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+The Project Gutenberg EBook Eugene Aram, Book 2, by Bulwer-Lytton
+#38 in our series by Edward Bulwer-Lytton
+
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+Title: Eugene Aram, Book 2.
+
+Author: Edward Bulwer-Lytton
+
+Release Date: March 2005  [EBook #7610]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on January 29, 2003]
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+Edition: 10
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+Language: English
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+Character set encoding: ASCII
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+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EUGENE ARAM, BOOK 2, BY LYTTON ***
+
+
+
+This eBook was produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+                             EUGENE ARAM
+
+                       By Edward Bulwer-Lytton
+
+
+
+                               BOOK II.
+
+                               CHAPTER I.
+
+     THE MARRIAGE SETTLED.--LESTER'S HOPES AND SCHEMES.--GAIETY OF
+         TEMPER A GOOD SPECULATION.--THE TRUTH AND FERVOUR OF
+                              ARAM'S LOVE.
+
+                Love is better than a pair of spectacles, to make
+                every thing seem greater which is seen through it.
+                              --Sir Philip Sydney's Arcadia.
+
+Aram's affection to Madeline having now been formally announced to
+Lester, and Madeline's consent having been somewhat less formally
+obtained, it only remained to fix the time for their wedding. Though
+Lester forbore to question Aram as to his circumstances, the Student
+frankly confessed, that if not affording what the generality of persons
+would consider even a competence, they enabled one of his moderate wants
+and retired life to dispense, especially in the remote and cheap district
+in which they lived, with all fortune in a wife, who, like Madeline, was
+equally with himself enamoured of obscurity. The good Lester, however,
+proposed to bestow upon his daughter such a portion as might allow for
+the wants of an increased family, or the probable contingencies of Fate.
+For though Fortune may often slacken her wheel, there is no spot in which
+she suffers it to be wholly still.
+
+It was now the middle of September, and by the end of the ensuing month
+it was agreed that the spousals of the lovers should be held. It is
+certain that Lester felt one pang for his nephew, as he subscribed to
+this proposal; but he consoled himself with recurring to a hope he had
+long cherished, viz. that Walter would return home not only cured of his
+vain attachment to Madeline, but of the disposition to admit the
+attractions of her sister. A marriage between these two cousins had for
+years been his favourite project. The lively and ready temper of Ellinor,
+her household turn, her merry laugh, a winning playfulness that
+characterised even her defects, were all more after Lester's secret heart
+than the graver and higher nature of his elder daughter. This might
+mainly be, that they were traits of disposition that more reminded him of
+his lost wife, and were therefore more accordant with his ideal standard
+of perfection; but I incline also to believe that the more persons
+advance in years, the more, even if of staid and sober temper themselves,
+they love gaiety and elasticity in youth. I have often pleased myself by
+observing in some happy family circle embracing all ages, that it is the
+liveliest and wildest child that charms the grandsire the most. And after
+all, it is perhaps with characters as with books, the grave and
+thoughtful may be more admired than the light and cheerful, but they are
+less liked; it is not only that the former, being of a more abstruse and
+recondite nature, find fewer persons capable of judging of their merits,
+but also that the great object of the majority of human beings is to be
+amused, and that they naturally incline to love those the best who amuse
+them most. And to so great a practical extent is this preference pushed,
+that I think were a nice observer to make a census of all those who have
+received legacies, or dropped unexpectedly into fortunes; he would find
+that where one grave disposition had so benefited, there would be at
+least twenty gay. Perhaps, however, it may be said that I am taking the
+cause for the effect!
+
+But to return from our speculative disquisitions; Lester then, who,
+though he so slowly discovered his nephew's passion for Madeline, had
+long since guessed the secret of Ellinor's affection for him, looked
+forward with a hope rather sanguine than anxious to the ultimate
+realization of his cherished domestic scheme. And he pleased himself with
+thinking that when all soreness would, by this double wedding, be
+banished from Walter's mind, it would be impossible to conceive a family
+group more united or more happy.
+
+And Ellinor herself, ever since the parting words of her cousin, had
+seemed, so far from being inconsolable for his absence, more bright of
+cheek and elastic of step than she had been for months before. What a
+world of all feelings, which forbid despondence, lies hoarded in the
+hearts of the young! As one fountain is filled by the channels that
+exhaust another; we cherish wisdom at the expense of hope. It thus
+happened from one cause or another, that Walter's absence created a less
+cheerless blank in the family circle than might have been expected, and
+the approaching bridals of Madeline and her lover, naturally diverted in
+a great measure the thoughts of each, and engrossed their conversation.
+
+Whatever might be Madeline's infatuation as to the merits of Aram, one
+merit--the greatest of all in the eyes of a woman who loves, he at least
+possessed. Never was mistress more burningly and deeply loved than she,
+who, for the first time, awoke the long slumbering passions in the heart
+of Eugene Aram. Every day the ardour of his affections seemed to
+increase. With what anxiety he watched her footsteps!--with what idolatry
+he hung upon her words!--with what unspeakable and yearning emotion he
+gazed upon the changeful eloquence of her cheek. Now that Walter was
+gone, he almost took up his abode at the manor-house. He came thither in
+the early morning, and rarely returned home before the family retired for
+the night; and even then, when all was hushed, and they believed him in
+his solitary home, he lingered for hours around the house, to look up to
+Madeline's window, charmed to the spot which held the intoxication of her
+presence. Madeline discovered this habit, and chid it; but so tenderly,
+that it was not cured. And still at times, by the autumnal moon, she
+marked from her window his dark figure gliding among the shadows of the
+trees, or pausing by the lowly tombs in the still churchyard--the
+resting-place of hearts that once, perhaps, beat as wildly as his own.
+
+It was impossible that a love of this order, and from one so richly
+gifted as Aram; a love, which in substance was truth, and yet in language
+poetry, could fail wholly to subdue and inthral a girl so young, so
+romantic, so enthusiastic, as Madeline Lester. How intense and delicious
+must have been her sense of happiness! In the pure heart of a girl loving
+for the first time--love is far more ecstatic than in man, inasmuch as it
+is unfevered by desire--love then and there makes the only state of human
+existence which is at once capable of calmness and transport!
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER II.
+
+     A FAVOURABLE SPECIMEN OF A NOBLEMAN AND A COURTIER.--A MAN OF
+                 SOME FAULTS AND MANY ACCOMPLISHMENTS.
+
+           Titinius Capito is to rehearse. He is a man of an excellent
+           disposition, and to be numbered among the chief ornaments of
+           his age. He cultivates literature--he loves men of learning,
+           etc.
+                         --Lord Orrery:  Pliny.
+
+About this time the Earl of ______, the great nobleman of the district,
+and whose residence was within four miles of Grassdale, came down to pay
+his wonted yearly visit to his country domains. He was a man well known
+in the history of the times; though, for various reasons, I conceal his
+name. He was a courtier;--deep--wily--accomplished; but capable of
+generous sentiments and enlarged views. Though, from regard to his
+interests, he seized and lived as it were upon the fleeting spirit of the
+day--the penetration of his intellect went far beyond its reach. He
+claims the merit of having been the one of all his co-temporaries (Lord
+Chesterfield alone excepted), who most clearly saw, and most distinctly
+prophesied, the dark and fearful storm that at the close of the century
+burst over the vices, in order to sweep away the miseries, of France--a
+terrible avenger--a salutary purifier.
+
+From the small circle of sounding trifles, in which the dwellers of a
+court are condemned to live, and which he brightened by his abilities and
+graced by his accomplishments, the sagacious and far-sighted mind of
+Lord--comprehended the vast field without, usually invisible to those of
+his habits and profession. Men who the best know the little nucleus which
+is called the world, are often the most ignorant of mankind; but it was
+the peculiar attribute of this nobleman, that he could not only analyse
+the external customs of his species, but also penetrate their deeper and
+more hidden interests.
+
+The works, and correspondence he has left behind him, though far from
+voluminous, testify a consummate knowledge of the varieties of human
+nature The refinement of his taste appears less remarkable than the
+vigour of his understanding. It might be that he knew the vices of men
+better than their virtues; yet he was no shallow disbeliever in the
+latter: he read the heart too accurately not to know that it is guided as
+often by its affections as its interests. In his early life he had
+incurred, not without truth, the charge of licentiousness; but even in
+pursuit of pleasure, he had been neither weak on the one hand, nor gross
+on the other;--neither the headlong dupe, nor the callous sensualist: but
+his graces, his rank, his wealth, had made his conquests a matter of too
+easy purchase; and hence, like all voluptuaries, the part of his worldly
+knowledge, which was the most fallible, was that which related to the
+sex. He judged of women by a standard too distinct from that by which he
+judged of men, and considered those foibles peculiar to the sex, which in
+reality are incident to human nature.
+
+His natural disposition was grave and reflective; and though he was not
+without wit, it was rarely used. He lived, necessarily, with the
+frivolous and the ostentatious, yet ostentation and frivolity were
+charges never brought against himself. As a diplomatist and a statesman,
+he was of the old and erroneous school of intriguers; but his favourite
+policy was the science of conciliation. He was one who would so far have
+suited the present age, that no man could better have steered a nation
+from the chances of war; James the First could not have been inspired
+with a greater affection for peace; but the Peer's dexterity would have
+made that peace as honourable as the King's weakness could have made it
+degraded. Ambitious to a certain extent, but neither grasping nor mean,
+he never obtained for his genius the full and extensive field it probably
+deserved. He loved a happy life above all things; and he knew that while
+activity is the spirit, fatigue is the bane, of happiness.
+
+In his day he enjoyed a large share of that public attention which
+generally bequeaths fame; yet from several causes (of which his own
+moderation is not the least) his present reputation is infinitely less
+great than the opinions of his most distinguished cotemporaries
+foreboded.
+
+It is a more difficult matter for men of high rank to become illustrious
+to posterity, than for persons in a sterner and more wholesome walk of
+life. Even the greatest among the distinguished men of the patrician
+order, suffer in the eyes of the after-age for the very qualities, mostly
+dazzling defects, or brilliant eccentricities, which made them most
+popularly remarkable in their day. Men forgive Burns his amours and his
+revellings with greater ease than they will forgive Bolingbroke and Byron
+for the same offences.
+
+Our Earl was fond of the society of literary men; he himself was well,
+perhaps even deeply, read. Certainly his intellectual acquisitions were
+more profound than they have been generally esteemed, though with the
+common subtlety of a ready genius, he could make the quick adaptation of
+a timely fact, acquired for the occasion, appear the rich overflowing of
+a copious erudition. He was a man who instantly perceived, and liberally
+acknowledged, the merits of others. No connoisseur had a more felicitous
+knowledge of the arts, or was more just in the general objects of his
+patronage. In short, what with all his advantages, he was one whom an
+aristocracy may boast of, though a people may forget; and if not a great
+man, was at least a most remarkable lord.
+
+The Earl of--, in his last visit to his estates, had not forgotten to
+seek out the eminent scholar who shed an honour upon his neighbourhood;
+he had been greatly struck with the bearing and conversation of Aram, and
+with the usual felicity with which the accomplished Earl adapted his
+nature to those with whom he was thrown, he had succeeded in ingratiating
+himself with Aram in return. He could not indeed persuade the haughty and
+solitary Student to visit him at the castle; but the Earl did not disdain
+to seek any one from whom he could obtain instruction, and he had twice
+or thrice voluntarily encountered Aram, and effectually drawn him from
+his reserve. The Earl now heard with some pleasure, and more surprise,
+that the austere Recluse was about to be married to the beauty of the
+county, and he resolved to seize the first occasion to call at the manor-
+house to offer his compliments and congratulations to its inmates.
+
+Sensible men of rank, who, having enjoyed their dignity from their birth,
+may reasonably be expected to grow occasionally tired of it; often like
+mixing with those the most who are the least dazzled by the
+condescension; I do not mean to say, with the vulgar parvenus who mistake
+rudeness for independence;--no man forgets respect to another who knows
+the value of respect to himself; but the respect should be paid easily;
+it is not every Grand Seigneur, who like Louis XIVth., is only pleased
+when he puts those he addresses out of countenance.
+
+There was, therefore, much in the simplicity of Lester's manners, and
+those of his nieces, which rendered the family at the manor-house,
+especial favourites with Lord--; and the wealthier but less honoured
+squirearchs of the county, stiff in awkward pride, and bustling with yet
+more awkward veneration, heard with astonishment and anger of the
+numerous visits which his Lordship, in his brief sojourn at the castle,
+always contrived to pay to the Lesters, and the constant invitations,
+which they received to his most familiar festivities.
+
+Lord--was no sportsman, and one morning, when all his guests were
+engaged among the stubbles of September, he mounted his quiet palfrey,
+and gladly took his way to the Manor-house.
+
+It was towards the latter end of the month, and one of the earliest of
+the autumnal fogs hung thinly over the landscape. As the Earl wound along
+the sides of the hill on which his castle was built, the scene on which
+he gazed below received from the grey mists capriciously hovering over
+it, a dim and melancholy wildness. A broader and whiter vapour, that
+streaked the lower part of the valley, betrayed the course of the
+rivulet; and beyond, to the left, rose wan and spectral, the spire of the
+little church adjoining Lester's abode. As the horseman's eye wandered to
+this spot, the sun suddenly broke forth, and lit up as by enchantment,
+the quiet and lovely hamlet embedded, as it were, beneath,--the cottages,
+with their gay gardens and jasmined porches, the streamlet half in mist,
+half in light, while here and there columns of vapour rose above its
+surface like the chariots of the water genii, and broke into a thousand
+hues beneath the smiles of the unexpected sun: But far to the right, the
+mists around it yet unbroken, and the outline of its form only visible,
+rose the lone house of the Student, as if there the sadder spirits of the
+air yet rallied their broken armament of mist and shadow.
+
+The Earl was not a man peculiarly alive to scenery, but he now
+involuntarily checked his horse, and gazed for a few moments on the
+beautiful and singular aspect which the landscape had so suddenly
+assumed. As he so gazed, he observed in a field at some little distance,
+three or four persons gathered around a bank, and among them he thought
+he recognised the comely form of Rowland Lester. A second inspection
+convinced him that he was right in his conjecture, and, turning from the
+road through a gap in the hedge, he made towards the group in question.
