Twice has Mr Warren de Fitzalbert closed a chapter for us, and put us
under lasting obligation. Fain would we introduce that very important
personage to the reader's more particular acquaintance; fain describe
the fascinating form, the inimitable grace, that won all hearts, and
captivated, more particularly, every female eye. But, alas! intimacy is
forbidden. A mystery has attached itself to his life, with which we are
bound to invest his person at the present writing. We cannot promise one
syllable from his eloquent lips, or even one glimpse at his dashing
exterior. As for referring you, gentle reader, to the home of Mr de
Fitzalbert, the thing's absurd upon the very face. Home he has none,
unless Peele's coffeehouse; and all the _Bears_ of Holborn, blue, black,
and white, to which his letters are directed, assert the sacred
designation. Let us hasten back to Messrs Moses. Mr Methusaleh had not
been more successful in his attempt to catch a sight of the secretary of
state than other people. When Aby heard the double knock, he darted like
an arrow from his parent's arms, in order to prevent the entrance of his
friend, and to remove him from all possible contact with the astute and
too persuasive Moses, senior. In vain did the latter gentleman rush to
the window, and, by every soft endearment, seek to call back the
retreating forms of Aby and Fitzalbert, now arm-in-arm, making for the
corner of the street, and about to turn it. One was unconscious of the
voice--the other heard it, and defied it. What passed between father and
son, when the latter returned at night, I cannot say; but they were up
betimes the following morning, and much excited, whilst they partook
together of their morning meal.
"It's no good trying," said the elder gentleman. "I can't eat, Aby, do
vot I vill. I'm so delighted with your earthly prospects, and your
dootiful behaviour, that my appetite's clean gone."
"Don't distress yourself on that account," said Aby, "I've appetite for
two."
"You always had, my dear," replied the sire; "and vot a blessing it'll
be to gratify it at your own expense. I never begrudged you, my boy, any
victuals as I had in the house, and the thought of that ere vill be a
great consolation to me on my death-bed."
"What's o'clock, father?"
"Nine, my dear."
"It's getting on. Only think that at twelve o'clock to-day I shall have
entered into another sphere of existence."
"It's very vunderful," said Methusaleh.
"It's one of those dispensations, father, that comes like great actors,
once in a thousand years."
Mr Moses, senior, drew from his pocket a dirty cotton handkerchief, and
applied it to his eyes.
"Oh, Aby," said he, in a snivelling tone, "if your mother vos but alive
to see it. But, tank God, my dear, she's out of this vicked vorld of
sorrow and trouble. But let's talk of business," he added, in a livelier
tone. "This is a serious affair, my boy. I hope you'll take care of your
place, ven you gets it."
"Trust me for that, Septuagenarian," replied the son.
"Votever you does, do it cleverly, and don't be found out. Dere's a mint
of money to be made in more vays than one. If your friends vant cash,
bring 'em to me. I'll allow you handsome."
"Have you got the three hundred ready, father?"
"Here it is, Aby," replied Methusaleh, holding up three bank-notes of a
hundred each. "Now you know, my dear, vot ve're to do exactly; ve may,
after all, be done in this 'ere business, although I own it doesn't look
like it. Still ve can't be too cautious in our proceedings. You
remember, my boy, that ven you gives de nobleman his money, you takes
his receipt. The cheque for the balance you'll keep in your pocket till
you get the appintment. I goes vith you, and shtays outside the other
side of the vay. If any thing goes wrong, you have only to come to the
street door, and take off your hat, that vill be quite enough for me;
I'll rush in directly, and do vot's necessary."
"Father," said Aby, in a tone of reproof, "your notions of gentlemen's
conduct is so disgusting, that I can't help despising you, and giving
the honour of my birth to some other individual. No son of your's could
be elevated in his ideas. I defy him."
"Never mind, my boy, do as you are bid. You're very clever, I own, but
you have a deal to larn yet."
In this and similar conversation, time passed until the clock struck
eleven, and warned father and son of the approaching crisis. At
half-past eleven precisely they quitted their common habitation, and
were already on the road. The old gentleman had made no alteration in
his primitive attire. Even on the day which was about to prove so
eventful to the family history, he sallied forth with the same lofty
contempt of conventionalities that had characterised his very long
career. How different the elated and aspiring heir of Moses! No wonder
he spurned with indignation the offer of his seedy parent's arm. No
wonder he walked a few paces before him, and assumed that unconcerned
and vacant air which should assure all passengers of his being quite
alone in the public thoroughfare both in person and in thought. Aby had
been intensely persevering at his morning toilet. The grease of a young
bear had been expended on his woolly head; the jewellery of a Mosaic
firm scattered over his lanky personality. He wore a tightly-fitting
light blue coat with frogs; a yellow satin waistcoat with a stripe of
blue beneath; a massive cravat of real cotton velvet, held down by gilt
studs; military trousers, and shining leather boots; spurs were on the
latter, and a whip was in his hand. Part of the face was very clean; but
by some law of nature the dirt that had retreated from one spot had
affectionately attached itself to another. The cheeks were
unexceptionable for Aby; but beneath the eyes and around the ears, and
below the chin, the happy youth might still indulge his native love of
grime. It is not the custom for historians to describe the inner
clothing of their heroes. We are spared much pain in consequence.
At three minutes to twelve the worthies found themselves over against
the Salisbury Hotel in Oxford Street. The agitation of the happy youth
was visible; but the more experienced sire was admirably cool.
"There's the money, Aby," said he, handing over the three hundred
pounds. "Be a man, and do the business cleverly. Don't be done out of
the cash, and keep vide avake. If you've the slightest suspicion, rush
to the door and pull off your hat. I shall look out for the signal.
Don't think of me. I can take care of myself. Dere, listen, the clock's
striking. Now go, my boy, and God bless you!"
True enough, the clock was sounding. Aby heard the last stroke of
twelve, and then to leap across the road, and to bound into the house,
was the work of an instant.
Now, although Mr Methusaleh Moses was, as we have said, admirably cool
up to the moment of parting with his money, it by no means follows that
he was equally at his ease after that painful operation had been
performed. Avaricious and greedy, Methusaleh could risk a great deal
upon the chance of great gains, and would have parted with ten times
three hundred pounds to secure the profits which, as it seemed to him,
were likely to result from the important business on hand. He could be
extravagant in promising speculations, although he denied himself
ordinary comforts at his hearth. Strange feelings possessed him,
however, as his son tore from him, and disappeared in the hotel. The
money was out of his pocket, and in an instant might find itself in the
pocket of another without an adequate consideration. Dismal reflection!
Mr Methusaleh looked up to one of the hotel windows to get rid of it.
The boy was inexperienced, and might be in the hands of sharpers, who
would rub their hands and chuckle again at having done the "knowing
Jew." Excruciating thought! Mr Methusaleh visibly perspired as it came
and went. The boy himself was hardly to be trusted. He had been the
plague of Mr Methusaleh's life since the hour of his birth--was full of
tricks, and might have schemes to defraud his natural parent of his
hard-earned cash, like any stranger to his blood or tribe. As this
suspicion crossed the old man's brain, he clenched his fist
unconsciously, and gnashed his teeth, and knit his brow, and felt as
murderers feel when the hot blood is rampant, and gives a tone of
justice to the foulest crime. A quarter of an hour passed in this
distressing emotion. Mr Methusaleh would have sworn it was an hour, if
he had not looked at his watch. Not for one moment had he withdrawn his
eager vision from that banging door, which opened and shut at every
minute, admitting and sending forth many human shapes, but not the one
he longed yet feared to see. The old man's eyes ached with the strain,
and wearying anxiety. One good hour elapsed, and there stood Mr Moses.
He was sure his boy was still in the house. He had watched every face
closely that had entered and issued. Could he have mistaken Aby?
Impossible! I would have given a great deal to read the history of the
old man's mind during that agitated sixty minutes! I believe he could
have called to recollection every form that had passed either into or
out of the hotel, all the time that he had been on duty. How he watched
and scanned some faces! One or two looked sweetly and satisfactorily
ingenuous--the very men to spend money faster than they could get it,
and to need the benevolent aid that Mr Moses was ready to afford them.
