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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 68, No
+420, October 1850, by Various
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 68, No 420, October 1850
+
+Author: Various
+
+Release Date: January 7, 2014 [EBook #44618]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Brendan OConnor, Richard Tonsing, Jonathan
+Ingram and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
+generously made available by The Internet Library of Early
+Journals.)
+
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+
+
+                              BLACKWOOD'S
+                          EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.
+
+           NO. CCCCXX.      OCTOBER, 1850.      VOL. LXVIII.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+  MODERN STATE TRIALS. PART I.,                             373
+
+  MY NOVEL; OR, VARIETIES IN ENGLISH LIFE. PART II.,        393
+
+  MILITARY LIFE IN NORTH AFRICA,                            415
+
+  THE GREEN HAND--A "SHORT" YARN. A WIND-UP,                433
+
+  THE FRENCH WARS OF RELIGION,                              456
+
+  A WILD-FLOWER GARLAND. BY DELTA,                          471
+
+  THE MASQUERADE OF FREEDOM,                                475
+
+  DIES BOREALES. NO. VIII.--CHRISTOPHER UNDER CANVASS,      479
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+                              EDINBURGH:
+
+              WILLIAM BLACKWOOD & SONS, 45 GEORGE STREET;
+                    AND 37 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON.
+
+      _To whom all communications (post paid) must be addressed._
+
+          SOLD BY ALL THE BOOKSELLERS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM.
+
+           PRINTED BY WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, EDINBURGH.
+
+                              BLACKWOOD'S
+                          EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.
+
+           NO. CCCCXX.      OCTOBER, 1850.      VOL. LXVIII.
+
+
+
+
+MODERN STATE TRIALS.[1]
+
+
+PART I.
+
+The idea of this work is happily conceived, and carried into effect,
+in the two volumes before us, with no little judgment and ability. The
+subject is one interesting, useful, and important; and the author was
+in many respects well qualified to deal with it by his talents, his
+accomplishments, his professional acquirements, and his experienced
+observation. It will be seen that we speak of the author, and of his
+work, in different tenses; and there is a melancholy significance in
+the distinction. Within a very few days of his sending to us these two
+volumes, he died, unexpectedly, in the flower of his age, and just as
+he had attained an honour which he had long coveted--that of being
+raised to the rank of Queen's Counsel. On the first day of last Easter
+term, he presented himself in each of the courts at Westminster, in his
+"silk" gown, exchanging the customary obeisances with the Judges, the
+Queen's Counsel, and the great body of his brethren behind the bar,
+on being formally called by the Lord Chief Justice "to take his seat
+within the bar, Her Majesty having been pleased to appoint him one of
+Her Majesty's Counsel." He looked pleasurably excited: alas, how little
+anticipating that the last day of that same term would see him stripped
+of his long-coveted insignia, and clothed in the dismal vesture of the
+grave! For on that day he died, after a brief but very severe illness,
+in his forty-sixth year. A serious attack of rheumatic fever, several
+years before, had permanently impaired his physical energies, though
+not to such an extent as to prevent the exercise of his profession.
+His practice, till latterly, had been chiefly at the Cheshire and
+Manchester sessions, from which he gradually rose into considerable
+business, both civil and criminal, on the North Wales circuit. On being
+raised to his briefly-held rank, the prospect of a successful career
+opened before him; for he knew his profession well, as those were aware
+who were able and disposed to push him forward. During Easter term he
+was engaged before a committee of the House of Commons, to conduct a
+case of some importance. This was a lucrative branch of practice, which
+he was naturally eager to cultivate. Fatigue, anxiety, and excitement
+induced the return of an old complaint, accompanied by new and somewhat
+startling symptoms; but though utterly unfit for business, he could
+not be restrained from attending the committee room, though it was
+necessary to carry him in a chair up the long flight of steps leading
+to the corridor in the new House. He was soon, however, obliged to
+return as he had gone. The palsying hand of Death had touched the
+aspiring lawyer! After much suffering, he expired on the 8th of May,
+the last day of Easter term, and on the 13th was buried in the vaults
+of Lincoln's Inn, of which he had only a few days previously been
+elected a Bencher! He was a member of Queen's College, Oxford, where he
+graduated (we believe with honours) in 1824; was called to the bar in
+1828; and elected Recorder of Macclesfield in 1833.--As a speaker he
+was correct and fluent, though not forcible; as an advocate, judicious
+and successful. He was a man of classical tastes, extensively read
+in literature, and exceedingly familiar with political history and
+constitutional law. What he knew he could use readily and effectively,
+both as a writer and a speaker. He was very industrious with his pen
+during every interval between his professional engagements; and has
+left behind him, independently of his contributions to periodical
+literature, three works--the _History of the House of Commons from
+1688 to 1832_; the _Lives of Twelve Eminent Judges_, and the work now
+before us. The first of these was published in 1843-4, in two volumes
+octavo. The author's professed object was to present "a popular history
+of the House of Commons, with biographical notices of those members
+who have been most distinguished in its annals; and describing the
+changes in its internal economy, powers, and privileges," during the
+space of a hundred and forty-four years elapsing between two memorable
+periods--the "noble introduction" to Parliamentary Records, "afforded
+by the Convention Parliament of 1688," and the "eventful close"
+witnessed in the second Parliament of William IV., which passed "the
+Reform Bill." This space he subdivided into three distinguishing eras:--
+
+    "The _first_ includes a space of thirty-nine years--from
+    the abdication of James to the death of George I.
+    in 1727--characterised by master spirits, critical
+    events, and stirring debate. The _second_ era--sort of
+    mezzo-termino--comprehends the reign of George II., when men
+    in office were corrupt, and public morals low, and the general
+    topics of discourse resembled parish vestry discussions, but
+    still a prosperous reign--the sound common-sense of Walpole
+    promoting, even by inglorious acts, the national welfare, and
+    Chatham's genius rescuing the age from mediocrity.
+
+    "The regular publication of the debates, and troubles in
+    America, usher in the _last_ and most glorious epoch,--the days
+    of North and Burke--of Pitt and Fox--of Windham and Canning--of
+    Tierney, and Brougham, and Peel,--illustrated by oratory
+    enduring as the language, and with memories of statesmen that
+    can never die."
+
+Mr Townsend's second work was published about four years
+afterwards--viz., in 1848--also in two volumes, and entitled _Lives
+of Twelve Eminent Judges of the Last and Present Century_. These
+were--Lord Alvanley, Mr Justice Buller, Lord Eldon, Lord Ellenborough,
+Lord Erskine, Sir Vicary Gibbs, Sir William Grant, Lord Kenyon, Lord
+Loughborough, Lord Redesdale, Lord Stowell, and Lord Tenterden.
+This work consisted of memoirs, which the author had previously
+published in the _Law Magazine_, where they had attracted considerable
+attention from the profession; as they contained many interesting
+and entertaining anecdotes, and information not easily attainable
+elsewhere.[2] Both of these works are of an entertaining character.
+They are written in an easy, flowing style--occasionally, however,
+somewhat loose and gossiping. It must be owned that the author's
+_forte_ does not lie in the delineation of character, either moral or
+intellectual. If he really possessed a quick and searching insight into
+it, he would seem to have felt a greater pleasure in grouping about
+each individual who was the subject of his pencil the general incidents
+of his position, than in penetrating his idiosyncrasy, and detecting
+the operation of those incidents upon it. He does not conceive
+distinctly of _his man_, keeping his eye steadily upon him, with a
+view to the development and exhibition of character; but is apt, if we
+may be allowed so to speak, to lose him in his life. Still the work is
+decidedly an acquisition to popular and professional literature, and,
+equally with its predecessor, evidences the mild and candid temper and
+character of the author. Thus much we thought it only fair to premise,
+in justice to the memory of an amiable and accomplished member of the
+English bar, and a man of letters; one, too, who in his political
+opinions was a staunch and consistent upholder of those to which Maga
+has ever been devoted. In no instance, however--in neither of the two
+works at which we have been thus glancing in passing, nor in that now
+lying before us--did Mr Townsend suffer his political opinions to bias
+his judgment, or betray him into the faintest semblance of partiality
+or injustice.
+
+It is time now to direct attention to the last work of Mr
+Townsend--which he barely lived to see published--his _Modern State
+Trials_, spread over two goodly octavo volumes, containing nearly
+eleven hundred pages, and these, too, pretty closely printed. Upon
+this work much thought and labour have evidently been bestowed in
+the collection of his materials, and dealing with them, as in the
+volumes before us, in such a manner as to render the product at once
+interesting and instructive to both general and professional readers.
+
+It is no slight matter to make one's-self thoroughly master of a great
+case, in all its bearings; to seize its true governing characteristics;
+to select, condense, and arrange facts and incidents; to assign to
+every actor, whether judge, jury, witness, or counsel, his proper
+proportion and position; and all this with a view to interesting and
+instructing widely different classes of readers--and those, again,
+general and professional. To do all this effectually, requires
+powerful talents, much knowledge of life and character, practical
+acquaintance with the law of the country, a sound judgment, and a vivid
+imagination. There is scarcely any point of view in which a great trial
+will not appear deeply interesting to a competent observer, watching
+how each individual plays his part in the agitating drama. Whether
+the judge holds the sacred scales even; whether he sees clearly and
+acts promptly, calmly, resolutely, in detecting fallacy, in order
+to shield an unsophisticated jury from its subtle and deleterious
+agency; whether, for this purpose, his intellect and his knowledge
+are superior, equal, or inferior to those of the advocates pleading
+before him. How those advocates conduct themselves, intellectually
+and morally; whether they be clear-headed, acute, ready, learned--or
+cloudy, obtuse, superficial, and ignorant; whether evenly or over
+matched; whether they play the gentleman or the scoundrel; whether
+they will, however difficult the task, nobly recognise the obligations
+of truth and honour, or villanously disregard them, to secure a
+paltry triumph in defeating justice! How the witnesses discharge
+their momentous duties; whether constantly mindful of their oath,
+or forgetful of it, or wilfully disregarding it, from hostility or
+partiality to the prisoner, or any other wicked motive. Whether the
+judge, or the advocates, are equal to the discomfiture of a wicked
+witness. How the jury are conducting themselves--whether with watchful
+intelligence, or stolid listlessness. How the prisoner, standing in
+the midst of all these--with life, with honour, character, liberty,
+everything at stake--and depending on the word which one of that jury
+will utter--how _he_ is demeaning himself, knowing, as he does, the
+truth or falsehood of the charge on which he is being tried; what he is
+thinking of the exertions of his counsel, of the temper and spirit of
+the witnesses, of the jury, of the judge; whether he adverts at all to
+the spectators around him, and the feelings by which they are animated
+towards him; whether he is aware of, or appreciates, the true strain
+and pressure of the case--the sudden chances and perils occurring in
+its progress.
+
+How striking and instructive to observe the abstract rules of justice
+brought to bear, with equal readiness and precision, upon ordinary
+and extraordinary combinations of circumstances!--to witness the
+dead letter of the law become animated with potent vitality for the
+regulation of human affairs!
+
+Again, it has often occurred to us that there is another point of view
+from which important trials--nay, almost any trial--may be contemplated
+with lively interest by a logical observer, with reference to _the use
+made of facts_ by judicial and forensic intellect. How little even the
+acutest layman could have anticipated such dealing with facts as that
+which he here beholds; how he must appreciate the practised, watchful
+art with which the slightest circumstance is seized hold of, and in
+due time so combined with others with which it seemed to have no
+conceivable connexion, as to justify conclusions exactly the reverse
+of those which had till then seemed inevitable! What totally different
+aspects the same facts may be made to wear by different dealers with
+them, having different objects in view! By their different arrangement
+and combination, what _unexpected_ inferences may be drawn from the
+self-same facts, and even when similarly arranged and combined! How
+exciting to see a defence constructed by experienced astuteness and
+eloquence out of the slightest materials--out of a hopeless case--in
+the teeth of one overpowering for the prosecution! The desperate
+determination, the exquisite subtlety, the consummate judgment, often
+exhibited on such occasions by eminent advocates--struggling, too, at
+once with their own sense of right and wrong, and the desire to do
+their utmost for one who has intrusted his all to them--conscious,
+too, that though a jury of twelve plain common-sense people may be
+unable to see through the fallacies which are presented to them, it
+will doubtless be very far otherwise with one who has to follow,
+who has the last word! and with that last word may at once lay bare
+the sophistries of forensic effrontery, and perhaps rebuke him who
+attempted to trifle with and mislead the understandings of those
+so solemnly sworn to give a just and true verdict according to the
+evidence. "But what is one to do?" exclaims the anxious advocate. "How
+am I to defend yonder trembling being who has selected me to stand
+between him and--the scaffold, it may be--if I am to play the judge,
+and not the advocate; to yield pusillanimously to an array of fearfully
+plain facts, and make no attempt to square them with the hypothesis
+of my client's innocence, or persuade a jury that they are--whatever
+my own secret opinion--pregnant with too much doubt to warrant a
+verdict of guilty?" Only one who has been placed in the situation can
+conceive the faintest idea of what is endured on such occasions by the
+sensitive and conscientious advocate, who is called upon in desperate
+emergencies--in moments of intense eagerness and anxiety--the spasms,
+as it were, of which are _publicly_ exhibited, and before gifted and
+critical rivals and merciless public censors, to see and _observe_
+the delicate but decisive line of right--of duty; to maintain at once
+the character of the zealous, effective advocate, and the Christian
+gentleman. If sufficient allowances were made for persons placed in
+such circumstances of serious embarrassment and responsibility, less
+uncharitable judgments would be passed on the manner in which advocates
+exercise their functions than are sometimes seen; judgments formed and
+pronounced, too, in the closet--by those speaking after the event--calm
+and undisturbed by anxieties and agitation, which have probably _never
+been personally experienced_. This topic, however, we shall hereafter
+treat more at large, in giving to the volumes before us that extended
+examination which is at present contemplated. They contain a series
+of trials of undoubted public interest and importance. They have been
+selected upon the whole judiciously, with a view to the end which the
+author had proposed to himself; though the propriety of the title
+which he has chosen--_i. e._ "Modern _State_ Trials"--is not at first
+sight apparent. The idea conveyed by these words is, trials directly
+affecting _the state_, political prosecutions in respect of political
+offences. It is difficult to bring trials for murder, duelling,
+forgery, abduction, libel, blasphemy, and conspiracy, under this
+category; and this Mr Townsend felt. Such, nevertheless, constitute a
+large proportion of the trials contained in these volumes, and are,
+in our opinion, also those of most popular interest, and worthiest of
+being dealt with, as it was Mr Townsend's expressed intention to deal
+with them.
+
+The "trials" contained in the volumes before us are fifteen in number,
+of which only four, or at most five, (Mr Townsend seems to have
+thought six,) have any pretensions to be designated "_State_ trials."
+These five are--John Frost, Edward Oxford, and Smith O'Brien for
+high treason; Daniel O'Connell, and eight others, for a treasonable
+conspiracy; and Charles Pinney, for alleged neglect of his duty as
+mayor of Bristol, during the fiery and bloody "Reform Riots," as the
+were called, in that place, in October 1831. The remaining ten trials
+consist of two for duelling--the late James Stuart for killing Sir
+Alexander Boswell, and the Earl of Cardigan for shooting Captain
+Tucket; three for murder, (in addition to James Stuart, who was tried
+for the _murder_ of Sir Alexander Boswell)--viz. Conrvoisier for
+the murder of Lord William Russell; M'Naughton for the murder of Mr
+Drummond; Hunter and others for conspiracy and the murder of John
+Smith, the Glasgow cotton-spinner, in 1837; Alexander (the titular
+Earl of Stirling) for forgery; Lord Cochrane, and seven others, for
+a conspiracy to raise the funds; the Wakefields for conspiracy,
+and abduction of an heiress; John Ambrose Williams for a libel on
+the Durham clergy; and Mr John Moxon, for blasphemy, in publishing
+the poems of Percy Bysshe Shelley. It will be observed that all
+these are _criminal_ trials, and occurred in England, Scotland, and
+Ireland; affording thus a favourable opportunity for comparing the
+different methods of proceeding in their respective courts, and the
+characteristics of their respective judges and advocates. The English
+trials are ten, the Scottish three, and the Irish two in number:
+and whether they are precisely those which could have been most
+advantageously selected, it were needless, for present purposes, to
+inquire. Mr Townsend made his choice, and thus generally states his
+objects and intentions:--
+
+    "The present edition of _Modern State Trials_ is meant to
+    include those of the most general interest and importance which
+    have occurred during the last thirty years. None are inserted
+    in these volumes which have been previously comprised in any
+    collection; but the editor regrets want of space, which compels
+    him to omit several not uninstructive. In making a selection,
+    he has endeavoured to present a faithful, but abridged, report
+    of such legal proceedings as would be most likely to command
+    the attention of all members of the community, and to be read
+    by them with pleasure and profit. This appears to be the
+    popular description of the term "State Trials," in which Mr
+    Evelyn and Mr Hargreave acquiesced, or they would not have
+    included convictions for witchcraft, and the prosecution of
+    Elizabeth Canning for perjury, in their collection. Were the
+    definition restricted to political offences merely, the work,
+    however logically correct, would be wanting in spirit and
+    variety."--(Introd. vol. i. p. 5.)
+
+After stating that no technical objection can be raised to those of the
+above trials which immediately affect the State, he observes, that,
+"for the propriety of inserting the rest under the same title, a just
+apology may be made." The trial of the Earl of Cardigan, before the
+House of Lords, is represented as interesting, from the rank of the
+accused and from the rarity of the trial, as being the first time that
+duelling was attempted to be brought within a recent statute, (1 Vict.
+c. 85) enacting that the shooting at a person, not with premeditated
+malice, but deliberately, and causing a bodily injury dangerous to
+life, should be a capital offence; and that whoever should shoot any
+person with intent to commit murder, or to do some grievous bodily
+harm, should, though no bodily harm were inflicted, be guilty of
+_felony_, and liable to transportation or imprisonment. The social
+position of the titular Earl of Stirling, and the extraordinary nature
+of the evidence, are said to justify the insertion of _his_ trial;
+while, "in the records of criminal jurisprudence, there occur few
+proceedings of more deep and painful interest than the prosecution of
+Lord Cochrane, for Conspiracy to commit a fraud on the Stock Exchange."
+The two cases of Courvoisier and M'Naughton respectively "involve
+topics of absorbing interest at the period of the occurrence, and of
+enduring interest to all time: in the one being involved the rights
+and duties, the privileges and immunities of counsel for prisoners; in
+the other, the fearful question of responsibility for crime--how far
+moral insanity alone may exonerate the alleged subject of it from the
+temporal consequences of his guilt." This latter topic is also involved
+in Oxford's case. The trials of Mr Stuart for killing Sir Alexander
+Boswell, and of Mr Moxon for blasphemy, are inserted for one and the
+same reason--namely, "a desire to embalm the very beautiful speeches of
+Lord Cockburn, Lord Jeffrey, and Mr Justice Talfourd." As to the trial
+of Ambrose Williams, it is inserted on account of the celebrated speech
+in defence by Lord Brougham--"one of the most vivid specimens extant,
+in either ancient or modern literature, of keen irony, bitter sarcasm,
+and vehement vituperation." The prosecution of the Wakefields for
+conspiracy, and the abduction of Miss Turner, "forms a singular chapter
+in legal history; interesting not less to the student of human nature,
+on account of its characters and incidents, than to the lawyer, for the
+elaborate discussions on the Scottish law of marriages, and the right
+of the wife, even should there have been a legal marriage, to appear as
+a witness against the offending husband--matters argued with profuse
+learning and ability."
+
+    "In setting forth, under a condensed form," says Mr
+    Townsend,[3] "this and the other most interesting trials of
+    our time, it has been the object of the editor to free the
+    work from dry severity by introducing the '_loci lætiores_' of
+    the advocates, the salient parts of cross-examination--those
+    little passages of arms between the rival combatants which
+    diversified the arena, the painting of the forensic scene,
+    the poetry of action of these legal dramas. He has sought to
+    give the expressed spirit of eloquence and law, upon occasions
+    which peculiarly called them forth; pruning what was redundant,
+    rejecting superfluities, weeding out irrelevant matter, but
+    omitting no incident or episode that all intelligent witness
+    would have been disappointed at not hearing."
+
+We present the ensuing paragraph, which immediately follows the
+preceding, because it will afford us an opportunity of making a remark
+which is applicable to the entire structure of the work before us.
+
+    "In the extracts here given from some of the most celebrated
+    speeches of modern days, the editor has also had the great
+    advantage of the last corrections of the speakers themselves,
+    and has thus been enabled to preserve the _ipsissima verba_, by
+    which minds were captivated and verdicts won; those treasures
+    of oratory which would have gladdened the old age of Erskine,
+    could he have seen how his talisman had been passed from hand
+    to hand, and the mantle of his inspiration caught. The vivid
+    appeals of Whiteside, the magnificent defence of Cockburn, the
+    persuasive imagery of Talfourd, will exist as ®kthêmata heis
+    aehi®--trophies of forensic eloquence, beacon lights it may be,
+    in the midst of that prosaic mistiness which has begun to creep
+    around our courts."
+
+The remark to which we have alluded is this: that the work before us
+is pervaded by a tone of uniform, excessive, and undistinguishing
+_eulogy_, which, however creditable to the amiable and generous
+dispenser of it, is calculated to lower our estimate of his critical
+judgment, and even--unless one should be on one's guard--to provoke
+a harsh and disparaging spirit towards the subjects of such undue
+eulogy, and a suspicion that here "praise undeserved," and the remark
+is applicable equally to praise "excessive, is censure in disguise!" No
+judge, no counsel, can say or do _anything_, in the course of any of
+the trials here brought under our notice, without speaking and acting
+in such a way as to merit applause for exhibiting the highest qualities
+of mind and character. Let it not be supposed, that, in making these
+observations, we wish to apply them to the particular instances cited
+by Mr Townsend of Messrs Whiteside, Cockburn, and Talfourd--all of whom
+are distinguished, accomplished, able, and eloquent advocates; but we
+believe that each would, in spite of the fondest self-love, in his own
+mind, somewhat mistrust his title to the _amount_ of applause here
+bestowed upon him. What more than he has said of them, could he have
+said of the greatest orators and advocates whom the world has produced?
+In a corresponding strain, Mr Townsend speaks of every one--senior and
+junior counsel--and every writer, great and small, whom he has occasion
+to mention. Those who knew the late Mr Townsend, and appreciated his
+simple and manly character, will refer the defect which we have felt
+compelled thus to point out to its true cause--the kindliness of his
+heart; and we believe that, had he lived to see these observations, his
+candour would have caused him promptly to recognise their justice.
+
+Each of the trials is preceded and followed by "Introductory Essays"
+and "Notes."
+
+"The Essays, chiefly historical, have been introduced in order to
+familiarise the reader with the subject, and prevent the monotony
+which, but for these occasional dissertations, might pervade so many
+recurring trials. The notes are added with a similar object."[4] We may
+say generally, that these "Essays" and "Notes" always display judgment,
+and the writer's complete knowledge of his subject. No reader should
+enter on the trial, without carefully perusing the "Essay" which ushers
+it in, shedding light upon all its details, and the circumstances
+attending the committing of these offences--and indicating with
+distinctness the leading features of interest and importance. In the
+report of the trial itself, great pains have evidently been taken,
+and successfully, to observe rigid impartiality, and secure accuracy
+of statement; and the conflicts of counsel with each other and with
+witnesses--the temperate, and timely interpositions of the judges,
+and their satisfactory summings-up to the jury--are presented to the
+reader with no little vividness. The fault of Mr Townsend's style is,
+diffuseness, a tendency to colloquiality, and a deficiency of vigour.
+With these little exceptions, added to that above noticed, we have no
+hesitation in commending these volumes as an acquisition to popular and
+professional literature, reflecting credit on the author's memory, and
+the bar to which he belonged.
+
+Having thus briefly indicated the general character of this work, and
+given the author's own account of it, we propose in the present, and
+one, or perhaps two, following articles, to take our own view of some
+of the leading "Trials" thus collected by Mr Townsend, incidentally
+observing on his treatment of the subject. With him, we regard several
+of these trials as exhibiting features of remarkable interest; and are
+much indebted to him for having so disposed his materials as to rouse
+and rivet the attention of all classes of intelligent readers, but
+in an especial degree that of the youthful student of jurisprudence.
+Without further preface, we shall commence with that which stands first
+in Mr Townsend's collection--the trial of Frost, for high treason.
+
+This affords a very favourable specimen of Mr Townsend's capabilities.
+He appears to have worked it out perhaps more exactly to his own
+idea than any of the ensuing ones; and, by his able and judicious
+treatment of the subject, has given us an opportunity of exhibiting
+in glowing colours a forensic battle-field: the stake, life or death;
+the combatants, evenly matched, the very flower of the bar; their
+tactics clear and decisive, with the odds tremendously against one
+party--that is to say, facts too strong for almost any degree of
+daring or astuteness to contend against hopefully. Let us see, under
+such circumstances, how the combatants acquitted themselves; or, if
+one may change the figure, let us see how was played a great game of
+chess on the board of life, by skilful and celebrated players. Who were
+they? Four in number--Sir John Campbell and Sir Thomas Wilde, then
+respectively Attorney and Solicitor-General, representing the Crown;
+Sir Frederick Pollock and Mr Fitzroy Kelly, Queen's Counsel for the
+prisoner. Ten years have since elapsed, and behold the changes in the
+relative positions of these gentlemen! Sir John Campbell is a peer of
+the realm, and Lord Chief-Justice of the Queen's Bench: having also,
+during the interval, become a laborious and successful biographer of
+the Lord Chancellors and Lord Chief-Justices of England. Sir Thomas
+Wilde is also a peer of the realm, and Lord High Chancellor, having
+been previously Attorney-General and Chief-Justice of the Common
+Pleas. Sir Frederick Pollock, having been subsequently appointed
+Attorney-General, is now Chief Baron of the Exchequer; while Mr Kelly,
+having since become Solicitor-General, lost office on the break-up
+of Sir Robert Peel's ministry, and remains--such are the chances and
+changes of political life--plain Sir Fitzroy Kelly, but occupying a
+splendid position at the bar. These four were the leading counsel; but
+besides the Attorney and Solicitor General, the Crown was represented
+by two gentlemen of great legal learning and eloquence, since raised
+to the bench--Mr Justice Wightman and Mr Justice Talfourd; and by Mr
+Serjeant Ludlow, since become a Commissioner of Bankruptcy; and the
+Hon. John C. Talbot, now so highly distinguished in Parliamentary
+practice. The judges sent as the special commission consisted of the
+late Chief-Justice Tindal, the present Mr Baron Parke, and the late
+Mr Justice Williams, forming, it is superfluous to say, an admirably
+constituted court--the chief being most consummately qualified for his
+post by temper, sagacity, and learning.
+
+It was the business of the Attorney and Solicitor General to establish
+a case of high treason against the prisoner, and of Sir Frederick
+Pollock and Mr Kelly to defend him _à l'outrance_; but God forbid that
+we should say _per fas aut nefas_. It were idle to characterise the
+intellectual and professional qualifications of these four combatants;
+the eminence of all is undisputed, though their idiosyncrasies are
+widely different from each other. Suffice it to say, that everything
+which great experience, sagacity, learning, power, and eloquence could
+bring to bear on that contest might have been confidently looked for.
+One circumstance is proper to be borne in mind--that the prisoner's
+counsel (of course abhorring the acts imputed to their client) were
+stimulated to the very uttermost exertion by the fact that their own
+political opinions were notoriously adverse to those entertained by the
+prisoner, and those--viz., Chartists--who so confidently summoned two
+Tories to the rescue of their imperilled brother Chartists.
+
+All the main facts of the case were universally known before the trial
+took place, together, of course, with the legal category to which they
+must be referred, to satisfy the conditions of high treason. The nature
+of that offence was thus tersely and beautifully explained by the Chief
+Justice,--[5]
+
+    "Gentlemen, the crime of high treason, in its own direct
+    consequences, is calculated to produce the most malignant
+    effects upon the community at large; its direct and immediate
+    tendency is the putting down the authority of the law, the
+    shaking and subverting the foundation of all government, the
+    loosening and dissolving the bands and cement by which society
+    is held together, the general confusion of property, the
+    involving a whole people in bloodshed and mutual destruction;
+    and, accordingly, the crime of high treason has always been
+    regarded by the law of this country as the offence of all
+    others of the deepest dye, and as calling for the severest
+    measure of punishment. But in the very same proportion as it
+    is dangerous to the community, and fearful to the offender
+    from the weight of punishment which is attached to it, has
+    it been thought necessary by the wisdom of our ancestors to
+    define and limit this law within certain express boundaries, in
+    order that, on the one hand, no guilty person might escape the
+    punishment due to his transgression by an affected ignorance
+    of the law; and, on the other, that no innocent man might be
+    entangled or brought unawares within the reach of its severity
+    by reason of the law's uncertainty."
+
+The following were fearful words to be heard, or afterwards read, by
+those who were charged with the defence of Frost. They occur, like the
+preceding passage, in the luminous charge of the Chief Justice to the
+Grand Jury, on the 10th December 1839:--
+
+    "An assembly of men, armed and arrayed in a warlike manner,
+    with any treasonable purpose, is a levying of war, although no
+    blow be struck; and the enlisting and drilling and marching
+    bodies of men are sufficient overt acts of that treason,
+    without coming to a battle or action. And, if this be the case,
+    the actual conflict between such a body and the Queen's forces
+    must, beyond all doubt, amount to a levying of war against the
+    Queen, under the statute of Edward. It was quite unnecessary to
+    constitute the guilt of treason that the tumultuous multitude
+    should be accompanied with the pomp and pageantry of war, or
+    with military array. Insurrection and rebellion are more humble
+    in their first infancy; but all such external marks of pomp
+    will not fail to be added with the first gleam of success. The
+    treasonable design once established by the proper evidence, the
+    man who instigated, incited, procured, or persuaded others to
+    commit the act, though not present in person at the commission
+    of it, is equally a traitor, to all intents and purposes, as
+    the man by whose hand the act of treason is committed. He who
+    leads the armed multitude towards the point of attack, and then
+    retires before the blow is struck--he who remains at home,
+    planning and directing the proceedings, but leaving the actual
+    execution of such plans to more daring hands--he who, after
+    treason has been committed, knowingly harbours or conceals the
+    traitor from the punishment due to him, all these are equally
+    guilty in the eye of the law of the crime of high treason."
+
+The head of treason applicable to the facts of the case under
+consideration is the third in statute 25 Edward III. c. 2, which
+concisely declares it to exist "_if a man do levy war against our lord
+the King in his realm_." This has been the law of the land for just
+five centuries, _i. e._ since the year 1351. But in the application
+of these words, of fearful significance, the object with which arms
+are taken up must be a GENERAL one--"the _universality of the design_
+making it a rebellion against the state, a usurpation of the power of
+Government, and an insolent invasion of the King's authority"--"under
+pretence to reform religion and the laws, or to remove evil
+counsellors, or other grievances, whether real or pretended."[6]
+Or, to adopt the definition of Mr Kelly, in addressing the jury in
+this very case, it is necessary to prove "that the prisoner levied
+war against her Majesty, with intent by force to alter the law, and
+subvert the constitution of the realm."[7] To appreciate the position
+of the prisoner, and the difficulties with which his counsel had to
+struggle, it may here be mentioned, that he admitted the prisoner to
+be a Chartist, as it was called--that is, a supporter of the following
+five points of sweeping change in the political institutions of the
+country,--"Universal suffrage, vote by ballot, annual parliaments, no
+property qualification, and payment of members of parliament." This was
+also, during the trial, avowed by the prisoner.[8]
+
+Having thus got a clear view of the law, let us briefly indicate the
+_facts_--the palpable, notorious, leading facts, known to be such by
+the prisoner's counsel, as soon as they had perused their briefs.
+
+A body of ten thousand men, principally miners from the surrounding
+country, headed, in three divisions, by Frost, and two other men, Jones
+and Williams, (Frost having five thousand under his command,) and armed
+indiscriminately with muskets, pikes, axes, staves, and other weapons,
+was to make a descent upon the peaceful town of Newport, during the
+night of Sunday, the 3d November 1839! Tempestuous weather prevented
+the preconcerted junction of these three bands; but, between eight and
+nine o'clock on the Monday morning, Frost's division, five thousand
+strong, marched into the town--and, headed after a fashion by him,
+commenced an attack upon a small inn, where they knew that a handful
+of troops was stationed, about thirty in number, under command of a
+lieutenant. As soon as the mob, who formed steadily, saw the soldiers
+drawn up in the room--the windows of which were thrown open--they
+cruelly fired into it, and also rushed through the doors into the
+passage. On this, the lieutenant gave the word of command to fire. He
+was obeyed--and with deadly effect, as far as regarded some thirty or
+forty, known to have received the fire, many of whom were shot dead on
+the spot. But this cool promptitude and determination of the troops
+put an end _instanter_ to the insane insurrection. This vast body of
+supposed desperadoes fled panic-struck in every direction; and Frost
+himself, who was unquestionably on the very spot at the very time when
+and where the attack commenced, fled in ridiculous terror,[9] and was
+arrested that evening at a friend's house adjoining his own, armed with
+three loaded pistols, and having on him a powder-flask and a quantity
+of balls. His brother heroes, Williams and Jones, were also arrested,
+together with many others; and there ended the formidable outbreak,
+which had more astounded than alarmed the public; leaving, however,
+the instigators and conductors to a speedy and very dismal reckoning
+with that same public. The active management of matters by Frost was
+beyond all doubt, and it seemed never to have been wished to conceal
+it. He was the Jack Cade of the affair. He planned the order of march;
+the time, place, and mode of attack; and explained the immediate and
+ulterior objects of the movement. Shortly before the outbreak, he
+was asked by one of his adherents, "_what he intended to do_?" He
+answered,--
+
+    "First, they should go to the new poor-house and take soldiers
+    and arms; then, he said, there was a storehouse, where there
+    was plenty of powder; then, they would blow up the bridge, that
+    would stop the Welsh mail which did run to the north, and that
+    would be tidings; and they would commence there in the north on
+    Monday night, and he should be able to see two or three of his
+    friends or enemies in Newport."--(vol. i., p. 36.)
+
+Similar observations he made to another of his followers, who asked
+him, on hearing him give orders for the guns to take the front, the
+pikes next, the bludgeons next,--"in the name of God, what was he going
+to do? was he going to attack any place or people?" he said,--
+
+    "He was going to attack Newport, and take it--and blow up
+    the bridge, and prevent the Welsh mail from proceeding to
+    Birmingham: that there would be three delegates there, to
+    wait for the coach an hour and a half after the time; and if
+    the mail did not arrive there, the attack was to commence at
+    Birmingham, and be carried thence to the North of England,
+    and Scotland, _and that was to be the signal for the whole
+    nation_."--(vol. i., p. 33.)
+
+The coal and iron trade in these parts, from which the population
+derived their subsistence, had seldom been more prosperous than at the
+time when this movement was concerted and made: employment was easily
+obtained; wages were high; and those concerned in the affair had no
+private grievances to redress. At the same time, it was notorious that
+political agitation, on the subject of the Charter aforesaid, had for
+some time prevailed there--that the population had been organised for
+combined and effective action by affiliated societies; and Frost,
+the prime mover--a pestilent agitator, who, occupying the position
+of a decent tradesman, a linendraper, in Newtown, had been rashly
+raised to the local magistracy, from which he was soon degraded for
+sedition--declared his object to be, to make the Charter the law of the
+land. All these, and many other facts, which had been elicited during
+the preliminary examinations, were known to the prisoner's counsel, who
+had copies of all the depositions which had been made by the witnesses;
+and also knew the precise terms in which the indictment was framed, and
+the name, calling, and residence of every witness to be produced in
+proof of that indictment.
+
+How was this towering array of facts to be encountered, with these
+enlightened judges to conduct the inquiry, and guide the jury, and
+very able and determined counsel to elicit and arrange the facts,
+and enforce them on the jury--and _have the last word_ with the jury
+in so doing? We may well imagine how anxious and disheartening were
+the consultations of the prisoner's counsel before going into court.
+Neither they, nor their attorneys, could disguise from themselves the
+desperate nature of the case in which they were concerned. They would
+probably determine to cross-examine the witnesses very cautiously
+and rigorously, with a view to breaking down important links in the
+case; and it is likely that their paramount object in conducting the
+defence, would be to aim at supplying Frost with some other than _a
+general object_--something else than establishing the Charter as the
+law of the land. A hopeful prospect! But besides all this, it must
+have been determined, of course, to throw no single chance away,
+whereon--however, whenever it presented itself--to fight the fearful
+case for the Crown inch by inch, and foot by foot--contesting every
+technical point, with a view to detecting any possible slip in either
+the preliminary or any other part of the proceedings of the experienced
+and watchful Crown officers. Here, again, was a hopeful prospect! Their
+proceedings had been doubtless advised beforehand by the Attorney and
+Solicitor General, and conducted by Mr Maule, the Solicitor of the
+Treasury, in person--himself a barrister, and consummately qualified
+for his post. He was also a humane man, always anxious to discharge his
+duties firmly, but at the same time to afford a prisoner every degree
+of consideration and indulgence consistent with the public interest.
+By this time the reader may be aware how very serious a thing is the
+conduct, on the part of the Crown, of a prosecution of high treason,
+in every one of its stages--in the slightest particulars--especially
+where the great _facts_ of the case are so clear against the prisoner,
+as to compel his advocate to watch and test every link in the chain
+fixed around his client. Here, in fact, correlative duties are cast
+on the opposing parties--to _take_ every possible objection; and to
+be beforehand _prepared for_ every possible objection, by vigilant
+exactitude in complying with every legal requisite.
+
+On the _eleventh_ day of December 1839, the Grand Jury returned a
+true bill for high treason, against John Frost and thirteen of his
+followers; and on the very next day--viz., Thursday the _twelfth_,
+in order to oblige the prisoner, by giving him the longest possible
+time for availing himself of the important information contained in
+the _indictment_, and the _jury list_--copies of these instruments
+were delivered to him by the Solicitor of the Treasury. On the
+ensuing Tuesday, the 17th, he delivered to the prisoner a _list of
+the witnesses_; and, the trial having been appointed to take place on
+the 31st December, five days previously to the latter day--viz., on
+the 26th December--Sir Frederick Pollock and Mr Kelly were assigned
+to John Frost, as his counsel, on his application pursuant to the
+statute to Mr Bellamy, the clerk of the Crown. It is here essential,
+in order to appreciate the immense importance of the earliest moves
+in this life-and-death game, to weigh every word in the following
+brief enactment, under which the above documents were delivered to the
+prisoner: the humane object of the legislature being to afford him
+ample time to prepare his defence.--"When any person is indicted for
+high treason, a list of the _witnesses_, and of the _jury_, mentioning
+the names, profession, and place of abode of the said witnesses and
+jurors, be also given at the same time that the copy of the indictment
+is delivered to the party indicted--which copy of the indictment shall
+be delivered ten days before the trial."[10] Thus it will be seen that
+as the trial was to take place on Tuesday the 31st December, Mr Maule
+might have delayed delivering these documents to the prisoner till
+the 20th, and perhaps till the 21st December; but, solely to favour
+the prisoner, he delivered two of them--viz., the indictment and jury
+list--so early as the 12th, and the list of witnesses so early as the
+17th December. Let us see, by and by, whether anything comes of this,
+and of the lengthened study, by the prisoner's counsel, of these three
+documents.
+
+On Tuesday the 31st December 1839, all the fourteen prisoners were
+arraigned on an indictment consisting of four counts: two for levying
+war against her Majesty in her realm; a third for compassing to depose
+the Queen from her royal throne; and the last, for compassing to
+levy war against the Queen, with intent to compel her to change her
+measures. To this indictment each of the fourteen prisoners pleaded
+not guilty; and it is to be particularly observed that they all did so
+without making any objection on any score. Thus was taken the first
+move by the Crown counsel, who may possibly, for aught we can at
+present see, have thereby gained some very great advantage. Let us now
+conceive the solemnly-exciting scene of the court house at Monmonth, on
+this memorable trial. Three judges sitting, in their imposing scarlet
+and ermine vestments, calm and grave; a phalanx of counsel sitting
+beneath them; the prisoners standing at the bar, on their deliverance,
+silent as the grave, while the fate-fraught procedure of the court was
+methodically going on; the spectators crowding every part of the court
+that they could occupy, and all silent, nothing heard but official
+voices; while without that court all was excitement--repressed,
+however, by the stern presence of the civil and military power;
+detachments of troops at that moment scouring the adjacent hills in
+quest of malcontents, and preventing any fresh rising of the population.
+
+The first step taken by the prisoner's counsel was to state that
+they appeared for John Frost alone, and should challenge the jury
+separately: on which all the other prisoners were removed from the bar,
+John Frost remaining to take his trial alone. Then came the swearing of
+the jury--the name of every one, with his calling in life, and place
+of abiding, being known to the prisoner and his counsel, who objected
+to the very first step taken by the clerk of the Crown. He had begun
+to call over the names in their alphabetical order on the panel--the
+usual course for a great series of years; but Sir Frederick Pollock
+objected to his doing so, insisting on each juror's name being taken
+from the ballot-box. The Lord Chief-Justice was about to have overruled
+the objection; but the Attorney-General intimated that he consented
+to the course proposed by the prisoner's counsel. Each witness was
+sworn first on the _voir dire_, (_i. e._ _dicere verum_) as to his
+qualification, before he was sworn to try. First came a juryman who was
+challenged peremptorily on the part of the Crown; but the prisoner's
+counsel, doubtless for very good reasons, wishing him to remain on the
+jury, insisted, first, that the Crown had no such right--an objection
+at once overruled; secondly, that the crown was too late, as the juror
+had actually got the New Testament into his hand to be sworn to try
+before the Crown challenged. But, on the court's inquiry, it turned
+out that the witness had himself taken the book, without having been
+directed to do so by the clerk of the Crown. Under these circumstances,
+the court decided that the Crown were in time with their challenge--and
+the juryman was excluded. In this kind of out-skirmishing the whole of
+the first day was consumed!--a full jury not having been sworn till the
+evening, when they were "charged" with the prisoner and then dismissed
+for the night--but with the unpleasant information from the court, that
+they themselves were thenceforth prisoners (though with every kind of
+proper indulgence) till the trial was over.
+
+On the next morning, just as the Attorney-General was rising to state
+the case of the Crown, he was interrupted by Sir Frederick Pollock,
+and doubtless sufficiently astonished by what fell from him: "I feel
+myself bound, at the earliest moment--and this is the first opportunity
+that I have had,--to take an objection which must occur the moment
+that the first witness is put into the box,--namely, that the prisoner
+has never had a list of the witnesses, _pursuant to the statute_, and
+that therefore _no witness can be called_!" What could be the meaning
+of this? inquired the Attorney-General's companions among themselves,
+with no little anxiety; but he himself somewhat sternly censured the
+interruption, as premature, (as it certainly was,) and proceeded with
+his address to the jury. He made a lucid and very temperate statement
+of the case--drawing attention prominently to the necessity imposed on
+him of proving that what had been done by Frost and his companions was
+with a _general_, and not a particular object,--a _public_, and not
+a private purpose. His proposed proof was crushing: but immediately
+on the Solicitor-General's calling the name of the first witness,
+Sir Frederick Pollock rose, and required him to prove the delivery of
+a list of the witnesses, containing the particular one in question,
+pursuant to the statute. The Attorney-General then called Mr Maule,
+who proved having done what has already been explained: whereupon Sir
+Frederick Pollock disclosed the exact objection, which he himself
+had been the first to detect--that whereas the statute required all
+these documents,--_i. e._, the indictment, the jury list, and witness
+list--to be delivered "_at the same time_," in the present instance
+that had not been done, the first two having been delivered on the
+12th, and the list of witnesses on the 17th December! This was a very
+formidable move on the part of the prisoner: who stood at the bar on
+his deliverance--the jury being bound to convict or acquit according
+to evidence, and none could be offered them! If that _were_ so, he
+must of necessity be pronounced not guilty, and be for ever safe. The
+objection was urged with extreme tenacity and ingenuity by both the
+prisoner's counsel, who insisted on the statute of Anne receiving a
+strict literal construction of the words "at the same time,"--admitting
+the benevolent intentions by which Mr Maule had been actuated.
+The Attorney-General argued very earnestly against this startling
+objection, denying that it had any validity--asserting that the statute
+had been substantially complied with; and that the objection, if valid,
+had been waived; and that it was made too late--viz., not till after
+the prisoner had pleaded to the indictment, and the jury been charged
+with the prisoner. The Attorney-General's astute argument, however,
+was interrupted by the Lord Chief-Justice, stating that the court had
+a sufficient degree of doubt on the point to reserve it for further
+consideration by the judges at Westminster, should it become necessary:
+for, if their objection were valid, it affected every one of the
+fourteen prisoners awaiting their trial! Then came another desperate
+attempt of Sir Frederick Pollock, to secure his client the benefit of
+_an acquittal_, in the event of the judges ultimately deciding that
+the objection ought to have been decided in the prisoner's favour at
+the trial. This, however, the Attorney-General again strongly opposed;
+and the court cautiously ruled, that, in the event contemplated, the
+prisoner would be entitled then to the same benefit to which he would
+have been entitled at the trial--without saying what that would have
+been. The witness thus provisionally objected to was then admitted; but
+only to be, at first, sworn on the _voir dire_, on which a lengthened
+examination and some argument ensued--each of the judges delivering
+judgment on the excessively refined and astute objection to the manner
+in which the witness's place of abode had been described in the
+list--which was such as that it was just imaginable, and nothing more,
+that an inquirer might have been misled! The objection was overruled in
+the case of the first witness; but on the ensuing two witnesses--and
+most important witnesses--being called, a similar objection was
+taken, but too successfully, and their evidence, consequently,
+altogether excluded!--excluded solely on account of the anxious
+"_over_-particularity" of the Crown! Nor were these the only witnesses
+whose testimony was, on such grounds, rendered unavailable to the Crown.
+
+Then came the usual contests, from time to time, as to acts and
+declarations of third parties, which were offered as evidence against
+the prisoner, though done and said in his absence, and before and
+after the actual outbreak--viz., to what extent he had rendered
+himself liable for the consequences of such acts and declarations,
+by embarking in a common enterprise, having a common intent with
+these third parties. The result of such contests was practically
+this,--The court acted on the rule of law, as rule established, that,
+in treason and conspiracy, the Crown may prove either the conspiracy,
+which renders admissible as evidence the acts and declarations of the
+co-conspirators; or the acts and declarations of the different persons,
+and so prove the conspiracy. A witness, for instance, said that he was
+at a party at a Chartists' lodge on the 2d November, when a man named
+_Reed_ gave them directions to go to Newport on the following night,
+and explained for what purpose they were to go: but the witness did not
+see Frost till two days _afterwards_, when on his march to Newport. The
+Lord Chief-Justice overruled the objections of Sir F. Pollock and Mr
+Kelly, and received the evidence which they had attempted to exclude.
+
+A great mass of proof was given during the trial, establishing most
+satisfactorily the acts and doings of Frost, throughout the progress
+of the conspiracy, and down to the very moment of the actual attack
+on the inn, and the Queen's troops stationed in it--a mass of proof
+on which the attempt to make an impression seemed absurd. There was
+only one faint ray of hope for the prisoner's counsel, throughout the
+palpable obscure--that they might be able to escape from the generality
+and publicity of object attributed to the prisoner, by persuading the
+jury that the object was a private, temporary, and specific one--viz.,
+to effect the release of one Vincent, a Chartist, then in confinement
+at Monmouth! To pave the way for this hopeful line of defence, first,
+an artful turn was sought, in cross-examination, to be given to one
+of the early witnesses. He swore that he had heard one of those who
+attacked the inn, exclaim at the time, presenting his gun at one
+of the special constables at the door, "Surrender _yourselves_ our
+prisoners;" to which the gallant answer was, "No, never!" On this Mr
+Kelly very warily cross-examined the witness, with a view of showing
+that, in the confusion, he could not hear very distinctly, so as to
+report distinctly, as to precise expressions; that the mob intended
+merely to rescue Vincent; and that the expressions used must have
+been, not "Surrender _yourselves_ our prisoners," but "Surrender up
+our prisoners!" or simply, "Surrender our prisoners,"--thus rejecting,
+from the witness's answer, the single significant word "yourselves."
+The attempt, however, was wholly ineffectual; but out of two other
+witnesses were extorted on cross-examination, the following (so to
+speak) crumbs of comfort: from one--"I have heard Vincent's name
+mentioned many times; I have heard Williams (one of the leaders of the
+three bands forming the ten thousand) say that Vincent was a prisoner
+at Monmouth: the people there liked him very much; the people knew
+he was in jail. I have heard them speak about him." Another witness
+said,--"I knew of Vincent's being sent to prison: I believe the
+Chartists took a great interest in his fate: I do recollect something
+of dissatisfaction about Vincent's treatment, and about a petition to
+be drawn up: I recollect people's minds being dissatisfied about it."
+Another witness, however, said "that at midnight on the Sunday, (the
+3d November,) Williams came to his house with a number of armed men:"
+the witness inquired, "Where are you going?"--"Why do you ask?" said
+Williams. "Because," answered the witness, "some of the men who were
+with me have told me, this morning, that they were going to Monmouth,
+to draw Vincent out of prison."--"_No_," replied Williams, "_we do not
+attempt it_: we are going to give a turn as far as Newport."
+
+The Attorney-General closed his case with the arrest of Frost, heavily
+armed, and in concealment, on the evening of the day on which he
+had attacked the inn with his five thousand men; and thus stood the
+matter, when, after a considerable interval for repose and reflection,
+courteously conceded by the Lord Chief-Justice, at the implied request
+of Sir Frederick Pollock, that most able and upright advocate rose to
+address the jury for the defence. Judging from the specimens afforded
+us by Mr Townsend, Sir Frederick Pollock's address appears to have
+been pervaded by a strain of dignified and earnest eloquence, and also
+characterised by a candour in dealing with facts which was in the
+highest degree honourable to him, and also equally advantageous to the
+prisoner, on whose behalf such conduct was calculated to conciliate
+both the judges and the jury. His line of defence was, that, admitting
+enormous indiscretion on the part of Frost in assembling so vast a body
+of men, and marching and appearing with them as he did at Newport,
+there was no satisfactory evidence of his having done so with a
+_treasonable_ purpose. He had been guilty of a heinous misdemeanour;
+but the treasonable declarations and exclamations put into his and
+their mouths, in order to give the affair a treasonable complexion,
+had been either misunderstood or perverted by the witnesses. The
+sole object of Frost and his friends was the release of Vincent;
+that they had never dreamed of _taking_, or _attacking_ the town of
+Newport--least of all, as an act of general rebellion; that all they
+had meant was to take a "turn" as far as Newport, to get Vincent
+out of prison; and that "that was the true character of the whole
+proceedings;" that Frost did not know that the military were in the
+inn; and that, the instant they had become visible, and had fired,
+the crowd succumbed, threw down their arms, and ran away--_i. e._
+they did this "the very moment there was any prospect of what they
+were doing being construed into treason." That Frost could not have
+contemplated treason, and throwing the whole country into confusion,
+would be evidenced by proof, and his having made provision for the
+payment of a bill of exchange, and actually paying it on the very
+Monday on which the outbreak occurred. Sir Frederick Pollock properly
+insisted on the burthen of proving treason lying on the Crown, and not
+of disproof on the prisoner. Then were called one or two witnesses,
+with a view to showing expressions of the crowd that they had come to
+Newport in quest of their prisoners who were there; but the evidence
+proved ridiculously insufficient and contradictory. Then was read, with
+the Attorney-General's consent, a letter of Frost's in the previous
+September, to one of the visiting magistrates of the gaol of Monmouth,
+requesting some relaxation of the prison discipline to which Vincent
+and other prisoners were subject; and it appeared, also, that a similar
+application had been made to the Lord-Lieutenant of the county. Then
+was proved Frost's having taken up his acceptance on the 4th November;
+and his character for humanity as specially instanced in his having
+protected Lord Granville Somerset from personal violence, during the
+Reform riots of 1832. Finally was called a witness, with the view of
+negativing the design imputed to Frost of preventing the Welsh mail
+from going to Birmingham, by showing the absurdity of that course,
+since a new and different mail started from Bristol to Birmingham,
+and not the same coach which had come from Newport. But to this
+witness were put the following significant, and probably unsuspected,
+questions:--
+
+    "_Attorney-General._--You took an interest, I suppose, in
+    Vincent?--_A._ I did so.
+
+    "_Attorney-General._--You had not been told that there was
+    to be any meeting for Vincent on the 4th of November, had
+    you?--_A._ No.
+
+    "_Attorney-General._--You, living at Newport, can tell us that
+    there was no notice by placard, or in any other way, of a
+    meeting to be held on the 4th November?--_A._ _I never saw any._
+
+    "_Attorney-General._--_Nor heard of any?_--_A._ _No._"
+
+Such was the meagre case in behalf of the prisoner in point of
+evidence. And at its close, his second counsel, Mr Kelly, rose to
+address the jury on his behalf--a privilege accorded to no prisoner,
+except one tried on a charge of high treason. We shall present the
+reader with an extract from the opening passage in Mr Kelly's address,
+inasmuch as it is highly characteristic of that eminent counsellor's
+style of advocacy--of his imposing display of fervent confidence in his
+case--his terse and nervous expression, and the clearness and precision
+of his reasoning. We have some ground for believing that the following
+is exactly what fell from his lips:--
+
+    "The Attorney-General, in his opening, seemed to anticipate
+    that we might deviate from the straight and honourable course
+    before us, in defending the prisoner, into something like an
+    attempt to induce you to depart from the strict letter of
+    the law. So far from this, it is in the law, in the strict
+    undeviating performance of the law, that I place my hope, my
+    only trust. It is my prayer, therefore, that you should follow
+    it; that you should be guided and governed by it; that you
+    should attend and adhere to the law, and to the law alone;
+    because I feel that, by that law, I shall prove to you, clearly
+    and satisfactorily, that the prisoner, whatever may have been
+    his misconduct in other respects, however high the crimes and
+    misdemeanours for which in another form he might have been
+    indicted or punished--I feel that, by the law of high treason,
+    he is as guiltless as any one of you, whose duty, I hope, it
+    will soon be so to pronounce him. Gentlemen, if the prisoner
+    at the bar be at this moment in any jeopardy or danger, it is
+    from the law not prevailing, or not being clearly and perfectly
+    understood. It is because the facts, which are in evidence
+    before you, undoubtedly disclose a case of guilt against
+    him; because they do prove that he has committed a great and
+    serious violation of the law; because he has subjected himself
+    to indictment and to punishment, that the danger exists--a
+    danger from which it is for me, by all the humble efforts I
+    can command, to protect him--that you, finding that he has
+    offended against the justice of the country, should condemn
+    him, not for the misdemeanour which he has really committed,
+    but for the great and deadly crime with which he is charged by
+    this indictment. I therefore, Gentlemen, beseech your calm and
+    patient attention, while I endeavour as shortly, as concisely,
+    and, I will venture to add, as fairly and candidly as I can, to
+    lay before you, subject to the correction of their Lordships,
+    the law, as it affects this high and serious charge. And if
+    I should be fortunate enough to do so, I undertake then to
+    satisfy you--to convince the most doubting among you, if there
+    be any more doubting than the rest, when I shall refer you to
+    the testimony of the witnesses,--that this charge is not only
+    not proved, but that it is absolutely and totally disproved,
+    even by the evidence for the prosecution. The question here
+    is,--not whether a great and alarming riot has been committed;
+    the question is, not whether blood has been shed, whether
+    crimes, which are, as they ought to be, punishable by law,
+    have been perpetrated by many who may be the subjects of this
+    indictment; but the question is, whether the prisoner at the
+    bar has, by competent legal proof, been proved, beyond all
+    reasonable doubt in the mind of any one of you, to have levied
+    war against Her Majesty, with the treasonable intent which is
+    stated in this indictment? The Crown must satisfy you that the
+    prisoner at the bar has levied war; that he has levied war
+    against Her Majesty--that is, that he has conducted these armed
+    multitudes, and committed, if he has committed, outrages with
+    them, and concerted with them, or engaged them, to commit them;
+    and not merely that he has done all these acts, but that he has
+    done them against the Queen, that he has levied war against the
+    Queen and her Government. And then, further, it must be proved
+    to you that that was done with the intent, with the design,
+    which is stated in this indictment."--(I. p. 52, 53.)
+
+Mr Kelly's speech was long, elaborate, eloquent, and most
+ingenious--adhering closely to the line of defence taken by Sir
+Frederick Pollock--pressing on the jury in every possible way,
+with many varied illustrations, the improbability of Frost having
+contemplated the rebellious objects imputed to him, and the alleged
+certainty that his only view had been--the rescue of Vincent. He
+vehemently assailed the credibility of those witnesses who had given
+the strongest evidence against Frost; and concluded with a most
+impassioned appeal to the feelings of the jury. When he had concluded,
+the Lord Chief-Justice accorded still another privilege to Frost--viz.,
+that of himself then addressing the jury, after both his counsel
+had done so; to which Frost prudently replied--"My Lord, I am so
+well satisfied with what my counsel have said, that I decline saying
+anything upon this occasion."[11]
+
+The Solicitor-General then rose to reply on the part of the Crown;
+and if any one inexperienced in forensic contests were incredulous as
+to the potency of _the last word_ (from competent lips) in any case,
+civil or criminal, let him read the outline of this reply, with the
+copious specimens of it, given with much judgment by Mr Townsend.
+It is true that Sir Thomas Wilde's case was in itself crushing, but
+his dealing with it made that crushing character fearfully clear to
+the plainest capacity. Its opening passages seem tinctured by some
+sternness of allusion to the concluding topics of Mr Kelly's address;
+but the remainder of the reply is characterised by mingled moderation
+and power; by irresistible closeness and cogency of argument, and
+by extraordinary skill in dealing with facts, in combining and
+contrasting them, and pointing out a significancy lurking in them,
+which the prisoner's counsel had possibly not chosen to see, or
+skilfully striven to conceal. Our limits restrict us to one or two
+samples of the present Lord Chancellor's mode of advocacy when at the
+bar. After explaining that it was the real object contemplated by the
+prisoner--viz., to raise, rebellion--with which the jury had to deal,
+the Solicitor-General thus pithily disposed of all arguments which
+had been drawn from the prisoner's want of power to do all that he
+intended:--
+
+    "It is also immaterial to this Case whether or not he had the
+    power to do all he intended. We need not talk of punishing
+    successful rebellion--it is unsuccessful rebellion that
+    comes under the cognisance of the law. I cannot restrain the
+    expression of some surprise at the course of argument that was
+    taken by the learned counsel who last addressed you. His course
+    of argument was this: when the prisoner was interrupted in
+    what he was doing, 'Look and see what he has done;' where he
+    has accomplished his purpose, 'Do not believe the witnesses.'
+    The party having been dispersed by the soldiers, the learned
+    gentleman says, 'see if they went to the post-office; see if
+    they went to the bridge; see if they went to other places'--he
+    knowing that they were stopped before they reached those
+    places; 'but as to marching there with arms to take the town,
+    that I dispose of by asking you not to believe the witnesses;
+    so that, as regards what was prevented, I ask you to see what
+    was done; and as regards what was done, I ask you to disbelieve
+    the witnesses, and there is an end of the charge.'"--(I. p. 75.)
+
+This single paragraph annihilated a third of the case set up on behalf
+of Frost; as did the following a second third:--
+
+    "They could not have raised these men with a view to relieve
+    the prisoners at the Westgate, because at the time they
+    collected on the mountain they had not been taken. But had
+    it any relation to Vincent? What is their intention? We have
+    been told again and again that Mr Frost must not be supposed
+    likely to do absurd things; that he is a man of the world and a
+    man of intelligence. What then, gentlemen, do you think of an
+    attempt to induce the Monmouthshire magistrates to relax the
+    prison discipline in favour of a person who has been convicted
+    of sedition, or seditious libel, or something of that sort, by
+    marching into Newport with ten thousand men armed? What do you
+    think of a man of the world resorting to that mode of inducing
+    the magistrates to relax in favour of a prisoner? Is Mr Frost
+    a man of intelligence? Is he a man of the world? Suppose he
+    had been the worst foe that Vincent ever had, suppose that he
+    had desired to procure additional restrictions to be put upon
+    him, and had wished that he should sustain the last hour of
+    the sentence which had been pronounced upon him, could he have
+    resorted to a more maliciously effective mode than by showing
+    that those who were connected with Vincent were persons so
+    little acquainted with their duty, so little obedient to the
+    law, so little to be depended upon for their peaceable conduct,
+    as that they would march at that hour of the night into a town,
+    alarming and frightening every body?"--(I. p. 79.)
+
+Again:--
+
+    "Gentlemen, will you judge of the criminal intentions of
+    persons engaged in an insurrection by the probability of their
+    success? If you do, you will judge of a mob by a rule that
+    never was found correct yet. They always imagine--and they
+    would not begin if they did not imagine, though they always
+    imagine wrong, but they never will learn wisdom--they always
+    imagine that they can accomplish more than they can; of course
+    they begin, not with the idea of fastening a halter round their
+    necks, but with the idea that they shall succeed, and by their
+    success escape. With those thousands of men (you will see as
+    I pass on what the number of the soldiers were,) was it an
+    unnatural thing that, coming at between one and two o'clock
+    in the morning, they should surprise the poor-house; that the
+    soldiers, not being aware that they were coming, might not be
+    prepared--might be taken by surprise--might be either overcome
+    or murdered before they could put themselves in a condition to
+    defend themselves?
+
+    "Are their sayings inconsistent? What conspiracy ever was
+    consistent? You would indeed give the most perfect freedom
+    to conspiracy, rebellion, and treason, if you disbelieved
+    witnesses coming to prove declarations inconsistent if made at
+    the same time, though not inconsistent when made at different
+    times. They may at first think the soldiers to be Chartists
+    and their friends, and, in the next moment, talk of attacking
+    them in their barracks. But will you give a _carte blanche_ to
+    conspirators and traitors by saying, that if witnesses prove
+    inconsistent declarations, they are not to be believed? It is
+    not, gentlemen, the inconsistency of the witnesses, but of
+    those engaged in transactions, the conduct and management of
+    which must vary from hour to hour according as circumstances
+    arise; and that which a man may contemplate one minute, may
+    the following minute or the next hour be inconsistent with
+    the views that had prevailed arising out of the then existing
+    circumstances."--(I. p. 89.)
+
+The circumstance of Frost's having been found with the loaded pistols,
+and not having attempted to use them, is thus significantly disposed
+of:--
+
+    "Give him the benefit of the circumstance that _he did not use_
+    the three loaded pistols which he had about him. But I think,
+    unfortunately, that they speak much more strongly as indicating
+    violent intentions _when those pistols were provided_, than
+    they speak peaceable intentions when he was apprehended."--(I.
+    p. 24.)
+
+There has been no counsel at the English bar, in modern times, whose
+reply was more dreaded by an opponent than Sir Thomas Wilde; and that
+reply, in Frost's case, abundantly shows how well founded was that
+apprehension.
+
+Thus, then, the counsel on both sides having played out their
+parts in the case, it stood awaiting the intervention of the Lord
+Chief-Justice--the very model of judicial excellence. Tranquil,
+grave, patient; exact, ready, profound in legal knowledge, and of
+perfect impartiality--all these high qualities and qualifications
+were exhibited by him in his luminous and masterly summing-up on this
+occasion. In order to give all due weight to the sole substantial
+suggestion offered on behalf of the prisoner--_i. e._, that his object
+had been the liberation of Vincent--the Lord Chief-Justice read to the
+jury the following important passage from that great authority, Sir
+Matthew Hale--"If men levy war to break prisons, to deliver _one or
+more particular persons_ out of prison, this was ruled, on advice of
+the judges, to be not high treason, but only a great riot; but if it
+was to break prisons, or deliver _persons generally_ out of prison,
+this is treason."[12] Having taken at once a minute and comprehensive
+view of the evidence, he left the following as the exact question for
+their determination,--"Whether it was Frost's object, by the terror
+which bodies of armed men would inspire, to seize and keep possession
+of the town of Newport, making this a beginning of an extensive
+rebellion, _which would be high treason_; or whether he had no more in
+view than to effect, by the display of physical force, the amelioration
+of the condition of Vincent and his companions in Monmouth jail, if
+not their liberation, _which would be a dangerous misdemeanour only_;
+and the jury were to look at the evidence with all possible candour
+and fairness, and see if the Crown had conclusively disproved this
+limited object and design."[13] We conceive that neither Frost nor any
+one of his ten thousand dupes, on that "day of dupes" which led to
+this inquiry, could have taken objection to this mode of submitting
+the all-critical question to his jury--a jury of his peers, with the
+selection of whom he himself had had as much concern as the Crown.
+
+That jury retired from court for half-an-hour, and then returned,
+amidst the solemn excited silence of the court--crowded to
+suffocation--with the fatal verdict, "Guilty;" adding, "My lords, we
+wish to recommend the prisoner to the merciful consideration of the
+court." Sentence was not immediately passed upon him. He was removed
+from court; and on its re-assembling on the ensuing morning, Zephaniah
+Williams was placed at the bar, tried, and in due course found guilty;
+on which William Jones was in like manner arraigned, tried, and found
+guilty; each being recommended by the jury to mercy. Scared by this
+result, five of the ringleaders resolved to throw themselves on the
+mercy of the Crown, withdrawing their pleas of not guilty, and pleading
+guilty--it having been intimated that the sentence of death should be
+commuted into transportation for life. The Attorney-General thought it
+expedient, in the case of the remaining four prisoners, who were less
+deeply implicated, to allow a verdict of not guilty to be recorded.
+
+On the 16th January, Frost, Williams, and Jones were brought up to
+the bar to receive sentence of death, which the Lord Chief-Justice
+prefaced by a very solemn address, listened to in breathless silence.
+An imposing scene of judicial solemnity and terror, indeed, the court
+at that agitating moment exhibited. Without were strong detachments
+of soldiery, foot and horse, guarding the public peace: within were
+an anxious auditory, commanded to keep silence under pain of fine
+and imprisonment, while sentence of death was being passed upon the
+prisoners. There were, in the midst of the throng, two groups awfully
+contrasted in character and position--the three prisoners, standing
+pale and subdued; and, sitting opposite, the three judges, each wearing
+his black cap; while the following heart-sickening words fell from the
+lips of the Lord Chief-Justice:--
+
+    "And now nothing more remains than the duty imposed upon the
+    court--to all of us a most painful duty--to declare the last
+    SENTENCE OF THE LAW; which is that you, John Frost, and you,
+    Zephaniah Williams, and you, William Jones, be taken hence to
+    the place whence you came, and be thence drawn on a hurdle to
+    the place of execution, and that each of you be there hanged
+    by the neck until you be dead; _and that afterwards the head
+    of each of you shall be severed from his body, and the body of
+    each, divided into four quarters, shall be disposed of, as her
+    majesty shall think fit. And may Almighty God have mercy on
+    your souls!_"
+
+Whether the words placed in italics should ever again be pronounced on
+such an occasion, barbarously prescribing a revolting outrage on the
+dead, which it is known, at the time, cannot be perpetrated in these
+days of enlightened humanity, is a point which cannot admit of debate.
+The practice ought forthwith to be abolished, and by statute, if such
+be necessary.
+
+Under the mortal pressure of this capital sentence remained these three
+unhappy and misguided men, from the 16th till the 28th of January.
+On the 25th, an elaborate argument was had at Westminster before
+the fifteen judges, which lasted till the 28th, on a case framed by
+Lord Chief-Justice Tindal for their opinion, on the point which had
+been raised at the trial by Sir Frederick Pollock. The Chief-Justice
+submitted these two questions for consideration,--"_First_, whether the
+service of the list of witnesses was a good service, under the statute
+7 Anne, c. 21, § 11; _secondly_, whether, at all events, the objection
+was taken in due time." There was a great array of counsel on both
+sides; but the argument was conducted by the Attorney-General alone, on
+behalf of the Crown; and by Sir Frederick Pollock, Sir William Follett,
+and Mr Kelly on behalf of the prisoners. The utmost possible ingenuity
+was displayed on both sides; and with such effect, that at the close of
+the argument the Lord Chief-Justice of the Common Pleas wrote a letter
+to the Secretary of State for the Home Department, (the Marquis of
+Normanby,) announcing the following somewhat perplexing result,--that,
+"first, a majority of the Judges, in the proportion Of NINE to SIX,
+were of opinion that the delivery of the list of witnesses was NOT a
+good delivery in point of law:
+
+"But, secondly, a majority of the Judges, in the proportion of nine to
+six, are of opinion that the OBJECTION to the delivery of the list of
+witnesses was _not taken in due time_.
+
+"All the Judges agreed, that if the objection had been made in time,
+the effect of it would have been a postponement of the trial, in order
+to give time for a proper delivery of the list."
+
+    The AYES on this occasion were--
+
+    _Justices_ Littledale, Patteson, Williams, Coleridge, Colins,
+    Erskine; Barons Parke, Alderson, Rolfe.
+
+    The NOES--
+
+    Lord Chief-Justice Denman, Lord Chief-Justice Tindal, Lord
+    Chief-Baron Abinger; _Justices_ Bosanquet and Maule, and Baron
+    Gurney.
+
+    Those last (the NOES) decided also that the objection had
+    not been taken in time; and three of the former class, (the
+    AYES,) viz. Baron Alderson, Baron Rolfe, and Justice Coleridge,
+    concurred in that decision.[14]
+
+Here was a question for the Executive to decide! A capital conviction
+for high treason, with a decision of the majority of the Judges of the
+land, that a statutory requisition as to the period for delivery of
+a list of the witnesses had not been exactly complied with, but that
+the prisoner did not make the objection till the time had gone by for
+making it; and that, had he made it in time, the utmost effect would
+have been to cause a postponement of the trial for a few days. The
+prisoner's objection was avowedly _strictissimi juris_; and he did
+not affect to show that he had suffered the slightest detriment from
+the over-anxious kindness of the Crown solicitor. That, under these
+circumstances, the lives of the three traitors were absolutely at the
+mercy of the Ministry, is indisputable; and no one, we conceive, could
+have censured them, if they had allowed the capital sentence to be
+carried into effect. They inclined, however, to the merciful exercise
+of their anxious discretion; and the capital sentence was remitted, on
+the condition of the three prisoners being transported for the term of
+their natural lives. They have now been ten years at the Antipodes; and
+how many times, during that lengthened period of bitter, dishonoured
+existence, they have cursed their own folly and crime, who can tell?
+
+Have they ever appreciated the skill and vigilance with which they
+were defended? It is true that this one chance objection--which it
+is wonderful should have occurred to any one at all--was ultimately
+pronounced, but only by a majority of the Judges after lengthened
+debate, to have been taken too late; but if it had not occurred to
+the vigilant advocate when it did--if no one had taken it at any
+time--would not the three traitors have been executed? Unquestionably:
+public justice, the public safety required it. Whether Sir Frederick
+Pollock purposely delayed making the objection till the moment when he
+did, (and the Attorney-General insinuated, before the fifteen Judges,
+that such was the case,[15]) thinking that course more advantageous to
+the prisoners, or whether the objection had not, in fact, occurred to
+him till it was too late, we cannot at present say. This much, however,
+we can say in conclusion, that we are very much indebted to the late
+Mr Townsend for having enabled us to present this entertainment--for
+such we hope it has proved--to our readers; who may hereafter look
+with great interest on a great trial, especially if they have the
+opportunity of witnessing it. They may then appreciate the exquisite
+anxieties and responsibilities imposed on those concerned in conducting
+it--the difficulties with which they have to contend on the spot,
+without time for consideration, though life itself be the stake played
+for. They will also, probably, be of the opinion, that in the great
+game at Monmouth all the players played their parts well--may we not
+say admirably?--that the uttermost justice was done on both sides. Two
+practical deductions from the whole may yet be made: first, have a
+look-out, gentlemen prosecutors, in taking every single step of your
+course, however apparently unimportant at the time it may seem to you;
+bearing in mind that, in proportion to the desperate exigencies of
+the defence, will be the piercing scrutiny to which every formality
+will be subjected; so that a blot may be hit which might easily
+have been avoided, but, when hit, is fatal. Secondly, in your turn,
+gentlemen counsel, be encouraged by the result of this interesting and
+instructive trial, to watch every single step of your opponents--even
+those in which error, omission, or miscarriage is least likely--with
+sleepless vigilance, and be prompt in action. Thus much for the trial
+of John Frost.
+
+
+
+
+MY NOVEL; OR, VARIETIES IN ENGLISH LIFE.
+
+BY PISISTRATUS CAXTON.
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+In my next chapter I shall present Squire Hazeldean in patriarchal
+state--not exactly under the fig-tree he has planted, but before the
+stocks he has reconstructed.--Squire Hazeldean and his family on the
+village green! The canvass is all ready for the colours.
+
+But in this chapter I must so far afford a glimpse into antecedents
+as to let the reader know that there is one member of the family whom
+he is not likely to meet at present, if ever, on the village green at
+Hazeldean.
+
+Our squire lost his father two years after his birth; his mother was
+very handsome--and so was her jointure; she married again at the
+expiration of her year of mourning--the object of her second choice was
+Colonel Egerton.
+
+In every generation of Englishmen (at least since the lively reign
+of Charles II.) there are a few whom some elegant Genius skims off
+from the milk of human nature, and reserves for the cream of society.
+Colonel Egerton was one of these _terque, quaterque beati_, and dwelt
+apart on a top shelf in that delicate porcelain dish--not bestowed
+upon vulgar buttermilk--which persons of fashion call The Great World.
+Mighty was the marvel of Pall Mall, and profound was the pity of Park
+Lane, when this supereminent personage condescended to lower himself
+into a husband. But Colonel Egerton was not a mere gaudy butterfly;
+he had the provident instincts ascribed to the bee. Youth had passed
+from him--and carried off much solid property in its flight; he saw
+that a time was fast coming when a home, with a partner who could help
+to maintain it, would be conducive to his comforts, and an occasional
+humdrum evening by the fireside beneficial to his health. In the midst
+of one season at Brighton, to which gay place he had accompanied the
+Prince of Wales, he saw a widow who, though in the weeds of mourning,
+did not appear inconsolable. Her person pleased his taste--the
+accounts of her jointure satisfied his understanding; he contrived an
+introduction, and brought a brief wooing to a happy close. The late
+Mr Hazeldean had so far anticipated the chance of the young widow's
+second espousals, that, in case of that event, he transferred, by
+his testamentary dispositions, the guardianship of his infant heir
+from the mother to two squires whom he had named his executors. This
+circumstance combined with her new ties somewhat to alienate Mrs
+Hazeldean from the pledge of her former loves; and when she had born
+a son to Colonel Egerton, it was upon that child that her maternal
+affections gradually concentrated.
+
+William Hazeldean was sent by his guardians to a large provincial
+academy, at which his forefathers had received their education time
+out of mind. At first he spent his holidays with Mrs Egerton; but as
+she now resided either in London, or followed her lord to Brighton
+to partake of the gaieties at the Pavilion--so, as he grew older,
+William, who had a hearty affection for country life, and of whose
+bluff manners and rural breeding Mrs Egerton (having grown exceedingly
+refined) was openly ashamed, asked and obtained permission to spend his
+vacations either with his guardians or at the old hall. He went late to
+a small college at Cambridge, endowed in the fifteenth century by some
+ancestral Hazeldean; and left it, on coming of age, without taking a
+degree. A few years afterwards he married a young lady, country born
+and bred like himself.
+
+Meanwhile his half-brother, Audley Egerton, may be said to have begun
+his initiation into the _beau monde_ before he had well cast aside
+his coral and bells; he had been fondled in the lap of duchesses,
+and galloped across the room astride on the canes of ambassadors and
+princes. For Colonel Egerton was not only very highly connected--not
+only one of the _Dii majoris_ of fashion--but he had the still rarer
+good fortune to be an exceedingly popular man with all who knew
+him;--so popular, that even the fine ladies whom he had adored and
+abandoned forgave him for marrying out of "the set," and continued
+to be as friendly as if he had not married at all. People who were
+commonly called heartless, were never weary of doing kind things to
+the Egertons.--When the time came for Audley to leave the preparatory
+school, at which his infancy budded forth amongst the stateliest of the
+little lilies of the field, and go to Eton, half the fifth and sixth
+forms had been canvassed to be exceedingly civil to young Egerton. The
+boy soon showed that he inherited his father's talent for acquiring
+popularity, and that to this talent he added those which put popularity
+to use. Without achieving any scholastic distinction, he yet contrived
+to establish at Eton the most desirable reputation which a boy can
+obtain--namely, that among his own contemporaries--the reputation of
+a boy who was sure to do something when he grew to be a man. As a
+gentleman commoner at Christ Church, Oxford, he continued to sustain
+this high expectation, though he won no prizes and took but an ordinary
+degree; and at Oxford the future "something" became more defined--it
+was "something in public life" that this young man was to do.
+
+While he was yet at the university, both his parents died--within a few
+months of each other. And when Audley Egerton came of age, he succeeded
+to a paternal property which was supposed to be large, and indeed had
+once been so, but Colonel Egerton had been too lavish a man to enrich
+his heir, and about £1500 a-year was all that sales and mortgages left
+of an estate that had formerly approached a rental of ten thousand
+pounds.
+
+Still, Audley was considered to be opulent, and he did not dispel that
+favourable notion by any imprudent exhibition of parsimony. On entering
+the world of London, the Clubs flew open to receive him: and he woke
+one morning to find himself, not indeed famous--but the fashion. To
+this fashion he at once gave a certain gravity and value--he associated
+as much as possible with public men and political ladies--he succeeded
+in confirming the notion that he was 'born to ruin or to rule the
+State.'
+
+Now, his dearest and most intimate friend was Lord L'Estrange, from
+whom he had been inseparable at Eton; and who now, if Audley Egerton
+was the fashion, was absolutely the rage in London.
+
+Harley Lord L'Estrange was the only son of the Earl of Lansmere, a
+nobleman of considerable wealth, and allied by intermarriages to
+the loftiest and most powerful families in England. Lord Lansmere,
+nevertheless, was but little known in the circles of London. He lived
+chiefly on his estates, occupying himself with the various duties of a
+great proprietor, and rarely came to the metropolis; so that he could
+afford to give his son a very ample allowance, when Harley, at the age
+of sixteen, (having already attained to the sixth form at Eton,) left
+school for one of the regiments of the Guards.
+
+Few knew what to make of Harley L'Estrange--and that was, perhaps,
+the reason why he was so much thought of. He had been by far the
+most brilliant boy of his time at Eton--not only the boast of the
+cricket-ground, but the marvel of the school-room--yet so full of whims
+and oddities, and seeming to achieve his triumphs with so little aid
+from steadfast application, that he had not left behind him the same
+expectations of solid eminence which his friend and senior, Audley
+Egerton, had excited. His eccentricities--his quaint sayings and
+out-of-the-way actions, became as notable in the great world as they
+had been in the small one of a public school. That he was very clever
+there was no doubt, and that the cleverness was of a high order might
+be surmised not only from the originality but the independence of
+his character. He dazzled the world, without seeming to care for its
+praise or its censure--dazzled it, as it were, because he could not
+help shining. He had some strange notions, whether political or social,
+which rather frightened his father. According to Southey, "A man should
+be no more ashamed of having been a republican than of having been
+young." Youth and extravagant opinions naturally go together. I don't
+know whether Harley L'Estrange was a republican at the age of eighteen;
+but there was no young man in London who seemed to care less for being
+heir to an illustrious name and some forty or fifty thousand pounds
+a-year. It was a vulgar fashion in that day to play the exclusive, and
+cut persons who wore bad neckcloths and called themselves Smith or
+Johnson. Lord L'Estrange never cut any one, and it was quite enough to
+slight some worthy man because of his neckcloth or his birth, to ensure
+to the offender the pointed civilities of this eccentric successor to
+the Dorimonts and the Wildairs.
+
+It was the wish of his father that Harley, as soon as he came of age,
+should represent the borough of Lansmere, (which said borough was the
+single plague of the Earl's life.) But this wish was never realised.
+Suddenly, when the young idol of London still wanted some two or
+three years of his majority, a new whim appeared to seize him. He
+withdrew entirely from society--he left unanswered the most pressing
+three-cornered notes of inquiry and invitation that ever strewed
+the table of a young Guardsman; he was rarely seen anywhere in his
+former haunts--when seen, was either alone or with Egerton; and his
+gay spirits seemed wholly to have left him. A profound melancholy was
+written in his countenance, and breathed in the listless tones of his
+voice. At this time the Guards were achieving in the Peninsula their
+imperishable renown; but the battalion to which Harley belonged was
+detained at home; and whether chafed by inaction or emulous of glory,
+the young Lord suddenly exchanged into a cavalry regiment, from which a
+recent memorable conflict had swept one half the officers. Just before
+he joined, a vacancy happening to occur for the representation of
+Lansmere, he made it his special request to his father that the family
+interest might be given to his friend Egerton--went down to the Park,
+which adjoined the borough, to take leave of his parents--and Egerton
+followed, to be introduced to the electors. This visit made a notable
+epoch in the history of many personages who figure in my narrative;
+but at present I content myself with saying, that circumstances arose
+which, just as the canvass for the new election commenced, caused both
+L'Estrange and Audley to absent themselves from the scene of action,
+and that the last even wrote to Lord Lansmere expressing his intention
+of declining to contest the borough.
+
+Fortunately for the parliamentary career of Audley Egerton, the
+election had become to Lord Lansmere not only a matter of public
+importance, but of personal feeling. He resolved that the battle
+should be fought out, even in the absence of the candidate, and at his
+own expense. Hitherto the contest for this distinguished borough had
+been, to use the language of Lord Lansmere, "conducted in the spirit
+of gentlemen,"--that is to say, the only opponents to the Lansmere
+interest had been found in one or the other of two rival families
+in the same county; and as the Earl was a hospitable courteous man,
+much respected and liked by the neighbouring gentry, so the hostile
+candidate had always interlarded his speeches with profuse compliments
+to his Lordship's high character, and civil expressions as to his
+Lordship's candidate. But, thanks to successive elections, one of
+these two families had come to an end, and its actual representative
+was now residing within the Rules of the Bench; the head of the other
+family was the sitting member, and, by an amicable agreement with the
+Lansmere interest, he remained as neutral as it is in the power of any
+sitting member to be amidst the passions of an intractable committee.
+Accordingly, it had been hoped that Egerton would come in without
+opposition, when, the very day on which he had abruptly left the place,
+a handbill, signed "Haverill Dashmore, Captain R.N., Baker Street,
+Portman Square," announced, in very spirited language, the intention
+of that gentleman to emancipate the borough from the unconstitutional
+domination of an oligarchical faction, not with a view to his own
+political aggrandisement--indeed, at great personal inconvenience--but
+actuated solely by abhorrence to tyranny, and patriotic passion for the
+purity of election.
+
+This announcement was followed, within two hours, by the arrival of
+Captain Dashmore himself, in a carriage-and-four covered with yellow
+favours, and filled, inside and out, with harum-scarum looking friends
+who had come down with him to aid the canvass and share the fun.
+
+Captain Dashmore was a thorough sailor, who had, however, taken a
+disgust to the profession from the date in which a Minister's nephew
+had been appointed to the command of a ship to which the Captain
+considered himself unquestionably entitled. It is just to the Minister
+to add, that Captain Dashmore had shown as little regard for orders
+from a distance, as had immortalized Nelson himself; but then the
+disobedience had not achieved the same redeeming success as that of
+Nelson, and Captain Dashmore ought to have thought himself fortunate
+in escaping a severer treatment than the loss of promotion. But no
+man knows when he is well off; and retiring on half-pay, just as
+he came into unexpected possession of some forty or fifty thousand
+pounds, bequeathed by a distant relation, Captain Dashmore was seized
+with a vindictive desire to enter parliament, and inflict oratorical
+chastisement on the Administration.
+
+A very few hours sufficed to show the sea-captain to be a most capital
+electioneerer for a small and not very enlightened borough. It is true
+that he talked the saddest nonsense ever heard from an open window;
+but then his jokes were so broad, his manner so hearty, his voice so
+big, that in those dark days, before the schoolmaster was abroad, he
+would have beaten your philosophical Radical and moralising Democrat
+hollow. Moreover he kissed all the women, old and young, with all the
+zest of a sailor who has known what it is to be three years at sea
+without sight of a beardless lip; he threw open all the public-houses,
+asked a numerous committee every day to dinner, and, chucking his purse
+up in the air, declared "he would stick to his guns while there was a
+shot in the locker." Till then, there had been but little political
+difference between the candidate supported by Lord Lansmere's interest
+and the opposing parties--for country gentlemen, in those days, were
+pretty much of the same way of thinking, and the question had been
+really local--viz., whether the Lansmere interest should or should
+not prevail over that of the two squirearchical families who had
+alone, hitherto, ventured to oppose it. But though Captain Dashmore
+was really a very loyal man, and much too old a sailor to think that
+the State (which, according to established metaphor, is a vessel,
+_par excellence_,) should admit Jack upon quarterdeck, yet, what with
+talking against lords and aristocracy, jobs and abuses, and searching
+through no very refined vocabulary for the strongest epithets to apply
+to those irritating nouns-substantive, his bile had got the better
+of his understanding, and he became fuddled, as it were, by his own
+eloquence. Thus, though as innocent of Jacobinical designs as he was
+incapable of setting the Thames on fire, you would have guessed him, by
+his speeches, to be one of the most determined incendiaries that ever
+applied a match to the combustible materials of a contested election;
+while, being by no means accustomed to respect his adversaries, he
+could not have treated the Earl of Lansmere with less ceremony if his
+Lordship had been a Frenchman. He usually designated that respectable
+nobleman by the title of "Old Pompous;" and the Mayor, who was never
+seen abroad but in top-boots, and the Solicitor, who was of a large
+build, received from his irreverent wit the joint soubriquet of "Tops
+and Bottoms!" Hence the election had now become, as I said before, a
+personal matter with my Lord, and, indeed, with the great heads of
+the Lansmere interest. The Earl seemed to consider his very coronet
+at stake in the question. "The man from Baker Street," with his
+preternatural audacity, appeared to him a being ominous and awful--not
+so much to be regarded with resentment, as with superstitious terror:
+he felt as felt the dignified Montezuma, when that ruffianly Cortez,
+with his handful of Spanish rapscallions, bearded him in his own
+capital, and in the midst of his Mexican splendour.--"The gods were
+menaced if man could be so insolent!" wherefore said my Lord,
+tremulously,--"The Constitution is gone if the Man from Baker Street
+comes in for Lansmere!"
+
+But, in the absence of Audley Egerton, the election looked
+extremely ugly, and Captain Dashmore gained ground hourly, when
+the Lansmere Solicitor happily bethought him of a notable proxy
+for the missing candidate. The Squire of Hazeldean, with his young
+wife, had been invited by the Earl in honour of Audley; and in the
+Squire the Solicitor beheld the only mortal who could cope with the
+sea-captain,--a man with a voice as burly, and a face as bold--a man
+who, if permitted for the nonce by Mrs Hazeldean, would kiss all the
+women no less heartily than the Captain kissed them; and who was,
+moreover, a taller, and a handsomer, and a younger man--all three,
+great recommendations in the kissing department of a contested
+election. Yes, to canvass the borough, and to speak from the window,
+Squire Hazeldean would be even more popularly presentable than the
+London-bred and accomplished Audley Egerton himself.
+
+The Squire, applied to and urged on all sides, at first said bluntly,
+"that he would do anything in reason to serve his brother, but that he
+did not like, for his own part, appearing, even in proxy, as a Lord's
+nominee; and moreover, if he was to be sponsor for his brother, why, he
+must promise and vow, in his name, to be staunch and true to the land
+they lived by; and how could he tell that Audley, when once he got into
+the House, would not forget the land, and then he, William Hazeldean,
+would be made a liar, and look like a turncoat!"
+
+But these scruples being overruled by the arguments of the gentlemen
+and the entreaties of the ladies, who took in the election that intense
+interest which those gentle creatures usually do take in all matters of
+strife and contest, the Squire at length consented to confront the Man
+from Baker Street, and went accordingly into the thing with that good
+heart and old English spirit with which he went into everything whereon
+he had once made up his mind.
+
+The expectations formed of the Squire's capacities for popular
+electioneering were fully realised. He talked quite as much nonsense as
+Captain Dashmore on every subject except the landed interest;--there he
+was great, for he knew the subject well--knew it by the instinct that
+comes with practice, and compared to which all your showy theories are
+mere cobwebs and moonshine.
+
+The agricultural outvoters--many of whom, not living under Lord
+Lansmere, but being small yeomen, had hitherto prided themselves on
+their independence, and gone against my Lord--could not in their hearts
+go against one who was every inch the farmer's friend. They began
+to share in the Earl's personal interest against the Man from Baker
+Street; and big fellows, with legs bigger round than Captain Dashmore's
+tight little body, and huge whips in their hands, were soon seen
+entering the shops, "intimidating the electors," as Captain Dashmore
+indignantly declared.
+
+These new recruits made a great difference in the muster-roll of the
+Lansmere books; and when the day for polling arrived, the result was a
+fair question for even betting. At the last hour, after a neck-and-neck
+contest, Mr Audley Egerton beat the Captain by two votes. And the names
+of these voters were John Avenel, resident freeman, and his son-in-law,
+Mark Fairfield, an outvoter, who, though a Lansmere freeman, had
+settled in Hazeldean, where he had obtained the situation of head
+carpenter on the Squire's estate.
+
+These votes were unexpected; for, though Mark Fairfield had come
+to Lansmere on purpose to support the Squire's brother, and though
+the Avenels had been always staunch supporters of the Lansmere Blue
+interest, yet a severe affliction (as to the nature of which, not
+desiring to sadden the opening of my story, I am considerately silent)
+had befallen both these persons, and they had left the town on the very
+day after Lord L'Estrange and Mr Egerton had quitted Lansmere Park.
+
+Whatever might have been the gratification of the Squire, as a
+canvasser and a brother, at Mr Egerton's triumph, it was much damped
+when, on leaving the dinner given in honour of the victory at the
+Lansmere Arms, and about, with no steady step, to enter the carriage
+which was to convey him to his Lordship's house, a letter was put into
+his hands by one of the gentlemen who had accompanied the Captain
+to the scene of action; and the perusal of that letter, and a few
+whispered words from the bearer thereof, sent the Squire back to Mrs
+Hazeldean a much soberer man than she had ventured to hope for. The
+fact was, that on the day of nomination, the Captain having honoured
+Mr Hazeldean with many poetical and figurative appellations--such as
+"Prize Ox," "Tony Lumpkin," "Blood-sucking Vampire," and "Brotherly
+Warming-Pan," the Squire had retorted by a joke about "Salt Water
+Jack;" and the Captain, who, like all satirists, was extremely
+susceptible and thin-skinned, could not consent to be called "Salt
+Water Jack" by a "Prize Ox" and a "Blood-sucking Vampire." The letter,
+therefore, now conveyed to Mr Hazeldean by a gentleman, who, being
+from the Sister Country, was deemed the most fitting accomplice in the
+honourable destruction of a brother mortal, contained nothing more nor
+less than an invitation to single combat; and the bearer thereof, with
+the suave politeness enjoined by etiquette on such well-bred homicidal
+occasions, suggested the expediency of appointing the place of meeting
+in the neighbourhood of London, in order to prevent interference from
+the suspicious authorities of Lansmere.
+
+The natives of some countries--the French in particular--think little
+of that formal operation which goes by the name of DUELLING. Indeed,
+they seem rather to like it than otherwise. But there is nothing
+your thorough-paced Englishman--a Hazeldean of Hazeldean--considers
+with more repugnance and aversion, than that same cold-blooded
+ceremonial. It is not within the range of an Englishman's ordinary
+habits of thinking. He prefers going to law--a much more destructive
+proceeding of the two. Nevertheless, if an Englishman must fight, why,
+he will fight. He says "it is very foolish;" he is sure "it is most
+unchristianlike;" he agrees with all that Philosopher, Preacher, and
+Press have laid down on the subject; but he makes his will, says his
+prayers, and goes out, like a heathen!
+
+It never, therefore, occurred to the Squire to show the white feather
+upon this unpleasant occasion. The next day, feigning excuse to attend
+the sale of a hunting stud at Tattersall's, he ruefully went up to
+London, after taking a peculiarly affectionate leave of his wife.
+Indeed, the Squire felt convinced that he should never return home
+except in a coffin. "It stands to reason," said he to himself, "that a
+man who has been actually paid by the King's Government for shooting
+people ever since he was a little boy in a midshipman's jacket,
+must be a dead hand at the job. I should not mind if it was with
+double-barrelled Mantons and small shot; but, ball and pistol! they
+arn't human nor sportsmanlike!" However, the Squire, after settling his
+worldly affairs, and hunting up an old College friend who undertook
+to be his second, proceeded to a sequestered corner of Wimbledon
+Common, and planted himself, not sideways, as one ought to do in such
+encounters, (the which posture the Squire swore was an unmanly way
+of shirking,) but full front to the mouth of his adversary's pistol,
+with such sturdy composure, that Captain Dashmore, who, though an
+excellent shot, was at bottom as good-natured a fellow as ever lived,
+testified his admiration by letting off his gallant opponent with ball
+in the fleshy part of the shoulder; after which he declared himself
+perfectly satisfied. The parties then shook hands, mutual apologies
+were exchanged, and the Squire, much to his astonishment to find
+himself still alive, was conveyed to Limmer's Hotel, where, after a
+considerable amount of anguish, the ball was extracted, and the wound
+healed. Now it was all over, the Squire felt very much raised in his
+own conceit; and, when he was in a humour more than ordinarily fierce,
+that perilous event became a favourite allusion with him.
+
+He considered, moreover, that his brother had incurred at his hand
+the most lasting obligations; and that, having procured Audley's
+return to Parliament, and defended his interests at the risk of his
+own life, he had an absolute right to dictate to that gentleman how to
+vote--upon all matters at least connected with the landed interest. And
+when, not very long after Audley took his seat in Parliament, (which
+he did not do for some months,) he thought proper both to vote and to
+speak in a manner wholly belying the promises the Squire had made on
+his behalf, Mr Hazeldean wrote him such a trimmer, that it could not
+but produce an unconciliatory reply. Shortly afterwards, the Squire's
+exasperation reached the culminating point; for, having to pass through
+Lansmere on a market day, he was hooted by the very farmers whom he had
+induced to vote for his brother; and, justly imputing the disgrace to
+Audley, he never heard the name of that traitor to the land mentioned
+without a heightened colour and an indignant expletive. Monsieur de
+Roqueville--who was the greatest wit of his day--had, like the Squire,
+a half-brother, with whom he was not on the best of terms, and of whom
+he always spoke as his "_frère de loin_." Audley Egerton was thus
+Squire Hazeldean's "_distant-brother_!"--Enough of these explanatory
+antecedents,--let us return to the Stocks.
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+The Squire's carpenters were taken from the park pales, and set to
+work at the parish stocks. Then came the painter and coloured them a
+beautiful dark blue, with a white border--and a white rim round the
+holes--with an ornamental flourish in the middle. It was the gayest
+public edifice in the whole village--though the village possessed
+no less than three other monuments of the Vitruvian genius of the
+Hazeldeans:--to wit, the alms-house, the school, and the parish pump.
+
+A more elegant, enticing, coquettish pair of stocks never gladdened the
+eye of a justice of the peace.
+
+And Squire Hazeldean's eye was gladdened. In the pride of his heart he
+brought all the family down to look at the stocks. The Squire's family
+(omitting the _frère de loin_) consisted of Mrs Hazeldean, his wife;
+next, of Miss Jemima Hazeldean, his first cousin; thirdly, of Master
+Francis Hazeldean, his only son; and fourthly, of Captain Barnabas
+Higginbotham, a distant relation--who, indeed, strictly speaking, was
+not of the family, but only a visitor ten months in the year. Mrs
+Hazeldean was every inch the lady,--the lady of the parish. In her
+comely, florid, and somewhat sunburnt countenance, there was an equal
+expression of majesty and benevolence; she had a blue eye that invited
+liking, and an aquiline nose that commanded respect. Mrs Hazeldean had
+no affectation of fine airs--no wish to be greater and handsomer and
+cleverer than she was. She knew herself, and her station, and thanked
+heaven for it. There was about her speech and manner something of that
+shortness and bluntness which often characterises royalty; and if the
+lady of a parish is not a queen in her own circle, it is never the
+fault of the parish. Mrs Hazeldean dressed her part to perfection. She
+wore silks that seemed heirlooms--so thick were they, so substantial
+and imposing. And over these, when she was in her own domain, the
+whitest of aprons; while at her waist was seen no fiddle-faddle
+_chatelaine_, with _breloques_ and trumpery, but a good honest gold
+watch to mark the time, and a long pair of scissors to cut off the
+dead leaves from her flowers, for she was a great horticulturist.
+When occasion needed, Mrs Hazeldean could, however, lay by her more
+sumptuous and imperial raiment for a stout riding-habit of blue Saxony,
+and canter by her husband's side to see the hounds throw off. Nay, on
+the days on which Mr Hazeldean drove his famous fast-trotting cob to
+the market town, it was rarely that you did not see his wife on the
+left side of the gig. She cared as little as her lord did for wind and
+weather, and, in the midst of some pelting shower, her pleasant face
+peeped over the collar and capes of a stout dreadnought, expanding into
+smiles and bloom as some frank rose, that opens from its petals, and
+rejoices in the dews. It was easy to see that the worthy couple had
+married for love; they were as little apart as they could help it. And
+still, on the First of September, if the house was not full of company
+which demanded her cares, Mrs Hazeldean "stepped out" over the stubbles
+by her husband's side, with as light a tread and as blithe an eye as
+when in the first bridal year she had enchanted the Squire by her
+genial sympathy with his sports.
+
+So there now stands Harriet Hazeldean, one hand leaning on the Squire's
+broad shoulder, the other thrust into her apron, and trying her
+best to share her husband's enthusiasm for his own public-spirited
+patriotism, in the renovation of the parish stocks. A little behind,
+with two fingers leaning on the thin arm of Captain Barnabas, stood
+Miss Jemima, the orphan daughter of the Squire's uncle, by a runaway
+imprudent marriage with a young lady who belonged to a family which
+had been at war with the Hazeldeans since the reign of Charles I.,
+respecting a right of way to a small wood (or rather spring) of about
+an acre, through a piece of furze land, which was let to a brickmaker
+at twelve shillings a-year. The wood belonged to the Hazeldeans, the
+furze land to the Sticktorights, (an old Saxon family if ever there was
+one.) Every twelfth year, when the faggots and timber were felled, this
+feud broke out afresh; for the Sticktorights refused to the Hazeldeans
+the right to cart off the said faggots and timber, through the only
+way by which a cart could possibly pass. It is just to the Hazeldeans
+to say that they had offered to buy the land at ten times its value.
+But the Sticktorights, with equal magnanimity, had declared that they
+would not "alienate the family property for the convenience of the best
+squire that ever stood upon shoe leather." Therefore, every twelfth
+year, there was always a great breach of the peace on the part of both
+Hazeldeans and Sticktorights, magistrates and deputy-lieutenants though
+they were. The question was fairly fought out by their respective
+dependants, and followed by various actions for assault and trespass.
+As the legal question of right was extremely obscure, it never had been
+properly decided; and, indeed, neither party wished it to be decided,
+each at heart having some doubt of the propriety of its own claim.
+A marriage between a younger son of the Hazeldeans, and a younger
+daughter of the Sticktorights, was viewed with equal indignation by
+both families; and the consequence had been that the runaway couple,
+unblessed and unforgiven, had scrambled through life as they could,
+upon the scanty pay of the husband, who was in a marching regiment,
+and the interest of £1000, which was the wife's fortune independent
+of her parents. They died and left an only daughter, upon whom the
+maternal £1000 had been settled, about the time that the Squire came
+of age and into possession of his estates. And though he inherited all
+the ancestral hostility towards the Sticktorights, it was not in his
+nature to be unkind to a poor orphan, who was, after all, the child of
+a Hazeldean. Therefore, he had educated and fostered Jemima with as
+much tenderness as if she had been his sister; put out her £1000 at
+nurse, and devoted, from the ready money which had accrued from the
+rents during his minority, as much as made her fortune (with her own
+accumulated at compound interest) no less than £4000, the ordinary
+marriage portion of the daughters of Hazeldean. On her coming of age,
+he transferred this sum to her absolute disposal, in order that she
+might feel herself independent, see a little more of the world than
+she could at Hazeldean, have candidates to choose from if she deigned
+to marry; or enough to live upon if she chose to remain single. Miss
+Jemima had somewhat availed herself of this liberty, by occasional
+visits to Cheltenham and other watering places. But her grateful
+affection to the Squire was such, that she could never bear to be
+long away from the Hall. And this was the more praise to her heart,
+inasmuch as she was far from taking kindly to the prospect of being
+an old maid. And there were so few bachelors in the neighbourhood of
+Hazeldean, that she could not but have that prospect before her eyes
+whenever she looked out of the Hall windows. Miss Jemima was indeed
+one of the most kindly and affectionate of beings feminine--and if
+she disliked the thought of single blessedness, it really was from
+those innocent and womanly instincts towards the tender charities of
+hearth and home, without which a lady, however otherwise estimable, is
+little better than a Minerva in bronze. But whether or not, despite her
+fortune and her face, which last, though not strictly handsome, was
+pleasing--and would have been positively pretty if she had laughed more
+often, (for when she laughed, there appeared three charming dimples,
+invisible when she was grave)--whether or not, I say, it was the fault
+of our insensibility or her own fastidiousness, Miss Jemima approached
+her thirtieth year, and was still Miss Jemima. Now, therefore, that
+beautifying laugh of hers was very rarely heard, and she had of late
+become confirmed in two opinions, not at all conducive to laughter. One
+was a conviction of the general and progressive wickedness of the male
+sex, and the other was a decided and lugubrious belief that the world
+was coming to an end. Miss Jemima was now accompanied by a small canine
+favourite, true Blenheim, with a snub nose. It was advanced in life and
+somewhat obese. It sate on its haunches, with its tongue out of its
+month, except when it snapped at the flies. There was a strong Platonic
+friendship between Miss Jemima and Captain Barnabas Higginbotham; for
+he too was unmarried, and he had the same ill opinion of your sex, my
+dear madam, that Miss Jemima had of ours. The Captain was a man of a
+slim and elegant figure;--the less said about the face the better, a
+truth of which the Captain himself was sensible, for it was a favourite
+maxim of his--"that in a man, everything is a slight, gentlemanlike
+figure." Captain Barnabas did not absolutely deny that the world was
+coming to an end, only he thought it would last his time.
+
+Quite apart from all the rest, with the nonchalant survey of virgin
+dandyism, Francis Hazeldean looked over one of the high starched
+neckcloths which were then the fashion--a handsome lad, fresh from Eton
+for the summer holidays, but at that ambiguous age, when one disdains
+the sports of the boy, and has not yet arrived at the resources of the
+man.
+
+"I should be glad, Frank," said the Squire, suddenly turning round to
+his son; "to see you take a little more interest in duties which, one
+day or other, you may be called upon to discharge. I can't bear to
+think that the property should fall into the hands of a fine gentleman,
+who will let things go to rack and ruin, instead of keeping them up as
+I do."
+
+And the Squire pointed to the stocks.
+
+Master Frank's eye followed the direction of the cane, as well as his
+cravat would permit; and he said, drily--
+
+"Yes, sir; but how came the stocks to be so long out of repair?"
+
+"Because one can't see to everything at once," retorted the Squire,
+tartly. "When a man has got eight thousand acres to look after, he must
+do a bit at a time."
+
+"Yes," said Captain Barnabas. "I know that by experience."
+
+"The deuce you do!" cried the Squire, bluntly. "Experience in eight
+thousand acres!"
+
+"No--in my apartments in the Albany. No. 3 A. I have had them ten
+years, and it was only last Christmas that I bought my Japan cat."
+
+"Dear me," said Miss Jemima; "a Japan cat! that must be very curious!
+What sort of a creature is it?"
+
+"Don't you know? Bless me, a thing with three legs, and holds toast!
+I never thought of it, I assure you, till my friend Cosey said to me,
+one morning when he was breakfasting at my rooms--'Higginbotham, how is
+it that you, who like to have things comfortable about you, don't have
+a cat?' 'Upon my life,' said I, 'one can't think of everything at a
+time;' just like you, Squire."
+
+"Pshaw," said Mr Hazeldean, gruffly--"not at all like me. And I'll
+thank you another time, Cousin Higginbotham, not to put me out, when
+I'm speaking on matters of importance; poking your cat into my stocks!
+They look something like now--don't they, Harry? I declare that the
+whole village seems more respectable. It is astonishing how much a
+little improvement adds to the--to the--"
+
+"Charm of a landscape;" put in Miss Jemima sentimentally.
+
+The Squire neither accepted nor rejected the suggested termination; but
+leaving his sentence uncompleted, broke suddenly off with
+
+"And if I had listened to Parson Dale--"
+
+"You would have done a very wise thing;" said a voice behind, as the
+Parson presented himself in the rear.
+
+"Wise thing! Why surely, Mr Dale," said Mrs Hazeldean with spirit, for
+she always resented the least contradiction to her lord and master;
+perhaps as an interference with her own special right and prerogative!
+"why, surely if it is necessary to have stocks, it is necessary to
+repair them."
+
+"That's right, go it, Harry!" cried the Squire, chuckling, and rubbing
+his hands as if he had been setting his terrier at the Parson:
+"St--St--at him! Well, Master Dale, what do you say to that?"
+
+"My dear ma'am," said the Parson, replying in preference to the lady,
+"there are many institutions in the country which are very old, look
+very decayed, and don't seem of much use; but I would not pull them
+down for all that."
+
+"You would reform them, then;" said Mrs Hazeldean, doubtfully, and
+with a look at her husband, as much as to say, "He is on politics
+now--that's your business."
+
+"No, I would not, ma'am;" said the Parson stoutly.
+
+"What on earth would you do, then?" quoth the Squire.
+
+"Just let 'em alone," said the Parson. "Master Frank, there's a Latin
+maxim which was often in the mouth of Sir Robert Walpole, and which
+they ought to put into the Eton grammar--'_Quieta non movere_.' If
+things are quiet, let them be quiet! I would not destroy the stocks,
+because that might seem to the ill-disposed like a license to offend,
+and I would not repair the stocks, because that puts it into people's
+heads to get into them."
+
+The Squire was a staunch politician of the old school, and he did
+not like to think that in repairing the stocks he had perhaps been
+conniving at revolutionary principles.
+
+"This constant desire of innovation," said Miss Jemima, suddenly
+mounting the more funereal of her two favourite hobbies, "is one of the
+great symptoms of the approaching crash. We are altering, and mending,
+and reforming, when in twenty years at the utmost the world itself may
+be destroyed!" The fair speaker paused, and--
+
+Captain Barnabas said, thoughtfully--"Twenty years!--the insurance
+offices rarely compute the best life at more than fourteen." He
+struck his hand on the stocks as he spoke, and added with his usual
+consolatory conclusion:--"The odds are, that it will last our time,
+Squire."
+
+But whether Captain Barnabas meant the stocks or the world, he did not
+clearly explain, and no one took the trouble to inquire.
+
+"Sir," said Master Frank, to his father, with that furtive spirit of
+quizzing, which he had acquired amongst other polite accomplishments at
+Eton.--"Sir, it is no use now considering whether the stocks should or
+should not have been repaired. The only question is, whom you will get
+to put into them."
+
+"True," said the Squire, with much gravity.
+
+"Yes, there it is!" said the Parson, mournfully. "If you would but
+learn '_non quieta movere_!'"
+
+"Don't spout your Latin at me, Parson!" cried the Squire, angrily; "I
+can give you as good as you bring any day.
+
+    "'Propria quæ maribus tri buuntur mascula dicas.--
+    As in præsenti, perfectum format in avi.'"
+
+"There," added the Squire, turning triumphantly towards his Harry, who
+looked with great admiration at this unprecedented burst of learning on
+the part of Mr Hazeldean--"There, two can play at that game! And now
+that we have all seen the stocks, we may as well go home, and drink
+tea. Will you come up and play a rubber, Dale? No!--hang it, man, I've
+not offended you--you know my ways."
+
+"That I do, and they are among the things I would not have altered,"
+cried the Parson--holding out his hand cheerfully. The Squire gave it
+a hearty shake, and Mrs Hazeldean hastened to do the same. "Do come; I
+am afraid we've been very rude; we are sad blunt folks. Do come; that's
+a dear good man; and of course poor Mrs Dale too." Mrs Hazeldean's
+favourite epithet for Mrs Dale was _poor_, and that for reasons to be
+explained hereafter.
+
+"I fear my wife has got one of her bad headaches, but I will give her
+your kind message, and at all events you may depend upon me."
+
+"That's right," cried the Squire, "in half-an-hour, eh?--How d'ye do,
+my little man?" as Lenny Fairfield, on his way home from some errand
+in the village, drew aside and pulled off his hat with both hands.
+"Stop--you see those stocks--eh? Tell all the bad little boys in the
+parish to take care how they get into them--a sad disgrace--you'll
+never be in such a quandary!"
+
+"That at least I will answer for," said the Parson.
+
+"And I too," added Mrs Hazeldean, patting the boy's curly head. "Tell
+your mother I shall come and have a good chat with her to-morrow
+evening."
+
+And so the party passed on, and Lenny stood still on the road, staring
+hard at the stocks, which stared back at him from its four great eyes.
+
+But Lenny did not remain long alone. As soon as the great folks had
+fairly disappeared, a large number of small folks emerged timorously
+from the neighbouring cottages, and approached the site of the stocks
+with much marvel, fear, and curiosity.
+
+In fact, the renovated appearance of this monster--_à propos de
+bottes_, as one may say--had already excited considerable sensation
+among the population of Hazeldean. And even as when an unexpected owl
+makes his appearance in broad daylight, all the little birds rise
+from tree and hedgerow, and cluster round their ominous enemy, so
+now gathered all the much excited villagers round the intrusive and
+portentous Phenomenon.
+
+"D'ye know what the diggins the Squire did it for, Gaffer Solomons?"
+asked one many-childed matron, with a baby in arms, an urchin of three
+years old clinging fast to her petticoat, and her hand maternally
+holding back a more adventurous hero of six, who had a great desire to
+thrust his head into one of the grisly apertures. All eyes turned to a
+sage old man, the oracle of the village, who, leaning both hands on his
+crutch, shook his head bodingly.
+
+"Maw be," said Gaffer Solomons, "some of the boys ha' been robbing the
+orchards."
+
+"Orchards"--cried a big lad who seemed to think himself personally
+appealed to--" why, the bud's scarce off the trees yet!"
+
+"No more it in't!" said the dame with many children, and she breathed
+more freely.
+
+"Maw be," said Gaffer Solomons, "some o' ye has been sitting snares."
+
+"What for?" said a stout sullen-looking young fellow, whom conscience
+possibly pricked to reply. "What for, when it beant the season? And
+if a poor man did find a hear in his pocket i' the hay-time, I should
+like to know if ever a squire in the world would let un off wi' the
+stocks--eh?"
+
+That last question seemed a settler, and the wisdom of Gaffer Solomons
+went down fifty per cent in the public opinion of Hazeldean.
+
+"Maw be," said the Gaffer, this time with a thrilling effect, which
+restored his reputation--"Maw be some o' ye ha' been getting drunk, and
+making beestises o' yourselves!"
+
+There was a dead pause, for this suggestion applied too generally to
+be met with a solitary response. At last one of the women said, with a
+meaning glance at her husband, "God bless the Squire; he'll make some
+on us happy women if that's all!"
+
+There then arose an almost unanimous murmur of approbation among the
+female part of the audience; and the men looked at each other, and then
+at the Phenomenon, with a very hang-dog expression of countenance.
+
+"Or, maw be," resumed Gaffer Solomons, encouraged to a fourth
+suggestion by the success of its predecessor--"Maw be some o' the
+Misseses ha' been making a rumpus, and scolding their goodmen. I heard
+say in my granfeythir's time, that arter old Mother Bang nigh died o'
+the ducking-stool, them 'ere stocks were first made for the women, out
+o' compassion like! And every one knows the Squire is a koind-hearted
+man, God bless un!"
+
+"God bless un!" cried the men heartily; and they gathered lovingly
+round the Phenomenon, like heathens of old round a tutelary temple. But
+then rose one shrill clamour among the females, as they retreated with
+involuntary steps towards the verge of the green, whence they glared
+at Solomons and the Phenomenon with eyes so sparkling, and pointed at
+both with gestures so menacing, that Heaven only knows if a morsel
+of either would have remained much longer to offend the eyes of the
+justly enraged matronage of Hazeldean, if fortunately Master Stirn, the
+Squire's right-hand man, had not come up in the nick of time.
+
+Master Stirn was a formidable personage--more formidable than the
+Squire himself--as, indeed, a squire's right-hand is generally more
+formidable than the head can pretend to be. He inspired the greater
+awe, because, like the stocks, of which he was deputed guardian,
+his powers were undefined and obscure, and he had no particular
+place in the out-of-door establishment. He was not the steward, yet
+he did much of what ought to be the steward's work; he was not the
+farm-bailiff, for the Squire called himself his own farm-bailiff,
+nevertheless, Mr Hazeldean sowed and ploughed, cropped and stocked,
+bought and sold, very much as Mr Stirn condescended to advise. He was
+not the park-keeper, for he neither shot the deer nor superintended
+the preserves; but it was he who always found out who had broken a
+park-pale or snared a rabbit. In short, what may be called all the
+harsher duties of a large landed proprietor devolved by custom and
+choice upon Mr Stirn. If a labourer was to be discharged, or a rent
+enforced, and the Squire knew that he should be talked over, and that
+the steward would be as soft as himself, Mr Stirn was sure to be the
+avenging ®angelos® or messenger, to pronounce the words of fate; so
+that he appeared to the inhabitants of Hazeldean like the Poet's _Sæva
+Necessitas_, a vague incarnation of remorseless power, armed with
+whips, nails, and wedges. The very brute creation stood in awe of Mr
+Stirn. The calves knew that it was he who singled out which should be
+sold to the butcher, and huddled up into a corner with beating hearts
+at his grim footstep; the sow grunted, the duck quacked, the hen
+bristled her feathers and called to her chicks when Mr Stirn drew near.
+Nature had set her stamp upon him. Indeed, it may be questioned whether
+the great M. de Chambray himself, surnamed the Brave, had an aspect so
+awe-inspiring as that of Mr Stirn; albeit the face of that hero was so
+terrible, that a man who had been his lackey, seeing his portrait after
+he had been dead twenty years, fell a trembling all over like a leaf!
+
+"And what the plague are you all doing here?" said Mr Stirn, as he
+waved and smacked a great cart-whip which he held in his hand, "making
+such a hullabaloo, you women, you! that I suspect the Squire will
+be sending out to know if the village is on fire. Go home, will ye?
+High time indeed to have the stocks ready, when you get squalling and
+conspiring under the very nose of a justice of the peace, just as the
+French Revolutioners did afore they cut off their King's head; my hair
+stands on end to look at ye." But already, before half this address was
+delivered, the crowd had dispersed in all directions--the women still
+keeping together, and the men sneaking off towards the ale-house. Such
+was the beneficent effect of the fatal stocks on the first day of their
+resuscitation!
+
+However, in the break up of every crowd there must be always some
+one who gets off the last; and it so happened that our friend Lenny
+Fairfield, who had mechanically approached close to the stocks, the
+better to hear the oracular opinions of Gaffer Solomons, had no less
+mechanically, on the abrupt appearance of Mr Stirn, crept, as he hoped,
+out of sight, behind the trunk of the elm tree which partially shaded
+the stocks; and there now, as if fascinated, he still cowered, not
+daring to emerge in full view of Mr Stirn, and in immediate reach of
+the cart-whip,--when the quick eye of the right-hand man detected his
+retreat.
+
+"Hallo, you sir--what the deuce, laying a mine to blow up the stocks!
+just like Guy Fox and the Gunpowder Plot, I declares! What ha' you got
+in your willanous little fist there?"
+
+"Nothing, sir," said Lenny, opening his palm.
+
+"Nothing--um!" said Mr Stirn much dissatisfied; and then, as he gazed
+more deliberately, recognising the pattern boy of the village, a cloud
+yet darker gathered over his brow; for Mr Stirn, who valued himself
+much on his learning--and who, indeed, by dint of more knowledge as
+well as more wit than his neighbours, had attained his present eminent
+station in life--was extremely anxious that his only son should also be
+a scholar; that wish,
+
+    "The gods dispersed in empty air."
+
+Master Stirn was a notable dunce at the Parson's school, while Lenny
+Fairfield was the pride and boast of it; therefore Mr Stirn was
+naturally, and almost justifiably ill-disposed towards Lenny Fairfield,
+who had appropriated to himself the praises which Mr Stirn had designed
+for his son.
+
+"Um!" said the right-hand man, glowering on Lenny malignantly, "you are
+the pattern boy of the village, are you? Very well, sir--then I put
+these here stocks under your care--and you'll keep off the other boys
+from sitting on 'em, and picking off the paint, and playing three holes
+and chuck farthing, as I declare they've been a-doing, just in front of
+the elewation. Now you knows your 'sponsibilities, little boy--and a
+great honour they are too, for the like o' you. If any damage be done,
+it is to you I shall look; d'ye understand? and that's what the Squire
+says to me. So you sees what it is to be a pattern boy, Master Lenny!"
+
+With that Mr Stirn gave a loud crack of the cart-whip, by way of
+military honours, over the head of the vicegerent he had thus created,
+and strode off to pay a visit to two young unsuspecting pups, whose
+ears and tails he had graciously promised their proprietor to crop
+that evening. Nor, albeit few charges could be more obnoxious than
+that of deputy governor or _chargé-d'affaires extraordinaire_ to the
+Parish Stocks, nor one more likely to render Lenny Fairfield odious
+to his contemporaries, ought he to have been insensible to the signal
+advantage of his condition over that of the two sufferers, against
+whose ears and tails Mr Stirn had no especial motives of resentment.
+To every bad there is a worse--and fortunately for little boys, and
+even for grown men, whom the Stirns of the world regard malignly, the
+majesty of law protects their ears, and the merciful forethought of
+nature deprived their remote ancestors of the privilege of entailing
+tails upon them. Had it been otherwise--considering what handles tails
+would have given to the oppressor, how many traps envy would have laid
+for them, how often they must have been scratched and mutilated by
+the briars of life, how many good excuses would have been found for
+lopping, docking, and trimming them--I fear that only the lap-dogs of
+fortune would have gone to the grave tail-whole.
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+The card-table was set out in the drawing-room at Hazeldean Hall;
+though the little party were still lingering in the deep recess of
+the large bay window--which (in itself of dimensions that would have
+swallowed up a moderate-sized London parlour) held the great round
+tea-table, with all appliances and means to boot--for the beautiful
+summer moon shed on the sward so silvery a lustre, and the trees cast
+so quiet a shadow, and the flowers and new-mown hay sent up so grateful
+a perfume, that, to close the windows, draw the curtains, and call
+for other lights than those of heaven, would have been an abuse of
+the prose of life which even Captain Barnabas, who regarded whist
+as the business of town and the holiday of the country, shrank from
+suggesting. Without, the scene, beheld by the clear moonlight, had
+the beauty peculiar to the garden ground round those old-fashioned
+country residences which, though a little modernised, still preserve
+their original character: the velvet lawn, studded with large plots of
+flowers, shaded and scented here to the left by lilacs, laburnums, and
+rich seringas--there, to the right, giving glimpses, over low-clipped
+yews, of a green bowling alley, with the white columns of a summerhouse
+built after the Dutch taste, in the reign of William III.; and in
+front--stealing away under covert of those still cedars, into the
+wilder landscape of the well-wooded undulating park. Within, viewed by
+the placid glimmer of the moon, the scene was no less characteristic
+of the abodes of that race which has no parallel in other lands, and
+which, alas, is somewhat losing its native idiosyncrasies in this--the
+stout country gentleman, not the fine gentleman of the country--the
+country gentleman somewhat softened and civilised from the mere
+sportsman or farmer, but still plain and homely, relinquishing the
+old hall for the drawing-room, and with books not three months' old
+on his table, instead of _Fox's Martyrs_ and _Baker's Chronicle_--yet
+still retaining many a sacred old prejudice, that, like the knots in
+his native oak, rather adds to the ornament of the grain than takes
+from the strength of the tree. Opposite to the window, the high
+chimney-piece rose to the heavy cornice of the ceiling, with dark
+panels glistening against the moonlight. The broad and rather clumsy
+chintz sofas and settees of the reign, of George III., contrasted at
+intervals with the tall backed chairs of a far more distant generation,
+when ladies in fardingales, and gentlemen in trunk-hose, seem never to
+have indulged in horizontal positions. The walls, of shining wainscot,
+were thickly covered, chiefly with family pictures; though now and
+then some Dutch fair, or battle-piece, showed that a former proprietor
+had been less exclusive in his taste for the arts. The pianoforte
+stood open near the fireplace; a long dwarf bookcase, at the far end,
+added its sober smile to the room. That bookcase contained what was
+called "The Lady's Library," a collection commenced by the Squire's
+grandmother, of pious memory, and completed by his mother, who had
+more taste for the lighter letters, with but little addition from the
+bibliomaniac tendencies of the present Mrs Hazeldean--who, being no
+great reader, contented herself with subscribing to the Book Club. In
+this feminine Bodleian, the sermons collected by Mrs Hazeldean, the
+grandmother, stood cheek-by-jowl beside the novels purchased by Mrs
+Hazeldean, the mother.
+
+    'Mixtaque ridenti fundet colocasia acantho!'
+
+But to be sure, the novels, in spite of very inflammatory titles, such
+as "Fatal Sensibility," "Errors of the Heart," &c., were so harmless
+that I doubt if the sermons could have had much to say against their
+next-door neighbours--and that is all that can be expected by the best
+of us.
+
+A parrot dozing on his perch--some gold fish fast asleep in their
+glass bowl--two or three dogs on the rug, and Flimsey, Miss Jemima's
+spaniel, curled into a ball on the softest sofa--Mrs Hazeldean's
+work-table, rather in disorder, as if it had been lately used--the _St
+James's Chronicle_ dangling down from a little tripod near the Squire's
+arm-chair--a high screen of gilt and stamped leather fencing off the
+card-table; all these, dispersed about a room large enough to hold them
+all and not seem crowded, offered many a pleasant resting-place for the
+eye, when it turned from the world of nature to the home of man.
+
+But see, Captain Barnabas, fortified by his fourth cup of tea, has at
+length summoned courage to whisper to Mrs Hazeldean, "don't you think
+the Parson will be impatient for his rubber?" Mrs Hazeldean glanced
+at the Parson, and smiled; but she gave the signal to the Captain,
+and the bell was rung, lights were brought in, the curtains let down;
+in a few moments more the group had collected round the card-tables.
+The best of us are but human--that is not a new truth, I confess, but
+yet people forget it every day of their lives--and I dare say there
+are many who are charitably thinking at this very moment, that my
+Parson ought not to be playing at whist. All I can say to those rigid
+disciplinarians is, "Every man has his favourite sin: whist was Parson
+Dale's!--ladies and gentlemen, what is yours?" In truth, I must not set
+up my poor parson, now-a-days, as a pattern parson--it is enough to
+have one pattern in a village no bigger than Hazeldean, and we all know
+that Lenny Fairfield has bespoken that place,--and got the patronage of
+the stocks for his emoluments! Parson Dale was ordained, not indeed so
+very long ago, but still at a time when churchmen took it a great deal
+more easily than they do now. The elderly parson of that day played
+his rubber as a matter of course, the middle-aged parson was sometimes
+seen riding to cover, (I knew a schoolmaster, a doctor of divinity,
+and an excellent man, whose pupils were chiefly taken from the highest
+families in England, who hunted regularly three times a-week during
+the season,) and the young parson would often sing a capital song--not
+composed by David--and join in those rotary dances, which certainly
+David never danced before the ark.
+
+Does it need so long a prolegomenon to excuse thee, poor Parson Dale,
+for turning up that ace of spades with so triumphant a smile at thy
+partner? I must own that nothing that well could add to the Parson's
+offence was wanting. In the first place, he did not play charitably,
+and merely to oblige other people. He delighted in the game--he
+rejoiced in the game--his whole heart was in the game--neither was he
+indifferent to the mammon of the thing, as a Christian pastor ought
+to have been. He looked very sad when he took his shillings out of
+his purse, and exceedingly pleased when he put the shillings that had
+just before belonged to other people into it. Finally, by one of those
+arrangements common with married people, who play at the same table,
+Mr and Mrs Hazeldean were invariably partners, and no two people could
+play worse; while Captain Barnabas, who had played at Graham's with
+honour and profit, necessarily became partner to Parson Dale, who
+himself played a good steady parsonic game. So that, in strict truth,
+it was hardly fair play--it was almost swindling--the combination of
+these two great dons against that innocent married couple! Mr Dale,
+it is true, was aware of this disproportion of force, and had often
+proposed either to change partners or to give odds, propositions always
+scornfully scouted by the Squire and his lady; so that the Parson was
+obliged to pocket his conscience, together with the ten points which
+made his average winnings.
+
+The strangest thing in the world is the different way in which whist
+affects the temper. It is no test of temper, as some pretend--not at
+all! The best tempered people in the world grow snappish at whist; and
+I have seen the most testy and peevish in the ordinary affairs of life
+bear their losses with the stoicism of Epictetus. This was notably
+manifested in the contrast between the present adversaries of the Hall
+and the Rectory. The Squire, who was esteemed as choleric a gentleman
+as most in the county, was the best-humoured fellow you could imagine
+when you set him down to whist opposite the sunny face of his wife.
+You never heard one of these incorrigible blunderers scold each other;
+on the contrary, they only laughed when they threw away the game, with
+four by honours in their hands. The utmost that was ever said was a
+"Well, Harry, that was the oddest trump of yours. Ho--ho--ho!" or a
+"Bless me, Hazeldean--why, they made three tricks, and you had the ace
+in your hand all the time! Ha--ha--ha!"
+
+Upon which occasions Captain Barnabas, with great good humour, always
+echoed both the Squire's ho--ho--ho! and Mrs Hazeldean's ha--ha--ha!
+
+Not so the Parson. He had so keen and sportsmanlike an interest in
+the game, that even his adversaries' mistakes ruffled him. And you
+would hear him, with elevated voice and agitated gestures, laying
+down the law, quoting Hoyle, appealing to all the powers of memory
+and common sense against the very delinquencies by which he was
+enriched--a waste of eloquence that always heightened the hilarity
+of Mr and Mrs Hazeldean. While these four were thus engaged, Mrs
+Dale, who had come with her husband despite her headache, sate on
+the sofa beside Miss Jemima, or rather beside Miss Jemima's Flimsey,
+which had already secured the centre of the sofa, and snarled at
+the very idea of being disturbed. And Master Frank--at a table by
+himself--was employed sometimes in looking at his pumps, and sometimes
+at Gilray's Caricatures, with which his mother had provided him for
+his intellectual requirements. Mrs Dale, in her heart, liked Miss
+Jemima better than Mrs Hazeldean, of whom she was rather in awe,
+notwithstanding they had been little girls together, and occasionally
+still called each other Harry and Carry. But those tender diminutives
+belonged to the "Dear" genus, and were rarely employed by the ladies,
+except at those times when--had they been little girls still, and
+the governess out of the way--they would have slapped and pinched
+each other. Mrs Dale was still a very pretty woman, as Mrs Hazeldean
+was still a very fine woman. Mrs Dale painted in water colours and
+sang, and made card-racks and pen-holders, and was called an "elegant
+accomplished woman." Mrs Hazeldean cast up the Squire's accounts, wrote
+the best part of his letters, kept a large establishment in excellent
+order, and was called "a clever, sensible woman." Mrs Dale had
+headaches and nerves, Mrs Hazeldean had neither nerves nor headaches.
+Mrs Dale said, "Harry had no real harm in her, but was certainly very
+masculine." Mrs Hazeldean said, "Carry would be a good creature, but
+for her airs and graces." Mrs Dale said Mrs Hazeldean was "just made to
+be a country squire's lady." Mrs Hazeldean said, "Mrs Dale was the last
+person in the world who ought to have been a parson's wife." Carry,
+when she spoke of Harry to a third person, said, "Dear Mrs Hazeldean."
+Harry, when she referred incidentally to Carry, said, "Poor Mrs Dale."
+And now the reader knows why Mrs Hazeldean called Mrs Dale "poor," at
+least as well as I do. For, after all, the word belonged to that class
+in the female vocabulary which may be called "obscure significants,"
+resembling the Konx Ompax, which hath so puzzled the inquirers into the
+Eleusinian Mysteries; the application is rather to be illustrated than
+the meaning to be exactly explained.
+
+"That's really a sweet little dog of yours, Jemima," said Mrs Dale,
+who was embroidering the word CAROLINE on the border of a cambric
+pocket-handkerchief, but edging a little farther off, as she added,
+"he'll not bite, will he?" "Dear me, no!" said Miss Jemima; but (she
+added, in a confidential whisper,) "don't say _he_--'tis a lady dog!"
+"Oh," said Mrs Dale, edging off still farther, as if that confession
+of the creature's sex did not serve to allay her apprehensions--"oh,
+then, you carry your aversion to the gentlemen even to lap-dogs--that
+is being consistent indeed, Jemima!"
+
+MISS JEMIMA.--"I had a gentleman dog once--a pug!--they are getting
+very scarce now. I thought he was so fond of me--he snapped at every
+one else;--the battles I fought for him! Well, will you believe,--I had
+been staying with my friend Miss Smilecox at Cheltenham. Knowing that
+William is so hasty, and his boots are so thick, I trembled to think
+what a kick might do. So, on coming here, I left Buff--that was his
+name--with Miss Smilecox." (A pause.)
+
+MRS DALE, looking up languidly.--"Well, my love."
+
+MISS JEMIMA.--"Will you believe it, I say, when I returned to
+Cheltenham, only three months afterwards, Miss Smilecox had seduced his
+affections from me, and the ungrateful creature did not even know me
+again. A pug, too--yet people _say_ pugs are faithful!!! I am sure they
+ought to be, nasty things. I have never had a gentleman dog since--they
+are all alike, believe me--heartless, selfish creatures."
+
+MRS DALE.--"Pugs? I dare say they are!"
+
+MISS JEMIMA, with spirit.--"MEN!--I told you it was a gentleman dog!"
+
+MRS DALE, apologetically.--"True, my love, but the whole thing was so
+mixed up!"
+
+MISS JEMIMA.--"You saw that cold-blooded case of Breach of Promise of
+Marriage in the papers--an old wretch, too, of sixty-four. No age
+makes them a bit better. And when one thinks that the end of all flesh
+is approaching, and that--"
+
+MRS DALE, quickly, for she prefers Miss Jemima's other hobby to that
+black one upon which she is preparing to precede the bier of the
+universe.--"Yes, my love, we'll avoid that subject, if you please. Mr
+Dale has his own opinions, and it becomes me, you know, as a parson's
+wife," (said smilingly; Mrs Dale has as pretty a dimple as any of Miss
+Jemima's, and makes more of that one than Miss Jemima of three,) "to
+agree with him--that is, in theology."
+
+MISS JEMIMA, earnestly.--"But the thing is so clear, if you would but
+look into--"
+
+MRS DALE, putting her hand on Miss Jemima's lips playfully.--"Not
+a word more. Pray, what do you think of the Squire's tenant at the
+Casino, Signor Riccabocca? An interesting creature, is not he?"
+
+MISS JEMIMA.--"Interesting! Not to me. Interesting? Why is he
+interesting?"
+
+Mrs Dale is silent, and turns her handkerchief in her pretty little
+white hands, appearing to contemplate the R in Caroline.
+
+MISS JEMIMA, half pettishly, half coaxingly.--"Why is he interesting? I
+scarcely ever looked at him; they say he smokes, and never eats. Ugly,
+too!"
+
+MRS DALE.--"Ugly--no. A fine head--very like Dante's--but what is
+beauty?"
+
+MISS JEMIMA.--"Very true; what is it indeed? Yes, as you say, I think
+there is something interesting about him; he looks melancholy, but that
+may be because he is poor."
+
+MRS DALE.--"It is astonishing how little one feels poverty when one
+loves. Charles and I were very poor once--before the Squire----." Mrs
+Dale paused, looked towards the Squire, and murmured a blessing, the
+warmth of which brought tears into her eyes. "Yes," she added, after
+a pause, "we were very poor, but we were happy even then, more thanks
+to Charles than to me," and tears from a new source again dimmed those
+quick lively eyes, as the little woman gazed fondly on her husband,
+whose brows were knit into a black frown over a bad hand.
+
+MISS JEMIMA.--"It is only those horrid men who think of money as a
+source of happiness. I should be the last person to esteem a gentleman
+less because he was poor."
+
+MRS DALE.--"I wonder the Squire does not ask Signor Riccabocca here
+more often. Such an acquisition we find him!"
+
+The Squire's voice from the card table.--"Whom ought I to ask more
+often, Mrs Dale?"
+
+Parson's voice impatiently.--"Come--come--come, Squire: play to my
+queen of diamonds--do!"
+
+SQUIRE.--"There, I trump it--pick up the trick, Mrs H."
+
+PARSON.--"Stop! stop! trump my diamond?"
+
+The Captain, solemnly.--"Trick turned--play on, Squire."
+
+SQUIRE.--"The king of diamonds."
+
+MRS HAZELDEAN.--"Lord! Hazeldean--why, that's the most barefaced
+revoke--ha--ha--ha! trump the queen of diamonds and play out the king!
+well I never--ha--ha--ha!"
+
+CAPTAIN BARNABAS, in tenor.--"Ha, ha, ha!"
+
+SQUIRE.--"And so I have, bless my soul--ho, ho, ho!"
+
+CAPTAIN BARNABAS, in bass.--"Ho--ho--ho."
+
+Parson's voice raised, but drowned by the laughter of his adversaries
+and the firm clear tone of Captain Barnabas:--"Three to our
+score!--game!"
+
+SQUIRE, wiping his eyes.--"No help for it, Harry--deal for me! Whom
+ought I to ask, Mrs Dale? (waxing angry.) First time I ever heard the
+hospitality of Hazeldean called in question!"
+
+MRS DALE.--"My dear sir, I beg a thousand pardons, but listeners--you
+know the proverb."
+
+SQUIRE, growling like a bear.--"I hear nothing but proverbs ever since
+we have had that Mounseer among us. Please to speak plainly, marm."
+
+MRS DALE, sliding into a little temper at being thus roughly
+accosted.--"It was of Mounseer, as you call him, that I spoke, Mr
+Hazeldean."
+
+SQUIRE.--"What! Rickeybockey?"
+
+MRS DALE, attempting the pure Italian accentuation.--"Signor
+Riccabocca."
+
+PARSON, slapping his cards on the table in despair.--"Are we playing at
+whist, or are we not?"
+
+The Squire, who is fourth player, drops the king to Captain
+Higginbotham's lead of the ace of hearts. Now the Captain has left
+queen, knave, and two other hearts--four trumps to the queen and
+nothing to win a trick with in the two other suits. This hand is
+therefore precisely one of those in which, especially after the fall
+of that king of hearts in the adversary's hand, it becomes a matter of
+reasonable doubt whether to lead trumps or not. The Captain hesitates,
+and not liking to play out his good hearts with the certainty of their
+being trumped by the Squire, nor, on the other hand, liking to open the
+other suits in which he has not a card that can assist his partner,
+resolves, as becomes a military man, in such dilemma, to make a bold
+push and lead out trumps, in the chance of finding his partner strong,
+and so bringing in his long suit.
+
+SQUIRE, taking advantage of the much meditating pause made by the
+Captain--"Mrs Dale, it is not my fault. I have asked Rickeybockey--time
+out of mind. But I suppose I am not fine enough for those foreign
+chaps--he won't come--that's all I know!"
+
+PARSON, aghast at seeing the Captain play out trumps, of which he, Mr
+Dale, has only two, wherewith he expects to ruff the suit of spades of
+which he has only one, (the cards all falling in suits) while he has
+not a single other chance of a trick in his hand.--"Really, Squire,
+we had better give up playing if you put out my partner in this
+extraordinary way--jabber--jabber--jabber!"
+
+SQUIRE.--"Well, we must be good children, Harry. What!--trumps, Barney?
+Thank ye for that!" And the Squire might well be grateful, for the
+unfortunate adversary has led up to ace king knave--with two other
+trumps. Squire takes the Parson's ten with his knave, and plays out ace
+king; then, having cleared all the trumps except the Captain's queen
+and his own remaining two, leads off tierce major in that very suit of
+spades of which the Parson has only one,--and the Captain, indeed, but
+two--forces out the Captain's queen, and wins the game in a canter.
+
+PARSON, with a look at the Captain which might have become the awful
+brows of Jove, when about to thunder.--"That, I suppose, is the
+newfashioned London play! In my time the rule was 'First save the game,
+then try to win it.'"
+
+CAPTAIN.--"Could not save it, sir."
+
+PARSON, exploding.--"Not save it!--two ruffs in my own hand--two tricks
+certain till you took them out! Monstrous! The rashest trump"--Seizes
+the cards--spreads them on the table, lip quivering, hands
+trembling--tries to show how five tricks could have been gained--(N.B.
+it is _short_ whist, which Captain Barnabas had introduced at the Hall)
+can't make out more than four--Captain smiles triumphantly--Parson in a
+passion, and not at all convinced, mixes all the cards together again,
+and falling back in his chair, groans, with tears in his voice.--"The
+cruellest trump! the most wanton cruelty!"
+
+The Hazeldeans in chorus.-"Ho--ho--ho! Ha--ha--ha!"
+
+The Captain, who does not laugh this time, and whose turn it is to
+deal, shuffles the cards for the conquering game of the rubber with as
+much caution and prolixity as Fabius might have employed in posting
+his men. The Squire gets up to stretch his legs, and, the insinuation
+against his hospitality recurring to his thoughts, calls out to his
+wife--"Write to Rickeybockey to-morrow yourself, Harry, and ask him to
+come and spend two or three days here. There, Mrs Dale, you hear me?"
+
+"Yes," said Mrs Dale, putting her hands to her ears in implied rebuke
+at the loudness of the Squire's tone. "My dear sir, do remember that
+I'm a sad nervous creature."
+
+"Beg pardon," muttered Mr Hazeldean, turning to his son, who, having
+got tired of the caricatures, had fished out for himself the great
+folio County History, which was the only book in the library that the
+Squire much valued, and which he usually kept under lock and key, in
+his study, together with the field-books and steward's accounts, but
+which he had reluctantly taken into the drawing-room that day, in
+order to oblige Captain Higginbotham. For the Higginbothams--an old
+Saxon family, as the name evidently denotes--had once possessed lands
+in that very county. And the Captain--during his visits to Hazeldean
+Hall--was regularly in the habit of asking to look into the County
+History, for the purpose of refreshing his eyes, and renovating his
+sense of ancestral dignity with the following paragraph therein:--"To
+the left of the village of Dunder, and pleasantly situated in a hollow,
+lies Botham Hall, the residence of the ancient family of Higginbotham,
+as it is now commonly called. Yet it appears by the county rolls,
+and sundry old deeds, that the family formerly styled itself Higges,
+till, the Manor House lying in Botham, they gradually assumed the
+appellation of Higges-in-botham, and in process of time, yielding to
+the corruptions of the vulgar, Higginbotham."
+
+"What, Frank! my County History!" cried the Squire. "Mrs H. he has got
+my County History!"
+
+"Well, Hazeldean, it is time he should know something about the County."
+
+"Ay, and History too," said Mrs Dale, malevolently--for the little
+temper was by no means blown over.
+
+FRANK.--"I'll not hurt it, I assure you, sir. But I'm very much
+interested just at present."
+
+The CAPTAIN, putting down the cards to cut.--"You've got hold of that
+passage about Botham Hall, page 706, eh?"
+
+FRANK.--"No; I was trying to make out how far it is to Mr Leslie's
+place, Rood Hall. Do you know, mother?"
+
+MRS HAZELDEAN.--"I can't say I do. The Leslies don't mix with the
+county; and Rood lies very much out of the way."
+
+FRANK.--"Why don't they mix with the county?"
+
+MRS HAZELDEAN.--"I believe they are poor, and therefore I suppose they
+are proud: they are an old family."
+
+PARSON, thrumming on the table with great impatience.--"Old
+fiddledee!--talking of old families when the cards have been shuffled
+this half hour!"
+
+CAPTAIN BARNABAS.--"Will you cut for your partner, ma'am?"
+
+SQUIRE, who has been listening to Frank's inquiries with a musing
+air.--"Why do you want to know the distance to Rood Hall?"
+
+FRANK, rather hesitatingly.--"Because Randal Leslie is there for the
+holidays, sir."
+
+PARSON.--"Your wife has cut for you, Mr Hazeldean. I don't think it
+was quite fair; and my partner has turned up a deuce--deuce of hearts.
+Please to come and play, if you _mean_ to play."
+
+The Squire returns to the table, and in a few minutes the game is
+decided by a dexterous finesse of the Captain against the Hazeldeans.
+The clock strikes ten: the servants enter with a tray; the Squire
+counts up his own and his wife's losings; and the Captain and Parson
+divide sixteen shillings between them.
+
+SQUIRE.--"There, Parson, I hope now you'll be in a better humour. You
+win enough out of us to set up a coach and four."
+
+"Tut!" muttered the Parson; "at the end of the year, I'm not a penny
+the richer for it all."
+
+And, indeed, monstrous as that assertion seemed, it was perfectly
+true, for the Parson portioned out his gains into three divisions.
+One-third he gave to Mrs Dale, for her own special pocket-money; what
+became of the second third he never owned, even to his better half--but
+certain it was, that every time the Parson won seven-and-sixpence,
+half-a-crown, which nobody could account for, found its way to the
+poor-box; while the remaining third, the Parson, it is true, openly and
+avowedly retained: but I have no manner of doubt that, at the year's
+end, it got to the poor quite as safely as if it had been put into the
+box.
+
+The party had now gathered round the tray, and were helping themselves
+to wine and water, or wine without water--except Frank, who still
+remained poring over the map in the County History, with his head
+leaning on his hands, and his fingers plunged in his hair.
+
+"Frank," said Mrs Hazeldean, "I never saw you so studious before."
+
+Frank started up, and coloured, as if ashamed of being accused of too
+much study in anything.
+
+The SQUIRE, with a little embarrassment in his voice.--"Pray, Frank,
+what do you know of Randal Leslie?"
+
+"Why, sir, he is at Eton."
+
+"What sort of a boy is he?" asked Mrs Hazeldean.
+
+Frank hesitated, as if reflecting, and then answered--"They say he is
+the cleverest boy in the school. But then he saps."
+
+"In other words," said Mr Dale, with proper parsonic gravity, "he
+understands that he was sent to school to learn his lessons, and he
+learns them. You call that sapping--I call it doing his duty. But pray,
+who and what is this Randal Leslie, that you look so discomposed,
+Squire?"
+
+"Who and what is he?" repeated the Squire, in a low growl. "Why, you
+know, Mr Audley Egerton married Miss Leslie the great heiress; and this
+boy is a relation of hers. I may say," added the Squire, "that he is as
+near a relation of mine, for his grandmother was a Hazeldean. But all
+I know about the Leslies is, that Mr Egerton, as I am told, having no
+children of his own, took up young Randal, (when his wife died, poor
+woman,) pays for his schooling, and has, I suppose, adopted the boy
+as his heir. Quite welcome. Frank and I want nothing from Mr Audley
+Egerton, thank heaven."
+
+"I can well believe in your brother's generosity to his wife's
+kindred," said the Parson sturdily, "for I am sure Mr Egerton is a man
+of strong feeling."
+
+"What the deuce do you know about Mr Egerton? I don't suppose you could
+ever have even spoken to him."
+
+"Yes," said the Parson, colouring up, and looking confused, "I had some
+conversation with him once;" and observing the Squire's surprise, he
+added--"when I was curate at Lansmere--and about a painful business
+connected with the family of one of my parishioners."
+
+"Oh! one of your parishioners at Lansmere--one of the constituents Mr
+Audley Egerton threw over, after all the pains I had taken to get him
+his seat. Rather odd you should never have mentioned this before, Mr
+Dale!"
+
+"My dear sir," said the Parson, sinking his voice, and in a mild tone
+of conciliatory expostulation, "you are so irritable whenever Mr
+Egerton's name is mentioned at all."
+
+"Irritable!" exclaimed the Squire, whose wrath had been long simmering,
+and now fairly boiled over.--"Irritable, sir! I should think so: a man
+for whom I stood godfather at the hustings, Mr Dale! a man for whose
+sake I was called a 'prize ox,' Mr Dale! a man for whom I was hissed in
+a market-place, Mr Dale! a man for whom I was shot at, in cold blood,
+by an officer in his Majesty's service, who lodged a ball in my right
+shoulder, Mr Dale! a man who had the ingratitude, after all this,
+to turn his back on the landed interest--to deny that there was any
+agricultural distress in a year which broke three of the best farmers
+I ever had, Mr Dale!--a man, sir, who made a speech on the Currency
+which was complimented by Ricardo, a Jew! Good heavens! a pretty parson
+you are, to stand up for a fellow complimented by a Jew! Nice ideas
+you must have of Christianity. Irritable, sir!" now fairly roared
+the Squire, adding to the thunder of his voice the cloud of a brow,
+which evinced a menacing ferocity that might have done honour to Bussy
+d'Amboise or Fighting Fitzgerald. "Sir, if that man had not been my own
+half-brother, I'd have called him out. I have stood my ground before
+now. I have had a ball in my right shoulder. Sir, I'd have called him
+out."
+
+"Mr Hazeldean! Mr Hazeldean! I'm shocked at you," cried the Parson;
+and, putting his lips close to the Squire's ear, he went on in a
+whisper--"What an example to your son! You'll have him fighting duels
+one of these days, and nobody to blame but yourself."
+
+This warning cooled Mr Hazeldean; and, muttering, "Why the deuce did
+you set me off?" he fell back into his chair, and began to fan himself
+with his pocket-handkerchief.
+
+The Parson skilfully and remorselessly pursued the advantage he had
+gained. "And now, that you may have it in your power to show civility
+and kindness to a boy whom Mr Egerton has taken up, out of respect to
+his wife's memory--a kinsman, you say, of your own--and who has never
+offended you--a boy whose diligence in his studies proves him to be
+an excellent companion to your son;--Frank," (here the Parson raised
+his voice,) "I suppose you wanted to call on young Leslie, as you were
+studying the county map so attentively?"
+
+"Why, yes," answered Frank, rather timidly, "if my father did not
+object to it. Leslie has been very kind to me, though he is in the
+sixth form, and, indeed, almost the head of the school."
+
+"Ah," said Mrs Hazeldean, "one studious boy has a fellow-feeling for
+another; and though you enjoy your holidays, Frank, I am sure you read
+hard at school."
+
+Mrs Dale opened her eyes very wide, and stared in astonishment.
+
+MRS HAZELDEAN retorted that look with great animation. "Yes, Carry,"
+said she, tossing her head, "though you may not think Frank clever, his
+masters find him so. He got a prize last half. That beautiful book,
+Frank--hold up your head, my love--what did you get it for?"
+
+FRANK, reluctantly.--"Verses, ma'am."
+
+MRS HAZELDEAN, with triumph.--"Verses!--there, Carry, verses!"
+
+FRANK, in a hurried tone.--"Yes, but Leslie wrote them for me."
+
+MRS HAZELDEAN, recoiling.--"O Frank! a prize for what another did for
+you--that was mean."
+
+FRANK, ingenuously.--"You can't be more ashamed, mother, than I was
+when they gave me the prize."
+
+MRS DALE, though previously provoked at being snubbed by Harry, now
+showing the triumph of generosity over temper.--"I beg your pardon,
+Frank. Your mother must be as proud of that shame as she was of the
+prize."
+
+Mrs Hazeldean puts her arm round Frank's neck, smiles beamingly on Mrs
+Dale, and converses with her son in a low tone about Randal Leslie.
+Miss Jemima now approached Carry, and said in an "aside,"--"But we
+are forgetting poor Mr Riccabocca. Mrs Hazeldean, though the dearest
+creature in the world, has such a blunt way of inviting people--don't
+you think if you were to say a word to him, Carry?"
+
+MRS DALE kindly, as she wraps her shawl round her.--"Suppose you write
+the note yourself. Meanwhile, I shall see him, no doubt."
+
+PARSON, putting his hand on the Squire's shoulder.--"You forgive my
+impertinence, my kind friend. We parsons, you know, are apt to take
+strange liberties, when we honour and love folks, as I do you."
+
+"Pish!" said the Squire, but his hearty smile came to his lips in spite
+of himself.--"You always get your own way, and I suppose Frank must
+ride over and see this pet of my--"
+
+"_Brother's_," quoth the Parson, concluding the sentence in a tone
+which gave to the sweet word so sweet a sound that the Squire would not
+correct the Parson, as he had been about to correct himself.
+
+Mr Dale moved on; but as he passed Captain Barnabas, the benignant
+character of his countenance changed sadly.
+
+"The cruellest trump, Captain Higginbotham!" said he sternly, and
+stalked by--majestic.
+
+The night was so fine that the Parson and his wife, as they walked
+home, made a little _détour_ through the shrubbery.
+
+MRS DALE.--"I think I have done a good piece of work to-night."
+
+PARSON, rousing himself from a reverie.--"Have you, Carry?--it will be
+a very pretty handkerchief."
+
+MRS DALE.--"Handkerchief!--nonsense, dear. Don't you think it would be
+a very happy thing for both, if Jemima and Signor Riccabocca could be
+brought together?"
+
+PARSON.--"Brought together!"
+
+MRS DALE.--"You do snap one up so, my dear--I mean if I could make a
+match of it."
+
+PARSON.--"I think Riccabocca is a match already, not only for Jemima,
+but yourself into the bargain."
+
+MRS DALE, smiling loftily.--"Well, we shall see. Was not Jemima's
+fortune about £4000?"
+
+PARSON dreamily, for he is relapsing fast into his interrupted
+reverie;--"Ay--ay--I daresay."
+
+MRS DALE.--"And she must have saved! I dare say it is nearly £6000 by
+this time;--eh! Charles dear, you really are so--good gracious, what's
+that!"
+
+As Mrs Dale made this exclamation, they had just emerged from the
+shrubbery, into the village green.
+
+PARSON.--"What's what?"
+
+MRS DALE pinching her husband's arm very nippingly.--"That
+thing--there--there."
+
+PARSON.--"Only the new stocks, Carry; I don't wonder they frighten you,
+for you are a very sensible woman. I only wish they would frighten the
+Squire."
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+    _Supposed to be a letter from Mrs Hazeldean to----Riccabocca,
+        Esq., The Casino; but edited, and indeed composed, by Miss
+        Jemima Hazeldean._
+
+    "Dear Sir,--To a feeling heart it must always be painful to
+    give pain to another, and (though I am sure unconsciously) you
+    have given the _greatest_ pain to poor Mr Hazeldean and myself,
+    indeed to _all_ our little circle, in so cruelly refusing
+    our attempts to become better acquainted with a gentleman we
+    so highly ESTEEM. Do, pray, dear sir, make us the _amende
+    honorable_, and give us the _pleasure_ of your company for a
+    few days at the Hall! May we expect you Saturday next?--our
+    dinner hour is six o'clock.
+
+    "With the best compliments of Mr and Miss Jemima Hazeldean,
+
+      "Believe me, my dear Sir,
+            yours truly,
+                      H. H.
+  HAZELDEAN HALL."
+
+Miss Jemima having carefully sealed this note, which Mrs Hazeldean
+had very willingly deputed her to write, took it herself into the
+stable-yard, in order to give the groom proper instructions to wait
+for an answer. But while she was speaking to the man, Frank, equipped
+for riding with more than his usual dandyism, came also into the yard,
+calling for his pony in a loud voice, and singling out the very groom
+whom Miss Jemima was addressing--for, indeed, he was the smartest of
+all in the Squire's stables--told him to saddle the grey pad, and
+accompany the pony.
+
+"No, Frank," said Miss Jemima, "you can't have George; your father
+wants him to go on a message--you can take Mat."
+
+"Mat, indeed!" said Frank, grumbling with some reason; for Matt was a
+surly old fellow, who tied a most indefensible neckcloth, and always
+contrived to have a great patch in his boots;--besides, he called
+Frank "Master," and obstinately refused to trot down hill;--"Mat,
+indeed!--let Mat take the message, and George go with me."
+
+But Miss Jemima had also her reasons for rejecting Mat. Mat's foible
+was not servility, and he always showed true English independence in
+all houses where he was not invited to take his ale in the servants'
+hall. Mat might offend Signor Riccabocca, and spoil all. An animated
+altercation ensued, in the midst of which the Squire and his wife
+entered the yard, with the intention of driving in the conjugal gig to
+the market town. The matter was referred to the natural umpire by both
+the contending parties.
+
+The Squire looked with great contempt on his son. "And what do you want
+a groom at all for? Are you afraid of tumbling off the pony?"
+
+FRANK.--"No, sir; but I like to go as a gentleman, when I pay a visit
+to a gentleman!"
+
+SQUIRE, in high wrath.--"You precious puppy! I think I'm as good a
+gentleman as you, any day, and I should like to know when you ever saw
+me ride to call on a neighbour, with a fellow jingling at my heels,
+like that upstart Ned Spankie, whose father kept a cotton-mill. First
+time I ever heard of a Hazeldean thinking a livery-coat was necessary
+to prove his gentility!"
+
+Mrs HAZELDEAN observing Frank colouring, and about to reply.--"Hush,
+Frank, never answer your father,--and you are going to call on Mr
+Leslie?"
+
+"Yes, Ma'am, and I am very much obliged to my father for letting me,"
+said Frank, taking the Squire's hand.
+
+"Well, but Frank," continued Mrs Hazeldean, "I think you heard that the
+Leslies were very poor."
+
+FRANK.--"Eh, mother?"
+
+MRS HAZELDEAN.--"And would you run the chance of wounding the pride of
+a gentleman, as well born as yourself, by affecting any show of being
+richer than he is?"
+
+SQUIRE with great admiration.--"Harry, I'd give £10 to have said that!"
+
+FRANK, leaving the Squire's hand to take his mother's.--"You're quite
+right, mother--nothing could be more _snobbish_!"
+
+SQUIRE.--"Give us your fist too, sir; you'll be a chip of the old
+block, after all."
+
+Frank smiled, and walked off to his pony.
+
+MRS HAZELDEAN to Miss Jemima.--"Is that the note you were to write for
+me?"
+
+MISS JEMIMA.--"Yes, I supposed you did not care about seeing it, so I
+have sealed it, and given it to George."
+
+MRS HAZELDEAN.--"But Frank will pass close by the Casino on his way to
+the Leslies'. It may be more civil if he leaves the note himself."
+
+MISS JEMIMA hesitatingly.--"Do you think so?"
+
+MRS HAZELDEAN.--"Yes, certainly. Frank--Frank--as you pass by the
+Casino, call on Mr Riccabocca, give this note, and say we shall be
+heartily glad if he will come."
+
+Frank nods.
+
+"Stop a bit," cried the Squire. "If Rickeybockey's at home, 'tis ten to
+one if he don't ask you to take a glass of wine! If he does, mind, 'tis
+worse than asking you to take a turn on the rack. Faugh! you remember,
+Harry?--I thought it was all up with me."
+
+"Yes," cried Mrs Hazeldean, "for heaven's sake, not a drop! Wine
+indeed!"
+
+"Don't talk of it," cried the Squire, making a wry face.
+
+"I'll take care, sir!" said Frank, laughing as he disappeared within
+the stable, followed by Miss Jemima, who now coaxingly makes it up with
+him, and does not leave off her admonitions to be extremely polite
+to the poor foreign gentleman, till Frank gets his foot into the
+stirrup; and the pony, who knows whom he has got to deal with, gives a
+preparatory plunge or two, and then darts out of the yard.
+
+
+
+
+MILITARY LIFE IN NORTH AFRICA.[16]
+
+
+In days of national antipathy, now happily bygone, it was a vulgar
+English prejudice that Frenchmen were great only as cooks and
+dancing-masters. In popular belief, the fiddle and the frying-pan were
+their insignia, pirouettes and fricassees their highest achievements.
+Peace and steam have exploded these exaggerated notions in the minds
+even of the least intelligent. They would be inexcusable in the days
+of cheap excursions to Paris and electric telegraphs beneath the
+billows of the Channel. Moreover, Englishmen have learned to rival
+what they once contemned; native talent has been encouraged; Britain
+glories in cooks who will lower their culinary flag to no foreign
+kickshaw-compounder that ever stirred a sauce or frothed a _soufflé_;
+and in professors of the choregraphic who would scorn to be excelled by
+any Gaul that ever carried a kit. A higher standard has been fixed for
+the capacity of Frenchmen. Rivalled in cookery and capers, their claims
+are admitted to first-rate excellence in two nobler sciences--the
+military, namely, and the dramatic. Sometimes they unite the two.
+Witness Napoleon, the greatest warrior and most consummate actor
+France can boast. Certainly Frenchmen show nowhere to such advantage
+as on the stage or in the field, by the light of the foot-lamps or
+through the smoke of the bivouac. So strongly, indeed, are they imbued
+with the military and dramatic essences, that these are continually
+perceptible when they are engaged in pursuits of a most opposite
+character. The conscription and national-guard system give to the whole
+nation a martial tinge, from which the most pacific callings are no
+preservative. In France, men whose existence passes in the measurement
+of calico or the parcelling of groceries, often seem, in tone, costume,
+and mustache, to pertain to the camp rather than the counter. And in
+the gravest occupations, as in the most commonplace passages of life,
+a large majority of Frenchmen appear to us English to be continually
+acting. Their love of effect, contrast, and epigram, gives a theatrical
+air to their most ordinary as to their most important proceedings.
+Nations, like individuals, view each other through their own peculiar
+spectacles; and the French are as much struck and amused with English
+phlegm and reserve as we are with their vehemence, gesticulations,
+and demonstrativeness. We are not, however, here preluding to a
+dissertation on national character, but to a notice of some pleasant
+military sketches by a French officer. We have the highest opinion of
+Frenchmen as soldiers, not merely on account of their bravery, which
+is universally admitted--by none more freely than by those who have
+fought and beaten them--but by reason of their many other excellent
+military qualities--of their discipline, temperance, subordination,
+and of that sentiment of soldierly honour which we believe to pervade
+the French troops to an extent never exceeded, and rarely equalled,
+in any other European army. The works of our own military historians
+abound with traits of French chivalry and heroism, as they also do
+with acknowledgments of their peculiar aptitude for war, of their
+cheerfulness on the march, their patience under privations, their
+skill--and this is no slight virtue in soldiers--in shifting for
+themselves, and making the most of a bad bivouac, uncomfortable
+quarters, or a scanty ration. All these qualities are well displayed
+in M. de Castellane's sketches of French military life. The date of
+his campaigns is recent, the scene Africa; his opponents were Arabs
+and Kabyles; his comrades, Spahis, Zouaves, Chasseurs d'Orleans, and
+Chasseurs d'Afrique. To some, a brief explanation of these terms may
+be useful. Spahis are Arab cavalry in the French service, officered by
+Frenchmen, and with an admixture of European soldiers in the ranks. The
+Zouaves are a crack infantry corps, similarly composed, and attired,
+like the Spahis, in Oriental costume. The Chasseurs of Orleans are
+light infantry, wonderfully active, and wearing dark uniforms. Finally,
+the Chasseurs of Africa are a very fine body of French cavalry, raised
+expressly for African service, dressed in light blue, well mounted, and
+armed with carbine and sabre, some with lances. Like the Zouaves, this
+last-named corps is a favourite with adventurous volunteers, ambitious
+of distinction and the epaulet. In its fourth squadron, the author of
+these sketches held an officer's commission. He writes like a gentleman
+and a soldier; his style is pointed and to the purpose, and free from
+egotism and affectation. He himself shared in some of the warlike
+episodes he tells of; others are derived from the verbal or written
+narratives of his comrades. They comprise a great variety of details,
+and fully initiate us into the phases of a soldier's life in Africa.
+Numerous as are the works, French, English, and German, of which French
+conquest and colonisation in Africa have furnished the theme, there was
+still abundant room for this one, taking up, as it does, that branch
+of the subject which writers generally have had least opportunity of
+appreciating--the joys and sorrows, hardships and exploits, perils
+and sufferings, of the French soldier in Algeria. A fresh interest is
+also imparted to it by the prominent part lately and still taken in
+public affairs in France by men who have risen into distinction through
+their valour and military talents during the long struggle with the
+Arabs. Comparatively inattentive as we in England were to the razzias
+and skirmishes of the African campaigns, the names of Changarnier,
+Cavaignac, and Lamoricière can hardly be said to have dwelt in our
+memories until revolution and civil strife in their own country brought
+them to the front. It now is interesting to revert to those earlier
+days of their career, when they fought the Bedouin on the arid plains
+and in the perilous defiles of North Africa, fostering in that rough
+school the sternness and tenacity of character which they since have
+more than once had occasion usefully to display amidst the turmoil of
+domestic discord.
+
+"At four days' march from Milianah," says M. de Castellane, "in the
+heart of the valley of the Cheliff, stand some old Roman walls, bearing
+mute testimony to the power of the ancient rulers of the land. At
+the foot of these walls, not far from tracts of stubble and dried
+herbs, delicious gardens and orchards, orange and pomegranate trees,
+and limpid springs, invite a halt; whilst luxuriant vines, trailing
+from branch to branch, form bowers of verdure, and offer delightful
+shelter to the fatigued wayfarer. It was at this spot that General
+Changarnier's column, consisting of twelve hundred infantry, three
+hundred regular cavalry, and four hundred Arab horsemen, was reposing,
+in the month of September 1842, from its numerous expeditions under a
+burning sun, protecting by its presence the tribes that had recently
+made their submission, and giving the _aman_ to those numerous ones
+which came to implore it.[17] The column had been for some time at
+_El-Arour_, (the name of these gardens), when a letter reached the camp
+from our Aga in the south. Menaced by Abd-el-Kader, Ahmeur-ben-Ferrah
+asked succour of General Changarnier, entreating him to arrive speedily
+if he did not wish soon to learn the ruin and massacre of the tribes
+to whom France owed protection. It was of the utmost importance to go
+quickly to his assistance. To pass by Milianah was to lengthen the
+journey four days; through the mountains, on the other hand, in two
+marches they would be near enough to support him. The tribes seemed
+peacefully disposed. The Arab chiefs assured the French that not a
+shot would be fired at them. They spoke of a very difficult defile,
+but two hours, they said, would take the troops through it. Besides,
+it was dangerous only in case of hostility from the tribes adjacent
+to the river, whose chiefs, only the evening before, had visited
+the camp in friendship. Finally, the general had under his orders
+Zouaves, Chasseurs of Orleans, and Chasseurs of Africa, commanded by
+Colonel Cavaignac, Major Forey, and Colonel Morris. With such valiant
+troops, and such lieutenants, no danger was to be dreaded; General
+Changarnier's decision was soon taken; he would pass through the
+mountains."
+
+On the 17th of the month the little band set out, marched the 18th,
+receiving the submission of several tribes, and early on the morning of
+the 19th reached the Oued-Foddha river. There a halt of some duration
+was ordered, preparatory to entering the defile through which the river
+flows. The cavalry and a small party of infantry went out foraging.
+Presently, a well-sustained fire of musketry was heard, and an officer,
+sent to reconnoitre, saw the foragers defending themselves bravely
+against a host of white-draped Kabyles, headed by officers of the Arab
+regulars, dressed in red, who ran from group to group, exciting the
+men to the combat. This furious attack was rather a contrast with the
+peaceable passage promised by the Arab chiefs. But retreat could not
+be thought of. It would be a signal for the spread and consolidation
+of the revolt, and would occasion as much loss of life as a forward
+movement. The order was given to march, and the head of the column
+plunged boldly into the frightful gorge of the Oued-Foddha.
+
+"Meanwhile, on the right (the left bank of the river, for they were
+marching southwards, whilst the Oued-Foddha flows towards the north,)
+Captain Ribain's company of Chasseurs d'Orleans, sent to cover
+the foraging, steadily retired upon the column; from brushwood to
+brushwood, from tree to tree, each man retreated, seeking a favourable
+position, a good ambuscade; and often the same obstacle concealed
+a Kabyle on one side, and a chasseur on the other, each seeking an
+opportunity to kill his opponent. When they reached the last platform
+the bugle sounded the gymnastic step, and forthwith the chasseurs,
+rolling and sliding down the slopes, rapidly rejoined the rearguard,
+now about to enter the pass. The real combat was beginning; already
+the Kabyles shouted from the summits on either hand, 'You have entered
+your tomb, and will never leave it:' but they reckoned without our
+soldiers, without the chief who commanded them. Calm, impassible,
+General Changarnier rode with the rearguard, wrapped in his little
+_caban_ of white wool,[18] a target for every bullet, giving his
+orders with a coolness and precision that reassured the troops and
+redoubled their ardour. A description of the ground is essential to
+a clear comprehension of this terrible struggle. A hundred feet wide
+of sandy soil, furrowed by the bed of the torrent, was the ground
+they fought upon; right and left were steep slaty precipices, fringed
+with pine-trees; from the peaks of the mountains, which towered
+like obelisks, the balls poured down: such was the theatre of the
+combat. Imagine this ravine, these rocks, these mountains, covered
+with a multitude exciting themselves by their own yells, intoxicating
+themselves with the smell of powder, blind to danger, and rushing upon
+a handful of men, who opposed the coolness of energy, and the regular
+action of discipline, to their disorderly fury. But never for a moment
+did our soldiers cease to be worthily commanded. The officers set
+the example; the chief had not hesitated an instant, but had at once
+made up his mind, and imparted to his troops his own promptitude and
+decision. His plan was to march quickly, so as to pass the peaks, which
+were separated by impenetrable ravines, before the mass of Kabyles
+could get from one to the other: to effect this he occupied one of
+those positions indispensable to the safety of the column; and the
+rearguard, when too hard pressed, extricated itself by vigorous charges
+with the bayonet.
+
+"Fortunately the tribes to the east did not take part in the attack,
+so that the defence was at first confined to the right. Nevertheless,
+the column was advancing with difficulty, when it reached one of
+those passages that must be occupied. Some rocky precipices impended
+over the bed of the river, in front of a marabout or tomb, surrounded
+by lentisk trees; the rifle company of the Chasseurs d'Orleans were
+ordered to take these rocks; they sprang forward, full of ardour,
+but the steeps were frightful, and a week's provisions are a heavy
+load. Their lieutenant, Ricot, who had rushed forward without looking
+whether he was followed, was the first upon the platform. Two balls
+pierced his breast. Lieutenant Martin and two men, hastening to his
+assistance, were likewise shot down. The surviving officer, hurrying in
+their footsteps, was checked by a terrible wound. The company, deprived
+of their officers and sergeant major, and exposed, without guide or
+leader, to a storm of bullets, was compelled to retreat, rescuing M.
+Martin, who was still alive. The other wounded were torn to pieces in
+sight of the column, amidst the ferocious cries of the Kabyles.
+
+"The General immediately ordered a halt; the Zouaves and three
+companies of the Chasseurs of Orleans were to assault the position,
+whilst the cavalry drove back the enemy in the bed of the river. The
+charge was sounded, with Colonel Cavaignac and Major Forey at the
+head of the troops; the General sprang forward and surmounted the
+steep flanks of the mountain, closely followed by his eager soldiers.
+Fury was at its height, and the struggle terrible. M. Laplanche, a
+staff officer attached to the Zouaves, was killed, a major had his
+horse killed, a captain his epaulet shot off; the General himself
+was indebted for his life to a bugler, who killed a Kabyle whose
+musket-muzzle was at his breast. At last we were masters of the
+position. In the river the charge of cavalry had also been completely
+successful: numerous dead bodies lay there, including some of women,
+who threw themselves on our soldiers, mixed with the Kabyles, fighting
+like men, and cutting off, for bloody trophies, the heads of the slain.
+
+"These two vigorous offensive movements procured us a little respite;
+soon, however, the combat was renewed with fresh ardour. The officers,
+foremost in danger, were also the first hit. Five officers of Zouaves,
+three of the Chasseurs d'Orleans, had already fallen, and it was but
+the middle of the day. Colonel Cavaignac, with his Zouaves, persisted
+in revenging his officers. It was no longer courage, but fury; every
+man was worth a score, and seemed to multiply himself to face all
+perils. As to the General, the bullets and the danger only increased
+his audacious coolness; his eyes beamed, and wherever he passed he
+inspired all with new energy. Amidst the noise of the musketry, which
+the mountain echoes repeated like the howling of a storm, the column
+advanced; the cavalry marching in front, with orders to halt, towards
+nightfall, in the first favourable position.
+
+"The troops had reached a spot where the two lofty banks of the
+ravine, bending inwards, again left but a narrow passage. Both banks
+were now occupied by the Kabyles; and whilst two companies were sent
+to repel them on the left, Captain Ribains, with a detachment of
+Chasseurs d'Orleans, was ordered to occupy the right-hand position.
+It was a vertical cascade of rocks and slaty soil, covered with firs
+and brushwood; a rivulet flowed across and soaked the ground, upon
+its way to the river. The captain dislodged the Arabs, occupied the
+position, thus assuring the free passage of the column; but, when he
+would have rejoined the main body, the Kabyles threw themselves upon
+his little band. A few men, the foremost files, tried to descend in a
+straight line; their feet slipped upon the slope, rendered slippery
+by the water, and nine of them were precipitated from an elevation
+of eighty feet. They rolled from rock to rock, from cliff to cliff,
+trying, but in vain, to cling to the bushes, and fell at last into the
+bed of the river. The rest of the company had inclined to the right
+towards a ravine, letting themselves drop from tree to tree, to rejoin
+the column. One soldier, Calmette by name, separated from his comrades
+and surrounded by Kabyles, was driven to the brink of the precipice.
+With his rifle he shot down one, two others fell by his bayonet; then,
+finding that he must fall, he seized two Kabyles, and sought to avenge
+his fate by making them share it. The rock was perpendicular; they fell
+from its summit, and, by unheard of good luck, the Kabyle to whom the
+chasseur most closely clung fell under him, and by his death saved his
+enemy's life. As to Captain Ribains, he was descending last of all, and
+seemed to defy the hostile bullets, when three Kabyles rushed upon him,
+fired, and fractured his shoulder. Fortunately his men managed to carry
+him off. All who witnessed still remember his being borne past the
+General, who congratulated him on his glorious conduct; his energetic
+countenance expressed the legitimate pride of duty done, and blood
+nobly poured out."
+
+At last night approached, and the bivouac was established at a place
+where the bed of the river expanded. Tents were pitched for the General
+and the wounded; the soldiers received fresh ammunition; a battalion
+was ordered to march, in profound silence, at two in the morning, to
+occupy the heights along the river bank, by which the morrow's march
+would lead. The French, still excited by the contest, conversed eagerly
+round their bivouac fires. Their Arab allies were discouraged, and
+sat gloomily beside their saddled horses, wrapped in their _burnous_
+and without fire. There were but three surgeons in the camp, and
+their hands were full. Most of the wounds had been received at the
+musket's muzzle, and were very painful. Eight amputations took place
+during the night. The quarter of the bivouac where the hospital was
+established, resounded with groans and cries of anguish. Examples of
+heroic endurance were not wanting. "For three quarters of an hour the
+chief surgeon probed and tortured the arm of Captain Ribains, saving
+the limb by his skill. During this long operation, the captain, seated
+on a biscuit box, amidst the dead and dying, showed as much fortitude
+as he had previously displayed courage. Not a complaint did he utter;
+only, from time to time, he could not help turning to the surgeon and
+saying--'Really, doctor, you hurt me.' Amongst the wounded of the 4th
+Chasseurs d'Afrique was a soldier named Cayeux. Feeling his death
+approach, he sent for his captain. After giving him a last message
+for his mother: 'Give my thanks, also,' said the soldier, 'to Colonel
+Tartas; he is a good man--he has always loved those he commanded; tell
+him that one of his soldiers thanks him with his dying breath.'" An
+affecting trait, honourable alike to soldier and to chief. There was
+much to do that night: it was all done, and well done. Litters were
+required for the wounded: trees were cut down, and the litters were
+made. The dead were to be buried: an hour before daybreak they were
+collected; a detachment of engineers, diverting the course of the
+stream, dug a hole, in which the bodies were deposited, and over which
+the water was again allowed to flow. This was to protect the corpses
+from Kabyle profanation. At dawn the march was resumed, amidst the
+shouts of the Kabyles, summoning each other to the massacre of the
+French. Their surprise and rage were excessive on finding the positions
+along the line of march all occupied. Notwithstanding the disadvantage
+of ground, the French now had the best of it, and several times during
+that day's march they turned upon their pursuers with terrible effect,
+the Zouaves especially distinguishing themselves. "After one of these
+rallies, they passed, to the great joy of all, through some magnificent
+vines, and quenched their thirst with the ripe grapes--the General
+himself, to whom the soldiers hastened to offer the first-fruits of
+the vintage, setting the example. Just then Colonel Cavaignac passed
+by. 'Here, my dear colonel,' said General Changarnier, offering him
+a splendid bunch of grapes, 'you must need refreshment after such
+glorious fatigues.' And they fell into chat, the balls falling thickly
+around them, until Colonel Cavaignac was called away to one of his
+captains, shot down at a few paces' distance, and who wished to
+recommend to him his mother and sister, and to give him his cross of
+officer of the Legion of Honour."
