A sense of justice should be the foundation of all our social qualities.
In our most early intercourse with the world, and even in our most
youthful amusements, no unfairness should be found. That sacred rule of
doing all things to others, according as we wish they would do unto us,
should be engraven on our minds. For this end, we should impress
ourselves with a deep sense of the original, and natural equality of
men.
Whatever advantage of birth or fortune we possess, we ought never to
display them with an ostentatious superiority. We should leave the
subordinations of rank to regulate the intercourse of more advanced
years. In youth it becomes us to act among our companions, as man with
man. We should remember how unknown to us are the vicissitudes of the
world; and how often they, on whom ignorant and contemptuous young men
once looked down with scorn, have risen to be their superiors in future
years.
* * * * *
* * * *
THE VICTIM OF MAGICAL DELUSION;
_OR, INTERESTING MEMOIRS OF MIGUEL, DUKE DE CA*I*A._
Unfolding Many Curious Unknown Historical Facts.
_Translated from the German of Tschink._
(Continued from page 275.)
“My father took up the piece, levelling it at him with a trembling and
fearful hand. ‘I beg you will not spare me, and insist upon your aiming
at my head or heart!’ The Marquis look his aim, but trembled so
violently that he was obliged to lay down the gun. Alumbrado desired me
to step nearer, and putting my hand to his bare breast, said: ‘Feel
whether this heart beats so timmorously as that of your father.’ These
words provoked the pride of the Marquis, he ordered me to step aside,
levelled his piece and discharged it. A cloud of smoak concealed
Alumbrado’s situation for a moment from our eyes. It is impossible to
depict the sensations that rushed upon my heart, when I beheld him in
his former situation, and heard him exclaim: ‘You have aimed well, my
Lord, however, the ball has recoiled from my breast, there it lies on
the floor.’ My father sunk on his knees and lifted his hands to heaven
as if praying, and I gazed at Alumbrado with silent awe.
“‘Duke!’ said the latter, ‘charge the gun once more.’ The marquis
started up, exclaiming: ‘For what purpose?’ ‘I want your son to repeat
the deed.’ ‘No, there is no occasion for it;’ my father replied, ‘the
omnipotence of the Eternal has been glorified sufficiently.’ ‘Just now,’
Alumbrado returned, ‘you have been of too little faith, and now you are
too credulous? Is it impossible that you should have missed your aim?
That the ball accidentally has hit another object and recoiled? But
although you should be convinced that you have aimed well and hit me, is
the Duke so too?’
“In short, I was obliged to charge the piece again, and Alumbrado
exposed his uncovered bosom once more.
“I could rely on my gun, and was sure not to miss him, because he was
standing only seven paces from me. I pointed at Alumbrado’s head, took
my aim well, and fired; however, he stepped forth from the cloud of
smoak like a being of a superior order; the ball lay on the floor, and
Alumbrado had not received the least hurt.
“He now took a dagger out of his pocket, and plunged it twice in his
breast, up to the hilt, extracting it without a wound being seen.
“O my friend, make haste to recant at the feet of this astonishing man
the prejudices which you have uttered against him. Blush at your
philosophy, whereby you have combated so frequently my propensity to
supernatural events. I have always had a presentiment that this
irresistible propensity would be gratified one time; yet I was a
stranger to the road which led to the object of my most ardent wishes.
Alumbrado has pointed it out to me and a new epocha of my life has
commenced with that period. How little, and how disgusting and vain does
now all the wisdom and all the tinsel splendor of the world appear to
me, since I have been made acquainted with that higher good, which is
concealed from, and inaccessible to the greatest part of human kind.”
“P.S. On reading my letter over, I find a few passages in it, which
would determine me not to send it on account of the great watchfulness
with which all letters are examined by order of the King, if I had not
been assured that those which are directed to you are exempted from
examination.”
