CHAPTER VII.

Produced by the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at

https://www.pgdp.net

HARPER'S

NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

No. III.--AUGUST, 1850.--VOL. I.

[Illustration: SIR THOMAS MORE.]

[From the Art-Journal.]

PILGRIMAGE TO THE HOME OF SIR THOMAS MORE.

BY MRS. S. C. HALL.

While living in the neighborhood of Chelsea, we determined to look upon

the few broken walls that once inclosed the residence of Sir Thomas

More, a man who, despite the bitterness inseparable from a persecuting

age, was of most wonderful goodness as well as intellectual power. We

first read over the memories of him preserved by Erasmus, Hoddesdon,

Roper, Aubrey, his own namesake, and others. It is pleasant to muse over

the past; pleasant to know that much of malice and bigotry has departed,

to return no more, that the prevalence of a spirit which could render

even Sir Thomas More unjust and, to seeming, cruel, is passing away.

Though we do implicitly believe there would be no lack of great hearts,

and brave hearts, at the present day, if it were necessary to bring them

to the test, still there have been few men like unto him. It is a

pleasant and a profitable task, so to sift through past ages, so to

separate the wheat from the chaff, to see, when the feelings of party

and prejudice sink to their proper insignificance, how the morally great

stands forth in its own dignity, bright, glorious, and everlasting. St.

Evremond sets forth the firmness and constancy of Petronius Arbiter in

his last moments, and imagines he discovers in them a softer nobility

of mind and resolution, than in the deaths of Seneca, Cato, or Socrates

himself; but Addison says, and we can not but think truly, "that if he

was so well pleased with gayety of humor in a dying man, he might have

found a much more noble instance of it in Sir Thomas More, who died upon

a point of religion, and is respected as a martyr by that side for which

he suffered." What was pious philosophy in this extraordinary man, might

seem frenzy in any one who does not resemble him as well in the

cheerfulness of his temper as in the sanctity of his life and manners.

Oh, that some such man as he were to sit upon our woolsack now; what

would the world think, if when the mighty oracle commanded the next

cause to come on, the reply should be, "_Please your good lordship,

there is no other!_" Well might the smart epigrammatist write:

When MORE some time had chancellor been,

No MORE suits did remain;

The same shall never MORE be seen,

Till MORE be there again!

We mused over the history of his time until we slept, and dreamed: and

first in our dream we saw a fair meadow, and it was sprinkled over with

white daisies, and a bull was feeding therein; and as we looked upon him

he grew fatter and fatter, and roared in the wantonness of power and

strength, so that the earth trembled; and he plucked the branches off

the trees, and trampled on the ancient inclosures of the meadow, and as

he stormed, and bellowed, and destroyed, the daisies became human heads,

and the creature flung them about, and warmed his hoofs in the hot blood

that flowed from them and we grew sick and sorry at heart, and thought,

is there no one to slay the destroyer? And when we looked again, the

Eighth Harry was alone in the meadow; and, while many heads were lying

upon the grass, some kept perpetually bowing before him, while others

sung his praises as wise, just, and merciful. Then we heard a trumpet

ringing its scarlet music through the air, and we stood in the old

tilt-yard at Whitehall, and the pompous Wolsey, the bloated king, the

still living Holbein, the picturesque Surrey, the Aragonian Catharine,

the gentle Jane, the butterfly Anne Bullen, the coarse-seeming but

wise-thinking Ann of Cleves the precise Catherine Howard, and the stout

hearted Catherine Parr, passed us so closely by, that we could have

touched their garments; then a bowing troop of court gallants came on;

others whose names and actions you may read of in history; and then the

hero of our thoughts, Sir Thomas More--well dressed, for it was a time

of pageants--was talking somewhat apart to his pale-faced friend

Erasmus, while "Son Roper," as the chancellor loved to call his

son-in-law, stood watchfully and respectfully a little on one side. Even

if we had never seen the pictures Holbein painted of his first patron,

we should have known him by the bright benevolence of his aspect, the

singular purity of his complexion, his penetrating yet gentle eyes, and

the incomparable grandeur with which virtue and independence dignified

even an indifferent figure. His smile was so catching that the most

broken-hearted were won by it to forget their sorrows; and his voice,

low and sweet though it was, was so distinct, that we heard it above all

the coarse jests, loud music, and trumpet calls of the vain and idle

crowd. And while we listened, we awoke; resolved next day to make our

pilgrimage, perfectly satisfied at the outset, that though no fewer than

four houses in Chelsea contend for the honor of his residence, Doctor

King's arguments in favor of the site being the same as that of Beaufort

House--upon the greater part of which now stands Beaufort-row--are the

most conclusive; those who are curious in the matter can go and see his

manuscripts in the British Museum. Passing Beaufort-row, we proceeded

straight on to the turn leading to the Chelsea _Clock-house_.

[Illustration: CLOCK HOUSE.]

It is an old, patched-up, rickety dwelling, containing, perhaps, but few

of the original stones, yet interesting as being the lodge-entrance to

the offices of Beaufort-House; remarkable, also, as the dwelling of a

family of the name of Howard, who have occupied it for more than a

hundred years, the first possessor being gardener to Sir Hans Sloane,

into whose possession, after a lapse of years, and many changes, a

portion of Sir Thomas More's property had passed. This Howard had skill

in the distilling of herbs and perfumes, which his descendant carries on

to this day. We lifted the heavy brass knocker, and were admitted into

the "old clock-house." The interior shows evident marks of extreme age,

the flooring being ridgy and seamed, bearing their marks with a

discontented creaking, like the secret murmurs of a faded beauty against

her wrinkles! On the counter stood a few frost-bitten geraniums, and

drawers, containing various roots and seeds, were ranged round the

walls, while above them were placed good stout quart and pint bottles of

distilled waters. The man would have it that the "clock-house" was the

"real original" lodge-entrance to "Beaufort House;" and so we agreed it

might have been, but not, "_perhaps_" built during Sir Thomas More's

lifetime. To this insinuation he turned a deaf ear, assuring us that his

family, having lived there so long, must know all about it, and that the

brother of Sir Hans Sloane's gardener had made the great clock in old

Chelsea Church, as the church books could prove. "You can, if you

please," he said, "go under the archway at the side of this house,

leading into the Moravian chapel and burying-ground, where the notice,

that 'within are the Park-chapel Schools,' is put up." And that is quite

true; the Moravians now only use the chapel which was erected in their

burying-ground to perform an occasional funeral service in, and so they

"let it" to the infant school. The burying-ground is very pretty in the

summer time. Its space occupies only a small portion of the chancellor's

garden; part of its walls are very old, and the south one certainly

belonged to Beaufort House. There have been some who trace out a Tudor

arch and one or two Gothic windows as having been filled up with more

modern mason-work: but that may be fancy. There seems no doubt that the

Moravian chapel stands on the site of the old stables.

"Then," we said, "the clock-house could only have been at the entrance

to the offices." The man looked for a moment a little hurt at this

observation, as derogatory to the dignity of his dwelling, but he

smiled, and said. "Perhaps so;" and very good-naturedly showed us the

cemetery of this interesting people. Indeed, their original settlement

in Chelsea is quite a romance. The chapel stands to the left of the

burying-ground, which is entered by a primitive wicket-gate; it forms a

square of thick grass, crossed by broad gravel walks, kept with the

greatest neatness The tombstones are all that, and the graves not

raised above the level of the sward. They are of two sizes only: the

larger for grown persons, the smaller for children. The inscriptions on

the grave-stones, in general, seldom record more than the names and ages

of the persons interred. The men are buried in one division, the women

in another. We read one or two of the names, and they were quaint and

strange: "Anne Rypheria Hurloch;" "Anna Benigna La Trobe;" and one was

especially interesting, James Gillray, forty years sexton to this simple

cemetery, and father of Gillray, the H. B. of the past century. One

thing pleased us mightily, the extreme old age to which the dwellers in

this house seemed to have attained.

A line of ancient trees runs along the back of the narrow gardens of

Milman's-row, which is parallel with, but further from town than

Beaufort-row, and affords a grateful shade in the summer time. We

resolved to walk quietly round, and then enter the chapel. How strange

the changes of the world! The graves of a simple, peace-loving,

unambitious people were lying around us, and yet it was the place which

Erasmus describes as "Sir Thomas More's estate, purchased at Chelsey,"

and where "he built him a house, neither mean nor subject to envy, yet

magnificent and commodious enough." How dearly he loved this place, and

how much care he bestowed upon it, can be gathered from the various

documents still extant.[1] The bravery with which, soon after he was

elected a burgess to parliament, he opposed a subsidy demanded by Henry

the Seventh, with so much power that he won the parliament to his

opinion, and incensed the king so greatly, that, out of revenge, he

committed the young barrister's father to the Tower, and fined him in

the fine of a hundred pounds! That bravery remained with him to the

last, and with it was mingled the simplicity which so frequently and so

beautifully blends with the intellectuality that seems to belong to a

higher world than this. When he "took to marrying," he fancied the

second daughter of a Mr. Colt, a gentleman of Essex; yet when he

considered the pain it must give the eldest to see her sister preferred

before her, he gave up his first love, and framed his fancy to the

elder. This lady died, after having brought him four children; but his

second choice, Dame Alice, has always seemed to us a punishment and a

sore trial. And yet how beautifully does Erasmus describe his mode of

living in this very place: "He converseth with his wife, his son, his

daughter-in-law, his three daughters and their husbands, with eleven

grandchildren. There is not a man living so affectionate to his children

as he. He loveth his old wife as if she were a young maid; he persuadeth

her to play on the lute, and so with the like gentleness he ordereth his

family. Such is the excellence of his temper, that whatsoever happeneth

that could not be helped, he loveth, as if nothing could have happened

more happily. You would say there was in that place Plato's academy; but

I do his house an injury in comparing it to Plato's academy, where there

were only disputations of numbers and geometrical figures, and sometimes

of moral virtues. I should rather call his house a school or university

of Christian religion; for, though there is none therein but readeth and

studyeth the liberal sciences, their special care is piety and

virtue."[2]

[Illustration: MORE'S HOUSE.]

The king was used to visit his "beloved chancellor" here for days

together to admire his terrace overhanging the Thames, to row in his

state barge, to ask opinions upon divers matters, and it is said that

the royal answer to Luther was composed under the chancellor's revising

eye. Still, the penetrating vision of Sir Thomas was in no decree

obscured by this glitter. One day the king came unexpectedly to Chelsea,

and having dined, walked with Sir Thomas for the space of an hour, in

the garden, having his arm about his neck. We pleased ourselves with the

notion that they walked where then we stood! Well might such

condescension cause his son Roper--for whom he entertained so warm an

affection--to congratulate his father upon such condescension, and to

remind him that he had never seen his majesty approach such familiarity

with any one, save once, when he was seen to walk arm in arm with

Cardinal Wolsey. "I thank our Lord," answered Sir Thomas, "I find his

grace my very good lord, indeed; and I do believe, he doth as

singularly love me as any subject within the realm; however, son Roper,

I may tell thee I have no cause to be proud thereof, for if my head

should win him a castle in France, it should not fail to go off."

With the exception of his own family (and his wife formed an exception

here), there are few indeed of his contemporaries, notwithstanding the

eulogiums they are prone to heap upon him, who understood the elevated

and unworldly character of this extraordinary man.

The Duke of Norfolk, coming one day to dine with him, found him in

Chelsea Church, singing in the choir, with his surplice on. "What!

what!" exclaimed the duke, "what, what, my Lord Chancellor a parish

clerk! a parish clerk! you dishonor the king and his office." And how

exquisite his reply, "Nay, you may not think your master and mine will

be offended with me for serving God his master, or thereby count his

office dishonored." Another reply to the same abject noble, is well

graven on our memory. He expostulated with him, like many of his other

friends, for braving the king's displeasure. "By the mass, Master More,"

he said, "it is perilous striving with princes; therefore, I wish you

somewhat to incline to the king's pleasure, for '_indignatio Principis

mors est._'" "And is that all, my lord?" replied this man, so much above

all paltry considerations; "then in good faith the difference between

your grace and me is but this--that I may die to-day, and you

to-morrow."

[Illustration: CHELSEA CHURCH.]

He took great delight in beautifying Chelsea Church, although he had a

private chapel of his own; and when last there they told us the painted

window had been his gift. It must have been a rare sight to see the

chancellor of England sitting with the choir; and yet there was a fair

share of pomp in the manner of his servitor bowing at his lady's pew,

when the service of the mass was ended, and saying, "My lord is gone

_before_." But the day after he resigned the great seal of England (of

which his wife knew nothing), Sir Thomas presented himself at the

pew-door, and, after the fashion of his servitor, quaintly said, "Madam,

my lord is _gone."_ The vain woman could not comprehend his meaning,

which, when, during their short walk home, he fully explained, she was

greatly pained thereby, lamenting it with exceeding bitterness of

spirit.

We fancied we could trace a gothic door or window in the wall; but our

great desire would have been to discover the water-gate from which he

took his departure the morning he was summoned to Lambeth to take the

oath of supremacy. True to what he believed right, he offered up his

prayers and confessions in Chelsea Church, and then, returning to his

own house, took an affectionate farewell of his wife and children,

forbidding them to accompany hum to the water-gate, as was their custom,

fearing, doubtless, that his mighty heart could not sustain a prolonged

interview. Who could paint the silent parting between him and all he

loved so well--the boat waiting at the foot of the stairs--the rowers in

their rich liveries, while their hearts, heavy with apprehension for the

fate of him they served, still trusted that nothing could be found to

harm so good a master--the pale and earnest countenance of "son Roper,"

wondering at the calmness, at such a time, which more than all other

things, bespeaks the master mind. For a moment his hand lingered on the

gate, and in fastening the simple latch his fingers trembled, and then

he took his seat by his son's side; and in another moment the boat was

flying through the waters. For some time he spoke no word, but communed

with and strengthened his great heart by holy thoughts; then looking

straight into his son Roper's eyes, while his own brightened with a

glorious triumph, he exclaimed in the fullness of his rich-toned voice,

"I thank our Lord the field is won." It was no wonder that, overwhelmed

with apprehension, his son-in-law could not apprehend his meaning then,

but afterward bethought him that he signified how he had conquered the

world.

The abbot of Westminster took him that same day into custody, on his

refusal to "take the king as head of his Church;" and upon his repeating

this refusal four days afterward, he was committed to the Tower. Then,

indeed, these heretofore bowers of bliss echoed to the weak and wavering

complaints of his proud wife, who disturbed him also in his prison by

her desires, so vain and so worldly, when compared with the elevated

feelings of his dear daughter Margaret.

How did the fond, foolish woman seek to shake his purpose! "Seeing," she

said, "you have a house at Chelsea, a right fair house, your library,

your gallery, your garden, your orchard, and all other necessaries so

handsome about you, where you might in company with me, your wife, your

children, and household, be merry, I marvel that you who have been

always taken for so wise a man, can be content thus to be shut up among

mice and rats, and, too, when you might be abroad at your liberty, and

with the favor and good-will both of the king and his council, if you

would but do as all the bishops and best learned men of the realm have

done."

And then not even angered by her folly, seeing how little was given her

to understand, he asked her if the house in Chelsea was any nearer

Heaven than the gloomy one he then occupied? ending his pleasant yet

wise parleying with a simple question:

"Tell me," he said, "good Mistress Alice, how long do you think might we

live and enjoy that same house?"

She answered, "Some twenty years."

"Truly," he replied, "if you had said some thousand years, it might have

been somewhat; and yet he were a very bad merchant who would put himself

in danger to lose eternity for a thousand years. How much the rather if

we are not sure to enjoy it one day to an end?"

It is for the glory of women that his daughter Margaret, while she loved

and honored him past all telling, strengthened his noble nature; for,

writing him during his fifteen months' imprisonment in the Tower, she

asks, in words not to be forgotten, "What do you think, most dear

father, doth comfort us at Chelsey, in this your absence? Surely, the

remembrance of your manner of life passed among us--your holy

conversation--your wholesome counsels--your examples of virtue, of which

there is hope that they do not only persevere with you, but that they

are, by God's grace, much more increased."

After the endurance of fifteen months' imprisonment, he was arraigned,

tried, and found guilty of denying the king's supremacy.

Alack! is there no painter of English history bold enough to immortalize

himself by painting this trial? Sir Thomas More was beheaded on Tower

Hill, in the bright sunshine of the month of July, on its fifth day,

1535, the king remitting the disgusting quartering of the quivering

flesh, because of his "high office." When told of the king's "mercy,"

"Now, God forbid," he said, "the king should use anymore such to any of

my friends; and God bless all my posterity from such pardons."

One man of all the crowd who wept at his death, reproached him with a

decision he had given in Chancery. More, nothing discomposed, replied,

that if it were still to do, he would give the same decision. This

happened twelve months before. And, while the last scene was enacting on

Tower-Hill, the king, who had walked in this very garden with his arm

round the neck, which, by his command, the ax had severed, was playing

at Tables in Whitehall, Queen Anne Bullen looking on; and when told that

Sir Thomas More was dead, casting his eyes upon the pretty fool that had

glittered in his pageants, he said, "Thou art the cause of this man's

death." The COWARD! to seek to turn upon a thing so weak as that, the

heavy sin which clung to his own soul!

[Illustration: TOMB.]

Some say the body lies in Chelsea Church, beneath the tomb we have

sketched--the epitaph having been written by himself before he

anticipated the manner of his death.[3] It is too long to insert; but

the lines at the conclusion are very like the man. The epitaph and

poetry are in Latin: we give the translation:

"For Alice and for Thomas More's remains

Prepared, this tomb Johanna's form contains

One, married young; with mutual ardor blest,

A boy and three fair girls our joy confest.

The other (no small praise) of these appear'd

As fond as if by her own pangs endeared.

One lived with me, one lives in such sweet strife,

Slight preference could I give to either wife.

Oh! had it met Heaven's sanction and decree,

One hallowed bond might have united three;

Yet still be ours one grave, one lot on high!

Thus death, what life denied us, shall supply."

[Illustration: ROPER's HOUSE.]

Others tell that his remains were interred in the Tower,[4] and some

record that the head was sought and preserved by that same daughter

Margaret, who caused it to be buried in the family vault of the Ropers

in St. Dunstan's Church, Canterbury;[5] and they add a pretty legend how

that, when his head was upon London Bridge, Margaret would be rowed

beneath it, and, nothing horrified at the sight, say aloud, "That head

has layde many a time in my lappe; would to God, would to God, it would

fall into my lappe as I pass under now," and the head did so fall, and

she carried it in her "lappe" until she placed it in her husband's, "son

Roper's" vault, at Canterbury.

The king took possession of these fair grounds at Chelsea, and all the

chancellor's other property, namely, Dunkington, Trenkford, and Benley

Park, in Oxfordshire, allowing the widow he had made, twenty pounds per

year for her life, and indulging his petty tyranny still more, by

imprisoning Sir Thomas's daughter, Margaret, "both because she kept her

father's head for a relic, and that she meant to set her father's works

in print."

We were calling to mind more minute particulars of the charities and

good deeds of this great man, when, standing at the moment opposite a

grave where some loving hand had planted two standard rose-trees, we

suddenly heard a chant of children's voices, the infant scholars singing

their little hymn; the tune, too, was a well-known and popular melody,

and very sweet, yet sad of sound; it was just such music, as for its

simplicity, would have been welcome to the mighty dead; and, as we

entered among the little songsters, the past faded away, and we found

ourselves speculating on the hopeful present.

* * * * *

We close Mrs. Hall's pleasant sketches of Sir Thomas More and his

localities, with a brief description of a scene in his prison, which the

pencil of Mr. Herbert, of the Royal Academy, has beautifully depicted.

It must be remembered that More was a zealous Roman Catholic. He was

committed to the Tower in 1534, by the licentious Henry VIII., partly to

punish him for refusing to assist that monarch in his marriage with

Anne Boleyn, "the pretty fool," as Mrs. Hall calls her; but particularly

because he declined to acknowledge the king's ecclesiastical supremacy

as head of the Reformed Church. There he remained until his execution

the following year. "During his imprisonment," says his son-in-law and

biographer, Roper, who married his favorite daughter Margaret, "one day,

looking from his window, he saw four monks (who also had refused the

oath of supremacy) going to their execution, and regretting that he

could not bear them company, said: 'Look, Megge, dost thou not see that

these blessed fathers be now going as cheerful to their death, as

bridegrooms to their marriage? By which thou may'st see, myne own good

daughter, what a great difference there is between such as have spent

all their days in a religious, hard, and penitential life, and such as

have (as thy poore father hath done) consumed all their time in pleasure

and ease;'" and so he proceeded to enlarge on their merits and

martyrdom. His grandson, Cresacre More, referring to this scene, says,

"By which most humble and heavenly meditation, we may easily guess what

a spirit of charity he had gotten by often meditation, that every sight

brought him new matter to practice most heroical resolutions."

[Illustration: SIR THOMAS MORE AND HIS DAUGHTER.]

FOOTNOTES:

[1] After the death of More, this favorite home of his, where he had so

frequently gathered "a choice company of men distinguished by their

genius and learning," passed into the rapacious hands of his bad

sovereign, and by him was presented to Sir William Pawlet, ultimately

Lord High Treasurer and Marquis of Winchester; from his hands it passed

into Lord Dacre's, to whom succeeded Lord Burghley; then followed his

son, the Earl of Salisbury, as its master; from him it passed

successively to the Earl of Lincoln, Sir Arthur Gorges, the Earl of

Middlesex, Villiers duke of Buckingham, Sir Bulstrode Whitelock, the

second Duke of Buckingham, the Earl of Bristol, the Duke of Beaufort,

and ultimately to Sir Hans Slonne, who obtained it in 1738, and after

keeping it for two years razed it to the ground; an unhappy want of

reverence on the part of the great naturalist for the home of so many

great men. There is a print of it by J. Knyff, in 1699, which is copied

(p. 292); it shows some old features, but it had then been enlarged and

altered. Erasmus has well described it as it was in More's lifetime. It

had "a chapel, a library, and a gallery, called the New Buildings, a

good distance from his main house, wherein his custom was to busy

himself in prayer and meditation, whensoever he was at leisure."

Heywood, in his _II Moro_ (Florence, 1556), describes "the garden as

wonderfully charming, both from the advantages of its site, for from one

part almost the whole of the noble city of London was visible, and from

the other the beautiful Thames, with green meadows by woody eminences

all around, and also for its own beauty, for it was crowned with an

almost perpetual verdure." At one side was a small green eminence to

command the prospect.

[2] The conduct of this great man's house was a model to all, and as

near an approach to his own Utopia as might well be. Erasmus says, "I

should rather call his house a school or university of Christian

religion, for though there is none therein but readeth and studyeth the

liberal sciences, their special care is piety and virtue; there is no

quarreling or intemperate words heard; none seen idle; which household

discipline that worthy gentleman doth not govern, but with all kind and

courteous benevolence." The servant-men abode on one side of the house,

the women on another, and met at prayer-time, or on church festivals,

when More would read and expound to them. He suffered no cards or dice,

but gave each one his garden-plot for relaxation, or set them to sing or

play music. He had an affection for all who truly served him, and his

daughters' nurse is as affectionately remembered in his letters when

from home as are they themselves. "Thomas More sendeth greeting to his

most dear daughters Margaret, Elizabeth, and Cecily; and to Margaret

Giggs, as dear to him as if she were his own," are his words in one

letter; and his valued and trustworthy domestics appear in the family

pictures of the family by Holbein. They requited his attachment by

truest fidelity and love; and his daughter Margaret, in her last

passionate interview with her father on his way to the Tower, was

succeeded by Margaret Giggs and a maid-servant, who embraced and kissed

their condemned master, "of whom, he said after, it was homely but very

lovingly done." Of these and other of his servants, Erasmus remarks,

"after Sir Thomas More's death, none ever was touched with the least

suspicion of any evil fame."

[3] Wood and Weaver both affirm that the body of More was first

deposited in the Tower Chapel, but was subsequently obtained by his

devoted and accomplished daughter, Margaret Roper, and re-interred in

Chelsea Church, in the tomb he had finished in 1532, the year in which

he had surrendered the chancellorship, and resolved to abide the issue

of his conscientious opposition to the king's wishes, as if he felt that

the tomb should then be prepared.

[4] Faulkner, in his history of Chelsea, adheres to this opinion, and

says that the tomb in that church is but "an empty cenotaph." His

grandson, in his Life, says, "his body was buried in the Chapel of St.

Peter, in the Tower, in the belfry, or, as some say, as one entereth

into the vestry;" and he does not notice the story of his daughter's

re-interment of it elsewhere.

[5] The Ropers lived at Canterbury, in St Dunstan's-street. The house is

destroyed, and a brewery occupies its site; but the picturesque old

gateway, of red brick, still remains, and is engraved above. Margaret

Roper, the noble-hearted, learned, and favorite daughter of More resided

here with her husband, until her death, in 1544, nine years after the

execution of her father, when she was buried in the family vault at St.

Dunstan's, where she had reverently placed the head of her father. The

story of her piety is thus told by Cresacre More, in his life of his

grandfather, Sir Thomas: "His head having remained about a month upon

London Bridge, and being to be cast into the Thames, because room should

be made for divers others, who, in plentiful sort, suffered martyrdom

for the same supremacy, shortly after, it was bought by his daughter

Margaret, lest, as she stoutly affirmed before the council, being called

before them after for the matter, it should be food for fishes; which

she buried, where she thought fittest." Anthony-a-Wood says, that she

preserved it in a leaden box, and placed it in her tomb "with great

devotion;" and in 1715, Dr. Rawlinson told Hearne the antiquary, that he

had seen it there "inclosed in an iron grate." This was fully confirmed

in 1835, when the chancel of the church being repaired, the Roper vault

was opened, and several persons descended into it, and saw the skull in

a leaden box, something like a bee-hive, open in the front, and which

was placed in a square recess, in the wall, with an iron-grating before

it. A drawing was made, which was engraved in the _Gentleman's Magazine_

of May, 1837, which we have copied in our initial letter; Summerly, in

his Handbook to Canterbury, says: "In the print there, however, the

opening in the leaden box, inclosing the head, is made oval, whereas it

should be in the form of a triangle." We have therefore so corrected our

copy.

[From Hunting Adventures in South Africa.]

A BUFFALO CHASE.

Early on the 4th we inspanned and continued our march for Booby, a large

party of savages still following the wagons. Before proceeding far I was

tempted by the beautiful appearance of the country to saddle horses, to

hunt in the mountains westward of my course. I directed the wagons to

proceed a few miles under guidance of the natives, and there await my

arrival. I was accompanied by Isaac, who was mounted on the Old Gray,

and carried my clumsy Dutch rifle of six to the pound. Two Bechuanas

followed us, leading four of my dogs. Having crossed a well wooded

strath, we reached a little crystal river, whose margin was trampled

down with the spoor of a great variety of heavy game, but especially of

buffalo and rhinoceros. We took up the spoor of a troop of buffaloes,

which we followed along a path made by the heavy beasts of the forest

through a neck in the hills; and emerging from the thicket, we beheld,

on the other side of a valley, which had opened upon us, a herd of about

ten huge bull buffaloes. These I attempted to stalk, but was defeated by

a large herd of zebras, which, getting our wind, charged past and

started the buffaloes. I ordered the Bechuanas to release the dogs; and

spurring Colesberg, which I rode for the first time since the affair

with the lioness, I gave chase. The buffaloes crossed the valley in

front of me, and made for a succession of dense thickets in the hills to

the northward. As they crossed the valley by riding hard I obtained a

broadside shot at the last bull, and fired both barrels into him. He,

however, continued his course, but I presently separated him, along with

two other bulls, from the troop. My rifle being a two-grooved, which is

hard to load, I was unable to do so on horseback, and followed with it

empty, in the hope of bringing them to bay. In passing through a grove

of thorny trees I lost sight of the wounded buffalo; he had turned short

and doubled back, a common practice with them when wounded. After

following the other two at a hard gallop for about two miles, I was

riding within five yards of their huge broad sterns. They exhaled a

strong bovine smell, which came hot in my face. I expected every minute

that they would come to bay, and give me time to load; but this they did

not seem disposed to do. At length, finding I had the speed of them, I

increased my pace; and going ahead, I placed myself right before the

finest bull, thus expecting to force him to stand at bay; upon which he

instantly charged me with a low roar, very similar to the voice of a

lion. Colesberg neatly avoided the charge, and the bull resumed his

northward course. We now entered on rocky ground, and the forest became

more dense as we proceeded. The buffaloes were evidently making for some

strong retreat. I, however, managed with much difficulty to hold them in

view, following as best I could through thorny thickets. Isaac rode

some hundred yards behind, and kept shouting to me to drop the pursuit,

or I should be killed. At last the buffaloes suddenly pulled up, and

stood at bay in a thicket, within twenty yards of me. Springing from my

horse, I hastily loaded my two-grooved rifle, which I had scarcely

completed when Isaac rode up and inquired what had become of the

buffaloes, little dreaming that they were standing within twenty yards

of him. I answered by pointing my rifle across his horse's nose, and

letting fly sharp right and left at the two buffaloes. A headlong

charge, accompanied by a muffled roar, was the result. In an instant I

was round a clump of tangled thorn-trees; but Isaac, by the violence of

his efforts to get his horse in motion, lost his balance, and at the

same instant, his girths giving way, himself, his saddle, and big Dutch

rifle, all came to the ground together, with a heavy crash right in the

path of the infuriated buffaloes. Two of the dogs, which had fortunately

that moment joined us, met them in their charge, and, by diverting their

attention, probably saved Isaac from instant destruction. The buffaloes

now took up another position in an adjoining thicket. They were both

badly wounded, blotches and pools of blood marking the ground where they

had stood. The dogs rendered me assistance by taking up their attention,

and in a few minutes these two noble bulls breathed their last beneath

the shade of a mimosa grove. Each of them in dying repeatedly uttered a

very striking, low, deep moan. This I subsequently ascertained the

buffalo invariably utters when in the act of expiring.

On going up to them I was astonished to behold their size and powerful

appearance. Their horns reminded me of the rugged trunk of an oak-tree.

Each horn was upward of a foot in breadth at the base, and together they

effectually protected the skull with a massive and impenetrable shield.

The horns, descending and spreading out horizontally, completely

over-shadowed the animal's eyes, imparting to him a look the most

ferocious and sinister that can be imagined. On my way to the wagons I

shot a stag sassayby, and while I was engaged in removing his head a

troop of about thirty doe pallahs cantered past me, followed by one

princely old buck. Snatching up my rifle, I made a fine shot, and rolled

him over in the grass.

Early in the afternoon I dispatched men with a pack-horse to bring the

finer of the two buffalo-heads. It was so ponderous that two powerful

men could with difficulty raise it from the ground. The Bechuanas who

had accompanied me, on hearing of my success, snatched up their shields

and assagais, and hastened to secure the flesh, nor did I see any more

of them, with the exception of the two Baquaines, who remained with me,

being engaged in a plot with my interpreter to prevent my penetrating to

Bamangwato. Isaac did not soon forget his adventure with the buffaloes;

and at night over the fire he informed my men that I was mad, and that

any man who followed me was going headlong to his own destruction. At an

early hour on the 5th, I continued my march through a glorious country

of hill and dale, throughout which water was abundant.

[From Household Words.]

EARTH'S HARVESTS.

"Peace hath her victories, no less renowned than War."

MILTON'S _Sonnet to Cromwell._

Two hundred years ago,[6] the moon

Shone on a battle plain;

Cold through that glowing night of June

Lay steeds and riders slain;

And daisies, bending 'neath strange dew,

Wept in the silver light;

The very turf a regal hue

Assumed that fatal night.

Time past--but long, to tell the tale,

Some battle-ax or shield,

Or cloven skull, or shattered mail,

Were found upon the field;

The grass grew thickest on the spot

Where high were heaped the dead,

And well it marked had men forgot,

Where the great charge was made.

To-day--the sun looks laughing down

Upon the harvest plain,

The little gleaners, rosy-brown,

The merry reapers' train;

The rich sheaves heaped together stand,

And resting in their shade,

A mother, working close at hand,

Her sleeping babe hath laid.

A battle-field it was, and is,

For serried spears are there,

And against mighty foes upreared--

Gaunt hunger, pale despair.

We'll thank God for the hearts of old,

Their strife our freedom sealed;

We'll praise Him for the sheaves of gold

Now on the battle-field.

FOOTNOTES:

[6] Naseby, June 14, 1646.

[Illustration: Z. Taylor [From a Daguerreotype by BRADY.]]

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE LATE PRESIDENT.

Who has not heard of the opening words with which the court preacher

Massilon startled the titled throng who had gathered in Notre Dame to do

the last honors to that monarch whose reign was the longest and most

splendid in French annals, "_God only is great!_" How often does the

knell of vanished power repeat the lesson! How constantly does the

fleeting away of our own men of might teach us that

The paths of glory lead but to the grave!

Death has again asserted his supremacy by striking down the most exalted

ruler of the land. The last sad cadence, dust to dust, his just been

faltered aver one who was our country's pride, and joy, and strength.

The love, the gratitude, and the veneration of a nation could not save

him. The crying need of an imperiled republic could not reprieve him.

His mortal strife over, his appointed task finished, he went down into

the cold embrace of the grave, and there, like a warrior taking his

rest, he lies and will lie forever. But he has left behind him what can

not die, the memory of noble aims and heroic deeds. The plain story of

his life is his best eulogy.

ZACHARY TAYLOR was born in Orange County Virginia, in November, 1784. He

was the second son of Col. Richard Taylor, whose ancestors emigrated

from England about two centuries ago, and settled in Eastern Virginia.

The father, distinguished alike for patriotism and valor, served as

colonel in the revolutionary war, and took part in many important

engagements. About 1790 he left his Virginian farm and emigrated with

his family to Kentucky. He settled in the "dark and bloody ground," and

for years encountered all the trials then incident to border life. The

earliest impressions of young Zachary were the sudden foray of the

savage foe, the piercing warwhoop, the answering cry of defiance, the

gleam of the tomahawk, the crack of the rifle, the homestead saved by

his father's daring, the neighboring cottage wrapped in flames, or its

hearth-stone red with blood. Such scenes bound his young nerves with

iron, and fired his fresh soul with martial ardor; working upon his

superior nature they made arms his delight, and heroism his destiny.

Zachary was placed in school at an early age, and his teacher, who now

resides in Preston, Connecticut, still loves to dwell on the

studiousness of his habits, the quickness of his apprehension, the

modesty of his demeanor, the firmness and decision of his character, and

a general thoughtfulness, sagacity, and stability, that made him a

leader to his mates and a pride to his master.

After leaving school, the military spirit of young Taylor was constantly

fanned by the popular excitement against the continual encroachments of

England; and soon after the murderous attack of the British ship Leopard

upon the Chesapeake, in 1808, he entered the army as first lieutenant in

the 7th regiment of infantry. He soon gained distinction in border

skirmishes with the Indians, and the declaration of war with England

found him promoted to the rank of captain. Within sixty days after the

commencement of hostilities in 1812, the imbecility of Hull lost to the

country its Michigan territory, and fearfully jeoparded the whole

northwestern region. It was of the utmost importance to intrust the few

and feeble forts of that great dominion to men of established valor and

discretion. Captain Taylor was at once invested with the command of FORT

HARRISON, situated on the Wabash, in the very heart of the Indian

country. The defenses of this post were in a miserable condition, and

its garrison consisted of only fifty men, of whom thirty were disabled

by sickness. With this little handful of soldiers, the young commander

immediately set about repairing the fortifications. He had hardly

completed his work, when, on the night of the 4th of September, an alarm

shot from one of his sentinels aroused him from a bed of fever, to meet

the attack of a large force of Miami Indians. Every man was at once

ordered to his post. A contiguous blockhouse was fired by the enemy, and

a thick discharge of bullets and arrows was opened upon the fort. The

darkness of the night, the howlings of the savages, the shrieks of the

women and children, the fast approaching flames, and the panic of the

debilitated soldiers, made up a scene of terror, but could not shake the

determination nor the judgment of the young chieftain. He inspired his

men with his own courage and energy. The flames were extinguished, the

consumed breast-works were renewed, and volley answered volley for six

long hours till day break enabled the Americans to aim with a deadly

precision that soon dispersed their foes. This gallant repulse, at odds

so unfavorable, prompted a report from Major General Hopkins to Governor

Shelby that "the firm and almost unparalleled defense of Fort Harrison

had raised for Captain Zachary Taylor a fabric of character not to be

affected by eulogy;" and forthwith procured from President Madison a

preferment to the rank of brevet major, the first brevet, it is said,

ever conferred in the American army.

Major Taylor continued actively engaged throughout the war; but, being

without a separate command, he had no opportunity to again signalize

himself by any remarkable achievement. After the treaty of peace, he

remained at the West, faithfully performing his duties at different

military posts, and preparing himself for any future call to more active

service. In 1832, he was promoted to the rank of colonel; and soon after

the opening of the Florida war, he was ordered to that territory. Here

he was in constant service, and distinguished himself for his discretion

and gallantry in circumstances of the most trying difficulty and peril.

His entire career won for him universal esteem and confidence.

The greatest achievement of Colonel Taylor in Florida was his victory of

OKEE-CHOBEE, which was gained on the 25th of December, 1837. The action

was very severe, and continued nearly four hours. The Indians, under the

command of Alligator and Sam Jones, numbered about 700 warriors, and

were posted in a dense hammock, with their front covered by a small

stream, almost impassable on account of quicksands, and with their

flanks secured by swamps that prevented all access. Colonel Taylor's

force amounted to about 500 men, a portion of whom were inexperienced

volunteers. By an extraordinary effort, the stream in front was crossed,

under a most galling fire of the enemy, by our soldiers, who sunk to the

middle in the mire. A close and desperate fight ensued, during which the

five companies of the sixth infantry, who bore the brunt of the fray,

lost every officer but one, and one of these companies saved only four

privates unharmed. The enemy's line was at last broken, and their right

flank turned. They were soon scattered in all directions, and were

pursued till near night. The American loss was 26 killed and 112

wounded; that of the Indians was very large, but never definitely

ascertained. Throughout the whole engagement, Colonel Taylor was passing

on his horse from point to point within the sweep of the Indian rifles,

emboldening and directing his men, without the least apparent regard for

his own personal safety. This victory had a decisive influence upon the

turn of the war; and the government immediately testified their sense of

its importance by conferring upon its gallant winner the rank of

brigadier-general by brevet.

In the following May, General Taylor succeeded General Jesup in the

command of the Florida army, and in this capacity, during two years, he

rendered vast services to the country by quelling the atrocities of

Indian warfare, and restoring peace and security to the southern

frontier. In 1840, at his own request, he was relieved by

Brigadier-general Armistead, and was ordered to the southwestern

department. Here he remained at various head-quarters until government

had occasion for his services in Texas.

The project for the annexation of Texas, which was first officially

broached in the last year of President Tyler's administration, acquired

more and more weight and influence, until finally, in March, 1845, an

act to that effect was passed by both Houses of Congress, and was soon

after ratified by the Texian government. Mexico, although the

independence of Texas had been long before _de facto_ secured, stoutly

protested against the annexation. The special American envoy sent to the

Mexican capital to attempt an adjustment of this and other difficulties,

was refused a hearing, and great preparations were carried on by the

Mexican government for another invasion of Texas. In June, General

Taylor received orders to advance with his troops over the Sabine, and

protect all of the territory east of the Rio Grande, over which Texas

exercised jurisdiction. He accordingly marched into Texas, and in August

concentrated his forces, amounting to about 3000 men, at Corpus Christi.

Receiving orders from Washington to proceed to the Rio Grande, the

general, with his little army, moved westward in March, 1846: and after

considerable suffering from the heal and the want of food and water,

reached the banks of the river opposite Matamoras on the 28th of the

month. Colonel Twiggs, with a detachment of dragoons, in the mean time

took possession of Point Isabel, situated on an arm of the Gulf, about

25 miles east. General Taylor took every means to assure the Mexicans

that his purpose was not war, nor violence in any shape, but solely the

occupation of the Texian territory to the Rio Grande, until the boundary

should be definitively settled by the two republics.

After encamping opposite Matamoras, the American general prepared with

great activity for Mexican aggression, by erecting fortifications, and

planting batteries. The Mexicans speedily evinced hostile intentions.

General Ampudia arrived at Matamoras with 1000 cavalry and 1500

infantry, and made overtures to our foreign soldiers to "separate from

the Yankee bandits, and array themselves under the tricolored flag!"

Such solicitations were of course spurned with contempt. The American

general was summoned to withdraw his forces at the penalty of being

treated as an enemy; he replied that, while avoiding all occasion for

hostilities, he should faithfully execute the will of his government.

General Arista soon arrived at Matamoras, and, superseding Ampudia,

issued a proclamation to the American soldiers, begging them not to be

the "blind instruments of unholy and mad ambition, and rush on to

certain death." He immediately threw a large body of troops over the

river, in order to cut off all communication between General Taylor and

his depot at Point Isabel. A detachment of 61 soldiers, under Captain

Thornton, was waylaid by a Mexican force of ten times their number, and

after a bloody conflict and the loss of many lives, was obliged to

surrender. With but eight days' rations, and the country to the east

fast filling up with the Mexican troops, the position of General Taylor

became very critical. He at once resolved, at every hazard, to procure

additional supplies; and, leaving the fort under the command of Major

Brown, he set out with a large portion of his army, on the 1st of May,

for Point Isabel. He reached that place the next day without

molestation. Soon after his departure, the Mexicans opened their

batteries upon Fort Brown. The fire was steadily returned with two long

eighteen and sixteen brass six pounders by the garrison, which numbered

about 900 men. The bombardment of the fort was kept up at intervals from

batteries in its rear, as well as from the town, for six days. The

Americans, though possessed of little ammunition, and having to mourn

the fall of their gallant commander, sustained the cannonade with

unyielding firmness until the afternoon of the 8th, when their hearts

were thrilled with exultation by the answering peals of General Taylor

at PALO ALTO.

On the evening of the 7th, the American general, with about 2000 men and

250 wagons left Point Isabel for the relief of Fort Brown, and after

advancing seven miles encamped. The next morning he resumed his march,

and at noon met 6000 Mexican troops under Arista, with 800 cavalry, and

seven field-pieces, in line of battle, on a plain flanked at both sides

by small pools, and partly covered in front by thickets of chaparral and

Palo Alto. General Taylor at once halted, refreshed his men, advanced to

within a quarter of a mile of the Mexican line, and gave battle. The

conflict first commenced between the artillery, and for two hours

Ringgold's, and Duncan's, and Churchill's batteries mowed down rank

after rank of the enemy. The infantry remained idle spectators until

General Torrejon, with a body of lancers, made a sally upon our train.

