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[THE FORGET-ME-NOT,
The first-born of the _Annuals_, comes to woo us with the kindred
charms of poetry and playful humour--romance and real life--full of
kindly feelings, sighs and tears, such as Niobe shed, and smiles that
with their witchery light up the finest affections to cherish drooping
nature, and guide our footsteps along this world of weal and woe. To
be more explicit, the character of the present volume is well told by
Mr. Haynes Bayly in its second page:--
a gift that friend to friend
At parting will deliver;
And love with his own name will blend
The dear name of the giver.
So pure, so blameless is this book,
That wise and wary sages
Will lead young Innocence to look
Upon its tasteful pages.
We can only particularize a few of the most striking papers. Among the
metrical gems is _Conradin_, a fine battle-piece, by Mr. Charles
Swain; an _Every-day Tale_, by Montgomery--one of "the short and
simple annals of the poor," written in behalf of a Society for
relieving distressed females in the first month of their widowhood, to
save their little households from being broken up before they can
provide means for their future maintenance: and _Far-off Visions_, by
Mary Howitt. The prose gem of the volume, to our taste, is
_Giulietta, a Tale of the Fourteenth Century, by L.E.L.,_
which we abridge. The scene lies at Genoa, where Giulietta
Aldobrandini, being at the point of death, commits her three daughters
to the care of their uncle the Cardinal Aldobrandini. The Countess
dies, and the three girls, Constanza, Bianca, and Giulietta, having
sprung up into graceful womanhood, arrive at the Cardinal's palace.]
It was early in a spring evening when the Aldobrandini arrived at
their uncle's dwelling. It was an old and heavy-looking building.
Constanza and Bianca, as the massy gate swung behind them, on their
arrival in the dark, arched court, simply remarked that they were
afraid it would be very dull: but Giulietta's imagination was
powerfully impressed; a vague terror filled her mind, which the gloom
of the huge and still chambers through which they were ushered did not
tend to decrease. At length, they paused in a large vaulted room,
while the aged domestic went on, to announce them to the cardinal.
Giulietta glanced around: the purple hangings were nearly black with
age, so was the furniture, while the narrow windows admitted shadows
rather than light. Some portraits hung on the walls, all dignitaries
of the church; but the colour of their scarlet robes had faded with
time, and each wan and harsh face seemed to turn frowning on the
youthful strangers. A door opened, and they were ushered into the
presence of their uncle. He was standing by a table, on which was a
crucifix and an open breviary, while a volume of the life of St.
Chrysostom lay open on the floor. A window of stained glass was half
screened by a heavy curtain, and the dark panels of carved oak added
to the gloom of the oratory. The sisters knelt before him, while
gravely and calmly he pronounced over them a welcome and a blessing.
Constanza and Bianca received them gracefully and meekly, but
Giulietta's heart was too full; she thought how different would have
been the meeting had they been but kneeling before parents instead of
the stern prelate. She bowed her head upon the breviary; and her dark
hair fell over her face while she gave way to a passionate burst of
tears. Next to indulging in the outward expression of feeling himself,
the cardinal held it wrong to encourage it in another. Gently, but
coldly, he raised the weeping Giulietta; and, with kind but measured
assurances of his regard and protection, he dismissed the sisters to
their apartment. Could Giulietta have known the many anxious thoughts
that followed her, how little would she have doubted her uncle's
affection!
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The light of a few dim stars shed a variable gleam amid the thick
boughs of a laurel grove, too faint to mark the objects distinctly,
but enough to guide the steps of one who knew the place. The air was
soft and warm, while its sweetness told of the near growth of roses;
but a sweeter breath than even the rose was upon the air, the low and
musical whisper of youth and of love. Gradually, two graceful forms
became outlined on the dark air--the one a noble-looking cavalier, the
other Giulietta. Yet the brow of the cavalier was a gloomy one to turn
on so fair a listener in so sweet a night; and his tone was even more
sad than tender.
"I see no hope but in yourself. Do you think my father will give up
his life's hatred to the name of Aldobrandini, because his son loves
one of its daughters, and wears a sad brow for a forbidden bride? or,
think you, that yonder stern cardinal will give up the plans and power
of many years, and yield to a haughty and hereditary foe, for the sake
of tears even in thy eyes, Giulietta?"
"I know not what I hope," replied the maiden, in a mournful, but firm
voice; "but this I know, I will not fly in disobedience and in secrecy
from a home which has been even as my own."