Having perused this letter of the Duke of Ca*ina, I did not know whether
I should hasten first to him, to his father, or to Alumbrado. I ordered
instantly my carriage to be got ready; but when I was going to step out
of the house, my valet stopped me pale and panting for breath. ‘My
Lord,’ he stammered, ‘Coming----I have’----‘Well, what is the
matter?’----‘It is almost incredible,’ he resumed, ‘it is rumoured all
over the town.’ Here he stopped again. His consternation communicated
itself to me, and I exclaimed in a trembling accent, ‘For heaven’s sake!
what has happened?’ ‘It is reported that the Marquis of Villa R*al and
his son---but don’t be terrified, my Lord!’ ‘What?’ I replied, ‘Are
you,’ I could not proceed, my lips being sealed with terror, ‘It is
rumoured that the Duke of Ca*ina and his father have been taken up on an
accusation of having conspired against the life of the King.’
These words curdled the blood in my veins, and I was ready to drop to
the ground; however, despair soon roused me from the stupor that had
seized me. I got in my carriage in order to enquire personally into the
truth of that dreadful intelligence. Coming in the street I observed a
universal commotion, and received, but too soon, a confirmation of my
valet’s intelligence; being informed, at the same time, that forty five
persons more had been arrested along with the Duke and his father. The
multitude were assembled before the royal palace, demanding with a
furious clamour, that the traitors should be delivered up to them; the
king however thanked them for their zeal, and ordered the constable to
disperse the populace.
My astonishment, my agony and consternation, and an indisposition which
had been brought on by the violent agitation of my mind, prevented me
from recollecting that this was the very day on which I was to expect
the friend, of whose intended visit I had been apprised by that letter
from an unknown person. The succeeding day I happened to see that letter
accidentally on my writing-desk, and the friend to whom I was to deliver
it, not having made his appearance at the fixed hour, I made use of the
liberty I had received to open it.
Conceive my astonishment when I saw the handwriting of the Duke of
Ca*ina. “When you shall read these lines,” he wrote, “the great deed
will be performed, and P----l reduced again under the S----sh dominion.
Forgive me, for having this time deceived your confidence, and believe
me, that nothing but your connection with the new King could have
prevented me from communicating the matter to you before our design is
carried into execution. For that reason only I have had recourse to art,
and wrote this letter which will inform you of the whole transaction,
but is to be opened only when it will be impossible to put a stop to our
undertaking.
“Not only my father and myself, but also those two prelates whom I have
mentioned in my letters, and a great number of noblemen agreed after
several conversations to force the usurper to restore the crown of
P----l to the King of S----n; yet this design appeared to be so
dangerous, that neither the Marquis nor myself would engage in it before
we had the consent of Alumbrado. We pressed him, therefore, one evening
to grant us his permission and assistance. He hesitated a long while,
and at length replied, ‘Well! I will oppose you no longer, but I declare
solemnly that I will not afford you the least assistance in your design
against the King before I shall be convinced that it is the will of God,
which we can learn by no other means but prayer. The spirit of God
inspires those that are praying to him with sincerity of heart, and the
sentiments which prevail in our soul in that situation are the voice of
God. Let us devote this night to prayer, address the Omniscient
separately, and to-morrow morning communicate to each other what the
Lord shall reveal to us. If you shall continue firm in your resolution
after you have performed your devotion, then it is the will of the
Eternal, and we will go to work.’
“I had, for a long time, entertained the wish of spending a night in a
church, imagining that this would afford me a pleasure of a most
singular nature. I resolved, therefore, to execute Alumbrado’s proposal,
and, at the same time, to gratify this darling wish of my heart. With
that view, I concealed myself one evening in the cathedral. The first
idea which forced itself upon my mind, as soon as I was left alone in
that sacred place, was that of the immediate presence of the Eternal,
and this notion filled me with solemn awe.
“I went to the altar, throwing myself on my face upon the steps of it
and adoring the omnipresent God with ardent fervour. I soared beyond the
limits of materiality, transported by devotion, and my soul and every
sense was hurried along by the torrent of holy enthusiasm. I prayed with
filial submission for filial illumination and heavenly aid.