The advancing columns were received with a tremendous fire, and

faltered, broke, and fled. The battle now became general, and for a time

raged with terrific grandeur, amid a lurid cloud of smoke from the

artillery, and the burning grass of the prairie. It rested for an hour,

and then again moved on. The American batteries opened with more

tremendous effect than ever; yet the ranks of the enemy were broken only

to be refilled by fresh men courting destruction. Captain May charged

upon the left, but with too few men to be successful. The chivalrous

Ringgold fell. The cavalry of the enemy advanced upon our artillery of

the right to within close range, when a storm of cannister swept them

back like a tornado. Their infantry made a desperate onset upon our

infantry, but recoiled before their terrible reception. Again they

rallied, and again were they repulsed. Panic seized the baffled foe, and

soon squadron and column were in fall retreat. The conflict had lasted

five hours, with a loss to the Americans of 7 killed and 37 wounded, and

to the Mexicans of at least 250 killed and wounded.

In the evening, a council of war was held upon the propriety of

persisting to advance upon Fort Brown in spite of the vastly superior

force of the enemy. Of the thirteen officers present some were for

retreating to Point Isabel, others for intrenching upon the spot, and

only four for pushing ahead. The general, after hearing all opinions,

settled the question by the laconic declaration, "I will be at Fort

Brown before to-morrow night if I live." In the morning the army again

marched.

The enemy were again met most advantageously posted in the ravine of

RESACA DE LA PALMA within three miles of Fort Brown. About 4 P.M. the

battle commenced with great fury. The artillery on both sides did

terrible execution. By order of General Taylor, May, with his dragoons,

charged the enemy's batteries. The Mexicans reserved their fire until

the horses were near the cannons' mouth, and then poured out a broadside

which laid many a proud fellow low. Those of the dragoons not disabled

rushed on, overleaped the batteries, and seized the guns. The enemy

recoiled, again rallied, and with fixed bayonets returned to the onset.

Again they were repulsed. The "Tampico veterans" came to the rescue,

were met by the dragoons now reinforced with infantry, and all but

seventeen fell sword in hand after fighting with the most desperate

bravery. This decided the battle. The flanks of the enemy were turned,

and soon the rout became general. The Mexicans fled to the flat boats of

the river, and the shouts of the pursuers and the shrieks of the

drowning closed the scene. A great number of prisoners including 14

officers, eight-pieces of artillery, and a large quantity of camp

equipage fell into the hands of the victors. The American loss was 39

killed and 71 wounded; that of the enemy in the two actions was at least

1000 killed and wounded. Fort Brown was relieved, and the next day

Barita on the Mexican bank was taken by Colonel Wilson without

resistance.

The victories of the 8th and 9th filled our country with exultation.

Government acknowledged the distinguished services of General Taylor by

making him Major-general by brevet; Congress passed resolutions of high

approval; Louisiana presented him with a sword, and the press every

where teemed with his praise.

As soon as means could be procured, General Taylor crossed the Rio

Grande, took Matamoras without opposition, and made Colonel Twiggs its

governor. The army soon received large volunteer reinforcements, and on

the 5th of August the American general left Matamoras for Camargo, and

thence proceeded through Seralos to MONTEREY, where he arrived the 19th

of September. The Mexicans, under General Ampudia had placed this

strongly fortified town in a complete state of defense. Not only were

the walls and parapets lined with cannons, but the streets and houses

were barricaded and planted with artillery. The bishop's palace on a

hill at a short distance west of the city was converted into a perfect

fortress. The town was well supplied with ammunition, and manned with

7000 troops of the line, and from 2000 to 3000 irregulars. The attack

commenced on the 21st, and two important redoubts without the city, and

an important work within, were carried with a loss to the Americans in

killed and wounded of not less than 394. At three the next morning, a

considerable force under General Worth dragged their howitzers by main

strength up the hill, and assaulted the palace. The enemy made a

desperate sortie, but were driven back in confusion, and the

fortification was soon taken by the Americans with a loss of only 7

killed and 12 wounded. The next night, the Mexicans evacuated nearly all

their defenses in the lower part of the city. The Americans entered the

succeeding day, and by the severest fighting slowly worked their way

from street to street and square to square, until they reached the heart

of the town. General Ampudia saw that further resistance was useless,

and, on the morning of the 24th, proposed to evacuate the city on

condition that he might take with him the personel and materiel of his

army. This condition was refused by the American general. A personal

interview between the two commanders ensued, which resulted in a

capitulation of the city, allowing the Mexicans to retire with their

forces and a certain portion of their materiel beyond the line formed by

the pass of the Rinconada and San Fernando de Presas and engaging the

Americans not to pass beyond that line for eight weeks. Our entire loss

during the operations was 12 officers and 108 men killed, 31 officers

and 337 men wounded; that of the enemy is not known, but was much

larger. The terms accorded by the conqueror were liberal, and dictated

by a regard to the interests of peace; they crowned a gallant conquest

of arms with a more sublime victory of magnanimity.

General Taylor could not long remain inactive, and with a bold design to

seek out the enemy and fight him on his own ground, he marched as far as

Victoria. But by the transfer of the seat of the war to Vera Cruz, he

was deprived of the greater portion of his army, and was obliged to fall

back on Monterey. Here he remained until February, when, having received

large reinforcements of volunteers, he marched at the head of 4,500 men,

to meet Santa Anna; and on the 20th, took up a position at BUENA VISTA,

the great advantages of which had previously struck his notice. On the

22d, a Mexican army of 20,000 made its appearance, and Santa Anna

summoned the American commander to surrender. General Taylor, with

Spartan brevity, "declined acceding to the request." The next morning

the ten-hour's conflict began. We shall not attempt to rehearse the

history of that fearful battle: it is written forever on the memory of

the nation. The advance of the hostile host with muskets and swords, and

bayonets gleaming in the morning sun; the shouts of the marshaled

foemen; the opening roar of the artillery; the sheeted fire of the

musketry; the unchecked approach of the enemy; the outflanking by their

cavalry and its concentration in our rear; the immovable fortitude of

the Illinoians; the flight of the panic-stricken Indianians; the fall of

Lincoln; the wild shouts of Mexican triumph; the deadly and successful

charge upon the battery of O'Brien; the timely arrival of General Taylor

from Saltillo, and his composed survey, amid the iron hail, of the scene

of battle; the terrible onset of the Kentuckians and Illinoians; the

simultaneous opening of the batteries upon the Mexican masses in the

front and the rear; the impetuous but ill-fated charge of their cavalry

upon the rifles of Mississippi; the hemming-in of that cavalry, and the

errand of Lieutenant Crittenden to demand of Santa Anna its surrender;

the response of the confident chieftain by a similar demand; the

immortal rejoinder, "General Taylor never surrenders!" the escape of the

cavalry to a less exposed position; its baffled charge upon the Saltillo

train; its attack upon the hacienda, and its repulse by the horse of

Kentucky and Arkansas; the fall of Yell and Vaughan, the insolent

mission, under a white flag, to inquire what General Taylor was waiting

for; the curt reply "for General Santa Anna to surrender;" the junction,

by this ruse, of the Mexican cavalry in our rear with their main army;

the concentrated charge upon the American line; the overpowering of the

battery of O'Brien; the fearful crisis; the reinforcement of Captain

Bragg "by Major Bliss and I;" the "little more grape, Captain Bragg;"

the terrific carnage; the pause, the advance, the disorder, and the

retreat; the too eager pursuit of the Kentuckians and Illinoians down

the ravines; the sudden wheeling around of the retiring mass; the

desperate struggle, and the fall of Harden, McKee, and Clay; the

imminent destruction, and the rescuing artillery; the last breaking and

scattering of the Mexican squadrons and battalions; the joyous embrace

of Taylor and Wool; and Old Rough and Ready's "'Tis impossible to whip

us when we all pull together;" the arrival of cold nightfall; the

fireless, anxious, weary bivouac; the general's calm repose for another

day's work; the retreat of the enemy under the cover of darkness--are

not all these things familiar to every American schoolboy? The American

loss was 267 killed, 456 wounded, and 23 missing. The Mexicans left 500

dead on the field, and the whole number of their killed and wounded was

probably near 2000. History tells not of a battle more bravely contested

and more nobly won: and well did the greatest warrior of the age, in

learning it exclaim, "General Taylor's a general indeed!"

The victory of Buena Vista was the last and crowning achievement of

General Taylor's military life. His department in Mexico was entirely

reduced by it to subjection, and the subsequent operations of his army

were few and unimportant. At the close of the war he retired from

Mexico, carrying with him not only the adoration of his soldiers, but

even the respect and attachment of the very people he had vanquished.

Louisiana welcomed him with an ovation of the most fervent enthusiasm.

Thrilling eloquence from her most gifted sons, blessings, and smiles,

and wreaths from her fairest daughters, overwhelming huzzas from her

warm-hearted multitudes, triumphal arches, splendid processions, costly

banners, sumptuous festivals, and, in short, every mode of testifying

love and homage was employed; but modesty kept her wonted place in his

heart, and counsels of peace were, as ever, on his tongue. His prowess

in conflict was no more admirable than his self-forgetfulness in

triumph.

His last great deed had hardly ceased to echo over the land, before the

people began to mark him out for their highest gift. He coveted no such

distinction, and constantly expressed a wish that Henry Clay might be

the chosen one. But the popular purpose grew stronger and stronger; and

General Taylor was named for the Presidency by one of the great

political parties of the country. During the political contest he

remained steadfastly true to himself. He neither stooped nor swerved,

neither sought nor shunned. He was borne by a triumphant majority to the

Presidential chair, and in a way that has impelled the most majestic

intellect of the nation to declare, that "no case ever happened in the

very best days of the Roman Republic, where any man found himself

clothed with the highest authority of the State, under circumstances

more repelling all suspicion of personal application, all suspicion of

pursuing any crooked path in politics, or all suspicion of having been

actuated by sinister views and purposes."

The Inaugural Address of President Taylor was redolent with

old-fashioned patriotism, and breathed the very spirit of Washington.

And his subsequent administration, though beset by sectional strifes of

fearful violence, was conducted with wisdom, firmness, equanimity, and

moderation, on great national principles, and for great national ends.

Owing to his profound deference to the co-ordinate branches of

government, and his inability to either dictate or assume, his policy in

reference to some of the exciting questions of the day was not, during

the short period of his administration, fully proclaimed to Congress,

and pressed upon its adoption; but, though a southern man and a

slaveholder, he had deliberately and explicitly declared himself in

favor of the prompt and untrammeled admission of California into the

Union. He was taken away in the midst of the controversy, just as he was

about to submit his views upon the subject to the representatives of the

people. His last public appearance was in doing homage to Washington,

on the birthday of our liberties, and his last official act was adding a

new guaranty to the peace of the world, by signing the convention

recently concluded between our country and Great Britain respecting

Central America. Disease soon did its work. Confronting Death with the

fearless declaration, "I AM PREPARED--I HAVE ENDEAVORED TO DO MY DUTY,"

the old hero succumbed--his first and last surrender.

General Taylor married in early life a lady of Virginia, and was

connected either by affinity or blood with many of the most noted

families of the Old Dominion. His excellent consort, a son, and a

daughter, survive him. In person, General Taylor was about five feet

eight inches in height, and like most of our revolutionary generals, was

inclined to corpulency. His hair was gray, his brow ample, his eye

vivid, and his features plain, but full of firmness, intelligence, and

benevolence. His manners were easy and cordial, his dress, habits, and

tastes simple, and his style of living temperate in the extreme. His

speeches and his official papers, both military and civil, are alike

famed for their propriety of feeling and their chastity of diction. His

private life was unblemished, and the loveliness of his disposition made

him the idol of his own household and the favorite of all who knew him.

His martial courage was only equaled by his Spartan simplicity, his

unaffected modesty, his ever wakeful humanity, his inflexible integrity,

his uncompromising truthfulness, his lofty magnanimity, his unbounded

patriotism, and his unfaltering loyalty to duty. His mind was of an

original and solid cast, admirably balanced, and combining the

comprehensiveness of reason with the penetration of instinct. Its

controlling element was a strong, sterling sense, that of itself

rendered him a wise counselor and a safe leader. All of his personal

attributes and antecedents made him pre-eminently a man of the people,

and remarkably qualified him to be the stay and surety of his country in

this its day of danger.

A braver soldier never wielded sword--

A gentler heart did never sway in council.

But he is dead--and millions weep his loss.

[From "Hunting Adventures in South Africa."]

ENCOUNTER WITH A LIONESS.

Suddenly I observed a number of vultures seated on the plain about a

quarter of a mile ahead of us, and close beside them stood a huge

lioness, consuming a blesblok which she had killed. She was assisted in

her repast by about a dozen jackals, which were feasting along with her

in the most friendly and confidential manner. Directing my followers'

attention to the spot, I remarked, "I see the lion;" to which they

replied, "Whar? whar? Yah! Almagtig! dat is he;" and instantly reining

in their steeds and wheeling about, they pressed their heels to their

horses' sides, and were preparing to betake themselves to flight. I

asked them what they were going to do. To which they answered, "We have

not yet placed caps on our rifles." This was true; but while this short

conversation was passing the lioness had observed us. Raising her full,

round face, she overhauled us for a few seconds, and then set off at a

smart canter toward a range of mountains some miles to the northward;

the whole troop of jackals also started off in another direction; there

was, therefore, no time to think of caps. The first move was to bring

her to bay, and not a second was to be lost. Spurring my good and lively

steed, and shouting to my men to follow, I flew across the plain, and,

being fortunately mounted on Colesberg, the flower of my stud, I gained

upon her at every stride. This was to me a joyful moment, and I at once

made up my mind that she or I must die.

The lioness having had a long start of me, we went over a considerable

extent of ground before I came up with her. She was a large, full-grown

beast, and the bare and level nature of the plain added to her imposing

appearance. Finding that I gained upon her, she reduced her pace from a

canter to a trot, carrying her tail stuck out behind her, and slewed a

little to one side. I shouted loudly to her to halt, as I wished to

speak with her, upon which she suddenly pulled up, and sat on her

haunches like a dog, with her back toward me, not even deigning to look

round. She then appeared to say to herself, "Does this fellow know who

he is after?" Having thus sat for half a minute, as if involved in

thought, she sprang to her feet, and, fating about, stood looking at me

for a few seconds, moving her tail slowly from side to side, showing her

teeth, and growling fiercely. She next made a short run forward, making

a loud, rumbling noise like thunder. This she did to intimidate me; but,

finding that I did not flinch an inch, nor seem to heed her hostile

demonstrations, she quietly stretched out her massive arms, and lay down

on the grass. My Hottentots now coming up, we all three dismounted, and,

drawing our rifles from their holsters, we looked to see if the powder

was up in the nipples, and put on our caps. While this was doing the

lioness sat up, and showed evident symptoms of uneasiness. She looked

first at us, and then behind her, as if to see if the coast were clear;

after which she made a short run toward us, uttering her deep-drawn

murderous growls. Having secured the three horses to one another by

their rheims, we led them on as if we intended to pass her, in the hope

of obtaining a broadside. But this she carefully avoided to expose,

presenting only her full front. I had given Stofulus my Moore rifle,

with orders to shoot her if she should spring upon me, but on no account

to fire before me. Kleinboy was to stand ready to hand me my Purdey

rifle, in case the two-grooved Dixon should not prove sufficient. My men

as yet had been steady, but they were in a precious stew, their faces

having assumed a ghastly paleness, and I had a painful feeling that I

could place no reliance on them.

Now, then, for it, neck or nothing! She is within sixty yards of us, and

she keeps advancing. We turned the horses' tails to her. I knelt on one

side, and, taking a steady aim at her breast, let fly. The ball cracked

loudly on her tawny hide, and crippled her in the shoulder, upon which

she charged with an appalling roar, and in the twinkling of an eye she

was in the midst of us. At this moment Stofolus's rifle exploded in his

hand, and Kleinboy, whom I had ordered to stand ready by me, danced

about like a duck in a gale of wind. The lioness sprang upon Colesberg,

and fearfully lacerated his ribs and haunches with her horrid teeth and

claws; the worst wound was on his haunch, which exhibited a sickening,

yawning gash, more than twelve inches long, almost laying bare the very

bone. I was very cool and steady, and did not feel in the least degree

nervous, having fortunately great confidence in my own shooting; but I

must confess, when the whole affair was over, I felt that it was a very

awful situation, and attended with extreme peril, as I had no friend

with me on whom I could rely.

When the lioness sprang on Colesberg, I stood out from the horses, ready

with my second barrel for the first chance she should give me of a clear

shot. This she quickly did; for, seemingly satisfied with the revenge

she had now taken, she quitted Colesberg, and, slewing her tail to one

side, trotted sulkily past within a few paces of me, taking one step to

the left. I pitched my rifle to my shoulder, and in another second the

lioness was stretched on the plain a lifeless corpse. In the struggles

of death she half turned on her back, and stretched her neck and fore

arms convulsively, when she fell back to her former position; her mighty

arms hung powerless by her side, her lower jaw fell, blood streamed from

her mouth, and she expired. At the moment I fired my second shot,

Stofolus, who hardly knew whether he was alive or dead, allowed the

three horses to escape. These galloped frantically across the plain, on

which he and Kleinboy instantly started after them, leaving me standing

alone and unarmed within a few paces of the lioness, which they, from

their anxiety to be out of the way, evidently considered quite capable

of doing further mischief.

Such is ever the case with these worthies, and with nearly all the

natives of South Africa. No reliance can be placed on them. They will to

a certainty forsake their master in the most dastardly manner in the

hour of peril, and leave him in the lurch. A stranger, however, hearing

these fellows recounting their own gallant adventures, when sitting in

the evening along with their comrades round a blazing fire, or under the

influence of their adored "Cape smoke" or native brandy, might fancy

them to be the bravest of the brave. Having skinned the lioness and cut

off her head, we placed her trophies upon Beauty and held for camp.

Before we had proceeded a hundred yards from the carcass, upward of

sixty vultures, whom the lioness had often fed were feasting on her

remains.

[From Dickens's "Household Words."]

THE YOUNG ADVOCATE.

Antoine de Chaulieu was the son of a poor gentleman of Normandy, with a

long genealogy, a short rent-roll, and a large family. Jacques Rollet

was the son of a brewer, who did not know who his grandfather was; but

he had a long purse and only two children. As these youths flourished in

the early days of liberty, equality, and fraternity, and were near

neighbors, they naturally hated each other. Their enmity commenced at

school, where the delicate and refined De Chaulieu being the only

gentilhomme among the scholars, was the favorite of the master (who was

a bit of an aristocrat in his heart) although he was about the worst

dressed boy in the establishment, and never had a son to spend; while

Jacques Rollet, sturdy and rough, with smart clothes and plenty of

money, got flogged six days in the week, ostensibly for being stupid and

not learning his lessons--which, indeed, he did not--but, in reality,

for constantly quarreling with and insulting De Chaulieu, who had not

strength to cope with him. When they left the academy, the feud

continued in all its vigor, and was fostered by a thousand little

circumstances arising out of the state of the times, till a separation

ensued in consequence of an aunt of Antoine de Chaulieu's undertaking

the expense of sending him to Paris to study the law, and of maintaining

him there during the necessary period.

With the progress of events came some degree of reaction in favor of

birth and nobility, and then Antoine, who had passed for the bar, began

to hold up his head and endeavored to push his fortunes; but fate seemed

against him. He felt certain that if he possessed any gift in the world

it was that of eloquence, but he could get no cause to plead; and his

aunt dying inopportunely, first his resources failed, and then his

health. He had no sooner returned to his home, than, to complicate his

difficulties completely, he fell in love with Mademoiselle Natalie de

Bellefonds, who had just returned from Paris, where she had been

completing her education. To expatiate on the perfections of

Mademoiselle Natalie, would be a waste of ink and paper; it is

sufficient to say that she really was a very charming girl, with a

fortune which, though not large, would have been a most desirable

acquisition to De Chaulieu, who had nothing. Neither was the fair

Natalie indisposed to listen to his addresses; but her father could not

be expected to countenance the suit of a gentleman, however well-born,

who had not a ten-sous piece in the world, and whose prospects were a

blank.

While the ambitions and love-sick young barrister was thus pining in

unwelcome obscurity, his old acquaintance; Jacques Rollet, had been

acquiring an undesirable notoriety. There was nothing really bad in

Jacques' disposition, but having been bred up a democrat, with a hatred

of the nobility, he could not easily accommodate his rough humor to

treat them with civility when it was no longer safe to insult them. The

liberties he allowed himself whenever circumstances brought him into

contact with the higher classes of society, had led him into many

scrapes, out of which his father's money had one way or another released

him; but that source of safety had now failed. Old Rollet having been

too busy with the affairs of the nation to attend to his business, had

died insolvent, leaving his son with nothing but his own wits to help

him out of future difficulties, and it was not long before their

exercise was called for. Claudine Rollet, his sister, who was a very

pretty girl, had attracted the attention of Mademoiselle de Bellefonds'

brother, Alphonso; and as he paid her more attention than from such a

quarter was agreeable to Jacques, the young men had had more than one

quarrel on the subject, on which occasions they had each,

characteristically, given vent to their enmity, the one in contemptuous

monosyllables, and the other in a volley of insulting words. But

Claudine had another lover more nearly of her own condition of life;

this was Claperon, the deputy governor of the Rouen jail, with whom she

had made acquaintance during one or two compulsory visits paid by her

brother to that functionary; but Claudine, who was a bit of a coquette,

though she did not altogether reject his suit, gave him little

encouragement, so that betwixt hopes, and fears, and doubts, and

jealousies, poor Claperon led a very uneasy kind of life.

Affairs had been for some time in this position, when, one fine morning,

Alphonse de Bellefonds was not to be found in his chamber when his

servant went to call him; neither had his bed been slept in. He had been

observed to go out rather late on the preceding evening, but whether or

not he had returned, nobody could tell. He had not appeared at supper,

but that was too ordinary an event to awaken suspicion; and little alarm

was excited till several hours had elapsed, when inquiries were

instituted and a search commenced, which terminated in the discovery of

his body, a good deal mangled, lying at the bottom of a pond which had

belonged to the old brewery. Before any investigations had been made,

every person had jumped to the conclusion that the young man had been

murdered, and that Jacques Rollet was the assassin. There was a strong

presumption in favor of that opinion, which further perquisitions tended

to confirm. Only the day before, Jacques had been heard to threaten

Mons. de Bellefonds with speedy vengeance. On the fatal evening,

Alphonse and Claudine had been seen together in the neighborhood of the

now dismantled brewery; and as Jacques, betwixt poverty and democracy,

was in bad odor with the prudent and respectable part of society, it was

not easy for him to bring witnesses to character, or prove an

unexceptionable alibi. As for the Bellefonds and De Chaulieus, and the

aristocracy in general, they entertained no doubt of his guilt, and,

finally, the magistrate; coming to the same opinion, Jacques Rollet was

committed for trial, and as a testimony of good will. Antoine de

Chaulieu was selected by the injured family to conduct the prosecution.

Here, at last, was the opportunity he had sighed for! So interesting a

case, too, furnishing such ample occasion for passion, pathos,

indignation! And how eminently fortunate that the speech which he set

himself with ardor to prepare, would be delivered in the presence of the

father and brother of his mistress, and, perhaps, of the lady herself!

The evidence against Jacques, it is true, was altogether presumptive;

there was no proof whatever that he had committed the crime; and for his

own part, he stoutly denied it. But Antoine de Chaulieu entertained no

doubt of his guilt, and his speech was certainly well calculated to

carry that conviction into the bosom of others. It was of the highest

importance to his own reputation that he should procure a verdict, and

he confidently assured the afflicted and enraged family of the victim

that their vengeance should be satisfied. Under these circumstances

could any thing be more unwelcome than a piece of intelligence that was

privately conveyed to him late on the evening before the trial was to

come on, which tended strongly to exculpate the prisoner, without

indicating any other person as the criminal. Here was an opportunity

lost. The first step of the ladder on which he was to rise to fame,

fortune, and a wife, was slipping from under his feet.

Of course, so interesting a trial was anticipated with great eagerness

by the public, and the court was crowded with all the beauty and fashion

of Rouen. Though Jacques Rollet persisted in asserting his innocence,

founding his defense chiefly on circumstances which were strongly

corroborated by the information that had reached De Chaulieu the

preceding evening--he was convicted.

In spite of the very strong doubts he privately entertained respecting

the justice of the verdict, even De Chaulieu himself, in the first flush

of success, amid a crowd of congratulating friends, and the approving

smiles of his mistress, felt gratified and happy: his speech had, for

the time being, not only convinced others, but himself; warmed with his

own eloquence, he believed what he said. But when the glow was over, and

he found himself alone, he did not feel so comfortable. A latent doubt

of Rollet's guilt now burst strongly on his mind, and he felt that the

blood of the innocent would be on his head. It is true there was yet

time to save the life of the prisoner, but to admit Jacques innocent,

was to take the glory out of his own speech, and turn the sting of his

argument against himself. Besides, if he produced the witness who had

secretly given him the information, he should be self-condemned, for he

could not conceal that he had been aware of the circumstance before the

trial.

Matters having gone so far, therefore, it was necessary that Jacques

Rollet should die; so the affair took its course; and early one morning

the guillotine was erected in the court-yard of the jail, three

criminals ascended the scaffold, and three heads fell into the basket,

which were presently afterward, with the trunks that had been attached

to them, buried in a corner of the cemetery.

Antoine de Chaulieu was now fairly started in his career, and his

success was as rapid as the first step toward it had been tardy. He took

a pretty apartment in the Hotel Marboeuf, Rue Grange-Bateliere, and in

a short time was looked upon as one of the most rising young advocates

in Paris. His success in one line brought him success in another; he was

soon a favorite in society, and an object of interest to speculating

mothers; but his affections still adhered to his old love Natalie de

Bellefonds, whose family now gave their assent to the match--at least,

prospectively--a circumstance which furnished such an additional

incentive to his exertions, that in about two years from the date of his

first brilliant speech, he was in a sufficiently flourishing condition

to offer the young lady a suitable home. In anticipation of the happy

event, he engaged and furnished a suite of apartments in the Rue du

Helder; and as it was necessary that the bride should come to Paris to

provide her trousseau, it was agreed that the wedding should take place

there, instead of at Bellefonds, as had been first projected; an

arrangement the more desirable, that a press of business rendered Mons.

de Chaulieu's absence from Paris inconvenient.

Brides and bridegrooms in France, except of the very high classes, are

not much in the habit of making those honeymoon excursions so universal

in this country. A day spent in visiting Versailles, or St. Cloud, or

even the public places of the city, is generally all that precedes the

settling down into the habits of daily life. In the present instance St.

Denis was selected, from the circumstance of Natalie's having a younger

sister at school there; and also because she had a particular desire to

see the Abbey.

The wedding was to take place on a Thursday; and on the Wednesday

evening, having spent some hours most agreeably with Natalie, Antoine de

Chaulieu returned to spend his last night in his bachelor apartments.

His wardrobe and other small possessions, had already been packed up and

sent to his future home; and there was nothing left in his room now, but

his new wedding suit, which he inspected with considerable satisfaction

before he undressed and lay down to sleep. Sleep, however, was somewhat

slow to visit him; and the clock had struck _one_, before he closed his

eyes. When he opened them again it was broad daylight; and his first

thought was, had he overslept himself? He sat up in bed to look at the

clock which was exactly opposite, and as he did so, in the large mirror

over the fire-place, he perceived a figure standing behind him. As the

dilated eyes met his own, he saw it was the face of Jacques Rollet.

Overcome with horror he sunk back on his pillow, and it was some

minutes before he ventured to look again in that direction; when he did

so, the figure had disappeared.

The sudden revulsion of feeling such a vision was calculated to occasion

in a man elate with joy, may be conceived! For some time after the death

of his former foe, he had been visited by not unfrequent twinges of

conscience; but of late, borne along by success, and the hurry of

Parisian life, these unpleasant remembrancers had grown rarer, till at

length they had faded away altogether. Nothing had been further from his

thoughts than Jacques Rollet, when he closed his eyes on the preceding

night, nor when he opened them to that sun which was to shine on what he

expected to be the happiest day of his life! Where were the high-strung

nerves now? The elastic frame? The bounding heart?

Heavily and slowly he arose from his bed, for it was time to do so; and

with a trembling hand and quivering knees, he went through the processes

of the toilet, gashing his cheek with the razor, and spilling the water

over his well-polished boots. When he was dressed, scarcely venturing to

cast a glance in the mirror as he passed it, he quitted the room and

descended the stairs, taking the key of the door with him for the

purpose of leaving it with the porter; the man, however, being absent,

he laid it on the table in his lodge, and with a relaxed and languid

step proceeded on his way to the church, where presently arrived the

fair Natalie and her friends. How difficult it was now to look happy,

with that pallid face and extinguished eye!

"How pale you are! Has any thing happened? You are surely ill?" were the

exclamations that met him on all sides. He tried to carry it off as well

as he could, but felt that the movements he would have wished to appear

alert, were only convulsive; and that the smiles with which he attempted

to relax his features, were but distorted grimaces. However, the church

was not the place for further inquiries; and while Natalie gently

pressed his hand in token of sympathy, they advanced to the altar, and

the ceremony was performed; after which they stepped into the carriage

waiting at the door, and drove to the apartments of Madme. de

Bellefonds, where an elegant _dejeuner_ was prepared.

"What ails you, my dear husband?" inquired Natalie, as soon as they were

alone.

"Nothing, love," he replied; "nothing, I assure you, but a restless

night and a little over-work, in order that I might have to-day free to

enjoy my happiness!"

"Are you quite Sure? Is there nothing else?"

"Nothing, indeed; and pray don't take notice of it, it only makes me

worse!"

Natalie was not deceived, but she saw that what he said was true; notice

made him worse; so she contented herself with observing him quietly, and

saying nothing; but as he _felt_ she was observing him, she might almost

better have spoken; words are often less embarrassing things than too

curious eyes.

When they reached Madame de Bellefonds' he had the same sort of

questioning and scrutiny to undergo, till he grew quite impatient under

it, and betrayed a degree of temper altogether unusual with him. Then

every body looked astonished; some whispered their remarks, and others

expressed them by their wondering eyes, till his brow knit, and his

pallid cheeks became flushed with anger. Neither could he divert

attention by eating; his parched mouth would not allow him to swallow

any thing but liquids, of which, however, he indulged in copious

libations; and it was an exceeding relief to him when the carriage,

which was to convey them to St. Denis, being announced, furnished an

excuse for hastily leaving the table. Looking at his watch, he declared

it was late; and Natalie, who saw how eager he was to be gone, threw her

shawl over her shoulders, and bidding her friends _good morning_, they

hurried away.

It was a fine sunny day in June; and as they drove along the crowded

boulevards, and through the Porte St. Denis, the young bride and

bridegroom, to avoid each other's eyes, affected to be gazing out of the

windows; but when they reached that part of the road where there was

nothing but trees on each side, they felt it necessary to draw in their

heads, and make an attempt at conversation. De Chaulieu put his arm

round his wife's waist, and tried to rouse himself from his depression;

but it had by this time so reacted upon her, that she could not respond

to his efforts, and thus the conversation languished, till both felt

glad when they reached their destination, which would at all events

furnish them something to talk about.

Having quitted the carriage, and ordered a dinner at the Hotel de

l'Abbaye, the young couple proceeded to visit Mademoiselle Hortense de

Bellefonds, who was overjoyed to see her sister and new brother-in-law,

and doubly so when she found that they had obtained permission to take

her out to spend the afternoon with them. As there is little to be seen

at St. Denis but the Abbey, on quitting that part of it devoted to

education, they proceeded to visit the church, with its various objects

of interest; and as De Chaulieu's thoughts were now forced into another

direction, his cheerfulness began insensibly to return. Natalie looked

so beautiful, too, and the affection betwixt the two young sisters was

so pleasant to behold! And they spent a couple of hours wandering about

with Hortense, who was almost as well informed as the Suisse, till the

brazen doors were open which admitted them to the royal vault.

Satisfied, at length, with what they had seen, they began to think of

returning to the inn, the more especially as De Chaulieu, who had not

eaten a morsel of food since the previous evening, owned to being

hungry; so they directed their steps to the door, lingering here and

there as they went, to inspect a monument or a painting, when, happening

to turn his head aside to see if his wife, who had stopped to take a

last look at the tomb of King Dagobert, was following, he beheld with

horror the face of Jacques Rollett appearing from behind a column! At

the same instant, his wife joined him, and took his arm, inquiring if he

was not very much delighted with what he had seen He attempted to say

yes, but the word would not be forced out; and staggering out of the

door, he alleged that a sudden faintness had overcome him.

They conducted him to the Hotel, but Natalie now became seriously

alarmed; and well she might. His complexion looked ghastly, his limbs

shook, and his features bore an expression of indiscribable horror and

anguish. What could be the meaning of so extraordinary a change in the

gay, witly, prosperous De Chaulieu, who, till that morning, seemed not

to have a care in the world? For, plead illness as he might, she felt

certain, from the expression of his features, that his sufferings were

not of the body but of the mind; and, unable to imagine any reason for

such extraordinary manifestations, of which she had never before seen a

symptom, but a sudden aversion to herself, and regret for the step he

had taken, her pride took the alarm, and, concealing the distress, she

really felt, she began to assume a haughty and reserved manner toward

him, which he naturally interpreted into an evidence of anger and

contempt. The dinner was placed upon the table, but De Chaulieu's

appetite, of which he had lately boasted, was quite gone, nor was his

wife better able to eat. The young sister alone did justice to the

repast; but although the bridegroom could not eat, he could swallow

Champagne in such copious draughts, that ere long the terror and remorse

that the apparition of Jacques Rollet had awakened in his breast were

drowned in intoxication. Amazed and indignant, poor Natalie sat silently

observing this elect of her heart, till overcome with disappointment and

grief, she quitted the room with her sister, and retired to another

apartment, where she gave free vent to her feelings in tears.

After passing a couple of hours in confidences and lamentations, they

recollected that the hours of liberty granted, as an especial favor, to

Mademoiselle Hortense, had expired: but ashamed to exhibit her husband

in his present condition to the eyes of strangers, Natalie prepared to

re-conduct her to the _Maison Royale_ herself. Looking into the

dining-room as they passed, they saw De Chaulieu lying on a sofa fast

asleep, in which state he continued when his wife returned. At length,

however, the driver of their carriage begged to know if Monsieur and

Madame were ready to return to Paris, and it became necessary to arouse

him. The transitory effects of the Champagne had now subsided; but when

De Chaulieu recollected what had happened, nothing could exceed his

shame and mortification. So engrossing indeed were these sensations that

they quite overpowered his previous ones, and, in his present vexation,

he, for the moment, forgot his fears. He knelt at his wife's feet,

begged her pardon a thousand times, swore that he adored her, and

declared that the illness and the effect of the wine had been purely the

consequences of fasting and over-work. It was not the easiest thing in

the world to reassure a woman whose pride, affection, and taste, had

been so severely wounded; but Natalie tried to believe, or to appear to

do so, and a sort of reconciliation ensued, not quite sincere on the

part of the wife, and very humbling on the part of the husband. Under

these circumstances it was impossible that he should recover his spirits

or facility of manner; his gayety was forced, his tenderness

constrained; his heart was heavy within him; and ever and anon the

source whence all this disappointment and woe had sprung would recur to

his perplexed and tortured mind.

Thus mutually pained and distrustful, they returned to Paris, which they

reached about nine o'clock. In spite of her depression, Natalie, who had

not seen her new apartments, felt some curiosity about them, while De

Chaulieu anticipated a triumph in exhibiting the elegant home he had

prepared for her. With some alacrity, therefore, they stepped out of the

carriage, the gates of the Hotel were thrown open, the _concierge_ rang

the bell which announced to the servants that their master and mistress

had arrived, and while these domestics appeared above, holding lights

over the balusters, Natalie, followed by her husband, ascended the

stairs. But when they reached the landing-place of the first flight,

they saw the figure of a man standing in a corner as if to make way for

them; the flash from above fell upon his face, and again Antoine de

Chaulieu recognized the feature of Jacques Rollet!

From the circumstance of his wife's preceding him, the figure was not

observed by De Chaulieu till he was lifting his foot to place it on the

top stair: the sudden shock caused him to miss the step, and, without

uttering a sound, he fell back, and never stopped till he reached the

stones at the bottom. The screams of Natalie brought the concierge from

below and the maids from above, and an attempt was made to raise the

unfortunate man from the ground; but with cries of anguish he besought

them to desist.

"Let me," he said, "die here! What a fearful vengeance is thine! Oh,

Natalie, Natalie!" he exclaimed to his wife, who was kneeling beside

him, "to win fame, and fortune, and yourself, I committed a dreadful

crime! With lying words I argued away the life of a fellow-creature,

whom, while I uttered them, I half believed to be innocent; and now,

when I have attained all I desired, and reached the summit of my hopes,

the Almighty has sent him back upon the earth to blast me with the

sight. Three times this day--three times this day! Again! again!"--and,

as he spoke, his wild and dilated eyes fixed themselves on one of the

individuals that surrounded him.

"He is delirious," said they.

"No," said the stranger! "What he says is true enough--at least in

part;" and bending over the expiring man, he added, "May Heaven forgive

you, Antoine de Chaulieu! I was not executed; one who well knew my

innocence saved my life. I may name him, for he is beyond the reach of

the law now--it was Claperon, the jailor, who loved Claudine, and had

himself killed Alphonse de Bellefonds from jealousy. An unfortunate

wretch had been several years in the jail for a murder committed during

the frenzy of a fit of insanity. Long confinement had reduced him to

idiocy. To save my life Claperon substituted the senseless being for me,

on the scaffold, and he was executed in my stead. He has quitted the

country, and I have been a vagabond on the face of the earth ever since

that time. At length I obtained, through the assistance of my sister,

the situation of concierge in the Hotel Marboeuf, in the Rue

Grange-Bateliere. I entered on my new place yesterday evening, and was

desired to awaken the gentleman on the third floor at seven o'clock.

When I entered the room to do so, you were asleep, but before I had time

to speak you awoke, and I recognized your features in the glass. Knowing

that I could not vindicate my innocence if you chose to seize me, I

fled, and seeing an omnibus starting for St. Denis, I got on it with a

vague idea of getting on to Calais, and crossing the Channel to England.

But having only a franc or two in my pocket, or indeed in the world, I

did not know how to procure the means of going forward; and while I was

lounging about the place, forming first one plan and then another, I saw

you in the church, and concluding you were in pursuit of me, I thought

the best way of eluding your vigilance was to make my way back to Paris

as fast as I could; so I set off instantly, and walked all the way; but

having no money to pay my night's lodging, I came here to borrow a

couple of livres of my sister Claudine, who lives in the fifth story."

"Thank Heaven!" exclaimed the dying man; "that sin is off my soul!

Natalie, dear wife, farewell! Forgive! forgive all!"

These were the last words he uttered; the priest, who had been summoned

in haste, held up the cross before his failing sight; a few strong

convulsions shook the poor bruised and mangled frame; and then all was

still.

And thus ended the Young Advocate's Wedding Day.

[From the Dublin University Magazine.]

THE REVOLUTIONISM OF MIRABEAU.

The moral is evolved out of the physical, and the extraordinary in

animal structure has a kinship to the portentous in human action.

MIRABEAU, the infamous, born in an age, of a family, in a rank the most

vicious in the annals of vice, of parents whose depravity had

contaminated even their blood, was ushered with infinite difficulty into

the breathing scene he was so much to trouble, and offered, at the

outset of his disorderly career, misfortune and singularity in a

twisted fool, a tied tongue, and two molar teeth.

Maltreated by fortune, which, at the age of three, turned him by

disease into the ugliest of children--"a tiger marked by the

small-pox"--caressed and neglected by his dissolute mother, disowned and

persecuted as a spurious graft in his house and home by the celebrated

"Economist," his father--his very childhood presaged the disorders of

his youth and manhood; and his father, mysteriously reverting to early

crimes and calamities as the blight of his life, made it matter of

complaint that Honore Gabriel, as a boy, had more cleverness "than all

the devils in h--l," and seemed destined from his childhood "to disturb

the monarchy, as a second Cardinal de Retz."

He was indeed _born_ a Revolutionist; and if he had not found the

elements of a _bouleversement_, was competent to have created them. But

just as nature gave the instinct, fortune supplied the breeding and the

occasion. The heir, pupil, find victim of a second family of Atreus and

Thyestes, the child was _trained_ into demoralization, vicissitude, and

daring. Believed himself to have been the favorite lover of the most

lovely of his sisters, he describes her as the "Atrocious

memoir-writer," a "Messalina, boasting of the purity of her morals, and

an absconding wife, bragging of her love for her husband." The Vicomte,

his brother, "would have been a _roue_ and a wit," he tells us, "in any

family but his own," and _was_, of a dissolute noblesse, its most

dissolute member. His mother, driven with contumely from her home and

the bosom of her family, under accusations the most revolting a wife may

hear from one who is her husband and a father, addressed the world in

public recriminations for her persecutor, not less disgusting or

condemnatory. The son himself, the most infamous man of his time,

completes the picture in the boast he made to the National Assembly,

that among the tragic woes of his family he had been the witness of

fifty-four lettres-de-cachet, seventeen of them on his own account!

As in Eastern climates the abundance of degenerate man will, at some

spot and moment, reach a point where it breeds the plague which

diminishes by depopulation the evil it can not remove by more merciful

agencies, so would it seem that in France the demoralization which

necessitated a revolution, concentrating itself in one family, produced

the man who was to begin the catastrophe.

At seventeen, leaving a military academy, he entered the army as a

sub-lieutenant, knowing, as he tells us, a little Latin, and no Greek,

but possessing, with very tolerable acquirements in the mathematics, a

fair share of the scattered erudition won by readings more desultory

than diligent.

Presented at court, admitted to the rare aristocratic privilege of

riding in the king's carriages at Versailles, laughed at as the Princess

Elizabeth's living specimen of inoculation, the incipient courtier and

embryo revolutionist was awakened from his delightful vision to find

himself suddenly transferred from his regal residence and gayeties, to

the sombre solitude of a country jail. He had been guilty of a

passionate attachment to a young lady of disproportionate expectations.