+He had not proceeded far, before he saw, that the remainder of the party
+was composed of Lester's daughters, the lover of the elder, and a fourth,
+whom he recognised as a celebrated French botanist who had lately arrived
+in England, and who was now making an amateur excursion throughout the
+more attractive districts of the island.
+
+The Earl guessed rightly, that Monsieur de N--had not neglected to apply
+to Aram for assistance in a pursuit which the latter was known to have
+cultivated with such success, and that he had been conducted hither, as a
+place affording some specimen or another not unworthy of research. He
+now, giving his horse to his groom, joined the group.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER III.
+
+         WHEREIN THE EARL AND THE STUDENT CONVERSE ON GRAVE BUT
+     DELIGHTFUL MATTERS.--THE STUDENT'S NOTION OF THE ONLY EARTHLY
+                               HAPPINESS.
+
+             ARAM. If the witch Hope forbids us to be wise,
+             Yet when I turn to these--Woe's only friends,
+             And with their weird and eloquent voices calm
+             The stir and Babel of the world within,
+             I can but dream that my vex'd years at last
+             Shall find the quiet of a hermit's cell:--
+             And, neighbouring not this hacked and jaded world,
+             Beneath the lambent eyes of the loved stars,
+             And, with the hollow rocks and sparry caves,
+             The tides, and all the many-music'd winds
+
+             My oracles and co-mates;--watch my life
+             Glide down the Stream of Knowledge, and behold
+             Its waters with a musing stillness glass
+             The thousand hues of Nature and of Heaven.
+                         --From Eugene Aram, a MS. Tragedy.
+
+The Earl continued with the party he had joined; and when their
+occupation was concluded and they turned homeward, he accepted the
+Squire's frank invitation to partake of some refreshment at the Manor-
+house. It so chanced, or perhaps the Earl so contrived it, that Aram and
+himself, in their way to the village lingered a little behind the rest,
+and that their conversation was thus, for a few minutes, not altogether
+general.
+
+"Is it I, Mr. Aram?" said the Earl smiling, "or is it Fate that has made
+you a convert? The last time we sagely and quietly conferred together,
+you contended that the more the circle of existence was contracted, the
+more we clung to a state of pure and all self-dependent intellect, the
+greater our chance of happiness. Thus you denied that we were rendered
+happier by our luxuries, by our ambition, or by our affections. Love and
+its ties were banished from your solitary Utopia. And you asserted that
+the true wisdom of life lay solely in the cultivation--not of our
+feelings, but our faculties. You know, I held a different doctrine: and
+it is with the natural triumph of a hostile partizan, that I hear you are
+about to relinquish the practice of one of your dogmas;--in consequence,
+may I hope, of having forsworn the theory?"
+
+"Not so, my Lord," answered Aram, colouring slightly; "my weakness only
+proves that my theory is difficult,--not that it is wrong. I still
+venture to think it true. More pain than pleasure is occasioned us by
+others--banish others, and you are necessarily the gainer. Mental
+activity and moral quietude are the two states which, were they perfected
+and united, would constitute perfect happiness. It is such a union which
+constitutes all we imagine of Heaven, or conceive of the majestic
+felicity of a God."
+
+"Yet, while you are on earth you will be (believe me) happier in the
+state you are about to choose," said the Earl. "Who could look at that
+enchanting face (the speaker directed his eyes towards Madeline) and not
+feel that it gave a pledge of happiness that could not be broken?"
+
+It was not in the nature of Aram to like any allusion to himself, and
+still less to his affections: he turned aside his head, and remained
+silent: the wary Earl discovered his indiscretion immediately.
+
+"But let us put aside individual cases," said he,--"the meum and the tuum
+forbid all argument:--and confess, that there is for the majority of
+human beings a greater happiness in love than in the sublime state of
+passionless intellect to which you would so chillingly exalt us. Has not
+Cicero said wisely, that we ought no more to subject too slavishly our
+affections, than to elevate them too imperiously into our masters? Neque
+se nimium erigere, nec subjacere serviliter."
+
+"Cicero loved philosophizing better than philosophy," said Aram, coldly;
+"but surely, my Lord, the affections give us pain as well as pleasure.
+The doubt, the dread, the restlessness of love,--surely these prevent
+the passion from constituting a happy state of mind; to me one knowledge
+alone seems sufficient to embitter all its enjoyments,--the knowledge
+that the object beloved must die. What a perpetuity of fear that
+knowledge creates! The avalanche that may crush us depends upon a single
+breath!"
+
+"Is not that too refined a sentiment? Custom surely blunts us to every
+chance, every danger, that may happen to us hourly. Were the avalanche
+over you for a day,--I grant your state of torture,--but had an avalanche
+rested over you for years, and not yet fallen, you would forget that it
+could ever fall; you would eat, sleep, and make love, as if it were not!"
+
+"Ha! my Lord, you say well--you say well," said Aram, with a marked
+change of countenance; and, quickening his pace, he joined Lester's side,
+and the thread of the previous conversation was broken off.
+
+The Earl afterwards, in walking through the gardens (an excursion which
+he proposed himself, for he was somewhat of an horticulturist), took an
+opportunity to renew the subject.
+
+"You will pardon me," said he, "but I cannot convince myself that man
+would be happier were he without emotions; and that to enjoy life he
+should be solely dependant on himself!"
+
+"Yet it seems to me," said Aram, "a truth easy of proof; if we love, we
+place our happiness in others. The moment we place our happiness in
+others, comes uncertainty, but uncertainty is the bane of happiness.
+Children are the source of anxiety to their parents;--his mistress to the
+lover. Change, accident, death, all menace us in each person whom we
+regard. Every new tie opens new channels by which grief can invade us;
+but, you will say, by which joy also can flow in;--granted! But in human
+life is there not more grief than joy? What is it that renders the
+balance even? What makes the staple of our happiness,--endearing to us
+the life at which we should otherwise repine? It is the mere passive, yet
+stirring, consciousness of life itself!--of the sun and the air of the
+physical being; but this consciousness every emotion disturbs. Yet could
+you add to its tranquillity an excitement that never exhausts itself,--
+that becomes refreshed, not sated, with every new possession, then you
+would obtain happiness. There is only one excitement of this divine
+order,--that of intellectual culture. Behold now my theory! Examine it--
+it contains no flaw. But if," renewed Aram, after a pause, "a man is
+subject to fate solely in himself, not in others, he soon hardens his
+mind against all fear, and prepares it for all events. A little
+philosophy enables him to bear bodily pain, or the common infirmities of
+flesh: by a philosophy somewhat deeper, he can conquer the ordinary
+reverses of fortune, the dread of shame, and the last calamity of death.
+But what philosophy could ever thoroughly console him for the ingratitude
+of a friend, the worthlessness of a child, the death of a mistress?
+Hence, only when he stands alone, can a man's soul say to Fate, 'I defy
+thee.'"
+
+"You think then," said the Earl, reluctantly diverting the conversation
+into a new channel "that in the pursuit of knowledge lies our only active
+road to real happiness. Yet here how eternal must be the disappointments
+even of the most successful! Does not Boyle tell us of a man who, after
+devoting his whole life to the study of one mineral, confessed himself,
+at last, ignorant of all its properties?"
+
+"Had the object of his study been himself, and not the mineral, he would
+not have been so unsuccessful a student," said Aram, smiling. "Yet,"
+added he, in a graver tone, "we do indeed cleave the vast heaven of Truth
+with a weak and crippled wing: and often we are appalled in our way by a
+dread sense of the immensity around us, and of the inadequacy of our own
+strength. But there is a rapture in the breath of the pure and difficult
+air, and in the progress by which we compass earth, the while we draw
+nearer to the stars,--that again exalts us beyond ourselves, and
+reconciles the true student unto all things,--even to the hardest of them
+all,--the conviction how feebly our performance can ever imitate the
+grandeur of our ambition! As you see the spark fly upward,--sometimes not
+falling to earth till it be dark and quenched,--thus soars, whither it
+recks not, so that the direction be above, the luminous spirit of him who
+aspires to Truth; nor will it back to the vile and heavy clay from which
+it sprang, until the light which bore it upward be no more!"
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER IV.
+
+      A DEEPER EXAMINATION INTO THE STUDENT'S HEART.--THE VISIT TO
+               THE CASTLE.--PHILOSOPHY PUT TO THE TRIAL.
+
+                   I weigh not fortune's frown or smile,
+                      I joy not much in earthly joys,
+                   I seek not state, I seek not stile,
+                      I am not fond of fancy's toys;
+                   I rest so pleased with what I have,
+                   I wish no more, no more I crave.
+                                --Joshua Sylvester.
+
+The reader must pardon me, if I somewhat clog his interest in my tale by
+the brief conversations I have given, and must for a short while cast
+myself on his indulgence and renew. It is not only the history of his
+life, but the character and tone of Aram's mind, that I wish to stamp
+upon my page. Fortunately, however, the path my story assumes is of such
+a nature, that in order to effect this object, I shall never have to
+desert, and scarcely again even to linger by, the way.
+
+Every one knows the magnificent moral of Goethe's "Faust!" Every one
+knows that sublime discontent--that chafing at the bounds of human
+knowledge--that yearning for the intellectual Paradise beyond, which "the
+sworded angel" forbids us to approach--that daring, yet sorrowful state
+of mind--that sense of defeat, even in conquest, which Goethe has
+embodied,--a picture of the loftiest grief of which the soul is capable,
+and which may remind us of the profound and august melancholy which the
+Great Sculptor breathed into the repose of the noblest of mythological
+heroes, when he represented the God resting after his labours, as if more
+convinced of their vanity than elated with their extent!
+
+In this portrait, the grandeur of which the wild scenes that follow in
+the drama we refer to, do not (strangely wonderful as they are) perhaps
+altogether sustain, Goethe has bequeathed to the gaze of a calmer and
+more practical posterity, the burning and restless spirit--the feverish
+desire for knowledge more vague than useful, which characterised the
+exact epoch in the intellectual history of Germany, in which the poem was
+inspired and produced.
+
+At these bitter waters, the Marah of the streams of Wisdom, the soul of
+the man whom we have made the hero of these pages, had also, and not
+lightly, quaffed. The properties of a mind, more calm and stern than
+belonged to the visionaries of the Hartz and the Danube, might indeed
+have preserved him from that thirst after the impossibilities of
+knowledge, which gives so peculiar a romance, not only to the poetry, but
+the philosophy of the German people. But if he rejected the
+superstitions, he did not also reject the bewilderments of the mind. He
+loved to plunge into the dark and metaphysical subtleties which human
+genius has called daringly forth from the realities of things:--
+
+                                "To spin
+
+             A shroud of thought, to hide him from the sun
+
+             Of this familiar life, which seems to be,
+
+             But is not--or is but quaint mockery
+
+             Of all we would believe;--or sadly blame
+
+             The jarring and inexplicable frame
+
+             Of this wrong world: and then anatomize
+
+             The purposes and thoughts of man, whose eyes
+
+             Were closed in distant years; or widely guess
+
+             The issue of the earth's great business,
+
+             When we shall be, as we no longer are,
+
+             Like babbling gossips, safe, who hear the war
+
+             Of winds, and sigh!--but tremble not!"
+
+Much in him was a type, or rather forerunner, of the intellectual spirit
+that broke forth when we were children, among our countrymen, and is now
+slowly dying away amidst the loud events and absorbing struggles of the
+awakening world. But in one respect he stood aloof from all his tribe--in
+his hard indifference to worldly ambition, and his contempt of fame. As
+some sages have seemed to think the universe a dream, and self the only
+reality, so in his austere and collected reliance upon his own mind--the
+gathering in, as it were, of his resources, he appeared to consider the
+pomps of the world as shadows, and the life of his own spirit the only
+substance. He had built a city and a tower within the Shinar of his own
+heart, whence he might look forth, unscathed and unmoved, upon the deluge
+that broke over the rest of earth.
+
+Only in one instance, and that, as we have seen, after much struggle, he
+had given way to the emotions that agitate his kind, and had surrendered
+himself to the dominion of another. This was against his theories--but
+what theories ever resist love? In yielding, however, thus far, he seemed
+more on his guard than ever against a broader encroachment. He had
+admitted one 'fair spirit' for his 'minister,' but it was only with a
+deeper fervour to invoke 'the desert' as 'his dwelling-place.' Thus, when
+the Earl, who, like most practical judges of mankind, loved to apply to
+each individual the motives that actuate the mass, and who only
+unwillingly, and somewhat sceptically, assented to the exceptions, and
+was driven to search for peculiar clues to the eccentric instance,--
+finding, to his secret triumph, that Aram had admitted one intruding
+emotion into his boasted circle of indifference, imagined that he should
+easily induce him (the spell once broken) to receive another, he was
+surprised and puzzled to discover himself in the wrong.
+
+Lord--at that time had been lately called into the administration, and he
+was especially anxious to secure the support of all the talent that he
+could enlist in its behalf. The times were those in which party ran high,
+and in which individual political writings were honoured with an
+importance which the periodical press in general has now almost wholly
+monopolized. On the side opposed to Government, writers of great name and
+high attainments had shone with peculiar effect, and the Earl was
+naturally desirous that they should be opposed by an equal array of
+intellect on the side espoused by himself. The name alone of Eugene Aram,
+at a day when scholarship was renown, would have been no ordinary
+acquisition to the cause of the Earl's party; but that judicious and
+penetrating nobleman perceived that Aram's abilities, his various
+research, his extended views, his facility of argument, and the heat and
+energy of his eloquence, might be rendered of an importance which could
+not have been anticipated from the name alone, however eminent, of a
+retired and sedentary scholar; he was not therefore without an interested
+motive in the attentions he now lavished upon the Student, and in his
+curiosity to put to the proof the disdain of all worldly enterprise and
+worldly temptation, which Aram affected. He could not but think, that to
+a man poor and lowly of circumstance, conscious of superior acquirements,
+about to increase his wants by admitting to them a partner, and arrived
+at that age when the calculations of interest and the whispers of
+ambition have usually most weight;--he could not but think that to such
+a man the dazzling prospects of social advancement, the hope of the high
+fortunes, and the powerful and glittering influence which political life,
+in England, offers to the aspirant, might be rendered altogether
+irresistible.