+
+A short time brought the column out of the defile upon ground which,
+although mountainous, appeared by contrast an open plain, and where
+the cavalry could act with advantage. The Kabyles were beaten off; and
+the next day halt was made, to rest the men, look after the wounded,
+and execute a plan of reprisals devised by Changarnier. His spies had
+informed him where the flocks and families of his late antagonists were
+assembled. A razzia was ordered in the night, and its result was eight
+hundred prisoners and twelve thousand head of cattle. Thus encumbered
+with captives, spoil, and wounded, the little band, which originally
+numbered barely two thousand men, now notably reduced by two days'
+severe fighting, completed a march of fifty leagues, to the utter
+astonishment of the natives, who could not believe that such a handful
+of troops had made their way, amidst the storm of Kabyle bullets,
+through those terrible ravines, which the Arabs designate the defiles
+of death. The affair of the Oued-Foddha is still celebrated in the
+French army as one of the most heroic achievements of the African war.
+All who were engaged did their duty well, taking example from their
+commander, of whom M. de Castellane speaks in the highest terms. Eight
+months after this affair the Kabyles had made their submission, and
+the war was at an end in the province--for a time, at least. General
+Changarnier was about to return to France. M. de Castellane accompanied
+him to the coast.
+
+"I well remember that, on our road from Milianah to Algiers, the Arab
+chiefs came to greet him on his passage, and amongst them I met an
+old Caïd of the Hadjouts, whom I had known at Blidah. We spoke of
+the numerous razzias and nocturnal expeditions that had destroyed
+his warlike tribe. 'His name, with us,' he said to me, speaking of
+General Changarnier, 'signifies the _subduer of pride, the conqueror
+of enemies_;[19] and he has justified his name.' Then pointing to the
+long line of mountains which border the Mitidja from Chenouan to
+the sea, 'When the storm comes,' he continued, 'the lightning runs
+in an instant along all those mountains, penetrating their inmost
+recesses. Thus did his glance discover us. And when he had seen us,
+the bullet reaches not its aim more rapidly!' The old Arab spoke the
+truth. General Changarnier's characteristics are a quick and sound
+judgment, and dauntless energy: he knows how to command. His courage
+rises with danger; then, if you approach him, his vigour communicates
+itself to you, and you cannot doubt of success. At Constantina he first
+distinguished himself, and since then he has never for a day been
+inferior to the glorious reputation he there acquired. If ever you find
+yourself at the bivouac, or under the soldier's little tent, with one
+of those old African bands, get them to talk to you of their numerous
+expeditions under his orders, and you will see what they say of him."
+
+It was in March 1843 that M. de Castellane and some other officers left
+Algiers for Blidah, there to join General Changarnier, and commence,
+under his orders, a campaign in the interior. Their mid-day halt was at
+Bouffarik, an unwholesome town, frequently ravaged by fever, but which,
+nevertheless, enjoys a certain degree of prosperity, due to its central
+position. Here they refreshed themselves, according to invariable
+custom, at the celebrated coffee-house of _la Mère Gaspard_, a veteran
+sutler, who, after following the drum ever since the first landing of
+the French in 1830, had wearied of wandering, and pitched her tent at
+Bouffarik. There she greatly prospered, and in a few years had land
+of her own, a splendid hotel and coffee-house. "The place was adorned
+with paintings, marbles, and mirrors, and especially with some very
+fine engravings from Horace Vernet's pictures, which had been placed
+there by the hand of the celebrated artist. One day, dying of thirst,
+Vernet alighted at Mother Gaspard's. There he was offered drink, and
+land to buy. He drank and he bought some land, but, when signing
+the bargain, he perceived that the walls were covered with wretched
+lithographs after his pictures. Like a good neighbour, he promised to
+send the engravings, and he kept his word. Mother Gaspard, proud of the
+gift, never fails to relate the incident, and in my turn I repeat the
+tale." Between Bouffarik and Blidah, the traveller comes to a monument
+erected in honour of a sergeant and fifteen men who perished there in
+1840. They and five others were escorting the post-bag from Bouffarik,
+when they were set upon by some four hundred mounted Arabs. Forming a
+miniature square, they made a valiant defence, but five only survived
+when a squadron of Spahis came to the rescue.
+
+At Blidah, a perfect labyrinth of streets, squares and lanes, the
+travellers were greatly puzzled to find the General's quarters, when
+an obliging Arab volunteered to guide them to the residence of the
+_Changarlo_. It was a very humble habitation for the commander of a
+great province. A single sentry stood at the door; a great fig tree,
+the refuge of countless pigeons, shot up in the middle of the court;
+a small chamber, the only one upon the first floor, was the General's
+sleeping room; upon the ground floor, a large apartment answered the
+double purpose of orderly-room and of an aide-de-camp's bed-chamber.
+Two tolerably furnished rooms were allotted to visitors. At Blidah,
+as in camp, General Changarnier's hospitality was proverbial, even
+amongst the Arabs. M. de Castellane and his comrades found a cordial
+reception. But they were not long to enjoy themselves beneath the
+shadow of the General's fig-tree. The march was ordered for the next
+morning; Blidah's quiet streets and unfrequented shops swarmed with
+soldiers, providing themselves with coffee and tobacco, and such other
+comforts as their pocket-money allowed. The French soldier receives
+twopence half-penny every five days--no great fund for luxuries. On
+all sides, fatigue-parties were hurrying to the stores; and at night,
+until tattoo was beaten, every wine-house, was thronged for a parting
+carouse. At daybreak, with well-packed knapsacks and a week's rations
+on their backs, the column set out for Milianah. No apprehensions of
+perils or fatigues ruffled their joyous humour. They were all old
+soldiers, hardened in many campaigns; and besides, as they themselves
+said, in their barrack-room style, "with Changarnier there is always
+a smell of mutton." The allusion was to the numerous flocks they had
+captured under his orders. The success of his frequent razzias had
+made the saying proverbial amongst the troops. "On the 13th June 1849,
+the sixth battalion of Chasseurs, who had so long served under General
+Changarnier in Africa, having received orders to charge the insurgents
+in the streets of Paris, set off laughing and repeating to each other,
+to the great astonishment of the national guards, the old African
+proverb: 'This smells of mutton.'"
+
+The town of Milianah had twice been preserved to the French by the
+skill and enterprise of General Changarnier. In June 1840, that officer
+was colonel of the 2d Light Infantry, a regiment celebrated in African
+annals, and whose exploits have been repeatedly recorded on the canvass
+of Horace Vernet. The French army, commanded by Marshal Valée, was
+assembled, exhausted by many fatigues, beneath the walls of Medeah.
+Milianah, then but recently occupied by the French, was in want of
+provisions. All the generals deemed its relief impossible; the distance
+was too great, the men were too weary. Colonel Changarnier thought
+otherwise, and volunteered the service. By a march of twenty-four
+leagues in thirty hours, he evaded the enemy and accomplished his
+task, returning to Medeah four days afterwards, to receive the
+congratulations of the whole army. The stores and succours thus thrown
+into Milianah would suffice, it was hoped and expected, until the end
+of the autumn. But the hot season brought sickness in its train; vermin
+destroyed part of the provisions; the cattle died: famine was imminent.
+
+"Pent up within the ramparts and hard pressed by hunger, the soldiers
+ate whatever they could lay hands upon, even boiling and devouring
+weeds and mallows. This unwholesome nourishment, acting on the brain,
+induced nostalgia and suicide. Of twelve hundred men, seven hundred
+and fifty had perished; four hundred were in hospital, the others were
+little better than invalids, and had hardly strength to carry their
+muskets. The officers themselves were obliged to stand sentry, and the
+fatal day was near at hand when, for want of defenders, the town must
+be taken. No letters, no news--the spies had all been killed. At last a
+despatch from the governor escaped the Arabs, and intelligence reached
+Algiers of the sad condition of the garrison. Colonel Changarnier,
+who had become general since his first relief of Milianah, had
+increased, by further feats, his reputation for skill and audacity,
+and to him Marshal Valée again had recourse. Only two thousand men
+could be spared, wherewith to brave the attacks of the whole forces of
+Abd-el-Kader, who then had scarcely passed the zenith of his power. But
+Changarnier did not hesitate. The greater the peril, the more glorious
+the success."
+
+By spreading reports of a march in a contrary direction, the daring
+leader gained a day upon the enemy, and then cut his way to Milianah,
+reaching it in time to save the remnant of the unfortunate garrison.
+But three years had greatly changed the aspect of affairs; and when
+M. de Castellane reached Milianah in 1843, he found five thousand
+effective soldiers waiting the orders of Changarnier. There ensued a
+period of idleness for the men, but of great activity for the General
+and staff. The plan of campaign was to be sketched out; information was
+to be obtained concerning the nature of the country.
+
+"Everyday the Aga of the Beni-Menacers, Ben-Tifour, came to the
+General's quarters with men of his tribe, and there, by dint of
+questioning, by asking the same things ten times over and of ten
+different individuals, the chief of the province succeeded in obtaining
+exact notions of the country, the halting places, the water, the
+bivouacs. During this time a constant communication was kept up with
+Cherchell by means of spies. Some of the letters sent cost five hundred
+francs postage, for the carriers risked their lives. At last, after
+mature reflection, the General's plan was decided upon and written
+down; and his orders were given with that clearness and precision which
+leaves no doubt or ambiguity. This was one of General Changarnier's
+characteristics. With him obedience was always easy, because the duty
+was never doubtful."
+
+At Milianah the French officers had a club, a pleasant pavilion in the
+middle of a garden. A library and a coffee house were attached to it.
+For evening amusement there was the theatre. Ay, a theatre at Milianah!
+How could Frenchmen, even in the heart of Algeria, exist without a
+vaudeville? The soldiers were actors. The _vivandières_ lent their caps
+and gowns to dress up the female characters. "I well remember," says M.
+de Castellane, "seeing _Le Caporal et la Payse_ played at Milianah. The
+Dejazet of the company, a mettlesome _Artémise_, excited the laughter
+of the whole audience, even that of General Changarnier, who often
+attended the performance, in his box of painted paper. It is impossible
+to say how much these amusements, which some may deem futile,
+contributed to keep up the spirits of the troops, and to dispel those
+gloomy ideas which in Africa are often the forerunners of nostalgia and
+death."
+
+Not all these diversions and resources, however, could reconcile M. de
+Castellane to a fortnight's halt at Milianah. He beguiled his anxiety
+for action by researches into the history of certain Arab tribes. The
+three principal families of Milianah were those of Omar, Sidi-Embarek,
+and Ouled-ben-Yousef. At that time, Sidi-Embarek was organising amongst
+the Kabyles a vigorous resistance to the French, to whom Omar was
+friendly. The recent annals of the Omars are highly curious, and form a
+chapter of the purest Oriental romance. In the valley of the Cheliff,
+"at Oued-Boutan, the new Hakem of the town of Milianah, Omar Pacha, of
+the illustrious family of the pacha of that name, was waiting for us.
+There we had a fresh proof of the deep traces the Turks have left in
+this country. After more than thirteen years, the remembrance of them
+is still so lively amongst the people, that the son of the Pacha Omar
+was surrounded by the respect of all these chiefs as in the day of his
+family's power."
+
+"The most celebrated of the Omars was one of those Turkish soldiers,
+each one of whom may say, when he dons the uniform--'If it is written,
+I shall be a pacha!' Mehemet Ali, putting into Metelin on his way
+to Egypt, met Omar, whose brother had for some years past held high
+office under the Pacha of Algiers. Mehemet Ali and Omar formed a close
+friendship, and set out together to seek their fortune, but scarcely
+had they reached Egypt when Omar received a letter from his brother
+Mahomed, summoning him to his side. The two friends parted, with a vow
+that the first who succeeded in life should share his prosperity with
+the other. At Oran, where his brother had become Caliphate of the Bey,
+Omar's fine figure, his eye, whose gaze none could endure, his long
+black mustaches, and his brilliant beauty, procured him the surname of
+_chaous_. Soon afterwards, the daughter of a Turk of Milianah, named
+Jemna, whom all cited as a marvel of loveliness, became his wife. But
+Omar's prosperity was of short duration. His brother Mahomed, whose
+credit with the Pacha of Algiers gave umbrage to the Bey of Oran, was
+thrown into prison, and the Bey ordered his death. Omar was compelled
+to share his brother's dungeon, and when the executioner entered, he
+would have defended him; but Mahomed prevented it. 'The hour of my
+death is come,' he said. 'It is not given to man to resist the power
+of the Most High; but pray to him daily that he may choose thee as my
+avenger; and bear in mind that you are the husband of my wife and the
+father of my children.' Thenceforward, revenge was Omar's sole thought;
+and when, by the Pacha's order, the Bey sent him to Algiers, he used
+all his efforts to elevate himself, in order to hasten the hour of
+retaliation. Soon he became Caïd of the Arabs; and his wife Jemna,
+who at first had been prevented leaving Oran, managed to join him,
+through a thousand dangers, escorted by her father, Si-Hassan, and by a
+faithful servant, Baba-Djelloull.
+
+"The troops of Tunis marched against Algiers; a battle took place,
+and the Turks were giving way, when Omar, dashing forward with thirty
+horsemen, made a daring charge, rallied the army by his example, and
+decided the victory. On his return to Algiers, the troops clamorously
+demanded him as their Aga. Meanwhile, Mehemet Ali's fortune had also
+made progress. The massacre of the Mamelukes consolidated his power,
+and he testified his recollection of his friend, by sending him a
+magnificent tent.
+
+"The country flourished under the administration of the new Aga. Stone
+bridges were built over the Isser and the Cheliff. In the words of
+the Arab chronicle, victory everywhere accompanied Omar. His name was
+a terror to his enemies, and he was blessed by all the people, when
+the Bey of Oran, still detesting the brother of Mahomed, and dreading
+this new power, persuaded the Pacha of Algiers that Omar was planning
+to usurp his throne. Fortunately, an intercepted letter warned Omar,
+who hurried to the barracks, and assembled the troops. 'It is you
+who have raised me,' he said, 'and in none others do I recognise the
+right to cast me down. I place myself in your hands; either kill me or
+deliver me from my enemies.' The furious soldiery ran to the Pacha's
+palace, stabbed him, (1810) and would have named Omar in his stead; but
+Omar refused, and the _khrasnadji_, or treasurer, was then elected.
+All-powerful, Omar saw the hour of revenge at hand. The Bey of Oran
+having revolted, he marched against him, took his enemy prisoner, and
+had him flayed alive. In the province of Oran you are still told of
+_Bey el messeloug_, the flayed Bey.
+
+"In 1816, fearing the Coulouglis,[20] the Pacha planned their massacre,
+and confided his project to Omar, who, far from countenancing it, had
+the Pacha stifled in his bath. This time he was obliged to accept the
+Pachalik. When sending the customary present to the Porte, he intrusted
+Si-Hassan and his son Mahomed with rich presents for Mehemet Ali, who
+was named Pacha almost at the same time. For the space of two years,
+Omar made head against all manner of misfortunes--against the plague,
+the locusts, and Lord Exmouth's bombardment; but poor Jemna had lost
+her peace of mind, for she knew that all Deys die a violent death. In
+1818, she was in the pains of childbed when she heard discharges of
+artillery. Seized with alarm, she desired to see Omar, and, contrary
+to etiquette, she sent her faithful attendant, old Baba-Djelloull, to
+seek him; but the old man soon returned, and returned alone. Jemna
+understood, and swooned away. At the same instant, numerous blows were
+struck on the door of her apartments. It was the _chaous_ of the new
+Dey, coming to take possession of Omar's treasures."
+
+The treasures were enormous in amount. M. Roche, the French
+consul-general at Tangiers, to whom M. de Castellane declares himself
+indebted for this very interesting history of the Omar family, derived
+his account of them from a son of Jemna, apparently that one whose
+birth she was hourly expecting when she was shocked by the intelligence
+of her husband's violent death. "Omar's palace contained a hundred
+negroes, three hundred negresses, ten Georgians, twenty Abyssinians,
+forty thoroughbred horses, ten mares from the Desert. The entire
+furniture of one saloon was of gold and silver, adorned with precious
+stones; another room was full of chests of gold and silver coin, silk
+brocade, and cloth of gold. Jemna changed her dress every week, and
+attached to each costume was a complete set of diamonds, consisting of
+a diadem, an aigret and earrings, a collar of fifteen rows of pearls,
+two clasps, bracelets, twelve rings for the fingers and two for the
+ankles, and a tunic of cloth-of-gold, studded with precious stones."
+Omar's murderer and successor would fain have wedded his widow, but she
+spurned his offer. He then seized her treasures, and, in the moment of
+good-humour which their great amount occasioned him, he allowed her to
+retire with her children to Milianah, where her father had property.
+After a few months' sway, the new Pacha was assassinated in his turn,
+and his successor, Hadj-Mohamed, went to inhabit the Casbah palace,
+in defiance of a prophetic inscription announcing an invasion by
+Christians during the reign of a Pacha whose residence should be the
+Casbah.
+
+He died of the plague; and Hassan, who succeeded him, and who had
+been an _iman_ under Omar, showed his gratitude to his former master
+by magnificent presents to his widow, and great kindness to his sons.
+Jemna had almost forgotten past sorrows in present happiness, when the
+arrival of the French brought her fresh disasters and sufferings. Her
+sons allied themselves with the invaders, thereby incurring hatred
+and persecution from Abd-el-Kader. They were stripped of all they
+possessed: Omar, the youngest of them, was loaded with fetters, and
+placed in a dungeon; Jemna escaped the bastinado only by the mercy
+of an executioner, who inflicted it upon a negress in her stead. At
+last the intervention of some Arab chiefs procured the liberty of both
+mother and son, and the progress of the French enabled them to take
+up their residence in safety at Milianah, where Omar was appointed
+_hakem_, an office equivalent to mayor. In 1843, M. de Castellane
+was present at an interview between Marshal Bugeaud and Jemna, whose
+countenance, in spite of lapse of years and many sorrows, still
+retained traces of great beauty.
+
+The chief of the Sidi-Embarek, a family which, although of Arab race,
+had enjoyed great respect and influence in the country for some
+centuries before Turkish rule was terminated by French usurpation,
+had actively stimulated the persecution of the family of Omar, whose
+personal enemy he was. M. de Castellane gives the following account
+of the founder of the Sidi-Embarek:--"In 1580, a man of the Hachems
+of the west, named Si-Embarek, left his tribe, with two servants, and
+went to Milianah. There, on account of his poverty, he discharged his
+servants, who settled upon the banks of the Cheliff, and gave birth to
+the tribe of Hachems still existing there. Sidi-Embarek then went to
+Coleah, and engaged himself as _rhamès_ (a sort of subordinate farmer)
+to a certain Ismael; but, instead of working, he slept; and meanwhile,
+marvellous to relate, the yoke of oxen intrusted to him ploughed by
+themselves, and, at the close of day, he had done more work than
+anybody else. This prodigy was reported to Ismael, who, desirous of
+witnessing it with his own eyes, hid himself one day, and saw Embarek
+sleeping under a tree whilst the oxen ploughed. Thereupon Ismael knelt
+before him, and exclaimed--'You are the elect of God; 'tis I who am
+your servant, and you are my master;' and, taking him home, he treated
+him with profound respect. Embarek's reputation for holiness spread
+far and wide; multitudes thronged to solicit his prayers and make him
+offerings, and he speedily acquired great riches." The grandson, many
+times removed, of this miraculous ploughman, was a Marabout or saint
+by right of descent; but he was also a very considerable fighting
+man, and a most efficient lieutenant of Abd-el-Kader. We make his
+acquaintance under very striking circumstances, in the course of M. de
+Castellane's curious account of the Spahis of Mascara. The corps of
+Spahis had its origin in the necessities of African service. Excellent
+and most efficient as are the regiments of light dragoons known as
+_Chasseurs d'Afrique_, they were not all that was wanted in the way
+of cavalry. It was found expedient to make Arab fight Arab. Knowledge
+of the country, and of the habits of the foe, was as essential as
+good soldiership. The prospect of gain brought abundant recruits; the
+discipline exacted was less rigid than in French regiments; the sole
+uniform was a red _burnous_, stripped off in an instant, when desirable
+to conceal the military character of the wearer. Europeans not being
+excluded from the corps, many roving and desultory blades, tempted by
+the adventurous nature of the service, and to whom the routine and
+strict discipline of a more regular one would have been irksome, have,
+at different periods, served in the ranks of the Spahis, and sometimes
+sabred their way to a commission--"strange adventurers," says M. de
+Castellane, "whose lives resembled some tale of former days cut out
+of an old book." And he gives an account of two such persons whom he
+met with in the Mascara squadron, with which his own was for some time
+brigaded. One was a French _maréchal-de-logis_ or sergeant, named
+Alfred Siquot, a man of good family and eccentric character,--a great
+humourist, whose gloomy air and silent laugh had procured him from
+his comrades the surname of Jovial. There does not appear, however,
+to have been mystery in his previous life, which was open to all, nor
+any particular romance or adventures in its incidents previously to
+his service in Africa. The case was very different with his comrade,
+Mohamed-Ould-Caïd-Osman, who had the rank of native officer. "The Arab
+name concealed a Prussian one, and an agitated life, full of duels
+and adventures--of condemnations to death, and executions in effigy.
+Clever and well-informed, there was a great charm in his bluntness of
+manner, and his bravery, justly celebrated, procured him the respect of
+all. He was the very type of the officer of fortune--of the lansquenet
+of former days. His double-barrelled gun, as much dreaded by the
+Arabs as by the partridges--his dog Tom--his sorrel charger, a beast
+of famous bottom--were his sole friends in the field. In garrison, a
+fourth affection found a place in his heart--a little Spanish girl, who
+never opened her mouth, and was as devoted to him as his dog. Tom, the
+_Chica_, the Caïd, made but one. Their life, with its joys and sorrows,
+was in common. Now and then Siquot went and smoked his pipe in the
+midst of the three friends.
+
+"As to the Caïd's African life, it was well known, and its accidents
+had more than once beguiled the leisure of the bivouac. He had been
+twice seen at Algiers, but in very different circumstances. The
+first time, in all his splendour, he was travelling with Prince
+Puckler-Muskau, who speaks of him in his _Letters_, designating him by
+his initials. The second time, in 1840, he had assumed the knapsack of
+the infantry soldier, and was marching to the defile of Mouzaia, in the
+ranks of the foreign legion."
+
+The ruined gentleman, however, could not accustom himself to walking,
+and after a severe campaign, in which three-fourths of his company
+perished, he procured a substitute and left the legion. Once more a
+free agent, his roving propensities were checked for a while by the
+fascinations of a fair Moor. "Halfway up the hill leading to Mustapha,
+stood a cheerful white house, embowered in foliage and commanding a
+splendid view of the Bay of Algiers. The Armida of that enchanting spot
+was named Aïcha, and never did Eastern poet dream of a more charming
+creature. What wonder, then, if beneath these shades six months of
+peace, calm, and repose elapsed. Each morning the smiling beauty seated
+herself at Osman's feet, whilst he wrote, upon a little Arab table, in
+the midst of perfumes and flowers, the life of a Protestant missionary
+whom he had met in one of his rambles."[21] The Rinaldo of the foreign
+legion might, one would think, have been well content to linger long
+in such a retreat and such society. Aïcha was fond and constant, and
+was rapidly acquiring German. But after six months of this Capuan
+existence, the vagabond again got the upper-hand in the restless soul
+of the Caïd. Like the celebrated Lord Lovel, he loved and he rode away;
+the horse, in this case, being represented by a steamer, which carried
+him off westwards one fine morning, his gun on his shoulder, and in
+his pocket a letter of recommendation, now two years old, for General
+Lamoricière, whom he had formerly known in command of a battalion of
+Zouaves. What became of Aïcha--whether she cried her eyes out, or took
+arsenic, or another lover--the little dog, as Mr Commissary Capsicum
+would say, forgot to mention.
+
+"The province of Oran, in 1841, was far from tranquil; a stout heart
+and a strong arm had then abundant opportunities of distinction.
+Mohamed-Ould-Caïd-Osman, inscribed under this Arab name on the
+muster-roll of the Spahis, and Siquot, who enlisted at the same
+period, did not miss such opportunities. Soon afterwards, Siquot was
+wounded, the Caïd had his horse killed under him, and their names
+appeared in the orders of the army. Heroes, whether illustrious or
+unknown, always find enviers; take as an example Sergeant Froidefond, a
+grumbling old trooper, who thought proper to tell the Caïd he was good
+for nothing but cleaning his nails. On their return to Mascara, they
+fought at twelve paces: Froidefond fired first, and the Caïd fell, shot
+through the buttock. The seconds ran forward to pick him up. 'Stop!'
+he cried, 'it is my turn to fire;' and raising himself on his elbow,
+he shot Froidefond dead. He himself was then carried to the hospital,
+where he found Siquot, who was getting cured of a wound. On hearing
+what had happened, the Chica--who had then been about a year mixed up
+in his existence, without very well knowing why, like the dogs who
+attach themselves to a squadron--hastened to the hospital to nurse him,
+and in three months he was on his legs again."
+
+The Caïd had returned to his duty when, in 1813, M. de Castellane's
+regiment entered Mascara with trumpets sounding, escorting Marshal
+Bugeaud. Abd-el-Kader was at no great distance, and Generals
+Lamoricière and Tempoure had been operating against him until the
+cavalry of the province had great need of repose to recruit and
+remount. One night a Spanish deserter came over from the Emir, and gave
+Marshal Bugeaud important information, fully confirming the reports
+of the spies. An hour later, orders were given for an expedition in
+pursuit of Abd-el-Kader's battalions of regulars, of whom Sidi-Embarek
+had just taken the command. General Tempoure had charge of the column,
+which consisted of two battalions of infantry, four hundred and fifty
+French dragoons, fifty Spahis, including Siquot and the Caïd Osman, and
+a few irregular horse.
+
+"If the official reports in the _Moniteur_ were not there to confirm
+its truth, the narrative of this expedition would risk being deemed a
+fable. Cavalry and infantry marched three days and three nights: in the
+morning they halted for one hour and a half--at night, from six o'clock
+till midnight. From the moment when the trail of the enemy was first
+struck, the drum was not once beaten. They followed the scent, like
+dogs pursuing their prey. Thirty Spahis, with some horsemen belonging
+to the Arab office at Mascara, preceded the column; they _read the
+earth_ during the night. What all exciting time that was! We came to
+bivouacs whose fires were still burning; the enemy had left them only
+that morning, and in all haste we resumed our march. At last, after
+forty-eight hours, our Arab scouts, hovering round the flanks of the
+column, captured two Arabs of the tribe of Djaffra. These refused at
+first to speak; but a musket-muzzle, applied to their heads, untied
+their tongues, and we learned that the regulars were at Taouira on the
+previous evening. We were on the right road, therefore, and should end
+by overtaking them. The march was resumed, the Spahis still leading.
+Not a pipe was alight; profound silence was observed, broken only by
+the noise of a fall, when some sleepy foot-soldier stumbled over an
+obstacle. Day broke, and a slight smoke was seen; the fires had just
+expired, the regulars were gone. The hope which had hitherto sustained
+the soldiers' strength suddenly abandoned them; nothing was heard but
+cries and maledictions. Everyone grumbled at the general. The morning
+halt was called in a hollow, and whilst the soldiers ate, the scouts
+reported that the traces of the enemy were quite fresh. For a second
+General Tempoure hesitated; then his decision was taken, and the order
+for instant march given. A great clamour arose in the bivouac. 'He
+wants to kill us all!' cried the soldiers, who during seventy hours
+had had but a few moments of repose. They obeyed, however, and the
+march was resumed. In an hour's time, the track turned southwards. In
+that direction there was no certainty of water. No matter, advance we
+must. But the traces grew fresher and fresher: here a horse had been
+abandoned; a little farther, a jackass. 'We have got the rascals!'
+said the soldiers, and their strength revived. At last, towards eleven
+o'clock, whilst the column was passing through a deep ravine, a thick
+smoke was seen behind a hill. This time the enemy was assuredly
+there. Fatigue vanished as by enchantment. In an instant cloaks were
+rolled, priming renewed, horses girthed up; all was ready, and the
+troops formed for the attack. Three hundred infantry supported three
+columns of cavalry; the centre was commanded by Colonel Tartas of the
+4th Chasseurs. The advance began; just then there was the report of a
+musket; it was a vedette whom our scouts had been unable to surprise.
+The Arab galloped up the hill, waving his _burnous_. At the same
+moment, the drums of the regulars beat to arms; there was a stir in
+our ranks. The cavalry broke into a trot; the infantry, forgetting
+forced marches, followed at a run, and from the top of the hill we
+saw the two battalions of regulars, who had been unable to reach the
+opposite summit, halt half way up. Away went the cavalry, sabre in
+hand, horses at a gallop, Colonel Tartas at their head. They were met
+by a volley of musketry; some fell, but the avalanche broke through
+the obstacle, and the Arabs were cut down on all sides. Their horsemen
+try to escape--some flying to the left, others straight forward. They
+are pursued by all whose horses are not yet knocked up; and the Caïd
+Osman rolls over with his charger, which is hit in the head. M. de
+Caulaincourt, admirably mounted, continues the race; he kills one of
+the Emir's horsemen; but, separated by a ridge of ground from his
+soldiers, whom he has outstripped, he is surrounded by enemies. Without
+losing his presence of mind, he spurred his horse and broke through
+the circle, sabre in hand; when, just as he was about to rejoin his
+men, an Arab, issuing from a glade, shot him with a pistol, close to
+the eye. The horse galloped on, and carried back the wounded officer
+to his troop. The blood streamed, the flesh hung in shreds; M. do
+Caulaincourt, however, was still conscious. Lifted from his horse, a
+soldier took him on his back and carried him to the surgeon, traversing
+the scene of the combat, a true field of the dead. In a narrow space
+lay five hundred corpses, nearly all frightfully mutilated by the
+sabres of our chasseurs.
+
+"A steep bank of rock had checked the progress of those horsemen who
+had fled to the left. Several alighted, and, jerking their horses with
+the bridle, surmounted the obstacle. Only one of them rode at a walk
+along the foot of this rocky wall. The whiteness of his garments and
+beauty of his equipments marked him as a chief. Siquot, a corporal of
+chasseurs, and Captain Cassaignoles, rode after him. The ground was
+very bad, full of impediments. The corporal was the first to reach him;
+just as his horse's nose touched the crupper of the Arab's charger, the
+horseman, turned round with the utmost coolness, took aim, and laid
+him dead on the spot. At the same moment Siquot came up and wounded
+the Arab, but received a pistol-ball through his left arm, the same
+shot killing the horse of Captain Cassaignoles, who was a little lower
+down the slope. The tall cavalier then rose in his stirrups, and struck
+Siquot on the head with his heavy pistol-butt, when Corporal Gerard of
+the Chasseurs, riding up on the top of the bank, shot him through the
+breast. The horse was caught; it was a splendid animal, which a wound
+in the shoulder had alone prevented from saving its master's life.
+'See if that Arab is blind of an eye,' cried Captain Cassaignoles.
+They looked; an eye was wanting. 'It is Sidi-Embarek; let his head be
+cut off.' And Gerard, with a knife, separated the head from the body,
+that the Arabs might not have a doubt of his death. Then all obeyed
+the recall, which was sounding. The chase was over; the regulars were
+broken and destroyed; cruel fatigue had been rewarded by complete
+success. General Tempoure returned to Mascara, and a month later each
+man received, according to the Arab expression, _the testimony of
+blood_, the cross so glorious to the soldier.
+
+"The chances of war then separated us from the Caïd: I also learned
+the return of Siquot to France, where, by an odd coincidence, he
+received from his Paris friends the same surname as from his African
+comrades. As to the German lansquenet, he marked every corner of the
+province of Oran by some daring feat, and always fortunate, invariably
+escaped unhurt. Within three years of service, he was five times
+named in orders, and passed through the noncommissioned grades to the
+rank of cornet. When I next met with him in 1846, Tom, the horse, the
+Chica, formed, as before, his whole family. Poor Chica, who in all her
+life had never had but one ambition, that of wearing a silk dress! In
+garrison, Tom was purveyor; he and his master started at daybreak and
+returned at night, weary but content, and with a well-filled game-bag.
+The Chica, who had passed the day singing, laid the table, and the
+three friends supped together.
+
+"Some months later, after an absence of three weeks, one of our
+squadrons returned to Mascara from the outposts. We were moving down
+the street that leads to the cavalry barracks, when we saw the officers
+of the garrison assembled before the Caïd's little house. They advanced
+to greet and shake hands with us, and they told us that the Chica, the
+Caïd's companion, the friend of all, was dead.
+
+"The poor little thing had suffered for some time; the evening before,
+however, she had got up. There was a bright warm sun, and the air was
+full of perfume. 'Chico,' said she to the Caïd, 'give me your arm,
+I should like to see the sun once more.' She took a few steps, wept
+as she gazed on the budding foliage and the beauty of the day: then,
+as she returned to her arm-chair, 'Ah! Chico,' she exclaimed, 'I am
+dying!' And in sitting down she expired, without agony or convulsion,
+still smiling and looking at the Caïd.
+
+"At this moment the Chica's coffin was borne out of the house; all
+present uncovered their heads, and we joined the officers who followed
+her to her grave.
+
+"The cemetery of Mascara, planted with olive and forest trees, is
+situated in the midst of gardens: everything there breathes peace,
+calm, and repose. The Chica's grave had been dug under a fig-tree.
+The Spahis who carried her stopped, all present formed a circle; two
+soldiers of the Engineers took the light bier, and lowered the poor
+Chica into her final dwelling-place. The Caïd was at the foot of the
+grave. One of the soldiers presented him with the spadeful of earth:
+the Spahi's hard hand trembled as he took it; and when the earth,
+falling on the coffin, made that dull noise so melancholy to hear, a
+big tear, but half suppressed, glistened in his eyes.
+
+"Thenceforward Tom, whom the Chica loved, was the Caïd's only friend."
+
+Some may suspect M. de Castellane of giving a romantic tint to his
+African experiences. We do not partake the suspicion. Even in the
+nineteenth century, generally esteemed prosaic and matter-of-fact,
+there is far more romance in real life than in books; and the
+Prussian-Arab Osman is but one of scores, perhaps hundreds, of military
+adventurers who have fought in various services during the last twenty
+years, and the events of whose career, truly noted, would in many cases
+be set down by the supporters of circulating libraries as overstrained
+and improbable fiction. In that chapter of M. de Castellane's work
+which consists of the journal of an officer of Zouaves, we find an
+account of another singular wanderer, who in the year 1840 deserted
+from the Arabs, (having previously served with the French,) and came
+into the town of Medeah, where the Zouaves were in garrison. He was a
+very young man, a Bavarian, of the name of Glockner, son of a former
+commissary in the service of France, and nephew of a Bavarian officer
+of the highest rank. "A cadet at the military school at Munich, he was
+sent, in consequence of some pranks he played, to serve in a regiment
+of light dragoons; but his ardent imagination and love of adventure
+led him to fresh follies; he deserted into France. Coldly received,
+as all deserters are, he was enrolled in the foreign legion. He had
+hardly reached Africa when he became disgusted with the service, and,
+yielding to the craving after novelty which constantly tormented him,
+he deserted to the Arabs. He remained with them three years. Kidnapped
+at first by the Kabyles, he was taken to a market in the interior,
+and sold to a chief of the tribe of the Beni-Moussa. After being his
+servant for a year, he managed to escape from his master's tent, and,
+with legs bare, a _burnous_ on his shoulders, a camel rope round his
+waist, and a pilgrim's staff in his hands, he marched at random in a
+southerly direction. In this manner he reached the Desert, passing
+his nights with the different tribes he encountered, amongst whom he
+announced himself by the Mussulman's habitual salutation, 'Eh! the
+master of the Douar! A guest of God!' Thereupon he was well received;
+food and shelter were given him, and he departed the next morning
+unquestioned as to his destination. It concerned no one, and no Arab
+ever asked the question. He followed his destiny. Thus did Glockner
+cross a part of the Sahara, and reach the town of Tedjini, Aïn Mhadi;
+thence he went to Boghar, Taza, Tekedempt, Mascara, Medeali, and
+Milianah; then, enrolled by force amongst the regulars of El Berkani,
+he made the campaigns of 1839 and 1840 in their ranks. Decorated by
+Abd-el-Kader in consequence of a wound received the 31st December
+1839--a wound inflicted, as he believes, by a captain of the 2d Light
+Infantry--he again returned to us, after other adventures, like the
+prodigal child, lamenting his follies, weeping at thoughts of his
+family, especially of his father, and entreating as a favour to be
+received as a French soldier. They talked of sending him back to the
+foreign legion, but he begged to be admitted into the Zouaves, and was
+accordingly enlisted as an Arab, under the name of Joussef. He was
+then but one-and-twenty years old, was fresh as a child, timid as a
+young girl, and marvellously simple in his bearing and language." The
+end of this young fellow's history, as far as M. de Castellane became
+acquainted with it, is on a par with its commencement. "In the Zouaves
+his conduct was admirable. In every engagement in which he shared, his
+name deserved mention. Made a corporal, then a sergeant, he was sent to
+Tlemcen on the formation of a third battalion of Zouaves. Recommended
+by Colonel Cavaignac to General Bedeau, he rendered great services by
+his intelligence and knowledge of the Arab tongue. His father, to whom
+they had written in Bavaria, had confirmed the truth of his story. He
+was happy, and treated with consideration, when, one fine morning, he
+took himself off with a political prisoner who had just been set at
+liberty, and deserted into Morocco. He remained there a long time; then
+he went to Tangiers, and, denounced by the French consul as a deserter,
+he was going to be tried by a court-martial, when, in consideration
+of his former services, they continued to treat him as an Arab. His
+mania for rambling is really extraordinary; and he declares that he
+cannot approach a strange country without being seized with a desire to
+explore it."
+
+It is surprising that the African campaigns have not been more
+prolific of military sketches and memoirs from the pens of French
+officers. Although tolerably familiar for many years past with
+French literature, we can remember but few such works. _La Captivité
+d'Escoffier_, noticed, in conjunction with an English volume upon an
+analogous subject, in a former Number,[22] is the only French book of
+the kind we have met with for a long time; and that was of inferior
+class, and of less authentic appearance, than M. de Castellane's
+agreeable _Souvenirs_. We should have thought the war in Africa, the
+adventurous and often severe marches of the troops, the exploits of
+the hunting-field, the humours of garrison life, and the tales of the
+bivouac, would have found innumerable chroniclers amongst the better
+educated portion of French officers. The French soldier is a good
+study for painter or humourist; whether as the stolid recruit with the
+ploughman's slouch and the smell of the furrow still hanging about him,
+or the smart and wide-awake trooper of four or five years' service,
+or the weather-beaten old sergeant, all bronze and wrinkles, with his
+grizzled moustache, his scrap of red ribbon, his tough yarns and his
+mixture of simplicity and shrewdness, his lingering prejudices against
+English and Germans, and his religious veneration of Napoleon the
+Great. We believe M. de Castellane would be successful in portraiture
+of French military character and eccentricities, and we regret he has
+been so sparing of it. Here and there we find a characteristic bit of
+camp-life, or a pleasant sketch by the watch-fire.
+
+"During our marches, we were never weary of admiring the constancy of
+the infantry-man, so heavily loaded that, in mockery of himself, he
+has taken the surname of the _Soldat-chameau_. It was really wonderful
+to see them make those long marches, under a burning sun, across
+frightful mountains, always gay and cheerful, and amusing themselves
+with the merest trifle.... It is on their arrival at the bivouac that
+their industry is displayed to the greatest advantage. Pause beside
+this little tent, and watch the chief of the squad; they bring him
+crabs, tortoises, water serpents, all manner of creatures that have no
+name, but a flavour, and which experience teaches may be eaten without
+danger. Or they bring a mess-kettle full of bullock's blood. Thrice
+boiled and suffered to grow cold, bullock's blood forms a sort of black
+cheese. Spread upon biscuit, with a little salt, this is tolerable
+food, and a precious resource for famished stomachs." In presence of
+such messes as these, it is easy to understand the popularity of a
+general who, like Changarnier, classed a greasy haversack amongst a
+soldier's first necessaries, and rarely allowed his men to lack mutton,
+of either Arab or Kabyle growth. For the loss of their flocks and
+herds the natives retaliated, when opportunity offered, by the theft
+of French horses. "In the night we had an alarm; we were in a friendly
+district, but our friends were not the less arrant thieves. Two horses
+were taken away. According to their custom, some bold fellows, stark
+naked and well anointed with grease, so as to slip through detaining
+fingers, glided between the tents, crawling like snakes. On coming
+to two fine horses, they cut the thongs that shackled them, jumped
+on their backs, and were off at a gallop, clearing all obstacles
+and crouched upon the animals' necks to avoid the bullets of the
+advanced sentries. A few hours later, another of these gentry was less
+fortunate. The soldier on guard over the piled muskets, remarked, as
+he perambulated his beat, a bush of dwarf palm. It was upon his right
+hand. A minute afterwards the bush had changed its place, and stood
+upon his left. This struck the sentry as looking like mischief. He took
+no notice, but quietly cocked his musket and continued his walk. The
+bush continued to change its place, gaining ground little by little;
+suddenly it made a rapid advance, and a Kabyle, dagger in hand, sprang
+upon the soldier; but the soldier received him on the point of his
+bayonet. The thrust was mortal, and the living bush rose no more." The
+Kabyles might have taken lessons from the Thugs of India and the Red
+men of North America. On a large scale, as well as in petty details,
+stratagem was a prominent feature of the war in Africa. Beneath the
+spacious tent of one of the Arab allies of the French, M. de Castellane
+listened one evening, in an atmosphere fragrant with the vapours of
+pipes and coffee, to the extempore stanzas of a native poet. When the
+improvisatore had come to an end, and had received his tribute of
+praise, an old sergeant of the Spahis of Orleansville narrated the
+death of the Aga of Ouarsenis.
+
+"It was on the 20th July of this year," he said; "Hadj Hamet had gone,
+with his _goum_[23] and twenty Spahis, to seek at Mazouna the betrothed
+of his son. His heart was joyful, and happiness reigned around him,
+when the young girl was delivered to him. After a night of rejoicing,
+the escort set out. On arriving at Oued-Meroui, we saw at a distance
+a _goum_ of Arabs. Hadj Hamet thought it was the Aga of the Sbehas,
+advancing with his horsemen to perform the _fantasia_ before the
+bride, and at a sign from him his followers formed in two lines, to
+give the strangers free passage. The troop came up at a gallop, dashed
+in between the double row of horsemen, and then, turning right and
+left, sent a volley into their faces. It was Bon Maza in person. Thus
+unexpectedly attacked, the _goum_ broke and fled; the Spahis alone
+stood by old Hadj Hamet, who defended his daughter until loss of blood,
+which already flowed from several wounds, left him no longer strength.
+At last he fell dead. Of the twenty Spahis, ten had fallen; all was
+over; the other ten cut their way through, and reached Orleansville."
+
+Formidable as many of the Arabs are--owing to their excellent
+horsemanship and skill in arms--in single-handed conflicts, in large
+bodies they rarely await the charge even of far inferior numbers
+of disciplined cavalry. Near the confluence of the Cheliff and the
+Mina, on an October day in 1845, two squadrons of dragoons, under
+Colonel Tartas, were in quest of the aforesaid Bou Maza, who had been
+committing razzias upon tribes friendly to the French. Reinforced
+by a native ally, Sidi-el-Aribi, with a handful of horsemen, and
+notwithstanding the heavy load of four days' rations for man and horse,
+they pressed on at a rapid pace, and on surmounting a ridge of ground,
+beheld, "numerous as the sands on the sea-shore, the hostile Arabs
+firmly waiting our attack. In the centre floated an immense green
+banner, and the wings, forming a horse shoe, seemed ready to enclose
+us. "Walk!" cried Colonel Tartas, and we advanced at a walk, sabre in
+scabbard. In his loud parade-voice, the colonel then gave his orders,
+and the squadrons formed front, each keeping a division in reserve.
+Between the two squadrons marched the colonel and his standard; at his
+side was Sidi-el-Aribi; behind him a little escort; on our flanks,
+the handful of Arab horse. "Where is the rallying place?" asked the
+adjutant. "Behind the enemy, round my standard," replied the colonel;
+and then, connected as by a chain, the squadrons broke into a trot,
+with sabres still sheathed. At musket-shot distance, "Draw swords!"
+shouted the colonel; and the two hundred and fifty sabres were drawn
+as by one hand. A hundred paces further we changed to a gallop, still
+in line like a wall. Suddenly, on beholding this hurricane of iron,
+so calm and so strong, advancing towards them, our innumerable foe
+hesitated; a dull noise, like the sound of the waves in a storm, arose
+in the midst of the multitude. They crowded together, wavered to and
+fro, and suddenly disappeared like dust before the gale. In a quarter
+of an hour we drew bridle. A hundred of the enemy were on the ground;
+and our Arab allies, pursuing the fugitives, secured much spoil. As
+for us, without hospital train, without troops to support us, at three
+leagues and a half from all assistance, the least hesitation would have
+been perdition. Coolness and audacity had saved us; and there, where
+our only hope was a glorious death, we obtained a triumph.
+
+"Pressing round Colonel Tartas, near his standard, which two balls had
+rent, all these men of _great tent_,[24] all these bronze-complexioned
+Arab chiefs, their eyes lighted up by the excitement of the fight,
+thanked him as their saviour. At their head, Sidi-el-Aribi, with that
+majestic dignity which never deserted him, lavished expressions of
+gratitude upon the colonel; whilst around them, like a frame to the
+picture, the foaming horses, the dragoons leaning on their saddles, the
+arms and floating garments of the Arabs, the heads which some of them
+had fastened to their saddle-bows, and a nameless something in the air
+which told of victory, combined to give to the scene somewhat of the
+noble and savage grandeur of primitive times."
+
+We will not contrast with the picture thus vividly painted by M. de
+Castellane, the less romantic episodes of grubbing for silos, (buried
+stores of corn,) driving cattle, or smoking unfortunate Arab families
+out of their caves of refuge. Of all these matters the chasseur speaks,
+if not altogether admiringly, yet as necessities of that war, and
+stands forth with plausible sophisms in defence of the barbarities of
+the razzia system. We did not take up his sketches with disputatious
+intentions, and are quite content with the interest and amusement we
+have extracted from them, without attempting to drive their author from
+positions which, we suspect, he would find it as difficult to defend as
+the Arabs did to maintain those assailed by the gallant charges of the
+African Chasseurs.
+
+
+
+
+THE GREEN HAND.
+
+A "SHORT YARN."
+
+A WIND-UP.
+
+
+"No, Westwood," said I, "it can't be the right one--nor any of these,
+indeed!" And on looking at the chart, which was one not meant for
+anything but navigation in open water, with the channels laid down
+clearly enough, but evidently rather off-hand as to the islands, Jones
+himself seemed to get uncertain about the matter; partly owing to the
+short glimpse he'd had of the other chart, and partly to its being,
+as he thought, an old one made for a purpose, by a hand that knew the
+islands well. After two or three days' sail, we were getting into the
+thick of the Maldives, where the reefs and sand-banks stretching out
+on every side, and beginning to lap in upon each other, made it more
+and more dangerous work; but at any rate the islands we saw were either
+very small, or else low and muddy-like, with a few scrubby-looking
+cocoas upon them, like bulrushes growing out of a marsh. No runaway
+sailors would ever think of taking up their quarters hereabouts, even
+if we hadn't caught sight of a smoke now and then, and once of some
+native craft with a couple of brown mat-sails and an out-rigger, that
+showed the clusters hereaway to have people about them. Besides there
+was no pretext any Indiaman could have for steering near enough to such
+a jungle of mud and water, to give a boat the chance of making towards
+it with any certainty. I saw at once that the spot in question must lie
+tolerably for the course of a ship to western India, otherwise they
+wouldn't have appeared so sure of their mark as Jones said they did.
+All this, at the same time, kept me the more bent on searching the
+matter out ere I did aught else, seeing that in fact the Indiaman's
+attempt to get rid of the schooner was the very thing likely to bring
+her on this track; fancying, as she would, that we were either in chase
+of her toward Bombay, or off on our own course again. Now, on the one
+hand, nothing could fit better for the said runaway scheme of Harry
+Foster's; and on the other hand, nothing would have pleased me more,
+and greatly eased my mind too, than to catch him and his chums on their
+spree ashore. The worst of it was, that I began to have my doubts of
+Jones again. He was the only man that could put us on the right scent;
+yet he seemed either to have lost it, or to have something creeping
+on his mind that made him unwilling to carry it out. "Mr Jones," said
+I, as the schooner was hove to, and he stood musing gloomily by the
+binnacle, with a glance now and then in at the compass, and out at the
+chart again, "if you're at a loss now, sir, just say--and I shall try
+my own hand for want of better!" "No, Lieutenant Collins!" answered
+he suddenly, in a husky voice--"no, sir, that's not it, but--God help
+me! no, there's no use standing against fate, I see. Whatever it costs
+me, Mr Collins," he went on, firmly, "I'm with you to the end of it;
+but--there _is_ something horrible about all this!" "How! what do
+you mean?" said I, startled by the difference in his manner, and the
+quiver of his lip. "Oh," said he, "as for the present matter, there
+may be nothing more in it than what I heard on the ship's boom yonder.
+The truth is, I didn't know at first but this cluster here might have
+been the one--though I see now there is only _one_ island in the whole
+chain that can answer the description, and that is not here." With
+that he pointed to another piece of the chart, showing no more than
+a few spots upon the paper, not to speak of shades in it standing
+for reefs and shoals, towards the "Head" of the Maldives; one spot
+lying away from the rest, with the single name of Minicoy for them
+all. I asked him hastily enough what it was called, and all about it,
+for the whole affair made me more and more uneasy; but on this point
+Jones seemed inclined to keep close, plainly not liking the topic,
+except that I found it went by several names, one of which I had heard
+before, myself--White-water Island. About the time I was a boy in a
+merchantman's forecastle, 'twas a sort of floating yarn amongst some
+seamen, this White-water Island, I remembered; but I never met with
+a man that had seen it, every one having had it from a shipmate last
+voyage, though a terrible place it had been, by all accounts, without
+one's knowing exactly where it was. One craft of some kind had gone to
+find out a treasure that was buried in it, and she never was heard of
+more; a man took a fancy to live ashore in it, like Robinson Crusoe,
+and he went mad; while the reason there were no "natives" was owing to
+the dreadful nature of it, though at the same time it was as beautiful
+as a garden. The right name, however, according to Jones, was Incoo.
+"There's no good in blinding one's self to it, Mr Collins," he went
+on--"that's the island the men meant; only their chart set me wrong
+owing to the greater size of it--you had better beat out of this at
+once, and keep up for the eight-degrees channel there."
+
+We were in open sea again, out of sight of land from the mast-head,
+steering for somewhere about north-north-east, with a very light
+breeze from nearly the monsoon quarter, and sometimes a flying squall,
+sometimes no more than a black pour of rain, that left it hotter than
+before. The clear deep blue of the Indian ocean got to a sickly heavy
+sort of dead colour towards noon, like the bottoms of old bottles,
+and still we were standing on without signs of land, when, almost
+all at once, I noticed the water in the shadow of the schooner had a
+brown coffee-like tint I had never exactly seen hitherto; indeed, by
+the afternoon, it was the same hue to the very horizon, with a clean
+seaboard on all sides. I had the deep-sea lead-line hove at length, and
+found no soundings with a hundred and fifty fathoms; there was neither
+land nor river, I knew, for hundreds and hundreds of miles to the coast
+of Arabia; as for current, no trial I could think of showed any; and
+there were now and then patches of small glittering sea-jellies and
+sea-lice to be seen amongst a stalk or two of weed on the soft heave
+of the water, going the way of the breeze. A dozen or so of Portuguese
+men-of-war, as they call them, held across our bows one time; little
+pink blubbers, with their long shining roots seen hanging down in
+the clear of the surface, and their little blue gauze sails with the
+light through them, ribbed like leaves of trees, as they kept before
+the wind. Westwood and I both fancied we could feel a queer sulphury
+smell as we leant over the side, when a surge came along the bends.
+Not a single fish was to be seen about us, either, except the long
+big black-fish that rose one after the other at a distance, as the
+wind got lighter. One while you heard them groaning and gasping in the
+half-calm, as if it were the breathing of the sea far and wide every
+time it swelled; another, one saw them in a cluster of black points
+against the bright sky-line, like so many different-shaped rocks with
+the foam round them, or a lot of long-boats floating bottom up, with
+their back-horns for humps on the keel. As for Jones, he looked graver
+and graver, till all of a sudden we saw him go below; but after a
+little he came up with an almanac in his hand, and his finger fixed
+where the time of the next new moon was given, as I found when I took
+it from him, for he seemed not inclined to speak. "Why, what has that
+to do with the thing?" I said; "we are heading fair for the Minicoy
+cluster, I think." "Yes, sir," said he; "if one needed anything to
+prove that, he has only to look at the sea--at this season, I _knew_
+how it would turn out." "Well, that's what I can't understand, Mr
+Jones," said I; "the water seems as deep as St Paul's Cathedral thrice
+over!" "Do you not know then, sir, why that island is called--what it
+is?" was the answer,--"but wait--wait--till _night_!" and with that
+Jones turned round to the bulwarks, leaning his arms on the rail. In
+the mean time, Jacobs and some of the men had drawn a bucket of water,
+which we noticed them tasting. A pannikin full of it was handed along
+to the quarterdeck, and the taste struck you at once, owing to the want
+of the well-known briny twang of real blue-water, and instead of that
+a smack as it were of iron, though it was as clear as crystal. Every
+one had a trial of it but Jones himself: indeed, he never once looked
+round, till it had occurred to me to pour the tin of water into a glass
+and hold it with my hand over it inside the shade of the binnacle, when
+I thought I made out little specks and sparks shooting and twisting
+about in it, as if the water had a motion of itself; then it seemed to
+sink to the bottom, and all was quiet. Just then I looked up and caught
+Jones' scared restless sort of glance, as if he were uneasy. There was
+a strange life in that man's brain, I felt, that none could see into;
+but owing as it plainly was to something far away from the present
+matter, I knew it was best to let him alone. In fact, his doing as he
+did showed well enough he meant fair by ourselves. Nothing on earth
+ever gave me more the notion of a wreck in a man, than the kind of gaze
+out of Jones' two eyes, when he'd turn to the light and look at you,
+half keen, half shrinking, like a man that both felt himself above you,
+and yet, somehow or other, you'd got him under you. I'm blessed if I
+didn't trust him more because he had been too desperate a character
+in his deeds beforehand to turn his mind to little ones now, than for
+anything good in him; being one of those fellows that work their way
+from one port to another in ships' forecastles, and get drunk ashore,
+though, all the time, you'd say there wasn't one aboard with them, from
+the skipper to the chaplain, knew as much or had flown as high some
+time. Some day at sea the hands are piped round the grating, hats off,
+and the prayer-book rigged,--down goes "Jack Jones" with a plash and a
+bubble to his namesake, old "Davy," and you hear no more of him!
+
+Well, just after sundown, as the dusk came on, Westwood and I left the
+deck to go down to supper with the Planter, the midshipman being in
+charge. There was nothing in sight, sail or land; indeed, the queer
+dark-brown tint of the horizon showed strongly against the sky, as if
+it had been the mahogany of the capstan-head inside its brass rim; the
+night was cloudy, with a light breeze, and though the stars came out, I
+expected it to get pretty dark. As I went down the companion, I heard
+nothing but the light wash of the water from her bows, and the look-out
+stepping slowly about betwixt her knightheads on the forecastle: while
+it struck me the smooth face of the sea seemed to show wonderfully
+distinct into the dusk, the completer it got, as if a sort of light
+rose up from off it. Down below we felt her stealing pleasantly through
+all, and Tom and I sat for I didn't know how long, trying to settle our
+differences on the main point--about the Seringapatam, of course, and
+which way she was likely to be gone. Tom plumed himself mightily on his
+common-sense view of a thing, and having by this time got back a good
+deal of his cheerfulness, he and Mr Rollock almost laughed me over to
+his line of thinking.
+
+We agreed that the ship must be at present edging up on one side or
+other of the Maldives, but both of them thought the less we had to say
+to her the better. "I say, though," exclaimed the Planter, whose face
+was turned the opposite way to ours, "I'd no idea it was moonlight!"
+"Moonlight!--there's no moon till morning," I said. "Look into the
+stern-cabin there, then!" said Rollock; and I turned round, seeing into
+the door of the after-cabin, where, to my no small surprise, there was
+a bright white glare through the little square stern-light, gleaming
+on the rim of the sill, and seemingly off both the air and the water
+beyond. Quite confounded, as well as wondering what Snelling could be
+about, I hurried up the companion, the Planter and Westwood hard at my
+heels.
+
+For so long as I had kept at sea, and a good many different latitudes
+I had been into--yet I must say I never in my life before saw such a
+strange sight as broke on us the instant we put our heads out of the
+booby-hatch, fresh from the lamp-light in the cabin. Indeed, I can't
+but own to my first feeling being fright; for what it was I couldn't
+understand, unless we were got into a quarter of the world where things
+weren't natural. There were a few stray clouds in the sky, scattered
+away ahead, and clearing eastward to settle along before the breeze;
+all aloft of us, high over the sharp dark edge of the sails and gaffs,
+the air seemed to open away out pale and glimmering like a reflection
+in the ice; all round you caught a glimpse of the stars weakening and
+weakening toward the horizon. But the water itself--that was the sight
+that bewildered one! On every side the whole sea lay spread out smooth,
+and as white as snow--you couldn't fancy how wide it might stretch
+away astern or on our lee-beam, for not a mark of horizon was to be
+seen, save on the northwest, where you made it out, owing to the sky
+there being actually darker than the sea--but all the time the wide
+face of it was of a dead ghastly paleness, washing with a swell like
+milk to our black counter as we forged ahead. It wasn't that it shone
+in the least like blue water at night in the ordinary tropics--by
+Jove! that would have been a comfort--but you'd have thought there
+was a winding-sheet laid over all, or we were standing across a level
+country covered with snow--only when I stood up, and watched the bows,
+there was a faint hissing sparkle to be seen in the ripple's edge,
+that first brought me to myself. The Lascars had woke up where they
+lay about the caboose, and were cowering together for sheer terror;
+the men standing, each one in his place, and looking; while Jones, who
+had relieved the midshipman, leant by himself with his head on the
+capstan, as if to keep out the sight of it all: the schooner's whole
+dusky length, in fact, with every black figure on her decks, and her
+shape up to the lightest stick or rope of her aloft, appearing strange
+enough, in the midst of the broad white glare, to daunt any one that
+wasn't acquainted with the thing. "Mr Jones," said I quickly, on going
+up to him, "what the devil is this? I'll be hanged if I didn't begin to
+believe in witchcraft or something. Where are we getting to?" "Nothing,
+nothing, sir," said he, lifting his head; "'tis natural enough; only
+the milk sea, as they call it--the white water, sir, that comes down
+twice a-year hereabouts from God knows where--you only see it so at--at
+_night_!" "Oh, then, according to that," I said, "we shan't be long
+of sighting your island. I suppose?" "No," said he, "if the breeze
+freshens at all, keeping our present course, the mast-head ought to
+hail it in two or three hours; but God knows, Lieutenant Collins,
+natural though the sight is, there's something a man can't get rid of,
+especially if"--He stood up, walked to the side, and kept facing the
+whole breadth of the awful-looking sea, as it were till it seemed to
+blind him. "I tell you what, sir," said he slowly, "if that water had
+any use, a priest would say, 'twas sent to wash that same island clean
+of what's been done on it; but it couldn't, Mr Collins, it couldn't,
+till the day of judgment!" He leant over till his dark face and his
+shoulders, to my notion, made the milk-white surge that stole up to the
+schooner's bends take a whiter look. "If that water could wash _me_,
+now," muttered he, "ay, if it could only take the soul out of me, curse
+me, but I'd go down, down this moment to the bottom!" With that he gave
+a sudden move that made me catch him by the arm. "No, no, Mr Collins,"
+said he, turning round; "the truth is, I mean to go through with it:
+by G--, I'll let it carry me where I'm bound for! D--n it, wasn't I
+born without asking my leave, and I'll kick the bucket the same way,
+if it was on a blasted dunghill!" "Come, come, Mr Jones," said I, in a
+soothing sort of way, "go below for a little, and sleep; when we hail
+the land, I'll have you called." "I'd rather not, sir," said Jones,
+quietly; "the truth is, it strikes me there's something strange in my
+happening to be aboard here, at this particular season, too; and see
+that same island, _now_, I must! It's fate, Lieutenant Collins," added
+he; "and I must say, I think it's the more likely something may turn
+out there. Either you'll see that ship, or the men, or else _I_'ll be
+there myself, in some way or other!"
+
+Now there was something in all this that began at moments quite to
+bewilder one, the more excited the state was it put you in. There was
+nothing for it but to push on, and see what might come of it. Indeed,
+the weather favoured us better on our present course than on any
+other; and I felt, if I didn't keep active, I should go distracted.
+'Twas almost as if what Jones said had a truth in it, and a sort of a
+power beyond one were drawing the schooner the way she steered; while,
+at the same time, there was every little while somewhat new in the
+extraordinary looks of things to hold you anxious. Even a flying touch
+of a squall we had about midnight didn't the least do away with the
+whiteness of the water all around: on the contrary, as the dark cloud
+crept down upon us, widening on both sides like smoke, the face of the
+sea seemed to whiten and whiten, casting up a ghastly gleam across the
+cloud, with its ripples frothing and creaming: till, not knowing _how_
+things might go hereabouts, you almost expected the first rush of the
+wind to send it all in a flame to our mastheads. Then up she rose on
+a surge like a snow-drift, and off we drove heeling over to it, gaffs
+lowered and canvass down, everything lost sight of, save the white
+sea heaving up against the mist; while the clear-coloured plash of
+it through our weather bulwarks showed it was water sure enough. The
+squall went off to leeward, however, the rain hissing like ink into
+the swell it left, and spotting it all over till the last drops seemed
+to sink in millions of separate sparkles as far as you could see. The
+schooner rose from one heave to another to an even keel on the smooth
+length of it, hoisting her spanking gaffs, hauling aft the sheets,
+and slipping ahead once more to a breeze fed by the rain. As the sky
+cleared, the dead white glare the water sent up into it was such, you
+didn't know the one from the other toward the horizon; and in the midst
+there was only the smooth faint surface, brushing whiter with the
+breeze, as if it was nothing else kept it from going out of sight; with
+a few streaky clouds turning themselves out like wool in a confused
+rift of the air aloft; the schooner walking in it without ever a
+glimpse of a shadow on one side or another; while, as for seeing a sail
+on the horizon, you might as well have looked for a shred of paper. It
+wasn't light, neither, nor was it haze; nothing but a dead colour off
+the very sea's face--for the schooner rose and plunged without letting
+you see a hair's-breadth of her draught below the water-line. Every man
+rubbed his eyes, as if it were all some kind of a dream, and none the
+less when suddenly we were right upon a long patch of black stripes
+winding away through the white, like so many sea-serpents, come up to
+breathe, with both ends of them lost in the faintness. Nobody stirred,
+or said, "Look-out;" stripe after stripe she went slipping through them
+as if they'd been ghosts, without a word or an extra turn of the wheel.
+I daresay, if we had commenced to rise in the air, every man would have
+held on like grim death, but he wouldn't have wondered much; 'twas
+just, "whatever might happen to please them as had the managing of it,"
+which was Jacob's observation when we talked of it after.
+
+Mr Snelling was the only one that ventured to pass a joke; when Jones,
+who I thought was out of hearing, looked at the reefer with such a
+fierce glance, and so scornful at the same time, that I couldn't help
+connecting what happened the very next moment with it--for without
+the slightest warning, both of us were flung to leeward, and Snelling
+pitched into the scuppers, as a huge rolling ridge of the white water
+came down upon our beam; while the schooner broached to in the wind,
+floundering on the swell with her sails aback. Had the breeze been
+stronger, I think it would have fairly swamped us with the sternway she
+had; and heave after heave swelled glaring and weltering out of the
+pale blind sky, till our decks swam with light in the dusk under the
+bulwarks, and about the dark mouths of the hatchways. Just as suddenly
+the rollers seemed to sink in the smooth of the sea, and at last we
+payed off with the breeze as before, at the cost of a good fright
+and a famous ducking. Two or three times in the course of the middle
+watch did this happen, except that we were taken less by surprise, and
+had the hatches closed, with every rope ready to let go; the breeze
+strengthening all the time, and the same sort of look continuing all
+round and aloft.[25]
+
+About four o'clock or so, the appearance of the sky near where the
+horizon ought to be, right ahead, struck Westwood and me as stranger
+than ever; owing to a long lump of shadow, as it were, lying northward
+like the shape of a bow or the round back of a fish miles long, though
+it softened off at one end into the hollow of the air, and the gleam of
+the white water broke past the other like the streaks of the northern
+lights in a frosty night toward the Pole, save for the thin shadowy
+tint of it, and the stars shining plainly through. I'd have fancied
+it was high land; when suddenly the half-moon was seen to ooze like
+a yellow spot out of the shapeless sort of steam to eastward, like a
+thing nobody knew, shedding a faint brown glimmer far below where you
+hadn't seen there was water at all. The bank of shadow softened away
+towards her, till in little more than five minutes the dark rippling
+line of the sea was made out, drawn across the dusk as if it had
+been the wide mouth of a frith in the polar ice, opening far on our
+weather-bow. A soft blue shimmering tint stole out on it by contrast,
+leaving the milk-white glare still spread everywhere else, astern,
+ahead, and on our lee-beam, into the sightless sky: 'twas the old
+blue water we caught sight of once more, with the natural night and
+the stars hanging over it; and the look-out aloft reported blue water
+stretching wide off to the nor'ard. There was one full hurrah from the
+seamen in the bows, and they ran of themselves naturally enough to the
+ropes, standing by to haul the schooner on a wind--to head up for the
+old salt sea, no doubt.
+
+"Lieutenant Collins," said Jones, in a low voice, "do you mean to
+steer for that island, sir?" "Yes," I said, "certainly, Mr Jones--I
+shall see this matter out, whatever the upshot may be!" "Then keep
+on, sir," said he, firmly, "keep in the white water--'tis your only
+plan to near it safely, sir!" This I didn't well understand; but,
+by Jove! there was so much out of the common way hereabouts, that I
+had made up my mind to follow his advice. Another hail from aloft,
+at length--"Something black on our lee-bow, sir--right in the eye of
+the white it is, sir!" We were now running fast down in the direction
+where there was least possibility of seeing ahead at all, although,
+in fact, the little moonshine we had evidently began to make this
+puzzling hue of the surface less distinct--turning it of a queer ashy
+drab, more and more like the brown we noticed by day-time; while the
+light seemed as it were to scoop out the hollow of the sky aloft, when
+a dark spot or two could be observed from the deck, dotting the milky
+space over one bow--you couldn't say whether in the air or the water,
+as they hung blackening and growing together before us through below
+the foot of the jib. Larger and larger it loomed as we stood before
+the breeze, till there was no doubt we had the bulk of a small low
+island not far to windward of us, a couple of points or thereabouts
+on our larboard bow when she fell off a little--lying with the ragged
+outline of it rising to a top near one end, its shape stretched black
+and distinct in the midst of the pale sea; while the white water was
+to be seen taking close along the edge of the island, showing every
+rock and point of it in the shadow from the moon, till it seemed to
+turn away all of a sudden like a current into the broad dreamy glimmer
+that still lay south-eastward. On the other side of the island you saw
+the dark sea-ripples flickering to the faint moonlight, and some two
+or three more patches of flat land just tipping the horizon, with the
+thin cocoa-nut trees on them like reeds against the stars and the dusk;
+while the one nearest us was sufficiently marked out to have saved
+me the trouble even of the look I gave Jones, which he answered by
+another. "You have seven or eight fathoms water here, sir," added he;
+"and as soon as she rounds the point yonder, we can shoal it by degrees
+to any anchorage you like, as long as we keep in the white water--but
+we must hold to _it_!" It was accordingly found so with the lead, and
+ere long, having kept past the point, the same milky hue could be
+noticed as it were jagging off through the darker water, and winding
+away hither and thither all round the other side, till you lost it.
+However, here we brailed up and hauled down everything, letting go an
+anchor, little more than half a mile from a small sloping beach, where
+the strange water actually surged up through the shadow of the land, in
+one glittering sheet like new-fallen snow, while the back-wash seethed
+down into it all along the edge in perfect fire. Nothing stirred on it,
+apparently; not a sound came from it, save the low wash of the surf on
+that lonely bare beach; and you only made out that part of the island
+was covered with trees, with the ground rising to a flat-topped hummock
+toward one end. So being pretty wearied by this time, impatient though
+I was for a clearer view of matters, most of us turned in, leaving the
+deck to a strong anchor watch, in charge of Jones--especially as it was
+towards morning, and the breeze blowing fresh over the island through
+our ropes. But if ever a man walked the deck overhead in a fashion to
+keep you awake, it was Jones that morning: faster and faster he went,
+till you'd have thought he ran; then there was a stop, when you felt
+him _thinking_, and off he posted again. No wonder, by George! I had
+ugly dreams!
+
+I could scarce believe it wasn't one still, when, having been called
+half-an-hour after daybreak, I first saw the change in the appearance
+of things all about us. The horizon lay round as clear as heart could
+wish--not a speck in sight save the little dingy islets at a distance;
+the broad blue ocean sparkling far away on one side, and the water
+to windward, in the direction we had come, showing the same brownish
+tint we had seen the day before, while it took the island before us
+in its bight, and turned off eastward with the breeze till it spread
+against the open sky. The top of the land was high enough to shut out
+the sea-line, and, being low water at the time, it was plain enough now
+why Jones wished to keep the white streaks over-night; for, where the
+dingy-coloured ripples melted on the other side toward the blue, you
+could see by the spots of foam, and the greenish breaks here and there
+in the surface, that all that coast of the island was one network of
+shoals and reefs, stretching out you didn't know how wide. White-water
+Island, in fact, was merely the head of them--the milky stream that had
+so startled us just washing round the deep end of it, and edging fair
+along the side of the reefs, with a few creeks sent in amongst them,
+as it were, like feelers, ere it flowed the other way: we couldn't
+otherwise have got so near as we were. But the island itself was the
+sight to fasten you, as the lovely green of it shone out in the morning
+sun, covering the most part of it close over, and tipping up beyond
+the bare break where it was steepest, with a clump of tall cocoas
+shooting every here-and-there out of the thick bush; indeed, there was
+apparently a sort of split lengthways, through the midst, where, upon
+only walking to the schooner's bow, one could see the bright greenwood
+sinking down to a hollow out of sight, under the clear gush of the
+breeze off a dark blue patch of the sea that hung beyond it like a
+wedge. As the tide made over the long reefs, till the last line of surf
+on them vanished, it went up the little sandy cove opposite us with
+a plash on the beach that you could hear: the place was just what a
+sailor may have had a notion of all his life, without exactly seeing it
+till then; and though, as yet, one had but a rough guess of its size,
+why, it couldn't be less than a couple of miles from end to end, with
+more than that breadth, perhaps, at the low side toward the reefs. Not
+a soul amongst the man-o'-war'smen, I daresay, as they pressed together
+in the schooner's bows to see into it, but would have taken his traps
+that moment, if I'd told him, and gone ashore on the chance of passing
+his days there; so it wasn't hard to conceive, from the state it seemed
+to put their rough sunburnt faces in, honest as they looked, how a
+similar fancy would work with Master Harry Foster, even if it tried his
+virtue a little.
+
+I had no more doubt in my own mind, by this time, of it's being
+the fellow's intended "hermitage," than I had of it's being the
+same White-water Island I had heard of myself, or the spot which
+Jones seemed to know so well: 'twas likely the foremast-man had got
+inkling of it somewhat in the way I did; and lying, as it happened
+to do, between no less than three channels which the Indiaman might
+take, after dodging us in this fashion round the long cluster of
+the Maldives, she couldn't make north-westward again for the open
+sea, without setting Foster and his mates pretty well upon their
+trip. Indeed, if she were to eastward of the chain at present, as I
+was greatly inclined to believe, the course of the breeze made it
+impossible for her to do otherwise; but there was one thing always
+kept lurking about my mind, like a cover to something far worse that
+I didn't venture to dwell upon--namely, that Captain Finch might get
+wind of their purpose, and drive them on another tack by knocking it
+on the head, either at the time or beforehand, without the courage to
+settle _them_. Nothing in the world would have pleased me better than
+to pounce upon ugly Harry, at his first breakfast ashore here; but
+the bare horizon, and the quiet look of the island since ever we hove
+in sight of it, showed this wasn't to be. At any rate, however, I was
+bent on seeing how the land lay, and what sort of a place it was; so
+accordingly, as soon as the hands had got breakfast, Westwood and I
+at once pulled ashore with a boat's-crew well armed, to overhaul it.
+We found the sandy beach covered, for a good way up, with a frothy
+slime that, no doubt, came from the water on that side, with ever so
+many different kinds of blubber, sea-jelly, star-fish, and shell;
+while the rocky edge round to windward was hung with weed that made
+the blocks below it seem to rise out of every surge, like green-headed
+white-bearded mermen bathing. Glad enough we were to get out of the
+queer sulphury smell all this stuff gave out in the heat--letting the
+men take every one his own way into the bushes, which they enjoyed like
+as many schoolboys, and making, ourselves, right for the highest point.
+Here we saw over, through the cocoa-nut trees and wild trailing-plants
+below, down upon a broad bushy level toward the reefs. It was far the
+widest way of the island; indeed making it apparently several miles
+to go round the different points; and as the men were to hold right
+to windward, and meet again after beating the entire ground, Westwood
+and I struck fair through amongst the tangle of wood, to see the flat
+below. We roused out a good many small birds and parroquets, and
+several goats could be noticed looking at us off the grassy bits of
+crag above the trees, though they didn't seem to know what we were. As
+for most of the wood, it was mainly such bushes and brush as thrive
+without water, with a bright green flush of grass and plants after the
+rain at the monsoon, the prickly pear creeping over the sandy parts,
+till we came on a track where some spring or other apparently oozed
+down from the height, soaking in little rank spots amongst the ground
+leaves, with here and there a small rusty plash about the grass-blades,
+as if there were tar or iron in it. Here there were taller trees of
+different kinds on both sides, dwindling off into the lower bush,
+while, to my surprise, some of them were such as you'd never have
+expected to meet with on an island of the size, or so far off the
+land--bananas, mangoes, a shaddock or two, and a few more, common
+enough in India; though here they must evidently have been planted, the
+cocoas being the only sort natural to the place--and of them there were
+plenty below. Suddenly it led down into a shady hollow, out of sight of
+the sea altogether, where we came on what seemed to have been a perfect
+garden some time or other; there were two or three large broad-leaved
+shaddock trees, and one or two others, with a heap of rubbish in the
+midst of the wild Indian corn and long grass; some broken bamboo stakes
+standing, besides a piece of plank scattered here and there about the
+bushes. Right under the shade of the trees was a hole like the mouth
+of a draw-well, more than brimful at the time with the water from the
+spring; for, owing to the late rains, it made a pool close by the
+side, and went trickling away down amongst the brushwood. Every twig
+and leaf grew straight up or out, save in a narrow track toward the
+rising ground--no doubt made by the goats, as we noticed the prints
+of their hoofs on the wet mud. 'Twas evident no human being had been
+there for heaven knew how long; since, by the care that had been taken
+with the place, it was probably the only spring in the island--perhaps
+for leagues and leagues round, indeed. Trees, branches, green grass,
+and all--they had such a still moveless air under the heat and light,
+in the lee of the high ground, with just a blue spot or two of the sea
+seen high up through the sharp shaddock leaves, and the cool-looking
+plash of water below them, that Westwood and I sat down to wait till
+we heard the men. Still there was a terribly distinct, particular
+cast about the whole spot, which, taken together with the ruin and
+confusion, as well as the notion of Foster and his shipmates actually
+plotting to come there, gave one almost an idea of the whole story
+beforehand, dim as that was: the longer you looked, the more horrid it
+seemed. Neither natives nor single man could have brought the different
+trees to the island, or contrived a tank-well of the kind, seeing it
+was apparently deep enough to supply a ship's casks; while, at the same
+time, I couldn't help thinking some one had lived there since it was
+made, or perhaps much used. By the space taken up with the hut that
+had been there, and the little change in the wild state of things,
+most likely it was by himself he had been, and for no short time. It
+looked, however, as if he had been carried off in the end, otherwise
+his bones would have been hereabouts; probably savages, as Westwood
+and I concluded from the scatter they had made of his premises. For
+my own part, I wondered whether Jones mightn't have been the man, in
+which case most of that disturbed mind he showed lately might come of
+remembering the dreary desolate feelings one must have, living long
+on a desert island. No doubt they had "marooned" him for something or
+other, such as not being a bloody enough captain; and I could as easily
+fancy one having a spice of madness in him, after years ashore here,
+as in Captain Wallis after a French prison. Still it startled one to
+see one's face in the black of the well; and we couldn't make up our
+minds to drink out of it. Even the pool at its side had a queer taste,
+I thought--but that may have been all a notion. All at once, by the
+edge of this same pool, Westwood pointed out two or three marks that
+surprised us both, being quite different from what the goats could
+have made; and on observing closer, they were made out to be more like
+the paws of a wild beast stamped in the mud. "By Jove!" I said, "no
+wolves on the island, surely!" "All of them seem to stick to the pool
+in preference to the well, at any rate," said Tom; "they appear to have
+the same crotchet with ourselves, Ned!" "Strange!" said I, "what the
+devil can it be?" Westwood eyed the prints over and over. "What do
+you think of--a _dog_?" he asked. "Good heavens!" exclaimed I, looking
+down--"yes!" and there we sat gazing at the thing, and musing over it
+with somehow or other a curious creeping of the blood, for my part,
+that I can't describe the reason of. At last we heard the men hallooing
+to each other on the level beneath, when we hurried down, and coasted
+round till we came upon the boat again, where the coxswain was amusing
+himself gathering shells for home--and we pulled back to the schooner.
+
+My first resolve after this was to keep before the breeze again, try
+to get sight of the ship, and tell Finch out and out, as I ought to
+have done at once, what was afoot amongst his crew; or else to let Sir
+Charles Hyde know of it, and make him a bold offer of a passage to
+Calcutta. However, I soon saw this wouldn't do; and a regular puzzle
+I found myself in, betwixt inclining to stick to the island and catch
+Foster if he came, and wishing to know how the Indiaman stood on her
+course if he didn't. Jones must have read my thoughts as I leant upon
+the capstan, looking from White-water Island to the horizon and back
+again; for he stepped aft and said in a low voice, "Lieutenant Collins,
+there's one thing I didn't tell you about that island before, because,
+as I said, I wasn't at first sure it was the one the men meant; it
+may help to decide you, sir," said he gravely. "Ah?" I said. "In that
+island," he went on, his ordinarily dark face as pale as death, "there
+is enough gold at this moment to buy half an English county--ay, and
+better than gold, seeing that only one man knows the spot where it
+is, and _he_ would rather sail round the world without a shirt to his
+back than touch one filing of the--hell's dross!" I looked at Jones
+in perfect amaze as he added, "You may fancy now, Mr Collins, whether
+if a man of the kind happened to get wind of this, he would not stir
+heaven and earth to reach the place? But, rather than that gold should
+come into living hands," said he fiercely, "I would _wait for them_
+by myself--ay, alone--alone," and a shudder seemed to run through him
+as he gave another glance to the island. For my part, I drew a long
+breath. What he mentioned had all at once relieved my mind wonderfully;
+for if this was Master Foster's cue, as I now saw it must have been
+the whole voyage over, why, he would be just as sure not to spread
+the thing widely, as he would be to get here some time, if he could.
+On second thoughts, it wasn't so plain how the rest of the crew might
+work with it, on the least inkling; but inclined as I naturally was to
+look upon the best side of the matter, you needn't wonder at my making
+up my mind as I did. The short and the long of it was that, in an hour
+more, Jones and myself, with Jacobs and four other good hands--and,
+somewhat to my annoyance, Mr Rollock, who persisted in coming--were
+pulling back for the island; while the schooner, under care of Westwood
+and Snelling, was hauled on a wind to stand up across the Nine Degrees
+Channel, which the Indiaman would no doubt take as the safest course
+for western India, if all went well, and supposing I had reckoned
+correctly why we missed her so long. In that case, three or four days
+at most couldn't fail to bring her up; and on first sighting her at the
+horizon, they could easily enough strip the schooner to her sticks,
+keeping her stern on so as to let the ship pass without noticing the
+loom of so small a craft; whereas if they didn't see her at all, in
+that time, they were to bear up before the wind again for the island.
+Of all things, and every circumstance being considered, I agreed with
+Westwood it was best not to come across her again, if we could help it.
+
+For our own part, in the boat, we were fully provisioned and armed for
+all the time we could need, not to speak of what the island itself
+afforded; and after watching the schooner stand heeling off to sea,
+round the deep end of it, we cruised close along, not for the beach
+this time, but seeking for a cove in the rocks where the boat could be
+hauled up out of sight, and safe from the surf at high water. This we
+weren't very long of finding behind some blocks that broke the force
+of the surge, where the wild green trailers from above crept almost
+down to the seaweed; and after helping them a little to hide her
+perfectly, the whole of us scrambled ashore. The first thing was to
+post a look-out on the highest point, the sharp little peak next to
+the reef-side, overlooking the spring and the level ground between: on
+the other side of the long green valley, full of bush in the midst,
+was the flat-topped rise towards the brown water, from which I and the
+Planter watched the schooner softening for an hour or two, till she
+reached the blue sea-gleam, and lessened to a speck. By that time,
+the men had pitched a little canvass tent on the slope opposite to
+us, over the hollow--Jones evidently being anxious to keep clear of
+the spot, which somebody else had picked out beforehand: in fact the
+highest ground was betwixt us and it; and on coming down through the
+thicket to our quarters, after a stroll in which Rollock shot a couple
+of rose-coloured parroquets, declaring them to be splendid eating, we
+found Jones had had to send over the other way for water.
+
+I woke up in the tent perhaps an hour before midnight, as I judged on
+looking through the opening at the stars that shone in the dark sky
+through the north-east end of the valley above the sea. At the other
+end, being higher, you just saw the scattered heads of the bushes
+against a pale floating glimmer of air, with a pale streak of horizon.
+Behind us was the height where we had the look-out, and in front the
+flat top of the crag drawn somehow or other as distinct as possible
+upon the faint starlight in that quarter, roughening away down on
+both sides into the brushwood and dwarf cocoa-nut trees. With the
+stillness of the place all round, the bare sight of that particular
+point gave me a dreamy, desolate, ghastly sort of feeling, beyond aught
+I ever saw in my life before: it was choking hot and heavy inside,
+and seemingly throughout the hollow, though a good deal of dew began
+to fall, glistening on the dark-green bushes nearest us, and standing
+in drops on the fern-like cocoa leaves which Jacobs and the other men
+had roofed themselves with. They were sound asleep; and the glimpse of
+the soles of their shoes and their knees, sticking out of the shadow
+you saw their rough faces in, with the sight of their cutlass-hilts,
+served to give one a still wilder notion of the place. One felt scarce
+sure of being able to wake them, in case of anything turning up; and,
+at any rate, a dread came over you of its being possibly somewhat
+unnatural enough to make the thing useless. On the other hand, the
+Planter kept up such a confounded snoring inside the canvass close by
+me, that although there was no doubt of his being alive, the sound of
+it put stranger thoughts into your head: sometimes his breath would
+be jogging on like that of a tolerably ordinary mortal, then get by
+degrees perfectly quiet; and then all of a sudden go rising and rising,
+faster and faster, as if some terrible dream had hold of him, or there
+was some devilish monster hard in chase of his soul, till out it broke
+into a fearful snort that made your very heart jump--whereupon he'd
+lie as if he were finished, then go through the whole story again. I
+can't tell you how that cursed noise troubled me; 'twas no use shoving
+and speaking to him, and all the time the old boy was evidently quite
+comfortable, by something he said at last about "indigo being up."
+The best I could do was to get out and leave him to himself: in fact,
+where Jones had gone at the time I didn't know, till suddenly I caught
+sight of his dark figure standing on the rise at the back of our post,
+and went up to him. Jones was certainly a strange mixture, for here
+had he been all round the low side of the island by himself, yet I
+found him leaning bareheaded on the barrel of his musket, listening
+like a deer: he assured me solemnly he thought he had heard voices for
+the last hour on the other side, where he hadn't been, and asked me
+if I would go with him to see. Then down came our look-out from the
+peak, rolling through the bushes like a sea-cow, to report his not
+having seen anything, and to say they'd forgot to relieve him aloft;
+so rousing up Jacobs, I sent them both back together, while Jones and
+I held the opposite way for the other height. The moment we got to it,
+_there_ was the same faint blotted-out horizon as we had had all astern
+of us the night before, the same strange unnatural paleness cast off
+the face of the sea, making it look black by contrast to north-eastward
+and east, against the blue shadow with the bright stars in it, where
+the sea rippled as usual; while the keenest glare in the middle seemed
+to stream right to the breast of the island, like the reflection of
+daylight down a long break in the ice--only it was dead and ghastly
+to behold. The white water washed round under the black edge of the
+rocks before us, to the bare sloping beach, where it came up fairly
+like a wide plash of milk, glimmering and sparkling back amongst the
+little sea-creatures you fancied you saw moving and crawling out or
+in; till it ran along by where the reefs were, and turned off to the
+dim sky again. Everything else was still, and Jones drew a breath like
+one relieved. "Nothing after all, I think, sir!" said he: but to my
+mind there was something a long sight more awful in the look of that
+unaccountable white water bearing down like snow upon the island, as
+it were, with the wrinkles and eddies to be seen faintly in it here
+and there back toward the glaring breadth of it, and the floating
+streaks in the sky above. Especially when he told me he thought it was
+owing to millions upon millions of living things in it, that made the
+same show there at two different seasons in the year, for a week or
+so at a time--the appearance of it getting less distinct every night.
+However, I had begun to grow uneasy again about the Indiaman, and the
+schooner too, as well as doubtful of the fellows coming to the island
+it all; on the contrary, as I said to Jones, if they saw the schooner,
+and Westwood didn't manage as I told him, why both she, the ship, and
+ourselves might possibly get the finishing-stroke altogether. "The more
+I think of it," said I, "the more cursedly foolish it seems to be here
+instead of aboard!" "Why it is, Mr Collins, I don't know," replied
+Jones, "yet I feel as sure these men will land here as if I heard them
+in the woods: and if I wasn't aware how one crime breeds another, for
+my part I shouldn't be here at present, sir. Many a night afloat has
+the thought of this place weighed on me, lest there was something new
+doing in it: but what's buried here I'm resolved no man shall stir up,
+if I can help it, sir!" A little after, as we got up and went down to
+the beach, all of a sudden--like a thing he couldn't avoid--Jones began
+to give me some snatches of what had happened here some years before,
+which, according to him, he had got from a shipmate of his that died;
+and I must say it made the blood creep in me to listen to it.
+
+At the beginning of the war, he said, the island had been a nest of
+regular pirates, who had taken pains to make it, from a mere muddy
+head of a reef with some cocoas upon it, probably into a resort on
+occasions--especially as even the wild Maldive natives to southward
+had somehow a dislike to it. The whole gang being taken by some
+cruiser or other at sea, however, too far off to leave any clue to
+their harbourage hereabouts, they were all hanged, and the place lost
+sight of; till a good many years after, a country Arab craft, bound
+for Dacca up the Ganges, was driven in a gale upon the reefs some way
+off, without seeing the island at all till the sea went down, and
+she was going to pieces. There were only two Europeans aboard, both
+having turned Mussulmen, and the youngest of them was mate. There was
+a passenger, a native Indian merchant, and his servants, with, as was
+believed, his harem below in the after cabins, for nobody ever had
+seen them; but the Arab _rais_ of the vessel, and several more, being
+washed off when she struck, the other Mussulmen took to the only boat
+they had, and got ashore, laving the two Englishmen with the passenger.
+Next day the two men had contrived a raft of the spars, whereupon the
+Hindoo at last brought up his three women, veiled from head to foot,
+and the whole got safe to the island. Here all the Mahometans herded
+together amongst themselves, forcing the two Englishmen to keep on the
+other side of the island, as they had no firearms; while the old Hindoo
+merchant and his native servant got a tent pitched on the highest point
+for the women, where they were no more seen than before, and a flag
+hoisted on a stick all the time for a signal to ships--poor simple
+devil! as Jones said with a laugh. Every day he offered the Arab crew
+more of the gold and jewels he had with him, to make for India and
+get him brought off; till at last some of the Arabs came round to the
+mate and his companion, wanting them to take the boat and go instead,
+otherwise they would kill both of them at once. The two men accordingly
+had provisions given them, and hoisted sail on the boat before the
+breeze to eastward: they had almost dropped the island, when all at
+once the one in the boat's bows stepped aft to him that had the tiller,
+and said it struck him the Arabs couldn't mean well to the Hindoo and
+his wives, in trying to get clear of others. All his companion did,
+Jones said, was to ask if he was man enough to go back, face them
+boldly, and offer to take the passenger and his harem too, when some
+craft or other might come back for the Arabs, since they weren't seamen
+enough to venture first in the boat. "I tell you what," said the first,
+"try the two largest breakers of water there!" The water for use next
+after the open one was tasted--and it was _salt_. "Will you stand by
+me?" the second man said, after a while. The other had a dog with him
+of his own, that had swam ashore from the vessel after the raft he
+landed upon, and it was sleeping in the boat's bow at the moment, near
+him; the dog lifted its head as they spoke, eyed the two, and lay down
+again with a low sort of growl. "Ay," answered the other, "to the last
+I will--as long as you stick by _me_!" They hauled over the sheet, laid
+the boat sharp on a wind, and as soon as it was dusk began to pull back
+toward the island, where they got ashore in the dark before morning.
+
+Here Jones stopped, turned suddenly round to the glare of the white
+water plashing upon the beach, and said no more. "Why, Jones," said
+I, "is that all you've to tell?--what came of them? For God's sake,
+yes--what was the upshot?" "'Tis enough to show how one bad thing
+breeds another, as I said, sir," answered he. "Probably in the end,
+though--at any rate I only fancy the rest--'tis a horrible dream to
+me, for a--a--squall came on when that shipmate of mine got so far,
+and we had to reef topsails. He went overboard off the yard that very
+night," said Jones wildly. "The man must have been _there_," said I
+in a pointed way, "to give all the particulars--_he_ was the mate,
+himself, Mr Jones!" He made no answer, but kept gazing out to sea. "And
+how long was this ago?" I asked. "Oh," answered he, "years enough ago,
+no doubt, sir, for both of us to be children, if _you_ were born, Mr
+Collins"--and he turned his face to me as ghastly as the water toward
+the horizon he was looking at before,--"at least I hope to God it was
+so--the man was a poor creature, sir, bless you, and d----d old, as
+it seems to me--twice my own age at the time, Lieutenant Collins! At
+all events, though," he went on, rambling in a strange way that made
+me think he was going out of his mind, "he remembered well enough the
+first time he saw the white water coming down upon the island. He was
+hunting--_hunting_--through the bushes and up and down, and came up
+upon the crag." "Hunting?" I said. "Yes, you didn't know how it lived,
+or where it kept, but every night it was on the look-out there. There
+was no one else, save the girl sleeping over beyond in the hut; and the
+man almost fancied the water of the sea was coming down to the rocks
+and the beach, like the Almighty himself, to show he was clear of all
+that had happened--if he could but have finished that brute, testifying
+like the very devil, he'd have been happy, he felt! Harkye," said he,
+sinking his voice to a whisper, "when he went back at daylight, the
+woman was dying--she had born a--what was as innocent as she was, poor,
+sweet, young heathen!" And if I hadn't guessed pretty well before
+that Jones was the man he'd been speaking of, his glittering eye, and
+his stride from the beach would have showed it; apparently he forgot
+everything besides at that moment, till you'd have thought his mind
+gloated on this piece of his history. "The woman!" I couldn't help
+saying, "what woman? Had the rest left you in the boat, then?"
+
+Jones looked upon me fiercely, then turned away; when all on a sudden
+such a long unearthly quaver of a cry came down through the stillness,
+from somewhere aloft in the island, that at first I didn't know what
+to think, unless one of our look-out men had met with an accident, and
+tumbled down. 'Twas so dark where they were, however, there was no
+seeing them. Without looking for himself, Jones faced me, shivering all
+over. "What is that, Mr Collins?" whispered he, catching my arm with a
+clutch like death, "_is_ there anything yonder--behind--behind--sir?"
+On the flat head of the crag north-westward, black against the pale
+glimmer over the very spot where we had stood half-an-hour before, to
+my utter horror, there was some creature or other sitting as if it
+looked toward the sea; and just then another wild, quivering, eddying
+sound came evidently enough from it, like a thing that would never
+end. It wasn't a human voice that!--my very brain spun with it, as I
+glanced to Jones. "Good heavens!" I said, "_what_? But by Jove! now I
+think of it; yes--'tis the howl of a _dog_--nothing else!" "Eight--ten
+years!" said Jones, hoarsely, "without food, too, and enough in that
+well to have poisoned whole gangs of men for twenty years--_can_ it
+be an earthly being, sir?" The stare he gave me at the moment was
+more frightful than aught else, but I mentioned what Westwood and I
+had observed the day before. Before I well knew what he meant, Jones
+was stealing swiftly up the rising ground to the shoulder of it. I
+saw him get suddenly on a level with the creature, his musket aiming
+for it--there was a flash and a shot that left the height as bare as
+before--and next minute, with a short whimpering howl, the animal flew
+down the hill, while I heard Jones crashing through the bushes after
+it, till he was lost in the dark. Such a terrible notion it gave me of
+his strange story being true, whereas before I had almost fancied it
+partly a craze of his, from having lived here alone--that for a moment
+or two it seemed to my mind we were still in the midst of it. I hurried
+back to our post, and close upon morning Jones came over and lay down
+by himself without a word, haggard and covered with sweat.
+
+All next day the horizon on every side was clear of a single speck; no
+signs either of ship or schooner, till I began to wish we were out of
+it, hoping the Seringapatam had, after all, kept the old course for
+Bombay, in spite of us. I found Jones had warned the men not to get
+our water out of the tank; it being poisoned in a way fit to last for
+years, as the pirates knew how to do. For our parts, we had to amuse
+ourselves the best way we could, waiting for the schooner to come down
+again for us, which was the only thing I looked for now. That night the
+white appearance of the water to north and windward seemed a good deal
+gone, save where it hung like a haze in the direction it took off the
+island: the stars shone out, and in two or three nights more I found
+from Jones there would be nothing of it, which I hoped I should have to
+take on his word.
+
+At daybreak, however, our look-out could all of a sudden be seen
+hoisting the signal for a sail in sight, and waving his hat for us
+to come. No sooner had we hurried up, accordingly, than a sail could
+be made out in the south-east, hull down; and the schooner not being
+likely thereaway, a certain flutter in me at once set it down for the
+Indiaman at last, on her way far past the island for the open channel.
+Being broad daylight, too, with a fresh breeze blowing, we saw that
+Foster and his party, if they carried out their scheme, would have
+to wait till she was a long way to windward at night-time, in order
+to get clear off. In fact, I had every one kept down off the height,
+lest the ship's glasses might possibly notice something; while, at the
+same time, we hadn't even a fire kindled to cook our victuals. I was
+watching her over the brow of the hill, through the telescope, when
+she evidently stood round on the other tack to get up to windward,
+which brought her gradually nearer. She was a large ship, under full
+canvass; and at last she rose her hull to the white streak below the
+bulwarks, till I began to think they intended passing the island to
+eastward to make the channel. I went down for Jones, and asked him how
+far the reefs actually ran out, when he told me there would probably be
+signs enough of them in such a strong, breeze; besides, as he reminded
+me, if she was the Indiaman, it was the captain himself that had a
+chart of them; in which, from the particular nature of it--being an
+old buccaneering chart, as he thought--they would be laid down quite
+plainly. Indeed, when we both returned to the height, there were lines
+of surf to be noticed here and there, more than three miles out; and
+seeing her by that time so distinctly, a new uneasiness began to enter
+my head. There were no signals we could make, even if they didn't serve
+the other way; and, to tell the truth, I didn't much like the idea of
+being found there. Still, it was terrible to see her getting nearer
+and nearer, without the power of doing the least thing to warn her
+off; spreading and heightening before you, till you counted her sails,
+and saw the light betwixt them, with the breeze always strengthening
+off that side the island, and of course making it the safer for her to
+pass it to leeward. The blue surges rose longer to the foam at their
+crests, till one's eye got confused between them and the spots of surf
+rippling greenish over the tongues of reef; in fact, it wasn't far off
+being low-water at the time, and the whole was to be seen better from
+the height than elsewhere, stretched out like a floor that the breeze
+was sweeping across, raising a white dust where the blue melted into
+the light-brown tint of the sea to leeward. The breeze came so fresh
+that she even hauled down her sky-sails and fore-royal, falling off to
+go to leeward of the island. At the same moment, I made out with the
+glass that she was actually the Seringapatam, and also, that she'd got
+a leadsman at work in the chains. Five minutes more, and she'd have
+gone time enough into the distinct brown-coloured swells, to stand past
+the deep end: without help from the glass, I saw the sun sparkle in
+the spray from her black bows; she made a sliding forge ahead with her
+whole beam on to us; when, next moment, as if she had taken a sudden
+yaw and broached to in the wind, she came fairly end-on, showing the
+three piles of canvass in one. A wild boding of the truth crept on me
+as I sprang on the peak, waving my arms, and stamping like a lunatic,
+as if they could hear me. The next instant she had fallen a little
+over, her foretop-mast and main-to'gallant-mast gone out of their
+places at the shock, and the heavy blue swells running to her highest
+side in a perfect heap of foam; while the spray rose in white jets
+across her weather bulwarks at every burst of them. The Indiaman had
+struck on a rib of reef, or else a spit of sand, near the very edge of
+the whole bank: had it been only high water--as I had reason to believe
+afterwards--she'd have gone clear over it. As soon as the first horror
+of the thing was a little past, I looked, without a word, to Jones,
+and he to me. "The fellows have come at last, certainly!" said he, in
+a serious enough tone. "Mr Collins," he added, "the moment I set foot
+on ground here, I felt sure something would come of it!"--"Get the men
+down at once, sir," I said, "and let's pull out to the ship!"--"Why,
+sir," answered he, "the breeze is likely to keep for some time as it
+is, and if she's completely gone, they'll be able to bring all hands
+safe ashore. If you take my advice, Mr Collins, you'll hold all fast,
+and show no signs of our being here at all, in case of having something
+or other to manage yet that may cost us harder!" It didn't need much
+thought to see this, in fact; and in place of going down, ten minutes
+after we were all close amongst the bushes on the slope, watching
+the wreck. What was at the bottom of all this I didn't know; whether
+Captain Finch had really got wind of Foster's scheme, and been playing
+with some hellish notion his heart failed him to carry out, or how it
+was; but what he was to make of _this_ was the question.
+
+Well, toward afternoon, the wreck seemed pretty much in the same
+state, though by that time they had evidently given her up, for the
+boats were beginning to be hoisted out to leeward. We couldn't see
+what went on there, till one of them suddenly appeared, pulling out
+for the island, about three miles off; then the large launch after
+it. There were ladies' dresses to be made out in both, their cloaks
+and shawls fluttering bright to the breeze as the boats dipped in the
+short swells; and they were full an hour ere they got out of our
+sight, near the broad beach, on the level side, where the tide was
+ebbing fast again, making it a hard matter to pull the distance. Two
+more boats came off the ship, filled full of casks and other matters,
+save the crews; the rest of the passengers and men no doubt waiting for
+the launch and jolly-boat to go back and take them ashore--for, soon
+after, they both could be seen rounding the point on their way out. On
+coming within hail of the fresh boats, however, they apparently gave
+in, since we could see the two of them, to our great surprise, strike
+round, and make for the beach again with their shipmates, spite of
+signals from the wreck, and shots even fired after them. The breeze by
+that time flagged, leaving less of a sea against the ship's hull in
+the dead-water from the other reefs, and she had fallen over again to
+leeward--a proof of her sticking fast where she struck, without much
+fear of parting very soon in such weather; but the sun was going down,
+and this being the first sign of foul play we had observed, 'twas plain
+at all events we should have to look sharp about us. We kept close up
+the height, bolted our cold junk and biscuit, washing down with a stiff
+caulker, and looked every man to his tools. To my great satisfaction,
+the Planter, who had watched everything seemingly in pure bewilderment,
+woke up out of it when he knew how matters stood, and handled his
+double-barrel as cool as a cucumber, putting in two bullets above the
+small shot he had got for the birds, and ramming down with the air of
+a man summing up a couple of bills against a rascally debtor. For my
+own part, I must say I was longer of coming to feel it wasn't some
+sort of a dream, owing to Jones' broken story; till the thought of
+_who_ was to all likelihood on the very island below, with the rest of
+the ladies, amongst a set of all sorts of foremast-men thrown loose
+from command--half of them, probably, ruffians, with some hand in the
+matter--it came on me like fire at one's vitals. Meantime we sat there
+patiently enough for want of knowing what was to do first, or which way
+we had best keep to avoid bringing matters to a head, worse than they
+yet were.
+
+The night came out of the dusk a fine starlight to seaward beyond the
+reefs where the Indiaman lay, the high side of the island glooming back
+against the deep blue glistening sky, till you didn't see how large it
+might be; while the white water hung glimmering off to leeward from
+the rocks. The ship's crew had kindled a fire on the long strand near
+the boats, and we heard their noise getting louder and louder above
+the sound of the sea plashing upon it--evidently through their making
+free with liquor. Jones being no doubt well acquainted with every part
+of the ground, he proposed to go over and see how things stood, and
+where the passengers might be: at the same time, as Mr Rollock was more
+likely to come conveniently to speech of them, both for explaining our
+being here and putting them on their guard, he agreed to go too.
+
+One or other of them was to hurry back as quickly as possible, while
+the men and myself waited in readiness for whatever might turn up.
+Hour after hour passed, however, till I was quite out of patience,
+not to say uneasy beyond description. All was still, save below
+toward the water's edge--the seamen's voices at times mixing with
+the washing hum of the surge on the sand, then rising over it in the
+chorus of a forecastle song, or a sudden bit of a quarrelsome uproar;
+notwithstanding which they began apparently to settle down to sleep. At
+last the Planter came skirting round the hill through the trees, quite
+out of breath, to say they had discovered the spot where the ladies had
+no doubt been taken by their friends, as Captain Finch himself, with
+one of the ship's officers, and two or three cadets, were walking about
+on the watch, all of them armed. To judge by this, and the fact of the
+other gentlemen being still apparently on the wreck, Finch mistrusted
+his men. However, the Planter thought it better not to risk a hasty
+shot through him by going nearer; and, to tell the truth, I thought it
+better myself to wait till daylight, when we should see if the rest got
+ashore; or possibly, as I wished to heaven were the case, the schooner
+might heave in sight. "Where is Mr Jones, though?" asked I: on which
+I found he had gone over for the first time toward the well for some
+water, as he told Mr Rollock. Indeed, the passengers were settled near
+the thick of the wood on this side of the watering-place, none of the
+Indiaman's people seeming to know as yet there was such a thing on the
+island.
+
+We each of us held our breath, and listened to hear Jones come back. I
+was just on the point of leading my party that way, when I caught the
+sound of some one panting, as it were, up the ridge from the shore, and
+next moment saw, to my great surprise, it was the creature Jones had
+such a horror of--the dog that had run wild on the island, snuffing
+with his nose to the ground as if he were in chase of something; while
+the straw hats and tarpaulins of half-a-dozen fellows with ship's
+muskets and cutlasses followed him over the hill, not thirty paces
+above us. I signed to Jacobs to keep quiet, as they halted together,
+looking at the dog; and, from what I could catch of their words, they
+had noticed it ever since sundown, sitting at the foot of the hill
+watching what went on, till the animal ran toward them as if they were
+friends, every now and then turning and making for the heights with a
+bark and a whimper, as it did at present. One of the men was Foster.
+"I tell ye what it is," said he, "there's some fellow on the island
+already, 'mates. If we ketch him, why, we'll have it out of him--then
+down with it quietly to the shore, and go off in the long-boat,
+seeing as how this blasted fool of a skipper of ours has spoiled our
+pleasure!" The dog turned again, wagged his tail, and put his nose to
+the ground. I thought at first he'd bring them right upon us, when
+suddenly he broke off with a yelp exactly into the track Jones had
+taken with Mr Rollock on leaving us. The sailors kept away in his wake,
+down through the bushes into the thick dusk of the trees; upon which
+the Planter and I started to our feet at once, and held cautiously
+after them, the five man-o'-warsmen following at our heels, Indian file.
+
+Jones, however, had either heard the dog, or got an inkling of the
+thing, and he had taken a long round so as to join us from behind: the
+Indiaman's men keeping on for a quarter of an hour or so, when they
+brought up again, seemingly doubtful whether to follow the creature
+or not; and we dropped like one man into the shadow, till they made
+sail once more. Soon after the Planter pointed to the trees where the
+passengers were, and, on a sign from me, the whole of us edged down
+to the spot, till we were standing within sight of the half-finished
+fire, where the Judge's kitmagar was sitting asleep, tailor-fashion,
+with his flat turban sunk to his breast. One of the cadets stood down
+the slope a little, betwixt that and the beach where the crew were,
+leaning sleepily on his gun, and nodding; while in the midst was a
+sort of shed, run up with branches and cocoa-nut leaves, where you
+could see a glimpse of the different ladies' dresses, young and old,
+asleep on the ground. The starlight fell right down into the opening,
+and showed the glistening edges of the leaves, with the sea broad
+out beyond the cocoas at the foot of the rising ground; so bidding
+Jones look out sharp, I stepped carefully through. My eye lighted at
+once on Sir Charles Hyde lying in one nook of the shelter, wrapped
+up in his pilot-coat--the first time in the old gentleman's life for
+a good while, I daresay, that he had passed his night on the ground,
+especially with such a lot of berths taken up beside him. Still he was
+sound enough at the time, to judge by his breathing, trifle as it was
+to the Planter's; and close by him was his daughter, with her cloak
+drawn half over her head in the shadow--her hair confused about her
+cheek as it pressed white into the bundle of red bunting she had for
+a pillow, and one hand keeping the cloak fast at the neck, as if she
+dreamt of a stiff breeze. The sight went to my heart, and so did the
+notion of waking her; but I heard sounds below on the beach, as if
+the rest of the crew missed their shipmates, probably getting jealous
+after their booze, and not unlikely to seek them up the island; so
+the more it struck me there was no time to be lost in coming to an
+understanding. According, I stooped down quietly and touched her on the
+shoulder. Violet Hyde opened her eyes at once, and looked at me; but
+whether it was the starlight showing my uniform, or her fancying it was
+still the Indiaman in the Atlantic, in place of crying out, why, there
+was almost a smile on her lips as she saw me from the ground. Next
+moment, however, she drew her hand across her eyelids, sat up with the
+help of the other arm, and gazed on me in a bewildered way, naming me
+at the same time below her breath. "Yes, Miss Hyde!" I said hastily;
+and a few words served to give her a notion of the case, as well as to
+advise her to wake up the Judge, with the rest of the ladies, and be
+ready to move the moment we came back. My first thought was to take
+Foster's own plan, and secure the long-boat, if we could only get
+betwixt the Indiaman's crew and the water; or even try our own, on
+the opposite side of the island, and carry off the other boats to the
+wreck; after which we might keep off till the schooner appeared, as she
+couldn't be long of doing in this weather.
+
+I had just stolen back to the men and Mr Rollock, when all at once
+there was a wild cry, not twenty yards off, among the brushwood. A
+heavy blow and a struggle, in the midst of which three shots, one
+after the other, were heard from the cadets; next minute, with oaths
+and curses to the mast-head, and a crash through amongst the branches
+in the dark, Foster and his shipmates came making for the opening.
+Something horrible flashed through my mind as I fancied I had caught
+Finch's voice, whether one way or the other I couldn't say, for I had
+no thought at the time excepting for Violet. Shriek upon shriek broke
+from the ladies ere I well knew I had big Harry himself by the hairy
+throat of him, as he was aiming a left-handed stroke of his cutlass at
+the Judge, who had sprung betwixt him and his daughter. The strength
+of that ruffian was wonderful, for he flung me off and levelled Sir
+Charles Hyde at the same moment, the Judge's body tripping me. Jones
+and my own men, as well as the Planter, were hard at work with the
+other five desperate villains; while the cadets and the second officer
+of the Seringapatam rushed in from the trees--all of it passing in half
+a minute. As I started to my feet, Foster had lifted Violet Hyde in his
+arms, and was dashing through the darkest of the wood with her toward
+the hollow; when, just as I was hard upon him, doubly to my horror,
+above all the screams of the ladies I could hear the wild drunken
+shouts of the crew below coming up from the beach like so many devils.
+Foster had got as far as the next opening where the rubbish of the hut
+was, and, no doubt catching the sound as well as myself, all at once
+he dropped the young lady on the grass--in a faint as she was, and
+her white dress stained with blood, as I thought from _herself_. "Now
+ye----" shouted he, turning bolt round till her moveless figure lay
+betwixt us, with a flourish of his cutlass, which I fancied was bloody
+too--"who are _you_? You'll have a dozen on ye directly, but what's
+meat for the skipper's meat for the passenger, so--" "Devil!" said I
+through my teeth, as I edged round; and Foster was in the very act of
+rushing at me, whether he trod on her or not, when my voice or dress
+seemed to strike him in the dusk. "How the bloody comfort did _you_--"
+said he, shrinking back for a moment; "so much the better, by G--!"
+and he sprang forward again right upon me, with a swinging boarder's
+blow at my head, which flashed off my blade with a force enough to have
+shivered it, had it not been a first-rate old cut-and-thrust I had
+tried pretty stiffly before. If I hadn't been in such a fury of rage,
+and a hurry at once, 'twould have been Harry's last hit; but, at the
+third he made, I caught him fair under it, the point going through and
+through his body as I thrust him back stride by stride--his cutlass
+waving fiercely all the time in the air clear of my head, for the
+stroke came under his arm. The moment he fell, though I knew nothing
+before that of where we were, there was a heavy plunge; I had nearly
+followed on top of him, as he went head-foremost down the tank-well
+under the trees; but next moment, without a thought more to him in the
+heat of the struggle, I was lifting Violet off the grass. What I did
+or what I said, to see if she would revive, I don't really know; but
+I remember, as well as if it were last night, the very sound of her
+voice as she told me she wasn't hurt. The affair in the wood below
+us had suddenly ceased during these five or ten minutes--indeed, as I
+found afterwards, Jones and my party had settled every one of the five,
+either altogether or for the time; but the uproar of more than twenty
+fierce voices could be heard beyond them, cursing and yelling as they
+came stumbling and crashing up amongst the brushwood in a body; while
+the ladies and their companions struggled up from all sides toward the
+height, wild with terror. I met Sir Charles Hyde hurrying to seek his
+daughter, however; and the moment he had her in his arms, I rushed
+down, pistol in hand, to join my men, who were standing firm below, as
+the mutineers burst into the opening, no doubt with the notion they
+had only the cadets to do with. "Here, my lads!" I sang out; "make
+every man of them prisoner--down with 'em to the schooner!" And as I
+broke suddenly through in the starlight in the midst of them, Jones,
+Jacobs, the Planter, and the other four man-o'-warsmen sprang after me,
+one by one--taking the cue, and shouting as if to ever so many behind
+us, "Here they are, shipmates--this way--settle the blackguards!" In
+fact, the moment I appeared, the gang of half-drunk fellows were taken
+aback. One of them roared as if he saw the very devil; and giving them
+no time to think, we drove them scattering down toward the beach. One
+of Foster's party, however, being only stunned, had contrived to get
+down amongst them; and in a little while, seeing we didn't follow, the
+whole lot of them appeared to get an inkling of the truth, on which
+they rallied. It wasn't long ere I saw they had got desperate, and were
+planning to divide, and come somewhere over upon us round the heights;
+so that, in the dark, with our small party, not knowing their numbers,
+the best we could do was to gather up toward the peak, and secure the
+ladies. Accordingly, we passed an uncomfortable enough time during the
+rest of the night, till daybreak, when still no signs of the schooner,
+as we saw in the clear to north-eastward. Frightful notions came into
+my head of something having happened to her; the mutineers below were
+on both sides of the island, and they held the watering-place; we
+hadn't provisions for a single breakfast to half the party of us--and,
+the fellows being now fairly in for it, they could starve us out if
+they chose. You may conceive, accordingly, what a joyful sight met my
+eyes, when, on the dusk lifting off to northward, we could see the
+lovely craft under all sail not six miles off, bearing down before a
+fresh breeze for the deep end of the island! The wind had headed her
+off on her way back; and, knowing nothing of the wreck, Westwood might
+have landed at the mercy of the villains in the bush. But the minute
+we saw his boat out, the whole of us, save the Judge and the Planter,
+made a clean charge down upon them--the schooner's men joining us with
+the oars and boat-stretchers; and in another half-hour the whole gang,
+having lost heart, were taken and lashed fast by the wrists on the
+beach, to a single man.
+
+On searching the watering-place during the day, we found some one had
+covered the mouth of the tank with sticks and leaves, through which
+Harry Foster had gone when he fell. The stuff had fallen in over him;
+and the well being evidently made deep into the rock, to hold water
+the longer, with the roots of the trees growing out into it, his body
+never came up. Somehow or other no one liked to sound it to the bottom;
+but the thing that horrified all of us the most, was to find Captain
+Finch himself lying quite dead amongst the brushwood near where the
+passengers had pitched their quarters, with a cut through his skull
+enough to have killed an ox. It was supposed Foster had suddenly come
+upon him, as he and his shipmates looked out for the hoard they thought
+the pirates had in the island, while Finch was on guard over the
+ladies. Whether the fellow took a new notion at the moment, or what it
+was, the whole gang of them made their rush upon the second mate and
+the cadets, the minute after the captain met his death.
+
+As for Jones, he told me he had noticed the dog watching the seamen
+below, and the idea got into his head of what might happen. There was
+that about the animal to give one a dread you couldn't describe. How
+it had lived all this time, and how the custom came back on it after
+growing perfectly wild, of carrying on like what it did that night,
+was a mystery; but Jones said he hadn't heard it bark before, neither
+had the man he knew of, since the time he was first left _alone_ on
+White-water Island. In fact, the whole of us might have hunted it down
+before we left. But "No!" Jones said. "There's a perfect fiend in the
+brute, I do believe--yet it strikes me by this time, the creature
+belongs to--to the Almighty, sir!" The men and passengers had been
+taken off the Indiaman's wreck, which there was no chance of getting
+off the reef; so, taking out the best of her stores and the passengers'
+property, we had every soul aboard the schooner, and at last set sail
+to the south-east, meaning to go in at Madras, where a sloop might be
+sent to recover more from the ship. 'Twas with no ordinary state of
+things, from stem to stern, that we dropped White-water Island astern.
+
+Well, ma'am, the rest you may easily fancy. We made Madras Roads, and
+there I expected to lose sight of the Judge and his daughter again,
+as we did of most of the other passengers; but to my perfect delight,
+Sir Charles preferred carrying out the voyage on to Calcutta in the
+schooner, where they had the after-cabins to themselves. The Indiaman's
+crew I kept, prisoners and all, till we should meet the frigate off the
+Sunderbunds.
+
+Just conceive standing up the hot Bay of Bengal with flagging
+south-westerly breezes, shifting at times to a brisk south-easter,
+or a squall, as we've done ourselves this week. The moon wasn't at
+the full then, of course, so we only had it like a reaper's sickle
+in the dog-watches; but it was fine weather, and you may imagine one
+sometimes contrived, betwixt Westwood and myself, to have Violet on the
+quarterdeck of an evening without the Judge. Tom would step forward
+suddenly to see a small pull taken on a sheet, and Snelling knew pretty
+well not to walk aft of the capstan; so I could lean over the taffrail
+near her, and look at the schooner's wake glimmering and sparkling up
+in the bubbles astern.
+
+Then to save trouble, you need but picture to yourselves some such sort
+of a daybreak as we had this morning; a cool blue cloudless sky all
+aloft, dappled to eastward with a mighty arch, as it were, of small
+white spots and flakes, as a perfect sea of light flows up into it
+before the sun under the horizon, and a pale slanting shaft of it seems
+to hang gray in the yellow above him.[26] The sea heaves deep-blue and
+deeper-blue under the schooner; the wide flock of small clouds burn
+from gold to fire; the slanting streak of light fades and vanishes, and
+the sun comes up like a gush of flame--sending a stream of glittering
+radiance along the water to our starboard bow, while it shows a long
+flat line of land far on the other beam. The Planter is smoking his
+first cheroot for that day at the stern gratings, when we make out
+three or four faint points over the streak of land, shining like gold
+in the dawn; while at the same time three hazy pillars, as it were, are
+seen standing up betwixt sea and sky, beyond the rippling blue in the
+north-eastern board. 'Tis the spires of Juggernaut pagoda on one side;
+and as the brisk morning breeze drives the water into short surges,
+till the schooner rises the ship upon the other, all of a sudden she
+looms square and white upon our starboard bow. As the hull lifted
+higher and higher under her canvass, there was less doubt every few
+minutes of her being a frigate; and by the time Violet and her father
+were standing together on the quarterdeck, the glorious old Hebe was
+signalling us from her fore-royal-masthead, as she kept close on a wind
+to cross our course.
+
+We spoke the pilot-brig that evening, took out the pilot, and
+stood up into the mouth of the Hoogly with the night-tide in the
+moonlight--dropping the Hebe at Diamond Harbour next day; while
+Lord Frederick, and a Government gentleman he had with him from St
+Helena, went up to Calcutta with us in the schooner. The whole of
+the Indiaman's late crew and officers were left in the frigate till
+further notice, notwithstanding which we were pretty well crowded on
+our way up: Westwood and I were glad of a couple of hammocks in the
+half deck; and, in fact, I saw little more of Violet Hyde till they
+went ashore opposite Fort-William.
+
+In half-an-hour we were lying at anchor in the midst of the crowd of
+Indiamen, country ships, Arab craft, and all sorts of craft besides,
+stretching far up to the next reach; the long front of flat-topped
+buildings, with their green venetians and balustrades, shining white
+over the row of trees on the right bank, like a string of palaces
+spreading back through the huge mass of the city to the pale hot
+eastern sky--a tall cocoa-nut tree or a sharp spire breaking it here
+and there; while the pile of Government House was to be seen dotted
+with adjutant-birds; and the opposite shore showed far off in a line
+of green jungle, faced by a few gay-looking spots of bungalows. All
+the rest of the day Jones busied himself seeing all made regular and
+ship-shape below and aloft, in complete seaman-like style, till I began
+to think he had taken a fancy to the schooner, and meant to go with
+her and the frigate to the China seas. Next morning, however, as soon
+as breakfast was over in the cabin, he came to me and said that, as
+there was nothing more to be done at present aboard, according to our
+agreement he would bid us good-bye. Nothing I could say was of the
+least use, so at last I had to give it up. Having little money about
+me, however, except in bills, and intending to go ashore myself, I told
+him I should pay him his mate's wages at once at a banker's in the
+town. By the time I came on deck, Jones had hailed a dingy, and the
+native boatman paddled us to the ghaut below the Sailor's Home together.
+
+I had shaken hands with him, and stood watching him from the bank
+verandah, as his manly figure, in the blue jacket, white duck trousers,
+and straw hat, passed away down Flag Street, stepping like a seaman
+fresh from blue water through a stream of Hindoos in white muslin,
+Mussulman servants, tall-capped Armenians, Danes, Frenchmen, Chinamen,
+Arabs, and Parsees. Three or four Coolies with painted umbrellas were
+shouting and scrambling in his way, mentioning their names, salaaming,
+and sah'bing him to the nines; a couple of naked black boys were
+trying to brush his shoes in the dust; a tray of native sweetmeats
+seemed to be shoved every now and then under his nose; and two or
+three children with heads as big as pumpkins were stuck before him,
+their mothers begging for "buckshish! buckshish!" Jones held on like a
+man accustomed to every sort of foreign scenes in the world; and out
+of curiosity to see where he would go, I followed him for a little
+toward the thick of the noise and crowd, through Tank Square, where
+the water-carriers were sprinkling the ground from the sheep-skins on
+their backs as they walked, serpent-charmers and jugglers exhibiting,
+and a dirty Fakir rolling at the corner in seeming agony, with a crowd
+of liberty-men in Sunday toggery all round him. Jones looked up at the
+church steeping in the white heat, and across the glare of light to
+the city beyond, standing like a man that didn't know what to do, or
+hadn't seen Calcutta before; then passed carelessly by the half-slued
+sailors, who hailed him as if he were a ship. At length he got to
+the turn of a street running into the native town, where you caught
+a glimpse of it swarming this way and that with turbans in the close
+overhanging bazaars. Some Hindoo procession or other was coming along
+with tom-toms, gongs, tambourines, and punkahs, sweeping on through a
+Babel of heathenish cries and songs; a knot of dancing-girls, with red
+flowers in their sleek black hair, could be seen in a hackery drawn
+by two hump-backed bullocks; and a white Brahmin bull was poking its
+head amongst the heaps of fruit at a stall; whilst you heard a whole
+ship's crew hurrahing and laughing amongst the confusion, as they drove
+along. Suddenly I saw Jones hail a palanquin near him, and get in. The
+four mud-coloured bearers took the pole of it on their shoulders, fore
+and aft--greasy-looking fellows, with ochre-marks on their noses and
+foreheads, a tuft of hair tied back on their heads like women, and as
+naked as they were born, save the cloth round their middle,--and next
+moment away they trotted, grunting and swinging the palanquin, till I
+lost sight of them in the hubbub. 'Twas the last I saw of Jones.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Here the Captain stopped; the Gloucester's crew were getting the
+anchors off her forecastle to her bows for next day, when the
+light-ship off the Sandheads was expected to be seen; and, from his
+manner and his silence together, he evidently considered the yarn at
+an end. "That's all then?" carelessly asked the surgeon, who was a
+chess-player, and had heard only this part of the Captain's adventures,
+and the first two, so that he appeared to perceive a slight want of
+connection. "All?" was the unanimous voice of the lady-passengers, most
+of whom had been faithful listeners,--the younger ones were obviously
+disappointed at something. "Why, yes," said Captain Collins, with a
+look which might be interpreted either as modest or "close,"--"the fact
+is, I fancied the affair might serve to while away a single evening
+or so, and here have I been yarning different nights all this time!
+'Tis owing to my want of practice, no doubt, ma'am." "Come, come,"
+said the matron of the party, "you must really give us some idea of a
+denouement. These girls of mine won't be satisfied without it, Captain
+Collins; they will think it no story at all, otherwise!"
+
+"An end to it, you mean?" answered he. "Why, ma'am, if there were
+an _end_ to it, it couldn't be a 'short' yarn at all--that would be
+to finish and 'whip' it, as we say, before it's long enough for the
+purpose; whereas, luckily, my life hasn't got to a close yet."
+
+"Oh!" said the lady, no sea casuistry for _us_; besides, _I_ am aware
+of the sequel, you know!" "Why, ma'am," answered the Captain, looking
+up innocently, "it wasn't for two years and a half afterwards that
+I--I settled, you know! Do you mean me to tell you all that happened
+in that time, about the Frenchman, and what befell the schooner in the
+China seas? 'twould last the voyage home; but if you'll go _back_ with
+me I've no particular objection, now I've got into the way" "No no,
+my dear, Captain," said the lady, "we have had enough for the present
+of your nautical details--I beg pardon--but tell us how you succeeded
+in--" "Well," interrupted the narrator rather hastily, "'twas somewhat
+thus: I was at home at Croydon, being by that time first lieutenant of
+the Hebe, but she was just paid off. One morning, at breakfast, the
+letter-bag from the village was brought in as usual, my mother taking
+them out, reading off all the addresses through her spectacles, while
+Jane made the coffee. My mother handed Jane a ship-letter, which she
+put somewhere in her dress, with a blush, so that I knew in a moment
+it must be from Tom Westwood, who was in the Company's civil service
+in India, upcountry. "None for me, mother?" asked I eagerly; for the
+fact was I had got one or two at different times, at Canton and the
+Cape of Good Hope, during the two years. "Yes, Ned," said my mother,
+eyeing it again and again, anxiously enough, as I thought; "there
+is--but I fear it is some horrid thing from those Admirals"--the
+Admiralty, she meant--"and they will be sending you off immediately--or
+a war, or something. Oh dear me, Ned," exclaimed the good woman, quite
+distressed, "won't you do as I wish you, and stay altogether!" By the
+Lord Harry! when I opened it, 'twas a letter from Lord Frederick Bury,
+who had succeeded to his eldest brother's title while we were out,
+saying he had the promise of a commandership for me, as soon as a new
+brig for the West India station was ready. "I shan't have to go for six
+or seven months at any rate, mother," said I, "by which time I shall be
+confounded tired of the land, _I_ know!" She wanted me to buy a small
+estate near Croydon, shoot, fish, and dig, I suppose; while Jane said I
+ought to marry, especially as she had a girl with money in her eye for
+me. Still they saw it was no use, and began to give it up.
+
+Why I never heard at all from a certain quarter, I couldn't think. Till
+that time, in fact, I had been as sure of her proving true as I was of
+breezes blowing; but now I couldn't help fancying all sorts of tyranny
+on the Judge's part and her mother's, not to speak of Tom's uncle, the
+Councillor. I went down the lane for the twentieth time, past the end
+of the house they had lived in, where the windows had been shuttered
+up and the gates close ever since I came. All of a sudden, this time,
+I saw there were workmen about the place, the windows open, and two
+servants washing down the yellow wheels of a travelling carriage. I
+made straight back for our house, went up to Jane, who was at her
+piano in the drawing-room, and asked, quite out of breath, _who_ was
+come to the house over the park behind us. "Did you not know that old
+Nabob was coming back from India?" said Jane. "His face was getting too
+yellow, I suppose; and besides, his wife is dead--from his crossness,
+no doubt. But the young lady is an heiress, Ned, and as I meant to tell
+you, from good authority"--here the sly creature looked away into her
+music--"passionately fond of the sea, which means, you know, of naval
+officers"--"The devil she is, Jane!" I broke out; "what did Westwood
+mean by that?--but _when_ are they coming, for heaven's sake?" "Why,"
+said Jane, "I believe, from what I heard our gardener say, they arrived
+last night." "Then, by Jove, my dear girl!" said I, "I'll tell you a
+secret--and mind, I count on you!" My little sister was all alive in a
+moment, ran to the door and shut it, then settled herself on the sofa
+to hear what I had to say, as eagerly as you please. So I told her what
+the whole matter was, with the state of things when we left Calcutta.
+Jane seemed to reckon the affair as clear as a die; and you've no
+notion what a lot of new ropes she put me up to in a concern of the
+kind, as well as ways to carry it out ship-shape to the end, in spite
+of the Judge--or else to smooth him over.
+
+"The long and short of it was, I didn't leave till about seven months
+after, when the Ferret was put in commission; but by that time it was
+all smooth sailing before me. The Judge had got wonderfully softened;
+and, you may be sure, I continued to see Violet Hyde pretty often
+before I went to sea. You'd scarce believe it, but, after that twelve
+months' cruise, I actually didn't leave the land for two years, which
+I did owing to the chance I had of seeing sharp service in the Burmese
+war, up the rivers, while General Campbell had tough work with them
+inland. So that's all I can say, ma'am!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Very good, sir!" was the surgeon's cool remark. "And in fact, sir, I
+fancy if every one of us were to commence telling his whole life over,
+with everything that happened to him and his friends, he must stop
+short somewhere--however long it might be!" The Captain smiled; they
+sat on the poop talking for a while, sometimes saying nothing, but
+watching the last night at sea.
+
+The pilot-brig is spoken to windward next morning, even while the
+deep-sea lead-line is being hove to sound the bottom. Falling sudden
+from the foreyard, the weight takes the long line from hand after hand
+back to the gangway, till it trembles against the ground. 'Tis drawn up
+slowly, the wet coil secured, and the bottom of the lead showing its
+little hollow filled with signs of earth--"Gray sand and shells!" They
+stand on till the pilot is on board, the low land lifts and lengthens
+before the ship; but the flow of the tide has yet to come, and take
+them safely up amongst the winding shoals into the Indian river's
+mouth. A new land, and the thoughts of strange new life, the gorgeous
+sights and fantastic realities of the mighty country of the Mogul and
+Rajahs, crowd before them after the wide solitary sea: the story is
+already all but forgotten.--AND THE ANCHOR IS LET GO!
+
+
+
+
+THE FRENCH WARS OF RELIGION.[27]
+
+
+The history of the house of Guise has a natural division into two
+periods, of nearly equal duration, whose point of separation may be
+fixed at the death of Henry II., or, more strictly perhaps, at the
+date of the treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis, which preceded it by three
+months. Under Francis I. and Henry II., foreign wars engrossed much of
+the time and energy of the warriors, foreign diplomacy gave frequent
+occupation to the statesmen, of that restless and ambitious family,
+which, during the reigns of Francis II., Charles IX., and Henry III.,
+was busied with civil strife, domestic intrigues, and even with
+disloyal and treasonable projects. The treaty above referred to--signed
+on the 3d April 1559, and by which France abandoned no less than one
+hundred and ninety-eight fortresses, including the conquests of thirty
+years in Piedmont--stipulated a durable alliance between the Kings of
+France and Spain, "who were to love each other as brothers, and labour
+in concert for the extinction of heresy." This was the prelude of a
+long peace with the foreigner, but also of a long series of intestine
+wars, and of more bloodshed and misery than any invasion from without
+would have probably occasioned. France was on the eve of the Wars of
+Religion. Calvinism grew daily stronger in the land, many of whose most
+illustrious nobles were soon included amongst its proselytes; until at
+last the princes of the blood themselves, jealous of the influence,
+power, and pretensions of the princes of Lorraine, placed themselves
+at the head of the Protestant party. Thus, early in the reign of that
+sickly and feeble prince, Francis II., _Bourbon_ and _Guise_ entered
+the lists, to struggle for the chief power in the state, and to
+commence, during the lifetime of four sons of Henry II., a long contest
+for the inheritance of the declining house of Valois. On the one side,
+the chief posts were occupied by Anthony of Bourbon, King of Navarre,
+by his brother, the Prince of Condé--far superior to him in ability,
+and who was the chief of the party--and by that brave and skilful
+soldier and commander, Gaspard de Châtillon, Admiral de Coligny.
+Opposed to these, the principal figures in the Protestant ranks, stood
+the Duke of Guise and his brothers--notably the astute, cruel, and
+violent cardinal, Charles of Lorraine. Catherine of Medicis, who had
+been allowed little interference in public affairs during her husband's
+life, came forward at his death, and played a striking and important
+part in the strange historical drama which comprised the reigns of
+three of her sons. Adopting a machiavelian and unscrupulous policy,
+her intrigues were directed alternately to support and damage the
+most contrary interests; but, at the outset of her political career,
+her dislike to Montmorency, and her eagerness to grasp a share of the
+power from which he had largely contributed to her exclusion, impelled
+her to an alliance with the Guises, by whom it was evident that the
+kingdom was, for a time at least, to be virtually ruled. Her husband's
+body was yet above ground, when she joined them and her son at the
+Louvre--whither they had conducted Francis, after proclaiming him King,
+from his residence at the palace of the Tournelles; and scarcely had
+it been deposited in the vaults of St Denis, when the treaty between
+her and them was sealed by the sacrifice of Diane de Poitiers, whose
+daughter was their sister-in-law by her marriage with Claude, Marquis
+of Mayenne, but who, nevertheless, was driven ignominiously from court,
+and compelled to give up the costly jewels she had received from her
+royal lover, and to appease Catherine by the gift of her magnificent
+castle of Chenonceaux.
+
+The circumstances of the time, and their own high connections, were
+singularly favourable to the Guises' assumption of the chief power.
+"No influence in the kingdom," says M. de Bouillé, "was comparable to
+that of those two men. The clergy, the richest and the first of the
+three orders of the state, professed an unbounded devotion for the
+Cardinal; in Francis of Lorraine the greater part of the nobility,
+military men, even magistrates, habitually recognised a skilful chief,
+a sure friend, a zealous protector. The Queen (Mary Stuart) was niece
+of the Guises; their cousin, the Duke of Lorraine, was brother-in-law
+of the King; the husband of another sister of Francis II., Philip of
+Spain, was well pleased that the royal choice had fallen upon them in
+preference to Anthony of Bourbon, who would not have failed to apply
+his power to the attempted recovery of Navarre from Spain. Finally,
+obligations of gratitude attached the Duke of Savoy to them. So
+many advantages, such numerous means of access, united with so many
+talents and so much glory, rendered their position very natural." The
+humiliation of the Bourbons was proportionate to the exaltation of
+their rivals. Montmorency received, from the lips of the King himself,
+advice to retire to his domain of Chantilly, a rustication and disgrace
+which left the veteran Constable no resource but to ally himself with
+the princes of the blood. These were deliberating at Vendôme, with
+d'Andelot and their other confidential partisans, as to the means of
+opposing the authority of the Guise, when they received the overtures
+and exhortations of the Constable, who pressed and prevailed with the
+King of Navarre to repair to court. But slights and affronts were there
+offered both to him and to the Prince of Condé, and soon they were glad
+again to absent themselves. Within nine months of the accession of
+Francis, the plot known as the conspiracy of Amboise, of which Condé
+was the secret head, was formed, discovered, and crushed; the Duke of
+Guise displaying much energy and prudence, the Cardinal of Lorraine
+great cruelty and a most unchristian spirit, in its repression, and
+in the treatment of the baffled conspirators. For the third time
+Guise was named lieutenant-general of the kingdom, and invested with
+unlimited powers. The conspiracy to which he was indebted for this
+aggrandisement, was, however, the result of his brother's violent and
+persecuting spirit. The Cardinal had spurred the Huguenots to revolt.
+In all their proclamations, manifestos, and justificatory publications,
+they protested their loyalty to the King, and declared that they took
+arms solely against the family of Guise. It did not suit the purpose
+of these princes to admit the sincerity of the distinctions thus made.
+"What have I done to my subjects," exclaimed the feeble King, "that
+they should bear me such ill-will? Is it not rather to you, gentlemen,
+that they are opposed? I would that for a time you would depart, that
+we might see if these disorders ceased." The words had been suggested
+by the Spanish ambassador; but Francis knew not how to give them
+effect, and was easily cajoled by his uncles, who assured him that
+their absence would be the signal for attempts on his life and the
+lives of his brothers--attempts already planned by the Bourbons and
+supported by the heretics.
+
+We pass on to the close of the short reign of Francis II., which
+extended over barely seventeen months. His death occurred on the 5th
+December 1560. The 10th of the same month was to have witnessed the
+execution of the Prince of Condé, condemned as traitor and heretic.
+But when a sudden swoon at vespers, succeeded by violent pains in the
+head, indicated the probable dissolution of the sickly monarch, whose
+constitution was already undermined by disease, Catherine de Medicis,
+unwilling to lose Condé, who served her as a counterpoise to the power
+of the Guise, took measures to delay his doom, and opened negotiations
+with the King of Navarre. This prince signed an agreement guaranteeing
+the regency to Catherine during the minority of Charles IX. She and her
+council were to have the sole direction of political affairs; whilst
+Anthony de Bourbon, with the title of lieutenant-general, was to be
+military chief of the kingdom. On the other hand, Catherine brought
+about his reconciliation with the Guises; inducing Francis II. to
+declare on his death-bed that the prosecution of Condé emanated not
+from them, but from his will alone. At the very moment she rendered
+this service to the princes of Lorraine, she was plotting with
+Bourbon their banishment from court. It were bewildering, and indeed
+impossible, in a brief essay on that busy period, to trace the tortuous
+policy and seemingly contradictory intrigues of the Queen-mother. It
+suffices to state her aim, then and for long afterwards. By pitting one
+faction against the other, and alternately supporting both, she secured
+for herself a larger share of power than she would have obtained by
+assisting in the final triumph of either.
+
+The death of their niece's royal husband was a great shock to the
+Guises, who in his name had exercised absolute authority. It was
+subject of rejoicing to the Protestants, who deemed it "a stroke of
+heavenly mercy"--a mystical expression of satisfaction, which made some
+suspect poison to be the cause of the King's death. For this there
+seems to have been no foundation. But such suspicions were the fashion
+of the time. Beside the bed of Francis stood Coligny, the Cardinal of
+Lorraine, and many other nobles. When the monarch breathed his last,
+"Gentlemen," said the Admiral, with his habitual earnest gravity, "the
+King is dead; 'tis a lesson for us how to live." He returned home
+with one of his intimates, named Fontaines, and fell into a profound
+reverie, his tooth-pick in his mouth and his feet to the fire. He did
+not observe that his boots were burning, until Fontaines called his
+attention to the fact. "Ah, Fontaines!" then replied the Admiral, "not
+a week ago you and I would each have given a leg for things to take
+this turn, and now, we get off with a pair of boots; it is cheap."
+Not one of the six brothers Guise followed the funeral of Francis
+II., whose loss they had such reason to deplore. In cutting allusion
+to this indecent neglect, an unknown hand affixed to the black velvet
+that covered the royal bier the following inscription--"_Where is
+Tanneguy Duchâtel? But he was a Frenchman!_" This was a chamberlain of
+Charles VII., who, although unjustly banished from court, had mourned
+his master's death, and had provided magnificently for his interment,
+sacrilegiously neglected by that king's own son. The inscription bore
+a double sting, for it both condemned the conduct of the Guises, and
+stigmatised them as foreigners. In vain did they strive to justify
+themselves, alleging the necessity of their presence at court. And they
+were equally unable to refute the charge of having appropriated, during
+the illness of Francis, a considerable sum that remained in the royal
+treasury. This was done with the connivance of Catherine.
+
+The state of affairs after the accession of Charles IX., was as
+follows: Condé was released from prison, the King of Navarre was in
+favour with the Queen-mother, the Bourbons and Guises affected mutual
+friendship, the Colignys and the Constable were continually at the
+palace; the star of the Bourbon party was in the ascendant. But those
+were the days of political and religious renegades, and a very short
+time produced wonderful changes in the composition of the two great
+parties. Soon we find the King of Navarre going over to the Church of
+Rome, and the Constable abandoning the cause of his nephews to assist
+at the germination of the celebrated _League_, into which the Guises
+and other great Catholic chiefs afterwards entered for the suppression
+of Protestantism, and for the overthrow of the party headed by Condé
+and Coligny.
+
+It is a matter of extreme difficulty to form a correct opinion of the
+character of the Duke of Guise, diversely represented as it has been
+by the party writers of the time. M. de Bouillé has endeavoured, with
+patience and industry, to sift the truth from the mass of conflicting
+evidence; and if he is not completely successful, it is because such
+contradictory testimony as he has to deal with defies reconciliation.
+His zeal for truth leads him into researches and disquisitions through
+which not all of his readers perhaps will have patience to follow
+him, although they are doubtless essential to the completeness of a
+work which is eminently what the French term _un ouvrage sérieux_.
+With an evident desire for strict impartiality, he leans a little,
+as it appears to us, to the Catholic party--no unnatural bias in a
+writer of that religion. We, on the other hand, as Protestants, have
+to guard ourselves against the strong interest and sympathy inspired
+by the faith, the valour, and the sufferings of the French Huguenots:
+and we cannot but admit the justice of M. de Bouillé's conclusion,
+that although, amongst these, many were martyrs for religion's sake,
+many others assumed the Protestant badge from motives of political
+convenience as much as from conscientious conviction. As regards the
+second Duke of Guise, however, we find difficulty in always coinciding
+with his present historian, who makes him out a better man than
+previous reading had taught us to believe him. All the three Dukes of
+Guise were moral giants--men of extraordinary qualities, who towered
+far above their cotemporaries. All three were valiant, sagacious,
+and skilful in no common degree; but they were also ambitious and
+unscrupulous--the son more so than the father, the grandson more than
+either. In estimating their qualities and actions, M. de Bouillé justly
+makes much allowance for the prevalent fanaticism of the time; but he
+sometimes goes too far towards the adoption of the opinions of Catholic
+writers, who find extenuating circumstances in the conduct of the
+arch-butcher, Henry of Lorraine, on the night of St Bartholomew, and
+who acquit his father of sanctioning that barbarous massacre at Vassy,
+which was the spark to the powder--the actual commencement of the wars
+of religion.
+
+The little town of Vassy, adjacent to the domains of Guise, was the
+headquarters of a numerous Protestant congregation, whose preaching
+and acts of devotion "greatly scandalised," says M. de Bouillé, "the
+virtuous Antoinette de Bourbon, surnamed by the Huguenots, _Mother
+of the tyrants and enemies of the gospel_." She constantly implored
+the Duke, her son, to rid her of these obnoxious neighbours, which
+he promised to do, if it were possible without violation of the
+royal edicts. Upon the 1st March 1562, a journey he made in company
+with his wife--then with child and travelling in a litter--led him
+through Vassy. "His suite consisted of two hundred men-at-arms, all
+partaking, and even surpassing, the exalted Catholicism and warlike
+temper of their chief. At Vassy he was to be joined by sixty more. On
+arriving there, he entered the church to hear high mass; and, whether
+it was that the psalms of the Calvinists reached his ears, or that he
+was maliciously informed of their being then assembled, or that the
+clergy of Vassy complained and solicited the repression of outrages
+received from the sectarians, the fact is that he learned that their
+preaching was then going on. With the intention of giving them a severe
+admonition, he sent for their minister, and for the chief members
+of the congregation. His messenger was Labrosse, the son,--who was
+accompanied by two German pages, Schleck and Klingberg, one of whom
+carried his arquebuse and the other his pistols. These young men
+were violent in the fulfilment of their mission, and an exchange of
+insults was soon followed by bloodshed. At the first shots fired,
+the men-at-arms and the varlets, already disposed to hostilities,
+took part in the unequal fray. The five or six hundred Protestants,
+although superior in number, were far from sufficiently armed to offer
+an effectual resistance. They sought to establish a barricade, and to
+defend themselves with sticks and stones. The Duke, who hurried to
+the scene of the tumult, found himself unable to repress it. Some of
+his gentlemen were hit; the face of Labrosse, the father, streamed
+with blood; Guise himself was wounded in the left cheek by a stone. At
+sight of his hurt, his followers' fury knew no bounds. The Protestants,
+overwhelmed, (_écrasés_,) uttered piercing cries; and, endeavouring to
+escape by all issues, even by the roof, delivered themselves to the
+bullets of their enemies. Anne d'Est, who was peaceably pursuing her
+journey, paused on hearing the sounds of strife, and sent in all haste
+to entreat her husband to put an end to the effusion of blood; _but the
+carnage lasted an hour_; sixty men and women lost their lives and two
+hundred were wounded. On the side of the Prince of Lorraine, some men
+were also more or less hurt; only one was killed."
+
+A champion so energetic and formidable, a commander so much beloved,
+as the Duke of Guise, would certainly have succeeded, had he really
+attempted and desired to do so, in somewhat less than an hour, in
+checking his men-at-arms and stopping this inhuman massacre, which
+procured him from the Reformed party the odious nickname of _the
+Butcher of Vassy_. M. de Bouillé inclines to consider the slaughter
+on that fatal day as a sort of cruel reprisals, deplorable certainly,
+but in some measure extenuated by various excesses committed by the
+Huguenots--excesses, however, to which he but vaguely refers. It must
+be remembered that, at the time of the massacre of Vassy, an edict,
+obtained less than two months previously by the exertions and influence
+of Coligny and l'Hospital, and granting the Protestants liberty of
+conscience and free exercise of their religion, was in full force. The
+following passage from M. de Bouillé sufficiently shows the _animus_ of
+Guise--"When the return of a gloomy calm suffered him to discern the
+sad character of such a scene, the Duke fell into a passion with Claude
+Tourneur, captain of the town and castle of Vassy for Mary Stuart; he
+imputed the day's misfortunes to the toleration that officer had shown
+in suffering the formation of Calvinist assemblies. Tourneur, in his
+justification, cited the edict of January; but Guise clapped his hand
+to his sword, 'This,' he said, 'shall rescind that detestable edict!'"
+When the news of the massacre reached Paris, Theodore de Bèze, deputed
+by the Calvinist church of the capital, presented himself before
+Catherine to demand severe justice on the Duke of Guise. Catherine
+received him well and replied favourably; When the King of Navarre,
+in all the fervour of his new religion and sudden friendship for the
+Duke, burst out into anger against Bèze, attributing all the fault to
+the Protestants of Vassy, and declaring that "whoever touched as much
+as the finger-tip of his brother the Duke of Guise touched him in the
+middle of his heart." "Sire," replied Bèze, "it assuredly behoves that
+church of God in whose name I speak to endure blows, and not to strike
+them; but may it please you also to remember, that it is an anvil which
+has worn out many hammers." This menacing resignation was an omen of
+approaching calamities.
+
+Although Anthony of Bourbon, King of Navarre, was of little value at
+the council-board, or in any other way than as a brave man-at-arms, his
+conversion and alliance were highly prized by the Catholic party, as
+a great diminution of the _prestige_ of the Protestants. The Duke of
+Guise and his brothers, the Constable, and even the Spanish ambassador
+Chantonnay, combined to flatter and cajole the feeble prince, who on
+his part knew not how sufficiently to demonstrate his zeal for Popery
+and his love for the family of Lorraine. On Palm Sunday he marched
+in procession, accompanied by his new friends and by two thousand
+gentlemen of their party, bearing the consecrated branches from the
+church of St Genevieve to that of Notre-Dame. On occasion of this
+solemnity it has been said that the life of the Duke of Guise was in
+danger--some Protestant gentlemen having offered to assassinate him,
+if their ministers would authorise the deed in the name of religion.
+This authorisation was refused; the Calvinist churchmen "with greater
+prudence," says M. de Bouillé, "preferring to await the result of the
+complaint they had made with respect to the massacre of Vassy." It is
+hardly fair thus to insinuate that prudential considerations alone
+influenced this abstinence from assassination. Guise was considered,
+especially after the massacre of Vassy, the most dangerous foe of the
+Huguenot party; and more than one plan for his murder was laid prior
+to that which succeeded. But there is no proof that these plots were
+instigated by either the chiefs or the priests of the party. On the
+contrary, everything concurs to stamp them as proceeding solely from
+the religious fanaticism or violent party spirit of individuals. During
+the siege of Rouen--the first important operation of the war that now
+broke out--"the Duke of Guise," says M. de Bouillé, "was informed that
+an assassin had entered the camp with the project of taking his life.
+He sent for and calmly interrogated him--'Have you not come hither
+to kill me?' he said. Surprised at his detection, and trembling with
+apprehension of punishment, this young gentleman of Mans at once avowed
+his criminal design. 'And what motive,' inquired the Duke, 'impelled
+you to such a deed? Have I done you any wrong?' 'No; but in so doing I
+should serve my religion--that is to say, the belief in the doctrine
+of Calvin, which I profess.' 'My religion then is better than yours,'
+cried Guise with a generous impulse, 'for it commands me to pardon,
+of my own accord, you who are convicted of guilt.' And by his orders
+the gentleman was safely conducted out of the camp. A fine example,"
+exclaims M. de Bouillé, "of truly religious sentiments and magnanimous
+proselytism, very natural to the Duke of Guise, the most moderate
+and humane of the chiefs of the Catholic army; and whose brilliant
+generosity--true basis of the character of this great man--had been but
+temporarily obscured by the occurrence at Vassy!"
+
+At this siege of Rouen, Guise performed prodigies of valour; and
+Anthony of Bourbon, second to none in high soldierly spirit, had
+his jealousy roused by the exploits of his ally. Determined also to
+signalise himself, he needlessly exposed his life, and was hit by an
+arquebuse ball. The wound was severe, and Ambrose Paré declared it
+mortal, in contradiction to the opinions of several other physicians,
+who gave hopes of cure. Ten days afterwards Rouen was taken by assault;
+and on learning this, the King of Navarre insisted on being carried in
+triumph to his quarters in the captured town. Preceded by musicians,
+he was borne upon his bed through the breach by a detachment of Swiss
+soldiers. The fatigue and excitement increased the inflammation of his
+wound, and hastened his death. In his last moments he showed symptoms
+of regretting his change of religion; but notwithstanding this tardy
+repentance, the Protestants, against whom since his perversion to Rome
+he had used great severity, rejoiced exceedingly at his death, which
+they celebrated as a chastisement proceeding from Heaven.
+
+The fall of Rouen was quickly followed by the battle of Dreux, one
+of the most interesting actions of those wars. Condé was threatening
+Paris, when the Duke of Guise, following the example twice given by his
+father (in 1536 and 1544,) hurried from Rouen, where his troops had
+committed frightful excesses, but where he had successfully invoked
+the royal clemency in favour of the officers of the captured garrison,
+to give the inhabitants of the capital the benefit of his valour and
+skill. He there received a reinforcement of seven thousand Gascons
+and Spaniards; and Condé, seeing Paris so well defended, and that the
+chances of a general action, which he had at first been disposed to
+provoke, were no longer in his favour, retreated towards Normandy to
+establish communications with the English, who had already sent some
+slight succours to the Protestants.
+
+Guise pursued, gained a march on him, and confronted him near Dreux.
+The movements of the Catholics were nominally directed by the
+Constable, but Guise was in fact the presiding spirit. Unwilling to
+assume the responsibility of such a battle as appeared imminent, the
+Duke desired to cast it upon Catherine of Medicis, and accordingly, on
+the 14th December, he had sent Castlenau to that princess to know her
+decision. The envoy reached Vincennes at the moment of her _lever_. She
+affected surprise that experienced generals should send for counsel to
+a woman and child, whom the imminence of civil war plunged in grief.
+The King's nurse coming in at that moment, 'You should ask her,' said
+the Queen ironically, 'if battle is to be given.' And calling the
+woman to her--'Nurse,' she said, 'the time has come that men ask of
+women advice to give battle; how seems it to you?' A second messenger
+from the _triumvirate_[28] pressed for a decision; the council was
+assembled, and left everything to the prudence and judgment of the
+generals. With this semi-authorisation, these took up a position
+in the villages adjacent to Dreux, menacing Condé's left flank.
+Numerically stronger than the Protestants, they had fewer cavalry,
+but were well posted. The main body was commanded by the Constable
+in person; Guise, too proud to act as second in command, remained
+in reserve with his own company of men-at-arms and a few volunteers
+who had joined him. With these five hundred picked horsemen he was
+prepared to strike in where his aid might most be wanted. For two hours
+the armies remained in mutual observation, without even a skirmish.
+After hearing the report of d'Andelot, who had made a reconnoissance,
+Condé would gladly have avoided a battle, or at least have changed the
+ground. "By a movement to his right he exposed his flank; the Constable
+wished to take advantage of this. Condé's advanced guard, under
+Coligny, furiously charged the Royalist centre, as it advanced under
+Montmorency. The Prince himself, who, with his main body, was opposed
+to St André and the advanced guard, neglected to attack them, but
+directed all his efforts against the principal mass of the Catholics,
+imprudently bringing all his cavalry into action, and penetrating
+to the very colours of the Swiss troops, who successfully withstood
+this terrible shock. Contrary to the advice of the Duke of Guise,
+who urged him to let this fury expend itself, d'Anville, with three
+companies of men-at-arms and the light horse, hurried to attack Condé;
+but soon, surrounded by the German cavalry, he was forced to retreat
+upon the right wing, composed of Spanish infantry, and protected by
+fourteen pieces of cannon. Meanwhile the Constable opposed an energetic
+resistance to the attack of his nephew Coligny. In the midst of this
+terrible _mêlée_, Montmorency, as unfortunate as at St Quintin, had
+his horse killed under him; he mounted another, but the next moment,
+wounded in the jaw by a pistol-shot, he was taken prisoner. Around
+him fell his fourth son Montbéron, Beauvais, and the Sieur de Givry.
+The Duke of Aumale--fighting with the utmost ardour, overthrown by
+the fugitives, and trampled under the horses' feet--had his shoulder
+broken, the bone of the arm being almost uncovered, and split up to
+the joint, so that for six weeks he could not ride. The Grand Prior
+was also wounded. The entire main body, and a part of the advanced
+guard, (which had been disposed on the same line with the centre, or
+_corps de bataille_,) were totally routed; the artillery covering
+them was in the power of the enemy; five thousand Swiss alone still
+displayed a bold front. The Protestants, however, headlong in pursuit
+of the vanquished, outstripped these troops and reached the baggage,
+which they plundered, 'even that of Monsieur de Guise and his silver
+plate;'[29] then, reforming, they returned to the charge against the
+Swiss--who, frequently broken, always rallied, and at last, seeing
+themselves attacked on all sides by Condé's lansquenets, were no longer
+contented to hold their ground, but pressed forward and repulsed their
+assailants."
+
+The battle seemed won, when Guise, who had remained all this time
+inactive, at last decided to advance. He has often been reproached
+for the apathy with which he had so long beheld the disasters of the
+Catholic army. It certainly looked very much as if he wished to requite
+in kind Montmorency's inaction, eight years previously, at the combat
+of Renty. His conduct may have been, as M. de Bouillé inclines to
+believe, the result of prudent calculation; and it is difficult, after
+this lapse of time, to prove that less caution would not have been
+fatal to the Catholic army. The succour that retrieved the fortune
+of the day came so late, however, that the victors' loss exceeded
+that of the vanquished. When Montmorency's son, d'Anville, beheld his
+brother slain and his father prisoner, he hurried to Guise--whose
+reserve was concealed from the enemy behind the village of Blainville
+and a cluster of trees--and franticly implored him to rescue the
+Constable by an impetuous charge. Guise refused to stir. Presently,
+however, when he saw that the Huguenots, disordered by success, deemed
+the battle completely won, he advanced at a steady pace, rallying
+the fugitives, bringing up the advanced guard, and uniting with the
+Spaniards and Gascons. Thus supported, he moved boldly against the
+hostile battalions, which gave way before him. d'Andelot, whom fever
+kept from the field, first perceived the disastrous change in the
+issue of the combat. Unarmed, wrapped in a furred dressing-gown, he
+sprang forward to cheek the rout; and, observing the good order of the
+Duke of Guise's reserve--"Yonder," he said, "is a tail that it will
+be very difficult to scotch." In vain the Prince of Condé sought to
+rally his cavalry, paralysed by the sustained fire of eight hundred
+arquebusiers posted by St André. The carnage was frightful. Condé,
+wounded in the right hand, lost his horse, killed by a bullet; and
+as he was about to remount he was surrounded, and compelled to yield
+himself prisoner to d'Anville, who burned to revenge his father's
+wound and captivity. Thereupon the gallant Coligny, who had rallied
+fifteen or sixteen hundred horse in a little valley, returned to the
+charge to rescue the prince; and so terrible was his onset upon Guise's
+squadrons, that these wavered, and Guise himself was for a moment
+in great danger. But the fire of two thousand arquebusiers, posted
+on his flanks, covered the confusion of his cavalry, and compelled
+Coligny to a retreat, which was effected in good order. Night fell;
+Guise did not pursue; and Coligny saved a part of his artillery, but
+lost, in that day's action, three or four thousand men. The loss of
+the Catholics amounted to five or six thousand, and was particularly
+severe in cavalry. By a strange coincidence, the two generals-in-chief
+were prisoners. The conquerors had to regret the loss of several other
+distinguished leaders. In the closing act of this obstinately-contested
+fight, Marshal St André, thrown from his horse and made prisoner, was
+pistolled by Daubigny, a former follower of his, who had long been his
+bitter foe. Both the Labrosses, and Jean d'Annebaut, were also slain;
+and the Duke of Nevers had his thigh broken. At first it was rumoured
+in the Protestant army that Guise himself was killed. "Knowing," says
+Etienne Pasquier in one of his letters, quoted by M. de Bouillé,
+"that it was he at whom the Huguenots would chiefly aim, and doubting
+not but that his army was full of spies, upon the eve of the battle
+he declared publicly at supper what horse he would ride, and what
+would be his arms and equipment upon the following day. But the next
+morning, before proceeding to the rendezvous, he gave up that horse
+and accoutrements to his esquire. Well for him that he did so! for the
+esquire was killed, whilst he for a while escaped." It is recorded that
+the esquire, Varicarville, solicited permission thus to devote himself
+for his leader's safety. The stratagem was so successful, that when
+Guise, late in the day, made his appearance, the Admiral and Condé
+were completely astonished. "Here, then, is the cunning fellow whose
+shadow we have pursued," exclaimed Coligny. "We are lost; the victory
+will slip from our hands."--"The day's success came most apropos to M.
+de Guise," wrote Pasquier, "for of one defeat he made two victories;
+the captivity of the Constable, his rival in renown, not being less
+advantageous to him than that of the Prince, his open foe." Whilst
+Coligny marched off his uncle and prisoner to Orleans, to place him
+in the hands of the Princess of Condé, Guise, with characteristic
+magnanimity, courteously and kindly received his inveterate enemy, the
+Prince. Quartered in Blainville, which the Huguenots had devastated,
+and deprived of his baggage, he could command but a single bed, which
+he offered to Condé, with other marks of deference for the first prince
+of the blood. Touched by his conqueror's generosity, Condé momentarily
+forgot his hatred; supped at Guise's table--freely discussed with him
+the basis of a peace, of whose conclusion the presumed destruction of
+his party made him desirous--and finally accepted the proffered couch,
+only on condition that the Duke should share it with him.
+
+The news of the victory of Dreux was received at Paris with transports
+of joy, and once more the name of "saviour of his country" was applied
+to Guise. The alarm in the capital had been very great, and not
+without reason. "If this battle had been lost," wrote Montluc in his
+_Commentaries_, "I believe it was all over with France: both the state
+and the religion would have been changed; for a young king may be made
+to do anything." The satisfaction of Catherine de Medicis was by no
+means unalloyed. She did not like Condé; but his defeat destroyed the
+equilibrium which she had hitherto so carefully maintained, to the
+benefit of her own influence. She now felt herself under the pressure
+of a power, moderate in form but absolute in fact. There was no help
+for it, however; neither, in the absence of the Constable, was there
+any excuse for withholding the chief command from the Duke of Guise,
+who was accordingly appointed lieutenant-general of the kingdom. He
+did not long enjoy his new dignity. The battle of Dreux was fought
+on the 19th December. Just two months later, on the night of the
+18th February, Guise--after arranging everything for the assault of
+Orleans upon the following day, and announcing to the Queen-mother
+his conviction of approaching triumph--left the camp on horseback,
+accompanied only by one of his officers and a page, to visit the
+Duchess, who had that day reached the neighbouring castle of Corney.
+"He had crossed the Loiret in a boat, and was walking his horse,
+when, at a cross-road, he felt himself wounded in the right shoulder,
+almost under the arm, by a pistol-shot fired behind a hedge, from
+between two great walnut trees, at a distance of only six or seven
+paces. Notwithstanding the darkness, a white plume he wore upon his
+head signalised him; and as, for the sake of ease, he had taken off
+his cuirass at evening, those bullets, aimed just above the armour
+which the assassin believed him to wear, passed through his body.
+'They have long had this shot in reserve for me,' exclaimed he, on
+feeling himself wounded; 'I deserve it for my want of precaution.'
+Unable to support himself for pain, he fell on his horse's neck; in
+vain he endeavoured to draw his sword: his arm refused its service.
+Carried to his quarters, he was welcomed by the cries of the Duchess
+of Guise, whom he embraced and told her himself the circumstances of
+his assassination, by which he declared himself grieved for the honour
+of France. He exhorted his wife to submit with resignation to the will
+of heaven; then, covering with kisses the Prince of Joinville, who
+was weeping, he said to him, gently, 'God grant thee grace, my son,
+to be a good man!'" Poltrot de Méré, the assassin, escaped for the
+moment, although promptly pursued; but he lost his way in the darkness,
+and after riding ten leagues, found himself at daybreak close to the
+Catholic cantonments. Worn out with fatigue, as was also his horse--a
+good Spanish charger, for whose purchase he had received a hundred
+crowns from Coligny--he hid himself in a farm, and was there arrested,
+on the 20th February, by the Duke's secretary, La Seurre. The gift of
+the hundred crowns has been alleged against the Admiral as a proof of
+his having instigated the crime; but, in fact, it was no proof at all,
+for Poltrot had been acting as a secret agent and spy to the Huguenots,
+and might very well receive that sum, as he had previously received a
+smaller one, as guerdon for the information he brought. He himself, on
+his examination, declared he had been urged to the deed by Coligny,
+Theodore de Bèze, and another Protestant minister; but he could adduce
+no proof, save that of one hundred and twenty crowns received from
+Coligny, to whom he had been recommended, as a useful agent, by a
+Huguenot leader in eastern France. And his previous life rendered his
+bare assertion worthless, whilst the high character of the men he
+impeached raised them above suspicion--in the eyes of unprejudiced
+persons--of having instigated so foul a deed. They addressed a letter
+to the Queen-mother, repelling the charge, and entreating that
+Poltrot's life might be spared until peace should be concluded, when
+they would confront him and refute his testimony. Coligny declared
+that he had even discountenanced such plots, and referred to a warning
+he had given the Duke, only a few days previously, "to be on his
+guard, for there was a man suborned to kill him." At the same time he
+repudiated all regret for the Duke's death, which he declared the best
+thing that could have happened for the kingdom and for the church of
+God. But, to his dying day, he protested his innocence of the blood
+of Guise; and his life and character give weight and credibility to
+the protest. M. de Bouillé makes some judicious reflections as to the
+share Catherine of Medicis may have had in instigating the murder. Her
+jealousy and distrust of the Guises were very strong: she had opposed
+the siege of Orleans, and thrown obstacles in the way of its successful
+issue; she had hastened the execution of the murderer, as soon as
+he had accused the Admiral of complicity. We are certainly doing no
+injustice to the character of that most corrupt and crafty queen, when
+we assume the possibility that hopes of a mitigated punishment, or of
+means of escape, had been held out to induce Poltrot to depone against
+the Admiral; and that then, the deposition obtained, the pledge to the
+unhappy wretch was broken, and the murderer's doom inflicted. Such
+double treachery was quite in concord with Catherine's character. She
+felt that suspicions would attach to her, and endeavoured to stifle
+them by a display of profound grief, by loading with favours the family
+of the victim, and by a promise of severe and full measure of justice.
+
+The death of Francis of Lorraine (on Ash Wednesday, 24th February
+1563,) was the immediate cause of a treaty of peace between Catholics
+and Protestants, for which the Queen-mother had for some time been
+paving the way. On a small island in the middle of the Loire, near
+Orleans, the two illustrious captives, Condé and the Constable, met,
+each under strong escort; and terms were agreed upon, the principal of
+which were a general amnesty, and freedom of conscience and worship,
+under certain restrictions of place, for the Huguenots. All prisoners
+were released on both sides; and Orleans, which had so nearly shared
+the fate of Rouen, opened its gates to the King and Queen-mother, who
+were to take possession of it without any marks of triumph.
+
+"On the eve of the tournament in which Henry II. was mortally wounded
+by Montgomery, that king held upon his knees his little daughter
+Margaret, afterwards wife of Henry IV. Diverted by the repartees of
+the child, who already gave promise of great wit and understanding,
+and seeing the Prince of Joinville, and the Marquis of Beaupréau, (son
+of the Prince of La Roche-sur-Yon,) playing together in the room, the
+King asked Margaret which of the two she liked best. 'I prefer the
+Marquis,' she replied, 'he is gentler and better.' 'Yes,' said the
+King, 'but Joinville is handsomest.' 'Oh,' retorted Margaret, 'he is
+always in mischief, and _will_ be master everywhere.' Joinville was
+but nine years old, and Margaret was only seven, but she had already
+deciphered the character of the man whose ambition set all France in a
+flame." A prediction of Francis of Lorraine, recorded by M. de Bouillé,
+confirmed that of the precocious princess. Observant of his son's
+character, from infancy upwards, he is said to have foretold that,
+carried away and dazzled by popularity and its vain promises, he would
+perish in an attempt to upset the kingdom. The event may fairly be said
+to have justified the prophecy. Henry, third Duke of Guise, fell by his
+ambition. "Inferior to his father as a warrior," says M. de Bouillé,
+"he perhaps surpassed all the princes of his house in certain natural
+gifts, in certain talents, which procured him the respect of the court,
+the affection of the people, but which, nevertheless, were tarnished by
+a singular alloy of great faults and unlimited ambition." The historian
+proceeds to give a glowing description of his beauty, accomplishments,
+and seductive qualities. "France was mad about that man," wrote Balzac,
+"for it is too little to say she was in love with him. Her passion
+approached idolatry. There were persons who invoked him in their
+prayers, others who inserted his portrait in their books. His portrait,
+indeed, was everywhere: some ran after him in the streets to touch
+his mantle with their rosaries; and one day that he entered Paris by
+the Porte St Antoine, on his return from a journey to Champagne, they
+not only cried _Vive Guise!_ but many sang on his passage: _Hosanna
+filio David!_ Large assemblies were known to yield themselves at once
+captive to his pleasant countenance. No heart could resist that
+face; it persuaded before he opened his mouth; it was impossible
+to wish him harm in his presence.... And Huguenots belonged to the
+League when they beheld the Duke of Guise." Although but thirteen
+years old, at his father's death, Henry of Lorraine had accompanied
+him in his recent campaigns, and at the siege of Orleans had had
+opportunity to show symptoms of that cool intrepidity for which he was
+afterwards remarkable. Profound dissimulation was another leading and
+early-developed feature of his character; and in this respect he had
+before him a first-rate model in the person of his uncle, the crafty
+and unscrupulous Cardinal of Lorraine.
+
+This prelate, who was rather violent than brave, was profoundly grieved
+and alarmed by his brother's assassination, news of which reached him
+at the Council of Trent. On receiving the sad intelligence, he fell
+on his knees, and, lifting his hands and eyes to heaven: "Lord," he
+exclaimed, "you have deprived the innocent brother of life, and left it
+to the guilty!"--a cry of conscience, in which there was not a little
+truth. He immediately surrounded himself with a guard. In a letter,
+of which he took care to have copies handed about, he announced to
+his mother his resolution to retire to his diocese, and pass the rest
+of his days in preaching the word of God. Nevertheless he did not
+quit the Council, where his weight, however, was somewhat lessened by
+the Duke's death. But he recovered his ground, and finally exercised
+a most important influence on its deliberations. On his return to
+France, he obtained permission to retain his guard, consisting of fifty
+arquebusiers, who never left him, accompanying him to church, when
+he preached or said mass, and even conducting him to the door of the
+King's cabinet. For nearly a year after his return from Italy, however,
+he kept aloof from the capital and from public affairs, dividing his
+time between Rheims and Joinville, but still secretly carrying on his
+complicated intrigues. At last, on the 8th January 1565, he entered
+Paris with a considerable escort, and in a sort of triumph, accompanied
+by his young nephews, the Duke of Guise and the Marquis of Mayenne, and
+by a number of knights, presidents, and gentlemen. Marshal Montmorency
+(son of the Constable), who was now intimate with his cousin Coligny,
+and ill-disposed to the Guises, was Governor of the Isle of France,
+and had published, "on the 13th December, a royal ordinance, which, in
+a spirit of precaution indispensable in those troubled times, forbade
+all princes, nobles, or persons whatsoever, to travel with an armed
+retinue. The Cardinal had a dispensation from the Queen-mother, but he
+either disdained or neglected to present it to Montmorency. The Marshal
+was most probably aware of its existence, but he ignored it, and
+sent word to the Cardinal not to pursue his journey with a forbidden
+escort. The Cardinal, considering this injunction an affront, heeded
+it not, and was close to his journey's end, when he was encountered
+in the streets of Paris, (Rue St Denis), by a body of infantry and
+cavalry of both religions, under the orders of Montmorency and of the
+Prince of Portien, who charged and routed his escort; and he himself
+was compelled to seek safety in the humble dwelling of a rope-maker,
+dragging with him his nephews, of whom the eldest especially, a pistol
+in either hand, refused to quit the combat, unequal as it was, and,
+by recalling his father's memory to the Parisians, already acquired
+personal partisans. A faithful follower, who would have shut the door
+upon them, was mortally wounded by the balls which struck the very
+threshold of the room in which the Princes of Lorraine had taken
+refuge. '_Seigneur, mon Dieu!_' cried the Cardinal, in this imminent
+peril, 'if my hour is come, and the power of darkness, spare at least
+the innocent blood!' Meanwhile the Duke of Aumale, who had entered
+by the gate of the Louvre, created a diversion, which contributed to
+appease the tumult of the Rue St Denis; and under cover of night, the
+prelate, with his nephews and suite, was able to reach his _hôtel de
+Cluny_."
+
+It was in 1565 that the consideration of the formidable results
+obtained by the close union of the Protestants, numerically weak,
+suggested to the Cardinal de Lorraine, and a number of Catholic
+nobleman, the idea of a counter-association on a grand scale, (the
+germ of this dated from some years previously), to be composed of
+prelates, gentlemen, magistrates, and of burgesses and other members
+of the third estate, for the purpose of acting with promptitude and
+independence, without awaiting the orders or the uncertain and tardy
+succours of Government. This was the association known in history as
+the League. At the end of the following year the young Duke of Guise,
+who had been campaigning with the Emperor Maximilian against the
+Turks, returned to France, just in time to see the curtain lifted for
+the bloody drama of a new civil war. Already Huguenots and Catholics
+were in mutual observation of each other. The former first assumed the
+offensive. Alarmed by movements of troops, fresh levies, and other
+menacing indications, they laid a plan to carry off Charles IX. then
+at his hunting-seat of Monceaux, near Meaux. Once in their hands, they
+calculated on making the young King the nominal chief of their party.
+But the plot was betrayed, and recoiled upon its advisers by exciting
+against them the implacable hatred of its object. "With even more oaths
+than were necessary," says an old writer, the King exhaled his wrath,
+and vowed vengeance against the Huguenots, from whom, however, he was
+for the moment compelled to fly. Escorted by six thousand Swiss, and by
+such other troops as could hastily be assembled, he took the road to
+Paris, hard pressed for seven hours by Condé and the Admiral. But the
+Protestant squadrons were unable to break the stern array of the Swiss;
+on the second day d'Aumale, with several hundred well-armed gentlemen,
+came out from Paris to swell the royal escort; and Charles entered his
+capital in safety, furious at the rebels, and well-disposed to proceed
+against them to any extremities the Guises might suggest. The anger of
+this family was greatly roused by a trap laid, two days later, for the
+Cardinal of Lorraine, who only escaped by quitting his carriage and
+mounting a fleet horse, (some say that he had even to run a long way on
+foot,) with loss of his plate and equipage.
+
+Shut up in Paris, Charles IX. beheld the Huguenots almost at its
+gates, intercepting supplies and burning the flour-mills. At last,
+d'Andelot and Montgomery having marched towards Poissy, to oppose the
+passage of a Spanish auxiliary corps, Condé and Coligny, with fifteen
+hundred horse and eighteen hundred indifferently equipped infantry,
+without artillery,[30] were attacked by the Constable at the head of
+twelve thousand infantry, three thousand horse, and fourteen guns.
+There ensued the brief but glorious battle of St Denis, in which
+Montmorency was slain, and the Protestants, opposed to five times
+their numbers, held victory in their grasp, when d'Aumale, seeing them
+disordered by success, moved up with a body of picked men, whom he
+had kept in reserve, (as his brother Francis had done at the battle
+of Dreux,) rallied the fugitives, saved the Swiss from total defeat,
+rescued the body of the Constable, and compelled Condé to retreat. The
+laurels of the day, however, were unquestionably for the Huguenots,
+notwithstanding that they abandoned the field; and the next day they
+again offered battle to the royal army, but it was not accepted. Then
+Condé, short of provisions and weakened by the action, retired towards
+Lorraine, and effected his junction with an auxiliary corps of twelve
+thousand men which came to him from Germany. There ensued a short and
+hollow peace, which were better named an imperfectly-observed truce,
+and which did not preclude persecution of the Protestants; and then
+war again broke out, with the Duke of Anjou, (afterwards Henry III.)