“The clock on the church steeple tolled eleven, when I recovered from my
pious trance. The church was covered with awful darkness; the solitary
lamps which were burning before the altar, and the images of the saints,
produced on the opposite parts of the fabric large masses of light and
shade, while they spread only a faint dusk over the other parts of the
Gothic building. The presence of the Eternal, the melancholy stillness
of night, the extensive circumference of the venerable edifice, made me
sensible, with a kind of horror, of my solitary situation. The profound
stillness that reigned around was interrupted only now and then by a
momentaneous cracking by the clattering of the windows, the whistling of
a gust of wind rustling through the softly resounding organ-pipes, and
by the chiming of a bell.
“Proceeding further, I was struck with the hollow sound of my footsteps,
which reminded me that the marble pavement covered the vault in which
the bodies of the deceased fathers of the order were awaiting the morn
of resurrection.
“I went through one of the aisles, and stopped in awful contemplation,
now at an altar, now at the image of a saint, and now at a tomb. The
antique, artless appearance of many images and statues contributed much
to increase their awful effect. A chapel, where a whole length picture
of Christ on the cross was suspended attracted my attention
particularly, because the quickly repeated flirtation of the lamp which
was placed before it had made me fancy that the picture was stirring.
The singular distribution of light, darkness, and shade prevailing
through the whole church, the sudden flaring and dying away of the
lamps, produced the most different and surprising effects on the eye,
and furnished the imagination with multivarious objects of occupation.
“At length, I entered a great hall, which led to the hindmost porch, and
from thence to a church-yard, the iron gate of which was locked. The
first look I directed at it made me start back, seized with surprise.
I looked once more at it, and beheld again several white figures that
appeared and vanished with a rustling noise. I cannot but confess that a
chilly tremor seized my limbs and fixed me to the ground. A few minutes
after, a monk carrying a lanthorn appeared in the back part of the
burying place; and a short reflection unfolded to me the whole mystery.
The noise which I had heard proceeded from his steps, and the figures
were nothing else but white statues, which appeared and disappeared as
he moved the lanthorn in walking. Probably he had been praying in the
porch, and was now returning to his cell: I concealed myself in a pew,
in order to avoid being seen by him. A weariness which proceeded from
the chilly night air and a want of sleep, bade me, at length put a stop
to my wanderings. I seated myself in a pew, where I abandoned myself to
the wild freaks of my imagination.
“The dawn of day was already peeping through the stained windows, when I
awoke from the fanciful dreams of my wondering mind, and the purple rays
of the morning sun reflected with radient glory from the image of the
holy Virgin, suspended against the wall opposite the window. I was
absorbed in the contemplation of this sublime object for some time;
however the trance in which this charming sight had thrown me, soon gave
room to religious sensations of a more sublime nature; a pious
confidence in the heavenly aid of Providence was kindling in my bosom,
and I was going to prostrate myself before the blessed Virgin, when the
church was thrown open.”
(_To be continued._)
* * * * *
* * * *
THE FATAL MISTAKE;
Or, THE HISTORY OF MR. ELLIOT.
[Written by Himself.]
(Continued from our last)
I expressed my obligations to his friendship in the warmest and most
grateful terms, and we consulted how the matter should be broke to Lady
Somerset; my friend undertook the task.
That very evening, as his sister was engaged out, and I had determined
to be absent, I waited in a state of the most anxious expectation for
the event of his embassy; and on seeing him enter my room at one o’clock
in the morning, I had hardly resolution to inquire his success. “My
friend, my brother,” exclaimed he, “I am authorised to call you so by
the most amiable of mothers, Almena is your’s, win her, my dear
Frederick, and be happy.”
Words were too faint to express my feelings; my Edward shared my
emotions, and for a time we lost the remembrance of every thing but
friendship. Now each adverse cloud appeared removed, and happiness
permanent and delightful dawned on my morning joys. Lady Somerset
informed lord Ashford, that her daughter’s heart was engaged: his
disappointment betrayed him into the most violent rage, and he left the
house threatening to be revenged.