"And what," exclaimed the cavalier, "can you find to love in your
severe and repelling uncle?"
"Not severe, not repelling, to me. I once thought him so; but it was
only to feel the more the kindness which changed his very nature
towards us. My uncle resembles the impression produced on me by his
palace: when I first entered, the stillness, the time-worn hangings,
the huge, dark rooms, chilled my very heart. We went from these old
gloomy apartments to those destined for us, so light, so cheerful,
where every care had been bestowed, every luxury lavished; and I said
within myself, 'My uncle must love us, or he would never be thus
anxious for our pleasure.'"
A few moments more and their brief conference was over. But they
parted to meet again; and at length Giulietta fled to be the bride of
Lorenzo da Carrara. But she fled with a sad heart and tearful eyes;
and when, after her marriage, every prayer for pardon was rejected by
the cardinal, Giulietta wept as if such sorrow had not been foreseen.
Her uncle felt her flight most bitterly. He had watched his favourite
niece, if not with tenderness of look and tone, yet with deep
tenderness of heart. When her elder sisters married and left his roof,
he missed them not: but now it was a sweet music that had suddenly
ceased, a soft light that had vanished. The only flower that, during
his severe existence, he had permitted himself to cherish, had passed
away even from the hand that sheltered it. It was an illusion fresh
from his youth: his love for the mother had revived in a gentler and
holier form for her child, and now that, too, must perish. He felt as
if punished for a weakness; and all Giulietta's supplications were
rejected: for pride made his anger seem principle. "I have been once
deceived," said he; "it will be my own fault if I am deceived again."
Yet how tenderly was his kindness remembered, how bitterly was his
indignation deplored, by the youthful Countess da Carrara!--for such
she now was--Lorenzo's father having died suddenly, soon after their
union. The period of mourning was a relief; for bridal pomp and gaiety
would have seemed too like a mockery, while thus unforgiven and
unblessed by one who had been as a father in his care. At her earnest
wish they fixed their first residence in the marine villa where her
mother died.
"And shall you not be sad, my Giulietta?" asked her husband. "Methinks
the memory of the dead is but a mournful welcome to our home."
"Tender, not mournful," said she. "I do believe that even now my
mother watches over her child, and every prayer she once breathed,
every precept she once taught, will come more freshly home to my
heart, when each place recalls some word or some look there heard and
there watched. It is for your sake, Lorenzo, I would be like my
mother."
They went to that fair villa by the sea; and pleasantly did many a
morn pass in the large hall, on whose frescoed walls was painted the
story of Oenone, she whom the Trojan prince left, only to return and
die at her feet. On the balustrade were placed sweet-scented shrubs,
and marble vases filled with gathered flowers; and, in the midst, a
fountain, whose spars and coral seemed the spoil of some sea-nymph's
grotto, fell down in a sparkling shower, and echoed the music of
Giulietta's lute. Pleasant, too, was it in an evening to walk the
broad terrace which overlooked the ocean, and watch the silver
moonlight reflected on the sea, till air and water were but as one
bright element.
And soon had Carrara reason to rejoice that he had yielded to his
wife's wish; for, ere they had been married three months, the plague
broke out in Genoa, with such virulence, as if, indeed, a demon had
been unchained upon earth. "The spirit of your mother, my sweet wife,
has indeed been our guardian angel," said the count, as he watched a
fresh sea-breeze lift up the long dark curls, and call the crimson
into Giulietta's cheek. Still, though safe themselves--for, though the
distance from Genoa was but short, their secluded situation and the
sea-air precluded all fear of infection--still an atmosphere of terror
and woe was around them, and their thoughts were carried out of their
own sweet home by dim and half-told tales of the dangers around them.
And among other things, Giulietta heard of her uncle's heroic conduct;
others fled from the devoted city--but he fled not; others shut
themselves up in their lonely palaces--he went forth amid the dead and
dying; his voice gave consolation to the sick man, and his prayer
called on Heaven for mercy to the departed soul. Giulietta heard, and
in the silence of her chamber wept; and, when her tears were done,
knelt, and gave thanks to God for her uncle.