Methusaleh's spirits and confidence rose tremendously at such
appearances. One after the other was silently pronounced "the real Lord
Downy." Then came two or three sinister visages--faces half muffled up,
with educated features, small cunning eyes, and perhaps green
spectacles--conspirators every one--villains who had evidently conspired
to reduce Mr Moses's balance at his banker's, and to get fat at his
expense. Down went the spirits faster than they had mounted. The head,
as well as eyes of Mr Moses, now was aching.
His troubles grew complicated. Have we said that the general appearance
of Mr Moses, senior, was such as not to inspire immediate confidence on
the part of mankind in general, and police-officers in particular? It
should have been mentioned. The extraordinary conduct of the agitated
little gentleman had not failed to call forth the attention and
subsequent remarks of those who have charge of the public peace. First,
he was asked, "What business he had there?" Then he was requested "to
move on." What a request to make at such a moment! _Move on!_ Would that
thoughtless policeman have given Mr Moses three hundred precious
sovereigns to put himself in locomotion? Not he. Then came two or three
mysterious individuals, travellers apparently from the east, with long
beards, heavy bags on their backs, and sonorous voices, who had
evidently letters of introduction to Methusaleh, for they deposited
their burdens before him as they passed, and entered with him into
friendly conversation, or rather sought to do so; for he was proof
against temptation, and, for the first time in his life, not to be
charmed by any eastern talk of "first-rate bargains," and victories
obtained, by guile, over Christian butlers and such like serving-men.
The more the strangers surrounded him, the more he bobbed his head, and
fixed his piercing eye upon the door that wrought him so much agony.
An hour and a half! Exactly thirty minutes later than the time
prescribed by Aby! Oh, foolish old man, to part with his money! He
turned pale as death with inward grief, and resolved to wait no longer
for the faithless child. Not faithless, old Methusaleh--for, look again!
The old man rubs his eyes, and can't believe them. He has watched so
long in vain for that form, that he believes his disordered vision now
creates it. But he deceives himself. Aby indeed appears. His hands are a
hundred miles away from his hat, and a smile sits on the surface of his
countenance. "Oh, he has done the trick! Brave boy, good child!" A
respectable gentleman is at his side. Methusaleh does not know him, but
the reader recognises that much-to-be-pitied personage, Lord Downy. Oh,
how greedily Methusaleh watches them both! "Capital boy, an
out-and-outer." Mr Moses "vishes he may die" if he isn't. But, suddenly,
the arm and hand of the youth is raised. Old Moses' heart is in his
mouth in no time. He prepares to run to his child's assistance; but the
hand stops midway between the waistcoat and the hat, and--hails a cab.
Lord Downy enters the vehicle; Aby follows, and away it drives.
Methusaleh's cab is off the stand quite as quickly. "Follow dat cab to
h--l, my man!" says he; jumps in, and never loses sight of number
forty-five.
Number forty-five proceeded leisurely down Regent Street; along Charing
Cross, and Parliament Street, until it arrived at a quiet street in
Westminster, at the corner of which it stopped. Close behind it, pulled
up the vehicle of old Methusaleh. Lord Downy and Aby entered a house
within a few yards of it, and, immediately opposite, the indefatigable
sire once more took up his position. Here, with a calm and happy spirit,
the venerable Moses reflected on the past and future--made plans of
retiring from business, and of living, with his fortunate Aby, in rural
luxury and ease, and congratulated himself on the moral training he had
given his son, and which had no doubt led to his present noble eminence.
During this happy reverie there appeared at the door of the house in
which the Moses family were at present interested, a man of fashionable
exterior--a baronet at the very least. He had a martial air and bushy
whiskers--his movements all the ease of nature added to the grace of
art. The plebeian Moses felt an involuntary respect for the august
presence, and, in the full gladness of his heart, took off his hat in
humble reverence. We promised the reader one glimpse of the incomparable
Warren de Fitzalbert. He has obtained it. That mysterious individual
acknowledges the salutation of the Hebrew, and, smiling on him
graciously, passes on. Methusaleh rubs his hands, and has a foretaste of
his coming dignity.
Another ten minutes of unmingled joy, and Aby is at the door. His
carefully combed hair is all dishevelled; his limbs are shaking; his
cheeks bloodless; and, oh, worse than all, the fatal hat is wildly
waving in the air! Methusaleh is struck with a thunderbolt; but he is
stunned for an instant only. He dashes across the road, seizes his
lawfully begotten by the throat, and drags him like a log into the
passage.
"Shpeak, shpeak! you blackguard, you villain!" exclaimed the man. "My
money, my money!"
"Oh, father!" answered the stripling, "they have robbed us--they have
taken advantage of me. I aint to blame; oh Lor'! oh Lor'!"
The little man threw his boy from him with the strength of a giant and
the anger of a fiend. The unhappy Aby spun like a top into the corner of
the passage.
"Show me the man," cried Methusaleh, "as has got my money. Take me to
him, you fool, you ass; let me have my revenge; or I'll be the death of
you."
Aby crawled away from his father, rose, and then bade his father follow
him. The father did as he was directed. He ascended a few stairs, and
entered a room on the first floor. The only living object he saw there
was Lord Downy. His lordship was very pale, and as agitated as any of
the party; but his agitation did not save him from the assaults of the
defrauded Israelite. The old man had scarcely caught sight of his prey
before he pounced upon him like a panther.
"What does this mean?" exclaimed his lordship, in amazement.
"My money!"
"Who are you?" said Lord Downy.
"My money!" repeated Moses, furiously. "Give me my money! Three hundred
pounds--bank notes! I have got the numbers; I've stopped the payment.
Give me my money!"
"Is this your son, sir?" said Lord Downy, pointing to the wretched Aby,
who stood in a corner of the apartment, looking like a member of the
swell mob, very sea-sick.
"Never mind him!" cried the old man, energetically. "The money is mine,
not his'n. I gave it him to take up a bill. If you have seduced him
here, and robbed him of it, it's transportation. I knows the law. It's
the penal shettlements!"
"Good heaven, sir! What language do you hold to me?"
"Never mind my language. It vill be vorse by and by. Dis matter shall be
settled before the magistrate. Come along to Bow Street!"
And so saying, Mr Moses, who all this time had held his lordship fast by
the collar of his coat, urged him forwards to the door.
"I tell you, sir," said the nobleman, "whoever you may be, you are
labouring under a mistake. I am not the person that you take me for. I
am a peer of the realm."
"If you vos the whole House of Commons," continued Methusaleh, without
relaxing his grasp, "vith Sir Robert Peel and the Duke of Vellington
into the pargain, you should go to Bow Street. Innoshent men aint to be
robbed like tieves."
"Oh, heaven! my position! What will the world say?"
"That you're a d--d rogue, sir, and shwindled a gentleman out of his
money."
"Listen to me for one moment," said Lord Downy, earnestly, "and I will
accompany you whithersoever you please. Believe me, you are mistaken. If
you have suffered wrong through me, I am, at least, innocent.
Nevertheless, as far as I am able, justice shall be done you." Mr Moses
set his prisoner at liberty. "There, sir," said he, "I am a man of
peace. Give me the three hundred pounds, and I'll say no more about it."
"We are evidently playing at cross purposes," said the nobleman. "Suffer
me, Mr ----," His lordship stopped.
"Oh, you knows my name well enough. It's Mr Moses."
"Then, Mr Moses," continued Lord Downy, "suffer me to tell my story, and
then favour me with yours."
"Go on, sir," said Methusaleh. "Mind, vot you says vill go as evidence
agin you. I don't ask you to speak. I don't vant to compromise."
"I have nothing but truth to utter. Some days ago I saw an advertisement
in the newspaper, offering to advance money to gentlemen on their
personal security. I answered the advertisement, and the following day
received a visit from Mr Fitzalbert, the advertiser. I required a
thousand pounds. He had not the money, he said, at his command; but a
young friend of his, for whom, indeed, he acted as agent, would advance
the sum as soon as all preliminaries were arranged. We did arrange the
preliminaries, as I believe, to Mr Fitzalbert's perfect satisfaction,
and this morning was appointed for a meeting and a settlement."