+at the head of the royal armies. The first action of this, the third
+civil war, took place in the Perigord, and is known as the combat of
+Mouvans--the name of one of the leaders who was killed. He and another
+Huguenot gentleman were bringing up several thousand men to join the
+Prince of Condé, when they were attacked, and routed with great loss,
+by twelve hundred cavalry under the Duke of Montpensier. In this affair
+the young Duke of Guise greatly distinguished himself, by an impetuous
+and opportune charge on the main body of the enemy's infantry. Next
+came the fatal battle of Jarnac--fatal, that is to say, to the
+Protestants, who lost in it, or rather after it, by a felon-shot, their
+gallant leader Condé. Against overwhelming numbers, his right arm
+broken by a fall, wounded in the leg by the kick of a horse, dismounted
+and unable to stand, that heroic prince, one knee upon the ground,
+still obstinately defended himself. "The Catholics who surrounded him,
+respecting so much courage, ceased to attack, and urged him to give
+up his sword. He had already consented to do so,[31] his quality of
+prisoner ought to have protected him, when Montesquiou, captain of the
+Swiss guard of the Duke of Anjou, came up--with secret orders, it is
+supposed--and sent a pistol-ball through his head. Thus undisguised
+did the fury and hatred engendered by civil discord then exhibit
+themselves. At the close of this same fight, and at no great distance
+from the spot where Condé perished, Robert Stuart was also made
+prisoner; and Honorat de Savoie, Count de Villars, obtained permission,
+by dint of entreaty, to kill him with his own hand, in expiation of
+the blow by which this Scot was accused of having mortally wounded
+the Constable of Montmorency at the battle of St Denis. But even such
+barbarity as this did not suffice, and to it were added cowardly
+outrages and ignoble jests. The dead body of Condé was derisively
+placed upon an ass, and followed the Duke of Anjou upon his triumphant
+entrance into Jarnac, and was there laid upon a stone, at the door of
+the quarters of the King's brother; whilst religious fury scrupled not
+to justify by sarcasm the indignity of such acts."[32]
+
+Greatly discouraged by the reverse of Jarnac, and by the loss of their
+leader, the Protestant party presently had their hopes revived by
+promised succours from Elizabeth of England, and from various German
+princes. Coligny--now the real head of the party, whose titulary chiefs
+were Henry of Béarn and his young cousin Condé--was joined by twelve
+thousand Germans, under Duke Wolfgang of Zweibrucken. On the other
+hand, the Catholic army was weakened by sickness and desertions, by
+the want of discipline amongst the Swiss troops and German _reiters_,
+chiefly composing it, and by discord between its generals. The Guises
+were displeased at being commanded by the Duke of Anjou, who, in spite
+of his extreme youth, had displayed valour, decision, and military
+talents, whose promise was not fulfilled by his ignoble reign as Henry
+III.
+
+The siege of Poitiers cost the Protestant army much time and many
+men. After the most vigorous efforts for its capture, Coligny retired
+from before the town--which had been admirably defended, and owed its
+safety less to a diversion made by the Duke of Anjou, (who menaced
+Chatellerault) than to the great valour and activity of the Duke of
+Guise, recalling, on a smaller scale, the glorious defence of Metz by
+his father. Five breaches had been made in the walls, but the most
+determined assaults were steadily and successfully repulsed. Of the
+garrison, one-third perished, and the loss of the besiegers was very
+heavy. On the 9th September, Guise and his brother Mayenne left the
+town, at the head of fifteen hundred horse, and, after making a report
+of their triumph to the Duke of Anjou, proceeded to Tours, where
+Charles IX. received them with many caresses and flattering words. Four
+days later, the Parliament of Paris proclaimed the ex-Admiral Coligny a
+traitor, condemned him to death, and offered fifty thousand gold crowns
+to whomsoever should deliver him up alive. A few days afterwards the
+same sum was offered for his head; and the Guises had the proclamation
+translated into seven languages, and circulated throughout Europe.
+Then came the bloody battle of Moncontour, where eighteen thousand
+men under Coligny were beaten, with very heavy loss, by the Duke of
+Anjou's army of twenty-five thousand. It began with a long cannonade,
+quickly succeeded by a combat at close quarters, in which even the
+generals-in-chief were personally engaged. "The Duke of Anjou had
+his horse killed under him, but was rescued by d'Aumale; Coligny was
+wounded in the face, and lost four teeth; Guise was badly hurt by
+a ball in the foot: Mayenne distinguished himself at his brother's
+side." After an hour's deadly struggle, the Huguenots were beaten at
+all points. There was a terrible massacre of them; three thousand
+prisoners were made, and five hundred German horse passed over to the
+conquerors. This was a grievous blow for the Protestant party. Coligny,
+however, and the princes, shut themselves up in La Rochelle, and had
+leisure to look around them and organise their remaining forces, whilst
+the Duke of Anjou wasted his time in the siege of some unimportant
+places, and the Duke of Guise was laid up with his wound, which was
+long of healing. The state of the kingdom of France, exhausted by
+these repeated wars, was deplorable. Coligny, bold and active, made
+long marches southwards, collecting reinforcements and supplies, and
+finally reaching Burgundy, and getting the advantage in an encounter
+with the King's army, under Marshal de Cossé, at Arnay le Duc. In
+short, he had the road open to Paris. These considerations made Charles
+IX. anxious for peace; which, after some negotiation, was concluded
+at St Germain-en-Laye, in August 1570, on terms so favourable to the
+Huguenots--who, says Montluc, in his _Commentaries_, always had the
+best of it when it came to those _diables d'escritures_--that Pope Pius
+V. wrote to the Cardinal de Lorraine to express his violent disapproval.
+
+As had more than once already been the case, the return of peace was
+quickly followed by the marked diminution of the influence of the
+house of Guise. The Duke of Anjou cherished an instinctive hatred and
+jealousy of Henry of Lorraine; whilst the Cardinal had incurred the
+displeasure of the Queen-mother, who, as well as Charles IX., had
+previously been greatly angered by the presumption of the Duke of
+Guise in aspiring to the hand of her daughter Margaret. At one time,
+so furiously chafed was the King's naturally violent temper by the
+pretensions of the Guise party--against whom his brother Anjou lost
+no opportunity of irritating him--that he actually resolved on the
+immediate death of the young Duke of Guise, who only escaped through
+the timidity and indecision of Henry of Angoulême, the King's bastard
+brother--commissioned to make an end of him at a hunting party--and
+through warnings given him, it is said, by Margaret herself. The
+Montmorencys, cousins of the Colignys, seemed to have succeeded to the
+influence the Guises had lost: the Marshal and his brother d'Anville
+governed the Queen-mother; and so fierce was the animosity between the
+rival families, that Guise and Méru, brother of Marshal Montmorency,
+openly quarrelled in the King's Chamber, and, on leaving the palace,
+exchanged a challenge, whose consequences persons sent expressly by
+Charles IX. had great difficulty in averting. In short, during the year
+1571, "no more was heard of the Cardinal of Lorraine than if he had
+been dead; nor was anything known about the Guises, except that they
+had celebrated at Joinville the birth of a son to the Duke," who had
+married, in the previous year, Catherine of Cleves, widow of the Prince
+de Portien.
+
+The apparent favour of the Admiral de Coligny, the return to Paris
+of the Guises, the seeming fusion of the two great parties that
+had so long distracted France, were preludes to the massacre of St
+Bartholomew. In narrating the strange and important events that
+crowded the year 1572, M. de Bouillé lays bare the vile qualities of
+Charles IX., his cold-blooded cruelty, his odious treachery, and the
+powers of profound dissimulation he had inherited from his mother.
+One anecdote, extracted from Fornier's MS. History of the House of
+Guise, is extremely characteristic. The King, whilst loading Coligny
+with marks of confidence and favour, hinted darkly to the Guises the
+existence of some sinister plot, urging them to take patience, because,
+as he said to the Duke d'Aumale, _bientôt il verroit quelque bon jeu_.
+It happened one day that "the King was alone in his chamber with Henry
+of Lorraine, both gaily disposed; the latter had seized a headless
+pike, used to shut the upper shutters of the window, and was amusing
+Charles IX. by the extraordinary dexterity with which he wielded this
+weapon, when Coligny unexpectedly entered. The King felt that the
+abrupt interruption of their play, on his appearance, might excite
+the Admiral's suspicions. Suddenly, therefore, he feigned violent
+displeasure; accused the Duke of having insolently waved the pole
+close to his face, and, seizing a boar-spear that stood by his bed,
+pursued Guise, who, as if the better to escape, ran, it is said, into
+the apartments of Margaret de Valois. Charles snatched the Admiral's
+sword to pursue the fugitive; and Coligny, deceived by this well-acted
+anger, interceded to obtain the pardon of the heedless young Prince of
+Lorraine."
+
+There is no particular novelty in M. de Bouillé's account of the
+massacre of St Bartholomew. We cannot compliment him on the guarded
+manner in which he condemns his hero for his participation in that
+monster murder--an episode that would have sufficed to brand with
+eternal infamy a far greater and better man than Henry of Lorraine.
+Compelled to admit that the whole direction and combination of the
+massacre was intrusted to, and joyfully undertaken by, the Duke of
+Guise--that he was privy to and approving of Maurevel's previous
+attempt to assassinate Coligny, and that he afterwards stood under
+the Admiral's window whilst the Wurtemburger Besme, and others of
+his creatures, stabbed the wounded Protestant as he rose defenceless
+from his couch--M. de Bouillé informs us that, on quitting the place
+of his enemy's murder, whilst the most barbarous scenes were on all
+sides enacting--the consequence of the completeness and skill of his
+own preparations--Guise was _seized with compassion_, and had "the
+good thought to save many innocent victims, women, children, and even
+men," by sheltering them in his hotel. On the other hand, "those whom
+the Prince considered as factious, or as adherents of such--in a word,
+his political adversaries rather than heretics--found little pity at
+his hands." And he was proceeding "to carry death into the faubourg St
+Germain, and to seek there Montgomery, the Vidame de Chartres, and a
+hundred Protestant gentlemen whom prudence had prevented from lodging
+near the Admiral." The compassionate intentions of Guise towards these
+five score Huguenots and "political adversaries," could be so little
+doubtful, that it was certainly most fortunate for them that a friend
+swam the Seine and gave them warning, whilst a mistake about keys
+delayed the Duke's passage through the gate of Bussy. They escaped,
+pursued to some distance from Paris by Guise and his escort. On his
+return, the massacre was at its height. "Less pitiless than any of the
+other Catholic chiefs, he had opened in his own dwelling an asylum
+to more than a hundred Protestant gentlemen, _of whom he thought he
+should be able afterwards to make partisans_." His compassion, then,
+had not the merit of disinterestedness. Similar selfish considerations
+induced others of the assassins to rescue others of the doomed. It will
+be remembered, that Ambrose Paré found shelter and protection in the
+palace, from whose windows Charles IX., arquebuse in hand, is said to
+have amused himself by picking off the wretched Protestants, as they
+scudded through the streets with the blood-hounds at their heels. But
+all the skill of the Huguenot leech was insufficient, a few months
+later, to preserve that perfidious and cruel monarch from a death whose
+strange and horrible character was considered by many to be a token of
+God's displeasure at the oceans of blood he had so inhumanly caused
+to flow. Charles IX. was preceded and followed to the grave, at short
+intervals, by an active sharer in the massacre, the Duke of Aumale,
+and by one of its most vehement instigators and approvers, Charles,
+Cardinal of Lorraine, both uncles of the Duke, and notable members of
+the house of Guise. The change of religion of Henry of Navarre and of
+the young Prince of Condé, the siege of Rochelle, the conclusion of
+peace with the Protestants, and the accession of Henry III. to the
+throne of France, are the other important events that bring us to the
+end of the second volume of M. de Bouillé's interesting history.
+
+
+
+
+A WILD-FLOWER GARLAND. BY DELTA.
+
+
+THE DAISY.
+
+                                   I.
+
+    The Daisy blossoms on the rocks,
+      Amid the purple heath;
+    It blossoms on the river's banks,
+      That thrids the glens beneath:
+    The eagle, at his pride of place,
+      Beholds it by his nest;
+    And, in the mead, it cushions soft
+      The lark's descending breast.
+
+                                  II.
+
+    Before the cuckoo, earliest spring
+      Its silver circlet knows,
+    When greening buds begin to swell,
+      And zephyr melts the snows;
+    And, when December's breezes howl
+      Along the moorlands bare,
+    And only blooms the Christmas rose,
+      The Daisy still is there!
+
+                                  III.
+
+    Samaritan of flowers! to it
+      All races are alike,
+    The Switzer on his glacier height,--
+      The Dutchman by his dyke,--
+    The seal-skin vested Esquimaux,
+      Begirt with icy seas,--
+    And, underneath his burning noon,
+      The parasol'd Chinese.
+
+                                  IV.
+
+    The emigrant on distant shore,
+      Mid scenes and faces strange,
+    Beholds it flowering in the sward,
+      Where'er his footsteps range;
+    And when his yearning, home-sick heart
+      Would bow to its despair,
+    It reads his eye a lesson sage--
+      That God is everywhere!
+
+                                   V.
+
+    Stars are the Daisies that begem
+      The blue fields of the sky,
+    Beheld by all, and everywhere,
+      Bright prototypes on high:--
+    Bloom on, then, unpretending flowers!
+      And to the waverer be
+    An emblem of St Paul's content,
+      St Stephen's constancy.
+
+
+THE WHITE ROSE.
+
+                                   I.
+
+    Rose of the desert! thou art to me
+    An emblem of stainless purity,--
+    Of those who, keeping their garments white,
+    Walk on through life with steps aright.
+
+                                  II.
+
+    Thy fragrance breathes of the fields above,
+    Whose soil and air are faith and love;
+    And where, by the murmur of silver springs,
+    The Cherubim fold their snow-white wings;--
+
+                                  III.
+
+    Where those who were severed re-meet in joy,
+    Which death can never more destroy;
+    Where scenes without, and where souls within,
+    Are blanched from taint and touch of sin;--
+
+                                  IV.
+
+    Where speech is music, and breath is balm;
+    And broods an everlasting calm;
+    And flowers wither not, as in worlds like this;
+    And hope is swallowed in perfect bliss;--
+
+                                   V.
+
+    Where all is peaceful, for all is pure;
+    And all is lovely; and all endure;
+    And day is endless, and ever bright;
+    And no more sea is, and no more night;--
+
+                                  VI.
+
+    Where round the throne, in hues like thine,
+    The raiments of the ransom'd shine;
+    And o'er each brow a halo glows
+    Of glory, like the pure White Rose!
+
+
+THE SWEET BRIAR.
+
+                                   I.
+
+            The Sweet Briar flowering,
+            With boughs embowering,
+    Beside the willow-tufted stream,
+            In its soft, red bloom,
+            And its wild perfume,
+    Brings back the past like a sunny dream!
+
+                                  II.
+
+            Methinks, in childhood,
+            Beside the wildwood
+    I lie, and listen the blackbird's song,
+            Mid the evening calm,
+            As the Sweet Briar's balm
+    On the gentle west wind breathes along--
+
+                                  III.
+
+            To speak of meadows,
+            And palm-tree shadows,
+    And bee-hive cones, and a thymy hill,
+            And greenwood mazes,
+            And greensward daisies,
+    And a foamy stream, and a clacking mill.
+
+                                  IV.
+
+            Still the heart rejoices,
+            At the happy voices
+    Of children, singing amid their play;
+            While swallows twittering,
+            And waters glittering,
+    Make earth an Eden at close of day.
+
+                                   V.
+
+            In sequestered places,
+            Departed faces,
+    Return and smile as of yore they smiled;
+            When, with trifles blest,
+            Each buoyant breast
+    Held the trusting heart of a little child.
+
+                                  VI.
+
+            The future never
+            Again can ever
+    The perished gifts of the past restore,
+            Nor, to thee or me,
+            Can the wild flowers be
+    What the Briar was then--oh never more!
+
+
+THE WALL-FLOWER.
+
+                                   I.
+
+    The Wall-flower--the Wall-flower,
+      How beautiful it blooms!
+    It gleams above the ruined tower,
+      Like sunlight over tombs;
+    It sheds a halo of repose
+      Around the wrecks of time.
+    To beauty give the flaunting rose,
+      The Wall-flower is sublime.
+
+                                  II.
+
+    Flower of the solitary place!
+      Gray ruin's golden crown,
+    That lendest melancholy grace
+      To haunts of old renown;
+    Thou mantlest o'er the battlement,
+      By strife or storm decayed;
+    And fillest up each envious rent
+      Time's canker-tooth hath made.
+
+                                  III.
+
+    Thy roots outspread the ramparts o'er,
+      Where, in war's stormy day,
+    Percy or Douglas ranged of yore
+      Their ranks in grim array;
+    The clangour of the field is fled,
+      The beacon on the hill
+    No more through midnight blazes red,
+      But thou art blooming still!
+
+                                  IV.
+
+    Whither hath fled the choral band
+      That filled the Abbey's nave?
+    Yon dark sepulchral yew-trees stand
+      O'er many a level grave.
+    In the belfry's crevices, the dove
+      Her young brood nurseth well,
+    While thou, lone flower! dost shed above
+      A sweet decaying smell.
+
+                                   V.
+
+    In the season of the tulip-cup
+      When blossoms clothe the trees,
+    How sweet to throw the lattice up,
+      And scent thee on the breeze;
+    The butterfly is then abroad,
+      The bee is on the wing,
+    And on the hawthorn by the road
+      The linnets sit and sing.
+
+                                  VI.
+
+    Sweet Wall-flower--sweet Wall-flower!
+      Thou conjurest up to me,
+    Full many a soft and sunny hour
+      Of boyhood's thoughtless glee;
+    When joy from out the daisies grew,
+      In woodland pastures green,
+    And summer skies were far more blue,
+      Than since they e'er have been.
+
+                                  VII.
+
+    Now autumn's pensive voice is heard
+      Amid the yellow bowers,
+    The robin is the regal bird,
+      And thou the queen of flowers!
+    He sings on the laburnum trees,
+      Amid the twilight dim,
+    And Araby ne'er gave the breeze
+      Such scents, as thou to him.
+
+                                 VIII.
+
+    Rich is the pink, the lily gay,
+      The rose is summer's guest;
+    Bland are thy charms when these decay,
+      Of flowers--first, last, and best!
+    There may be gaudier on the bower,
+      And statelier on the tree,
+    But Wall-flower--loved Wall-flower,
+      Thou art the flower for me!
+
+
+
+
+THE MASQUERADE OF FREEDOM.
+
+
+                                   I.
+
+    When Freedom first appeared beneath,
+        Right simple was the garb she wore:
+    Her brows were circled with a wreath
+        Such as the Grecian victors bore:
+    Her vesture all of spotless white,
+        Her aspect stately and serene;
+    And so she moved in all men's sight
+        As lovely as a Maiden Queen.
+
+                                  II.
+
+    And queenlike, long she ruled the throng,
+        As ancient records truly tell;
+    Their strength she took not from the strong,
+        But taught them how to use it well.
+    Her presence graced the peasant's floor
+        As freely as the noble's hall:
+    And aye the humbler was the door,
+        The still more welcome was her call.
+
+                                  III.
+
+    But simple manners rarely range
+        Beyond the simpler ages' ken:
+    And e'en the Virtues sometimes change
+        Their vesture and their looks, like men.
+    Pride, noble once, grows close and vain,
+        And Honour stoops to vulgar things,
+    And old Obedience slacks the rein,
+        And murmurs at the rule of kings.
+
+                                  IV.
+
+    So Freedom, like her sisters too,
+        Has felt the impulse of the time,
+    Has changed her garments' blameless hue,
+        And donn'd the colours dear to crime
+    First in a Phrygian cap she stalked,
+        And bore within her grasp the spear;
+    And ever, when abroad she walk'd,
+        Men knew Revenge was following near.
+
+                                   V.
+
+    She moves again--The death-drums roll,
+        The frantic mobs their chorus raise,
+    The thunder of the Carmagnole--
+        The war-chant of the Marseillaise'
+    Red run the streets with blameless blood--
+        The guillotine comes clanking down--
+    And Freedom, in her drunken mood,
+        Can witness all without a frown.
+
+                                  VI.
+
+    Times change again: and Freedom now,
+        Though scarcely yet less wild and frantic,
+    Appears, before men's eyes below,
+        In guises more intensely antic.
+    No single kind of garb she wears,
+        As o'er the earth she goes crusading;
+    But shifts her habit and her airs
+        Like Joe Grimaldi masquerading.
+
+                                  VII.
+
+    Through Paris you may see her tread,
+        The cynosure of all beholders;
+    A _bonnet rouge_ upon her head,
+        A ragged blouse upon her shoulders.
+    More decent now than once she was,
+        Though equally opposed to riches,
+    She still upholds the good old cause,
+        Yet condescends to wear the breeches.
+
+                                 VIII.
+
+    The Huns behold her as of yore,
+        With grisly beard and monstrous swagger;
+    The swart Italian bows before
+        The Goddess with the mask and dagger.
+    The German, as his patriot thirst
+        With beer Bavarian he assuages,
+    Surveys her image, as at first
+        'Twas pictured in the Middle Ages.
+
+                                  IX.
+
+    Her glorious form appears to him
+        In all its pristine pomp and glitter,
+    Equipped complete from head to heel,
+        In semblance of a stalwart Ritter.
+    With doublet slash, and fierce moustache,
+        And wrinkled boots of russet leather,
+    And hose and belt, with hat of felt
+        Surmounted by a capon's feather.
+
+                                   X.
+
+    Mysterious as Egyptian Sphinx,
+        A perfect riddle--who can solve her?
+    One while she comes with blazing links,
+        The next, she's armed with a revolver.
+    Across the main, whene'er the shoe
+        Upon her radiant instep pinches,
+    To-day, she'll tar and feather you;
+        To-morrow, and she merely Lynches.
+
+                                  XI.
+
+    While thus abroad, in varied guise,
+        We see the fair enchantress flitting,
+    She deigns to greet in other wise
+        Her latest satellites in Britain.
+    Sometimes, in black dissenting cloth,
+        She figures like an undertaker;
+    And sometimes plunges, nothing loath,
+        Into the garments of a Quaker.
+
+                                  XII.
+
+    You'll find her recommending pikes
+        At many a crowded Chartist meeting,
+    Where gentlemen, like William Sykes,
+        To exiled patriots vote their greeting.
+    You'll find her also with her friends,
+        Engaged upon a bloody errand,
+    When, stead of arguments, she sends
+        Her bludgeoneers to silence Ferrand.
+
+                                 XIII.
+
+    You'll find her too, at different dates,
+        With men of peace on platforms many,
+    Denouncing loans to foreign states
+        Whereof they could not raise a penny.
+    In short, to end the catalogue,
+        There's hardly any son of Edom
+    Who, in his character of rogue,
+        Won't tell you that he worships Freedom.
+
+                                  XIV.
+
+    Yet hold--one sample more--the last,
+        Ere of this theme we make a clearance;
+    One little month is barely past
+        Since London saw her grand appearance,
+    In one of those enormous hats,
+        Short leggings and peculiar jerkins,
+    Which men assume who tend the vats
+        Of Barclay and his partner Perkins.
+
+                                  XV.
+
+    To that great factory of beer,
+        Unconscious wholly of his danger,
+    Nor dreaming that a foe was near,
+        There came, one day, an aged stranger.
+    He was a soldier, and had fought
+        In other lands 'gainst revolution;
+    And done his utmost--so he thought--
+        To save his country's constitution.
+
+                                  XVI.
+
+    But saving states, like other things
+        Is not in highest vogue at present;
+    And those who stand by laws and kings
+        Must look for recompense unpleasant.
+    Fair Freedom, brooding o'er the drink
+        That makes the Briton strong and hearty,
+    Began to sneeze upon the brink
+        As though she scented Bonaparte.
+
+                                 XVII.
+
+    "Ah, ha!" she cried, and cried again--
+        At every word her voice grew louder--
+    "I smell an Austrian or a Dane,
+        I smell a minion of gunpowder!
+    Some servant of a kingly race
+        My independent nostril vexes!
+    Say--shall he dare to show his face,
+        Within this hall of triple X's?
+
+                                 XVIII.
+
+    "'Tis true--he is unarmed, alone,
+        A stranger, weak, and old, and hoary--
+    Yet--on, my children! heave the stone!
+        The less the risk, the more the glory!"
+    She ceased: and round the startled man,
+        As round the Indian crowds the cayman,
+    From vat, and vault, and desk, and van,
+        Thronged brewer, maltster, clerk, and drayman.
+
+                                  XIX.
+
+    "A precious lark!" the foremost cried;
+        "Come--twig him, Tom! come--pin him, Roger!"
+    "Who is it?" Then a sage replied--
+        "He's some infernal foreign sodger!
+    He looks as how he'd scored ere now
+        Some shoulders black and blue with lashes
+    So pitch him here into the beer--
+        And, lads--we'll pull off his moustaches!"
+
+                                  XX.
+
+    They did--what brutal natures scorn.
+        What savages would shrink to do--
+    What none but basest cowards born,
+        And the most abject and most few,
+    Would offer to an old man's head!
+        O shame--O shame to Englishmen!
+    If the old spirit be not dead,
+        'Tis time it showed itself again!
+
+                                  XXI.
+
+    What! in this land which shelter gave
+        To all, whatever their degree,
+    Or were they faint, or were they brave,
+        Or were they slaves, or were they free--
+    In this Asylum of the Earth--
+        The noblest name it ever won--
+    Shall deeds like these pollute our hearth,
+        Shall open shame like this be done?
+
+                                 XXII.
+
+    O most ignoble end of all
+        Our boasted order and renown!
+    The robber in the tribune's hall--
+        The maltster in the Judge's gown!
+    The hospitable roof profaned;
+        Old age by ruffian force opprest,
+    And English hands most vilely stained
+        With blood of an unconscious guest!
+
+                                 XXIII.
+
+    O Freedom! if thou wouldst maintain
+        Thy empire on the British shore,
+    Wash from thy robes that coward stain,
+        Resume thy ancient garb once more.
+    In virgin whiteness walk abroad,
+        Maintain thy might from sea to sea,
+    And, as the dearest gift of God,
+        So men shall live and die for thee!
+
+
+
+
+Dies Boreales.
+
+No. VIII.
+
+
+CHRISTOPHER UNDER CANVASS.
+
+_Camp at Cladich._
+
+SCENE--_The Wren's Nest._
+
+TIME--_Evening._
+
+NORTH--TALBOYS--SEWARD--BULLER.
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+Have you dined?
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+That we have, sir.
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+With me this has been Fast-day.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+We saw it was, at our breakfast. Your abstinence at that meal, and
+at luncheon, we knew from the composure of your features, and your
+benignant silence, was not from any disorder of material organisation,
+but from steady moral resolve; so his absence from the Dinner-Table
+gave us no uneasiness about Numa.
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+No Nymph has been with him in the Grot.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+His Good Genius is always with him in Solitude. The form we observed
+stealing--no, not stealing--gliding away--was, I verily believe, but
+the Lady of the Wood.
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+The Glen, you know, is haunted; and sometimes when the green umbrage is
+beginning to look grey in the still evening, I have more than a glimpse
+of the Faery Queen.
+
+                                SEWARD.
+
+Perhaps we intrude on your dreams. Let us retire.
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+Take your seats. What Book is that, beneath your arm, Talboys?
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+The Volume you bid me bring with me this Evening to the Wren's Nest.
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+Yes, yes--now I remember. You are here by appointment.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+Else had we not been here. We had not merely your permission, sir--but
+your invitation.
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+I was expecting you--and by hands unseen this our Round Table has
+been spread for my guests. Pretty coffee-cups, are they not? Ask no
+questions--there they are--but handle them gently--for the porcelain is
+delicate--and at rude touch will disappear from your fingers. A Book.
+Ay, ay--a Quarto--and by a writer of deserved Fame.
+
+                                SEWARD.
+
+We are dissatisfied with it, sir. Dugald Stewart is hard on the POET,
+and we desire to hear a vindication from our Master's lips.
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+Master! We are all pupils Of THE POET. He is the Master of us all.
+Talboys, read out--and begin at the beginning.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+"In entering on this subject, it is proper to observe, that the
+word POET is not here used in that restricted sense in which it is
+commonly employed; but in its original acceptation of Maker, or
+Creator. In plainer language, it is used to comprehend all those who
+devote themselves to the culture of the Arts which are addressed to
+the Imagination; and in whose minds it may be presumed Imagination
+has acquired a more than ordinary sway over the other powers of the
+Understanding. By using the word in such a latitude, we shall be
+enabled to generalise the observations which might otherwise seem
+applicable merely to the different classes of versifiers."
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+That Mr. Stewart should, as a Philosopher, mark the liberal and
+magnanimous, and metaphysical large acceptation of the Name is right
+and good. But look at his Note.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+"For this latitude in the use of the word POET, I may plead the example
+of Bacon and d'Alembert, the former of whom (_De Aug. Scient._,
+lib. xi. cap. 1) comprehends under Poetry all fables or fictitious
+histories, whether in prose or verse; while the latter includes in
+it painting, sculpture, architecture, music, and their different
+divisions."
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+"I may plead the example" appears to me a somewhat pompous expression
+to signify that you have (very properly) adopted one doctrine of one
+of the wisest, and another of one of the ablest of men. But he does
+not seem to know that d'Alembert might have "pleaded the example"
+of Aristotle in "including painting, sculpture," &c. "Poetry," says
+the Stagyrite, "consists in imitation, and the imitation may be by
+pictures, sculpture, and the like." It is ®mimêsis®--and it is Man's
+nature to rejoice in imitation--®chairein tois mimêmasin®. But a
+singular and illustrative trait in Mr Stewart's treatment of the
+subject is, that though he thus, at the outset, enlarges the Poet into
+the Painter, the Sculptor, &c., yet throughout the whole composition,
+(I know not if an incidental word may anywhere occur as an exception,)
+every point of the argument regards the Poet in words and verse! In
+what frame of understanding could--did he put this Head to these
+fragments of limbs?
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+In the name of the Prophet--FIGS!
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+I am more than half disposed to hint an objection to the use of the
+words "sway over the other powers." We should have said--and we do
+say, "predominance amongst the other powers." I see in "sway" two
+meanings: first, a right meaning, or truth, not well expressed; to
+wit, in thinking poetically--for his art, whatever it may be--or out
+of his art--the Poet's other faculties minister to his Imagination.
+She reigns. They _conform_ their operations to hers. This manner of
+intellectual action happens in all men, more or less, oftener or
+seldomer; in the Poet--of what Art soever--upon each occasion, with
+much more decision and eminence, and more habitually. But secondly,
+a wrong meaning, or error, is better expressed by the word "sway,"
+to wit, that Imagination in the Poet _illegitimately overbears_ the
+other intellectual powers, as judgment, attention, reflection, memory,
+prudence. Now, you may say that every power that is given in great
+strength, _tends_ to overbear unduly the other powers. The syllogistic
+faculty does--the faculty of observation does--memory does--and so a
+power _unbalanced_ may appear as a weakness--as wealth ruins a fool.
+But in the just dispensation of nature every power is a power, and
+to the mind which she constitutes for greatness she gives _balanced_
+powers. Giving one in large measure--say Imagination--she gives as
+large the directly antagonistic power--say the Intellective, the
+Logical; or she balances by a mass of powers. I suspect that the undue
+over-swaying was in Stewart's mind, and has probably distorted his
+language. I know that Genius is the combination of ten faculties.
+
+                                SEWARD.
+
+Our expectations were raised to a high pitch by such grandiloquent
+announcement: and we have found in the Essay--which is unscientific
+in form--has no method--makes no progress--and is throughout a
+jumble,--not one bold or original thought.
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+Too much occupied with exposure of vulgar errors--and instances beneath
+the matter in hand. Great part too--_extra thesin_.
+
+                                SEWARD.
+
+You expect great things from the title--the Idea of the POET. You then
+see that Mr Stewart after all does not intend this, but only certain
+influences, moral and intellectual, of characteristic pursuits. This,
+if rightly and fully done, would have _involved_ the Idea--and so a
+portraiture indirect and incidental--still the features and their
+proportion. Instead of the Idea, you find--
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+I don't know what.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+The reader is made unhappy, first, by defect, or the absence of
+principal features--then by degradation, or the low contemplation--and
+by the general tenor.
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+Why, perhaps, you had better return the Quarto to its shelf in the
+Van. Yet 'twould be a pity, too, to do so. I am for always keeping
+our engagements; and as we agreed to have a talk about the Section
+this evening, let us have a talk. Read away, Talboys--at the very next
+Paragraph.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+"The culture of Imagination does not diminish our interest in human
+life, but is extremely apt to inspire the mind with false conceptions
+of it. As this faculty derives its chief gratification from picturing
+to itself things more perfect than what exist, it has a tendency to
+exalt our expectations above the level of our present condition,
+and frequently produces a youth of enthusiastic hopes, while it
+stores up disappointment and disgust for maturer years. In general,
+it is the characteristic of a poetical mind to be sanguine in its
+prospects of futurity--a disposition extremely useful when seconded by
+great activity and industry, but which, when accompanied, as it too
+frequently is, with indolence, and with an overweening self-conceit, is
+the source of numberless misfortunes."
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+Why, all this is--
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+Stop. Read on, Talboys.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+"A thoughtlessness and imprudence with respect to the future, and a
+general imprudence in the conduct of life, has been often laid to the
+charge of Poets. Horace represents them as too much engrossed and
+intoxicated with their favourite pursuits to think of anything else--
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+Leave out the quotation from old Flaccus--and go on.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+"This carelessness about the goods of fortune is an infirmity very
+naturally resulting from their studies, and is only to be cured by
+years and experience; or by a combination--very rare, indeed--of
+poetical genius with a more than ordinary share of that homely
+endowment COMMON SENSE."
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+Speak louder--yet that might not be easy. I feel the want of an
+ear-trumpet, for you do drop your voice so at the end of sentences.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+"A few exceptions"--
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+Stentor's alive again--oh! that I were head over ears in a bale of
+cotton.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+"A few exceptions to these observations may undoubtedly be found, but
+they are so very few, as, by their singularity, to confirm rather than
+weaken the general fact. In proof of this, we need only appeal to the
+sad details recorded by Dr Johnson in his Lives of the Poets."
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+Skip--skip--skip--
+
+                                SEWARD.
+
+Skip--skip--skip--
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+May I, sir?
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+You may.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+"Considered in its moral effects on the mind, one of the most
+unfortunate consequences to be apprehended from the cultivation of a
+poetical talent, is its tendency, by cherishing a puerile and irritable
+vanity, to weaken the force, and to impair the independence of
+character. Whoever limits his exertions to the gratification of others,
+whether by personal exhibition, as in the case of the actor and mimic,
+or by those kinds of literary composition which are calculated for no
+end but to please or to entertain, renders himself, in some measure,
+dependent on their caprices and humours."
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+Skip--skip--skip--
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+"In all the other departments of literature besides, to please is
+only a secondary object. It is the primary one of poetry. Hence that
+timidity of temper, and restless and unmanly desire of praise, and that
+dependence on the capricious applause of the multitude, which so often
+detract from the personal dignity of those whose productions do honour
+to human nature."
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+I don't quite understand what Mr Stewart means here by "the _culture_
+of Imagination." I see three senses of the word. First, the cultivation
+by the study of written Poetry and the poetical arts, and of the poetry
+poured through the Universe--to those minds which receive without
+producing--a legitimate process. Secondly, the cultivation as in Edwin,
+Beattie's young Minstrel, the destined and self-destining Poet--a
+legitimate process. And thirdly, the self-indulgence of a mind which,
+more sensitive than volitive, more imaginative than intellectual, more
+wilful than lawful, more self-loving than others-loving--turns life
+into a long reverie--an illegitimate process. Which of these three
+classes of minds does Stewart speak of? Strong native imagination in
+a young powerful enthusiastic mind, tutored by poetical studies, but
+whom the Muse has _not_ selected to the services of her shrine? Or the
+faculty as in the Poet-born self-tutored, and now rushing into his own
+predestined work? Or the soft-souled and indolent _fainéant_ Dreamer
+of life? Three totally distinct subjects for the contemplation of the
+Philosopher, but that here seem to hover confusedly and at once before
+our Philosopher.
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+By his chosen title of the Section, THE POET, he was bound to speak of
+him according to Bacon, d'Alembert, and Aristotle.
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+The word _culture_ must, I think, here specifically touch the First
+Case. Shall we then be afraid of giving a share, and a large share
+too, to the reading of the Poets, and the regard of the Fine Arts, in
+a liberal Education? Poetry, History, Science, are the three strands
+of the cable by which the vessel shall ride--Religion being the
+sheet-anchor.
+
+                                SEWARD.
+
+Perhaps it is meant to touch the Second Case too?
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+It may be meant to do so, but it does not. The word "culture"
+is dictated by or is proper to the First Case--for culture is
+deliberate and elective. But in him--the young Poet--the Edwin--in
+whom imagination is given in the measure assigned by the Muse to her
+children, the culture proceeds undeliberate and unwilled. Edwin,
+when he roves "beneath the precipice o'erhung with pine," or sitting
+to watch the "wide-weltering waves," or is seized from the hint of
+ballad or tale, or any chance word, with dreams and visions of the
+more illustrious Past--follows a delight and desire that have the
+nature and may have the name of a passion. All this is involuntary to
+the unforeseen result--but afterwards, when he has accepted his art
+for a vocation, he more than any man deliberately cultivates. Has the
+Philosopher, then, in mind only the third class, and do the dangers
+of "the culture of imagination" apply to them only--"the indolent
+_fainéant_ dreamers of life?" If so, he not only forgets and loses his
+subject, as announced by himself, but wastes words on one altogether
+below it. "False conceptions of human life!" Here is an equivocation
+which must be set right. "Conceptions of human life" are here meant to
+apply to expectations of the honesty, gratitude, virtue of the persons
+_in general_ with whom you or I shall come in contact in life. Good.
+The contemplation of human beings--men and women--_ideally_ drawn by
+the Poet lifts me too high--tinges hope in me with enthusiasm, and
+prepares disappointment. So it has been often said, and said truly.
+This is conception prospective and personal; and more philosophically
+termed Expectation. But then "conception of human life"--from the lip
+of a philosopher should mean rather "intelligence of man's life." Now
+I repeat that only through the Poet have you true intelligence of
+man's life--either external or internal. In the Actual the Poet sees
+the Idea--just as a Painter does in respect of the visible man. In the
+man set before him He sees two men--the man that is and the man of
+whom at his nativity was given the possibility to be. He reads cause
+and effect; and sees what has hindered the possible from being. Who,
+excepting the Poet, does this? And excepting this, what intelligence of
+man is an intelligence?
+
+                                SEWARD.
+
+There are two world-Wisdoms. One, to know men, as for the most part
+they will show themselves--commonly called Knowledge of the World: one,
+to know them as God made them. I forget what it is called. Possibly it
+has no name.
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+Observe, my dear Seward, the precise error of that expectation.
+It is to believe the good more prevalent than it is. It is no
+misunderstanding as to the constitution of the good. The good is;
+and the important point of all is to know it, when you meet it. To
+be cheated, by not apprehending the ill of a man, is a wound to your
+purse, and when you at last apprehend, to your heart. To be cheated
+by not apprehending the good of man is--_death_, which you bear in
+yourself, and know it not.
+
+                                SEWARD.
+
+What is desired? Is it that we should go into the world with hope not a
+whit wider and higher than the dimensions of the reality that we are to
+encounter? I trow not.
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+Your hope will elect your own destiny--will shape it--will be it. There
+are possibilities given of the nobler happinesses, as well as of the
+nobler services; and your hope, faithful to itself, will reach and
+grasp them. And only to such hope are they given. Moreover, in all men
+there is under the mask of evil which the world has shaped on them,
+the power inextinct which the Creator sowed there; and they may, if
+they dare to believe in it, and know to call to it, bring it out with a
+burst. But belief is the main ingredient of the spell, and hope is the
+mother of belief.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+The Poet has glorious apprehensions of human existence--visions of
+men--visions of men's actions--visions of men's destinies. He pitches
+his theory of the human world above reality--and _that_ he shall, in
+due season or before it, learn--to his great loss and to his great
+gain. In the meanwhile do not speak of the temper in him, as if you
+would upbraid him with it. Do not lay to his charge the splendour of
+his powers and aspirations. Do not chide and rate him for his virtues.
+
+                                SEWARD.
+
+"False conceptions!" a term essentially of depreciation and reproach.
+They are not false, they are true. For they are faithful to the
+vocation that lies upon the human beings; but they, the human beings,
+are false, and their lives are false; falling short of those true
+conceptions.
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+Well. He--the Poet--comes to the encounter. It is the trial set for
+him by his stars--as it is the trial set for all great spirits. He
+finds those who disappoint him, and those who do not. But, grant the
+disappointment, rather. What shall he do? That which all great spirits
+do--transfer the grandeur of his hopes, over which fate, fortune, and
+the winds of heaven ruled, to his own purposes of which he is master.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+Why did not Mr Stewart say simply that the Poet--and the young
+enthusiast of Poetry--thinks better of his fellows than they deserve,
+and brings a faith to them which they will take good care to
+disappoint? Why harp thus on the jarring string; torturing our ears,
+and putting our souls out of tune?
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+Who doubts--who does not know, and admire, and love Hope--in the
+ardent generous spirit--looking out from within the Eden of Youth into
+the world into which it shall, alas! fall? What is asked? That the
+spring-flowering of youth shall be prematurely blighted and blasted by
+winds frosty or fiery, which the set fruit may bear? Of course we hope
+beyond the reality, and it is God's gift that we do.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+And why lay that Imagination which looks into Life with unmeasured
+ideas to the charge of the Poet alone? Herein every man is a Poet,
+more or less; and, most, every spirit of power--the hero, the saint,
+the minister of religion, the very Philosopher. Would we ask, sir,
+for a new law of nature? Upon the elements, fewer or more, which an
+anticipated experience gathers, a spirit impelled by the yearnings
+inseparable from self-conscious power, and mighty to create, works
+unchecked and unruled. What shall it do but build glorious illusions?
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+"The culture of Imagination,"--understanding thereby, first, in the
+Great Poets themselves, the intercourse of their own minds with facts
+which imagination vivifies, and with ideas which it creates--of
+humanity; and secondly, in all others, as poets to be or not to be,
+the reading of the Great Poets, Mr Stewart says--"does not diminish
+our interest in human life." Does not diminish! Quite the reverse. It
+extraordinarily deepens and heightens, increases and ennobles. For who
+are the painters, the authentic delineators and revealers of human
+life, outer and inner--
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+Why, the Poets--the Poets to be sure--the Poets beyond all doubt--
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+"Extremely apt to inspire the mind with false conceptions of it"--and
+so on. Why, the Faculty is there with a mission. It is its bounden
+office--its embassy from heaven--to exalt us above our earthly
+experience--to lift us into the ideal possibility of things. Thereby it
+is an "angel of Life," the white-winged good genius. The too sanguine
+hope is an adhering consequence, and the quelling of the hope is one
+of the penalties which we pay for Adam and Eve's coming through that
+Eastern Gate into this Lower World.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+Of course, my dear sir, _every_ power has its dangers--the greater,
+the profounder, the more penetrating and vital the power, the greater
+the danger. But is this the way that a Philosopher begins to treat of
+a power--with hesitation and distrust--inauspiciously auspicating his
+inquiry? The common--the better--the true order of treatment is by Use
+and, Abuse--Use first. "Expectations above the level of our present
+existence!" Of course--that when the heaven on earth fails, we may have
+_learnt_ "to expect above the level of our present existence," and go
+on doing so more and more, till Earth shall fade and Heaven open.
+
+                                SEWARD.
+
+"Frequently produces a youth of enthusiastic hope!" Is this proposed as
+a perversion and calamity, a "youth" to be deprecated?
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+I really don't know--it looks almost like it.
+
+                                SEWARD.
+
+Will you say Wo and Alas! for the City--Wo and Alas! for the Nation--in
+which princes, and nobles, and the gentle of blood--and the merchants,
+and the husbandmen, and the peasants, and the artisans, suffer
+under this endemic and feverous malady--a "youth of enthusiastic
+hope?" Methinks, sir, you would expect there to find an overflow of
+Pericles's, and Pindars, and Phidias's, and Shakspeares, and Chathams,
+and Wolfes--
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+Stop, Seward--spare us the Catalogue.
+
+                                SEWARD.
+
+You would say--here is the People that is to lead the world in Arms and
+in Arts. Only let us use all our endeavours to see that the community
+produces reason enough in balance of the enthusiasm.
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+Let us procure Aristotles, and Socrates's, and Newtons, and--
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+What should a Philosopher do or say relatively to any particular power?
+He expounds an Economy of Nature. Therefore, he says, let us look how
+Nature deals with such or such a power. She gives it for such and such
+uses: and such is its fostering, and such are its phenomena. But as
+every power unbalanced carries the subject in which it inheres _ex
+orbita_, let us look how nature provides to balance _this_ power which
+we consider.
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+That, my dear Talboys, is a magnanimous and a capacious way of inquiry.
+But how can any man write about a power who has not a full sympathy
+with it? I have no doubt that Davy, when he wielded Galvanism to
+make wonderful and beautiful revelations of veiled things, deeply
+and largely sympathised with Galvanism. You would think it easier to
+sympathise with Imagination, and yet to Stewart it seems almost more
+difficult. Go on.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+How has Nature dealt with her mighty and perilous power--Love. Look at
+it, where it is raised to its despotism--when a man loves a woman, and
+that woman that man. It is a power to unhinge a world. Lo! in proof "an
+old song"--the Iliad!
+
+    'Trojanas ut opes et lamentabile regnum
+    Eruerint Danai!'
+
+Has Nature feared, therefore, to use it? She builds the world with
+it. And look how she proceeds. To these two--the Lovers as they are
+called--the Universe is _in_ these two--to each in the other. The
+rest of the Universe is shut out from their view, or more wonderfully
+comprehended in their view--seen to each through and relatively to the
+other--seen transformed in the magical mirror of their love. Can you
+expect anything less than that they should go by different doors, or by
+the same door, into Bedlam? Lo! they have become a Father and a Mother!
+They have returned into the real world--into a world yet dearer than
+Dreamland! The world in which their children shall grow up into men
+and women. Sedate, vigilant, circumspect, sedulous, industrious, wise,
+just--Pater-familias and Mater-familias. So Nature lets down from an
+Unreal which she has chosen, and knows how to use.
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+The ground of the Poet, my dear Talboys, is an extraordinary dotation
+of sensibility--of course, ten thousand dangers. Life is exuberant
+in him--and if the world lies at all wide about him, the joy of
+the great and the beautiful. The dearest of all interests to every
+rational soul is her own coming destiny. The Poet, quick and keen
+above all men in self-reference, must, among his contemplations and
+creations, be full of contemplating and creating his own future, and
+must pour over it all his power of joy, rosy and golden hopes. And
+that vision, framed with all his power of the Ideal, must needs be
+something exceedingly different from that which this bare, and blank,
+and hard earth of reality has to bestow. What follows? A severe, and
+perhaps an unprepared trial. The self-protection demanded of him is a
+morally-guarded heart and life. The protection provided for him is--his
+Art. The visions--the Ideal--the Great and the Fair, which he cannot
+incorporate in his own straitened existence--the ambitions, at large,
+of his imagination he localises--colonises--imparadises--in his works.
+He has two lives; the life of his daily steps upon the hard and bare,
+or the green, and elastic, and sweet-smelling earth, and the life of
+his books, papers, and poetical, studious reveries--art-intending,
+intellectual ecstasies.
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+What say you, sir, to the charge of "overweening self-conceit and
+indolence?"
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+What say you, my Buller?
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+That I do not quite understand the proposition. Is it, that _generally_
+the "sanguine" temperament is apt to make these accompaniments for
+itself? Or that in the Poet the three elements are often found
+together? If the former, I see no truth in it. The sanguine temper
+should naturally inspire activity--and I do not quite know what is here
+an "overweening conceit." That a sanguine-minded man is apt to have
+great _self-reliance_ in any project he has in hand--a confidence in
+his own present views that is not a little refractory to good argument
+of cooler observers, I understand. But that sort of self-conceit which
+makes of a man an intellectual fop--gazing in the pocket looking-glass
+of self-conceit at his own perfections--vain self-contemplation and
+self-adulation--the sanguine temper is far more likely to carry a man
+out of himself, to occupy his time, his pleasure, and his passion in
+works, and withdraw them from himself. I suppose, therefore, that we
+must look to the Poet alone. I daresay that small poets have a great
+conceit of themselves. They have a talent that is flattered and admired
+far beyond its worth. They readily fancy themselves members of the
+Immortal Family. But a true Poet has a thousand sources of humility.
+Does he not reverence all greatness, moral and intellectual? Does he
+not reverence, above all, the mighty masters of song? He understands
+their greatness--he can measure distances--which your small Poet cannot.
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+Every soul conscious of power is in danger of estimating the power too
+highly; but I do not know why the Poet should be so more than another
+man. Then, what is "overweening?" Is it overvaluing himself relatively
+to other men? Is it over-measuring his power of achievement--whence
+disproportionate undertakings, that fail in their accomplishment? I
+can more easily suppose that all the Sons of Genius "overween" in
+this direction. They must needs shape enterprises of unattainable
+magnificence. But some one has said rightly that in attempting the
+Impossible we accomplish the Possible. But this is a higher and truer
+and more generous meaning, I fancy, than is intended by the choice of
+that slighting and scoffing dispraise of "overweening"--a word pointing
+to a social, or moral, defect that makes an exceedingly disagreeable
+companion, rather than to any sublime error in the calculations of
+genius. And I come back upon the small sinner in rhyme, who has been
+cockered by his friends and cuddled by himself into conceit, till he
+thinks the world not good enough for him--takes no trouble to satisfy
+Its reasonable expectations, and finds that It will take none to
+satisfy his unreasonable ones--_there_ is a source of "numberless
+misfortunes"--a seedy surtout, a faded vest, and very threadbare
+inexpressibles.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+And why should those who are sanguine in hope be "too frequently
+indolent?" A hopeful temper engender indolence! A desponding temper
+engenders it; a hopeful one is the very spur of activity. The sanguine
+spirit of hope taking possession of an active intellect, engenders the
+Projector--of all human beings the most restless and indefatigable--his
+undaunted and unconquerable trust in futurity creates for itself
+incessantly new shapes of exertion--till the curtain falls.
+
+                                SEWARD.
+
+There is, I suppose, a species of Castle-builder who hopes and does
+nothing; as if he believed that futurity had the special charge of
+bringing into existence the children of his wish. But his temper is
+not properly called sanguine--it is _dreamy_. Neither is his indolence
+a consequence of his dreams; but as much or more, his dreams, of his
+indolence. He sits and dreams. Say that Nature has given to some
+one, as she will from time to time, an active fancy and an indolent
+humour--a disproportion in one faculty. 'Tis a misfortune: and a reason
+why his friends should seek out, if possible, the means of stirring him
+into activity; but it has nothing to do with describing the Idea of the
+Poetical Character.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+The Great Poets have not been indolent. They have been working men.
+The genius of the Poet calls him to his work. Shakspeare was a man of
+business. Spenser was a state-secretary.
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+Read Milton's Life.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+See Cowper drowned in an invincible melancholy, and deliberately
+choosing a long-lasting and severe task of his Art, as a means of
+relieving, from hour to hour, the pressure of his intolerable burthen.
+If he had drooped under his hopeless disease into motionless stupor,
+you could not have wondered, much less could you have blamed. He
+fought, pen in hand, year after year, against the still-repelled and
+ultimately victorious enemy.
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+Think of Southey!
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+Yet the Poet is in danger of indolence. For in his younger years joy
+comes to him unpurchased. To do, takes him out of his dream. To do
+nothing, is to live in an enchanted world; and with all tenderness be
+it said, he hath, too, his specific temptation to overmuch self-esteem.
+Because his specific faculty and habit are to refer every thing that
+befalls constantly to himself as a contemplative spirit. Herein is
+the most luminous intuition alone. The perversion is to be quick and
+keen in referring to the ignobler Self--for as I or you said, and all
+men may know, the Poet assuredly has two souls. Personal estimation,
+personal prospects! A sensibility to injury, to fear, to harm, to
+misprision--a quick jealousy--suspicion--soreness! You do see them
+in Poets--and in Artists, who after their kind are Poets--for they
+are Men. As to excessive reflection upon and admiration of their own
+intellectual powers, while we rightly condemn it, we should remember
+that the Poet _is_ gifted, and in comparison with most of those with
+whom he lives, is in certain directions far abler; and more delicate
+apprehensions he probably has than most or all of them--at least of
+such apprehensions as come under the Pleasures of Imagination. And
+when he begins to call auditors to his Harp--then, well-a-day!--then
+he lives and feeds upon the breath of praise--and upon the glow of
+sympathy--a flower that opens to the caress of zephyrs and sunbeams,
+and without them pines. Then comes envy and spiritual covetousness.
+Others obtain the praise and the sympathy--others who merit them less,
+or not at all. What a temptation to disparage all others--_alive_! And
+to the Poet, essentially plunged in the individualities of his own
+being, how easy! For each of his rivals has a different individuality
+from his own; and how easy to construe points of difference into
+points of inferiority! Easy to him whom pain wrings more than it does
+others--to whom disagreeable things are more disagreeable--
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+Have done, sir, I beseech you, have done--talk not so of the
+Brotherhood.
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+I am thinking of some of the most majestic!
+
+                                SEWARD.
+
+Alas! it is true.
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+Mr Stewart more than insinuates, with a wavering and equivocating
+uncertainty of assertion he signifies, that the POET, or poetic mind,
+is not much endowed with "common sense." Talboys, what say you?
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+I rather think it unusually well-endowed that way, and that it is the
+opposite class of minds--those that cultivate abstract science--that
+have, or seem to have, least of it.
+
+                                SEWARD.
+
+The poetic mind, from its sensibility, is peculiarly ready to
+sympathise with the general mind, and it is that sympathy that produces
+common sense. Common sense is instinctive; and in its origin allied to
+that which in the higher acts of the poet's mind is called Inspiration.
+Therefore it is native to his mind. It is an inspiration of his mind as
+much as poetic Imagination.
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+Has Seward said what you meant to say, Talboys?
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+He has--why did not you? But observe, Buller, common sense is not
+solely employed upon a man's own conduct: it has all the world besides
+for its object. The common sense of a Poet in his own case may be
+disturbed by his sensibilities, which are greater than common; while
+yet, in all other cases, it may be truer than the magnet.
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+Good.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+I will trouble you, if you please, for an Obs.
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+I have long desired a definition of Common Sense. It seems to me rather
+a commonplace thing. I suppose it is called Common Sense, as being
+common to men, so that you may expect it in 9 out of 10, or 99 out of
+100.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+Pretty good.
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+Common Life seems to be the school of it. It seems a practical faculty,
+or to respect practice. Obvious relations are its domain--obvious
+connexions of cause and effect--means and end. A man of common sense
+effects a plain object, quickly and cheaply, by ready and direct means.
+High reach of thought is distinguished from common sense on the same
+side, as downright folly is on the other. Yet the interests dealt with
+need not be, if they frequently are, low; only the relations obvious.
+Perhaps the phrase is oftener brought out by its violation than its
+maintenance. He who wants common sense employs means thwarting his end.
+I propose that Common Sense is a combination of common understanding
+and common experience.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+I asked you, my dear Buller, for an Obs--one single Obs--you have given
+us a dozen--a Series. Let us take them one by one, and dissect the--
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+Be hanged if we do! I am afraid that my notion of Common Sense is but
+a low one. I think that a blacksmith may acquire common sense about
+shoeing of horses, and a housewife about her kitchen and laundry.
+_Sound sense_ applicable to high matters is another matter--_une toute
+autre chose_.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+Be done, dear Buller.
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+In a moment. Moreover, I can imagine a strong, clear, sound sense
+_confined_ to a special _higher_ employment--a lawyer who would manage
+the most difficult and hazardous cause with admirable discretion, and
+make a mere fool of himself in marrying.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+Be done--be done.
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+In a moment. _I_ am not able to affirm that a Poet of high and sound
+faculties _must_ have the talent for conducting himself with prudence
+in the common affairs of life; and really _that_ is what seems to me to
+be _Common Sense_.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+Be done now--you cannot better it.
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+About the Poet what can I say that every body does not know and say in
+all the weekly newspapers. Why, gentlemen, the Mission of the Poet is
+to fight the fight of the Spirit against the flesh, and to extend the
+reign of the Beautiful. Also, he is the Prophet of ®gnôthi seauton®:
+and the finest of wordmongers. The words that he touches turn all to
+gold. He is the subtlest of thinkers. _Our_ best discipline of thinking
+has been from the Poets. Compare Shakspeare and Euclid.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+From you! Buller, you astonish me.
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+Astonishment is sometimes proof of a weak mind.
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+There seem to be two Common Senses. Goldsmith appears to be viewed
+as an eminent case of wanting it, in conduct--the practical--for
+his own use. But the theoretical--for judging others--imaginary
+cases--characterises that immortal work, _The Vicar of Wakefield_: and
+the theoretical, for judging other men real, existing, and known, his
+_Retaliation_. The criticism of Burke, for instance, is all exalted
+Common Sense--
+
+    "Who, born for the Universe, narrowed his mind,
+    And to Party gave up what was meant for Mankind."
+
+That is the larger grasp of common Sense rising into high Sense.
+
+    "And thought of convincing while they thought of dining"
+
+is its homelier scope.
+
+                                SEWARD.
+
+Common Sense is the lower part of complete Good Sense. Shakspeare and
+Phidias must use Good Sense in governing their whole composition;
+which Common Sense could not reach; and a man might have good sense
+in composing a group in marble, yet want it in governing his family.
+But Phidias executing a Venus with a blunt notched chisel, would want
+Common Sense.
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+Wordsworth the Great and Good has said that "the privilege and the
+duty of Poetry is to describe things not as they are, but as they
+seem to the senses and the passions;" and when in so saying he
+claimed further for the works of Poetry law and constancy, he spake
+heroically and thence well,--up to the mark of the fearless and
+clear truth. But when he condescended to speak of "one quality that
+is always favourable to good poetry, namely, good sense," he said
+that, _without note of reserve_, which should have been guarded. Good
+sense, if you please, but such good sense as Homer shows when the
+®klangê® of the silver bow sounds--when the Mountain-Isle trembles
+with all her Woods to Neptune stepping along--or the many-folded
+snowy Olympus to Jupiter giving the one calm, slow, simple, majestic,
+earth-and-heaven-obliging Nod--or when at the loosed storm of
+terrestrial and celestial battle on the Scamandrian plain, the Infernal
+Jove leaps from his throne, and shouts, or yells, or bellows--®meg'
+iache®--lest the solidly-vaulted Earth rend above and let in sunlight
+on the Shades. The "good sense" of Shakspeare, when the Witches
+mingle in the hell-broth "Tartar's lips," and "yew-slips slivered in
+the Moon's eclipse." Claim the good sense, but claim it in its own
+kind--separated and high--kingly--Delphic--divine. The good sense of
+Jupiter--Apollo--the Nine Muses, and the practical Pallas Athene. Or
+claim WISDOM--and not "good sense;"--"the meed of Poets SAGE!" Lucid
+intelligence--profound intuitions--disclosed essences--hidden relations
+laid bare--laws discerned--systems and worlds comprehended--revealed
+mysteries--prophecy--the "terrible sagacity"--and to all these add the
+circumspection--the caution--the self-rule--the attentive and skilful
+prudence of consummate Art, commanding effects which she forecast and
+willed. Wisdom in choosing his aim--Wisdom in reaching his aim--Wisdom
+to weigh men's minds and men's deeds--their hopes, fears, interests--to
+read the leaves of the books which men have written--to read the leaves
+of the book which the Creating Finger has written--to read the leaves
+of the book which lies for ever open before the Three Sisters--the
+leaves which the Storms of the Ages turn over.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+Coffee, my dear sir? Here's a cup--cool and sweetened to your taste to
+a nicety.
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+Thanks, Talboys. I am ready for another spell.
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+Reflect, sir, breathe awhile. Do, Seward, interpose something between
+the Master and exhaustion. Quick--quick--else he will be off again--and
+at his time of Life--
+
+                                SEWARD.
+
+Oh for the gift denied me by my star--presence of mind!
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+Common sense, in a high philosophical signification, is the sum of
+human opinions and feelings; or the "Universal Sense" of mankind.
+That is not homely--and cannot therefore be what Stewart calls that
+"homely endowment." The apter translation of the place in his Essay is
+"ordinary sense or understanding"--which seems to suggest _now_ "so
+much sense or understanding as you ordinarily meet with among men"--and
+_now_ "sense and understanding applied to ordinary concerns." Only this
+last makes the quality _homely_. But the tooth of Stewart's insult is
+in the prior suggestion (in the case of the Gifted, untrue), that they
+have not as much sense or understanding as you ordinarily meet with.
+They have ten, twenty, a thousand times as much. Think of Robert Burns!
+But they have--or may, I do not say must have--the repugnance to apply
+the winged and "delighted spirit" to considerations and cares that are
+easily felt as if sordid and servile--imprisoning--odious. They suffer,
+however, not for the lack of knowing, but of resolution to conform
+their doing to their knowing. They sin against common sense--and much
+more against their own. _Hinc illæ lacrymæ._
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+Gentlemen, the Cardinal Virtue--Prudence--holds her sway, in the
+world of man, over Action, and, as much as she may, over Event, by
+the union as if of two Sceptres. For She must reign, at once, in the
+Understanding and in the Will. Common Sense, as the word is commonly
+meant and understood, is Intellectual Prudence applied to the more
+obvious requisitions of the more obvious interests which daily and
+hourly claim our concern and regard. This Intellectual Prudence,
+thus applied--that is to say, the clear Intelligence of these
+requisitions--Common Sense, therefore--one man has, and another has
+not. The case shall occur that the man, Poet or no Poet, who has it,
+shall act like a fool; whilst the Poet or no Poet, who has it not,
+shall act like a Sage. For the man, wise to see and to know, shall
+have yielded the throne of his Will to some usurping and tyrannising
+desire--and the other, who either does not possess, or who possessing,
+has not so applied the Intelligence--some dedicated Mathematician, or
+Metaphysician, or Mechanician, or Naturalist, or Scholar, or Antiquary,
+or Artist, or Poet, shall live wisely, because he has brought his
+heart and his blood under the rule of Moral Necessity. Prudence, or,
+in her stead, Conscience, has established her reign in his Will. To be
+endowed with Common Sense is one thing; to _act_ with common sense, or
+agreeably to her demands, is another. Popular speech--loose, negligent,
+self-willed, humoursome and humorous--often poetical--easily and gladly
+confounds the two neighbouring cases. Philosophic disquisition--which
+this of Dugald Stewart does not--should sedulously hold them apart.
+You may judge of a man's Common Sense by hearing him criticise the
+character and conduct of his neighbour. To learn in what hand the
+Sceptre of the Will is, you must enter his own doors. The proneness of
+the Poet, easy, kind, frank--except in his Art, artless--compassionate,
+generous, and, large-thoughted--heaven-aspiring--to neglect, like the
+lover, (and what else is he but the perpetually enthralled lover of
+the Good, the True, and the Beautiful?) the earthly and distasteful
+_Cura Peculî_, is to be counteracted mainly on the side of the Will.
+Simplicity of desire will go far, and this you may expect in him
+from Nature--indeed it is the first ground of the fault charged.
+Next, of stronger avail--not perhaps of more dignity--comes that
+which is indeed the base, if not yet the edified structure of Common
+Sense, the plain Intelligence of naked Necessity. No great stretch of
+intellectual power required, surely, for discovering and knowing his
+own condition in the work-day world! But the goods of fortune--worldly
+estate--_money_--shall the "heavenly Essence"--the "celestial
+Virtue"--the "divine Emanation"--for so loftily has Man spoken of
+Man--that is within us--crouch down and grovel in this dark, chill
+den--this grave which Mammon has delved to be to it a pitfall and a
+prison?
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+Ay--why shall the Poet guard and noose the strings of his purse?
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+One reason, drawn from the sublimity of his being, stands ever
+nigh to bow the pliant neck of his Will under the lowly yoke. He
+_must_--because, according to the manner in which the All-Disposer saw
+good to order and adjust the constituents and conditions of our human
+life here below, in him who, of his own will and deed, lays himself
+under a bond to live by unearned bread, the Moral Soul dies.
+
+                                SEWARD.
+
+The Poet is not--and he is--improvident. Nothing in his genius binds
+him to improvidence. Prudence may accompany sensibility--may accompany
+ample and soaring contemplations--may accompany creative thought--may
+accompany the diligent observation of human life and manners--may
+accompany profound insight into the human heart. These are chief
+constituents of the poetical mind, and have nothing in them that
+rejects Prudence.
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+Neither do I believe that the more distinguished Poets generally have
+been culpably unforethinking--
+
+            "Vatis avarus
+    Non temere est animus!"
+
+I hope so. I should be exceedingly sorry to think that the Bard were
+apt to give into the most odious of all vices. But the interval is
+wide from vicious negligence to vicious care: and I hope that somewhere
+between, and verging from the Golden Mean a little way towards the
+negligent extreme, might be the proper and earned place of the Poets.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+We must confess to some negligent tendencies in the Poet. The warm
+sympathies give advantage to designing beggars of different ranks--and
+are themselves betraying advisers. The law of the poetical mind
+to accept Impression, and let it have its way, if it overflow its
+legitimate channel of poetical study and art, and irregularly lay the
+conduct of life under water, may leave behind it something else than
+fertility. The dwelling in pleasure may make the narrow and exact cares
+of economy irksome. But why shall we _expect_ that a man of high,
+clear, and strong mind shall not learn how to--cut his coat according
+to his cloth?
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+I am afraid that the high faculties of a Poet threaten to endanger
+his vulgar welfare. The foundation of his poetical being and power,
+as you well have hinted, Talboys, is the free spontaneity of motion
+in his own mind--the surrendering of his whole spirit to influxes and
+self-impulses. The spontaneous movement allies his temperament to
+common passion, which founds upon this very characteristic. And you
+sometimes see, accordingly, that the Poet is a victim sacrificed for
+the benefit of the rest. Not that it need be so--for he has his own
+means of protection; but powers delicate, sensitive, profound, must
+walk perilously in a lapsed world.
+
+                                SEWARD.
+
+Let it be allowed, then, to Dugald, that the poetical temperament is
+adverse to getting--and to keeping--money--and that a touching picture
+might be drawn of the conflicts of spirit between a Poet and his false
+position in a counting-house--or with "poverty's unconquerable bar."
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+"This carelessness about the goods of fortune," says Mr Stewart, "is
+an infirmity very naturally resulting from their studies, and is only
+to be cured by years and experience, or by combination (_very rare
+indeed_) of poetical genius with a more than ordinary share of that
+'homely endowment called _common-sense_.'" And wherefore any infirmity?
+Why not have portrayed rather--or at least kindly qualified the
+word--in winning hues, or in lofty shape--the delicious or magnanimous
+UNWORLDLINESS of the poetical character? That most ennobling, and most
+unostentatious quality, which dear and great Goddess--in lovingly
+tempering a soul that from its first inhalation of terrestrial air to
+the breath in which it escapes home, she intends to follow with her
+love--commingles in precious and perilous atoms that, in consecrating,
+destine to sorrow.
+
+                                SEWARD.
+
+An infirmity? A charm--a grace--and a virtue! Alas! sir, a virtue too
+suitable to the golden age to be safe in ours.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+Ay, Seward, a virtue demanding the correction or the protection of
+some others, which the iron generations countenance or allow--such as
+Prudence, Justice, Affection for those whose welfare he unavoidably
+commixes with his own.
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+Protection! It sometimes happily wins its protection from virtues that
+love and admiration rouse and arm in other breasts, in its favour--a
+reverent love--a pitying admiration.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+He quotes Horace as on his side of the question.
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+A Poet whose name is amongst the most cited from antiquity, Virgil's
+illustrious lyrical brother, has rehearsed (not indeed to the lyre, but
+in the style which he offers for little better than versified prose)
+modestly and apologetically, the Praises of the Poet--his personal
+worth, and serviceable function amongst his fellow-men. Singular
+that in a few words of this passage, and indeed just those which
+gently allege the _personal virtue_ of the poor bard, the Professor
+should have helped himself to a weapon for dealing upon that head his
+unkindest cut of all.
+
+                                SEWARD.
+
+That flowing Epistle of Horace's to Augustus--which he gives
+good reason in excellent verse for keeping short, and turns out,
+notwithstanding, rather unreasonably long--if we look for its method,
+it rambles--if for the spirit, it is a delicate intercommunion between
+the least of the Courtiers, the Poet, and his imperial Patron, the Lord
+of Rome and of Rome's World.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+A facile, roving, and sketchy--partly historical and partly critical
+disquisition on Poetry chiefly Roman, presenting, with occasion the
+virtues and faults of the species--POET.
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+Let's hear it. In my day Horace was not much read at Oxford--
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+By you--and other First Class Physical Men. Seward, spout it.
+
+                                SEWARD.
+
+I will recite the passage.
+
+    "Hic error tamen, et levis hæc insania, quantas
+    Virtutes habeat, sic collige: vatis avarus
+    Non temere est animus; versus amat, hoc studet unum;
+    Detrimenta, fugas servorum, incendia ridet;
+    Non fraudem socio, puerove incogitat ullam
+    Pupillo; vivit siliquis et pane secundo.
+    Militiæ quamquam piger et malus, utilis urbi:
+    Si das hoc, parvis quoque rebus magna juvari.
+    Os tenerum pueri balbumque poeta figurat;
+    Torquet ab obscoenis jam nunc sermonibus aurem,
+    Mox etiam pectus præceptis format amicis,
+    Asperitatis et invidiae, corrector et iræ;
+    Recte facta refert; orientia tempora notis
+    Instruit exemplis, inopem solatur et ægrum.
+    Castis cum pueris ignara puella mariti
+    Disceret unde preces, vatem ni Musa dedisset?
+    Poscit opem chorus, et præsentia numina sentit;
+    Cælestes implorat aquas, docta prece blandus;
+    Avertit morbos, metuenda pericula pellit;
+    Impetrat et pacem, et locupletem frugibus annum.
+    Carmine Dî Superi placantur, carmine Manes."
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+Oh! that passage. Why, I have had it by heart for half a hundred. We
+quote from it at Quarter Sessions.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+The first grace of the whole composition seems to me its two-fold
+personality--the free intimacy between the great Protector and the
+small Protected. It is like Horace's part of a familiar colloquy, where
+you may fancy, at discretion, interlocutory remark, or answer, or
+question of Augustus.
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+True, Talboys. Verse has attracted to the Bard the rays of imperial
+favour. The Emperor himself is a Verse-maker. How natural and suitable
+that Horace in verses which vary, to the time of the moment, with
+inimitable facility, from a conversation-like negligence, or negligent
+seeming--to sweetness and beauty, to strength and dignity--should win
+the august ear, tired with the din of arms or of debating tongues, to
+an hour's chat on the interests of the Muses.
+
+                                SEWARD.
+
+The praise of the Poet how loving and ingenious! how insinuatingly
+subdued!
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+Yet the ground is chosen with a dexterous boldness. The majestic
+opening Address of the Poem showed Augustus, like a Jupiter, wielding
+with beneficent power the destinies of the Roman world. And now,
+confronting the dispenser of welfare to nations, he sets up another
+benefactor of the State, the Poet, face to face with golden-throned,
+and purple-vested Octavius Cæsar--poor Horatius Flaccus!
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+Most awkward of Courtiers! Most crazed of versifiers!
+
+                                SEWARD.
+
+Beware of rash judgments and half-informations. You familiar with Hory--
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+You muttered the passage so that you murdered it.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+You, familiar with Hory, see at least how, by the choice of the ground,
+he has obliged himself to stepping cautiously and tenderly over it. He
+leads to it--he does not begin with it. Arrived at the comparison, he
+proposes it rather implicitly than explicitly--admire the Rhetorician.
+He will avert jealousy--he will propitiate kindness.
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+Artful Dodger.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+He has acknowledged--you might have given us the line--a _fault_.
+Nothing seriously wrong though. As if Apollo had shot a plague
+with golden arrows upon the City, all are turned Versifiers--young
+and old--and grave and gay--wise and foolish--the skilled and the
+unskilled--the called and the uncalled.
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+You write verses well yourself, Talboys.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+I am as willing as most people to bandy compliments, but here you must
+excuse me. Out of the small fault, rises the Eulogy. This diffusive
+delusion--this epidemic, yet lively, and airy, and sprightly, and
+harmless insanity, gives out from its bosom some good uses, and first
+on the madman himself. As one disease expels another, the musolept
+is, through the very force of his disorder, free from the taint of
+cupidity--of the burning desire for worldly wealth. The simple man has
+room in his heart but for one love. Verse is his passion--his bliss,
+his all-absorbing vocation. Has his banker failed with his little
+cash-balance in his hands? He laughs. Has one of his two slaves run
+away? He laughs. Has a fire at the bookseller's consumed the copies
+of his last work? 'Tis unlucky--but he laughs. It is not _he_ that
+speculates upon, or _waylays_, the unguarded trust of his friend or
+acquaintances--not _he_ that handles with adhesive fingers the gold of
+his young orphan-ward. And for his fare, it is an anchorite's--pulse
+and brown bread.
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+Very prettily paraphrased indeed!
+
+                                SEWARD.
+
+And very feelingly. Imagine these ideas sliding into one's heart in
+the natural verse of--Goldsmith! For it is as if Goldy here described
+himself--and see if the argument from the Innocence is not artfully
+placed, for the induction to the argument from the Benefits, that is to
+follow.
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+My dear Boys Three, Hory is here painting himself--and not himself. It
+is the idea of the Poet. He brings the traits and the colours together,
+as they best suit each other, and his purposes. The meritorious
+Eremite's fare is not personal to the writer. He has reached a point
+which imperiously requires another _fault_. Frankly and humorously
+he takes this from Flaccus himself. The Poet is no soldier--slow to
+find the way to the field, and too quick to find the way from it.
+Nevertheless--now for the setting up. He, too, is a profitable servant
+of the State. And forthwith an imperatively demanded apology--for the
+purple-robed has smiled a little incredulously at the _utilis urbi_.
+If, says the Complete Letter-Writer, you will only admit that majestic
+interests may be served by adminicles of "small regard to see to."
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+And how curiously he hides a pre-eminent power in the very smallest
+sphere!
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+How finely! Rome _was_ a republic of ORATORS. Cedant arma togæ--the
+Toga the war-weed of the Orator!
+
+    "Romanos rerum dominos, _gentemque togatam_."
+
+The gowned Lords of the Nations--and, Lords of the Lords, the Orators!
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+Are you sure that is the right reading?
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+Let it be so. Observe now--the occultation.
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+The what?
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+The occultation.
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+Mille gratias.
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+The nascent and adolescent Orator is moulded to the power of the word
+by the greatest masters of the word, the Poets! Tell this, O Poet,
+in imperial ears! Then speak modestly, withdrawingly, insinuatingly.
+Hide the boast. It is hidden--and shown. The Poet fashions the tender
+and stammering mouth of the boy. The rudiments of pronunciation--The
+Orator nascent. No more. It is pretty and gentle that the Muse herself
+condescends to the care of moulding the young soft lip to the pure
+musical utterance of Latium's magnificent Mother-tongue.
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+Now I see it all. The occultation!
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+But She delays not undertaking a nobler and more momentous function.
+From the bodily organs She passes to the governing mind. And of the
+Mind at once to the nobler part, the Will. She is the young Roman's
+Moral Tutress. Horace is brief. What these her first lessons to the
+soul are, he does not say. He tells you their powerful virtue. They
+_wrest_, he says, (_torquet_,) the charmed hearing from dishonest, from
+gross and grovelling, from depraving and polluting discourse. You may,
+my friends, imagine Phædrus' feeling Fables, or the "Lays of Ancient
+Rome;" or at Athens, instead of Rome, the Iliad.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+It is the hint but of a line, sir. But each of us may know in himself
+how early the Muse really did begin to possess our spirits with
+thoughts, and scenes, and actions that soared away from the presences
+of our lives--that She did
+
+    "Lift us in aspiration from the earth."
+
+And as the pupil grows, the discipline of the divine Instructress
+ripens. With precepts that are the counsels of a dear and wise friend,
+she moulds the susceptible compliant bosom. She softens his rough
+self-will--weeds out envy--and curbs anger.
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+Talboys, you expound Flaccus well.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+Her storial informations, pictures from human existence, take now a
+more direct purpose. She recites deeds justly and virtuously done; She
+furnishes and arms--_instruit_--the springing generation with high
+transmitted examples.
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+Ay, my dear Talboys, _He_ is thinking now--
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+Hitherto you have always said _She_--
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+I have. "She" is really "He"--the Poet and not the Muse. I was rapt.
+He is thinking now, my dear Buller, of old strong-hearted Ennius--the
+heroic annalist, in soldierly rough verses, of younger heroic Rome.
+We may recollect, for the nonce, whatever is most English, and most
+Scottish, and most heroic, in those more musical "histories" of
+William, and of Walter.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+We have done with education. We come to the Charity of the Muse. She
+visits the poor man's home and the sick-bed. One almost starts at the
+thought, in the midst of the smoke, and the wealth, and the uproar of
+Pagan Rome. Yet there the plain words are, "She (pardon me) comforts
+the indigent and the sick man." Is it not _sic in orig._?
+
+                                NORTH.
+
+_Sic._
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+Of her ministrations to the splendour of Arts and the luxury of
+Patrician feasts--of her Theatres, that spread laughter or tears over
+the dense myriads of the World's Metropolis--not a syllable. The
+innermost heart of the Poet must have held the chord that gave out
+the soft low sound--_inopem solatur et ægrum_. No introduction and no
+comment. A solitary, unpretending sentence or clause.
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+God bless you, my dear Buller.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+Amen. May the Chairman of Quarter Sessions live a thousand years! The
+indigent man may, I suppose, be a poor learned or a poor unlearned
+man. Relatively to the latter we may think, for Scotland, of Burns'
+Poems lying in Scottish cottages; and beginning from Scotland, of
+the traditional ballads and songs that sound in every hut throughout
+Europe:--for Italy, of what they say of the Venetian Gondoliers singing
+a Venetianised Gerusalemme Liberata.
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+So far, my children, for the "_parvis rebus_." Something on a more
+extended scale, and of a loftier reach! We are commenting Horace.
+From the earliest times of civilisation, a principal office of verse
+was to adorn and solemnise the services of Religion. The cultivation
+of Verse was early in the Temples. A moment's recollection recalls
+to us the immense influence on the Hellenic Poetry of this ritual
+dedication. This theme closes the Praise of the Poet. But faithful to
+the strain which he has undertaken, and so far adhered to, the discreet
+Eulogist still, in the loftiest matter, diminishes the pomp, rejects
+ostentation, confines the sensible dimensions. And still faithful,
+he dwells on that which, of less show, is the more touching. He has
+to array a religious procession that drawing, as it moves along, all
+gaze--thrilling--as it slowly passes door after door, and winds through
+street after street, with solemn and sweet chaunt lifted from the
+sorrowing Earth to the listening Heavens--the universal heart of the
+Eternal Queen-City--Look! Who are they that, as the crowds divide, draw
+into sight? Chaste boys, and girls yet afar from the marriage-bond. The
+sanctity of natural innocence heightening to the heart, and rendering
+more gracious, the sanctity of the altar!--winning favour--alluring the
+worshipper to the worship!
+
+                                SEWARD.
+
+The only expanded movement of the short passage--a third of it--seven
+verses out of the twenty-one.
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+The religious topics are, generally, the propitiating of the
+Divinities--then the particular benefits: Rain supplicated in seasons
+of Drought--the visitation of Pestilential Sickness averted--National
+dangers repelled--Peace, the wished-for, obtained--and the perpetual
+desire of earth's dwellers and tillers, the fruitful Year. He has
+risen gradually, and has reached the summit. Unexpectedly--you know
+not how--the Poet, though it is not so said, is far greater than the
+Emperor. Yes, my friends, for the dominion of the Imperial Throne is
+over the Kings of the Earth; but the sway of the well-strung Lyre is
+over the throned Gods who inhabit above or underneath the Earth. With
+Song are the celestial Deities soothed and made favourable--with Song
+the dark dominators of Hell.
+
+    "Carmine Dî Superi placantur, carmine Manes!"
+
+A swelling and musical close to an anthem. What shall we admire most,
+then? The variety of the Praise? The ethical wisdom? The genuine
+love in the selection of the grounds? Or the exquisite skill of the
+artificer? The "craft of the delicate spirit," who, veiled in humility,
+has gradually, and as if insensibly, scaled to a station from which
+he looks upon Monarchs--but from which should they aspire to strike
+him down, they offend, in violating his right, the majesty of the
+assembled Gods? In inditing the unhappy passage about the Poet's sole
+end being to please, I think that Dugald Stewart was beguiled by a
+prevalent misconception amongst those who have taught the Philosophy of
+the Fine Arts. The degrading influences are his own. No doubt the Poet
+draws his poetical being from Pleasure--the great ancestress of his
+tribe--_gentis origo_. He worships Pleasure according to the primeval
+fashion of ancestor-worship. But what is his impulse to compose, to
+_sing_? O hear from all the Great Poets since the world began, their
+answer. They sing because a Spirit is in them. They sing because the
+muse bids. She pours in thoughts and words; and along with thoughts
+and words flows in the musical Will. With them it is like the Sybil
+when invaded by Apollo. The real Poet sings, moved from without or
+from within. If from without--some fore-shaped or self-shaped subject;
+if from within, some passion, or some impassioned thought of his own
+has so deeply and strongly affected him, that he is impelled to seek
+relief of the burthening emotions and ideas in uttering them. This is
+the primary cause, and the natural origin of Song. And you may call
+this, if you choose, an intending of pleasure; but beware how you draw
+degrading inferences from this first recognition and admission of
+pleasure. If you weigh the psychological fact, you must look backwards
+to the attitude of mind which produced the work, and not forwards to
+the attitude which the work produces. Of the intellective, the moral,
+the imaginative, the pathetic powers that gave birth to the Iliad--or
+to the Prometheus Vinctus--to the Knight's Tale--to the Legend of
+Holiness--to Lear or Othello--or to the Paradise Lost! Who does not
+instantly feel that he has been summoned to conceive and to contemplate
+all that is mighty, august, affecting, or terrible in our souls? That
+he looks into the caverned abyss where the Spirits of Power walk? Even
+as when, by the side of Anchises, Æneas beholds in pre-existence the
+assemblage of his kingly descendants, whom their day and the upper
+air will call to rule the nations with sovereignty, to impose the
+conditions of peace, to spare the vanquished, and with war to bring
+down the proud. LEAR! The minstrels chanted an ancient rude lay--the
+infant stage brought a rude drama--TO SHAKSPEARE. But long before
+Minstrel or Theatre--had mother, or grandam, or nurse told to the
+weeping or shuddering, to the burning or auguring Child, that relique
+of old memory, that domestic tragedy of the antique British throne--the
+story attracting and torturing of the Father-king who divided his heart
+and his realm to the two serpents, who cast out from heart and realm
+the Dove of his blood--till Time unveiled Truth and Love. _Then and
+there_ was the seed, the slowly-springing, laid in the deep and kindly
+soil. From that hour dates the Lear of Shakspeare. Why repeat things
+that we all know, and have a thousand times said? Because they must
+be reasserted explicitly, as often as they are implicitly gainsayed;
+and is it not gainsaying them to affirm that the Poet sings _to
+please_, when indeed he sings because this Infinite of knowledges--this
+accumulation of experiences--this world of sensibilities and
+sympathies, of affections, passions, emotions, desires of his own and
+of other men's, inspires him, and will form itself in words? But he
+looks towards his hoped Auditors with a more direct selfish desire or
+design. He must have from them the meed of all glorious deeds--the
+wreath of all glorious doers--FAME. Let Grateful Mankind applaud the
+Benefactors of Mankind. Ay, he loves life. He would fain live beyond
+this world, wide as it is, of his own particular bosom--he would
+live in the bosoms of his contemporaries, and in the bosoms of the
+generations that are to follow for evermore. Proud as privileged, he
+asks his due--RECOGNITION. And who that has the ability to render will
+choose or dare to withhold the tribute? Fame! the nectarean cup--the
+ambrosial fruit--that confers _Immortality_! The last best gift that
+mortals affect to bestow on their fellow-mortals. He who, at some great
+crisis, achieves a deed which the world shall feel, and whereof the
+world shall ring--dilates, in consciousness, to comprehend those whom
+his act shall reach, and those to whom it shall resound. Remember Lord
+Nelson at Trafalgar--in the moment ere the first gun fires, the word
+signalled to the awaiting host throughout the Fleet--"ENGLAND EXPECTS."
+In an instant, the twenty-five millions of compatriot islanders, as if
+wafted by the winds from their distant homes, are _there_--spectators
+of the Fight that yet sleeps, at the next instant to wake, convulsing
+sea and air--spectators to every single combatant, of his individual
+heroism. What did that late conqueror of ancient Egypt and what did
+his fiery warriors understand, when going into battle he said to
+them--"Forty Centuries look down on you from the summit of yonder
+Pyramids?" These plains, for four thousand years, have belonged to
+History. See to it, that the page which you are about adding shall be,
+for your part, luminous with glory and victory, not
+
+    "Black with dishonour, and foul with retreat."
+
+Suppose that he had said, "Forty Centuries _to come_ gaze upon you."
+The Pyramids seem likely to hold their own in such a reckoning. Perhaps
+the stretch of time is too long for the imagination of the Gallic
+Soldier. But surely, so speaking, he had spoken more from his heart and
+less from his imagination; for _he_ meditated the ages to come, not the
+ages gone by. To leave a name that shall sound, for good or for ill,
+loud-echoing from century to century--a name to be heard, when Cæsar,
+and Alexander, and Hannibal are commemorated--a name insubmergible by
+the waves of time--inextinguishable by the mists of oblivion--_that_
+he desired, and _that_ has he not won? Horace has hung his name too in
+imagination on the structures of the Cheopses. But how different is the
+
+    "Exegi monumentum ære perennius,
+    Regalique situ Pyramidum altius"
+
+of the Poet! Horace indeed was already safe in pronouncing Homer
+immortal, with all the heroes upon whom he had conferred the gift.
+A thousand years! And the portentous strain, with all its Gods and
+Goddesses, and Kings and Queens, and Men and Women--fresh, bright,
+vivid, and fragrant, warm and yet reverberating from the Harp--as if
+the _plectrum_ of the sublime Bard were but that moment withdrawn
+from the strings--as if the breast that first poured the strain were
+yet throbbing with quicker emotion--stirred by the pulsating chords
+and by the words which itself chanted. Horace might well understand
+the immortality of the Poet. That he claimed it, and judiciously, for
+himself--he who sung so differently, the sweet, the sprightly, some
+loftier notes too--but afar from Homer--suggests a reflection upon the
+nature of durability. The works were born of Love; and by Love they
+live, for in them the Love lives. _Spirat adhuc amor._ Those Egyptian,
+star-contemplating, and star-contemplated Edifices, quarried from the
+Rock, stand; integral parts of the Planet, immovable--immutable. That
+is one manner of enduring. Sound is awakened. For an instant it flits
+through the air and ceases, extinct in silence. Add Love, and you have
+informed sound with duration--another manner of enduring. The mountain
+of piled rocks and a touch on the air are become rivals in duration,
+and we say they will last for ever.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+           _Printed by William Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh._
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] _Modern State Trials_: Revised and Illustrated, with Essays
+and Notes. By WILLIAM C. TOWNSEND, Esq., M.A., Q.C., Recorder of
+Macclesfield. In 2 vols. 8vo. Longman & Co. 1850.
+
+[2] Lord Campbell has made considerable use of Mr Townsend's
+collection, and publicly acknowledged his obligations, in his _Lives
+of the Lord Chancellors and Lord Chief-Justices_. It is not impossible
+that we may, before long, present our readers with an extended
+examination of these two important works of the new Lord Chief-Justice
+of the Queen's Bench.
+
+[3] Introduction, vol. i., p. 7, 8.
+
+[4] Introduction, p. ix.
+
+[5] Townsend, vol. i. pp. 1, 2.
+
+[6] 4 Black. Com., pp. 81-2.
+
+[7] Townsend, vol i., p. 54.
+
+[8] Ibid. vol. i., p. 45.
+
+[9] "I thought _he was crying_," said one of the witnesses!--p. 23.
+
+[10] Stat. 7 Anne, c. 21, § 11.
+
+[11] Townsend, vol. i. p. 71.
+
+[12] Hall's Pleas of the Crown, part I., c. 14.
+
+[13] Townsend, p. 95.
+
+[14] 1 Townsend, pp. 99-100; and see the argument reported at length in
+Regina _v._ Frost, 9 Carr and Payne, 165-187. Of these fifteen Judges,
+only six are still on the Bench--Barons Parke, Alderson, Rolfe; and
+Justices Patteson, Coleridge, and Maule--nine having disappeared during
+the last ten years. It will be observed that the three chiefs of the
+Courts were of one way of thinking, viz. that there _had_ been a good
+delivery of the list of witnesses, in point of law.
+
+[15] 9 Carr and Payne, pp. 175-176.
+
+[16] _Souvenirs de la Vie Militaire en Afrique._ Par M. PIERRE DE
+CASTELLANE. Paris: 1850.
+
+[17] To ask the _aman_ is to implore mercy; to give it is to grant
+pardon.
+
+[18] In Africa, during the great heat, these _cabans_ or short cloaks
+are often worn, to keep off the rays of the sun.
+
+[19] The Arabs called General Changarnier the _Changarli_, the
+_Changarlo_. _Changar_ is an Arab word, signifying to quell or crush.
+_Ma changarch alina_; do not strike me down--do not crush me.
+
+[20] Sons of Turks by Arab women.
+
+[21] This missionary, originally a Jew, had become a Calvinist at
+Bâle, then had joined the Church of England, and had finally turned
+missionary, in consideration of a handsome recompence. He drove a great
+trade in Bibles, which he sold to the Tunis shopkeepers. The leaves of
+the sacred volume served to envelope Mussulman butter and soap. The
+Caïd's book, published at Carlsruhe, made a noise, was prohibited,
+and, thanks to the prohibition, had immense success.--Note by M. de
+Castellane.
+
+[22] _Blackwood's Magazine_, Vol. LXV., p. 20.
+
+[23] A band of irregular horsemen.
+
+[24] The Arab term for men of high family.
+
+[25] The description of this peculiar phenomenon of the Indian Ocean,
+as given by Captain Collins, surprised us as much as the reality seems
+to have done him. However, on consulting a seafaring old gentleman of
+much experience in all parts of the world, we are informed that such an
+appearance is periodically to be met with for some distance between the
+Laccadive and Maldive islands, as he had reason to know. The old Dutch
+Captain Stavorinus also furnishes an account substantially similar,
+having particularly attended to the cause of it in his voyage to the
+East Indies: it reaches also to some of the south-eastern islands at a
+great distance from India, near Java--or at all events appears there.
+In the Atlantic, Humboldt says there is a part of the sea always milky,
+although very deep, in about 57º W. longitude, and the parallel of
+the island of Dominica. Of the same nature, probably, are the immense
+olive-green spaces and stripes seen in blue water by Captain Scoresby
+and others, toward the ice of the north polar regions.
+
+The pale sea alluded to is supposed either to move from the shores
+of Arabia Felix, and the gulfs in that coast, or, by some, to arise
+from sulphureous marine exhalations--appearing to rot the bottoms of
+vessels, and to frighten the fish. Both at the Laccadives and near Java
+it is seen twice a-year, often with a heavy rolling of the sea and bad
+weather. The first time, at the new moon in June, it is called by the
+Dutch the "little white-water;" again, at the new moon in August, the
+great "wit-water;" by English seamen, generally, the milk-sea, or the
+"blink."
+
+[26] The zodiacal light, seen at sunrise and sunset.
+
+[27] _Histoire des Ducs de Guise._ Par RÉNÉ DE BOUILLÉ, ancien Ministre
+Plénipotentiaire. Volume II. Paris: 1849.
+
+[28] So styled by the Huguenots. Historians have adopted the
+designation. It consisted of Guise, Montmorency, and the Marshal of St
+André, and was a sort of prelude to the League.
+
+[29] _Discours de la Bataille de Dreux_, dieté par FRANÇOIS DE LORRAINE.
+
+[30] Thus stated by M. de Bouillé. Other writers have called the total
+force of the Protestants two thousand seven hundred horse and foot.
+
+[31] Other writers have said that he had already _done_ so, or at least
+that he was seated under a tree, a recognised prisoner, when he was
+shot. M. de Bouillé's account leaves a sort of loop-hole, to infer that
+Montesquiou might have been hardly aware that Condé was a prisoner.
+Such an inference, however, he probably does not intend to be drawn,
+and, in either case, it is contrary to historical fact.
+
+[32] The following couplet, from Oudin's MS. history of the house of
+Guise, may serve as a specimen of the partisan ditties composed on this
+occasion:--
+
+    "L'an mil cinq cens soixante neuf,
+    Entre Jarnac et Chasteauneuf,
+    Fut porté mort sur une asnesse,
+    Ce grand ennemy de la Messe."
+
+
+
+
+    Transcriber's Notes:
+
+
+    Punctuation and spelling were made consistent when a
+    predominant preference was found in this book; otherwise they
+    were not changed.
+
+    Simple typographical and spelling errors were corrected.
+
+    Italics markup is denoted by _underscores_.
+
+    Greek text has been transliterated and is denoted by
+    ®registered signs®.
+
+    PP. 373, 415 & 456 added missing footnote anchors.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol.
+68, No 420, October 1850, by Various
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH ***
+
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+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCCXX. Vol. LXVIII. OCTOBER, 1850.    by Various.
+
+
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 68, No
+420, October 1850, by Various
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 68, No 420, October 1850
+
+Author: Various
+
+Release Date: January 7, 2014 [EBook #44618]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Brendan OConnor, Richard Tonsing, Jonathan
+Ingram and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
+generously made available by The Internet Library of Early
+Journals.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<div class="titlepage">
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+
+
+<h1>BLACKWOOD'S<br />
+EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.<br />
+
+<span class="large"><span class="smcap blackwoodleft">No. CCCCXX.</span>      OCTOBER, 1850.      <span class="smcap blackwoodright">Vol. LXVIII.</span></span>
+</h1>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS">CONTENTS.</a></h2>
+
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="CONTENTS">
+<tr>
+  <td><span class="smcap">Modern State Trials. Part I.</span>,</td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_373">373</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td><span class="smcap">My Novel; or, Varieties in English Life. Part II.</span>,</td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_393">393</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td><span class="smcap">Military Life in North Africa</span>,</td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_415">415</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td><span class="smcap">The Green Hand&mdash;A "Short" Yarn. A Wind-up</span>,</td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_433">433</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td><span class="smcap">The French Wars of Religion</span>,</td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_456">456</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td><span class="smcap">A Wild-Flower Garland. By Delta</span>,</td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_471">471</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td><span class="smcap">The Masquerade of Freedom</span>,</td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_475">475</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td><span class="smcap">Dies Boreales. No. VIII.&mdash;Christopher under Canvass</span>,</td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_479">479</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p class="xlarge">EDINBURGH:</p>
+
+<p class="large">WILLIAM BLACKWOOD &amp; SONS, 45 GEORGE STREET;
+AND 37 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON.</p>
+
+<p class="medium"><i>To whom all communications (post paid) must be addressed.</i></p>
+
+<p class="small">SOLD BY ALL THE BOOKSELLERS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM.</p>
+
+<p class="xsmall">PRINTED BY WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, EDINBURGH.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[Pg 373]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="ph2">BLACKWOOD'S<br />
+EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.</p>
+
+<p class="ph3"><span class="smcap blackwoodleft">No. CCCCXX.</span>      OCTOBER, 1850.      <span class="smcap blackwoodright">Vol. LXVIII.</span>
+</p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<h2><a name="MODERN_STATE_TRIALS1" id="MODERN_STATE_TRIALS1">MODERN STATE TRIALS.</a><a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></h2>
+
+
+<h3>PART I.</h3>
+
+<p>The idea of this work is happily conceived,
+and carried into effect, in the
+two volumes before us, with no little
+judgment and ability. The subject is
+one interesting, useful, and important;
+and the author was in many respects
+well qualified to deal with it by his
+talents, his accomplishments, his professional
+acquirements, and his experienced
+observation. It will be seen
+that we speak of the author, and of
+his work, in different tenses; and
+there is a melancholy significance in
+the distinction. Within a very few
+days of his sending to us these two
+volumes, he died, unexpectedly, in the
+flower of his age, and just as he had
+attained an honour which he had long
+coveted&mdash;that of being raised to the
+rank of Queen's Counsel. On the first
+day of last Easter term, he presented
+himself in each of the courts at Westminster,
+in his "silk" gown, exchanging
+the customary obeisances
+with the Judges, the Queen's Counsel,
+and the great body of his brethren
+behind the bar, on being formally
+called by the Lord Chief Justice "to
+take his seat within the bar, Her
+Majesty having been pleased to appoint
+him one of Her Majesty's Counsel."
+He looked pleasurably excited:
+alas, how little anticipating that the
+last day of that same term would see
+him stripped of his long-coveted insignia,
+and clothed in the dismal
+vesture of the grave! For on that
+day he died, after a brief but very
+severe illness, in his forty-sixth year.
+A serious attack of rheumatic fever,
+several years before, had permanently
+impaired his physical energies, though
+not to such an extent as to prevent
+the exercise of his profession. His
+practice, till latterly, had been chiefly
+at the Cheshire and Manchester sessions,
+from which he gradually rose
+into considerable business, both civil
+and criminal, on the North Wales
+circuit. On being raised to his briefly-held
+rank, the prospect of a successful
+career opened before him; for he
+knew his profession well, as those
+were aware who were able and disposed
+to push him forward. During
+Easter term he was engaged before a
+committee of the House of Commons,
+to conduct a case of some importance.
+This was a lucrative branch of practice,
+which he was naturally eager to
+cultivate. Fatigue, anxiety, and excitement
+induced the return of an old
+complaint, accompanied by new and
+somewhat startling symptoms; but
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[Pg 374]</a></span>though utterly unfit for business, he
+could not be restrained from attending
+the committee room, though it was
+necessary to carry him in a chair up
+the long flight of steps leading to
+the corridor in the new House.
+He was soon, however, obliged to
+return as he had gone. The palsying
+hand of Death had touched
+the aspiring lawyer! After much
+suffering, he expired on the 8th
+of May, the last day of Easter
+term, and on the 13th was buried in
+the vaults of Lincoln's Inn, of which
+he had only a few days previously
+been elected a Bencher! He was a
+member of Queen's College, Oxford,
+where he graduated (we believe with
+honours) in 1824; was called to the
+bar in 1828; and elected Recorder
+of Macclesfield in 1833.&mdash;As a speaker
+he was correct and fluent, though
+not forcible; as an advocate, judicious
+and successful. He was a man of
+classical tastes, extensively read in
+literature, and exceedingly familiar
+with political history and constitutional
+law. What he knew he could
+use readily and effectively, both as a
+writer and a speaker. He was very
+industrious with his pen during every
+interval between his professional engagements;
+and has left behind him,
+independently of his contributions to
+periodical literature, three works&mdash;the
+<i>History of the House of Commons
+from 1688 to 1832</i>; the <i>Lives of
+Twelve Eminent Judges</i>, and the
+work now before us. The first of
+these was published in 1843-4, in
+two volumes octavo. The author's
+professed object was to present
+"a popular history of the House of
+Commons, with biographical notices
+of those members who have been
+most distinguished in its annals; and
+describing the changes in its internal
+economy, powers, and privileges,"
+during the space of a hundred and
+forty-four years elapsing between two
+memorable periods&mdash;the "noble introduction"
+to Parliamentary Records,
+"afforded by the Convention
+Parliament of 1688," and the "eventful
+close" witnessed in the second
+Parliament of William IV., which
+passed "the Reform Bill." This
+space he subdivided into three distinguishing
+eras:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>"The <i>first</i> includes a space of thirty-nine
+years&mdash;from the abdication of James
+to the death of George I. in 1727&mdash;characterised
+by master spirits, critical
+events, and stirring debate. The <i>second</i>
+era&mdash;sort of mezzo-termino&mdash;comprehends
+the reign of George II., when men
+in office were corrupt, and public morals
+low, and the general topics of discourse
+resembled parish vestry discussions, but
+still a prosperous reign&mdash;the sound
+common-sense of Walpole promoting,
+even by inglorious acts, the national
+welfare, and Chatham's genius rescuing
+the age from mediocrity.</p>
+
+<p>"The regular publication of the debates,
+and troubles in America, usher in
+the <i>last</i> and most glorious epoch,&mdash;the
+days of North and Burke&mdash;of Pitt and
+Fox&mdash;of Windham and Canning&mdash;of
+Tierney, and Brougham, and Peel,&mdash;illustrated
+by oratory enduring as the
+language, and with memories of statesmen
+that can never die."</p></div>
+
+<p>Mr Townsend's second work was
+published about four years afterwards&mdash;viz.,
+in 1848&mdash;also in two
+volumes, and entitled <i>Lives of Twelve
+Eminent Judges of the Last and
+Present Century</i>. These were&mdash;Lord
+Alvanley, Mr Justice Buller, Lord
+Eldon, Lord Ellenborough, Lord
+Erskine, Sir Vicary Gibbs, Sir William
+Grant, Lord Kenyon, Lord
+Loughborough, Lord Redesdale, Lord
+Stowell, and Lord Tenterden. This
+work consisted of memoirs, which
+the author had previously published
+in the <i>Law Magazine</i>, where they
+had attracted considerable attention
+from the profession; as they contained
+many interesting and entertaining
+anecdotes, and information not easily
+attainable elsewhere.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> Both of these
+works are of an entertaining character.
+They are written in an easy,
+flowing style&mdash;occasionally, however,
+somewhat loose and gossiping. It
+must be owned that the author's
+<i>forte</i> does not lie in the delineation
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[Pg 375]</a></span>of character, either moral or intellectual.
+If he really possessed a quick
+and searching insight into it, he would
+seem to have felt a greater pleasure in
+grouping about each individual who
+was the subject of his pencil the general
+incidents of his position, than in
+penetrating his idiosyncrasy, and detecting
+the operation of those incidents
+upon it. He does not conceive
+distinctly of <i>his man</i>, keeping his eye
+steadily upon him, with a view to
+the development and exhibition of
+character; but is apt, if we may
+be allowed so to speak, to lose
+him in his life. Still the work
+is decidedly an acquisition to popular
+and professional literature, and,
+equally with its predecessor, evidences
+the mild and candid temper
+and character of the author. Thus
+much we thought it only fair to premise,
+in justice to the memory of an
+amiable and accomplished member of
+the English bar, and a man of letters;
+one, too, who in his political opinions
+was a staunch and consistent upholder
+of those to which Maga has ever been
+devoted. In no instance, however&mdash;in
+neither of the two works at which
+we have been thus glancing in passing,
+nor in that now lying before us&mdash;did
+Mr Townsend suffer his political
+opinions to bias his judgment, or betray
+him into the faintest semblance
+of partiality or injustice.</p>
+
+<p>It is time now to direct attention to
+the last work of Mr Townsend&mdash;which
+he barely lived to see published&mdash;his
+<i>Modern State Trials</i>, spread
+over two goodly octavo volumes, containing
+nearly eleven hundred pages,
+and these, too, pretty closely printed.
+Upon this work much thought and
+labour have evidently been bestowed
+in the collection of his materials, and
+dealing with them, as in the volumes
+before us, in such a manner as to render
+the product at once interesting
+and instructive to both general and
+professional readers.</p>
+
+<p>It is no slight matter to make one's-self
+thoroughly master of a great case,
+in all its bearings; to seize its true
+governing characteristics; to select,
+condense, and arrange facts and incidents;
+to assign to every actor, whether
+judge, jury, witness, or counsel,
+his proper proportion and position;
+and all this with a view to interesting
+and instructing widely different classes
+of readers&mdash;and those, again, general
+and professional. To do all this effectually,
+requires powerful talents, much
+knowledge of life and character, practical
+acquaintance with the law of the
+country, a sound judgment, and a
+vivid imagination. There is scarcely
+any point of view in which a great
+trial will not appear deeply interesting
+to a competent observer, watching
+how each individual plays his part in
+the agitating drama. Whether the
+judge holds the sacred scales even;
+whether he sees clearly and acts
+promptly, calmly, resolutely, in detecting
+fallacy, in order to shield an unsophisticated
+jury from its subtle and
+deleterious agency; whether, for this
+purpose, his intellect and his knowledge
+are superior, equal, or inferior
+to those of the advocates pleading before
+him. How those advocates conduct
+themselves, intellectually and
+morally; whether they be clear-headed,
+acute, ready, learned&mdash;or cloudy, obtuse,
+superficial, and ignorant; whether
+evenly or over matched; whether
+they play the gentleman or the scoundrel;
+whether they will, however
+difficult the task, nobly recognise the
+obligations of truth and honour, or
+villanously disregard them, to secure
+a paltry triumph in defeating justice!
+How the witnesses discharge their
+momentous duties; whether constantly
+mindful of their oath, or forgetful of
+it, or wilfully disregarding it, from
+hostility or partiality to the prisoner,
+or any other wicked motive. Whether
+the judge, or the advocates, are
+equal to the discomfiture of a wicked
+witness. How the jury are conducting
+themselves&mdash;whether with watchful
+intelligence, or stolid listlessness.
+How the prisoner, standing in the
+midst of all these&mdash;with life, with
+honour, character, liberty, everything
+at stake&mdash;and depending on the word
+which one of that jury will utter&mdash;how
+<i>he</i> is demeaning himself, knowing, as
+he does, the truth or falsehood of the
+charge on which he is being tried;
+what he is thinking of the exertions of
+his counsel, of the temper and spirit
+of the witnesses, of the jury, of the
+judge; whether he adverts at all to
+the spectators around him, and the
+feelings by which they are animated
+towards him; whether he is aware of,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[Pg 376]</a></span>
+or appreciates, the true strain and pressure
+of the case&mdash;the sudden chances
+and perils occurring in its progress.</p>
+
+<p>How striking and instructive to observe
+the abstract rules of justice
+brought to bear, with equal readiness
+and precision, upon ordinary and extraordinary
+combinations of circumstances!&mdash;to
+witness the dead letter of
+the law become animated with potent
+vitality for the regulation of human
+affairs!</p>
+
+<p>Again, it has often occurred to us
+that there is another point of view
+from which important trials&mdash;nay,
+almost any trial&mdash;may be contemplated
+with lively interest by a logical
+observer, with reference to <i>the use
+made of facts</i> by judicial and forensic
+intellect. How little even the acutest
+layman could have anticipated such
+dealing with facts as that which he
+here beholds; how he must appreciate
+the practised, watchful art with which
+the slightest circumstance is seized
+hold of, and in due time so combined
+with others with which it seemed to
+have no conceivable connexion, as to
+justify conclusions exactly the reverse
+of those which had till then seemed
+inevitable! What totally different
+aspects the same facts may be made
+to wear by different dealers with
+them, having different objects in view!
+By their different arrangement and
+combination, what <i>unexpected</i> inferences
+may be drawn from the self-same
+facts, and even when similarly arranged
+and combined! How exciting
+to see a defence constructed by experienced
+astuteness and eloquence out
+of the slightest materials&mdash;out of a
+hopeless case&mdash;in the teeth of one
+overpowering for the prosecution!
+The desperate determination, the
+exquisite subtlety, the consummate
+judgment, often exhibited on such
+occasions by eminent advocates&mdash;struggling,
+too, at once with their own
+sense of right and wrong, and the
+desire to do their utmost for one who
+has intrusted his all to them&mdash;conscious,
+too, that though a jury of
+twelve plain common-sense people
+may be unable to see through the
+fallacies which are presented to them,
+it will doubtless be very far otherwise
+with one who has to follow,
+who has the last word! and with
+that last word may at once lay bare
+the sophistries of forensic effrontery,
+and perhaps rebuke him who attempted
+to trifle with and mislead the understandings
+of those so solemnly sworn
+to give a just and true verdict according
+to the evidence. "But what is
+one to do?" exclaims the anxious
+advocate. "How am I to defend yonder
+trembling being who has selected
+me to stand between him and&mdash;the
+scaffold, it may be&mdash;if I am to play
+the judge, and not the advocate; to
+yield pusillanimously to an array of
+fearfully plain facts, and make no
+attempt to square them with the
+hypothesis of my client's innocence,
+or persuade a jury that they are&mdash;whatever
+my own secret opinion&mdash;pregnant
+with too much doubt to
+warrant a verdict of guilty?" Only
+one who has been placed in the situation
+can conceive the faintest idea of
+what is endured on such occasions
+by the sensitive and conscientious
+advocate, who is called upon in desperate
+emergencies&mdash;in moments of
+intense eagerness and anxiety&mdash;the
+spasms, as it were, of which are
+<i>publicly</i> exhibited, and before gifted
+and critical rivals and merciless public
+censors, to see and <i>observe</i> the
+delicate but decisive line of right&mdash;of
+duty; to maintain at once the character
+of the zealous, effective advocate,
+and the Christian gentleman.
+If sufficient allowances were made for
+persons placed in such circumstances
+of serious embarrassment and responsibility,
+less uncharitable judgments
+would be passed on the manner in
+which advocates exercise their functions
+than are sometimes seen; judgments
+formed and pronounced, too, in
+the closet&mdash;by those speaking after
+the event&mdash;calm and undisturbed by
+anxieties and agitation, which have
+probably <i>never been personally experienced</i>.
+This topic, however, we shall
+hereafter treat more at large, in giving
+to the volumes before us that
+extended examination which is at
+present contemplated. They contain
+a series of trials of undoubted
+public interest and importance. They
+have been selected upon the whole
+judiciously, with a view to the end
+which the author had proposed to
+himself; though the propriety of the
+title which he has chosen&mdash;<i>i. e.</i>
+"Modern <i>State</i> Trials"&mdash;is not at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[Pg 377]</a></span>
+first sight apparent. The idea conveyed
+by these words is, trials
+directly affecting <i>the state</i>, political
+prosecutions in respect of political
+offences. It is difficult to bring trials
+for murder, duelling, forgery, abduction,
+libel, blasphemy, and conspiracy,
+under this category; and this Mr
+Townsend felt. Such, nevertheless,
+constitute a large proportion of the
+trials contained in these volumes, and
+are, in our opinion, also those of most
+popular interest, and worthiest of
+being dealt with, as it was Mr Townsend's
+expressed intention to deal with
+them.</p>
+
+<p>The "trials" contained in the volumes
+before us are fifteen in number,
+of which only four, or at most five,
+(Mr Townsend seems to have thought
+six,) have any pretensions to be designated
+"<i>State</i> trials." These five
+are&mdash;John Frost, Edward Oxford, and
+Smith O'Brien for high treason; Daniel
+O'Connell, and eight others, for a
+treasonable conspiracy; and Charles
+Pinney, for alleged neglect of his duty
+as mayor of Bristol, during the fiery
+and bloody "Reform Riots," as the
+were called, in that place, in October
+1831. The remaining ten trials consist
+of two for duelling&mdash;the late James
+Stuart for killing Sir Alexander Boswell,
+and the Earl of Cardigan for
+shooting Captain Tucket; three for
+murder, (in addition to James Stuart,
+who was tried for the <i>murder</i> of Sir
+Alexander Boswell)&mdash;viz. Conrvoisier
+for the murder of Lord William
+Russell; M'Naughton for the murder
+of Mr Drummond; Hunter and others
+for conspiracy and the murder of John
+Smith, the Glasgow cotton-spinner, in
+1837; Alexander (the titular
+Earl of Stirling) for forgery; Lord
+Cochrane, and seven others, for a conspiracy
+to raise the funds; the Wakefields
+for conspiracy, and abduction of
+an heiress; John Ambrose Williams
+for a libel on the Durham clergy; and
+Mr John Moxon, for blasphemy, in
+publishing the poems of Percy Bysshe
+Shelley. It will be observed that all
+these are <i>criminal</i> trials, and occurred
+in England, Scotland, and Ireland;
+affording thus a favourable opportunity
+for comparing the different
+methods of proceeding in their respective
+courts, and the characteristics of
+their respective judges and advocates.
+The English trials are ten, the Scottish
+three, and the Irish two in number:
+and whether they are precisely
+those which could have been most
+advantageously selected, it were needless,
+for present purposes, to inquire.
+Mr Townsend made his choice, and
+thus generally states his objects and
+intentions:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>"The present edition of <i>Modern State
+Trials</i> is meant to include those of the
+most general interest and importance
+which have occurred during the last
+thirty years. None are inserted in these
+volumes which have been previously comprised
+in any collection; but the editor
+regrets want of space, which compels him
+to omit several not uninstructive. In
+making a selection, he has endeavoured
+to present a faithful, but abridged, report
+of such legal proceedings as would be
+most likely to command the attention of
+all members of the community, and to be
+read by them with pleasure and profit.
+This appears to be the popular description
+of the term "State Trials," in which
+Mr Evelyn and Mr Hargreave acquiesced,
+or they would not have included convictions
+for witchcraft, and the prosecution
+of Elizabeth Canning for perjury, in their
+collection. Were the definition restricted
+to political offences merely, the work,
+however logically correct, would be wanting
+in spirit and variety."&mdash;(Introd. vol. i.
+p. 5.)</p></div>
+
+<p>After stating that no technical
+objection can be raised to those of the
+above trials which immediately affect
+the State, he observes, that, "for the
+propriety of inserting the rest under
+the same title, a just apology may be
+made." The trial of the Earl of Cardigan,
+before the House of Lords, is
+represented as interesting, from the
+rank of the accused and from the
+rarity of the trial, as being the first
+time that duelling was attempted to
+be brought within a recent statute,
+(1 Vict. c. 85) enacting that the
+shooting at a person, not with premeditated
+malice, but deliberately, and
+causing a bodily injury dangerous to
+life, should be a capital offence; and
+that whoever should shoot any person
+with intent to commit murder, or
+to do some grievous bodily harm,
+should, though no bodily harm were
+inflicted, be guilty of <i>felony</i>, and
+liable to transportation or imprisonment.
+The social position of the titular
+Earl of Stirling, and the extra<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[Pg 378]</a></span>ordinary
+nature of the evidence, are
+said to justify the insertion of <i>his</i>
+trial; while, "in the records of
+criminal jurisprudence, there occur
+few proceedings of more deep and
+painful interest than the prosecution
+of Lord Cochrane, for Conspiracy
+to commit a fraud on the
+Stock Exchange." The two cases of
+Courvoisier and M'Naughton respectively
+"involve topics of absorbing
+interest at the period of the occurrence,
+and of enduring interest to all
+time: in the one being involved the
+rights and duties, the privileges and
+immunities of counsel for prisoners;
+in the other, the fearful question of
+responsibility for crime&mdash;how far
+moral insanity alone may exonerate
+the alleged subject of it from the
+temporal consequences of his guilt."
+This latter topic is also involved in
+Oxford's case. The trials of Mr
+Stuart for killing Sir Alexander Boswell,
+and of Mr Moxon for blasphemy,
+are inserted for one and the same
+reason&mdash;namely, "a desire to embalm
+the very beautiful speeches of Lord
+Cockburn, Lord Jeffrey, and Mr Justice
+Talfourd." As to the trial of
+Ambrose Williams, it is inserted on
+account of the celebrated speech in
+defence by Lord Brougham&mdash;"one of
+the most vivid specimens extant, in
+either ancient or modern literature, of
+keen irony, bitter sarcasm, and vehement
+vituperation." The prosecution
+of the Wakefields for conspiracy, and
+the abduction of Miss Turner, "forms
+a singular chapter in legal history;
+interesting not less to the student of
+human nature, on account of its characters
+and incidents, than to the
+lawyer, for the elaborate discussions
+on the Scottish law of marriages, and
+the right of the wife, even should
+there have been a legal marriage, to
+appear as a witness against the offending
+husband&mdash;matters argued with
+profuse learning and ability."</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>"In setting forth, under a condensed
+form," says Mr Townsend,<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> "this and
+the other most interesting trials of our
+time, it has been the object of the editor
+to free the work from dry severity by
+introducing the '<i>loci l&aelig;tiores</i>' of the
+advocates, the salient parts of cross-examination&mdash;those
+little passages of arms
+between the rival combatants which
+diversified the arena, the painting of the
+forensic scene, the poetry of action of
+these legal dramas. He has sought to
+give the expressed spirit of eloquence and
+law, upon occasions which peculiarly
+called them forth; pruning what was
+redundant, rejecting superfluities, weeding
+out irrelevant matter, but omitting
+no incident or episode that all intelligent
+witness would have been disappointed at
+not hearing."</p></div>
+
+<p>We present the ensuing paragraph,
+which immediately follows the preceding,
+because it will afford us an
+opportunity of making a remark which
+is applicable to the entire structure of
+the work before us.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>"In the extracts here given from some
+of the most celebrated speeches of modern
+days, the editor has also had the great
+advantage of the last corrections of the
+speakers themselves, and has thus been
+enabled to preserve the <i>ipsissima verba</i>,
+by which minds were captivated and verdicts
+won; those treasures of oratory
+which would have gladdened the old age
+of Erskine, could he have seen how his
+talisman had been passed from hand to
+hand, and the mantle of his inspiration
+caught. The vivid appeals of Whiteside,
+the magnificent defence of Cockburn, the
+persuasive imagery of Talfourd, will
+exist as &#954;&#952;&#951;&#956;&#945;&#964;&#945; &#7953;&#953;&#962; &#945;&#949;&#7985;&mdash;trophies of
+forensic eloquence, beacon lights it may
+be, in the midst of that prosaic mistiness
+which has begun to creep around our
+courts."</p></div>
+
+<p>The remark to which we have alluded
+is this: that the work before us
+is pervaded by a tone of uniform, excessive,
+and undistinguishing <i>eulogy</i>,
+which, however creditable to the
+amiable and generous dispenser of it,
+is calculated to lower our estimate of
+his critical judgment, and even&mdash;unless
+one should be on one's guard&mdash;to
+provoke a harsh and disparaging spirit
+towards the subjects of such undue
+eulogy, and a suspicion that here
+"praise undeserved," and the remark
+is applicable equally to praise "excessive,
+is censure in disguise!" No
+judge, no counsel, can say or do <i>anything</i>,
+in the course of any of the trials
+here brought under our notice, without
+speaking and acting in such a
+way as to merit applause for exhibiting
+the highest qualities of mind and
+character. Let it not be supposed,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[Pg 379]</a></span>that, in making these observations, we
+wish to apply them to the particular
+instances cited by Mr Townsend of
+Messrs Whiteside, Cockburn, and
+Talfourd&mdash;all of whom are distinguished,
+accomplished, able, and eloquent
+advocates; but we believe that
+each would, in spite of the fondest
+self-love, in his own mind, somewhat
+mistrust his title to the <i>amount</i> of
+applause here bestowed upon him.
+What more than he has said of them,
+could he have said of the greatest
+orators and advocates whom the world
+has produced? In a corresponding
+strain, Mr Townsend speaks of every
+one&mdash;senior and junior counsel&mdash;and
+every writer, great and small, whom
+he has occasion to mention. Those
+who knew the late Mr Townsend,
+and appreciated his simple and manly
+character, will refer the defect which
+we have felt compelled thus to point
+out to its true cause&mdash;the kindliness
+of his heart; and we believe that,
+had he lived to see these observations,
+his candour would have caused him
+promptly to recognise their justice.</p>
+
+<p>Each of the trials is preceded and
+followed by "Introductory Essays"
+and "Notes."</p>
+
+<p>"The Essays, chiefly historical,
+have been introduced in order to
+familiarise the reader with the subject,
+and prevent the monotony which,
+but for these occasional dissertations,
+might pervade so many recurring
+trials. The notes are added with a
+similar object."<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> We may say generally,
+that these "Essays" and
+"Notes" always display judgment,
+and the writer's complete knowledge
+of his subject. No reader should
+enter on the trial, without carefully
+perusing the "Essay" which ushers
+it in, shedding light upon all its details,
+and the circumstances attending the
+committing of these offences&mdash;and indicating
+with distinctness the leading
+features of interest and importance.
+In the report of the trial itself, great
+pains have evidently been taken, and
+successfully, to observe rigid impartiality,
+and secure accuracy of statement;
+and the conflicts of counsel
+with each other and with witnesses&mdash;the
+temperate, and timely interpositions
+of the judges, and their satisfactory
+summings-up to the jury&mdash;are
+presented to the reader with no little
+vividness. The fault of Mr Townsend's
+style is, diffuseness, a tendency
+to colloquiality, and a deficiency of
+vigour. With these little exceptions,
+added to that above noticed, we have
+no hesitation in commending these
+volumes as an acquisition to popular
+and professional literature, reflecting
+credit on the author's memory, and
+the bar to which he belonged.</p>
+
+<p>Having thus briefly indicated the
+general character of this work, and
+given the author's own account of it,
+we propose in the present, and one,
+or perhaps two, following articles, to
+take our own view of some of the
+leading "Trials" thus collected by
+Mr Townsend, incidentally observing
+on his treatment of the subject. With
+him, we regard several of these trials as
+exhibiting features of remarkable interest;
+and are much indebted to him
+for having so disposed his materials as
+to rouse and rivet the attention of all
+classes of intelligent readers, but in
+an especial degree that of the youthful
+student of jurisprudence. Without
+further preface, we shall commence
+with that which stands first in Mr
+Townsend's collection&mdash;the trial of
+Frost, for high treason.</p>
+
+<p>This affords a very favourable specimen
+of Mr Townsend's capabilities.
+He appears to have worked it out
+perhaps more exactly to his own idea
+than any of the ensuing ones; and, by
+his able and judicious treatment of
+the subject, has given us an opportunity
+of exhibiting in glowing colours
+a forensic battle-field: the stake, life
+or death; the combatants, evenly
+matched, the very flower of the bar;
+their tactics clear and decisive, with
+the odds tremendously against one
+party&mdash;that is to say, facts too strong
+for almost any degree of daring or
+astuteness to contend against hopefully.
+Let us see, under such circumstances,
+how the combatants acquitted
+themselves; or, if one may change
+the figure, let us see how was played a
+great game of chess on the board of
+life, by skilful and celebrated players.
+Who were they? Four in number&mdash;Sir
+John Campbell and Sir Thomas
+Wilde, then respectively Attorney and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[Pg 380]</a></span>Solicitor-General, representing the
+Crown; Sir Frederick Pollock and Mr
+Fitzroy Kelly, Queen's Counsel for the
+prisoner. Ten years have since
+elapsed, and behold the changes in
+the relative positions of these gentlemen!
+Sir John Campbell is a peer
+of the realm, and Lord Chief-Justice
+of the Queen's Bench: having also,
+during the interval, become a laborious
+and successful biographer of the
+Lord Chancellors and Lord Chief-Justices
+of England. Sir Thomas
+Wilde is also a peer of the realm, and
+Lord High Chancellor, having been
+previously Attorney-General and
+Chief-Justice of the Common Pleas.
+Sir Frederick Pollock, having been subsequently
+appointed Attorney-General,
+is now Chief Baron of the Exchequer;
+while Mr Kelly, having since
+become Solicitor-General, lost office
+on the break-up of Sir Robert Peel's
+ministry, and remains&mdash;such are the
+chances and changes of political life&mdash;plain
+Sir Fitzroy Kelly, but occupying a
+splendid position at the bar.
+These four were the leading counsel;
+but besides the Attorney and Solicitor
+General, the Crown was represented
+by two gentlemen of great legal learning
+and eloquence, since raised to the
+bench&mdash;Mr Justice Wightman and Mr
+Justice Talfourd; and by Mr Serjeant
+Ludlow, since become a Commissioner
+of Bankruptcy; and the Hon. John C.
+Talbot, now so highly distinguished
+in Parliamentary practice. The judges
+sent as the special commission consisted
+of the late Chief-Justice Tindal,
+the present Mr Baron Parke, and the
+late Mr Justice Williams, forming, it
+is superfluous to say, an admirably
+constituted court&mdash;the chief being most
+consummately qualified for his post
+by temper, sagacity, and learning.</p>
+
+<p>It was the business of the Attorney
+and Solicitor General to establish a
+case of high treason against the prisoner,
+and of Sir Frederick Pollock
+and Mr Kelly to defend him <i>&agrave; l'outrance</i>;
+but God forbid that we should
+say <i>per fas aut nefas</i>. It were idle to
+characterise the intellectual and professional
+qualifications of these four
+combatants; the eminence of all is undisputed,
+though their idiosyncrasies
+are widely different from each other.
+Suffice it to say, that everything which
+great experience, sagacity, learning,
+power, and eloquence could bring to
+bear on that contest might have been
+confidently looked for. One circumstance
+is proper to be borne in mind&mdash;that
+the prisoner's counsel (of course
+abhorring the acts imputed to their
+client) were stimulated to the very
+uttermost exertion by the fact that
+their own political opinions were notoriously
+adverse to those entertained
+by the prisoner, and those&mdash;viz.,
+Chartists&mdash;who so confidently summoned
+two Tories to the rescue of
+their imperilled brother Chartists.</p>
+
+<p>All the main facts of the case were
+universally known before the trial
+took place, together, of course, with
+the legal category to which they must
+be referred, to satisfy the conditions
+of high treason. The nature of that
+offence was thus tersely and beautifully
+explained by the Chief Justice,&mdash;<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>"Gentlemen, the crime of high treason,
+in its own direct consequences, is calculated
+to produce the most malignant
+effects upon the community at large; its
+direct and immediate tendency is the putting
+down the authority of the law, the
+shaking and subverting the foundation of
+all government, the loosening and dissolving
+the bands and cement by which
+society is held together, the general confusion
+of property, the involving a whole
+people in bloodshed and mutual destruction;
+and, accordingly, the crime of high
+treason has always been regarded by the
+law of this country as the offence of all
+others of the deepest dye, and as calling
+for the severest measure of punishment.
+But in the very same proportion as it is
+dangerous to the community, and fearful
+to the offender from the weight of punishment
+which is attached to it, has it been
+thought necessary by the wisdom of our
+ancestors to define and limit this law
+within certain express boundaries, in
+order that, on the one hand, no guilty person
+might escape the punishment due to
+his transgression by an affected ignorance
+of the law; and, on the other, that no
+innocent man might be entangled or
+brought unawares within the reach of its
+severity by reason of the law's uncertainty."</p></div>
+
+<p>The following were fearful words to
+be heard, or afterwards read, by those
+who were charged with the defence of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[Pg 381]</a></span>Frost. They occur, like the preceding
+passage, in the luminous charge
+of the Chief Justice to the Grand
+Jury, on the 10th December 1839:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>"An assembly of men, armed and arrayed
+in a warlike manner, with any
+treasonable purpose, is a levying of war,
+although no blow be struck; and the enlisting
+and drilling and marching bodies
+of men are sufficient overt acts of that
+treason, without coming to a battle or
+action. And, if this be the case, the
+actual conflict between such a body and
+the Queen's forces must, beyond all doubt,
+amount to a levying of war against the
+Queen, under the statute of Edward. It
+was quite unnecessary to constitute the
+guilt of treason that the tumultuous multitude
+should be accompanied with the
+pomp and pageantry of war, or with military
+array. Insurrection and rebellion
+are more humble in their first infancy;
+but all such external marks of pomp will
+not fail to be added with the first gleam
+of success. The treasonable design once
+established by the proper evidence, the
+man who instigated, incited, procured, or
+persuaded others to commit the act, though
+not present in person at the commission
+of it, is equally a traitor, to all intents
+and purposes, as the man by whose hand
+the act of treason is committed. He who
+leads the armed multitude towards the
+point of attack, and then retires before
+the blow is struck&mdash;he who remains at
+home, planning and directing the proceedings,
+but leaving the actual execution
+of such plans to more daring hands&mdash;he
+who, after treason has been committed,
+knowingly harbours or conceals the traitor
+from the punishment due to him, all these
+are equally guilty in the eye of the law of
+the crime of high treason."</p></div>
+
+<p>The head of treason applicable to
+the facts of the case under consideration
+is the third in statute 25 Edward
+III. c. 2, which concisely declares it
+to exist "<i>if a man do levy war
+against our lord the King in his realm</i>."
+This has been the law of the land for
+just five centuries, <i>i. e.</i> since the year
+1351. But in the application of these
+words, of fearful significance, the object
+with which arms are taken up
+must be a <span class="smcap">GENERAL</span> one&mdash;"the <i>universality
+of the design</i> making it a rebellion
+against the state, a usurpation
+of the power of Government, and
+an insolent invasion of the King's
+authority"&mdash;"under pretence to reform
+religion and the laws, or to remove
+evil counsellors, or other grievances,
+whether real or pretended."<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a>
+Or, to adopt the definition of Mr Kelly,
+in addressing the jury in this very case,
+it is necessary to prove "that the prisoner
+levied war against her Majesty,
+with intent by force to alter the
+law, and subvert the constitution of
+the realm."<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> To appreciate the position
+of the prisoner, and the difficulties
+with which his counsel had to struggle,
+it may here be mentioned, that he
+admitted the prisoner to be a Chartist,
+as it was called&mdash;that is, a supporter
+of the following five points of sweeping
+change in the political institutions
+of the country,&mdash;"Universal suffrage,
+vote by ballot, annual parliaments, no
+property qualification, and payment of
+members of parliament." This was
+also, during the trial, avowed by the
+prisoner.<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p>
+
+<p>Having thus got a clear view of
+the law, let us briefly indicate the
+<i>facts</i>&mdash;the palpable, notorious, leading
+facts, known to be such by the prisoner's
+counsel, as soon as they had
+perused their briefs.</p>
+
+<p>A body of ten thousand men, principally
+miners from the surrounding
+country, headed, in three divisions, by
+Frost, and two other men, Jones and
+Williams, (Frost having five thousand
+under his command,) and armed
+indiscriminately with muskets, pikes,
+axes, staves, and other weapons, was
+to make a descent upon the peaceful
+town of Newport, during the night of
+Sunday, the 3d November 1839!
+Tempestuous weather prevented the
+preconcerted junction of these three
+bands; but, between eight and nine
+o'clock on the Monday morning,
+Frost's division, five thousand strong,
+marched into the town&mdash;and, headed
+after a fashion by him, commenced an
+attack upon a small inn, where they
+knew that a handful of troops was
+stationed, about thirty in number,
+under command of a lieutenant. As
+soon as the mob, who formed steadily,
+saw the soldiers drawn up in the room&mdash;the
+windows of which were thrown
+open&mdash;they cruelly fired into it, and
+also rushed through the doors into the
+passage. On this, the lieutenant gave
+the word of command to fire. He
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[Pg 382]</a></span>was obeyed&mdash;and with deadly effect,
+as far as regarded some thirty or forty,
+known to have received the fire, many
+of whom were shot dead on the spot.
+But this cool promptitude and determination
+of the troops put an end
+<i>instanter</i> to the insane insurrection.
+This vast body of supposed desperadoes
+fled panic-struck in every direction;
+and Frost himself, who was
+unquestionably on the very spot at the
+very time when and where the attack
+commenced, fled in ridiculous terror,<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a>
+and was arrested that evening at a
+friend's house adjoining his own,
+armed with three loaded pistols, and
+having on him a powder-flask and a
+quantity of balls. His brother heroes,
+Williams and Jones, were also arrested,
+together with many others; and
+there ended the formidable outbreak,
+which had more astounded than
+alarmed the public; leaving, however,
+the instigators and conductors to a
+speedy and very dismal reckoning with
+that same public. The active management
+of matters by Frost was beyond
+all doubt, and it seemed never to have
+been wished to conceal it. He was
+the Jack Cade of the affair. He
+planned the order of march; the time,
+place, and mode of attack; and explained
+the immediate and ulterior
+objects of the movement. Shortly
+before the outbreak, he was asked by
+one of his adherents, "<i>what he intended
+to do</i>?" He answered,&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>"First, they should go to the new poor-house
+and take soldiers and arms; then,
+he said, there was a storehouse, where
+there was plenty of powder; then, they
+would blow up the bridge, that would stop
+the Welsh mail which did run to the
+north, and that would be tidings; and
+they would commence there in the north
+on Monday night, and he should be able
+to see two or three of his friends or enemies
+in Newport."&mdash;(vol. i., p. 36.)</p></div>
+
+<p>Similar observations he made to
+another of his followers, who asked
+him, on hearing him give orders for
+the guns to take the front, the pikes
+next, the bludgeons next,&mdash;"in the
+name of God, what was he going to
+do? was he going to attack any place
+or people?" he said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>"He was going to attack Newport, and
+take it&mdash;and blow up the bridge, and prevent
+the Welsh mail from proceeding to
+Birmingham: that there would be three
+delegates there, to wait for the coach an
+hour and a half after the time; and if
+the mail did not arrive there, the attack
+was to commence at Birmingham, and be
+carried thence to the North of England,
+and Scotland, <i>and that was to be the signal
+for the whole nation</i>."&mdash;(vol. i., p. 33.)</p></div>
+
+<p>The coal and iron trade in these
+parts, from which the population derived
+their subsistence, had seldom
+been more prosperous than at the time
+when this movement was concerted
+and made: employment was easily
+obtained; wages were high; and those
+concerned in the affair had no private
+grievances to redress. At the same
+time, it was notorious that political
+agitation, on the subject of the Charter
+aforesaid, had for some time prevailed
+there&mdash;that the population had been
+organised for combined and effective
+action by affiliated societies; and
+Frost, the prime mover&mdash;a pestilent
+agitator, who, occupying the position
+of a decent tradesman, a linendraper,
+in Newtown, had been rashly raised
+to the local magistracy, from which
+he was soon degraded for sedition&mdash;declared
+his object to be, to make the
+Charter the law of the land. All
+these, and many other facts, which
+had been elicited during the preliminary
+examinations, were known to the
+prisoner's counsel, who had copies of
+all the depositions which had been
+made by the witnesses; and also
+knew the precise terms in which the
+indictment was framed, and the name,
+calling, and residence of every witness
+to be produced in proof of that indictment.</p>
+
+<p>How was this towering array of
+facts to be encountered, with these
+enlightened judges to conduct the
+inquiry, and guide the jury, and very
+able and determined counsel to elicit
+and arrange the facts, and enforce them
+on the jury&mdash;and <i>have the last word</i>
+with the jury in so doing? We may
+well imagine how anxious and disheartening
+were the consultations of
+the prisoner's counsel before going
+into court. Neither they, nor their
+attorneys, could disguise from themselves
+the desperate nature of the case
+in which they were concerned. They
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">[Pg 383]</a></span>would probably determine to cross-examine
+the witnesses very cautiously
+and rigorously, with a view to breaking
+down important links in the case;
+and it is likely that their paramount
+object in conducting the defence,
+would be to aim at supplying Frost
+with some other than <i>a general object</i>&mdash;something
+else than establishing
+the Charter as the law of the land.
+A hopeful prospect! But besides all
+this, it must have been determined,
+of course, to throw no single chance
+away, whereon&mdash;however, whenever
+it presented itself&mdash;to fight the fearful
+case for the Crown inch by inch,
+and foot by foot&mdash;contesting every
+technical point, with a view to detecting
+any possible slip in either the
+preliminary or any other part of the
+proceedings of the experienced and
+watchful Crown officers. Here, again,
+was a hopeful prospect! Their proceedings
+had been doubtless advised
+beforehand by the Attorney and Solicitor
+General, and conducted by Mr
+Maule, the Solicitor of the Treasury,
+in person&mdash;himself a barrister, and
+consummately qualified for his post.
+He was also a humane man, always
+anxious to discharge his duties firmly,
+but at the same time to afford a prisoner
+every degree of consideration
+and indulgence consistent with the
+public interest. By this time the
+reader may be aware how very
+serious a thing is the conduct, on the
+part of the Crown, of a prosecution of
+high treason, in every one of its stages&mdash;in
+the slightest particulars&mdash;especially
+where the great <i>facts</i> of the
+case are so clear against the prisoner,
+as to compel his advocate to watch
+and test every link in the chain fixed
+around his client. Here, in fact, correlative
+duties are cast on the opposing
+parties&mdash;to <i>take</i> every possible objection;
+and to be beforehand <i>prepared
+for</i> every possible objection, by
+vigilant exactitude in complying with
+every legal requisite.</p>
+
+<p>On the <i>eleventh</i> day of December
+1839, the Grand Jury returned a true
+bill for high treason, against John
+Frost and thirteen of his followers;
+and on the very next day&mdash;viz., Thursday
+the <i>twelfth</i>, in order to oblige the
+prisoner, by giving him the longest
+possible time for availing himself of
+the important information contained
+in the <i>indictment</i>, and the <i>jury list</i>&mdash;copies
+of these instruments were delivered
+to him by the Solicitor of the
+Treasury. On the ensuing Tuesday,
+the 17th, he delivered to the prisoner
+a <i>list of the witnesses</i>; and, the trial
+having been appointed to take place
+on the 31st December, five days
+previously to the latter day&mdash;viz., on
+the 26th December&mdash;Sir Frederick
+Pollock and Mr Kelly were assigned
+to John Frost, as his counsel, on his
+application pursuant to the statute
+to Mr Bellamy, the clerk of the Crown.
+It is here essential, in order to appreciate
+the immense importance of the
+earliest moves in this life-and-death
+game, to weigh every word in the
+following brief enactment, under
+which the above documents were delivered
+to the prisoner: the humane
+object of the legislature being to afford
+him ample time to prepare his defence.&mdash;"When
+any person is indicted for
+high treason, a list of the <i>witnesses</i>,
+and of the <i>jury</i>, mentioning the names,
+profession, and place of abode of the
+said witnesses and jurors, be also
+given at the same time that the copy
+of the indictment is delivered to the
+party indicted&mdash;which copy of the
+indictment shall be delivered ten days
+before the trial."<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> Thus it will be
+seen that as the trial was to take
+place on Tuesday the 31st December,
+Mr Maule might have delayed delivering
+these documents to the prisoner
+till the 20th, and perhaps till
+the 21st December; but, solely to favour
+the prisoner, he delivered two
+of them&mdash;viz., the indictment and jury
+list&mdash;so early as the 12th, and the list
+of witnesses so early as the 17th December.
+Let us see, by and by, whether
+anything comes of this, and of the
+lengthened study, by the prisoner's
+counsel, of these three documents.</p>
+
+<p>On Tuesday the 31st December
+1839, all the fourteen prisoners were
+arraigned on an indictment consisting
+of four counts: two for levying war
+against her Majesty in her realm; a
+third for compassing to depose the
+Queen from her royal throne; and
+the last, for compassing to levy war
+against the Queen, with intent to
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[Pg 384]</a></span>compel her to change her measures.
+To this indictment each of the fourteen
+prisoners pleaded not guilty; and
+it is to be particularly observed that
+they all did so without making any
+objection on any score. Thus was
+taken the first move by the Crown
+counsel, who may possibly, for aught
+we can at present see, have thereby
+gained some very great advantage.
+Let us now conceive the solemnly-exciting
+scene of the court house at
+Monmonth, on this memorable trial.
+Three judges sitting, in their imposing
+scarlet and ermine vestments,
+calm and grave; a phalanx of
+counsel sitting beneath them; the
+prisoners standing at the bar, on their
+deliverance, silent as the grave, while
+the fate-fraught procedure of the court
+was methodically going on; the spectators
+crowding every part of the
+court that they could occupy, and all
+silent, nothing heard but official voices;
+while without that court all was excitement&mdash;repressed,
+however, by the
+stern presence of the civil and military
+power; detachments of troops at that
+moment scouring the adjacent hills in
+quest of malcontents, and preventing
+any fresh rising of the population.</p>
+
+<p>The first step taken by the prisoner's
+counsel was to state that they
+appeared for John Frost alone, and
+should challenge the jury separately:
+on which all the other prisoners were
+removed from the bar, John Frost remaining
+to take his trial alone. Then
+came the swearing of the jury&mdash;the
+name of every one, with his calling in
+life, and place of abiding, being known
+to the prisoner and his counsel, who
+objected to the very first step taken
+by the clerk of the Crown. He had
+begun to call over the names in their
+alphabetical order on the panel&mdash;the
+usual course for a great series of
+years; but Sir Frederick Pollock objected
+to his doing so, insisting on
+each juror's name being taken from
+the ballot-box. The Lord Chief-Justice
+was about to have overruled
+the objection; but the Attorney-General
+intimated that he consented
+to the course proposed by the prisoner's
+counsel. Each witness was
+sworn first on the <i>voir dire</i>, (<i>i. e.</i> <i>dicere
+verum</i>) as to his qualification, before
+he was sworn to try. First came
+a juryman who was challenged peremptorily
+on the part of the Crown;
+but the prisoner's counsel, doubtless
+for very good reasons, wishing him
+to remain on the jury, insisted, first,
+that the Crown had no such right&mdash;an
+objection at once overruled;
+secondly, that the crown was too late,
+as the juror had actually got the
+New Testament into his hand to be
+sworn to try before the Crown challenged.
+But, on the court's inquiry,
+it turned out that the witness had
+himself taken the book, without having
+been directed to do so by the
+clerk of the Crown. Under these circumstances,
+the court decided that the
+Crown were in time with their challenge&mdash;and
+the juryman was excluded.
+In this kind of out-skirmishing the
+whole of the first day was consumed!&mdash;a
+full jury not having been sworn till
+the evening, when they were "charged"
+with the prisoner and then dismissed
+for the night&mdash;but with the unpleasant
+information from the court, that they
+themselves were thenceforth prisoners
+(though with every kind of proper indulgence)
+till the trial was over.</p>
+
+<p>On the next morning, just as the
+Attorney-General was rising to state
+the case of the Crown, he was interrupted
+by Sir Frederick Pollock, and
+doubtless sufficiently astonished by
+what fell from him: "I feel myself
+bound, at the earliest moment&mdash;and
+this is the first opportunity that I
+have had,&mdash;to take an objection which
+must occur the moment that the first
+witness is put into the box,&mdash;namely,
+that the prisoner has never had a list
+of the witnesses, <i>pursuant to the
+statute</i>, and that therefore <i>no witness
+can be called</i>!" What could be the
+meaning of this? inquired the Attorney-General's
+companions among
+themselves, with no little anxiety;
+but he himself somewhat sternly censured
+the interruption, as premature,
+(as it certainly was,) and proceeded
+with his address to the jury. He
+made a lucid and very temperate
+statement of the case&mdash;drawing attention
+prominently to the necessity
+imposed on him of proving that what
+had been done by Frost and his companions
+was with a <i>general</i>, and not
+a particular object,&mdash;a <i>public</i>, and not
+a private purpose. His proposed proof
+was crushing: but immediately on the
+Solicitor-General's calling the name<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">[Pg 385]</a></span>
+of the first witness, Sir Frederick
+Pollock rose, and required him to
+prove the delivery of a list of the
+witnesses, containing the particular
+one in question, pursuant to the
+statute. The Attorney-General then
+called Mr Maule, who proved having
+done what has already been explained:
+whereupon Sir Frederick
+Pollock disclosed the exact objection,
+which he himself had been the first to
+detect&mdash;that whereas the statute required
+all these documents,&mdash;<i>i. e.</i>, the
+indictment, the jury list, and witness
+list&mdash;to be delivered "<i>at the same
+time</i>," in the present instance that
+had not been done, the first two
+having been delivered on the 12th,
+and the list of witnesses on the 17th
+December! This was a very formidable
+move on the part of the prisoner:
+who stood at the bar on his deliverance&mdash;the
+jury being bound to convict
+or acquit according to evidence, and
+none could be offered them! If that <i>were</i>
+so, he must of necessity be pronounced
+not guilty, and be for ever safe.
+The objection was urged with extreme
+tenacity and ingenuity by both the
+prisoner's counsel, who insisted on
+the statute of Anne receiving a strict
+literal construction of the words "at
+the same time,"&mdash;admitting the benevolent
+intentions by which Mr Maule
+had been actuated. The Attorney-General
+argued very earnestly against
+this startling objection, denying that
+it had any validity&mdash;asserting that
+the statute had been substantially
+complied with; and that the objection,
+if valid, had been waived; and that
+it was made too late&mdash;viz., not till
+after the prisoner had pleaded to the
+indictment, and the jury been charged
+with the prisoner. The Attorney-General's
+astute argument, however,
+was interrupted by the Lord Chief-Justice,
+stating that the court had a
+sufficient degree of doubt on the point
+to reserve it for further consideration
+by the judges at Westminster, should
+it become necessary: for, if their objection
+were valid, it affected every
+one of the fourteen prisoners awaiting
+their trial! Then came another
+desperate attempt of Sir Frederick
+Pollock, to secure his client the benefit
+of <i>an acquittal</i>, in the event of the
+judges ultimately deciding that the
+objection ought to have been decided
+in the prisoner's favour at the trial.
+This, however, the Attorney-General
+again strongly opposed; and the
+court cautiously ruled, that, in the
+event contemplated, the prisoner
+would be entitled then to the same
+benefit to which he would have been
+entitled at the trial&mdash;without saying
+what that would have been. The
+witness thus provisionally objected to
+was then admitted; but only to be,
+at first, sworn on the <i>voir dire</i>, on
+which a lengthened examination and
+some argument ensued&mdash;each of the
+judges delivering judgment on the
+excessively refined and astute objection
+to the manner in which the
+witness's place of abode had been
+described in the list&mdash;which was such
+as that it was just imaginable, and
+nothing more, that an inquirer might
+have been misled! The objection
+was overruled in the case of the first
+witness; but on the ensuing two
+witnesses&mdash;and most important witnesses&mdash;being
+called, a similar objection
+was taken, but too successfully,
+and their evidence, consequently, altogether
+excluded!&mdash;excluded solely
+on account of the anxious "<i>over</i>-particularity"
+of the Crown! Nor were
+these the only witnesses whose testimony
+was, on such grounds, rendered
+unavailable to the Crown.</p>
+
+<p>Then came the usual contests, from
+time to time, as to acts and declarations
+of third parties, which were
+offered as evidence against the prisoner,
+though done and said in his
+absence, and before and after the
+actual outbreak&mdash;viz., to what extent
+he had rendered himself liable for the
+consequences of such acts and declarations,
+by embarking in a common
+enterprise, having a common intent
+with these third parties. The result
+of such contests was practically this,&mdash;The
+court acted on the rule of law, as
+rule established, that, in treason and
+conspiracy, the Crown may prove
+either the conspiracy, which renders
+admissible as evidence the acts and
+declarations of the co-conspirators;
+or the acts and declarations of the
+different persons, and so prove the
+conspiracy. A witness, for instance,
+said that he was at a party at a
+Chartists' lodge on the 2d November,
+when a man named <i>Reed</i> gave them
+directions to go to Newport on the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">[Pg 386]</a></span>
+following night, and explained for
+what purpose they were to go: but
+the witness did not see Frost till two
+days <i>afterwards</i>, when on his march
+to Newport. The Lord Chief-Justice
+overruled the objections of Sir F. Pollock
+and Mr Kelly, and received the
+evidence which they had attempted to
+exclude.</p>
+
+<p>A great mass of proof was given
+during the trial, establishing most
+satisfactorily the acts and doings of
+Frost, throughout the progress of the
+conspiracy, and down to the very
+moment of the actual attack on the
+inn, and the Queen's troops stationed
+in it&mdash;a mass of proof on which the
+attempt to make an impression seemed
+absurd. There was only one faint
+ray of hope for the prisoner's counsel,
+throughout the palpable obscure&mdash;that
+they might be able to escape
+from the generality and publicity of
+object attributed to the prisoner, by
+persuading the jury that the object
+was a private, temporary, and specific
+one&mdash;viz., to effect the release of
+one Vincent, a Chartist, then in confinement
+at Monmouth! To pave
+the way for this hopeful line of
+defence, first, an artful turn was
+sought, in cross-examination, to be
+given to one of the early witnesses.
+He swore that he had heard one of
+those who attacked the inn, exclaim
+at the time, presenting his gun at one
+of the special constables at the door,
+"Surrender <i>yourselves</i> our prisoners;"
+to which the gallant answer was,
+"No, never!" On this Mr Kelly
+very warily cross-examined the witness,
+with a view of showing that, in
+the confusion, he could not hear very
+distinctly, so as to report distinctly, as
+to precise expressions; that the mob
+intended merely to rescue Vincent;
+and that the expressions used must
+have been, not "Surrender <i>yourselves</i>
+our prisoners," but "Surrender up
+our prisoners!" or simply, "Surrender
+our prisoners,"&mdash;thus rejecting, from
+the witness's answer, the single significant
+word "yourselves." The
+attempt, however, was wholly ineffectual;
+but out of two other witnesses
+were extorted on cross-examination,
+the following (so to speak) crumbs of
+comfort: from one&mdash;"I have heard
+Vincent's name mentioned many
+times; I have heard Williams (one
+of the leaders of the three bands forming
+the ten thousand) say that Vincent
+was a prisoner at Monmouth:
+the people there liked him very much;
+the people knew he was in jail. I
+have heard them speak about him."
+Another witness said,&mdash;"I knew of
+Vincent's being sent to prison: I
+believe the Chartists took a great
+interest in his fate: I do recollect
+something of dissatisfaction about
+Vincent's treatment, and about a
+petition to be drawn up: I recollect
+people's minds being dissatisfied about
+it." Another witness, however, said
+"that at midnight on the Sunday,
+(the 3d November,) Williams came
+to his house with a number of armed
+men:" the witness inquired, "Where
+are you going?"&mdash;"Why do you
+ask?" said Williams. "Because,"
+answered the witness, "some of the
+men who were with me have told me,
+this morning, that they were going to
+Monmouth, to draw Vincent out of
+prison."&mdash;"<i>No</i>," replied Williams,
+"<i>we do not attempt it</i>: we are going
+to give a turn as far as Newport."</p>
+
+<p>The Attorney-General closed his
+case with the arrest of Frost, heavily
+armed, and in concealment, on the
+evening of the day on which he had
+attacked the inn with his five thousand
+men; and thus stood the matter,
+when, after a considerable interval
+for repose and reflection, courteously
+conceded by the Lord Chief-Justice,
+at the implied request of Sir
+Frederick Pollock, that most able and
+upright advocate rose to address the
+jury for the defence. Judging from
+the specimens afforded us by Mr
+Townsend, Sir Frederick Pollock's
+address appears to have been pervaded
+by a strain of dignified and
+earnest eloquence, and also characterised
+by a candour in dealing with
+facts which was in the highest degree
+honourable to him, and also equally
+advantageous to the prisoner, on
+whose behalf such conduct was calculated
+to conciliate both the judges and
+the jury. His line of defence was,
+that, admitting enormous indiscretion
+on the part of Frost in assembling so
+vast a body of men, and marching
+and appearing with them as he did at
+Newport, there was no satisfactory
+evidence of his having done so with a
+<i>treasonable</i> purpose. He had been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">[Pg 387]</a></span>
+guilty of a heinous misdemeanour;
+but the treasonable declarations and
+exclamations put into his and their
+mouths, in order to give the affair a
+treasonable complexion, had been
+either misunderstood or perverted by
+the witnesses. The sole object of
+Frost and his friends was the release
+of Vincent; that they had never
+dreamed of <i>taking</i>, or <i>attacking</i> the
+town of Newport&mdash;least of all, as an
+act of general rebellion; that all they
+had meant was to take a "turn" as
+far as Newport, to get Vincent out of
+prison; and that "that was the true
+character of the whole proceedings;"
+that Frost did not know that the
+military were in the inn; and that,
+the instant they had become visible,
+and had fired, the crowd succumbed,
+threw down their arms, and ran
+away&mdash;<i>i. e.</i> they did this "the very
+moment there was any prospect of what
+they were doing being construed into
+treason." That Frost could not have
+contemplated treason, and throwing
+the whole country into confusion,
+would be evidenced by proof, and his
+having made provision for the payment
+of a bill of exchange, and actually
+paying it on the very Monday on
+which the outbreak occurred. Sir
+Frederick Pollock properly insisted
+on the burthen of proving treason
+lying on the Crown, and not of disproof
+on the prisoner. Then were
+called one or two witnesses, with a
+view to showing expressions of the
+crowd that they had come to Newport
+in quest of their prisoners who
+were there; but the evidence proved
+ridiculously insufficient and contradictory.
+Then was read, with the
+Attorney-General's consent, a letter
+of Frost's in the previous September,
+to one of the visiting magistrates of
+the gaol of Monmouth, requesting
+some relaxation of the prison discipline
+to which Vincent and other
+prisoners were subject; and it appeared,
+also, that a similar application
+had been made to the Lord-Lieutenant
+of the county. Then was proved
+Frost's having taken up his acceptance
+on the 4th November; and his
+character for humanity as specially
+instanced in his having protected
+Lord Granville Somerset from personal
+violence, during the Reform
+riots of 1832. Finally was called a
+witness, with the view of negativing
+the design imputed to Frost of preventing
+the Welsh mail from going to
+Birmingham, by showing the absurdity
+of that course, since a new and
+different mail started from Bristol to
+Birmingham, and not the same coach
+which had come from Newport. But
+to this witness were put the following
+significant, and probably unsuspected,
+questions:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>"<i>Attorney-General.</i>&mdash;You took an interest,
+I suppose, in Vincent?&mdash;<i>A.</i> I did
+so.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Attorney-General.</i>&mdash;You had not been
+told that there was to be any meeting for
+Vincent on the 4th of November, had
+you?&mdash;<i>A.</i> No.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Attorney-General.</i>&mdash;You, living at Newport,
+can tell us that there was no notice
+by placard, or in any other way, of a meeting
+to be held on the 4th November?&mdash;<i>A.</i>
+<i>I never saw any.</i></p>
+
+<p>"<i>Attorney-General.</i>&mdash;<i>Nor heard of any?</i>&mdash;<i>A.</i>
+<i>No.</i>"</p></div>
+
+<p>Such was the meagre case in behalf
+of the prisoner in point of evidence.
+And at its close, his second counsel,
+Mr Kelly, rose to address the jury on
+his behalf&mdash;a privilege accorded to no
+prisoner, except one tried on a charge
+of high treason. We shall present
+the reader with an extract from the
+opening passage in Mr Kelly's address,
+inasmuch as it is highly characteristic
+of that eminent counsellor's style of
+advocacy&mdash;of his imposing display of
+fervent confidence in his case&mdash;his
+terse and nervous expression, and the
+clearness and precision of his reasoning.
+We have some ground for believing
+that the following is exactly
+what fell from his lips:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>"The Attorney-General, in his opening,
+seemed to anticipate that we might
+deviate from the straight and honourable
+course before us, in defending the
+prisoner, into something like an attempt
+to induce you to depart from the strict
+letter of the law. So far from this, it is
+in the law, in the strict undeviating performance
+of the law, that I place my
+hope, my only trust. It is my prayer,
+therefore, that you should follow it; that
+you should be guided and governed by it;
+that you should attend and adhere to the
+law, and to the law alone; because I feel
+that, by that law, I shall prove to you,
+clearly and satisfactorily, that the prisoner,
+whatever may have been his misconduct
+in other respects, however high<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">[Pg 388]</a></span>
+the crimes and misdemeanours for which
+in another form he might have been indicted
+or punished&mdash;I feel that, by the
+law of high treason, he is as guiltless as
+any one of you, whose duty, I hope, it
+will soon be so to pronounce him. Gentlemen,
+if the prisoner at the bar be at
+this moment in any jeopardy or danger,
+it is from the law not prevailing, or not
+being clearly and perfectly understood.
+It is because the facts, which are in evidence
+before you, undoubtedly disclose a
+case of guilt against him; because they
+do prove that he has committed a great
+and serious violation of the law; because
+he has subjected himself to indictment
+and to punishment, that the danger exists&mdash;a
+danger from which it is for me, by
+all the humble efforts I can command, to
+protect him&mdash;that you, finding that he
+has offended against the justice of the
+country, should condemn him, not for the
+misdemeanour which he has really committed,
+but for the great and deadly
+crime with which he is charged by this
+indictment. I therefore, Gentlemen, beseech
+your calm and patient attention,
+while I endeavour as shortly, as concisely,
+and, I will venture to add, as
+fairly and candidly as I can, to lay before
+you, subject to the correction of their
+Lordships, the law, as it affects this high
+and serious charge. And if I should be
+fortunate enough to do so, I undertake
+then to satisfy you&mdash;to convince the
+most doubting among you, if there be any
+more doubting than the rest, when I shall
+refer you to the testimony of the witnesses,&mdash;that
+this charge is not only not
+proved, but that it is absolutely and
+totally disproved, even by the evidence
+for the prosecution. The question here
+is,&mdash;not whether a great and alarming
+riot has been committed; the question is,
+not whether blood has been shed, whether
+crimes, which are, as they ought to be,
+punishable by law, have been perpetrated
+by many who may be the subjects of this
+indictment; but the question is, whether
+the prisoner at the bar has, by competent
+legal proof, been proved, beyond all
+reasonable doubt in the mind of any one
+of you, to have levied war against Her
+Majesty, with the treasonable intent
+which is stated in this indictment? The
+Crown must satisfy you that the prisoner
+at the bar has levied war; that he has
+levied war against Her Majesty&mdash;that is,
+that he has conducted these armed multitudes,
+and committed, if he has committed,
+outrages with them, and concerted
+with them, or engaged them, to
+commit them; and not merely that he
+has done all these acts, but that he has
+done them against the Queen, that he
+has levied war against the Queen and her
+Government. And then, further, it must
+be proved to you that that was done
+with the intent, with the design, which is
+stated in this indictment."&mdash;(I. p. 52, 53.)</p></div>
+
+<p>Mr Kelly's speech was long, elaborate,
+eloquent, and most ingenious&mdash;adhering
+closely to the line of defence
+taken by Sir Frederick Pollock&mdash;pressing
+on the jury in every possible
+way, with many varied illustrations,
+the improbability of Frost having
+contemplated the rebellious objects
+imputed to him, and the alleged
+certainty that his only view had been&mdash;the
+rescue of Vincent. He vehemently
+assailed the credibility of those
+witnesses who had given the strongest
+evidence against Frost; and concluded
+with a most impassioned appeal to
+the feelings of the jury. When he
+had concluded, the Lord Chief-Justice
+accorded still another privilege to
+Frost&mdash;viz., that of himself then addressing
+the jury, after both his counsel
+had done so; to which Frost prudently
+replied&mdash;"My Lord, I am so
+well satisfied with what my counsel
+have said, that I decline saying anything
+upon this occasion."<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a></p>
+
+<p>The Solicitor-General then rose to
+reply on the part of the Crown; and
+if any one inexperienced in forensic
+contests were incredulous as to the
+potency of <i>the last word</i> (from competent
+lips) in any case, civil or criminal,
+let him read the outline of this
+reply, with the copious specimens of
+it, given with much judgment by Mr
+Townsend. It is true that Sir Thomas
+Wilde's case was in itself crushing, but
+his dealing with it made that crushing
+character fearfully clear to the plainest
+capacity. Its opening passages
+seem tinctured by some sternness of
+allusion to the concluding topics of
+Mr Kelly's address; but the remainder
+of the reply is characterised by mingled
+moderation and power; by irresistible
+closeness and cogency of argument,
+and by extraordinary skill in
+dealing with facts, in combining and
+contrasting them, and pointing out a
+significancy lurking in them, which
+the prisoner's counsel had possibly not
+chosen to see, or skilfully striven to
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">[Pg 389]</a></span>conceal. Our limits restrict us to
+one or two samples of the present
+Lord Chancellor's mode of advocacy
+when at the bar. After explaining
+that it was the real object contemplated
+by the prisoner&mdash;viz., to raise,
+rebellion&mdash;with which the jury had to
+deal, the Solicitor-General thus pithily
+disposed of all arguments which had
+been drawn from the prisoner's
+want of power to do all that he intended:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>"It is also immaterial to this Case
+whether or not he had the power to do
+all he intended. We need not talk of
+punishing successful rebellion&mdash;it is unsuccessful
+rebellion that comes under the
+cognisance of the law. I cannot restrain
+the expression of some surprise at the
+course of argument that was taken by
+the learned counsel who last addressed
+you. His course of argument was this:
+when the prisoner was interrupted in
+what he was doing, 'Look and see what
+he has done;' where he has accomplished
+his purpose, 'Do not believe the witnesses.'
+The party having been dispersed
+by the soldiers, the learned gentleman
+says, 'see if they went to the post-office;
+see if they went to the bridge; see if
+they went to other places'&mdash;he knowing
+that they were stopped before they
+reached those places; 'but as to marching
+there with arms to take the town,
+that I dispose of by asking you not to
+believe the witnesses; so that, as regards
+what was prevented, I ask you to see
+what was done; and as regards what
+was done, I ask you to disbelieve the
+witnesses, and there is an end of the
+charge.'"&mdash;(I. p. 75.)</p></div>
+
+<p>This single paragraph annihilated
+a third of the case set up on behalf of
+Frost; as did the following a second
+third:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>"They could not have raised these
+men with a view to relieve the prisoners
+at the Westgate, because at the time they
+collected on the mountain they had not
+been taken. But had it any relation to
+Vincent? What is their intention? We
+have been told again and again that Mr
+Frost must not be supposed likely to do
+absurd things; that he is a man of the
+world and a man of intelligence. What
+then, gentlemen, do you think of an attempt
+to induce the Monmouthshire magistrates
+to relax the prison discipline in
+favour of a person who has been convicted
+of sedition, or seditious libel, or something
+of that sort, by marching into Newport
+with ten thousand men armed?
+What do you think of a man of the world
+resorting to that mode of inducing the
+magistrates to relax in favour of a prisoner?
+Is Mr Frost a man of intelligence?
+Is he a man of the world? Suppose
+he had been the worst foe that Vincent
+ever had, suppose that he had desired
+to procure additional restrictions to
+be put upon him, and had wished that he
+should sustain the last hour of the sentence
+which had been pronounced upon
+him, could he have resorted to a more
+maliciously effective mode than by showing
+that those who were connected with
+Vincent were persons so little acquainted
+with their duty, so little obedient to the
+law, so little to be depended upon for
+their peaceable conduct, as that they
+would march at that hour of the night
+into a town, alarming and frightening
+every body?"&mdash;(I. p. 79.)</p></div>
+
+<p>Again:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>"Gentlemen, will you judge of the
+criminal intentions of persons engaged in
+an insurrection by the probability of their
+success? If you do, you will judge of a
+mob by a rule that never was found correct
+yet. They always imagine&mdash;and
+they would not begin if they did not
+imagine, though they always imagine
+wrong, but they never will learn wisdom&mdash;they
+always imagine that they can
+accomplish more than they can; of course
+they begin, not with the idea of fastening
+a halter round their necks, but with
+the idea that they shall succeed, and
+by their success escape. With those
+thousands of men (you will see as I pass
+on what the number of the soldiers were,)
+was it an unnatural thing that, coming at
+between one and two o'clock in the morning,
+they should surprise the poor-house;
+that the soldiers, not being aware that
+they were coming, might not be prepared&mdash;might
+be taken by surprise&mdash;might be
+either overcome or murdered before they
+could put themselves in a condition to
+defend themselves?</p>
+
+<p>"Are their sayings inconsistent? What
+conspiracy ever was consistent? You
+would indeed give the most perfect freedom
+to conspiracy, rebellion, and treason,
+if you disbelieved witnesses coming to
+prove declarations inconsistent if made at
+the same time, though not inconsistent
+when made at different times. They may
+at first think the soldiers to be Chartists
+and their friends, and, in the next moment,
+talk of attacking them in their barracks.
+But will you give a <i>carte blanche</i> to conspirators
+and traitors by saying, that if
+witnesses prove inconsistent declarations,
+they are not to be believed? It is not,
+gentlemen, the inconsistency of the wit<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">[Pg 390]</a></span>nesses,
+but of those engaged in transactions,
+the conduct and management of
+which must vary from hour to hour according
+as circumstances arise; and that
+which a man may contemplate one minute,
+may the following minute or the next
+hour be inconsistent with the views that
+had prevailed arising out of the then
+existing circumstances."&mdash;(I. p. 89.)</p></div>
+
+<p>The circumstance of Frost's having
+been found with the loaded pistols,
+and not having attempted to use them,
+is thus significantly disposed of:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>"Give him the benefit of the circumstance
+that <i>he did not use</i> the three loaded
+pistols which he had about him. But
+I think, unfortunately, that they speak
+much more strongly as indicating violent
+intentions <i>when those pistols were provided</i>,
+than they speak peaceable intentions
+when he was apprehended."&mdash;(I. p. 24.)</p></div>
+
+<p>There has been no counsel at the
+English bar, in modern times, whose
+reply was more dreaded by an opponent
+than Sir Thomas Wilde; and
+that reply, in Frost's case, abundantly
+shows how well founded was that apprehension.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, then, the counsel on both sides
+having played out their parts in the case,
+it stood awaiting the intervention of the
+Lord Chief-Justice&mdash;the very model of
+judicial excellence. Tranquil, grave,
+patient; exact, ready, profound in
+legal knowledge, and of perfect impartiality&mdash;all
+these high qualities and
+qualifications were exhibited by him
+in his luminous and masterly summing-up
+on this occasion. In order to
+give all due weight to the sole substantial
+suggestion offered on behalf of
+the prisoner&mdash;<i>i. e.</i>, that his object had
+been the liberation of Vincent&mdash;the
+Lord Chief-Justice read to the jury
+the following important passage from
+that great authority, Sir Matthew
+Hale&mdash;"If men levy war to break
+prisons, to deliver <i>one or more particular
+persons</i> out of prison, this was
+ruled, on advice of the judges, to be
+not high treason, but only a great
+riot; but if it was to break prisons,
+or deliver <i>persons generally</i> out of
+prison, this is treason."<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> Having
+taken at once a minute and comprehensive
+view of the evidence, he left
+the following as the exact question
+for their determination,&mdash;"Whether
+it was Frost's object, by the terror
+which bodies of armed men would
+inspire, to seize and keep possession
+of the town of Newport, making this
+a beginning of an extensive rebellion,
+<i>which would be high treason</i>; or
+whether he had no more in view than
+to effect, by the display of physical
+force, the amelioration of the condition
+of Vincent and his companions in
+Monmouth jail, if not their liberation,
+<i>which would be a dangerous misdemeanour
+only</i>; and the jury were to look
+at the evidence with all possible candour
+and fairness, and see if the Crown
+had conclusively disproved this limited
+object and design."<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> We conceive
+that neither Frost nor any one of his
+ten thousand dupes, on that "day of
+dupes" which led to this inquiry,
+could have taken objection to this
+mode of submitting the all-critical
+question to his jury&mdash;a jury of his
+peers, with the selection of whom he
+himself had had as much concern as
+the Crown.</p>
+
+<p>That jury retired from court for
+half-an-hour, and then returned,
+amidst the solemn excited silence of
+the court&mdash;crowded to suffocation&mdash;with
+the fatal verdict, "Guilty;"
+adding, "My lords, we wish to recommend
+the prisoner to the merciful
+consideration of the court." Sentence
+was not immediately passed
+upon him. He was removed from
+court; and on its re-assembling on
+the ensuing morning, Zephaniah
+Williams was placed at the bar, tried,
+and in due course found guilty; on
+which William Jones was in like
+manner arraigned, tried, and found
+guilty; each being recommended by
+the jury to mercy. Scared by this
+result, five of the ringleaders resolved
+to throw themselves on the mercy of
+the Crown, withdrawing their pleas
+of not guilty, and pleading guilty&mdash;it
+having been intimated that the sentence
+of death should be commuted into
+transportation for life. The Attorney-General
+thought it expedient, in the
+case of the remaining four prisoners,
+who were less deeply implicated, to
+allow a verdict of not guilty to be recorded.</p>
+
+<p>On the 16th January, Frost, Williams,
+and Jones were brought up to
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">[Pg 391]</a></span>the bar to receive sentence of death,
+which the Lord Chief-Justice prefaced
+by a very solemn address, listened to
+in breathless silence. An imposing
+scene of judicial solemnity and terror,
+indeed, the court at that agitating
+moment exhibited. Without were
+strong detachments of soldiery, foot
+and horse, guarding the public peace:
+within were an anxious auditory,
+commanded to keep silence under pain
+of fine and imprisonment, while sentence
+of death was being passed upon
+the prisoners. There were, in the
+midst of the throng, two groups awfully
+contrasted in character and position&mdash;the
+three prisoners, standing
+pale and subdued; and, sitting opposite,
+the three judges, each wearing
+his black cap; while the following
+heart-sickening words fell from the lips
+of the Lord Chief-Justice:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>"And now nothing more remains than
+the duty imposed upon the court&mdash;to all
+of us a most painful duty&mdash;to declare the
+last <span class="smcap">SENTENCE OF THE LAW</span>; which is that
+you, John Frost, and you, Zephaniah
+Williams, and you, William Jones, be
+taken hence to the place whence you
+came, and be thence drawn on a hurdle
+to the place of execution, and that each
+of you be there hanged by the neck until
+you be dead; <i>and that afterwards the
+head of each of you shall be severed from
+his body, and the body of each, divided into
+four quarters, shall be disposed of, as her
+majesty shall think fit. And may Almighty
+God have mercy on your souls!</i>"</p></div>
+
+<p>Whether the words placed in italics
+should ever again be pronounced on
+such an occasion, barbarously prescribing
+a revolting outrage on the
+dead, which it is known, at the time,
+cannot be perpetrated in these days of
+enlightened humanity, is a point which
+cannot admit of debate. The practice
+ought forthwith to be abolished, and
+by statute, if such be necessary.</p>
+
+<p>Under the mortal pressure of this
+capital sentence remained these three
+unhappy and misguided men, from the
+16th till the 28th of January. On the
+25th, an elaborate argument was had
+at Westminster before the fifteen
+judges, which lasted till the 28th, on
+a case framed by Lord Chief-Justice
+Tindal for their opinion, on the point
+which had been raised at the trial by
+Sir Frederick Pollock. The Chief-Justice
+submitted these two questions
+for consideration,&mdash;"<i>First</i>, whether
+the service of the list of witnesses was
+a good service, under the statute
+7 Anne, c. 21, &sect; 11; <i>secondly</i>, whether,
+at all events, the objection was
+taken in due time." There was a
+great array of counsel on both sides;
+but the argument was conducted by
+the Attorney-General alone, on behalf
+of the Crown; and by Sir Frederick
+Pollock, Sir William Follett, and Mr
+Kelly on behalf of the prisoners. The
+utmost possible ingenuity was displayed
+on both sides; and with such
+effect, that at the close of the argument
+the Lord Chief-Justice of the
+Common Pleas wrote a letter to the
+Secretary of State for the Home Department,
+(the Marquis of Normanby,)
+announcing the following somewhat
+perplexing result,&mdash;that, "first, a
+majority of the Judges, in the proportion
+Of <span class="smcap">NINE</span> to <span class="smcap">SIX</span>, were of opinion
+that the delivery of the list of witnesses
+was <span class="smcap">NOT</span> a good delivery in
+point of law:</p>
+
+<p>"But, secondly, a majority of the
+Judges, in the proportion of nine to
+six, are of opinion that the <span class="smcap">OBJECTION</span>
+to the delivery of the list of witnesses
+was <i>not taken in due time</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"All the Judges agreed, that if the
+objection had been made in time, the
+effect of it would have been a postponement
+of the trial, in order to give
+time for a proper delivery of the
+list."</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>The <span class="smcap">Ayes</span> on this occasion were&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><i>Justices</i> Littledale, Patteson, Williams,
+Coleridge, Colins, Erskine;
+Barons Parke, Alderson, Rolfe.</p>
+
+<p>The <span class="smcap">Noes</span>&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Lord Chief-Justice Denman, Lord
+Chief-Justice Tindal, Lord Chief-Baron
+Abinger; <i>Justices</i> Bosanquet
+and Maule, and Baron
+Gurney.</p>
+
+<p>Those last (the <span class="smcap">Noes</span>) decided also
+that the objection had not been
+taken in time; and three of the
+former class, (the <span class="smcap">Ayes</span>,) viz.