+
+He took several opportunities in the course of the next week, of renewing
+his conversation with Aram, and of artfully turning it into the channels
+which he thought most likely to produce the impression he desired to
+create. He was somewhat baffled, but by no means dispirited, in his
+attempts; but he resolved to defer his ultimate proposition until it
+could be made to the fullest advantage. He had engaged the Lesters to
+promise to pass a day at the castle; and with great difficulty, and at
+the earnest intercession of Madeline, Aram was prevailed upon to
+accompany them. So extreme was his distaste to general society, and, from
+some motive or another more powerful than mere constitutional reserve, so
+invariably had he for years refused all temptations to enter it, that
+natural as this concession was rendered by his approaching marriage to
+one of the party, it filled him with a sort of terror and foreboding of
+evil. It was as if he were passing beyond the boundary of some law, on
+which the very tenure of his existence depended. After he had consented,
+a trembling came over him; he hastily left the room, and till the day
+arrived, was observed by his friends of the Manor-house to be more gloomy
+and abstracted than they ever had known him, even at the earliest period
+of acquaintance.
+
+On the day itself, as they proceeded to the castle, Madeline perceived
+with a tearful repentance of her interference, that he sate by her side
+cold and rapt; and that once or twice when his eyes dwelt upon her, it
+was with an expression of reproach and distrust.
+
+It was not till they entered the lofty hall of the castle, when a vulgar
+diffidence would have been most abashed, that Aram recovered himself. The
+Earl was standing--the centre of a group in the recess of a window in the
+saloon, opening upon an extensive and stately terrace. He came forward to
+receive them with the polished and warm kindness which he bestowed upon
+al his inferiors in rank. He complimented the sisters; he jested with
+Lester; but to Aram only, he manifested less the courtesy of kindness
+than of respect. He took his arm, and leaning on it with a light touch,
+led him to the group at the window. It was composed of the most
+distinguished public men in the country, and among them (the Earl himself
+was connected through an illegitimate branch with the reigning monarch,)
+was a prince of the blood royal.
+
+To these, whom he had prepared for the introduction, he severally, and
+with an easy grace, presented Aram, and then falling back a few steps, he
+watched with a keen but seemingly careless eye, the effect which so
+sudden a contact with royalty itself would produce on the mind of the shy
+and secluded Student, whom it was his object to dazzle and overpower. It
+was at this moment that the native dignity of Aram, which his studies,
+unworldly as they were, had certainly tended to increase, displayed
+itself, in a trial which, poor as it was in abstract theory, was far from
+despicable in the eyes of the sensible and practised courtier. He
+received with his usual modesty, but not with his usual shrinking and
+embarrassment on such occasions, the compliments he received; a certain
+and far from ungraceful pride was mingled with his simplicity of
+demeanour; no fluttering of manner, betrayed that he was either dazzled
+or humbled by the presence in which he stood, and the Earl could not but
+confess that there was never a more favourable opportunity for comparing
+the aristocracy of genius with that of birth; it was one of those homely
+every-day triumphs of intellect, which please us more than they ought to
+do, for, after all, they are more common than the men of courts are
+willing to believe.
+
+Lord--did not however long leave Aram to the support of his own
+unassisted presence of mind and calmness of nerve; he advanced, and led
+the conversation, with his usual tact, into a course which might at once
+please Aram, and afford him the opportunity to shine. The Earl had
+imported from Italy some of the most beautiful specimens of classic
+sculpture which this country now possesses. These were disposed in niches
+around the magnificent apartment in which the guest were assembled, and
+as the Earl pointed them out, and illustrated each from the beautiful
+anecdotes and golden allusions of antiquity, he felt that he was
+affording to Aram a gratification he could never have experienced before;
+and in the expression of which, the grace and copiousness of his learning
+would find vent. Nor was he disappointed. The cheek, which till then had
+retained its steady paleness, now caught the glow of enthusiasm; and in a
+few moments there was not a person in the group, who did not feel, and
+cheerfully feel, the superiority of the one who, in birth and fortune,
+was immeasureably the lowest of all.
+
+The English aristocracy, whatever be the faults of their education, (and
+certainly the name of the faults is legion!) have at least the merit of
+being alive to the possession, and easily warmed to the possessor, of
+classical attainment: perhaps even from this very merit spring many of
+the faults we allude to; they are too apt to judge all talent by a
+classical standard, and all theory by classical experience. Without,--
+save in very rare instances,--the right to boast of any deep learning,
+they are far more susceptible than the nobility of any other nation to
+the spiritum Camoenae. They are easily and willingly charmed back to the
+studies which, if not eagerly pursued in youth, are still entwined with
+all their youth's brightest recollections; the schoolboy's prize, and the
+master's praise,--the first ambition, and its first reward. A felicitous
+quotation, a delicate allusion, is never lost upon their ear; and the
+veneration which at Eton they bore to the best verse-maker in the school,
+tinctures their judgment of others throughout life, mixing I know not
+what, both of liking and esteem, with their admiration of one who uses
+his classical weapons with a scholar's dexterity, not a pedant's
+inaptitude: for such a one there is a sort of agreeable confusion in
+their respect; they are inclined, unconsciously, to believe that he must
+necessarily be a high gentleman--ay, and something of a good fellow into
+the bargain.
+
+It happened then that Aram could not have dwelt upon a theme more likely
+to arrest the spontaneous interest of those with whom he now conversed--
+men themselves of more cultivated minds than usual, and more capable than
+most (from that acute perception of real talent, which is produced by
+habitual political warfare,) of appreciating not only his endowments, but
+his facility in applying them.
+
+"You are right, my Lord," said Sir--, the whipper-in of the--party,
+taking the Earl aside; "he would be an inestimable pamphleteer."
+
+"Could you get him to write us a sketch of the state of parties;
+luminous, eloquent?'" whispered a lord of the bed-chamber.
+
+The Earl answered by a bon mot, and turned to a bust of Caracalla.
+
+The hours at that time were (in the country at least) not late, and the
+Earl was one of the first introducers of the polished fashion of France,
+by which we testify a preference of the society of the women to that of
+our own sex; so that, in leaving the dining-room, it was not so late but
+that the greater part of the guests walked out upon the terrace, and
+admired the expanse of country which it overlooked, and along which the
+thin veil of the twilight began now to hover.
+
+Having safely deposited his royal guest at a whist table, and thus left
+himself a free agent, the Earl, inviting Aram to join him, sauntered
+among the loiterers on the terrace for a few moments, and then descended
+a broad flight of steps, which brought them into a more shaded and
+retired walk; on either side of which rows of orange-trees gave forth
+their fragrance, while, to the right, sudden and numerous vistas were cut
+among the more irregular and dense foliage, affording glimpses--now of
+some rustic statue--now of some lone temple--now of some quaint fountain,
+on the play of whose waters the first stars had begun to tremble.
+
+It was one of those magnificent gardens, modelled from the stately
+glories of Versailles, which it is now the mode to decry, but which
+breathe so unequivocally of the Palace. I grant that they deck Nature
+with somewhat too prolix a grace; but is beauty always best seen in
+deshabille? And with what associations of the brightest traditions
+connected with Nature they link her more luxuriant loveliness! Must we
+breathe only the malaria of Rome to be capable of feeling the interest
+attached to the fountain or the statue?
+
+"I am glad," said the Earl, "that you admired my bust of Cicero--it is
+from an original very lately discovered. What grandeur in the brow!--
+what energy in the mouth, and downward bend of the head! It is pleasant
+even to imagine we gaze upon the likeness of so bright a spirit;--and
+confess, at least of Cicero, that in reading the aspirations and
+outpourings of his mind, you have felt your apathy to Fame melting away;
+you have shared the desire to live to the future age,--'the longing after
+immortality?"
+
+"Was it not that longing," replied Aram, "which gave to the character of
+Cicero its poorest and most frivolous infirmity? Has it not made him,
+glorious as he is despite of it, a byword in the mouths of every
+schoolboy? Wherever you mention his genius, do you not hear an appendix
+on his vanity?"
+
+"Yet without that vanity, that desire for a name with posterity, would he
+have been equally great--would he equally have cultivated his genius?"
+
+"Probably, my Lord, he would not have equally cultivated his genius, but
+in reality he might have been equally great. A man often injures his mind
+by the means that increase his genius. You think this, my Lord, a
+paradox, but examine it. How many men of genius have been but ordinary
+men, take them from the particular objects in which they shine. Why is
+this, but that in cultivating one branch of intellect they neglect the
+rest? Nay, the very torpor of the reasoning faculty has often kindled the
+imaginative. Lucretius composed his sublime poem under the influence of a
+delirium. The susceptibilities that we create or refine by the pursuit of
+one object, weaken our general reason; and I may compare with some
+justice the powers of the mind to the faculties of the body, in which
+squinting is occasioned by an inequality of strength in the eyes, and
+discordance of voice by the same inequality in the ears."
+
+"I believe you are right," said the Earl; "yet I own I willingly forgive
+Cicero for his vanity, if it contributed to the production of his
+orations and his essays; and he is a greater man, even with his vanity
+unconquered, than if he had conquered his foible, and in doing so taken
+away the incitements to his genius."
+
+"A greater man in the world's eye, my Lord, but scarcely in reality. Had
+Homer written his Iliad and then burnt it, would his genius have been
+less? The world would have known nothing of him, but would he have been a
+less extraordinary man on that account? We are too apt, my Lord, to
+confound greatness and fame.
+
+"There is one circumstance," added Aram, after a pause, "that should
+diminish our respect for renown. Errors of life, as well as foibles of
+characters, are often the real enhancers of celebrity. Without his
+errors, I doubt whether Henri Quatre would have become the idol of a
+people. How many Whartons has the world known, who, deprived of their
+frailties, had been inglorious! The light that you so admire, reaches you
+only through the distance of time, on account of the angles and
+unevenness of the body whence it emanates. Were the surface of the moon
+smooth, it would be invisible."
+
+"I admire your illustrations," said the Earl; "but I reluctantly submit
+to your reasonings. You would then neglect your powers, lest they should
+lead you into errors?"
+
+"Pardon me, my Lord; it is because I think all the powers should be
+cultivated, that I quarrel with the exclusive cultivation of one. And it
+is only because I would strengthen the whole mind that I dissent from the
+reasonings of those who tell you to consult your genius."
+
+"But your genius may serve mankind more than this general cultivation of
+intellect?"
+
+"My Lord," replied Aram, with a mournful cloud upon his countenance;
+"that argument may have weight with those who think mankind can be
+effectually served, though they may be often dazzled, by the labours of
+an individual. But, indeed, this perpetual talk of 'mankind' signifies
+nothing: each of us consults his proper happiness, and we consider him a
+madman who ruins his own peace of mind by an everlasting fretfulness of
+philanthropy."
+
+This was a doctrine that half pleased, half displeased the Earl--it
+shadowed forth the most dangerous notions which Aram entertained.
+
+"Well, well," said the noble host, as, after a short contest on the
+ground of his guest's last remark, they left off where they began, "Let
+us drop these general discussions: I have a particular proposition to
+unfold. We have, I trust, Mr. Aram, seen enough of each other, to feel
+that we can lay a sure foundation for mutual esteem. For my part, I own
+frankly, that I have never met with one who has inspired me with a
+sincerer admiration. I am desirous that your talents and great learning
+should be known in the widest sphere. You may despise fame, but you must
+permit your friends the weakness to wish you justice, and themselves
+triumph. You know my post in the present administration--the place of my
+secretary is one of great trust--some influence, and large emolument. I
+offer it to you--accept it, and you will confer upon me an honour and an
+obligation. You will have your own separate house, or apartments in mine,
+solely appropriated to your use. Your privacy will never be disturbed.
+Every arrangement shall be made for yourself and your bride, that either
+of you can suggest. Leisure for your own pursuits you will have, too, in
+abundance--there are others who will perform all that is toilsome in your
+office. In London, you will see around you the most eminent living men of
+all nations, and in all pursuits. If you contract, (which believe me is
+possible--it is a tempting game,) any inclination towards public life,
+you will have the most brilliant opportunities afforded you, and I
+foretell you the most signal success. Stay yet one moment:--for this you
+will owe me no thanks. Were I not sensible that I consult my own
+interests in this proposal, I should be courtier enough to suppress it."
+
+"My Lord," said Aram, in a voice which, in spite of its calmness,
+betrayed that he was affected, "it seldom happens to a man of my secluded
+habits, and lowly pursuits, to have the philosophy he affects put to so
+severe a trial. I am grateful to you--deeply grateful for an offer so
+munificent--so undeserved. I am yet more grateful that it allows me to
+sound the strength of my own heart, and to find that I did not too highly
+rate it. Look, my Lord, from the spot where we now stand" (the moon had
+risen, and they had now returned to the terrace): "in the vale below, and
+far among those trees, lies my home. More than two years ago, I came
+thither, to fix the resting-place of a sad and troubled spirit. There
+have I centered all my wishes and my hopes; and there may I breathe my
+last! My Lord, you will not think me ungrateful, that my choice is made;
+and you will not blame my motive, though you may despise my wisdom."
+
+"But," said the Earl astonished, "you cannot foresee all the advantages
+you would renounce. At your age--with your intellect--to choose the
+living sepulchre of a hermitage--it was wise to reconcile yourself to it,
+but not to prefer it! Nay, nay; consider--pause. I am in no haste for
+your decision; and what advantages have you in your retreat, that you
+will not possess in a greater degree with me? Quiet?--I pledge it to you
+under my roof. Solitude?--you shall have it at your will. Books?--what
+are those which you, which any individual possesses, to the public
+institutions, the magnificent collections, of the metropolis? What else
+is it you enjoy yonder, and cannot enjoy with me?"
+
+"Liberty!" said Aram energetically.--"Liberty! the wild sense of
+independence. Could I exchange the lonely stars and the free air, for the
+poor lights and feverish atmosphere of worldly life? Could I surrender my
+mood, with its thousand eccentricities and humours--its cloud and shadow-
+-to the eyes of strangers, or veil it from their gaze by the irksomeness
+of an eternal hypocrisy? No, my Lord! I am too old to turn disciple to
+the world! You promise me solitude and quiet. What charm would they have
+for me, if I felt they were held from the generosity of another? The
+attraction of solitude is only in its independence. You offer me the
+circle, but not the magic which made it holy. Books! They, years since,
+would have tempted me; but those whose wisdom I have already drained,
+have taught me now almost enough: and the two Books, whose interest can
+never be exhausted--Nature and my own Heart--will suffice for the rest of
+life. My Lord, I require no time for consideration."
+
+"And you positively refuse me?"
