to adopt. It seems to be an insanity in France this +composing of new constitutions.' While I was making these reflections, +madame had time to give utterance to a thousand fine phrases, every +one more sublime than the preceding. However, to put an end to them, I +asked her if there was any thing she wished to demand.</p> + +<p>"'Ah, dear!—oh yes, prince!' replied the lady in an indifferent tone. +'A mere trifle—less than nothing—two millions, without counting the +interest at five per cent. But these are matters I leave entirely to +my men of business, being for my own part much more absorbed in +politics and the science of government.'</p> + +<p>"'Alas! madame, the king has arrived in France with his mind made up +upon most subjects, the fruit of twenty-five years' meditation; and I +fear he is not likely to profit by your good intentions.'</p> + +<p>"'Then so much the worse for him and for France! All the world knows +what it cost Bonaparte his refusing to follow my advice, and pay me my +two millions. I have studied the Revolution profoundly, followed it +through all its phases, and I flatter myself I am the only pilot who +can hold with one hand the rudder of the state, if at least I have +Benjamin for steersman.'</p> + +<p>"'Benjamin! Benjamin—who?' asked I in surprise.</p> + +<p>"'It would give me the deepest distress,' replied she, 'to think that +the name of M. le Baron de Rebecque Benjamin de Constant has never +reached the ears of your royal highness. One of his ancestors saved +the life of Henry Quatre. Devoted to the descendants of this good +king, he is ready to serve them; and among several <i>constitutions</i> he +has in his portfolio, you will probably find one with annotations and +reflections by myself, which will suit you. Adopt it, and choose +Benjamin Constant to carry the idea out.'</p> + +<p>"It seemed like a thing resolved—an event decided upon—this proposal +of inventing a constitution for us. I kept as long as I could upon the +defensive, but Mme. de Staël, carried away by her zeal and her +enthusiasm, instead of speaking of what personally concerned herself, +knocked me about with arguments, and crushed me under threats and +menaces; so, tired to death of entertaining, instead of a clever, +humble woman, a roaring politician in petticoats, I finished the +audience, leaving her as little satisfied as myself with the +interview. Mme. de Genlis was ten times less disagreeable, and twenty +times more amusing.</p> + +<p>"That same evening I had M. le Prince de Talleyrand with me, and I was +confounded by hearing him say, 'So, your royal highness has made Mme. +de Staël completely quarrel with me now?'</p> + +<p>"'Me! I never so much as pronounced your name.'</p> + +<p>"'Notwithstanding that, she is convinced that I am the person who +prevents your royal highness from employing her in your political +relations, and that I am jealous of Benjamin Constant. She is resolved +on revenge.'</p> + +<p>"'Ha, ha!—and what can she do?'</p> + +<p>"'A very great deal of mischief, Monseigneur. She has numerous +partisans; and if she declares herself Bonapartiste, we must look to +ourselves.'</p> + +<p>"'That <i>would</i> be curious.'</p> + +<p>"'Oh, I shall take upon myself to prevent her going so far; but she +will be Royalist no longer, and we shall suffer from that.'</p> + +<p>"At this time I had not the remotest idea of what a mere man, still +less a mere woman, could do in France: but now I understand it +perfectly, and if Mme. de Staël was living—Heaven pardon me!—I would +strike up a flirtation with her."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h4>From Chambers's Edinburgh Journal.</h4> + +<h2><a name="THE_SMUGGLER_MALGRE_LUI" id="THE_SMUGGLER_MALGRE_LUI"></a>THE SMUGGLER MALGRE LUI.</h2> + + + +<p>There is perhaps no more singular anomaly in the history of the human +mind than the very different light in which a fraud is viewed +according to the circumstances in which it is practised. The singular +revelations made to the Chancellor of the Exchequer by a late +deputation will probably be fresh in the remembrance of most of our +readers. Even the learned gentleman himself could hardly maintain his +professional gravity when informed of the ingenious contrivances +adopted for defrauding the revenue. Advertisements floating through +the air attached to balloons, French gloves making their way into the +kingdom<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">[Pg 395]</a></span> in separate detachments of right and left hands, mutilated +clocks travelling without their wheels—such were some of the divers +modes by which the law was declared to be evaded, and the custom-house +officers baffled. We are by no means disposed either to think or speak +with levity of this system of things. However much a man may succeed +in reconciling any fraud to his own conscience, or however leniently +it may be viewed by his fellow-men, it will yet assuredly help to +degrade his moral nature, and its repetition will slowly, but surely, +deaden the silent monitor within his breast. All we affirm is the +well-known fact, that laws are in most cases ineffective, except in so +far as they harmonize with the innate moral convictions of mankind; +and that many a man who would not for worlds cheat his next door +neighbor of a penny, will own without a blush, and perhaps even with a +smile of triumph, that he has cheated the government of thousands! It +is not often, however, that so daring and successful a stroke of this +nature is effected as that which we find related of a celebrated Swiss +jeweller, who actually succeeded in making the French director-general +of the customs act the part of a smuggler!</p> + +<p>Geneva, as must be well known to all our readers, supplies half Europe +with her watches and her jewelry. Three thousand workmen are kept in +continual employment by her master goldsmiths; while seventy-five +thousand ounces of gold, and fifty thousand marks of silver, annually +change their form, and multiply their value beneath their skilful +hands! The most fashionable jeweller's shop in Geneva is +unquestionably that of Beautte; his trinkets are those which beyond +all others excite the longing of the Parisian ladies. A high duty is +charged upon these in crossing the French frontier; but, in +consideration of a brokerage of five per cent., M. Beautte undertakes +to forward them safely to their destination through contraband +channels; and the bargain between the buyer and seller is concluded +with this condition as openly appended and avowed as if there were no +such personages as custom-house officers in the world.</p> + +<p>All this went on smoothly for some years with M. Beautte; but at +length it so happened that M. le Comte de Saint-Cricq, a gentleman of +much ability and vigilance was appointed director-general of the +customs. He heard so much of the skill evinced by M. Beautte in +eluding the vigilance of his agents, that he resolved personally to +investigate the matter, and prove for himself the truth of the +reports. He consequently repaired to Geneva, presented himself at M. +Beautte's shop, and purchased thirty thousand francs' worth of +jewelry, on the express condition that they should be transmitted to +him free of duty on his return to Paris. M. Beautte accepted the +proposed condition with the air of a man who was perfectly accustomed +to arrangements of this description. He, however, presented for +signature to M. de Saint-Cricq a private deed, by which the purchaser +pledged himself to pay the customary five per cent. <i>smuggling dues</i>, +in addition to the thirty thousand francs' purchase-money.</p> + +<p>M. de Saint-Cricq smiled, and taking the pen from the jeweller's hand, +affixed to the deed the following signature—"L. de Saint-Cricq, +Director-General of the Customs in France." He then handed the +document back to M. Beautte, who merely glanced at the signature, and +replied with a courteous bow—</p> + +<p>"<i>Monsieur le Directeur des Douanes</i>, I shall take care that the +articles which you have done me the honor of purchasing shall be +handed to you in Paris directly after your arrival." M. de +Saint-Cricq, piqued by the man's cool daring and apparent defiance of +his authority and professional skill, immediately ordered post-horses, +and without the delay of a single hour set out with all speed on the +road to Paris.</p> + +<p>On reaching the frontier, the Director-General made himself known to +the <i>employés</i> who came forward to examine his carriage—informed the +chief officer of the incident which had just occurred, and begged of +him to keep up the strictest surveillance along the whole of the +frontier line, as he felt it to be a matter of the utmost importance +to place some check upon the wholesale system of fraud which had for +some years past been practised upon the revenue by the Geneva +jewellers. He also promised a gratuity of fifty louis-d'ors to +whichever of the <i>employés</i> should be so fortunate as to seize the +prohibited jewels—a promise which had the effect of keeping every +officer on the line wide awake, and in a state of full activity, +during the three succeeding days.</p> + +<p>In the meanwhile M. de Saint-Cricq reached Paris, alighted at his own +residence, and after having embraced his wife and children, and passed +a few moments in their society, retired to his dressing-room, for the +purpose of laying aside his travelling costume. The first thing which +arrested his attention when he entered the apartment was a very +elegant looking casket, which stood upon the mantelpiece, and which he +did not remember to have ever before seen. He approached to examine +it; his name was on the lid; it was addressed in full to "M. le Comte +de Saint-Cricq, Director-General of Customs." He accordingly opened it +without hesitation, and his surprise and dismay may be conceived when, +on examining the contents, he recognized at once the beautiful +trinkets he had so recently purchased in Geneva!</p> + +<p>The count rung for his valet, and inquired from him whether he could +throw any light upon this mysterious occurrence. The valet looked +surprised, and replied, that on opening his master's portmanteau, the +casket in question was one of the first articles which presented +itself to his sight, and its elegant form and elaborate workmanship +having led him to suppose it contained articles of value, he had +carefully laid it aside upon the mantelpiece. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">[Pg 396]</a></span> count, who had full +confidence in his valet, and felt assured that he was in no way +concerned in the matter, derived but little satisfaction from this +account, which only served to throw a fresh veil of mystery over the +transaction; and it was only some time afterwards, and after long +investigation, that he succeeded in discovering the real facts of the +case.</p> + +<p>Beautte, the jeweller, had a secret understanding with one of the +servants of the hotel at which the Comte de Saint-Cricq lodged in +Geneva. This man, taking advantage of the hurried preparations for the +count's departure, contrived to slip the casket unperceived into one +of his portmanteaus, and the ingenious jeweller had thus succeeded in +making the Director-General of Customs one of the most successful +<i>smugglers</i> in the kingdom!</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_TRUE_HISTORY_OF_AGNES_SOREL" id="THE_TRUE_HISTORY_OF_AGNES_SOREL"></a>THE TRUE HISTORY OF AGNES SOREL.</h2> + +<h3>BY R. H. HORNE, AUTHOR OF "ORION," ETC.</h3> + + +<p>Agnes Sorel was born in 1409, at the village of Fromenteau, in +Touraine. Her father was the Seigneur de St. Gérand, a gentleman +attached to the house of the Count de Clermont. At the age of fifteen, +she was placed as maid of honor to Isabel of Lorraine, duchess of +Anjou, and accompanied this princess when she went to Paris, in 1431.</p> + +<p>At this period, Agnes Sorel was considered to be the most beautiful +woman of her day. Her conversation and wit were equal to her beauty. +In the "Histoire des Favorites" she is said to have been noble-minded, +full of generosity, with sweetness of manners, and sincerity of heart. +The same writer adds that every body fell in love with her, from the +king to the humblest officers. Charles VII. became passionately +attached to her; and in order to insure her constant presence at +court, he placed her as maid of honor to the queen. The amour was +conducted with secrecy; but the fact became manifest by the favors +which the king lavished upon the relations of Agnes, while she herself +lived in great magnificence amidst a very poor court. She was fond of +splendor, and has been quaintly described by Monstrelet as "having +enjoyed all the pleasures of life, in wearing rich clothes, furred +robes, and golden chains of precious stones, and whatever else she +desired." When she visited Paris, in attendance upon the queen, the +splendor and expense of Agnes were so excessive that the people +murmured greatly; whereupon the proud beauty exclaimed against the +Parisians as churls.</p> + +<p>During the time that the English were actually in possession of a +great part of France, it was in vain that the queen (Mary of Anjou) +endeavored to rouse her husband from his lethargy. That the king was +not deficient in energy and physical courage, is evident from the +manner in which he signalized himself on various occasions. At the +siege of Montereau in 1437, (according to the Chronicle de Charles +VII. par M. Alain Chartier, Nevers, 1594,) he rushed to the assault, +now thrusting with the lance, now assisting the artillery, now +superintending the various military engines for heaving masses of +stone or wood; but during the period above-mentioned he was lost to +all sense of royal glory, and had given himself up entirely to hunting +and all sorts of pleasures.</p> + +<p>He was recalled by Agnes to a sense of what was due to his kingdom. +She told him, one day, says Brantoine, that when she was a girl, an +astrologer had predicted that she would be loved by one of the most +valiant kings of Christendom; that when His Majesty Charles VII. had +done her this honor, she thought, of course, he was the valiant king +who had been predicted; but now, finding he was so weak, and had so +little care as to what became of himself and his affairs, she saw that +she had made a mistake, and that this valiant prince could not be +Charles, but the King of England. Saying these words, Agnes rose, and +bowing reverentially to the king, asked leave to retire to the court +of the English king, since the prophecy pointed at him. "Charles," she +said, "was about to lose his crown, and Henry to unite it to his." By +this rebuke the king was much affected. He gave up his hunting, left +his gardens for the field of battle, and succeeded in driving the +English out of France. This circumstance occasioned Francis I. to make +the following verses, which, it is said, he wrote under a portrait of +Agnes:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Plus de louange et d'honneur tu mérite,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">La cause étant de France recouvrer,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Que ce que peut dedans un cloitre ouvrer,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Close nonnain, ou bien dévol hermite."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The king lavished gifts and honors upon Agnes. He built a château for +her at Loches; he gave her, besides the comté de Penthièvre, in +Bretagne, the lordships of Roche Servière, of Issoudun, in Berri, and +the Château de Beauté, at the extremity of the wood of Vincennes, that +she might be, as he said, "in deed and in name the Queen of Beauty." +It is believed that she never made a bad use of her influence with the +king for any political purposes or unkind private feelings; +nevertheless, the Dauphin (afterwards Louis XI.) conceived an +implacable jealousy against her, and carried his resentment so far, on +one occasion, as to give her a blow.</p> + +<p>She retired, in 1445, to Loches, and for nearly five years declined +appearing at court; but the king's love for her still continued, and +he took many journeys into Touraine to visit her. But eventually the +queen, who had never forgotten her noble counsels to the king, which +had roused him from his lethargy, persuaded her to return to court.</p> + +<p>The queen appears to have felt no jealousy, but to have had a regard +for her. It seems, also, that Agnes had become very popular, partly +from her beauty and wit, partly because she was considered in a great +measure, to have saved France, and partly because she distributed +large sums in alms to the poor, and to repair decayed churches.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397">[Pg 397]</a></span></p> + +<p>After the taking of Rouen, and the entire expulsion of the English +from France, the king took up his winter-quarters in the Abbey of +Jumiège. Agnes hastened to the Château de Masnal la Belle, a league +distant from this abbey, for the purpose of warning the king of a +conspiracy. The king only laughed at the intelligence; but the death +of Agnes Sorel, which immediately followed, gives some grounds for +crediting the truth of the information which she communicated. At this +place Agnes, still beautiful, and in perfect health, was suddenly +attacked by a dysentery which carried her off. It is believed that she +was poisoned. Some affirm that it was effected by direction of the +Dauphin; others accuse Jacques Cœur, the king's goldsmith (as the +master of the treasury was then called), and others attribute it to +female jealousy.</p> + +<p>The account given of her death by Monstrelet is to the following +effect: Agnes was suddenly attacked by a dysentery which could not be +cured. She lingered long, and employed the time in prayer and +repentance; she often, as he relates, called upon Mary Magdalen, who +had also been a sinner, and upon God and the blessed Virgin for aid. +After receiving the sacrament, she desired the book of prayers to be +brought her, in which she had written with her own hand the verses of +St. Barnard, and these she repeated. She then made many gifts, which +were put down in writing: and these, including alms and the payment of +her servants, amounted to 60,000 crowns. The fair Agnes, the once +proud beauty, perceiving her end approaching, and now feeling a +disgust to life proportioned to the fulness of her past enjoyment of +all its gayeties, vanities, and pleasures, said to the Lord de la +Tremouille and others, and in the presence of all her damsels, that +our insecure and worldly life was but a foul ordure. She then +requested her confessor to give her absolution, according to a form +she herself dictated, with which he complied. After this, she uttered +a loud shriek, and gave up the ghost. She died on Monday, the 9th day +of February, 1449, about six o'clock in the afternoon, in the fortieth +year of her age.</p> + +<p>This account, though bearing every appearance of probability, is yet +open to some doubts, from the manifestation of a tendency, on the part +of Monstrelet, to give a coloring to the event, and to the character +of Agnes Sorel. He even attempts to throw a doubt upon her having been +the king's mistress, treating the fact as a mere scandal. He says that +the affection of the king was attributable to her good sense, her wit, +her agreeable manners, and gayety, quite as much as to her beauty. +This was, no doubt, the case; but it hardly helps the argument of the +historian. Monstrelet finds it difficult, however, to dispose of the +children that she had by the king: he admits that Agnes had a daughter +which she said was the king's, but that he denied it. The compilation +by Denys Codefroy takes the same view, but nearly the whole account is +copied verbatim from Monstrelet, without acknowledgment.</p> + +<p>The heart and intestines of Agnes were buried at Jumiège. Her body was +placed in the centre of the choir of the collegiate church of the +Château de Loches, which she had greatly enriched.</p> + +<p>Her tomb was in existence at Loches, in 1792. It was of black marble. +The figure of Agnes was in white marble; her head resting upon a +lozenge, supported by angels, and two lambs were at her feet.</p> + +<p>The writer of the life of Agnes Sorel in the "Biographie Universelle," +having access to printed books and MSS. of French history which are +not in the public libraries of this country, the following statements +are taken from that work: the writer does not give his authorities.</p> + +<p>The canons of the church pretended to be scandalized at having the +tomb of Agnes placed in their choir, and begged permission of Louis +XI. to have it removed. "I consent," replied the king, "provided you +give up all you have received from her bounty."</p> + +<p>The poets of the day were profuse in their praises of the memory of +Agnes. One of the most memorable of these is a poem by Baïf, printed +at Paris in 1573. In 1789 the library of the chapter of Loches +possessed a manuscript containing nearly a thousand Latin sonnets in +praise of Agnes, all acrostics, and made by a canon of that city.</p> + +<p>A marble bust of her was long preserved at the Château de Chinon, and +is now placed in the Muséum des Augustins.</p> + +<p>Agnes Sorel had three daughters by Charles VII., who all received +dowries, and were married at the expense of the crown. They received +the title of daughters of France, the name given at that time to the +natural daughters of the kings. An account of the noble families into +which they married, together with the honors bestowed upon the brother +of Agnes, will be found in Moreri's "Dictionnaire Historique."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4>From the London Examiner. +</h4> + +<h2><a name="PROSPECTS_OF_AFRICAN_COLONIZATION" id="PROSPECTS_OF_AFRICAN_COLONIZATION"></a>PROSPECTS OF AFRICAN COLONIZATION.</h2> + + + +<p>Africa has never been propitious to European settlement or +colonization, but quite the contrary. The last founded state of the +Anglo-American Union, of about two years' growth, is alone, at this +moment, worth more than all that has been effected by the European +race in Africa in two-and-twenty centuries. The most respectable +product of African colonization is a Cape boor, and this is certainly +not a finished specimen of humanity. Assuredly, for the last three +hundred years, Africa has done nothing for the nations of Europe but +seduce them into crime, folly, and extravagance.</p> + +<p>The Romans were the first European settlers in Africa; it was at their +very door, and they held it for eight centuries. Now, there is not +left in it hardly a trace of Roman civilization;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_398" id="Page_398">[Pg 398]</a></span> certainly fewer, at +all events, than the Arabs have left in Spain. The Vandal occupation +of Mediterranean Africa lasted only half a century. We should not have +known that Vandals had ever set their feet on the Continent but for +the written records of civilized men. There is nothing Vandal there, +unless Vandalism in the abstract. The Dutch came next, in order of +time, in another portion of Africa, and we have already alluded to the +indistinct "spoor" which they have left behind them after an +occupation of a hundred and fifty years.</p> + +<p>The English have settled in two different quarters of the African +continent, one of them within eight degrees of the equatorial line, +and the other some thirty-four south of it. The first costs us civil +establishments, forts, garrisons, and squadrons included (for out of +Africa and its people comes the supposed necessity for the squadron), +a good million a year. The most valuable article we get from tropical +Africa is the oil of a certain palm, which contributes largely towards +an excise duty of about a million and a half a year, levied on what +has been justly called a second necessary of life—to wit, soap.</p> + +<p>We have been in possession of the southern promontory of Africa for +above fifty years. In this time, besides its conquest twice over from +a European power, and in addition to fleets and armies, it has cost +us, in mere self-defence against savages, three million pounds, while +at this moment we are engaged in the same kind of defence, with the +tolerable certainty of incurring another million. No one will venture +to say that this sum alone does not far exceed the value of the fee +simple and sovereignty of the southern promontory of Africa. What we +get from it consists chiefly in some purgative aloes, a little +indifferent wool, and a good deal of execrable wine, on the +importation of which we pay a virtual bounty! As for <i>our subjects</i> in +this part of the African continent, they amount to about two hundred +thousand, and are composed of Anglo-Saxons, Dutch, Malays, Hottentots, +Bushmen, Gaikas, Tambookies, Amagarkas, Zulas, and Amazulas, speaking +a very Babel of African, Asiatic, and European tongues, perilous to +delicate organic structures even to listen to.</p> + +<p>Now for French African colonization. If we have not been very wise +ourselves, our neighbors, who have never been eminently happy in their +attempts at colonization, have been much less so. They have been in +possession of an immense territory in Algeria for twenty years, and +have now about fifty thousand colonists there, with an army which has +generally not been less than one hundred thousand, so that every +colonist requires two soldiers to keep his throat from being cut, and +his property from being robbed or stolen. This is about ten times the +regular army that protects twenty-eight millions of Anglo-Americans +from nearly all the savages of North America. The local revenue of +Algeria is half a million sterling; but the annual cost of the +experiment to France amounts to eight times as much as the revenue; +and it has been computed that the whole charge to the French nation, +from first to last (it goes on at the same rate), has been sixty +million pounds. This is without exception the most monstrous attempt +at colonization that has ever been made by man. If war should +unfortunately arise with any maritime power, the matter will be still +worse. At least one hundred thousand of the flower of the French army +will then be worse than lost to France. For, pent up as it will be in +a narrow strip of eighty miles broad along the shore of the +Mediterranean, it may be blockaded from the sea by any superior naval +power; and assuredly will be so, from the side of the desert, by a +native one. To hold Algeria is to cripple France.</p> + +<p>What, then, is the cause of the fatality which has thus ever attended +African colonization by Europeans? In tropical Africa, the heat and +insalubrity, and consequently the total unfitness for European life, +are causes quite sufficient to account for the failure; and the +failure has been eminent with French, Dutch, English, and Danes. But +this will not account for want of success in temperate Africa, whether +beyond the northern or southern tropic. The climate of this last, +especially, is very good; and that of the first being nearly the same +as their own, ought not to be hurtful to the constitutions of southern +Europeans.</p> + +<p>Drought, and the intermixture of deserts and wastes of sand with +fertile lands, after the manner of a chess-board, without the +regularity, is, of course, unpropitious to colonization, but cannot +prevent its advancement, as we see by the progress of our Australian +colonies. These causes, however, combined with the character of the +native or congenial inhabitants of the country, have been quite +sufficient to prove insuperable obstacles to a prosperous +colonization. A nomad and wandering population has in fact been +generated, incapable either of advancement or amalgamation, having +just a sufficient knowledge of the arts to be dangerous neighbors, not +capable of being driven to a distance from the settlers, nor likely to +be destroyed by gunpowder or brandy. The lion and shepherd recede +before the white man in southern Africa, but not the Caffir.</p> + +<p>The inhabitant of northern Africa, whether Arabian or Numidian, is, in +relation to an European colony, only a more formidable Caffir, from +greater numbers and superior skill. Heretofore, a garrison of five +thousand men at the most has been sufficient to protect the Cape +colony, although six thousand miles distant from England. The +territory of Algeria, of about the same extent, requires about twenty +times that number, although within a day's sail of France. Arab and +Numidian seem to be alike untamable both by position and by race. The +Arabs (and it shows they were capable of better things) were a +civilized<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_399" id="Page_399">[Pg 399]</a></span> and industrious people while in the fair regions of Spain; +driven from it, they have degenerated into little more than predatory +shepherds, or freebooters; but they are only the more formidable to +civilized men on this very account.</p> + +<p>What, then, will be the fate of the French and English colonies in +temperate Africa? We confess we can hardly venture to predict. +Assuredly, neither north nor south Africa will ever give birth to a +great or flourishing community, such as North America has done, and as +Australia and New Zealand will certainly do. The Caffirs may possibly +be driven to a distance, after a long course of trouble and expense; +but the Arabs and Kabyles are as inexpungable as the wandering tribes +of Arabia Petræa or Tartary. With them, neither expulsion, nor +extermination, nor amalgamation is practicable. Very likely France and +England will get heartily tired of paying yearly millions for their +unavailable deserts, and there is no knowing what they may be driven +to do in such an extremity. At all events, we may safely assert that +France would have saved sixty millions of pounds, and the interminable +prospect of a proportional annual expenditure, had she confined +herself to the town and fortress of Algiers; and England would have +been richer and wiser, had she kept within the bounds of the original +Dutch colony. The best thing we ourselves can do with our +extra-tropical Africa, is to leave the colonists to govern, and also +to defend themselves from all but enemies by sea: that the French, +unfortunately, cannot do.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="MY_NOVEL" id="MY_NOVEL"></a>MY NOVEL:</h2> + +<h3>OR, VARIETIES IN ENGLISH LIFE.</h3> + +<h3>BY PISISTRATUS CAXTON.</h3> + +<h4><i>Continued from page 269.</i></h4> + + +<h4>BOOK V.—INITIAL CHAPTER.</h4> + +<p>"I hope, Pisistratus," said my father, "that you do not intend to be +dull!"</p> + +<p>"Heaven forbid, sir! what could make you ask such a question? +<i>Intend!</i> No! if I am dull it is from innocence."</p> + +<p>"A very long Discourse upon Knowledge!" said my father; "very long. I +should cut it out!"</p> + +<p>I looked upon my father as a Byzantian sage might have looked on a +Vandal. "Cut it out!"</p> + +<p>"Stops the action, sir!" said my father, dogmatically.</p> + +<p>"Action! But a novel is not a drama."</p> + +<p>"No, it is a great deal longer—twenty times as long, I dare say," +replied Mr. Caxton with a sigh.</p> + +<p>"Well, sir—well! I think my Discourse upon Knowledge has much to do +with the subject—is vitally essential to the subject; does not stop +the action—only explains and elucidates the action. And I am +astonished, sir, that you, a scholar, and a cultivator of knowledge—"</p> + +<p>"There—there!" cried my father, deprecatingly; "I yield—I yield. +What better could I expect when I set up for a critic! What author +ever lived that did not fly into a passion—even with his own father, +if his father presumed to say—'Cut out!' <i>Pacem imploro</i>—"</p> + +<p><i>Mrs. Caxton.</i>—"My dear Austin, I am sure Pisistratus did not mean to +offend you, and I have no doubt he will take your—"</p> + +<p><i>Pisistratus</i>, (hastily.)—"Advice <i>for the future</i>, certainly. I will +quicken the action and—"</p> + +<p>"Go on with the Novel," whispered Roland, looking up from his eternal +account-book. "We have lost £200 by our barley!"</p> + +<p>Therewith I plunged my pen into the ink, and my thoughts into the +"Fair Shadowland."</p> + + +<h4>CHAPTER II.</h4> + +<p>"Halt!" cried a voice; and not a little surprised was Leonard when the +stranger who had accosted him the preceding evening got into the +chaise.</p> + +<p>"Well," said Richard, "I am not the sort of man you expected, eh! Take +time to recover yourself." And with these words Richard drew forth a +book from his pocket, threw himself back, and began to read. Leonard +stole many a glance at the acute, hardy, handsome face of his +companion, and gradually recognized a family likeness to poor John, in +whom, despite age and infirmity, the traces of no common share of +physical beauty were still evident. And, with that quick link in ideas +which mathematical aptitude bestows, the young student at once +conjectured that he saw before him his uncle Richard. He had the +discretion, however, to leave that gentleman free to choose his own +time for introducing himself, and silently revolved the new thoughts +produced by the novelty of his situation. Mr. Richard read with +notable quickness—sometimes cutting the leaves of the book with his +penknife, sometimes tearing them open with his forefinger, sometimes +skipping whole pages altogether. Thus he galloped to the end of the +volume—flung it aside—lighted his cigar, and began to talk.</p> + +<p>He put many questions to Leonard relative to his rearing, and +especially to the mode by which he had acquired his education; and +Leonard, confirmed in the idea that he was replying to a kinsman, +answered frankly.</p> + +<p>Richard did not think it strange that Leonard should have acquired so +much instruction with so little direct tuition. Richard Avenel himself +had been tutor to himself. He had lived too long with our go-ahead +brethren, who stride the world on the other side the Atlantic with the +seven-leagued boots of the Giant-killer, not to have caught their +glorious fever for reading. But it was for a reading wholly different +from that which was familiar to Leonard. The books he read must be +new; to read old books would have seemed to him going back in the +world. He fancied that new books necessarily contained new ideas—a +common mistake—and our lucky adventurer was the man of his day.</p> + +<p>Tired with talking, he at length chucked the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_400" id="Page_400">[Pg 400]</a></span> book he had run through +to Leonard, and, taking out a pocket-book and pencil, amused himself +with calculations on some detail of his business, after which he fell +into an absorbed train of thought—part pecuniary, part ambitious.</p> + +<p>Leonard found the book interesting; it was one of the numerous works, +half-statistic, half-declamatory, relating to the condition of the +working-classes, which peculiarly distinguish our century, and ought +to bind together rich and poor, by proving the grave attention which +modern society bestows upon all that can affect the welfare of the +last.</p> + +<p>"Dull stuff—theory—clap-trap," said Richard, rousing himself from +his reverie at last: "it can't interest you."</p> + +<p>"All books interest me, I think," said Leonard, "and this especially; +for it relates to the working-class, and I am one of them."</p> + +<p>"You were yesterday, but you mayn't be to-morrow," answered Richard +good-humoredly, and patting him on the shoulder. "You see, my lad, +that it is the middle class which ought to govern the country. What +the book says about the ignorance of country magistrates is very good; +but the man writes pretty considerable trash when he wants to regulate +the number of hours a free-born boy should work at a factory—only ten +hours a-day—pooh! and so lose two to the nation! Labor is wealth: and +if we could get men to work twenty-four hours a-day, we should be just +twice as rich. If the march of civilization is to proceed," continued +Richard, loftily, "men, and boys too, must not lie a-bed doing nothing +<i>all night</i>, sir." Then with a complacent tone—"We shall get to the +twenty-four hours at last; and, by gad, we must, or we shan't flog the +Europeans as we do now."</p> + +<p>On arriving at the inn at which Richard had first made acquaintance +with Mr. Dale, the coach by which he had intended to perform the rest +of the journey was found to be full. Richard continued to perform the +journey in post chaises, not without some grumbling at the expense, +and incessant orders to the postboys to make the best of the way. +"Slow country this, in spite of all its brag," said he—"very slow. +Time is money—they know that in the States; for why, they are all men +of business there. Always slow in a country where a parcel of lazy +idle lords, and dukes, and baronets, seem to think 'time is +pleasure.'"</p> + +<p>Towards evening the chaise approached the confines of a very large +town, and Richard began to grow fidgety. His easy cavalier air was +abandoned. He withdrew his legs from the window, out of which they had +been luxuriously dangling; pulled down his waistcoat; buckled more +tightly his stock: it was clear that he was resuming the decorous +dignity that belongs to state. He was like a monarch who, after +travelling happy and incognito, returns to his capital. Leonard +divined at once, that they were nearing their journey's end.</p> + +<p>Humble foot-passengers now looked at the chaise, and touched their +hats. Richard returned the salutation with a nod—a nod less gracious +than condescending. The chaise turned rapidly to the left, and stopped +before a smart lodge, very new, very white, adorned with two Doric +columns in stucco, and flanked by a large pair of gates. "Hollo!" +cried the postboy, and cracked his whip.</p> + +<p>Two children were playing before the lodge, and some clothes were +hanging out to dry on the shrubs and pales round the neat little +building.</p> + +<p>"Hang those brats! they are actually playing," growled Dick. "As I +live, the jade has been washing again! Stop, boy." During this +soliloquy, a good-looking young woman had rushed from the +door—slapped the children, as catching sight of the chaise, they ran +towards the house—opened the gates, and, dropping a curtsey to the +ground, seemed to wish that she could drop into it altogether, so +frightened and so trembling seemed she to shrink from the wrathful +face which the master now put out of the window.</p> + +<p>"Did I tell you, or did I not," said Dick, "that I would not have +these horrid disreputable clubs of yours playing just before my lodge +gates?"</p> + +<p>"Please, sir—"</p> + +<p>"Don't answer me. And did I tell you, or did I not, that the next time +I saw you making a drying-ground of my lilacs, you should go out, neck +and crop—"</p> + +<p>"Oh, please, sir—"</p> + +<p>"You leave my lodge next Saturday: drive on, boy. The ingratitude and +insolence of those common people are disgraceful to human nature," +muttered Richard, with an accent of the bitterest misanthropy.</p> + +<p>The chaise wheeled along the smoothest and freshest of gravel roads, +and through fields of the finest land, in the highest state of +cultivation. Rapid as was Leonard's survey, his rural eye detected the +signs of a master in the art agronomial. Hitherto he had considered +the Squire's model farm as the nearest approach to good husbandry he +had seen: for Jackeymo's finer skill was developed rather on the +minute scale of market-gardening than what can fairly be called +husbandry. But the Squire's farm was degraded by many old fashioned +notions, and concessions to the whim of the eye, which would not be +found in model farms now-a-days,—large tangled hedgerows, which, +though they constitute one of the beauties most picturesque in old +England, make sad deductions from produce; great trees, overshadowing +the corn, and harboring the birds; little patches of rough sward left +to waste; and angles of woodland running into fields, exposing them to +rabbits, and blocking out the sun. These and such like blots on a +gentleman's agriculture, common-sense and Giacomo had made clear to +the acute comprehension of Leonard. No such faults were perceptible in +Richard Avenel's domain. The fields lay in broad divisions, the hedges +were clipped and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_401" id="Page_401">[Pg 401]</a></span> narrowed into their proper destination of mere +boundaries. Not a blade of wheat withered under the cold shade of a +tree; not a yard of land lay waste; not a weed was to be seen, not a +thistle to waft its baleful seed through the air: some young +plantations were placed, not where the artist would put them, but just +where the farmer wanted a fence from the wind. Was there no beauty in +this? Yes, there was beauty of its kind—beauty at once recognizable +to the initiated—beauty of use and profit—beauty that could bear a +monstrous high rent. And Leonard uttered a cry of admiration which +thrilled through the heart of Richard Avenel.</p> + +<p>"This <i>is</i> farming!" said the villager.</p> + +<p>"Well, I guess it is," answered Richard, all his ill-humor vanishing. +"You should have seen the land when I bought it. But we new men, as +they call us—(damn their impertinence)—are the new blood of this +country."</p> + +<p>Richard Avenel never said any thing more true. Long may the new blood +circulate through the veins of the mighty giantess; but let the grand +heart be the same as it has beat for proud ages.</p> + +<p>The chaise now passed through a pretty shrubbery, and the house came +into gradual view—a house with a portico—all the offices carefully +thrust out of sight.</p> + +<p>The postboy dismounted, and rang the bell.</p> + +<p>"I almost think they are going to keep me waiting," said Mr. Richard, +well-nigh in the very words of Louis XIV.</p> + +<p>But that fear was not realized—the door opened; a well-fed servant +out of livery presented himself. There was no hearty welcoming smile +on his face, but he opened the chaise-door with demure and taciturn +respect.</p> + +<p>"Where's George? why does not he come to the door?" asked Richard, +descending from the chaise slowly, and leaning on the servant's +outstretched arm with as much precaution as if he had had the gout.</p> + +<p>Fortunately, George here came into sight, settling himself hastily +into his livery coat.</p> + +<p>"See to the things, both of you," said Richard, as he paid the +postboy.</p> + +<p>Leonard stood on the gravel sweep, gazing at the square white house.</p> + +<p>"Handsome elevation—classical, I take it—eh?" said Richard, joining +him. "But you should see the offices."</p> + +<p>He then, with familiar kindness, took Leonard by the arm, and drew him +within. He showed him the hall, with a carved mahogany stand for hats; +he showed him the drawing-room, and pointed out its beauties—though +it was summer the drawing-room looked cold, as will look rooms newly +furnished, with walls newly papered, in houses newly built. The +furniture was handsome, and suited to the rank of a rich trader. There +was no pretence about it, and therefore no vulgarity, which is more +than can be said for the houses of many an honorable Mrs. Somebody in +Mayfair, with rooms twelve feet square, chokeful of buhl, that would +have had its proper place in the Tuileries. Then Richard showed him +the library, with mahogany book-cases and plate glass, and the +fashionable authors handsomely bound. Your new men are much better +friends to living authors than your old families who live in the +country, and at most subscribe to a book-club. Then Richard took him +up-stairs, and led him through the bedrooms—all very clean and +comfortable, and with every modern convenience; and, pausing in a very +pretty single gentleman's chamber, said, "This is your den. And now, +can you guess who I am?"</p> + +<p>"No one but my Uncle Richard could be so kind," answered Leonard.</p> + +<p>But the compliment did not flatter Richard. He was extremely +disconcerted and disappointed. He had hoped that he should be taken +for a lord at least, forgetful of all that he had said in +disparagement of lords.</p> + +<p>"Pish!" said he at last, biting his lip—"so you don't think that I +look like a gentleman! Come, now, speak honestly."</p> + +<p>Leonard wonderingly saw he had given pain, and with the good breeding +which comes instinctively from good nature, replied—"I judged you by +your heart, sir, and your likeness to my grandfather—otherwise I +should never have presumed to fancy we could be relations."</p> + +<p>"Hum!" answered Richard. "You can just wash your hands, and then come +down to dinner; you will hear the gong in ten minutes. There's the +bell—ring for what you want."</p> + +<p>With that, he turned on his heel; and, descending the stairs, gave a +look into the dining-room, and admired the plated salver on the +sideboard, and the king's pattern spoons and forks on the table. Then +he walked to the looking-glass over the mantel-piece; and, wishing to +survey the whole effect of his form, mounted a chair. He was just +getting into an attitude which he thought imposing, when the butler +entered, and being London bred, had the discretion to try to escape +unseen; but Richard caught sight of him in the looking-glass, and +colored up to the temples.</p> + +<p>"Jarvis," said he mildly—"Jarvis, put me in mind to have these +inexpressibles altered."</p> + + +<h4>CHAPTER III.</h4> + +<p>Apropos of the inexpressibles, Mr. Richard did not forget to provide +his nephew with a much larger wardrobe than could have been thrust +into Dr. Riccabocca's knapsack. There was a very good tailor in the +town, and the clothes were very well made. And, but for an air more +ingenuous, and a cheek that, despite study and night vigils, retained +much of the sunburnt bloom of the rustic, Leonard Fairfield might now +have almost passed, without disparaging comment, by the bow-window at +White's. Richard burst into an immoderate fit of laughter when he +first saw the watch which the poor Italian had bestowed upon Leonard; +but, to atone for the laughter, he made him a present of a very pretty +substitute, and bade him "lock up his turnip." Leonard was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_402" id="Page_402">[Pg 402]</a></span> more hurt +by the jeer at his old patron's gift than pleased by his uncle's. But +Richard Avenel had no conception of sentiment. It was not for many +days that Leonard could reconcile himself to his uncle's manner. Not +that the peasant could pretend to judge of its mere conventional +defects; but there is an ill breeding to which, whatever our rank and +nurture, we are almost equally sensitive—the ill breeding that comes +from want of consideration for others. Now, the Squire was as homely +in his way as Richard Avenel, but the Squire's bluntness rarely hurt +the feelings: and when it did so, the Squire perceived and hastened to +repair his blunder. But Mr. Richard, whether kind or cross, was always +wounding you in some little delicate fibre—not from malice, but from +the absence of any little delicate fibres of his own. He was really, +in many respects, a most excellent man, and certainly a very valuable +citizen. But his merits wanted the fine tints and fluent curves that +constitute beauty of character. He was honest, but sharp in his +practice, and with a keen eye to his interests. He was just, but as a +matter of business. He made no allowances, and did not leave to his +justice the large margin of tenderness and mercy. He was generous, but +rather from an idea of what was due to himself than with much thought +of the pleasure he gave to others; and he even regarded generosity as +a capital put out to interest. He expected a great deal of gratitude +in return, and, when he obliged a man, considered that he had bought a +slave. Every needy voter knew where to come, if he wanted relief or a +loan; but woe to him if he had ventured to express hesitation when Mr. +Avenel told him how he must vote.</p> + +<p>In this town Richard had settled after his return from America, in +which country he had enriched himself—first, by spirit and +industry—lastly, by bold speculation and good luck. He invested his +fortune in business—became a partner in a large brewery—soon bought +out his associates—and then took a principal share in a flourishing +corn-mill. He prospered rapidly—bought a property of some two or +three hundred acres, built a house, and resolved to enjoy himself, and +make a figure. He had now become the leading man of the town, and the +boast to Audley Egerton that he could return one of the members, +perhaps both, was by no means an exaggerated estimate of his power. +Nor was his proposition, according to his own views, so unprincipled +as it appeared to the statesman. He had taken a great dislike to both +the sitting members—a dislike natural to a sensible man of modern +politics, who had something to lose. For Mr. Slappe, the active +member—who was head-over-ears in debt—was one of the furious +democrats rare before the Reform Bill—and whose opinions were held +dangerous even by the mass of a liberal constituency; while Mr. +Sleekie, the gentleman member, who laid by £5000 every year from his +dividends in the Funds, was one of those men whom Richard justly +pronounced to be "humbugs"—men who curry favor with the extreme party +by voting for measures sure not to be carried; while, if there were +the least probability of coming to a decision that would lower the +money market, Mr. Sleekie was seized with a well-timed influenza. +Those politicians are common enough now. Propose to march to the +Millennium, and they are your men. Ask them to march a quarter of a +mile, and they fall to feeling their pockets, and trembling for fear +of the footpads. They are never so joyful as when there is no chance +of a victory. Did they beat the Minister, they would be carried out of +the house in a fit.</p> + +<p>Richard Avenel—despising both these gentlemen, and not taking kindly +to the Whigs since the great Whig leaders were Lords—looked with a +friendly eye to the Government as it then existed, and especially to +Audley Egerton, the enlightened representative of commerce. But in +giving Audley and his colleagues the benefit of his influence, through +conscience, he thought it all fair and right to have a <i>quid pro quo</i>, +and, as he had so frankly confessed, it was his whim to rise up "Sir +Richard." For this worthy citizen abused the aristocracy much on the +same principle as the fair Olivia depreciated Squire Thornhill—he had +a sneaking affection for what he abused. The society of Screwstown +was, like most provincial capitals, composed of two classes—the +commercial and the exclusive. These last dwelt chiefly apart, around +the ruins of an old abbey; they affected its antiquity in their +pedigrees, and had much of its ruin in their finances. Widows of rural +thanes in the neighborhood—genteel spinsters—officers retired on +half-pay—younger sons of rich squires, who had now become old +bachelors—in short, a very respectable, proud, aristocratic set—who +thought more of themselves than do all the Gowers and Howards, +Courtenays and Seymours, put together. It had early been the ambition +of Richard Avenel to be admitted into this sublime coterie; and, +strange to say, he had partially succeeded. He was never more happy +than when he was asked to their card-parties, and never more unhappy +than when he was actually there. Various circumstances combined to +raise Mr. Avenel into this elevated society. First, he was unmarried, +still very handsome, and in that society there was a large proportion +of unwedded females. Secondly, he was the only rich trader in +Screwstown who kept a good cook, and professed to give dinners, and +the half-pay captains and colonels swallowed the host for the sake of +the venison. Thirdly, and principally, all these exclusives abhorred +the two sitting members, and "idem nolle idem velle de republica, ea +firma amicitia est;" that is, congeniality in politics pieces +porcelain and crockery together better than the best diamond cement. +The sturdy Richard Avenel—who valued himself on American +independence—held these ladies and gentlemen in an awe that was truly +Brahminical.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_403" id="Page_403">[Pg 403]</a></span> Whether it was that, in England, all notions, even of +liberty, are mixed up historically, traditionally, socially, with that +fine and subtle element of aristocracy which, like the press, is the +air we breathe; or whether Richard imagined that he really became +magnetically imbued with the virtues of these silver pennies and gold +seven-shilling pieces, distinct from the vulgar coinage in popular +use, it is hard to say. But the truth must be told—Richard Avenel was +a notable tuft-hunter. He had a great longing to marry out of this +society; but he had not yet seen any one sufficiently high-born and +high-bred to satisfy his aspirations. In the mean while, he had +convinced himself that his way would be smooth could he offer to make +his ultimate choice "My Lady;" and he felt that it would be a proud +hour in his life when he could walk before stiff Colonel Pompley to +the sound of "Sir Richard." Still, however disappointed at the ill +success of his bluff diplomacy with Mr. Egerton, and however yet +cherishing the most vindictive resentment against that individual—he +did not, as many would have done, throw up his political convictions +out of personal spite. He resolved still to favor the ungrateful and +undeserving administration; and as Audley Egerton had acted on the +representations of the mayor and deputies, and shaped his bill to meet +their views, so Avenel and the Government rose together in the popular +estimation of the citizens of Screwstown.</p> + +<p>But, duly to appreciate the value of Richard Avenel, and in just +counterpoise to all his foibles, one ought to have seen what he had +effected for the town. Well might he boast of "new blood;" he had done +as much for the town as he had for his fields. His energy, his quick +comprehension of public utility, backed by his wealth, and bold, +bullying, imperious character, had sped the work of civilization as if +with the celerity and force of a steam-engine.</p> + +<p>If the town were so well paved and so well lighted—if half-a-dozen +squalid lanes had been transformed into a stately street—if half the +town no longer depended on tanks for their water—if the poor-rates +were reduced one-third,—praise to the brisk new blood which Richard +Avenel had infused into vestry and corporation. And his example itself +was so contagious! "There was not a plate-glass window in the town +when I came into it," said Richard Avenel; "and now look down the High +Street!" He took the credit to himself, and justly; for, though his +own business did not require windows of plate-glass, he had awakened +the spirit of enterprise which adorns a whole city.</p> + +<p>Mr. Avenel did not present Leonard to his friends for more than a +fortnight. He allowed him to wear off his rust. He then gave a grand +dinner, at which his nephew was formally introduced, and, to his great +wrath and disappointment, never opened his lips. How could he, poor +youth, when Miss Clarina Mowbray only talked upon high life; till +proud Colonel Pompley went in state through the history of the siege +of Seringapatam.</p> + + +<h4>CHAPTER IV.</h4> + +<p>While Leonard accustoms himself gradually to the splendors that +surround him, and often turns with a sigh to the remembrance of his +mother's cottage and the sparkling fount in the Italian's flowery +garden, we will make with thee, O reader, a rapid flight to the +metropolis, and drop ourselves amidst the gay groups that loiter along +the dusty ground, or loll over the roadside palings of Hyde Park. The +season is still at its height; but the short day of fashionable London +life, which commences two hours after noon, is in its decline. The +crowd in Rotten Row begins to thin. Near the statue of Achilles, and +apart from all other loungers, a gentleman, with one hand thrust into +his waistcoat, and the other resting on his cane, gazed listlessly on +the horsemen and carriages in the brilliant ring. He was still in the +prime of life, at the age when man is usually the most social—when +the acquaintances of youth have ripened into friendship, and a +personage of some rank and fortune has become a well-known feature in +the mobile face of society. But though, when his contemporaries were +boys scarce at college, this gentleman had blazed foremost amongst the +princes of fashion, and though he had all the qualities of nature and +circumstance which either retain fashion to the last, or exchange its +false celebrity for a graver repute, he stood as a stranger in that +throng of his countrymen. Beauties whirled by to the toilet—statesmen +passed on to the senate—dandies took flight to the clubs; and neither +nods, nor becks, nor wreathed smiles, said to the solitary spectator, +"Follow us—thou art one of our set." Now and then, some middle-aged +beau, nearing the post of the loiterer, turned round to look again; +but the second glance seemed to dissipate the recognition of the +first, and the beau silently continued his way.</p> + +<p>"By the tombs of my fathers!" said the solitary to himself, "I know +now what a dead man might feel if he came to life again, and took a +peep at the living."</p> + +<p>Time passed on—the evening shades descended fast. Our stranger in +London had well-nigh the Park to himself. He seemed to breathe more +freely as he saw that the space was so clear.</p> + +<p>"There's oxygen in the atmosphere now," said he, half aloud; "and I +can walk without breathing in the gaseous fumes of the multitude. O +those chemists—what dolts they are! They tell us crowds taint the +air, but they never guess why! Pah, it is not the lungs that poison +the element—it is the reek of bad hearts. When a periwig-pated fellow +breathes on me, I swallow a mouthful of care. <i>Allons!</i> my friend +Nero; now for a stroll." He touched with his cane a large Newfoundland +dog, who lay stretched near his feet; a dog and man went slow through +the growing twilight, and over the brown dry turf. At length our +solitary<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_404" id="Page_404">[Pg 404]</a></span> paused, and threw himself on a bench under a tree. +"Half-past eight!" said he, looking at his watch—"one may smoke one's +cigar without shocking the world."</p> + +<p>He took out his cigar-case, struck a light, and in another moment +reclined at length on the bench—seemed absorbed in regarding the +smoke, that scarce colored ere it vanished into air.</p> + +<p>"It is the most barefaced lie in the world, my Nero," said he, +addressing his dog, "this boasted liberty of man! Now here am I, a +free-born Englishman, a citizen of the world, caring—I often say to +myself—caring not a jot for Kaisar or Mob; and yet I no more dare +smoke this cigar in the Park at half-past six, when all the world is +abroad, than I dare pick my Lord Chancellor's pocket, or hit the +Archbishop of Canterbury a thump on the nose. Yet no law in England +forbids me my cigar, Nero! What is law at half-past eight, was not +crime at six and a-half! Britannia says, 'Man, thou art free,' and she +lies like a commonplace woman. O Nero, Nero! you enviable dog!—you +serve but from liking. No thought of the world costs you one wag of +your tail. Your big heart and true instinct suffice you for reason and +law. You would want nothing to your felicity, if in these moments of +ennui you would but smoke a cigar. Try it, Nero!—try it!" And, rising +from his incumbent posture, he sought to force the end of the weed +between the teeth of the dog.</p> + +<p>While thus gravely engaged, two figures had approached the place. The +one was a man who seemed weak and sickly. His threadbare coat was +buttoned to the chin, but hung large on his shrunken breast. The other +was a girl of about fourteen, on whose arm he leant heavily. Her cheek +was wan, and there was a patient sad look on her face, which seemed so +settled that you would think she could never have known the +mirthfulness of childhood.</p> + +<p>"Pray rest here, papa," said the child softly; and she pointed to the +bench, without taking heed of its pre-occupant, who now, indeed, +confined to one corner of the seat, was almost hidden by the shadow of +a tree.</p> + +<p>The man sat down with a feeble sigh; and then, observing the stranger, +raised his hat, and said in that tone of voice which betrays the +usages of polished society, "Forgive me, if I intrude on you, sir."</p> + +<p>The stranger looked up from his dog, and seeing that the girl was +standing, rose at once, as if to make room for her on the bench.</p> + +<p>But still the girl did not heed him. She hung over her father, and +wiped his brow tenderly with a little kerchief which she took from her +own neck for the purpose.</p> + +<p>Nero, delighted to escape the cigar, had taken to some unwieldy +curvets and gambols, to vent the excitement into which he had been +thrown; and now returning, approached the bench with a low look of +surprise, and sniffed at the intruders on his master's privacy.</p> + +<p>"Come here, sir," said the master. "You need not fear him," he added, +addressing himself to the girl.</p> + +<p>But the girl, without turning round to him, cried in a voice rather of +anguish than alarm, "He has fainted! Father! father!"</p> + +<p>The stranger kicked aside his dog, which was in the way, and loosened +the poor man's stiff military stock. While thus charitably engaged, +the moon broke out, and the light fell full on the pale care-worn face +of the unconscious sufferer.</p> + +<p>"This face seems not unfamiliar to me, though sadly changed," said the +stranger to himself; and bending towards the girl, who had sunk on her +knees and was chafing her father's hands, he asked, "My child, what is +your father's name?"</p> + +<p>The child continued her task, too absorbed to answer.</p> + +<p>The stranger put his hand on her shoulder, and repeated the question.</p> + +<p>"Digby," answered the child, almost unconsciously; and as she spoke, +the man's senses began to return. In a few minutes more he had +sufficiently recovered to falter forth his thanks to the stranger. But +the last took his hand, and said, in a voice at once tremulous and +soothing, "Is it possible that I see once more an old brother in arms? +Algernon Digby, I do not forget you; but it seems England has +forgotten!"</p> + +<p>A hectic flush spread over the soldier's face, and he looked away from +the speaker as he answered—</p> + +<p>"My name is Digby, it is true, sir; but I do not think we have met +before. Come, Helen, I am well now—we will go home."</p> + +<p>"Try and play with that great dog, my child," said the stranger—"I +want to talk with your father."</p> + +<p>The child bowed her submissive head, and moved away; but she did not +play with the dog.</p> + +<p>"I must re-introduce myself, formally, I see," quoth the stranger. +"You were in the same regiment with myself, and my name is +L'Estrange."</p> + +<p>"My lord," said the soldier, rising, "forgive me that—"</p> + +<p>"I don't think that it was the fashion to call me 'my lord' at the +mess-table. Come, what has happened to you?—on half pay?"</p> + +<p>Mr. Digby shook his head mournfully.</p> + +<p>"Digby, old fellow, can you lend me £100?" said Lord L'Estrange, +clapping his <i>ci-devant</i> brother officer on the shoulder, and in a +tone of voice that seemed like a boy's—so impudent was it and +devil-me-carish. "No! Well, that's lucky, for I can lend it to you."</p> + +<p>Mr. Digby burst into tears.</p> + +<p>Lord L'Estrange did not seem to observe the emotion. "We were both sad +extravagant fellows in our day," said he, "and I dare say I borrowed +of you pretty freely."</p> + +<p>"Me! Oh, Lord L'Estrange?"</p> + +<p>"You have married since then, and reformed, I suppose. Tell me, old +friend, all about it."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_405" id="Page_405">[Pg 405]</a></span></p> + +<p>Mr. Digby, who by this time had succeeded in restoring some calm to +his shattered nerves, now rose, and said in brief sentences, but clear +firm tones,—</p> + +<p>"My Lord, it is idle to talk of me—useless to help me. I am fast +dying. But, my child there, my only child, (he paused an instant, and +went on rapidly.) I have relations in a distant country, if I could +but get to them—I think they would at least provide for her. This has +been for weeks my hope, my dream, my prayer. I cannot afford the +journey except by your help. I have begged without shame for myself; +shall I be ashamed, then, to beg for her?"</p> + +<p>"Digby," said L'Estrange with some grave alteration of manner, "talk +neither of dying, nor begging. You were nearer death when the balls +whistled round you at Waterloo. If soldier meets soldier and says, +'Friend, thy purse,' it is not begging, but brotherhood. Ashamed! By +the soul of Belisarius! if I needed money, I would stand at a crossing +with my Waterloo medal over my breast, and say to each sleek citizen I +had helped to save from the sword of the Frenchman, 'It is your shame +if I starve.' Now, lean upon me; I see you should be at home—which +way?"</p> + +<p>The poor soldier pointed his hand towards Oxford Street, and +reluctantly accepted the proffered arm.</p> + +<p>"And when you return from your relations, you will call on me? +What!—hesitate? Come, promise."</p> + +<p>"I will."</p> + +<p>"On your honor."</p> + +<p>"If I live, on my honor."</p> + +<p>"I am staying at present at Knightsbridge, with my father; but you +will always hear of my address at No. — Grosvenor Square, Mr. +Egerton's. So you have a long journey before you?"</p> + +<p>"Very long."</p> + +<p>"Do not fatigue yourself—travel slowly. Ho, you foolish child!—I see +you are jealous of me. Your father has another arm to spare you."</p> + +<p>Thus talking, and getting but short answers, Lord L'Estrange continued +to exhibit those whimsical peculiarities of character, which had +obtained for him the repute of heartlessness in the world. Perhaps the +reader may think the world was not in the right. But if ever the world +does judge rightly of the character of a man who does not live for the +world, nor talk of the world, nor feel with the world, it will be +centuries after the soul of Harley L'Estrange has done with this +planet.</p> + + +<h4>CHAPTER V.</h4> + +<p>Lord L'Estrange parted company with Mr. Digby at the entrance of +Oxford Street. The father and child there took a cabriolet. Mr. Digby +directed the driver to go down the Edgeware Road. He refused to tell +L'Estrange his address, and this with such evident pain, from the +sores of pride, that L'Estrange could not press the point. Reminding +the soldier of his promise to call, Harley thrust a pocket-book into +his hand, and walked off hastily towards Grosvenor Square.</p> + +<p>He reached Audley Egerton's door just as that gentleman was getting +out of his carriage; and the two friends entered the house together.</p> + +<p>"Does the nation take a nap to-night?" asked L'Estrange. "Poor old +lady! She hears so much of her affairs, that she may well boast of her +constitution: it must be of iron."</p> + +<p>"The House is still sitting," answered Audley seriously, and with +small heed of his friend's witticism. "But it is not a Government +motion, and the division will be late, so I came home; and if I had +not found you here, I should have gone into the park to look for you."</p> + +<p>"Yes—one always knows where to find me at this hour, 9 o'clock +<span class="smcap">p.m.</span>—cigar—Hyde Park. There is not a man in England so regular in +his habits."</p> + +<p>Here the friends reached a drawing-room in which the member of +Parliament seldom sat, for his private apartments were all on the +ground floor.</p> + +<p>"But it is the strangest whim of yours, Harley," said he.</p> + +<p>"What?"</p> + +<p>"To affect detestation of ground-floors."</p> + +<p>"Affect! O sophisticated man, of the earth, earthy! Affect!—nothing +less natural to the human soul than a ground-floor. We are quite far +enough from heaven, mount as many stairs as we will, without +grovelling by preference."</p> + +<p>"According to that symbolical view of the case," said Audley, "you +should lodge in an attic."</p> + +<p>"So I would, but that I abhor new slippers. As for hair-brushes, I am +indifferent!"</p> + +<p>"What have slippers and hair-brushes to do with attics?"</p> + +<p>"Try! Make your bed in an attic, and the next morning you will have +neither slippers nor hair-brushes!"</p> + +<p>"What shall I have done with them?"</p> + +<p>"Shied them at the cats!"</p> + +<p>"What odd things you do say, Harley!"</p> + +<p>"Odd! By Apollo and his nine spinsters! there is no human being who +has so little imagination as a distinguished Member of Parliament. +Answer me this, thou solemn right honorable—Hast thou climbed to the +heights of august contemplation? Hast thou gazed on the stars with the +rapt eye of song? Hast thou dreamed of a love known to the angels, or +sought to seize in the Infinite the mystery of life?"</p> + +<p>"Not I indeed, my poor Harley."</p> + +<p>"Then no wonder, poor Audley, that you cannot conjecture why he who +makes his bed in an attic, disturbed by base catterwauls, shies his +slippers at cats. Bring a chair into the balcony. Nero spoiled my +cigar to-night. I am going to smoke now. You never smoke. You can look +on the shrubs in the Square."</p> + +<p>Audley slightly shrugged his shoulders, but he followed his friend's +counsel and example,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_406" id="Page_406">[Pg 406]</a></span> and brought his chair into the balcony. Nero +came too, but at sight and smell of the cigar prudently retreated, and +took refuge under the table.</p> + +<p>"Audley Egerton, I want something from Government."</p> + +<p>"I am delighted to hear it."</p> + +<p>"There was a cornet in my regiment, who would have done better not to +have come into it. We were, for the most part of us, puppies and +fops."</p> + +<p>"You all fought well, however."</p> + +<p>"Puppies and fops do fight well. Vanity and valor generally go +together. Cæsar, who scratched his head with due care of his scanty +curls, and, even in dying, thought of the folds in his toga; Walter +Raleigh, who could not walk twenty yards, because of the gems in his +shoes; Alcibiades, who lounged into the Agora with doves in his bosom, +and an apple in his hand; Murat, bedizened in gold lace and furs; and +Demetrius, the City-Taker, who made himself up like a French +<i>Marquise</i>,—were all pretty good fellows at fighting. A slovenly hero +like Cromwell is a paradox in nature, and a marvel in history. But to +return to my cornet. We were rich; he was poor. When the pot of clay +swims down the stream with the brass-pots, it is sure of a smash. Men +said Digby was stingy; I saw he was extravagant. But every one, I +fear, would be rather thought stingy than poor. <i>Bref.</i>—I left the +army, and saw him no more till to-night. There was never shabby poor +gentleman on the stage more awfully shabby, more pathetically +gentleman. But, look ye, this man has fought for England. It was no +child's play at Waterloo, let me tell you, Mr. Egerton; and, but for +such men, you would be at best a <i>sous-prefet</i>, and your Parliament a +Provincial Assembly. You must do something for Digby. What shall it +be?"</p> + +<p>"Why, really, my dear Harley, this man was no great friend of +yours—eh?"</p> + +<p>"If he were, he would not want the Government to help him—he would +not be ashamed of taking money from me."</p> + +<p>"That is all very fine, Harley; but there are so many poor officers, +and so little to give. It is the most difficult thing in the world +that which you ask me. Indeed, I know nothing can be done: he has his +half-pay?"</p> + +<p>"I think not; or, if he has it, no doubt it all goes on his debts. +That's nothing to us: the man and his child are starving."</p> + +<p>"But if it is his own fault—if he has been imprudent?"</p> + +<p>"Ah—well, well; where the devil is Nero?"</p> + +<p>"I am so sorry I can't oblige you. If it were any thing else—"</p> + +<p>"There is something else. My valet—I can't turn him adrift—excellent +fellow, but gets drunk now and then. Will you find him a place in the +Stamp Office?"</p> + +<p>"With pleasure."</p> + +<p>"No, now I think of it—the man knows my ways: I must keep him. But my +old wine-merchant—civil man, never dunned—is a bankrupt. I am under +great obligations to him, and he has a very pretty daughter. Do you +think you could thrust him into some small place in the colonies, or +make him a King's Messenger, or something of the sort?"</p> + +<p>"If you very much wish it, no doubt I can."</p> + +<p>"My dear Audley, I am but feeling my way: the fact is, I want +something for myself."</p> + +<p>"Ah, that indeed gives me pleasure!" cried Egerton, with animation.</p> + +<p>"The mission to Florence will soon be vacant—I know it privately. The +place would quite suit me. Pleasant city; the best figs in Italy—very +little to do. You could sound Lord —— on the subject."</p> + +<p>"I will answer beforehand. Lord ——would be enchanted to secure to +the public service a man so accomplished as yourself, and the son of a +peer like Lord Lansmere."</p> + +<p>Harley L'Estrange sprang to his feet, and flung his cigar in the face +of a stately policeman who was looking up at the balcony.</p> + +<p>"Infamous and bloodless official!" cried Harley L'Estrange; "so you +could provide for a pimple-nosed lackey—for a wine-merchant who has +been poisoning the king's subjects with white-lead or sloe-juice—for +an idle sybarite, who would complain of a crumpled rose-leaf; and +nothing, in all the vast patronage of England, for a broken down +soldier, whose dauntless breast was her rampart!"</p> + +<p>"Harley," said the member of Parliament, with his calm, sensible +smile, "this would be a very good clap-trap at a small theatre; but +there is nothing in which Parliament demands such rigid economy as the +military branch of the public service; and no man for whom it is so +hard to effect what we must plainly call a job, as a subaltern +officer, who has done nothing more than his duty—and all military men +do that. Still, as you take it so earnestly, I will use what interest +I can at the War Office, and get him, perhaps, the mastership of a +barrack."</p> + +<p>"You had better; for if you do not, I swear I will turn radical, and +come down to your own city to oppose you, with Hunt and Cobbett to +canvass for me."</p> + +<p>"I should be very glad to see you come into Parliament, even as a +radical, and at my expense," said Audley, with great kindness. "But +the air is growing cold, and you are not accustomed to our climate. +Nay, if you are too poetic for catarrhs and rheums, I'm not—come in."</p> + + +<h4>CHAPTER VI.</h4> + +<p>Lord L'Estrange threw himself on a sofa, and leant his cheek on his +hand thoughtfully. Audley Egerton sat near him, with his arms folded, +and gazed on his friend's face with a soft expression of aspect, which +was very unusual to the firm outline of his handsome features. The two +men were as dissimilar in person as the reader will have divined that +they were in character. All about Egerton<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_407" id="Page_407">[Pg 407]</a></span> was so rigid, all about +L'Estrange so easy. In every posture of Harley there was the +unconscious grace of a child. The very fashion of his garments showed +his abhorrence of restraint. His clothes were wide and loose, his +neckcloth tied carelessly, left his throat half bare. You could see +that he had lived much in warm and southern lands, and contracted a +contempt for conventionalities; there was as little in his dress as in +his talk of the formal precision of the north. He was three or four +years younger than Audley, but he looked at least twelve years +younger. In fact, he was one of those men to whom old age seems +impossible—voice, look, figure, had all the charm of youth; and, +perhaps, it was from this gracious youthfulness—at all events, it was +characteristic of the kind of love he inspired—that neither his +parents, nor the few friends admitted into his intimacy, ever called +him, in their habitual intercourse, by the name of his title. He was +not L'Estrange with them, he was Harley; and by that familiar +baptismal I will usually designate him. He was not one of those men +whom author or reader wish to view at a distance, and remember as "my +lord"—it was so rarely that he remembered it himself. For the rest, +it had been said of him by a shrewd wit—"He is so natural, that every +one calls him affected." Harley L'Estrange was not so critically +handsome as Audley Egerton; to a commonplace observer he was, at best, +rather good-looking than otherwise. But women said that he had a +beautiful countenance, and they were not wrong. He wore his hair, +which was of a fair chestnut, long, and in loose curls; and instead of +the Englishman's whiskers, indulged in the foreigner's moustache. His +complexion was delicate, though not effeminate; it was rather the +delicacy of a student than of a woman. But in his clear gray eye there +was wonderful vigor of life. A skilful physiologist, looking only into +that eye, would have recognized rare stamina of constitution—a nature +so rich that, while easily disturbed, it would require all the effects +of time, or all the fell combinations of passion and grief, to exhaust +it. Even now, though so thoughtful, and even so sad, the rays of that +eye were as concentred and stedfast as the light of the diamond.</p> + +<p>"You were only, then, in jest," said Audley, after a long silence, +"when you spoke of this mission to Florence. You have still no idea of +entering into public life.</p> + +<p>"None."</p> + +<p>"I had hoped better things when I got your promise to pass one season +in London. But, indeed, you have kept your promise to the ear to break +it to the spirit. I could not presuppose that you would shun all +society, and be as much of a hermit here as under the vines of Como."</p> + +<p>"I have sat in the Strangers' Gallery, and heard your great speakers; +I have been in the pit of the opera, and seen your fine ladies; I have +walked your streets, I have lounged in your parks, and I say that I +can't fall in love with a faded dowager, because she fills up her +wrinkles with rouge."</p> + +<p>"Of what dowager do you speak?" asked the matter-of-fact Audley.</p> + +<p>"She has a great many titles. Some people call her fashion, you busy +men, politics: it is all one—tricked out and artificial. I mean +London life. No, I can't fall in love with her, fawning old harridan!"</p> + +<p>"I wish you could fall in love with something."</p> + +<p>"I wish I could, with all my heart."</p> + +<p>"But you are so <i>blasé</i>."</p> + +<p>"On the contrary, I am so fresh. Look out of the window—what do you +see?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing!"</p> + +<p>"Nothing—"</p> + +<p>"Nothing but houses and dusty lilacs, my coachman dozing on his box, +and two women in pattens crossing the kennel."</p> + +<p>"I see none of that where I lie on the sofa. I see but the stars. And +I feel for them as I did when I was a schoolboy at Eton. It is you who +are <i>blasé</i>, not I—enough of this. You do not forget my commission, +with respect to the exile who has married into your brother's family?"</p> + +<p>"No; but here you set me a task more difficult than that of saddling +your cornet on the War Office."</p> + +<p>"I know it is difficult, for the counter influence is vigilant and +strong; but, on the other hand, the enemy is so damnable a traitor +that one must have the Fates and the household gods on one's side."</p> + +<p>"Nevertheless," said the practical Audley, bending over a book on the +table, "I think that the best plan would be to attempt a compromise +with the traitor."</p> + +<p>"To judge of others by myself," answered Harley with spirit, "it were +less bitter to put up with wrong than to palter with it for +compensation. And such wrong! Compromise with the open foe—that may +be done with honor; but with the perjured friend—that were to forgive +the perjury."</p> + +<p>"You are too vindictive," said Egerton; "there may be excuses for the +friend, which palliate even—"</p> + +<p>"Hush! Audley, hush! or I shall think the world has indeed corrupted +you. Excuse for the friend who deceives, who betrays! No, such is the +true outlaw of Humanity; and the Furies surround him even while he +sleeps in the temple."</p> + +<p>The man of the world lifted his eye slowly on the animated face of one +still natural enough for the passions. He then once more returned to +his book, and said, after a pause, "It is time you should marry, +Harley."</p> + +<p>"No," answered L'Estrange, with a smile at this sudden turn in the +conversation—"not time yet; for my chief objection to that change in +life is, that all the women now-a-days are too old for me, or I am too +young for them; a few, indeed, are so infantine that one is ashamed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_408" id="Page_408">[Pg 408]</a></span> +to be their toy; but most are so knowing that one is a fool to be +their dupe. The first, if they condescend to love you, love you as the +biggest doll they have yet dandled, and for a doll's good +qualities—your pretty blue eyes, and your exquisite millinery. The +last, if they prudently accept you, do so on algebraical principles; +you are but the X or the Y that represents a certain aggregate of +goods matrimonial—pedigree, title, rent-roll, diamonds, pin-money, +opera-box. They cast you up with the help of mamma, and you wake some +morning to find that <i>plus</i> wife <i>minus</i> affection equals—the Devil!"</p> + +<p>"Nonsense," said Audley, with his quiet grave laugh. "I grant that it +is often the misfortune of a man in your station to be married rather +for what he has, than for what he is; but you are tolerably +penetrating, and not likely to be deceived in the character of the +woman you court."</p> + +<p>"Of the woman I <i>court</i>?—No! But of the woman I <i>marry</i>, very likely +indeed. Woman is a changeable thing, as our Virgil informed us at +school; but her change <i>par excellence</i> is from the fairy you woo to +the brownie you wed. It is not that she has been a hypocrite, +it is that she is a transmigration. You marry a girl for her +accomplishments. She paints charmingly, or plays like St. Cecilia. +Clap a ring on her finger, and she never draws again—except perhaps +your caricature on the back of a letter, and never opens a piano after +the honeymoon. You marry her for her sweet temper; and next year, her +nerves are so shattered that you can't contradict her but you are +whirled into a storm of hysterics. You marry her because she declares +she hates balls and likes quiet; and ten to one but what she becomes a +patroness at Almacks, or a lady in waiting."</p> + +<p>"Yet most men marry, and most men survive the operation."</p> + +<p>"If it were only necessary to live, that would be a consolatory and +encouraging reflection. But to live with peace, to live with dignity, +to live with freedom, to live in harmony with your thoughts, your +habits, your aspirations—and this in the perpetual companionship of a +person to whom you have given the power to wound your peace, to assail +your dignity, to cripple your freedom, to jar on each thought and each +habit, and bring you down to the meanest details of earth, when you +invite her, poor soul, to soar to the spheres—that makes the to be, +or not to be, which is the question."</p> + +<p>"If I were you, Harley, I would do as I have heard the author of +<i>Sandford and Merton</i> did—choose out a child, and educate her +yourself after your own heart."</p> + +<p>"You have hit it," answered Harley, seriously. "That has long been my +idea—a very vague one, I confess. But I fear I shall be an old man +before I find even the child."</p> + +<p>"Ah," he continued, yet more earnestly, while the whole character of +his varying countenance changed again—"ah! if indeed I could discover +what I seek—one who with the heart of a child has the mind of a +woman; one who beholds in nature the variety, the charm, the never +feverish, ever healthful excitement that others vainly seek in the +bastard sentimentalities of a life false with artificial forms; one +who can comprehend, as by intuition, the rich poetry with which +creation is clothed—poetry so clear to the child when enraptured with +the flower, or when wondering at the star? If on me such exquisite +companionship were bestowed—why, then"—he paused, sighed deeply, +and, covering his face with his hand, resumed in faltering accents,—</p> + +<p>"But once—but once only, did such vision of the Beautiful made human +rise before me—amidst 'golden exhalations of the dawn.' It beggared +my life in vanishing. You know only—you only—how—how"—</p> + +<p>He bowed his head, and the tears forced themselves through his +clenched fingers.</p> + +<p>"So long ago!" said Audley, sharing his friend's emotion. "Years so +long and so weary, yet still thus tenacious of a mere boyish memory."</p> + +<p>"Away with it, then!" cried Harley, springing to his feet, and with a +laugh of strange merriment. "Your carriage still waits; set me home +before you go to the House."</p> + +<p>Then laying his hand lightly on his friend's shoulder, he said, "Is it +for you, Audley Egerton, to speak sneeringly of boyish memories? What +else is it that binds us together? What else warms my heart when I +meet you? What else draws your thoughts from blue-books and +beer-bills, to waste them on a vagrant like me? Shake hands. Oh, +friend of my boyhood! recollect the oars that we plied and the bats +that we wielded in the old time, or the murmured talk on the +moss-grown bank, as we sat together, building in the summer air +castles mightier than Windsor. Ah! they are strong ties, those boyish +memories, believe me! I remember as if it were yesterday my +translation of that lovely passage in Perseus, beginning—let me +see—ah!—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Quum primum pavido custos mihi purpura cessit,"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>that passage on friendship which gushes out so livingly from the stern +heart of the satirist. And when old —— complimented me on my verses, +my eye sought yours. Verily, I now say as then,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Nescio quod, certe est quod me tibi temperet astrum."<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Audley turned away his head as he returned the grasp of his friend's +hand; and while Harley, with his light elastic footstep, descended the +stairs, Egerton lingered behind, and there was no trace of the worldly +man upon his countenance when he took his place in the carriage by his +companion's side.</p> + +<p>Two hours afterwards, weary cries of "Question, question!" "Divide, +divide!" sank into reluctant silence as Audley Egerton rose to +conclude the debate—the man of men to speak<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_409" id="Page_409">[Pg 409]</a></span> late at night, and to +impatient benches: a man who would be heard; whom a Bedlam broke loose +would not have roared down; with a voice clear and sound as a bell, +and a form as firmly set on the ground as a church-tower. And while, +on the dullest of dull questions, Audley Egerton thus, not too lively +himself, enforced attention, where was Harley L'Estrange? Standing +alone by the river at Richmond, and murmuring low fantastic thoughts +as he gazed on the moonlit tide.</p> + +<p>When Audley left him at home, he had joined his parents, made them gay +with his careless gayety, seen the old-fashioned folks retire to rest, +and then—while they, perhaps, deemed him once more the hero of +ball-rooms and the cynosure of clubs—he drove slowly through the soft +summer night, amidst the perfumes of many a garden and many a gleaming +chestnut grove, with no other aim before him than to reach the +loveliest margin of England's loveliest river, at the hour the moon +was fullest and the song of the nightingale most sweet. And so +eccentric a humorist was this man, that I believe, as he there +loitered—no one near to cry "How affected!" or "How romantic!"—he +enjoyed himself more than if he had been exchanging the politest +"how-d'ye-do's" in the hottest of London drawing-rooms, or betting his +hundreds on the odd trick with Lord de R—— for his partner.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> "What was the star I know not, but certainly some star it +was that attuned me unto thee."</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h4>From the London Examiner.</h4> + +<h2><a name="A_GLIMPSE_OF_THE_GREAT_EXHIBITION" id="A_GLIMPSE_OF_THE_GREAT_EXHIBITION"></a>A GLIMPSE OF THE GREAT EXHIBITION.</h2> + +<p>There is one country which is not represented at the Great Exhibition, +one power which refused to send any specimens of its produce, lest the +having done so should be considered as a tribute to the commercial +greatness of England, and lest exhibitors and exhibited should incur +contamination by contact with specimens of the world's industry. One +is not sorry that this should be the case, and that the felon power of +Europe should have thus passed judgment on itself, and of its own +accord placed itself in Coventry.</p> + +<p>The country we allude to is Naples. The horror which the king +entertains of any thing constitutional since his Majesty took the oath +to his own constitution, and since he hanged those who committed the +same crime without afterwards perjuring themselves after the royal +example, has induced him to prohibit the sending of any specimens to +London. Naples, to be sure, has little to exhibit. Industry in that +country, so blessed by nature, has been crushed and annihilated by the +hand of tyranny. Sulphur and other volcanic products, wine which +science has never enabled to bear exportation, silk in its <i>brut</i> +state, with some coarse fabrics of cloth and linen, and hats in +imitation of Tuscany, compose all the industry of one of the finest +countries in Europe. No marvel, therefore, it should have shrunk upon +any pretence from occupying a booth at the Great Exhibition.</p> + +<p>A very different place in that great show is held by Piedmont, which +has furnished a large assortment of raw materials and manufactured +articles. On the other hand, Florence and Venice are far, we fear, +from even keeping up a shadow of their old reputation. The country of +Benvenuto Cellini has lost the gift of the arts with that of freedom; +and the manufactures with which Venice used to pay for the merchandise +of the East are no more. Strange to say, however, Milan supplies one +of the most interesting and perfect compartments of the Exhibition, +that of small sculptures, in which the youth of the region are so +skilled as to distance all competition.</p> + +<p>The United States must be held to have furnished far less valuable +specimens of either art or nature than might have been expected; and +this will be the more evident, as its stall occupies the great +compartment of the Exhibition adjoining the eastern entrance, and +first meeting the eye. France and Germany, especially North Germany, +hold their ground well. One thing, however, seems certain, and the +more remarkable as it was not altogether expected, which is, that +England is not inferior to her competitors in any department. That her +machinery, and the results of her science and skill in working in +metals should distance all competition, might have been looked for. +But what will greatly astonish people, is her very signal success in +so many departments of the ornamental: and whilst of natural +productions her various colonies have supplied specimens the most +novel and most startling, the produce of the looms as well as of the +mines of Indostan offer among the most novel and interesting sights +that the curious could flock to see.</p> + +<p>In a general way it is not yet possible to guess what effect the +Exhibition is likely to have. So many persons will crowd to it with +widely different views, that it is extremely difficult to sum up its +probable impression on the whole. But we believe that those most +gratified will be scientific persons, who can see and compare for the +first time all raw materials and all finished productions gathered +together under the same roof. It is, indeed, as a creator of new +combinations and of new ideas, that the Great Exhibition must in any +permanent sense be chiefly valuable; for it is hardly conceivable but +that many most startling inventions in art manufacture must ultimately +spring from it. But these will be silent enjoyments, and for a long +time secret profits. Those on whose fertile minds the good seed of new +ideas may fall, will silently cherish and allow them to germ in the +shade, and years may elapse ere we see the growth or the fruit. What +meanwhile we may count upon hearing most of for the moment will be the +enjoyment of the curious at the view of the Koh-i-noor, and the other +mere sight-wonders of the Exhibition.</p> + +<p>Let us add that not the least pleasure of this kind is the view which +each race of the human family will be enabled to take of the other. +The crowds now brought together are essentially,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_410" id="Page_410">[Pg 410]</a></span> the greater part of +them, of the middle and artisan class, although it may be generally of +those already successful and enriched. This is a kind of people that +would never have come amongst us but upon an occasion such as the +present, and whom to see and be seen by, cannot but be productive of +large, friendly, humane, cosmopolitan results.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h4>From Leigh Hunt's Journal.</h4> +<h2><a name="DR_DAVID_STRAUSS_IN_WEIMAR" id="DR_DAVID_STRAUSS_IN_WEIMAR"></a>DR. DAVID STRAUSS IN WEIMAR.</h2> + + +<p>The Visitor's Book of the Elephant Hotel in Weimar contains, under the +date of the 12th August, a rather remarkable autograph, which the +curious collector would do well to buy, if possible, or, if not +possible, then to beg or steal. Perhaps, among the many distinguished +names which the long series of <i>Fremdenbücher</i> kept at Weimar during +the last fifty years must necessarily exhibit, there are few to which +an earnest, thinking man would attach the same profound, though +somewhat painful degree of interest. It is the name of "<i>Dr. David +Strauss, aus Ludwigsburg</i>," written by himself.</p> + +<p>"How!" you exclaim in a mingled tone of surprise and incredulity, "Dr. +Strauss in Weimar? David Strauss among the pilgrims to the tomb of the +poets?"</p> + +<p>It does sound apocryphal—<i>mythical</i>, if you will. One would almost as +soon expect to hear of the late Dr. Jordan Faust himself paying a +visit to the ghost of Goethe. Nevertheless, and in spite of all that +learned critics, a thousand years hence, may advance and prove to the +contrary, a veritable fact it is, Strauss actually has been among +us—has been seen here in the body during several days by several +witnesses, the present writer being one.</p> + +<p>It is my intention here briefly to record the impression which I still +retain of my transient intercourse with this celebrated man. Such a +record can scarce be considered as a breach of confidence, an invasion +of the sacred domains of private life: the author of the "<i>Leben +Jesu</i>" is a public, I had almost said, an historical character.</p> + +<p>Up to his arrival in Weimar, my relation to Strauss had been merely of +that mystic, invisible, and impersonal description, which usually +subsists between a gifted writer and his readers. But even before I +knew the language, and, by consequence, before I could read the works +of Strauss, I had heard much and often of the young Tubingen +theologian, who, at the age of twenty-seven years, with all the moral +courage of a Luther, all the critical skill, and more than all the +learning of a Lessing, had arisen and <i>implicitly</i> declared to the +whole German nation, and to the world at large, that their belief +rested on a false basis (in his opinion).</p> + +<p>Though educated in a country where every man reads and reverences his +Bible, I had likewise arrived at that, in every sense, <i>critical</i> +period, which is, I suppose, common to all men of an inquiring +disposition. I, too, had eaten of the fruit of the tree of +knowledge—had become as a god in my own conceit, knowing good from +evil. I had passed through the French and English schools of +skepticism, with my orthodoxy, if not intact, at least not vitally +injured. To study Strauss, therefore, seemed a mere matter of course. +Well; I read his celebrated work. It contained nothing absolutely new, +either in assertion or opinion. I had met with the same or similar +elsewhere. And yet the very same <i>wooden</i> arguments I had so often +smiled at in the writings of the French and English free-thinkers, +seemed here to annihilate me. In vain I said to myself, "they are +still wooden!" Strauss had so sheathed and bound them with his triple +fold of <i>brass</i>. In other words, had so supported and confirmed them +with his unheard-of array of learning, logic, and science; that +nothing, I thought, could resist them. It seemed as if the world-old, +hereditary feud between faith and reason were here to be terminated +for ever. As I read, the solid earth seemed to be giving way beneath +me; and when I at length closed the ominous volume, I could have +almost cried out with the chorus in Faust: "Woe! woe! thou hast +shattered the lovely world!"</p> + +<p>It is unusual, I believe, to speak out these bosom secrets in this +way; but I thought it necessary to give you this, by no means +exaggerated description of my first spiritual encounter with the +author of the <i>Leben Jesu</i>, in order that you might have some idea of +the feelings with which, on the third morning after his arrival in +Weimar, I received and read the following whimsical note:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="right"><i>Weimar</i>, 15th August.</p> + +<p>"A. S. requests the pleasure of Mr. M——'s company to-day, +at two o'clock, to soup and Strauss."</p></div> + +<p>How busily my fancy was employed the whole of that forenoon, I need +not stop here to tell. Enough, that of all the various pictures she +then drew for me, not one resembled the pale, the slightly made, and, +but for a partial stoop, the somewhat tall, half-lay, half-clerical +figure in spectacles, to whom I was presented on arriving at my +friend's apartments. This was Strauss himself, whose portrait I may as +well go on and finish here at once as well as I can, and so have done +with externals.</p> + +<p>Judging from appearance, Strauss's age might be any where between +forty and fifty. But for his light brown, glossy hair, I should have +said nearer the latter than the former. I have since ascertained, +however, that he is, or was then, exactly forty-one years of age. His +head is the very contrary of massive,—as, indeed, his whole figure is +the opposite of robust or muscular. But it—the head—is of a purely +classical form, having none of those bumps and extravagant +protuberances, which phrenologists delight in. His profile, in +particular, might be called truly Grecian, were it not for the thin +and somewhat pinched lips, which give it an almost ascetical +character. Strange enough, too, this same character of ascetism, or +something akin to it, seems likewise indicated<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_411" id="Page_411">[Pg 411]</a></span> by a peculiar +expression in his otherwise fine, dark-brown eyes. It is not a squint, +as at first sight it appears, but a frequent turning-upward of the +eye-balls, like a Methodist at his devotions, which, in Strauss's +case, is of course involuntary. Perhaps it is to conceal this slight +blemish that he wears spectacles, for his large and lustrous eyes did +not else appear to need them. I have said that Strauss was slightly +made; and, in fact, this is so much the case as to suggest the idea of +a consumptive habit. Nor do his narrow shoulders and hollow breast, +together with a certain swinging serpentine gait when he walks, seem +to contradict the supposition. I have little more to add to this +feeble sketch of Strauss's outward man; for it would, I suppose, be +too trifling a circumstance to mention that I had seldom seen a more +<i>thorough-bred</i> hand and foot than his!</p> + +<p>My entrance had interrupted a conversation, which Strauss presently +resumed, and which proved to be on the eternal topic of politics. His +voice was strong and deep, but he spoke (and it seemed to be a habit +with him) in a subdued tone, and with a very decided Wurtemberg +accent. I was surprised at some of the high-Tory opinions to which he +gave utterance. I had not expected to find the author of the <i>Leben +Jesu</i> on the Conservative side of any question. It seemed +inconsistent. But I recollected that the man was now on the wrong side +of forty; and I could not help thinking that if, instead of publishing +his destructive book at the age of twenty-seven, he had waited with it +till now, he might possibly have postponed it altogether. At table, +our talk was of the usual commonplace description; and it may be worth +while observing, that even Strauss could be commonplace with as good a +grace as any. Our host and he had, it seems, been fellow-students +together, and, of course, there was no want of anecdotes and +reminiscences of those early days, all of which appeared to give him +exquisite pleasure. In particular, I remember that he spoke with much +fervor of the fine mountain scenery in the neighborhood of Heidelberg; +and when a friendly discussion arose amongst us as to whether the +mountains or the ocean were the sublimer spectacle, Strauss argued +warmly in favor of the former. Some one (myself, I believe) happening +to say that, like Goethe and Schiller, they were both <i>superlative</i>, +and not to be <i>compared</i>—"Bravo!" cried Strauss, and good humoredly +gave up his position. The conversation now naturally turned upon +Goethe, and upon all the localities in and about Weimar, connected +with his memory. Like a pious pilgrim, as he was, Strauss, as I found, +had already been to all these places, with the exception of the +garden-house and garden. It was proposed to conduct him thither +immediately.</p> + +<p>The extreme and almost primitive simplicity of the house in which +Goethe had spent some of the happiest days of his life, seemed to +astonish Strauss. He made few remarks to that effect, however, but +there was no end to his eager questionings. He touched the walls, the +doors, the locks—whatever it might be supposed Goethe had touched. He +peeped into every corner, scrutinized even the minutest details; and +all this with the utmost outward composure, so that, if I had not +closely watched him, it might have escaped my notice! In the garden, I +showed him Goethe's favorite walk, and some oaks and firs planted by +the poet's own hand. He gathered an oak-leaf, and put it in his +pocket-book. He did the same by the flower of a hollyhock, the only +kind of flower remaining, which plant I knew for certain dated its +existence from the time of Goethe. The pocket-book was already full of +such relics. From this time forth, therefore, let no man say that +Strauss is devoid of veneration! Man was made for adoration. He cannot +help it. Pity, only, that he sometimes mistakes the object of it.</p> + +<p>In the mean while Strauss and I had somehow drawn nearer to each +other, and had begun to hold little dialogues apart together. We +talked of England, where he had never been,—of English literature, +which he knew chiefly through the medium of translation. Shakspeare of +course was duly discussed,—for, like all educated Germans, Strauss +was an enthusiast about Shakspeare. He asked me if I had read +Gervinus's new work, and was evidently pleased with the way in which I +spoke of it. By-and-by I ventured to allude to the <i>Leben Jesu</i>. It +was not without considerable hesitation. He seemed, I think, to enjoy +my embarrassment,—and told me he had seen several specimens of an +English translation of the <i>Leben Jesu</i>, which a young lady, a Miss +Brabant, was preparing for publication! There was something +<i>Mephistophelian</i> in the smile with which he told me this. Such a +work, he continued, was, however, not likely to succeed in England: +for there was Hennel, who had published an amazingly clever work of +the same kind in London, and yet the British public seemed to have +made a point of completely <i>ignoring</i> it. The work had, however, been +translated into German, and he (Strauss himself) had written a preface +to it. As I now perceived that the subject was any thing but a +delicate one with Strauss, I determined upon accepting a proposal he +had made me to accompany him on the morrow to Doornburg and Jena. +There were inconsistencies in his system, which I had the vanity to +think I might convince him of, and a <i>tête-à-tête</i> like the one in +prospect was just what I wanted.</p> + +<p>We returned to <i>S—'s</i> for tea, with the addition to our party of a +distinguished philologian of this town, whose presence seemed to call +forth all the intellectual energies of Strauss, so that, in the course +of the evening, I had more than one occasion to admire the variety and +depth of the man's attainments. It is impossible to recollect every +thing, but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_412" id="Page_412">[Pg 412]</a></span> what especially excited my attention was, that in a very +learned discussion concerning the comparative merits of the ancient +and modern drama, Strauss suggested the character and fate of Tiberius +as the best subject for a tragedy in the whole compass of history. I +was struck, too, and with reason, I think, with a new and flagrant +instance of the conservative tendency which his mind seems of late to +have fallen into. In talking of Horace, whose works, and particularly +whose odes, he appeared to have at his fingers' ends, he defended the +elder state of the texts with amazing pertinacity, treating with +contempt every change and suggestion of such, which the sacrilegious +commentators of our times have ventured upon. Such opinions in the +mouth of the author of the <i>Leben Jesu</i> sounded strange enough, and +again I could not help saying to myself, "Why the deuce did he publish +that destructive work of his twenty-seventh year?"</p> + +<p>The following day, being prevented by pressing engagements from +leaving town, I prevailed upon Strauss to put off his journey for a +day longer. I saw little of him in the mean time, and had therefore +leisure to bring into some kind of order and method a series of +objections which I had noted down during a second and more critical +perusal of the <i>Leben Jesu</i>. On mature reflection, it had occurred to +me that, after all, the Christian religion had, in the course of +eighteen centuries, survived far worse things than even Strauss's +book. This idea now gave me courage to look this Goliah in the face, +and, though I was but a youth (so to speak), and he a "man of war," to +go up against him, if occasion offered, even with my "scrip" and +"sling," and my "five smooth stones out of the brook."</p> + +<p>Next morning, then, in pursuance of our plan, Strauss and I started +with the first train for Apolda, whence we went on foot across the +fields to Doornburg. There we breakfasted in Goethe's room, saw the +poet's handwriting on the wall, walked along his favorite +terrace-walk, where I, for the time as much of a hero-worshipper as +Strauss himself, recited aloud the beautiful song, <i>Da droben auf +jenem Berge</i>, &c., which Goethe is said to have composed on this very +spot. I expected Strauss to be moved almost to tears, instead of which +he burst out in a most incontrollable fit of laughter, in which I as +incontrollably joined when he told me the cause, which was this:—In +Munich or Ludwigsburg, I forget which, there was once a house of +public entertainment, called from its sign "The Lamb's Wool," as its +proprietor was called "The Lamb's Wool landlord." This landlord had, +it seems, been one of his own best customers, in consequence of which +he soon became bankrupt, which sad event a poet of the same town, most +probably another of the landlord's best customers, commemorated in a +few stanzas entitled, <i>Des Lamswollswirthes Klagelied</i> (The Host of +the Lamb's Wool's Lament), a parody on the above song of Goethe's, and +suggested, doubtless, by these two lines—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Ich bin <i>herunter gekommem</i>,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Und weiss doch selber nicht wie!"<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Nothing could exceed the humor with which Strauss told me this droll +anecdote, and, for my part, I feel that I shall never again be able to +recite Goethe's pathetic song with becoming gravity.</p> + +<p>From Doornburg we walked to Jena, where we arrived to dinner. It +rained torrents, but Strauss was not to be balked of what he came for. +We trudged like <i>Schwarmer</i> (enthusiasts), as he said, through mud and +rain, to all the Goethe and Schiller relics, the library, the +observatory, and, last of all, the Princess's garden, where the statue +of the eagle with its three poetical inscriptions long detained us. +Returned to our inn and about to take a final leave of Strauss; now, I +thought, or never, was the time to fulfil the object for which I had +accompanied him thus far. All day, hitherto, our talk had been of the +poets—Greek, Roman, English, and German, and so much erudition, +taste, and feeling, I had rarely found united. His mind seemed to have +fed on poetry and nothing else; and I know not how it was, but I could +not till now resolve to speak the word which I knew would disenchant +him. Now, however, the probability that we should never see each other +again on this side eternity gave a solemn, perhaps superstitious, turn +to my thoughts. As he sat there in silence before me, like the sphinx +of which he had spoken so mysteriously in descanting that morning on +the master piece of Sophocles, I felt that now I must speak out, or +else look to be devoured. I at once entered on the subject, therefore, +and delivered myself of all the objections I had so elaborately +arranged and prepared. His answer was evasive; and the topic was +changed into an argument.</p> + +<p>Strauss was to leave with the diligence at eight o'clock for +Rudolstadt. I cordially shook hands with him, bade God bless him, and, +hiring a conveyance, drove directly back to Weimar. On the way home, I +conceived the plan of a poem, which, if it were completed, I would +insert here. It will probably never be completed. Instead of it, +therefore, I will communicate something far more interesting—a copy +of verses written by Strauss himself, on returning from his pilgrimage +to the tomb of the poets; and with which I conclude what I had to say +regarding Dr. David Strauss in Weimar.</p> + +<p>[Dr. Strauss, as a poet, being almost a <i>lusus naturæ</i>, according to +English ideas of him, we have thought it right to translate this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_413" id="Page_413">[Pg 413]</a></span> +poem. Here, accordingly, is the best English version possible to us in +the little time allowed by an inexorable printer:—]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">On pilgrim staff I homeward come,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Way worn, but still with pleasure warmed;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At the great prophet's holy tomb,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The pious rites I have performed.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I, in his garden's shady walk,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Recalled the prints of footsteps lost:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And from the tree his care had raised,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I plucked a greeting from his ghost.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I saw in letters and in poems,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">His honored hand's laborious toil;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And many loving recollections,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Inquiry won me for my spoil.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Through every chamber, small and homely,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With holy reverence did I roam,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where oft the gods in radiant concourse<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Came thronging to their loved one's home.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">By the bed stood I where the poet<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In placid sleep his eyes reposed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till summoned to a nobler being<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For the last time their lids he closed.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In reading of the holy places,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Henceforth have I a doubled zeal,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I have a being in the writing,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For all of it I know and feel.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> To explain this joke to the un-Germanized reader, it will +be necessary to inform him that the title of Goethe's poem is "The +Shepherd's Lament," wherein a shepherd, leaving his native hills, +gives a lingering look up at the familiar mountain, and sings +regretfully +</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"I have to the valley descended,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And how I cannot tell."<br /></span> +</div></div> +<p> +<i>Herunter kommen</i>, means also to decline, <i>to fail</i>, and upon this +turns the joke.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4><a name="From_Eliza_Cooks_Journal" id="From_Eliza_Cooks_Journal"></a>From Eliza Cook's Journal</h4> + +<h2>GREAT MEN'S WIVES.</h2> + + +<p>Probably, greatness does not conform with domesticity. The literary +man is wrapped up in his books, and the wife does not brook a divided +affection. He lives in the past or the future, and his mind can with +difficulty be brought to condescend to the carking cares of the +present—perhaps not even to its quiet daily life. His lofty +meditations are disturbed by the puling infant, or it may be, by a +call for house-rent, or the amount of the chandler's bill. Or, take +the leader of some great political or social movement; or the +commander of armies, at whose nod ten thousand swords are unsheathed, +and the air made blatant with the discharge of artillery; can you +expect such a person to subside into the quiet, husband-life, like any +common, ordinary man, and condescend to inquire into the state of the +children's teething, Johnny's progress at school, and the thousand +little domestic attentions which constitute a wife's happiness?</p> + +<p>We shall not, however, discuss the question of whether happiness in +marriage be compatible with genius, or not, but proceed to set forth a +few traits of the wives of great men.</p> + +<p>We shall not dwell on Xantippe, the wife of Socrates, whose name has +become familiar to us almost as a proverb. But she was not without her +uses, for she taught her great husband at least the virtue of +patience. Many of the great Greeks and Romans, like Socrates, were +unhappy in their wives. Possibly, however, we have heard only of the +bad ones among them; for the life of good wives is rarely made matter +of comment by the biographer, either in ancient or modern times.</p> + +<p>The advent of Christianity placed woman in a greatly improved +position, as regarded marriage. Repudiation, as among the Greeks and +Romans, was no longer permitted; the new religion enforced the unity +and indissolubility of marriage; it became a sacrament, dispensed at +the altar, where woman had formerly been a victim, but was now become +an idol. The conjugal union was made a religious contract; the family +was constituted by the priest; the wife was elevated to the function +of Educator of the Family—the <i>alma mater</i>; and thus, through her +instrumentality, was the regeneration of the world secured.</p> + +<p>But it did not follow that all women were good, or that all were +happy. Life is but a tangled yarn at the best; there are blanks and +prizes drawn by women still, and not unfrequently "great men" have +proved the greatest of blanks to them. Henry the Eighth was not, +perhaps, entitled to the appellation of a great man, though he was an +author, for which the Pope conferred on him the title, still retained +by our monarchs, of "Defender of the Faith." The history of his six +wives is well known. Nor was the married life of Peter the Great, and +his three wives, of a more creditable complexion.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Luther</span> married Catharine de Bora, an escaped nun—a remarkably +handsome woman. In his letters to his friends, he spoke of her as "My +rib Kitty, my loved Kitty, my Empress Kitty." A year after his +marriage, when struggling with poverty, he said, in one of these +letters, "Catharine, my dear rib, salutes you. She is quite well, +thank God; gentle, obedient, and kind, in all things; quite beyond my +hopes. I would not exchange my poverty with her, for all the riches of +Crœsus without her." A dozen years after, he said, "Catharine, thou +hast a pious man, who loves thee; thou art a very empress!" Yet Luther +had his little troubles in connection with his married life. Catharine +was fond of small-talk, and, when Luther was busily engaged in solving +the difficulties of the Bible, she would interrupt him with such +questions as—whether the king of France was richer than his cousin +the emperor of Germany? if the Italian women were more beautiful than +the German? if Rome was as big as Wittenberg? and so on. To escape +these little inquiries, Luther saw no other way than to lock himself +up in his study, with a quantity of bread and cheese, and there hold +to his work. But Catharine still pursued him. One day, when he was +thus locked up, laboring at his translation of the twenty-second +Psalm, the door was assailed by the wife. No answer was given. More +knocking followed, accompanied by Catharine's voice, shouting—"if you +don't open the door, I will go fetch the locksmith." The Doctor +entreated his wife not to interrupt his labors. "Open! open!" repeated +Catharine. The doctor obeyed. "I was afraid," said she, on entering, +"that something had vexed you, locked up in this room alone." To which +Luther replied, "the only thing that vexes me now is yourself." But +Luther, doubtless, entertained a steady, though sober affection for +his wife; and in his will, in which he left her sole executrix, +bequeathing to her all his property, he speaks of her as "always a +gentle, pious, and faithful wife to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_414" id="Page_414">[Pg 414]</a></span> me, and that has loved me +tenderly. Whatever," he adds, "may happen to her after my death, I +have, I say, full confidence that she will ever conduct herself as a +good mother towards her children, and will conscientiously share with +them whatever she possesses."</p> + +<p>The great Genevese Reformer, <span class="smcap">Calvin</span>, proceeded in his search for a +wife in a matter-of-fact way. He wrote to his friends, describing to +them what sort of an article he wanted, and they looked up a proper +person for him. Writing to Farel, one of his correspondents, on this +subject, he said,—"I beseech you ever to bear in mind what I seek for +in a wife. I am not one of your mad kind of lovers, who dote even upon +faults, when once they are taken by beauty of person. The only beauty +that entices me is, that she be chaste, obedient, humble, economical, +patient; and that there be hopes that she wilt be solicitous about my +health. If, therefore, you think it expedient that I should marry, +bestir yourself, lest somebody else anticipate you. But, if you think +otherwise, let us drop the subject altogether." A rich young German +lady, of noble birth, was proposed; but Calvin objected, on the ground +of the high birth. Another was proposed to him, but another failure +resulted. At last a widow, with a considerable family of children, +Odelette de Bures, the relict of a Strasburg Anabaptist, whom he had +converted, was discovered, suited to his notions, and he married her. +Nothing is said about their wedded life, and, therefore, we presume it +went on in the quiet, jog-trot way. At her death, he did not shed a +tear; and he spoke of the event only as an ordinary spectator would +have done.</p> + +<p>The brothers <span class="smcap">Corneille</span> married the two sisters Lampèrière; and the +love of the whole family was cemented by the double union. They lived +in contiguous houses, which opened into each other, and there they +lived in a community of taste and sentiment. They worked together, and +shared each other's fame; the sisters, happy in the love and +admiration of their husbands, and in each other's sympathy. The poet +Racine was greatly blessed in his wife; she was pious, good, +sweet-tempered, and made his life happy. And yet she had no taste for +poetry, scarcely knowing what verse was; and knew little of her +husband's great tragedies except by name. She had an utter +indifference for money. One day, Racine brought from Versailles a +purse of a thousand golden louis; and running to his wife, embraced +her: "Congratulate me," said he, "here is a purse of a thousand louis +that the king has presented to me!" She complained to him of one of +the children, who would not learn his lessons for two days together. +"Let us talk of that another time," said he, "to-day we give ourselves +up to joy." She again reverted to the disobedient child, and requested +the parent to reprimand him; when Boileau (at whose house she was on a +visit) lost patience, and cried, "what insensibility! Can't you think +of a purse of a thousand louis?" Yet these two characters, though so +opposite, consorted admirably, and they lived long and happily +together.</p> + +<p>To please his friends, <span class="smcap">La Fontaine</span> married Mary Hericat, the daughter +of a lieutenant-general. It was a marriage of convenience, and the two +preferred living separate,—he at Paris, she in the country. Once a +year La Fontaine paid her a visit, in the month of September. If he +did not see her, he returned home as happy as he had gone. He went +some other day. Once, when he visited her house, he was told she was +quite well, and he returned to Paris, and told his friends he had not +seen his wife, because he understood she was in very good health. It +was a state of indifference on both sides. Yet the wife was a woman of +virtue, beauty, and intelligence; and La Fontaine himself was a man of +otherwise irreproachable character. There were many such marriages of +indifference in France in those days. Boileau and Racine both tried to +bring the married pair together, but without success; and, in course +of time La Fontaine almost forgot that he was married.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moliere</span> was extremely unhappy in his marriage. He espoused an actress, +and she proved a coquette. He became extremely jealous, and, perhaps, +he had reason. Yet he loved her passionately, and bore long with her +frailties. He thus himself describes her: "She has small eyes, but +they are full of fire, brilliant, and the most penetrating in the +world. She has a large mouth, but one can discern beauties in it that +one does not see in other mouths. Her figure is not large, but easy +and well-proportioned. She affects a <i>nonchalance</i> in her speech and +carriage; but there is grace in her every act, and an indescribable +charm about her, by which she never fails to work her way to the +heart. Her mental gifts are exquisite; her conversation is charming, +and, if she be capricious more than any other can be, all sits +gracefully on the beautiful,—one bears any thing from the beautiful." +She was an excellent actress, and was run after by the town. Moliere, +her husband, was neglected by her, and suffered agonies of torture. He +strove against his passion as long as he could. At last, his patience +was exhausted, and a separation took place.</p> + +<p>We know nothing of the married life of <span class="smcap">Shakspeare</span>; indeed, we know but +little of any portion of that great man's life. But we know that he +married young, and we know the name of his wife, Anne Hathawaye, the +daughter of a yeoman, in the neighborhood of Stratford-on-Avon. He was +little more than eighteen when he married her, and she was twenty-six. +The marriage was hastened by circumstances which need not be explained +here. He seems to have gone alone to London, leaving her with her +little family of children at Stratford-on-Avon, (for her name does not +once appear in his married life;) and yet she survived him seven +years. In his will<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_415" id="Page_415">[Pg 415]</a></span> he left her only his "second-best bed." Judging +from his sonnets one would be disposed to infer that Shakspeare's life +was not more chaste than that of his age; for we find him, in one of +these, excusing his friend for robbing him of his mistress,—a married +woman. One could almost wish, with Mr. Hallam, that Shakspeare had not +written many of those sonnets, beautiful in language and imagery +though they unquestionably are.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Milton</span> was three times married,—the first time very unhappily. Mary +Powell was the daughter of a royalist cavalier of Oxfordshire, and +Milton was a zealous republican. He was, moreover, a studious man, +whereas his wife was possessed by a love of gayety and pleasure. They +had only been married a month, when she grew tired of the studious +habits and philosophical seclusion of the republican poet, and +requested his permission to return to her father's house. She went, +but refused to return to him, preferring the dissipated society of the +brawling cavaliers who surrounded her. He beseeched her to come back, +but she persistently refused, treating his messengers with contumely +and contempt. He bore this for a long time; but at last he grew angry, +and repudiated her. He bethought himself of the social mischiefs +resulting from ill-assorted marriages like his own; and, full of the +subject, he composed and published his celebrated treatise on divorce. +On public grounds he pleaded his own cause in this work, which +contains, perhaps, the finest passages that are to be found in his +prose writings. He proceeded to solicit the hand of another young and +beautiful lady, the daughter of Dr. Dawes; but his wife, hearing of +this, became repentant, and, returning to him, fell upon her knees, +and entreated his forgiveness. Milton, like his own Adam, was "fondly +overcome with female charms," and consented. Four children were born +to them, but the wife died in child-bed of the fifth infant. It is to +Milton's honor, that he behaved to his deceased wife's relatives with +great generosity, when, a short time after, they became involved in +ruin in the progress of the civil wars. His second wife, Catharine +Woodcock, also died in child-bed, only a year after marriage. He seems +to have loved her fondly, and most readers will remember his beautiful +sonnet, consecrated to her memory.</p> + +<p>With his third wife he seems to have lived happily; the young wife +devoted herself to his necessities—for he was now blind—"in +darkness, and with dangers compassed round, and solitude."</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Richard Hooker</span>, was very unfortunate in his wife. He was betrayed +into marrying her by his extraordinary simplicity and ignorance of the +world. The circumstances connected with the marriage were these: +Having been appointed to preach at St. Paul's Cross, he went up to +London from Oxford, and proceeded to the house set apart for the +reception of the preachers. He was very wet and weary on his arrival, +and experienced much kindness from the housekeeper. She persuaded him +that he was a man of very tender constitution, and urged that he +ought, above all things, to have a wife, to nurse and take care of +him. She professed to be able to furnish him with such, if he thought +fit to marry. Hooker authorized her to select a wife for him, and the +artful woman presented her own daughter—"a silly, clownish woman, and +withal a mere Xantippe." Hooker, who had promised to marry whomsoever +she should select, thought himself bound to marry her, and he did so. +They led a most uncomfortable life, but he resigned himself as he best +could, lamenting that "saints have usually a double share in the +miseries of this life." When Cranmer and Sandys went to see him at his +rectory in Buckinghamshire, they found him reading Horace and tending +sheep, in the absence of the servant. When they were conversing with +him in the house, his wife would break in upon them, and call him away +to rock the cradle and perform other menial offices. The guests were +glad to get away. This unfortunate wife was long a thorn in his side.</p> + +<p>The famous Earl of <span class="smcap">Rochester</span> appears in very favorable light in his +letters to his wife: they are remarkably tender, affectionate, and +gentle. In one of them, he says: "'Tis not an easy thing to be +entirely happy; but to be kind is very easy, and that is the greatest +measure of happiness. I say not this to put you in mind of being kind +to me—you have practised that so long, that I have a joyful +confidence you will never forget it—but to show that I myself have a +sense of what the method of my life seemed so utterly to contradict."</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dryden</span> married Elizabeth Howard, daughter of the Earl of Berkshire. +The match added little to his wealth, and less to his happiness. It +was an altogether unhappy union. On one occasion, his wife wished to +be a book, that she might enjoy more of his company. Dryden's reply +was: "Be an almanac, then, my dear, that I may change you once a +year." In his writings afterwards, he constantly inveighed against +matrimony.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Addison</span> also "married discord in a noble wife." He was tutor to the +young Earl of Warwick, and aspired to the hand of the Dowager +Countess. She married him, and treated him like a lacquey. She never +saw in him more than her son's tutor. <span class="smcap">Swift</span> (his contemporary) cruelly +flirted with two admirable women; he heartlessly killed one of them, +and secretly married the other, but never publicly recognized her; +she, too, shortly after died.