+Baron Alderson, Baron Rolfe, and
+Justice Coleridge, concurred in
+that decision.<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a></p></div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">[Pg 392]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Here was a question for the Executive
+to decide! A capital conviction
+for high treason, with a decision of
+the majority of the Judges of the land,
+that a statutory requisition as to the
+period for delivery of a list of the witnesses
+had not been exactly complied
+with, but that the prisoner did not
+make the objection till the time had
+gone by for making it; and that, had
+he made it in time, the utmost effect
+would have been to cause a postponement
+of the trial for a few days. The
+prisoner's objection was avowedly <i>strictissimi
+juris</i>; and he did not affect to
+show that he had suffered the slightest
+detriment from the over-anxious kindness
+of the Crown solicitor. That, under
+these circumstances, the lives of the
+three traitors were absolutely at the
+mercy of the Ministry, is indisputable;
+and no one, we conceive, could have
+censured them, if they had allowed
+the capital sentence to be carried into
+effect. They inclined, however, to the
+merciful exercise of their anxious discretion;
+and the capital sentence was
+remitted, on the condition of the three
+prisoners being transported for the
+term of their natural lives. They have
+now been ten years at the Antipodes;
+and how many times, during that
+lengthened period of bitter, dishonoured
+existence, they have cursed
+their own folly and crime, who can
+tell?</p>
+
+<p>Have they ever appreciated the skill
+and vigilance with which they were
+defended? It is true that this one
+chance objection&mdash;which it is wonderful
+should have occurred to any one
+at all&mdash;was ultimately pronounced,
+but only by a majority of the Judges
+after lengthened debate, to have been
+taken too late; but if it had not
+occurred to the vigilant advocate when
+it did&mdash;if no one had taken it at any
+time&mdash;would not the three traitors
+have been executed? Unquestionably:
+public justice, the public safety
+required it. Whether Sir Frederick
+Pollock purposely delayed making the
+objection till the moment when he did,
+(and the Attorney-General insinuated,
+before the fifteen Judges, that such
+was the case,<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a>) thinking that course
+more advantageous to the prisoners,
+or whether the objection had not, in
+fact, occurred to him till it was too
+late, we cannot at present say. This
+much, however, we can say in conclusion,
+that we are very much indebted
+to the late Mr Townsend for
+having enabled us to present this
+entertainment&mdash;for such we hope it
+has proved&mdash;to our readers; who
+may hereafter look with great interest
+on a great trial, especially
+if they have the opportunity of
+witnessing it. They may then appreciate
+the exquisite anxieties and responsibilities
+imposed on those concerned
+in conducting it&mdash;the difficulties
+with which they have to
+contend on the spot, without time for
+consideration, though life itself be the
+stake played for. They will also, probably,
+be of the opinion, that in the
+great game at Monmouth all the
+players played their parts well&mdash;may
+we not say admirably?&mdash;that the
+uttermost justice was done on both
+sides. Two practical deductions from
+the whole may yet be made: first,
+have a look-out, gentlemen prosecutors,
+in taking every single step of
+your course, however apparently unimportant
+at the time it may seem to
+you; bearing in mind that, in proportion
+to the desperate exigencies of the
+defence, will be the piercing scrutiny
+to which every formality will be subjected;
+so that a blot may be hit
+which might easily have been avoided,
+but, when hit, is fatal. Secondly, in
+your turn, gentlemen counsel, be encouraged
+by the result of this interesting
+and instructive trial, to watch
+every single step of your opponents&mdash;even
+those in which error, omission,
+or miscarriage is least likely&mdash;with
+sleepless vigilance, and be prompt in
+action. Thus much for the trial of
+John Frost.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">[Pg 393]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<h2><a name="MY_NOVEL_OR_VARIETIES_IN_ENGLISH_LIFE" id="MY_NOVEL_OR_VARIETIES_IN_ENGLISH_LIFE">MY NOVEL; OR, VARIETIES IN ENGLISH LIFE.</a></h2>
+
+<p class="center">BY PISISTRATUS CAXTON.</p>
+
+
+<h3>CHAPTER X.</h3>
+
+<p>In my next chapter I shall present
+Squire Hazeldean in patriarchal state&mdash;not
+exactly under the fig-tree he
+has planted, but before the stocks he
+has reconstructed.&mdash;Squire Hazeldean
+and his family on the village green! The
+canvass is all ready for the colours.</p>
+
+<p>But in this chapter I must so far
+afford a glimpse into antecedents as
+to let the reader know that there is
+one member of the family whom he
+is not likely to meet at present, if ever,
+on the village green at Hazeldean.</p>
+
+<p>Our squire lost his father two years
+after his birth; his mother was very
+handsome&mdash;and so was her jointure;
+she married again at the expiration
+of her year of mourning&mdash;the object of
+her second choice was Colonel Egerton.</p>
+
+<p>In every generation of Englishmen
+(at least since the lively reign of
+Charles II.) there are a few whom
+some elegant Genius skims off from
+the milk of human nature, and reserves
+for the cream of society. Colonel
+Egerton was one of these <i>terque, quaterque
+beati</i>, and dwelt apart on a top
+shelf in that delicate porcelain dish&mdash;not
+bestowed upon vulgar buttermilk&mdash;which
+persons of fashion call The
+Great World. Mighty was the marvel
+of Pall Mall, and profound was the
+pity of Park Lane, when this supereminent
+personage condescended to
+lower himself into a husband. But
+Colonel Egerton was not a mere
+gaudy butterfly; he had the provident
+instincts ascribed to the bee.
+Youth had passed from him&mdash;and
+carried off much solid property in
+its flight; he saw that a time was fast
+coming when a home, with a partner
+who could help to maintain it, would
+be conducive to his comforts, and an
+occasional humdrum evening by the
+fireside beneficial to his health. In
+the midst of one season at Brighton,
+to which gay place he had accompanied
+the Prince of Wales, he saw a
+widow who, though in the weeds of
+mourning, did not appear inconsolable.
+Her person pleased his taste&mdash;the
+accounts of her jointure satisfied
+his understanding; he contrived an
+introduction, and brought a brief
+wooing to a happy close. The late
+Mr Hazeldean had so far anticipated
+the chance of the young widow's
+second espousals, that, in case of that
+event, he transferred, by his testamentary
+dispositions, the guardianship
+of his infant heir from the mother
+to two squires whom he had named
+his executors. This circumstance combined
+with her new ties somewhat to
+alienate Mrs Hazeldean from the
+pledge of her former loves; and when
+she had born a son to Colonel Egerton,
+it was upon that child that her
+maternal affections gradually concentrated.</p>
+
+<p>William Hazeldean was sent by
+his guardians to a large provincial
+academy, at which his forefathers
+had received their education time
+out of mind. At first he spent
+his holidays with Mrs Egerton; but
+as she now resided either in London,
+or followed her lord to Brighton to
+partake of the gaieties at the Pavilion&mdash;so,
+as he grew older, William, who
+had a hearty affection for country life,
+and of whose bluff manners and rural
+breeding Mrs Egerton (having grown
+exceedingly refined) was openly
+ashamed, asked and obtained permission
+to spend his vacations either
+with his guardians or at the old hall.
+He went late to a small college at
+Cambridge, endowed in the fifteenth
+century by some ancestral Hazeldean;
+and left it, on coming of age, without
+taking a degree. A few years afterwards
+he married a young lady,
+country born and bred like himself.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile his half-brother, Audley
+Egerton, may be said to have begun
+his initiation into the <i>beau monde</i>
+before he had well cast aside his coral
+and bells; he had been fondled in the
+lap of duchesses, and galloped across
+the room astride on the canes of ambassadors
+and princes. For Colonel
+Egerton was not only very highly
+connected&mdash;not only one of the <i>Dii
+majoris</i> of fashion&mdash;but he had the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394">[Pg 394]</a></span>
+still rarer good fortune to be an
+exceedingly popular man with all who
+knew him;&mdash;so popular, that even the
+fine ladies whom he had adored and
+abandoned forgave him for marrying
+out of "the set," and continued to be
+as friendly as if he had not married at
+all. People who were commonly
+called heartless, were never weary of
+doing kind things to the Egertons.&mdash;When
+the time came for Audley to
+leave the preparatory school, at which
+his infancy budded forth amongst the
+stateliest of the little lilies of the
+field, and go to Eton, half the fifth
+and sixth forms had been canvassed
+to be exceedingly civil to young
+Egerton. The boy soon showed that
+he inherited his father's talent for
+acquiring popularity, and that to this
+talent he added those which put popularity
+to use. Without achieving any
+scholastic distinction, he yet contrived
+to establish at Eton the most desirable
+reputation which a boy can obtain&mdash;namely,
+that among his own contemporaries&mdash;the
+reputation of a boy who
+was sure to do something when he
+grew to be a man. As a gentleman
+commoner at Christ Church, Oxford,
+he continued to sustain this high expectation,
+though he won no prizes
+and took but an ordinary degree; and
+at Oxford the future "something"
+became more defined&mdash;it was "something
+in public life" that this young
+man was to do.</p>
+
+<p>While he was yet at the university,
+both his parents died&mdash;within a few
+months of each other. And when
+Audley Egerton came of age, he succeeded
+to a paternal property which
+was supposed to be large, and indeed
+had once been so, but Colonel Egerton
+had been too lavish a man to
+enrich his heir, and about &pound;1500
+a-year was all that sales and mortgages
+left of an estate that had
+formerly approached a rental of ten
+thousand pounds.</p>
+
+<p>Still, Audley was considered to be
+opulent, and he did not dispel that
+favourable notion by any imprudent
+exhibition of parsimony. On entering
+the world of London, the Clubs flew
+open to receive him: and he woke one
+morning to find himself, not indeed
+famous&mdash;but the fashion. To this
+fashion he at once gave a certain
+gravity and value&mdash;he associated as
+much as possible with public men and
+political ladies&mdash;he succeeded in confirming
+the notion that he was 'born
+to ruin or to rule the State.'</p>
+
+<p>Now, his dearest and most intimate
+friend was Lord L'Estrange, from
+whom he had been inseparable at
+Eton; and who now, if Audley Egerton
+was the fashion, was absolutely
+the rage in London.</p>
+
+<p>Harley Lord L'Estrange was the
+only son of the Earl of Lansmere,
+a nobleman of considerable wealth,
+and allied by intermarriages to the
+loftiest and most powerful families
+in England. Lord Lansmere, nevertheless,
+was but little known in the
+circles of London. He lived chiefly
+on his estates, occupying himself with
+the various duties of a great proprietor,
+and rarely came to the metropolis;
+so that he could afford to give
+his son a very ample allowance, when
+Harley, at the age of sixteen, (having
+already attained to the sixth form at
+Eton,) left school for one of the regiments
+of the Guards.</p>
+
+<p>Few knew what to make of Harley
+L'Estrange&mdash;and that was, perhaps,
+the reason why he was so much
+thought of. He had been by far the
+most brilliant boy of his time at
+Eton&mdash;not only the boast of the
+cricket-ground, but the marvel of the
+school-room&mdash;yet so full of whims
+and oddities, and seeming to achieve
+his triumphs with so little aid from
+steadfast application, that he had not
+left behind him the same expectations
+of solid eminence which his friend and
+senior, Audley Egerton, had excited.
+His eccentricities&mdash;his quaint sayings
+and out-of-the-way actions, became
+as notable in the great world as they
+had been in the small one of a public
+school. That he was very clever there
+was no doubt, and that the cleverness
+was of a high order might be surmised
+not only from the originality but the
+independence of his character. He
+dazzled the world, without seeming to
+care for its praise or its censure&mdash;dazzled
+it, as it were, because he could
+not help shining. He had some
+strange notions, whether political or
+social, which rather frightened his
+father. According to Southey, "A man
+should be no more ashamed of having
+been a republican than of having been
+young." Youth and extravagant opi<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">[Pg 395]</a></span>nions
+naturally go together. I don't
+know whether Harley L'Estrange was
+a republican at the age of eighteen;
+but there was no young man in London
+who seemed to care less for being heir
+to an illustrious name and some forty
+or fifty thousand pounds a-year. It
+was a vulgar fashion in that day to
+play the exclusive, and cut persons
+who wore bad neckcloths and called
+themselves Smith or Johnson. Lord
+L'Estrange never cut any one, and it
+was quite enough to slight some
+worthy man because of his neckcloth
+or his birth, to ensure to the offender
+the pointed civilities of this eccentric
+successor to the Dorimonts and the
+Wildairs.</p>
+
+<p>It was the wish of his father that
+Harley, as soon as he came of age,
+should represent the borough of Lansmere,
+(which said borough was the
+single plague of the Earl's life.) But
+this wish was never realised. Suddenly,
+when the young idol of London
+still wanted some two or three years
+of his majority, a new whim appeared
+to seize him. He withdrew entirely
+from society&mdash;he left unanswered the
+most pressing three-cornered notes of
+inquiry and invitation that ever
+strewed the table of a young Guardsman;
+he was rarely seen anywhere in
+his former haunts&mdash;when seen, was
+either alone or with Egerton; and his
+gay spirits seemed wholly to have left
+him. A profound melancholy was
+written in his countenance, and
+breathed in the listless tones of his
+voice. At this time the Guards were
+achieving in the Peninsula their imperishable
+renown; but the battalion
+to which Harley belonged was detained
+at home; and whether chafed by inaction
+or emulous of glory, the young
+Lord suddenly exchanged into a
+cavalry regiment, from which a recent
+memorable conflict had swept one half
+the officers. Just before he joined,
+a vacancy happening to occur for the
+representation of Lansmere, he made
+it his special request to his father that
+the family interest might be given to
+his friend Egerton&mdash;went down to the
+Park, which adjoined the borough, to
+take leave of his parents&mdash;and Egerton
+followed, to be introduced to the
+electors. This visit made a notable
+epoch in the history of many personages
+who figure in my narrative; but
+at present I content myself with saying,
+that circumstances arose which,
+just as the canvass for the new election
+commenced, caused both L'Estrange
+and Audley to absent themselves from
+the scene of action, and that the last
+even wrote to Lord Lansmere expressing
+his intention of declining to contest
+the borough.</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately for the parliamentary
+career of Audley Egerton, the election
+had become to Lord Lansmere not
+only a matter of public importance,
+but of personal feeling. He resolved
+that the battle should be fought out,
+even in the absence of the candidate,
+and at his own expense. Hitherto
+the contest for this distinguished
+borough had been, to use the language
+of Lord Lansmere, "conducted
+in the spirit of gentlemen,"&mdash;that is
+to say, the only opponents to the
+Lansmere interest had been found in
+one or the other of two rival families in
+the same county; and as the Earl
+was a hospitable courteous man, much
+respected and liked by the neighbouring
+gentry, so the hostile candidate
+had always interlarded his speeches
+with profuse compliments to his
+Lordship's high character, and civil
+expressions as to his Lordship's candidate.
+But, thanks to successive
+elections, one of these two families
+had come to an end, and its actual
+representative was now residing within
+the Rules of the Bench; the head of
+the other family was the sitting
+member, and, by an amicable agreement
+with the Lansmere interest, he
+remained as neutral as it is in the
+power of any sitting member to be
+amidst the passions of an intractable
+committee. Accordingly, it had been
+hoped that Egerton would come in
+without opposition, when, the very
+day on which he had abruptly left the
+place, a handbill, signed "Haverill
+Dashmore, Captain R.N., Baker
+Street, Portman Square," announced,
+in very spirited language, the intention
+of that gentleman to emancipate
+the borough from the unconstitutional
+domination of an oligarchical
+faction, not with a view to his own
+political aggrandisement&mdash;indeed, at
+great personal inconvenience&mdash;but
+actuated solely by abhorrence to
+tyranny, and patriotic passion for the
+purity of election.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">[Pg 396]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>This announcement was followed,
+within two hours, by the arrival of
+Captain Dashmore himself, in a carriage-and-four
+covered with yellow
+favours, and filled, inside and out,
+with harum-scarum looking friends
+who had come down with him to aid
+the canvass and share the fun.</p>
+
+<p>Captain Dashmore was a thorough
+sailor, who had, however, taken a
+disgust to the profession from the date
+in which a Minister's nephew had
+been appointed to the command of a
+ship to which the Captain considered
+himself unquestionably entitled. It
+is just to the Minister to add, that
+Captain Dashmore had shown as
+little regard for orders from a distance,
+as had immortalized Nelson
+himself; but then the disobedience
+had not achieved the same redeeming
+success as that of Nelson, and Captain
+Dashmore ought to have thought
+himself fortunate in escaping a severer
+treatment than the loss of promotion.
+But no man knows when he is well
+off; and retiring on half-pay, just as
+he came into unexpected possession
+of some forty or fifty thousand
+pounds, bequeathed by a distant relation,
+Captain Dashmore was seized
+with a vindictive desire to enter parliament,
+and inflict oratorical chastisement
+on the Administration.</p>
+
+<p>A very few hours sufficed to show
+the sea-captain to be a most capital
+electioneerer for a small and not very
+enlightened borough. It is true that
+he talked the saddest nonsense ever
+heard from an open window; but
+then his jokes were so broad, his
+manner so hearty, his voice so big,
+that in those dark days, before the
+schoolmaster was abroad, he would
+have beaten your philosophical Radical
+and moralising Democrat hollow.
+Moreover he kissed all the women,
+old and young, with all the zest of a
+sailor who has known what it is to be
+three years at sea without sight of a
+beardless lip; he threw open all the
+public-houses, asked a numerous
+committee every day to dinner, and,
+chucking his purse up in the air, declared
+"he would stick to his guns
+while there was a shot in the locker."
+Till then, there had been but little
+political difference between the candidate
+supported by Lord Lansmere's
+interest and the opposing parties&mdash;for
+country gentlemen, in those days,
+were pretty much of the same way of
+thinking, and the question had been
+really local&mdash;viz., whether the Lansmere
+interest should or should not
+prevail over that of the two squirearchical
+families who had alone,
+hitherto, ventured to oppose it. But
+though Captain Dashmore was really
+a very loyal man, and much too old a
+sailor to think that the State (which,
+according to established metaphor, is
+a vessel, <i>par excellence</i>,) should admit
+Jack upon quarterdeck, yet,
+what with talking against lords and
+aristocracy, jobs and abuses, and
+searching through no very refined
+vocabulary for the strongest epithets
+to apply to those irritating nouns-substantive,
+his bile had got the
+better of his understanding, and he
+became fuddled, as it were, by his
+own eloquence. Thus, though as
+innocent of Jacobinical designs as he
+was incapable of setting the Thames
+on fire, you would have guessed him,
+by his speeches, to be one of the most
+determined incendiaries that ever applied
+a match to the combustible materials
+of a contested election; while,
+being by no means accustomed to respect
+his adversaries, he could not
+have treated the Earl of Lansmere
+with less ceremony if his Lordship
+had been a Frenchman. He usually
+designated that respectable nobleman
+by the title of "Old Pompous;" and
+the Mayor, who was never seen abroad
+but in top-boots, and the Solicitor,
+who was of a large build, received
+from his irreverent wit the joint
+soubriquet of "Tops and Bottoms!"
+Hence the election had now become,
+as I said before, a personal matter
+with my Lord, and, indeed, with
+the great heads of the Lansmere
+interest. The Earl seemed to consider
+his very coronet at stake in
+the question. "The man from
+Baker Street," with his preternatural
+audacity, appeared to him a being
+ominous and awful&mdash;not so much to
+be regarded with resentment, as with
+superstitious terror: he felt as felt
+the dignified Montezuma, when that
+ruffianly Cortez, with his handful of
+Spanish rapscallions, bearded him in
+his own capital, and in the midst of
+his Mexican splendour.&mdash;"The gods
+were menaced if man could be so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397">[Pg 397]</a></span>
+insolent!" wherefore said my Lord,
+tremulously,&mdash;"The Constitution is
+gone if the Man from Baker Street
+comes in for Lansmere!"</p>
+
+<p>But, in the absence of Audley
+Egerton, the election looked extremely
+ugly, and Captain Dashmore
+gained ground hourly, when the Lansmere
+Solicitor happily bethought him
+of a notable proxy for the missing
+candidate. The Squire of Hazeldean,
+with his young wife, had been invited
+by the Earl in honour of Audley; and
+in the Squire the Solicitor beheld the
+only mortal who could cope with the
+sea-captain,&mdash;a man with a voice as
+burly, and a face as bold&mdash;a man
+who, if permitted for the nonce by
+Mrs Hazeldean, would kiss all the
+women no less heartily than the Captain
+kissed them; and who was,
+moreover, a taller, and a handsomer,
+and a younger man&mdash;all three, great
+recommendations in the kissing department
+of a contested election.
+Yes, to canvass the borough, and to
+speak from the window, Squire Hazeldean
+would be even more popularly
+presentable than the London-bred
+and accomplished Audley Egerton
+himself.</p>
+
+<p>The Squire, applied to and urged on
+all sides, at first said bluntly, "that
+he would do anything in reason to
+serve his brother, but that he did not
+like, for his own part, appearing, even
+in proxy, as a Lord's nominee; and
+moreover, if he was to be sponsor for
+his brother, why, he must promise
+and vow, in his name, to be staunch
+and true to the land they lived by;
+and how could he tell that Audley,
+when once he got into the House,
+would not forget the land, and then
+he, William Hazeldean, would be
+made a liar, and look like a turncoat!"</p>
+
+<p>But these scruples being overruled
+by the arguments of the gentlemen
+and the entreaties of the ladies, who
+took in the election that intense interest
+which those gentle creatures
+usually do take in all matters of strife
+and contest, the Squire at length consented
+to confront the Man from Baker
+Street, and went accordingly into the
+thing with that good heart and old
+English spirit with which he went into
+everything whereon he had once made
+up his mind.</p>
+
+<p>The expectations formed of the
+Squire's capacities for popular electioneering
+were fully realised. He
+talked quite as much nonsense as
+Captain Dashmore on every subject
+except the landed interest;&mdash;there he
+was great, for he knew the subject
+well&mdash;knew it by the instinct that
+comes with practice, and compared
+to which all your showy theories are
+mere cobwebs and moonshine.</p>
+
+<p>The agricultural outvoters&mdash;many
+of whom, not living under Lord
+Lansmere, but being small yeomen,
+had hitherto prided themselves on
+their independence, and gone against
+my Lord&mdash;could not in their hearts
+go against one who was every inch
+the farmer's friend. They began to
+share in the Earl's personal interest
+against the Man from Baker Street;
+and big fellows, with legs bigger
+round than Captain Dashmore's tight
+little body, and huge whips in their
+hands, were soon seen entering the
+shops, "intimidating the electors,"
+as Captain Dashmore indignantly
+declared.</p>
+
+<p>These new recruits made a great
+difference in the muster-roll of the
+Lansmere books; and when the day
+for polling arrived, the result was a
+fair question for even betting. At
+the last hour, after a neck-and-neck
+contest, Mr Audley Egerton beat the
+Captain by two votes. And the
+names of these voters were John
+Avenel, resident freeman, and his
+son-in-law, Mark Fairfield, an outvoter,
+who, though a Lansmere freeman,
+had settled in Hazeldean, where
+he had obtained the situation of head
+carpenter on the Squire's estate.</p>
+
+<p>These votes were unexpected; for,
+though Mark Fairfield had come to
+Lansmere on purpose to support the
+Squire's brother, and though the
+Avenels had been always staunch
+supporters of the Lansmere Blue
+interest, yet a severe affliction (as to
+the nature of which, not desiring to
+sadden the opening of my story, I am
+considerately silent) had befallen both
+these persons, and they had left the
+town on the very day after Lord
+L'Estrange and Mr Egerton had quitted
+Lansmere Park.</p>
+
+<p>Whatever might have been the
+gratification of the Squire, as a canvasser
+and a brother, at Mr Egerton's
+triumph, it was much damped when,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_398" id="Page_398">[Pg 398]</a></span>
+on leaving the dinner given in honour
+of the victory at the Lansmere Arms,
+and about, with no steady step, to
+enter the carriage which was to convey
+him to his Lordship's house, a
+letter was put into his hands by one
+of the gentlemen who had accompanied
+the Captain to the scene of
+action; and the perusal of that letter,
+and a few whispered words from the
+bearer thereof, sent the Squire back
+to Mrs Hazeldean a much soberer
+man than she had ventured to hope
+for. The fact was, that on the day
+of nomination, the Captain having
+honoured Mr Hazeldean with many
+poetical and figurative appellations&mdash;such
+as "Prize Ox," "Tony Lumpkin,"
+"Blood-sucking Vampire," and
+"Brotherly Warming-Pan," the
+Squire had retorted by a joke about
+"Salt Water Jack;" and the Captain,
+who, like all satirists, was extremely
+susceptible and thin-skinned,
+could not consent to be called "Salt
+Water Jack" by a "Prize Ox" and
+a "Blood-sucking Vampire." The
+letter, therefore, now conveyed to
+Mr Hazeldean by a gentleman, who,
+being from the Sister Country, was
+deemed the most fitting accomplice
+in the honourable destruction of a
+brother mortal, contained nothing
+more nor less than an invitation to
+single combat; and the bearer thereof,
+with the suave politeness enjoined
+by etiquette on such well-bred homicidal
+occasions, suggested the expediency
+of appointing the place of
+meeting in the neighbourhood of
+London, in order to prevent interference
+from the suspicious authorities
+of Lansmere.</p>
+
+<p>The natives of some countries&mdash;the
+French in particular&mdash;think
+little of that formal operation which
+goes by the name of <span class="smcap">Duelling</span>. Indeed,
+they seem rather to like it than
+otherwise. But there is nothing
+your thorough-paced Englishman&mdash;a
+Hazeldean of Hazeldean&mdash;considers
+with more repugnance and aversion,
+than that same cold-blooded ceremonial.
+It is not within the range of
+an Englishman's ordinary habits of
+thinking. He prefers going to law&mdash;a
+much more destructive proceeding
+of the two. Nevertheless, if an
+Englishman must fight, why, he will
+fight. He says "it is very foolish;"
+he is sure "it is most unchristianlike;"
+he agrees with all that
+Philosopher, Preacher, and Press have
+laid down on the subject; but he
+makes his will, says his prayers, and
+goes out, like a heathen!</p>
+
+<p>It never, therefore, occurred to the
+Squire to show the white feather
+upon this unpleasant occasion. The
+next day, feigning excuse to attend
+the sale of a hunting stud at Tattersall's,
+he ruefully went up to London,
+after taking a peculiarly affectionate
+leave of his wife. Indeed, the Squire
+felt convinced that he should never
+return home except in a coffin. "It
+stands to reason," said he to himself,
+"that a man who has been actually
+paid by the King's Government for
+shooting people ever since he was a
+little boy in a midshipman's jacket,
+must be a dead hand at the job. I
+should not mind if it was with double-barrelled
+Mantons and small shot;
+but, ball and pistol! they arn't human
+nor sportsmanlike!" However, the
+Squire, after settling his worldly
+affairs, and hunting up an old College
+friend who undertook to be his
+second, proceeded to a sequestered
+corner of Wimbledon Common, and
+planted himself, not sideways, as one
+ought to do in such encounters, (the
+which posture the Squire swore was
+an unmanly way of shirking,) but
+full front to the mouth of his adversary's
+pistol, with such sturdy composure,
+that Captain Dashmore, who,
+though an excellent shot, was at
+bottom as good-natured a fellow as
+ever lived, testified his admiration by
+letting off his gallant opponent with
+ball in the fleshy part of the shoulder;
+after which he declared himself perfectly
+satisfied. The parties then
+shook hands, mutual apologies were
+exchanged, and the Squire, much to
+his astonishment to find himself still
+alive, was conveyed to Limmer's
+Hotel, where, after a considerable
+amount of anguish, the ball was
+extracted, and the wound healed.
+Now it was all over, the Squire felt
+very much raised in his own conceit;
+and, when he was in a humour more
+than ordinarily fierce, that perilous
+event became a favourite allusion with
+him.</p>
+
+<p>He considered, moreover, that his
+brother had incurred at his hand the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_399" id="Page_399">[Pg 399]</a></span>
+most lasting obligations; and that,
+having procured Audley's return to
+Parliament, and defended his interests
+at the risk of his own life, he had an
+absolute right to dictate to that
+gentleman how to vote&mdash;upon all
+matters at least connected with the
+landed interest. And when, not very
+long after Audley took his seat in
+Parliament, (which he did not do for
+some months,) he thought proper both
+to vote and to speak in a manner wholly
+belying the promises the Squire had
+made on his behalf, Mr Hazeldean
+wrote him such a trimmer, that it
+could not but produce an unconciliatory
+reply. Shortly afterwards, the
+Squire's exasperation reached the
+culminating point; for, having to
+pass through Lansmere on a market
+day, he was hooted by the very
+farmers whom he had induced to
+vote for his brother; and, justly imputing
+the disgrace to Audley, he
+never heard the name of that traitor
+to the land mentioned without a
+heightened colour and an indignant
+expletive. Monsieur de Roqueville&mdash;who
+was the greatest wit of his day&mdash;had,
+like the Squire, a half-brother,
+with whom he was not on the best of
+terms, and of whom he always spoke
+as his "<i>fr&egrave;re de loin</i>." Audley
+Egerton was thus Squire Hazeldean's
+"<i>distant-brother</i>!"&mdash;Enough of these
+explanatory antecedents,&mdash;let us return
+to the Stocks.</p>
+
+
+<h3>CHAPTER XI.</h3>
+
+<p>The Squire's carpenters were taken
+from the park pales, and set to work
+at the parish stocks. Then came the
+painter and coloured them a beautiful
+dark blue, with a white border&mdash;and
+a white rim round the holes&mdash;with an
+ornamental flourish in the middle.
+It was the gayest public edifice in the
+whole village&mdash;though the village
+possessed no less than three other
+monuments of the Vitruvian genius
+of the Hazeldeans:&mdash;to wit, the alms-house,
+the school, and the parish
+pump.</p>
+
+<p>A more elegant, enticing, coquettish
+pair of stocks never gladdened
+the eye of a justice of the peace.</p>
+
+<p>And Squire Hazeldean's eye was
+gladdened. In the pride of his heart
+he brought all the family down to
+look at the stocks. The Squire's
+family (omitting the <i>fr&egrave;re de loin</i>)
+consisted of Mrs Hazeldean, his wife;
+next, of Miss Jemima Hazeldean, his
+first cousin; thirdly, of Master Francis
+Hazeldean, his only son; and fourthly,
+of Captain Barnabas Higginbotham,
+a distant relation&mdash;who, indeed,
+strictly speaking, was not of the
+family, but only a visitor ten months
+in the year. Mrs Hazeldean was
+every inch the lady,&mdash;the lady of the
+parish. In her comely, florid, and
+somewhat sunburnt countenance,
+there was an equal expression of majesty
+and benevolence; she had a blue
+eye that invited liking, and an aquiline
+nose that commanded respect. Mrs
+Hazeldean had no affectation of fine
+airs&mdash;no wish to be greater and handsomer
+and cleverer than she was. She
+knew herself, and her station, and
+thanked heaven for it. There was
+about her speech and manner something
+of that shortness and bluntness
+which often characterises royalty;
+and if the lady of a parish is not a
+queen in her own circle, it is never
+the fault of the parish. Mrs Hazeldean
+dressed her part to perfection.
+She wore silks that seemed heirlooms&mdash;so
+thick were they, so substantial
+and imposing. And over these, when
+she was in her own domain, the
+whitest of aprons; while at her waist
+was seen no fiddle-faddle <i>chatelaine</i>,
+with <i>breloques</i> and trumpery, but a
+good honest gold watch to mark the
+time, and a long pair of scissors to
+cut off the dead leaves from her
+flowers, for she was a great horticulturist.
+When occasion needed, Mrs
+Hazeldean could, however, lay by
+her more sumptuous and imperial
+raiment for a stout riding-habit of
+blue Saxony, and canter by her husband's
+side to see the hounds throw
+off. Nay, on the days on which Mr
+Hazeldean drove his famous fast-trotting
+cob to the market town, it
+was rarely that you did not see his
+wife on the left side of the gig. She
+cared as little as her lord did for wind
+and weather, and, in the midst of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_400" id="Page_400">[Pg 400]</a></span>
+some pelting shower, her pleasant
+face peeped over the collar and capes
+of a stout dreadnought, expanding
+into smiles and bloom as some frank
+rose, that opens from its petals, and
+rejoices in the dews. It was easy
+to see that the worthy couple had
+married for love; they were as
+little apart as they could help it.
+And still, on the First of September,
+if the house was not full of
+company which demanded her cares,
+Mrs Hazeldean "stepped out" over
+the stubbles by her husband's side,
+with as light a tread and as blithe an
+eye as when in the first bridal year
+she had enchanted the Squire by her
+genial sympathy with his sports.</p>
+
+<p>So there now stands Harriet Hazeldean,
+one hand leaning on the Squire's
+broad shoulder, the other thrust into
+her apron, and trying her best to
+share her husband's enthusiasm for
+his own public-spirited patriotism, in
+the renovation of the parish stocks.
+A little behind, with two fingers
+leaning on the thin arm of Captain
+Barnabas, stood Miss Jemima, the
+orphan daughter of the Squire's
+uncle, by a runaway imprudent marriage
+with a young lady who belonged
+to a family which had been at war
+with the Hazeldeans since the reign
+of Charles I., respecting a right of
+way to a small wood (or rather spring)
+of about an acre, through a piece of
+furze land, which was let to a brickmaker
+at twelve shillings a-year. The
+wood belonged to the Hazeldeans, the
+furze land to the Sticktorights, (an
+old Saxon family if ever there was
+one.) Every twelfth year, when the
+faggots and timber were felled, this
+feud broke out afresh; for the Sticktorights
+refused to the Hazeldeans the
+right to cart off the said faggots and
+timber, through the only way by
+which a cart could possibly pass. It
+is just to the Hazeldeans to say that
+they had offered to buy the land at
+ten times its value. But the Sticktorights,
+with equal magnanimity, had
+declared that they would not "alienate
+the family property for the convenience
+of the best squire that ever stood
+upon shoe leather." Therefore, every
+twelfth year, there was always a great
+breach of the peace on the part of
+both Hazeldeans and Sticktorights,
+magistrates and deputy-lieutenants
+though they were. The question was
+fairly fought out by their respective
+dependants, and followed by various
+actions for assault and trespass. As
+the legal question of right was extremely
+obscure, it never had been
+properly decided; and, indeed, neither
+party wished it to be decided, each at
+heart having some doubt of the propriety
+of its own claim. A marriage
+between a younger son of the Hazeldeans,
+and a younger daughter of the
+Sticktorights, was viewed with equal
+indignation by both families; and the
+consequence had been that the runaway
+couple, unblessed and unforgiven,
+had scrambled through life as
+they could, upon the scanty pay of
+the husband, who was in a marching
+regiment, and the interest of &pound;1000,
+which was the wife's fortune independent
+of her parents. They died and
+left an only daughter, upon whom
+the maternal &pound;1000 had been settled,
+about the time that the Squire came
+of age and into possession of his
+estates. And though he inherited all
+the ancestral hostility towards the
+Sticktorights, it was not in his nature
+to be unkind to a poor orphan, who
+was, after all, the child of a Hazeldean.
+Therefore, he had educated
+and fostered Jemima with as much
+tenderness as if she had been his
+sister; put out her &pound;1000 at nurse,
+and devoted, from the ready money
+which had accrued from the rents
+during his minority, as much as made
+her fortune (with her own accumulated
+at compound interest) no less
+than &pound;4000, the ordinary marriage
+portion of the daughters of Hazeldean.
+On her coming of age, he transferred
+this sum to her absolute disposal, in
+order that she might feel herself independent,
+see a little more of the
+world than she could at Hazeldean,
+have candidates to choose from if she
+deigned to marry; or enough to live
+upon if she chose to remain single.
+Miss Jemima had somewhat availed
+herself of this liberty, by occasional
+visits to Cheltenham and other watering
+places. But her grateful affection
+to the Squire was such, that she could
+never bear to be long away from the
+Hall. And this was the more praise
+to her heart, inasmuch as she was
+far from taking kindly to the prospect
+of being an old maid. And<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_401" id="Page_401">[Pg 401]</a></span>
+there were so few bachelors in the
+neighbourhood of Hazeldean, that
+she could not but have that prospect
+before her eyes whenever she looked
+out of the Hall windows. Miss
+Jemima was indeed one of the most
+kindly and affectionate of beings
+feminine&mdash;and if she disliked the
+thought of single blessedness, it really
+was from those innocent and womanly
+instincts towards the tender charities
+of hearth and home, without which a
+lady, however otherwise estimable, is
+little better than a Minerva in bronze.
+But whether or not, despite her fortune
+and her face, which last, though
+not strictly handsome, was pleasing&mdash;and
+would have been positively pretty
+if she had laughed more often, (for
+when she laughed, there appeared
+three charming dimples, invisible
+when she was grave)&mdash;whether or not,
+I say, it was the fault of our insensibility
+or her own fastidiousness, Miss
+Jemima approached her thirtieth
+year, and was still Miss Jemima.
+Now, therefore, that beautifying laugh
+of hers was very rarely heard, and
+she had of late become confirmed in
+two opinions, not at all conducive to
+laughter. One was a conviction of
+the general and progressive wickedness
+of the male sex, and the other
+was a decided and lugubrious belief
+that the world was coming to an end.
+Miss Jemima was now accompanied
+by a small canine favourite, true
+Blenheim, with a snub nose. It
+was advanced in life and somewhat
+obese. It sate on its haunches,
+with its tongue out of its month,
+except when it snapped at the flies.
+There was a strong Platonic friendship
+between Miss Jemima and Captain
+Barnabas Higginbotham; for he
+too was unmarried, and he had the
+same ill opinion of your sex, my dear
+madam, that Miss Jemima had of
+ours. The Captain was a man of a
+slim and elegant figure;&mdash;the less said
+about the face the better, a truth of
+which the Captain himself was sensible,
+for it was a favourite maxim of
+his&mdash;"that in a man, everything is
+a slight, gentlemanlike figure." Captain
+Barnabas did not absolutely
+deny that the world was coming to an
+end, only he thought it would last his
+time.</p>
+
+<p>Quite apart from all the rest, with
+the nonchalant survey of virgin dandyism,
+Francis Hazeldean looked
+over one of the high starched neckcloths
+which were then the fashion&mdash;a
+handsome lad, fresh from Eton for
+the summer holidays, but at that ambiguous
+age, when one disdains the
+sports of the boy, and has not yet
+arrived at the resources of the man.</p>
+
+<p>"I should be glad, Frank," said
+the Squire, suddenly turning round
+to his son; "to see you take a little
+more interest in duties which, one
+day or other, you may be called upon
+to discharge. I can't bear to think
+that the property should fall into the
+hands of a fine gentleman, who will
+let things go to rack and ruin, instead
+of keeping them up as I do."</p>
+
+<p>And the Squire pointed to the
+stocks.</p>
+
+<p>Master Frank's eye followed the
+direction of the cane, as well as his
+cravat would permit; and he said,
+drily&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir; but how came the
+stocks to be so long out of repair?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because one can't see to everything
+at once," retorted the Squire,
+tartly. "When a man has got
+eight thousand acres to look after, he
+must do a bit at a time."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Captain Barnabas.
+"I know that by experience."</p>
+
+<p>"The deuce you do!" cried the
+Squire, bluntly. "Experience in
+eight thousand acres!"</p>
+
+<p>"No&mdash;in my apartments in the
+Albany. No. 3 A. I have had them
+ten years, and it was only last Christmas
+that I bought my Japan cat."</p>
+
+<p>"Dear me," said Miss Jemima;
+"a Japan cat! that must be very
+curious! What sort of a creature is
+it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you know? Bless me, a
+thing with three legs, and holds
+toast! I never thought of it, I assure
+you, till my friend Cosey said to me,
+one morning when he was breakfasting
+at my rooms&mdash;'Higginbotham,
+how is it that you, who like to
+have things comfortable about you,
+don't have a cat?' 'Upon my life,'
+said I, 'one can't think of everything
+at a time;' just like you, Squire."</p>
+
+<p>"Pshaw," said Mr Hazeldean,
+gruffly&mdash;"not at all like me. And
+I'll thank you another time, Cousin
+Higginbotham, not to put me out,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_402" id="Page_402">[Pg 402]</a></span>
+when I'm speaking on matters of
+importance; poking your cat into my
+stocks! They look something like
+now&mdash;don't they, Harry? I declare
+that the whole village seems more
+respectable. It is astonishing how
+much a little improvement adds to
+the&mdash;to the&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Charm of a landscape;" put in
+Miss Jemima sentimentally.</p>
+
+<p>The Squire neither accepted nor
+rejected the suggested termination;
+but leaving his sentence uncompleted,
+broke suddenly off with</p>
+
+<p>"And if I had listened to Parson
+Dale&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You would have done a very
+wise thing;" said a voice behind, as
+the Parson presented himself in the
+rear.</p>
+
+<p>"Wise thing! Why surely, Mr
+Dale," said Mrs Hazeldean with
+spirit, for she always resented the
+least contradiction to her lord and
+master; perhaps as an interference
+with her own special right and prerogative!
+"why, surely if it is necessary
+to have stocks, it is necessary to
+repair them."</p>
+
+<p>"That's right, go it, Harry!" cried
+the Squire, chuckling, and rubbing
+his hands as if he had been setting
+his terrier at the Parson: "St&mdash;St&mdash;at
+him! Well, Master Dale, what
+do you say to that?"</p>
+
+<p>"My dear ma'am," said the Parson,
+replying in preference to the
+lady, "there are many institutions
+in the country which are very old,
+look very decayed, and don't seem of
+much use; but I would not pull them
+down for all that."</p>
+
+<p>"You would reform them, then;"
+said Mrs Hazeldean, doubtfully, and
+with a look at her husband, as much
+as to say, "He is on politics now&mdash;that's
+your business."</p>
+
+<p>"No, I would not, ma'am;" said
+the Parson stoutly.</p>
+
+<p>"What on earth would you do,
+then?" quoth the Squire.</p>
+
+<p>"Just let 'em alone," said the
+Parson. "Master Frank, there's a
+Latin maxim which was often in the
+mouth of Sir Robert Walpole, and
+which they ought to put into the Eton
+grammar&mdash;'<i>Quieta non movere</i>.' If
+things are quiet, let them be quiet! I
+would not destroy the stocks, because
+that might seem to the ill-disposed
+like a license to offend, and
+I would not repair the stocks, because
+that puts it into people's heads to
+get into them."</p>
+
+<p>The Squire was a staunch politician
+of the old school, and he did not like
+to think that in repairing the stocks
+he had perhaps been conniving at
+revolutionary principles.</p>
+
+<p>"This constant desire of innovation,"
+said Miss Jemima, suddenly
+mounting the more funereal of her
+two favourite hobbies, "is one of the
+great symptoms of the approaching
+crash. We are altering, and mending,
+and reforming, when in twenty
+years at the utmost the world itself
+may be destroyed!" The fair
+speaker paused, and&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Captain Barnabas said, thoughtfully&mdash;"Twenty
+years!&mdash;the insurance
+offices rarely compute the best life at
+more than fourteen." He struck his
+hand on the stocks as he spoke, and
+added with his usual consolatory
+conclusion:&mdash;"The odds are, that it
+will last our time, Squire."</p>
+
+<p>But whether Captain Barnabas
+meant the stocks or the world, he
+did not clearly explain, and no one
+took the trouble to inquire.</p>
+
+<p>"Sir," said Master Frank, to his
+father, with that furtive spirit of
+quizzing, which he had acquired
+amongst other polite accomplishments
+at Eton.&mdash;"Sir, it is no use now
+considering whether the stocks
+should or should not have been repaired.
+The only question is, whom
+you will get to put into them."</p>
+
+<p>"True," said the Squire, with much
+gravity.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, there it is!" said the Parson,
+mournfully. "If you would but
+learn '<i>non quieta movere</i>!'"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't spout your Latin at me,
+Parson!" cried the Squire, angrily;
+"I can give you as good as you
+bring any day.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"'Propria qu&aelig; maribus tri buuntur mascula dicas.&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">As in pr&aelig;senti, perfectum format in avi.'"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>"There," added the Squire, turning
+triumphantly towards his Harry,
+who looked with great admiration at
+this unprecedented burst of learning
+on the part of Mr Hazeldean&mdash;"There,
+two can play at that game!
+And now that we have all seen the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_403" id="Page_403">[Pg 403]</a></span>
+stocks, we may as well go home, and
+drink tea. Will you come up and play
+a rubber, Dale? No!&mdash;hang it, man,
+I've not offended you&mdash;you know my
+ways."</p>
+
+<p>"That I do, and they are among
+the things I would not have altered,"
+cried the Parson&mdash;holding out his
+hand cheerfully. The Squire gave it a
+hearty shake, and Mrs Hazeldean
+hastened to do the same. "Do come;
+I am afraid we've been very rude; we
+are sad blunt folks. Do come; that's
+a dear good man; and of course poor
+Mrs Dale too." Mrs Hazeldean's
+favourite epithet for Mrs Dale was
+<i>poor</i>, and that for reasons to be explained
+hereafter.</p>
+
+<p>"I fear my wife has got one of her
+bad headaches, but I will give her
+your kind message, and at all events
+you may depend upon me."</p>
+
+<p>"That's right," cried the Squire,
+"in half-an-hour, eh?&mdash;How d'ye do,
+my little man?" as Lenny Fairfield, on
+his way home from some errand in
+the village, drew aside and pulled off
+his hat with both hands. "Stop&mdash;you
+see those stocks&mdash;eh? Tell all
+the bad little boys in the parish to
+take care how they get into them&mdash;a
+sad disgrace&mdash;you'll never be in such
+a quandary!"</p>
+
+<p>"That at least I will answer for,"
+said the Parson.</p>
+
+<p>"And I too," added Mrs Hazeldean,
+patting the boy's curly head.
+"Tell your mother I shall come and
+have a good chat with her to-morrow
+evening."</p>
+
+<p>And so the party passed on, and
+Lenny stood still on the road, staring
+hard at the stocks, which stared back
+at him from its four great eyes.</p>
+
+<p>But Lenny did not remain long
+alone. As soon as the great folks had
+fairly disappeared, a large number of
+small folks emerged timorously from
+the neighbouring cottages, and approached
+the site of the stocks with
+much marvel, fear, and curiosity.</p>
+
+<p>In fact, the renovated appearance
+of this monster&mdash;<i>&agrave; propos de bottes</i>, as
+one may say&mdash;had already excited
+considerable sensation among the population
+of Hazeldean. And even as
+when an unexpected owl makes his
+appearance in broad daylight, all the
+little birds rise from tree and hedgerow,
+and cluster round their ominous
+enemy, so now gathered all the much
+excited villagers round the intrusive
+and portentous Phenomenon.</p>
+
+<p>"D'ye know what the diggins the
+Squire did it for, Gaffer Solomons?"
+asked one many-childed matron, with
+a baby in arms, an urchin of three
+years old clinging fast to her petticoat,
+and her hand maternally holding
+back a more adventurous hero of six,
+who had a great desire to thrust his
+head into one of the grisly apertures.
+All eyes turned to a sage old man,
+the oracle of the village, who, leaning
+both hands on his crutch, shook his
+head bodingly.</p>
+
+<p>"Maw be," said Gaffer Solomons,
+"some of the boys ha' been robbing
+the orchards."</p>
+
+<p>"Orchards"&mdash;cried a big lad who
+seemed to think himself personally
+appealed to&mdash;" why, the bud's scarce
+off the trees yet!"</p>
+
+<p>"No more it in't!" said the dame
+with many children, and she breathed
+more freely.</p>
+
+<p>"Maw be," said Gaffer Solomons,
+"some o' ye has been sitting snares."</p>
+
+<p>"What for?" said a stout sullen-looking
+young fellow, whom conscience
+possibly pricked to reply.
+"What for, when it beant the season?
+And if a poor man did find a
+hear in his pocket i' the hay-time, I
+should like to know if ever a squire in
+the world would let un off wi' the
+stocks&mdash;eh?"</p>
+
+<p>That last question seemed a settler,
+and the wisdom of Gaffer Solomons
+went down fifty per cent in the public
+opinion of Hazeldean.</p>
+
+<p>"Maw be," said the Gaffer, this time
+with a thrilling effect, which restored
+his reputation&mdash;"Maw be some o'
+ye ha' been getting drunk, and making
+beestises o' yourselves!"</p>
+
+<p>There was a dead pause, for this
+suggestion applied too generally to
+be met with a solitary response. At
+last one of the women said, with a
+meaning glance at her husband, "God
+bless the Squire; he'll make some on
+us happy women if that's all!"</p>
+
+<p>There then arose an almost unanimous
+murmur of approbation among
+the female part of the audience; and
+the men looked at each other, and
+then at the Phenomenon, with a
+very hang-dog expression of countenance.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_404" id="Page_404">[Pg 404]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Or, maw be," resumed Gaffer
+Solomons, encouraged to a fourth suggestion
+by the success of its predecessor&mdash;"Maw
+be some o' the Misseses ha'
+been making a rumpus, and scolding
+their goodmen. I heard say in my
+granfeythir's time, that arter old
+Mother Bang nigh died o' the ducking-stool,
+them 'ere stocks were first
+made for the women, out o' compassion
+like! And every one knows the
+Squire is a koind-hearted man, God
+bless un!"</p>
+
+<p>"God bless un!" cried the men
+heartily; and they gathered lovingly
+round the Phenomenon, like heathens
+of old round a tutelary temple. But
+then rose one shrill clamour among
+the females, as they retreated with
+involuntary steps towards the verge
+of the green, whence they glared at
+Solomons and the Phenomenon with
+eyes so sparkling, and pointed at both
+with gestures so menacing, that
+Heaven only knows if a morsel of
+either would have remained much
+longer to offend the eyes of the justly
+enraged matronage of Hazeldean, if
+fortunately Master Stirn, the Squire's
+right-hand man, had not come up in
+the nick of time.</p>
+
+<p>Master Stirn was a formidable personage&mdash;more
+formidable than the
+Squire himself&mdash;as, indeed, a squire's
+right-hand is generally more formidable
+than the head can pretend to be.
+He inspired the greater awe, because,
+like the stocks, of which he was deputed
+guardian, his powers were undefined
+and obscure, and he had no
+particular place in the out-of-door
+establishment. He was not the steward,
+yet he did much of what ought
+to be the steward's work; he was not
+the farm-bailiff, for the Squire called
+himself his own farm-bailiff, nevertheless,
+Mr Hazeldean sowed and
+ploughed, cropped and stocked, bought
+and sold, very much as Mr Stirn condescended
+to advise. He was not the
+park-keeper, for he neither shot the
+deer nor superintended the preserves;
+but it was he who always found out
+who had broken a park-pale or snared
+a rabbit. In short, what may be
+called all the harsher duties of a large
+landed proprietor devolved by custom
+and choice upon Mr Stirn. If a
+labourer was to be discharged, or a
+rent enforced, and the Squire knew
+that he should be talked over, and
+that the steward would be as soft as
+himself, Mr Stirn was sure to be the
+avenging &#945;&#947;&#947;&#949;&#955;&#959;&#962; or messenger, to
+pronounce the words of fate; so that
+he appeared to the inhabitants of
+Hazeldean like the Poet's <i>S&aelig;va Necessitas</i>,
+a vague incarnation of remorseless
+power, armed with whips,
+nails, and wedges. The very brute
+creation stood in awe of Mr Stirn.
+The calves knew that it was he who
+singled out which should be sold to
+the butcher, and huddled up into a
+corner with beating hearts at his grim
+footstep; the sow grunted, the duck
+quacked, the hen bristled her feathers
+and called to her chicks when Mr
+Stirn drew near. Nature had set her
+stamp upon him. Indeed, it may be
+questioned whether the great M. de
+Chambray himself, surnamed the
+Brave, had an aspect so awe-inspiring
+as that of Mr Stirn; albeit the face
+of that hero was so terrible, that a
+man who had been his lackey, seeing
+his portrait after he had been dead
+twenty years, fell a trembling all over
+like a leaf!</p>
+
+<p>"And what the plague are you all
+doing here?" said Mr Stirn, as he
+waved and smacked a great cart-whip
+which he held in his hand, "making
+such a hullabaloo, you women, you!
+that I suspect the Squire will be sending
+out to know if the village is on
+fire. Go home, will ye? High time
+indeed to have the stocks ready, when
+you get squalling and conspiring under
+the very nose of a justice of the peace,
+just as the French Revolutioners did
+afore they cut off their King's head;
+my hair stands on end to look at ye."
+But already, before half this address
+was delivered, the crowd had dispersed
+in all directions&mdash;the women still keeping
+together, and the men sneaking off
+towards the ale-house. Such was the
+beneficent effect of the fatal stocks on
+the first day of their resuscitation!</p>
+
+<p>However, in the break up of every
+crowd there must be always some
+one who gets off the last; and it
+so happened that our friend Lenny
+Fairfield, who had mechanically approached
+close to the stocks, the better
+to hear the oracular opinions of
+Gaffer Solomons, had no less mechanically,
+on the abrupt appearance of
+Mr Stirn, crept, as he hoped, out of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_405" id="Page_405">[Pg 405]</a></span>
+sight, behind the trunk of the elm
+tree which partially shaded the stocks;
+and there now, as if fascinated, he
+still cowered, not daring to emerge in
+full view of Mr Stirn, and in immediate
+reach of the cart-whip,&mdash;when the
+quick eye of the right-hand man detected
+his retreat.</p>
+
+<p>"Hallo, you sir&mdash;what the deuce,
+laying a mine to blow up the stocks!
+just like Guy Fox and the Gunpowder
+Plot, I declares! What ha' you
+got in your willanous little fist there?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing, sir," said Lenny, opening
+his palm.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing&mdash;um!" said Mr Stirn
+much dissatisfied; and then, as he
+gazed more deliberately, recognising
+the pattern boy of the village, a cloud
+yet darker gathered over his brow;
+for Mr Stirn, who valued himself much
+on his learning&mdash;and who, indeed,
+by dint of more knowledge as well as
+more wit than his neighbours, had
+attained his present eminent station
+in life&mdash;was extremely anxious that
+his only son should also be a scholar;
+that wish,</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"The gods dispersed in empty air."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Master Stirn was a notable dunce at
+the Parson's school, while Lenny
+Fairfield was the pride and boast of
+it; therefore Mr Stirn was naturally,
+and almost justifiably ill-disposed towards
+Lenny Fairfield, who had appropriated
+to himself the praises which
+Mr Stirn had designed for his son.</p>
+
+<p>"Um!" said the right-hand man,
+glowering on Lenny malignantly, "you
+are the pattern boy of the village, are
+you? Very well, sir&mdash;then I put these
+here stocks under your care&mdash;and
+you'll keep off the other boys from
+sitting on 'em, and picking off the
+paint, and playing three holes and
+chuck farthing, as I declare they've
+been a-doing, just in front of the elewation.
+Now you knows your 'sponsibilities,
+little boy&mdash;and a great honour
+they are too, for the like o' you. If
+any damage be done, it is to you I
+shall look; d'ye understand? and
+that's what the Squire says to me.
+So you sees what it is to be a pattern
+boy, Master Lenny!"</p>
+
+<p>With that Mr Stirn gave a loud
+crack of the cart-whip, by way of military
+honours, over the head of the
+vicegerent he had thus created, and
+strode off to pay a visit to two young
+unsuspecting pups, whose ears and
+tails he had graciously promised their
+proprietor to crop that evening. Nor,
+albeit few charges could be more obnoxious
+than that of deputy governor
+or <i>charg&eacute;-d'affaires extraordinaire</i> to
+the Parish Stocks, nor one more
+likely to render Lenny Fairfield odious
+to his contemporaries, ought he to
+have been insensible to the signal
+advantage of his condition over that
+of the two sufferers, against whose
+ears and tails Mr Stirn had no especial
+motives of resentment. To every bad
+there is a worse&mdash;and fortunately for
+little boys, and even for grown men,
+whom the Stirns of the world regard
+malignly, the majesty of law protects
+their ears, and the merciful forethought
+of nature deprived their remote
+ancestors of the privilege of entailing
+tails upon them. Had it been
+otherwise&mdash;considering what handles
+tails would have given to the oppressor,
+how many traps envy would have
+laid for them, how often they must
+have been scratched and mutilated by
+the briars of life, how many good
+excuses would have been found for
+lopping, docking, and trimming them&mdash;I
+fear that only the lap-dogs of fortune
+would have gone to the grave
+tail-whole.</p>
+
+
+<h3>CHAPTER XII.</h3>
+
+<p>The card-table was set out in the
+drawing-room at Hazeldean Hall;
+though the little party were still lingering
+in the deep recess of the large
+bay window&mdash;which (in itself of
+dimensions that would have swallowed
+up a moderate-sized London parlour)
+held the great round tea-table,
+with all appliances and means to boot&mdash;for
+the beautiful summer moon shed
+on the sward so silvery a lustre, and
+the trees cast so quiet a shadow, and
+the flowers and new-mown hay sent
+up so grateful a perfume, that, to close
+the windows, draw the curtains, and
+call for other lights than those of
+heaven, would have been an abuse of
+the prose of life which even Captain<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_406" id="Page_406">[Pg 406]</a></span>
+Barnabas, who regarded whist as the
+business of town and the holiday of
+the country, shrank from suggesting.
+Without, the scene, beheld by the
+clear moonlight, had the beauty
+peculiar to the garden ground round
+those old-fashioned country residences
+which, though a little modernised,
+still preserve their original character:
+the velvet lawn, studded with large
+plots of flowers, shaded and scented
+here to the left by lilacs, laburnums,
+and rich seringas&mdash;there, to the right,
+giving glimpses, over low-clipped
+yews, of a green bowling alley, with
+the white columns of a summerhouse
+built after the Dutch taste, in the
+reign of William III.; and in front&mdash;stealing
+away under covert of those
+still cedars, into the wilder landscape
+of the well-wooded undulating park.
+Within, viewed by the placid glimmer
+of the moon, the scene was no less characteristic
+of the abodes of that race
+which has no parallel in other lands,
+and which, alas, is somewhat losing
+its native idiosyncrasies in this&mdash;the
+stout country gentleman, not the fine
+gentleman of the country&mdash;the country
+gentleman somewhat softened and
+civilised from the mere sportsman or
+farmer, but still plain and homely,
+relinquishing the old hall for the
+drawing-room, and with books not
+three months' old on his table, instead
+of <i>Fox's Martyrs</i> and <i>Baker's Chronicle</i>&mdash;yet
+still retaining many a sacred
+old prejudice, that, like the knots in
+his native oak, rather adds to the
+ornament of the grain than takes
+from the strength of the tree. Opposite
+to the window, the high chimney-piece
+rose to the heavy cornice of the
+ceiling, with dark panels glistening
+against the moonlight. The broad
+and rather clumsy chintz sofas and
+settees of the reign, of George III.,
+contrasted at intervals with the tall
+backed chairs of a far more distant
+generation, when ladies in fardingales,
+and gentlemen in trunk-hose,
+seem never to have indulged in horizontal
+positions. The walls, of shining
+wainscot, were thickly covered,
+chiefly with family pictures; though
+now and then some Dutch fair, or
+battle-piece, showed that a former
+proprietor had been less exclusive in
+his taste for the arts. The pianoforte
+stood open near the fireplace; a long
+dwarf bookcase, at the far end, added
+its sober smile to the room. That
+bookcase contained what was called
+"The Lady's Library," a collection
+commenced by the Squire's grandmother,
+of pious memory, and completed
+by his mother, who had more
+taste for the lighter letters, with but
+little addition from the bibliomaniac
+tendencies of the present Mrs Hazeldean&mdash;who,
+being no great reader,
+contented herself with subscribing to
+the Book Club. In this feminine
+Bodleian, the sermons collected by
+Mrs Hazeldean, the grandmother,
+stood cheek-by-jowl beside the novels
+purchased by Mrs Hazeldean, the
+mother.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">'Mixtaque ridenti fundet colocasia acantho!'<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>But to be sure, the novels, in spite of
+very inflammatory titles, such as
+"Fatal Sensibility," "Errors of the
+Heart," &amp;c., were so harmless that I
+doubt if the sermons could have had
+much to say against their next-door
+neighbours&mdash;and that is all that can
+be expected by the best of us.</p>
+
+<p>A parrot dozing on his perch&mdash;some
+gold fish fast asleep in their glass
+bowl&mdash;two or three dogs on the rug,
+and Flimsey, Miss Jemima's spaniel,
+curled into a ball on the softest sofa&mdash;Mrs
+Hazeldean's work-table, rather
+in disorder, as if it had been lately
+used&mdash;the <i>St James's Chronicle</i> dangling
+down from a little tripod near the
+Squire's arm-chair&mdash;a high screen of
+gilt and stamped leather fencing off
+the card-table; all these, dispersed
+about a room large enough to hold
+them all and not seem crowded,
+offered many a pleasant resting-place
+for the eye, when it turned from the
+world of nature to the home of man.</p>
+
+<p>But see, Captain Barnabas, fortified
+by his fourth cup of tea, has at length
+summoned courage to whisper to Mrs
+Hazeldean, "don't you think the
+Parson will be impatient for his rubber?"
+Mrs Hazeldean glanced at the
+Parson, and smiled; but she gave the
+signal to the Captain, and the bell was
+rung, lights were brought in, the curtains
+let down; in a few moments more
+the group had collected round the
+card-tables. The best of us are but
+human&mdash;that is not a new truth, I
+confess, but yet people forget it every
+day of their lives&mdash;and I dare say there<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_407" id="Page_407">[Pg 407]</a></span>
+are many who are charitably thinking
+at this very moment, that my Parson
+ought not to be playing at whist. All
+I can say to those rigid disciplinarians
+is, "Every man has his favourite sin:
+whist was Parson Dale's!&mdash;ladies and
+gentlemen, what is yours?" In truth,
+I must not set up my poor parson, now-a-days,
+as a pattern parson&mdash;it is
+enough to have one pattern in a village
+no bigger than Hazeldean, and
+we all know that Lenny Fairfield has
+bespoken that place,&mdash;and got the
+patronage of the stocks for his emoluments!
+Parson Dale was ordained,
+not indeed so very long ago, but still
+at a time when churchmen took it a
+great deal more easily than they do
+now. The elderly parson of that day
+played his rubber as a matter of
+course, the middle-aged parson was
+sometimes seen riding to cover, (I
+knew a schoolmaster, a doctor of
+divinity, and an excellent man, whose
+pupils were chiefly taken from the
+highest families in England, who
+hunted regularly three times a-week
+during the season,) and the young
+parson would often sing a capital
+song&mdash;not composed by David&mdash;and
+join in those rotary dances, which
+certainly David never danced before
+the ark.</p>
+
+<p>Does it need so long a prolegomenon
+to excuse thee, poor Parson Dale, for
+turning up that ace of spades with so
+triumphant a smile at thy partner?
+I must own that nothing that well
+could add to the Parson's offence was
+wanting. In the first place, he did
+not play charitably, and merely to
+oblige other people. He delighted in
+the game&mdash;he rejoiced in the game&mdash;his
+whole heart was in the game&mdash;neither
+was he indifferent to the mammon
+of the thing, as a Christian
+pastor ought to have been. He looked
+very sad when he took his shillings
+out of his purse, and exceedingly
+pleased when he put the shillings
+that had just before belonged to other
+people into it. Finally, by one of
+those arrangements common with
+married people, who play at the same
+table, Mr and Mrs Hazeldean were
+invariably partners, and no two people
+could play worse; while Captain Barnabas,
+who had played at Graham's
+with honour and profit, necessarily
+became partner to Parson Dale, who
+himself played a good steady parsonic
+game. So that, in strict truth, it was
+hardly fair play&mdash;it was almost swindling&mdash;the
+combination of these two
+great dons against that innocent married
+couple! Mr Dale, it is true, was
+aware of this disproportion of force,
+and had often proposed either to
+change partners or to give odds, propositions
+always scornfully scouted
+by the Squire and his lady; so that
+the Parson was obliged to pocket his
+conscience, together with the ten
+points which made his average winnings.</p>
+
+<p>The strangest thing in the world is
+the different way in which whist
+affects the temper. It is no test of
+temper, as some pretend&mdash;not at all!
+The best tempered people in the world
+grow snappish at whist; and I have
+seen the most testy and peevish in the
+ordinary affairs of life bear their losses
+with the stoicism of Epictetus. This
+was notably manifested in the contrast
+between the present adversaries
+of the Hall and the Rectory. The
+Squire, who was esteemed as choleric
+a gentleman as most in the county,
+was the best-humoured fellow you
+could imagine when you set him down
+to whist opposite the sunny face of his
+wife. You never heard one of these
+incorrigible blunderers scold each
+other; on the contrary, they only
+laughed when they threw away the
+game, with four by honours in their
+hands. The utmost that was ever
+said was a "Well, Harry, that was
+the oddest trump of yours. Ho&mdash;ho&mdash;ho!"
+or a "Bless me, Hazeldean&mdash;why,
+they made three tricks, and you
+had the ace in your hand all the time!
+Ha&mdash;ha&mdash;ha!"</p>
+
+<p>Upon which occasions Captain Barnabas,
+with great good humour, always
+echoed both the Squire's ho&mdash;ho&mdash;ho!
+and Mrs Hazeldean's ha&mdash;ha&mdash;ha!</p>
+
+<p>Not so the Parson. He had so
+keen and sportsmanlike an interest in
+the game, that even his adversaries'
+mistakes ruffled him. And you would
+hear him, with elevated voice and
+agitated gestures, laying down the
+law, quoting Hoyle, appealing to all
+the powers of memory and common
+sense against the very delinquencies
+by which he was enriched&mdash;a waste of
+eloquence that always heightened the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_408" id="Page_408">[Pg 408]</a></span>
+hilarity of Mr and Mrs Hazeldean.
+While these four were thus engaged,
+Mrs Dale, who had come with her
+husband despite her headache, sate on
+the sofa beside Miss Jemima, or rather
+beside Miss Jemima's Flimsey, which
+had already secured the centre of the
+sofa, and snarled at the very idea of
+being disturbed. And Master Frank&mdash;at
+a table by himself&mdash;was employed
+sometimes in looking at his
+pumps, and sometimes at Gilray's
+Caricatures, with which his mother
+had provided him for his intellectual
+requirements. Mrs Dale, in
+her heart, liked Miss Jemima better
+than Mrs Hazeldean, of whom she
+was rather in awe, notwithstanding
+they had been little girls together, and
+occasionally still called each other
+Harry and Carry. But those tender
+diminutives belonged to the "Dear"
+genus, and were rarely employed by
+the ladies, except at those times when&mdash;had
+they been little girls still, and
+the governess out of the way&mdash;they
+would have slapped and pinched each
+other. Mrs Dale was still a very
+pretty woman, as Mrs Hazeldean was
+still a very fine woman. Mrs Dale
+painted in water colours and sang, and
+made card-racks and pen-holders, and
+was called an "elegant accomplished
+woman." Mrs Hazeldean cast up the
+Squire's accounts, wrote the best part
+of his letters, kept a large establishment
+in excellent order, and was
+called "a clever, sensible woman."
+Mrs Dale had headaches and nerves,
+Mrs Hazeldean had neither nerves nor
+headaches. Mrs Dale said, "Harry
+had no real harm in her, but was certainly
+very masculine." Mrs Hazeldean
+said, "Carry would be a good
+creature, but for her airs and graces."
+Mrs Dale said Mrs Hazeldean was
+"just made to be a country squire's
+lady." Mrs Hazeldean said, "Mrs
+Dale was the last person in the world
+who ought to have been a parson's
+wife." Carry, when she spoke of
+Harry to a third person, said, "Dear
+Mrs Hazeldean." Harry, when she
+referred incidentally to Carry, said,
+"Poor Mrs Dale." And now the
+reader knows why Mrs Hazeldean
+called Mrs Dale "poor," at least as
+well as I do. For, after all, the word
+belonged to that class in the female
+vocabulary which may be called "obscure
+significants," resembling the
+Konx Ompax, which hath so puzzled
+the inquirers into the Eleusinian Mysteries;
+the application is rather to be
+illustrated than the meaning to be
+exactly explained.</p>
+
+<p>"That's really a sweet little dog of
+yours, Jemima," said Mrs Dale, who
+was embroidering the word <span class="smcap">Caroline</span>
+on the border of a cambric pocket-handkerchief,
+but edging a little farther
+off, as she added, "he'll not bite,
+will he?" "Dear me, no!" said Miss
+Jemima; but (she added, in a confidential
+whisper,) "don't say <i>he</i>&mdash;'tis a
+lady dog!" "Oh," said Mrs Dale, edging
+off still farther, as if that confession
+of the creature's sex did not serve to
+allay her apprehensions&mdash;"oh, then,
+you carry your aversion to the gentlemen
+even to lap-dogs&mdash;that is being
+consistent indeed, Jemima!"</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Miss Jemima.</span>&mdash;"I had a gentleman
+dog once&mdash;a pug!&mdash;they are
+getting very scarce now. I thought
+he was so fond of me&mdash;he snapped at
+every one else;&mdash;the battles I fought
+for him! Well, will you believe,&mdash;I
+had been staying with my friend Miss
+Smilecox at Cheltenham. Knowing
+that William is so hasty, and his boots
+are so thick, I trembled to think what
+a kick might do. So, on coming here,
+I left Buff&mdash;that was his name&mdash;with
+Miss Smilecox." (A pause.)</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mrs Dale</span>, looking up languidly.&mdash;"Well,
+my love."</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Miss Jemima.</span>&mdash;"Will you believe
+it, I say, when I returned to Cheltenham,
+only three months afterwards,
+Miss Smilecox had seduced his affections
+from me, and the ungrateful
+creature did not even know me again.
+A pug, too&mdash;yet people <i>say</i> pugs are
+faithful!!! I am sure they ought to
+be, nasty things. I have never had a
+gentleman dog since&mdash;they are all
+alike, believe me&mdash;heartless, selfish
+creatures."</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mrs Dale.</span>&mdash;"Pugs? I dare say
+they are!"</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Miss Jemima</span>, with spirit.&mdash;"<span class="smcap">Men!</span>&mdash;I
+told you it was a gentleman
+dog!"</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mrs Dale</span>, apologetically.&mdash;"True,
+my love, but the whole thing was so
+mixed up!"</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Miss Jemima.</span>&mdash;"You saw that
+cold-blooded case of Breach of Promise
+of Marriage in the papers&mdash;an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_409" id="Page_409">[Pg 409]</a></span>
+old wretch, too, of sixty-four. No age
+makes them a bit better. And when
+one thinks that the end of all flesh is
+approaching, and that&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mrs Dale</span>, quickly, for she prefers
+Miss Jemima's other hobby to that
+black one upon which she is preparing
+to precede the bier of the universe.&mdash;"Yes,
+my love, we'll avoid that subject,
+if you please. Mr Dale has his
+own opinions, and it becomes me, you
+know, as a parson's wife," (said smilingly;
+Mrs Dale has as pretty a dimple
+as any of Miss Jemima's, and makes
+more of that one than Miss Jemima
+of three,) "to agree with him&mdash;that
+is, in theology."</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Miss Jemima</span>, earnestly.&mdash;"But
+the thing is so clear, if you would but
+look into&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mrs Dale</span>, putting her hand on
+Miss Jemima's lips playfully.&mdash;"Not
+a word more. Pray, what do you
+think of the Squire's tenant at the
+Casino, Signor Riccabocca? An interesting
+creature, is not he?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Miss Jemima.</span>&mdash;"Interesting! Not
+to me. Interesting? Why is he interesting?"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs Dale is silent, and turns her
+handkerchief in her pretty little white
+hands, appearing to contemplate the
+R in Caroline.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Miss Jemima</span>, half pettishly, half
+coaxingly.&mdash;"Why is he interesting?
+I scarcely ever looked at him; they say
+he smokes, and never eats. Ugly,
+too!"</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mrs Dale.</span>&mdash;"Ugly&mdash;no. A fine
+head&mdash;very like Dante's&mdash;but what is
+beauty?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Miss Jemima.</span>&mdash;"Very true; what
+is it indeed? Yes, as you say, I
+think there is something interesting
+about him; he looks melancholy, but
+that may be because he is poor."</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mrs Dale.</span>&mdash;"It is astonishing how
+little one feels poverty when one loves.
+Charles and I were very poor once&mdash;before
+the Squire&mdash;&mdash;." Mrs Dale
+paused, looked towards the Squire,
+and murmured a blessing, the warmth
+of which brought tears into her eyes.
+"Yes," she added, after a pause, "we
+were very poor, but we were happy
+even then, more thanks to Charles
+than to me," and tears from a new
+source again dimmed those quick lively
+eyes, as the little woman gazed
+fondly on her husband, whose brows
+were knit into a black frown over a
+bad hand.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Miss Jemima.</span>&mdash;"It is only those
+horrid men who think of money as a
+source of happiness. I should be the
+last person to esteem a gentleman
+less because he was poor."</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mrs Dale.</span>&mdash;"I wonder the Squire
+does not ask Signor Riccabocca here
+more often. Such an acquisition we
+find him!"</p>
+
+<p>The Squire's voice from the card
+table.&mdash;"Whom ought I to ask more
+often, Mrs Dale?"</p>
+
+<p>Parson's voice impatiently.&mdash;"Come&mdash;come&mdash;come,
+Squire: play to my
+queen of diamonds&mdash;do!"</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Squire.</span>&mdash;"There, I trump it&mdash;pick
+up the trick, Mrs H."</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Parson.</span>&mdash;"Stop! stop! trump my
+diamond?"</p>
+
+<p>The Captain, solemnly.&mdash;"Trick
+turned&mdash;play on, Squire."</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Squire.</span>&mdash;"The king of diamonds."</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mrs Hazeldean.</span>&mdash;"Lord! Hazeldean&mdash;why,
+that's the most barefaced
+revoke&mdash;ha&mdash;ha&mdash;ha! trump the
+queen of diamonds and play out the
+king! well I never&mdash;ha&mdash;ha&mdash;ha!"</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Captain Barnabas</span>, in tenor.&mdash;"Ha,
+ha, ha!"</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Squire.</span>&mdash;"And so I have, bless
+my soul&mdash;ho, ho, ho!"</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Captain Barnabas</span>, in bass.&mdash;"Ho&mdash;ho&mdash;ho."</p>
+
+<p>Parson's voice raised, but drowned
+by the laughter of his adversaries and
+the firm clear tone of Captain Barnabas:&mdash;"Three
+to our score!&mdash;game!"</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Squire</span>, wiping his eyes.&mdash;"No
+help for it, Harry&mdash;deal for me! Whom
+ought I to ask, Mrs Dale? (waxing
+angry.) First time I ever heard the
+hospitality of Hazeldean called in
+question!"</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mrs Dale.</span>&mdash;"My dear sir, I beg
+a thousand pardons, but listeners&mdash;you
+know the proverb."</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Squire</span>, growling like a bear.&mdash;"I
+hear nothing but proverbs ever since
+we have had that Mounseer among
+us. Please to speak plainly, marm."</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mrs Dale</span>, sliding into a little
+temper at being thus roughly accosted.&mdash;"It
+was of Mounseer, as you call
+him, that I spoke, Mr Hazeldean."</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Squire.</span>&mdash;"What! Rickeybockey?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mrs Dale</span>, attempting the pure
+Italian accentuation.&mdash;"Signor Riccabocca."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_410" id="Page_410">[Pg 410]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Parson</span>, slapping his cards on the
+table in despair.&mdash;"Are we playing at
+whist, or are we not?"</p>
+
+<p>The Squire, who is fourth player,
+drops the king to Captain Higginbotham's
+lead of the ace of hearts. Now
+the Captain has left queen, knave, and
+two other hearts&mdash;four trumps to the
+queen and nothing to win a trick with
+in the two other suits. This hand is
+therefore precisely one of those in
+which, especially after the fall of that
+king of hearts in the adversary's hand,
+it becomes a matter of reasonable
+doubt whether to lead trumps or not.
+The Captain hesitates, and not liking
+to play out his good hearts with the
+certainty of their being trumped by
+the Squire, nor, on the other hand,
+liking to open the other suits in which
+he has not a card that can assist his
+partner, resolves, as becomes a military
+man, in such dilemma, to make a
+bold push and lead out trumps, in the
+chance of finding his partner strong,
+and so bringing in his long suit.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Squire</span>, taking advantage of the
+much meditating pause made by the
+Captain&mdash;"Mrs Dale, it is not my
+fault. I have asked Rickeybockey&mdash;time
+out of mind. But I suppose I am
+not fine enough for those foreign chaps&mdash;he
+won't come&mdash;that's all I know!"</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Parson</span>, aghast at seeing the Captain
+play out trumps, of which he, Mr
+Dale, has only two, wherewith he expects
+to ruff the suit of spades of which
+he has only one, (the cards all falling
+in suits) while he has not a single other
+chance of a trick in his hand.&mdash;"Really,
+Squire, we had better give up playing
+if you put out my partner in this extraordinary
+way&mdash;jabber&mdash;jabber&mdash;jabber!"</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Squire.</span>&mdash;"Well, we must be good
+children, Harry. What!&mdash;trumps,
+Barney? Thank ye for that!" And
+the Squire might well be grateful, for
+the unfortunate adversary has led up
+to ace king knave&mdash;with two other
+trumps. Squire takes the Parson's
+ten with his knave, and plays out ace
+king; then, having cleared all the
+trumps except the Captain's queen
+and his own remaining two, leads off
+tierce major in that very suit of spades
+of which the Parson has only one,&mdash;and
+the Captain, indeed, but two&mdash;forces
+out the Captain's queen, and
+wins the game in a canter.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Parson</span>, with a look at the Captain
+which might have become the awful
+brows of Jove, when about to thunder.&mdash;"That,
+I suppose, is the newfashioned
+London play! In my time
+the rule was 'First save the game,
+then try to win it.'"</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Captain.</span>&mdash;"Could not save it, sir."</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Parson</span>, exploding.&mdash;"Not save
+it!&mdash;two ruffs in my own hand&mdash;two
+tricks certain till you took them out!
+Monstrous! The rashest trump"&mdash;Seizes
+the cards&mdash;spreads them on the
+table, lip quivering, hands trembling&mdash;tries
+to show how five tricks could
+have been gained&mdash;(N.B. it is <i>short</i>
+whist, which Captain Barnabas had
+introduced at the Hall) can't make
+out more than four&mdash;Captain smiles
+triumphantly&mdash;Parson in a passion,
+and not at all convinced, mixes all
+the cards together again, and falling
+back in his chair, groans, with tears
+in his voice.&mdash;"The cruellest trump!
+the most wanton cruelty!"</p>
+
+<p>The Hazeldeans in chorus.-"Ho&mdash;ho&mdash;ho!
+Ha&mdash;ha&mdash;ha!"</p>
+
+<p>The Captain, who does not laugh
+this time, and whose turn it is to
+deal, shuffles the cards for the conquering
+game of the rubber with as
+much caution and prolixity as Fabius
+might have employed in posting his
+men. The Squire gets up to stretch
+his legs, and, the insinuation against
+his hospitality recurring to his
+thoughts, calls out to his wife&mdash;"Write
+to Rickeybockey to-morrow
+yourself, Harry, and ask him to come
+and spend two or three days here.
+There, Mrs Dale, you hear me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Mrs Dale, putting her
+hands to her ears in implied rebuke
+at the loudness of the Squire's tone.
+"My dear sir, do remember that I'm
+a sad nervous creature."</p>
+
+<p>"Beg pardon," muttered Mr Hazeldean,
+turning to his son, who, having
+got tired of the caricatures, had fished
+out for himself the great folio County
+History, which was the only book in
+the library that the Squire much
+valued, and which he usually kept
+under lock and key, in his study,
+together with the field-books and
+steward's accounts, but which he had
+reluctantly taken into the drawing-room
+that day, in order to oblige Captain
+Higginbotham. For the Higginbothams&mdash;an
+old Saxon family, as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_411" id="Page_411">[Pg 411]</a></span>
+the name evidently denotes&mdash;had
+once possessed lands in that very
+county. And the Captain&mdash;during his
+visits to Hazeldean Hall&mdash;was regularly
+in the habit of asking to look into
+the County History, for the purpose
+of refreshing his eyes, and renovating
+his sense of ancestral dignity with the
+following paragraph therein:&mdash;"To
+the left of the village of Dunder, and
+pleasantly situated in a hollow, lies
+Botham Hall, the residence of the
+ancient family of Higginbotham, as it
+is now commonly called. Yet it appears
+by the county rolls, and sundry
+old deeds, that the family formerly
+styled itself Higges, till, the Manor
+House lying in Botham, they gradually
+assumed the appellation of
+Higges-in-botham, and in process of
+time, yielding to the corruptions of
+the vulgar, Higginbotham."</p>
+
+<p>"What, Frank! my County History!"
+cried the Squire. "Mrs H.
+he has got my County History!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Hazeldean, it is time he
+should know something about the
+County."</p>
+
+<p>"Ay, and History too," said Mrs
+Dale, malevolently&mdash;for the little temper
+was by no means blown over.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Frank.</span>&mdash;"I'll not hurt it, I assure
+you, sir. But I'm very much interested
+just at present."</p>
+
+<p>The <span class="smcap">Captain</span>, putting down the
+cards to cut.&mdash;"You've got hold of
+that passage about Botham Hall, page
+706, eh?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Frank.</span>&mdash;"No; I was trying to
+make out how far it is to Mr Leslie's
+place, Rood Hall. Do you know,
+mother?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mrs Hazeldean.</span>&mdash;"I can't say I
+do. The Leslies don't mix with the
+county; and Rood lies very much out
+of the way."</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Frank.</span>&mdash;"Why don't they mix
+with the county?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mrs Hazeldean.</span>&mdash;"I believe
+they are poor, and therefore I suppose
+they are proud: they are an old family."</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Parson</span>, thrumming on the table
+with great impatience.&mdash;"Old fiddledee!&mdash;talking
+of old families when the
+cards have been shuffled this half
+hour!"</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Captain Barnabas.</span>&mdash;"Will you
+cut for your partner, ma'am?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Squire</span>, who has been listening to
+Frank's inquiries with a musing air.&mdash;"Why
+do you want to know the
+distance to Rood Hall?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Frank</span>, rather hesitatingly.&mdash;"Because
+Randal Leslie is there for the
+holidays, sir."</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Parson.</span>&mdash;"Your wife has cut for
+you, Mr Hazeldean. I don't think it
+was quite fair; and my partner has
+turned up a deuce&mdash;deuce of hearts.
+Please to come and play, if you <i>mean</i>
+to play."</p>
+
+<p>The Squire returns to the table, and
+in a few minutes the game is decided
+by a dexterous finesse of the Captain
+against the Hazeldeans. The clock
+strikes ten: the servants enter with a
+tray; the Squire counts up his own
+and his wife's losings; and the Captain
+and Parson divide sixteen shillings
+between them.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Squire.</span>&mdash;"There, Parson, I hope
+now you'll be in a better humour.
+You win enough out of us to set up a
+coach and four."</p>
+
+<p>"Tut!" muttered the Parson; "at
+the end of the year, I'm not a penny
+the richer for it all."</p>
+
+<p>And, indeed, monstrous as that
+assertion seemed, it was perfectly
+true, for the Parson portioned out his
+gains into three divisions. One-third
+he gave to Mrs Dale, for her own
+special pocket-money; what became
+of the second third he never owned,
+even to his better half&mdash;but certain it
+was, that every time the Parson won
+seven-and-sixpence, half-a-crown,
+which nobody could account for, found
+its way to the poor-box; while the
+remaining third, the Parson, it is true,
+openly and avowedly retained: but I
+have no manner of doubt that, at the
+year's end, it got to the poor quite as
+safely as if it had been put into the box.</p>
+
+<p>The party had now gathered round
+the tray, and were helping themselves
+to wine and water, or wine without
+water&mdash;except Frank, who still remained
+poring over the map in the
+County History, with his head leaning
+on his hands, and his fingers plunged
+in his hair.</p>
+
+<p>"Frank," said Mrs Hazeldean, "I
+never saw you so studious before."</p>
+
+<p>Frank started up, and coloured, as
+if ashamed of being accused of too
+much study in anything.</p>
+
+<p>The <span class="smcap">Squire</span>, with a little embarrassment
+in his voice.&mdash;"Pray, Frank,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_412" id="Page_412">[Pg 412]</a></span>
+what do you know of Randal Leslie?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, sir, he is at Eton."</p>
+
+<p>"What sort of a boy is he?" asked
+Mrs Hazeldean.</p>
+
+<p>Frank hesitated, as if reflecting,
+and then answered&mdash;"They say he
+is the cleverest boy in the school. But
+then he saps."</p>
+
+<p>"In other words," said Mr Dale,
+with proper parsonic gravity, "he
+understands that he was sent to school
+to learn his lessons, and he learns
+them. You call that sapping&mdash;I call
+it doing his duty. But pray, who and
+what is this Randal Leslie, that you
+look so discomposed, Squire?"</p>
+
+<p>"Who and what is he?" repeated
+the Squire, in a low growl. "Why,
+you know, Mr Audley Egerton married
+Miss Leslie the great heiress;
+and this boy is a relation of hers. I
+may say," added the Squire, "that
+he is as near a relation of mine, for
+his grandmother was a Hazeldean.
+But all I know about the Leslies is,
+that Mr Egerton, as I am told, having
+no children of his own, took up young
+Randal, (when his wife died, poor
+woman,) pays for his schooling, and
+has, I suppose, adopted the boy as his
+heir. Quite welcome. Frank and I
+want nothing from Mr Audley Egerton,
+thank heaven."</p>
+
+<p>"I can well believe in your brother's
+generosity to his wife's kindred,"
+said the Parson sturdily, "for
+I am sure Mr Egerton is a man of
+strong feeling."</p>
+
+<p>"What the deuce do you know about
+Mr Egerton? I don't suppose you
+could ever have even spoken to him."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said the Parson, colouring
+up, and looking confused, "I had
+some conversation with him once;"
+and observing the Squire's surprise,
+he added&mdash;"when I was curate at
+Lansmere&mdash;and about a painful business
+connected with the family of one
+of my parishioners."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! one of your parishioners at
+Lansmere&mdash;one of the constituents Mr
+Audley Egerton threw over, after all
+the pains I had taken to get him his
+seat. Rather odd you should never
+have mentioned this before, Mr Dale!"</p>
+
+<p>"My dear sir," said the Parson,
+sinking his voice, and in a mild
+tone of conciliatory expostulation,
+"you are so irritable whenever Mr
+Egerton's name is mentioned at
+all."</p>
+
+<p>"Irritable!" exclaimed the Squire,
+whose wrath had been long simmering,
+and now fairly boiled over.&mdash;"Irritable,
+sir! I should think so: a
+man for whom I stood godfather at
+the hustings, Mr Dale! a man for
+whose sake I was called a 'prize ox,'
+Mr Dale! a man for whom I was
+hissed in a market-place, Mr Dale! a
+man for whom I was shot at, in cold
+blood, by an officer in his Majesty's
+service, who lodged a ball in my right
+shoulder, Mr Dale! a man who had
+the ingratitude, after all this, to turn
+his back on the landed interest&mdash;to
+deny that there was any agricultural
+distress in a year which broke three
+of the best farmers I ever had, Mr
+Dale!&mdash;a man, sir, who made a speech
+on the Currency which was complimented
+by Ricardo, a Jew! Good
+heavens! a pretty parson you are, to
+stand up for a fellow complimented by
+a Jew! Nice ideas you must have of
+Christianity. Irritable, sir!" now
+fairly roared the Squire, adding to the
+thunder of his voice the cloud of a
+brow, which evinced a menacing ferocity
+that might have done honour to
+Bussy d'Amboise or Fighting Fitzgerald.
+"Sir, if that man had not
+been my own half-brother, I'd have
+called him out. I have stood my
+ground before now. I have had a ball
+in my right shoulder. Sir, I'd have
+called him out."</p>
+
+<p>"Mr Hazeldean! Mr Hazeldean!
+I'm shocked at you," cried the Parson;
+and, putting his lips close to the Squire's
+ear, he went on in a whisper&mdash;"What
+an example to your son! You'll have
+him fighting duels one of these days,
+and nobody to blame but yourself."</p>
+
+<p>This warning cooled Mr Hazeldean;
+and, muttering, "Why the deuce did
+you set me off?" he fell back into
+his chair, and began to fan himself
+with his pocket-handkerchief.</p>
+
+<p>The Parson skilfully and remorselessly
+pursued the advantage he had
+gained. "And now, that you may
+have it in your power to show civility
+and kindness to a boy whom Mr
+Egerton has taken up, out of respect
+to his wife's memory&mdash;a kinsman,
+you say, of your own&mdash;and who has
+never offended you&mdash;a boy whose
+diligence in his studies proves him<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_413" id="Page_413">[Pg 413]</a></span>
+to be an excellent companion to
+your son;&mdash;Frank," (here the Parson
+raised his voice,) "I suppose you
+wanted to call on young Leslie, as
+you were studying the county map so
+attentively?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, yes," answered Frank, rather
+timidly, "if my father did not
+object to it. Leslie has been very
+kind to me, though he is in the sixth
+form, and, indeed, almost the head of
+the school."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah," said Mrs Hazeldean, "one
+studious boy has a fellow-feeling for
+another; and though you enjoy your
+holidays, Frank, I am sure you read
+hard at school."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs Dale opened her eyes very
+wide, and stared in astonishment.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mrs Hazeldean</span> retorted that look
+with great animation. "Yes, Carry,"
+said she, tossing her head, "though
+you may not think Frank clever, his
+masters find him so. He got a prize
+last half. That beautiful book, Frank&mdash;hold
+up your head, my love&mdash;what
+did you get it for?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Frank</span>, reluctantly.&mdash;"Verses,
+ma'am."</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mrs Hazeldean</span>, with triumph.&mdash;"Verses!&mdash;there,
+Carry, verses!"</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Frank</span>, in a hurried tone.&mdash;"Yes,
+but Leslie wrote them for me."</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mrs Hazeldean</span>, recoiling.&mdash;"O
+Frank! a prize for what another did
+for you&mdash;that was mean."</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Frank</span>, ingenuously.&mdash;"You can't
+be more ashamed, mother, than I was
+when they gave me the prize."</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mrs Dale</span>, though previously provoked
+at being snubbed by Harry,
+now showing the triumph of generosity
+over temper.&mdash;"I beg your pardon,
+Frank. Your mother must be as
+proud of that shame as she was of the
+prize."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs Hazeldean puts her arm round
+Frank's neck, smiles beamingly on
+Mrs Dale, and converses with her son
+in a low tone about Randal Leslie.
+Miss Jemima now approached Carry,
+and said in an "aside,"&mdash;"But we
+are forgetting poor Mr Riccabocca.
+Mrs Hazeldean, though the dearest
+creature in the world, has such a
+blunt way of inviting people&mdash;don't
+you think if you were to say a word
+to him, Carry?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mrs Dale</span> kindly, as she wraps her
+shawl round her.&mdash;"Suppose you
+write the note yourself. Meanwhile, I
+shall see him, no doubt."</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Parson</span>, putting his hand on the
+Squire's shoulder.&mdash;"You forgive my
+impertinence, my kind friend. We
+parsons, you know, are apt to take
+strange liberties, when we honour and
+love folks, as I do you."</p>
+
+<p>"Pish!" said the Squire, but his
+hearty smile came to his lips in
+spite of himself.&mdash;"You always
+get your own way, and I suppose
+Frank must ride over and see this pet
+of my&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Brother's</i>," quoth the Parson, concluding
+the sentence in a tone which
+gave to the sweet word so sweet a
+sound that the Squire would not correct
+the Parson, as he had been about
+to correct himself.</p>
+
+<p>Mr Dale moved on; but as he passed
+Captain Barnabas, the benignant
+character of his countenance changed
+sadly.</p>
+
+<p>"The cruellest trump, Captain
+Higginbotham!" said he sternly, and
+stalked by&mdash;majestic.</p>
+
+<p>The night was so fine that the
+Parson and his wife, as they walked
+home, made a little <i>d&eacute;tour</i> through the
+shrubbery.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mrs Dale.</span>&mdash;"I think I have done
+a good piece of work to-night."</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Parson</span>, rousing himself from a
+reverie.&mdash;"Have you, Carry?&mdash;it will
+be a very pretty handkerchief."</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mrs Dale.</span>&mdash;"Handkerchief!&mdash;nonsense,
+dear. Don't you think it
+would be a very happy thing for both,
+if Jemima and Signor Riccabocca
+could be brought together?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Parson.</span>&mdash;"Brought together!"</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mrs Dale.</span>&mdash;"You do snap one up
+so, my dear&mdash;I mean if I could make a
+match of it."</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Parson.</span>&mdash;"I think Riccabocca is
+a match already, not only for Jemima,
+but yourself into the bargain."</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mrs Dale</span>, smiling loftily.&mdash;"Well,
+we shall see. Was not Jemima's
+fortune about &pound;4000?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Parson</span> dreamily, for he is relapsing
+fast into his interrupted reverie;&mdash;"Ay&mdash;ay&mdash;I
+daresay."</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mrs Dale.</span>&mdash;"And she must have
+saved! I dare say it is nearly &pound;6000
+by this time;&mdash;eh! Charles dear, you
+really are so&mdash;good gracious, what's
+that!"</p>
+
+<p>As Mrs Dale made this exclama<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_414" id="Page_414">[Pg 414]</a></span>tion,
+they had just emerged from the
+shrubbery, into the village green.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Parson.</span>&mdash;"What's what?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mrs Dale</span> pinching her husband's
+arm very nippingly.&mdash;"That thing&mdash;there&mdash;there."</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Parson.</span>&mdash;"Only the new stocks,
+Carry; I don't wonder they frighten
+you, for you are a very sensible
+woman. I only wish they would
+frighten the Squire."</p>
+
+
+<h3>CHAPTER XIII.</h3>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p><i>Supposed to be a letter from Mrs Hazeldean
+to&mdash;&mdash;Riccabocca, Esq., The
+Casino; but edited, and indeed composed,
+by Miss Jemima Hazeldean.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>"Dear Sir,&mdash;To a feeling heart it
+must always be painful to give pain
+to another, and (though I am sure unconsciously)
+you have given the <i>greatest</i>
+pain to poor Mr Hazeldean and
+myself, indeed to <i>all</i> our little circle,
+in so cruelly refusing our attempts to
+become better acquainted with a
+gentleman we so highly <span class="smcap">ESTEEM</span>. Do,
+pray, dear sir, make us the <i>amende
+honorable</i>, and give us the <i>pleasure</i> of
+your company for a few days at the
+Hall! May we expect you Saturday
+next?&mdash;our dinner hour is six o'clock.</p>
+
+<p>"With the best compliments of Mr
+and Miss Jemima Hazeldean,</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">"Believe me, my dear Sir,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 6em;">yours truly,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 11em;">H. H.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><span class="smcap">Hazeldean Hall.</span>"</span><br />
+</p></div>
+
+<p>Miss Jemima having carefully sealed
+this note, which Mrs Hazeldean had
+very willingly deputed her to write,
+took it herself into the stable-yard, in
+order to give the groom proper instructions
+to wait for an answer. But
+while she was speaking to the man,
+Frank, equipped for riding with more
+than his usual dandyism, came also
+into the yard, calling for his pony in
+a loud voice, and singling out the very
+groom whom Miss Jemima was addressing&mdash;for,
+indeed, he was the smartest
+of all in the Squire's stables&mdash;told
+him to saddle the grey pad, and accompany
+the pony.</p>
+
+<p>"No, Frank," said Miss Jemima,
+"you can't have George; your father
+wants him to go on a message&mdash;you
+can take Mat."</p>
+
+<p>"Mat, indeed!" said Frank, grumbling
+with some reason; for Matt was a
+surly old fellow, who tied a most
+indefensible neckcloth, and always
+contrived to have a great patch in his
+boots;&mdash;besides, he called Frank
+"Master," and obstinately refused to
+trot down hill;&mdash;"Mat, indeed!&mdash;let
+Mat take the message, and George go
+with me."</p>
+
+<p>But Miss Jemima had also her
+reasons for rejecting Mat. Mat's
+foible was not servility, and he always
+showed true English independence in
+all houses where he was not invited
+to take his ale in the servants' hall.
+Mat might offend Signor Riccabocca,
+and spoil all. An animated altercation
+ensued, in the midst of which the
+Squire and his wife entered the yard,
+with the intention of driving in the
+conjugal gig to the market town. The
+matter was referred to the natural
+umpire by both the contending parties.</p>
+
+<p>The Squire looked with great contempt
+on his son. "And what do
+you want a groom at all for? Are you
+afraid of tumbling off the pony?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Frank.</span>&mdash;"No, sir; but I like to go
+as a gentleman, when I pay a visit to
+a gentleman!"</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Squire</span>, in high wrath.&mdash;"You
+precious puppy! I think I'm as good
+a gentleman as you, any day, and I
+should like to know when you ever
+saw me ride to call on a neighbour,
+with a fellow jingling at my heels,
+like that upstart Ned Spankie, whose
+father kept a cotton-mill. First time
+I ever heard of a Hazeldean thinking
+a livery-coat was necessary to prove
+his gentility!"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs <span class="smcap">Hazeldean</span> observing Frank
+colouring, and about to reply.&mdash;"Hush,
+Frank, never answer your
+father,&mdash;and you are going to call on
+Mr Leslie?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Ma'am, and I am very much
+obliged to my father for letting me,"
+said Frank, taking the Squire's hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, but Frank," continued Mrs
+Hazeldean, "I think you heard
+that the Leslies were very poor."</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Frank.</span>&mdash;"Eh, mother?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mrs Hazeldean.</span>&mdash;"And would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_415" id="Page_415">[Pg 415]</a></span>
+you run the chance of wounding the
+pride of a gentleman, as well born as
+yourself, by affecting any show of
+being richer than he is?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Squire</span> with great admiration.&mdash;"Harry,
+I'd give &pound;10 to have said
+that!"</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Frank</span>, leaving the Squire's hand
+to take his mother's.&mdash;"You're quite
+right, mother&mdash;nothing could be more
+<i>snobbish</i>!"</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Squire.</span>&mdash;"Give us your fist too,
+sir; you'll be a chip of the old block,
+after all."</p>
+
+<p>Frank smiled, and walked off to his
+pony.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mrs Hazeldean</span> to Miss Jemima.&mdash;"Is
+that the note you were to write
+for me?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Miss Jemima.</span>&mdash;"Yes, I supposed
+you did not care about seeing it, so I
+have sealed it, and given it to
+George."</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mrs Hazeldean.</span>&mdash;"But Frank
+will pass close by the Casino on his
+way to the Leslies'. It may be more
+civil if he leaves the note himself."</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Miss Jemima</span> hesitatingly.&mdash;"Do
+you think so?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mrs Hazeldean.</span>&mdash;"Yes, certainly.
+Frank&mdash;Frank&mdash;as you pass
+by the Casino, call on Mr Riccabocca,
+give this note, and say we
+shall be heartily glad if he will
+come."</p>
+
+<p>Frank nods.</p>
+
+<p>"Stop a bit," cried the Squire. "If
+Rickeybockey's at home, 'tis ten to one
+if he don't ask you to take a glass of
+wine! If he does, mind, 'tis worse
+than asking you to take a turn on the
+rack. Faugh! you remember, Harry?&mdash;I
+thought it was all up with me."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," cried Mrs Hazeldean, "for
+heaven's sake, not a drop! Wine
+indeed!"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't talk of it," cried the Squire,
+making a wry face.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll take care, sir!" said Frank,
+laughing as he disappeared within the
+stable, followed by Miss Jemima, who
+now coaxingly makes it up with him,
+and does not leave off her admonitions
+to be extremely polite to the
+poor foreign gentleman, till Frank
+gets his foot into the stirrup; and
+the pony, who knows whom he has got
+to deal with, gives a preparatory
+plunge or two, and then darts out of
+the yard.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<h2><a name="MILITARY_LIFE_IN_NORTH_AFRICA16" id="MILITARY_LIFE_IN_NORTH_AFRICA16">MILITARY LIFE IN NORTH AFRICA.</a><a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a></h2>
+
+<p>In days of national antipathy,
+now happily bygone, it was a vulgar
+English prejudice that Frenchmen
+were great only as cooks and dancing-masters.
+In popular belief, the
+fiddle and the frying-pan were their
+insignia, pirouettes and fricassees
+their highest achievements. Peace
+and steam have exploded these exaggerated
+notions in the minds even of
+the least intelligent. They would be
+inexcusable in the days of cheap excursions
+to Paris and electric telegraphs
+beneath the billows of the
+Channel. Moreover, Englishmen have
+learned to rival what they once contemned;
+native talent has been encouraged;
+Britain glories in cooks
+who will lower their culinary flag to
+no foreign kickshaw-compounder that
+ever stirred a sauce or frothed a <i>souffl&eacute;</i>;
+and in professors of the choregraphic
+who would scorn to be excelled by any
+Gaul that ever carried a kit. A higher
+standard has been fixed for the capacity
+of Frenchmen. Rivalled in cookery
+and capers, their claims are admitted
+to first-rate excellence in two nobler
+sciences&mdash;the military, namely, and
+the dramatic. Sometimes they unite
+the two. Witness Napoleon, the
+greatest warrior and most consummate
+actor France can boast. Certainly
+Frenchmen show nowhere to such advantage
+as on the stage or in the field,
+by the light of the foot-lamps or
+through the smoke of the bivouac.
+So strongly, indeed, are they imbued
+with the military and dramatic essences,
+that these are continually perceptible
+when they are engaged in
+pursuits of a most opposite character.
+The conscription and national-guard
+system give to the whole nation a
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_416" id="Page_416">[Pg 416]</a></span>martial tinge, from which the most
+pacific callings are no preservative.
+In France, men whose existence passes
+in the measurement of calico or the
+parcelling of groceries, often seem, in
+tone, costume, and mustache, to pertain
+to the camp rather than the
+counter. And in the gravest occupations,
+as in the most commonplace
+passages of life, a large majority of
+Frenchmen appear to us English to
+be continually acting. Their love of
+effect, contrast, and epigram, gives a
+theatrical air to their most ordinary
+as to their most important proceedings.
+Nations, like individuals, view
+each other through their own peculiar
+spectacles; and the French are as much
+struck and amused with English
+phlegm and reserve as we are with
+their vehemence, gesticulations, and
+demonstrativeness. We are not, however,
+here preluding to a dissertation
+on national character, but to a notice
+of some pleasant military sketches by
+a French officer. We have the highest
+opinion of Frenchmen as soldiers,
+not merely on account of their bravery,
+which is universally admitted&mdash;by
+none more freely than by those who
+have fought and beaten them&mdash;but by
+reason of their many other excellent
+military qualities&mdash;of their discipline,
+temperance, subordination, and of
+that sentiment of soldierly honour
+which we believe to pervade the
+French troops to an extent never exceeded,
+and rarely equalled, in any
+other European army. The works of
+our own military historians abound
+with traits of French chivalry and
+heroism, as they also do with acknowledgments
+of their peculiar aptitude
+for war, of their cheerfulness on the
+march, their patience under privations,
+their skill&mdash;and this is no slight virtue
+in soldiers&mdash;in shifting for themselves,
+and making the most of a bad bivouac,
+uncomfortable quarters, or a scanty
+ration. All these qualities are well
+displayed in M. de Castellane's
+sketches of French military life. The
+date of his campaigns is recent, the
+scene Africa; his opponents were
+Arabs and Kabyles; his comrades,
+Spahis, Zouaves, Chasseurs d'Orleans,
+and Chasseurs d'Afrique. To some, a
+brief explanation of these terms may
+be useful. Spahis are Arab cavalry
+in the French service, officered by
+Frenchmen, and with an admixture
+of European soldiers in the ranks.
+The Zouaves are a crack infantry
+corps, similarly composed, and attired,
+like the Spahis, in Oriental costume.
+The Chasseurs of Orleans are light infantry,
+wonderfully active, and wearing
+dark uniforms. Finally, the Chasseurs
+of Africa are a very fine body of
+French cavalry, raised expressly for
+African service, dressed in light blue,
+well mounted, and armed with carbine
+and sabre, some with lances. Like the
+Zouaves, this last-named corps is a
+favourite with adventurous volunteers,
+ambitious of distinction and the epaulet.
+In its fourth squadron, the author
+of these sketches held an officer's
+commission. He writes like a gentleman
+and a soldier; his style is pointed
+and to the purpose, and free from
+egotism and affectation. He himself
+shared in some of the warlike episodes
+he tells of; others are derived from
+the verbal or written narratives of his
+comrades. They comprise a great
+variety of details, and fully initiate us
+into the phases of a soldier's life in
+Africa. Numerous as are the works,
+French, English, and German, of
+which French conquest and colonisation
+in Africa have furnished the
+theme, there was still abundant room
+for this one, taking up, as it does, that
+branch of the subject which writers
+generally have had least opportunity
+of appreciating&mdash;the joys and sorrows,
+hardships and exploits, perils and sufferings,
+of the French soldier in Algeria.
+A fresh interest is also imparted
+to it by the prominent part lately and
+still taken in public affairs in France
+by men who have risen into distinction
+through their valour and military
+talents during the long struggle with
+the Arabs. Comparatively inattentive
+as we in England were to the razzias
+and skirmishes of the African campaigns,
+the names of Changarnier,
+Cavaignac, and Lamorici&egrave;re can hardly
+be said to have dwelt in our memories
+until revolution and civil strife in their
+own country brought them to the
+front. It now is interesting to revert
+to those earlier days of their career,
+when they fought the Bedouin on the
+arid plains and in the perilous defiles
+of North Africa, fostering in that
+rough school the sternness and tenacity
+of character which they since have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_417" id="Page_417">[Pg 417]</a></span>
+more than once had occasion usefully
+to display amidst the turmoil of domestic
+discord.</p>
+
+<p>"At four days' march from Milianah,"
+says M. de Castellane, "in
+the heart of the valley of the Cheliff,
+stand some old Roman walls, bearing
+mute testimony to the power of the
+ancient rulers of the land. At the
+foot of these walls, not far from tracts
+of stubble and dried herbs, delicious
+gardens and orchards, orange and
+pomegranate trees, and limpid springs,
+invite a halt; whilst luxuriant vines,
+trailing from branch to branch, form
+bowers of verdure, and offer delightful
+shelter to the fatigued wayfarer.
+It was at this spot that General
+Changarnier's column, consisting of
+twelve hundred infantry, three hundred
+regular cavalry, and four hundred
+Arab horsemen, was reposing,
+in the month of September 1842,
+from its numerous expeditions under
+a burning sun, protecting by its presence
+the tribes that had recently
+made their submission, and giving
+the <i>aman</i> to those numerous ones
+which came to implore it.<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> The
+column had been for some time at
+<i>El-Arour</i>, (the name of these gardens),
+when a letter reached the camp from
+our Aga in the south. Menaced by
+Abd-el-Kader, Ahmeur-ben-Ferrah
+asked succour of General Changarnier,
+entreating him to arrive speedily if
+he did not wish soon to learn the
+ruin and massacre of the tribes to
+whom France owed protection. It
+was of the utmost importance to go
+quickly to his assistance. To pass
+by Milianah was to lengthen the
+journey four days; through the
+mountains, on the other hand, in
+two marches they would be near
+enough to support him. The tribes
+seemed peacefully disposed. The
+Arab chiefs assured the French that
+not a shot would be fired at them.
+They spoke of a very difficult defile,
+but two hours, they said, would take
+the troops through it. Besides, it
+was dangerous only in case of hostility
+from the tribes adjacent to the
+river, whose chiefs, only the evening
+before, had visited the camp in friendship.
+Finally, the general had
+under his orders Zouaves, Chasseurs
+of Orleans, and Chasseurs of Africa,
+commanded by Colonel Cavaignac,
+Major Forey, and Colonel Morris.
+With such valiant troops, and such
+lieutenants, no danger was to be
+dreaded; General Changarnier's decision
+was soon taken; he would pass
+through the mountains."</p>
+
+<p>On the 17th of the month the
+little band set out, marched the 18th,
+receiving the submission of several
+tribes, and early on the morning of
+the 19th reached the Oued-Foddha
+river. There a halt of some duration
+was ordered, preparatory to entering
+the defile through which the river
+flows. The cavalry and a small
+party of infantry went out foraging.
+Presently, a well-sustained fire of
+musketry was heard, and an officer,
+sent to reconnoitre, saw the foragers
+defending themselves bravely against
+a host of white-draped Kabyles,
+headed by officers of the Arab
+regulars, dressed in red, who ran
+from group to group, exciting the
+men to the combat. This furious
+attack was rather a contrast with
+the peaceable passage promised by
+the Arab chiefs. But retreat could
+not be thought of. It would be a
+signal for the spread and consolidation
+of the revolt, and would occasion
+as much loss of life as a forward
+movement. The order was given to
+march, and the head of the column
+plunged boldly into the frightful gorge
+of the Oued-Foddha.</p>
+
+<p>"Meanwhile, on the right (the
+left bank of the river, for they were
+marching southwards, whilst the
+Oued-Foddha flows towards the
+north,) Captain Ribain's company of
+Chasseurs d'Orleans, sent to cover the
+foraging, steadily retired upon the
+column; from brushwood to brushwood,
+from tree to tree, each man
+retreated, seeking a favourable position,
+a good ambuscade; and often
+the same obstacle concealed a Kabyle
+on one side, and a chasseur on the
+other, each seeking an opportunity to
+kill his opponent. When they reached
+the last platform the bugle sounded
+the gymnastic step, and forthwith
+the chasseurs, rolling and sliding
+down the slopes, rapidly rejoined the
+rearguard, now about to enter the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_418" id="Page_418">[Pg 418]</a></span>pass. The real combat was beginning;
+already the Kabyles shouted
+from the summits on either hand,
+'You have entered your tomb, and
+will never leave it:' but they reckoned
+without our soldiers, without
+the chief who commanded them.
+Calm, impassible, General Changarnier
+rode with the rearguard, wrapped
+in his little <i>caban</i> of white wool,<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a>
+a target for every bullet, giving his
+orders with a coolness and precision
+that reassured the troops and
+redoubled their ardour. A description
+of the ground is essential to a
+clear comprehension of this terrible
+struggle. A hundred feet wide of
+sandy soil, furrowed by the bed of
+the torrent, was the ground they
+fought upon; right and left were
+steep slaty precipices, fringed with
+pine-trees; from the peaks of the
+mountains, which towered like obelisks,
+the balls poured down: such
+was the theatre of the combat. Imagine
+this ravine, these rocks, these
+mountains, covered with a multitude
+exciting themselves by their own yells,
+intoxicating themselves with the smell
+of powder, blind to danger, and rushing
+upon a handful of men, who opposed
+the coolness of energy, and the
+regular action of discipline, to their
+disorderly fury. But never for a
+moment did our soldiers cease to be
+worthily commanded. The officers
+set the example; the chief had not
+hesitated an instant, but had at once
+made up his mind, and imparted to
+his troops his own promptitude and
+decision. His plan was to march
+quickly, so as to pass the peaks,
+which were separated by impenetrable
+ravines, before the mass of
+Kabyles could get from one to the
+other: to effect this he occupied one
+of those positions indispensable to
+the safety of the column; and the
+rearguard, when too hard pressed,
+extricated itself by vigorous charges
+with the bayonet.</p>
+
+<p>"Fortunately the tribes to the east
+did not take part in the attack, so
+that the defence was at first confined
+to the right. Nevertheless, the
+column was advancing with difficulty,
+when it reached one of those passages
+that must be occupied. Some
+rocky precipices impended over the
+bed of the river, in front of a marabout
+or tomb, surrounded by lentisk
+trees; the rifle company of the Chasseurs
+d'Orleans were ordered to take
+these rocks; they sprang forward,
+full of ardour, but the steeps were
+frightful, and a week's provisions are
+a heavy load. Their lieutenant,
+Ricot, who had rushed forward without
+looking whether he was followed,
+was the first upon the platform. Two
+balls pierced his breast. Lieutenant
+Martin and two men, hastening to
+his assistance, were likewise shot
+down. The surviving officer, hurrying
+in their footsteps, was checked by a
+terrible wound. The company, deprived
+of their officers and sergeant
+major, and exposed, without guide or
+leader, to a storm of bullets, was
+compelled to retreat, rescuing M.
+Martin, who was still alive. The
+other wounded were torn to pieces in
+sight of the column, amidst the ferocious
+cries of the Kabyles.</p>
+
+<p>"The General immediately ordered a
+halt; the Zouaves and three companies
+of the Chasseurs of Orleans were to
+assault the position, whilst the cavalry
+drove back the enemy in the bed of
+the river. The charge was sounded,
+with Colonel Cavaignac and Major
+Forey at the head of the troops; the
+General sprang forward and surmounted
+the steep flanks of the mountain,
+closely followed by his eager soldiers.
+Fury was at its height, and the struggle
+terrible. M. Laplanche, a staff
+officer attached to the Zouaves, was
+killed, a major had his horse killed, a
+captain his epaulet shot off; the
+General himself was indebted for his
+life to a bugler, who killed a Kabyle
+whose musket-muzzle was at his
+breast. At last we were masters of
+the position. In the river the charge
+of cavalry had also been completely
+successful: numerous dead bodies lay
+there, including some of women, who
+threw themselves on our soldiers,
+mixed with the Kabyles, fighting like
+men, and cutting off, for bloody trophies,
+the heads of the slain.</p>
+
+<p>"These two vigorous offensive
+movements procured us a little respite;
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_419" id="Page_419">[Pg 419]</a></span>soon, however, the combat was
+renewed with fresh ardour. The
+officers, foremost in danger, were also
+the first hit. Five officers of Zouaves,
+three of the Chasseurs d'Orleans, had
+already fallen, and it was but the
+middle of the day. Colonel Cavaignac,
+with his Zouaves, persisted in
+revenging his officers. It was no longer
+courage, but fury; every man was
+worth a score, and seemed to multiply
+himself to face all perils. As to the
+General, the bullets and the danger
+only increased his audacious coolness;
+his eyes beamed, and wherever he
+passed he inspired all with new
+energy. Amidst the noise of the
+musketry, which the mountain echoes
+repeated like the howling of a storm,
+the column advanced; the cavalry
+marching in front, with orders to halt,
+towards nightfall, in the first favourable
+position.</p>
+
+<p>"The troops had reached a spot
+where the two lofty banks of the
+ravine, bending inwards, again left
+but a narrow passage. Both banks
+were now occupied by the Kabyles;
+and whilst two companies were sent
+to repel them on the left, Captain
+Ribains, with a detachment of Chasseurs
+d'Orleans, was ordered to occupy
+the right-hand position. It was a
+vertical cascade of rocks and slaty
+soil, covered with firs and brushwood;
+a rivulet flowed across and soaked
+the ground, upon its way to the river.
+The captain dislodged the Arabs,
+occupied the position, thus assuring
+the free passage of the column; but,
+when he would have rejoined the
+main body, the Kabyles threw themselves
+upon his little band. A few
+men, the foremost files, tried to descend
+in a straight line; their feet
+slipped upon the slope, rendered
+slippery by the water, and nine of
+them were precipitated from an elevation
+of eighty feet. They rolled
+from rock to rock, from cliff to cliff,
+trying, but in vain, to cling to the
+bushes, and fell at last into the bed
+of the river. The rest of the company
+had inclined to the right towards a ravine,
+letting themselves drop from tree
+to tree, to rejoin the column. One
+soldier, Calmette by name, separated
+from his comrades and surrounded by
+Kabyles, was driven to the brink of the
+precipice. With his rifle he shot down
+one, two others fell by his bayonet;
+then, finding that he must fall, he
+seized two Kabyles, and sought to
+avenge his fate by making them share
+it. The rock was perpendicular; they
+fell from its summit, and, by unheard
+of good luck, the Kabyle to whom
+the chasseur most closely clung fell
+under him, and by his death saved
+his enemy's life. As to Captain
+Ribains, he was descending last of all,
+and seemed to defy the hostile bullets,
+when three Kabyles rushed upon
+him, fired, and fractured his shoulder.
+Fortunately his men managed to carry
+him off. All who witnessed still remember
+his being borne past the General,
+who congratulated him on his glorious
+conduct; his energetic countenance expressed
+the legitimate pride of duty
+done, and blood nobly poured out."</p>
+
+<p>At last night approached, and the
+bivouac was established at a place
+where the bed of the river expanded.
+Tents were pitched for the General
+and the wounded; the soldiers received
+fresh ammunition; a battalion
+was ordered to march, in profound
+silence, at two in the morning, to
+occupy the heights along the river
+bank, by which the morrow's march
+would lead. The French, still excited
+by the contest, conversed eagerly
+round their bivouac fires. Their
+Arab allies were discouraged, and sat
+gloomily beside their saddled horses,
+wrapped in their <i>burnous</i> and without
+fire. There were but three surgeons
+in the camp, and their hands were
+full. Most of the wounds had been
+received at the musket's muzzle, and
+were very painful. Eight amputations
+took place during the night. The
+quarter of the bivouac where the hospital
+was established, resounded with
+groans and cries of anguish. Examples
+of heroic endurance were not
+wanting. "For three quarters of an
+hour the chief surgeon probed and
+tortured the arm of Captain Ribains,
+saving the limb by his skill. During
+this long operation, the captain, seated
+on a biscuit box, amidst the dead and
+dying, showed as much fortitude as he
+had previously displayed courage. Not
+a complaint did he utter; only, from
+time to time, he could not help turning
+to the surgeon and saying&mdash;'Really,
+doctor, you hurt me.' Amongst
+the wounded of the 4th Chasseurs<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_420" id="Page_420">[Pg 420]</a></span>
+d'Afrique was a soldier named Cayeux.
+Feeling his death approach, he sent
+for his captain. After giving him a
+last message for his mother: 'Give
+my thanks, also,' said the soldier, 'to
+Colonel Tartas; he is a good man&mdash;he
+has always loved those he commanded;
+tell him that one of his
+soldiers thanks him with his dying
+breath.'" An affecting trait, honourable
+alike to soldier and to chief.
+There was much to do that night: it
+was all done, and well done. Litters
+were required for the wounded: trees
+were cut down, and the litters were
+made. The dead were to be buried:
+an hour before daybreak they were
+collected; a detachment of engineers,
+diverting the course of the stream, dug
+a hole, in which the bodies were deposited,
+and over which the water was
+again allowed to flow. This was to
+protect the corpses from Kabyle profanation.
+At dawn the march was
+resumed, amidst the shouts of the
+Kabyles, summoning each other to
+the massacre of the French. Their
+surprise and rage were excessive on
+finding the positions along the line of
+march all occupied. Notwithstanding
+the disadvantage of ground, the French
+now had the best of it, and several
+times during that day's march they
+turned upon their pursuers with terrible
+effect, the Zouaves especially
+distinguishing themselves. "After
+one of these rallies, they passed, to
+the great joy of all, through some
+magnificent vines, and quenched their
+thirst with the ripe grapes&mdash;the
+General himself, to whom the soldiers
+hastened to offer the first-fruits of the
+vintage, setting the example. Just
+then Colonel Cavaignac passed by.
+'Here, my dear colonel,' said General
+Changarnier, offering him a splendid
+bunch of grapes, 'you must need
+refreshment after such glorious fatigues.'
+And they fell into chat, the
+balls falling thickly around them, until
+Colonel Cavaignac was called away
+to one of his captains, shot down at a
+few paces' distance, and who wished
+to recommend to him his mother and
+sister, and to give him his cross of
+officer of the Legion of Honour."</p>
+
+<p>A short time brought the column
+out of the defile upon ground which,
+although mountainous, appeared by
+contrast an open plain, and where the
+cavalry could act with advantage.
+The Kabyles were beaten off; and
+the next day halt was made, to rest
+the men, look after the wounded, and
+execute a plan of reprisals devised by
+Changarnier. His spies had informed
+him where the flocks and families of
+his late antagonists were assembled.
+A razzia was ordered in the night,
+and its result was eight hundred prisoners
+and twelve thousand head of
+cattle. Thus encumbered with captives,
+spoil, and wounded, the little
+band, which originally numbered
+barely two thousand men, now notably
+reduced by two days' severe
+fighting, completed a march of fifty
+leagues, to the utter astonishment of
+the natives, who could not believe
+that such a handful of troops had
+made their way, amidst the storm of
+Kabyle bullets, through those terrible
+ravines, which the Arabs designate
+the defiles of death. The affair of the
+Oued-Foddha is still celebrated in the
+French army as one of the most heroic
+achievements of the African war. All
+who were engaged did their duty
+well, taking example from their commander,
+of whom M. de Castellane
+speaks in the highest terms. Eight
+months after this affair the Kabyles
+had made their submission, and the
+war was at an end in the province&mdash;for
+a time, at least. General Changarnier
+was about to return to France.
+M. de Castellane accompanied him to
+the coast.</p>
+
+<p>"I well remember that, on our road
+from Milianah to Algiers, the Arab
+chiefs came to greet him on his passage,
+and amongst them I met an old
+Ca&iuml;d of the Hadjouts, whom I had
+known at Blidah. We spoke of the
+numerous razzias and nocturnal expeditions
+that had destroyed his warlike
+tribe. 'His name, with us,' he said
+to me, speaking of General Changarnier,
+'signifies the <i>subduer of pride,
+the conqueror of enemies</i>;<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> and he has
+justified his name.' Then pointing to
+the long line of mountains which
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_421" id="Page_421">[Pg 421]</a></span>border the Mitidja from Chenouan to
+the sea, 'When the storm comes,' he
+continued, 'the lightning runs in an
+instant along all those mountains,
+penetrating their inmost recesses.
+Thus did his glance discover us. And
+when he had seen us, the bullet
+reaches not its aim more rapidly!'
+The old Arab spoke the truth. General
+Changarnier's characteristics are
+a quick and sound judgment, and
+dauntless energy: he knows how to
+command. His courage rises with
+danger; then, if you approach him,
+his vigour communicates itself to you,
+and you cannot doubt of success. At
+Constantina he first distinguished
+himself, and since then he has never
+for a day been inferior to the glorious
+reputation he there acquired. If ever
+you find yourself at the bivouac, or
+under the soldier's little tent, with
+one of those old African bands, get
+them to talk to you of their numerous
+expeditions under his orders, and you
+will see what they say of him."</p>
+
+<p>It was in March 1843 that M. de
+Castellane and some other officers left
+Algiers for Blidah, there to join
+General Changarnier, and commence,
+under his orders, a campaign in the
+interior. Their mid-day halt was at
+Bouffarik, an unwholesome town, frequently
+ravaged by fever, but which,
+nevertheless, enjoys a certain degree
+of prosperity, due to its central position.
+Here they refreshed themselves,
+according to invariable custom, at the
+celebrated coffee-house of <i>la M&egrave;re
+Gaspard</i>, a veteran sutler, who, after
+following the drum ever since the
+first landing of the French in 1830,
+had wearied of wandering, and pitched
+her tent at Bouffarik. There she
+greatly prospered, and in a few years
+had land of her own, a splendid hotel
+and coffee-house. "The place was
+adorned with paintings, marbles, and
+mirrors, and especially with some very
+fine engravings from Horace Vernet's
+pictures, which had been placed there
+by the hand of the celebrated artist.
+One day, dying of thirst, Vernet
+alighted at Mother Gaspard's. There
+he was offered drink, and land to buy.
+He drank and he bought some land,
+but, when signing the bargain, he
+perceived that the walls were covered
+with wretched lithographs after his
+pictures. Like a good neighbour, he
+promised to send the engravings, and
+he kept his word. Mother Gaspard,
+proud of the gift, never fails to relate
+the incident, and in my turn I repeat
+the tale." Between Bouffarik and
+Blidah, the traveller comes to a monument
+erected in honour of a sergeant
+and fifteen men who perished there in
+1840. They and five others were
+escorting the post-bag from Bouffarik,
+when they were set upon by some
+four hundred mounted Arabs. Forming
+a miniature square, they made a
+valiant defence, but five only survived
+when a squadron of Spahis came to
+the rescue.</p>
+
+<p>At Blidah, a perfect labyrinth of
+streets, squares and lanes, the travellers
+were greatly puzzled to find the
+General's quarters, when an obliging
+Arab volunteered to guide them to the
+residence of the <i>Changarlo</i>. It was
+a very humble habitation for the commander
+of a great province. A single
+sentry stood at the door; a great fig
+tree, the refuge of countless pigeons,
+shot up in the middle of the court; a
+small chamber, the only one upon the
+first floor, was the General's sleeping
+room; upon the ground floor, a large
+apartment answered the double purpose
+of orderly-room and of an aide-de-camp's
+bed-chamber. Two tolerably
+furnished rooms were allotted to
+visitors. At Blidah, as in camp,
+General Changarnier's hospitality was
+proverbial, even amongst the Arabs.
+M. de Castellane and his comrades
+found a cordial reception. But they
+were not long to enjoy themselves
+beneath the shadow of the General's
+fig-tree. The march was ordered for
+the next morning; Blidah's quiet
+streets and unfrequented shops swarmed
+with soldiers, providing themselves
+with coffee and tobacco, and such
+other comforts as their pocket-money
+allowed. The French soldier receives
+twopence half-penny every five days&mdash;no
+great fund for luxuries. On all
+sides, fatigue-parties were hurrying
+to the stores; and at night, until
+tattoo was beaten, every wine-house,
+was thronged for a parting carouse.
+At daybreak, with well-packed
+knapsacks and a week's rations on
+their backs, the column set out for
+Milianah. No apprehensions of perils
+or fatigues ruffled their joyous humour.
+They were all old soldiers, hardened<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_422" id="Page_422">[Pg 422]</a></span>
+in many campaigns; and besides, as
+they themselves said, in their barrack-room
+style, "with Changarnier there
+is always a smell of mutton." The
+allusion was to the numerous flocks
+they had captured under his orders.
+The success of his frequent razzias
+had made the saying proverbial
+amongst the troops. "On the 13th
+June 1849, the sixth battalion of
+Chasseurs, who had so long served
+under General Changarnier in Africa,
+having received orders to charge the
+insurgents in the streets of Paris, set
+off laughing and repeating to each
+other, to the great astonishment of
+the national guards, the old African
+proverb: 'This smells of mutton.'"</p>
+
+<p>The town of Milianah had twice
+been preserved to the French by the
+skill and enterprise of General Changarnier.
+In June 1840, that officer
+was colonel of the 2d Light Infantry,
+a regiment celebrated in African
+annals, and whose exploits have been
+repeatedly recorded on the canvass of
+Horace Vernet. The French army,
+commanded by Marshal Val&eacute;e, was
+assembled, exhausted by many
+fatigues, beneath the walls of Medeah.
+Milianah, then but recently occupied
+by the French, was in want of provisions.
+All the generals deemed its
+relief impossible; the distance was
+too great, the men were too weary.
+Colonel Changarnier thought otherwise,
+and volunteered the service. By
+a march of twenty-four leagues in
+thirty hours, he evaded the enemy
+and accomplished his task, returning
+to Medeah four days afterwards, to
+receive the congratulations of the
+whole army. The stores and succours
+thus thrown into Milianah
+would suffice, it was hoped and expected,
+until the end of the autumn.
+But the hot season brought sickness
+in its train; vermin destroyed part of
+the provisions; the cattle died: famine
+was imminent.</p>
+
+<p>"Pent up within the ramparts and
+hard pressed by hunger, the soldiers
+ate whatever they could lay hands
+upon, even boiling and devouring
+weeds and mallows. This unwholesome
+nourishment, acting on the brain,
+induced nostalgia and suicide. Of
+twelve hundred men, seven hundred
+and fifty had perished; four hundred
+were in hospital, the others were little
+better than invalids, and had hardly
+strength to carry their muskets. The
+officers themselves were obliged to
+stand sentry, and the fatal day was
+near at hand when, for want of
+defenders, the town must be taken.
+No letters, no news&mdash;the spies had all
+been killed. At last a despatch from
+the governor escaped the Arabs, and
+intelligence reached Algiers of the sad
+condition of the garrison. Colonel
+Changarnier, who had become general
+since his first relief of Milianah, had
+increased, by further feats, his reputation
+for skill and audacity, and to him
+Marshal Val&eacute;e again had recourse.
+Only two thousand men could be
+spared, wherewith to brave the attacks
+of the whole forces of Abd-el-Kader,
+who then had scarcely passed
+the zenith of his power. But Changarnier
+did not hesitate. The greater
+the peril, the more glorious the success."</p>
+
+<p>By spreading reports of a march in
+a contrary direction, the daring leader
+gained a day upon the enemy, and
+then cut his way to Milianah, reaching
+it in time to save the remnant of the
+unfortunate garrison. But three
+years had greatly changed the aspect
+of affairs; and when M. de Castellane
+reached Milianah in 1843, he found
+five thousand effective soldiers waiting
+the orders of Changarnier. There
+ensued a period of idleness for the
+men, but of great activity for the
+General and staff. The plan of campaign
+was to be sketched out; information
+was to be obtained concerning
+the nature of the country.</p>
+
+<p>"Everyday the Aga of the Beni-Menacers,
+Ben-Tifour, came to the
+General's quarters with men of his
+tribe, and there, by dint of questioning,
+by asking the same things ten times
+over and of ten different individuals,
+the chief of the province succeeded in
+obtaining exact notions of the country,
+the halting places, the water, the
+bivouacs. During this time a constant
+communication was kept up with
+Cherchell by means of spies. Some
+of the letters sent cost five hundred
+francs postage, for the carriers risked
+their lives. At last, after mature reflection,
+the General's plan was decided
+upon and written down; and his
+orders were given with that clearness
+and precision which leaves no doubt
+or ambiguity. This was one of General<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_423" id="Page_423">[Pg 423]</a></span>
+Changarnier's characteristics. With
+him obedience was always easy, because
+the duty was never doubtful."</p>
+
+<p>At Milianah the French officers had
+a club, a pleasant pavilion in the
+middle of a garden. A library and a
+coffee house were attached to it. For
+evening amusement there was the
+theatre. Ay, a theatre at Milianah!
+How could Frenchmen, even in the
+heart of Algeria, exist without a
+vaudeville? The soldiers were actors.
+The <i>vivandi&egrave;res</i> lent their caps and
+gowns to dress up the female characters.
+"I well remember," says M.
+de Castellane, "seeing <i>Le Caporal et
+la Payse</i> played at Milianah. The
+Dejazet of the company, a mettlesome
+<i>Art&eacute;mise</i>, excited the laughter of the
+whole audience, even that of General
+Changarnier, who often attended the
+performance, in his box of painted
+paper. It is impossible to say how
+much these amusements, which some
+may deem futile, contributed to keep
+up the spirits of the troops, and to
+dispel those gloomy ideas which in
+Africa are often the forerunners of
+nostalgia and death."</p>
+
+<p>Not all these diversions and resources,
+however, could reconcile M.
+de Castellane to a fortnight's halt at
+Milianah. He beguiled his anxiety
+for action by researches into the history
+of certain Arab tribes. The
+three principal families of Milianah
+were those of Omar, Sidi-Embarek,
+and Ouled-ben-Yousef. At that time,
+Sidi-Embarek was organising amongst
+the Kabyles a vigorous resistance to
+the French, to whom Omar was
+friendly. The recent annals of the
+Omars are highly curious, and form a
+chapter of the purest Oriental romance.
+In the valley of the Cheliff, "at Oued-Boutan,
+the new Hakem of the town
+of Milianah, Omar Pacha, of the
+illustrious family of the pacha of that
+name, was waiting for us. There we
+had a fresh proof of the deep traces
+the Turks have left in this country.
+After more than thirteen years, the
+remembrance of them is still so lively
+amongst the people, that the son of
+the Pacha Omar was surrounded by
+the respect of all these chiefs as in
+the day of his family's power."</p>
+
+<p>"The most celebrated of the Omars
+was one of those Turkish soldiers,
+each one of whom may say, when he
+dons the uniform&mdash;'If it is written,
+I shall be a pacha!' Mehemet Ali,
+putting into Metelin on his way to
+Egypt, met Omar, whose brother had
+for some years past held high office
+under the Pacha of Algiers. Mehemet
+Ali and Omar formed a close friendship,
+and set out together to seek
+their fortune, but scarcely had they
+reached Egypt when Omar received
+a letter from his brother Mahomed,
+summoning him to his side. The two
+friends parted, with a vow that the
+first who succeeded in life should
+share his prosperity with the other.
+At Oran, where his brother had become
+Caliphate of the Bey, Omar's
+fine figure, his eye, whose gaze none
+could endure, his long black mustaches,
+and his brilliant beauty, procured
+him the surname of <i>chaous</i>.
+Soon afterwards, the daughter of a
+Turk of Milianah, named Jemna,
+whom all cited as a marvel of loveliness,
+became his wife. But Omar's
+prosperity was of short duration. His
+brother Mahomed, whose credit with
+the Pacha of Algiers gave umbrage
+to the Bey of Oran, was thrown into
+prison, and the Bey ordered his
+death. Omar was compelled to share
+his brother's dungeon, and when the
+executioner entered, he would have
+defended him; but Mahomed prevented
+it. 'The hour of my death is
+come,' he said. 'It is not given to
+man to resist the power of the Most
+High; but pray to him daily that he
+may choose thee as my avenger; and
+bear in mind that you are the husband
+of my wife and the father of my
+children.' Thenceforward, revenge
+was Omar's sole thought; and when,
+by the Pacha's order, the Bey sent
+him to Algiers, he used all his efforts
+to elevate himself, in order to hasten
+the hour of retaliation. Soon he
+became Ca&iuml;d of the Arabs; and his
+wife Jemna, who at first had been
+prevented leaving Oran, managed to
+join him, through a thousand dangers,
+escorted by her father, Si-Hassan, and
+by a faithful servant, Baba-Djelloull.</p>
+
+<p>"The troops of Tunis marched
+against Algiers; a battle took place,
+and the Turks were giving way, when
+Omar, dashing forward with thirty
+horsemen, made a daring charge,
+rallied the army by his example, and
+decided the victory. On his return<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_424" id="Page_424">[Pg 424]</a></span>
+to Algiers, the troops clamorously
+demanded him as their Aga. Meanwhile,
+Mehemet Ali's fortune had also
+made progress. The massacre of the
+Mamelukes consolidated his power, and
+he testified his recollection of his friend,
+by sending him a magnificent tent.</p>
+
+<p>"The country flourished under the
+administration of the new Aga. Stone
+bridges were built over the Isser and
+the Cheliff. In the words of the
+Arab chronicle, victory everywhere
+accompanied Omar. His name was
+a terror to his enemies, and he was
+blessed by all the people, when the
+Bey of Oran, still detesting the
+brother of Mahomed, and dreading
+this new power, persuaded the Pacha
+of Algiers that Omar was planning to
+usurp his throne. Fortunately, an
+intercepted letter warned Omar, who
+hurried to the barracks, and assembled
+the troops. 'It is you who have
+raised me,' he said, 'and in none
+others do I recognise the right to cast
+me down. I place myself in your
+hands; either kill me or deliver me
+from my enemies.' The furious soldiery
+ran to the Pacha's palace,
+stabbed him, (1810) and would have
+named Omar in his stead; but Omar
+refused, and the <i>khrasnadji</i>, or treasurer,
+was then elected. All-powerful,
+Omar saw the hour of revenge at
+hand. The Bey of Oran having revolted,
+he marched against him, took
+his enemy prisoner, and had him
+flayed alive. In the province of Oran
+you are still told of <i>Bey el messeloug</i>,
+the flayed Bey.</p>
+
+<p>"In 1816, fearing the Coulouglis,<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a>
+the Pacha planned their massacre,
+and confided his project to Omar,
+who, far from countenancing it, had
+the Pacha stifled in his bath. This
+time he was obliged to accept the
+Pachalik. When sending the customary
+present to the Porte, he
+intrusted Si-Hassan and his son
+Mahomed with rich presents for
+Mehemet Ali, who was named Pacha
+almost at the same time. For the
+space of two years, Omar made head
+against all manner of misfortunes&mdash;against
+the plague, the locusts, and
+Lord Exmouth's bombardment; but
+poor Jemna had lost her peace of
+mind, for she knew that all Deys die
+a violent death. In 1818, she was in
+the pains of childbed when she heard
+discharges of artillery. Seized with
+alarm, she desired to see Omar, and,
+contrary to etiquette, she sent her
+faithful attendant, old Baba-Djelloull,
+to seek him; but the old man soon
+returned, and returned alone. Jemna
+understood, and swooned away. At
+the same instant, numerous blows
+were struck on the door of her apartments.
+It was the <i>chaous</i> of the new
+Dey, coming to take possession of
+Omar's treasures."</p>
+
+<p>The treasures were enormous in
+amount. M. Roche, the French consul-general
+at Tangiers, to whom M.
+de Castellane declares himself indebted
+for this very interesting history
+of the Omar family, derived his account
+of them from a son of Jemna,
+apparently that one whose birth she
+was hourly expecting when she was
+shocked by the intelligence of her
+husband's violent death. "Omar's
+palace contained a hundred negroes,
+three hundred negresses, ten Georgians,
+twenty Abyssinians, forty thoroughbred
+horses, ten mares from the
+Desert. The entire furniture of one
+saloon was of gold and silver, adorned
+with precious stones; another room
+was full of chests of gold and silver
+coin, silk brocade, and cloth of gold.
+Jemna changed her dress every week,
+and attached to each costume was a
+complete set of diamonds, consisting
+of a diadem, an aigret and earrings,
+a collar of fifteen rows of pearls, two
+clasps, bracelets, twelve rings for the
+fingers and two for the ankles, and a
+tunic of cloth-of-gold, studded with
+precious stones." Omar's murderer
+and successor would fain have wedded
+his widow, but she spurned his offer.
+He then seized her treasures, and, in
+the moment of good-humour which
+their great amount occasioned him, he
+allowed her to retire with her children
+to Milianah, where her father had
+property. After a few months' sway,
+the new Pacha was assassinated in his
+turn, and his successor, Hadj-Mohamed,
+went to inhabit the Casbah
+palace, in defiance of a prophetic inscription
+announcing an invasion by
+Christians during the reign of a Pacha
+whose residence should be the Casbah.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_425" id="Page_425">[Pg 425]</a></span></p>
+<p>He died of the plague; and Hassan,
+who succeeded him, and who had been
+an <i>iman</i> under Omar, showed his gratitude
+to his former master by magnificent
+presents to his widow, and
+great kindness to his sons. Jemna
+had almost forgotten past sorrows in
+present happiness, when the arrival of
+the French brought her fresh disasters
+and sufferings. Her sons allied themselves
+with the invaders, thereby incurring
+hatred and persecution from
+Abd-el-Kader. They were stripped
+of all they possessed: Omar, the
+youngest of them, was loaded with
+fetters, and placed in a dungeon;
+Jemna escaped the bastinado only by
+the mercy of an executioner, who
+inflicted it upon a negress in her stead.
+At last the intervention of some
+Arab chiefs procured the liberty of
+both mother and son, and the progress
+of the French enabled them to take
+up their residence in safety at Milianah,
+where Omar was appointed <i>hakem</i>, an
+office equivalent to mayor. In 1843, M.
+de Castellane was present at an interview
+between Marshal Bugeaud and
+Jemna, whose countenance, in spite of
+lapse of years and many sorrows, still
+retained traces of great beauty.</p>
+
+<p>The chief of the Sidi-Embarek, a
+family which, although of Arab race,
+had enjoyed great respect and influence
+in the country for some centuries
+before Turkish rule was terminated
+by French usurpation, had
+actively stimulated the persecution of
+the family of Omar, whose personal
+enemy he was. M. de Castellane
+gives the following account of the
+founder of the Sidi-Embarek:&mdash;"In
+1580, a man of the Hachems of the
+west, named Si-Embarek, left his
+tribe, with two servants, and went to
+Milianah. There, on account of his
+poverty, he discharged his servants,
+who settled upon the banks of the
+Cheliff, and gave birth to the tribe of
+Hachems still existing there. Sidi-Embarek
+then went to Coleah, and
+engaged himself as <i>rham&egrave;s</i> (a sort of
+subordinate farmer) to a certain
+Ismael; but, instead of working, he
+slept; and meanwhile, marvellous to
+relate, the yoke of oxen intrusted to
+him ploughed by themselves, and, at
+the close of day, he had done more
+work than anybody else. This prodigy
+was reported to Ismael, who,
+desirous of witnessing it with his own
+eyes, hid himself one day, and saw
+Embarek sleeping under a tree whilst
+the oxen ploughed. Thereupon
+Ismael knelt before him, and exclaimed&mdash;'You
+are the elect of God;
+'tis I who am your servant, and you
+are my master;' and, taking him
+home, he treated him with profound
+respect. Embarek's reputation for
+holiness spread far and wide; multitudes
+thronged to solicit his prayers
+and make him offerings, and he
+speedily acquired great riches." The
+grandson, many times removed, of
+this miraculous ploughman, was a
+Marabout or saint by right of descent;
+but he was also a very considerable
+fighting man, and a most efficient
+lieutenant of Abd-el-Kader. We
+make his acquaintance under very
+striking circumstances, in the course
+of M. de Castellane's curious account
+of the Spahis of Mascara. The corps
+of Spahis had its origin in the necessities
+of African service. Excellent
+and most efficient as are the regiments
+of light dragoons known as <i>Chasseurs
+d'Afrique</i>, they were not all that was
+wanted in the way of cavalry. It was
+found expedient to make Arab fight
+Arab. Knowledge of the country, and
+of the habits of the foe, was as essential
+as good soldiership. The prospect
+of gain brought abundant recruits;
+the discipline exacted was less
+rigid than in French regiments; the
+sole uniform was a red <i>burnous</i>, stripped
+off in an instant, when desirable
+to conceal the military character of
+the wearer. Europeans not being
+excluded from the corps, many roving
+and desultory blades, tempted by the
+adventurous nature of the service, and
+to whom the routine and strict discipline
+of a more regular one would
+have been irksome, have, at different
+periods, served in the ranks of the
+Spahis, and sometimes sabred their
+way to a commission&mdash;"strange
+adventurers," says M. de Castellane,
+"whose lives resembled some tale of
+former days cut out of an old book."
+And he gives an account of two such
+persons whom he met with in the
+Mascara squadron, with which his
+own was for some time brigaded.
+One was a French <i>mar&eacute;chal-de-logis</i>
+or sergeant, named Alfred Siquot, a
+man of good family and eccentric<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_426" id="Page_426">[Pg 426]</a></span>
+character,&mdash;a great humourist,
+whose gloomy air and silent laugh
+had procured him from his comrades
+the surname of Jovial. There does
+not appear, however, to have been
+mystery in his previous life, which
+was open to all, nor any particular
+romance or adventures in its incidents
+previously to his service in Africa.
+The case was very different with his
+comrade, Mohamed-Ould-Ca&iuml;d-Osman,
+who had the rank of native
+officer. "The Arab name concealed
+a Prussian one, and an agitated life,
+full of duels and adventures&mdash;of condemnations
+to death, and executions
+in effigy. Clever and well-informed,
+there was a great charm in his bluntness
+of manner, and his bravery,
+justly celebrated, procured him the
+respect of all. He was the very type
+of the officer of fortune&mdash;of the lansquenet
+of former days. His double-barrelled
+gun, as much dreaded by
+the Arabs as by the partridges&mdash;his
+dog Tom&mdash;his sorrel charger, a beast
+of famous bottom&mdash;were his sole
+friends in the field. In garrison, a
+fourth affection found a place in his
+heart&mdash;a little Spanish girl, who never
+opened her mouth, and was as devoted
+to him as his dog. Tom, the
+<i>Chica</i>, the Ca&iuml;d, made but one. Their
+life, with its joys and sorrows, was in
+common. Now and then Siquot went
+and smoked his pipe in the midst of
+the three friends.</p>
+
+<p>"As to the Ca&iuml;d's African life, it
+was well known, and its accidents had
+more than once beguiled the leisure
+of the bivouac. He had been twice
+seen at Algiers, but in very different
+circumstances. The first time, in all
+his splendour, he was travelling with
+Prince Puckler-Muskau, who speaks
+of him in his <i>Letters</i>, designating him
+by his initials. The second time, in
+1840, he had assumed the knapsack
+of the infantry soldier, and was marching
+to the defile of Mouzaia, in the
+ranks of the foreign legion."</p>
+
+<p>The ruined gentleman, however,
+could not accustom himself to walking,
+and after a severe campaign, in
+which three-fourths of his company
+perished, he procured a substitute and
+left the legion. Once more a free
+agent, his roving propensities were
+checked for a while by the fascinations
+of a fair Moor. "Halfway up the
+hill leading to Mustapha, stood a
+cheerful white house, embowered in
+foliage and commanding a splendid
+view of the Bay of Algiers. The
+Armida of that enchanting spot was
+named A&iuml;cha, and never did Eastern
+poet dream of a more charming creature.
+What wonder, then, if beneath
+these shades six months of peace,
+calm, and repose elapsed. Each
+morning the smiling beauty seated
+herself at Osman's feet, whilst he
+wrote, upon a little Arab table, in the
+midst of perfumes and flowers, the life
+of a Protestant missionary whom he
+had met in one of his rambles."<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a>
+The Rinaldo of the foreign legion
+might, one would think, have been
+well content to linger long in such a
+retreat and such society. A&iuml;cha was
+fond and constant, and was rapidly
+acquiring German. But after six
+months of this Capuan existence, the
+vagabond again got the upper-hand in
+the restless soul of the Ca&iuml;d. Like the
+celebrated Lord Lovel, he loved and
+he rode away; the horse, in this case,
+being represented by a steamer, which
+carried him off westwards one fine
+morning, his gun on his shoulder, and
+in his pocket a letter of recommendation,
+now two years old, for General
+Lamorici&egrave;re, whom he had formerly
+known in command of a battalion of
+Zouaves. What became of A&iuml;cha&mdash;whether
+she cried her eyes out, or
+took arsenic, or another lover&mdash;the
+little dog, as Mr Commissary Capsicum
+would say, forgot to mention.</p>
+
+<p>"The province of Oran, in 1841,
+was far from tranquil; a stout heart
+and a strong arm had then abundant
+opportunities of distinction. Mohamed-Ould-Ca&iuml;d-Osman,
+inscribed under
+this Arab name on the muster-roll
+of the Spahis, and Siquot, who enlisted
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_427" id="Page_427">[Pg 427]</a></span>at the same period, did not miss
+such opportunities. Soon afterwards,
+Siquot was wounded, the Ca&iuml;d had his
+horse killed under him, and their
+names appeared in the orders of the
+army. Heroes, whether illustrious or
+unknown, always find enviers; take
+as an example Sergeant Froidefond,
+a grumbling old trooper, who thought
+proper to tell the Ca&iuml;d he was good
+for nothing but cleaning his nails.
+On their return to Mascara, they
+fought at twelve paces: Froidefond
+fired first, and the Ca&iuml;d fell, shot
+through the buttock. The seconds
+ran forward to pick him up. 'Stop!'
+he cried, 'it is my turn to fire;' and
+raising himself on his elbow, he shot
+Froidefond dead. He himself was
+then carried to the hospital, where he
+found Siquot, who was getting cured
+of a wound. On hearing what had
+happened, the Chica&mdash;who had then
+been about a year mixed up in his
+existence, without very well knowing
+why, like the dogs who attach themselves
+to a squadron&mdash;hastened to the
+hospital to nurse him, and in three
+months he was on his legs again."</p>
+
+<p>The Ca&iuml;d had returned to his duty
+when, in 1813, M. de Castellane's regiment
+entered Mascara with trumpets
+sounding, escorting Marshal
+Bugeaud. Abd-el-Kader was at no
+great distance, and Generals Lamorici&egrave;re
+and Tempoure had been operating
+against him until the cavalry of
+the province had great need of repose
+to recruit and remount. One night a
+Spanish deserter came over from the
+Emir, and gave Marshal Bugeaud
+important information, fully confirming
+the reports of the spies. An hour
+later, orders were given for an expedition
+in pursuit of Abd-el-Kader's battalions
+of regulars, of whom Sidi-Embarek
+had just taken the command.
+General Tempoure had charge of the
+column, which consisted of two battalions
+of infantry, four hundred and
+fifty French dragoons, fifty Spahis,
+including Siquot and the Ca&iuml;d Osman,
+and a few irregular horse.</p>
+
+<p>"If the official reports in the <i>Moniteur</i>
+were not there to confirm its
+truth, the narrative of this expedition
+would risk being deemed a fable.
+Cavalry and infantry marched three
+days and three nights: in the morning
+they halted for one hour and a
+half&mdash;at night, from six o'clock till midnight.
+From the moment when the
+trail of the enemy was first struck,
+the drum was not once beaten. They
+followed the scent, like dogs pursuing
+their prey. Thirty Spahis, with some
+horsemen belonging to the Arab office
+at Mascara, preceded the column;
+they <i>read the earth</i> during the night.
+What all exciting time that was!
+We came to bivouacs whose fires
+were still burning; the enemy had
+left them only that morning, and in
+all haste we resumed our march. At
+last, after forty-eight hours, our Arab
+scouts, hovering round the flanks of
+the column, captured two Arabs of the
+tribe of Djaffra. These refused at first
+to speak; but a musket-muzzle, applied
+to their heads, untied their tongues,
+and we learned that the regulars were
+at Taouira on the previous evening.
+We were on the right road, therefore,
+and should end by overtaking them.
+The march was resumed, the Spahis
+still leading. Not a pipe was alight;
+profound silence was observed, broken
+only by the noise of a fall, when some
+sleepy foot-soldier stumbled over an
+obstacle. Day broke, and a slight
+smoke was seen; the fires had just expired,
+the regulars were gone. The
+hope which had hitherto sustained the
+soldiers' strength suddenly abandoned
+them; nothing was heard but cries
+and maledictions. Everyone grumbled
+at the general. The morning halt
+was called in a hollow, and whilst the
+soldiers ate, the scouts reported that
+the traces of the enemy were quite
+fresh. For a second General Tempoure
+hesitated; then his decision
+was taken, and the order for instant
+march given. A great clamour arose
+in the bivouac. 'He wants to kill us
+all!' cried the soldiers, who during
+seventy hours had had but a few moments
+of repose. They obeyed, however,
+and the march was resumed.
+In an hour's time, the track turned
+southwards. In that direction there
+was no certainty of water. No matter,
+advance we must. But the traces
+grew fresher and fresher: here a horse
+had been abandoned; a little farther,
+a jackass. 'We have got the rascals!'
+said the soldiers, and their strength
+revived. At last, towards eleven
+o'clock, whilst the column was passing
+through a deep ravine, a thick<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_428" id="Page_428">[Pg 428]</a></span>
+smoke was seen behind a hill. This
+time the enemy was assuredly there.
+Fatigue vanished as by enchantment.
+In an instant cloaks were rolled, priming
+renewed, horses girthed up; all
+was ready, and the troops formed for
+the attack. Three hundred infantry
+supported three columns of cavalry;
+the centre was commanded by Colonel
+Tartas of the 4th Chasseurs. The advance
+began; just then there was the
+report of a musket; it was a vedette
+whom our scouts had been unable to
+surprise. The Arab galloped up the
+hill, waving his <i>burnous</i>. At the same
+moment, the drums of the regulars
+beat to arms; there was a stir in our
+ranks. The cavalry broke into a
+trot; the infantry, forgetting forced
+marches, followed at a run, and from
+the top of the hill we saw the two
+battalions of regulars, who had been
+unable to reach the opposite summit,
+halt half way up. Away went the
+cavalry, sabre in hand, horses at a
+gallop, Colonel Tartas at their head.
+They were met by a volley of musketry;
+some fell, but the avalanche
+broke through the obstacle, and the
+Arabs were cut down on all sides.
+Their horsemen try to escape&mdash;some
+flying to the left, others straight forward.
+They are pursued by all
+whose horses are not yet knocked up;
+and the Ca&iuml;d Osman rolls over with
+his charger, which is hit in the head.
+M. de Caulaincourt, admirably
+mounted, continues the race; he kills
+one of the Emir's horsemen; but, separated
+by a ridge of ground from his
+soldiers, whom he has outstripped, he
+is surrounded by enemies. Without
+losing his presence of mind, he spurred
+his horse and broke through the
+circle, sabre in hand; when, just as
+he was about to rejoin his men, an
+Arab, issuing from a glade, shot him
+with a pistol, close to the eye. The
+horse galloped on, and carried back
+the wounded officer to his troop. The
+blood streamed, the flesh hung in
+shreds; M. do Caulaincourt, however,
+was still conscious. Lifted
+from his horse, a soldier took him on
+his back and carried him to the surgeon,
+traversing the scene of the
+combat, a true field of the dead. In a
+narrow space lay five hundred corpses,
+nearly all frightfully mutilated by the
+sabres of our chasseurs.</p>
+
+<p>"A steep bank of rock had checked
+the progress of those horsemen who
+had fled to the left. Several alighted,
+and, jerking their horses with the
+bridle, surmounted the obstacle.
+Only one of them rode at a walk
+along the foot of this rocky wall. The
+whiteness of his garments and beauty
+of his equipments marked him as a
+chief. Siquot, a corporal of chasseurs,
+and Captain Cassaignoles, rode
+after him. The ground was very bad,
+full of impediments. The corporal
+was the first to reach him; just as
+his horse's nose touched the crupper
+of the Arab's charger, the horseman,
+turned round with the utmost coolness,
+took aim, and laid him dead on
+the spot. At the same moment
+Siquot came up and wounded the
+Arab, but received a pistol-ball
+through his left arm, the same shot
+killing the horse of Captain Cassaignoles,
+who was a little lower down
+the slope. The tall cavalier then rose
+in his stirrups, and struck Siquot on
+the head with his heavy pistol-butt,
+when Corporal Gerard of the Chasseurs,
+riding up on the top of the bank,
+shot him through the breast. The
+horse was caught; it was a splendid
+animal, which a wound in the shoulder
+had alone prevented from saving
+its master's life. 'See if that Arab is
+blind of an eye,' cried Captain Cassaignoles.
+They looked; an eye was
+wanting. 'It is Sidi-Embarek; let
+his head be cut off.' And Gerard,
+with a knife, separated the head from
+the body, that the Arabs might not
+have a doubt of his death. Then all
+obeyed the recall, which was sounding.
+The chase was over; the regulars
+were broken and destroyed; cruel
+fatigue had been rewarded by complete
+success. General Tempoure returned
+to Mascara, and a month later
+each man received, according to the
+Arab expression, <i>the testimony of blood</i>,
+the cross so glorious to the soldier.</p>
+
+<p>"The chances of war then separated
+us from the Ca&iuml;d: I also learned
+the return of Siquot to France, where,
+by an odd coincidence, he received
+from his Paris friends the same surname
+as from his African comrades.
+As to the German lansquenet, he
+marked every corner of the province
+of Oran by some daring feat, and
+always fortunate, invariably escaped<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_429" id="Page_429">[Pg 429]</a></span>
+unhurt. Within three years of service,
+he was five times named in
+orders, and passed through the noncommissioned
+grades to the rank of
+cornet. When I next met with him
+in 1846, Tom, the horse, the Chica,
+formed, as before, his whole family.
+Poor Chica, who in all her life had
+never had but one ambition, that of
+wearing a silk dress! In garrison,
+Tom was purveyor; he and his master
+started at daybreak and returned at
+night, weary but content, and with a
+well-filled game-bag. The Chica,
+who had passed the day singing, laid
+the table, and the three friends supped
+together.</p>
+
+<p>"Some months later, after an absence
+of three weeks, one of our
+squadrons returned to Mascara from
+the outposts. We were moving down
+the street that leads to the cavalry
+barracks, when we saw the officers of
+the garrison assembled before the
+Ca&iuml;d's little house. They advanced to
+greet and shake hands with us, and they
+told us that the Chica, the Ca&iuml;d's companion,
+the friend of all, was dead.</p>
+
+<p>"The poor little thing had suffered
+for some time; the evening before,
+however, she had got up. There was
+a bright warm sun, and the air was
+full of perfume. 'Chico,' said she to
+the Ca&iuml;d, 'give me your arm, I should
+like to see the sun once more.' She
+took a few steps, wept as she gazed
+on the budding foliage and the beauty
+of the day: then, as she returned to
+her arm-chair, 'Ah! Chico,' she exclaimed,
+'I am dying!' And in sitting
+down she expired, without agony
+or convulsion, still smiling and looking
+at the Ca&iuml;d.</p>
+
+<p>"At this moment the Chica's coffin
+was borne out of the house; all present
+uncovered their heads, and we
+joined the officers who followed her to
+her grave.</p>
+
+<p>"The cemetery of Mascara, planted
+with olive and forest trees, is situated
+in the midst of gardens: everything
+there breathes peace, calm, and repose.
+The Chica's grave had been
+dug under a fig-tree. The Spahis who
+carried her stopped, all present formed
+a circle; two soldiers of the Engineers
+took the light bier, and lowered the
+poor Chica into her final dwelling-place.
+The Ca&iuml;d was at the foot of
+the grave. One of the soldiers presented
+him with the spadeful of earth:
+the Spahi's hard hand trembled as
+he took it; and when the earth, falling
+on the coffin, made that dull noise so
+melancholy to hear, a big tear, but
+half suppressed, glistened in his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Thenceforward Tom, whom the
+Chica loved, was the Ca&iuml;d's only
+friend."</p>
+
+<p>Some may suspect M. de Castellane
+of giving a romantic tint to his African
+experiences. We do not partake the
+suspicion. Even in the nineteenth
+century, generally esteemed prosaic
+and matter-of-fact, there is far more
+romance in real life than in books;
+and the Prussian-Arab Osman is but
+one of scores, perhaps hundreds, of
+military adventurers who have fought
+in various services during the last
+twenty years, and the events of whose
+career, truly noted, would in many
+cases be set down by the supporters
+of circulating libraries as overstrained
+and improbable fiction. In that chapter
+of M. de Castellane's work which
+consists of the journal of an officer of
+Zouaves, we find an account of another
+singular wanderer, who in the
+year 1840 deserted from the Arabs,
+(having previously served with the
+French,) and came into the town of
+Medeah, where the Zouaves were in
+garrison. He was a very young man,
+a Bavarian, of the name of Glockner,
+son of a former commissary in the
+service of France, and nephew of a
+Bavarian officer of the highest rank.
+"A cadet at the military school at
+Munich, he was sent, in consequence
+of some pranks he played, to serve in
+a regiment of light dragoons; but his
+ardent imagination and love of adventure
+led him to fresh follies; he deserted
+into France. Coldly received,
+as all deserters are, he was enrolled
+in the foreign legion. He had hardly
+reached Africa when he became disgusted
+with the service, and, yielding
+to the craving after novelty which
+constantly tormented him, he deserted
+to the Arabs. He remained with
+them three years. Kidnapped at first
+by the Kabyles, he was taken to a
+market in the interior, and sold to a
+chief of the tribe of the Beni-Moussa.
+After being his servant for a year, he
+managed to escape from his master's
+tent, and, with legs bare, a <i>burnous</i>
+on his shoulders, a camel rope round<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_430" id="Page_430">[Pg 430]</a></span>
+his waist, and a pilgrim's staff in his
+hands, he marched at random in a
+southerly direction. In this manner
+he reached the Desert, passing his
+nights with the different tribes he
+encountered, amongst whom he announced
+himself by the Mussulman's
+habitual salutation, 'Eh! the master
+of the Douar! A guest of God!'
+Thereupon he was well received;
+food and shelter were given him, and
+he departed the next morning unquestioned
+as to his destination. It
+concerned no one, and no Arab ever
+asked the question. He followed his
+destiny. Thus did Glockner cross a
+part of the Sahara, and reach the
+town of Tedjini, A&iuml;n Mhadi; thence
+he went to Boghar, Taza, Tekedempt,
+Mascara, Medeali, and Milianah; then,
+enrolled by force amongst the regulars
+of El Berkani, he made the campaigns
+of 1839 and 1840 in their ranks.
+Decorated by Abd-el-Kader in consequence
+of a wound received the 31st
+December 1839&mdash;a wound inflicted,
+as he believes, by a captain of the 2d
+Light Infantry&mdash;he again returned to
+us, after other adventures, like the
+prodigal child, lamenting his follies,
+weeping at thoughts of his family,
+especially of his father, and entreating
+as a favour to be received as a French
+soldier. They talked of sending him
+back to the foreign legion, but he
+begged to be admitted into the Zouaves,
+and was accordingly enlisted as
+an Arab, under the name of Joussef.
+He was then but one-and-twenty
+years old, was fresh as a child, timid
+as a young girl, and marvellously
+simple in his bearing and language."
+The end of this young fellow's history,
+as far as M. de Castellane became
+acquainted with it, is on a par with
+its commencement. "In the Zouaves
+his conduct was admirable. In
+every engagement in which he shared,
+his name deserved mention. Made a
+corporal, then a sergeant, he was
+sent to Tlemcen on the formation of
+a third battalion of Zouaves. Recommended
+by Colonel Cavaignac to
+General Bedeau, he rendered great
+services by his intelligence and knowledge
+of the Arab tongue. His father,
+to whom they had written in Bavaria,
+had confirmed the truth of his story.
+He was happy, and treated with consideration,
+when, one fine morning,
+he took himself off with a political
+prisoner who had just been set at
+liberty, and deserted into Morocco.
+He remained there a long time; then
+he went to Tangiers, and, denounced
+by the French consul as a deserter,
+he was going to be tried by a court-martial,
+when, in consideration of his
+former services, they continued
+to treat him as an Arab. His mania
+for rambling is really extraordinary;
+and he declares that he cannot approach
+a strange country without being
+seized with a desire to explore it."</p>
+
+<p>It is surprising that the African
+campaigns have not been more prolific
+of military sketches and memoirs
+from the pens of French officers. Although
+tolerably familiar for many
+years past with French literature, we
+can remember but few such works.
+<i>La Captivit&eacute; d'Escoffier</i>, noticed, in
+conjunction with an English volume
+upon an analogous subject, in a former
+Number,<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> is the only French book
+of the kind we have met with for a
+long time; and that was of inferior
+class, and of less authentic appearance,
+than M. de Castellane's agreeable
+<i>Souvenirs</i>. We should have thought
+the war in Africa, the adventurous
+and often severe marches of the
+troops, the exploits of the hunting-field,
+the humours of garrison life, and
+the tales of the bivouac, would have
+found innumerable chroniclers amongst
+the better educated portion of French
+officers. The French soldier is a good
+study for painter or humourist; whether
+as the stolid recruit with the
+ploughman's slouch and the smell of
+the furrow still hanging about him, or
+the smart and wide-awake trooper of
+four or five years' service, or the
+weather-beaten old sergeant, all bronze
+and wrinkles, with his grizzled moustache,
+his scrap of red ribbon, his
+tough yarns and his mixture of simplicity
+and shrewdness, his lingering
+prejudices against English and Germans,
+and his religious veneration of
+Napoleon the Great. We believe M.
+de Castellane would be successful in
+portraiture of French military character
+and eccentricities, and we regret
+he has been so sparing of it. Here
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_431" id="Page_431">[Pg 431]</a></span>and there we find a characteristic bit
+of camp-life, or a pleasant sketch by
+the watch-fire.</p>
+
+<p>"During our marches, we were
+never weary of admiring the constancy
+of the infantry-man, so heavily
+loaded that, in mockery of himself, he
+has taken the surname of the <i>Soldat-chameau</i>.
+It was really wonderful to
+see them make those long marches,
+under a burning sun, across frightful
+mountains, always gay and cheerful,
+and amusing themselves with the
+merest trifle.... It is on their
+arrival at the bivouac that their industry
+is displayed to the greatest advantage.
+Pause beside this little tent, and
+watch the chief of the squad; they
+bring him crabs, tortoises, water serpents,
+all manner of creatures that
+have no name, but a flavour, and
+which experience teaches may be
+eaten without danger. Or they bring
+a mess-kettle full of bullock's blood.
+Thrice boiled and suffered to grow
+cold, bullock's blood forms a sort of
+black cheese. Spread upon biscuit,
+with a little salt, this is tolerable
+food, and a precious resource for
+famished stomachs." In presence of
+such messes as these, it is easy to
+understand the popularity of a general
+who, like Changarnier, classed a greasy
+haversack amongst a soldier's first
+necessaries, and rarely allowed his
+men to lack mutton, of either Arab or
+Kabyle growth. For the loss of their
+flocks and herds the natives retaliated,
+when opportunity offered, by the theft
+of French horses. "In the night we
+had an alarm; we were in a friendly
+district, but our friends were not the
+less arrant thieves. Two horses were
+taken away. According to their custom,
+some bold fellows, stark naked
+and well anointed with grease, so as
+to slip through detaining fingers,
+glided between the tents, crawling
+like snakes. On coming to two fine
+horses, they cut the thongs that
+shackled them, jumped on their backs,
+and were off at a gallop, clearing all
+obstacles and crouched upon the
+animals' necks to avoid the bullets of
+the advanced sentries. A few hours
+later, another of these gentry was less
+fortunate. The soldier on guard over
+the piled muskets, remarked, as he
+perambulated his beat, a bush of
+dwarf palm. It was upon his right
+hand. A minute afterwards the bush
+had changed its place, and stood upon
+his left. This struck the sentry as
+looking like mischief. He took no
+notice, but quietly cocked his musket
+and continued his walk. The bush
+continued to change its place, gaining
+ground little by little; suddenly it
+made a rapid advance, and a Kabyle,
+dagger in hand, sprang upon the
+soldier; but the soldier received him
+on the point of his bayonet. The
+thrust was mortal, and the living bush
+rose no more." The Kabyles might
+have taken lessons from the Thugs of
+India and the Red men of North
+America. On a large scale, as well as
+in petty details, stratagem was a prominent
+feature of the war in Africa.
+Beneath the spacious tent of one of
+the Arab allies of the French, M. de
+Castellane listened one evening, in an
+atmosphere fragrant with the vapours
+of pipes and coffee, to the extempore
+stanzas of a native poet. When the
+improvisatore had come to an end,
+and had received his tribute of praise,
+an old sergeant of the Spahis of
+Orleansville narrated the death of the
+Aga of Ouarsenis.</p>
+
+<p>"It was on the 20th July of this
+year," he said; "Hadj Hamet had
+gone, with his <i>goum</i><a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> and twenty
+Spahis, to seek at Mazouna the betrothed
+of his son. His heart was
+joyful, and happiness reigned around
+him, when the young girl was delivered
+to him. After a night of
+rejoicing, the escort set out. On arriving
+at Oued-Meroui, we saw at a
+distance a <i>goum</i> of Arabs. Hadj
+Hamet thought it was the Aga of the
+Sbehas, advancing with his horsemen
+to perform the <i>fantasia</i> before the
+bride, and at a sign from him his followers
+formed in two lines, to give the
+strangers free passage. The troop
+came up at a gallop, dashed in between
+the double row of horsemen, and then,
+turning right and left, sent a volley
+into their faces. It was Bon Maza in
+person. Thus unexpectedly attacked,
+the <i>goum</i> broke and fled; the Spahis
+alone stood by old Hadj Hamet, who
+defended his daughter until loss of
+blood, which already flowed from
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_432" id="Page_432">[Pg 432]</a></span>several wounds, left him no longer
+strength. At last he fell dead. Of the
+twenty Spahis, ten had fallen; all was
+over; the other ten cut their way
+through, and reached Orleansville."</p>
+
+<p>Formidable as many of the Arabs
+are&mdash;owing to their excellent horsemanship
+and skill in arms&mdash;in single-handed
+conflicts, in large bodies they
+rarely await the charge even of far
+inferior numbers of disciplined cavalry.
+Near the confluence of the Cheliff and
+the Mina, on an October day in 1845,
+two squadrons of dragoons, under
+Colonel Tartas, were in quest of the
+aforesaid Bou Maza, who had been
+committing razzias upon tribes friendly
+to the French. Reinforced by a
+native ally, Sidi-el-Aribi, with a handful
+of horsemen, and notwithstanding
+the heavy load of four days' rations for
+man and horse, they pressed on at a
+rapid pace, and on surmounting a
+ridge of ground, beheld, "numerous as
+the sands on the sea-shore, the hostile
+Arabs firmly waiting our attack. In
+the centre floated an immense green
+banner, and the wings, forming a
+horse shoe, seemed ready to enclose
+us. "Walk!" cried Colonel Tartas,
+and we advanced at a walk, sabre in
+scabbard. In his loud parade-voice,
+the colonel then gave his orders, and
+the squadrons formed front, each
+keeping a division in reserve. Between
+the two squadrons marched the
+colonel and his standard; at his side
+was Sidi-el-Aribi; behind him a little
+escort; on our flanks, the handful of
+Arab horse. "Where is the rallying
+place?" asked the adjutant. "Behind
+the enemy, round my standard,"
+replied the colonel; and then, connected
+as by a chain, the squadrons
+broke into a trot, with sabres still
+sheathed. At musket-shot distance,
+"Draw swords!" shouted the colonel;
+and the two hundred and fifty sabres
+were drawn as by one hand. A
+hundred paces further we changed to
+a gallop, still in line like a wall.
+Suddenly, on beholding this hurricane
+of iron, so calm and so strong, advancing
+towards them, our innumerable
+foe hesitated; a dull noise, like the
+sound of the waves in a storm, arose
+in the midst of the multitude. They
+crowded together, wavered to and fro,
+and suddenly disappeared like dust
+before the gale. In a quarter of an
+hour we drew bridle. A hundred of
+the enemy were on the ground; and
+our Arab allies, pursuing the fugitives,
+secured much spoil. As for us, without
+hospital train, without troops to
+support us, at three leagues and a
+half from all assistance, the least
+hesitation would have been perdition.
+Coolness and audacity had saved us;
+and there, where our only hope was a
+glorious death, we obtained a triumph.</p>
+
+<p>"Pressing round Colonel Tartas,
+near his standard, which two balls
+had rent, all these men of <i>great
+tent</i>,<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> all these bronze-complexioned
+Arab chiefs, their eyes lighted up by
+the excitement of the fight, thanked
+him as their saviour. At their head,
+Sidi-el-Aribi, with that majestic
+dignity which never deserted him,
+lavished expressions of gratitude
+upon the colonel; whilst around them,
+like a frame to the picture, the foaming
+horses, the dragoons leaning on
+their saddles, the arms and floating
+garments of the Arabs, the heads
+which some of them had fastened to
+their saddle-bows, and a nameless
+something in the air which told of
+victory, combined to give to the scene
+somewhat of the noble and savage
+grandeur of primitive times."</p>
+
+<p>We will not contrast with the picture
+thus vividly painted by M. de
+Castellane, the less romantic episodes
+of grubbing for silos, (buried stores of
+corn,) driving cattle, or smoking unfortunate
+Arab families out of their
+caves of refuge. Of all these matters
+the chasseur speaks, if not altogether
+admiringly, yet as necessities of that
+war, and stands forth with plausible
+sophisms in defence of the barbarities
+of the razzia system. We did not
+take up his sketches with disputatious
+intentions, and are quite content with
+the interest and amusement we have
+extracted from them, without attempting
+to drive their author from positions
+which, we suspect, he would find it
+as difficult to defend as the Arabs did
+to maintain those assailed by the
+gallant charges of the African Chasseurs.</p>
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_433" id="Page_433">[Pg 433]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="THE_GREEN_HAND" id="THE_GREEN_HAND">THE GREEN HAND.</a><br />
+
+A "SHORT YARN."<br />
+
+A WIND-UP.</h2>
+
+
+<p>"No, Westwood," said I, "it can't
+be the right one&mdash;nor any of these,
+indeed!" And on looking at the
+chart, which was one not meant for
+anything but navigation in open
+water, with the channels laid down
+clearly enough, but evidently rather
+off-hand as to the islands, Jones himself
+seemed to get uncertain about the
+matter; partly owing to the short
+glimpse he'd had of the other chart,
+and partly to its being, as he thought,
+an old one made for a purpose, by a
+hand that knew the islands well.
+After two or three days' sail, we were
+getting into the thick of the Maldives,
+where the reefs and sand-banks
+stretching out on every side, and beginning
+to lap in upon each other,
+made it more and more dangerous
+work; but at any rate the islands
+we saw were either very small, or
+else low and muddy-like, with a few
+scrubby-looking cocoas upon them,
+like bulrushes growing out of a marsh.
+No runaway sailors would ever think
+of taking up their quarters hereabouts,
+even if we hadn't caught sight of a
+smoke now and then, and once of
+some native craft with a couple of
+brown mat-sails and an out-rigger,
+that showed the clusters hereaway to
+have people about them. Besides
+there was no pretext any Indiaman
+could have for steering near enough to
+such a jungle of mud and water, to
+give a boat the chance of making towards
+it with any certainty. I saw
+at once that the spot in question
+must lie tolerably for the course of
+a ship to western India, otherwise
+they wouldn't have appeared so sure
+of their mark as Jones said they did.