+
+"Gratefully refuse you."
+
+The Earl walked peevishly away for one moment; but it was not in his
+nature to lose himself for more.
+
+"Mr. Aram," said he frankly, and holding out his hand; "you have chosen
+nobly, if not wisely; and though I cannot forgive you for depriving me of
+such a companion, I thank you for teaching me such a lesson. Henceforth,
+I will believe, that philosophy may exist in practice; and that a
+contempt for wealth and for honours, is not the mere profession of
+discontent. This is the first time, in a various and experienced life,
+that I have found a man sincerely deaf to the temptations of the world,--
+and that man of such endowments! If ever you see cause to alter a theory
+that I still think erroneous, though lofty--remember me; and at all
+times, and on all occasions," he added, with a smile, "when a friend
+becomes a necessary evil, call to mind our starlit walk on the castle
+terrace."
+
+Aram did not mention to Lester, or even Madeline, the above conversation.
+The whole of the next day he shut himself up at home; and when he again
+appeared at the Manor-house, he heard with evident satisfaction that the
+Earl had been suddenly summoned on state affairs to London.
+
+There was an unaccountable soreness in Aram's mind, which made him feel a
+resentment--a suspicion against all who sought to lure him from his
+retreat. "Thank Heaven!" thought he, when he heard of the Earl's
+departure; "we shall not meet for another year!" He was mistaken.--
+Another year!
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER V.
+
+      IN WHICH THE STORY RETURNS TO WALTER AND THE CORPORAL.--THE
+      RENCONTRE WITH A STRANGER, AND HOW THE STRANGER PROVES TO BE
+                       NOT ALTOGETHER A STRANGER.
+
+           Being got out of town in the road to Penaflor, master of my own
+           action, and forty good ducats; the first thing I did was to
+           give my mule her head, and to go at what pace she pleased.
+                          . . . . . . . . . . . . .
+           I left them in the inn, and continued my journey; I was hardly
+           got half-a-mile farther, when I met a cavalier very genteel,
+                                        --Gil Blas.
+
+It was broad and sunny noon on the second day of their journey, as Walter
+Lester, and the valorous attendant with whom it had pleased Fate to endow
+him, rode slowly into a small town in which the Corporal in his own
+heart, had resolved to bait his roman-nosed horse and refresh himself.
+Two comely inns had the younger traveller of the twain already passed
+with an indifferent air, as if neither bait nor refreshment made any part
+of the necessary concerns of this habitable world. And in passing each of
+the said hostelries, the roman-nosed horse had uttered a snort of
+indignant surprise, and the worthy Corporal had responded to the
+quadrupedal remonstrance by a loud hem. It seemed, however, that Walter
+heard neither of the above significant admonitions; and now the town was
+nearly passed, and a steep hill that seemed winding away into eternity,
+already presented itself to the rueful gaze of the Corporal.
+
+"The boy's clean mad," grunted Bunting to himself--"must do my duty to
+him--give him a hint."
+
+Pursuant to this notable and conscientious determination, Bunting jogged
+his horse into a trot, and coming alongside of Walter, put his hand to
+his hat and said:
+
+"Weather warm, your honour--horses knocked up--next town far as hell!--
+halt a bit here--augh!"
+
+"Ha! that is very true, Bunting; I had quite forgotten the length of our
+journey. But see, there is a sign-post yonder, we will take advantage of
+it."
+
+"Augh! and your honour's right--fit for the forty-second;" said the
+Corporal, falling back; and in a few moments he and his charger found
+themselves, to their mutual delight, entering the yard of a small, but
+comfortable-looking inn.
+
+The Host, a man of a capacious stomach and a rosy cheek--in short, a host
+whom your heart warms to see, stepped forth immediately, held the stirrup
+for the young Squire, (for the Corporal's movements were too stately to
+be rapid,) and ushered him with a bow, a smile, and a flourish of his
+napkin, into one of those little quaint rooms, with cupboards bright with
+high glasses and old china, that it pleases us still to find extant in
+the old-fashioned inns, in our remoter roads and less Londonized
+districts.
+
+Mine host was an honest fellow, and not above his profession; he stirred
+the fire, dusted the table, brought the bill of fare, and a newspaper
+seven days old, and then bustled away to order the dinner and chat with
+the Corporal. That accomplished hero had already thrown the stables into
+commotion, and frightening the two ostlers from their attendance on the
+steeds of more peaceable men, had set them both at leading his own horse
+and his master's to and fro' the yard, to be cooled into comfort and
+appetite.
+
+He was now busy in the kitchen, where he had seized the reins of
+government, sent the scullion to see if the hens had laid any fresh eggs,
+and drawn upon himself the objurgations of a very thin cook with a
+squint.
+
+"Tell you, ma'am, you are wrong--quite wrong--have seen the world--old
+soldier--and know how to fry eggs better than any she in the three
+kingdoms--hold jaw--mind your own business--where's the frying-pan?--
+baugh!"
+
+So completely did the Corporal feel himself in his element, while he was
+putting everybody else out of the way; and so comfortable did he find his
+new quarters, that he resolved that the "bait" should be at all events
+prolonged until his good cheer had been deliberately digested, and his
+customary pipe duly enjoyed.
+
+Accordingly, but not till Walter had dined, for our man of the world knew
+that it is the tendency of that meal to abate our activity, while it
+increases our good humour, the Corporal presented himself to his master,
+with a grave countenance.
+
+"Greatly vexed, your honour--who'd have thought it?--but those large
+animals are bad on long march."
+
+"Why what's the matter now, Bunting?"
+
+"Only, Sir, that the brown horse is so done up, that I think it would be
+as much as life's worth to go any farther for several hours."
+
+"Very well, and if I propose staying here till the evening?--we have
+ridden far, and are in no great hurry."
+
+"To be sure not--sure and certain not," cried the Corporal. "Ah, Master,
+you know how to command, I see. Nothing like discretion--discretion, Sir,
+is a jewel. Sir, it is more than jewel--it's a pair of stirrups!"
+
+"A what? Bunting."
+
+"Pair of stirrups, your honour. Stirrups help us to get on, so does
+discretion; to get off, ditto discretion. Men without stirrups look fine,
+ride bold, tire soon: men without discretion cut dash, but knock up all
+of a crack. Stirrups--but what sinnifies? Could say much more, your
+honour, but don't love chatter."
+
+"Your simile is ingenious enough, if not poetical," said Walter; "but it
+does not hold good to the last. When a man falls, his discretion should
+preserve him; but he is often dragged in the mud by his stirrups."
+
+"Beg pardon--you're wrong," quoth the Corporal, nothing taken by
+surprise; "spoke of the new-fangled stirrups that open, crank, when we
+fall, and let us out of the scrape." [Note: Of course the Corporal does
+not speak of the patent stirrup: that would be an anachronism.]
+
+Satisfied with this repartee, the Corporal now (like an experienced
+jester) withdrew to leave its full effect on the admiration of his
+master. A little before sunset the two travellers renewed their journey.
+
+"I have loaded the pistols, Sir," said the Corporal, pointing to the
+holsters on Walter's saddle. "It is eighteen miles off to the next town--
+will be dark long before we get there."
+
+"You did very right, Bunting, though I suppose there is not much danger
+to be apprehended from the gentlemen of the highway."
+
+"Why the Landlord do say the revarse, your honour,--been many robberies
+lately in these here parts."
+
+"Well, we are fairly mounted, and you are a formidable-looking fellow,
+Bunting."
+
+"Oh! your honour," quoth the Corporal, turning his head stiffly away,
+with a modest simper, "You makes me blush; though, indeed, bating that I
+have the military air, and am more in the prime of life, your honour is
+well nigh as awkward a gentleman as myself to come across."
+
+"Much obliged for the compliment!" said Walter, pushing his horse a
+little forward--the Corporal took the hint and fell back.
+
+It was now that beautiful hour of twilight when lovers grow especially
+tender. The young traveller every instant threw his dark eyes upward, and
+thought--not of Madeline, but her sister. The Corporal himself grew
+pensive, and in a few moments his whole soul was absorbed in
+contemplating the forlorn state of the abandoned Jacobina.
+
+In this melancholy and silent mood, they proceeded onward till the shades
+began to deepen; and by the light of the first stars Walter beheld a
+small, spare gentleman riding before him on an ambling nag, with cropped
+ears and mane. The rider, as he now came up to him, seemed to have passed
+the grand climacteric, but looked hale and vigorous; and there was a
+certain air of staid and sober aristocracy about him, which involuntarily
+begat your respect.
+
+He looked hard at Walter as the latter approached, and still more hard at
+the Corporal. He seemed satisfied with the survey.
+
+"Sir," said he, slightly touching his hat to Walter, and with an
+agreeable though rather sharp intonation of voice, "I am very glad to see
+a gentleman of your appearance travelling my road. Might I request the
+honour of being allowed to join you so far as you go? To say the truth, I
+am a little afraid of encountering those industrious gentlemen who have
+been lately somewhat notorious in these parts; and it may be better for
+all of us to ride in as strong a party as possible."
+
+"Sir," replied Walter, eyeing in his turn the speaker, and in his turn
+also feeling satisfied with the scrutiny, "I am going to--, where I shall
+pass the night on my way to town; and shall be very happy in your
+company."
+
+The Corporal uttered a loud hem; that penetrating man of the world was
+not too well pleased with the advances of a stranger.
+
+"What fools them boys be!" thought he, very discontentedly; "howsomever,
+the man does seem like a decent country gentleman, and we are two to one:
+besides, he's old, little, and--augh, baugh--I dare say, we are safe
+enough, for all he can do."
+
+The Stranger possessed a polished and well-bred demeanour; he talked
+freely and copiously, and his conversation was that of a shrewd and
+cultivated man. He informed Walter that, not only the roads had been
+infested by those more daring riders common at that day, and to whose
+merits we ourselves have endeavoured to do justice in a former work of
+blessed memory, but that several houses had been lately attempted, and
+two absolutely plundered.
+
+"For myself," he added, "I have no money, to signify, about my person: my
+watch is only valuable to me for the time it has been in my possession;
+and if the rogues robbed one civilly, I should not so much mind
+encountering them; but they are a desperate set, and use violence when
+there is nothing to be got by it. Have you travelled far to-day, Sir?"
+
+"Some six or seven-and-twenty miles," replied Walter. "I am proceeding to
+London, and not willing to distress my horses by too rapid a journey."
+
+"Very right, very good; and horses, Sir, are not now what they used to be
+when I was a young man. Ah, what wagers I used to win then! Horses
+galloped, Sir, when I was twenty; they trotted when I was thirty-five;
+but they only amble now. Sir, if it does not tax your patience too
+severely, let us give our nags some hay and water at the half-way house
+yonder."
+
+Walter assented; they stopped at a little solitary inn by the side of the
+road, and the host came out with great obsequiousness when he heard the
+voice of Walter's companion.
+
+"Ah, Sir Peter!" said he, "and how be'st your honour--fine night, Sir
+Peter--hope you'll get home safe, Sir Peter."
+
+"Safe--ay! indeed, Jock, I hope so too. Has all been quiet here this last
+night or two?"
+
+"Whish, Sir!" whispered my host, jerking his thumb back towards the
+house; "there be two ugly customers within I does not know: they have got
+famous good horses, and are drinking hard. I can't say as I knows any
+thing agen 'em, but I think your honours had better be jogging."
+
+"Aha! thank ye, Jock, thank ye. Never mind the hay now," said Sir Peter,
+pulling away the reluctant mouth of his nag; and turning to Walter,
+"Come, Sir, let us move on. Why, zounds! where is that servant of yours?"
+
+Walter now perceived, with great vexation, that the Corporal had
+disappeared within the alehouse; and looking through the casement, on
+which the ruddy light of the fire played cheerily, he saw the man of the
+world lifting a little measure of "the pure creature" to his lips; and
+close by the hearth, at a small, round table, covered with glasses,
+pipes, he beheld two men eyeing the tall Corporal very wistfully, and of
+no prepossessing appearance themselves. One, indeed, as the fire played
+full on his countenance, was a person of singularly rugged and sinister
+features; and this man, he now remarked, was addressing himself with a
+grim smile to the Corporal, who, setting down his little "noggin,"
+regarded him with a stare, which appeared to Walter to denote
+recognition. This survey was the operation of a moment; for Sir Peter
+took it upon himself to despatch the landlord into the house, to order
+forth the unseasonable carouser; and presently the Corporal stalked out,
+and having solemnly remounted, the whole trio set onward in a brisk trot.
+As soon as they were without sight of the ale-house, the Corporal brought
+the aquiline profile of his gaunt steed on a level with his master's
+horse.
+
+"Augh, Sir!" said he, with more than his usual energy of utterance, "I
+see'd him!"
+
+"Him! whom?"
+
+"Man with ugly face what drank at Peter Dealtry's, and knew Master Aram,-
+-knew him in a crack,--sure he's a Tartar!"
+
+"What! does your servant recognize one of those suspicious fellows whom
+Jock warned us against?" cried Sir Peter, pricking up his ears.
+
+"So it seems, Sir," said Walter: "he saw him once before, many miles
+hence; but I fancy he knows nothing really to his prejudice."
+
+"Augh!" cried the Corporal; "he's d--d ugly any how!"
+
+"That's a tall fellow of yours," said Sir Peter, jerking up his chin with
+that peculiar motion common to the brief in stature, when they are
+covetous of elongation. "He looks military:--has he been in the army? Ay,
+I thought so; one of the King of Prussia's grenadiers, I suppose? Faith,
+I hear hoofs behind!"
+
+"Hem!" cried the Corporal, again coming alongside of his master. "Beg
+pardon, Sir--served in the 42nd--nothing like regular line--stragglers
+always cut off--had rather not straggle just now--enemy behind!"
+
+Walter looked back, and saw two men approaching them at a hand-gallop.
+"We are a match at least for them, Sir," said he, to his new
+acquaintance.
+
+"I am devilish glad I met you," was Sir Peter's rather selfish reply.
+
+" 'Tis he! 'tis the devil!" grunted the Corporal, as the two men now
+gained their side and pulled up; and Walter recognised the faces he had
+marked in the ale-house.
+
+"Your servant, gentlemen," quoth the uglier of the two; "you ride fast--"
+
+"And ready;--bother--baugh!" chimed in the Corporal, plucking a gigantic
+pistol from his holster, without any farther ceremony.