Blessed as I was in Almena’s love, and in the friendship of her amiable
brother, I disregarded his threats, and smiled at the apprehensions of
my charmer: three weeks after this made me her happy husband; my friend
gave away his lovely sister, and shared in our felicity. My wife was
every thing that was excellent and good; her love for me was unbounded,
and mine was to such a painful excess, that I could not bear a look cast
at any other person. To this unhappy jealousy of temper all my
subsequent misfortunes were owing.
For twelve months, we enjoyed the most perfect felicity, when Lady
Somerset appeared to be declining in her health. Her physicians advised
her to go to the south of France: my Almena was desirous of accompanying
her beloved parent, but her situation rendered it improper and
dangerous. Lord Somerset was determined to attend her, which greatly
alleviated my wife’s uneasiness. As London did not agree with lady
Almena, and as the season was far advanced, I proposed going to
Trout-Hall, for the ensuing hot months: she consented chearfully, as her
lying-in was not expected for a considerable time. The separation of my
beloved from her mother and brother may be better imagined than
described. We immediately went into the country, where I exerted the
most unwearied assiduity to amuse and divert her thoughts from dwelling
too much on the late melancholy parting. On a visit to a neighbouring
family I was amazed to see lord Ashford. He addressed my wife as if
nothing had passed between them, and me with the most polite freedom.
Some few weeks after, I had been out a little way, and on my return,
asked the servant if any body had been there during my absence? “Lord
Ashford, Sir, has been an hour with my lady.” I hurried to my wife’s
apartment, and opening the door gently, surprized her in tears. “How is
this, my love? what has happened to make you uneasy?” “Nothing
particular, replied she, I was thinking of my poor mother, you must pity
the weakness of your wife, my Frederick.” “My Almena, my dearest love,
answered I, clasping her to my bosom, I cannot bear your tears; talk not
of weakness, you are all that is amiable and lovely.” She seemed soothed
with these words and appeared more chearful; as she did not mention lord
Ashford’s having been there, I did not choose to start the subject.
We passed a month in the most perfect tranquility, having heard in that
time from my friend, who gave us a pleasing account of lady Somersets
health. My Almena’s happiness was excessive at this information, and joy
beamed on her lovely countenance; I frequently left her at her own
desire, to partake of country amusements, though my inclination would
have ever detained me with her; yet to make her easy I complied. She
feared a too constant attendance on her would weaken my affection, and
make me uneasy at so great a restraint.
One day, I had stayed longer than usual in hunting, and was hastening to
meet my wife, when I perceived lord Ashford riding up the avenue: these
visits and always in my absence greatly alarmed me. He would have
avoided me, but I rode up to him, and after a slight civility, begged to
know what had occasioned the honour of my seeing him there? He looked
confounded, and making an evasive answer spurred his horse, and rode
away with great precipitation. This conduct, so very enigmatical,
enraged me infinitely; I was inclined to pursue him, and force him to
confess what his business was, but a moment’s thought deterred me from
such a conduct. I entered the house, torn by a thousand emotions, and
went to my wife, who fled with open arms to receive me. I brutishly
turned from her. “Lady Almena, has Lord Ashford been here?” I looked at
her very sternly, she hesitated and blushed; “No, my dear; but wherefore
this unkindness! Alas, Mr. Elliot, have I offended you?” She burst into
tears. Oh, how I cursed my own horrid disposition! I strove to abate her
grief by every method in my power: and had she at that moment informed
me of her conjectures, what a weight of woe had been spared to my
succeeding days! But my misery was not to be avoided. I applied to the
servant, who had before informed me lord Ashford had been at my house,
who confirmed my suspicions by telling me, my hated rival, as I then
madly thought him, had been a considerable time with his lady. I was too
much affected by this news to answer the servant; and leaving him in the
greatest haste, I determined to return to my wife and tax her with her
inconstancy; but the consideration of my Almena’s situation deterred me;
as she was drawing near her time I reflected I might be her destroyer.
(_To be concluded in our next._)
* * * * *
* * * *