+All this, at the same time, kept me
+the more bent on searching the matter
+out ere I did aught else, seeing
+that in fact the Indiaman's attempt
+to get rid of the schooner was the
+very thing likely to bring her on this
+track; fancying, as she would, that we
+were either in chase of her toward
+Bombay, or off on our own course
+again. Now, on the one hand, nothing
+could fit better for the said runaway
+scheme of Harry Foster's; and
+on the other hand, nothing would have
+pleased me more, and greatly eased
+my mind too, than to catch him and
+his chums on their spree ashore. The
+worst of it was, that I began to have
+my doubts of Jones again. He was the
+only man that could put us on the
+right scent; yet he seemed either to
+have lost it, or to have something
+creeping on his mind that made him
+unwilling to carry it out. "Mr
+Jones," said I, as the schooner was
+hove to, and he stood musing gloomily
+by the binnacle, with a glance now
+and then in at the compass, and out
+at the chart again, "if you're at a loss
+now, sir, just say&mdash;and I shall try my
+own hand for want of better!" "No,
+Lieutenant Collins!" answered he
+suddenly, in a husky voice&mdash;"no, sir,
+that's not it, but&mdash;God help me! no,
+there's no use standing against fate,
+I see. Whatever it costs me, Mr Collins,"
+he went on, firmly, "I'm with
+you to the end of it; but&mdash;there <i>is</i>
+something horrible about all this!"
+"How! what do you mean?" said I,
+startled by the difference in his manner,
+and the quiver of his lip. "Oh,"
+said he, "as for the present matter,
+there may be nothing more in it than
+what I heard on the ship's boom
+yonder. The truth is, I didn't know
+at first but this cluster here might
+have been the one&mdash;though I see now
+there is only <i>one</i> island in the whole
+chain that can answer the description,
+and that is not here." With that he
+pointed to another piece of the chart,
+showing no more than a few spots
+upon the paper, not to speak of shades
+in it standing for reefs and shoals,
+towards the "Head" of the Maldives;
+one spot lying away from the rest,
+with the single name of Minicoy for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_434" id="Page_434">[Pg 434]</a></span>
+them all. I asked him hastily enough
+what it was called, and all about it,
+for the whole affair made me more
+and more uneasy; but on this point
+Jones seemed inclined to keep close,
+plainly not liking the topic, except
+that I found it went by several names,
+one of which I had heard before, myself&mdash;White-water
+Island. About the
+time I was a boy in a merchantman's
+forecastle, 'twas a sort of floating
+yarn amongst some seamen, this
+White-water Island, I remembered;
+but I never met with a man that
+had seen it, every one having had it
+from a shipmate last voyage, though
+a terrible place it had been, by all
+accounts, without one's knowing exactly
+where it was. One craft of
+some kind had gone to find out a
+treasure that was buried in it, and
+she never was heard of more; a man
+took a fancy to live ashore in it, like
+Robinson Crusoe, and he went mad;
+while the reason there were no "natives"
+was owing to the dreadful
+nature of it, though at the same time
+it was as beautiful as a garden. The
+right name, however, according to
+Jones, was Incoo. "There's no good
+in blinding one's self to it, Mr Collins,"
+he went on&mdash;"that's the island
+the men meant; only their chart set
+me wrong owing to the greater size of
+it&mdash;you had better beat out of this at
+once, and keep up for the eight-degrees
+channel there."</p>
+
+<p>We were in open sea again, out of
+sight of land from the mast-head,
+steering for somewhere about north-north-east,
+with a very light breeze
+from nearly the monsoon quarter, and
+sometimes a flying squall, sometimes
+no more than a black pour of rain,
+that left it hotter than before. The
+clear deep blue of the Indian ocean
+got to a sickly heavy sort of dead
+colour towards noon, like the bottoms
+of old bottles, and still we were
+standing on without signs of land,
+when, almost all at once, I noticed
+the water in the shadow of the
+schooner had a brown coffee-like tint
+I had never exactly seen hitherto;
+indeed, by the afternoon, it was the
+same hue to the very horizon, with a
+clean seaboard on all sides. I had
+the deep-sea lead-line hove at length,
+and found no soundings with a hundred
+and fifty fathoms; there was
+neither land nor river, I knew, for
+hundreds and hundreds of miles to
+the coast of Arabia; as for current,
+no trial I could think of showed any;
+and there were now and then patches
+of small glittering sea-jellies and sea-lice
+to be seen amongst a stalk or two
+of weed on the soft heave of the
+water, going the way of the breeze.
+A dozen or so of Portuguese men-of-war,
+as they call them, held across
+our bows one time; little pink
+blubbers, with their long shining roots
+seen hanging down in the clear of the
+surface, and their little blue gauze
+sails with the light through them,
+ribbed like leaves of trees, as they
+kept before the wind. Westwood
+and I both fancied we could feel a
+queer sulphury smell as we leant over
+the side, when a surge came along
+the bends. Not a single fish was to be
+seen about us, either, except the long
+big black-fish that rose one after the
+other at a distance, as the wind got
+lighter. One while you heard them
+groaning and gasping in the half-calm,
+as if it were the breathing of
+the sea far and wide every time it
+swelled; another, one saw them in a
+cluster of black points against the
+bright sky-line, like so many different-shaped
+rocks with the foam round
+them, or a lot of long-boats floating
+bottom up, with their back-horns for
+humps on the keel. As for Jones,
+he looked graver and graver, till all
+of a sudden we saw him go below;
+but after a little he came up with an
+almanac in his hand, and his finger
+fixed where the time of the next new
+moon was given, as I found when I
+took it from him, for he seemed not
+inclined to speak. "Why, what has
+that to do with the thing?" I said;
+"we are heading fair for the Minicoy
+cluster, I think." "Yes, sir," said
+he; "if one needed anything to prove
+that, he has only to look at the sea&mdash;at
+this season, I <i>knew</i> how it would
+turn out." "Well, that's what I
+can't understand, Mr Jones," said I;
+"the water seems as deep as St Paul's
+Cathedral thrice over!" "Do you
+not know then, sir, why that island
+is called&mdash;what it is?" was the answer,&mdash;"but
+wait&mdash;wait&mdash;till <i>night</i>!"
+and with that Jones turned round to
+the bulwarks, leaning his arms on the
+rail. In the mean time, Jacobs and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_435" id="Page_435">[Pg 435]</a></span>
+some of the men had drawn a bucket
+of water, which we noticed them
+tasting. A pannikin full of it was
+handed along to the quarterdeck,
+and the taste struck you at once,
+owing to the want of the well-known
+briny twang of real blue-water, and
+instead of that a smack as it were of
+iron, though it was as clear as crystal.
+Every one had a trial of it but Jones
+himself: indeed, he never once looked
+round, till it had occurred to me to
+pour the tin of water into a glass and
+hold it with my hand over it inside
+the shade of the binnacle, when I
+thought I made out little specks and
+sparks shooting and twisting about in
+it, as if the water had a motion of
+itself; then it seemed to sink to the
+bottom, and all was quiet. Just then
+I looked up and caught Jones' scared
+restless sort of glance, as if he were
+uneasy. There was a strange life in
+that man's brain, I felt, that none
+could see into; but owing as it plainly
+was to something far away from the
+present matter, I knew it was best to
+let him alone. In fact, his doing as he
+did showed well enough he meant
+fair by ourselves. Nothing on earth
+ever gave me more the notion of a
+wreck in a man, than the kind of gaze
+out of Jones' two eyes, when he'd
+turn to the light and look at you,
+half keen, half shrinking, like a man
+that both felt himself above you, and
+yet, somehow or other, you'd got him
+under you. I'm blessed if I didn't
+trust him more because he had been
+too desperate a character in his deeds
+beforehand to turn his mind to little
+ones now, than for anything good
+in him; being one of those fellows
+that work their way from one port to
+another in ships' forecastles, and get
+drunk ashore, though, all the time,
+you'd say there wasn't one aboard
+with them, from the skipper to the
+chaplain, knew as much or had flown
+as high some time. Some day at sea
+the hands are piped round the grating,
+hats off, and the prayer-book rigged,&mdash;down
+goes "Jack Jones" with a
+plash and a bubble to his namesake,
+old "Davy," and you hear no more
+of him!</p>
+
+<p>Well, just after sundown, as the
+dusk came on, Westwood and I left
+the deck to go down to supper with
+the Planter, the midshipman being in
+charge. There was nothing in sight,
+sail or land; indeed, the queer dark-brown
+tint of the horizon showed
+strongly against the sky, as if it had
+been the mahogany of the capstan-head
+inside its brass rim; the night
+was cloudy, with a light breeze, and
+though the stars came out, I expected
+it to get pretty dark. As I went
+down the companion, I heard nothing
+but the light wash of the water from
+her bows, and the look-out stepping
+slowly about betwixt her knightheads
+on the forecastle: while it struck
+me the smooth face of the sea seemed
+to show wonderfully distinct into the
+dusk, the completer it got, as if a sort
+of light rose up from off it. Down
+below we felt her stealing pleasantly
+through all, and Tom and I sat for
+I didn't know how long, trying
+to settle our differences on the
+main point&mdash;about the Seringapatam,
+of course, and which way she was
+likely to be gone. Tom plumed himself
+mightily on his common-sense
+view of a thing, and having by this
+time got back a good deal of his
+cheerfulness, he and Mr Rollock
+almost laughed me over to his line of
+thinking.</p>
+
+<p>We agreed that the ship must be at
+present edging up on one side or other
+of the Maldives, but both of them
+thought the less we had to say to her
+the better. "I say, though," exclaimed
+the Planter, whose face was
+turned the opposite way to ours,
+"I'd no idea it was moonlight!"
+"Moonlight!&mdash;there's no moon till
+morning," I said. "Look into the
+stern-cabin there, then!" said Rollock;
+and I turned round, seeing
+into the door of the after-cabin,
+where, to my no small surprise, there
+was a bright white glare through the
+little square stern-light, gleaming on
+the rim of the sill, and seemingly off
+both the air and the water beyond.
+Quite confounded, as well as wondering
+what Snelling could be about, I
+hurried up the companion, the Planter
+and Westwood hard at my heels.</p>
+
+<p>For so long as I had kept at sea,
+and a good many different latitudes I
+had been into&mdash;yet I must say I never
+in my life before saw such a strange
+sight as broke on us the instant we
+put our heads out of the booby-hatch,
+fresh from the lamp-light in the cabin.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_436" id="Page_436">[Pg 436]</a></span>
+Indeed, I can't but own to my first
+feeling being fright; for what it was I
+couldn't understand, unless we were
+got into a quarter of the world where
+things weren't natural. There were
+a few stray clouds in the sky, scattered
+away ahead, and clearing eastward
+to settle along before the breeze; all
+aloft of us, high over the sharp dark
+edge of the sails and gaffs, the air
+seemed to open away out pale and
+glimmering like a reflection in the ice;
+all round you caught a glimpse of the
+stars weakening and weakening toward
+the horizon. But the water itself&mdash;that
+was the sight that bewildered
+one! On every side the whole sea
+lay spread out smooth, and as white
+as snow&mdash;you couldn't fancy how
+wide it might stretch away astern or
+on our lee-beam, for not a mark of
+horizon was to be seen, save on the
+northwest, where you made it out,
+owing to the sky there being actually
+darker than the sea&mdash;but all the time
+the wide face of it was of a dead
+ghastly paleness, washing with a swell
+like milk to our black counter as we
+forged ahead. It wasn't that it shone
+in the least like blue water at night
+in the ordinary tropics&mdash;by Jove!
+that would have been a comfort&mdash;but
+you'd have thought there was a winding-sheet
+laid over all, or we were
+standing across a level country covered
+with snow&mdash;only when I stood up,
+and watched the bows, there was a
+faint hissing sparkle to be seen in the
+ripple's edge, that first brought me to
+myself. The Lascars had woke up
+where they lay about the caboose, and
+were cowering together for sheer
+terror; the men standing, each one in
+his place, and looking; while Jones,
+who had relieved the midshipman,
+leant by himself with his head on the
+capstan, as if to keep out the sight of
+it all: the schooner's whole dusky
+length, in fact, with every black figure
+on her decks, and her shape up to the
+lightest stick or rope of her aloft, appearing
+strange enough, in the midst
+of the broad white glare, to daunt
+any one that wasn't acquainted with
+the thing. "Mr Jones," said I quickly,
+on going up to him, "what the devil
+is this? I'll be hanged if I didn't begin
+to believe in witchcraft or something.
+Where are we getting to?"
+"Nothing, nothing, sir," said he, lifting
+his head; "'tis natural enough;
+only the milk sea, as they call it&mdash;the
+white water, sir, that comes down
+twice a-year hereabouts from God
+knows where&mdash;you only see it so at&mdash;at
+<i>night</i>!" "Oh, then, according to
+that," I said, "we shan't be long of
+sighting your island. I suppose?"
+"No," said he, "if the breeze freshens
+at all, keeping our present course,
+the mast-head ought to hail it in two
+or three hours; but God knows, Lieutenant
+Collins, natural though the
+sight is, there's something a man can't
+get rid of, especially if"&mdash;He stood
+up, walked to the side, and kept facing
+the whole breadth of the awful-looking
+sea, as it were till it seemed to
+blind him. "I tell you what, sir,"
+said he slowly, "if that water had any
+use, a priest would say, 'twas sent to
+wash that same island clean of what's
+been done on it; but it couldn't, Mr
+Collins, it couldn't, till the day of
+judgment!" He leant over till his
+dark face and his shoulders, to my
+notion, made the milk-white surge
+that stole up to the schooner's bends
+take a whiter look. "If that water
+could wash <i>me</i>, now," muttered he,
+"ay, if it could only take the soul out
+of me, curse me, but I'd go down,
+down this moment to the bottom!"
+With that he gave a sudden move
+that made me catch him by the arm.
+"No, no, Mr Collins," said he, turning
+round; "the truth is, I mean to
+go through with it: by G&mdash;, I'll let it
+carry me where I'm bound for! D&mdash;n
+it, wasn't I born without asking my
+leave, and I'll kick the bucket the
+same way, if it was on a blasted dunghill!"
+"Come, come, Mr Jones,"
+said I, in a soothing sort of way, "go
+below for a little, and sleep; when we
+hail the land, I'll have you called."
+"I'd rather not, sir," said Jones,
+quietly; "the truth is, it strikes me
+there's something strange in my happening
+to be aboard here, at this particular
+season, too; and see that same
+island, <i>now</i>, I must! It's fate, Lieutenant
+Collins," added he; "and I
+must say, I think it's the more likely
+something may turn out there. Either
+you'll see that ship, or the men, or
+else <i>I</i>'ll be there myself, in some way
+or other!"</p>
+
+<p>Now there was something in all this
+that began at moments quite to be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_437" id="Page_437">[Pg 437]</a></span>wilder
+one, the more excited the state
+was it put you in. There was nothing
+for it but to push on, and see what
+might come of it. Indeed, the weather
+favoured us better on our present
+course than on any other; and I felt,
+if I didn't keep active, I should go distracted.
+'Twas almost as if what
+Jones said had a truth in it, and a
+sort of a power beyond one were drawing
+the schooner the way she steered;
+while, at the same time, there was
+every little while somewhat new in
+the extraordinary looks of things to
+hold you anxious. Even a flying
+touch of a squall we had about midnight
+didn't the least do away with
+the whiteness of the water all around:
+on the contrary, as the dark cloud
+crept down upon us, widening on both
+sides like smoke, the face of the sea
+seemed to whiten and whiten, casting
+up a ghastly gleam across the cloud,
+with its ripples frothing and creaming:
+till, not knowing <i>how</i> things might go
+hereabouts, you almost expected the
+first rush of the wind to send it all in
+a flame to our mastheads. Then up she
+rose on a surge like a snow-drift, and
+off we drove heeling over to it, gaffs
+lowered and canvass down, everything
+lost sight of, save the white sea heaving
+up against the mist; while the clear-coloured
+plash of it through our weather
+bulwarks showed it was water
+sure enough. The squall went off to
+leeward, however, the rain hissing
+like ink into the swell it left, and spotting
+it all over till the last drops
+seemed to sink in millions of separate
+sparkles as far as you could see. The
+schooner rose from one heave to another
+to an even keel on the smooth
+length of it, hoisting her spanking
+gaffs, hauling aft the sheets, and slipping
+ahead once more to a breeze fed
+by the rain. As the sky cleared, the
+dead white glare the water sent up
+into it was such, you didn't know the
+one from the other toward the horizon;
+and in the midst there was only
+the smooth faint surface, brushing
+whiter with the breeze, as if it was
+nothing else kept it from going out of
+sight; with a few streaky clouds turning
+themselves out like wool in a confused
+rift of the air aloft; the schooner
+walking in it without ever a glimpse
+of a shadow on one side or another;
+while, as for seeing a sail on the horizon,
+you might as well have looked
+for a shred of paper. It wasn't light,
+neither, nor was it haze; nothing but
+a dead colour off the very sea's face&mdash;for
+the schooner rose and plunged
+without letting you see a hair's-breadth
+of her draught below the water-line.
+Every man rubbed his eyes, as if it
+were all some kind of a dream, and
+none the less when suddenly we were
+right upon a long patch of black stripes
+winding away through the white, like
+so many sea-serpents, come up to
+breathe, with both ends of them lost
+in the faintness. Nobody stirred, or
+said, "Look-out;" stripe after stripe
+she went slipping through them as if
+they'd been ghosts, without a word
+or an extra turn of the wheel. I daresay,
+if we had commenced to rise in
+the air, every man would have held
+on like grim death, but he wouldn't
+have wondered much; 'twas just,
+"whatever might happen to please
+them as had the managing of it,"
+which was Jacob's observation when
+we talked of it after.</p>
+
+<p>Mr Snelling was the only one that
+ventured to pass a joke; when Jones,
+who I thought was out of hearing,
+looked at the reefer with such a fierce
+glance, and so scornful at the same
+time, that I couldn't help connecting
+what happened the very next moment
+with it&mdash;for without the slightest
+warning, both of us were flung to leeward,
+and Snelling pitched into the
+scuppers, as a huge rolling ridge of the
+white water came down upon our
+beam; while the schooner broached to
+in the wind, floundering on the swell
+with her sails aback. Had the breeze
+been stronger, I think it would have
+fairly swamped us with the sternway
+she had; and heave after heave swelled
+glaring and weltering out of the
+pale blind sky, till our decks swam
+with light in the dusk under the bulwarks,
+and about the dark mouths of
+the hatchways. Just as suddenly the
+rollers seemed to sink in the smooth of
+the sea, and at last we payed off with
+the breeze as before, at the cost of a
+good fright and a famous ducking.
+Two or three times in the course of the
+middle watch did this happen, except
+that we were taken less by surprise,
+and had the hatches closed, with every
+rope ready to let go; the breeze
+strengthening all the time, and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_438" id="Page_438">[Pg 438]</a></span>
+same sort of look continuing all round
+and aloft.<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a></p>
+
+<p>About four o'clock or so, the appearance
+of the sky near where the
+horizon ought to be, right ahead,
+struck Westwood and me as stranger
+than ever; owing to a long lump of
+shadow, as it were, lying northward
+like the shape of a bow or the round
+back of a fish miles long, though it
+softened off at one end into the hollow
+of the air, and the gleam of the
+white water broke past the other like
+the streaks of the northern lights in a
+frosty night toward the Pole, save for
+the thin shadowy tint of it, and the
+stars shining plainly through. I'd
+have fancied it was high land; when
+suddenly the half-moon was seen to
+ooze like a yellow spot out of the
+shapeless sort of steam to eastward,
+like a thing nobody knew, shedding a
+faint brown glimmer far below where
+you hadn't seen there was water at
+all. The bank of shadow softened
+away towards her, till in little more
+than five minutes the dark rippling
+line of the sea was made out, drawn
+across the dusk as if it had been the
+wide mouth of a frith in the polar ice,
+opening far on our weather-bow. A
+soft blue shimmering tint stole out on
+it by contrast, leaving the milk-white
+glare still spread everywhere else,
+astern, ahead, and on our lee-beam,
+into the sightless sky: 'twas the old
+blue water we caught sight of once
+more, with the natural night and the
+stars hanging over it; and the look-out
+aloft reported blue water stretching
+wide off to the nor'ard. There
+was one full hurrah from the seamen
+in the bows, and they ran of themselves
+naturally enough to the ropes,
+standing by to haul the schooner on
+a wind&mdash;to head up for the old salt
+sea, no doubt.</p>
+
+<p>"Lieutenant Collins," said Jones,
+in a low voice, "do you mean to
+steer for that island, sir?" "Yes,"
+I said, "certainly, Mr Jones&mdash;I shall
+see this matter out, whatever the
+upshot may be!" "Then keep on,
+sir," said he, firmly, "keep in the
+white water&mdash;'tis your only plan to
+near it safely, sir!" This I didn't
+well understand; but, by Jove! there
+was so much out of the common way
+hereabouts, that I had made up my
+mind to follow his advice. Another
+hail from aloft, at length&mdash;"Something
+black on our lee-bow, sir&mdash;right
+in the eye of the white it is, sir!"
+We were now running fast down in
+the direction where there was least
+possibility of seeing ahead at all,
+although, in fact, the little moonshine
+we had evidently began to make
+this puzzling hue of the surface less
+distinct&mdash;turning it of a queer ashy
+drab, more and more like the brown
+we noticed by day-time; while the
+light seemed as it were to scoop out
+the hollow of the sky aloft, when a
+dark spot or two could be observed
+from the deck, dotting the milky
+space over one bow&mdash;you couldn't say
+whether in the air or the water, as
+they hung blackening and growing
+together before us through below the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_439" id="Page_439">[Pg 439]</a></span>foot of the jib. Larger and larger it
+loomed as we stood before the breeze,
+till there was no doubt we had the
+bulk of a small low island not far to
+windward of us, a couple of points or
+thereabouts on our larboard bow
+when she fell off a little&mdash;lying with
+the ragged outline of it rising to a
+top near one end, its shape stretched
+black and distinct in the midst of the
+pale sea; while the white water was
+to be seen taking close along the edge
+of the island, showing every rock and
+point of it in the shadow from the
+moon, till it seemed to turn away all
+of a sudden like a current into the
+broad dreamy glimmer that still lay
+south-eastward. On the other side of
+the island you saw the dark sea-ripples
+flickering to the faint moonlight,
+and some two or three more
+patches of flat land just tipping the
+horizon, with the thin cocoa-nut trees
+on them like reeds against the stars
+and the dusk; while the one nearest
+us was sufficiently marked out to
+have saved me the trouble even of
+the look I gave Jones, which he answered
+by another. "You have seven
+or eight fathoms water here, sir,"
+added he; "and as soon as she rounds
+the point yonder, we can shoal it by
+degrees to any anchorage you like,
+as long as we keep in the white water&mdash;but
+we must hold to <i>it</i>!" It was
+accordingly found so with the lead,
+and ere long, having kept past the
+point, the same milky hue could be
+noticed as it were jagging off through
+the darker water, and winding away
+hither and thither all round the other
+side, till you lost it. However, here
+we brailed up and hauled down everything,
+letting go an anchor, little
+more than half a mile from a small
+sloping beach, where the strange
+water actually surged up through the
+shadow of the land, in one glittering
+sheet like new-fallen snow, while the
+back-wash seethed down into it all
+along the edge in perfect fire. Nothing
+stirred on it, apparently; not a
+sound came from it, save the low wash
+of the surf on that lonely bare beach;
+and you only made out that part of
+the island was covered with trees,
+with the ground rising to a flat-topped
+hummock toward one end. So being
+pretty wearied by this time, impatient
+though I was for a clearer view of
+matters, most of us turned in, leaving
+the deck to a strong anchor watch,
+in charge of Jones&mdash;especially as it
+was towards morning, and the breeze
+blowing fresh over the island through
+our ropes. But if ever a man walked
+the deck overhead in a fashion to
+keep you awake, it was Jones that
+morning: faster and faster he went,
+till you'd have thought he ran; then
+there was a stop, when you felt him
+<i>thinking</i>, and off he posted again.
+No wonder, by George! I had ugly
+dreams!</p>
+
+<p>I could scarce believe it wasn't one
+still, when, having been called half-an-hour
+after daybreak, I first saw the
+change in the appearance of things all
+about us. The horizon lay round as
+clear as heart could wish&mdash;not a speck
+in sight save the little dingy islets
+at a distance; the broad blue ocean
+sparkling far away on one side, and
+the water to windward, in the direction
+we had come, showing the same
+brownish tint we had seen the day
+before, while it took the island before
+us in its bight, and turned off eastward
+with the breeze till it spread
+against the open sky. The top of
+the land was high enough to shut
+out the sea-line, and, being low water
+at the time, it was plain enough now
+why Jones wished to keep the white
+streaks over-night; for, where the
+dingy-coloured ripples melted on the
+other side toward the blue, you could
+see by the spots of foam, and the
+greenish breaks here and there in the
+surface, that all that coast of the
+island was one network of shoals and
+reefs, stretching out you didn't know
+how wide. White-water Island, in
+fact, was merely the head of them&mdash;the
+milky stream that had so startled us
+just washing round the deep end of
+it, and edging fair along the side of
+the reefs, with a few creeks sent in
+amongst them, as it were, like feelers,
+ere it flowed the other way: we
+couldn't otherwise have got so near as
+we were. But the island itself was
+the sight to fasten you, as the lovely
+green of it shone out in the morning
+sun, covering the most part of it close
+over, and tipping up beyond the bare
+break where it was steepest, with a
+clump of tall cocoas shooting every
+here-and-there out of the thick bush;
+indeed, there was apparently a sort of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_440" id="Page_440">[Pg 440]</a></span>
+split lengthways, through the midst,
+where, upon only walking to the
+schooner's bow, one could see the
+bright greenwood sinking down to a
+hollow out of sight, under the clear
+gush of the breeze off a dark blue
+patch of the sea that hung beyond it
+like a wedge. As the tide made over
+the long reefs, till the last line of surf
+on them vanished, it went up the little
+sandy cove opposite us with a plash
+on the beach that you could hear: the
+place was just what a sailor may have
+had a notion of all his life, without
+exactly seeing it till then; and
+though, as yet, one had but a rough
+guess of its size, why, it couldn't be
+less than a couple of miles from end
+to end, with more than that breadth,
+perhaps, at the low side toward the
+reefs. Not a soul amongst the man-o'-war'smen,
+I daresay, as they
+pressed together in the schooner's
+bows to see into it, but would have
+taken his traps that moment, if I'd
+told him, and gone ashore on the
+chance of passing his days there; so
+it wasn't hard to conceive, from the
+state it seemed to put their rough
+sunburnt faces in, honest as they
+looked, how a similar fancy would
+work with Master Harry Foster,
+even if it tried his virtue a little.</p>
+
+<p>I had no more doubt in my own
+mind, by this time, of it's being the
+fellow's intended "hermitage," than
+I had of it's being the same White-water
+Island I had heard of myself,
+or the spot which Jones seemed to
+know so well: 'twas likely the foremast-man
+had got inkling of it somewhat
+in the way I did; and lying, as
+it happened to do, between no less
+than three channels which the Indiaman
+might take, after dodging us in
+this fashion round the long cluster of
+the Maldives, she couldn't make
+north-westward again for the open
+sea, without setting Foster and his
+mates pretty well upon their trip.
+Indeed, if she were to eastward of the
+chain at present, as I was greatly
+inclined to believe, the course of the
+breeze made it impossible for her to
+do otherwise; but there was one
+thing always kept lurking about my
+mind, like a cover to something far
+worse that I didn't venture to dwell
+upon&mdash;namely, that Captain Finch
+might get wind of their purpose, and
+drive them on another tack by
+knocking it on the head, either at the
+time or beforehand, without the
+courage to settle <i>them</i>. Nothing in
+the world would have pleased me
+better than to pounce upon ugly
+Harry, at his first breakfast ashore
+here; but the bare horizon, and the
+quiet look of the island since ever we
+hove in sight of it, showed this
+wasn't to be. At any rate, however,
+I was bent on seeing how the land
+lay, and what sort of a place it was;
+so accordingly, as soon as the hands
+had got breakfast, Westwood and I at
+once pulled ashore with a boat's-crew
+well armed, to overhaul it. We found
+the sandy beach covered, for a good
+way up, with a frothy slime that, no
+doubt, came from the water on that
+side, with ever so many different
+kinds of blubber, sea-jelly, star-fish,
+and shell; while the rocky edge
+round to windward was hung with
+weed that made the blocks below it
+seem to rise out of every surge, like
+green-headed white-bearded mermen
+bathing. Glad enough we were to
+get out of the queer sulphury smell
+all this stuff gave out in the heat&mdash;letting
+the men take every one his
+own way into the bushes, which
+they enjoyed like as many schoolboys,
+and making, ourselves, right
+for the highest point. Here we saw
+over, through the cocoa-nut trees and
+wild trailing-plants below, down
+upon a broad bushy level toward
+the reefs. It was far the widest way
+of the island; indeed making it apparently
+several miles to go round
+the different points; and as the men
+were to hold right to windward, and
+meet again after beating the entire
+ground, Westwood and I struck fair
+through amongst the tangle of wood,
+to see the flat below. We roused
+out a good many small birds and
+parroquets, and several goats could
+be noticed looking at us off the grassy
+bits of crag above the trees, though
+they didn't seem to know what we
+were. As for most of the wood, it was
+mainly such bushes and brush as
+thrive without water, with a bright
+green flush of grass and plants after
+the rain at the monsoon, the prickly
+pear creeping over the sandy parts,
+till we came on a track where some
+spring or other apparently oozed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_441" id="Page_441">[Pg 441]</a></span>
+down from the height, soaking in
+little rank spots amongst the ground
+leaves, with here and there a small
+rusty plash about the grass-blades,
+as if there were tar or iron in it.
+Here there were taller trees of different
+kinds on both sides, dwindling
+off into the lower bush, while, to my
+surprise, some of them were such as
+you'd never have expected to meet
+with on an island of the size, or so
+far off the land&mdash;bananas, mangoes,
+a shaddock or two, and a few more,
+common enough in India; though here
+they must evidently have been
+planted, the cocoas being the only
+sort natural to the place&mdash;and of them
+there were plenty below. Suddenly
+it led down into a shady hollow, out
+of sight of the sea altogether, where
+we came on what seemed to have
+been a perfect garden some time or
+other; there were two or three large
+broad-leaved shaddock trees, and one
+or two others, with a heap of rubbish
+in the midst of the wild Indian corn
+and long grass; some broken bamboo
+stakes standing, besides a piece of
+plank scattered here and there about
+the bushes. Right under the shade
+of the trees was a hole like the mouth
+of a draw-well, more than brimful at
+the time with the water from the
+spring; for, owing to the late rains, it
+made a pool close by the side, and
+went trickling away down amongst
+the brushwood. Every twig and
+leaf grew straight up or out, save in
+a narrow track toward the rising
+ground&mdash;no doubt made by the goats,
+as we noticed the prints of their hoofs
+on the wet mud. 'Twas evident no
+human being had been there for
+heaven knew how long; since, by the
+care that had been taken with the
+place, it was probably the only spring
+in the island&mdash;perhaps for leagues and
+leagues round, indeed. Trees, branches,
+green grass, and all&mdash;they had
+such a still moveless air under the
+heat and light, in the lee of the high
+ground, with just a blue spot or two
+of the sea seen high up through the
+sharp shaddock leaves, and the cool-looking
+plash of water below them,
+that Westwood and I sat down to
+wait till we heard the men. Still
+there was a terribly distinct, particular
+cast about the whole spot,
+which, taken together with the ruin
+and confusion, as well as the notion
+of Foster and his shipmates actually
+plotting to come there, gave one almost
+an idea of the whole story beforehand,
+dim as that was: the longer
+you looked, the more horrid it seemed.
+Neither natives nor single man could
+have brought the different trees to
+the island, or contrived a tank-well of
+the kind, seeing it was apparently
+deep enough to supply a ship's casks;
+while, at the same time, I couldn't
+help thinking some one had lived
+there since it was made, or perhaps
+much used. By the space taken up
+with the hut that had been there, and
+the little change in the wild state of
+things, most likely it was by himself
+he had been, and for no short time. It
+looked, however, as if he had been
+carried off in the end, otherwise his
+bones would have been hereabouts;
+probably savages, as Westwood and I
+concluded from the scatter they had
+made of his premises. For my own
+part, I wondered whether Jones
+mightn't have been the man, in which
+case most of that disturbed mind he
+showed lately might come of remembering
+the dreary desolate feelings
+one must have, living long on a desert
+island. No doubt they had "marooned"
+him for something or other,
+such as not being a bloody enough
+captain; and I could as easily fancy
+one having a spice of madness in him,
+after years ashore here, as in Captain
+Wallis after a French prison. Still it
+startled one to see one's face in the
+black of the well; and we couldn't
+make up our minds to drink out of it.
+Even the pool at its side had a queer
+taste, I thought&mdash;but that may have
+been all a notion. All at once, by
+the edge of this same pool, Westwood
+pointed out two or three marks that
+surprised us both, being quite different
+from what the goats could have
+made; and on observing closer, they
+were made out to be more like the
+paws of a wild beast stamped in the
+mud. "By Jove!" I said, "no
+wolves on the island, surely!" "All
+of them seem to stick to the pool in
+preference to the well, at any rate,"
+said Tom; "they appear to have the
+same crotchet with ourselves, Ned!"
+"Strange!" said I, "what the devil
+can it be?" Westwood eyed the
+prints over and over. "What do<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_442" id="Page_442">[Pg 442]</a></span>
+you think of&mdash;a <i>dog</i>?" he asked.
+"Good heavens!" exclaimed I,
+looking down&mdash;"yes!" and there we
+sat gazing at the thing, and musing
+over it with somehow or other a
+curious creeping of the blood, for my
+part, that I can't describe the reason
+of. At last we heard the men hallooing
+to each other on the level beneath,
+when we hurried down, and coasted
+round till we came upon the boat
+again, where the coxswain was amusing
+himself gathering shells for home&mdash;and
+we pulled back to the schooner.</p>
+
+<p>My first resolve after this was to
+keep before the breeze again, try to
+get sight of the ship, and tell Finch
+out and out, as I ought to have done
+at once, what was afoot amongst his
+crew; or else to let Sir Charles Hyde
+know of it, and make him a bold offer
+of a passage to Calcutta. However,
+I soon saw this wouldn't do; and a
+regular puzzle I found myself in, betwixt
+inclining to stick to the island
+and catch Foster if he came, and
+wishing to know how the Indiaman
+stood on her course if he didn't.
+Jones must have read my thoughts as
+I leant upon the capstan, looking
+from White-water Island to the horizon
+and back again; for he stepped
+aft and said in a low voice, "Lieutenant
+Collins, there's one thing I
+didn't tell you about that island before,
+because, as I said, I wasn't at
+first sure it was the one the men
+meant; it may help to decide you,
+sir," said he gravely. "Ah?" I said.
+"In that island," he went on, his ordinarily
+dark face as pale as death,
+"there is enough gold at this moment
+to buy half an English county&mdash;ay, and
+better than gold, seeing that only one
+man knows the spot where it is, and
+<i>he</i> would rather sail round the world
+without a shirt to his back than touch
+one filing of the&mdash;hell's dross!" I
+looked at Jones in perfect amaze as
+he added, "You may fancy now, Mr
+Collins, whether if a man of the kind
+happened to get wind of this, he
+would not stir heaven and earth to
+reach the place? But, rather than
+that gold should come into living
+hands," said he fiercely, "I would
+<i>wait for them</i> by myself&mdash;ay, alone&mdash;alone,"
+and a shudder seemed to run
+through him as he gave another
+glance to the island. For my part, I
+drew a long breath. What he mentioned
+had all at once relieved my
+mind wonderfully; for if this was Master
+Foster's cue, as I now saw it must
+have been the whole voyage over,
+why, he would be just as sure not to
+spread the thing widely, as he would
+be to get here some time, if he could.
+On second thoughts, it wasn't so
+plain how the rest of the crew might
+work with it, on the least inkling; but
+inclined as I naturally was to look
+upon the best side of the matter, you
+needn't wonder at my making up my
+mind as I did. The short and the
+long of it was that, in an hour more,
+Jones and myself, with Jacobs and
+four other good hands&mdash;and, somewhat
+to my annoyance, Mr Rollock,
+who persisted in coming&mdash;were pulling
+back for the island; while the
+schooner, under care of Westwood
+and Snelling, was hauled on a wind to
+stand up across the Nine Degrees
+Channel, which the Indiaman would
+no doubt take as the safest course for
+western India, if all went well, and
+supposing I had reckoned correctly
+why we missed her so long. In that
+case, three or four days at most
+couldn't fail to bring her up; and on
+first sighting her at the horizon, they
+could easily enough strip the schooner
+to her sticks, keeping her stern on so
+as to let the ship pass without noticing
+the loom of so small a craft;
+whereas if they didn't see her at all,
+in that time, they were to bear up before
+the wind again for the island.
+Of all things, and every circumstance
+being considered, I agreed with Westwood
+it was best not to come across
+her again, if we could help it.</p>
+
+<p>For our own part, in the boat, we
+were fully provisioned and armed for
+all the time we could need, not to
+speak of what the island itself afforded;
+and after watching the
+schooner stand heeling off to sea,
+round the deep end of it, we cruised
+close along, not for the beach this
+time, but seeking for a cove in the
+rocks where the boat could be hauled
+up out of sight, and safe from the surf
+at high water. This we weren't very
+long of finding behind some blocks
+that broke the force of the surge,
+where the wild green trailers from
+above crept almost down to the seaweed;
+and after helping them a little<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_443" id="Page_443">[Pg 443]</a></span>
+to hide her perfectly, the whole of us
+scrambled ashore. The first thing
+was to post a look-out on the highest
+point, the sharp little peak next to
+the reef-side, overlooking the spring
+and the level ground between: on
+the other side of the long green valley,
+full of bush in the midst, was the flat-topped
+rise towards the brown water,
+from which I and the Planter watched
+the schooner softening for an hour or
+two, till she reached the blue sea-gleam,
+and lessened to a speck. By
+that time, the men had pitched a little
+canvass tent on the slope opposite to
+us, over the hollow&mdash;Jones evidently
+being anxious to keep clear of the
+spot, which somebody else had picked
+out beforehand: in fact the highest
+ground was betwixt us and it; and on
+coming down through the thicket to
+our quarters, after a stroll in which
+Rollock shot a couple of rose-coloured
+parroquets, declaring them to be
+splendid eating, we found Jones had
+had to send over the other way for
+water.</p>
+
+<p>I woke up in the tent perhaps an
+hour before midnight, as I judged on
+looking through the opening at the
+stars that shone in the dark sky
+through the north-east end of the
+valley above the sea. At the other
+end, being higher, you just saw the
+scattered heads of the bushes against
+a pale floating glimmer of air, with a
+pale streak of horizon. Behind us was
+the height where we had the look-out,
+and in front the flat top of the
+crag drawn somehow or other as distinct
+as possible upon the faint starlight
+in that quarter, roughening away
+down on both sides into the brushwood
+and dwarf cocoa-nut trees.
+With the stillness of the place all
+round, the bare sight of that particular
+point gave me a dreamy, desolate,
+ghastly sort of feeling, beyond
+aught I ever saw in my life before:
+it was choking hot and heavy inside,
+and seemingly throughout the hollow,
+though a good deal of dew began to
+fall, glistening on the dark-green
+bushes nearest us, and standing in
+drops on the fern-like cocoa leaves
+which Jacobs and the other men had
+roofed themselves with. They were
+sound asleep; and the glimpse of the
+soles of their shoes and their knees,
+sticking out of the shadow you saw
+their rough faces in, with the sight of
+their cutlass-hilts, served to give one
+a still wilder notion of the place. One
+felt scarce sure of being able to wake
+them, in case of anything turning up;
+and, at any rate, a dread came over
+you of its being possibly somewhat
+unnatural enough to make the thing
+useless. On the other hand, the
+Planter kept up such a confounded
+snoring inside the canvass close by
+me, that although there was no doubt
+of his being alive, the sound of it put
+stranger thoughts into your head:
+sometimes his breath would be jogging
+on like that of a tolerably ordinary
+mortal, then get by degrees perfectly
+quiet; and then all of a sudden go
+rising and rising, faster and faster, as
+if some terrible dream had hold of
+him, or there was some devilish
+monster hard in chase of his soul, till
+out it broke into a fearful snort that
+made your very heart jump&mdash;whereupon
+he'd lie as if he were finished,
+then go through the whole story
+again. I can't tell you how that
+cursed noise troubled me; 'twas no
+use shoving and speaking to him, and
+all the time the old boy was evidently
+quite comfortable, by something he
+said at last about "indigo being up."
+The best I could do was to get out
+and leave him to himself: in fact,
+where Jones had gone at the time I
+didn't know, till suddenly I caught
+sight of his dark figure standing on
+the rise at the back of our post, and
+went up to him. Jones was certainly
+a strange mixture, for here had he
+been all round the low side of the
+island by himself, yet I found him
+leaning bareheaded on the barrel of
+his musket, listening like a deer: he
+assured me solemnly he thought he
+had heard voices for the last hour on
+the other side, where he hadn't been,
+and asked me if I would go with him
+to see. Then down came our look-out
+from the peak, rolling through the
+bushes like a sea-cow, to report his
+not having seen anything, and to say
+they'd forgot to relieve him aloft; so
+rousing up Jacobs, I sent them both
+back together, while Jones and I held
+the opposite way for the other height.
+The moment we got to it, <i>there</i> was
+the same faint blotted-out horizon as
+we had had all astern of us the night
+before, the same strange unnatural<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_444" id="Page_444">[Pg 444]</a></span>
+paleness cast off the face of the sea,
+making it look black by contrast to
+north-eastward and east, against the
+blue shadow with the bright stars in
+it, where the sea rippled as usual;
+while the keenest glare in the middle
+seemed to stream right to the breast
+of the island, like the reflection of
+daylight down a long break in the
+ice&mdash;only it was dead and ghastly to
+behold. The white water washed round
+under the black edge of the rocks before
+us, to the bare sloping beach,
+where it came up fairly like a wide
+plash of milk, glimmering and sparkling
+back amongst the little sea-creatures
+you fancied you saw moving and
+crawling out or in; till it ran along
+by where the reefs were, and turned
+off to the dim sky again. Everything
+else was still, and Jones drew a
+breath like one relieved. "Nothing
+after all, I think, sir!" said he: but
+to my mind there was something a
+long sight more awful in the look of
+that unaccountable white water bearing
+down like snow upon the island,
+as it were, with the wrinkles and eddies
+to be seen faintly in it here and
+there back toward the glaring breadth
+of it, and the floating streaks in the
+sky above. Especially when he told
+me he thought it was owing to millions
+upon millions of living things in
+it, that made the same show there at
+two different seasons in the year, for
+a week or so at a time&mdash;the appearance
+of it getting less distinct every
+night. However, I had begun to
+grow uneasy again about the Indiaman,
+and the schooner too, as well as
+doubtful of the fellows coming to the
+island it all; on the contrary, as I
+said to Jones, if they saw the
+schooner, and Westwood didn't
+manage as I told him, why both she,
+the ship, and ourselves might possibly
+get the finishing-stroke altogether.
+"The more I think of it," said I,
+"the more cursedly foolish it seems
+to be here instead of aboard!" "Why
+it is, Mr Collins, I don't know," replied
+Jones, "yet I feel as sure these
+men will land here as if I heard them
+in the woods: and if I wasn't aware
+how one crime breeds another, for my
+part I shouldn't be here at present,
+sir. Many a night afloat has the
+thought of this place weighed on me,
+lest there was something new doing
+in it: but what's buried here I'm resolved
+no man shall stir up, if I can
+help it, sir!" A little after, as we
+got up and went down to the beach,
+all of a sudden&mdash;like a thing he
+couldn't avoid&mdash;Jones began to give
+me some snatches of what had happened
+here some years before, which,
+according to him, he had got from a
+shipmate of his that died; and I
+must say it made the blood creep in
+me to listen to it.</p>
+
+<p>At the beginning of the war, he
+said, the island had been a nest of
+regular pirates, who had taken pains
+to make it, from a mere muddy head
+of a reef with some cocoas upon it,
+probably into a resort on occasions&mdash;especially
+as even the wild Maldive
+natives to southward had somehow a
+dislike to it. The whole gang being
+taken by some cruiser or other at sea,
+however, too far off to leave any clue
+to their harbourage hereabouts, they
+were all hanged, and the place lost
+sight of; till a good many years after,
+a country Arab craft, bound for Dacca
+up the Ganges, was driven in a gale
+upon the reefs some way off, without
+seeing the island at all till the sea
+went down, and she was going to
+pieces. There were only two Europeans
+aboard, both having turned
+Mussulmen, and the youngest of them
+was mate. There was a passenger, a
+native Indian merchant, and his servants,
+with, as was believed, his
+harem below in the after cabins, for
+nobody ever had seen them; but the
+Arab <i>rais</i> of the vessel, and several
+more, being washed off when she
+struck, the other Mussulmen took to
+the only boat they had, and got ashore,
+laving the two Englishmen with the
+passenger. Next day the two men
+had contrived a raft of the spars,
+whereupon the Hindoo at last brought
+up his three women, veiled from head
+to foot, and the whole got safe to the
+island. Here all the Mahometans
+herded together amongst themselves,
+forcing the two Englishmen to keep on
+the other side of the island, as they
+had no firearms; while the old Hindoo
+merchant and his native servant got
+a tent pitched on the highest point
+for the women, where they were no
+more seen than before, and a flag
+hoisted on a stick all the time for a
+signal to ships&mdash;poor simple devil! as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_445" id="Page_445">[Pg 445]</a></span>
+Jones said with a laugh. Every day
+he offered the Arab crew more of the
+gold and jewels he had with him, to
+make for India and get him brought
+off; till at last some of the Arabs came
+round to the mate and his companion,
+wanting them to take the boat and go
+instead, otherwise they would kill
+both of them at once. The two men
+accordingly had provisions given them,
+and hoisted sail on the boat before the
+breeze to eastward: they had almost
+dropped the island, when all at once
+the one in the boat's bows stepped aft
+to him that had the tiller, and said it
+struck him the Arabs couldn't mean
+well to the Hindoo and his wives, in
+trying to get clear of others. All his
+companion did, Jones said, was to
+ask if he was man enough to go back,
+face them boldly, and offer to take the
+passenger and his harem too, when
+some craft or other might come back
+for the Arabs, since they weren't seamen
+enough to venture first in the
+boat. "I tell you what," said the
+first, "try the two largest breakers of
+water there!" The water for use next
+after the open one was tasted&mdash;and it
+was <i>salt</i>. "Will you stand by me?"
+the second man said, after a while.
+The other had a dog with him of his
+own, that had swam ashore from the
+vessel after the raft he landed upon,
+and it was sleeping in the boat's bow
+at the moment, near him; the dog
+lifted its head as they spoke, eyed the
+two, and lay down again with a low
+sort of growl. "Ay," answered the
+other, "to the last I will&mdash;as long as
+you stick by <i>me</i>!" They hauled over
+the sheet, laid the boat sharp on a
+wind, and as soon as it was dusk
+began to pull back toward the island,
+where they got ashore in the dark
+before morning.</p>
+
+<p>Here Jones stopped, turned suddenly
+round to the glare of the white
+water plashing upon the beach, and
+said no more. "Why, Jones," said
+I, "is that all you've to tell?&mdash;what
+came of them? For God's sake, yes&mdash;what
+was the upshot?" "'Tis
+enough to show how one bad thing
+breeds another, as I said, sir," answered
+he. "Probably in the end,
+though&mdash;at any rate I only fancy the
+rest&mdash;'tis a horrible dream to me, for
+a&mdash;a&mdash;squall came on when that shipmate
+of mine got so far, and we had
+to reef topsails. He went overboard
+off the yard that very night," said
+Jones wildly. "The man must have
+been <i>there</i>," said I in a pointed way,
+"to give all the particulars&mdash;<i>he</i> was
+the mate, himself, Mr Jones!" He
+made no answer, but kept gazing out
+to sea. "And how long was this
+ago?" I asked. "Oh," answered he,
+"years enough ago, no doubt, sir, for
+both of us to be children, if <i>you</i> were
+born, Mr Collins"&mdash;and he turned his
+face to me as ghastly as the water toward
+the horizon he was looking at
+before,&mdash;"at least I hope to God it
+was so&mdash;the man was a poor creature,
+sir, bless you, and d&mdash;&mdash;d old, as it
+seems to me&mdash;twice my own age at
+the time, Lieutenant Collins! At
+all events, though," he went on,
+rambling in a strange way that made
+me think he was going out of his mind,
+"he remembered well enough the first
+time he saw the white water coming
+down upon the island. He was hunting&mdash;<i>hunting</i>&mdash;through
+the bushes and
+up and down, and came up upon the
+crag." "Hunting?" I said. "Yes,
+you didn't know how it lived, or
+where it kept, but every night it was
+on the look-out there. There was no
+one else, save the girl sleeping over
+beyond in the hut; and the man almost
+fancied the water of the sea was coming
+down to the rocks and the beach, like
+the Almighty himself, to show he
+was clear of all that had happened&mdash;if
+he could but have finished that
+brute, testifying like the very devil,
+he'd have been happy, he felt!
+Harkye," said he, sinking his voice to
+a whisper, "when he went back at
+daylight, the woman was dying&mdash;she
+had born a&mdash;what was as innocent
+as she was, poor, sweet, young heathen!"
+And if I hadn't guessed pretty
+well before that Jones was the man
+he'd been speaking of, his glittering
+eye, and his stride from the beach
+would have showed it; apparently he
+forgot everything besides at that moment,
+till you'd have thought his mind
+gloated on this piece of his history.
+"The woman!" I couldn't help saying,
+"what woman? Had the rest left
+you in the boat, then?"</p>
+
+<p>Jones looked upon me fiercely, then
+turned away; when all on a sudden
+such a long unearthly quaver of a cry
+came down through the stillness, from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_446" id="Page_446">[Pg 446]</a></span>
+somewhere aloft in the island, that at
+first I didn't know what to think, unless
+one of our look-out men had met
+with an accident, and tumbled down.
+'Twas so dark where they were, however,
+there was no seeing them.
+Without looking for himself, Jones
+faced me, shivering all over. "What
+is that, Mr Collins?" whispered he,
+catching my arm with a clutch like
+death, "<i>is</i> there anything yonder&mdash;behind&mdash;behind&mdash;sir?"
+On the flat
+head of the crag north-westward, black
+against the pale glimmer over the very
+spot where we had stood half-an-hour
+before, to my utter horror, there was
+some creature or other sitting as if it
+looked toward the sea; and just then
+another wild, quivering, eddying sound
+came evidently enough from it, like a
+thing that would never end. It wasn't
+a human voice that!&mdash;my very brain
+spun with it, as I glanced to Jones.
+"Good heavens!" I said, "<i>what</i>? But
+by Jove! now I think of it; yes&mdash;'tis
+the howl of a <i>dog</i>&mdash;nothing else!"
+"Eight&mdash;ten years!" said Jones,
+hoarsely, "without food, too, and
+enough in that well to have poisoned
+whole gangs of men for twenty years&mdash;<i>can</i>
+it be an earthly being, sir?"
+The stare he gave me at the moment
+was more frightful than aught else,
+but I mentioned what Westwood and
+I had observed the day before. Before
+I well knew what he meant, Jones
+was stealing swiftly up the rising
+ground to the shoulder of it. I saw
+him get suddenly on a level with the
+creature, his musket aiming for it&mdash;there
+was a flash and a shot that left
+the height as bare as before&mdash;and next
+minute, with a short whimpering howl,
+the animal flew down the hill, while I
+heard Jones crashing through the
+bushes after it, till he was lost in the
+dark. Such a terrible notion it gave
+me of his strange story being true,
+whereas before I had almost fancied it
+partly a craze of his, from having lived
+here alone&mdash;that for a moment or two
+it seemed to my mind we were still
+in the midst of it. I hurried back to
+our post, and close upon morning
+Jones came over and lay down by
+himself without a word, haggard and
+covered with sweat.</p>
+
+<p>All next day the horizon on every
+side was clear of a single speck; no
+signs either of ship or schooner, till I
+began to wish we were out of it,
+hoping the Seringapatam had, after
+all, kept the old course for Bombay,
+in spite of us. I found Jones had
+warned the men not to get our water
+out of the tank; it being poisoned in a
+way fit to last for years, as the pirates
+knew how to do. For our parts, we
+had to amuse ourselves the best way
+we could, waiting for the schooner to
+come down again for us, which was
+the only thing I looked for now. That
+night the white appearance of the
+water to north and windward seemed
+a good deal gone, save where it hung
+like a haze in the direction it took off
+the island: the stars shone out, and in
+two or three nights more I found from
+Jones there would be nothing of it,
+which I hoped I should have to take
+on his word.</p>
+
+<p>At daybreak, however, our look-out
+could all of a sudden be seen hoisting
+the signal for a sail in sight, and
+waving his hat for us to come. No
+sooner had we hurried up, accordingly,
+than a sail could be made out
+in the south-east, hull down; and the
+schooner not being likely thereaway,
+a certain flutter in me at once set it
+down for the Indiaman at last, on her
+way far past the island for the open
+channel. Being broad daylight, too,
+with a fresh breeze blowing, we saw
+that Foster and his party, if they
+carried out their scheme, would have
+to wait till she was a long way to
+windward at night-time, in order to
+get clear off. In fact, I had every
+one kept down off the height, lest the
+ship's glasses might possibly notice
+something; while, at the same time,
+we hadn't even a fire kindled to cook
+our victuals. I was watching her
+over the brow of the hill, through the
+telescope, when she evidently stood
+round on the other tack to get up to
+windward, which brought her gradually
+nearer. She was a large ship,
+under full canvass; and at last she
+rose her hull to the white streak
+below the bulwarks, till I began to
+think they intended passing the
+island to eastward to make the
+channel. I went down for Jones,
+and asked him how far the reefs
+actually ran out, when he told me
+there would probably be signs enough
+of them in such a strong, breeze;
+besides, as he reminded me, if she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_447" id="Page_447">[Pg 447]</a></span>
+was the Indiaman, it was the captain
+himself that had a chart of them; in
+which, from the particular nature of
+it&mdash;being an old buccaneering chart,
+as he thought&mdash;they would be laid
+down quite plainly. Indeed, when
+we both returned to the height, there
+were lines of surf to be noticed here
+and there, more than three miles out;
+and seeing her by that time so distinctly,
+a new uneasiness began to
+enter my head. There were no
+signals we could make, even if they
+didn't serve the other way; and, to
+tell the truth, I didn't much like the
+idea of being found there. Still, it
+was terrible to see her getting nearer
+and nearer, without the power of
+doing the least thing to warn her off;
+spreading and heightening before you,
+till you counted her sails, and saw
+the light betwixt them, with the
+breeze always strengthening off that
+side the island, and of course making
+it the safer for her to pass it to leeward.
+The blue surges rose longer
+to the foam at their crests, till
+one's eye got confused between them
+and the spots of surf rippling greenish
+over the tongues of reef; in fact, it
+wasn't far off being low-water at the
+time, and the whole was to be seen
+better from the height than elsewhere,
+stretched out like a floor that the
+breeze was sweeping across, raising a
+white dust where the blue melted
+into the light-brown tint of the sea to
+leeward. The breeze came so fresh
+that she even hauled down her
+sky-sails and fore-royal, falling off
+to go to leeward of the island. At
+the same moment, I made out with
+the glass that she was actually the
+Seringapatam, and also, that she'd
+got a leadsman at work in the chains.
+Five minutes more, and she'd have
+gone time enough into the distinct
+brown-coloured swells, to stand past
+the deep end: without help from the
+glass, I saw the sun sparkle in the
+spray from her black bows; she made
+a sliding forge ahead with her whole
+beam on to us; when, next moment,
+as if she had taken a sudden yaw and
+broached to in the wind, she came
+fairly end-on, showing the three piles
+of canvass in one. A wild boding of
+the truth crept on me as I sprang on
+the peak, waving my arms, and
+stamping like a lunatic, as if they
+could hear me. The next instant she
+had fallen a little over, her foretop-mast
+and main-to'gallant-mast gone
+out of their places at the shock, and
+the heavy blue swells running to her
+highest side in a perfect heap of foam;
+while the spray rose in white jets
+across her weather bulwarks at every
+burst of them. The Indiaman had
+struck on a rib of reef, or else a spit
+of sand, near the very edge of the
+whole bank: had it been only high
+water&mdash;as I had reason to believe
+afterwards&mdash;she'd have gone clear
+over it. As soon as the first horror
+of the thing was a little past, I looked,
+without a word, to Jones, and he
+to me. "The fellows have come at
+last, certainly!" said he, in a serious
+enough tone. "Mr Collins," he
+added, "the moment I set foot on
+ground here, I felt sure something
+would come of it!"&mdash;"Get the men
+down at once, sir," I said, "and let's
+pull out to the ship!"&mdash;"Why, sir,"
+answered he, "the breeze is likely to
+keep for some time as it is, and if
+she's completely gone, they'll be able
+to bring all hands safe ashore. If you
+take my advice, Mr Collins, you'll
+hold all fast, and show no signs of
+our being here at all, in case of
+having something or other to manage
+yet that may cost us harder!" It
+didn't need much thought to see this,
+in fact; and in place of going down,
+ten minutes after we were all close
+amongst the bushes on the slope,
+watching the wreck. What was at
+the bottom of all this I didn't know;
+whether Captain Finch had really
+got wind of Foster's scheme, and
+been playing with some hellish notion
+his heart failed him to carry out, or
+how it was; but what he was to
+make of <i>this</i> was the question.</p>
+
+<p>Well, toward afternoon, the wreck
+seemed pretty much in the same
+state, though by that time they had
+evidently given her up, for the boats
+were beginning to be hoisted out to
+leeward. We couldn't see what
+went on there, till one of them suddenly
+appeared, pulling out for the
+island, about three miles off; then
+the large launch after it. There were
+ladies' dresses to be made out in both,
+their cloaks and shawls fluttering
+bright to the breeze as the boats
+dipped in the short swells; and they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_448" id="Page_448">[Pg 448]</a></span>
+were full an hour ere they got out of
+our sight, near the broad beach, on the
+level side, where the tide was ebbing
+fast again, making it a hard matter
+to pull the distance. Two more boats
+came off the ship, filled full of casks
+and other matters, save the crews;
+the rest of the passengers and men
+no doubt waiting for the launch and
+jolly-boat to go back and take them
+ashore&mdash;for, soon after, they both could
+be seen rounding the point on their way
+out. On coming within hail of the
+fresh boats, however, they apparently
+gave in, since we could see the two
+of them, to our great surprise, strike
+round, and make for the beach again
+with their shipmates, spite of signals
+from the wreck, and shots even fired
+after them. The breeze by that time
+flagged, leaving less of a sea against
+the ship's hull in the dead-water from
+the other reefs, and she had fallen
+over again to leeward&mdash;a proof of her
+sticking fast where she struck, without
+much fear of parting very soon in
+such weather; but the sun was going
+down, and this being the first sign of
+foul play we had observed, 'twas
+plain at all events we should have to
+look sharp about us. We kept close
+up the height, bolted our cold junk
+and biscuit, washing down with a
+stiff caulker, and looked every man
+to his tools. To my great satisfaction,
+the Planter, who had watched
+everything seemingly in pure
+bewilderment, woke up out of it when
+he knew how matters stood, and
+handled his double-barrel as cool as a
+cucumber, putting in two bullets
+above the small shot he had got for
+the birds, and ramming down with
+the air of a man summing up a
+couple of bills against a rascally
+debtor. For my own part, I must
+say I was longer of coming to feel it
+wasn't some sort of a dream, owing
+to Jones' broken story; till the
+thought of <i>who</i> was to all likelihood
+on the very island below, with the
+rest of the ladies, amongst a set of all
+sorts of foremast-men thrown loose
+from command&mdash;half of them, probably,
+ruffians, with some hand in
+the matter&mdash;it came on me like fire
+at one's vitals. Meantime we sat there
+patiently enough for want of knowing
+what was to do first, or which way
+we had best keep to avoid bringing
+matters to a head, worse than they
+yet were.</p>
+
+<p>The night came out of the dusk a
+fine starlight to seaward beyond the
+reefs where the Indiaman lay, the
+high side of the island glooming back
+against the deep blue glistening sky,
+till you didn't see how large it might
+be; while the white water hung
+glimmering off to leeward from the
+rocks. The ship's crew had kindled
+a fire on the long strand near the
+boats, and we heard their noise
+getting louder and louder above the
+sound of the sea plashing upon it&mdash;evidently
+through their making free
+with liquor. Jones being no doubt
+well acquainted with every part of
+the ground, he proposed to go over
+and see how things stood, and where
+the passengers might be: at the same
+time, as Mr Rollock was more likely
+to come conveniently to speech of
+them, both for explaining our being
+here and putting them on their guard,
+he agreed to go too.</p>
+
+<p>One or other of them was to hurry
+back as quickly as possible, while the
+men and myself waited in readiness
+for whatever might turn up. Hour
+after hour passed, however, till I was
+quite out of patience, not to say uneasy
+beyond description. All was still,
+save below toward the water's edge&mdash;the
+seamen's voices at times mixing
+with the washing hum of the surge on
+the sand, then rising over it in the
+chorus of a forecastle song, or a sudden
+bit of a quarrelsome uproar;
+notwithstanding which they began apparently
+to settle down to sleep. At
+last the Planter came skirting round
+the hill through the trees, quite out of
+breath, to say they had discovered the
+spot where the ladies had no doubt
+been taken by their friends, as Captain
+Finch himself, with one of the ship's
+officers, and two or three cadets, were
+walking about on the watch, all of
+them armed. To judge by this, and
+the fact of the other gentlemen being
+still apparently on the wreck, Finch
+mistrusted his men. However, the
+Planter thought it better not to risk a
+hasty shot through him by going nearer;
+and, to tell the truth, I thought it
+better myself to wait till daylight,
+when we should see if the rest got
+ashore; or possibly, as I wished to
+heaven were the case, the schooner<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_449" id="Page_449">[Pg 449]</a></span>
+might heave in sight. "Where is Mr
+Jones, though?" asked I: on which I
+found he had gone over for the first
+time toward the well for some water,
+as he told Mr Rollock. Indeed, the
+passengers were settled near the thick
+of the wood on this side of the watering-place,
+none of the Indiaman's
+people seeming to know as yet there
+was such a thing on the island.</p>
+
+<p>We each of us held our breath, and
+listened to hear Jones come back. I
+was just on the point of leading my
+party that way, when I caught the
+sound of some one panting, as it were,
+up the ridge from the shore, and next
+moment saw, to my great surprise, it
+was the creature Jones had such a
+horror of&mdash;the dog that had run wild
+on the island, snuffing with his nose
+to the ground as if he were in chase of
+something; while the straw hats and
+tarpaulins of half-a-dozen fellows with
+ship's muskets and cutlasses followed
+him over the hill, not thirty paces
+above us. I signed to Jacobs to keep
+quiet, as they halted together, looking
+at the dog; and, from what I could
+catch of their words, they had noticed
+it ever since sundown, sitting at the
+foot of the hill watching what went on,
+till the animal ran toward them as if
+they were friends, every now and then
+turning and making for the heights
+with a bark and a whimper, as it did
+at present. One of the men was Foster.
+"I tell ye what it is," said he,
+"there's some fellow on the island
+already, 'mates. If we ketch him, why,
+we'll have it out of him&mdash;then down
+with it quietly to the shore, and go off
+in the long-boat, seeing as how this
+blasted fool of a skipper of ours has
+spoiled our pleasure!" The dog turned
+again, wagged his tail, and put
+his nose to the ground. I thought at
+first he'd bring them right upon us,
+when suddenly he broke off with a yelp
+exactly into the track Jones had
+taken with Mr Rollock on leaving us.
+The sailors kept away in his wake,
+down through the bushes into the
+thick dusk of the trees; upon which
+the Planter and I started to our feet at
+once, and held cautiously after them,
+the five man-o'-warsmen following at
+our heels, Indian file.</p>
+
+<p>Jones, however, had either heard
+the dog, or got an inkling of the thing,
+and he had taken a long round so as
+to join us from behind: the Indiaman's
+men keeping on for a quarter of
+an hour or so, when they brought up
+again, seemingly doubtful whether to
+follow the creature or not; and we
+dropped like one man into the shadow,
+till they made sail once more. Soon
+after the Planter pointed to the trees
+where the passengers were, and, on a
+sign from me, the whole of us edged
+down to the spot, till we were standing
+within sight of the half-finished
+fire, where the Judge's kitmagar was
+sitting asleep, tailor-fashion, with his
+flat turban sunk to his breast. One
+of the cadets stood down the slope a
+little, betwixt that and the beach
+where the crew were, leaning sleepily
+on his gun, and nodding; while in the
+midst was a sort of shed, run up with
+branches and cocoa-nut leaves, where
+you could see a glimpse of the different
+ladies' dresses, young and old,
+asleep on the ground. The starlight
+fell right down into the opening, and
+showed the glistening edges of the
+leaves, with the sea broad out beyond
+the cocoas at the foot of the rising
+ground; so bidding Jones look out
+sharp, I stepped carefully through.
+My eye lighted at once on Sir Charles
+Hyde lying in one nook of the shelter,
+wrapped up in his pilot-coat&mdash;the
+first time in the old gentleman's life
+for a good while, I daresay, that he
+had passed his night on the ground,
+especially with such a lot of berths
+taken up beside him. Still he was
+sound enough at the time, to judge by
+his breathing, trifle as it was to the
+Planter's; and close by him was his
+daughter, with her cloak drawn half
+over her head in the shadow&mdash;her hair
+confused about her cheek as it pressed
+white into the bundle of red bunting
+she had for a pillow, and one hand
+keeping the cloak fast at the neck, as
+if she dreamt of a stiff breeze. The
+sight went to my heart, and so did the
+notion of waking her; but I heard
+sounds below on the beach, as if the
+rest of the crew missed their shipmates,
+probably getting jealous after
+their booze, and not unlikely to seek
+them up the island; so the more it
+struck me there was no time to be
+lost in coming to an understanding.
+According, I stooped down quietly
+and touched her on the shoulder.
+Violet Hyde opened her eyes at once,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_450" id="Page_450">[Pg 450]</a></span>
+and looked at me; but whether it was
+the starlight showing my uniform, or
+her fancying it was still the Indiaman
+in the Atlantic, in place of crying out,
+why, there was almost a smile on her
+lips as she saw me from the ground.
+Next moment, however, she drew her
+hand across her eyelids, sat up with
+the help of the other arm, and gazed
+on me in a bewildered way, naming
+me at the same time below her breath.
+"Yes, Miss Hyde!" I said hastily;
+and a few words served to give her a
+notion of the case, as well as to advise
+her to wake up the Judge, with the
+rest of the ladies, and be ready to move
+the moment we came back. My first
+thought was to take Foster's own
+plan, and secure the long-boat, if we
+could only get betwixt the Indiaman's
+crew and the water; or even try our
+own, on the opposite side of the island,
+and carry off the other boats to
+the wreck; after which we might keep
+off till the schooner appeared, as she
+couldn't be long of doing in this
+weather.</p>
+
+<p>I had just stolen back to the men
+and Mr Rollock, when all at once
+there was a wild cry, not twenty yards
+off, among the brushwood. A heavy
+blow and a struggle, in the midst of
+which three shots, one after the other,
+were heard from the cadets; next
+minute, with oaths and curses to the
+mast-head, and a crash through
+amongst the branches in the dark,
+Foster and his shipmates came making
+for the opening. Something horrible
+flashed through my mind as I
+fancied I had caught Finch's voice,
+whether one way or the other I couldn't
+say, for I had no thought at the time
+excepting for Violet. Shriek upon
+shriek broke from the ladies ere I
+well knew I had big Harry himself by
+the hairy throat of him, as he was aiming
+a left-handed stroke of his cutlass
+at the Judge, who had sprung betwixt
+him and his daughter. The strength
+of that ruffian was wonderful, for he
+flung me off and levelled Sir Charles
+Hyde at the same moment, the Judge's
+body tripping me. Jones and my own
+men, as well as the Planter, were hard
+at work with the other five desperate
+villains; while the cadets and the
+second officer of the Seringapatam
+rushed in from the trees&mdash;all of it
+passing in half a minute. As I started
+to my feet, Foster had lifted Violet
+Hyde in his arms, and was dashing
+through the darkest of the wood with
+her toward the hollow; when, just as I
+was hard upon him, doubly to my
+horror, above all the screams of the
+ladies I could hear the wild drunken
+shouts of the crew below coming up
+from the beach like so many devils.
+Foster had got as far as the next
+opening where the rubbish of the hut
+was, and, no doubt catching the sound
+as well as myself, all at once he dropped
+the young lady on the grass&mdash;in a
+faint as she was, and her white dress
+stained with blood, as I thought from
+<i>herself</i>. "Now ye&mdash;&mdash;" shouted he,
+turning bolt round till her moveless
+figure lay betwixt us, with a flourish
+of his cutlass, which I fancied was
+bloody too&mdash;"who are <i>you</i>? You'll
+have a dozen on ye directly, but what's
+meat for the skipper's meat for the passenger,
+so&mdash;" "Devil!" said I through
+my teeth, as I edged round; and Foster
+was in the very act of rushing at
+me, whether he trod on her or not, when
+my voice or dress seemed to strike
+him in the dusk. "How the bloody
+comfort did <i>you</i>&mdash;" said he, shrinking
+back for a moment; "so much the
+better, by G&mdash;!" and he sprang forward
+again right upon me, with a
+swinging boarder's blow at my head,
+which flashed off my blade with a
+force enough to have shivered it, had
+it not been a first-rate old cut-and-thrust
+I had tried pretty stiffly before.
+If I hadn't been in such a fury of
+rage, and a hurry at once, 'twould
+have been Harry's last hit; but, at
+the third he made, I caught him fair
+under it, the point going through and
+through his body as I thrust him back
+stride by stride&mdash;his cutlass waving
+fiercely all the time in the air clear of
+my head, for the stroke came under
+his arm. The moment he fell, though
+I knew nothing before that of where
+we were, there was a heavy plunge;
+I had nearly followed on top of him,
+as he went head-foremost down the
+tank-well under the trees; but next
+moment, without a thought more to
+him in the heat of the struggle, I was
+lifting Violet off the grass. What I
+did or what I said, to see if she would
+revive, I don't really know; but I
+remember, as well as if it were last
+night, the very sound of her voice as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_451" id="Page_451">[Pg 451]</a></span>
+she told me she wasn't hurt. The
+affair in the wood below us had suddenly
+ceased during these five or ten
+minutes&mdash;indeed, as I found afterwards,
+Jones and my party had settled
+every one of the five, either altogether
+or for the time; but the uproar of
+more than twenty fierce voices could
+be heard beyond them, cursing and
+yelling as they came stumbling and
+crashing up amongst the brushwood
+in a body; while the ladies and their
+companions struggled up from all sides
+toward the height, wild with terror.
+I met Sir Charles Hyde hurrying to
+seek his daughter, however; and the
+moment he had her in his arms, I
+rushed down, pistol in hand, to join
+my men, who were standing firm
+below, as the mutineers burst into the
+opening, no doubt with the notion
+they had only the cadets to do with.
+"Here, my lads!" I sang out;
+"make every man of them prisoner&mdash;down
+with 'em to the schooner!"
+And as I broke suddenly through in
+the starlight in the midst of them,
+Jones, Jacobs, the Planter, and the
+other four man-o'-warsmen sprang
+after me, one by one&mdash;taking the cue,
+and shouting as if to ever so many
+behind us, "Here they are, shipmates&mdash;this
+way&mdash;settle the blackguards!"
+In fact, the moment I appeared, the
+gang of half-drunk fellows were taken
+aback. One of them roared as if he
+saw the very devil; and giving them
+no time to think, we drove them
+scattering down toward the beach.
+One of Foster's party, however, being
+only stunned, had contrived to get
+down amongst them; and in a little
+while, seeing we didn't follow, the
+whole lot of them appeared to get an
+inkling of the truth, on which they
+rallied. It wasn't long ere I saw they
+had got desperate, and were planning
+to divide, and come somewhere over
+upon us round the heights; so that,
+in the dark, with our small party, not
+knowing their numbers, the best we
+could do was to gather up toward the
+peak, and secure the ladies. Accordingly,
+we passed an uncomfortable
+enough time during the rest of the
+night, till daybreak, when still no
+signs of the schooner, as we saw in
+the clear to north-eastward. Frightful
+notions came into my head of
+something having happened to her;
+the mutineers below were on both
+sides of the island, and they held the
+watering-place; we hadn't provisions
+for a single breakfast to half the party
+of us&mdash;and, the fellows being now fairly
+in for it, they could starve us out if
+they chose. You may conceive, accordingly,
+what a joyful sight met my
+eyes, when, on the dusk lifting off to
+northward, we could see the lovely
+craft under all sail not six miles off,
+bearing down before a fresh breeze
+for the deep end of the island! The
+wind had headed her off on her way
+back; and, knowing nothing of the
+wreck, Westwood might have landed
+at the mercy of the villains in the
+bush. But the minute we saw his boat
+out, the whole of us, save the Judge
+and the Planter, made a clean charge
+down upon them&mdash;the schooner's men
+joining us with the oars and boat-stretchers;
+and in another half-hour
+the whole gang, having lost heart,
+were taken and lashed fast by the
+wrists on the beach, to a single man.</p>
+
+<p>On searching the watering-place
+during the day, we found some one
+had covered the mouth of the tank
+with sticks and leaves, through which
+Harry Foster had gone when he fell.
+The stuff had fallen in over him; and
+the well being evidently made deep
+into the rock, to hold water the longer,
+with the roots of the trees growing
+out into it, his body never came up.
+Somehow or other no one liked to
+sound it to the bottom; but the thing
+that horrified all of us the most, was
+to find Captain Finch himself lying
+quite dead amongst the brushwood
+near where the passengers had pitched
+their quarters, with a cut through his
+skull enough to have killed an ox.
+It was supposed Foster had suddenly
+come upon him, as he and his shipmates
+looked out for the hoard they
+thought the pirates had in the island,
+while Finch was on guard over the
+ladies. Whether the fellow took a new
+notion at the moment, or what it was,
+the whole gang of them made their
+rush upon the second mate and the
+cadets, the minute after the captain
+met his death.</p>
+
+<p>As for Jones, he told me he had
+noticed the dog watching the seamen
+below, and the idea got into his head
+of what might happen. There was
+that about the animal to give one a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_452" id="Page_452">[Pg 452]</a></span>
+dread you couldn't describe. How it
+had lived all this time, and how the
+custom came back on it after growing
+perfectly wild, of carrying on like
+what it did that night, was a mystery;
+but Jones said he hadn't heard it bark
+before, neither had the man he knew
+of, since the time he was first left
+<i>alone</i> on White-water Island. In
+fact, the whole of us might have
+hunted it down before we left. But
+"No!" Jones said. "There's a perfect
+fiend in the brute, I do believe&mdash;yet
+it strikes me by this time, the creature
+belongs to&mdash;to the Almighty, sir!"
+The men and passengers had been
+taken off the Indiaman's wreck, which
+there was no chance of getting off the
+reef; so, taking out the best of her
+stores and the passengers' property,
+we had every soul aboard the schooner,
+and at last set sail to the south-east,
+meaning to go in at Madras, where a
+sloop might be sent to recover more
+from the ship. 'Twas with no ordinary
+state of things, from stem to stern,
+that we dropped White-water Island
+astern.</p>
+
+<p>Well, ma'am, the rest you may
+easily fancy. We made Madras
+Roads, and there I expected to lose
+sight of the Judge and his daughter
+again, as we did of most of the other
+passengers; but to my perfect delight,
+Sir Charles preferred carrying out the
+voyage on to Calcutta in the schooner,
+where they had the after-cabins to
+themselves. The Indiaman's crew I
+kept, prisoners and all, till we should
+meet the frigate off the Sunderbunds.</p>
+
+<p>Just conceive standing up the hot
+Bay of Bengal with flagging south-westerly
+breezes, shifting at times to a
+brisk south-easter, or a squall, as we've
+done ourselves this week. The moon
+wasn't at the full then, of course, so
+we only had it like a reaper's sickle
+in the dog-watches; but it was fine
+weather, and you may imagine one
+sometimes contrived, betwixt Westwood
+and myself, to have Violet on
+the quarterdeck of an evening without
+the Judge. Tom would step forward
+suddenly to see a small pull taken on
+a sheet, and Snelling knew pretty
+well not to walk aft of the capstan;
+so I could lean over the taffrail near
+her, and look at the schooner's wake
+glimmering and sparkling up in the
+bubbles astern.</p>
+
+<p>Then to save trouble, you need but
+picture to yourselves some such sort
+of a daybreak as we had this morning;
+a cool blue cloudless sky all
+aloft, dappled to eastward with a
+mighty arch, as it were, of small white
+spots and flakes, as a perfect sea of
+light flows up into it before the sun
+under the horizon, and a pale slanting
+shaft of it seems to hang gray in the
+yellow above him.<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> The sea heaves
+deep-blue and deeper-blue under the
+schooner; the wide flock of small
+clouds burn from gold to fire; the
+slanting streak of light fades and
+vanishes, and the sun comes up like a
+gush of flame&mdash;sending a stream of
+glittering radiance along the water
+to our starboard bow, while it
+shows a long flat line of land far on
+the other beam. The Planter is
+smoking his first cheroot for that day
+at the stern gratings, when we make
+out three or four faint points over the
+streak of land, shining like gold in the
+dawn; while at the same time three
+hazy pillars, as it were, are seen
+standing up betwixt sea and sky,
+beyond the rippling blue in the north-eastern
+board. 'Tis the spires of
+Juggernaut pagoda on one side; and
+as the brisk morning breeze drives
+the water into short surges, till the
+schooner rises the ship upon the other,
+all of a sudden she looms square and
+white upon our starboard bow. As
+the hull lifted higher and higher under
+her canvass, there was less doubt
+every few minutes of her being a frigate;
+and by the time Violet and her
+father were standing together on the
+quarterdeck, the glorious old Hebe
+was signalling us from her fore-royal-masthead,
+as she kept close on a wind
+to cross our course.</p>
+
+<p>We spoke the pilot-brig that evening,
+took out the pilot, and stood up
+into the mouth of the Hoogly with
+the night-tide in the moonlight&mdash;dropping
+the Hebe at Diamond Harbour
+next day; while Lord Frederick,
+and a Government gentleman he had
+with him from St Helena, went up to
+Calcutta with us in the schooner. The
+whole of the Indiaman's late crew and
+officers were left in the frigate till
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_453" id="Page_453">[Pg 453]</a></span>further notice, notwithstanding which
+we were pretty well crowded on our
+way up: Westwood and I were glad
+of a couple of hammocks in the half
+deck; and, in fact, I saw little more of
+Violet Hyde till they went ashore
+opposite Fort-William.</p>
+
+<p>In half-an-hour we were lying at
+anchor in the midst of the crowd of
+Indiamen, country ships, Arab craft,
+and all sorts of craft besides, stretching
+far up to the next reach; the long
+front of flat-topped buildings, with
+their green venetians and balustrades,
+shining white over the row of trees on
+the right bank, like a string of palaces
+spreading back through the huge mass
+of the city to the pale hot eastern sky&mdash;a
+tall cocoa-nut tree or a sharp spire
+breaking it here and there; while the
+pile of Government House was to be
+seen dotted with adjutant-birds; and
+the opposite shore showed far off in a
+line of green jungle, faced by a few
+gay-looking spots of bungalows. All
+the rest of the day Jones busied himself
+seeing all made regular and ship-shape
+below and aloft, in complete
+seaman-like style, till I began to think
+he had taken a fancy to the schooner,
+and meant to go with her and the
+frigate to the China seas. Next
+morning, however, as soon as breakfast
+was over in the cabin, he came to
+me and said that, as there was nothing
+more to be done at present aboard,
+according to our agreement he would
+bid us good-bye. Nothing I could
+say was of the least use, so at last I
+had to give it up. Having little money
+about me, however, except in bills,
+and intending to go ashore myself, I
+told him I should pay him his mate's
+wages at once at a banker's in the
+town. By the time I came on deck,
+Jones had hailed a dingy, and the
+native boatman paddled us to the
+ghaut below the Sailor's Home together.</p>
+
+<p>I had shaken hands with him, and
+stood watching him from the bank
+verandah, as his manly figure, in the
+blue jacket, white duck trousers, and
+straw hat, passed away down Flag
+Street, stepping like a seaman fresh
+from blue water through a stream of
+Hindoos in white muslin, Mussulman
+servants, tall-capped Armenians,
+Danes, Frenchmen, Chinamen, Arabs,
+and Parsees. Three or four Coolies
+with painted umbrellas were shouting
+and scrambling in his way, mentioning
+their names, salaaming, and
+sah'bing him to the nines; a couple
+of naked black boys were trying to
+brush his shoes in the dust; a tray of
+native sweetmeats seemed to be
+shoved every now and then under his
+nose; and two or three children with
+heads as big as pumpkins were stuck
+before him, their mothers begging for
+"buckshish! buckshish!" Jones held
+on like a man accustomed to every
+sort of foreign scenes in the world;
+and out of curiosity to see where he
+would go, I followed him for a little
+toward the thick of the noise and
+crowd, through Tank Square, where
+the water-carriers were sprinkling the
+ground from the sheep-skins on their
+backs as they walked, serpent-charmers
+and jugglers exhibiting, and
+a dirty Fakir rolling at the corner in
+seeming agony, with a crowd of
+liberty-men in Sunday toggery all
+round him. Jones looked up at the
+church steeping in the white heat, and
+across the glare of light to the city
+beyond, standing like a man that
+didn't know what to do, or hadn't seen
+Calcutta before; then passed carelessly
+by the half-slued sailors, who
+hailed him as if he were a ship. At
+length he got to the turn of a street
+running into the native town, where
+you caught a glimpse of it swarming
+this way and that with turbans in
+the close overhanging bazaars. Some
+Hindoo procession or other was coming
+along with tom-toms, gongs, tambourines,
+and punkahs, sweeping on
+through a Babel of heathenish cries
+and songs; a knot of dancing-girls,
+with red flowers in their sleek black
+hair, could be seen in a hackery
+drawn by two hump-backed bullocks;
+and a white Brahmin bull was poking
+its head amongst the heaps of fruit at
+a stall; whilst you heard a whole
+ship's crew hurrahing and laughing
+amongst the confusion, as they drove
+along. Suddenly I saw Jones hail a
+palanquin near him, and get in. The
+four mud-coloured bearers took the
+pole of it on their shoulders, fore and
+aft&mdash;greasy-looking fellows, with
+ochre-marks on their noses and foreheads,
+a tuft of hair tied back on
+their heads like women, and as naked
+as they were born, save the cloth<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_454" id="Page_454">[Pg 454]</a></span>
+round their middle,&mdash;and next moment
+away they trotted, grunting and
+swinging the palanquin, till I lost
+sight of them in the hubbub. 'Twas
+the last I saw of Jones.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>Here the Captain stopped; the
+Gloucester's crew were getting the
+anchors off her forecastle to her bows
+for next day, when the light-ship off
+the Sandheads was expected to be
+seen; and, from his manner and his
+silence together, he evidently considered
+the yarn at an end. "That's
+all then?" carelessly asked the surgeon,
+who was a chess-player, and
+had heard only this part of the Captain's
+adventures, and the first two,
+so that he appeared to perceive a
+slight want of connection. "All?"
+was the unanimous voice of the lady-passengers,
+most of whom had been
+faithful listeners,&mdash;the younger ones
+were obviously disappointed at something.
+"Why, yes," said Captain
+Collins, with a look which might be
+interpreted either as modest or "close,"&mdash;"the
+fact is, I fancied the affair
+might serve to while away a single
+evening or so, and here have I been
+yarning different nights all this time!
+'Tis owing to my want of practice, no
+doubt, ma'am." "Come, come," said
+the matron of the party, "you must
+really give us some idea of a denouement.
+These girls of mine won't be
+satisfied without it, Captain Collins;
+they will think it no story at all,
+otherwise!"</p>
+
+<p>"An end to it, you mean?" answered
+he. "Why, ma'am, if there
+were an <i>end</i> to it, it couldn't be a
+'short' yarn at all&mdash;that would
+be to finish and 'whip' it, as we
+say, before it's long enough for
+the purpose; whereas, luckily, my
+life hasn't got to a close yet."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" said the lady, no sea casuistry
+for <i>us</i>; besides, <i>I</i> am aware of
+the sequel, you know!" "Why,
+ma'am," answered the Captain, looking
+up innocently, "it wasn't for
+two years and a half afterwards that
+I&mdash;I settled, you know! Do you
+mean me to tell you all that happened
+in that time, about the Frenchman,
+and what befell the schooner in the
+China seas? 'twould last the voyage
+home; but if you'll go <i>back</i> with me
+I've no particular objection, now I've
+got into the way" "No no, my
+dear, Captain," said the lady, "we
+have had enough for the present of
+your nautical details&mdash;I beg pardon&mdash;but
+tell us how you succeeded in&mdash;" "Well,"
+interrupted the narrator
+rather hastily, "'twas somewhat
+thus: I was at home at Croydon, being
+by that time first lieutenant of
+the Hebe, but she was just paid off.
+One morning, at breakfast, the letter-bag
+from the village was brought in
+as usual, my mother taking them out,
+reading off all the addresses through
+her spectacles, while Jane made the
+coffee. My mother handed Jane a
+ship-letter, which she put somewhere
+in her dress, with a blush, so that I
+knew in a moment it must be from
+Tom Westwood, who was in the
+Company's civil service in India, upcountry.
+"None for me, mother?"
+asked I eagerly; for the fact was I
+had got one or two at different times,
+at Canton and the Cape of Good
+Hope, during the two years. "Yes,
+Ned," said my mother, eyeing it again
+and again, anxiously enough, as I
+thought; "there is&mdash;but I fear it is
+some horrid thing from those Admirals"&mdash;the
+Admiralty, she meant&mdash;"and
+they will be sending you off
+immediately&mdash;or a war, or something.
+Oh dear me, Ned," exclaimed the
+good woman, quite distressed, "won't
+you do as I wish you, and stay
+altogether!" By the Lord Harry!
+when I opened it, 'twas a letter from
+Lord Frederick Bury, who had succeeded
+to his eldest brother's title
+while we were out, saying he had the
+promise of a commandership for me,
+as soon as a new brig for the West
+India station was ready. "I shan't
+have to go for six or seven months at
+any rate, mother," said I, "by which
+time I shall be confounded tired of
+the land, <i>I</i> know!" She wanted me
+to buy a small estate near Croydon,
+shoot, fish, and dig, I suppose; while
+Jane said I ought to marry, especially
+as she had a girl with money in
+her eye for me. Still they saw it was
+no use, and began to give it up.</p>
+
+<p>Why I never heard at all from a
+certain quarter, I couldn't think. Till
+that time, in fact, I had been as sure
+of her proving true as I was of breezes
+blowing; but now I couldn't help
+fancying all sorts of tyranny on the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_455" id="Page_455">[Pg 455]</a></span>
+Judge's part and her mother's, not to
+speak of Tom's uncle, the Councillor.
+I went down the lane for the twentieth
+time, past the end of the house they
+had lived in, where the windows had
+been shuttered up and the gates close
+ever since I came. All of a sudden,
+this time, I saw there were workmen
+about the place, the windows open,
+and two servants washing down the
+yellow wheels of a travelling carriage.
+I made straight back for our house,
+went up to Jane, who was at her
+piano in the drawing-room, and asked,
+quite out of breath, <i>who</i> was come to
+the house over the park behind us.
+"Did you not know that old Nabob
+was coming back from India?" said
+Jane. "His face was getting too yellow,
+I suppose; and besides, his wife
+is dead&mdash;from his crossness, no doubt.
+But the young lady is an heiress,
+Ned, and as I meant to tell you, from
+good authority"&mdash;here the sly creature
+looked away into her music&mdash;"passionately
+fond of the sea, which
+means, you know, of naval officers"&mdash;"The
+devil she is, Jane!" I broke
+out; "what did Westwood mean by
+that?&mdash;but <i>when</i> are they coming, for
+heaven's sake?" "Why," said Jane,
+"I believe, from what I heard our
+gardener say, they arrived last night."
+"Then, by Jove, my dear girl!" said
+I, "I'll tell you a secret&mdash;and mind,
+I count on you!" My little sister
+was all alive in a moment, ran to the
+door and shut it, then settled herself
+on the sofa to hear what I had to say,
+as eagerly as you please. So I told
+her what the whole matter was, with
+the state of things when we left
+Calcutta. Jane seemed to reckon
+the affair as clear as a die; and
+you've no notion what a lot of new
+ropes she put me up to in a concern
+of the kind, as well as ways to carry
+it out ship-shape to the end, in spite
+of the Judge&mdash;or else to smooth him
+over.</p>
+
+<p>"The long and short of it was, I
+didn't leave till about seven months
+after, when the Ferret was put in
+commission; but by that time it was all
+smooth sailing before me. The Judge
+had got wonderfully softened; and, you
+may be sure, I continued to see Violet
+Hyde pretty often before I went to
+sea. You'd scarce believe it, but, after
+that twelve months' cruise, I actually
+didn't leave the land for two years,
+which I did owing to the chance I had
+of seeing sharp service in the Burmese
+war, up the rivers, while General
+Campbell had tough work with them
+inland. So that's all I can say,
+ma'am!"</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>"Very good, sir!" was the surgeon's
+cool remark. "And in fact, sir, I
+fancy if every one of us were to commence
+telling his whole life over, with
+everything that happened to him and
+his friends, he must stop short somewhere&mdash;however
+long it might be!"
+The Captain smiled; they sat on the
+poop talking for a while, sometimes
+saying nothing, but watching the last
+night at sea.</p>
+
+<p>The pilot-brig is spoken to windward
+next morning, even while the
+deep-sea lead-line is being hove to
+sound the bottom. Falling sudden
+from the foreyard, the weight takes
+the long line from hand after hand
+back to the gangway, till it trembles
+against the ground. 'Tis drawn up
+slowly, the wet coil secured, and the
+bottom of the lead showing its little
+hollow filled with signs of earth&mdash;"Gray
+sand and shells!" They
+stand on till the pilot is on board, the
+low land lifts and lengthens before the
+ship; but the flow of the tide has yet
+to come, and take them safely up
+amongst the winding shoals into the
+Indian river's mouth. A new land,
+and the thoughts of strange new life,
+the gorgeous sights and fantastic
+realities of the mighty country of the
+Mogul and Rajahs, crowd before them
+after the wide solitary sea: the story
+is already all but forgotten.&mdash;<span class="smcap">And
+the anchor is let go!<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_456" id="Page_456">[Pg 456]</a></span></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="THE_FRENCH_WARS_OF_RELIGION27" id="THE_FRENCH_WARS_OF_RELIGION27">THE FRENCH WARS OF RELIGION.</a><a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a></h2>
+
+<p>The history of the house of Guise
+has a natural division into two periods,
+of nearly equal duration, whose point
+of separation may be fixed at the
+death of Henry II., or, more strictly
+perhaps, at the date of the treaty of
+Cateau-Cambr&eacute;sis, which preceded it
+by three months. Under Francis I.
+and Henry II., foreign wars engrossed
+much of the time and energy of the
+warriors, foreign diplomacy gave frequent
+occupation to the statesmen, of
+that restless and ambitious family,
+which, during the reigns of Francis
+II., Charles IX., and Henry III., was
+busied with civil strife, domestic intrigues,
+and even with disloyal and
+treasonable projects. The treaty
+above referred to&mdash;signed on the 3d
+April 1559, and by which France
+abandoned no less than one hundred
+and ninety-eight fortresses, including
+the conquests of thirty years in Piedmont&mdash;stipulated
+a durable alliance
+between the Kings of France and
+Spain, "who were to love each other
+as brothers, and labour in concert for
+the extinction of heresy." This was
+the prelude of a long peace with the
+foreigner, but also of a long series of
+intestine wars, and of more bloodshed
+and misery than any invasion from
+without would have probably occasioned.
+France was on the eve of the
+Wars of Religion. Calvinism grew
+daily stronger in the land, many of
+whose most illustrious nobles were
+soon included amongst its proselytes;
+until at last the princes of the blood
+themselves, jealous of the influence,
+power, and pretensions of the princes
+of Lorraine, placed themselves at the
+head of the Protestant party. Thus,
+early in the reign of that sickly and
+feeble prince, Francis II., <i>Bourbon</i> and
+<i>Guise</i> entered the lists, to struggle for
+the chief power in the state, and to
+commence, during the lifetime of four
+sons of Henry II., a long contest for
+the inheritance of the declining house
+of Valois. On the one side, the chief
+posts were occupied by Anthony of
+Bourbon, King of Navarre, by his
+brother, the Prince of Cond&eacute;&mdash;far
+superior to him in ability, and who
+was the chief of the party&mdash;and by that
+brave and skilful soldier and commander,
+Gaspard de Ch&acirc;tillon, Admiral
+de Coligny. Opposed to these,
+the principal figures in the Protestant
+ranks, stood the Duke of Guise and
+his brothers&mdash;notably the astute, cruel,
+and violent cardinal, Charles of
+Lorraine. Catherine of Medicis, who
+had been allowed little interference in
+public affairs during her husband's
+life, came forward at his death, and
+played a striking and important part
+in the strange historical drama which
+comprised the reigns of three of her
+sons. Adopting a machiavelian and
+unscrupulous policy, her intrigues were
+directed alternately to support and
+damage the most contrary interests;
+but, at the outset of her political
+career, her dislike to Montmorency,
+and her eagerness to grasp a share of
+the power from which he had largely
+contributed to her exclusion, impelled
+her to an alliance with the Guises, by
+whom it was evident that the kingdom
+was, for a time at least, to be virtually
+ruled. Her husband's body was
+yet above ground, when she joined
+them and her son at the Louvre&mdash;whither
+they had conducted Francis,
+after proclaiming him King, from his
+residence at the palace of the Tournelles;
+and scarcely had it been deposited
+in the vaults of St Denis,
+when the treaty between her and them
+was sealed by the sacrifice of Diane
+de Poitiers, whose daughter was their
+sister-in-law by her marriage with
+Claude, Marquis of Mayenne, but
+who, nevertheless, was driven ignominiously
+from court, and compelled
+to give up the costly jewels she had
+received from her royal lover, and to
+appease Catherine by the gift of her
+magnificent castle of Chenonceaux.</p>
+
+<p>The circumstances of the time, and
+their own high connections, were singularly
+favourable to the Guises' assumption
+of the chief power. "No
+influence in the kingdom," says M. de
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_457" id="Page_457">[Pg 457]</a></span>Bouill&eacute;, "was comparable to that of
+those two men. The clergy, the richest
+and the first of the three orders of
+the state, professed an unbounded
+devotion for the Cardinal; in Francis
+of Lorraine the greater part of the
+nobility, military men, even magistrates,
+habitually recognised a skilful
+chief, a sure friend, a zealous protector.
+The Queen (Mary Stuart) was
+niece of the Guises; their cousin, the
+Duke of Lorraine, was brother-in-law
+of the King; the husband of another
+sister of Francis II., Philip of Spain,
+was well pleased that the royal choice
+had fallen upon them in preference to
+Anthony of Bourbon, who would not
+have failed to apply his power to the
+attempted recovery of Navarre from
+Spain. Finally, obligations of gratitude
+attached the Duke of Savoy to
+them. So many advantages, such
+numerous means of access, united with
+so many talents and so much glory,
+rendered their position very natural."
+The humiliation of the Bourbons was
+proportionate to the exaltation of their
+rivals. Montmorency received, from
+the lips of the King himself, advice to
+retire to his domain of Chantilly, a
+rustication and disgrace which left the
+veteran Constable no resource but to
+ally himself with the princes of the
+blood. These were deliberating at
+Vend&ocirc;me, with d'Andelot and their
+other confidential partisans, as to the
+means of opposing the authority of the
+Guise, when they received the overtures
+and exhortations of the Constable,
+who pressed and prevailed with
+the King of Navarre to repair to court.
+But slights and affronts were there
+offered both to him and to the Prince
+of Cond&eacute;, and soon they were glad
+again to absent themselves. Within
+nine months of the accession of Francis,
+the plot known as the conspiracy of
+Amboise, of which Cond&eacute; was the
+secret head, was formed, discovered,
+and crushed; the Duke of Guise displaying
+much energy and prudence,
+the Cardinal of Lorraine great cruelty
+and a most unchristian spirit, in its
+repression, and in the treatment of the
+baffled conspirators. For the third
+time Guise was named lieutenant-general
+of the kingdom, and invested
+with unlimited powers. The conspiracy
+to which he was indebted for this
+aggrandisement, was, however, the
+result of his brother's violent and persecuting
+spirit. The Cardinal had
+spurred the Huguenots to revolt. In
+all their proclamations, manifestos,
+and justificatory publications, they
+protested their loyalty to the King,
+and declared that they took arms
+solely against the family of Guise.
+It did not suit the purpose of these
+princes to admit the sincerity of the
+distinctions thus made. "What have
+I done to my subjects," exclaimed the
+feeble King, "that they should bear
+me such ill-will? Is it not rather to
+you, gentlemen, that they are opposed?
+I would that for a time you would
+depart, that we might see if these disorders
+ceased." The words had been
+suggested by the Spanish ambassador;
+but Francis knew not how to give
+them effect, and was easily cajoled by
+his uncles, who assured him that their
+absence would be the signal for attempts
+on his life and the lives of his
+brothers&mdash;attempts already planned
+by the Bourbons and supported by
+the heretics.</p>
+
+<p>We pass on to the close of the short
+reign of Francis II., which extended
+over barely seventeen months. His
+death occurred on the 5th December
+1560. The 10th of the same month
+was to have witnessed the execution
+of the Prince of Cond&eacute;, condemned
+as traitor and heretic. But when a
+sudden swoon at vespers, succeeded
+by violent pains in the head, indicated
+the probable dissolution of the
+sickly monarch, whose constitution
+was already undermined by disease,
+Catherine de Medicis, unwilling to lose
+Cond&eacute;, who served her as a counterpoise
+to the power of the Guise, took
+measures to delay his doom, and opened
+negotiations with the King of
+Navarre. This prince signed an
+agreement guaranteeing the regency to
+Catherine during the minority of
+Charles IX. She and her council
+were to have the sole direction of
+political affairs; whilst Anthony de
+Bourbon, with the title of lieutenant-general,
+was to be military chief of
+the kingdom. On the other hand,
+Catherine brought about his reconciliation
+with the Guises; inducing
+Francis II. to declare on his death-bed
+that the prosecution of Cond&eacute; emanated
+not from them, but from his will
+alone. At the very moment she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_458" id="Page_458">[Pg 458]</a></span>
+rendered this service to the princes
+of Lorraine, she was plotting with
+Bourbon their banishment from court.
+It were bewildering, and indeed
+impossible, in a brief essay on that
+busy period, to trace the tortuous
+policy and seemingly contradictory
+intrigues of the Queen-mother. It
+suffices to state her aim, then and for
+long afterwards. By pitting one
+faction against the other, and alternately
+supporting both, she secured
+for herself a larger share of power
+than she would have obtained by
+assisting in the final triumph of
+either.</p>
+
+<p>The death of their niece's royal
+husband was a great shock to the
+Guises, who in his name had exercised
+absolute authority. It was subject
+of rejoicing to the Protestants, who
+deemed it "a stroke of heavenly
+mercy"&mdash;a mystical expression of
+satisfaction, which made some suspect
+poison to be the cause of the King's
+death. For this there seems to have
+been no foundation. But such suspicions
+were the fashion of the time.
+Beside the bed of Francis stood
+Coligny, the Cardinal of Lorraine, and
+many other nobles. When the
+monarch breathed his last, "Gentlemen,"
+said the Admiral, with his
+habitual earnest gravity, "the King is
+dead; 'tis a lesson for us how to live."
+He returned home with one of his intimates,
+named Fontaines, and fell into
+a profound reverie, his tooth-pick in his
+mouth and his feet to the fire. He
+did not observe that his boots were
+burning, until Fontaines called his
+attention to the fact. "Ah, Fontaines!"
+then replied the Admiral,
+"not a week ago you and I would
+each have given a leg for things to
+take this turn, and now, we get off
+with a pair of boots; it is cheap."
+Not one of the six brothers Guise
+followed the funeral of Francis II.,
+whose loss they had such reason to
+deplore. In cutting allusion to this
+indecent neglect, an unknown hand
+affixed to the black velvet that
+covered the royal bier the following
+inscription&mdash;"<i>Where is Tanneguy
+Duch&acirc;tel? But he was a Frenchman!</i>"
+This was a chamberlain of Charles
+VII., who, although unjustly banished
+from court, had mourned his master's
+death, and had provided magnificently
+for his interment, sacrilegiously
+neglected by that king's own son.
+The inscription bore a double sting,
+for it both condemned the conduct of
+the Guises, and stigmatised them as
+foreigners. In vain did they strive
+to justify themselves, alleging the
+necessity of their presence at court.
+And they were equally unable to refute
+the charge of having appropriated,
+during the illness of Francis, a considerable
+sum that remained in the
+royal treasury. This was done with
+the connivance of Catherine.</p>
+
+<p>The state of affairs after the accession
+of Charles IX., was as follows:
+Cond&eacute; was released from prison, the
+King of Navarre was in favour with
+the Queen-mother, the Bourbons and
+Guises affected mutual friendship, the
+Colignys and the Constable were
+continually at the palace; the star
+of the Bourbon party was in the
+ascendant. But those were the days
+of political and religious renegades,
+and a very short time produced
+wonderful changes in the composition
+of the two great parties. Soon we
+find the King of Navarre going over
+to the Church of Rome, and the
+Constable abandoning the cause of his
+nephews to assist at the germination of
+the celebrated <i>League</i>, into which the
+Guises and other great Catholic chiefs
+afterwards entered for the suppression
+of Protestantism, and for the overthrow
+of the party headed by Cond&eacute;
+and Coligny.</p>
+
+<p>It is a matter of extreme difficulty
+to form a correct opinion of the
+character of the Duke of Guise,
+diversely represented as it has been by
+the party writers of the time. M. de
+Bouill&eacute; has endeavoured, with patience
+and industry, to sift the
+truth from the mass of conflicting
+evidence; and if he is not completely
+successful, it is because such contradictory
+testimony as he has to deal
+with defies reconciliation. His zeal for
+truth leads him into researches and
+disquisitions through which not all of
+his readers perhaps will have patience
+to follow him, although they are doubtless
+essential to the completeness of a
+work which is eminently what the
+French term <i>un ouvrage s&eacute;rieux</i>.
+With an evident desire for strict
+impartiality, he leans a little, as it
+appears to us, to the Catholic party&mdash;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_459" id="Page_459">[Pg 459]</a></span>no
+unnatural bias in a writer of that
+religion. We, on the other hand, as
+Protestants, have to guard ourselves
+against the strong interest and sympathy
+inspired by the faith, the valour,
+and the sufferings of the French
+Huguenots: and we cannot but
+admit the justice of M. de Bouill&eacute;'s
+conclusion, that although, amongst
+these, many were martyrs for religion's
+sake, many others assumed the Protestant
+badge from motives of political
+convenience as much as from conscientious
+conviction. As regards the second
+Duke of Guise, however, we find
+difficulty in always coinciding with his
+present historian, who makes him out
+a better man than previous reading
+had taught us to believe him. All the
+three Dukes of Guise were moral
+giants&mdash;men of extraordinary qualities,
+who towered far above their cotemporaries.
+All three were valiant,
+sagacious, and skilful in no common
+degree; but they were also ambitious
+and unscrupulous&mdash;the son more so
+than the father, the grandson more
+than either. In estimating their
+qualities and actions, M. de Bouill&eacute;
+justly makes much allowance for the
+prevalent fanaticism of the time; but
+he sometimes goes too far towards
+the adoption of the opinions of
+Catholic writers, who find extenuating
+circumstances in the conduct of
+the arch-butcher, Henry of Lorraine,
+on the night of St Bartholomew, and
+who acquit his father of sanctioning
+that barbarous massacre at Vassy,
+which was the spark to the powder&mdash;the
+actual commencement of the wars
+of religion.</p>
+
+<p>The little town of Vassy, adjacent
+to the domains of Guise, was the
+headquarters of a numerous Protestant
+congregation, whose preaching and
+acts of devotion "greatly scandalised,"
+says M. de Bouill&eacute;, "the virtuous
+Antoinette de Bourbon, surnamed by
+the Huguenots, <i>Mother of the tyrants
+and enemies of the gospel</i>." She
+constantly implored the Duke, her son, to
+rid her of these obnoxious neighbours,
+which he promised to do, if it were
+possible without violation of the royal
+edicts. Upon the 1st March 1562, a
+journey he made in company with his
+wife&mdash;then with child and travelling
+in a litter&mdash;led him through Vassy.
+"His suite consisted of two hundred
+men-at-arms, all partaking, and even
+surpassing, the exalted Catholicism
+and warlike temper of their chief.
+At Vassy he was to be joined by sixty
+more. On arriving there, he entered
+the church to hear high mass; and,
+whether it was that the psalms of the
+Calvinists reached his ears, or that
+he was maliciously informed of their
+being then assembled, or that the
+clergy of Vassy complained and
+solicited the repression of outrages
+received from the sectarians, the fact
+is that he learned that their preaching
+was then going on. With the intention
+of giving them a severe admonition,
+he sent for their minister, and for the
+chief members of the congregation.
+His messenger was Labrosse, the son,&mdash;who
+was accompanied by two German
+pages, Schleck and Klingberg,
+one of whom carried his arquebuse
+and the other his pistols. These
+young men were violent in the fulfilment
+of their mission, and an exchange
+of insults was soon followed by bloodshed.
+At the first shots fired, the
+men-at-arms and the varlets, already
+disposed to hostilities, took part in
+the unequal fray. The five or six
+hundred Protestants, although superior
+in number, were far from sufficiently
+armed to offer an effectual
+resistance. They sought to establish
+a barricade, and to defend themselves
+with sticks and stones. The Duke,
+who hurried to the scene of the
+tumult, found himself unable to repress
+it. Some of his gentlemen were hit;
+the face of Labrosse, the father,
+streamed with blood; Guise himself
+was wounded in the left cheek by a
+stone. At sight of his hurt, his followers'
+fury knew no bounds. The
+Protestants, overwhelmed, (<i>&eacute;cras&eacute;s</i>,)
+uttered piercing cries; and, endeavouring
+to escape by all issues, even
+by the roof, delivered themselves to
+the bullets of their enemies. Anne
+d'Est, who was peaceably pursuing
+her journey, paused on hearing the
+sounds of strife, and sent in all haste
+to entreat her husband to put an end
+to the effusion of blood; <i>but the carnage
+lasted an hour</i>; sixty men and women
+lost their lives and two hundred
+were wounded. On the side of the
+Prince of Lorraine, some men were
+also more or less hurt; only one was
+killed."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_460" id="Page_460">[Pg 460]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>A champion so energetic and formidable,
+a commander so much beloved,
+as the Duke of Guise, would certainly
+have succeeded, had he really attempted
+and desired to do so, in
+somewhat less than an hour, in checking
+his men-at-arms and stopping this
+inhuman massacre, which procured
+him from the Reformed party the
+odious nickname of <i>the Butcher of
+Vassy</i>. M. de Bouill&eacute; inclines to
+consider the slaughter on that fatal
+day as a sort of cruel reprisals, deplorable
+certainly, but in some measure
+extenuated by various excesses
+committed by the Huguenots&mdash;excesses,
+however, to which he but
+vaguely refers. It must be remembered
+that, at the time of the massacre
+of Vassy, an edict, obtained less than
+two months previously by the exertions
+and influence of Coligny and
+l'Hospital, and granting the Protestants
+liberty of conscience and free
+exercise of their religion, was in full
+force. The following passage from
+M. de Bouill&eacute; sufficiently shows the
+<i>animus</i> of Guise&mdash;"When the return
+of a gloomy calm suffered him to discern
+the sad character of such a scene,
+the Duke fell into a passion with
+Claude Tourneur, captain of the town
+and castle of Vassy for Mary Stuart;
+he imputed the day's misfortunes to
+the toleration that officer had shown
+in suffering the formation of Calvinist
+assemblies. Tourneur, in his justification,
+cited the edict of January; but
+Guise clapped his hand to his sword,
+'This,' he said, 'shall rescind that detestable
+edict!'" When the news of the
+massacre reached Paris, Theodore de
+B&egrave;ze, deputed by the Calvinist church
+of the capital, presented himself before
+Catherine to demand severe justice on
+the Duke of Guise. Catherine received
+him well and replied favourably;
+When the King of Navarre, in all the
+fervour of his new religion and sudden
+friendship for the Duke, burst out into
+anger against B&egrave;ze, attributing all the
+fault to the Protestants of Vassy, and
+declaring that "whoever touched as
+much as the finger-tip of his brother
+the Duke of Guise touched him in the
+middle of his heart." "Sire," replied
+B&egrave;ze, "it assuredly behoves that
+church of God in whose name I speak
+to endure blows, and not to strike
+them; but may it please you also to
+remember, that it is an anvil which
+has worn out many hammers." This
+menacing resignation was an omen of
+approaching calamities.</p>
+
+<p>Although Anthony of Bourbon,
+King of Navarre, was of little value
+at the council-board, or in any other
+way than as a brave man-at-arms,
+his conversion and alliance were
+highly prized by the Catholic party,
+as a great diminution of the <i>prestige</i>
+of the Protestants. The Duke of
+Guise and his brothers, the Constable,
+and even the Spanish ambassador
+Chantonnay, combined to flatter and
+cajole the feeble prince, who on his
+part knew not how sufficiently to
+demonstrate his zeal for Popery and
+his love for the family of Lorraine.
+On Palm Sunday he marched in procession,
+accompanied by his new
+friends and by two thousand gentlemen
+of their party, bearing the consecrated
+branches from the church of
+St Genevieve to that of Notre-Dame.
+On occasion of this solemnity it has
+been said that the life of the Duke of
+Guise was in danger&mdash;some Protestant
+gentlemen having offered to assassinate
+him, if their ministers would
+authorise the deed in the name of
+religion. This authorisation was
+refused; the Calvinist churchmen
+"with greater prudence," says M. de
+Bouill&eacute;, "preferring to await the result
+of the complaint they had made
+with respect to the massacre of Vassy."
+It is hardly fair thus to insinuate that
+prudential considerations alone influenced
+this abstinence from assassination.
+Guise was considered, especially
+after the massacre of Vassy, the most
+dangerous foe of the Huguenot
+party; and more than one plan for
+his murder was laid prior to that
+which succeeded. But there is no
+proof that these plots were instigated
+by either the chiefs or the priests of
+the party. On the contrary, everything
+concurs to stamp them as proceeding
+solely from the religious
+fanaticism or violent party spirit of
+individuals. During the siege of
+Rouen&mdash;the first important operation
+of the war that now broke out&mdash;"the
+Duke of Guise," says M. de Bouill&eacute;,
+"was informed that an assassin had
+entered the camp with the project of
+taking his life. He sent for and
+calmly interrogated him&mdash;'Have you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_461" id="Page_461">[Pg 461]</a></span>
+not come hither to kill me?' he said.
+Surprised at his detection, and trembling
+with apprehension of punishment,
+this young gentleman of Mans
+at once avowed his criminal design.
+'And what motive,' inquired the
+Duke, 'impelled you to such a deed?
+Have I done you any wrong?' 'No;
+but in so doing I should serve my
+religion&mdash;that is to say, the belief in
+the doctrine of Calvin, which I profess.'
+'My religion then is better
+than yours,' cried Guise with a generous
+impulse, 'for it commands me to
+pardon, of my own accord, you who
+are convicted of guilt.' And by his
+orders the gentleman was safely
+conducted out of the camp. A fine
+example," exclaims M. de Bouill&eacute;,
+"of truly religious sentiments and
+magnanimous proselytism, very natural to
+the Duke of Guise, the most moderate
+and humane of the chiefs of the Catholic
+army; and whose brilliant generosity&mdash;true
+basis of the character of
+this great man&mdash;had been but temporarily
+obscured by the occurrence
+at Vassy!"</p>
+
+<p>At this siege of Rouen, Guise performed
+prodigies of valour; and Anthony of
+Bourbon, second to none in
+high soldierly spirit, had his jealousy
+roused by the exploits of his ally.
+Determined also to signalise himself,
+he needlessly exposed his life, and was
+hit by an arquebuse ball. The wound
+was severe, and Ambrose Par&eacute; declared
+it mortal, in contradiction to
+the opinions of several other physicians,
+who gave hopes of cure. Ten
+days afterwards Rouen was taken by
+assault; and on learning this, the King
+of Navarre insisted on being carried
+in triumph to his quarters in the captured
+town. Preceded by musicians,
+he was borne upon his bed through
+the breach by a detachment of Swiss
+soldiers. The fatigue and excitement
+increased the inflammation of his
+wound, and hastened his death. In his
+last moments he showed symptoms of
+regretting his change of religion; but
+notwithstanding this tardy repentance,
+the Protestants, against whom since
+his perversion to Rome he had used
+great severity, rejoiced exceedingly
+at his death, which they celebrated
+as a chastisement proceeding from
+Heaven.</p>
+
+<p>The fall of Rouen was quickly followed
+by the battle of Dreux, one of
+the most interesting actions of those
+wars. Cond&eacute; was threatening Paris,
+when the Duke of Guise, following
+the example twice given by his father
+(in 1536 and 1544,) hurried from
+Rouen, where his troops had committed
+frightful excesses, but where he had
+successfully invoked the royal clemency
+in favour of the officers of the
+captured garrison, to give the inhabitants
+of the capital the benefit of his
+valour and skill. He there received
+a reinforcement of seven thousand
+Gascons and Spaniards; and Cond&eacute;,
+seeing Paris so well defended, and
+that the chances of a general action,
+which he had at first been disposed to
+provoke, were no longer in his favour,
+retreated towards Normandy to establish
+communications with the
+English, who had already sent some
+slight succours to the Protestants.</p>
+
+<p>Guise pursued, gained a march on
+him, and confronted him near Dreux.
+The movements of the Catholics were
+nominally directed by the Constable,
+but Guise was in fact the presiding
+spirit. Unwilling to assume the responsibility
+of such a battle as appeared
+imminent, the Duke desired to cast
+it upon Catherine of Medicis, and
+accordingly, on the 14th December, he
+had sent Castlenau to that princess to
+know her decision. The envoy reached
+Vincennes at the moment of her
+<i>lever</i>. She affected surprise that
+experienced generals should send for
+counsel to a woman and child, whom
+the imminence of civil war plunged in
+grief. The King's nurse coming in at
+that moment, 'You should ask her,'
+said the Queen ironically, 'if battle is
+to be given.' And calling the woman
+to her&mdash;'Nurse,' she said, 'the time has
+come that men ask of women advice
+to give battle; how seems it to you?'
+A second messenger from the <i>triumvirate</i><a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a>
+pressed for a decision; the
+council was assembled, and left everything
+to the prudence and judgment
+of the generals. With this semi-authorisation,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_462" id="Page_462">[Pg 462]</a></span>these took up a position
+in the villages adjacent to Dreux,
+menacing Cond&eacute;'s left flank. Numerically
+stronger than the Protestants,
+they had fewer cavalry, but were well
+posted. The main body was commanded
+by the Constable in person;
+Guise, too proud to act as second in
+command, remained in reserve with
+his own company of men-at-arms and
+a few volunteers who had joined him.
+With these five hundred picked horsemen
+he was prepared to strike in
+where his aid might most be wanted.
+For two hours the armies remained in
+mutual observation, without even a
+skirmish. After hearing the report
+of d'Andelot, who had made a
+reconnoissance, Cond&eacute; would gladly have
+avoided a battle, or at least have
+changed the ground. "By a movement
+to his right he exposed his flank;
+the Constable wished to take advantage
+of this. Cond&eacute;'s advanced guard,
+under Coligny, furiously charged the
+Royalist centre, as it advanced under
+Montmorency. The Prince himself,
+who, with his main body, was opposed
+to St Andr&eacute; and the advanced guard,
+neglected to attack them, but directed
+all his efforts against the principal mass
+of the Catholics, imprudently bringing
+all his cavalry into action, and penetrating
+to the very colours of the Swiss
+troops, who successfully withstood this
+terrible shock. Contrary to the advice
+of the Duke of Guise, who urged him to
+let this fury expend itself, d'Anville,
+with three companies of men-at-arms
+and the light horse, hurried to attack
+Cond&eacute;; but soon, surrounded by the
+German cavalry, he was forced to
+retreat upon the right wing, composed
+of Spanish infantry, and protected by
+fourteen pieces of cannon. Meanwhile
+the Constable opposed an energetic
+resistance to the attack of his
+nephew Coligny. In the midst of
+this terrible <i>m&ecirc;l&eacute;e</i>, Montmorency, as
+unfortunate as at St Quintin, had his
+horse killed under him; he mounted
+another, but the next moment,
+wounded in the jaw by a pistol-shot,
+he was taken prisoner. Around
+him fell his fourth son Montb&eacute;ron,
+Beauvais, and the Sieur de Givry.
+The Duke of Aumale&mdash;fighting with
+the utmost ardour, overthrown by the
+fugitives, and trampled under the
+horses' feet&mdash;had his shoulder broken,
+the bone of the arm being almost uncovered,
+and split up to the joint, so
+that for six weeks he could not ride.
+The Grand Prior was also wounded.
+The entire main body, and a part of
+the advanced guard, (which had been
+disposed on the same line with the
+centre, or <i>corps de bataille</i>,) were totally
+routed; the artillery covering them
+was in the power of the enemy; five
+thousand Swiss alone still displayed a
+bold front. The Protestants, however,
+headlong in pursuit of the vanquished,
+outstripped these troops and reached
+the baggage, which they plundered,
+'even that of Monsieur de Guise and
+his silver plate;'<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a> then, reforming,
+they returned to the charge against
+the Swiss&mdash;who, frequently broken,
+always rallied, and at last, seeing
+themselves attacked on all sides by
+Cond&eacute;'s lansquenets, were no longer
+contented to hold their ground, but
+pressed forward and repulsed their
+assailants."</p>
+
+<p>The battle seemed won, when Guise,
+who had remained all this time inactive,
+at last decided to advance. He
+has often been reproached for the
+apathy with which he had so long beheld
+the disasters of the Catholic army.
+It certainly looked very much as if he
+wished to requite in kind Montmorency's
+inaction, eight years previously,
+at the combat of Renty. His
+conduct may have been, as M. de
+Bouill&eacute; inclines to believe, the result
+of prudent calculation; and it is difficult,
+after this lapse of time, to prove
+that less caution would not have been
+fatal to the Catholic army. The succour
+that retrieved the fortune of the
+day came so late, however, that the
+victors' loss exceeded that of the vanquished.
+When Montmorency's son,
+d'Anville, beheld his brother slain and
+his father prisoner, he hurried to Guise&mdash;whose
+reserve was concealed from
+the enemy behind the village of Blainville
+and a cluster of trees&mdash;and franticly
+implored him to rescue the Constable
+by an impetuous charge. Guise
+refused to stir. Presently, however,
+when he saw that the Huguenots,
+disordered by success, deemed the
+battle completely won, he advanced
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_463" id="Page_463">[Pg 463]</a></span>at a steady pace, rallying the fugitives,
+bringing up the advanced guard, and
+uniting with the Spaniards and Gascons.
+Thus supported, he moved boldly
+against the hostile battalions, which
+gave way before him. d'Andelot,
+whom fever kept from the field, first
+perceived the disastrous change in the
+issue of the combat. Unarmed,
+wrapped in a furred dressing-gown,
+he sprang forward to cheek the rout;
+and, observing the good order of the
+Duke of Guise's reserve&mdash;"Yonder,"
+he said, "is a tail that it will be very
+difficult to scotch." In vain the Prince
+of Cond&eacute; sought to rally his cavalry,
+paralysed by the sustained fire of
+eight hundred arquebusiers posted by
+St Andr&eacute;. The carnage was frightful.
+Cond&eacute;, wounded in the right
+hand, lost his horse, killed by a bullet;
+and as he was about to remount he
+was surrounded, and compelled to yield
+himself prisoner to d'Anville, who
+burned to revenge his father's wound
+and captivity. Thereupon the gallant
+Coligny, who had rallied fifteen or
+sixteen hundred horse in a little
+valley, returned to the charge to
+rescue the prince; and so terrible was
+his onset upon Guise's squadrons, that
+these wavered, and Guise himself was
+for a moment in great danger. But
+the fire of two thousand arquebusiers,
+posted on his flanks, covered the confusion
+of his cavalry, and compelled
+Coligny to a retreat, which was
+effected in good order. Night fell;
+Guise did not pursue; and Coligny
+saved a part of his artillery, but lost,
+in that day's action, three or four
+thousand men. The loss of the Catholics
+amounted to five or six thousand,
+and was particularly severe in
+cavalry. By a strange coincidence,
+the two generals-in-chief were prisoners.
+The conquerors had to regret
+the loss of several other distinguished
+leaders. In the closing act of this
+obstinately-contested fight, Marshal
+St Andr&eacute;, thrown from his horse and
+made prisoner, was pistolled by Daubigny,
+a former follower of his, who
+had long been his bitter foe. Both
+the Labrosses, and Jean d'Annebaut,
+were also slain; and the Duke of
+Nevers had his thigh broken. At first
+it was rumoured in the Protestant
+army that Guise himself was killed.
+"Knowing," says Etienne Pasquier
+in one of his letters, quoted by M. de
+Bouill&eacute;, "that it was he at whom the
+Huguenots would chiefly aim, and
+doubting not but that his army was
+full of spies, upon the eve of the battle
+he declared publicly at supper what
+horse he would ride, and what would
+be his arms and equipment upon the
+following day. But the next morning,
+before proceeding to the rendezvous,
+he gave up that horse and accoutrements
+to his esquire. Well for him
+that he did so! for the esquire was
+killed, whilst he for a while escaped."
+It is recorded that the esquire, Varicarville,
+solicited permission thus to
+devote himself for his leader's safety.
+The stratagem was so successful, that
+when Guise, late in the day, made his
+appearance, the Admiral and Cond&eacute;
+were completely astonished. "Here,
+then, is the cunning fellow whose
+shadow we have pursued," exclaimed
+Coligny. "We are lost; the victory
+will slip from our hands."&mdash;"The
+day's success came most apropos to
+M. de Guise," wrote Pasquier, "for
+of one defeat he made two victories;
+the captivity of the Constable, his
+rival in renown, not being less advantageous
+to him than that of the Prince,
+his open foe." Whilst Coligny marched
+off his uncle and prisoner to Orleans, to
+place him in the hands of the Princess
+of Cond&eacute;, Guise, with characteristic
+magnanimity, courteously and kindly
+received his inveterate enemy, the
+Prince. Quartered in Blainville, which
+the Huguenots had devastated, and
+deprived of his baggage, he could
+command but a single bed, which he
+offered to Cond&eacute;, with other marks of
+deference for the first prince of the
+blood. Touched by his conqueror's
+generosity, Cond&eacute; momentarily forgot
+his hatred; supped at Guise's table&mdash;freely
+discussed with him the basis of
+a peace, of whose conclusion the presumed
+destruction of his party made
+him desirous&mdash;and finally accepted
+the proffered couch, only on condition
+that the Duke should share it with
+him.</p>
+
+<p>The news of the victory of Dreux
+was received at Paris with transports
+of joy, and once more the name of
+"saviour of his country" was applied
+to Guise. The alarm in the capital
+had been very great, and not without
+reason. "If this battle had been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_464" id="Page_464">[Pg 464]</a></span>
+lost," wrote Montluc in his <i>Commentaries</i>,
+"I believe it was all over with
+France: both the state and the religion
+would have been changed; for a young
+king may be made to do anything."
+The satisfaction of Catherine de
+Medicis was by no means unalloyed.
+She did not like Cond&eacute;; but his defeat
+destroyed the equilibrium which
+she had hitherto so carefully maintained,
+to the benefit of her own influence.
+She now felt herself under
+the pressure of a power, moderate in
+form but absolute in fact. There was
+no help for it, however; neither, in
+the absence of the Constable, was
+there any excuse for withholding the
+chief command from the Duke of
+Guise, who was accordingly appointed
+lieutenant-general of the kingdom.
+He did not long enjoy his new dignity.
+The battle of Dreux was fought on
+the 19th December. Just two months
+later, on the night of the 18th February,
+Guise&mdash;after arranging everything for
+the assault of Orleans upon the following
+day, and announcing to the
+Queen-mother his conviction of approaching
+triumph&mdash;left the camp on
+horseback, accompanied only by one
+of his officers and a page, to visit the
+Duchess, who had that day reached
+the neighbouring castle of Corney.
+"He had crossed the Loiret in a boat,
+and was walking his horse, when, at
+a cross-road, he felt himself wounded
+in the right shoulder, almost under the
+arm, by a pistol-shot fired behind a
+hedge, from between two great walnut
+trees, at a distance of only six or
+seven paces. Notwithstanding the
+darkness, a white plume he wore upon
+his head signalised him; and as, for
+the sake of ease, he had taken off his
+cuirass at evening, those bullets,
+aimed just above the armour which
+the assassin believed him to wear,
+passed through his body. 'They
+have long had this shot in reserve for
+me,' exclaimed he, on feeling himself
+wounded; 'I deserve it for my want
+of precaution.' Unable to support
+himself for pain, he fell on his horse's
+neck; in vain he endeavoured to draw
+his sword: his arm refused its service.
+Carried to his quarters, he was
+welcomed by the cries of the Duchess
+of Guise, whom he embraced and told
+her himself the circumstances of his
+assassination, by which he declared
+himself grieved for the honour of
+France. He exhorted his wife to
+submit with resignation to the will of
+heaven; then, covering with kisses
+the Prince of Joinville, who was weeping,
+he said to him, gently, 'God
+grant thee grace, my son, to be a good
+man!'" Poltrot de M&eacute;r&eacute;, the assassin,
+escaped for the moment, although
+promptly pursued; but he
+lost his way in the darkness, and after
+riding ten leagues, found himself at
+daybreak close to the Catholic cantonments.
+Worn out with fatigue, as
+was also his horse&mdash;a good Spanish
+charger, for whose purchase he had received
+a hundred crowns from Coligny&mdash;he
+hid himself in a farm, and was
+there arrested, on the 20th February,
+by the Duke's secretary, La Seurre.
+The gift of the hundred crowns has
+been alleged against the Admiral as
+a proof of his having instigated the
+crime; but, in fact, it was no proof at
+all, for Poltrot had been acting as a
+secret agent and spy to the Huguenots,
+and might very well receive that sum,
+as he had previously received a
+smaller one, as guerdon for the information
+he brought. He himself, on
+his examination, declared he had been
+urged to the deed by Coligny, Theodore
+de B&egrave;ze, and another Protestant
+minister; but he could adduce no
+proof, save that of one hundred and
+twenty crowns received from Coligny,
+to whom he had been recommended,
+as a useful agent, by a Huguenot
+leader in eastern France. And his
+previous life rendered his bare assertion
+worthless, whilst the high character
+of the men he impeached raised
+them above suspicion&mdash;in the eyes of
+unprejudiced persons&mdash;of having instigated
+so foul a deed. They addressed
+a letter to the Queen-mother,
+repelling the charge, and entreating
+that Poltrot's life might be spared
+until peace should be concluded, when
+they would confront him and refute
+his testimony. Coligny declared that
+he had even discountenanced such
+plots, and referred to a warning he
+had given the Duke, only a few days
+previously, "to be on his guard, for
+there was a man suborned to kill
+him." At the same time he repudiated
+all regret for the Duke's death,
+which he declared the best thing that
+could have happened for the kingdom<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_465" id="Page_465">[Pg 465]</a></span>
+and for the church of God. But, to his
+dying day, he protested his innocence
+of the blood of Guise; and his life and
+character give weight and credibility
+to the protest. M. de Bouill&eacute; makes
+some judicious reflections as to the
+share Catherine of Medicis may have
+had in instigating the murder. Her
+jealousy and distrust of the Guises
+were very strong: she had opposed
+the siege of Orleans, and thrown obstacles
+in the way of its successful
+issue; she had hastened the execution
+of the murderer, as soon as he
+had accused the Admiral of complicity.
+We are certainly doing no injustice
+to the character of that most
+corrupt and crafty queen, when we
+assume the possibility that hopes of a
+mitigated punishment, or of means of
+escape, had been held out to induce
+Poltrot to depone against the Admiral;
+and that then, the deposition
+obtained, the pledge to the unhappy
+wretch was broken, and the murderer's
+doom inflicted. Such double treachery
+was quite in concord with Catherine's
+character. She felt that suspicions
+would attach to her, and endeavoured
+to stifle them by a display of profound
+grief, by loading with favours the
+family of the victim, and by a promise
+of severe and full measure of
+justice.</p>
+
+<p>The death of Francis of Lorraine
+(on Ash Wednesday, 24th February
+1563,) was the immediate cause of a
+treaty of peace between Catholics and
+Protestants, for which the Queen-mother
+had for some time been paving
+the way. On a small island in the
+middle of the Loire, near Orleans, the
+two illustrious captives, Cond&eacute; and
+the Constable, met, each under strong
+escort; and terms were agreed upon,
+the principal of which were a general
+amnesty, and freedom of conscience
+and worship, under certain restrictions
+of place, for the Huguenots. All prisoners
+were released on both sides;
+and Orleans, which had so nearly
+shared the fate of Rouen, opened its
+gates to the King and Queen-mother,
+who were to take possession of it
+without any marks of triumph.</p>
+
+<p>"On the eve of the tournament in
+which Henry II. was mortally
+wounded by Montgomery, that king
+held upon his knees his little daughter
+Margaret, afterwards wife of Henry
+IV. Diverted by the repartees of
+the child, who already gave promise
+of great wit and understanding,
+and seeing the Prince of Joinville,
+and the Marquis of Beaupr&eacute;au, (son
+of the Prince of La Roche-sur-Yon,)
+playing together in the room, the
+King asked Margaret which of the
+two she liked best. 'I prefer the
+Marquis,' she replied, 'he is gentler
+and better.' 'Yes,' said the King,
+'but Joinville is handsomest.' 'Oh,'
+retorted Margaret, 'he is always in
+mischief, and <i>will</i> be master everywhere.'
+Joinville was but nine years
+old, and Margaret was only seven,
+but she had already deciphered the
+character of the man whose ambition
+set all France in a flame." A prediction
+of Francis of Lorraine, recorded
+by M. de Bouill&eacute;, confirmed
+that of the precocious princess. Observant
+of his son's character, from
+infancy upwards, he is said to have
+foretold that, carried away and
+dazzled by popularity and its vain
+promises, he would perish in an attempt
+to upset the kingdom. The
+event may fairly be said to have
+justified the prophecy. Henry, third
+Duke of Guise, fell by his ambition.
+"Inferior to his father as a warrior,"
+says M. de Bouill&eacute;, "he perhaps
+surpassed all the princes of his house
+in certain natural gifts, in certain
+talents, which procured him the
+respect of the court, the affection
+of the people, but which, nevertheless,
+were tarnished by a singular alloy of
+great faults and unlimited ambition."
+The historian proceeds to give a
+glowing description of his beauty,
+accomplishments, and seductive qualities.
+"France was mad about that
+man," wrote Balzac, "for it is too
+little to say she was in love with him.
+Her passion approached idolatry.
+There were persons who invoked him
+in their prayers, others who inserted
+his portrait in their books. His portrait,
+indeed, was everywhere: some
+ran after him in the streets to touch
+his mantle with their rosaries; and
+one day that he entered Paris by the
+Porte St Antoine, on his return from
+a journey to Champagne, they not
+only cried <i>Vive Guise!</i> but many
+sang on his passage: <i>Hosanna filio
+David!</i> Large assemblies were known
+to yield themselves at once captive<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_466" id="Page_466">[Pg 466]</a></span>
+to his pleasant countenance. No
+heart could resist that face; it persuaded
+before he opened his mouth;
+it was impossible to wish him harm
+in his presence.... And
+Huguenots belonged to the League
+when they beheld the Duke of Guise."
+Although but thirteen years old, at
+his father's death, Henry of Lorraine
+had accompanied him in his recent
+campaigns, and at the siege of Orleans
+had had opportunity to show symptoms
+of that cool intrepidity for
+which he was afterwards remarkable.
+Profound dissimulation was
+another leading and early-developed
+feature of his character; and in this
+respect he had before him a first-rate
+model in the person of his uncle, the
+crafty and unscrupulous Cardinal of
+Lorraine.</p>
+
+<p>This prelate, who was rather violent
+than brave, was profoundly
+grieved and alarmed by his brother's
+assassination, news of which reached
+him at the Council of Trent. On
+receiving the sad intelligence, he
+fell on his knees, and, lifting his
+hands and eyes to heaven: "Lord,"
+he exclaimed, "you have deprived
+the innocent brother of life, and left it
+to the guilty!"&mdash;a cry of conscience,
+in which there was not a little truth.
+He immediately surrounded himself
+with a guard. In a letter, of which
+he took care to have copies handed
+about, he announced to his mother
+his resolution to retire to his diocese,
+and pass the rest of his days in
+preaching the word of God. Nevertheless
+he did not quit the Council,
+where his weight, however, was
+somewhat lessened by the Duke's
+death. But he recovered his ground,
+and finally exercised a most important
+influence on its deliberations.
+On his return to France, he obtained
+permission to retain his guard, consisting
+of fifty arquebusiers, who
+never left him, accompanying him to
+church, when he preached or said
+mass, and even conducting him to the
+door of the King's cabinet. For
+nearly a year after his return from
+Italy, however, he kept aloof from the
+capital and from public affairs, dividing
+his time between Rheims and Joinville,
+but still secretly carrying on
+his complicated intrigues. At last,
+on the 8th January 1565, he entered
+Paris with a considerable escort, and
+in a sort of triumph, accompanied by
+his young nephews, the Duke of Guise
+and the Marquis of Mayenne, and by
+a number of knights, presidents, and
+gentlemen. Marshal Montmorency
+(son of the Constable), who was now
+intimate with his cousin Coligny,
+and ill-disposed to the Guises, was
+Governor of the Isle of France, and
+had published, "on the 13th December,
+a royal ordinance, which, in a
+spirit of precaution indispensable in
+those troubled times, forbade all
+princes, nobles, or persons whatsoever,
+to travel with an armed retinue.
+The Cardinal had a dispensation from
+the Queen-mother, but he either disdained
+or neglected to present it to
+Montmorency. The Marshal was most
+probably aware of its existence, but
+he ignored it, and sent word to the
+Cardinal not to pursue his journey
+with a forbidden escort. The Cardinal,
+considering this injunction an
+affront, heeded it not, and was close
+to his journey's end, when he was encountered
+in the streets of Paris,
+(Rue St Denis), by a body of infantry
+and cavalry of both religions,
+under the orders of Montmorency and
+of the Prince of Portien, who charged
+and routed his escort; and he himself
+was compelled to seek safety in the
+humble dwelling of a rope-maker,
+dragging with him his nephews, of
+whom the eldest especially, a pistol
+in either hand, refused to quit the
+combat, unequal as it was, and, by
+recalling his father's memory to the
+Parisians, already acquired personal
+partisans. A faithful follower, who
+would have shut the door upon them,
+was mortally wounded by the balls
+which struck the very threshold of
+the room in which the Princes of
+Lorraine had taken refuge. '<i>Seigneur,
+mon Dieu!</i>' cried the Cardinal, in
+this imminent peril, 'if my hour is
+come, and the power of darkness,
+spare at least the innocent blood!'
+Meanwhile the Duke of Aumale, who
+had entered by the gate of the
+Louvre, created a diversion, which
+contributed to appease the tumult of
+the Rue St Denis; and under cover of
+night, the prelate, with his nephews
+and suite, was able to reach his <i>h&ocirc;tel
+de Cluny</i>."</p>
+
+<p>It was in 1565 that the considera<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_467" id="Page_467">[Pg 467]</a></span>tion
+of the formidable results obtained
+by the close union of the Protestants,
+numerically weak, suggested to the
+Cardinal de Lorraine, and a number
+of Catholic nobleman, the idea of a
+counter-association on a grand scale,
+(the germ of this dated from some
+years previously), to be composed of
+prelates, gentlemen, magistrates, and
+of burgesses and other members of
+the third estate, for the purpose
+of acting with promptitude and independence,
+without awaiting the orders
+or the uncertain and tardy succours
+of Government. This was the association
+known in history as the
+League. At the end of the following
+year the young Duke of Guise, who
+had been campaigning with the Emperor
+Maximilian against the Turks,
+returned to France, just in time to see
+the curtain lifted for the bloody drama
+of a new civil war. Already Huguenots
+and Catholics were in mutual
+observation of each other. The former
+first assumed the offensive.
+Alarmed by movements of troops,
+fresh levies, and other menacing indications,
+they laid a plan to carry off
+Charles IX. then at his hunting-seat
+of Monceaux, near Meaux. Once in
+their hands, they calculated on making
+the young King the nominal chief of
+their party. But the plot was betrayed,
+and recoiled upon its advisers by exciting
+against them the implacable
+hatred of its object. "With even
+more oaths than were necessary,"
+says an old writer, the King exhaled
+his wrath, and vowed vengeance
+against the Huguenots, from whom,
+however, he was for the moment compelled
+to fly. Escorted by six thousand
+Swiss, and by such other troops
+as could hastily be assembled, he took
+the road to Paris, hard pressed for
+seven hours by Cond&eacute; and the Admiral.
+But the Protestant squadrons
+were unable to break the stern array
+of the Swiss; on the second day
+d'Aumale, with several hundred well-armed
+gentlemen, came out from Paris
+to swell the royal escort; and Charles
+entered his capital in safety, furious
+at the rebels, and well-disposed to
+proceed against them to any extremities
+the Guises might suggest. The
+anger of this family was greatly
+roused by a trap laid, two days later,
+for the Cardinal of Lorraine, who only
+escaped by quitting his carriage and
+mounting a fleet horse, (some say that
+he had even to run a long way on
+foot,) with loss of his plate and
+equipage.</p>
+
+<p>Shut up in Paris, Charles IX.
+beheld the Huguenots almost at its
+gates, intercepting supplies and burning
+the flour-mills. At last, d'Andelot
+and Montgomery having marched
+towards Poissy, to oppose the passage
+of a Spanish auxiliary corps, Cond&eacute;
+and Coligny, with fifteen hundred
+horse and eighteen hundred indifferently
+equipped infantry, without
+artillery,<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a> were attacked by the Constable
+at the head of twelve thousand
+infantry, three thousand horse, and
+fourteen guns. There ensued the
+brief but glorious battle of St Denis,
+in which Montmorency was slain, and
+the Protestants, opposed to five times
+their numbers, held victory in their
+grasp, when d'Aumale, seeing them
+disordered by success, moved up with
+a body of picked men, whom he had
+kept in reserve, (as his brother Francis
+had done at the battle of Dreux,)
+rallied the fugitives, saved the Swiss
+from total defeat, rescued the body of
+the Constable, and compelled Cond&eacute;
+to retreat. The laurels of the day,
+however, were unquestionably for the
+Huguenots, notwithstanding that they
+abandoned the field; and the next
+day they again offered battle to the
+royal army, but it was not accepted.
+Then Cond&eacute;, short of provisions and
+weakened by the action, retired towards
+Lorraine, and effected his junction
+with an auxiliary corps of twelve
+thousand men which came to him from
+Germany. There ensued a short and
+hollow peace, which were better named
+an imperfectly-observed truce, and
+which did not preclude persecution of
+the Protestants; and then war again
+broke out, with the Duke of Anjou,
+(afterwards Henry III.) at the head
+of the royal armies. The first action
+of this, the third civil war, took place
+in the Perigord, and is known as the
+combat of Mouvans&mdash;the name of one
+of the leaders who was killed. He
+and another Huguenot gentleman
+were bringing up several thousand
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_468" id="Page_468">[Pg 468]</a></span>men to join the Prince of Cond&eacute;, when
+they were attacked, and routed with
+great loss, by twelve hundred cavalry
+under the Duke of Montpensier. In
+this affair the young Duke of Guise
+greatly distinguished himself, by an
+impetuous and opportune charge on
+the main body of the enemy's infantry.
+Next came the fatal battle of Jarnac&mdash;fatal,
+that is to say, to the Protestants,
+who lost in it, or rather after
+it, by a felon-shot, their gallant
+leader Cond&eacute;. Against overwhelming
+numbers, his right arm broken by a
+fall, wounded in the leg by the kick
+of a horse, dismounted and unable to
+stand, that heroic prince, one knee
+upon the ground, still obstinately defended
+himself. "The Catholics who
+surrounded him, respecting so much
+courage, ceased to attack, and urged
+him to give up his sword. He had
+already consented to do so,<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> his
+quality of prisoner ought to have
+protected him, when Montesquiou,
+captain of the Swiss guard of the
+Duke of Anjou, came up&mdash;with secret
+orders, it is supposed&mdash;and sent a
+pistol-ball through his head. Thus
+undisguised did the fury and hatred
+engendered by civil discord then exhibit
+themselves. At the close of this
+same fight, and at no great distance
+from the spot where Cond&eacute; perished,
+Robert Stuart was also made prisoner;
+and Honorat de Savoie, Count de
+Villars, obtained permission, by dint
+of entreaty, to kill him with his own
+hand, in expiation of the blow by
+which this Scot was accused of having
+mortally wounded the Constable of
+Montmorency at the battle of St
+Denis. But even such barbarity as
+this did not suffice, and to it were
+added cowardly outrages and ignoble
+jests. The dead body of Cond&eacute; was
+derisively placed upon an ass, and
+followed the Duke of Anjou upon his
+triumphant entrance into Jarnac, and
+was there laid upon a stone, at the
+door of the quarters of the King's
+brother; whilst religious fury scrupled
+not to justify by sarcasm the indignity
+of such acts."<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a></p>
+
+<p>Greatly discouraged by the reverse
+of Jarnac, and by the loss of their
+leader, the Protestant party presently
+had their hopes revived by promised
+succours from Elizabeth of England,
+and from various German princes. Coligny&mdash;now
+the real head of the party,
+whose titulary chiefs were Henry of
+B&eacute;arn and his young cousin Cond&eacute;&mdash;was
+joined by twelve thousand Germans,
+under Duke Wolfgang of Zweibrucken.
+On the other hand, the
+Catholic army was weakened by
+sickness and desertions, by the want
+of discipline amongst the Swiss troops
+and German <i>reiters</i>, chiefly composing
+it, and by discord between its generals.
+The Guises were displeased at being
+commanded by the Duke of Anjou,
+who, in spite of his extreme youth, had
+displayed valour, decision, and military
+talents, whose promise was not fulfilled
+by his ignoble reign as Henry III.</p>
+
+<p>The siege of Poitiers cost the Protestant
+army much time and many
+men. After the most vigorous efforts
+for its capture, Coligny retired from
+before the town&mdash;which had been
+admirably defended, and owed its
+safety less to a diversion made by the
+Duke of Anjou, (who menaced Chatellerault)
+than to the great valour and
+activity of the Duke of Guise, recalling,
+on a smaller scale, the glorious
+defence of Metz by his father. Five
+breaches had been made in the walls,
+but the most determined assaults
+were steadily and successfully repulsed.
+Of the garrison, one-third
+perished, and the loss of the besiegers
+was very heavy. On the 9th September,
+Guise and his brother Mayenne
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_469" id="Page_469">[Pg 469]</a></span>left the town, at the head of fifteen
+hundred horse, and, after making a
+report of their triumph to the Duke
+of Anjou, proceeded to Tours, where
+Charles IX. received them with many
+caresses and flattering words. Four
+days later, the Parliament of Paris
+proclaimed the ex-Admiral Coligny a
+traitor, condemned him to death, and
+offered fifty thousand gold crowns to
+whomsoever should deliver him up
+alive. A few days afterwards the same
+sum was offered for his head; and the
+Guises had the proclamation translated
+into seven languages, and circulated
+throughout Europe. Then came
+the bloody battle of Moncontour,
+where eighteen thousand men under
+Coligny were beaten, with very heavy
+loss, by the Duke of Anjou's army of
+twenty-five thousand. It began with
+a long cannonade, quickly succeeded
+by a combat at close quarters, in
+which even the generals-in-chief were
+personally engaged. "The Duke of
+Anjou had his horse killed under him,
+but was rescued by d'Aumale; Coligny
+was wounded in the face, and lost
+four teeth; Guise was badly hurt by
+a ball in the foot: Mayenne distinguished
+himself at his brother's side."
+After an hour's deadly struggle, the
+Huguenots were beaten at all points.
+There was a terrible massacre of them;
+three thousand prisoners were made,
+and five hundred German horse passed
+over to the conquerors. This was a
+grievous blow for the Protestant party.
+Coligny, however, and the princes,
+shut themselves up in La Rochelle,
+and had leisure to look around them
+and organise their remaining forces,
+whilst the Duke of Anjou wasted his
+time in the siege of some unimportant
+places, and the Duke of Guise was
+laid up with his wound, which was
+long of healing. The state of the
+kingdom of France, exhausted by
+these repeated wars, was deplorable.
+Coligny, bold and active, made long
+marches southwards, collecting reinforcements
+and supplies, and finally
+reaching Burgundy, and getting the
+advantage in an encounter with the
+King's army, under Marshal de Coss&eacute;,
+at Arnay le Duc. In short, he had
+the road open to Paris. These considerations
+made Charles IX. anxious
+for peace; which, after some negotiation,
+was concluded at St Germain-en-Laye,
+in August 1570, on terms so
+favourable to the Huguenots&mdash;who,
+says Montluc, in his <i>Commentaries</i>,
+always had the best of it when it
+came to those <i>diables d'escritures</i>&mdash;that
+Pope Pius V. wrote to the Cardinal
+de Lorraine to express his violent
+disapproval.</p>
+
+<p>As had more than once already
+been the case, the return of peace
+was quickly followed by the marked
+diminution of the influence of the
+house of Guise. The Duke of Anjou
+cherished an instinctive hatred and
+jealousy of Henry of Lorraine; whilst
+the Cardinal had incurred the displeasure
+of the Queen-mother, who,
+as well as Charles IX., had previously
+been greatly angered by the presumption
+of the Duke of Guise in
+aspiring to the hand of her daughter
+Margaret. At one time, so furiously
+chafed was the King's naturally violent
+temper by the pretensions of the
+Guise party&mdash;against whom his brother
+Anjou lost no opportunity of
+irritating him&mdash;that he actually resolved
+on the immediate death of
+the young Duke of Guise, who only
+escaped through the timidity and
+indecision of Henry of Angoul&ecirc;me,
+the King's bastard brother&mdash;commissioned
+to make an end of him at a
+hunting party&mdash;and through warnings
+given him, it is said, by Margaret
+herself. The Montmorencys, cousins
+of the Colignys, seemed to have succeeded
+to the influence the Guises
+had lost: the Marshal and his brother
+d'Anville governed the Queen-mother;
+and so fierce was the animosity
+between the rival families, that
+Guise and M&eacute;ru, brother of Marshal
+Montmorency, openly quarrelled in
+the King's Chamber, and, on leaving
+the palace, exchanged a challenge,
+whose consequences persons sent
+expressly by Charles IX. had great
+difficulty in averting. In short, during
+the year 1571, "no more was
+heard of the Cardinal of Lorraine
+than if he had been dead; nor was
+anything known about the Guises,
+except that they had celebrated at
+Joinville the birth of a son to the
+Duke," who had married, in the previous
+year, Catherine of Cleves,
+widow of the Prince de Portien.</p>
+
+<p>The apparent favour of the Admiral
+de Coligny, the return to Paris of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_470" id="Page_470">[Pg 470]</a></span>
+Guises, the seeming fusion of the two
+great parties that had so long distracted
+France, were preludes to the
+massacre of St Bartholomew. In
+narrating the strange and important
+events that crowded the year 1572,
+M. de Bouill&eacute; lays bare the vile qualities
+of Charles IX., his cold-blooded
+cruelty, his odious treachery, and the
+powers of profound dissimulation he
+had inherited from his mother. One
+anecdote, extracted from Fornier's
+MS. History of the House of Guise,
+is extremely characteristic. The
+King, whilst loading Coligny with
+marks of confidence and favour, hinted
+darkly to the Guises the existence of
+some sinister plot, urging them to
+take patience, because, as he said to
+the Duke d'Aumale, <i>bient&ocirc;t il verroit
+quelque bon jeu</i>. It happened one
+day that "the King was alone in his
+chamber with Henry of Lorraine, both
+gaily disposed; the latter had seized
+a headless pike, used to shut the
+upper shutters of the window, and
+was amusing Charles IX. by the extraordinary
+dexterity with which he
+wielded this weapon, when Coligny
+unexpectedly entered. The King felt
+that the abrupt interruption of their
+play, on his appearance, might excite
+the Admiral's suspicions. Suddenly,
+therefore, he feigned violent displeasure;
+accused the Duke of having
+insolently waved the pole close to
+his face, and, seizing a boar-spear
+that stood by his bed, pursued Guise,
+who, as if the better to escape, ran,
+it is said, into the apartments of
+Margaret de Valois. Charles snatched
+the Admiral's sword to pursue the
+fugitive; and Coligny, deceived by
+this well-acted anger, interceded to
+obtain the pardon of the heedless
+young Prince of Lorraine."</p>
+
+<p>There is no particular novelty in
+M. de Bouill&eacute;'s account of the massacre
+of St Bartholomew. We cannot
+compliment him on the guarded manner
+in which he condemns his hero
+for his participation in that monster
+murder&mdash;an episode that would have
+sufficed to brand with eternal infamy
+a far greater and better man than
+Henry of Lorraine. Compelled to
+admit that the whole direction and
+combination of the massacre was
+intrusted to, and joyfully undertaken
+by, the Duke of Guise&mdash;that he was
+privy to and approving of Maurevel's
+previous attempt to assassinate Coligny,
+and that he afterwards stood
+under the Admiral's window whilst
+the Wurtemburger Besme, and others
+of his creatures, stabbed the wounded
+Protestant as he rose defenceless from
+his couch&mdash;M. de Bouill&eacute; informs us
+that, on quitting the place of his
+enemy's murder, whilst the most barbarous
+scenes were on all sides enacting&mdash;the
+consequence of the completeness
+and skill of his own
+preparations&mdash;Guise was <i>seized with
+compassion</i>, and had "the good
+thought to save many innocent victims,
+women, children, and even
+men," by sheltering them in his hotel.
+On the other hand, "those whom the
+Prince considered as factious, or as
+adherents of such&mdash;in a word, his
+political adversaries rather than heretics&mdash;found
+little pity at his hands."
+And he was proceeding "to carry
+death into the faubourg St Germain,
+and to seek there Montgomery, the
+Vidame de Chartres, and a hundred
+Protestant gentlemen whom prudence
+had prevented from lodging near the
+Admiral." The compassionate intentions
+of Guise towards these five
+score Huguenots and "political adversaries,"
+could be so little doubtful,
+that it was certainly most fortunate
+for them that a friend swam the
+Seine and gave them warning, whilst
+a mistake about keys delayed the
+Duke's passage through the gate of
+Bussy. They escaped, pursued to
+some distance from Paris by Guise
+and his escort. On his return, the
+massacre was at its height. "Less
+pitiless than any of the other Catholic
+chiefs, he had opened in his own
+dwelling an asylum to more than a
+hundred Protestant gentlemen, <i>of
+whom he thought he should be able
+afterwards to make partisans</i>." His
+compassion, then, had not the merit of
+disinterestedness. Similar selfish considerations
+induced others of the
+assassins to rescue others of the
+doomed. It will be remembered, that
+Ambrose Par&eacute; found shelter and protection
+in the palace, from whose
+windows Charles IX., arquebuse in
+hand, is said to have amused himself
+by picking off the wretched Protestants,
+as they scudded through the
+streets with the blood-hounds at their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_471" id="Page_471">[Pg 471]</a></span>
+heels. But all the skill of the
+Huguenot leech was insufficient, a
+few months later, to preserve that
+perfidious and cruel monarch from a
+death whose strange and horrible
+character was considered by many
+to be a token of God's displeasure at
+the oceans of blood he had so inhumanly
+caused to flow. Charles IX.
+was preceded and followed to the
+grave, at short intervals, by an active
+sharer in the massacre, the Duke of
+Aumale, and by one of its most
+vehement instigators and approvers,
+Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine, both
+uncles of the Duke, and notable members
+of the house of Guise. The
+change of religion of Henry of Navarre
+and of the young Prince of
+Cond&eacute;, the siege of Rochelle, the conclusion
+of peace with the Protestants,
+and the accession of Henry III. to the
+throne of France, are the other important
+events that bring us to the
+end of the second volume of M. de
+Bouill&eacute;'s interesting history.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<h2><a name="A_WILD-FLOWER_GARLAND_BY_DELTA" id="A_WILD-FLOWER_GARLAND_BY_DELTA">A WILD-FLOWER GARLAND. BY DELTA.</a></h2>
+
+
+<h3>THE DAISY.</h3>
+
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i9">I.<br /><br /><br /><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The Daisy blossoms on the rocks,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Amid the purple heath;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">It blossoms on the river's banks,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">That thrids the glens beneath:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The eagle, at his pride of place,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Beholds it by his nest;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And, in the mead, it cushions soft<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The lark's descending breast.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i9">II.<br /><br /><br /><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Before the cuckoo, earliest spring<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Its silver circlet knows,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">When greening buds begin to swell,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And zephyr melts the snows;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And, when December's breezes howl<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Along the moorlands bare,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And only blooms the Christmas rose,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The Daisy still is there!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i9">III.<br /><br /><br /><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Samaritan of flowers! to it<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">All races are alike,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The Switzer on his glacier height,&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The Dutchman by his dyke,&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The seal-skin vested Esquimaux,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Begirt with icy seas,&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And, underneath his burning noon,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The parasol'd Chinese.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i9">IV.<br /><br /><br /><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The emigrant on distant shore,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Mid scenes and faces strange,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Beholds it flowering in the sward,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Where'er his footsteps range;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And when his yearning, home-sick heart<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Would bow to its despair,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">It reads his eye a lesson sage&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">That God is everywhere!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_472" id="Page_472">[Pg 472]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i9">V.<br /><br /><br /><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Stars are the Daisies that begem<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The blue fields of the sky,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Beheld by all, and everywhere,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Bright prototypes on high:&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Bloom on, then, unpretending flowers!<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And to the waverer be<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">An emblem of St Paul's content,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">St Stephen's constancy.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<h3>THE WHITE ROSE.</h3>
+
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i9">I.<br /><br /><br /><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Rose of the desert! thou art to me<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">An emblem of stainless purity,&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of those who, keeping their garments white,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Walk on through life with steps aright.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i9">II.<br /><br /><br /><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Thy fragrance breathes of the fields above,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Whose soil and air are faith and love;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And where, by the murmur of silver springs,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The Cherubim fold their snow-white wings;&mdash;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i9">III.<br /><br /><br /><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Where those who were severed re-meet in joy,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Which death can never more destroy;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Where scenes without, and where souls within,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Are blanched from taint and touch of sin;&mdash;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i9">IV.<br /><br /><br /><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Where speech is music, and breath is balm;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And broods an everlasting calm;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And flowers wither not, as in worlds like this;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And hope is swallowed in perfect bliss;&mdash;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i9">V.<br /><br /><br /><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Where all is peaceful, for all is pure;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And all is lovely; and all endure;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And day is endless, and ever bright;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And no more sea is, and no more night;&mdash;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i9">VI.<br /><br /><br /><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Where round the throne, in hues like thine,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The raiments of the ransom'd shine;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And o'er each brow a halo glows<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of glory, like the pure White Rose!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<h3>THE SWEET BRIAR.</h3>
+
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i9">I.<br /><br /><br /><br /></span>
+<span class="i8">The Sweet Briar flowering,<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">With boughs embowering,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Beside the willow-tufted stream,<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">In its soft, red bloom,<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">And its wild perfume,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Brings back the past like a sunny dream!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i9">II.<br /><br /><br /><br /></span>
+<span class="i8">Methinks, in childhood,<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">Beside the wildwood<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_473" id="Page_473">[Pg 473]</a></span>
+<span class="i0">I lie, and listen the blackbird's song,<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">Mid the evening calm,<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">As the Sweet Briar's balm<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">On the gentle west wind breathes along&mdash;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i9">III.<br /><br /><br /><br /></span>
+<span class="i8">To speak of meadows,<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">And palm-tree shadows,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And bee-hive cones, and a thymy hill,<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">And greenwood mazes,<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">And greensward daisies,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And a foamy stream, and a clacking mill.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i9">IV.<br /><br /><br /><br /></span>
+<span class="i8">Still the heart rejoices,<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">At the happy voices<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of children, singing amid their play;<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">While swallows twittering,<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">And waters glittering,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Make earth an Eden at close of day.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i9">V.<br /><br /><br /><br /></span>
+<span class="i8">In sequestered places,<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">Departed faces,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Return and smile as of yore they smiled;<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">When, with trifles blest,<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">Each buoyant breast<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Held the trusting heart of a little child.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i9">VI.<br /><br /><br /><br /></span>
+<span class="i8">The future never<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">Again can ever<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The perished gifts of the past restore,<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">Nor, to thee or me,<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">Can the wild flowers be<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">What the Briar was then&mdash;oh never more!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<h3>THE WALL-FLOWER.</h3>
+
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i9">I.<br /><br /><br /><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The Wall-flower&mdash;the Wall-flower,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">How beautiful it blooms!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">It gleams above the ruined tower,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Like sunlight over tombs;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">It sheds a halo of repose<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Around the wrecks of time.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To beauty give the flaunting rose,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The Wall-flower is sublime.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i9">II.<br /><br /><br /><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Flower of the solitary place!<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Gray ruin's golden crown,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That lendest melancholy grace<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">To haunts of old renown;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Thou mantlest o'er the battlement,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">By strife or storm decayed;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And fillest up each envious rent<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Time's canker-tooth hath made.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_474" id="Page_474">[Pg 474]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i9">III.<br /><br /><br /><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Thy roots outspread the ramparts o'er,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Where, in war's stormy day,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Percy or Douglas ranged of yore<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Their ranks in grim array;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The clangour of the field is fled,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The beacon on the hill<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">No more through midnight blazes red,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">But thou art blooming still!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i9">IV.<br /><br /><br /><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Whither hath fled the choral band<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">That filled the Abbey's nave?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Yon dark sepulchral yew-trees stand<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">O'er many a level grave.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In the belfry's crevices, the dove<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Her young brood nurseth well,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">While thou, lone flower! dost shed above<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">A sweet decaying smell.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i9">V.<br /><br /><br /><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In the season of the tulip-cup<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">When blossoms clothe the trees,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">How sweet to throw the lattice up,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And scent thee on the breeze;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The butterfly is then abroad,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The bee is on the wing,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And on the hawthorn by the road<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The linnets sit and sing.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i9">VI.<br /><br /><br /><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Sweet Wall-flower&mdash;sweet Wall-flower!<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Thou conjurest up to me,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Full many a soft and sunny hour<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Of boyhood's thoughtless glee;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">When joy from out the daisies grew,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">In woodland pastures green,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And summer skies were far more blue,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Than since they e'er have been.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i9">VII.<br /><br /><br /><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Now autumn's pensive voice is heard<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Amid the yellow bowers,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The robin is the regal bird,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And thou the queen of flowers!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He sings on the laburnum trees,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Amid the twilight dim,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And Araby ne'er gave the breeze<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Such scents, as thou to him.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i9">VIII.<br /><br /><br /><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Rich is the pink, the lily gay,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The rose is summer's guest;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Bland are thy charms when these decay,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Of flowers&mdash;first, last, and best!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">There may be gaudier on the bower,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And statelier on the tree,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But Wall-flower&mdash;loved Wall-flower,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Thou art the flower for me!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_475" id="Page_475">[Pg 475]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="THE_MASQUERADE_OF_FREEDOM" id="THE_MASQUERADE_OF_FREEDOM">THE MASQUERADE OF FREEDOM.</a></h2>
+
+
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i9">I.<br /><br /><br /><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">When Freedom first appeared beneath,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Right simple was the garb she wore:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Her brows were circled with a wreath<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Such as the Grecian victors bore:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Her vesture all of spotless white,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Her aspect stately and serene;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And so she moved in all men's sight<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">As lovely as a Maiden Queen.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i9">II.<br /><br /><br /><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And queenlike, long she ruled the throng,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">As ancient records truly tell;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Their strength she took not from the strong,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">But taught them how to use it well.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Her presence graced the peasant's floor<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">As freely as the noble's hall:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And aye the humbler was the door,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">The still more welcome was her call.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i9">III.<br /><br /><br /><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But simple manners rarely range<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Beyond the simpler ages' ken:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And e'en the Virtues sometimes change<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Their vesture and their looks, like men.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Pride, noble once, grows close and vain,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">And Honour stoops to vulgar things,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And old Obedience slacks the rein,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">And murmurs at the rule of kings.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i9">IV.<br /><br /><br /><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">So Freedom, like her sisters too,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Has felt the impulse of the time,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Has changed her garments' blameless hue,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">And donn'd the colours dear to crime<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">First in a Phrygian cap she stalked,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">And bore within her grasp the spear;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And ever, when abroad she walk'd,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Men knew Revenge was following near.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i9">V.<br /><br /><br /><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">She moves again&mdash;The death-drums roll,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">The frantic mobs their chorus raise,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The thunder of the Carmagnole&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">The war-chant of the Marseillaise'<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Red run the streets with blameless blood&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">The guillotine comes clanking down&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And Freedom, in her drunken mood,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Can witness all without a frown.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i9">VI.<br /><br /><br /><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Times change again: and Freedom now,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Though scarcely yet less wild and frantic,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Appears, before men's eyes below,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">In guises more intensely antic.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_476" id="Page_476">[Pg 476]</a></span>
+<span class="i0">No single kind of garb she wears,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">As o'er the earth she goes crusading;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But shifts her habit and her airs<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Like Joe Grimaldi masquerading.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i9">VII.<br /><br /><br /><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Through Paris you may see her tread,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">The cynosure of all beholders;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A <i>bonnet rouge</i> upon her head,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">A ragged blouse upon her shoulders.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">More decent now than once she was,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Though equally opposed to riches,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">She still upholds the good old cause,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Yet condescends to wear the breeches.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i9">VIII.<br /><br /><br /><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The Huns behold her as of yore,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">With grisly beard and monstrous swagger;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The swart Italian bows before<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">The Goddess with the mask and dagger.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The German, as his patriot thirst<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">With beer Bavarian he assuages,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Surveys her image, as at first<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">'Twas pictured in the Middle Ages.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i9">IX.<br /><br /><br /><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Her glorious form appears to him<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">In all its pristine pomp and glitter,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Equipped complete from head to heel,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">In semblance of a stalwart Ritter.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With doublet slash, and fierce moustache,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">And wrinkled boots of russet leather,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And hose and belt, with hat of felt<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Surmounted by a capon's feather.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i9">X.<br /><br /><br /><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Mysterious as Egyptian Sphinx,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">A perfect riddle&mdash;who can solve her?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">One while she comes with blazing links,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">The next, she's armed with a revolver.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Across the main, whene'er the shoe<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Upon her radiant instep pinches,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To-day, she'll tar and feather you;<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">To-morrow, and she merely Lynches.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i9">XI.<br /><br /><br /><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">While thus abroad, in varied guise,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">We see the fair enchantress flitting,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">She deigns to greet in other wise<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Her latest satellites in Britain.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Sometimes, in black dissenting cloth,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">She figures like an undertaker;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And sometimes plunges, nothing loath,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Into the garments of a Quaker.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i9">XII.<br /><br /><br /><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">You'll find her recommending pikes<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">At many a crowded Chartist meeting,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Where gentlemen, like William Sykes,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">To exiled patriots vote their greeting.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_477" id="Page_477">[Pg 477]</a></span>
+<span class="i0">You'll find her also with her friends,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Engaged upon a bloody errand,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">When, stead of arguments, she sends<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Her bludgeoneers to silence Ferrand.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i9">XIII.<br /><br /><br /><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">You'll find her too, at different dates,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">With men of peace on platforms many,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Denouncing loans to foreign states<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Whereof they could not raise a penny.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In short, to end the catalogue,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">There's hardly any son of Edom<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Who, in his character of rogue,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Won't tell you that he worships Freedom.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i9">XIV.<br /><br /><br /><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Yet hold&mdash;one sample more&mdash;the last,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Ere of this theme we make a clearance;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">One little month is barely past<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Since London saw her grand appearance,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In one of those enormous hats,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Short leggings and peculiar jerkins,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Which men assume who tend the vats<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Of Barclay and his partner Perkins.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i9">XV.<br /><br /><br /><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To that great factory of beer,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Unconscious wholly of his danger,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Nor dreaming that a foe was near,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">There came, one day, an aged stranger.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He was a soldier, and had fought<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">In other lands 'gainst revolution;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And done his utmost&mdash;so he thought&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">To save his country's constitution.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i9">XVI.<br /><br /><br /><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But saving states, like other things<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Is not in highest vogue at present;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And those who stand by laws and kings<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Must look for recompense unpleasant.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Fair Freedom, brooding o'er the drink<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">That makes the Briton strong and hearty,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Began to sneeze upon the brink<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">As though she scented Bonaparte.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i9">XVII.<br /><br /><br /><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">"Ah, ha!" she cried, and cried again&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">At every word her voice grew louder&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">"I smell an Austrian or a Dane,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">I smell a minion of gunpowder!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Some servant of a kingly race<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">My independent nostril vexes!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Say&mdash;shall he dare to show his face,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Within this hall of triple X's?<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i9">XVIII.<br /><br /><br /><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">"'Tis true&mdash;he is unarmed, alone,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">A stranger, weak, and old, and hoary&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Yet&mdash;on, my children! heave the stone!<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">The less the risk, the more the glory!"<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_478" id="Page_478">[Pg 478]</a></span>
+<span class="i0">She ceased: and round the startled man,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">As round the Indian crowds the cayman,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">From vat, and vault, and desk, and van,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Thronged brewer, maltster, clerk, and drayman.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i9">XIX.<br /><br /><br /><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">"A precious lark!" the foremost cried;<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">"Come&mdash;twig him, Tom! come&mdash;pin him, Roger!"<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">"Who is it?" Then a sage replied&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">"He's some infernal foreign sodger!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He looks as how he'd scored ere now<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Some shoulders black and blue with lashes<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">So pitch him here into the beer&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">And, lads&mdash;we'll pull off his moustaches!"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i9">XX.<br /><br /><br /><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">They did&mdash;what brutal natures scorn.<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">What savages would shrink to do&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">What none but basest cowards born,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">And the most abject and most few,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Would offer to an old man's head!<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">O shame&mdash;O shame to Englishmen!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">If the old spirit be not dead,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">'Tis time it showed itself again!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i9">XXI.<br /><br /><br /><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">What! in this land which shelter gave<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">To all, whatever their degree,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Or were they faint, or were they brave,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Or were they slaves, or were they free&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In this Asylum of the Earth&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">The noblest name it ever won&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Shall deeds like these pollute our hearth,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Shall open shame like this be done?<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i9">XXII.<br /><br /><br /><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">O most ignoble end of all<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Our boasted order and renown!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The robber in the tribune's hall&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">The maltster in the Judge's gown!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The hospitable roof profaned;<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Old age by ruffian force opprest,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And English hands most vilely stained<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">With blood of an unconscious guest!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i9">XXIII.<br /><br /><br /><br /></span>
+<span class="i0">O Freedom! if thou wouldst maintain<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Thy empire on the British shore,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Wash from thy robes that coward stain,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Resume thy ancient garb once more.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In virgin whiteness walk abroad,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Maintain thy might from sea to sea,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And, as the dearest gift of God,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">So men shall live and die for thee!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_479" id="Page_479">[Pg 479]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="Dies_Boreales" id="Dies_Boreales">Dies Boreales.</a><br />
+
+No. VIII.<br />
+
+
+CHRISTOPHER UNDER CANVASS.</h2>
+
+<p class="center"><i>Camp at Cladich.</i></p>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Scene</span>&mdash;<i>The Wren's Nest.</i></p>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Time</span>&mdash;<i>Evening.</i></p>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">North&mdash;Talboys&mdash;Seward&mdash;Buller.</span></p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p class="center">NORTH.
+</p>
+
+<p>Have you dined?</p>
+
+<p class="center">TALBOYS.
+</p>
+
+<p>That we have, sir.</p>
+
+<p class="center">NORTH.
+</p>
+
+<p>With me this has been Fast-day.</p>
+
+<p class="center">TALBOYS.
+</p>
+
+<p>We saw it was, at our breakfast. Your abstinence at that meal, and at
+luncheon, we knew from the composure of your features, and your benignant
+silence, was not from any disorder of material organisation, but from steady
+moral resolve; so his absence from the Dinner-Table gave us no uneasiness
+about Numa.</p>
+
+<p class="center">NORTH.
+</p>
+
+<p>No Nymph has been with him in the Grot.</p>
+
+<p class="center">TALBOYS.
+</p>
+
+<p>His Good Genius is always with him in Solitude. The form we observed
+stealing&mdash;no, not stealing&mdash;gliding away&mdash;was, I verily believe, but the Lady
+of the Wood.</p>
+
+<p class="center">NORTH.
+</p>
+
+<p>The Glen, you know, is haunted; and sometimes when the green umbrage
+is beginning to look grey in the still evening, I have more than a glimpse of
+the Faery Queen.</p>
+
+<p class="center">SEWARD.
+</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps we intrude on your dreams. Let us retire.</p>
+
+<p class="center">NORTH.
+</p>
+
+<p>Take your seats. What Book is that, beneath your arm, Talboys?</p>
+
+<p class="center">TALBOYS.
+</p>
+
+<p>The Volume you bid me bring with me this Evening to the Wren's Nest.</p>
+
+<p class="center">NORTH.
+</p>
+
+<p>Yes, yes&mdash;now I remember. You are here by appointment.</p>
+
+<p class="center">TALBOYS.
+</p>
+
+<p>Else had we not been here. We had not merely your permission, sir&mdash;but
+your invitation.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_480" id="Page_480">[Pg 480]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="center">NORTH.
+</p>
+
+<p>I was expecting you&mdash;and by hands unseen this our Round Table has been
+spread for my guests. Pretty coffee-cups, are they not? Ask no questions&mdash;there
+they are&mdash;but handle them gently&mdash;for the porcelain is delicate&mdash;and at
+rude touch will disappear from your fingers. A Book. Ay, ay&mdash;a Quarto&mdash;and
+by a writer of deserved Fame.</p>
+
+<p class="center">SEWARD.
+</p>
+
+<p>We are dissatisfied with it, sir. Dugald Stewart is hard on the <span class="smcap">Poet</span>, and
+we desire to hear a vindication from our Master's lips.</p>
+
+<p class="center">NORTH.
+</p>
+
+<p>Master! We are all pupils Of <span class="smcap">the Poet</span>. He is the Master of us all. Talboys,
+read out&mdash;and begin at the beginning.</p>
+
+<p class="center">TALBOYS.
+</p>
+
+<p>"In entering on this subject, it is proper to observe, that the word <span class="smcap">Poet</span> is
+not here used in that restricted sense in which it is commonly employed; but
+in its original acceptation of Maker, or Creator. In plainer language, it is
+used to comprehend all those who devote themselves to the culture of the
+Arts which are addressed to the Imagination; and in whose minds it may be
+presumed Imagination has acquired a more than ordinary sway over the
+other powers of the Understanding. By using the word in such a latitude,
+we shall be enabled to generalise the observations which might otherwise
+seem applicable merely to the different classes of versifiers."</p>
+
+<p class="center">NORTH.
+</p>
+
+<p>That Mr. Stewart should, as a Philosopher, mark the liberal and magnanimous,
+and metaphysical large acceptation of the Name is right and good.
+But look at his Note.</p>
+
+<p class="center">TALBOYS.
+</p>
+
+<p>"For this latitude in the use of the word <span class="smcap">Poet</span>, I may plead the example of
+Bacon and d'Alembert, the former of whom (<i>De Aug. Scient.</i>, lib. xi. cap. 1)
+comprehends under Poetry all fables or fictitious histories, whether in prose
+or verse; while the latter includes in it painting, sculpture, architecture,
+music, and their different divisions."</p>
+
+<p class="center">NORTH.
+</p>
+
+<p>"I may plead the example" appears to me a somewhat pompous expression
+to signify that you have (very properly) adopted one doctrine of one of the
+wisest, and another of one of the ablest of men. But he does not seem to know
+that d'Alembert might have "pleaded the example" of Aristotle in "including
+painting, sculpture," &amp;c. "Poetry," says the Stagyrite, "consists in
+imitation, and the imitation may be by pictures, sculpture, and the like." It
+is &#956;&#953;&#956;&#951;&#963;&#953;&#962;&mdash;and it is Man's nature to rejoice in imitation&mdash;&#967;&#945;&#953;&#961;&#949;&#953;&#957; &#964;&#959;&#953;&#962; &#956;&#953;&#956;&#951;&#956;&#945;&#963;&#953;&#957;.