+
+"Glad to hear it, Sir!" said the hard-featured Stranger, nothing dashed.
+"But I can tell you a secret!"
+
+"What's that--augh?" said the Corporal, cocking his pistol.
+
+"Whoever hurts you, friend, cheats the gallows!" replied the stranger,
+laughing, and spurring on his horse, to be out of reach of any practical
+answer with which the Corporal might favour him. But Bunting was a
+prudent man, and not apt to be choleric.
+
+"Bother!" said he, and dropped his pistol, as the other stranger followed
+his ill-favoured comrade.
+
+"You see we are too strong for them!" cried Sir Peter, gaily; "evidently
+highwaymen! How very fortunate that I should have fallen in with you!"
+
+A shower of rain now began to fall. Sir Peter looked serious--he halted
+abruptly--unbuckled his cloak, which had been strapped before his saddle-
+-wrapped himself up in it--buried his face in the collar--muffled his
+chin with a red handkerchief, which he took out of his pocket, and then
+turning to Walter, he said to him, "What! no cloak, Sir? no wrapper even?
+Upon my soul I am very sorry I have not another handkerchief to lend
+you!"
+
+"Man of the world--baugh!" grunted the Corporal, and his heart quite
+warmed to the stranger he had at first taken for a robber.
+
+"And now, Sir," said Sir Peter, patting his nag, and pulling up his
+cloak-collar still higher, "let us go gently; there is no occasion for
+hurry. Why distress our horses?--"
+
+"Really, Sir," said Walter, smiling, "though I have a great regard for my
+horse, I have some for myself; and I should rather like to be out of this
+rain as soon as possible."
+
+"Oh, ah! you have no cloak. I forgot that; to be sure--to be sure, let us
+trot on, gently--though--gently. Well, Sir, as I was saying, horses are
+not so swift as they were. The breed is bought up by the French! I
+remember once, Johnny Courtland and I, after dining at my house, till the
+champagne had played the dancing-master to our brains, mounted our
+horses, and rode twenty miles for a cool thousand the winner. I lost it,
+Sir, by a hair's breadth; but I lost it on purpose; it would have half
+ruined Johnny Courtland to have paid me, and he had that delicacy, Sir,--
+he had that delicacy, that he would not have suffered me to refuse taking
+his money,--so what could I do, but lose on purpose? You see I had no
+alternative!"
+
+"Pray, Sir," said Walter, charmed and astonished at so rare an instance
+of the generosity of human friendships--"Pray, Sir, did I not hear you
+called Sir Peter, by the landlord of the little inn? can it be, since you
+speak so familiarly of Mr. Courtland, that I have the honour to address
+Sir Peter Hales?"
+
+"Indeed that is my name," replied the gentleman, with some surprise in
+his voice. "But I have never had the honour of seeing you before."
+
+"Perhaps my name is not unfamiliar to you," said Walter. "And among my
+papers I have a letter addressed to you from my uncle Rowland Lester.
+
+"God bless me!" cried Sir Peter, "What Rowy!--well, indeed I am overjoyed
+to hear of him. So you are his nephew? Pray tell me all about him, a
+wild, gay, rollicking fellow still, eh?" Always fencing, sa--sa! or
+playing at billiards, or hot in a steeple chace; there was not a jollier,
+better-humoured fellow in the world than Rowy Lester.
+
+"You forget, Sir Peter," said Walter, laughing at a description so unlike
+his sober and steady uncle, "that some years have passed since the time
+you speak of."
+
+"Ah, and so there have," replied Sir Peter; "and what does your uncle say
+of me?"
+
+"That, when he knew you, you were generosity, frankness, hospitality
+itself."
+
+"Humph, humph!" said Sir Peter, looking extremely disconcerted, a
+confusion which Walter imputed solely to modesty. "I was hairbrained
+foolish fellow then, quite a boy, quite a boy; but bless me, it rains
+sharply, and you have no cloak. But we are close on the town now. An
+excellent inn is the "Duke of Cumberland's Head," you will have charming
+accommodation there."
+
+"What, Sir Peter, you know this part of the country well!"
+
+"Pretty well, pretty well; indeed I live near, that is to say not very
+far from, the town. This turn, if you please. We separate here. I have
+brought you a little out of your way--not above a mile or two--for fear
+the robbers should attack me if I was left alone. I had quite forgot you
+had no cloak. That's your road--this mine. Aha! so Rowy Lester is still
+alive and hearty, the same excellent, wild fellow, no doubt. Give my
+kindest remembrance to him when you write. Adieu, Sir."
+
+This latter speech having been delivered during a halt, the Corporal had
+heard it: he grinned delightedly as he touched his hat to Sir Peter, who
+now trotted off, and muttered to his young master:--
+
+"Most sensible man, that, Sir!"
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VI.
+
+        SIR PETER DISPLAYED.--ONE MAN OF THE WORLD SUFFERS FROM
+      ANOTHER.--THE INCIDENT OF THE BRIDLE BEGETS THE INCIDENT OF
+     THE SADDLE; THE INCIDENT OF THE SADDLE BEGETS THE INCIDENT OF
+     THE WHIP; THE INCIDENT OF THE WHIP BEGETS WHAT THE READER MUST
+                              READ TO SEE.
+
+                   Nihil est aliud magnum quam multa minuta.
+                                --Vetus Auctor.
+
+                   [Nor is their anything that hath so great
+                   a power as the aggregate of small things.]
+
+"And so," said Walter, the next morning to the head waiter, who was
+busied about their preparations for breakfast; "and so, Sir Peter Hales,
+you say, lives within a mile of the town?"
+
+"Scarcely a mile, Sir,--black or green? you passed the turn to his house
+last night;--Sir, the eggs are quite fresh this morning. This inn belongs
+to Sir Peter."
+
+"Oh!--Does Sir Peter see much company?"
+
+The waiter smiled.
+
+"Sir Peter gives very handsome dinners, Sir; twice a year! A most clever
+gentleman, Sir Peter! They say he is the best manager of property in the
+whole county. Do you like Yorkshire cake?--toast? yes, Sir!"
+
+"So so," said Walter to himself, "a pretty true description my uncle gave
+me of this gentleman. 'Ask me too often to dinner, indeed!'--'offer me
+money if I want it!'--'spend a month at his house!'--'most hospitable
+fellow in the world!'--My uncle must have been dreaming."
+
+Walter had yet to learn, that the men most prodigal when they have
+nothing but expectations, are often most thrifty when they know the
+charms of absolute possession. Besides, Sir Peter had married a Scotch
+lady, and was blessed with eleven children! But was Sir Peter Hales much
+altered? Sir Peter Hales was exactly the same man in reality that he
+always had been. Once he was selfish in extravagance; he was now selfish
+in thrift. He had always pleased himself, and damned other people; that
+was exactly what he valued himself on doing now. But the most absurd
+thing about Sir Peter was, that while he was for ever extracting use from
+every one else, he was mightily afraid of being himself put to use. He
+was in parliament, and noted for never giving a frank out of his own
+family. Yet withal, Sir Peter Hales was still an agreeable fellow; nay,
+he was more liked and much more esteemed than ever. There is something
+conciliatory in a saving disposition; but people put themselves in a
+great passion when a man is too liberal with his own. It is an insult on
+their own prudence. "What right has he to be so extravagant? What an
+example to our servants!" But your close neighbour does not humble you.
+You love your close neighbour; you respect your close neighbour; you have
+your harmless jest against him--but he is a most respectable man.
+
+"A letter, Sir, and a parcel, from Sir Peter Hales," said the waiter,
+entering.
+
+The parcel was a bulky, angular, awkward packet of brown paper, sealed
+once and tied with the smallest possible quantity of string; it was
+addressed to Mr. James Holwell, Saddler,--Street,--The letter was to--
+Lester Esq., and ran thus, written in a very neat, stiff, Italian
+character.
+
+"Dr Sr,
+
+"I trust you had no difficulty in findg ye Duke of Cumberland's Head, it
+is an excellent In.
+
+"I greatly regt yt you are unavoidy oblig'd to go on to Londn; for,
+otherwise I shd have had the sincerest please in seeing you here at dinr,
+introducing you to Ly Hales. Anothr time I trust we may be more
+fortunate.
+
+"As you pass thro' ye litte town of ..., exactly 21 miles from hence, on
+the road to Londn, will you do me the favr to allow your servt to put the
+little parcel I send into his pockt, drop it as directd. It is a bridle I
+am forc'd to return. Country workn are such bungrs.
+
+"I shd most certainy have had ye honr to wait on you persony, but the
+rain has given me a mo seve cold;--hope you have escap'd, tho' by ye by,
+you had no cloke, nor wrappr!
+
+"My kindest regards to your mo excellent unce. I am quite sure he's the
+same fine merry fellw he always was,--tell him so!
+
+"Dr Sr, Yours faithy,
+
+"Peter Grindlescrew Hales.
+
+"P.S. You know perhs yt poor Jno Courtd, your uncle's mo intime friend,
+lives in ..., the town in which your servt will drop ye bride. He is much
+alter'd,--poor Jno!"
+
+"Altered! alteration then seems the fashion with my uncle's friends!"
+thought Walter, as he rang for the Corporal, and consigned to his charge
+the unsightly parcel.
+
+"It is to be carried twenty-one miles at the request of the gentleman we
+met last night,--a most sensible man, Bunting."
+
+"Augh--whaugh,--your honour!" grunted the Corporal, thrusting the bridle
+very discontentedly into his pocket, where it annoyed him the whole
+journey, by incessantly getting between his seat of leather and his seat
+of honour. It is a comfort to the inexperienced, when one man of the
+world smarts from the sagacity of another; we resign ourselves more
+willingly to our fate. Our travellers resumed their journey, and in a few
+minutes, from the cause we have before assigned, the Corporal became
+thoroughly out of humour.
+
+"Pray, Bunting," said Walter, calling his attendant to his side, "do you
+feel sure that the man we met yesterday at the alehouse, is the same you
+saw at Grassdale some months ago?"
+
+"Damn it!" cried the Corporal quickly, and clapping his hand behind.
+
+"How, Sir!"
+
+"Beg pardon, your honour--slip tongue, but this confounded parcel!--augh
+--bother!"
+
+"Why don't you carry it in your hand?"
+
+"'Tis so ungainsome, and be d--d to it; and how can I hold parcel and
+pull in this beast, which requires two hands; his mouth's as hard as a
+brickbat,--augh!"
+
+"You have not answered my question yet?"
+
+"Beg pardon, your honour. Yes, certain sure the man's the same; phiz not
+to be mistaken."
+
+"It is strange," said Walter, musing, "that Aram should know a man, who,
+if not a highwayman as we suspected, is at least of rugged manner and
+disreputable appearance; it is strange too, that Aram always avoided
+recurring to the acquaintance, though he confessed it." With this he
+broke into a trot, and the Corporal into an oath.
+
+They arrived by noon, at the little town specified by Sir Peter, and in
+their way to the inn (for Walter resolved to rest there), passed by the
+saddler's house. It so chanced that Master Holwell was an adept in his
+craft, and that a newly-invented hunting-saddle at the window caught
+Walter's notice. The artful saddler persuaded the young traveller to
+dismount and look at "the most convenientest and handsomest saddle what
+ever was seed;" and the Corporal having lost no time in getting rid of
+his encumbrance, Walter dismissed him to the inn with the horses, and
+after purchasing the saddle, in exchange for his own, he sauntered into
+the shop to look at a new snaffle. A gentleman's servant was in the shop
+at the time, bargaining for a riding whip; and the shopboy, among others,
+shewed him a large old-fashioned one, with a tarnished silver handle.
+Grooms have no taste for antiquity, and in spite of the silverhandle, the
+servant pushed it aside with some contempt. Some jest he uttered at the
+time, chanced to attract Walter's notice to the whip; he took it up
+carelessly, and perceived with great surprise that it bore his own crest,
+a bittern, on the handle. He examined it now with attention, and
+underneath the crest were the letters G. L., his father's initials.
+
+"How long have you had this whip?" said he to the saddler, concealing the
+emotion, which this token of his lost parent naturally excited.
+
+"Oh, a nation long time, Sir," replied Mr. Holwell; "it is a queer old
+thing, but really is not amiss, if the silver was scrubbed up a bit, and
+a new lash put on; you may have it a bargain, Sir, if so be you have
+taken a fancy to it."
+
+"Can you at all recollect how you came by it," said Walter, earnestly;
+"the fact is that I see by the crest and initials, that it belonged to a
+person whom I have some interest in discovering."
+
+"Why let me see," said the saddler, scratching the tip of his right ear,
+"'tis so long ago sin I had it, I quite forgets how I came by it."
+
+"Oh, is it that whip, John?" said the wife, who had been attracted from
+the back parlour by the sight of the handsome young stranger. "Don't you
+remember, it's a many year ago, a gentleman who passed a day with Squire
+Courtland, when he first come to settle here, called and left the whip to
+have a new thong put to it. But I fancies he forgot it, Sir, (turning to
+Walter,) for he never called for it again; and the Squire's people said
+as how he was a gone into Yorkshire; so there the whip's been ever sin. I
+remembers it, Sir, 'cause I kept it in the little parlour nearly a year,
+to be in the way like."
+
+"Ah! I thinks I do remember it now," said Master Holwell. "I should think
+it's a matter of twelve yearn ago. I suppose I may sell it without fear
+of the gentleman's claiming it again."
+
+"Not more than twelve years!" said Walter, anxiously, for it was some
+seventeen years since his father had been last heard of by his family.
+
+"Why it may be thirteen, Sir, or so, more or less, I can't say exactly."
+
+"More likely fourteen!" said the Dame, "it can't be much more, Sir, we
+have only been a married fifteen year come next Christmas! But my old man
+here, is ten years older nor I."
+
+"And the gentleman, you say, was at Mr. Courtland's."
+
+"Yes, Sir, that I'm sure of," replied the intelligent Mrs. Holwell; "they
+said he had come lately from Ingee."
+
+Walter now despairing of hearing more, purchased the whip; and blessing
+the worldly wisdom of Sir Peter Hales, that had thus thrown him on a
+clue, which, however faint and distant, he resolved to follow up, he
+inquired the way to Squire Courtland's, and proceeded thither at once.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VII.