"Yes; but didn't you promise to get me situation," interposed Aby from
the corner, in a tremulous tone.
"Hold your tongue, you fool!" exclaimed Methusaleh. "Read that letter,"
he continued, turning to Lord Downy, and presenting him with the note
addressed to Moses, junior, by Warren de Fitzalbert. Lord Downy read it
with unfeigned surprise, and shook his head when he had finished.
"It is my usual fate" he said, with a sigh. "I have fallen again into
the hands of a sharper. Mr Moses, we have been both deceived. I have
nothing to do with rods, blue or black. I am not able to procure for
your worthy son any appointment whatever. I never engaged to do so. The
letter is a lie from beginning to end, and this Mr Fitzalbert is a
clever rogue and an impostor."
Mr Moses, senior, turned towards his son one of those expressive looks
which Aby, in his boyhood, had always translated--"a good thrashing, my
fine fellow, at the first convenient opportunity." Aby, utterly beaten
by disappointment, vexation, and fear, roared like a distressed bear.
"Come, come!" said Lord Downy; "matters may not be as bad as they seem.
The lad has been cruelly dealt by. I will take care to set him right. I
received of your three hundred pounds this morning, Mr Moses, two
hundred and fifty; the remaining fifty were secured by Mr Fitzalbert as
a bonus. That sum is here. I have the most pressing necessity for it;
but I feel it is not for me to retain it for another instant. Take it. I
have five-and-twenty pounds more at the Salisbury hotel, which, God
knows, it is almost ruin to part with, but they are yours also, if you
will return with me. I give you my word I have not, at the present
moment, another sixpence in the world. I have a few little matters,
however, worth ten times the amount, which I beg you will hold in
security, until I discharge the remaining five-and-twenty pounds. I can
do no more."
"Vell, as you say, we have been both deceived by a great blackguard, and
by that 'ere jackass in the corner. You've shpoken like a gentleman,
vich is alvays gratifying to the feelings. To show you that I am not to
be outdone in generosity, I accept your terms."
Lord Downy was not moved to tears by this disinterested conduct on the
part of Mr Moses, but he gladly availed himself of any offer which would
save him from exposure. A few minutes saw them driving back to Oxford
Street; Methusaleh and Lord Downy occupying the inside of a cab, whilst
Aby was mounted on the box. The features of the interesting youth were
not visible during the journey, by reason of the tears that he shed, and
the pocket-handkerchief that was held up to receive them.
A little family plate, to the value of a hundred pounds, was, after much
haggling from Methusaleh, received as a pledge for the small deficiency;
which, by the way, had increased since the return of the party to the
Salisbury Hotel, to thirty-four pounds fifteen shillings and sixpence;
Mr Moses having first left it to Lord Downy's generosity to give him
what he thought proper for his trouble in the business, and finally made
out an account as follows--
Commission, L.5 0 0
Loss of time, 2 0 0
Do., Aby, 2 0 0
Hire of cab, 0 15 6
---------
L.9 15 6
"I hope you thinks," said Methusaleh, packing up the plate, "that I have
taken no advantage. Five hundred pounds voudn't pay me for all as I have
suffered in mind this blessed day, let alone the vear and tear of body."
Lord Downy made no reply. He was heartsick. He heard upon the stairs,
footsteps which he knew to belong to Mr Ireton. That gentleman, put off
from day to day with difficulty and fearful bribes, was not the man to
melt at the tale which his lordship had to offer instead of cash, or to
put up with longer delay. His lordship threw himself into a chair, and
awaited the arrival of his creditor with as much calmness as he could
assume. The door opened, and Mr Mason entered. He held in his hand a
letter, which had arrived by that morning's post. The writing was known.
Lord Downy trembled from head to foot as he broke the seal, and read the
glad tidings that met his eye. His uncle, the Earl of ----, had received
his appeal, and had undertaken to discharge his debts, and to restore
him to peace and happiness. The Earl of ----, a member of the
government, had obtained for his erring nephew an appointment abroad,
which he gave him, in the full reliance that his promise of amendment
should be sacredly kept.
"It shall! it shall!" said his lordship, bursting into tears, and
enjoying, for the first time in his life, the bliss of liberty. Need we
say that Mr Ireton, to his great surprise, was fully satisfied, and Mr
Moses in receipt of his thirty-four pounds fifteen shillings and
sixpence, long before he cared to receive the money? These things need
not be reported, nor need we mention how Lord Downy kept faith with his
relative, and, once rid of his disreputable acquaintances, became
himself a reputable and useful man.
Moses and Son dissolved their connexion upon the afternoon of that day
which had risen so auspiciously for the junior member. When Methusaleh
had completed the packing up of Lord Downy's family plate, he turned
round and requested Aby not to sit there like a wretch, but to give his
father a hand. He was not sitting there either as a wretch or in any
other character. The youth had taken his opportunity to decamp. Leaving
the hotel, he ran as fast as he could to the parental abode, and made
himself master of such loose valuables as might be carried off, and
turned at once into money. With the produce of this stolen property, Aby
extravagantly purchased a passage to New South Wales. Landing at Sydney,
he applied for and obtained a situation at the theatre. His face secured
him all the "sentimental villains;" and his success fully entitles him,
at the present moment, to be regarded as the "acknowledged hero" of
"domestic (Sydney) melodrama."
VICHYANA.
No watering-place so popular in France as Vichy; in England few so
little known! Our readers will therefore, we doubt not, be glad to learn
something of the _sources_ and _re_sources of Vichy; and this we hope to
give them, in a general way, in our present Vichyana. What further we
may have to say hereafter, will be chiefly interesting to our medical
friends, to whom the _waters_ of Vichy are almost as little known as
they are to the public at large. The name of the town seems to admit,
like its waters, of analysis; and certain grave antiquaries dismember it
accordingly into two Druidical words, "Gurch" and "I;" corresponding,
they tell us, to our own words, "Power" and "Water;" which, an' it be
so, we see not how they can derive _Vichy_ from this source. Others,
with more plausibility, hold Vichy to be a corruption of _Vicus_. That
these springs were known to the Romans is indisputable; and, as they are
marked _Aquae calidae_ in the Theodosian tables, they were, in all
probability, frequented; and the word _Vicus_, Gallicised into Vichy,
would then be the designation of the hamlet or watering-place raised in
their neighbourhood. Two of the principal springs are close upon the
river; ascertaining, with tolerable precision, not only the position of
this _Vicus_, but also of the ancient bridge, which, in the time of
Julius Caesar, connected, as it now does, the town with the road on the
opposite bank of the Allier, (Alduer fl.,) leading to Augusta Nemetum,
or Clermont. The road on _this_ side of the bridge was then, as now, the
high one (_via regia_) to Lugdunum, or Lyons.
Vichy, if modern geology be correct, was not always _thus_ a
watering-place; but seems, for a long period, to have been a _place
under water_. The very stones prate of Neptune's whereabouts in days of
langsyne. No one who has seen what heaps of _rounded_ pebbles are
gleaned from the corn-fields, or become familiar with the copious
remains of _fresh water_ shells and insects, which are kneaded into the
calcareous deposits a little below the surface of the soil, can help
fetching back in thought an older and drearier dynasty. Vulcan here, as
in the Phlegrian and Avernian plains, succeeded with great labour, and
not without reiterated struggles, in wresting the region from his uncle,
and proved himself the better earth-shaker of the two; first, by means
of subterranean fires, he threw up a great many small islands, which,
rising at his bidding, as thick as mushrooms after a thunder-storm,
broke up the continuous expanse of water into lakes; and by continual
perseverance in this plan, he at last rescued the _whole_ plain from his
antagonist, who, marshaling his remaining forces into a narrow file, was
fain to retreat under the high banks of the Allier, and to evacuate a
large tract of country, which had been his own for many centuries.
NATURAL HISTORY, &c.