The young victim of parental wrong, thus severely taught that the

splendors of a court were but a veneer under which lay the terrible

springs of a wayward tyranny, killed time in brooding over the ideas and

studies which subsequently formed his "_Essai_" no less than his

character--"_sur le despotisme_." But before completing the work, the

father's monomania had been temporarily mitigated by the vengeance of a

year's imprisonment; and the son, instead of being sent to Surinam, the

Dutch Sierra Leone of that day, was graciously permitted, under the

_bourgeois_ name of "Buffiere," to enter as a gentleman volunteer the

French army that was about to crush the Corsicans in their noble

struggle against Genoese oppression.

In this liberticidal war, the liberty-loving Mirabeau performed his

first manly act, won his first public distinction, and initiated that

series of paradox, and moral revolutionism, that was hence to follow him

as lover, _litterateur_, and politician, to the grave. As his sword was

against Corsica and freedom, his pen was for them. He wrote over the

ruins of both a boyish philippic, admired by his victims, and burnt by

his father!

And while the brain that was to rule France as a tribune-king, was thus

evolving its idle progeny, the womb of a Corsican woman near him was

travailing with him who was to be Napoleon! At the instant France, by

the sword of her future liberator, was mowing down the new-born

liberties of Corsica--Corsica was breathing the breath of life into a

child, whose sword was to cleave down the fresh-won freedom of France!

As a Caesar and a Marius sprung from the blood of the Gracchi, there

would have been no Corsican exterminator for France, had there been no

French exterminators for Corsica.[7] There are surely times when fate

plays with mortals, making of the murder of a generation or the

revolution of an empire a nursery game of coincidences!

Of the twenty years that followed, bringing Mirabeau to the footsteps of

the revolution, and within two years of his death, it was the odd fate

of this gay and gifted noble, guilty of no offense against the state,

nor in a legal sense against society, to pass more than the moiety of

his time in the sad role of a state prisoner; and the main incidents in

the unhappy sequence of wrong and suffering, the inevitable but

unrecognized logic of Providence, were briefly, and in succession, a

profitless marriage with the most distinguished heiress of his province,

carried off from twenty more eligible rivals by the superior strategy

of seduction and defamation, pecuniary extravagance, dissipation, debts,

sequestration of property, marital separation, successive imprisonments

by paternal intervention, deadly hate with the father, permanent

alienation from his adulterous wife and only child, licentious

connection with a friend's wife, with whom he abandoned his country,

exile in Switzerland, Holland, and England, successive litigations

self-conducted, a ministerial spyship in Prussia, and a career more or

less stormy, as a _litterateur_, in France.

Entombed in one of the horrid dungeons of Vincennes, solitary, hopeless,

almost without a sympathy, though in the very spring-tide of his rich

youth and activity, the angel of consolation, never far from us in our

darkest hour, came down, and in the genial guise of literature, visited

in his dungeon this man of infamies and suffering. It must, however, be

confessed against him that, maddened by the severity of a despotism

without appeal, in the wrong--and from that hand, too, whence he might

fairly have hoped a kinder gift, even the wholesomeness of books became

poisoned under his diseased digestion, and it became his wretched

pleasure through months to avenge himself on the virtue in whose injured

name he suffered, by licentious compilations, in which the man

degenerates into the satyr, and the distinctions of right and decency

are lost in the beastly excesses of a maniac imagination.

But so morbid a vice in a mind like his can be protected by no madness

of the passions or vindictiveness of misanthropy from the healing

influence of time; and if the leisure of his tedious incarcerations gave

us four or five books in the worst of services, they gave us also those

extensive studies of history and its philosophy to which we owe, among

much else that is great in literature or in event, the three works on

"Despotism," "State Prisons," and "Lettres-de-Cachet."

To our present purpose it would be of little use to indulge in any

lengthened analysis or literary estimate of these performances.

Gratifying his need of money, his love of fame, and, above all, a

vengeance warmly nursed, which even virtue can not censure, their

publication formed, probably, the happiest incidents of his life. The

first published in his twenty-fifth year, bears all the characteristics

of the young man of genius, roughened, no less than strengthened by the

asperities of the experience out of whose ireful plenitude he writes.

Rough and disorderly in arrangement, it is lofty, striking, eloquent in

style--cogent, daring, powerful in matter.

The last, the result of his long, final imprisonment, and published in

his thirty-first year, possesses similar attributes, aggrandized, or

improved. A great work, involving an inquiry into the first principles

of government, and, therefore, of infinite practical utility in the

career reserved for him, it wants too obviously the elevation of a

Montesquieu, the philosophy of a Bolingbroke, or the comprehensive

profundity of a Burke. It is a work of genius, but by a partisan, an

advocate, a man of powerful emotion and vivid conception, having a

strong will, a high purpose, and an enduring conviction. With a great,

sometimes an inapt parade of erudition, and an occasional loss of time

in inflated and declamatory commonplaces, there is yet, as a general

rule, work, rather than literature, in his sentences, and the just, the

practical, the statesman-like are the dominating qualities. We must not

look for the artist in Mirabeau as a writer: he is above that: nor,

whatever the range of thought we may justly concede him, may we,

therefore, expect the sublime; he is below that. With the eloquence of

an impassioned imagination, united to the unornamented vigor of a ready,

versatile, and comprehensive reason, he reminds one of some colossal

engine in forceful, though not always in graceful action.

In Holland, occupied in literature and the society of literary men, and

subsequently in England, in commerce with Franklin, Dr. Price, Samuel

Romilly, and Wilkes--among whom be it said, _en passant_, he acquired

the reputation of an habitual liar--a thousand circumstances must have

presented themselves, not more in his own studies than in the freedom,

seriousness, and activity he saw around him, to prepare and stimulate

his ambition for the lofty career of political action that awaited him

at home. In truth, if we may judge from the letters written during his

English residence, or the biographical fragments that occur in his other

correspondence, he seems, beyond his personal indigence, to have had no

other enduring interest but that of public affairs. His mind broods over

the tragic epochs of English history with a fascinating and curious

sympathy: there is an evident faith in a coming drama of popular action

for France, in which he is to play a leading part--a faith so early

ripened that, in 1782, meeting at Neufchatel certain State Deputies of

Geneva, he based on the inevitable meeting of the States General the

prediction, or rather the promise, that he would become a deputy, and in

that character restore their country to freedom.

Returning to Paris at a moment when the increasing and unmanageable

_deficit_ brought national bankruptcy and confusion to the very door of

the state, a course of angry and mercenary pamphleteering on Finance,

while connecting him with discontented men of wealth and influence,

willing, jointly with the police, to hire or use his ready pen, forced

on him education in another important, if unattractive, department of

the great question of the times.

His ministerial spyship in Prussia, which, subsequently divulged by his

own audacious publication of his secret correspondence, won from M. de

Montesquieu the remark, that "the infamy of the person might be

estimated by the infamy of the thing," was not without its compensations

in the political experience he extracted from it. It brought before him

the main interests of European diplomacy: won him access to the

principal intrigues and intriguers of a Court in transitionship, by the

death of Frederick, from eccentric greatness to orderly mediocrity;

habituated him to ministerial correspondence and reports, which, if

disgustingly mean, were, at all events, systematic and prescient, and

secured him--I could wish to say honestly--those historic and

statistical _data_ which, published in his elaborate work on the

Prussian monarchy, countenanced some serious claims to statesmanship.

Misfortune, passion, solitude, suffering, travel, extraordinary

adventures, extensive readings, varied studies, innumerable writings

thus admirably endowing his mind, so disposed, too, by nature, for the

daring and stormy struggles of the revolution, the only resource that

could surely be wanting to so enormous a compound of intellectual

strength, I mean the power of oratory, he was fated to acquire in his

lengthened trials for the recovery of his wife and legal rights.

Opposed by Alps of difficulties, the moral greater than the legal, for

the suits ploughed deeply into all the crimes or errors that had

dishonored his career, and would necessarily turn up masses of

documentary evidence, which on no less authority than that of his

father, must carry the tale of his infamy to every eye; yet his audacity

dared, as his genius surmounted, every disadvantage, and after fixing

the admiration of a province--to him a sufficient compensation--by the

ingenuity, the power, and the extraordinary resources of his eloquence

in a path so new to him, he succeeded in re-establishing his civil

rights, and but failed in the second, and, perhaps, less important suit,

by the accident of a technicality.

Passing by his double election as Deputy, at Aix and Marseilles, marked

by excitement, insurrection and all the stirring incidents that, in a

moment of great public agitation, might be expected to accompany the

_debut_ of a daring and accomplished demagogue, we are now brought to

the greatest epoch of France, and, therefore, of Mirabeau--the meeting

of the States General; and the observation is naturally suggested that,

if this extraordinary succession of circumstances, marvelous as

_incidents_, but still more marvelous as _coincidents_, had not

specially moulded the man for his work, it might well be doubted that

the French revolution could have happened, or at all events, in such

gigantic proportions. Mirabeau's life was, as we have seen, a pupilage,

as it is now to become a mastership, in revolution. His Saturn of a

father had trained him, from his youth upward, into the executionership

of his order; and Heaven itself, as if seconding some such inscrutable

design, seems to have stooped to lead by the hand this servant of

Nemesis, through paths the most devious and unfrequented, but, of all

others, the most fitted to form and conduct him to the emergency.

A change, it is true of some kind in French Government, accompanied by

more or less confusion and bloodshed, had been long inevitable. Genius,

good sense, suffering, luxury, oppression, contumely, unprincipledness,

and folly, each boon of nature, each wrong of man, had concurred, after

more than a century of struggle, in necessitating a consummation.

In my opinion, the popular horrors that darkened the end of the

eighteenth century, though pointed in their way by the finger of

Mirabeau, legitimately trace their pedigree to the royal grandeurs that

closed the preceding one. The French Revolution was born of Louis the

Fourteenth. His policy--his achievements--his failures, and, still more,

his personal character and court deportment, killed monarchy in the

hearts of the French people. The prominent ruling characteristic of

himself and reign was an all-absorbing egotism. A maelstrom of

selfishness, and unconscious of any law of reciprocity to arise from his

relations to a common humanity, this chief and example of a numerous

aristocracy was the grand centre to which was to be directed every

affection and service, from which was to be circulated every volition

and ordinance. And need I say that no eminence of intellectual power--no

prudence of personal deportment--no brilliancy of external achievement,

can or ought to have any effect on spectators so keen-witted and

impressionable as the French, save to make additionally insupportable a

character which, even on the smallest scale, is, of all others, the most

odious and repulsive. The stern unity and perfection of order in which

he was enabled to present political power--that necessary evil of human

existence--but added intensity to the hate, as it added grandeur to the

idea of his despotism. In the eyes of his suffering subjects it brought

him face to face with the catastrophes no less than with the glories of

his reign, and without the merit of the avowal--_adsum qui feci!_ gave

him all its dread responsibilities. An old despot surviving his

greatness while retaining the stinging irony of its title--a saint amid

the standing reminiscences of his adulteries, expiating his pleasures by

annihilating those of others, and tormenting consciences to save his

own--his suffering and downcast people became at length disabused but

too utterly of the base apotheosis of his person and character, so long

maintained by him in the name of a false glory and debased religion.

They even publicly rejoiced at a death-bed made pitiable by the absence

of his mistress, confessor, and family; and meeting in mobs that,

encountering his corpse on its way through by-lanes to hugger-mugger

interment at St. Denis, they might tear it into shreds, gave early and

portentous evidence that the germ of an envenomed and bloody democracy

had been elicited in the very perfection of his stern and heartless

tyranny. The unblushing excesses of the Regent and of Louis the

Fifteenth, who gratuitously withdrew the last vail that concealed the

utter rottenness of all that claimed popular obedience, under the names

of religion, and authority, sufficed, though scarcely needed, to

_complete_ the discredit of the French monarchy; and, ascending his

throne, surrounded by a dissolute clergy, an overbearing aristocracy,

and a discontented and impoverished people, the robed Louis the

Sixteenth seemed but the calf of atonement of the Scriptures decked for

sacrifice, and doomed to expiate a century of court gayeties and crimes

in which he had had no part!

Mirabeau began the revolution with a thousand vague hopes and

expectations, and the conviction, communicated to his friend Mauvillon,

that "it was not given to human sagacity to devise where _all this_

would end." A living conflict of passions and principles, of low needs

and high ambitions, of lofty genius and infamous repute, a demagogue by

policy, an aristocrat by vanity, a constitutionalist by conviction, his

public conduct anxiously and perpetually brought in evidence one or

other of these conflicting agencies; but beyond the personal aim of

recovering his rank, and winning some sort of greatness at any price, he

was without one pervading or dominant public purpose, save that of

extinguishing the despotism that had injured him. Above all policies,

_abstractedly_ considered, this was the one dear to his heart. "I come

here to grant, not to ask pardon," was his reply, in a voice of angry

defiance, to some oratorical assurance that a life of usefulness might

secure the pardon of his earlier delinquencies. A horrid, but too

natural vindictiveness had interwoven the hate of arbitrary power into

every fibre of his brain. It was a passion or sentiment that he never

abandoned: it may be even doubted if he could have been purchased out of

it. Despite all the evils and mischances of life, there stood erect in

his soul this one small altar to virtue, or something that resembled it,

which he would have thrown down but under the direst necessity.

But of all the circumstances glanced at as furnishing the key to many of

the paradoxes of his public conduct, one of the most important, though

perhaps the least appreciated, is the dishonor of his repute. It is

difficult, with his present position in history, especially when taken

in relation to the now well-certified worthlessness of his

contemporaries, to realize to the imagination the full extent of his

infamy. "You dare," said his former friend Rulhiere, in a pamphlet that

had a wide circulation, "_You_ dare to speak of a country, Count

Mirabeau! If your brow were not trebly bronzed, how must you have

blushed at its very name! Have you one quality of father, friend,

brother, husband, or relative? An honorable vocation? Any one attribute

that constitutes the citizen? Not one! You are without a refuge, without

a relative. I seek your most ordinary domiciles, and I find them but in

the prison of Vincennes, the Chateau d'If, the fortress of Ioux, the

jail of Pontarlier!"[8]

Dumont, coming over to Paris, was so moved by the discredit attached,

in respectable circles, to his acquaintance, that he visited him with

repugnance and as a duty, but records the characteristic incident, that

on his first call he was so won by the magic of his host's conversation,

as to depart resolved on retaining, at all hazards, so agreeable a

friendship. The mention of his name, with the sight of his person, at

the opening of the States General, elicited groans and hisses on all

sides. The _Tiers-Etat_--whom he had honored by his aristocratic

adoption--were unanimous in refusing him a hearing the two or three

occasions on which he first sought to address them. The queen, whose

life, family, and regal heritage were at stake, received the assurance,

that such a person was willing to assist the views of the court, with

"the contempt due to vice;"[9] and "assassin!" "robber!" "slanderer!"

were the epithets almost daily applied to him in the senate of the

nation! Society, expiring under the weight of its own vices, saw in him

that well-defined excess that entitled it to the merits of purgation in

his extruism, of atonement in his martyrdom, and to place the hand of

menace and malediction on his head, as the scape-goat of its redemption!

Thus detested by all parties, his low character keeping him low,

Mirabeau, with all his marvelous power, found himself placed, by public

contempt, more even than by private need, at the mercy of circumstances.

Befoulment had so far eaten into his name, that, with occasionally the

best of desires, and always the greatest of energies, there stood a

blight over both. He felt that a moral leprosy incrusted him, which

repelled the good, and kept aloof the prudent. The contemned inferior,

in moral standing, of those that surrounded him, it was difficult to be

honest, and impossible to be independent. By a sort of law of nature,

too, his tarred repute attracted to it every floating feather of

suspicion, no less than of guilt, as to its natural seat; and thus it

happened that the lofty genius of Mirabeau, under the "grand hests" of a

hateful necessity, like the "too delicate spirit," Ariel, tasked to the

"strong biddings" of the "foul witch Sycorax," was condemned for a while

to pander rather than teach, to follow rather than lead, to please

rather than patronize, and to halloo others' opinions rather than

vindicate his own!

No man could appreciate the misfortune more fully or sensitively than

himself. Dumont tells us that, taught by events that a good character

would have placed France at his feet, "he would have passed seven times

through the fiery furnace to purify his name;" and that, "weeping and

sobbing, he was accustomed to exclaim, 'Cruelly do I expiate the errors

of my youth!'" And, indeed, the more sensible his heart, the more rich

and elevated his soul, the more must his torments have been bitter and

redoubled; for the very preciousness of the gifts of nature, the charms

of society, even the friendship of those that surrounded him, must have

turned but to the increase of his wretchedness!

It is easy to understand, then, that the tactics of Mirabeau, in the

first days of the revolution, were those of a man outside "a swelling

scene,"

"A kingdom for a stage, princes to act,

And monarchs to behold,"

which he could only occupy by rudely breaking through a thousand

circumvallations of usage, propriety, and public opinion. As it was the

boast of Luther, that he, an obscure monk, stood alone for some time

against respectable Europe, so Mirabeau, on the eve of his public

greatness, was the most isolated politician of his age. "Mean men, in

their rising," says Lord Bacon, "most adhere; but great men, that have

strength in themselves, were better to maintain themselves indifferent

and neutral." Instinctively feeling that this was the policy of his

position, when repelled by both sides, he haughtily repelled them in

return, and the more he was despised the more inevitable did he make the

establishment of his importance. As, without a party, he became one

himself, so without a plan he took that of events, and without a policy

was content with that of display. In these early days, indeed, his whole

plan, system, and policy was to make his individualism tell, to

demonstrate, to all parties, what he was worth in journalism as a

writer, in the Assembly as an orator, in every thing as a statesman. As

he had nothing but himself, it became his business to make the most of

the commodity, which, so valueless in the beginning, ended in

outworthing all that was opposed to it.

But if this policy of display, no less than his education, sympathies,

and hates, bore him to the opposition, there were in his pecuniary

wants, and his ambitious dreams of a statesmanship, _a la Richelieu_,

circumstances that at times resistlessly brought him within the

influence of court power. Uncertain how far he could overpower the

disadvantages of his personal position, wounded that the movement party

were little inclined to value his co-operation, and still less to accept

his leadership, he early felt, or feigned alarm at the fermentation in

the public mind, and its possible evolution in great national

calamities; and before one act of legislation was accomplished, or he

had had a month's experience of the fanatical impracticability of one

side, I use his own words, and the intolerant spirit of resistance on

the other, he personally proposed to his enemy, Necker, and through him

to the queen, "the only _man_," he said, "connected with the court," to

concur, at the price of an embassadorship to Constantinople, in

supporting the court system of policy.

He appears to have fancied for some days that his proposals were

accepted; but before he could enter on any of the Eastern arrangements

his active mind had already suggested, he learned that the overture was

rejected "with a contempt which," as Madame Campan sagaciously admits,

"the court would doubtless have concealed, if they could have foreseen

the future." Contenting himself with the angry menace, "They shall soon

hear some of my news," within a month he became the author of successive

defeats, the most insulting a monarch could receive from his parliament,

and which were fated to exercise an active influence in the overturn of

that royalty he was afterward to defend.

The king, anxious to arrange the differences which kept the three orders

aloof from each other, and from legislation, had sent to the

_Tiers-Etat_ a message, wise in its suggestions, and conciliatory in its

tone. Under the eloquence of Mirabeau, the house passed to the order of

the day.

Irritated by insult, and complaining that the antagonism of the three

orders prevented any progress in the public business for which they were

convened, the king summoned a general meeting of all the deputies, and

after an address, in which he expressed his royal pleasure that the

three orders should form separate chambers, he commanded the assembly to

disperse, that they might meet under the ordinances his prerogative had

prescribed. The clergy, the nobles obey; the commons remain uncertain,

hesitating, and almost in consternation. The royal command is again

communicated to them, with the intimation, that having heard the king's

intentions they had now only to obey. The crisis of the royal

prerogative, obedience, hung but on the turn of a feather: the repulsed

Mirabeau arose, and turned it against the king. "We _have_," said he, in

a voice of thunder, "we _have_ heard the intentions _attributed_ to the

king; and you, sir, who have no place, nor voice, nor right of speech

here, are not competent to remind us of them. Go tell your master that

we are here by the will of the people, and that we are not to be

expelled but by the power of bayonets!"

Cheered and supported by the now reassured _Tiers-Etat_, he next, in

imitation of the English parliament, carried, that the persons of the

deputies were inviolate, that any one infringing that right should be

pursued as an enemy of the country, and that the payment of taxes, till

further legislation, should be obligatory only during the existence of

the legislative corps.

Added to the bold title of "National Assembly," newly adopted, these

votes were the assumption of a kingship by the _Tiers-Etat_; and as

public opinion enthusiastically backed the innovation, the divided peers

and ecclesiastics were compelled at length to join, and be submerged in

the mass of popular deputies.

A civil war could alone stand between royal power and its destruction.

For some weeks the court prepared for even such an eventuality.

"Ministers play high stakes," writes Mirabeau, on the 5th of July; "they

are compromising the king, for in menacing Paris and the Assembly they

are menacing France. All reaction is equal to action: the more the

pressure now, the more terrible do I foresee will be the reaction. Paris

will not suffer itself to be muzzled by a bevy of nobles thrown into

despair by their own stupidity; but they shall pay the penalty of the

attempt.... The storm must soon break out. It is arranged that I ask the

withdrawal of the troops; but be you ready (at Paris) to help the step!"

The demand was evaded by the king; the soldiery were largely increased

and concentrated; the arrests of the more revolutionary deputies,

including, of course, Mirabeau, were decided on; Necker was summarily

dismissed: but on the other side able and active emissaries roused Paris

by statements the most exciting, and taking all characters, with the

costumes of either sex, caressed, feted, and partially won over the

soldiery, and before the court could take one step toward its purposes,

Paris was in full insurrection, the troops corrupted or overpowered, the

Bastile taken, and under the plea of anarchical excuse, the whole

_bourgeoisie_ of Paris placed in a few hours under arms as National

Guards.

The king, taught that it was not revolt but revolution, preferred, as

every body foresaw, submission to civil war, recalled Necker, and

visited triumphant Paris, at once the hostage and conquest of a popular

triumph.

Mirabeau, more or less connected with the Orleanists, had speculated

with them on the chances of confusion; for to him it was a small thing,

provided he had bread, that it was baked in an oven warmed with the

conflagration of an empire. Looking forward with complacency to every

contingency of revolutionary crises, assured that a common danger,

flinging aside, as unimportant, questions of personal character, would

make power the prey of genius and audacity, he was correspondingly

annoyed by a re-arrangement that promised for a time a well-grounded

tranquillity.

The destruction of the Bastile securing that of "The Syllas of thought,"

he now transformed into a full political newspaper, his weekly "Letter

to his Constituents," under which title he had evaded, from the first

assembly of the States-General, the censorship on the press. Aware, from

a knowledge of Wilkes and his history, of the power of journalism to a

politician, and above all, to a demagogue in a free country, he was, in

the full sense of the term, the first newspaper editor of France, and

owed to the vigorous use of this novel agency, not only useful additions

to his pecuniary resources, but a great portion of that popular idolatry

that followed him to the grave.

The court which, in calling together the States, had no higher aim than

to regenerate the finances of the country, and, as one step, to obtain

the help of the people in stripping a numerous aristocracy of their

baneful exemption from state-burdens, had already found out its own

share in the peril of the experiment, and now sought, by a close

alliance with the _noblesse_, to avert the ruin that too evidently

menaced both. But the torrent had but accumulated at each irresistible

concession, and every day's work added to the democratic elements of a

constitution that had already made royalty a cipher, and annihilated,

as political institutions, the church and aristocracy.

Of course new schemes of regal antagonism again raised their heads, and

again a popular manifestation, bringing Paris into the very boudoir of

the queen, at Versailles, demonstrated the impuissance of all that took

the name of French royalism. The October insurrection was fomented by

Mirabeau and his Orleanist friends, for the same purpose as that of

July, to secure personal safety, and obtain a new scene of action, by

terrifying the court into exile, or the acceptance of Orleans'

protection. Had the duke been raised to the "lieutenant-generalship of

the kingdom," Mirabeau counted on a premiership, in which he purposed to

become the Chatham or Pitt of France. Had Louis the Sixteenth fled the

kingdom after the example of the Comte D'Artois, he purposed to proclaim

a republic, and become its "first consul;" and should the doom be that

France should be divided by civil war, and cut up into its old kingdoms,

he speculated on a sovereignty in his ancestral country, Provence, which

had already greeted him with so encouraging an enthusiasm.

Strangeness of event! While the monarchy, so short-lived, still survived

the insatiate Mirabeau, two of the extraordinary contingencies he

speculated on have already happened, to the profit of other actors, and

the existing republic, in its mutinous armies, intolerant factions, and

insane dynasties, offers no very improbable portent that, even after

half a century of a centralized and well-fixed nationality, the old

repartition of kingdoms may again present itself!

The great consummation of the confusion, however, failed for the

overmuch of means. "A bottle of brandy was given," said the orator,

"instead of a glass!" and the mob's capricious _impromptu_ of carrying

the king back with them to Paris, still more than the cowardice of the

Duke of Orleans, defeated this deep-laid Machiavelian combination.

Whatever the character, however, of the people's success, it could not

but be an additional success for their leader. The revolution, of which

he stood recognized the unquestioned head, was now beyond all danger of

royal aggression, except by his own treacherous agency. In a campaign of

unimaginable brevity, he had not only vindicated the first place as an

orator in a senate now omnipotent, and become out of it the most potent

demagogue of his time, but as _un homme d'etat_, surrounded by a

brilliant staff of the most active spirits and practical thinkers of the

day, Camille Desmoulins, Danton, Volney, Champfort, Lamourette, Cabanis,

Reybaz, Dumont, Duroverai, Claviere, Servan, De Caseaux, Panchaud,

Pellenc, Brissot, and others, was understood by every party to hold the

future destinies of France in his hand Emerging from two insurrections,

possessing, by his power, all their profits, and by his adroitness, none

of their responsibility, he found it now worth his while to break terms

with the Duke of Orleans, by a public expression of his contempt for

him as a scoundrel not worth the trouble that might be taken for him;

and excluded from the ministry, that lay open to him, by a self-denying

ordonnance of the Assembly, directly leveled at his pretensions, he

accepted a large subsidy from the king's brother--the Comte de

Provence--and formed with him, for the restoration or upholding a

monarchical authority, a mysterious and ineffective conspiracy, the

character and extent of which may be conjectured from its involving the

assassination of the Marquess de Lafayette.

The hate of Mirabeau for this worthy but feeble nobleman--his diligent

colleague in the struggle for liberty--was as intense as, at first

sight, it seems incredible. He was his Mordecai at the king's gate, for

whom he could neither sleep nor eat. Remembering that Mirabeau's passion

for complicated intrigue and daring adventure, even in politics, was

extravagant to disease, it seems possible that, as he advanced in his

rapid greatness, he secretly nursed projects or hopes as incompatible

with a constitutional monarchy, and an organized public force, in

respectable hands, as with the despotism with which he had originally

battled; and that, in his successive conspiracies, now with the

Republicans and Orleanists, now with the Count de Provence and the

queen, he had no fixed intention of ultimately benefiting those he

professed to serve, but proposed to use them as ladders to that exalted

position of a Sylla or a Caesar, which, as Bonaparte subsequently proved,

was no more, perhaps, beyond his grasp than his ambition; influenced by

the insidious suggestions and doubts he carefully spread abroad, the

queen, as he saw with pleasure, looked on the new commander of the

National Guards as a "Grandison-Cromwell" (Mirabeau's damaging epithet),

whose concealed ambition aimed at the constableship of France, as a step

to that dread of French sovereigns, the "Mayorship of the Palace;" and

hence the court systematically declined the aids it might so often have

derived from the honesty, the popularity, and sometimes the good sense

of the American volunteer. At all events, we know that the assassination

of Lafayette--twice it seems plotted--would have left the National

Guards in the hands of some less popular and more pliant chief; and

that, when the general specifically accused his rival of the horrid

project, naming time, place, and means, he won no better defense than

the reply, "You were sure of it, and I am alive! How good of you! And

you aspire to play a leading part in a revolution!" The compact with the

Comte de Provence was of short duration: the queen began to distrust the

personal views of her brother-in-law, who threatened to become the Duke

D'Orleans of a philosophical party, and Mirabeau, to whom popularity was

the only capital, probably found that he could not afford the sacrifices

his employers demanded.

To preserve the _status quo_, and wait events, became now, for some

weeks or months, as much his policy as his accessibility to passion and

sudden influences would permit. He seemed to feel that he should give

time to the molten lava of his volcanic greatness to settle, harden, and

assume its individualism among things received. Holding aloof,

therefore, from indentification with either party--leaning now on one

side, now on the other; his speeches more with the movement, his policy

more with the court; forcing both parties into explanations, while

keeping himself, however, disengaged--he constituted himself their

arbitrator and moderator, overawing both extremes; and while maintaining

his pre-eminence of political influence, held himself ready to take

advantage, at the least cost of consistency, of any fundamental change

in the position of affairs.

In the month of May or June, however, a private interview with the

queen, in the Royal Garden of St. Cloud, followed by others, to the

renewed scandal of her fame, laid the foundation of a new compact with

the court, and a more decided policy. The chivalry of Mirabeau revived

under the enthusiasm won by "Earth's loveliest vision"--a queen in

distress and a suppliant--and he pledged himself, as the Hungarians to

her royal mother, to die in the service of saving her throne. But the

highest endeavors of Mirabeau have always at their base, like the

monuments of his country, the filthy and the repulsive; and the chivalry

of this new saviour of the monarchy received sustentation in a

bribe--higgled for through months--of twenty thousand pounds, and a

pension of more than that per annum.

About the end of the year, three or four months before his death, he

opened systematically his great campaign for what professedly was the

restoration of regal authority. He was to out-Herod in patriotism the

Herods of the Jacobin club: the court was to dare every thing short of

civil war--perhaps even that; and the existing confusion, whatever it

might be, was to be cured by another of greater extent, artificially

induced by the charlatanism of art political. His scheme, in some

points, it must be allowed, successfully imitated in our own days in

Prussia, was:

First--To reorganize the party of Order in the Assembly; and while, as

far as possible, winning for it the sympathy of the country, to excite,

by all available agencies, distrust and discontent with the opposing

majority.

Secondly--To inundate the provinces with publications against the

Assembly; and by commissioners, sent nominally for other purposes, to

obtain remonstrances from the departments against its further

continuance.

Thirdly--At a proper opportunity, to dissolve the Assembly, and order

fresh elections; at the same time canceling the constitution as illegal,

and granting another by royal charter, formed on a popular basis, and on

the written instructions which (on a system unknown to England) had

originally been drawn up for each deputy by his electors.

I shall not descend to discuss the oft-mooted point, how far the

wholesale venality that based the project is justified or palliated by

the object it is supposed to have had in view, because I know that with

Mirabeau money was not _a means_ to his defense of constitutional

monarchy, but his defense of constitutional monarchy a means to money.

If we except his relentless hate to French despotism in any hands not

his own, the principles, moral or political, of this leader of a nation

had no other tenure but the interest of his personal aggrandizement.

On another debate, whether with a longer life he could have carried his

counter-revolution to success, I will only remark, that, conceding that

in robust health he would have had it at heart as sincerely as in the

recorded hours of his sickness and despondency, it may be admitted, that

a struggle which, under every imprudence, seemed long to hang in doubt,

with the aid of his energetic and masterly polity might, perhaps, have

poised for royalty. But it is not to be concealed that the difficulty of

arresting and unmaking were even greater than those of creating and

consolidating the revolution. The king's aversion to decisive measures,

and well-known horror of civil war, made him the worst of colleagues for

the only policy his tool could wield with effect; and the great

demagogue himself, when obliged to discard the mask of democratic

hypocrisy that still partly hid the subtle and venal traitor of his

party, would have lost, like Strafford, many of the elements of his

potency; and despoiled, especially, of the miraculous resources of his

eloquence, must have contented himself with that lucid, common-sense,

consecutive daring, and power of strategic combination, which his new

friends were so ill-fitted to support.

Fortunately, perhaps, for his future fame, he died ere the structure his

arts had undermined tested his powers of reparation, and before that

wonderful magic of popularity which had so long survived, as it had,

indeed, so long anticipated, his deserts, had time to vanish under the

cock-crow of truth. His death was as well-timed as his political advent,

and has been praised by French wit as the best evidence of his tact; for

the expectations which the unparalleled rapidity, no less than the

innate marvelousness of his achievements had raised, no future activity

and fortune, scarcely those of a Napoleon, could have realized.

But if the retrospect of his career must convince us that one man in so

short a period never accomplished so much before, against such

disadvantages, so also must we admit that probably never before did any

one rest so wholly for his amazing achievements on the sole power of

intrinsic genius. It was intellect that did all with Mirabeau; and made

his head, according to his own boast, a power among European states. It

united almost every possible capacity and attainment. His rare and

penetrating powers of observation were sustained by the equal depth and

justness of his discrimination, and the rapidity and accuracy of his

judgment. Uniting, to his admirable natural capacity, an activity and

habitual power of application, more marvelous almost in their extent

than even in their rare combination, he possessed an understanding full,

beyond precedent, both of the recorded knowledge of books, and of that

priceless experience of men and things, without which all else is

naught; and as the complement of these amazing and unparalleled

advantages, he had the still rarer advantage of a felicity and power of

diction every way worthy of so incomparable a genius.

Looking with contempt at the stiff, ornamental, and childishly

antithetical style of his day and nation, he welded the flimsy elements

of the French language into instruments of strength akin to his own

conceptions, and wrought out of them a style for himself in which a

Demosthenic simplicity and severity of language is sustained by an

earnest and straightforward power which vivifies and amplifies all that

it touches. Startled by an innovation far beyond the conceptions of the

French academy, the writer was smiled at and neglected by the critics;

and it was not till they heard him launching from the tribune the

thunders of justice, disposing at pleasure of the inclinations of the

multitude, and subjugating even the captious by the imperious power of

his eloquence, that they began to discover that there was a "power of

life"[10] in his rude and singular language; that "things, commonplace,

in his hand became of electric power;"[11] and that, standing "like a

giant among pigmies,"[12] his style, albeit "savage,"[13] dominated the

assembly, stupefying, and thundering down all opposition.

It is the affliction of history, that, while raising her monuments to

gigantic genius, she is compelled so often to record an immorality of

parallel proportions. It is right that the infamy of Mirabeau should be

as eternal as his greatness. He was a man who, in his political, as in

his private life, had no sense of right for its own sake, and from whom

conscience never won a sacrifice. With great and glorious aims at times,

he never had a disinterested one. His ambition, vanity, or passions,

were his only standard of conduct--a standard, be it added, which,

despite the wonderful justness of his judgments, the depravity of a

sunken nature kept always below even his needs. Policy with him was

often but a campaign of vengeance or market of venality, and the

glorious exercises of literature but a relaxation of indecency or

business of wrong. In the study, in the tribune, or in the

council-chamber, glory was the only element that remained to

counterpoise, often with a feather's weight, the smallest influence of

gold or spleen; and in the most critical epoch of an empire, the poising

of his tremendous influence--the influence of so much earnestness and

magical power--was the accident of an accident. We admit for him, in

palliation, the demoralizing influence of terrific example, and of

maddening oppression; but where is the worth of a morality that, in a

man of heroic mould, will not stand assay? and what is virtue but a

name, if she may be betrayed whenever she demands an effort?

But however much a moral wreck was the heart of Mirabeau, nature, true

to the harmony, no less than the magnificence, of her great creations,

had essentially formed it of noble and gentle elements. Touched to the

core by the contaminating influence of "time and tide," its instincts

were yet to the kindly, the generous, and elevated; and those about him

who knew him best--attached to him more by his affections than his

glory--eagerly attested that in the bosom of this depraved citizen

resided most of the qualities which, under happier agencies, would have

made him a dutiful son, a devoted husband, an attached friend, and truly

noble character!

In fine, with an eye to see at a glance, a mind to devise, a tongue to

persuade, a hand to execute, this great man was circumspect in

recklessness, poised and vigorous in violence, cool and calculating to a

minutia in audacity and passion. As a friend, affectionate and

volatile--as an enemy, fierce and placable--as a politician, patriotic

and venal. Proud of his patricianship, whose _status_ and manners he has

lost, he is humble about a statesmanship that makes the first of his

glories. The best of writers, his works are written for him; the

greatest of orators, his speeches are made for him! Has he the most

unerring of judgments? He prefers another's! Is he a popular tribune? He

is also a royalist parasite! Is he earnest? He is then insincere! Does

he evidence great principles? He seeks bribes! Does he enforce

moderation? He awaits vengeance! Does he cause confusion? He is seeking

order! Would he save the nation? He is selling its liberties! Wonderful

man! great with enormous weaknesses, bad with many excellencies,

immortal by the expedients of an hour, his genius is a combination of

almost impossible perfections, as his political life the colossal result

of a thousand contradictions. United, they yield a deathless character,

whose Titanic proportions shall, age after age, be huger, as the mighty

shadows that cover it shall grow darker!

FOOTNOTES:

[7] It was this invasion that made Corsica a French island, and

consequently Napoleon Bonaparte a French citizen

[8] He had also been confined in two prisons, in the Ile de Rue, and the

Castle of Dijon.

[9] Madame Campan's Memoirs.

[10] Madame de Stael.

[11] Bertrand de Moleville.

[12] De Levis.

[13] De Ferrieres.

[From Hogg's Instructor.]

THE "COMMUNIST" SPARROW--AN ANECDOTE OF CUVIER.

We have been struck with the following anecdote of the great Cuvier,

which is recorded in the "Courrier de l'Europe" for February, 1850, and

trust the following translation will prove as interesting to our readers

as it has been to us. It forms an amusing chapter in natural history,

and forcibly illustrates that close observation which so frequently

characterizes eminent men.

Poverty in youth has a purifying tendency, like the "live coal" of old

which the angel passed over the lips of Isaiah. It inures the soul to

struggling, and the mind to persevering labor and self-confidence: it

keeps the imagination away from the temptations of luxury, and the still

more fatal one of idleness, that parent of vice. It, moreover, becomes

one of the most fruitful sources of happiness to the man whom God

permits to come out of the crowd and take his place at the head of

science and art. It is with ineffable delight that he looks behind, and

says, in thinking of his cold and comfortless garret, "I came out of

that place, single and unknown." George Cuvier, that pupil of poverty,

loved to relate one of his first observations of natural history, which

he had made while tutor to the children of Count d'Henry.

Cuvier and his scholars inhabited an old mansion in the county of Caux a

Fiquanville; the teacher's room overlooked the garden, and every

morning, at break of day, he opened the window to inhale the refreshing

air, before commencing his arduous duties to his indifferently trained

pupils. One morning he observed, not without pleasure, that two swallows

had begun to build their nest in the very corner of his little chamber

window. The birds labored with the ardor of two young lovers who are in

haste to start in housekeeping. The male bird brought the moistened clay

in his beak, which the female kneaded, and with the addition of some

chips of straw and hay, she built her little lodging with wonderful

skill. As soon as the outside was finished, the betrothed gathered

feathers, hair, and soft dry leaves for the inside, and then departed to

hide themselves in a neighboring wood, there to enjoy the sweets of

repose after their labor, and amid the thick foliage of the trees the

mysterious joys of the honeymoon. However that may be, they did not

think of returning to take possession of their nest till the end of

twelve or fifteen days.

Alas! changes had taken place during their absence. While the swallows

were laboring with such assiduity in building a house, Cuvier had

observed two sparrows, that perched at a short distance, watching the

industry of the two birds, not without interchanging between themselves

some cries that appeared to Cuvier rather ironical. When the swallows

departed for their country excursion, the sparrows took no pains to

conceal their odious schemes; they impudently took possession of the

nest, which was empty and without an owner to defend it, and established

themselves there as though they had been its veritable builders. Cuvier

observed that the cunning sparrows were never both out of the nest at

the same time. One of the usurpers always remained as sentinel, with his

head placed at the opening, which served for a door, and with his large

beak interdicted the entrance of any other bird, except his companion,

or rather, to call things by their right names, his brother robber. The

swallows returned in due time to their nest, the male full of joy, which

showed itself in the brightness of his eye, and in the nervous kind of

motion in his flight; the female rather languid, and heavy with the

approach of laying. You can imagine their surprise at finding the nest,

on which they had bestowed so much care, occupied. The male, moved with

indignation and anger, rushed upon the nest to chase away the usurpers,

but he found himself face to face with the formidable beak of the

sparrow who, at that moment, guarded the stolen property. What could the

slim beak of the swallow do against the redoubtable pincers of the

sparrow, armed with a double and sharpened point? Very soon, the poor

proprietor, dispossessed and beaten back, retreated with his head

covered with blood, and his neck nearly stripped of its feathers. He

returned with flashing eye, and trembling with rage, to the side of his

wife, with whom he appeared for some minutes to hold counsel, after

which they flew away into the air, and quickly disappeared. The female

sparrow came back soon after; the male recounted all that had

passed--the arrival, the attack, and flight of the swallows--not without

accompanying the recital with what seemed to Cuvier to be roars of

laughter. Be this as it may, the housekeeper did not rest satisfied with

making only a hullah-balloo, for the female went forth again, and

collected in haste a much larger quantity of provisions than usual. As

soon as she returned, after having completed the supplies for a siege,

two pointed beaks, instead of one, defended the entrance to the nest.