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sterne</span> treated his wife with such severity, that she abandoned him, +and took retreat in a convent with her daughter; she never saw him +after. Who would have suspected this from the author of "Lefevre" and +"The Sentimental Journey?" <span class="smcap">Farquhar</span>, the play-writer, married, early +in life, a woman who deceived him by pretending to be possessed of a +fortune, and he sunk, a victim to disappointment and over-exertion, in +his thirtieth year, leaving<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_416" id="Page_416">[Pg 416]</a></span> behind him "two helpless girls;" his +widow died in the utmost indigence.</p> + +<p>These are rather unhappy instances of the wives of great men; but +there are others of a happier kind. Indeed we hear but little of the +happy unions: it is the brawling, rocky brook that is the most noisy: +the slow, deep waters are dump. Every one will remember the wife of +Lord <span class="smcap">William Russell</span>, whose conduct by the side of her husband, on his +trial, stands out as one of the most beautiful pictures in all +history. How devotedly her husband loved her need not be said: when he +had taken his final farewell, all he could say was: "The bitterness of +death is now past!" She lived many years after the execution of her +husband, and a delightful collection of her letters has since been +published.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bunyan</span> speaks with the greatest tenderness of his wife, who helped to +lead him into the paths of peace. He says: "My mercy was to light upon +a wife, whose father and mother were counted godly: this woman and I, +though we came together as poor as poor might be (not having so much +household stuff as a dish or a spoon betwixt us both); yet this she +had for her part, 'The Plain Man's Pathway to Heaven,' and 'The +Practice of Piety,' which her father had left her when he died." And +the perusal of these books, together with his good wife's kindly +influence, at last implanted in him strong desires to reform his +vicious life, in which he eventually succeeded.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Parnell</span> and <span class="smcap">Steele</span> were both happy in their wives. The former married +a young woman of beauty and merit, but she lived only a few years, and +his grief at his loss so preyed on his mind, that he never recovered +his wonted spirits and health. <span class="smcap">Steele's</span> letters to his wife, both +before and after his marriage, are imbued with the most tender +feeling, and exhibit his affection for her in the most beautiful +light. <span class="smcap">Young</span>, the poet, like Dryden and Addison, married into a noble +house, espousing the daughter of the Earl of Litchfield; but he was +happier than they. It was out of the melancholy produced by her death +that his famous "Night Thoughts" took their rise.</p> + +<p>When <span class="smcap">Johnson</span> married Mrs. Porter, her age was twice his own; yet the +union proved a happy one. It was not a love-match, but it was one of +inclination and of reciprocal esteem. Johnson was any thing but +graceful or attractive, yet he possessed admirable qualities. Mrs. +Porter was rather ungainly; but Johnson was very shortsighted, and +could not detect personal faults. In his eyes, she was beautiful; and, +in an affectionate epitaph which he devoted to her, he painted her in +glowing colors. Indeed, his writings contain many proofs of the lively +and sincere affection which he entertained for her.</p> + +<p>While such have been the wives of a few of the great men of past +times, it must be stated that, probably, the greatest of them all led +a single life. The greatest of the philosophers were bachelors, such +as Bacon, Newton, Gassendi, Galileo, Descartes, Bayle, Locke, +Leibnitz, Hume, Gibbon; and many poets also as Pope, Goldsmith, and +Thompson. Bacon says that wife and children are "impediments to great +enterprises;" and that "certainly the best works, and of greatest +merit for the public, have proceeded from the unmarried, or childless +men, which, both in affection and reason, have married and endowed the +public." But these were the words of a bachelor, and, perhaps, not +strictly correct. The great men of more recent times have generally +been married; and, at another time, we shall probably complete this +paper by a brief account of the more distinguished of their wives.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="A_LEGEND_OF_ST_MARYS" id="A_LEGEND_OF_ST_MARYS"></a>A LEGEND OF ST. MARY'S.</h2> + +<h3>BY ALICE CAREY.</h3> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">One night, when bitterer winds than ours<br /></span> +<span class="i2">On hill-sides and in valleys low,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Built sepulchres for the dead flowers,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And buried them in sheets of snow,—<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">When over ledges dark and cold,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The sweet moon rising high and higher,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tipped with a dimly burning gold<br /></span> +<span class="i2">St. Mary's old cathedral spire,—<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The lamp of the confessional,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">(God grant it did not burn in vain,)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">After the solemn midnight bell,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Streamed redly through the lattice-pane.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And kneeling at the father's feet,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Whose long and venerable hairs,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now whiter than the mountain sleet,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Could not have numbered half his prayers,<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Was one—I cannot picture true<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The cherub beauty of his guise;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lilies, and waves of deepest blue,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Were something like his hands and eyes!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Like yellow mosses on the rocks,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Dashed with the ocean's milk-white spray,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The softness of his golden locks<br /></span> +<span class="i2">About his cheek and forehead lay.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Father, thy tresses, silver-sleet,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Ne'er swept above a form so fair;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Surely the flowers beneath his feet<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Have been a rosary of prayer!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">We know not, and we cannot know,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Why swam those meek blue eyes with tears;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But surely guilt, or guiltless wo,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Had bowed him earthward more than years.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">All the long summer that was gone,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A cottage maid, the village pride,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fainter and fainter smiles had worn,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And on that very night she died!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">As soft the yellow moonbeams streamed<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Across her bosom, snowy fair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She said, (the watchers thought she dreamed,)<br /></span> +<span class="i2">"'Tis like the shadow of his hair!"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And they could hear, who nearest came,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The cross to sign and hope to lend,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The murmur of another name<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Than that of mother, brother, friend.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">An hour—and St. Mary's spires,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Like spikes of flame, no longer glow—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No longer the confessional fires<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Shine redly on the drifted snow.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">An hour—and the saints had claimed<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That cottage maid, the village pride;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And he, whose name in death she named,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Was darkly weeping by her side.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">White as a spray-wreath lay her brow<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Beneath the midnight of her hair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But all those passionate kisses now<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Wake not the faintest crimson there!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Pride, honor, manhood, cannot check<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The vehemence of love's despair—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No soft hand steals about his neck,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or bathes its beauty in his hair!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Almost upon the cabin walls<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Wherein the sweet young maiden died,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The shadow of a castle falls,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Where for her young lord waits a bride!<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_417" id="Page_417">[Pg 417]</a></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">With clear blue eyes and flaxen hair,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In her high turret still she sits;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But, ah! what scorn her ripe lips wear—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">What shadow to her bosom flits!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">From that low cabin tapers flash,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And, by the shimmering light they spread,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She sees beneath its mountain ash,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Leafless, but all with berries red,<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Impatient of the unclasped rein,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A courser that should not be there—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The silver whiteness of his mane<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Streaming like moonlight on the air!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Oh, love! thou art avenged too well—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The young heart, broken and betrayed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where thou didst meekly, sweetly dwell,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For all its sufferings is repaid.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Not the proud beauty, nor the frown<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of her who shares the living years<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From her the winding-sheet wraps down,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Can ever buy away the tears!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h4>From Chambers's Edinburgh Journal.</h4> + +<h2><a name="MARY_KINGSFORD" id="MARY_KINGSFORD"></a>MARY KINGSFORD.</h2> + +<h3>FROM RECOLLECTIONS OF A POLICE-OFFICER.</h3> + +<p>Towards the close of 1836, I was hurriedly dispatched to Liverpool for +the purpose of securing the person of one Charles James Marshall, a +collecting clerk, who, it was suddenly discovered, had absconded with +a considerable sum of money belonging to his employers. I was too +late—Charles James Marshall having sailed in one of the American +liners the day before my arrival in the northern commercial capital. +This fact well ascertained, I immediately set out on my return to +London. Winter had come upon us unusually early; the weather was +bitterly cold; and a piercing wind caused the snow, which had been +falling heavily for several hours, to gyrate in fierce, blinding +eddies, and heaped it up here and there into large and dangerous +drifts. The obstruction offered by the rapidly-congealing snow greatly +delayed our progress between Liverpool and Birmingham; and at a few +miles only distant from the latter city, the leading engine ran off +the line. Fortunately, the rate at which we were travelling was a very +slow one, and no accident of moment occurred. Having no luggage to +care for, I walked on to Birmingham, where I found the parliamentary +train just on the point of starting, and with some hesitation, on +account of the severity of the weather, I took my seat in one of the +then very much exposed and uncomfortable carriages. We travelled +steadily and safely, though slowly along, and reached Rugby Station in +the afternoon, where we were to remain, the guard told us, till a fast +down-train had passed. All of us hurried as quickly as we could to the +large room at this station, where blazing fires and other appliances +soon thawed the half-frozen bodies, and loosened the tongues of the +numerous and motley passengers. After recovering the use of my +benumbed limbs and faculties, I had leisure to look around and survey +the miscellaneous assemblage about me.</p> + +<p>Two persons had travelled in the same compartment with me from +Birmingham, whose exterior, as disclosed by the dim light of the +railway carriage, created some surprise that such finely-attired, +fashionable gentlemen should stoop to journey by the plebeian +penny-a-mile train. I could now observe them in a clearer light, and +surprise at their apparent condescension vanished at once. To an eye +less experienced than mine in the artifices and expedients familiar to +a certain class of "swells," they might perhaps have passed muster for +what they assumed to be, especially amidst the varied crowd of a +"parliamentary;" but their copper finery could not for a moment impose +upon me. The watch-chains were, I saw, mosaic; the watches, so +frequently displayed, gilt; eye-glasses the same; the coats, +fur-collared and cuffed, were ill-fitting and second-hand; ditto of +the varnished boats and renovated velvet waistcoats; while the +luxuriant moustaches and whiskers, and flowing wigs, were unmistakably +mere <i>pieces d'occasion</i>—assumed and diversified at pleasure. They +were both apparently about fifty years of age; one of them perhaps one +or two years less than that. I watched them narrowly, the more so from +their making themselves ostentatiously attentive to a young +woman—girl rather she seemed—of a remarkably graceful figure, but +whose face I had not yet obtained a glimpse of. They made boisterous +way for her to the fire, and were profuse and noisy in their offers of +refreshment—all of which, I observed, were peremptorily declined. She +was dressed in deep, unexpensive mourning; and from her timid gestures +and averted head, whenever either of the fellows addressed her, was, +it was evident, terrified as well as annoyed by their rude and +insolent notice. I quietly drew near to the side of the fire-place, at +which she stood, and with some difficulty obtained a sight of her +features. I was struck with extreme surprise—not so much at her +singular beauty, as from an instantaneous conviction that she was +known to me, or at least that I had seen her frequently before, but +where or when I could not at all call to mind. Again I looked, and my +first impression was confirmed. At this moment the elder of the two +men I have partially described placed his hand, with a rude +familiarity, upon the girl's shoulder, proffering at the same time a +glass of hot brandy and water for her acceptance. She turned sharply +and indignantly away from the fellow; and looking round as if for +protection, caught my eagerly-fixed gaze.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Waters!" she said impulsively. "Oh I am so glad!"</p> + +<p>"Yes," I answered, "that is certainly my name; but I scarcely +remember——Stand back, fellow!" I angrily continued, as her +tormentor, emboldened by the spirits he had drank, pressed with a +jeering grin upon his face, towards her, still tendering the brandy +and water. "Stand back!" He replied by a curse and a threat. The next +moment his flowing wig was whirling across the room, and he standing +with his bullet-head bare but for a few locks of iron-gray, in an +attitude of speechless rage and confusion, increased by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_418" id="Page_418">[Pg 418]</a></span> the peals of +laughter which greeted his ludicrous, unwigged aspect. He quickly put +himself in a fighting attitude, and, backed by his companion, +challenged me to battle. This was quite out of the question; and I was +somewhat at a loss how to proceed, when the bell announcing the +instant departure of the train rang out, my furious antagonist +gathered up and adjusted his wig, and we all sallied forth to take our +places—the young woman holding fast by my arm, and in a low, nervous +voice, begging me not to leave her. I watched the two fellows take +their seats, and then led her to the hindmost carriage, which we had +to ourselves as far as the next station.</p> + +<p>"Are Mrs. Waters and Emily quite well?" said the young woman, coloring +and lowering her eyes beneath my earnest gaze, which she seemed for a +moment to misinterpret.</p> + +<p>"Quite—entirely so," I almost stammered. "You know us, then?"</p> + +<p>"Surely I do," she replied, reassured by my manner. "But you, it +seems," she presently added with a winning smile, "have quite +forgotten little Mary Kingsford."</p> + +<p>"Mary Kingsford!" I exclaimed almost with a shout. "Why, so it is! But +what a transformation a few years have effected!"</p> + +<p>"Do you think so! Not <i>pretty</i> Mary Kingsford now, then?" she added +with a light, pleasant laugh.</p> + +<p>"You know what I mean, you vain creature!" I rejoined; for I was +overjoyed at meeting with the gentle, well-remembered playmate of my +own eldest girl. We were old familiar friends—almost father and +daughter—in an instant.</p> + +<p>Little Mary Kingsford, I should state, was, when I left Yorkshire, one +of the prettiest, most engaging children I had ever seen; and a petted +favorite not only with us, but of every other family in the +neighborhood. She was the only child of Philip and Mary Kingsford—a +humble, worthy, and much-respected couple. The father was gardener to +Sir Pyott Dalzell, and her mother eked out his wages to a respectable +maintenance by keeping a cheap children's school. The change which a +few years had wrought in the beautiful child was quite sufficient to +account for my imperfect recognition of her; but the instant her name +was mentioned, I at once recognised the rare comeliness which had +charmed us all in her childhood. The soft brown eyes were the same, +though now revealing profounder depths, and emitting a more pensive +expression; the hair, though deepened in color, was still golden; her +complexion, lit up as it now was by a sweet blush, was brilliant as +ever; whilst her child-person had became matured and developed into +womanly symmetry and grace. The brilliancy of color vanished from her +cheek as I glanced meaningly at her mourning dress.</p> + +<p>"Yes," she murmured in a sad quivering voice—"yes, father is gone! It +will be six months next Thursday, that he died! Mother is well," she +continued more cheerfully, after a pause: "in health, but poorly off; +and I—and I," she added with a faint effort at a smile, "am going to +London to seek my fortune!"</p> + +<p>"To seek your fortune!"</p> + +<p>"Yes; you know my cousin, Sophy Clark? In one of her letters, she said +she often saw you."</p> + +<p>I nodded without speaking. I knew little of Sophia Clarke, except that +she was the somewhat gay, coquettish shopwoman of a highly-respectable +confectioner in the Strand, whom I shall call by the name of Morris.</p> + +<p>"I am to be Sophy's assistant," continued Mary Kingsford; "not of +course at first at such good wages as she gets. So lucky for me, is it +not, since I <i>must</i> go to service? And so kind, too, of Sophy, to +interest herself for me!"</p> + +<p>"Well, it may be so. But surely I have heard—my wife at least +has—that you and Richard Westlake were engaged? Excuse me, I was not +aware the subject was a painful or unpleasant one."</p> + +<p>"Richard's father," she replied with some spirit, "has higher views +for his son. It is all off between us now," she added; "and perhaps it +is for the best that it should be so."</p> + +<p>I could have rightly interpreted these words without the aid of the +partially-expressed sigh which followed them. The perilous position of +so attractive, so inexperienced, so guileless a young creature, amidst +the temptations and vanities of London, so painfully impressed and +preoccupied me, that I scarcely uttered another word till the +rapidly-diminishing rate of the train announced that we neared a +station, after which it was probable we should have no farther +opportunity for private conversation.</p> + +<p>"Those men—those fellows at Rugby—where did you meet with them?" I +inquired.</p> + +<p>"Thirty or forty miles below Birmingham, where they entered the car in +which I was seated. At Birmingham I managed to avoid them."</p> + +<p>Little more passed between us till we reached London. Sophia Clark +received her cousin at the Euston station, and was profuse of +felicitations and compliments upon her arrival and personal +appearance. After receiving a promise from Mary Kingsford to call and +take tea with my wife and her old playmate, on the following Sunday, I +handed the two young women into a cab in waiting, and they drove off. +I had not moved away from the spot when a voice, a few paces behind +me, which I thought I recognised, called out; "Quick, coachee, or +you'll lose sight of them!" As I turned quickly round, another cab +drove smartly off, which I followed at a run. I found, on reaching +Lower Seymour Street, that I was not mistaken as to the owner of the +voice, nor of his purpose. The fellow I had unwigged at Rugby thrust +his body half out of the cab window, and pointing to the vehicle which +contained the two girls, called out to the driver "to mind and make no +mistake." The man<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_419" id="Page_419">[Pg 419]</a></span> nodded intelligence, and lashed his horse into a +faster pace. Nothing that I might do could prevent the fellows from +ascertaining Mary Kingsford's place of abode; and as that was all +that, for the present at least, need be apprehended, I desisted from +pursuit, and bent my steps homewards.</p> + +<p>Mary Kingsford kept her appointment on the Sunday, and in reply to our +questioning, said she liked her situation very well. Mr. and Mrs. +Morris were exceedingly kind to her; so was Sophia. "Her cousin," she +added in reply to a look which I could not repress, "was perhaps a +little gay and free of manner, but the best-hearted creature in the +world." The two fellows who had followed them had, I found, already +twice visited the shop; but their attentions appeared now to be +exclusively directed towards Sophia Clarke, whose vanity they not a +little gratified. The names they gave were Hartley and Simpson. So +entirely guileless and unsophisticated was the gentle country maiden, +that I saw she scarcely comprehended the hints and warnings which I +threw out. At parting, however, she made me a serious promise that she +would instantly apply to me should any difficulty or perplexity +overtake her.</p> + +<p>I often called in at the confectioner's, and was gratified to find +that Mary's modest propriety of behavior, in a somewhat difficult +position, had gained her the good will of her employers, who +invariably spoke of her with kindness and respect. Nevertheless, the +care of a London life, with its incessant employment and late hours, +soon, I perceived, began to tell upon her health and spirits; and it +was consequently with pleasure I heard from my wife that she had seen +a passage in a letter from Mary's mother, to the effect that the elder +Westlake was betraying symptoms of yielding to the angry and +passionate expostulations of his only son, relative to the engagement +with Mary Kingsford. The blush with which she presented the letter +was, I was told, eloquent.</p> + +<p>One evening, on passing Morris's shop, I observed Hartley and Simpson +there. They were swallowing custards and other confectionary with much +gusto; and, from their new and costly habiliments, seemed to be in +surprisingly good case. They were smiling at the cousins with rude +confidence; and Sophia Clarke, I was grieved to see, repaid their +insulting impertinence by her most elaborate graces. I passed on; and +presently meeting with a brother-detective, who, it struck me, might +know something of the two gentlemen, I turned back with him, and +pointed them out. A glance sufficed him.</p> + +<p>"Hartley and Simpson you say?" he remarked after we had walked away to +some distance: "those are only two of their numerous <i>aliases</i>. I +cannot, however, say that I am as yet on very familiar terms with +them; but as I am especially directed to cultivate their acquaintance, +there is no doubt we shall be more intimate with each other before +long. Gamblers, blacklegs, swindlers, I already know them to be; and I +would take odds they are not unfrequently something more, especially +when fortune and the bones run cross with them."</p> + +<p>"They appear in high feather just now," I said.</p> + +<p>"Yes; they are connected, I suspect, with the gang who cleaned out +young Garslade last week in Jermyn Street. I'd lay a trifle," he added +as I turned to leave him, "that one or both of them will wear the +Queen's livery, gray, turned up with yellow, before many weeks are +past. Good-by."</p> + +<p>About a fortnight after this conversation, with my wife I paid a visit +to Astley's, for the gratification of our youngsters, who had long +been promised a sight of the equestrian marvels at that celebrated +amphitheatre. It was the latter end of February; and when we came out, +we found the weather changed; dark and sleety, with a sharp, nipping +wind. I had to call at Scotland-Yard; my wife and children +consequently proceeded home in a cab without me; and after assisting +to quell a slight disturbance originating in a gin-palace close by, I +went on my way over Westminister Bridge. The inclement weather had +cleared the streets and thoroughfares in a surprisingly short time; so +that, excepting myself, no foot-passenger was visible on the bridge +till I had about halfcrossed it, when a female figure, closely muffled +up about the head, and sobbing bitterly, passed rapidly by on the +opposite side. I turned and gazed after the retreating figure; it was +a youthful, symmetrical one; and after a few moments' hesitation, I +determined to follow at a distance, and as unobservedly as I could. On +the woman sped, without pause or hesitation, till she reached +Astley's, where I observed her stop suddenly, and toss her arms in the +air with a gesture of desperation. I quickened my steps, which she +observing, uttered a slight scream, and darted swiftly off again, +moaning as she ran. The momentary glimpse I had obtained of her +features, suggested a frightful apprehension, and I followed at my +utmost speed. She turned at the first cross-street, and I should soon +have overtaken her, but that in darting round the corner where she +disappeared, I ran butt against a stout, elderly gentleman, who was +hurrying smartly along out of the weather. With the suddenness of the +shock and the slipperiness of the pavement, down we both reeled; and +by the time we regained our feet, and growled savagely at each other, +the young woman, whoever she was, had disappeared, and more than half +an hour's eager search after her proved fruitless. At last I bethought +me of hiding at one corner of Westminster Bridge. I had watched +impatiently for about twenty minutes, when I observed the object of my +pursuit stealing timidly and furtively towards the bridge on the +opposite side of the way. As she came nearly abreast of where I stood, +I darted forward; she saw, without recognizing me, and uttered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_420" id="Page_420">[Pg 420]</a></span> an +exclamation of terror, flew down towards the river, where a number of +pieces of balk and other timber were fastened together, forming a kind +of loose raft. I followed with haste, for I saw that it was indeed +Mary Kingsford and loudly called to her to stop. She did not seem to +hear me, and in a few moments the unhappy girl had gained the end of +the timber raft. One instant she paused, with clasped hands, upon the +brink, and in another had thrown herself into the dark and moaning +river. On reaching the spot where she had disappeared, I could not at +first see her in consequence of the dark mourning dress she had on. +Presently I caught sight of her, still upborne by her spread clothes, +but already carried by the swift current beyond my reach. The only +chance was to crawl along a piece of round timber which projected +farther into the river and by the end of which she must pass. This I +effected with some difficulty; and laying myself out at full length, +vainly endeavored with outstretched, straining arms, to grasp her +dress. There was nothing left for it but to plunge in after her. I +will confess that I hesitated to do so. I was encumbered with a heavy +dress, which there was no time to put off, and moreover, like most +inland men, I was but an indifferent swimmer. My indecision quickly +vanished. The wretched girl, though gradually sinking, had not yet +uttered a cry or appeared to struggle; but when the chilling waters +reached her lips, she seemed to suddenly revive to a consciousness of +the horror of her fate; she fought wildly with the engulfing tide, and +shrieked for help. Before one could count ten, I grasped her by the +arm, and lifted her head above the surface of the river. As I did so, +I felt as if suddenly encased and weighed down by leaden garments, so +quickly had my thick clothing and high boots sucked in the water. +Vainly, thus burdened and impeded, did I endeavor to regain the raft; +the strong tide bore us outwards, and I glared round, in inexpressible +dismay, for some means of extrication from the frightful peril in +which I found myself involved. Happily, right in the direction the +tide was drifting us, a large barge lay moored by a chain-cable. I +seized and twined one arm firmly round it, and thus partially secure, +hallooed with renewed power for assistance. It soon came; a passer had +witnessed the flight of the girl, and my pursuit, and was already +hastening with others to our assistance. A wherry was unmoored; guided +by my voice, they soon reached us; and but a brief interval elapsed +before we were safely housed in an adjoining tavern.</p> + +<p>A change of dress, with which the landlord kindly supplied me, a +blazing fire, and a couple of glasses of hot brandy and water, soon +restored warmth and vigor to my chilled and partially benumbed limbs; +but more than two hours elapsed before Mary, who had swallowed a good +deal of water, was in a condition to be removed. I had just sent for a +cab, when two police officers, well known to me, entered the room with +official briskness. Mary screamed, staggered towards me, and clinging +to my arm, besought me with frantic earnestness to save her.</p> + +<p>"What <i>is</i> the meaning of this?" I exclaimed, addressing one of the +police officers.</p> + +<p>"Merely," said he, "that the young woman that's clinging so tight to +you has been committing an audacious robbery"——</p> + +<p>"No—no—no!" broke in the terrified girl.</p> + +<p>"Oh! of course you'll say so," continued the officer. "All I know is, +that the diamond brooch was found snugly hid away in her own box. But +come, we have been after you for the last three hours; so you had +better come along at once."</p> + +<p>"Save me!—save me!" she sobbed, tightening her grasp upon my arm and +looking with beseeching agony in my face.</p> + +<p>"Be comforted," I whispered; "you shall go home with me. Calm +yourself, Miss Kingsford," I added in a louder tone: "I no more +believe you have stolen a diamond brooch than that I have."</p> + +<p>"Bless you!—bless you!" she gasped in the intervals of her convulsive +sobs.</p> + +<p>"There is some wretched misapprehension in this business, I am quite +sure," I continued; "but at all events I shall bail her—for this +night at least."</p> + +<p>"Bail her! That is hardly regular."</p> + +<p>"No; but you will tell the superintendent that Mary Kingsford is in my +custody, and that I answer for appearance to-morrow."</p> + +<p>The men hesitated; but I stood too well at head-quarters for them to +do more than hesitate; and the cab I had ordered being just then +announced, I passed with Mary out of the room as quickly as I could, +for I feared her senses were again leaving her. The air revived her +somewhat, and I lifted her into the cab, placing myself beside her. +She appeared to listen in fearful doubt whether I should be allowed to +take her with me; and it was not till the wheels had made a score of +revolutions that her fears vanished; then throwing herself upon my +neck in an ecstacy of gratitude, she burst into tears, and continued +till we reached home crying on my bosom like a broken-hearted child. +She had, I found, been there about ten o'clock to seek me, and being +told that I was gone to Astley's, had started off to find me there.</p> + +<p>She still slept, or at least she had not risen when I left home the +following morning to endeavor to get at the bottom of the strange +accusation preferred against her. I first saw the superintendent, who, +after hearing what I had to say, quite approved of all I had done, and +intrusted the case entirely to my care. I next saw Mr. and Mrs. Morris +and Sophia Clarke, and then waited upon the prosecutor, a youngish +gentleman by the name of Saville, lodging in Essex Street, Strand. One +or two things I heard, made necessary a visit to other officers of +police, incidentally, as I found, mixed up with the affair. By the +time all this was done,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_421" id="Page_421">[Pg 421]</a></span> and an effectual watch had been placed upon +Mr. Augustus Saville's movements, evening had fallen, and I wended my +way homewards, both to obtain a little rest, and to hear Mary +Kingsford's version of the story.</p> + +<p>The result of my inquiries may be thus summed up. Ten days before. +Sophia Clarke told her cousin that she had orders for Covent-Garden +Theatre; and as it was not one of their busy nights, she thought they +might obtain leave to go. Mary expressed her doubt of this, as both +Mr. and Mrs. Morris, who were strict and somewhat fanatical +Dissenters, disapproved of play-going, especially for young women. +Nevertheless Sophia asked, informed Mary that the required permission +had been readily accorded, and off they went in high spirits; Mary +especially, who had never been to a theatre in her life before. When +there they were joined by Hartley and Simpson, much to Mary's +annoyance and vexation, especially as she saw that her cousin expected +them. She had, in fact, accepted the orders from them. At the +conclusion of the entertainments, they all four came out together, +when suddenly there arose a hustling and confusion, accompanied with +loud outcries, and a violent swaying to and fro of the crowd. The +disturbance was, however, soon quelled; and Mary and her cousin had +reached the outer door, when two police-officers seized Hartley and +his friend, and insisted upon their going with them. A scuffle ensued; +but other officers being at hand, the two men were secured, and +carried off. The cousins, terribly frightened, called a coach, and +were very glad to find themselves safe at home again. And now it came +out that Mr. and Mrs. Morris had been told that they were going to +spend the evening at <i>my</i> house, and had no idea they were going to +the play! Vexed as Mary was at the deception, she was too kindly +tempered to refuse to keep her cousin's secret; especially knowing as +she did that the discovery of the deceit Sophia had practised would in +all probability be followed by her immediate discharge. Hartley and +his friend swaggered on the following afternoon into the shop, and +whispered Sophia that their arrest by the police had arisen from a +strange mistake, for which the most ample apologies had been offered +and accepted. After this matters went on as usual, except that Mary +perceived a growing insolence and familiarity in Hartley's manner +towards her. His language was frequently quite unintelligible, and +once he asked her plainly "if she did not mean that he should go +<i>shares</i> in the prize she had lately found?" Upon Mary replying that +she did not comprehend him, his look became absolutely ferocious, and +he exclaimed; "Oh, that's your game, is it? But don't try it on with +me, my good girl, I advise you." So violent did he become, that Mr. +Morris was attracted by the noise, and ultimately bundled him, neck +and heels, out of the shop. She had not seen either him or his +companion since.</p> + +<p>On the evening of the previous day, a gentleman whom she never +remembered to have seen before, entered the shop, took a seat, and +helped himself to a tart. She observed that after a while he looked at +her very earnestly, and at length approaching quite close, said, "You +were at Covent-Garden Theatre last Tuesday evening week?" Mary was +struck, as she said, all of a heap, for both Mr. and Mrs. Morris were +in the shop, and heard the question.</p> + +<p>"Oh no, no! you mistake," she said hurriedly, and feeling at the same +time her cheeks kindle into flame.</p> + +<p>"Nay, but you were though," rejoined the gentleman. And then lowering +his voice to a whisper, he said, "And let me advise you, if you would +avoid exposure and consign punishment, to restore me the diamond +brooch you robbed me of on that evening."</p> + +<p>Mary screamed with terror, and a regular scene ensued. She was obliged +to confess she had told a falsehood in denying she was at the theatre +on the night in question, and Mr. Morris after that seemed inclined to +believe any thing of her. The gentleman persisted in his charge; but +at the same time vehemently iterating his assurance that all he wanted +was his property; and it was ultimately decided that Mary's boxes, as +well as her person should be searched. This was done; and to her utter +consternation the brooch was found concealed, they said, in a black +silk reticule. Denials, asseverations, were in vain. Mr. Saville +identified the brooch, but once more offered to be content with its +restoration. This Mr. Morris, a just, stern man, would not consent to, +and he went out to summon a police-officer. Before he returned, Mary, +by the advice of both her cousin and Mrs. Morris, had fled the house, +and hurried in a state of distraction to find me, with what result the +reader already knows.</p> + +<p>"It is a wretched business," I observed to my wife, as soon as Mary +Kingsford had retired to rest, at about nine o'clock in the evening. +"Like you, I have no doubt of the poor girl's perfect innocence; but +how to establish it by satisfactory evidence is another matter. I must +take her to Bow Street the day after to-morrow."</p> + +<p>"Good God, how dreadful! Can nothing be done? What does the prosecutor +say the brooch is worth?"</p> + +<p>"His uncle, he says, gave a hundred and twenty guineas for it. But +that signifies little, for were its worth only a hundred and twenty +farthings, compromise is, you know, out of the question."</p> + +<p>"I did not mean that. Can you show it me? I am a pretty good judge of +the value of jewels."</p> + +<p>"Yes, you can see it." I took it out of the desk in which I had locked +it up, and placed it before her. It was a splendid emerald, encircled +by large brilliants.</p> + +<p>My wife twisted and turned it about, holding it in all sorts of +lights, and at last said,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_422" id="Page_422">[Pg 422]</a></span> "I do not believe that either the emerald +or the brilliants are real—that the brooch is, in fact, worth twenty +shillings intrinsically."</p> + +<p>"Do you say so?" I exclaimed, as I jumped up from my chair, for my +wife's words gave color and consistence to a dim and faint suspicion +which had crossed my mind. "Then this Saville is a manifest liar, and +perhaps confederate with——But give me my hat: I will ascertain this +point at once."</p> + +<p>I hurried to a jeweller's shop, and found that my wife's opinion was +correct. Apart from the workmanship, which was very fine, the brooch +was valueless. Conjectures, suspicions, hopes, fears, chased each +other with bewildering rapidity through my brain, and in order to +collect and arrange my thoughts, I stepped out of the whirl of the +streets into Dolly's Chop-house, and decided, over a quiet glass of +negus, upon my plan of operations.</p> + +<p>The next morning there appeared at the top of the second column of the +"Times" an earnest appeal, worded with careful obscurity, so that only +the person to whom it was addressed should easily understand it, to +the individual who had lost or been robbed of a false stone and +brilliants at the theatre, to communicate with a certain person—whose +address I gave—without delay, in order to save the reputation, +perhaps the life, of an innocent person.</p> + +<p>I was at the address I had given by nine o'clock. Several hours passed +without bringing any one, and I was beginning to despair, when a +gentleman of the name of Bagshawe was announced: I fairly leaped for +joy, for this was beyond my hopes.</p> + +<p>A gentleman presently entered, of about thirty years of age, of a +distinguished, though somewhat dissipated aspect.</p> + +<p>"This brooch is yours?" said I, exhibiting it without delay or +preface.</p> + +<p>"It is; and I am here to know what your singular advertisement means."</p> + +<p>I briefly explained the situation of affairs.</p> + +<p>"The rascals!" he broke in, almost before I had finished. "I will +briefly explain it all. A fellow of the name of Hartley, at least that +was the name he gave, robbed me, I was pretty sure, of this brooch. I +pointed him out to the police, and he was taken into custody; but +nothing being found upon him, he was discharged."</p> + +<p>"Not entirely, Mr. Bagshawe, on that account. You refused, when +arrived at the station-house, to state what you had been robbed of; +and you, moreover, said, in presence of the culprit, that you were to +embark with your regiment for India the next day. That regiment, I +have ascertained, did embark, as you said it would."</p> + +<p>"True; but I had leave of absence, and shall take the overland route. +The truth is, that during the walk to the station-house, I had leisure +to reflect, that if I made a formal charge, it would lead to awkward +disclosures, This brooch is an imitation of one presented me by a +valued relative. Losses at play—since, for this unfortunate young +woman's sake, I <i>must</i> out with it—obliged me to part with the +original; and I wore this, in order to conceal the fact from my +relative's knowledge."</p> + +<p>"This will, sir," I replied, "prove, with a little management, quite +sufficient for all purposes. You have no objection to accompany me to +the superintendent?"</p> + +<p>"Not in the least: only I wish the devil had the brooch, as well as +the fellow that stole it."</p> + +<p>About half-past five o'clock on the same evening, the street-door was +quietly opened by the landlord of the house in which Mr. Saville +lodged, and I walked into the front room on the first floor, where I +found the gentleman I sought languidly reclining on a sofa. He +gathered himself smartly up at my appearance, and looked keenly in my +face. He did not appear to like what he read there.</p> + +<p>"I did not expect to see you to-day," he said, at last.</p> + +<p>"No, perhaps not: but I have news for you. Mr. Bagshawe, the owner of +the hundred-and-twenty guinea brooch your deceased uncle gave you, did +<i>not</i> sail for India, and—"</p> + +<p>The wretched cur, before I could conclude, was on his knees, begging +for mercy with disgusting abjectness. I could have spurned the +scoundrel where he crawled.</p> + +<p>"Come, sir!" I cried, "let us have no snivelling or humbug: mercy is +not in my power, as you ought to know. Strive to deserve it. We want +Hartley and Simpson, and cannot find them: you must aid us."</p> + +<p>"Oh yes; to be sure I will," eagerly rejoined the rascal. "I will go +for them at once," he added, with a kind of hesitating assurance.</p> + +<p>"Nonsense! <i>Send</i> for them, you mean. Do so, and I will wait their +arrival."</p> + +<p>His note was despatched by a sure hand; and meanwhile I arranged the +details of the expected meeting. I, and a friend, whom I momently +expected, would ensconce ourselves behind a large screen in the room, +while Mr. Augustus Saville would run playfully over the charming plot +with his two friends, so that we might be able to fully appreciate its +merits. Mr. Saville agreed. I rang the bell, an officer appeared, and +we took our posts in readiness. We had scarcely done so, when the +street-bell rang, and Saville announced the arrival of his +confederates. There was a twinkle in the fellow's green eyes which I +thought I understood. "Do not try that on, Mr. Augustus Saville," I +quietly remarked: "we are but two here, certainly, but there are +half-a-dozen in waiting below."</p> + +<p>No more was said, and in another minute the friends met. It was a +boisterously jolly meeting, as far as shaking hands and mutual +felicitations on each other's good looks and health went. Saville was, +I thought, the most obstreperously gay of all three.</p> + +<p>"And yet, now I look at you, Saville,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_423" id="Page_423">[Pg 423]</a></span> closely," said Hartley, "you +don't look quite the thing. Have you seen a ghost?"</p> + +<p>"No; but this cursed brooch affair worries me."</p> + +<p>"Nonsense!—humbug!—it's all right: we are all embarked in the same +boat. It's a regular three-handed game. I prigged it; Simmy here +whipped it into pretty Mary's reticule, which she, I suppose, never +looked into till the row came; and <i>you</i> claimed it—a regular +merry-go-round, eh? Ha! ha! ha!"</p> + +<p>"Quite so, Mr. Hartley," said I, suddenly facing him, and at the same +time stamping on the floor; "as you say, a delightful merry-go-round; +and here, you perceive, I added, as the officers crowded into the +room, are more gentlemen to join in it."</p> + +<p>I must not stain the paper with the curses, imprecations, blasphemies, +which for a brief space resounded through the apartment. The rascals +were safely and separately locked up a quarter of an hour afterwards; +and before a month had passed away, all three were transported. It is +scarcely necessary to remark, that they believed the brooch to be +genuine, and of great value.</p> + +<p>Mary Kingsford did not need to return to her employ. Westlake the +elder withdrew his veto upon his son's choice, and the wedding was +celebrated in the following May with great rejoicing; Mary's old +playmate officiating as bridesmaid, and I as bride's-father. The still +young couple have now a rather numerous family, and a home blessed +with affection, peace, and competence. It was some time, however, +before Mary recovered from the shock of her London adventure; and I am +pretty sure that the disagreeable reminiscences inseparately connected +in her mind with the metropolis will prevent at least <i>one</i> person +from being present at the World's Great Fair.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="Historical_Review_of_the_Month" id="Historical_Review_of_the_Month"></a><i>Historical Review of the Month.</i></h2> + + +<h3>THE UNITED STATES.</h3> + +<p>Our record of home affairs for the past month presents several points +of more than usual interest. Two different movements, both of which +originated in the Southern States, kept awake the public curiosity for +three or four weeks past, though at the time these sheets are going +through the press both appear to be rapidly subsiding.</p> + +<p>Soon after the withdrawal of the Government prosecution against Gen. +Henderson, Lopez, Gen. Quitman, and the other persons arraigned for +trial as having been engaged in getting up a hostile expedition +against Cuba, rumors of a second attempt being in preparation, began +to be circulated through the country. Little attention was at first +paid to these rumors, but the matter soon assumed a more definite +shape, and the Southern newspapers began to notice the congregation of +suspicious persons at different points on or near the coast. From the +intelligence which the Government received, it became evident that an +extensive expedition, was on foot, the object of which was the +invasion of Cuba. The United States officers were ordered to be on the +watch, for the purpose of obtaining more particular intelligence of +its movements.</p> + +<p>Two or three thousand men had collected in the neighborhood of +Jacksonville, Florida, which had been selected as the principal +rendezvous of the expedition. These men awaited the arrival of a +steamer from New-York, which had been chartered by parties there. The +Government, however, had already received intelligence of their plans, +and instructions were at once sent to the United States Marshal at +New-York, to prevent the departure of the steamer. This officer, +accompanied by a police force, sailed down the bay in search of the +suspected craft. In the mean time it was found that the steamer +Cleopatra, a large boat, formerly employed on the Sound as a passenger +boat, was the vessel indicated. She was then lying at one of the piers +on the North River, and was immediately seized and placed under the +supervision of the United States authorities. She was alleged to be +bound to Galveston, Texas. A large quantity of coal was found on +board, and a great number of water casks, and but few arms or +ammunition of any kind. A file of marines from the Navy Yard was +placed on board, and all communication with the shore forbidden. No +final disposition has yet been made of the vessel, though orders were +received to deliver her cargo to any person who may establish his +ownership to the articles found on board.</p> + +<p>At the same time, notice was received by the Marshal that a number of +Germans and others had assembled at South Amboy for the purpose of +embarking on some secret expedition, and one of the Deputy Marshals +was sent there for the purpose of procuring information. Disguising +himself as a German emigrant, he obtained sufficient evidence to +warrant the arrest of the following six persons: William T. Rogers, +Jr., John L. O'Sullivan, Capt. Lewis, of the steamboat Creole, a +member of the former expedition; Major Louis Schlesinger, one of the +Hungarian refugees; Pedro Sanchez Yznaga, a Cuban refugee; and Dr. +Daniel H. Burtnett. Each of the parties was held to bail in the sum of +$3,000, to appear for examination.</p> + +<p>The movement must have been of considerable magnitude, but there was +evidently a want of concert among its members, which may have led to +its abandonment. From what could be ascertained, it was not the +intention of the leaders to organize the expedition in this country, +but to sail to some point beyond the limits of the United States, and +there concentrate their forces for the invasion.</p> + +<p>The South Carolina State Rights Convention assembled at Charleston on +the 5th of May. The Hon. J. P. Richardson, Ex-Governor of the State, +was appointed President. Forty district associations were represented, +and 431 Delegates took their seats. The President, in his opening +address, reviewed the present position of the South, and considered +that, under existing circumstances, Southern institutions could not +exist twenty years. He discussed at some length the want of affinity +between the two sections of the Union, and expressed his conviction +that those whom God and Nature have put asunder should not be joined +together. On the second day, a letter from the Hon. Langdon Cheves was +read, excusing his non-attendance. He deprecated separate State +action, believing that one State cannot stand alone in the midst of +her sister States.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_424" id="Page_424">[Pg 424]</a></span></p> + +<p>A committee of twenty-one was appointed to prepare resolutions and an +address, which were adopted, after considerable discussion. The +following are the resolutions, which embody the sentiments of the +Convention:</p> + +<p>1. <i>Resolved</i>, That in the opinion of this meeting the State of South +Carolina cannot submit to the wrongs and aggressions which have been +perpetrated by the Federal Government and the Northern States, without +dishonor and ruin; and that it is necessary for her to relieve herself +therefrom, whether with or without the co-operation of other Southern +States.</p> + +<p>2. <i>Resolved</i>, That concert of action with one or more of our sister +States of the South, whether through the proposed Southern Congress, +or in any other manner, is an object worth many sacrifices, but not +the sacrifice involved in submission.</p> + +<p>3. <i>Resolved</i>, That we hold the right of secession to be essential to +the sovereignty and freedom of the States of this confederacy; and +that the denial of that right would furnish to an injured State the +strongest additional cause for its exercise.</p> + +<p>4. <i>Resolved</i>, That this meeting looks with confidence and hope to the +Convention of the People, to exert the sovereign power of the State in +defence of its rights, at the earliest practicable period and in the +most effectual manner, and to the Legislature, to adopt the most +speedy and effectual measures toward the same end.</p> + +<p>Mr. Barnwell and two other members of the Committee presented a +minority Report, referring the whole matter to the action of the +Legislature. Judge Butler, U. S. Senator, also recommended a +postponement of any decisive step. The original Report, however, was +adopted, and the Convention adjourned <i>sine die</i>. The subject has +occasioned but little excitement out of South Carolina, and it is not +anticipated that any other State will pursue a similar course.</p> + +<p>The Mexican Government has made a formal complaint to the President of +the United States, in relation to the Indian outrages along the +frontier, which the United States were bound to suppress, according to +the Treaty of Guadaloupe Hidalgo. It is believed that a demand of a +million of dollars will be made for damages which the Indians have +already caused; besides which, Mexico refuses to ratify the +Tchuantepec Treaty, unless these provisions are fulfilled. At the last +session of Congress, the appropriation asked by the War Department for +this purpose, was not made; besides which, the troops most serviceable +for such a warfare have been disbanded.</p> + +<p>An order has been issued by the President, that the tracts of land in +Iowa, occupied by General Ujhazy and the other Hungarian exiles, shall +be withheld from sale until the end of the next session of Congress, +with a view to making application to that body for a grant of the +lands.</p> + +<p>The Massachusetts Legislature, after a struggle of four months, +succeeded in electing a U. S. Senator on the 24th of April. Charles +Sumner, Esq., the Free Soil Candidate, was chosen on that day, by 193 +votes, precisely the number necessary for election. The Boston Board +of Aldermen, who had passed a resolution refusing the use of Faneuil +Hall for a public address by Daniel Webster, have since then retracted +the step and concurred with the Common Council in inviting Mr. Webster +to address the citizens of Boston. Faneuil Hall, hereafter, is to be +granted on all occasions, at the application of one hundred voters. +Before leaving Boston, Mr. Webster delivered a speech to the citizens +of Boston, from the steps of the Revere House.</p> + +<p>The Legislature of New-York adjourned on the 17th of April. The +question of the enlargement of the Erie Canal was before the Senate, +when twelve of the Democratic members of that body resigned their +seats in order to prevent the passage of the bill, by leaving the +senate without a quorum. The usual annual appropriations had not been +voted, and the Government was thus placed without the means of +sustaining its operations. An extra session of the Legislature has +been called by Governor Hunt, for the 10th of June. Elections have +been ordered, in the mean time, to fill the vacancies caused by the +resignation of the Senators. The Members of the Assembly, of both +parties, published manifestoes in relation to the question.</p> + +<p>The Atlantic Coast and the Lakes have been visited this spring with a +succession of tremendous gales, which have done an immense amount of +damage in various quarters. A storm arose along the Northeastern +coast, on the 15th of April, and at noon on the following day the tide +was higher at Boston than had ever been known before. On the principal +wharves of the city the water was three or four feet deep, and the +streets were so flooded that a large boat could be rowed around the +Custom House. An immense amount of damage was done to private +property, and many lives were lost. The railroad tracks all around the +city were submerged, and in many places torn up and washed away. All +along the coast, from New Bedford to Portland, the gale raged with +nearly equal violence, causing much injury to the shipping. The loss +of property is estimated at more than one million of dollars.</p> + +<p>On the night of the 17th of April, the third day of the storm, the +light-house on Minot's Ledge, at the entrance of Boston harbor, was +carried away, and the two men in it at the time drowned. Mr. Bennett, +the keeper, who had been to Boston, was prevented from returning to it +by the rough sea, and thus escaped. It was formed of wrought iron +bars, riveted into the rock, and rising to the height of sixty feet, +having chambers in the upper part for the keeper and his assistants. +The light-house had been severely tested in the late equinoctial +storm, and was considered secure.</p> + +<p>His Excellency, President Fillmore, accompanied by the Hon. Daniel +Webster, Secretary of State; Hon. William A. Graham, Secretary of the +Navy; Hon. J. J. Crittenden, Attorney General; and Hon. N. K. Hall, +Postmaster General, left Washington on the 12th of May, in order to be +present at the opening of the Erie Railroad from New-York to Dunkirk. +They were received with great enthusiasm on the way; at Baltimore and +Wilmington they were officially welcomed, and were met at the latter +place by the Mayor and Common Council of Philadelphia, who escorted +them to that city.</p> + +<p>Here the people turned out to give them a public reception, and +speeches were made by the President and Mr. Webster. On their way to +New-York they were met at Amboy by the Erie Railroad Company's steamer +and conveyed to the city, saluted on the way by national salutes from +the forts in the harbor, and the military companies of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_425" id="Page_425">[Pg 425]</a></span> the city, who +were drawn up on the Battery, to receive the distinguished visitors. +The ceremonies of welcome were performed in Castle Garden, where the +President and Secretaries were welcomed by Mayor Kingsland. Eloquent +speeches were made in return by the President, Mr. Webster, and Mr. +Crittenden. A military procession more than a mile in length, was then +formed, and marched through the principal streets, which were thronged +with spectators. Flags were waving from every point, and as the day +was remarkably bright and warm, the spectacle was one of unusual life +and animation.</p> + +<p>The Company's boat left New-York at 6 o'clock on the morning of the +14th, having on board the President and Secretaries, all the principal +State officers except Governor Hunt, the officers of the Erie Railroad +Company, a large representation from the State Senate and Assembly, +and both boards of the Common Council of the city, besides a number of +other distinguished persons. At Piermont, three special trains +received the company, 600 in all, and the grand march of 450 miles, +through what was lately the wilderness of the State, from the Hudson +to Lake Erie, commenced. All along the line of the road the people +turned out <i>en masse</i>, cannons were fired and bells rung as the trains +passed, and triumphal arches erected over the road. Brief addresses +were made at the principal stations by the President, Mr. Webster, Mr. +Seward, Mr. Crittenden, and other distinguished guests. The trains +stopped at Elmira for the night, and proceeded next day to Dunkirk, +which they reached in the afternoon. Here the crowning celebration was +made. All the country, far and near, arose to hail the completion of +the greatest railroad enterprise in the world. After the meeting, a +grand barbecue was held: two oxen and ten sheep were roasted whole, +and the company regaled on a magnificent scale. The day following this +opening excursion, the regular passenger trains commenced running from +New-York to Dunkirk. The distance between the Ocean and Lake Erie is +now but a summer's day.</p> + +<p>In the Connecticut Legislature the Democratic candidate for Governor, +Mr. Seymour, was elected by a majority of one vote. The Legislature of +Rhode Island, on the 10th of May, restored to Ex-Gov. Dorr, +(well-known as the leader of "Dorr's Rebellion,") all the rights and +privileges of a citizen.</p> + +<p>M. Bois Le Compte, the French Minister at Washington, who has been +recalled by his Government, took leave of the President on the 2d of +May, and will shortly return to France.</p> + +<p>Jenny Lind reached New-York in the beginning of May, after a +triumphant tour of five months in the South and West. She commenced a +series of farewell concerts on the 7th. She was received with as full +a house and scarcely less enthusiasm than on the night of her first +appearance in America. The Firemen of the city, in return for her +donation of $3000 to the Widows' and Orphans' Fund, have presented her +with a resolution of thanks inclosed in a gold box, and a copy of +Audubon's Birds of America in a rosewood case.</p> + +<p>A fire occurred at Santa Fe, New Mexico, on the 22d of April, which +destroyed the finest hotel in the place. Col. Sumner, who is to take +command of the United States military force in the Department, carries +with him a large amount of seeds, grains, improved stock, farming +utensils, and apparatus for developing the capacity of the soil. It is +designed to make the United States troops in New Mexico support +themselves as far as possible. The Apache Indians have been very +troublesome, but a treaty of amity has been effected with their +principal chief, Chacon. The Mexican citizens are well satisfied with +the establishment of the Territorial Government.</p> + +<p>The California mails of March 15th and April 1st have been received. +The steamers which sailed from San Francisco on those days took away +more than $3,500,000 in gold dust for the Atlantic States. The news is +generally of a very favorable character. The severe drought which had +prevailed through the whole winter, terminated on the 17th of March, +when a succession of heavy showers commenced, the effect of which had +been to revive business of all kinds. The miners in the dry diggings +had a sufficiency of water to wash out their piles of dirt, and the +gold dust, flowing into the centres of trades, soon dissipated the +dulness which had fallen upon business of all kinds. Agricultural +prospects have also brightened, and the crops of California will this +year be an important feature of her products. The odious tax of $20 +per month on all foreign miners has been repealed, and the Mexicans +and Chilians who were last year driven out of the country will +probably return.</p> + +<p>The Legislature still continues in session, and since its futile +attempt to elect a United States Senator, has gone vigorously to work. +The sale of lottery tickets has been prohibited; the sum of $200,000 +appropriated for the pay of persons engaged in military operations +against the Indians, and the State Treasurer authorized to obtain a +loan of $500,000. The District Court of Sacramento has given a +decision sustaining the suitors of claims on all lands on which the +city is located. A fugitive slave case—the first in California—has +been settled at San Francisco. The owner of a slave, who had employed +him in the mines for three or four months, was about to return with +him to the Atlantic States. But as the slave preferred remaining, a +writ of habeas corpus was procured and a hearing had before the Court, +which decided that the negro was at liberty to stay and could not be +removed against his will.</p> + +<p>A fire broke out in a bowling alley in Nevada City, on the 12th of +March, and spread so rapidly that before it could be subdued, the +largest and best portion of the city was in ashes. One hundred and +twenty-eight houses were destroyed, and the entire loss is estimated +at $300,000.</p> + +<p>Accounts from all parts of the gold region give flattering accounts of +the golden harvest for the present year. The richest locality appears +to be the district lying between Feather River and the American Fork, +embracing the Yuba and its tributaries. The northern mines, on +Trinity, Scott's and Klamath Rivers, continue to attract attention. On +the Mokelumne River, gold is found in large quantities on the sides +and summits of the hills. A placer of the precious metal has also been +discovered by the Mexicans near San Diego. The operations in quartz +mining promise to be very profitable. A vein near Nevada City has been +sold for $130,000. Later accounts from the Gold Bluff are more +encouraging. The top sand was washed away during a severe gale, and +the heavy substratum, being washed, was found to yield from three to +eight ounces to each pailful. Messrs. Moffat & Co., who obtained the +Government contract for assaying gold, received deposits of gold<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_426" id="Page_426">[Pg 426]</a></span> dust +amounting to $100,000 in two hours after opening their office. The +operations of the office had such an effect that the bankers of San +Francisco were compelled to raise the price of gold dust to $17 per +ounce, in order to have any share in the trade.</p> + +<p>Professor Forest Shepard, of New-Haven, who has been prosecuting +geological explorations in different parts of California, has +discovered a remarkable valley in the Coast Range, north of Napa +Valley. It is an immense chasm, 1000 feet deep, in the bottom of which +was a large number of boiling springs and jets of steam, with here and +there a fountain of hot water, similar to the geysers of Iceland. +There are more than two hundred in all, within a compass of half a +mile square. The soil of the valley was so warm that, although it was +in the middle of winter, flowers were in full bloom and a luxuriant +vegetation springing on all sides. It is Professor Shepard's intention +to claim a portion of the valley, build a house thereon, and plant +tropical trees in the warm soil.</p> + +<p>The Hon. Samuel R. Thurston, Delegate to Congress from Oregon +Territory, died on the 9th ult., on board the steamer California, +bound from Panama to San Francisco. His remains were taken to Acapulco +for interment.</p> + +<p>Our news from Oregon is to the 22d of March. A discovery has been made +by Capt. George Drew, of a vein of coal on the Cowlitz River, eighteen +miles from its junction with the Columbia, and about one mile from the +main Cowlitz. The vein is two feet thick and about half a mile in +width, fifteen feet above high water mark and about forty feet below +the surface of the bluff mountain. Governor Ogden, of the Hudson's Bay +Company, at Vancouver, sent a boat and crew to bring a quantity away, +that it may be fairly tested.</p> + + +<h3>EUROPE.</h3> + +<p>The Grand Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations, in the Crystal +Palace at LONDON, was opened on Thursday, May 1, with appropriate and +imposing ceremonies. Just before twelve o'clock, which was the hour +appointed for the arrival of the Queen, the rain that had been falling +at intervals during the day ceased altogether, and the sun shone forth +from a cloudless sky. On the appearance of the Royal cortêge, the +utmost enthusiasm was manifested by the people who thronged the +vicinity of the Palace, and, in the midst of the cheers of the +multitude, and the flourish of military music, the Queen, accompanied +by Prince Albert, the Prince of Wales, and the Princess Royal, was +ushered into the interior of the building. She was welcomed by the +vast assemblage with repeated and universal cheers, ladies waved their +handkerchiefs, gentlemen their hats, and the whole scene presented a +spectacle of unrivalled splendor. After she had ascended the throne, +which was a raised platform surmounted with a blue canopy ornamented +with feathers, the National Anthem was sung by an immense choir under +direction of Sir Henry Bishop. When the music had ceased, Prince +Albert presented to the Queen the report of the proceedings of the +Commissioners, to which she replied in a short speech. The Archbishop +of Canterbury then offered the prayer of inauguration, at the close of +which the Hallelujah Chorus was sung. A procession was now formed, +composed of the architect, contractors, and officials engaged in the +construction of the Crystal Palace, the Foreign Commissioners, the +Royal Commissioners, Foreign Ambassadors, and the members of the Royal +Family. After making the circuit of the building in the procession, +the Queen resumed her seat on the platform, and announced by a herald +that the Exhibition was opened. A flourish of trumpets and a discharge +of artillery proclaimed the fact to the thronging multitudes on the +outside. The Queen, attended by the Court, then withdrew from the +building; the choir again struck up the strain of the National Anthem; +the barriers, which had confined the spectators within certain limits, +were removed; and the whole mass of visitors poured over every part of +the magnificent edifice, eager to gratify a highly excited curiosity.</p> + +<p>The number of exhibitors, whose productions are now displayed in the +Crystal Palace, is about 15,000. One-half of these are British +subjects. The remainder represent the industry of more than forty +other nations, comprising nearly every civilized country on the globe. +The Exhibition is divided into four classes; 1. Raw Materials; 2. +Machinery; 3. Manufactures; 4. Sculpture and the Fine Arts. A further +division is made, according to the geographical position of the +countries represented, those which lie within the warmer latitudes +being placed near the centre of the building, and the colder countries +at the extremities. The Crystal Palace, which was commenced on the +26th of September, and has accordingly been completed in the short +space of seven months, occupies an extent of about 18 acres, measuring +1,851 feet in length, and 556 in breadth, and affords a frontage for +the exhibition of goods amounting in the aggregate to over 10 miles. +It can accommodate at one time 40,000 visitors.</p> + +<p>An interesting debate took place in the <span class="smcap">British</span> House of Commons on +the 3d of April, upon a motion by Mr. Herries for the repeal of the +Income Tax. In an elaborate speech supporting his motion, Mr. Herries +maintained that the Income Tax was proposed by Sir Robert Peel in +order to meet a peculiar emergency occasioned by the maladministration +of the Whigs prior to 1841. He presented a minute calculation for the +purpose of showing that two-sevenths of the tax might be remitted +without damage to the financial interests of the nation, and that the +remission of £1,560,000 would be a greater relief than the removal of +the window-tax. In reply to Mr. Herries, the Chancellor of the +Exchequer contended that the measures contemplated in the motion were +of the most disastrous tendency, and recommended the House to vote an +Income Tax for three years. On a division of the House, Mr. Herries' +motion was lost by a majority of 48.</p> + +<p>The subject of Colonial Expenditures has elicited a warm debate in the +House of Commons. Sir William Molesworth argued in favor of giving the +means of local self-government to all colonies which are not military +stations nor convict settlements. The colonies cost the United Kingdom +the enormous sum of £4,000,000 sterling. He believed the military +force maintained in the various colonies might be cut down to less +than half the present establishment without injury to the Government. +Under proper regulations, 17,000 men would be sufficient for the +colonial garrisons, instead of 45,000. For colonial services the +troops should be paid by the colonies—for Imperial purposes, by the +General Government. He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_427" id="Page_427">[Pg 427]</a></span> contended that in the North American colonies, +the expenditure for military affairs should be reduced £400,000 per +annum, and in the West Indies £250,000. From the Australian colonies +nearly the whole military force might be withdrawn to advantage. +Unless the military operations were discontinued in South Africa, the +war would cost £1,000,000 more than the value of the colony. In +conclusion, he estimated that the adoption of his measures would save +the Government at least £1,800,000 in military and civil expenditure. +The views of Sir William Molesworth were ably sustained by other +members, while, on the contrary, Lord John Russell declared they were +of a ruinous tendency, and earnestly protested against their adoption. +If the plan were carried into effect, the glory of the British nation +would be destroyed. She could no longer maintain her proud position +before the world. The integrity of her empire would be annihilated, +and she would be exposed to the attack of foreign powers. The debate +was finally adjourned without a division.</p> + +<p>The latest intelligence concerning Miss Talbot, whose relation to the +Roman Catholic controversy has produced such a general excitement in +England, is her decision to accept of a proposal of marriage from Lord +Edward Howard, a Catholic nobleman of wealth and character. +Application was made by the friends of the parties for the consent of +the Lord Chancellor, which was given without hesitation.</p> + +<p>The British Government has presented a memorial to the Courts of +Berlin and Vienna, on the subject of admitting non-German territories +into the Confederation, and insisting on a strict adherence to the +Treaty of Vienna.</p> + +<p>A new cabinet has been formed in <span class="smcap">France</span>, consisting of Baroche, +Rouher, Fould, Leon-Faucher, Buffet, Chasseloup Laubat, de +Crouseilhes, Randon and Maque. The most prominent of these ministers +are Baroche, Fould, and Leon-Faucher. They are all taken from the +minority of the Assembly, and their choice will increase the +difference between the President and that body. Baroche and Fould were +members of the ministry which was obliged to retire in January last, +before the opposition of the Assembly. Leon-Faucher labors under the +stigma of having used the telegraph for electioneering purposes, for +which he was condemned by the vote of the constituent assembly. Buffet +was minister of commerce and agriculture in the administration of +O'Dillon-Barrot. He is inclined to free trade sentiments, agreeing for +the most part with Leon-Faucher in his commercial views. De +Crouseilhes is a legitimist. He is an ex-peer of France, but has been +more distinguished for his private worth than his political ability. +Chasseloup Laubat has been in official employment since 1828, though +he is still under fifty years of age. The best debater in the new +ministry is undoubtedly Baroche, whose sagacity and mental vigor +cannot be mistaken.</p> + +<p>The political condition of France is still the subject of much +speculation, but no definite conclusions can be arrived at in the +present fluctuations of parties. Every thing shows the uncertainty +which pervades the public mind. The President has renounced the hope +of improving his political prospects, by obtaining a revision of the +constitution. This could not be carried without a majority of +three-fourths of the Assembly, while at least nearly 190 of the most +strenuous republicans are decidedly opposed to the measure. The +government is now sustained by the legitimists, who perceive no +immediate hope of the accomplishment of their favorite plans. The +partisans of Cavaignac are in favor of the speedy resignation of the +President. In their opinion, this is necessary, in order to anticipate +the general election, and thus prevent the difficulties that would +ensue by the dissolution of the Assembly, without an established +executive. Others, on the contrary, are in favor of extending the +Presidential term for the period of ten years. A reconciliation was +about to take place, according to the general rumor, between the +President and General Changarnier. The government has demanded of the +cabinet at London the expulsion of Ledru Rollin and other active +politicians among the French refugees. With the present facilities of +communication between London and Paris, their influence was believed +to be adverse to the policy of the French government, and to increase +the difficulties of the existing crisis.</p> + +<p>An insurrection, headed by the Duke of Saldanha, has been attempted in +Cientra, <span class="smcap">Portugal</span>. The insurgents were about five thousand in number, +and displayed considerable determination. Their leader is a man of +great energy, and has had no small experience in political +disturbances. He belongs to the reactionary party. The King, who +commands the army in person, has occupied the fortress of Santarem, +and the chances of the insurgents appear desperate, although they are +said to have some friends in the royal army. The garrison at Oporto +have declared for Saldanha, and the inhabitants of that city are +generally on his side. He had decided to abandon the contest, and +embark for England, but was recalled by the insurgents.</p> + +<p>The King of <span class="smcap">Naples</span> has prohibited his subjects from taking part in the +Exhibition of the World's Fair, and from being present at it as +visitors. The King of Sardinia proposes to visit England during the +Exhibition.</p> + +<p>The Emperor of <span class="smcap">Russia</span> has appointed a Committee of manufacturers and +scientific men, under the Presidency of the Director General of Public +Works to visit the Exhibition, and also to examine the principal +manufacturing establishments of France. He has also given permission +to his subjects who may attend the exhibition, to pass through France +on complying with certain conditions.</p> + +<p>The city of <span class="smcap">Drontheim</span> has again suffered from a popular outbreak, +although not from political causes. The military and burgher guard +were compelled to interfere, and several arrests took place. The +difficulty originated in the prohibition of the sale of fish by the +peasantry, in compliance with the demands of the licensed fishermen.</p> + +<p>A misunderstanding of a serious nature has occurred between the +Emperor of <span class="smcap">Austria</span> and the Sultan of <span class="smcap">Turkey</span>. This has resulted in the +withdrawal of the Austrian minister from Constantinople. The Sultan is +charged with refusing to comply with the demands of the Emperor in +regard to Kossuth and the other Hungarian prisoners. He declines +detaining them after the expiration of the year during which he had +promised to hold them in custody. An additional offence is his +presentation of a claim upon the Austrian treasury for the expenses of +the detention.</p> + +<p>At our last dates from <span class="smcap">Turkey</span>, the Bosnian insurrection<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_428" id="Page_428">[Pg 428]</a></span> had been +conducted with great activity, although it has probably been +suppressed by Omer Pasha. A sanguinary engagement between the Sultan's +troops and a body of fifteen thousand insurgents has taken place in +the vicinity of Jaicza, in which several hundred of the combatants on +both sides were killed or mortally wounded. The conflict terminated in +favor of the rebels.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="Recent_Deaths" id="Recent_Deaths"></a><i>Recent Deaths.</i></h2> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Captain J. D. Cunningham</span>, of the Bengal Engineers, author of the +<i>History of the Sikhs</i>, died in India on the twenty-eight of February, +in consequence, it is said, of his removal from the political agency +of Bhopaul, where his services and abilities had been highly valued. +The act of the "Company" fell with peculiar hardship upon an officer +who had passed twenty years of honorable and uninterrupted service in +every climate of India, and whose error (if any were committed by the +publication in question) was certainly not of a character demanding +censure so grave. It will be recollected that the book threw some new +light on the conduct of Lord Hardinge at Sobraon, and that the writer +was dismissed on the charge of having, "without authority," published +documents officially intrusted to his charge. The friends of Captain +Cunningham aver that he had formerly asked permission, and he +construed the reply to be an expression of indifference on the part of +the directors. It was never pretended that an unworthy motive had +influenced him, or that he had acted on any other than a desire +(however mistaken) to promote the welfare of the government to which +he was attached. It is understood that Captain Cunningham's health +broke soon after this painful misunderstanding, and that its effects +pursued him to his death. He was a son of Allan Cunningham, had +distinguished himself greatly in all his Indian employments, and had +not completed his fortieth year.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The <i>Glasgow Citizen</i> calls attention to the death of Mr. <span class="smcap">John +Henning</span>, the well-known Paisley artist, whose studies from the Elgin +marbles and cartoons after Raphad obtained so much distinction for +himself, and contributed so largely to the diffusion of a general +taste for the fine arts amongst his countrymen. Mr. Henning was a +self-taught sculptor, and devoted twelve years of his life, under +great difficulties, to the restoration of the Greek marbles brought +over by Lord Elgin. His copies of these on a reduced scale are so well +known and esteemed as to render eulogium on their merits here +unnecessary. Many busts of his contemporaries remain to testify +further to the excellence of his hand. He was one of the men whom his +native town "delighted to honor."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Padre Rozaven</span>, one of the most famous of modern Jesuits, and +distinguished by divers polemical treatises, as well as by a long +residence and religious warfare in Russia, has just died in Rome in +his eighty-second year.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Prince Wittgenstein</span>, Minister of the Royal House of Prussia, died on +the 11th April, at Berlin, at the age of eighty-one. He had been in +the service of the state fifty-six years, and had filled the post in +which he died since 1819.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Henry Bickersteth</span>, <span class="smcap">Lord Langdale</span>, late Master of the Rolls, died on +Good Friday, at Tunbridge Wells, to which place he had lately repaired +for the benefit of his health—impaired by long-continued mental +labor, resulting in a paralytic stroke, which took place shortly +before his death. He was born on the eighteenth of June, 1783, in the +county of Westmoreland, where his father was possessed of a small +property. Originally destined for the medical profession (of which his +father was a member), in which he had completed his studies, he +visited the Continent with the family of the late Earl of Oxford, by +whose advice he was induced to embark on the career of the bar. He +entered Caius College, Cambridge, where he took his degrees as senior +wrangler in 1808. Three years afterwards he was called to the bar, and +engaged at once in the duties of his profession. He rapidly rose to +great eminence in the Equity Courts, to which he confined his +practice. On the nineteenth of January, 1836, he was appointed to +succeed Lord Cottenham as Master of the Rolls, and was at the same +time called to the House of Peers. But a few months had elapsed after +his accession to the mastership of the rolls when Lord Langdale +delivered in the House of Lords his remarkable speech on the +administration of justice in the Court of Chancery, and on the +appellate jurisdiction of their lordships' house, and to the opinions +expressed in that speech, and in favor of the division of the duties +of the Great Seal, he constantly adhered. On the resignation of Lord +Cottenham last year, the Great Seal was more than once tendered to +Lord Langdale by the head of the present administration; but though he +consented to act as first commissioner, and sat for a short time in +the Lord Chancellor's court, and in the House of Lords, in that +capacity, the intense application to which the state of the Court of +Chancery had condemned him forbade a further stretch of his powers.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">General E. J. Roberts</span>, for many years conspicuous as an editor and a +politician in the state of New York, died at the age of fifty-five, a +few weeks ago, at Detroit. He formerly edited <i>The Craftsman</i>, at +Rochester, and in 1830 was editor of a journal of that title in +Albany. He removed to Michigan in 1834, and filled very important +offices in that state. He was a member of the state senate at the time +of his death.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>From Stockholm is announced the death, at the age of seventy-one, of +the distinguished botanist and geologist, <span class="smcap">M. Gorean-Wahlenberg</span>, +Professor at the University of Upsal, and director of the botanical +garden in the same institution. M. Wahlenberg is stated to have spent +thirty out of his seventy-one years in scientific journies through the +different countries of Europe; and the results of these travels he has +recorded in a variety of learned works. He left his rich collection +and numerous library to the University of Upsal; in which he was a +student,—and to which he was attached in various capacities during +upwards of forty-three years.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>We lack room for notices of the lives of Archbishop <span class="smcap">Ecleston</span>, of +Baltimore; General <span class="smcap">Brady</span>, of the United States Army; and Mr. <span class="smcap">Philip +Hone</span>, three eminent persons who have died since our last publication.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_429" id="Page_429">[Pg 429]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"> +<img src="images/i439.png" width="450" height="564" alt="" title="" /> +</div> +<h2><a name="E_E_MARCY_MD_AUTHOR_OF_THE_HOMOEOPATHIC_THEORY_AND_PRACTICE" id="E_E_MARCY_MD_AUTHOR_OF_THE_HOMOEOPATHIC_THEORY_AND_PRACTICE"></a>E. E. MARCY, M.D., AUTHOR OF THE "HOMŒOPATHIC THEORY AND PRACTICE."</h2> + + +<p>Dr. Marcy is one of the thousand or more physicians of the old school +who have become homœopathists. With professional eminence, and a +liberal fortune, he joined the converts to the doctrine of Hahnemann, +and at once took rank among the most distinguished physicians of the +new practice. Homœopathy is one of the grand facts of this age. It +is no longer laughed at, but has reached that condition which enables +it to challenge a respectful consideration from all who would not +themselves be subjects of ridicule. Of educated and thoughtful men, in +our large cities, it is contended that more than one-half are of its +supporters. In Great Britain we see that Archbishop Whately, the +Chevalier Bunsen, and Dr. Scott of Owen's College, constitute a trio +of its literary adherents. Cobden, Leslie, and Wilson, are examples of +its parliamentary partizans. Radetzky, Pulzsky, and General +Farquharson, rank among its numerous military defenders. Leaf, Sugden, +and Forbes, are three of its great London merchants. The Duke of +Hamilton, the Earls of Wilton, Shrewsbury, Erne, and Denbigh, and +Lords Robert Grosvenor, Newport, and Kinnaird, may serve for its guard +of honor. Queen Adelaide was one of its numerous royal and noble +patients, and the Duchess of Kent is the patroness of a great fair to +be held for the benefit of some of its institutions in London during +this present month of June—in the very heyday of the exhibition +season. In France, Guizot, Changarnier, Comte, Lamartine, and some +forty members of the Academy, are among its advocates. Here in +New-York, it is sufficient to say of the character of the society in +which it is received, that it includes Bryant, who has been among the +most active of its lay teachers.</p> + +<p>It is clear that homœopathy not only spreads apace, but that it +also spreads in all sorts of good directions, through the present +fabric of society. And this fact certainly conveys the idea that there +must be some sort of truth in homœopathy; whether pure or mixed, +whether negative or affirmative, whether critical of something old, or +declaratory of something new.</p> + +<p>Dr. Marcy is one of the leaders of the sect. He is the son of an +eminent lawyer, who for more than twenty years has been in the +legislature of Massachusetts; he was graduated at Amherst College, +took his degree of Doctor in Medicine at the University of +Pennsylvania, and for ten years devoted himself with great<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_430" id="Page_430">[Pg 430]</a></span> success to +medicine and surgery in Hartford: in surgery, on several occasions, +commanding the applause of both European and American academies. As a +chemist, also, he greatly distinguished himself; and it is not too +much to say, that in the application of chemistry to the arts, he has +been more fortunate than any other American. At length, while +travelling in Europe, he became a convert to the theory, <i>similia +similibus curantur</i>, and renouncing his earlier notions, gave himself +up to the study of it. He published, six months ago, in a volume of +six hundred pages, <i>The Homœopathic Theory and Practice of +Medicine</i>, of which a second edition is now in press; and he is +industriously occupied, when not attending to the general business of +his profession, with a voluminous work on <i>Animal Chemistry</i>.</p> + +<p>It is admitted by the most wise and profoundly learned physicians of +the allopathic practice, that the laws of that practice are for the +most part vague and uncertain. The cumulative experiences of many ages +have shown indeed that certain substances have certain effects in +certain conditions of the human organism; but the processes by which +these effects are induced are unknown, or not so established as justly +to be regarded as a part of science. Facts have been observed, and +hypotheses have been formed, but there has been no demonstrative +generalization, really no philosophy of disease and cure; and while in +almost every other department, investigation and reflection have led +by a steady and sure advance to the establishment of positive and +immutable principles, medicine has made, except in a few specialities, +no advance at all, unless the theory here disclosed shall prove a +solution of its secrets. Of these specialities, the most important has +been the discovery of the homœopathic law in the isolated case of +smallpox. Every body knows how difficult and slow was the reception of +the principle of inoculation—of <i>similia similibus curantur</i>—in this +disease; but it was received at last universally; and then arose +Hahnemann, to claim for every disorder of the human system the +application of the same principle. Right or wrong, the father of +homœopathy gave us a system, perfect in its parts, universal in its +fitness, and eminently beautiful in its simplicity. It has been half a +century before the world, and though all the universities have +parleyed and made truce with other innovations and asserted heresies, +and opened against this their heaviest and best plied artillery, it is +not to be denied that homœopathy has made more rapid, diffusive, +and pervading advances, than were ever before made by any doctrine of +equal importance, either in morals or physics.</p> + +<p>We cannot but admit that we have been accustomed to regard the +theories of Hahnemann with distrust, and that the principle of the +attenuation of drugs, etc., viewed as it was by us through the media +of prejudiced and satirical opposition, seemed to be trivial and +absurd. We heard frequently of remarkable cures by Hahnemann's +disciples, and even witnessed the benefits of their treatment, but so +perfectly had the sharp ridicule of the allopathists warped our +judgment and moulded our feelings, that we felt a sort of humiliation +in confessing an advantage from an "infinitesimal dose." We could +never forget the keen and brilliant wit with which our friend Holmes, +for example, assailed a system which threatened to take away his +practice and patients, deprive him of his income, and consign his +professional erudition and ingenious speculation to oblivion. But the +work of Dr. Marcy displayed these matters to us in an entirely +different light, and guarded by walls of truths and arguments quite +impenetrable by the most finely pointed or most powerful satire. His +well-known abilities, great learning, and long successful experience +as an allopathist, gave us assurance that his conversion to the school +of Hahnemann could have been induced only by inherent elements of +extraordinary force and vitality in its principles, and we looked to +him confidently, when we understood that he was preparing for the +press an exhibition and vindication of homœopathy, for such a work +as should at least screen the layman who accepted its doctrines from +the reproach of fanatical or credulous weakness. We were not +disappointed. He has given us a simple and powerful appeal to the +common sense upon the whole subject. In language terse, direct, and +perspicuous, and with such bravery as belongs to the consciousness of +a championship for truth, he displays every branch of his law, with +its antagonism, and leads his readers captive to an assenting +conclusion.</p> + +<p>Dr. Marcy's work is the first by an American on the Homœopathic +Theory and Practice of Medicine; it is at least a very able and +attractive piece of philosophical speculation; and to those who are +still disposed to think with little respect of the Hahnemannic +peculiarities, we specially commend, before they venture another jest +upon the subject, or endure any more needless nausea and torture, or +sacrifice another constitution or life upon the altar of prejudice, +the reading of his capital chapters on Allopathy, Homœopathy, and +the Attenuation of Drugs and Repetition of Doses.</p> + +<p>The London <i>Leader</i> demands attention to the scholarship of the +homœopathic physicians, to their respectability as thinkers and as +men, and to the character of their writings; and surveying the +extraordinary and steady advances of the homœopathic sect, urges +that every thing, which has at any time won for itself a broad footing +in the world, must have been possessed by some spirit of truth. Every +thoughtful person knows that no system stands fast in virtue of the +errors about it. It is the amount of truth it contains, however little +and overlaid that may be, which enables an institution or a doctrine +to keep its ground. The extent and quality of that ground, taken +together with the length of time it is kept, constitute a measure of +the quantity of truth by which a militant institute is inspired and +sustained.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_431" id="Page_431">[Pg 431]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/i441.png" width="600" height="470" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><a name="Ladies_Fashions_for_the_Season" id="Ladies_Fashions_for_the_Season"></a><i>Ladies' Fashions for the Season.</i></h2> + +<p>In Paris and London the chief novelties have been preparations for the +London season. Head-dress is particularly rich, by no means lacking +lively colors, and ornamented with gold, silver, and beads. We only +speak here of fancy head-dress; for diamonds are always very much +admired for a rare and <i>recherchée parure</i>. Never have they been so +well set as at the present day, both as regards elegance, lightness, +and convenience. Thus, each night a lady may change the disposition of +her brilliants: to-day she may form them into a band, like a diadem; +to-morrow, a row of pins for the body of her dress; another time she +can place them on a velvet necklace, and so forth.</p> + +<p>Fancy head-dresses are made of lace, blond, silk, gold, or silver. +Flowers of all kinds are also worn, and above all foliage of velvet +and satin, deep shaded, enriched with white or gold beads, and gold or +silver fruit. We have also seen a <i>coiffure</i> of gold blond, forming a +small point at the top of the head, and ornamented on each side with a +branch of green foliage and golden fruit in little flexible bunches.</p> + +<p>Ball dresses have nearly all two skirts, which are ornamented with a +profusion of flounces, trimmed with ribbons or flowers, which follow +the shade of the first or upper skirt; or they are used to raise it at +the sides, or on one side only. We have also seen a dress of white net +with two skirts, the first (the under) trimmed with two net flounces +at the extremity with two gathers through the middle, and satin +ribbon. On each of these flounces was a trimming of Brussels +application lace, with a gather of ribbon at the top, of the same +width as those of the extremity. The second skirt was trimmed at the +bottom with two gathers of ribbon, and one lace flounce with a ribbon +gathering at the top; the body was an intermixture of gathered ribbons +and lace flounces.</p> + +<p>Capotes will be more in vogue than bonnets, their style allowing +spangling, for which bonnets are not suited. We have seen capotes of +taffeta, and ribbon applied like flounces as ornaments to the crown; +these ribbons are cut into teeth or plain, but with a narrow border of +much brighter shade. We have also seen very pretty capotes covered +with net, made of very lively colored taffeta. The tops of all these +bonnets are widened more than they are high; however, they are drawn +near the bottom, and are quite closed.</p> + +<p>Dresses, it is certain, will be open in front and heart-shaped to the +bottom of the waist. Low square-fronted chemisettes suit this kind of +bodice, with breast-plates of embroidery and lace. At concerts, many +dresses are seen either with flounces or apron-shaped fronts; that is +to say, the front breadth has a much richer pattern, and different +from the other breadths of the skirt. This pattern is generally an +immense bouquet, whose branches entwine to the top, diminishing in +size; or there are two large columns of stripes, which form undulating +wreaths.</p> + +<p>Dresses of white or other ground of taffeta warped will be the fashion +this spring for walking; however, we must wait for Longchamps, at the +latter end of April, to decide the question.</p> + +<p>In the illustration on the following page is a lace cap, trimmed with +flowers without foliage;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_432" id="Page_432">[Pg 432]</a></span> African velvet dress; body with Spanish +basks or skirts cut out into teeth, trimmed with a small white lace, +having at the top a small gathering of ribbon; the body trimmed with +lace facing, edged with a gathering of ribbon; black velvet ribbon +round the neck, fastened with a diamond buckle; bracelets the same. +Bonnet of pink taffeta, very plain; and plain dress of Valencias, with +festooned teeth. Small felt bonnet, with bunch of ribbons; Nacaret +velvet dress; trowsers of cambric muslin, with embroideries; gaiters +of black cloth, and mousquetaire pardessus, trimmed with gimp or lace, +put on flat.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 290px;"> +<img src="images/i442.png" width="290" height="500" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p>Mantelets will certainly enjoy more than their usual vogue this +season, and from what we have seen of the new forms, we must own they +are very superior to any that have before appeared; the novelty of the +forms, and the taste displayed in the garnitures even of those +intended for common use, show that the progress of <i>la mode</i> is quite +as great as any other sort of progress in this most progressing age. +First, then, for the mantelets in plain walking dress; they are for +the most part composed of black taffeta; several are embroidered in +sentache, and bordered with deep flounces of taffeta; others are +trimmed with fringe of a new and very light kind, and a number, +perhaps indeed the majority, are finished with lace.</p> + +<p>The materials for robes, in plain morning neglige, are silks of a +quiet kind, and some slight woollen materials, as coutil de laine, +balzerine, striped Valencias; some in very small, others in large +stripes; corded muslins, and jaconet muslins, flowered in a variety of +patterns. We cannot yet say any thing positively respecting plain +white muslins for morning dress, but we have reason to believe they +will not be much adopted.</p> + +<p>Taffeta has resumed all its vogue for robes; it is adopted both for +public promenade, half dress, and evening robes. Some of the most +elegant mantelets are of white taffeta.</p> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The International Monthly, Volume 3, +No. 3, June, 1851, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK INTERNATIONAL MONTHLY, JUNE, 1851 *** + +***** This file should be named 36131-h.htm or 36131-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/1/3/36131/ + +Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by Cornell University Digital Collections.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +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 + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + +</pre> + +</body> +</html> diff --git a/36131-h/images/i299.png b/36131-h/images/i299.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..7569980 --- /dev/null +++ b/36131-h/images/i299.png diff --git a/36131-h/images/i300a.png b/36131-h/images/i300a.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7a3a28 --- /dev/null +++ b/36131-h/images/i300a.png diff --git a/36131-h/images/i300b.png b/36131-h/images/i300b.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2c59241 --- /dev/null +++ b/36131-h/images/i300b.png diff --git a/36131-h/images/i301.png b/36131-h/images/i301.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1b6096e --- /dev/null +++ b/36131-h/images/i301.png diff --git a/36131-h/images/i302.png b/36131-h/images/i302.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..40201ef --- /dev/null +++ b/36131-h/images/i302.png diff --git a/36131-h/images/i303.png b/36131-h/images/i303.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3a91761 --- /dev/null +++ b/36131-h/images/i303.png diff --git a/36131-h/images/i304.png b/36131-h/images/i304.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..855930d --- /dev/null +++ b/36131-h/images/i304.png diff --git a/36131-h/images/i305.png b/36131-h/images/i305.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..76a5db6 --- /dev/null +++ b/36131-h/images/i305.png diff --git a/36131-h/images/i307.png b/36131-h/images/i307.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d0ab2f4 --- /dev/null +++ b/36131-h/images/i307.png diff --git a/36131-h/images/i310.png b/36131-h/images/i310.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..313a1bd --- /dev/null +++ b/36131-h/images/i310.png diff --git a/36131-h/images/i439.png b/36131-h/images/i439.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..db6ee15 --- /dev/null +++ b/36131-h/images/i439.png diff --git a/36131-h/images/i441.png b/36131-h/images/i441.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..26bb6f3 --- /dev/null +++ b/36131-h/images/i441.png diff --git a/36131-h/images/i442.png b/36131-h/images/i442.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..7ca34f1 --- /dev/null +++ b/36131-h/images/i442.png diff --git a/36131.txt b/36131.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6387df0 --- /dev/null +++ b/36131.txt @@ -0,0 +1,15168 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The International Monthly, Volume 3, No. 3, +June, 1851, 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: The International Monthly, Volume 3, No. 3, June, 1851 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: May 17, 2011 [EBook #36131] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK INTERNATIONAL MONTHLY, JUNE, 1851 *** + + + + +Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by Cornell University Digital Collections.) + + + + + + + + +THE INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE + +Of Literature, Art, and Science. + +Vol. III. NEW-YORK, JUNE 1, 1851. No. III. + + + + +HENRY WILLIAM HERBERT, "FRANK FORESTER." + +[Illustration] + + +We doubt whether the wood-engravers of this country have ever produced +a finer portrait than the above of the author of "The Brothers," +"Cromwell," "Marmaduke Wyvil," "The Roman Traitor," "The Warwick +Woodlands," "Field Sports," "Fish and Fishing," &c., &c. It is from +one of the most successful daguerreotypes of Brady. + +HENRY WILLIAM HERBERT is the eldest son of the late Hon. and Rev. +William Herbert, Dean of Manchester, and of the Hon. Letitia Allen. +His father was the second son of the second Earl of Carnarvon, who was +of the nearest younger branch of the house of Pembroke. He was a +member of Parliament in the earlier part of his life, and being a +lawyer in Doctors' Commons was largely employed on the part of +American shipmasters previous to the war of 1812. At a later period he +took orders, became Dean of Manchester, was distinguished as a +botanist, and as the author of many eminent works, especially +"Attila," an epic poem of great power and learning. He died about +three years ago. His mother was the second daughter of Joshua, second +Viscount Allen, of Kildare, Ireland,--closely connected with the house +of Leinster. + +Mr. Herbert was born in London on the seventh of April, 1807; he was +educated at home under a private tutor till 1819, and then sent to a +private school near Brighton, kept by the Rev. Dr. Hooker, at which he +remained one year he was then transferred to Eton, and was at that +school from April, 1820, till the summer of 1825, when he left for the +university, and entered Caius College, Cambridge, in October. Here he +obtained two scholarships and several prizes,--though not a +hard-reading man, and spending much of his time in field sports--and +he graduated in the winter of 1829-30, with a distinguished reputation +for talents and scholarship. In November, 1831, he sailed from +Liverpool for New York, and for the last twenty years he has resided +nearly all the time in this city and at his place near Newark in New +Jersey, called the Cedars. + +[Illustration] + +In 1832, in connection with the late A. D. Patterson, he started _The +American Monthly Magazine_, nearly one half the matter of which was +composed by him. After the first year Mr. Patterson retired from it, +and during twelve months it was conducted by Mr. Herbert alone. On the +conclusion of the second year it was sold to Charles F. Hoffman, Mr. +Herbert continuing to act as a joint editor. At the commencement of +the fourth year Park Benjamin being associated in the editorship, it +was contemplated to introduce party politics into the work, and Mr. +Herbert in consequence declined further connection with it. + +[Illustration] + +By this time Mr. Herbert had made a brilliant reputation as a scholar +and as an author. In the _American Monthly_ he had printed the first +chapters of _The Brothers, a Tale of the Fronde_, and the entire novel +was published by the Harpers in 1834, and so well received that the +whole edition was sold in a few weeks. In 1836 and 1837 he edited _The +Magnolia_, the first annual ever printed in America on the system of +entire originality both of the literary matter, and of the +embellishments, which were all executed by American engravers from +American designs. A considerable portion of the matter for both years +was furnished by Mr. Herbert. In 1837 the Harpers published his second +novel, _Cromwell_, which did not sell so rapidly as _The Brothers_, +though generally praised by the reviewers. It 1840 it was reprinted by +Colburn in London, and was eminently successful. In 1843 he published +in New-York and London his third novel, _Marmaduke Wyvil, or the +Maid's Revenge_, a story of the English civil wars, and in 1848 the +most splendid of his romances, _The Roman Traitor_, founded on the +history of Cataline, a work which must be classed with the most +remarkable of those specimens of literary art in which it has been +attempted to illustrate classical scenes, characters, and manners. + +In romantic fiction, besides the above works, Mr. Herbert has written +for the magazines of this country and Great Britain tales and sketches +sufficient to make twenty to thirty stout volumes. The subjects of his +best performances have been drawn from the middle ages and from +southern Europe, and they display besides very eminent capacities for +the historical novel, and a familiarity with the institutions of +chivalry and with contemporary manners hardly equaled in any writer of +the English language. + +In 1839 Mr. Herbert commenced in the New-York _Turf Register_ a series +of papers, under the signature of "Frank Forester," from which have +grown _My Shooting Box, The Warwick Woodlands, Field Sports of the +United States and British Provinces_, and _Fish and Fishing in the +United States and British Provinces_--works which by the general +consent of the sporting world are second to none in their department, +in any of the qualities which should distinguish this sort of writing. +The principal distinction between these and all other sporting works +lies in this, that such works in general treat only of game in the +field and flood, and the modes of killing it, while these are in great +part natural histories, containing minute and carefully digested +accounts of every specie of game, beast, bird, and fish, compiled from +Audubon, Wilson, Giraud, Godman, Agassiz, De Kay, and other +authorities, besides long disquisitions into their habits, times of +migration, breeding, &c., from the personal observation and experience +of the author. Any person is at once enabled by them to distinguish +between any two even closely allied species, and to adopt the proper +nomenclature, with a knowledge of the reason for it. The sporting +precepts are admitted, throughout the western country especially, to +be superior to all others, as well as the papers relating to the +breaking and the kennel and field management of dogs, &c. The same may +be said of what he has written of guns and gunnery. Mr. Herbert has +hunted, shot, and fished during the last twenty years in every state +of the Union, from Maine to Maryland, south of the great lakes, and +from below Quebec to the Sault St. Marie northward of them. Not having +visited the southern or south western states, the accounts of sporting +in those regions are collected from the writings or oral +communications of their best sportsmen, and on these points much +valuable new information, especially as to the prairie shooting and +the sports of the Rocky Mountains, will be contained in the new +edition of the _Field Sports_ to appear in the coming autumn. + +Besides his contributions to romantic and sporting literature, Mr. +Herbert has written largely in criticism, he has done much as a poet, +and his capacities in classical scholarship have been illustrated by +some of the finest examples of Greek and Latin translation that have +appeared in our time. In the aggregate his works would now make +scarcely less than fifty octavo volumes. + +As we have intimated, the portrait at the beginning of this article is +remarkably good. Mr. Herbert is about five feet ten high, of athletic +habits, and an untiring and fast walker; fond, of course, of all field +sports, especially horsemanship and shooting, and priding himself upon +killing as much if not more game than any other gentleman in the +country out of New-York. + +[Illustration] + + + + +TRENTON FALLS + +[Illustration] + + +In a story called _Edith Linsey_, written by Mr. WILLIS, soon after he +left college, occurs the following description of Trenton Falls: + + "Trenton Falls is rather a misnomer. I scarcely know what + you would call it, but the wonder of nature which bears the + name is a tremendous torrent, whose bed, for several miles, + is sunk fathoms deep into the earth--a roaring and dashing + stream, so far below the surface of the forest in which it + is lost, that you would think, as you come suddenly upon the + edge of its long precipice, that it was a river in some + inner world (coiled within ours, as we in the outer circle + of the firmament,) and laid open by some Titanic throe that + had cracked clear asunder the crust of this 'shallow earth.' + The idea is rather assisted if you happen to see below you, + on its abysmal shore, a party of adventurous travellers; + for, at that vast depth, and in contrast with the gigantic + trees and rocks, the same number of well-shaped pismires, + dressed in the last fashions, and philandering upon your + parlor floor, would be about of their apparent size and + distinctness. + + "They showed me at Eleusis the well by which Proserpine + ascends to the regions of day on her annual visit to the + plains of Thessaly--but with the _genius loci_ at my elbow + in the shape of a Greek girl as lovely as Phryne, my memory + reverted to the bared axle of the earth in the bed of this + American river, and I was persuaded (looking the while at + the _feroniere_ of gold sequins on the Phidian forehead of + my Katinka) that supposing Hades in the centre of the earth, + you are nearer to it by some fathoms at Trenton. I confess I + have had, since my first descent into those depths, an + uncomfortable doubt of the solidity of the globe--how the + deuse it can hold together with such a crack in its bottom! + + "It was a night to play Endymion, or do any Tomfoolery that + could be laid to the charge of the moon, for a more + omnipresent and radiant atmosphere of moonlight never + sprinkled the wilderness with silver. It was a night in + which to wish it might never be day again--a night to be + enamored of the stars, and bid God bless them like human + creatures on their bright journey--a night to love in, to + dissolve in--to do every thing but what night is made + for--sleep! Oh heaven! when I think how precious is life in + such moments; how the aroma--the celestial bloom and flower + of the soul--the yearning and fast-perishing enthusiasm of + youth--waste themselves in the solitude of such nights on + the senseless and unanswering air; when I wander alone, + unloving and unloved, beneath influences that could inspire + me with the elevation of a seraph, were I at the ear of a + human creature that could summon forth and measure my + limitless capacity of devotion--when I think this, and feel + this, and so waste my existence in vain yearnings--I could + extinguish the divine spark within me like a lamp on an + unvisited shrine, and thank Heaven for an assimilation to + the animals I walk among! And that is the substance of a + speech I made to Job as a sequitur of a well-meant remark of + his own, that 'it was a pity Edith Linsey was not there.' He + took the clause about the 'animals' to himself, and I made + an apology for the same a year after. We sometimes give our + friends, quite innocently, such terrible knocks in our + rhapsodies! + + "Most people talk of the _sublimity_ of Trenton, but I have + haunted it by the week together for its mere loveliness. The + river, in the heart of that fearful chasm, is the most + varied and beautiful assemblage of the thousand forms and + shapes of running water that I know in the world. The soil + and the deep-striking roots of the forest terminate far + above you, looking like a black rim on the inclosing + precipices; the bed of the river and its sky-sustaining + walls are of solid rock, and, with the tremendous descent of + the stream--forming for miles one continuous succession of + falls and rapids--the channel is worn into curves and + cavities which throw the clear waters into forms of + inconceivable brilliancy and variety. It is a sort of half + twilight below, with here and there a long beam of sunshine + reaching down to kiss the lip of an eddy or form a rainbow + over a fall, and the reverberating and changing echoes:-- + + "Like a ring of bells whose sound the wind still alters," + + maintain a constant and most soothing music, varying at + every step with the varying phase of the current. Cascades + of from twenty to thirty feet, over which the river flies + with a single and hurrying leap (not a drop missing from the + glassy and bending sheet), occur frequently as you ascend; + and it is from these that the place takes its name. But the + falls, though beautiful, are only peculiar from the dazzling + and unequaled rapidity with which the waters come to the + leap. If it were not for the leaf which drops wavering down + into the abysm from trees apparently painted on the sky, and + which is caught away by the flashing current as if the + lightning had suddenly crossed it, you would think the vault + of the steadfast heavens a flying element as soon. The spot + in that long gulf of beauty that I best remember is a smooth + descent of some hundred yards, where the river in full and + undivided volume skims over a plane as polished as a table + of scagliola, looking, in its invisible speed, like one + mirror of gleaming but motionless crystal. Just above, there + is a sudden turn in the glen which sends the water like a + catapult against the opposite angle of the rock, and, in the + action of years, it has worn out a cavern of unknown depth, + into which the whole mass of the river plunges with the + abandonment of a flying fiend into hell, and, reappearing + like the angel that has pursued him, glides swiftly but with + divine serenity on its way. (I am indebted for that last + figure to Job, who travelled with a Milton in his pocket, + and had a natural redolence of 'Paradise Lost' in his + conversation.) + + "Much as I detest water in small quantities (to drink), I + have a hydromania in the way of lakes, rivers, and + waterfalls. It is, by much, the _belle_ in the family of the + elements. _Earth_ is never tolerable unless disguised in + green. _Air_ is so thin as only to be visible when she + borrows drapery of water; and _Fire_ is so staringly bright + as to be unpleasant to the eyesight; but water! soft, pure, + graceful water! there is no shape into which you can throw + her that she does not seem lovelier than before. She can + borrow nothing of her sisters. Earth has no jewels in her + lap so brilliant as her own spray pearls and emeralds; Fire + has no rubies like what she steals from the sunset; Air has + no robes like the grace of her fine-woven and ever-changing + drapery of silver. A health (in wine!) to WATER! + +[Illustration] + + "Who is there that did not love some stream in his youth? + Who is there in whose vision of the past there does not + sparkle up, from every picture of childhood, a spring or a + rivulent woven through the darkened and torn woof of first + affections like a thread of unchanged silver? How do you + interpret the instinctive yearning with which you search for + the river-side or the fountain in every scene of nature--the + clinging unaware to the river's course when a truant in the + fields in June--the dull void you find in every landscape of + which it is not the ornament and the centre? For myself, I + hold with the Greek: "Water is the first principle of all + things: we were made from it and we shall be resolved into + it."" + +[Illustration] + +Of subsequent visits to this loveliest of spots, years after, Mr. +Willis has given descriptions in letters addressed to General Morris +for publication in the _Home Journal_, and we are soon to have from +Putnam in a beautiful volume all that he has written on the subject, +together with notices of the manner in which he enjoyed himself at Mr. +Moore's delightful hotel at the Falls, which is represented as +farthest of all summer resorts from the turmoil of the world and +nearest of all to the gates of Paradise. We borrow from these letters +a few characteristic and tempting paragraphs: + + "I was here twenty years ago, but the fairest things slip + easiest out of the memory, and I had half forgotten Trenton. + To tell the truth, I was a little ashamed, to compare the + faded and shabby picture of it in my mind with the reality + before me, and if the waters of the Falls had been, by any + likelihood, the same that flowed over when I was here + before, I should have looked them in the face, I think, with + something of the embarrassment with which one meets, + half-rememberingly, after years of separation, the ladies + one has vowed to love for ever. + + "The peculiarity of Trenton Falls, I fancy, consists a good + deal in the space in which you are compelled to see them. + You walk a few steps from the hotel through the wood, and + come to a descending staircase of a hundred steps, the + different bends of which are so over-grown with wild + shrubbery, that you cannot see the ravine till you are + fairly down upon its rocky floor. Your path hence, up to the + first Fall, is along a ledge cut out of the base of the + cliff that overhangs the torrent, and when you go to the + foot of the descending sheet, you find yourself in very + close quarters with a cataract--rocky walls all round + you--and the appreciation of power and magnitude, perhaps, + somewhat heightened by the confinement of the place--as a + man would have a much more realizing sense of a live lion, + shut up with him in a basement parlor, than he would of the + same object, seen from an elevated and distant point of + view. + + "The usual walk (through this deep cave open at the top) is + about half a mile in length, and its almost subterranean + river, in that distance, plunges over four precipices in + exceedingly beautiful cascades. On the successive rocky + terraces between the falls, the torrent takes every variety + of rapids and whirlpools, and, perhaps, in all the scenery + of the world, there is no river, which, in the same space, + presents so many of the various shapes and beauties of + running and falling water. The Indian name of the stream + (the Kanata, which means the _amber river_) expresses one of + its peculiarities, and, probably from the depth of shade + cast by the two dark and overhanging walls 'twixt which it + flows, the water is everywhere of a peculiarly rich lustre + and color, and, in the edges of one or two of the cascades, + as yellow as gold. Artists, in drawing this river, fail, + somehow, in giving the impression of _deep-down-itude_ which + is produced by the close approach of the two lofty walls of + rock, capped by the overleaning woods, and with the sky + apparently resting, like a ceiling, upon the leafy + architraves.... If there were truly, as the poets say + figuratively, "worlds _within_ worlds," this would look as + if an earthquake had cracked open the outer globe, and + exposed, through the yawning fissure, one of the rivers of + the globe below--the usual underground level of "down among + the dead men," being, as you walk upon its banks, between + you and the daylight. + + "Considering the amount of surprise and pleasure which one + feels in a walk up the ravine at Trenton, it is remarkable + how little one finds to say about it, the day after. Is it + that mere scenery, without history, is enjoyable without + being suggestive, or, amid the tumult of the rushing torrent + at one's feet, is the milk of thought too much agitated for + the cream to rise? I fancied yesterday, as I rested on the + softest rock I could find at the upper end of the ravine, + that I should tumble you out a letter to-day, with ideas + pitching forth like saw-logs over a waterfall; but my memory + has nothing in it to-day but the rocks and rapids it took + in--the talent wrapped in its napkin of delight remaining in + unimproved _statu-quo_-sity. One certainly gets the + impression, while the sight and hearing are so overwhelmed, + that one's mind is famously at work, and that we shall hear + from it to-morrow; but it is Jean Paul, I think, who says + that 'the mill makes the most noise when there is no grist + in the hopper.' + + "We have had the full of the moon and a cloudless sky for + the last two or three nights, and of course we have walked + the ravine till the 'small hours,' seeing with wonder the + transforming effects of moonlight and its black shadows on + the falls and precipices. I have no idea (you will be glad + to know) of trying to reproduce these sublimities on + paper--at least not with my travelling stock of verbs and + adjectives. To 'sandwich the moon in a muffin,' one must + have time and a ladder of dictionaries. But one or two + effects struck me which perhaps are worth briefly naming, + and I will throw into the lot a poetical figure, which you + may use in your next song.... + + "The fourth Fall, (or the one that is flanked by the ruins + of a saw-mill) is, perhaps, a hundred feet across; and its + curve over the upper rock and its break upon the lower one, + form two parallel lines, the water everywhere falling the + same distance with the evenness of an artificial cascade. + The stream not being very full, just now, it came over, in + twenty or thirty places, thicker than elsewhere; and the + effect, from a distance, as the moonlight lay full upon it, + was that of twenty or thirty immovable marble columns + connected by transparent curtains of falling lace, and with + bases in imitation of foam. Now it struck me that this might + suggest a new and fanciful order of architecture, suitable + at least to the structure of green-houses, the glass roofs + of which are curved over and slope to the ground with very + much the contour of a waterfall.... + + "Subterranean as this foaming river looks by day, it looks + like a river in cloud-land by night. The side of the ravine + which is in shadow, is one undistinguishable mass of black, + with its wavy upper edge in strong relief against the sky, + and, as the foaming stream catches the light from the + opposite and moonlit side, it is outlined distinctly on its + bed of darkness, and seems winding its way between hills of + clouds, half black, half luminous. Below, where all is deep + shadow except the river, you might fancy it a silver mine + laid open to your view amid subterranean darkness by the + wand of an enchanter, or (if you prefer a military trope, my + dear General), a long white plume laid lengthwise between + the ridges of a cocked hat." + +[Illustration] + + + + +NEW PROOF OF THE EARTH'S ROTATION. + + +"The earth does move, notwithstanding," whispered Galileo, leaving the +dungeon of the Inquisition: by which he meant his friends to +understand, that if the earth did move, the fact would remain so in +spite of his punishment. But a less orthodox assembly than the +conclave of Cardinals might have been staggered by the novelty of the +new philosophy. According to Laplace, the apparent diurnal phenomena +of the heavens would be the same either from the revolution of the sun +or the earth; and more than one reason made strongly in favor of the +prevalent opinion that the earth, not the sun, was stationary. First, +it was most agreeable to the impression of the senses; and next, to +disbelieve in the fixity of the solid globe, was not only to eject +from its pride of place our little planet, but to disturb the +long-cherished sentiment that we ourselves are the centre--the be-all +and end-all of the universe. However, the truth will out; and this is +its great distinction from error, that while every new discovery adds +to its strength, falsehood is weakened and at last driven from the +field. That the earth revolves round the sun, and rotates on its polar +axis, have long been the settled canons of our system. But the +rotation of the earth has been rendered _visible_ by a practical +demonstration, which has drawn much attention in Paris and London, and +is beginning to excite interest in this country. The inventor is M. +Foucault; and the following description has been given of the mode of +proof: + + "At the centre of the dome of the Pantheon a fine wire is + attached, from which a sphere of metal, four or five inches + in diameter, is suspended so as to hang near the floor of + the building. This apparatus is put in vibration after the + manner of a pendulum. Under and concentrical with it is + placed a circular table, some twenty feet in diameter, the + circumference of which is divided into degrees, minutes, + &c., and the divisions numbered. Now, supposing the earth to + have the diurnal motion imputed to it, and which explains + the phenomena of day and night, the plane in which this + pendulum vibrates will not be affected by this motion, but + the table, over which the pendulum is suspended, will + continually change its position, in virtue of the diurnal + motion, so as to make a complete revolution round its + centre. Since, then, the table thus revolves, and the + pendulum which vibrates over it does not revolve, the + consequence is, that a line traced upon the table by a point + projecting from the bottom of the ball will change its + direction relatively to the table from minute to minute and + from hour to hour, so that if such point were a pencil, and + that paper were spread upon the table, the