+But a singular and illustrative trait in Mr Stewart's treatment of the subject
+is, that though he thus, at the outset, enlarges the Poet into the Painter, the
+Sculptor, &amp;c., yet throughout the whole composition, (I know not if an incidental
+word may anywhere occur as an exception,) every point of the argument
+regards the Poet in words and verse! In what frame of understanding
+could&mdash;did he put this Head to these fragments of limbs?</p>
+
+<p class="center">BULLER.
+</p>
+
+<p>In the name of the Prophet&mdash;<span class="smcap">Figs</span>!</p>
+
+<p class="center">NORTH.
+</p>
+
+<p>I am more than half disposed to hint an objection to the use of the
+words "sway over the other powers." We should have said&mdash;and we do
+say, "predominance amongst the other powers." I see in "sway" two
+meanings: first, a right meaning, or truth, not well expressed; to wit, in
+thinking poetically&mdash;for his art, whatever it may be&mdash;or out of his art&mdash;the
+Poet's other faculties minister to his Imagination. She reigns. They <i>conform</i>
+their operations to hers. This manner of intellectual action happens in
+all men, more or less, oftener or seldomer; in the Poet&mdash;of what Art soever&mdash;upon
+each occasion, with much more decision and eminence, and more habitually.
+But secondly, a wrong meaning, or error, is better expressed by the word
+"sway," to wit, that Imagination in the Poet <i>illegitimately overbears</i> the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_481" id="Page_481">[Pg 481]</a></span>
+other intellectual powers, as judgment, attention, reflection, memory, prudence.
+Now, you may say that every power that is given in great strength,
+<i>tends</i> to overbear unduly the other powers. The syllogistic faculty does&mdash;the
+faculty of observation does&mdash;memory does&mdash;and so a power <i>unbalanced</i>
+may appear as a weakness&mdash;as wealth ruins a fool. But in the just dispensation
+of nature every power is a power, and to the mind which she constitutes
+for greatness she gives <i>balanced</i> powers. Giving one in large measure&mdash;say
+Imagination&mdash;she gives as large the directly antagonistic power&mdash;say the Intellective,
+the Logical; or she balances by a mass of powers. I suspect that the
+undue over-swaying was in Stewart's mind, and has probably distorted his
+language. I know that Genius is the combination of ten faculties.</p>
+
+<p class="center">SEWARD.
+</p>
+
+<p>Our expectations were raised to a high pitch by such grandiloquent
+announcement: and we have found in the Essay&mdash;which is unscientific in
+form&mdash;has no method&mdash;makes no progress&mdash;and is throughout a jumble,&mdash;not
+one bold or original thought.</p>
+
+<p class="center">BULLER.
+</p>
+
+<p>Too much occupied with exposure of vulgar errors&mdash;and instances beneath
+the matter in hand. Great part too&mdash;<i>extra thesin</i>.</p>
+
+<p class="center">SEWARD.
+</p>
+
+<p>You expect great things from the title&mdash;the Idea of the <span class="smcap">Poet</span>. You then
+see that Mr Stewart after all does not intend this, but only certain influences,
+moral and intellectual, of characteristic pursuits. This, if rightly and fully
+done, would have <i>involved</i> the Idea&mdash;and so a portraiture indirect and incidental&mdash;still
+the features and their proportion. Instead of the Idea, you find&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="center">BULLER.
+</p>
+
+<p>I don't know what.</p>
+
+<p class="center">TALBOYS.
+</p>
+
+<p>The reader is made unhappy, first, by defect, or the absence of principal features&mdash;then
+by degradation, or the low contemplation&mdash;and by the general tenor.</p>
+
+<p class="center">NORTH.
+</p>
+
+<p>Why, perhaps, you had better return the Quarto to its shelf in the Van.
+Yet 'twould be a pity, too, to do so. I am for always keeping our engagements;
+and as we agreed to have a talk about the Section this evening, let
+us have a talk. Read away, Talboys&mdash;at the very next Paragraph.</p>
+
+<p class="center">TALBOYS.
+</p>
+
+<p>"The culture of Imagination does not diminish our interest in human life,
+but is extremely apt to inspire the mind with false conceptions of it. As this
+faculty derives its chief gratification from picturing to itself things more perfect
+than what exist, it has a tendency to exalt our expectations above the
+level of our present condition, and frequently produces a youth of enthusiastic
+hopes, while it stores up disappointment and disgust for maturer
+years. In general, it is the characteristic of a poetical mind to be sanguine
+in its prospects of futurity&mdash;a disposition extremely useful when seconded by
+great activity and industry, but which, when accompanied, as it too frequently
+is, with indolence, and with an overweening self-conceit, is the source
+of numberless misfortunes."</p>
+
+<p class="center">BULLER.
+</p>
+
+<p>Why, all this is&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="center">NORTH.
+</p>
+
+<p>Stop. Read on, Talboys.</p>
+
+<p class="center">TALBOYS.
+</p>
+
+<p>"A thoughtlessness and imprudence with respect to the future, and a general
+imprudence in the conduct of life, has been often laid to the charge of Poets.
+Horace represents them as too much engrossed and intoxicated with their
+favourite pursuits to think of anything else&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="center">BULLER.
+</p>
+
+<p>Leave out the quotation from old Flaccus&mdash;and go on.</p>
+
+<p class="center">TALBOYS.
+</p>
+
+<p>"This carelessness about the goods of fortune is an infirmity very natu<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_482" id="Page_482">[Pg 482]</a></span>rally
+resulting from their studies, and is only to be cured by years and experience;
+or by a combination&mdash;very rare, indeed&mdash;of poetical genius with a
+more than ordinary share of that homely endowment <span class="smcap">COMMON SENSE</span>."</p>
+
+<p class="center">BULLER.
+</p>
+
+<p>Speak louder&mdash;yet that might not be easy. I feel the want of an ear-trumpet,
+for you do drop your voice so at the end of sentences.</p>
+
+<p class="center">TALBOYS.
+</p>
+
+<p>"A few exceptions"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="center">BULLER.
+</p>
+
+<p>Stentor's alive again&mdash;oh! that I were head over ears in a bale of cotton.</p>
+
+<p class="center">TALBOYS.
+</p>
+
+<p>"A few exceptions to these observations may undoubtedly be found, but
+they are so very few, as, by their singularity, to confirm rather than weaken
+the general fact. In proof of this, we need only appeal to the sad details
+recorded by Dr Johnson in his Lives of the Poets."</p>
+
+<p class="center">BULLER.
+</p>
+
+<p>Skip&mdash;skip&mdash;skip&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="center">SEWARD.
+</p>
+
+<p>Skip&mdash;skip&mdash;skip&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="center">TALBOYS.
+</p>
+
+<p>May I, sir?</p>
+
+<p class="center">NORTH.
+</p>
+
+<p>You may.</p>
+
+<p class="center">TALBOYS.
+</p>
+
+<p>"Considered in its moral effects on the mind, one of the most unfortunate
+consequences to be apprehended from the cultivation of a poetical talent, is
+its tendency, by cherishing a puerile and irritable vanity, to weaken the force,
+and to impair the independence of character. Whoever limits his exertions
+to the gratification of others, whether by personal exhibition, as in the case
+of the actor and mimic, or by those kinds of literary composition which are
+calculated for no end but to please or to entertain, renders himself, in some
+measure, dependent on their caprices and humours."</p>
+
+<p class="center">BULLER.
+</p>
+
+<p>Skip&mdash;skip&mdash;skip&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="center">TALBOYS.
+</p>
+
+<p>"In all the other departments of literature besides, to please is only a
+secondary object. It is the primary one of poetry. Hence that timidity of
+temper, and restless and unmanly desire of praise, and that dependence on the
+capricious applause of the multitude, which so often detract from the personal
+dignity of those whose productions do honour to human nature."</p>
+
+<p class="center">NORTH.
+</p>
+
+<p>I don't quite understand what Mr Stewart means here by "the <i>culture</i> of
+Imagination." I see three senses of the word. First, the cultivation by the study
+of written Poetry and the poetical arts, and of the poetry poured through the
+Universe&mdash;to those minds which receive without producing&mdash;a legitimate process.
+Secondly, the cultivation as in Edwin, Beattie's young Minstrel, the destined
+and self-destining Poet&mdash;a legitimate process. And thirdly, the self-indulgence
+of a mind which, more sensitive than volitive, more imaginative than
+intellectual, more wilful than lawful, more self-loving than others-loving&mdash;turns
+life into a long reverie&mdash;an illegitimate process. Which of these
+three classes of minds does Stewart speak of? Strong native imagination
+in a young powerful enthusiastic mind, tutored by poetical studies, but
+whom the Muse has <i>not</i> selected to the services of her shrine? Or the
+faculty as in the Poet-born self-tutored, and now rushing into his own predestined
+work? Or the soft-souled and indolent <i>fain&eacute;ant</i> Dreamer of life?
+Three totally distinct subjects for the contemplation of the Philosopher,
+but that here seem to hover confusedly and at once before our Philosopher.</p>
+
+<p class="center">BULLER.
+</p>
+
+<p>By his chosen title of the Section, <span class="smcap">The POET</span>, he was bound to speak of him
+according to Bacon, d'Alembert, and Aristotle.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_483" id="Page_483">[Pg 483]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="center">NORTH.
+</p>
+
+<p>The word <i>culture</i> must, I think, here specifically touch the First Case. Shall
+we then be afraid of giving a share, and a large share too, to the reading of
+the Poets, and the regard of the Fine Arts, in a liberal Education? Poetry,
+History, Science, are the three strands of the cable by which the vessel shall
+ride&mdash;Religion being the sheet-anchor.</p>
+
+<p class="center">SEWARD.
+</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps it is meant to touch the Second Case too?</p>
+
+<p class="center">NORTH.
+</p>
+
+<p>It may be meant to do so, but it does not. The word "culture" is dictated
+by or is proper to the First Case&mdash;for culture is deliberate and elective.
+But in him&mdash;the young Poet&mdash;the Edwin&mdash;in whom imagination is given in
+the measure assigned by the Muse to her children, the culture proceeds undeliberate
+and unwilled. Edwin, when he roves "beneath the precipice o'erhung
+with pine," or sitting to watch the "wide-weltering waves," or is seized
+from the hint of ballad or tale, or any chance word, with dreams and visions
+of the more illustrious Past&mdash;follows a delight and desire that have the
+nature and may have the name of a passion. All this is involuntary to the
+unforeseen result&mdash;but afterwards, when he has accepted his art for a vocation,
+he more than any man deliberately cultivates. Has the Philosopher, then,
+in mind only the third class, and do the dangers of "the culture of imagination"
+apply to them only&mdash;"the indolent <i>fain&eacute;ant</i> dreamers of life?" If so,
+he not only forgets and loses his subject, as announced by himself, but wastes
+words on one altogether below it. "False conceptions of human life!" Here
+is an equivocation which must be set right. "Conceptions of human
+life" are here meant to apply to expectations of the honesty, gratitude,
+virtue of the persons <i>in general</i> with whom you or I shall come in contact
+in life. Good. The contemplation of human beings&mdash;men and women&mdash;<i>ideally</i>
+drawn by the Poet lifts me too high&mdash;tinges hope in me with enthusiasm,
+and prepares disappointment. So it has been often said, and said
+truly. This is conception prospective and personal; and more philosophically
+termed Expectation. But then "conception of human life"&mdash;from the lip of a
+philosopher should mean rather "intelligence of man's life." Now I repeat that
+only through the Poet have you true intelligence of man's life&mdash;either external
+or internal. In the Actual the Poet sees the Idea&mdash;just as a Painter does in
+respect of the visible man. In the man set before him He sees two men&mdash;the
+man that is and the man of whom at his nativity was given the possibility
+to be. He reads cause and effect; and sees what has hindered the possible
+from being. Who, excepting the Poet, does this? And excepting this, what
+intelligence of man is an intelligence?</p>
+
+<p class="center">SEWARD.
+</p>
+
+<p>There are two world-Wisdoms. One, to know men, as for the most part
+they will show themselves&mdash;commonly called Knowledge of the World: one, to
+know them as God made them. I forget what it is called. Possibly it has
+no name.</p>
+
+<p class="center">NORTH.
+</p>
+
+<p>Observe, my dear Seward, the precise error of that expectation. It is to
+believe the good more prevalent than it is. It is no misunderstanding as to
+the constitution of the good. The good is; and the important point of all is
+to know it, when you meet it. To be cheated, by not apprehending the ill of
+a man, is a wound to your purse, and when you at last apprehend, to your
+heart. To be cheated by not apprehending the good of man is&mdash;<i>death</i>, which
+you bear in yourself, and know it not.</p>
+
+<p class="center">SEWARD.
+</p>
+
+<p>What is desired? Is it that we should go into the world with hope not a
+whit wider and higher than the dimensions of the reality that we are to
+encounter? I trow not.</p>
+
+<p class="center">NORTH.
+</p>
+
+<p>Your hope will elect your own destiny&mdash;will shape it&mdash;will be it. There
+are possibilities given of the nobler happinesses, as well as of the nobler<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_484" id="Page_484">[Pg 484]</a></span>
+services; and your hope, faithful to itself, will reach and grasp them. And
+only to such hope are they given. Moreover, in all men there is under the
+mask of evil which the world has shaped on them, the power inextinct which
+the Creator sowed there; and they may, if they dare to believe in it, and
+know to call to it, bring it out with a burst. But belief is the main ingredient
+of the spell, and hope is the mother of belief.</p>
+
+<p class="center">TALBOYS.
+</p>
+
+<p>The Poet has glorious apprehensions of human existence&mdash;visions of men&mdash;visions
+of men's actions&mdash;visions of men's destinies. He pitches his theory of
+the human world above reality&mdash;and <i>that</i> he shall, in due season or before it,
+learn&mdash;to his great loss and to his great gain. In the meanwhile do not speak
+of the temper in him, as if you would upbraid him with it. Do not lay to
+his charge the splendour of his powers and aspirations. Do not chide and rate
+him for his virtues.</p>
+
+<p class="center">SEWARD.
+</p>
+
+<p>"False conceptions!" a term essentially of depreciation and reproach.
+They are not false, they are true. For they are faithful to the vocation that
+lies upon the human beings; but they, the human beings, are false, and their
+lives are false; falling short of those true conceptions.</p>
+
+<p class="center">NORTH.
+</p>
+
+<p>Well. He&mdash;the Poet&mdash;comes to the encounter. It is the trial set for him by
+his stars&mdash;as it is the trial set for all great spirits. He finds those who disappoint
+him, and those who do not. But, grant the disappointment, rather. What
+shall he do? That which all great spirits do&mdash;transfer the grandeur of his
+hopes, over which fate, fortune, and the winds of heaven ruled, to his own
+purposes of which he is master.</p>
+
+<p class="center">TALBOYS.
+</p>
+
+<p>Why did not Mr Stewart say simply that the Poet&mdash;and the young enthusiast
+of Poetry&mdash;thinks better of his fellows than they deserve, and brings a
+faith to them which they will take good care to disappoint? Why harp thus
+on the jarring string; torturing our ears, and putting our souls out of tune?</p>
+
+<p class="center">NORTH.
+</p>
+
+<p>Who doubts&mdash;who does not know, and admire, and love Hope&mdash;in the
+ardent generous spirit&mdash;looking out from within the Eden of Youth into the
+world into which it shall, alas! fall? What is asked? That the spring-flowering
+of youth shall be prematurely blighted and blasted by winds frosty
+or fiery, which the set fruit may bear? Of course we hope beyond the reality,
+and it is God's gift that we do.</p>
+
+<p class="center">TALBOYS.
+</p>
+
+<p>And why lay that Imagination which looks into Life with unmeasured ideas
+to the charge of the Poet alone? Herein every man is a Poet, more or less;
+and, most, every spirit of power&mdash;the hero, the saint, the minister of religion,
+the very Philosopher. Would we ask, sir, for a new law of nature? Upon the
+elements, fewer or more, which an anticipated experience gathers, a spirit
+impelled by the yearnings inseparable from self-conscious power, and mighty
+to create, works unchecked and unruled. What shall it do but build glorious
+illusions?</p>
+
+<p class="center">NORTH.
+</p>
+
+<p>"The culture of Imagination,"&mdash;understanding thereby, first, in the Great
+Poets themselves, the intercourse of their own minds with facts which imagination
+vivifies, and with ideas which it creates&mdash;of humanity; and secondly, in
+all others, as poets to be or not to be, the reading of the Great Poets, Mr
+Stewart says&mdash;"does not diminish our interest in human life." Does not
+diminish! Quite the reverse. It extraordinarily deepens and heightens,
+increases and ennobles. For who are the painters, the authentic delineators
+and revealers of human life, outer and inner&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="center">BULLER.
+</p>
+
+<p>Why, the Poets&mdash;the Poets to be sure&mdash;the Poets beyond all doubt&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="center">NORTH.
+</p>
+
+<p>"Extremely apt to inspire the mind with false conceptions of it"&mdash;and so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_485" id="Page_485">[Pg 485]</a></span>
+on. Why, the Faculty is there with a mission. It is its bounden office&mdash;its
+embassy from heaven&mdash;to exalt us above our earthly experience&mdash;to lift us
+into the ideal possibility of things. Thereby it is an "angel of Life," the
+white-winged good genius. The too sanguine hope is an adhering consequence,
+and the quelling of the hope is one of the penalties which we pay for
+Adam and Eve's coming through that Eastern Gate into this Lower World.</p>
+
+<p class="center">TALBOYS.
+</p>
+
+<p>Of course, my dear sir, <i>every</i> power has its dangers&mdash;the greater, the profounder,
+the more penetrating and vital the power, the greater the danger.
+But is this the way that a Philosopher begins to treat of a power&mdash;with hesitation
+and distrust&mdash;inauspiciously auspicating his inquiry? The common&mdash;the
+better&mdash;the true order of treatment is by Use and, Abuse&mdash;Use first.
+"Expectations above the level of our present existence!" Of course&mdash;that
+when the heaven on earth fails, we may have <i>learnt</i> "to expect above the
+level of our present existence," and go on doing so more and more, till Earth
+shall fade and Heaven open.</p>
+
+<p class="center">SEWARD.
+</p>
+
+<p>"Frequently produces a youth of enthusiastic hope!" Is this proposed as
+a perversion and calamity, a "youth" to be deprecated?</p>
+
+<p class="center">NORTH.
+</p>
+
+<p>I really don't know&mdash;it looks almost like it.</p>
+
+<p class="center">SEWARD.
+</p>
+
+<p>Will you say Wo and Alas! for the City&mdash;Wo and Alas! for the Nation&mdash;in
+which princes, and nobles, and the gentle of blood&mdash;and the merchants, and
+the husbandmen, and the peasants, and the artisans, suffer under this endemic
+and feverous malady&mdash;a "youth of enthusiastic hope?" Methinks, sir, you
+would expect there to find an overflow of Pericles's, and Pindars, and Phidias's,
+and Shakspeares, and Chathams, and Wolfes&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="center">BULLER.
+</p>
+
+<p>Stop, Seward&mdash;spare us the Catalogue.</p>
+
+<p class="center">SEWARD.
+</p>
+
+<p>You would say&mdash;here is the People that is to lead the world in Arms and in
+Arts. Only let us use all our endeavours to see that the community produces
+reason enough in balance of the enthusiasm.</p>
+
+<p class="center">BULLER.
+</p>
+
+<p>Let us procure Aristotles, and Socrates's, and Newtons, and&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="center">TALBOYS.
+</p>
+
+<p>What should a Philosopher do or say relatively to any particular power?
+He expounds an Economy of Nature. Therefore, he says, let us look how
+Nature deals with such or such a power. She gives it for such and such uses:
+and such is its fostering, and such are its phenomena. But as every power
+unbalanced carries the subject in which it inheres <i>ex orbita</i>, let us look how
+nature provides to balance <i>this</i> power which we consider.</p>
+
+<p class="center">NORTH.
+</p>
+
+<p>That, my dear Talboys, is a magnanimous and a capacious way of inquiry.
+But how can any man write about a power who has not a full sympathy with
+it? I have no doubt that Davy, when he wielded Galvanism to make wonderful
+and beautiful revelations of veiled things, deeply and largely sympathised
+with Galvanism. You would think it easier to sympathise with Imagination,
+and yet to Stewart it seems almost more difficult. Go on.</p>
+
+<p class="center">TALBOYS.
+</p>
+
+<p>How has Nature dealt with her mighty and perilous power&mdash;Love. Look
+at it, where it is raised to its despotism&mdash;when a man loves a woman, and
+that woman that man. It is a power to unhinge a world. Lo! in proof "an
+old song"&mdash;the Iliad!</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">'Trojanas ut opes et lamentabile regnum<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Eruerint Danai!'<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Has Nature feared, therefore, to use it? She builds the world with it. And
+look how she proceeds. To these two&mdash;the Lovers as they are called&mdash;the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_486" id="Page_486">[Pg 486]</a></span>
+Universe is <i>in</i> these two&mdash;to each in the other. The rest of the Universe is shut
+out from their view, or more wonderfully comprehended in their view&mdash;seen to
+each through and relatively to the other&mdash;seen transformed in the magical
+mirror of their love. Can you expect anything less than that they should
+go by different doors, or by the same door, into Bedlam? Lo! they have become
+a Father and a Mother! They have returned into the real world&mdash;into
+a world yet dearer than Dreamland! The world in which their children
+shall grow up into men and women. Sedate, vigilant, circumspect, sedulous,
+industrious, wise, just&mdash;Pater-familias and Mater-familias. So Nature lets
+down from an Unreal which she has chosen, and knows how to use.</p>
+
+<p class="center">NORTH.
+</p>
+
+<p>The ground of the Poet, my dear Talboys, is an extraordinary dotation of
+sensibility&mdash;of course, ten thousand dangers. Life is exuberant in him&mdash;and
+if the world lies at all wide about him, the joy of the great and the beautiful.
+The dearest of all interests to every rational soul is her own coming destiny.
+The Poet, quick and keen above all men in self-reference, must, among his
+contemplations and creations, be full of contemplating and creating his own
+future, and must pour over it all his power of joy, rosy and golden hopes.
+And that vision, framed with all his power of the Ideal, must needs be something
+exceedingly different from that which this bare, and blank, and hard
+earth of reality has to bestow. What follows? A severe, and perhaps an
+unprepared trial. The self-protection demanded of him is a morally-guarded
+heart and life. The protection provided for him is&mdash;his Art. The visions&mdash;the
+Ideal&mdash;the Great and the Fair, which he cannot incorporate in his own
+straitened existence&mdash;the ambitions, at large, of his imagination he localises&mdash;colonises&mdash;imparadises&mdash;in
+his works. He has two lives; the life of his daily
+steps upon the hard and bare, or the green, and elastic, and sweet-smelling
+earth, and the life of his books, papers, and poetical, studious reveries&mdash;art-intending,
+intellectual ecstasies.</p>
+
+<p class="center">BULLER.
+</p>
+
+<p>What say you, sir, to the charge of "overweening self-conceit and indolence?"</p>
+
+<p class="center">NORTH.
+</p>
+
+<p>What say you, my Buller?</p>
+
+<p class="center">BULLER.
+</p>
+
+<p>That I do not quite understand the proposition. Is it, that <i>generally</i> the
+"sanguine" temperament is apt to make these accompaniments for itself? Or
+that in the Poet the three elements are often found together? If the former, I
+see no truth in it. The sanguine temper should naturally inspire activity&mdash;and
+I do not quite know what is here an "overweening conceit." That a sanguine-minded
+man is apt to have great <i>self-reliance</i> in any project he has in hand&mdash;a
+confidence in his own present views that is not a little refractory to good
+argument of cooler observers, I understand. But that sort of self-conceit
+which makes of a man an intellectual fop&mdash;gazing in the pocket looking-glass of
+self-conceit at his own perfections&mdash;vain self-contemplation and self-adulation&mdash;the
+sanguine temper is far more likely to carry a man out of himself, to
+occupy his time, his pleasure, and his passion in works, and withdraw them from
+himself. I suppose, therefore, that we must look to the Poet alone. I daresay
+that small poets have a great conceit of themselves. They have a talent
+that is flattered and admired far beyond its worth. They readily fancy
+themselves members of the Immortal Family. But a true Poet has a thousand
+sources of humility. Does he not reverence all greatness, moral and intellectual?
+Does he not reverence, above all, the mighty masters of song? He
+understands their greatness&mdash;he can measure distances&mdash;which your small
+Poet cannot.</p>
+
+<p class="center">NORTH.
+</p>
+
+<p>Every soul conscious of power is in danger of estimating the power too
+highly; but I do not know why the Poet should be so more than another
+man. Then, what is "overweening?" Is it overvaluing himself relatively
+to other men? Is it over-measuring his power of achievement&mdash;whence<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_487" id="Page_487">[Pg 487]</a></span>
+disproportionate undertakings, that fail in their accomplishment? I can more
+easily suppose that all the Sons of Genius "overween" in this direction.
+They must needs shape enterprises of unattainable magnificence. But some
+one has said rightly that in attempting the Impossible we accomplish the
+Possible. But this is a higher and truer and more generous meaning, I fancy,
+than is intended by the choice of that slighting and scoffing dispraise of
+"overweening"&mdash;a word pointing to a social, or moral, defect that makes an
+exceedingly disagreeable companion, rather than to any sublime error in the
+calculations of genius. And I come back upon the small sinner in rhyme, who
+has been cockered by his friends and cuddled by himself into conceit, till he
+thinks the world not good enough for him&mdash;takes no trouble to satisfy Its
+reasonable expectations, and finds that It will take none to satisfy his unreasonable
+ones&mdash;<i>there</i> is a source of "numberless misfortunes"&mdash;a seedy surtout,
+a faded vest, and very threadbare inexpressibles.</p>
+
+<p class="center">TALBOYS.
+</p>
+
+<p>And why should those who are sanguine in hope be "too frequently indolent?"
+A hopeful temper engender indolence! A desponding temper engenders
+it; a hopeful one is the very spur of activity. The sanguine spirit of hope
+taking possession of an active intellect, engenders the Projector&mdash;of all human
+beings the most restless and indefatigable&mdash;his undaunted and unconquerable
+trust in futurity creates for itself incessantly new shapes of exertion&mdash;till the
+curtain falls.</p>
+
+<p class="center">SEWARD.
+</p>
+
+<p>There is, I suppose, a species of Castle-builder who hopes and does
+nothing; as if he believed that futurity had the special charge of bringing
+into existence the children of his wish. But his temper is not properly called
+sanguine&mdash;it is <i>dreamy</i>. Neither is his indolence a consequence of his
+dreams; but as much or more, his dreams, of his indolence. He sits and
+dreams. Say that Nature has given to some one, as she will from time to
+time, an active fancy and an indolent humour&mdash;a disproportion in one faculty.
+'Tis a misfortune: and a reason why his friends should seek out, if possible,
+the means of stirring him into activity; but it has nothing to do with
+describing the Idea of the Poetical Character.</p>
+
+<p class="center">TALBOYS.
+</p>
+
+<p>The Great Poets have not been indolent. They have been working men.
+The genius of the Poet calls him to his work. Shakspeare was a man of
+business. Spenser was a state-secretary.</p>
+
+<p class="center">BULLER.
+</p>
+
+<p>Read Milton's Life.</p>
+
+<p class="center">TALBOYS.
+</p>
+
+<p>See Cowper drowned in an invincible melancholy, and deliberately choosing
+a long-lasting and severe task of his Art, as a means of relieving, from hour
+to hour, the pressure of his intolerable burthen. If he had drooped under his
+hopeless disease into motionless stupor, you could not have wondered, much
+less could you have blamed. He fought, pen in hand, year after year, against
+the still-repelled and ultimately victorious enemy.</p>
+
+<p class="center">BULLER.
+</p>
+
+<p>Think of Southey!</p>
+
+<p class="center">NORTH.
+</p>
+
+<p>Yet the Poet is in danger of indolence. For in his younger years joy comes
+to him unpurchased. To do, takes him out of his dream. To do nothing, is
+to live in an enchanted world; and with all tenderness be it said, he hath, too,
+his specific temptation to overmuch self-esteem. Because his specific faculty
+and habit are to refer every thing that befalls constantly to himself as a contemplative
+spirit. Herein is the most luminous intuition alone. The perversion
+is to be quick and keen in referring to the ignobler Self&mdash;for as I or you
+said, and all men may know, the Poet assuredly has two souls. Personal
+estimation, personal prospects! A sensibility to injury, to fear, to harm, to
+misprision&mdash;a quick jealousy&mdash;suspicion&mdash;soreness! You do see them in
+Poets&mdash;and in Artists, who after their kind are Poets&mdash;for they are Men.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_488" id="Page_488">[Pg 488]</a></span>
+As to excessive reflection upon and admiration of their own intellectual
+powers, while we rightly condemn it, we should remember that the Poet <i>is</i>
+gifted, and in comparison with most of those with whom he lives, is in certain
+directions far abler; and more delicate apprehensions he probably has than
+most or all of them&mdash;at least of such apprehensions as come under the Pleasures
+of Imagination. And when he begins to call auditors to his Harp&mdash;then,
+well-a-day!&mdash;then he lives and feeds upon the breath of praise&mdash;and
+upon the glow of sympathy&mdash;a flower that opens to the caress of zephyrs and
+sunbeams, and without them pines. Then comes envy and spiritual covetousness.
+Others obtain the praise and the sympathy&mdash;others who merit
+them less, or not at all. What a temptation to disparage all others&mdash;<i>alive</i>!
+And to the Poet, essentially plunged in the individualities of his own being,
+how easy! For each of his rivals has a different individuality from his own;
+and how easy to construe points of difference into points of inferiority! Easy
+to him whom pain wrings more than it does others&mdash;to whom disagreeable
+things are more disagreeable&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="center">TALBOYS.
+</p>
+
+<p>Have done, sir, I beseech you, have done&mdash;talk not so of the Brotherhood.</p>
+
+<p class="center">NORTH.
+</p>
+
+<p>I am thinking of some of the most majestic!</p>
+
+<p class="center">SEWARD.
+</p>
+
+<p>Alas! it is true.</p>
+
+<p class="center">NORTH.
+</p>
+
+<p>Mr Stewart more than insinuates, with a wavering and equivocating uncertainty
+of assertion he signifies, that the <span class="smcap">Poet</span>, or poetic mind, is not much
+endowed with "common sense." Talboys, what say you?</p>
+
+<p class="center">TALBOYS.
+</p>
+
+<p>I rather think it unusually well-endowed that way, and that it is the
+opposite class of minds&mdash;those that cultivate abstract science&mdash;that have, or
+seem to have, least of it.</p>
+
+<p class="center">SEWARD.
+</p>
+
+<p>The poetic mind, from its sensibility, is peculiarly ready to sympathise with
+the general mind, and it is that sympathy that produces common sense.
+Common sense is instinctive; and in its origin allied to that which in the
+higher acts of the poet's mind is called Inspiration. Therefore it is native to
+his mind. It is an inspiration of his mind as much as poetic Imagination.</p>
+
+<p class="center">BULLER.
+</p>
+
+<p>Has Seward said what you meant to say, Talboys?</p>
+
+<p class="center">TALBOYS.
+</p>
+
+<p>He has&mdash;why did not you? But observe, Buller, common sense is not
+solely employed upon a man's own conduct: it has all the world besides for
+its object. The common sense of a Poet in his own case may be disturbed
+by his sensibilities, which are greater than common; while yet, in all other
+cases, it may be truer than the magnet.</p>
+
+<p class="center">BULLER.
+</p>
+
+<p>Good.</p>
+
+<p class="center">TALBOYS.
+</p>
+
+<p>I will trouble you, if you please, for an Obs.</p>
+
+<p class="center">BULLER.
+</p>
+
+<p>I have long desired a definition of Common Sense. It seems to me rather
+a commonplace thing. I suppose it is called Common Sense, as being common
+to men, so that you may expect it in 9 out of 10, or 99 out of 100.</p>
+
+<p class="center">TALBOYS.
+</p>
+
+<p>Pretty good.</p>
+
+<p class="center">BULLER.
+</p>
+
+<p>Common Life seems to be the school of it. It seems a practical faculty, or
+to respect practice. Obvious relations are its domain&mdash;obvious connexions
+of cause and effect&mdash;means and end. A man of common sense effects a plain
+object, quickly and cheaply, by ready and direct means. High reach of
+thought is distinguished from common sense on the same side, as downright<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_489" id="Page_489">[Pg 489]</a></span>
+folly is on the other. Yet the interests dealt with need not be, if they frequently
+are, low; only the relations obvious. Perhaps the phrase is oftener
+brought out by its violation than its maintenance. He who wants common
+sense employs means thwarting his end. I propose that Common Sense is a
+combination of common understanding and common experience.</p>
+
+<p class="center">TALBOYS.
+</p>
+
+<p>I asked you, my dear Buller, for an Obs&mdash;one single Obs&mdash;you have given
+us a dozen&mdash;a Series. Let us take them one by one, and dissect the&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="center">BULLER.
+</p>
+
+<p>Be hanged if we do! I am afraid that my notion of Common Sense is but
+a low one. I think that a blacksmith may acquire common sense about shoeing
+of horses, and a housewife about her kitchen and laundry. <i>Sound sense</i>
+applicable to high matters is another matter&mdash;<i>une toute autre chose</i>.</p>
+
+<p class="center">TALBOYS.
+</p>
+
+<p>Be done, dear Buller.</p>
+
+<p class="center">BULLER.
+</p>
+
+<p>In a moment. Moreover, I can imagine a strong, clear, sound sense <i>confined</i>
+to a special <i>higher</i> employment&mdash;a lawyer who would manage the most
+difficult and hazardous cause with admirable discretion, and make a mere fool
+of himself in marrying.</p>
+
+<p class="center">TALBOYS.
+</p>
+
+<p>Be done&mdash;be done.</p>
+
+<p class="center">BULLER.
+</p>
+
+<p>In a moment. <i>I</i> am not able to affirm that a Poet of high and sound faculties
+<i>must</i> have the talent for conducting himself with prudence in the common
+affairs of life; and really <i>that</i> is what seems to me to be <i>Common Sense</i>.</p>
+
+<p class="center">TALBOYS.
+</p>
+
+<p>Be done now&mdash;you cannot better it.</p>
+
+<p class="center">BULLER.
+</p>
+
+<p>About the Poet what can I say that every body does not know and say in
+all the weekly newspapers. Why, gentlemen, the Mission of the Poet is to
+fight the fight of the Spirit against the flesh, and to extend the reign of the
+Beautiful. Also, he is the Prophet of [Greek: gn&ocirc;thi seauton]: and the finest of wordmongers.
+The words that he touches turn all to gold. He is the subtlest of
+thinkers. <i>Our</i> best discipline of thinking has been from the Poets. Compare
+Shakspeare and Euclid.</p>
+
+<p class="center">TALBOYS.
+</p>
+
+<p>From you! Buller, you astonish me.</p>
+
+<p class="center">BULLER.
+</p>
+
+<p>Astonishment is sometimes proof of a weak mind.</p>
+
+<p class="center">NORTH.
+</p>
+
+<p>There seem to be two Common Senses. Goldsmith appears to be viewed
+as an eminent case of wanting it, in conduct&mdash;the practical&mdash;for his own use.
+But the theoretical&mdash;for judging others&mdash;imaginary cases&mdash;characterises that
+immortal work, <i>The Vicar of Wakefield</i>: and the theoretical, for judging
+other men real, existing, and known, his <i>Retaliation</i>. The criticism of Burke,
+for instance, is all exalted Common Sense&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Who, born for the Universe, narrowed his mind,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And to Party gave up what was meant for Mankind."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>That is the larger grasp of common Sense rising into high Sense.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"And thought of convincing while they thought of dining"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>is its homelier scope.</p>
+
+<p class="center">SEWARD.
+</p>
+
+<p>Common Sense is the lower part of complete Good Sense. Shakspeare and
+Phidias must use Good Sense in governing their whole composition; which
+Common Sense could not reach; and a man might have good sense in composing
+a group in marble, yet want it in governing his family. But Phidias
+executing a Venus with a blunt notched chisel, would want Common Sense.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_490" id="Page_490">[Pg 490]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="center">NORTH.
+</p>
+
+<p>Wordsworth the Great and Good has said that "the privilege and the
+duty of Poetry is to describe things not as they are, but as they seem to the
+senses and the passions;" and when in so saying he claimed further for the
+works of Poetry law and constancy, he spake heroically and thence well,&mdash;up
+to the mark of the fearless and clear truth. But when he condescended to
+speak of "one quality that is always favourable to good poetry, namely, good
+sense," he said that, <i>without note of reserve</i>, which should have been guarded.
+Good sense, if you please, but such good sense as Homer shows when the
+&#954;&#955;&#945;&#947;&#947;&#951; of the silver bow sounds&mdash;when the Mountain-Isle trembles with all
+her Woods to Neptune stepping along&mdash;or the many-folded snowy Olympus to
+Jupiter giving the one calm, slow, simple, majestic, earth-and-heaven-obliging
+Nod&mdash;or when at the loosed storm of terrestrial and celestial battle on the
+Scamandrian plain, the Infernal Jove leaps from his throne, and shouts, or yells,
+or bellows&mdash;&#956;&#949;&#947;' &#953;&#945;&#967;&#949;&mdash;lest the solidly-vaulted Earth rend above and let in sunlight
+on the Shades. The "good sense" of Shakspeare, when the Witches
+mingle in the hell-broth "Tartar's lips," and "yew-slips slivered in the
+Moon's eclipse." Claim the good sense, but claim it in its own kind&mdash;separated
+and high&mdash;kingly&mdash;Delphic&mdash;divine. The good sense of Jupiter&mdash;Apollo&mdash;the
+Nine Muses, and the practical Pallas Athene. Or claim <span class="smcap">Wisdom</span>&mdash;and not
+"good sense;"&mdash;"the meed of Poets <span class="smcap">SAGE</span>!" Lucid intelligence&mdash;profound
+intuitions&mdash;disclosed essences&mdash;hidden relations laid bare&mdash;laws discerned&mdash;systems
+and worlds comprehended&mdash;revealed mysteries&mdash;prophecy&mdash;the "terrible
+sagacity"&mdash;and to all these add the circumspection&mdash;the caution&mdash;the
+self-rule&mdash;the attentive and skilful prudence of consummate Art, commanding
+effects which she forecast and willed. Wisdom in choosing his aim&mdash;Wisdom
+in reaching his aim&mdash;Wisdom to weigh men's minds and men's deeds&mdash;their
+hopes, fears, interests&mdash;to read the leaves of the books which men have written&mdash;to
+read the leaves of the book which the Creating Finger has written&mdash;to
+read the leaves of the book which lies for ever open before the Three Sisters&mdash;the
+leaves which the Storms of the Ages turn over.</p>
+
+<p class="center">TALBOYS.
+</p>
+
+<p>Coffee, my dear sir? Here's a cup&mdash;cool and sweetened to your taste to a
+nicety.</p>
+
+<p class="center">NORTH.
+</p>
+
+<p>Thanks, Talboys. I am ready for another spell.</p>
+
+<p class="center">BULLER.
+</p>
+
+<p>Reflect, sir, breathe awhile. Do, Seward, interpose something between
+the Master and exhaustion. Quick&mdash;quick&mdash;else he will be off again&mdash;and at
+his time of Life&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="center">SEWARD.
+</p>
+
+<p>Oh for the gift denied me by my star&mdash;presence of mind!</p>
+
+<p class="center">TALBOYS.
+</p>
+
+<p>Common sense, in a high philosophical signification, is the sum of human
+opinions and feelings; or the "Universal Sense" of mankind. That is not
+homely&mdash;and cannot therefore be what Stewart calls that "homely endowment."
+The apter translation of the place in his Essay is "ordinary sense
+or understanding"&mdash;which seems to suggest <i>now</i> "so much sense or understanding
+as you ordinarily meet with among men"&mdash;and <i>now</i> "sense and understanding
+applied to ordinary concerns." Only this last makes the quality
+<i>homely</i>. But the tooth of Stewart's insult is in the prior suggestion (in the case
+of the Gifted, untrue), that they have not as much sense or understanding as
+you ordinarily meet with. They have ten, twenty, a thousand times as much.
+Think of Robert Burns! But they have&mdash;or may, I do not say must have&mdash;the
+repugnance to apply the winged and "delighted spirit" to considerations
+and cares that are easily felt as if sordid and servile&mdash;imprisoning&mdash;odious.
+They suffer, however, not for the lack of knowing, but of resolution to conform
+their doing to their knowing. They sin against common sense&mdash;and
+much more against their own. <i>Hinc ill&aelig; lacrym&aelig;.</i></p>
+
+<p class="center">NORTH.
+</p>
+
+<p>Gentlemen, the Cardinal Virtue&mdash;Prudence&mdash;holds her sway, in the world<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_491" id="Page_491">[Pg 491]</a></span>
+of man, over Action, and, as much as she may, over Event, by the union as if
+of two Sceptres. For She must reign, at once, in the Understanding and in
+the Will. Common Sense, as the word is commonly meant and understood,
+is Intellectual Prudence applied to the more obvious requisitions of the more
+obvious interests which daily and hourly claim our concern and regard.
+This Intellectual Prudence, thus applied&mdash;that is to say, the clear Intelligence
+of these requisitions&mdash;Common Sense, therefore&mdash;one man has, and another
+has not. The case shall occur that the man, Poet or no Poet, who has it, shall
+act like a fool; whilst the Poet or no Poet, who has it not, shall act like a
+Sage. For the man, wise to see and to know, shall have yielded the throne
+of his Will to some usurping and tyrannising desire&mdash;and the other, who
+either does not possess, or who possessing, has not so applied the Intelligence&mdash;some
+dedicated Mathematician, or Metaphysician, or Mechanician, or Naturalist,
+or Scholar, or Antiquary, or Artist, or Poet, shall live wisely, because
+he has brought his heart and his blood under the rule of Moral Necessity.
+Prudence, or, in her stead, Conscience, has established her reign in his Will.
+To be endowed with Common Sense is one thing; to <i>act</i> with common sense,
+or agreeably to her demands, is another. Popular speech&mdash;loose, negligent,
+self-willed, humoursome and humorous&mdash;often poetical&mdash;easily and gladly
+confounds the two neighbouring cases. Philosophic disquisition&mdash;which this
+of Dugald Stewart does not&mdash;should sedulously hold them apart. You may
+judge of a man's Common Sense by hearing him criticise the character and
+conduct of his neighbour. To learn in what hand the Sceptre of the Will is,
+you must enter his own doors. The proneness of the Poet, easy, kind, frank&mdash;except
+in his Art, artless&mdash;compassionate, generous, and, large-thoughted&mdash;heaven-aspiring&mdash;to
+neglect, like the lover, (and what else is he but the perpetually
+enthralled lover of the Good, the True, and the Beautiful?) the earthly
+and distasteful <i>Cura Pecul&icirc;</i>, is to be counteracted mainly on the side of the
+Will. Simplicity of desire will go far, and this you may expect in him from
+Nature&mdash;indeed it is the first ground of the fault charged. Next, of stronger
+avail&mdash;not perhaps of more dignity&mdash;comes that which is indeed the base, if
+not yet the edified structure of Common Sense, the plain Intelligence of naked
+Necessity. No great stretch of intellectual power required, surely, for discovering
+and knowing his own condition in the work-day world! But the
+goods of fortune&mdash;worldly estate&mdash;<i>money</i>&mdash;shall the "heavenly Essence"&mdash;the
+"celestial Virtue"&mdash;the "divine Emanation"&mdash;for so loftily has Man
+spoken of Man&mdash;that is within us&mdash;crouch down and grovel in this dark, chill
+den&mdash;this grave which Mammon has delved to be to it a pitfall and a prison?</p>
+
+<p class="center">BULLER.
+</p>
+
+<p>Ay&mdash;why shall the Poet guard and noose the strings of his purse?</p>
+
+<p class="center">NORTH.
+</p>
+
+<p>One reason, drawn from the sublimity of his being, stands ever nigh to bow
+the pliant neck of his Will under the lowly yoke. He <i>must</i>&mdash;because, according
+to the manner in which the All-Disposer saw good to order and adjust
+the constituents and conditions of our human life here below, in him who, of
+his own will and deed, lays himself under a bond to live by unearned bread,
+the Moral Soul dies.</p>
+
+<p class="center">SEWARD.
+</p>
+
+<p>The Poet is not&mdash;and he is&mdash;improvident. Nothing in his genius binds
+him to improvidence. Prudence may accompany sensibility&mdash;may accompany
+ample and soaring contemplations&mdash;may accompany creative thought&mdash;may
+accompany the diligent observation of human life and manners&mdash;may
+accompany profound insight into the human heart. These are chief constituents
+of the poetical mind, and have nothing in them that rejects Prudence.</p>
+
+<p class="center">BULLER.
+</p>
+
+<p>Neither do I believe that the more distinguished Poets generally have been
+culpably unforethinking&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i8">"Vatis avarus<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Non temere est animus!"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>I hope so. I should be exceedingly sorry to think that the Bard were apt to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_492" id="Page_492">[Pg 492]</a></span>
+give into the most odious of all vices. But the interval is wide from vicious
+negligence to vicious care: and I hope that somewhere between, and verging
+from the Golden Mean a little way towards the negligent extreme, might be
+the proper and earned place of the Poets.</p>
+
+<p class="center">TALBOYS.
+</p>
+
+<p>We must confess to some negligent tendencies in the Poet. The warm
+sympathies give advantage to designing beggars of different ranks&mdash;and are
+themselves betraying advisers. The law of the poetical mind to accept Impression,
+and let it have its way, if it overflow its legitimate channel of
+poetical study and art, and irregularly lay the conduct of life under water,
+may leave behind it something else than fertility. The dwelling in pleasure
+may make the narrow and exact cares of economy irksome. But why shall
+we <i>expect</i> that a man of high, clear, and strong mind shall not learn how to&mdash;cut
+his coat according to his cloth?</p>
+
+<p class="center">NORTH.
+</p>
+
+<p>I am afraid that the high faculties of a Poet threaten to endanger his vulgar
+welfare. The foundation of his poetical being and power, as you well have
+hinted, Talboys, is the free spontaneity of motion in his own mind&mdash;the surrendering
+of his whole spirit to influxes and self-impulses. The spontaneous
+movement allies his temperament to common passion, which founds upon this
+very characteristic. And you sometimes see, accordingly, that the Poet is a
+victim sacrificed for the benefit of the rest. Not that it need be so&mdash;for he
+has his own means of protection; but powers delicate, sensitive, profound,
+must walk perilously in a lapsed world.</p>
+
+<p class="center">SEWARD.
+</p>
+
+<p>Let it be allowed, then, to Dugald, that the poetical temperament is adverse
+to getting&mdash;and to keeping&mdash;money&mdash;and that a touching picture might be
+drawn of the conflicts of spirit between a Poet and his false position in a
+counting-house&mdash;or with "poverty's unconquerable bar."</p>
+
+<p class="center">NORTH.
+</p>
+
+<p>"This carelessness about the goods of fortune," says Mr Stewart, "is an infirmity
+very naturally resulting from their studies, and is only to be cured by
+years and experience, or by combination (<i>very rare indeed</i>) of poetical genius
+with a more than ordinary share of that 'homely endowment called <i>common-sense</i>.'"
+And wherefore any infirmity? Why not have portrayed rather&mdash;or
+at least kindly qualified the word&mdash;in winning hues, or in lofty shape&mdash;the delicious
+or magnanimous <span class="smcap">Unworldliness</span> of the poetical character? That most
+ennobling, and most unostentatious quality, which dear and great Goddess&mdash;in
+lovingly tempering a soul that from its first inhalation of terrestrial air to
+the breath in which it escapes home, she intends to follow with her love&mdash;commingles
+in precious and perilous atoms that, in consecrating, destine to sorrow.</p>
+
+<p class="center">SEWARD.
+</p>
+
+<p>An infirmity? A charm&mdash;a grace&mdash;and a virtue! Alas! sir, a virtue too
+suitable to the golden age to be safe in ours.</p>
+
+<p class="center">TALBOYS.
+</p>
+
+<p>Ay, Seward, a virtue demanding the correction or the protection of some
+others, which the iron generations countenance or allow&mdash;such as Prudence,
+Justice, Affection for those whose welfare he unavoidably commixes with his
+own.</p>
+
+<p class="center">NORTH.
+</p>
+
+<p>Protection! It sometimes happily wins its protection from virtues that love
+and admiration rouse and arm in other breasts, in its favour&mdash;a reverent love&mdash;a
+pitying admiration.</p>
+
+<p class="center">TALBOYS.
+</p>
+
+<p>He quotes Horace as on his side of the question.</p>
+
+<p class="center">NORTH.
+</p>
+
+<p>A Poet whose name is amongst the most cited from antiquity, Virgil's illustrious
+lyrical brother, has rehearsed (not indeed to the lyre, but in the style
+which he offers for little better than versified prose) modestly and apologetically,
+the Praises of the Poet&mdash;his personal worth, and serviceable function<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_493" id="Page_493">[Pg 493]</a></span>
+amongst his fellow-men. Singular that in a few words of this passage, and
+indeed just those which gently allege the <i>personal virtue</i> of the poor bard, the
+Professor should have helped himself to a weapon for dealing upon that head
+his unkindest cut of all.</p>
+
+<p class="center">SEWARD.
+</p>
+
+<p>That flowing Epistle of Horace's to Augustus&mdash;which he gives good reason
+in excellent verse for keeping short, and turns out, notwithstanding,
+rather unreasonably long&mdash;if we look for its method, it rambles&mdash;if for the
+spirit, it is a delicate intercommunion between the least of the Courtiers, the
+Poet, and his imperial Patron, the Lord of Rome and of Rome's World.</p>
+
+<p class="center">TALBOYS.
+</p>
+
+<p>A facile, roving, and sketchy&mdash;partly historical and partly critical disquisition
+on Poetry chiefly Roman, presenting, with occasion the virtues and
+faults of the species&mdash;<span class="smcap">Poet</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="center">BULLER.
+</p>
+
+<p>Let's hear it. In my day Horace was not much read at Oxford&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="center">NORTH.
+</p>
+
+<p>By you&mdash;and other First Class Physical Men. Seward, spout it.</p>
+
+<p class="center">SEWARD.
+</p>
+
+<p>I will recite the passage.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Hic error tamen, et levis h&aelig;c insania, quantas<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Virtutes habeat, sic collige: vatis avarus<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Non temere est animus; versus amat, hoc studet unum;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Detrimenta, fugas servorum, incendia ridet;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Non fraudem socio, puerove incogitat ullam<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Pupillo; vivit siliquis et pane secundo.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Militi&aelig; quamquam piger et malus, utilis urbi:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Si das hoc, parvis quoque rebus magna juvari.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Os tenerum pueri balbumque poeta figurat;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Torquet ab obsc&oelig;nis jam nunc sermonibus aurem,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Mox etiam pectus pr&aelig;ceptis format amicis,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Asperitatis et invidiae, corrector et ir&aelig;;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Recte facta refert; orientia tempora notis<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Instruit exemplis, inopem solatur et &aelig;grum.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Castis cum pueris ignara puella mariti<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Disceret unde preces, vatem ni Musa dedisset?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Poscit opem chorus, et pr&aelig;sentia numina sentit;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">C&aelig;lestes implorat aquas, docta prece blandus;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Avertit morbos, metuenda pericula pellit;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Impetrat et pacem, et locupletem frugibus annum.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Carmine D&icirc; Superi placantur, carmine Manes."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="center">BULLER.
+</p>
+
+<p>Oh! that passage. Why, I have had it by heart for half a hundred. We
+quote from it at Quarter Sessions.</p>
+
+<p class="center">TALBOYS.
+</p>
+
+<p>The first grace of the whole composition seems to me its two-fold personality&mdash;the
+free intimacy between the great Protector and the small Protected. It
+is like Horace's part of a familiar colloquy, where you may fancy, at discretion,
+interlocutory remark, or answer, or question of Augustus.</p>
+
+<p class="center">NORTH.
+</p>
+
+<p>True, Talboys. Verse has attracted to the Bard the rays of imperial
+favour. The Emperor himself is a Verse-maker. How natural and suitable
+that Horace in verses which vary, to the time of the moment, with inimitable
+facility, from a conversation-like negligence, or negligent seeming&mdash;to sweetness
+and beauty, to strength and dignity&mdash;should win the august ear, tired
+with the din of arms or of debating tongues, to an hour's chat on the interests
+of the Muses.</p>
+
+<p class="center">SEWARD.
+</p>
+
+<p>The praise of the Poet how loving and ingenious! how insinuatingly subdued!</p>
+
+<p class="center">NORTH.
+</p>
+
+<p>Yet the ground is chosen with a dexterous boldness. The majestic opening
+Address of the Poem showed Augustus, like a Jupiter, wielding with beneficent<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_494" id="Page_494">[Pg 494]</a></span>
+power the destinies of the Roman world. And now, confronting the dispenser
+of welfare to nations, he sets up another benefactor of the State, the Poet,
+face to face with golden-throned, and purple-vested Octavius C&aelig;sar&mdash;poor
+Horatius Flaccus!</p>
+
+<p class="center">BULLER.
+</p>
+
+<p>Most awkward of Courtiers! Most crazed of versifiers!</p>
+
+<p class="center">SEWARD.
+</p>
+
+<p>Beware of rash judgments and half-informations. You familiar with
+Hory&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="center">BULLER.
+</p>
+
+<p>You muttered the passage so that you murdered it.</p>
+
+<p class="center">TALBOYS.
+</p>
+
+<p>You, familiar with Hory, see at least how, by the choice of the ground,
+he has obliged himself to stepping cautiously and tenderly over it. He leads
+to it&mdash;he does not begin with it. Arrived at the comparison, he proposes it
+rather implicitly than explicitly&mdash;admire the Rhetorician. He will avert jealousy&mdash;he
+will propitiate kindness.</p>
+
+<p class="center">BULLER.
+</p>
+
+<p>Artful Dodger.</p>
+
+<p class="center">TALBOYS.
+</p>
+
+<p>He has acknowledged&mdash;you might have given us the line&mdash;a <i>fault</i>. Nothing
+seriously wrong though. As if Apollo had shot a plague with golden arrows
+upon the City, all are turned Versifiers&mdash;young and old&mdash;and grave and
+gay&mdash;wise and foolish&mdash;the skilled and the unskilled&mdash;the called and the uncalled.</p>
+
+<p class="center">BULLER.
+</p>
+
+<p>You write verses well yourself, Talboys.</p>
+
+<p class="center">TALBOYS.
+</p>
+
+<p>I am as willing as most people to bandy compliments, but here you must
+excuse me. Out of the small fault, rises the Eulogy. This diffusive delusion&mdash;this
+epidemic, yet lively, and airy, and sprightly, and harmless insanity,
+gives out from its bosom some good uses, and first on the madman himself.
+As one disease expels another, the musolept is, through the very force of his
+disorder, free from the taint of cupidity&mdash;of the burning desire for worldly
+wealth. The simple man has room in his heart but for one love. Verse is
+his passion&mdash;his bliss, his all-absorbing vocation. Has his banker failed
+with his little cash-balance in his hands? He laughs. Has one of his two
+slaves run away? He laughs. Has a fire at the bookseller's consumed the
+copies of his last work? 'Tis unlucky&mdash;but he laughs. It is not <i>he</i> that
+speculates upon, or <i>waylays</i>, the unguarded trust of his friend or acquaintances&mdash;not
+<i>he</i> that handles with adhesive fingers the gold of his young orphan-ward.
+And for his fare, it is an anchorite's&mdash;pulse and brown bread.</p>
+
+<p class="center">BULLER.
+</p>
+
+<p>Very prettily paraphrased indeed!</p>
+
+<p class="center">SEWARD.
+</p>
+
+<p>And very feelingly. Imagine these ideas sliding into one's heart in the
+natural verse of&mdash;Goldsmith! For it is as if Goldy here described himself&mdash;and
+see if the argument from the Innocence is not artfully placed, for the induction
+to the argument from the Benefits, that is to follow.</p>
+
+<p class="center">NORTH.
+</p>
+
+<p>My dear Boys Three, Hory is here painting himself&mdash;and not himself. It is
+the idea of the Poet. He brings the traits and the colours together, as they
+best suit each other, and his purposes. The meritorious Eremite's fare is not
+personal to the writer. He has reached a point which imperiously requires
+another <i>fault</i>. Frankly and humorously he takes this from Flaccus himself.
+The Poet is no soldier&mdash;slow to find the way to the field, and too quick to find
+the way from it. Nevertheless&mdash;now for the setting up. He, too, is a profitable
+servant of the State. And forthwith an imperatively demanded apology&mdash;for
+the purple-robed has smiled a little incredulously at the <i>utilis urbi</i>.
+If, says the Complete Letter-Writer, you will only admit that majestic interests
+may be served by adminicles of "small regard to see to."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_495" id="Page_495">[Pg 495]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="center">TALBOYS.
+</p>
+
+<p>And how curiously he hides a pre-eminent power in the very smallest sphere!</p>
+
+<p class="center">NORTH.
+</p>
+
+<p>How finely! Rome <i>was</i> a republic of <span class="smcap">Orators</span>. Cedant arma tog&aelig;&mdash;the
+Toga the war-weed of the Orator!</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Romanos rerum dominos, <i>gentemque togatam</i>."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The gowned Lords of the Nations&mdash;and, Lords of the Lords, the Orators!</p>
+
+<p class="center">BULLER.
+</p>
+
+<p>Are you sure that is the right reading?</p>
+
+<p class="center">NORTH.
+</p>
+
+<p>Let it be so. Observe now&mdash;the occultation.</p>
+
+<p class="center">BULLER.
+</p>
+
+<p>The what?</p>
+
+<p class="center">TALBOYS.
+</p>
+
+<p>The occultation.</p>
+
+<p class="center">BULLER.
+</p>
+
+<p>Mille gratias.</p>
+
+<p class="center">NORTH.
+</p>
+
+<p>The nascent and adolescent Orator is moulded to the power of the word
+by the greatest masters of the word, the Poets! Tell this, O Poet, in imperial
+ears! Then speak modestly, withdrawingly, insinuatingly. Hide the boast.
+It is hidden&mdash;and shown. The Poet fashions the tender and stammering
+mouth of the boy. The rudiments of pronunciation&mdash;The Orator nascent.
+No more. It is pretty and gentle that the Muse herself condescends to the
+care of moulding the young soft lip to the pure musical utterance of Latium's
+magnificent Mother-tongue.</p>
+
+<p class="center">BULLER.
+</p>
+
+<p>Now I see it all. The occultation!</p>
+
+<p class="center">NORTH.
+</p>
+
+<p>But She delays not undertaking a nobler and more momentous function.
+From the bodily organs She passes to the governing mind. And of the Mind
+at once to the nobler part, the Will. She is the young Roman's Moral
+Tutress. Horace is brief. What these her first lessons to the soul are, he
+does not say. He tells you their powerful virtue. They <i>wrest</i>, he says, (<i>torquet</i>,)
+the charmed hearing from dishonest, from gross and grovelling, from
+depraving and polluting discourse. You may, my friends, imagine Ph&aelig;drus'
+feeling Fables, or the "Lays of Ancient Rome;" or at Athens, instead of
+Rome, the Iliad.</p>
+
+<p class="center">TALBOYS.
+</p>
+
+<p>It is the hint but of a line, sir. But each of us may know in himself how
+early the Muse really did begin to possess our spirits with thoughts, and
+scenes, and actions that soared away from the presences of our lives&mdash;that
+She did</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Lift us in aspiration from the earth."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>And as the pupil grows, the discipline of the divine Instructress ripens. With
+precepts that are the counsels of a dear and wise friend, she moulds the susceptible
+compliant bosom. She softens his rough self-will&mdash;weeds out envy&mdash;and
+curbs anger.</p>
+
+<p class="center">BULLER.
+</p>
+
+<p>Talboys, you expound Flaccus well.</p>
+
+<p class="center">TALBOYS.
+</p>
+
+<p>Her storial informations, pictures from human existence, take now a more
+direct purpose. She recites deeds justly and virtuously done; She furnishes and
+arms&mdash;<i>instruit</i>&mdash;the springing generation with high transmitted examples.</p>
+
+<p class="center">NORTH.
+</p>
+
+<p>Ay, my dear Talboys, <i>He</i> is thinking now&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="center">BULLER.
+</p>
+
+<p>Hitherto you have always said <i>She</i>&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="center">NORTH.
+</p>
+
+<p>I have. "She" is really "He"&mdash;the Poet and not the Muse. I was rapt.
+He is thinking now, my dear Buller, of old strong-hearted Ennius&mdash;the heroic<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_496" id="Page_496">[Pg 496]</a></span>
+annalist, in soldierly rough verses, of younger heroic Rome. We may recollect,
+for the nonce, whatever is most English, and most Scottish, and most
+heroic, in those more musical "histories" of William, and of Walter.</p>
+
+<p class="center">TALBOYS.
+</p>
+
+<p>We have done with education. We come to the Charity of the Muse. She
+visits the poor man's home and the sick-bed. One almost starts at the
+thought, in the midst of the smoke, and the wealth, and the uproar of Pagan
+Rome. Yet there the plain words are, "She (pardon me) comforts the indigent
+and the sick man." Is it not <i>sic in orig.</i>?</p>
+
+<p class="center">NORTH.</p>
+
+<p><i>Sic.</i></p>
+
+<p class="center">BULLER.
+</p>
+
+<p>Of her ministrations to the splendour of Arts and the luxury of Patrician
+feasts&mdash;of her Theatres, that spread laughter or tears over the dense myriads
+of the World's Metropolis&mdash;not a syllable. The innermost heart of the Poet
+must have held the chord that gave out the soft low sound&mdash;<i>inopem solatur et
+&aelig;grum</i>. No introduction and no comment. A solitary, unpretending sentence
+or clause.</p>
+
+<p class="center">NORTH.
+</p>
+
+<p>God bless you, my dear Buller.</p>
+
+<p class="center">TALBOYS.
+</p>
+
+<p>Amen. May the Chairman of Quarter Sessions live a thousand years! The
+indigent man may, I suppose, be a poor learned or a poor unlearned man.
+Relatively to the latter we may think, for Scotland, of Burns' Poems lying in
+Scottish cottages; and beginning from Scotland, of the traditional ballads and
+songs that sound in every hut throughout Europe:&mdash;for Italy, of what they
+say of the Venetian Gondoliers singing a Venetianised Gerusalemme Liberata.</p>
+
+<p class="center">NORTH.
+</p>
+
+<p>So far, my children, for the "<i>parvis rebus</i>." Something on a more extended
+scale, and of a loftier reach! We are commenting Horace. From the earliest
+times of civilisation, a principal office of verse was to adorn and solemnise
+the services of Religion. The cultivation of Verse was early in the
+Temples. A moment's recollection recalls to us the immense influence on the
+Hellenic Poetry of this ritual dedication. This theme closes the Praise of the
+Poet. But faithful to the strain which he has undertaken, and so far adhered
+to, the discreet Eulogist still, in the loftiest matter, diminishes the pomp, rejects
+ostentation, confines the sensible dimensions. And still faithful, he dwells on
+that which, of less show, is the more touching. He has to array a religious procession
+that drawing, as it moves along, all gaze&mdash;thrilling&mdash;as it slowly passes
+door after door, and winds through street after street, with solemn and sweet
+chaunt lifted from the sorrowing Earth to the listening Heavens&mdash;the universal
+heart of the Eternal Queen-City&mdash;Look! Who are they that, as the crowds
+divide, draw into sight? Chaste boys, and girls yet afar from the marriage-bond.
+The sanctity of natural innocence heightening to the heart, and rendering
+more gracious, the sanctity of the altar!&mdash;winning favour&mdash;alluring the
+worshipper to the worship!</p>
+
+<p class="center">SEWARD.
+</p>
+
+<p>The only expanded movement of the short passage&mdash;a third of it&mdash;seven
+verses out of the twenty-one.</p>
+
+<p class="center">NORTH.
+</p>
+
+<p>The religious topics are, generally, the propitiating of the Divinities&mdash;then
+the particular benefits: Rain supplicated in seasons of Drought&mdash;the visitation
+of Pestilential Sickness averted&mdash;National dangers repelled&mdash;Peace, the
+wished-for, obtained&mdash;and the perpetual desire of earth's dwellers and tillers,
+the fruitful Year. He has risen gradually, and has reached the summit.
+Unexpectedly&mdash;you know not how&mdash;the Poet, though it is not so said, is far
+greater than the Emperor. Yes, my friends, for the dominion of the Imperial
+Throne is over the Kings of the Earth; but the sway of the well-strung
+Lyre is over the throned Gods who inhabit above or underneath the Earth.
+With Song are the celestial Deities soothed and made favourable&mdash;with Song
+the dark dominators of Hell.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_497" id="Page_497">[Pg 497]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Carmine D&icirc; Superi placantur, carmine Manes!"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>A swelling and musical close to an anthem. What shall we admire most,
+then? The variety of the Praise? The ethical wisdom? The genuine love in
+the selection of the grounds? Or the exquisite skill of the artificer? The
+"craft of the delicate spirit," who, veiled in humility, has gradually, and
+as if insensibly, scaled to a station from which he looks upon Monarchs&mdash;but
+from which should they aspire to strike him down, they offend, in violating
+his right, the majesty of the assembled Gods? In inditing the unhappy passage
+about the Poet's sole end being to please, I think that Dugald Stewart
+was beguiled by a prevalent misconception amongst those who have taught
+the Philosophy of the Fine Arts. The degrading influences are his own.
+No doubt the Poet draws his poetical being from Pleasure&mdash;the great ancestress
+of his tribe&mdash;<i>gentis origo</i>. He worships Pleasure according to the primeval
+fashion of ancestor-worship. But what is his impulse to compose, to
+<i>sing</i>? O hear from all the Great Poets since the world began, their answer.
+They sing because a Spirit is in them. They sing because the muse bids.
+She pours in thoughts and words; and along with thoughts and words flows
+in the musical Will. With them it is like the Sybil when invaded by Apollo.
+The real Poet sings, moved from without or from within. If from without&mdash;some
+fore-shaped or self-shaped subject; if from within, some passion,
+or some impassioned thought of his own has so deeply and strongly
+affected him, that he is impelled to seek relief of the burthening emotions
+and ideas in uttering them. This is the primary cause, and the natural
+origin of Song. And you may call this, if you choose, an intending of
+pleasure; but beware how you draw degrading inferences from this first
+recognition and admission of pleasure. If you weigh the psychological fact,
+you must look backwards to the attitude of mind which produced the work,
+and not forwards to the attitude which the work produces. Of the intellective,
+the moral, the imaginative, the pathetic powers that gave birth to
+the Iliad&mdash;or to the Prometheus Vinctus&mdash;to the Knight's Tale&mdash;to the
+Legend of Holiness&mdash;to Lear or Othello&mdash;or to the Paradise Lost! Who
+does not instantly feel that he has been summoned to conceive and to contemplate
+all that is mighty, august, affecting, or terrible in our souls? That he
+looks into the caverned abyss where the Spirits of Power walk? Even as
+when, by the side of Anchises, &AElig;neas beholds in pre-existence the assemblage
+of his kingly descendants, whom their day and the upper air will
+call to rule the nations with sovereignty, to impose the conditions of
+peace, to spare the vanquished, and with war to bring down the proud.
+<span class="smcap">Lear!</span> The minstrels chanted an ancient rude lay&mdash;the infant stage brought
+a rude drama&mdash;<span class="smcap">to Shakspeare</span>. But long before Minstrel or Theatre&mdash;had
+mother, or grandam, or nurse told to the weeping or shuddering, to the
+burning or auguring Child, that relique of old memory, that domestic tragedy
+of the antique British throne&mdash;the story attracting and torturing of the Father-king
+who divided his heart and his realm to the two serpents, who cast out from
+heart and realm the Dove of his blood&mdash;till Time unveiled Truth and Love.
+<i>Then and there</i> was the seed, the slowly-springing, laid in the deep and kindly
+soil. From that hour dates the Lear of Shakspeare. Why repeat things that
+we all know, and have a thousand times said? Because they must be reasserted
+explicitly, as often as they are implicitly gainsayed; and is it not
+gainsaying them to affirm that the Poet sings <i>to please</i>, when indeed he sings
+because this Infinite of knowledges&mdash;this accumulation of experiences&mdash;this
+world of sensibilities and sympathies, of affections, passions, emotions, desires
+of his own and of other men's, inspires him, and will form itself in words?
+But he looks towards his hoped Auditors with a more direct selfish desire
+or design. He must have from them the meed of all glorious deeds&mdash;the wreath
+of all glorious doers&mdash;<span class="smcap">Fame</span>. Let Grateful Mankind applaud the Benefactors
+of Mankind. Ay, he loves life. He would fain live beyond this world, wide
+as it is, of his own particular bosom&mdash;he would live in the bosoms of his contemporaries,
+and in the bosoms of the generations that are to follow for evermore.
+Proud as privileged, he asks his due&mdash;<span class="smcap">Recognition</span>. And who that
+has the ability to render will choose or dare to withhold the tribute?<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_498" id="Page_498">[Pg 498]</a></span>
+Fame! the nectarean cup&mdash;the ambrosial fruit&mdash;that confers <i>Immortality</i>!
+The last best gift that mortals affect to bestow on their fellow-mortals.
+He who, at some great crisis, achieves a deed which the world shall feel,
+and whereof the world shall ring&mdash;dilates, in consciousness, to comprehend
+those whom his act shall reach, and those to whom it shall resound. Remember
+Lord Nelson at Trafalgar&mdash;in the moment ere the first gun fires,
+the word signalled to the awaiting host throughout the Fleet&mdash;"<span class="smcap">England
+expects</span>." In an instant, the twenty-five millions of compatriot islanders, as
+if wafted by the winds from their distant homes, are <i>there</i>&mdash;spectators of the
+Fight that yet sleeps, at the next instant to wake, convulsing sea and air&mdash;spectators
+to every single combatant, of his individual heroism. What did
+that late conqueror of ancient Egypt and what did his fiery warriors
+understand, when going into battle he said to them&mdash;"Forty Centuries look
+down on you from the summit of yonder Pyramids?" These plains, for four
+thousand years, have belonged to History. See to it, that the page which
+you are about adding shall be, for your part, luminous with glory and
+victory, not</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Black with dishonour, and foul with retreat."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Suppose that he had said, "Forty Centuries <i>to come</i> gaze upon you." The
+Pyramids seem likely to hold their own in such a reckoning. Perhaps the
+stretch of time is too long for the imagination of the Gallic Soldier. But
+surely, so speaking, he had spoken more from his heart and less from his
+imagination; for <i>he</i> meditated the ages to come, not the ages gone by. To
+leave a name that shall sound, for good or for ill, loud-echoing from century
+to century&mdash;a name to be heard, when C&aelig;sar, and Alexander, and Hannibal
+are commemorated&mdash;a name insubmergible by the waves of time&mdash;inextinguishable
+by the mists of oblivion&mdash;<i>that</i> he desired, and <i>that</i> has he not
+won? Horace has hung his name too in imagination on the structures of the
+Cheopses. But how different is the</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Exegi monumentum &aelig;re perennius,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Regalique situ Pyramidum altius"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>of the Poet! Horace indeed was already safe in pronouncing Homer immortal,
+with all the heroes upon whom he had conferred the gift. A thousand
+years! And the portentous strain, with all its Gods and Goddesses, and
+Kings and Queens, and Men and Women&mdash;fresh, bright, vivid, and fragrant,
+warm and yet reverberating from the Harp&mdash;as if the <i>plectrum</i> of the sublime
+Bard were but that moment withdrawn from the strings&mdash;as if the breast that
+first poured the strain were yet throbbing with quicker emotion&mdash;stirred by the
+pulsating chords and by the words which itself chanted. Horace might well
+understand the immortality of the Poet. That he claimed it, and judiciously,
+for himself&mdash;he who sung so differently, the sweet, the sprightly, some loftier
+notes too&mdash;but afar from Homer&mdash;suggests a reflection upon the nature of
+durability. The works were born of Love; and by Love they live, for in
+them the Love lives. <i>Spirat adhuc amor.</i> Those Egyptian, star-contemplating,
+and star-contemplated Edifices, quarried from the Rock, stand;
+integral parts of the Planet, immovable&mdash;immutable. That is one manner
+of enduring. Sound is awakened. For an instant it flits through the air and
+ceases, extinct in silence. Add Love, and you have informed sound with
+duration&mdash;another manner of enduring. The mountain of piled rocks and a
+touch on the air are become rivals in duration, and we say they will last
+for ever.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p class="center"><i>Printed by William Blackwood &amp; Sons, Edinburgh.</i>
+</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h2>FOOTNOTES:</h2>
+
+<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> <i>Modern State Trials</i>: Revised and Illustrated, with Essays and Notes. By
+<span class="smcap">William C. Townsend</span>, Esq., M.A., Q.C., Recorder of Macclesfield. In 2 vols. 8vo.
+Longman &amp; Co. 1850.</p></div>
+
+<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> Lord Campbell has made considerable use of Mr Townsend's collection, and
+publicly acknowledged his obligations, in his <i>Lives of the Lord Chancellors and
+Lord Chief-Justices</i>. It is not impossible that we may, before long, present our
+readers with an extended examination of these two important works of the new
+Lord Chief-Justice of the Queen's Bench.</p></div>
+
+<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> Introduction, vol. i., p. 7, 8.</p></div>
+
+<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> Introduction, p. ix.</p></div>
+
+<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> Townsend, vol. i. pp. 1, 2.</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> 4 Black. Com., pp. 81-2.</p></div>
+
+<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> Townsend, vol i., p. 54.</p></div>
+
+<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> Ibid. vol. i., p. 45.</p></div>
+
+<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> "I thought <i>he was crying</i>," said one of the witnesses!&mdash;p. 23.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> Stat. 7 Anne, c. 21, &sect; 11.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> Townsend, vol. i. p. 71.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> Hall's Pleas of the Crown, part I., c. 14.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> Townsend, p. 95.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> 1 Townsend, pp. 99-100; and see the argument reported at length in Regina <i>v.</i>
+Frost, 9 Carr and Payne, 165-187. Of these fifteen Judges, only six are still on the
+Bench&mdash;Barons Parke, Alderson, Rolfe; and Justices Patteson, Coleridge, and
+Maule&mdash;nine having disappeared during the last ten years. It will be observed that
+the three chiefs of the Courts were of one way of thinking, viz. that there <i>had</i> been
+a good delivery of the list of witnesses, in point of law.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> 9 Carr and Payne, pp. 175-176.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> <i>Souvenirs de la Vie Militaire en Afrique.</i> Par <span class="smcap">M. Pierre de Castellane</span>.
+Paris: 1850.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> To ask the <i>aman</i> is to implore mercy; to give it is to grant pardon.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> In Africa, during the great heat, these <i>cabans</i> or short cloaks are often worn, to
+keep off the rays of the sun.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> The Arabs called General Changarnier the <i>Changarli</i>, the <i>Changarlo</i>. <i>Changar</i>
+is an Arab word, signifying to quell or crush. <i>Ma changarch alina</i>; do not strike
+me down&mdash;do not crush me.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> Sons of Turks by Arab women.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> This missionary, originally a Jew, had become a Calvinist at B&acirc;le, then had joined
+the Church of England, and had finally turned missionary, in consideration of a handsome
+recompence. He drove a great trade in Bibles, which he sold to the Tunis
+shopkeepers. The leaves of the sacred volume served to envelope Mussulman butter
+and soap. The Ca&iuml;d's book, published at Carlsruhe, made a noise, was prohibited, and,
+thanks to the prohibition, had immense success.&mdash;Note by M. de Castellane.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> <i>Blackwood's Magazine</i>, Vol. LXV., p. 20.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> A band of irregular horsemen.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> The Arab term for men of high family.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> The description of this peculiar phenomenon of the Indian Ocean, as given by
+Captain Collins, surprised us as much as the reality seems to have done him. However,
+on consulting a seafaring old gentleman of much experience in all parts of the
+world, we are informed that such an appearance is periodically to be met with for
+some distance between the Laccadive and Maldive islands, as he had reason to know.
+The old Dutch Captain Stavorinus also furnishes an account substantially similar,
+having particularly attended to the cause of it in his voyage to the East Indies: it
+reaches also to some of the south-eastern islands at a great distance from India, near
+Java&mdash;or at all events appears there. In the Atlantic, Humboldt says there is a
+part of the sea always milky, although very deep, in about 57&ordm; W. longitude, and
+the parallel of the island of Dominica. Of the same nature, probably, are the immense
+olive-green spaces and stripes seen in blue water by Captain Scoresby and
+others, toward the ice of the north polar regions.
+</p>
+<p>
+The pale sea alluded to is supposed either to move from the shores of Arabia
+Felix, and the gulfs in that coast, or, by some, to arise from sulphureous marine exhalations&mdash;appearing
+to rot the bottoms of vessels, and to frighten the fish. Both
+at the Laccadives and near Java it is seen twice a-year, often with a heavy rolling
+of the sea and bad weather. The first time, at the new moon in June, it is called
+by the Dutch the "little white-water;" again, at the new moon in August, the
+great "wit-water;" by English seamen, generally, the milk-sea, or the "blink."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> The zodiacal light, seen at sunrise and sunset.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> <i>Histoire des Ducs de Guise.</i> Par <span class="smcap">R&eacute;n&eacute; de Bouill&eacute;</span>, ancien Ministre Pl&eacute;nipotentiaire.
+Volume II. Paris: 1849.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> So styled by the Huguenots. Historians have adopted the designation. It consisted
+of Guise, Montmorency, and the Marshal of St Andr&eacute;, and was a sort of prelude
+to the League.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> <i>Discours de la Bataille de Dreux</i>, diet&eacute; par <span class="smcap">Fran&ccedil;ois de Lorraine</span>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> Thus stated by M. de Bouill&eacute;. Other writers have called the total force of the
+Protestants two thousand seven hundred horse and foot.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> Other writers have said that he had already <i>done</i> so, or at least that he was
+seated under a tree, a recognised prisoner, when he was shot. M. de Bouill&eacute;'s
+account leaves a sort of loop-hole, to infer that Montesquiou might have been hardly
+aware that Cond&eacute; was a prisoner. Such an inference, however, he probably does not
+intend to be drawn, and, in either case, it is contrary to historical fact.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> The following couplet, from Oudin's MS. history of the house of Guise, may
+serve as a specimen of the partisan ditties composed on this occasion:&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"L'an mil cinq cens soixante neuf,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Entre Jarnac et Chasteauneuf,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Fut port&eacute; mort sur une asnesse,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Ce grand ennemy de la Messe."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+
+<div class="transnote">
+
+<p>Transcriber's Notes:</p>
+
+
+<p>Punctuation and spelling were made consistent when a
+predominant preference was found in this book; otherwise they
+were not changed.</p>
+
+<p>Simple typographical and spelling errors were corrected.</p>
+
+<p>PP. <a href="#Page_373">373</a>, <a href="#Page_415">415</a> &amp; <a href="#Page_456">456</a> added missing footnote anchors.</p></div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol.
+68, No 420, October 1850, by Various
+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 68, No
+420, October 1850, by Various
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 68, No 420, October 1850
+
+Author: Various
+
+Release Date: January 7, 2014 [EBook #44618]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Brendan OConnor, Richard Tonsing, Jonathan
+Ingram and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
+generously made available by The Internet Library of Early
+Journals.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                              BLACKWOOD'S
+                          EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.
+
+           NO. CCCCXX.      OCTOBER, 1850.      VOL. LXVIII.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+  MODERN STATE TRIALS. PART I.,                             373
+
+  MY NOVEL; OR, VARIETIES IN ENGLISH LIFE. PART II.,        393
+
+  MILITARY LIFE IN NORTH AFRICA,                            415
+
+  THE GREEN HAND--A "SHORT" YARN. A WIND-UP,                433
+
+  THE FRENCH WARS OF RELIGION,                              456
+
+  A WILD-FLOWER GARLAND. BY DELTA,                          471
+
+  THE MASQUERADE OF FREEDOM,                                475
+
+  DIES BOREALES. NO. VIII.--CHRISTOPHER UNDER CANVASS,      479
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+                              EDINBURGH:
+
+              WILLIAM BLACKWOOD & SONS, 45 GEORGE STREET;
+                    AND 37 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON.
+
+      _To whom all communications (post paid) must be addressed._
+
+          SOLD BY ALL THE BOOKSELLERS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM.
+
+           PRINTED BY WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, EDINBURGH.
+
+                              BLACKWOOD'S
+                          EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.
+
+           NO. CCCCXX.      OCTOBER, 1850.      VOL. LXVIII.
+
+
+
+
+MODERN STATE TRIALS.[1]
+
+
+PART I.
+
+The idea of this work is happily conceived, and carried into effect,
+in the two volumes before us, with no little judgment and ability. The
+subject is one interesting, useful, and important; and the author was
+in many respects well qualified to deal with it by his talents, his
+accomplishments, his professional acquirements, and his experienced
+observation. It will be seen that we speak of the author, and of his
+work, in different tenses; and there is a melancholy significance in
+the distinction. Within a very few days of his sending to us these two
+volumes, he died, unexpectedly, in the flower of his age, and just as
+he had attained an honour which he had long coveted--that of being
+raised to the rank of Queen's Counsel. On the first day of last Easter
+term, he presented himself in each of the courts at Westminster, in his
+"silk" gown, exchanging the customary obeisances with the Judges, the
+Queen's Counsel, and the great body of his brethren behind the bar,
+on being formally called by the Lord Chief Justice "to take his seat
+within the bar, Her Majesty having been pleased to appoint him one of
+Her Majesty's Counsel." He looked pleasurably excited: alas, how little
+anticipating that the last day of that same term would see him stripped
+of his long-coveted insignia, and clothed in the dismal vesture of the
+grave! For on that day he died, after a brief but very severe illness,
+in his forty-sixth year. A serious attack of rheumatic fever, several
+years before, had permanently impaired his physical energies, though
+not to such an extent as to prevent the exercise of his profession.
+His practice, till latterly, had been chiefly at the Cheshire and
+Manchester sessions, from which he gradually rose into considerable
+business, both civil and criminal, on the North Wales circuit. On being
+raised to his briefly-held rank, the prospect of a successful career
+opened before him; for he knew his profession well, as those were aware
+who were able and disposed to push him forward. During Easter term he
+was engaged before a committee of the House of Commons, to conduct a
+case of some importance. This was a lucrative branch of practice, which
+he was naturally eager to cultivate. Fatigue, anxiety, and excitement
+induced the return of an old complaint, accompanied by new and somewhat
+startling symptoms; but though utterly unfit for business, he could
+not be restrained from attending the committee room, though it was
+necessary to carry him in a chair up the long flight of steps leading
+to the corridor in the new House. He was soon, however, obliged to
+return as he had gone. The palsying hand of Death had touched the
+aspiring lawyer! After much suffering, he expired on the 8th of May,
+the last day of Easter term, and on the 13th was buried in the vaults
+of Lincoln's Inn, of which he had only a few days previously been
+elected a Bencher! He was a member of Queen's College, Oxford, where he
+graduated (we believe with honours) in 1824; was called to the bar in
+1828; and elected Recorder of Macclesfield in 1833.--As a speaker he
+was correct and fluent, though not forcible; as an advocate, judicious
+and successful. He was a man of classical tastes, extensively read
+in literature, and exceedingly familiar with political history and
+constitutional law. What he knew he could use readily and effectively,
+both as a writer and a speaker. He was very industrious with his pen
+during every interval between his professional engagements; and has
+left behind him, independently of his contributions to periodical
+literature, three works--the _History of the House of Commons from
+1688 to 1832_; the _Lives of Twelve Eminent Judges_, and the work now
+before us. The first of these was published in 1843-4, in two volumes
+octavo. The author's professed object was to present "a popular history
+of the House of Commons, with biographical notices of those members
+who have been most distinguished in its annals; and describing the
+changes in its internal economy, powers, and privileges," during the
+space of a hundred and forty-four years elapsing between two memorable
+periods--the "noble introduction" to Parliamentary Records, "afforded
+by the Convention Parliament of 1688," and the "eventful close"
+witnessed in the second Parliament of William IV., which passed "the
+Reform Bill." This space he subdivided into three distinguishing eras:--
+
+    "The _first_ includes a space of thirty-nine years--from
+    the abdication of James to the death of George I.
+    in 1727--characterised by master spirits, critical
+    events, and stirring debate. The _second_ era--sort of
+    mezzo-termino--comprehends the reign of George II., when men
+    in office were corrupt, and public morals low, and the general
+    topics of discourse resembled parish vestry discussions, but
+    still a prosperous reign--the sound common-sense of Walpole
+    promoting, even by inglorious acts, the national welfare, and
+    Chatham's genius rescuing the age from mediocrity.
+
+    "The regular publication of the debates, and troubles in
+    America, usher in the _last_ and most glorious epoch,--the days
+    of North and Burke--of Pitt and Fox--of Windham and Canning--of
+    Tierney, and Brougham, and Peel,--illustrated by oratory
+    enduring as the language, and with memories of statesmen that
+    can never die."
+
+Mr Townsend's second work was published about four years
+afterwards--viz., in 1848--also in two volumes, and entitled _Lives
+of Twelve Eminent Judges of the Last and Present Century_. These
+were--Lord Alvanley, Mr Justice Buller, Lord Eldon, Lord Ellenborough,
+Lord Erskine, Sir Vicary Gibbs, Sir William Grant, Lord Kenyon, Lord
+Loughborough, Lord Redesdale, Lord Stowell, and Lord Tenterden.
+This work consisted of memoirs, which the author had previously
+published in the _Law Magazine_, where they had attracted considerable
+attention from the profession; as they contained many interesting
+and entertaining anecdotes, and information not easily attainable
+elsewhere.[2] Both of these works are of an entertaining character.
+They are written in an easy, flowing style--occasionally, however,
+somewhat loose and gossiping. It must be owned that the author's
+_forte_ does not lie in the delineation of character, either moral or
+intellectual. If he really possessed a quick and searching insight into
+it, he would seem to have felt a greater pleasure in grouping about
+each individual who was the subject of his pencil the general incidents
+of his position, than in penetrating his idiosyncrasy, and detecting
+the operation of those incidents upon it. He does not conceive
+distinctly of _his man_, keeping his eye steadily upon him, with a
+view to the development and exhibition of character; but is apt, if we
+may be allowed so to speak, to lose him in his life. Still the work is
+decidedly an acquisition to popular and professional literature, and,
+equally with its predecessor, evidences the mild and candid temper and
+character of the author. Thus much we thought it only fair to premise,
+in justice to the memory of an amiable and accomplished member of the
+English bar, and a man of letters; one, too, who in his political
+opinions was a staunch and consistent upholder of those to which Maga
+has ever been devoted. In no instance, however--in neither of the two
+works at which we have been thus glancing in passing, nor in that now
+lying before us--did Mr Townsend suffer his political opinions to bias
+his judgment, or betray him into the faintest semblance of partiality
+or injustice.
+
+It is time now to direct attention to the last work of Mr
+Townsend--which he barely lived to see published--his _Modern State
+Trials_, spread over two goodly octavo volumes, containing nearly
+eleven hundred pages, and these, too, pretty closely printed. Upon
+this work much thought and labour have evidently been bestowed in
+the collection of his materials, and dealing with them, as in the
+volumes before us, in such a manner as to render the product at once
+interesting and instructive to both general and professional readers.
+
+It is no slight matter to make one's-self thoroughly master of a great
+case, in all its bearings; to seize its true governing characteristics;
+to select, condense, and arrange facts and incidents; to assign to
+every actor, whether judge, jury, witness, or counsel, his proper
+proportion and position; and all this with a view to interesting and
+instructing widely different classes of readers--and those, again,
+general and professional. To do all this effectually, requires
+powerful talents, much knowledge of life and character, practical
+acquaintance with the law of the country, a sound judgment, and a vivid
+imagination. There is scarcely any point of view in which a great trial
+will not appear deeply interesting to a competent observer, watching
+how each individual plays his part in the agitating drama. Whether
+the judge holds the sacred scales even; whether he sees clearly and
+acts promptly, calmly, resolutely, in detecting fallacy, in order
+to shield an unsophisticated jury from its subtle and deleterious
+agency; whether, for this purpose, his intellect and his knowledge
+are superior, equal, or inferior to those of the advocates pleading
+before him. How those advocates conduct themselves, intellectually
+and morally; whether they be clear-headed, acute, ready, learned--or
+cloudy, obtuse, superficial, and ignorant; whether evenly or over
+matched; whether they play the gentleman or the scoundrel; whether
+they will, however difficult the task, nobly recognise the obligations
+of truth and honour, or villanously disregard them, to secure a
+paltry triumph in defeating justice! How the witnesses discharge
+their momentous duties; whether constantly mindful of their oath,
+or forgetful of it, or wilfully disregarding it, from hostility or
+partiality to the prisoner, or any other wicked motive. Whether the
+judge, or the advocates, are equal to the discomfiture of a wicked
+witness. How the jury are conducting themselves--whether with watchful
+intelligence, or stolid listlessness. How the prisoner, standing in
+the midst of all these--with life, with honour, character, liberty,
+everything at stake--and depending on the word which one of that jury
+will utter--how _he_ is demeaning himself, knowing, as he does, the
+truth or falsehood of the charge on which he is being tried; what he is
+thinking of the exertions of his counsel, of the temper and spirit of
+the witnesses, of the jury, of the judge; whether he adverts at all to
+the spectators around him, and the feelings by which they are animated
+towards him; whether he is aware of, or appreciates, the true strain
+and pressure of the case--the sudden chances and perils occurring in
+its progress.
+
+How striking and instructive to observe the abstract rules of justice
+brought to bear, with equal readiness and precision, upon ordinary
+and extraordinary combinations of circumstances!--to witness the
+dead letter of the law become animated with potent vitality for the
+regulation of human affairs!
+
+Again, it has often occurred to us that there is another point of view
+from which important trials--nay, almost any trial--may be contemplated
+with lively interest by a logical observer, with reference to _the use
+made of facts_ by judicial and forensic intellect. How little even the
+acutest layman could have anticipated such dealing with facts as that
+which he here beholds; how he must appreciate the practised, watchful
+art with which the slightest circumstance is seized hold of, and in
+due time so combined with others with which it seemed to have no
+conceivable connexion, as to justify conclusions exactly the reverse
+of those which had till then seemed inevitable! What totally different
+aspects the same facts may be made to wear by different dealers with
+them, having different objects in view! By their different arrangement
+and combination, what _unexpected_ inferences may be drawn from the
+self-same facts, and even when similarly arranged and combined! How
+exciting to see a defence constructed by experienced astuteness and
+eloquence out of the slightest materials--out of a hopeless case--in
+the teeth of one overpowering for the prosecution! The desperate
+determination, the exquisite subtlety, the consummate judgment, often
+exhibited on such occasions by eminent advocates--struggling, too, at
+once with their own sense of right and wrong, and the desire to do
+their utmost for one who has intrusted his all to them--conscious,
+too, that though a jury of twelve plain common-sense people may be
+unable to see through the fallacies which are presented to them, it
+will doubtless be very far otherwise with one who has to follow,
+who has the last word! and with that last word may at once lay bare
+the sophistries of forensic effrontery, and perhaps rebuke him who
+attempted to trifle with and mislead the understandings of those
+so solemnly sworn to give a just and true verdict according to the
+evidence. "But what is one to do?" exclaims the anxious advocate. "How
+am I to defend yonder trembling being who has selected me to stand
+between him and--the scaffold, it may be--if I am to play the judge,
+and not the advocate; to yield pusillanimously to an array of fearfully
+plain facts, and make no attempt to square them with the hypothesis
+of my client's innocence, or persuade a jury that they are--whatever
+my own secret opinion--pregnant with too much doubt to warrant a
+verdict of guilty?" Only one who has been placed in the situation can
+conceive the faintest idea of what is endured on such occasions by the
+sensitive and conscientious advocate, who is called upon in desperate
+emergencies--in moments of intense eagerness and anxiety--the spasms,
+as it were, of which are _publicly_ exhibited, and before gifted and
+critical rivals and merciless public censors, to see and _observe_
+the delicate but decisive line of right--of duty; to maintain at once
+the character of the zealous, effective advocate, and the Christian
+gentleman. If sufficient allowances were made for persons placed in
+such circumstances of serious embarrassment and responsibility, less
+uncharitable judgments would be passed on the manner in which advocates
+exercise their functions than are sometimes seen; judgments formed and
+pronounced, too, in the closet--by those speaking after the event--calm
+and undisturbed by anxieties and agitation, which have probably _never
+been personally experienced_. This topic, however, we shall hereafter
+treat more at large, in giving to the volumes before us that extended
+examination which is at present contemplated. They contain a series
+of trials of undoubted public interest and importance. They have been
+selected upon the whole judiciously, with a view to the end which the
+author had proposed to himself; though the propriety of the title
+which he has chosen--_i. e._ "Modern _State_ Trials"--is not at first
+sight apparent. The idea conveyed by these words is, trials directly
+affecting _the state_, political prosecutions in respect of political
+offences. It is difficult to bring trials for murder, duelling,
+forgery, abduction, libel, blasphemy, and conspiracy, under this
+category; and this Mr Townsend felt. Such, nevertheless, constitute a
+large proportion of the trials contained in these volumes, and are,
+in our opinion, also those of most popular interest, and worthiest of
+being dealt with, as it was Mr Townsend's expressed intention to deal
+with them.
+
+The "trials" contained in the volumes before us are fifteen in number,
+of which only four, or at most five, (Mr Townsend seems to have
+thought six,) have any pretensions to be designated "_State_ trials."
+These five are--John Frost, Edward Oxford, and Smith O'Brien for
+high treason; Daniel O'Connell, and eight others, for a treasonable
+conspiracy; and Charles Pinney, for alleged neglect of his duty as
+mayor of Bristol, during the fiery and bloody "Reform Riots," as the
+were called, in that place, in October 1831. The remaining ten trials
+consist of two for duelling--the late James Stuart for killing Sir
+Alexander Boswell, and the Earl of Cardigan for shooting Captain
+Tucket; three for murder, (in addition to James Stuart, who was tried
+for the _murder_ of Sir Alexander Boswell)--viz. Conrvoisier for
+the murder of Lord William Russell; M'Naughton for the murder of Mr
+Drummond; Hunter and others for conspiracy and the murder of John
+Smith, the Glasgow cotton-spinner, in 1837; Alexander (the titular
+Earl of Stirling) for forgery; Lord Cochrane, and seven others, for
+a conspiracy to raise the funds; the Wakefields for conspiracy,
+and abduction of an heiress; John Ambrose Williams for a libel on
+the Durham clergy; and Mr John Moxon, for blasphemy, in publishing
+the poems of Percy Bysshe Shelley. It will be observed that all
+these are _criminal_ trials, and occurred in England, Scotland, and
+Ireland; affording thus a favourable opportunity for comparing the
+different methods of proceeding in their respective courts, and the
+characteristics of their respective judges and advocates. The English
+trials are ten, the Scottish three, and the Irish two in number:
+and whether they are precisely those which could have been most
+advantageously selected, it were needless, for present purposes, to
+inquire. Mr Townsend made his choice, and thus generally states his
+objects and intentions:--
+
+    "The present edition of _Modern State Trials_ is meant to
+    include those of the most general interest and importance which
+    have occurred during the last thirty years. None are inserted
+    in these volumes which have been previously comprised in any
+    collection; but the editor regrets want of space, which compels
+    him to omit several not uninstructive. In making a selection,
+    he has endeavoured to present a faithful, but abridged, report
+    of such legal proceedings as would be most likely to command
+    the attention of all members of the community, and to be read
+    by them with pleasure and profit. This appears to be the
+    popular description of the term "State Trials," in which Mr
+    Evelyn and Mr Hargreave acquiesced, or they would not have
+    included convictions for witchcraft, and the prosecution of
+    Elizabeth Canning for perjury, in their collection. Were the
+    definition restricted to political offences merely, the work,
+    however logically correct, would be wanting in spirit and
+    variety."--(Introd. vol. i. p. 5.)
+
+After stating that no technical objection can be raised to those of the
+above trials which immediately affect the State, he observes, that,
+"for the propriety of inserting the rest under the same title, a just
+apology may be made." The trial of the Earl of Cardigan, before the
+House of Lords, is represented as interesting, from the rank of the
+accused and from the rarity of the trial, as being the first time that
+duelling was attempted to be brought within a recent statute, (1 Vict.
+c. 85) enacting that the shooting at a person, not with premeditated
+malice, but deliberately, and causing a bodily injury dangerous to
+life, should be a capital offence; and that whoever should shoot any
+person with intent to commit murder, or to do some grievous bodily
+harm, should, though no bodily harm were inflicted, be guilty of
+_felony_, and liable to transportation or imprisonment. The social
+position of the titular Earl of Stirling, and the extraordinary nature
+of the evidence, are said to justify the insertion of _his_ trial;
+while, "in the records of criminal jurisprudence, there occur few
+proceedings of more deep and painful interest than the prosecution of
+Lord Cochrane, for Conspiracy to commit a fraud on the Stock Exchange."
+The two cases of Courvoisier and M'Naughton respectively "involve
+topics of absorbing interest at the period of the occurrence, and of
+enduring interest to all time: in the one being involved the rights
+and duties, the privileges and immunities of counsel for prisoners; in
+the other, the fearful question of responsibility for crime--how far
+moral insanity alone may exonerate the alleged subject of it from the
+temporal consequences of his guilt." This latter topic is also involved
+in Oxford's case. The trials of Mr Stuart for killing Sir Alexander
+Boswell, and of Mr Moxon for blasphemy, are inserted for one and the
+same reason--namely, "a desire to embalm the very beautiful speeches of
+Lord Cockburn, Lord Jeffrey, and Mr Justice Talfourd." As to the trial
+of Ambrose Williams, it is inserted on account of the celebrated speech
+in defence by Lord Brougham--"one of the most vivid specimens extant,
+in either ancient or modern literature, of keen irony, bitter sarcasm,
+and vehement vituperation." The prosecution of the Wakefields for
+conspiracy, and the abduction of Miss Turner, "forms a singular chapter
+in legal history; interesting not less to the student of human nature,
+on account of its characters and incidents, than to the lawyer, for the
+elaborate discussions on the Scottish law of marriages, and the right
+of the wife, even should there have been a legal marriage, to appear as
+a witness against the offending husband--matters argued with profuse
+learning and ability."
+
+    "In setting forth, under a condensed form," says Mr
+    Townsend,[3] "this and the other most interesting trials of
+    our time, it has been the object of the editor to free the
+    work from dry severity by introducing the '_loci laetiores_' of
+    the advocates, the salient parts of cross-examination--those
+    little passages of arms between the rival combatants which
+    diversified the arena, the painting of the forensic scene,
+    the poetry of action of these legal dramas. He has sought to
+    give the expressed spirit of eloquence and law, upon occasions
+    which peculiarly called them forth; pruning what was redundant,
+    rejecting superfluities, weeding out irrelevant matter, but
+    omitting no incident or episode that all intelligent witness
+    would have been disappointed at not hearing."
+
+We present the ensuing paragraph, which immediately follows the
+preceding, because it will afford us an opportunity of making a remark
+which is applicable to the entire structure of the work before us.
+
+    "In the extracts here given from some of the most celebrated
+    speeches of modern days, the editor has also had the great
+    advantage of the last corrections of the speakers themselves,
+    and has thus been enabled to preserve the _ipsissima verba_, by
+    which minds were captivated and verdicts won; those treasures
+    of oratory which would have gladdened the old age of Erskine,
+    could he have seen how his talisman had been passed from hand
+    to hand, and the mantle of his inspiration caught. The vivid
+    appeals of Whiteside, the magnificent defence of Cockburn, the
+    persuasive imagery of Talfourd, will exist as (R)kthemata heis
+    aehi(R)--trophies of forensic eloquence, beacon lights it may be,
+    in the midst of that prosaic mistiness which has begun to creep
+    around our courts."
+
+The remark to which we have alluded is this: that the work before us
+is pervaded by a tone of uniform, excessive, and undistinguishing
+_eulogy_, which, however creditable to the amiable and generous
+dispenser of it, is calculated to lower our estimate of his critical
+judgment, and even--unless one should be on one's guard--to provoke
+a harsh and disparaging spirit towards the subjects of such undue
+eulogy, and a suspicion that here "praise undeserved," and the remark
+is applicable equally to praise "excessive, is censure in disguise!" No
+judge, no counsel, can say or do _anything_, in the course of any of
+the trials here brought under our notice, without speaking and acting
+in such a way as to merit applause for exhibiting the highest qualities
+of mind and character. Let it not be supposed, that, in making these
+observations, we wish to apply them to the particular instances cited
+by Mr Townsend of Messrs Whiteside, Cockburn, and Talfourd--all of whom
+are distinguished, accomplished, able, and eloquent advocates; but we
+believe that each would, in spite of the fondest self-love, in his own
+mind, somewhat mistrust his title to the _amount_ of applause here
+bestowed upon him. What more than he has said of them, could he have
+said of the greatest orators and advocates whom the world has produced?
+In a corresponding strain, Mr Townsend speaks of every one--senior and
+junior counsel--and every writer, great and small, whom he has occasion
+to mention. Those who knew the late Mr Townsend, and appreciated his
+simple and manly character, will refer the defect which we have felt
+compelled thus to point out to its true cause--the kindliness of his
+heart; and we believe that, had he lived to see these observations, his
+candour would have caused him promptly to recognise their justice.
+
+Each of the trials is preceded and followed by "Introductory Essays"
+and "Notes."
+
+"The Essays, chiefly historical, have been introduced in order to
+familiarise the reader with the subject, and prevent the monotony
+which, but for these occasional dissertations, might pervade so many
+recurring trials. The notes are added with a similar object."[4] We may
+say generally, that these "Essays" and "Notes" always display judgment,
+and the writer's complete knowledge of his subject. No reader should
+enter on the trial, without carefully perusing the "Essay" which ushers
+it in, shedding light upon all its details, and the circumstances
+attending the committing of these offences--and indicating with
+distinctness the leading features of interest and importance. In the
+report of the trial itself, great pains have evidently been taken,
+and successfully, to observe rigid impartiality, and secure accuracy
+of statement; and the conflicts of counsel with each other and with
+witnesses--the temperate, and timely interpositions of the judges,
+and their satisfactory summings-up to the jury--are presented to the
+reader with no little vividness. The fault of Mr Townsend's style is,
+diffuseness, a tendency to colloquiality, and a deficiency of vigour.
+With these little exceptions, added to that above noticed, we have no
+hesitation in commending these volumes as an acquisition to popular and
+professional literature, reflecting credit on the author's memory, and
+the bar to which he belonged.
+
+Having thus briefly indicated the general character of this work, and
+given the author's own account of it, we propose in the present, and
+one, or perhaps two, following articles, to take our own view of some
+of the leading "Trials" thus collected by Mr Townsend, incidentally
+observing on his treatment of the subject. With him, we regard several
+of these trials as exhibiting features of remarkable interest; and are
+much indebted to him for having so disposed his materials as to rouse
+and rivet the attention of all classes of intelligent readers, but
+in an especial degree that of the youthful student of jurisprudence.
+Without further preface, we shall commence with that which stands first
+in Mr Townsend's collection--the trial of Frost, for high treason.
+
+This affords a very favourable specimen of Mr Townsend's capabilities.
+He appears to have worked it out perhaps more exactly to his own
+idea than any of the ensuing ones; and, by his able and judicious
+treatment of the subject, has given us an opportunity of exhibiting
+in glowing colours a forensic battle-field: the stake, life or death;
+the combatants, evenly matched, the very flower of the bar; their
+tactics clear and decisive, with the odds tremendously against one
+party--that is to say, facts too strong for almost any degree of
+daring or astuteness to contend against hopefully. Let us see, under
+such circumstances, how the combatants acquitted themselves; or, if
+one may change the figure, let us see how was played a great game of
+chess on the board of life, by skilful and celebrated players. Who were
+they? Four in number--Sir John Campbell and Sir Thomas Wilde, then
+respectively Attorney and Solicitor-General, representing the Crown;
+Sir Frederick Pollock and Mr Fitzroy Kelly, Queen's Counsel for the
+prisoner. Ten years have since elapsed, and behold the changes in the
+relative positions of these gentlemen! Sir John Campbell is a peer of
+the realm, and Lord Chief-Justice of the Queen's Bench: having also,
+during the interval, become a laborious and successful biographer of
+the Lord Chancellors and Lord Chief-Justices of England. Sir Thomas
+Wilde is also a peer of the realm, and Lord High Chancellor, having
+been previously Attorney-General and Chief-Justice of the Common
+Pleas. Sir Frederick Pollock, having been subsequently appointed
+Attorney-General, is now Chief Baron of the Exchequer; while Mr Kelly,
+having since become Solicitor-General, lost office on the break-up
+of Sir Robert Peel's ministry, and remains--such are the chances and
+changes of political life--plain Sir Fitzroy Kelly, but occupying a
+splendid position at the bar. These four were the leading counsel; but
+besides the Attorney and Solicitor General, the Crown was represented
+by two gentlemen of great legal learning and eloquence, since raised
+to the bench--Mr Justice Wightman and Mr Justice Talfourd; and by Mr
+Serjeant Ludlow, since become a Commissioner of Bankruptcy; and the
+Hon. John C. Talbot, now so highly distinguished in Parliamentary
+practice. The judges sent as the special commission consisted of the
+late Chief-Justice Tindal, the present Mr Baron Parke, and the late
+Mr Justice Williams, forming, it is superfluous to say, an admirably
+constituted court--the chief being most consummately qualified for his
+post by temper, sagacity, and learning.
+
+It was the business of the Attorney and Solicitor General to establish
+a case of high treason against the prisoner, and of Sir Frederick
+Pollock and Mr Kelly to defend him _a l'outrance_; but God forbid that
+we should say _per fas aut nefas_. It were idle to characterise the
+intellectual and professional qualifications of these four combatants;
+the eminence of all is undisputed, though their idiosyncrasies are
+widely different from each other. Suffice it to say, that everything
+which great experience, sagacity, learning, power, and eloquence could
+bring to bear on that contest might have been confidently looked for.
+One circumstance is proper to be borne in mind--that the prisoner's
+counsel (of course abhorring the acts imputed to their client) were
+stimulated to the very uttermost exertion by the fact that their own
+political opinions were notoriously adverse to those entertained by the
+prisoner, and those--viz., Chartists--who so confidently summoned two
+Tories to the rescue of their imperilled brother Chartists.
+
+All the main facts of the case were universally known before the trial
+took place, together, of course, with the legal category to which they
+must be referred, to satisfy the conditions of high treason. The nature
+of that offence was thus tersely and beautifully explained by the Chief
+Justice,--[5]
+
+    "Gentlemen, the crime of high treason, in its own direct
+    consequences, is calculated to produce the most malignant
+    effects upon the community at large; its direct and immediate
+    tendency is the putting down the authority of the law, the
+    shaking and subverting the foundation of all government, the
+    loosening and dissolving the bands and cement by which society
+    is held together, the general confusion of property, the
+    involving a whole people in bloodshed and mutual destruction;
+    and, accordingly, the crime of high treason has always been
+    regarded by the law of this country as the offence of all
+    others of the deepest dye, and as calling for the severest
+    measure of punishment. But in the very same proportion as it
+    is dangerous to the community, and fearful to the offender
+    from the weight of punishment which is attached to it, has
+    it been thought necessary by the wisdom of our ancestors to
+    define and limit this law within certain express boundaries, in
+    order that, on the one hand, no guilty person might escape the
+    punishment due to his transgression by an affected ignorance
+    of the law; and, on the other, that no innocent man might be
+    entangled or brought unawares within the reach of its severity
+    by reason of the law's uncertainty."
+
+The following were fearful words to be heard, or afterwards read, by
+those who were charged with the defence of Frost. They occur, like the
+preceding passage, in the luminous charge of the Chief Justice to the
+Grand Jury, on the 10th December 1839:--
+
+    "An assembly of men, armed and arrayed in a warlike manner,
+    with any treasonable purpose, is a levying of war, although no
+    blow be struck; and the enlisting and drilling and marching
+    bodies of men are sufficient overt acts of that treason,
+    without coming to a battle or action. And, if this be the case,
+    the actual conflict between such a body and the Queen's forces
+    must, beyond all doubt, amount to a levying of war against the
+    Queen, under the statute of Edward. It was quite unnecessary to
+    constitute the guilt of treason that the tumultuous multitude
+    should be accompanied with the pomp and pageantry of war, or
+    with military array. Insurrection and rebellion are more humble
+    in their first infancy; but all such external marks of pomp
+    will not fail to be added with the first gleam of success. The
+    treasonable design once established by the proper evidence, the
+    man who instigated, incited, procured, or persuaded others to
+    commit the act, though not present in person at the commission
+    of it, is equally a traitor, to all intents and purposes, as
+    the man by whose hand the act of treason is committed. He who
+    leads the armed multitude towards the point of attack, and then
+    retires before the blow is struck--he who remains at home,
+    planning and directing the proceedings, but leaving the actual
+    execution of such plans to more daring hands--he who, after
+    treason has been committed, knowingly harbours or conceals the
+    traitor from the punishment due to him, all these are equally
+    guilty in the eye of the law of the crime of high treason."
+
+The head of treason applicable to the facts of the case under
+consideration is the third in statute 25 Edward III. c. 2, which
+concisely declares it to exist "_if a man do levy war against our lord
+the King in his realm_." This has been the law of the land for just
+five centuries, _i. e._ since the year 1351. But in the application
+of these words, of fearful significance, the object with which arms
+are taken up must be a GENERAL one--"the _universality of the design_
+making it a rebellion against the state, a usurpation of the power of
+Government, and an insolent invasion of the King's authority"--"under
+pretence to reform religion and the laws, or to remove evil
+counsellors, or other grievances, whether real or pretended."[6]
+Or, to adopt the definition of Mr Kelly, in addressing the jury in
+this very case, it is necessary to prove "that the prisoner levied
+war against her Majesty, with intent by force to alter the law, and
+subvert the constitution of the realm."[7] To appreciate the position
+of the prisoner, and the difficulties with which his counsel had to
+struggle, it may here be mentioned, that he admitted the prisoner to
+be a Chartist, as it was called--that is, a supporter of the following
+five points of sweeping change in the political institutions of the
+country,--"Universal suffrage, vote by ballot, annual parliaments, no
+property qualification, and payment of members of parliament." This was
+also, during the trial, avowed by the prisoner.[8]
+
+Having thus got a clear view of the law, let us briefly indicate the
+_facts_--the palpable, notorious, leading facts, known to be such by
+the prisoner's counsel, as soon as they had perused their briefs.
+
+A body of ten thousand men, principally miners from the surrounding
+country, headed, in three divisions, by Frost, and two other men, Jones
+and Williams, (Frost having five thousand under his command,) and armed
+indiscriminately with muskets, pikes, axes, staves, and other weapons,
+was to make a descent upon the peaceful town of Newport, during the
+night of Sunday, the 3d November 1839! Tempestuous weather prevented
+the preconcerted junction of these three bands; but, between eight and
+nine o'clock on the Monday morning, Frost's division, five thousand
+strong, marched into the town--and, headed after a fashion by him,
+commenced an attack upon a small inn, where they knew that a handful
+of troops was stationed, about thirty in number, under command of a
+lieutenant. As soon as the mob, who formed steadily, saw the soldiers
+drawn up in the room--the windows of which were thrown open--they
+cruelly fired into it, and also rushed through the doors into the
+passage. On this, the lieutenant gave the word of command to fire. He
+was obeyed--and with deadly effect, as far as regarded some thirty or
+forty, known to have received the fire, many of whom were shot dead on
+the spot. But this cool promptitude and determination of the troops
+put an end _instanter_ to the insane insurrection. This vast body of
+supposed desperadoes fled panic-struck in every direction; and Frost
+himself, who was unquestionably on the very spot at the very time when
+and where the attack commenced, fled in ridiculous terror,[9] and was
+arrested that evening at a friend's house adjoining his own, armed with
+three loaded pistols, and having on him a powder-flask and a quantity
+of balls. His brother heroes, Williams and Jones, were also arrested,
+together with many others; and there ended the formidable outbreak,
+which had more astounded than alarmed the public; leaving, however,
+the instigators and conductors to a speedy and very dismal reckoning
+with that same public. The active management of matters by Frost was
+beyond all doubt, and it seemed never to have been wished to conceal
+it. He was the Jack Cade of the affair. He planned the order of march;
+the time, place, and mode of attack; and explained the immediate and
+ulterior objects of the movement. Shortly before the outbreak, he
+was asked by one of his adherents, "_what he intended to do_?" He
+answered,--
+
+    "First, they should go to the new poor-house and take soldiers
+    and arms; then, he said, there was a storehouse, where there
+    was plenty of powder; then, they would blow up the bridge, that
+    would stop the Welsh mail which did run to the north, and that
+    would be tidings; and they would commence there in the north on
+    Monday night, and he should be able to see two or three of his
+    friends or enemies in Newport."--(vol. i., p. 36.)
+
+Similar observations he made to another of his followers, who asked
+him, on hearing him give orders for the guns to take the front, the
+pikes next, the bludgeons next,--"in the name of God, what was he going
+to do? was he going to attack any place or people?" he said,--
+
+    "He was going to attack Newport, and take it--and blow up
+    the bridge, and prevent the Welsh mail from proceeding to
+    Birmingham: that there would be three delegates there, to
+    wait for the coach an hour and a half after the time; and if
+    the mail did not arrive there, the attack was to commence at
+    Birmingham, and be carried thence to the North of England,
+    and Scotland, _and that was to be the signal for the whole
+    nation_."--(vol. i., p. 33.)
+
+The coal and iron trade in these parts, from which the population
+derived their subsistence, had seldom been more prosperous than at the
+time when this movement was concerted and made: employment was easily
+obtained; wages were high; and those concerned in the affair had no
+private grievances to redress. At the same time, it was notorious that
+political agitation, on the subject of the Charter aforesaid, had for
+some time prevailed there--that the population had been organised for
+combined and effective action by affiliated societies; and Frost,
+the prime mover--a pestilent agitator, who, occupying the position
+of a decent tradesman, a linendraper, in Newtown, had been rashly
+raised to the local magistracy, from which he was soon degraded for
+sedition--declared his object to be, to make the Charter the law of the
+land. All these, and many other facts, which had been elicited during
+the preliminary examinations, were known to the prisoner's counsel, who
+had copies of all the depositions which had been made by the witnesses;
+and also knew the precise terms in which the indictment was framed, and
+the name, calling, and residence of every witness to be produced in
+proof of that indictment.
+
+How was this towering array of facts to be encountered, with these
+enlightened judges to conduct the inquiry, and guide the jury, and
+very able and determined counsel to elicit and arrange the facts,
+and enforce them on the jury--and _have the last word_ with the jury
+in so doing? We may well imagine how anxious and disheartening were
+the consultations of the prisoner's counsel before going into court.
+Neither they, nor their attorneys, could disguise from themselves the
+desperate nature of the case in which they were concerned. They would
+probably determine to cross-examine the witnesses very cautiously
+and rigorously, with a view to breaking down important links in the
+case; and it is likely that their paramount object in conducting the
+defence, would be to aim at supplying Frost with some other than _a
+general object_--something else than establishing the Charter as the
+law of the land. A hopeful prospect! But besides all this, it must
+have been determined, of course, to throw no single chance away,
+whereon--however, whenever it presented itself--to fight the fearful
+case for the Crown inch by inch, and foot by foot--contesting every
+technical point, with a view to detecting any possible slip in either
+the preliminary or any other part of the proceedings of the experienced
+and watchful Crown officers. Here, again, was a hopeful prospect! Their
+proceedings had been doubtless advised beforehand by the Attorney and
+Solicitor General, and conducted by Mr Maule, the Solicitor of the
+Treasury, in person--himself a barrister, and consummately qualified
+for his post. He was also a humane man, always anxious to discharge his
+duties firmly, but at the same time to afford a prisoner every degree
+of consideration and indulgence consistent with the public interest.
+By this time the reader may be aware how very serious a thing is the
+conduct, on the part of the Crown, of a prosecution of high treason,
+in every one of its stages--in the slightest particulars--especially
+where the great _facts_ of the case are so clear against the prisoner,
+as to compel his advocate to watch and test every link in the chain
+fixed around his client. Here, in fact, correlative duties are cast
+on the opposing parties--to _take_ every possible objection; and to
+be beforehand _prepared for_ every possible objection, by vigilant
+exactitude in complying with every legal requisite.
+
+On the _eleventh_ day of December 1839, the Grand Jury returned a
+true bill for high treason, against John Frost and thirteen of his
+followers; and on the very next day--viz., Thursday the _twelfth_,
+in order to oblige the prisoner, by giving him the longest possible
+time for availing himself of the important information contained in
+the _indictment_, and the _jury list_--copies of these instruments
+were delivered to him by the Solicitor of the Treasury. On the
+ensuing Tuesday, the 17th, he delivered to the prisoner a _list of
+the witnesses_; and, the trial having been appointed to take place on
+the 31st December, five days previously to the latter day--viz., on
+the 26th December--Sir Frederick Pollock and Mr Kelly were assigned
+to John Frost, as his counsel, on his application pursuant to the
+statute to Mr Bellamy, the clerk of the Crown. It is here essential,
+in order to appreciate the immense importance of the earliest moves
+in this life-and-death game, to weigh every word in the following
+brief enactment, under which the above documents were delivered to the
+prisoner: the humane object of the legislature being to afford him
+ample time to prepare his defence.--"When any person is indicted for
+high treason, a list of the _witnesses_, and of the _jury_, mentioning
+the names, profession, and place of abode of the said witnesses and
+jurors, be also given at the same time that the copy of the indictment
+is delivered to the party indicted--which copy of the indictment shall
+be delivered ten days before the trial."[10] Thus it will be seen that
+as the trial was to take place on Tuesday the 31st December, Mr Maule
+might have delayed delivering these documents to the prisoner till
+the 20th, and perhaps till the 21st December; but, solely to favour
+the prisoner, he delivered two of them--viz., the indictment and jury
+list--so early as the 12th, and the list of witnesses so early as the
+17th December. Let us see, by and by, whether anything comes of this,
+and of the lengthened study, by the prisoner's counsel, of these three
+documents.
+
+On Tuesday the 31st December 1839, all the fourteen prisoners were
+arraigned on an indictment consisting of four counts: two for levying
+war against her Majesty in her realm; a third for compassing to depose
+the Queen from her royal throne; and the last, for compassing to
+levy war against the Queen, with intent to compel her to change her
+measures. To this indictment each of the fourteen prisoners pleaded
+not guilty; and it is to be particularly observed that they all did so
+without making any objection on any score. Thus was taken the first
+move by the Crown counsel, who may possibly, for aught we can at
+present see, have thereby gained some very great advantage. Let us now
+conceive the solemnly-exciting scene of the court house at Monmonth, on
+this memorable trial. Three judges sitting, in their imposing scarlet
+and ermine vestments, calm and grave; a phalanx of counsel sitting
+beneath them; the prisoners standing at the bar, on their deliverance,
+silent as the grave, while the fate-fraught procedure of the court was
+methodically going on; the spectators crowding every part of the court
+that they could occupy, and all silent, nothing heard but official
+voices; while without that court all was excitement--repressed,
+however, by the stern presence of the civil and military power;
+detachments of troops at that moment scouring the adjacent hills in
+quest of malcontents, and preventing any fresh rising of the population.
+
+The first step taken by the prisoner's counsel was to state that
+they appeared for John Frost alone, and should challenge the jury
+separately: on which all the other prisoners were removed from the bar,
+John Frost remaining to take his trial alone. Then came the swearing of
+the jury--the name of every one, with his calling in life, and place
+of abiding, being known to the prisoner and his counsel, who objected
+to the very first step taken by the clerk of the Crown. He had begun
+to call over the names in their alphabetical order on the panel--the
+usual course for a great series of years; but Sir Frederick Pollock
+objected to his doing so, insisting on each juror's name being taken
+from the ballot-box. The Lord Chief-Justice was about to have overruled
+the objection; but the Attorney-General intimated that he consented
+to the course proposed by the prisoner's counsel. Each witness was
+sworn first on the _voir dire_, (_i. e._ _dicere verum_) as to his
+qualification, before he was sworn to try. First came a juryman who was
+challenged peremptorily on the part of the Crown; but the prisoner's
+counsel, doubtless for very good reasons, wishing him to remain on the
+jury, insisted, first, that the Crown had no such right--an objection
+at once overruled; secondly, that the crown was too late, as the juror
+had actually got the New Testament into his hand to be sworn to try
+before the Crown challenged. But, on the court's inquiry, it turned
+out that the witness had himself taken the book, without having been
+directed to do so by the clerk of the Crown. Under these circumstances,
+the court decided that the Crown were in time with their challenge--and
+the juryman was excluded. In this kind of out-skirmishing the whole of
+the first day was consumed!--a full jury not having been sworn till the
+evening, when they were "charged" with the prisoner and then dismissed
+for the night--but with the unpleasant information from the court, that
+they themselves were thenceforth prisoners (though with every kind of
+proper indulgence) till the trial was over.
+
+On the next morning, just as the Attorney-General was rising to state
+the case of the Crown, he was interrupted by Sir Frederick Pollock,
+and doubtless sufficiently astonished by what fell from him: "I feel
+myself bound, at the earliest moment--and this is the first opportunity
+that I have had,--to take an objection which must occur the moment
+that the first witness is put into the box,--namely, that the prisoner
+has never had a list of the witnesses, _pursuant to the statute_, and
+that therefore _no witness can be called_!" What could be the meaning
+of this? inquired the Attorney-General's companions among themselves,
+with no little anxiety; but he himself somewhat sternly censured the
+interruption, as premature, (as it certainly was,) and proceeded with
+his address to the jury. He made a lucid and very temperate statement
+of the case--drawing attention prominently to the necessity imposed on
+him of proving that what had been done by Frost and his companions was
+with a _general_, and not a particular object,--a _public_, and not
+a private purpose. His proposed proof was crushing: but immediately
+on the Solicitor-General's calling the name of the first witness,
+Sir Frederick Pollock rose, and required him to prove the delivery of
+a list of the witnesses, containing the particular one in question,
+pursuant to the statute. The Attorney-General then called Mr Maule,
+who proved having done what has already been explained: whereupon Sir
+Frederick Pollock disclosed the exact objection, which he himself
+had been the first to detect--that whereas the statute required all
+these documents,--_i. e._, the indictment, the jury list, and witness
+list--to be delivered "_at the same time_," in the present instance
+that had not been done, the first two having been delivered on the
+12th, and the list of witnesses on the 17th December! This was a very
+formidable move on the part of the prisoner: who stood at the bar on
+his deliverance--the jury being bound to convict or acquit according
+to evidence, and none could be offered them! If that _were_ so, he
+must of necessity be pronounced not guilty, and be for ever safe. The
+objection was urged with extreme tenacity and ingenuity by both the
+prisoner's counsel, who insisted on the statute of Anne receiving a
+strict literal construction of the words "at the same time,"--admitting
+the benevolent intentions by which Mr Maule had been actuated.
+The Attorney-General argued very earnestly against this startling
+objection, denying that it had any validity--asserting that the statute
+had been substantially complied with; and that the objection, if valid,
+had been waived; and that it was made too late--viz., not till after
+the prisoner had pleaded to the indictment, and the jury been charged
+with the prisoner. The Attorney-General's astute argument, however,
+was interrupted by the Lord Chief-Justice, stating that the court had
+a sufficient degree of doubt on the point to reserve it for further
+consideration by the judges at Westminster, should it become necessary:
+for, if their objection were valid, it affected every one of the
+fourteen prisoners awaiting their trial! Then came another desperate
+attempt of Sir Frederick Pollock, to secure his client the benefit of
+_an acquittal_, in the event of the judges ultimately deciding that
+the objection ought to have been decided in the prisoner's favour at
+the trial. This, however, the Attorney-General again strongly opposed;
+and the court cautiously ruled, that, in the event contemplated, the
+prisoner would be entitled then to the same benefit to which he would
+have been entitled at the trial--without saying what that would have
+been. The witness thus provisionally objected to was then admitted; but
+only to be, at first, sworn on the _voir dire_, on which a lengthened
+examination and some argument ensued--each of the judges delivering
+judgment on the excessively refined and astute objection to the manner
+in which the witness's place of abode had been described in the
+list--which was such as that it was just imaginable, and nothing more,
+that an inquirer might have been misled! The objection was overruled in
+the case of the first witness; but on the ensuing two witnesses--and
+most important witnesses--being called, a similar objection was
+taken, but too successfully, and their evidence, consequently,
+altogether excluded!--excluded solely on account of the anxious
+"_over_-particularity" of the Crown! Nor were these the only witnesses
+whose testimony was, on such grounds, rendered unavailable to the Crown.
+
+Then came the usual contests, from time to time, as to acts and
+declarations of third parties, which were offered as evidence against
+the prisoner, though done and said in his absence, and before and
+after the actual outbreak--viz., to what extent he had rendered
+himself liable for the consequences of such acts and declarations,
+by embarking in a common enterprise, having a common intent with
+these third parties. The result of such contests was practically
+this,--The court acted on the rule of law, as rule established, that,
+in treason and conspiracy, the Crown may prove either the conspiracy,
+which renders admissible as evidence the acts and declarations of the
+co-conspirators; or the acts and declarations of the different persons,
+and so prove the conspiracy. A witness, for instance, said that he was
+at a party at a Chartists' lodge on the 2d November, when a man named
+_Reed_ gave them directions to go to Newport on the following night,
+and explained for what purpose they were to go: but the witness did not
+see Frost till two days _afterwards_, when on his march to Newport. The
+Lord Chief-Justice overruled the objections of Sir F. Pollock and Mr
+Kelly, and received the evidence which they had attempted to exclude.
+
+A great mass of proof was given during the trial, establishing most
+satisfactorily the acts and doings of Frost, throughout the progress
+of the conspiracy, and down to the very moment of the actual attack
+on the inn, and the Queen's troops stationed in it--a mass of proof
+on which the attempt to make an impression seemed absurd. There was
+only one faint ray of hope for the prisoner's counsel, throughout the
+palpable obscure--that they might be able to escape from the generality
+and publicity of object attributed to the prisoner, by persuading the
+jury that the object was a private, temporary, and specific one--viz.,
+to effect the release of one Vincent, a Chartist, then in confinement
+at Monmouth! To pave the way for this hopeful line of defence, first,
+an artful turn was sought, in cross-examination, to be given to one
+of the early witnesses. He swore that he had heard one of those who
+attacked the inn, exclaim at the time, presenting his gun at one
+of the special constables at the door, "Surrender _yourselves_ our
+prisoners;" to which the gallant answer was, "No, never!" On this Mr
+Kelly very warily cross-examined the witness, with a view of showing
+that, in the confusion, he could not hear very distinctly, so as to
+report distinctly, as to precise expressions; that the mob intended
+merely to rescue Vincent; and that the expressions used must have
+been, not "Surrender _yourselves_ our prisoners," but "Surrender up
+our prisoners!" or simply, "Surrender our prisoners,"--thus rejecting,
+from the witness's answer, the single significant word "yourselves."
+The attempt, however, was wholly ineffectual; but out of two other
+witnesses were extorted on cross-examination, the following (so to
+speak) crumbs of comfort: from one--"I have heard Vincent's name
+mentioned many times; I have heard Williams (one of the leaders of the
+three bands forming the ten thousand) say that Vincent was a prisoner
+at Monmouth: the people there liked him very much; the people knew
+he was in jail. I have heard them speak about him." Another witness
+said,--"I knew of Vincent's being sent to prison: I believe the
+Chartists took a great interest in his fate: I do recollect something
+of dissatisfaction about Vincent's treatment, and about a petition to
+be drawn up: I recollect people's minds being dissatisfied about it."
+Another witness, however, said "that at midnight on the Sunday, (the
+3d November,) Williams came to his house with a number of armed men:"
+the witness inquired, "Where are you going?"--"Why do you ask?" said
+Williams. "Because," answered the witness, "some of the men who were
+with me have told me, this morning, that they were going to Monmouth,
+to draw Vincent out of prison."--"_No_," replied Williams, "_we do not
+attempt it_: we are going to give a turn as far as Newport."
+
+The Attorney-General closed his case with the arrest of Frost, heavily
+armed, and in concealment, on the evening of the day on which he
+had attacked the inn with his five thousand men; and thus stood the
+matter, when, after a considerable interval for repose and reflection,
+courteously conceded by the Lord Chief-Justice, at the implied request
+of Sir Frederick Pollock, that most able and upright advocate rose to
+address the jury for the defence. Judging from the specimens afforded
+us by Mr Townsend, Sir Frederick Pollock's address appears to have
+been pervaded by a strain of dignified and earnest eloquence, and also
+characterised by a candour in dealing with facts which was in the
+highest degree honourable to him, and also equally advantageous to the
+prisoner, on whose behalf such conduct was calculated to conciliate
+both the judges and the jury. His line of defence was, that, admitting
+enormous indiscretion on the part of Frost in assembling so vast a body
+of men, and marching and appearing with them as he did at Newport,
+there was no satisfactory evidence of his having done so with a
+_treasonable_ purpose. He had been guilty of a heinous misdemeanour;
+but the treasonable declarations and exclamations put into his and
+their mouths, in order to give the affair a treasonable complexion,
+had been either misunderstood or perverted by the witnesses. The
+sole object of Frost and his friends was the release of Vincent;
+that they had never dreamed of _taking_, or _attacking_ the town of
+Newport--least of all, as an act of general rebellion; that all they
+had meant was to take a "turn" as far as Newport, to get Vincent
+out of prison; and that "that was the true character of the whole
+proceedings;" that Frost did not know that the military were in the
+inn; and that, the instant they had become visible, and had fired,
+the crowd succumbed, threw down their arms, and ran away--_i. e._
+they did this "the very moment there was any prospect of what they
+were doing being construed into treason." That Frost could not have
+contemplated treason, and throwing the whole country into confusion,
+would be evidenced by proof, and his having made provision for the
+payment of a bill of exchange, and actually paying it on the very
+Monday on which the outbreak occurred. Sir Frederick Pollock properly
+insisted on the burthen of proving treason lying on the Crown, and not
+of disproof on the prisoner. Then were called one or two witnesses,
+with a view to showing expressions of the crowd that they had come to
+Newport in quest of their prisoners who were there; but the evidence
+proved ridiculously insufficient and contradictory. Then was read, with
+the Attorney-General's consent, a letter of Frost's in the previous
+September, to one of the visiting magistrates of the gaol of Monmouth,
+requesting some relaxation of the prison discipline to which Vincent
+and other prisoners were subject; and it appeared, also, that a similar
+application had been made to the Lord-Lieutenant of the county. Then
+was proved Frost's having taken up his acceptance on the 4th November;
+and his character for humanity as specially instanced in his having
+protected Lord Granville Somerset from personal violence, during the
+Reform riots of 1832. Finally was called a witness, with the view of
+negativing the design imputed to Frost of preventing the Welsh mail
+from going to Birmingham, by showing the absurdity of that course,
+since a new and different mail started from Bristol to Birmingham,
+and not the same coach which had come from Newport. But to this
+witness were put the following significant, and probably unsuspected,
+questions:--
+
+    "_Attorney-General._--You took an interest, I suppose, in
+    Vincent?--_A._ I did so.
+
+    "_Attorney-General._--You had not been told that there was
+    to be any meeting for Vincent on the 4th of November, had
+    you?--_A._ No.
+
+    "_Attorney-General._--You, living at Newport, can tell us that
+    there was no notice by placard, or in any other way, of a
+    meeting to be held on the 4th November?--_A._ _I never saw any._
+
+    "_Attorney-General._--_Nor heard of any?_--_A._ _No._"
+
+Such was the meagre case in behalf of the prisoner in point of
+evidence. And at its close, his second counsel, Mr Kelly, rose to
+address the jury on his behalf--a privilege accorded to no prisoner,
+except one tried on a charge of high treason. We shall present the
+reader with an extract from the opening passage in Mr Kelly's address,
+inasmuch as it is highly characteristic of that eminent counsellor's
+style of advocacy--of his imposing display of fervent confidence in his
+case--his terse and nervous expression, and the clearness and precision
+of his reasoning. We have some ground for believing that the following
+is exactly what fell from his lips:--
+
+    "The Attorney-General, in his opening, seemed to anticipate
+    that we might deviate from the straight and honourable course
+    before us, in defending the prisoner, into something like an
+    attempt to induce you to depart from the strict letter of
+    the law. So far from this, it is in the law, in the strict
+    undeviating performance of the law, that I place my hope, my
+    only trust. It is my prayer, therefore, that you should follow
+    it; that you should be guided and governed by it; that you
+    should attend and adhere to the law, and to the law alone;
+    because I feel that, by that law, I shall prove to you, clearly
+    and satisfactorily, that the prisoner, whatever may have been
+    his misconduct in other respects, however high the crimes and
+    misdemeanours for which in another form he might have been
+    indicted or punished--I feel that, by the law of high treason,
+    he is as guiltless as any one of you, whose duty, I hope, it
+    will soon be so to pronounce him. Gentlemen, if the prisoner
+    at the bar be at this moment in any jeopardy or danger, it is
+    from the law not prevailing, or not being clearly and perfectly
+    understood. It is because the facts, which are in evidence
+    before you, undoubtedly disclose a case of guilt against
+    him; because they do prove that he has committed a great and
+    serious violation of the law; because he has subjected himself
+    to indictment and to punishment, that the danger exists--a
+    danger from which it is for me, by all the humble efforts I
+    can command, to protect him--that you, finding that he has
+    offended against the justice of the country, should condemn
+    him, not for the misdemeanour which he has really committed,
+    but for the great and deadly crime with which he is charged by
+    this indictment. I therefore, Gentlemen, beseech your calm and
+    patient attention, while I endeavour as shortly, as concisely,
+    and, I will venture to add, as fairly and candidly as I can, to
+    lay before you, subject to the correction of their Lordships,
+    the law, as it affects this high and serious charge. And if
+    I should be fortunate enough to do so, I undertake then to
+    satisfy you--to convince the most doubting among you, if there
+    be any more doubting than the rest, when I shall refer you to
+    the testimony of the witnesses,--that this charge is not only
+    not proved, but that it is absolutely and totally disproved,
+    even by the evidence for the prosecution. The question here
+    is,--not whether a great and alarming riot has been committed;
+    the question is, not whether blood has been shed, whether
+    crimes, which are, as they ought to be, punishable by law,
+    have been perpetrated by many who may be the subjects of this
+    indictment; but the question is, whether the prisoner at the
+    bar has, by competent legal proof, been proved, beyond all
+    reasonable doubt in the mind of any one of you, to have levied
+    war against Her Majesty, with the treasonable intent which is
+    stated in this indictment? The Crown must satisfy you that the
+    prisoner at the bar has levied war; that he has levied war
+    against Her Majesty--that is, that he has conducted these armed
+    multitudes, and committed, if he has committed, outrages with
+    them, and concerted with them, or engaged them, to commit them;
+    and not merely that he has done all these acts, but that he has
+    done them against the Queen, that he has levied war against the
+    Queen and her Government. And then, further, it must be proved
+    to you that that was done with the intent, with the design,
+    which is stated in this indictment."--(I. p. 52, 53.)
+
+Mr Kelly's speech was long, elaborate, eloquent, and most
+ingenious--adhering closely to the line of defence taken by Sir
+Frederick Pollock--pressing on the jury in every possible way,
+with many varied illustrations, the improbability of Frost having
+contemplated the rebellious objects imputed to him, and the alleged
+certainty that his only view had been--the rescue of Vincent. He
+vehemently assailed the credibility of those witnesses who had given
+the strongest evidence against Frost; and concluded with a most
+impassioned appeal to the feelings of the jury. When he had concluded,
+the Lord Chief-Justice accorded still another privilege to Frost--viz.,
+that of himself then addressing the jury, after both his counsel
+had done so; to which Frost prudently replied--"My Lord, I am so
+well satisfied with what my counsel have said, that I decline saying
+anything upon this occasion."[11]
+
+The Solicitor-General then rose to reply on the part of the Crown;
+and if any one inexperienced in forensic contests were incredulous as
+to the potency of _the last word_ (from competent lips) in any case,
+civil or criminal, let him read the outline of this reply, with the
+copious specimens of it, given with much judgment by Mr Townsend.
+It is true that Sir Thomas Wilde's case was in itself crushing, but
+his dealing with it made that crushing character fearfully clear to
+the plainest capacity. Its opening passages seem tinctured by some
+sternness of allusion to the concluding topics of Mr Kelly's address;
+but the remainder of the reply is characterised by mingled moderation
+and power; by irresistible closeness and cogency of argument, and
+by extraordinary skill in dealing with facts, in combining and
+contrasting them, and pointing out a significancy lurking in them,
+which the prisoner's counsel had possibly not chosen to see, or
+skilfully striven to conceal. Our limits restrict us to one or two
+samples of the present Lord Chancellor's mode of advocacy when at the
+bar. After explaining that it was the real object contemplated by the
+prisoner--viz., to raise, rebellion--with which the jury had to deal,
+the Solicitor-General thus pithily disposed of all arguments which
+had been drawn from the prisoner's want of power to do all that he
+intended:--
+
+    "It is also immaterial to this Case whether or not he had the
+    power to do all he intended. We need not talk of punishing
+    successful rebellion--it is unsuccessful rebellion that
+    comes under the cognisance of the law. I cannot restrain the
+    expression of some surprise at the course of argument that was
+    taken by the learned counsel who last addressed you. His course
+    of argument was this: when the prisoner was interrupted in
+    what he was doing, 'Look and see what he has done;' where he
+    has accomplished his purpose, 'Do not believe the witnesses.'
+    The party having been dispersed by the soldiers, the learned
+    gentleman says, 'see if they went to the post-office; see if
+    they went to the bridge; see if they went to other places'--he
+    knowing that they were stopped before they reached those
+    places; 'but as to marching there with arms to take the town,
+    that I dispose of by asking you not to believe the witnesses;
+    so that, as regards what was prevented, I ask you to see what
+    was done; and as regards what was done, I ask you to disbelieve
+    the witnesses, and there is an end of the charge.'"--(I. p. 75.)
+
+This single paragraph annihilated a third of the case set up on behalf
+of Frost; as did the following a second third:--
+
+    "They could not have raised these men with a view to relieve
+    the prisoners at the Westgate, because at the time they
+    collected on the mountain they had not been taken. But had
+    it any relation to Vincent? What is their intention? We have
+    been told again and again that Mr Frost must not be supposed
+    likely to do absurd things; that he is a man of the world and a
+    man of intelligence. What then, gentlemen, do you think of an
+    attempt to induce the Monmouthshire magistrates to relax the
+    prison discipline in favour of a person who has been convicted
+    of sedition, or seditious libel, or something of that sort, by
+    marching into Newport with ten thousand men armed? What do you
+    think of a man of the world resorting to that mode of inducing
+    the magistrates to relax in favour of a prisoner? Is Mr Frost
+    a man of intelligence? Is he a man of the world? Suppose he
+    had been the worst foe that Vincent ever had, suppose that he
+    had desired to procure additional restrictions to be put upon
+    him, and had wished that he should sustain the last hour of
+    the sentence which had been pronounced upon him, could he have
+    resorted to a more maliciously effective mode than by showing
+    that those who were connected with Vincent were persons so
+    little acquainted with their duty, so little obedient to the
+    law, so little to be depended upon for their peaceable conduct,
+    as that they would march at that hour of the night into a town,
+    alarming and frightening every body?"--(I. p. 79.)
+
+Again:--
+
+    "Gentlemen, will you judge of the criminal intentions of
+    persons engaged in an insurrection by the probability of their
+    success? If you do, you will judge of a mob by a rule that
+    never was found correct yet. They always imagine--and they
+    would not begin if they did not imagine, though they always
+    imagine wrong, but they never will learn wisdom--they always
+    imagine that they can accomplish more than they can; of course
+    they begin, not with the idea of fastening a halter round their
+    necks, but with the idea that they shall succeed, and by their
+    success escape. With those thousands of men (you will see as
+    I pass on what the number of the soldiers were,) was it an
+    unnatural thing that, coming at between one and two o'clock
+    in the morning, they should surprise the poor-house; that the
+    soldiers, not being aware that they were coming, might not be
+    prepared--might be taken by surprise--might be either overcome
+    or murdered before they could put themselves in a condition to
+    defend themselves?
+
+    "Are their sayings inconsistent? What conspiracy ever was
+    consistent? You would indeed give the most perfect freedom
+    to conspiracy, rebellion, and treason, if you disbelieved
+    witnesses coming to prove declarations inconsistent if made at
+    the same time, though not inconsistent when made at different
+    times. They may at first think the soldiers to be Chartists
+    and their friends, and, in the next moment, talk of attacking
+    them in their barracks. But will you give a _carte blanche_ to
+    conspirators and traitors by saying, that if witnesses prove
+    inconsistent declarations, they are not to be believed? It is
+    not, gentlemen, the inconsistency of the witnesses, but of
+    those engaged in transactions, the conduct and management of
+    which must vary from hour to hour according as circumstances
+    arise; and that which a man may contemplate one minute, may
+    the following minute or the next hour be inconsistent with
+    the views that had prevailed arising out of the then existing
+    circumstances."--(I. p. 89.)
+
+The circumstance of Frost's having been found with the loaded pistols,
+and not having attempted to use them, is thus significantly disposed
+of:--
+
+    "Give him the benefit of the circumstance that _he did not use_
+    the three loaded pistols which he had about him. But I think,
+    unfortunately, that they speak much more strongly as indicating
+    violent intentions _when those pistols were provided_, than
+    they speak peaceable intentions when he was apprehended."--(I.
+    p. 24.)
+
+There has been no counsel at the English bar, in modern times, whose
+reply was more dreaded by an opponent than Sir Thomas Wilde; and that
+reply, in Frost's case, abundantly shows how well founded was that
+apprehension.
+
+Thus, then, the counsel on both sides having played out their
+parts in the case, it stood awaiting the intervention of the Lord
+Chief-Justice--the very model of judicial excellence. Tranquil,
+grave, patient; exact, ready, profound in legal knowledge, and of
+perfect impartiality--all these high qualities and qualifications
+were exhibited by him in his luminous and masterly summing-up on this
+occasion. In order to give all due weight to the sole substantial
+suggestion offered on behalf of the prisoner--_i. e._, that his object
+had been the liberation of Vincent--the Lord Chief-Justice read to the
+jury the following important passage from that great authority, Sir
+Matthew Hale--"If men levy war to break prisons, to deliver _one or
+more particular persons_ out of prison, this was ruled, on advice of
+the judges, to be not high treason, but only a great riot; but if it
+was to break prisons, or deliver _persons generally_ out of prison,
+this is treason."[12] Having taken at once a minute and comprehensive
+view of the evidence, he left the following as the exact question for
+their determination,--"Whether it was Frost's object, by the terror
+which bodies of armed men would inspire, to seize and keep possession
+of the town of Newport, making this a beginning of an extensive
+rebellion, _which would be high treason_; or whether he had no more in
+view than to effect, by the display of physical force, the amelioration
+of the condition of Vincent and his companions in Monmouth jail, if
+not their liberation, _which would be a dangerous misdemeanour only_;
+and the jury were to look at the evidence with all possible candour
+and fairness, and see if the Crown had conclusively disproved this
+limited object and design."[13] We conceive that neither Frost nor any
+one of his ten thousand dupes, on that "day of dupes" which led to
+this inquiry, could have taken objection to this mode of submitting
+the all-critical question to his jury--a jury of his peers, with the
+selection of whom he himself had had as much concern as the Crown.
+
+That jury retired from court for half-an-hour, and then returned,
+amidst the solemn excited silence of the court--crowded to
+suffocation--with the fatal verdict, "Guilty;" adding, "My lords, we
+wish to recommend the prisoner to the merciful consideration of the
+court." Sentence was not immediately passed upon him. He was removed
+from court; and on its re-assembling on the ensuing morning, Zephaniah
+Williams was placed at the bar, tried, and in due course found guilty;
+on which William Jones was in like manner arraigned, tried, and found
+guilty; each being recommended by the jury to mercy. Scared by this
+result, five of the ringleaders resolved to throw themselves on the
+mercy of the Crown, withdrawing their pleas of not guilty, and pleading
+guilty--it having been intimated that the sentence of death should be
+commuted into transportation for life. The Attorney-General thought it
+expedient, in the case of the remaining four prisoners, who were less
+deeply implicated, to allow a verdict of not guilty to be recorded.
+
+On the 16th January, Frost, Williams, and Jones were brought up to
+the bar to receive sentence of death, which the Lord Chief-Justice
+prefaced by a very solemn address, listened to in breathless silence.
+An imposing scene of judicial solemnity and terror, indeed, the court
+at that agitating moment exhibited. Without were strong detachments
+of soldiery, foot and horse, guarding the public peace: within were
+an anxious auditory, commanded to keep silence under pain of fine
+and imprisonment, while sentence of death was being passed upon the
+prisoners. There were, in the midst of the throng, two groups awfully
+contrasted in character and position--the three prisoners, standing
+pale and subdued; and, sitting opposite, the three judges, each wearing
+his black cap; while the following heart-sickening words fell from the
+lips of the Lord Chief-Justice:--
+
+    "And now nothing more remains than the duty imposed upon the
+    court--to all of us a most painful duty--to declare the last
+    SENTENCE OF THE LAW; which is that you, John Frost, and you,
+    Zephaniah Williams, and you, William Jones, be taken hence to
+    the place whence you came, and be thence drawn on a hurdle to
+    the place of execution, and that each of you be there hanged
+    by the neck until you be dead; _and that afterwards the head
+    of each of you shall be severed from his body, and the body of
+    each, divided into four quarters, shall be disposed of, as her
+    majesty shall think fit. And may Almighty God have mercy on
+    your souls!_"
+
+Whether the words placed in italics should ever again be pronounced on
+such an occasion, barbarously prescribing a revolting outrage on the
+dead, which it is known, at the time, cannot be perpetrated in these
+days of enlightened humanity, is a point which cannot admit of debate.
+The practice ought forthwith to be abolished, and by statute, if such
+be necessary.
+
+Under the mortal pressure of this capital sentence remained these three
+unhappy and misguided men, from the 16th till the 28th of January.
+On the 25th, an elaborate argument was had at Westminster before
+the fifteen judges, which lasted till the 28th, on a case framed by
+Lord Chief-Justice Tindal for their opinion, on the point which had
+been raised at the trial by Sir Frederick Pollock. The Chief-Justice
+submitted these two questions for consideration,--"_First_, whether the
+service of the list of witnesses was a good service, under the statute
+7 Anne, c. 21, Sec. 11; _secondly_, whether, at all events, the objection
+was taken in due time." There was a great array of counsel on both
+sides; but the argument was conducted by the Attorney-General alone, on
+behalf of the Crown; and by Sir Frederick Pollock, Sir William Follett,
+and Mr Kelly on behalf of the prisoners. The utmost possible ingenuity
+was displayed on both sides; and with such effect, that at the close of
+the argument the Lord Chief-Justice of the Common Pleas wrote a letter
+to the Secretary of State for the Home Department, (the Marquis of
+Normanby,) announcing the following somewhat perplexing result,--that,
+"first, a majority of the Judges, in the proportion Of NINE to SIX,
+were of opinion that the delivery of the list of witnesses was NOT a
+good delivery in point of law:
+
+"But, secondly, a majority of the Judges, in the proportion of nine to
+six, are of opinion that the OBJECTION to the delivery of the list of
+witnesses was _not taken in due time_.
+
+"All the Judges agreed, that if the objection had been made in time,
+the effect of it would have been a postponement of the trial, in order
+to give time for a proper delivery of the list."
+
+    The AYES on this occasion were--
+
+    _Justices_ Littledale, Patteson, Williams, Coleridge, Colins,
+    Erskine; Barons Parke, Alderson, Rolfe.
+
+    The NOES--
+
+    Lord Chief-Justice Denman, Lord Chief-Justice Tindal, Lord
+    Chief-Baron Abinger; _Justices_ Bosanquet and Maule, and Baron
+    Gurney.
+
+    Those last (the NOES) decided also that the objection had
+    not been taken in time; and three of the former class, (the
+    AYES,) viz. Baron Alderson, Baron Rolfe, and Justice Coleridge,
+    concurred in that decision.[14]
+
+Here was a question for the Executive to decide! A capital conviction
+for high treason, with a decision of the majority of the Judges of the
+land, that a statutory requisition as to the period for delivery of
+a list of the witnesses had not been exactly complied with, but that
+the prisoner did not make the objection till the time had gone by for
+making it; and that, had he made it in time, the utmost effect would
+have been to cause a postponement of the trial for a few days. The
+prisoner's objection was avowedly _strictissimi juris_; and he did
+not affect to show that he had suffered the slightest detriment from
+the over-anxious kindness of the Crown solicitor. That, under these
+circumstances, the lives of the three traitors were absolutely at the
+mercy of the Ministry, is indisputable; and no one, we conceive, could
+have censured them, if they had allowed the capital sentence to be
+carried into effect. They inclined, however, to the merciful exercise
+of their anxious discretion; and the capital sentence was remitted, on
+the condition of the three prisoners being transported for the term of
+their natural lives. They have now been ten years at the Antipodes; and
+how many times, during that lengthened period of bitter, dishonoured
+existence, they have cursed their own folly and crime, who can tell?
+
+Have they ever appreciated the skill and vigilance with which they
+were defended? It is true that this one chance objection--which it
+is wonderful should have occurred to any one at all--was ultimately
+pronounced, but only by a majority of the Judges after lengthened
+debate, to have been taken too late; but if it had not occurred to
+the vigilant advocate when it did--if no one had taken it at any
+time--would not the three traitors have been executed? Unquestionably:
+public justice, the public safety required it. Whether Sir Frederick
+Pollock purposely delayed making the objection till the moment when he
+did, (and the Attorney-General insinuated, before the fifteen Judges,
+that such was the case,[15]) thinking that course more advantageous to
+the prisoners, or whether the objection had not, in fact, occurred to
+him till it was too late, we cannot at present say. This much, however,
+we can say in conclusion, that we are very much indebted to the late
+Mr Townsend for having enabled us to present this entertainment--for
+such we hope it has proved--to our readers; who may hereafter look
+with great interest on a great trial, especially if they have the
+opportunity of witnessing it. They may then appreciate the exquisite
+anxieties and responsibilities imposed on those concerned in conducting
+it--the difficulties with which they have to contend on the spot,
+without time for consideration, though life itself be the stake played
+for. They will also, probably, be of the opinion, that in the great
+game at Monmouth all the players played their parts well--may we not
+say admirably?--that the uttermost justice was done on both sides. Two
+practical deductions from the whole may yet be made: first, have a
+look-out, gentlemen prosecutors, in taking every single step of your
+course, however apparently unimportant at the time it may seem to you;
+bearing in mind that, in proportion to the desperate exigencies of
+the defence, will be the piercing scrutiny to which every formality
+will be subjected; so that a blot may be hit which might easily
+have been avoided, but, when hit, is fatal. Secondly, in your turn,
+gentlemen counsel, be encouraged by the result of this interesting and
+instructive trial, to watch every single step of your opponents--even
+those in which error, omission, or miscarriage is least likely--with
+sleepless vigilance, and be prompt in action. Thus much for the trial
+of John Frost.
+
+
+
+
+MY NOVEL; OR, VARIETIES IN ENGLISH LIFE.
+
+BY PISISTRATUS CAXTON.
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+In my next chapter I shall present Squire Hazeldean in patriarchal
+state--not exactly under the fig-tree he has planted, but before the
+stocks he has reconstructed.--Squire Hazeldean and his family on the
+village green! The canvass is all ready for the colours.
+
+But in this chapter I must so far afford a glimpse into antecedents
+as to let the reader know that there is one member of the family whom
+he is not likely to meet at present, if ever, on the village green at
+Hazeldean.
+
+Our squire lost his father two years after his birth; his mother was
+very handsome--and so was her jointure; she married again at the
+expiration of her year of mourning--the object of her second choice was
+Colonel Egerton.
+
+In every generation of Englishmen (at least since the lively reign
+of Charles II.) there are a few whom some elegant Genius skims off
+from the milk of human nature, and reserves for the cream of society.
+Colonel Egerton was one of these _terque, quaterque beati_, and dwelt
+apart on a top shelf in that delicate porcelain dish--not bestowed
+upon vulgar buttermilk--which persons of fashion call The Great World.
+Mighty was the marvel of Pall Mall, and profound was the pity of Park
+Lane, when this supereminent personage condescended to lower himself
+into a husband. But Colonel Egerton was not a mere gaudy butterfly;
+he had the provident instincts ascribed to the bee. Youth had passed
+from him--and carried off much solid property in its flight; he saw
+that a time was fast coming when a home, with a partner who could help
+to maintain it, would be conducive to his comforts, and an occasional
+humdrum evening by the fireside beneficial to his health. In the midst
+of one season at Brighton, to which gay place he had accompanied the
+Prince of Wales, he saw a widow who, though in the weeds of mourning,
+did not appear inconsolable. Her person pleased his taste--the
+accounts of her jointure satisfied his understanding; he contrived an
+introduction, and brought a brief wooing to a happy close. The late
+Mr Hazeldean had so far anticipated the chance of the young widow's
+second espousals, that, in case of that event, he transferred, by
+his testamentary dispositions, the guardianship of his infant heir
+from the mother to two squires whom he had named his executors. This
+circumstance combined with her new ties somewhat to alienate Mrs
+Hazeldean from the pledge of her former loves; and when she had born
+a son to Colonel Egerton, it was upon that child that her maternal
+affections gradually concentrated.
+
+William Hazeldean was sent by his guardians to a large provincial
+academy, at which his forefathers had received their education time
+out of mind. At first he spent his holidays with Mrs Egerton; but as
+she now resided either in London, or followed her lord to Brighton
+to partake of the gaieties at the Pavilion--so, as he grew older,
+William, who had a hearty affection for country life, and of whose
+bluff manners and rural breeding Mrs Egerton (having grown exceedingly
+refined) was openly ashamed, asked and obtained permission to spend his
+vacations either with his guardians or at the old hall. He went late to
+a small college at Cambridge, endowed in the fifteenth century by some
+ancestral Hazeldean; and left it, on coming of age, without taking a
+degree. A few years afterwards he married a young lady, country born
+and bred like himself.
+
+Meanwhile his half-brother, Audley Egerton, may be said to have begun
+his initiation into the _beau monde_ before he had well cast aside
+his coral and bells; he had been fondled in the lap of duchesses,
+and galloped across the room astride on the canes of ambassadors and
+princes. For Colonel Egerton was not only very highly connected--not
+only one of the _Dii majoris_ of fashion--but he had the still rarer
+good fortune to be an exceedingly popular man with all who knew
+him;--so popular, that even the fine ladies whom he had adored and
+abandoned forgave him for marrying out of "the set," and continued
+to be as friendly as if he had not married at all. People who were
+commonly called heartless, were never weary of doing kind things to
+the Egertons.--When the time came for Audley to leave the preparatory
+school, at which his infancy budded forth amongst the stateliest of the
+little lilies of the field, and go to Eton, half the fifth and sixth
+forms had been canvassed to be exceedingly civil to young Egerton. The
+boy soon showed that he inherited his father's talent for acquiring
+popularity, and that to this talent he added those which put popularity
+to use. Without achieving any scholastic distinction, he yet contrived
+to establish at Eton the most desirable reputation which a boy can
+obtain--namely, that among his own contemporaries--the reputation of
+a boy who was sure to do something when he grew to be a man. As a
+gentleman commoner at Christ Church, Oxford, he continued to sustain
+this high expectation, though he won no prizes and took but an ordinary
+degree; and at Oxford the future "something" became more defined--it
+was "something in public life" that this young man was to do.
+
+While he was yet at the university, both his parents died--within a few
+months of each other. And when Audley Egerton came of age, he succeeded
+to a paternal property which was supposed to be large, and indeed had
+once been so, but Colonel Egerton had been too lavish a man to enrich
+his heir, and about L1500 a-year was all that sales and mortgages left
+of an estate that had formerly approached a rental of ten thousand
+pounds.
+
+Still, Audley was considered to be opulent, and he did not dispel that
+favourable notion by any imprudent exhibition of parsimony. On entering
+the world of London, the Clubs flew open to receive him: and he woke
+one morning to find himself, not indeed famous--but the fashion. To
+this fashion he at once gave a certain gravity and value--he associated
+as much as possible with public men and political ladies--he succeeded
+in confirming the notion that he was 'born to ruin or to rule the
+State.'
+
+Now, his dearest and most intimate friend was Lord L'Estrange, from
+whom he had been inseparable at Eton; and who now, if Audley Egerton
+was the fashion, was absolutely the rage in London.
+
+Harley Lord L'Estrange was the only son of the Earl of Lansmere, a
+nobleman of considerable wealth, and allied by intermarriages to
+the loftiest and most powerful families in England. Lord Lansmere,
+nevertheless, was but little known in the circles of London. He lived
+chiefly on his estates, occupying himself with the various duties of a
+great proprietor, and rarely came to the metropolis; so that he could
+afford to give his son a very ample allowance, when Harley, at the age
+of sixteen, (having already attained to the sixth form at Eton,) left
+school for one of the regiments of the Guards.
+
+Few knew what to make of Harley L'Estrange--and that was, perhaps,
+the reason why he was so much thought of. He had been by far the
+most brilliant boy of his time at Eton--not only the boast of the
+cricket-ground, but the marvel of the school-room--yet so full of whims
+and oddities, and seeming to achieve his triumphs with so little aid
+from steadfast application, that he had not left behind him the same
+expectations of solid eminence which his friend and senior, Audley
+Egerton, had excited. His eccentricities--his quaint sayings and
+out-of-the-way actions, became as notable in the great world as they
+had been in the small one of a public school. That he was very clever
+there was no doubt, and that the cleverness was of a high order might
+be surmised not only from the originality but the independence of
+his character. He dazzled the world, without seeming to care for its
+praise or its censure--dazzled it, as it were, because he could not
+help shining. He had some strange notions, whether political or social,
+which rather frightened his father. According to Southey, "A man should
+be no more ashamed of having been a republican than of having been
+young." Youth and extravagant opinions naturally go together. I don't
+know whether Harley L'Estrange was a republican at the age of eighteen;
+but there was no young man in London who seemed to care less for being
+heir to an illustrious name and some forty or fifty thousand pounds
+a-year. It was a vulgar fashion in that day to play the exclusive, and
+cut persons who wore bad neckcloths and called themselves Smith or
+Johnson. Lord L'Estrange never cut any one, and it was quite enough to
+slight some worthy man because of his neckcloth or his birth, to ensure
+to the offender the pointed civilities of this eccentric successor to
+the Dorimonts and the Wildairs.
+
+It was the wish of his father that Harley, as soon as he came of age,
+should represent the borough of Lansmere, (which said borough was the
+single plague of the Earl's life.) But this wish was never realised.
+Suddenly, when the young idol of London still wanted some two or
+three years of his majority, a new whim appeared to seize him. He
+withdrew entirely from society--he left unanswered the most pressing
+three-cornered notes of inquiry and invitation that ever strewed
+the table of a young Guardsman; he was rarely seen anywhere in his
+former haunts--when seen, was either alone or with Egerton; and his
+gay spirits seemed wholly to have left him. A profound melancholy was
+written in his countenance, and breathed in the listless tones of his
+voice. At this time the Guards were achieving in the Peninsula their
+imperishable renown; but the battalion to which Harley belonged was
+detained at home; and whether chafed by inaction or emulous of glory,
+the young Lord suddenly exchanged into a cavalry regiment, from which a
+recent memorable conflict had swept one half the officers. Just before
+he joined, a vacancy happening to occur for the representation of
+Lansmere, he made it his special request to his father that the family
+interest might be given to his friend Egerton--went down to the Park,
+which adjoined the borough, to take leave of his parents--and Egerton
+followed, to be introduced to the electors. This visit made a notable
+epoch in the history of many personages who figure in my narrative;
+but at present I content myself with saying, that circumstances arose
+which, just as the canvass for the new election commenced, caused both
+L'Estrange and Audley to absent themselves from the scene of action,
+and that the last even wrote to Lord Lansmere expressing his intention
+of declining to contest the borough.
+
+Fortunately for the parliamentary career of Audley Egerton, the
+election had become to Lord Lansmere not only a matter of public
+importance, but of personal feeling. He resolved that the battle
+should be fought out, even in the absence of the candidate, and at his
+own expense. Hitherto the contest for this distinguished borough had
+been, to use the language of Lord Lansmere, "conducted in the spirit
+of gentlemen,"--that is to say, the only opponents to the Lansmere
+interest had been found in one or the other of two rival families
+in the same county; and as the Earl was a hospitable courteous man,
+much respected and liked by the neighbouring gentry, so the hostile
+candidate had always interlarded his speeches with profuse compliments
+to his Lordship's high character, and civil expressions as to his
+Lordship's candidate. But, thanks to successive elections, one of
+these two families had come to an end, and its actual representative
+was now residing within the Rules of the Bench; the head of the other
+family was the sitting member, and, by an amicable agreement with the
+Lansmere interest, he remained as neutral as it is in the power of any
+sitting member to be amidst the passions of an intractable committee.
+Accordingly, it had been hoped that Egerton would come in without
+opposition, when, the very day on which he had abruptly left the place,
+a handbill, signed "Haverill Dashmore, Captain R.N., Baker Street,
+Portman Square," announced, in very spirited language, the intention
+of that gentleman to emancipate the borough from the unconstitutional
+domination of an oligarchical faction, not with a view to his own
+political aggrandisement--indeed, at great personal inconvenience--but
+actuated solely by abhorrence to tyranny, and patriotic passion for the
+purity of election.
+
+This announcement was followed, within two hours, by the arrival of
+Captain Dashmore himself, in a carriage-and-four covered with yellow
+favours, and filled, inside and out, with harum-scarum looking friends
+who had come down with him to aid the canvass and share the fun.
+
+Captain Dashmore was a thorough sailor, who had, however, taken a
+disgust to the profession from the date in which a Minister's nephew
+had been appointed to the command of a ship to which the Captain
+considered himself unquestionably entitled. It is just to the Minister
+to add, that Captain Dashmore had shown as little regard for orders
+from a distance, as had immortalized Nelson himself; but then the
+disobedience had not achieved the same redeeming success as that of
+Nelson, and Captain Dashmore ought to have thought himself fortunate
+in escaping a severer treatment than the loss of promotion. But no
+man knows when he is well off; and retiring on half-pay, just as
+he came into unexpected possession of some forty or fifty thousand
+pounds, bequeathed by a distant relation, Captain Dashmore was seized
+with a vindictive desire to enter parliament, and inflict oratorical
+chastisement on the Administration.
+
+A very few hours sufficed to show the sea-captain to be a most capital
+electioneerer for a small and not very enlightened borough. It is true
+that he talked the saddest nonsense ever heard from an open window;
+but then his jokes were so broad, his manner so hearty, his voice so
+big, that in those dark days, before the schoolmaster was abroad, he
+would have beaten your philosophical Radical and moralising Democrat
+hollow. Moreover he kissed all the women, old and young, with all the
+zest of a sailor who has known what it is to be three years at sea
+without sight of a beardless lip; he threw open all the public-houses,
+asked a numerous committee every day to dinner, and, chucking his purse
+up in the air, declared "he would stick to his guns while there was a
+shot in the locker." Till then, there had been but little political
+difference between the candidate supported by Lord Lansmere's interest
+and the opposing parties--for country gentlemen, in those days, were
+pretty much of the same way of thinking, and the question had been
+really local--viz., whether the Lansmere interest should or should
+not prevail over that of the two squirearchical families who had
+alone, hitherto, ventured to oppose it. But though Captain Dashmore
+was really a very loyal man, and much too old a sailor to think that
+the State (which, according to established metaphor, is a vessel,
+_par excellence_,) should admit Jack upon quarterdeck, yet, what with
+talking against lords and aristocracy, jobs and abuses, and searching
+through no very refined vocabulary for the strongest epithets to apply
+to those irritating nouns-substantive, his bile had got the better
+of his understanding, and he became fuddled, as it were, by his own
+eloquence. Thus, though as innocent of Jacobinical designs as he was
+incapable of setting the Thames on fire, you would have guessed him, by
+his speeches, to be one of the most determined incendiaries that ever
+applied a match to the combustible materials of a contested election;
+while, being by no means accustomed to respect his adversaries, he
+could not have treated the Earl of Lansmere with less ceremony if his
+Lordship had been a Frenchman. He usually designated that respectable
+nobleman by the title of "Old Pompous;" and the Mayor, who was never
+seen abroad but in top-boots, and the Solicitor, who was of a large
+build, received from his irreverent wit the joint soubriquet of "Tops
+and Bottoms!" Hence the election had now become, as I said before, a
+personal matter with my Lord, and, indeed, with the great heads of
+the Lansmere interest. The Earl seemed to consider his very coronet
+at stake in the question. "The man from Baker Street," with his
+preternatural audacity, appeared to him a being ominous and awful--not
+so much to be regarded with resentment, as with superstitious terror:
+he felt as felt the dignified Montezuma, when that ruffianly Cortez,
+with his handful of Spanish rapscallions, bearded him in his own
+capital, and in the midst of his Mexican splendour.--"The gods were
+menaced if man could be so insolent!" wherefore said my Lord,
+tremulously,--"The Constitution is gone if the Man from Baker Street
+comes in for Lansmere!"
+
+But, in the absence of Audley Egerton, the election looked
+extremely ugly, and Captain Dashmore gained ground hourly, when
+the Lansmere Solicitor happily bethought him of a notable proxy
+for the missing candidate. The Squire of Hazeldean, with his young
+wife, had been invited by the Earl in honour of Audley; and in the
+Squire the Solicitor beheld the only mortal who could cope with the
+sea-captain,--a man with a voice as burly, and a face as bold--a man
+who, if permitted for the nonce by Mrs Hazeldean, would kiss all the
+women no less heartily than the Captain kissed them; and who was,
+moreover, a taller, and a handsomer, and a younger man--all three,
+great recommendations in the kissing department of a contested
+election. Yes, to canvass the borough, and to speak from the window,
+Squire Hazeldean would be even more popularly presentable than the
+London-bred and accomplished Audley Egerton himself.
+
+The Squire, applied to and urged on all sides, at first said bluntly,
+"that he would do anything in reason to serve his brother, but that he
+did not like, for his own part, appearing, even in proxy, as a Lord's
+nominee; and moreover, if he was to be sponsor for his brother, why, he
+must promise and vow, in his name, to be staunch and true to the land
+they lived by; and how could he tell that Audley, when once he got into
+the House, would not forget the land, and then he, William Hazeldean,
+would be made a liar, and look like a turncoat!"
+
+But these scruples being overruled by the arguments of the gentlemen
+and the entreaties of the ladies, who took in the election that intense
+interest which those gentle creatures usually do take in all matters of
+strife and contest, the Squire at length consented to confront the Man
+from Baker Street, and went accordingly into the thing with that good
+heart and old English spirit with which he went into everything whereon
+he had once made up his mind.
+
+The expectations formed of the Squire's capacities for popular
+electioneering were fully realised. He talked quite as much nonsense as
+Captain Dashmore on every subject except the landed interest;--there he
+was great, for he knew the subject well--knew it by the instinct that
+comes with practice, and compared to which all your showy theories are
+mere cobwebs and moonshine.
+
+The agricultural outvoters--many of whom, not living under Lord
+Lansmere, but being small yeomen, had hitherto prided themselves on
+their independence, and gone against my Lord--could not in their hearts
+go against one who was every inch the farmer's friend. They began
+to share in the Earl's personal interest against the Man from Baker
+Street; and big fellows, with legs bigger round than Captain Dashmore's
+tight little body, and huge whips in their hands, were soon seen
+entering the shops, "intimidating the electors," as Captain Dashmore
+indignantly declared.
+
+These new recruits made a great difference in the muster-roll of the
+Lansmere books; and when the day for polling arrived, the result was a
+fair question for even betting. At the last hour, after a neck-and-neck
+contest, Mr Audley Egerton beat the Captain by two votes. And the names
+of these voters were John Avenel, resident freeman, and his son-in-law,
+Mark Fairfield, an outvoter, who, though a Lansmere freeman, had
+settled in Hazeldean, where he had obtained the situation of head
+carpenter on the Squire's estate.
+
+These votes were unexpected; for, though Mark Fairfield had come
+to Lansmere on purpose to support the Squire's brother, and though
+the Avenels had been always staunch supporters of the Lansmere Blue
+interest, yet a severe affliction (as to the nature of which, not
+desiring to sadden the opening of my story, I am considerately silent)
+had befallen both these persons, and they had left the town on the very
+day after Lord L'Estrange and Mr Egerton had quitted Lansmere Park.
+
+Whatever might have been the gratification of the Squire, as a
+canvasser and a brother, at Mr Egerton's triumph, it was much damped
+when, on leaving the dinner given in honour of the victory at the
+Lansmere Arms, and about, with no steady step, to enter the carriage
+which was to convey him to his Lordship's house, a letter was put into
+his hands by one of the gentlemen who had accompanied the Captain
+to the scene of action; and the perusal of that letter, and a few
+whispered words from the bearer thereof, sent the Squire back to Mrs
+Hazeldean a much soberer man than she had ventured to hope for. The
+fact was, that on the day of nomination, the Captain having honoured
+Mr Hazeldean with many poetical and figurative appellations--such as
+"Prize Ox," "Tony Lumpkin," "Blood-sucking Vampire," and "Brotherly
+Warming-Pan," the Squire had retorted by a joke about "Salt Water
+Jack;" and the Captain, who, like all satirists, was extremely
+susceptible and thin-skinned, could not consent to be called "Salt
+Water Jack" by a "Prize Ox" and a "Blood-sucking Vampire." The letter,
+therefore, now conveyed to Mr Hazeldean by a gentleman, who, being
+from the Sister Country, was deemed the most fitting accomplice in the
+honourable destruction of a brother mortal, contained nothing more nor
+less than an invitation to single combat; and the bearer thereof, with
+the suave politeness enjoined by etiquette on such well-bred homicidal
+occasions, suggested the expediency of appointing the place of meeting
+in the neighbourhood of London, in order to prevent interference from
+the suspicious authorities of Lansmere.
+
+The natives of some countries--the French in particular--think little
+of that formal operation which goes by the name of DUELLING. Indeed,
+they seem rather to like it than otherwise. But there is nothing
+your thorough-paced Englishman--a Hazeldean of Hazeldean--considers
+with more repugnance and aversion, than that same cold-blooded
+ceremonial. It is not within the range of an Englishman's ordinary
+habits of thinking. He prefers going to law--a much more destructive
+proceeding of the two. Nevertheless, if an Englishman must fight, why,
+he will fight. He says "it is very foolish;" he is sure "it is most
+unchristianlike;" he agrees with all that Philosopher, Preacher, and
+Press have laid down on the subject; but he makes his will, says his
+prayers, and goes out, like a heathen!
+
+It never, therefore, occurred to the Squire to show the white feather
+upon this unpleasant occasion. The next day, feigning excuse to attend
+the sale of a hunting stud at Tattersall's, he ruefully went up to
+London, after taking a peculiarly affectionate leave of his wife.
+Indeed, the Squire felt convinced that he should never return home
+except in a coffin. "It stands to reason," said he to himself, "that a
+man who has been actually paid by the King's Government for shooting
+people ever since he was a little boy in a midshipman's jacket,
+must be a dead hand at the job. I should not mind if it was with
+double-barrelled Mantons and small shot; but, ball and pistol! they
+arn't human nor sportsmanlike!" However, the Squire, after settling his
+worldly affairs, and hunting up an old College friend who undertook
+to be his second, proceeded to a sequestered corner of Wimbledon
+Common, and planted himself, not sideways, as one ought to do in such
+encounters, (the which posture the Squire swore was an unmanly way
+of shirking,) but full front to the mouth of his adversary's pistol,
+with such sturdy composure, that Captain Dashmore, who, though an
+excellent shot, was at bottom as good-natured a fellow as ever lived,
+testified his admiration by letting off his gallant opponent with ball
+in the fleshy part of the shoulder; after which he declared himself
+perfectly satisfied. The parties then shook hands, mutual apologies
+were exchanged, and the Squire, much to his astonishment to find
+himself still alive, was conveyed to Limmer's Hotel, where, after a
+considerable amount of anguish, the ball was extracted, and the wound
+healed. Now it was all over, the Squire felt very much raised in his
+own conceit; and, when he was in a humour more than ordinarily fierce,
+that perilous event became a favourite allusion with him.