Cries, however, began to fill the air, and an assemblage of swallows

gathered together on a neighboring roof. Cuvier recognized distinctly

the dispossessed couple, who related to each newcomer the impudent

robbery of the sparrow. The male, with blood-stained head and bared

neck, distinguished himself by the earnestness of his protestations and

appeals of vengeance. In a little while two hundred swallows had arrived

at the scene of conflict. While the little army was forming and

deliberating, all at once a cry of distress came from an adjacent

window. A young swallow, doubtless inexperienced, instead of taking part

in the counsels of his brethren, was chasing some flies which were

buzzing about a bunch of neglected or castaway flowers before the

window. The pupils of Cuvier had stretched a net there to catch

sparrows; one of the claws of the swallow was caught by the perfidious

net. At the cry which this hair-brained swallow made, a score of his

brethren flew to the rescue: but all their efforts were in vain; the

desperate struggles which the prisoner made to free himself from the

fatal trap only drew the ends tighter, and confined his foot more

firmly. Suddenly a detachment took wing, and, retiring about a hundred

paces, returned rapidly, and, one by one, gave a peck at the snare,

which each time, owing to the determined manner of the attack, received

a sharp twitch. Not one of the swallows missed its aim, so that, after

half an hour of this persevering and ingenious labor, the chafed string

broke, and the captive; rescued from the snare, went joyously to mingle

with his companions. Throughout this scene, which took place twenty feet

from Cuvier, and at almost as many from the usurped nest, the observer

kept perfectly still, and the sparrows made not the slightest movement

with their two large beaks, which, formidable and threatening, kept its

narrow entrance. The council of swallows, while a certain number of them

were succoring their companion, had continued to deliberate gravely. As

soon as all were united, the liberated prisoner included, they took

flight, and Cuvier felt convinced they had given up the field, or rather

the nest, to the robbers, who had so fraudulently possessed themselves

of it. Judge of his surprise when, in the course of a few seconds, he

beheld a cloud of two or three hundred swallows arrive, with the

rapidity of thought throw themselves before the nest, discharge at it

some mud which they had brought in their bills, and retire to give place

to another battalion, which repeated the same manoeuvre. They fired at

two or three inches from the nest, thus preventing the sparrows from

giving them any blows with their beaks. Besides, the mud, shot with such

perfidious precision, had so blinded the sparrows, after the first

discharge, that they very soon knew not in what manner to defend

themselves. Still the mud continued to thicken more and more on the

nest, whose original shape was soon obliterated: the opening would have

almost entirely disappeared, had not the sparrows, by their desperate

efforts at defense, broken away some portions of it. But the implacable

swallows, by a strategic movement, as rapidly as it was cleverly

executed, rushed upon the nest, beat down with their beaks and claws the

clay over the opening already half stopped up, and finished the attack

by hermetically closing it. Then there arose a thousand cries of

vengeance and victory. Nevertheless, the swallows ceased not the work of

destruction. They continued to carry up moistened clay till they had

built a second nest over the very opening of the besieged one. It was

raised by a hundred beaks at once, and, an hour after the execution of

the sparrows, the nest was occupied by the dispossessed swallows. The

drama was complete and terrible; the vengeance inexorable and fatal. The

unfortunate sparrows not only expiated their theft in the nest they had

taken possession of, whence they could not escape, and where suffocation

and hunger were gradually killing them, but they heard the songs of love

from the two swallows, who thus so cruelly made them wipe out the crime

of their theft. During the fight the female remained alone, languishing

and motionless, on an angle of the roof. It was with difficulty, and

with a heavy flight, that she left this spot to take up her abode in her

new house; and, doubtless, while the agony of the sparrows was being

filled up, she laid her eggs, for she did not stir out for two days; the

male, during that time, taking upon himself to search for insects and

hunt for flies. He brought them alive in his beak, and gave them to his

companion. Entirely devoted to the duties of incubation and maternity,

she was only seen now and then to put out her head to breathe the pure

air. Fifteen days after, the male flew away at day-break. He appeared

more gay and joyful than usual; during the whole day he ceased not to

bring to the nest a countless number of insects, and Cuvier, by standing

on tiptoe at his window, could distinctly see six little yellow and

hungry beaks, crying out, and swallowing with avidity all the food

brought by their father. The female did not leave her family till the

morrow; confinement and fatigue had made her very thin. Her plumage had

lost its lustre; but in seeing her contemplate her little ones, you

might conceive the maternal joy which filled her, and by what ineffable

compensations she felt herself indemnified for all her privations and

sufferings. After a short time the little creatures had advanced in

figure; their large yellow bills were transformed into little black and

charming ones; their naked bodies, covered here and there with ugly

tufts, were now clothed with elegant feathers, on which the light played

in brilliant flashes. They began to fly about the nest, and even to

accompany their mother when she hunted for flies in the neighborhood.

Cuvier could not refrain from feelings of admiration, and was somewhat

affected when he saw the mother, with indefatigable patience and grace,

show her children how they should set about catching flies, which darted

about in the air--to suck in an incautious one, or carry away a spider

which had imprudently made his net between the branches of two trees.

Often she would hold out to them at a distance in her beak a booty which

excited their appetite; then she would go away by degrees, and gradually

draw them unconsciously off to a shorter or a longer distance from the

nest. The swallow taught her children to fly high when the air was calm,

for then the insects kept in a more elevated part of the air; or to skim

along the ground at the approach of a storm, as then the same insects

would direct their course toward the earth, where they might find

shelter under the stones at the fall of the first drop of rain. Then the

little ones, more experienced, began, under the guidance of their

father, to undertake longer flights. The mother, standing at the

entrance of the nest, seemed to give her instructions before they

departed: she awaited their return with anxiety, and when that was

delayed, took a flight high, very high in the air, and there flew to and

fro till she saw them. Then, full of a mother's joy, she would utter

cries of emotion, scud before them, bring them back to the nest, happy

and palpitating, and seemed to demand an account of the causes of their

delay.

The autumn arrived. Some groups of swallows collected together on the

very roof of the mansion of Fiquanville. After grave deliberation, and a

vote being taken (whether by ballot or otherwise, Cuvier does not

mention), the young ones of the nest, along with the other young

swallows of the same age, were all placed in the middle of the troop;

and one morning a living cloud rose above the chateau, and flew away

swiftly due east.

The following spring two swallows, worn down by fatigue, came to take

possession of the nest. Cuvier recognized them immediately; they were

the very same--those whose manners and habits he had studied the

preceding year. They proceeded to restore the nest, cracked and injured

in some places by the frost: they garnished anew the inside with fresh

feathers and choice moss, then, as last year, made an excursion of some

days. On the very morrow after their return, while they were darting to

and fro close to Cuvier's window, to whose presence they had become

accustomed, and which did not in the least incommode them, a

screech-owl, that seemed to fall from above, pounced upon the male,

seized him in his talons, and was already bearing him away, when Cuvier

took down his gun, which was within reach, primed and cocked it, and

fired at the owl; the fellow, mortally wounded, fell head over heels

into the garden, and Cuvier hastened to deliver the swallow from the

claws of the dead owl, who still held him with his formidable nails. The

poor swallow had received some deep wounds; the nails of the owl had

penetrated deeply into his side, and one of the drops of shot had broken

his leg. Cuvier dressed the wounds as well as he could, and, by the aid

of a ladder, replaced the invalid in his nest, while the female flew

sadly around it, uttering cries of despair. For three or four days she

never left the nest but to go in search of food, which she offered the

male. Cuvier saw his sickly head come out with difficulty, and try in

vain to take the food offered by his companion; every day he appeared to

get weaker. At length, one morning, Cuvier was awakened by the cries of

the female, who with her wings beat against the panes of his window. He

ran to the nest--alas! it contained only a dead body. From that fatal

moment the female never left her nest. Overwhelmed with grief, she, five

days after, died of despair, on the dead body of her companion.

Some months after this, the Abbe Tessier, whom the revolutionary

persecution had compelled to flee to Normandy, where he disguised

himself under the dress of a military physician of the hospital of

Fecamp, fell in with the obscure tutor, who recounted to him the history

of the swallows. The abbe engaged him to deliver a course of lectures on

natural history to the pupils of that hospital, of which he was the

head, and wrote to Jussieu and Geoffrey Saint Hilaire, to inform them of

the individual he had become acquainted with. Cuvier entered into a

correspondence with these two learned men, and a short time after he was

elected to the chair of comparative anatomy at Paris His subsequent

career is well known.

[From Hunting Adventures in South Africa.]

A GIRAFFE CHASE.

This day was to me rather a memorable one, as the first on which I saw

and slew the lofty, graceful-looking giraffe or camelopard, with which,

during many years of my life, I had longed to form an acquaintance.

These gigantic and exquisitely beautiful animals, which are admirably

formed by nature to adorn the fair forests that clothe the boundless

plains of the interior, are widely distributed throughout the interior

of Southern Africa, but are nowhere to be met with in great numbers. In

countries unmolested by the intrusive foot of man, the giraffe is found

generally in herds varying from twelve to sixteen; but I have not

unfrequently met with herds containing thirty individuals, and on one

occasion I counted forty together; this, however, was owing to chance,

and about sixteen maybe reckoned as the average number of a herd. These

herds are composed of giraffes of various sizes, from the young giraffe

of nine or ten feet in height, to the dark, chestnut-colored old bull of

the herd, whose exalted head towers above his companions, generally

attaining to a height of upward of eighteen feet. The females are of

lower stature and more delicately formed than the males, their height

averaging from sixteen to seventeen feet. Some writers have discovered

ugliness and a want of grace in the giraffe, but I consider that he is

one of the most strikingly beautiful animals in the creation; and when a

herd of them is seen scattered through a grove of the picturesque

parasol-topped acacias which adorn their native plains, and on whose

uppermost shoots they are enabled to browse by the colossal height with

which nature has so admirably endowed them, he must, indeed, be slow of

conception who fails to discover both grace and dignity in all their

movements. There can be no doubt, that every animal is seen to the

greatest advantage in the haunts which nature destined him to adorn; and

among the various living creatures which beautify this fair creation I

have often traced a remarkable resemblance between the animal and the

general appearance of the locality in which it is found. This I first

remarked at an early period of my life, when entomology occupied a part

of my attention No person following this interesting pursuit can fail to

observe the extraordinary likeness which insects bear to the various

abodes in which they are met with. Thus, among the long green grass we

find a variety of long green insects, whose legs and antennae so resemble

the shoots emanating from the stalks of the grass that it requires a

practiced eye to distinguish them. Throughout sandy districts varieties

of insects are met with of a color similar to the sand which they

inhabit. Among the green leaves of the various trees of the forest

innumerable leaf-colored insects are to be found; while, closely

adhering to the rough gray bark of these forest-trees, we observe

beautifully-colored, gray-looking; moths of various patterns, yet

altogether so resembling the bark as to be invisible to the passing

observer. In like manner among quadrupeds I have traced a corresponding

analogy, for, even in the case of the stupendous elephant, the ashy

color of his hide so corresponds with the general appearance of the gray

thorny jungles which he frequents throughout the day, that a person

unaccustomed to hunting elephants, standing on a commanding situation,

might look down upon a herd and fail to detect their presence. And

further, in the case of the giraffe, which is invariably met with among

venerable forests, where innumerable blasted and weather-beaten trunks

and stems occur, I have repeatedly been in doubt as to the presence of a

troop of them until I had recourse to my spy-glass; and on referring the

case to my savage attendants, I have known even their optics to fail, at

one time mistaking these dilapidated trunks for camelopards, and again

confounding real camelopards with these aged veterans of the forest.

Although we had now been traveling many days through the country of the

giraffe, and had marched through forests in which their spoor was

abundant, our eyes had not yet been gifted with a sight of "Tootla"

himself; it was therefore with indescribable pleasure that, on the

evening of the 11th, I beheld a troop of these interesting animals.

Our breakfast being finished, I resumed my journey through an endless

gray forest of cameel-dorn and other trees, the country slightly

undulating and grass abundant. A little before the sun went down my

driver remarked to me, "I was just going to say, sir, that that old tree

was a camelopard." On looking where he pointed, I saw that the old tree

was indeed a camelopard, and, on casting my eyes a little to the right,

I beheld a troop of them standing looking at us, their heads actually

towering above the trees of the forest. It was imprudent to commence a

chase at such a late hour, especially in a country of so level a

character, where the chances were against my being able to regain my

wagons that night. I, however, resolved to chance every thing; and

directing my men to catch and saddle Colesberg, I proceeded in haste to

buckle on my shooting-belt and spurs, and in two minutes I was in the

saddle. The giraffes stood looking at the wagons until I was within

sixty yards of them, when, galloping round a thick bushy tree, under

cover of which I had ridden, I suddenly beheld a sight the most

astounding that a sportsman's eye can encounter. Before me stood a troop

of ten colossal giraffes, the majority of which were from seventeen to

eighteen feet high. On beholding me they at at once made off, twisting

their long tails over their backs, making a loud switching noise with

them, and cantered along at an easy pace, which, however, obliged

Colesberg to put his best foot foremost to keep up with them.

The sensations which I felt on this occasion were different from any

thing that I had before experienced during a long sporting career. My

senses were so absorbed by the wondrous and beautiful sight before me

that I rode along like one entranced, and felt inclined to disbelieve

that I was hunting living things of this world. The ground was firm and

favorable for riding. At every stride I gained upon the giraffes, and

after a short burst at a swinging gallop I was in the middle of them,

and turned the finest cow out of the herd. On finding herself driven

from her comrades and hotly pursued, she increased her pace, and

cantered along with tremendous strides, clearing an amazing extent of

ground at every bound; while her neck and breast, coming in contact with

the dead old branches of the trees, were continually strewing them in my

path. In a few minutes I was riding within five yards of her stern, and,

firing at the gallop, I sent a bullet into her back. Increasing my pace,

I next rode alongside, and, placing the muzzle of my rifle within a few

feet of her, I fired my second shot behind the shoulder; the ball,

however, seemed to have little effect. I then placed myself directly in

front, when she came to a walk. Dismounting, I hastily loaded both

barrels, putting in double charges of powder. Before this was

accomplished she was off at a canter. In a short time I brought her to a

stand in the dry bed of a water-course, where I fired at fifteen yards,

aiming where I thought the heart lay, upon which she again made off.

Having loaded, I followed, and had very nearly lost her; she had turned

abruptly to the left, and was far out of sight among the trees. Once

more I brought her to a stand, and dismounted from my horse. There we

stood together alone in the wild wood. I gazed in wonder at her extreme

beauty, while her soft dark eye, with its silky fringe, looked down

imploringly at me, and I really felt a pang of sorrow in this moment of

triumph for the blood I was shedding. Pointing my rifle toward the

skies, I sent a bullet through her neck. On receiving it, she reared

high on her hind legs, and fell backward with a heavy crash, making the

earth shake around her. A thick stream of dark blood spouted out from

the wound, her colossal limbs quivered for a moment, and she expired.

[From Picturesque Sketches of Greece and Turkey.]

ADVENTURE IN A TURKISH HAREM.

BY AUBREY DE VERE.

A short time before leaving Constantinople I enjoyed a piece of good

fortune which I believe has fallen to the lot of few men. Often as I

passed by the garden walls of some rich Pacha, I felt, as every one who

visits Constantinople feels, no small desire to penetrate, into that

mysterious region--his harem--and see something more than the mere

exterior of Turkish life. "The traveler landing at Stamboul complains,"

I used to say to myself, "of the contrast between its external aspect

and the interior of the city; but the real interior, that is the inside

of the houses, the guarded retreats of those vailed forms which one

passes in gilded caiques--of these he sees nothing." Fortune favored my

aspirations. I happened to make acquaintance with a young Frenchman,

lively, spirited, and confident, who had sojourned at Constantinople for

a considerable time, and who bore there the character of prophet,

magician, and I know not what beside. The fact is, that he was a very

clever fellow, living on his wits, ever ready to turn his hand to any

thing, and numbering among his other accomplishments, a skill in

conjuring feats extraordinary even in the East. He used to exhibit

frequently before the Sultan, who always sent him away laden with

presents, and who would, probably, had he professed the Mohammedan

Faith, have made him his Prime Minister or his Lord High Admiral.

There was nothing which this conjuror could not do. He told me that on

one occasion, dining in a numerous company, he had contrived to pick the

pocket of every one present, depriving one of his watch, another of his

purse, and a third of his pocket-handkerchief. As soon as the guests

discovered their losses, to which he managed to direct their attention,

a scene of violent excitement ensued, every one accusing his neighbor of

theft; and at last it was agreed that the police should be sent, for to

search the pockets of all present. The police arrived, and the search

was duly made, but without any effect. "I think," said the young

magician, "it would be but fair that the police should themselves

undergo the same scrutiny to which we have all submitted." The

suggestion was immediately acted on; and to the amazement of all

present, and especially of the supposed culprits, in the pockets of the

police all the missing articles were found.

The life of this man had been strange and eventful. Having quarreled

with his family in early youth he had assumed an incognito, and enlisted

as a private soldier, I forget in what service. On one occasion, in his

first campaign, he was left for dead on the field of battle. In the

evening some peasants visited the field for the sake of plunder. He was

badly wounded, but had his wits sufficiently about him to know that, if

he wished not to have his throat cut, he had better lie still and feign

to be dead. In his turn he was visited by the marauders; but, as fame

goes, it turned out that while they were hunting after the few pence he

possessed, he contrived to lighten their pockets of their accumulated

spoil. He had grown tired of war, however, and had settled in

Constantinople, where he embarked in all manner of speculations, being

bent, among other things, upon establishing a theatre at Pera. In all

reverses he came down, like a cat, on his feet: he was sanguine and

good-humored, always disposed to shuffle the cards till the right one

came up; and, trusting a good deal to Fortune, while he improved what

she gave, he was of course rich in her good graces.

One day this youth called on me, and mentioned that a chance had

befallen him which he should be glad to turn to account--particularly

if sure of not making too intimate an acquaintance with the Bosphorus in

the attempt. A certain wealthy Turk had applied to him for assistance

under very trying domestic circumstances. His favorite wife had lost a

precious ring, which had doubtless been stolen either by one of his

other wives, under the influence of jealousy, or by a female slave.

Would the magician pay a visit to his house, recover the ring, and

expose the delinquent? "Now," said he, "if I once get within the walls,

I shall be sure to force my way into the female apartments on some

pretense. If I find the ring, all is well: but if not, this Turk will

discover that I have been making a fool of him. However, as he is a

favorite at court, and can not but know in what flattering estimation I

am held there, he will probably treat me with the distinction I deserve.

In fine, I will try it. Will you come, too? you can help me in my

incantations, which will serve as an excuse." The proposal was too

tempting to be rejected, and at the hour agreed on we set off in such

state as we could command (in the East, state is essential to respect),

jogging over the rough streets, in one of those hearse-like carriages

without springs, which bring one's bones upon terms of far too intimate

a mutual acquaintance.

We reached at last a gate, which promised little; but ere long we found

ourselves in one of those "high-walled gardens, green and old," which

are among the glories of the East. Passing between rows of orange and

lemon-trees, we reached the house, where we were received by a goodly

retinue of slaves, and conducted, accompanied by our dragoman, through a

long suite of apartments. In the last of them stood a tall, handsome,

and rather youthful man, in splendid attire, who welcomed us with a

grave courtesy. We took our seats, and were presented in due form with

long pipes, and with coffee, to me far more acceptable. After a

sufficient interval of time had passed for the most meditative and

abstracted of men to remember his purpose, our host, reminded of what he

had apparently forgotten by my companion's conjuring robes, an

electrical machine, and other instruments of incantation, which the

slaves carried from our carriage, civilly inquired when we intended to

commence operations. "What operations?" demanded my companion, with much

apparent unconcern. "The discovery of the ring." "Whenever his highness

pleased, and it suited the female part of his household to make their

appearance," was the answer.

At this startling proposition even the Oriental sedateness of our

majestic host gave way, and he allowed his astonishment and displeasure

to become visible. "Who ever heard," he demanded, "of the wives of a

true believer being shown to a stranger, and that stranger an Infidel

and a Frank?" As much astonished in our turn, we demanded, "When a

magician had ever been heard of, who could discover a stolen treasure

without being confronted either with the person who had lost or the

person who had appropriated it?" For at least two hours, though

relieved by intervals of silence, the battle was carried on with much

occasional vehemence on his part, and on ours with an assumption of

perfect indifference. Our host at last, perceiving that our obstinacy

was equal to the decrees of Fate, retired, as we were informed, to

consult his mother on the subject. In a few minutes he returned, and

assured us that our proposition was ridiculous; upon which we rose with

much dignified displeasure, and moved toward the door, stating that our

beards had been made little of. A grave-looking man who belonged to the

household of our host, and occupied apparently a sort of

semi-ecclesiastical position, now interposed, and after some

consultation it was agreed that as we were not mere men, but prophets,

and infidel saints, an exception might be made in our favor without

violation of the Mussulman law; not, indeed, to the extent of allowing

us to profane the inner sanctuary of the harem with our presence, but so

far as to admit us into in apartment adjoining it, where the women would

be summoned to attend us.

Accordingly, we passed through a long suite of rooms, and at last found

ourselves in a chamber lofty and large, fanned by a breeze from the

Bosphorus, over which its lattices were suspended, skirted by a low

divan, covered with carpets and cushions, and "invested with purpureal

gleams" by the splendid hangings through which the light feebly strove.

Among a confused heap of crimson pillows and orange drapery, at the

remote end of the apartment, sat, or rather reclined, the mother of our

reluctant host. I could observe only that she was aged, and lay there as

still as if she had belonged to the vegetable, not the human world.

Usually she was half-vailed by the smoke of her long pipe; but when its

wreaths chanced to float aside or grow thin, her dark eyes were fixed

upon us with an expression half indifferent and half averse.

Presently a murmur of light feet was heard in an adjoining chamber: on

it moved along the floor of the gallery; and in trooped the company of

wives and female slaves. They laughed softly and musically as they

entered, but seemed frightened also; and at once raising their shawls

and drawing down their vails, they glided simultaneously into a

semicircle, and stood there with hands folded on their breasts. I sat

opposite to them, drinking coffee and smoking, or pretending to smoke a

pipe eight feet long: at one side stood the Mollah and some male members

of the household: at the other stood the handsome husband, apparently

but little contented with the course matters had taken; and my friend,

the magician, moved about among the implements of his art clad in a

black gown spangled with flame-colored devices, strange enough to strike

a bold heart with awe. Beyond the semicircle stood two children, a boy

and a girl, holding in their hands twisted rods of barley-sugar about a

yard long each, which they sucked assiduously the whole time of our

visit. There they stood, mute and still as statues, with dark eyes

fixed, now on us, and now on the extremity of their sugar wands.

My companion commenced operations by displaying a number of conjuring

tricks intended to impress all present with the loftiest opinion of his

powers, and stopped every now and then to make his dragoman explain that

it would prove in vain to endeavor to deceive a being endowed with such

gifts. To these expositions the women apparently paid but little

attention; but the conjuring feats delighted them; and again and again

they laughed until, literally, the head of each dropped on her

neighbor's shoulder. After a time the husband, who alone had never

appeared the least entertained, interposed, and asked the conjuror

whether he had yet discovered the guilty party. With the utmost

coolness, my friend replied, "Certainly not: how could he while His

Highness's wives continued vailed?" This new demand created new

confusion and a long debate: I thought, however, that the women seemed

rather to advocate our cause. The husband, the Mollah, and the mother

again consulted; and in another moment the vails had dropped, and the

beauty of many an Eastern nation stood before us revealed.

Four of those unvailed Orientals were, as we were informed, wives, and

six were slaves. The former were beautiful indeed, though beautiful in

different degrees and in various styles of beauty: of the latter two

only. They were, all of them, tall, slender, and dark-eyed, "shadowing

high beauty in their airy brows," and uniting a mystical with a

luxurious expression, like that of Sibyls who had been feasting with

Cleopatra. There was something to me strange as well as lovely in their

aspect--as strange as their condition, which seems a state half-way

between marriage and widowhood. They see no man except their husband;

and a visit from him (except in the case of the favorite) is a rare and

marvelous occurrence, like an eclipse of the sun. Their bearing toward

each other was that of sisters: in their movements I remarked an

extraordinary sympathy, which was the more striking on account of their

rapid transitions from the extreme of alarm to child-like wonder, and

again to boundless mirth.

The favorite wife was a Circassian, and a fairer vision it would not be

easy to see. Intellectual in expression she could hardly be called; yet

she was full of dignity, as well as of pliant grace and of sweetness.

Her large black eyes, beaming with a soft and stealthy radiance, seemed

as if they would have yielded light in the darkness; and the heavy waves

of her hair, which, in the excitement of the tumultuous scene, she

carelessly flung over her shoulders, gleamed like a mirror. Her

complexion was the most exquisite I have ever seen, its smooth and

pearly purity being tinged with a color, unlike that of flower or of

fruit, of bud or of berry, but which reminded me of the vivid and

delicate tints which sometimes streak the inside of a shell. Though tall

she seemed as light as if she had been an embodied cloud, hovering over

the rich carpets like a child that does not feel the weight of its body;

and though stately in the intervals of rest, her mirth was a sort of

rapture. She, too, had that peculiar luxuriousness of aspect, in no

degree opposed to modesty, which belongs to the East: around her lips

was wreathed, in their stillness, an expression at once pleasurable and

pathetic, which seemed ever ready to break forth into a smile: her hands

seemed to leave with regret whatever they had rested on, and in parting

to leave something behind; and in all her soft and witching beauty she

reminded me of Browning's lines--

"No swan-soft woman, rubbed in lucid oils.

The gift of an enamored god, more fair."

As feat succeeded to feat, and enchantment to enchantment, all remnant

of reserve was discarded, and no trace remained of that commingled alarm

and pleased expectation which had characterized those beaming

countenances when first they emerged from their vails. Those fair women

floated around us, and tossed their hands in the air, wholly forgetting

that their husband was by. Still, however, we had made but little

progress in our inquiry; and when the magician informed them that they

had better not try to conceal any thing from him, their only answer was

a look that said, "You came here to give us pleasure, not to

cross-question us." Resolved to use more formidable weapons, he began to

arrange an electrical machine, when the Mollah, after glancing at it two

or three times, approached and asked him whether that instrument also

was supernatural. The quick-witted Frenchman replied at once, "By no

means; it is a mere scientific toy." Then, turning to me, he added, in a

low voice, "He has seen it before--probably, he has traveled." In a few

minutes, the women were ranged in a ring, and linked hand-in-hand. He

then informed them, through our interpreter, that if a discovery was not

immediately made, each person should receive, at the same moment, a blow

from an invisible hand; that, the second time, the admonition would be

yet severer; and that, the third time, if his warning was still

despised, the culprit would drop down dead. This announcement was heard

with much gravity, but no confession followed it: the shock was given,

and the lovely circle was speedily dislinked, "with shrieks and

laughter." Again the shock was given, and with the same effect; but this

time the laughter was more subdued. Before making his last essay, the

magician addressed them in a long speech, telling them that he had

already discovered the secret, that if the culprit confessed, he would

make intercession for her, but that, if she did not, she must take the

consequences. Still no confession was made. For the first time, my

confident friend looked downcast. "It will not do," he said to me; "the

ring can not be recovered: they know nothing about it: probably it was

lost. We can not fulfill our engagement; and, indeed, I wish," he added,

"that we were well out of all this."

I confess I wished the same, especially when I glanced at the master of

the household, who stood apart, gloomy as a thunder-cloud, and with the

look of a man who thinks himself in a decidedly false position. The

Easterns do not understand a jest, especially in a harem; and not being

addicted to irony (that great safety-valve for enthusiasm), they pass

rapidly from immovability to very significant and sometimes disagreeable

action. Speaking little, they deliver their souls by acting. I should

have been glad to hear our host talk, even though in a stormy voice: on

the whole, however, I trusted much to the self-possession and address of

my associate. Nor was I deceived. "Do as you see me do," he said to me

and the dragoman; and then, immediately after giving the third shock,

which was as ineffectual as those that preceded it, he advanced to our

grim host with a face radiant with satisfaction, and congratulated him

vehemently. "You are a happy man," he said. "Your household has not a

flaw in it. Fortunate it was that you sent for the wise man: I have

discovered the matter." "What have you discovered?" "The fate of the

ring. It has never been stolen: if it had, I would have restored it to

you. Fear nothing; your household is trustworthy and virtuous. I know

where the ring is; but I should deceive you if I bade you hope ever to

find it again. This is a great mystery, and the happy consummation

surpasses even my hopes. Adieu. The matter has turned out just as you

see. You were born under a lucky star. Happy is the man whose household

is trustworthy, and who, when his faith is tried, finds a faithful

counselor. I forbid you, henceforth and forever, to distrust any one of

your wives."

It would be impossible to describe the countenance of our Mussulman

friend during this harangue. There he stood, like a tree half in

sunshine and half in shade; gratification struggling with displeasure in

his countenance, and wonder eclipsing both. It was not by any means our

policy to wait until he had adjusted the balance, and made up his mind

as to the exact degree of gratitude he owed his guests. On, accordingly,

we passed to the door. In a moment the instinct of courtesy prevailed,

and our host made a sign to one of his retinue. His slaves preceded us

with torches (it had grown late); and, accompanied by half the

household, as a guard of honor, we again traversed the large and

straggling house, passed through the garden, and entered the carriage

which waited for us beyond the wall. Our evening passed rapidly away as

we discussed our adventure; and I have more than once thought, with

pleasure, how amusing an incident the visit of the strangers must have

been to the secluded beauties. No doubt the baths of Constantinople have

rung with many a merry laugh occasioned by this invasion of the Franks.

Never, perhaps, have the inmates of a harem seen so much of the infidel

before, and conversed with him so familiarly, in the presence of their

husband.

[From Sharpe's Magazine.]

THE WIFE OF KONG TOLV.[14]

A FAIRY TALE OF SCANDINAVIA.

BY THE AUTHOR "COLA MONTI."

Hyldreda Kalm stood at the door of her cottage, and looked abroad into

the quietness of the Sabbath morn. The village of Skjelskoer lay at a

little distance down the vale, lighted by the sunshine of a Zealand

summer, which, though brief, is glowing and lovely even as that of the

south. Hyldreda had looked for seventeen years upon this beautiful

scene, the place where she was born. Sunday after Sunday she had stood

thus and listened for the distant tinkle of the church bell. A stranger,

passing by, might have said, how lovely were her face and form; but the

widowed mother, whose sole stay she was, and the little delicate sister,

who had been her darling from the cradle, would have answered, that if

none were so fair, none were likewise so good as Hyldreda; and that all

the village knew. If she did love to bestow greater taste and care on

her Sunday garments than most young damsels of her class, she had a

right--for was she not beautiful as any lady? And did not the eyes of

Esbern Lynge say so, when, week after week, he came up the hilly road,

and descended again to the little chapel, supporting the feeble mother's

slow steps, and watching his betrothed as she bounded on before, with

little Resa in her hand?

"Is Esbern coming?" said the mother's voice within.

"I know not--I did not look," answered Hyldreda, with a girlish

willfulness. "I saw only the sun shining on the river, and the oak-wood

waving in the breeze."

"Look down the road, child; the time passes. Go quickly."

"She is gone already," said Resa, laughing merrily. "She is standing

under the great elder-tree to wait for Esbern Lynge."

"Call her back--call her back!" cried the mother, anxiously. "To stand

beneath an elder-tree, and this night will be St. John's Eve! On Sunday,

too, and she a Sunday child! Call her quickly, Resa."

The little child lifted up her voice, "Hyld--"

"Not her name--utter not her name!" And the widow Kalm went on muttering

to herself, "Perhaps the Hyldemoer[15] will not have heard. Alas the

day! when my child was born under an elder-tree, and I, poor desolate

mother! was terrified into giving my babe that name. Great Hyldemoer, be

propitiated! Holy Virgin!" and the widow's prayer became a curious

mingling of superstition and piety, "Blessed Mary! let not the elves

have power over my child! Have I not kept her heart from evil? does not

the holy cross lie on her pure breast day and night? Do I not lead her

every Sunday, winter and summer, in storm, sunshine, or snow, to the

chapel in the valley? And this day I will say for her a double prayer."

The mother's counted beads had scarce come to an end when Hyldreda stood

by her side, and, following the light-footed damsel, came Esbern Lynge.

"Child, why didst thou linger under the tree?" said the widow. "It does

not become a young maiden to stand flaunting outside her door. Who wert

thou watching so eagerly?"

"Not thee, Esbern," laughed the girl, shaking her head at her betrothed,

who interposed with a happy conscious face; "I was looking at a grand

train that wound along the road, and thinking how pleasant it would be

to dress on a Sunday like the lady of the castle, and recline idly

behind four prancing horses instead of trudging on in these clumsy

shoes."

The mother frowned, and Esbern Lynge looked sorrowful.

"I wish I could give her all she longs for," sighed the young man, as

they proceeded on their way, his duteous arm supporting the widow, while

Hyldreda and Resa went bounding onward before them; "She is as beautiful

as a queen--I would that I could make her one."

"Wish rather, Esbern, that Heaven may make her a pious, lowly-hearted

maid, and, in good time, a wife; that she may live in humility and

content, and die in peace among her own people."

Esbern said nothing--he could not think of death and _her_ together. So

he and the widow Kalm walked on silently--and so slowly that they soon

lost sight of the two blithe sisters.

Hyldreda was talking merrily of the grand sight she had just seen, and

describing to little Resa the gilded coach, the prancing horses, with

glittering harness. "Oh! but it was a goodly train, as it swept down

toward the river. Who knows? Perhaps it may have been the king and queen

themselves."

"No," said little Resa, rather fearfully, "you know Kong Tolv[16] never

lets any mortal king pass the bridge of Skjelskoer."

"_Kong Tolv!_ what, more stories about Kong Tolv!" laughed the merry

maiden; "I never saw him; I wish I could see him, for then I might

believe in thy tales, little one."

"Hush, hush!--But mother told me never to speak of these things to

thee," answered Resa; "unsay the wish, or some harm may come."

"I care not! who would heed these elfin tales on such a lovely day?

Look, Resa, down that sunny meadow, where there is a cloud shadow

dancing on the grass; a strange cloud it is too, for it almost resembles

a human form."

"It is Kong Tolv rolling himself in the sunshine," cried the trembling

child; "Look away, my sister, lest he should hear us."

Again Hyldreda's fearless laugh made music through the still air, and

she kept looking back until they passed from the open road into the

gloom of the oak wood.

"It is strange that thou shouldst be so brave," said Resa once more. "I

tremble at the very thought of the Elle-people of whom our villagers

tell, while thou hast not a single fear. Why is it, sister?"

"I know not, save that I never yet feared any thing," answered Hyldreda,

carelessly. "As for Kong Tolv, let him come, I care not."

While she spoke, a breeze swept through the oak wood, the trees began to

bend their tops, and the under branches were stirred with leafy

murmurings, as the young girl passed beneath. She lifted her fair face

to meet them. "Ah 'tis delicious, this soft scented wind; it touches my

face like airy kisses; it makes the leaves seem to talk to me in musical

whispers. Dost thou not hear them too, little Resa? and dost thou

not--?"

Hyldreda suddenly stopped, and gazed eagerly down the road.

"Well, sister," said Resa, "what art dreaming of now? Come, we shall be

late at church, and mother will scold." But the elder sister stood

motionless. "How strange thine eyes look; what dost thou see, Hyldreda."

"Look--what is there!"

"Nothing, but a cloud of dust that the wind sweeps forward. Stand back,

sister, or it will blind thee."

Still Hyldreda bent forward with admiring eyes, muttering, "Oh! the

grand golden chariot, with its four beautiful white horses! And therein

sits a man--surely it is the king! and the lady beside him is the queen.

See, she turns--"

Hyldreda paused, dumb with wonder, for despite the gorgeous show of

jeweled attire, she recognized that face. It was the same she had looked

at an hour before in the little cracked mirror. The lady in the carriage

was the exact counterpart of herself!

The pageant came and vanished. Little Resa turned round and wiped her

eyes--she, innocent child, had seen nothing but a cloud of dust. Her

elder sister answered not her questionings, but remained silent,

oppressed by a nameless awe. It passed not, even when the chapel was

reached, and Hyldreda knelt to pray. Above the sound of the hymn she

heard the ravishing music of the leaves in the oak wood, and instead of

the priest she seemed to behold the two dazzling forms which had sat

side by side in the golden chariot.

When service was ended, and all went homewards, she lingered under the

trees where the vision, or reality, whichever it was, had met her sight,

half longing for its reappearance. But her mother whispered something to

Esbern, and they hurried Hyldreda away.

She laid aside her Sunday mantle, the scarlet woof which to spin, weave,

and fashion, had cost her a world of pains. How coarse and ugly it

seemed! She threw it contemptuously aside, and thought how beautiful

looked the purple-robed lady, who was so like herself.

"And why should I not be as fair as she? I should, if I were only

dressed as fine. Heaven might as well have made me a lady, instead of a

poor peasant girl."

These repinings entered the young heart hitherto so pure and happy. They

haunted her even when she rejoined her mother, Resa, and Esbern Lynge.

She prepared the noonday meal, but her step was heavy and her hand

unwilling. The fare seemed coarse, the cottage looked dark and poor. She

wondered what sort of a palace home was that owned by the beautiful

lady; and whether the king, if king the stranger were, presided at his

banquet table as awkwardly as did Esbern Lynge at the mean board here.

At the twilight, Hyldreda did not steal out as usual to talk with her

lover beneath the rose-porch. She went and hid herself out of his sight,

under the branches of the great elder-tree, which to her had always a

strange charm, perhaps because it was the spot of all others where she

was forbidden to stay. However, this day Hyldreda began to feel herself

to be no longer a child, but a woman whose will was free.

She sat under the dreamy darkness of the heavy foliage. Its faint sickly

odor overpowered her like a spell. Even the white bunches of elder

flowers seemed to grow alive in the twilight, and to change into faces,

looking at her whithersoever she turned. She shut her eyes, and tried to

summon back the phantom of the golden chariot, and especially of the

king-like man who sat inside. Scarce had she seen him clearly, but she

felt he looked a king. If wishing could bring to her so glorious a

fortune, she would almost like to have, in addition to the splendors of

rich dress and grand palaces, such a noble-looking man for her lord and

husband.

And the poor maiden was rudely awakened from her dream, by feeling on

her delicate shoulders the two heavy hands of Esbern Lynge.

Haughtily she took them off. Alas! he, loving her so much, had ever been

lightly loved in return! to-day he was not loved at all. He came at an

ill time, for the moment his hand put aside the elder branches, all the

dazzling fancies of his betrothed vanished in air. He came, too, with an

ill-wooing, for he implored her to trifle no more, but to fulfill her

mother's hope and his, and enter as mistress at the little blacksmith's

forge. She, who had just been dreaming of a palace home! Not a word she

answered at first, and then cold, cruel words, worse than silence. So

Esbern, who, though a lover, was a manly-hearted youth, and thought it

shame to be mocked by a girl's light tongue, left her there and went

away, not angry, but very sorrowful.

Little Resa came to summon her sister. But Hyldreda trembled before the

gathering storm, for widow Kalm, though a tender mother, was one who

well knew how to rule. Her loud, severe voice already warned the girl of

the reproof that was coming. To avoid it only for a little, until her

own proud spirit was calmed. Hyldreda told Resa she would not come in

until after she had taken a little walk down the moonlight road. As she

passed from under the elder-tree, she heard a voice, like her mother's,

and yet not her mother's--no, it could never be, for it shouted after

her,

"Come now, or come no more!"

Some evil impulse goaded the haughty girl to assert her womanly right of

free action, and she passed from her home, flying with swift steps. A

little, only a little absence, to show her indignant pride, and she

would be back again, to heal all strife. Nevertheless, ere she was

aware, Hyldreda had reached the oak-wood, beneath which she had seen the

morning's bewildering sight.

And there again, brighter in the moonlight than it had ever seemed in

the day, came sweeping by the stately pageant. Its torches flung red

shadows on the trees, its wheels resounded through the night's quiet

with a music as of silver bells. And sitting in his state alone, grand

but smiling, was the lord of all this splendor.

The chariot stopped, and he dismounted. Then the whole train vanished,

and, shorn of all his glories, except a certain brightness which his

very presence seemed to shed, the king, if he were indeed such, stood

beside the trembling peasant maid.

He did not address her, but looked in her face inquiringly, until

Hyldreda felt herself forced to be the first to speak.

"My lord, who art thou, and what is thy will with me?"

He smiled. "Thanks, gentle maiden, for thy question has taken off the

spell. Otherwise it could not be broken, even by Kong Tolv."

Hyldreda shuddered with fear. Her fingers tried to seize the cross which

always lay on her breast, but no! she had thrown aside the coarse black

wooden crucifix, while dreaming of ornaments of gold. And it was St.

John's Eve, and she stood beneath the haunted oak-wood. No power had she

to fly, and her prayers died on her lips, for she knew herself in the

Hill-king's power.

Kong Tolv began to woo, after the elfin fashion, brief and bold. "Fair

maiden, the Dronningstolen[17] is empty, and 'tis thou must fill it.

Come and enter my palace under the hill."

But the maiden sobbed out that she was too lowly to sit on a queen's

chair, and that none of mortals, save the dead, made their home

underground. And she prayed the Elle-king to let her go back to her

mother and little Resa.

He only laughed. "Wouldst be content, then, with the poor cottage, and

the black bread, and the labor from morn till eve. Didst thou not of

thyself wish for a palace and a lord like me? And did not the Hyldemoer

waft me the wish, so that I came to meet and welcome thee under the

hill?"

Hyldreda made one despairing effort to escape, but she heard again Kong

Tolv's proud laugh, and looking up, she saw that the thick oak-wood had

changed to an army. In place of every tree stood a fierce warrior, ready

to guard every step. She thought it must be all a delirious dream that

would vanish with the morning. Suddenly she heard the far village clock

strike the hour. Mechanically she counted--one--two--three--four--up to

_twelve_.

As she pronounced the last word, Kong Tolv caught her in his arms,

saying, "Thou hast named me and art mine."

Instantly all the scene vanished, and Hyldreda found herself standing on

the bleak side of a little hill, alone in the moonlight. But very soon

the clear night darkened, and a heavy storm arose. Trembling, she looked

around for shelter, and saw in the hill-side a tiny door, which seemed

to invite her to enter. She did so! In a moment she stood dazzled by a

blaze of light--a mortal amidst the festival of the elves. She heard the

voice of Kong Tolv, half-speaking, half-singing,

"Welcome, maiden, fair and free,

Thou hast come of thyself in the hill to me;

Stay thou here, nor thy fate deplore;

Thou hast come of thyself in at my door."

And bewildered by the music, the dance, and the splendor, Hyldreda

remembered no more the cottage, with its one empty chair, nor the

miserable mother, nor the little sister straining her weeping eyes along

the lonely road.

* * * * *

The mortal maiden became the Elle-king's bride, and lived in the hill

for seven long years; at least, so they seemed in Elfinland, where time

passes like the passing of a strain of music, that dies but to be again

renewed. Little thought had she of the world above ground, for in the

hill-palace was continual pleasure, and magnificence without end. No

remembrance of lost kindred troubled her, for she sat in the

Dronningstolen, and all the elfin people bowed down before the wife of

the mighty Kong Tolv.