course formed by + this pencil would form a system of lines radiating from the + centre of the table. The practised eye of a correct + observer, especially if aided by a proper optical + instrument, may actually see the motion which the table has + in common with the earth, under the pendulum between two + successive vibrations. It is, in fact, apparent that the + ball, or rather the point attached to the bottom of the + ball, does not return precisely to the same point of the + circumference of the table after two successive vibrations. + Thus is rendered visible the motion which the table has in + common with the earth." + +Crowds are said to flock daily to the Pantheon to witness this +interesting experiment. It has been successfully repeated by Professor +Ansted at the Russell Institution, in London, in a manner similar to +the experiment at the Pantheon at Paris. The wire, which suspended a +weight of twenty-eight pounds, was of the size of the middle C-string +of a piano. It was thirty feet long, and vibrated over a graduated +table fixed to the floor. The rotation of the table, implying that of +the earth on which it rested, was visible in about five minutes, and +the wonderful spectacle was presented of the rotation of the room +round the pendulum. The experiment excited the astonishment of every +beholder, and many eminent scientific gentlemen who were present +expressed their great delight in witnessing a phenomenon which they +considered the most satisfactory they had witnessed in the whole +course of their lives. + +Although nothing, to minds capable of comprehending it, can add to the +force or clearness of the demonstration by which the rotation of the +earth has been established, yet even the natural philosopher himself +cannot regard the present experiment without feelings of profound +interest and satisfaction; and to the great mass, to whom the +complicated physical phenomena by which the rotation of the earth has +been established are incomprehensible, M. Foucault's very ingenious +illustration is invaluable. + +A correspondent of the Newark _Daily Advertiser_ appears to have +anticipated the experiment of M. Foucault, suspending a fifty-six +pound weight by a small wire from the rafters of a barn. But however +simple and conclusive the illustration, it should be attempted only by +scientific men. Professor Sylvester, writing to the _Times_, of +experiments made in London, says: + + "The experiments connected with the practical demonstration + of the phenomenon require to be conducted with great care; + and some discredit has been brought upon attempts to + illustrate it in England by persons who have not taken the + necessary precautions to protect the motion from the + excentric deviation to which it is liable, and which may, + and indeed must, have the effect of causing, in some cases, + an apparent failure, and in others a still more unfortunate, + because fallacious, success. I believe, from the character + of the persons connected with the experiments, that the true + phenomenon has been accurately produced and observed in + Paris. I doubt whether as much can be said, with entire + confidence, of any of the experiments hitherto performed + here in London. + + "Any want of symmetry in the arrangements for the suspension + of the wire, or in the centering of the weight, exposure to + currents of air, or the tremulous motion occasioned by the + passage of vehicles, may operate to cause a phenomenon to + be brought about curious enough in itself, as a result of + mathematical laws, but quite different from that supposed. + The phenomenon of the progression of the apsides of an oval + orbit, which is here alluded to, is familiar to all students + in mechanics. + + "It is perfectly absurd for persons unacquainted with + mechanical and geometrical science to presume to make the + experiment. Indeed, such efforts deserve rather the name of + conjuring than of experiment; but in this, as in many other + matters of life, it is true that "fools rush in where angels + fear to tread." Perhaps the too hasty rush at the + experimental verification of Foucault's law may account for + some persons in England, whose opinions when given with due + deliberation are entitled to respect, having allowed + themselves to express doubts (which I understand, however, + have been since retracted) as to the truth of the law + itself. In Paris there was no difference of opinion among + such men as Lame, Poinsol, Binet, Leonville, Sturm, Chasles, + Bruvues, I believe Arago, Hermite, and many others with whom + I conversed on the subject, except as to the best mode of + making the theory popularly intelligible." + +Explanations will be necessary from lecturers and others who give +imitations of M. Foucault's ingenuity to render it intelligible to +those unacquainted with mathematics, or with the laws of gravity and +spherical motion. For instance, it will not be readily understood by +every one why the pendulum should vibrate in the same plane, and not +partake of the earth's rotation in common with the table; but this +could be _shown_ with a bullet suspended by a silkworm's thread. Next, +the apparent horizontal revolution of the table round its centre will +be incomprehensible to many, as representative of its own and the +earth's motion round its axis. + +Doubtless we shall soon have public exhibitions of the demonstration +in all our cities. + +The pendulum is indeed an extraordinary instrument, and has been a +useful handmaid to science. We are familiar with it as the +time-regulator of our clocks, and the ease with which they may be made +to go faster or slower by adjusting its length. But neither this nor +the Pantheon elucidation constitutes its sole application. By it the +latitude may be approximately ascertained, the density of the earth's +strata in different places, and its elliptical eccentricity of figure. +The noble Florentine already quoted was its inventor; and it is +related of Galileo, while a boy, that he was the first to observe how +the height of the vaulted roof of a church might be measured by the +times of the vibration of the chandeliers suspended at different +altitudes. Were the earth perforated from London to our antipodes, and +the air exhausted, a ball dropped through would at the centre acquire +a velocity sufficient to carry it to the opposite side, whence it +would again descend, and so oscillate forward and backwards from one +side of the globe's surface to the other in the manner of a pendulum. +Very likely, the Cardinals of the Vatican would deem this heresy, or +"flat blasphemy." + +[Illustration] + + + + +THE BUTCHERS' LEAP AT MUNICH. + + +A correspondent of the London _Athenaeum_, writing from Munich, gives +the following account of the festival of the Butchers' Leap in the +Fountain: "This strange ceremonial, like the _Schaeffler Tanz_, is said +to have its origin in the time of the plague. While the Coopers danced +with garlands and music through the streets, the Butchers sprang into +the fountain in the market-place, to show their fellow-citizens that +its water was no longer to be dreaded as poisoned. Perhaps they were +the Sanitary Commissioners of those days; and by bathing themselves in +the water and dashing it about on the crowd would teach the true means +of putting pestilence to flight. + + "Though the Coopers' Dance takes place only once in seven + years, the Butchers' Leap occurs annually, and always on + _Fasching Montag_,--the Monday before Shrove Tuesday. I + believe the ceremony is of great importance to the trade of + the Butchers; as certain privileges granted to them are + annually renewed at this time, and in connection with the + Leap. These two ceremonies--of the Coopers' Dance and the + Butchers' Leap--are now almost the last remains of the + picturesque and quaint customs of old Munich. + + "The Butchers commence proceedings by attending High Mass in + St. Peter's Church,--close to the Schrannien Platz, or + market-place, in which the fountain is situated. It is a + desolate-looking church, this St. Peter's, as seen from + without,--old, decaying, and ugly; within, tawdry + and--though not desolate and decaying--ugly. From staringly + white walls frown down on the spectator torture-pictures, + alternating with huge gilt images of sentimental saints in + clumsy drapery. The altars are masses of golden clouds and + golden cherubs. + + "Music, as from the orchestra of a theatre rather than from + the choir of a church, greeted us as we entered. The + Butchers were just passing out. We caught glimpses of + scarlet coats; and saw two huge silver flagons, covered with + a very panoply of gold and silver medals, borne aloft by + pompous officials clothed in scarlet. Having watched the + procession--some half-dozen tiny butchers' sons, urchins of + five and six years old, with rosy, round faces and chubby + hands, mounted on stalwart horses and dressed in little + scarlet coats, top-boots, and jaunty green velvet + hats--seven butchers' apprentices, the Leapers of the day, + also dressed in scarlet and mounted on horseback--the + musicians,--the long train of master-butchers and journeymen + in long dark cloaks and with huge nosegays in their + hats--and the scarlet officials bearing the decorated + flagons,--having watched, I say, all these good folk wend + their way in long procession up the narrow street leading + from the church, and seen them cross the market-place in the + direction of the Palace, where they are awaited by the + King,--let us look around, and notice the features of the + market-place:--for it is, in fact, a quaint old bit of the + city, and well worth a glimpse. + + "If I love the Ludwig Strasse as the most beautiful portion + of the new Munich, I almost equally love the Schrannien + Platz as about the quaintest part of old Munich. It is long + and narrow as a market-place, but wide as a street. The + houses are old; many of them very handsome, and rich with + ornamental stucco-work,-- + + 'All garlanded with carven imageries + Of fruit and flowers and bunches of knot-grass.' + + The roofs are steep, red tiled, and perforated with rows of + little pent-house windows. The fronts of the houses are of + all imaginable pale tints,--stone colors, pinks, greens, + greys, and tawnies. Three of the four corners of the + market-place are adorned with tall pepper-box towers, with + domed roofs and innumerable narrow windows. At one end is + the fountain; and in the centre a heavy, but quaint + shrine,--a column supporting a gilt figure of the Madonna. + The eye wanders down various picturesque streets which open + into the market-place; and on one hand, above steep roofs, + gaze down the two striking red-brick towers of the _Frauen + Kirche_--the cathedral of Munich:--those two red towers + which are seen in all views of this city, and which belong + as much to Munich as the dome of St. Paul's does to the city + of London,--those towers which in the haze of sunset are + frequently transformed into violet-tinted columns, or about + which in autumn and winter mists cling with a strange + dreariness as if they were desolate mountain peaks! + + "But the quaintest feature of all in the Schrannien Platz is + a sort of arcade which runs around it. Here, beneath the low + and massy arches, are crowded thick upon each other a host + of small shops. What queer, dark little cells they are,--yet + how picturesque! Here is a dealer in crucifixes,--next to + him a woollen-draper, displaying bright striped woollen + goods for the peasants,--then a general dealer, with heaps + and bundles and tubs and chests containing every thing most + heterogeneous,--and next to him a dealer in pipes. There are + bustle and gloom always beneath these heavy low arches,--but + they present a glorious bit of picturesque life. There are + queer wooden booths, too, along one portion of the + Schrannien Platz where it rather narrows, losing its + character of market-place, and descending to that of an + ordinary street. But the booths do not degenerate in their + picturesque character. The earthenware booths--of which + there are several--are truly delicious. Such rows and piles + of dark green, orange, ruddy chocolate-brown, sea-green, + pale yellow, and deep blue and grey vessels of all forms and + sizes--all quaint, all odd--jugs, flagons, pipkins, queer + pots with huge lids, queer tripods for which I know no + name--things which always seem to me to come out of a + witch's kitchen, but by means of which I suspect that my own + dinner is cooked every day. All these heaps of crockery lie + about the doors, and load the windows of the wooden booths, + and line shelves and shelves within the gloom of the little + shops themselves. When I first came here these old crockery + shops were a more frequent study to me than any thing else + in the old town. + + "We ascended a steep, narrow staircase leading out of this + arcade into one of the houses above it, from which we were + to witness the leaping into the fountain. I looked out of + the window on the crowd that began to collect around the + fountain, and noticed the tall roofs and handsome fronts of + the houses opposite, and the crowd of pigeons--scores and + scores of pigeons--assembled just opposite the fountain on + the edge of the steep roof which rose like a red hill-side + behind them. They seemed solemnly met to witness the great + festivities about to be celebrated, and sat in silent + expectation brooding in the sunshine. Then, I wondered what + attraction the icy water could have for the children who + leaned over the fountain's side--dabbling in the water as + though it had been midsummer. The crowd increased and + increased; and seven new white buckets were brought and + placed on a broad plank which extended across one side of + the fountain basin. + + "A shout from the crowd announced the arrival of the + Butchers. First of all came the tender Butcher-infants, in + scarlet coats, top-boots, and green velvet hats, borne in + the arms of their fathers through the crowd in order that + they might witness the fun. Then followed the scarlet + officials:--and then came seven of the queerest beasts man + ever set eyes on. What were they, if human? Were they seven + Esquimaux chiefs, or seven African mumbo-jumbos? They were + the heroes of the day--the seven Butcher-apprentices, + clothed in fur caps and garments--covered from shoulder to + heel with hundreds of dangling calves' tails--red, white, + black, dun! + + "You may imagine the shouts that greeted them,--the peels of + laughter. Up they sprang on the broad plank,--leaping, + dancing, making their tails fly round like trundled mops. + The crowd roared with laughter. A stately scarlet + official--a butcher (_Altgesell_)--stands beside them on the + plank. Ten times they drink the health of the royal family + and prosperity to the butchers' craft. The _Altgesell_ then + striking many blows on the shoulder of the nearest + apprentice, frees him and all the remaining six from their + indentures. They are henceforth full-grown butchers. Then, + they plunge into the very centre of the fountain with a + tremendous splash. The crowd shout,--the startled pigeons + wheel in wild alarm above the heads and laughter of the + crowd. The seven Tritons dash torrents of water on the + multitude,--who fly shrieking and laughing before the + deluge. The seven buckets are plied with untiring + arms;--lads are enticed within aim by showers of nuts flung + by the 'Leapers,' and then are drenched to the skin. It is a + bewilderment of water, flying calves' tails, pelting nuts, + and shrieking urchins. + + "The 'Leapers' then ascend out of their bath,--shake + themselves like shaggy dogs,--have white cloths pinned round + their necks as though they were going to be shaved,--and + have very grand medals hung round their necks suspended by + gaudy ribbons. + + "The procession retires across the market-place to its + '_Herberge_,' and the crowd disperses,--but disperses only + to re-assemble in various public-houses for the merriment of + the afternoon and night. That night and the next day are + 'the maddest, merriest of all the year.' Music is every + where--dancing every where. It is the end of the Carnival. + Ash Wednesday comes,--and then, all is gloom." + + + + +NEGLECT OF THE PRESERVATION OF EGYPTIAN ANTIQUITIES. + + +A writer in the London _Athenaeum_, writing from Alexandria, endeavors +to convince those who profess an interest in Egyptian antiquities, +that if their present neglect continues, nothing will remain of the +stupendous relics now lying over the land, but a quantity of +pulverized fragments. The colossal statue at Memphis, said to belong +to the British Museum, for years depended on the precarious protection +of an old Arab woman, who was continually expecting and claiming a +small salary of five or six pounds per annum as guardian. She received +about so much from a variety of consuls, for a time, but the payment +was at last discontinued, and, from what was told her, she based her +hopes on the learned or the powerful in England. "But the learned and +the powerful never, I suppose," says the writer, "heard of her, and +she died, leaving the statue in charge of her son, who, in his turn, +seems to live in hope. There is little prospect of his getting any +thing, however; and very probably, in spite of his unrewarded zeal, +the magnificent statue--by far the finest in Egypt--will ere long be +burnt for lime. The neighboring pyramid of Dashour is being, as I have +already said, worked as a quarry, and I shall be very much surprised +if this handy block of stone escape notice." He suggests the formation +of a committee, consisting of the principal consuls and residents in +Egypt, to watch over the preservation of the monuments of the country, +and to be supplied, by governments or by the voluntary contributions +of the learned, with the funds necessary to pay guardians and +inspectors. + +A very valuable museum of Egyptian antiquities we believe is now on +the way to the United States; but it embraces no such great works as +have been transported to Rome and Paris. Is it not worth while for the +New-York merchants to set up in Union or Washington Square, the great +statue of Memphis? + +Or it would not be altogether inappropriate for the Smithsonian +Institution to have it imported into Washington. How much the +diffusion of "knowledge" would be promoted by such a movement it is +not easy to say: but a figure of this kind on Capitol Hill would have +such an effect on our eloquence! and our juvenile poets could go there +and in its shade invoke the presence of twenty centuries. + + + + +HENRY ROWE SCHOOLCRAFT. + +[Illustration] + + +Mr. Schoolcraft is of English descent by the paternal side, his +great-grandfather having come from England during the wars of Queen +Anne, and settled in what is now Schoharie county in New-York, where +in old age he taught the first English school in that part of the +country, from which circumstance his name was not unnaturally changed +by the usage of the people from Calcraft to Schoolcraft. Our author +recently attempted in his own person to revive the old family name, +but soon abandoned it, and concluded to retain that which was begotten +upon his native soil, and by which he has long been so honorably +distinguished. He is a son of Colonel Lawrence Schoolcraft, who joined +the revolutionary army at seventeen years of age, and participated in +the movements under Montgomery and Schuyler, and the memorable defence +of Fort Stanwix under Gansevoort. He was born in Guilderland, near +Albany, on the twenty-eighth of March, 1793. In a secluded part of the +country, where there were few advantages for education, and scarce any +persons who thought of literature, he had an ardent love of knowledge, +and sat at home with his books and pencils while his equals in age +were at cock-fights and horse-races, for which Guilderland was then +famous. He is still remembered by some of the octogenarians of the +village as the "learned boy." At thirteen he drew subjects in natural +history, and landscapes, which attracted the attention of the late +Lieutenant-Governor Van Rensselaer, then a frequent visitor of his +father, through whose agency he came near being apprenticed to one +Ames, the only portrait-painter at that time in Albany; but as it was +demanded that he should commence with house-painting the plan was +finally abandoned. At fourteen he began to contribute pieces in prose +and verse to the newspapers, and for several years after he pursued +without aid the study of natural history, English literature, Hebrew, +German, and French, and the philosophy of language. + +Mr. Schoolcraft's first work was an elaborate treatise, but partially +known to the public, entitled Vitreology, which was published in 1817. +The design of it was to exhibit the application of chemistry to the +arts in the fusion of siliceous and alkaline substances in the +production of enamels, glass, etc. He had had opportunities of +experimenting largely and freely by his position as conductor for a +series of years of the extensive works of the Ontario Company at +Geneva in New-York, the Vermont Company at Middlebury and Salisbury in +Vermont, and the foundry of crystal glass at Keene in New Hampshire. +In 1818, and the following year, he made a geological survey of +Missouri and Arkansas to the spurs of the Rocky Mountains, and in the +fall of 1819 published in New-York his View of the Lead Mines of +Missouri, which is said by Professor Silliman to have been "the only +elaborate and detailed account of a mining district in the United +States" which had then appeared. It attracted much attention, and +procured for the author the friendship of many eminent men. In the +same year he printed Transallegania, a poetical _jeu d'esprit_ of +which mineralogy is the subject, and which preceded some clever +English attempts in the same vein. It was republished in London by Sir +Richard Phillips in the next year. + +Early in 1820 he published a Journal of a Tour in the Interior of +Missouri and Arkansas, extending from Potosi toward the Rocky +Mountains. His writings having attracted the notice of the government, +he was commissioned by Mr. Calhoun, then Secretary of War, to visit +the copper region of Lake Superior, and to accompany General Cass in +his expedition to the head waters of the Mississippi. His Narrative +Journal of this tour was published in 1821, and was eminently +successful, an edition of twelve hundred copies being sold in a few +weeks. In the same year he was appointed secretary to the commission +for treating with the Indian tribes at Chicago, and on the conclusion +of his labors published his sixth work, entitled Travels in the +Central Portions of the Mississippi Valley, in which he described the +country between the regions of which he had given an account in his +previous works. His reputation was now widely and firmly established +as an explorer, and as a man of science and letters. From this time +his attention was devoted principally to the Red Race, though he still +cultivated natural history, and wrote occasionally for the reviews and +magazines. + +In 1822 he was appointed by President Monroe agent for Indian Affairs, +to reside at St. Mary's, at the foot of Lake Superior. In the years +1825, 1826, and 1827, he attended the important convocations of the +north-west tribes at Prairie du Chien, Pont du Lac, and Buttes des +Morts. In 1831 he was sent on a special embassy, accompanied by +troops, to conciliate the Sioux and Ojibwas, and bring the existing +war between them to a close. In 1832 he proceeded in the same capacity +to the tribes near the head waters of the Mississippi, and availed +himself of the opportunity to trace that river, in small canoes, from +the point where Pike stopped in 1807 and Cass in 1820 to its true +source in Itasca Lake, upon which he entered on the thirteenth of +July, the one hundred and forty-ninth anniversary of the discovery of +the mouth of the river by La Salle. His account of this tour was +published in New-York in 1834, under the title of An Expedition to +Itasca Lake, and attracted much attention in all parts of the country. + +From 1827 to 1831 Mr. Schoolcraft was a member of the legislative +council of Michigan. In 1828 he organized the Michigan Historical +Society, in which he was elected president, on the removal of General +Cass to Washington, in 1831. In the fall of the same year he set on +foot the Algic Society at Detroit, before which he delivered a course +of lectures on the grammatical construction of the Indian +languages,[1] and at its first anniversary a poem on The Indian +Character. Guided by patriotism and good taste, he took a successful +stand in the west against the absurd nomenclature which has elsewhere +made such confusion in geography by repeating over and over the names +of European places and characters, giving us Romes, Berlins, and +Londons in the wilderness, and Hannibals, Scipios, Homers, and +Hectors, wherever there was sufficient learning to make its possessors +ridiculous. He submitted to the legislature of the territory a system +of county and township names based upon the Indian vocabularies with +which he was familiar, and happily secured its general adoption. + +At Sault Ste. Marie Mr. Schoolcraft became acquainted with Mr. John +Johnston, a gentleman from the north of Ireland, who had long resided +there, and in the person of his eldest daughter married a descendant +of the hereditary chief of Lake Superior, or Lake Algoma, as it is +known to the Indians. She had been educated in Europe, and was an +accomplished and highly interesting woman. After a residence there of +eleven years he removed to Michilimackinac, and assumed the joint +agency of the two districts. In 1836 he was appointed by President +Jackson a commissioner to treat with the north-west tribes for their +lands in the region of the upper lakes, and succeeded in effecting a +cession to the United States of some sixteen millions of acres. In the +same year he was appointed acting Superintendent of Indian Affairs for +the Northern Department, and in 1839 principal disbursing agent for +the same district. + +In the last mentioned year he published two volumes of Algic +Researches, comprising Indian Tales and Legends, and soon after, +having passed more than twenty years as a traveller or resident on the +frontiers, he removed to the city of New-York, intending to prepare +for the press the great mass of his original papers which he had +accumulated in this long period. In 1841 he issued proposals for an +Indian Cyclopedia, geographical, historical, philological, etc., of +which only one number was printed, no publisher appearing willing to +undertake so costly and extensive a work of such a description. In +1842 he visited England, France, Germany, Prussia, and Holland. During +his absence his wife died, at Dundee, in Canada West, where she was +visiting her sister. Soon after his return he made another journey to +the west, to examine some of the great mounds, respecting which he has +since communicated a paper to the Royal Geographical Society of +Denmark, of which he was many years ago elected an honorary member, +and soon after published a collection of his poetical writings, under +the title of Alhalla, or the Lord of Talladega, a Tale of the Creek +War, with some miscellanies, chiefly of early date. In 1844 he +commenced in numbers the publication of Oneota, or the Red Race in +America, their History, Traditions, Customs, Poetry, Picture Writing, +etc., in extracts from Notes, Journals, and other unpublished +writings, of which one octavo volume has been completed. In 1845 he +delivered an address before a society known as the "Was-ah +Ho-de-no-sonne, or New Confederacy of the Iroquois," and published +Observations on the Grave Creek Mound in Western Virginia, in the +Transactions of the American Ethnological Society; and early in the +following year presented in the form of a Report to the legislature of +his native state, his Notes on the Iroquois, or Contributions to the +Statistics, Aboriginal History, and General Ethnology of Western +New-York. + +The last and most important of Mr. Schoolcraft's works, the crowning +labor of his life, for the composition of which all his previous +efforts were but notes of preparation, is the Historical and +Statistical Information respecting the History, Condition, and +Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States: Collected and +prepared under the Direction of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, per act +of March 3, 1847. The initial volume of this important national +publication, profusely illustrated with engravings from drawings by +Captain Eastman, of the Army, has lately been issued in a very large +and splendid quarto, by Lippincott. Grambo & Co., of Philadelphia, +under authority of Congress. It embraces the general, national, and +tribal history of the Indian race, with their traditions, manners, +customs, languages, mythology, &c., and when completed will probably +extend to six or seven volumes. Until more of it is published, it will +not be possible to form any exact judgment of it, except such as is +warranted by a knowledge of the author's previous works: but such a +judgment must be in the highest degree favorable. + +Mr. Schoolcraft's ethnological writings are among the most important +contributions that have been made to the literature of this country. +His long and intimate connection with the Indian tribes, and the +knowledge possessed by his wife and her family of the people from whom +they were descended by the maternal side, with his power of examining +their character from the European point of view, have enabled him to +give us more authentic and valuable information respecting their +manners, customs, and physical traits, and more insight into their +moral and intellectual constitution, than can be derived, perhaps, +from all other authors. His works abound in materials for the future +artist and man of letters, and will on this account continue to be +read when the greater portion of the popular literature of the day is +forgotten. With the forests which they inhabited, the red race have +disappeared with astonishing rapidity. Until recently they have rarely +been the subjects of intelligent study; and it began to be regretted, +as they were seen fading from our sight, that there was so little +written respecting them that had any pretensions to fidelity. I would +not be understood to undervalue the productions of Eliot, Loskiel, +Heckewelder, Brainerd, and other early missionaries, but they were +restricted in design, and it is not to be denied that confidence in +their representations has been much impaired, less perhaps from doubts +of their integrity than of their ability and of the advantages of the +points of view from which they made their observations. The works on +Indian philology by Roger Williams and the younger Edwards are more +valuable than any others of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, +but it now appears that these authors knew very little of the +philosophy of the American language. Du Ponceau's knowledge was still +more superficial, and excepting Mr. Gallatin and the late Mr. +Pickering, who made use of the imperfect data furnished by others, I +believe no one besides Mr. Schoolcraft has recently produced any thing +on the subject worthy of consideration. Something has been done by +General Cass, and Mr. McKenny and Mr. Catlin have undoubtedly +accomplished much in this department of ethnography; but allowing all +that can reasonably be claimed for these artist-travellers, Mr. +Schoolcraft must still be regarded as the standard and chief authority +respecting the Algic tribes. + +The influence which the original and peculiar myths and historical +traditions of the Indians is to have on our imaginative literature, +has been recently more than ever exhibited in the works of our +authors. The tendency of the public taste to avail itself of the +American mythology as a basis for the exhibition of "new lines of +fictitious creations" has been remarked by Mr. Schoolcraft himself in +Oneota, and he refers to the tales of Mrs. Oakes Smith, and to the +Wild Scenes in the Forest and the Prairie, and the Vigil of Faith, by +Mr. Charles F. Hoffman, as works in which this tendency is most +distinctly perceptible. In the writings of W. H. C. Hosmer, the +legends of Mr. Whittier, and some of the poems of Mr. Longfellow and +Mr. Lowell, we see manifestations of the same disposition. + +No one who has not had the most ample opportunities of personal +observation should attempt to mould Indian life and mythology to the +purposes of fiction without carefully studying whatever Mr. +Schoolcraft has published respecting them. The chief distinction of +the Algic style with which he has made us acquainted is its wonderful +simplicity and conciseness, with which the common verbosity, redundant +description, false sentiment, and erroneous manners of what are called +Indian tales, are as little in keeping as "English figures in +moccasins, and holding bows and arrows." + +The excellent portrait at the beginning of this article is from a +daguerreotype by Simons, of Philadelphia. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] Two of these lectures were published in 1834, translated into +French by the late Mr. du Ponceau, and subsequently read before the +National Institute of France. + + + + +THE MARGRAVINE OF ANSPACH. + + +The death, in London, a few weeks ago, of a daughter of the celebrated +Lady Craven, afterwards Margravine of Anspach, has recalled attention +to the history of that remarkable and celebrated person, whose life +has the interest of a romance. + +ELIZABETH BERKELEY, Margravine of Anspach, was born in December, 1750. +She was the daughter of Augustus, fourth Earl of Berkeley, by his wife +Elizabeth, daughter of Henry Drax of Charborough. She was brought up +under the care of a native of Switzerland, the wife of a German tutor +of her uncle. She describes herself as having been a delicate, +diminutive child, addicted at an early age to reading, and of timid +and retired habits. She first beheld a play when she was twelve years +old, and from that occasion she dates the growth of her subsequent +partiality for theatrical entertainments. At the age of thirteen she +paid a short visit to France with her mother and her elder sister, and +at fourteen she had been, as she says she afterwards discovered, "in +love without knowing it" with the Marquis de Fitz James. On the 10th +May, 1767, she was married to William Craven, nephew and heir of the +fifth Lord Craven, whom he succeeded in 1769. She professes to have +felt indifference when receiving his addresses, but the marriage was +for some time a happy one, and she says, "My husband seemed to have no +other delight than in procuring for me all the luxuries and enjoyments +within his power, and it was an eternal dispute (how amiable a +dispute!) between us; _he_ always offering presents, and _I_ refusing +whenever I could." Gifted with genius and beauty, both of which she +knew well how to apply; a woman of Lady Craven's rank naturally drew +around her a large circle of admirers. She says of herself very +characteristically, "In London the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough +showed their partiality to me, and Mr. Walpole, afterwards Lord +Orford, Dr. Johnson, Garrick, and his friend Colman, were among my +numerous admirers; and Sir Joshua Reynolds did not conceal his high +opinion of me. Charles Fox almost quarrelled with me because I was +unwilling to interfere with politics--a thing which I always said I +detested, and considered as being out of the province of a woman." + +It appears to have been in the year 1779 that Lady Craven discovered +the infidelities with which she charged her husband, when she +requested of him the favor "that he would not permit his mistress to +call herself Lady Craven." After an interval of about three years +spent in partial reconciliation, a separation took place. The +indifferent tone in which she treats the whole of this transaction, +and her professed readiness to overlook every slight that was not +public and glaring, are a stain on her character, which she has by her +own animated pen exhibited to an age which had forgotten the +accusations to which she was subjected. At the time of her separation +from her husband she was the mother of seven children. + +Lady Craven had in the mean time produced her first play, "The +Sleepwalker," a translation from the French, printed in 1778, at her +friend Walpole's press at Strawberry Hill. In 1779 she published +"Modern Anecdotes of the Family of Kinvervankotsprakengatchdern, a +Tale for Christmas." This was a caricature of the ceremonious +pomposity of the petty German courts; it was dramatized by Mr. M. P. +Andrews. Soon after the separation, she passed some time in France, +where she met with the Margrave of Anspach. They formed a sudden +friendship for each other, and agreed to consider each other (we are +told) as brother and sister. In June, 1785, Lady Craven commenced a +tour, in which, starting from Paris, she passed by the Rhine to Italy, +went thence by the Tyrol to Vienna, passed on to Warsaw, Petersburg, +and Moscow, proceeded by the Don to Turkey, and returned by Vienna, +which she reached in August, 1786. On this occasion she ran, by her +own account, a serious risk of being made Empress of Austria. In 1789 +she published an account of her tour (1 vol. 4to), in letters +addressed to the margrave, saying in the dedication, "Beside +curiosity, my friends will in these letters see, at least for some +time, where the real Lady Craven has been, and where she is to be +found--it having been the practice for some years past for a +Birmingham coin of myself to pass in most of the inns in France, +Switzerland, and England, for the wife of my husband. My arms and +coronet sometimes supporting in some measure this insolent deception; +by which, probably, I may have been seen to behave very improperly." +This work is interesting from the many sketches it contains of eminent +people--such as the Empress Catharine, the Princess Dashcoff, Prince +Potemkin, Count Romanzoff, Admiral Mordvinoff, the Duc de Choiseul, +and others. It is full of accurate observation and lively description, +expressed in clear and simple English--a style from which in later +life she considerably diverged. She descended into the grotto of +Antiparos, being the first female to undertake the adventure. The +French biographers maintain that the tameness of her description of +the scene shows a deficiency of appreciation of the wonderful and +sublime. She does not indeed ornament her description with hyperboles +and exclamations, but it is clear and expressive, and by the +distinctness of the impression which it conveys to the reader, shows +that the scene was fully noticed and comprehended by the writer. After +her return from her journey, she visited England to see her children, +and then proceeded to France, where she joined the margrave and +accompanied him to Anspach. Here, during a residence of a few years, +she established a theatre, which was chiefly supplied with dramatic +entertainments of her own composition. They were collected into two +volumes 8vo, under the title of "Nouveau Theatre d'Anspach et de +Triesdorf," the latter being the name of a country seat nine miles +from Anspach, where she laid out a park and garden in the English +manner. She established at the same time "a society for the +encouragement of arts and sciences." She soon afterwards visited, in +company with the margrave, the congenial court of Naples, where she +made the acquaintance of Sir William and Lady Hamilton. Her conduct +was the subject of much censure both in England and among the +officials of the court of Anspach, to whom her interference was a +natural subject of distrust; and if it should even be admitted that +her own account of the purity of her motives and conduct is correct, +it cannot be denied that she afforded material for forming the worst +interpretations of them. She maintains that she always opposed the +cession of his dominions to the crown of Prussia by the margrave in +1791, but she was almost his sole adviser on the occasion. She states +that she received the first hint of his design at Naples. One day +while she was dressing for dinner, a servant intimated that the +margrave desired to see her. On her appearance he said, "I must go to +Berlin _incog._--will you go with me? it is the only sacrifice of your +time I will ever require of you." They set out together, and on the +way through Anspach they found the establishment nearly in open revolt +against her influence. The king, however, was kind and generous in the +extreme, and the contracting parties are represented as only striving +to excel each other in generosity. Meanwhile the margrave's first wife +died, and Lord Craven's death occurred six months afterwards, on the +26th September, 1791. Immediately on hearing of this event, Lady +Craven was married to the margrave. "It was six weeks," she says, +"after Lord Craven's decease that I gave my hand to the margrave, +which I should have done six hours after, had I known it at the time." +As the cession of the margraviate to Prussia dates 2d December, 1791, +the marriage must have taken place about three weeks before it. The +nuptials were solemnized at Lisbon, whence the new married pair passed +through Spain and France to England. + +The margrave, on the sale of his principality, resolved to spend his +days with his wife in England. They had no sooner arrived, however, +than the storm of family and public indignation which had been brewing +against the margravine burst upon her head. She received a letter from +her three daughters, saying, "with due deference to the Margravine of +Anspach, the Miss Cravens inform her that, out of respect to their +father, they cannot wait upon her," and her eldest son, Lord Craven, +refused to countenance her. The margrave received a message from the +queen, through the Prussian minister, to the effect that his wife, +though she had received a diploma from the emperor, could not be +received at court as a princess of the empire. She says that she +refused to derogate from her dignity by appearing merely as a peeress +of England; but it is not clear that she would have been received in +that capacity. She addressed a memorial on the subject to the House of +Lords, but they gave her no redress; indeed it would not have been +consistent with the practice of that body to interfere on such an +occasion. Soon after their arrival, the margrave purchased through +trustees, Lord Craven's estate of Benham, and the mansion of +Brandenburgh House, a place celebrated as afterwards affording a +retreat to Queen Caroline, the wife of George IV. Until the margrave's +death in 1806, it was a scene of continued profusion and gayety, in +which the luxuries and amusements of an English mansion were united +with those of a German court, "My whole enjoyment," says the +margravine, "during the margrave's valuable life, was to do every +thing in my power, to make him not only comfortable, but happy. Under +my management, the world imagined that he spent double his income." +Her attachment to her second husband was strong. She speaks of him +with an enthusiasm and devotion which bear the stamp of sincerity. "I +believe," she says, "a better man never existed. There never was a +being who could act upon more sincere principles. Nothing could divert +him from what was right. None could bear with patience, like himself, +the ill conduct of those to whom he was attached. None could more +easily forgive." After his decease, the margravine, who succeeded to +the large property which he left, felt impatient to recommence her +wanderings. On the restoration she sailed for France, and, after being +interrupted in her movements by the reign of the hundred days, reached +Rome, where it was said that she kept open house for all the +revolutionists of all countries who chose to accept her hospitalities. +The King of Naples afterwards presented her with a small estate, in +which she built a palace, where she resided till her death, which +occurred on January 13, 1828. Only two years previously, and when she +was seventy-six years old, she surprised and delighted the English +world by the publication of her well-known memoirs. This work is +perhaps one of the best examples of the French memoirs which English +literature possesses. It is indeed thoroughly French, not only in +spirit but in idiom, and, to the reader, has all the appearance of a +translation from that language. It thus affords, in its style, a +remarkable contrast to the book of travels above noticed. It contains +a vast variety of anecdotes and sketches of character, always amusing +if not always accurate. It has no continuity of narrative, leaping +backwards and forwards through all ages, and among every variety of +subject: from a description of the monument which she erected to the +memory of her husband, she takes occasion to give a rapid sketch of +the history of the art of sculpture. The least pleasing feature in the +work is its intense egotism. The margravine was a woman of +wonderfully versatile genius. She wrote with fluency in French and +German. She was an accomplished musician and actress; and she tells +us, "I have executed many busts myself, and among others one of the +margrave, which is generally allowed to be extremely like him." + + + + +LONDON DESCRIBED BY A PARISIAN. + + +M. Francis Wey, who is a college professor and _litterateur_ of some +eminence in Paris, has published for visitors from the continent to +the Great Exhibition, a volume entitled _Guides a Londres_, composed, +we believe, of a series of articles, _Les Anglais chez Eux_ (the +English at Home), which he had contributed to the _Musee des +Familles_, an old and favorite Parisian journal. It is very amusing to +see the manner in which these things are received by the British +press. The sensitiveness of which the Americans are accused is quite +equalled in that which is displayed in the London criticisms of +Monsieur Wey. And just at this time it is all the more pleasant to us, +for that our amiable Mother-Country critics are quoting with so much +enjoyment the characterizations of us poor United-Statesers, done in +the same way, by a gentleman of the same country. Even _Blackwood_ +does not seem to have a suspicion that a Frenchman could caricature or +in any way exaggerate the publicities or domesticities of New-York; +but all the independent, care-for-nothing John Bulls see only +"rancor," "ill-will," and "absurdity" in the Frenchman's views of +English society. The _Literary Gazette_, the _Weekly News_, and all +the rest, have the same tone. French travellers, it is said-- + + "Instead of patiently collecting their facts, they _invent_ + them. Instead of representing social usages as they really + are, they state them as what they choose to suppose. They + mistake flippancy for wit, and imperturbable assurance for + knowledge. They speak _ex cathedra_ of matters of which they + are profoundly ignorant. And the consequence of all this is + that they commit the drollest blunders, make the most + startling assertions, indulge in the most grotesque + appreciations, and flounder in the most extravagant + absurdities." + +We wonder if a single British reviewer will introduce, with such a +paragraph, his extracts from the Letters on America, by M. XAVIER +MARMIER? Not a bit of it. + +On the English language, M. Wey says-- + + "The Englishman has invented for himself a language adapted + to his placid manners and silent tastes. This language is a + murmur, accompanied by soft hissings; it falls from the + lips, but is scarcely articulated; if the chest or throat be + employed to increase the power of the voice, the words + become changed and scarcely intelligible; if cried aloud, + they are hoarse, and resemble the confused croaking of frogs + in marshes." + + "The English are passionately attached to their language. + They have only consented to borrow one single word from us, + and that is employed by their innkeepers--_table d'hote_, + which they pronounce _taible dott_. And yet we have taken + hundreds of words from them!" + +English women-- + + "English women give to us the preference over their own + countrymen. Our gallantry is something new to them, and our + politeness touches their hearts. But though they love us, we + are not liked by their lords and masters. There is no + exaggeration in all that has been said of the beauty of + English women--an assemblage of them would realize the + paradise of Mahomet." + +Their dresses-- + + "Many white gowns are to be seen. White is a _recherche_ + luxury in that land of tallow and smoke, where linen becomes + dirty in three hours. However, good taste is making some + progress. Ladies may be met with who are well dressed, + although, generally speaking, a sort of audacity is + displayed in wearing the most irreconcilable colors. What + gives English women a somewhat _bizarre_ appearance, is the + custom they have of swelling out their petticoats, by means + of circles of whalebone or iron:--this causes them to + resemble large bells in movement." + +English manners-- + + "English manners, rigid and cold, and dominated by arid + rationalism, are the work of Cromwell. His bigotry and + hypocrisy, his exterior austerity, his narrow formalism, + suit the Englishman; he keeps up Cromwell's character, and + admires himself in his usages. But he has no pity for his + model--he never forgives Cromwell for having made him what + he is. His spite towards that man is the last cry of nature, + and the vague regret of a liberty of imagination of which + neither the joys or the aspirations have been known since + his time." "They have no grace, no _desinvoltura_, no poesy + in them, but are methodical, reasonable, indefatigable in + work and in amassing lucre." + +How the English love-- + +"They love nothing with the heart; when they do love, it is +exclusively of the head." + +English bankers-- + + "In France we have the love of display; but in London it is + not so. There, some of the principal bankers go every + morning to the butchers' shops to buy their own chops, and + they carry them ostensibly to some tavern in Cheapside or + Fleet Street, where they cook them themselves. Then they buy + three pennyworth of rye-bread, and publicly eat this Spartan + breakfast. The exhibition fills their clients with + admiration. But in the evening these good men make up for + this by taking in their own palaces suppers worthy of + Lucullus." + +Flunkeys-- + + "The English aristocracy are distinguished by the number, + the canes, and the wigs of their lacqueys. Seeing constantly + a footman, well powdered and bewigged, carry horizontally a + large Voltaire cane behind certain sumptuous carriages, I + asked for an explanation; it was soon given--wig, powder, + and cane are aristocratic privileges. Not only must a man + have a certain number of quarterings to be authorized to + make his servants use such things, but he must pay so much + tax for the lacquey, so much for the wig, so much for the + tail to the wig, and so much for the cane." + +What most strikes a Frenchman in London-- + +"The coldness of the men towards the fair sex, and their profound +passion for horses." + +Officers of the life and horse guards-- + +"Cupid seems to have chosen them--they are possessed of such ideal +beauty." + +English taverns-- + + "The Englishman likes to be alone, even at the tavern. He + fastens himself up in a box, where none can see him. There + he drinks with taciturn phlegm. He takes tea, boiling grog, + porter of the color of ink, and beer not less black. He is + very fond of brandy, and drinks large glasses of it at a + draught. He does not go to the tavern to amuse himself, but + because drinking is a grave occupation. The more he swallows + the calmer he is. One can however scarcely decide if his + obstinate moroseness be a precaution against drunkenness, or + the effect of spirituous liquors taken in excess. At some of + the taverns are three gentlemen, dressed in black, with + white cravats, who sing after one of them has struck the + table with a little hammer; they are as serious as + Protestant ministers or money-changers." + +English food-- + + "Thick stupefying beer, meat almost raw and horribly spiced; + strong libations of port wine, followed by + plum-pudding--such is the meat of these islanders." + +How the English eat-- + + "They eat at every hour, every where, and incessantly. The + iron constitution of their complaisant stomachs enables them + to feed in a manner which would satisfy wolves and lions. + The delicate repast of a fair and sentimental young lady + would be too much for a couple of Parisian street porters." + +Stables and museums-- + + "Stables are clean and brilliant as museums ought to be; and + the museums are as filthy as stables in Provence." + +The Queen's stables-- + + "They form a college of horses, with pedantic grooms for + professors, and a harness room for a library:" + +English omnibuses-- + + "The omnibuses of London are worn out, ill built, and + remarkably dirty. Even in wet weather nobody is ever allowed + to enter the interior so long as any places are vacant + outside. We had expected to find them built of mahogany and + lined with velvet." + +London-- + + "London, wholly devoted to private interests, offers nothing + to the heart or mind. The city is too large; a man is lost + in it; you elbow thousands of people without the hope of + meeting any one you know. Even if you have a large fortune + you would be ignored. Originality is there without effect; + vanity without an object; and the desire of shining is + chimerical. Intelligence has therefore only one opening, + politics; pride only one object, the national sentiment; but + as the people must feel enthusiasm for something, they adore + horses; and as they must admire somebody, they burn incense + under Lord Wellington's nose." + +After midnight-- + + "At midnight the English leave the taverns, the public + gardens, the theatres, and the open air balls, and fill up + the supper saloons (not very reputable places), and the + oyster rooms, where they eat till morning. After sunrise, + the policemen are occupied in picking up in the gutters + drunkards of both sexes, and all conditions." + +London rain-- + + "It is tallow melted in water, and perfectly black." + +A bad quarter-- + + "Between Cornhill Street and Thames Street, there lives what + is called the populace of London; there pauperism is + frightful. The wretched inhabitants of that district are + brawlers, drunkards, and prize-fighters." + +At Westminster Abbey-- + + "Shakspeare slumbers at a few steps from Richard II. The + tombs bear traces of Presbyterian mutilations; but in other + places the Calvinists scattered the bones of the deceased + Bishops of Geneva. Such is the intolerance of the + Protestants that they have not admitted the statue of Byron + to the Abbey, and his shadow may be heard groaning at the + door." + +At Her Majesty's Theatre-- + + "To go with a blue cravat is _shocking_. When the doors are + open, blows with the fist and the elbow are given without + regard to age or sex. It is the peculiar fashion of entering + which the natives have. If a Frenchman be recognized the + people cry _French dog_. In the pit, the man behind you will + place his foot on your shoulder. The ladies are plunged up + to the neck in boxes. In the theatre there is an echo, which + produces an abominable effect; but such is the vile musical + taste of the English that they have never found it out. In + the saloon you hear the continual hissing of teakettles." + +The English Parliament-- + + "The House of Commons at present meets in a hole. The peers + are in their new chamber. It is small, not monumental, and + heavily ornamented. It reminds one of our tea shops, or a + _boudoir_. The lords, when assembled, are generally placed + on their backs, or rather lean on the back of the neck, and + keep their legs above their heads. The Queen's throne, like + constitutional royalty, is a gilded cage." + +The new Houses of Parliament-- + + "They are an immense architectural plaything, and the + English only admire them because they cost a vast sum." + +English love of titles-- + + "One of my friends gave me a letter of introduction to Sir + William P----, _Esquire_. I left the letter with my card at + the Reform Club, Pall Mall. Two hours after Sir William came + to my residence; but as I was not at home he wrote a line, + and addressed it to me with the flattering designation of + _Esquire_. England is the country of legal equality; but + this sort of equilibrium does not extend to social usages; + and although our _penchant_ for distinctions seems puerile + to the English, it would be easy to prove that they are not + exempt from it. They have not, as we have, the love of + uniforms, laced coats, epaulettes, or decorations; their + button-holes often carry a flower, but never a rosette or + knot of ribbon. But every body pretends to the title of + _Sir_, which was formerly reserved exclusively to members of + the House of Commons, to Baronets, and to some public + functionaries. As, however, the title _Sir_ has become too + vulgar, every body calls himself _Esquire_ to distinguish + himself from his neighbor. This remark, nevertheless, does + not concern my friend Sir William, for he is really an + Esquire." + +English soldiers-- + + "The noise which announces their approach is very singular. + Picture to yourself the monotonous music of a bear's dance, + executed by twenty fifers, whilst a man beats a big drum. + The coats of the infantry are too short, and are surmounted + with large white epaulettes. The men sway their bodies about + to the beating of the drum, and carry their heads so stiffly + that they appear to be balancing spoons on their noses. All + the officers and non-commissioned officers carry long sticks + with ivory handles." + +Resemblance of Englishmen one to another-- + + "All Englishmen are alike. They live in the same way, are + subject to the same logical rules, condemned to the same + amusements. The proof that there exists only one character + amongst them, and that they have only one way of living, is, + that it is impossible, on seeing them, to divine their + profession. A lord, a minister, a domestic, a street singer, + a merchant, an admiral, a soldier, a general, an artist, a + judge, a prize-fighter, and a clergyman, have all the same + appearance, the same language, the same costume, and the + same bearing. Each one has the air of an Englishman, and + nothing more. They live in the same way, work at the same + hours, eat at the same time, and of the same sort of food, + and are all sequestrated when away from home from the + society of women." + +The French at London-- + + "At London the French labor under two subjects of anxiety, + caused by their national prejudices. Accustomed to consider + themselves as the first people in the world, to dazzle some, + to despise others, and to display every where the confident + pride of their supremacy, they, on treading the British + soil, experience the impression of a greatness not borrowed + from them; they are astonished at finding a people as + remarkable as ours, as original as we are, and carrying to a + still prouder degree the sentiment of their pre-eminence. + Then our countrymen become disquieted; the intolerance of + their national faith becomes mitigated; they are ill at + ease, and for the first time in their lives feel constraint. + Ceasing to believe themselves amongst slaves as in Italy, + amongst vassals as in Belgium, or amongst innkeepers as in + Switzerland or Germany, they endeavor to resemble sovereigns + visiting other sovereigns, and by forced politeness render + them involuntary homage." + +Feeling of the English toward the French-- + + "They honor us with a marked attention, though they are + indifferent to the rest of mankind. Our opinions respecting + them cause them anxiety. They either admire us + enthusiastically, or disparage us bitterly; but, in reality, + they are obsequious and servile toward us!" + +After a good deal of the numerous statues to Wellington, this at +English admiration of Waterloo-- + + "The trumpet of Waterloo which has been sounded in London + every where incessantly, and in every tone, during + thirty-five years, diminishes the grandeur of the English + nation. This intoxication seems that of a people who, never + having won more than one battle, and despairing to conquer a + second time, cannot recover from their surprise, nor bear in + patience an unhoped-for glory." + +How the English judge Napoleon-- + + "Public opinion has avenged the prisoner of St Helena; but + does it follow that in 1815 the English protested with + sufficient energy against his imprisonment! No. Englishmen + are naturally indifferent and indulgent as regards their + foreign neighbors, so long as patriotism or private interest + is not at stake. Napoleon was the most terrible of their + enemies; he placed England within ten steps of bankruptcy, + and seriously menaced national manufactures. Not possessed + of military instinct, the English do not pretend to + chivalrous generosity. On the fall of the Empire, caused by + the implacable perseverance of coalitions, the nation + remembered that the Hundred Days cost its government a + million an hour, and so long as the deficit was not made up, + their resentment underwent no diminution. But now if you + celebrate his glory before them, they will not display + hostility. You must not, however, touch the till of this + tribe of tradesmen, or they will be your bitter enemies. And + the proof that they are nothing but shopkeepers is that + their first functionary sits in a gilded arm chair on a + wool-sack." + + + + +THE BEAUTIFUL STREAMLET AND THE UTILITARIAN. + + +Alphonse Karr's new book, _Travels in my Garden_, is full of social +heresies, but quite as full of wit. We find in _Fraser's Magazine_ for +May translations of some admirable passages, with specimens of his +peculiar speculation. Karr is an ardent lover of Nature; he takes note +of all her caprices, and respects them,--remarks under what shade the +violet loves to dwell, and tells us how certain plants--the volubulis, +the scarlet-runner, and the Westeria, for instance--invariably twine +their spiral tendrils from left to right, whereas hops and +honeysuckles as infallibly twist theirs from right to left. He knows +which are the plants that fold, when evening comes, their leaves in +two, lengthwise,--which are those that close them up like fans, and +which are the careless ones that crumple them up irregularly with +happy impunity, for the next morning's sun smooths them all alike. He +loves Nature in all her details, but with disinterested love, and has +no idea of making her subservient to his pride, or selfishly +monopolizing her; he has evidently no wish to wall in woods and +meadows, and call them a park, or to dam up sparkling, bubbling, +dancing streams, and turn them into cold, spiritless, aristocratic +sheets of water. Indeed, in one of the first chapters of the book, +there is a fanciful bit of sentiment about a happy little stream that +falls into the hands of a pitiless utilitarian, which we are tempted +to quote:-- + + "That stream which runs through my garden gushes from the + side of a furze-covered hill; for a long time it was a happy + little stream; it traversed meadows where all sorts of + lovely wild flowers bathed and mirrored themselves in its + waters, then it entered my garden, and there I was ready to + receive it; I had prepared green tanks for it; on its edge + and in its very bed I had planted those flowers which all + over the world love to bloom on the banks and in the bosom + of pure streams; it flowed through my garden, murmuring its + plaintive song; then, fragrant with my flowers, it left the + garden, crossed another meadow, and flung itself into the + sea, over the precipitous sides of the cliff, which it + covered with foam. + + "It was a happy stream; it had literally nothing to do + beyond what I have said,--to flow, to bubble, to look + limpid, to murmur, amidst flowers and sweet perfumes. It led + the life I have chosen, and that I continue to lead, when + people let me alone, and when knaves and fools and wicked + men do not force me--who am at once the most pacific and the + most battling man on earth--to return to the fight. But + heaven and earth are jealous of the happiness of gentle + indolence. + + "One day my brother Eugene, and Savage, the clever engineer, + were talking together on the banks of the stream, and to a + certain degree abusing it. + + "'There,' said my brother, 'is a fine good-for-nothing + stream for you, forsooth, winding and dawdling about, + dancing in the sunshine, and revelling in the grass instead + of working and paying for the place it takes up, as an + honest stream should. Could it not be made to grind coffee + or pepper?' + + "'Or tools?' added Savage. + + "'Or to saw boards?' said my brother. + + "I trembled for the stream, and broke off the conversation, + complaining loudly that its detractors (its would-be + tyrants) were treading down my forget-me-nots. Alas! it was + but against them alone I could protect it. Before long there + came into our neighborhood a man whom I noticed more than + once hanging about the spot where the stream empties itself + into the sea. The fellow I plainly saw was neither seeking + for rhymes, nor indulging in dreams and memories upon its + banks,--he was not lulling thought to rest with the gentle + murmur of its waters. 'My good friend,' he was saying to the + stream, 'there you are, idling and meandering about, singing + to your heart's content, while I am working and wearing + myself out. I don't see why you should not help me a bit; + you know nothing of the work to be done, but I'll soon show + you. You'll soon know how to set about it. You must find it + dull to stay in this way, doing nothing,--it would be a + change for you to make files or grind knives.' Very soon + wheels of all kinds were brought to the poor stream. From + that day forward it has worked and turned a great wheel, + which turns a little wheel, which turns a grindstone; it + still sings, but no longer the same gently-monotonous song + in its peaceful melancholy. Its song is loud and angry + now,--it leaps and froths and works now,--it grinds knives! + It still crosses the meadow, and my garden, and the next + meadow; but there, the man is on the watch for it, to make + it work. I have done the only thing I could do for it. I + have dug a new bed for it in my garden, so that it may idle + longer there, and leave me a little later; but for all that, + it must go at last and grind knives. Poor stream! thou didst + not sufficiently conceal thy happiness in obscurity,--thou + hast murmured too audibly thy gentle music." + + + + +SIR EMERSON TENNANT ON AMERICAN MISSIONS IN CEYLON. + + +One of the most respectable persons employed in the English colonial +service, is Sir EMERSON TENNANT, LL. D., K. C. B. &c., who was for +many years connected with the administration in Ceylon, and is now, we +believe, Governor of St. Helena. He has recently published a volume +entitled _Christianity in Ceylon_, in which there are some passages of +especial interest to American readers, displaying in a favorable +light, the services rendered to civilization by the missionaries of +this country. These parts of his work have attracted much +consideration. The _Dublin University Magazine_ remarks: + +"We describe the American Mission, which acts under the direction of +one of the oldest and most remarkable of the existing associations for +the dissemination of Christianity, "The American Board of +Commissioners for Foreign Missions," whose head-quarters are at +Boston, in Massachusetts. The first settlers in Massachusetts, like +those of New England generally, were missionary colonists. Their +charter, given by Charles I., states that one of the objects of the +king and of the planters was the conversion of the natives to the true +faith; and the seal of the company thus incorporated bore the device +of a North American Indian, with the motto "_Come over and help us_." +It may be interesting to add, that the "pilgrim fathers" of the New +England States were, indirectly, the cause of the Protestant missions +of the Dutch. They were, as our author states, 'the first pioneers of +the Protestant world, and the first heralds of the Reformed religion +to the heathen of foreign lands. Their mission is more ancient than +the Propaganda of Rome, and it preceded by nearly a century any other +missionary association in Europe. It was encouraged by Cromwell, and +incorporated by Charles II.; and Cotton Mather records that it was the +example of the New England fathers, and their success amongst the +Indians, that first aroused the energy of the Dutch for the conversion +of the natives of Ceylon.' + +"We cannot doubt that amongst the main causes of the prosperity of +North America are, the permanence of religious feeling, and the +blessing attendant on the fact, that the missionary spirit has never +perished. The labors of this great people on their own vast continent +have been conducted with the greatest judgment, and marked by a +success which encouraged their extension in other lands. In the year +1812, they turned their attention to the East, and, under an act of +incorporation from the state of Massachusetts, commenced their +missionary efforts in the Old World. Their first missionaries to India +appeared there in 1812, but were ordered by the Governor-General to +leave Calcutta by the same vessel in which they had arrived. One of +them landing in Ceylon, on his voyage home, was so struck with the +openings which it presented for missionary enterprise, and so much +encouraged by the Governor, Sir Robert Brownrigg, to engage in it, +that, on his representations, the American Board, in 1816, sent out +three clergymen and their wives, who fixed their residence at Jaffina, +which has been ever since the scene of their remarkable labors. These +were reinforced in 1829, and for many years their establishment has +consisted of from seven to eleven ordained ministers, with a +physician, conductors of the press, and other lay assistants; these +are selected from Congregationalists and Presbyterians. It is +gratifying to be enabled to add, that a most cordial good-will and +desire to co-operate has from the beginning prevailed between them and +the other Protestant missionaries in their neighborhood. For thirty +years they have assembled periodically in a "missionary union," to +decide on measures and compare results. "With all of them education +is," as our author says, "a diurnal occupation; whilst in their purely +clerical capacity they have felt the necessity of proceeding with more +cautious circumspection, improving rather than creating opportunities, +relying less upon formal preaching than on familiar discourses, and +trusting more to the intimate exhortation of a few than to the effect +of popular addresses to indiscriminate assemblies.' + + "'The first embryo instruction is communicated by them in + free village schools, scattered everywhere throughout the + district, in which the children of the Tamils are taught in + their own tongue the simplest elements of knowledge, and the + earliest processes of education--to read from translations + of the Christian Scriptures, and to write their own + language, first by tracing the letters on the sand, and + eventually by inscribing them with an iron style upon the + prepared leaves of the _Palmyra palm_. It will afford an + idea of the extent and perseverance with which education has + been pursued in these primitive institutions, that, in the + free schools of the Americans alone, 4,000 pupils, of whom + one-fourth are females, are daily receiving instruction, and + upwards of 90,000 children have been taught in them since + their commencement, a proportion equal to one-half the + present population of the peninsula.'" + +"It was soon seen that, in addition to these primary schools, the +establishment of boarding schools was extremely desirable, for the +purpose of separating the pupils from the influence of idolatry. The +attempt was made, but proved to be attended with difficulties which +would have appeared to many insurmountable. In the first place, the +natives were suspicious, not conceiving that strangers could undertake +such toil, trouble, and expense, without an interested object. The +more positive difficulty was connected with caste, with the reluctance +of parents to permit their children to associate with those of a lower +rank. + + "'This the missionaries overcame, not so much by inveighing + against the absurdity of such distinctions as by practically + ignoring them, except wherever expediency or necessity + required their recognition. In all other cases where the + customs and prejudices of the Tamils were harmless in + themselves, or productive of no inconvenience to others, + they were in no way contravened or prohibited; but as + intelligence increased, and the minds of the pupils became + expanded, the most distinctive and objectionable of them + were voluntarily and almost imperceptibly abandoned. + + "'When the boarders were first admitted to one of the + American schools at Batticotta, a cook-house was obliged to + be erected for them on the adjoining premises of a heathen, + as they would not eat under the roof of a Christian; but + after a twelvemonth's perseverance, the inconvenience + overcame the objection, and they removed to the refectory of + the institution. But here a fresh difficulty was to be + encountered; some of the high caste youths made an objection + to use the same wells which had been common to the whole + establishment; and it was agreed to meet their wishes by + permitting them to clear out one in particular, to be + reserved exclusively for themselves. They worked incessantly + for a day, but finding it hopeless to draw it perfectly dry, + they resolved to accommodate the difficulty, on the + principle, that having drawn off as much water as the well + contained when they began, the remainder must be + sufficiently pure for all ordinary uses.'" + +"In addition to these primary and boarding-schools, the American +Mission, in 1830, established schools for teaching English, and for +elementary instruction of a more advanced description. These were all +under a discipline avowedly Christian, yet the missionaries found that +they were able not only to enforce the fee demanded, but to maintain +their regulations without loss of numbers. + + "'And it is a fact,' says Sir Emerson Tennent, 'suggestive + of curious speculation as to the genius and character of + this anomalous people, that in a heathen school recently + established by Brahmans in the vicinity of Jaffna, the + Hindoo Community actually compelled those who conducted it + to introduce the reading of the Bible as an indispensable + portion of the ordinary course of instruction.'" + +"This does not seem so strange to us. The shrewd Tamils, as we collect +from other observations in the work before us, perceived how the +Bible-reading children had improved in demeanor, conduct, and success +in life. For these same reasons, and possibly in some cases from a +deeper feeling never yet avowed, the Roman Catholic peasantry of +Ireland, before the introduction of the National System of Education, +and previously to, and, in many cases, long after, the expressed +hostility of their priesthood, anxiously sent their children to the +schools of the Kildare-place and the Hibernian Bible Societies. + +"The other missionaries, we need hardly say, were as active as the +Americans. After some years of further experience, they all felt the +necessity of founding educational institutions of a still more +advanced description for the instruction of the natives in their own +language. It became plain to them that, from physical as well as moral +causes, the conversion of the natives could be only hoped for through +the medium of their well-taught and well-trained countrymen. The +niceties of the language and their modes of thought presented +difficulties of a most serious character to others; the very terms of +the ordinary address of a missionary suggested ideas altogether +different from what he intended. Thus, when GOD is spoken of, they +probably understand one of their own deities who yields to every vile +indulgence; by SIN, they mean ceremonial defilement, or evil committed +in a former birth, for which they are not accountable; _hell_ with +them is only a place of temporary punishment; and _heaven_ nothing +more than absorption, or the loss of individuality. Under these +impressions each of the missionary bodies at Jaffna formed for +themselves a collegiate institution, in which the best scholars from +their other schools were admitted to a still more advanced course, and +taught the sciences of Europe. That of the Church Missionary Society +of England was established at Nellore, but subsequently removed to +Chundically; the Wesleyans commenced theirs in the great square of +Jaffna; and that of the Americans was founded at Batticotta, in the +midst of a cultivated country, within sight of the sea, and at a very +few miles distant from the fort." + + "'It was opened in 1823, with about fifty students chosen + from the most successful pupils of all the schools in the + province; and the course of education is so comprehensive as + to extend over a period of eight years of study. With a + special regard to the future usefulness of its alumni in the + conflict with the errors of the Brahmanical system, the + curriculum embraces all the ordinary branches of historical + and classical learning, and all the higher departments of + mathematical and physical science, combined with the most + intricate familiarization with the great principles and + evidences of the Christian religion. + + "'The number which the building can accommodate is limited, + for the present, to one hundred, who reside within its + walls, and take their food in one common hall, sitting to + eat after the custom of the natives. For some years the + students were boarded and clothed at the expense of the + mission; but such is now the eagerness for instruction that + there are a multitude of competitors for every casual + vacancy; and the cost of their maintenance during the whole + period of pupilage is willingly paid in advance, in order to + secure the privilege of admission. + + "'Nearly six hundred students have been under instruction + from time to time since the commencement of the American + Seminary at Batticotta, and of these upwards of four hundred + have completed the established course of education. More + than one-half have made an open profession of Christianity, + and all have been familiarized with its doctrines, and more + or less imbued with its spirit. The majority are now filling + situations of credit and responsibility throughout the + various districts of Ceylon; numbers are employed under the + missionaries themselves, as teachers and catechists, and as + preachers and superintendents of schools; many have + migrated, in similar capacities, to be attached to Christian + missions on the continent of India; others have lent their + assistance to the missions of the Wesleyans and the Church + of England in Ceylon; and amongst those who have attached + themselves to secular occupations, I can bear testimony to + the abilities, the qualifications, and integrity, of the + many students of Jaffna, who have accepted employment in + various offices under the Government of the colony.'" + +"Another of the instruments of conversion adopted by these +indefatigable men is _the press_. They were long obliged to have their +tracts written out on _olahs_, or strips of the Palmyra leaf, which, +when the missionary took for distribution, were strung round the neck +of his horse. The printing establishment of the American Mission has +for many years given constant employment to upwards of eighty Tamil +workmen. Their publications are either religious or educational; and +one of their ulterior objects is to supersede the degraded legends +still in circulation. The natives of Ceylon, like most other Asiatics, +have a strong repugnance to reading. This, however, has been to some +extent already overcome, both on the continent of India and in Ceylon, +as is evident from the facts of the establishment of native presses in +Hindostan, and of the success of a missionary newspaper in Ceylon for +the last seven years, which has now more than seven hundred +subscribers, of whom five-sixths are Tamils. The Church Missionary +Society have also a press amongst the Tamils; the Wesleyans +established theirs in the Singhalese districts, and the Baptists have +one at work in Kandy. One of the greatest, among the many triumphs of +the missionaries in Ceylon, has been in the education of girls. The +position of woman in that island, as in most parts of the East, was +one of inferiority and toil. She was not permitted to sit at table +with the males, or even to eat in the presence of her husband. Her +education was so wholly neglected that, amongst the Tamils, no woman +knew her alphabet, except such as rather gave the accomplishment a bad +name--the dancing girls and prostitutes attached to the temples, who +learned to read and write that they might copy songs and the legends +of their gods. It was, however, plain that no extensive good would be +effected without the education of women. The male converts could not +get suitable wives, and the children would be in the hands of +idolaters. In addition to their natural influence in a family, the +women of the Tamils, where this new attempt in education was first +made, had rights of property, which, notwithstanding the inferiority +of their social position, gave them peculiar influence. + + "'It is, we are told, a paramount object of ambition with + Tamil parents to secure an eligible alliance for their + daughters by the assignment of extravagant marriage + portions. These consist either of land, or of money secured + upon land; and as the law of Ceylon recognizes the absolute + control of the lady over the property thus conveyed to her + sole and separate use, the prevalence of the practice has, + by degrees, thrown an extraordinary extent of the landed + property of the country into the hands of the females, and + invested them with a corresponding proportion of authority + in its management.'" + +Impressed with the urgency of the object, the missionaries attempted +the establishment of female schools, and especially of boarding +schools, where Hindoo girls might be trained, and separated from evil +influences until they could be settled with the approbation of the +guardians. They had at first great difficulty in getting pupils, and +only enticed them by presents of dress, or some such cogent bribe, or +by engagements to give fortunes of five or six pounds to all who +remained in their institutions until suitably married. Even with these +allurements their early efforts promised no success. Parents were +inveighed against for allowing their daughters to be instructed, and +so strong was native prejudice that the children, when learning to +read, blushed with shame. These and other obstacles have been +surmounted, and, as the following extract shows, the missionaries have +no longer to allure, but must select their scholars. The Americans +made the first experiment at Oodooville, a few miles distant from the +fort of Jaffna:-- + + "'The hamlet of Oodooville is in the centre of a tract of + very rich land, and the buildings occupied by the Americans + were originally erected by the Portuguese for a Roman + Catholic church, and the residence of a friar of the order + of St. Francis. It is a beautiful spot, embowered in trees, + and all its grounds and gardens are kept in becoming order, + with the nicest care and attention. + + "'The institution opened in 1824, with about thirty pupils, + between the ages of five and eleven; and this, after eight + years of previous exertion and entreaty, was the utmost + number of female scholars who could be prevailed on to + attend from the whole extent of the province. This + difficulty has been long since overcome. Instead of + solicitations and promises, to allure scholars, the + missionaries have long since been obliged to limit their + admissions to one hundred, the utmost that their buildings + can accommodate; and now, so eager are the natives to secure + education for their daughters, that a short time before my + visit, on the occasion of filling up some vacancies, upwards + of sixty candidates were in anxious attendance, of whom only + seventeen could be selected, there being room for no more. + The earliest inmates of the institution were of low castes + and poor; whereas the pupils and candidates now are, many of + them, of most respectable families, and the daughters of + persons of property and influence in the district. + + "'The course of instruction is in all particulars adapted to + suit the social circumstances of the community; along with a + thorough knowledge of the Scriptures and the principles of + the Christian religion, it embraces all the ordinary + branches of female education, which are communicated both in + Tamil and in English; and combined with this intellectual + culture, the girls are carefully trained, conformably to the + usages of their country, in all the discipline and + acquirements essential to economy and domestic enjoyments at + home. Of two hundred and fifty females who have been thus + brought up at Oodooville, more than half have been since + married to Christians, and are now communicating to their + children the same training and advantages of which they have + so strongly felt the benefit themselves.'" + +"The consequence of these proceedings is, that the number of +households is fast increasing, where the mother, trained in the habits +of civilized life, and instructed in the principles of Christianity, +is anxious to give to her children the like advantages." + + + + +A PAPER OF ... TOBACCO. + + +We find a lively passage on tobacco in the pleasant new book by +Alphonse Karr. It must be borne in mind that, in France, tobacco is a +monopoly--and a very productive one--in the hands of government:-- + + "There is a family of poisonous plants, amongst which we may + notice the henbane, the datura stramonium, and the tobacco + plant. The tobacco plant is perhaps a little less poisonous + than the datura, but it is more so than the henbane, which + is a violent poison. Here is a tobacco plant--as fine a + plant as you can wish to see. It grows to the height of six + feet; and from the centre of a tuft of leaves, of a + beautiful green, shoot out elegant and graceful clusters of + pink flowers. + + "For a long while the tobacco plant grew unknown and + solitary in the wilds of America. The savage to whom we had + given brandy gave us in exchange tobacco, with the smoke of + which they used to intoxicate themselves on grand occasions. + The intercourse between the two worlds began by this amiable + interchange of poisons. + + "Those who first thought of putting tobacco dust up their + noses were first laughed at, and then persecuted more or + less. James I., of England, wrote against snuff-takers a + book entitled _Misocapnos_. Some years later, Pope Urban + VIII. excommunicated all persons who took snuff in churches. + The Empress Elizabeth thought it necessary to add something + to the penalty of excommunication pronounced against those + who used the black dust during divine service, and + authorised the beadles to confiscate the snuff-boxes to + their own use. Amurath IV. forbade the use of snuff under + pain of having the nose cut of. + + "No useful plant could have withstood such attacks. If + before this invention a man had been found to say, Let us + seek the means of filling the coffers of the state by a + voluntary tax; let us set about selling something which + every body will like to do without. In America there is a + plant essentially poisonous; if from its leaves you extract + an empyreumatic oil, a single drop of it will cause an + animal to die in horrible convulsions. Suppose we offer this + plant for sale chopped up or reduced to a powder. We will + sell it very dear, and tell people to stuff the powder up + their noses. + + "'That is to say, I suppose, you will force them to do so by + law?' + + "'Not a bit of it. I spoke of a voluntary tax. As to the + portion we chop up, we will tell them to inhale it, and + swallow a little of the smoke from it besides.' + + "'But it will kill them.' + + "'No; they will become rather pale, perhaps feel giddy, spit + blood, and suffer from colics, or have pains in the + chest--that's all. Besides, you know, although it has been + often said that habit is second nature, people are not yet + aware how completely man resembles the knife, of which the + blade first and then the handle had been changed two or + three times. In man there is no nature left--nothing but + habit remains. People will become like Mithridates, who had + learnt to live on poisons. + + "'The first time that a man will smoke he will feel + sickness, nausea, giddiness, and colics; but that will go + off by degrees, and in time he will get so accustomed to it, + that he will only feel such symptoms now and then--when he + smokes tobacco that is bad, or too strong--or when he is not + well, and in five or six other cases. Those who take it in + powder will sneeze, have a disagreeable smell, lose the + sense of smelling, and establish in their nose a sort of + perpetual blister.' + + "'Then, I suppose it smells very nice.' + + "'Quite the reverse. It has a very unpleasant smell; but, as + I said, we'll sell it very dear, and reserve to ourselves + the monopoly of it.' + + "'My good friend,' one would have said to any one absurd + enough to hold a similar language, 'nobody will envy you the + privilege of selling a weed that no one will care to buy. + You might as well open a shop and write on it: Kicks sold + here; or, Such-a-one sells blows, wholesale and retail. You + will find as many customers as for your poisonous weed.' + + "Well! who would have believed that the first speaker was + right, and that the tobacco speculation would answer + perfectly! The kings of France have written no satires + against snuff, have had no noses cut off, no snuff-boxes + confiscated. Far from it. They have sold tobacco, laid an + impost on noses, and given snuff-boxes to poets with their + portraits on the lid, and diamonds all round. This little + trade has brought them in I don't know how many millions a + year. The potato was far more difficult to popularize, and + has still some adversaries." + + + + +LORD JEFFREY AND JOANNA BAILLIE. + + +Joanna Baillie's first volume of poems was severely criticised in the +_Edinburgh Review_ by Jeffrey. In an article upon the deceased poetess +in _Chambers's Journal_, we have an account of her subsequent +relations with the reviewer. She visited Edinburgh in 1808. + + "As she did not refuse to go into company, she could not be + long in that city without encountering Francis Jeffrey, the + foremost man in the bright train of _beaux-esprits_ which + then adorned the society of the Scottish capital. He would + gladly have been presented to her; and if she had permitted + it, there is little doubt that in the eloquent flow of his + delightful and genial conversation, enough of the admiration + he really felt for her poetry must have been expressed, to + have softened her into listening at least with patience to + his suggestions for her improvement. But in vain did the + friendly Mrs. Betty Hamilton (authoress of 'The Cottagers of + Glenburnie') beg for leave to present him to her when they + met in her hospitable drawing-room; and equally in vain were + the efforts made by the good-natured Duchess of Gordon to + bring about an introduction which she knew was desired at + least by one of the parties. It was civilly but coldly + declined by the poetess; and though the dignified reason + assigned was the propriety of leaving the critic more + entirely at liberty in his future strictures than an + _acquaintance_ might perhaps feel himself, there seems + little reason to doubt that soreness and natural resentment + had something to do with the refusal." + + "It was in the autumn of 1820 that Miss Baillie paid her + last visit to Scotland, and passed those delightful days + with Sir Walter Scott at Abbotsford, the second of which is + so pleasantly given in Mr. Lockhart's life of the bard. Her + friends again perceived a change in her manners. They had + become blander, and much more cordial. She had probably been + now too long admired and reverently looked up to not to + understand her own position, and the encouragement which, + essentially unassuming as she was, would be necessary from + her to reassure the timid and satisfy the proud. She had + magnanimously forgiven and lived down the unjust severity of + her Edinburgh critic, and now no longer refused to be made + personally known to him. He was presented to her by their + mutual friend, the amiable Dr. Morehead. They had much + earnest and interesting talk together, and from that hour to + the end of their lives entertained for each other a mutual + and cordial esteem. After this, Jeffrey seldom visited + London without indulging himself in a friendly pilgrimage to + the shrine of the secluded poetess; and it is pleasing to + find him writing of her in the following cordial way in + later years: "_London_, April 28, 1840.--I forgot to tell + you that we have been twice out to Hampstead to hunt out + Joanna Baillie, and found her the other day as fresh, + natural, and amiable as ever--and as little like a Tragic + Muse. Since old Mrs. Brougham's death, I do not know so nice + an old woman." And again, in January 7, 1842.--"We went to + Hampstead, and paid a very pleasant visit to Joanna Baillie, + who is marvellous in health and spirits, and youthful + freshness and simplicity of feeling, and not a bit deaf, + blind, or torpid."" + + + + +_Authors and Books._ + + +DR. TITUS TOBLER, a Swiss savan, has just published a work entitled +_Golgotha, its Churches and Cloisters_, in the course of which he +undertakes the "Jerusalem question," or the discussion of the probable +localities of the Scripture narrative of the crucifixion. Among the +able German accounts of this treatise, which cannot fail to arrest the +attention of the sacred student, we find the following notice of +Professor Robinson, the first profound and adequate contemporary +authority upon the subject: "Until the American Robinson, all the +early comparisons and criticisms upon the holy sepulchre were based +much more upon instinct and furious sectarianism, than upon a generous +love of truth and a genuine insight into the matter. Only with +wearisome effort, and not without the consent of the whole Church +power, was Robinson's mighty grasp upon pious tradition repelled. In +the main question the learned Yankee was not altogether wrong. But he +is too rash in battle, too impatient, too reckless, too ambitious, and +his armor was evidently not proof in all parts. Even the knowledge of +the Semitic orient, of its antiquities and customs, seems, if we may +say so without offence to transatlantic vanity, a little threadbare. +But the Robinsonian breach in the wall was not to be entirely +plastered up and its traces concealed. This American has first +recognized the right way of breaking into the citadel of tradition; +others, with more or less skill, have followed his track and widened +the breach. But it was reserved for the inflexible ability of Dr. +Tobler to dig up the very foundations, although he is no centaur, no +giant, and in the pride of strength, does not scorn a childlike +faith." + + * * * * * + +Among recent German romances we note second and third editions of +JEREMIAS GOTTHELF'S _Sylvester-Dream_, and the _Peasant's Mirror, or a +Life-History_. The author is not much known beyond Germany, but is +there recognized as having the greatest certainty and correctness in +delineation, the most genial principle, and the soundest and freshest +life of any contemporary writer. The Sylvester-Dream is as vague and +fantastic, and of the same electrical effect, as the similar sparkling +flights of Dickens and Jean Paul. _Uriel the Devil_, a satirical +romance, in eight pictures, bears the name of Kaulbach, but whether +the author is related to William Kaulbach, the great painter, we have +no means of ascertaining. This, with the _Memorabilia of a German +House-Servant_ are spoiled by their imitations of Jean Paul, and the +latter is somewhat strongly infected with Hoffman's Phantasies. But +they are both books of more than common talent. Two romances by two +women are most curtly and contemptuously noticed, in a style of +uncourteous condemnation hardly to be paralleled in England or +America, in which countries the chivalry of private respect for the +fair sex always ameliorates condemnation of their writings. "Of these +two books there is little else to say than that they are moral and +respectable, and extremely well written for women. The former author +has the rare and memorable heroism in a woman to allow her heroine to +reach her thirty-fourth year." + +Levin Schuneking formerly Grand-Master at the Court of the Elector of +Cologne, has just published _The Peasant Prince_, a romance, called in +Germany his best work. + + * * * * * + +KOHL, the traveller or writer of travels, has just published a book +upon the Rhine, which is not of the usual character of his works, as +the author perhaps feared too much the criticising contrast of Victor +Hugo's _Rhine_, to undertake a detailed and sprightly description of +the present life and aspect of the country. The new work is, in fact, +an attempt to portray, according to Ritter's principles, a famous +river region in its geological, historical and statistical relations; +and from this point of view to present it vividly to the mind. The +contents are simple and succinctly arranged, and the book is a signal +success in the popularization of the results of recent geographical +research. It has the same relation to the old river guide books, that +Ritter's philosophical geography has to the old geographies. + + * * * * * + +ANASTASIUS GRUN, the famous German poet, has just edited the poetical +remains of Nicolaus Lenau, of whom Auerbach wrote a graceful +reminiscence for the German _Museum_, under the title of _Lenau's last +Summer_. The chief poem of the collection is entitled _Don Juan_, +which, although not fully finished, the German critics highly extol. +Soon after the death of Lenau, in a madhouse, last year, we gave some +account of him in the _International_. + + * * * * * + +Of Sir CHARLES LYELL'S Second Journey in America, which Mr. E. +Dieffenbach has rendered into German, the Germans say that its +geniality and _gentlemanliness_, its graceful and striking pictures of +the state of society, politics, and religion, and its popular +treatment of scientific subjects, make it altogether charming. A +reviewer notes what Lyell says of the universal tendency to read among +the American laboring classes, and quotes some interesting facts, as +that one house published eighty thousand copies of Eugene Sue's +Wandering Jew, in various forms and at various prices. The same house +had sold forty thousand copies of Macaulay's History of England, at +the end of the first three months, at prices varying from fifty cents +to four dollars, while other houses had sold twenty thousand copies, +and this sale of sixty thousand copies while Longman was selling +fifteen thousand at one pound twelve shillings. + + * * * * * + +The Countess HAHN-HAHN, who for several years has occupied in German +literature a position corresponding to that of George Sand in France, +with whose views of life and society she strongly sympathized, and +whose "Faustina" and other works were republished here, has recently +become a Roman Catholic, as our readers will have seen, and has just +written the following letter to a Hamburg journal: + + "To correct some misapprehension, I feel it to be my duty to + declare that the new edition of my complete works announced + by Alexander Duncker in Berlin is no new series, but an + edition with a new title. A new series of those writings + will never appear, as I no longer recognize as my own the + spirit in which they were written. + + IDA, COUNTESS HAHN-HAHN." + + + + * * * * * + +DAVID COPPERFIELD has been translated into German, with the +peculiarities of speech of the different classes of characters +unattempted. Old Pegotty and Ham speak "pure Castilian." It is easy to +see how the dramatic character of the book is thus lost. Indeed, +Dickens is almost the only very famous English author who is not much +translated. The Battle of Life, one of the least valuable and +characteristic of his works, is well known upon the Continent, because +it was so easy to translate. But what can a descendant of Dante, for +instance, ever know of the drolleries of Sam Weller? Fancy a +_spiritual_ Frenchman trying to catch the fun of Pickwick! + + * * * * * + +Mr. Judd's _Richard Edney_ induces a German critic to say of him, +"This is a new English poet of the Carlyle and Emerson school, who, +inspired by the example of Jean Paul, turn the English language +topsy-turvy, and introduce a jargon that makes us satisfied with our +own romantic barbarism." + + * * * * * + +Mrs. S. C. HALL'S _Sorrows of Women_ has been also translated into +German, and is highly praised. + + * * * * * + +In Vienna, most of the recent publications have more or less relation +to affairs. There is very little of pure literature. M. de Zsedenyi, +one of the most capable Hungarian political writers, has published a +work entitled _Responsibility of the Cabinet and the State of +Hungary_. The author of _The Genesis of the Revolution_, (supposed to +be Count Hartig, who was a Minister without portfolio under Prince +Metternich) has again appeared before the public with 146 closely +printed pages of _Night Thoughts_, some of which had better never have +seen the light of day. A Mr. Schwarz has published a work advocating +"protection," and in it he spares neither England nor the Austrian +Minister of Commerce. Free trade notions have indeed been attacked in +a score of books by continental thinkers lately, and free trade +opinions seem to have received, throughout Europe, a most decided +check. + + * * * * * + +The late Prince VALDIMAR, of Russia, made three or four years ago a +journey to India, and besides taking part with the British army in +sundry engagements, occupied himself busily in investigating the +manners and customs of the people, the antiquities, history, and +natural productions of the country. He wrote an account of his +journey, and illustrated it with numerous drawings. His family is now +causing this to be printed and the drawings to be engraved, and in a +short time the work will be completed. Only three hundred copies are +to be struck off, and they are to be presented to royal and +illustrious personages. The getting up of the publication will cost +40,000 thalers. + + * * * * * + +M. LEON DE MONBEILLARD has written a little treatise upon the _Ethics +of Spinoza_, in which--being a spiritualist who admits the dogma of +the creation and of human personality--he is said to have refuted the +great philosopher, yet without calumniating or disfiguring his +doctrines, and with a constant admiration of all that is truly +admirable in Spinoza. + +The work has not yet crossed the sea, but we cannot help thinking that +the colossal views of so great a mind are not to be entirely disproved +in the delicate dimensions of an "_opuscule_," as the able little +treatise of M. Montbeillard is called by the critics. + + * * * * * + +JOSEPH RUSSEGGER, imperial director of the mines at Schemnitz, has +published the results of five years' travel in Europe, Asia, and +Africa, comprising a universal scientific and artistic as well as +social and picturesque view of those countries. It is in four volumes, +very splendidly illustrated in all these departments, and is published +at a cost of forty dollars. + + * * * * * + +Dr. DAVID FRIEDRICH STRAUSS, the famous rationalist, has published a +work entitled _Christian Marklein_, a picture of life and character +from the present time, giving charming if not very new views of the +Wurtemberg theological schools. + + * * * * * + +In the _German Universities_, it appears from the census just taken, +with the exceptions of those of Koenigsberg, Kiel, and Rostock, the +numbers for which have not been officially returned, there were for +the last term on the registers 11,945 students. The universities may +be classed, according to the number of students at each, in this +order: Berlin, Munich, Bonn, Leipsic, Breslau, Tubingen, Goettingen, +Wurzburg, Halle, Heidelberg, Giessen, Erlangen, Friburg, Jena, +Marburg, Greifswalde. Berlin has 2,107 students, and Greifswalde only +189. The number studying the law is 3,973; of theological students, +2,539; pursuing the study of philosophy and philology, 2,357; medical +students, 2,146; and there are 549 engaged in political economy. Halle +reckons the greatest proportional number of theological students, +there being 330 out of a total of 597; Heidelberg has most students of +law; Wurzburg, most of medicine; and Jena, most students of theology. +The greatest numbers of foreign students are to be found at +Heidelberg, Gottingen, Jena, Wurzburg, and Leipsic. + + * * * * * + +The _Independence Belge_ gives an account of Frau Pfeiffer, a woman +who left Vienna several years ago to travel alone in the most distant +and unfrequented parts of the world. After visiting Palestine and +Egypt, Scandinavia and Iceland, she landed in Brazil, penetrated the +primitive forests, and lived among the natives; from Valparaiso she +traversed the Pacific to Otaheite, thence to China, Singapore, Ceylon, +Hindostan, to the caves of Adjunta and Ellora to Bombay, whence she +sailed up the Tigris, to Bagdad, and then entered upon the arduous +journey to Babylon, Nineveh, and into Kurdistan; and passing to the +Caucasus, she embarked for Constantinople, visiting Greece in her way +home to Germany. She is now in London, visiting the Great Exposition. + + * * * * * + +FERDINAND HILLER, Superintendent of the Cologne Musical Academy, and a +contemporary and friend of Mendelssohn, whom, in the beginning, it was +supposed he would surpass as a composer, has been recently in Paris, +renewing his old experiences. He saw there most of the famous literary +and artistic notabilities, and gossips pleasantly about them in the +_feuilleton_ of a German journal. He saw Henry Heine, whose body is +almost dead, but whose mind is as vigorous as ever. Hiller says that +Heine chatted with him about God and himself, of the King of Prussia, +and of Hiller--of the Frankfort Parliament and his own songs. Heine's +features, he says, are interesting, and even more beautiful than they +were formerly. The fallen cheeks leave the noble oval of the head and +the delicately chiselled nose mournfully apparent. The eyes are +closed. He can only see with the left, by elevating the lid with his +finger. He wears a close-trimmed beard, and his hair is as brown and +luxuriant as ever. The slim white hand is ideally beautiful. It +belongs, according to the doctrine of Carns, to the class of the +purely psychological. Heine had just written a song for a German +composer; and that no poet can sing more sweetly for music, the many +of his verses which Schubert has "married to immortal" tune +sufficiently indicate. Mendelssohn also composed the most dreamily +delicate music to Heine's "Moonlight on the Ganges." + +Ingres, the painter, now seventy years old, the pride and model of the +severe classicists of the French school, is a comely old man, with +rich dark hair, luminous eye, and smooth brow. He is still light and +active in movement, and a genial serenity broods over his whole +character and manner. His love of music is no less enthusiastic than +that of a lover for his mistress. The great German composers are great +gods to Ingres. The remembrance of a beautiful sonata fills his eyes +with tears. Ingres has recently finished a portrait, which is not +inferior to any thing he has ever done. + +Of musical men, Hiller saw Halevy, a successful composer and genial +companion, with a gentle strain of irony in his conversation. Hector +Berlioz has not grown to be fifty without some of the snowy tracks of +time, but the volcanic genius is still alive. His conversation is like +an eruption, now a burning lava-stream of glowing inspiration, now +sulphurous mockery and scorn, and now, wide-flying, a shower of sharp +stones of criticism. He tells the most laughable stories of his London +life, and his musical difficulties and experiences there. In Paris he +is only librarian of the "Conservatoire," and director of great +concerts. + +Jules Janin, the sparkling "J. J." of the _Journal des Debats_, and +the grand seigneur of the Parisian _feuilletonistes_, leads the most +loitering, pleasant life, and grows merry and fat thereby. He sits +upon a luxurious ottoman, wrapped in a gorgeous _robe de chambre_, by +the fire-place of his beautifully adorned study, and there among his +books and bijoux of taste and art, gives audience to all the world. He +has visits without end. He gives instruction and advice, hears all +that every body has to say, applauds extravagantly, as he writes, all +things in this world and some more, until it is time to go to dinner, +or to see a new vaudeville. He has beside a beautiful wife, and +suffers with the gout. Could his cup be fuller? + +The poet Beranger, too, who seems to Hiller the songfullest of +song-writers, charmed him by the gravity, and sweetness, and nobility +of his character. Beranger received him quietly at Passy, near Paris, +where he resides, a hale old man of more than seventy years. His hair +is white, but his face has the freshness of blooming health. In his +features there is a remarkable blending of geniality and intelligent +sharpness. They are largely moulded, and their general expression is +as generous, fine, and graceful as his verses. The perfect simplicity +of his household is very striking. The only hints of any luxury are +some medallion portraits, among which Hiller observed Napoleon and +Lamartine. Yet this severity is so evidently the result of taste and +not of poverty, that it has no unpleasant effect. The beauty and +richness of his conversation filled his visitor with the greatest +regret that he could not record it all. His first great remembrance is +the destruction of the Bastille. His essay in literature was by the +songs which circulated universally in manuscript before they were +printed. But his literary ambition was toward works of great scope and +extent, and it was not until after thirty years of age that he felt +distinctly what he could do best. Of his songs he said, "I present to +myself a song, as a great composition--I sketch a complete plan, +beginning, middle, and end, and make the refrain the quintessence of +the whole." + +While Beranger was finding a letter, he opened a drawer, in which +Hiller saw scraps of song and sketches of poems, which he longed to +seize, as a wistful boy would grab at the money piles in a banker's +window. The following is the letter in which Beranger speaks of the +Marseillaise: + + "I thank you, Madame, for the pleasant letter which you + addressed to me. It has revealed to me a noble heart, and + although I do not believe such hearts as rare as many say, + it is always a fair fortune to meet them. + + "What you say of the Marseillaise is entirely just. But + remember, Madame, that it is the people itself, which always + selects its songs, words, and melodies, uninfluenced by any + one in the world. Once made, this choice endures, with + authority even among the later generations, whose experience + would not have made it. + + "I have often enough thought about a new song of the kind, + but I am too old now, and the circumstances of the time have + robbed my voice of power. You, Madame, saw the true thought + of the song which should be now sung, and I lament that you + find the poetical harness not flexible enough for it. + + "As to your remarks upon my new songs, I must say that I + trouble myself as little about the destiny of my younger + daughters as about that of their elder sisters. And I am + surprised that you speak to me of a Lierman, who should have + known me. Excuse, Madame, my delay in acknowledging and + thanking you for your letter, and believe me your devoted, + + BERANGER." + + + + * * * * * + +A recent Italian translation of the _Diplomats and Diplomacy of +Italy_, which first appeared in Professor Von Raumer's _Pocket Book_ +for 1841, contains three hitherto unprinted MSS. from the Venetian +archives. They are curious and interesting, as indicating the strict +surveillance which the republic maintained, by means of its +ambassadors, over the whole world of the period. + + * * * * * + +MR. WILLIS'S _Hurry-Graphs_ have a French rival in the _Pensees d'un +Emballeur_, by M. Commerson, chief editor of the _Tintamarre_ (Paris +journal.) They are called fantastic, original and forcible. + + * * * * * + +A work to create some surprise, coming from Spain, is the _Persecution +of the Spanish Protestants by Philip the Second_, by Don ADOLPHO DE +CASTRO. The name of Castro is honorably distinguished in Spanish +literature. The present author is a grandson, we believe, of Rodriguez +de Castro, who wrote the BIBLIOTECA ESPANOLA. He displays abilities +and a temper suitable for the task he attempted; he has joined to +careful and intelligent research a bravery of characterization which +quite relieves his work from the censures which belong to most Spanish +compositions of its class. That he could print in Madrid a work in +which statecraft and ecclesiastical persecutions are so frankly dealt +with, is a fact of more significance than a dozen such revolutions as +have vexed the slumbers of other states. In Spain, above all +countries, the spread of a taste for historical studies must be +regarded as pregnant with important consequences. It shows that the +barriers of ignorance and self-conceit, which have so long isolated +that country from the rest of Europe, are beginning to be effectually +broken down. To the common Protestant reader, indeed, De Castro's work +will appear studiously moderate, or perhaps timid. But it should be +remembered that it was written for a public which is four or five +centuries behind our own, in all that constitutes true liberty and +enlightenment; and what would appear most gratuitous cowardice here +may easily enough be remarkable courage in Spain. To speak in favor of +Protestantism at all, still more to become the biographer of the +Protestant martyrs, is an undertaking which demands from a Spaniard, +even of the present day, no ordinary amount of resolution. And we +should be by no means surprised to hear that De Castro has been, in +one way or another, made to pay some penalty of his rash enterprise. +That it is both a dangerous and an unpopular one is manifest from the +caution with which historical as well as religious topics are treated. +Compiling what we cannot better characterize than as a Spanish +supplement to Fox's "Book of Martyrs," the author nowhere professes +himself a Protestant. And the slow and gradual way in which he unmasks +the character of Philip II., shows how haughty and sensitive are the +public whom he has undertaken to disabuse of a portion of the +inveterate pride and prejudice which they nourish on all subjects +affecting their church or their country. On the whole, however, though +the Protestant reader will occasionally desiderate a little more +warmth and indignation when chronicling such atrocities, we should say +that the book rather gains than loses by this studied moderation both +in tone and opinions. It certainly gains in dignity and +impressiveness; and it is vastly better adapted to make its way with +the author's countrymen, than if he had betrayed at the outset a +sectarian bias, which would have revolted them, before they had time +to make acquaintance with the sad and sanguinary events of which he is +the historian. The ground gone over is necessarily much the same as in +M'Crie's _History of the Reformation in Spain_, a work which possibly +suggested the undertaking, and to which De Castro gives due credit for +learning and ability. His advantage over the Scottish historian +consists in his command of a variety of documents in print and in +manuscript, to which access could be had only in Spain, especially the +publications of the Spanish reformers themselves, which are +exceedingly rare in consequence of the pains taken to destroy them by +the Inquisition. The most remarkable result obtained by De Castro's +researches, and the feature in his work for which he claims the +greatest credit is the new light he has thrown on the history of Don +Carlos. But unfortunately the question as to the Protestantism of that +prince remains in much the same obscurity as before. His having been +tainted by heretical opinions would aid certainly in accounting for +his father's malignity towards him; but otherwise there seems to be no +proof of the fact; and our own opinion is, that his tolerant views as +to the treatment of the Flemish provinces were misconstrued into bias +towards Protestant doctrines. The inference relied on by De Castro and +others, that if he had remained Catholic he must have shared his +father's extravagant bigotry, is lame. Don Carlos did no more than +follow the usual course of heirs apparent when he disapproved of his +father's tyranny; and his sympathies with Aragon are not less marked +than those with Flanders. + + * * * * * + +LONGWORTH, who distinguished himself in the Hungarian troubles, is +writing a history of them. There is promise of so many books upon the +subject that we shall be able to find out nothing about it. By the +way, we wonder that no one has yet chosen for a motto to place upon +his title-page, this sentence, which Lord Bolingbroke wrote more than +a hundred years ago: + + "_I mean to speak of the troubles in Hungary. Whatever they + become in their progress, they were caused originally by the + usurpations and persecutions of the emperor. And when the + Hungarians were called rebels first, they were called so for + no other reason than this, that they would not be slaves_." + +It is from his _Letters on History_, and occurs where he has been +speaking of the hostility of foreign powers to Austria. + + * * * * * + +A PENNY MAGAZINE, in the Bengalese language, is to be established in +Calcutta, under the editorship of Baboo Rajendralal Mittra, the +librarian of the Asiatic Society. It is to be illustrated by +electrotypes executed in England, of woodcuts which have already +appeared in the _Penny Magazine_, the _Saturday Magazine_, and the +_Illustrated News_. + + * * * * * + +A NATIVE of India has translated the tragedy of _Othello_ into +Bengalee Othello's cognomen in the Oriental version is Moor Bahadoor +(General Moor). + + * * * * * + +IN ITALY, at Turin and Florence, a great number of valuable works have +been issued, illustrative of the recent revolutions. They do not claim +to be histories, for history is impossible, while events are +contemporary and cannot be contemplated from a universal point of +principle and analysis. But these volumes are what the French with +their happy facility would call studies for history. They are the +material from which the great historic artists must compose their +pictures--they are the diary of the movement--they follow all the +changes of the time, hopeful or despondent, with the fidelity and +closeness of an Indian upon the trail. We have seen several of these +publications, and hope ere many months to see a treatise upon the +republican movement in Europe from a pen well able to sketch it, and +which is fed by ink which is never for a moment red. + +The largest and most important of these works is that of M. Gualterio, +just published in Florence, which comprises several letters of the +Austrian lackey, Francis IV., Duke of Modenas, and throws light upon +many of the darkest passages of the dark Austria-Italico policy. Among +other letters, also, one of the most remarkable is that of the +Cardinal Gonsalvi, well known as the able and humane Prime Minister of +Pius VII., and to whose memory there is now upon the walls of St. +Peter's a monument by Thorwaldsen, of which a statue of the Cardinal +is part. This letter speaks of the miserable conduct of the political +trials, and "justice," he says, "charity, the most ordinary decency +demands that all humanity shall not be so trampled under foot. What +will the English and French journals say--not the Austrian, when they +learn of this massacre of the innocents." This was thirty years ago. +But at this moment, were there an able and humane minister at the +Vatican, how truly might he repeat Gonsalvi's words! + +It is in works like these, and in the journals and pamphlets published +during the intensity of the struggle, that the still-surviving Italian +genius, which it has been so long the northern policy to smother and +repress, betrayed itself. Nor among these works, as striking another +key, ought we to omit the Souvenirs of the War of Lombardy by M. de +Talleyrand-Perigord. Duke of Dino--and the history of the Revolution +of Rome by Alphonse Balleydier. The Souvenirs are devoted to the glory +of the unhappy King Charles Albert, the dupe of his own vanity and the +victim of his own weakness. + +Upon the pages of M. le Duc de Dino, however, he blazes very +brilliantly as a martyr--martyr of a cause hopeless even in the first +flush of success--martyr of an army without enthusiasm, of a +liberalism without freedom or heroism. The English royalists, the +reader will remember, were fond of the same title for the unhappy +Charles I. + +In M. Balleydier's history of the Roman revolution, Rossi is the +central figure, in whose fate there was something extremely heroic, +because he had received information, just as he quitted the Pope's +palace to go to the assembly, from a priest who had heard it in +confidence, that he was to be attacked, and he must have known the +Italian, and especially the Roman character, sufficiently to have felt +assured of his fate. After hearing the priest, Rossi said to him +calmly: "I thank you, Monseigneur, the cause of the Pope is the cause +of God," and stepping into his carriage drove to the palace of the +Cancelleria, at whose door he fell dead, by a stroke that wounded much +more mortally the cause which condemned him, than the cause he +espoused. + + * * * * * + +With all our waste of money, and continual boasts of encouraging +individual merit, we have not yet a single pension in this country +except to homicides. "They manage these things better in France." A +return just published in the official _Moniteur_, shows that one +department of the government, that of Public Instruction, distributes +the following pensions to literary persons: five of from $400 to $480 +a year; nine of $300 to $360; twenty-nine of $200 to $240; thirty-four +of $120 to $180; and fifteen of $40 to $100. To the widows and +families of deceased authors, two of $400 to $450; six of $300 to +$360; seventeen of $200 to $240; twenty-five of $120 to $180; and +thirty-one of $40 to $100. In addition to this, it may be mentioned, +that the same department distributes a large sum annually, under the +title of "Encouragements," to authors in temporary distress, or +engaged in works of literary importance and but small pecuniary +profit. It also awards several thousands to learned societies, for +literary and scientific missions, purchases of books, &c. The +department of the Interior gives $2,500 a year in subscriptions to +different works, and nearly $30,000 for "indemnities and assistance to +authors." The other departments of the government also employ +considerable sums in purchasing books, and in otherwise encouraging +literary men. It is said indeed to be no unusual thing for an author, +laboring under temporary inconvenience, to apply for a few hundred, +or, in some cases, thousand francs, and they are almost always +awarded. No shame whatever is attached to the application, and no very +extraordinary credit to the gift. Surely, France must be a Paradise +for authors. + + * * * * * + +A BOOKSELLER in Paris announces: "Reflections upon my conversations +with the Duke de la Vauguyon, by Louis-Augustus Dauphin, (Louis XVI.,) +accompanied by a fac simile of the MS., and with an introduction by M. +FALLOUX, formerly Minister of Public Instruction." Falloux is a +churchman of the stamp of Montalembert. We are apt to doubt the +genuineness of these luckily discovered MSS. of eminent persons. We +have no more faith in this case than we had in that of the Napoleon +novels, mentioned in the last _International_. + + * * * * * + +The late M. De BALZAC, who, besides being one of the cleverest writers +of the age, was a brilliant man of society, and a very notorious +_roue_, left, it appears, voluminous memoirs, to be printed without +erasure or addition, and his friends are much alarmed by the prospect +of their appearance. It is said that his custom of extorting letters +from his friends upon any subject at issue, under pretence of +possessing an imperfect memory, and his method of classing them, will +render his memoirs one of the completest scandalous _tableaux_ of the +nineteenth century that could ever be presented to the contemplation +of another age. Opposition to the publication has already been +offered, but without success, and the princess-widow is busily engaged +with the preparations for printing, intending to have the memoirs +before the world early in June. They extend minutely over more than +twenty years. + + * * * * * + +M. E. QUINET, who was long associated with Michelet, in the College of +France, and who is known as a writer by his _Alemagne et Italie, +Ultramontanisme, Vacances en Espagne_, etc. has published in Paris +_L'Enseignement du Peuple_. "On the 24th day of February, 1848," he +says, "a social miracle places in the hands of France the control of +its destiny. France, openly consulted, replies by taking up a position +in the scale of nations between Portugal and Naples. There must be a +cause of this voluntary servitude; the object of these pages is to +discover this cause, and, if possible, to protect futurity against the +effects of its operation." This is the problem he proposes to solve, +and he concludes that the important secret is in the fact, that the +"national religion is in direct contradiction with the national +revolution." "Chained by the circumstance of its religion to the +middle ages, France believes that it can march onward to the end of a +career opened to it solely because of its protest against every great +principle of government which those ages held sacred." He has worked +ten years, he tells us, to demonstrate two things: The first, that +catholic states are all perishing; the second, that no political +liberty can be realized in those states. "I have shown," he continues, +"Italy the slave of all Europe, Spain a slave within, Portugal a slave +within and without, Ireland a slave to England, Poland a slave to +Russia, Bohemia, Hungary, slaves of Austria--Austria herself, the +mother of all slavery, a slave to Russia. Looking for similar proofs +out of Europe, I have shown in America, on the one hand, the +increasing greatness of the heretical United States; on the other +hand, the slavery of the catholic democracies and monarchies of the +south: _in the former a_ WASHINGTON, _in the second a_ ROSAS." M. +Quinet considers that the only remedy applicable to an evil of this +magnitude is the utter separation of church and state. Leave but the +slightest connection between the two, and the former will inevitably +overpower the latter. The one is a compact, organized, single-minded +body; the other is scattered, loosely put together, swayed to and fro +by every change in the political atmosphere, and can offer no +resistance that is sufficient to oppose the steady, unremittent +attacks of its enemy. The two, therefore, must not be placed in +collision. The very indifference manifested towards the national +religion by the great bulk of the French people is the cause why so +much danger is to be apprehended from the efforts of the church. +Because a religion is dead, says M. Quinet, there is the danger. A +living religion, like that of the puritans, may certainly mould the +government into a despotic form, but it communicates to it, at least, +a portion of its own power and energy, whilst a dead religion +infallibly occasions death to the state and to the people with which +it is politically and organically united. He argues the whole subject +with eloquent force, and with not a little of the earnestness which +reminds the reader of his personal controversies with the Roman +Catholic Church. + + * * * * * + +A history of _Marie Stuart_, by I. M. Dargaud, has just been published +in Paris, and for its brilliancy, completeness, clearness, and +impartiality, attracts much attention. Queen Mary of Scotland was one +of the famously beautiful women whose history is romance. She must be +named with the heroines of history and the figures of poetry, with +Helen, and Aspasia, and Cleopatra. Certainly, we trace no more +sparkling and sorrowful career than hers upon the confused page of +history, and our admiration, condemnation, surprise, sorrow and +delight, fall, summed in a tear, upon her grave. In this work it +appears that she was undoubtedly privy to the death of Darnley. During +his assassination, she was dancing at Holyrood. The fearful +fascination of a brigand like Bothwell, for so proud and passionate a +nature as Mary's, is well explained by M. Dargaud. He is just, also, +to her own tragedy, the long and bitter suffering, the betrayal of +friends; the final despair, and the laying aside two crowns to mount +the scaffold. She died nobly, and as most of the illustrious victims +of history have died; as if nature, unwilling that they should live, +would yet compassionately show the world in their ending, that heroism +and nobility were not altogether unknown to them. + +_Apropos_ of this history of Queen Mary, Lamartine has written a +letter to Beranger, which praises the work exceedingly, but much more +glorifies himself. The letter is a perfect specimen of that vanity, +wherein only Lamartine is sublime: "Ah! if you or I had had such a +heroine at twenty years, what epic poems and what songs would have +been the result!" + + * * * * * + +THE COUNT MONTALEMBERT, the fervid champion of Catholicism in the +French chamber, has just published a work, entitled _The higher and +lower Radicalism: in its enmity to Religion, Right, Freedom and +Justice, in France, Switzerland and Italy_. + + * * * * * + +Although M. GUIZOT appears to be as busily engaged as ever in +politics, the advertisements of the booksellers would induce a belief +that his whole attention is given to literary studies. He has just +published _Etudes Biographiques sur la Revolution de l'Angleterre_, +which, with his sketch of General Monk, he says, "form a sort of +gallery of portraits of the English Revolution, in which personages of +the most different characters appear together--chiefs or champions of +sects or parties, parliamentarians, cavaliers, republicans, levellers, +who, either at the end of the political conflicts in which they were +engaged, or when in retirement towards the close of their lives, +resolved to describe themselves, their own times, and the part they +played therein. In the drawing together of such men," he adds, "and in +the mixture of truth and vanity which characterize such works, there +is, if I do not deceive myself, sufficient to interest persons of +serious and curious minds, especially among us and in these times; for +in spite of the profound diversity of manners, contemporary +comparisons and applications will present themselves at every step, +whatever may be the pains taken not to seek them." The studies here +collected we suppose are not new; they are doubtless the articles +which the author contributed to the _Biographie Universelle_ and other +works before he became a minister--perhaps, as in the cases of his +"Monk" and "Washington," with scarcely a word of alteration. The work +is, however, interesting. The period of English history to which it +refers has been profoundly studied by Guizot, and it would probably be +impossible to select a mode of treating it that would admit of more +effective or attractive delineation. The life of Ludlow appears as the +first of the series. + + * * * * * + +French Literature tends in a remarkable degree towards monarchical +institutions. Guizot and his associates publicly advocate the +Restoration. M. Cousin has published a new argument against +Republicanism, and M. Romieu, whose curious book, which men doubted +whether to receive as a jest or an earnest argument, _The Era of the +Caesars_--in which he declared his belief that the true and only law +for France is _force_--is before the public again, in a volume +entitled _Le Spectre Rouge de 1852_. He predicts the subversion of all +order, and such terrible scenes as have never been witnessed even in +France, unless some one bold, resolute, scorning all "constitutional" +figments, and relying solely on his soldiers--some one who shall say +_L'etat c'est moi!