+
+He considered, moreover, that his brother had incurred at his hand
+the most lasting obligations; and that, having procured Audley's
+return to Parliament, and defended his interests at the risk of his
+own life, he had an absolute right to dictate to that gentleman how to
+vote--upon all matters at least connected with the landed interest. And
+when, not very long after Audley took his seat in Parliament, (which
+he did not do for some months,) he thought proper both to vote and to
+speak in a manner wholly belying the promises the Squire had made on
+his behalf, Mr Hazeldean wrote him such a trimmer, that it could not
+but produce an unconciliatory reply. Shortly afterwards, the Squire's
+exasperation reached the culminating point; for, having to pass through
+Lansmere on a market day, he was hooted by the very farmers whom he had
+induced to vote for his brother; and, justly imputing the disgrace to
+Audley, he never heard the name of that traitor to the land mentioned
+without a heightened colour and an indignant expletive. Monsieur de
+Roqueville--who was the greatest wit of his day--had, like the Squire,
+a half-brother, with whom he was not on the best of terms, and of whom
+he always spoke as his "_frere de loin_." Audley Egerton was thus
+Squire Hazeldean's "_distant-brother_!"--Enough of these explanatory
+antecedents,--let us return to the Stocks.
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+The Squire's carpenters were taken from the park pales, and set to
+work at the parish stocks. Then came the painter and coloured them a
+beautiful dark blue, with a white border--and a white rim round the
+holes--with an ornamental flourish in the middle. It was the gayest
+public edifice in the whole village--though the village possessed
+no less than three other monuments of the Vitruvian genius of the
+Hazeldeans:--to wit, the alms-house, the school, and the parish pump.
+
+A more elegant, enticing, coquettish pair of stocks never gladdened the
+eye of a justice of the peace.
+
+And Squire Hazeldean's eye was gladdened. In the pride of his heart he
+brought all the family down to look at the stocks. The Squire's family
+(omitting the _frere de loin_) consisted of Mrs Hazeldean, his wife;
+next, of Miss Jemima Hazeldean, his first cousin; thirdly, of Master
+Francis Hazeldean, his only son; and fourthly, of Captain Barnabas
+Higginbotham, a distant relation--who, indeed, strictly speaking, was
+not of the family, but only a visitor ten months in the year. Mrs
+Hazeldean was every inch the lady,--the lady of the parish. In her
+comely, florid, and somewhat sunburnt countenance, there was an equal
+expression of majesty and benevolence; she had a blue eye that invited
+liking, and an aquiline nose that commanded respect. Mrs Hazeldean had
+no affectation of fine airs--no wish to be greater and handsomer and
+cleverer than she was. She knew herself, and her station, and thanked
+heaven for it. There was about her speech and manner something of that
+shortness and bluntness which often characterises royalty; and if the
+lady of a parish is not a queen in her own circle, it is never the
+fault of the parish. Mrs Hazeldean dressed her part to perfection. She
+wore silks that seemed heirlooms--so thick were they, so substantial
+and imposing. And over these, when she was in her own domain, the
+whitest of aprons; while at her waist was seen no fiddle-faddle
+_chatelaine_, with _breloques_ and trumpery, but a good honest gold
+watch to mark the time, and a long pair of scissors to cut off the
+dead leaves from her flowers, for she was a great horticulturist.
+When occasion needed, Mrs Hazeldean could, however, lay by her more
+sumptuous and imperial raiment for a stout riding-habit of blue Saxony,
+and canter by her husband's side to see the hounds throw off. Nay, on
+the days on which Mr Hazeldean drove his famous fast-trotting cob to
+the market town, it was rarely that you did not see his wife on the
+left side of the gig. She cared as little as her lord did for wind and
+weather, and, in the midst of some pelting shower, her pleasant face
+peeped over the collar and capes of a stout dreadnought, expanding into
+smiles and bloom as some frank rose, that opens from its petals, and
+rejoices in the dews. It was easy to see that the worthy couple had
+married for love; they were as little apart as they could help it. And
+still, on the First of September, if the house was not full of company
+which demanded her cares, Mrs Hazeldean "stepped out" over the stubbles
+by her husband's side, with as light a tread and as blithe an eye as
+when in the first bridal year she had enchanted the Squire by her
+genial sympathy with his sports.
+
+So there now stands Harriet Hazeldean, one hand leaning on the Squire's
+broad shoulder, the other thrust into her apron, and trying her
+best to share her husband's enthusiasm for his own public-spirited
+patriotism, in the renovation of the parish stocks. A little behind,
+with two fingers leaning on the thin arm of Captain Barnabas, stood
+Miss Jemima, the orphan daughter of the Squire's uncle, by a runaway
+imprudent marriage with a young lady who belonged to a family which
+had been at war with the Hazeldeans since the reign of Charles I.,
+respecting a right of way to a small wood (or rather spring) of about
+an acre, through a piece of furze land, which was let to a brickmaker
+at twelve shillings a-year. The wood belonged to the Hazeldeans, the
+furze land to the Sticktorights, (an old Saxon family if ever there was
+one.) Every twelfth year, when the faggots and timber were felled, this
+feud broke out afresh; for the Sticktorights refused to the Hazeldeans
+the right to cart off the said faggots and timber, through the only
+way by which a cart could possibly pass. It is just to the Hazeldeans
+to say that they had offered to buy the land at ten times its value.
+But the Sticktorights, with equal magnanimity, had declared that they
+would not "alienate the family property for the convenience of the best
+squire that ever stood upon shoe leather." Therefore, every twelfth
+year, there was always a great breach of the peace on the part of both
+Hazeldeans and Sticktorights, magistrates and deputy-lieutenants though
+they were. The question was fairly fought out by their respective
+dependants, and followed by various actions for assault and trespass.
+As the legal question of right was extremely obscure, it never had been
+properly decided; and, indeed, neither party wished it to be decided,
+each at heart having some doubt of the propriety of its own claim.
+A marriage between a younger son of the Hazeldeans, and a younger
+daughter of the Sticktorights, was viewed with equal indignation by
+both families; and the consequence had been that the runaway couple,
+unblessed and unforgiven, had scrambled through life as they could,
+upon the scanty pay of the husband, who was in a marching regiment,
+and the interest of L1000, which was the wife's fortune independent
+of her parents. They died and left an only daughter, upon whom the
+maternal L1000 had been settled, about the time that the Squire came
+of age and into possession of his estates. And though he inherited all
+the ancestral hostility towards the Sticktorights, it was not in his
+nature to be unkind to a poor orphan, who was, after all, the child of
+a Hazeldean. Therefore, he had educated and fostered Jemima with as
+much tenderness as if she had been his sister; put out her L1000 at
+nurse, and devoted, from the ready money which had accrued from the
+rents during his minority, as much as made her fortune (with her own
+accumulated at compound interest) no less than L4000, the ordinary
+marriage portion of the daughters of Hazeldean. On her coming of age,
+he transferred this sum to her absolute disposal, in order that she
+might feel herself independent, see a little more of the world than
+she could at Hazeldean, have candidates to choose from if she deigned
+to marry; or enough to live upon if she chose to remain single. Miss
+Jemima had somewhat availed herself of this liberty, by occasional
+visits to Cheltenham and other watering places. But her grateful
+affection to the Squire was such, that she could never bear to be
+long away from the Hall. And this was the more praise to her heart,
+inasmuch as she was far from taking kindly to the prospect of being
+an old maid. And there were so few bachelors in the neighbourhood of
+Hazeldean, that she could not but have that prospect before her eyes
+whenever she looked out of the Hall windows. Miss Jemima was indeed
+one of the most kindly and affectionate of beings feminine--and if
+she disliked the thought of single blessedness, it really was from
+those innocent and womanly instincts towards the tender charities of
+hearth and home, without which a lady, however otherwise estimable, is
+little better than a Minerva in bronze. But whether or not, despite her
+fortune and her face, which last, though not strictly handsome, was
+pleasing--and would have been positively pretty if she had laughed more
+often, (for when she laughed, there appeared three charming dimples,
+invisible when she was grave)--whether or not, I say, it was the fault
+of our insensibility or her own fastidiousness, Miss Jemima approached
+her thirtieth year, and was still Miss Jemima. Now, therefore, that
+beautifying laugh of hers was very rarely heard, and she had of late
+become confirmed in two opinions, not at all conducive to laughter. One
+was a conviction of the general and progressive wickedness of the male
+sex, and the other was a decided and lugubrious belief that the world
+was coming to an end. Miss Jemima was now accompanied by a small canine
+favourite, true Blenheim, with a snub nose. It was advanced in life and
+somewhat obese. It sate on its haunches, with its tongue out of its
+month, except when it snapped at the flies. There was a strong Platonic
+friendship between Miss Jemima and Captain Barnabas Higginbotham; for
+he too was unmarried, and he had the same ill opinion of your sex, my
+dear madam, that Miss Jemima had of ours. The Captain was a man of a
+slim and elegant figure;--the less said about the face the better, a
+truth of which the Captain himself was sensible, for it was a favourite
+maxim of his--"that in a man, everything is a slight, gentlemanlike
+figure." Captain Barnabas did not absolutely deny that the world was
+coming to an end, only he thought it would last his time.
+
+Quite apart from all the rest, with the nonchalant survey of virgin
+dandyism, Francis Hazeldean looked over one of the high starched
+neckcloths which were then the fashion--a handsome lad, fresh from Eton
+for the summer holidays, but at that ambiguous age, when one disdains
+the sports of the boy, and has not yet arrived at the resources of the
+man.
+
+"I should be glad, Frank," said the Squire, suddenly turning round to
+his son; "to see you take a little more interest in duties which, one
+day or other, you may be called upon to discharge. I can't bear to
+think that the property should fall into the hands of a fine gentleman,
+who will let things go to rack and ruin, instead of keeping them up as
+I do."
+
+And the Squire pointed to the stocks.
+
+Master Frank's eye followed the direction of the cane, as well as his
+cravat would permit; and he said, drily--
+
+"Yes, sir; but how came the stocks to be so long out of repair?"
+
+"Because one can't see to everything at once," retorted the Squire,
+tartly. "When a man has got eight thousand acres to look after, he must
+do a bit at a time."
+
+"Yes," said Captain Barnabas. "I know that by experience."
+
+"The deuce you do!" cried the Squire, bluntly. "Experience in eight
+thousand acres!"
+
+"No--in my apartments in the Albany. No. 3 A. I have had them ten
+years, and it was only last Christmas that I bought my Japan cat."
+
+"Dear me," said Miss Jemima; "a Japan cat! that must be very curious!
+What sort of a creature is it?"
+
+"Don't you know? Bless me, a thing with three legs, and holds toast!
+I never thought of it, I assure you, till my friend Cosey said to me,
+one morning when he was breakfasting at my rooms--'Higginbotham, how is
+it that you, who like to have things comfortable about you, don't have
+a cat?' 'Upon my life,' said I, 'one can't think of everything at a
+time;' just like you, Squire."
+
+"Pshaw," said Mr Hazeldean, gruffly--"not at all like me. And I'll
+thank you another time, Cousin Higginbotham, not to put me out, when
+I'm speaking on matters of importance; poking your cat into my stocks!
+They look something like now--don't they, Harry? I declare that the
+whole village seems more respectable. It is astonishing how much a
+little improvement adds to the--to the--"
+
+"Charm of a landscape;" put in Miss Jemima sentimentally.
+
+The Squire neither accepted nor rejected the suggested termination; but
+leaving his sentence uncompleted, broke suddenly off with
+
+"And if I had listened to Parson Dale--"
+
+"You would have done a very wise thing;" said a voice behind, as the
+Parson presented himself in the rear.
+
+"Wise thing! Why surely, Mr Dale," said Mrs Hazeldean with spirit, for
+she always resented the least contradiction to her lord and master;
+perhaps as an interference with her own special right and prerogative!
+"why, surely if it is necessary to have stocks, it is necessary to
+repair them."
+
+"That's right, go it, Harry!" cried the Squire, chuckling, and rubbing
+his hands as if he had been setting his terrier at the Parson:
+"St--St--at him! Well, Master Dale, what do you say to that?"
+
+"My dear ma'am," said the Parson, replying in preference to the lady,
+"there are many institutions in the country which are very old, look
+very decayed, and don't seem of much use; but I would not pull them
+down for all that."
+
+"You would reform them, then;" said Mrs Hazeldean, doubtfully, and
+with a look at her husband, as much as to say, "He is on politics
+now--that's your business."
+
+"No, I would not, ma'am;" said the Parson stoutly.
+
+"What on earth would you do, then?" quoth the Squire.
+
+"Just let 'em alone," said the Parson. "Master Frank, there's a Latin
+maxim which was often in the mouth of Sir Robert Walpole, and which
+they ought to put into the Eton grammar--'_Quieta non movere_.' If
+things are quiet, let them be quiet! I would not destroy the stocks,
+because that might seem to the ill-disposed like a license to offend,
+and I would not repair the stocks, because that puts it into people's
+heads to get into them."
+
+The Squire was a staunch politician of the old school, and he did
+not like to think that in repairing the stocks he had perhaps been
+conniving at revolutionary principles.
+
+"This constant desire of innovation," said Miss Jemima, suddenly
+mounting the more funereal of her two favourite hobbies, "is one of the
+great symptoms of the approaching crash. We are altering, and mending,
+and reforming, when in twenty years at the utmost the world itself may
+be destroyed!" The fair speaker paused, and--
+
+Captain Barnabas said, thoughtfully--"Twenty years!--the insurance
+offices rarely compute the best life at more than fourteen." He
+struck his hand on the stocks as he spoke, and added with his usual
+consolatory conclusion:--"The odds are, that it will last our time,
+Squire."
+
+But whether Captain Barnabas meant the stocks or the world, he did not
+clearly explain, and no one took the trouble to inquire.
+
+"Sir," said Master Frank, to his father, with that furtive spirit of
+quizzing, which he had acquired amongst other polite accomplishments at
+Eton.--"Sir, it is no use now considering whether the stocks should or
+should not have been repaired. The only question is, whom you will get
+to put into them."
+
+"True," said the Squire, with much gravity.
+
+"Yes, there it is!" said the Parson, mournfully. "If you would but
+learn '_non quieta movere_!'"
+
+"Don't spout your Latin at me, Parson!" cried the Squire, angrily; "I
+can give you as good as you bring any day.
+
+    "'Propria quae maribus tri buuntur mascula dicas.--
+    As in praesenti, perfectum format in avi.'"
+
+"There," added the Squire, turning triumphantly towards his Harry, who
+looked with great admiration at this unprecedented burst of learning on
+the part of Mr Hazeldean--"There, two can play at that game! And now
+that we have all seen the stocks, we may as well go home, and drink
+tea. Will you come up and play a rubber, Dale? No!--hang it, man, I've
+not offended you--you know my ways."
+
+"That I do, and they are among the things I would not have altered,"
+cried the Parson--holding out his hand cheerfully. The Squire gave it
+a hearty shake, and Mrs Hazeldean hastened to do the same. "Do come; I
+am afraid we've been very rude; we are sad blunt folks. Do come; that's
+a dear good man; and of course poor Mrs Dale too." Mrs Hazeldean's
+favourite epithet for Mrs Dale was _poor_, and that for reasons to be
+explained hereafter.
+
+"I fear my wife has got one of her bad headaches, but I will give her
+your kind message, and at all events you may depend upon me."
+
+"That's right," cried the Squire, "in half-an-hour, eh?--How d'ye do,
+my little man?" as Lenny Fairfield, on his way home from some errand
+in the village, drew aside and pulled off his hat with both hands.
+"Stop--you see those stocks--eh? Tell all the bad little boys in the
+parish to take care how they get into them--a sad disgrace--you'll
+never be in such a quandary!"
+
+"That at least I will answer for," said the Parson.
+
+"And I too," added Mrs Hazeldean, patting the boy's curly head. "Tell
+your mother I shall come and have a good chat with her to-morrow
+evening."
+
+And so the party passed on, and Lenny stood still on the road, staring
+hard at the stocks, which stared back at him from its four great eyes.
+
+But Lenny did not remain long alone. As soon as the great folks had
+fairly disappeared, a large number of small folks emerged timorously
+from the neighbouring cottages, and approached the site of the stocks
+with much marvel, fear, and curiosity.
+
+In fact, the renovated appearance of this monster--_a propos de
+bottes_, as one may say--had already excited considerable sensation
+among the population of Hazeldean. And even as when an unexpected owl
+makes his appearance in broad daylight, all the little birds rise
+from tree and hedgerow, and cluster round their ominous enemy, so
+now gathered all the much excited villagers round the intrusive and
+portentous Phenomenon.
+
+"D'ye know what the diggins the Squire did it for, Gaffer Solomons?"
+asked one many-childed matron, with a baby in arms, an urchin of three
+years old clinging fast to her petticoat, and her hand maternally
+holding back a more adventurous hero of six, who had a great desire to
+thrust his head into one of the grisly apertures. All eyes turned to a
+sage old man, the oracle of the village, who, leaning both hands on his
+crutch, shook his head bodingly.
+
+"Maw be," said Gaffer Solomons, "some of the boys ha' been robbing the
+orchards."
+
+"Orchards"--cried a big lad who seemed to think himself personally
+appealed to--" why, the bud's scarce off the trees yet!"
+
+"No more it in't!" said the dame with many children, and she breathed
+more freely.
+
+"Maw be," said Gaffer Solomons, "some o' ye has been sitting snares."
+
+"What for?" said a stout sullen-looking young fellow, whom conscience
+possibly pricked to reply. "What for, when it beant the season? And
+if a poor man did find a hear in his pocket i' the hay-time, I should
+like to know if ever a squire in the world would let un off wi' the
+stocks--eh?"
+
+That last question seemed a settler, and the wisdom of Gaffer Solomons
+went down fifty per cent in the public opinion of Hazeldean.
+
+"Maw be," said the Gaffer, this time with a thrilling effect, which
+restored his reputation--"Maw be some o' ye ha' been getting drunk, and
+making beestises o' yourselves!"
+
+There was a dead pause, for this suggestion applied too generally to
+be met with a solitary response. At last one of the women said, with a
+meaning glance at her husband, "God bless the Squire; he'll make some
+on us happy women if that's all!"
+
+There then arose an almost unanimous murmur of approbation among the
+female part of the audience; and the men looked at each other, and then
+at the Phenomenon, with a very hang-dog expression of countenance.
+
+"Or, maw be," resumed Gaffer Solomons, encouraged to a fourth
+suggestion by the success of its predecessor--"Maw be some o' the
+Misseses ha' been making a rumpus, and scolding their goodmen. I heard
+say in my granfeythir's time, that arter old Mother Bang nigh died o'
+the ducking-stool, them 'ere stocks were first made for the women, out
+o' compassion like! And every one knows the Squire is a koind-hearted
+man, God bless un!"
+
+"God bless un!" cried the men heartily; and they gathered lovingly
+round the Phenomenon, like heathens of old round a tutelary temple. But
+then rose one shrill clamour among the females, as they retreated with
+involuntary steps towards the verge of the green, whence they glared
+at Solomons and the Phenomenon with eyes so sparkling, and pointed at
+both with gestures so menacing, that Heaven only knows if a morsel
+of either would have remained much longer to offend the eyes of the
+justly enraged matronage of Hazeldean, if fortunately Master Stirn, the
+Squire's right-hand man, had not come up in the nick of time.
+
+Master Stirn was a formidable personage--more formidable than the
+Squire himself--as, indeed, a squire's right-hand is generally more
+formidable than the head can pretend to be. He inspired the greater
+awe, because, like the stocks, of which he was deputed guardian,
+his powers were undefined and obscure, and he had no particular
+place in the out-of-door establishment. He was not the steward, yet
+he did much of what ought to be the steward's work; he was not the
+farm-bailiff, for the Squire called himself his own farm-bailiff,
+nevertheless, Mr Hazeldean sowed and ploughed, cropped and stocked,
+bought and sold, very much as Mr Stirn condescended to advise. He was
+not the park-keeper, for he neither shot the deer nor superintended
+the preserves; but it was he who always found out who had broken a
+park-pale or snared a rabbit. In short, what may be called all the
+harsher duties of a large landed proprietor devolved by custom and
+choice upon Mr Stirn. If a labourer was to be discharged, or a rent
+enforced, and the Squire knew that he should be talked over, and that
+the steward would be as soft as himself, Mr Stirn was sure to be the
+avenging (R)angelos(R) or messenger, to pronounce the words of fate; so
+that he appeared to the inhabitants of Hazeldean like the Poet's _Saeva
+Necessitas_, a vague incarnation of remorseless power, armed with
+whips, nails, and wedges. The very brute creation stood in awe of Mr
+Stirn. The calves knew that it was he who singled out which should be
+sold to the butcher, and huddled up into a corner with beating hearts
+at his grim footstep; the sow grunted, the duck quacked, the hen
+bristled her feathers and called to her chicks when Mr Stirn drew near.
+Nature had set her stamp upon him. Indeed, it may be questioned whether
+the great M. de Chambray himself, surnamed the Brave, had an aspect so
+awe-inspiring as that of Mr Stirn; albeit the face of that hero was so
+terrible, that a man who had been his lackey, seeing his portrait after
+he had been dead twenty years, fell a trembling all over like a leaf!
+
+"And what the plague are you all doing here?" said Mr Stirn, as he
+waved and smacked a great cart-whip which he held in his hand, "making
+such a hullabaloo, you women, you! that I suspect the Squire will
+be sending out to know if the village is on fire. Go home, will ye?
+High time indeed to have the stocks ready, when you get squalling and
+conspiring under the very nose of a justice of the peace, just as the
+French Revolutioners did afore they cut off their King's head; my hair
+stands on end to look at ye." But already, before half this address was
+delivered, the crowd had dispersed in all directions--the women still
+keeping together, and the men sneaking off towards the ale-house. Such
+was the beneficent effect of the fatal stocks on the first day of their
+resuscitation!
+
+However, in the break up of every crowd there must be always some
+one who gets off the last; and it so happened that our friend Lenny
+Fairfield, who had mechanically approached close to the stocks, the
+better to hear the oracular opinions of Gaffer Solomons, had no less
+mechanically, on the abrupt appearance of Mr Stirn, crept, as he hoped,
+out of sight, behind the trunk of the elm tree which partially shaded
+the stocks; and there now, as if fascinated, he still cowered, not
+daring to emerge in full view of Mr Stirn, and in immediate reach of
+the cart-whip,--when the quick eye of the right-hand man detected his
+retreat.
+
+"Hallo, you sir--what the deuce, laying a mine to blow up the stocks!
+just like Guy Fox and the Gunpowder Plot, I declares! What ha' you got
+in your willanous little fist there?"
+
+"Nothing, sir," said Lenny, opening his palm.
+
+"Nothing--um!" said Mr Stirn much dissatisfied; and then, as he gazed
+more deliberately, recognising the pattern boy of the village, a cloud
+yet darker gathered over his brow; for Mr Stirn, who valued himself
+much on his learning--and who, indeed, by dint of more knowledge as
+well as more wit than his neighbours, had attained his present eminent
+station in life--was extremely anxious that his only son should also be
+a scholar; that wish,
+
+    "The gods dispersed in empty air."
+
+Master Stirn was a notable dunce at the Parson's school, while Lenny
+Fairfield was the pride and boast of it; therefore Mr Stirn was
+naturally, and almost justifiably ill-disposed towards Lenny Fairfield,
+who had appropriated to himself the praises which Mr Stirn had designed
+for his son.
+
+"Um!" said the right-hand man, glowering on Lenny malignantly, "you are
+the pattern boy of the village, are you? Very well, sir--then I put
+these here stocks under your care--and you'll keep off the other boys
+from sitting on 'em, and picking off the paint, and playing three holes
+and chuck farthing, as I declare they've been a-doing, just in front of
+the elewation. Now you knows your 'sponsibilities, little boy--and a
+great honour they are too, for the like o' you. If any damage be done,
+it is to you I shall look; d'ye understand? and that's what the Squire
+says to me. So you sees what it is to be a pattern boy, Master Lenny!"
+
+With that Mr Stirn gave a loud crack of the cart-whip, by way of
+military honours, over the head of the vicegerent he had thus created,
+and strode off to pay a visit to two young unsuspecting pups, whose
+ears and tails he had graciously promised their proprietor to crop
+that evening. Nor, albeit few charges could be more obnoxious than
+that of deputy governor or _charge-d'affaires extraordinaire_ to the
+Parish Stocks, nor one more likely to render Lenny Fairfield odious
+to his contemporaries, ought he to have been insensible to the signal
+advantage of his condition over that of the two sufferers, against
+whose ears and tails Mr Stirn had no especial motives of resentment.
+To every bad there is a worse--and fortunately for little boys, and
+even for grown men, whom the Stirns of the world regard malignly, the
+majesty of law protects their ears, and the merciful forethought of
+nature deprived their remote ancestors of the privilege of entailing
+tails upon them. Had it been otherwise--considering what handles tails
+would have given to the oppressor, how many traps envy would have laid
+for them, how often they must have been scratched and mutilated by
+the briars of life, how many good excuses would have been found for
+lopping, docking, and trimming them--I fear that only the lap-dogs of
+fortune would have gone to the grave tail-whole.
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+The card-table was set out in the drawing-room at Hazeldean Hall;
+though the little party were still lingering in the deep recess of
+the large bay window--which (in itself of dimensions that would have
+swallowed up a moderate-sized London parlour) held the great round
+tea-table, with all appliances and means to boot--for the beautiful
+summer moon shed on the sward so silvery a lustre, and the trees cast
+so quiet a shadow, and the flowers and new-mown hay sent up so grateful
+a perfume, that, to close the windows, draw the curtains, and call
+for other lights than those of heaven, would have been an abuse of
+the prose of life which even Captain Barnabas, who regarded whist
+as the business of town and the holiday of the country, shrank from
+suggesting. Without, the scene, beheld by the clear moonlight, had
+the beauty peculiar to the garden ground round those old-fashioned
+country residences which, though a little modernised, still preserve
+their original character: the velvet lawn, studded with large plots of
+flowers, shaded and scented here to the left by lilacs, laburnums, and
+rich seringas--there, to the right, giving glimpses, over low-clipped
+yews, of a green bowling alley, with the white columns of a summerhouse
+built after the Dutch taste, in the reign of William III.; and in
+front--stealing away under covert of those still cedars, into the
+wilder landscape of the well-wooded undulating park. Within, viewed by
+the placid glimmer of the moon, the scene was no less characteristic
+of the abodes of that race which has no parallel in other lands, and
+which, alas, is somewhat losing its native idiosyncrasies in this--the
+stout country gentleman, not the fine gentleman of the country--the
+country gentleman somewhat softened and civilised from the mere
+sportsman or farmer, but still plain and homely, relinquishing the
+old hall for the drawing-room, and with books not three months' old
+on his table, instead of _Fox's Martyrs_ and _Baker's Chronicle_--yet
+still retaining many a sacred old prejudice, that, like the knots in
+his native oak, rather adds to the ornament of the grain than takes
+from the strength of the tree. Opposite to the window, the high
+chimney-piece rose to the heavy cornice of the ceiling, with dark
+panels glistening against the moonlight. The broad and rather clumsy
+chintz sofas and settees of the reign, of George III., contrasted at
+intervals with the tall backed chairs of a far more distant generation,
+when ladies in fardingales, and gentlemen in trunk-hose, seem never to
+have indulged in horizontal positions. The walls, of shining wainscot,
+were thickly covered, chiefly with family pictures; though now and
+then some Dutch fair, or battle-piece, showed that a former proprietor
+had been less exclusive in his taste for the arts. The pianoforte
+stood open near the fireplace; a long dwarf bookcase, at the far end,
+added its sober smile to the room. That bookcase contained what was
+called "The Lady's Library," a collection commenced by the Squire's
+grandmother, of pious memory, and completed by his mother, who had
+more taste for the lighter letters, with but little addition from the
+bibliomaniac tendencies of the present Mrs Hazeldean--who, being no
+great reader, contented herself with subscribing to the Book Club. In
+this feminine Bodleian, the sermons collected by Mrs Hazeldean, the
+grandmother, stood cheek-by-jowl beside the novels purchased by Mrs
+Hazeldean, the mother.
+
+    'Mixtaque ridenti fundet colocasia acantho!'
+
+But to be sure, the novels, in spite of very inflammatory titles, such
+as "Fatal Sensibility," "Errors of the Heart," &c., were so harmless
+that I doubt if the sermons could have had much to say against their
+next-door neighbours--and that is all that can be expected by the best
+of us.
+
+A parrot dozing on his perch--some gold fish fast asleep in their
+glass bowl--two or three dogs on the rug, and Flimsey, Miss Jemima's
+spaniel, curled into a ball on the softest sofa--Mrs Hazeldean's
+work-table, rather in disorder, as if it had been lately used--the _St
+James's Chronicle_ dangling down from a little tripod near the Squire's
+arm-chair--a high screen of gilt and stamped leather fencing off the
+card-table; all these, dispersed about a room large enough to hold them
+all and not seem crowded, offered many a pleasant resting-place for the
+eye, when it turned from the world of nature to the home of man.
+
+But see, Captain Barnabas, fortified by his fourth cup of tea, has at
+length summoned courage to whisper to Mrs Hazeldean, "don't you think
+the Parson will be impatient for his rubber?" Mrs Hazeldean glanced
+at the Parson, and smiled; but she gave the signal to the Captain,
+and the bell was rung, lights were brought in, the curtains let down;
+in a few moments more the group had collected round the card-tables.
+The best of us are but human--that is not a new truth, I confess, but
+yet people forget it every day of their lives--and I dare say there
+are many who are charitably thinking at this very moment, that my
+Parson ought not to be playing at whist. All I can say to those rigid
+disciplinarians is, "Every man has his favourite sin: whist was Parson
+Dale's!--ladies and gentlemen, what is yours?" In truth, I must not set
+up my poor parson, now-a-days, as a pattern parson--it is enough to
+have one pattern in a village no bigger than Hazeldean, and we all know
+that Lenny Fairfield has bespoken that place,--and got the patronage of
+the stocks for his emoluments! Parson Dale was ordained, not indeed so
+very long ago, but still at a time when churchmen took it a great deal
+more easily than they do now. The elderly parson of that day played
+his rubber as a matter of course, the middle-aged parson was sometimes
+seen riding to cover, (I knew a schoolmaster, a doctor of divinity,
+and an excellent man, whose pupils were chiefly taken from the highest
+families in England, who hunted regularly three times a-week during
+the season,) and the young parson would often sing a capital song--not
+composed by David--and join in those rotary dances, which certainly
+David never danced before the ark.
+
+Does it need so long a prolegomenon to excuse thee, poor Parson Dale,
+for turning up that ace of spades with so triumphant a smile at thy
+partner? I must own that nothing that well could add to the Parson's
+offence was wanting. In the first place, he did not play charitably,
+and merely to oblige other people. He delighted in the game--he
+rejoiced in the game--his whole heart was in the game--neither was he
+indifferent to the mammon of the thing, as a Christian pastor ought
+to have been. He looked very sad when he took his shillings out of
+his purse, and exceedingly pleased when he put the shillings that had
+just before belonged to other people into it. Finally, by one of those
+arrangements common with married people, who play at the same table,
+Mr and Mrs Hazeldean were invariably partners, and no two people could
+play worse; while Captain Barnabas, who had played at Graham's with
+honour and profit, necessarily became partner to Parson Dale, who
+himself played a good steady parsonic game. So that, in strict truth,
+it was hardly fair play--it was almost swindling--the combination of
+these two great dons against that innocent married couple! Mr Dale,
+it is true, was aware of this disproportion of force, and had often
+proposed either to change partners or to give odds, propositions always
+scornfully scouted by the Squire and his lady; so that the Parson was
+obliged to pocket his conscience, together with the ten points which
+made his average winnings.
+
+The strangest thing in the world is the different way in which whist
+affects the temper. It is no test of temper, as some pretend--not at
+all! The best tempered people in the world grow snappish at whist; and
+I have seen the most testy and peevish in the ordinary affairs of life
+bear their losses with the stoicism of Epictetus. This was notably
+manifested in the contrast between the present adversaries of the Hall
+and the Rectory. The Squire, who was esteemed as choleric a gentleman
+as most in the county, was the best-humoured fellow you could imagine
+when you set him down to whist opposite the sunny face of his wife.
+You never heard one of these incorrigible blunderers scold each other;
+on the contrary, they only laughed when they threw away the game, with
+four by honours in their hands. The utmost that was ever said was a
+"Well, Harry, that was the oddest trump of yours. Ho--ho--ho!" or a
+"Bless me, Hazeldean--why, they made three tricks, and you had the ace
+in your hand all the time! Ha--ha--ha!"
+
+Upon which occasions Captain Barnabas, with great good humour, always
+echoed both the Squire's ho--ho--ho! and Mrs Hazeldean's ha--ha--ha!
+
+Not so the Parson. He had so keen and sportsmanlike an interest in
+the game, that even his adversaries' mistakes ruffled him. And you
+would hear him, with elevated voice and agitated gestures, laying
+down the law, quoting Hoyle, appealing to all the powers of memory
+and common sense against the very delinquencies by which he was
+enriched--a waste of eloquence that always heightened the hilarity
+of Mr and Mrs Hazeldean. While these four were thus engaged, Mrs
+Dale, who had come with her husband despite her headache, sate on
+the sofa beside Miss Jemima, or rather beside Miss Jemima's Flimsey,
+which had already secured the centre of the sofa, and snarled at
+the very idea of being disturbed. And Master Frank--at a table by
+himself--was employed sometimes in looking at his pumps, and sometimes
+at Gilray's Caricatures, with which his mother had provided him for
+his intellectual requirements. Mrs Dale, in her heart, liked Miss
+Jemima better than Mrs Hazeldean, of whom she was rather in awe,
+notwithstanding they had been little girls together, and occasionally
+still called each other Harry and Carry. But those tender diminutives
+belonged to the "Dear" genus, and were rarely employed by the ladies,
+except at those times when--had they been little girls still, and
+the governess out of the way--they would have slapped and pinched
+each other. Mrs Dale was still a very pretty woman, as Mrs Hazeldean
+was still a very fine woman. Mrs Dale painted in water colours and
+sang, and made card-racks and pen-holders, and was called an "elegant
+accomplished woman." Mrs Hazeldean cast up the Squire's accounts, wrote
+the best part of his letters, kept a large establishment in excellent
+order, and was called "a clever, sensible woman." Mrs Dale had
+headaches and nerves, Mrs Hazeldean had neither nerves nor headaches.
+Mrs Dale said, "Harry had no real harm in her, but was certainly very
+masculine." Mrs Hazeldean said, "Carry would be a good creature, but
+for her airs and graces." Mrs Dale said Mrs Hazeldean was "just made to
+be a country squire's lady." Mrs Hazeldean said, "Mrs Dale was the last
+person in the world who ought to have been a parson's wife." Carry,
+when she spoke of Harry to a third person, said, "Dear Mrs Hazeldean."
+Harry, when she referred incidentally to Carry, said, "Poor Mrs Dale."
+And now the reader knows why Mrs Hazeldean called Mrs Dale "poor," at
+least as well as I do. For, after all, the word belonged to that class
+in the female vocabulary which may be called "obscure significants,"
+resembling the Konx Ompax, which hath so puzzled the inquirers into the
+Eleusinian Mysteries; the application is rather to be illustrated than
+the meaning to be exactly explained.
+
+"That's really a sweet little dog of yours, Jemima," said Mrs Dale,
+who was embroidering the word CAROLINE on the border of a cambric
+pocket-handkerchief, but edging a little farther off, as she added,
+"he'll not bite, will he?" "Dear me, no!" said Miss Jemima; but (she
+added, in a confidential whisper,) "don't say _he_--'tis a lady dog!"
+"Oh," said Mrs Dale, edging off still farther, as if that confession
+of the creature's sex did not serve to allay her apprehensions--"oh,
+then, you carry your aversion to the gentlemen even to lap-dogs--that
+is being consistent indeed, Jemima!"
+
+MISS JEMIMA.--"I had a gentleman dog once--a pug!--they are getting
+very scarce now. I thought he was so fond of me--he snapped at every
+one else;--the battles I fought for him! Well, will you believe,--I had
+been staying with my friend Miss Smilecox at Cheltenham. Knowing that
+William is so hasty, and his boots are so thick, I trembled to think
+what a kick might do. So, on coming here, I left Buff--that was his
+name--with Miss Smilecox." (A pause.)
+
+MRS DALE, looking up languidly.--"Well, my love."
+
+MISS JEMIMA.--"Will you believe it, I say, when I returned to
+Cheltenham, only three months afterwards, Miss Smilecox had seduced his
+affections from me, and the ungrateful creature did not even know me
+again. A pug, too--yet people _say_ pugs are faithful!!! I am sure they
+ought to be, nasty things. I have never had a gentleman dog since--they
+are all alike, believe me--heartless, selfish creatures."
+
+MRS DALE.--"Pugs? I dare say they are!"
+
+MISS JEMIMA, with spirit.--"MEN!--I told you it was a gentleman dog!"
+
+MRS DALE, apologetically.--"True, my love, but the whole thing was so
+mixed up!"
+
+MISS JEMIMA.--"You saw that cold-blooded case of Breach of Promise of
+Marriage in the papers--an old wretch, too, of sixty-four. No age
+makes them a bit better. And when one thinks that the end of all flesh
+is approaching, and that--"
+
+MRS DALE, quickly, for she prefers Miss Jemima's other hobby to that
+black one upon which she is preparing to precede the bier of the
+universe.--"Yes, my love, we'll avoid that subject, if you please. Mr
+Dale has his own opinions, and it becomes me, you know, as a parson's
+wife," (said smilingly; Mrs Dale has as pretty a dimple as any of Miss
+Jemima's, and makes more of that one than Miss Jemima of three,) "to
+agree with him--that is, in theology."
+
+MISS JEMIMA, earnestly.--"But the thing is so clear, if you would but
+look into--"
+
+MRS DALE, putting her hand on Miss Jemima's lips playfully.--"Not
+a word more. Pray, what do you think of the Squire's tenant at the
+Casino, Signor Riccabocca? An interesting creature, is not he?"
+
+MISS JEMIMA.--"Interesting! Not to me. Interesting? Why is he
+interesting?"
+
+Mrs Dale is silent, and turns her handkerchief in her pretty little
+white hands, appearing to contemplate the R in Caroline.
+
+MISS JEMIMA, half pettishly, half coaxingly.--"Why is he interesting? I
+scarcely ever looked at him; they say he smokes, and never eats. Ugly,
+too!"
+
+MRS DALE.--"Ugly--no. A fine head--very like Dante's--but what is
+beauty?"
+
+MISS JEMIMA.--"Very true; what is it indeed? Yes, as you say, I think
+there is something interesting about him; he looks melancholy, but that
+may be because he is poor."
+
+MRS DALE.--"It is astonishing how little one feels poverty when one
+loves. Charles and I were very poor once--before the Squire----." Mrs
+Dale paused, looked towards the Squire, and murmured a blessing, the
+warmth of which brought tears into her eyes. "Yes," she added, after
+a pause, "we were very poor, but we were happy even then, more thanks
+to Charles than to me," and tears from a new source again dimmed those
+quick lively eyes, as the little woman gazed fondly on her husband,
+whose brows were knit into a black frown over a bad hand.
+
+MISS JEMIMA.--"It is only those horrid men who think of money as a
+source of happiness. I should be the last person to esteem a gentleman
+less because he was poor."
+
+MRS DALE.--"I wonder the Squire does not ask Signor Riccabocca here
+more often. Such an acquisition we find him!"
+
+The Squire's voice from the card table.--"Whom ought I to ask more
+often, Mrs Dale?"
+
+Parson's voice impatiently.--"Come--come--come, Squire: play to my
+queen of diamonds--do!"
+
+SQUIRE.--"There, I trump it--pick up the trick, Mrs H."
+
+PARSON.--"Stop! stop! trump my diamond?"
+
+The Captain, solemnly.--"Trick turned--play on, Squire."
+
+SQUIRE.--"The king of diamonds."
+
+MRS HAZELDEAN.--"Lord! Hazeldean--why, that's the most barefaced
+revoke--ha--ha--ha! trump the queen of diamonds and play out the king!
+well I never--ha--ha--ha!"
+
+CAPTAIN BARNABAS, in tenor.--"Ha, ha, ha!"
+
+SQUIRE.--"And so I have, bless my soul--ho, ho, ho!"
+
+CAPTAIN BARNABAS, in bass.--"Ho--ho--ho."
+
+Parson's voice raised, but drowned by the laughter of his adversaries
+and the firm clear tone of Captain Barnabas:--"Three to our
+score!--game!"
+
+SQUIRE, wiping his eyes.--"No help for it, Harry--deal for me! Whom
+ought I to ask, Mrs Dale? (waxing angry.) First time I ever heard the
+hospitality of Hazeldean called in question!"
+
+MRS DALE.--"My dear sir, I beg a thousand pardons, but listeners--you
+know the proverb."
+
+SQUIRE, growling like a bear.--"I hear nothing but proverbs ever since
+we have had that Mounseer among us. Please to speak plainly, marm."
+
+MRS DALE, sliding into a little temper at being thus roughly
+accosted.--"It was of Mounseer, as you call him, that I spoke, Mr
+Hazeldean."
+
+SQUIRE.--"What! Rickeybockey?"
+
+MRS DALE, attempting the pure Italian accentuation.--"Signor
+Riccabocca."
+
+PARSON, slapping his cards on the table in despair.--"Are we playing at
+whist, or are we not?"
+
+The Squire, who is fourth player, drops the king to Captain
+Higginbotham's lead of the ace of hearts. Now the Captain has left
+queen, knave, and two other hearts--four trumps to the queen and
+nothing to win a trick with in the two other suits. This hand is
+therefore precisely one of those in which, especially after the fall
+of that king of hearts in the adversary's hand, it becomes a matter of
+reasonable doubt whether to lead trumps or not. The Captain hesitates,
+and not liking to play out his good hearts with the certainty of their
+being trumped by the Squire, nor, on the other hand, liking to open the
+other suits in which he has not a card that can assist his partner,
+resolves, as becomes a military man, in such dilemma, to make a bold
+push and lead out trumps, in the chance of finding his partner strong,
+and so bringing in his long suit.
+
+SQUIRE, taking advantage of the much meditating pause made by the
+Captain--"Mrs Dale, it is not my fault. I have asked Rickeybockey--time
+out of mind. But I suppose I am not fine enough for those foreign
+chaps--he won't come--that's all I know!"
+
+PARSON, aghast at seeing the Captain play out trumps, of which he, Mr
+Dale, has only two, wherewith he expects to ruff the suit of spades of
+which he has only one, (the cards all falling in suits) while he has
+not a single other chance of a trick in his hand.--"Really, Squire,
+we had better give up playing if you put out my partner in this
+extraordinary way--jabber--jabber--jabber!"
+
+SQUIRE.--"Well, we must be good children, Harry. What!--trumps, Barney?
+Thank ye for that!" And the Squire might well be grateful, for the
+unfortunate adversary has led up to ace king knave--with two other
+trumps. Squire takes the Parson's ten with his knave, and plays out ace
+king; then, having cleared all the trumps except the Captain's queen
+and his own remaining two, leads off tierce major in that very suit of
+spades of which the Parson has only one,--and the Captain, indeed, but
+two--forces out the Captain's queen, and wins the game in a canter.
+
+PARSON, with a look at the Captain which might have become the awful
+brows of Jove, when about to thunder.--"That, I suppose, is the
+newfashioned London play! In my time the rule was 'First save the game,
+then try to win it.'"
+
+CAPTAIN.--"Could not save it, sir."
+
+PARSON, exploding.--"Not save it!--two ruffs in my own hand--two tricks
+certain till you took them out! Monstrous! The rashest trump"--Seizes
+the cards--spreads them on the table, lip quivering, hands
+trembling--tries to show how five tricks could have been gained--(N.B.
+it is _short_ whist, which Captain Barnabas had introduced at the Hall)
+can't make out more than four--Captain smiles triumphantly--Parson in a
+passion, and not at all convinced, mixes all the cards together again,
+and falling back in his chair, groans, with tears in his voice.--"The
+cruellest trump! the most wanton cruelty!"
+
+The Hazeldeans in chorus.-"Ho--ho--ho! Ha--ha--ha!"
+
+The Captain, who does not laugh this time, and whose turn it is to
+deal, shuffles the cards for the conquering game of the rubber with as
+much caution and prolixity as Fabius might have employed in posting
+his men. The Squire gets up to stretch his legs, and, the insinuation
+against his hospitality recurring to his thoughts, calls out to his
+wife--"Write to Rickeybockey to-morrow yourself, Harry, and ask him to
+come and spend two or three days here. There, Mrs Dale, you hear me?"
+
+"Yes," said Mrs Dale, putting her hands to her ears in implied rebuke
+at the loudness of the Squire's tone. "My dear sir, do remember that
+I'm a sad nervous creature."
+
+"Beg pardon," muttered Mr Hazeldean, turning to his son, who, having
+got tired of the caricatures, had fished out for himself the great
+folio County History, which was the only book in the library that the
+Squire much valued, and which he usually kept under lock and key, in
+his study, together with the field-books and steward's accounts, but
+which he had reluctantly taken into the drawing-room that day, in
+order to oblige Captain Higginbotham. For the Higginbothams--an old
+Saxon family, as the name evidently denotes--had once possessed lands
+in that very county. And the Captain--during his visits to Hazeldean
+Hall--was regularly in the habit of asking to look into the County
+History, for the purpose of refreshing his eyes, and renovating his
+sense of ancestral dignity with the following paragraph therein:--"To
+the left of the village of Dunder, and pleasantly situated in a hollow,
+lies Botham Hall, the residence of the ancient family of Higginbotham,
+as it is now commonly called. Yet it appears by the county rolls,
+and sundry old deeds, that the family formerly styled itself Higges,
+till, the Manor House lying in Botham, they gradually assumed the
+appellation of Higges-in-botham, and in process of time, yielding to
+the corruptions of the vulgar, Higginbotham."
+
+"What, Frank! my County History!" cried the Squire. "Mrs H. he has got
+my County History!"
+
+"Well, Hazeldean, it is time he should know something about the County."
+
+"Ay, and History too," said Mrs Dale, malevolently--for the little
+temper was by no means blown over.
+
+FRANK.--"I'll not hurt it, I assure you, sir. But I'm very much
+interested just at present."
+
+The CAPTAIN, putting down the cards to cut.--"You've got hold of that
+passage about Botham Hall, page 706, eh?"
+
+FRANK.--"No; I was trying to make out how far it is to Mr Leslie's
+place, Rood Hall. Do you know, mother?"
+
+MRS HAZELDEAN.--"I can't say I do. The Leslies don't mix with the
+county; and Rood lies very much out of the way."
+
+FRANK.--"Why don't they mix with the county?"
+
+MRS HAZELDEAN.--"I believe they are poor, and therefore I suppose they
+are proud: they are an old family."
+
+PARSON, thrumming on the table with great impatience.--"Old
+fiddledee!--talking of old families when the cards have been shuffled
+this half hour!"
+
+CAPTAIN BARNABAS.--"Will you cut for your partner, ma'am?"
+
+SQUIRE, who has been listening to Frank's inquiries with a musing
+air.--"Why do you want to know the distance to Rood Hall?"
+
+FRANK, rather hesitatingly.--"Because Randal Leslie is there for the
+holidays, sir."
+
+PARSON.--"Your wife has cut for you, Mr Hazeldean. I don't think it
+was quite fair; and my partner has turned up a deuce--deuce of hearts.
+Please to come and play, if you _mean_ to play."
+
+The Squire returns to the table, and in a few minutes the game is
+decided by a dexterous finesse of the Captain against the Hazeldeans.
+The clock strikes ten: the servants enter with a tray; the Squire
+counts up his own and his wife's losings; and the Captain and Parson
+divide sixteen shillings between them.
+
+SQUIRE.--"There, Parson, I hope now you'll be in a better humour. You
+win enough out of us to set up a coach and four."
+
+"Tut!" muttered the Parson; "at the end of the year, I'm not a penny
+the richer for it all."
+
+And, indeed, monstrous as that assertion seemed, it was perfectly
+true, for the Parson portioned out his gains into three divisions.
+One-third he gave to Mrs Dale, for her own special pocket-money; what
+became of the second third he never owned, even to his better half--but
+certain it was, that every time the Parson won seven-and-sixpence,
+half-a-crown, which nobody could account for, found its way to the
+poor-box; while the remaining third, the Parson, it is true, openly and
+avowedly retained: but I have no manner of doubt that, at the year's
+end, it got to the poor quite as safely as if it had been put into the
+box.
+
+The party had now gathered round the tray, and were helping themselves
+to wine and water, or wine without water--except Frank, who still
+remained poring over the map in the County History, with his head
+leaning on his hands, and his fingers plunged in his hair.
+
+"Frank," said Mrs Hazeldean, "I never saw you so studious before."
+
+Frank started up, and coloured, as if ashamed of being accused of too
+much study in anything.
+
+The SQUIRE, with a little embarrassment in his voice.--"Pray, Frank,
+what do you know of Randal Leslie?"
+
+"Why, sir, he is at Eton."
+
+"What sort of a boy is he?" asked Mrs Hazeldean.
+
+Frank hesitated, as if reflecting, and then answered--"They say he is
+the cleverest boy in the school. But then he saps."
+
+"In other words," said Mr Dale, with proper parsonic gravity, "he
+understands that he was sent to school to learn his lessons, and he
+learns them. You call that sapping--I call it doing his duty. But pray,
+who and what is this Randal Leslie, that you look so discomposed,
+Squire?"
+
+"Who and what is he?" repeated the Squire, in a low growl. "Why, you
+know, Mr Audley Egerton married Miss Leslie the great heiress; and this
+boy is a relation of hers. I may say," added the Squire, "that he is as
+near a relation of mine, for his grandmother was a Hazeldean. But all
+I know about the Leslies is, that Mr Egerton, as I am told, having no
+children of his own, took up young Randal, (when his wife died, poor
+woman,) pays for his schooling, and has, I suppose, adopted the boy
+as his heir. Quite welcome. Frank and I want nothing from Mr Audley
+Egerton, thank heaven."
+
+"I can well believe in your brother's generosity to his wife's
+kindred," said the Parson sturdily, "for I am sure Mr Egerton is a man
+of strong feeling."
+
+"What the deuce do you know about Mr Egerton? I don't suppose you could
+ever have even spoken to him."
+
+"Yes," said the Parson, colouring up, and looking confused, "I had some
+conversation with him once;" and observing the Squire's surprise, he
+added--"when I was curate at Lansmere--and about a painful business
+connected with the family of one of my parishioners."
+
+"Oh! one of your parishioners at Lansmere--one of the constituents Mr
+Audley Egerton threw over, after all the pains I had taken to get him
+his seat. Rather odd you should never have mentioned this before, Mr
+Dale!"
+
+"My dear sir," said the Parson, sinking his voice, and in a mild tone
+of conciliatory expostulation, "you are so irritable whenever Mr
+Egerton's name is mentioned at all."
+
+"Irritable!" exclaimed the Squire, whose wrath had been long simmering,
+and now fairly boiled over.--"Irritable, sir! I should think so: a man
+for whom I stood godfather at the hustings, Mr Dale! a man for whose
+sake I was called a 'prize ox,' Mr Dale! a man for whom I was hissed in
+a market-place, Mr Dale! a man for whom I was shot at, in cold blood,
+by an officer in his Majesty's service, who lodged a ball in my right
+shoulder, Mr Dale! a man who had the ingratitude, after all this,
+to turn his back on the landed interest--to deny that there was any
+agricultural distress in a year which broke three of the best farmers
+I ever had, Mr Dale!--a man, sir, who made a speech on the Currency
+which was complimented by Ricardo, a Jew! Good heavens! a pretty parson
+you are, to stand up for a fellow complimented by a Jew! Nice ideas
+you must have of Christianity. Irritable, sir!" now fairly roared
+the Squire, adding to the thunder of his voice the cloud of a brow,
+which evinced a menacing ferocity that might have done honour to Bussy
+d'Amboise or Fighting Fitzgerald. "Sir, if that man had not been my own
+half-brother, I'd have called him out. I have stood my ground before
+now. I have had a ball in my right shoulder. Sir, I'd have called him
+out."
+
+"Mr Hazeldean! Mr Hazeldean! I'm shocked at you," cried the Parson;
+and, putting his lips close to the Squire's ear, he went on in a
+whisper--"What an example to your son! You'll have him fighting duels
+one of these days, and nobody to blame but yourself."
+
+This warning cooled Mr Hazeldean; and, muttering, "Why the deuce did
+you set me off?" he fell back into his chair, and began to fan himself
+with his pocket-handkerchief.
+
+The Parson skilfully and remorselessly pursued the advantage he had
+gained. "And now, that you may have it in your power to show civility
+and kindness to a boy whom Mr Egerton has taken up, out of respect to
+his wife's memory--a kinsman, you say, of your own--and who has never
+offended you--a boy whose diligence in his studies proves him to be
+an excellent companion to your son;--Frank," (here the Parson raised
+his voice,) "I suppose you wanted to call on young Leslie, as you were
+studying the county map so attentively?"
+
+"Why, yes," answered Frank, rather timidly, "if my father did not
+object to it. Leslie has been very kind to me, though he is in the
+sixth form, and, indeed, almost the head of the school."
+
+"Ah," said Mrs Hazeldean, "one studious boy has a fellow-feeling for
+another; and though you enjoy your holidays, Frank, I am sure you read
+hard at school."
+
+Mrs Dale opened her eyes very wide, and stared in astonishment.
+
+MRS HAZELDEAN retorted that look with great animation. "Yes, Carry,"
+said she, tossing her head, "though you may not think Frank clever, his
+masters find him so. He got a prize last half. That beautiful book,
+Frank--hold up your head, my love--what did you get it for?"
+
+FRANK, reluctantly.--"Verses, ma'am."
+
+MRS HAZELDEAN, with triumph.--"Verses!--there, Carry, verses!"
+
+FRANK, in a hurried tone.--"Yes, but Leslie wrote them for me."
+
+MRS HAZELDEAN, recoiling.--"O Frank! a prize for what another did for
+you--that was mean."
+
+FRANK, ingenuously.--"You can't be more ashamed, mother, than I was
+when they gave me the prize."
+
+MRS DALE, though previously provoked at being snubbed by Harry, now
+showing the triumph of generosity over temper.--"I beg your pardon,
+Frank. Your mother must be as proud of that shame as she was of the
+prize."
+
+Mrs Hazeldean puts her arm round Frank's neck, smiles beamingly on Mrs
+Dale, and converses with her son in a low tone about Randal Leslie.
+Miss Jemima now approached Carry, and said in an "aside,"--"But we
+are forgetting poor Mr Riccabocca. Mrs Hazeldean, though the dearest
+creature in the world, has such a blunt way of inviting people--don't
+you think if you were to say a word to him, Carry?"
+
+MRS DALE kindly, as she wraps her shawl round her.--"Suppose you write
+the note yourself. Meanwhile, I shall see him, no doubt."
+
+PARSON, putting his hand on the Squire's shoulder.--"You forgive my
+impertinence, my kind friend. We parsons, you know, are apt to take
+strange liberties, when we honour and love folks, as I do you."
+
+"Pish!" said the Squire, but his hearty smile came to his lips in spite
+of himself.--"You always get your own way, and I suppose Frank must
+ride over and see this pet of my--"
+
+"_Brother's_," quoth the Parson, concluding the sentence in a tone
+which gave to the sweet word so sweet a sound that the Squire would not
+correct the Parson, as he had been about to correct himself.
+
+Mr Dale moved on; but as he passed Captain Barnabas, the benignant
+character of his countenance changed sadly.
+
+"The cruellest trump, Captain Higginbotham!" said he sternly, and
+stalked by--majestic.
+
+The night was so fine that the Parson and his wife, as they walked
+home, made a little _detour_ through the shrubbery.
+
+MRS DALE.--"I think I have done a good piece of work to-night."
+
+PARSON, rousing himself from a reverie.--"Have you, Carry?--it will be
+a very pretty handkerchief."
+
+MRS DALE.--"Handkerchief!--nonsense, dear. Don't you think it would be
+a very happy thing for both, if Jemima and Signor Riccabocca could be
+brought together?"
+
+PARSON.--"Brought together!"
+
+MRS DALE.--"You do snap one up so, my dear--I mean if I could make a
+match of it."
+
+PARSON.--"I think Riccabocca is a match already, not only for Jemima,
+but yourself into the bargain."
+
+MRS DALE, smiling loftily.--"Well, we shall see. Was not Jemima's
+fortune about L4000?"
+
+PARSON dreamily, for he is relapsing fast into his interrupted
+reverie;--"Ay--ay--I daresay."
+
+MRS DALE.--"And she must have saved! I dare say it is nearly L6000 by
+this time;--eh! Charles dear, you really are so--good gracious, what's
+that!"
+
+As Mrs Dale made this exclamation, they had just emerged from the
+shrubbery, into the village green.
+
+PARSON.--"What's what?"
+
+MRS DALE pinching her husband's arm very nippingly.--"That
+thing--there--there."
+
+PARSON.--"Only the new stocks, Carry; I don't wonder they frighten you,
+for you are a very sensible woman. I only wish they would frighten the
+Squire."
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+    _Supposed to be a letter from Mrs Hazeldean to----Riccabocca,
+        Esq., The Casino; but edited, and indeed composed, by Miss
+        Jemima Hazeldean._
+
+    "Dear Sir,--To a feeling heart it must always be painful to
+    give pain to another, and (though I am sure unconsciously) you
+    have given the _greatest_ pain to poor Mr Hazeldean and myself,
+    indeed to _all_ our little circle, in so cruelly refusing
+    our attempts to become better acquainted with a gentleman we
+    so highly ESTEEM. Do, pray, dear sir, make us the _amende
+    honorable_, and give us the _pleasure_ of your company for a
+    few days at the Hall! May we expect you Saturday next?--our
+    dinner hour is six o'clock.
+
+    "With the best compliments of Mr and Miss Jemima Hazeldean,
+
+      "Believe me, my dear Sir,
+            yours truly,
+                      H. H.
+  HAZELDEAN HALL."
+
+Miss Jemima having carefully sealed this note, which Mrs Hazeldean
+had very willingly deputed her to write, took it herself into the
+stable-yard, in order to give the groom proper instructions to wait
+for an answer. But while she was speaking to the man, Frank, equipped
+for riding with more than his usual dandyism, came also into the yard,
+calling for his pony in a loud voice, and singling out the very groom
+whom Miss Jemima was addressing--for, indeed, he was the smartest of
+all in the Squire's stables--told him to saddle the grey pad, and
+accompany the pony.
+
+"No, Frank," said Miss Jemima, "you can't have George; your father
+wants him to go on a message--you can take Mat."
+
+"Mat, indeed!" said Frank, grumbling with some reason; for Matt was a
+surly old fellow, who tied a most indefensible neckcloth, and always
+contrived to have a great patch in his boots;--besides, he called
+Frank "Master," and obstinately refused to trot down hill;--"Mat,
+indeed!--let Mat take the message, and George go with me."
+
+But Miss Jemima had also her reasons for rejecting Mat. Mat's foible
+was not servility, and he always showed true English independence in
+all houses where he was not invited to take his ale in the servants'
+hall. Mat might offend Signor Riccabocca, and spoil all. An animated
+altercation ensued, in the midst of which the Squire and his wife
+entered the yard, with the intention of driving in the conjugal gig to
+the market town. The matter was referred to the natural umpire by both
+the contending parties.
+
+The Squire looked with great contempt on his son. "And what do you want
+a groom at all for? Are you afraid of tumbling off the pony?"
+
+FRANK.--"No, sir; but I like to go as a gentleman, when I pay a visit
+to a gentleman!"
+
+SQUIRE, in high wrath.--"You precious puppy! I think I'm as good a
+gentleman as you, any day, and I should like to know when you ever saw
+me ride to call on a neighbour, with a fellow jingling at my heels,
+like that upstart Ned Spankie, whose father kept a cotton-mill. First
+time I ever heard of a Hazeldean thinking a livery-coat was necessary
+to prove his gentility!"
+
+Mrs HAZELDEAN observing Frank colouring, and about to reply.--"Hush,
+Frank, never answer your father,--and you are going to call on Mr
+Leslie?"
+
+"Yes, Ma'am, and I am very much obliged to my father for letting me,"
+said Frank, taking the Squire's hand.
+
+"Well, but Frank," continued Mrs Hazeldean, "I think you heard that the
+Leslies were very poor."
+
+FRANK.--"Eh, mother?"
+
+MRS HAZELDEAN.--"And would you run the chance of wounding the pride of
+a gentleman, as well born as yourself, by affecting any show of being
+richer than he is?"
+
+SQUIRE with great admiration.--"Harry, I'd give L10 to have said that!"
+
+FRANK, leaving the Squire's hand to take his mother's.--"You're quite
+right, mother--nothing could be more _snobbish_!"
+
+SQUIRE.--"Give us your fist too, sir; you'll be a chip of the old
+block, after all."
+
+Frank smiled, and walked off to his pony.
+
+MRS HAZELDEAN to Miss Jemima.--"Is that the note you were to write for
+me?"
+
+MISS JEMIMA.--"Yes, I supposed you did not care about seeing it, so I
+have sealed it, and given it to George."
+
+MRS HAZELDEAN.--"But Frank will pass close by the Casino on his way to
+the Leslies'. It may be more civil if he leaves the note himself."
+
+MISS JEMIMA hesitatingly.--"Do you think so?"
+
+MRS HAZELDEAN.--"Yes, certainly. Frank--Frank--as you pass by the
+Casino, call on Mr Riccabocca, give this note, and say we shall be
+heartily glad if he will come."
+
+Frank nods.
+
+"Stop a bit," cried the Squire. "If Rickeybockey's at home, 'tis ten to
+one if he don't ask you to take a glass of wine! If he does, mind, 'tis
+worse than asking you to take a turn on the rack. Faugh! you remember,
+Harry?--I thought it was all up with me."
+
+"Yes," cried Mrs Hazeldean, "for heaven's sake, not a drop! Wine
+indeed!"
+
+"Don't talk of it," cried the Squire, making a wry face.
+
+"I'll take care, sir!" said Frank, laughing as he disappeared within
+the stable, followed by Miss Jemima, who now coaxingly makes it up with
+him, and does not leave off her admonitions to be extremely polite
+to the poor foreign gentleman, till Frank gets his foot into the
+stirrup; and the pony, who knows whom he has got to deal with, gives a
+preparatory plunge or two, and then darts out of the yard.
+
+
+
+
+MILITARY LIFE IN NORTH AFRICA.[16]
+
+
+In days of national antipathy, now happily bygone, it was a vulgar
+English prejudice that Frenchmen were great only as cooks and
+dancing-masters. In popular belief, the fiddle and the frying-pan were
+their insignia, pirouettes and fricassees their highest achievements.
+Peace and steam have exploded these exaggerated notions in the minds
+even of the least intelligent. They would be inexcusable in the days
+of cheap excursions to Paris and electric telegraphs beneath the
+billows of the Channel. Moreover, Englishmen have learned to rival
+what they once contemned; native talent has been encouraged; Britain
+glories in cooks who will lower their culinary flag to no foreign
+kickshaw-compounder that ever stirred a sauce or frothed a _souffle_;
+and in professors of the choregraphic who would scorn to be excelled by
+any Gaul that ever carried a kit. A higher standard has been fixed for
+the capacity of Frenchmen. Rivalled in cookery and capers, their claims
+are admitted to first-rate excellence in two nobler sciences--the
+military, namely, and the dramatic. Sometimes they unite the two.
+Witness Napoleon, the greatest warrior and most consummate actor
+France can boast. Certainly Frenchmen show nowhere to such advantage
+as on the stage or in the field, by the light of the foot-lamps or
+through the smoke of the bivouac. So strongly, indeed, are they imbued
+with the military and dramatic essences, that these are continually
+perceptible when they are engaged in pursuits of a most opposite
+character. The conscription and national-guard system give to the whole
+nation a martial tinge, from which the most pacific callings are no
+preservative. In France, men whose existence passes in the measurement
+of calico or the parcelling of groceries, often seem, in tone, costume,
+and mustache, to pertain to the camp rather than the counter. And in
+the gravest occupations, as in the most commonplace passages of life,
+a large majority of Frenchmen appear to us English to be continually
+acting. Their love of effect, contrast, and epigram, gives a theatrical
+air to their most ordinary as to their most important proceedings.
+Nations, like individuals, view each other through their own peculiar
+spectacles; and the French are as much struck and amused with English
+phlegm and reserve as we are with their vehemence, gesticulations,
+and demonstrativeness. We are not, however, here preluding to a
+dissertation on national character, but to a notice of some pleasant
+military sketches by a French officer. We have the highest opinion of
+Frenchmen as soldiers, not merely on account of their bravery, which
+is universally admitted--by none more freely than by those who have
+fought and beaten them--but by reason of their many other excellent
+military qualities--of their discipline, temperance, subordination,
+and of that sentiment of soldierly honour which we believe to pervade
+the French troops to an extent never exceeded, and rarely equalled,
+in any other European army. The works of our own military historians
+abound with traits of French chivalry and heroism, as they also do
+with acknowledgments of their peculiar aptitude for war, of their
+cheerfulness on the march, their patience under privations, their
+skill--and this is no slight virtue in soldiers--in shifting for
+themselves, and making the most of a bad bivouac, uncomfortable
+quarters, or a scanty ration. All these qualities are well displayed
+in M. de Castellane's sketches of French military life. The date of
+his campaigns is recent, the scene Africa; his opponents were Arabs
+and Kabyles; his comrades, Spahis, Zouaves, Chasseurs d'Orleans, and
+Chasseurs d'Afrique. To some, a brief explanation of these terms may
+be useful. Spahis are Arab cavalry in the French service, officered by
+Frenchmen, and with an admixture of European soldiers in the ranks. The
+Zouaves are a crack infantry corps, similarly composed, and attired,
+like the Spahis, in Oriental costume. The Chasseurs of Orleans are
+light infantry, wonderfully active, and wearing dark uniforms. Finally,
+the Chasseurs of Africa are a very fine body of French cavalry, raised
+expressly for African service, dressed in light blue, well mounted, and
+armed with carbine and sabre, some with lances. Like the Zouaves, this
+last-named corps is a favourite with adventurous volunteers, ambitious
+of distinction and the epaulet. In its fourth squadron, the author of
+these sketches held an officer's commission. He writes like a gentleman
+and a soldier; his style is pointed and to the purpose, and free from
+egotism and affectation. He himself shared in some of the warlike
+episodes he tells of; others are derived from the verbal or written
+narratives of his comrades. They comprise a great variety of details,
+and fully initiate us into the phases of a soldier's life in Africa.
+Numerous as are the works, French, English, and German, of which French
+conquest and colonisation in Africa have furnished the theme, there was
+still abundant room for this one, taking up, as it does, that branch
+of the subject which writers generally have had least opportunity of
+appreciating--the joys and sorrows, hardships and exploits, perils
+and sufferings, of the French soldier in Algeria. A fresh interest is
+also imparted to it by the prominent part lately and still taken in
+public affairs in France by men who have risen into distinction through
+their valour and military talents during the long struggle with the
+Arabs. Comparatively inattentive as we in England were to the razzias
+and skirmishes of the African campaigns, the names of Changarnier,
+Cavaignac, and Lamoriciere can hardly be said to have dwelt in our
+memories until revolution and civil strife in their own country brought
+them to the front. It now is interesting to revert to those earlier
+days of their career, when they fought the Bedouin on the arid plains
+and in the perilous defiles of North Africa, fostering in that rough
+school the sternness and tenacity of character which they since have
+more than once had occasion usefully to display amidst the turmoil of
+domestic discord.
+
+"At four days' march from Milianah," says M. de Castellane, "in the
+heart of the valley of the Cheliff, stand some old Roman walls, bearing
+mute testimony to the power of the ancient rulers of the land. At
+the foot of these walls, not far from tracts of stubble and dried
+herbs, delicious gardens and orchards, orange and pomegranate trees,
+and limpid springs, invite a halt; whilst luxuriant vines, trailing
+from branch to branch, form bowers of verdure, and offer delightful
+shelter to the fatigued wayfarer. It was at this spot that General
+Changarnier's column, consisting of twelve hundred infantry, three
+hundred regular cavalry, and four hundred Arab horsemen, was reposing,
+in the month of September 1842, from its numerous expeditions under a
+burning sun, protecting by its presence the tribes that had recently
+made their submission, and giving the _aman_ to those numerous ones
+which came to implore it.[17] The column had been for some time at
+_El-Arour_, (the name of these gardens), when a letter reached the camp
+from our Aga in the south. Menaced by Abd-el-Kader, Ahmeur-ben-Ferrah
+asked succour of General Changarnier, entreating him to arrive speedily
+if he did not wish soon to learn the ruin and massacre of the tribes
+to whom France owed protection. It was of the utmost importance to go
+quickly to his assistance. To pass by Milianah was to lengthen the
+journey four days; through the mountains, on the other hand, in two
+marches they would be near enough to support him. The tribes seemed
+peacefully disposed. The Arab chiefs assured the French that not a
+shot would be fired at them. They spoke of a very difficult defile,
+but two hours, they said, would take the troops through it. Besides,
+it was dangerous only in case of hostility from the tribes adjacent
+to the river, whose chiefs, only the evening before, had visited
+the camp in friendship. Finally, the general had under his orders
+Zouaves, Chasseurs of Orleans, and Chasseurs of Africa, commanded by
+Colonel Cavaignac, Major Forey, and Colonel Morris. With such valiant
+troops, and such lieutenants, no danger was to be dreaded; General
+Changarnier's decision was soon taken; he would pass through the
+mountains."
+
+On the 17th of the month the little band set out, marched the 18th,
+receiving the submission of several tribes, and early on the morning of
+the 19th reached the Oued-Foddha river. There a halt of some duration
+was ordered, preparatory to entering the defile through which the river
+flows. The cavalry and a small party of infantry went out foraging.
+Presently, a well-sustained fire of musketry was heard, and an officer,
+sent to reconnoitre, saw the foragers defending themselves bravely
+against a host of white-draped Kabyles, headed by officers of the Arab
+regulars, dressed in red, who ran from group to group, exciting the
+men to the combat. This furious attack was rather a contrast with the
+peaceable passage promised by the Arab chiefs. But retreat could not
+be thought of. It would be a signal for the spread and consolidation
+of the revolt, and would occasion as much loss of life as a forward
+movement. The order was given to march, and the head of the column
+plunged boldly into the frightful gorge of the Oued-Foddha.
+
+"Meanwhile, on the right (the left bank of the river, for they were
+marching southwards, whilst the Oued-Foddha flows towards the north,)
+Captain Ribain's company of Chasseurs d'Orleans, sent to cover
+the foraging, steadily retired upon the column; from brushwood to
+brushwood, from tree to tree, each man retreated, seeking a favourable
+position, a good ambuscade; and often the same obstacle concealed
+a Kabyle on one side, and a chasseur on the other, each seeking an
+opportunity to kill his opponent. When they reached the last platform
+the bugle sounded the gymnastic step, and forthwith the chasseurs,
+rolling and sliding down the slopes, rapidly rejoined the rearguard,
+now about to enter the pass. The real combat was beginning; already
+the Kabyles shouted from the summits on either hand, 'You have entered
+your tomb, and will never leave it:' but they reckoned without our
+soldiers, without the chief who commanded them. Calm, impassible,
+General Changarnier rode with the rearguard, wrapped in his little
+_caban_ of white wool,[18] a target for every bullet, giving his
+orders with a coolness and precision that reassured the troops and
+redoubled their ardour. A description of the ground is essential to
+a clear comprehension of this terrible struggle. A hundred feet wide
+of sandy soil, furrowed by the bed of the torrent, was the ground
+they fought upon; right and left were steep slaty precipices, fringed
+with pine-trees; from the peaks of the mountains, which towered
+like obelisks, the balls poured down: such was the theatre of the
+combat. Imagine this ravine, these rocks, these mountains, covered
+with a multitude exciting themselves by their own yells, intoxicating
+themselves with the smell of powder, blind to danger, and rushing upon
+a handful of men, who opposed the coolness of energy, and the regular
+action of discipline, to their disorderly fury. But never for a moment
+did our soldiers cease to be worthily commanded. The officers set
+the example; the chief had not hesitated an instant, but had at once
+made up his mind, and imparted to his troops his own promptitude and
+decision. His plan was to march quickly, so as to pass the peaks, which
+were separated by impenetrable ravines, before the mass of Kabyles
+could get from one to the other: to effect this he occupied one of
+those positions indispensable to the safety of the column; and the
+rearguard, when too hard pressed, extricated itself by vigorous charges
+with the bayonet.
+
+"Fortunately the tribes to the east did not take part in the attack,
+so that the defence was at first confined to the right. Nevertheless,
+the column was advancing with difficulty, when it reached one of
+those passages that must be occupied. Some rocky precipices impended
+over the bed of the river, in front of a marabout or tomb, surrounded
+by lentisk trees; the rifle company of the Chasseurs d'Orleans were
+ordered to take these rocks; they sprang forward, full of ardour,
+but the steeps were frightful, and a week's provisions are a heavy
+load. Their lieutenant, Ricot, who had rushed forward without looking
+whether he was followed, was the first upon the platform. Two balls
+pierced his breast. Lieutenant Martin and two men, hastening to his
+assistance, were likewise shot down. The surviving officer, hurrying in
+their footsteps, was checked by a terrible wound. The company, deprived
+of their officers and sergeant major, and exposed, without guide or
+leader, to a storm of bullets, was compelled to retreat, rescuing M.
+Martin, who was still alive. The other wounded were torn to pieces in
+sight of the column, amidst the ferocious cries of the Kabyles.
+
+"The General immediately ordered a halt; the Zouaves and three
+companies of the Chasseurs of Orleans were to assault the position,
+whilst the cavalry drove back the enemy in the bed of the river. The
+charge was sounded, with Colonel Cavaignac and Major Forey at the
+head of the troops; the General sprang forward and surmounted the
+steep flanks of the mountain, closely followed by his eager soldiers.
+Fury was at its height, and the struggle terrible. M. Laplanche, a
+staff officer attached to the Zouaves, was killed, a major had his
+horse killed, a captain his epaulet shot off; the General himself
+was indebted for his life to a bugler, who killed a Kabyle whose
+musket-muzzle was at his breast. At last we were masters of the
+position. In the river the charge of cavalry had also been completely
+successful: numerous dead bodies lay there, including some of women,
+who threw themselves on our soldiers, mixed with the Kabyles, fighting
+like men, and cutting off, for bloody trophies, the heads of the slain.
+
+"These two vigorous offensive movements procured us a little respite;
+soon, however, the combat was renewed with fresh ardour. The officers,
+foremost in danger, were also the first hit. Five officers of Zouaves,
+three of the Chasseurs d'Orleans, had already fallen, and it was but
+the middle of the day. Colonel Cavaignac, with his Zouaves, persisted
+in revenging his officers. It was no longer courage, but fury; every
+man was worth a score, and seemed to multiply himself to face all
+perils. As to the General, the bullets and the danger only increased
+his audacious coolness; his eyes beamed, and wherever he passed he
+inspired all with new energy. Amidst the noise of the musketry, which
+the mountain echoes repeated like the howling of a storm, the column
+advanced; the cavalry marching in front, with orders to halt, towards
+nightfall, in the first favourable position.
+
+"The troops had reached a spot where the two lofty banks of the
+ravine, bending inwards, again left but a narrow passage. Both banks
+were now occupied by the Kabyles; and whilst two companies were sent
+to repel them on the left, Captain Ribains, with a detachment of
+Chasseurs d'Orleans, was ordered to occupy the right-hand position.
+It was a vertical cascade of rocks and slaty soil, covered with firs
+and brushwood; a rivulet flowed across and soaked the ground, upon
+its way to the river. The captain dislodged the Arabs, occupied the
+position, thus assuring the free passage of the column; but, when he
+would have rejoined the main body, the Kabyles threw themselves upon
+his little band. A few men, the foremost files, tried to descend in a
+straight line; their feet slipped upon the slope, rendered slippery
+by the water, and nine of them were precipitated from an elevation
+of eighty feet. They rolled from rock to rock, from cliff to cliff,
+trying, but in vain, to cling to the bushes, and fell at last into the
+bed of the river. The rest of the company had inclined to the right
+towards a ravine, letting themselves drop from tree to tree, to rejoin
+the column. One soldier, Calmette by name, separated from his comrades
+and surrounded by Kabyles, was driven to the brink of the precipice.
+With his rifle he shot down one, two others fell by his bayonet; then,
+finding that he must fall, he seized two Kabyles, and sought to avenge
+his fate by making them share it. The rock was perpendicular; they fell
+from its summit, and, by unheard of good luck, the Kabyle to whom the
+chasseur most closely clung fell under him, and by his death saved his
+enemy's life. As to Captain Ribains, he was descending last of all, and
+seemed to defy the hostile bullets, when three Kabyles rushed upon him,
+fired, and fractured his shoulder. Fortunately his men managed to carry
+him off. All who witnessed still remember his being borne past the
+General, who congratulated him on his glorious conduct; his energetic
+countenance expressed the legitimate pride of duty done, and blood
+nobly poured out."
+
+At last night approached, and the bivouac was established at a place
+where the bed of the river expanded. Tents were pitched for the General
+and the wounded; the soldiers received fresh ammunition; a battalion
+was ordered to march, in profound silence, at two in the morning, to
+occupy the heights along the river bank, by which the morrow's march
+would lead. The French, still excited by the contest, conversed eagerly
+round their bivouac fires. Their Arab allies were discouraged, and
+sat gloomily beside their saddled horses, wrapped in their _burnous_
+and without fire. There were but three surgeons in the camp, and
+their hands were full. Most of the wounds had been received at the
+musket's muzzle, and were very painful. Eight amputations took place
+during the night. The quarter of the bivouac where the hospital was
+established, resounded with groans and cries of anguish. Examples of
+heroic endurance were not wanting. "For three quarters of an hour the
+chief surgeon probed and tortured the arm of Captain Ribains, saving
+the limb by his skill. During this long operation, the captain, seated
+on a biscuit box, amidst the dead and dying, showed as much fortitude
+as he had previously displayed courage. Not a complaint did he utter;
+only, from time to time, he could not help turning to the surgeon and
+saying--'Really, doctor, you hurt me.' Amongst the wounded of the 4th
+Chasseurs d'Afrique was a soldier named Cayeux. Feeling his death
+approach, he sent for his captain. After giving him a last message
+for his mother: 'Give my thanks, also,' said the soldier, 'to Colonel
+Tartas; he is a good man--he has always loved those he commanded; tell
+him that one of his soldiers thanks him with his dying breath.'" An
+affecting trait, honourable alike to soldier and to chief. There was
+much to do that night: it was all done, and well done. Litters were
+required for the wounded: trees were cut down, and the litters were
+made. The dead were to be buried: an hour before daybreak they were
+collected; a detachment of engineers, diverting the course of the
+stream, dug a hole, in which the bodies were deposited, and over which
+the water was again allowed to flow. This was to protect the corpses
+from Kabyle profanation. At dawn the march was resumed, amidst the
+shouts of the Kabyles, summoning each other to the massacre of the
+French. Their surprise and rage were excessive on finding the positions
+along the line of march all occupied. Notwithstanding the disadvantage
+of ground, the French now had the best of it, and several times during
+that day's march they turned upon their pursuers with terrible effect,
+the Zouaves especially distinguishing themselves. "After one of these
+rallies, they passed, to the great joy of all, through some magnificent
+vines, and quenched their thirst with the ripe grapes--the General
+himself, to whom the soldiers hastened to offer the first-fruits of
+the vintage, setting the example. Just then Colonel Cavaignac passed
+by. 'Here, my dear colonel,' said General Changarnier, offering him
+a splendid bunch of grapes, 'you must need refreshment after such
+glorious fatigues.' And they fell into chat, the balls falling thickly
+around them, until Colonel Cavaignac was called away to one of his
+captains, shot down at a few paces' distance, and who wished to
+recommend to him his mother and sister, and to give him his cross of
+officer of the Legion of Honour."
+
+A short time brought the column out of the defile upon ground which,
+although mountainous, appeared by contrast an open plain, and where
+the cavalry could act with advantage. The Kabyles were beaten off; and
+the next day halt was made, to rest the men, look after the wounded,
+and execute a plan of reprisals devised by Changarnier. His spies had
+informed him where the flocks and families of his late antagonists were
+assembled. A razzia was ordered in the night, and its result was eight
+hundred prisoners and twelve thousand head of cattle. Thus encumbered
+with captives, spoil, and wounded, the little band, which originally
+numbered barely two thousand men, now notably reduced by two days'
+severe fighting, completed a march of fifty leagues, to the utter
+astonishment of the natives, who could not believe that such a handful
+of troops had made their way, amidst the storm of Kabyle bullets,
+through those terrible ravines, which the Arabs designate the defiles
+of death. The affair of the Oued-Foddha is still celebrated in the
+French army as one of the most heroic achievements of the African war.
+All who were engaged did their duty well, taking example from their
+commander, of whom M. de Castellane speaks in the highest terms. Eight
+months after this affair the Kabyles had made their submission, and
+the war was at an end in the province--for a time, at least. General
+Changarnier was about to return to France. M. de Castellane accompanied
+him to the coast.
+
+"I well remember that, on our road from Milianah to Algiers, the Arab
+chiefs came to greet him on his passage, and amongst them I met an
+old Caid of the Hadjouts, whom I had known at Blidah. We spoke of
+the numerous razzias and nocturnal expeditions that had destroyed
+his warlike tribe. 'His name, with us,' he said to me, speaking of
+General Changarnier, 'signifies the _subduer of pride, the conqueror
+of enemies_;[19] and he has justified his name.' Then pointing to the
+long line of mountains which border the Mitidja from Chenouan to
+the sea, 'When the storm comes,' he continued, 'the lightning runs
+in an instant along all those mountains, penetrating their inmost
+recesses. Thus did his glance discover us. And when he had seen us,
+the bullet reaches not its aim more rapidly!' The old Arab spoke the
+truth. General Changarnier's characteristics are a quick and sound
+judgment, and dauntless energy: he knows how to command. His courage
+rises with danger; then, if you approach him, his vigour communicates
+itself to you, and you cannot doubt of success. At Constantina he first
+distinguished himself, and since then he has never for a day been
+inferior to the glorious reputation he there acquired. If ever you find
+yourself at the bivouac, or under the soldier's little tent, with one
+of those old African bands, get them to talk to you of their numerous
+expeditions under his orders, and you will see what they say of him."
+
+It was in March 1843 that M. de Castellane and some other officers left
+Algiers for Blidah, there to join General Changarnier, and commence,
+under his orders, a campaign in the interior. Their mid-day halt was at
+Bouffarik, an unwholesome town, frequently ravaged by fever, but which,
+nevertheless, enjoys a certain degree of prosperity, due to its central
+position. Here they refreshed themselves, according to invariable
+custom, at the celebrated coffee-house of _la Mere Gaspard_, a veteran
+sutler, who, after following the drum ever since the first landing of
+the French in 1830, had wearied of wandering, and pitched her tent at
+Bouffarik. There she greatly prospered, and in a few years had land
+of her own, a splendid hotel and coffee-house. "The place was adorned
+with paintings, marbles, and mirrors, and especially with some very
+fine engravings from Horace Vernet's pictures, which had been placed
+there by the hand of the celebrated artist. One day, dying of thirst,
+Vernet alighted at Mother Gaspard's. There he was offered drink, and
+land to buy. He drank and he bought some land, but, when signing
+the bargain, he perceived that the walls were covered with wretched
+lithographs after his pictures. Like a good neighbour, he promised to
+send the engravings, and he kept his word. Mother Gaspard, proud of the
+gift, never fails to relate the incident, and in my turn I repeat the
+tale." Between Bouffarik and Blidah, the traveller comes to a monument
+erected in honour of a sergeant and fifteen men who perished there in
+1840. They and five others were escorting the post-bag from Bouffarik,
+when they were set upon by some four hundred mounted Arabs. Forming a
+miniature square, they made a valiant defence, but five only survived
+when a squadron of Spahis came to the rescue.
+
+At Blidah, a perfect labyrinth of streets, squares and lanes, the
+travellers were greatly puzzled to find the General's quarters, when
+an obliging Arab volunteered to guide them to the residence of the
+_Changarlo_. It was a very humble habitation for the commander of a
+great province. A single sentry stood at the door; a great fig tree,
+the refuge of countless pigeons, shot up in the middle of the court;
+a small chamber, the only one upon the first floor, was the General's
+sleeping room; upon the ground floor, a large apartment answered the
+double purpose of orderly-room and of an aide-de-camp's bed-chamber.
+Two tolerably furnished rooms were allotted to visitors. At Blidah,
+as in camp, General Changarnier's hospitality was proverbial, even
+amongst the Arabs. M. de Castellane and his comrades found a cordial
+reception. But they were not long to enjoy themselves beneath the
+shadow of the General's fig-tree. The march was ordered for the next
+morning; Blidah's quiet streets and unfrequented shops swarmed with
+soldiers, providing themselves with coffee and tobacco, and such other
+comforts as their pocket-money allowed. The French soldier receives
+twopence half-penny every five days--no great fund for luxuries. On
+all sides, fatigue-parties were hurrying to the stores; and at night,
+until tattoo was beaten, every wine-house, was thronged for a parting
+carouse. At daybreak, with well-packed knapsacks and a week's rations
+on their backs, the column set out for Milianah. No apprehensions of
+perils or fatigues ruffled their joyous humour. They were all old
+soldiers, hardened in many campaigns; and besides, as they themselves
+said, in their barrack-room style, "with Changarnier there is always
+a smell of mutton." The allusion was to the numerous flocks they had
+captured under his orders. The success of his frequent razzias had
+made the saying proverbial amongst the troops. "On the 13th June 1849,
+the sixth battalion of Chasseurs, who had so long served under General
+Changarnier in Africa, having received orders to charge the insurgents
+in the streets of Paris, set off laughing and repeating to each other,
+to the great astonishment of the national guards, the old African
+proverb: 'This smells of mutton.'"
+
+The town of Milianah had twice been preserved to the French by the
+skill and enterprise of General Changarnier. In June 1840, that officer
+was colonel of the 2d Light Infantry, a regiment celebrated in African
+annals, and whose exploits have been repeatedly recorded on the canvass
+of Horace Vernet. The French army, commanded by Marshal Valee, was
+assembled, exhausted by many fatigues, beneath the walls of Medeah.
+Milianah, then but recently occupied by the French, was in want of
+provisions. All the generals deemed its relief impossible; the distance
+was too great, the men were too weary. Colonel Changarnier thought
+otherwise, and volunteered the service. By a march of twenty-four
+leagues in thirty hours, he evaded the enemy and accomplished his
+task, returning to Medeah four days afterwards, to receive the
+congratulations of the whole army. The stores and succours thus thrown
+into Milianah would suffice, it was hoped and expected, until the end
+of the autumn. But the hot season brought sickness in its train; vermin
+destroyed part of the provisions; the cattle died: famine was imminent.
+
+"Pent up within the ramparts and hard pressed by hunger, the soldiers
+ate whatever they could lay hands upon, even boiling and devouring
+weeds and mallows. This unwholesome nourishment, acting on the brain,
+induced nostalgia and suicide. Of twelve hundred men, seven hundred
+and fifty had perished; four hundred were in hospital, the others were
+little better than invalids, and had hardly strength to carry their
+muskets. The officers themselves were obliged to stand sentry, and the
+fatal day was near at hand when, for want of defenders, the town must
+be taken. No letters, no news--the spies had all been killed. At last a
+despatch from the governor escaped the Arabs, and intelligence reached
+Algiers of the sad condition of the garrison. Colonel Changarnier,
+who had become general since his first relief of Milianah, had
+increased, by further feats, his reputation for skill and audacity,
+and to him Marshal Valee again had recourse. Only two thousand men
+could be spared, wherewith to brave the attacks of the whole forces of
+Abd-el-Kader, who then had scarcely passed the zenith of his power. But
+Changarnier did not hesitate. The greater the peril, the more glorious
+the success."
+
+By spreading reports of a march in a contrary direction, the daring
+leader gained a day upon the enemy, and then cut his way to Milianah,
+reaching it in time to save the remnant of the unfortunate garrison.
+But three years had greatly changed the aspect of affairs; and when
+M. de Castellane reached Milianah in 1843, he found five thousand
+effective soldiers waiting the orders of Changarnier. There ensued a
+period of idleness for the men, but of great activity for the General
+and staff. The plan of campaign was to be sketched out; information was
+to be obtained concerning the nature of the country.
+
+"Everyday the Aga of the Beni-Menacers, Ben-Tifour, came to the
+General's quarters with men of his tribe, and there, by dint of
+questioning, by asking the same things ten times over and of ten
+different individuals, the chief of the province succeeded in obtaining
+exact notions of the country, the halting places, the water, the
+bivouacs. During this time a constant communication was kept up with
+Cherchell by means of spies. Some of the letters sent cost five hundred
+francs postage, for the carriers risked their lives. At last, after
+mature reflection, the General's plan was decided upon and written
+down; and his orders were given with that clearness and precision which
+leaves no doubt or ambiguity. This was one of General Changarnier's
+characteristics. With him obedience was always easy, because the duty
+was never doubtful."
+
+At Milianah the French officers had a club, a pleasant pavilion in the
+middle of a garden. A library and a coffee house were attached to it.
+For evening amusement there was the theatre. Ay, a theatre at Milianah!
+How could Frenchmen, even in the heart of Algeria, exist without a
+vaudeville? The soldiers were actors. The _vivandieres_ lent their caps
+and gowns to dress up the female characters. "I well remember," says M.
+de Castellane, "seeing _Le Caporal et la Payse_ played at Milianah. The
+Dejazet of the company, a mettlesome _Artemise_, excited the laughter
+of the whole audience, even that of General Changarnier, who often
+attended the performance, in his box of painted paper. It is impossible
+to say how much these amusements, which some may deem futile,
+contributed to keep up the spirits of the troops, and to dispel those
+gloomy ideas which in Africa are often the forerunners of nostalgia and
+death."
+
+Not all these diversions and resources, however, could reconcile M. de
+Castellane to a fortnight's halt at Milianah. He beguiled his anxiety
+for action by researches into the history of certain Arab tribes. The
+three principal families of Milianah were those of Omar, Sidi-Embarek,
+and Ouled-ben-Yousef. At that time, Sidi-Embarek was organising amongst
+the Kabyles a vigorous resistance to the French, to whom Omar was
+friendly. The recent annals of the Omars are highly curious, and form a
+chapter of the purest Oriental romance. In the valley of the Cheliff,
+"at Oued-Boutan, the new Hakem of the town of Milianah, Omar Pacha, of
+the illustrious family of the pacha of that name, was waiting for us.
+There we had a fresh proof of the deep traces the Turks have left in
+this country. After more than thirteen years, the remembrance of them
+is still so lively amongst the people, that the son of the Pacha Omar
+was surrounded by the respect of all these chiefs as in the day of his
+family's power."
+
+"The most celebrated of the Omars was one of those Turkish soldiers,
+each one of whom may say, when he dons the uniform--'If it is written,
+I shall be a pacha!' Mehemet Ali, putting into Metelin on his way
+to Egypt, met Omar, whose brother had for some years past held high
+office under the Pacha of Algiers. Mehemet Ali and Omar formed a close
+friendship, and set out together to seek their fortune, but scarcely
+had they reached Egypt when Omar received a letter from his brother
+Mahomed, summoning him to his side. The two friends parted, with a vow
+that the first who succeeded in life should share his prosperity with
+the other. At Oran, where his brother had become Caliphate of the Bey,
+Omar's fine figure, his eye, whose gaze none could endure, his long
+black mustaches, and his brilliant beauty, procured him the surname of
+_chaous_. Soon afterwards, the daughter of a Turk of Milianah, named
+Jemna, whom all cited as a marvel of loveliness, became his wife. But
+Omar's prosperity was of short duration. His brother Mahomed, whose
+credit with the Pacha of Algiers gave umbrage to the Bey of Oran, was
+thrown into prison, and the Bey ordered his death. Omar was compelled
+to share his brother's dungeon, and when the executioner entered, he
+would have defended him; but Mahomed prevented it. 'The hour of my
+death is come,' he said. 'It is not given to man to resist the power
+of the Most High; but pray to him daily that he may choose thee as my
+avenger; and bear in mind that you are the husband of my wife and the
+father of my children.' Thenceforward, revenge was Omar's sole thought;
+and when, by the Pacha's order, the Bey sent him to Algiers, he used
+all his efforts to elevate himself, in order to hasten the hour of
+retaliation. Soon he became Caid of the Arabs; and his wife Jemna,
+who at first had been prevented leaving Oran, managed to join him,
+through a thousand dangers, escorted by her father, Si-Hassan, and by a
+faithful servant, Baba-Djelloull.
+
+"The troops of Tunis marched against Algiers; a battle took place,
+and the Turks were giving way, when Omar, dashing forward with thirty
+horsemen, made a daring charge, rallied the army by his example, and
+decided the victory. On his return to Algiers, the troops clamorously
+demanded him as their Aga. Meanwhile, Mehemet Ali's fortune had also
+made progress. The massacre of the Mamelukes consolidated his power,
+and he testified his recollection of his friend, by sending him a
+magnificent tent.
+
+"The country flourished under the administration of the new Aga. Stone
+bridges were built over the Isser and the Cheliff. In the words of
+the Arab chronicle, victory everywhere accompanied Omar. His name was
+a terror to his enemies, and he was blessed by all the people, when
+the Bey of Oran, still detesting the brother of Mahomed, and dreading
+this new power, persuaded the Pacha of Algiers that Omar was planning
+to usurp his throne. Fortunately, an intercepted letter warned Omar,
+who hurried to the barracks, and assembled the troops. 'It is you
+who have raised me,' he said, 'and in none others do I recognise the
+right to cast me down. I place myself in your hands; either kill me or
+deliver me from my enemies.' The furious soldiery ran to the Pacha's
+palace, stabbed him, (1810) and would have named Omar in his stead; but
+Omar refused, and the _khrasnadji_, or treasurer, was then elected.
+All-powerful, Omar saw the hour of revenge at hand. The Bey of Oran
+having revolted, he marched against him, took his enemy prisoner, and
+had him flayed alive. In the province of Oran you are still told of
+_Bey el messeloug_, the flayed Bey.
+
+"In 1816, fearing the Coulouglis,[20] the Pacha planned their massacre,
+and confided his project to Omar, who, far from countenancing it, had
+the Pacha stifled in his bath. This time he was obliged to accept the
+Pachalik. When sending the customary present to the Porte, he intrusted
+Si-Hassan and his son Mahomed with rich presents for Mehemet Ali, who
+was named Pacha almost at the same time. For the space of two years,
+Omar made head against all manner of misfortunes--against the plague,
+the locusts, and Lord Exmouth's bombardment; but poor Jemna had lost
+her peace of mind, for she knew that all Deys die a violent death. In
+1818, she was in the pains of childbed when she heard discharges of
+artillery. Seized with alarm, she desired to see Omar, and, contrary
+to etiquette, she sent her faithful attendant, old Baba-Djelloull, to
+seek him; but the old man soon returned, and returned alone. Jemna
+understood, and swooned away. At the same instant, numerous blows were
+struck on the door of her apartments. It was the _chaous_ of the new
+Dey, coming to take possession of Omar's treasures."
+
+The treasures were enormous in amount. M. Roche, the French
+consul-general at Tangiers, to whom M. de Castellane declares himself
+indebted for this very interesting history of the Omar family, derived
+his account of them from a son of Jemna, apparently that one whose
+birth she was hourly expecting when she was shocked by the intelligence
+of her husband's violent death. "Omar's palace contained a hundred
+negroes, three hundred negresses, ten Georgians, twenty Abyssinians,
+forty thoroughbred horses, ten mares from the Desert. The entire
+furniture of one saloon was of gold and silver, adorned with precious
+stones; another room was full of chests of gold and silver coin, silk
+brocade, and cloth of gold. Jemna changed her dress every week, and
+attached to each costume was a complete set of diamonds, consisting of
+a diadem, an aigret and earrings, a collar of fifteen rows of pearls,
+two clasps, bracelets, twelve rings for the fingers and two for the
+ankles, and a tunic of cloth-of-gold, studded with precious stones."
+Omar's murderer and successor would fain have wedded his widow, but she
+spurned his offer. He then seized her treasures, and, in the moment of
+good-humour which their great amount occasioned him, he allowed her to
+retire with her children to Milianah, where her father had property.
+After a few months' sway, the new Pacha was assassinated in his turn,
+and his successor, Hadj-Mohamed, went to inhabit the Casbah palace,
+in defiance of a prophetic inscription announcing an invasion by
+Christians during the reign of a Pacha whose residence should be the
+Casbah.
+
+He died of the plague; and Hassan, who succeeded him, and who had
+been an _iman_ under Omar, showed his gratitude to his former master
+by magnificent presents to his widow, and great kindness to his sons.
+Jemna had almost forgotten past sorrows in present happiness, when the
+arrival of the French brought her fresh disasters and sufferings. Her
+sons allied themselves with the invaders, thereby incurring hatred
+and persecution from Abd-el-Kader. They were stripped of all they
+possessed: Omar, the youngest of them, was loaded with fetters, and
+placed in a dungeon; Jemna escaped the bastinado only by the mercy
+of an executioner, who inflicted it upon a negress in her stead. At
+last the intervention of some Arab chiefs procured the liberty of both
+mother and son, and the progress of the French enabled them to take
+up their residence in safety at Milianah, where Omar was appointed
+_hakem_, an office equivalent to mayor. In 1843, M. de Castellane
+was present at an interview between Marshal Bugeaud and Jemna, whose
+countenance, in spite of lapse of years and many sorrows, still
+retained traces of great beauty.
+
+The chief of the Sidi-Embarek, a family which, although of Arab race,
+had enjoyed great respect and influence in the country for some
+centuries before Turkish rule was terminated by French usurpation,
+had actively stimulated the persecution of the family of Omar, whose
+personal enemy he was. M. de Castellane gives the following account
+of the founder of the Sidi-Embarek:--"In 1580, a man of the Hachems
+of the west, named Si-Embarek, left his tribe, with two servants, and
+went to Milianah. There, on account of his poverty, he discharged his
+servants, who settled upon the banks of the Cheliff, and gave birth to
+the tribe of Hachems still existing there. Sidi-Embarek then went to
+Coleah, and engaged himself as _rhames_ (a sort of subordinate farmer)
+to a certain Ismael; but, instead of working, he slept; and meanwhile,
+marvellous to relate, the yoke of oxen intrusted to him ploughed by
+themselves, and, at the close of day, he had done more work than
+anybody else. This prodigy was reported to Ismael, who, desirous of
+witnessing it with his own eyes, hid himself one day, and saw Embarek
+sleeping under a tree whilst the oxen ploughed. Thereupon Ismael knelt
+before him, and exclaimed--'You are the elect of God; 'tis I who am
+your servant, and you are my master;' and, taking him home, he treated
+him with profound respect. Embarek's reputation for holiness spread
+far and wide; multitudes thronged to solicit his prayers and make him
+offerings, and he speedily acquired great riches." The grandson, many
+times removed, of this miraculous ploughman, was a Marabout or saint
+by right of descent; but he was also a very considerable fighting
+man, and a most efficient lieutenant of Abd-el-Kader. We make his
+acquaintance under very striking circumstances, in the course of M. de
+Castellane's curious account of the Spahis of Mascara. The corps of
+Spahis had its origin in the necessities of African service. Excellent
+and most efficient as are the regiments of light dragoons known as
+_Chasseurs d'Afrique_, they were not all that was wanted in the way
+of cavalry. It was found expedient to make Arab fight Arab. Knowledge
+of the country, and of the habits of the foe, was as essential as
+good soldiership. The prospect of gain brought abundant recruits; the
+discipline exacted was less rigid than in French regiments; the sole
+uniform was a red _burnous_, stripped off in an instant, when desirable
+to conceal the military character of the wearer. Europeans not being
+excluded from the corps, many roving and desultory blades, tempted by
+the adventurous nature of the service, and to whom the routine and
+strict discipline of a more regular one would have been irksome, have,
+at different periods, served in the ranks of the Spahis, and sometimes
+sabred their way to a commission--"strange adventurers," says M. de
+Castellane, "whose lives resembled some tale of former days cut out
+of an old book." And he gives an account of two such persons whom he
+met with in the Mascara squadron, with which his own was for some time
+brigaded. One was a French _marechal-de-logis_ or sergeant, named
+Alfred Siquot, a man of good family and eccentric character,--a great
+humourist, whose gloomy air and silent laugh had procured him from
+his comrades the surname of Jovial. There does not appear, however,
+to have been mystery in his previous life, which was open to all, nor
+any particular romance or adventures in its incidents previously to
+his service in Africa. The case was very different with his comrade,
+Mohamed-Ould-Caid-Osman, who had the rank of native officer. "The Arab
+name concealed a Prussian one, and an agitated life, full of duels
+and adventures--of condemnations to death, and executions in effigy.
+Clever and well-informed, there was a great charm in his bluntness of
+manner, and his bravery, justly celebrated, procured him the respect of
+all. He was the very type of the officer of fortune--of the lansquenet
+of former days. His double-barrelled gun, as much dreaded by the
+Arabs as by the partridges--his dog Tom--his sorrel charger, a beast
+of famous bottom--were his sole friends in the field. In garrison, a
+fourth affection found a place in his heart--a little Spanish girl, who
+never opened her mouth, and was as devoted to him as his dog. Tom, the
+_Chica_, the Caid, made but one. Their life, with its joys and sorrows,
+was in common. Now and then Siquot went and smoked his pipe in the
+midst of the three friends.
+
+"As to the Caid's African life, it was well known, and its accidents
+had more than once beguiled the leisure of the bivouac. He had been
+twice seen at Algiers, but in very different circumstances. The
+first time, in all his splendour, he was travelling with Prince
+Puckler-Muskau, who speaks of him in his _Letters_, designating him by
+his initials. The second time, in 1840, he had assumed the knapsack of
+the infantry soldier, and was marching to the defile of Mouzaia, in the
+ranks of the foreign legion."
+
+The ruined gentleman, however, could not accustom himself to walking,
+and after a severe campaign, in which three-fourths of his company
+perished, he procured a substitute and left the legion. Once more a
+free agent, his roving propensities were checked for a while by the
+fascinations of a fair Moor. "Halfway up the hill leading to Mustapha,
+stood a cheerful white house, embowered in foliage and commanding a
+splendid view of the Bay of Algiers. The Armida of that enchanting spot
+was named Aicha, and never did Eastern poet dream of a more charming
+creature. What wonder, then, if beneath these shades six months of
+peace, calm, and repose elapsed. Each morning the smiling beauty seated
+herself at Osman's feet, whilst he wrote, upon a little Arab table, in
+the midst of perfumes and flowers, the life of a Protestant missionary
+whom he had met in one of his rambles."[21] The Rinaldo of the foreign
+legion might, one would think, have been well content to linger long
+in such a retreat and such society. Aicha was fond and constant, and
+was rapidly acquiring German. But after six months of this Capuan
+existence, the vagabond again got the upper-hand in the restless soul
+of the Caid. Like the celebrated Lord Lovel, he loved and he rode away;
+the horse, in this case, being represented by a steamer, which carried
+him off westwards one fine morning, his gun on his shoulder, and in
+his pocket a letter of recommendation, now two years old, for General
+Lamoriciere, whom he had formerly known in command of a battalion of
+Zouaves. What became of Aicha--whether she cried her eyes out, or took
+arsenic, or another lover--the little dog, as Mr Commissary Capsicum
+would say, forgot to mention.
+
+"The province of Oran, in 1841, was far from tranquil; a stout heart
+and a strong arm had then abundant opportunities of distinction.
+Mohamed-Ould-Caid-Osman, inscribed under this Arab name on the
+muster-roll of the Spahis, and Siquot, who enlisted at the same
+period, did not miss such opportunities. Soon afterwards, Siquot was
+wounded, the Caid had his horse killed under him, and their names
+appeared in the orders of the army. Heroes, whether illustrious or
+unknown, always find enviers; take as an example Sergeant Froidefond, a
+grumbling old trooper, who thought proper to tell the Caid he was good
+for nothing but cleaning his nails. On their return to Mascara, they
+fought at twelve paces: Froidefond fired first, and the Caid fell, shot
+through the buttock. The seconds ran forward to pick him up. 'Stop!'
+he cried, 'it is my turn to fire;' and raising himself on his elbow,
+he shot Froidefond dead. He himself was then carried to the hospital,
+where he found Siquot, who was getting cured of a wound. On hearing
+what had happened, the Chica--who had then been about a year mixed up
+in his existence, without very well knowing why, like the dogs who
+attach themselves to a squadron--hastened to the hospital to nurse him,
+and in three months he was on his legs again."
+
+The Caid had returned to his duty when, in 1813, M. de Castellane's
+regiment entered Mascara with trumpets sounding, escorting Marshal
+Bugeaud. Abd-el-Kader was at no great distance, and Generals
+Lamoriciere and Tempoure had been operating against him until the
+cavalry of the province had great need of repose to recruit and
+remount. One night a Spanish deserter came over from the Emir, and gave
+Marshal Bugeaud important information, fully confirming the reports
+of the spies. An hour later, orders were given for an expedition in
+pursuit of Abd-el-Kader's battalions of regulars, of whom Sidi-Embarek
+had just taken the command. General Tempoure had charge of the column,
+which consisted of two battalions of infantry, four hundred and fifty
+French dragoons, fifty Spahis, including Siquot and the Caid Osman, and
+a few irregular horse.
+
+"If the official reports in the _Moniteur_ were not there to confirm
+its truth, the narrative of this expedition would risk being deemed a
+fable. Cavalry and infantry marched three days and three nights: in the
+morning they halted for one hour and a half--at night, from six o'clock
+till midnight. From the moment when the trail of the enemy was first
+struck, the drum was not once beaten. They followed the scent, like
+dogs pursuing their prey. Thirty Spahis, with some horsemen belonging
+to the Arab office at Mascara, preceded the column; they _read the
+earth_ during the night. What all exciting time that was! We came to
+bivouacs whose fires were still burning; the enemy had left them only
+that morning, and in all haste we resumed our march. At last, after
+forty-eight hours, our Arab scouts, hovering round the flanks of the
+column, captured two Arabs of the tribe of Djaffra. These refused at
+first to speak; but a musket-muzzle, applied to their heads, untied
+their tongues, and we learned that the regulars were at Taouira on the
+previous evening. We were on the right road, therefore, and should end
+by overtaking them. The march was resumed, the Spahis still leading.
+Not a pipe was alight; profound silence was observed, broken only by
+the noise of a fall, when some sleepy foot-soldier stumbled over an
+obstacle. Day broke, and a slight smoke was seen; the fires had just
+expired, the regulars were gone. The hope which had hitherto sustained
+the soldiers' strength suddenly abandoned them; nothing was heard but
+cries and maledictions. Everyone grumbled at the general. The morning
+halt was called in a hollow, and whilst the soldiers ate, the scouts
+reported that the traces of the enemy were quite fresh. For a second
+General Tempoure hesitated; then his decision was taken, and the order
+for instant march given. A great clamour arose in the bivouac. 'He
+wants to kill us all!' cried the soldiers, who during seventy hours
+had had but a few moments of repose. They obeyed, however, and the
+march was resumed. In an hour's time, the track turned southwards. In
+that direction there was no certainty of water. No matter, advance we
+must. But the traces grew fresher and fresher: here a horse had been
+abandoned; a little farther, a jackass. 'We have got the rascals!'
+said the soldiers, and their strength revived. At last, towards eleven
+o'clock, whilst the column was passing through a deep ravine, a thick
+smoke was seen behind a hill. This time the enemy was assuredly
+there. Fatigue vanished as by enchantment. In an instant cloaks were
+rolled, priming renewed, horses girthed up; all was ready, and the
+troops formed for the attack. Three hundred infantry supported three
+columns of cavalry; the centre was commanded by Colonel Tartas of the
+4th Chasseurs. The advance began; just then there was the report of a
+musket; it was a vedette whom our scouts had been unable to surprise.
+The Arab galloped up the hill, waving his _burnous_. At the same
+moment, the drums of the regulars beat to arms; there was a stir in
+our ranks. The cavalry broke into a trot; the infantry, forgetting
+forced marches, followed at a run, and from the top of the hill we
+saw the two battalions of regulars, who had been unable to reach the
+opposite summit, halt half way up. Away went the cavalry, sabre in
+hand, horses at a gallop, Colonel Tartas at their head. They were met
+by a volley of musketry; some fell, but the avalanche broke through
+the obstacle, and the Arabs were cut down on all sides. Their horsemen
+try to escape--some flying to the left, others straight forward. They
+are pursued by all whose horses are not yet knocked up; and the Caid
+Osman rolls over with his charger, which is hit in the head. M. de
+Caulaincourt, admirably mounted, continues the race; he kills one of
+the Emir's horsemen; but, separated by a ridge of ground from his
+soldiers, whom he has outstripped, he is surrounded by enemies. Without
+losing his presence of mind, he spurred his horse and broke through
+the circle, sabre in hand; when, just as he was about to rejoin his
+men, an Arab, issuing from a glade, shot him with a pistol, close to
+the eye. The horse galloped on, and carried back the wounded officer
+to his troop. The blood streamed, the flesh hung in shreds; M. do
+Caulaincourt, however, was still conscious. Lifted from his horse, a
+soldier took him on his back and carried him to the surgeon, traversing
+the scene of the combat, a true field of the dead. In a narrow space
+lay five hundred corpses, nearly all frightfully mutilated by the
+sabres of our chasseurs.
+
+"A steep bank of rock had checked the progress of those horsemen who
+had fled to the left. Several alighted, and, jerking their horses with
+the bridle, surmounted the obstacle. Only one of them rode at a walk
+along the foot of this rocky wall. The whiteness of his garments and
+beauty of his equipments marked him as a chief. Siquot, a corporal of
+chasseurs, and Captain Cassaignoles, rode after him. The ground was
+very bad, full of impediments. The corporal was the first to reach him;
+just as his horse's nose touched the crupper of the Arab's charger, the
+horseman, turned round with the utmost coolness, took aim, and laid
+him dead on the spot. At the same moment Siquot came up and wounded
+the Arab, but received a pistol-ball through his left arm, the same
+shot killing the horse of Captain Cassaignoles, who was a little lower
+down the slope. The tall cavalier then rose in his stirrups, and struck
+Siquot on the head with his heavy pistol-butt, when Corporal Gerard of
+the Chasseurs, riding up on the top of the bank, shot him through the
+breast. The horse was caught; it was a splendid animal, which a wound
+in the shoulder had alone prevented from saving its master's life.
+'See if that Arab is blind of an eye,' cried Captain Cassaignoles.
+They looked; an eye was wanting. 'It is Sidi-Embarek; let his head be
+cut off.' And Gerard, with a knife, separated the head from the body,
+that the Arabs might not have a doubt of his death. Then all obeyed
+the recall, which was sounding. The chase was over; the regulars were
+broken and destroyed; cruel fatigue had been rewarded by complete
+success. General Tempoure returned to Mascara, and a month later each
+man received, according to the Arab expression, _the testimony of
+blood_, the cross so glorious to the soldier.
+
+"The chances of war then separated us from the Caid: I also learned
+the return of Siquot to France, where, by an odd coincidence, he
+received from his Paris friends the same surname as from his African
+comrades. As to the German lansquenet, he marked every corner of the
+province of Oran by some daring feat, and always fortunate, invariably
+escaped unhurt. Within three years of service, he was five times
+named in orders, and passed through the noncommissioned grades to the
+rank of cornet. When I next met with him in 1846, Tom, the horse, the
+Chica, formed, as before, his whole family. Poor Chica, who in all her
+life had never had but one ambition, that of wearing a silk dress! In
+garrison, Tom was purveyor; he and his master started at daybreak and
+returned at night, weary but content, and with a well-filled game-bag.
+The Chica, who had passed the day singing, laid the table, and the
+three friends supped together.
+
+"Some months later, after an absence of three weeks, one of our
+squadrons returned to Mascara from the outposts. We were moving down
+the street that leads to the cavalry barracks, when we saw the officers
+of the garrison assembled before the Caid's little house. They advanced
+to greet and shake hands with us, and they told us that the Chica, the
+Caid's companion, the friend of all, was dead.
+
+"The poor little thing had suffered for some time; the evening before,
+however, she had got up. There was a bright warm sun, and the air was
+full of perfume. 'Chico,' said she to the Caid, 'give me your arm,
+I should like to see the sun once more.' She took a few steps, wept
+as she gazed on the budding foliage and the beauty of the day: then,
+as she returned to her arm-chair, 'Ah! Chico,' she exclaimed, 'I am
+dying!' And in sitting down she expired, without agony or convulsion,
+still smiling and looking at the Caid.
+
+"At this moment the Chica's coffin was borne out of the house; all
+present uncovered their heads, and we joined the officers who followed
+her to her grave.
+
+"The cemetery of Mascara, planted with olive and forest trees, is
+situated in the midst of gardens: everything there breathes peace,
+calm, and repose. The Chica's grave had been dug under a fig-tree.
+The Spahis who carried her stopped, all present formed a circle; two
+soldiers of the Engineers took the light bier, and lowered the poor
+Chica into her final dwelling-place. The Caid was at the foot of the
+grave. One of the soldiers presented him with the spadeful of earth:
+the Spahi's hard hand trembled as he took it; and when the earth,
+falling on the coffin, made that dull noise so melancholy to hear, a
+big tear, but half suppressed, glistened in his eyes.
+
+"Thenceforward Tom, whom the Chica loved, was the Caid's only friend."
+
+Some may suspect M. de Castellane of giving a romantic tint to his
+African experiences. We do not partake the suspicion. Even in the
+nineteenth century, generally esteemed prosaic and matter-of-fact,
+there is far more romance in real life than in books; and the
+Prussian-Arab Osman is but one of scores, perhaps hundreds, of military
+adventurers who have fought in various services during the last twenty
+years, and the events of whose career, truly noted, would in many cases
+be set down by the supporters of circulating libraries as overstrained
+and improbable fiction. In that chapter of M. de Castellane's work
+which consists of the journal of an officer of Zouaves, we find an
+account of another singular wanderer, who in the year 1840 deserted
+from the Arabs, (having previously served with the French,) and came
+into the town of Medeah, where the Zouaves were in garrison. He was a
+very young man, a Bavarian, of the name of Glockner, son of a former
+commissary in the service of France, and nephew of a Bavarian officer
+of the highest rank. "A cadet at the military school at Munich, he was
+sent, in consequence of some pranks he played, to serve in a regiment
+of light dragoons; but his ardent imagination and love of adventure
+led him to fresh follies; he deserted into France. Coldly received,
+as all deserters are, he was enrolled in the foreign legion. He had
+hardly reached Africa when he became disgusted with the service, and,
+yielding to the craving after novelty which constantly tormented him,
+he deserted to the Arabs. He remained with them three years. Kidnapped
+at first by the Kabyles, he was taken to a market in the interior,
+and sold to a chief of the tribe of the Beni-Moussa. After being his
+servant for a year, he managed to escape from his master's tent, and,
+with legs bare, a _burnous_ on his shoulders, a camel rope round his
+waist, and a pilgrim's staff in his hands, he marched at random in a
+southerly direction. In this manner he reached the Desert, passing
+his nights with the different tribes he encountered, amongst whom he
+announced himself by the Mussulman's habitual salutation, 'Eh! the
+master of the Douar! A guest of God!' Thereupon he was well received;
+food and shelter were given him, and he departed the next morning
+unquestioned as to his destination. It concerned no one, and no Arab
+ever asked the question. He followed his destiny. Thus did Glockner
+cross a part of the Sahara, and reach the town of Tedjini, Ain Mhadi;
+thence he went to Boghar, Taza, Tekedempt, Mascara, Medeali, and
+Milianah; then, enrolled by force amongst the regulars of El Berkani,
+he made the campaigns of 1839 and 1840 in their ranks. Decorated by
+Abd-el-Kader in consequence of a wound received the 31st December
+1839--a wound inflicted, as he believes, by a captain of the 2d Light
+Infantry--he again returned to us, after other adventures, like the
+prodigal child, lamenting his follies, weeping at thoughts of his
+family, especially of his father, and entreating as a favour to be
+received as a French soldier. They talked of sending him back to the
+foreign legion, but he begged to be admitted into the Zouaves, and was
+accordingly enlisted as an Arab, under the name of Joussef. He was
+then but one-and-twenty years old, was fresh as a child, timid as a
+young girl, and marvellously simple in his bearing and language." The
+end of this young fellow's history, as far as M. de Castellane became
+acquainted with it, is on a par with its commencement. "In the Zouaves
+his conduct was admirable. In every engagement in which he shared, his
+name deserved mention. Made a corporal, then a sergeant, he was sent to
+Tlemcen on the formation of a third battalion of Zouaves. Recommended
+by Colonel Cavaignac to General Bedeau, he rendered great services by
+his intelligence and knowledge of the Arab tongue. His father, to whom
+they had written in Bavaria, had confirmed the truth of his story. He
+was happy, and treated with consideration, when, one fine morning, he
+took himself off with a political prisoner who had just been set at
+liberty, and deserted into Morocco. He remained there a long time; then
+he went to Tangiers, and, denounced by the French consul as a deserter,
+he was going to be tried by a court-martial, when, in consideration
+of his former services, they continued to treat him as an Arab. His
+mania for rambling is really extraordinary; and he declares that he
+cannot approach a strange country without being seized with a desire to
+explore it."
+
+It is surprising that the African campaigns have not been more
+prolific of military sketches and memoirs from the pens of French
+officers. Although tolerably familiar for many years past with
+French literature, we can remember but few such works. _La Captivite
+d'Escoffier_, noticed, in conjunction with an English volume upon an
+analogous subject, in a former Number,[22] is the only French book of
+the kind we have met with for a long time; and that was of inferior
+class, and of less authentic appearance, than M. de Castellane's
+agreeable _Souvenirs_. We should have thought the war in Africa, the
+adventurous and often severe marches of the troops, the exploits of
+the hunting-field, the humours of garrison life, and the tales of the
+bivouac, would have found innumerable chroniclers amongst the better
+educated portion of French officers. The French soldier is a good
+study for painter or humourist; whether as the stolid recruit with the
+ploughman's slouch and the smell of the furrow still hanging about him,
+or the smart and wide-awake trooper of four or five years' service,
+or the weather-beaten old sergeant, all bronze and wrinkles, with his
+grizzled moustache, his scrap of red ribbon, his tough yarns and his
+mixture of simplicity and shrewdness, his lingering prejudices against
+English and Germans, and his religious veneration of Napoleon the
+Great. We believe M. de Castellane would be successful in portraiture
+of French military character and eccentricities, and we regret he has
+been so sparing of it. Here and there we find a characteristic bit of
+camp-life, or a pleasant sketch by the watch-fire.
+
+"During our marches, we were never weary of admiring the constancy of
+the infantry-man, so heavily loaded that, in mockery of himself, he
+has taken the surname of the _Soldat-chameau_. It was really wonderful
+to see them make those long marches, under a burning sun, across
+frightful mountains, always gay and cheerful, and amusing themselves
+with the merest trifle.... It is on their arrival at the bivouac that
+their industry is displayed to the greatest advantage. Pause beside
+this little tent, and watch the chief of the squad; they bring him
+crabs, tortoises, water serpents, all manner of creatures that have no
+name, but a flavour, and which experience teaches may be eaten without
+danger. Or they bring a mess-kettle full of bullock's blood. Thrice
+boiled and suffered to grow cold, bullock's blood forms a sort of black
+cheese. Spread upon biscuit, with a little salt, this is tolerable
+food, and a precious resource for famished stomachs." In presence of
+such messes as these, it is easy to understand the popularity of a
+general who, like Changarnier, classed a greasy haversack amongst a
+soldier's first necessaries, and rarely allowed his men to lack mutton,
+of either Arab or Kabyle growth. For the loss of their flocks and
+herds the natives retaliated, when opportunity offered, by the theft
+of French horses. "In the night we had an alarm; we were in a friendly
+district, but our friends were not the less arrant thieves. Two horses
+were taken away. According to their custom, some bold fellows, stark
+naked and well anointed with grease, so as to slip through detaining
+fingers, glided between the tents, crawling like snakes. On coming
+to two fine horses, they cut the thongs that shackled them, jumped
+on their backs, and were off at a gallop, clearing all obstacles
+and crouched upon the animals' necks to avoid the bullets of the
+advanced sentries. A few hours later, another of these gentry was less
+fortunate. The soldier on guard over the piled muskets, remarked, as
+he perambulated his beat, a bush of dwarf palm. It was upon his right
+hand. A minute afterwards the bush had changed its place, and stood
+upon his left. This struck the sentry as looking like mischief. He took
+no notice, but quietly cocked his musket and continued his walk. The
+bush continued to change its place, gaining ground little by little;
+suddenly it made a rapid advance, and a Kabyle, dagger in hand, sprang
+upon the soldier; but the soldier received him on the point of his
+bayonet. The thrust was mortal, and the living bush rose no more." The
+Kabyles might have taken lessons from the Thugs of India and the Red
+men of North America. On a large scale, as well as in petty details,
+stratagem was a prominent feature of the war in Africa. Beneath the
+spacious tent of one of the Arab allies of the French, M. de Castellane
+listened one evening, in an atmosphere fragrant with the vapours of
+pipes and coffee, to the extempore stanzas of a native poet. When the
+improvisatore had come to an end, and had received his tribute of
+praise, an old sergeant of the Spahis of Orleansville narrated the
+death of the Aga of Ouarsenis.
+
+"It was on the 20th July of this year," he said; "Hadj Hamet had gone,
+with his _goum_[23] and twenty Spahis, to seek at Mazouna the betrothed
+of his son. His heart was joyful, and happiness reigned around him,
+when the young girl was delivered to him. After a night of rejoicing,
+the escort set out. On arriving at Oued-Meroui, we saw at a distance
+a _goum_ of Arabs. Hadj Hamet thought it was the Aga of the Sbehas,
+advancing with his horsemen to perform the _fantasia_ before the
+bride, and at a sign from him his followers formed in two lines, to
+give the strangers free passage. The troop came up at a gallop, dashed
+in between the double row of horsemen, and then, turning right and
+left, sent a volley into their faces. It was Bon Maza in person. Thus
+unexpectedly attacked, the _goum_ broke and fled; the Spahis alone
+stood by old Hadj Hamet, who defended his daughter until loss of blood,
+which already flowed from several wounds, left him no longer strength.
+At last he fell dead. Of the twenty Spahis, ten had fallen; all was
+over; the other ten cut their way through, and reached Orleansville."
+
+Formidable as many of the Arabs are--owing to their excellent
+horsemanship and skill in arms--in single-handed conflicts, in large
+bodies they rarely await the charge even of far inferior numbers
+of disciplined cavalry. Near the confluence of the Cheliff and the
+Mina, on an October day in 1845, two squadrons of dragoons, under
+Colonel Tartas, were in quest of the aforesaid Bou Maza, who had been
+committing razzias upon tribes friendly to the French. Reinforced
+by a native ally, Sidi-el-Aribi, with a handful of horsemen, and
+notwithstanding the heavy load of four days' rations for man and horse,
+they pressed on at a rapid pace, and on surmounting a ridge of ground,
+beheld, "numerous as the sands on the sea-shore, the hostile Arabs
+firmly waiting our attack. In the centre floated an immense green
+banner, and the wings, forming a horse shoe, seemed ready to enclose
+us. "Walk!" cried Colonel Tartas, and we advanced at a walk, sabre in
+scabbard. In his loud parade-voice, the colonel then gave his orders,
+and the squadrons formed front, each keeping a division in reserve.
+Between the two squadrons marched the colonel and his standard; at his
+side was Sidi-el-Aribi; behind him a little escort; on our flanks,
+the handful of Arab horse. "Where is the rallying place?" asked the
+adjutant. "Behind the enemy, round my standard," replied the colonel;
+and then, connected as by a chain, the squadrons broke into a trot,
+with sabres still sheathed. At musket-shot distance, "Draw swords!"
+shouted the colonel; and the two hundred and fifty sabres were drawn
+as by one hand. A hundred paces further we changed to a gallop, still
+in line like a wall. Suddenly, on beholding this hurricane of iron,
+so calm and so strong, advancing towards them, our innumerable foe
+hesitated; a dull noise, like the sound of the waves in a storm, arose
+in the midst of the multitude. They crowded together, wavered to and
+fro, and suddenly disappeared like dust before the gale. In a quarter
+of an hour we drew bridle. A hundred of the enemy were on the ground;
+and our Arab allies, pursuing the fugitives, secured much spoil. As
+for us, without hospital train, without troops to support us, at three
+leagues and a half from all assistance, the least hesitation would have
+been perdition. Coolness and audacity had saved us; and there, where
+our only hope was a glorious death, we obtained a triumph.
+
+"Pressing round Colonel Tartas, near his standard, which two balls had
+rent, all these men of _great tent_,[24] all these bronze-complexioned
+Arab chiefs, their eyes lighted up by the excitement of the fight,
+thanked him as their saviour. At their head, Sidi-el-Aribi, with that
+majestic dignity which never deserted him, lavished expressions of
+gratitude upon the colonel; whilst around them, like a frame to the
+picture, the foaming horses, the dragoons leaning on their saddles, the
+arms and floating garments of the Arabs, the heads which some of them
+had fastened to their saddle-bows, and a nameless something in the air
+which told of victory, combined to give to the scene somewhat of the
+noble and savage grandeur of primitive times."
+
+We will not contrast with the picture thus vividly painted by M. de
+Castellane, the less romantic episodes of grubbing for silos, (buried
+stores of corn,) driving cattle, or smoking unfortunate Arab families
+out of their caves of refuge. Of all these matters the chasseur speaks,
+if not altogether admiringly, yet as necessities of that war, and
+stands forth with plausible sophisms in defence of the barbarities of
+the razzia system. We did not take up his sketches with disputatious
+intentions, and are quite content with the interest and amusement we
+have extracted from them, without attempting to drive their author from
+positions which, we suspect, he would find it as difficult to defend as
+the Arabs did to maintain those assailed by the gallant charges of the
+African Chasseurs.
+
+
+
+
+THE GREEN HAND.
+
+A "SHORT YARN."
+
+A WIND-UP.
+
+
+"No, Westwood," said I, "it can't be the right one--nor any of these,
+indeed!" And on looking at the chart, which was one not meant for
+anything but navigation in open water, with the channels laid down
+clearly enough, but evidently rather off-hand as to the islands, Jones
+himself seemed to get uncertain about the matter; partly owing to the
+short glimpse he'd had of the other chart, and partly to its being,
+as he thought, an old one made for a purpose, by a hand that knew the
+islands well. After two or three days' sail, we were getting into the
+thick of the Maldives, where the reefs and sand-banks stretching out
+on every side, and beginning to lap in upon each other, made it more
+and more dangerous work; but at any rate the islands we saw were either
+very small, or else low and muddy-like, with a few scrubby-looking
+cocoas upon them, like bulrushes growing out of a marsh. No runaway
+sailors would ever think of taking up their quarters hereabouts, even
+if we hadn't caught sight of a smoke now and then, and once of some
+native craft with a couple of brown mat-sails and an out-rigger, that
+showed the clusters hereaway to have people about them. Besides there
+was no pretext any Indiaman could have for steering near enough to such
+a jungle of mud and water, to give a boat the chance of making towards
+it with any certainty. I saw at once that the spot in question must lie
+tolerably for the course of a ship to western India, otherwise they
+wouldn't have appeared so sure of their mark as Jones said they did.
+All this, at the same time, kept me the more bent on searching the
+matter out ere I did aught else, seeing that in fact the Indiaman's
+attempt to get rid of the schooner was the very thing likely to bring
+her on this track; fancying, as she would, that we were either in chase
+of her toward Bombay, or off on our own course again. Now, on the one
+hand, nothing could fit better for the said runaway scheme of Harry
+Foster's; and on the other hand, nothing would have pleased me more,
+and greatly eased my mind too, than to catch him and his chums on their
+spree ashore. The worst of it was, that I began to have my doubts of
+Jones again. He was the only man that could put us on the right scent;
+yet he seemed either to have lost it, or to have something creeping
+on his mind that made him unwilling to carry it out. "Mr Jones," said
+I, as the schooner was hove to, and he stood musing gloomily by the
+binnacle, with a glance now and then in at the compass, and out at the
+chart again, "if you're at a loss now, sir, just say--and I shall try
+my own hand for want of better!" "No, Lieutenant Collins!" answered
+he suddenly, in a husky voice--"no, sir, that's not it, but--God help
+me! no, there's no use standing against fate, I see. Whatever it costs
+me, Mr Collins," he went on, firmly, "I'm with you to the end of it;
+but--there _is_ something horrible about all this!" "How! what do
+you mean?" said I, startled by the difference in his manner, and the
+quiver of his lip. "Oh," said he, "as for the present matter, there
+may be nothing more in it than what I heard on the ship's boom yonder.
+The truth is, I didn't know at first but this cluster here might have
+been the one--though I see now there is only _one_ island in the whole
+chain that can answer the description, and that is not here." With
+that he pointed to another piece of the chart, showing no more than
+a few spots upon the paper, not to speak of shades in it standing
+for reefs and shoals, towards the "Head" of the Maldives; one spot
+lying away from the rest, with the single name of Minicoy for them
+all. I asked him hastily enough what it was called, and all about it,
+for the whole affair made me more and more uneasy; but on this point
+Jones seemed inclined to keep close, plainly not liking the topic,
+except that I found it went by several names, one of which I had heard
+before, myself--White-water Island. About the time I was a boy in a
+merchantman's forecastle, 'twas a sort of floating yarn amongst some
+seamen, this White-water Island, I remembered; but I never met with
+a man that had seen it, every one having had it from a shipmate last
+voyage, though a terrible place it had been, by all accounts, without
+one's knowing exactly where it was. One craft of some kind had gone to
+find out a treasure that was buried in it, and she never was heard of
+more; a man took a fancy to live ashore in it, like Robinson Crusoe,
+and he went mad; while the reason there were no "natives" was owing to
+the dreadful nature of it, though at the same time it was as beautiful
+as a garden. The right name, however, according to Jones, was Incoo.
+"There's no good in blinding one's self to it, Mr Collins," he went
+on--"that's the island the men meant; only their chart set me wrong
+owing to the greater size of it--you had better beat out of this at
+once, and keep up for the eight-degrees channel there."
+
+We were in open sea again, out of sight of land from the mast-head,
+steering for somewhere about north-north-east, with a very light
+breeze from nearly the monsoon quarter, and sometimes a flying squall,
+sometimes no more than a black pour of rain, that left it hotter than
+before. The clear deep blue of the Indian ocean got to a sickly heavy
+sort of dead colour towards noon, like the bottoms of old bottles,
+and still we were standing on without signs of land, when, almost
+all at once, I noticed the water in the shadow of the schooner had a
+brown coffee-like tint I had never exactly seen hitherto; indeed, by
+the afternoon, it was the same hue to the very horizon, with a clean
+seaboard on all sides. I had the deep-sea lead-line hove at length, and
+found no soundings with a hundred and fifty fathoms; there was neither
+land nor river, I knew, for hundreds and hundreds of miles to the coast
+of Arabia; as for current, no trial I could think of showed any; and
+there were now and then patches of small glittering sea-jellies and
+sea-lice to be seen amongst a stalk or two of weed on the soft heave
+of the water, going the way of the breeze. A dozen or so of Portuguese
+men-of-war, as they call them, held across our bows one time; little
+pink blubbers, with their long shining roots seen hanging down in
+the clear of the surface, and their little blue gauze sails with the
+light through them, ribbed like leaves of trees, as they kept before
+the wind. Westwood and I both fancied we could feel a queer sulphury
+smell as we leant over the side, when a surge came along the bends.
+Not a single fish was to be seen about us, either, except the long
+big black-fish that rose one after the other at a distance, as the
+wind got lighter. One while you heard them groaning and gasping in the
+half-calm, as if it were the breathing of the sea far and wide every
+time it swelled; another, one saw them in a cluster of black points
+against the bright sky-line, like so many different-shaped rocks with
+the foam round them, or a lot of long-boats floating bottom up, with
+their back-horns for humps on the keel. As for Jones, he looked graver
+and graver, till all of a sudden we saw him go below; but after a
+little he came up with an almanac in his hand, and his finger fixed
+where the time of the next new moon was given, as I found when I took
+it from him, for he seemed not inclined to speak. "Why, what has that
+to do with the thing?" I said; "we are heading fair for the Minicoy
+cluster, I think." "Yes, sir," said he; "if one needed anything to
+prove that, he has only to look at the sea--at this season, I _knew_
+how it would turn out." "Well, that's what I can't understand, Mr
+Jones," said I; "the water seems as deep as St Paul's Cathedral thrice
+over!" "Do you not know then, sir, why that island is called--what it
+is?" was the answer,--"but wait--wait--till _night_!" and with that
+Jones turned round to the bulwarks, leaning his arms on the rail. In
+the mean time, Jacobs and some of the men had drawn a bucket of water,
+which we noticed them tasting. A pannikin full of it was handed along
+to the quarterdeck, and the taste struck you at once, owing to the want
+of the well-known briny twang of real blue-water, and instead of that
+a smack as it were of iron, though it was as clear as crystal. Every
+one had a trial of it but Jones himself: indeed, he never once looked
+round, till it had occurred to me to pour the tin of water into a glass
+and hold it with my hand over it inside the shade of the binnacle, when
+I thought I made out little specks and sparks shooting and twisting
+about in it, as if the water had a motion of itself; then it seemed to
+sink to the bottom, and all was quiet. Just then I looked up and caught
+Jones' scared restless sort of glance, as if he were uneasy. There was
+a strange life in that man's brain, I felt, that none could see into;
+but owing as it plainly was to something far away from the present
+matter, I knew it was best to let him alone. In fact, his doing as he
+did showed well enough he meant fair by ourselves. Nothing on earth
+ever gave me more the notion of a wreck in a man, than the kind of gaze
+out of Jones' two eyes, when he'd turn to the light and look at you,
+half keen, half shrinking, like a man that both felt himself above you,
+and yet, somehow or other, you'd got him under you. I'm blessed if I
+didn't trust him more because he had been too desperate a character
+in his deeds beforehand to turn his mind to little ones now, than for
+anything good in him; being one of those fellows that work their way
+from one port to another in ships' forecastles, and get drunk ashore,
+though, all the time, you'd say there wasn't one aboard with them, from
+the skipper to the chaplain, knew as much or had flown as high some
+time. Some day at sea the hands are piped round the grating, hats off,
+and the prayer-book rigged,--down goes "Jack Jones" with a plash and a
+bubble to his namesake, old "Davy," and you hear no more of him!
+
+Well, just after sundown, as the dusk came on, Westwood and I left the
+deck to go down to supper with the Planter, the midshipman being in
+charge. There was nothing in sight, sail or land; indeed, the queer
+dark-brown tint of the horizon showed strongly against the sky, as if
+it had been the mahogany of the capstan-head inside its brass rim; the
+night was cloudy, with a light breeze, and though the stars came out, I
+expected it to get pretty dark. As I went down the companion, I heard
+nothing but the light wash of the water from her bows, and the look-out
+stepping slowly about betwixt her knightheads on the forecastle: while
+it struck me the smooth face of the sea seemed to show wonderfully
+distinct into the dusk, the completer it got, as if a sort of light
+rose up from off it. Down below we felt her stealing pleasantly through
+all, and Tom and I sat for I didn't know how long, trying to settle our
+differences on the main point--about the Seringapatam, of course, and
+which way she was likely to be gone. Tom plumed himself mightily on his
+common-sense view of a thing, and having by this time got back a good
+deal of his cheerfulness, he and Mr Rollock almost laughed me over to
+his line of thinking.
+
+We agreed that the ship must be at present edging up on one side or
+other of the Maldives, but both of them thought the less we had to say
+to her the better. "I say, though," exclaimed the Planter, whose face
+was turned the opposite way to ours, "I'd no idea it was moonlight!"
+"Moonlight!--there's no moon till morning," I said. "Look into the
+stern-cabin there, then!" said Rollock; and I turned round, seeing into
+the door of the after-cabin, where, to my no small surprise, there was
+a bright white glare through the little square stern-light, gleaming
+on the rim of the sill, and seemingly off both the air and the water
+beyond. Quite confounded, as well as wondering what Snelling could be
+about, I hurried up the companion, the Planter and Westwood hard at my
+heels.
+
+For so long as I had kept at sea, and a good many different latitudes
+I had been into--yet I must say I never in my life before saw such a
+strange sight as broke on us the instant we put our heads out of the
+booby-hatch, fresh from the lamp-light in the cabin. Indeed, I can't
+but own to my first feeling being fright; for what it was I couldn't
+understand, unless we were got into a quarter of the world where things
+weren't natural. There were a few stray clouds in the sky, scattered
+away ahead, and clearing eastward to settle along before the breeze;
+all aloft of us, high over the sharp dark edge of the sails and gaffs,
+the air seemed to open away out pale and glimmering like a reflection
+in the ice; all round you caught a glimpse of the stars weakening and
+weakening toward the horizon. But the water itself--that was the sight
+that bewildered one! On every side the whole sea lay spread out smooth,
+and as white as snow--you couldn't fancy how wide it might stretch
+away astern or on our lee-beam, for not a mark of horizon was to be
+seen, save on the northwest, where you made it out, owing to the sky
+there being actually darker than the sea--but all the time the wide
+face of it was of a dead ghastly paleness, washing with a swell like
+milk to our black counter as we forged ahead. It wasn't that it shone
+in the least like blue water at night in the ordinary tropics--by
+Jove! that would have been a comfort--but you'd have thought there
+was a winding-sheet laid over all, or we were standing across a level
+country covered with snow--only when I stood up, and watched the bows,
+there was a faint hissing sparkle to be seen in the ripple's edge,
+that first brought me to myself. The Lascars had woke up where they
+lay about the caboose, and were cowering together for sheer terror;
+the men standing, each one in his place, and looking; while Jones, who
+had relieved the midshipman, leant by himself with his head on the
+capstan, as if to keep out the sight of it all: the schooner's whole
+dusky length, in fact, with every black figure on her decks, and her
+shape up to the lightest stick or rope of her aloft, appearing strange
+enough, in the midst of the broad white glare, to daunt any one that
+wasn't acquainted with the thing. "Mr Jones," said I quickly, on going
+up to him, "what the devil is this? I'll be hanged if I didn't begin to
+believe in witchcraft or something. Where are we getting to?" "Nothing,
+nothing, sir," said he, lifting his head; "'tis natural enough; only
+the milk sea, as they call it--the white water, sir, that comes down
+twice a-year hereabouts from God knows where--you only see it so at--at
+_night_!" "Oh, then, according to that," I said, "we shan't be long
+of sighting your island. I suppose?" "No," said he, "if the breeze
+freshens at all, keeping our present course, the mast-head ought to
+hail it in two or three hours; but God knows, Lieutenant Collins,
+natural though the sight is, there's something a man can't get rid of,
+especially if"--He stood up, walked to the side, and kept facing the
+whole breadth of the awful-looking sea, as it were till it seemed to
+blind him. "I tell you what, sir," said he slowly, "if that water had
+any use, a priest would say, 'twas sent to wash that same island clean
+of what's been done on it; but it couldn't, Mr Collins, it couldn't,
+till the day of judgment!" He leant over till his dark face and his
+shoulders, to my notion, made the milk-white surge that stole up to the
+schooner's bends take a whiter look. "If that water could wash _me_,
+now," muttered he, "ay, if it could only take the soul out of me, curse
+me, but I'd go down, down this moment to the bottom!" With that he gave
+a sudden move that made me catch him by the arm. "No, no, Mr Collins,"
+said he, turning round; "the truth is, I mean to go through with it:
+by G--, I'll let it carry me where I'm bound for! D--n it, wasn't I
+born without asking my leave, and I'll kick the bucket the same way,
+if it was on a blasted dunghill!" "Come, come, Mr Jones," said I, in a
+soothing sort of way, "go below for a little, and sleep; when we hail
+the land, I'll have you called." "I'd rather not, sir," said Jones,
+quietly; "the truth is, it strikes me there's something strange in my
+happening to be aboard here, at this particular season, too; and see
+that same island, _now_, I must! It's fate, Lieutenant Collins," added
+he; "and I must say, I think it's the more likely something may turn
+out there. Either you'll see that ship, or the men, or else _I_'ll be
+there myself, in some way or other!"
+
+Now there was something in all this that began at moments quite to
+bewilder one, the more excited the state was it put you in. There was
+nothing for it but to push on, and see what might come of it. Indeed,
+the weather favoured us better on our present course than on any
+other; and I felt, if I didn't keep active, I should go distracted.
+'Twas almost as if what Jones said had a truth in it, and a sort of a
+power beyond one were drawing the schooner the way she steered; while,
+at the same time, there was every little while somewhat new in the
+extraordinary looks of things to hold you anxious. Even a flying touch
+of a squall we had about midnight didn't the least do away with the
+whiteness of the water all around: on the contrary, as the dark cloud
+crept down upon us, widening on both sides like smoke, the face of the
+sea seemed to whiten and whiten, casting up a ghastly gleam across the
+cloud, with its ripples frothing and creaming: till, not knowing _how_
+things might go hereabouts, you almost expected the first rush of the
+wind to send it all in a flame to our mastheads. Then up she rose on
+a surge like a snow-drift, and off we drove heeling over to it, gaffs
+lowered and canvass down, everything lost sight of, save the white
+sea heaving up against the mist; while the clear-coloured plash of
+it through our weather bulwarks showed it was water sure enough. The
+squall went off to leeward, however, the rain hissing like ink into
+the swell it left, and spotting it all over till the last drops seemed
+to sink in millions of separate sparkles as far as you could see. The
+schooner rose from one heave to another to an even keel on the smooth
+length of it, hoisting her spanking gaffs, hauling aft the sheets,
+and slipping ahead once more to a breeze fed by the rain. As the sky
+cleared, the dead white glare the water sent up into it was such, you
+didn't know the one from the other toward the horizon; and in the midst
+there was only the smooth faint surface, brushing whiter with the
+breeze, as if it was nothing else kept it from going out of sight; with
+a few streaky clouds turning themselves out like wool in a confused
+rift of the air aloft; the schooner walking in it without ever a
+glimpse of a shadow on one side or another; while, as for seeing a sail
+on the horizon, you might as well have looked for a shred of paper. It
+wasn't light, neither, nor was it haze; nothing but a dead colour off
+the very sea's face--for the schooner rose and plunged without letting
+you see a hair's-breadth of her draught below the water-line. Every man
+rubbed his eyes, as if it were all some kind of a dream, and none the
+less when suddenly we were right upon a long patch of black stripes
+winding away through the white, like so many sea-serpents, come up to
+breathe, with both ends of them lost in the faintness. Nobody stirred,
+or said, "Look-out;" stripe after stripe she went slipping through them
+as if they'd been ghosts, without a word or an extra turn of the wheel.
+I daresay, if we had commenced to rise in the air, every man would have
+held on like grim death, but he wouldn't have wondered much; 'twas
+just, "whatever might happen to please them as had the managing of it,"
+which was Jacob's observation when we talked of it after.
+
+Mr Snelling was the only one that ventured to pass a joke; when Jones,
+who I thought was out of hearing, looked at the reefer with such a
+fierce glance, and so scornful at the same time, that I couldn't help
+connecting what happened the very next moment with it--for without
+the slightest warning, both of us were flung to leeward, and Snelling
+pitched into the scuppers, as a huge rolling ridge of the white water
+came down upon our beam; while the schooner broached to in the wind,
+floundering on the swell with her sails aback. Had the breeze been
+stronger, I think it would have fairly swamped us with the sternway she
+had; and heave after heave swelled glaring and weltering out of the
+pale blind sky, till our decks swam with light in the dusk under the
+bulwarks, and about the dark mouths of the hatchways. Just as suddenly
+the rollers seemed to sink in the smooth of the sea, and at last we
+payed off with the breeze as before, at the cost of a good fright
+and a famous ducking. Two or three times in the course of the middle
+watch did this happen, except that we were taken less by surprise, and
+had the hatches closed, with every rope ready to let go; the breeze
+strengthening all the time, and the same sort of look continuing all
+round and aloft.[25]
+
+About four o'clock or so, the appearance of the sky near where the
+horizon ought to be, right ahead, struck Westwood and me as stranger
+than ever; owing to a long lump of shadow, as it were, lying northward
+like the shape of a bow or the round back of a fish miles long, though
+it softened off at one end into the hollow of the air, and the gleam of
+the white water broke past the other like the streaks of the northern
+lights in a frosty night toward the Pole, save for the thin shadowy
+tint of it, and the stars shining plainly through. I'd have fancied
+it was high land; when suddenly the half-moon was seen to ooze like
+a yellow spot out of the shapeless sort of steam to eastward, like a
+thing nobody knew, shedding a faint brown glimmer far below where you
+hadn't seen there was water at all. The bank of shadow softened away
+towards her, till in little more than five minutes the dark rippling
+line of the sea was made out, drawn across the dusk as if it had
+been the wide mouth of a frith in the polar ice, opening far on our
+weather-bow. A soft blue shimmering tint stole out on it by contrast,
+leaving the milk-white glare still spread everywhere else, astern,
+ahead, and on our lee-beam, into the sightless sky: 'twas the old
+blue water we caught sight of once more, with the natural night and
+the stars hanging over it; and the look-out aloft reported blue water
+stretching wide off to the nor'ard. There was one full hurrah from the
+seamen in the bows, and they ran of themselves naturally enough to the
+ropes, standing by to haul the schooner on a wind--to head up for the
+old salt sea, no doubt.
+
+"Lieutenant Collins," said Jones, in a low voice, "do you mean to
+steer for that island, sir?" "Yes," I said, "certainly, Mr Jones--I
+shall see this matter out, whatever the upshot may be!" "Then keep
+on, sir," said he, firmly, "keep in the white water--'tis your only
+plan to near it safely, sir!" This I didn't well understand; but,
+by Jove! there was so much out of the common way hereabouts, that I
+had made up my mind to follow his advice. Another hail from aloft,
+at length--"Something black on our lee-bow, sir--right in the eye of
+the white it is, sir!" We were now running fast down in the direction
+where there was least possibility of seeing ahead at all, although,
+in fact, the little moonshine we had evidently began to make this
+puzzling hue of the surface less distinct--turning it of a queer ashy
+drab, more and more like the brown we noticed by day-time; while the
+light seemed as it were to scoop out the hollow of the sky aloft, when
+a dark spot or two could be observed from the deck, dotting the milky
+space over one bow--you couldn't say whether in the air or the water,
+as they hung blackening and growing together before us through below
+the foot of the jib. Larger and larger it loomed as we stood before
+the breeze, till there was no doubt we had the bulk of a small low
+island not far to windward of us, a couple of points or thereabouts
+on our larboard bow when she fell off a little--lying with the ragged
+outline of it rising to a top near one end, its shape stretched black
+and distinct in the midst of the pale sea; while the white water was
+to be seen taking close along the edge of the island, showing every
+rock and point of it in the shadow from the moon, till it seemed to
+turn away all of a sudden like a current into the broad dreamy glimmer
+that still lay south-eastward. On the other side of the island you saw
+the dark sea-ripples flickering to the faint moonlight, and some two
+or three more patches of flat land just tipping the horizon, with the
+thin cocoa-nut trees on them like reeds against the stars and the dusk;
+while the one nearest us was sufficiently marked out to have saved
+me the trouble even of the look I gave Jones, which he answered by
+another. "You have seven or eight fathoms water here, sir," added he;
+"and as soon as she rounds the point yonder, we can shoal it by degrees
+to any anchorage you like, as long as we keep in the white water--but
+we must hold to _it_!" It was accordingly found so with the lead, and
+ere long, having kept past the point, the same milky hue could be
+noticed as it were jagging off through the darker water, and winding
+away hither and thither all round the other side, till you lost it.
+However, here we brailed up and hauled down everything, letting go an
+anchor, little more than half a mile from a small sloping beach, where
+the strange water actually surged up through the shadow of the land, in
+one glittering sheet like new-fallen snow, while the back-wash seethed
+down into it all along the edge in perfect fire. Nothing stirred on it,
+apparently; not a sound came from it, save the low wash of the surf on
+that lonely bare beach; and you only made out that part of the island
+was covered with trees, with the ground rising to a flat-topped hummock
+toward one end. So being pretty wearied by this time, impatient though
+I was for a clearer view of matters, most of us turned in, leaving the
+deck to a strong anchor watch, in charge of Jones--especially as it was
+towards morning, and the breeze blowing fresh over the island through
+our ropes. But if ever a man walked the deck overhead in a fashion to
+keep you awake, it was Jones that morning: faster and faster he went,
+till you'd have thought he ran; then there was a stop, when you felt
+him _thinking_, and off he posted again. No wonder, by George! I had
+ugly dreams!
+
+I could scarce believe it wasn't one still, when, having been called
+half-an-hour after daybreak, I first saw the change in the appearance
+of things all about us. The horizon lay round as clear as heart could
+wish--not a speck in sight save the little dingy islets at a distance;
+the broad blue ocean sparkling far away on one side, and the water
+to windward, in the direction we had come, showing the same brownish
+tint we had seen the day before, while it took the island before us
+in its bight, and turned off eastward with the breeze till it spread
+against the open sky. The top of the land was high enough to shut out
+the sea-line, and, being low water at the time, it was plain enough now
+why Jones wished to keep the white streaks over-night; for, where the
+dingy-coloured ripples melted on the other side toward the blue, you
+could see by the spots of foam, and the greenish breaks here and there
+in the surface, that all that coast of the island was one network of
+shoals and reefs, stretching out you didn't know how wide. White-water
+Island, in fact, was merely the head of them--the milky stream that had
+so startled us just washing round the deep end of it, and edging fair
+along the side of the reefs, with a few creeks sent in amongst them,
+as it were, like feelers, ere it flowed the other way: we couldn't
+otherwise have got so near as we were. But the island itself was the
+sight to fasten you, as the lovely green of it shone out in the morning
+sun, covering the most part of it close over, and tipping up beyond
+the bare break where it was steepest, with a clump of tall cocoas
+shooting every here-and-there out of the thick bush; indeed, there was
+apparently a sort of split lengthways, through the midst, where, upon
+only walking to the schooner's bow, one could see the bright greenwood
+sinking down to a hollow out of sight, under the clear gush of the
+breeze off a dark blue patch of the sea that hung beyond it like a
+wedge. As the tide made over the long reefs, till the last line of surf
+on them vanished, it went up the little sandy cove opposite us with
+a plash on the beach that you could hear: the place was just what a
+sailor may have had a notion of all his life, without exactly seeing it
+till then; and though, as yet, one had but a rough guess of its size,
+why, it couldn't be less than a couple of miles from end to end, with
+more than that breadth, perhaps, at the low side toward the reefs. Not
+a soul amongst the man-o'-war'smen, I daresay, as they pressed together
+in the schooner's bows to see into it, but would have taken his traps
+that moment, if I'd told him, and gone ashore on the chance of passing
+his days there; so it wasn't hard to conceive, from the state it seemed
+to put their rough sunburnt faces in, honest as they looked, how a
+similar fancy would work with Master Harry Foster, even if it tried his
+virtue a little.
+
+I had no more doubt in my own mind, by this time, of it's being
+the fellow's intended "hermitage," than I had of it's being the
+same White-water Island I had heard of myself, or the spot which
+Jones seemed to know so well: 'twas likely the foremast-man had got
+inkling of it somewhat in the way I did; and lying, as it happened
+to do, between no less than three channels which the Indiaman might
+take, after dodging us in this fashion round the long cluster of
+the Maldives, she couldn't make north-westward again for the open
+sea, without setting Foster and his mates pretty well upon their
+trip. Indeed, if she were to eastward of the chain at present, as I
+was greatly inclined to believe, the course of the breeze made it
+impossible for her to do otherwise; but there was one thing always
+kept lurking about my mind, like a cover to something far worse that
+I didn't venture to dwell upon--namely, that Captain Finch might get
+wind of their purpose, and drive them on another tack by knocking it
+on the head, either at the time or beforehand, without the courage to
+settle _them_. Nothing in the world would have pleased me better than
+to pounce upon ugly Harry, at his first breakfast ashore here; but
+the bare horizon, and the quiet look of the island since ever we hove
+in sight of it, showed this wasn't to be. At any rate, however, I was
+bent on seeing how the land lay, and what sort of a place it was; so
+accordingly, as soon as the hands had got breakfast, Westwood and I
+at once pulled ashore with a boat's-crew well armed, to overhaul it.
+We found the sandy beach covered, for a good way up, with a frothy
+slime that, no doubt, came from the water on that side, with ever so
+many different kinds of blubber, sea-jelly, star-fish, and shell;
+while the rocky edge round to windward was hung with weed that made
+the blocks below it seem to rise out of every surge, like green-headed
+white-bearded mermen bathing. Glad enough we were to get out of the
+queer sulphury smell all this stuff gave out in the heat--letting the
+men take every one his own way into the bushes, which they enjoyed like
+as many schoolboys, and making, ourselves, right for the highest point.
+Here we saw over, through the cocoa-nut trees and wild trailing-plants
+below, down upon a broad bushy level toward the reefs. It was far the
+widest way of the island; indeed making it apparently several miles
+to go round the different points; and as the men were to hold right
+to windward, and meet again after beating the entire ground, Westwood
+and I struck fair through amongst the tangle of wood, to see the flat
+below. We roused out a good many small birds and parroquets, and
+several goats could be noticed looking at us off the grassy bits of
+crag above the trees, though they didn't seem to know what we were. As
+for most of the wood, it was mainly such bushes and brush as thrive
+without water, with a bright green flush of grass and plants after the
+rain at the monsoon, the prickly pear creeping over the sandy parts,
+till we came on a track where some spring or other apparently oozed
+down from the height, soaking in little rank spots amongst the ground
+leaves, with here and there a small rusty plash about the grass-blades,
+as if there were tar or iron in it. Here there were taller trees of
+different kinds on both sides, dwindling off into the lower bush,
+while, to my surprise, some of them were such as you'd never have
+expected to meet with on an island of the size, or so far off the
+land--bananas, mangoes, a shaddock or two, and a few more, common
+enough in India; though here they must evidently have been planted, the
+cocoas being the only sort natural to the place--and of them there were
+plenty below. Suddenly it led down into a shady hollow, out of sight of
+the sea altogether, where we came on what seemed to have been a perfect
+garden some time or other; there were two or three large broad-leaved
+shaddock trees, and one or two others, with a heap of rubbish in the
+midst of the wild Indian corn and long grass; some broken bamboo stakes
+standing, besides a piece of plank scattered here and there about the
+bushes. Right under the shade of the trees was a hole like the mouth
+of a draw-well, more than brimful at the time with the water from the
+spring; for, owing to the late rains, it made a pool close by the
+side, and went trickling away down amongst the brushwood. Every twig
+and leaf grew straight up or out, save in a narrow track toward the
+rising ground--no doubt made by the goats, as we noticed the prints
+of their hoofs on the wet mud. 'Twas evident no human being had been
+there for heaven knew how long; since, by the care that had been taken
+with the place, it was probably the only spring in the island--perhaps
+for leagues and leagues round, indeed. Trees, branches, green grass,
+and all--they had such a still moveless air under the heat and light,
+in the lee of the high ground, with just a blue spot or two of the sea
+seen high up through the sharp shaddock leaves, and the cool-looking
+plash of water below them, that Westwood and I sat down to wait till
+we heard the men. Still there was a terribly distinct, particular
+cast about the whole spot, which, taken together with the ruin and
+confusion, as well as the notion of Foster and his shipmates actually
+plotting to come there, gave one almost an idea of the whole story
+beforehand, dim as that was: the longer you looked, the more horrid it
+seemed. Neither natives nor single man could have brought the different
+trees to the island, or contrived a tank-well of the kind, seeing it
+was apparently deep enough to supply a ship's casks; while, at the same
+time, I couldn't help thinking some one had lived there since it was
+made, or perhaps much used. By the space taken up with the hut that
+had been there, and the little change in the wild state of things,
+most likely it was by himself he had been, and for no short time. It
+looked, however, as if he had been carried off in the end, otherwise
+his bones would have been hereabouts; probably savages, as Westwood
+and I concluded from the scatter they had made of his premises. For
+my own part, I wondered whether Jones mightn't have been the man, in
+which case most of that disturbed mind he showed lately might come of
+remembering the dreary desolate feelings one must have, living long
+on a desert island. No doubt they had "marooned" him for something or
+other, such as not being a bloody enough captain; and I could as easily
+fancy one having a spice of madness in him, after years ashore here,
+as in Captain Wallis after a French prison. Still it startled one to
+see one's face in the black of the well; and we couldn't make up our
+minds to drink out of it. Even the pool at its side had a queer taste,
+I thought--but that may have been all a notion. All at once, by the
+edge of this same pool, Westwood pointed out two or three marks that
+surprised us both, being quite different from what the goats could
+have made; and on observing closer, they were made out to be more like
+the paws of a wild beast stamped in the mud. "By Jove!" I said, "no
+wolves on the island, surely!" "All of them seem to stick to the pool
+in preference to the well, at any rate," said Tom; "they appear to have
+the same crotchet with ourselves, Ned!" "Strange!" said I, "what the
+devil can it be?" Westwood eyed the prints over and over. "What do
+you think of--a _dog_?" he asked. "Good heavens!" exclaimed I, looking
+down--"yes!" and there we sat gazing at the thing, and musing over it
+with somehow or other a curious creeping of the blood, for my part,
+that I can't describe the reason of. At last we heard the men hallooing
+to each other on the level beneath, when we hurried down, and coasted
+round till we came upon the boat again, where the coxswain was amusing
+himself gathering shells for home--and we pulled back to the schooner.
+
+My first resolve after this was to keep before the breeze again, try
+to get sight of the ship, and tell Finch out and out, as I ought to
+have done at once, what was afoot amongst his crew; or else to let Sir
+Charles Hyde know of it, and make him a bold offer of a passage to
+Calcutta. However, I soon saw this wouldn't do; and a regular puzzle
+I found myself in, betwixt inclining to stick to the island and catch
+Foster if he came, and wishing to know how the Indiaman stood on her
+course if he didn't. Jones must have read my thoughts as I leant upon
+the capstan, looking from White-water Island to the horizon and back
+again; for he stepped aft and said in a low voice, "Lieutenant Collins,
+there's one thing I didn't tell you about that island before, because,
+as I said, I wasn't at first sure it was the one the men meant; it
+may help to decide you, sir," said he gravely. "Ah?" I said. "In that
+island," he went on, his ordinarily dark face as pale as death, "there
+is enough gold at this moment to buy half an English county--ay, and
+better than gold, seeing that only one man knows the spot where it
+is, and _he_ would rather sail round the world without a shirt to his
+back than touch one filing of the--hell's dross!" I looked at Jones
+in perfect amaze as he added, "You may fancy now, Mr Collins, whether
+if a man of the kind happened to get wind of this, he would not stir
+heaven and earth to reach the place? But, rather than that gold should
+come into living hands," said he fiercely, "I would _wait for them_
+by myself--ay, alone--alone," and a shudder seemed to run through him
+as he gave another glance to the island. For my part, I drew a long
+breath. What he mentioned had all at once relieved my mind wonderfully;
+for if this was Master Foster's cue, as I now saw it must have been
+the whole voyage over, why, he would be just as sure not to spread
+the thing widely, as he would be to get here some time, if he could.
+On second thoughts, it wasn't so plain how the rest of the crew might
+work with it, on the least inkling; but inclined as I naturally was to
+look upon the best side of the matter, you needn't wonder at my making
+up my mind as I did. The short and the long of it was that, in an hour
+more, Jones and myself, with Jacobs and four other good hands--and,
+somewhat to my annoyance, Mr Rollock, who persisted in coming--were
+pulling back for the island; while the schooner, under care of Westwood
+and Snelling, was hauled on a wind to stand up across the Nine Degrees
+Channel, which the Indiaman would no doubt take as the safest course
+for western India, if all went well, and supposing I had reckoned
+correctly why we missed her so long. In that case, three or four days
+at most couldn't fail to bring her up; and on first sighting her at the
+horizon, they could easily enough strip the schooner to her sticks,
+keeping her stern on so as to let the ship pass without noticing the
+loom of so small a craft; whereas if they didn't see her at all, in
+that time, they were to bear up before the wind again for the island.
+Of all things, and every circumstance being considered, I agreed with
+Westwood it was best not to come across her again, if we could help it.
+
+For our own part, in the boat, we were fully provisioned and armed for
+all the time we could need, not to speak of what the island itself
+afforded; and after watching the schooner stand heeling off to sea,
+round the deep end of it, we cruised close along, not for the beach
+this time, but seeking for a cove in the rocks where the boat could be
+hauled up out of sight, and safe from the surf at high water. This we
+weren't very long of finding behind some blocks that broke the force
+of the surge, where the wild green trailers from above crept almost
+down to the seaweed; and after helping them a little to hide her
+perfectly, the whole of us scrambled ashore. The first thing was to
+post a look-out on the highest point, the sharp little peak next to
+the reef-side, overlooking the spring and the level ground between: on
+the other side of the long green valley, full of bush in the midst,
+was the flat-topped rise towards the brown water, from which I and the
+Planter watched the schooner softening for an hour or two, till she
+reached the blue sea-gleam, and lessened to a speck. By that time,
+the men had pitched a little canvass tent on the slope opposite to
+us, over the hollow--Jones evidently being anxious to keep clear of
+the spot, which somebody else had picked out beforehand: in fact the
+highest ground was betwixt us and it; and on coming down through the
+thicket to our quarters, after a stroll in which Rollock shot a couple
+of rose-coloured parroquets, declaring them to be splendid eating, we
+found Jones had had to send over the other way for water.
+
+I woke up in the tent perhaps an hour before midnight, as I judged on
+looking through the opening at the stars that shone in the dark sky
+through the north-east end of the valley above the sea. At the other
+end, being higher, you just saw the scattered heads of the bushes
+against a pale floating glimmer of air, with a pale streak of horizon.
+Behind us was the height where we had the look-out, and in front the
+flat top of the crag drawn somehow or other as distinct as possible
+upon the faint starlight in that quarter, roughening away down on
+both sides into the brushwood and dwarf cocoa-nut trees. With the
+stillness of the place all round, the bare sight of that particular
+point gave me a dreamy, desolate, ghastly sort of feeling, beyond aught
+I ever saw in my life before: it was choking hot and heavy inside,
+and seemingly throughout the hollow, though a good deal of dew began
+to fall, glistening on the dark-green bushes nearest us, and standing
+in drops on the fern-like cocoa leaves which Jacobs and the other men
+had roofed themselves with. They were sound asleep; and the glimpse of
+the soles of their shoes and their knees, sticking out of the shadow
+you saw their rough faces in, with the sight of their cutlass-hilts,
+served to give one a still wilder notion of the place. One felt scarce
+sure of being able to wake them, in case of anything turning up; and,
+at any rate, a dread came over you of its being possibly somewhat
+unnatural enough to make the thing useless. On the other hand, the
+Planter kept up such a confounded snoring inside the canvass close by
+me, that although there was no doubt of his being alive, the sound of
+it put stranger thoughts into your head: sometimes his breath would
+be jogging on like that of a tolerably ordinary mortal, then get by
+degrees perfectly quiet; and then all of a sudden go rising and rising,
+faster and faster, as if some terrible dream had hold of him, or there
+was some devilish monster hard in chase of his soul, till out it broke
+into a fearful snort that made your very heart jump--whereupon he'd
+lie as if he were finished, then go through the whole story again. I
+can't tell you how that cursed noise troubled me; 'twas no use shoving
+and speaking to him, and all the time the old boy was evidently quite
+comfortable, by something he said at last about "indigo being up."
+The best I could do was to get out and leave him to himself: in fact,
+where Jones had gone at the time I didn't know, till suddenly I caught
+sight of his dark figure standing on the rise at the back of our post,
+and went up to him. Jones was certainly a strange mixture, for here
+had he been all round the low side of the island by himself, yet I
+found him leaning bareheaded on the barrel of his musket, listening
+like a deer: he assured me solemnly he thought he had heard voices for
+the last hour on the other side, where he hadn't been, and asked me
+if I would go with him to see. Then down came our look-out from the
+peak, rolling through the bushes like a sea-cow, to report his not
+having seen anything, and to say they'd forgot to relieve him aloft;
+so rousing up Jacobs, I sent them both back together, while Jones and
+I held the opposite way for the other height. The moment we got to it,
+_there_ was the same faint blotted-out horizon as we had had all astern
+of us the night before, the same strange unnatural paleness cast off
+the face of the sea, making it look black by contrast to north-eastward
+and east, against the blue shadow with the bright stars in it, where
+the sea rippled as usual; while the keenest glare in the middle seemed
+to stream right to the breast of the island, like the reflection of
+daylight down a long break in the ice--only it was dead and ghastly
+to behold. The white water washed round under the black edge of the
+rocks before us, to the bare sloping beach, where it came up fairly
+like a wide plash of milk, glimmering and sparkling back amongst the
+little sea-creatures you fancied you saw moving and crawling out or
+in; till it ran along by where the reefs were, and turned off to the
+dim sky again. Everything else was still, and Jones drew a breath like
+one relieved. "Nothing after all, I think, sir!" said he: but to my
+mind there was something a long sight more awful in the look of that
+unaccountable white water bearing down like snow upon the island, as
+it were, with the wrinkles and eddies to be seen faintly in it here
+and there back toward the glaring breadth of it, and the floating
+streaks in the sky above. Especially when he told me he thought it was
+owing to millions upon millions of living things in it, that made the
+same show there at two different seasons in the year, for a week or
+so at a time--the appearance of it getting less distinct every night.
+However, I had begun to grow uneasy again about the Indiaman, and the
+schooner too, as well as doubtful of the fellows coming to the island
+it all; on the contrary, as I said to Jones, if they saw the schooner,
+and Westwood didn't manage as I told him, why both she, the ship, and
+ourselves might possibly get the finishing-stroke altogether. "The more
+I think of it," said I, "the more cursedly foolish it seems to be here
+instead of aboard!" "Why it is, Mr Collins, I don't know," replied
+Jones, "yet I feel as sure these men will land here as if I heard them
+in the woods: and if I wasn't aware how one crime breeds another, for
+my part I shouldn't be here at present, sir. Many a night afloat has
+the thought of this place weighed on me, lest there was something new
+doing in it: but what's buried here I'm resolved no man shall stir up,
+if I can help it, sir!" A little after, as we got up and went down to
+the beach, all of a sudden--like a thing he couldn't avoid--Jones began
+to give me some snatches of what had happened here some years before,
+which, according to him, he had got from a shipmate of his that died;
+and I must say it made the blood creep in me to listen to it.
+
+At the beginning of the war, he said, the island had been a nest of
+regular pirates, who had taken pains to make it, from a mere muddy
+head of a reef with some cocoas upon it, probably into a resort on
+occasions--especially as even the wild Maldive natives to southward
+had somehow a dislike to it. The whole gang being taken by some
+cruiser or other at sea, however, too far off to leave any clue to
+their harbourage hereabouts, they were all hanged, and the place lost
+sight of; till a good many years after, a country Arab craft, bound
+for Dacca up the Ganges, was driven in a gale upon the reefs some way
+off, without seeing the island at all till the sea went down, and
+she was going to pieces. There were only two Europeans aboard, both
+having turned Mussulmen, and the youngest of them was mate. There was
+a passenger, a native Indian merchant, and his servants, with, as was
+believed, his harem below in the after cabins, for nobody ever had
+seen them; but the Arab _rais_ of the vessel, and several more, being
+washed off when she struck, the other Mussulmen took to the only boat
+they had, and got ashore, laving the two Englishmen with the passenger.
+Next day the two men had contrived a raft of the spars, whereupon the
+Hindoo at last brought up his three women, veiled from head to foot,
+and the whole got safe to the island. Here all the Mahometans herded
+together amongst themselves, forcing the two Englishmen to keep on the
+other side of the island, as they had no firearms; while the old Hindoo
+merchant and his native servant got a tent pitched on the highest point
+for the women, where they were no more seen than before, and a flag
+hoisted on a stick all the time for a signal to ships--poor simple
+devil! as Jones said with a laugh. Every day he offered the Arab crew
+more of the gold and jewels he had with him, to make for India and
+get him brought off; till at last some of the Arabs came round to the
+mate and his companion, wanting them to take the boat and go instead,
+otherwise they would kill both of them at once. The two men accordingly
+had provisions given them, and hoisted sail on the boat before the
+breeze to eastward: they had almost dropped the island, when all at
+once the one in the boat's bows stepped aft to him that had the tiller,
+and said it struck him the Arabs couldn't mean well to the Hindoo and
+his wives, in trying to get clear of others. All his companion did,
+Jones said, was to ask if he was man enough to go back, face them
+boldly, and offer to take the passenger and his harem too, when some
+craft or other might come back for the Arabs, since they weren't seamen
+enough to venture first in the boat. "I tell you what," said the first,
+"try the two largest breakers of water there!" The water for use next
+after the open one was tasted--and it was _salt_. "Will you stand by
+me?" the second man said, after a while. The other had a dog with him
+of his own, that had swam ashore from the vessel after the raft he
+landed upon, and it was sleeping in the boat's bow at the moment, near
+him; the dog lifted its head as they spoke, eyed the two, and lay down
+again with a low sort of growl. "Ay," answered the other, "to the last
+I will--as long as you stick by _me_!" They hauled over the sheet, laid
+the boat sharp on a wind, and as soon as it was dusk began to pull back
+toward the island, where they got ashore in the dark before morning.
+
+Here Jones stopped, turned suddenly round to the glare of the white
+water plashing upon the beach, and said no more. "Why, Jones," said
+I, "is that all you've to tell?--what came of them? For God's sake,
+yes--what was the upshot?" "'Tis enough to show how one bad thing
+breeds another, as I said, sir," answered he. "Probably in the end,
+though--at any rate I only fancy the rest--'tis a horrible dream to
+me, for a--a--squall came on when that shipmate of mine got so far,
+and we had to reef topsails. He went overboard off the yard that very
+night," said Jones wildly. "The man must have been _there_," said I
+in a pointed way, "to give all the particulars--_he_ was the mate,
+himself, Mr Jones!" He made no answer, but kept gazing out to sea. "And
+how long was this ago?" I asked. "Oh," answered he, "years enough ago,
+no doubt, sir, for both of us to be children, if _you_ were born, Mr
+Collins"--and he turned his face to me as ghastly as the water toward
+the horizon he was looking at before,--"at least I hope to God it was
+so--the man was a poor creature, sir, bless you, and d----d old, as
+it seems to me--twice my own age at the time, Lieutenant Collins! At
+all events, though," he went on, rambling in a strange way that made
+me think he was going out of his mind, "he remembered well enough the
+first time he saw the white water coming down upon the island. He was
+hunting--_hunting_--through the bushes and up and down, and came up
+upon the crag." "Hunting?" I said. "Yes, you didn't know how it lived,
+or where it kept, but every night it was on the look-out there. There
+was no one else, save the girl sleeping over beyond in the hut; and the
+man almost fancied the water of the sea was coming down to the rocks
+and the beach, like the Almighty himself, to show he was clear of all
+that had happened--if he could but have finished that brute, testifying
+like the very devil, he'd have been happy, he felt! Harkye," said he,
+sinking his voice to a whisper, "when he went back at daylight, the
+woman was dying--she had born a--what was as innocent as she was, poor,
+sweet, young heathen!" And if I hadn't guessed pretty well before
+that Jones was the man he'd been speaking of, his glittering eye, and
+his stride from the beach would have showed it; apparently he forgot
+everything besides at that moment, till you'd have thought his mind
+gloated on this piece of his history. "The woman!" I couldn't help
+saying, "what woman? Had the rest left you in the boat, then?"
+
+Jones looked upon me fiercely, then turned away; when all on a sudden
+such a long unearthly quaver of a cry came down through the stillness,
+from somewhere aloft in the island, that at first I didn't know what
+to think, unless one of our look-out men had met with an accident, and
+tumbled down. 'Twas so dark where they were, however, there was no
+seeing them. Without looking for himself, Jones faced me, shivering all
+over. "What is that, Mr Collins?" whispered he, catching my arm with a
+clutch like death, "_is_ there anything yonder--behind--behind--sir?"