She might have lived so always, with no desire ever to go back to earth,

save that one day she saw trickling down through the palace roof a

pearly stream. The elves fled away, for they said it was some mortal

weeping on the grassy hill overhead. But Hyldreda staid and looked on

until the stream settled into a clear, pellucid pool. A sweet mirror it

made, and the Hill-king's bride ever loved to see her own beauty. So she

went and gazed down into the shining water.

There she beheld--not the image of the elfin-queen, but of the peasant

maid, with her mantle of crimson wool, her coarse dress, and her black

crucifix. She turned away in disgust, but soon her people brought her

elfin mirrors, wherein she could see her present self, gorgeously clad,

and a thousand times more fair. It kindled in her heart a proud desire.

She said to her lord, "Let me go back for a little while to my native

village, and my ancient home, that I may show them all my splendor, and

my greatness. Let me enter, sitting in my gilded chariot, with the four

white horses, and feel myself as queen-like as the lady I once saw

beneath the oak-wood."

Kong Tolv laughed, and assented. "But," he said, "keep thy own proud

self the while. The first sigh, the first tear, and I carry thee back

into the hill with shame."

So Hyldreda left the fairy-palace, sweeping through the village, with a

pageant worthy a queen. Thus in her haughtiness, after seven years had

gone by, she came to her mother's door.

Seven years, none of which had cast one shadow on the daughter's beauty.

But time and grief together had bowed the mother almost to the verge of

the grave. The one knew not the other, until little Resa came between;

little Resa, who looked her sister's olden self, blooming in the

sweetness of seventeen. Nothing to her was the magnificence of the

beautiful guest; she only saw Hyldreda, the lost and found.

"Where hast thou been?" said the mother, doubtfully, when in answer to

all their caresses, the stately lady only looked on them with a proud

smile; "Who gave thee those grand dresses, and put the matron's vail

upon thy hair?"

"I am the Hill-king's wife," said Hyldreda. "I dwell in a gorgeous

palace, and sit on a queen's throne."

"God preserve thee!" answered the mother. But Hyldreda turned away, for

Kong Tolv had commanded her never to hear or utter the holy Name. She

began to inquire about her long-forgotten home, but half-carelessly, as

if she had no interest in it now.

"And who was it," she asked, "that wept on the hill-side until the tears

dropped through, staining my palace walls?"

"I," answered Resa, blushing; and then Hyldreda perceived that, young as

she was, the girl wore the matron's head-tire. "I, sitting there with my

babe, wept to think of my poor sister who died long ago, and never knew

the sweetness of wifehood and motherhood. And almost it grieved me, to

think that my love had blotted out the bitterness of her memory even

from the heart of Esbern Lynge."

At the name, proudly laughed the elder sister, "Take thy husband, and be

happy, girl; I envy thee not; I am the wife of the great Hill-king."

"And does thy lord love thee? Does he sit beside thee at eve, and let

thee lean thy tired head on his breast, as Esbern does with me? And hast

thou young children dancing about thy feet, and a little blue-eyed one

to creep dove-like to thy heart at nights, as mine does? Say, dear

sister, art thou as happy as I?"

Hyldreda paused. Earth's sweet ties arose before her, and the grandeur

of her lot seemed only loneliness. Forgetting her lord's command, she

sighed, she even wept one regretful tear; and that moment in her

presence stood Kong Tolv.

"Kill me, but save my mother, my sister," cried the wife, with a broken

heart. The prayer was needless; _they_ saw not the Elle-king, and he

marked not them--he only bore away Hyldreda, singing mockingly in her

ear something of the same rhyme which had bound her his:

"Complainest thou here all drearily--

Camest thou not of thyself in the hill to me?

And stayest thou here thy lot to deplore?

Camest thou not of thyself in at my door?"

When the mother and sister of Hyldreda lifted up their eyes, they saw

nothing but a cloud of dust sweeping past the cottage-door, they heard

nothing but the ancient elder-tree howling aloud as its branches were

tossed about in a gust of wintry wind.

* * * * *

Kong Tolv took back to the hill his mortal bride. There he set her in a

golden chair, and brought to her to drink a silver horn of elfin-wine,

in the which he had dropped an ear of wheat. At the first draught, she

forgot the village where she had dwelt--at the second, she forgot the

sister who had been her darling--at the third, she forgot the mother who

bore her. Again she rejoiced in the glories of the fairy-palace, and in

the life of never-ceasing pleasure.

Month after month rolled by--by her scarce counted, or counted only in

jest, as she would number a handful of roses, all held so fast and sure,

that none could fall or fade; or as she would mark one by one the little

waves of a rivulet whose source was eternally flowing.

Hyldreda thought no more of any earthly thing, until there came, added

to her own, a young, new life. When her beautiful babe, half-elf,

half-mortal, nestled in her woman's breast, it wakened there the

fountain of human love, and of long-forgotten memories.

"Oh! let me go home once--once more," she implored of her lord. "Let me

go to ask my mother's forgiveness, and above all, to crave the church's

blessing on this my innocent babe."

Kong Tolv frowned, and then looked sad. For it is the one great sorrow

of the Elle-people, that they, with all others of the elfin race, are

shut out from Heaven's mercy. Therefore do they often steal mortal

wives, and strive to have their children christened according to holy

rite, in order to participate in the blessings granted to the offspring

of Adam.

"Do as thou wilt," the Hill-king answered; "but know, there awaits a

penalty. In exchange for a soul, must be given a life."

His dark saying fell coldly on the heart of the young mother. It

terrified her for a time, but soon the sweet strange wiles of her

elfin-babe beguiled her into renewed happiness; so that her longing

faded away.

The child grew not like a mortal child. An unearthly beauty was in its

face; wondrous precocious signs marked it from its birth. Its

baby-speech was very wisdom. Its baby-smile was full of thought. The

mother read her olden soul--the pure soul that was hers of yore--in her

infant's eyes.

One day when Hyldreda was following the child in its play, she noticed

it disappear through what seemed the outlet of the fairy-palace, which

outlet she herself had never been able to find. She forgot that her boy

was of elfin as well as of mortal race. Out it passed, the mother

eagerly pursuing, until she found herself with the child in a meadow

near the village of Skjelskoer, where years ago she had often played. It

was on a Sunday morning, and cheerfully yet solemnly rang out the

chapel-bells. All the sounds and sights of earth came back upon her,

with a longing that would not be restrained.

In the white frozen grass, for it was wintertime, knelt the wife of Kong

Tolv, holding fast to her bosom the elfin babe, who shivered at every

blast of wind, yet, shivering, seemed to smile. Hyldreda knelt, until

the chapel-bells ceased at service-time. And then there came bursting

from her lips the long-sealed prayers, the prayers of her childhood.

While she breathed them, the rich fairy garments crumbled from her, and

she remained clad in the coarse dress she wore when Kong Tolv carried

her away; save that it hung in miserable tatters, as if worn for years,

and through its rents the icy wind pierced her bosom, so that the heart

within might have sunk and died, but for the ever-abiding warmth of

maternal love.

_That_ told her how in one other mother's heart there must be warmth

still.

"I will go home," she murmured, "I will say, 'Mother, take me in and

save me, or else I die!'" And so, when the night closed, and all the

villagers were safe at home, and none could mock at her and her misery,

the poor desolate one crept to her mother's door.

It had been open to her even when she came in her pride; how would it be

closed against her sorrow and humility? And was there ever a true

mother's breast, that while life yet throbbed there, was not a refuge

for a repentant child?

Hyldreda found shelter and rest. But the little elfin babe, unused to

the air of earth, uttered continual moanings. At night, the strange eyes

never closed, but looked at her with a dumb entreaty. And tenfold

returned the mother's first desire, that her darling should become a

"christened child."

Much the old grandame gloried in this, looking with distrust on the

pining, withered babe. But keenly upon Hyldreda's memory came back the

saying of Kong Tolv, that for a soul would be exchanged a life. It must

be _hers_. That, doubtless, was the purchase; and thus had Heaven

ordained the expiation of her sin. If so, meekly she would offer it, so

that Heaven would admit into its mercy her beloved child. It was in the

night--in the cold white night, that the widow Kalm, with her daughter

and the mysterious babe, came to the chapel of Skjelskoer. All the way

thither they had been followed by strange, unearthly noises; and as they

passed beneath the oak-wood, it seemed as if the overhanging branches

were transformed into giant hands, that evermore snatched at the child.

But in vain; for the mother held it fast, and on its little breast she

had laid the wooden cross which she herself used to wear when a girl.

Bitterly the infant had wailed, but when they crossed the threshold of

the chapel, it ceased, and a smile broke over its face--a smile pure and

saintly, such as little children wear, lying in a sleep so beautiful

that the bier seems like the cradle.

The mother beheld it, and thought, What if her foreboding should be

true; that the moment which opened the gate of Heaven's mercy unto her

babe, should close upon herself life and life's sweetnesses? But she

felt no fear.

"Let me kiss thee once again, my babe, my darling!" she murmured;

"perhaps I may never kiss thee more. Even now, I feel as if my eyes were

growing dark, and thy little face were gliding from my sight. But I can

let thee go, my sweet! God will take care of thee, and keep thee safe,

even amidst this bitter world."

She clasped and kissed the child once more, and, kneeling, calm, but

very pale, she awaited whatever might be her doom.

The priest, performing by stealth what he almost deemed a desecration of

the hallowed rite, began to read the ceremony over the fairy babe. All

the while, it looked at him with those mysterious eyes, so lately opened

to the world, yet which seemed to express the emotions of a whole

existence. But when the sprinkled water touched them, they closed,

softly, slowly, like a blue flower at night.

The mother, still living, and full of thankful wonder that she did live,

took from the priest's arms her recovered treasure, her Christian child.

It lay all smiling, but it lifted not its eyes: the color was fading on

its lips, and its little hands were growing cold. For it--not for her,

had been the warning. It had rendered up its little life, and received

an immortal soul.

* * * * *

For years after this, there abode in the village of Skjelskoer a woman

whom some people thought was an utter stranger, for none so grave, and

at the same time so good, was ever known among the light-hearted people

of Zealand. Others said that if any one could come back alive from fairy

land, the woman must be Hyldreda Kalm. But as later generations arose,

they mocked at the story of Kong Tolv and the palace under the hill, and

considered the whole legend but an allegory, the moral of which they did

not fail to preach to their fair young daughters continually.

Nevertheless, this woman had surely once lived, for her memory, embalmed

by its own rich virtues, long lingered in the place where she had dwelt.

She must have died there, too, for they pointed out her grave, and a

smaller one beside it, though whose that was, none knew. There was a

tradition that when she died--it was on a winter night, and the clock

was just striking _twelve_--there arose a stormy wind which swept

through the neighboring oak-wood, laying every tree prostrate on the

ground. And from that hour there was no record of the Elle-people or the

mighty Kong Tolv having been ever again seen in Zealand.

FOOTNOTES:

[14] The idea of this story is partly taken from a Danish _Visa_, or

legendary ballad, entitled "Proud Margaret."

[15] _Hyldemoer_, elder-mother, is the name of a Danish elf inhabiting

the elder-tree. _Eda_ signifies a grandmother or female ancestor.

Children born on Sundays were especially under the power of the elves.

[16] Kong Tolv, or _King Twelve_, is one of the Elle-kings who divide

the fairy sovereignty of Zealand.

[17] Dronningstolen, or Queen's Chair.

[From the Dublin University Magazine.]

MAURICE TIERNAY, THE SOLDIER OF FORTUNE.

[_Continued from Page 233._]

CHAPTER VI.

"THE ARMY SIXTY YEARS SINCE."

I followed the soldiers as they marched beyond the outer boulevard, and

gained the open country. Many of the idlers dropped off here; others

accompanied us a little further; but at length, when the drums ceased to

beat, and were slung in marching order on the backs of the drummers,

when the men broke into the open order that French soldiers

instinctively assume on a march, the curiosity of the gazers appeared to

have nothing more to feed upon, and one by one they returned to the

capital, leaving me the only lingerer.

To any one accustomed to military display, there was little to attract

notice in the column, which consisted of detachments from various corps,

horse, foot, and artillery; some were returning to their regiments after

a furlough; some had just issued from the hospitals, and were seated in

charettes, or country-cars; and, others, again, were peasant boys only a

few days before drawn in the conscription. There was every variety of

uniform, and, I may add, of raggedness, too--a coarse blouse and a pair

of worn shoes, with a red or blue handkerchief on the head, being the

dress of many among them. The republic was not rich in those days, and

cared little for the costume in which her victories were won. The

artillery alone seemed to preserve any thing like uniformity in dress.

They wore a plain uniform of blue, with long white gaiters coming half

way up the thigh; a low cocked hat, without feather, but with the

tricolored cockade in front. They were mostly men middle-aged, or past

the prime of life, bronzed, weather-beaten, hardy-looking fellows, whose

white mustaches contrasted well with their sunburned faces. All their

weapons and equipments were of a superior kind, and showed the care

bestowed upon an arm whose efficiency was the first discovery of the

republican generals. The greater number of these were Bretons, and

several of them had served in the fleet, still bearing in their looks

and carriage something of that air which seems inherent in the seaman.

They were grave, serious, and almost stern in manner, and very unlike

the young cavalry soldiers, who, mostly recruited from the south of

France, many of them Gascons, had all the high-hearted gayety and

reckless levity of their own peculiar land. A campaign to these fellows

seemed a pleasant excursion; they made a jest of every thing, from the

wan faces of the invalids, to the black bread of the "Commissary;" they

quizzed the new "Tourleroux," as the recruits were styled, and the old

"Grumblers," as it was the fashion to call the veterans of the army;

they passed their jokes on the republic, and even their own officers

came in for a share of their ridicule. The grenadiers, however, were

those who especially were made the subject of their sarcasm. They were

generally from the north of France, and the frontier country toward

Flanders, whence they probably imbibed a portion of that phlegm and

moroseness so very unlike the general gayety of French nature; and when

assailed by such adversaries, were perfectly incapable of reply or

retaliation.

They all belonged to the army of the "Sambre et Meuse," which, although

at the beginning of the campaign highly distinguished for its successes,

had been latterly eclipsed by the extraordinary victories on the Upper

Rhine and in Western Germany; and it was curious to hear with what

intelligence and interest the greatest questions of strategy were

discussed by those who carried their packs as common soldiers in the

ranks. Movements and manoeuvres were criticised, attacked, defended,

ridiculed, and condemned, with a degree of acuteness and knowledge that

showed the enormous progress the nation had made in military science,

and with what ease the republic could recruit her officers from the

ranks of her armies.

At noon the column halted in the wood of Belleville; and while the men

were resting, an express arrived announcing that a fresh body of troops

would soon arrive, and ordering the others to delay their march till

they came up. The orderly who brought the tidings could only say that he

believed some hurried news had come from Germany, for before he left

Paris the rappel was beating in different quarters, and the rumor ran

that reinforcements were to set out for Strasbourg with the utmost

dispatch.

"And what troops are coming to join us?" said an old artillery sergeant,

in evident disbelief of the tidings.

"Two batteries of artillery and the voltigeurs of the 4th, I know for

certain are coming," said the orderly, "and they spoke of a battalion of

grenadiers."

"What! do these Germans need another lesson," said the cannonier, "I

thought Fleurus had taught them what our troops were made of?"

"How you talk of Fleurus," interrupted a young hussar from the south; "I

have just come from the army of Italy, and, ma foi! we should never have

mentioned such a battle as Fleurus in a dispatch. Campaigning among

dykes and hedges--fighting with a river on one flank and a fortress on

the t'other--parade manoeuvres--where, at the first check, the enemy

retreats, and leaves you free, for the whole afternoon, to write off

your successes to the Directory. Had you seen our fellows scaling the

Alps, with avalanches of snow descending at every fire of the great

guns--forcing pass after pass against an enemy, posted on every cliff

and crag above us--cutting our way to victory by roads the hardiest

hunter had seldom trod; I call that war."

"And I call it the skirmish of an outpost!" said the gruff veteran, as

he smoked away, in thorough contempt for the enthusiasm of the other. "I

have served under Kleber, Hoche, and Moreau, and I believe they are the

first generals of France."

"There is a name greater than them all," cried the hussar with

eagerness.

"Let us hear it, then--you mean Pichegru, perhaps, or Massena?"

"No, I mean Bonaparte!" said the hussar, triumphantly.

"A good officer, and one of us," said the artilleryman, touching his

belt to intimate the arm of the service the general belonged to "He

commanded the seige-train at Toulon."

"He belongs to all," said the other. "He is a dragoon, a voltigeur, an

artillerist, a pontonier--what you will--he knows every thing, as I know

my horse's saddle, and cloak-bag."

Both parties now grew warm; and as each was not only an eager partisan,

but well acquainted with the leading events of the two campaigns they

undertook to defend, the dispute attracted a large circle of listeners,

who, either seated on the green-sward, or lying at full length, formed a

picturesque group under the shadow of the spreading oak trees. Mean

while the cooking went speedily forward, and the camp-kettles smoked

with a steam whose savory odor was not a little tantalizing to one who,

like myself, felt that he did not belong to the company.

"What's thy mess, boy?" said an old grenadier to me, as I sat at a

little distance off, and affecting--but I fear very ill--a total

indifference to what went forward.

"He is asking to what corps thou belong'st?" said another, seeing that

the question puzzled me.

"Unfortunately I have none," said I. "I merely followed the march for

curiosity."

"And thy father and mother, child--what will they say to thee on thy

return home?"

"I have neither father, nor mother, nor home," said I, promptly.

"Just like myself," said an old red-whiskered sapeur; "or if I ever had

parents, they never had the grace to own me. Come over here child, and

take share of my dinner."

"No, parbleu! I'll have him for _my_ comrade," cried the young hussar.

"I was made a corporal yesterday, and have a large ration. Sit here, my

boy, and tell us how art called."

"Maurice Tierney."

"Maurice will do; few of us care for more than one name, except in the

dead muster they like to have it in full. Help thyself, my lad, and

here's the wine-flask beside thee."

"How comes it thou hast this old uniform, boy," said he, pointing to my

sleeve.

"It was one they gave me in the Temple," said I. "I was a 'rat du

prison' for some time."

"Thunder of war!" exclaimed the cannonier, "I had rather stand a whole

platoon fire than see what thou must have seen, child."

"And hast heart to go back there, boy," said the corporal, "and live the

same life again?"

"No, I'll never go back," said I. "I'll be a soldier."

"Well said, mon brave--thou'lt be a hussar, I know."

"If nature has given thee a good head, and a quick eye, my boy, thou

might even do better; and in time, perhaps, wear a coat like mine," said

the cannonier.

"Sacre bleu!" cried a little fellow, whose age might have been any thing

from boyhood to manhood--for while small of stature, he was shriveled

and wrinkled like a mummy--"why not be satisfied with the coat he

wears?"

"And be a drummer, like thee," said the cannonier.

"Just so, like me, and like Massena--he was a drummer, too."

"No, no!" cried a dozen voices together, "that's not true."

"He's right; Massena _was_ a drummer in the Eighth," said the cannonier;

"I remember him when he was like that boy yonder."

"To be sure," said the little fellow, who, I now perceived, wore the

dress of a "tambour;" "and is it a disgrace to be the first to face the

enemy?"

"And the first to turn his back to him, comrade," cried another.

"Not always--not always"--said the little fellow, regardless of the

laugh against him. "Had it been so, I had not gained the battle of

Grandrengs on the Sambre."

"Thou gain a battle!" shouted half-a-dozen, in derisive laughter.

"What, Petit Pierre gained the day at Grandrengs!" said the cannonier;

"why, I was there myself, and never heard of that till now."

"I can believe it well," replied Pierre; "many a man's merits go

unacknowledged: and Kleber got all the credit that belonged to Pierre

Canot."

"Let us hear about it, Pierre, for even thy victory is unknown by name

to us, poor devils of the army of Italy. How call'st thou the place?"

"Grandrengs," said Pierre, proudly. "It's a name will live as long,

perhaps, as many of those high-sounding ones you have favored us with.

Mayhap, thou hast heard of Cambray?"

"Never!" said the hussar, shaking his head.

"Nor of 'Mons,' either, I'll be sworn?" continued Pierre.

"Quite true, I never heard of it before."

"Voila!" exclaimed Pierre, in contemptuous triumph. "And these are the

fellows who pretend to feel their country's glory, and take pride in her

conquests. Where hast thou been, lad, not to hear of places that every

child syllables nowadays?"

"I will tell you where I've been," said the hussar, haughtily, and

dropping at the same time the familiar "thee" and "thou" of soldier

intercourse--"I've been at Montenotte, at Millesimo, at Mondove--"

"Allons, done! with your disputes," broke in an old grenadier; "as if

France was not victorious whether the enemies were English or German.

Let us hear how Pierre won his battle--at--at--"

"At Grandrengs," said Pierre. "They call it in the dispatch the 'action

of the Sambre,' because Kleber came up there--and Kleber being a great

man, and Pierre Canot a little one, you understand, the glory attaches

to the place where the bullion epaulets are found--just as the old King

of Prussia used to say, 'Dieu est toujours a cote de gros bataillons.'"

"I see we'll never come to this same victory of Grandrengs, with all

these turnings and twistings," muttered the artillery sergeant.

"Thou art very near it now, comrade, if thou'lt listen," said Pierre, as

he wiped his mouth after a long draught of the vine-flask. "I'll not

weary the honorable company with any description of the battle

generally, but just confine myself to that part of it, in which I was

myself in action. It is well known, that though we claimed the victory

of the 10th May, we did little more than keep our own, and were obliged

to cross the Sambre, and be satisfied with such a position as enabled us

to hold the two bridges over the river--and there we remained for four

days: some said preparing for a fresh attack upon Kaunitz, who commanded

the allies; some, and I believe they were right, alleging that our

generals were squabbling all day, and all night, too, with two

commissaries that the government had sent down to teach us how to win

battles. Ma foi! we had had some experience in that way ourselves,

without learning the art from two citizens with tricolored scarfs round

their waists, and yellow tops to their boots! However that might be,

early on the morning of the 20th we received orders to cross the river

in two strong columns and form on the opposite side; at the same time

that a division was to pass the stream by boat two miles higher up, and,

concealing themselves in a pine wood, be ready to take the enemy in

flank, when they believed that all the force was in the front.

"Sacre tonnerre! I believe that our armies of the Sambre and the Rhine

never have any other notion of battles than that eternal flank

movement!" cried a young sergeant of the voltigeurs, who had just come

up from the army of Italy. "Our general used to split the enemy by the

centre, out him piecemeal by attack in columns, and then head him down

with artillery at short range--not leaving him time for a retreat in

heavy masses--"

"Silence, silence, and let us hear Petit Pierre," shouted a dozen

voices, who cared far more for an incident, than a scientific discussion

about manoeuvres.

"The plan I speak of was General Moreau's," continued Pierre; "and I

fancy that your Bonaparte has something to learn ere he be _his_ equal!"

This rebuke seeming to have engaged the suffrages of the company, he

went on: "The boat division consisted of four battalions of infantry,

two batteries of light-artillery, and a voltigeur company of the

"Regiment de Marboeuf"--to which I was then, for the time, attached as

"Tambour en chef." What fellows they were--the greatest devils in the

whole army! They came from the Faubourg St. Antoine, and were as

reckless and undisciplined as when they strutted the streets of Paris.

When they were thrown out to skirmish, they used to play as many tricks

as school-boys: sometimes they'd run up to the roof of a cabin or a

hut--and they could climb like cats--and, sitting down on the chimney,

begin firing away at the enemy, as coolly as from a battery; sometimes

they'd capture half-a-dozen asses, and ride forward as if to charge, and

then, affecting to tumble off, the fellows would pick down any of the

enemy's officers that were fools enough to come near--scampering back to

the cover of the line, laughing and joking as if the whole were sport. I

saw one--when his wrist was shattered by a shot, and he couldn't

fire--take a comrade on his back and caper away like a horse, just to

tempt the Germans to come out of their lines. It was with these blessed

youths I was now to serve, for the Tambour of the Marboeuf was drowned

in crossing the Sambre a few days before. Well, we passed the river

safely, and, unperceived by the enemy, gained the pine wood, where we

formed in two columns, one of attack, and the other of support, the

voltigeurs about five hundred paces in advance of the leading files. The

morning was dull and hazy, for a heavy rain had fallen during the night,

and the country is flat, and so much intersected with drains, and dykes,

and ditches, that, after rain, the vapor is too thick to see twenty

yards on any side. Our business was to make a counter-march to the

right, and, guided by the noise of the cannonade, to come down upon the

enemy's flank in the thickest of the engagement. As we advanced, we

found ourselves in a kind of marshy plain, planted with willows, and so

thick, that it was often difficult for three men to march abreast. This

extended for a considerable distance, and, on escaping from it, we saw

that we were not above a mile from the enemy's left, which rested on a

little village."

"I know it well," broke in the cannonier; "it's called Huyningen."

"Just so. There was a formidable battery in position there; and part of

the place was stockaded, as if they expected an attack. Still there were

no videttes, nor any look-out party, so far as we could see; and our

commanding officer didn't well know what to make of it, whether it was a

point of concealed strength, or a position they were about to withdraw

from. At all events, it required caution; and, although the battle had

already begun on the right--as a loud cannonade and a heavy smoke told

us--he halted the brigade in the wood, and held a council of his

officers to see what was to be done. The resolution come to was, that

the voltigeurs should advance alone to explore the way, the rest of the

force remaining in ambush. We were to go out in sections of companies,

and, spreading over a wide surface, see what we could of the place.

"Scarcely was the order given, when away we went; and it was now a race

who should be earliest up, and exchange first shot with the enemy. Some

dashed forward over the open field in front; others skulked along by

dykes and ditches; some, again, dodged here and there, as cover offered

its shelter; but about a dozen, of whom I was one, kept the track of

little cart-road, which, half-concealed by high banks and furze, ran in

a zig-zag line toward the village. I was always smart of foot; and now,

having newly joined the 'voltigeurs,' was naturally eager to show myself

not unworthy of my new associates. I went on at my best pace, and being

lightly equipped--neither musket nor ball-cartridge to carry--I soon out

stripped them all; and, after about twenty minutes' brisk running, saw

in front of me a long, low farm-house, the walls all pierced for

musketry, and two small eight-pounders in battery at the gate. I looked

back for my companions, but they were not up, not a man of them to be

seen. 'No matter,' thought I 'they'll be here soon; meanwhile, I'll make

for that little copse of brushwood;' for a small clump of low furze and

broom was standing at a little distance in front of the farm. All this

time, I ought to say, not a man of the enemy was to be seen, although I,

from where I stood, could see the crenelated walls, and the guns, as

they were pointed: at a distance all would seem like an ordinary

peasant-house.

"As I crossed the open space to gain the copse, piff! came a bullet,

whizzing past me; and just as I reached the cover, piff! came another. I

ducked my head, and made for the thicket, but just as I did so, my foot

caught in a branch. I stumbled, and pitched forward; and, trying to save

myself, I grasped a bough above me. It smashed suddenly, and down I

went. Ay! down sure enough, for I went right through the furze, and into

a well--one of those old, walled wells they have in these countries,

with a huge bucket that fills up the whole space, and is worked by a

chain. Luckily the bucket was linked up near the top, and caught me, or

I should have gone where there would have been no more heard of Pierre

Canot; as it was, I was sorely bruised by the fall, and didn't recover

myself for full ten minutes after. Then I discovered that I was sitting

in a large wooden trough, hooped with iron, and supported by two heavy

chains that passed over a windlass, about ten feet above my head.

"I was safe enough, for the matter of that; at least none were likely to

discover me, as I could easily see, by the rust of the chain and he

grass-grown edges, that the well had been long disused. Now the position

was far from being pleasant. There stood the farm-house, full of

soldiers, the muskets ranging over every approach to where I lay. Of my

comrades, there was nothing to be seen, they had either missed the way

or retreated: and so time crept on, and I pondered on what might be

going forward elsewhere, and whether it would ever be my own fortune to

see my comrades again.

"It might be an hour--it seemed three or four to me--after this, as I

looked over the plain, I saw the caps of our infantry just issuing over

the brushwood, and a glancing lustre of their bayonets, as the sun

tipped them. They were advancing, but, as it seemed, slowly--halting at

times, and then moving forward again, just like a force waiting for

others to come up. At last they debouched into the plain; but, to my

surprise, they wheeled about to the right, leaving the farm-house on

their flank, as if to march beyond it. This was to lose their way

totally: nothing would be easier than to carry the position of the farm,

for the Germans were evidently few, had no videttes, and thought

themselves in perfect security. I crept out from my ambush, and holding

my cap on a stick, tried to attract notice from our fellows, but none

saw me. I ventured at last to shout aloud, but with no better success;

so that, driven to the end of my resources, I set to and beat a

'roulade' on the drum, thundering away with all my might, and not caring

what might come of it, for I was half mad with vexation as well as

despair. They heard me now; I saw a staff officer gallop up to the head

of the leading division, and halt them: a volley came peppering from

behind me, but without doing me any injury, for I was safe once more in

my bucket. Then came another pause, and again I repeated my manoeuvre,

and to my delight perceived that our fellows were advancing at quick

march. I beat harder, and the drums of the grenadiers answered me. All

right now, thought I, as, springing forward, I called out, 'This way,

boys; the wall of the orchard has scarcely a man to defend it;' and I

rattled out the 'pas-de-charge' with all my force. One crashing fire of

guns and small arms answered me from the farm-house; and then away went

the Germans as hard as they could; such running never was seen! One of

the guns they carried off with them; the tackle of the other broke, and

the drivers, jumping off their saddles, took to their legs at once. Our

lads were over the walls, through the windows, between the stockades,

every where, in fact, in a minute, and once inside, they carried all

before them. The village was taken at the point of the bayonet, and in

less than an hour the whole force of the brigade was advancing in full

march on the enemy's flank. There was little resistance made after that,

and Kaunitz only saved his artillery by leaving his rear guard to be cut

to pieces."

The cannonier nodded, as if in full assent, and Pierre looked around him

with the air of a man who has vindicated his claim to greatness.

"Of course," said he, "the dispatch said little about Pierre Canot, but

a great deal about Moreau, and Kleber, and the rest of them."

While some were well satisfied that Pierre had well established his

merits as the conqueror of "Grandrengs," others quizzed him about the

heroism of lying hid in a well, and owing all his glory to a skin of

parchment.

"An' thou went with the army of Italy, Pierre," said the hussar, "thou'd

have seen men march boldly to victory, and not skulk under ground like a

mole."

"I am tired of your song about this army of Italy," broke in the

cannonier; "we who have served in La Vendee and the North know what

fighting means, as well, mayhap, as men whose boldest feats are scaling

rocks and clambering up precipices. Your Bonaparte, is more like one of

these guerilla chiefs they have in the 'Basque,' than the general of a

French army."

"The man who insults the army of Italy, or its chief, insults _me_!"

said the corporal, springing up, and casting a sort of haughty defiance

around him.

"And then?" asked the other.

"And then--if he be a French soldier--he knows what should follow."

"Parbleu!" said the cannonier, coolly, "there would be little glory in

cutting you down, and even less in being wounded by you; but if you will

have it so, it's not an old soldier of the artillery will balk your

humor."

As he spoke, he slowly arose from the ground, and tightening his

waist-belt, seemed prepared to follow the other. The rest sprung to

their feet at the same time, but not, as I anticipated, to offer a

friendly mediation between the angry parties, but in full approval of

their readiness to decide by the sword a matter too trivial to be called

a quarrel.

In the midst of the whispering conferences as to place and weapons--for

the short, straight sword of the artillery was very unlike the curved

sabre of the hussar--the quick tramp of horses was heard, and suddenly

the head of a squadron was seen, as, with glancing helmets and

glittering equipments, they turned off the high-road, and entered the

wood.

"Here they come; here come the troops!" was now heard on every side, and

all question of the duel was forgotten in the greater interest inspired

by the arrival of the others. The sight was strikingly picturesque, for,

as they rode up, the order to dismount was given, and in an instant the

whole squadron was at work, picketing and unsaddling their horses;

forage was shaken out before the weary and hungry beasts; kits were

unpacked, cooking utensils produced, and every one busy in preparing

for the bivouac. An infantry column followed close upon the others,

which was again succeeded by two batteries of field-artillery, and some

squadrons of heavy dragoons; and now the whole wood, far and near, was

crammed with soldiers, wagons, caissons, and camp-equipage. To me the

interest of the scene was never-ending; life, bustle, and gayety on

every side. The reckless pleasantry of the camp, too, seemed elevated by

the warlike accompaniments of the picture; the caparisoned horses, the

brass guns blackened on many a battle-field, the weather-seamed faces of

the hardy soldiers themselves, all conspiring to excite a high

enthusiasm for the career.

Most of the equipments were new and strange to my eyes. I had never

before seen the grenadiers of the Republican Guard, with their enormous

shakos, and their long-flapped vests descending to the middle of the

thigh; neither had I seen the "Hussars de la mort," in their richly

braided uniform of black, and their long hair curled in ringlets at

either side of the face. The cuirassiers, too, with their low cocked

hats, and straight, black feathers, as well as the "Portes Drapeaux,"

whose brilliant uniforms, all slashed with gold, seemed scarcely in

keeping with yellow-topped boots: all were now seen by me for the first

time. But of all the figures which amused me most by its singularity,

was that of a woman, who, in a short frock-coat and a low-crowned hat,

carried a little barrel at her side, and led an ass loaded with two

similar, but rather larger casks. Her air and gait were perfectly

soldier-like; and as she passed the different posts and sentries, she

saluted them in true military fashion. I was not long to remain in

ignorance of her vocation nor her name; for scarcely did she pass a

group without stopping to dispense a wonderful cordial that she carried;

and then I heard the familiar title of "La Mere Madou," uttered in every

form of panegyric.

She was a short, stoutly-built figure, somewhat past the middle of life,

but without any impairment of activity in her movements. A pleasing

countenance, with good teeth and black eyes, a merry voice, and a ready

tongue, were qualities more than sufficient to make her a favorite with

the soldiers, whom I found she had followed to more than one battle

field.

"Peste!" cried an old grenadier, as he spat out the liquor on the

ground. "This is one of those sweet things they make in Holland; it

smacks of treacle and bad lemons."

"Ah, Grognard!" said she, laughing, "thou art more vised to corn-brandy,

with a clove of garlic in't, than to good curacoa."

"What, curacoa! Mere Madou, hast got curacoa there?" cried a

gray-whiskered captain, as he turned on his saddle at the word.

"Yes, mon capitaine, and such as no burgomaster ever drank better;" and

she filled out a little glass, and presented it gracefully to him.

"Encore, ma bonne Mere," said he, as he wiped his thick mustache; "that

liquor is another reason for extending the blessings of liberty to the

brave Dutch."

"Didn't I tell you so?" said she, refilling the glass: "but, holloa,

there goes Gregoire at full speed. Ah, scoundrels that ye are, I see

what ye've done." And so was it: some of the wild, young voltigeur

fellows had fastened a lighted furze-bush to the beast's tail, and had

set him, at a gallop, through the very middle of the encampment,

upsetting tents, scattering cooking-pans, and tumbling the groups, as

they sat, in every direction.

The confusion was tremendous; for the picketed horses jumped about, and

some, breaking loose, galloped here and there, while others set off with

half-unpacked wagons, scattering their loading as they went.

It was only when the blazing furze had dropped off, that the cause of

the whole mischance would suffer himself to be captured, and led quietly

back to his mistress. Half crying with joy, and still wild with anger,

she kissed the beast, and abused her tormentors by turns.

"Cannoniers that ye are," she cried, "ma foi! you'll have little face

for the fire when the day comes that ye should face it! Pauvre Gregoire,

they've left thee a tail like a tirailleur's feather! Plagues light on

the thieves that did it! Come here, boy," said she, addressing me, "hold

the bridle: what's thy corps, lad?"

"I have none now; I only followed the soldiers from Paris."

"Away with thee, street-runner; away with thee, then!" said she,

contemptuously; "there are no pockets to pick here, and if there were,

thou'd lose thy ears for the doing it. Be off, then; back with thee to

Paris and all its villainies. There are twenty thousand of thy trade

there, but there's work for ye all!"

"Nay, Mere, don't be harsh with the boy," said a soldier; "you can see

by his coat that his heart is with us."

"And he stole that, I'll be sworn," said she, pulling me round by the

arm, full in front of her. "Answer me, 'Gamin,' where didst find that

old tawdry jacket?"

"I got it in a place where, if they had hold of thee and thy bad tongue,

it would fare worse with thee than thou thinkest!" said I, maddened by

the imputed theft and insolence together.

"And where may that be, young slip of the galleys?" cried she, angrily.

"In the 'Prison du Temple.'"

"Is that their livery, then?" said she laughing, and pointing at me with

ridicule, "or is it a family dress made after thy father's?"

"My father wore a soldier's coat, and bravely, too," said I, with

difficulty restraining the tears that rose to my eyes.

"In what regiment, boy?" asked the soldier who spoke before.

"In one that exists no longer," said I, sadly, and not wishing to allude

to a service that would find but slight favor in republican ears.

"That must be the 24th of the Line; they were cut to pieces at

'Tongres.'"

"No--no, he's thinking of the 9th, that got so roughly handled at

Fontenoy," said another.

"Of neither," said I; "I am speaking of those who have left nothing but

a name behind them, the 'Garde du Corps' of the king."

"Voila!" cried Madou, clapping her hands in astonishment at my

impertinence; "there's an aristocrat for you! Look at him, mes braves!

It's not every day we have the grand seigneurs condescending to come

among us! You can learn something of courtly manners from the polished

descendant of our nobility. Say, boy, art a count, or a baron, or

perhaps a duke."

"Make way there--out of the road, Mere Madou," cried a dragoon,

curveting his horse in such a fashion as almost to upset ass and

"cantiniere" together, "the staff is coming."

The mere mention of the word sent numbers off in full speed to their

quarters; and now, all was haste and bustle to prepare for the coming

inspection. The Mere's endeavors to drag her beast along were not very

successful; for, with the peculiar instinct of his species, the more

necessity there was of speed, the lazier he became; and as every one had

his own concerns to look after, she was left to her own unaided efforts

to drive him forward.

"Thou'lt have a day in prison if thou'rt found here, Mere Madou," said a

dragoon, as he struck the ass with the flat of his sabre.

"I know it well," cried she, passionately; "but I have none to help me.

Come here, lad; be good-natured, and forget what passed. Take his bridle

while I whip him on."

I was at first disposed to refuse, but her pitiful face and sad plight

made me think better of it; and I seized the bridle at once; but just as

I had done so, the escort galloped forward, and the dragoons coming on

the flank of the miserable beast, over he went, barrels and all,

crushing me beneath him as he fell.

"Is the boy hurt?" were the last words I heard, for I fainted; but a few

minutes after I found myself seated on the grass, while a soldier was

stanching the blood that ran freely from a cut in my forehead.

"It is a trifle, general--a mere scratch," said a young officer to an

old man on horseback beside him, "and the leg is not broken."

"Glad of it," said the old officer; "casualties are insufferable, except

before an enemy. Send the lad to his regiment."

"He's only a camp-follower, general. He does not belong to us."

"There, my lad, take this, then, and make thy way back to Paris," said

the old general, as he threw me a small piece of money.

I looked up, and there, straight before me, saw the same officer who had

given me the assignat the night before.

"General La Coste!" cried I, in delight, for I thought him already a

friend.

"How is this--have I an acquaintance here?" said he, smiling: "on my

life! it's the young rogue I met this morning. Eh! art not thou the

artillery-driver I spoke to at the barrack?"

"Yes, general, the same."

"Diantre! It seems fated, then, that we are not to part company so

easily; for hadst thou remained in Paris, lad, we had most probably

never met again."

"Ainsi je suis bien tombe, general," said I, punning upon my accident.

He laughed heartily, less I suppose at the jest, which was a poor one,

than at the cool impudence with which I uttered it; and then turning to

one of the staff, said--

"I spoke to Berthollet about this boy already--see that they take him in

the 9th. I say, my lad, what's thy name?"

"Tiernay, sir."

"Ay, to be sure, Tiernay. Well, Tiernay, thou shalt be a hussar, my man.

See that I get no disgrace by the appointment."

I kissed his hand fervently, and the staff rode forward, leaving me the

happiest heart that beat in all that crowded host.

CHAPTER VII.

A PASSING ACQUAINTANCE.

If the guide who is to lead us on a long and devious track, stops at

every by-way, following out each path that seems to invite a ramble or

suggest a halt, we naturally might feel distrustful of his safe conduct,

and uneasy at the prospect of the road before us. In the same way may

the reader be disposed to fear that he who descends to slight and

trivial circumstances, will scarcely have time for events which ought to

occupy a wider space in his reminiscences; and for this reason I am

bound to apologize for the seeming transgression of my last chapter.

Most true it is, that were I to relate the entire of my life with a

similar diffuseness, my memoir would extend to a length far beyond what

I intend it to occupy. Such, however, is very remote from my thoughts. I

have dwelt with, perhaps, something of prolixity upon the soldier-life

and characteristics of a past day, because I shall yet have to speak of

changes, without which the contrast would be inappreciable; but I have

also laid stress upon an incident trivial in itself, because it formed

an event in my own fortunes. It was thus, in fact, that I became a

soldier.

Now, the man who carries a musket in the ranks, may very reasonably be

deemed but a small ingredient of the mass that forms an army: and in our

day his thoughts, hopes, fears, and ambitions are probably as unknown

and uncared for, as the precise spot of earth that yielded the ore from

which his own weapon was smelted. This is not only reasonable, but it is

right. In the time of which I am now speaking it was far otherwise. The

Republic, in extinguishing a class had elevated the individual; and now

each, in whatever station he occupied, felt himself qualified to

entertain opinions and express sentiments, which, because they were his

own, he presumed them to be national. The idlers of the streets

discussed the deepest questions of politics; the soldiers talked of war

with all the presumption of consummate generalship. The great operations

of a campaign, and the various qualities of different commanders, were

the daily subjects of dispute in the camp. Upon one topic only were all

agreed; and there, indeed, our unanimity repaid all previous

discordance. We deemed France the only civilized nation of the globe,

and reckoned that people thrice happy who, by any contingency of

fortune, engaged our sympathy, or procured the distinction of our

presence in arms. We were the heaven-born disseminators of freedom

throughout Europe; the sworn enemies of kingly domination; and the

missionaries of a political creed, which was not alone to ennoble

mankind, but to render its condition eminently happy and prosperous.