_ shall save France. A Cromwell, a Francia, or in +default of such Louis Napoleon--any one who will constitute himself an +autocrat, will become the saviour of France! + + * * * * * + +The COUNT DE JARNAC, formerly secretary and _charge d'affaires_ of the +French embassy in London, has published a novel which is well spoken +of, entitled the _Dernier d'Egmont_. + + * * * * * + +A French traveller in upper Egypt has collected for the Parisian +Ethnological Museum copies of many curious inscriptions upon the walls +of the great temple of Philae. Among others, there is the modern one of +Dessaix, which the Parisians think "reflects the grandiose simplicity +of the Republic." "The sixth year of the Republic, the thirteenth +Messidor, a French army commanded by Bonaparte descended upon +Alexandria; twenty days after, the army having routed the Mamelukes at +the Pyramids, Dessaix, commanding the first division, pursued them +beyond the Cataracts, where he arrived the thirteenth Ventose of the +year seven, with Brigadier-Generals Davoust, Friant, and Belliard. +Donzelot, chief of the staff, La Tournerie, commanding the artillery, +Eppler, Chief of the twenty-first Light Infantry. The thirteenth +Ventose, year seven of the Republic, third March, year of J.C., 1799. +Engraved by Casteix." The last date, however, strikes us as a base +compromise to the _temporal_ prejudices of the world, on the part of +the author of this "simple and grandiose" inscription. + + * * * * * + +M. de Saint Beauve has published in Paris some hitherto inedited MSS. +of MIRABEAU, consisting of _Dialogues_ between the great orator and +the celebrated Sophie (Madame de Monnier), written when Mirabeau was +confined in the fortress of Vincennes, principally, it seems, from the +pleasure he had in reflecting on the object of his passion. He gives +an account of their first meeting, the growth of their love, and their +subsequent adventures, in the language, no doubt, as well as he could +recollect, that had passed between them, in conversation or in +letters. There is not much that is absolutely new in these papers, or +that throws any peculiar light on Mirabeau's character, but nothing +could have been written by him which is without a certain interest, +especially upon the subject of these _Dialogues_. Circulating-library +people had always a morbid desire to see illustrious personages while +under the influence of the tender passion. + + * * * * * + +_Progression Constante de la Democratie pendant soixante ans_, is the +title of a new Parisian brochure well noticed. Of the same character +is the _Le Mont-Saint-Michel_, by Martin Bernard, a serial publication +devoted to the details of the sufferings of Democratic martyrs. The +author is now in exile, having shown himself too republican for the +present Republic. + + * * * * * + +Victor Hugo's paper, _L'Evenement_, says of Louis Philippe's Gallery +at the Palais Royal, which the heirs now wish to sell, that it has two +paintings of Gericault's, the Chasseur and the Cuirassier, and that +they symbolize the two phases of the Empire, victorious France and the +Invasion. He hopes, therefore, that they will not be permitted to go +out of France. + + * * * * * + +William Howitt is writing a life of George Fox. + + * * * * * + +Mr. Ticknor's _History of Spanish Literature_ is reviewed in _La Revue +des Deux Mondes_ by PROSPER MERIMEE, of whose recent travels in the +United States we have had occasion to speak once or twice in _The +International_. M. Merimee is the author of a _Life of Peter the +Cruel_, of which a translation has been published within a few months +by Bentley in London, and he professes to be thoroughly acquainted +with Spanish literature, from a loving study of it while residing in +Spain. Perhaps he had some thought of writing its history himself; he +certainly seems to bestow unwillingly the praises he is compelled to +give Mr. Ticknor, whose extraordinary merits he however distinctly +admits. "The writer of this History," he says, "has gone into immense +researches; he has applied himself deeply and conscientiously to the +Castilian language and the Spanish authors: he has read, he has +examined, every thing that the English, French, and Germans, had +published on this subject. He possessed an advantage over the critics +of old Europe--that of being able to treat literary questions without +mixing up with them recollections of national rivalries." He concludes +his article by saying, "This work is an inestimable repertory; it must +be eminently useful in a library. It comprises very good biographical +notices of the Spanish authors, and numerous abstracts which obviate +the necessity of reference to the original authorities. The +translations, which are copious, are executed with surpassing taste, +to afford an idea of the style of the Spanish poets. Thanks to the +flexibility of the English language, and the ability or command of the +author in using it, the translations are of signal fidelity and +elegance. The rhythm, the flow, the idiomatic grace and _curiosa +felicitas_, are rendered in the most exact and the happiest manner." + + * * * * * + +By a letter in the London _Times_, signed ERNESTO SUSANNI, it appears +that M. LIBRI may be a very much wronged person. The readers of the +_International_ will remember his trial, a few months ago, and his +condemnation to ten years' imprisonment (in default of judgment), and +deprivation of the various high offices he held, for having, as was +alleged, stolen from the Mazarine Library, besides others, the +following volumes: _Petrarca, gli Triomphi_, 1475: Bologna, in folio; +_Pamphyli poetae lepidissimi Epigrammatum libri quatuor; Faccio degli +Uberti, opera chiamata Ditta Munde Venezia_, 1501, quarto; _Phalaris +Epistole, traducte del Latino da Bartol: Fontio_, 1471, quarto; +_Dante, Convivio_: Florence, 1490, quarto; &c. M. Susanni alleges that +the learned bibliographer, M. Silvestre, has discovered in the +Mazarine Library that, contrary to the very circumstantial affirmation +of the deed of accusation, the above-mentioned books _are still in +their places on the shelves of that library_, from which they have +never been absent, and where any one may go and see them, and verify +the fact for himself. The persons employed to draw up the charges +against M. Libri never appeared to understand that two different +editions of a work were totally different things, and they have +accused M. Libri of having stolen a work from a public library, simply +because M. Libri possessed an edition of that work, though different +from the one the library had lost, or, better still, which it had +never lost at all. Considering all the circumstances, and the +attention which was attracted to the case throughout the learned +world, this is very curious: it will form one of the most remarkable +of the _causes celebres_. + + * * * * * + +The new Paris review, _La Politique Nouvelle_, starts bravely its +career as a rival of _La Revue des Deux Mondes_. The leading article, +"La Constitution, c'est l'order," is by M. Marie, who was one of the +chiefs of the Provisional Government, and Henri Martin, Gustave +Cazavan, and Paul Rochery, are among the contributors; but the best +attraction of the work to those who do not care for its politics, is +the beginning of a charming novel by Madame Charles Reybaud, the +authoress of Tales of the Old Convents of Paris. + + * * * * * + +Lamartine's reputation declines with every new attempt of his at +money-making. There was never a man capable of doing well a half of +what he advertises. He is writing a romance on the destruction of the +Janizaries, for the _Pays_, another romance for the _Siecle_, and +occasionally gives _feuilletons_ to other journals; he is re-editing a +complete edition of his own works, writing a history of the +Restoration, and a history of Turkey, and has lately begun to edit a +daily paper. He also continues the monthly pamphlet, of between thirty +and forty pages, the _Conseiller du Peuple_, on political matters, and +produces once a month a periodical, _Les Foyers du Peuple_, in which +he gives an account of his travels, with tales and verses. + + * * * * * + +The Paris correspondent of the London _Literary Gazette_ states, that +an Assyrian, named FURIS SCHYCYAC, is at present attracting some +attention in the literary circles. He had just arrived from London, +where, it appears, he translated the Bible into Arabic, for one of the +religious associations. He has accompanied his _debut_ in +Parisian society with a _mudh_, or poem, to Paris, in which he almost +out-Orientals the Orientals in his exaggerated compliments and +gorgeous imagery. Paris, he declares, amongst other things, is the +"terrestrial paradise," the "_sejour_ of houris," and "Eden;" whilst +the people are, _par excellence_, "the strong, the generous, the +brave, the sincere-hearted, with no faults to diminish their virtues." +This master-stroke has opened the Parisian circles to the cunning +Assyrian. + + * * * * * + +M. Leroux has published in Paris a volume of Reminiscences of Travel +and Residence in the United States, with observations on the +Administration of Justice in this country. + + * * * * * + +The last _Edinburgh Review_ has an article on COUSIN, in which a +general survey is taken of his life and of his works, of which he has +just completed the publication of a new edition. The _London Leader_ +says that the critic ingeniously represents all Cousin's plagiarisms +as the consequences of the progressive and _assimilative_ intellect of +the eclectic chief; that it would be easy with the same facts to tell +a very different story; and correct the reviewer's "mistake," where he +talks of Cousin as the translator of Plato. Cousin's name is on the +title-page; but not one dialogue, the _Leader_ avers, did he +translate; it even doubts his ability to translate one. What he did +was to take old translations by De Grow and others, here and there +polishing the style; and the dialogues that were untranslated he gave +to certain clever young men in want of employment and glad of his +patronage. He touched up their style and wrote the Preface to each +Dialogue, for which the work bears his name! _This_ explains the +puzzling fact that the translator of Plato should so completely +misunderstand the purpose of the dialogue he is prefacing. Gigantic +indeed would be the labors of Cousin--if he performed them himself. + + * * * * * + +Walter Savage Landor is now seventy-six years of age. He writes no +more great works, but he is hardly less industrious than a +penny-a-liner in writing upon all sorts of subjects for the journals. +We find his communications almost every week in _The Examiner_, _The +News_, _The Leader_, _Leigh Hunt's Journal_, and other periodicals. +Sometimes he rises to his earlier eloquence, and we hear the voice +that was loudest and sweetest in the "Imaginary Conversations;" but +for the most part his newspaper pieces are feeble and splenetic, +unworthy of him. One of his latest composures has relation to Lord +Lyndhurst, by whose speech against the revolutionary aliens in England +had been excited the ire of the old poet. "In your paper of this day, +April 12," he writes to the editor of _The Examiner_, "I find repeated +an expression of Lord Lyndhurst's, which I am certain will be +offensive to many of your readers. General Klapka, a man illustrious +for his military knowledge, and for his application of it to the +defence of his country and her laws, is contemptuously called _one_ +Klapka. The most obscure and the most despicable (and those only) are +thus designated. Surely to have been called by the acclamations of a +whole people to defend the most important of its fortresses is quite +as exalted a distinction as to be appointed a Lord Chamberlain or a +Lord Chancellor by the favor of one minister, and liable to be +dismissed the next morning by another. With all proper respect for the +cleverness of Lord Lyndhurst, I must entreat your assistance in +discovering one sentence he ever wrote, or spoke, denoting the man of +lofty genius or capacious mind. Memorable things he certainly has +said--such as calling by the name of aliens a third part of our +fellow-subjects in these islands, and by the prefix of a _certain_ to +the name of Klapka. It is strange that sound law should not always be +sound sense; strange that the great seal of equity should make so +faint and indistinct an impression. Klapka will be commemorated and +renowned in history as one beloved by the people, venerated by the +nobility; whose voice was listened to attentively by the magistrate, +enthusiastically by the soldier. The fame of Lord Lyndhurst is +ephemeral, confined to the Court of Chancery and the House of Peers; +dozens have shared it in each, and have gone to dinner and oblivion. +Those, and those alone, are great men whose works or words are +destined to be the heirlooms of many generations. God places them +where time passes them without erasing their footsteps. Kings can +never make them. They, if minded so, could more easily make kings. +England hath installed one Chancellor who might have been consummately +great, had there only been in his composition the two simple elements +of generosity and honesty. Bacon did not hate freedom, or the friends +of freedom; and, although he cautiously kept clear of so dangerous a +vicinity, he never came voluntarily forth, invoking the vindictive +spirit of a dead law to eliminate them in the hour of adversity from +their sanctuary." + + * * * * * + +The Rev. Moses Margoliouth, who was once a Jew, and who last year +published a narrative of a journey to Palestine, under the title of "A +Visit to the Land of My Fathers," has just given to the world, in +three octavos, a _History of the Jews in Great Britain_. The book is +insufferably tame and feeble; the author is of the class called in +England "religious flunkies:" a mastiff to the poor and a spaniel to +the proud. His first book was disgusting for its feebleness and +servility, and this is scarcely better, notwithstanding the richness +of its materials and the curious interest of its subject. A good +History of the Jews in England will be a work worth reading. + + * * * * * + +The _Ecclesiastical History Society_ have published in London +_Strype's Memorials of Cranmer_, _Heylyn's History of the +Reformation_, and _Field's Treatise of the Church_. Strype and Heylyn +are more familiar than Field, whose work is a sort of supplement to +Hooker's _Polity_. Field resembled his illustrious master and friend +in judgment, temper, and learning. In his own day his reputation was +great. James I. regretted, when he heard of his death, that he had not +done more for him; Hall, in reference to his own deanery of Worcester, +which had been sought for Field, speaks of that "better-deserving +divine," who "was well satisfied with greater hopes;" and Fuller, with +his accustomed humor of thoughtfulness, bestows his salutation on +"that learned divine whose memory smelleth like a _field_ that the +Lord hath blessed." + + * * * * * + +THE LIFE OF WORDSWORTH, by Dr. Christopher Wordsworth, has appeared in +London, and with some additions by Professor Henry Reed, of +Philadelphia, will soon be issued by Ticknor, Reed & Fields, of +Boston. From what the critics write of it we suspect it is a poor +affair. The _Leader_ says that, "all things considered, it is perhaps +the worst biographical attempt" it "ever waded through." The +_Examiner_ and other leading papers admit its dulness as a biography, +and its worthlessness in criticism, but claim for it a certain value +as a collection of facts respecting the histories of Wordsworth's +different poems. The work indeed professes to be no more than a +biographical commentary on the poet's writings. It does not even +affect to be critical, or to offer any labored exposition of the +principles on which Wordsworth's poems were composed. The author +describes his illustrious relative as having had no desire that any +such disquisition should be written. "He wished that his poems should +stand by themselves, and plead their own cause before the tribunal of +posterity." Strictly, then, the volumes are so exclusively subordinate +and ministerial to the poetry they illustrate, that apart from the +latter they possess hardly any interest. By enthusiasts for the poems +they will be eagerly read, but to any other class of readers we cannot +see that they present attraction. Dr. Wordsworth's part in them, +though small, is not particularly well done; and the poet's part +almost exclusively consists of personal memoranda connected with his +poems dictated in later life, and seldom by any chance refers to any +thing but himself. + +Nevertheless there are in the volumes many delightful and +characteristic details, much genuine and beautiful criticism (chiefly +in the poet's letters), and occasional passages of fine sentiment and +pure philosophy. Here is Wordsworth's own description of one of his +latest visits to London, and of his appearance at court, in a letter +to an American correspondent: + +"My absence from home lately was not of more than three weeks. I took +the journey to London solely to pay my respects to the Queen, upon my +appointment to the laureateship upon the decease of my friend Mr. +Southey. The weather was very cold, and I caught an inflammation in +one of my eyes, which rendered my stay in the south very +uncomfortable. I nevertheless did, in respect to the object of my +journey, all that was required. The reception given me by the Queen at +her ball was most gracious. Mrs. Everett, the wife of your minister, +among many others, was a witness to it, without knowing who I was. It +moved her to the shedding of tears. This effect was in part produced, +I suppose, by American habits of feeling, as pertaining to a +republican government. To see a gray-haired man of seventy-five years +of age, kneeling down in a large assembly to kiss the hand of a young +woman, is a sight for which institutions essentially democratic do not +prepare a spectator of either sex, and must naturally place the +opinions upon which a republic is founded, and the sentiments which +support it, in strong contrast with a government based and upheld as +ours is. I am not, therefore, surprised that Mrs. Everett was moved, +as she herself described to persons of my acquaintance, among others +to Mr. Rogers the poet. By the by, of this gentleman, now I believe in +his eighty-third year, I saw more than of any other person except my +host, Mr. Moxon, while I was in London. He is singularly fresh and +strong for his years, and his mental faculties (with the exception of +his memory a little) not at all impaired. It is remarkable that he and +the Rev. W. Bowles were both distinguished as poets when I was a +schoolboy, and they have survived almost all their eminent +contemporaries, several of whom came into notice long after them. +Since they became known, Burns, Cowper, Mason the author of +'Caractacus' and friend of Gray, have died. Thomas Warton, Laureate, +then Byron, Shelley, Keats, and a good deal later Scott, Coleridge, +Crabbe, Southey, Lamb, the Ettrick Shepherd, Cary the translator of +Dante, Crowe the author of 'Lewesdon Hill,' and others of more or less +distinction, have disappeared. And now of English poets advanced in +life, I cannot recall any but James Montgomery, Thomas Moore, and +myself, who are living, except the octogenarian with whom I began. I +saw Tennyson, when I was in London, several times. He is decidedly the +first of our living poets, and I hope will live to give the world +still better things. You will be pleased to hear that he expressed in +the strongest terms his gratitude to my writings. To this I was far +from indifferent, though persuaded that he is not much in sympathy +with what I should myself most value in my attempts, viz., the +spirituality with which I have endeavored to invest the material +universe, and the moral relations under which I have wished to exhibit +its most ordinary appearances." + +Of the mention of Alfred Tennyson in the foregoing extract the +_Examiner_ remarks, that it is perhaps the greatest stretch of +appreciation or acknowledgment in regard to any living or contemporary +poet in Wordsworth. His mention of Southey's verses is always reserved +and dry. He takes no pains to conceal his poor opinion of Scott's. His +allusions to Rogers are respectful, but cold. His objection to Byron +may be forgiven. There is less reason for his appearing quite to lose +his ordinarily calm temper when Goethe is even named, or for his +extending this unreasoning dislike to Goethe's great English +expositor, Carlyle. Yet we must not omit, on the other hand, what he +says of Shelley. Shelley, he admits (much to our surprise), to have +been "one of the best artists of us all; I mean in workmanship of +style." + + * * * * * + +The London _Standard of Freedom_ remarks of the article on "Some +American Poets" in the last number of _Blackwood_, that "it assumes +more ignorance in England as to American poetry than actually exists." +Our readers will readily believe this when advised that the critic +regards _Longfellow_ as a greater poet than Bryant! whom he classes +with Mrs. Hemans. + + * * * * * + +M. COMTE has quitted metaphysics to reform the calendar, but probably +will not succeed better than those who attempted the same thing during +the first French revolution. We find a synopsis of his scheme in the +_Leader_. He proposes that each month shall be consecrated to one of +the great names that represent the intellectual and social progress of +humanity. He specializes the names of Moses, Homer, Aristotle, +Archimedes, Caesar, St. Paul, Charlemagne, Dante, Descartes, Guttenberg +(whom he probably thinks had something to do with the invention of +printing), Columbus and Frederic the Great, as most appropriate for +the designation of the twelve months; recommending, however, +particular fetes for minor heroes in the months under which they may +best be grouped--for Augustin, Hildebrand, Bernard, and Bossuet, in +St. Paul's month; Alfred and St. Louis, in Charlemagne's month; +Richelieu and Cromwell in the month of Frederic the Great, and so on. +Supplying a defect of Catholicism in this respect, he proposes what he +calls "fetes of reprobation" for the greatest scoundrels of +history--for such retrogressive men as Julian the Apostate, Philip II. +of Spain, and Bonaparte, (we don't agree to the classification, unless +he means President Louis Napoleon, who indeed is not a _great_ +scoundrel, though disposed to be sufficiently retrogressive.) +According to this new calendar, a follower of Comte, writing a letter +in March, would have to date it as written on such or such a day of +_Aristotle_. We fear the proposal won't do even in France, but this, +at least, may be said for it, that it is as good as the Puseyite +practice of dating by saints' days, besides being novel, and Parisian, +and scientific. Sydney Smith used, in jest of the Puseyite practice, +to date his letters "_Washing Day--Eve of Ironing Day_;" Comte's plan +is better than that of the Puseyites--almost as good as Peter +Plimley's. + + * * * * * + +Among the many books lately printed in England upon the ecclesiastical +controversies, is one entitled _Remonstrance against Romish +Corruptions in the Church, addressed to the People and Parliament of +England in 1395_, now for the first time published, edited by the Rev. +F. Forshall. Biographers of Wycliffe have referred to this tract and +quoted passages in evidence of the Wycliffite heresies; but they +appear to have failed altogether of perceiving its larger scope, or +understanding its political bearing and significance. There can hardly +be a doubt, as Mr. Forshall suggests, that it was drawn up to +influence the famous parliament which met in the eighteenth year of +Richard the Second, and which was a scene of unusual excitement on the +subject of religion from the sudden clash of the old Papal party with +the new and increasing band of patriotic reformers. Wycliffe had then +been dead, and his opinions gradually on the increase, for more than +ten years. The author of the Remonstrance was his friend John Purvey, +who assisted him in the first English version of the Bible, shared +with him the duties of his parish, and attended his death-bed. He was +the most active of the reformers, the most formidable to the +ecclesiastical authorities. Another old MS. from the Cottonian +collection in the British Museum, is the _Chronicle of Battel Abbey, +from 1066 to 1176, now first translated, with Notes, and an Abstract +of the subsequent History of the Establishment_, by Mark Antony Lower. +This is extremely curious, and contains, besides the important +histories of the controversies between the ecclesiastical authorities +and Henry the Second, some very striking exhibitions of manners. + + * * * * * + +The vitality of SCOTT'S popularity is shown by the fact that the +Edinburgh publishers of his _Life_ and _Works_ printed and sold the +following quantities of them during the period from 1st January, 1848, +to 26th March, 1851, viz.: Novels (exclusive of the Abbotsford +edition), 4,760 sets; Poetical Works, 4,360; Prose Writings, 850; +Life, 2,610; Tales of a Grandfather (independently of those included +in the complete sets of the Prose Works), 2,990; and Selections, +4,420. It may serve as a "curiosity of literature" to give a summary +of the printing of the Writings and Life since June, 1829, when they +came under the management of the late proprietor, Mr. Cadell: Waverley +Novels, 78,270 sets; Poetical Works, 41,340; Prose Works, 8,260; Life, +26,860; Tales of a Grandfather (independently of those included in the +complete sets of the Prose Works), 22,190; Selections, 7,550. The +popularity to which the "People's Edition" has attained appears from +the fact that the following numbers, originally published in weekly +sheets, have been printed: Novels, 7,115,197; Poetry, 674,955; Prose, +269,406; Life, 459,291; total sheets, 8,518,849. + +The whole copyrights, stocks, &c., of Scott's works, as possessed for +many years by Cadell, have now been transferred to the hands of +Messrs. Adam and Charles Black. The copyrights and stock have been +acquired by the present purchasers for L27,000, or L10,000 less than +Mr. Cadell paid for copyrights alone. + + * * * * * + +ELIZABETH BARRET BROWNING has published a new poem, _Casa Guidi +Windows_, which gives a vivid picture of the tumult and heroism of +Italian struggles for independence, as seen from the poet's windows, +at Florence, with the fervid commentary of her hopes and aspirations. + + * * * * * + +A novel by MRS. CAROLINE LEE HENTZ, published by Mr. Hart, of +Philadelphia, has been dramatized by Mr. Henry Paul Howard, for the +Haymarket Theatre in London, and brought out in a very splendid style, +with J. W. Wallack in the leading character. + + * * * * * + +COLONEL CUNNINGHAM, a son-in-law of Viscount Hardinge, has just +published in London "Glimpses of the Great Western Republic in the +year 1850." + + * * * * * + +We shall look with much interest for the result of the new scheme for +the encouragement of life assurance, economy, &c., among literary men +and artists in England. To bring this project into general notice, and +to form the commencement of the necessary funds, Sir Edward Bulwer +Lytton, one of its originators, has written and presented to his +associates in the cause, a new comedy in five acts, under the +significant title, _Not So Bad as we Seem_. It was to be produced on +the sixteenth ult., under the management of Mr. Charles Dickens, in a +theatre constructed for the purpose, and performed by Robert Bell, +Wilkie Collins, Dudley Costello, Peter Cunningham, Charles Dickens, +Augustus Egg, A.R.A., John Forster, R. H. Horne, Douglass Jerrold, +Charles Knight, Mark Lemon, J. Westland Marston, Frank Stone, and +others. The tickets were twenty-five dollars each, and the Queen and +Prince Albert were to be present. The comedy is hereafter to be +performed in public; and the promoters of the scheme are sanguine of +its success. Mr. Maclise has offered to paint a picture (the subject +to be connected with the performance of the comedy), and to place it +at the disposal of the guild, for the augmentation of its funds. The +prospects are encouraging. + + * * * * * + +The REV. C. G. FINNEY, so well known in the Presbyterian churches of +this country, has passed some time in London, and an edition of his +_Lectures on Systematic Theology_ has just been published there, with +a preface by the Rev. Dr. Redford, of Worcester, who confesses, that +"when a student he would gladly have bartered half the books in his +library to have gained a single perusal of these Lectures; and he +cannot refrain from expressing the belief, that no young student of +theology will ever regret their purchase or perusal." The book makes +an octavo of 1016 pages. + + * * * * * + +"TALVI," the wife of Professor ROBINSON, will leave New-York in a few +days, we understand, to pass some time in her native country. She will +be absent a year and a half, and will reside chiefly in Berlin. We +have recently given an account of the life and writings of this very +eminent and admirable woman, in the _International_, and are among the +troops of friends who wish her all happiness in the fatherland, and a +safe return to the land of her adoption. We presume the public duties +of Dr. Robinson will prevent him from being absent more than a few +weeks. + + * * * * * + +ALBERT SMITH has dramatised a tale from Washington Irving's "Alhambra" +for the Princess's Theatre--making a burlesque comedy. + + * * * * * + +MRS. SOUTHWORTH must be classed among our most industrious writers. +The Appletons have just published a new novel by her, entitled _The +Mother-in-Law_, and she has two others in press--one of which is +appearing from week to week in the _National Era_. + + * * * * * + +DR. SPRING, whose religious writings appear to be as popular in Great +Britain as in this country, and every where to be regarded as among +the classics of practical religious literature, has issued a second +edition of his two octavos entitled _First Things_. In style, temper, +and all the best qualities of such works, the discourses embraced in +this work are deserving of eminent praise. (M. W. Dodd.) + + * * * * * + +Of HENRY MARTIN, whom the religious world regards with a reverent +affection like that it gives to Cowper and Heber, the hitherto +unpublished _Letters and Journals_ have just appeared, and they seem +to us even more interesting than the so well-known Memoirs of his Life +published soon after he died. (M. W. Dodd.) + + * * * * * + +MRS. SIGOURNEY has published a volume entitled _Letters to my Pupils, +with Narrative and Biographical Sketches_. It embraces reminiscences +of her experience as a teacher, and we have read none of her prose +compositions that are more suggestive or more pleasing. (Robert Carter +& Brothers.) + + * * * * * + +A _Life of Algernon Sydney_, by G. Van Santvoord (a new author), has +been published by Charles Scribner. To describe the history and +writings of this noble republican was a task worthy of an American +scholar. Mr. Van Santvoord has performed it excellently well. + + * * * * * + +BAYARD TAYLOR and R. H. STODDARD have new volumes of poems in the +press of Ticknor, Reed & Fields, of Boston, and that house has never +published original volumes of greater merit, or that will be more +popular. + + * * * * * + +THE POEMS OF WILLIAM P. MULCHINOCK, in one volume, lately published by +Mr. Strong, Nassau-street, appear to have been received with singular +favor by the critics. Mr. Mulchinock has remarkable fluency, and a +genial spirit. His book contains specimens of a great variety of +styles, and some pieces of much merit. + + * * * * * + +TICKNOR & CO. have published a novelette entitled _The Solitary_, by +Santaine, the author of "Picciola." It is of the Robinson Crusoe sort +of books--better than any other imitation of Defoe. + + * * * * * + +The _Pocket Companion, for Machinists, Mechanics, and Engineers_, by +OLIVER BYRNE, is a remarkable specimen of perspicuous condensation. In +a beautiful pocket-book it embraces for the classes for whom it is +designed the pith of two or three ordinary octavos. + + * * * * * + +Among the new volumes of poems is one of Dramatic and Miscellaneous +Pieces, by CHARLES JAMES CANNON, published by Edward Dunigan. Mr. +Cannon is a writer of much cultivation, and, in his dramatic poems, +especially, there are passages of much force and elegance. + + * * * * * + +MR. JOHN E. WARREN, whose pleasant letters from the south of Europe +were a chief attraction of some of the early numbers of the +_International_, has in the press of Putnam, to be published in a few +days, _Paria, or Scenes and Adventures on the Banks of the Amazon_. He +saw that magnificent but little known country under such peculiar +advantages, and he writes with such spirit and so natural a grace, +that we may promise the public one of the most delightful books of the +season in "Paria." Here is a specimen, from the opening chapter. + + "The shades of evening were gathering fast upon the waters, + when the little bark, in which we had safely crossed the + wide expanse of ocean, now quietly anchored in the mighty + river of the Amazons. Through the rich twilight we were able + to discern the white sandy shore, skirting a dense forest of + perennial luxuriance and beauty. Gentle zephyrs, fraught + with the most delightful fragrance from the wilderness of + flowers, softly saluted our senses; while occasionally the + plaintive voices of southern nightingales came with mellowed + sweetness to our ears. The moon, unobscured by a single + cloud, threw an indescribable charm over the enchanting + scene, reflecting her brilliant rays upon the placid surface + of the river, and shrouding the beautiful foliage of the + forest in a drapery of gold. Innumerable stars brightly + glittered in the firmament, and the constellation of the + 'Southern Cross' gleamed above us like a diadem. All around + seemed to be wrapped in the most profound repose. Not a + sound disturbed the silence of the interminable solitude + save the hushed and mournful notes of evening birds, the + distant howling of prowling jaguars, or the rustling of the + wind through the forest trees. Nature appeared to us, for + the first time, in her pristine loveliness, and seemed + indeed, to our excited imagination, to present but a dreamy + picture of fairy land. + + "At an early hour in the morning we weighed anchor, and with + a fresh breeze and strong tide rapidly moved up the noble + river, gliding by the most beautiful scenery that fancy can + conceive. The nearly impenetrable forest which lined the + shore was of a deep emerald green, and consisted of + exceedingly lofty trees, of remarkably curious and grotesque + figures, interlaced together by numerous vines, the + interstices of which were filled up with magnificent + shrubbery. We observed, towering high above the surrounding + trees, many singular species of palms, among which the + far-famed cocoa-nut probably stood pre-eminent. This + beautiful tree gives a peculiar witchery to a tropical + landscape, which those only who have seen it can possibly + realize. The trunk grows up perfectly perpendicular to a + great height, before it throws out its curious branches, + which bend over as gracefully as ostrich plumes, and quiver + in the slightest breeze. Consequently, the general + appearance of the tree at a distance is somewhat similar to + that of an umbrella. + + "As we gradually proceeded, we now and then caught a glimpse + of smiling cottages, with the snug little verandahs and + red-tiled roofs peering from amid the foliage of the river's + banks, and giving, as it were, a character of sociability + and animation to the beauteous scene. Perhaps the most + interesting spot that we noticed was an estate bearing the + name of Pinherios, which had been formerly the site of a + Carmelite convent, but which was lately sold to the + government for a 'Hospital dos Lazaros.' Here also was an + establishment for the manufacture of earthenware tiles, + which are extensively used throughout the Brazilian empire + for roofing houses. + + "So low is the valuation of land in this section of Brazil, + that this immense estate, embracing within its limits nearly + three thousand acres, and situated, as it is, within twenty + miles of the city of Para, was sold for a sum equivalent to + about _four thousand dollars_. This may be taken as a fair + standard of the value of real estate in the vicinity of + Para. That of the neighboring islands is comparatively + trifling; while there are millions of fertile acres now + wholly unappropriated, which offer the richest inducements + to emigrants who may be disposed to direct their fortunes + thither. + + "The city of Para is delightfully situated on the southern + branch of the Amazon, called, for the sake of distinction, + 'The Para River.' It is the principal city of the province + of the same name,--an immense territory, which has very + appropriately been styled 'The Paradise of Brazil.' The + general aspect of the place, with its low venerable looking + buildings of solid stone, its massive churches and + moss-grown ruins, its red-tiled roofs and dingy-white walls, + the beautiful trees of its gardens, and groups of tall + banana plants peeping up here and there among the houses, + constituted certainly a scene of novelty, if not of elegance + and beauty. + + "The first spectacle which arrested our attention on landing + was that of a number of persons of both sexes and all ages + bathing indiscriminately together in the waters of the + river, in a state of entire nudity. We observed among them + several finely-formed Indian girls of exceeding beauty, + dashing about in the water like a troop of happy mermaids. + The heat of the sun was so intense that we ourselves were + almost tempted to seek relief from its overpowering + influence by plunging precipitately amid the joyous throng + of swimmers. But we forbore! + + "The natives of Para are very cleanly, and indulge in daily + ablutions; nor do they confine their baths to the dusky + hours of evening, but may be seen swimming about the public + wharves at all hours of the day. The government has made + several feeble efforts to put a restraint upon these public + exposures, but at the time of our departure all rules and + regulations on the subject were totally disregarded by the + natives. The city is laid out with considerable taste and + regularity, but the streets are very narrow, and miserably + paved with large and uneven stones. The buildings generally + are but of one story in height, and are, with few + exceptions, entirely destitute of glass windows; a kind of + latticed blind is substituted, which is so constructed that + it affords the person within an opportunity of seeing + whatever takes place in the street, without being observed + in return. This lattice opens towards the street, and thus + affords great facilities to the beaux and gentlemen of + gallantry, who, by stepping under this covering, can have an + agreeable _tete-a-tete_ with their fair mistresses, as + secretly almost as if they were in a trellised arbor + together. + + "We noticed several strange spectacles as we slowly walked + through the city. Venders of fruit marching about, with huge + baskets on their heads, filled with luscious oranges, + bananas, mangoes, pineapples, and other choice fruits of the + tropics; groups of blacks, carrying immense burdens in the + same manner; invalids reclining in their hammocks, or ladies + riding in their gay-covered palanquins, supported on men's + shoulders; and water-carriers moving along by the side of + their heavily-laden horses or mules." + +In his excursions along the small streams which penetrate the forests +our traveller met with some magnificent scenes. Here is a description +of one of them: + + "Now the grassy table-land would extend away for miles to + our left, gemmed here and there with solitary trees, waving + their branches mournfully in the wind, and looking like + spectres in the mystic starlight. On the outer side, a + gloomy yet splendid wilderness ran along the margin of the + stream, flinging tall shadows across the water, and adding + grandeur to the imposing landscape. As we advanced the brook + gradually narrowed, and became more and more crooked in its + course, until finally the thick clustering foliage met in a + prolonged arch of verdure over our heads. + + "While winding through this natural labyrinth, the sun + emerged from his oriental couch, and besprinkled us with a + shower of luminous beams, which, falling through the + interstices of the leaves, seemed like the spirits of so + many diamonds. A more divine spectacle of beauty never was + beheld. The most gorgeous creations of the poet's + imagination, if realized, could not surpass in magnificence + this sun-lighted arbor, with its roses and flowers of varied + hues, all set like stars in a canopy of green. Sprightly + humming-birds flitted before us, sparkling like jewels for a + moment, then vanishing away from our sight for ever. + Butterflies with immense wings, and moths of gay and + striking colors, flew also from flower to flower, seeming + like appropriate inhabitants of this little paradise. But + the indefatigable mosquitoes, who were continually pouncing + upon our unprotected faces and hands, as well as the mailed + caymans, who now and then plunged under our canoe with a + terrific snort, preserved in us the conviction of our own + mortality. + + "As we were moving through a wider passage of the stream, a + sudden noise in the bushes on our left arrested our + attention; in a moment after, we perceived a large animal + running as expeditiously as he was able along the banks of + the stream. We immediately raised our guns simultaneously + and fired. Although we evidently gave the creature their + full contents, yet it produced no other visible effect than + to cause him to give a boisterous snort, and then dart away + furiously into the heart of the thicket." + +Here is something much more natural than Melville's introduction of +Fayaway: + + "Among our olive-complexioned neighbors were two young + girls, whose fine forms and pretty faces especially elicited + our admiration. The one was named Teresa, the other Florana. + The former could not have been more than fourteen years of + age, and was rather short in stature, with exquisitely + rounded arms, and a bust of noble development; the latter + was somewhat taller, and at least three years older; they + both, however, had attained their full size. Animated as + they were beautiful, they were always overflowing with + vivacity and life; their conversation, which was incessant, + was like the chirping of nightingales, and their laughter, + like strings of musical pearls. These, then, beloved reader, + were, during our stay at least, decidedly the belles of + Jungcal. At the close of every day we were visited by all + the juveniles in the place, who, in their own sweet tongue, + bade us 'adieus,' and at the same time besought our + blessing, which latter request we only answered by patting + them gently on the head. The pretty maidens we have just + alluded to, instead of shaking hands with us, were + accustomed to salute us at eventide with a kiss on either + cheek. The propriety of this we at first doubted, but the + more we reflected upon the sweetness and innocence of the + damsels, the more inclined were we to pardon them; and, in + fact, we finally began to think their manner much more + sensible and agreeable than that of those who consider any + thing beyond cold and formal shaking of hands a grievous + sin. Besides, it must be borne in mind, that this was a + sacred custom of the place, which it would have been great + rudeness in us to have resisted. Therefore, kind reader, do + not judge us too severely; for know, O chary one! that + extreme bashfulness and modesty have always been considered + two of our principal failings! One day, Teresa and Florana + invited us to take a bathe with them in the stream. This we + declined point-blank. They then charged us with fear of + alligators. This was a poser--our courage was now called in + question, and we were literally forced to submit. Pray what + else could we have done under the circumstances? When they + had once got us into the water they took ample revenge upon + us for the uncourteous manner in which we had at first + treated their request. As we were encumbered by our clothes, + they had altogether the advantage, and, in less than ten + minutes, we cried out lustily for quarter, but no quarter + would they give us, and, to tell the truth, we were somewhat + apprehensive of being drowned by them, to say nothing of + being devoured by bloodthirsty alligators. Emerging from the + water, we walked up to Anzevedo's cottage, revolving in our + mind the severe ordeal through which we had just passed, and + determined henceforth never to refuse any request, sweetened + by the lips of a pretty maiden, unless, perchance (though + highly improbable), she should ask us for our heart! which, + alas! we have not to give...." + + * * * * * + +An _Album_ sent to the great Exhibition by the Emperor of Austria, and +to be presented after the show to Victoria, is thus described by a +Vienna correspondent of the _Times_: "It contains the notes in +manuscript of the national airs and dances, and far surpasses any +thing that I have ever seen in the bookbinding department. On one side +there are fourteen exquisite vignettes in oil colors, representing +different national costumes; the ornaments in enamel, carved ivory, +and ebony, are exquisite. A second album contains the works of the +ancient and modern Austrian composers; the third, Austrian scenery, by +different native artists. The bindings of some of the two hundred and +seventy volumes of Austrian authors will also not fail to excite the +astonishment--I had almost said the envy--of the trade. The whole will +form a truly imperial gift." + + + + +_The Fine Arts._ + + +During the present month there are four Public Exhibitions of +Paintings in the city: that of the NATIONAL ACADEMY, of the ART-UNION, +of the ARTIST'S ASSOCIATION, and the DUeSSELDORF GALLERY. The first +three are composed mainly of the works of native American artists, and +it is impossible to repress an expression of regret that some +arrangement of union has not yet been effected, by which, at least, +the works of the same men should not be exhibited gratis at one place, +and for a charge at another. In the present state of things, the +gallery of the Art-Union and that of the National Academy are brought +into direct opposition, and this, beyond doubt, without the slightest +jealousy on either side, as the works painted for the Academy and +purchased by the Art-Union clearly show. But certainly the fact is +lamentable enough to challenge immediate attention, and to induce a +radical change. A free gallery of the selected works of artists will +be very apt to carry the day against an exhibition at a quarter of a +dollar of the miscellaneous and unselected works of the same men. But +here we do not mean to vex this question farther. We aim at a general +review of the peculiarities and excellences of each exhibition. + +It is undoubtedly in landscape art that American talent is destined +first to excel, and the Academy exhibition and that of the Art-Union +are added proofs of the fact. The landscapes are much the most +distinguishing and distinguished feature. Mr. DURAND contributes +several characteristic works. His style is so uniform and pronounced +that it is never difficult to recognize his pictures. We should hardly +say that he does better this year than usual, but we should certainly +not say that he does worse. In the front rank of this department stand +also KENSETT and CROPSEY, both of whom show beautiful results of +summer study and winter work. Mr. Cropsey is mainly distinguished by a +really gorgeous imagination. Proof of this is to be sought in the +sketches of his portfolio rather than in his finished pictures, for in +these a thousand influences seduce an artist away from the simplicity +and splendor of his study into a care of public approbation and +satisfaction. Mr. Cropsey is as yet too much enamored of the details +and even of the mechanism of his art. And this is a tendency that is +fatal to breadth and largeness of impression. Yet his "Southern +Italy," and a "View in Rockland County," in the exhibition, are great +advances in this respect. On the other hand, the two large American +landscapes at the Art-Union, while the background in one is a splendid +success, and the brilliant atmosphere of the other is no less +successful, yet they are too much detailed, and the interest is +nowhere sufficiently concentrated. Mr. Kensett is remarkable for his +just sentiment and profound appreciation of natural beauty. It is a +sentiment singularly free from sentimentality, and an appreciation as +poetic as it is profound. The very delicacy of his touch and style +indicate the character of his enjoyment and perception of nature. + +Mr. CHURCH, too, is perhaps the other name that we should mention with +these two as full of hope and promise. If he avoids a little +mannerism, to which he seems to be susceptible--not of course +forgetting that all greatness has its own manner--and pursues with the +same devotion as hitherto his studies of sea and sky, a very happy and +brilliant career seems open to him. The works of none of the younger +artists have attracted more attention. And the fame and position of +Turner show the reward of a devoted student and artistic delineator of +the peculiarities of atmospheric phenomena. We exhort Mr. Church to +entire boldness in his attempts. Why should he hope always to please +those who have only a vague susceptibility of natural observation for +their standard of criticism? He is to show us in the splendid play of +the light, and air, and clouds, that which we do not see, or seeing, +do not perceive. + +Messrs. CRANCH, BOUTELLE, GIFFORD, and others, take high rank among +the landscapists, nor must we omit a very beautiful winter piece of +GIGNOUX, at the Academy, in which the crisp clearness of the sharp +air, the brittle outline of the bare boughs, and the quality of ice, +are most accurately and poetically rendered. + +We are arrested by the feeling and promise of Mr. RICHARD'S +contributions, and the very beautiful poetic sentiment of Mr. +HUBBARD'S. Mr. HUNTINGDON is not great, this year. His landscapes are +not natural, and his portraits lack that vigorous moulding to which we +are accustomed upon his canvas. Mr. RANNEY has some characteristic +hunting-pieces. They are getting too much mannered. On a prairie, the +chief interest of art is not a horse or a buffalo, but the sentiment +of space. But we do not yield to any in our satisfaction at the spirit +and vigor of these works. + +Leaving the landscape, we find the figure compositions of the year not +very successful, if we except the "Aztec Princess" of Mr. HICKS, which +we understand is a study from life of a Mexican woman, but which is +treated in so large, and thoughtful, and skilful a manner, that it is +most impressive for character and color, and gives the key to the +whole side of the room upon which it hangs. This artist exhibits also +some portraits, which have never been surpassed by any modern +portraits that we recall. No. 128 upon the Academy Catalogue is the +most brilliantly-colored portrait upon the walls. It is treated with +all the happy heroism of a master, and while many quarrel with its +_spotty_ color, the initiated perceive that easy mastery of the +palette which with genius is the secret of artistic success. No. 405 +is equally remarkable for its vigorous moulding. This portrait shows +the accurate knowledge, as No. 128 reveals the sumptuous sentiment of +the genuine artist. Mr. ELLIOTT'S portraits have the same quiet +truthfulness as heretofore, the same easy success, but we would gladly +see more confidence in color, and a likeness more as the subject +appears to the mind than to the eye. Mr. SHEGOGUE'S productions are +certainly very pastoral. So sheepy are his sheep that all the figures, +trees, and landscape, are unmitigatedly sheepish. Mr. FLAGG'S +portraits are not successful. There is an unnatural smoothness and +hardness in his works. Mr. KELLOGG'S General Scott is vigorous and +effective. The action of the figure seems to require some explanation, +however. It contrasts well with the monotony of its pendant, Mr. +VANDERLYN'S General Taylor; but no spectator in regarding this latter +work has a right to forget that it is the production of one who has +grown gray at his post, and the winter of whose age has not yet +frozen, and can never freeze, the freshness of enthusiasm and +single-hearted devotion to art which are for ever young. + +Mr. LANG'S No. 44 is a very large likeness of a very comely lady, but +the work will hardly live long in the spectator's memory. Mr. ROSSITER +takes the field boldly with "The Ideals, Types of Moral, Intellectual, +and Physical Beauty." Except for the brilliance of color, and a +certain sentiment, by which the light proceeds from the moral type, we +do not much admire the picture. The difficulty with the spectator will +be, we are sure, that he recalls within his own circle of friends +types more beautiful for each ideal. Mr. Rossiter's portraits of his +brother artists, Messrs. DARLEY and DUGGAN, are admirable likenesses, +each somewhat mellowed in expression by the artist. The sharp +intellectual precision of Mr. Duggan's countenance, and the bright +nervous sensibility of Mr. Darley's, are both somewhat subdued upon +the canvas. What we candidly say of these pictures we say boldly, +because we recognize and appreciate the fine feeling which animates +the artist. Mr. GRAY'S No. 54, "King Death," attracts much attention. +But is it the "Jolly Old Fellow," or the "King of Terrors," or the +"easeful death" of which the poet was enamored? There is something +fine in the picture--a strain of Egyptian placidity permeates the +features. And such colossal placidity is full of fate. There is a +latitude allowed the artist in these themes. Yet we do not feel +satisfied, much as we like the picture. Mr. ROTHERMEL'S No. 5, +"Murray's Defence of Toleration," is a very pleasant picture of the +Duesseldorf style. We like one thing in this work, and that is its +preservation of the balance of history, by showing that the Catholics +were not always the persecutors. The contrast of the religious repose +of the rear with the jangling fanaticism of the foreground is in +harmony with the differing qualities of light. It is a thoughtful and +beautiful picture, Mr. FREEMAN'S 359, "Study for an Angel's Head," has +a Titianesque fascination, and the earnest regard of the faces is +extremely lovely. It is none the less charming that it has a mortal +loveliness--if we might say so without treason to the immortality of +all beauty. We have no doubt, in our own critical mind, that any +beautiful woman would make a beautiful angel. Mr. MOUNT'S No. 118, +"Who'll turn Grindstone?" is one of his characteristic Yankee +incidents. It is very true and genuine in feeling, but the picture is +too white and streaked. No. 344 is a natural and spirited portrait of +the poet Stoddard by Mr. PRATT. + +But we must pause here, leaving many works of which we would willingly +speak. At the Duesseldorf Gallery, LESSING'S "Martyrdom of Huss" is +still the great attraction. It is a work so full of careful study and +skilful treatment that we are not surprised at the universal pleasure +in its contemplation. We cannot in this space, however, enter into a +consideration of its artistic claims and character, but must record +our impression that it is not in the highest style of art--if there be +in art a higher style than the adequate representation of the simple +incident. The dexterous detail of the Duesseldorf pictures is +remarkable, but the fault and tendency of the school is to direct +imitation, and consequently to a hopeless struggle with nature. These +pictures are the worst possible models for the student of art. + +The Art-Union Gallery is by no means full, but certainly does not +merit the harsh criticism of the daily press. The pictures are on an +average quite as good as usual. The names of most of the distinguished +artists are on the catalogue, and the specimens of their works are +characteristic and admirable. There are several poor copies of famous +pictures, and these undoubtedly somewhat neutralize the effect of the +native works. Beside, the Art-Union does not profess to open its +gallery with a complete collection. It buys as the pictures are +produced, and the criticisms, thus far, have been no less ignorant +than ill-natured. It does not follow that fifty thousand dollars' +worth of good pictures are annually painted because that sum may be +subscribed to purchase good pictures. Nor is it at all true, as we +would undertake to show, had we the space, that artists are +necessarily the best managers of a popular institution for the advance +of art. + +The Exhibition of the Artists' Association offers little for remark. +We are not sufficiently acquainted with the secret of the origin of +this association to speak of the institution itself, but we observe +many of the names familiar to us at the Academy and the Art-Union, and +can truly wish that the pictures were upon the walls of one of those +galleries. + +On the whole, we remark an unwonted activity and interest in art. It +is impossible not to rejoice at the fact, and at the brilliant proofs +of artistic ability that illuminate the walls of the various +galleries. The contemporary exhibitions of foreign capitals do not, +altogether, surpass those of their younger sister. American books are +now not all unread, and those who delight in galleries in which only +Turner, Kaulbach, and Couture are eminently great, could not be unjust +to these promises of American artistic success. + + * * * * * + +LEUTZE, the artist, has been again distinguishing himself by a work +just exhibited in Duesseldorf, "The Amazon with her Children." It +represents a beautiful and majestic woman, lying half-erect, arms and +neck bare, contemplating the gambols of her two naked children. The +brilliant golden-tone of the complexion is said to be entirely worthy +of the masterly skill in color of the artist, and was perhaps inspired +by the poet's dream, "I will take some savage woman; she shall rear my +dusky race." But in respect of composition and drawing it is called an +attempt to imitate the art of the old Italian virtuosos. The artist is +proceeding with surprising rapidity with his Washington. A portrait of +Roting by Leutze is most highly commended. Roting is in the same +atelier with Leutze, and is busy upon a scene from the life of +Columbus. + + * * * * * + +The Managers of the ART-UNION promise rich returns to the subscribers +for the present year. We quote the _Art-Union Journal_: + + "We have never before offered so many powerful motives to + membership as the programme of the present year affords. The + improvements in the Bulletin render it a publication that is + almost indispensable to those who desire to have in a + convenient form the most recent Art intelligence, as well as + much original matter upon the subject that meets the + constant approbation of instructed readers. The numbers of + this work are furnished gratuitously to each member from the + date of his subscription. He will also be entitled to the + large engraving of _Mexican News_ by JONES, after Woodville, + and to the second part of the _Gallery of American Art_, + which contains five line engravings on steel, by the best + artists, after the following pictures: Cropsey's + _Harvesting_, Kensett's _Mount Washington_, Woodville's _Old + '76 and Young '48_, Ranney's _Marion crossing the Pedee_, + and Mount's _Bargaining for a Horse_. We desire to call + attention again to the fact that these subjects are all + American in their character, illustrating the scenery, + history, or manners of the country. They are also striking + and valuable as pictures, and we should have every reason to + feel proud of them in whatever contrast they might be + placed. + + "This project of presenting a work which shall contain in + process of time the Gems of American Art, is original with + the Art-Union. Its value must be apparent to every reader. + It is a mode by which subscribers in the most distant parts + of the country, who are deprived of the opportunity of + visiting the large towns, may become well acquainted with + the character and progress of our principal artists--and + even those members who have the advantage of resorting to + public galleries, may enjoy here the privilege of studying + many pictures that from their location in private + collections must be accessible to them. The first part of + this work was given to the members of 1850, and is now ready + for distribution, Besides the inducements just enumerated, + there remains a share in the allotment of works of art + purchased by the Association, and which, judging from the + two hundred already obtained, will be the most attractive + collection ever offered by the Art-Union. The importance of + early subscriptions need not be enlarged upon at present. + The opportunity it affords of securing complete sets of the + Bulletin, and better impressions of the engravings, seems to + be recognized in all quarters. The Association at no period + of its history has had so long a roll of members at this + early season." + + * * * * * + +PAUL DELAROCHE has just completed, at Nice, a grand historical +composition, which the most intelligent judges decree to be his _chef +d'oeuvre_. The picture represents a tragical moment in the life of +Marie Antoinette. After a night of anguish before the revolutionary +tribunals the unhappy Queen has just heard the verdict of her guilt. +The President asks her if she has any thing to say in arrest of the +sentence. For her sole answer, she rises calm and majestic, and takes +silently the way back again to her dungeon. The artist has seized this +instant, as she passes erect and still before a crowd of +revolutionists. A man with a tri-colored scarf walks by her side, +regarding her as a tiger gloats upon a lamb. It is the personification +of terror. A single girl, too young to be cruel, yet attracted with +the others, perhaps, to applaud the punishment of the _Widow Capet_, +looks pityingly upon the Queen, her trembling lips murmur a prayer, +and the tears start in her eyes. Upon the lips of the Queen there is +almost a smile, a thought of disdain, for the outrages of men upon a +solitary and defenceless woman. From the descriptions of which we +select the prominent points, it is evident that this is another of the +representations of historical incident for which Paul Delaroche has +made himself so famous a name, as in his Death of Elizabeth, the +Children of Edward in the Tower, Cromwell at the Coffin of Charles I, +the Execution of Strafford, of Lady Jane Grey, Napoleon Crossing the +Alps, &c., &c. And there is no reason that this last work should not +be, as claimed, the greatest, since the artist adds to the greater +cunning of his hand, the sympathies of chivalrous artistic feeling for +the sorrow of a beautiful woman and a Queen of France. The picture is +already sold in London, and will presently be forwarded to its +destination; on the way it will remain a short time in Paris for the +homage of the many admirers of this artist's genius. + + * * * * * + +Mr. MINER K. KELLOGG, who since his professional tours in the East and +long residence in Italy, has spent some half dozen years in his native +country, has just returned to Florence, where, with his companion from +boyhood, Hiram Powers, he will probably pass the remainder of his +life. He is an artist of peculiar and great merits, and there is not +perhaps among American painters a man more uniformly regarded with +respect and affection. + + * * * * * + +The Brussels _Herald_ gives an account of a curious and costly work of +art, which a great landholder of the Walloon Provinces has ordered of +the Depaepes, of Bruges. These artists are instructed to copy in +Gothic letters _L'Imitation de Jesus Christ_, by the Abbe d'Assance. +The work will fill six hundred and seventy pages, each of which will +be about three-quarters of a yard in height, by eighteen inches wide. +They will have to execute one hundred and fourteen engravings, from +the great masters of the Flemish school, Van Eyck, Memling, Pourbus, +Classens, &c. The pages on which will be displayed the _Imitation of +Jesus Christ_, will be encircled with garlands and other ornaments, in +blue and gold. + + * * * * * + +At the last annual meeting of the NATIONAL ACADEMY OF DESIGN, the rank +of _Academician_ was conferred on T. Hicks, G.A. Baker, H.K. Brown, +J.A. Cropsey, T. Addison Richards, R. Gignoux, P.P. Duggan, Alfred +Jones, R.M. Pratt, J.W. Casilear, James Smillie and George W. Flagg. +At the same time, Messrs R.W. Hubbard, J. Thompson, and Vincent +Colyer, were made associates; and Messrs. Darley, Falconer, Lacombe, +Kellogg and Ruggles, honorary members. + + + + +From the Times. + +THE MEETING OF THE NATIONS IN HYDE PARK. + +BY W. M. THACKERAY. + + + But yesterday a naked sod, + The dandies sneered from Rotten-row, + And cantered o'er it to and fro; + And see, 'tis done! + As though 'twere by a wizard's rod, + A blazing arch of lucid glass + Leaps like a fountain from the grass + To meet the sun! + + A quiet green but few days since, + With cattle browsing in the shade, + And lo! long lines of bright arcade + In order raised; + A palace as for fairy prince, + A rare paradise, such as man + Saw never, since mankind began + And built and glazed! + + A peaceful place it was but now, + And lo! within its shining streets. + A multitude, of nations meets: + A countless throng, + I see beneath the crystal bow, + And Gaul and German, Russ and Turk, + Each with his native handiwork, + And busy tongue. + + I felt a thrill of love and awe + To mark the different garb of each, + The changing tongue, the various speech + Together blent. + A thrill, methinks like His who saw + "All people dwelling upon earth + Praising our God with solemn mirth + And one consent." + + High Sovereign in your Royal state! + Captains and Chiefs and Councillors, + Before the lofty palace doors + Are open set. + Hush! ere you pass the shining gate; + Hush! ere the heaving curtain draws, + And let the Royal pageant pause + A moment yet. + + People and Prince, a silence keep! + Bow coronet and kindly crown, + Helmet and plume bow lowly down; + The while the priest + Before the splendid portal step, + While still the wondrous banquet stays, + From Heaven supreme a blessing prays + Upon the feast! + + Then onwards let the triumph march; + Then let the loud artillery roll, + And trumpets ring and joy-bells toll, + And pass the gate; + Pass underneath the shining arch, + 'Neath which the leafy elms are green-- + Ascend unto your throne, O Queen, + And take your State! + + Behold her in her Royal place: + A gentle lady--and the hand + That sways the sceptre of this land + How frail and weak! + Soft is the voice, and fair the face; + She breathes amen to prayer and hymn, + No wonder that her eyes are dim, + And pale her cheek. + + This moment round her empire's shores + The winds of Austral winter sweep, + And thousands lie in midnight sleep + At rest to-day. + O! awful is that crown of yours, + Queen of innumerable realms, + Sitting beneath the budding elms + Of English May! + + A wondrous sceptre 'tis to bear, + Strange mystery of God which set + Upon her brow yon coronet,-- + The foremost crown + Of all the world on one so fair! + That chose her to it from her birth, + And bade the sons of all the earth + To her bow down. + + The representatives of man, + Here from the far Antipodes, + And from the subject Indian seas, + In Congress meet; + From Afric and from Hindostan, + From Western continent and isle, + The envoys of her empire pile + Gifts at her feet. + + Our brethren cross the Atlantic tides, + Loading the gallant decks, which once + Roared a defiance to our guns, + With peaceful store; + Symbol of peace, their vessel rides![2] + O'er English waves float Star and Stripe, + And from their friendly anchors gripe + The father-shore! + + From Rhine and Danube, Rhone and Seine, + As rivers from their sources gush, + The swelling floods of nations rush, + And seaward pour: + From coast to coast in friendly chain, + With countless ships we bridge the straits; + And angry Ocean separates + Europe no more. + + From Mississippi and from Nile-- + From Baltic, Ganges, Bosphorus, + In England's Ark assembled thus + Are friend and guest. + Look down the mighty sunlit aisle, + And see the sumptuous banquet set, + The brotherhood of nations met + Around the feast! + + Along the dazzling colonnade, + Far as the straining eye can gaze, + Gleam cross and fountain, bell, and vase, + In vistas bright. + And statues fair of nymph and maid, + And steeds and pards and Amazons, + Writhing and grappling in the bronze, + In endless fight. + + To deck the glorious roof and dome, + To make the Queen a canopy, + The peaceful hosts of industry + Their standards bear. + Yon are the works of Brahmin loom; + On such a web of Persian thread + The desert Arab bows his head, + And cries his prayer. + + Look yonder where the engines toil; + These England's arms, of conquest are, + The trophies of her bloodless war: + Brave weapons these. + Victorious over wave and soil, + With these she sails, she weaves, she tills + Pierces the everlasting hills, + And spans the seas. + + The engine roars upon its race, + The shuttle whirrs along the woof, + The people hum from floor to roof, + With Babel tongue. + + The fountain in the basin plays, + The chanting organ echoes clear, + An awful chorus 'tis to hear, + A wondrous song! + + Swell organ, swell your trumpet blast, + March, Queen, and Royal pageant, march + By splendid aisle and springing arch + Of this fair Hall: + And see! above the fabric vast, + God's boundless Heaven is bending blue, + God's peaceful Sun is beaming through + And shining over all. + +April 29. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[2] The St. Lawrence. + + + + +THE SECOND WIFE: OR, THE TABLES TURNED. + +WRITTEN FOR THE INTERNATIONAL MONTHLY MAGAZINE. + + +Subordination is the _apparent_ lot of woman. From the domination of +nurses, parents, guardians, and teachers, during infancy and youth, to +the magisterial rule of her lord and master, during married life, and +the softer control of her children, through that valley of the shadow +of death, old age, it rarely ceases, until the neatly-crimped borders +of the death-cap rest upon the icy brow, and the unfortunate subject +is screwed down in one of those exceedingly awkward mahogany +tenements, henceforth "all which it may inhabit." + +There are two ways of meeting this destiny of the sex. One is merely +to kiss the rod, and bend before the will of the oppressor, meekly +turning both cheeks to be smitten at once, and offering to lend both +coat and cloak, even before either is required. The other mode is to +boldly face down the enemy, and by a never-tiring guerilla warfare, to +hamper his movements, cut off his provisions, and finally hem him in, +after a manner that shall cause him ignominiously to surrender, to lay +down his arms, pass under the yoke, and at length--converting his +sword into a pruning-hook--leave his conqueror undisputed possession +of the land. The usual injustice of the world is seen in the success +which ordinarily attends the latter method; while the meek and gentle, +who, it is promised, shall inherit the earth, must look for a new +heaven and a new earth before they can come into their property. +Husbands, it is premised, have no small share in this domestic +despotism. How often do we see--to the shame of the male sex +generally, be it spoken--some rough, coarse-minded tyrant, linked to a +quiet, amiable woman, who after a long period of hectoring and +dragooning, ordering and counter-ordering, sinks into the grave of a +broken heart--or what is worse, a broken spirit. And sometimes--for +fate is sometimes just--the said patient wife is replaced by some +undaunted avenger of her wrongs, who in her turn dragoons, and hectors +Othello, until indeed his "occupation's gone." + +My old acquaintance, Charles Boldenough, was pronounced to be, by the +tutors, as well as by the students of D---- College, "the most +unlicked cub" who ever misconstrued Virgil. Their experience was +undoubtedly great in this species of natural history, but of all the +hard characters who fell under their inspection and jurisdiction, I +question if there were one who could with any share of success, +dispute with him the enviable claim of being the hardest. Tall, +athletic, with a huge frame capable of any fatigue, and health that +never failed him; with a passionate temper, and a stentorian voice +whose thunders were the terror of the younger boys, Charles Boldenough +contrived to overawe with brute force all the small fry, and to +convince the older collegians that it was best to yield passively to +pretensions which could only be contended with any chance of success, +by wrestling powers equal to his own. He was in fact the gladiator of +D----College,--champion I should have called him, were it not that he +was constantly at war with the professors and faculty, who might be +said to represent it. The incorrigible laziness and ignorance which +marked his scholastic career, were fruitful sources of complaint and +reprimand; the frequent boating expeditions, the sporting excursions, +and fishing parties, on which he was absent, sometimes for entire +days, would unquestionably have terminated the course of his studies, +and released the freshmen from their dreaded tyrant, by his early +expulsion, had it not been for the influence of powerful family +connections, and the personal interference of his friends. But in the +course of time, he finished his collegiate labors, with all the +honors, and a scarcity of black eyes, and bloody noses, immediately +prevailed at D----, such as had not occurred for years. + +I separated from him at that time, and heard nothing of him for a long +interval. When I next saw him, he was married. The person whom my +pugnacious acquaintance had made the object of his choice, was a fair +blue-eyed timid little woman, with a frail figure, delicate health, +and temper mild as the summer morning. What could have induced her, to +ally herself with this belligerent power, I never could imagine. +Whether she had fallen in love with that great burly countenance, and +loud voice; or whether, as the youngest of ten children, she had +snatched at the crown matrimonial as affording an escape from a +disagreeable home, or whether some one of her friends compelled her to +do it, I have always found it impossible to determine. I only know +that at the first interview, I saw enough to pity the poor being in my +heart. She hung upon the arm of her Alcides, like a snow-drop on a +rock. My friend had never had many pretensions to beauty; and his +rough red visage and portly figure, bore witness of a right boisterous +and jolly style of living. His first act after his marriage, was to +engage in a violent quarrel with his wife's father and eight stalwart +brothers, the result of which was a total cessation of intercourse +between the two families. His young partner was compelled to receive +the boon companions of her better half, to the entire exclusion of her +own friends. The home of Charles Boldenough was a constant scene of +dinner parties, and oyster suppers innumerable, which, as they +frequently ended by an altercation between the host and his guests, +were a continual source of agitation to his wife. + +A perfect angel of peace and gentleness she was. She bore, with +unexampled resignation, the thraldom which was destroying her health +and comfort. She tried, with patience, every means of pleasing a man +who never allowed her to know what he liked, as it would have taken +away all room for grumbling. With scrupulous care she attended to his +little vexatious wants, his epicurean tastes, his trifling whimsical +peculiarities. If she wished to remain at home, he forced her to go +abroad; if she were desirous of going out, he made her stay within +doors. If she liked a person more than commonly, he, in the words of +the vulgar, "made the house too hot to hold them." If, on the +contrary, she was annoyed by the presence of one of his acquaintances, +she had time and opportunity to get rid of her abhorrence, since she +was continually visited with their company. He scolded, grumbled, and +found fault with every thing she did; with her acts and her intentions +alike. If she ordered a servant to perform any particular duty, he +immediately countermanded the orders; if she made any change, however +slight, in the family arrangements, no penance could expiate the +offence. So she lived on, with almost a struggle for her existence, +having learned the important mythological lesson, that Hymen, like +Janus, wears two faces, and that the temple of the former god, unlike +that of the latter, is _never_ closed. She had several children (who +fortunately all died before their mother), but Boldenough, on the +ground that women were not fit to bring up boys, constantly interfered +in the education of the girls, and made his wife as wretched by this +means as by any other. He punished when she rewarded, and indulged +when she reproved; he sent them to school when she would have educated +them at home, and reaped his reward, by having them secretly fear and +hate him. Poor Mrs. Boldenough complained not, but she grew thinner +and paler every year, and her voice, as if lost amid the loud tones, +forever reverberating in her ears, became so low as to be scarcely +audible. + +At last she died. When it became necessary to inform him of the danger +she was in, he was at first stupefied by the unexpected intelligence, +and the feeling that he was to lose a household object, which time had +rendered not dear, but familiar. Then he flew into a violent rage, +quarreled with the attendants, servants, even the friends and +relatives. Having recovered from the shock in some degree, he set +about persecuting his poor wife during her last moments, in the same +manner he had done while she enjoyed her health, with this difference: +that it was now killing with kindness. He sent away in a rage the +family physician, although his dying wife begged him, almost with +tears, to retain him. He brought strange attendants to wait upon her, +and insisted upon her eating when she had no appetite, and when the +very sight of food created disgust. The sight of his big, cross, burly +countenance, perpetually haunting her, and his loud questions, to +which he _would_ have answers, and the eternal remedies, which he +disturbed her feverish sleep that she might swallow--were causes, as +the nurse averred, which positively sent the poor lady out of the +world--"for he wouldn't," said that worthy person, "he wouldn't have +let her get well, even if she'd been a mind to." + +Poor thing! a man who, as it was universally agreed, had broken his +wife's heart, was not likely to regret her very deeply, or very long. +But he was rougher and ruder than ever; the confusion into which his +family matters immediately fell, the dishonesty of servants, the +diabolical gastronomy of his _cuisine_, and the insufferable dullness +of a home in which there was no family circle to be made uncomfortable +and to be railed at every hour in the day, induced Charles Boldenough +to mingle more freely in society, in order, as it was immediately +said, that he might marry again. Many were the denunciations of wrath +and sorrow to come, which were showered upon the head of that wretched +woman who should accept Charles Boldenough's huge bony hand. He had +the name of the worst of husbands, and it was confidently said that he +would never succeed in contracting a second alliance: an assertion to +which he gave the lie by espousing, one year after the death of the +first Mrs. Boldenough, an intrepid successor, in the person of a +damsel whom he had long been known to admire. + +The second Mrs. Boldenough was a complete and entire contrast to the +first. She was so nearly equal to her husband in stature and in size +that she might almost have succeeded in giving him, what no person had +ever been known to do, and what he certainly had long required: +namely, a good flogging. She had a pair of cheeks like nothing in +_this_ world except two prize Spitzenberg apples, black eyes, fierce +and bright and far-seeing almost to a miracle, and a voice that went +through your head like a milkman's whistle, whilst the continued sound +of her conversation resembled a gong at the great hotels. Boldenough +she was by name, and Boldenough by nature; her carriage, erect and +firm, and rapid as a locomotive, seemed to require the ringing of a +little bell before her, to keep the unwary off the tracks, after the +manner of most railway trains. She was afraid of nothing in the +heavens above, or in the earth beneath, or in the waters under the +earth. She could break the most unruly horse, fire at a mark with a +perfect aim, and collar any man who should show her any impertinence, +with a coolness and strength of limb perfectly wonderful to behold. +Born to command, she was not angry but merely surprised that any one +should dream of controlling her. It was only after a long resistance +to her wishes that the full torrent of her rage burst forth, but with +an overwhelming fury. + +The French say "C'est le coeur qui fait le grenadier." If this be +true, what a very respectable regiment might be formed from the ranks +of the fair sex in all parts of the world, were they but armed and +equipped as the law directs! What an irresistible army would that be +which should be formed of troops like these! My friend, Mrs. +Boldenough, would have made an excellent commander to these imaginary +forces, and would, no doubt, have been as entirely successful in +overrunning the enemy's country and driving him from his last +entrenchments, as she was in the domestic circle triumphant over +husband and servants, and sweeping before her the convivial revellers +of the former by means of the rapid extinction of feudal customs, in +the shape of suppers and dinner parties. + +Mr. Boldenough attempted to make a gallant defence; he stormed, raved, +threatened, commanded, and exhorted; scenes of conflict, dreadful to +witness, took place between the warlike hosts. The lord of the +mansion's burly visage turned pale at finding himself stormed down +with a noise and clatter which almost burst the tympanum of his ears. +If _he_ had scolded _she_ had raved more loudly, if _he_ had thundered +_she_ rang out her high shrill treble with as much force and strength +as a dinner-bell. Fairly beaten and vanquished, he shrunk from the +ground; she, undismayed, "keeping the natural ruby of her cheeks, +while his were pale from fear." + +Voe victis! Wo to the conquered! The reign of Mr. Boldenough was +over; a new dynasty took possession of the throne. The old servants +were packed, bag and baggage, out of the mansion; the old +acquaintances of the host were impressively given to understand that +they were "never to come there no more." + +The longer any arbitrary power is established the more secure its +authority becomes. So it proved with regard to Mrs. Boldenough. There +was no escaping from her military despotism; she was an excellent +housewife, and the best of good managers, and as might have been +expected, she immediately restrained and cut off the lavish +expenditure of the household. Mr. Boldenough made a few faint expiring +efforts in behalf of his favorite luxuries. Not the better part of +valor, is, as he discovered, discretion; for his helpmate held in her +hands the buying and the ordering of his dinners and his daily food, +and if he complained he was sure to find his condition worse than it +was before. In the course of time six sturdy Boldenoughs sprung up, +robust, hardy, noisy, and passionate as their mother, whose authority +they served to confirm and strengthen. Then, indeed, it was that my +friend Charles's shadow perceptibly grew less. He shrank from the +notice of his wife and the bold Titans, his sons. The first Mrs. +Boldenough's memory was certainly avenged. + + * * * * * + +The last time I met my friend he was evidently sinking slowly but +surely into the vale of years. His great rubicund countenance was +sunken and emaciated, his figure bent and meagre, his voice weak and +faint as a whisper, and his hearing _entirely gone_. From what cause +my readers may perhaps imagine. He was, indeed, stone deaf. I +question, however, if this were not almost a mercy, considering the +tower of Babel in which he dwelt. Nobody cared what became of him, for +he had never cared for any body. + +Charles Boldenough departed this life shortly after having survived +his second marriage fifteen years. The physician had the effrontery to +ascribe to paralysis what evidently was no natural death. His end +might have excited some pity from his acquaintances and friends, if it +had not been for two things, namely, that he had no friends, and that +he merely received himself the same treatment which he had given +others. I was not sorry for him, I confess. Justice is so rare in this +world of ours, that I am not disposed to undervalue it when it is +summarily executed. The Amazonian relict of my friend Charles never +re-married. Whether she never found that daring man, who was Van +Amburgh-like enough to put his head in the lioness's mouth without +fear of having it snapped off at one blow, or whether the charge of +her young giants was sufficient for her occupation, or whether she was +conscious of having fulfilled her _mission_, I do not know. She +retained her formidable name to the end of her days. + +Reader! I have done. If you are a woman you may smile, and if a man +you will sneer; but I assure you there is a moral in the _petite +histoire_ of the second wife. Adieu! + + + + +A STORY WITHOUT A NAME[3] + +WRITTEN FOR THE INTERNATIONAL MONTHLY MAGAZINE. + +BY G. P. R. JAMES, ESQ. + +_Continued from page 200._ + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +There are seasons in the life of man, as well as in the course of the +year; and well, unhappily, have many poets painted them in all their +various aspects. But these seasons are subject to variations with +different men, as with different years. The summer of one man is all +bright and calm--a lapse of tranquil sunshine, and soft airs, and +gentle dews. With another, the same season passes in the thunder-storm +of passion--the tempests of war or ambition--and often, the gloomy +days of autumn or of winter overshadowed the rich land, and spoiled +the promised harvest. + +It was an autumn-like period during the next three or four months of +the family of Sir Philip Hastings. For the first time, uncertainty and +doubt fell upon the family generally. There had been differences of +temper and of character. There had been slight inconveniences. There +had been occasional sickness and anxiety. There had been all those +things which in the usual course of events diminished the sum of human +happiness even to the most happy. But there had been nothing the +least like uncertainty of position. There had been no wavering anxiety +from day to day as to what the morrow was to bring forth. There had +been none of that poison-drop in which the keenest shafts of fate are +dipped, "the looking for of evil." + +Now, every day brought some new intelligence, and some new +expectation, and the mass was altogether unfavorable. Had the blow +fallen at once--had any one been in power to say, "Sir Philip +Hastings, you must resign all your paternal estates, and pay back at +once the rents for nearly twenty years--you must give up the rank and +station which you have hitherto held, and occupy a totally different +position in society!" Sir Philip would have submitted at once, and +with less discomfort than most of my readers can imagine. But it was +the wearing, irritating, exciting, yet stupefying progress of a +lawsuit which had a painful and distressing effect upon his mind. One +day, he thought he saw the case quite clearly--could track the tricks +of his adversary, and expose the insecure foundation of his claim; and +then would come two or three days of doubt and discussion, and then +disappointment, and a new turn where every thing had to begin again. +But gradually proofs swelled up, first giving some show of justice to +the pretence that John Ayliffe had some claim, then amounting to a +probability in his favor, then seeming, to unlearned eyes, very +powerful as to his right. + +I am no lawyer, and therefore cannot pursue all the stages of the +proceeding; but John Ayliffe had for his assistants unscrupulous men, +whose only aims were to succeed, and to shield themselves from danger +in case of detection; and their turns, and twists, and new points, +were manifold. + +Sir Philip Hastings was tortured. It affected his spirits and his +temper. He became more gloomy--occasionally irritable, often +suspicious. He learned to pore over law papers, to seek out flaws and +errors, to look for any thing that might convey a double meaning, to +track the tortuous and narrow paths by which that power which bears +the name of Justice reaches the clear light of truth, or falls into +the thorny deep of error. + +All this disturbed and changed him; and these daily anxieties and +discomforts affected his family too--Emily, indeed, but little, except +inasmuch as she was grieved to see her father grieve. But Lady +Hastings was not only pained and mortified herself--she contrived to +communicate a share of all she felt to others. She became +sad--somewhat sullen--and fancied all the time while she was +depressing her husband's spirits, and aggravating all he felt by +despondency and murmurs, instead of cheering and supporting him by +making light of the threatened evils, that she was but participating +sympathetically in his anxieties, and feeling a due share of his +sorrows. She had no idea of the duty of cheerfulness in a wife, and +how often it may prove the very blessing that God intended in giving +man a helpmate. + +Sickness, it is true, had diminished somewhat the light spirits of her +youth, but she had assuredly become a creature of repinings--a +murmurer by habit--fit to double rather than divide any load of +misfortune which fate might cast upon a husband's shoulders. + +Lady Hastings strove rather to look sad, Emily Hastings to be gay and +cheerful, and both did it perhaps a little too much for the mood and +circumstances in which Sir Philip then was. He wondered when he came +home, after an anxious day, that Lady Hastings did nothing to cheer +him--that every word was gloomy and sad--that she seemed far more +affected at the thought of loss of fortune and station than himself. +He wondered also that Emily could be so light and playful, so joyous +and seemingly unconcerned, when he was suffering such anxiety. + +Poor Emily! she was forcing spirits in vain, and playing the kindliest +of hypocrites--fashioning every word, and every look, to win him away +from painful thought, only to be misunderstood. + +But the misunderstanding was heightened and pointed by the hand of +malice. The emotion which Sir Philip had displayed in the court had +not been forgotten by some whom a spirit of revenge rendered keen and +clear-sighted. + +It seemed impossible to mingle Emily's name directly with the law +proceedings which were taking place; but more than once in accidental +correspondence it was insinuated that secret information, which had +led to the development of John Ayliffe's claim, had been obtained from +some near relation of Sir Philip Hastings, and it became generally +rumored and credited in the county, that Emily had indiscreetly +betrayed some secrets of her father's. Of course these rumors did not +reach her ears, but they reached Sir Philip Hastings, and he thought +it strange, and more strange, that Emily had never mentioned to him +her several interviews with John Ayliffe, which he had by this time +learned were more than one. + +Some strange feelings, disguised doubtless by one of those veils which +vanity or selfishness are ever ready to cast over the naked emotions +of the human heart, withheld him from speaking to his child on the +subject which caused him so much pain. Doubtless it was pride--for +pride of a peculiar kind was at the bottom of many of his actions. He +would not condescend to inquire, he thought, into that which she did +not choose to explain herself, and he went on in reality barring the +way against confidence, when, in truth, nothing would have given Emily +more relief than to open her whole heart to her father. + +With Marlow, Sir Philip Hastings was more free and communicative than +with any one else. The young man's clear perceptions, and rapid +comprehensions on any point in the course of the proceedings going +on, his zeal, his anxiety, his thoughtfulness, and his keen sense of +what was just and equitable, raised him every day higher in the +opinion of Sir Philip Hastings, and he would consult with him for +hours, talk the whole matter over in all its bearings, and leave him +to solve various questions of conscience in which he found it +difficult himself to come to a decision. Only on one point Sir Philip +Hastings never spoke to him; and that was Emily's conduct with regard +to young Ayliffe. That, the father could not do; and yet, more than +once, he longed to do it. + +One day, however, towards the end of six months after the first +processes had been issued, Sir Philip Hastings, in one of his morning +consultations with Marlow, recapitulated succinctly all the proofs +which young John Ayliffe had brought forward to establish a valid +marriage between his mother and the elder brother of the baronet. + +"The case is very nearly complete," said Sir Philip. "But two or three +links in the chain of evidence are wanting, and as soon as I become +myself convinced that this young man is, beyond all reasonable doubt, +the legitimate son of my brother John, my course will be soon taken. +It behooves us in the first instance, Marlow, to consider how this may +affect you. You have sought the hand of a rich man's daughter, and now +I shall be a poor man; for although considerable sums have accumulated +since my father's death, they will not more than suffice to pay off +the sums due to this young man if his claim be established, and the +expenses of this suit must be saved by hard economy. The property of +Lady Hastings will still descend to our child, but neither she nor I +have the power to alienate even a part of it for our daughter's dowry. +It is right, therefore, Marlow, that you should be set free from all +engagements." + +"When I first asked your daughter's hand, Sir Philip," replied Marlow, +"I heartily wished that our fortunes were more equal. Fate has granted +that wish, apparently, in making them so; and believe me, I rejoice +rather than regret that it is so, as far as I myself am concerned. We +shall have enough for comfort, Sir Philip, and not too much for +happiness. What need we more? But I cannot help thinking," he +continued, "that this suit may turn out differently from that which +you expect. I believe that the mind has its instincts, which, though +dangerous to trust to, guide us nevertheless, sometimes, more surely +than reason. There is an impression on my mind, which all the evidence +hitherto brought forward has been unable to shake, that this claim of +John Ayliffe is utterly without foundation--that it is, in fact, a +trumped up case, supported by proofs which will fall to pieces under +close examination." + +Sir Philip Hastings shook his head. "But one thing more," he said, +"and I am myself convinced. I will not struggle against conviction, +Marlow; but the moment I feel morally sure that I am defending a bad +cause, that instant I will yield, be the sacrifice what it may. +Nothing on earth," he continued, in a stern abstracted tone, "shall +ever prevent my doing that which I believe right, and which justice +and honor require me to do. Life itself and all that makes life dear +were but a poor sacrifice in the eyes of an honest man; what then a +few thousand acres, and an empty designation?" + +"But, my dear Sir Philip," replied Marlow, "let us suppose for one +moment that this claim is a fictitious one, and that it is supported +by fraud and forgery, you will allow that more than a few months are +required to investigate all the particulars thoroughly, and to detect +the knavery which may have been committed?" + +"My dear Marlow," replied Sir Philip, "conviction comes to each mind +accordingly as it is naturally constituted or habitually regulated. I +trust I have studied the nature of evidence well--well enough to be +satisfied with much less than mere law will require. In regard to all +questions which come under the decision of the law, there are, in +fact, two juries who decide upon the merits of the evidence--one, +selected from our fellow men--the other in the bosom of the parties +before which each man shall scrupulously try the justice of his own +cause, and if the verdict be against him, should look upon himself but +as an officer to carry the verdict into execution. I will never act +against conviction. I will always act with it. My mind will try the +cause itself; and the moment its decision is pronounced, that instant +I will act upon it." + +Marlow knew that it was in vain to argue farther, and could only trust +that something would occur speedily to restore Sir Philip's confidence +in his own rights. + +Sir Philip, however, was now absent very frequently from home. The +unpleasant business in which he was engaged, called him continually to +the county town, and many a long and happy hour might Marlow and Emily +have passed together had not Lady Hastings at this time assumed a +somewhat new character--apparently so only--for it was, in fact, +merely a phase of the old one. She became--as far as health and +indolence would admit--the most prudent and careful mother in the +world. She insinuated that it was highly improper for Emily to walk or +ride alone with her acknowledged lover, and broadly asserted that +their previous rambles had been permitted without her knowledge, and +from inadvertence. During all Marlow's afternoon visits, she took +especial care to sit with them the whole time, and thus she sought to +deprive them of all means of free and unconstrained communication. +Such would have been the result, too, indeed, had it not been for a +few morning hours snatched now and then; partly from a habit of +indulgence, and partly from very delicate health, Lady Hastings was +rarely, if ever, down to breakfast, and generally remained in her +drawing-room till the hour of noon was past. + +The hours of Sir Philip's absence were generally tedious enough to +himself. Sometimes a day of weary and laborious business occupied the +time; but that was a relief rather than otherwise. In general the day +was spent in a visit to the office of his lawyer, in finding the +information he wanted, or the case he had desired to be prepared, not +ready for him, in waiting for it hour after hour, in tedious gloomy +meditation, and very often riding home without it, reflecting on the +evils of a dilatory system which often, by the refusal of _speedy_ +justice, renders ultimate justice unavailable for any thing but the +assertion of an abstract principle. He got tired of this mode of +proceeding: he felt that it irritated and disordered him, and after a +while, whenever he found that he should be detained in suspense, he +mounted his horse again, and rode away to amuse his mind with other +things. + +The house of Mrs. Hazleton being so near, he more than once paid her a +visit during such intervals. His coming frequently was not altogether +convenient to her; for John Ayliffe was not an unfrequent visitor at +her house, and Mrs. Hazleton had to give the young man a hint to let +her see him early in the morning or late in the evening. Nevertheless, +Mrs. Hazleton was not at all displeased to cultivate the friendship of +Sir Philip Hastings. She had her objects, her purposes, to serve, and +with her when she put on her most friendly looks towards the baronet +she was not moved merely by that everyday instinctive hypocrisy which +leads man to cover the passions he is conscious of, with a veil of the +most opposite appearances, but it was a definite hypocrisy, with +objects distinctly seen by herself, and full of purpose. + +Thus, and for these reasons, she received Sir Philip Hastings on all +occasions with the highest distinction--assumed, with a certain +chameleon quality which some persons have, the color and tone of his +mind to a considerable degree, while yet the general features of her +own character were preserved sufficiently to shield her from the +charge of affectation. She was easy, graceful, dignified as ever, with +a certain languid air, and serious quietness which was very engaging. +She never referred in her conversations with Sir Philip to the suit +that was going on against him, and when he spoke of it himself, though +she assumed considerable interest, and seemed to have a personal +feeling in the matter, exclaiming, "If this goes on, nobody's estates +will be secure soon!" she soon suffered the subject to drop, and did +not recur to it again. + +One day after the conversation between Sir Philip and Marlow, part of +which has been already detailed, Sir Philip turned his horse's head +towards Mrs. Hazleton's at a somewhat earlier hour than usual. It was +just half past ten when he dismounted at the door, but he knew her +matutinal habits and did not expect to find her occupied. The servant, +however, instead of showing him into the small room where she usually +sat, took him to the great drawing-room, and as he went, Sir Philip +heard the voices of Mrs. Hazleton and another person in quick and +apparently eager conversation. There was nothing extraordinary in +this, however, and he turned to the window and gazed out into the +park. He heard the servant go into the morning room, and then +immediately all sound of voices ceased. Shortly after, a horse's feet, +beating the ground rapidly, caught the baronet's ear, but the rider +must have mounted in the courtyard and taken the back way out of the +park; for he came not within Sir Philip's sight. A moment or two +after, Mrs. Hazleton appeared, and there was an air of eagerness and +excitement about her which was not at all usual. She seated Sir Philip +beside her, however, with one of her blandest looks, and then laying +her hand on his, said, in a kind and sisterly tone, "Do tell me, Sir +Philip--I am not apt to be curious, or meddle with other people's +affairs; but in this I am deeply interested. A rumor has just reached +me from Hartwell, that you have signified your intention of abandoning +your defence against this ridiculous claim upon your property. Do tell +me if this is true?" + +"Partly, and partly false," replied Sir Philip, "as all rumors are. +Who gave you this information?" + +"Oh, some of the people from Hartwell," she replied, "who came over +upon business." + +"The tidings must have spread fast," replied Sir Philip; "I announced +to my own legal advisers this morning, and told them to announce to +the opposite party, that if they could satisfy me upon one particular +point, I would not protract the suit, putting them to loss and +inconvenience and myself also." + +"A noble and generous proceeding, indeed," said Mrs. Hazleton, with an +enthusiastic burst of admiration. "Ah, dear Emily, I can see your +mediation in this." + +Sir Philip started as if a knife had been plunged into him, and with a +profound internal satisfaction, Mrs. Hazleton saw the emotion she had +produced. + +"May I ask," he said, in a dry cold tone, after he had recovered +himself a little, "May I ask what my daughter can have to do with this +affair?" + +"Oh, really--in truth I don't know," said Mrs. Hazleton, stammering +and hesitating, "I only thought--but I dare say it is all nonsense. +Women are always the peacemakers, you know, Sir Philip, and as Emily +knew both parties well, it seemed natural she should mediate between +them." + +"Well?--" said Sir Philip Hastings to himself, slowly and +thoughtfully, but he only replied to Mrs. Hazleton, "No, my dear +Madam, Emily has had nothing to do with this. It has never formed a +subject of conversation between us, and I trust that she has +sufficient respect for me, and for herself, not to interfere unasked +in my affairs." + +The serpent had done its work; the venom was busy in the veins of Sir +Philip Hastings, corrupting the purest sources of the heart's +feelings, and Mrs. Hazleton saw it and triumphed. + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +Emily was as gay as a lark. The light of love and happiness was in her +eyes, the hue of health was upon her cheek, and a new spirit of hope +and joy seemed to pervade all her fair form. So Sir Philip Hastings +found her on the terrace with Marlow when he returned from Hartwell. +She was dressed in a riding habit, and one word would have explained +all the gaiety of her mood. Lady Hastings, never very consequent in +her actions, had wished for some one of those things which ladies wish +for, and which ladies only can choose. She had felt too unwell to go +for it herself; and although she had not a fortnight before expressed +her strong disapprobation of her daughter and Mr. Marlow even walking +out alone in the park, she had now sent them on horseback to procure +what she wanted. They had enjoyed one of those glorious rides over the +downs, which seem to pour into the heart fresh feelings of delight at +every step, flooding the sense with images of beauty, and making the +blood dance freely in the veins. It seemed also, both to her and +Marlow, that a part of the prohibition was removed, and though they +might not perhaps be permitted to walk out together, Lady Hastings +could hardly for the future forbid them to ride. Thus they had come +back very well pleased, with light hearts within, and gay hopes +fluttering round them. + +Sir Philip Hastings, on the other hand, had passed a day of +bitterness, and hard, painful thought. On his first visit to the +county town, he had, as I have shown, been obliged once more to put +off decision. Then came his conference with Mrs. Hazleton. Then he had +returned to his lawyer's office, and found that the wanting evidence +had been supplied by his opponents. All that he had demanded was +there; and no apparent flaw in the case of his adversary. He had +always announced his attention of withdrawing opposition if such +proofs were afforded, and he did so now, with stern, rigid, and +somewhat hasty determination--but not without bitterness and regret. +His ride home, too, was troubled with dull and grievous thoughts, and +his whole mind was out of tune, and unfit to harmonize with gaiety of +any kind. He forgot that poor Emily could not see what had been +passing in his bosom, could not know all that had occurred to disturb +and annoy him, and her light and cheerful spirits seemed an offence to +him. + +Sir Philip passed on, after he had spoken a few words to Marlow, and +sought Lady Hastings in the room below, where she usually sat after +she came down. Sir Philip, as I have shown, had not been nurtured in a +tender school, and he was not very apt by gentle preparation to soothe +the communication of any bad tidings. Without any circumlocution, +then, or prefatory remarks of any kind, he addressed his wife in the +following words: "This matter is decided, my dear Rachel. I am no +longer Sir Philip Hastings, and it is necessary that we should remove +from this house within a month, to your old home--the Court. It will +be necessary, moreover, that we should look with some degree of +accuracy into the state of our future income, and our expenditure. +With your property, and the estate which I inherit from my mother, +which being settled on the younger children, no one can take from me, +we shall still have more than enough for happiness, but the style of +our living must be altered. We shall have plenty of time to think of +that, however, and to do what we have to do methodically." + +Lady Hastings, or as we should rather call her now, Mistress Hastings, +seemed at first hardly to comprehend her husband's meaning, and she +replied, "You do not mean to say, Philip, that this horrible cause is +decided?" + +"As far as I am concerned, entirely," replied Sir Philip Hastings. "I +shall offer no farther defence." + +Lady Hastings fell into a fit of hysterics, and her husband knowing +that it was useless to argue with her in such circumstances, called +her maid, and left her. + +There was but a dull dinner-party at the Hall that day. Sir Philip was +gloomy and reserved, and the news which had spread over the house, as +to the great loss of property which he had sustained, soon robbed his +daughter of her cheerfulness. + +Marlow, too, was very grave; for he thought his friend had acted, not +only hastily, but imprudently. Lady Hastings did not come down to +dinner, and as soon as the meal was over Emily retired to her mother's +dressing-room, leaving Marlow and her father with their wine. Sir +Philip avoided the subject of his late loss, however, and when Marlow +himself, alluded to it, replied very briefly. + +"It is done," he said, "and I will cast the matter entirely from my +mind, Marlow. I will endeavor, as far as possible, to do in all +circumstances what is right, whatever be the anguish it costs me. +Having done what is right, my next effort shall be to crush every +thing like regret or repining. There is only one thing in life which +could give me any permanent pain, and that would be to have an +unworthy child." + +Marlow did not seem to remark the peculiar tone in which the last +words were uttered, and he replied. "There, at least, you are most +happy, Sir Philip; for surely Emily is a blessing which may well +compensate for any misfortunes." + +"I trust so--I think so," said Sir Philip, in a dry and hasty manner, +and then changing the subject, he added, "Call me merely Philip +Hastings, my good friend. I say with Lord Verulam, 'The Chancellor is +gone.' I mean I am no longer a baronet. That will not distress me, +however, and as to the loss of fortune, I can bear it with the most +perfect indifference." + +Mr. Hastings reckoned in some degree without his host, however. He +knew not all the petty annoyances that were in store for him. The +costs he had to pay, the back-rents which were claimed, the long and +complicated accounts that were to be passed, the eager struggle which +was made to deprive him of many things undoubtedly his own; all were +matters of almost daily trouble and irritation during the next six +months. He had greatly miscalculated the whole amount of expenses. +Having lived always considerably within his income, he had imagined +that he had quite a sufficient amount in ready money to pay all the +demands that could be made upon him. But such was far from being the +case. Before all the debts were paid, and the accounts closed, he was +obliged to raise money upon his life-interest in his mother's +property, and to remain dependent, as it were, upon his wife's income +for his whole means. These daily annoyances had a much greater effect +upon Mr. Hastings than any great and serious misfortune could have +had. He became morose, impatient, gloomy. His mind brooded over all +that had occurred, and all that was occurring. He took perverted views +of many things, and adhered to them with an obstinacy that nothing +could shake. + +In the mean time all the neighbors and friends of the family +endeavored to show their sympathy and kindness by every means in their +power. Even before the family quitted the Hall, the visitors were more +numerous than they had ever been before, and this was some consolation +to Mistress Hastings, though quite the contrary to her husband, who +did not indeed appear very frequently amongst the guests, but remained +in his own study as much as possible. + +It was a very painful day for every one, and for Emily especially, +when they passed the door of the old Hall for the last time, and took +their way through the park towards the Court. The furniture in great +part, the books, the plate, had gone before; the rooms looked vacant +and desolate, and as Emily passed through them one by one, ere she +went down to the carriage, there was certainly nothing very attractive +in their aspect. But there were spots there associated with many dear +memories--feelings--fancies--thoughts--all the bright things of early, +happy youth; and it was very bitter for her to leave them all, and +know that she was never to visit them again. + +She might, and probably would, have fallen into one of her deep +reveries, but she struggled against it, knowing that both her father +and her mother would require comfort and consolation in the coming +hours. She exerted herself, then, steadily and courageously to bear up +without a show of grief, and she succeeded even too well to satisfy +her father. He thought her somewhat light and frivolous, and judged it +very strange that his daughter could quit her birth-place, and her +early home, without, apparently, one regretful sigh. He himself sat +stern, and gloomy, and silent, in the carriage, as it rolled away. +Mistress Hastings leaned back, with her handkerchief over her eyes, +weeping bitterly. Emily alone was calmly cheerful, and she maintained +this demeanor all the way along till they reached the Court, and +separated till dinner-time. Then, however, she wept bitterly and long. + +Before she had descended to meet her parents at dinner, she did her +best to efface all traces of her sad employment for the last hour. She +did not succeed completely, and when she entered the drawing-room, and +spoke cheerfully to her father, he raised his eyes to her face, and +detected, at once, the marks of recent tears on her swollen eyelids. + +"She has been weeping," said Mr. Hastings to himself; "can I have been +mistaken?" + +A gleam of the truth shot through his mind, and comforted him much, +but alas, it was soon to be lost again. + +From feelings of delicacy, Marlow had absented himself that day, but +on the following morning he was there early, and thenceforward was a +daily visitor at the Court. He applied himself particularly to cheer +Emily's father, and often spent many hours with him, withdrawing Mr. +Hastings' mind from all that was painful in his own situation, by +leading it into those discussions of abstract propositions of which he +was so fond. But Marlow was not the only frequent visitor at the +Court. Mrs. Hazleton was there two or three times in the week, and was +all kindness, gentleness, and sympathy. She had tutored herself well, +and she met Mr. Marlow as Emily's affianced husband, with an ease and +indifference which was marvellously well assumed. To Mrs. Hastings she +proved the greatest comfort, although it is not to be asserted that +the counsels which she gave her, proved at all comfortable to the rest +of the household, and yet Mrs. Hazleton never committed herself. Mrs. +Hastings could not have repeated one word that she said, that any one +on earth could have found fault with. She had a mode of insinuating +advice without speaking it--of eking out her words by looks and +gestures full of significance to the person who beheld them, but +perfectly indescribable to others. + +She was not satisfied, however, with being merely the friend and +confidante of Mrs. Hastings. She must win Emily's father also, and she +succeeded so well that Mr. Hastings quite forgot all doubts and +suspicions, and causes of offence, and learned to look upon Mrs. +Hazleton as a really kind and amiable person, and as consistent as +could be expected of any woman. + +Not one word, however, did Mrs. Hazleton say in the hearing of Emily's +father which could tend in any degree to depreciate the character of +Mr. Marlow, or be construed into a disapproval of the proposed +marriage. She was a great deal too wise for that, knowing the +character of Mr. Hastings sufficiently to see that she could effect no +object, and only injure herself by such a course. + +To Emily she was all that was kind and delightful. She was completely +the Mrs. Hazleton of former days; but with the young girl she was less +successful than with her parents. Emily could never forget the visit +to her house, and what had there occurred, and the feelings which she +entertained towards Mrs. Hazleton were always those of doubt. Her +character was a riddle to Emily, as well it might be. There was +nothing upon which she could definitely fix as an indication, of a bad +heart, or of duplicity of nature, and yet she doubted; nor did Marlow +at all assist in clearing her mind; for although they often spoke of +Mrs. Hazleton, and Marlow admitted all her bright and shining +qualities, yet he became very taciturn when Emily entered more deeply +into that lady's character. Marlow likewise had his doubts, and to say +sooth, he was not at all well pleased to see Mrs. Hazleton so +frequently with Mrs. Hastings. He did not well know what it was he +feared, but yet there was a something which instinctively told him +that his interests in Emily's family would not find the most favorable +advocate in Mrs. Hazleton. + +Such was the state of things when one evening there was assembled at +the house of Mr. Hastings, a small dinner party--the first which had +been given since his loss of property. The summer had returned, the +weather was beautiful, the guests were cheerful and intellectual, and +the dinner passed off happily enough. There were several gentlemen and +several ladies present, and amongst the latter was Mrs. Hazleton. +Politics at that time ran high: the people were not satisfied +altogether with the King whom they had themselves chosen, and several +acts of intolerance had proved that promises made before the +attainment of power are not always very strictly maintained when power +has been reached. Mr. Hastings had never meddled in the strife of +party. He had a thorough contempt for policy and politicians, but he +did not at all object to argue upon the general principles of +government, in an abstract manner, and very frequently startled his +hearers by opinions, not only unconstitutional, and wide and far from +any of the received notions of the day, but sometimes also, very +violent, and sometimes at first sight, irreconcilable with each other. +On the present occasion the conversation after dinner took a political +turn, and straying away from their wine, the gentlemen walked out into +the gardens, which were still beautifully kept up, and prolonged their +discussion in the open air. The ladies too--as all pictures show they +were fond of doing in those days--were walking amongst the flowers, +not in groups, but scattered here and there. Marlow was naturally +making his way to the side of Emily, who was tying up a shrub at no +great distance from the door, but Mrs. Hazleton unkindly called him to +her, to tell her the name of a flower which she did not know. In the +mean time Mr. Hastings took his daughter by the arm, leaning gently +upon her, and walking up and down the terrace, while he continued his +discussion with a Northumberland gentleman known in history as Sir +John Fenwick. "The case seems to be this," said Mr. Hastings, in reply +to some question or the other; "all must depend upon the necessity. +Violent means are bad as a remedy for any thing but violent evils, but +the greatness of the evil will often justify any degree of vigor in +the means. Will any one tell me that Brutus was not justified in +stabbing Caesar? Will any one tell me that William Tell was not +justified in all that he did against the tyrant of his country? I will +not pretend to justify the English regicides, not only because they +condemned a man by a process unknown to our laws, and repugnant to all +justice, but because they committed an act for which there was no +absolute necessity. Where an absolute necessity is shown, +indeed--where no other means can be found of obtaining freedom, +justice and security, I see no reason why a King should not be put to +death as well as any other man. Nay more, he who does the deed with a +full appreciation of its importance, a conscience clear of any private +motives, and a reasoning sense of all the bearings of the act he +commits, merits a monument rather than a gibbet, though in these days +he is sure to obtain the one and not the other." + +"Hush, hush, do not speak so loud, my dear sir," said Sir John +Fenwick; "less than those words brought Sidney's head to the block." + +"I am not afraid of mine," replied Mr. Hastings, with a faint smile; +"mine are mere abstract notions with regard to such things; very +little dangerous to any crowned heads, and if they thought fit to put +down such opinions, they would have to burn more than one half of all +the books we have derived from Rome." + +Sir John Fenwick would not pursue the subject, however, and turned the +conversation in another course. He thought indeed that it had gone far +enough, especially when a young lady was present; for he was one of +those men who have no confidence in any woman's discretion, and he +knew well, though he did not profit much by his knowledge, that things +very slight, when taken abstractedly, may become very dangerous if +forced into connection with events. Philip Hastings would have said +what he did say, before any ears in Europe, without the slightest +fear, but as it proved, he had said too much for his own safety. No +one indeed seemed to have noticed the very strong opinions he had +expressed except Sir John Fenwick himself, and shortly after the party +gathered together again, and the conversation became general and not +very interesting. + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +Men have lived and died in the pursuit of two objects the least +worthy, on which the high mind of man could ever fix, out of all the +vain illusions that lead us forward through existence from youth to +old age: the philosopher's stone, and the elixir of life. Gold, gold, +sordid gold--not competence--not independence, but wealth--profuse, +inexhaustible wealth--the hard food of Croesus; strange that it +should ever form the one great object of an immortal spirit! But +stranger still, that a being born to higher destinies should seek to +pin itself down to this dull earth forever--to dwell in a clay hut, +when a palace gates are open--to linger in a prison, when freedom may +be had--to outlive affections, friendships, hope and happiness--to +remain desolate in a garden where every flower has withered. To seek +the philosopher's stone--even could it have been found--was a madness: +but to desire the elixir of life was a worse insanity. + +There was once, however, in the world's history a search--an eager +search, for that which at first sight may seem nearly the same as the +great elixir; but which was in reality very, very different. + +We are told by the historians of America, that a tradition prevailed +amongst the Indians of Puerto Rico, that in one of the islands on the +coast, there was a fountain which possessed the marvellous power of +restoring, to any one who bathed in its waters, all the vigor and +freshness of youth, and that some of the Spanish adventurers sought it +anxiously, but sought in vain. Here indeed was an object worthy of +desire--here, what the heart might well yearn for, and mourn to find +impossible. + +Oh, that fountain of youth, what might it not give back! The easy +pliancy of limb: the light activity of body: the calm, sweet sleep; +the power of enjoyment and acquisition: the freshness of the heart: +the brightness of the fancy: the brilliant dreams: the glorious +aspirations: the beauty and the gentleness: the innocence: the love. +We, who stand upon the shoal of memory, and look back in our faint +dreams, to the brighter land left far behind, may well long for that +sweet fountain which could renew--not life--but youth. + +Oh youth--youth! Give me but one year of youth again. And it shall +come. I see it there, beyond the skies, that fountain of youth, in the +land where all flowers are immortal. + +It is very strange, however, that with some men, when youth is gone, +its very memories die also. They can so little recollect the feelings +of that brighter time, that they cannot comprehend them in others: +that they become a mystery--a tale written in a tongue they have +forgotten. + +It was so with Philip Hastings, and so also with his wife. Neither +seemed to comprehend the feelings of Marlow and Emily; but her father +understood them least. He had consented to their union: he approved of +her choice; but yet it seemed strange and unpleasant to him, that her +thoughts should be so completely given to her lover. He could hardly +believe that the intense affection she felt for another, was +compatible with love towards her parent. He knew not, or seemed to +have forgotten that the ordinance to leave all and cleave unto her +husband, is written in woman's heart as plainly as in the Book. + +Nevertheless, that which he felt was not the least like +jealousy--although I have seen such a thing even in a parent towards a +child. It was a part of the problem of Emily's character, which he was +always trying to solve without success. + +"Here," he thought, "she has known this young man, but a short +time--no years--not very many months; and yet, it is clear, that in +that short space, she has learned to love him better than those to +whom she is bound by every tie of long enduring affection and +tenderness." + +Had he thought of comparing at all, her conduct and feelings with +those of his own youth, he would still have marvelled; for he would +have said, "I had no tenderness shown me in my young days--I was not +the companion, the friend, the idol, the peculiar loved one of father +or mother, so long as my elder brother lived. I loved her who first +really loved me. From _my_ parents, I had met small affection, and but +little kindness. It was therefore natural that I should fix my love +elsewhere, as they had fixed theirs. But with my child, the case is +very different." + +Yet he loved Marlow well--was fond of his society--was well pleased +that he was to be his daughter's husband; but even in his case, Mr. +Hastings was surprised in a certain degree; for Marlow did not, and +could not conceal that he loved Emily's society better than her +father's--that he would rather a great deal be with her than with +Brutus himself or Cato. + +This desire on the part of Marlow to be ever by her side, was a great +stumbling-block in the way of Mr. Hastings' schemes for re-educating +Marlow, and giving that strength and vigor to his character of which +his future father-in-law had thought it susceptible. He made very +little progress, and perhaps Marlow's society might even have had some +influence upon him--might have softened--mitigated his character; but +that there were counteracting influences continually at work. + +All that had lately happened--the loss of fortune and of station--the +dark and irritating suspicions which had been instilled into his mind +in regard to his child's conduct--the doubts which had been produced +of her frankness and candor--the fact before his eyes, that she loved +another better, far better, than himself, with a kind word, now and +then, from Mrs. Hazleton, spoken to drive the dart deeper into his +heart, had rendered him somewhat morose and gloomy,--apt to take a bad +view of other people's actions, and to judge less fairly than he +always wished to judge. When Marlow hastened away from him to rejoin +Emily, and paint, with her, in all the brightest colors of +imagination, a picture of the glowing future, her father would walk +solitary and thoughtful, giving himself up to dark and unprofitable +reveries. + +Mrs. Hastings in the mean time would take counsel with Mrs. Hazleton, +and they would settle between them that the father was already +dissatisfied with the engagement he had aided to bring about, and that +a little persevering opposition on the part of the mother, would +ultimately bring that engagement to an end. + +Mrs. Hastings, too, thought--or rather seemed to feel, for she did not +reduce it to thought--that she had now a greater right to exercise +some authority in regard to her daughter's marriage, as Emily's whole +fortune must proceed from her own property. She ventured to oppose +more boldly, and to express her opinion against the marriage, both to +her husband and her child. It was against the advice of Mrs. Hazleton +that she did so; for that lady knew Mr. Hastings far better than his +own wife knew him; and while Emily's cheek burned, and her eye swam in +tears, Mr. Hastings replied in so stern and bitter a tone that Mrs. +Hastings shrunk back alarmed at what she herself had done. + +But the word had been spoken: the truth revealed. Both Mr. Hastings +and Emily were thenceforth aware that she wished the engagement +between her daughter and Marlow broken off--she was opposed to the +marriage; and would oppose it. + +The effect of this revelation of her views upon her child and her +husband, was very different. Emily had