On the opening of April, 1812, ten years of hard-borne absence were
completed between Dr. Burney and his second daughter; after a parting
which, in idea, and by agreement, had foreseen but a twelvemonth’s
separation. Grievously dejecting in that long epoch, had been, at
times, the breach of intercourse: not alone they never met; that, in
a season of war, however afflicting, was but the ordinary result of
hostile policy; not alone the foreign post-office was closed, and all
regular and authentic communication was annihilated; that, again, was
but the common lot of belligerent nations while under arms, and was
sustained, therefore, with that fortitude which all, save fools and
madmen, must, sooner or later, perforce acquire, the fortitude of
necessity.
But these prohibitions, however severe upon every national or kindred
feeling that binds the affections and the interests of man to man,
were inefficient to baffle the portentous vengeance of Napoleon, who
suddenly, in one of his explosions of rage against Great Britain,
issued a decree that not a letter, a note, an address, or any written
document whatsoever, should pass from France to England, or arrive from
England to France, under pain of death.
It was then that this dire position became nearly insupportable;
for, by this fierce stroke of fiery despotism, all mitigation of
private anodyne to public calamity was hopelessly destroyed; all the
softening palliatives of billets, or memorandums, trusted to incidental
opportunities, which hitherto had glided through these formidable
obstacles, and found their way to the continental captive with a solace
utterly indescribable, were now denied: the obscure anxiety of total
ignorance of the proceedings, nay, even of the life or death, of those
ties by which life and death hold their first charm, was without alloy;
and hope had not a resting place!
The paroxysm of hatred or revenge which urged Napoleon to this harsh
rigidity, passed, indeed, after a while, it may be presumed, away, like
most other of his unbridled manifestations of unbounded authority;
since its effect, after a certain time, seemed over; and things
appeared to go on as they had done before that tremendous decree. But
that decree was never annulled! what, then, was the security that its
penalty might not be exacted from the first object, who, in disobeying
it, should incur his suspicion or ill-will? or of whom, for whatever
cause, he might wish to get rid?
Dr. Burney, on this subject, entertained apprehensions so affrighting,
that he entirely abstained from writing himself to France; and charged
all his family and friends to practise the same forbearance. The
example was followed, if not set, by his nearly exiled daughter; and,
at one sad time, no intelligence whatever traversed the forbidden
route; and two whole, dread, endless years lingered on, in the darkest
mystery, whether or not she had still the blessing of a remaining
parent.
This was a doubt too cruel to support, where to endure it was not
inevitable; though hard was the condition by which alone it could be
obviated; namely, submission to another bosom laceration! But all
seemed preferable to relinquishing one final effort for obtaining at
least one final benediction.
Her noble-minded partner, who participated in all her filial
aspirations, but to whom quitting France was utterly impossible,
consented to her spending a few months in her native land: and when
the rumour of a war with Russia gave hope of the absence of Napoleon
from Paris, worked assiduously himself at procuring her a passport;
for, while the Emperor inhabited the capital, the police discipline was
so impenetrable, that a madman alone could have planned eluding its
vigilance.
When, however, it was ascertained that the Czar of all the Russias
disclaimed making any concessions; that Napoleon had left Dresden to
take the field; and that his yet unconquerable and matchless army,
in actual sight of the enemy, was bordering the frontiers of all
European Russia; whence two letters, written at that breathless crisis,
reached M. d’Arblay himself, from an Aide-de-camp,[87] and from the
first surgeon[88] of Napoleon; the singular moment was energetically
seized by the most generous of husbands and fathers; his applications,
from fresh courage, became more vigorous; the impediments, from an
involuntary relaxation of municipal rigidity, grew more feeble; and,
liberally seconded by the most zealous, disinterested, and feeling of
friends,[89] he finally obtained a passport not only for his wife, but,
though through difficulties that had seemed insurmountable, for his
son; for whom, during the imperial presence in the French metropolis,
even to have solicited one, notwithstanding he was yet much too young
to be amenable to the conscription, would have produced incarceration.