There could not be an easier lesson to learn than this, and particularly

when dinned into your ears all day, and from every rank and grade around

you. It was the programme of every message from the Directory; it was

the opening of every general order from the general; it was the

table-talk at your mess. The burden of every song, the title of every

military march performed by the regimental band, recalled it, even the

riding-master, as he followed the recruit around the weary circle, whip

in hand, mingled the orders he uttered with apposite axioms upon

republican grandeur. How I think I hear it still, as the grim old

quartermaster-sergeant, with his Alsatian accent and deep-toned voice,

would call out.

"Elbows back! wrist lower and free from the side; free, I say, as every

citizen of a great Republic! head erect, as a Frenchman has a right to

carry it! chest full out, like one who can breathe the air of Heaven,

and ask no leave from king or despot! down with your heel, sir; think

that you crush a tyrant beneath it!"

Such and such like were the running commentaries on equitation, till

often I forgot whether the lesson had more concern with a seat on

horseback or the great cause of monarchy throughout Europe. I suppose,

to use a popular phrase of our own day, "the system worked well;"

certainly the spirit of the army was unquestionable. From the grim old

veteran, with snow-white mustache, to the beardless boy, there was but

one hope and wish--the glory of France. How they understood that glory,

or in what it essentially consisted, is another and a very different

question.

Enrolled as a soldier in the ninth regiment of Hussars, I accompanied

that corps to Nancy, where, at that time, a large cavalry school was

formed, and where the recruits from the different regiments were trained

and managed before being sent forward to their destination.

A taste for equitation, and a certain aptitude for catching up the

peculiar character of the different horses, at once distinguished me in

the riding school, and I was at last adopted by the riding-master of the

regiment as a kind of _aide_ to him in his walk. When I thus became a

bold and skillful horseman, my proficiency interfered with my promotion,

for instead of accompanying my regiment, I was detained at Nancy, and

attached to the permanent staff of the cavalry school there.

At first I asked for nothing better. It was a life of continued pleasure

and excitement, and while I daily acquired knowledge of a subject which

interested me deeply, I grew tall and strong of limb, and with that

readiness in danger, and that cool collectedness in moments of

difficulty, that are so admirably taught by the accidents and mischances

of a cavalry riding-school.

The most vicious and unmanageable beasts from the Limousin were often

sent to us; and when any one of these was deemed peculiarly untractable,

"Give him to Tiernay," was the last appeal, before abandoning him as

hopeless. I'm certain I owe much of the formation of my character to my

life at this period, and that my love of adventure, my taste for

excitement, my obstinate resolution to conquer a difficulty, my

inflexible perseverance when thwarted, and my eager anxiety for praise,

were all picked up amid the sawdust and tan of the riding-school. How

long I might have continued satisfied with such triumphs, and content to

be the wonder of the freshly-joined conscripts, I know not, when

accident, or something very like it, decided the question.

It was a calm, delicious evening in April, in the year after I had

entered the school, that I was strolling alone on the old fortified

wall, which, once a strong redoubt, was the favorite walk of the good

citizens of Nancy. I was somewhat tired with the fatigues of the day,

and sat down to rest under one of the acacia trees, whose delicious

blossom was already scenting the air. The night was still and noiseless;

not a man moved along the wall; the hum of the city was gradually

subsiding, and the lights in the cottages over the plain told that the

laborer was turning homeward from his toil. It was an hour to invite

calm thoughts, and so I fell a-dreaming over the tranquil pleasures of a

peasant's life, and the unruffled peace of an existence passed amid

scenes that were endeared by years of intimacy. "How happily," thought

I, "time must steal on in these quiet spots, where the strife and

struggle of war are unknown, and even the sounds of conflict, never

reach." Suddenly my musings were broken in upon by hearing the measured

tramp of cavalry, as at a walk, a long column wound their way along the

zig-zag approaches, which by many a redoubt and fosse, over many a draw

bridge, and beneath many a strong arch, led to the gates of Nancy. The

loud, sharp call of a trumpet was soon heard, and, after a brief parley,

the massive gates of the fortress were opened for the troops to enter.

From the position I occupied exactly over the gate, I could not only see

the long, dark line of armed men as they passed, but also hear the

colloquy which took place as they entered.

"What regiment?"

"Detachments of the 12th Dragoons and the 22d Chasseurs-a-Cheval."

"Where from?"

"Valence."

"Where to?"

"The army of the Rhine."

"Pass on!"

And with the words the ringing sound of the iron-shod horses was heard

beneath the vaulted entrance. As they issued from beneath the long, deep

arch, the men were formed in line along two sides of a wide "Place"

inside the walls, where, with that dispatch that habit teaches, the

billets were speedily distributed, and the parties "told off" in squads

for different parts of the city. The force seemed a considerable one,

and with all the celerity they could employ, the billeting occupied a

long time. As I watched the groups moving off, I heard the direction

given to one party, "Cavalry School--Rue de Lorraine." The young officer

who commanded the group took a direction exactly the reverse of the

right one; and hastening down from the rampart, I at once overtook them,

and explained the mistake. I offered them my guidance to the place,

which being willingly accepted, I walked along at their side.

Chatting as we went, I heard that the dragoons were hastily withdrawn

from the La Vendee to form part of the force under General Hoche. The

young sous-lieutenant, a mere boy of my own age, had already served in

two campaigns in Holland and the south of France; had been wounded in

the Loire, and received his grade of officer at the hands of Hoche

himself on the field of battle.

He could speak of no other name--Hoche was the hero of all his

thoughts--his gallantry, his daring, his military knowledge, his

coolness in danger, his impetuosity in attack, his personal amiability,

the mild gentleness of his manner, were themes the young soldier loved

to dwell on; and however pressed by me to talk of war and its chances,

he inevitably came back to the one loved theme--his general.

When the men were safely housed for the night, I invited my new friend

to my own quarters, where, having provided the best entertainment I

could afford, we passed more than half the night in chatting. There was

nothing above mediocrity in the look or manner of the youth; his

descriptions of what he had seen were unmarked by any thing glowing or

picturesque; his observations did not evince either a quick or a

reflective mind, and yet, over this mass of commonplace, enthusiasm for

his leader had shed a rich glow, like a gorgeous sunlight on a

landscape, that made all beneath it seem brilliant and splendid.

"And now," said he, after an account of the last action he had seen,

"and now, enough of myself; let's talk of thee. Where hast thou been?"

"Here!" said I, with a sigh, and in a voice that shame had almost made

inaudible; "Here, here, at Nancy."

"Not always here?"

"Just so. Always here."

"And what doing, mon cher. Thou art not one of the Municipal Guard,

surely?"

"No," said I, smiling sadly; "I belong to the 'Ecole d'Equitation.'"

"Ah, that's it," said he, in somewhat of confusion; "I always thought

they selected old sergeants en retraite, worn out veterans, and wounded

fellows, for riding-school duty."

"Most of ours are such," said I, my shame increasing at every word--"but

somehow they chose me also, and I had no will in the matter--"

"No will in the matter, parbleu! and why not? Every man in France has a

right to meet the enemy in the field. Thou art a soldier, a hussar of

the 9th, a brave and gallant corps, and art to be told, that thy

comrades have the road to fame and honor open to them; while thou art to

mope away life like an invalided drummer? It is too gross an indignity,

my boy, and must not be borne. Away with you to-morrow at day-break to

the 'Etat Major,' ask to see the commandant. You're in luck, too, for

our colonel is with him now, and he is sure to back your request. Say

that you served in the school to oblige your superiors; but that you can

not see all chances of distinction lost to you forever, by remaining

there. They've given you no grade yet, I see," continued he, looking at

my arm.

"None: I am still a private."

"And _I_ a sous-lieutenant, just because I have been where powder was

flashing! You can ride well, of course?"

"I defy the wildest Limousin to shake me in my saddle."

"And as a swordsman, what are you?"

"Gros Jean calls me his best pupil."

"Ah, true! you have Gros Jean here; the best 'sabreur' in France! And

here you are--a horseman, and one of Gros Jean's 'eleves'--rotting away

life in Nancy! Have you any friends in the service?"

"Not one."

"Not one! Nor relations, nor connections?"

"None. I am Irish by descent. My family are only French by one

generation."

"Irish? Ah! that's lucky too," said he. "Our colonel is an Irishman. His

name is Mahon. You're certain of getting your leave now. I'll present

you to him to-morrow. We are to halt two days here, and before that is

over, I hope you'll have made your last caracole in the riding-school of

Nancy."

"But remember," cried I, "that although Irish by family, I have never

been there. I know nothing of either the people or the language; and do

not present me to the general as his countryman."

"I'll call you by your name, as a soldier of the 9th Hussars; and leave

you to make out your claim as countrymen, if you please, together."

This course was now agreed upon, and after some further talking, my

friend, refusing all my offers of a bed, coolly wrapped his cloak about

him, and, with his head on the table, fell fast asleep, long before I

had ceased thinking over his stories and his adventures in camp and

battle-field.

CHAPTER VIII.

"TRONCHON."

My duties in the riding-school were always over before mid-day, and as

noon was the hour appointed by the young lieutenant to present me to his

colonel, I was ready by that time, and anxiously awaiting his arrival. I

had done my best to smarten up my uniform, and make all my accoutrements

bright and glistening. My scabbard was polished like silver, the steel

front on my shako shone like a mirror, and the tinsel lace of my jacket

had undergone a process of scrubbing and cleaning that threatened its

very existence. My smooth chin and beardless upper lip, however, gave me

a degree of distress, that all other deficiencies failed to inflict: I

can dare to say, that no mediaeval gentleman's bald spot ever cost _him_

one half the misery, as did my lack of mustache occasion _me_. "A hussar

without beard, as well without spurs or sabretasche;" a tambour major

without his staff, a cavalry charger without a tail, couldn't be more

ridiculous: and there was that old sergeant of the riding-school,

"Tronchon," with a beard that might have made a mattress! How the goods

of this world are unequally distributed! thought I; still why might he

not spare me a little--a very little would suffice--just enough to give

the "air hussar" to my countenance. He's an excellent creature; the

kindest old fellow in the world. I'm certain he'd not refuse me; to be

sure the beard is a red one, and pretty much like bell-wire in

consistence; no matter, better that than this girlish smooth chin I now

wear.

Tronchon was spelling out the _Moniteur's_ account of the Italian

campaign as I entered his room, and found it excessively difficult to

get back from the Alps and Apennines to the humble request I preferred.

"Poor fellows," muttered he, "four battles in seven days, without stores

of any kind, or rations--almost without bread; and here comest thou,

whining because thou hasn't a beard."

"If I were not a hussar--"

"Bah!" said he, interrupting, "what of that? Where should'st thou have

had thy baptism of blood, boy? Art a child, nothing more."

"I shared my quarters last night with one, not older, Tronchon, and _he_

was an officer, and had seen many a battle-field."

"I know that, too," said the veteran, with an expression of impatience,

"that General Bonaparte will give every boy his epaulets, before an old

and tried soldier."

"It was not Bonaparte. It was--"

"I care not who promoted the lad; the system is just the same with them

all. It is no longer, 'Where have you served? what have you seen?' but,

'Can you read glibly? can you write faster than speak? have you learned

to take towns upon paper, and attack a breast-work with a rule and a

pair of compasses!' This is what they called 'la genie,' 'la genie!' ha!

ha! ha!" cried he, laughing heartily; "that's the name old women used to

give the devil when I was a boy."

It was with the greatest difficulty I could get him back from these

disagreeable reminiscences to the object of my visit, and, even then, I

could hardly persuade him that I was serious in asking the loan of a

beard. The prayer of my petition being once understood, he discussed the

project gravely enough; but to my surprise he was far more struck by the

absurd figure he should cut with his diminished mane, than I with my

mock mustache.

"There's not a child in Nancy won't laugh at me--they'll cry, 'There

goes old Tronchon--he's like Klaber's charger, which the German cut the

tail off to make a shako plume!'"

I assured him that he might as well pretend to miss one tree in the

forest of "Fontainebleu"--that after furnishing a squadron like myself,

his would be still the first beard in the Republic; and at last he

yielded, and gave in.

Never did a little damsel of the nursery array her doll with

more delighted looks, and gaze upon her handiwork with more

self-satisfaction, than did old Tronchon survey me, as, with the aid of

a little gum, he decorated my lip with a stiff line of his iron red

beard.

"Diantre!" cried he, in ecstasy, "if thou ben't something like a man,

after all. Who would have thought it would have made such a change? Thou

might pass for one that saw real smoke and real fire, any day, lad. Ay!

thou hast another look in thine eye, and another way to carry thy head,

now! Trust me, thou'lt look a different fellow on the left of the

squadron."

I began to think so, too, as I looked at myself in the small triangle of

a looking-glass, which decorated Tronchon's wall, under a picture of

Kellerman, his first captain. I fancied that the improvement was most

decided. I thought that, bating a little over-ferocity, a something

verging upon the cruel, I was about as perfect a type of the hussar as

need be. My jacket seemed to fit tighter--my pelisse hung more

jauntily--my shako sat more saucily on one side of my head--my sabre

banged more proudly against my boot--my very spurs jangled with a

pleasanter music--and all because a little hair bristled over my lip,

and curled in two spiral flourishes across my cheek! I longed to see the

effect of my changed appearance, as I walked down the "Place Carriere,"

or sauntered into the cafe where my comrades used to assemble. What will

Mademoiselle Josephine say, thought I, as I ask for my "petit verre,"

caressing my mustache thus! Not a doubt of it, what a fan is to a woman,

a beard is to a soldier! a something to fill up the pauses in

conversation, by blandly smoothing with the finger, or fiercely curling

at the point!

"And so thou art going to ask for thy grade, Maurice?" broke in

Tronchon, after a long silence.

"Not at all. I am about to petition for employment upon active service.

I don't seek promotion till I have deserved it."

"Better still, lad. I was eight years myself in the ranks before they

gave me the stripe on my arm. Parbleu! the Germans had given me some

three or four with the sabre before that time."

"Do you think they'll refuse me, Tronchon?"

"Not if thou go the right way about it, lad. Thou mustn't fancy it's

like asking leave from the captain to spend the evening in a guinguette,

or to go to the play with thy sweetheart. No, no, boy. It must be done

'en regle.' Thou'lt have to wait on the general at his quarters at four

o'clock, when he 'receives,' as they call it. Thou'lt be there, mayhap,

an hour, ay, two, or three belike, and after all, perhaps, won't see him

that day at all! I was a week trying to catch Kellerman, and, at last,

he only spoke to me going down stairs with his staff.

"'Eh, Tronchon, another bullet in thy old carcass; want a furlough to

get strong again, eh?'

"'No, colonel; all sound this time. I want to be a sergeant--I'm twelve

years and four months corporal.'

"'Slow work, too,' said he, laughing, 'ain't it, Charles?' and he

pinched one of his young officers by the cheek. 'Let old Tronehon have

his grade; and I say, my good fellow,' said he to me, 'don't come

plaguing me any more about promotion, till I'm General of Division. You

hear that?'

"Well, he's got his step since; but I never teased him after."

"And why so, Tronchon?" said I.

"I'll tell thee, lad," whispered he, in a low, confidential tone, as if

imparting a secret well worth the hearing. "They can find fellows every

day fit for lieutenants and chefs d'escadron. Parbleu! they meet with

them in every cafe, in every 'billiard' you enter; but a sergeant,

Maurice, one that drills his men on parade--can dress them like a

wall--see that every kit is well packed, and every cartouch well

filled--who knows every soul in his company as he knows the buckles of

his own sword-belt--that's what one should not chance upon, in haste.

It's easy enough to manoeuvre the men, Maurice; but to make them, boy,

to fashion the fellows so that they be like the pieces of a great

machine, that's the real labor--that's soldiering, indeed."

"And you say I must write a petition, Tronchon?" said I, more anxious to

bring him back to my own affairs, than listen to these speculations of

his. "How shall I do it?"

"Sit down there, lad, and I'll tell thee. I've done the thing some

scores of times, and know the words as well as I once knew my 'Pater.'

Parbleu, I often wish I could remember that now, just to keep me from

gloomy thoughts when I sit alone of an evening."

It was not a little to his astonishment, but still more to his delight,

that I told the poor fellow I could help to refresh his memory, knowing,

as I did, every word of the litanies by heart; and, accordingly, it was

agreed on that I should impart religious instruction, in exchange for

the secular knowledge he was conferring upon me.

"As for the petition," said Tronchon, seating himself opposite to me at

the table, "it is soon done; for, mark me, lad, these things must always

be short; if thou be long-winded, they put thee away, and tell some of

the clerks to look after thee--and there's an end of it. Be brief,

therefore, and next--be legible--write in a good, large round hand; just

as, if thou wert speaking, thou wouldst talk with a fine, clear,

distinct voice. Well, then, begin thus, 'Republic of France, one and

indivisible!' Make a flourish round that, lad, as if it came freely from

the pen. When a man writes 'FRANCE!' he should do it as he whirls his

sabre round his head in a charge! Ay, just so."

"I'm ready, Tronchon, go on."

"'Mon General!' Nay, nay--General mustn't be as large as France--yes,

that's better. 'The undersigned, whose certificates of service and

conduct are herewith inclosed.'" "Stay, stop a moment, Tronchon; don't

forget that I have got neither one or t'other." "No matter; I'll make

thee out both. Where was I? Ay, 'herewith inclosed; and whose wounds, as

the accompanying report will show--'"

"Wounds! I never received one."

"No matter, I'll--eh--what? Feu d'enfer! how stupid I am! What have I

been thinking of? Why, boy, it was a sick-furlough I was about to ask

for; the only kind of petition I have ever had to write in a life long."

"And _I_ am asking for active service."

"Ha! That came without asking for in my case."

"Then, what's to be done, Tronchon? clearly, this won't do!"

He nodded sententiously an assent, and, after a moment's rumination,

said,

"It strikes me, lad, there can be no need of begging for that which

usually comes unlooked for; but if thou don't choose to wait for thy

billet for t'other world, but must go and seek it, the best way will be

to up and tell the general as much."

"That was exactly my intention."

"If he asks thee 'Canst ride?' just say, 'Old Tronchon taught me;' he'll

be one of the young hands, indeed, if he don't know that name! And mind,

lad, have no whims or caprices about whatever service he names thee for,

even were't the infantry itself! It's a hard word, that! I know it well!

but a man must make up his mind for any thing and every thing. Wear any

coat, go any where, face any enemy thou'rt ordered, and have none of

those new-fangled notions about this general, or that army. Be a good

soldier, and a good comrade. Share thy kit and thy purse to the last

sous, for it will not only be generous in thee, but that so long as thou

hoardest not, thou'lt never be over eager for pillage. Mind these

things, and with a stout heart and a sharp sabre, Maurice, 'tu ira

loin.' Yes, I tell thee again, lad, 'tu ira loin'."

I give these three words as he said them, for they have rung in my ears

throughout all my life long. In moments of gratified ambition, in the

glorious triumph of success, they have sounded to me like the confirmed

predictions of one who foresaw my elevation, in less prosperous hours.

When fortune has looked dark and louring, they have been my comforter

and support, telling me not to be downcast or depressed, that the season

of sadness would soon pass away, and the road to fame and honor again

open before me.

"You really think so, Tronchon? You think that I shall be something

yet?'

"'Tu ira loin,' I say," repeated he emphatically, and with the air of an

oracle who would not suffer further interrogation. I therefore shook his

hand cordially, and set out to pay my visit to the general.

(_To be continued.)_

[From the London Eclectic Review.]

HAVE GREAT POETS BECOME IMPOSSIBLE?[18]

"Poetry is declining--poetry is being extinguished--poetry is extinct.

To talk of poetry now is eccentricity--to write it is absurdity--to

publish it is moonstruck madness." So the changes are rung. Now, it is

impossible to deny that what is called poetry has become a drug, a bore,

and nuisance, and that the name "Poet," as commonly applied, is at

present about the shabbiest in the literary calendar. But we are far

from believing that poetry is extinct. We entertain, on the contrary,

sanguine hopes of its near and glorious resurrection. Soon do we hope to

hear those tones of high melody, which are now like the echoes of

forgotten thunder:

"From land to land re-echoed solemnly,

Till silence become music."

We expect, about the very time, when the presumption against the

revivication of poetry shall have attained the appearance of absolute

certainty, to witness a Tenth Avatar of Genius--and to witness its

effect, too, upon the sapient personages who had been predicting that it

was forever departed.

But this, it seems, is "not a poetical age." For our parts, we know not

what age has not been poetical--in what age have not existed all the

elements of poetry, been developed all its passions, and been heard many

of its tones. "Were the dark ages poetical?" it will be asked. Yes, for

then, as now, there was pathos--there was passion--there were hatred,

revenge, love, grief, despair, religion. Wherever there is the fear of

death and of judgment, there is, and must be poetry--and when was that

feeling more intensely developed than during that dim period? The

victims of a spell are objects of poetical interest. Here was a strong

spell, embracing a world. Was no arm during the dark ages bared aloft in

defense of outraged innocence? Or was no head then covered with the

snows of a hundred winters, through one midnight despair? Was the voice

of prayer then stifled throughout Europe's hundred lands? Was the mighty

heart of man--the throbbing of which is just poetry, then utterly

silent? But it was not expressed! We maintain, on the contrary, that it

was--expressed at the time, in part by monks, and scalds, and orators,

and expressed afterward in the glad energy of the spring which human

nature made from its trance, into new life and motion. The elements of

poetry had been accumulating in secret. The renovation of letters merely

opened a passage for what had been struggling for vent. What is Dante's

work but a beautiful incarnation of the spirit of the Middle Ages? His

passion is that of a sublimated Inquisitor. His "Inferno" is such a

dream as might have been dreamed by a poet monk, whose body had been

macerated by austerities, and whose spirit had been darkened by long

broodings on the fate of the victims of perdition. It is the poetical

part of the passion of those ages of darkness finding a full voice--an

eternal echo. And it was not in vain that so deep had been the slumber,

when such had been its visions. There is a grandeur about any passion

when carried to excess. Superstition, therefore, became the inspiration

of one of the greatest productions of the universe. Dante was needed

precisely when he appeared. The precise quantity of poetical material to

answer the ends of a great original poet was accumulated; and the mighty

Florentine, when he rose, became the mouth-piece and oracle of his age

and of its cognate ages past--the exact index of all that redeemed,

animated, excited, or adorned them.

The crusades, too, were another proof that the slumber in which Europe

had been buried was not absolutely and altogether that of stupor or

death. They occurred after the noon of that period we usually denominate

dark. But they were the realization of a dream which had often passed

through the monkish heart--the embodiment, of a wish which had often

brought tears into the eyes of genuine enthusiasts. There was, surely,

as much sublimity in the first conception as in the execution. What

indeed were the crusades, but the means of bringing to light, feelings,

desires, passions, a lofty disinterested heroism, which the very depth

of the former darkness had tended to foster and fire?

If the dark ages had thus their poetical tendencies, climbing toward a

full poetic expression, surely no age need or can be destitute of

theirs--need or can be called unpoetical. But the misfortune is, that

men will not look at the essential poetry which is lying around them,

and under their feet. They suppose their age to be unpoetical, merely

because they grapple not with its great excitements, nor will venture to

sail upon its "mighty stream of tendency." They overlook the volcano in

the next mountain--while admiring or deploring those which have been

extinct for centuries, or which are a thousand miles away. They are

afraid that if they catch the spirit of their age in verse, they will

give it a temporary stamp; and therefore they either abstain from

writing, and take to abusing the age on which they have unluckily

fallen, or else come to the same resolution after an unsuccessful

attempt to revive faded stimulants. Dante embodied, for instance, his

countrymen's rude conception of future punishment--and he did well. But

our modern religious poets have never ventured to meddle with those

moral aspects of the subject which have now so generally supplanted the

material. They talk instead, with Pollok, of the "rocks of dark

damnation," or outrage common sense by such barbarous mis-creations as

he has sculptured on the gate of hell, and think they have written an

"Inferno," or that, if they have failed, it is because their age is not

poetical.

Indeed, the least poetry is sometimes written in the most poetical ages.

Men, when acting poetry, have little time either to write or to read it.

There was less poetry written in the age of Charles I., than in that

which preceded it, and more poetry enacted. But the majority of men only

listen to the reverberations of emotion in song. They sympathize not

with poetry, but with poets. And, therefore, when a cluster of poets

die, or are buried before they be dead, they chant dirges over the death

of poetry--as if it ever did or ever could die! as if its roots, which

are just the roots of the human soul, were perishable--as if, especially

when a strong current of excitement was flowing, it were not plain, that

there was a poetry which should, in due time, develop its own masters to

record and prolong it forever. Surely, as long as the grass is green and

the sky is blue, as long as man's heart is warm and woman's face is

fair, poetry, like seed-time and harvest, like summer and winter shall

not cease.

There was little poetry, some people think, about England's civil war,

because the leader of one party was a red-nosed fanatic. They, for their

part, cannot extract poetry from a red nose; but they are in raptures

with Milton. Fools! but for that civil war, its high and solemn

excitement, the deeds and daring of that red-nosed fanatic, would the

"Paradise Lost" ever have been written, or written as it has been? That

stupendous edifice of genius seems cemented by the blood of Naseby and

of Marston Moor.

Such persons, too, see little that is poetical in the American

struggle--no mighty romance in tumbling a few chests of tea into the

Atlantic. Washington they think insipid; and because America has

produced hitherto no great poet, its whole history they regard as a

gigantic commonplace--thus ignoring the innumerable deeds of derring-do

which distinguished that immortal contest--blinding their eyes to the

"lines of empire" in the "infant face of that cradled Hercules," and the

tremendous sprawlings of his nascent strength--and seeking to degrade

those forests into whose depths a path for the sunbeams must be hewn,

and where, lightning appears to enter trembling, and to withdraw in

haste; forests which must one day drop down a poet, whose genius shall

be worthy of their age, their vastitude, the beauty which they inclose,

and the load of grandeur below which they bend.

Nor, to the vulgar eye, does there seem much poetry in the French

Revolution, though it was the mightiest tide of human passion which ever

boiled and raved: a great deal, doubtless, in Burke's "Reflections"--but

none in the cry of a liberated people, which was heard in heaven--none

in the fall of the Bastile--none in Danton's giant figure, nor in

Charlotte Corday's homicide--nor in Madame Roland's scaffold speeches,

immortal though they be as the stars of heaven--nor in the wild song of

the six hundred Marseillese, marching northward "to die." The age of the

French Revolution was proved to be a grand and spirit-stirring age by

its after results--by bringing forth its genuine poet-children--its

Byrons and Shelleys--but needed not this late demonstration of its power

and tendencies.

Surely our age, too, abounds in the elements of poetical excitement,

awaiting; only fit utterance. The harvest is rich and ripe--and nothing

now is wanting but laborers to put in the sickle.

_Special_ objections might indeed, and have been taken, to the poetical

character of our time, which we may briefly dispose of before

enumerating the qualities which a new and great poet, aspiring to be the

Poet of the Age, must possess, and inquiring how far Mr. S. Yendys

exhibits those qualities in this very remarkable first effort, "The

Roman."

"It is a mechanical age," say some. To use Shakspeare's words, "he is a

mechanical salt-butter rogue who says so." Men use more machines than

formerly, but are not one whit more machines themselves. Was James Watt

an automaton? Has the press become less an object of wonder or terror

since it was worked by steam? How sublime was the stoppage of a mail as

the index of rebellion. Luther's Bible was printed by a machine. The

organ is a machine--and not the roar of a lion in a midnight forest is

more sublime, or a fitter reply from earth to the thunder. The railway

carriages of this mechanical age are the conductors of the fire of

intellect and passion--and its steamboats may be loaded with

thunderbolts, as well as with bullocks or yarn. The great American ship

is but a machine; and yet how poetical it becomes, as it walks the

waters of the summer sea, or wrestles, like a demon of kindred power,

with the angry billows. Mechanism, indeed, may be called the short-hand

of poetry, concentrating its force and facilitating its operations.

But this is an "age too late." So doubted Milton, while the shadow of

Shakspeare had scarce left the earth, and while he himself was writing

the greatest epic the world ever saw. And so any one may say, provided

he does not mutilate or restrain his genius in consequence. We have

reason to bless Providence that Milton did not act upon his hasty

peradventure. But some will attempt to prove its truth, by saying that

the field of poetry is limited--that the first cultivators will probably

exhaust it, and that, in fact, a decline in poetry has been

observed--the first poets being uniformly the best. But we deny that the

field of poetry is limited. That is nature and the deep heart of man;

or, more correctly, the field of poetry is human nature, and the

external universe, multiplied indefinitely by the imagination. This,

surely, is a wide enough territory. Where shall poetry, if sent forth

like Noah's dove, fail to find a resting-place? Each new fact in the

history of man and nature is a fact for _it_--suited to its purposes,

and awaiting its consecration.

"The great writers have exhausted it." True, they have exhausted,

speaking generally, the topics they have handled. Few will think of

attempting the "Fall of Man" after Milton--and Dryden and Galt, alone,

have dared, to their own disgrace, to burst within Shakspeare's magic

circle. But the great poets have not verily occupied the entire field of

poetry--have not counted all the beatings of the human heart--have not

lighted on all those places whence poetry, like water from the smitten

rock, rushes at the touch of genius--have not exhausted all the "riches

fineless" which garnish the universe--nay, they have multiplied them

infinitely, and shed on them a deeper radiance. The more poetry there

is, the more there must be. A good criticism on a great poem becomes a

poem itself. It is the essence of poetry to increase and multiply--to

create an echo and shadow of its own power, even as the voice of the

cataract summons the spirits of the wilderness to return it in thunder.

As truly say that storms can exhaust the sky, as that poems can exhaust

the blue dome of poesy. We doubt, too, the dictum that the earliest

poets are uniformly the best. Who knows not that many prefer Eschylus to

Homer; and many, Virgil to Lucretius; and many, Milton to Shakspeare;

and that a nation sets Goethe above all men, save Shakspeare; and has

not the toast been actually given, "To the two greatest of

poets--Shakspeare and _Byron_?" To settle the endless questions

connected with such a topic by any dogmatical assertion of the

superiority of early poets, is obviously impossible.

But "the age will not now read poetry." True, it will not read whatever

bears the name it will not read nursery themes; nor tenth-rate

imitations of tenth-rate imitations of Byron, Scott, or Wordsworth; nor

the effusions either of mystical cant, or of respectable commonplace;

nor yet very willingly the study-sweepings of reputed men, who deem, in

their complacency, that the world is gaping for the rinsings of their

intellect. But it will read genuine poetry, if it be accommodated to the

wants of the age, and if it be fairly brought before it. "Vain to cast

pearls before swine!" Cast down the pearls before you call the men of

the age swine. In truth, seldom had a true and new poet a fairer field,

or the prospect of a wider favor, than at this very time. The age

remembers that many of those poets it now delights to honor, were at

first received with obloquy or neglect. It is not so likely to renew the

disgraceful sin, since it recollects the disgraceful repentance. It is

becoming wide awake, and is ready to recognize every symptom of original

power. The reviews and literary journals are still, indeed,

comparatively an unfair medium; but, by their multitude and their

contradictions, have neutralized each other's power, and rendered the

public less willing and less apt to be bullied or blackguarded out of

its senses. Were Hazlitt alive now, and called, by any miserable

scribbler in the "Athenaeum" or "Spectator," a dunce, he could laugh in

his face; instead of retiring as he did, perhaps hunger-bitten, to bleed

out his heart's blood in secret. Were Shelley now called in "Blackwood"

a madman, and Keats a mannikin, they would be as much disturbed by it as

the moon at the baying of a Lapland wolf. The good old art, in short, of

writing an author up or down, is dying hard, but dying fast; and the

public is beginning to follow the strange new fashion of discarding its

timid, or truculent, or too-much-seasoned tasters, and judging for

itself. We have often imaged to ourselves the rapture with which a poet,

of proper proportions and due culture, if writing in his age's spirit,

would be received in an age when the works of Coleridge, and Wordsworth,

and Keats, are so widely read and thoroughly appreciated. He would find

it "all ear."

Great things, however, must be done by the man who cherishes this high

ambition. He must not only be at once a genius and an artist, but his

art and his genius must be proportioned, with chemical exactness, to

each other. He must not only be a poet, but have a distinct mission and

message, savoring of the prophetic--he must say as well as sing. He

must use his poetic powers as wonders attesting the purpose for which he

speaks--not as mere bravados of ostentatious power. He must, while

feeling the beauty, the charm, and the meaning of mysticism, stand above

it, on a clear and sun-lighted peak, and incline _rather_ to the

classical and masculine, than to the abstract and transcendental. His

genius should be less epic and didactic, than lyrical and popular. He

should be not so much the Homer as the Tyrtaeus of this strange time. He

should have sung over to himself the deep controversies of his age, and

sought to reduce them into an unique and intelligible harmony. Into

scales of doubt, equally balanced, he should be ready to throw his lyre,

as a makeweight. Not a partisan either of the old or the new, he should

seek to set in song the numerous points in which they agree, and strive

to produce a glorious synthesis between them. He should stand (as on a

broad platform) on the identity and eternity of all that is good and

true--on the fact that "faiths never die, but are only translated"--on

the fact that beauty physical and beauty moral are in heart the same;

and that Christianity, as rightly understood, is at once the root and

the flower of all truth--and, standing on this, should sing his fearless

strains to the world. He should have a high idea of his art--counting it

a lower inspiration, a sacred trust, a minor grace--a plant from a seed

originally dropped out of the paradise of God! He should find in it a

work, and not a recreation--an affair of life, not of moments of

leisure. And while appealing, by his earnestness, his faith, his

holiness, his genius, to the imagination, the heart, and the conscience

of man, he should possess, or attain to, the mechanical ingenuity that

can satisfy man's constructive understanding, the elegance that can

please his sensuous taste, the fluency that can blend ease with

instruction, and the music that can touch through the ear the inner

springs of his being. Heart and genius, art and nature, sympathy with

man and God, love of the beautiful apparition of the universe, and of

that divine halo of Christianity which surrounds its head, must be

united in our poet. He should conjoin Byron's energy--better controlled;

Shelley's earnestness--better instructed; Keats's sensibility--guarded

and armed; Wordsworth's Christianized love of Nature; and Coleridge's

Christianized view of philosophy--to his own fancy, language, melody,

and purpose; a lofty ideal of man the spirit, to a deep sympathy with

man the worm, toiling, eating, drinking, struggling, falling, rising,

and progressing, amidst his actual environments; and become the Magnus

Apollo of our present age.

Perhaps we have fixed the standard too high, and forced a renewal of the

exclamation in Rasselas, "Thou hast convinced me that no man can ever be

a poet"--or, at least, the poet thus described. But nothing, we are

persuaded, is in the imagination which may not be in the fact. Had we

defined a Shakspeare ere he arose, "impossible" had been the cry. It

must, too, be conceded that hitherto we have no rising, or nearly-risen

poet, who answers fully to our ideal. Macaulay and Aytoun are content

with being brilliant ballad-singers--they never seek to touch the deeper

spiritual chords of our being. Tennyson's exquisite genius is

neutralized, whether by fastidiousness of taste or by morbidity of

temperament--neutralized, we mean, so far as great future achievements

are concerned. Emerson's undisguised Pantheism casts a cold shade over

his genius and his poetry. There is something odd, mystical, and shall

we say affected, about both the Brownings, which mars their general

effect--the wine is good, but the shape of the cyathus is deliberately

_queer_. Samuel Brown is devoted to other pursuits. Marston's very

elegant, refined, and accomplished mind, lacks, perhaps, enough of the

manly, the forceful, and the profound. Bailey of "Festus," and Yendys of

the poem before us, are the most likely candidates for the vacant

laurel.

That Bailey's _genius_ is all that need be desired in the "coming poet,"

will be contested by few who have read and wondered at "Festus"--at its

fire of speech, its force of sentiment, its music of sound, its

Californian wealth of golden imagery; the infinite variety of its

scenes, speeches, and songs; the spirit of reverence which underlies all

its liberties, errors, and extravagances; and the originality which,

like the air of a mountain summit, renders its perusal at first

difficult, and almost deadly, but at last excites and elevates to

absolute intoxication. It has, however, been objected to it, that it

seems an exhaustion of the author's mind--that its purposeless, planless

shape betrays a lack of constructive power--that it becomes almost

polemical in its religious aspect, and gives up to party what was meant

for mankind--that it betrays a tendency toward obscure, mystical

raptures and allegorizings, scarcely consistent with healthy manhood of

mind, and which seems _growing_, as is testified by the "Angel

World"--that there is a great gulf between the powers it indicates, and

the task of leading the age--and that, on the whole, it is rather a

prodigious comet in the poetical heavens, than either a still, calm

luminary, or even the curdling of a future fair creation.

Admitting the force of much of this criticism, and that Bailey's art and

aptitude to teach are unequal to his native power and richness of mind,

we are still willing to wait for a production more matured than

"Festus," and less fragmentary and dim than the "Angel World;" and till

then, must waive our judgment as to whether on his head the laurel crown

is transcendently to flourish.

But meanwhile a young voice has suddenly been uplifted from a provincial

town in England, crying, "Hear me--I also am a poet; I aspire, too, to

prove myself worthy of being a teacher I aim at no middle flight, but

commit myself at once to high, difficult, and daring song, and that,

too, of varied kinds." Nor has the voice been despised or disregarded.

Some of the most fastidious of critical journals have already waxed

enthusiastic in his praise. Many fine spirits, both young and old, have

welcomed him with acclamation, as his own hero was admitted, for the

sake of one song, into the society of a band of experienced bards. Even

the few who deny--unjustly and captiously, as it appears to us--the

artistic, admit the poetical merit of his work And we have now before

us, not the miserable drudgery of weighing a would-be poet, but the

nobler duty of inquiring how far a man of undoubted genius, and great

artistic skill, is likely to fulfill the high-raised expectations of the

period. The scene of the "Roman" is in Italy. The hero is a patriot,

filled and devoured by a love for the liberation of Italy, and for the

re-establishment of the ancient Roman Republic--"One, entire, and

indivisible." To promote this purpose, he assumes the disguise of a

monk; and the history of his progress--addressing now little groups, now

single individuals, and now large multitudes of men--at one time

captivating, unwittingly, a young and enthusiastic lady, by the fervor

of his eloquence, who delivers him from death by suicide--and at

another, shaking the walls of his dungeon, through the power and

grandeur of his predictions and dreams--till at last, as, after the

mockery of a trial, he is led forth to death, he hears the shout of his

country, rising _en masse_--is the whole story of the piece. But around

this slender thread, the author has strung some of the largest, richest,

and most resplendent gems of poetry we have seen for years.

Let us present our readers with a few passages, selected almost at

random. Take the "Song of the Dancers" for its music:

"_Dancers._ Sing lowly, foot slowly, oh, why should we chase

The hour that gives heaven to this earthly embrace?

To-morrow, to-morrow, is dreary and lonely;

Then love as they love who would live to love only!

Closer yet, eyes of jet--breasts fair and sweet!

No eyes flash like those eyes that flash as they meet!

Weave brightly, wear lightly, the warm-woven chain,

Love on for to-night if we ne'er love again.

Fond youths! happy maidens! we are not alone!

Bright steps and sweet voices keep pace with our own,

Love-lorn Lusignuolo, the soft-sighing breeze,

The rose with the zephyr, the wind with the trees.

While heaven blushing pleasure, is full of love notes,

Soft down the sweet measure the fairy world floats."

P. I, 2.

Take the Monk's Appeal to his "Mother, Italy," for its eloquence:

"By thine eternal youth,

And coeternal utterless dishonor--

Past, present, future, life and death, all oaths

Which may bind earth and heaven, mother, I swear it

We know we have dishonored thee. We know

All thou canst tell the angels. At thy feet,

The feet where kings have trembled, we confess,

And weep; and only bid thee live, my mother,

To see how we can die. Thou shalt be free!

By all our sins, and all thy wrongs, we swear it

We swear it, mother, by the thousand omens

That heave this pregnant time. Tempests for whom

The Alps lack wombs--quick earthquakes--hurricanes

That moan and chafe, and thunder for the light,

And must be native here. Hark, hark, the angel!

I see the birthday in the imminent skies!

Clouds break in fire. Earth yawns. The exulting thunder

Shouts havoc to the whirlwinds. And men hear

Amid the terrors of consenting storms,

Floods, rocking worlds, mad seas, and rending mountains,

Above the infinite clash, one long great cry,

THOU SHALT BE FREE!"

P. 14, 15.

Take the few lines about "Truth," for their depth:

"Truth is the equal sun,

Ripening no less the hemlock than the vine.

Truth is the flash that turns aside no more

For castle than for cot. Truth is a spear

Thrown by the blind. Truth is a Nemesis

Which leadeth her beloved by the hand

Through all things; giving him no task to break

A bruised reed, but bidding him stand firm

Though she crush worlds."

P. 21, 22.

Take, for its harrowing power, blended with beauty, the description of a

"Lost Female," symbolizing the degradation of Italy, and addressed to

the heroine of the tale:

"Or, oh, prince's daughter, if

In some proud street, leaning 'twixt night and day

From out thy palace balcony to meet

The breeze--that tempted by the hush of eve,

Steals from the fields about a city's shows,

And like a lost child, scared with wondering, flies,

From side to side in touching trust and terror,

Crying sweet country names and dropping flowers--

Leaning to meet that breeze, and looking down

To the so silent city, if below,

With dress disordered, and disheveled passions

Streaming from desperate eyes that flash and flicker

Like corpse-lights (eyes that once were known on high

Morning and night, as welcome there as thine),

And brow of trodden snow, and form majestic

That might have walked unchallenged through the skies.

And reckless feet, fitful with wine and woe,

And songs of revel that fall dead about

Her ruined beauty--sadder than a wail--

(As if the sweet maternal eve for pity

Took out the joy, and, with a blush of twilight,

Uncrowned the Bacchanal)--some outraged sister

Passeth, be patient, think upon yon heaven,

Where angels hail the Magdalen, look down

Upon that life in death, and say, 'My country!'"