The natural history of Vichy--that is, so much of it as those who are
not naturalists will care to know--is given in a few sentences. Its
Fauna contains but few kinds of quadrupeds, and no great variety of
birds; amongst reptiles again, while snakes abound as to number, the
variety of species is small. You see but few fish at market or at table;
and a like deficiency of land and fresh water mollusks is observable;
while, in compensation for all these deficiencies, and in consequence,
no doubt, of some of them, insects abound. So great, indeed, is the
superfoetation of these tribes, that the most unwearying collector
will find, all the summer through, abundant employment for his _two_
nets. If the Fauna, immediately around Vichy, must be conceded to be
small, her Flora, till recently, was much more copious and interesting;
_was_--since an improved agriculture, here as every where, has rooted
out, in its progress, many of the original occupants of the ground, and
colonized it with others--training hollyhocks and formal sunflowers to
supplant pretty Polygalas and soft Eufrasies; and instructing Ceres so
to fill the open country with her standing armies, that Flora,
_outbearded_ in the plain, should retire for shelter to the hills, where
she now holds her court. Spring sets in early at Vichy; sometimes in the
midst of _February_ the surface of the hills is already hoar with almond
blossoms. Early in April, anemones and veronicas dapple the greensward;
and the willows, deceived by the promise of warm weather, which is not
to last, put forth their _blossoms_ prematurely, and a month later put
forth _their leaves_ to weep over them. By the time May has arrived, the
last rude easterly gale, so prevalent here during the winter months, has
swept by, and there is to be no more cold weather; tepid showers vivify
the ground, an exuberant botany begins and continues to make daily
claims both on your notice and on your memory; and so on till the
swallows are gone, till the solitary _tree aster_ has announced October,
and till the pale petals of the autumnal colchicum begin to appear; a
month after Gouts and Rheumatisms, for which they grow, have left Vichy
and are returned to Paris for the winter. We arrived long before this,
in the midst of the butterfly month of July. It was warm enough then for
a more southern summer, and both insect and vegetable life seemed at
their acme. The flowers, even while the scythes were gleaming that were
shortly to unfound their several pretensions in that leveller of all
distinctions, _Hay_, made great muster, as if it had been for some
horticultural show-day. Amongst then we particularly noticed the purple
orchis and the honied daffodil, fly-swarming and bee-beset, and the
stately thistle, burnished with many a _panting goldfinch_, resting
momentarily from his butterfly hunt, and clinging timidly to the slender
stem that bent under him. Close to the river were an immense number of
_yellow_ lilies, who had placed themselves there for the sake, as it
seemed, of trying the effect of _hydropathy_ in improving their
_complexions_. But what was most striking to the eye was the appearance
of the immense white flowers (whitened sepulchres) of the _Datura
strammonium_, growing high out of the shingles of the river; and on this
same Seriphus, outlawed from the more gentle haunts of their innocuous
brethren, congregated his associates, the other prisoners, of whom, both
from his size and bearing, he is here the chief!
THE CONTRAST.
What a change from the plains of Latium!-a change as imposing in its
larger and more characteristic features, as it is curious in its
minutest details; and who that has witnessed the return of six summers
calling into life the rank verdure of the Colosseum, can fail to
contrast these jocund revels of the advancing year in this gay region of
France, with the blazing Italian summers, coming forth with no other
herald or attendant than the gloomy green of the "_hated_ cypress," and
the unrelieved glare of the interminable Campagna? Bright, indeed, was
that Italian heaven, and deep beyond all language was its blue; but the
spirit of transitory and changeable creatures is quelled and
overmastered by this permanent and immutable scene! It is like the
contrast between the dappled sky of cheerful morning, when eye and ear
are on the alert to catch any transitory gleam and to welcome each
distant echo, and the awful immovable stillness of noon, when Pan is
sleeping, and will be wroth if he is awakened, when the whole life of
nature is still, and we look down shuddering into its unfathomable
depth! Standing on the heights of Tusculum, or on the sacred pavement of
the Latian Jupiter, every glance we send forth into the objects around
us, returns laden with matter to cherish forebodings and despondencies.
The ruins speak of an immovable past, the teeming growths which mantle
them, the abundant source of future malaria, of a destructive future,
and _activity_, the only spell by which we can evoke the cheerful spirit
of the present--activity within us, or around us, there is _none_. What
wonder if we now feel as though the weight of all those grim ruins had
been heaved from off the mind, and left it buoyant and eager to greet
the present as though we were but the creatures of it! Whatever denizen
of the vegetable or the animal kingdom we were familiar with in Italy
and miss hereabouts, is replaced by some more cheerful race. What a
_variety_ of trees! and how various their _shades_ of green! Though not
equal to thy pines, Pamfili, and to thy fair cypresses, Borghese, whose
feet lie cushioned in crocuses and anemones, yet a fine tree is the
poplar; and yonder, extending for a couple of miles, is an avenue of
their stateliest masts. The leaves of those nearest to us are put into a
tremulous movement by a breeze too feeble for our skins to feel it; and
as the rustling foliage from above gently _purrs_ as instinct with life
from _within_, this peculiar sound comes back to us like a voice we have
heard and forgotten. No "marble wilderness" or olive-darkened upland, no
dilapidated "Osterie," famine within doors and fever without, here press
desolation into the service of the picturesque. Neither here have we
those huge masses of arched brickwork, consolidated with Roman cement,
pierced by wild fig-trees, crowned with pink valerians or acanthus, and
giving issue to companies of those gloomy funeral-paced insects of the
_Melasome_ family, (the Avis, the Pimelia, and the Blaps,) whose dress
is _deep mourning_, and whose favoured haunt is the tomb! But in their
place, a richly endowed, thickly inhabited plain, filled with cottages
and their gardens, farms and their appurtenances, ponds screaming with
dog-defying geese, and barnyards commingling all the mixed noises of
their live stock together. Encampments of ants dressed out in uniforms
quite unlike those worn by the _Formicary_ legions in Italy; gossamer
cradles nursing progenies of _our Cisalpine_ caterpillars, and spiders
with new arrangements of their _eight pairs of eyes_, forming new
arrangements of meshes, and _hunting_ new flies, are here. Here too,
once again, we behold, not without emotion, (for, _small_ as he is, this
creature has conjured up to us former scenes and associations of eight
years ago,) that tiny light-blue butterfly, that hovers over our
ripening corn, and is not known but as a stranger, in the south; also,
that minute diamond beetle[1] who always plays at bo-peep with you from
behind the leaves of his favourite hazel, and the burnished corslet and
metallic elytra of the pungent unsavoury _gold beetle_;[2] while we miss
the _grillus_ that leaps from hedge to hedge; the thirsty dragon-fly,
restless and rustling on his silver wings; the hoarse cicadae, whose
"time-honoured" noise you _durst_ not find fault with, even if you
would, and which you come insensibly to like; and that huge long-bodied
hornet,[3] that angry and terrible disturber of the peace, borne on
wings, as it were, of the wind, and darting through space like a meteor!
MISCELLANEA.
Though the "Flora" round about Vichy be, as we have said it is, very
rich and various, it attracts no attention. The fat Boeotian cattle
that feed upon it, look upon and _ruminate_ with more complacency over
it than the ordinary visitors of the place. The only flowers the ladies
cultivate an acquaintance with, are those manufactured in Paris;
_artificial_ passion flowers, and false "forget-me-nots," which are
about as true to nature as they that wear them. Of fruits every body is
a judge; and those of a sub-acid kind--the only ones permitted by the
doctors to the patients--are in great request. Foremost amongst them,
after the month of June, are to be reckoned the dainty fresh-dried
fruits from Clermont; of which, again, the prepared pulp of the mealy
wild apricot of the district is the best. This _pate d'abricot_ is
justly considered by the French one of the best _friandises_ they have,
and is not only sold in every _department_ there, but finds its way to
England also. Eaten, as we ate it, fresh from Clermont twice a-week, it
is soft and pulpy; but soon becoming candied, loses much of its fruity
flavour, and is converted into a sweetmeat.
We should not, in speaking of Vichy to a friend, ever designate it as a
_comfortable_ resort for a family; which, according to our English
notion of the thing, implies both privacy and detachment. Here you can
have neither. You must consider yourself as so much public property,
must do what others do--_i. e._ live in public, and make the best of it.