colored with surprise and +grief--not, as her father thought, with anger; and she resolved +thenceforth to endeavor to soften her mother's feelings towards him +she loved, and to win her consent to that upon which all her own +happiness depended; but in which her own happiness could not be +complete without a mother's approbation. + +Mr. Hastings, on the contrary, entertained no expectation that his +wife would ever change her views, even if she changed her course. Some +knowledge--some comprehension of her character had been forced upon +him during the many years of their union; and he believed that, if all +open remonstrance, and declared opposition had been crushed by his +sharp and resolute answer, there would nevertheless be continual or +ever recurring efforts on Mrs. Hastings' part, to have her own way, +and thwart both his purposes and Emily's affection. He prepared to +encounter that sort of irritating guerrilla warfare of last words, and +sneers, and innuendoes, by which a wife sometimes endeavors to +overcome a husband's resolutions; and he hardened himself to resist. +He knew that she could not conquer in the strife; but he determined to +put an end to the warfare, either by some decided expression of his +anger at such proceedings, or by uniting Emily to Marlow, much sooner +than he had at first proposed. + +The latter seemed the easiest method, and there was a great chance of +the marriage, which it had been agreed should be delayed till Emily +was nineteen, taking place much earlier, when events occurred which +produced even a longer delay. + +One of the first steps taken by Mr. Hastings to show his wife that her +unreasonable opposition would have no effect upon him, was not only to +remove the prohibition of those lovers' rambles which Mrs. Hastings +had forbidden, but to send his daughter and her promised husband forth +together on any pretext that presented itself. He took the opportunity +of doing so, first, when his wife was present, and on the impulse of +the moment, she ventured to object. One look--one word from her +husband, however, silenced her; for they were a look and word too +stern to be trifled with, and Emily went to dress for her walk; but +she went with the tears in her eyes. She was grieved to find that all +that appertained to her happiness was likely to become a cause of +dissension between her father and her mother. Had Marlow not been +concerned--had his happiness not been also at stake--she would have +sacrificed any thing--every thing--to avoid such a result; but she +felt she had no right to yield to caprice, where he was to suffer as +well as herself. + +The walk took place, and it might have been very sweet to both, had +not the scene which had immediately preceded poured a drop of +bitterness into their little cup of joy. Such walks were often renewed +during the month that followed; but Emily was not so happy as she +might have been; for she saw that her father assumed a sterner, colder +tone towards his wife, and believed that she might be the unwilling +cause of this painful alienation. She knew not that it proceeded +partly from another source--that Mr. Hastings had discovered, or +divined, that his wife had some feeling of increased power and +authority from the fact of his having lost his large estates, and of +her property being all that remained to them both. + +Poor Emily! Marlow's love, that dream of joy, seemed destined to +produce, for a time at least, nothing but grief and anxiety. Her +reveries became more frequent, and more deep, and though her lover +could call her from them in a moment, no one else had the power. + +One day, Marlow and his Emily--for whom every day his love increased; +for he knew and comprehended her perfectly, and he was the only +one--had enjoyed a more happy and peaceful ramble than usual, through +green lanes, and up the hill, and amidst the bright scenery which lay +on the confines of the two counties, and they returned slowly towards +the house, not anticipating much comfort there. As they approached, +they saw from the road a carriage standing before the door, dusty, as +if from a long journey, but with the horses still attached. There were +three men, too, with the carriage, besides the driver, and they were +walking their horses up and down the terrace, as if their stay was to +be but short. It was an unusual number of attendants, even in those +days, to accompany a carriage in the country, except upon some visit +of great ceremony; and the vehicle itself--a large, old, rumbling +coach, which had seen better days--gave no indication of any great +state or dignity on the part of its owner. + +Why, she knew not, but a feeling of fear, or at least anxiety, came +over Emily as she gazed, and turning to Marlow, she said, "Who can +these visitors be?" + +"I know not, indeed, dear love," he answered, "but the equipage is +somewhat strange. Were we in France," he added, with a laugh, "I +should think it belonged to an exempt, bearing a _lettre de cachet_." + +Emily smiled also, for the idea of her father having incurred the +anger of any government or violated any law seemed to her quite out of +the question. + +When they approached the door, however, they were met by a servant, +with a grave and anxious countenance, who told her that her father +wished to see her immediately in the dining hull. + +"Is there any one with him?" asked Emily, in some surprise. + +"Yes, Mistress Emily," replied the man, "there is a strange gentleman +with him. But you had better go in at once; for I am afraid things are +not going well." + +Marlow drew her arm through his, and pressed it gently to make her +feel support; and then went into the eating-room, as it was usually +called, by her side. + +When they entered they found the scene a strange and painful one. Mr. +Hastings was seated near a window, with his hat on, and his cloak cast +down on a chair beside him. His wife was placed near him, weeping +bitterly; and at the large table in the middle of the room was a +coarse-looking man, in the garb of a gentleman, but with no other +indication but that of dress of belonging to a superior class. He was +very corpulent, and his face, though shadowed by an enormous wig, was +large and bloated. There was food and wine before him, and to both he +seemed to be doing ample justice, without taking any notice of the +master of the house or his weeping lady. + +Mr. Hastings, however, rose and advanced towards his daughter, as soon +as she entered, and in an instant the eye of the gormandizing guest +was raised from his plate and turned towards the party, with a look of +eager suspicion. + +"Oh, my dear father, what is this?" exclaimed Emily, running towards +him. + +"One of those accidents of life, my child," replied Mr. Hastings, +"from which I had hoped to be exempt--most foolishly. But it seems," +he continued, "no conduct, however reserved, can shield one from the +unjust suspicions of princes and governments." + +"Very good cause for suspicion, sir," said the man at the table, +quaffing a large glass of wine. "Mr. Secretary would not have signed a +warrant without strong evidence. Vernon is a cautious man, sir, a very +cautious man." + +"And who is this person?" asked Marlow, pointing to the personage who +spoke. + +"A messenger of the powers that be," replied Mr. Hastings; "it seems +that because Sir John Fenwick dined here a short time ago, and has +since been accused of some practices against the state, his Majesty's +advisers have thought fit to connect me with his doings, or their own +suspicions, though they might as well have sent down to arrest my +butler or my footman, and I am now to have the benefit of a journey to +the Tower of London under arrest." + +"Or to Newgate," said the messenger, significantly. + +"To London, at all events," replied Mr. Hastings. + +"I will go with you," said Marlow, at once; but before the prisoner +could answer, the messenger interfered, saying, "That I cannot allow." + +"I am afraid you must allow it," replied Marlow, "whether it pleases +you or not." + +"I will have no one in the carriage with my prisoner," said the +messenger, striking the table gently with the haft of his knife. + +"That may be," answered Marlow; "but you will not, I presume, pretend +to prevent my going where I please in my own carriage; and when once +in London, I shall find no difficulty, knowing Mr. Vernon well." + +The latter announcement made a great change in the messenger's +demeanor, and he became much more tame and docile from the moment it +struck his ear. + +Mr. Hastings indeed would fain have persuaded his young friend to +remain where he was, and looked at Emily with some of that tenderer +feeling of a parent which so often prompts to every sacrifice for a +child's sake. But Emily thanked Marlow eagerly for proposing to go; +and Mrs. Hastings, even, expressed some gratitude. + +The arrangements were soon made. There being no time to send for +Marlow's own carriage and horses, it was agreed that he should take a +carriage belonging to Mr. Hastings, with his horses, for the first +stage; the prisoner's valet was to accompany his friend, and immediate +orders were given for the necessary preparations. + +When all was ready, Emily asked some question of her father, in a low +tone, to which he replied, "On no account, my child. I will send for +you and your mother should need be; but do not stir before I do. This +is a mere cloud--a passing shower, which will soon be gone, and leave +the sky as bright as ever. We do not live in an age when kings of +England can play at foot-ball with the heads of innocent men, and I, +as you all know, am innocent." + +He then embraced his wife and child with more tenderness than he was +wont to show, and entering the carriage first, was followed by the +messenger. The other men mounted their horses, and Marlow did not +linger long behind the sad cavalcade. + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + +Philip Hastings had calculated much upon his Roman firmness; and he +could have borne death, or any great and sudden calamity, with +fortitude; but small evils often affect us more than great ones. He +knew not what it is to suffer long imprisonment, to undergo the +wearing, grinding process of life within a prison's walls. He knew not +the effect of long suspense either, of the fretful impatience for some +turn in our fate, of the dull monotony of long continued expectation +and protracted disappointment, of the creeping on of leaden despair, +which craves nothing in the end but some change, be it for better or +for worse. + +They took him to Newgate--the prison of common felons, and there, in a +small room, strictly guarded, he remained for more than two months. At +first he would send for no lawyer, for he fancied that there must +either be some error on the part of the government, or that the +suspicion against him must be so slight as to be easily removable. But +day went by on day, and hour followed hour, without any appearance of +a change in his fate. There came a great alteration, however, in his +character. He became morose, gloomy, irritable. Every dark point in +his own fate and history--every painful event which had occurred for +many years--every doubt or suspicion which had spread gloom and +anxiety through his mind, was now magnified a thousand-fold by long, +brooding, solitary meditation. He pondered such things daily, hourly, +in the broad day, in the dead, still night, when want of exercise +deprived him of sleep, till his brain seemed to turn, and his whole +heart was filled with stern bitterness. + +Marlow, who visited him every day by permission of the Secretary of +State, found him each day much changed, both in appearance and manner; +and even his conversation gave but small relief. He heard with small +emotion the news of the day, or of his own family. He read the letters +of his wife and daughter coldly. He heard even the intelligence that +Sir John Fenwick was condemned for high treason, and to die on a +scaffold, without any appearance of interest. He remained +self-involved and thoughtful. + +At length, after a long interval--for the government was undecided how +to proceed in his and several other cases connected with that famous +conspiracy--a day was appointed for his first examination by the +Secretary of State; for matters were then conducted in a very +different manner from that in which they are treated at present; and +he was carried under guard to Whitehall. + +Vernon was a calm and not unamiable man; and treating the prisoner +with unaffected gentleness, he told him that the government was very +anxious to avoid the effusion of any more blood, and expressed a hope +that Mr. Hastings would afford such explanations of his conduct as +would save the pain of proceeding against him. He did not wish by any +means, he said, to induce him to criminate himself; but merely to give +such explanations as he might think fit. + +Philip Hastings replied, with stern bitterness, that before he could +give any explanations, he must learn what there was in his conduct to +explain. "It has ever been open, plain, and straightforward," he said. +"I have taken no part in conspiracies, very little part in politics. I +have nothing to fear from any thing I myself can utter; for I have +nothing to conceal. Tell me what is the charge against me, and I will +answer it boldly. Ask what questions you please; and I will reply at +once to those to which I can find a reply in my own knowledge." + +"I thought the nature of the charge had been made fully known to you," +replied Vernon. "However, it is soon stated. You are charged, Mr. +Hastings, with having taken a most decided part in the criminal +designs, if not in the criminal acts, of that unfortunate man Sir John +Fenwick. Nay, of having first suggested to him the darkest of all his +designs, namely, the assassination of his Majesty." + +"I suggest the assassination of the King!" exclaimed Mr. Hastings. "I +propose such an act! Sir, the charge is ridiculous. Has not the only +share I ever took in politics been to aid in placing King William upon +the throne, and consistently to support his government since? What the +ministers of the crown can seek by bringing such a charge against me, +I know not; but it is evidently fictitious, and of course has an +object." + +Vernon's cheek grew somewhat red, and he replied warmly, "That is an +over-bold assertion, sir. But I will soon satisfy you that it is +unjust, and that the crown has not acted without cause. Allow me, +then, to tell you, that no sooner had the conspiracy of Sir John +Fenwick been detected, and his apprehension been made known, than +information was privately given--from your own part of the country--to +the following effect;" and he proceeded to read from a paper, which +had evidently been folded in the form of a letter, the ensuing words: +"That on the ---- day of May last, when walking in the gardens of his +own house, called 'The Court,' he--that is yourself, sir--used the +following language to Sir John Fenwick: 'When no other means can be +found of obtaining justice, freedom, and security, I see no reason why +a king should not be put to death as well as any other man. He who +does the deed merits a monument rather than a gibbet.' Such was the +information, sir, on which government first acted in causing your +apprehension." + +The Secretary paused, and for a few moments Mr. Hastings remained +gazing down in silence, like a man utterly confounded. Vernon thought +he had touched him home; but the emotions in the prisoner's bosom, +though very violent, were very different from those which the +Secretary attributed to him. He remembered the conversation well, but +he remembered also that the only one who, besides Sir John Fenwick, +was with him at the moment, was his own child. I will not dwell upon +his feelings, but they absorbed him entirely, till the Secretary went +on, saying--"Not satisfied with such slender information, Mr. +Hastings, the government caused that unhappy criminal, Sir John +Fenwick, to be asked, after his fate was fixed, if he recollected your +having used those words to him, and he replied, 'something very like +them.'" + +"And I reply the same," exclaimed Philip Hastings, sternly. "I did use +those words, or words very like them. But, sir, they were in +connection with others, which, had they been repeated likewise, would +have taken all criminal application from them. May I be permitted to +look at that letter in your hand, to see how much was really told, how +much suppressed?" + +"I have read it all to you," said Mr. Vernon, "but you may look at it +if you please," and he handed it to him across the table. Philip +Hastings spread it out before him, trembling violently, and then drew +another letter from his pocket, and laid them side by side. He ran his +eye from one to the other for a moment or two, and then sunk slowly +down, fainting upon the floor. + +While a turnkey and one of the messengers raised him, and some efforts +were made to bring him back to consciousness, Mr. Vernon walked round +the table and looked at the two letters which were still lying on it. +He compared them eagerly, anxiously. The handwriting of the one was +very similar to that of the other, and in the beginning of that which +Mr. Hastings had taken from his pocket, the Secretary found the words, +"My dear father." It was signed, "Emily Hastings;" and Vernon +instantly comprehended the nature of the terrible emotion he had +witnessed. + +He was really, as I have said, a kind and humane man, and he felt very +much for the prisoner, who was speedily brought to himself again, and +seated in a chair before the table. + +"Perhaps, Mr. Hastings," said Vernon, "we had better not protract this +conversation to-day. I will see you again to-morrow, at this hour, if +you would prefer that arrangement." + +"Not at all, sir," answered the prisoner, "I will answer now, for +though the body be weak, the spirit is strong. Remember, however, that +I am not pleading for life. Life is valueless to me. The block and axe +would be a relief. I am only pleading to prevent my own character from +being stained, and to frustrate this horrible design. I used the words +imputed to me; but if I recollect right, with several qualifications, +even in the sentence which has been extracted. But before that, many +other words had passed which entirely altered the whole bearing of the +question. The conversation began about the regicides of the great +rebellion, and although my father was of the party in arms against the +King, I expressed my unqualified disapprobation of their conduct in +putting their sovereign to death. I then approached as a mere matter +of abstract reasoning, in which, perhaps, I am too apt to indulge, the +subject of man's right to resist by any means an unendurable tyranny, +and I quoted the example of Brutus and William Tell; and it was in the +course of these abstract remarks, that I used the words which have +been cited. I give you my word, however, and pledge my honor, that I +entertained no thought, and had no cause whatever to believe that Sir +John Fenwick who was dining with me as an old acquaintance, +entertained hostile designs against the government of his native +land." + +"Your admitted opinions, Mr. Hastings," said Vernon, "seem to me to be +very dangerous ones." + +"That may be," replied the prisoner, "but in this country at least, +sir, you cannot kill a man for opinions." + +"No; but those opinions, expressed in conversation with others who +proceed to acts," replied Vernon, "place a man in a very dangerous +position, Mr. Hastings. I will not conceal from you that you are in +some peril; but at the same time I am inclined to think that the +evidence, without your admissions this day, might prove insufficient, +and it is not my intention to take advantage of any thing you have +said. I shall report to his Majesty accordingly; but the proceedings +of the government will be guided by the opinion of the law officers of +the crown, and not by mine. I therefore can assure you of nothing +except my sincere grief at the situation in which you are placed." + +"I little heed the result of your report, sir," replied Mr. Hastings; +"life, I say, is valueless to me, and if I am brought to trial for +words very innocently spoken, I shall only make the same defence I +have done this day, and I shall call no witness; the only witness of +the whole," he added with stern, concentrated bitterness, "is probably +on the side of the crown." + +Mr. Hastings was then removed to Newgate, leaving the two letters on +the table behind him, and as soon as he was gone, Mr. Vernon sent a +messenger to an inn near Charing Cross, to say he should be glad to +speak for a few moments with Mr. Marlow. In about half an hour Marlow +was there, and was received by Vernon as an old acquaintance. The door +was immediately closed, and Marlow seated himself near the table, +turning his eyes away, however, as an honorable man from the papers +which lay on it. + +"I have had an interview with your friend, Mr. Marlow," said the +Secretary, "and the scene has been a very painful one. Mr. Hastings +has been more affected than I expected, and actually fainted." + +Marlow's face expressed unutterable astonishment, for the idea of +Philip Hastings fainting under any apprehension whatever, could never +enter into the mind of any one who knew him. + +"Good God!" he exclaimed, "what could be the cause of that? Not fear, +I am sure." + +"Something more painful than even fear, I believe," replied Mr. +Vernon; "Mr. Hastings has a daughter, I believe?" + +"Yes, sir, he has," replied Marlow, somewhat stiffly. + +"Do you know her handwriting?" asked the Secretary. + +"Yes, perfectly well," answered Marlow. + +"Then be so good as to take up that letter next you," said Vernon, +"and tell me if it is in her hand." + +Marlow took up the paper, glanced at it, and at once said, "Yes;" but +the next instant he corrected himself, saying, "No, no--it is very +like Emily's hand--very, very like; but more constrained." + +"May not that proceed from an attempt to disguise her hand?" asked +Vernon. + +"Or from an attempt on the part of some other to imitate it," rejoined +Marlow; "but this is very strange, Mr. Vernon; may I read this +through?" + +"Certainly," replied the Secretary, and Marlow read every word three +or four times over with eager attention. They seemed to affect him +very much, for notwithstanding the Secretary's presence, he started up +and paced the room for a minute or two in thought. + +"I must unravel this dark mystery," he said at length. "Mr. Vernon, +there have been strange things taking place lately in the family of +Mr. Hastings. Things which have created in my mind a suspicion that +some secret and external agency is at work to destroy his peace as +well as to ruin his happiness, and still more, I fear, to ruin the +happiness of his daughter. This letter is but one link in a long chain +of suspicious facts, and I am resolved to sift the whole matter to the +bottom. The time allowed me to do so, must depend upon the course you +determine to pursue towards Mr. Hastings. If you resolve to proceed +against him I must lose no time--although I think I need hardly say, +there is small chance of your success upon such evidence as this;" and +he struck the letter with his fingers. + +"We have more evidence, such as it is," replied Vernon, "and he +himself admits having used those words." + +Marlow paused thoughtfully, and then replied, "He may have used +them--he is very likely to have used them; but it must have been quite +abstractedly, and with no reference to any existing circumstance. I +remember the occasion on which Sir John Fenwick dined with him, +perfectly. I was there myself. Now let me see if I can recall all the +facts. Yes, I can, distinctly. During the whole of dinner--during the +short time we sat after dinner, those words were never used; nor were +conspiracies and treason ever thought of. I remember, too, from a +particular circumstance, that when we went out into the gardens Mr. +Hastings took his daughter's arm, and walked up and down the terrace +with Sir John Fenwick at his side. That must have been the moment. But +I need hardly point out to you, Mr. Vernon, that such was not a time +when any man in his senses, and especially a shrewd, cunning, timid +man, like Sir John Fenwick, would have chosen for the development of +treasonable designs." + +"Were any other persons near?" asked Vernon; "the young lady might +have been in the conspiracy as well as her father." + +Marlow laughed. "There were a dozen near," he answered; "they were +subject to interruption at any moment--nay, they could not have gone +on for three minutes; for that pace of time did not elapse after the +gentlemen entered the garden where the ladies were, before I was at +Emily's side, and not one word of this kind was spoken afterwards." + +"Then what could have induced her to report those words to the +government?" asked Mr. Vernon. + +"She never did so," replied Marlow, earnestly; "this is not her +handwriting, though the imitation is very good--and now, sir," he +continued, "if it be proper, will you explain to me what course you +intend to pursue, that I may act accordingly? For as I before said, I +am resolved to search this mystery out into its darkest recesses. It +has gone on too long already." + +Vernon smiled. "You are asking a good deal," he said, "but yet my +views are so strong upon the subject, that I think I may venture to +state them, even if the case against Mr. Hastings should be carried a +step or two farther--which might be better, in order to insure his not +being troubled on an after occasion. I shall strongly advise that a +_nolle prosequi_ be entered, and I think I may add that my advice will +be taken." + +"You think I have asked much already, Mr. Vernon," said Marlow, "but I +am now going to ask more. Will you allow me to have this letter? I +give you my word of honor that it shall only be used for the purposes +of justice. You have known me from my boyhood, my dear sir; you can +trust me." + +"Perfectly, my young friend," replied Vernon, "but you must not take +the letter to-day. In two days the action of the government will be +determined, and if it be such as I anticipate you shall have the +paper, and I trust it will lead to some discovery of the motives and +circumstances of this strange transaction. Most mysterious it +certainly is; for one can hardly suppose any one but a fiend thus +seeking to bring a father's life into peril." + +"A fiend!" exclaimed Marlow, with a scoff, "much more like an angel, +my dear sir." + +"You seem to think so," said Vernon, smiling, "and I trust, though +love is blind, he may have left you clear-sighted in this instance." + +"I think he has," answered Marlow, "and as this young lady's fate is +soon to be united to mine, it is very necessary I should see clearly. +I entertain no doubt, indeed, and I say boldly, that Emily never wrote +this letter. It will give me, however, a clue which perhaps may lead +me to the end of the labyrinth, though as yet I hardly see my way. But +a strong resolution often does much." + +"Might it not be better for you," asked Vernon, "to express your +doubts in regard to this letter to Mr. Hastings himself? He was +terribly affected, as well he might be, when he saw this document, and +believed it to be his own child's writing." + +Marlow mused for some time ere he replied. "I think not," he answered +at length; "he is a man of peculiar disposition; stern, somewhat +gloomy, but honorable, upright, and candid. Now what I am going to say +may make me appear as stern as himself, but if he is suffering from +doubts of that dear girl, knowing her as well as he does, he is +suffering from his own fault, and deserves it. However, my object is +not to punish him, but thoroughly, completely, and for ever to open +his eyes, and to show him so strongly that he has done his child +injustice, as to prevent his ever doing the like again. This can only +be done by bringing all the proofs upon him at once, and my task is +now to gather them together. To my mere opinion regarding the +handwriting, he would not give the slightest heed, but he will not +shut his eyes to proofs. May I calculate upon having the letter in two +days?" + +"I think you may," replied Vernon. + +"Then when will Mr. Hastings be set free?" asked Marlow; "I should +wish to have some start of him into the country." + +"That will depend upon various circumstances," replied the Secretary; +"I think we shall take some steps towards the trial before we enter +the _nolle prosequi_. It is necessary to check in some way the +expression of such very dangerous opinions as he entertains." + +Marlow made no reply but by a smile, and they soon after parted. + + * * * * * + +One of the writers upon German politics reproduces the story of the +Englishman, Frenchman, and German, who were required by some unknown +power to draw a sketch of a camel. The Frenchman hied him to the +Jardin des Plantes, and came back with his sketch in no time. The more +conscientious Briton at once took ship for the East, and returned with +his drawing from the life of nature. But the German went to the +library of the prince of his country to ascertain what a camel was. He +lived to a great age, with the reputation of being very learned, and a +little crazed with the depth of his researches, and on his death-bed +told his physician in confidence that he did not believe there was +such an animal at all! + +FOOTNOTES: + +[3] Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1850, by G. P. +R. James, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United +States for the Southern District of New-York. + + + + +THE COUNT MONTE-LEONE: OR, THE SPY IN SOCIETY.[4] + +TRANSLATED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL MONTHLY MAGAZINE FROM THE FRENCH OF +H. DE ST. GEORGES. + +_Continued from page 211_ + + +VIII.--THE FOUR PULCINELLI. + +Doctor Matheus, as the reader must have guessed from the previous +chapter, was Freiderick von Apsberg, one of the four Pulcinelli of the +ball of San Carlo, the young German who was the son of the venerable +pastor of the city of Ellogen, in Bohemia. + +Freiderick von Apsberg had been educated in one of the most celebrated +universities of Germany, that of Leipsic,--where he had imbibed that +very social contagion, a passion for detestable demagogic fancies, +with which all those scientific _lazaretti_ of Germany were filled. +The dreamy and often poetic forms in which those ideas were +enunciated, easily touched the heart of that long peaceable nation, +and opened to it a field of mad and resistless hopes which could not +but plunge it into that abyss of disorder, trouble, and crime, in +which it has been recently seen sweltering. + +Freiderick, not thinking his country yet prepared for the propagation +of his principles, sought for an echo among other European nations. +The rising _Carbonarism_ of Italy opened its arms to him, and received +him as one of its future supporters. There he had become acquainted +with Monte-Leone, and participated in the religion of which he was the +high priest. On his return to Germany, after his expulsion from Italy, +he had discovered that the work had advanced during his absence, that +the myth had been personified, and that the seed had germinated. +Germany, especially the _poor_ of Germany, began to be deeply +agitated; the _Carbonaro_ made many proselytes, and won many new +members to the association. The death of his father having endowed him +with some fortune, he completed his studies, and became one of the +most fervent apostles of that mysterious science of which he spoke to +the Duke d'Harcourt; but, being made uncomfortable by the German +police, he left his country, after having established a connection +with the _Vente_ which had been formed there. He then came to France, +where we find him under the name of Doctor Matheus, and living in the +awful No. 13 of Babylonne street;--his house was the rendezvous of the +principal members of the _Vente_ of Paris, where his profession amply +accounted for the many visitors he received. His three friends, +however, fearing that their frequent visits would be remarked, often +had recourse to disguises. Thus it is that we saw the Englishman, the +Auvergnot, and the peasant, so cavalierly treated by Mlle Crepineau. + +"This is the hour of consultation, my dear Doctor," said the Viscount +to Von Apsberg; "where are the patients?" In a serious tone the +latter replied, "In France, Italy, Germany, and all the +continent.--Their disease is a painful oppression, an extreme +lassitude in every member of the social body, a slow fever, and +general feeling of indisposition." + +"What physician will cure so many diseases?" asked the Viscount. + +"_Carbonarism!_" + +"Are you sure of this?" asked d'Harcourt, who, probably for the first +time in his life, said any thing reasonable. This was a doubt, almost +a defection to that cause into which his generous and enthusiastic +nature had cast him. Rene d'Harcourt had originally formed but a +passing intimacy with Monte-Leone, the object of which was pleasure +alone. The latter, however, soon discovered his friend's courage and +truth, and ultimately initiated him in all his political mysteries and +dreams. D'Harcourt, attracted by the occult power exerted by the Count +over his associates, and led astray to a degree by his specious +theories in relation to national happiness, which Monte-Leone knew how +to dress so well in the most energetic language, was carried away by +the temptation of becoming a political personage; perhaps, also, as la +Felina said at the Etruscan villa, not a little under the influence of +idleness, and the wish to be able to tell wonders of himself, joined +in all these plots. He had become affiliated to the society of which +Monte-Leone was the chief, and when he was expelled from Italy, +represented himself to his particular friends as a martyr of political +faith: he had, by the by, a very faint confidence in it, and cared +very little about it; and this, even, was insensibly lessened when, on +his return to France and his family, he saw the high distinction which +his father enjoyed, and was aware that by rank and birth he would one +day be called on to play a conspicuous part in the history of his +country. He could not understand, therefore, how this country could +demand a general convulsion to obtain a hypothetical better, in place +of a positive good. + +This, as we have said, was the state of his mind, when Monte-Leone, +Taddeo, and Frederick returned to Paris. They talked to him of his +oaths, of the pledge they had taken, of his position as a +_Carbonaro_,--to which he would make no reply. The Viscount a second +time falling under the influence of Monte-Leone, captivated again by +the charms of friendship, and the glory of being the regenerator of +his country, fancied himself also bound by his honor to pursue the +path on which he had entered. He therefore resumed his old chains, and +became the SEIDE of a cause to which he was attracted neither by +sympathy nor by reason. + +The phrase which had escaped from the lips, or rather the good sense +of the young man, sounded to Monte-Leone like a false note in a +chorus. He said, "Rene, God forbid that we should seek to link you to +our fate if you do not believe in our cause. Remain inactive in the +strife about to ensue; your honor will be a sufficient pledge for your +silence in relation to our secrets. Henceforth be a brother to us only +in love. Von Apsberg, the grand archivest of the association, will +efface your name from our list; and whatever misfortune befall us, I +shall at least have the satisfaction of knowing that you were not +involved in our ruin." + +This offer, instead of being received by Rene d'Harcourt, increased +his zeal, which otherwise would have died away. + +"Leave you?" said he,--"abandon you, when the hour of danger has +come?--desert the field of battle when the combat is about to begin? +My friendship, my courage, and my honor, all forbid me to do so." + +The four friends clasped their hands, and Monte-Leone said,--"Now +listen to me, for time is precious. The _Vente_ of the kingdom of +Naples, and those of all Italy, of which I refuse to be any longer the +chief, do not on that account distrust me, but have just given me a +striking proof of their confidence. It is so great that I hesitate +even to accept it." + +"Speak," said all the friends at once. + +"I have received this letter," said Monte-Leone. + +"The delegates of all the Italian _Vente_, relying on the prudence, +valor, and judgment of Count Monte-Leone, refer to him the decision of +the time when, and the manner in which, it is proper for them to +manifest their principles. Count Monte-Leone is requested to open a +communication with the Vente of France, that there may be a +simultaneous movement with those of Italy." + +"Thus," said the Count, "in accepting this mission, I become the god, +the sovereign arbiter of this immense work, and have its fate in my +hands." + +Von Apsberg said, "you have that of Italy and Germany--for the _Vente_ +of my country will act when I speak, or rather when you do." + +An expression of pride flashed across Monte-Leone's face. He had +evidently been mortified at not becoming supreme director, yet the +staff of command was again placed in his grasp. It was not now, +though, to confer the command of a single country, but, to use his own +words, he became the all-powerful controller of Europe, and, in his +opinion, the hope of the universe. This strange man, made up of +greatness and littleness, like all the political idealists who erect +altars to the creatures of their dreams, and ignorantly make a +sacrifice of logic, good sense and reason--this man who sighed for +universal liberty, was delighted at the prospect of great, despotic, +and aristocratic power, to be exerted by his will alone in three great +countries. The Count then yielded willingly to the persuasions of his +friends, and promised to fulfil the wishes of the Italian _Vente_. He +said, "The time for action is not come. The French police, in fact, +is busy only with the known enemies of the Government, with +persons who are compromised in these petty plots originated by +self-love--regret for the past, and ambition. Our object is greater; +for we do not serve a man, but an idea, or rather the assemblage of +ideas, to be expanded everywhere at once, and to replace the darkness +of old civilization by torrents of far more dazzling light. The dawn +of that light though has not yet come." + +"Yet," said Von Apsberg, "the notes I receive announce the formation +of new _Vente_ on all sides of us." + +"Paris is filled with Carbonari," added d'Harcourt. "Our secret and +masonic sign reveals the existence of brothers everywhere to me. I see +them in the public places, on the benches of the lawyers, and among +the very judges." + +"True," said Von Apsberg, "and as an evidence of what d'Harcourt says, +look at these voluminous names." The friends examined them carefully. + +"It matters not," said Monte-Leone, "too much precipitation would ruin +all. Remember our device, _an auger piercing the globe_." + +During all this conversation, Taddeo had remained silent and +thoughtful, and the Count at last observed it. + +"My friend," said he, "why are you so sad? Can it be, like d'Harcourt +just now, that you have any doubt or scruple about our cause? Do you +hesitate at the dangers?" + +Taddeo, as if he were aroused from a dream, said: "The dangers I +anxiously invite, as likely to free me from a life which is become a +burden." + +Monte-Leone grew pale at these words, for he knew the reason of his +deep despair; and the iron of remorse pierced his heart. Before, +however, Taddeo's friends could question him, a strange accident +attracted the attention of the actors of this scene. + +A noise, at first faint and then louder, which resembled that of the +spider in its web, suddenly interrupted the conversation. It seemed to +come from the interior of one of the panels. + +"Here it is," said Monte-Leone, pointing at one of the book-cases. + +"Yes," said Von Apsberg, with a sign of admiration. + +"Can we have been overheard?" said d'Harcourt. + +"I think so," said the false Matheus. + +The Visconte and Taddeo at once took pistols from their pockets and +cocked them. + +"It is of no use," said the physician, pointing to the arms of his +friends. "Put on your disguises, for it is unnecessary even that the +brothers should know you. Kant has said, _When there is a secret to be +kept it is desirable that all who are intrusted with it should be +deaf, blind, and dumb_. Let us then tempt no one, and remember there +is no one here but a doctor and two patients." + +"But the Count," said d'Harcourt, "is he forgotten?" + +"Ah," said the doctor, "he must be seen." + +The noise increased, and something of impatience was remarkable in the +little taps on the wood-work. + +"It is he, is it not?" said Monte-Leone. + +"Yes," said Frederick, "for no one else uses that entrance." + +Von Apsberg then approached the library and touched a spring which +threw open a panel on which the books were arranged. With a key the +doctor then opened another door, through which a man entered. The day +was advanced, and the shades of night enwrapped almost all the room. +The scene we describe took place in the most remote and consequently +in the darkest portion of the vast studio. The appearance of the man +assumed a terrible and fantastic air. + +"Ah! what is there so urgent that you trouble thus, my dear Pignana?" +said the Count to the new comer. + +Signor Pignana, our old Neapolitan acquaintance, the pretended tailor +and owner of the Etruscan House, the mysterious guide of the Count +among the ruins of San Paolo, bowed to the earth as he always did +before the Count, and was evidently about to speak, when he stopped +short and pointed to the peasant and my lord, the profiles of whom he +could see distinctly in a moonbeam which came through one of the +windows. + +"They are brethren," said Matheus, "you may speak." + +"Well then," said Pignana, piqued by the brusque manner of the Count, +"I thought the case _urgent_, (he accented the last word,) and +therefore came to warn your excellency of danger." + +"What danger?" asked the Count, with his usual _sang-froid_. + +"And since his excellency," said Pignana, "forbade me to come to his +house, I was obliged to come here, though I believe my appearance is +respectable enough to pass scrutiny anywhere." + +"Signor Pignana, I must now, once for all, tell you the motives of my +conduct. I would not do so in any case were I not satisfied how +devoted you are to me." + +Pignana bowed again. + +"Your appearance," said the Count, "is certainly very honest and +respectable. The _fund_ of honesty is, however, perhaps not so good; +for as a smuggler, a skimmer of the seas----, but I stop here, lest I +should displease you, for you may, after all, have something on your +conscience. There is, you know, a certain Neapolitan Ambassador at +Paris who was once a minister of police in our beautiful country. Now, +Signor Pignana, people never have to do with the police without some +very unpleasant consequences. I have an idea also that the Duke of +Palma, at whose house I was a fortnight ago, did not fail to inform +the Prefect of the Police of the city, of my being in Paris. This is +a delicate attention from one police to another. The Duke, also, +probably pointed out many of my old acquaintances, among whom you have +the honor to be; you will understand, by aid of your knowledge of +_doubtful affairs_, that if it be known that I receive you here, +people will not think you come to teach me to play _the mandoline_, on +which instrument you are, I learn, a great performer. Consequently, +and not to rob myself of your invaluable services, and the care over +my household which you exercise, we have made a means of entrance for +you here, and through him you can communicate with me--how Signor +Pignana, an intelligent man like you, should understand this, without +its being necessary for me to give all these details." + +"I am delighted to be assured," said Signor Pignana, proudly, "that +without these grave reasons the Count would not be unwilling to see +me." + +"But," said Taddeo, "what is the danger of which you spoke just now?" + +"Ah! Signor Taddeo Rovero!" said the shrewd Pignana, who had +recognized the voice of the young man. + +"This is bad!" murmured Frederick. + +"I am delighted to meet Signor Taddeo Rovero," said Pignana, +"especially as what I have to say relates also to him." + +"To me?" said Taddeo. + +"Come to the point, then," said the Count. + +"Thus it is, Monsignore," said Pignana: "I was, in obedience to +orders, hanging about your excellency's house, and until to-day never +saw any thing suspicious. This evening I saw two dark figures planted +opposite to your hotel, at the corner of Verneuil-street. The +motionless position of these men seemed strange, and the manner that +they examined others who came in and out of the hotel was more so, +until at last I became satisfied that they watched you. I was +confirmed in this when approaching them in the dark I heard one of the +men say to his companion: '_He has gone out on foot, his carriage has +not left!_'" + +"Go on," said the Count, "this becomes interesting." + +"This is not all," said Pignana; "the same man said in a brusque tone +to his companion: '_Go to Saint Dominique-street, the other lives +there!_'" + +"That is myself," said Taddeo, "and the Marquis, my sister, and I do +live in that street, in the Hotel of the Prince de Maulear." + +"So I thought," said Pignana, bowing to Taddeo, "and I hurried hither +where I knew Count Monte-Leone was to be found. Your excellency will +now see that it was a matter of importance." + +"Do not go home to-night!" said d'Harcourt. + +"Remain here!" said von Apsberg. + +"Leave Paris!" said Pignana. + +"Why should I not go home? Because it pleases some robber to wait near +my hotel, to rob me? or because some bravo wishes, _a la Venitienne_, +to make a dagger-sheath of my heart? The man must act, too, _on his +own account_, for I know of no enemies in this city. Every where I am +sought for and _feted_, and our secret associates, with whom the world +is full, and who know my old adventures, secure every day a triumphal +reception for me in the saloons of Paris. But if the mysterious +watchers of whom Signor Pignana speaks, be by chance of the birds of +night--owls who have escaped from the police, I make myself more +liable to suspicion by staying away, than by returning to my hotel. +Then, by ----, as my old friend Pietro used to say--I did not furnish +a house to sleep out of it. To remain here as Von Apsberg suggests, +would be a greater mistake yet; for in this house are all our +documents and the lists of our associates. This is the treasury, the +holy ark of the society, and here, under the name of Matheus, is the +very soul. Let us then beware how we give the huntsman any clue to +this precious deposit, or all will be lost. Pignana proposes that I +should leave Paris, but I will not do so. Here are all our hopes of +probable success. The light which will illumine Paris, must radiate +hence. Besides, gentlemen," continued Monte-Leone, "I find that you +all become easily excited at a very natural thing. In case even of a +judicial investigation, you forget--_The brethren know each other, but +can furnish no evidence of the participation of each other in any +enterprise_. Our records or our deeds alone can betray us; our papers +are here beneath three locks, and our actions are yet to be. Do not, +therefore, be uneasy about my fate, and let Taddeo and myself discover +the explanation of this riddle." + +"Do not be imprudent," said Von Apsberg to Monte-Leone, as he saw him +hurriedly dress himself in the costume of an Auvergnat; "remember that +we are in Paris, where the streets are crowded, and not in +Naples--that a dagger-thrust is a great event here." + +"Do not be uneasy," said the Count, "for I always conform to the +usages and customs of the country in which I am. In Italy I use the +dagger, and in France the stick." + +Taking hold of the baton which Taddeo bore, more completely to assume +the roll of the villager, he brandished and twisted it in his fingers, +well enough to have made Fan-Fan, the king of the stick-players of the +day, envious. + +"Shall I follow your _eccelenza_?" asked Signor Pignana. + +"Certainly," said he, "but as a rear-guard, twenty paces behind me, in +order that you may give evidence, as a mere passer by, that the man I +shall beat to death wished to beat me. This will make me more +interesting in the eyes of the people this difficulty will attract." + +When he saw Signor Pignana about to leave the room with him, he said, +"No! Mademoiselle Crepineau, the Argus of this house, saw only three +men come in; what will she think when she sees four leaving? Go out +then by the secret door, Pignana, and join us at the corner of the +_rue_ Belle-Chasse." + +The door of the library was closed on Signor Pignana. + +"Do you not wish me to go with you?" asked the Vicomte of Monte-Leone. + +"For shame!" said Monte-Leone, "four to one--we would look like the +allied army marching against Monaco. Remain then a few minutes with +the doctor. The consultation of the Milord naturally enough may be +long." + +The Auvergnat and the peasant of the boulirue passed before the chair +of Mademoiselle Crepineau, one with his handkerchief over his cheek, +and the other with a bandage over his eye. Recollecting that they had +been since eight o'clock with the doctor, she could not refrain from +saying, "The doctor is a very skilful man, but he is slow. After all," +added she, "he may have taken a multitude of things from them, though +no one heard them cry out. People of their rank do not mind pain." + +As they approached Verneuil-street, the Count proceeded a few steps in +advance of Taddeo. "Wait for me here," said he, pointing out a house +which stood yet farther back than the others, on the alignment of the +street, "and come to me if I call out." He then left the young man, +assumed a vulgar air, and straggled towards his hotel. Soon he saw in +an angle of the wall opposite to his house a motionless shadow, which +was certainly that of the man Pignana had pointed out to him. The +Count had a quick and keen eye, which recognized objects even in the +dark. He saw the two eyes which watched him, and which were fixed on +his hotel. They were moved from time to time, but only that on turning +again they might more easily recognize every passer. Monte-Leone, with +the presence of mind which never left him, and which characterized all +the decisive actions of his life, no sooner conceived his plan than he +put it into execution. He was anxious to know with what enemies he had +to deal, and could conceive of no better way than to question the man +himself. The question he put, it is true, was rather _brusque_, as +will be seen. When a few paces behind the man, who had not the least +suspicion, and had suffered him to come close to him, the Count faced +about and rushed on the stranger. He clasped his throat with one hand, +and with the other seized the stranger's weapons, which he naturally +enough concluded he wore. The latter uttered a cry, and an only cry, +which, by the by, was terrible. He was then silent. A stranger passing +by might have fancied those men were speaking confidentially together, +but never that one was strangling the other. + +"One word," said Monte-Leone. "Tell me why you are here." + +"On my own business," said the man. + +"That is not true," said the Count. "You are not a robber--you have +been here for two hours. Many persons well dressed have down this +street, yet you did not attack them." The living vice which bound his +throat was again compressed. The man made a sign that he wished to +speak. The Count relaxed his hold. + +"Whom do you watch?" + +"Yourself." + +"You know me, then?" + +"Yes." + +"Who bade you watch me?" + +The stranger was silent. Feeling the iron hand again clasp him, he +muttered, "A great lady sent me." + +"Her name?" said the Count, who began to guess, but who wished to be +sure. + +"The Neapolitan ambassadress." + +"And why does your companion stand in the Rue Saint-Dominique?" + +"Then you know all?" said the wretch. + +"All that I wish to," said the Count. "Speak out," said he, again +clasping his fingers tightly as if they had been a torture-collar. +"Speak now, or you will never do so again." + +"Well," said the man, "my companion is ordered to ascertain if you +were not at the hotel of the Prince de Maulear. Why should I know any +thing about it?" + +"Ah! this is unworthy," said the Count. "When her passions are +concerned nothing restrains this woman." + +A painful sigh was the only reply to this exclamation. The Count +looked around, and saw Taddeo standing by him, pale and trembling. + + +IX.--A LETTER. + +Leaning over the white shoulders of the charming Marquise de Maulear, +we are about to tempt our readers to the commission of a great +indiscretion. We will force them to listen to a letter which that lady +was writing to her mother the Signora Rovero, to inform the latter of +all her secret thoughts, and of what during the last two years had +taken place in her household. She sat, one morning, about nine +o'clock, in a beautiful boudoir, hung with rose-colored silk, over +which were falls of India muslin. This room was on the second floor of +the house, and there, with her head on her hand, Aminta wrote, on a +small table incrusted with Sevres porcelain, the following letter, +exhibiting the most intimate thoughts of her soul: + + "MY KIND MOTHER: Twenty months ago I left Italy and + yourself, to accompany the Marquis de Maulear and his + excellent father to Paris. Since then my letters have not + suffered you to want details of things about which you are + so curious, which occurred in the course of my trip from + Naples hither, and of my reception by my husband's family. + The family of the Marquis, as you already know, is one of + the most important of Paris, both from rank, fortune, and + nobility, and did not therefore dare to receive with + coldness a stranger who came thus to take a place in its + bosom. The tender protection of my father-in-law made it a + duty to them to seem to me what they really were to him, + benevolent, kind, and affectionate. Long ago, I saw that the + sentiments they exhibited were not sincere; and I guessed + that beneath the affectionate manners of my new family, + there was hidden an icy vanity, and want of sympathy with + the young woman who had no ancestors, no birth, and almost + no fortune, who had thus, as it were, come among them to + usurp name, position, and influence, to which no one should + pretend who had not a lineage at least as princely as + theirs. I soon learned how little faith I should have in + their politeness, and the anxiety in my behalf which were + exacted by the _exigences_ of society, and above all by the + paternal protection of the Prince de Maulear. I was eager to + find in the friendship of those with whom I was cast + something of that kind reciprocity of sentiments which I was + anxious to exhibit to them. The first person to whom I + appealed replied to me by cold glances. On this person, dear + mother, I relied, not as a substitute for yourself, but as + one to advise me in the new life I was about to lead amid a + society the customs and language of which I was almost + ignorant of. This person was the Countess of Grandmesnil, + sister of the Prince, and aunt of my husband. The Countess + was passionately fond of my husband, whom she educated, and + perhaps was wounded at the idea of his having married + without consulting her. This union also put an end to hopes + which had long before been formed in relation to a similar + connection with that of the Duke d'Harcourt's, one of the + first families in France. Mademoiselle de Grandmesnil, + therefore, received me with cautious urbanity, repelled my + confidence, and made me look on her whom I had considered an + affectionate protectress as an enemy. The Marquis was not + aware of the Countess's sentiments to me, for when they saw + how fond he was, they redoubled their apparent care and + attention. I did not, though, remain ignorant of the thorn + hidden in the rose. This strange kind of intuition, dear + mother, which you have often remarked in me, was made + apparent by the most unimportant acts of the Countess, in + which she evidently exhibited an expression of her + indifference to me, and dissatisfaction at my marriage; I + armed myself with courage, and promised to contend with the + enemy provided for me by my evil fate. I resolved not to + suffer my husband to know any thing of my troubles, nor to + suffer the Countess's treatment to diminish my husband's + attachment towards the person who had provided for his + youth. To recompense me, however, for this want of + affection, I had two substitutes--the perpetually increasing + love of the Marquis, his tender submission to my smallest + wish, and the attachment of the Prince--an enigma he has + always refused to explain. Beyond all doubt this reason is + powerful and irresistible, for the mention of my father's + name made him open his arms, which, as I told you, he at + first was determined to close hermetically. Strange must + have been those talismanic sounds, changing the + deeply-rooted sentiments of an old man's heart, and making + him abandon the invariable principles of his mind, so as to + induce him to present me, the daughter of a noble of + yesterday, as one descended from a person whose virtues had + won for him an immortal blessing. I must also tell you that + I have seen more than one of the old friends of the Prince + stand, as if they were petrified, at hearing him speak thus. + I have recounted all those happy scenes, dear mother, merely + to compare the past with the present, which presents, alas, + a far different aspect. My brilliant sky is obscured--I see + in the horizon nothing but clouds. Perhaps I am mistaken, + and my too brilliant imagination, against which you have + often warned me, fills my mind with too melancholy ideas. + Were you but with me, could I but cast myself in your arms, + press you to my heart, and imbibe confidence from you! + Listen, then, to words I shall confide to this cold paper, + read it with the eyes of your soul, and tell me if I am + mistaken or menaced with misfortune. + + "During the early portion of my residence in Paris, I lived + amid a whirlwind of pleasures, balls, and entertainments, + which soon resulted in satiety and lassitude. The attention + I attracted, the homage paid to me, flattered my vanity, and + pleased me; for they seemed to increase the Marquis's love, + and to make me more precious to him. After the winter came a + calmer season, and I welcomed it gladly, thinking the + Marquis and myself, to a degree, would live for each other, + and that this feverish, agitated and turbulent life, would + be followed by a period of more happiness. Three months + passed away in that kind of retirement in which those + inhabitants of Paris, who do not leave the city, indulge. + The Prince left us to visit his estates in another part of + France, and the Marquis and myself were alone. The Countess, + it is true, was with us; but her society, instead of adding + to our pleasures, was as annoying as possible. Accustomed + during my whole life to out-door existence, to long + excursions in the picturesque vicinity of our villa, I was + sometimes anxious to take morning strolls in the beautiful + gardens of Paris. The Countess said to my husband, one day, + that a woman of my age should not go out without him. As the + Marquis often rode, an exercise with which I am not + familiar, and as he had friends to see, and political + business to attend to, I was unable to go out but rarely. + Then I will say he offered me his arm anxiously, but this + exercise neither satisfied my taste, nor the demands of + health. There was also a perpetual objection to dramatic + performances, of which I was very fond; Henri did not like + them. The Countess, also, from religious scruples, was + opposed to them, and by various little and ingeniously + contrived excuses, I was utterly deprived of this innocent + amusement. My toilette was also a subject of perpetual + comment. The Countess said that I exaggerated the fashions, + that I looked foreign, and that the court was opposed to + innovations in the toilette, or again that the court + preferred the severe forms of dress. A young and brilliant + princess, though, gives tone to her court, and by her + elegance, luxury and taste, procures a support for crowds of + the Parisian work-people. Henri, over whom his aunt has + never ceased to exercise the same influence she did in + childhood, while he wished to support my ideas, really + supported hers. I saw with regret that the chief defect of + the Marquis was weakness of character, and perpetual + controversies about little matters produced a state of + feeling between us, which subsequently required a kind of + effort for us to overcome. This, however, dear mother, is + nothing; for I have not come to the really painful point of + my confessions. The gay season has returned, and the + principal people of Paris have returned to their hotels. I + liked to see Henri jealous, because this passion was, in my + opinion, an assurance of his love. Henri, who during the + early period of our marriage, would not have left me alone + for the world, now confides me exclusively to the care of + his father. The first time this took place, his absence was + a plausible excuse. He does not now even seek a pretext; a + whim, an appointment, are sufficient motives for him to + leave me. Whither does he go? How does he occupy himself? + This is the subject of my uneasiness and torment--yet he + loves me, he says, but a heart like mine, dear mother, is + not easily deceived. He does not love me as he used to. A + magnificent ball was given during the last month, by the + Neapolitan Ambassador, the Duke of Palma, who married the + famous Felina. Henri left the Prince and myself, as soon as + we came to the rooms; the whole night nearly passed away + without our seeing him. At last, however, he returned, pale + and exhausted. The Prince, who was unacquainted with what + had transpired at Sorrento, between his son and Monte-Leone, + introduced me to him, and asked me to receive him at our + hotel. I hesitated whether I should consent or not; when the + Marquis, with an air which lacerated my very heart, asked + the Count to visit me, assuring him that he would always be + welcome. + + "_Welcome to him!_ dear mother. You understand that this man + had been his rival, and loved me. I will confess to you, + dear mother, as I do to God. He loves me yet, I am sure, + though he never told me so; for his looks are what they + were, and when he spoke, his emotion told me that he was + unaltered. Since that ball, Monte-Leone, thus authorized by + the Marquis, has visited me. My husband is not at all + displeased at it; tell me, do you think he loves me still? + Yesterday, dear mother, I went into my husband's room, to + look for a bottle of salts I had forgotten. The Marquis was + absent, and his secretary was open, a strange disorder + pervaded the room; a few papers were lying about, and among + others, I saw a column of figures; I was about to look at + them, and had already extended my hand towards it, when I + heard a cry, and on turning around saw my husband, pale and + alarmed. He advanced towards me, and seizing my arm + convulsively, said, Signora, who gave you a right to examine + my papers? It is an abuse of confidence which I never can + forgive. I grew pale with surprise and grief. 'Sir, said I, + such a reproach is unmerited, if there be any thing + improper, it is your tone and air.' I left the room, for I + was overpowered, and did not wish to weep before him. One + hour afterwards, on his knees, he besought me to pardon him + for an excitement which he would never be able to pardon + himself. He was once more, dear mother, kind as he had ever + been; he repeated his vows of eternal love, and exhibited + all his former tenderness. His looks hung on me as they used + to, and I began to hope he would continue to love me. A + cruel idea, however, pursued me, what was the secret shut up + in the paper he would not suffer me to read? Why did he, + usually so calm and cold, become so much enraged?" + +Just then the letter of the Marquise de Maulear was interrupted by the +bell which announced the coming of visitors. Aminta remembered that it +was reception day, and persons came to say that several visitors +awaited her. She went down stairs. On the evening of the same day she +resumed her letter. + + "I resume my pen to tell you of a strange circumstance which + occurred to-day. When I broke off so suddenly, I found some + visitors awaiting me. Visiting in Paris is insignificant and + meaningless, performed on certain fixed days. Conversation + on these occasions is commonplace. People only talk of the + pleasure of meeting, and slander is so much the vogue that + it is not prudent to leave certain rooms until every one + else has gone, lest you should be hacked to pieces by those + left behind. My father-in-law came into the room and gave + some life to the conversation. The Prince was not alone, for + Count Monte-Leone came with him. Why, dear mother, should I + conceal from you, that the presence of the Count causes + always an invincible distress? This man is so decided and + resolute that he never seemed to me like other people. He + seems half god and half demon. His keen and often expressive + glance, his firm voice made mild by emotion, the _tout + ensemble_ of his character, seems to call him to great + crimes or sublime actions. + + "The Prince said, 'Do you know, Aminta, that the Count is + the only person in Paris whom I have to beg to come to see + you? I have absolutely to use violence. I had just now + almost to use violence to bring him hither.' + + "'The Prince, Madame,' said the Count, respectfully, 'looks + on respect as reserve. The pleasure of seeing you is too + great for me to run the risk of losing it by abusing the + privilege.' + + "'Bah! bah!' said the Prince, 'mere gallantry, nothing more. + We _emigres_, from associating with the English, have lost + some of our peculiarities; and I, at least, have contracted + one excellent custom. When an Englishman says to a man, "my + house is yours," he absolutely means what he says, and the + privilege should be used. Your host looks on you as a part + of his family, and people of the neighborhood esteem you as + much a part of the household as the old grandfather's chair + is. You go, come, sit at the table, eat and drink, as if you + were at home. This generous hospitality pleases me, because + it recalls that of our own ancestors.' + + "'Brother,' said the Countess, 'this hospitality can never + be acclimated in France, especially in households where + there are as pretty women as in ours.' + + "'Sister, such privileges are accorded only to people of the + honor of whom we are well-assured, like the Count. Besides, + travellers like ourselves are hard to please in beauty. Not + that the Marquise is not beautiful; but if you had been as + we were at Ceprano, if you had only read the interesting + chapter I have written in relation to that country, you + would see that many perfections are needed to wound hearts + that are so cosmopolitan as ours.' + + "The Count was about to reply, when the doors were opened + and the Duchess of Palma was announced. I looked at + Monte-Leone just then, and he changed countenance at once. I + saw him immediately go to the darkest part of the room. This + was the first time I had ever received the Duchess of Palma. + There seemed no motive for her visit. I had paid mine after + the ball, and there was no obligation between us. The + Duchess is a beautiful, elegant, and dignified woman. It is + said she is of a noble family; and her manners evidently + betoken high cultivation. The Duchess told me kindly that + she had not seen enough of me at the ball, and that I must + take the visit as an evidence of her devotion and + admiration. The Prince of Maulear approached. 'We are + especially flattered, Duchess,' said he, and he emphasized + the word, looking at the same time at some ladies I + received; 'we are especially flattered by the honor you + confer on us. We know how careful you are in the bestowal of + such favors. It is a favor, as pleasant as it is honorable.' + + "'I have been suffering, Prince,' replied the Duchess, 'with + deep distress, and I will not reflect on any one the burden + of my sorrows.' + + "'You are,' said the Prince, 'like those beautiful tropical + flowers, the source of the life of which is the sun, and + which grow pale on their stems in our land. Neapolitans need + Naples, the pure sky, the balmy air, the perfume of orange + groves, and the reflection of the azure gulf. I am + distressed, Duchess, at what you say, and hope you will + content yourself with our country. We will not permit you to + leave it.' + + "'But I am dying,' said the Duchess, in a strange tone. + + "'You are now alive, though,' said the Prince. + + "The uneasy eyes of the Duchess passed around the room, and + when she saw the Count, became strangely animated. 'Ah!' she + remarked, 'here is Count Monte-Leone.' The Count advanced. + + "'The Count,' said the Prince, 'is your compatriot, and one + of your most fervent admirers.' + + "'Do you think so?' said the Duchess, almost ironically. + + "'One,' said the Prince, 'to be any thing else, must neither + have seen nor heard your grace.' + + "'Once, perhaps,' said she, 'I had some means of attraction, + but now all is forgotten; for I am a Duchess like all + others--less even, because I am indebted to chance for my + rank and title.' + + "'You owe thanks to yourself alone,' said the Prince, 'and + the Duke was a lucky man to have it in his power to lay them + at your feet.' + + "'Madame,' said I to the Duchess, 'since you deign to remind + us of your deathless talent, may I venture to ask you to + sing once more?' + + "'Never!' said the Duchess, 'I left my voice on the banks of + the _Lago di Como_, and have not forgotten my last song.' + + "''Twas indeed a sad epoch,' said the Prince, 'If it was the + funeral of your talent.' + + "'I will never sing again!' said the Duchess, 'I remember + that day as I do all the unhappy ones of my life. Ah! they + are far more numerous than our happy days. It was evening, + and in a gay room of my villa, whither I had come still + trembling at having seen a traveller nearly drowned in the + lake. I know not what sad yet pleasant memory was nursed in + my heart, but I went to my piano and sung an air I had sung + for the last time at San Carlo. Tell me, Count + Monte-Leone--you were there--what was it?' + + "'_La Griselda._' + + "'It was. On that evening all my enthusiasm returned to me. + While singing, however, a strange fancy took possession of + me. I thought I saw in the mirror in front of me, the + features of one who had long been dead--dead at least to me. + My emotion was so instinct with terror and happiness, that + since then I have not sung.' + + "'That is a perfect romance,' said the Prince, 'like those + of the dreamy Hoffman I met at Vienna.' + + "'No, sir, it is a fact, or rather the commencement of a + series of facts, which, however, will interest no one here. + For that reason I do not tell it.' + + "The Duchess of Palma rose to leave. The Prince offered her + his hand. + + "'No, Prince,' said she, 'I will not trouble you, for I am + about to ask the Count to accompany me. Excuse me,' said + she, 'excuse me for taking him away, but I need not use + ceremony with a countryman.' + + "Without giving him time to reply, she passed her arm + through his, went out, or rather dragged him out with her. + + "I do not know why, dear mother, I have told you all this + long story, which has led me to write far differently from + what I had intended. I like, though, to talk so much with + you; and then the visit of the Count and that Duchess + agitated me, I know not why. Some instinct tells me those + mysterious beings exert an influence over my life. You think + me foolish and strange--but what can I do? I am now so sad + that I seem to look at life through a dark veil. I am wrong, + am I not? Reassure yourself and tell me what you think of my + husband's conduct. That, most of all, interests + + "Your own AMINTA. + + "P.S.--The Prince, the Countess and myself in vain waited + all day for the Marquis. It is now midnight and he has not + yet come." + + +X.--JEALOUSY. + +A month had passed since the Marquise had written to her mother, +during which time the Marquis, more sedulous in his attentions to +Aminta, had begun to make her forget her fears and suspicions. A new +event, though, aroused them again. + +A magnificent ball had been given by Madame de L----, in her splendid +hotel in the _rue_ d'Antin. M. de L---- aspired to the ministry; and +the fact of his having received the Duke de Bevry at his magnificent +entertainments, the favor he enjoyed at the _chateau_, and his +frequent entertainments to the _corps diplomatique_, seemed to make +his final success certain. M. de L---- aspired to popularity by +attracting around him all who seemed likely to advance his views. He +delighted to receive and mingle together in his drawing-room all the +political enemies of the tribune and the press, who, meeting as on a +central ground, thought themselves obliged to boast of the wit of +their Amphitryron, beneath whose roof they exchanged all the phrases +of diplomatic politeness to the accompaniment of Collinet's flageolet, +sat together at the card-tables, and courteously bowed at the door of +every room. On this account they did not cease to detest each other, +though their apparent reconciliation being believed at court, +contributed in no little degree to the advancement of M. L----'s +views. + +The Marquis and Aminta were at the ball--and Henri left his wife for +several hours in charge of his father, who was proud of her, and +exhibited her with pride in all the rooms. The Prince heaped attention +on her, as all well-bred persons love to on those who are dear to +them. He carefully waited on her during every waltz and contra-dance; +and with paternal care replaced the spotless ermine on her whiter +shoulders. Then resuming his task of cicerone, he explained to her the +peculiarities of French society, which seemed so brilliant and +singular to a young Italian. The Marquis rejoined his wife about one +o'clock. He was very gay, and Aminta had not for a long time seen him +so amiable and lively. The Prince expressed a desire to return home, +and the young people gladly consented. As they were about to leave the +last room, an Englishman of distinguished air, but pale and agitated, +passed close to the Marquis, and as he did so, said in his native +tongue, "all is agreed." The Marquis replied in the same words, and +the Englishman left. Aminta asked what the stranger had said, "Nothing +of importance," said Henri, "a mere commonplace." + +A quarter of an hour after, the carriage of the young people entered +_rue_ Saint Dominique. The Prince embraced the Marquise and retired to +his room, which was in the left wing of the hotel, and exactly +opposite the apartments of the young couple. About two all the hotel +was quiet. Aminta, though, from some peculiar presentiment, could not +sleep, yet, with her eyes half closed, she fell into that dreamy +torpor in which every passion is exaggerated. In this half-real, +half-fantastic state, Aminta saw pass before her all the important +events of her life, the horrible episode of the _casa di Tasso_, the +coming of Maulear, and the heroic devotion of _Scorpione_. Another +shadow, that of Monte-Leone, glided before her. The looks of this man +were fixed on hers, as if to read the depths of her soul. There came +also a thousand chimeras and countless mad and terrible fictions. La +Felina, pale and white as a spectre, sang, or sought to sing, for +though her lips moved no sound was heard. With her hand raised towards +Aminta, the ducal singer seemed to heap reproaches on her. Alarmed at +these sombre visions, the young woman sought to return to real life, +and arose from her bed; just then she thought she heard a door open. +Terrified, she reached toward a bell near her, but paused. The door +which was opened could be no other than that of the Marquis, for their +apartments, though separate, were side by side. She thought, too, that +the _valet de chambre_ had been detained later than usual with the +Marquis, and unwilling to make an alarm, she repressed her agitation. + +No noise disturbed the profound silence. The clock above struck the +several hours with that slow and monotonous regularity, which is so +painful to those who cannot sleep; she did not, however, win the rest +she was so anxious for. All the fancies which had occupied her just +before had disappeared, but were replaced by a newer fancy, occasioned +by the remark of the Englishman, which she had not understood. The +features of the stranger, so deathly pale, constantly returned to her. +She fancied some danger menaced the man to whom she had devoted her +life; that a strange danger menaced him, and, yielding to a feverish +agitation, which she could not repress, wrapping herself in a shawl, +and afraid almost to breathe, she went to the Marquis's room, when at +the door she paused and thought. + +"What would Henri say, and how could she excuse this strange visit?" +She hesitated and was about to return, when she saw that the door was +not closed, and that she could thus enter his room and satisfy herself +without disturbing him. She decided--the door turned on its hinges, +and Aminta entered. Crossing the antechamber, she had reached the +bedroom, which was separated from it by a curtained door. She advanced +to the bed, which she found had not been slept in. With a faint cry of +terror she sank on an arm-chair. The clock struck four, and when she +had heard the noises which had disturbed her it was nearly two; since +then, therefore, the Marquis had been away. Yet this had occurred when +he was within a few feet of her, and the care and secrecy with which +it was accomplished showed that it had been premeditated. Not a sound +except the opening of the door had reached Aminta's ears. The Marquise +felt the most agonizing distress--no thought of perfidy, however, +annoyed her; the idea of danger only occupying her mind. Just then her +eyes fell on an open note which had doubtless been dropped by Maulear +amid his hurry and trouble. She took it up, saying to herself, this +note doubtless contains a challenge--a rendezvous--she approached the +night lamp, and with difficulty suppressing her agitation, read as +follows--"Dear Marquis, do not fail to come to-night. You know how +anxiously you are expected, + + "FANNY DE BRUNEVAL." + +The letter was indeed a rendezvous, but not of the kind she had +expected. The terms of the note were clear and precise; and the +woman's name dissipated the mist from before her eyes, Maulear had +deserted her and his home in the silence of night for such a person. +She it was whom he deceived--she who had been so loyal and true, she +who sought, even when Maulear asked her hand, to protect him--who +begged him to distrust his impressions and not to act in haste. "I was +right," said she, "to fear the bonds he wished to impose on me--I was +right to object to a marriage which could not make him happy--only two +years," said she, with a voice of half stifled emotion, "and he is +already cold and indifferent to me. He has already abandoned me--and +worse still, he has done so with treachery. Mother! mother! why did +you not keep me with you? This then, is the reward of my generous +devotion. Alas! when I accepted him--when I wrested him from the death +which menaced him--when I gave myself to him, I did not love him, I +did not hesitate when perhaps----" Aminta blushed amid her tears. +"Above all," said she, "I do not wish him to find me here--I do not +wish him to reproach me as he has done with seeking to penetrate his +secrets." She returned to her room, and from exhaustion and tears sank +on her bed. + +Day came at last, and Aminta dressed herself. She wished to conceal +from her servants all that she suffered. Above all, she did not wish +the conduct and disorder of the Marquis to be made a subject of +discussion. When her _femme de chambre_ entered her room, she found +her mistress on her knees at her morning devotions before a crucifix. +Had any persons, however, approached the Marquise, they must have seen +the tears falling on the delicate fingers which covered her face, and +heard her sobs. The bell rang for breakfast. Aminta started as if from +a dream; being thus recalled to real life, she saw that while the +evening before she had been happy and gay, one night had converted all +to sorrow and suffering. Aminta, though ordinarily of strong nerve, +sank beneath the blow. She felt herself wounded in her heart, her +dignity, and in her confidence, by one for whom alone she had lived. +Henceforth her life would be uncertain, and circumstances might lead +her she knew not whither. + +When the Marquise entered, the Prince and Countess were about to go to +the table. The former said, "It is evident, my child, from your face, +that you are fatigued; and that balls are to you what the sun is to +roses. It does not detract from their beauty, but it makes them pale." +And finally, the Countess added, "it withers them completely. That is +the fate of all young women who turn night into day, and who, like my +beautiful niece, only really live between evening and morning." + +"Come," said the Prince, "that will not do. My sister is like the fox +in the fable, she finds the ball too gay to suit herself, or rather +herself too sombre for the ball." + +"A witticism," said the Countess, "is not a reason, but often exactly +the reverse. The one, my brother is familiar with; to the other, I am +sorry to say, he is more a stranger." + +"You see, my child," said the Prince, with an air of submission and +resignation, "it is not well to have any trouble with the Countess, +for she returns shot for shot; though she fires a pistol in reply to a +cannon. Luckily for us, she is not a good shot. But my son does not +come down. Can it be that, though he did not dance, he is more +fatigued than his wife?" + +"A letter for Madame la Marquise, from the Marquis," said a servant. + +Aminta took the letter from the plateau, and looked at the Prince, as +if to ask whether she should read it. + +"Read, my child, read," said her father-in-law, affectionately. "The +letter of a husband loved and loving, for thank God both are true, +should be read without any delay." + +Aminta unsealed the letter, and glanced rapidly over it. Then +succumbing to emotion, deprived of strength and courage, and +especially revolting at what she had read, felt her sight grow dim, +and finally fainted. The Countess, whose mind alone was embittered for +the reasons Aminta had explained to her mother, but whose soul and +heart were generous as possible, ran to the Marquise, took her in her +arms, and was as kind as possible. The Prince, paler than Aminta, +rushed towards the window, which he threw open, and pulled away at the +bell-ropes to call the servants, and send them for the physicians. +The old nobleman exhibited the greatest alarm. The young Marquise was +taken to the drawing-room, and a few moments after she opened her +eyes. Her heart, however, was crushed; and she wept bitter tears. The +Prince was struck with terror and distress. He was alarmed for his +son's sake, and a father's anxiety was apparent. + +"What has happened to my son?" said he, rushing to find the letter, +which Aminta had let fall. He read it anxiously, and when he had +concluded, laughed loud and long. "Indeed," said he, "we have come +back to the days of the Astraea. All reminds us of the _Calprenede_, of +_Urfe_, or _Scuderi_ herself. We are on the _Tendros_. This kind of +love would make that of Cyrus and Mandane trifling. Cyrus writes to +Mandane, that he went out to ride in the Bois de Cologne, and +therefore has to deprive himself of the pleasure of breakfasting with +her. Mandane therefore is suddenly taken ill. This is magnificent and +touching; but my precious child, it is a little exaggerated." + +"What, then, is the matter?" said the Countess, as she handed her +niece the salts. "What a singular man you are! One never knows what +the facts of any thing are from you. You are either in the seventh +heaven or in despair. Your very gayety is enough to destroy our +niece's nerves." + +"Ah!" said the Prince, "how sorry I am for the nerves. Read, however, +the letter yourself, Countess," and he gave it to Mademoiselle +Grandmesuil. "You will see the Marquise is too fond of her husband. +Her love has really become a dangerous passion. She is really +_love-mad_, and if it continues, we shall have a rehearsal of Milon's +ballet, with the exception of _Bigotini_." + +The Countess read as follows: + + "MY DEAR WIFE: I am unwilling to disturb your slumbers, and + have therefore left for the wood at five o'clock, having a + rendezvous with some sportsmen. We will probably breakfast + together, and I will not return until dinner-time. Remember + me affectionately. + + "HENRI." + + + +The habitual coldness of the Countess returned while she read the +letter. "I will say that I think my nephew very likely to inspire deep +love. I cannot however conceive how there can be cause for such +despair. We Frenchwomen have not such an exaggerated devotion as our +niece has. I beg her not to use it up now, for in the career of life +she will find it difficult to do without it." As if regretting that +she had soothed sorrows in which she had no sympathy, the Countess +sent for her prayer-book, and went to mass. As soon as the young +Marquise was alone with the Prince, she arose, threw herself in the +old man's arms, and said: "My father, I am very unhappy." The face of +the Prince at once became serious, and taking Aminta to a sofa, bade +her sit down, and said, kindly as possible, "Excuse my gayety and +irony, my child. _Non est hic locus_, as the sublime Horace, the +favorite of our good king Louis XVIII., once wrote. I repent of my +volatility and trifling, for I should have remembered, when I think of +the elevation of your mind, that something more important than the +absence of your husband for a few hours annoyed you. Speak to me--open +your heart to me--for I love you too well not to have a right to your +confidence and your secrets." + +"He does not love me," said Aminta, leaning her head on the Prince's +shoulder. + +"Alas! my daughter," said M. de Maulear, "I am about to make a strange +confession to you. I am not acquainted with my son. His soul, +sentiments, inclination, and moral nature, are unknown to me. When, +four years ago, I saw the child now twenty-six, whom I had left an +infant, and found his air, manners, and appearance distingue as +possible, and was pleased with him, I was assured that his soul was +exalted, his character true, and his sentiments honorable. I was +therefore satisfied. Two years after, he went to Naples, where I +procured a diplomatic post for him; and consequently I have neither +studied nor fathomed his instincts and habits. What I apprehend in +relation to you, my child, is a capital fault. I have discovered in my +son an extreme weakness of character, which may lead him into error. +For that reason, I wrote to him, that I would have preferred that he +had tasted of the pleasures of life before marriage. I would thus have +had an assurance of his subsequent prudence. Believe me, though, my +child, I will watch over him and you, and if I was able to forgive his +marrying without my consent, when I knew whom he married, I never will +pardon him if he make her unhappy. The deuce! we did not bring you +hither from Italy to break your heart." + +Fearful lest his father should become angry with Maulear, Aminta +restrained the secret which seemed ready to burst from her lips. She +spoke of vague suspicions and anxiety at the Marquis's uneasiness, but +said nothing particular. The Prince, who never in his life had known +what jealousy was, had some difficulty in understanding how it could +create such despair. His attention, however, was not the less vigilant +in relation to the affairs of the young couple. A circumstance which +occurred soon after enabled him to ascertain much. A number of persons +assembled one night at the rooms of the Marquise de Maulear. Count +Monte-Leone had become one of Aminta's most assiduous visitors. The +tacit permission he had received from Aminta, the formal authority of +the Marquis, the sympathy of the old Prince, to whom the pleasant, +energetic character of the Count, and his noble bearing, made him +every day more attractive--all taken in connection with the intimacy +of Taddeo and Monte-Leone, authorized him to visit the Marquise +freely. The devotion of Monte-Leone to Aminta had never been +diminished. He had felt only an inclination towards La Felina, an +error of the senses and imagination, excited by mortified love, and +favored by the isolation of the Lago di Como. His heart had little +share in it. When, therefore, he saw the Marquise de Maulear more +attractive than ever, he discovered that in his whole life he had +loved her alone. The Marquis de Maulear appeared but rarely at the +hotel, coming home at a late hour and going out early. + +Monte-Leone and Taddeo were talking together, and this fragment of +their conversation struck the ear of the old Prince, who seemed +entirely absorbed by a game of whist. + +"Will not the Marquis be here to-night?" said the Count to Taddeo. + +"I doubt it: sometimes the master of the hotel is here less frequently +than any one else." + +"Perhaps he is now," said the Count, "where he goes almost every +night, they say." + +"You jest," said Taddeo; "I think he is here every night." + +"He should, but he is not. All I can say is, that on the night of +M.L.'s ball, he was ... where I saw him." + +"Where was he?" asked Taddeo, impatiently. + +"I will tell you--but come away from the whist-table." + + * * * * * + +"But you do not return my lead," said the Prince's partner, "you +should play hearts." + +"True," said the Prince, musing; and he led hearts. His eyes, though, +followed Taddeo and Monte-Leone. + +The Prince lost five points, much to his partner's discontent. He +played very badly that night, breaking up his suits, mistaking the +cards, and violating every rule, much to the surprise of the +lookers-on, who knew how well he played the game, which the emigres +had imported from England. At last they stopped, and the Prince sought +for Monte-Leone through all the rooms. The Count and Taddeo, however, +had both left. The Marquis, though, had returned, and the company soon +dispersed. The Prince went to his room, but soon left, well wrapped +up, and with his hat over his face. "Pardieu!" said he, "I will settle +things, and find out where my son passes the nights. Can any place be +more pleasant than the bedchamber of a pretty woman?" Standing at a +little distance from door, he waited about half an hour. His patience +was nearly exhausted, when the Marquis came out. Henri went to the Rue +de Bac, took the quai, crossed the pont Royale, the Carousel, and +entered la Rue de Richelieu. The poor Prince panted after him, and +kept him in sight all the time, cursing his curiosity. Sustained by a +deep interest for his daughter's happiness, he kept on. + +When the Marquis came to the Rue de Menors, he paused, and turned to +see that no one followed him. The Prince had barely time to get behind +a coach which stood at the corner. The Marquis went some distance down +the Rue de Menors, and stopped at No. 7. The door was opened, and +Henri entered. "On my honor," said the Prince, "I would not have come +so far before bed, unless I could also have found out _why_ the +Marquis visits No. 7." The Prince then stopped at the door, and +knocked. The door was opened. + +"What do you want?" said the porter, rather surlily. + +"I wish," said the Prince, and he put a louis d'or in the porter's +hand, "to know why that man has come hither." + +"Indeed," said he, pocketing the louis, "it is a great deal to pay for +so little. The gentleman has gone, as many others go, to see Mlle. +Fanny de Bruneval." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[4] Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1850, by +Stringer & Townsend, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of +the United States for the Southern District of New-York. + + + + +A FESTIVAL UPON THE NEVA. + +TRANSLATED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL MONTHLY MAGAZINE FROM THE FRENCH OF +KAUFMANN. + + +On the banks of a majestic river, where, in later times, has arisen a +city of eight thousand houses, of granite causeways, monuments, +obelisks, and palaces, nothing was to be seen at the commencement of +the eighteenth century but a few huts scattered over a marshy waste. + +On one of those days, when the intense cold had transformed the river +into a plain of ice, a numerous crowd were hastening through the +streets of the young St. Petersburg. Some directed their steps towards +a little cottage; and others, over the frozen waters, towards a +fortified island. Every one looked with a curious eye at the cottage, +and the numerous sledges that were gathering for the escort at hand. +Presently, a sledge drawn by three horses covered with bear-skins, +dashed up to the cottage-gate. It was quickly opened, and an old man +of a high stature and proud bearing came forth, wearing a blue sable. +He slowly advanced and took his place. + +"Pardon me, sir," said one of middle age, who hastened to take a seat +by the side of the former, "the gracious Czar had--" + +"It is sufficient," prince Menzikoff, interrupted the first, in a +quick and stern tone; "I am not much accustomed to wait, but I know, +however, that it is the Czar only who can be the cause of this delay." + +"You see the boyard, Alexis Nicolajewitz Tscherkaski," said one of +those present, in a whisper to his companion. + +"You are not the first to tell me that," replied Nikita. "It is not +sixty years since his grandfather traversed the Caucasus with his +savage Tschetschences. He would be a little surprised if he saw his +son to-day decorated with the golden key of chamberlain, and enjoying +himself at festivals in sacred Russia. But they give the signal of +departure, for they are tying a tame bear to the sledge. Indeed, it is +a strange animal!" + +"I must see him nearer," said the first. "Come, Andyuschka, let us +survey the whole train." + + * * * * * + +They came at last to an edifice such as was never seen before or +since. It was built upon the Neva--but not of stones. The walls, roof, +and partitions, were of solid ice; and the steps leading to the +entrance cut out of one enormous block. Two large cannons made of ice, +pierced with the greatest care, and which they were foolish enough to +charge with powder, were placed in front of this singular palace. The +interior presented an appearance not less novel. A long table, formed +of a single piece of ice, and covered with a hundred exquisite dishes, +was the principal object--oysters, in silver plates, excited the +appetite--sea-fish, of every species, from the gulf of Finland and +Pont-Euxin to the Caspian and frozen seas, disputed the supremacy with +shell-fish from the Istar and Volga. By the side of the hams of +Bayonne were roasts of bear surrounded with citron; and the sturgeon +was placed in the middle of delicious preserves. Many sledges were +filled with bottles. + +But all these cold dishes composed but half the feast. Four kitchens, +built of wood, at some distance from the palace, threw up constantly +clouds of smoke. There boiled stags and elks, pullets of Archangel, +and boars of Podolie. But that which particularly attracted the +attention of the spectators were the large fires where whole oxen +turned round upon spits, for the benefit of the people, to whom were +to be also given tuns of brandy. + +The sun shone yet above the horizon when the great hall of the palace +of crystal was lighted with wax candles in chandeliers of sparkling +ice. A thousand lights were thus reflected and broken upon the +transparent walls and windows. It seemed a fairy scene in the +approaching night. + +While a legion of cooks, with their assistants, worked without +cessation, the two personages, the boyard Tscherkaski and the prince +Menzikoff, were not less busy in the interior of the palace. It was +readily seen that they had the charge of directing the festival about +to commence. The last-mentioned, spreading a bear-skin upon each of +the seats of ice, was addressed by his companion. + +"Truly, Alexandre Michailowitz, the Czar could not have selected a +better manager of the feast than yourself. If I had any thing to do +but to take exclusive charge of the bottles, I am afraid I should +oblige every one to sit upon the naked blocks. What grimaces those +hungry foreign guests would make, such as the Frenchman Lefort, and +those like him, whom the west is ever sending to fatten upon the blood +of Russia. I should like to see them shivering to death, and at the +same time politely struggling to appear pleased in the presence of the +Czar." + +"But do you know how the Czar would regard such pleasantry? You +remember Dimitri Arsenieff?" + +"Arsenieff! I hope you do not compound me with that herd whom a single +glance of the Czar made tremble in their shoes. There was a time, it +is true, but all is changed now--there was a time when those +submissive slaves who filled the courts of the Kremlin, disappeared +when they heard the steps of the old Alexis Nicolajewitz. His services +were once required. He was not idle during the massacre of the +Strelitz; they had need of Tscherkaski then. But all this has passed +away. I have but one wish; it is, that in the hour of trial the swords +of those Frenchmen, or of other foreigners, may leap as slowly from +the scabbard as mine on that day when men of a nobler spirit were +assassinated." + +"The Czar has not forgotten that you have--" + +"O, truly," replied the boyard, with a bitter smile, "the gracious +Czar has made me the first chamberlain. He must have been in a good +humor at that time; for Poliwoi--you know him--he is skilful in +sealing bottles--he was a _valet de chambre_ in his youth--and that +English Melton or Milton, who has imported some good dogs--both of +them, at the same time with myself, received the key of the +chamberlaincy." + +"But you cannot deny, Alexis, that in general the choice of our +sovereign--" + +"Is the best. But what is strange about it is, that he finds so many +excellent men, and that he selects from so large a circle, when others +who, in times of calamity, are no longer considered unworthy, never +obtain their turn for preferment." + +"You appear to be not in a very good humor, to-day, boyard.... Would +you fall into disfavor with the Czar?" + +"Why," exclaimed the boyard, "should I not tell a friend what probably +he will learn to-day, if indeed he is ignorant of it now? You know," +he continued with an affected calmness, "the domain of the crown +adjacent to my lands in Tula?" + +"I do not," said the embarrassed Prince. + +"Indeed you do, Alexandre Michailowitz; or at least you ought to. It +separates my property from yours." + +"Ah! the manor." + +"The same. It is not very extensive, containing only three villages +and a thousand serfs. But its situation suits me and I desire its +possession." + +"Well, you ought to propose to the Czar to sell it. He will not refuse +you." + +"He has already refused. 'I am sorry,' he coldly said, 'that I cannot +grant you the lands you ask; I have disposed of them to another.' I +was about to reply, but turning to speak to some one, he closed our +conversation." + +"And do you know to whom he granted the domain?" + +"Who? Perhaps a vicious flatterer--an intrusive coward--some fellow +from abroad who comes among us to appease his hunger; or, what is +worse, an upstart, whose only pleasure is to overturn my dearest hopes +to fulfil his own. Who is he? One of those who daily make fortunes by +hundreds in our Russia, in place of meeting with the rope which they +merit--one of those who drive out honest men to occupy their places--a +rustic bore, a cobbler, a pastry-cook!" + +The features of the boyard took an expression of the most violent +anger; the muscles of his mouth contracted by a convulsive movement, +and his fiery eye gave sign that he was remembering the sanguinary +vengeance of his brethren, the sons of the Caucasus. + +The countenance of Menzikoff grew dark. The word "pastry-cook," in +bringing to his recollection his former condition, awoke sentiments +whose expression it was difficult for him to restrain. "I had +intended," he said, "to ask the Czar to give me those very lands; but +I am glad that I have not done so. I would have been unhappy in +interfering with your projects, if it were even for the sake of your +amiable daughter, who, in your old days, will reward you largely for +all the grievances you experience at the Court." + +"You think so, eh, Michailowitz? But you are a Russian. You belong not +to those foreign plebeians. Alexis Tscherkaski is a man who never +hides what he thinks, and I confess frankly that I do not love you; I +have never loved you. Yet I do not confound you with those vile +favorites of whom I have spoken. You are the first who has ever said +to my face that I was not born to walk in the slippery paths of a +court. You will have the honor also of offering the first counsel that +I have ever followed. Yes, Prince Menzikoff, I am firmly resolved to +leave the capital in a few days. In my solitude, accompanied only by +my Mary, I hope to forget the Czars, their favors, and all that I have +done to obtain them. Since the death of my Fedor--but let us stop +here--with him all my hopes are buried. My daughter only remains--" + +"Who will be a glory to you in the evening of your life. She will +bloom as the rose, she will be a mother of sons who--" + +"Yes, I desire to see her happy. She will freely choose her husband; +and if she wishes to unite her destiny with none, she shall live with +me, and one day close my eyes in death. It is among the descendants of +the boyards that she will find her beloved. He shall be a noble son of +old and sacred Russia. And I swear by all the saints interred in the +convent of Kiew, that no will, not even that of the Czar, but her own, +shall influence the choice of my daughter." + +The Prince was about to reply, when loud voices were heard in front of +the house. "They come! they come!" + +A long train of sledges took the direction of the Isle of the Neva, +and presented as strange a spectacle as one could well imagine. +Instead of couriers who, according to the usages of the time, took the +lead in this description of festivals, there was a sledge drawn by +four horses of different colors. In it were four men dressed in white +with a red girdle, having in their hands a staff ornamented with +ribbons, and upon their heads a bonnet decorated with plumes. The +oddest thing in this group was, that the youngest was not less than +seventy; two of them wanted a leg; the third was without an arm; and +the fourth, blind. + +Then came two sledges filled with musicians who joyously sounded their +instruments. They were divided into two sections; the first would have +pleased the ear by their performances, if it were not for the second +section, every one of whom was deaf. They could not follow the +movements of the director, and he himself, also deaf, was constantly +behind the time, so that the two companies, although playing the same +air, produced one which we might imagine proceeded from mischievous +demons in a concert prepared in Pandemonium for the benefit of +condemned musicians. + +In a third sledge came a patriarch of eighty years. His long white +beard and hair carefully dressed, the precious ornaments with which he +was covered, and the priests seated at his side, all announced that +the old man was going to celebrate some solemn ceremony. As he was an +intolerable stammerer, who had been released from the public services +of the church during the greater part of his life, he was fitly chosen +to deliver a discourse upon the present occasion. + +The sledge following that of the patriarch's, gave to the cortege the +unmistakeable character of a nuptial festivity; for, of the four +individuals who occupied it, two wore crowns, such as those prescribed +by the Greek church to the newly married. The couple who sat in the +place of honor, and for whom this fete had been prepared were indeed +very curious looking persons. The bridegroom was an old and wrinkled +dwarf, hardly four feet high. His enormous head seemed to weigh down +his slender body, and to bend his legs into the form of sabres. His +toilette was according to the French mode of that period. A frock coat +of silver cloth, a sky blue vest and crimson velvet pantaloons, and +immense ruffles covered his long, sepulchral hands. A perruque with a +long tail, the nuptial crown, and a silver sword, which completed his +dress, confirmed the remark of one of our friends, who compared the +unfortunate bridegroom to a monkey on the rack. + +The dwarf and his affianced resembled each other as two drops of +water. Upon the head of the hump-backed bride also shone the marriage +crown. Her dress was of gold cloth of the most recent Parisian mode. +Their exterior, however, presented a single contrast which rendered +them still more ridiculous; for upon the wide face of the future wife +was a presumptuous smile, while the husband, suffering under some +recent sorrow, made the most frightful grimaces. + +In order better to distinguish the ugliness of this deformed couple, +there were placed upon the second seat of the sledge two children of +angelic beauty--one a girl of five years; the other, a boy of six to +eight. They both wore the ancient Russian costume, which in its +simplicity so well became the celestial sweetness of the countenance +of the rosy-cheeked girl, and the spiritual gayety which beamed from +the large black eyes of the boy. These children appeared destined to +serve as bridesboy and bridesmaid; and certainly Hymen could not have +made a better choice. + +"It is the daughter of the boyard Tscherkaski! It is the little Fedor +Menzikoff!" cried the crowd. + +A large number of sledges passed on. All those who occupied them were +disguised in the strangest manner. By the side of a coarse Kirghese +was a fashionable Parisien. Behind them a Chinese mandarin waited upon +a maiden Tyrolese. In the cortege could be seen not only the costumes +of all the tribes under the sceptre of Peter the Great, but of almost +every nation of Europe and Asia. The masquerade extended even to the +trappings of the horses and sledges. Some of the horses' heads wore +gilded horns of the stag and the elk, and others great wings, which +made them resemble the poet's idea of Pegasus. The last sledge in the +train worthily closed this fantastic procession. It was drawn by three +horses, and contained a single personage. Two horsemen, habited as +Turks, galloped by his side, and announced his high rank. His +thick-set figure was of the ordinary height, his face was full of a +spirit of gayety and frolic, and in the smile with which he responded +to the acclamations of the people could be perceived his satisfaction +in the preparations for the fete of the day. His dress was that of a +northern countryman, and he who had ever seen one would be at a loss +to say whether Peter the Great was an original or a copy. + +The countryman held in his hand a large gold-headed cane, and +tormented a tame bear, which, standing erect upon its hind feet, and +fulfilling the functions of lackey, was from time to time punished for +his unskilfulness, to the amusement of the people. + +The train arrived at the crystal palace; and although all had +descended from the sledges, none had crossed the threshold. Every one +appeared desirous to yield the first entrance to the bridegroom and +his partner, or to him who gave the feast. Prince Menzikoff and the +boyard at last advanced, bare-headed, into the presence of the Czar, +who was still occupied in teasing his bear to divert the multitude. + +"What are you waiting for?" he said, at the same time taking the cap +of the Prince, and replacing it upon his head. "Why these marks of +respect? Have you quite forgotten all the duties of gallantry in thus +permitting the happy couple to wait at the door of the marriage-house? +But I see--and if I did not see, the odors of the dishes and of the +brandy would be evidence of it--that you have well performed your +duties. With this conviction, Alexandre, that you have done well for +the palates of the guests by delicious dishes, and that my old +Tscherkaski does not permit me to have a doubt as to his performances +concerning the cellar--it is, I say, from these considerations that I +pardon you both for forgetting that I am and wish to be nothing more +to-day than Peter, the countryman, who has come to celebrate with his +friends the nuptials of a couple who love each other tenderly. Come, +let us hasten, lest the temperature of the marriage-palace cool our +dinner." + +"As your Majesty wishes," responded the Prince, respectfully. + +"Not Majesty," replied the Emperor, and in the same moment he ran to +excuse himself to the affianced for unintentionally causing them to +wait so long. + +They entered, and very soon the sound of music announced that they +were being seated at table. The Prince, at a sign from the Czar, +conducted the bride and bridegroom to the place of honor, and beside +them the two children. The rest took their places without distinction +of rank. The Holland ambassador sat next the Emperor, and in front of +him the boyard Tscherkaski, and Menzikoff sat next to Tscherkaski. + + +II. + +The conversation, at first grave and little animated, gradually became +more lively. The Czar was in a good humor, a thing which often +occurred at the dinner-table, if nowhere else. Peter the Countryman +was not slow to assail the embarrassed couple with pleasantries, some +more or less good, and others rather equivocal. He at last requested +the old patriarch, who was perspiring with fear at the anticipation of +the request, to repeat the discourse which he had pronounced to the +great pleasure of his Majesty. A noisy gayety filled the hall, and +outside it was at its height. At the moment in which the Emperor +offered a toast to the married couple, the cannon of ice was +discharged. It flew in pieces in every direction, and instead of +producing any serious sensation lest some accident might have +occurred, it only increased the tumultuous hilarity. The wines of +Champagne and Bourgogne ran in streams. The servants were hardly +sufficient to supply the thirst of the guests. The Czar ordered to +their assistance soldiers, who, taking half a dozen bottles under each +arm, rolled them as nine-pins upon the table--a circumstance which the +ambassador of the powerful states thought so remarkable that he +mentioned it in his report a la Haye. + +This intemperate drinking soon showed its effects upon the greater +part of the guests. Peter gave himself up completely to the +infatuation of the vine, and Menzikoff, who preserved his accustomed +sobriety, saw with inquietude the Czar swallow one after another +numerous glasses of Bourgogne. The face of the monarch became +foolish--the perspiration stood upon his forehead in large drops, and +in order to cool himself he took off his perruque, and placed it upon +the head of his neighbor the ambassador, who received the insult +respectfully, but without power to repress a deep sigh. However +pleasant all this might have been, Menzikoff took no part in the +enjoyments of the society, troubled as he was through fears founded +upon an intimate knowledge of the character of his master. Experience +had too often taught him how easily the Czar passed from humor and +hilarity to anger and violence. He knew that such changes took place +almost invariably after indulgences of the bottle, and that a single +word--a single gesture--threw him into a passion that made him +detestable, while by nature he was generous and noble. The event +proved how reasonable were the presentiments of Menzikoff. + +The festival was coming to an end. The Czar arose and commanded +silence. + +"Hitherto," he said, in smiling, "we have only drank to the health of +the happy pair. It is time to give them a substantial token of our +friendship. Since I am myself the originator of this joyful marriage, +I must give the first example--so take that, Alexandre; put in it what +I told you, and pass it round." At these words the Emperor pointed to +a little silver basket that lay on the table. + +Menzikoff took the basket, and drawing from his bosom a draft for 8000 +roubles, and emptying his own purse, passed the basket to his neighbor +the boyard. The latter seemed to reflect a moment, took from his +pocket a handful of gold and silver, and with an air of contempt, cast +an old rouble into the basket, and passed it from him. + +This circumstance did not escape the notice of the Emperor. His brow +darkened, but soon his gayety returned, and he said, smiling, to +Menzikoff: + +"You see, Alexandre, the prudence of our Prince de Tscherkaski. He +gives only a rouble. He means to say by this that he has no very +particular interest in the married parties. It is only a ruse on his +part in order to remove any jealousy that a greater gift might awaken. +I will wager you that to-morrow he will send a present to the young +woman more becoming her rank and position." + +"Your Majesty would lose the wager," responded Tscherkaski, in a +haughty tone. "The farces of fools and jugglers have never amused me, +and I have always pitied those who know not better how to employ their +time than to lose it with such creatures. Thus my contribution is at +the same time conformed to the circumstances and to my rank, since I +do not appreciate beyond measure the office of chamberlain, with which +you have gratified me." + +The Emperor at first smiled at these words, but his countenance became +more stern. + +"Our chamberlain," said he, after a pause, "gets angry to get calm +again. He must be in a bad humor to-day. I hope he will change his +language by the time that another affair occurs, which will interest +him more nearly." + +Tscherkaski did or wished not to understand the words of the Czar. His +wandering and disdainful eyes glanced at the basket offered to the +bride and bridegroom. It was filled with gold, rings, bracelets, +jewels, and other precious gifts. The universal happiness of the +evening had removed from the mind of the Czar the remembrance of the +murmurings of the boyard, and Menzikoff had hardly taken his place +when the Emperor whispered to him: + +"The dispositions you have made to-day in regard to this festivity do +you honor. You have perfectly agreed with my own taste in such +matters. You have surpassed my expectations." + +"It is not I alone," humbly replied the Prince. "The boyard as well as +myself----" + +"Without doubt, you and he have perfectly fulfilled my intentions. I +take not into the account the silver rouble, however," added the Czar, +"let that be as it may, ten years hence this place shall be the scene +of a similar festivity; and to let you see how I can surpass you, I +will myself take charge of the preparations. You may smile, Alexandre, +but you will be forced to admit, that without your aid I can arrange a +nuptial feast. It is besides the less difficult, since the essentials +are already decided upon--the persons to be married." + +These words were overheard by those present, and a profound silence +ensued. + +"Would I be guilty of too much curiosity," said Menzikoff, "if...." + +"Ah! you wish to know the young couple," exclaimed the Emperor. "I +ought, perhaps, to leave you in ten years' uncertainty; but thanks to +this brilliant society whom I invite from to-day, you will know now. +Alexis Nicolajewitz," continued he, in addressing the boyard, "you +asked me the other day for certain lands near Tula, situated between +the boundaries of your property and those of Prince Menzikoff." + +"I did, and your Majesty has thought fit to refuse them." + +"I refused them, because I had reserved them for another. I wish to +give them as a dowry to your daughter." + +The astonishment of the boyard was great He attempted to speak. + +"Silence! I have attached to the grant one condition," said the Czar. + +"Your Majesty will order nothing contrary to my conscience and the +honor of my house. I humbly ask, then...." + +"The condition is, that your daughter shall receive her husband at my +hands." + +"I have sworn upon the tomb of my wife," responded the boyard, after a +pause, "that my daughter shall espouse him only whom she herself +freely chooses. But, she is still a child,... and in ten years...." + +"Indeed," interrupted the Emperor, whose countenance was sorrowful, +"if your daughter should not accept him whom I would propose, the +lands will yet belong to her; are you content now?" + +"And the rank, the condition of the parties?" + +"They are to be the same." + +"A single word from our gracious sovereign, is at any time sufficient +to destroy all inequalities of rank," said one of the guests. + +"You are right, Kurakin," returned the boyard; "as to myself, I rely +upon the word of our monarch, who has just said that there is nothing +to equalize. Every one to his opinion upon that which concerns him." + +"There is a tone of very high pride in your discourse, Alexis +Nicolajewitz," responded Peter, who repressed his anger with +difficulty. "I have a great mind not to name to you to-day the husband +which I, your sovereign, have chosen for the daughter of one of my +subjects. But let your insolent vanity subside. Your future son-in-law +is of birth equal with your's and your daughter's; he is the only son +of a man whom I dearly esteem and honor with distinguished favors. I +say it in his presence, and it is my desire he should be honored by +others. In a word, your future son-in-law is the companion of your +daughter at the feast to-day; he is the little Fedor Menzikoff." + +This name came to the ears of the boyard as a thunder-clap, so great +was his astonishment. The assembly waited in vain his response, but he +was silent. + +"Ah well, Alexis," continued the Czar, "if these two manors are hardly +worth thanks, why should I wait for you to consent to the proposed +union?" + +All eyes were directed to the boyard. No one spoke, and the Czar's +impatience yielded to a furious anger. + +"And what motive," he at last said, "induces you to reject this gift?" + +"The very condition that you have yourself made, gracious sovereign." + +"The condition?" + +"Yes, that condition which requires my daughter to give her hand to +the son of Prince Menzikoff. It can never be fulfilled. It is +impossible to accept the gift of your Majesty." + +"And why?" fiercely demanded Peter. + +"The Czar orders--his servant must obey. Prince Menzikoff is the son +of a serf, but the daughter of Tscherkaski shall never marry a man of +so mean extraction," and the blood mounted to the brow of the boyard. + +"Insolent dog!" exclaimed Peter, striking his hand upon the table. "Do +you not know that a single word from me can make ten serfs ten +Princes, and the least among them superior to you in rank and dignity. +Oh! by my patron, the prince of the Apostles, why should I patiently +listen to this haughty descendant of the brigands of the Caucasus. I +can do more than this, proud boyard; by a breath I can degrade thee +and all thy tribe." + +Hitherto Tscherkaski held his eyes downward, but now he lifted them +and looked steadily at his monarch. + +"Your look braves and menaces me," thundered the Czar, beside himself, +and shaking his fist towards the boyard. "Reply if you dare, and it is +not impossible that your rebellious head rolls from your body this +very night, this hour, this minute." + +"Certainly, I do not doubt your power. How could I doubt the power of +one who, on the same day, without pity and without humanity, cut off +the heads of thousands. Surely, the man who tramples under his feet +those who were once the support of his crown and authority; who has +not only stained his own hands in their blood, but that of his own +son--surely he would not hesitate to destroy an old servant, the +necessary but guilty instrument of his past vengeance. Come! the arm +that was steeped in the massacre of the Kremlin, can hardly take a +redder hue from the blood of an unimportant slave." + +Peter looked with burning eyes upon his adversary. He arose, as by an +impulse, and inclining his head forward, seemed to be engaged in +discovering the meaning of those vehement words. But he was +endeavoring to stay the tempest that was sweeping over his heart. Some +minutes elapsed before he recovered himself from those bitter +recollections; and looking with an affected air of calmness and +dignity upon the astonished assembly, he said-- + +"Faithful Russians! you have heard the serious accusation brought by a +subject against his monarch. Whatever may be the number of the +Strelitz fallen in an unhappy day, I am not at all concerned about it; +they died for the safety and well-being of sacred Russia. If innocent +blood flowed at the Kremlin--if, among so many guilty, the sword +severed the head of one innocent, I am ready to defend the act. It was +from me that the whole transaction originated; it is mine only, and I +take the responsibility of it. I had no other means of saving our +country from the barbarism that encumbered it, and impeded its +elevation to the rank which it should occupy among the nations of +Europe. As the bold boyard has truly said, it is I who have brandished +the sword, and I ask who is the Russian who dares cite me to his +tribunal?" + +The anger of the Czar was rekindled, and he began anew. + +"It is to the tutelary patron of the empire that I am indebted for the +power of having executed a resolution which I judged necessary. A +disease was undermining the constitution of the empire--the evil was +terrible and appeared incurable: like a skilful physician I at once +employed the medicine which could alone be successful in arresting the +progress of the disease. Could I, in the moment of execution, place +the instrument in the trembling hands of a charlatan? No; it was my +own hand that held the knife. I felt the wounds which I made; and I +say to-day, before God and man, it is I to whom the action belongs, +and for which I am ready to answer on earth and on high. Now, as to +you, Tscherkaski, you have audaciously rejected the favor I was +willing to grant. You have not even feared to accuse your sovereign in +the midst of his subjects. If my ancestors were alive your white head +would fall from the block, but far from me the thought of shedding the +blood of an old brother in arms. Retract, and you may pass your days +tranquilly on your own lands. If not," and the voice of the Czar grew +more stern, "I send you this night into eternal exile." + +"Is it permitted me to take with me my daughter?" cooly asked the old +man. + +"The child belongs to its parent," replied the Emperor, surprised and +hesitating. + +"Then, Alexander Michailowitz," said the boyard to Menzikoff, "give me +two of those bear-skins you placed upon the ice-chairs; it is all that +is necessary." + +"Take him away at once; we have had enough of his arrogance and +audacity!" exclaimed the furious Peter, and he repelled Menzikoff, who +was endeavoring to intercede for the boyard. + +"And whither?" asked the prince with a trembling voice. + +"To Bareson upon the Ob----No; to Woksarski upon the Frozen sea," +added Peter, as he beheld the smiling and triumphing air of the +boyard. + +A few moments after the old man and his daughter entered a sledge. A +party of horsemen accompanied them, and away they went with the +swiftness of an eagle towards the dreary regions of the north-west. + +Ten years later, Prince Menzikoff, despoiled of his goods, his honors, +and his rank, came to share the exile of the boyard. Similar +misfortune reconciled two enemies, and the union of their children +accomplished the prediction of the Czar. + + + + +POLITENESS: IN PARIS AND LONDON. + +BY SIR HENRY LYTTON BULWER. + + +"Je me recommande a vous," was said to me the other day by an old +gentleman dressed in very tattered garments, who was thus soliciting a +"sou." The old man was a picture: his long gray hairs fell gracefully +over his shoulders. Tall--he was so bent forward as to take with a +becoming air the position in which he had placed himself. One hand was +pressed to his heart, the other held his hat. His voice, soft and +plaintive, did not want a certain dignity. In that very attitude, and +in that very voice, a nobleman of the ancient "regime" might have +solicited a pension from the Duc de Choiseul in the time of Louis XV. +I confess that I was the more struck by the manner of the venerable +suppliant, from the strong contrast which it formed with the demeanor +of his countrymen in general: for it is rare, now-a-days, I +acknowledge, to meet a Frenchman with the air which Lawrence Sterne +was so enchanted with during the first month, and so wearied with at +the expiration of the first year, which he spent in France. That look +and gesture of the "petit marquis," that sort of studied elegance, +which, at first affected by the court, became at last natural to the +nation, exist no longer, except among two or three "grands seigneurs" +in the Faubourg St. Germain, and as many beggars usually to be found +on the Boulevards. To ask with grace, to beg with as little +self-humility as possible, here perchance is the fundamental idea +which led, in the two extremes of society, to the same results: but +things vicious in their origin are sometimes agreeable in their +practice. + +"Hail, ye small sweet courtesies of life, far smoother do ye make the +road of it--like grace and beauty, which beget inclination at first +sight, 'tis ye who open the door and let the stranger in." I had the +Sentimental Journey in my hand--it was open just at this passage, when +I landed not very long ago on the quay of that town which Horace +Walpole tells us caused him more astonishment than any other he had +met with in his travels. I mean Calais. "Hail, ye small sweet +courtesies of life," was I still muttering to myself, as gently +pushing by a spruce little man, who had already scratched my nose and +nearly poked out my eyes with cards of "Hotel ...," I attempted to +pass on towards the inn of Mons. Dessin. "Nom de D...," said the +Commissionaire, as I touched his elbow, "Nom de D..., Monsieur, _Je +suis Francais_! il ne faut pas me pousser, moi ... _je suis +Francais_!"--and this he said, contracting his brow, and touching a +moustache that only wanted years and black wax to make it truly +formidable. I thought that he was going to offer me his own card +instead of Mr. Meurice's. This indeed would have been little more than +what happened to a friend of mine not long ago. He was going last year +from Dieppe to Paris. He slept at Rouen, and on quitting the house the +following morning found fault with some articles in the bill presented +to him. "Surely there is some mistake here," said he, pointing to the +account. "Mistake, sir," said the _aubergiste_, adjusting his +shoulders with the important air of a man who was going to burthen +them with a quarrel--"mistake, sir, what do you mean?--a mistake--do +you think I charge a sou more than is just? Do you mean to say that? +_Je suis officier, Monsieur, officier Francais, et j'insiste sur ce +que vous me rendiez raison!!