+
+     WALTER VISITS ANOTHER OF HIS UNCLE'S FRIENDS.--MR. COURTLAND'S
+      STRANGE COMPLAINT.--WALTER LEARNS NEWS OF HIS FATHER, WHICH
+             SURPRISES HIM.--THE CHANGE IN HIS DESTINATION.
+
+      God's my life, did you ever hear the like, what a strange man is
+      this!
+What you have possessed me withall, I'll discharge it amply.
+--Ben Jonson's Every Man in his Humour.
+
+Mr. Courtland's house was surrounded by a high wall, and stood at the
+outskirts of the town. A little wooden door buried deep within the wall,
+seemed the only entrance. At this Walter paused, and after twice applying
+to the bell, a footman of a peculiarly grave and sanctimonious
+appearance, opened the door.
+
+In reply to Walter's inquiries, he informed him that Mr. Courtland was
+very unwell, and never saw "Company."--Walter, however, producing from
+his pocket-book the introductory letter given him by his father, slipped
+it into the servant's hand, accompanied by half a crown, and begged to be
+announced as a gentleman on very particular business.
+
+"Well, Sir, you can step in," said the servant, giving way; "but my
+master is very poorly, very poorly indeed."
+
+"Indeed, I am sorry to hear it: has he been long so?"
+
+"Going on for ten--years, sir!" replied the servant, with great gravity;
+and opening the door of the house which stood within a few paces of the
+wall, on a singularly flat and bare grass-plot, he showed him into a
+room, and left him alone.
+
+The first thing that struck Walter in this apartment, was its remarkable
+lightness. Though not large, it had no less than seven windows. Two sides
+of the wall, seemed indeed all window! Nor were these admittants of the
+celestial beam-shaded by any blind or curtain,--
+
+     "The gaudy, babbling, and remorseless day"
+
+made itself thoroughly at home in this airy chamber. Nevertheless, though
+so light, it seemed to Walter any thing but cheerful. The sun had
+blistered and discoloured the painting of the wainscot, originally of a
+pale sea-green; there was little furniture in the apartment; one table in
+the centre, some half a dozen chairs, and a very small Turkey-carpet,
+which did not cover one tenth part of the clean, cold, smooth, oak
+boards, constituted all the goods and chattels visible in the room. But
+what particularly added effect to the bareness of all within, was the
+singular and laborious bareness of all without. From each of these seven
+windows, nothing but a forlorn green flat of some extent was to be seen;
+there was not a tree, or a shrub, or a flower in the whole expanse,
+although by several stumps of trees near the house, Walter perceived that
+the place had not always been so destitute of vegetable life.
+
+While he was yet looking upon this singular baldness of scene, the
+servant re-entered with his master's compliments, and a message that he
+should be happy to see any relation of Mr. Lester.
+
+Walter accordingly followed the footman into an apartment possessing
+exactly the same peculiarities as the former one; viz. a most
+disproportionate plurality of windows, a commodious scantiness of
+furniture, and a prospect without, that seemed as if the house had been
+built on the middle of Salisbury plain.
+
+Mr. Courtland, himself a stout man, and still preserving the rosy hues
+and comely features, though certainly not the same hilarious expression,
+which Lester had attributed to him, sat in a large chair, close by the
+centre window, which was open. He rose and shook Walter by the hand with
+great cordiality.
+
+"Sir, I am delighted to see you! How is your worthy uncle? I only wish he
+were with you--you dine with me of course. Thomas, tell the cook to add a
+tongue and chicken to the roast beef--no,--young gentleman, I will have
+no excuse; sit down, sit down; pray come near the window; do you not find
+it dreadfully close? not a breath of air? This house is so choked up;
+don't you find it so, eh? Ah, I see, you can scarcely gasp."
+
+"My dear Sir, you are mistaken; I am rather cold, on the contrary: nor
+did I ever in my life see a more airy house than yours."
+
+"I try to make it so, Sir, but I can't succeed; if you had seen what it
+was, when I first bought it! a garden here, Sir; a copse there; a
+wilderness, God wot! at the back: and a row of chesnut trees in the
+front! You may conceive the consequence, Sir; I had not been long here,
+not two years, before my health was gone, Sir, gone--the d--d vegetable
+life sucked it out of me. The trees kept away all the air--I was nearly
+suffocated, without, at first, guessing the cause. But at length, though
+not till I had been withering away for five years, I discovered the
+origin of my malady. I went to work, Sir; I plucked up the cursed garden,
+I cut down the infernal chesnuts, I made a bowling green of the
+diabolical wilderness, but I fear it is too late. I am dying by inches,--
+have been dying ever since. The malaria has effectually tainted my
+constitution."
+
+Here Mr. Courtland heaved a deep sigh, and shook his head with a most
+gloomy expression of countenance.
+
+"Indeed, Sir," said Walter, "I should not, to look at you, imagine that
+you suffered under any complaint. You seem still the same picture of
+health, that my uncle describes you to have been when you knew him so
+many years ago."
+
+"Yes, Sir, yes; the confounded malaria fixed the colour to my cheeks; the
+blood is stagnant, Sir. Would to God I could see myself a shade paler!--
+the blood does not flow; I am like a pool in a citizen's garden, with a
+willow at each corner;--but a truce to my complaints. You see, Sir, I am
+no hypochondriac, as my fool of a doctor wants to persuade me: a
+hypochondriac shudders at every breath of air, trembles when a door is
+open, and looks upon a window as the entrance of death. But I, Sir, never
+can have enough air; thorough draught or east wind, it is all the same to
+me, so that I do but breathe. Is that like hypochondria?--pshaw! But tell
+me, young gentleman, about your uncle; is he quite well,--stout,--
+hearty,--does he breathe easily,--no oppression?"
+
+"Sir, he enjoys exceedingly good health: he did please himself with the
+hope that I should give him good tidings of yourself, and another of his
+old friends whom I accidentally saw yesterday,--Sir Peter Hales."
+
+"Hales, Peter Hales!--ah! a clever little fellow that: how delighted
+Lester's good heart will be to hear that little Peter is so improved;--no
+longer a dissolute, harum-scarum fellow, throwing away his money, and
+always in debt. No, no; a respectable steady character, an excellent
+manager, an active member of Parliament, domestic in private life,--Oh! a
+very worthy man, Sir, a very worthy man!"
+
+"He seems altered indeed, Sir," said Walter, who was young enough in the
+world to be surprised at this eulogy; "but is still agreeable and fond of
+anecdote. He told me of his race with you for a thousand guineas."
+
+"Ah, don't talk of those days," said Mr. Courtland, shaking his head
+pensively, "it makes me melancholy. Yes, Peter ought to recollect that,
+for he has never paid me to this day; affected to treat it as a jest, and
+swore he could have beat me if he would. But indeed it was my fault, Sir;
+Peter had not then a thousand farthings in the world, and when he grew
+rich, he became a steady character, and I did not like to remind him of
+our former follies. Aha! can I offer you a pinch of snuff?--You look
+feverish, Sir; surely this room must affect you, though you are too
+polite to say so. Pray open that door, and then this window, and put your
+chair right between the two. You have no notion how refreshing the
+draught is."
+
+Walter politely declined the proffered ague, and thinking he had now made
+sufficient progress in the acquaintance of this singular non-
+hypochondriac to introduce the subject he had most at heart, hastened to
+speak of his father.
+
+"I have chanced, Sir," said he, "very unexpectedly upon something that
+once belonged to my poor father;" here he showed the whip. "I find from
+the saddler of whom I bought it, that the owner was at your house some
+twelve or fourteen years ago. I do not know whether you are aware that
+our family have heard nothing respecting my father's fate for a
+considerably longer time than that which has elapsed since you appear to
+have seen him, if at least I may hope that he was your guest, and the
+owner of this whip; and any news you can give me of him, any clue by
+which he can possibly be traced, would be to us all--to me in particular-
+-an inestimable obligation."
+
+"Your father!" said Mr. Courtland. "Oh,--ay, your uncle's brother. What
+was his Christian name?--Henry?"
+
+"Geoffrey."
+
+"Ay, exactly; Geoffrey! What, not been heard of?--his family not know
+where he is? A sad thing, Sir; but he was always a wild fellow; now here,
+now there, like a flash of lightning. But it is true, it is true, he did
+stay a day here, several years ago, when I first bought the place. I can
+tell you all about it;--but you seem agitated,--do come nearer the
+window:--there, that's right. Well, Sir, it is, as I said, a great many
+years ago,--perhaps fourteen,--and I was speaking to the landlord of the
+Greyhound about some hay he wished to sell, when a gentleman rode into
+the yard full tear, as your father always did ride, and in getting out of
+his way I recognised Geoffrey Lester. I did not know him well--far from
+it; but I had seen him once or twice with your uncle, and though he was a
+strange pickle, he sang a good song, and was deuced amusing. Well, Sir, I
+accosted him, and, for the sake of your uncle, I asked him to dine with
+me, and take a bed at my new house. Ah! I little thought what a dear
+bargain it was to be. He accepted my invitation, for I fancy--no offence,
+Sir,--there were few invitations that Mr. Geoffrey Lester ever refused to
+accept. We dined tete-a-tete,--I am an old bachelor, Sir,--and very
+entertaining he was, though his sentiments seemed to me broader than
+ever. He was capital, however, about the tricks he had played his
+creditors,--such manoeuvres,--such escapes! After dinner he asked me if I
+ever corresponded with his brother. I told him no; that we were very good
+friends, but never heard from each other; and he then said, 'Well, I
+shall surprise him with a visit shortly; but in case you should
+unexpectedly have any communication with him, don't mention having seen
+me; for, to tell you the truth, I am just returned from India, where I
+should have scraped up a little money, but that I spent it as fast as I
+got it. However, you know that I was always proverbially the luckiest
+fellow in the world--(and so, Sir, your father was!)--and while I was in
+India, I saved an old Colonel's life at a tiger-hunt; he went home
+shortly afterwards, and settled in Yorkshire; and the other day on my
+return to England, to which my ill-health drove me, I learned that my old
+Colonel was really dead, and had left me a handsome legacy, with his
+house in Yorkshire. I am now going down to Yorkshire to convert the
+chattels into gold--to receive my money, and I shall then seek out my
+good brother, my household gods, and, perhaps, though it's not likely,
+settle into a sober fellow for the rest of my life.' I don't tell you,
+young gentleman, that those were your father's exact words,--one can't
+remember verbatim so many years ago;--but it was to that effect. He left
+me the next day, and I never heard any thing more of him: to say the
+truth, he was looking wonderfully yellow, and fearfully reduced. And I
+fancied at the time, he could not live long; he was prematurely old, and
+decrepit in body, though gay in spirit; so that I had tacitly imagined in
+never hearing of him more--that he had departed life. But, good Heavens!
+did you never hear of this legacy?"
+
+"Never: not a word!" said Walter, who had listened to these particulars
+in great surprise. "And to what part of Yorkshire did he say he was
+going?"
+
+"That he did not mention."
+
+"Nor the Colonel's name?"
+
+"Not as I remember; he might, but I think not. But I am certain that the
+county was Yorkshire, and the gentleman, whatever was his name, was a
+Colonel. Stay! I recollect one more particular, which it is lucky I do
+remember. Your father in giving me, as I said before, in his own humorous
+strain, the history of his adventures, his hair-breadth escapes from his
+duns, the various disguises, and the numerous aliases he had assumed,
+mentioned that the name he had borne in India, and by which, he assured
+me, he had made quite a good character--was Clarke: he also said, by the
+way, that he still kept to that name, and was very merry on the
+advantages of having so common an one. 'By which,' he said wittily, 'he
+could father all his own sins on some other Mr. Clarke, at the same time
+that he could seize and appropriate all the merits of all his other
+namesakes.' Ah, no offence; but he was a sad dog, that father of yours!
+So you see that, in all probability, if he ever reached Yorkshire, it was
+under the name of Clarke that he claimed and received his legacy."
+
+"You have told me more," said Walter joyfully, "than we have heard since
+his disappearance, and I shall turn my horses' heads northward to-morrow,
+by break of day. But you say, 'if he ever reached Yorkshire,'--What
+should prevent him?"
+
+"His health!" said the non-hypochondriac, "I should not be greatly
+surprised if--if--In short you had better look at the grave-stones by the
+way, for the name of Clarke."
+
+"Perhaps you can give me the dates, Sir," said Walter, somewhat cast down
+from his elation.
+
+"Ay! I'll see, I'll see, after dinner; the commonness of the name has its
+disadvantages now. Poor Geoffrey!--I dare say there are fifty tombs, to
+the memory of fifty Clarkes, between this and York. But come, Sir,
+there's the dinner-bell."
+
+Whatever might have been the maladies entailed upon the portly frame of
+Mr. Courtland by the vegetable life of the departed trees, a want of
+appetite was not among the number. Whenever a man is not abstinent from
+rule, or from early habit, as in the case of Aram, Solitude makes its
+votaries particularly fond of their dinner. They have no other event
+wherewith to mark their day--they think over it, they anticipate it,
+they nourish its soft idea with their imagination; if they do look
+forward to any thing else more than dinner, it is--supper!
+
+Mr. Courtland deliberately pinned the napkin to his waistcoat, ordered
+all the windows to be thrown open, and set to work like the good Canon in
+Gil Blas. He still retained enough of his former self, to preserve an
+excellent cook; so far at least as the excellence of a she-artist goes;
+and though most of his viands were of the plainest, who does not know
+what skill it requires to produce an unexceptionable roast, or a
+blameless boil? Talk of good professed cooks, indeed! they are plentiful
+as blackberries: it is the good, plain cook, who is the rarity!
+
+Half a tureen of strong soup; three pounds, at least, of stewed carp; all
+the under part of a sirloin of beef; three quarters of a tongue; the
+moiety of a chicken; six pancakes and a tartlet, having severally
+disappeared down the jaws of the invalid,
+
+                "Et cuncta terrarum subacta
+                Praeter atrocem animum Catonis,"
+
+                [And everything of earth subdued,
+                except the resolute mind of Cato.]
+
+he still called for two deviled biscuits and an anchovy!
+
+When these were gone, he had the wine set on a little table by the
+window, and declared that the air seemed closer than ever. Walter was no
+longer surprised at the singular nature of the nonhypochondriac's
+complaint.