P. 36.

Take, for its wondrous pathos and truth, the description of "Infancy:"

"Thou little child,

Thy mother's joy, thy father's hope--thou bright

Pure dwelling where two fond hearts keep their gladness--

Thou little potentate of love, who comest

With solemn sweet dominion to the old,

Who see thee in thy merry fancies charged

With the grave embassage of that dear past,

When they were young like thee--thou vindication

Of God--thou living witness against all men

Who have been babes--thou everlasting promise

Which no man keeps--thou portrait of our nature,

Which in despair and pride we scorn and worship."

P. 71, 72.

But time would fail us to quote, or even indicate a tithe of the

beautiful, melting, and magnificent passages in this noble "Roman." We

would merely request the reader's attention to the whole of the sixth

scene; to the ballad, a most exquisite and pathetic one, entitled the

"Winter's Night;" to the "Vision of Quirinus," a piece of powerful and

condensed imagination; and, best of all, to the "Dream of the Coliseum,"

in scene viii.--a dream which will not suffer by comparison with that of

Sardanapalus.

But it is not the brilliance of occasional parts and passages alone,

which justifies us in pronouncing the "Roman" an extraordinary

production. We look at it as a whole, and thus regarding it, we

find--first, a wondrous freedom from faults, major or minor, juvenile or

non-juvenile; wondrous, inasmuch as the author is still very young, not

many years, indeed, in advance of his majority. There is exaggeration,

we grant, in passages, but it is exaggeration as essential to the

circumstances and the characters as Lear's insane language is to his

madness, or Othello's turbid tide of figures to his jealousy. The

hero--an enthusiast--speaks always in enthusiastic terms; but of

extravagance we find little, and of absurdity or affectation none.

Diffusion there is, but it is often the beautiful diffusion of one who

dallies with beloved thoughts, and will not let them go till they have

told him all that is in their heart. And ever and anon we meet with

strong single lines and separate sentences, containing truth and fancy

concentrated as "lion's marrow."

Take a few specimens. Of Italy he says:

"She wraps the purple round her outraged breast,

And even in fetters cannot be a slave."

Again, she

"Stands menacled before the world, and bears

Two hemispheres--innumerable wrongs,

Illimitable glories."

"The soul never

Can twice be virgin--the eye that strikes

Upon the hidden path to the unseen

Is henceforth for two worlds."

"To both worlds

--The inner and the outer--we come naked,

The very noblest heart on earth, hath oft

No better lot than _to deserve_."

"Before every man the world of beauty,

Like a great artist, standeth night and day

With patient hand retouching in the heart

God's defaced image."

"Rude heaps that had been cities clad the ground

With history."

"Strange fragments

Of forms once held divine, and still, _like angels_,

_Immortal every where_."

"The poet,

In some rapt moment of intense attendance,

The skies being genial, and the earthly air

Propitious, catches on the inward ear

The awful and unutterable meanings

Of a divine soliloquy."

"The very stars themselves are nearer to us than to-morrow."

"The great man ... is set

Among us pigmies, with a heavenlier stature,

And brighter face than ours, that we must _leap_

_Even to smite it._"

"Great merchants, men

Who dealt in kingdoms; ruddy aruspex,

And pale philosopher, who bent beneath

The keys of wisdom."

"The Coliseum ... stood out dark

With thoughts of ages: like some mighty captive

Upon his death-bed in a Christian land,

And lying, through the chant of Psalm and Creed

Unshriven and stern, with peace upon his brow,

And on his lips strange gods."

Our readers must perceive from such extracts, that our author belongs

more to the masculine than to the mystic school. Deep in thought, he is

clear in language and in purpose. Since Byron's dramas, we have seldom

had such fiery and vigorous verse. He blends the strong with the tender,

in natural and sweet proportions. His genius, too, vaults into the lyric

motion with very great ease and mastery. He is a minstrel as well as a

bard, and has shown power over almost every form of lyrical composition.

His sentiment is clear without being commonplace, original, yet not

extravagant, and betokens, as well as his style, a masculine health,

maturity, and completeness, rarely to be met with in a first attempt.

Above all, his tone of mind, while sympathizing to rapture with the

liberal progress of the age, is that of one who feels the eternal

divinity and paramount power of the Christian religion; that what God

has once pronounced true can never become a lie; that what was once

really alive may change, but can never die; that Christianity is a fact,

great, real, and permanent, as birth or death; and that its seeming

decay is only the symptom that it is putting off the old skin, and about

to renew its mighty youth.

We have thus found many, if not all, the qualities of our ideal poet

united in the author of the "Roman," and are not ashamed to say that we

expect more from him than from any other of our rising "Sons of the

Morning." But he must work and walk worthy of his high vocation, and of

the hopes which now lie upon him--hopes which must either be the ribbons

of his crown or the cords of his sacrifice. He must discard his tendency

to diffusion, and break in that demon-steed of eloquence, who sometimes

is apt to run away with him. He must give us next, not scattered scenes,

but a whole epic, the middle of which shall be as obvious as the

beginning or the end. He should, in his next work, seek less to please,

startle, or gain an audience, than to tell them in thunder and in music

what they ought to believe and to do. Thus acting, he may "fill his

crescent-sphere;" revive the power and glory of song; give voice to a

great dumb struggle in the mind of the age; rescue the lyre from the

camp of the Philistines, where it has been but too long detained; and

render possible the hope, that the day shall come when again, as

formerly, the names "of poet and of prophet are the same."

FOOTNOTES:

[18] The Roman: a Dramatic Poem. By Sydney Yendys. London: Rantley,

1850.

[From Sharpe's London Magazine.]

RECOLLECTIONS OF THOMAS CAMPBELL.

In his intercourse with society, Campbell was a shrewd observer of those

often contradictory elements of which it is composed. Adverting to the

absurd and ludicrous, he had the art or talent of heightening their

effect by touches peculiarly his own; while the quiet gravity with which

he related his personal anecdotes or adventures, added greatly to the

charm, and often threw his unsuspecting hearers into uncontrollable fits

of laughter. Nor was the _pathos_ with which he dilated on some tale of

human misery less captivating; it runs through all his poetry, and in

hearing or relating a story of human wrongs or suffering, we have often

seen him affected to tears, which he vainly strove to conceal by an

abrupt transition to some ludicrous incident in his own personal

history. As an example, which has not yet found its way to the public,

we may relate the following, which he told one evening in our little

domestic circle where he was a frequent visitor, and where the

conversation had taken, as he thought, a somewhat too serious turn:

"In my early life, when I resided in the island of Mull, most of those

old feudal customs which civilization had almost banished from the

Lowlands, were still religiously observed in the Hebrides--more

especially those of a social and festive character, which it was thought

had the effect of keeping up old acquaintance, and of tightening the

bonds of good fellowship. Rural weddings and "roaring wakes" were then

occasions for social rendezvous, which were not to be overlooked. Both

these ceremonies were accompanied by feasting, music, dancing, and that

liberal enjoyment of the native _browst_ which was too often carried to

excess. I was in general a willing and a welcome guest at these doings;

for, smitten as I often was with melancholy in this dreary solitude, I

was glad to avail myself of any occasion that promised even temporary

exhilaration. Well, the first of these meetings at which I was present

one evening, happened to be a _dredgee_, a term which I need only

explain, by saying that it was got up for the sake of a young widow, who

had just put on her weeds, and stood much in need of friendly sympathy,

and consolation. At first it was rather a dull affair, for the widow

looked very disconsolate, and every look of her fair face was

contagious. But as the _quaigh_ was active, and the whisky went its

frequent round, the circle became more lively; until at last, to my

utter astonishment, the bagpipes were introduced; and after a _coronach_

or so--just to quiet the spirit of their departed host--up started a

couple of dancers, and began jigging it over the floor with all the

grace and agility peculiar to my Hebridean friends. This movement was

infectious: another and another couple started up--reel followed upon

reel, until the only parties who had resisted the infection," continued

the poet, "were the widow and myself, she, oppressed with her own

private sorrow, and I, restrained by feelings of courtesy from quitting

her side. I observed, however, that she 'kept time' with her hand--all

unconsciously, no doubt--against the bench where we sat, while her

thoughts were wandering about the moorland _Cairn_, which had that very

morning received her husband's remains. I pitied her from my very heart.

But, behold, just as I was addressing to her one of my most sympathizing

looks, up came a brisk Highlander, whose step and figure in the dance

had excited both admiration and envy; and, making a low bow to the

widow, followed by a few words of condolence, he craved the honor of her

hand for the next reel. The widow, as you may well suppose, was shocked

beyond measure! while I starting to my feet, made a show as if I meant

to resent the insult. But she, pulling me gently back, rebuked the

kilted stranger with a look, at which he instantly withdrew. In a few

minutes, however, the young chieftain returned to the charge. The widow

frowned, and wept, and declared that nothing on earth should ever tempt

her to such a breach of decorum. But the more she frowned, the more he

smiled, and pressed his suit: 'Just one reel,' he repeated, 'only one!

Allan of Mull, the best piper in the Isles, was only waiting her bidding

to strike up.' The plea was irresistible. 'Weel, weel,' sighed the

widow, rising, and giving him her hand, 'what maun be, maun be! But,

hech, sirs, let it be a lightsome spring, for I hae a heavy, heavy

heart!' The next minute the widow was capering away to a most

'lightsome' air--hands across--cast off--down the middle, and up again.

And a merrier dredgee," concluded the poet, "was never seen in Mull."

On another occasion, when he presented a copy of some verses, which he

had just finished, to a lady of our family, he described their origin as

follows: "Many long years ago, while I was sealed up in the Hebrides, I

became intimate with a family who had a beautiful parrot, which a young

mariner had brought from South America, as a present to his sweetheart.

This happened long before my arrival in Mull; and Poll for many years

had been a much-prized and petted favorite in the household. He was a

captive, to be sure, but allowed at times to be outside his cage on

_parole_; and, always observing good faith and gratitude for such

indulgences, they were repeated as often as appeared consistent with

safe custody. The few words of Gaelic which he had picked up in his

voyage to the north, were just sufficient, on his arrival, to bespeak

the good-will of the family, and recommend himself to their hospitality;

but his vocabulary was soon increased--he became a great mimic--he could

imitate the cries of every domestic animal--the voices of the servants:

he could laugh, whistle, and scold, like any other biped around him. He

was, in short, a match even for Kelly's renowned parrot: for although he

could not, or would not, sing 'God save the King,' he was a proficient

in 'Charlie is my Darling,' and other Jacobite airs, with which he never

failed to regale the company, when properly introduced.

"Poll was indeed a remarkable specimen of his tribe, and the daily

wonder of the whole neighborhood. Years flew by: and although kind

treatment had quite reconciled him to his cage, it could not ward off

the usual effects of old age, particularly in a climate where the sun

rarely penetrated within the bars of his prison. When I first saw him,

his memory had greatly failed him; while his bright green plumage was

vast verging into a silvery gray He had but little left of that

triumphant chuckle which used to provoke such laughter among the

younkers; and day after day he would sit mute and moping on his perch,

seldom answering the numerous questions that were put to him regarding

the cause of his malady. Had any child of the family been sick, it could

hardly have been treated with greater tenderness than Poll.

"At last, one fine morning, just as the vernal equinox had blown a few

ships into harbor, a stranger was announced, and immediately recognized

by the master of the house as a 'Don' something--a Spanish merchant,

whose kindness to a young member of the family had been often mentioned

in his letters from Mexico. One of his own ships, a brig, in which he

had made the voyage, was then in the bay, driven in by stress of

weather, for Mull was no market for Spanish goods. But that was not my

business; he would most likely pay a visit to Greenock, where, in the

present day at least, Spanish cargoes are rife enough.

"No sooner had their visitor exchanged salutations with the master of

the house and his family, than the parrot caught his eye; and, going up

to the cage, he addressed the aged bird in familiar Spanish. The effect

was electric: the poor blind captive seemed as if suddenly awakened to a

new existence; he fluttered his wings in ecstasy--opened his eyes, fixed

them, dim and sightless as they were, intently on the stranger; then

answered him in the same speech--not an accent of which he had ever

heard for twenty years. His joy was excessive--but it was very short;

for in the midst of his screams and antics, poor Poll dropped dead from

his perch."

Such was the incident upon which Campbell composed the little ballad

entitled "The Parrot." It had taken strong hold of his memory, and,

after the lapse of forty years,[19] found its way into the pages of the

"New Monthly," and is now incorporated with his acknowledged poems.

FOOTNOTES:

[19] See "Life and Letters of Campbell." Vol. I. Residence in Mull.

[From Sharpe's London Magazine.]

GALILEO AND HIS DAUGHTER.

BY J. B.

I had been walking in a grove of lime-trees, arched above me, like the

stately roofing of a cathedral. As I entered, the daylight was yet

strong; but when I left my temporary retreat, the heavens were clustered

over with stars, and one of them, high above the old gray tower of the

ancient monastery of St. Augustine, almost cast a shadow across the

landscape--it was the planet Jupiter: and I have never observed it--at

least, thus eminent among its brethren--without being more or less

reminded of,

"The starry Galileo, and his woes."

To this planet did the philosopher direct the then newly-invented

telescope, the result being the discovery of four attendant moons: while

the analogy derived from the motions of these little stars, performing

their revolutions round the primary planet in perfect order and concord,

afforded an argument that had a powerful influence in confirming

Galileo's own views in favor of the Copernican system of the universe,

and ultimately converting the scientific world to the same opinion.

Yet little more than two centuries since, on the 14th February, 1633,

the astronomer, cited before the Inquisition, arrived at Rome, to answer

the charge of heresy and blasphemy; while, a few months ago, in the

brief but glorious day-burst of Roman liberty, that very Inquisition was

invaded by an exultant populace, and among its archives, full memorials

of martyred worth and of heroic endurance, most eagerly, but in vain,

was sought the record of the process against the great philosopher.

Galileo, on a former occasion, in reference to some of his scientific

discoveries, had heard rumors of papal persecution, and as a cautious

friend whispered to him the unpleasing tidings, he had exclaimed, "Never

will I barter the freedom of my intellect to one as liable to err as

myself!"

The time quickly arrived to test his courage and his resolution.

For a little while, we are informed, he was allowed to remain secluded

in the palace of his friend Nicolini. In a few months, however, he was

removed to an apartment in the Exchequer of the Inquisition, still being

permitted the attendance of his own servant, and many indulgences of

which they had not decided to deprive him. On the twenty-first of June,

of the same year, he appeared before the Holy Office. Through its gloomy

halls and passages he passed to the tribunal. There was little here, as

in the other ecclesiastical buildings of Rome, to captivate the senses.

The dark walls were unadorned with the creations of art; state and

ceremony were the gloomy ushers to the chamber of intolerance. In

silence and in mystery commenced the preparations. The familiars of the

office advanced to the astronomer, and arrayed him in the penitential

garment; and as he approached, with a slow and measured step, the

tribunal, cardinals, and prelates noiselessly assembled, and a dark

circle of officers and priests closed in, while, as if conscious that

the battle had commenced in earnest between mind and power, all the pomp

and splendor of the hierarchy of Rome--that system which had hitherto

possessed a sway unlimited over the fears and opinions of mankind--was

summoned up to increase the solemnity and significance of the judgment

about to be pronounced against him.

To the tedious succession of technical proceedings, mocking justice by

their very assumption of formality, it would be needless to refer.

Solemnly, however, and by an authority which it was fatal to resist,

Galileo was called on to renounce a truth which his whole life had been

consecrated to reveal and to maintain, "The motion through space of the

Earth and Planets round the Sun."

Then, immediately, assuming he had nothing to allege, would attempt no

resistance, and offer no defense, came the sentence of the tribunal,

banning and anathematizing all who held the doctrine, that the sun is

the centre of the system, as a tenet "philosophically false, and

formally heretical."

And then they sentenced the old and infirm philosopher--this band of

infallibles!--they bade him abjure and detest the said errors and

heresies. They decreed his book to the flames, and they condemned him

for life to the dungeons of the Inquisition, bidding him recite, "once a

week, seven penitential psalms for the good of his soul!"

Did Galileo yield? Did he renounce that theory now affording such ample

proof of the beauty and order of the universe; to whose very laws

Kepler, the friend and contemporary of the philosopher, was even then,

though unconsciously, bearing evidence, by his wonderful theorem of

velocities and distances, a problem which Newton afterward confirmed and

illustrated?

Did Galileo yield? He did. Broken by age and infirmity, importuned by

friends more alarmed than himself, perhaps, at the terrors of that

merciless tribunal, he signed his abjuration; yielded all his judges

demanded; echoed their curse and ban, as their superstition or their

hate required. There is a darker tale dimly hinted by those familiar

with the technicalities of the Holy Office, that the terms, "Il rigoroso

esame," during which Galileo is reported to have answered like a good

Christian, officially announce the application of the torture.

Then occurred, perhaps scarcely an hour afterward, that remarkable

episode in this man's history. As he arose from the ground on which, all

kneeling, he had pronounced his abjuration, he gave a significant stamp,

and whispered to a friend, "_E pur si muove!_" "Yet it does move"--ay,

and in spite of Inquisitions, has gone round--nay, the whole world of

thought itself has moved, and having received an impulse from such

minds, will revolve for ages in a glorious cycle for mankind! But the

most touching incident of Galileo's story is yet to come.

After several years of confinement at Arcetri, the great astronomer was

permitted to retire to Florence, upon the conditions that he should

neither quit his house, nor receive the visits of his friends. They

removed him from a prison, to make a prison of his home. Alas! it was

even worse than this.

Much as the greatest minds love fame, and struggle to obtain it, the

proudest triumphs of genius and of science, the applause of the world

itself, ever loud and obtrusive, is not to be compared to the low and

gentle murmurs of pleasure and of pride from those we love. There was

one being from whom Galileo had been accustomed to hear those

consolations--his child his gentle Maria Galilei. He had been otherwise

a solitary indeed, and now more than ever so, when he was cut off from

the communion of the greatest minds. To his lovely girl, his daughter,

his heart clung with more than fondness. No wife of Pliny, perhaps, ever

wafted to her husband with sweeter devotion the echoes of the applauding

world without, greeting him she loved, than she did--his Maria Galilei.

As he returned from prison, the way seemed tedious, the fleetest

traveling all too slow, till he should once more fold her to his heart;

and she, too, she anticipated meeting her father with a pleasure greater

than ever before enjoyed, since he had now become a victim, sainted in

her eyes, by the persecution he had suffered.

Short, indeed, was this happiness, if enjoyed at all. Within the month,

she died, and the home of Galileo was more than a prison--it was a

desolate altar, on which the last and most precious of his household

gods was shivered. And he died too, a few years afterward, that good old

man!

But he had yielded--he was no martyr! Yes, indeed! But be it remembered,

that if he possessed not the moral courage of a Huss, a Savonarola, or a

Luther, he was not called to exercise it in so high a cause. The

assertion and support of a religious truth is impressed with far deeper

obligations than the advocacy of a scientific one, however well

maintained by analogy, and confirmed by reason.

Still there was a deep devotional sentiment that pervaded the character

of Galileo. Before he died, he became totally blind; yet he did not

despair. Like Milton, he labored on for mankind--nay, pursued his

scientific studies, inventing mechanical substitutes for his loss of

vision, to enable him still to pursue his arduous researches.

It is true he was shut out, like the elder Herschel, from the view of

that glorious company, toward which his spirit had so often soared. Well

might his friend Castelli say, in allusion to his infirmity, "that the

noblest eyes were darkened which nature had ever made--eyes so

privileged, and gifted with such rare qualities, that they might be said

to have seen more than all those who had gone before him, and to have

opened the eyes of all who were to come." Galileo himself bore noble

tribute to his friend, when he exclaimed,

"Never, never will I cease to use the senses which God has left me; and

though this heaven, this earth, this universe, be henceforth shrunk for

me into the narrow space which I myself fill, so it please God, it shall

content me."

The malice of his enemies long survived his death. The partisans of Rome

disputed his right to make a will. They denied him a monument for which

large sums had been subscribed.

A hundred years afterward, when a splendid memorial was about to be

erected to his memory, the President of the Florentine Academy descended

into his grave, and desecrated his remains, by bearing off, as _relics

for a museum_, the thumb of his right hand, and one of his vertebrae! So

the victims of the religious fury of one age become the martyrs of

science in another!

And what is the moral of what we have written concerning Galileo? Is

there no teaching that may instruct our own times, especially when we

see how, through scorn and persecution, and this world's contumely, and

through the gloom and shadows of ignorance and fear, the form and

substance of mighty Truth rises, slowly and dimly, perchance, at first,

but grandly and majestically ere long? Little more than two hundred

years have passed since the death of Galileo, but ample justice has been

done to his memory. His name will be a watchword through all time, to

urge men forward in the great cause of moral and intellectual progress;

and the Tree of Knowledge, whose fruits were once on earth, plucked,

perhaps, ere they were matured, has shot up with its golden branches

into the skies, over which has radiated the smiles of a beneficent

Providence to cheer man onward in the career of virtue and intelligence.

"There is something," as a profound writer has observed,[20] "in the

spirit of the present age, greater than the age itself. It is, the

appearance of a new power in the world, the multitude of minds now

pressing forward in the great task of the moral and intellectual

regeneration of mankind."

And this cause must ultimately triumph. The energies and discoveries of

men like Galileo, remote as their history becomes, have an undying

influence.

The power of a great mind is like the attraction of a sun. It appears in

the infinite bounds of space, far, far away, as a grain among other gold

dust at the feet of the Eternal, or, at most, but as a luminous spot;

and yet we know that its influence controls, and is necessary for, the

order and arrangement of the nearest, as well is the remotest system. So

in the moral and intellectual universe, from world to world, from star

to star, the influence of one great mind extends, and we are drawn

toward it by an unseen, but all-pervading affinity. Thus has the cause

of moral and intellectual progress a sure guarantee of success. It has

become a necessity, interwoven with the spirit of the age--a necessity

impressed by every revelation of social evil, as well as proclaimed by

every scientific discovery--gaining increased energy and power from the

manifestation of every new wonder and mystery of nature--nay, from the

building of every steam-ship, the laying down of every new line of

railway.

FOOTNOTES:

[20] Channing.

[From Dickens's "Household Words."]

EBENEZER ELLIOTT

The name of Ebenezer Elliott is associated with one of the greatest and

most important political changes of modern times, with events not yet

sufficiently removed from us, to allow of their being canvassed in this

place with that freedom which would serve the more fully to illustrate

his real merits. Elliott would have been a poet, in all that constitutes

true poetry, had the corn laws never existed.

He was born on 25th March, 1781, at the New Foundry, Masborough, in the

parish of Rotherham, where his father was a clerk in the employment of

Messrs. Walker, with a salary of L60 or L70 per annum. His father was a

man of strong political tendencies, possessed of humorous and satiric

power, that might have qualified him for a comic actor. Such was the

character he bore for political sagacity that he was popularly known as

"Devil Elliott." The mother of the poet seems to have been a woman of an

extreme nervous temperament, constantly suffering from ill health, and

constitutionally awkward and diffident.

Ebenezer commenced his early training at a dame's school; but shy,

awkward, and desultory, he made little progress; nor did he thrive much

better at the school in which he was afterward placed. Here he employed

his comrades to do his tasks for him, and of course laid no foundation

for his future education. His parents, disheartened by the lad's

apparent stolidity, sent him next to Dalton's school, two miles distant;

and here he certainly acquired something, for he retained, to old age,

the memory of some of the scenes through which he used to pass on his

way to and from this school. For want of the necessary preliminary

training, he could do little or nothing with letters: he rather

preferred playing truant and roaming the meadows in listless idleness,

wherever his fancy led him. This could not last. His father soon set him

to work in the foundry; and with this advantage, that the lad stood on

better terms with himself than he had been for a considerable period,

for he discovered that he could compete with others in work--sheer

hand-labor--if he could not in the school. One disadvantage, however,

arose, as he tells us, from his foundry life; for he acquired a relish

for vulgar pursuits, and the village alehouse divided his attentions

with the woods and fields. Still a deep impression of the charms of

nature had been made upon him by his boyish rambles, which the debasing

influences and associations into which he was thrown could not wholly

wipe out. He would still wander away in his accustomed haunts, and

purify his soul from her alehouse defilements, by copious draughts of

the fresh nectar of natural beauty imbibed from the sylvan scenery

around him.

The childhood and youth of the future poet presented a strange medley of

opposites and antitheses. Without the ordinary measure of adaptation for

scholastic pursuits, he inhaled the vivid influences of external things,

delighting intensely in natural objects, and yet feeling an infinite

chagrin and remorse at his own idleness and ignorance. We find him

highly imaginative; making miniature lakes by sinking an iron vessel

filled with water in a heap of stones, and gazing therein with wondrous

enjoyment at the reflection of the sun and skies overhead; and

exhibiting a strange passion for looking on the faces of those who had

died violent deaths, although these dead men's features would haunt his

imagination for weeks afterward.

He did not, indeed, at this period, possess the elements of an ordinary

education. A very simple circumstance sufficed to apply the spark which

fired his latent energies, and nascent poetical tendencies: and he

henceforward became a different being, elevated far above his former

self. He called one evening, after a drinking bout on the previous

night, on a maiden aunt, named Robinson, a widow possessed of about L30

a year, by whom he was shown a number of "Sowerby's English Botany,"

which her son was then purchasing in monthly parts. The plates made a

considerable impression on the awkward youth, and he assayed to copy

them by holding them to the light with a thin piece of paper before

them. When he found he could trace their forms by these means his

delight was unbounded, and every spare hour was devoted to the agreeable

task. Here commenced that intimate acquaintance with flowers, which

seems to pervade all his works. This aunt of Ebenezer's, (good soul!

would that every shy, gawky Ebenezer had such an aunt!) bent on

completing the charm she had so happily begun, displayed to him still

further her son's book of dried specimens; and this elated him beyond

measure. He forthwith commenced a similar collection for himself, for

which purpose he would roam the fields still more than ever, on Sundays

as well as week days, to the interruption of his attendances at chapel.

This book he called his "Dry Flora," (_Hortus Siccus_) and none so proud

as he when neighbors noticed his plants and pictures. He was not a

little pleased to feel himself a sort of wonder, as he passed through

the village with his plants; and, greedy of praise, he allowed his

acquaintance to believe that his drawings were at first hand, and made

by himself from nature. "Thomson's Seasons," read to him about this time

by his brother Giles, gave him a glimpse of the union of poetry with

natural beauty; and lit up in his mind an ambition which finally

transformed the illiterate, rugged, half-tutored youth into the man who

wrote "The Village Patriarch," and the "Corn Law Rhymes."

From this time he set himself resolutely to the work of self-education.

His knowledge of the English language was meagre in the extreme; and he

succeeded at last only by making for himself a kind of grammar by

reading and observation. He then tried French, but his native indolence

prevailed, and he gave it up in despair. He read with avidity whatever

books came in his way; and a small legacy of books to his father came in

just at the right time. He says he could never read through a

second-rate book, and he therefore read masterpieces only; "after

Milton, then Shakspeare; then Ossian; then Junius; Paine's 'Common

Sense;' Swift's 'Tale of a Tub;' 'Joan of Arc;' Schiller's 'Robbers;'

Burger's 'Lenora;' Gibbon's 'Decline and Fall;' and long afterward,

Tasso, Dante, De Stael, Schlegel, Hazlitt, and the '_Westminster

Review_.'" Reading of this character might have been expected to lead to

something; and was well calculated to make an extraordinary impression

on such a mind as Elliott's; and we have the fruit of this course of

study in the poetry which from this time he began to throw off.

He remained with his father from his sixteenth to his twenty-third year,

working laboriously without wages, except an occasional shilling or two

for pocket-money. He afterward tried business on his own account. He

made two efforts at Sheffield; the last commencing at the age of forty,

and with a borrowed capital of L150. He describes in his nervous

language the trials and difficulties he had to contend with; and all

these his imagination embodied for him in one grim and terrible form,

which he christened "Bread Tax." With this demon he grappled in

desperate energy, and assailed it vigorously with his caustic rhyme This

training, these mortifications, these misfortunes, and the demon "Bread

Tax" above all, made Elliott successively despised, hated, feared, and

admired, as public opinion changed toward him.

Mr. Howitt describes his warehouse as a dingy, and not very extensive

place, heaped with iron of all sorts, sizes, and forms, with barely a

passage through the chaos of rusty bars into the inner sanctum, at once,

study, counting-house, library, and general receptacle of odds and ends

connected with his calling. Here and there, to complete the jumble, were

plaster casts of Shakspeare, Achilles, Ajax, and Napoleon, suggestive of

the presidency of literature over the materialism of commerce which

marked the career of this singular being. By dint of great industry he

began to flourish in business, and, at one time, could make a profit of

L20 a-day without moving from his seat. During this prosperous period he

built a handsome villa-residence in the suburbs. He now had leisure to

brood over the full force and effect of the Corn Laws. The subject was

earnestly discussed then in all manufacturing circles of that district.

Reverses now arrived. In 1837, he lost fully one-third of all his

savings, getting out of the storm at last with about L6,000, which he

wrote to Mr. Tait of Edinburgh, he intended, if possible, to retain. The

palmy days of L20 profits had gone by for Sheffield, and instead, all

was commercial disaster and distrust. Elliott did well to retire with

what little he had remaining. In his retreat he was still vividly

haunted by the demon "Bread Tax." This, then, was the period of the

Corn-Law Rhymes, and these bitter experiences lent to them that tone of

sincerity and earnestness--that fire and frenzy which they breathed, and

which sent them, hot, burning words of denunciation and wrath, into the

bosoms of the working classes--the toiling millions from whom Elliott

sprang. "Bread Tax," indeed, to him was a thing of terrible import and

bitter experience: hence he uses no gentle terms or honeyed phrases

when dealing with the obnoxious impost. Sometimes coarse invective and

angry assertion take the place of convincing reason and calm philosophy.

At others, there is a true vein of poetry and pathos running through the

rather unpoetic theme, which touches us with its Wordsworthian feeling

and gentleness. Then he would be found calling down thunders upon the

devoted heads of the monopolists, with all a fanatic's hearty zeal, and

in his fury he would even pursue them, not merely through the world, but

beyond its dim frontiers and across the threshold of another state. Take

them, however, as they stand--and more vigorous, effective, and

startling political poetry has not graced the literature of the age.

It was not to be supposed but that this trumpet-blast of defiance, and

shrill scream of "war to the knife," should bring down upon him much

obloquy, much vituperation: but all this fell harmlessly upon him; he

rather liked it. When people began to bear with the turbid humor and

angry utterances of the "Corn Law Rhymer," and grew familiar with the

stormy march of his verse, it was discovered that he was something more

than a mere political party song-writer. He was a true poet, whose

credentials, signed and sealed in the court of nature, attested the

genuineness of his brotherhood with those children of song who make the

world holier and happier by the mellifluous strains they bring to us,

like fragments of a forgotten melody, from the far-off world of beauty

and of love.

Elliott will not soon cease to be distinctively known as the "Corn Law

Rhymer;" but it will be by his non-political poems that he will be

chiefly remembered by posterity as the Poet of the People; for his name

will still be, as it has long been, a "Household Word," in the homes of

all such as love the pure influences of simple, sensuous, and natural

poetry. As an author he did not make his way fast: he had written poetry

for twenty years ere he had attracted much notice. A genial critique by

Southey in the "Quarterly," another by Carlyle in the "Edinburgh," and

favorable notices in the "Athenaeum" and "New Monthly," brought him into

notice; and he gradually made his way until a new and cheap edition of

his works, in 1840, stamped him as a popular poet. His poetry is just

such as, knowing his history, we might have expected; and such as, not

knowing it, might have bodied forth to us the identical man as we find

him.

As we have said, Nature was his school; but flowers were the especial

vocation of his muse. A small ironmonger--a keen and successful

tradesman--we should scarcely have given him credit for such an

exquisite love of the beautiful in Nature, as we find in some of those

lines written by him in the crowded counting-room of that dingy

warehouse. The incident of the floral miscellany; the subsequent study

of "The Seasons;" the long rambles in meadows and on hill-sides,

specimen-hunting for his _Hortus Siccus_, sufficiently account for the

exquisite sketches of scenery, and those vivid descriptions of natural

phenomena, which showed that the coinage of his brain had been stamped

in Nature's mint. The most casual reader would at once discover that,

with Thomson, he has ever been the devoted lover and worshiper of

Nature--at wanderer by babbling streams--a dreamer in the leafy

wilderness--a worshiper of morning upon the golden hill-tops. He gives

us pictures of rural scenery warm as the pencil of a Claude, and glowing

as the sunsets of Italy.

A few sentences will complete our sketch, and bring us to the close of

the poet's pilgrimage. He had come out of the general collapse of

commercial affairs in 1837, with a small portion of the wealth he had

realized by diligent and continuous labor. He took a walk, on one

occasion, into the country, of about eighteen miles: reached Argilt

Hill, liked the place, returned, and resolved to buy it. He laid out in

house and land about one thousand guineas. His family consisted of Mrs.

Elliott and two daughters; a servant-maid; an occasional helper; a Welch

pony and small gig; "a dog almost as big as the mare, and much wiser

than his master; a pony-cart; a wheel-barrow; and a grindstone--and,"

says he, "turn up your nose if you like!"

From his own papers we learn that he had one son a clergyman, at

Lothedale, near Skipton; another in the steel trade, on Elliott's old

premises at Sheffield; two others unmarried, living on their means;

another "druggisting at Sheffield, in a sort of chimney called a shop;"

and another, a clergyman, living in the West Indies. Of his thirteen

children, five were dead, and of whom he says. "They left behind them no

memorial--but they are safe in the bosom of Mercy, and not quite

forgotten even here!"

In this retirement he occasionally lectured and spoke at public

meetings; but he began to suffer from a spasmodic affection of the

nerves, which obliged him wholly to forego public speaking. This disease

grew worse; and in December, 1839, he was warned that he could not

continue to speak in public, except at the risk of sudden death. This

disorder lingered about him for about six years; he then fell ill of a

more serious disease, which threatened speedy termination. This was in

May, 1849. In September, he writes, "I have been _very, very_ ill." On

the first of December, 1849, the event, which had so long been

impending, occurred, and Elliott peacefully departed in the sixty-ninth

year of his age.

Thus, then, the sun set on one whose life was one continued heroic

struggle with opposing influences--with ignorance first, then trade,

then the corn laws, then literary fame, and, last of all, disease: and

thus the world saw its last of the material breathing form of the rugged

but kindly being who made himself loved, feared, hated, and famous, as

the "CORN LAW RHYMER."

[From Cumming's Hunting Adventures in South Africa.]

CONFLICT WITH AN ELEPHANT.

In a few minutes one of those who had gone off to our left came running

breathless to say that he had seen the mighty game. I, halted for a

minute, and instructed Isaac, who carried the big Dutch rifle, to act

independently of me, while Kleinboy was to assist me in the chase; but,

as usual, when the row began, my followers thought only of number one. I

bared my arms to the shoulder, and, having imbibed a draught of aqua

pura from the calabash of one of the spoorers, I grasped my trusty

two-grooved rifle, and told my guide to go ahead. We proceeded silently

as might be for a few hundred yards, following the guide, when he

suddenly pointed, exclaiming, "Klow!" and before us stood a herd of

mighty bull elephants, packed together beneath a shady grove about a

hundred and fifty yards in advance. I rode slowly toward them, and, as

soon as they observed me, they made a loud rumbling noise, and, tossing

their trunks, wheeled right about and made off in one direction,

crashing through the forest and leaving a cloud of dust behind them. I

was accompanied by a detachment of my dogs, who assisted me in the

pursuit.

The distance I had come, and the difficulties I had undergone to behold

these elephants, rose fresh before me. I determined that on this

occasion at least I would do my duty, and, dashing my spurs into

"Sunday's" ribs, I was very soon much too close in their rear for

safety. The elephants now made an inclination to my left, whereby I

obtained a good view of the ivory. The herd consisted of six bulls; four

of them were full grown, first-rate elephants; the other two were fine

fellows, but had not yet arrived at perfect stature. Of the four old

fellows, two had much finer tusks than the rest, and for a few seconds I

was undecided which of these two I would follow; when, suddenly, the one

which I fancied had the stoutest tusks broke from his comrades, and I at

once felt convinced that he was the patriarch of the herd, and followed

him accordingly. Cantering alongside, I was about to fire, when he

instantly turned, and, uttering a trumpet so strong and shrill that the

earth seemed to vibrate beneath my feet, he charged furiously after me

for several hundred yards in a direct line, not altering his course in

the slightest degree for the trees of the forest, which he snapped and

overthrew like reeds in his headlong career.

When he pulled up in his charge, I likewise halted; and as he slowly

turned to retreat, I let fly at his shoulder, "Sunday" capering and

prancing, and giving me much trouble. On receiving the ball the elephant

shrugged his shoulder, and made off at a free, majestic walk. This shot

brought several of the dogs to my assistance which had been following

the other elephants, and on their coming up and barking another headlong

charge was the result, accompanied by the never-failing trumpet as

before In his charge he passed close to me, when I saluted him with a

second bullet in the shoulder of which he did not take the slightest

notice. I now determined not to fire again until I could make a steady

shot; but, although the elephant turned repeatedly, "Sunday" invariably

disappointed me, capering so that it was impossible to fire. At length,

exasperated, I became reckless of the danger, and, springing from the

saddle, approached the elephant under cover of a tree and gave him a

bullet in the side of the head, when, trumpeting so shrilly that the

forest trembled, he charged among the dogs, from whom he seemed to fancy

that the blow had come; after which he took up a position in a grove of

thorns, with his head toward me. I walked up very near, and, as he was

in the act of charging (being in those days under wrong impressions as

to the impracticability of bringing down an elephant with a shot in the

forehead), stood coolly in his path until he was within fifteen paces of

me, and let drive at the hollow of his forehead, in the vain expectation

that by so doing I should end his career. The shot only served to

increase his fury--an effect which, I had remarked, shots in the head

invariably produced; and, continuing his charge with incredible

quickness and impetuosity, he all but terminated my elephant-hunting

forever. A large party of the Bechuanas who had come up, yelled out

simultaneously, imagining I was killed, for the elephant was at one

moment almost on the top of me: I, however, escaped by my activity, and

by dodging round the bushy trees. As the elephant was charging, an

enormous thorn ran deep into the sole of my foot the old Badenoch

brogues, which I that day sported, being worn through, and this caused

me severe pain, laming me throughout the rest of the conflict.

The elephant held on through the forest at a sweeping pace; but he was

hardly out of sight when I was loaded and in the saddle, and soon once

more alongside. About this time I heard Isaac blazing away at another

bull; but when the elephant charged, his cowardly heart failed him, and

he very soon made his appearance at a safe distance in my rear. My

elephant kept crashing along at a steady pace, with blood streaming from

his wounds; the dogs, which were knocked up with fatigue and thirst, no

longer barked around him, but had dropped astern. It was long before I

again fired, for I was afraid to dismount, and "Sunday" was extremely

troublesome. At length I fired sharp right and left from the saddle: he

got both balls behind the shoulder, and made a long charge after me,

rumbling and trumpeting as before. The whole body of the Bamangwato men

had now come up, and were following a short distance behind me. Among

these was Mollyeon, who volunteered to help; and being a very swift and

active fellow, he rendered me important service by holding my fidgety

horse's head while I fired and loaded. I then fired six broadsides from

the saddle, the elephant charging almost every time, and pursuing us

back to the main body in our rear, who fled in all directions as he

approached.

The sun had now sunk behind the tops of the trees; it would very soon be

dark, and the elephant did not seem much distressed, notwithstanding all

he had received. I recollected that my time was short, and therefore at

once resolved to fire no more from the saddle, but to go close up to him

and fire on foot. Riding up to him. I dismounted, and, approaching very

near, I gave it him right and left in the side of the head, upon which

he made a long and determined charge after me; but I was now very

reckless of his charges, for I saw that he could not overtake me, and in

a twinkling I was loaded, and, again approaching, fired sharp right and

left behind his shoulder. Again he charged with a terrific trumpet,

which sent "Sunday" flying through the forest. This was his last charge.

The wounds which he had received began to tell on his constitution, and

he now stood at bay beside a thorny tree, with the dogs barking around

him. These, refreshed by the evening breeze, and perceiving that it was

nearly over with the elephant, had once more come to my assistance.

Having loaded, I drew near and fired right and left at his forehead. On

receiving these shots, instead of charging, he tossed his trunk up and

down, and by various sounds and motions, most gratifying to the hungry

natives, evinced that his demise was near. Again I loaded, and fired my

last shot behind his shoulder: on receiving it, he turned round the

bushy tree beside which he stood, and I ran round to give him the other

barrel, but the mighty old monarch of the forest needed no more; before

I could clear the bushy tree he fell heavily on his side, and his spirit

had fled. My feelings at this moment can only be understood by a few

brother Nimrods who have had the good fortune to enjoy a similar

encounter. I never felt so gratified on any former occasion as I did

then.

By this time all the natives had come up; they were in the highest

spirits, and flocked around the elephant, laughing and talking at a

rapid pace. I climbed on to him, and sat enthroned upon his side, which

was as high as my eyes when standing on the ground. In a few minutes

night set in, when the natives, having illuminated the jungle with a

score of fires, and formed a semicircle of bushes to windward, lay down

to rest without partaking of a morsel of food. Mutchuisho would not

allow a man to put an assagai into the elephant until the morrow, and

placed two relays of sentries to keep watch on either side of him. My

dinner consisted of a piece of flesh from the temple of the elephant,

which I broiled on the hot embers. In the conflict I had lost my shirt,

which was reduced to streamers by the wait-a-bit thorns, and all the

clothing that remained was a pair of buckskin knee-breeches.

[From The Ladies' Companion.]

LETTICE ARNOLD.

By the Author of "TWO OLD MEN'S TALES," "EMILIA WYNDHAM," &C.

[_Concluded from page 178._]

CHAPTER VII.

Bless the Lord, oh my soul! and all that is within me bless his holy name;

Who forgiveth all thy iniquities and healeth all thy diseases,

Who saveth thy life from destruction, and crowneth thee with loving

kindness and tender mercies.

MRS. FISHER.

I must now introduce you to Mrs. Fisher. She is so great a favorite of

mine, that before I relate what became of Myra, I must make you

acquainted with this lady.