+On the flat head of the crag north-westward, black against the pale
+glimmer over the very spot where we had stood half-an-hour before, to
+my utter horror, there was some creature or other sitting as if it
+looked toward the sea; and just then another wild, quivering, eddying
+sound came evidently enough from it, like a thing that would never
+end. It wasn't a human voice that!--my very brain spun with it, as I
+glanced to Jones. "Good heavens!" I said, "_what_? But by Jove! now I
+think of it; yes--'tis the howl of a _dog_--nothing else!" "Eight--ten
+years!" said Jones, hoarsely, "without food, too, and enough in that
+well to have poisoned whole gangs of men for twenty years--_can_ it
+be an earthly being, sir?" The stare he gave me at the moment was
+more frightful than aught else, but I mentioned what Westwood and I
+had observed the day before. Before I well knew what he meant, Jones
+was stealing swiftly up the rising ground to the shoulder of it. I
+saw him get suddenly on a level with the creature, his musket aiming
+for it--there was a flash and a shot that left the height as bare as
+before--and next minute, with a short whimpering howl, the animal flew
+down the hill, while I heard Jones crashing through the bushes after
+it, till he was lost in the dark. Such a terrible notion it gave me of
+his strange story being true, whereas before I had almost fancied it
+partly a craze of his, from having lived here alone--that for a moment
+or two it seemed to my mind we were still in the midst of it. I hurried
+back to our post, and close upon morning Jones came over and lay down
+by himself without a word, haggard and covered with sweat.
+
+All next day the horizon on every side was clear of a single speck; no
+signs either of ship or schooner, till I began to wish we were out of
+it, hoping the Seringapatam had, after all, kept the old course for
+Bombay, in spite of us. I found Jones had warned the men not to get
+our water out of the tank; it being poisoned in a way fit to last for
+years, as the pirates knew how to do. For our parts, we had to amuse
+ourselves the best way we could, waiting for the schooner to come down
+again for us, which was the only thing I looked for now. That night the
+white appearance of the water to north and windward seemed a good deal
+gone, save where it hung like a haze in the direction it took off the
+island: the stars shone out, and in two or three nights more I found
+from Jones there would be nothing of it, which I hoped I should have to
+take on his word.
+
+At daybreak, however, our look-out could all of a sudden be seen
+hoisting the signal for a sail in sight, and waving his hat for us
+to come. No sooner had we hurried up, accordingly, than a sail could
+be made out in the south-east, hull down; and the schooner not being
+likely thereaway, a certain flutter in me at once set it down for the
+Indiaman at last, on her way far past the island for the open channel.
+Being broad daylight, too, with a fresh breeze blowing, we saw that
+Foster and his party, if they carried out their scheme, would have
+to wait till she was a long way to windward at night-time, in order
+to get clear off. In fact, I had every one kept down off the height,
+lest the ship's glasses might possibly notice something; while, at the
+same time, we hadn't even a fire kindled to cook our victuals. I was
+watching her over the brow of the hill, through the telescope, when
+she evidently stood round on the other tack to get up to windward,
+which brought her gradually nearer. She was a large ship, under full
+canvass; and at last she rose her hull to the white streak below the
+bulwarks, till I began to think they intended passing the island to
+eastward to make the channel. I went down for Jones, and asked him how
+far the reefs actually ran out, when he told me there would probably be
+signs enough of them in such a strong, breeze; besides, as he reminded
+me, if she was the Indiaman, it was the captain himself that had a
+chart of them; in which, from the particular nature of it--being an
+old buccaneering chart, as he thought--they would be laid down quite
+plainly. Indeed, when we both returned to the height, there were lines
+of surf to be noticed here and there, more than three miles out; and
+seeing her by that time so distinctly, a new uneasiness began to enter
+my head. There were no signals we could make, even if they didn't serve
+the other way; and, to tell the truth, I didn't much like the idea of
+being found there. Still, it was terrible to see her getting nearer
+and nearer, without the power of doing the least thing to warn her
+off; spreading and heightening before you, till you counted her sails,
+and saw the light betwixt them, with the breeze always strengthening
+off that side the island, and of course making it the safer for her to
+pass it to leeward. The blue surges rose longer to the foam at their
+crests, till one's eye got confused between them and the spots of surf
+rippling greenish over the tongues of reef; in fact, it wasn't far off
+being low-water at the time, and the whole was to be seen better from
+the height than elsewhere, stretched out like a floor that the breeze
+was sweeping across, raising a white dust where the blue melted into
+the light-brown tint of the sea to leeward. The breeze came so fresh
+that she even hauled down her sky-sails and fore-royal, falling off to
+go to leeward of the island. At the same moment, I made out with the
+glass that she was actually the Seringapatam, and also, that she'd got
+a leadsman at work in the chains. Five minutes more, and she'd have
+gone time enough into the distinct brown-coloured swells, to stand past
+the deep end: without help from the glass, I saw the sun sparkle in
+the spray from her black bows; she made a sliding forge ahead with her
+whole beam on to us; when, next moment, as if she had taken a sudden
+yaw and broached to in the wind, she came fairly end-on, showing the
+three piles of canvass in one. A wild boding of the truth crept on me
+as I sprang on the peak, waving my arms, and stamping like a lunatic,
+as if they could hear me. The next instant she had fallen a little
+over, her foretop-mast and main-to'gallant-mast gone out of their
+places at the shock, and the heavy blue swells running to her highest
+side in a perfect heap of foam; while the spray rose in white jets
+across her weather bulwarks at every burst of them. The Indiaman had
+struck on a rib of reef, or else a spit of sand, near the very edge of
+the whole bank: had it been only high water--as I had reason to believe
+afterwards--she'd have gone clear over it. As soon as the first horror
+of the thing was a little past, I looked, without a word, to Jones,
+and he to me. "The fellows have come at last, certainly!" said he, in
+a serious enough tone. "Mr Collins," he added, "the moment I set foot
+on ground here, I felt sure something would come of it!"--"Get the men
+down at once, sir," I said, "and let's pull out to the ship!"--"Why,
+sir," answered he, "the breeze is likely to keep for some time as it
+is, and if she's completely gone, they'll be able to bring all hands
+safe ashore. If you take my advice, Mr Collins, you'll hold all fast,
+and show no signs of our being here at all, in case of having something
+or other to manage yet that may cost us harder!" It didn't need much
+thought to see this, in fact; and in place of going down, ten minutes
+after we were all close amongst the bushes on the slope, watching
+the wreck. What was at the bottom of all this I didn't know; whether
+Captain Finch had really got wind of Foster's scheme, and been playing
+with some hellish notion his heart failed him to carry out, or how it
+was; but what he was to make of _this_ was the question.
+
+Well, toward afternoon, the wreck seemed pretty much in the same
+state, though by that time they had evidently given her up, for the
+boats were beginning to be hoisted out to leeward. We couldn't see
+what went on there, till one of them suddenly appeared, pulling out
+for the island, about three miles off; then the large launch after
+it. There were ladies' dresses to be made out in both, their cloaks
+and shawls fluttering bright to the breeze as the boats dipped in the
+short swells; and they were full an hour ere they got out of our
+sight, near the broad beach, on the level side, where the tide was
+ebbing fast again, making it a hard matter to pull the distance. Two
+more boats came off the ship, filled full of casks and other matters,
+save the crews; the rest of the passengers and men no doubt waiting for
+the launch and jolly-boat to go back and take them ashore--for, soon
+after, they both could be seen rounding the point on their way out. On
+coming within hail of the fresh boats, however, they apparently gave
+in, since we could see the two of them, to our great surprise, strike
+round, and make for the beach again with their shipmates, spite of
+signals from the wreck, and shots even fired after them. The breeze by
+that time flagged, leaving less of a sea against the ship's hull in
+the dead-water from the other reefs, and she had fallen over again to
+leeward--a proof of her sticking fast where she struck, without much
+fear of parting very soon in such weather; but the sun was going down,
+and this being the first sign of foul play we had observed, 'twas plain
+at all events we should have to look sharp about us. We kept close up
+the height, bolted our cold junk and biscuit, washing down with a stiff
+caulker, and looked every man to his tools. To my great satisfaction,
+the Planter, who had watched everything seemingly in pure bewilderment,
+woke up out of it when he knew how matters stood, and handled his
+double-barrel as cool as a cucumber, putting in two bullets above the
+small shot he had got for the birds, and ramming down with the air of
+a man summing up a couple of bills against a rascally debtor. For my
+own part, I must say I was longer of coming to feel it wasn't some
+sort of a dream, owing to Jones' broken story; till the thought of
+_who_ was to all likelihood on the very island below, with the rest of
+the ladies, amongst a set of all sorts of foremast-men thrown loose
+from command--half of them, probably, ruffians, with some hand in the
+matter--it came on me like fire at one's vitals. Meantime we sat there
+patiently enough for want of knowing what was to do first, or which way
+we had best keep to avoid bringing matters to a head, worse than they
+yet were.
+
+The night came out of the dusk a fine starlight to seaward beyond the
+reefs where the Indiaman lay, the high side of the island glooming back
+against the deep blue glistening sky, till you didn't see how large it
+might be; while the white water hung glimmering off to leeward from
+the rocks. The ship's crew had kindled a fire on the long strand near
+the boats, and we heard their noise getting louder and louder above
+the sound of the sea plashing upon it--evidently through their making
+free with liquor. Jones being no doubt well acquainted with every part
+of the ground, he proposed to go over and see how things stood, and
+where the passengers might be: at the same time, as Mr Rollock was more
+likely to come conveniently to speech of them, both for explaining our
+being here and putting them on their guard, he agreed to go too.
+
+One or other of them was to hurry back as quickly as possible, while
+the men and myself waited in readiness for whatever might turn up.
+Hour after hour passed, however, till I was quite out of patience,
+not to say uneasy beyond description. All was still, save below
+toward the water's edge--the seamen's voices at times mixing with
+the washing hum of the surge on the sand, then rising over it in the
+chorus of a forecastle song, or a sudden bit of a quarrelsome uproar;
+notwithstanding which they began apparently to settle down to sleep. At
+last the Planter came skirting round the hill through the trees, quite
+out of breath, to say they had discovered the spot where the ladies had
+no doubt been taken by their friends, as Captain Finch himself, with
+one of the ship's officers, and two or three cadets, were walking about
+on the watch, all of them armed. To judge by this, and the fact of the
+other gentlemen being still apparently on the wreck, Finch mistrusted
+his men. However, the Planter thought it better not to risk a hasty
+shot through him by going nearer; and, to tell the truth, I thought it
+better myself to wait till daylight, when we should see if the rest got
+ashore; or possibly, as I wished to heaven were the case, the schooner
+might heave in sight. "Where is Mr Jones, though?" asked I: on which
+I found he had gone over for the first time toward the well for some
+water, as he told Mr Rollock. Indeed, the passengers were settled near
+the thick of the wood on this side of the watering-place, none of the
+Indiaman's people seeming to know as yet there was such a thing on the
+island.
+
+We each of us held our breath, and listened to hear Jones come back. I
+was just on the point of leading my party that way, when I caught the
+sound of some one panting, as it were, up the ridge from the shore, and
+next moment saw, to my great surprise, it was the creature Jones had
+such a horror of--the dog that had run wild on the island, snuffing
+with his nose to the ground as if he were in chase of something; while
+the straw hats and tarpaulins of half-a-dozen fellows with ship's
+muskets and cutlasses followed him over the hill, not thirty paces
+above us. I signed to Jacobs to keep quiet, as they halted together,
+looking at the dog; and, from what I could catch of their words, they
+had noticed it ever since sundown, sitting at the foot of the hill
+watching what went on, till the animal ran toward them as if they were
+friends, every now and then turning and making for the heights with a
+bark and a whimper, as it did at present. One of the men was Foster.
+"I tell ye what it is," said he, "there's some fellow on the island
+already, 'mates. If we ketch him, why, we'll have it out of him--then
+down with it quietly to the shore, and go off in the long-boat,
+seeing as how this blasted fool of a skipper of ours has spoiled our
+pleasure!" The dog turned again, wagged his tail, and put his nose to
+the ground. I thought at first he'd bring them right upon us, when
+suddenly he broke off with a yelp exactly into the track Jones had
+taken with Mr Rollock on leaving us. The sailors kept away in his wake,
+down through the bushes into the thick dusk of the trees; upon which
+the Planter and I started to our feet at once, and held cautiously
+after them, the five man-o'-warsmen following at our heels, Indian file.
+
+Jones, however, had either heard the dog, or got an inkling of the
+thing, and he had taken a long round so as to join us from behind: the
+Indiaman's men keeping on for a quarter of an hour or so, when they
+brought up again, seemingly doubtful whether to follow the creature
+or not; and we dropped like one man into the shadow, till they made
+sail once more. Soon after the Planter pointed to the trees where the
+passengers were, and, on a sign from me, the whole of us edged down
+to the spot, till we were standing within sight of the half-finished
+fire, where the Judge's kitmagar was sitting asleep, tailor-fashion,
+with his flat turban sunk to his breast. One of the cadets stood down
+the slope a little, betwixt that and the beach where the crew were,
+leaning sleepily on his gun, and nodding; while in the midst was a
+sort of shed, run up with branches and cocoa-nut leaves, where you
+could see a glimpse of the different ladies' dresses, young and old,
+asleep on the ground. The starlight fell right down into the opening,
+and showed the glistening edges of the leaves, with the sea broad
+out beyond the cocoas at the foot of the rising ground; so bidding
+Jones look out sharp, I stepped carefully through. My eye lighted at
+once on Sir Charles Hyde lying in one nook of the shelter, wrapped
+up in his pilot-coat--the first time in the old gentleman's life for
+a good while, I daresay, that he had passed his night on the ground,
+especially with such a lot of berths taken up beside him. Still he was
+sound enough at the time, to judge by his breathing, trifle as it was
+to the Planter's; and close by him was his daughter, with her cloak
+drawn half over her head in the shadow--her hair confused about her
+cheek as it pressed white into the bundle of red bunting she had for
+a pillow, and one hand keeping the cloak fast at the neck, as if she
+dreamt of a stiff breeze. The sight went to my heart, and so did the
+notion of waking her; but I heard sounds below on the beach, as if
+the rest of the crew missed their shipmates, probably getting jealous
+after their booze, and not unlikely to seek them up the island; so
+the more it struck me there was no time to be lost in coming to an
+understanding. According, I stooped down quietly and touched her on the
+shoulder. Violet Hyde opened her eyes at once, and looked at me; but
+whether it was the starlight showing my uniform, or her fancying it was
+still the Indiaman in the Atlantic, in place of crying out, why, there
+was almost a smile on her lips as she saw me from the ground. Next
+moment, however, she drew her hand across her eyelids, sat up with the
+help of the other arm, and gazed on me in a bewildered way, naming me
+at the same time below her breath. "Yes, Miss Hyde!" I said hastily;
+and a few words served to give her a notion of the case, as well as to
+advise her to wake up the Judge, with the rest of the ladies, and be
+ready to move the moment we came back. My first thought was to take
+Foster's own plan, and secure the long-boat, if we could only get
+betwixt the Indiaman's crew and the water; or even try our own, on
+the opposite side of the island, and carry off the other boats to the
+wreck; after which we might keep off till the schooner appeared, as she
+couldn't be long of doing in this weather.
+
+I had just stolen back to the men and Mr Rollock, when all at once
+there was a wild cry, not twenty yards off, among the brushwood. A
+heavy blow and a struggle, in the midst of which three shots, one
+after the other, were heard from the cadets; next minute, with oaths
+and curses to the mast-head, and a crash through amongst the branches
+in the dark, Foster and his shipmates came making for the opening.
+Something horrible flashed through my mind as I fancied I had caught
+Finch's voice, whether one way or the other I couldn't say, for I had
+no thought at the time excepting for Violet. Shriek upon shriek broke
+from the ladies ere I well knew I had big Harry himself by the hairy
+throat of him, as he was aiming a left-handed stroke of his cutlass at
+the Judge, who had sprung betwixt him and his daughter. The strength
+of that ruffian was wonderful, for he flung me off and levelled Sir
+Charles Hyde at the same moment, the Judge's body tripping me. Jones
+and my own men, as well as the Planter, were hard at work with the
+other five desperate villains; while the cadets and the second officer
+of the Seringapatam rushed in from the trees--all of it passing in half
+a minute. As I started to my feet, Foster had lifted Violet Hyde in his
+arms, and was dashing through the darkest of the wood with her toward
+the hollow; when, just as I was hard upon him, doubly to my horror,
+above all the screams of the ladies I could hear the wild drunken
+shouts of the crew below coming up from the beach like so many devils.
+Foster had got as far as the next opening where the rubbish of the hut
+was, and, no doubt catching the sound as well as myself, all at once
+he dropped the young lady on the grass--in a faint as she was, and
+her white dress stained with blood, as I thought from _herself_. "Now
+ye----" shouted he, turning bolt round till her moveless figure lay
+betwixt us, with a flourish of his cutlass, which I fancied was bloody
+too--"who are _you_? You'll have a dozen on ye directly, but what's
+meat for the skipper's meat for the passenger, so--" "Devil!" said I
+through my teeth, as I edged round; and Foster was in the very act of
+rushing at me, whether he trod on her or not, when my voice or dress
+seemed to strike him in the dusk. "How the bloody comfort did _you_--"
+said he, shrinking back for a moment; "so much the better, by G--!"
+and he sprang forward again right upon me, with a swinging boarder's
+blow at my head, which flashed off my blade with a force enough to have
+shivered it, had it not been a first-rate old cut-and-thrust I had
+tried pretty stiffly before. If I hadn't been in such a fury of rage,
+and a hurry at once, 'twould have been Harry's last hit; but, at the
+third he made, I caught him fair under it, the point going through and
+through his body as I thrust him back stride by stride--his cutlass
+waving fiercely all the time in the air clear of my head, for the
+stroke came under his arm. The moment he fell, though I knew nothing
+before that of where we were, there was a heavy plunge; I had nearly
+followed on top of him, as he went head-foremost down the tank-well
+under the trees; but next moment, without a thought more to him in the
+heat of the struggle, I was lifting Violet off the grass. What I did
+or what I said, to see if she would revive, I don't really know; but
+I remember, as well as if it were last night, the very sound of her
+voice as she told me she wasn't hurt. The affair in the wood below
+us had suddenly ceased during these five or ten minutes--indeed, as I
+found afterwards, Jones and my party had settled every one of the five,
+either altogether or for the time; but the uproar of more than twenty
+fierce voices could be heard beyond them, cursing and yelling as they
+came stumbling and crashing up amongst the brushwood in a body; while
+the ladies and their companions struggled up from all sides toward the
+height, wild with terror. I met Sir Charles Hyde hurrying to seek his
+daughter, however; and the moment he had her in his arms, I rushed
+down, pistol in hand, to join my men, who were standing firm below, as
+the mutineers burst into the opening, no doubt with the notion they
+had only the cadets to do with. "Here, my lads!" I sang out; "make
+every man of them prisoner--down with 'em to the schooner!" And as I
+broke suddenly through in the starlight in the midst of them, Jones,
+Jacobs, the Planter, and the other four man-o'-warsmen sprang after me,
+one by one--taking the cue, and shouting as if to ever so many behind
+us, "Here they are, shipmates--this way--settle the blackguards!" In
+fact, the moment I appeared, the gang of half-drunk fellows were taken
+aback. One of them roared as if he saw the very devil; and giving them
+no time to think, we drove them scattering down toward the beach. One
+of Foster's party, however, being only stunned, had contrived to get
+down amongst them; and in a little while, seeing we didn't follow, the
+whole lot of them appeared to get an inkling of the truth, on which
+they rallied. It wasn't long ere I saw they had got desperate, and were
+planning to divide, and come somewhere over upon us round the heights;
+so that, in the dark, with our small party, not knowing their numbers,
+the best we could do was to gather up toward the peak, and secure the
+ladies. Accordingly, we passed an uncomfortable enough time during the
+rest of the night, till daybreak, when still no signs of the schooner,
+as we saw in the clear to north-eastward. Frightful notions came into
+my head of something having happened to her; the mutineers below were
+on both sides of the island, and they held the watering-place; we
+hadn't provisions for a single breakfast to half the party of us--and,
+the fellows being now fairly in for it, they could starve us out if
+they chose. You may conceive, accordingly, what a joyful sight met my
+eyes, when, on the dusk lifting off to northward, we could see the
+lovely craft under all sail not six miles off, bearing down before a
+fresh breeze for the deep end of the island! The wind had headed her
+off on her way back; and, knowing nothing of the wreck, Westwood might
+have landed at the mercy of the villains in the bush. But the minute
+we saw his boat out, the whole of us, save the Judge and the Planter,
+made a clean charge down upon them--the schooner's men joining us with
+the oars and boat-stretchers; and in another half-hour the whole gang,
+having lost heart, were taken and lashed fast by the wrists on the
+beach, to a single man.
+
+On searching the watering-place during the day, we found some one had
+covered the mouth of the tank with sticks and leaves, through which
+Harry Foster had gone when he fell. The stuff had fallen in over him;
+and the well being evidently made deep into the rock, to hold water
+the longer, with the roots of the trees growing out into it, his body
+never came up. Somehow or other no one liked to sound it to the bottom;
+but the thing that horrified all of us the most, was to find Captain
+Finch himself lying quite dead amongst the brushwood near where the
+passengers had pitched their quarters, with a cut through his skull
+enough to have killed an ox. It was supposed Foster had suddenly come
+upon him, as he and his shipmates looked out for the hoard they thought
+the pirates had in the island, while Finch was on guard over the
+ladies. Whether the fellow took a new notion at the moment, or what it
+was, the whole gang of them made their rush upon the second mate and
+the cadets, the minute after the captain met his death.
+
+As for Jones, he told me he had noticed the dog watching the seamen
+below, and the idea got into his head of what might happen. There was
+that about the animal to give one a dread you couldn't describe. How
+it had lived all this time, and how the custom came back on it after
+growing perfectly wild, of carrying on like what it did that night,
+was a mystery; but Jones said he hadn't heard it bark before, neither
+had the man he knew of, since the time he was first left _alone_ on
+White-water Island. In fact, the whole of us might have hunted it down
+before we left. But "No!" Jones said. "There's a perfect fiend in the
+brute, I do believe--yet it strikes me by this time, the creature
+belongs to--to the Almighty, sir!" The men and passengers had been
+taken off the Indiaman's wreck, which there was no chance of getting
+off the reef; so, taking out the best of her stores and the passengers'
+property, we had every soul aboard the schooner, and at last set sail
+to the south-east, meaning to go in at Madras, where a sloop might be
+sent to recover more from the ship. 'Twas with no ordinary state of
+things, from stem to stern, that we dropped White-water Island astern.
+
+Well, ma'am, the rest you may easily fancy. We made Madras Roads, and
+there I expected to lose sight of the Judge and his daughter again,
+as we did of most of the other passengers; but to my perfect delight,
+Sir Charles preferred carrying out the voyage on to Calcutta in the
+schooner, where they had the after-cabins to themselves. The Indiaman's
+crew I kept, prisoners and all, till we should meet the frigate off the
+Sunderbunds.
+
+Just conceive standing up the hot Bay of Bengal with flagging
+south-westerly breezes, shifting at times to a brisk south-easter,
+or a squall, as we've done ourselves this week. The moon wasn't at
+the full then, of course, so we only had it like a reaper's sickle
+in the dog-watches; but it was fine weather, and you may imagine one
+sometimes contrived, betwixt Westwood and myself, to have Violet on the
+quarterdeck of an evening without the Judge. Tom would step forward
+suddenly to see a small pull taken on a sheet, and Snelling knew pretty
+well not to walk aft of the capstan; so I could lean over the taffrail
+near her, and look at the schooner's wake glimmering and sparkling up
+in the bubbles astern.
+
+Then to save trouble, you need but picture to yourselves some such sort
+of a daybreak as we had this morning; a cool blue cloudless sky all
+aloft, dappled to eastward with a mighty arch, as it were, of small
+white spots and flakes, as a perfect sea of light flows up into it
+before the sun under the horizon, and a pale slanting shaft of it seems
+to hang gray in the yellow above him.[26] The sea heaves deep-blue and
+deeper-blue under the schooner; the wide flock of small clouds burn
+from gold to fire; the slanting streak of light fades and vanishes, and
+the sun comes up like a gush of flame--sending a stream of glittering
+radiance along the water to our starboard bow, while it shows a long
+flat line of land far on the other beam. The Planter is smoking his
+first cheroot for that day at the stern gratings, when we make out
+three or four faint points over the streak of land, shining like gold
+in the dawn; while at the same time three hazy pillars, as it were, are
+seen standing up betwixt sea and sky, beyond the rippling blue in the
+north-eastern board. 'Tis the spires of Juggernaut pagoda on one side;
+and as the brisk morning breeze drives the water into short surges,
+till the schooner rises the ship upon the other, all of a sudden she
+looms square and white upon our starboard bow. As the hull lifted
+higher and higher under her canvass, there was less doubt every few
+minutes of her being a frigate; and by the time Violet and her father
+were standing together on the quarterdeck, the glorious old Hebe was
+signalling us from her fore-royal-masthead, as she kept close on a wind
+to cross our course.
+
+We spoke the pilot-brig that evening, took out the pilot, and
+stood up into the mouth of the Hoogly with the night-tide in the
+moonlight--dropping the Hebe at Diamond Harbour next day; while
+Lord Frederick, and a Government gentleman he had with him from St
+Helena, went up to Calcutta with us in the schooner. The whole of
+the Indiaman's late crew and officers were left in the frigate till
+further notice, notwithstanding which we were pretty well crowded on
+our way up: Westwood and I were glad of a couple of hammocks in the
+half deck; and, in fact, I saw little more of Violet Hyde till they
+went ashore opposite Fort-William.
+
+In half-an-hour we were lying at anchor in the midst of the crowd of
+Indiamen, country ships, Arab craft, and all sorts of craft besides,
+stretching far up to the next reach; the long front of flat-topped
+buildings, with their green venetians and balustrades, shining white
+over the row of trees on the right bank, like a string of palaces
+spreading back through the huge mass of the city to the pale hot
+eastern sky--a tall cocoa-nut tree or a sharp spire breaking it here
+and there; while the pile of Government House was to be seen dotted
+with adjutant-birds; and the opposite shore showed far off in a line
+of green jungle, faced by a few gay-looking spots of bungalows. All
+the rest of the day Jones busied himself seeing all made regular and
+ship-shape below and aloft, in complete seaman-like style, till I began
+to think he had taken a fancy to the schooner, and meant to go with
+her and the frigate to the China seas. Next morning, however, as soon
+as breakfast was over in the cabin, he came to me and said that, as
+there was nothing more to be done at present aboard, according to our
+agreement he would bid us good-bye. Nothing I could say was of the
+least use, so at last I had to give it up. Having little money about
+me, however, except in bills, and intending to go ashore myself, I told
+him I should pay him his mate's wages at once at a banker's in the
+town. By the time I came on deck, Jones had hailed a dingy, and the
+native boatman paddled us to the ghaut below the Sailor's Home together.
+
+I had shaken hands with him, and stood watching him from the bank
+verandah, as his manly figure, in the blue jacket, white duck trousers,
+and straw hat, passed away down Flag Street, stepping like a seaman
+fresh from blue water through a stream of Hindoos in white muslin,
+Mussulman servants, tall-capped Armenians, Danes, Frenchmen, Chinamen,
+Arabs, and Parsees. Three or four Coolies with painted umbrellas were
+shouting and scrambling in his way, mentioning their names, salaaming,
+and sah'bing him to the nines; a couple of naked black boys were
+trying to brush his shoes in the dust; a tray of native sweetmeats
+seemed to be shoved every now and then under his nose; and two or
+three children with heads as big as pumpkins were stuck before him,
+their mothers begging for "buckshish! buckshish!" Jones held on like a
+man accustomed to every sort of foreign scenes in the world; and out
+of curiosity to see where he would go, I followed him for a little
+toward the thick of the noise and crowd, through Tank Square, where
+the water-carriers were sprinkling the ground from the sheep-skins on
+their backs as they walked, serpent-charmers and jugglers exhibiting,
+and a dirty Fakir rolling at the corner in seeming agony, with a crowd
+of liberty-men in Sunday toggery all round him. Jones looked up at the
+church steeping in the white heat, and across the glare of light to
+the city beyond, standing like a man that didn't know what to do, or
+hadn't seen Calcutta before; then passed carelessly by the half-slued
+sailors, who hailed him as if he were a ship. At length he got to
+the turn of a street running into the native town, where you caught
+a glimpse of it swarming this way and that with turbans in the close
+overhanging bazaars. Some Hindoo procession or other was coming along
+with tom-toms, gongs, tambourines, and punkahs, sweeping on through a
+Babel of heathenish cries and songs; a knot of dancing-girls, with red
+flowers in their sleek black hair, could be seen in a hackery drawn
+by two hump-backed bullocks; and a white Brahmin bull was poking its
+head amongst the heaps of fruit at a stall; whilst you heard a whole
+ship's crew hurrahing and laughing amongst the confusion, as they drove
+along. Suddenly I saw Jones hail a palanquin near him, and get in. The
+four mud-coloured bearers took the pole of it on their shoulders, fore
+and aft--greasy-looking fellows, with ochre-marks on their noses and
+foreheads, a tuft of hair tied back on their heads like women, and as
+naked as they were born, save the cloth round their middle,--and next
+moment away they trotted, grunting and swinging the palanquin, till I
+lost sight of them in the hubbub. 'Twas the last I saw of Jones.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Here the Captain stopped; the Gloucester's crew were getting the
+anchors off her forecastle to her bows for next day, when the
+light-ship off the Sandheads was expected to be seen; and, from his
+manner and his silence together, he evidently considered the yarn at
+an end. "That's all then?" carelessly asked the surgeon, who was a
+chess-player, and had heard only this part of the Captain's adventures,
+and the first two, so that he appeared to perceive a slight want of
+connection. "All?" was the unanimous voice of the lady-passengers, most
+of whom had been faithful listeners,--the younger ones were obviously
+disappointed at something. "Why, yes," said Captain Collins, with a
+look which might be interpreted either as modest or "close,"--"the fact
+is, I fancied the affair might serve to while away a single evening
+or so, and here have I been yarning different nights all this time!
+'Tis owing to my want of practice, no doubt, ma'am." "Come, come,"
+said the matron of the party, "you must really give us some idea of a
+denouement. These girls of mine won't be satisfied without it, Captain
+Collins; they will think it no story at all, otherwise!"
+
+"An end to it, you mean?" answered he. "Why, ma'am, if there were
+an _end_ to it, it couldn't be a 'short' yarn at all--that would be
+to finish and 'whip' it, as we say, before it's long enough for the
+purpose; whereas, luckily, my life hasn't got to a close yet."
+
+"Oh!" said the lady, no sea casuistry for _us_; besides, _I_ am aware
+of the sequel, you know!" "Why, ma'am," answered the Captain, looking
+up innocently, "it wasn't for two years and a half afterwards that
+I--I settled, you know! Do you mean me to tell you all that happened
+in that time, about the Frenchman, and what befell the schooner in the
+China seas? 'twould last the voyage home; but if you'll go _back_ with
+me I've no particular objection, now I've got into the way" "No no,
+my dear, Captain," said the lady, "we have had enough for the present
+of your nautical details--I beg pardon--but tell us how you succeeded
+in--" "Well," interrupted the narrator rather hastily, "'twas somewhat
+thus: I was at home at Croydon, being by that time first lieutenant of
+the Hebe, but she was just paid off. One morning, at breakfast, the
+letter-bag from the village was brought in as usual, my mother taking
+them out, reading off all the addresses through her spectacles, while
+Jane made the coffee. My mother handed Jane a ship-letter, which she
+put somewhere in her dress, with a blush, so that I knew in a moment
+it must be from Tom Westwood, who was in the Company's civil service
+in India, upcountry. "None for me, mother?" asked I eagerly; for the
+fact was I had got one or two at different times, at Canton and the
+Cape of Good Hope, during the two years. "Yes, Ned," said my mother,
+eyeing it again and again, anxiously enough, as I thought; "there
+is--but I fear it is some horrid thing from those Admirals"--the
+Admiralty, she meant--"and they will be sending you off immediately--or
+a war, or something. Oh dear me, Ned," exclaimed the good woman, quite
+distressed, "won't you do as I wish you, and stay altogether!" By the
+Lord Harry! when I opened it, 'twas a letter from Lord Frederick Bury,
+who had succeeded to his eldest brother's title while we were out,
+saying he had the promise of a commandership for me, as soon as a new
+brig for the West India station was ready. "I shan't have to go for six
+or seven months at any rate, mother," said I, "by which time I shall be
+confounded tired of the land, _I_ know!" She wanted me to buy a small
+estate near Croydon, shoot, fish, and dig, I suppose; while Jane said I
+ought to marry, especially as she had a girl with money in her eye for
+me. Still they saw it was no use, and began to give it up.
+
+Why I never heard at all from a certain quarter, I couldn't think. Till
+that time, in fact, I had been as sure of her proving true as I was of
+breezes blowing; but now I couldn't help fancying all sorts of tyranny
+on the Judge's part and her mother's, not to speak of Tom's uncle, the
+Councillor. I went down the lane for the twentieth time, past the end
+of the house they had lived in, where the windows had been shuttered
+up and the gates close ever since I came. All of a sudden, this time,
+I saw there were workmen about the place, the windows open, and two
+servants washing down the yellow wheels of a travelling carriage. I
+made straight back for our house, went up to Jane, who was at her
+piano in the drawing-room, and asked, quite out of breath, _who_ was
+come to the house over the park behind us. "Did you not know that old
+Nabob was coming back from India?" said Jane. "His face was getting too
+yellow, I suppose; and besides, his wife is dead--from his crossness,
+no doubt. But the young lady is an heiress, Ned, and as I meant to tell
+you, from good authority"--here the sly creature looked away into her
+music--"passionately fond of the sea, which means, you know, of naval
+officers"--"The devil she is, Jane!" I broke out; "what did Westwood
+mean by that?--but _when_ are they coming, for heaven's sake?" "Why,"
+said Jane, "I believe, from what I heard our gardener say, they arrived
+last night." "Then, by Jove, my dear girl!" said I, "I'll tell you a
+secret--and mind, I count on you!" My little sister was all alive in a
+moment, ran to the door and shut it, then settled herself on the sofa
+to hear what I had to say, as eagerly as you please. So I told her what
+the whole matter was, with the state of things when we left Calcutta.
+Jane seemed to reckon the affair as clear as a die; and you've no
+notion what a lot of new ropes she put me up to in a concern of the
+kind, as well as ways to carry it out ship-shape to the end, in spite
+of the Judge--or else to smooth him over.
+
+"The long and short of it was, I didn't leave till about seven months
+after, when the Ferret was put in commission; but by that time it was
+all smooth sailing before me. The Judge had got wonderfully softened;
+and, you may be sure, I continued to see Violet Hyde pretty often
+before I went to sea. You'd scarce believe it, but, after that twelve
+months' cruise, I actually didn't leave the land for two years, which
+I did owing to the chance I had of seeing sharp service in the Burmese
+war, up the rivers, while General Campbell had tough work with them
+inland. So that's all I can say, ma'am!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Very good, sir!" was the surgeon's cool remark. "And in fact, sir, I
+fancy if every one of us were to commence telling his whole life over,
+with everything that happened to him and his friends, he must stop
+short somewhere--however long it might be!" The Captain smiled; they
+sat on the poop talking for a while, sometimes saying nothing, but
+watching the last night at sea.
+
+The pilot-brig is spoken to windward next morning, even while the
+deep-sea lead-line is being hove to sound the bottom. Falling sudden
+from the foreyard, the weight takes the long line from hand after hand
+back to the gangway, till it trembles against the ground. 'Tis drawn up
+slowly, the wet coil secured, and the bottom of the lead showing its
+little hollow filled with signs of earth--"Gray sand and shells!" They
+stand on till the pilot is on board, the low land lifts and lengthens
+before the ship; but the flow of the tide has yet to come, and take
+them safely up amongst the winding shoals into the Indian river's
+mouth. A new land, and the thoughts of strange new life, the gorgeous
+sights and fantastic realities of the mighty country of the Mogul and
+Rajahs, crowd before them after the wide solitary sea: the story is
+already all but forgotten.--AND THE ANCHOR IS LET GO!
+
+
+
+
+THE FRENCH WARS OF RELIGION.[27]
+
+
+The history of the house of Guise has a natural division into two
+periods, of nearly equal duration, whose point of separation may be
+fixed at the death of Henry II., or, more strictly perhaps, at the
+date of the treaty of Cateau-Cambresis, which preceded it by three
+months. Under Francis I. and Henry II., foreign wars engrossed much of
+the time and energy of the warriors, foreign diplomacy gave frequent
+occupation to the statesmen, of that restless and ambitious family,
+which, during the reigns of Francis II., Charles IX., and Henry III.,
+was busied with civil strife, domestic intrigues, and even with
+disloyal and treasonable projects. The treaty above referred to--signed
+on the 3d April 1559, and by which France abandoned no less than one
+hundred and ninety-eight fortresses, including the conquests of thirty
+years in Piedmont--stipulated a durable alliance between the Kings of
+France and Spain, "who were to love each other as brothers, and labour
+in concert for the extinction of heresy." This was the prelude of a
+long peace with the foreigner, but also of a long series of intestine
+wars, and of more bloodshed and misery than any invasion from without
+would have probably occasioned. France was on the eve of the Wars of
+Religion. Calvinism grew daily stronger in the land, many of whose most
+illustrious nobles were soon included amongst its proselytes; until at
+last the princes of the blood themselves, jealous of the influence,
+power, and pretensions of the princes of Lorraine, placed themselves
+at the head of the Protestant party. Thus, early in the reign of that
+sickly and feeble prince, Francis II., _Bourbon_ and _Guise_ entered
+the lists, to struggle for the chief power in the state, and to
+commence, during the lifetime of four sons of Henry II., a long contest
+for the inheritance of the declining house of Valois. On the one side,
+the chief posts were occupied by Anthony of Bourbon, King of Navarre,
+by his brother, the Prince of Conde--far superior to him in ability,
+and who was the chief of the party--and by that brave and skilful
+soldier and commander, Gaspard de Chatillon, Admiral de Coligny.
+Opposed to these, the principal figures in the Protestant ranks, stood
+the Duke of Guise and his brothers--notably the astute, cruel, and
+violent cardinal, Charles of Lorraine. Catherine of Medicis, who had
+been allowed little interference in public affairs during her husband's
+life, came forward at his death, and played a striking and important
+part in the strange historical drama which comprised the reigns of
+three of her sons. Adopting a machiavelian and unscrupulous policy,
+her intrigues were directed alternately to support and damage the
+most contrary interests; but, at the outset of her political career,
+her dislike to Montmorency, and her eagerness to grasp a share of the
+power from which he had largely contributed to her exclusion, impelled
+her to an alliance with the Guises, by whom it was evident that the
+kingdom was, for a time at least, to be virtually ruled. Her husband's
+body was yet above ground, when she joined them and her son at the
+Louvre--whither they had conducted Francis, after proclaiming him King,
+from his residence at the palace of the Tournelles; and scarcely had
+it been deposited in the vaults of St Denis, when the treaty between
+her and them was sealed by the sacrifice of Diane de Poitiers, whose
+daughter was their sister-in-law by her marriage with Claude, Marquis
+of Mayenne, but who, nevertheless, was driven ignominiously from court,
+and compelled to give up the costly jewels she had received from her
+royal lover, and to appease Catherine by the gift of her magnificent
+castle of Chenonceaux.
+
+The circumstances of the time, and their own high connections, were
+singularly favourable to the Guises' assumption of the chief power.
+"No influence in the kingdom," says M. de Bouille, "was comparable to
+that of those two men. The clergy, the richest and the first of the
+three orders of the state, professed an unbounded devotion for the
+Cardinal; in Francis of Lorraine the greater part of the nobility,
+military men, even magistrates, habitually recognised a skilful chief,
+a sure friend, a zealous protector. The Queen (Mary Stuart) was niece
+of the Guises; their cousin, the Duke of Lorraine, was brother-in-law
+of the King; the husband of another sister of Francis II., Philip of
+Spain, was well pleased that the royal choice had fallen upon them in
+preference to Anthony of Bourbon, who would not have failed to apply
+his power to the attempted recovery of Navarre from Spain. Finally,
+obligations of gratitude attached the Duke of Savoy to them. So
+many advantages, such numerous means of access, united with so many
+talents and so much glory, rendered their position very natural." The
+humiliation of the Bourbons was proportionate to the exaltation of
+their rivals. Montmorency received, from the lips of the King himself,
+advice to retire to his domain of Chantilly, a rustication and disgrace
+which left the veteran Constable no resource but to ally himself with
+the princes of the blood. These were deliberating at Vendome, with
+d'Andelot and their other confidential partisans, as to the means of
+opposing the authority of the Guise, when they received the overtures
+and exhortations of the Constable, who pressed and prevailed with the
+King of Navarre to repair to court. But slights and affronts were there
+offered both to him and to the Prince of Conde, and soon they were glad
+again to absent themselves. Within nine months of the accession of
+Francis, the plot known as the conspiracy of Amboise, of which Conde
+was the secret head, was formed, discovered, and crushed; the Duke of
+Guise displaying much energy and prudence, the Cardinal of Lorraine
+great cruelty and a most unchristian spirit, in its repression, and
+in the treatment of the baffled conspirators. For the third time
+Guise was named lieutenant-general of the kingdom, and invested with
+unlimited powers. The conspiracy to which he was indebted for this
+aggrandisement, was, however, the result of his brother's violent and
+persecuting spirit. The Cardinal had spurred the Huguenots to revolt.
+In all their proclamations, manifestos, and justificatory publications,
+they protested their loyalty to the King, and declared that they took
+arms solely against the family of Guise. It did not suit the purpose
+of these princes to admit the sincerity of the distinctions thus made.
+"What have I done to my subjects," exclaimed the feeble King, "that
+they should bear me such ill-will? Is it not rather to you, gentlemen,
+that they are opposed? I would that for a time you would depart, that
+we might see if these disorders ceased." The words had been suggested
+by the Spanish ambassador; but Francis knew not how to give them
+effect, and was easily cajoled by his uncles, who assured him that
+their absence would be the signal for attempts on his life and the
+lives of his brothers--attempts already planned by the Bourbons and
+supported by the heretics.
+
+We pass on to the close of the short reign of Francis II., which
+extended over barely seventeen months. His death occurred on the 5th
+December 1560. The 10th of the same month was to have witnessed the
+execution of the Prince of Conde, condemned as traitor and heretic.
+But when a sudden swoon at vespers, succeeded by violent pains in the
+head, indicated the probable dissolution of the sickly monarch, whose
+constitution was already undermined by disease, Catherine de Medicis,
+unwilling to lose Conde, who served her as a counterpoise to the power
+of the Guise, took measures to delay his doom, and opened negotiations
+with the King of Navarre. This prince signed an agreement guaranteeing
+the regency to Catherine during the minority of Charles IX. She and her
+council were to have the sole direction of political affairs; whilst
+Anthony de Bourbon, with the title of lieutenant-general, was to be
+military chief of the kingdom. On the other hand, Catherine brought
+about his reconciliation with the Guises; inducing Francis II. to
+declare on his death-bed that the prosecution of Conde emanated not
+from them, but from his will alone. At the very moment she rendered
+this service to the princes of Lorraine, she was plotting with
+Bourbon their banishment from court. It were bewildering, and indeed
+impossible, in a brief essay on that busy period, to trace the tortuous
+policy and seemingly contradictory intrigues of the Queen-mother. It
+suffices to state her aim, then and for long afterwards. By pitting one
+faction against the other, and alternately supporting both, she secured
+for herself a larger share of power than she would have obtained by
+assisting in the final triumph of either.
+
+The death of their niece's royal husband was a great shock to the
+Guises, who in his name had exercised absolute authority. It was
+subject of rejoicing to the Protestants, who deemed it "a stroke of
+heavenly mercy"--a mystical expression of satisfaction, which made some
+suspect poison to be the cause of the King's death. For this there
+seems to have been no foundation. But such suspicions were the fashion
+of the time. Beside the bed of Francis stood Coligny, the Cardinal of
+Lorraine, and many other nobles. When the monarch breathed his last,
+"Gentlemen," said the Admiral, with his habitual earnest gravity, "the
+King is dead; 'tis a lesson for us how to live." He returned home
+with one of his intimates, named Fontaines, and fell into a profound
+reverie, his tooth-pick in his mouth and his feet to the fire. He did
+not observe that his boots were burning, until Fontaines called his
+attention to the fact. "Ah, Fontaines!" then replied the Admiral, "not
+a week ago you and I would each have given a leg for things to take
+this turn, and now, we get off with a pair of boots; it is cheap."
+Not one of the six brothers Guise followed the funeral of Francis
+II., whose loss they had such reason to deplore. In cutting allusion
+to this indecent neglect, an unknown hand affixed to the black velvet
+that covered the royal bier the following inscription--"_Where is
+Tanneguy Duchatel? But he was a Frenchman!_" This was a chamberlain of
+Charles VII., who, although unjustly banished from court, had mourned
+his master's death, and had provided magnificently for his interment,
+sacrilegiously neglected by that king's own son. The inscription bore
+a double sting, for it both condemned the conduct of the Guises, and
+stigmatised them as foreigners. In vain did they strive to justify
+themselves, alleging the necessity of their presence at court. And they
+were equally unable to refute the charge of having appropriated, during
+the illness of Francis, a considerable sum that remained in the royal
+treasury. This was done with the connivance of Catherine.
+
+The state of affairs after the accession of Charles IX., was as
+follows: Conde was released from prison, the King of Navarre was in
+favour with the Queen-mother, the Bourbons and Guises affected mutual
+friendship, the Colignys and the Constable were continually at the
+palace; the star of the Bourbon party was in the ascendant. But those
+were the days of political and religious renegades, and a very short
+time produced wonderful changes in the composition of the two great
+parties. Soon we find the King of Navarre going over to the Church of
+Rome, and the Constable abandoning the cause of his nephews to assist
+at the germination of the celebrated _League_, into which the Guises
+and other great Catholic chiefs afterwards entered for the suppression
+of Protestantism, and for the overthrow of the party headed by Conde
+and Coligny.
+
+It is a matter of extreme difficulty to form a correct opinion of the
+character of the Duke of Guise, diversely represented as it has been
+by the party writers of the time. M. de Bouille has endeavoured, with
+patience and industry, to sift the truth from the mass of conflicting
+evidence; and if he is not completely successful, it is because such
+contradictory testimony as he has to deal with defies reconciliation.
+His zeal for truth leads him into researches and disquisitions through
+which not all of his readers perhaps will have patience to follow
+him, although they are doubtless essential to the completeness of a
+work which is eminently what the French term _un ouvrage serieux_.
+With an evident desire for strict impartiality, he leans a little,
+as it appears to us, to the Catholic party--no unnatural bias in a
+writer of that religion. We, on the other hand, as Protestants, have
+to guard ourselves against the strong interest and sympathy inspired
+by the faith, the valour, and the sufferings of the French Huguenots:
+and we cannot but admit the justice of M. de Bouille's conclusion,
+that although, amongst these, many were martyrs for religion's sake,
+many others assumed the Protestant badge from motives of political
+convenience as much as from conscientious conviction. As regards the
+second Duke of Guise, however, we find difficulty in always coinciding
+with his present historian, who makes him out a better man than
+previous reading had taught us to believe him. All the three Dukes of
+Guise were moral giants--men of extraordinary qualities, who towered
+far above their cotemporaries. All three were valiant, sagacious,
+and skilful in no common degree; but they were also ambitious and
+unscrupulous--the son more so than the father, the grandson more than
+either. In estimating their qualities and actions, M. de Bouille justly
+makes much allowance for the prevalent fanaticism of the time; but he
+sometimes goes too far towards the adoption of the opinions of Catholic
+writers, who find extenuating circumstances in the conduct of the
+arch-butcher, Henry of Lorraine, on the night of St Bartholomew, and
+who acquit his father of sanctioning that barbarous massacre at Vassy,
+which was the spark to the powder--the actual commencement of the wars
+of religion.
+
+The little town of Vassy, adjacent to the domains of Guise, was the
+headquarters of a numerous Protestant congregation, whose preaching
+and acts of devotion "greatly scandalised," says M. de Bouille, "the
+virtuous Antoinette de Bourbon, surnamed by the Huguenots, _Mother
+of the tyrants and enemies of the gospel_." She constantly implored
+the Duke, her son, to rid her of these obnoxious neighbours, which
+he promised to do, if it were possible without violation of the
+royal edicts. Upon the 1st March 1562, a journey he made in company
+with his wife--then with child and travelling in a litter--led him
+through Vassy. "His suite consisted of two hundred men-at-arms, all
+partaking, and even surpassing, the exalted Catholicism and warlike
+temper of their chief. At Vassy he was to be joined by sixty more. On
+arriving there, he entered the church to hear high mass; and, whether
+it was that the psalms of the Calvinists reached his ears, or that he
+was maliciously informed of their being then assembled, or that the
+clergy of Vassy complained and solicited the repression of outrages
+received from the sectarians, the fact is that he learned that their
+preaching was then going on. With the intention of giving them a severe
+admonition, he sent for their minister, and for the chief members
+of the congregation. His messenger was Labrosse, the son,--who was
+accompanied by two German pages, Schleck and Klingberg, one of whom
+carried his arquebuse and the other his pistols. These young men
+were violent in the fulfilment of their mission, and an exchange of
+insults was soon followed by bloodshed. At the first shots fired,
+the men-at-arms and the varlets, already disposed to hostilities,
+took part in the unequal fray. The five or six hundred Protestants,
+although superior in number, were far from sufficiently armed to offer
+an effectual resistance. They sought to establish a barricade, and to
+defend themselves with sticks and stones. The Duke, who hurried to
+the scene of the tumult, found himself unable to repress it. Some of
+his gentlemen were hit; the face of Labrosse, the father, streamed
+with blood; Guise himself was wounded in the left cheek by a stone. At
+sight of his hurt, his followers' fury knew no bounds. The Protestants,
+overwhelmed, (_ecrases_,) uttered piercing cries; and, endeavouring to
+escape by all issues, even by the roof, delivered themselves to the
+bullets of their enemies. Anne d'Est, who was peaceably pursuing her
+journey, paused on hearing the sounds of strife, and sent in all haste
+to entreat her husband to put an end to the effusion of blood; _but the
+carnage lasted an hour_; sixty men and women lost their lives and two
+hundred were wounded. On the side of the Prince of Lorraine, some men
+were also more or less hurt; only one was killed."
+
+A champion so energetic and formidable, a commander so much beloved,
+as the Duke of Guise, would certainly have succeeded, had he really
+attempted and desired to do so, in somewhat less than an hour, in
+checking his men-at-arms and stopping this inhuman massacre, which
+procured him from the Reformed party the odious nickname of _the
+Butcher of Vassy_. M. de Bouille inclines to consider the slaughter
+on that fatal day as a sort of cruel reprisals, deplorable certainly,
+but in some measure extenuated by various excesses committed by the
+Huguenots--excesses, however, to which he but vaguely refers. It must
+be remembered that, at the time of the massacre of Vassy, an edict,
+obtained less than two months previously by the exertions and influence
+of Coligny and l'Hospital, and granting the Protestants liberty of
+conscience and free exercise of their religion, was in full force. The
+following passage from M. de Bouille sufficiently shows the _animus_ of
+Guise--"When the return of a gloomy calm suffered him to discern the
+sad character of such a scene, the Duke fell into a passion with Claude
+Tourneur, captain of the town and castle of Vassy for Mary Stuart; he
+imputed the day's misfortunes to the toleration that officer had shown
+in suffering the formation of Calvinist assemblies. Tourneur, in his
+justification, cited the edict of January; but Guise clapped his hand
+to his sword, 'This,' he said, 'shall rescind that detestable edict!'"
+When the news of the massacre reached Paris, Theodore de Beze, deputed
+by the Calvinist church of the capital, presented himself before
+Catherine to demand severe justice on the Duke of Guise. Catherine
+received him well and replied favourably; When the King of Navarre,
+in all the fervour of his new religion and sudden friendship for the
+Duke, burst out into anger against Beze, attributing all the fault to
+the Protestants of Vassy, and declaring that "whoever touched as much
+as the finger-tip of his brother the Duke of Guise touched him in the
+middle of his heart." "Sire," replied Beze, "it assuredly behoves that
+church of God in whose name I speak to endure blows, and not to strike
+them; but may it please you also to remember, that it is an anvil which
+has worn out many hammers." This menacing resignation was an omen of
+approaching calamities.
+
+Although Anthony of Bourbon, King of Navarre, was of little value at
+the council-board, or in any other way than as a brave man-at-arms, his
+conversion and alliance were highly prized by the Catholic party, as
+a great diminution of the _prestige_ of the Protestants. The Duke of
+Guise and his brothers, the Constable, and even the Spanish ambassador
+Chantonnay, combined to flatter and cajole the feeble prince, who on
+his part knew not how sufficiently to demonstrate his zeal for Popery
+and his love for the family of Lorraine. On Palm Sunday he marched
+in procession, accompanied by his new friends and by two thousand
+gentlemen of their party, bearing the consecrated branches from the
+church of St Genevieve to that of Notre-Dame. On occasion of this
+solemnity it has been said that the life of the Duke of Guise was in
+danger--some Protestant gentlemen having offered to assassinate him,
+if their ministers would authorise the deed in the name of religion.
+This authorisation was refused; the Calvinist churchmen "with greater
+prudence," says M. de Bouille, "preferring to await the result of the
+complaint they had made with respect to the massacre of Vassy." It is
+hardly fair thus to insinuate that prudential considerations alone
+influenced this abstinence from assassination. Guise was considered,
+especially after the massacre of Vassy, the most dangerous foe of the
+Huguenot party; and more than one plan for his murder was laid prior
+to that which succeeded. But there is no proof that these plots were
+instigated by either the chiefs or the priests of the party. On the
+contrary, everything concurs to stamp them as proceeding solely from
+the religious fanaticism or violent party spirit of individuals. During
+the siege of Rouen--the first important operation of the war that now
+broke out--"the Duke of Guise," says M. de Bouille, "was informed that
+an assassin had entered the camp with the project of taking his life.
+He sent for and calmly interrogated him--'Have you not come hither
+to kill me?' he said. Surprised at his detection, and trembling with
+apprehension of punishment, this young gentleman of Mans at once avowed
+his criminal design. 'And what motive,' inquired the Duke, 'impelled
+you to such a deed? Have I done you any wrong?' 'No; but in so doing I
+should serve my religion--that is to say, the belief in the doctrine
+of Calvin, which I profess.' 'My religion then is better than yours,'
+cried Guise with a generous impulse, 'for it commands me to pardon,
+of my own accord, you who are convicted of guilt.' And by his orders
+the gentleman was safely conducted out of the camp. A fine example,"
+exclaims M. de Bouille, "of truly religious sentiments and magnanimous
+proselytism, very natural to the Duke of Guise, the most moderate
+and humane of the chiefs of the Catholic army; and whose brilliant
+generosity--true basis of the character of this great man--had been but
+temporarily obscured by the occurrence at Vassy!"
+
+At this siege of Rouen, Guise performed prodigies of valour; and
+Anthony of Bourbon, second to none in high soldierly spirit, had
+his jealousy roused by the exploits of his ally. Determined also to
+signalise himself, he needlessly exposed his life, and was hit by an
+arquebuse ball. The wound was severe, and Ambrose Pare declared it
+mortal, in contradiction to the opinions of several other physicians,
+who gave hopes of cure. Ten days afterwards Rouen was taken by assault;
+and on learning this, the King of Navarre insisted on being carried in
+triumph to his quarters in the captured town. Preceded by musicians,
+he was borne upon his bed through the breach by a detachment of Swiss
+soldiers. The fatigue and excitement increased the inflammation of his
+wound, and hastened his death. In his last moments he showed symptoms
+of regretting his change of religion; but notwithstanding this tardy
+repentance, the Protestants, against whom since his perversion to Rome
+he had used great severity, rejoiced exceedingly at his death, which
+they celebrated as a chastisement proceeding from Heaven.
+
+The fall of Rouen was quickly followed by the battle of Dreux, one
+of the most interesting actions of those wars. Conde was threatening
+Paris, when the Duke of Guise, following the example twice given by his
+father (in 1536 and 1544,) hurried from Rouen, where his troops had
+committed frightful excesses, but where he had successfully invoked
+the royal clemency in favour of the officers of the captured garrison,
+to give the inhabitants of the capital the benefit of his valour and
+skill. He there received a reinforcement of seven thousand Gascons
+and Spaniards; and Conde, seeing Paris so well defended, and that the
+chances of a general action, which he had at first been disposed to
+provoke, were no longer in his favour, retreated towards Normandy to
+establish communications with the English, who had already sent some
+slight succours to the Protestants.
+
+Guise pursued, gained a march on him, and confronted him near Dreux.
+The movements of the Catholics were nominally directed by the
+Constable, but Guise was in fact the presiding spirit. Unwilling to
+assume the responsibility of such a battle as appeared imminent, the
+Duke desired to cast it upon Catherine of Medicis, and accordingly, on
+the 14th December, he had sent Castlenau to that princess to know her
+decision. The envoy reached Vincennes at the moment of her _lever_. She
+affected surprise that experienced generals should send for counsel to
+a woman and child, whom the imminence of civil war plunged in grief.
+The King's nurse coming in at that moment, 'You should ask her,' said
+the Queen ironically, 'if battle is to be given.' And calling the
+woman to her--'Nurse,' she said, 'the time has come that men ask of
+women advice to give battle; how seems it to you?' A second messenger
+from the _triumvirate_[28] pressed for a decision; the council was
+assembled, and left everything to the prudence and judgment of the
+generals. With this semi-authorisation, these took up a position
+in the villages adjacent to Dreux, menacing Conde's left flank.
+Numerically stronger than the Protestants, they had fewer cavalry,
+but were well posted. The main body was commanded by the Constable
+in person; Guise, too proud to act as second in command, remained
+in reserve with his own company of men-at-arms and a few volunteers
+who had joined him. With these five hundred picked horsemen he was
+prepared to strike in where his aid might most be wanted. For two hours
+the armies remained in mutual observation, without even a skirmish.
+After hearing the report of d'Andelot, who had made a reconnoissance,
+Conde would gladly have avoided a battle, or at least have changed the
+ground. "By a movement to his right he exposed his flank; the Constable
+wished to take advantage of this. Conde's advanced guard, under
+Coligny, furiously charged the Royalist centre, as it advanced under
+Montmorency. The Prince himself, who, with his main body, was opposed
+to St Andre and the advanced guard, neglected to attack them, but
+directed all his efforts against the principal mass of the Catholics,
+imprudently bringing all his cavalry into action, and penetrating
+to the very colours of the Swiss troops, who successfully withstood
+this terrible shock. Contrary to the advice of the Duke of Guise,
+who urged him to let this fury expend itself, d'Anville, with three
+companies of men-at-arms and the light horse, hurried to attack Conde;
+but soon, surrounded by the German cavalry, he was forced to retreat
+upon the right wing, composed of Spanish infantry, and protected by
+fourteen pieces of cannon. Meanwhile the Constable opposed an energetic
+resistance to the attack of his nephew Coligny. In the midst of this
+terrible _melee_, Montmorency, as unfortunate as at St Quintin, had
+his horse killed under him; he mounted another, but the next moment,
+wounded in the jaw by a pistol-shot, he was taken prisoner. Around
+him fell his fourth son Montberon, Beauvais, and the Sieur de Givry.
+The Duke of Aumale--fighting with the utmost ardour, overthrown by
+the fugitives, and trampled under the horses' feet--had his shoulder
+broken, the bone of the arm being almost uncovered, and split up to
+the joint, so that for six weeks he could not ride. The Grand Prior
+was also wounded. The entire main body, and a part of the advanced
+guard, (which had been disposed on the same line with the centre, or
+_corps de bataille_,) were totally routed; the artillery covering
+them was in the power of the enemy; five thousand Swiss alone still
+displayed a bold front. The Protestants, however, headlong in pursuit
+of the vanquished, outstripped these troops and reached the baggage,
+which they plundered, 'even that of Monsieur de Guise and his silver
+plate;'[29] then, reforming, they returned to the charge against the
+Swiss--who, frequently broken, always rallied, and at last, seeing
+themselves attacked on all sides by Conde's lansquenets, were no longer
+contented to hold their ground, but pressed forward and repulsed their
+assailants."
+
+The battle seemed won, when Guise, who had remained all this time
+inactive, at last decided to advance. He has often been reproached
+for the apathy with which he had so long beheld the disasters of the
+Catholic army. It certainly looked very much as if he wished to requite
+in kind Montmorency's inaction, eight years previously, at the combat
+of Renty. His conduct may have been, as M. de Bouille inclines to
+believe, the result of prudent calculation; and it is difficult, after
+this lapse of time, to prove that less caution would not have been
+fatal to the Catholic army. The succour that retrieved the fortune
+of the day came so late, however, that the victors' loss exceeded
+that of the vanquished. When Montmorency's son, d'Anville, beheld his
+brother slain and his father prisoner, he hurried to Guise--whose
+reserve was concealed from the enemy behind the village of Blainville
+and a cluster of trees--and franticly implored him to rescue the
+Constable by an impetuous charge. Guise refused to stir. Presently,
+however, when he saw that the Huguenots, disordered by success, deemed
+the battle completely won, he advanced at a steady pace, rallying
+the fugitives, bringing up the advanced guard, and uniting with the
+Spaniards and Gascons. Thus supported, he moved boldly against the
+hostile battalions, which gave way before him. d'Andelot, whom fever
+kept from the field, first perceived the disastrous change in the
+issue of the combat. Unarmed, wrapped in a furred dressing-gown, he
+sprang forward to cheek the rout; and, observing the good order of the
+Duke of Guise's reserve--"Yonder," he said, "is a tail that it will
+be very difficult to scotch." In vain the Prince of Conde sought to
+rally his cavalry, paralysed by the sustained fire of eight hundred
+arquebusiers posted by St Andre. The carnage was frightful. Conde,
+wounded in the right hand, lost his horse, killed by a bullet; and
+as he was about to remount he was surrounded, and compelled to yield
+himself prisoner to d'Anville, who burned to revenge his father's
+wound and captivity. Thereupon the gallant Coligny, who had rallied
+fifteen or sixteen hundred horse in a little valley, returned to the
+charge to rescue the prince; and so terrible was his onset upon Guise's
+squadrons, that these wavered, and Guise himself was for a moment
+in great danger. But the fire of two thousand arquebusiers, posted
+on his flanks, covered the confusion of his cavalry, and compelled
+Coligny to a retreat, which was effected in good order. Night fell;
+Guise did not pursue; and Coligny saved a part of his artillery, but
+lost, in that day's action, three or four thousand men. The loss of
+the Catholics amounted to five or six thousand, and was particularly
+severe in cavalry. By a strange coincidence, the two generals-in-chief
+were prisoners. The conquerors had to regret the loss of several other
+distinguished leaders. In the closing act of this obstinately-contested
+fight, Marshal St Andre, thrown from his horse and made prisoner, was
+pistolled by Daubigny, a former follower of his, who had long been his
+bitter foe. Both the Labrosses, and Jean d'Annebaut, were also slain;
+and the Duke of Nevers had his thigh broken. At first it was rumoured
+in the Protestant army that Guise himself was killed. "Knowing," says
+Etienne Pasquier in one of his letters, quoted by M. de Bouille,
+"that it was he at whom the Huguenots would chiefly aim, and doubting
+not but that his army was full of spies, upon the eve of the battle
+he declared publicly at supper what horse he would ride, and what
+would be his arms and equipment upon the following day. But the next
+morning, before proceeding to the rendezvous, he gave up that horse
+and accoutrements to his esquire. Well for him that he did so! for the
+esquire was killed, whilst he for a while escaped." It is recorded that
+the esquire, Varicarville, solicited permission thus to devote himself
+for his leader's safety. The stratagem was so successful, that when
+Guise, late in the day, made his appearance, the Admiral and Conde
+were completely astonished. "Here, then, is the cunning fellow whose
+shadow we have pursued," exclaimed Coligny. "We are lost; the victory
+will slip from our hands."--"The day's success came most apropos to M.
+de Guise," wrote Pasquier, "for of one defeat he made two victories;
+the captivity of the Constable, his rival in renown, not being less
+advantageous to him than that of the Prince, his open foe." Whilst
+Coligny marched off his uncle and prisoner to Orleans, to place him
+in the hands of the Princess of Conde, Guise, with characteristic
+magnanimity, courteously and kindly received his inveterate enemy, the
+Prince. Quartered in Blainville, which the Huguenots had devastated,
+and deprived of his baggage, he could command but a single bed, which
+he offered to Conde, with other marks of deference for the first prince
+of the blood. Touched by his conqueror's generosity, Conde momentarily
+forgot his hatred; supped at Guise's table--freely discussed with him
+the basis of a peace, of whose conclusion the presumed destruction of
+his party made him desirous--and finally accepted the proffered couch,
+only on condition that the Duke should share it with him.
+
+The news of the victory of Dreux was received at Paris with transports
+of joy, and once more the name of "saviour of his country" was applied
+to Guise. The alarm in the capital had been very great, and not
+without reason. "If this battle had been lost," wrote Montluc in his
+_Commentaries_, "I believe it was all over with France: both the state
+and the religion would have been changed; for a young king may be made
+to do anything." The satisfaction of Catherine de Medicis was by no
+means unalloyed. She did not like Conde; but his defeat destroyed the
+equilibrium which she had hitherto so carefully maintained, to the
+benefit of her own influence. She now felt herself under the pressure
+of a power, moderate in form but absolute in fact. There was no help
+for it, however; neither, in the absence of the Constable, was there
+any excuse for withholding the chief command from the Duke of Guise,
+who was accordingly appointed lieutenant-general of the kingdom. He
+did not long enjoy his new dignity. The battle of Dreux was fought
+on the 19th December. Just two months later, on the night of the
+18th February, Guise--after arranging everything for the assault of
+Orleans upon the following day, and announcing to the Queen-mother
+his conviction of approaching triumph--left the camp on horseback,
+accompanied only by one of his officers and a page, to visit the
+Duchess, who had that day reached the neighbouring castle of Corney.
+"He had crossed the Loiret in a boat, and was walking his horse,
+when, at a cross-road, he felt himself wounded in the right shoulder,
+almost under the arm, by a pistol-shot fired behind a hedge, from
+between two great walnut trees, at a distance of only six or seven
+paces. Notwithstanding the darkness, a white plume he wore upon his
+head signalised him; and as, for the sake of ease, he had taken off
+his cuirass at evening, those bullets, aimed just above the armour
+which the assassin believed him to wear, passed through his body.
+'They have long had this shot in reserve for me,' exclaimed he, on
+feeling himself wounded; 'I deserve it for my want of precaution.'
+Unable to support himself for pain, he fell on his horse's neck; in
+vain he endeavoured to draw his sword: his arm refused its service.
+Carried to his quarters, he was welcomed by the cries of the Duchess
+of Guise, whom he embraced and told her himself the circumstances of
+his assassination, by which he declared himself grieved for the honour
+of France. He exhorted his wife to submit with resignation to the will
+of heaven; then, covering with kisses the Prince of Joinville, who
+was weeping, he said to him, gently, 'God grant thee grace, my son,
+to be a good man!'" Poltrot de Mere, the assassin, escaped for the
+moment, although promptly pursued; but he lost his way in the darkness,
+and after riding ten leagues, found himself at daybreak close to the
+Catholic cantonments. Worn out with fatigue, as was also his horse--a
+good Spanish charger, for whose purchase he had received a hundred
+crowns from Coligny--he hid himself in a farm, and was there arrested,
+on the 20th February, by the Duke's secretary, La Seurre. The gift of
+the hundred crowns has been alleged against the Admiral as a proof of
+his having instigated the crime; but, in fact, it was no proof at all,
+for Poltrot had been acting as a secret agent and spy to the Huguenots,
+and might very well receive that sum, as he had previously received a
+smaller one, as guerdon for the information he brought. He himself, on
+his examination, declared he had been urged to the deed by Coligny,
+Theodore de Beze, and another Protestant minister; but he could adduce
+no proof, save that of one hundred and twenty crowns received from
+Coligny, to whom he had been recommended, as a useful agent, by a
+Huguenot leader in eastern France. And his previous life rendered his
+bare assertion worthless, whilst the high character of the men he
+impeached raised them above suspicion--in the eyes of unprejudiced
+persons--of having instigated so foul a deed. They addressed a letter
+to the Queen-mother, repelling the charge, and entreating that
+Poltrot's life might be spared until peace should be concluded, when
+they would confront him and refute his testimony. Coligny declared
+that he had even discountenanced such plots, and referred to a warning
+he had given the Duke, only a few days previously, "to be on his
+guard, for there was a man suborned to kill him." At the same time he
+repudiated all regret for the Duke's death, which he declared the best
+thing that could have happened for the kingdom and for the church of
+God. But, to his dying day, he protested his innocence of the blood
+of Guise; and his life and character give weight and credibility to
+the protest. M. de Bouille makes some judicious reflections as to the
+share Catherine of Medicis may have had in instigating the murder. Her
+jealousy and distrust of the Guises were very strong: she had opposed
+the siege of Orleans, and thrown obstacles in the way of its successful
+issue; she had hastened the execution of the murderer, as soon as
+he had accused the Admiral of complicity. We are certainly doing no
+injustice to the character of that most corrupt and crafty queen, when
+we assume the possibility that hopes of a mitigated punishment, or of
+means of escape, had been held out to induce Poltrot to depone against
+the Admiral; and that then, the deposition obtained, the pledge to the
+unhappy wretch was broken, and the murderer's doom inflicted. Such
+double treachery was quite in concord with Catherine's character. She
+felt that suspicions would attach to her, and endeavoured to stifle
+them by a display of profound grief, by loading with favours the family
+of the victim, and by a promise of severe and full measure of justice.
+
+The death of Francis of Lorraine (on Ash Wednesday, 24th February
+1563,) was the immediate cause of a treaty of peace between Catholics
+and Protestants, for which the Queen-mother had for some time been
+paving the way. On a small island in the middle of the Loire, near
+Orleans, the two illustrious captives, Conde and the Constable, met,
+each under strong escort; and terms were agreed upon, the principal of
+which were a general amnesty, and freedom of conscience and worship,
+under certain restrictions of place, for the Huguenots. All prisoners
+were released on both sides; and Orleans, which had so nearly shared
+the fate of Rouen, opened its gates to the King and Queen-mother, who
+were to take possession of it without any marks of triumph.
+
+"On the eve of the tournament in which Henry II. was mortally wounded
+by Montgomery, that king held upon his knees his little daughter
+Margaret, afterwards wife of Henry IV. Diverted by the repartees of
+the child, who already gave promise of great wit and understanding,
+and seeing the Prince of Joinville, and the Marquis of Beaupreau, (son
+of the Prince of La Roche-sur-Yon,) playing together in the room, the
+King asked Margaret which of the two she liked best. 'I prefer the
+Marquis,' she replied, 'he is gentler and better.' 'Yes,' said the
+King, 'but Joinville is handsomest.' 'Oh,' retorted Margaret, 'he is
+always in mischief, and _will_ be master everywhere.' Joinville was
+but nine years old, and Margaret was only seven, but she had already
+deciphered the character of the man whose ambition set all France in a
+flame." A prediction of Francis of Lorraine, recorded by M. de Bouille,
+confirmed that of the precocious princess. Observant of his son's
+character, from infancy upwards, he is said to have foretold that,
+carried away and dazzled by popularity and its vain promises, he would
+perish in an attempt to upset the kingdom. The event may fairly be said
+to have justified the prophecy. Henry, third Duke of Guise, fell by his
+ambition. "Inferior to his father as a warrior," says M. de Bouille,
+"he perhaps surpassed all the princes of his house in certain natural
+gifts, in certain talents, which procured him the respect of the court,
+the affection of the people, but which, nevertheless, were tarnished by
+a singular alloy of great faults and unlimited ambition." The historian
+proceeds to give a glowing description of his beauty, accomplishments,
+and seductive qualities. "France was mad about that man," wrote Balzac,
+"for it is too little to say she was in love with him. Her passion
+approached idolatry. There were persons who invoked him in their
+prayers, others who inserted his portrait in their books. His portrait,
+indeed, was everywhere: some ran after him in the streets to touch
+his mantle with their rosaries; and one day that he entered Paris by
+the Porte St Antoine, on his return from a journey to Champagne, they
+not only cried _Vive Guise!_ but many sang on his passage: _Hosanna
+filio David!_ Large assemblies were known to yield themselves at once
+captive to his pleasant countenance. No heart could resist that
+face; it persuaded before he opened his mouth; it was impossible
+to wish him harm in his presence.... And Huguenots belonged to the
+League when they beheld the Duke of Guise." Although but thirteen
+years old, at his father's death, Henry of Lorraine had accompanied
+him in his recent campaigns, and at the siege of Orleans had had
+opportunity to show symptoms of that cool intrepidity for which he was
+afterwards remarkable. Profound dissimulation was another leading and
+early-developed feature of his character; and in this respect he had
+before him a first-rate model in the person of his uncle, the crafty
+and unscrupulous Cardinal of Lorraine.
+
+This prelate, who was rather violent than brave, was profoundly grieved
+and alarmed by his brother's assassination, news of which reached him
+at the Council of Trent. On receiving the sad intelligence, he fell
+on his knees, and, lifting his hands and eyes to heaven: "Lord," he
+exclaimed, "you have deprived the innocent brother of life, and left it
+to the guilty!"--a cry of conscience, in which there was not a little
+truth. He immediately surrounded himself with a guard. In a letter,
+of which he took care to have copies handed about, he announced to
+his mother his resolution to retire to his diocese, and pass the rest
+of his days in preaching the word of God. Nevertheless he did not
+quit the Council, where his weight, however, was somewhat lessened by
+the Duke's death. But he recovered his ground, and finally exercised
+a most important influence on its deliberations. On his return to
+France, he obtained permission to retain his guard, consisting of fifty
+arquebusiers, who never left him, accompanying him to church, when
+he preached or said mass, and even conducting him to the door of the
+King's cabinet. For nearly a year after his return from Italy, however,
+he kept aloof from the capital and from public affairs, dividing his
+time between Rheims and Joinville, but still secretly carrying on his
+complicated intrigues. At last, on the 8th January 1565, he entered
+Paris with a considerable escort, and in a sort of triumph, accompanied
+by his young nephews, the Duke of Guise and the Marquis of Mayenne, and
+by a number of knights, presidents, and gentlemen. Marshal Montmorency
+(son of the Constable), who was now intimate with his cousin Coligny,
+and ill-disposed to the Guises, was Governor of the Isle of France,
+and had published, "on the 13th December, a royal ordinance, which, in
+a spirit of precaution indispensable in those troubled times, forbade
+all princes, nobles, or persons whatsoever, to travel with an armed
+retinue. The Cardinal had a dispensation from the Queen-mother, but he
+either disdained or neglected to present it to Montmorency. The Marshal
+was most probably aware of its existence, but he ignored it, and
+sent word to the Cardinal not to pursue his journey with a forbidden
+escort. The Cardinal, considering this injunction an affront, heeded
+it not, and was close to his journey's end, when he was encountered
+in the streets of Paris, (Rue St Denis), by a body of infantry and
+cavalry of both religions, under the orders of Montmorency and of the
+Prince of Portien, who charged and routed his escort; and he himself
+was compelled to seek safety in the humble dwelling of a rope-maker,
+dragging with him his nephews, of whom the eldest especially, a pistol
+in either hand, refused to quit the combat, unequal as it was, and,
+by recalling his father's memory to the Parisians, already acquired
+personal partisans. A faithful follower, who would have shut the door
+upon them, was mortally wounded by the balls which struck the very
+threshold of the room in which the Princes of Lorraine had taken
+refuge. '_Seigneur, mon Dieu!_' cried the Cardinal, in this imminent
+peril, 'if my hour is come, and the power of darkness, spare at least
+the innocent blood!' Meanwhile the Duke of Aumale, who had entered
+by the gate of the Louvre, created a diversion, which contributed to
+appease the tumult of the Rue St Denis; and under cover of night, the
+prelate, with his nephews and suite, was able to reach his _hotel de
+Cluny_."
+
+It was in 1565 that the consideration of the formidable results
+obtained by the close union of the Protestants, numerically weak,
+suggested to the Cardinal de Lorraine, and a number of Catholic
+nobleman, the idea of a counter-association on a grand scale, (the
+germ of this dated from some years previously), to be composed of
+prelates, gentlemen, magistrates, and of burgesses and other members
+of the third estate, for the purpose of acting with promptitude and
+independence, without awaiting the orders or the uncertain and tardy
+succours of Government. This was the association known in history as
+the League. At the end of the following year the young Duke of Guise,
+who had been campaigning with the Emperor Maximilian against the
+Turks, returned to France, just in time to see the curtain lifted for
+the bloody drama of a new civil war. Already Huguenots and Catholics
+were in mutual observation of each other. The former first assumed the
+offensive. Alarmed by movements of troops, fresh levies, and other
+menacing indications, they laid a plan to carry off Charles IX. then
+at his hunting-seat of Monceaux, near Meaux. Once in their hands, they
+calculated on making the young King the nominal chief of their party.
+But the plot was betrayed, and recoiled upon its advisers by exciting
+against them the implacable hatred of its object. "With even more oaths
+than were necessary," says an old writer, the King exhaled his wrath,
+and vowed vengeance against the Huguenots, from whom, however, he was
+for the moment compelled to fly. Escorted by six thousand Swiss, and by
+such other troops as could hastily be assembled, he took the road to
+Paris, hard pressed for seven hours by Conde and the Admiral. But the
+Protestant squadrons were unable to break the stern array of the Swiss;
+on the second day d'Aumale, with several hundred well-armed gentlemen,
+came out from Paris to swell the royal escort; and Charles entered his
+capital in safety, furious at the rebels, and well-disposed to proceed
+against them to any extremities the Guises might suggest. The anger of
+this family was greatly roused by a trap laid, two days later, for the
+Cardinal of Lorraine, who only escaped by quitting his carriage and
+mounting a fleet horse, (some say that he had even to run a long way on
+foot,) with loss of his plate and equipage.
+
+Shut up in Paris, Charles IX. beheld the Huguenots almost at its
+gates, intercepting supplies and burning the flour-mills. At last,
+d'Andelot and Montgomery having marched towards Poissy, to oppose the
+passage of a Spanish auxiliary corps, Conde and Coligny, with fifteen
+hundred horse and eighteen hundred indifferently equipped infantry,
+without artillery,[30] were attacked by the Constable at the head of
+twelve thousand infantry, three thousand horse, and fourteen guns.
+There ensued the brief but glorious battle of St Denis, in which
+Montmorency was slain, and the Protestants, opposed to five times
+their numbers, held victory in their grasp, when d'Aumale, seeing them
+disordered by success, moved up with a body of picked men, whom he
+had kept in reserve, (as his brother Francis had done at the battle
+of Dreux,) rallied the fugitives, saved the Swiss from total defeat,
+rescued the body of the Constable, and compelled Conde to retreat. The
+laurels of the day, however, were unquestionably for the Huguenots,
+notwithstanding that they abandoned the field; and the next day they
+again offered battle to the royal army, but it was not accepted. Then
+Conde, short of provisions and weakened by the action, retired towards
+Lorraine, and effected his junction with an auxiliary corps of twelve
+thousand men which came to him from Germany. There ensued a short and
+hollow peace, which were better named an imperfectly-observed truce,
+and which did not preclude persecution of the Protestants; and then
+war again broke out, with the Duke of Anjou, (afterwards Henry III.)
+at the head of the royal armies. The first action of this, the third
+civil war, took place in the Perigord, and is known as the combat of
+Mouvans--the name of one of the leaders who was killed. He and another
+Huguenot gentleman were bringing up several thousand men to join the
+Prince of Conde, when they were attacked, and routed with great loss,
+by twelve hundred cavalry under the Duke of Montpensier. In this affair
+the young Duke of Guise greatly distinguished himself, by an impetuous
+and opportune charge on the main body of the enemy's infantry. Next
+came the fatal battle of Jarnac--fatal, that is to say, to the
+Protestants, who lost in it, or rather after it, by a felon-shot, their
+gallant leader Conde. Against overwhelming numbers, his right arm
+broken by a fall, wounded in the leg by the kick of a horse, dismounted
+and unable to stand, that heroic prince, one knee upon the ground,
+still obstinately defended himself. "The Catholics who surrounded him,
+respecting so much courage, ceased to attack, and urged him to give
+up his sword. He had already consented to do so,[31] his quality of
+prisoner ought to have protected him, when Montesquiou, captain of the
+Swiss guard of the Duke of Anjou, came up--with secret orders, it is
+supposed--and sent a pistol-ball through his head. Thus undisguised
+did the fury and hatred engendered by civil discord then exhibit
+themselves. At the close of this same fight, and at no great distance
+from the spot where Conde perished, Robert Stuart was also made
+prisoner; and Honorat de Savoie, Count de Villars, obtained permission,
+by dint of entreaty, to kill him with his own hand, in expiation of
+the blow by which this Scot was accused of having mortally wounded
+the Constable of Montmorency at the battle of St Denis. But even such
+barbarity as this did not suffice, and to it were added cowardly
+outrages and ignoble jests. The dead body of Conde was derisively
+placed upon an ass, and followed the Duke of Anjou upon his triumphant
+entrance into Jarnac, and was there laid upon a stone, at the door of
+the quarters of the King's brother; whilst religious fury scrupled not
+to justify by sarcasm the indignity of such acts."[32]
+
+Greatly discouraged by the reverse of Jarnac, and by the loss of their
+leader, the Protestant party presently had their hopes revived by
+promised succours from Elizabeth of England, and from various German
+princes. Coligny--now the real head of the party, whose titulary chiefs
+were Henry of Bearn and his young cousin Conde--was joined by twelve
+thousand Germans, under Duke Wolfgang of Zweibrucken. On the other
+hand, the Catholic army was weakened by sickness and desertions, by
+the want of discipline amongst the Swiss troops and German _reiters_,
+chiefly composing it, and by discord between its generals. The Guises
+were displeased at being commanded by the Duke of Anjou, who, in spite
+of his extreme youth, had displayed valour, decision, and military
+talents, whose promise was not fulfilled by his ignoble reign as Henry
+III.
+
+The siege of Poitiers cost the Protestant army much time and many
+men. After the most vigorous efforts for its capture, Coligny retired
+from before the town--which had been admirably defended, and owed its
+safety less to a diversion made by the Duke of Anjou, (who menaced
+Chatellerault) than to the great valour and activity of the Duke of
+Guise, recalling, on a smaller scale, the glorious defence of Metz by
+his father. Five breaches had been made in the walls, but the most
+determined assaults were steadily and successfully repulsed. Of the
+garrison, one-third perished, and the loss of the besiegers was very
+heavy. On the 9th September, Guise and his brother Mayenne left the
+town, at the head of fifteen hundred horse, and, after making a report
+of their triumph to the Duke of Anjou, proceeded to Tours, where
+Charles IX. received them with many caresses and flattering words. Four
+days later, the Parliament of Paris proclaimed the ex-Admiral Coligny a
+traitor, condemned him to death, and offered fifty thousand gold crowns
+to whomsoever should deliver him up alive. A few days afterwards the
+same sum was offered for his head; and the Guises had the proclamation
+translated into seven languages, and circulated throughout Europe.
+Then came the bloody battle of Moncontour, where eighteen thousand
+men under Coligny were beaten, with very heavy loss, by the Duke of
+Anjou's army of twenty-five thousand. It began with a long cannonade,
+quickly succeeded by a combat at close quarters, in which even the
+generals-in-chief were personally engaged. "The Duke of Anjou had
+his horse killed under him, but was rescued by d'Aumale; Coligny was
+wounded in the face, and lost four teeth; Guise was badly hurt by
+a ball in the foot: Mayenne distinguished himself at his brother's
+side." After an hour's deadly struggle, the Huguenots were beaten at
+all points. There was a terrible massacre of them; three thousand
+prisoners were made, and five hundred German horse passed over to the
+conquerors. This was a grievous blow for the Protestant party. Coligny,
+however, and the princes, shut themselves up in La Rochelle, and had
+leisure to look around them and organise their remaining forces, whilst
+the Duke of Anjou wasted his time in the siege of some unimportant
+places, and the Duke of Guise was laid up with his wound, which was
+long of healing. The state of the kingdom of France, exhausted by
+these repeated wars, was deplorable. Coligny, bold and active, made
+long marches southwards, collecting reinforcements and supplies, and
+finally reaching Burgundy, and getting the advantage in an encounter
+with the King's army, under Marshal de Cosse, at Arnay le Duc. In
+short, he had the road open to Paris. These considerations made Charles
+IX. anxious for peace; which, after some negotiation, was concluded
+at St Germain-en-Laye, in August 1570, on terms so favourable to the
+Huguenots--who, says Montluc, in his _Commentaries_, always had the
+best of it when it came to those _diables d'escritures_--that Pope Pius
+V. wrote to the Cardinal de Lorraine to express his violent disapproval.
+
+As had more than once already been the case, the return of peace was
+quickly followed by the marked diminution of the influence of the
+house of Guise. The Duke of Anjou cherished an instinctive hatred and
+jealousy of Henry of Lorraine; whilst the Cardinal had incurred the
+displeasure of the Queen-mother, who, as well as Charles IX., had
+previously been greatly angered by the presumption of the Duke of
+Guise in aspiring to the hand of her daughter Margaret. At one time,
+so furiously chafed was the King's naturally violent temper by the
+pretensions of the Guise party--against whom his brother Anjou lost
+no opportunity of irritating him--that he actually resolved on the
+immediate death of the young Duke of Guise, who only escaped through
+the timidity and indecision of Henry of Angouleme, the King's bastard
+brother--commissioned to make an end of him at a hunting party--and
+through warnings given him, it is said, by Margaret herself. The
+Montmorencys, cousins of the Colignys, seemed to have succeeded to the
+influence the Guises had lost: the Marshal and his brother d'Anville
+governed the Queen-mother; and so fierce was the animosity between the
+rival families, that Guise and Meru, brother of Marshal Montmorency,
+openly quarrelled in the King's Chamber, and, on leaving the palace,
+exchanged a challenge, whose consequences persons sent expressly by
+Charles IX. had great difficulty in averting. In short, during the year
+1571, "no more was heard of the Cardinal of Lorraine than if he had
+been dead; nor was anything known about the Guises, except that they
+had celebrated at Joinville the birth of a son to the Duke," who had
+married, in the previous year, Catherine of Cleves, widow of the Prince
+de Portien.
+
+The apparent favour of the Admiral de Coligny, the return to Paris
+of the Guises, the seeming fusion of the two great parties that
+had so long distracted France, were preludes to the massacre of St
+Bartholomew. In narrating the strange and important events that
+crowded the year 1572, M. de Bouille lays bare the vile qualities of
+Charles IX., his cold-blooded cruelty, his odious treachery, and the
+powers of profound dissimulation he had inherited from his mother.
+One anecdote, extracted from Fornier's MS. History of the House of
+Guise, is extremely characteristic. The King, whilst loading Coligny
+with marks of confidence and favour, hinted darkly to the Guises the
+existence of some sinister plot, urging them to take patience, because,
+as he said to the Duke d'Aumale, _bientot il verroit quelque bon jeu_.
+It happened one day that "the King was alone in his chamber with Henry
+of Lorraine, both gaily disposed; the latter had seized a headless
+pike, used to shut the upper shutters of the window, and was amusing
+Charles IX. by the extraordinary dexterity with which he wielded this
+weapon, when Coligny unexpectedly entered. The King felt that the
+abrupt interruption of their play, on his appearance, might excite
+the Admiral's suspicions. Suddenly, therefore, he feigned violent
+displeasure; accused the Duke of having insolently waved the pole
+close to his face, and, seizing a boar-spear that stood by his bed,
+pursued Guise, who, as if the better to escape, ran, it is said, into
+the apartments of Margaret de Valois. Charles snatched the Admiral's
+sword to pursue the fugitive; and Coligny, deceived by this well-acted
+anger, interceded to obtain the pardon of the heedless young Prince of
+Lorraine."
+
+There is no particular novelty in M. de Bouille's account of the
+massacre of St Bartholomew. We cannot compliment him on the guarded
+manner in which he condemns his hero for his participation in that
+monster murder--an episode that would have sufficed to brand with
+eternal infamy a far greater and better man than Henry of Lorraine.
+Compelled to admit that the whole direction and combination of the
+massacre was intrusted to, and joyfully undertaken by, the Duke of
+Guise--that he was privy to and approving of Maurevel's previous
+attempt to assassinate Coligny, and that he afterwards stood under
+the Admiral's window whilst the Wurtemburger Besme, and others of
+his creatures, stabbed the wounded Protestant as he rose defenceless
+from his couch--M. de Bouille informs us that, on quitting the place
+of his enemy's murder, whilst the most barbarous scenes were on all
+sides enacting--the consequence of the completeness and skill of his
+own preparations--Guise was _seized with compassion_, and had "the
+good thought to save many innocent victims, women, children, and even
+men," by sheltering them in his hotel. On the other hand, "those whom
+the Prince considered as factious, or as adherents of such--in a word,
+his political adversaries rather than heretics--found little pity at
+his hands." And he was proceeding "to carry death into the faubourg St
+Germain, and to seek there Montgomery, the Vidame de Chartres, and a
+hundred Protestant gentlemen whom prudence had prevented from lodging
+near the Admiral." The compassionate intentions of Guise towards these
+five score Huguenots and "political adversaries," could be so little
+doubtful, that it was certainly most fortunate for them that a friend
+swam the Seine and gave them warning, whilst a mistake about keys
+delayed the Duke's passage through the gate of Bussy. They escaped,
+pursued to some distance from Paris by Guise and his escort. On his
+return, the massacre was at its height. "Less pitiless than any of the
+other Catholic chiefs, he had opened in his own dwelling an asylum
+to more than a hundred Protestant gentlemen, _of whom he thought he
+should be able afterwards to make partisans_." His compassion, then,
+had not the merit of disinterestedness. Similar selfish considerations
+induced others of the assassins to rescue others of the doomed. It will
+be remembered, that Ambrose Pare found shelter and protection in the
+palace, from whose windows Charles IX., arquebuse in hand, is said to
+have amused himself by picking off the wretched Protestants, as they
+scudded through the streets with the blood-hounds at their heels. But
+all the skill of the Huguenot leech was insufficient, a few months
+later, to preserve that perfidious and cruel monarch from a death whose
+strange and horrible character was considered by many to be a token of
+God's displeasure at the oceans of blood he had so inhumanly caused
+to flow. Charles IX. was preceded and followed to the grave, at short
+intervals, by an active sharer in the massacre, the Duke of Aumale,
+and by one of its most vehement instigators and approvers, Charles,
+Cardinal of Lorraine, both uncles of the Duke, and notable members of
+the house of Guise. The change of religion of Henry of Navarre and of
+the young Prince of Conde, the siege of Rochelle, the conclusion of
+peace with the Protestants, and the accession of Henry III. to the
+throne of France, are the other important events that bring us to the
+end of the second volume of M. de Bouille's interesting history.
+
+
+
+
+A WILD-FLOWER GARLAND. BY DELTA.
+
+
+THE DAISY.
+
+                                   I.
+
+    The Daisy blossoms on the rocks,
+      Amid the purple heath;
+    It blossoms on the river's banks,
+      That thrids the glens beneath:
+    The eagle, at his pride of place,
+      Beholds it by his nest;
+    And, in the mead, it cushions soft
+      The lark's descending breast.
+
+                                  II.
+
+    Before the cuckoo, earliest spring
+      Its silver circlet knows,
+    When greening buds begin to swell,
+      And zephyr melts the snows;
+    And, when December's breezes howl
+      Along the moorlands bare,
+    And only blooms the Christmas rose,
+      The Daisy still is there!
+
+                                  III.
+
+    Samaritan of flowers! to it
+      All races are alike,
+    The Switzer on his glacier height,--
+      The Dutchman by his dyke,--
+    The seal-skin vested Esquimaux,
+      Begirt with icy seas,--
+    And, underneath his burning noon,
+      The parasol'd Chinese.
+
+                                  IV.
+
+    The emigrant on distant shore,
+      Mid scenes and faces strange,
+    Beholds it flowering in the sward,
+      Where'er his footsteps range;
+    And when his yearning, home-sick heart
+      Would bow to its despair,
+    It reads his eye a lesson sage--
+      That God is everywhere!
+
+                                   V.
+
+    Stars are the Daisies that begem
+      The blue fields of the sky,
+    Beheld by all, and everywhere,
+      Bright prototypes on high:--
+    Bloom on, then, unpretending flowers!
+      And to the waverer be
+    An emblem of St Paul's content,
+      St Stephen's constancy.
+
+
+THE WHITE ROSE.
+
+                                   I.
+
+    Rose of the desert! thou art to me
+    An emblem of stainless purity,--
+    Of those who, keeping their garments white,
+    Walk on through life with steps aright.
+
+                                  II.
+
+    Thy fragrance breathes of the fields above,
+    Whose soil and air are faith and love;
+    And where, by the murmur of silver springs,
+    The Cherubim fold their snow-white wings;--
+
+                                  III.
+
+    Where those who were severed re-meet in joy,
+    Which death can never more destroy;
+    Where scenes without, and where souls within,
+    Are blanched from taint and touch of sin;--
+
+                                  IV.
+
+    Where speech is music, and breath is balm;
+    And broods an everlasting calm;
+    And flowers wither not, as in worlds like this;
+    And hope is swallowed in perfect bliss;--
+
+                                   V.
+
+    Where all is peaceful, for all is pure;
+    And all is lovely; and all endure;
+    And day is endless, and ever bright;
+    And no more sea is, and no more night;--
+
+                                  VI.
+
+    Where round the throne, in hues like thine,
+    The raiments of the ransom'd shine;
+    And o'er each brow a halo glows
+    Of glory, like the pure White Rose!
+
+
+THE SWEET BRIAR.
+
+                                   I.
+
+            The Sweet Briar flowering,
+            With boughs embowering,
+    Beside the willow-tufted stream,
+            In its soft, red bloom,
+            And its wild perfume,
+    Brings back the past like a sunny dream!
+
+                                  II.
+
+            Methinks, in childhood,
+            Beside the wildwood
+    I lie, and listen the blackbird's song,
+            Mid the evening calm,
+            As the Sweet Briar's balm
+    On the gentle west wind breathes along--
+
+                                  III.
+
+            To speak of meadows,
+            And palm-tree shadows,
+    And bee-hive cones, and a thymy hill,
+            And greenwood mazes,
+            And greensward daisies,
+    And a foamy stream, and a clacking mill.
+
+                                  IV.
+
+            Still the heart rejoices,
+            At the happy voices
+    Of children, singing amid their play;
+            While swallows twittering,
+            And waters glittering,
+    Make earth an Eden at close of day.
+
+                                   V.
+
+            In sequestered places,
+            Departed faces,
+    Return and smile as of yore they smiled;
+            When, with trifles blest,
+            Each buoyant breast
+    Held the trusting heart of a little child.
+
+                                  VI.
+
+            The future never
+            Again can ever
+    The perished gifts of the past restore,
+            Nor, to thee or me,
+            Can the wild flowers be
+    What the Briar was then--oh never more!
+
+
+THE WALL-FLOWER.
+
+                                   I.
+
+    The Wall-flower--the Wall-flower,
+      How beautiful it blooms!
+    It gleams above the ruined tower,
+      Like sunlight over tombs;
+    It sheds a halo of repose
+      Around the wrecks of time.
+    To beauty give the flaunting rose,
+      The Wall-flower is sublime.
+
+                                  II.
+
+    Flower of the solitary place!
+      Gray ruin's golden crown,
+    That lendest melancholy grace
+      To haunts of old renown;
+    Thou mantlest o'er the battlement,
+      By strife or storm decayed;
+    And fillest up each envious rent
+      Time's canker-tooth hath made.
+
+                                  III.
+
+    Thy roots outspread the ramparts o'er,
+      Where, in war's stormy day,
+    Percy or Douglas ranged of yore
+      Their ranks in grim array;
+    The clangour of the field is fled,
+      The beacon on the hill
+    No more through midnight blazes red,
+      But thou art blooming still!
+
+                                  IV.
+
+    Whither hath fled the choral band
+      That filled the Abbey's nave?
+    Yon dark sepulchral yew-trees stand
+      O'er many a level grave.
+    In the belfry's crevices, the dove
+      Her young brood nurseth well,
+    While thou, lone flower! dost shed above
+      A sweet decaying smell.
+
+                                   V.
+
+    In the season of the tulip-cup
+      When blossoms clothe the trees,
+    How sweet to throw the lattice up,
+      And scent thee on the breeze;
+    The butterfly is then abroad,
+      The bee is on the wing,
+    And on the hawthorn by the road
+      The linnets sit and sing.
+
+                                  VI.
+
+    Sweet Wall-flower--sweet Wall-flower!
+      Thou conjurest up to me,
+    Full many a soft and sunny hour
+      Of boyhood's thoughtless glee;
+    When joy from out the daisies grew,
+      In woodland pastures green,
+    And summer skies were far more blue,
+      Than since they e'er have been.
+
+                                  VII.
+
+    Now autumn's pensive voice is heard
+      Amid the yellow bowers,
+    The robin is the regal bird,
+      And thou the queen of flowers!
+    He sings on the laburnum trees,
+      Amid the twilight dim,
+    And Araby ne'er gave the breeze
+      Such scents, as thou to him.
+
+                                 VIII.
+
+    Rich is the pink, the lily gay,
+      The rose is summer's guest;
+    Bland are thy charms when these decay,
+      Of flowers--first, last, and best!
+    There may be gaudier on the bower,
+      And statelier on the tree,
+    But Wall-flower--loved Wall-flower,
+      Thou art the flower for me!
+
+
+
+
+THE MASQUERADE OF FREEDOM.
+
+
+                                   I.
+
+    When Freedom first appeared beneath,
+        Right simple was the garb she wore:
+    Her brows were circled with a wreath
+        Such as the Grecian victors bore:
+    Her vesture all of spotless white,
+        Her aspect stately and serene;
+    And so she moved in all men's sight
+        As lovely as a Maiden Queen.
+
+                                  II.
+
+    And queenlike, long she ruled the throng,
+        As ancient records truly tell;
+    Their strength she took not from the strong,
+        But taught them how to use it well.
+    Her presence graced the peasant's floor
+        As freely as the noble's hall:
+    And aye the humbler was the door,
+        The still more welcome was her call.
+
+                                  III.
+
+    But simple manners rarely range
+        Beyond the simpler ages' ken:
+    And e'en the Virtues sometimes change
+        Their vesture and their looks, like men.
+    Pride, noble once, grows close and vain,
+        And Honour stoops to vulgar things,
+    And old Obedience slacks the rein,
+        And murmurs at the rule of kings.
+
+                                  IV.
+
+    So Freedom, like her sisters too,
+        Has felt the impulse of the time,
+    Has changed her garments' blameless hue,
+        And donn'd the colours dear to crime
+    First in a Phrygian cap she stalked,
+        And bore within her grasp the spear;
+    And ever, when abroad she walk'd,
+        Men knew Revenge was following near.
+
+                                   V.
+
+    She moves again--The death-drums roll,
+        The frantic mobs their chorus raise,
+    The thunder of the Carmagnole--
+        The war-chant of the Marseillaise'
+    Red run the streets with blameless blood--
+        The guillotine comes clanking down--
+    And Freedom, in her drunken mood,
+        Can witness all without a frown.
+
+                                  VI.
+
+    Times change again: and Freedom now,
+        Though scarcely yet less wild and frantic,
+    Appears, before men's eyes below,
+        In guises more intensely antic.
+    No single kind of garb she wears,
+        As o'er the earth she goes crusading;
+    But shifts her habit and her airs
+        Like Joe Grimaldi masquerading.
+
+                                  VII.
+
+    Through Paris you may see her tread,
+        The cynosure of all beholders;
+    A _bonnet rouge_ upon her head,
+        A ragged blouse upon her shoulders.
+    More decent now than once she was,
+        Though equally opposed to riches,
+    She still upholds the good old cause,
+        Yet condescends to wear the breeches.
+
+                                 VIII.
+
+    The Huns behold her as of yore,
+        With grisly beard and monstrous swagger;
+    The swart Italian bows before
+        The Goddess with the mask and dagger.
+    The German, as his patriot thirst
+        With beer Bavarian he assuages,
+    Surveys her image, as at first
+        'Twas pictured in the Middle Ages.
+
+                                  IX.
+
+    Her glorious form appears to him
+        In all its pristine pomp and glitter,
+    Equipped complete from head to heel,
+        In semblance of a stalwart Ritter.
+    With doublet slash, and fierce moustache,
+        And wrinkled boots of russet leather,
+    And hose and belt, with hat of felt
+        Surmounted by a capon's feather.
+
+                                   X.
+
+    Mysterious as Egyptian Sphinx,
+        A perfect riddle--who can solve her?
+    One while she comes with blazing links,
+        The next, she's armed with a revolver.
+    Across the main, whene'er the shoe
+        Upon her radiant instep pinches,
+    To-day, she'll tar and feather you;
+        To-morrow, and she merely Lynches.
+
+                                  XI.
+
+    While thus abroad, in varied guise,
+        We see the fair enchantress flitting,
+    She deigns to greet in other wise
+        Her latest satellites in Britain.
+    Sometimes, in black dissenting cloth,
+        She figures like an undertaker;
+    And sometimes plunges, nothing loath,
+        Into the garments of a Quaker.
+
+                                  XII.
+
+    You'll find her recommending pikes
+        At many a crowded Chartist meeting,
+    Where gentlemen, like William Sykes,
+        To exiled patriots vote their greeting.
+    You'll find her also with her friends,
+        Engaged upon a bloody errand,
+    When, stead of arguments, she sends
+        Her bludgeoneers to silence Ferrand.
+
+                                 XIII.
+
+    You'll find her too, at different dates,
+        With men of peace on platforms many,
+    Denouncing loans to foreign states
+        Whereof they could not raise a penny.
+    In short, to end the catalogue,
+        There's hardly any son of Edom
+    Who, in his character of rogue,
+        Won't tell you that he worships Freedom.
+
+                                  XIV.
+
+    Yet hold--one sample more--the last,
+        Ere of this theme we make a clearance;
+    One little month is barely past
+        Since London saw her grand appearance,
+    In one of those enormous hats,
+        Short leggings and peculiar jerkins,
+    Which men assume who tend the vats
+        Of Barclay and his partner Perkins.
+
+                                  XV.
+
+    To that great factory of beer,
+        Unconscious wholly of his danger,
+    Nor dreaming that a foe was near,
+        There came, one day, an aged stranger.
+    He was a soldier, and had fought
+        In other lands 'gainst revolution;
+    And done his utmost--so he thought--
+        To save his country's constitution.
+
+                                  XVI.
+
+    But saving states, like other things
+        Is not in highest vogue at present;
+    And those who stand by laws and kings
+        Must look for recompense unpleasant.
+    Fair Freedom, brooding o'er the drink
+        That makes the Briton strong and hearty,
+    Began to sneeze upon the brink
+        As though she scented Bonaparte.
+
+                                 XVII.
+
+    "Ah, ha!" she cried, and cried again--
+        At every word her voice grew louder--
+    "I smell an Austrian or a Dane,
+        I smell a minion of gunpowder!
+    Some servant of a kingly race
+        My independent nostril vexes!
+    Say--shall he dare to show his face,
+        Within this hall of triple X's?
+
+                                 XVIII.
+
+    "'Tis true--he is unarmed, alone,
+        A stranger, weak, and old, and hoary--
+    Yet--on, my children! heave the stone!
+        The less the risk, the more the glory!"
+    She ceased: and round the startled man,
+        As round the Indian crowds the cayman,
+    From vat, and vault, and desk, and van,
+        Thronged brewer, maltster, clerk, and drayman.
+
+                                  XIX.
+
+    "A precious lark!" the foremost cried;
+        "Come--twig him, Tom! come--pin him, Roger!"
+    "Who is it?" Then a sage replied--
+        "He's some infernal foreign sodger!
+    He looks as how he'd scored ere now
+        Some shoulders black and blue with lashes
+    So pitch him here into the beer--
+        And, lads--we'll pull off his moustaches!"
+
+                                  XX.
+
+    They did--what brutal natures scorn.
+        What savages would shrink to do--
+    What none but basest cowards born,
+        And the most abject and most few,
+    Would offer to an old man's head!
+        O shame--O shame to Englishmen!
+    If the old spirit be not dead,
+        'Tis time it showed itself again!
+
+                                  XXI.
+
+    What! in this land which shelter gave
+        To all, whatever their degree,
+    Or were they faint, or were they brave,
+        Or were they slaves, or were they free--
+    In this Asylum of the Earth--
+        The noblest name it ever won--
+    Shall deeds like these pollute our hearth,
+        Shall open shame like this be done?
+
+                                 XXII.
+
+    O most ignoble end of all
+        Our boasted order and renown!
+    The robber in the tribune's hall--
+        The maltster in the Judge's gown!
+    The hospitable roof profaned;
+        Old age by ruffian force opprest,
+    And English hands most vilely stained
+        With blood of an unconscious guest!
+
+                                 XXIII.
+
+    O Freedom! if thou wouldst maintain
+        Thy empire on the British shore,
+    Wash from thy robes that coward stain,
+        Resume thy ancient garb once more.
+    In virgin whiteness walk abroad,
+        Maintain thy might from sea to sea,
+    And, as the dearest gift of God,
+        So men shall live and die for thee!
+
+
+
+
+Dies Boreales.
+
+No. VIII.
+
+
+CHRISTOPHER UNDER CANVASS.
+
+_Camp at Cladich._
+
+SCENE--_The Wren's Nest._
+
+TIME--_Evening._
+
+NORTH--TALBOYS--SEWARD--BULLER.
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+Have you dined?
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+That we have, sir.
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+With me this has been Fast-day.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+We saw it was, at our breakfast. Your abstinence at that meal, and
+at luncheon, we knew from the composure of your features, and your
+benignant silence, was not from any disorder of material organisation,
+but from steady moral resolve; so his absence from the Dinner-Table
+gave us no uneasiness about Numa.
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+No Nymph has been with him in the Grot.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+His Good Genius is always with him in Solitude. The form we observed
+stealing--no, not stealing--gliding away--was, I verily believe, but
+the Lady of the Wood.
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+The Glen, you know, is haunted; and sometimes when the green umbrage is
+beginning to look grey in the still evening, I have more than a glimpse
+of the Faery Queen.
+
+                                SEWARD.
+
+Perhaps we intrude on your dreams. Let us retire.
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+Take your seats. What Book is that, beneath your arm, Talboys?
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+The Volume you bid me bring with me this Evening to the Wren's Nest.
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+Yes, yes--now I remember. You are here by appointment.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+Else had we not been here. We had not merely your permission, sir--but
+your invitation.
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+I was expecting you--and by hands unseen this our Round Table has
+been spread for my guests. Pretty coffee-cups, are they not? Ask no
+questions--there they are--but handle them gently--for the porcelain is
+delicate--and at rude touch will disappear from your fingers. A Book.
+Ay, ay--a Quarto--and by a writer of deserved Fame.
+
+                                SEWARD.
+
+We are dissatisfied with it, sir. Dugald Stewart is hard on the POET,
+and we desire to hear a vindication from our Master's lips.
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+Master! We are all pupils Of THE POET. He is the Master of us all.
+Talboys, read out--and begin at the beginning.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+"In entering on this subject, it is proper to observe, that the
+word POET is not here used in that restricted sense in which it is
+commonly employed; but in its original acceptation of Maker, or
+Creator. In plainer language, it is used to comprehend all those who
+devote themselves to the culture of the Arts which are addressed to
+the Imagination; and in whose minds it may be presumed Imagination
+has acquired a more than ordinary sway over the other powers of the
+Understanding. By using the word in such a latitude, we shall be
+enabled to generalise the observations which might otherwise seem
+applicable merely to the different classes of versifiers."
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+That Mr. Stewart should, as a Philosopher, mark the liberal and
+magnanimous, and metaphysical large acceptation of the Name is right
+and good. But look at his Note.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+"For this latitude in the use of the word POET, I may plead the example
+of Bacon and d'Alembert, the former of whom (_De Aug. Scient._,
+lib. xi. cap. 1) comprehends under Poetry all fables or fictitious
+histories, whether in prose or verse; while the latter includes in
+it painting, sculpture, architecture, music, and their different
+divisions."
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+"I may plead the example" appears to me a somewhat pompous expression
+to signify that you have (very properly) adopted one doctrine of one
+of the wisest, and another of one of the ablest of men. But he does
+not seem to know that d'Alembert might have "pleaded the example"
+of Aristotle in "including painting, sculpture," &c. "Poetry," says
+the Stagyrite, "consists in imitation, and the imitation may be by
+pictures, sculpture, and the like." It is (R)mimesis(R)--and it is Man's
+nature to rejoice in imitation--(R)chairein tois mimemasin(R). But a
+singular and illustrative trait in Mr Stewart's treatment of the
+subject is, that though he thus, at the outset, enlarges the Poet into
+the Painter, the Sculptor, &c., yet throughout the whole composition,
+(I know not if an incidental word may anywhere occur as an exception,)
+every point of the argument regards the Poet in words and verse! In
+what frame of understanding could--did he put this Head to these
+fragments of limbs?
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+In the name of the Prophet--FIGS!
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+I am more than half disposed to hint an objection to the use of the
+words "sway over the other powers." We should have said--and we do
+say, "predominance amongst the other powers." I see in "sway" two
+meanings: first, a right meaning, or truth, not well expressed; to
+wit, in thinking poetically--for his art, whatever it may be--or out
+of his art--the Poet's other faculties minister to his Imagination.
+She reigns. They _conform_ their operations to hers. This manner of
+intellectual action happens in all men, more or less, oftener or
+seldomer; in the Poet--of what Art soever--upon each occasion, with
+much more decision and eminence, and more habitually. But secondly,
+a wrong meaning, or error, is better expressed by the word "sway,"
+to wit, that Imagination in the Poet _illegitimately overbears_ the
+other intellectual powers, as judgment, attention, reflection, memory,
+prudence. Now, you may say that every power that is given in great
+strength, _tends_ to overbear unduly the other powers. The syllogistic
+faculty does--the faculty of observation does--memory does--and so a
+power _unbalanced_ may appear as a weakness--as wealth ruins a fool.
+But in the just dispensation of nature every power is a power, and
+to the mind which she constitutes for greatness she gives _balanced_
+powers. Giving one in large measure--say Imagination--she gives as
+large the directly antagonistic power--say the Intellective, the
+Logical; or she balances by a mass of powers. I suspect that the undue
+over-swaying was in Stewart's mind, and has probably distorted his
+language. I know that Genius is the combination of ten faculties.
+
+                                SEWARD.
+
+Our expectations were raised to a high pitch by such grandiloquent
+announcement: and we have found in the Essay--which is unscientific
+in form--has no method--makes no progress--and is throughout a
+jumble,--not one bold or original thought.
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+Too much occupied with exposure of vulgar errors--and instances beneath
+the matter in hand. Great part too--_extra thesin_.
+
+                                SEWARD.
+
+You expect great things from the title--the Idea of the POET. You then
+see that Mr Stewart after all does not intend this, but only certain
+influences, moral and intellectual, of characteristic pursuits. This,
+if rightly and fully done, would have _involved_ the Idea--and so a
+portraiture indirect and incidental--still the features and their
+proportion. Instead of the Idea, you find--
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+I don't know what.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+The reader is made unhappy, first, by defect, or the absence of
+principal features--then by degradation, or the low contemplation--and
+by the general tenor.
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+Why, perhaps, you had better return the Quarto to its shelf in the
+Van. Yet 'twould be a pity, too, to do so. I am for always keeping
+our engagements; and as we agreed to have a talk about the Section
+this evening, let us have a talk. Read away, Talboys--at the very next
+Paragraph.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+"The culture of Imagination does not diminish our interest in human
+life, but is extremely apt to inspire the mind with false conceptions
+of it. As this faculty derives its chief gratification from picturing
+to itself things more perfect than what exist, it has a tendency to
+exalt our expectations above the level of our present condition,
+and frequently produces a youth of enthusiastic hopes, while it
+stores up disappointment and disgust for maturer years. In general,
+it is the characteristic of a poetical mind to be sanguine in its
+prospects of futurity--a disposition extremely useful when seconded by
+great activity and industry, but which, when accompanied, as it too
+frequently is, with indolence, and with an overweening self-conceit, is
+the source of numberless misfortunes."
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+Why, all this is--
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+Stop. Read on, Talboys.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+"A thoughtlessness and imprudence with respect to the future, and a
+general imprudence in the conduct of life, has been often laid to the
+charge of Poets. Horace represents them as too much engrossed and
+intoxicated with their favourite pursuits to think of anything else--
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+Leave out the quotation from old Flaccus--and go on.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+"This carelessness about the goods of fortune is an infirmity very
+naturally resulting from their studies, and is only to be cured by
+years and experience; or by a combination--very rare, indeed--of
+poetical genius with a more than ordinary share of that homely
+endowment COMMON SENSE."
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+Speak louder--yet that might not be easy. I feel the want of an
+ear-trumpet, for you do drop your voice so at the end of sentences.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+"A few exceptions"--
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+Stentor's alive again--oh! that I were head over ears in a bale of
+cotton.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+"A few exceptions to these observations may undoubtedly be found, but
+they are so very few, as, by their singularity, to confirm rather than
+weaken the general fact. In proof of this, we need only appeal to the
+sad details recorded by Dr Johnson in his Lives of the Poets."
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+Skip--skip--skip--
+
+                                SEWARD.
+
+Skip--skip--skip--
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+May I, sir?
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+You may.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+"Considered in its moral effects on the mind, one of the most
+unfortunate consequences to be apprehended from the cultivation of a
+poetical talent, is its tendency, by cherishing a puerile and irritable
+vanity, to weaken the force, and to impair the independence of
+character. Whoever limits his exertions to the gratification of others,
+whether by personal exhibition, as in the case of the actor and mimic,
+or by those kinds of literary composition which are calculated for no
+end but to please or to entertain, renders himself, in some measure,
+dependent on their caprices and humours."
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+Skip--skip--skip--
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+"In all the other departments of literature besides, to please is
+only a secondary object. It is the primary one of poetry. Hence that
+timidity of temper, and restless and unmanly desire of praise, and that
+dependence on the capricious applause of the multitude, which so often
+detract from the personal dignity of those whose productions do honour
+to human nature."
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+I don't quite understand what Mr Stewart means here by "the _culture_
+of Imagination." I see three senses of the word. First, the cultivation
+by the study of written Poetry and the poetical arts, and of the poetry
+poured through the Universe--to those minds which receive without
+producing--a legitimate process. Secondly, the cultivation as in Edwin,
+Beattie's young Minstrel, the destined and self-destining Poet--a
+legitimate process. And thirdly, the self-indulgence of a mind which,
+more sensitive than volitive, more imaginative than intellectual, more
+wilful than lawful, more self-loving than others-loving--turns life
+into a long reverie--an illegitimate process. Which of these three
+classes of minds does Stewart speak of? Strong native imagination in
+a young powerful enthusiastic mind, tutored by poetical studies, but
+whom the Muse has _not_ selected to the services of her shrine? Or the
+faculty as in the Poet-born self-tutored, and now rushing into his own
+predestined work? Or the soft-souled and indolent _faineant_ Dreamer
+of life? Three totally distinct subjects for the contemplation of the
+Philosopher, but that here seem to hover confusedly and at once before
+our Philosopher.
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+By his chosen title of the Section, THE POET, he was bound to speak of
+him according to Bacon, d'Alembert, and Aristotle.
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+The word _culture_ must, I think, here specifically touch the First
+Case. Shall we then be afraid of giving a share, and a large share
+too, to the reading of the Poets, and the regard of the Fine Arts, in
+a liberal Education? Poetry, History, Science, are the three strands
+of the cable by which the vessel shall ride--Religion being the
+sheet-anchor.
+
+                                SEWARD.
+
+Perhaps it is meant to touch the Second Case too?
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+It may be meant to do so, but it does not. The word "culture"
+is dictated by or is proper to the First Case--for culture is
+deliberate and elective. But in him--the young Poet--the Edwin--in
+whom imagination is given in the measure assigned by the Muse to her
+children, the culture proceeds undeliberate and unwilled. Edwin,
+when he roves "beneath the precipice o'erhung with pine," or sitting
+to watch the "wide-weltering waves," or is seized from the hint of
+ballad or tale, or any chance word, with dreams and visions of the
+more illustrious Past--follows a delight and desire that have the
+nature and may have the name of a passion. All this is involuntary to
+the unforeseen result--but afterwards, when he has accepted his art
+for a vocation, he more than any man deliberately cultivates. Has the
+Philosopher, then, in mind only the third class, and do the dangers
+of "the culture of imagination" apply to them only--"the indolent
+_faineant_ dreamers of life?" If so, he not only forgets and loses his
+subject, as announced by himself, but wastes words on one altogether
+below it. "False conceptions of human life!" Here is an equivocation
+which must be set right. "Conceptions of human life" are here meant to
+apply to expectations of the honesty, gratitude, virtue of the persons
+_in general_ with whom you or I shall come in contact in life. Good.
+The contemplation of human beings--men and women--_ideally_ drawn by
+the Poet lifts me too high--tinges hope in me with enthusiasm, and
+prepares disappointment. So it has been often said, and said truly.
+This is conception prospective and personal; and more philosophically
+termed Expectation. But then "conception of human life"--from the lip
+of a philosopher should mean rather "intelligence of man's life." Now
+I repeat that only through the Poet have you true intelligence of
+man's life--either external or internal. In the Actual the Poet sees
+the Idea--just as a Painter does in respect of the visible man. In the
+man set before him He sees two men--the man that is and the man of
+whom at his nativity was given the possibility to be. He reads cause
+and effect; and sees what has hindered the possible from being. Who,
+excepting the Poet, does this? And excepting this, what intelligence of
+man is an intelligence?
+
+                                SEWARD.
+
+There are two world-Wisdoms. One, to know men, as for the most part
+they will show themselves--commonly called Knowledge of the World: one,
+to know them as God made them. I forget what it is called. Possibly it
+has no name.
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+Observe, my dear Seward, the precise error of that expectation.
+It is to believe the good more prevalent than it is. It is no
+misunderstanding as to the constitution of the good. The good is;
+and the important point of all is to know it, when you meet it. To
+be cheated, by not apprehending the ill of a man, is a wound to your
+purse, and when you at last apprehend, to your heart. To be cheated
+by not apprehending the good of man is--_death_, which you bear in
+yourself, and know it not.
+
+                                SEWARD.
+
+What is desired? Is it that we should go into the world with hope not a
+whit wider and higher than the dimensions of the reality that we are to
+encounter? I trow not.
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+Your hope will elect your own destiny--will shape it--will be it. There
+are possibilities given of the nobler happinesses, as well as of the
+nobler services; and your hope, faithful to itself, will reach and
+grasp them. And only to such hope are they given. Moreover, in all men
+there is under the mask of evil which the world has shaped on them,
+the power inextinct which the Creator sowed there; and they may, if
+they dare to believe in it, and know to call to it, bring it out with a
+burst. But belief is the main ingredient of the spell, and hope is the
+mother of belief.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+The Poet has glorious apprehensions of human existence--visions of
+men--visions of men's actions--visions of men's destinies. He pitches
+his theory of the human world above reality--and _that_ he shall, in
+due season or before it, learn--to his great loss and to his great
+gain. In the meanwhile do not speak of the temper in him, as if you
+would upbraid him with it. Do not lay to his charge the splendour of
+his powers and aspirations. Do not chide and rate him for his virtues.
+
+                                SEWARD.
+
+"False conceptions!" a term essentially of depreciation and reproach.
+They are not false, they are true. For they are faithful to the
+vocation that lies upon the human beings; but they, the human beings,
+are false, and their lives are false; falling short of those true
+conceptions.
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+Well. He--the Poet--comes to the encounter. It is the trial set for
+him by his stars--as it is the trial set for all great spirits. He
+finds those who disappoint him, and those who do not. But, grant the
+disappointment, rather. What shall he do? That which all great spirits
+do--transfer the grandeur of his hopes, over which fate, fortune, and
+the winds of heaven ruled, to his own purposes of which he is master.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+Why did not Mr Stewart say simply that the Poet--and the young
+enthusiast of Poetry--thinks better of his fellows than they deserve,
+and brings a faith to them which they will take good care to
+disappoint? Why harp thus on the jarring string; torturing our ears,
+and putting our souls out of tune?
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+Who doubts--who does not know, and admire, and love Hope--in the
+ardent generous spirit--looking out from within the Eden of Youth into
+the world into which it shall, alas! fall? What is asked? That the
+spring-flowering of youth shall be prematurely blighted and blasted by
+winds frosty or fiery, which the set fruit may bear? Of course we hope
+beyond the reality, and it is God's gift that we do.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+And why lay that Imagination which looks into Life with unmeasured
+ideas to the charge of the Poet alone? Herein every man is a Poet,
+more or less; and, most, every spirit of power--the hero, the saint,
+the minister of religion, the very Philosopher. Would we ask, sir,
+for a new law of nature? Upon the elements, fewer or more, which an
+anticipated experience gathers, a spirit impelled by the yearnings
+inseparable from self-conscious power, and mighty to create, works
+unchecked and unruled. What shall it do but build glorious illusions?
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+"The culture of Imagination,"--understanding thereby, first, in the
+Great Poets themselves, the intercourse of their own minds with facts
+which imagination vivifies, and with ideas which it creates--of
+humanity; and secondly, in all others, as poets to be or not to be,
+the reading of the Great Poets, Mr Stewart says--"does not diminish
+our interest in human life." Does not diminish! Quite the reverse. It
+extraordinarily deepens and heightens, increases and ennobles. For who
+are the painters, the authentic delineators and revealers of human
+life, outer and inner--
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+Why, the Poets--the Poets to be sure--the Poets beyond all doubt--
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+"Extremely apt to inspire the mind with false conceptions of it"--and
+so on. Why, the Faculty is there with a mission. It is its bounden
+office--its embassy from heaven--to exalt us above our earthly
+experience--to lift us into the ideal possibility of things. Thereby it
+is an "angel of Life," the white-winged good genius. The too sanguine
+hope is an adhering consequence, and the quelling of the hope is one
+of the penalties which we pay for Adam and Eve's coming through that
+Eastern Gate into this Lower World.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+Of course, my dear sir, _every_ power has its dangers--the greater,
+the profounder, the more penetrating and vital the power, the greater
+the danger. But is this the way that a Philosopher begins to treat of
+a power--with hesitation and distrust--inauspiciously auspicating his
+inquiry? The common--the better--the true order of treatment is by Use
+and, Abuse--Use first. "Expectations above the level of our present
+existence!" Of course--that when the heaven on earth fails, we may have
+_learnt_ "to expect above the level of our present existence," and go
+on doing so more and more, till Earth shall fade and Heaven open.
+
+                                SEWARD.
+
+"Frequently produces a youth of enthusiastic hope!" Is this proposed as
+a perversion and calamity, a "youth" to be deprecated?
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+I really don't know--it looks almost like it.
+
+                                SEWARD.
+
+Will you say Wo and Alas! for the City--Wo and Alas! for the Nation--in
+which princes, and nobles, and the gentle of blood--and the merchants,
+and the husbandmen, and the peasants, and the artisans, suffer
+under this endemic and feverous malady--a "youth of enthusiastic
+hope?" Methinks, sir, you would expect there to find an overflow of
+Pericles's, and Pindars, and Phidias's, and Shakspeares, and Chathams,
+and Wolfes--
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+Stop, Seward--spare us the Catalogue.
+
+                                SEWARD.
+
+You would say--here is the People that is to lead the world in Arms and
+in Arts. Only let us use all our endeavours to see that the community
+produces reason enough in balance of the enthusiasm.
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+Let us procure Aristotles, and Socrates's, and Newtons, and--
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+What should a Philosopher do or say relatively to any particular power?
+He expounds an Economy of Nature. Therefore, he says, let us look how
+Nature deals with such or such a power. She gives it for such and such
+uses: and such is its fostering, and such are its phenomena. But as
+every power unbalanced carries the subject in which it inheres _ex
+orbita_, let us look how nature provides to balance _this_ power which
+we consider.
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+That, my dear Talboys, is a magnanimous and a capacious way of inquiry.
+But how can any man write about a power who has not a full sympathy
+with it? I have no doubt that Davy, when he wielded Galvanism to
+make wonderful and beautiful revelations of veiled things, deeply
+and largely sympathised with Galvanism. You would think it easier to
+sympathise with Imagination, and yet to Stewart it seems almost more
+difficult. Go on.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+How has Nature dealt with her mighty and perilous power--Love. Look at
+it, where it is raised to its despotism--when a man loves a woman, and
+that woman that man. It is a power to unhinge a world. Lo! in proof "an
+old song"--the Iliad!
+
+    'Trojanas ut opes et lamentabile regnum
+    Eruerint Danai!'
+
+Has Nature feared, therefore, to use it? She builds the world with
+it. And look how she proceeds. To these two--the Lovers as they are
+called--the Universe is _in_ these two--to each in the other. The
+rest of the Universe is shut out from their view, or more wonderfully
+comprehended in their view--seen to each through and relatively to the
+other--seen transformed in the magical mirror of their love. Can you
+expect anything less than that they should go by different doors, or by
+the same door, into Bedlam? Lo! they have become a Father and a Mother!
+They have returned into the real world--into a world yet dearer than
+Dreamland! The world in which their children shall grow up into men
+and women. Sedate, vigilant, circumspect, sedulous, industrious, wise,
+just--Pater-familias and Mater-familias. So Nature lets down from an
+Unreal which she has chosen, and knows how to use.
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+The ground of the Poet, my dear Talboys, is an extraordinary dotation
+of sensibility--of course, ten thousand dangers. Life is exuberant
+in him--and if the world lies at all wide about him, the joy of
+the great and the beautiful. The dearest of all interests to every
+rational soul is her own coming destiny. The Poet, quick and keen
+above all men in self-reference, must, among his contemplations and
+creations, be full of contemplating and creating his own future, and
+must pour over it all his power of joy, rosy and golden hopes. And
+that vision, framed with all his power of the Ideal, must needs be
+something exceedingly different from that which this bare, and blank,
+and hard earth of reality has to bestow. What follows? A severe, and
+perhaps an unprepared trial. The self-protection demanded of him is a
+morally-guarded heart and life. The protection provided for him is--his
+Art. The visions--the Ideal--the Great and the Fair, which he cannot
+incorporate in his own straitened existence--the ambitions, at large,
+of his imagination he localises--colonises--imparadises--in his works.
+He has two lives; the life of his daily steps upon the hard and bare,
+or the green, and elastic, and sweet-smelling earth, and the life of
+his books, papers, and poetical, studious reveries--art-intending,
+intellectual ecstasies.
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+What say you, sir, to the charge of "overweening self-conceit and
+indolence?"
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+What say you, my Buller?
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+That I do not quite understand the proposition. Is it, that _generally_
+the "sanguine" temperament is apt to make these accompaniments for
+itself? Or that in the Poet the three elements are often found
+together? If the former, I see no truth in it. The sanguine temper
+should naturally inspire activity--and I do not quite know what is here
+an "overweening conceit." That a sanguine-minded man is apt to have
+great _self-reliance_ in any project he has in hand--a confidence in
+his own present views that is not a little refractory to good argument
+of cooler observers, I understand. But that sort of self-conceit which
+makes of a man an intellectual fop--gazing in the pocket looking-glass
+of self-conceit at his own perfections--vain self-contemplation and
+self-adulation--the sanguine temper is far more likely to carry a man
+out of himself, to occupy his time, his pleasure, and his passion in
+works, and withdraw them from himself. I suppose, therefore, that we
+must look to the Poet alone. I daresay that small poets have a great
+conceit of themselves. They have a talent that is flattered and admired
+far beyond its worth. They readily fancy themselves members of the
+Immortal Family. But a true Poet has a thousand sources of humility.
+Does he not reverence all greatness, moral and intellectual? Does he
+not reverence, above all, the mighty masters of song? He understands
+their greatness--he can measure distances--which your small Poet cannot.
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+Every soul conscious of power is in danger of estimating the power too
+highly; but I do not know why the Poet should be so more than another
+man. Then, what is "overweening?" Is it overvaluing himself relatively
+to other men? Is it over-measuring his power of achievement--whence
+disproportionate undertakings, that fail in their accomplishment? I
+can more easily suppose that all the Sons of Genius "overween" in
+this direction. They must needs shape enterprises of unattainable
+magnificence. But some one has said rightly that in attempting the
+Impossible we accomplish the Possible. But this is a higher and truer
+and more generous meaning, I fancy, than is intended by the choice of
+that slighting and scoffing dispraise of "overweening"--a word pointing
+to a social, or moral, defect that makes an exceedingly disagreeable
+companion, rather than to any sublime error in the calculations of
+genius. And I come back upon the small sinner in rhyme, who has been
+cockered by his friends and cuddled by himself into conceit, till he
+thinks the world not good enough for him--takes no trouble to satisfy
+Its reasonable expectations, and finds that It will take none to
+satisfy his unreasonable ones--_there_ is a source of "numberless
+misfortunes"--a seedy surtout, a faded vest, and very threadbare
+inexpressibles.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+And why should those who are sanguine in hope be "too frequently
+indolent?" A hopeful temper engender indolence! A desponding temper
+engenders it; a hopeful one is the very spur of activity. The sanguine
+spirit of hope taking possession of an active intellect, engenders the
+Projector--of all human beings the most restless and indefatigable--his
+undaunted and unconquerable trust in futurity creates for itself
+incessantly new shapes of exertion--till the curtain falls.
+
+                                SEWARD.
+
+There is, I suppose, a species of Castle-builder who hopes and does
+nothing; as if he believed that futurity had the special charge of
+bringing into existence the children of his wish. But his temper is
+not properly called sanguine--it is _dreamy_. Neither is his indolence
+a consequence of his dreams; but as much or more, his dreams, of his
+indolence. He sits and dreams. Say that Nature has given to some
+one, as she will from time to time, an active fancy and an indolent
+humour--a disproportion in one faculty. 'Tis a misfortune: and a reason
+why his friends should seek out, if possible, the means of stirring him
+into activity; but it has nothing to do with describing the Idea of the
+Poetical Character.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+The Great Poets have not been indolent. They have been working men.
+The genius of the Poet calls him to his work. Shakspeare was a man of
+business. Spenser was a state-secretary.
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+Read Milton's Life.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+See Cowper drowned in an invincible melancholy, and deliberately
+choosing a long-lasting and severe task of his Art, as a means of
+relieving, from hour to hour, the pressure of his intolerable burthen.
+If he had drooped under his hopeless disease into motionless stupor,
+you could not have wondered, much less could you have blamed. He
+fought, pen in hand, year after year, against the still-repelled and
+ultimately victorious enemy.
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+Think of Southey!
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+Yet the Poet is in danger of indolence. For in his younger years joy
+comes to him unpurchased. To do, takes him out of his dream. To do
+nothing, is to live in an enchanted world; and with all tenderness be
+it said, he hath, too, his specific temptation to overmuch self-esteem.
+Because his specific faculty and habit are to refer every thing that
+befalls constantly to himself as a contemplative spirit. Herein is
+the most luminous intuition alone. The perversion is to be quick and
+keen in referring to the ignobler Self--for as I or you said, and all
+men may know, the Poet assuredly has two souls. Personal estimation,
+personal prospects! A sensibility to injury, to fear, to harm, to
+misprision--a quick jealousy--suspicion--soreness! You do see them
+in Poets--and in Artists, who after their kind are Poets--for they
+are Men. As to excessive reflection upon and admiration of their own
+intellectual powers, while we rightly condemn it, we should remember
+that the Poet _is_ gifted, and in comparison with most of those with
+whom he lives, is in certain directions far abler; and more delicate
+apprehensions he probably has than most or all of them--at least of
+such apprehensions as come under the Pleasures of Imagination. And
+when he begins to call auditors to his Harp--then, well-a-day!--then
+he lives and feeds upon the breath of praise--and upon the glow of
+sympathy--a flower that opens to the caress of zephyrs and sunbeams,
+and without them pines. Then comes envy and spiritual covetousness.
+Others obtain the praise and the sympathy--others who merit them less,
+or not at all. What a temptation to disparage all others--_alive_! And
+to the Poet, essentially plunged in the individualities of his own
+being, how easy! For each of his rivals has a different individuality
+from his own; and how easy to construe points of difference into
+points of inferiority! Easy to him whom pain wrings more than it does
+others--to whom disagreeable things are more disagreeable--
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+Have done, sir, I beseech you, have done--talk not so of the
+Brotherhood.
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+I am thinking of some of the most majestic!
+
+                                SEWARD.
+
+Alas! it is true.
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+Mr Stewart more than insinuates, with a wavering and equivocating
+uncertainty of assertion he signifies, that the POET, or poetic mind,
+is not much endowed with "common sense." Talboys, what say you?
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+I rather think it unusually well-endowed that way, and that it is the
+opposite class of minds--those that cultivate abstract science--that
+have, or seem to have, least of it.
+
+                                SEWARD.
+
+The poetic mind, from its sensibility, is peculiarly ready to
+sympathise with the general mind, and it is that sympathy that produces
+common sense. Common sense is instinctive; and in its origin allied to
+that which in the higher acts of the poet's mind is called Inspiration.
+Therefore it is native to his mind. It is an inspiration of his mind as
+much as poetic Imagination.
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+Has Seward said what you meant to say, Talboys?
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+He has--why did not you? But observe, Buller, common sense is not
+solely employed upon a man's own conduct: it has all the world besides
+for its object. The common sense of a Poet in his own case may be
+disturbed by his sensibilities, which are greater than common; while
+yet, in all other cases, it may be truer than the magnet.
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+Good.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+I will trouble you, if you please, for an Obs.
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+I have long desired a definition of Common Sense. It seems to me rather
+a commonplace thing. I suppose it is called Common Sense, as being
+common to men, so that you may expect it in 9 out of 10, or 99 out of
+100.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+Pretty good.
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+Common Life seems to be the school of it. It seems a practical faculty,
+or to respect practice. Obvious relations are its domain--obvious
+connexions of cause and effect--means and end. A man of common sense
+effects a plain object, quickly and cheaply, by ready and direct means.
+High reach of thought is distinguished from common sense on the same
+side, as downright folly is on the other. Yet the interests dealt with
+need not be, if they frequently are, low; only the relations obvious.
+Perhaps the phrase is oftener brought out by its violation than its
+maintenance. He who wants common sense employs means thwarting his end.
+I propose that Common Sense is a combination of common understanding
+and common experience.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+I asked you, my dear Buller, for an Obs--one single Obs--you have given
+us a dozen--a Series. Let us take them one by one, and dissect the--
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+Be hanged if we do! I am afraid that my notion of Common Sense is but
+a low one. I think that a blacksmith may acquire common sense about
+shoeing of horses, and a housewife about her kitchen and laundry.
+_Sound sense_ applicable to high matters is another matter--_une toute
+autre chose_.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+Be done, dear Buller.
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+In a moment. Moreover, I can imagine a strong, clear, sound sense
+_confined_ to a special _higher_ employment--a lawyer who would manage
+the most difficult and hazardous cause with admirable discretion, and
+make a mere fool of himself in marrying.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+Be done--be done.
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+In a moment. _I_ am not able to affirm that a Poet of high and sound
+faculties _must_ have the talent for conducting himself with prudence
+in the common affairs of life; and really _that_ is what seems to me to
+be _Common Sense_.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+Be done now--you cannot better it.
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+About the Poet what can I say that every body does not know and say in
+all the weekly newspapers. Why, gentlemen, the Mission of the Poet is
+to fight the fight of the Spirit against the flesh, and to extend the
+reign of the Beautiful. Also, he is the Prophet of (R)gnothi seauton(R):
+and the finest of wordmongers. The words that he touches turn all to
+gold. He is the subtlest of thinkers. _Our_ best discipline of thinking
+has been from the Poets. Compare Shakspeare and Euclid.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+From you! Buller, you astonish me.
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+Astonishment is sometimes proof of a weak mind.
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+There seem to be two Common Senses. Goldsmith appears to be viewed
+as an eminent case of wanting it, in conduct--the practical--for
+his own use. But the theoretical--for judging others--imaginary
+cases--characterises that immortal work, _The Vicar of Wakefield_: and
+the theoretical, for judging other men real, existing, and known, his
+_Retaliation_. The criticism of Burke, for instance, is all exalted
+Common Sense--
+
+    "Who, born for the Universe, narrowed his mind,
+    And to Party gave up what was meant for Mankind."
+
+That is the larger grasp of common Sense rising into high Sense.
+
+    "And thought of convincing while they thought of dining"
+
+is its homelier scope.
+
+                                SEWARD.
+
+Common Sense is the lower part of complete Good Sense. Shakspeare and
+Phidias must use Good Sense in governing their whole composition;
+which Common Sense could not reach; and a man might have good sense
+in composing a group in marble, yet want it in governing his family.
+But Phidias executing a Venus with a blunt notched chisel, would want
+Common Sense.
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+Wordsworth the Great and Good has said that "the privilege and the
+duty of Poetry is to describe things not as they are, but as they
+seem to the senses and the passions;" and when in so saying he
+claimed further for the works of Poetry law and constancy, he spake
+heroically and thence well,--up to the mark of the fearless and
+clear truth. But when he condescended to speak of "one quality that
+is always favourable to good poetry, namely, good sense," he said
+that, _without note of reserve_, which should have been guarded. Good
+sense, if you please, but such good sense as Homer shows when the
+(R)klange(R) of the silver bow sounds--when the Mountain-Isle trembles
+with all her Woods to Neptune stepping along--or the many-folded
+snowy Olympus to Jupiter giving the one calm, slow, simple, majestic,
+earth-and-heaven-obliging Nod--or when at the loosed storm of
+terrestrial and celestial battle on the Scamandrian plain, the Infernal
+Jove leaps from his throne, and shouts, or yells, or bellows--(R)meg'
+iache(R)--lest the solidly-vaulted Earth rend above and let in sunlight
+on the Shades. The "good sense" of Shakspeare, when the Witches
+mingle in the hell-broth "Tartar's lips," and "yew-slips slivered in
+the Moon's eclipse." Claim the good sense, but claim it in its own
+kind--separated and high--kingly--Delphic--divine. The good sense of
+Jupiter--Apollo--the Nine Muses, and the practical Pallas Athene. Or
+claim WISDOM--and not "good sense;"--"the meed of Poets SAGE!" Lucid
+intelligence--profound intuitions--disclosed essences--hidden relations
+laid bare--laws discerned--systems and worlds comprehended--revealed
+mysteries--prophecy--the "terrible sagacity"--and to all these add the
+circumspection--the caution--the self-rule--the attentive and skilful
+prudence of consummate Art, commanding effects which she forecast and
+willed. Wisdom in choosing his aim--Wisdom in reaching his aim--Wisdom
+to weigh men's minds and men's deeds--their hopes, fears, interests--to
+read the leaves of the books which men have written--to read the leaves
+of the book which the Creating Finger has written--to read the leaves
+of the book which lies for ever open before the Three Sisters--the
+leaves which the Storms of the Ages turn over.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+Coffee, my dear sir? Here's a cup--cool and sweetened to your taste to
+a nicety.
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+Thanks, Talboys. I am ready for another spell.
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+Reflect, sir, breathe awhile. Do, Seward, interpose something between
+the Master and exhaustion. Quick--quick--else he will be off again--and
+at his time of Life--
+
+                                SEWARD.
+
+Oh for the gift denied me by my star--presence of mind!
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+Common sense, in a high philosophical signification, is the sum of
+human opinions and feelings; or the "Universal Sense" of mankind.
+That is not homely--and cannot therefore be what Stewart calls that
+"homely endowment." The apter translation of the place in his Essay is
+"ordinary sense or understanding"--which seems to suggest _now_ "so
+much sense or understanding as you ordinarily meet with among men"--and
+_now_ "sense and understanding applied to ordinary concerns." Only this
+last makes the quality _homely_. But the tooth of Stewart's insult is
+in the prior suggestion (in the case of the Gifted, untrue), that they
+have not as much sense or understanding as you ordinarily meet with.
+They have ten, twenty, a thousand times as much. Think of Robert Burns!
+But they have--or may, I do not say must have--the repugnance to apply
+the winged and "delighted spirit" to considerations and cares that are
+easily felt as if sordid and servile--imprisoning--odious. They suffer,
+however, not for the lack of knowing, but of resolution to conform
+their doing to their knowing. They sin against common sense--and much
+more against their own. _Hinc illae lacrymae._
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+Gentlemen, the Cardinal Virtue--Prudence--holds her sway, in the
+world of man, over Action, and, as much as she may, over Event, by
+the union as if of two Sceptres. For She must reign, at once, in the
+Understanding and in the Will. Common Sense, as the word is commonly
+meant and understood, is Intellectual Prudence applied to the more
+obvious requisitions of the more obvious interests which daily and
+hourly claim our concern and regard. This Intellectual Prudence,
+thus applied--that is to say, the clear Intelligence of these
+requisitions--Common Sense, therefore--one man has, and another has
+not. The case shall occur that the man, Poet or no Poet, who has it,
+shall act like a fool; whilst the Poet or no Poet, who has it not,
+shall act like a Sage. For the man, wise to see and to know, shall
+have yielded the throne of his Will to some usurping and tyrannising
+desire--and the other, who either does not possess, or who possessing,
+has not so applied the Intelligence--some dedicated Mathematician, or
+Metaphysician, or Mechanician, or Naturalist, or Scholar, or Antiquary,
+or Artist, or Poet, shall live wisely, because he has brought his
+heart and his blood under the rule of Moral Necessity. Prudence, or,
+in her stead, Conscience, has established her reign in his Will. To be
+endowed with Common Sense is one thing; to _act_ with common sense, or
+agreeably to her demands, is another. Popular speech--loose, negligent,
+self-willed, humoursome and humorous--often poetical--easily and gladly
+confounds the two neighbouring cases. Philosophic disquisition--which
+this of Dugald Stewart does not--should sedulously hold them apart.
+You may judge of a man's Common Sense by hearing him criticise the
+character and conduct of his neighbour. To learn in what hand the
+Sceptre of the Will is, you must enter his own doors. The proneness of
+the Poet, easy, kind, frank--except in his Art, artless--compassionate,
+generous, and, large-thoughted--heaven-aspiring--to neglect, like the
+lover, (and what else is he but the perpetually enthralled lover of
+the Good, the True, and the Beautiful?) the earthly and distasteful
+_Cura Peculi_, is to be counteracted mainly on the side of the Will.
+Simplicity of desire will go far, and this you may expect in him
+from Nature--indeed it is the first ground of the fault charged.
+Next, of stronger avail--not perhaps of more dignity--comes that
+which is indeed the base, if not yet the edified structure of Common
+Sense, the plain Intelligence of naked Necessity. No great stretch of
+intellectual power required, surely, for discovering and knowing his
+own condition in the work-day world! But the goods of fortune--worldly
+estate--_money_--shall the "heavenly Essence"--the "celestial
+Virtue"--the "divine Emanation"--for so loftily has Man spoken of
+Man--that is within us--crouch down and grovel in this dark, chill
+den--this grave which Mammon has delved to be to it a pitfall and a
+prison?
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+Ay--why shall the Poet guard and noose the strings of his purse?
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+One reason, drawn from the sublimity of his being, stands ever
+nigh to bow the pliant neck of his Will under the lowly yoke. He
+_must_--because, according to the manner in which the All-Disposer saw
+good to order and adjust the constituents and conditions of our human
+life here below, in him who, of his own will and deed, lays himself
+under a bond to live by unearned bread, the Moral Soul dies.
+
+                                SEWARD.
+
+The Poet is not--and he is--improvident. Nothing in his genius binds
+him to improvidence. Prudence may accompany sensibility--may accompany
+ample and soaring contemplations--may accompany creative thought--may
+accompany the diligent observation of human life and manners--may
+accompany profound insight into the human heart. These are chief
+constituents of the poetical mind, and have nothing in them that
+rejects Prudence.
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+Neither do I believe that the more distinguished Poets generally have
+been culpably unforethinking--
+
+            "Vatis avarus
+    Non temere est animus!"
+
+I hope so. I should be exceedingly sorry to think that the Bard were
+apt to give into the most odious of all vices. But the interval is
+wide from vicious negligence to vicious care: and I hope that somewhere
+between, and verging from the Golden Mean a little way towards the
+negligent extreme, might be the proper and earned place of the Poets.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+We must confess to some negligent tendencies in the Poet. The warm
+sympathies give advantage to designing beggars of different ranks--and
+are themselves betraying advisers. The law of the poetical mind
+to accept Impression, and let it have its way, if it overflow its
+legitimate channel of poetical study and art, and irregularly lay the
+conduct of life under water, may leave behind it something else than
+fertility. The dwelling in pleasure may make the narrow and exact cares
+of economy irksome. But why shall we _expect_ that a man of high,
+clear, and strong mind shall not learn how to--cut his coat according
+to his cloth?
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+I am afraid that the high faculties of a Poet threaten to endanger
+his vulgar welfare. The foundation of his poetical being and power,
+as you well have hinted, Talboys, is the free spontaneity of motion
+in his own mind--the surrendering of his whole spirit to influxes and
+self-impulses. The spontaneous movement allies his temperament to
+common passion, which founds upon this very characteristic. And you
+sometimes see, accordingly, that the Poet is a victim sacrificed for
+the benefit of the rest. Not that it need be so--for he has his own
+means of protection; but powers delicate, sensitive, profound, must
+walk perilously in a lapsed world.
+
+                                SEWARD.
+
+Let it be allowed, then, to Dugald, that the poetical temperament is
+adverse to getting--and to keeping--money--and that a touching picture
+might be drawn of the conflicts of spirit between a Poet and his false
+position in a counting-house--or with "poverty's unconquerable bar."
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+"This carelessness about the goods of fortune," says Mr Stewart, "is
+an infirmity very naturally resulting from their studies, and is only
+to be cured by years and experience, or by combination (_very rare
+indeed_) of poetical genius with a more than ordinary share of that
+'homely endowment called _common-sense_.'" And wherefore any infirmity?
+Why not have portrayed rather--or at least kindly qualified the
+word--in winning hues, or in lofty shape--the delicious or magnanimous
+UNWORLDLINESS of the poetical character? That most ennobling, and most
+unostentatious quality, which dear and great Goddess--in lovingly
+tempering a soul that from its first inhalation of terrestrial air to
+the breath in which it escapes home, she intends to follow with her
+love--commingles in precious and perilous atoms that, in consecrating,
+destine to sorrow.
+
+                                SEWARD.
+
+An infirmity? A charm--a grace--and a virtue! Alas! sir, a virtue too
+suitable to the golden age to be safe in ours.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+Ay, Seward, a virtue demanding the correction or the protection of
+some others, which the iron generations countenance or allow--such as
+Prudence, Justice, Affection for those whose welfare he unavoidably
+commixes with his own.
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+Protection! It sometimes happily wins its protection from virtues that
+love and admiration rouse and arm in other breasts, in its favour--a
+reverent love--a pitying admiration.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+He quotes Horace as on his side of the question.
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+A Poet whose name is amongst the most cited from antiquity, Virgil's
+illustrious lyrical brother, has rehearsed (not indeed to the lyre, but
+in the style which he offers for little better than versified prose)
+modestly and apologetically, the Praises of the Poet--his personal
+worth, and serviceable function amongst his fellow-men. Singular
+that in a few words of this passage, and indeed just those which
+gently allege the _personal virtue_ of the poor bard, the Professor
+should have helped himself to a weapon for dealing upon that head his
+unkindest cut of all.
+
+                                SEWARD.
+
+That flowing Epistle of Horace's to Augustus--which he gives
+good reason in excellent verse for keeping short, and turns out,
+notwithstanding, rather unreasonably long--if we look for its method,
+it rambles--if for the spirit, it is a delicate intercommunion between
+the least of the Courtiers, the Poet, and his imperial Patron, the Lord
+of Rome and of Rome's World.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+A facile, roving, and sketchy--partly historical and partly critical
+disquisition on Poetry chiefly Roman, presenting, with occasion the
+virtues and faults of the species--POET.
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+Let's hear it. In my day Horace was not much read at Oxford--
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+By you--and other First Class Physical Men. Seward, spout it.
+
+                                SEWARD.
+
+I will recite the passage.
+
+    "Hic error tamen, et levis haec insania, quantas
+    Virtutes habeat, sic collige: vatis avarus
+    Non temere est animus; versus amat, hoc studet unum;
+    Detrimenta, fugas servorum, incendia ridet;
+    Non fraudem socio, puerove incogitat ullam
+    Pupillo; vivit siliquis et pane secundo.
+    Militiae quamquam piger et malus, utilis urbi:
+    Si das hoc, parvis quoque rebus magna juvari.
+    Os tenerum pueri balbumque poeta figurat;
+    Torquet ab obscoenis jam nunc sermonibus aurem,
+    Mox etiam pectus praeceptis format amicis,
+    Asperitatis et invidiae, corrector et irae;
+    Recte facta refert; orientia tempora notis
+    Instruit exemplis, inopem solatur et aegrum.
+    Castis cum pueris ignara puella mariti
+    Disceret unde preces, vatem ni Musa dedisset?
+    Poscit opem chorus, et praesentia numina sentit;
+    Caelestes implorat aquas, docta prece blandus;
+    Avertit morbos, metuenda pericula pellit;
+    Impetrat et pacem, et locupletem frugibus annum.
+    Carmine Di Superi placantur, carmine Manes."
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+Oh! that passage. Why, I have had it by heart for half a hundred. We
+quote from it at Quarter Sessions.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+The first grace of the whole composition seems to me its two-fold
+personality--the free intimacy between the great Protector and the
+small Protected. It is like Horace's part of a familiar colloquy, where
+you may fancy, at discretion, interlocutory remark, or answer, or
+question of Augustus.
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+True, Talboys. Verse has attracted to the Bard the rays of imperial
+favour. The Emperor himself is a Verse-maker. How natural and suitable
+that Horace in verses which vary, to the time of the moment, with
+inimitable facility, from a conversation-like negligence, or negligent
+seeming--to sweetness and beauty, to strength and dignity--should win
+the august ear, tired with the din of arms or of debating tongues, to
+an hour's chat on the interests of the Muses.
+
+                                SEWARD.
+
+The praise of the Poet how loving and ingenious! how insinuatingly
+subdued!
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+Yet the ground is chosen with a dexterous boldness. The majestic
+opening Address of the Poem showed Augustus, like a Jupiter, wielding
+with beneficent power the destinies of the Roman world. And now,
+confronting the dispenser of welfare to nations, he sets up another
+benefactor of the State, the Poet, face to face with golden-throned,
+and purple-vested Octavius Caesar--poor Horatius Flaccus!
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+Most awkward of Courtiers! Most crazed of versifiers!
+
+                                SEWARD.
+
+Beware of rash judgments and half-informations. You familiar with Hory--
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+You muttered the passage so that you murdered it.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+You, familiar with Hory, see at least how, by the choice of the ground,
+he has obliged himself to stepping cautiously and tenderly over it. He
+leads to it--he does not begin with it. Arrived at the comparison, he
+proposes it rather implicitly than explicitly--admire the Rhetorician.
+He will avert jealousy--he will propitiate kindness.
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+Artful Dodger.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+He has acknowledged--you might have given us the line--a _fault_.
+Nothing seriously wrong though. As if Apollo had shot a plague
+with golden arrows upon the City, all are turned Versifiers--young
+and old--and grave and gay--wise and foolish--the skilled and the
+unskilled--the called and the uncalled.
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+You write verses well yourself, Talboys.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+I am as willing as most people to bandy compliments, but here you must
+excuse me. Out of the small fault, rises the Eulogy. This diffusive
+delusion--this epidemic, yet lively, and airy, and sprightly, and
+harmless insanity, gives out from its bosom some good uses, and first
+on the madman himself. As one disease expels another, the musolept
+is, through the very force of his disorder, free from the taint of
+cupidity--of the burning desire for worldly wealth. The simple man has
+room in his heart but for one love. Verse is his passion--his bliss,
+his all-absorbing vocation. Has his banker failed with his little
+cash-balance in his hands? He laughs. Has one of his two slaves run
+away? He laughs. Has a fire at the bookseller's consumed the copies
+of his last work? 'Tis unlucky--but he laughs. It is not _he_ that
+speculates upon, or _waylays_, the unguarded trust of his friend or
+acquaintances--not _he_ that handles with adhesive fingers the gold of
+his young orphan-ward. And for his fare, it is an anchorite's--pulse
+and brown bread.
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+Very prettily paraphrased indeed!
+
+                                SEWARD.
+
+And very feelingly. Imagine these ideas sliding into one's heart in
+the natural verse of--Goldsmith! For it is as if Goldy here described
+himself--and see if the argument from the Innocence is not artfully
+placed, for the induction to the argument from the Benefits, that is to
+follow.
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+My dear Boys Three, Hory is here painting himself--and not himself. It
+is the idea of the Poet. He brings the traits and the colours together,
+as they best suit each other, and his purposes. The meritorious
+Eremite's fare is not personal to the writer. He has reached a point
+which imperiously requires another _fault_. Frankly and humorously
+he takes this from Flaccus himself. The Poet is no soldier--slow to
+find the way to the field, and too quick to find the way from it.
+Nevertheless--now for the setting up. He, too, is a profitable servant
+of the State. And forthwith an imperatively demanded apology--for the
+purple-robed has smiled a little incredulously at the _utilis urbi_.
+If, says the Complete Letter-Writer, you will only admit that majestic
+interests may be served by adminicles of "small regard to see to."
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+And how curiously he hides a pre-eminent power in the very smallest
+sphere!
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+How finely! Rome _was_ a republic of ORATORS. Cedant arma togae--the
+Toga the war-weed of the Orator!
+
+    "Romanos rerum dominos, _gentemque togatam_."
+
+The gowned Lords of the Nations--and, Lords of the Lords, the Orators!
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+Are you sure that is the right reading?
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+Let it be so. Observe now--the occultation.
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+The what?
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+The occultation.
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+Mille gratias.
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+The nascent and adolescent Orator is moulded to the power of the word
+by the greatest masters of the word, the Poets! Tell this, O Poet,
+in imperial ears! Then speak modestly, withdrawingly, insinuatingly.
+Hide the boast. It is hidden--and shown. The Poet fashions the tender
+and stammering mouth of the boy. The rudiments of pronunciation--The
+Orator nascent. No more. It is pretty and gentle that the Muse herself
+condescends to the care of moulding the young soft lip to the pure
+musical utterance of Latium's magnificent Mother-tongue.
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+Now I see it all. The occultation!
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+But She delays not undertaking a nobler and more momentous function.
+From the bodily organs She passes to the governing mind. And of the
+Mind at once to the nobler part, the Will. She is the young Roman's
+Moral Tutress. Horace is brief. What these her first lessons to the
+soul are, he does not say. He tells you their powerful virtue. They
+_wrest_, he says, (_torquet_,) the charmed hearing from dishonest, from
+gross and grovelling, from depraving and polluting discourse. You may,
+my friends, imagine Phaedrus' feeling Fables, or the "Lays of Ancient
+Rome;" or at Athens, instead of Rome, the Iliad.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+It is the hint but of a line, sir. But each of us may know in himself
+how early the Muse really did begin to possess our spirits with
+thoughts, and scenes, and actions that soared away from the presences
+of our lives--that She did
+
+    "Lift us in aspiration from the earth."
+
+And as the pupil grows, the discipline of the divine Instructress
+ripens. With precepts that are the counsels of a dear and wise friend,
+she moulds the susceptible compliant bosom. She softens his rough
+self-will--weeds out envy--and curbs anger.
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+Talboys, you expound Flaccus well.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+Her storial informations, pictures from human existence, take now a
+more direct purpose. She recites deeds justly and virtuously done; She
+furnishes and arms--_instruit_--the springing generation with high
+transmitted examples.
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+Ay, my dear Talboys, _He_ is thinking now--
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+Hitherto you have always said _She_--
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+I have. "She" is really "He"--the Poet and not the Muse. I was rapt.
+He is thinking now, my dear Buller, of old strong-hearted Ennius--the
+heroic annalist, in soldierly rough verses, of younger heroic Rome.
+We may recollect, for the nonce, whatever is most English, and most
+Scottish, and most heroic, in those more musical "histories" of
+William, and of Walter.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+We have done with education. We come to the Charity of the Muse. She
+visits the poor man's home and the sick-bed. One almost starts at the
+thought, in the midst of the smoke, and the wealth, and the uproar of
+Pagan Rome. Yet there the plain words are, "She (pardon me) comforts
+the indigent and the sick man." Is it not _sic in orig._?
+
+                                NORTH.
+
+_Sic._
+
+                                BULLER.
+
+Of her ministrations to the splendour of Arts and the luxury of
+Patrician feasts--of her Theatres, that spread laughter or tears over
+the dense myriads of the World's Metropolis--not a syllable. The
+innermost heart of the Poet must have held the chord that gave out
+the soft low sound--_inopem solatur et aegrum_. No introduction and no
+comment. A solitary, unpretending sentence or clause.
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+God bless you, my dear Buller.
+
+                                TALBOYS.
+
+Amen. May the Chairman of Quarter Sessions live a thousand years! The
+indigent man may, I suppose, be a poor learned or a poor unlearned
+man. Relatively to the latter we may think, for Scotland, of Burns'
+Poems lying in Scottish cottages; and beginning from Scotland, of
+the traditional ballads and songs that sound in every hut throughout
+Europe:--for Italy, of what they say of the Venetian Gondoliers singing
+a Venetianised Gerusalemme Liberata.
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+So far, my children, for the "_parvis rebus_." Something on a more
+extended scale, and of a loftier reach! We are commenting Horace.
+From the earliest times of civilisation, a principal office of verse
+was to adorn and solemnise the services of Religion. The cultivation
+of Verse was early in the Temples. A moment's recollection recalls
+to us the immense influence on the Hellenic Poetry of this ritual
+dedication. This theme closes the Praise of the Poet. But faithful to
+the strain which he has undertaken, and so far adhered to, the discreet
+Eulogist still, in the loftiest matter, diminishes the pomp, rejects
+ostentation, confines the sensible dimensions. And still faithful,
+he dwells on that which, of less show, is the more touching. He has
+to array a religious procession that drawing, as it moves along, all
+gaze--thrilling--as it slowly passes door after door, and winds through
+street after street, with solemn and sweet chaunt lifted from the
+sorrowing Earth to the listening Heavens--the universal heart of the
+Eternal Queen-City--Look! Who are they that, as the crowds divide, draw
+into sight? Chaste boys, and girls yet afar from the marriage-bond. The
+sanctity of natural innocence heightening to the heart, and rendering
+more gracious, the sanctity of the altar!--winning favour--alluring the
+worshipper to the worship!
+
+                                SEWARD.
+
+The only expanded movement of the short passage--a third of it--seven
+verses out of the twenty-one.
+
+                                 NORTH.
+
+The religious topics are, generally, the propitiating of the
+Divinities--then the particular benefits: Rain supplicated in seasons
+of Drought--the visitation of Pestilential Sickness averted--National
+dangers repelled--Peace, the wished-for, obtained--and the perpetual
+desire of earth's dwellers and tillers, the fruitful Year. He has
+risen gradually, and has reached the summit. Unexpectedly--you know
+not how--the Poet, though it is not so said, is far greater than the
+Emperor. Yes, my friends, for the dominion of the Imperial Throne is
+over the Kings of the Earth; but the sway of the well-strung Lyre is
+over the throned Gods who inhabit above or underneath the Earth. With
+Song are the celestial Deities soothed and made favourable--with Song
+the dark dominators of Hell.
+
+    "Carmine Di Superi placantur, carmine Manes!"
+
+A swelling and musical close to an anthem. What shall we admire most,
+then? The variety of the Praise? The ethical wisdom? The genuine
+love in the selection of the grounds? Or the exquisite skill of the
+artificer? The "craft of the delicate spirit," who, veiled in humility,
+has gradually, and as if insensibly, scaled to a station from which
+he looks upon Monarchs--but from which should they aspire to strike
+him down, they offend, in violating his right, the majesty of the
+assembled Gods? In inditing the unhappy passage about the Poet's sole
+end being to please, I think that Dugald Stewart was beguiled by a
+prevalent misconception amongst those who have taught the Philosophy of
+the Fine Arts. The degrading influences are his own. No doubt the Poet
+draws his poetical being from Pleasure--the great ancestress of his
+tribe--_gentis origo_. He worships Pleasure according to the primeval
+fashion of ancestor-worship. But what is his impulse to compose, to
+_sing_? O hear from all the Great Poets since the world began, their
+answer. They sing because a Spirit is in them. They sing because the
+muse bids. She pours in thoughts and words; and along with thoughts
+and words flows in the musical Will. With them it is like the Sybil
+when invaded by Apollo. The real Poet sings, moved from without or
+from within. If from without--some fore-shaped or self-shaped subject;
+if from within, some passion, or some impassioned thought of his own
+has so deeply and strongly affected him, that he is impelled to seek
+relief of the burthening emotions and ideas in uttering them. This is
+the primary cause, and the natural origin of Song. And you may call
+this, if you choose, an intending of pleasure; but beware how you draw
+degrading inferences from this first recognition and admission of
+pleasure. If you weigh the psychological fact, you must look backwards
+to the attitude of mind which produced the work, and not forwards to
+the attitude which the work produces. Of the intellective, the moral,
+the imaginative, the pathetic powers that gave birth to the Iliad--or
+to the Prometheus Vinctus--to the Knight's Tale--to the Legend of
+Holiness--to Lear or Othello--or to the Paradise Lost! Who does not
+instantly feel that he has been summoned to conceive and to contemplate
+all that is mighty, august, affecting, or terrible in our souls? That
+he looks into the caverned abyss where the Spirits of Power walk? Even
+as when, by the side of Anchises, AEneas beholds in pre-existence the
+assemblage of his kingly descendants, whom their day and the upper
+air will call to rule the nations with sovereignty, to impose the
+conditions of peace, to spare the vanquished, and with war to bring
+down the proud. LEAR! The minstrels chanted an ancient rude lay--the
+infant stage brought a rude drama--TO SHAKSPEARE. But long before
+Minstrel or Theatre--had mother, or grandam, or nurse told to the
+weeping or shuddering, to the burning or auguring Child, that relique
+of old memory, that domestic tragedy of the antique British throne--the
+story attracting and torturing of the Father-king who divided his heart
+and his realm to the two serpents, who cast out from heart and realm
+the Dove of his blood--till Time unveiled Truth and Love. _Then and
+there_ was the seed, the slowly-springing, laid in the deep and kindly
+soil. From that hour dates the Lear of Shakspeare. Why repeat things
+that we all know, and have a thousand times said? Because they must
+be reasserted explicitly, as often as they are implicitly gainsayed;
+and is it not gainsaying them to affirm that the Poet sings _to
+please_, when indeed he sings because this Infinite of knowledges--this
+accumulation of experiences--this world of sensibilities and
+sympathies, of affections, passions, emotions, desires of his own and
+of other men's, inspires him, and will form itself in words? But he
+looks towards his hoped Auditors with a more direct selfish desire or
+design. He must have from them the meed of all glorious deeds--the
+wreath of all glorious doers--FAME. Let Grateful Mankind applaud the
+Benefactors of Mankind. Ay, he loves life. He would fain live beyond
+this world, wide as it is, of his own particular bosom--he would
+live in the bosoms of his contemporaries, and in the bosoms of the
+generations that are to follow for evermore. Proud as privileged, he
+asks his due--RECOGNITION. And who that has the ability to render will
+choose or dare to withhold the tribute? Fame! the nectarean cup--the
+ambrosial fruit--that confers _Immortality_! The last best gift that
+mortals affect to bestow on their fellow-mortals. He who, at some great
+crisis, achieves a deed which the world shall feel, and whereof the
+world shall ring--dilates, in consciousness, to comprehend those whom
+his act shall reach, and those to whom it shall resound. Remember Lord
+Nelson at Trafalgar--in the moment ere the first gun fires, the word
+signalled to the awaiting host throughout the Fleet--"ENGLAND EXPECTS."
+In an instant, the twenty-five millions of compatriot islanders, as if
+wafted by the winds from their distant homes, are _there_--spectators
+of the Fight that yet sleeps, at the next instant to wake, convulsing
+sea and air--spectators to every single combatant, of his individual
+heroism. What did that late conqueror of ancient Egypt and what did
+his fiery warriors understand, when going into battle he said to
+them--"Forty Centuries look down on you from the summit of yonder
+Pyramids?" These plains, for four thousand years, have belonged to
+History. See to it, that the page which you are about adding shall be,
+for your part, luminous with glory and victory, not
+
+    "Black with dishonour, and foul with retreat."
+
+Suppose that he had said, "Forty Centuries _to come_ gaze upon you."
+The Pyramids seem likely to hold their own in such a reckoning. Perhaps
+the stretch of time is too long for the imagination of the Gallic
+Soldier. But surely, so speaking, he had spoken more from his heart and
+less from his imagination; for _he_ meditated the ages to come, not the
+ages gone by. To leave a name that shall sound, for good or for ill,
+loud-echoing from century to century--a name to be heard, when Caesar,
+and Alexander, and Hannibal are commemorated--a name insubmergible by
+the waves of time--inextinguishable by the mists of oblivion--_that_
+he desired, and _that_ has he not won? Horace has hung his name too in
+imagination on the structures of the Cheopses. But how different is the
+
+    "Exegi monumentum aere perennius,
+    Regalique situ Pyramidum altius"
+
+of the Poet! Horace indeed was already safe in pronouncing Homer
+immortal, with all the heroes upon whom he had conferred the gift.
+A thousand years! And the portentous strain, with all its Gods and
+Goddesses, and Kings and Queens, and Men and Women--fresh, bright,
+vivid, and fragrant, warm and yet reverberating from the Harp--as if
+the _plectrum_ of the sublime Bard were but that moment withdrawn
+from the strings--as if the breast that first poured the strain were
+yet throbbing with quicker emotion--stirred by the pulsating chords
+and by the words which itself chanted. Horace might well understand
+the immortality of the Poet. That he claimed it, and judiciously, for
+himself--he who sung so differently, the sweet, the sprightly, some
+loftier notes too--but afar from Homer--suggests a reflection upon the
+nature of durability. The works were born of Love; and by Love they
+live, for in them the Love lives. _Spirat adhuc amor._ Those Egyptian,
+star-contemplating, and star-contemplated Edifices, quarried from the
+Rock, stand; integral parts of the Planet, immovable--immutable. That
+is one manner of enduring. Sound is awakened. For an instant it flits
+through the air and ceases, extinct in silence. Add Love, and you have
+informed sound with duration--another manner of enduring. The mountain
+of piled rocks and a touch on the air are become rivals in duration,
+and we say they will last for ever.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+           _Printed by William Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh._
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] _Modern State Trials_: Revised and Illustrated, with Essays
+and Notes. By WILLIAM C. TOWNSEND, Esq., M.A., Q.C., Recorder of
+Macclesfield. In 2 vols. 8vo. Longman & Co. 1850.
+
+[2] Lord Campbell has made considerable use of Mr Townsend's
+collection, and publicly acknowledged his obligations, in his _Lives
+of the Lord Chancellors and Lord Chief-Justices_. It is not impossible
+that we may, before long, present our readers with an extended
+examination of these two important works of the new Lord Chief-Justice
+of the Queen's Bench.
+
+[3] Introduction, vol. i., p. 7, 8.
+
+[4] Introduction, p. ix.
+
+[5] Townsend, vol. i. pp. 1, 2.
+
+[6] 4 Black. Com., pp. 81-2.
+
+[7] Townsend, vol i., p. 54.
+
+[8] Ibid. vol. i., p. 45.
+
+[9] "I thought _he was crying_," said one of the witnesses!--p. 23.
+
+[10] Stat. 7 Anne, c. 21, Sec. 11.
+
+[11] Townsend, vol. i. p. 71.
+
+[12] Hall's Pleas of the Crown, part I., c. 14.
+
+[13] Townsend, p. 95.
+
+[14] 1 Townsend, pp. 99-100; and see the argument reported at length in
+Regina _v._ Frost, 9 Carr and Payne, 165-187. Of these fifteen Judges,
+only six are still on the Bench--Barons Parke, Alderson, Rolfe; and
+Justices Patteson, Coleridge, and Maule--nine having disappeared during
+the last ten years. It will be observed that the three chiefs of the
+Courts were of one way of thinking, viz. that there _had_ been a good
+delivery of the list of witnesses, in point of law.
+
+[15] 9 Carr and Payne, pp. 175-176.
+
+[16] _Souvenirs de la Vie Militaire en Afrique._ Par M. PIERRE DE
+CASTELLANE. Paris: 1850.
+
+[17] To ask the _aman_ is to implore mercy; to give it is to grant
+pardon.
+
+[18] In Africa, during the great heat, these _cabans_ or short cloaks
+are often worn, to keep off the rays of the sun.
+
+[19] The Arabs called General Changarnier the _Changarli_, the
+_Changarlo_. _Changar_ is an Arab word, signifying to quell or crush.
+_Ma changarch alina_; do not strike me down--do not crush me.
+
+[20] Sons of Turks by Arab women.
+
+[21] This missionary, originally a Jew, had become a Calvinist at
+Bale, then had joined the Church of England, and had finally turned
+missionary, in consideration of a handsome recompence. He drove a great
+trade in Bibles, which he sold to the Tunis shopkeepers. The leaves of
+the sacred volume served to envelope Mussulman butter and soap. The
+Caid's book, published at Carlsruhe, made a noise, was prohibited,
+and, thanks to the prohibition, had immense success.--Note by M. de
+Castellane.
+
+[22] _Blackwood's Magazine_, Vol. LXV., p. 20.
+
+[23] A band of irregular horsemen.
+
+[24] The Arab term for men of high family.
+
+[25] The description of this peculiar phenomenon of the Indian Ocean,
+as given by Captain Collins, surprised us as much as the reality seems
+to have done him. However, on consulting a seafaring old gentleman of
+much experience in all parts of the world, we are informed that such an
+appearance is periodically to be met with for some distance between the
+Laccadive and Maldive islands, as he had reason to know. The old Dutch
+Captain Stavorinus also furnishes an account substantially similar,
+having particularly attended to the cause of it in his voyage to the
+East Indies: it reaches also to some of the south-eastern islands at a
+great distance from India, near Java--or at all events appears there.
+In the Atlantic, Humboldt says there is a part of the sea always milky,
+although very deep, in about 57º W. longitude, and the parallel of
+the island of Dominica. Of the same nature, probably, are the immense
+olive-green spaces and stripes seen in blue water by Captain Scoresby
+and others, toward the ice of the north polar regions.
+
+The pale sea alluded to is supposed either to move from the shores
+of Arabia Felix, and the gulfs in that coast, or, by some, to arise
+from sulphureous marine exhalations--appearing to rot the bottoms of
+vessels, and to frighten the fish. Both at the Laccadives and near Java
+it is seen twice a-year, often with a heavy rolling of the sea and bad
+weather. The first time, at the new moon in June, it is called by the
+Dutch the "little white-water;" again, at the new moon in August, the
+great "wit-water;" by English seamen, generally, the milk-sea, or the
+"blink."
+
+[26] The zodiacal light, seen at sunrise and sunset.
+
+[27] _Histoire des Ducs de Guise._ Par RENE DE BOUILLE, ancien Ministre
+Plenipotentiaire. Volume II. Paris: 1849.
+
+[28] So styled by the Huguenots. Historians have adopted the
+designation. It consisted of Guise, Montmorency, and the Marshal of St
+Andre, and was a sort of prelude to the League.
+
+[29] _Discours de la Bataille de Dreux_, diete par FRANCOIS DE LORRAINE.
+
+[30] Thus stated by M. de Bouille. Other writers have called the total
+force of the Protestants two thousand seven hundred horse and foot.
+
+[31] Other writers have said that he had already _done_ so, or at least
+that he was seated under a tree, a recognised prisoner, when he was
+shot. M. de Bouille's account leaves a sort of loop-hole, to infer that
+Montesquiou might have been hardly aware that Conde was a prisoner.
+Such an inference, however, he probably does not intend to be drawn,
+and, in either case, it is contrary to historical fact.
+
+[32] The following couplet, from Oudin's MS. history of the house of
+Guise, may serve as a specimen of the partisan ditties composed on this
+occasion:--
+
+    "L'an mil cinq cens soixante neuf,
+    Entre Jarnac et Chasteauneuf,
+    Fut porte mort sur une asnesse,
+    Ce grand ennemy de la Messe."
+
+
+
+
+    Transcriber's Notes:
+
+
+    Punctuation and spelling were made consistent when a
+    predominant preference was found in this book; otherwise they
+    were not changed.
+
+    Simple typographical and spelling errors were corrected.
+
+    Italics markup is denoted by _underscores_.
+
+    Greek text has been transliterated and is denoted by
+    (R)registered signs(R).
+
+    PP. 373, 415 & 456 added missing footnote anchors.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol.
+68, No 420, October 1850, by Various
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH ***
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