+
+Walter declined the bed that Mr. Courtland offered him--though his host
+kindly assured him that it had no curtains, and that there was not a
+shutter to the house--upon the plea of starting the next morning at
+daybreak, and his consequent unwillingness to disturb the regular
+establishment of the invalid: and Courtland, who was still an excellent,
+hospitable, friendly man, suffered his friend's nephew to depart with
+regret. He supplied him, however, by a reference to an old note-book,
+with the date of the year, and even month, in which he had been favoured
+by a visit from Mr. Clarke, who, it seemed, had also changed his
+Christian name from Geoffrey, to one beginning with D--; but whether it
+was David or Daniel the host remembered not. In parting with Walter,
+Courtland shook his head, and observed:--"Entre nous, Sir, I fear this
+may be a wildgoose chase. Your father was too facetious to confine
+himself to fact--excuse me, Sir--and perhaps the Colonel and the legacy
+were merely inventions--pour passer le temps--there was only one reason
+indeed, that made me fully believe the story."
+
+"What was that, Sir?" asked Walter, blushing deeply, at the universality
+of that estimation his father had obtained.
+
+"Excuse me, my young friend."
+
+"Nay, Sir, let me press you."
+
+"Why, then, Mr. Geoffrey Lester did not ask me to lend him any money."
+
+The next morning, instead of repairing to the gaieties of the metropolis,
+Walter had, upon this slight and dubious clue, altered his journey
+northward, and with an unquiet yet sanguine spirit, the adventurous son
+commenced his search after the fate of a father evidently so unworthy of
+the anxiety he had excited.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER VIII.
+
+      WALTER'S MEDITATIONS.--THE CORPORAL'S GRIEF AND ANGER.--THE
+        CORPORAL PERSONALLY DESCRIBED.--AN EXPLANATION WITH HIS
+     MASTER.--THE CORPORAL OPENS HIMSELF TO THE YOUNG TRAVELLER.--
+       HIS OPINIONS ON LOVE;--ON THE WORLD;--ON THE PLEASURE AND
+     RESPECTABILITY OF CHEATING;--ON LADIES--AND A PARTICULAR CLASS
+     OF LADIES;--ON AUTHORS;--ON THE VALUE OF WORDS;--ON FIGHTING;
+         --WITH SUNDRY OTHER MATTERS OF EQUAL DELECTATION AND
+                  IMPROVEMENT.--AN UNEXPECTED EVENT.
+
+                   Quale per incertam Lunam sub luce maligna
+                   Est iter.
+                                --Virgil.
+
+                   [Even as a journey by the upropitious light
+                   of the uncertain moon.]
+
+The road prescribed to our travellers by the change in their destination
+led them back over a considerable portion of the ground they had already
+traversed, and since the Corporal took care that they should remain some
+hours in the place where they dined, night fell upon them as they found
+themselves in the midst of the same long and dreary stage in which they
+had encountered Sir Peter Hales and the two suspected highwaymen.
+
+Walter's mind was full of the project on which he was bent. The reader
+can fully comprehend how vivid must have been his emotions at thus
+chancing on what might prove a clue to the mystery that hung over his
+father's fate; and sanguinely did he now indulge those intense
+meditations with which the imaginative minds of the young always brood
+over every more favourite idea, until they exalt the hope into a passion.
+Every thing connected with this strange and roving parent, had possessed
+for the breast of his son, not only an anxious, but so to speak,
+indulgent interest. The judgment of a young man is always inclined to
+sympathize with the wilder and more enterprising order of spirits; and
+Walter had been at no loss for secret excuses wherewith to defend the
+irregular life and reckless habits of his parent. Amidst all his father's
+evident and utter want of principle, Walter clung with a natural and
+self-deceptive partiality to the few traits of courage or generosity
+which relieved, if they did not redeem, his character; traits which, with
+a character of that stamp, are so often, though always so unprofitably
+blended, and which generally cease with the commencement of age. He now
+felt elated by the conviction, as he had always been inspired by the
+hope, that it was to be his lot to discover one whom he still believed
+living, and whom he trusted to find amended. The same intimate persuasion
+of the "good luck" of Geoffrey Lester, which all who had known him
+appeared to entertain, was felt even in a more credulous and earnest
+degree by his son. Walter gave way now, indeed, to a variety of
+conjectures as to the motives which could have induced his father to
+persist in the concealment of his fate after his return to England; but
+such of those conjectures as, if the more rational, were also the more
+despondent, he speedily and resolutely dismissed. Sometimes he thought
+that his father, on learning the death of the wife he had abandoned,
+might have been possessed with a remorse which rendered him unwilling to
+disclose himself to the rest of his family, and a feeling that the main
+tie of home was broken; sometimes he thought that the wanderer had been
+disappointed in his expected legacy, and dreading the attacks of his
+creditors, or unwilling to throw himself once more on the generosity of
+his brother, had again suddenly quitted England and entered on some
+enterprise or occupation abroad. It was also possible, to one so reckless
+and changeful, that even, after receiving the legacy, a proposition from
+some wild comrade might have hurried him away on any continental project
+on the mere impulse of the moment, for the impulse of the moment had
+always been the guide of his life; and once abroad he might have returned
+to India, and in new connections forgotten the old ties at home. Letters
+from abroad too, miscarry; and it was not improbable that the wanderer
+might have written repeatedly, and receiving no answer to his
+communications, imagined that the dissoluteness of his life had deprived
+him of the affections of his family, and, deserving so well to have the
+proffer of renewed intercourse rejected, believed that it actually was
+so. These, and a hundred similar conjectures, found favour in the eyes of
+the young traveller; but the chances of a fatal accident, or sudden
+death, he pertinaciously refused at present to include in the number of
+probabilities. Had his father been seized with a mortal illness on the
+road, was it not likely that he would, in the remorse occasioned in the
+hardiest by approaching death, have written to his brother, and
+recommending his child to his care, have apprised him of the addition to
+his fortune? Walter then did not meditate embarrassing his present
+journey by those researches among the dead, which the worthy Courtland
+had so considerately recommended to his prudence: should his expedition,
+contrary to his hopes, prove wholly unsuccessful, it might then be well
+to retrace his steps and adopt the suggestion. But what man, at the age
+of twenty-one, ever took much precaution on the darker side of a question
+on which his heart was interested?
+
+With what pleasure, escaping from conjecture to a more ultimate
+conclusion--did he, in recalling those words, in which his father had
+more than hinted to Courtland of his future amendment, contemplate
+recovering a parent made wise by years and sober by misfortunes, and
+restoring him to a hearth of tranquil virtues and peaceful enjoyments! He
+imaged to himself a scene of that domestic happiness, which is so perfect
+in our dreams, because in our dreams monotony is always excluded from the
+picture. And, in this creation of Fancy, the form of Ellinor--his bright-
+eyed and gentle cousin, was not the least conspicuous. Since his
+altercation with Madeline, the love he had once thought so ineffaceable,
+had faded into a dim and sullen hue; and, in proportion as the image of
+Madeline grew indistinct, that of her sister became more brilliant.
+Often, now, as he rode slowly onward, in the quiet of the deepening
+night, and the mellow stars softening all on which they shone, he pressed
+the little token of Ellinor's affection to his heart, and wondered that
+it was only within the last few days he had discovered that her eyes were
+more beautiful than Madeline's, and her smile more touching. Meanwhile
+the redoubted Corporal, who was by no means pleased with the change in
+his master's plans, lingered behind, whistling the most melancholy tune
+in his collection. No young lady, anticipative of balls or coronets, had
+ever felt more complacent satisfaction in a journey to London than that
+which had cheered the athletic breast of the veteran on finding himself,
+at last, within one day's gentle march of the metropolis. And no young
+lady, suddenly summoned back in the first flush of her debut, by an
+unseasonable fit of gout or economy in papa, ever felt more irreparably
+aggrieved than now did the dejected Corporal. His master had not yet even
+acquainted him with the cause of the countermarch; and, in his own heart,
+he believed it nothing but the wanton levity and unpardonable fickleness
+"common to all them ere boys afore they have seen the world." He
+certainly considered himself a singularly ill-used and injured man, and
+drawing himself up to his full height, as if it were a matter with which
+Heaven should be acquainted at the earliest possible opportunity, he
+indulged, as we before said, in the melancholy consolation of a whistled
+death-dirge, occasionally interrupted by a long-drawn interlude half
+sigh, half snuffle of his favourite augh--baugh.
+
+And here, we remember, that we have not as yet given to our reader a
+fitting portrait of the Corporal on horseback. Perhaps no better
+opportunity than the present may occur; and perhaps, also, Corporal
+Bunting, as well as Melrose Abbey, may seem a yet more interesting
+picture when viewed by the pale moonlight.
+
+The Corporal then wore on his head a small cocked hat, which had formerly
+belonged to the Colonel of the Forty-second--the prints of my uncle Toby
+may serve to suggest its shape;--it had once boasted a feather--that was
+gone; but the gold lace, though tarnished, and the cockade, though
+battered, still remained. From under this shade the profile of the
+Corporal assumed a particular aspect of heroism: though a good-looking
+man on the main, it was his air, height, and complexion, which made him
+so; and a side view, unlike Lucian's one-eyed prince, was not the most
+favourable point in which his features could be regarded. His eyes, which
+were small and shrewd, were half hid by a pair of thick shaggy brows,
+which, while he whistled, he moved to and fro, as a horse moves his ears
+when he gives warning that he intends to shy; his nose was straight--so
+far so good--but then it did not go far enough; for though it seemed no
+despicable proboscis in front, somehow or another it appeared exceedingly
+short in profile; to make up for this, the upper lip was of a length the
+more striking from being exceedingly straight;--it had learned to hold
+itself upright, and make the most of its length as well as its master!
+his under lip, alone protruded in the act of whistling, served yet more
+markedly to throw the nose into the background; and, as for the chin--
+talk of the upper lip being long indeed!--the chin would have made two of
+it; such a chin! so long, so broad, so massive, had it been put on a dish
+might have passed, without discredit, for a round of beef! it looked yet
+larger than it was from the exceeding tightness of the stiff black-
+leather stock below, which forced forth all the flesh it encountered into
+another chin,--a remove to the round. The hat, being somewhat too small
+for the Corporal, and being cocked knowingly in front, left the hinder
+half of the head exposed. And the hair, carried into a club according to
+the fashion, lay thick, and of a grizzled black, on the brawny shoulders
+below. The veteran was dressed in a blue coat, originally a frock; but
+the skirts, having once, to the imminent peril of the place they guarded,
+caught fire, as the Corporal stood basking himself at Peter Dealtry's,
+had been so far amputated, as to leave only the stump of a tail, which
+just covered, and no more, that part which neither Art in bipeds nor
+Nature in quadrupeds loves to leave wholly exposed. And that part, ah,
+how ample! had Liston seen it, he would have hid for ever his diminished-
+-opposite to head!--No wonder the Corporal had been so annoyed by the
+parcel of the previous day, a coat so short, and a--; but no matter, pass
+we to the rest! It was not only in its skirts that this wicked coat was
+deficient; the Corporal, who had within the last few years thriven
+lustily in the inactive serenity of Grassdale, had outgrown it
+prodigiously across the chest and girth; nevertheless he managed to
+button it up. And thus the muscular proportions of the wearer bursting
+forth in all quarters, gave him the ludicrous appearance of a gigantic
+schoolboy. His wrists, and large sinewy hands, both employed at the
+bridle of his hard-mouthed charger, were markedly visible; for it was the
+Corporal's custom whenever he came into an obscure part of the road,
+carefully to take off, and prudently to pocket, a pair of scrupulously
+clean white leather gloves which smartened up his appearance prodigiously
+in passing through the towns in their route. His breeches were of yellow
+buckskin, and ineffably tight; his stockings were of grey worsted, and a
+pair of laced boots, that reached the ascent of a very mountainous calf,
+but declined any farther progress, completed his attire.
+
+Fancy then this figure, seated with laborious and unswerving
+perpendicularity on a demi-pique saddle, ornamented with a huge pair of
+well-stuffed saddle-bags, and holsters revealing the stocks of a brace of
+immense pistols, the horse with its obstinate mouth thrust out, and the
+bridle drawn as tight as a bowstring! its ears laid sullenly down, as if,
+like the Corporal, it complained of going to Yorkshire, and its long
+thick tail, not set up in a comely and well-educated arch, but hanging
+sheepishly down, as if resolved that its buttocks should at least be
+better covered than its master's!
+
+And now, reader, it is not our fault if you cannot form some conception
+of the physical perfections of the Corporal and his steed.
+
+The reverie of the contemplative Bunting was interrupted by the voice of
+his master calling upon him to approach.
+
+"Well, well!" muttered he, "the younker can't expect one as close at his
+heels as if we were trotting into Lunnon, which we might be at this time,
+sure enough, if he had not been so damned flighty,--augh!"
+
+"Bunting, I say, do you hear?"
+
+"Yes, your honour, yes; this ere horse is so 'nation sluggish."
+
+"Sluggish! why I thought he was too much the reverse, Bunting? I thought
+he was one rather requiring the bridle than the spur."
+
+"Augh! your honour, he's slow when he should not, and fast when he should
+not; changes his mind from pure whim, or pure spite; new to the world,
+your honour, that's all; a different thing if properly broke. There be a
+many like him!"
+
+"You mean to be personal, Mr. Bunting," said Walter, laughing at the
+evident ill-humour of his attendant.
+
+"Augh! indeed and no!--I daren't--a poor man like me--go for to presume
+to be parsonal,--unless I get hold of a poorer!"
+
+"Why, Bunting, you do not mean to say that you would be so ungenerous as
+to affront a man because he was poorer than you?--fie!"
+
+"Whaugh, your honour! and is not that the very reason why I'd affront
+him? surely it is not my betters I should affront; that would be ill
+bred, your honour,--quite want of discipline."
+
+"But we owe it to our great Commander," said Walter, "to love all men."
+
+"Augh! Sir, that's very good maxim,--none better--but shows ignorance of
+the world, Sir--great!"
+
+"Bunting, your way of thinking is quite disgraceful. Do you know, Sir,
+that it is the Bible you were speaking of?"
+
+"Augh, Sir! but the Bible was addressed to them Jew creturs! How somever,
+it's an excellent book for the poor; keeps 'em in order, favours
+discipline,--none more so." "Hold your tongue. I called you, Bunting,
+because I think I heard you say you had once been at York. Do you know
+what towns we shall pass on our road thither?"