No place can be better off for hotels, and few so ill off for
lodgings--the latter are only to be had in small dingy houses opening
upon the street. They are, of course, very noisy; nor are the let-ters
of them at any pains to induce you by the modesty of their demands to
drop a veil over this defect. Defect, quotha! say, rather misery,
plague, torture. Can any word be an over-exaggeration for an incessant
_tintamare_, of which dogs, ducks, and drums are the leading
instruments, enough to try the most patient ears? The hotels begin to
receive candidates for the waters in May; but the season is reputed not
to commence till a month later, and ends with September. During this
period, many thousand visitors, including some of the ministers of the
day; a royal duke; half the Institute; poets, a few; _hommes des
lettres_, many; _agents de change_, most of all; deputies, wits, and
dandies; in fact, all the _elite_, both of Paris and of the provinces,
pay the same sum of seven francs per man, per diem; and, with the
exception of the duke, assemble, not to say fraternize, at the same
table. But though the guests be not formal, the "Mall," where every body
walks, is extremely so. A very broad right-angled [Illustration: m][**]
intersected by broad staring paths, cut across by others into smaller
squares, compels you either to be for ever throwing off at right angles
to your course, or to turn out of the enclosure. When the proclamation
for the opening of the season has been _tamboured_ through the
streets--with the doctors rests the announcement of the day--immediately
orders are issued for clean _shaving_ the grass-plats, lopping off
redundant branches, to recall the growth of trees to sound orthopedic
principles, and to reduce that wilderness of impertinent forms,
wherewith nature has disfigured her own productions, into the figures of
pure geometry! Hither, into this out-of-doors drawing-room, at the
fashionable hour of four P.M., are poured out, from the _embouchures_ of
all the hotels, all the inhabitants of them; all the tailor's gentlemen
of the Boulevard des Italiens, and all the _modisterie_ of the
Tuileries.
OUR AMUSEMENTS.
Pair by pair, as you see them _costumes_ in the fashions of the month;
pinioned arm to arm, but looking different ways; leaning upon polished
reeds as light and as expensive as themselves--behold the chivalry of
the land! The hand of _Barde_ is discernible in their _paletots_. The
spirit of _Staub_ hovers over those _flowery waistcoats_; who but
_Sahoski_ shall claim the curious felicity of _those heels_? and
Hippolyte has come bodily from Paris on purpose to do their hair. "_Un
sot trouve toujours un plus sot qui l'admire_," says Boileau, and here,
in supply exactly equal to the demand, come forth, rustling and
_bustling_ to see them, bevies of long-tongued belles, who ever, as they
walk and meet their acquaintance, are announcing themselves in swift
alternation "_charmees_," with a blank face, and "_toutes desolees_,"
with the _best good-will_! Here you learn to value a red riband at its
"juste prix," which is just what it will fetch per ell; specimens of it
in button-holes being as frequent as poppies amidst the corn.
Pretending to hide themselves from remark, which they intend but to
provoke, here public characters do private theatricals _a little a
l'ecart_. Actors gesticulate as they rehearse their parts under the
trees. Poets
"Rave and recite, and madden as they stand;"
and honourable members read aloud from the _Debats_ that has just
arrived, the speech which they spoke yesterday "_en Deputes_." Our
promenade here lacks but a few more Saxon faces amidst the crowd, and a
greater latitude of extravagance in some of its costumes, to complete
the illusion, and to make you imagine that this public garden, flanked
as it is on one side by a street of hotels, and on the opposite by the
bank of the Allier, is the Tuilleries with its Sunday population sifted.
Twenty-five francs secures you admission to the "Cercle" or club-house,
a large expensive building, which, like most buildings raised to answer
a variety of ends, leaves the main one of architectural propriety wholly
out of account. But when it is considered how many interests and
caprices the architect had to consult, it may be fairly questioned,
whether, so hampered, Vitruvius could have done it better; for the
_ground floor_ was to be cut up into corridors and bathing cells; while
the ladies requested a ball and anteroom; and the gentlemen two
"billiards" and a reading-room, with detached snuggeries for
smoking--_all_ on the _first floor_.
Public places, excepting the above-mentioned "Cercle," exist not at
Vichy, and as nobody thinks of paying visits save only to the doctor and
the springs, "_on s'ennui tres considerablement a Vichy_." If it be
true, that, in some of the lighter annoyances of life, fellowship is
decidedly preferable to solitude, _ennui_ comes not within the
number--every attempt to divide it with one's neighbours only makes it
worse; as Charles Lamb has described the _concert_ of silence at a
Quakers' meeting, the intensity increases with the number, and every new
accession raises the public stock of distress, which again redounds with
a surplus to each individual, "_chacun en a son part, et tous l'ont tout
entier_."[4] What a chorus of yawns is there; and mutual yawns, you
know, are the dialogue of ennui. No wonder; for the physicians don't
permit their patients to read any books but novels. They seek to array
the "Understanding" against him who wrote so well concerning its laws;
Bacon, as _intellectual food_, they consider difficult of digestion; and
even for their own La Place there is no place at Vichy! Every unlucky
headache contracted here, is placed to the account of _thinking_ in the
bath. If Dr P---- suspects any of his patients of thinking, he asks
them, like Mrs Malaprop, "what business they have to think?" "_Vous etes
venu ici pour prendre les eaux, et pour vous desennuyer, non pas pour
penser! Que le Diable emporte la Pensee!_" And so he _does_ accordingly!
How _we_ got through the twenty-four hours of each day, is still a
problem to us; after making due deductions for the time consumed in
eating, drinking, and sleeping. Occasionally we tried to "_beat time_"
by _versifying_ our own and our neighbours' "experiences" of Vichy. But
soon finding the "_quicquid agunt homines_" of those who in fact did
nothing, was beyond our powers of _description_, gave up, as abortive,
the attempt to maintain our "suspended animation" on means so artificial
and precarious. When little is to be told, few words will suffice. If
the word fisherman be derived from _fishing_, and not from _fish_, we
had a great many such fishermen at Vichy; who, though they could neither
scour a worm, nor splice the rod that their clumsiness had broken, nor
dub a fly, nor land a fish of a pound weight, if any such had had the
mind to try them, were vain enough to beset the banks of the Allier at a
very early hour in the morning. As they all fished with "flying lines,"
in order to escape the fine imposed on those that are _shotted_, and
seemed to prefer standing in their own light--a rare fault in
Frenchmen--with their backs to the sun; the reader will readily
understand, if he be an angler, what sport they might expect. Against
them and _their lines_, we quote a few _lines_ of _our own_ spinning:--
Now full of hopes, they loose the lengthing twine,
Bait harmless hooks, and launch a _leadless_ line!
Their shadows on the stream, the sun behind--
Egregious anglers! are the fishes blind?
Gull'd by the sportings of the frisking bleak,
That now assemble, now disperse, in freak;
They see not _deeper_, where the quick-eyed trout,
Has chang'd his route, and turned him quick about;
See not those scudding shoals, that mend their pace,
Of frighten'd bream, and silvery darting dace!
Baffled at last, they quit the ungrateful shore,
Curse what they fail to catch--and fish no more!
Yet fish there be, though these unsporting wights
Affect to doubt what Rondolitier[5] writes;
Who tells, "how, moved by soft Cremona's string,
Along these banks he saw the _Allice_ spring;
Whilst active hands, t' anticipate their fall,
Spread wide their nets, and draw an ample haul."
Our sportsmen do not confine themselves to the gentle art of
angling--they _shoot_ also; and some of them even acquire a sort of
celebrity for the precision of their aim. This class of sportsmen may be
divided into the _in_, and the _out_-door marksmen. _These_, innocuous,
and confining their operations principally to small birds in trees;
those, to the knocking the heads off small plaster figures from a stand.
The following brief notice of _them_ we transcribe from our Vichy
note-book:--
Those of bad blood, and mischievously gay,
Haunt "_tirs au pistolets_," and kill--the day!
There, where the rafters tell the frequent crack,
To fire with steady hand, acquire the knack,
From rifle barrels, twenty feet apart,
On gypsum warriors exercise their art,
Till ripe proficients, and with skill elate,
Their aimless mischief turns to deadly hate.