Mrs. Fisher was a respectable gentlewoman like personage of about

fifty-four, of a grave, authoritative and somewhat severe aspect; but

with the remains of very extraordinary personal beauty which she had

once possessed in an eminent degree. She was somewhat above the middle

size, of an erect, firm, full figure, her hair now gently turning gray,

drawn over her finely proportioned forehead; her eyes large, and of a

fine color and form--clear and steady; her mouth expressive of sense and

temper; and her dress in character with the rest. Mrs. Fisher was always

handsomely dressed in silks of the best description, but in slight

mourning, which she always wore; and on her head, also, a cap rather

plainer than the mode, but of the finest and most expensive materials:

nothing could be more dignified and complete than her appearance.

When first Myra was introduced to her she was both daunted and

disappointed; the gravity, amounting almost to sternness, with which

Mrs. Fisher received her, and explained to her the duties she was

expected to perform, awed in the first place, and mortified in the

second. The establishment of this fashionable modiste, with which Myra

had associated nothing but laces and ribbons, dresses and trimmings,

embroidery and feathers, flattery and display, struck cold and dull upon

her imagination. She was introduced into a handsomely but very plainly

furnished sitting-room, where not one trace of any of those pretty

things were to be seen, and heard of nothing but regularity of hours,

persevering industry, quaker neatness, attention to health, and the

strictest observance of the rules of what she thought quite a prudish

propriety.

Mrs. Fisher's life had been one of vicissitude, and in its vicissitudes,

she, a strong, earnest-minded woman, had learned much. She had known

sorrow, privation, cruelly hard labor, and the loneliness of utter

desolation of the heart She had, moreover, been extremely beautiful, and

she had experienced those innumerable perils to which such a gift

exposes an unprotected girl, struggling for her bread, under the

cruelest circumstances of oppressive labor. Every description of

hardship, and every description of temptation belonging to perhaps the

hardest and almost the most dangerous position of female life, Mrs.

Fisher had gone through.

She had outlived its sufferings and escaped its snares.

The suffering, thanks to one of the finest constitutions in the world;

the snares, thanks to what she always, with inexhaustible gratitude,

acknowledged as the special mercy and providence of God.

An orphan at the dangerous age of seventeen, the lovely blooming young

creature was placed by her friends in one of the most fashionable and

largest milliners' establishments at that time in London, and had found

herself at once miserable and excited, oppressed and flattered.

The mistress of this flourishing house, intent upon making a rapid

fortune before the years in which she could enjoy it should come to a

close, cared little--I might say nothing--for the welfare of the poor

creatures whose labors were to construct that edifice. She, in fact,

never thought about them. Want of thought may be pleaded as the excuse,

wretched one as it is, for the cruelties of those days. People certainly

had not the claim of common humanity sounded into their ears as it is

into all ears now. A few admirable philanthropists talked of it, and

preached it; but it was not to be heard calling in the streets, as it is

the triumph of our day to acknowledge, till the hardest heart for very

shame is forced to pay _some_ attention to the call.

It never entered into Miss Lavington's head that she had any other

business with her young women, but to get all the work she possibly

could out of their hands, and as well done, and as speedily done as

possible. If she objected to night-work in addition to day-work, it was

not in the slightest degree out of compassion for the aching limbs and

wearied eyes of the poor girls; but because wax candles were expensive,

and tallow ones were apt to drip; and there was always double the duty

required from the superintendent (her special favorite), to keep the

young women at those times to their duty, and prevent fine materials

from being injured.

Oh! those dreadful days and nights of the _season_, which the poor Lucy

Miles at that place went through.

She--accustomed to the sweet fresh air of the country, to the cheerful

variety of daily labor in her father's large farm, and under the care of

a brisk, clever, but most kind and sensible mother--to be shut up

twelve, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, nay twenty hours before a

birth-night, in the sickening atmosphere of the close work-room. The

windows were rarely opened, if ever; for the poor young things were so

unnaturally chilly for want of exercise and due circulation of the

blood, that they said they should, and perhaps they might, have taken

cold if fresh air were admitted. There was nothing they all dreaded so

much as taking cold; those fatal coughs, which every season thinned the

ranks, to be filled with fresh victims, were invariably attributed to

some particular occasion when they had "taken cold." They did not know

that they were rejecting the very cordial of life and inhaling poison

when they kept the room so close.

Oh! for the dreadful weariness which proceeds from _in_-action of the

limbs! so different from the wholesome fatigue of action, _In_-action

where the blood is stagnating in every vein: _in_-action, after which

rest is not rest, but a painful effort of the repressed currents to

recover their circulating power--so different from the delightful

sensation of wholesome rest after physical exertion.

At first she felt it almost insupportable. I have heard her say that it

seemed at times as if she would have given years of her existence to be

allowed to get up and walk up and down the room for a few minutes. The

sensation was so insupportable. That craving desire of the body for what

it is in want of--be it water, be it bread, be it rest, be it change of

posture--is so dreadful in its urgency. The most abominable tortures men

have in their wickedness invented are founded upon this fact--tortures

that render the black history of inquisitors yet blacker: and here it

was, in one at least of its numerous forms, daily inflicted upon a set

of helpless young women, by a person who thought herself perfectly

justifiable, and whose conscience never pricked her in the least.

Such is negligent moral habit.

Oh! the delight at meal-times--to spring up, I was going to say--I meant

to _get_ up--for there was no _spring_ left in these poor stiffened

frames. Oh! the delight when the eye of that superintendent was no

longer watching the busy circle, and her voice calling to order any one

who durst just to raise a head, and pause in the unintermitting toil.

Oh! the delight to get up and come to breakfast, or dinner, or tea.

They had not much appetite when they came to their meals to be sure.

There was only one thing they were always ready to enjoy, and that was

their tea. That blessed and long abused tea; which has done more to

sweeten private life with its gentle warmth and excitement, than any

cordial that has ever been invented. It is but a cordial, however; it is

not a nourishment; though a little sugar, and wretched blue milk, such

as London milk used to be, may be added to it. Most of the young ladies,

however, preferred it without these additions; they found it more

stimulating so, I believe, poor things!

Such nourishment as they received, it is plain, would ill supply the

rapid exhaustion of their employment. One by one in the course of the

season they sickened and dropped off; some died out and out; some, alas!

tempted by suffering and insupportable fatigue, or by that vanity and

levity which seems to be too common a result with many girls living

together, did worse. There would have been a heavy record against her

every June, if Miss Lavington had taken the trouble to note down what

had become of her missing young ladies.

I said they were relieved from their irksome continuance in one posture

by going to their meals, and what a relief it was; but they did not

always get that. When there was more than usual to be done, their tea

would be brought to them where they sat, and there would be no

intermission.

So things went on at Miss Lavington's in those days. I wonder in how

many establishments of the same description, things go on so now! How

many to which that voice of humanity which "calls in the streets" has

not yet penetrated!

We shall by-and-by see what was the case in Mrs. Fisher's, but for the

present we will go on with her history.

So beautiful a young creature as she was, could not long escape trials,

yet more to be lamented than those of physical suffering.

In the first place, there was the conversation of the young ladies

themselves; a whispering manner of conversation when at work; a busy

chattering of emancipated tongues during the intervals. And what was it

all about?

Why, what was it likely to be about?--love and lovers--beauty and its

admirers--dress and its advantages--he and him--and, dear me, weren't

you in the Park last Sunday? Where could you be? and did you not see the

carriage go by? What had you on? Oh, that pink bonnet. I cribbed a bit

of Mrs. M----'s blond for a voilette. If people will send their own

materials they deserve as much. I've heard Mrs. Saunders (the

superintendent) say so scores of times. Well, well, and I saw it, I'm

certain of it. Well, did any thing come of it?

Alas! alas! and so on--and so on--and so on.

And Lucy was very soon taught to go on Sundays into the Park. At first,

poor girl, merely to breathe the fresh air and inhale the delicious west

wind, and look at trees and grass, and cows and deer once more, and

listen to the birds singing. At first she thought the crowds of gayly

dressed people quite spoiled the pleasure of the walk, and tried to coax

her companions to leave the ring, and come and walk in the wood with

her; but she soon learned better, and was rapidly becoming as bewitched

with the excitement of gazing, and the still greater excitement of being

gazed at, as any of them.

She was so uncommonly beautiful that she got her full--and more than her

full share of this latter pleasure; and it was not long before she had

those for whom she looked out amid the crowds upon the ring, and felt

her heart beat with secret delight as she saw them.

Then, as her health began to decline, as dislike insupportable for her

occupation and its confinement; as weariness not to be described, came

on; as longings for little luxuries to be seen in every shop which she

passed by, for fruit or confectionary, haunted her palled and diseased

appetite as the vision of food haunts the wretch who is starving; as the

desire of fine clothes, in which her companions managed to array

themselves; as the more insidious, and more honorable longings of the

heart, the desolate heart, beset her--cravings for affection and

sympathy; when all these temptations were embodied together in the shape

of one, but too gentle, and insinuating; oh, then it was perilous work

indeed!

Her mother had tried to give her a good, honest, homely education; had

made such a Christian of her, as going to church, reading a chapter in

the Bible on a Sunday, and the catechism makes of a young girl. There

was nothing very vital, or earnest about it; but such as it was, it was

honest, and Lucy feared her God and reverenced her Saviour. Such

sentiments were something of a defense, but it is to be feared that they

were not firmly enough rooted in the character to have long resisted the

force of overwhelming temptation.

This she was well aware of, and acknowledged to herself; and hence her

deep, pervading, ineffable gratitude, for the Providence which she

believed had saved her.

She was getting on very fast on the evil road upon which she had

entered. Every Sunday the progress she made was fearful. A few more, at

the pace at which she was advancing, and there would have been an end of

it, when a most unexpected accident arrested her in the fatal career.

One remarkably fine Sunday, when all the members of the establishment

had been enjoying their usual recreation in the Park--just as Lucy and

some of her giddy friends were coming through Grosvenor Gate, they saw

the superintendent before them.

"There's that old Saunders, I declare!" cried one. "Stand back a little,

won't ye?--she'll see our bonnets else, and I'll be bound she'll know

the rosettes, and where they come from."

There was time for no more. Mrs. Saunders, who was rather late, being in

haste to get home, attempted to cross, as a curricle at full speed came

driving down Parklane, and before the gentleman within could draw up,

the unfortunate woman was under the horses' heels. There was a terrible

bustle. The young ladies with the rosettes managed to escape; but Lucy,

who had at least preserved her integrity thus far, and had nothing about

her dress not strictly her own, rushed forward, and helped to raise the

poor woman, declaring she knew who she was, and was placed with her by

the assistants in the hackney coach in which she was carried home.

Lucy was naturally of a very kind and humane disposition; and her

care of the poor suffering woman during the transit to Miss

Lavington's--united to the kindness and assiduity with which, every one

else but the under-maid of all being absent, she tended and waited upon

her--so engaged Mrs. Saunders's affection, that afterward, during the

whole of the subsequent illness, which broken limbs and ribs occasioned

she made it her particular request to Miss Lavington that Lucy might be

spared from the work-room to nurse and keep her company; adding for that

lady's satisfaction, that though the best nurse, and nicest young girl

of the lot, she certainly, being the youngest, was the least of a

proficient in the peculiar art she followed.

* * * * *

The poor woman lay groaning piteously upon her bed, waiting the arrival

of the surgeon. The surgeon, an elderly man, was out of town, and could

not attend; a young man, appeared in his place. He had just joined

himself to the old man in the quality of assistant and future partner;

and hearing that the case, was one of an accident, and urgent, he

hurried to the house, resolving to send for more experienced assistance,

if such should be found necessary.

He was shown up-stairs, and hastily entered the room in which the

sufferer lay. She was very much bruised about the chest, and she drew

her breath with difficulty; and though exceedingly weak and faint, was

unable to lie down. She was resting in the arms of one who appeared to

the young man like an angel.

The lovely girl, with a face of the tenderest pity, was holding the poor

groaning woman upon one arm, bending over her with an air of almost

divine kindness, and softly wiping the dew-drops which in the agony came

starting upon the patient's brow.

The young man received an impression which death alone effaced, though

the bright visionary glance was only momentary. He was instantly by the

side of his patient, and soon with much skill and courage doing what was

necessary for immediate relief, though at the very first moment when he

had discovered the serious nature of the case, he had begged the young

lady to tell Miss Lavington that it would be proper to send for some

surgeon of more experience and eminence than himself to take the

direction of it.

"Don't go away," said Mrs. Saunders feebly, as Lucy was rising to obey.

"Don't send her away, mister--I can't do without her--Miss Lavington's

not at home--one need not ask her for _me_. Who should be sent for?"

The young man named a gentleman high in his profession. Was it that able

and benevolent man whom the world has so lately lost? That kind, frank,

manly, courageous man of genius, whom no one approached but to find help

and comfort? I don't know--but be he who he might, when he did at length

arrive, he gave the most unqualified praise to the proceedings of our

young gentleman, and called the color to the pale cheek of the young and

serious-looking student by his approbation. He finished his visit by

assuring Mrs. Saunders that she could not be in safer hands than those

in which he had found her, and recommended her to put herself entirely

under the charge of the young practitioner, adding an assurance that he

would be ready at any instant to come if he should be wanted; and that

he would, at all events, and in once or twice as a friend during the

progress of the case.

Mrs. Saunders liked the looks of the young man much--and who did not?

and was quite contented with this arrangement, to which as I told you,

was added the comfort of retaining Lucy Miles as her nurse and companion

during what threatened to be a very tedious confinement. Miss Lavington

well knew the value of a Mrs. Saunders in such an establishment as hers,

and was willing to make any sacrifice to forward her recovery.

So Lucy left the wearying work-room and the dangerous recreations of the

Sunday, to sit and watch by the bed-side of a peevish, uncomfortable

sort of an old woman, who was perpetually making demands upon her

patience and good-nature, but who really suffered so greatly from her

accident, that Lucy's pity and kindness were proof against every thing.

The young surgeon went and came--went and came--and every time he came,

this angel of beauty and goodness was ministering by the old woman's

bed. And those eyes of his--eyes of such prevailing power in their

almost enthusiastic expression of serious earnestness--were bent upon

her; and sometimes her eyes, soft and melting as those of the dove, or

bright and lustrous as twin stars, met his.

He could not but linger in the sick woman's room a little longer than

was necessary, and the sick woman unwittingly favored this, for she took

a great liking to him, and nothing seemed to refresh and amuse her amid

her pains like a little chat with this nice young man. And then the

young surgeon remarked that at such times Lucy was allowed to sit

quietly down and amuse herself with a little needlework, and he thought

this an excellent reason for making his visits as as long as he decently

could.

The young nurse and the young doctor all this while had conversed very

little with each other; but she listened and she gazed, and that was

quite enough. The case proved a very serious one. Poor Mrs. Saunders,

superintendent as she was, and not workwoman-driver, not slave--yet

could no more than the rest escape the deleterious effects of the close

work room. Her constitution was much impaired. The wines and cordials

she had accustomed herself to take to support nature, as she thought,

under these fatigues, had increased the mischief the wounds would not

heal as they ought; contusions would not disperse; the internal injury

in the chest began to assume a very threatening appearance. Mr. L. came

to the assistance of the young surgeon repeatedly--all that human skill

could do was done, but Mrs. Saunders grew alarmingly worse.

For a long time she resisted the evidence which her own sensations might

have afforded her and avoided asking any questions which might enlighten

her. She was determined not to die, and, even in a case so awfully

serious and real as this, people seem to cling to the persuasion so

prevailing in lighter circumstances, that because a thing _shan't_ be,

it won't be, and because they are determined it is not, it _is_ not. So,

for many days, Mrs. Saunders went on, exceedingly angry if every body

did not say she was getting better, and half inclined to dismiss her

young surgeon, much as she liked him, because he looked grave after he

had visited her injuries.

He _did_ look grave, very grave. He was exceedingly perplexed in his

mind as to what he ought to do: young surgeon as he was, fresh from

those schools which, alas! so many who are acquainted with them

represent as the very nurseries of infidelity and license both in speech

and action, he was a deeply, seriously pious man. Such young men there

are, who, like those three, walking unscathed through the furnace of

fire in the faith of the Lord their God, walk through a more terribly

destructive furnace--the furnace of temptation--in the same faith, and

"upon their bodies the fire hath no power, neither is a hair of the head

singed."

In what tears, in what prayers, in what anguished hope, what fervent

aspiration, this sole treasure of a widowed mother, steeped in poverty

to the very lips, had been reared, it would be long to tell; but she had

committed him to one _never_ found faithless, and under that blessing

she had found in her pure and disinterested love for the being intrusted

to her charge, that which had given her an eloquence, and a power, and a

strength, which had told upon the boy.

He proved one of those rare creatures who pass through every stage of

existence, as child, as schoolboy, as youth; through nursery, school,

college, marked as some bright peculiar being--peculiar only in this one

thing, sincere unaffected goodness. His religion had been, indeed, with

him a thing little professed, and rarely talked about, but it had been a

holy panoply about his heart--a bright shield, which had quenched all

the darts of evil: it shone around him like something of the radiance

from a higher world. There was a sort of a glory round the young saint's

head.

Such being the man, you will not be surprised to hear that his practice

called forth most serious reflections--most melancholy and sad

thoughts--and in no sick room where he had ever attended more than in

the present one.

He could not frequent the house as much as his attendance rendered

necessary without being pretty well aware of the spirit of the place;

and while he grieved over the ruinous waste of health to which these

young creatures were exposed, he was struck to the heart with horror at

the idea of their moral ruin.

Mrs. Saunders talked openly and unreservedly, and betrayed the state of

mind she was in: so completely, so entirely devoted to, wrapt up in,

buried fathoms and fathoms deep in the things of this world: so totally

lost to--so entirely to seek in every thing connected with another: that

the large, mournful, serious eye, as it turned to the sweet young

creature sitting beside her, and passing her daily life in an element

such as this, gazed with an expression of sad and tender pity such as

the minister of heaven might cast upon a perishing soul.

She did not quite understand all this. Those looks of interest, so

inexpressibly sweet to her, she thought were excited by the view of her

position as affected her health and comfort. She thought it was that

consumption which, sooner or later, she believed must be her fate, which

he was anticipating with so much compassion. She was blind to the far

more dreadful dangers which surrounded her.

Poor Mrs. Saunders! At last it could no longer be concealed from her.

She must die.

He broke the intelligence to her in the gentlest terms, as she, at last,

in a paroxysm of terror, asked the question; giving her what hope he

could, but still not denying that she stood in a fearful strait. It was

a terrible scene that followed. Such a frightful agitation and hurry to

accomplish in a few counted hours what ought to have been the business

of a life. Such calling for psalms and prayers; such piteous beseechings

for help; and, last of all, such an awful awakening of a slumbering

conscience.

Like Richard's bed, on the eve of Bosworth fight, it seemed as if the

spectral shadows of all those she had injured in the body or the soul,

by her unerring demands upon one, and her negligence as to the other,

rose a host of dismal spectres round. Their pale, exhausted, pleading

looks, as she scolded and threatened, when the clock struck one, and the

task was yet undone, and the head for a moment dropped, and the

throbbing fingers were still. Those hollow coughs in which she would

_not_ believe--those hectic flushes that she would not see--and worse,

those walks, those letters, at which she had connived, because the girls

did so much better when they had some nonsense to amuse them.

What fearful revelations were made as she raved aloud, or sank into a

drowsy, dreary delirium The old clergyman, who attended her, consoled,

and reasoned, and prayed in vain. The two young people--that lovely

girl, and that feeling, interesting, young man--stood by the bed

appalled: he, ghastly pale--pale with an agony of despairing pity--she,

trembling in every limb.

The death agony, and then that poor woman went to her account. There was

no one in the room but themselves; it was late in the night, the

morning, indeed, began faintly to dawn. The maids were all gone to bed,

glad enough to escape the scene. He stood silently watching the

departing breath. It stopped. He gave a deep sigh, and, stooping down,

piously closed the eyes. She had turned away in horror and in dread, but

shedding some natural tears. He stood looking at her some time, as there

she stood, weeping by the bed; at last he spoke.

"This may seem a strange time to choose, but I have something to say to

you. Will you listen to me?"

She took her handkerchief from her eyes, and gazed at him with a

wondering, grave sort of look, as a child might do. His voice had

something so very remarkable in it.

He passed to the side where she was standing, and said, "I am a very,

very poor man, and I have a helpless mother entirely dependent upon me

for support, and, if it were my last morsel of bread, ay, and wife and

children were perishing for want of it, it is _she_ who should have it."

She only looked at him wondering like.

"This is a fearful precipice upon which you stand. That poor creature

has sunk into the gulf which yawns beneath your feet. May God, in his

mercy, look upon her! But you, beautiful as one of heaven's angels--as

yet pure and sinless as a child--must you fall, sink, perish, in this

mass of loathsome corruption? Better starve, better die--far, far

better."

"Alas, alas!" she cried, with a scared and terrified look, "Alas! alas!

ten hundred thousand times better. Oh, what must I do? what must I do?"

"Take up your cross: venture upon the hardships of a poor man's wife.

Discard all the prides, and pomps, and vanities--the vain, vain

delusions of flattery: trample upon the sin, triumph over the

temptation. Put yourself under the protection of an honest man, who

loves you from his soul. Starve, if it must be, but die the death of the

righteous and pure."

She gazed at him, amazed; she did not yet understand him.

"Marry _me_. Come to my blessed, my excellent mother's roof. It is

homely, but it is honest; and let us labor and suffer together, if need

be. It is all I can offer you, but it will save you."

The arms, the beautiful arms were expanded, as it were, in a very agony

of joy. The face! oh, was it not glorious in its beauty then! Did he

ever forget it?

And so the contract was sealed, and so she was rescued from the pit of

destruction into which she was rapidly sinking.

And this it was that had excited such impassioned, such lasting, such

devoted feelings of gratitude to Him who rules the course of this world,

in a heart which had only to be shown what was good to embrace it.

Fisher was all he had said; extremely poor. His salary, as assistant,

was handsome, nevertheless. He received one hundred a year and his board

from the gentleman with whom he was; but his dress, which was

necessarily rather expensive, and his mother, who had only an annuity of

twelve pounds a year, consumed it all. Still you see he was by no means

actually starving; and he thought the young wife he was going to bring

home would be no very great addition to his expenses, and he trusted, if

children came, that he should, by his exertions, be able to provide for

them. In two years his engagement with the present gentleman as his

assistant would be at an end; and he had received from the old man, who

was a sort of humorist in his way, several very strong hints about

partnership, if he would be satisfied with a reasonable share.

Partnership would, in the course of time, he knew, become sole

proprietorship, at the death or retirement of his aged patron--one of

which events could not be very far distant.

It was, therefore, with great satisfaction, after having summoned the

necessary attendance, and sent his young betrothed to rest, that Fisher

walked home on a fine fresh morning.

It was true he had taken a step most people would call very imprudent,

thus to encumber himself with a young wife at the very outset of his

career; certainly, he had never intended any such thing. He had always

resolved to be patient, and have a little store of money by him, before

he persuaded any one to begin the world with him. He could not bear the

idea of all being dependent upon his own life, and risking the chance of

leaving a widow and a young family destitute. But this was an

exceptional case, for he could not, without trembling, contemplate the

dangers which surrounded this young and innocent girl. His medical

knowledge taught him but too well the perils to the health of one so

fresh and blooming, from labors in close rooms to which she was so

little accustomed--death stared her in the face, unless she escaped it

by means at which he shuddered to think.

The only way in which he, young as he was, could possibly help her, was

to withdraw her from the dangerous scene and make her his wife; and on

that step he had been for some days resolving. The emotion she had

shown, the timorous joy, the sweet confidence in his love and honor, had

given a rapturous feeling of happiness to him quite new. He had intended

benevolently and kindly; he had met with all the blessings of sincere

attachment.

Instead of walking to Mrs. Stedman's to take some rest, which he very

much needed, he went to his mother's house, or rather the house where he

had taken a snug little apartment for his mother.

It lay somewhere out Brompton way; in which district neat rows of small

houses are to be found looking backward upon pleasant greens and

gardens. There he had found a modest little suite of apartments; one

sitting-room and two bedrooms--a room for his mother and another

sometimes occupied by himself.

The little hut, a tiny place it was, was clean to the greatest nicety,

and though fitted up in the very simplest and cheapest manner, had an

air of perfect comfort. The walls were stained green, the drugget upon

the floor was pink and fawn; the chairs were covered with what used to

be called Manchester stripe--very clean and pleasant-looking, and

excellent for wash and wear. There was a pretty little table for tea and

dinner, and a nice, round three-clawed one close by the mother's

side--who was established in the only article of luxury in the room, a

very comfortable arm-chair. There the old lady passed her life.

She had lost the use of her lower limbs for some years; but her health

of body and mind in other respects was sound. The only thing for which

the son had as yet _coveted_ a little more money, had been that he might

possess the means to give his mother the enjoyment of exercise and air;

and when he passed young men, the very pictures of health and strength,

lounging idly in their carriages, as one sometimes does in the Park,

though not given to such nonsense, he could not help uttering a secret

exclamation against the inequalities of fortune, and thinking the

blindness of the goddess of the wheel no fable.

They were but passing thoughts these, such as the best have when they

languish for the means of bestowing good.

Such indulgences, however, were rarely to be thought of, though now and

then he managed to obtain them; but as the best compensation he could

make, he paid a few guineas a year more for this pretty apartment, of

which the back room, elongated into a little bow-window, formed the

sitting-room--what would have been the front sitting-room being divided

into the two bedrooms. This pleasant bow-window looked over a row of

gardens belonging to the neighboring houses, and these to a considerable

tract of nursery-ground filled with rows of fruit trees, and all the

cheerful pleasant objects to be seen in such places. In summer the

arm-chair was wheeled to the window, and the whole of the view was

disclosed to the old lady; in winter it returned to the fire; but even

there she did not lose her pretty view altogether, the room was so

little that from her place she might easily command it. Miss Martineau,

in a book of hers, has given us a most valuable and interesting account

of the way in which, during a tedious and most trying illness, her

active spirit confined to one place, she used to amuse herself, and

while away the time by looking out of her window through her telescope

and watching all that was going on. This old lady did much the same,

minus the good telescope, which she had not. Her son, however, had

presented her with an old-fashioned opera-glass, which he had picked up

at some second-hand retailer or other, and as it was a good one, and,

moreover, very light to the hand, it did as well for her and better.

In some things the old lady had a little resemblance to Miss Martineau.

She had the same cheerful activity of mind, the same readiness of

adapting herself to circumstances--things in a great measure

constitutional. She was, moreover, a very shrewd, sensible woman, and

deeply pious--pious in the most excellent way: really, vitally,

seriously. She came of a good old puritan stock, where piety had been

cherished from generation to generation. Some physiologists say, that

even the _acquired_ moral qualities and habits descend to the succeeding

generation. It is possible an aptness for good or evil may be, and often

is, inherited from those who have gone before. It would seem to have

been so in this case. The pious father and mother, children of as pious

parents, had left this pious daughter--and her excellencies had

descended in accumulated measure to her son. This old lay had been

sorely tried--death and poverty had done their worst--except in as far

as the cruel ravager had spared her this one boy, one of many children,

all followed the delicate, consumptive man who had been their father.

She had borne it all. Strong in faith, she had surrendered her treasures

to the Lord of Life, in trust that they should be found again when he

maketh up his jewels. Cheerful as was her temper, life's course had been

too rough with her, for her to value it very much, when those lovely,

promising buds, but half disclosed, were one after the other gathered.

But she had escaped that racking agony of the loving, but too faithless

mother--when all the sweets of nature in its abundance flow around her,

and _they_ are not there to enjoy.

"When suns shine bright o'er heaven's blue vault serene,

Birds sing in trees, and sweet flowers deck the plain,

Weep I for thee, who in the cold, cold grave

Sleep, and all nature's harmony is vain.

But when dark clouds and threat'ning storms arise,

And doubt and fear my trembling soul invade;

My heart one comfort owns, _thou_ art not here,

Safe slumbering, in the earth's kind bosom laid."

She was happier far than the author of these lines.

She looked upward; she almost saw those she had lost, the objects of a

glorious resurrection--already living in the ineffable presence of the

God whom they had so faithfully endeavored to serve.

I need not tell you, after this, that her spirits were subdued to a holy

calmness and composure.

Her life had been one of the most active endeavors after usefulness. The

good she had managed to do can scarcely be calculated. Grains of sand

they might be, these hoarded minutes, but it was golden sand; the heap

accumulated was large and precious, at the end of sixty-five years.

What money she had possessed she had expended courageously in giving a

professional education to her son. Her little annuity of twelve pounds a

year was all she had saved for herself. Upon that she believed with her

own exertions, she could manage to exist till her son was able to

support both; but she had been struck down earlier than she calculated

upon. She had at this time lost the use of her lower limbs altogether,

and was visited with such trembling in her hands, that she was obliged

to close the task abruptly, and to sit down dependent upon her son

before she had expected it.

It had been very trying work till he obtained his present situation, and

he still felt very poor, because he was resolved every year to lay

twenty pounds or so by, that, in case any thing should happen to him,

his mother might have some little addition to her means provided. He was

rather strangely provident for the case of his own death; so young man

as he was; perhaps he felt the faltering spring of life within, which

he had inherited from his father.

Three years the mother and son had thus lived together, and Fisher was

master of sixty pounds.

He had never allowed himself to cast a thought upon marriage, though of

a temper ardently to desire, and rapturously to enjoy, domestic

felicity. He said to himself he must first provide for his mother's

independence, and then think about his own happiness. But the accident

which had brought him and Lucy together had produced other

thoughts--thoughts which he had, but the very day before the nursing so

suddenly closed, communicated to his mother, and she had said,

"I think you are quite right, John. Imprudent marriages are, in most

cases, very wrong things--a mere tempting of Providence: and, that no

blessing follows such tempting, we know from the best authority: but

this is a most pious, benevolent, and very rational attempt to save a

fellow-creature upon the brink of destruction, and I think it would be a

want of faith, as well as a want of common humanity, in either of us to

hesitate; I am very glad she seems such a sweet, innocent, pretty

creature, for your sake, my darling John; I hope she will bring a

blessing into your dwelling and repay you for your goodness to me; I am

sorry she must come and live with your old mother, for young wives don't

like that--but I promise you I will do my very best to be as amiable as

an old woman can; and, moreover, I will neither be cross nor

disappointed if she is not always as amiable as a young woman ought to

be. Will that do? Yes, yes; fetch her away from that sink of iniquity,

and we'll all get along somehow or other, never fear."

And so Lucy Miles, blushing like a rose, and, as her young and delighted

husband thought, more beauteous than an angel of light, was in a few

weeks married to John Fisher, and she went home to the old lady.

"Amid the smoke of cities did you pass

The time of early youth, and there you learnt

From years of quiet industry to love

The living beings of your own fire-side."

The eloquent tongue of Fisher had over and over again related with deep

feeling the history of all he owed to his mother, and Lucy, far from

feeling inclined to be jealous of the devoted affection he felt for her,

like a good loving girl as she was, extended the ardent attachment she

felt toward her husband to every thing that belonged to him.

She had lost her own parents, whom she had loved exceedingly, though

they were quite ordinary people. She soon almost worshiped old Mrs.

Fisher.

Lucy had been little improved by those who had the rearing of her; she

was a girl of excellent dispositions, but her education had been

commonplace. In the society of the old lady her good gifts, both of head

and heart, expanded rapidly. The passionate desire she felt to render

herself worthy of her husband, whom she adored almost as some superior

being, made her an apt and docile pupil.

A few years thus spent, and you would scarcely have known her again. Her

piety was deep, and had become a habit--a part of her very soul; her

understanding naturally excellent, had been developed and strengthened;

the most earnest desire to perform her part well--to do good and extend

virtue and happiness, and to sweeten the lives of all with whom she had

to do, had succeeded to thoughtless good nature, and a sort of

instinctive kindness. Anxiety for her husband's health, which constantly

oppressed her, a sort of trembling fear that she should be bereaved

early of this transcendent, being; this it was, perhaps, which enhanced

the earnest, serious tone of one so young.

She was extremely industrious, in the hope of adding to her husband's

means of rest and recreation, and the accidental acquaintance with a

French _modiste_, who had fallen ill in London, was in great distress,

and whom Fisher attended through charity, had put her into the way of

improving herself in this art more than she could have done even in that

eminent school, the work-room of Miss Lavington. The French-woman was a

very amiable, and pious person, too. She was a French Protestant; the

connection ripened into friendship, and it ended by placing Mrs. Fisher

in the state of life in which we find her. Fisher fell desperately ill

in consequence of a fever brought on at a dissection, from which he

narrowly escaped with life; the fever left him helpless and incapable of

exertion. The poor mother was by this time dead; he succeeded to the

vacant arm-chair. Then his wife resolved upon doing that openly which

she had till now done covertly, merely working for the bazaars. She

persuaded her husband, when a return to his profession appeared

hopeless, to let her employ his savings in setting up business with

Madame Noel, and from small beginnings had reached that high place in

her profession which she now occupied.

* * * * *

No sooner had Mrs. Fisher established a working-room of her own, and

engaged several young women to labor under her superintendence, than the

attention of her husband was seriously turned to the subject of those

evils from which he had rescued his wife.

She had suffered much, and experienced several of the evils consequent

upon the manner such places were managed; but she would probably not

have reflected upon the causes of these evils, nor interested herself so

deeply as she afterward did in applying the remedies, if it had not been

for the promptings of this excellent man.

His medical skill made him thoroughly aware of the injurious effect

produced upon the health by the ill-regulated system of such

establishments; and his thoughts, as he sat resigned to helplessness in

his arm-chair, were seriously directed to that subject.

In consequence of his suggestions it was that Mrs. Fisher began her life

of business upon a plan of her own, to which she steadily adhered. At

first she found considerable difficulty in carrying it out--there are

always numerous obstructions to be met with in establishing any

improvements; but where the object is rational and benevolent,

perseverance and a determined will triumph over every difficulty.

The first thing Fisher insisted upon was ventilation; the second,

warmth; the third, plenty of good, wholesome, and palatable food; the

fourth, exercise. He determined upon a house being selected which was

not closely built up behind, and that the room in which the young ladies

worked should be large and commodious in proportion to the inmates. A

portion of the little money he had saved was sacrificed to the

additional expense thus incurred. He looked upon it, he told his wife,

as given to charity, for which she must expect no return, and for which

he should look for no interest. A good wide grate, which should be well

supplied with a cheerful fire in winter, was to assist the ventilation

proceeding from a scientific plan of his own, which kept the room

constantly supplied with a change of air; and under the table at which

the girls sat at work, there was in winter a sort of long, square,

wooden pipe filled with hot water and covered with carpeting, upon which

they could put their feet: the extreme coldness of the feet arising from

want of circulation, being one of the causes to which Fisher attributed

many of the maladies incident to this mode of life.

The next object of attention was the table. Fisher had been at school,

at one or two different schools, resembling each other in one thing

only--the scandalous--I must use the strong and offensive word--the

scandalous neglect or worse than neglect--the infamous and base

calculations upon the subject of food which pervaded the system of those

schools, and which pervaded, I am sorry to say, so many of the schools

with which he had chanced to be acquainted. In the course of his

practice as a medical man, his opportunities for observation had been

above the common.

In fine ladies' schools, I can not assert that the shameful economy of

buying inferior provisions, and the shameful indifference as to how they

were cooked, which prevail in so many boys' schools, were to be

found--but a fault almost equally great prevailed too generally. There

was not _enough_. These growing girls, stimulated to most unnatural

exertions both of body and mind, peculiarly unnatural to growing girls

who require so much care, fresh air, exercise, and rest, for their due

development--these young things had very rarely nearly so much to eat as

they could have eaten.

Sometimes enough was literally not set before them; at others, a sort of

fashion in the school to consider a good appetite as a proof of

coarseness, greediness, and vulgarity, worked but too effectually upon

these sensitive creatures. A girl at that age would rather be starved

than ridiculed or sneered at for eating.

But in boys' schools--expensive boys' schools too--where six times as

much was paid for a boy's board as would have boarded him--either

through scandalous parsimony, or the most inexcusable negligence, he had

seen meat brought into the house not fit to eat; cheap and bad in

itself, but rendered doubly unwholesome in summer by the most utter

carelessness as to whether it was fresh. Boys are hardy things, and it

is right they should not be accustomed to be too nice; but wholesome,

plain roast and boiled is what they pay for and ought to have; and the

defrauding them of what is so necessary to health, vigor, and even

intellect, in this unprincipled manner, is almost the very worst form of

robbery any man can be guilty of.

Fisher was resolved it should not be so in his wife's house. He and his

wife had agreed that the young ladies she employed should be lodged and

boarded under her roof, unless they had respectable parents who could

and would be fully answerable for them; and they should have a plentiful

and a pleasant table--that he was resolved upon. As he was competent to

little else, he took this matter upon himself. He calculated what ought

fairly to be laid out, and he laid it all out. He would not economize a

penny. If he was able to make a good bargain with his butcher, the young

ladies, not he, should have the benefit of it all. They should have a

bit of fish, or a little poultry, or a little good fruit, poor girls, to

vary a meal, to which they could not bring the sturdy appetite of much

out-of-door exercise.

Then came the great chapter of that exercise. There was the

difficulty--how much time could Mrs. Fisher possibly afford to lose?--to

abandon to this object?--for the work must _pay_--or it could not

continue to be done. But the difficulty diminished upon examination.

Time may be counted by strength as well as by minutes. The same thing

may, by two different hands, be accomplished in most unequal portions of

time.

The dreadful feeling of weariness, which, as Lucy, she so well

remembered--one consequence of sitting so long in an unchanged position,

and at the same employment--that dreadful feeling could not be forgotten

by her. Her horror at the recollection was so strong, that of this

matter she thought more than even her benevolent husband.

He recollected to have heard that the Jesuits, those masters of human

development, physical as well as intellectual, never suffered a pupil to

be employed more than two hours upon the same thing without a change--to

get up and turn round the chair--to pace five minutes up and down the

room would in many cases suffice. Mr. Fisher laid down his plan.

Two hours the young ladies worked, and then for ten minutes they were

allowed to lay down their needles; they might walk about the room, into

the passage, up and down stairs, or sit still and lounge. That

precious, useful _lounge_, so fatally denied to the wearied spine of

many a growing girl, was here permitted. They might look about them, or

close their eyes and be stupefied; in short, do just what they liked.

It was soon found by experience that the work done after this refreshing

pause more than made up for the time thus expended.

Such were some of the plans of this kind-hearted and highly-principled

man--and the blooming looks, the gay spirits, the bright eyes, of the

happy little community did credit to the scheme.

Fisher lived but a few years to carry out the rule he had instituted;

but to his wife it was as a sacred legacy from his hand, and during the

whole course of her subsequent life she faithfully adhered to it.

Her house was like a convent in some things, but it was a very happy

convent. Every thing proceeded with a clock-work order, and yet there

was a liberty such as few girls thus employed, in spite of their

intervals of license, could enjoy.

It was a happy party, over which this remarkably handsome, and now

distinguishedly fashionable milliner, and dignified-looking lady

presided. Nothing indiscreet or unseemly was ever permitted. The rule,

perhaps, might be a little too grave, and the manner of the young ladies

too sedate; but they were innocent and good; and they had their

recreations, for Mrs. Fisher look them out, turn and turn about, upon a

Sunday, in her carriage, and the others walked with the two

superintendents--persons carefully selected for their good principles

and good conduct.

Mrs. Fisher, too, was a little bit of a match-maker; and if she had a

weakness, it was her fondness for settling her young ladies. Nothing

pleased her better than when they were sought--and they were such nice,

well-behaved girls, this often happened--by worthy young men in their

own rank of life. Mrs. Fisher always gave the wedding-gown and bonnet,

and the wedding dinner, and a white satin reticule or bag, drawn with

rose-colored ribbons, with a pretty pink and white purse in it, with

silver tassels and rings, and containing a nice little sum for the

bride's pocket-money. You will easily understand how Mrs. Danvers had

struck up quite a friendship with Mrs. Fisher. Once, indeed, in her days

of youth and gayety, she had been one of her most valuable customers.

She had long done with fine things, but the interest she took in the

affairs of Mrs. Fisher's establishment had endeared her very much to

that good lady, and hence she had, at her earnest request, consented to

take Myra, though her own instinct, the moment she cast her eyes upon

this beautiful, dawdling-looking being, had assured her that she was, to

use her own phrase, not one of _her_ sort.

Myra was grievously disappointed, upon her side. She was quite one to be

blind to the solid advantages of her position, and to look with

querulous regret upon all the flashy and brilliant part of such a

business, in which she was not allowed to take the least share.

Precisely because she was so beautiful did Mrs. Fisher exclude her from

the show-room--that theatre which was to have been the scene of her

triumphs.

The beautiful things she was employed in manufacturing left her hands to

be seen no more--and, alas! never by her to be tried on. It was

tantalizing work to part with them, and forever, as soon as they left

her hand.

Then she was obliged to be punctual to a moment in her hours; a grievous

yoke to her who had never been educated to submit to any. To dress with

the most careful attention to neatness, though there was "nothing but a

pack of women to look at her"--to listen to "a prosy book"--a book, I

forgot to say, was read aloud in the work-room--instead of gossiping and

having a little fun; and to walk out on Sundays under the wing of that

old, hideous harridan, Mrs. Sterling, instead of going with her

companions where she pleased. In short, it was worse "than negro

slavery," but there was no help for it--there she was, and there she was

obliged to stay.

Well, and did she improve under this good discipline? Was she any the

better for it? I am sorry to say very little.

There are subjects that are almost unimprovable. She was, by nature, a

poor, shallow, weedy thing; her education had been the worst possible

for her. Evil habits, false views, low aims, had been imbibed, and not

one fault corrected while young; and self-experience, which rectifies in

most so much that is wrong, seemed to do nothing for her. There was no

substance to work upon. Mrs. Fisher was soon heartily tired of her, and

could have regretted her complaisance to Mrs. Danvers' wishes in

receiving her against her judgment; but she was too good to send her

away. She laughed, and accepted her as a penance for her sins, she

said--as a thorn in the flesh--and she let the thorn rankle there. She

remembered her honored Fisher, and the scene by the bed-side of poor

Saunders. She looked upon the endurance of this plague as a fresh

offering to the adored memory.

She bore this infliction like a martyr for a long time; at last a smart

young tailor fell in love with Myra at church--a place where he had been

better employed thinking of other things. And so I believe he thought

after he had married her, in spite of the white dress and silk bonnet,

and the reticule with pink ribbons, and the bride's pocket-money, which

Mrs. Fisher bestowed with more pleasure and alacrity than even she had

been known to do upon many a worthier subject.