+
+"Not I, your honour; it's a mighty long way.--What would the Squire
+think?--just at Lunnon, too. Could have learnt the whole road, Sir, inns
+all, if you had but gone on to Lunnon first. Howsomever, young gentlemen
+will be hasty,--no confidence in those older, and who are experienced in
+the world. I knows what I knows," and the Corporal recommenced his
+whistle.
+
+"Why, Bunting, you seem quite discontented at my change of journey. Are
+you tired of riding, or were you very eager to get to town?"
+
+"Augh! Sir; I was only thinking of what best for your honour,--I!--'tis
+not for me to like or dislike. Howsomever, the horses, poor creturs, must
+want rest for some days. Them dumb animals can't go on for ever, bumpety,
+bumpety, as your honour and I do.--Whaugh!" "It is very true, Bunting,
+and I have had some thoughts of sending you home again with the horses,
+and travelling post."
+
+"Eh!" grunted the Corporal, opening his eyes; "hopes your honour ben't
+serious."
+
+"Why if you continue to look so serious, I must be serious too; you
+understand, Bunting?"
+
+"Augh--and that's all, your honour," cried the Corporal, brightening up,
+"shall look merry enough to-morrow, when one's in, as it were, like, to
+the change of road. But you see, Sir, it took me by surprise. Said I to
+myself, says I, it is an odd thing for you, Jacob Bunting, on the faith
+of a man, it is! to go tramp here, tramp there, without knowing why or
+wherefore, as if you was still a private in the Forty-second, 'stead of a
+retired Corporal. You see, your honour, my pride was a hurt; but it's all
+over now;--only spites those beneath me,--I knows the world at my time o'
+life."
+
+"Well, Bunting, when you learn the reason of my change of plan, you'll be
+perfectly satisfied that I do quite right. In a word, you know that my
+father has been long missing; I have found a clue by which I yet hope to
+trace him. This is the reason of my journey to Yorkshire."
+
+"Augh!" said the Corporal, "and a very good reason: you're a most
+excellent son, Sir;--and Lunnon so nigh!"
+
+"The thought of London seems to have bewitched you; did you expect to
+find the streets of gold since you were there last?"
+
+"A--well Sir; I hears they be greatly improved."
+
+"Pshaw! you talk of knowing the world, Bunting, and yet you pant to enter
+it with all the inexperience of a boy. Why even I could set you an
+example."
+
+"'Tis 'cause I knows the world," said the Corporal, exceedingly nettled,
+"that I wants to get back to it. I have heard of some spoonies as never
+kist a girl, but never heard of any one who had kist a girl once, that
+did not long to be at it again."
+
+"And I suppose, Mr. Profligate, it is that longing which makes you so hot
+for London?"
+
+"There have been worse longings nor that," quoth the Corporal gravely.
+
+"Perhaps you meditate marrying one of the London belles; an heiress--eh?"
+
+"Can't but say," said the Corporal very solemnly, "but that might be
+'ticed to marry a fortin, if so be she was young, pretty, good-tempered,
+and fell desperately in love with me,--best quality of all."
+
+"You're a modest fellow."
+
+"Why, the longer a man lives, the more knows his value; would not sell
+myself a bargain now, whatever might at twenty-one!"
+
+"At that rate you would be beyond all price at seventy," said Walter:
+"but now tell me, Bunting, were you ever in love,--really and honestly in
+love?"
+
+"Indeed, your honour," said the Corporal, "I have been over head and
+ears; but that was afore I learnt to swim. Love's very like bathing. At
+first we go souse to the bottom, but if we're not drowned, then we gather
+pluck, grow calm, strike out gently, and make a deal pleasanter thing of
+it afore we've done. I'll tell you, Sir, what I thinks of love: 'twixt
+you and me, Sir, 'tis not that great thing in life, boys and girls want
+to make it out to be; if 'twere one's dinner, that would be summut, for
+one can't do without that; but lauk, Sir, Love's all in the fancy. One
+does not eat it, nor drink it; and as for the rest,--why it's bother!"
+
+"Bunting, you're a beast," said Walter in a rage, for though the Corporal
+had come off with a slight rebuke for his sneer at religion, we grieve to
+say that an attack on the sacredness of love seemed a crime beyond all
+toleration to the theologian of twenty-one.
+
+The Corporal bowed, and thrust his tongue in his cheek.
+
+There was a pause of some moments.
+
+"And what," said Walter, for his spirits were raised, and he liked
+recurring to the quaint shrewdness of the Corporal, "and what, after all,
+is the great charm of the world, that you so much wish to return to it?"
+
+"Augh!" replied the Corporal, "'tis a pleasant thing to look about un
+with all one's eyes open; rogue here, rogue there--keeps one alive;--life
+in Lunnon, life in a village--all the difference 'twixt healthy walk, and
+a doze in arm-chair; by the faith of a man, 'tis!"
+
+"What! it is pleasant to have rascals about one?"
+
+"Surely yes," returned the Corporal drily; "what so delightful like as to
+feel one's cliverness and 'bility all set an end--bristling up like a
+porkypine; nothing makes a man tread so light, feel so proud, breathe so
+briskly, as the knowledge that he's all his wits about him, that he's a
+match for any one, that the Divil himself could not take him in. Augh!
+that's what I calls the use of an immortal soul--bother!"
+
+Walter laughed.
+
+"And to feel one is likely to be cheated is the pleasantest way of
+passing one's time in town, Bunting, eh?"
+
+"Augh! and in cheating too!" answered the Corporal; "'cause you sees,
+Sir, there be two ways o' living; one to cheat,--one to be cheated. 'Tis
+pleasant enough to be cheated for a little while, as the younkers are,
+and as you'll be, your honour; but that's a pleasure don't last long--
+t'other lasts all your life; dare say your honour's often heard rich
+gentlemen say to their sons, 'you ought, for your own happiness' sake,
+like, my lad, to have summut to do--ought to have some profession, be you
+niver so rich,'--very true, your honour, and what does that mean? why it
+means that 'stead of being idle and cheated, the boy ought to be busy and
+cheat--augh!"
+
+"Must a man who follows a profession, necessarily cheat, then?"
+
+"Baugh! can your honour ask that? Does not the Lawyer cheat? and the
+Doctor cheat? and the Parson cheat, more than any? and that's the reason
+they all takes so much int'rest in their profession--bother!"
+
+"But the soldier? you say nothing of him."
+
+"Why, the soldier," said the Corporal, with dignity, "the private
+soldier, poor fellow, is only cheated; but when he comes for to get for
+to be as high as a corp'ral, or a sargent, he comes for to get to bully
+others, and to cheat. Augh! then 'tis not for the privates to cheat,--
+that would be 'sumpton indeed, save us!"
+
+"The General, then, cheats more than any, I suppose?"
+
+"'Course, your honour; he talks to the world 'bout honour an' glory, and
+love of his Country, and sich like--augh! that's proper cheating!"
+
+"You're a bitter fellow, Mr. Bunting: and pray, what do you think of the
+Ladies--'are they as bad as the men?'"
+
+"Ladies--augh! when they're married--yes! but of all them ere creturs, I
+respects the kept Ladies, the most--on the faith of a man, I do! Gad! how
+well they knows the world--one quite invies the she rogues; they beats
+the wives hollow! Augh! and your honour should see how they fawns and
+flatters, and butters up a man, and makes him think they loves him like
+winkey, all the time they ruins him. They kisses money out of the miser,
+and sits in their satins, while the wife, 'drot her, sulks in a gingham.
+Oh, they be cliver creturs, and they'll do what they likes with old Nick,
+when they gets there, for 'tis the old gentlemen they cozens the best;
+and then," continued the Corporal, waxing more and more loquacious, for
+his appetite in talking grew with that it fed on,--"then there be another
+set o' queer folks you'll see in Lunnon, Sir, that is, if you falls in
+with 'em,--hang all together, quite in a clink. I seed lots on 'em when
+lived with the Colonel--Colonel Dysart, you knows--augh?"
+
+"And what are they?"
+
+"Rum ones, your honour; what they calls Authors."
+
+"Authors! what the deuce had you or the Colonel to do with Authors?"
+
+"Augh! then, the Colonel was a very fine gentleman, what the larned calls
+a my-seen-ass, wrote little songs himself, 'crossticks, you knows, your
+honour: once he made a play--'cause why, he lived with an actress!"
+
+"A very good reason, indeed, for emulating Shakespear; and did the play
+succeed?"
+
+"Fancy it did, your honour; for the Colonel was a dab with the scissors."
+
+"Scissors! the pen, you mean?"
+
+"No! that's what the dirty Authors make plays with; a Lord and a Colonel,
+my-seen-asses, always takes the scissors."
+
+"How?"
+
+"Why the Colonel's Lady--had lots of plays--and she marked a scene here--
+a jest there--a line in one place--a sentiment in t' other--and the
+Colonel sate by with a great paper book--cut 'em out, pasted them in
+book. Augh! but the Colonel pleased the town mightily."
+
+"Well, so he saw a great many authors; and did not they please you?"
+
+"Why they be so damned quarrelsome," said the Corporal, "wringle,
+wrangle, wrongle, snap, growl, scratch; that's not what a man of the
+world does; man of the world niver quarrels; then, too, these creturs
+always fancy you forgets that their father was a clargyman; they always
+thinks more of their family, like, than their writings; and if they does
+not get money when they wants it, they bristles up and cries, 'not
+treated like a gentleman, by God!' Yet, after all, they've a deal of
+kindness in 'em, if you knows how to manage 'em--augh! but, cat-kindness,
+paw today, claw to-morrow. And then they always marries young, the poor
+things, and have a power of children, and live on the fame and forten
+they are to get one of these days; for, my eye! they be the most
+sanguinest folks alive!"
+
+"Why, Bunting, what an observer you have been! who could ever have
+imagined that you had made yourself master of so many varieties in men!"
+
+"Augh! your honour, I had nothing to do when I was the Colonel's valley,
+but to take notes to ladies and make use of my eyes. Always a 'flective
+man."
+
+"It is odd that, with all your abilities, you did not provide better for
+yourself."
+
+"'Twas not my fault," said the Corporal, quickly; "but somehow, do what
+will--'tis not always the cliverest as foresees the best. But I be young
+yet, your honour!"
+
+Walter stared at the Corporal and laughed outright: the Corporal was
+exceedingly piqued.
+
+"Augh! mayhap you thinks, Sir, that 'cause not so young as you, not young
+at all; but, what's forty, or fifty, or fifty-five, in public life? never
+hear much of men afore then. 'Tis the autumn that reaps, spring sows,
+augh!--bother!"
+
+"Very true and very poetical. I see you did not live among authors for
+nothing."
+
+"I knows summut of language, your honour," quoth the Corporal
+pedantically.
+
+"It is evident."
+
+"For, to be a man of the world, Sir, must know all the ins and outs of
+speechifying; 'tis words, Sir, that makes another man's mare go your
+road. Augh! that must have been a cliver man as invented language;
+wonders who 'twas--mayhap Moses, your honour?"
+
+"Never mind who it was," said Walter gravely; "use the gift discreetly."
+
+"Umph!" said the Corporal--"yes, your honour," renewed he after a pause.
+"It be a marvel to think on how much a man does in the way of cheating,
+as has the gift of the gab. Wants a Missis, talks her over--wants your
+purse, talks you out on it--wants a place, talks himself into it.--What
+makes the Parson? words!--the lawyer? words--the Parliament-man? words!--
+words can ruin a country, in the Big House--words save souls, in the
+Pulpits--words make even them ere authors, poor creturs, in every man's
+mouth.--Augh! Sir, take note of the words, and the things will take care
+of themselves--bother!"
+
+"Your reflections amaze me, Bunting," said Walter smiling; "but the night
+begins to close in; I trust we shall not meet with any misadventure."
+
+"'Tis an ugsome bit of road!" said the Corporal, looking round him.
+
+"The pistols?"
+
+"Primed and loaded, your honour."
+
+"After all, Bunting, a little skirmish would be no bad sport--eh?--
+especially to an old soldier like you."
+
+"Augh, baugh! 'tis no pleasant work, fighting, without pay, at least;
+'tis not like love and eating, your honour, the better for being, what
+they calls, 'gratis!'"
+
+"Yet I have heard you talk of the pleasure of fighting; not for pay,
+Bunting, but for your King and Country!"
+
+"Augh! and that's when I wanted to cheat the poor creturs at Grassdale,
+your honour; don't take the liberty to talk stuff to my master!"
+
+They continued thus to beguile the way, till Walter again sank into a
+reverie, while the Corporal, who began more and more to dislike the
+aspect of the ground they had entered on, still rode by his side.
+
+The road was heavy, and wound down the long hill which had stricken so
+much dismay into the Corporal's stout heart on the previous day, when he
+had beheld its commencement at the extremity of the town, where but for
+him they had not dined. They were now little more than a mile from the
+said town, the whole of the way was taken up by this hill, and the road,
+very different from the smoothened declivities of the present day, seemed
+to have been cut down the very steepest part of its centre; loose stones,
+and deep ruts encreased the difficulty of the descent, and it was with a
+slow pace and a guarded rein that both our travellers now continued their
+journey. On the left side of the road was a thick and lofty hedge; to the
+right, a wild, bare, savage heath, sloped downward, and just afforded a
+glimpse of the spires and chimneys of the town, at which the Corporal was
+already supping in idea! That incomparable personage was, however,
+abruptly recalled to the present instant, by a most violent stumble on
+the part of his hard-mouthed, Romannosed horse. The horse was all but
+down, and the Corporal all but over.
+
+"Damn it," said the Corporal, slowly recovering his perpendicularity,
+"and the way to Lunnon was as smooth as a bowling-green!"
+
+Ere this rueful exclamation was well out of the Corporal's mouth, a
+bullet whizzed past him from the hedge; it went so close to his ear, that
+but for that lucky stumble, Jacob Bunting had been as the grass of the
+field, which flourisheth one moment and is cut down the next!
+
+Startled by the sound, the Corporal's horse made off full tear down the
+hill, and carried him several paces beyond his master, ere he had power
+to stop its career. But Walter reining up his better managed steed,
+looked round for the enemy, nor looked in vain.
+
+Three men started from the hedge with a simultaneous shout. Walter fired,
+but without effect; ere he could lay hand on the second pistol, his
+bridle was seized, and a violent blow from a long double-handed bludgeon,
+brought him to the ground.
+
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EUGENE ARAM, BOOK 2, BY LYTTON ***
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