_" Now, it is undoubtedly very pleasant to +an Englishman, who has the same idea of a duel that a certain French +marquise had of a lover, when, on her death-bed, she said to her +grand-daughter, "Je ne vous dis pas, ma chere, de ne point avoir +d'amans; je me rappelle ma jeunesse. Il faut seulement n'en prendre +jamais qui soient au-dessous de votre etat"--it is doubtless very +unpleasant to an Englishman, who cares much less about fighting than +about the person he fights with, to have his host present him a bill +in one hand and a pistol in the other. In one of the islands which we +ought to discover, whenever the king sneezes all his courtiers are +expected to sneeze also. The country of course imitates the court, and +the empire is at once affected with a general cold. Sneezing here +then becomes an art and an accomplishment. One person prizes himself +on sneezing more gracefully than another, and, by a matter of general +consent, all nations who have not an harmonious manner of vibrating +their nostrils are justly condemned as savages and barbarians. There +is no doubt that the people of this island are right; and there is no +doubt that we are right in considering every people with different +usages from ourselves of very uncivilized and uncomfortable behavior. +We then, decidedly, are the people who ought justly to be deemed the +most polite. + +For instance--you arrive at Paris: how striking the difference between +the reception you receive at your hotel, and that you would find in +London! In London, arrive in your carriage! (_that_ I grant is +necessary)--the landlord meets you at the door, surrounded by his +anxious attendants; he bows profoundly when you alight--calls loudly +for every thing you want, and seems shocked at the idea of your +waiting an instant for the merest trifle you can possibly _imagine_ +that you desire. Now try your Paris hotel--you enter the +courtyard--the proprietor, if he happen to be there, receives you with +careless indifference, and either accompanies you saunteringly +himself, or orders some one to accompany you to the apartments which, +on first seeing you, he determined you should have. It is useless to +expect another. If you find any fault with this apartment, if you +express any wish that it had this little thing, that it had not that, +do not for one moment imagine that your host is likely to say, with an +eager air, that he "will see what can be done"--that he "would do a +great deal to please so respectable a gentleman." In short, do not +suppose him for one moment likely to pour forth any of those little +civilities with which the lips of your English innkeeper would +overflow. On the contrary, be prepared for his lifting up his eyes, +and shrugging up his shoulders, (the shrug is not the courtier-like +shrug of antique days,) and telling you that the apartment is as you +see it, that it is for Monsieur to make up his mind whether he take it +or not. The whole is the affair of the guest, and remains a matter of +perfect indifference to the host. Your landlady, it is true, is not +quite so haughty on these occasions. But you are indebted for her +smile rather to the coquetry of the beauty, than to the civility of +the hostess. She will tell you, adjusting her head-dress in the mirror +standing upon the chimney-piece in the little "salon" she +recommends--"que Monsieur s'y trouvera fort bien, qu'un milord +Anglais, qu'un prince Russe, ou qu'un colonel du ----ieme de dragons, +a occupe cette meme chambre"--and that there is just by an excellent +restaurateur and a "cabinet de lecture"--and then--her head-dress +being quite in order--the lady expanding her arms with a gentle smile, +says, "Mais apres tout, c'est a Monsieur a se decider." It is this +which makes your French gentleman so loud in praise of English +politeness. One was expatiating to me the other day on the admirable +manners of the English. + +"I went," said he, "to the Duke of Devonshire's, '_dans mon pauvre +fiacre_:' never shall I forget the respect with which a stately +gentleman, gorgeously apparelled, opened the creaking door, let down +the steps, and--courtesy of very courtesies--picked, actually picked, +the dirty straws of the ignominious vehicle that I descended from, off +my shoes and stockings." This occurred to the French gentleman at the +Duke of Devonshire's. But let your English gentleman visit a French +"grand seigneur!" He enters the antechamber from the grand escalier. +The servants are at a game of dominos, from which his entrance hardly +disturbs them, and fortunate is he if any one conduct him with a +careless lazy air to the "salon." So, if you go to Boivin's, or if you +go to Howel's and James's, with what politeness, with what celerity, +with what respect your orders are received at the great man's of +Waterloo Place--with what an easy nonchalance you are treated in the +Rue de la Paix! All this is quite true; but there are things more +shocking than all this. I know a gentleman, who called the other day +on a French lady of his acquaintance, who was under the hands of her +"coiffeur." The artiste of the hair was there, armed cap-a-pie, in all +the glories of national-guardism, brandishing his comb with the grace +and dexterity with which he would have wielded a sword, and +recounting, during the operation of the toilette--now a story of +"_Monsieur son Capitaine_"--now an anecdote, equally interesting, of +"_Monsieur son Colonel_"--now a tale of "_Monsieur son Roi_, that +excellent man, on whom he was going to mount guard that very evening." +My unhappy friend's face still bore the most awful aspect of dismay, +as he told his story. "By G--d, there's a country for you," said he; +"can property be safe for a moment in such a country? There can be no +religion, no morality, with such manners--I shall order post-horses +immediately." + +I did not wonder at my friend--at his horror for so fearful a +familiarity. What are our parents always, and no doubt wisely +repeating to us? "You should learn, my dear, to keep _a certain kind +of persons_ at their proper distance." + +In no circumstances are we to forget this important lesson. If the +clouds hurled their thunders upon our heads, if the world tumbled +topsy-turvy about our ears, + + "Si fractus illabatur orbis," + +it is to find the well-bred Englishman as it would have found the just +Roman--and, above all things, it is not to derange the imperturbable +disdain with which he is enfeoffed to his inferiors. Lady D. was going +to Scotland: a violent storm arose. Her ladyship was calmly dressing +her hair, when the steward knocked at the cabin-door. "My lady," said +the man, "I think it right to tell you there is every chance of our +being drowned." "Do not talk to me, you impertinent fellow, +about drowning," said her aristocratical ladyship, perfectly +unmoved--"that's the captain's business, and not mine." + +Our great idea of civility is, that the person who is poor should be +exceedingly civil to the person who is wealthy: and this is the +difference between the neighboring nations. Your Frenchman admits no +one to be quite his equal--your Englishman worships every one richer +than himself as undeniably his superior. Judge us from our servants +and our shopkeepers, it is true we are the politest people in the +world. The servants, who are paid well, and the shopkeepers, who sell +high--scrape, and cringe, and smile. There is no country where those +who have wealth are treated so politely by those to whom it goes; but +at the same time there is no country where those who are well off live +on such cold, and suspicious, and ill-natured, and uncivil terms among +themselves. + +The rich man who travels in France murmurs at every inn and at every +shop; not only is he treated no better for being a rich man--he is +treated worse in many places, from the idea that because he is rich he +is likely to give himself airs. But if the lower classes are more rude +to the higher classes than with us, the higher classes in France are +far less rude to one another. The dandy who did not look at an old +acquaintance, or who looked impertinently at a stranger, would have +his nose pulled and his body run through with a small-sword--or +damaged by a pistol-bullet--before the evening was well over. Where +every man wishes to be higher than he is, there you find people +insolent to their fellows, and exacting obsequiousness from their +inferiors--where men will allow no one to be superior to themselves, +there you see them neither civil to those above them, nor impertinent +to those beneath them, nor yet very courteous to those in the same +station. The manners, checkered in one country by softness and +insolence, are not sufficiently courteous and gentle in the other. +Time was in France, (it existed in England to a late date,) when +politeness was thought to consist in placing every one at his ease. A +quiet sense of their own dignity rendered persons insensible to the +fear of its being momentarily forgotten. Upon these days rested the +shadow of a bygone chivalry, which accounted courtesy as one of the +virtues. The civility of that epoch, as contrasted with the civility +of ours, was not the civility of the domestic or the tradesman, meant +to pamper the pride of their employer, but the civility of the noble +and the gentleman, meant to elevate the modesty of those who +considered themselves in an inferior state. Corrupted by the largesses +of an expensive and intriguing court, the "grand seigneur," after the +reign of Louis XIV., became over-civil and servile to those above him. +Beneath the star of the French minister beat the present heart of the +British mercer--and softly did the great man smile on those from whom +he had any thing to gain. As whatever was taught at Versailles was +learnt in the Rue St. Denis, when the courtier had the air of a +solicitor, every one aped the air of the courtier; and the whole +nation with one hand expressing a request, and the other an +obligation, might have been taken in the attitude of the graceful old +beggar, whose accost made such an impression upon me. + +But a new nobility grew up in rivalry to the elder one; and as the +positions of society became more complicated and uncertain, a supreme +civility to some was seen side by side with a sneering insolence to +others--a revolution in manners, which embittered as it hastened the +revolution of opinions. Thus the manners of the French in the time of +Louis XVI. had one feature of similarity with ours at present. A +moneyed aristocracy was then rising into power in France, as a moneyed +aristocracy is now rising into power in England. This is the +aristocracy which demands obsequious servility--which is jealous and +fearful of being treated with disrespect; this is the aristocracy +which is haughty, insolent, and susceptible; which dreams of affronts +and gives them: this is the aristocracy which measures with an +uncertain eye the height of an acquaintance; this is the aristocracy +which cuts and sneers--this aristocracy, though the aristocracy of the +revolution of July, is now too powerless in France to be more than +vulgar in its pretensions. French manners, then, if they are not +gracious, are at all events not insolent; while ours, unhappily, +testify on one hand the insolence, while they do not on the other +represent the talent and the grace of that society which presided over +the later suppers of the old regime. We have no Monsieur de +Fitz-James, who might be rolled in a gutter all his life, as was said +by a beautiful woman of his time, "without ever contracting a spot of +dirt." We have no Monsieur de Narbonne, who stops in the fiercest of a +duel to pick up the ruffled rose that had slipped in a careless moment +from his lips during the graceful conflict! You see no longer in +France that noble air, that "_great manner_," as it was called, by +which the old nobility strove to keep up the distinction between +themselves and their worse-born associates to the last, and which of +course those associates _assiduously imitated_. + +That manner is gone: the French, so far from being a polite nation at +the present day, want that easiness of behavior which is the first +essential to politeness. Every man you meet is occupied with +maintaining his dignity, and talks to you of _his_ position. There is +an evident effort and struggle, I will not say to appear better than +you are, but to appear _all_ that _you are_, and to allow no person to +think that you consider him better than you. Persons, no longer +ranked by classes, take each by themselves an individual place in +society. They are so many atoms, not forming a congruous or harmonious +whole. They are too apt to strut forward singly, and to say with a +great deal of action, and a great deal of emphasis, "I am--_nobody_." +The French are no longer polite, but in the French nation, as in every +nation, there is an involuntary and traditionary respect which hallows +what is gone-by; and among the marvels of modern France is a religion +which ranks an agreeable smile and a graceful bow as essential virtues +of its creed. + +Nor does the Pere Enfantin stand alone. There is something touching in +the language of the old "seigneur," who, placed as it were between two +epochs, looking backwards and forwards to the graces of past times and +the virtues of new, thus expresses himself: + +"Les progres de la lumiere et de la liberte ont certainment fait faire +de grands pas a la raison humaine; mais aussi dans sa route, +n'a-t-elle rien perdu? Moi qui ne suis pas un de ces opiniatres +proneurs de ce bon vieux temp qui n'est plus, je ne puis m'empecher de +regretter ce bon gout, cette grace, cette fleur d'enjouement et +d'urbanite qui chassait de la societe tout ennui en permettant au bon +sens de sourire et a la sagesse de se parer. Aujourd 'hui beaucoup de +gens ressemblent a un proprietaire morose, qui, ne songeant qu'a +l'utile, bannirait de son jardin les fleurs, et ne voudrait y voir que +du ble, des foins et des fruits." + + + + +From Fraser's Magazine. + +THE LION IN THE TOILS. + +BY C. ASTOR BRISTED. + + +What followed the events related in our last number gave Ashburner a +lesson against making up his mind too hastily on any points of +character, national or individual. A fortnight after his arrival at +Oldport he would have said that the Americans were the most +communicative people he had ever fallen in with, and particularly, +that the men of "our set" were utterly incapable of keeping secret any +act or purpose of their lives, any thing that had happened, or was +going to happen. _Now_ he was surprised at the discretion shown by the +men cognizant of the late row (and they comprised all the fashionables +left in the place, and some of the outsiders, like Simpson); their +dexterity and careful management, first, to prevent the affair from +coming to a fight, and then, if that were impossible, to keep it from +publicity until the parties were safe over the border into Canada, +where they might "shoot each other like gentlemen," as a young +gentleman from Alabama expressed it. Sedley himself, whose +officiousness had precipitated the quarrel, did all in his power to +prevent any further mischief, and was as sedulous for the promotion of +_silencio_ and _misterio_, as if he had been leader of a chorus of +Venetian Senators. _The Sewer_ reporters, who, in their eagerness to +collect every bit of gossip and scandal, would have given the ears +which an outraged community had permitted them to retain for a +knowledge of the fracas and its probable consequences, never had the +least inkling of it. Indeed, so quietly was the whole managed, that +Ashburner never made out the cause of the old feud, nor was able to +form any opinion on the probability of its final issue. On the former +point he could only come to the conclusion from what he heard, that +Hunter had been mythologizing, as his wont was, something to Benson's +discredit several years before, and had been trying to make mischief +between him and some of his friends or relations; but what the exact +offence was, whether Sumner was involved in the quarrel from the +first, and if so, to what extent; and whether the legend about the +horse was a part of, or only an addition to the original +grievance;--on these particulars he remained in the dark. As to the +latter, he knew that Hunter had not challenged Benson, and that he had +left the place, but whether to look up a friend or not, no one seemed +to know, or if they did, no one cared to tell. At any rate, he did not +return for a week and more, during which time Ashburner had full +opportunity of studying the behavior and feelings of a man with a duel +in prospect. + +Those who defend and advocate the practice of duelling, if asked to +explain the motives leading a gentleman to fight, would generally +answer somewhat to this effect: in the first place, personal courage +which induces a man to despise danger and death, in comparison with +any question affecting his own honor, or that of those connected with +him; secondly, a respect for the opinion of the society in which he +moves, which opinion, to a certain extent, supplies and fixes the +definition of honor. Hence it would follow that, given a man who is +neither physically brave, nor bound by any particular respect for the +opinion of his daily associates, and the world he moves in, such a man +would not be likely to give or accept a challenge. The case under +Ashburner's observation afforded a palpable contradiction to this +conclusion. + +Henry Benson was not personally valorous; what courage he possessed +was rather of a moral than a physical kind. Where he appeared to be +daring and heedless, it proved on examination to be the result of +previous knowledge and practice, which gave him confidence and armed +him with impunity. Thus he would drive his trotters at any thing, and +shave through "tight places" on rough and crowded roads, his +whiffle-trees tipping and his hubs grazing the surrounding wheels in a +way that at first made Ashburner shudder in spite of himself; but it +was because his experience in wagon-driving enabled him to measure +distances within half-an-inch, and to catch an available opening +immediately. On the other hand, in their pedestrian trips across +country in Westchester, he was very chary of jumping fences or ditches +till he had ascertained by careful practice his exact capacity for +that sort of exercise. He would ride his black horse, Daredevil, who +was the terror of all the servants and women in his neighborhood, +because he had made himself perfectly acquainted with all the animal's +stock of tricks, and was fully prepared for them as they came; but he +never went the first trip in a new steamboat or railroad line. He ate +and drank many things considered unhealthy, because he understood +exactly from experience what and how much he could take without +injury; but you could not have bribed him to sit fifteen minutes in +wet boots. In short, he was a man who took excellent care of himself, +_canny_ as a Scot or a New-Englander, loving the good things of life, +and not disposed to hazard them on slight grounds. Then as to the +approbation or disapprobation of those about him, he was almost +entirely careless of it. On any point beyond the cut of a coat, the +decoration of a room, the concoction of a dish, or the merits of a +horse, there were not ten people in his own set whose opinion he +heeded. To the remarks of foreigners he was a little more sensitive, +but even these he was more apt to retort upon by a _tu quoque_ than to +be influenced by. Add to all this, that he had the convenient excuse +of being a communicant at church, which, in America, implies something +like a formal profession of religion. Yet at this time he was not only +willing, but most eager to fight. The secret lay in his state of +recklessness. A moment of passion had overturned all his instincts, +principles, and common-sense, and inspired him with the feverish +desire to pay off his old debts to Storey Hunter, at whatever cost. +And as neither the possession of extraordinary personal courage, nor a +high sense of conventional honor, nor a respect for the opinion of +society, necessarily induces a feeling of recklessness, so neither +does the absence of these qualities prevent the presence of this +feeling, exactly the most favorable one to make a man engage in a +duel. Moralists have called such a condition one of temporary madness, +and it has probably as good grounds to be classed with insanity as +many of the pleas known to medical and criminal jurisprudence. + +Be this as it may, Ashburner had a good opportunity of observing--and +the example, it is to be hoped, was of service to him--the +demoralization induced upon a man by the mere impending possibility of +a duel. Benson seemed careless what he did. He danced frantically, and +drank so much at all hours, that the Englishman, though pretty +strong-headed himself, wondered how he could keep sober. He was openly +seen reading _The Blackguard's Own_, a weekly of _The Sewer_ species. +He made up trotting-matches with every man in the place who owned a +"fast crab," and with some acquaintances at a distance, by +correspondence. He kept studiously out of the way of his wife and +child, lest their influence might shake his determination. All this +time he practised pistol-shooting most religiously. Neither of the +belligerents had ever given a public proof of skill in this line. +Hunter's ability was not known, and Benson's shooting so uncertain and +variable when any one looked on, that those in the secret suspected +him of playing dark and disguising his hand. All which added to the +interest of the affair. + +But when eleven days had passed without signs or tidings of Hunter, +and it seemed pretty clear that he had gone away "for good," Benson +started up one morning, and went off himself to New-York, at the same +time with Harrison, whose brief and not very joyous holidays had come +to a conclusion. He accompanied the banker, in accordance with the +true American principle, always to have a lion for your companion when +you can; and as Harrison was still a man of note in Wall-street, +however small might be his influence in his own household, Benson +liked to be seen with him, and to talk any thing--even stocks--to him, +though he had no particular interest in the market at that time. But +whether an American is in business himself or not, the subject of +business is generally an interesting one to him, and he is always +ready to gossip about dollars. The unexampled material development of +the United States is only maintained by a condition of society which +requires every man to take a share in assisting that development, and +the most frivolous and apparently idle men are found sharp enough in +pecuniary matters. This trait of national character lies on the +surface, and foreigners have not been slow to notice it, and to +draw from it unfavorable conclusions. The supplementary and +counterbalancing features of character to be observed in these very +people,--that it is rather the fun of making the money than the money +itself which they care for; that when it is made, they spend it +freely, and part with it more readily than they earned it; that they +are more liberal both in their public and private charities +(considering the amount of their wealth, and of the claims upon it) +than any nation in the world,--all these traits strangers have been +less ready to dwell upon and do justice to. + +Benson was gone, and Ashburner stayed. Why? He had been at Oldport +nearly a month; the place was not particularly beautiful, and the +routine of amusements not at all to his taste. Why did he stay? He had +his secret, too. + +It is a melancholy but indisputable fact, that even in the most +religious and moral country in the world, the bulwark of evangelical +faith, and the home of the domestic virtues (meaning, of course, +England), a great many mothers who have daughters to marry, are not so +anxious about the real welfare, temporal and eternal, of their young +ladies, as solicitous that they should acquire riches, titles, and +other vanities of the world,--nay, that many of the daughters +themselves act as if their everlasting happiness depended on their +securing in matrimony a proper combination of the aforesaid vanities, +and put out of account altogether the greatest prize a woman can +gain--the possession of a true and loving heart, joined to a wise +head. Now, Ashburner being a very good _parti_ at home, and having run +the gauntlet of one or two London seasons, had become very skittish of +mammas, and still more so of daughters. He regarded the unmarried +female as a most dangerous and altogether to be avoided animal, and +when you offered to introduce him to a young lady, looked about as +grateful as if you had invited him to go up in a balloon. He expected +to be rather more persecuted, if any thing, in America than he had +been at home; and when he met Miss Vanderlyn at Ravenswood, if his +first thought had found articulate expression, it would probably have +been something like this:--"Now that young woman is going to set her +cap at me; what a bore it will be!" + +Never was a man more mistaken in his anticipations. He encountered +many pretty girls, not at all timid, ready enough to talk, and flirty +enough among their own set, but not one of them threw herself at him, +and least of all did Miss Vanderlyn. Not that the young lady was the +victim of a romantic attachment, for she was perfectly fancy free and +heart whole; nor, on the other hand, that she was at all insensible to +the advantages of matrimony, for she kept a very fair lookout in that +direction, and had, if not absolutely down on her books, at least +engraved on the recording tablets of her mind, four distinct young +gentlemen, combining the proper requisites, any of whom would suit her +pretty well, and one of whom--she didn't much care which--she was +pretty well resolved to marry within the next two years. And as she +was stylish and rather handsome, clever enough, and tolerably provided +with the root of all evil, besides having that fortunate good humor +and accommodating disposition which go so far towards making a woman a +belle and a favorite, there was a sufficient probability that before +the expiration of that time, one of the four would offer himself. But +all her calculations were founded on shrewd common sense; her +imagination took no flights, and her aspirations only extended to the +ordinary and possible. That this young and strange Englishman, +travelling as a part of education, the son of a great man, and +probably betrothed by proxy to some great man's daughter, or going +into parliament to be a great man himself, and remain a bachelor for +the best part of his life,--that between him and herself there should +by any thing in common, any point of union which could make even a +flirtation feasible, never entered into her head. She would as soon +have expected the King of Dahomey to send an embassy with ostrich +feathers in their caps, and rings in their noses, formally to ask her +hand in marriage. Nay, even if the incredible event had come to pass, +and the young stranger had taken the initiative, even then she would +not by any means have jumped at the bait. For in the first place, she +was fully imbued with the idea that the Vanderlyns were quite as good +as any other people in the world, and that (the ordinary conceit of an +American belle) to whatever man she might give her hand, all the honor +would come from her side, and all the gain be his; therefore she would +not have cared to come into a family who might suspect her of having +inveigled their heir, and look down upon her as something beneath +them, because she came from a country where there were no noblemen. +Secondly, there is a very general feeling among the best classes in +America, that no European worth any thing at home comes to America to +get married. The idea is evidently an imperfect generalization, and +liable to exceptions; but the prevalence of it shows more modesty in +the "Upper Ten's" appreciation of themselves than they usually have +credit for. As soon, therefore, as a foreigner begins to pay attention +to a young lady in good society, it is _prima facie_ ground of +suspicion against him. The reader will see from all this how little +chance there was of Ashburner's running any danger from the unmarried +women about him. With the married ones the case was somewhat +different. It may be remembered, that at his first introduction to +Mrs. Henry Benson, the startling contrast she exhibited to the +adulation he had been accustomed to receive, totally put him down; and +that afterwards she softened off the rough edge of her satire, and +became very _piquante_ and pleasing to him. And as she greatly amused +him, so he began to suspect that she was rather proud of having such a +lion in her train, as no doubt she was, notwithstanding the somewhat +rough and cub-like stage of his existence. So he began to hang about +her, and follow her around in his green awkward way, and look large +notes of admiration at her; and she was greatly diverted, and not at +all displeased at his attentions. I don't know how far it might have +gone; Ashburner was a very correct and moral young man, as the world +goes, but rather because he had generally business enough on hand to +keep him out of mischief, than from any high religious principle; and +I am afraid that in spite of the claims of propriety, and honor, and +friendship, and the avenging Zeus of hospitality, and every other +restraining motive, he would have fallen very much in love with Mrs. +Benson but for one thing. + +He was hopelessly in love with Mrs. Harrison. How or when it began he +couldn't tell; but he found himself under the influence imperceptibly, +as a man feels himself intoxicated. Sometimes he fancied that there +had been a kind of love at first sight--that with the first glimpse he +had of her, something in his heart told him that that woman was +destined to exert a mastery over him; yet his feelings must have +undergone a change and growth, for he would not now have listened to +any one speaking of her as Benson had done at that time. _Why_ it was, +he could still less divine. His was certainly not the blind +admiration which sees no fault in its idol; he saw her faults plainly +enough, and yet could not help himself. He often asked himself how it +happened that if he _was_ doomed to endure an illicit and unfortunate +passion, it was not for Mrs. Benson rather than Mrs. Harrison; for the +former was at least as clever, certainly handsomer, palpably younger, +indubitably more lady-like, and altogether a higher style of woman. +Yet with this just appreciation of them, there was no comparison as to +his feelings towards the two. The one amused and delighted him when +present; the other, in her absence, was ever rising up before his +mind's eye, and drawing him after her; and when they met, his +heart beat quicker, and he was more than usually awkward and +confused.--Perhaps there had been, in the very origin of his +entanglement and passion, some guiding impulse of honor, some sense +that Benson had been his friend and entertainer, and that to Harrison +he was under no personal obligations. For there are many shades of +honor and dishonor in dishonorable thoughts, and a little principle +goes a great way with some people, like the wind commemorated by Joe +Miller's Irishman, of which there was not much, _but what there was, +was very high_. + +Be this as it may, he was loving to perdition--or thought so, at +least; and it is hard to discriminate in a very young man's case +between the conceit and the reality of love. His whole heart and mind +were taken up with one great, all-pervading idea of Mrs. Harrison, and +he was equally unable to smother and to express his flame. He was +dying to make her a present of something, but he could send nothing +without a fear of exciting suspicion, except bouquets; and of these +floral luxuries, though they were only to be procured at Oldport with +much trouble and expense, she had always a supply from other quarters. +He did not like to be one of a number in his offerings; he wanted to +pay her some peculiar tribute. He would have liked to fight some man +for her, to pick a quarrel with some one who had said something +against her. Proud and sensitive to ridicule as he was, he would have +laid himself down in her way, and let her walk over him, could he have +persuaded himself that she would be gratified by such a proof of +devotion, and that it would help his cause with her. + +Had Benson been in Oldport now, there might have been trouble, +inasmuch as he was not particular about what he said, and not too well +disposed towards Mrs. Harrison, while Ashburner was just in a state of +mind to have fought with his own father on that theme. But Benson was +away, and his absence at this time was not a source of regret to +Ashburner, who felt a little afraid of him, and with some reason, for +our friend Harry was as observant as if he had a fly's allowance of +eyes, and had a knack of finding out things without looking for them, +and of knowing things without asking about them; and he would +assuredly have noticed that Ashburner began to be less closely +attached to his party, and to follow in the train of Mrs. Harrison. As +for Clara Benson, she never troubled herself about the Englishman's +falling off in his attentions to her; if any thing, she was rather +glad of it; her capricious disposition made her tire of a friend in a +short time; she could not endure any one's uninterrupted company--not +even her husband's, who therefore wisely took care to absent himself +from her several times every year. + +Moreover, though Ashburner was seen in attendance on the lioness, it +was not constantly or in a pointed manner. He was still fighting with +himself, and, like a man run away with, who has power to guide his +horse though not to stop him, he was so far able to manage his passion +as to keep it from an open display. So absolutely no one suspected +what was the matter with him, or that there was any thing the matter +with him, except the lady herself. Catch a woman not finding out when +a man is in love with her! Sometimes she may delude herself with +imagining a passion where none exists, but she never makes the +converse mistake of failing to perceive it where it does. And how did +the gay Mrs. Harrison, knowing and perceiving herself to be thus +loved, make use of her knowledge? What alteration did it produce in +her conduct and bearing towards her admirer? Absolutely none at all. +Precisely as she had treated him at their first introduction did she +continue to treat him--as if he were one of her everyday +acquaintances, and nothing more. And it is precisely this line of +action that utterly breaks down a man's defences, and makes him more +hopelessly than ever the slave of his fair conqueror. If a woman +declares open hostilities against him, runs him down behind his back, +snubs him to his face, shuns his society,--this at least shows that +she considers his attachment of some consequence--consequence enough +to take notice of, though the notice be unfavorable. His self-respect +may come to the rescue, or his piqued vanity may save him by +converting love into enmity. But a perseverance in never noticing his +love, and feigning to be ignorant of its existence, completely +establishes her supremacy over him. + +A Frenchman, who has conceived designs against a married lady, only +seeks to throw dust in the husband's eyes, and then if he cannot +succeed in his final object, at least to establish sufficient intimacy +to give him a plausible pretext for saying that he has succeeded; for +in such a matter he is not scrupulous about lying a little--or a great +deal. An American, bad enough for a similar intention (which usually +presupposes a considerable amount of _Parisianization_), acts as much +like a Frenchman--if anything, rather worse. An Englishman is not +usually moved to the desire of an intrigue by vanity, but driven into +it by sheer passion, and his first impulse is to run bodily off with +the object of his misplaced affection; to take her and himself out of +the country, as if he could thereby travel out of his moral +responsibilities. Reader, did you ever notice, or having noticed, did +you ever ponder upon the geographical distribution of morals and +propriety which is so marked and almost peculiar a feature of the +Anglo-Saxon mind? In certain outward looks and habits, the English may +be unchangeable and unmistakeable all over the globe; but their +ethical code is certainly not the same at home and abroad. It is +pretty much so with an American, too, before he has become irreparably +Parisianized. When he puts on his travelling habits, he takes off his +puritan habits, and makes light of doing things abroad which he would +be the first to anathematize at home. Observe, we are not speaking of +the deeply religious, nor yet of the openly profligate class in either +country, but of the general run of respectable men who travel; they +regard a great part of their morality and their manners as intended +solely for home consumption; while a Frenchman or a German, if his +home standard is not so high, lives better up to it abroad. And yet +many Englishmen, and some Americans, wonder why their countrymen are +so unpopular as foreign travellers! + +Ashburner, then, wanted to run away with Mrs. Harrison. How he could +have supported her never entered into his thoughts, nor did he +consider what the effect would be on his own prospects. He did not +reflect, either, how miserably selfish it was in him, after all, to +expect that this woman would give up her fortune and position, her +children, her unbounded legitimate domination over her husband, for +his boyish passion, and how infinitesimally small the probability that +she would do so crazy a thing. Nor did Harrison ever arise before his +mind as a present obstacle or future danger; and this was less frantic +than most of his overlookings. The broker was a strong and courageous +man, and probably had been once very much in love with his wife; but +at that time, so far from putting a straw in the way of any man who +wanted to relieve him of her, he would probably have been willing to +pay his expenses into the bargain. + +But how to declare his passion--that was the question. He saw that the +initiatory steps, and very decided ones, must be taken on his part; +and it was not easy to find the lady alone ten minutes together. +People lived at Newport as if they were in the open air, and the +volunteer police of ordinary gossip made private interviews between +well-known people a matter of extreme difficulty. A Frenchman +similarly placed would have brought the affair to a crisis much +sooner: he would have found a thousand ways of disclosing his +feelings, and at the same time dexterously leaving himself a loop-hole +of escape. Very clever at these things are the Gauls; they will make +an avowal in full ball-room, under cover of the music, if there is no +other chance to be had. But tact in love affairs is not a +characteristic of the Englishman, especially at Ashburner's age. He +had none of this mischievous dexterity; perhaps it is just as well +when a man has not, both for himself and for society. He thought of +writing, and actually began many letters or notes, or billet-doux, or +whatever they might be called; but they always seemed so absurd (as +truly they were), that he invariably tore them up when half-finished. +He thought of serving up his flame in verse (for about this time the +unhappy youth wrote many verses, which on his return to sanity he very +wisely made away with); but his emotion lay too deep for verse, and +his performances seemed even to himself too ridiculous for him to +dream of presenting them. Still he must make a beginning somehow; he +could not ask her to run away with him apropos of nothing. + +One of his great anxieties, you may be sure, was to find out if any +other man stood in his way, and who that man might be. His first +impulses were to be indiscriminately jealous of every man he saw +talking or walking with her; but on studying out alone the result of +his observations, he could not discover that she affected any one man +more than another. For this was one of her happy arts, that she made +herself attractive to all without showing a marked preference for any +one. White, who among his other accomplishments had a knack of quoting +the standard poets, compared her to Pope's Belinda--saying, that her +lively looks disclosed a sprightly mind, and that she extended smiles +to all, and favors to none. So that Ashburner's jealousy could find no +fixed object to light on. At one time he had been terribly afraid of +Le Roi, chiefly from having heard the lady praise him for his +accomplishments and agreeable manners. But once he heard Sedley say, +that Mrs. Harrison had been worrying Le Roi half out of his wits, and +quite out of his temper. + +"How so?" + +"Oh, she was praising you, and saying how much she liked the English +character, and how true and honest your countrymen were--so much more +to be depended on than the French--and more manly, too; and altogether +she worked him up into such a rage against _ces insulaires_, that he +went off ready to swear." + +And then Ashburner suspected what he afterwards became certain +of--that this was only one of the pleasant little ways the woman had +of amusing herself. Whenever she found two men who were enemies, or +rivals, or antagonists in any way, she would praise each to the other, +on purpose to aggravate them: and very successful she was in her +purpose; for she had the greatest appearance of sincerity, and +whatever she said seemed to come right out of her heart. But if any +lingering fears of Le Roi still haunted the Englishman's mind, they +were dispelled by his departure along with the main body of the +exclusives. Though always proud to be seen in the company of a +conspicuous character like Mrs. Harrison, the Vicomte more +particularly cultivated the fashionables proper, and gladly embraced +the opportunity of following, in the train of the Robinsons. + +Perhaps, after all, Ashburner would have preferred being able to +concentrate his suspicions upon one definite person, to feeling a +vague distrust of somebody he knew not whom, especially as the +presence of a rival might have brought the affair to a crisis sooner. +To a crisis it was approaching, nevertheless, for his passion now +began to tell on him. He looked pale, and grew nervous and weak--lay +awake at nights, which he had never done before, except when going in +for the Tripos at Cambridge--and was positively off his feed, which he +had never been at any previous period of his life. He thought of +tearing himself away from the place--the wisest course, doubtless; +but, just as he had made up his mind to go by the next stage, Mrs. +Harrison, as if she divined what he was about, would upset all his +plans by a few words, or a look or smile--some little expression which +meant nothing, and could never be used against her; but which, by a +man in his state, might be interpreted to mean a great deal. + +One morning the crisis came--not that there was any particular reason +for it then more than at any other time, only he could hold out no +longer. It was a beautiful day, and they had been strolling in one of +the few endurable walks the place afforded--a winding alley near the +hotel, but shrouded in trees, and it was just at the time when most of +the inhabitants were at ten-pins, so that they were tolerably alone. +Now, if ever, was the time; but the more he tried to introduce the +subject, the less possible he found it to make a beginning, and all +the while he could not avoid a dim suspicion that Mrs. Harrison knew +perfectly well what he was trying to drive at, and took a mischievous +pleasure in saying nothing to help him along. So they talked about his +travels and hers, and great people in England and France, and all +sorts of people then at Oldport, and the weather even--all manner of +ordinary topics; and then they walked some time without saying +anything, and then they went back to the hotel. There he felt as if +his last chance was slipping away from him, and in a sudden fit of +desperate courage he followed her up to her parlor without waiting for +an invitation. Hardly was the door closed--he would have given the +world to have locked it--when he begged her to listen to him a few +minutes on a subject of the greatest importance. The lady opened her +large round eyes a little wider; it was the only sign she gave of any +thing approaching to surprise. Then the young man unbosomed himself +just as he stood there--not upon his knees; people used to do that--in +books, at least--but nobody does now. He told her how long he had been +in love with her--how he thought of her all day and all night, and how +wretched he was--how he had tried to subdue his passion, knowing it +was very wrong, and so forth; but really he couldn't help it, +and--and--there he stuck fast; for all the time he had been making +this incoherent avowal, like one in a dream, hardly knowing what he +was about, but conscious only of taking a decisive step, and doing a +very serious thing in a very wild way--all this time, nevertheless, he +had most closely watched Mrs. Harrison, to anticipate his sentence in +some look or gesture of hers. And he saw that there did not move a +line in her face, or a muscle in her whole figure--not a fibre of her +dress even stirred. If she had been a great block of white marble, she +could not have shown less feeling, as she stood up there right +opposite him. If he had asked her to choose a waistcoat pattern for +him, she could not have heard him more quietly. As soon as he had +fairly paused, so that she could speak without immediate interruption, +she took up the reply. It was better that he should go no further, as +she had already understood quite enough. She was very sorry to give +him pain--it was always unpleasant to give pain to any one. She was +also very sorry that he had so deceived himself, and so misapprehended +her character, or misunderstood her conversation. He was very young +yet, and had sense enough to get over this very soon. Of course, she +would never hear any repetition of such language from him; and, on her +part, she would never mention what had occurred to any one--especially +not to Mr. Harrison (it was the first time he had ever heard her +allude to the existence of that gentleman); and then she wound up with +a look which said as plainly as the words could have done, "Now, you +may go." + +Ashburner moved off in a more than usual state of confusion. As he +approached the door it opened suddenly, and he nearly walked over one +of the little Bleeckers, a flourishing specimen of Young New-York, +with about three yards of green satin round his throat, and both his +hands full of French novels, which he had been commissioned to bring +from the circulating library. Ashburner felt like choking him, and it +was only by a great effort that he contrived to pass him with a barely +civil species of nod. But as he went out, he could not refrain from +casting one glance back at Mrs. Harrison. She had taken off her bonnet +(which in America is denominated a hat), and was tranquilly arranging +her hair at the glass. + +Somehow or other he found his way down stairs, and rushed off into the +country on a tearing walk, enraged and disgusted with every thing, and +with himself most of all. When a man has made up his mind to commit a +sin, and then has been disappointed in the fruition of it--when he has +sold the birthright of his integrity, without getting the miserable +mess of pottage for it which he expected, his feelings are not the +most enviable. Ashburner was angry enough to marry the first heiress +he met with. First, he half resolved to get up a desperate flirtation +with Mrs. Benson; but the success of his first attempt was not +encouraging to the prosecution of a second. To kill himself was not in +his line; but he felt very like killing some one else. He still +feared he might have been made a screen for some other man. But if the +other man existed, he could only be reached by fighting successively +all the single men of "our set," and a fair sprinkling of those in the +second set. Then he thought he must at least leave the place, but his +pride still revolted at the idea of running away before a woman. +Finally, after walking about ten miles, and losing his dinner, he +sobered down gradually, and thought what a fool he had been; and the +issue of his cogitations was a very wise double conclusion. He formed +a higher opinion of the virtue of American women, and he never +attempted any experiments on another. + + + + +From Sharpe's London Magazine. + +THE MAN OF TACT. + + +There is no distinctive term more frequently employed, and less +generally understood, than the word "Tact." It is in every one's +mouth, and many have a vague notion of its meaning, who yet, if +required, would find no slight difficulty in giving its definition. It +is the application of perceptive common-sense to life's practical +details; the correct adaptation of means to ends, from an intuitive +knowledge of character, blended with a careful concealment, a discreet +evasion of our own, except when amiable faults are avowed, to enhance +the impression of our candor. Cameleon-like, "tact" assumes the color +of contingent circumstances,--is the vague, yet potent spirit, with +its shadowless finger arresting the impulses; an unseen ruler of the +thoughts, winding its gossamer yet adamantine meshes like a spell; the +uncaught "hic et ubique" arbiter of mortal destinies embodied in a +fellow-mortal. + +When we speak of the "man of tact," as of one in whom this quality +predominates,--as hereafter we shall speak of the man of honor, of +genius, and of sense, we must confess that above most other +characteristics, this is especially absorbent in its influence, and +generally usurps the government of the whole man. It collects into its +own stream the channels of other motives, which it renders tributary, +until it pervades the whole moral surface with one obliterating +deluge. If not watched, it will hence induce a general deceptiveness, +for the other impulses will partake of its color, shrewdness will +become cunning, discretion will change into artful dexterity. Its very +progress is sinuous and oblique, never more so than when assuming the +guise of straightforwardness and truth; but if divested of its baser +elements, it will soar into the higher intellectuals, and will claim +affinity to practical observation, or, to speak phrenologically, to +causality. In this view it combines with prudence, also with +self-discipline, in the regulation of the temper; in fact, is the +child of judgment, inheriting with its parent's calmness somewhat of +her coldness too. + +Observe that man sitting in the private room of one of our largest +mercantile establishments. Risen from a low grade to the direction of +a vast concern, at one time intrusted with a mission abroad of a most +important yet delicate character, he owes the eminence he has attained +entirely to tact. The features are now in repose, take your +opportunity to watch them (for they are seldom so, and if he were +aware of observation, would assume a different expression); how the +wear upon nerves, even of such flexibility, imparts to the fatigued +countenance an air of study, ceaseless even in comparative inaction. +The open and bald forehead, clear, expansive, impending over deep-set, +small, yet fathomless eyes, restless and anxious in their motion; the +lips fullish, wearing at the corner a half-contemptuous yet +good-humored self-contentment, which tells of the owner's disdain for +the game of life, and yet of triumphant complacency at his own +successful skill in it. He smiles! Ah! he is thinking of how he +deluded that shallow fop, Lord F----, whom fortune raised kindly to +conceal his puerilites by a coronet; or perhaps (as his eye dilates +with haughtier gaze) he dreams of having struck a nobler quarry, when +he outwitted the subtle Count de P----; for neither thought they were +following aught but the suggestion of their own will. This is the +mystery and mastery of tact. Had his victims seen that smile, the game +would have been lost; but he was different to each, the man was +changed. The lordling saw before him a free hearty abettor of youthful +folly, an Apicius, not a Mentor, one versed in life's vanities, yet +still ready to quaff the draught he satirized; sagacious in +criticising pleasure, yet reckless as the youngest in its pursuit; but +to the Count, the deferential air, the silent evidence of every +action, so sedulously courteous, yet so artless, attesting the +listener's (for he spoke but to inquire as if of an oracle, and +demurred but to render conviction more gracefully attractive) +reverence for the old diplomatist's sagacity; the rejoinder +dexterously introduced to confirm confidence in his visitor that he +was not wasting his instruction,--these and the thousand nameless +points of tact, dipped in the fountain of his own deep counsel, +instilled the wary practiser's motives into the mind of one, +apparently his confessed master in the art of diplomacy, convinced the +Count that he was regarded as the condensation of profound thought, of +astute sagacity; and it so happened, that if there was one +qualification in which the foreigner especially exulted more than any +other, it was upon his dexterity in deciphering disposition--in his +thorough knowledge of human nature! + +We have said he was an adept in listening: indeed it was averred that +he obtained a large estate by the quiet attention with which he +listened to the toothless twaddle of a senile Dowager--age's +garrulity--the echo of an empty hall which thought has quitted. He +rarely, however, in any case interrupts the driest drawler, for he +has tutored attendants who understand not only whom to admit, but also +a hint as to the proper duration of a conference, and these with ready +message cut short the intruder's dull delay. If, also, in public or +private he be himself interrupted, he never loses his temper or the +point; resumes the thread just where it was broken, and with polite, +yet unswerving pertinacity, directs the minds of all to the wished-for +end, in spite of every purposed or involuntary attempt to distract +them into devious channels. Some men, like jackdaws, proclaim with +noisy loquaciousness their most private matters, alarming the public +horizon with egotistical chatter about their own nests: "tact," as the +master of it, Cromwell, knew, acknowledges the "safety of silence," +and like the rat,--a subtle politician!--saps vast fabrics by an +insidious, unheard gnawing underground! + +Briefly, this man listens much, speaks little--mostly the latter when +he would conceal his thoughts--keeps his eyes and ears open, his mouth +and his heart closed. With numerous admirers, he has many enemies--the +latter's hostility is however repressed by fear, and the regard of the +other, somehow, never ripens into love; it may be that selfishness, +the concomitant of tact, forbids affection. We have shown the fair +side of the portrait hitherto drawn from the respectable sphere (as it +is called) of life; but it has its evil counterpart or reverse to be +seen in a notorious receiver of stolen property, ever watched by, yet +ever baffling the police,--one, who, having helped many to the hulks, +has by sheer cunning (tact in motley!) himself escaped. The +consciences of both are similarly guided by the law of public not +private morality--interest is the ruling principle of both; even the +drudgery of each assimilates, for a life of dissimulation is a very +hard one. What actor would be _always_ on the stage? Both are +commercial men in a sense, though one lives at the west-end, the other +near Seven-dials; sometimes they meet,--the rich, upon--the poor, +before, the bench--"the Justice" in silk "frowns" on the speciously +"simple thief" in rags; yet nature has cut the countenances of both +from the same piece, and true it is that her "one touch," the +prevalence of tact, successful here,--in hard confronting +there--renders both "akin." + +Yet not always does "tact" array itself in silken softness, or "stoop +to conquer:" some ply the trade with no less success under the guise +of rough and candid honesty: these men declare loudly that they always +speak their minds: come upon us with a bluff sincerity, disarming +prudence by an appearance of incautious trust and open-heartedness. +They "cannot cog," they cannot sue, they profess noisily to abhor +"humbug," as they term it, in every shape:--a strange ingratitude _to +what they chiefly thrive by_; for certain it is, that though +doubtlessly "all honorable men," these are the most insidious +tacticians, and generally of the worst kind. + +Hitherto we have spoken of "tact" in its deteriorated shape, and +indeed the word seems to have got so bad a name that its bare mention +breathes distrust. Yet there is a medium class of men who, like +William of Orange, reduce violent feelings even to frigidity, and +allowing discretion her widest scope, do not entirely obliterate the +affections. Machiavelli says that "seldom men of mean fortunes attain +to high degrees without force or fraud, and generally rather by the +latter than the former," and hence he recommends guile to be +adopted--but these, to whom we now allude, practise prudence, yet +preserve their guileless sincerity. Here, though the term is rather +univocal, and seems to apply only to our concerns with others, its +healthy action is forcibly evinced on the individual's mind, for it +disciplines the impulses and reviews for ready co-action reason's +powers. So high did the ancients in their sense regard it, that they +elevated it to a divinity--"Nullum numen adest si sit Prudentia," +though, as Addison observes, "this sort of discretion has no place in +private conversation between intimate friends. It occupies a neutral +ground between caution and art, uses expediency instead of integrity, +and hence deceives us by the first, when we look for the consistency +of the latter." Almost ever combined with conceit (the pride of +questionable success), it never possesses the magnanimity to confess +an error; for this detracting from its arrogated infallibility might +deteriorate its influence: it will acknowledge vices (if polite), but +will never plead guilty to mistakes, since the grossest charge against +the "man of tact" at the bar of self, much more of public judgment, is +not the perpetration of a sin--but the commission of a blunder! + + + + +From the "Revue des Deux Mondes." + +A WRECK OF THE OLD FRENCH ARISTOCRACY. + +AN INCIDENT OF TRAVEL IN THE LIMOUSIN. + + +It is truly a great mistake to measure the interest of a journey by +its duration, and that of a country by its remoteness; and one is +deceived in supposing that it is necessary to go afar in quest of +adventures, and make a voyage two years long in order to see curious +sights. There is a certain author who has made "a journey around his +room" more fruitful in incidents of all descriptions than the +numberless voyages of an infinity of sailors that I know; and one may +make, thank heaven! many an interesting trip without passing beyond +the "neighboring shores" from which La Fontaine forbids us to wander. +The only thing is, that it is less easy to travel after this fashion +than the other, and that it requires a lengthened preparation. + +In order to observe skilfully, one must be accustomed to look around +one. We scarcely become curious except after long habit, and, strange +to say, our curiosity seems to increase in proportion as we satisfy +it. When we know a great deal we desire to know still more, and it is +remarkable that those alone desire to see no sights who have never had +any sights to see. Moreover, it is necessary to have contemplated the +grandest spectacles of nature in order to understand and love her +least conspicuous wonders; for nature does not surrender herself to +the first comer. She is a chaste and severe divinity, who admits to +her intimacy those alone who have deserved it by long contemplations +and a constant worship: and I firmly believe that it is necessary to +have travelled round the world in order profitably and agreeably to +make the tour of one's garden. If many years of youth spent in +wandering by land and sea, can render me an authority in regard to +travels, then am I justified in declaring, that in none of my more +distant courses have I found more interest and pleasure than in the +little trip I am now about to narrate. + +There were, then, four of us, all alike young, gay, active, clad in +shooting costume, going straight ahead, without fixed plan or +preconcerted itinerary, marching at hap-hazard in these desert +_landes_, respiring freely the pungent odor of the broom, roaming from +hill to hill without other rallying point than the top of a mountain +which pointed out the direction of the low lands. After four hours' +walk we discovered that this mountain was still very far distant, and +that the sun was sinking below the horizon. We had already left behind +us the wildest part of the department of the _Correze_. To woods of +pine and birch succeeded enormous chestnut-trees; the sterile heath +gave place to cultivated fields. Here and there some houses displayed +their straw-colored roofs, and some scattered laborers beheld us pass +by with gaping suspicion. To tell the truth, we had all of us a +tolerably gallows look. In this wretched country, where every one +lives on from day to day without quitting his little inclosure, +without even hearing an echo from afar, four bearded marauders like +ourselves, avoiding the beaten road, and marching rapidly across +stubble and thicket, presented no ordinary rencontre. All on a sudden +the clouds began to gather, and, by way of varying our sensations, a +terrific tempest burst over our heads. It was the first incident of +our journey. Drenched through in a moment by this diluvian rain, we +rushed, with the ardor of soldiers mounting a breach, towards a +village perched like a magpie's nest on the summit of the hill we were +ascending. A house of capacious size, but of dismal and ruinous +appearance, arose before us. We rushed in at a charging pace, and +found that it was deserted, except that near the hearth, where +smouldered the embers of the most miserable fire in the world, an +infant was deposited in, or rather tied to, his cradle, according to +the fashion of the country. By the aid of a stout bandage they had +swaddled him up like a mummy, and duly sealed him to the planks of the +little box, which served him for a bed. In addition, his head was +carefully turned toward the fire, so that his cranium was in a state +of continual ebullition, such being the appointed regimen of the +neighborhood. At the sight of our strange visages, the little one, +after staring at us for a moment or two, proceeded to utter the most +lamentable outcries. I rocked his cradle with the most paternal +solicitude, but could not succeed in quieting him. On the contrary, +his screams became positively heart-rending, and we were almost ready +to smother him outright in order to put a stop to his roaring. At this +summons a woman entered abruptly into the house, and stared at us with +an expression of alarm. It was incumbent on us to explain that we were +no pilferers, and this was no easy matter. The young mother evidently +looked on us with suspicion. She was not altogether a mere +peasant,--at least she wore, instead of the little straw hat trimmed +with black velvet, which is the ordinary head-dress of the +countrywomen, a bonnet, which in the Limousin is a certain indication +of pretensions to the rank of the _bourgeoise_. Her robe, besides, +however inelegant it might be, was nevertheless town-made. + +These matters I noticed at a glance, whilst one of my companions gave +the needful explanations as to our pacific intentions. Our hostess +pretended to be satisfied. She removed the cradle, threw some shavings +into the fire to revive it, and sat herself down with a cold, +constrained manner, in which I could discover at once considerable +embarrassment, accompanied by a certain air of dignity. Never had I +seen a Limousin peasant take a seat in the presence of _gentlemen_, +and I speedily made another discovery which not a little perplexed me. +The fire as it revived had thrown a glow upon the hearthstone, which +was of cast-iron, and presented a large armorial escutcheon. This +display astonished me. I looked round again at the smoke-dried kitchen +in which we sat; it was a miserable place. The ceiling was falling +piecemeal; in the pavement, disjointed and worn, were three or four +muddy holes but rarely cleared out, the dampness of which was kept up +by the continual dripping of a dozen cream cheeses, suspended in a +long basket of osiers. Two beds, a large table, and a few dilapidated +chairs, composed the furniture of the apartment, which was pervaded by +a sour and offensive smell, apparently very attractive to a huge sow +whose grunting snout was ever and anon thrust into the entrance of the +doorway. Whence, then, this curious hearthstone? I looked more +attentively at the young woman, and discovered in her countenance a +certain air of distinction. I then inquired of her at what place we +were. + +"Monsieur is jesting at me, doubtless," she pretty sharply replied. + +I assured her I had no such intention, and was really ignorant of the +name of the village. + +"It is not a village, sir," she resumed, "it is a town. You are at the +Puy d'Arnac, in the Canton of Beaulieu." + +A native of Marseilles would hardly have named the _Canebiere_ with +greater satisfaction. I knew that the Puy d'Arnac gave its name to a +celebrated growth of the _Correze_, and I thought I understood the +lofty tone of the reply. All on a sudden, one of my companions, whom +we nicknamed the "Broker," because he groped into all sorts of places, +and, with amusing perseverance, hunted out objects of art and +curiosity even in hovels, touched my elbow, and asked me if I had +noticed the picture which was half-hidden under the serge curtains of +one of the beds. I had not yet observed it, and got up to look at it. +It was the portrait of a general officer of the time of Louis XV. The +frame, sculptured and gilt, struck me still more, being really +beautiful. "This is a discovery indeed," said my friend to me, while I +inquired of the young woman where such a portrait could have come +from. + +"Where could it have come from, Monsieur?" she haughtily replied; "it +is the portrait of my grandfather." + +"Aha!" we exclaimed, all four of us, turning ourselves round with +surprise. With one hand our hostess stirred the fire, with an +indifference evidently affected, while with the other she rocked the +little box in which her infant was asleep. + +"Might I presume to inquire the name of Monsieur your grandfather?" +said I, drawing near to her. + +"He was the Count of Anteroches," was her reply. + +"What, the Count of Anteroches, who commanded the French guards at the +battle of Fontenoy?"[5] + +"You have heard him spoken of, then?" resumed the peasant girl, with a +smile. + +My friend the Broker stood as if stupefied before the picture. All of +a sudden he wheeled round, and, gravely removing his cap, repeated +with a theatrical air the celebrated saying of M. d'Anteroches,--"Fire +first, _Messieurs les Anglais_; we are Frenchmen, and must do you the +honors!" + +This anecdote is, to my thinking, the most charming and most +thoroughly stamped with the image of the age of any recorded in +history. With regard to these celebrated sayings uttered in battles, I +must indeed confess that I am very skeptical. Little as I may be of a +soldier, I have a notion that it is not in an engagement as at the +Olympic Circus, and that in the midst of fire, smoke, and musketry, +generals must have other work on their hands than to utter these +pretty epigrams, which there is moreover no shorthand writer at hand +to take down. I know that Cambronne was annoyed when they recalled to +him his splendid exclamation at Waterloo, "_La garde meurt et ne se +rend pas!_" (The guard dies, and does not surrender!) "an invention +the more clumsy," said he, "that I am not yet dead, and that I really +did surrender." I have even discovered that this saying was invented +by a member of the Institute, for the greater satisfaction of the +readers of the "Yellow Dwarf," in which he wrote, in 1815, together +with Benjamin Constant and many other celebrated malcontents.[6] The +speeches of Leonidas find me equally incredulous. But, wheresoever +they may come from, I delight in these anecdotes, which personify an +entire epoch, and engrave it upon the memory with a single stroke. We +may defy the historian who seeks to characterize the end of the last +century and the beginning of the present, to find two epigrams more +striking than the words attributed to Anteroches and Cambronne--to two +French officers--one commanding the French guards, the other the old +guard; both fighting for their country, at an interval of seventy +years, with the same enemy, and on the same ground: for it is a +singular coincidence that Fontenoy and Waterloo are but little distant +from each other, and Heaven saw fit to ordain that the game of success +and reverse should be played out almost upon the same fields. "Fire +first, _Messieurs les Anglais_!" Is it not the type of that easy and +adorable, that ironical and _blase_ nobility, who pushed the contempt +of life even to insanity, and the worship of courtesy and honor even +to the sublime?--who endowed their country with such a renown for +elegance, high-breeding, and gallantry, that all its demagogic +saturnalia never have effaced it, and never will?--a nobility +reckless, if you please, but assuredly charming, and perfectly French +withal, who gayly passed through life without ever doing the morrow +the honor of thinking about it, and who, beholding one day the earth +give way beneath their feet, looked into the abyss without a wink, +without alarming themselves, without belying themselves, and went down +alive and whole into the gulf, disdaining all defence, "without fear," +if not "without reproach." + +Between the saying of Anteroches and that of Cambronne there is a +great gap; we find that the revolution has passed through it. The +gentleman, refined even to exaggeration, has disappeared, and we have +instead the rude language of democracy--"_La garde meurt et ne se rend +pas_"--this is heroism, no doubt, but heroism of another sort. Never +did the _chauvinism_ of this present time light upon a more cornelian +device, but do you not see in it the theatrical affectation, the +melo-dramatic emphasis of another race? That he had no fear of death, +and no idea of surrendering--this is what the gentleman of Fontenoy +had no intention of declaring; it ought to have been well known--his +followers had already given proof of it for ages past. To be brave +alone to him was nothing--he must be as elegant in battle as he was at +the ball. What signified death to that incomparable race who +afterwards composed madrigals in prison, and ascended the scaffold +with a smile, their step elastic, and their hand in the waistcoat +pocket, a cocked hat under their arm, and a rose-bud between their +lips? This epoch was personified in my eyes by the handsome and gentle +countenance of the Count of Anteroches. After more than a hundred +years I had discovered by chance, myself, an obscure wayfarer, in an +unknown and miserable cabin, where his grand-daughter was living in +the midst of her poultry, the portrait of this brilliant officer, to +whose name will ever attach an elegant and charming renown; for if, +like Cambronne, Anteroches did not really utter the words attributed +to him, they have still been lent to him, and if thus lent, assuredly +because there were grounds for it. + +After these over-lengthy reflections, I turned toward the peasant +woman, who now inspired me with profound commiseration. She continued +to rock to and fro her bandaged infant, who was in very right and deed +the Count of Anteroches. I inquired what was the occupation of her +husband. + +"He is dead," she replied; "I was better off during his lifetime. He +was a _gendarme_, Monsieur." + +"A _gendarme_!" I repeated with surprise. + +"Yes," replied Madame d'Anteroches, who understood not the cause of my +astonishment, "he had even passed as a brigadier during his latter +years: we managed our little affairs very comfortably." + +He was a brigadier of gendarmerie--content to be so--he managed his +little affairs very comfortably--and his grandfather, as I find it in +the "Military Records of France," had been named Marshal on the 25th +of July, 1762; at the same time as the Marquis of Boufflers and the +Duke of Mazarine! Would not the rabble of Paris do well to inquire a +little before exclaiming so loudly against the privileges of the +aristocracy? Moreover, it seems to me that the government of France +should not allow the grandchildren of the Count of Anteroches to be +sunk--as they are--into deplorable indigence. Apocryphal or otherwise +the epigram of Fontenoy should at least be worth subsistence to all +who bear this name. Many enjoy pensions and are maintained by France, +who would find it very difficult to produce a similar claim, and the +new republic would act wisely by repairing, when occasion turns up, +the injustices of her eldest sister. + +But it was now high time for us to leave. It was evident that we +embarrassed our hostess, and since we had discovered her name we were +no less embarrassed ourselves. I could not get over her coarse stuff +gown, her filthy kitchen, and her familiar sow. It would have been +cruel to ask for her hospitality, and how could we offer to pay our +score? Besides, we knew that a rich proprietor of our acquaintance +resided not far from Puy d'Arnac; we, therefore, took our leave of the +high-born peasant with many excuses and thanks. At the moment I passed +the threshold, I cast a parting glance upon the portrait. The fire +lighted it up at that instant with so singular a brilliancy that it +almost appeared animated. It seemed as if the countenance of M. +d'Anteroches was alive, and that the handsome officer looked sadly +down from the height of his gilded frame upon the utter misery of his +descendants. "Oh! decadence! decadence of France!" I exclaimed to +myself, and rushed bravely forth with my companions into the pelting +rain. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[5] Fontenoy, we should here observe, is, we believe, the _only_ +battle in which the English were defeated by the French, and it is, of +course, a subject of no little glorification with our neighbors. + +[6] The well-known burst of the Duke of Wellington at Waterloo, "Up, +guards, and at them!" has been declared, upon the best authority, +namely, his own, to be no less apocryphal than those above-mentioned. + + + + +From Fraser's Magazine + +THE CLOISTER-LIFE OF THE EMPEROR CHARLES V. + + +The 28th of September, 1556, was a great day in the annals of Laredo, +in Biscay. Once a commercial station of the Romans, and, in later +times, the naval arsenal whence St. Ferdinand sailed to the +Guadalquivir and the conquest of Seville, its haven is now so decayed +and sand-choked, that it can scarcely afford shelter to a +fishing-craft. Here, however, on the day in question, three centuries +ago, a fleet of seventy Flemish and Spanish sail cast anchor. From a +frigate bearing the imperial standard of the house of Austria came a +group of gentlemen and ladies, of whom the principal personage was a +spare and sallow man, past the middle age, and plainly attired in +mourning. He was received at the landing-place by the bishop of +Salamanca and some attendants, and being worn with suffering and +fatigue, he was carried up from the boat in a chair. By his side +walked two ladies, in widows' weeds, who appeared to be about the same +age as himself, and whose pale features, both in cast and expression, +strongly resembled his own. Since Columbus stepped ashore at Palos, +with his red men from the New World, Spain had seen no debarkation so +remarkable; for the voyagers were, the emperor Charles V. and his +sisters, Mary queen of Hungary, and Eleanor, queen of Portugal and +France, now on their way from Brussels, where they had made their last +appearance on the stage of the world, to those Spanish cloisters, +wherein they had resolved to await the hour when the curtain should +drop on life itself. + +Charles himself appears to have been powerfully affected by the scene +and circumstances around him. Kneeling upon the long-desired soil of +Spain, he is said to have kissed the earth, ejaculating, "I salute +thee, O common mother! Naked came I forth of the womb to receive the +treasures of the earth, and naked am I about to return to the bosom of +the universal mother." He then drew from his bosom the crucifix which +he always wore, and kissing it devoutly, returned thanks to the +Saviour for having thus brought him in safety to the wished-for haven. +The ocean itself furnished its comment upon the irretraceable step +which he had taken. From Flushing to Laredo, the weather had been +calm, and the voyage prosperous: but the evening of the day of +landing closed with a storm, which shattered and dispersed the fleet, +and sunk the frigate which the emperor had quitted a few hours before. +This accident must have recalled to his recollection a similar escape +which he had made many years before on his coronation-day at Bologna. +There he had just passed through a wooden gallery which connected his +palace with the church where the pope and the crown awaited him, when +the props upon which the structure rested gave way, and it fell with a +sudden crash, killing several persons in the street below. + +The emperor's first care, after landing, was to send a message to the +general of the order of St. Jerome, requiring his attendance at +Valladolid, and desiring that no time might be lost in preparing the +convent of Yuste for his reception. He himself set forward, as soon as +he was able, and was carried sometimes in a horse-litter, sometimes in +a chair on men's shoulders, by slow and painful stages to Burgos. Near +that ancient city he was met by the constable of Castille, Pedro +Fernandez de Velasco, who lodged him for some days in the noble palace +of his family, known as the Casa del Cordon, from a massive cord of +St. Francis, wrought in stone, with which the architect has adorned +and protected the great portal. The little town of Duenas was the next +resting-place, and there its lord, the count of Buendia, did the +honors of his feudal castle on the adjacent height rising abruptly +from the bare plains of the Arlanzon. At Torquemada, the royal party +was received by the bishop of the diocese, Pedro de Gasca, a divine, +whose skilful diplomacy, in repressing a formidable rebellion, had +saved Peru to Castille, and who had lately been rewarded by the +emperor with the mitre of Palencia. But in spite of these +demonstrations of respect and gratitude, Charles was made painfully +sensible of the change which his own act had wrought in his condition. +The barons and the great churchmen, who, a few months before, would +have flocked from all parts to do him honor, now appeared in very +scanty numbers, or they permitted him to pass unnoticed through the +lands and by the homes which they perhaps owed to his bounty. He and +his sister Eleanor must have remembered with a sigh the time when he +first set foot in Spain, thirty-eight years before, and found the +shores of Asturias, and the highways of Castille, thronged with loyal +crowds, hastening to tender their homage. In the forgetfulness of the +new generation, he may also have been reminded how he himself had +treated, with coldness and slighting, the great cardinal Ximenes, who +had worn out his declining years in defending and maintaining the +prerogatives of the catholic crown. His long and varied experience of +men made him incapable of deriving any pleasure from their applause, +but not altogether incapable of being pained by their neglect. His +pride was hurt at finding himself so quickly forgotten; and he is said +to have evinced a bitter sense of the surprise, by the remark, "I +might well say that I was naked!" It is probable, therefore, that he +declined the honors of a public entry into Valladolid, not merely from +a desire to shun the pomps and vanities of state, but also from a +secret apprehension that it might prove but a pitiful shadow of former +pageants. That the citizens might not be balked of their show, while +the emperor entered privately on the 23rd of October, it was agreed +that the two queens, his sisters, should make their appearance there +in a public manner the next day. + +Valladolid was at that time the opulent and flourishing capital of +Spain, and the seat of government, carried on under the regency of the +emperor's daughter, Juanna. This young princess was the widow of the +prince of Brazil, heir-apparent of the crown of Portugal, and mother +of the unfortunate king Sebastian. She performed the duties of her +high place with great prudence, firmness, and moderation; but with +this peculiarity, that she appeared at her public receptions closely +veiled, allowing her face to be seen only for a moment, that the +foreign ambassadors might be satisfied of her personal identity. With +her nephew, Don Carlos, then a boy of ten years old, by her side, the +Infanta met her father on the staircase of the palace of the Count of +Melito, which he had chosen for his place of sojourn. The day +following, the arrival of the two queens was celebrated by a grand +procession, and by an evening banquet and ball in the royal palace, at +which the emperor appears to have been present. Some few of the +grandees, the Admiral and the Constable of Castille, Benavente, +Astorga, Sesa, and others, were there to do honor to their ancient +lord, whose hand was also kissed in due form by the members of the +council of Castille. At this ball, or perhaps at some later festivity, +Charles caused the wives of all his personal attendants to be +assembled around him, and bade each, in particular, farewell. Perico +de Sant Erbas, a famous jester of the court, passing by at the moment, +the emperor good-humoredly saluted him by taking off his hat. "What! +do you uncover to me?" said the bitter fool; "does it mean that you +are no longer emperor?" "No, Pedro," replied the object of the jest; +"it means that I have nothing to give you beyond this courtesy." + +During his stay of ten days, Charles bestowed but a passing glance on +the machine of government over which he had so long presided, and +which was now directed by his demure daughter. The secretary of the +council, Juan Vazquez de Molina, an old and trusted servant of his +own, was the only public man with whom he held any confidential +converse. The new rooms which he had caused to be erected at Yuste, +and the ordering of his life there, were now of more moment to him +than the movements of the leaguers in Flanders, or the state of +opinion in Germany. He therefore gave frequent audiences to Francisco +de Tofino, the general of the Jeromites, and to Fray Martin de Angulo, +prior of Yuste. Having resolved that his solitude should be shared by +his natural son, Don Juan of Austria, a nameless lad of ten, then +living in the family of his mayordomo, Luis de Quixada, he despatched +that trusty follower to remove his household from Castille to +Estremadura. + +It was at Valladolid that Charles saw for the first and last time the +ill-fated child who bore his name, and had the prospect one day of +wearing some of his crowns. Although only ten years old, Don Carlos +had already shown symptoms of the mental malady which darkened the +long life of queen Juana, his great-grandmother by the side both of +his father, Philip of Spain, and of his mother, Mary of Portugal. Of a +sullen and passionate temper, he lived in a state of perpetual +rebellion against his aunt, and displayed in the nursery the weakly +mischievous spirit which marked his short career at his father's +court. His grandfather appears not to have suspected that his mind was +diseased, but to have regarded him as a forward and untractable child, +whose future interests would be best served by an unsparing use of the +rod. He therefore recommended increased severity of discipline, and +remarked to his sisters, that he had observed with concern the boy's +unpromising conduct and manners, and that it was very doubtful how the +man would turn out. This opinion was conveyed by queen Eleanor to +Philip II., who had requested his aunt to note carefully the +impression left by his son on the emperor's mind; and it is said to +have laid the foundation for the aversion which the king entertained +towards Carlos. Following the advice of her father, the Infanta soon +after ordered the removal of the prince to Burgos; but the plague +breaking out in that city, he was sent, by an ominous chance, to +Tordesillas, to the palace from whose windows the unhappy Juana, dead +to the living world, had gazed for forty-seven years at the sepulchre +of her fair and faithless lord. + +A sojourn of about ten days at Valladolid sufficed the emperor for +rest, and for the preparations for his journey. His daughter was +occupied with the duties of administration; and of his sisters he +appears to have seen enough on the way from Flanders. Whether it was +that he was weary of these royal matrons, or that he regarded their +society as a worldly enjoyment which he ought to forego, he declined +their proposal to come and reside near his retreat, at Plasencia. +After much debate, they finally chose Guadalaxara as their residence, +where they quarelled with the duke of Infantado for refusing them his +palace, and went to open war with the alcalde for imprisoning one of +their serving-men. + +Early in November,[7] their brother set out on his last earthly +journey. The distance from Valladolid to Yuste was between forty and +fifty leagues, or somewhere between 130 and 150 English miles. The +route taken has not been specified by the emperor's biographers. The +best and the easiest road lay through Salamanca and Plasencia. But as +he does not appear to have passed through the latter city, he probably +likewise avoided the former, and the pageants and orations with which +the doctors of the great university would have delighted to celebrate +his visit. In that case, he must have taken the road by Medina del +Campo and Penaranda. At Medina he doubtless was lodged in the fine old +palace of the crown, called the Torre de Mota, where, fifty years +before, his grandmother, Isabella the Catholic, ended her noble life +and glorious reign; and at Penaranda he was probably entertained in +the mansion of the Bracamontes. These two towns rise like islands in +their naked undulating plains, covered partly with corn, partly with +marshy heath. Southward, the country is clothed with straggling woods +of evergreen oak, becoming denser at the base and on the lower slopes +of the wild Sierra of Bejar, the centre of that mountain chain which +forms the backbone of the Peninsula, extending from Moncayo in Aragon, +to the Rock of Lisbon on the Atlantic. At the alpine town of Bejar, +cresting a bold height, and overhanging a tumbling stream, the great +family of the Zunigas, created dukes of the place by Isabella, and +known to fame in arts and arms and the dedication of Don Quixote, +possess a noble castle, ruined by the French, which there can be +little doubt served as a halting-place for the imperial pilgrim. He +advanced by very short stages, travelling in a litter, and often +suffering great pain. But his spirits rose as he neared the desired +haven. In the craggy gorge of Puertonuevo, as he was being carried +over some unusually difficult ground in a chair, his attendants were +deploring the extreme ruggedness of the pass. "I shall never have to +go through another," said he, "and truly it is worth enduring some +pain to reach so sweet and healthy a resting place as Yuste." Having +crossed the mountains without mischance, he arrived on the eleventh of +November, St. Martin's day, at Xarandilla, a little village at the +foot of the steep Penanegra, and then, as now, chiefly peopled with +swineherds, whose pigs, feeding in the surrounding forests, maintain +the fame of porciferous Estremadura. Here he took up his abode in the +castle of the count of Oropesa, head of a powerful branch of the great +house of Toledo, and feudal lord of Xarandilla. + +This visit, which was intended to be brief, was prolonged for nearly +three months. Before entering the cloister of Yuste, the emperor +wished to pay off the greater part of his retinue. But for this +purpose money was needful, and money was the one thing always wanting +in the affairs of Spain. The delay which took place in providing it on +this occasion has often been cited as an instance of the ingratitude +of Philip II.; but it is probable that a bare exchequer and a clumsy +system of finance, which crippled his actions as a king, have also +blackened his character as a son. + +The emperor endured the annoyance with his usual coolness. On his +arrival at the castle, he was waited on by the prior of Yuste, with +whom he had already become acquainted at Valladolid. He afterwards +repaid the attention by making a forenoon excursion to Yuste, and +inspecting more carefully the spot which his memory and his hope had +so long pictured as the sweetest nook in a world of disappointment. +This visit took place on the 23d of November, St. Catharine's day. On +alighting at the convent, Charles immediately repaired to the church, +and prayed there awhile; after which, he was conducted over the +monastic buildings, and then over the new apartments which had been +erected for his reception. The plan of this addition had been made by +the architect, Gaspar de Vega, from a sketch, it is said, drawn by the +emperor's own hand. He now expressed himself as quite satisfied with +the accuracy with which his ideas had been wrought out, and returned +through the wintry woods in high good humor. + +The arrival at Xarandilla of Luis Quixada, with Don Juan of Austria, +was another of those little incidents which had become great events in +the life of Charles. As he did not choose during his life to +acknowledge the youth as his son, the future hero of Lepanto passed +for the page of Quixada, and was presented to his father as bearer of +an offering from Dona Magdalena de Ulloa. He was then in his twelfth +year, and was remarkable for his personal beauty and his engaging +manners. These so captivated Charles, that he ever afterwards liked to +have the boy about him; and it was one of the few solaces of his +solitude to note the princely promise of this unknown son of his old +age. + +At length, the tardy treasury messenger arrived, bearing a bag of +thirty thousand ducats for the former possessor of Mexico and Peru. +The emperor was now enabled to pay their wages to the servants whom he +was about to discharge. Some of these he recommended to the notice of +the king or the princess-regent; to others he dispensed sparing +gratuities in money; and so he closed his accounts with the world. + +On the afternoon of the third of February, 1557, being the feast of +St. Blas, he was lifted into his litter for the last time, and was +borne westward along the rough mountain track, beneath the leafless +oaks, to the monastery of Yuste. He was accompanied by the count of +Oropesa, Don Fernando de Toledo, and his own personal suite, including +the followers whom he had just discharged, but who evinced their +respect by attending him to his journey's close. The cavalcade reached +Yuste about five in the evening. Prior Angulo was waiting to receive +his imperial guest at the gate. On alighting, the emperor, being +unable to walk, was placed in a chair, and carried to the door of the +church. At the threshold he was met by the whole brotherhood in +procession, chanting the _Te Deum_ to the music of the organ. The +altars and the aisle were brilliantly lighted up with tapers, and +decked with their richest frontals, hangings, and plate. Borne through +the pomp to the steps of the high altar, Charles knelt down and +returned thanks to God for the happy termination of his journey, and +joined in the vesper service of the brotherhood. When that was ended, +the friars came to be presented to him one by one, each kissing his +hand and receiving his fraternal embrace. During this ceremony, his +departing servants stood round, expressing their emotion by tears and +lamentations, which were still heard late in the evening, around the +gate of the convent. Attended by the count of Oropesa and the +gentlemen of his suite, Charles then retired to take possession of his +new home, and to enter upon that life of prayer and repose for which +he had so long sighed. + +The monastery of Yuste stands on the lower slopes of the lofty +mountain chain which walls towards the north the beautiful Vera, or +valley of Plasencia. The city of Plasencia is seated seven leagues to +the westward in the plains below; the village of Quacos lies about an +English mile to the south, towards the foot of the mountain. The +monastery owes its name to a streamlet which descends from the sierra, +and its origin to the piety of one Sancho Martin of Quacos, who +granted in 1402 a piece of land to two hermits from Plasencia. Here +these holy men built their cells and planted an orchard, and obtained, +in 1408, by the favor of the Infanta Don Fernando, a bull for the +foundation of a Jeromite house in the rule of St. Augustine. In spite, +however, of this authority, while the works were still in progress, +the friars of a neighboring convent, armed with an order from the +bishop of Plasencia, set upon them and dispossessed them of their land +and unfinished walls, an act of violence against which they appealed +to the archbishop of Santiago. The judgment of the primate being given +in their favor, they next applied for aid to their neighbor, Garci +Alvarez de Toledo, lord of Oropesa, who accordingly came forth from +his castle of Xarandilla, and drove out the intruders. Nor was it only +with the strong hand that this noble protected the young community; +for at the chapter of St. Jerome held at Guadalupe in 1415, their +house would not have been received into the order but for his +generosity in guaranteeing a revenue sufficient for the maintenance of +a prior and twelve brethren under a rule in which mendicancy was +forbidden. The buildings were also erected at his cost, and his +subsequent benefactions were large and frequent. He was therefore +constituted by the grateful monks protector of the convent, and the +distinction became hereditary in his descendants, the counts of +Oropesa. + +Their early struggles past, the Jeromites of Yuste grew and prospered. +Gifts and bequests were the chief events in their peaceful annals. +They became patrons of the chapelries and hermitages; they made them +orchards and olive-groves, and their corn and wine increased. Their +hostel, dispensary, and other offices, were patterns of monastic +comfort and order; and in due time, they built a new church, a simple, +solid, and spacious structure, in the pointed style. A few years +before the emperor came to live amongst them, they had added to their +small antique cloister a new quadrangle of stately proportions and +elegant classical design. + +Though more remarkable for the natural beauty around its walls than +for the vigor of the spiritual life within, Yuste did not fail to +boast of its worthies. The prior Jerome, a son of the great house of +Zuniga, was cited as a model of austere and active holiness. The lay +brother, Melchor de Yepes, crippled in felling a huge chesnut-tree in +the forest, was a pattern of bed-ridden patience and piety. Fray +Hernando de Corral was the scholar and book collector of the house; +although he was also, for that reason, perhaps, considered as scarcely +of a sound mind. He left many copious notes in the fly-leaves of his +black-letter folios. Fray Juan de Xeres, an old soldier of the great +Captain, was distinguished by the gift of second-sight, and was nursed +on his death-bed by the eleven thousand virgins. Still more favored +was Fray Rodrigo de Caceres, for the Blessed Mary herself, in answer +to his repeated prayers, came down in visible shape, and received his +spirit on the eve of the feast of her Assumption. And prior Diego de +San Geronimo was so popular in the Vera as a preacher, that when he +grew old and infirm, the people of Garganta la Olla endeavored to lure +him to their pulpit by making a road, which was called that of Fray +Diego. + +In works of charity--that redeeming virtue of the monastic system--the +fathers of Yuste were diligent and bounteous. Six hundred fanegas, or +about one hundred and twenty quarters of wheat, in ordinary years, and +in years of scarcity, as much as fifteen hundred fanegas, were +distributed at the convent-gate; large donations of bread, meat, and +oil, and some money, were made, either publicly or in private, by the +prior, at Easter and other festivals; and the sick poor in the village +of Quacos were freely supplied with food, medicine, and advice. + +The lodging, or palace, as the friars loved to call it, of the +emperor, was constructed under the eye of Fray Antonio de Villacastin, +a brother of the house, and afterwards well known to fame as the +master of the works at the Escorial. The site of it had been inspected +in May, 1554, by Philip II., then on his way to England to marry queen +Mary Tudor. Backed by the massive south wall of the church, the +building presented its simple front of two stories to the garden and +the noontide sun. Each story contained four chambers, two on either +side of a corridor, which traverses the structure from east to west, +and leads at either end into a broad porch, or covered gallery, +supported on pillars, and open to the air. All the rooms were +furnished with ample fire-places, in accordance with the Flemish wants +and ways of the inhabitants. The chambers which look on the garden are +bright and pleasant, but those on the north side are gloomy, and even +dark, the light being admitted only by windows opening on the +corridor, or on the external and deeply-shadowed porches. Charles +inhabited the upper rooms, and slept in that at the north-east corner, +from which a door or window had been cut through the church wall, +within the chancel, and close to the high altar. From the eastern +porch, or gallery, an inclined path led down into the garden, to save +him the fatigue of going up and down stairs. His attendants were, for +the most part, lodged in apartments built for them near the new +cloister; and the hostel of the convent was given up to the physician, +the bakers, and the brewers. His private rooms being surrounded on +three sides by the garden, he took exclusive possession of that, and +put it under the care of gardeners of his own. The friars established +their potherbs in a piece of ground to the eastward, behind some tall +elm trees, and adjoining the emperor's domain, but separated from it +by a high wall, which they caused to be built when they found that he +wished for complete seclusion. + +Time, with its chances and changes, has dealt rudely with this fair +home of the monarch and the monk. Yuste was sacked in 1809 by the +French invader; and in later years, the Spanish reformer has +annihilated the race of picturesque drones, who, for a while, +re-occupied, and might have repaired the ruins of their pleasant hive. +Of the two cloisters, the greater is choked with the rubbish of its +fallen upper story, its richly-carved capitals peeping here and there +from the soil and wild shrubs. Two sides of the smaller and older +cloister still stands, with tottering blackened walls, and rotting +floors and ceilings. The strong, granite-vaulted church is a hollow +shell; the fine wood-work of its stalls has been partly used for fuel, +partly carried off to the parish church of Quacos; and the beautiful +blue and yellow tiles which lined the chancel are fast dropping from +the walls. In the emperor's dwelling, the lower chambers are turned +into a magazine of firewood, and in the rooms above, where he lived +and died, maize and olives are garnered, and the silkworm winds its +cocoon in dust and darkness. But the lovely face of nature, the hill, +the forest, and the field, the generous soil and the genial sky, +remain with charms unchanged, to testify how well the imperial eagle +chose the nest wherein to fold his wearied wings. From the balcony of +Charles's cabinet the eye ranges over a foreground of rounded knolls, +clad in walnut and chestnut, in which the mountain dies gently away +into the broad bosom of the Vera. Not a building is in sight, but a +summer-house, peering above mulberry tops, at the lower side of the +garden, and a hermitage of Our Lady of Solitude, about a mile distant, +hung upon a rocky height, that swells like an isle out of the sea of +forest. Immediately below the windows the garden slopes gently to the +sun, shaded here and there with the massive foliage of the fig, or +feathery almond boughs, and breathing perfume from tall orange-trees, +cuttings of which some monks, themselves transplanted, vainly strove +to keep alive at the bleak Escorial. And beyond the west wall, filling +all the wide space in front of the gates of the convent and the +palace, rises the noble shade of the great walnut-tree, _el nogal +grande_, of Yuste--a forest king, which has seen the hermit's cell +rise into a royal convent, and sink into a ruin; which has seen the +beginning and the end of the Spanish order of Jerome, and the Spanish +dynasty of Austria. + +At Xarandilla, Charles had cast aside the last shreds of the purple. +The annual revenue which he had reserved to himself out of the wealth +of half the world, was twelve thousand ducats, or about fifteen +hundred pounds sterling. His confidential attendants were eleven in +number: Luis Quixada, chamberlain and chief of the household; Martin +Gatzelu, secretary; William Van Male, gentleman of the chamber; Moron, +gentleman of the chamber and almoner; Juan Gaytan, steward; Henrique +Matisio Charles Pubest, usher; and two valets. Juanelo Turiano, an +Italian engineer, who had acquired a considerable reputation by his +hydraulic works to supply water to the Alcazar of Toledo, was engaged +to assist in the philosophical experiments and mechanical labors which +formed the emperor's principal amusement. Last, but not least, a +Jeromite father from Sta. Engracia, at Zaragoza, Fray Juan de Regla, +filled the important post of confessor. The lower rank of servants, +cooks, brewers, bakers, grooms, and scullions, and a couple of +laundresses, swelled the total number of his household to about sixty +persons, an establishment not greater than was then maintained by many +a private hidalgo. + +The mayordomo, Luis Quixada, or, to give him his entire appellation, +Luis Mendez Quixada Manuel de Figueredo y Mendoza, is worthy of +notice, not only as first minister of this tiny court, but as being +closely associated with one of the greatest names in the military +history of Europe. A courtier and soldier from his early youth, he was +heir of an elder brother, slain before Tunis, who had been one of the +most distinguished captains of the famous infantry of Castille; and he +had been himself for many years the tried companion-in-arms and the +trusted personal friend of the emperor. In 1549, he married Dona +Magdalena de Ulloa, a lady of ancient race and gentlest nature, with +whom he retired for a while to his patrimonial lordship of +Villagarcia, near Valladolid. + +On his quitting the court at Brussels, Charles confided to his care +his illegitimate son, Don Juan of Austria, then a boy of four years +old, exacting a promise of strict secrecy as to his parentage. The boy +was accordingly brought up with the tenderest care by the childless +Magdalena: and the secret of his birth so well kept, that she, for +many years, suspected him to be the fruit of some early attachment of +her lord. When the emperor retired to Yuste, Quixada followed him +thither, removing his household from Villagarcia, and establishing it +in the neighborhood of the convent, probably in the village of Quacos. + +He was thus enabled to enjoy somewhat of the society of his wife, and +the emperor had the gratification of seeing his son when he chose. Don +Juan was now a fine lad, in his eleventh year. He passed amongst the +neighbors for Quixada's page, and remained under the guardianship of +Dona Magdalena, whose efforts to imbue him with devotion towards the +Blessed Virgin are supposed by his historians to have borne good fruit +in the banners, embroidered with Our Lady's image, which floated from +his galleys at Lepanto. He likewise exercised in the Yuste forest the +cross-bow, which had dealt destruction amongst the sparrows of +Leganes, his early home in Castille. + +If the number of servants in the train of Charles should savor, in +this age, somewhat of unnecessary parade, the ascetic character of the +recluse will be redeemed by a glance at the interior of his dwelling. +"The palace of Yuste, when prepared for his reception, seemed," says +the historian Sandoval, "rather to have been newly pillaged by the +enemy, than furnished for a great prince." Accustomed from his infancy +to the finest tapestry designed by Italian pencils for the looms of +Flanders, he now lived within walls entirety bare, except in his +bedchamber, which was hung with coarse brown or black cloth. The sole +appliances for rest to be found in his apartments were a bed and an +old arm-chair, not worth four reals. Four silver trenchers of the +plainest kind, for the use of his table, were the only things amongst +his goods and chattels which could tempt a thief to break through and +steal. A few choice pictures alone remained with him, as memorials of +the magnificence which he had foregone, and of the arts which he had +so loved. Over the high altar of the convent church, and within sight +of his bed, he is said to have placed that celebrated composition +known as The Glory of Titian, a picture of the Last Judgment, in which +Charles, his beautiful empress, and their royal children, were +represented, in the great painter's noblest style, as entering the +heavenly mansions of life eternal. He had also brought with him a +portrait of the empress, and a picture of Our Lord's Agony in the +Garden, likewise from the easel of Titian; and there is now at the +Escorial a masterpiece by the same hand--St. Jerome praying in his +garden, which is traditionally reputed to have hung in his oratory at +Yuste. + +From the garden beneath the palace windows the emperor's table was +supplied with fruit and vegetables: and a couple of cows, grazing in +the forest, furnished him with milk. A pony and an old mule composed +the entire stud of the prince, who formerly took peculiar pleasure in +possessing the stoutest chargers of Guelderland, and the fleetest +genets of Cordova. + +To atone, perhaps, for such deficiency of creature comforts, the +general of the Jeromites and the prior of Yuste had been at some pains +to provide their guest with spiritual luxuries. Knowing his passionate +love of music, they had recruited the force of their choir with +fourteen or fifteen brethren, distinguished for their fine voices and +musical skill. And for his sole benefit and delectation, they had +provided no less than three preachers, the most eloquent in the +Spanish fold of Jerome. The first of these, Fray Juan de Acaloras, +harangued his way to the bishopric of the Canaries; the second, Fray +Francisco de Villalva, also obtained by his sermons great fame, and +the post of chaplain to Philip II.; while the third, Fray Juan de +Santandres, though less noted as an orator, was had in reverence as a +prophet, having foretold the exact day and hour of his own death. + +A short time sufficed for the emperor to accustom himself to the +simple and changeless tenor of monastic life. Every morning his +confessor appeared at his bed-side, to inquire how he had passed the +night, and to assist him in his private devotions. At ten he rose, and +was dressed by his valets; after which he heard mass in the convent +church. According to his invariable habit, which in Italy was said to +have given rise to the saying, _dalla messa, alla mensa_ (from mass to +mess), he went from church to dinner, about noon. Eating had ever been +one of his favorite pleasures, and it was now the only physical +gratification which he could still enjoy, or was unable to resist. He +continued, therefore, to dine upon the rich dishes against which his +ancient and trusty confessor, Cardinal Loaysa, had vainly protested a +quarter of a century before. Eel-pasties, anchovies, and frogs were +the savory food which he loved, unwisely and too well, as Frederick +afterwards loved his polenta. The meal was long, for his teeth were +few and far between; and his hands, also, were much disabled by gout, +in spite of which he always chose to carve for himself. His physician +attended him at table, and at least learned the cause of the mischiefs +which his art was to counteract. While he dined, he conversed with the +doctor on matters of science, generally of natural history, and if any +difference of opinion arose between them, the confessor was sent for +to settle the point out of Pliny. When the cloth was drawn, Fray Juan +de Regla came to read to him, generally from one of his favorite +divines,--Augustine, Jerome, or Bernard; an exercise which was +followed by conversation and an hour of slumber. At three o'clock, the +monks were assembled in the convent to hear a sermon delivered by one +of the imperial preachers, or a passage read from the Bible, usually +from the epistle to the Romans, the emperor's favorite book. To these +discourses or readings Charles always listened with profound +attention; and if sickness or letter-writing prevented his attendance, +he never failed to send a formal excuse to the prior, and to require +from his confessor an account of what had been preached or read. The +rest of the afternoon he sometimes whiled away in the workshop of +Turriano, and in the construction of pieces of mechanism, especially +clocks, of which more than a hundred were said, in one rather +improbable account, to tick in the emperor's apartments, and reckon to +a fraction the hours of his retired leisure. Sometimes he fed his pet +birds, which appear to have taken the place of the stately wolf-hounds +that followed at his heel in the days when he sat to Titian; or a +stroll amongst his fruit-trees and flowers filled up the time to +vespers and supper. At the lower end of the garden, approached by a +closely shaded path, there may still be seen the ruins of a little +summer-house, closely enbowered, and looking out upon the woodlands of +the Vera. Beyond this limit the emperor rarely extended his +excursions, which were always made, slowly and painfully, on foot; for +the first time that he mounted his pony he was seized with a violent +giddiness, and almost fell into the arms of his attendants. Such was +the last appearance, in the saddle, of the accomplished cavalier, of +whom his troopers used to say, that had he not been born a king, he +would have been the prince of light-horsemen, and whose seat and hand +excited at Calais gate the admiration of the English knights fresh +from the tournays-- + + "Where England vied with France in pride + On the famous field of gold." + +Music, which had been one of the chief pleasures of his secular life, +continued to solace and cheer him to the last. In the conduct of the +organ and the choir he took the greatest interest, and through the +window which opened from his bedchamber upon the high altar, his voice +might often be heard accompanying the chant of the friars. His ear +never failed to detect a wrong note, and the mouth whence it came; and +he would frequently mutter the name of the offender, with the addition +of "_hideputa bermejo_," or some other epithet which savored rather of +the soldier than the saint. Guerrero, a chapel-master of Seville, +having presented him with his book of masses and motets, he caused one +of the former to be performed before him. When it was ended, he +remarked to his confessor that Guerrero was a cunning thief; and going +over the piece, he pointed out the plagiarisms with which it +abounded, and named the composers whose works had suffered pillage. + +In laying down the sceptre, Charles had resolved to have no farther +personal concern with temporal affairs. The petitioners, who at first +besieged his retreat, soon ceased from troubling when they found +themselves referred to the princess-regent at Valladolid, or to the +king in Flanders. He declined giving any attention to matters beyond +the walls of the convent, unless they concerned the interests of his +children or the church. His advice was, however, frequently asked by +his son and daughter, and couriers often went and came between Yuste +and the courts. But with the patronage of the state he never +interfered, except on two occasions, when he recommended the case of a +Catalonian lady to the favorable consideration of the Infanta, and +asked for an order of knighthood for a veteran brother in arms. + +The rites of religion now formed the business of his life, and he +transacted that business with his usual method and regularity. No +enthusiast novice was ever more solicitous to fulfil to the letter +every law of his rubric. On the first Sunday of his residence at the +convent, as he went to high mass, he observed the friar who was +sprinkling the holy water, hesitate when his turn came to be aspersed. +Taking the hyssop, therefore, from his hand, he bestowed a plentiful +shower upon his own face and clothes, saying as he returned the +instrument, "This, father, is the way you must do it, next time." +Another friar, offering the pyx to his lips in a similar diffident +manner, he took it between his hands, and not only kissed it +fervently, but applied it to his forehead and eyes with true oriental +reverence. Although provided with an indulgence for eating before +communion, he never availed himself of it but when he was suffering +from extreme debility; and he always heard two masses on the days when +he received the eucharist. On Ash Wednesday, he required his entire +household, down to the meanest scullion, to communicate, and on these +occasions he stood on the top step of the altar, to observe that the +muster was complete. For the benefit of his Flemings, he had a +chaplain of their country, who lived at Xarandilla, and came over at +stated times, when his flock were assembled for confession. The +emperor himself usually heard mass from the window of his bedchamber, +which looked into the church; but at complines he went up into the +choir with the fathers, and prayed in a devout and audible tone, in +his tribune. During the season of Lent, which came round twice during +his residence at Yuste, he regularly appeared in his place in the +choir, on Fridays, when it was the custom of the fraternity to perform +their discipline in public; and at the end of the appointed prayers, +extinguishing the taper which he, like the rest, held in his hand, he +flogged himself with such sincerity of purpose, that the scourge was +stained with blood, and the beholders singularly edified. On Good +Friday, he went forth at the head of his household, to adore the holy +cross; and although he was so infirm that he was obliged to be almost +carried by the men on whom he leaned, he insisted upon prostrating +himself three times upon the ground, in the manner of the friars, +before he approached the blessed symbol with his lips. The feast of +St. Matthew, his birthday--a day of great things in his life,--he +always celebrated with peculiar devotion. He appeared at mass, in a +dress of ceremony, and wearing the collar of the Fleece; and at the +time of the offertory, he went forward, and expressed his gratitude to +God by a large donation. The church was thronged with strangers; and +the crowd who could not gain admittance was so great, that one sermon +was preached outside, whilst another was being pronounced before the +emperor and his household within. + +With the friars, his hosts, Charles lived on the most familiar and +friendly footing. When the visitors of the order paid their triennial +visit of inspection to Yuste, they represented to him, with all +respect, that his majesty himself was the only inmate of the convent +with whom they had any fault to find; and they entreated him to +discontinue those benefactions which he was in the habit of bestowing +on the fraternity, and which the rule of St. Jerome did not allow his +children to receive. He knew all the fathers by name and by sight, and +frequently conversed with them, as well as with the prior. One of his +favorites was a lay-brother, called Alonso Mudarra, once a man of rank +and family in the world, and now working out his own salvation in the +humble post of cook to the convent. This worthy had an only daughter, +who did not share her father's contempt for mundane things. When she +came with her husband to visit him at Yuste, Fray Alonso, arrayed in +his dirtiest apron, thus addressed her: "Daughter, behold my gala +apparel; obedience is now my treasure and my pride; for you, in your +silks and vanities, I entertain profound pity." So saying, he returned +to his kitchen, and would never see her more: an effort of holiness to +which he appears to owe his place in the chronicles of the order. + +The emperor was conversing one day with his confessor, Regla, when +that priest chose to speak, in the mitre-shunning cant of his cloth, +of the great reluctance which he had felt in accepting a post of such +weighty responsibility. "Never fear," said Charles, somewhat +maliciously, and as if conscious that he was dealing with a hypocrite; +"before I left Flanders, four doctors were engaged for a whole year in +easing my conscience; so you have nothing to answer for but what +happens here." + +When he had completed a year of residence at the convent, some +good-humored bantering passed between him and the master of the +novices about its being now time for him to make profession; and he +afterwards said that he was prevented from taking the vows of the +order, and becoming a monk in earnest, only by the state of his +health. St. Blas's day, 1558, the anniversary of his arrival, was held +as a festival, and celebrated by masses, the _Te Deum_, a precession +by the fathers, and a sermon by Villalva. In the afternoon, the +emperor gave a sumptuous repast to the whole convent, out in the +fields, it being the custom of the fraternity to celebrate any +accession to their number by a pic-nic. The country people about +Plasencia sent a quantity of partridges and kids to aid the feast, +which was likewise enlivened by the presence of the Flemish servants, +male and female, and his other retainers, from the village of Quacos. +The prior provided a more permanent memorial of the day by opening a +new book for the names of brethren admitted into the convent, on the +first leaf of which the emperor inscribed his name--an autograph which +remained the pride of the archives till their destruction by the +dragoons of Buonaparte. + +The retired emperor had not many visitors in his solitude; and of +these few, Juan de Vega, president of the council of Castille, +was the only personage in high office. He was sent down by the +princess-regent, apparently to see that her father was treated with +due attention by the provincial authorities. But with his neighbors, +great and small, Charles lived in a state of amity which it would have +been well for the world had he been able to maintain with his +fellow-potentates of Christendom. The few nobles and gentry of the +Vera were graciously received when they came to pay their respects at +Yuste. Oropesa and his brothers frequently rode forth from Xarandilla, +to inquire after the health of their former guest. From Plasencia came +a still more distinguished and no less welcome guest, Luis de Avila, +comendador-mayor of Alcantara. Long the _fidus Achates_ of the +emperor, this soldier-courtier had obtained considerable fame by +becoming his Quintus Curtius. His Commentaries on the Wars against the +Protestants of Germany, first published in 1546, had been several +times reprinted, and had already been translated into Latin, French, +Flemish, English, and Italian. Having married the wealthy heiress of +the Zunigas, he was now living in laurelled ease at Plasencia, in that +fine palace of Mirabel, which is still one of the chief ornaments of +the beautiful city. The memoirs of the campaigns in Africa, which he +is said to have left in manuscript, were perhaps the occupation of his +leisure. Charles always received his historian with kindness, and it +is characteristic of the times, that it was noted as a mark of +singular favor, that he ordered a capon to be reserved for him from +his own well-supplied board. It may seem strange that a retired +prince, who had never been a lover of parade, should not have broken +through the ceremonial law which condemned a monarch to eat alone. But +we must remember that he was a Spaniard living amongst Spaniards; and +that, near a century later, the force of forms was still so strong, +that the great minister of France, when most wanting in ships, +preferred that the Spanish fleet should retire from the blockade of +Rochelle rather than that the admiral should wear his grandee hat in +the Most Christian presence. + +The emperor was fond of talking over his feats of arms with the +veteran who had shared and recorded them. One day, in the course of +such conversation, Don Luis said he had caused a ceiling of his house +to be painted in fresco, with a view of the battle of Renti, and the +Frenchmen flying before the soldiers of Castille. "Not so," said +Charles; "let the painter modify this if he can; for it was no +headlong flight, but an honorable retreat." This was not the less +candid, that French historians claim the victory for their own side. +Considering that the action had been fought only three or four years +before it was said to have been painted, it is possible that Renti has +been substituted for the name of some other less doubtful field. But +Luis de Avila was of easy faith when the honor of Castille was +concerned, and may well be supposed capable of setting down a success +to the wrong account, when he did not hesitate to record it in his +book, that the miracle of Ajalon had been repeated at Muhlberg. Some +years afterwards, the duke of Alva, who had been in that battle, was +asked by the French king whether he had observed that the sun stood +still. "I was so busy that day," said the old soldier, "with what was +passing on earth, that I had no time to notice what took place in +heaven." + +An anecdote of Avila and his master, though not falling within the +period of their retirement to Estremadura, may be related here, as +serving to show the characters of the two men. Some years before his +abdication, Charles had amused the leisure of his sick-room by making +a prose translation of Olivier de la Marches' forgotten allegorical +poem, _Le Chevalier delibere_. He then employed Fernando de Acunha, a +man of letters attached to the Saxon court, to turn his labors into +Castillian verse, and he finally handed it over to William Van Male, +one of the gentlemen of the chamber, telling him that he might publish +it for his own benefit. Avila and the other Spaniards, hearing of the +concession, wickedly affected the greatest envy at the good fortune of +the Fleming; the historian, in particular, in his quality of author, +assuring the emperor that the publication could not fail to realize a +profit of five hundred crowns. That desire to print, which, more or +less developed, exists in every man who writes, being thus stimulated +by the suggestion, that to gratify that desire, would be to confer a +favor which should cost him nothing, Charles became impatient to see +his lucubrations in type. Insisting that his bounty should be accepted +at once, he turned a deaf ear to the timid hints of Van Male, as to +the risk and expense of the speculation; and the end was, that the +poor man had to pay Jean Steels for printing and publishing two +thousand copies of a book which is now scarce, probably because the +greater part of the impression passed at once from the publisher to +the pastry-cook. The waggery on the part of Avila was the more wicked, +because the victim had translated his Commentaries into Latin for him. +It forms, however, the subject of an agreeable letter, wherein Van +Male complains of the undue expectations raised in the emperor's mind +by his "windy Spaniards," and ruefully looks forward to reaping a +harvest of mere straw and chaff. + +It was not only by calling at Yuste that the noble lieges of the +emperor testified their homage. Mules were driven to his gate laden +with more substantial tokens of loyalty and affection. The Count of +Oropesa kept his table supplied with game from the forest and the +hill; and the prelates of Toledo, Mondonedo, Segovia, and Salamanca, +offered similar proofs that they had not forgotten the giver of their +mitres. The Jeromites of Guadalupe, rich in sheep and beeves, sent +calves, lambs fattened on bread, and delicate fruits; and from his +sister Catharine, queen of Portugal, there came every fortnight a +supply of conserves and linen. + +The villagers of Quacos alone furnished some exceptions to the respect +in which their imperial neighbor was held. Although they received the +greater part of the hundred ducats which he dispensed every month for +charitable purposes, they poached the trout in the fish-ponds which +had been formed for his service in Garganta la Olla; and they drove +his cows to the parish pound whenever they strayed beyond their +legitimate pastures. One fellow having sold the crop on his +cherry-tree, at double its value, to the emperor's purveyor, when he +found that it was left ungathered for a few days, took the opportunity +of disposing of it a second time to another purchaser, who, of course, +left nothing but bare boughs to the rightful owner of the fruit. +Wearied with these annoyances, the emperor complained to the president +of Castille, who administered to the district judge, one Licentiate +Murga, a severe rebuke, which that functionary, in his turn, visited +upon the unruly rustics. Several culprits were apprehended; but while +Castillian justice was taking its deliberate course, some of them who +were related to friars of Yuste, by the influence of their friends at +court, got the emperor himself to petition that the sentence might be +light. + +To his servants Charles was a kind and lenient master. He bore +patiently with Adrian the cook, though he left the cinnamon that he +loved out of the dishes; and he contented himself with mildly +admonishing Pelayo, the baker, who got drunk and neglected his oven, +of which the result was burnt bread that sorely tried the toothless +gums of his master. His old military habits, however, still adhered to +him, and though gentle in his manner of enforcing it, he was something +of a martinet in maintaining the discipline of his household and the +convent. Nor had he lost that love of petty economies which made him +sit bare-headed in the rain without the walls of Naumburg, saving a +new velvet cap under his arm, while they fetched him an old one from +the town. Observing in his walks, or from his window, that a certain +basket daily came and went between his garden and the garden of the +friars, he caused Moron to institute an examination, which led to the +harmless discovery that his Flemings were in the habit of bartering +egg-plants with the Jeromites for onions. He had also been disturbed +by suspicious gatherings of young women at the convent-gate, who stood +there gossiping under pretence of receiving alms. When the visitors +came their rounds, he therefore brought the matter under their notice. +The result of the complaint was that the conventional dole was ordered +to be sent round in certain portions to the alcaldes of the various +villages, for distribution on the spot; and, moreover, the crier went +down the straggling, uneven street of Quacos, making the ungallant +proclamation, that any woman who should be found nearer to Yuste than +a certain oratory, about two gunshots from the gate, should be +punished with a hundred stripes. + +In the month of September, 1557, the emperor received a visit from his +sisters, the queens Eleanor and Mary. These royal widows, weary of +Guadalaxara, its unyielding duke, and its troublesome alcalde, were +once more in search of a residence. They had cast their eyes on the +banks of the Guadiana, and they were now on their way to that frontier +of Portugal. Neither the convent nor the palace of Yuste being +sufficiently commodious to receive them, they lived at Xarandilla, as +guests of Oropesa. The shattered health of the queen of France +rendered the journey from the castle to the convent, although +performed in a litter, so fatiguing to her, that she accomplished it +only twice. Nor was her brother's strength sufficient to enable him to +return the visits of his favorite sister. But queen Mary was seven +years younger, and still possessed much of the vigor which amazed +Roger Ascham, when he met her galloping into Tongres, far ahead of her +suit, although it was the tenth day she had passed in the saddle. She +therefore mounted her horse almost every day, and rode through the +fading forest to converse with the recluse at Yuste. At the end of a +fortnight, the queens took a sorrowful leave of their brother, and +proceeded on their way to Badajoz, whither the Infanta Mary of +Portugal, daughter of queen Eleanor, had come from Lisbon to receive +them. After this meeting, which was destined to be the last, the +queens returned to the little town of Talaverilla, on the bare plains +of Merida, where they had determined to fix their abode. But they +found there no continuing city. In a few weeks, Eleanor was seized +with a fever, which carried her off on the 25th of February, 1558, the +sixtieth year of her age. When the emperor heard of her illness, he +dispatched Luis Quixada to attend upon her; but she was already at +rest ere the mayordomo reached Talaverilla. Queen Mary went back with +Quixada to Yuste. Her health being much shaken, and the emperor being +unable to move from the convent, she was lodged, on this occasion, in +his apartments. At the end of eight days she bade him a last farewell, +and retired to Cigales, a hamlet two leagues north of Valladolid, and +crowning a vine-clad hill on the western side of the valley of the +Pisuerga. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[7] Sandoval says he left on the 4th November; Cabrera, that he left +on the 1st; and Siguenca gives the end of October as the time of his +departure. + + + + +From Household Words. + +OUR PHANTOM SHIP AMONG THE ICE. + + +Yonder is the coast of Norway; we shall soon be at Spitzbergen. The +"Phantom" is fitted out for Arctic exploration, with instructions to +find her way, by the north-west, to Behring Straits, and take the +South Pole on her passage home. Just now, we steer due north, and +yonder is the coast of Norway. From that coast parted Hugh Willoughby, +three hundred years ago; the first of our countrymen who wrought an +ice-bound highway to Cathay. Two years afterwards his ships were +found, in the haven of Arzina, in Lapland, by some Russian fishermen; +near and about them Willoughby and his companions--seventy dead men. +The ships were freighted with their frozen crews, and sailed for +England; but, "being unstaunch, as it is supposed by their two years' +wintering in Lapland, sunk, by the way, with their dead, and them also +that brought them." + +Ice floats about us now, and here is a whale blowing; a whale, too, +very near Spitzbergen. When first Spitzbergen was discovered, in the +good old times, there were whales here in abundance; then a hundred +Dutch ships in a crowd, might go to work, and boats might jostle with +each other, and the only thing deficient would be stowage room for all +the produce of the fishery. Now one ship may have the whole field to +itself, and travel home with an imperfect cargo. It was fine fun in +the good old times; there was no need to cruise. Coppers and boilers +were fitted on the island, and little colonies about them, in the +fishing season, had nothing to do but tow the whales in, with a boat, +as fast as they were wanted by the copper. No wonder that so enviable +a Tom Tidler's ground was claimed by all who had a love for gold and +silver. The English called it theirs, for they first fished; the Dutch +said, nay, but the island was of their discovery; Danes, Hamburghers, +Biscayans, Spaniards, and French put in their claims; and at length, +it was agreed to make partitions. The numerous bays and harbors which +indent the coast were divided among the rival nations; and to this +day, many of them bear, accordingly, such names as English Bay, Danes +Bay, and so forth. One bay there is, with graves in it, named Sorrow. +For it seemed to the fishers most desirable, if possible, to plant +upon this island permanent establishments, and condemned convicts were +offered, by the Russians, life and pardon, if they would winter in +Spitzbergen. They agreed; but, when they saw the icy mountains and the +stormy sea, repented, and went back, to meet a death exempt from +torture. The Dutch tempted free men, by high rewards, to try the +dangerous experiment. One of their victims left a journal, which +describes his sufferings and that of his companions. Their mouths, he +says, became so sore that, if they had food, they could not eat; their +limbs were swollen and disabled with excruciating pain; they died of +scurvy. Those who died first were coffined by their dying friends; a +row of coffins was found, in the spring, each with a man in it; two +men uncoffined, side by side, were dead upon the floor. The journal +told, how once the traces of a bear excited their hope of fresh meat +and amended health; how, with a lantern, two or three had limped upon +the track, until the light became extinguished, and they came back in +despair to die. We might speak, also, of eight English sailors, left, +by accident, upon Spitzbergen, who lived to return and tell their +winter's tale; but a long journey is before us, and we must not linger +on the way. As for our whalers, it need scarcely be related that the +multitude of whales diminished as the slaughtering went on, until it +was no longer possible to keep the coppers full. The whales had to be +searched for by the vessels, and thereafter it was not worth while to +take the blubber to Spitzbergen to be boiled; and the different +nations, having carried home their coppers, left the apparatus of +those fishing stations to decay. + +Take heed. There is a noise like thunder, and a mountain snaps in two. +The upper half comes, crashing, grinding, down into the sea, and +loosened streams of water follow it. The sea is displaced before the +mighty heap; it boils and scatters up a cloud of spray; it rushes +back, and violently beats upon the shore. The mountain rises from its +bath, sways to and fro, while water pours along its mighty sides; now +it is tolerably quiet, letting crackers off as air escapes out of its +cavities. That is an iceberg, and in that way are all icebergs formed. +Mountains of ice formed by rain and snow--grand Arctic glaciers, +undermined by the sea or by accumulation overbalanced--topple down +upon the slightest provocation (moved by a shout, perhaps) and where +they float, as this black looking fellow does, they need deep water. +This berg in height is about ninety feet, and a due balance requires +that a mass nine times as large as the part visible should be +submerged. Icebergs are seen about us now which rise two hundred feet +above the water's level. + +There are above head plenty of aquatic birds; ashore, or on the ice, +are bears, foxes, reindeer; and in the sea there are innumerable +animals. We shall not see so much life near the North Pole, that is +certain. It would be worth while to go ashore upon an islet there, +near Vogel Sang, to pay a visit to the eider-ducks. Their nests are +so abundant that one cannot avoid treading on them. When the duck is +driven by a hungry fox to leave her eggs, she covers them with down, +in order that they may not cool during her absence, and, moreover, +glues the down into a case with a secretion supplied to her by Nature +for that purpose. The deserted eggs are safe, for that secretion has +an odor very disagreeable to the intruder's nose. + +We still sail northward, among sheets of ice, whose boundaries are not +beyond our vision from the mast-head--these are "floes;" between them +we find easy way, it is fair "sailing ice." In the clear sky to the +north, a streak of lucid white light is the reflection from an icy +surface; that is "ice-blink," in the language of these seas. The glare +from snow is yellow, while open water gives a dark reflection. + +Northward still; but now we are in fog the ice is troublesome; a gale +is rising. Now, if our ship had timbers, they would crack, and if she +had a bell it would be tolling; if we were shouting to each other we +should not hear, the sea is in a fury. With wild force its breakers +dash against a heaped-up wall of broken ice, that grinds and strains +and battles fiercely with the water. This is "the pack," the edge of a +great ice-field broken by the swell. It is a perilous and exciting +thing to push through pack ice in a gale. + +Now there is ice as far as eye can see, that is "an ice-field." Masses +are forced up like colossal tombstones on all sides; our sailors call +them "hummocks;" here and there the broken ice displays large "holes +of water." Shall we go on? Upon this field, in 1827, Parry adventured +with his men, to reach the North Pole, if that should be possible. +With sledges and portable boats they labored on, through snow, and +over hummocks; launching their boats over the larger holes of water. +With stout hearts, undaunted by toil or danger, they went boldly on, +though by degrees it became clear to the leaders of the expedition, +that they were almost like mice upon a treadmill cage, making a great +expenditure of leg for little gain. The ice was floating to the south +with them, as they were walking to the north; still they went on. +Sleeping by day to avoid the glare, and to get greater warmth during +the time of rest, and travelling by night,--watch-makers' days and +nights, for it was all one polar day,--the men soon were unable to +distinguish noon from midnight. The great event of one day on this +dreary waste was the discovery of two flies upon an ice hummock; +these, says Parry, became at once a topic of ridiculous importance. +Presently, after twenty-three miles walking, they only had gone one +mile forward, the ice having industriously floated twenty-two miles in +an opposite direction; and then, after walking forward eleven miles, +they found themselves to be three miles behind the place from which +they started. The party accordingly returned, not having reached the +Pole, not having reached the eighty-third parallel, for the attainment +of which there was a reward of a thousand pounds held out by +government. They reached the parallel of eighty-two degrees, +forty-five minutes, which was, and still is, the most northerly point +trodden by the foot of man. From that point they returned. In those +high latitudes they met with a phenomenon, common in alpine regions, +as well as at the Pole, red snow. The red color being caused by the +abundance of a minute plant, of low development, the last dweller on +the borders of the vegetable kingdom. More interesting to the sailors +was a fat she bear which they killed and devoured with a zeal to be +repented of; for on reaching navigable sea, and pushing in their boats +to Table Island, where some stones were left, they found that the +bears had eaten all their bread, whereon the men agreed that "Bruin +was now square with them." An islet next to Table Island--they are +both mere rocks--is the most northern land discovered. Therefore, +Parry applied to it the name of lieutenant--now Sir James--Ross. This +compliment Sir James Ross has acknowledged in the most emphatic +manner, by discovering on his part, at the other Pole, the most +southern land yet seen, and giving to it the name of Parry: "Parry +Mountains." + +It very probably would not be difficult under such circumstances as +Sir W. Parry has since recommended, to reach the North Pole along this +route. Then (especially if it be true, as many believe, that there is +a region of open sea about the Pole itself) we might find it as easy +to reach Behring Straits, by travelling in a straight line over the +North Pole, as by threading the straits and bays north of America. + +We turn our course until we have in sight a portion of the ice-barred +eastern coast of Greenland, Shannon Island. Somewhere about this spot +in the seventy-fifth parallel is the most northern part of that coast +known to us. Colonel--then Captain--Sabine in the "Griper," was landed +there to make magnetic and other observations; for the same purpose he +had previously visited Sierra Leone. That is where we differ from our +forefathers. They commissioned hardy seamen to encounter peril for the +search of gold ore, or for a near road to Cathay, but our peril is +encountered for the gain of knowledge, for the highest kind of service +that can now be rendered to the human race. + +Before we leave the northern sea, we must not omit to mention the +voyage by Spitzbergen northward, in 1818, of Captain Buchan in the +"Dorothea," accompanied by Lieutenant Franklin, in the "Trent." It was +Sir John Franklin's first voyage to the Arctic regions. This trip +forms the subject of a delightful book by Captain Beechey. + +On our way to the south point of Greenland we pass near Cape North, a +point of Iceland. Iceland, we know, is the centre of a volcanic +region, whereof Norway and Greenland are at opposite points of the +circumference. In connection with this district there is a remarkable +fact; that by the agency of subterranean forces a large portion of +Norway and Sweden is being slowly upheaved. While Greenland, on the +west coast, as gradually sinks into the sea, Norway rises at the rate +of about four feet in a century. In Greenland the sinking is so well +known that the natives never build close to the water's edge, and the +Moravian missionaries more than once have had to move farther inland +the poles on which their boats are rested. + +Our Phantom Ship stands fairly now along the western coast of +Greenland into Davis Straits. We observe that upon this western coast +there is, by a great deal, less ice than on the eastern. That is a +rule generally. Not only the configuration of the straits and bays, +but also the earth's rotation from west to east, causes the currents +here to set towards the west, and wash the western coasts, while they +act very little on the eastern. We steer across Davis Strait, among +"an infinite number of great countreys and islands of yee;" there, +near the entrance, we find Hudson Strait, which does not now concern +us. Islands probably separate this well-known channel from Frobisher +Strait to the north of it, yet unexplored. Here let us recall to mind +the fleet of fifteen sail, under Sir Martin Frobisher, in 1578, +tossing about and parting company among the ice. Let us remember how +the crew of the "Anne Frances," in that expedition, built a pinnace +when their vessel struck upon a rock, although they wanted main timber +and nails. How they made a mimic forge, and "for the easier making of +nails, were forced to break their tongs, gridiron, and fire-shovel, in +pieces." How Master Captain Best, in this frail bark, with its +imperfect timbers held together by the metamorphosed gridiron and +fire-shovel, continued in his duty, and did "depart up the straights +as before was pretended." How a terrific storm arose, and the fleet +parted, and the intrepid captain was towed "in his small pinnace, at +the stern of the 'Michael,' thorow the raging seas; for the bark was +not able to receive or relieve half its company." The "tongs, +gridyron, and fire-shovell," performed their work only for as many +minutes as were absolutely necessary, for "the pinesse came no sooner +aboord the ship, and the men entred, but she presently shivered and +fell in pieces, and sunke at the ship's stern with all the poor men's +furniture." + +Now, too, as we sail up the strait, explored a few years after these +events by Master John Davis, how proudly we remember him as a right +worthy forerunner of those countrymen of his and ours who since have +sailed over his track. Nor ought we to pass without calling to mind +the melancholy fate, in 1606, of Master John Knight, driven, in the +"Hopwell," among huge masses of ice, with a tremendous surf, his +rudder knocked away, his ship half full of water, at the entrance to +these straits. Hoping to find a harbor, he set forth to explore a +large island, and landed, leaving two men to watch the boat, while he, +with three men and the mate, set forth and disappeared over a hill. +For thirteen hours the watchers kept their post; one had his trumpet +with him, for he was a trumpeter, the other had a gun. They trumpeted +often and loudly, they fired, but no answer came. They watched ashore +all night for the return of their captain and his party, "but they +came not at all." + +The season is advanced. As we sail on, the sea steams like a +lime-kiln, "frost-smoke" covers it. The water, cooled less rapidly, is +warmer now than the surrounding air, and yields this vapor in +consequence. By the time our vessel has reached Baffin's Bay, still +coasting along Greenland, in addition to old floes and bergs, the +water is beset with "pancake ice." That is the young ice when it first +begins to cake upon the surface. Innocent enough it seems, but it is +sadly clogging to the ships. It sticks about their sides like treacle +on a fly's wing; collecting unequally, it destroys all equilibrium, +and impedes the efforts of the steersman. Rocks split on the Greenland +coast with loud explosions, and more icebergs fall. Icebergs we soon +shall take our leave of; they are only found where there is a coast on +which glaciers can form; they are good for nothing but to yield fresh +water to the vessels; it will be all field, pack, and salt-water ice +presently. + +Now we are in Baffin's Bay, explored in the voyages of Bylot and +Baffin, 1615-16. When, in 1817, a great movement in the Greenland ice +caused many to believe that the northern passages would be found +comparatively clear; and when, in consequence of this impression, Sir +John Barrow succeeded in setting a-foot that course of modern Arctic +exploration, which has been continued to the present day, Sir John +Ross was the first man sent to find the north-west passage. Buchan and +Parry were commissioned at the same time to attempt the North Sea +route. Sir John Ross did little more on that occasion than effect a +survey of Baffin's Bay, and prove the accuracy of the ancient pilot. +In the extreme north of the bay there is an inlet or a channel, called +by Baffin Smith's Sound; this Sir John saw, but did not enter. It +never has been explored. It may be an inlet only; but it is also very +possible that by this channel ships might get into the Polar Sea, and +sail by the north shore of Greenland to Spitzbergen. Turning that +corner, and descending along the western coast of Baffin's Bay, there +is another inlet called Jones's Sound by Baffin, also unexplored. +These two inlets, with their very British titles, Smith and Jones, are +of exceeding interest. Jones's Sound may lead by a back way to +Melville Island. South of Jones's Sound there is a wide break in the +shore, a great sound, named by Baffin, Lancaster's, which Sir John +Ross, in that first expedition, failed also to explore. Like our +transatlantic friends at the South Pole, he laid down a range of +clouds as mountains, and considered the way impervious; so he came +home. + +Parry went out next year, as a lieutenant, in command of his first and +most successful expedition. He sailed up Lancaster Sound, which was in +that year (1819) unusually clear of ice: and he is the discoverer +whose track we now follow in our Phantom Ship. The whole ground being +new, he had to name the points of country right and left of him. The +way was broad and open, due west, a most prosperous beginning for a +north-west passage. If this continued, he would soon reach Behring +Strait. A broad channel to the right, directed, that is to say, +southward, he entered on the Prince of Wales's birthday, and so called +it the "Prince Regent's Inlet." After exploring this for some miles, +he turned back to resume his western course, for still there was a +broad strait leading westward. This second part of Lancaster Sound, he +called after the Secretary of the Admiralty who had so indefatigably +labored to promote the expeditions, Barrow's Strait. Then he came to a +channel, turning to the right or northward, and he named that +Wellington Channel. Then he had on his right hand ice, islands large +and small, and intervening channels; on the left, ice, and a cape +visible, Cape Walker. At an island, named after the First Lord of the +Admiralty Melville Island, the great frozen wilderness barred further +progress. There he wintered. On the coast of Melville Island they had +passed the latitude of one hundred and ten degrees, and the men had +become entitled to a royal bounty of five thousand pounds. This group +of islands Parry called North Georgian, but they are usually called by +his own name, Parry Islands. This was the first European winter party +in the Arctic circle. Its details are familiar enough. How the men cut +in three days through ice seven inches thick, a canal two miles and a +half long, and so brought the ships into safe harbor. How the genius +of Parry equalled the occasion; how there was established a theatre +and a _North Georgian Gazette_, to cheer the tediousness of a night +which continued for two thousand hours. The dreary dazzling waste in +which there was that little patch of life, the stars, the fog, the +moonlight, the glittering wonder of the northern lights, in which, as +Greenlanders believe, souls of the wicked dance tormented, are +familiar to us. The she-bear stays at home; but the he-bear hungers, +and looks in vain for a stray seal or walrus--woe to the unarmed man +who meets him in his hungry mood! Wolves are abroad, and pretty white +arctic foxes. The reindeer have sought other pasture-ground. The +thermometer runs down to more than sixty degrees below freezing, a +temperature tolerable in calm weather, but distressing in a wind. The +eye-piece of the telescope must be protected now with leather, for the +skin is destroyed that comes in contact with cold metal. The voice at +a mile's distance can be heard distinctly. Happy the day when first +the sun is seen to graze the edge of the horizon; but summer must +come, and the heat of a constant day must accumulate, and summer wane, +before the ice is melted. Then the ice cracks, like cannons +over-charged, and moves with a loud grinding noise. But not yet is +escape to be made with safety. After a detention of ten months, Parry +got free; but, in escaping, narrowly missed the destruction of both +ships, by their being "nipped" between the mighty mass and the +unyielding shore. What animals are found on Melville Island, we may +judge from the results of sport during ten months' detention. The +Island exceeds five thousand miles square, and yielded to the gun, +three musk oxen, twenty-four deer, sixty-eight bears, fifty-three +geese, fifty-nine ducks, and one hundred and forty-four patarmigans, +weighing together three thousand seven hundred and sixty-six +pounds--not quite two ounces of meat per day to every man. Lichens, +stunted grass, saxifrage, and a feeble willow, are the plants of +Melville Island, but in sheltered nooks there are found sorrel, poppy, +and a yellow butter-cup. Halos and double suns are very common +consequences of refraction in this quarter of the world. Franklin +returned from his first and most famous voyage with his men all safe +and sound, except the loss of a few fingers, frost-bitten. We sail +back only as far as Regent's Inlet, being bound for Behring Strait. +The reputation of Sir John Ross being clouded by the discontent +expressed against his first expedition, Mr. Felix Booth, a rich +distiller, provided seventeen thousand pounds to enable his friend to +redeem his credit. Sir John accordingly, in 1829, went out in the +"Victory," provided with steam-machinery that did not answer well. He +was accompanied by Sir James Ross, his nephew. He it was who, on this +occasion, first surveyed Regent's Inlet, down which we are now sailing +with our Phantom Ship. The coast on our right hand, westward, which +Parry saw, is called North Somerset, but farther south, where the +inlet widens, the land is named Boothia Felix. Five years before this, +Parry, in his third voyage, had attempted to pass down Regent's Inlet, +where among ice and storm, one of his ships, the "Hecla," had been +driven violently ashore, and of necessity, abandoned. The stores had +been removed, and Sir John was able now to replenish his own vessel +from them. Rounding a point at the bottom of Prince Regent's Inlet, we +find Felix Harbor, where Sir John Ross wintered. His nephew made from +this point scientific explorations; discovered a strait, called after +him the Strait of James Ross, and on the northern shore of this +strait, on the main land of Boothia, planted the British flag on the +Northern Magnetic Pole. The ice broke up, so did the "Victory;" after +a hairbreadth escape, the party found a searching vessel, and arrived +home after an absence of four years and five months, Sir John Ross +having lost his ship, and won his reputation. The friend in need was +made a baronet for his munificence; Sir John was reimbursed for all +his losses, and the crew liberally taken care of. Sir James Ross had a +rod and flag signifying "Magnetic Pole," given to him for a new crest, +by the Heralds' College, for which he was no doubt greatly the better. + +We have sailed northward to get into Hudson Strait, the high road into +Hudson Bay. Along the shore are Exquimaux in boats, extremely active, +but these filthy creatures we pass by; the Exquimaux in Hudson Strait +are like the negroes of the coast, demoralized by intercourse with +European traders. These are not true pictures of the loving children +of the north. Our "Phantom" floats on the wide waters of Hudson +Bay--the grave of its discoverer. Familiar as the story is of Henry +Hudson's fate, for John King's sake how gladly we repeat it. While +sailing on the waters he discovered, in 1611, his men mutinied; the +mutiny was aided by Henry Green, a prodigal, whom Hudson had +generously shielded from ruin. Hudson, the master, and his son, with +six sick or disabled members of the crew, were driven from their +cabins, forced into a little shallop, and committed helpless to the +water and the ice. But there was one stout man, John King, the +carpenter, who stepped into the boat, abjuring his companions, and +chose rather to die than even passively be partaker in so foul a +crime. John King, we who live after, will remember you. + +Here on an island, Charlton Island, near our entrance to the bay, in +1631, wintered poor Captain James with his wrecked crew. This is a +point outside the Arctic circle, but quite cold enough. Of nights, +with a good fire in the house they built, hoar frost covered their +beds, and the cook's water in a metal pan before the fire, was warm on +one side, and froze on the other. Here "it snowed and froze extremely, +at which time we, looking from the shore towards the ship, she +appeared a piece of ice in the fashion of a ship, or a ship resembling +a piece of ice." Here the gunner, who had lost his leg, besought that, +"for the little time he had to live, he might drink sack altogether." +He died and was buried in the ice far from the vessel, but when +afterwards two more were dead of scurvy, and the others, in a +miserable state, were working with faint hope about their shattered +vessel, the gunner was found to have returned home to the old vessel; +his leg had penetrated through a porthole. They "digged him clear out, +and he was as free from noisomness," the record says, "as when we +first committed him to the sea. This alteration had the ice, and +water, and time, only wrought on him, that his flesh would slip up and +down upon his bones, like a glove on a man's hand. In the evening we +buried him by the others." These worthy souls, laid up with the +agonies of scurvy, knew that in action was their only hope; they +forced their limbs to labor, among ice and water, every day. They set +about the building of a boat, but the hard frozen wood had broken all +their axes, so they made shift with the pieces. To fell a tree, it was +first requisite to light a fire around it, and the carpenter could +only labor with his wood over a fire, or else it was like stone under +his tools. Before the boat was made they buried the carpenter. The +captain exhorted them to put their trust in God; "His will be done. If +it be our fortune to end our days here, we are as near Heaven as in +England. They all protested to work to the utmost of their strength, +and that they would refuse nothing that I should order them to do to +the utmost hazard of their lives. I thanked them all." Truly the North +Pole has its triumphs. If we took no account of the fields of trade +opened by our Arctic explorers, if we thought nothing of the wants of +science in comparison with the lives lost in supplying them, is not +the loss of life a gain, which proves and tests the fortitude of noble +hearts, and teaches us respect for human nature? All the lives that +have been lost among these Polar regions, are less in number than the +dead upon a battle-field. The battle-field inflicted shame upon our +race--is it with shame that our hearts throb in following these Arctic +heroes? March 31st, says Captain James, "was very cold, with snow and +hail, which pinched our sick men more than any time this year. This +evening, being May eve, we returned late from our work to our house, +and made a good fire, and chose ladies, and ceremoniously wore their +names in our caps, endeavoring to revive ourselves by any means. On +the 15th, I manured a little patch of ground that was bare of snow, +and sowed it with pease, hoping to have some shortly to eat, for as +yet we could see no green thing to comfort us." Those pease saved the +party; as they came up the young shoots were boiled and eaten, so +their health began to mend, and they recovered from their scurvy. +Eventually, after other perils, they succeeded making their escape. + +A strait, called Sir Thomas Rowe's Welcome, leads due north out of +Hudson Bay, being parted by Southampton Island from the strait through +which we entered. Its name is quaint, for so was its discoverer, Luke +Fox, a worthy man, addicted much to euphuism. Fox sailed from London +in the same year in which James sailed from Bristol. They were rivals. +Meeting in Davis Straits, Fox dined on board his friendly rival's +vessel, which was very unfit for the service upon which it went. The +sea washed over them and came into the cabin, so says Fox, "sauce +would not have been wanted if there had been roast mutton." Luke Fox +being ice-bound and in peril, writes, "God thinks upon our +imprisonment with a _supersedeas_;" but he was a good and honorable +man as well as euphuist. His "Sir Thomas Rowe's Welcome," leads into +Fox Channel; our "Phantom Ship" is pushing through the welcome passes +on the left-hand Repulse Bay. This portion of the Arctic regions, with +Fox Channel, is extremely perilous. Here Captain Lyon, in the +"Griper," was thrown anchorless upon the mercy of a stormy sea, ice +crashing around him. One island in Fox Channel is called Mill Island, +from the incessant grinding of great masses of ice collected there. In +the northern part of Fox Channel, on the western shore, is Melville +Peninsula, where Parry wintered on his second voyage. Here let us go +ashore and see a little colony of Esquimaux. + +Their huts are built of blocks of snow, and arched, having an ice pane +for a window. They construct their arched entrance and their +hemispherical roof, on the true principles of architecture. Those wise +men, the Egyptians, made their arch by hewing the stones out of shape, +the Esquimaux have the true secret. Here they are, with little food in +winter and great appetites; devouring a whole walrus when they get it, +and taking the chance of hunger for the next eight days--hungry or +full, for ever happy in their lot--here are the Esquimaux. They are +warmly clothed, each in a double suit of skins sewn neatly together. +Some are singing, with good voices, too. Please them, and they +straightway dance; activity is good in a cold climate. Play to them on +the flute, or if you can sing well, sing, or turn a barrel-organ, they +are mute, eager with wonder and delight; their love of music is +intense. Give them a pencil, and, like children, they will draw. Teach +them, and they will learn, oblige them, and they will be grateful. +"Gentle and loving savages," one of our old worthies called them, and +the Portuguese were so much impressed with their teachable and gentle +conduct, that a Venetian ambassador writes, "His serene majesty +contemplates deriving great advantage from the country, not only on +account of the timber, of which he has occasion, but of the +inhabitants, who are admirably calculated for labor, and are the best +I have ever seen." The Esquimaux, of course, will learn vice, and in +the region visited by whale ships, vice enough has certainly been +taught him. Here are the dogs, who will eat old coats, or any thing; +and, near the dwellings, here is a snow-bunting,--robin redbreast of +the Arctic lands. A party of our sailors once, on landing, took some +sticks from a large heap, and uncovered the nest of a snow-bunting +with young, the bird flew to a little distance, but seeing that the +men sat down and harmed her not, continued to seek food and supply her +little ones, with full faith in the good intentions of the party. +Captain Lyon found a child's grave partly uncovered, and a +snow-bunting had built its nest upon the infant's bosom. + +Sailing round Melville Peninsula, we come into the gulf of Akkolee, +through Fury and Hecla Straits, discovered by Parry. So we get back to +the bottom of Regent's Inlet, which we quitted a short time ago, and +sailing in the neighborhood of the magnetic pole, we reach the estuary +of Black's River, on the north-east coast of America. We pass then +through a straight, discovered in 1839, by Dean and Simpson, still +coasting along the northern shore of America, on the Great Stinking +Lake, as Indians call this ocean. Boats, ice permitting, and our +"Phantom Ship," of course, can coast all the way to Behring Strait. +The whole coast has been explored by Sir John Franklin, Sir John +Richardson, and Sir George Back, who have earned their knighthoods +through great peril. As we pass Coronation Gulf--the scene of +Franklin, Richardson, and Back's first exploration from the Coppermine +River--we revert to the romantic story of their journey back, over a +land of snow and frost, subsisting upon lichens, with companions +starved to death; where they plucked wild leaves for tea, and ate +their shoes for supper; the tragedy by the river; the murder of poor +Hood, with a book of prayers in his hand; Franklin at Fort Enterprise, +with two companions at the point of death, himself gaunt, hollow-eyed, +feeding on pounded bones, raked from the dunghill; the arrival of Dr. +Richardson and the brave sailor; their awful story of the cannibal +Michel;--we revert to these things with a shudder. But we must +continue on our route. The current still flows westward, bearing now +large quantities of drift-wood, out of the Mackenzie River. At the +name of Sir Alexander Mackenzie, also, we might pause, and talk over +the bold achievements of another arctic hero; but we pass on, by a +rugged and inhospitable coast, unfit for vessels of large +draught,--pass the broad mouth of the Youcon, pass Point Barrow, Icy +Cape, and are in Behring Strait. Had we passed on, we should have +found the Russian Arctic coast line, traced out by a series of Russian +explorers; of whom the most illustrious--Baron Von Wrangell--states, +that beyond a certain distance to the northward, there is always found +what he calls the _Polynja_ (open water.) This is the fact adduced by +those who adhere to the old fancy that there is a sea about the pole +itself quite free from ice. + +We pass through Behring Straits. Behring, a Dane by birth, but in the +Russian service, died here in 1741, upon the scene of his discovery. +He and his crew, victims of scurvy, were unable to manage their vessel +in a storm; and it was at length wrecked on a barren island, there, +where "want, nakedness, cold, sickness, impatience, and despair were +their daily guests." Behring, his lieutenant, and the master died. + +Now we must put a girdle round the world, and do it with the speed of +Ariel. Here we are already in the heats of the equator. We can do no +more than remark, that if air and water are heated at the equator, and +frozen at the poles, there will be equilibrium destroyed, and +constant currents caused. And so it happens, so we get the prevailing +winds, and all the currents of the ocean. Of these, some of the uses, +but by no means all, are obvious. We urge our "Phantom" fleetly to the +southern pole. Here, over the other hemisphere of the earth, there +shines another hemisphere of heaven. The stars are changed; the +southern cross, the Magellanic clouds, the "coal-sack" in the milky +way, attract our notice. Now we are in the southern latitude that +corresponds to England in the north; nay, at a greater distance, from +the pole, we find Kerguelen's Land, emphatically called "The Isle of +Desolation." Icebergs float much further into the warm sea on this +side of the equator, before they dissolve. The South Pole is evidently +a more thorough refrigerator than the North. Why is this? We shall +soon see. We push through pack-ice, and through floes and fields, by +lofty bergs, by an island or two covered with penguins, until there +lies before us a long range of mountains, nine or ten thousand feet in +height, and all clad in eternal snow. That is a portion of the +Southern Continent. Lieutenant Wilkes, in the American exploring +expedition, first discovered this, and mapped out some part of the +coast, putting a few clouds in likewise,--a mistake easily made by +those who omit to verify every foot of land. Sir James Ross, in his +most successful South Pole Expedition, during the years 1839-43, +sailed over some of this land, and confirmed the rest. The Antarctic, +as well as the Arctic honors he secured for England, by turning a +corner of the land, and sailing far southward, along an impenetrable +icy barrier, to the latitude of seventy-eight degrees, nine minutes. +It is an elevated continent, with many lofty ranges. In the extreme +southern point reached by the ships, a magnificent volcano was seen +spouting fire and smoke out of the everlasting snow. This volcano, +twelve thousand four hundred feet high, was named Mount Erebus; for +the "Erebus" and "Terror," now sought anxiously among the bays, and +sounds, and creeks of the North Pole, then coasted by the solid +ice-walls of the south. Only as "Phantoms" can we cross this land and +live. These lofty mountain-ranges, cold to the marrow, these vast +glaciers, and elevated plains of ice, no wonder that they cast a chill +about their neighborhood. Our very ghosts are cold, and the volcanoes +only make the frost colder by contrast. We descend upon the other +side, take ship again, and float up the Atlantic, through the tropics. +We have been round the world now, and among the ice, and have not +grown much older since we started. + + * * * * * + +Other "Phantoms" are to be added to those thus described. Besides the +expeditions now in the ice regions, from England and America, one, and +perhaps two more, have in the last two months started in the search +for Franklin. + + + + +MADAME DE GENLIS AND MADAME DE STAEL. + + +This curious piece has recently appeared in the _Gazette de France_, +and has excited much remark. It is given out to be the production of +Charles X., when Monsieur, and was communicated to M. Neychens by the +Marquis de la Roche Jacqueleine. + +"Before the Revolution, I was but very slightly acquainted with Mme. +de Genlis, her conduct during that disastrous period having not a +little contributed to sink her in my estimation; and the publication +of her novel, 'The Knights of the Swan' (the _first_ edition), +completed my dislike to a person who had so cruelly aspersed the +character of the queen, my sister-in-law. + +"On my return to France, I received a letter full of the most +passionate expressions of loyalty from beginning to end; the missive +being signed Comtesse de Genlis; but imagining this could be but a +_plaisanterie_ of some intimate friend of my own, I paid no attention +whatever to it. However, in two or three days it was followed by a +second epistle, complaining of my silence, and appealing to the great +sacrifices the writer had made in the interest of my cause, as giving +her a _right_ to my favorable attention. Talleyrand being present, I +asked him if he could explain this enigma. + +"'Nothing is easier,' replied he; 'Mme. de Genlis is unique. She has +lost her own memory, and fancies others have experienced a similar +bereavement.' + +"'She speaks,' pursued I, 'of her virtues, her misfortunes, and +Napoleon's persecutions.' + +"'Hem! In 1789 her husband was quite ruined, so the events of that +period took nothing from _him_; and as to the tyranny of Bonaparte, it +consisted, in the first place, of giving her a magnificent suite of +apartments in the Arsenal; and in the second place, granting her a +pension of six thousand francs a year, upon the sole condition of her +keeping him every month _au courant_ of the literature of the day.' + +"'What shocking ferocity!' replied I, laughing; 'a case of infamous +despotism indeed. And this martyr to our cause asks to see me.' + +"'Yes; and pray let your royal highness grant her an audience, were it +only for once: I assure you she is most amusing.' + +"I followed the advice of M. de Talleyrand, and accorded to the lady +the permission she so pathetically demanded. The evening before she +was to present herself, however, came a third missive, recommending a +certain Casimir, the _phenix_ of the _epoque_, and several other +persons besides; all, according to Mme. de Genlis, particularly +celebrated people; and the postscript to this effusion prepared me +also beforehand for the request she intended to make, of being +appointed governess to the children of my son, the Duc de Berry, who +was at that time not even married. + +"Just at this period it so happened that I was besieged by more than a +dozen persons of every rank in regard to Mme. de Stael, formerly +exiled by Bonaparte, and who had rushed to Paris without taking +breath, fully persuaded every one there, and throughout all France, +was impatient to see her again. Mme. de Stael had a double view in +thus introducing herself to me; namely, to direct my proceedings +entirely, and to obtain payment of the two million francs deposited in +the treasury by her father during his ministry. I confess I was not +prepossessed in favor of Mme. de Stael, for she also, in 1789, had +manifested so much hatred towards the Bourbons, that I thought all she +could possibly look to from us, was the liberty of living in Paris +unmolested: but I little knew her. She, on her side, imagined we ought +to be grateful to her for having quarrelled with Bonaparte--her own +pride being, in fact, the sole cause of the rupture. + +"M. de Fontanes and M. de Chateaubriand were the first who mentioned +her to me; and to the importance with which they treated the matter, I +answered, laughing, 'So, Mme. la Baronne de Stael is then a supreme +power?' + +"'Indeed she is, and it might have very unfavorable effects did your +royal highness overlook her: for what she asserts, every one believes, +and then--she has suffered _so_ much!' + +"'Very likely; but what did she make my poor sister-in-law, the queen, +suffer? Do you think I can forget the abominable things she said, the +falsehoods she told? and was it not in consequence of them, and the +public's belief of them, that she owed the possibility of the +ambassadress of Sweden's being able to dare insult that unfortunate +princess in her very palace?' + +"Mme. de Stael's envoys, who manifested some confusion at the fidelity +of my memory, implored me to forget the past, think only of the +future, and remember that the genius of Mme. de Stael, whose +reputation was European, might be of the utmost advantage, or the +reverse. Tired of disputing I yielded; consented to receive this +_femme celebre_, as they all called her, and fixed for her reception +the same day I had notified to Mme. de Genlis. + +"My brother has said, 'Punctuality is the politeness of kings'--words +as true and just as they are happily expressed; and the princes of my +family have never been found wanting in good manners; so I was in my +study waiting when Mme. de Genlis was announced. I was astonished at +the sight of a long, dry woman, with a swarthy complexion, dressed in +a printed cotton gown, any thing but clean, and a shawl covered with +dust, her habit-shirt, her hair even bearing marks of great +negligence. I had read her works, and remembering all she said about +neatness, and cleanliness, and proper attention to one's dress, I +thought she added another to the many who fail to add example to their +precepts. While making these reflections, Mme. de Genlis was firing +off a volley of curtsies; and upon finishing what she deemed the +requisite number, she pulled out of a great huge bag four manuscripts +of enormous dimensions. + +"'I bring,' commenced the lady, 'to your royal highness what will +amply repay any kindness you may show to me--No. 1 is a plan of +conduct, and the project of a constitution; No. 2 contains a +collection of speeches in answer to those likely to be addressed to +Monsieur; No. 3, addresses and letters proper to send to foreign +powers, the provinces, &c., and in No. 4, Monsieur will find a plan of +education, the only one proper to be persued by royalty, in reading +which, your royal highness will feel as convinced of the extent of my +acquirements as of the purity of my loyalty.' + +"Many in my place might have been angry; but, on the contrary, I +thanked her with an air of polite sincerity for the treasures she was +so obliging as to confide to me, and then condoled with her upon the +misfortunes she had endured under the tyranny of Bonaparte. + +"'Alas! Monsieur, this abominable despot dared to make a mere +plaything of _me_! and yet I strove, by wise advice, to guide him +right, and teach him to regulate his conduct properly: but he would +not be led. I even offered to mediate between him and the pope, but he +did not even so much as answer me upon this subject; although (being a +most profound theologian) I could have smoothed almost all +difficulties when the Concordat was in question.' + +"This last piece of pretension was almost too much for my gravity. +However, I applauded the zeal of this new mother of the church, and +was going to put an end to the interview, when it came into my head to +ask her if she was well acquainted with Mme. de Stael. + +"'God forbid!' cried she, making a sign of the cross: 'I have no +acquaintance with _such people_; and I but do my duty in warning those +who have not perused the works of that lady, to bear in mind that they +are written in the worst possible taste, and are also extremely +immoral. Let your royal highness turn your thoughts from such books; +you will find in _mine_ all that is necessary to know. I suppose +Monsieur has not yet seen _Little Necker_?' + +"'Mme. la Baronne de Stael Holstein has asked for an audience, and I +even suspect she may be already arrived at the Tuileries.' + +"'Let your royal highness beware of this woman! See in her the +implacable enemy of the Bourbons, and in me their most devoted slave.' + +"This new proof of the want of memory in Madame de Genlis amused me as +much as the other absurdities she had favored me with; and I was in +the act of making her the ordinary salutations of adieu, when I +observed her blush purple, and her proud rival entered. + +"The two ladies exchanged a haughty bow, and the comedy, which had +just finished with the departure of Mme. de Genlis, recommenced under +a different form when Mme. de Stael appeared on the stage. The +baroness was dressed, not certainly dirty, like the countess, but +quite as absurdly. She wore a red satin gown, embroidered with flowers +of gold and silk; a profusion of diamonds; rings enough to stock a +pawnbroker's shop; and, I must add, that I never before saw so low a +cut corsage display less inviting charms. Upon her head was a huge +turban, constructed on the pattern of that worn by the Cumean sybil, +which put a finishing stroke to a costume so little in harmony with +her style of face. I scarcely understand how a woman of genius _can_ +have such a false, vulgar taste. Mme. de Stael began by apologizing +for occupying a few moments which she doubted not I should have +preferred giving to Mme. de Genlis. 'She is one of the illustrations +of the day,' observed she, with a sneering smile--'a colossus of +religious faith, and represents in her person, she fancies, all the +literature of the age. Ah! ah! Monsieur, in the hands of _such people_ +the world would soon retrograde; while it should, on the contrary, be +impelled forward, and your royal highness be the first to put yourself +at the head of this great movement. To you should belong the glory of +giving the impulse, guided by _my experience_.' + +"'Come,' thought I, 'here is another going to plague me with plans of +conduct, and constitutions, and reforms, which I am to persuade the +king my brother to adopt. It seems to be an insanity in France this +composing of new constitutions.' While I was making these reflections, +madame had time to give utterance to a thousand fine phrases, every +one more sublime than the preceding. However, to put an end to them, I +asked her if there was any thing she wished to demand. + +"'Ah, dear!--oh yes, prince!' replied the lady in an indifferent tone. +'A mere trifle--less than nothing--two millions, without counting the +interest at five per cent. But these are matters I leave entirely to +my men of business, being for my own part much more absorbed in +politics and the science of government.' + +"'Alas! madame, the king has arrived in France with his mind made up +upon most subjects, the fruit of twenty-five years' meditation; and I +fear he is not likely to profit by your good intentions.' + +"'Then so much the worse for him and for France! All the world knows +what it cost Bonaparte his refusing to follow my advice, and pay me my +two millions. I have studied the Revolution profoundly, followed it +through all its phases, and I flatter myself I am the only pilot who +can hold with one hand the rudder of the state, if at least I have +Benjamin for steersman.' + +"'Benjamin! Benjamin--who?' asked I in surprise. + +"'It would give me the deepest distress,' replied she, 'to think that +the name of M. le Baron de Rebecque Benjamin de Constant has never +reached the ears of your royal highness. One of his ancestors saved +the life of Henry Quatre. Devoted to the descendants of this good +king, he is ready to serve them; and among several _constitutions_ he +has in his portfolio, you will probably find one with annotations and +reflections by myself, which will suit you. Adopt it, and choose +Benjamin Constant to carry the idea out.' + +"It seemed like a thing resolved--an event decided upon--this proposal +of inventing a constitution for us. I kept as long as I could upon the +defensive, but Mme. de Stael, carried away by her zeal and her +enthusiasm, instead of speaking of what personally concerned herself, +knocked me about with arguments, and crushed me under threats and +menaces; so, tired to death of entertaining, instead of a clever, +humble woman, a roaring politician in petticoats, I finished the +audience, leaving her as little satisfied as myself with the +interview. Mme. de Genlis was ten times less disagreeable, and twenty +times more amusing. + +"That same evening I had M. le Prince de Talleyrand with me, and I was +confounded by hearing him say, 'So, your royal highness has made Mme. +de Stael completely quarrel with me now?' + +"'Me! I never so much as pronounced your name.' + +"'Notwithstanding that, she is convinced that I am the person who +prevents your royal highness from employing her in your political +relations, and that I am jealous of Benjamin Constant. She is resolved +on revenge.' + +"'Ha, ha!--and what can she do?' + +"'A very great deal of mischief, Monseigneur. She has numerous +partisans; and if she declares herself Bonapartiste, we must look to +ourselves.' + +"'That _would_ be curious.' + +"'Oh, I shall take upon myself to prevent her going so far; but she +will be Royalist no longer, and we shall suffer from that.' + +"At this time I had not the remotest idea of what a mere man, still +less a mere woman, could do in France: but now I understand it +perfectly, and if Mme. de Stael was living--Heaven pardon me!--I would +strike up a flirtation with her." + + + + +From Chambers's Edinburgh Journal. + +THE SMUGGLER MALGRE LUI. + + +There is perhaps no more singular anomaly in the history of the human +mind than the very different light in which a fraud is viewed +according to the circumstances in which it is practised. The singular +revelations made to the Chancellor of the Exchequer by a late +deputation will probably be fresh in the remembrance of most of our +readers. Even the learned gentleman himself could hardly maintain his +professional gravity when informed of the ingenious contrivances +adopted for defrauding the revenue. Advertisements floating through +the air attached to balloons, French gloves making their way into the +kingdom in separate detachments of right and left hands, mutilated +clocks travelling without their wheels--such were some of the divers +modes by which the law was declared to be evaded, and the custom-house +officers baffled. We are by no means disposed either to think or speak +with levity of this system of things. However much a man may succeed +in reconciling any fraud to his own conscience, or however leniently +it may be viewed by his fellow-men, it will yet assuredly help to +degrade his moral nature, and its repetition will slowly, but surely, +deaden the silent monitor within his breast. All we affirm is the +well-known fact, that laws are in most cases ineffective, except in so +far as they harmonize with the innate moral convictions of mankind; +and that many a man who would not for worlds cheat his next door +neighbor of a penny, will own without a blush, and perhaps even with a +smile of triumph, that he has cheated the government of thousands! It +is not often, however, that so daring and successful a stroke of this +nature is effected as that which we find related of a celebrated Swiss +jeweller, who actually succeeded in making the French director-general +of the customs act the part of a smuggler! + +Geneva, as must be well known to all our readers, supplies half Europe +with her watches and her jewelry. Three thousand workmen are kept in +continual employment by her master goldsmiths; while seventy-five +thousand ounces of gold, and fifty thousand marks of silver, annually +change their form, and multiply their value beneath their skilful +hands! The most fashionable jeweller's shop in Geneva is +unquestionably that of Beautte; his trinkets are those which beyond +all others excite the longing of the Parisian ladies. A high duty is +charged upon these in crossing the French frontier; but, in +consideration of a brokerage of five per cent., M. Beautte undertakes +to forward them safely to their destination through contraband +channels; and the bargain between the buyer and seller is concluded +with this condition as openly appended and avowed as if there were no +such personages as custom-house officers in the world. + +All this went on smoothly for some years with M. Beautte; but at +length it so happened that M. le Comte de Saint-Cricq, a gentleman of +much ability and vigilance was appointed director-general of the +customs. He heard so much of the skill evinced by M. Beautte in +eluding the vigilance of his agents, that he resolved personally to +investigate the matter, and prove for himself the truth of the +reports. He consequently repaired to Geneva, presented himself at M. +Beautte's shop, and purchased thirty thousand francs' worth of +jewelry, on the express condition that they should be transmitted to +him free of duty on his return to Paris. M. Beautte accepted the +proposed condition with the air of a man who was perfectly accustomed +to arrangements of this description. He, however, presented for +signature to M. de Saint-Cricq a private deed, by which the purchaser +pledged himself to pay the customary five per cent. _smuggling dues_, +in addition to the thirty thousand francs' purchase-money. + +M. de Saint-Cricq smiled, and taking the pen from the jeweller's hand, +affixed to the deed the following signature--"L. de Saint-Cricq, +Director-General of the Customs in France." He then handed the +document back to M. Beautte, who merely glanced at the signature, and +replied with a courteous bow-- + +"_Monsieur le Directeur des Douanes_, I shall take care that the +articles which you have done me the honor of purchasing shall be +handed to you in Paris directly after your arrival." M. de +Saint-Cricq, piqued by the man's cool daring and apparent defiance of +his authority and professional skill, immediately ordered post-horses, +and without the delay of a single hour set out with all speed on the +road to Paris. + +On reaching the frontier, the Director-General made himself known to +the _employes_ who came forward to examine his carriage--informed the +chief officer of the incident which had just occurred, and begged of +him to keep up the strictest surveillance along the whole of the +frontier line, as he felt it to be a matter of the utmost importance +to place some check upon the wholesale system of fraud which had for +some years past been practised upon the revenue by the Geneva +jewellers. He also promised a gratuity of fifty louis-d'ors to +whichever of the _employes_ should be so fortunate as to seize the +prohibited jewels--a promise which had the effect of keeping every +officer on the line wide awake, and in a state of full activity, +during the three succeeding days. + +In the meanwhile M. de Saint-Cricq reached Paris, alighted at his own +residence, and after having embraced his wife and children, and passed +a few moments in their society, retired to his dressing-room, for the +purpose of laying aside his travelling costume. The first thing which +arrested his attention when he entered the apartment was a very +elegant looking casket, which stood upon the mantelpiece, and which he +did not remember to have ever before seen. He approached to examine +it; his name was on the lid; it was addressed in full to "M. le Comte +de Saint-Cricq, Director-General of Customs." He accordingly opened it +without hesitation, and his surprise and dismay may be conceived when, +on examining the contents, he recognized at once the beautiful +trinkets he had so recently purchased in Geneva! + +The count rung for his valet, and inquired from him whether he could +throw any light upon this mysterious occurrence. The valet looked +surprised, and replied, that on opening his master's portmanteau, the +casket in question was one of the first articles which presented +itself to his sight, and its elegant form and elaborate workmanship +having led him to suppose it contained articles of value, he had +carefully laid it aside upon the mantelpiece. The count, who had full +confidence in his valet, and felt assured that he was in no way +concerned in the matter, derived but little satisfaction from this +account, which only served to throw a fresh veil of mystery over the +transaction; and it was only some time afterwards, and after long +investigation, that he succeeded in discovering the real facts of the +case. + +Beautte, the jeweller, had a secret understanding with one of the +servants of the hotel at which the Comte de Saint-Cricq lodged in +Geneva. This man, taking advantage of the hurried preparations for the +count's departure, contrived to slip the casket unperceived into one +of his portmanteaus, and the ingenious jeweller had thus succeeded in +making the Director-General of Customs one of the most successful +_smugglers_ in the kingdom! + + + + +THE TRUE HISTORY OF AGNES SOREL. + +BY R. H. HORNE, AUTHOR OF "ORION," ETC. + + +Agnes Sorel was born in 1409, at the village of Fromenteau, in +Touraine. Her father was the Seigneur de St. Gerand, a gentleman +attached to the house of the Count de Clermont. At the age of fifteen, +she was placed as maid of honor to Isabel of Lorraine, duchess of +Anjou, and accompanied this princess when she went to Paris, in 1431. + +At this period, Agnes Sorel was considered to be the most beautiful +woman of her day. Her conversation and wit were equal to her beauty. +In the "Histoire des Favorites" she is said to have been noble-minded, +full of generosity, with sweetness of manners, and sincerity of heart. +The same writer adds that every body fell in love with her, from the +king to the humblest officers. Charles VII. became passionately +attached to her; and in order to insure her constant presence at +court, he placed her as maid of honor to the queen. The amour was +conducted with secrecy; but the fact became manifest by the favors +which the king lavished upon the relations of Agnes, while she herself +lived in great magnificence amidst a very poor court. She was fond of +splendor, and has been quaintly described by Monstrelet as "having +enjoyed all the pleasures of life, in wearing rich clothes, furred +robes, and golden chains of precious stones, and whatever else she +desired." When she visited Paris, in attendance upon the queen, the +splendor and expense of Agnes were so excessive that the people +murmured greatly; whereupon the proud beauty exclaimed against the +Parisians as churls. + +During the time that the English were actually in possession of a +great part of France, it was in vain that the queen (Mary of Anjou) +endeavored to rouse her husband from his lethargy. That the king was +not deficient in energy and physical courage, is evident from the +manner in which he signalized himself on various occasions. At the +siege of Montereau in 1437, (according to the Chronicle de Charles +VII. par M. Alain Chartier, Nevers, 1594,) he rushed to the assault, +now thrusting with the lance, now assisting the artillery, now +superintending the various military engines for heaving masses of +stone or wood; but during the period above-mentioned he was lost to +all sense of royal glory, and had given himself up entirely to hunting +and all sorts of pleasures. + +He was recalled by Agnes to a sense of what was due to his kingdom. +She told him, one day, says Brantoine, that when she was a girl, an +astrologer had predicted that she would be loved by one of the most +valiant kings of Christendom; that when His Majesty Charles VII. had +done her this honor, she thought, of course, he was the valiant king +who had been predicted; but now, finding he was so weak, and had so +little care as to what became of himself and his affairs, she saw that +she had made a mistake, and that this valiant prince could not be +Charles, but the King of England. Saying these words, Agnes rose, and +bowing reverentially to the king, asked leave to retire to the court +of the English king, since the prophecy pointed at him. "Charles," she +said, "was about to lose his crown, and Henry to unite it to his." By +this rebuke the king was much affected. He gave up his hunting, left +his gardens for the field of battle, and succeeded in driving the +English out of France. This circumstance occasioned Francis I. to make +the following verses, which, it is said, he wrote under a portrait of +Agnes:-- + + "Plus de louange et d'honneur tu merite, + La cause etant de France recouvrer, + Que ce que peut dedans un cloitre ouvrer, + Close nonnain, ou bien devol hermite." + +The king lavished gifts and honors upon Agnes. He built a chateau for +her at Loches; he gave her, besides the comte de Penthievre, in +Bretagne, the lordships of Roche Serviere, of Issoudun, in Berri, and +the Chateau de Beaute, at the extremity of the wood of Vincennes, that +she might be, as he said, "in deed and in name the Queen of Beauty." +It is believed that she never made a bad use of her influence with the +king for any political purposes or unkind private feelings; +nevertheless, the Dauphin (afterwards Louis XI.) conceived an +implacable jealousy against her, and carried his resentment so far, on +one occasion, as to give her a blow. + +She retired, in 1445, to Loches, and for nearly five years declined +appearing at court; but the king's love for her still continued, and +he took many journeys into Touraine to visit her. But eventually the +queen, who had never forgotten her noble counsels to the king, which +had roused him from his lethargy, persuaded her to return to court. + +The queen appears to have felt no jealousy, but to have had a regard +for her. It seems, also, that Agnes had become very popular, partly +from her beauty and wit, partly because she was considered in a great +measure, to have saved France, and partly because she distributed +large sums in alms to the poor, and to repair decayed churches. + +After the taking of Rouen, and the entire expulsion of the English +from France, the king took up his winter-quarters in the Abbey of +Jumiege. Agnes hastened to the Chateau de Masnal la Belle, a league +distant from this abbey, for the purpose of warning the king of a +conspiracy. The king only laughed at the intelligence; but the death +of Agnes Sorel, which immediately followed, gives some grounds for +crediting the truth of the information which she communicated. At this +place Agnes, still beautiful, and in perfect health, was suddenly +attacked by a dysentery which carried her off. It is believed that she +was poisoned. Some affirm that it was effected by direction of the +Dauphin; others accuse Jacques Coeur, the king's goldsmith (as the +master of the treasury was then called), and others attribute it to +female jealousy. + +The account given of her death by Monstrelet is to the following +effect: Agnes was suddenly attacked by a dysentery which could not be +cured. She lingered long, and employed the time in prayer and +repentance; she often, as he relates, called upon Mary Magdalen, who +had also been a sinner, and upon God and the blessed Virgin for aid. +After receiving the sacrament, she desired the book of prayers to be +brought her, in which she had written with her own hand the verses of +St. Barnard, and these she repeated. She then made many gifts, which +were put down in writing: and these, including alms and the payment of +her servants, amounted to 60,000 crowns. The fair Agnes, the once +proud beauty, perceiving her end approaching, and now feeling a +disgust to life proportioned to the fulness of her past enjoyment of +all its gayeties, vanities, and pleasures, said to the Lord de la +Tremouille and others, and in the presence of all her damsels, that +our insecure and worldly life was but a foul ordure. She then +requested her confessor to give her absolution, according to a form +she herself dictated, with which he complied. After this, she uttered +a loud shriek, and gave up the ghost. She died on Monday, the 9th day +of February, 1449, about six o'clock in the afternoon, in the fortieth +year of her age. + +This account, though bearing every appearance of probability, is yet +open to some doubts, from the manifestation of a tendency, on the part +of Monstrelet, to give a coloring to the event, and to the character +of Agnes Sorel. He even attempts to throw a doubt upon her having been +the king's mistress, treating the fact as a mere scandal. He says that +the affection of the king was attributable to her good sense, her wit, +her agreeable manners, and gayety, quite as much as to her beauty. +This was, no doubt, the case; but it hardly helps the argument of the +historian. Monstrelet finds it difficult, however, to dispose of the +children that she had by the king: he admits that Agnes had a daughter +which she said was the king's, but that he denied it. The compilation +by Denys Codefroy takes the same view, but nearly the whole account is +copied verbatim from Monstrelet, without acknowledgment. + +The heart and intestines of Agnes were buried at Jumiege. Her body was +placed in the centre of the choir of the collegiate church of the +Chateau de Loches, which she had greatly enriched. + +Her tomb was in existence at Loches, in 1792. It was of black marble. +The figure of Agnes was in white marble; her head resting upon a +lozenge, supported by angels, and two lambs were at her feet. + +The writer of the life of Agnes Sorel in the "Biographie Universelle," +having access to printed books and MSS. of French history which are +not in the public libraries of this country, the following statements +are taken from that work: the writer does not give his authorities. + +The canons of the church pretended to be scandalized at having the +tomb of Agnes placed in their choir, and begged permission of Louis +XI. to have it removed. "I consent," replied the king, "provided you +give up all you have received from her bounty." + +The poets of the day were profuse in their praises of the memory of +Agnes. One of the most memorable of these is a poem by Baif, printed +at Paris in 1573. In 1789 the library of the chapter of Loches +possessed a manuscript containing nearly a thousand Latin sonnets in +praise of Agnes, all acrostics, and made by a canon of that city. + +A marble bust of her was long preserved at the Chateau de Chinon, and +is now placed in the Museum des Augustins. + +Agnes Sorel had three daughters by Charles VII., who all received +dowries, and were married at the expense of the crown. They received +the title of daughters of France, the name given at that time to the +natural daughters of the kings. An account of the noble families into +which they married, together with the honors bestowed upon the brother +of Agnes, will be found in Moreri's "Dictionnaire Historique." + + + + +From the London Examiner. + +PROSPECTS OF AFRICAN COLONIZATION. + + +Africa has never been propitious to European settlement or +colonization, but quite the contrary. The last founded state of the +Anglo-American Union, of about two years' growth, is alone, at this +moment, worth more than all that has been effected by the European +race in Africa in two-and-twenty centuries. The most respectable +product of African colonization is a Cape boor, and this is certainly +not a finished specimen of humanity. Assuredly, for the last three +hundred years, Africa has done nothing for the nations of Europe but +seduce them into crime, folly, and extravagance. + +The Romans were the first European settlers in Africa; it was at their +very door, and they held it for eight centuries. Now, there is not +left in it hardly a trace of Roman civilization; certainly fewer, at +all events, than the Arabs have left in Spain. The Vandal occupation +of Mediterranean Africa lasted only half a century. We should not have +known that Vandals had ever set their feet on the Continent but for +the written records of civilized men. There is nothing Vandal there, +unless Vandalism in the abstract. The Dutch came next, in order of +time, in another portion of Africa, and we have already alluded to the +indistinct "spoor" which they have left behind them after an +occupation of a hundred and fifty years. + +The English have settled in two different quarters of the African +continent, one of them within eight degrees of the equatorial line, +and the other some thirty-four south of it. The first costs us civil +establishments, forts, garrisons, and squadrons included (for out of +Africa and its people comes the supposed necessity for the squadron), +a good million a year. The most valuable article we get from tropical +Africa is the oil of a certain palm, which contributes largely towards +an excise duty of about a million and a half a year, levied on what +has been justly called a second necessary of life--to wit, soap. + +We have been in possession of the southern promontory of Africa for +above fifty years. In this time, besides its conquest twice over from +a European power, and in addition to fleets and armies, it has cost +us, in mere self-defence against savages, three million pounds, while +at this moment we are engaged in the same kind of defence, with the +tolerable certainty of incurring another million. No one will venture +to say that this sum alone does not far exceed the value of the fee +simple and sovereignty of the southern promontory of Africa. What we +get from it consists chiefly in some purgative aloes, a little +indifferent wool, and a good deal of execrable wine, on the +importation of which we pay a virtual bounty! As for _our subjects_ in +this part of the African continent, they amount to about two hundred +thousand, and are composed of Anglo-Saxons, Dutch, Malays, Hottentots, +Bushmen, Gaikas, Tambookies, Amagarkas, Zulas, and Amazulas, speaking +a very Babel of African, Asiatic, and European tongues, perilous to +delicate organic structures even to listen to. + +Now for French African colonization. If we have not been very wise +ourselves, our neighbors, who have never been eminently happy in their +attempts at colonization, have been much less so. They have been in +possession of an immense territory in Algeria for twenty years, and +have now about fifty thousand colonists there, with an army which has +generally not been less than one hundred thousand, so that every +colonist requires two soldiers to keep his throat from being cut, and +his property from being robbed or stolen. This is about ten times the +regular army that protects twenty-eight millions of Anglo-Americans +from nearly all the savages of North America. The local revenue of +Algeria is half a million sterling; but the annual cost of the +experiment to France amounts to eight times as much as the revenue; +and it has been computed that the whole charge to the French nation, +from first to last (it goes on at the same rate), has been sixty +million pounds. This is without exception the most monstrous attempt +at colonization that has ever been made by man. If war should +unfortunately arise with any maritime power, the matter will be still +worse. At least one hundred thousand of the flower of the French army +will then be worse than lost to France. For, pent up as it will be in +a narrow strip of eighty miles broad along the shore of the +Mediterranean, it may be blockaded from the sea by any superior naval +power; and assuredly will be so, from the side of the desert, by a +native one. To hold Algeria is to cripple France. + +What, then, is the cause of the fatality which has thus ever attended +African colonization by Europeans? In tropical Africa, the heat and +insalubrity, and consequently the total unfitness for European life, +are causes quite sufficient to account for the failure; and the +failure has been eminent with French, Dutch, English, and Danes. But +this will not account for want of success in temperate Africa, whether +beyond the northern or southern tropic. The climate of this last, +especially, is very good; and that of the first being nearly the same +as their own, ought not to be hurtful to the constitutions of southern +Europeans. + +Drought, and the intermixture of deserts and wastes of sand with +fertile lands, after the manner of a chess-board, without the +regularity, is, of course, unpropitious to colonization, but cannot +prevent its advancement, as we see by the progress of our Australian +colonies. These causes, however, combined with the character of the +native or congenial inhabitants of the country, have been quite +sufficient to prove insuperable obstacles to a prosperous +colonization. A nomad and wandering population has in fact been +generated, incapable either of advancement or amalgamation, having +just a sufficient knowledge of the arts to be dangerous neighbors, not +capable of being driven to a distance from the settlers, nor likely to +be destroyed by gunpowder or brandy. The lion and shepherd recede +before the white man in southern Africa, but not the Caffir. + +The inhabitant of northern Africa, whether Arabian or Numidian, is, in +relation to an European colony, only a more formidable Caffir, from +greater numbers and superior skill. Heretofore, a garrison of five +thousand men at the most has been sufficient to protect the Cape +colony, although six thousand miles distant from England. The +territory of Algeria, of about the same extent, requires about twenty +times that number, although within a day's sail of France. Arab and +Numidian seem to be alike untamable both by position and by race. The +Arabs (and it shows they were capable of better things) were a +civilized and industrious people while in the fair regions of Spain; +driven from it, they have degenerated into little more than predatory +shepherds, or freebooters; but they are only the more formidable to +civilized men on this very account. + +What, then, will be the fate of the French and English colonies in +temperate Africa? We confess we can hardly venture to predict. +Assuredly, neither north nor south Africa will ever give birth to a +great or flourishing community, such as North America has done, and as +Australia and New Zealand will certainly do. The Caffirs may possibly +be driven to a distance, after a long course of trouble and expense; +but the Arabs and Kabyles are as inexpungable as the wandering tribes +of Arabia Petraea or Tartary. With them, neither expulsion, nor +extermination, nor amalgamation is practicable. Very likely France and +England will get heartily tired of paying yearly millions for their +unavailable deserts, and there is no knowing what they may be driven +to do in such an extremity. At all events, we may safely assert that +France would have saved sixty millions of pounds, and the interminable +prospect of a proportional annual expenditure, had she confined +herself to the town and fortress of Algiers; and England would have +been richer and wiser, had she kept within the bounds of the original +Dutch colony. The best thing we ourselves can do with our +extra-tropical Africa, is to leave the colonists to govern, and also +to defend themselves from all but enemies by sea: that the French, +unfortunately, cannot do. + + + + +MY NOVEL: + +OR, VARIETIES IN ENGLISH LIFE. + +BY PISISTRATUS CAXTON. + +_Continued from page 269._ + + +BOOK V.--INITIAL CHAPTER. + +"I hope, Pisistratus," said my father, "that you do not intend to be +dull!" + +"Heaven forbid, sir! what could make you ask such a question? +_Intend!_ No! if I am dull it is from innocence." + +"A very long Discourse upon Knowledge!" said my father; "very long. I +should cut it out!" + +I looked upon my father as a Byzantian sage might have looked on a +Vandal. "Cut it out!" + +"Stops the action, sir!" said my father, dogmatically. + +"Action! But a novel is not a drama." + +"No, it is a great deal longer--twenty times as long, I dare say," +replied Mr. Caxton with a sigh. + +"Well, sir--well! I think my Discourse upon Knowledge has much to do +with the subject--is vitally essential to the subject; does not stop +the action--only explains and elucidates the action. And I am +astonished, sir, that you, a scholar, and a cultivator of knowledge--" + +"There--there!" cried my father, deprecatingly; "I yield--I yield. +What better could I expect when I set up for a critic! What author +ever lived that did not fly into a passion--even with his own father, +if his father presumed to say--'Cut out!' _Pacem imploro_--" + +_Mrs. Caxton._--"My dear Austin, I am sure Pisistratus did not mean to +offend you, and I have no doubt he will take your--" + +_Pisistratus_, (hastily.)--"Advice _for the future_, certainly. I will +quicken the action and--" + +"Go on with the Novel," whispered Roland, looking up from his eternal +account-book. "We have lost L200 by our barley!" + +Therewith I plunged my pen into the ink, and my thoughts into the +"Fair Shadowland." + + +CHAPTER II. + +"Halt!" cried a voice; and not a little surprised was Leonard when the +stranger who had accosted him the preceding evening got into the +chaise. + +"Well," said Richard, "I am not the sort of man you expected, eh! Take +time to recover yourself." And with these words Richard drew forth a +book from his pocket, threw himself back, and began to read. Leonard +stole many a glance at the acute, hardy, handsome face of his +companion, and gradually recognized a family likeness to poor John, in +whom, despite age and infirmity, the traces of no common share of +physical beauty were still evident. And, with that quick link in ideas +which mathematical aptitude bestows, the young student at once +conjectured that he saw before him his uncle Richard. He had the +discretion, however, to leave that gentleman free to choose his own +time for introducing himself, and silently revolved the new thoughts +produced by the novelty of his situation. Mr. Richard read with +notable quickness--sometimes cutting the leaves of the book with his +penknife, sometimes tearing them open with his forefinger, sometimes +skipping whole pages altogether. Thus he galloped to the end of the +volume--flung it aside--lighted his cigar, and began to talk. + +He put many questions to Leonard relative to his rearing, and +especially to the mode by which he had acquired his education; and +Leonard, confirmed in the idea that he was replying to a kinsman, +answered frankly. + +Richard did not think it strange that Leonard should have acquired so +much instruction with so little direct tuition. Richard Avenel himself +had been tutor to himself. He had lived too long with our go-ahead +brethren, who stride the world on the other side the Atlantic with the +seven-leagued boots of the Giant-killer, not to have caught their +glorious fever for reading. But it was for a reading wholly different +from that which was familiar to Leonard. The books he read must be +new; to read old books would have seemed to him going back in the +world. He fancied that new books necessarily contained new ideas--a +common mistake--and our lucky adventurer was the man of his day. + +Tired with talking, he at length chucked the book he had run through +to Leonard, and, taking out a pocket-book and pencil, amused himself +with calculations on some detail of his business, after which he fell +into an absorbed train of thought--part pecuniary, part ambitious. + +Leonard found the book interesting; it was one of the numerous works, +half-statistic, half-declamatory, relating to the condition of the +working-classes, which peculiarly distinguish our century, and ought +to bind together rich and poor, by proving the grave attention which +modern society bestows upon all that can affect the welfare of the +last. + +"Dull stuff--theory--clap-trap," said Richard, rousing himself from +his reverie at last: "it can't interest you." + +"All books interest me, I think," said Leonard, "and this especially; +for it relates to the working-class, and I am one of them." + +"You were yesterday, but you mayn't be to-morrow," answered Richard +good-humoredly, and patting him on the shoulder. "You see, my lad, +that it is the middle class which ought to govern the country. What +the book says about the ignorance of country magistrates is very good; +but the man writes pretty considerable trash when he wants to regulate +the number of hours a free-born boy should work at a factory--only ten +hours a-day--pooh! and so lose two to the nation! Labor is wealth: and +if we could get men to work twenty-four hours a-day, we should be just +twice as rich. If the march of civilization is to proceed," continued +Richard, loftily, "men, and boys too, must not lie a-bed doing nothing +_all night_, sir." Then with a complacent tone--"We shall get to the +twenty-four hours at last; and, by gad, we must, or we shan't flog the +Europeans as we do now." + +On arriving at the inn at which Richard had first made acquaintance +with Mr. Dale, the coach by which he had intended to perform the rest +of the journey was found to be full. Richard continued to perform the +journey in post chaises, not without some grumbling at the expense, +and incessant orders to the postboys to make the best of the way. +"Slow country this, in spite of all its brag," said he--"very slow. +Time is money--they know that in the States; for why, they are all men +of business there. Always slow in a country where a parcel of lazy +idle lords, and dukes, and baronets, seem to think 'time is +pleasure.'" + +Towards evening the chaise approached the confines of a very large +town, and Richard began to grow fidgety. His easy cavalier air was +abandoned. He withdrew his legs from the window, out of which they had +been luxuriously dangling; pulled down his waistcoat; buckled more +tightly his stock: it was clear that he was resuming the decorous +dignity that belongs to state. He was like a monarch who, after +travelling happy and incognito, returns to his capital. Leonard +divined at once, that they were nearing their journey's end. + +Humble foot-passengers now looked at the chaise, and touched their +hats. Richard returned the salutation with a nod--a nod less gracious +than condescending. The chaise turned rapidly to the left, and stopped +before a smart lodge, very new, very white, adorned with two Doric +columns in stucco, and flanked by a large pair of gates. "Hollo!" +cried the postboy, and cracked his whip. + +Two children were playing before the lodge, and some clothes were +hanging out to dry on the shrubs and pales round the neat little +building. + +"Hang those brats! they are actually playing," growled Dick. "As I +live, the jade has been washing again! Stop, boy." During this +soliloquy, a good-looking young woman had rushed from the +door--slapped the children, as catching sight of the chaise, they ran +towards the house--opened the gates, and, dropping a curtsey to the +ground, seemed to wish that she could drop into it altogether, so +frightened and so trembling seemed she to shrink from the wrathful +face which the master now put out of the window. + +"Did I tell you, or did I not," said Dick, "that I would not have +these horrid disreputable clubs of yours playing just before my lodge +gates?" + +"Please, sir--" + +"Don't answer me. And did I tell you, or did I not, that the next time +I saw you making a drying-ground of my lilacs, you should go out, neck +and crop--" + +"Oh, please, sir--" + +"You leave my lodge next Saturday: drive on, boy. The ingratitude and +insolence of those common people are disgraceful to human nature," +muttered Richard, with an accent of the bitterest misanthropy. + +The chaise wheeled along the smoothest and freshest of gravel roads, +and through fields of the finest land, in the highest state of +cultivation. Rapid as was Leonard's survey, his rural eye detected the +signs of a master in the art agronomial. Hitherto he had considered +the Squire's model farm as the nearest approach to good husbandry he +had seen: for Jackeymo's finer skill was developed rather on the +minute scale of market-gardening than what can fairly be called +husbandry. But the Squire's farm was degraded by many old fashioned +notions, and concessions to the whim of the eye, which would not be +found in model farms now-a-days,--large tangled hedgerows, which, +though they constitute one of the beauties most picturesque in old +England, make sad deductions from produce; great trees, overshadowing +the corn, and harboring the birds; little patches of rough sward left +to waste; and angles of woodland running into fields, exposing them to +rabbits, and blocking out the sun. These and such like blots on a +gentleman's agriculture, common-sense and Giacomo had made clear to +the acute comprehension of Leonard. No such faults were perceptible in +Richard Avenel's domain. The fields lay in broad divisions, the hedges +were clipped and narrowed into their proper destination of mere +boundaries. Not a blade of wheat withered under the cold shade of a +tree; not a yard of land lay waste; not a weed was to be seen, not a +thistle to waft its baleful seed through the air: some young +plantations were placed, not where the artist would put them, but just +where the farmer wanted a fence from the wind. Was there no beauty in +this? Yes, there was beauty of its kind--beauty at once recognizable +to the initiated--beauty of use and profit--beauty that could bear a +monstrous high rent. And Leonard uttered a cry of admiration which +thrilled through the heart of Richard Avenel. + +"This _is_ farming!" said the villager. + +"Well, I guess it is," answered Richard, all his ill-humor vanishing. +"You should have seen the land when I bought it. But we new men, as +they call us--(damn their impertinence)--are the new blood of this +country." + +Richard Avenel never said any thing more true. Long may the new blood +circulate through the veins of the mighty giantess; but let the grand +heart be the same as it has beat for proud ages. + +The chaise now passed through a pretty shrubbery, and the house came +into gradual view--a house with a portico--all the offices carefully +thrust out of sight. + +The postboy dismounted, and rang the bell. + +"I almost think they are going to keep me waiting," said Mr. Richard, +well-nigh in the very words of Louis XIV. + +But that fear was not realized--the door opened; a well-fed servant +out of livery presented himself. There was no hearty welcoming smile +on his face, but he opened the chaise-door with demure and taciturn +respect. + +"Where's George? why does not he come to the door?" asked Richard, +descending from the chaise slowly, and leaning on the servant's +outstretched arm with as much precaution as if he had had the gout. + +Fortunately, George here came into sight, settling himself hastily +into his livery coat. + +"See to the things, both of you," said Richard, as he paid the +postboy. + +Leonard stood on the gravel sweep, gazing at the square white house. + +"Handsome elevation--classical, I take it--eh?" said Richard, joining +him. "But you should see the offices." + +He then, with familiar kindness, took Leonard by the arm, and drew him +within. He showed him the hall, with a carved mahogany stand for hats; +he showed him the drawing-room, and pointed out its beauties--though +it was summer the drawing-room looked cold, as will look rooms newly +furnished, with walls newly papered, in houses newly built. The +furniture was handsome, and suited to the rank of a rich trader. There +was no pretence about it, and therefore no vulgarity, which is more +than can be said for the houses of many an honorable Mrs. Somebody in +Mayfair, with rooms twelve feet square, chokeful of buhl, that would +have had its proper place in the Tuileries. Then Richard showed him +the library, with mahogany book-cases and plate glass, and the +fashionable authors handsomely bound. Your new men are much better +friends to living authors than your old families who live in the +country, and at most subscribe to a book-club. Then Richard took him +up-stairs, and led him through the bedrooms--all very clean and +comfortable, and with every modern convenience; and, pausing in a very +pretty single gentleman's chamber, said, "This is your den. And now, +can you guess who I am?" + +"No one but my Uncle Richard could be so kind," answered Leonard. + +But the compliment did not flatter Richard. He was extremely +disconcerted and disappointed. He had hoped that he should be taken +for a lord at least, forgetful of all that he had said in +disparagement of lords. + +"Pish!" said he at last, biting his lip--"so you don't think that I +look like a gentleman! Come, now, speak honestly." + +Leonard wonderingly saw he had given pain, and with the good breeding +which comes instinctively from good nature, replied--"I judged you by +your heart, sir, and your likeness to my grandfather--otherwise I +should never have presumed to fancy we could be relations." + +"Hum!" answered Richard. "You can just wash your hands, and then come +down to dinner; you will hear the gong in ten minutes. There's the +bell--ring for what you want." + +With that, he turned on his heel; and, descending the stairs, gave a +look into the dining-room, and admired the plated salver on the +sideboard, and the king's pattern spoons and forks on the table. Then +he walked to the looking-glass over the mantel-piece; and, wishing to +survey the whole effect of his form, mounted a chair. He was just +getting into an attitude which he thought imposing, when the butler +entered, and being London bred, had the discretion to try to escape +unseen; but Richard caught sight of him in the looking-glass, and +colored up to the temples. + +"Jarvis," said he mildly--"Jarvis, put me in mind to have these +inexpressibles altered." + + +CHAPTER III. + +Apropos of the inexpressibles, Mr. Richard did not forget to provide +his nephew with a much larger wardrobe than could have been thrust +into Dr. Riccabocca's knapsack. There was a very good tailor in the +town, and the clothes were very well made. And, but for an air more +ingenuous, and a cheek that, despite study and night vigils, retained +much of the sunburnt bloom of the rustic, Leonard Fairfield might now +have almost passed, without disparaging comment, by the bow-window at +White's. Richard burst into an immoderate fit of laughter when he +first saw the watch which the poor Italian had bestowed upon Leonard; +but, to atone for the laughter, he made him a present of a very pretty +substitute, and bade him "lock up his turnip." Leonard was more hurt +by the jeer at his old patron's gift than pleased by his uncle's. But +Richard Avenel had no conception of sentiment. It was not for many +days that Leonard could reconcile himself to his uncle's manner. Not +that the peasant could pretend to judge of its mere conventional +defects; but there is an ill breeding to which, whatever our rank and +nurture, we are almost equally sensitive--the ill breeding that comes +from want of consideration for others. Now, the Squire was as homely +in his way as Richard Avenel, but the Squire's bluntness rarely hurt +the feelings: and when it did so, the Squire perceived and hastened to +repair his blunder. But Mr. Richard, whether kind or cross, was always +wounding you in some little delicate fibre--not from malice, but from +the absence of any little delicate fibres of his own. He was really, +in many respects, a most excellent man, and certainly a very valuable +citizen. But his merits wanted the fine tints and fluent curves that +constitute beauty of character. He was honest, but sharp in his +practice, and with a keen eye to his interests. He was just, but as a +matter of business. He made no allowances, and did not leave to his +justice the large margin of tenderness and mercy. He was generous, but +rather from an idea of what was due to himself than with much thought +of the pleasure he gave to others; and he even regarded generosity as +a capital put out to interest. He expected a great deal of gratitude +in return, and, when he obliged a man, considered that he had bought a +slave. Every needy voter knew where to come, if he wanted relief or a +loan; but woe to him if he had ventured to express hesitation when Mr. +Avenel told him how he must vote. + +In this town Richard had settled after his return from America, in +which country he had enriched himself--first, by spirit and +industry--lastly, by bold speculation and good luck. He invested his +fortune in business--became a partner in a large brewery--soon bought +out his associates--and then took a principal share in a flourishing +corn-mill. He prospered rapidly--bought a property of some two or +three hundred acres, built a house, and resolved to enjoy himself, and +make a figure. He had now become the leading man of the town, and the +boast to Audley Egerton that he could return one of the members, +perhaps both, was by no means an exaggerated estimate of his power. +Nor was his proposition, according to his own views, so unprincipled +as it appeared to the statesman. He had taken a great dislike to both +the sitting members--a dislike natural to a sensible man of modern +politics, who had something to lose. For Mr. Slappe, the active +member--who was head-over-ears in debt--was one of the furious +democrats rare before the Reform Bill--and whose opinions were held +dangerous even by the mass of a liberal constituency; while Mr. +Sleekie, the gentleman member, who laid by L5000 every year from his +dividends in the Funds, was one of those men whom Richard justly +pronounced to be "humbugs"--men who curry favor with the extreme party +by voting for measures sure not to be carried; while, if there were +the least probability of coming to a decision that would lower the +money market, Mr. Sleekie was seized with a well-timed influenza. +Those politicians are common enough now. Propose to march to the +Millennium, and they are your men. Ask them to march a quarter of a +mile, and they fall to feeling their pockets, and trembling for fear +of the footpads. They are never so joyful as when there is no chance +of a victory. Did they beat the Minister, they would be carried out of +the house in a fit. + +Richard Avenel--despising both these gentlemen, and not taking kindly +to the Whigs since the great Whig leaders were Lords--looked with a +friendly eye to the Government as it then existed, and especially to +Audley Egerton, the enlightened representative of commerce. But in +giving Audley and his colleagues the benefit of his influence, through +conscience, he thought it all fair and right to have a _quid pro quo_, +and, as he had so frankly confessed, it was his whim to rise up "Sir +Richard." For this worthy citizen abused the aristocracy much on the +same principle as the fair Olivia depreciated Squire Thornhill--he had +a sneaking affection for what he abused. The society of Screwstown +was, like most provincial capitals, composed of two classes--the +commercial and the exclusive. These last dwelt chiefly apart, around +the ruins of an old abbey; they affected its antiquity in their +pedigrees, and had much of its ruin in their finances. Widows of rural +thanes in the neighborhood--genteel spinsters--officers retired on +half-pay--younger sons of rich squires, who had now become old +bachelors--in short, a very respectable, proud, aristocratic set--who +thought more of themselves than do all the Gowers and Howards, +Courtenays and Seymours, put together. It had early been the ambition +of Richard Avenel to be admitted into this sublime coterie; and, +strange to say, he had partially succeeded. He was never more happy +than when he was asked to their card-parties, and never more unhappy +than when he was actually there. Various circumstances combined to +raise Mr. Avenel into this elevated society. First, he was unmarried, +still very handsome, and in that society there was a large proportion +of unwedded females. Secondly, he was the only rich trader in +Screwstown who kept a good cook, and professed to give dinners, and +the half-pay captains and colonels swallowed the host for the sake of +the venison. Thirdly, and principally, all these exclusives abhorred +the two sitting members, and "idem nolle idem velle de republica, ea +firma amicitia est;" that is, congeniality in politics pieces +porcelain and crockery together better than the best diamond cement. +The sturdy Richard Avenel--who valued himself on American +independence--held these ladies and gentlemen in an awe that was truly +Brahminical. Whether it was that, in England, all notions, even of +liberty, are mixed up historically, traditionally, socially, with that +fine and subtle element of aristocracy which, like the press, is the +air we breathe; or whether Richard imagined that he really became +magnetically imbued with the virtues of these silver pennies and gold +seven-shilling pieces, distinct from the vulgar coinage in popular +use, it is hard to say. But the truth must be told--Richard Avenel was +a notable tuft-hunter. He had a great longing to marry out of this +society; but he had not yet seen any one sufficiently high-born and +high-bred to satisfy his aspirations. In the mean while, he had +convinced himself that his way would be smooth could he offer to make +his ultimate choice "My Lady;" and he felt that it would be a proud +hour in his life when he could walk before stiff Colonel Pompley to +the sound of "Sir Richard." Still, however disappointed at the ill +success of his bluff diplomacy with Mr. Egerton, and however yet +cherishing the most vindictive resentment against that individual--he +did not, as many would have done, throw up his political convictions +out of personal spite. He resolved still to favor the ungrateful and +undeserving administration; and as Audley Egerton had acted on the +representations of the mayor and deputies, and shaped his bill to meet +their views, so Avenel and the Government rose together in the popular +estimation of the citizens of Screwstown. + +But, duly to appreciate the value of Richard Avenel, and in just +counterpoise to all his foibles, one ought to have seen what he had +effected for the town. Well might he boast of "new blood;" he had done +as much for the town as he had for his fields. His energy, his quick +comprehension of public utility, backed by his wealth, and bold, +bullying, imperious character, had sped the work of civilization as if +with the celerity and force of a steam-engine. + +If the town were so well paved and so well lighted--if half-a-dozen +squalid lanes had been transformed into a stately street--if half the +town no longer depended on tanks for their water--if the poor-rates +were reduced one-third,--praise to the brisk new blood which Richard +Avenel had infused into vestry and corporation. And his example itself +was so contagious! "There was not a plate-glass window in the town +when I came into it," said Richard Avenel; "and now look down the High +Street!" He took the credit to himself, and justly; for, though his +own business did not require windows of plate-glass, he had awakened +the spirit of enterprise which adorns a whole city. + +Mr. Avenel did not present Leonard to his friends for more than a +fortnight. He allowed him to wear off his rust. He then gave a grand +dinner, at which his nephew was formally introduced, and, to his great +wrath and disappointment, never opened his lips. How could he, poor +youth, when Miss Clarina Mowbray only talked upon high life; till +proud Colonel Pompley went in state through the history of the siege +of Seringapatam. + + +CHAPTER IV. + +While Leonard accustoms himself gradually to the splendors that +surround him, and often turns with a sigh to the remembrance of his +mother's cottage and the sparkling fount in the Italian's flowery +garden, we will make with thee, O reader, a rapid flight to the +metropolis, and drop ourselves amidst the gay groups that loiter along +the dusty ground, or loll over the roadside palings of Hyde Park. The +season is still at its height; but the short day of fashionable London +life, which commences two hours after noon, is in its decline. The +crowd in Rotten Row begins to thin. Near the statue of Achilles, and +apart from all other loungers, a gentleman, with one hand thrust into +his waistcoat, and the other resting on his cane, gazed listlessly on +the horsemen and carriages in the brilliant ring. He was still in the +prime of life, at the age when man is usually the most social--when +the acquaintances of youth have ripened into friendship, and a +personage of some rank and fortune has become a well-known feature in +the mobile face of society. But though, when his contemporaries were +boys scarce at college, this gentleman had blazed foremost amongst the +princes of fashion, and though he had all the qualities of nature and +circumstance which either retain fashion to the last, or exchange its +false celebrity for a graver repute, he stood as a stranger in that +throng of his countrymen. Beauties whirled by to the toilet--statesmen +passed on to the senate--dandies took flight to the clubs; and neither +nods, nor becks, nor wreathed smiles, said to the solitary spectator, +"Follow us--thou art one of our set." Now and then, some middle-aged +beau, nearing the post of the loiterer, turned round to look again; +but the second glance seemed to dissipate the recognition of the +first, and the beau silently continued his way. + +"By the tombs of my fathers!" said the solitary to himself, "I know +now what a dead man might feel if he came to life again, and took a +peep at the living." + +Time passed on--the evening shades descended fast. Our stranger in +London had well-nigh the Park to himself. He seemed to breathe more +freely as he saw that the space was so clear. + +"There's oxygen in the atmosphere now," said he, half aloud; "and I +can walk without breathing in the gaseous fumes of the multitude. O +those chemists--what dolts they are! They tell us crowds taint the +air, but they never guess why! Pah, it is not the lungs that poison +the element--it is the reek of bad hearts. When a periwig-pated fellow +breathes on me, I swallow a mouthful of care. _Allons!_ my friend +Nero; now for a stroll." He touched with his cane a large Newfoundland +dog, who lay stretched near his feet; a dog and man went slow through +the growing twilight, and over the brown dry turf. At length our +solitary paused, and threw himself on a bench under a tree. +"Half-past eight!" said he, looking at his watch--"one may smoke one's +cigar without shocking the world." + +He took out his cigar-case, struck a light, and in another moment +reclined at length on the bench--seemed absorbed in regarding the +smoke, that scarce colored ere it vanished into air. + +"It is the most barefaced lie in the world, my Nero," said he, +addressing his dog, "this boasted liberty of man! Now here am I, a +free-born Englishman, a citizen of the world, caring--I often say to +myself--caring not a jot for Kaisar or Mob; and yet I no more dare +smoke this cigar in the Park at half-past six, when all the world is +abroad, than I dare pick my Lord Chancellor's pocket, or hit the +Archbishop of Canterbury a thump on the nose. Yet no law in England +forbids me my cigar, Nero! What is law at half-past eight, was not +crime at six and a-half! Britannia says, 'Man, thou art free,' and she +lies like a commonplace woman. O Nero, Nero! you enviable dog!--you +serve but from liking. No thought of the world costs you one wag of +your tail. Your big heart and true instinct suffice you for reason and +law. You would want nothing to your felicity, if in these moments of +ennui you would but smoke a cigar. Try it, Nero!--try it!" And, rising +from his incumbent posture, he sought to force the end of the weed +between the teeth of the dog. + +While thus gravely engaged, two figures had approached the place. The +one was a man who seemed weak and sickly. His threadbare coat was +buttoned to the chin, but hung large on his shrunken breast. The other +was a girl of about fourteen, on whose arm he leant heavily. Her cheek +was wan, and there was a patient sad look on her face, which seemed so +settled that you would think she could never have known the +mirthfulness of childhood. + +"Pray rest here, papa," said the child softly; and she pointed to the +bench, without taking heed of its pre-occupant, who now, indeed, +confined to one corner of the seat, was almost hidden by the shadow of +a tree. + +The man sat down with a feeble sigh; and then, observing the stranger, +raised his hat, and said in that tone of voice which betrays the +usages of polished society, "Forgive me, if I intrude on you, sir." + +The stranger looked up from his dog, and seeing that the girl was +standing, rose at once, as if to make room for her on the bench. + +But still the girl did not heed him. She hung over her father, and +wiped his brow tenderly with a little kerchief which she took from her +own neck for the purpose. + +Nero, delighted to escape the cigar, had taken to some unwieldy +curvets and gambols, to vent the excitement into which he had been +thrown; and now returning, approached the bench with a low look of +surprise, and sniffed at the intruders on his master's privacy. + +"Come here, sir," said the master. "You need not fear him," he added, +addressing himself to the girl. + +But the girl, without turning round to him, cried in a voice rather of +anguish than alarm, "He has fainted! Father! father!" + +The stranger kicked aside his dog, which was in the way, and loosened +the poor man's stiff military stock. While thus charitably engaged, +the moon broke out, and the light fell full on the pale care-worn face +of the unconscious sufferer. + +"This face seems not unfamiliar to me, though sadly changed," said the +stranger to himself; and bending towards the girl, who had sunk on her +knees and was chafing her father's hands, he asked, "My child, what is +your father's name?" + +The child continued her task, too absorbed to answer. + +The stranger put his hand on her shoulder, and repeated the question. + +"Digby," answered the child, almost unconsciously; and as she spoke, +the man's senses began to return. In a few minutes more he had +sufficiently recovered to falter forth his thanks to the stranger. But +the last took his hand, and said, in a voice at once tremulous and +soothing, "Is it possible that I see once more an old brother in arms? +Algernon Digby, I do not forget you; but it seems England has +forgotten!" + +A hectic flush spread over the soldier's face, and he looked away from +the speaker as he answered-- + +"My name is Digby, it is true, sir; but I do not think we have met +before. Come, Helen, I am well now--we will go home." + +"Try and play with that great dog, my child," said the stranger--"I +want to talk with your father." + +The child bowed her submissive head, and moved away; but she did not +play with the dog. + +"I must re-introduce myself, formally, I see," quoth the stranger. +"You were in the same regiment with myself, and my name is +L'Estrange." + +"My lord," said the soldier, rising, "forgive me that--" + +"I don't think that it was the fashion to call me 'my lord' at the +mess-table. Come, what has happened to you?--on half pay?" + +Mr. Digby shook his head mournfully. + +"Digby, old fellow, can you lend me L100?" said Lord L'Estrange, +clapping his _ci-devant_ brother officer on the shoulder, and in a +tone of voice that seemed like a boy's--so impudent was it and +devil-me-carish. "No! Well, that's lucky, for I can lend it to you." + +Mr. Digby burst into tears. + +Lord L'Estrange did not seem to observe the emotion. "We were both sad +extravagant fellows in our day," said he, "and I dare say I borrowed +of you pretty freely." + +"Me! Oh, Lord L'Estrange?" + +"You have married since then, and reformed, I suppose. Tell me, old +friend, all about it." + +Mr. Digby, who by this time had succeeded in restoring some calm to +his shattered nerves, now rose, and said in brief sentences, but clear +firm tones,-- + +"My Lord, it is idle to talk of me--useless to help me. I am fast +dying. But, my child there, my only child, (he paused an instant, and +went on rapidly.) I have relations in a distant country, if I could +but get to them--I think they would at least provide for her. This has +been for weeks my hope, my dream, my prayer. I cannot afford the +journey except by your help. I have begged without shame for myself; +shall I be ashamed, then, to beg for her?" + +"Digby," said L'Estrange with some grave alteration of manner, "talk +neither of dying, nor begging. You were nearer death when the balls +whistled round you at Waterloo. If soldier meets soldier and says, +'Friend, thy purse,' it is not begging, but brotherhood. Ashamed! By +the soul of Belisarius! if I needed money, I would stand at a crossing +with my Waterloo medal over my breast, and say to each sleek citizen I +had helped to save from the sword of the Frenchman, 'It is your shame +if I starve.' Now, lean upon me; I see you should be at home--which +way?" + +The poor soldier pointed his hand towards Oxford Street, and +reluctantly accepted the proffered arm. + +"And when you return from your relations, you will call on me? +What!--hesitate? Come, promise." + +"I will." + +"On your honor." + +"If I live, on my honor." + +"I am staying at present at Knightsbridge, with my father; but you +will always hear of my address at No. -- Grosvenor Square, Mr. +Egerton's. So you have a long journey before you?" + +"Very long." + +"Do not fatigue yourself--travel slowly. Ho, you foolish child!--I see +you are jealous of me. Your father has another arm to spare you." + +Thus talking, and getting but short answers, Lord L'Estrange continued +to exhibit those whimsical peculiarities of character, which had +obtained for him the repute of heartlessness in the world. Perhaps the +reader may think the world was not in the right. But if ever the world +does judge rightly of the character of a man who does not live for the +world, nor talk of the world, nor feel with the world, it will be +centuries after the soul of Harley L'Estrange has done with this +planet. + + +CHAPTER V. + +Lord L'Estrange parted company with Mr. Digby at the entrance of +Oxford Street. The father and child there took a cabriolet. Mr. Digby +directed the driver to go down the Edgeware Road. He refused to tell +L'Estrange his address, and this with such evident pain, from the +sores of pride, that L'Estrange could not press the point. Reminding +the soldier of his promise to call, Harley thrust a pocket-book into +his hand, and walked off hastily towards Grosvenor Square. + +He reached Audley Egerton's door just as that gentleman was getting +out of his carriage; and the two friends entered the house together. + +"Does the nation take a nap to-night?" asked L'Estrange. "Poor old +lady! She hears so much of her affairs, that she may well boast of her +constitution: it must be of iron." + +"The House is still sitting," answered Audley seriously, and with +small heed of his friend's witticism. "But it is not a Government +motion, and the division will be late, so I came home; and if I had +not found you here, I should have gone into the park to look for you." + +"Yes--one always knows where to find me at this hour, 9 o'clock +P.M.--cigar--Hyde Park. There is not a man in England so regular in +his habits." + +Here the friends reached a drawing-room in which the member of +Parliament seldom sat, for his private apartments were all on the +ground floor. + +"But it is the strangest whim of yours, Harley," said he. + +"What?" + +"To affect detestation of ground-floors." + +"Affect! O sophisticated man, of the earth, earthy! Affect!--nothing +less natural to the human soul than a ground-floor. We are quite far +enough from heaven, mount as many stairs as we will, without +grovelling by preference." + +"According to that symbolical view of the case," said Audley, "you +should lodge in an attic." + +"So I would, but that I abhor new slippers. As for hair-brushes, I am +indifferent!" + +"What have slippers and hair-brushes to do with attics?" + +"Try! Make your bed in an attic, and the next morning you will have +neither slippers nor hair-brushes!" + +"What shall I have done with them?" + +"Shied them at the cats!" + +"What odd things you do say, Harley!" + +"Odd! By Apollo and his nine spinsters! there is no human being who +has so little imagination as a distinguished Member of Parliament. +Answer me this, thou solemn right honorable--Hast thou climbed to the +heights of august contemplation? Hast thou gazed on the stars with the +rapt eye of song? Hast thou dreamed of a love known to the angels, or +sought to seize in the Infinite the mystery of life?" + +"Not I indeed, my poor Harley." + +"Then no wonder, poor Audley, that you cannot conjecture why he who +makes his bed in an attic, disturbed by base catterwauls, shies his +slippers at cats. Bring a chair into the balcony. Nero spoiled my +cigar to-night. I am going to smoke now. You never smoke. You can look +on the shrubs in the Square." + +Audley slightly shrugged his shoulders, but he followed his friend's +counsel and example, and brought his chair into the balcony. Nero +came too, but at sight and smell of the cigar prudently retreated, and +took refuge under the table. + +"Audley Egerton, I want something from Government." + +"I am delighted to hear it." + +"There was a cornet in my regiment, who would have done better not to +have come into it. We were, for the most part of us, puppies and +fops." + +"You all fought well, however." + +"Puppies and fops do fight well. Vanity and valor generally go +together. Caesar, who scratched his head with due care of his scanty +curls, and, even in dying, thought of the folds in his toga; Walter +Raleigh, who could not walk twenty yards, because of the gems in his +shoes; Alcibiades, who lounged into the Agora with doves in his bosom, +and an apple in his hand; Murat, bedizened in gold lace and furs; and +Demetrius, the City-Taker, who made himself up like a French +_Marquise_,--were all pretty good fellows at fighting. A slovenly hero +like Cromwell is a paradox in nature, and a marvel in history. But to +return to my cornet. We were rich; he was poor. When the pot of clay +swims down the stream with the brass-pots, it is sure of a smash. Men +said Digby was stingy; I saw he was extravagant. But every one, I +fear, would be rather thought stingy than poor. _Bref._--I left the +army, and saw him no more till to-night. There was never shabby poor +gentleman on the stage more awfully shabby, more pathetically +gentleman. But, look ye, this man has fought for England. It was no +child's play at Waterloo, let me tell you, Mr. Egerton; and, but for +such men, you would be at best a _sous-prefet_, and your Parliament a +Provincial Assembly. You must do something for Digby. What shall it +be?" + +"Why, really, my dear Harley, this man was no great friend of +yours--eh?" + +"If he were, he would not want the Government to help him--he would +not be ashamed of taking money from me." + +"That is all very fine, Harley; but there are so many poor officers, +and so little to give. It is the most difficult thing in the world +that which you ask me. Indeed, I know nothing can be done: he has his +half-pay?" + +"I think not; or, if he has it, no doubt it all goes on his debts. +That's nothing to us: the man and his child are starving." + +"But if it is his own fault--if he has been imprudent?" + +"Ah--well, well; where the devil is Nero?" + +"I am so sorry I can't oblige you. If it were any thing else--" + +"There is something else. My valet--I can't turn him adrift--excellent +fellow, but gets drunk now and then. Will you find him a place in the +Stamp Office?" + +"With pleasure." + +"No, now I think of it--the man knows my ways: I must keep him. But my +old wine-merchant--civil man, never dunned--is a bankrupt. I am under +great obligations to him, and he has a very pretty daughter. Do you +think you could thrust him into some small place in the colonies, or +make him a King's Messenger, or something of the sort?" + +"If you very much wish it, no doubt I can." + +"My dear Audley, I am but feeling my way: the fact is, I want +something for myself." + +"Ah, that indeed gives me pleasure!" cried Egerton, with animation. + +"The mission to Florence will soon be vacant--I know it privately. The +place would quite suit me. Pleasant city; the best figs in Italy--very +little to do. You could sound Lord ---- on the subject." + +"I will answer beforehand. Lord ----would be enchanted to secure to +the public service a man so accomplished as yourself, and the son of a +peer like Lord Lansmere." + +Harley L'Estrange sprang to his feet, and flung his cigar in the face +of a stately policeman who was looking up at the balcony. + +"Infamous and bloodless official!" cried Harley L'Estrange; "so you +could provide for a pimple-nosed lackey--for a wine-merchant who has +been poisoning the king's subjects with white-lead or sloe-juice--for +an idle sybarite, who would complain of a crumpled rose-leaf; and +nothing, in all the vast patronage of England, for a broken down +soldier, whose dauntless breast was her rampart!" + +"Harley," said the member of Parliament, with his calm, sensible +smile, "this would be a very good clap-trap at a small theatre; but +there is nothing in which Parliament demands such rigid economy as the +military branch of the public service; and no man for whom it is so +hard to effect what we must plainly call a job, as a subaltern +officer, who has done nothing more than his duty--and all military men +do that. Still, as you take it so earnestly, I will use what interest +I can at the War Office, and get him, perhaps, the mastership of a +barrack." + +"You had better; for if you do not, I swear I will turn radical, and +come down to your own city to oppose you, with Hunt and Cobbett to +canvass for me." + +"I should be very glad to see you come into Parliament, even as a +radical, and at my expense," said Audley, with great kindness. "But +the air is growing cold, and you are not accustomed to our climate. +Nay, if you are too poetic for catarrhs and rheums, I'm not--come in." + + +CHAPTER VI. + +Lord L'Estrange threw himself on a sofa, and leant his cheek on his +hand thoughtfully. Audley Egerton sat near him, with his arms folded, +and gazed on his friend's face with a soft expression of aspect, which +was very unusual to the firm outline of his handsome features. The two +men were as dissimilar in person as the reader will have divined that +they were in character. All about Egerton was so rigid, all about +L'Estrange so easy. In every posture of Harley there was the +unconscious grace of a child. The very fashion of his garments showed +his abhorrence of restraint. His clothes were wide and loose, his +neckcloth tied carelessly, left his throat half bare. You could see +that he had lived much in warm and southern lands, and contracted a +contempt for conventionalities; there was as little in his dress as in +his talk of the formal precision of the north. He was three or four +years younger than Audley, but he looked at least twelve years +younger. In fact, he was one of those men to whom old age seems +impossible--voice, look, figure, had all the charm of youth; and, +perhaps, it was from this gracious youthfulness--at all events, it was +characteristic of the kind of love he inspired--that neither his +parents, nor the few friends admitted into his intimacy, ever called +him, in their habitual intercourse, by the name of his title. He was +not L'Estrange with them, he was Harley; and by that familiar +baptismal I will usually designate him. He was not one of those men +whom author or reader wish to view at a distance, and remember as "my +lord"--it was so rarely that he remembered it himself. For the rest, +it had been said of him by a shrewd wit--"He is so natural, that every +one calls him affected." Harley L'Estrange was not so critically +handsome as Audley Egerton; to a commonplace observer he was, at best, +rather good-looking than otherwise. But women said that he had a +beautiful countenance, and they were not wrong. He wore his hair, +which was of a fair chestnut, long, and in loose curls; and instead of +the Englishman's whiskers, indulged in the foreigner's moustache. His +complexion was delicate, though not effeminate; it was rather the +delicacy of a student than of a woman. But in his clear gray eye there +was wonderful vigor of life. A skilful physiologist, looking only into +that eye, would have recognized rare stamina of constitution--a nature +so rich that, while easily disturbed, it would require all the effects +of time, or all the fell combinations of passion and grief, to exhaust +it. Even now, though so thoughtful, and even so sad, the rays of that +eye were as concentred and stedfast as the light of the diamond. + +"You were only, then, in jest," said Audley, after a long silence, +"when you spoke of this mission to Florence. You have still no idea of +entering into public life. + +"None." + +"I had hoped better things when I got your promise to pass one season +in London. But, indeed, you have kept your promise to the ear to break +it to the spirit. I could not presuppose that you would shun all +society, and be as much of a hermit here as under the vines of Como." + +"I have sat in the Strangers' Gallery, and heard your great speakers; +I have been in the pit of the opera, and seen your fine ladies; I have +walked your streets, I have lounged in your parks, and I say that I +can't fall in love with a faded dowager, because she fills up her +wrinkles with rouge." + +"Of what dowager do you speak?" asked the matter-of-fact Audley. + +"She has a great many titles. Some people call her fashion, you busy +men, politics: it is all one--tricked out and artificial. I mean +London life. No, I can't fall in love with her, fawning old harridan!" + +"I wish you could fall in love with something." + +"I wish I could, with all my heart." + +"But you are so _blase_." + +"On the contrary, I am so fresh. Look out of the window--what do you +see?" + +"Nothing!" + +"Nothing--" + +"Nothing but houses and dusty lilacs, my coachman dozing on his box, +and two women in pattens crossing the kennel." + +"I see none of that where I lie on the sofa. I see but the stars. And +I feel for them as I did when I was a schoolboy at Eton. It is you who +are _blase_, not I--enough of this. You do not forget my commission, +with respect to the exile who has married into your brother's family?" + +"No; but here you set me a task more difficult than that of saddling +your cornet on the War Office." + +"I know it is difficult, for the counter influence is vigilant and +strong; but, on the other hand, the enemy is so damnable a traitor +that one must have the Fates and the household gods on one's side." + +"Nevertheless," said the practical Audley, bending over a book on the +table, "I think that the best plan would be to attempt a compromise +with the traitor." + +"To judge of others by myself," answered Harley with spirit, "it were +less bitter to put up with wrong than to palter with it for +compensation. And such wrong! Compromise with the open foe--that may +be done with honor; but with the perjured friend--that were to forgive +the perjury." + +"You are too vindictive," said Egerton; "there may be excuses for the +friend, which palliate even--" + +"Hush! Audley, hush! or I shall think the world has indeed corrupted +you. Excuse for the friend who deceives, who betrays! No, such is the +true outlaw of Humanity; and the Furies surround him even while he +sleeps in the temple." + +The man of the world lifted his eye slowly on the animated face of one +still natural enough for the passions. He then once more returned to +his book, and said, after a pause, "It is time you should marry, +Harley." + +"No," answered L'Estrange, with a smile at this sudden turn in the +conversation--"not time yet; for my chief objection to that change in +life is, that all the women now-a-days are too old for me, or I am too +young for them; a few, indeed, are so infantine that one is ashamed +to be their toy; but most are so knowing that one is a fool to be +their dupe. The first, if they condescend to love you, love you as the +biggest doll they have yet dandled, and for a doll's good +qualities--your pretty blue eyes, and your exquisite millinery. The +last, if they prudently accept you, do so on algebraical principles; +you are but the X or the Y that represents a certain aggregate of +goods matrimonial--pedigree, title, rent-roll, diamonds, pin-money, +opera-box. They cast you up with the help of mamma, and you wake some +morning to find that _plus_ wife _minus_ affection equals--the Devil!" + +"Nonsense," said Audley, with his quiet grave laugh. "I grant that it +is often the misfortune of a man in your station to be married rather +for what he has, than for what he is; but you are tolerably +penetrating, and not likely to be deceived in the character of the +woman you court." + +"Of the woman I _court_?--No! But of the woman I _marry_, very likely +indeed. Woman is a changeable thing, as our Virgil informed us at +school; but her change _par excellence_ is from the fairy you woo to +the brownie you wed. It is not that she has been a hypocrite, +it is that she is a transmigration. You marry a girl for her +accomplishments. She paints charmingly, or plays like St. Cecilia. +Clap a ring on her finger, and she never draws again--except perhaps +your caricature on the back of a letter, and never opens a piano after +the honeymoon. You marry her for her sweet temper; and next year, her +nerves are so shattered that you can't contradict her but you are +whirled into a storm of hysterics. You marry her because she declares +she hates balls and likes quiet; and ten to one but what she becomes a +patroness at Almacks, or a lady in waiting." + +"Yet most men marry, and most men survive the operation." + +"If it were only necessary to live, that would be a consolatory and +encouraging reflection. But to live with peace, to live with dignity, +to live with freedom, to live in harmony with your thoughts, your +habits, your aspirations--and this in the perpetual companionship of a +person to whom you have given the power to wound your peace, to assail +your dignity, to cripple your freedom, to jar on each thought and each +habit, and bring you down to the meanest details of earth, when you +invite her, poor soul, to soar to the spheres--that makes the to be, +or not to be, which is the question." + +"If I were you, Harley, I would do as I have heard the author of +_Sandford and Merton_ did--choose out a child, and educate her +yourself after your own heart." + +"You have hit it," answered Harley, seriously. "That has long been my +idea--a very vague one, I confess. But I fear I shall be an old man +before I find even the child." + +"Ah," he continued, yet more earnestly, while the whole character of +his varying countenance changed again--"ah! if indeed I could discover +what I seek--one who with the heart of a child has the mind of a +woman; one who beholds in nature the variety, the charm, the never +feverish, ever healthful excitement that others vainly seek in the +bastard sentimentalities of a life false with artificial forms; one +who can comprehend, as by intuition, the rich poetry with which +creation is clothed--poetry so clear to the child when enraptured with +the flower, or when wondering at the star? If on me such exquisite +companionship were bestowed--why, then"--he paused, sighed deeply, +and, covering his face with his hand, resumed in faltering accents,-- + +"But once--but once only, did such vision of the Beautiful made human +rise before me--amidst 'golden exhalations of the dawn.' It beggared +my life in vanishing. You know only--you only--how--how"-- + +He bowed his head, and the tears forced themselves through his +clenched fingers. + +"So long ago!" said Audley, sharing his friend's emotion. "Years so +long and so weary, yet still thus tenacious of a mere boyish memory." + +"Away with it, then!" cried Harley, springing to his feet, and with a +laugh of strange merriment. "Your carriage still waits; set me home +before you go to the House." + +Then laying his hand lightly on his friend's shoulder, he said, "Is it +for you, Audley Egerton, to speak sneeringly of boyish memories? What +else is it that binds us together? What else warms my heart when I +meet you? What else draws your thoughts from blue-books and +beer-bills, to waste them on a vagrant like me? Shake hands. Oh, +friend of my boyhood! recollect the oars that we plied and the bats +that we wielded in the old time, or the murmured talk on the +moss-grown bank, as we sat together, building in the summer air +castles mightier than Windsor. Ah! they are strong ties, those boyish +memories, believe me! I remember as if it were yesterday my +translation of that lovely passage in Perseus, beginning--let me +see--ah!-- + + "Quum primum pavido custos mihi purpura cessit," + +that passage on friendship which gushes out so livingly from the stern +heart of the satirist. And when old ---- complimented me on my verses, +my eye sought yours. Verily, I now say as then, + + "Nescio quod, certe est quod me tibi temperet astrum."[8] + +Audley turned away his head as he returned the grasp of his friend's +hand; and while Harley, with his light elastic footstep, descended the +stairs, Egerton lingered behind, and there was no trace of the worldly +man upon his countenance when he took his place in the carriage by his +companion's side. + +Two hours afterwards, weary cries of "Question, question!" "Divide, +divide!" sank into reluctant silence as Audley Egerton rose to +conclude the debate--the man of men to speak late at night, and to +impatient benches: a man who would be heard; whom a Bedlam broke loose +would not have roared down; with a voice clear and sound as a bell, +and a form as firmly set on the ground as a church-tower. And while, +on the dullest of dull questions, Audley Egerton thus, not too lively +himself, enforced attention, where was Harley L'Estrange? Standing +alone by the river at Richmond, and murmuring low fantastic thoughts +as he gazed on the moonlit tide. + +When Audley left him at home, he had joined his parents, made them gay +with his careless gayety, seen the old-fashioned folks retire to rest, +and then--while they, perhaps, deemed him once more the hero of +ball-rooms and the cynosure of clubs--he drove slowly through the soft +summer night, amidst the perfumes of many a garden and many a gleaming +chestnut grove, with no other aim before him than to reach the +loveliest margin of England's loveliest river, at the hour the moon +was fullest and the song of the nightingale most sweet. And so +eccentric a humorist was this man, that I believe, as he there +loitered--no one near to cry "How affected!" or "How romantic!"--he +enjoyed himself more than if he had been exchanging the politest +"how-d'ye-do's" in the hottest of London drawing-rooms, or betting his +hundreds on the odd trick with Lord de R---- for his partner. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[8] "What was the star I know not, but certainly some star it was that +attuned me unto thee." + + + + +From the London Examiner. + +A GLIMPSE OF THE GREAT EXHIBITION. + + +There is one country which is not represented at the Great Exhibition, +one power which refused to send any specimens of its produce, lest the +having done so should be considered as a tribute to the commercial +greatness of England, and lest exhibitors and exhibited should incur +contamination by contact with specimens of the world's industry. One +is not sorry that this should be the case, and that the felon power of +Europe should have thus passed judgment on itself, and of its own +accord placed itself in Coventry. + +The country we allude to is Naples. The horror which the king +entertains of any thing constitutional since his Majesty took the oath +to his own constitution, and since he hanged those who committed the +same crime without afterwards perjuring themselves after the royal +example, has induced him to prohibit the sending of any specimens to +London. Naples, to be sure, has little to exhibit. Industry in that +country, so blessed by nature, has been crushed and annihilated by the +hand of tyranny. Sulphur and other volcanic products, wine which +science has never enabled to bear exportation, silk in its _brut_ +state, with some coarse fabrics of cloth and linen, and hats in +imitation of Tuscany, compose all the industry of one of the finest +countries in Europe. No marvel, therefore, it should have shrunk upon +any pretence from occupying a booth at the Great Exhibition. + +A very different place in that great show is held by Piedmont, which +has furnished a large assortment of raw materials and manufactured +articles. On the other hand, Florence and Venice are far, we fear, +from even keeping up a shadow of their old reputation. The country of +Benvenuto Cellini has lost the gift of the arts with that of freedom; +and the manufactures with which Venice used to pay for the merchandise +of the East are no more. Strange to say, however, Milan supplies one +of the most interesting and perfect compartments of the Exhibition, +that of small sculptures, in which the youth of the region are so +skilled as to distance all competition. + +The United States must be held to have furnished far less valuable +specimens of either art or nature than might have been expected; and +this will be the more evident, as its stall occupies the great +compartment of the Exhibition adjoining the eastern entrance, and +first meeting the eye. France and Germany, especially North Germany, +hold their ground well. One thing, however, seems certain, and the +more remarkable as it was not altogether expected, which is, that +England is not inferior to her competitors in any department. That her +machinery, and the results of her science and skill in working in +metals should distance all competition, might have been looked for. +But what will greatly astonish people, is her very signal success in +so many departments of the ornamental: and whilst of natural +productions her various colonies have supplied specimens the most +novel and most startling, the produce of the looms as well as of the +mines of Indostan offer among the most novel and interesting sights +that the curious could flock to see. + +In a general way it is not yet possible to guess what effect the +Exhibition is likely to have. So many persons will crowd to it with +widely different views, that it is extremely difficult to sum up its +probable impression on the whole. But we believe that those most +gratified will be scientific persons, who can see and compare for the +first time all raw materials and all finished productions gathered +together under the same roof. It is, indeed, as a creator of new +combinations and of new ideas, that the Great Exhibition must in any +permanent sense be chiefly valuable; for it is hardly conceivable but +that many most startling inventions in art manufacture must ultimately +spring from it. But these will be silent enjoyments, and for a long +time secret profits. Those on whose fertile minds the good seed of new +ideas may fall, will silently cherish and allow them to germ in the +shade, and years may elapse ere we see the growth or the fruit. What +meanwhile we may count upon hearing most of for the moment will be the +enjoyment of the curious at the view of the Koh-i-noor, and the other +mere sight-wonders of the Exhibition. + +Let us add that not the least pleasure of this kind is the view which +each race of the human family will be enabled to take of the other. +The crowds now brought together are essentially, the greater part of +them, of the middle and artisan class, although it may be generally of +those already successful and enriched. This is a kind of people that +would never have come amongst us but upon an occasion such as the +present, and whom to see and be seen by, cannot but be productive of +large, friendly, humane, cosmopolitan results. + + + + +From Leigh Hunt's Journal. + +DR. DAVID STRAUSS IN WEIMAR. + + +The Visitor's Book of the Elephant Hotel in Weimar contains, under the +date of the 12th August, a rather remarkable autograph, which the +curious collector would do well to buy, if possible, or, if not +possible, then to beg or steal. Perhaps, among the many distinguished +names which the long series of _Fremdenbuecher_ kept at Weimar during +the last fifty years must necessarily exhibit, there are few to which +an earnest, thinking man would attach the same profound, though +somewhat painful degree of interest. It is the name of "_Dr. David +Strauss, aus Ludwigsburg_," written by himself. + +"How!" you exclaim in a mingled tone of surprise and incredulity, "Dr. +Strauss in Weimar? David Strauss among the pilgrims to the tomb of the +poets?" + +It does sound apocryphal--_mythical_, if you will. One would almost as +soon expect to hear of the late Dr. Jordan Faust himself paying a +visit to the ghost of Goethe. Nevertheless, and in spite of all that +learned critics, a thousand years hence, may advance and prove to the +contrary, a veritable fact it is, Strauss actually has been among +us--has been seen here in the body during several days by several +witnesses, the present writer being one. + +It is my intention here briefly to record the impression which I still +retain of my transient intercourse with this celebrated man. Such a +record can scarce be considered as a breach of confidence, an invasion +of the sacred domains of private life: the author of the "_Leben +Jesu_" is a public, I had almost said, an historical character. + +Up to his arrival in Weimar, my relation to Strauss had been merely of +that mystic, invisible, and impersonal description, which usually +subsists between a gifted writer and his readers. But even before I +knew the language, and, by consequence, before I could read the works +of Strauss, I had heard much and often of the young Tubingen +theologian, who, at the age of twenty-seven years, with all the moral +courage of a Luther, all the critical skill, and more than all the +learning of a Lessing, had arisen and _implicitly_ declared to the +whole German nation, and to the world at large, that their belief +rested on a false basis (in his opinion). + +Though educated in a country where every man reads and reverences his +Bible, I had likewise arrived at that, in every sense, _critical_ +period, which is, I suppose, common to all men of an inquiring +disposition. I, too, had eaten of the fruit of the tree of +knowledge--had become as a god in my own conceit, knowing good from +evil. I had passed through the French and English schools of +skepticism, with my orthodoxy, if not intact, at least not vitally +injured. To study Strauss, therefore, seemed a mere matter of course. +Well; I read his celebrated work. It contained nothing absolutely new, +either in assertion or opinion. I had met with the same or similar +elsewhere. And yet the very same _wooden_ arguments I had so often +smiled at in the writings of the French and English free-thinkers, +seemed here to annihilate me. In vain I said to myself, "they are +still wooden!" Strauss had so sheathed and bound them with his triple +fold of _brass_. In other words, had so supported and confirmed them +with his unheard-of array of learning, logic, and science; that +nothing, I thought, could resist them. It seemed as if the world-old, +hereditary feud between faith and reason were here to be terminated +for ever. As I read, the solid earth seemed to be giving way beneath +me; and when I at length closed the ominous volume, I could have +almost cried out with the chorus in Faust: "Woe! woe! thou hast +shattered the lovely world!" + +It is unusual, I believe, to speak out these bosom secrets in this +way; but I thought it necessary to give you this, by no means +exaggerated description of my first spiritual encounter with the +author of the _Leben Jesu_, in order that you might have some idea of +the feelings with which, on the third morning after his arrival in +Weimar, I received and read the following whimsical note: + + _Weimar_, 15th August. + + "A. S. requests the pleasure of Mr. M----'s company to-day, + at two o'clock, to soup and Strauss." + +How busily my fancy was employed the whole of that forenoon, I need +not stop here to tell. Enough, that of all the various pictures she +then drew for me, not one resembled the pale, the slightly made, and, +but for a partial stoop, the somewhat tall, half-lay, half-clerical +figure in spectacles, to whom I was presented on arriving at my +friend's apartments. This was Strauss himself, whose portrait I may as +well go on and finish here at once as well as I can, and so have done +with externals. + +Judging from appearance, Strauss's age might be any where between +forty and fifty. But for his light brown, glossy hair, I should have +said nearer the latter than the former. I have since ascertained, +however, that he is, or was then, exactly forty-one years of age. His +head is the very contrary of massive,--as, indeed, his whole figure is +the opposite of robust or muscular. But it--the head--is of a purely +classical form, having none of those bumps and extravagant +protuberances, which phrenologists delight in. His profile, in +particular, might be called truly Grecian, were it not for the thin +and somewhat pinched lips, which give it an almost ascetical +character. Strange enough, too, this same character of ascetism, or +something akin to it, seems likewise indicated by a peculiar +expression in his otherwise fine, dark-brown eyes. It is not a squint, +as at first sight it appears, but a frequent turning-upward of the +eye-balls, like a Methodist at his devotions, which, in Strauss's +case, is of course involuntary. Perhaps it is to conceal this slight +blemish that he wears spectacles, for his large and lustrous eyes did +not else appear to need them. I have said that Strauss was slightly +made; and, in fact, this is so much the case as to suggest the idea of +a consumptive habit. Nor do his narrow shoulders and hollow breast, +together with a certain swinging serpentine gait when he walks, seem +to contradict the supposition. I have little more to add to this +feeble sketch of Strauss's outward man; for it would, I suppose, be +too trifling a circumstance to mention that I had seldom seen a more +_thorough-bred_ hand and foot than his! + +My entrance had interrupted a conversation, which Strauss presently +resumed, and which proved to be on the eternal topic of politics. His +voice was strong and deep, but he spoke (and it seemed to be a habit +with him) in a subdued tone, and with a very decided Wurtemberg +accent. I was surprised at some of the high-Tory opinions to which he +gave utterance. I had not expected to find the author of the _Leben +Jesu_ on the Conservative side of any question. It seemed +inconsistent. But I recollected that the man was now on the wrong side +of forty; and I could not help thinking that if, instead of publishing +his destructive book at the age of twenty-seven, he had waited with it +till now, he might possibly have postponed it altogether. At table, +our talk was of the usual commonplace description; and it may be worth +while observing, that even Strauss could be commonplace with as good a +grace as any. Our host and he had, it seems, been fellow-students +together, and, of course, there was no want of anecdotes and +reminiscences of those early days, all of which appeared to give him +exquisite pleasure. In particular, I remember that he spoke with much +fervor of the fine mountain scenery in the neighborhood of Heidelberg; +and when a friendly discussion arose amongst us as to whether the +mountains or the ocean were the sublimer spectacle, Strauss argued +warmly in favor of the former. Some one (myself, I believe) happening +to say that, like Goethe and Schiller, they were both _superlative_, +and not to be _compared_--"Bravo!" cried Strauss, and good humoredly +gave up his position. The conversation now naturally turned upon +Goethe, and upon all the localities in and about Weimar, connected +with his memory. Like a pious pilgrim, as he was, Strauss, as I found, +had already been to all these places, with the exception of the +garden-house and garden. It was proposed to conduct him thither +immediately. + +The extreme and almost primitive simplicity of the house in which +Goethe had spent some of the happiest days of his life, seemed to +astonish Strauss. He made few remarks to that effect, however, but +there was no end to his eager questionings. He touched the walls, the +doors, the locks--whatever it might be supposed Goethe had touched. He +peeped into every corner, scrutinized even the minutest details; and +all this with the utmost outward composure, so that, if I had not +closely watched him, it might have escaped my notice! In the garden, I +showed him Goethe's favorite walk, and some oaks and firs planted by +the poet's own hand. He gathered an oak-leaf, and put it in his +pocket-book. He did the same by the flower of a hollyhock, the only +kind of flower remaining, which plant I knew for certain dated its +existence from the time of Goethe. The pocket-book was already full of +such relics. From this time forth, therefore, let no man say that +Strauss is devoid of veneration! Man was made for adoration. He cannot +help it. Pity, only, that he sometimes mistakes the object of it. + +In the mean while Strauss and I had somehow drawn nearer to each +other, and had begun to hold little dialogues apart together. We +talked of England, where he had never been,--of English literature, +which he knew chiefly through the medium of translation. Shakspeare of +course was duly discussed,--for, like all educated Germans, Strauss +was an enthusiast about Shakspeare. He asked me if I had read +Gervinus's new work, and was evidently pleased with the way in which I +spoke of it. By-and-by I ventured to allude to the _Leben Jesu_. It +was not without considerable hesitation. He seemed, I think, to enjoy +my embarrassment,--and told me he had seen several specimens of an +English translation of the _Leben Jesu_, which a young lady, a Miss +Brabant, was preparing for publication! There was something +_Mephistophelian_ in the smile with which he told me this. Such a +work, he continued, was, however, not likely to succeed in England: +for there was Hennel, who had published an amazingly clever work of +the same kind in London, and yet the British public seemed to have +made a point of completely _ignoring_ it. The work had, however, been +translated into German, and he (Strauss himself) had written a preface +to it. As I now perceived that the subject was any thing but a +delicate one with Strauss, I determined upon accepting a proposal he +had made me to accompany him on the morrow to Doornburg and Jena. +There were inconsistencies in his system, which I had the vanity to +think I might convince him of, and a _tete-a-tete_ like the one in +prospect was just what I wanted. + +We returned to _S--'s_ for tea, with the addition to our party of a +distinguished philologian of this town, whose presence seemed to call +forth all the intellectual energies of Strauss, so that, in the course +of the evening, I had more than one occasion to admire the variety and +depth of the man's attainments. It is impossible to recollect every +thing, but what especially excited my attention was, that in a very +learned discussion concerning the comparative merits of the ancient +and modern drama, Strauss suggested the character and fate of Tiberius +as the best subject for a tragedy in the whole compass of history. I +was struck, too, and with reason, I think, with a new and flagrant +instance of the conservative tendency which his mind seems of late to +have fallen into. In talking of Horace, whose works, and particularly +whose odes, he appeared to have at his fingers' ends, he defended the +elder state of the texts with amazing pertinacity, treating with +contempt every change and suggestion of such, which the sacrilegious +commentators of our times have ventured upon. Such opinions in the +mouth of the author of the _Leben Jesu_ sounded strange enough, and +again I could not help saying to myself, "Why the deuce did he publish +that destructive work of his twenty-seventh year?" + +The following day, being prevented by pressing engagements from +leaving town, I prevailed upon Strauss to put off his journey for a +day longer. I saw little of him in the mean time, and had therefore +leisure to bring into some kind of order and method a series of +objections which I had noted down during a second and more critical +perusal of the _Leben Jesu_. On mature reflection, it had occurred to +me that, after all, the Christian religion had, in the course of +eighteen centuries, survived far worse things than even Strauss's +book. This idea now gave me courage to look this Goliah in the face, +and, though I was but a youth (so to speak), and he a "man of war," to +go up against him, if occasion offered, even with my "scrip" and +"sling," and my "five smooth stones out of the brook." + +Next morning, then, in pursuance of our plan, Strauss and I started +with the first train for Apolda, whence we went on foot across the +fields to Doornburg. There we breakfasted in Goethe's room, saw the +poet's handwriting on the wall, walked along his favorite +terrace-walk, where I, for the time as much of a hero-worshipper as +Strauss himself, recited aloud the beautiful song, _Da droben auf +jenem Berge_, &c., which Goethe is said to have composed on this very +spot. I expected Strauss to be moved almost to tears, instead of which +he burst out in a most incontrollable fit of laughter, in which I as +incontrollably joined when he told me the cause, which was this:--In +Munich or Ludwigsburg, I forget which, there was once a house of +public entertainment, called from its sign "The Lamb's Wool," as its +proprietor was called "The Lamb's Wool landlord." This landlord had, +it seems, been one of his own best customers, in consequence of which +he soon became bankrupt, which sad event a poet of the same town, most +probably another of the landlord's best customers, commemorated in a +few stanzas entitled, _Des Lamswollswirthes Klagelied_ (The Host of +the Lamb's Wool's Lament), a parody on the above song of Goethe's, and +suggested, doubtless, by these two lines-- + + "Ich bin _herunter gekommem_, + Und weiss doch selber nicht wie!"[9] + +Nothing could exceed the humor with which Strauss told me this droll +anecdote, and, for my part, I feel that I shall never again be able to +recite Goethe's pathetic song with becoming gravity. + +From Doornburg we walked to Jena, where we arrived to dinner. It +rained torrents, but Strauss was not to be balked of what he came for. +We trudged like _Schwarmer_ (enthusiasts), as he said, through mud and +rain, to all the Goethe and Schiller relics, the library, the +observatory, and, last of all, the Princess's garden, where the statue +of the eagle with its three poetical inscriptions long detained us. +Returned to our inn and about to take a final leave of Strauss; now, I +thought, or never, was the time to fulfil the object for which I had +accompanied him thus far. All day, hitherto, our talk had been of the +poets--Greek, Roman, English, and German, and so much erudition, +taste, and feeling, I had rarely found united. His mind seemed to have +fed on poetry and nothing else; and I know not how it was, but I could +not till now resolve to speak the word which I knew would disenchant +him. Now, however, the probability that we should never see each other +again on this side eternity gave a solemn, perhaps superstitious, turn +to my thoughts. As he sat there in silence before me, like the sphinx +of which he had spoken so mysteriously in descanting that morning on +the master piece of Sophocles, I felt that now I must speak out, or +else look to be devoured. I at once entered on the subject, therefore, +and delivered myself of all the objections I had so elaborately +arranged and prepared. His answer was evasive; and the topic was +changed into an argument. + +Strauss was to leave with the diligence at eight o'clock for +Rudolstadt. I cordially shook hands with him, bade God bless him, and, +hiring a conveyance, drove directly back to Weimar. On the way home, I +conceived the plan of a poem, which, if it were completed, I would +insert here. It will probably never be completed. Instead of it, +therefore, I will communicate something far more interesting--a copy +of verses written by Strauss himself, on returning from his pilgrimage +to the tomb of the poets; and with which I conclude what I had to say +regarding Dr. David Strauss in Weimar. + +[Dr. Strauss, as a poet, being almost a _lusus naturae_, according to +English ideas of him, we have thought it right to translate this +poem. Here, accordingly, is the best English version possible to us in +the little time allowed by an inexorable printer:--] + + On pilgrim staff I homeward come, + Way worn, but still with pleasure warmed; + At the great prophet's holy tomb, + The pious rites I have performed. + + I, in his garden's shady walk, + Recalled the prints of footsteps lost: + And from the tree his care had raised, + I plucked a greeting from his ghost. + + I saw in letters and in poems, + His honored hand's laborious toil; + And many loving recollections, + Inquiry won me for my spoil. + + Through every chamber, small and homely, + With holy reverence did I roam, + Where oft the gods in radiant concourse + Came thronging to their loved one's home. + + By the bed stood I where the poet + In placid sleep his eyes reposed, + Till summoned to a nobler being + For the last time their lids he closed. + + In reading of the holy places, + Henceforth have I a doubled zeal, + I have a being in the writing, + For all of it I know and feel. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[9] To explain this joke to the un-Germanized reader, it will be +necessary to inform him that the title of Goethe's poem is "The +Shepherd's Lament," wherein a shepherd, leaving his native hills, +gives a lingering look up at the familiar mountain, and sings +regretfully + + "I have to the valley descended, + And how I cannot tell." + +_Herunter kommen_, means also to decline, _to fail_, and upon this +turns the joke. + + + + +From Eliza Cook's Journal + +GREAT MEN'S WIVES. + + +Probably, greatness does not conform with domesticity. The literary +man is wrapped up in his books, and the wife does not brook a divided +affection. He lives in the past or the future, and his mind can with +difficulty be brought to condescend to the carking cares of the +present--perhaps not even to its quiet daily life. His lofty +meditations are disturbed by the puling infant, or it may be, by a +call for house-rent, or the amount of the chandler's bill. Or, take +the leader of some great political or social movement; or the +commander of armies, at whose nod ten thousand swords are unsheathed, +and the air made blatant with the discharge of artillery; can you +expect such a person to subside into the quiet, husband-life, like any +common, ordinary man, and condescend to inquire into the state of the +children's teething, Johnny's progress at school, and the thousand +little domestic attentions which constitute a wife's happiness? + +We shall not, however, discuss the question of whether happiness in +marriage be compatible with genius, or not, but proceed to set forth a +few traits of the wives of great men. + +We shall not dwell on Xantippe, the wife of Socrates, whose name has +become familiar to us almost as a proverb. But she was not without her +uses, for she taught her great husband at least the virtue of +patience. Many of the great Greeks and Romans, like Socrates, were +unhappy in their wives. Possibly, however, we have heard only of the +bad ones among them; for the life of good wives is rarely made matter +of comment by the biographer, either in ancient or modern times. + +The advent of Christianity placed woman in a greatly improved +position, as regarded marriage. Repudiation, as among the Greeks and +Romans, was no longer permitted; the new religion enforced the unity +and indissolubility of marriage; it became a sacrament, dispensed at +the altar, where woman had formerly been a victim, but was now become +an idol. The conjugal union was made a religious contract; the family +was constituted by the priest; the wife was elevated to the function +of Educator of the Family--the _alma mater_; and thus, through her +instrumentality, was the regeneration of the world secured. + +But it did not follow that all women were good, or that all were +happy. Life is but a tangled yarn at the best; there are blanks and +prizes drawn by women still, and not unfrequently "great men" have +proved the greatest of blanks to them. Henry the Eighth was not, +perhaps, entitled to the appellation of a great man, though he was an +author, for which the Pope conferred on him the title, still retained +by our monarchs, of "Defender of the Faith." The history of his six +wives is well known. Nor was the married life of Peter the Great, and +his three wives, of a more creditable complexion. + +LUTHER married Catharine de Bora, an escaped nun--a remarkably +handsome woman. In his letters to his friends, he spoke of her as "My +rib Kitty, my loved Kitty, my Empress Kitty." A year after his +marriage, when struggling with poverty, he said, in one of these +letters, "Catharine, my dear rib, salutes you. She is quite well, +thank God; gentle, obedient, and kind, in all things; quite beyond my +hopes. I would not exchange my poverty with her, for all the riches of +Croesus without her." A dozen years after, he said, "Catharine, thou +hast a pious man, who loves thee; thou art a very empress!" Yet Luther +had his little troubles in connection with his married life. Catharine +was fond of small-talk, and, when Luther was busily engaged in solving +the difficulties of the Bible, she would interrupt him with such +questions as--whether the king of France was richer than his cousin +the emperor of Germany? if the Italian women were more beautiful than +the German? if Rome was as big as Wittenberg? and so on. To escape +these little inquiries, Luther saw no other way than to lock himself +up in his study, with a quantity of bread and cheese, and there hold +to his work. But Catharine still pursued him. One day, when he was +thus locked up, laboring at his translation of the twenty-second +Psalm, the door was assailed by the wife. No answer was given. More +knocking followed, accompanied by Catharine's voice, shouting--"if you +don't open the door, I will go fetch the locksmith." The Doctor +entreated his wife not to interrupt his labors. "Open! open!" repeated +Catharine. The doctor obeyed. "I was afraid," said she, on entering, +"that something had vexed you, locked up in this room alone." To which +Luther replied, "the only thing that vexes me now is yourself." But +Luther, doubtless, entertained a steady, though sober affection for +his wife; and in his will, in which he left her sole executrix, +bequeathing to her all his property, he speaks of her as "always a +gentle, pious, and faithful wife to me, and that has loved me +tenderly. Whatever," he adds, "may happen to her after my death, I +have, I say, full confidence that she will ever conduct herself as a +good mother towards her children, and will conscientiously share with +them whatever she possesses." + +The great Genevese Reformer, CALVIN, proceeded in his search for a +wife in a matter-of-fact way. He wrote to his friends, describing to +them what sort of an article he wanted, and they looked up a proper +person for him. Writing to Farel, one of his correspondents, on this +subject, he said,--"I beseech you ever to bear in mind what I seek for +in a wife. I am not one of your mad kind of lovers, who dote even upon +faults, when once they are taken by beauty of person. The only beauty +that entices me is, that she be chaste, obedient, humble, economical, +patient; and that there be hopes that she wilt be solicitous about my +health. If, therefore, you think it expedient that I should marry, +bestir yourself, lest somebody else anticipate you. But, if you think +otherwise, let us drop the subject altogether." A rich young German +lady, of noble birth, was proposed; but Calvin objected, on the ground +of the high birth. Another was proposed to him, but another failure +resulted. At last a widow, with a considerable family of children, +Odelette de Bures, the relict of a Strasburg Anabaptist, whom he had +converted, was discovered, suited to his notions, and he married her. +Nothing is said about their wedded life, and, therefore, we presume it +went on in the quiet, jog-trot way. At her death, he did not shed a +tear; and he spoke of the event only as an ordinary spectator would +have done. + +The brothers CORNEILLE married the two sisters Lamperiere; and the +love of the whole family was cemented by the double union. They lived +in contiguous houses, which opened into each other, and there they +lived in a community of taste and sentiment. They worked together, and +shared each other's fame; the sisters, happy in the love and +admiration of their husbands, and in each other's sympathy. The poet +Racine was greatly blessed in his wife; she was pious, good, +sweet-tempered, and made his life happy. And yet she had no taste for +poetry, scarcely knowing what verse was; and knew little of her +husband's great tragedies except by name. She had an utter +indifference for money. One day, Racine brought from Versailles a +purse of a thousand golden louis; and running to his wife, embraced +her: "Congratulate me," said he, "here is a purse of a thousand louis +that the king has presented to me!" She complained to him of one of +the children, who would not learn his lessons for two days together. +"Let us talk of that another time," said he, "to-day we give ourselves +up to joy." She again reverted to the disobedient child, and requested +the parent to reprimand him; when Boileau (at whose house she was on a +visit) lost patience, and cried, "what insensibility! Can't you think +of a purse of a thousand louis?" Yet these two characters, though so +opposite, consorted admirably, and they lived long and happily +together. + +To please his friends, LA FONTAINE married Mary Hericat, the daughter +of a lieutenant-general. It was a marriage of convenience, and the two +preferred living separate,--he at Paris, she in the country. Once a +year La Fontaine paid her a visit, in the month of September. If he +did not see her, he returned home as happy as he had gone. He went +some other day. Once, when he visited her house, he was told she was +quite well, and he returned to Paris, and told his friends he had not +seen his wife, because he understood she was in very good health. It +was a state of indifference on both sides. Yet the wife was a woman of +virtue, beauty, and intelligence; and La Fontaine himself was a man of +otherwise irreproachable character. There were many such marriages of +indifference in France in those days. Boileau and Racine both tried to +bring the married pair together, but without success; and, in course +of time La Fontaine almost forgot that he was married. + +MOLIERE was extremely unhappy in his marriage. He espoused an actress, +and she proved a coquette. He became extremely jealous, and, perhaps, +he had reason. Yet he loved her passionately, and bore long with her +frailties. He thus himself describes her: "She has small eyes, but +they are full of fire, brilliant, and the most penetrating in the +world. She has a large mouth, but one can discern beauties in it that +one does not see in other mouths. Her figure is not large, but easy +and well-proportioned. She affects a _nonchalance_ in her speech and +carriage; but there is grace in her every act, and an indescribable +charm about her, by which she never fails to work her way to the +heart. Her mental gifts are exquisite; her conversation is charming, +and, if she be capricious more than any other can be, all sits +gracefully on the beautiful,--one bears any thing from the beautiful." +She was an excellent actress, and was run after by the town. Moliere, +her husband, was neglected by her, and suffered agonies of torture. He +strove against his passion as long as he could. At last, his patience +was exhausted, and a separation took place. + +We know nothing of the married life of SHAKSPEARE; indeed, we know but +little of any portion of that great man's life. But we know that he +married young, and we know the name of his wife, Anne Hathawaye, the +daughter of a yeoman, in the neighborhood of Stratford-on-Avon. He was +little more than eighteen when he married her, and she was twenty-six. +The marriage was hastened by circumstances which need not be explained +here. He seems to have gone alone to London, leaving her with her +little family of children at Stratford-on-Avon, (for her name does not +once appear in his married life;) and yet she survived him seven +years. In his will he left her only his "second-best bed." Judging +from his sonnets one would be disposed to infer that Shakspeare's life +was not more chaste than that of his age; for we find him, in one of +these, excusing his friend for robbing him of his mistress,--a married +woman. One could almost wish, with Mr. Hallam, that Shakspeare had not +written many of those sonnets, beautiful in language and imagery +though they unquestionably are. + +MILTON was three times married,--the first time very unhappily. Mary +Powell was the daughter of a royalist cavalier of Oxfordshire, and +Milton was a zealous republican. He was, moreover, a studious man, +whereas his wife was possessed by a love of gayety and pleasure. They +had only been married a month, when she grew tired of the studious +habits and philosophical seclusion of the republican poet, and +requested his permission to return to her father's house. She went, +but refused to return to him, preferring the dissipated society of the +brawling cavaliers who surrounded her. He beseeched her to come back, +but she persistently refused, treating his messengers with contumely +and contempt. He bore this for a long time; but at last he grew angry, +and repudiated her. He bethought himself of the social mischiefs +resulting from ill-assorted marriages like his own; and, full of the +subject, he composed and published his celebrated treatise on divorce. +On public grounds he pleaded his own cause in this work, which +contains, perhaps, the finest passages that are to be found in his +prose writings. He proceeded to solicit the hand of another young and +beautiful lady, the daughter of Dr. Dawes; but his wife, hearing of +this, became repentant, and, returning to him, fell upon her knees, +and entreated his forgiveness. Milton, like his own Adam, was "fondly +overcome with female charms," and consented. Four children were born +to them, but the wife died in child-bed of the fifth infant. It is to +Milton's honor, that he behaved to his deceased wife's relatives with +great generosity, when, a short time after, they became involved in +ruin in the progress of the civil wars. His second wife, Catharine +Woodcock, also died in child-bed, only a year after marriage. He seems +to have loved her fondly, and most readers will remember his beautiful +sonnet, consecrated to her memory. + +With his third wife he seems to have lived happily; the young wife +devoted herself to his necessities--for he was now blind--"in +darkness, and with dangers compassed round, and solitude." + +DR. RICHARD HOOKER, was very unfortunate in his wife. He was betrayed +into marrying her by his extraordinary simplicity and ignorance of the +world. The circumstances connected with the marriage were these: +Having been appointed to preach at St. Paul's Cross, he went up to +London from Oxford, and proceeded to the house set apart for the +reception of the preachers. He was very wet and weary on his arrival, +and experienced much kindness from the housekeeper. She persuaded him +that he was a man of very tender constitution, and urged that he +ought, above all things, to have a wife, to nurse and take care of +him. She professed to be able to furnish him with such, if he thought +fit to marry. Hooker authorized her to select a wife for him, and the +artful woman presented her own daughter--"a silly, clownish woman, and +withal a mere Xantippe." Hooker, who had promised to marry whomsoever +she should select, thought himself bound to marry her, and he did so. +They led a most uncomfortable life, but he resigned himself as he best +could, lamenting that "saints have usually a double share in the +miseries of this life." When Cranmer and Sandys went to see him at his +rectory in Buckinghamshire, they found him reading Horace and tending +sheep, in the absence of the servant. When they were conversing with +him in the house, his wife would break in upon them, and call him away +to rock the cradle and perform other menial offices. The guests were +glad to get away. This unfortunate wife was long a thorn in his side. + +The famous Earl of ROCHESTER appears in very favorable light in his +letters to his wife: they are remarkably tender, affectionate, and +gentle. In one of them, he says: "'Tis not an easy thing to be +entirely happy; but to be kind is very easy, and that is the greatest +measure of happiness. I say not this to put you in mind of being kind +to me--you have practised that so long, that I have a joyful +confidence you will never forget it--but to show that I myself have a +sense of what the method of my life seemed so utterly to contradict." + +DRYDEN married Elizabeth Howard, daughter of the Earl of Berkshire. +The match added little to his wealth, and less to his happiness. It +was an altogether unhappy union. On one occasion, his wife wished to +be a book, that she might enjoy more of his company. Dryden's reply +was: "Be an almanac, then, my dear, that I may change you once a +year." In his writings afterwards, he constantly inveighed against +matrimony. + +ADDISON also "married discord in a noble wife." He was tutor to the +young Earl of Warwick, and aspired to the hand of the Dowager +Countess. She married him, and treated him like a lacquey. She never +saw in him more than her son's tutor. SWIFT (his contemporary) cruelly +flirted with two admirable women; he heartlessly killed one of them, +and secretly married the other, but never publicly recognized her; +she, too, shortly after died. + +STERNE treated his wife with such severity, that she abandoned him, +and took retreat in a convent with her daughter; she never saw him +after. Who would have suspected this from the author of "Lefevre" and +"The Sentimental Journey?" FARQUHAR, the play-writer, married, early +in life, a woman who deceived him by pretending to be possessed of a +fortune, and he sunk, a victim to disappointment and over-exertion, in +his thirtieth year, leaving behind him "two helpless girls;" his +widow died in the utmost indigence. + +These are rather unhappy instances of the wives of great men; but +there are others of a happier kind. Indeed we hear but little of the +happy unions: it is the brawling, rocky brook that is the most noisy: +the slow, deep waters are dump. Every one will remember the wife of +Lord WILLIAM RUSSELL, whose conduct by the side of her husband, on his +trial, stands out as one of the most beautiful pictures in all +history. How devotedly her husband loved her need not be said: when he +had taken his final farewell, all he could say was: "The bitterness of +death is now past!" She lived many years after the execution of her +husband, and a delightful collection of her letters has since been +published. + +BUNYAN speaks with the greatest tenderness of his wife, who helped to +lead him into the paths of peace. He says: "My mercy was to light upon +a wife, whose father and mother were counted godly: this woman and I, +though we came together as poor as poor might be (not having so much +household stuff as a dish or a spoon betwixt us both); yet this she +had for her part, 'The Plain Man's Pathway to Heaven,' and 'The +Practice of Piety,' which her father had left her when he died." And +the perusal of these books, together with his good wife's kindly +influence, at last implanted in him strong desires to reform his +vicious life, in which he eventually succeeded. + +PARNELL and STEELE were both happy in their wives. The former married +a young woman of beauty and merit, but she lived only a few years, and +his grief at his loss so preyed on his mind, that he never recovered +his wonted spirits and health. STEELE'S letters to his wife, both +before and after his marriage, are imbued with the most tender +feeling, and exhibit his affection for her in the most beautiful +light. YOUNG, the poet, like Dryden and Addison, married into a noble +house, espousing the daughter of the Earl of Litchfield; but he was +happier than they. It was out of the melancholy produced by her death +that his famous "Night Thoughts" took their rise. + +When JOHNSON married Mrs. Porter, her age was twice his own; yet the +union proved a happy one. It was not a love-match, but it was one of +inclination and of reciprocal esteem. Johnson was any thing but +graceful or attractive, yet he possessed admirable qualities. Mrs. +Porter was rather ungainly; but Johnson was very shortsighted, and +could not detect personal faults. In his eyes, she was beautiful; and, +in an affectionate epitaph which he devoted to her, he painted her in +glowing colors. Indeed, his writings contain many proofs of the lively +and sincere affection which he entertained for her. + +While such have been the wives of a few of the great men of past +times, it must be stated that, probably, the greatest of them all led +a single life. The greatest of the philosophers were bachelors, such +as Bacon, Newton, Gassendi, Galileo, Descartes, Bayle, Locke, +Leibnitz, Hume, Gibbon; and many poets also as Pope, Goldsmith, and +Thompson. Bacon says that wife and children are "impediments to great +enterprises;" and that "certainly the best works, and of greatest +merit for the public, have proceeded from the unmarried, or childless +men, which, both in affection and reason, have married and endowed the +public." But these were the words of a bachelor, and, perhaps, not +strictly correct. The great men of more recent times have generally +been married; and, at another time, we shall probably complete this +paper by a brief account of the more distinguished of their wives. + + + + +A LEGEND OF ST. MARY'S. + +BY ALICE CAREY. + + + One night, when bitterer winds than ours + On hill-sides and in valleys low, + Built sepulchres for the dead flowers, + And buried them in sheets of snow,-- + + When over ledges dark and cold, + The sweet moon rising high and higher, + Tipped with a dimly burning gold + St. Mary's old cathedral spire,-- + + The lamp of the confessional, + (God grant it did not burn in vain,) + After the solemn midnight bell, + Streamed redly through the lattice-pane. + + And kneeling at the father's feet, + Whose long and venerable hairs, + Now whiter than the mountain sleet, + Could not have numbered half his prayers, + + Was one--I cannot picture true + The cherub beauty of his guise; + Lilies, and waves of deepest blue, + Were something like his hands and eyes! + + Like yellow mosses on the rocks, + Dashed with the ocean's milk-white spray, + The softness of his golden locks + About his cheek and forehead lay. + + Father, thy tresses, silver-sleet, + Ne'er swept above a form so fair; + Surely the flowers beneath his feet + Have been a rosary of prayer! + + We know not, and we cannot know, + Why swam those meek blue eyes with tears; + But surely guilt, or guiltless wo, + Had bowed him earthward more than years. + + All the long summer that was gone, + A cottage maid, the village pride, + Fainter and fainter smiles had worn, + And on that very night she died! + + As soft the yellow moonbeams streamed + Across her bosom, snowy fair, + She said, (the watchers thought she dreamed,) + "'Tis like the shadow of his hair!" + + And they could hear, who nearest came, + The cross to sign and hope to lend, + The murmur of another name + Than that of mother, brother, friend. + + An hour--and St. Mary's spires, + Like spikes of flame, no longer glow-- + No longer the confessional fires + Shine redly on the drifted snow. + + An hour--and the saints had claimed + That cottage maid, the village pride; + And he, whose name in death she named, + Was darkly weeping by her side. + + White as a spray-wreath lay her brow + Beneath the midnight of her hair, + But all those passionate kisses now + Wake not the faintest crimson there! + + Pride, honor, manhood, cannot check + The vehemence of love's despair-- + No soft hand steals about his neck, + Or bathes its beauty in his hair! + + Almost upon the cabin walls + Wherein the sweet young maiden died, + The shadow of a castle falls, + Where for her young lord waits a bride! + + With clear blue eyes and flaxen hair, + In her high turret still she sits; + But, ah! what scorn her ripe lips wear-- + What shadow to her bosom flits! + + From that low cabin tapers flash, + And, by the shimmering light they spread, + She sees beneath its mountain ash, + Leafless, but all with berries red, + + Impatient of the unclasped rein, + A courser that should not be there-- + The silver whiteness of his mane + Streaming like moonlight on the air! + + Oh, love! thou art avenged too well-- + The young heart, broken and betrayed, + Where thou didst meekly, sweetly dwell, + For all its sufferings is repaid. + + Not the proud beauty, nor the frown + Of her who shares the living years + From her the winding-sheet wraps down, + Can ever buy away the tears! + + + + +From Chambers's Edinburgh Journal. + +MARY KINGSFORD. + +FROM RECOLLECTIONS OF A POLICE-OFFICER. + + +Towards the close of 1836, I was hurriedly dispatched to Liverpool for +the purpose of securing the person of one Charles James Marshall, a +collecting clerk, who, it was suddenly discovered, had absconded with +a considerable sum of money belonging to his employers. I was too +late--Charles James Marshall having sailed in one of the American +liners the day before my arrival in the northern commercial capital. +This fact well ascertained, I immediately set out on my return to +London. Winter had come upon us unusually early; the weather was +bitterly cold; and a piercing wind caused the snow, which had been +falling heavily for several hours, to gyrate in fierce, blinding +eddies, and heaped it up here and there into large and dangerous +drifts. The obstruction offered by the rapidly-congealing snow greatly +delayed our progress between Liverpool and Birmingham; and at a few +miles only distant from the latter city, the leading engine ran off +the line. Fortunately, the rate at which we were travelling was a very +slow one, and no accident of moment occurred. Having no luggage to +care for, I walked on to Birmingham, where I found the parliamentary +train just on the point of starting, and with some hesitation, on +account of the severity of the weather, I took my seat in one of the +then very much exposed and uncomfortable carriages. We travelled +steadily and safely, though slowly along, and reached Rugby Station in +the afternoon, where we were to remain, the guard told us, till a fast +down-train had passed. All of us hurried as quickly as we could to the +large room at this station, where blazing fires and other appliances +soon thawed the half-frozen bodies, and loosened the tongues of the +numerous and motley passengers. After recovering the use of my +benumbed limbs and faculties, I had leisure to look around and survey +the miscellaneous assemblage about me. + +Two persons had travelled in the same compartment with me from +Birmingham, whose exterior, as disclosed by the dim light of the +railway carriage, created some surprise that such finely-attired, +fashionable gentlemen should stoop to journey by the plebeian +penny-a-mile train. I could now observe them in a clearer light, and +surprise at their apparent condescension vanished at once. To an eye +less experienced than mine in the artifices and expedients familiar to +a certain class of "swells," they might perhaps have passed muster for +what they assumed to be, especially amidst the varied crowd of a +"parliamentary;" but their copper finery could not for a moment impose +upon me. The watch-chains were, I saw, mosaic; the watches, so +frequently displayed, gilt; eye-glasses the same; the coats, +fur-collared and cuffed, were ill-fitting and second-hand; ditto of +the varnished boats and renovated velvet waistcoats; while the +luxuriant moustaches and whiskers, and flowing wigs, were unmistakably +mere _pieces d'occasion_--assumed and diversified at pleasure. They +were both apparently about fifty years of age; one of them perhaps one +or two years less than that. I watched them narrowly, the more so from +their making themselves ostentatiously attentive to a young +woman--girl rather she seemed--of a remarkably graceful figure, but +whose face I had not yet obtained a glimpse of. They made boisterous +way for her to the fire, and were profuse and noisy in their offers of +refreshment--all of which, I observed, were peremptorily declined. She +was dressed in deep, unexpensive mourning; and from her timid gestures +and averted head, whenever either of the fellows addressed her, was, +it was evident, terrified as well as annoyed by their rude and +insolent notice. I quietly drew near to the side of the fire-place, at +which she stood, and with some difficulty obtained a sight of her +features. I was struck with extreme surprise--not so much at her +singular beauty, as from an instantaneous conviction that she was +known to me, or at least that I had seen her frequently before, but +where or when I could not at all call to mind. Again I looked, and my +first impression was confirmed. At this moment the elder of the two +men I have partially described placed his hand, with a rude +familiarity, upon the girl's shoulder, proffering at the same time a +glass of hot brandy and water for her acceptance. She turned sharply +and indignantly away from the fellow; and looking round as if for +protection, caught my eagerly-fixed gaze. + +"Mr. Waters!" she said impulsively. "Oh I am so glad!" + +"Yes," I answered, "that is certainly my name; but I scarcely +remember----Stand back, fellow!" I angrily continued, as her +tormentor, emboldened by the spirits he had drank, pressed with a +jeering grin upon his face, towards her, still tendering the brandy +and water. "Stand back!" He replied by a curse and a threat. The next +moment his flowing wig was whirling across the room, and he standing +with his bullet-head bare but for a few locks of iron-gray, in an +attitude of speechless rage and confusion, increased by the peals of +laughter which greeted his ludicrous, unwigged aspect. He quickly put +himself in a fighting attitude, and, backed by his companion, +challenged me to battle. This was quite out of the question; and I was +somewhat at a loss how to proceed, when the bell announcing the +instant departure of the train rang out, my furious antagonist +gathered up and adjusted his wig, and we all sallied forth to take our +places--the young woman holding fast by my arm, and in a low, nervous +voice, begging me not to leave her. I watched the two fellows take +their seats, and then led her to the hindmost carriage, which we had +to ourselves as far as the next station. + +"Are Mrs. Waters and Emily quite well?" said the young woman, coloring +and lowering her eyes beneath my earnest gaze, which she seemed for a +moment to misinterpret. + +"Quite--entirely so," I almost stammered. "You know us, then?" + +"Surely I do," she replied, reassured by my manner. "But you, it +seems," she presently added with a winning smile, "have quite +forgotten little Mary Kingsford." + +"Mary Kingsford!" I exclaimed almost with a shout. "Why, so it is! But +what a transformation a few years have effected!" + +"Do you think so! Not _pretty_ Mary Kingsford now, then?" she added +with a light, pleasant laugh. + +"You know what I mean, you vain creature!" I rejoined; for I was +overjoyed at meeting with the gentle, well-remembered playmate of my +own eldest girl. We were old familiar friends--almost father and +daughter--in an instant. + +Little Mary Kingsford, I should state, was, when I left Yorkshire, one +of the prettiest, most engaging children I had ever seen; and a petted +favorite not only with us, but of every other family in the +neighborhood. She was the only child of Philip and Mary Kingsford--a +humble, worthy, and much-respected couple. The father was gardener to +Sir Pyott Dalzell, and her mother eked out his wages to a respectable +maintenance by keeping a cheap children's school. The change which a +few years had wrought in the beautiful child was quite sufficient to +account for my imperfect recognition of her; but the instant her name +was mentioned, I at once recognised the rare comeliness which had +charmed us all in her childhood. The soft brown eyes were the same, +though now revealing profounder depths, and emitting a more pensive +expression; the hair, though deepened in color, was still golden; her +complexion, lit up as it now was by a sweet blush, was brilliant as +ever; whilst her child-person had became matured and developed into +womanly symmetry and grace. The brilliancy of color vanished from her +cheek as I glanced meaningly at her mourning dress. + +"Yes," she murmured in a sad quivering voice--"yes, father is gone! It +will be six months next Thursday, that he died! Mother is well," she +continued more cheerfully, after a pause: "in health, but poorly off; +and I--and I," she added with a faint effort at a smile, "am going to +London to seek my fortune!" + +"To seek your fortune!" + +"Yes; you know my cousin, Sophy Clark? In one of her letters, she said +she often saw you." + +I nodded without speaking. I knew little of Sophia Clarke, except that +she was the somewhat gay, coquettish shopwoman of a highly-respectable +confectioner in the Strand, whom I shall call by the name of Morris. + +"I am to be Sophy's assistant," continued Mary Kingsford; "not of +course at first at such good wages as she gets. So lucky for me, is it +not, since I _must_ go to service? And so kind, too, of Sophy, to +interest herself for me!" + +"Well, it may be so. But surely I have heard--my wife at least +has--that you and Richard Westlake were engaged? Excuse me, I was not +aware the subject was a painful or unpleasant one." + +"Richard's father," she replied with some spirit, "has higher views +for his son. It is all off between us now," she added; "and perhaps it +is for the best that it should be so." + +I could have rightly interpreted these words without the aid of the +partially-expressed sigh which followed them. The perilous position of +so attractive, so inexperienced, so guileless a young creature, amidst +the temptations and vanities of London, so painfully impressed and +preoccupied me, that I scarcely uttered another word till the +rapidly-diminishing rate of the train announced that we neared a +station, after which it was probable we should have no farther +opportunity for private conversation. + +"Those men--those fellows at Rugby--where did you meet with them?" I +inquired. + +"Thirty or forty miles below Birmingham, where they entered the car in +which I was seated. At Birmingham I managed to avoid them." + +Little more passed between us till we reached London. Sophia Clark +received her cousin at the Euston station, and was profuse of +felicitations and compliments upon her arrival and personal +appearance. After receiving a promise from Mary Kingsford to call and +take tea with my wife and her old playmate, on the following Sunday, I +handed the two young women into a cab in waiting, and they drove off. +I had not moved away from the spot when a voice, a few paces behind +me, which I thought I recognised, called out; "Quick, coachee, or +you'll lose sight of them!" As I turned quickly round, another cab +drove smartly off, which I followed at a run. I found, on reaching +Lower Seymour Street, that I was not mistaken as to the owner of the +voice, nor of his purpose. The fellow I had unwigged at Rugby thrust +his body half out of the cab window, and pointing to the vehicle which +contained the two girls, called out to the driver "to mind and make no +mistake." The man nodded intelligence, and lashed his horse into a +faster pace. Nothing that I might do could prevent the fellows from +ascertaining Mary Kingsford's place of abode; and as that was all +that, for the present at least, need be apprehended, I desisted from +pursuit, and bent my steps homewards. + +Mary Kingsford kept her appointment on the Sunday, and in reply to our +questioning, said she liked her situation very well. Mr. and Mrs. +Morris were exceedingly kind to her; so was Sophia. "Her cousin," she +added in reply to a look which I could not repress, "was perhaps a +little gay and free of manner, but the best-hearted creature in the +world." The two fellows who had followed them had, I found, already +twice visited the shop; but their attentions appeared now to be +exclusively directed towards Sophia Clarke, whose vanity they not a +little gratified. The names they gave were Hartley and Simpson. So +entirely guileless and unsophisticated was the gentle country maiden, +that I saw she scarcely comprehended the hints and warnings which I +threw out. At parting, however, she made me a serious promise that she +would instantly apply to me should any difficulty or perplexity +overtake her. + +I often called in at the confectioner's, and was gratified to find +that Mary's modest propriety of behavior, in a somewhat difficult +position, had gained her the good will of her employers, who +invariably spoke of her with kindness and respect. Nevertheless, the +care of a London life, with its incessant employment and late hours, +soon, I perceived, began to tell upon her health and spirits; and it +was consequently with pleasure I heard from my wife that she had seen +a passage in a letter from Mary's mother, to the effect that the elder +Westlake was betraying symptoms of yielding to the angry and +passionate expostulations of his only son, relative to the engagement +with Mary Kingsford. The blush with which she presented the letter +was, I was told, eloquent. + +One evening, on passing Morris's shop, I observed Hartley and Simpson +there. They were swallowing custards and other confectionary with much +gusto; and, from their new and costly habiliments, seemed to be in +surprisingly good case. They were smiling at the cousins with rude +confidence; and Sophia Clarke, I was grieved to see, repaid their +insulting impertinence by her most elaborate graces. I passed on; and +presently meeting with a brother-detective, who, it struck me, might +know something of the two gentlemen, I turned back with him, and +pointed them out. A glance sufficed him. + +"Hartley and Simpson you say?" he remarked after we had walked away to +some distance: "those are only two of their numerous _aliases_. I +cannot, however, say that I am as yet on very familiar terms with +them; but as I am especially directed to cultivate their acquaintance, +there is no doubt we shall be more intimate with each other before +long. Gamblers, blacklegs, swindlers, I already know them to be; and I +would take odds they are not unfrequently something more, especially +when fortune and the bones run cross with them." + +"They appear in high feather just now," I said. + +"Yes; they are connected, I suspect, with the gang who cleaned out +young Garslade last week in Jermyn Street. I'd lay a trifle," he added +as I turned to leave him, "that one or both of them will wear the +Queen's livery, gray, turned up with yellow, before many weeks are +past. Good-by." + +About a fortnight after this conversation, with my wife I paid a visit +to Astley's, for the gratification of our youngsters, who had long +been promised a sight of the equestrian marvels at that celebrated +amphitheatre. It was the latter end of February; and when we came out, +we found the weather changed; dark and sleety, with a sharp, nipping +wind. I had to call at Scotland-Yard; my wife and children +consequently proceeded home in a cab without me; and after assisting +to quell a slight disturbance originating in a gin-palace close by, I +went on my way over Westminister Bridge. The inclement weather had +cleared the streets and thoroughfares in a surprisingly short time; so +that, excepting myself, no foot-passenger was visible on the bridge +till I had about halfcrossed it, when a female figure, closely muffled +up about the head, and sobbing bitterly, passed rapidly by on the +opposite side. I turned and gazed after the retreating figure; it was +a youthful, symmetrical one; and after a few moments' hesitation, I +determined to follow at a distance, and as unobservedly as I could. On +the woman sped, without pause or hesitation, till she reached +Astley's, where I observed her stop suddenly, and toss her arms in the +air with a gesture of desperation. I quickened my steps, which she +observing, uttered a slight scream, and darted swiftly off again, +moaning as she ran. The momentary glimpse I had obtained of her +features, suggested a frightful apprehension, and I followed at my +utmost speed. She turned at the first cross-street, and I should soon +have overtaken her, but that in darting round the corner where she +disappeared, I ran butt against a stout, elderly gentleman, who was +hurrying smartly along out of the weather. With the suddenness of the +shock and the slipperiness of the pavement, down we both reeled; and +by the time we regained our feet, and growled savagely at each other, +the young woman, whoever she was, had disappeared, and more than half +an hour's eager search after her proved fruitless. At last I bethought +me of hiding at one corner of Westminster Bridge. I had watched +impatiently for about twenty minutes, when I observed the object of my +pursuit stealing timidly and furtively towards the bridge on the +opposite side of the way. As she came nearly abreast of where I stood, +I darted forward; she saw, without recognizing me, and uttered an +exclamation of terror, flew down towards the river, where a number of +pieces of balk and other timber were fastened together, forming a kind +of loose raft. I followed with haste, for I saw that it was indeed +Mary Kingsford and loudly called to her to stop. She did not seem to +hear me, and in a few moments the unhappy girl had gained the end of +the timber raft. One instant she paused, with clasped hands, upon the +brink, and in another had thrown herself into the dark and moaning +river. On reaching the spot where she had disappeared, I could not at +first see her in consequence of the dark mourning dress she had on. +Presently I caught sight of her, still upborne by her spread clothes, +but already carried by the swift current beyond my reach. The only +chance was to crawl along a piece of round timber which projected +farther into the river and by the end of which she must pass. This I +effected with some difficulty; and laying myself out at full length, +vainly endeavored with outstretched, straining arms, to grasp her +dress. There was nothing left for it but to plunge in after her. I +will confess that I hesitated to do so. I was encumbered with a heavy +dress, which there was no time to put off, and moreover, like most +inland men, I was but an indifferent swimmer. My indecision quickly +vanished. The wretched girl, though gradually sinking, had not yet +uttered a cry or appeared to struggle; but when the chilling waters +reached her lips, she seemed to suddenly revive to a consciousness of +the horror of her fate; she fought wildly with the engulfing tide, and +shrieked for help. Before one could count ten, I grasped her by the +arm, and lifted her head above the surface of the river. As I did so, +I felt as if suddenly encased and weighed down by leaden garments, so +quickly had my thick clothing and high boots sucked in the water. +Vainly, thus burdened and impeded, did I endeavor to regain the raft; +the strong tide bore us outwards, and I glared round, in inexpressible +dismay, for some means of extrication from the frightful peril in +which I found myself involved. Happily, right in the direction the +tide was drifting us, a large barge lay moored by a chain-cable. I +seized and twined one arm firmly round it, and thus partially secure, +hallooed with renewed power for assistance. It soon came; a passer had +witnessed the flight of the girl, and my pursuit, and was already +hastening with others to our assistance. A wherry was unmoored; guided +by my voice, they soon reached us; and but a brief interval elapsed +before we were safely housed in an adjoining tavern. + +A change of dress, with which the landlord kindly supplied me, a +blazing fire, and a couple of glasses of hot brandy and water, soon +restored warmth and vigor to my chilled and partially benumbed limbs; +but more than two hours elapsed before Mary, who had swallowed a good +deal of water, was in a condition to be removed. I had just sent for a +cab, when two police officers, well known to me, entered the room with +official briskness. Mary screamed, staggered towards me, and clinging +to my arm, besought me with frantic earnestness to save her. + +"What _is_ the meaning of this?" I exclaimed, addressing one of the +police officers. + +"Merely," said he, "that the young woman that's clinging so tight to +you has been committing an audacious robbery"---- + +"No--no--no!" broke in the terrified girl. + +"Oh! of course you'll say so," continued the officer. "All I know is, +that the diamond brooch was found snugly hid away in her own box. But +come, we have been after you for the last three hours; so you had +better come along at once." + +"Save me!--save me!" she sobbed, tightening her grasp upon my arm and +looking with beseeching agony in my face. + +"Be comforted," I whispered; "you shall go home with me. Calm +yourself, Miss Kingsford," I added in a louder tone: "I no more +believe you have stolen a diamond brooch than that I have." + +"Bless you!--bless you!" she gasped in the intervals of her convulsive +sobs. + +"There is some wretched misapprehension in this business, I am quite +sure," I continued; "but at all events I shall bail her--for this +night at least." + +"Bail her! That is hardly regular." + +"No; but you will tell the superintendent that Mary Kingsford is in my +custody, and that I answer for appearance to-morrow." + +The men hesitated; but I stood too well at head-quarters for them to +do more than hesitate; and the cab I had ordered being just then +announced, I passed with Mary out of the room as quickly as I could, +for I feared her senses were again leaving her. The air revived her +somewhat, and I lifted her into the cab, placing myself beside her. +She appeared to listen in fearful doubt whether I should be allowed to +take her with me; and it was not till the wheels had made a score of +revolutions that her fears vanished; then throwing herself upon my +neck in an ecstacy of gratitude, she burst into tears, and continued +till we reached home crying on my bosom like a broken-hearted child. +She had, I found, been there about ten o'clock to seek me, and being +told that I was gone to Astley's, had started off to find me there. + +She still slept, or at least she had not risen when I left home the +following morning to endeavor to get at the bottom of the strange +accusation preferred against her. I first saw the superintendent, who, +after hearing what I had to say, quite approved of all I had done, and +intrusted the case entirely to my care. I next saw Mr. and Mrs. Morris +and Sophia Clarke, and then waited upon the prosecutor, a youngish +gentleman by the name of Saville, lodging in Essex Street, Strand. One +or two things I heard, made necessary a visit to other officers of +police, incidentally, as I found, mixed up with the affair. By the +time all this was done, and an effectual watch had been placed upon +Mr. Augustus Saville's movements, evening had fallen, and I wended my +way homewards, both to obtain a little rest, and to hear Mary +Kingsford's version of the story. + +The result of my inquiries may be thus summed up. Ten days before. +Sophia Clarke told her cousin that she had orders for Covent-Garden +Theatre; and as it was not one of their busy nights, she thought they +might obtain leave to go. Mary expressed her doubt of this, as both +Mr. and Mrs. Morris, who were strict and somewhat fanatical +Dissenters, disapproved of play-going, especially for young women. +Nevertheless Sophia asked, informed Mary that the required permission +had been readily accorded, and off they went in high spirits; Mary +especially, who had never been to a theatre in her life before. When +there they were joined by Hartley and Simpson, much to Mary's +annoyance and vexation, especially as she saw that her cousin expected +them. She had, in fact, accepted the orders from them. At the +conclusion of the entertainments, they all four came out together, +when suddenly there arose a hustling and confusion, accompanied with +loud outcries, and a violent swaying to and fro of the crowd. The +disturbance was, however, soon quelled; and Mary and her cousin had +reached the outer door, when two police-officers seized Hartley and +his friend, and insisted upon their going with them. A scuffle ensued; +but other officers being at hand, the two men were secured, and +carried off. The cousins, terribly frightened, called a coach, and +were very glad to find themselves safe at home again. And now it came +out that Mr. and Mrs. Morris had been told that they were going to +spend the evening at _my_ house, and had no idea they were going to +the play! Vexed as Mary was at the deception, she was too kindly +tempered to refuse to keep her cousin's secret; especially knowing as +she did that the discovery of the deceit Sophia had practised would in +all probability be followed by her immediate discharge. Hartley and +his friend swaggered on the following afternoon into the shop, and +whispered Sophia that their arrest by the police had arisen from a +strange mistake, for which the most ample apologies had been offered +and accepted. After this matters went on as usual, except that Mary +perceived a growing insolence and familiarity in Hartley's manner +towards her. His language was frequently quite unintelligible, and +once he asked her plainly "if she did not mean that he should go +_shares_ in the prize she had lately found?" Upon Mary replying that +she did not comprehend him, his look became absolutely ferocious, and +he exclaimed; "Oh, that's your game, is it? But don't try it on with +me, my good girl, I advise you." So violent did he become, that Mr. +Morris was attracted by the noise, and ultimately bundled him, neck +and heels, out of the shop. She had not seen either him or his +companion since. + +On the evening of the previous day, a gentleman whom she never +remembered to have seen before, entered the shop, took a seat, and +helped himself to a tart. She observed that after a while he looked at +her very earnestly, and at length approaching quite close, said, "You +were at Covent-Garden Theatre last Tuesday evening week?" Mary was +struck, as she said, all of a heap, for both Mr. and Mrs. Morris were +in the shop, and heard the question. + +"Oh no, no! you mistake," she said hurriedly, and feeling at the same +time her cheeks kindle into flame. + +"Nay, but you were though," rejoined the gentleman. And then lowering +his voice to a whisper, he said, "And let me advise you, if you would +avoid exposure and consign punishment, to restore me the diamond +brooch you robbed me of on that evening." + +Mary screamed with terror, and a regular scene ensued. She was obliged +to confess she had told a falsehood in denying she was at the theatre +on the night in question, and Mr. Morris after that seemed inclined to +believe any thing of her. The gentleman persisted in his charge; but +at the same time vehemently iterating his assurance that all he wanted +was his property; and it was ultimately decided that Mary's boxes, as +well as her person should be searched. This was done; and to her utter +consternation the brooch was found concealed, they said, in a black +silk reticule. Denials, asseverations, were in vain. Mr. Saville +identified the brooch, but once more offered to be content with its +restoration. This Mr. Morris, a just, stern man, would not consent to, +and he went out to summon a police-officer. Before he returned, Mary, +by the advice of both her cousin and Mrs. Morris, had fled the house, +and hurried in a state of distraction to find me, with what result the +reader already knows. + +"It is a wretched business," I observed to my wife, as soon as Mary +Kingsford had retired to rest, at about nine o'clock in the evening. +"Like you, I have no doubt of the poor girl's perfect innocence; but +how to establish it by satisfactory evidence is another matter. I must +take her to Bow Street the day after to-morrow." + +"Good God, how dreadful! Can nothing be done? What does the prosecutor +say the brooch is worth?" + +"His uncle, he says, gave a hundred and twenty guineas for it. But +that signifies little, for were its worth only a hundred and twenty +farthings, compromise is, you know, out of the question." + +"I did not mean that. Can you show it me? I am a pretty good judge of +the value of jewels." + +"Yes, you can see it." I took it out of the desk in which I had locked +it up, and placed it before her. It was a splendid emerald, encircled +by large brilliants. + +My wife twisted and turned it about, holding it in all sorts of +lights, and at last said, "I do not believe that either the emerald +or the brilliants are real--that the brooch is, in fact, worth twenty +shillings intrinsically." + +"Do you say so?" I exclaimed, as I jumped up from my chair, for my +wife's words gave color and consistence to a dim and faint suspicion +which had crossed my mind. "Then this Saville is a manifest liar, and +perhaps confederate with----But give me my hat: I will ascertain this +point at once." + +I hurried to a jeweller's shop, and found that my wife's opinion was +correct. Apart from the workmanship, which was very fine, the brooch +was valueless. Conjectures, suspicions, hopes, fears, chased each +other with bewildering rapidity through my brain, and in order to +collect and arrange my thoughts, I stepped out of the whirl of the +streets into Dolly's Chop-house, and decided, over a quiet glass of +negus, upon my plan of operations. + +The next morning there appeared at the top of the second column of the +"Times" an earnest appeal, worded with careful obscurity, so that only +the person to whom it was addressed should easily understand it, to +the individual who had lost or been robbed of a false stone and +brilliants at the theatre, to communicate with a certain person--whose +address I gave--without delay, in order to save the reputation, +perhaps the life, of an innocent person. + +I was at the address I had given by nine o'clock. Several hours passed +without bringing any one, and I was beginning to despair, when a +gentleman of the name of Bagshawe was announced: I fairly leaped for +joy, for this was beyond my hopes. + +A gentleman presently entered, of about thirty years of age, of a +distinguished, though somewhat dissipated aspect. + +"This brooch is yours?" said I, exhibiting it without delay or +preface. + +"It is; and I am here to know what your singular advertisement means." + +I briefly explained the situation of affairs. + +"The rascals!" he broke in, almost before I had finished. "I will +briefly explain it all. A fellow of the name of Hartley, at least that +was the name he gave, robbed me, I was pretty sure, of this brooch. I +pointed him out to the police, and he was taken into custody; but +nothing being found upon him, he was discharged." + +"Not entirely, Mr. Bagshawe, on that account. You refused, when +arrived at the station-house, to state what you had been robbed of; +and you, moreover, said, in presence of the culprit, that you were to +embark with your regiment for India the next day. That regiment, I +have ascertained, did embark, as you said it would." + +"True; but I had leave of absence, and shall take the overland route. +The truth is, that during the walk to the station-house, I had leisure +to reflect, that if I made a formal charge, it would lead to awkward +disclosures, This brooch is an imitation of one presented me by a +valued relative. Losses at play--since, for this unfortunate young +woman's sake, I _must_ out with it--obliged me to part with the +original; and I wore this, in order to conceal the fact from my +relative's knowledge." + +"This will, sir," I replied, "prove, with a little management, quite +sufficient for all purposes. You have no objection to accompany me to +the superintendent?" + +"Not in the least: only I wish the devil had the brooch, as well as +the fellow that stole it." + +About half-past five o'clock on the same evening, the street-door was +quietly opened by the landlord of the house in which Mr. Saville +lodged, and I walked into the front room on the first floor, where I +found the gentleman I sought languidly reclining on a sofa. He +gathered himself smartly up at my appearance, and looked keenly in my +face. He did not appear to like what he read there. + +"I did not expect to see you to-day," he said, at last. + +"No, perhaps not: but I have news for you. Mr. Bagshawe, the owner of +the hundred-and-twenty guinea brooch your deceased uncle gave you, did +_not_ sail for India, and--" + +The wretched cur, before I could conclude, was on his knees, begging +for mercy with disgusting abjectness. I could have spurned the +scoundrel where he crawled. + +"Come, sir!" I cried, "let us have no snivelling or humbug: mercy is +not in my power, as you ought to know. Strive to deserve it. We want +Hartley and Simpson, and cannot find them: you must aid us." + +"Oh yes; to be sure I will," eagerly rejoined the rascal. "I will go +for them at once," he added, with a kind of hesitating assurance. + +"Nonsense! _Send_ for them, you mean. Do so, and I will wait their +arrival." + +His note was despatched by a sure hand; and meanwhile I arranged the +details of the expected meeting. I, and a friend, whom I momently +expected, would ensconce ourselves behind a large screen in the room, +while Mr. Augustus Saville would run playfully over the charming plot +with his two friends, so that we might be able to fully appreciate its +merits. Mr. Saville agreed. I rang the bell, an officer appeared, and +we took our posts in readiness. We had scarcely done so, when the +street-bell rang, and Saville announced the arrival of his +confederates. There was a twinkle in the fellow's green eyes which I +thought I understood. "Do not try that on, Mr. Augustus Saville," I +quietly remarked: "we are but two here, certainly, but there are +half-a-dozen in waiting below." + +No more was said, and in another minute the friends met. It was a +boisterously jolly meeting, as far as shaking hands and mutual +felicitations on each other's good looks and health went. Saville was, +I thought, the most obstreperously gay of all three. + +"And yet, now I look at you, Saville, closely," said Hartley, "you +don't look quite the thing. Have you seen a ghost?" + +"No; but this cursed brooch affair worries me." + +"Nonsense!--humbug!--it's all right: we are all embarked in the same +boat. It's a regular three-handed game. I prigged it; Simmy here +whipped it into pretty Mary's reticule, which she, I suppose, never +looked into till the row came; and _you_ claimed it--a regular +merry-go-round, eh? Ha! ha! ha!" + +"Quite so, Mr. Hartley," said I, suddenly facing him, and at the same +time stamping on the floor; "as you say, a delightful merry-go-round; +and here, you perceive, I added, as the officers crowded into the +room, are more gentlemen to join in it." + +I must not stain the paper with the curses, imprecations, blasphemies, +which for a brief space resounded through the apartment. The rascals +were safely and separately locked up a quarter of an hour afterwards; +and before a month had passed away, all three were transported. It is +scarcely necessary to remark, that they believed the brooch to be +genuine, and of great value. + +Mary Kingsford did not need to return to her employ. Westlake the +elder withdrew his veto upon his son's choice, and the wedding was +celebrated in the following May with great rejoicing; Mary's old +playmate officiating as bridesmaid, and I as bride's-father. The still +young couple have now a rather numerous family, and a home blessed +with affection, peace, and competence. It was some time, however, +before Mary recovered from the shock of her London adventure; and I am +pretty sure that the disagreeable reminiscences inseparately connected +in her mind with the metropolis will prevent at least _one_ person +from being present at the World's Great Fair. + + + + +_Historical Review of the Month._ + + +THE UNITED STATES. + +Our record of home affairs for the past month presents several points +of more than usual interest. Two different movements, both of which +originated in the Southern States, kept awake the public curiosity for +three or four weeks past, though at the time these sheets are going +through the press both appear to be rapidly subsiding. + +Soon after the withdrawal of the Government prosecution against Gen. +Henderson, Lopez, Gen. Quitman, and the other persons arraigned for +trial as having been engaged in getting up a hostile expedition +against Cuba, rumors of a second attempt being in preparation, began +to be circulated through the country. Little attention was at first +paid to these rumors, but the matter soon assumed a more definite +shape, and the Southern newspapers began to notice the congregation of +suspicious persons at different points on or near the coast. From the +intelligence which the Government received, it became evident that an +extensive expedition, was on foot, the object of which was the +invasion of Cuba. The United States officers were ordered to be on the +watch, for the purpose of obtaining more particular intelligence of +its movements. + +Two or three thousand men had collected in the neighborhood of +Jacksonville, Florida, which had been selected as the principal +rendezvous of the expedition. These men awaited the arrival of a +steamer from New-York, which had been chartered by parties there. The +Government, however, had already received intelligence of their plans, +and instructions were at once sent to the United States Marshal at +New-York, to prevent the departure of the steamer. This officer, +accompanied by a police force, sailed down the bay in search of the +suspected craft. In the mean time it was found that the steamer +Cleopatra, a large boat, formerly employed on the Sound as a passenger +boat, was the vessel indicated. She was then lying at one of the piers +on the North River, and was immediately seized and placed under the +supervision of the United States authorities. She was alleged to be +bound to Galveston, Texas. A large quantity of coal was found on +board, and a great number of water casks, and but few arms or +ammunition of any kind. A file of marines from the Navy Yard was +placed on board, and all communication with the shore forbidden. No +final disposition has yet been made of the vessel, though orders were +received to deliver her cargo to any person who may establish his +ownership to the articles found on board. + +At the same time, notice was received by the Marshal that a number of +Germans and others had assembled at South Amboy for the purpose of +embarking on some secret expedition, and one of the Deputy Marshals +was sent there for the purpose of procuring information. Disguising +himself as a German emigrant, he obtained sufficient evidence to +warrant the arrest of the following six persons: William T. Rogers, +Jr., John L. O'Sullivan, Capt. Lewis, of the steamboat Creole, a +member of the former expedition; Major Louis Schlesinger, one of the +Hungarian refugees; Pedro Sanchez Yznaga, a Cuban refugee; and Dr. +Daniel H. Burtnett. Each of the parties was held to bail in the sum of +$3,000, to appear for examination. + +The movement must have been of considerable magnitude, but there was +evidently a want of concert among its members, which may have led to +its abandonment. From what could be ascertained, it was not the +intention of the leaders to organize the expedition in this country, +but to sail to some point beyond the limits of the United States, and +there concentrate their forces for the invasion. + +The South Carolina State Rights Convention assembled at Charleston on +the 5th of May. The Hon. J. P. Richardson, Ex-Governor of the State, +was appointed President. Forty district associations were represented, +and 431 Delegates took their seats. The President, in his opening +address, reviewed the present position of the South, and considered +that, under existing circumstances, Southern institutions could not +exist twenty years. He discussed at some length the want of affinity +between the two sections of the Union, and expressed his conviction +that those whom God and Nature have put asunder should not be joined +together. On the second day, a letter from the Hon. Langdon Cheves was +read, excusing his non-attendance. He deprecated separate State +action, believing that one State cannot stand alone in the midst of +her sister States. + +A committee of twenty-one was appointed to prepare resolutions and an +address, which were adopted, after considerable discussion. The +following are the resolutions, which embody the sentiments of the +Convention: + +1. _Resolved_, That in the opinion of this meeting the State of South +Carolina cannot submit to the wrongs and aggressions which have been +perpetrated by the Federal Government and the Northern States, without +dishonor and ruin; and that it is necessary for her to relieve herself +therefrom, whether with or without the co-operation of other Southern +States. + +2. _Resolved_, That concert of action with one or more of our sister +States of the South, whether through the proposed Southern Congress, +or in any other manner, is an object worth many sacrifices, but not +the sacrifice involved in submission. + +3. _Resolved_, That we hold the right of secession to be essential to +the sovereignty and freedom of the States of this confederacy; and +that the denial of that right would furnish to an injured State the +strongest additional cause for its exercise. + +4. _Resolved_, That this meeting looks with confidence and hope to the +Convention of the People, to exert the sovereign power of the State in +defence of its rights, at the earliest practicable period and in the +most effectual manner, and to the Legislature, to adopt the most +speedy and effectual measures toward the same end. + +Mr. Barnwell and two other members of the Committee presented a +minority Report, referring the whole matter to the action of the +Legislature. Judge Butler, U. S. Senator, also recommended a +postponement of any decisive step. The original Report, however, was +adopted, and the Convention adjourned _sine die_. The subject has +occasioned but little excitement out of South Carolina, and it is not +anticipated that any other State will pursue a similar course. + +The Mexican Government has made a formal complaint to the President of +the United States, in relation to the Indian outrages along the +frontier, which the United States were bound to suppress, according to +the Treaty of Guadaloupe Hidalgo. It is believed that a demand of a +million of dollars will be made for damages which the Indians have +already caused; besides which, Mexico refuses to ratify the +Tchuantepec Treaty, unless these provisions are fulfilled. At the last +session of Congress, the appropriation asked by the War Department for +this purpose, was not made; besides which, the troops most serviceable +for such a warfare have been disbanded. + +An order has been issued by the President, that the tracts of land in +Iowa, occupied by General Ujhazy and the other Hungarian exiles, shall +be withheld from sale until the end of the next session of Congress, +with a view to making application to that body for a grant of the +lands. + +The Massachusetts Legislature, after a struggle of four months, +succeeded in electing a U. S. Senator on the 24th of April. Charles +Sumner, Esq., the Free Soil Candidate, was chosen on that day, by 193 +votes, precisely the number necessary for election. The Boston Board +of Aldermen, who had passed a resolution refusing the use of Faneuil +Hall for a public address by Daniel Webster, have since then retracted +the step and concurred with the Common Council in inviting Mr. Webster +to address the citizens of Boston. Faneuil Hall, hereafter, is to be +granted on all occasions, at the application of one hundred voters. +Before leaving Boston, Mr. Webster delivered a speech to the citizens +of Boston, from the steps of the Revere House. + +The Legislature of New-York adjourned on the 17th of April. The +question of the enlargement of the Erie Canal was before the Senate, +when twelve of the Democratic members of that body resigned their +seats in order to prevent the passage of the bill, by leaving the +senate without a quorum. The usual annual appropriations had not been +voted, and the Government was thus placed without the means of +sustaining its operations. An extra session of the Legislature has +been called by Governor Hunt, for the 10th of June. Elections have +been ordered, in the mean time, to fill the vacancies caused by the +resignation of the Senators. The Members of the Assembly, of both +parties, published manifestoes in relation to the question. + +The Atlantic Coast and the Lakes have been visited this spring with a +succession of tremendous gales, which have done an immense amount of +damage in various quarters. A storm arose along the Northeastern +coast, on the 15th of April, and at noon on the following day the tide +was higher at Boston than had ever been known before. On the principal +wharves of the city the water was three or four feet deep, and the +streets were so flooded that a large boat could be rowed around the +Custom House. An immense amount of damage was done to private +property, and many lives were lost. The railroad tracks all around the +city were submerged, and in many places torn up and washed away. All +along the coast, from New Bedford to Portland, the gale raged with +nearly equal violence, causing much injury to the shipping. The loss +of property is estimated at more than one million of dollars. + +On the night of the 17th of April, the third day of the storm, the +light-house on Minot's Ledge, at the entrance of Boston harbor, was +carried away, and the two men in it at the time drowned. Mr. Bennett, +the keeper, who had been to Boston, was prevented from returning to it +by the rough sea, and thus escaped. It was formed of wrought iron +bars, riveted into the rock, and rising to the height of sixty feet, +having chambers in the upper part for the keeper and his assistants. +The light-house had been severely tested in the late equinoctial +storm, and was considered secure. + +His Excellency, President Fillmore, accompanied by the Hon. Daniel +Webster, Secretary of State; Hon. William A. Graham, Secretary of the +Navy; Hon. J. J. Crittenden, Attorney General; and Hon. N. K. Hall, +Postmaster General, left Washington on the 12th of May, in order to be +present at the opening of the Erie Railroad from New-York to Dunkirk. +They were received with great enthusiasm on the way; at Baltimore and +Wilmington they were officially welcomed, and were met at the latter +place by the Mayor and Common Council of Philadelphia, who escorted +them to that city. + +Here the people turned out to give them a public reception, and +speeches were made by the President and Mr. Webster. On their way to +New-York they were met at Amboy by the Erie Railroad Company's steamer +and conveyed to the city, saluted on the way by national salutes from +the forts in the harbor, and the military companies of the city, who +were drawn up on the Battery, to receive the distinguished visitors. +The ceremonies of welcome were performed in Castle Garden, where the +President and Secretaries were welcomed by Mayor Kingsland. Eloquent +speeches were made in return by the President, Mr. Webster, and Mr. +Crittenden. A military procession more than a mile in length, was then +formed, and marched through the principal streets, which were thronged +with spectators. Flags were waving from every point, and as the day +was remarkably bright and warm, the spectacle was one of unusual life +and animation. + +The Company's boat left New-York at 6 o'clock on the morning of the +14th, having on board the President and Secretaries, all the principal +State officers except Governor Hunt, the officers of the Erie Railroad +Company, a large representation from the State Senate and Assembly, +and both boards of the Common Council of the city, besides a number of +other distinguished persons. At Piermont, three special trains +received the company, 600 in all, and the grand march of 450 miles, +through what was lately the wilderness of the State, from the Hudson +to Lake Erie, commenced. All along the line of the road the people +turned out _en masse_, cannons were fired and bells rung as the trains +passed, and triumphal arches erected over the road. Brief addresses +were made at the principal stations by the President, Mr. Webster, Mr. +Seward, Mr. Crittenden, and other distinguished guests. The trains +stopped at Elmira for the night, and proceeded next day to Dunkirk, +which they reached in the afternoon. Here the crowning celebration was +made. All the country, far and near, arose to hail the completion of +the greatest railroad enterprise in the world. After the meeting, a +grand barbecue was held: two oxen and ten sheep were roasted whole, +and the company regaled on a magnificent scale. The day following this +opening excursion, the regular passenger trains commenced running from +New-York to Dunkirk. The distance between the Ocean and Lake Erie is +now but a summer's day. + +In the Connecticut Legislature the Democratic candidate for Governor, +Mr. Seymour, was elected by a majority of one vote. The Legislature of +Rhode Island, on the 10th of May, restored to Ex-Gov. Dorr, +(well-known as the leader of "Dorr's Rebellion,") all the rights and +privileges of a citizen. + +M. Bois Le Compte, the French Minister at Washington, who has been +recalled by his Government, took leave of the President on the 2d of +May, and will shortly return to France. + +Jenny Lind reached New-York in the beginning of May, after a +triumphant tour of five months in the South and West. She commenced a +series of farewell concerts on the 7th. She was received with as full +a house and scarcely less enthusiasm than on the night of her first +appearance in America. The Firemen of the city, in return for her +donation of $3000 to the Widows' and Orphans' Fund, have presented her +with a resolution of thanks inclosed in a gold box, and a copy of +Audubon's Birds of America in a rosewood case. + +A fire occurred at Santa Fe, New Mexico, on the 22d of April, which +destroyed the finest hotel in the place. Col. Sumner, who is to take +command of the United States military force in the Department, carries +with him a large amount of seeds, grains, improved stock, farming +utensils, and apparatus for developing the capacity of the soil. It is +designed to make the United States troops in New Mexico support +themselves as far as possible. The Apache Indians have been very +troublesome, but a treaty of amity has been effected with their +principal chief, Chacon. The Mexican citizens are well satisfied with +the establishment of the Territorial Government. + +The California mails of March 15th and April 1st have been received. +The steamers which sailed from San Francisco on those days took away +more than $3,500,000 in gold dust for the Atlantic States. The news is +generally of a very favorable character. The severe drought which had +prevailed through the whole winter, terminated on the 17th of March, +when a succession of heavy showers commenced, the effect of which had +been to revive business of all kinds. The miners in the dry diggings +had a sufficiency of water to wash out their piles of dirt, and the +gold dust, flowing into the centres of trades, soon dissipated the +dulness which had fallen upon business of all kinds. Agricultural +prospects have also brightened, and the crops of California will this +year be an important feature of her products. The odious tax of $20 +per month on all foreign miners has been repealed, and the Mexicans +and Chilians who were last year driven out of the country will +probably return. + +The Legislature still continues in session, and since its futile +attempt to elect a United States Senator, has gone vigorously to work. +The sale of lottery tickets has been prohibited; the sum of $200,000 +appropriated for the pay of persons engaged in military operations +against the Indians, and the State Treasurer authorized to obtain a +loan of $500,000. The District Court of Sacramento has given a +decision sustaining the suitors of claims on all lands on which the +city is located. A fugitive slave case--the first in California--has +been settled at San Francisco. The owner of a slave, who had employed +him in the mines for three or four months, was about to return with +him to the Atlantic States. But as the slave preferred remaining, a +writ of habeas corpus was procured and a hearing had before the Court, +which decided that the negro was at liberty to stay and could not be +removed against his will. + +A fire broke out in a bowling alley in Nevada City, on the 12th of +March, and spread so rapidly that before it could be subdued, the +largest and best portion of the city was in ashes. One hundred and +twenty-eight houses were destroyed, and the entire loss is estimated +at $300,000. + +Accounts from all parts of the gold region give flattering accounts of +the golden harvest for the present year. The richest locality appears +to be the district lying between Feather River and the American Fork, +embracing the Yuba and its tributaries. The northern mines, on +Trinity, Scott's and Klamath Rivers, continue to attract attention. On +the Mokelumne River, gold is found in large quantities on the sides +and summits of the hills. A placer of the precious metal has also been +discovered by the Mexicans near San Diego. The operations in quartz +mining promise to be very profitable. A vein near Nevada City has been +sold for $130,000. Later accounts from the Gold Bluff are more +encouraging. The top sand was washed away during a severe gale, and +the heavy substratum, being washed, was found to yield from three to +eight ounces to each pailful. Messrs. Moffat & Co., who obtained the +Government contract for assaying gold, received deposits of gold dust +amounting to $100,000 in two hours after opening their office. The +operations of the office had such an effect that the bankers of San +Francisco were compelled to raise the price of gold dust to $17 per +ounce, in order to have any share in the trade. + +Professor Forest Shepard, of New-Haven, who has been prosecuting +geological explorations in different parts of California, has +discovered a remarkable valley in the Coast Range, north of Napa +Valley. It is an immense chasm, 1000 feet deep, in the bottom of which +was a large number of boiling springs and jets of steam, with here and +there a fountain of hot water, similar to the geysers of Iceland. +There are more than two hundred in all, within a compass of half a +mile square. The soil of the valley was so warm that, although it was +in the middle of winter, flowers were in full bloom and a luxuriant +vegetation springing on all sides. It is Professor Shepard's intention +to claim a portion of the valley, build a house thereon, and plant +tropical trees in the warm soil. + +The Hon. Samuel R. Thurston, Delegate to Congress from Oregon +Territory, died on the 9th ult., on board the steamer California, +bound from Panama to San Francisco. His remains were taken to Acapulco +for interment. + +Our news from Oregon is to the 22d of March. A discovery has been made +by Capt. George Drew, of a vein of coal on the Cowlitz River, eighteen +miles from its junction with the Columbia, and about one mile from the +main Cowlitz. The vein is two feet thick and about half a mile in +width, fifteen feet above high water mark and about forty feet below +the surface of the bluff mountain. Governor Ogden, of the Hudson's Bay +Company, at Vancouver, sent a boat and crew to bring a quantity away, +that it may be fairly tested. + + +EUROPE. + +The Grand Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations, in the Crystal +Palace at LONDON, was opened on Thursday, May 1, with appropriate and +imposing ceremonies. Just before twelve o'clock, which was the hour +appointed for the arrival of the Queen, the rain that had been falling +at intervals during the day ceased altogether, and the sun shone forth +from a cloudless sky. On the appearance of the Royal cortege, the +utmost enthusiasm was manifested by the people who thronged the +vicinity of the Palace, and, in the midst of the cheers of the +multitude, and the flourish of military music, the Queen, accompanied +by Prince Albert, the Prince of Wales, and the Princess Royal, was +ushered into the interior of the building. She was welcomed by the +vast assemblage with repeated and universal cheers, ladies waved their +handkerchiefs, gentlemen their hats, and the whole scene presented a +spectacle of unrivalled splendor. After she had ascended the throne, +which was a raised platform surmounted with a blue canopy ornamented +with feathers, the National Anthem was sung by an immense choir under +direction of Sir Henry Bishop. When the music had ceased, Prince +Albert presented to the Queen the report of the proceedings of the +Commissioners, to which she replied in a short speech. The Archbishop +of Canterbury then offered the prayer of inauguration, at the close of +which the Hallelujah Chorus was sung. A procession was now formed, +composed of the architect, contractors, and officials engaged in the +construction of the Crystal Palace, the Foreign Commissioners, the +Royal Commissioners, Foreign Ambassadors, and the members of the Royal +Family. After making the circuit of the building in the procession, +the Queen resumed her seat on the platform, and announced by a herald +that the Exhibition was opened. A flourish of trumpets and a discharge +of artillery proclaimed the fact to the thronging multitudes on the +outside. The Queen, attended by the Court, then withdrew from the +building; the choir again struck up the strain of the National Anthem; +the barriers, which had confined the spectators within certain limits, +were removed; and the whole mass of visitors poured over every part of +the magnificent edifice, eager to gratify a highly excited curiosity. + +The number of exhibitors, whose productions are now displayed in the +Crystal Palace, is about 15,000. One-half of these are British +subjects. The remainder represent the industry of more than forty +other nations, comprising nearly every civilized country on the globe. +The Exhibition is divided into four classes; 1. Raw Materials; 2. +Machinery; 3. Manufactures; 4. Sculpture and the Fine Arts. A further +division is made, according to the geographical position of the +countries represented, those which lie within the warmer latitudes +being placed near the centre of the building, and the colder countries +at the extremities. The Crystal Palace, which was commenced on the +26th of September, and has accordingly been completed in the short +space of seven months, occupies an extent of about 18 acres, measuring +1,851 feet in length, and 556 in breadth, and affords a frontage for +the exhibition of goods amounting in the aggregate to over 10 miles. +It can accommodate at one time 40,000 visitors. + +An interesting debate took place in the BRITISH House of Commons on +the 3d of April, upon a motion by Mr. Herries for the repeal of the +Income Tax. In an elaborate speech supporting his motion, Mr. Herries +maintained that the Income Tax was proposed by Sir Robert Peel in +order to meet a peculiar emergency occasioned by the maladministration +of the Whigs prior to 1841. He presented a minute calculation for the +purpose of showing that two-sevenths of the tax might be remitted +without damage to the financial interests of the nation, and that the +remission of L1,560,000 would be a greater relief than the removal of +the window-tax. In reply to Mr. Herries, the Chancellor of the +Exchequer contended that the measures contemplated in the motion were +of the most disastrous tendency, and recommended the House to vote an +Income Tax for three years. On a division of the House, Mr. Herries' +motion was lost by a majority of 48. + +The subject of Colonial Expenditures has elicited a warm debate in the +House of Commons. Sir William Molesworth argued in favor of giving the +means of local self-government to all colonies which are not military +stations nor convict settlements. The colonies cost the United Kingdom +the enormous sum of L4,000,000 sterling. He believed the military +force maintained in the various colonies might be cut down to less +than half the present establishment without injury to the Government. +Under proper regulations, 17,000 men would be sufficient for the +colonial garrisons, instead of 45,000. For colonial services the +troops should be paid by the colonies--for Imperial purposes, by the +General Government. He contended that in the North American colonies, +the expenditure for military affairs should be reduced L400,000 per +annum, and in the West Indies L250,000. From the Australian colonies +nearly the whole military force might be withdrawn to advantage. +Unless the military operations were discontinued in South Africa, the +war would cost L1,000,000 more than the value of the colony. In +conclusion, he estimated that the adoption of his measures would save +the Government at least L1,800,000 in military and civil expenditure. +The views of Sir William Molesworth were ably sustained by other +members, while, on the contrary, Lord John Russell declared they were +of a ruinous tendency, and earnestly protested against their adoption. +If the plan were carried into effect, the glory of the British nation +would be destroyed. She could no longer maintain her proud position +before the world. The integrity of her empire would be annihilated, +and she would be exposed to the attack of foreign powers. The debate +was finally adjourned without a division. + +The latest intelligence concerning Miss Talbot, whose relation to the +Roman Catholic controversy has produced such a general excitement in +England, is her decision to accept of a proposal of marriage from Lord +Edward Howard, a Catholic nobleman of wealth and character. +Application was made by the friends of the parties for the consent of +the Lord Chancellor, which was given without hesitation. + +The British Government has presented a memorial to the Courts of +Berlin and Vienna, on the subject of admitting non-German territories +into the Confederation, and insisting on a strict adherence to the +Treaty of Vienna. + +A new cabinet has been formed in FRANCE, consisting of Baroche, +Rouher, Fould, Leon-Faucher, Buffet, Chasseloup Laubat, de +Crouseilhes, Randon and Maque. The most prominent of these ministers +are Baroche, Fould, and Leon-Faucher. They are all taken from the +minority of the Assembly, and their choice will increase the +difference between the President and that body. Baroche and Fould were +members of the ministry which was obliged to retire in January last, +before the opposition of the Assembly. Leon-Faucher labors under the +stigma of having used the telegraph for electioneering purposes, for +which he was condemned by the vote of the constituent assembly. Buffet +was minister of commerce and agriculture in the administration of +O'Dillon-Barrot. He is inclined to free trade sentiments, agreeing for +the most part with Leon-Faucher in his commercial views. De +Crouseilhes is a legitimist. He is an ex-peer of France, but has been +more distinguished for his private worth than his political ability. +Chasseloup Laubat has been in official employment since 1828, though +he is still under fifty years of age. The best debater in the new +ministry is undoubtedly Baroche, whose sagacity and mental vigor +cannot be mistaken. + +The political condition of France is still the subject of much +speculation, but no definite conclusions can be arrived at in the +present fluctuations of parties. Every thing shows the uncertainty +which pervades the public mind. The President has renounced the hope +of improving his political prospects, by obtaining a revision of the +constitution. This could not be carried without a majority of +three-fourths of the Assembly, while at least nearly 190 of the most +strenuous republicans are decidedly opposed to the measure. The +government is now sustained by the legitimists, who perceive no +immediate hope of the accomplishment of their favorite plans. The +partisans of Cavaignac are in favor of the speedy resignation of the +President. In their opinion, this is necessary, in order to anticipate +the general election, and thus prevent the difficulties that would +ensue by the dissolution of the Assembly, without an established +executive. Others, on the contrary, are in favor of extending the +Presidential term for the period of ten years. A reconciliation was +about to take place, according to the general rumor, between the +President and General Changarnier. The government has demanded of the +cabinet at London the expulsion of Ledru Rollin and other active +politicians among the French refugees. With the present facilities of +communication between London and Paris, their influence was believed +to be adverse to the policy of the French government, and to increase +the difficulties of the existing crisis. + +An insurrection, headed by the Duke of Saldanha, has been attempted in +Cientra, PORTUGAL. The insurgents were about five thousand in number, +and displayed considerable determination. Their leader is a man of +great energy, and has had no small experience in political +disturbances. He belongs to the reactionary party. The King, who +commands the army in person, has occupied the fortress of Santarem, +and the chances of the insurgents appear desperate, although they are +said to have some friends in the royal army. The garrison at Oporto +have declared for Saldanha, and the inhabitants of that city are +generally on his side. He had decided to abandon the contest, and +embark for England, but was recalled by the insurgents. + +The King of NAPLES has prohibited his subjects from taking part in the +Exhibition of the World's Fair, and from being present at it as +visitors. The King of Sardinia proposes to visit England during the +Exhibition. + +The Emperor of RUSSIA has appointed a Committee of manufacturers and +scientific men, under the Presidency of the Director General of Public +Works to visit the Exhibition, and also to examine the principal +manufacturing establishments of France. He has also given permission +to his subjects who may attend the exhibition, to pass through France +on complying with certain conditions. + +The city of DRONTHEIM has again suffered from a popular outbreak, +although not from political causes. The military and burgher guard +were compelled to interfere, and several arrests took place. The +difficulty originated in the prohibition of the sale of fish by the +peasantry, in compliance with the demands of the licensed fishermen. + +A misunderstanding of a serious nature has occurred between the +Emperor of AUSTRIA and the Sultan of TURKEY. This has resulted in the +withdrawal of the Austrian minister from Constantinople. The Sultan is +charged with refusing to comply with the demands of the Emperor in +regard to Kossuth and the other Hungarian prisoners. He declines +detaining them after the expiration of the year during which he had +promised to hold them in custody. An additional offence is his +presentation of a claim upon the Austrian treasury for the expenses of +the detention. + +At our last dates from TURKEY, the Bosnian insurrection had been +conducted with great activity, although it has probably been +suppressed by Omer Pasha. A sanguinary engagement between the Sultan's +troops and a body of fifteen thousand insurgents has taken place in +the vicinity of Jaicza, in which several hundred of the combatants on +both sides were killed or mortally wounded. The conflict terminated in +favor of the rebels. + + + + +_Recent Deaths._ + + +CAPTAIN J. D. CUNNINGHAM, of the Bengal Engineers, author of the +_History of the Sikhs_, died in India on the twenty-eight of February, +in consequence, it is said, of his removal from the political agency +of Bhopaul, where his services and abilities had been highly valued. +The act of the "Company" fell with peculiar hardship upon an officer +who had passed twenty years of honorable and uninterrupted service in +every climate of India, and whose error (if any were committed by the +publication in question) was certainly not of a character demanding +censure so grave. It will be recollected that the book threw some new +light on the conduct of Lord Hardinge at Sobraon, and that the writer +was dismissed on the charge of having, "without authority," published +documents officially intrusted to his charge. The friends of Captain +Cunningham aver that he had formerly asked permission, and he +construed the reply to be an expression of indifference on the part of +the directors. It was never pretended that an unworthy motive had +influenced him, or that he had acted on any other than a desire +(however mistaken) to promote the welfare of the government to which +he was attached. It is understood that Captain Cunningham's health +broke soon after this painful misunderstanding, and that its effects +pursued him to his death. He was a son of Allan Cunningham, had +distinguished himself greatly in all his Indian employments, and had +not completed his fortieth year. + + * * * * * + +The _Glasgow Citizen_ calls attention to the death of Mr. JOHN +HENNING, the well-known Paisley artist, whose studies from the Elgin +marbles and cartoons after Raphad obtained so much distinction for +himself, and contributed so largely to the diffusion of a general +taste for the fine arts amongst his countrymen. Mr. Henning was a +self-taught sculptor, and devoted twelve years of his life, under +great difficulties, to the restoration of the Greek marbles brought +over by Lord Elgin. His copies of these on a reduced scale are so well +known and esteemed as to render eulogium on their merits here +unnecessary. Many busts of his contemporaries remain to testify +further to the excellence of his hand. He was one of the men whom his +native town "delighted to honor." + + * * * * * + +PADRE ROZAVEN, one of the most famous of modern Jesuits, and +distinguished by divers polemical treatises, as well as by a long +residence and religious warfare in Russia, has just died in Rome in +his eighty-second year. + + * * * * * + +PRINCE WITTGENSTEIN, Minister of the Royal House of Prussia, died on +the 11th April, at Berlin, at the age of eighty-one. He had been in +the service of the state fifty-six years, and had filled the post in +which he died since 1819. + + * * * * * + +HENRY BICKERSTETH, LORD LANGDALE, late Master of the Rolls, died on +Good Friday, at Tunbridge Wells, to which place he had lately repaired +for the benefit of his health--impaired by long-continued mental +labor, resulting in a paralytic stroke, which took place shortly +before his death. He was born on the eighteenth of June, 1783, in the +county of Westmoreland, where his father was possessed of a small +property. Originally destined for the medical profession (of which his +father was a member), in which he had completed his studies, he +visited the Continent with the family of the late Earl of Oxford, by +whose advice he was induced to embark on the career of the bar. He +entered Caius College, Cambridge, where he took his degrees as senior +wrangler in 1808. Three years afterwards he was called to the bar, and +engaged at once in the duties of his profession. He rapidly rose to +great eminence in the Equity Courts, to which he confined his +practice. On the nineteenth of January, 1836, he was appointed to +succeed Lord Cottenham as Master of the Rolls, and was at the same +time called to the House of Peers. But a few months had elapsed after +his accession to the mastership of the rolls when Lord Langdale +delivered in the House of Lords his remarkable speech on the +administration of justice in the Court of Chancery, and on the +appellate jurisdiction of their lordships' house, and to the opinions +expressed in that speech, and in favor of the division of the duties +of the Great Seal, he constantly adhered. On the resignation of Lord +Cottenham last year, the Great Seal was more than once tendered to +Lord Langdale by the head of the present administration; but though he +consented to act as first commissioner, and sat for a short time in +the Lord Chancellor's court, and in the House of Lords, in that +capacity, the intense application to which the state of the Court of +Chancery had condemned him forbade a further stretch of his powers. + + * * * * * + +GENERAL E. J. ROBERTS, for many years conspicuous as an editor and a +politician in the state of New York, died at the age of fifty-five, a +few weeks ago, at Detroit. He formerly edited _The Craftsman_, at +Rochester, and in 1830 was editor of a journal of that title in +Albany. He removed to Michigan in 1834, and filled very important +offices in that state. He was a member of the state senate at the time +of his death. + + * * * * * + +From Stockholm is announced the death, at the age of seventy-one, of +the distinguished botanist and geologist, M. GOREAN-WAHLENBERG, +Professor at the University of Upsal, and director of the botanical +garden in the same institution. M. Wahlenberg is stated to have spent +thirty out of his seventy-one years in scientific journies through the +different countries of Europe; and the results of these travels he has +recorded in a variety of learned works. He left his rich collection +and numerous library to the University of Upsal; in which he was a +student,--and to which he was attached in various capacities during +upwards of forty-three years. + + * * * * * + +We lack room for notices of the lives of Archbishop ECLESTON, of +Baltimore; General BRADY, of the United States Army; and Mr. PHILIP +HONE, three eminent persons who have died since our last publication. + + + + +E. E. MARCY, M.D., AUTHOR OF THE "HOMOEOPATHIC THEORY AND PRACTICE." + +[Illustration] + + +Dr. Marcy is one of the thousand or more physicians of the old school +who have become homoeopathists. With professional eminence, and a +liberal fortune, he joined the converts to the doctrine of Hahnemann, +and at once took rank among the most distinguished physicians of the +new practice. Homoeopathy is one of the grand facts of this age. It +is no longer laughed at, but has reached that condition which enables +it to challenge a respectful consideration from all who would not +themselves be subjects of ridicule. Of educated and thoughtful men, in +our large cities, it is contended that more than one-half are of its +supporters. In Great Britain we see that Archbishop Whately, the +Chevalier Bunsen, and Dr. Scott of Owen's College, constitute a trio +of its literary adherents. Cobden, Leslie, and Wilson, are examples of +its parliamentary partizans. Radetzky, Pulzsky, and General +Farquharson, rank among its numerous military defenders. Leaf, Sugden, +and Forbes, are three of its great London merchants. The Duke of +Hamilton, the Earls of Wilton, Shrewsbury, Erne, and Denbigh, and +Lords Robert Grosvenor, Newport, and Kinnaird, may serve for its guard +of honor. Queen Adelaide was one of its numerous royal and noble +patients, and the Duchess of Kent is the patroness of a great fair to +be held for the benefit of some of its institutions in London during +this present month of June--in the very heyday of the exhibition +season. In France, Guizot, Changarnier, Comte, Lamartine, and some +forty members of the Academy, are among its advocates. Here in +New-York, it is sufficient to say of the character of the society in +which it is received, that it includes Bryant, who has been among the +most active of its lay teachers. + +It is clear that homoeopathy not only spreads apace, but that it +also spreads in all sorts of good directions, through the present +fabric of society. And this fact certainly conveys the idea that there +must be some sort of truth in homoeopathy; whether pure or mixed, +whether negative or affirmative, whether critical of something old, or +declaratory of something new. + +Dr. Marcy is one of the leaders of the sect. He is the son of an +eminent lawyer, who for more than twenty years has been in the +legislature of Massachusetts; he was graduated at Amherst College, +took his degree of Doctor in Medicine at the University of +Pennsylvania, and for ten years devoted himself with great success to +medicine and surgery in Hartford: in surgery, on several occasions, +commanding the applause of both European and American academies. As a +chemist, also, he greatly distinguished himself; and it is not too +much to say, that in the application of chemistry to the arts, he has +been more fortunate than any other American. At length, while +travelling in Europe, he became a convert to the theory, _similia +similibus curantur_, and renouncing his earlier notions, gave himself +up to the study of it. He published, six months ago, in a volume of +six hundred pages, _The Homoeopathic Theory and Practice of +Medicine_, of which a second edition is now in press; and he is +industriously occupied, when not attending to the general business of +his profession, with a voluminous work on _Animal Chemistry_. + +It is admitted by the most wise and profoundly learned physicians of +the allopathic practice, that the laws of that practice are for the +most part vague and uncertain. The cumulative experiences of many ages +have shown indeed that certain substances have certain effects in +certain conditions of the human organism; but the processes by which +these effects are induced are unknown, or not so established as justly +to be regarded as a part of science. Facts have been observed, and +hypotheses have been formed, but there has been no demonstrative +generalization, really no philosophy of disease and cure; and while in +almost every other department, investigation and reflection have led +by a steady and sure advance to the establishment of positive and +immutable principles, medicine has made, except in a few specialities, +no advance at all, unless the theory here disclosed shall prove a +solution of its secrets. Of these specialities, the most important has +been the discovery of the homoeopathic law in the isolated case of +smallpox. Every body knows how difficult and slow was the reception of +the principle of inoculation--of _similia similibus curantur_--in this +disease; but it was received at last universally; and then arose +Hahnemann, to claim for every disorder of the human system the +application of the same principle. Right or wrong, the father of +homoeopathy gave us a system, perfect in its parts, universal in its +fitness, and eminently beautiful in its simplicity. It has been half a +century before the world, and though all the universities have +parleyed and made truce with other innovations and asserted heresies, +and opened against this their heaviest and best plied artillery, it is +not to be denied that homoeopathy has made more rapid, diffusive, +and pervading advances, than were ever before made by any doctrine of +equal importance, either in morals or physics. + +We cannot but admit that we have been accustomed to regard the +theories of Hahnemann with distrust, and that the principle of the +attenuation of drugs, etc., viewed as it was by us through the media +of prejudiced and satirical opposition, seemed to be trivial and +absurd. We heard frequently of remarkable cures by Hahnemann's +disciples, and even witnessed the benefits of their treatment, but so +perfectly had the sharp ridicule of the allopathists warped our +judgment and moulded our feelings, that we felt a sort of humiliation +in confessing an advantage from an "infinitesimal dose." We could +never forget the keen and brilliant wit with which our friend Holmes, +for example, assailed a system which threatened to take away his +practice and patients, deprive him of his income, and consign his +professional erudition and ingenious speculation to oblivion. But the +work of Dr. Marcy displayed these matters to us in an entirely +different light, and guarded by walls of truths and arguments quite +impenetrable by the most finely pointed or most powerful satire. His +well-known abilities, great learning, and long successful experience +as an allopathist, gave us assurance that his conversion to the school +of Hahnemann could have been induced only by inherent elements of +extraordinary force and vitality in its principles, and we looked to +him confidently, when we understood that he was preparing for the +press an exhibition and vindication of homoeopathy, for such a work +as should at least screen the layman who accepted its doctrines from +the reproach of fanatical or credulous weakness. We were not +disappointed. He has given us a simple and powerful appeal to the +common sense upon the whole subject. In language terse, direct, and +perspicuous, and with such bravery as belongs to the consciousness of +a championship for truth, he displays every branch of his law, with +its antagonism, and leads his readers captive to an assenting +conclusion. + +Dr. Marcy's work is the first by an American on the Homoeopathic +Theory and Practice of Medicine; it is at least a very able and +attractive piece of philosophical speculation; and to those who are +still disposed to think with little respect of the Hahnemannic +peculiarities, we specially commend, before they venture another jest +upon the subject, or endure any more needless nausea and torture, or +sacrifice another constitution or life upon the altar of prejudice, +the reading of his capital chapters on Allopathy, Homoeopathy, and +the Attenuation of Drugs and Repetition of Doses. + +The London _Leader_ demands attention to the scholarship of the +homoeopathic physicians, to their respectability as thinkers and as +men, and to the character of their writings; and surveying the +extraordinary and steady advances of the homoeopathic sect, urges +that every thing, which has at any time won for itself a broad footing +in the world, must have been possessed by some spirit of truth. Every +thoughtful person knows that no system stands fast in virtue of the +errors about it. It is the amount of truth it contains, however little +and overlaid that may be, which enables an institution or a doctrine +to keep its ground. The extent and quality of that ground, taken +together with the length of time it is kept, constitute a measure of +the quantity of truth by which a militant institute is inspired and +sustained. + + + + +_Ladies' Fashions for the Season._ + +[Illustration] + + +In Paris and London the chief novelties have been preparations for the +London season. Head-dress is particularly rich, by no means lacking +lively colors, and ornamented with gold, silver, and beads. We only +speak here of fancy head-dress; for diamonds are always very much +admired for a rare and _recherchee parure_. Never have they been so +well set as at the present day, both as regards elegance, lightness, +and convenience. Thus, each night a lady may change the disposition of +her brilliants: to-day she may form them into a band, like a diadem; +to-morrow, a row of pins for the body of her dress; another time she +can place them on a velvet necklace, and so forth. + +Fancy head-dresses are made of lace, blond, silk, gold, or silver. +Flowers of all kinds are also worn, and above all foliage of velvet +and satin, deep shaded, enriched with white or gold beads, and gold or +silver fruit. We have also seen a _coiffure_ of gold blond, forming a +small point at the top of the head, and ornamented on each side with a +branch of green foliage and golden fruit in little flexible bunches. + +Ball dresses have nearly all two skirts, which are ornamented with a +profusion of flounces, trimmed with ribbons or flowers, which follow +the shade of the first or upper skirt; or they are used to raise it at +the sides, or on one side only. We have also seen a dress of white net +with two skirts, the first (the under) trimmed with two net flounces +at the extremity with two gathers through the middle, and satin +ribbon. On each of these flounces was a trimming of Brussels +application lace, with a gather of ribbon at the top, of the same +width as those of the extremity. The second skirt was trimmed at the +bottom with two gathers of ribbon, and one lace flounce with a ribbon +gathering at the top; the body was an intermixture of gathered ribbons +and lace flounces. + +Capotes will be more in vogue than bonnets, their style allowing +spangling, for which bonnets are not suited. We have seen capotes of +taffeta, and ribbon applied like flounces as ornaments to the crown; +these ribbons are cut into teeth or plain, but with a narrow border of +much brighter shade. We have also seen very pretty capotes covered +with net, made of very lively colored taffeta. The tops of all these +bonnets are widened more than they are high; however, they are drawn +near the bottom, and are quite closed. + +Dresses, it is certain, will be open in front and heart-shaped to the +bottom of the waist. Low square-fronted chemisettes suit this kind of +bodice, with breast-plates of embroidery and lace. At concerts, many +dresses are seen either with flounces or apron-shaped fronts; that is +to say, the front breadth has a much richer pattern, and different +from the other breadths of the skirt. This pattern is generally an +immense bouquet, whose branches entwine to the top, diminishing in +size; or there are two large columns of stripes, which form undulating +wreaths. + +Dresses of white or other ground of taffeta warped will be the fashion +this spring for walking; however, we must wait for Longchamps, at the +latter end of April, to decide the question. + +In the illustration on the following page is a lace cap, trimmed with +flowers without foliage; African velvet dress; body with Spanish +basks or skirts cut out into teeth, trimmed with a small white lace, +having at the top a small gathering of ribbon; the body trimmed with +lace facing, edged with a gathering of ribbon; black velvet ribbon +round the neck, fastened with a diamond buckle; bracelets the same. +Bonnet of pink taffeta, very plain; and plain dress of Valencias, with +festooned teeth. Small felt bonnet, with bunch of ribbons; Nacaret +velvet dress; trowsers of cambric muslin, with embroideries; gaiters +of black cloth, and mousquetaire pardessus, trimmed with gimp or lace, +put on flat. + +[Illustration] + +Mantelets will certainly enjoy more than their usual vogue this +season, and from what we have seen of the new forms, we must own they +are very superior to any that have before appeared; the novelty of the +forms, and the taste displayed in the garnitures even of those +intended for common use, show that the progress of _la mode_ is quite +as great as any other sort of progress in this most progressing age. +First, then, for the mantelets in plain walking dress; they are for +the most part composed of black taffeta; several are embroidered in +sentache, and bordered with deep flounces of taffeta; others are +trimmed with fringe of a new and very light kind, and a number, +perhaps indeed the majority, are finished with lace. + +The materials for robes, in plain morning neglige, are silks of a +quiet kind, and some slight woollen materials, as coutil de laine, +balzerine, striped Valencias; some in very small, others in large +stripes; corded muslins, and jaconet muslins, flowered in a variety of +patterns. We cannot yet say any thing positively respecting plain +white muslins for morning dress, but we have reason to believe they +will not be much adopted. + +Taffeta has resumed all its vogue for robes; it is adopted both for +public promenade, half dress, and evening robes. Some of the most +elegant mantelets are of white taffeta. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The International Monthly, Volume 3, +No. 3, June, 1851, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK INTERNATIONAL MONTHLY, JUNE, 1851 *** + +***** This file should be named 36131.txt or 36131.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/1/3/36131/ + +Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by Cornell University Digital Collections.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +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 + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/36131.zip b/36131.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..58a9db0 --- /dev/null +++ b/36131.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ccbba5c --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #36131 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/36131) |