Perverted spirits; reckless, and unblest;
Ye slaves to lust; ye duellists profess'd;
Vainer than woman; more unclean than hogs;
Your life the felon's; and your death the dog's!
Fight on! while honour disavow your brawl,
And outraged courage disapprove the call--
Till, steep'd in guilt, the devil sees his time,
And sudden death shall close a life of crime.
In front of some of the hotels you always observe a number of persons
engaged successively in throwing a ring, with which each endeavours to
encircle a knife handle, on a board, stuck all over with blades. If he
succeeds, he may pocket the knife; if not he pays half a franc, and is
free to throw again. It is amusing to observe how many half franc pieces
a Frenchman's vanity will thus permit him to part with, before he gives
over, consigning the ring to its owner, and the blades to his electrical
anathema of "_mille tonnerres!_" A little farther on, just beyond the
enclosure, is another knot of people. What are they about? They are
congregated to see what passengers embark or disembark (their voyage
accomplished) from the gay vessels, the whirligigs or merry-go-rounds
(which is the classical expression, let _purists_ decide _for
themselves_) which, gaily painted as a Dutch humming-top, sail overhead,
and go round with the rapidity of windmills.
In hopes to cheat their nation's fiend, "Ennui,"
_These_ cheat themselves, and _seem_ to go to sea!
Their galley launch'd, its rate of sailing fast,
Th' _Equator_ soon, and soon the _Poles_ they've past,
And here they come to anchorage at last!
_These_, tightly stirrupt on a wooden horse,
Ride at a ring--and spike it, as they course.
Thus with the aid that ships and horses give,
Life passes on; 'tis labour, but they live.--
And some lead "bouledogues" to the water's edge,
There hunt, _a l'Anglais_, rats amidst the sedge;
And some to "pedicures" present--their corns,
And some at open windows practise--horns!
In noisy trictrac, or in quiet whist,
These pass their time--and, to complete our list,
There are who flirt with milliners or books,
Or else with nature 'mid her meads and brooks.
But Gauthier's was our lounge, and therefore, in common gratitude, are
we bound particularly to describe it. Had we been Dr Darwin we had done
it better. As it is, the reader must content himself with _Scuola di
Darwin_--
In Gauthier's shop, arranged in storied box
Of triple epoch, we survey the rocks,
A learned nomenclature! Behold in time
Strange forms imprison'd, forms of every clime!
The Sauras quaint, daguerrotyped on slate,
Obsolete birds and mammoths out of date;
Colossal bones, that, once before our flood,
Were clothed in flesh, and warm'd with living blood;
And tiny creatures, crumbling into dust,
All mix'd and kneaded in one common crust!
Here tempting shells exhibit mineral stores,
Of crystals bright and scintillating ores!
Of milky _mesotypes_, the various sorts,
The _blister'd silex_ and the _smoke-stain'd quartz_;
Thy _phosphates lead!_ bedeck'd with _needles green_,
Of _Elbas speculum_ the _steely sheen_,
Of _copper ores_, the poison'd "_greens_" and "_blues_,"
Dark _Bismuth's cubes_, and Chromium's _changing_ hues.
Here, too, (emblematical of our own position with respect to Ireland,)
we see _silver alloyed with lead_. In the "repeal of such union," where
the _silver_ has every thing to _gain_ and the _lead_ every thing to
_lose_, it is remarkable at what a _very dull heat_ ('tis scarcely
superior to that by which O'Connell manages to inflame Ireland) the
_baser metal_ melts, and would forsake the other, by its incorporation
with which it derives so large a portion of its intrinsic value,
whatever that may be!
Here, too, we pass in frequent review a vast series of casts from the
antique; they come from Clermont, and are produced by the dripping of
water, strongly impregnated with the carbonate of lime, on moulds placed
under it with this view. Some of these impressions were coarse and
rusty, owing to the presence of iron in the water; but where the
necessary precautions had been taken to precipitate this, the casts came
out with a highly polished surface, together with a sharpness of outline
and a precision of detail, that left no room for competition to
_Odellis_, else unrivalled Roman casts, which, confronted with these,
look like impressions of impressions derived through a hundred
successive stages; add, too, that these have the _solid_ advantage over
the others of being in marble in place of washed sulphur.
Thus much concerning _us_ and _our_ pastimes, from which it will have
appeared that the _gentlemen_ at Vichy pass half the day in _nothings_,
the other half _in nothing_. As to the ladies, who lead the same kind of
out doors life with us, and only don't smoke or play billiards, we see
and note as much of their occupations or listlessness as we list.
In unzoned robes, and loosest dishabille,
They show the world they've nothing to conceal!
But sit abstracted in their own _George Sand_,
And dote on Vice in sentiment so bland!
To necklaced Pug appropriate a chair,
Or sit alone, _knit_, _shepherdise_, and _stare!_
These seek _for fashion_ in a _mourning dress_,
(_Becoming_ mourning makes affliction less.)
With mincing manner, both of ton and town,
Some lead their _Brigand_ children up and down;
Invite attention to small girls and boys,
Dress'd up like dolls, a silly mother's toys;
Or follow'd by their _Bonne, in Norman cap_,
Affect to take their first-born to their lap--
To gaze enraptured, think you, on a face,
In which a husband's lineaments they trace?
Smiling, to win the notice of their elf?
No! but to draw the gaze of crowds on _Self_.
Sunday, which is always in France a _jour de fete_, and a _jour de bal_
into the bargain, is kept at Vichy, and in its neighbourhood, with great
apparent gaiety and enjoyment by the lower orders, who unite their
several _arrondissements_, and congregate here together.
Comes Sunday, long'd for by each smart coquette,
Of Randan, Moulins, Ganat, and Cusset.
In Janus hats,[6] with beaks that point both ways,
Then lively rustics dance their gay _Bourrees_;[7]
With painted sabots strike the noisy ground,
While bagpipes squeal, and hurdy-gurdies sound.
Till sinks the sun--then stop--the poor man's fete
Begins not early, and must end not late.
Whilst Paris belle in costliest silk array'd,
Runs up, and walks in stateliest parade;
Each comely damsel insolently kens;
(So silver pheasants strut 'midst modest hens!)
And marvels much what men _can_ find t' admire,
In such coarse hoydens, clad in such attire!
And now 'tis night; beneath the bright saloon,
All eyes are raised to see the fire balloon,
Till swells the silk 'midst acclamations loud,
And the light lanthorn shoots above the crowd!
Here, 'neath the lines, Hygeia's fount that shade,
Smart booths allure the lounger on parade.
_Bohemia's glass_, and _Nevers' beaded wares_,
_Millecour's fine lace_, and _Moulins' polish'd shears_;
And crates of painted wicker without flaw,
And fine mesh'd products of _Germania's_ straw,
Books of dull trifling, misnamed "reading light,"
And foxy maps, and prints in damaged plight,
Whilst up and down to rattling _castanettes_,
The active hawker sells his "_oubliettes!_"
We have our shows at Vichy, and many an itinerant tent incloses
something worth giving half a franc to see; most of them we had already
seen over and over again. What then? one can't invent new monsters every
year, nor perform new feats; and so we pay our respects to the _walrus_
woman, and to the "anatomie _vivante_." We look _up_ to the Swiss
giantess, and down upon the French dwarf; we inspect the feats of the
village Milos, and of those equestrians, familiar to "every circus" at
home and abroad, who
Ride four horses galloping; then stoop,
Vault from their backs, and spring thro' narrow hoop;
Once more alight upon their coursers' backs,
Then follow, scampering round the oft trod tracks.
And that far travell'd pig--_that_ pig of parts,
Whose eye aye glistens on _that_ Queen of hearts;
While wondering visitors the feat regard,
And tell by _looks_ that that's the very card!
Behold, too, another curiosity in natural history, well deserving of
"notice" and of "note," which we append accordingly--
From Auvergne's heights, their mother lately slain,
Six surly wolf cubs by their owner ta'en;
Her own pups drown'd, a foster bitch supplies,
And licks the churlish brood with fond maternal eyes![8]
Finally, and to wind up--
Who dance on ropes, who rouged and roaring stand,
Who cheat the eyes by wondrous sleight of hand,
From whose wide mouth the ready riband falls,
Who swallow swords, or urge the flying balls,
Here with French poodles vie, and harness'd fleas,
Nor strive in vain our easy tastes to please.
