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diff --git a/old/44618.txt b/old/44618.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a9fc991 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/44618.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9345 @@ +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 *** + +***** This file should be named 44618.txt or 44618.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/4/4/6/1/44618/ + +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.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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