Whilst rival pupils of the great Daguerre,
In rival shops, display their rivals fair!
OUR FIRST TABLE D'HOTE DINNER AT VICHY.
We arrived at Vichy from Roanne just in time to dress for dinner. As
every body dines _en table d'hote_., we were not wrong in supposing that
this would be a good opportunity for studying the habits, "USAGES DE
SOCIETE" and what not, of a tolerably large party (fifty was to be the
number) of the better class of French PROPRIETAIRES. On entering the
room, we found the guests already assembled; and everybody in full talk
already, before the bell had done ringing, or the tureens been
uncovered. The habit of general sufferance and free communion of tongue
amongst guests at dinner, forms an agreeable episode in the life of him
whom education and English reserve have _inured_, without ever
reconciling, to a different state of things at home. The difference of
the English and French character peeps out amusingly at this critical
time of the day; when, oh! commend _us_ to a Frenchman's vanity, however
grotesque it may sometimes be, rather than to our own reserve, shyness,
formality, or under whatever other name we please to designate, and seek
to hide its unamiable synonym, pride. Vanity, always a free, is not
seldom an agreeable talker; but pride is ever laconic; while the few
words he utters are generally so constrained and dull, that you would
gladly absolve him altogether from so painful an effort as that of
opening his mouth, or forcing it to articulate. Self-love may be a large
ingredient in both pride and vanity; but the difference of comfort,
according as you have to sit down with one or the other at table, is
indeed great. For whilst pride sits stiff, guarded, and ungenial,
_radiating coldness around him_, which requires at least a bottle of
champagne and an arch coquette to disperse; vanity, on the other hand,
being a _female_, (a sort of Mrs Pride,) has her _conquests to make_,
and loves making them; and accordingly must study the ways and means of
pleasing; which makes _her_ an agreeable _voisine_ at table. As she
never doubts either her own powers to persuade, or yours to appreciate
them, her language is at once self-complacent, and full of good-will to
her neighbour; whilst the vanity of a Frenchman thus leads him to seek
popularity, it seems enough to an Englishman that he is one entitled to
justify himself, in his own eyes, for being as disagreeable as he
pleases.
On the present occasion, not to have joined in a conversation which was
general, at whatever disadvantage we might have to enter into it, would,
we felt, have been to subject ourselves to remark after dinner; so
putting off restraint, and putting on the best face we could, we began
at once to address some remarks to our neighbours. We were not aware at
the moment how far the _Anglomania_, which _began_ to prevail some seven
years ago in Paris, had spread since we left the French capital. There
it began, we remember, with certain members of the medical profession,
who had learned to give calomel in _English_ doses. The public next
lauded Warren's blacking--_Cirage national de Warren_--and then
proceeded to eat raw crumpets as an English article of luncheon. But
things had gone farther since that time than we were prepared to expect.
At the _table d'hote_ of to-day, we found every body had something civil
to say about English products; frequently for no other reason than that
they were English, it being obvious that they themselves had never seen
the articles, whose excellence they all durst swear for, though not a
man of them knew wherefore. We had not sat five minutes at table (the
stringy _bouilli_ was still going round) when a count, a gentleman used
to good breeding and _feeding_, opened upon us with a compliment which
we knew neither how to disclaim nor to appropriate, in declaring in
presence of the table that he was a decided partisan for English
"Rosbiff;" confirming his perfect sincerity to us, by a "_c'est vrai_,"
on perceiving some slight demur to the announcement at _mine host's_ end
of the table. We had scarce time to recover from this unexpected sally
of the count, when a young _notabilite_, a poet of the romantic school
of France, whose face was very pale, who wore a Circassian profusion of
_black_ hair over his shoulders, a satin waistcoat over his breast, and
Byron-tie (_noeud Byron_) round his neck--permitted his muse to say
something flattering to us across the table about Shakspeare. Again we
had not what to say, nor knew how to return thanks for our "immortal
bard;" and this, our shyness, we had the mortification to see was put
down to _English coldness_; for how _could_ we else have seemed so
insensible to a compliment so personal? nor were we relieved from our
embarrassment till a dark-whiskered man, in sporting costume, (who had
brought every thing appertaining thereto to table except his gun, which
was in a corner,) gave out, in a somewhat oracular manner, his opinion,
that there were no sporting dogs _out of_ England; whistling, as he
spoke to Foxe, and to Miss Dashe, to rise and show their noses above the
table! The countess next spoke tenderly of _English soap_, and almost
sighed over the soft whiteness of her hands, which she indulgently
attributed to the constant use of soap prepared by "_Mr Brown de
Vindsor_." This provoked a man of cultivated beard to declare, that he
found it impossible to shave with any razors but _English_ "_ones_;"
concluding with this general remark on French and English manufactures,
that the French _invented_ things, but that the English improved them.
(_Les Francais inventent, mais les Anglais perfectionnent._) Even
English medicine found its advocates--here were we sitting in the midst
of Dr Morison's patients! A lady, who had herself derived great
advantage from their use, was desirous of knowing whether our Queen took
them, or Prince Albert! It was also asked of us, whether Dr Morison
(whom they supposed to be the court physician) was _Sir_ Dr Morison,
(Bart.,) or _tout simplement_ doctor! and they spoke favourably of some
other English inventions--as of Rogers' teeth, Rowland's macassar, &c.;
and were continuing to do so, when a fierce-looking demagogue, seeing
how things were going, and what concessions were being made, roused
himself angrily; and, to show us that _he_ at least was no Anglo-maniac,
shot at us a look fierce as any bonassus; while he asked, abruptly, what
we thought in England of one whom he styled the "Demosthenes of
Ireland"--looked at us for an answer. As it would have been unsafe to
have answered _him_ in the downright, offhand manner, in which we like
both to deal and to be dealt by, we professed that we knew but one
Demosthenes, and he not an Irishman, but a Greek; which, by securing us
his contempt, kept us safe from the danger of something worse; but, our
Demosthenic friend excepted, it was a pleasant, unceremonious dinner;
and we acquitted ourselves just sufficiently well not to make any one
feel we were in the way. A lady now asked, in a whisper, whom _we_ look
upon as the first poet, Shakspeare, Dumas, or Lord Byron; and whether
the _two_ English poets were _both_ dead. A reply from a more knowing
friend saved our good breeding at this pinch. As a proof of our having
made our own way amongst the guests at table, we may mention that one
sallow gentleman, who had been surveying us once or twice already, at
length invited us to tell him, across the table, what case is ours, and
who our physician? To be thus obliged to confess our weak organ in
public is not pleasant; but _every_ body here does it, and what every
body does must be right. A gentleman who speaks broken English favours
the table with a conundrum. Another (the young poet) presents us with a
brace of dramas, bearing the auspicious titles of "La Mort de Socrate,"
and "Catilina Romantique"--_of which anon_. But, before we rise from our
dessert, here is the conundrum as it was proposed to us:--"What
gentleman always follow what lady?" Do you give it up? _Sur-Prise_
always follow _Misse-Take!!_
So much for our amusements at Vichy; but our Vichyana would be
incomplete, unless we added a few words touching those far-famed sources
for which, and not for its amusements, so many thousands flock hither
every year. The following, then, may be considered as a brief and
desultory selection of such remarks only as are likely to interest the
general reader, from a body of notes of a more professional character,
of which the destination is different:--Few springs have been so
celebrated as those at Vichy, and no mineral waters, perhaps, have
performed so many real "Hohenlohes," or better deserved the reputation
they have earned and maintained, now for so many centuries! Gentle,
indeed, is their surgery; they will penetrate to parts that no _steel_
may reach, and do good, irrespective of persons, alike to Jew or
Gentile; but then they should be "drunk on the premises"--exported to a
distance (and they are exported every where) they are found to have
lost--their chemical constitution remaining unchanged--a good deal of
their efficacy. Little, however, can Hygeia have to do with chemistry;
for the chemical analysis of _all_ these springs is the same while the
_modus operandi_ of each, in particular, is so distinct, that if gout
ails you, you must go to the "Grande grille;" if dyspepsia, to the
"Hopital;" or, if yours be a kidney case, to the "Celestius," to be
cured--facts which should long ago have convinced the man of retorts and
crucibles at home (who affirms that 'tis but taking soda after all),
that he speaks _beyond_ his warrant. Did ever lady patroness, desirous
of filling her rooms on a route night, invite to that end so many as
Hygeia invites to come and benefit by these springs? And what though she
reserve the right of patent in their preparation to herself, does she
not generously yield the products of her discovery in the restoration of
health and comfort to thousands, whom neither nostrum nor prescription,
the recipe nor the fiat, could restore? In cases, too, beyond her
control, does she not mitigate many sufferings that may not be removed?
To all that are galled with gall-stones, to those whom the _Chameleon
litmus paper_ of "coming events casts their shadows before;" to Indian
_livers_ condemned, else hopelessly, to the fate of Prometheus, preyed
upon by that vulture _Hepatitis_, in its _gnawing_ and chronic forms;
and to the melancholy hypochondriac, steeped at once both in sadness and
in pains--she calls, and calls loudly, that all these should come and
see what great and good things are in store for them at Vichy. And
finally, difficult though gouty gentlemen be to manage, Hygeia, nothing
daunted on that score, shrinks not from inviting that large army of
_involuntary_ martyrs to repair thither at once. Yes! even gout, that
has so long laughed out at all pharmacopoeias, and tortured us from the
time "when our wine and our oil increased"--Gout, that colchicum would
vainly attempt to baffle, that no nepenthe soothes, no opium can send to
sleep--Gout, that makes as light of the medical practitioner as of his
patient; that murdered _Musgrave_, and seized her very own historian by
the hip[9]--this, our most formidable foe, is to be conquered at Vichy!
Here, in a brief time, the iron gyves of _Podagra_ are struck _off_, and
_Cheiragra's manacles_ are unbound; enabling old friends, who had
hitherto shaken their _heads_ in despondency, once more to shake
_hands_.
But Vichy, be it understood, neither cures, nor undertakes to cure,
every body; her waters have nothing to do with your head, your heart, or
your lungs; their empire begins and ends below the _diaphragm_; it is
here, and here alone, that her mild control quells dangerous internal
commotions, establishes quiet in irritated organs, and restores health
on the firm basis of _constitutional principles_. The real _doctors_ at
Vichy are the _waters_; and much is it to be regretted that they should
not find that co-operation and assistance in those who administer them,
which Hippocrates declares of such paramount importance in the
management of all disease; for here (alas! for the inconsistency of man)
the two physicians _prescribed_ to us by the government, while they
gravely tell their patients that no good can happen to such as will
think, fret, or excite themselves, while they formally interdict all
_sour_ things at table, (shuddering at a cornichon if they detect one on
the plate of a rebellious water-drinker, and denouncing honest
fruiterers as poisoners,) yet foment sour discord, and keep their
patients in perpetual hot water, alike _in the bath_ and _out of the
bath_; more tender in their regard for _another_ generation, they
recommend all nurses to undergo a slight course of the springs to _keep
their milk_ from turning sour, yet will curdle the _milk of human
kindness_ in our lacteals by instilling therein the sour asperity which
they entertain towards each other, and which, notwithstanding the
efforts of the ladies to keep peace between them, by christening one
their "_beau medecin_," and the other their "_bon medecin_," has arrived
at such a pitch that they refuse to speak French, or issue one "_fiat_"
in common.[10]
A remarkable fact connected with the natural history of the Vichy waters
is the following:--Whenever the electrical condition of the atmosphere
undergoes a change, in consequence of the coming on of a storm, they
disengage a large quantity of carbonic acid, while a current of
electricity passes off from the surface. At such times baths are borne
with difficulty, the patients complaining of praecordial distress, which
amounts sometimes to a feeling of suffocation; the like unpleasant
sensations being also communicated, though to a less extent, to those
who are drinking the waters.[11]
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: Polydrusus sericea.]
[Footnote 2: Carabus auratus.]
[Footnote 3: Scholia flavicomis.]
[Footnote 4: Victor Hugo's beautiful line on _maternal affection_.]
[Footnote 5: Rondolitier was a celebrated ichthyologist and sportsman of
the old school; and those desirous of further information respecting the
capture of fish by "fiddling to them," may be referred to his work on
fishes, _ad locum_.]
[Footnote 6: These hats are very peculiar; they are highly ornamented
with ribands, and have acquired, from their peculiarity in having a
double front--"chapeaux a deux bonjours."]
[Footnote 7: For a lively description of this dance _vide_ Madame de
Sevigne's _Letters to her Daughter_. That ecstatic lady, who always
wrote more or less under the influence of St Vitus, was in her time an
_habituee_ at Vichy.]
[Footnote 8: These wolves were six weeks old, in fine condition, and
clung to the teats of their foster parent with wolf-like pertinacity. As
long as she lay licking their little black bodies and dark chestnut
heads, or permitted them to hide their sulky faces and ugly bare tails
under her body, they lay quiet enough, but when she raised her emaciated
form to stretch her legs, or to take an airing, at first they hung to
her dugs by their teeth; but gradually falling off, barked as she
proceeded, and would snap at your fingers if you went to lay hold of
them. Out of the six, one was gentle and affectionate, would lick your
hand, slept with the owner, and played with his ears in the morning,
without biting; if his own ears were pulled, he took it as a dog would
have done, and seemed to deprecate all unkindness by extreme gentleness
of manner, for which he was finely bullied by his brother wolves
accordingly. The bitch seemed equally attached to all the litter; for
_instinctive_, unlike _rational_ affection, has no favourites. At first
the wolves boarded in the same house with us, which afforded abundant
opportunity for our visiting them, _a l'improvisto_, whenever we
pleased. On one of these occasions we saw two rabbits, lately introduced
into their society, crunching carrots, _demissis auribus_, and quite at
their ease, while two little "wolves" were curiously snuffing about; at
first looking at the rabbits, and then _imitating_ them, by taking up
some of their _prog_, which tasting and not approving, they spat
out--then, as if suspecting the rabbits to have been playing them a
trick, one of them comes up stealthily, and brings his own nose in close
proximity to that of one of the rabbits, who, quite unmoved at this act
of familiarity, continues to munch on. The wolf contemplates him for a
short time in astonishment, and seeing that the carrots actually
disappear down his "oesophagus," returns to the other wolf to tell him
so. His next step is to paw his friend a little, by way of encouraging
him to advance. So encouraged he goes up, and straight lays hold of the
rabbit's ear, and a pretty plaything it would have made had the rabbit
been in the humour! In place of which he _thumps_ the ground with his
hind legs, rises almost perpendicularly, and the next moment is down
like lightning upon the head of the audacious wolf, who on thus
unexpectedly receiving a double "colaphus" retreats, yelping! The other
wolf is more successful; having crept up stealthily to the remaining
rabbit, he seizes him by his furry rump--off bounds he in a fright,
while the other plants himself down like a _sphinx_, erects his ears,
and seems highly pleased at what he has been doing! We used sometimes to
visit the wolves while they slept; on these occasions a slight whistle
was at first sufficient to make them start upon their legs; at last,
like most sounds with which the ear becomes familiar, they heard it
passively. All our attempts to frighten the rabbits by noises _while
they were engaged in munching_, proved unsuccessful.]
[Footnote 9: Sydenham.]
[Footnote 10: So notorious and violent has this hydromachia become, that
it has at length called forth a poem, styled the _Vichyade_, of which
the two resident physicians are the Achilles and Hector. The poem, which
is as coarse and personal as the _Bath Guide_, is not so clever, but is
much read here, _non obstant_.]
[Footnote 11: An ingenious physician assures us, that he has for years
past been in the habit of consulting his patients in place of his
barometer, and has thus been enabled to foretell vicissitudes of weather
before they had manifested themselves, by attending to the accounts they
gave of their sensations in the bath. There are seven springs, whose
united volumes of water, in twenty-four hours, fill a chamber of twenty
feet dimensions, in every direction.]
IT'S ALL FOR THE BEST.
PART THE LAST.