For the first time hope arose within her, and she said to herself--"He
who walks now even as an angel among his fellow-men cannot but forgive
the errors and the weakness of earth." She went to meet her husband
with a lightened heart; but, as she met him on the terrace, she saw
that his brow was clouded, and his first words told her that important
business would oblige him to go for a week to an ancient castle on the
verge of the state, as his neighbours were disposed to question his
boundary rights. It was but a day's, a summer day's, journey, through
a healthy district; and yet how sorrowful was the parting! Alas! how
soon the presence of beloved ones becomes a habit and a necessity! but
a few weeks with them at our side, and we marvel how ever life was
endured without them. The young countess touched her lute--it had no
music; she gathered flowers--they had no sweetness; she turned to the
fairy page of Ariosto--but she took no interest in his knights or
dames; and at length the day was spent ere she had finished pacing the
hall, and imagining all the possible and impossible dangers that could
befal Carrara.
She was walking languidly on the terrace early the following morning,
when a hum of voices caught her ear; one name rivetted her attention:
a horrible conviction rushed upon her mind. She called a page, who at
first equivocated; but the truth was at last owned. The cardinal was
stricken with the plague. She signed to the page to leave her, and
sank for a moment against one of the columns. It was but for a moment.
She withdrew her hands from her face: it was pale, but tearless; and
she left the terrace for her chamber with a slow but firm step. Two
hours afterwards, the countess was sought by her attendants, but in
vain; a letter was found addressed to their master, and fastened by
one long, shining curl of raven darkness, which all knew to be hers.
Leaving the household to the dismay and confusion which such a
departure occasioned, we will follow the steps of the countess, who
was now on the road to Genoa. She had waited but to resume the black
serge dress, which, as a novice of St. Caterina's, she had worn, and
in which she knew she might pass for one of the sisters who had vowed
attendance on the sick; and, during the hour of the _siesta_, made her
escape unobserved. Giulietta had been from infancy accustomed to long
rambles by the sea-shore, or through the deep pine-forests; but now,
though her purpose gave her strength, she felt sadly weary; when, on
the almost deserted road, she overtook a man who was driving a small
cart laden with fruit and vegetables. She accosted him; and the offer
of a few piastres at once procured a conveyance to Genoa, for thither
was her companion bound.
"The plague," said he, "makes everything so scarce, that my garden has
brought me a little fortune; it is an ill wind that blows nobody
good."
"And are you not afraid of the infection?" asked the seeming Sister of
Charity.
"Nothing hazard nothing win. A good lining of ducats is the best
remedy for the plague," returned the gardener.
"Holy Madonna," thought Giulietta, "shall I not encounter for
gratitude and dear love the peril which this man risks for a few
ducats?"
The quarter where stood her uncle's palace was at the entrance of the
city, and to reach it they had to traverse the principal street. How
changed since last the countess passed that way! Then it was crowded
with gay equipages and gayer company. She remembered the six white
mules with their golden trappings, which drew the emblazoned coach of
her uncle along; and how she leant back upon its purple velvet
cushions, scarcely daring to glance amid the crowd of white-plumed
cavaliers who reined in the curvettings of their brave steeds, lest
she should meet Lorenzo da Carrara's eye, and betray their whole
secret in a blush. Now not one living creature walked the street, and
the sound of their light cart was like thunder. She was roused from
her reverie by observing that her companion was taking an opposite
direction to that of the palace; and requested to alight, mentioning
her destination.
"To the archbishop's! Why, you will not find one living creature
there. The good cardinal would have all the sick he could find brought
to his palace, but they fell off like dried leaves; and when he was
struck with the plague himself none ventured to approach it; for we
all agree that the air there must be more deadly than elsewhere, since
it has not even spared his eminence. So, if it is there you are bound,
Madonna, we part company; but it is just tempting Providence."
Giulietta's only answer was to offer the gardener a small sum for her
conveyance; but to her surprise he refused it. "No, no, you are going
on a holier errand than I; keep your money; you will want it all if
you stay in this city, every thing is so dear."
A sudden thought struck Giulietta. "I do not ask you," said she, "to
venture to a spot which seems marked for destruction; but if I meet
you here to-morrow will you bring with you a small supply of
provisions and fruit? I can afford to pay for them."
"I will come, be sure," replied the man; "and the saints keep you,
maiden, for your errand is a perilous one." He watched her progress
till she disappeared round a corner in the street. "I wish," muttered
he, "I had gone with her to the palace; at all events, I will be here
to-morrow; she is, for all her black veil and pale face, so like my
little Minetta. Ay, ay, if this plague lasts, I shall be able to tell
down her dowry in gold;" and the gardener pursued his way.
When Giulietta arrived at her uncle's palace, she paused for a moment,
not in fear but in awe, the stillness was so profound; not one
familiar sound broke upon her ear. The doors were all open, and she
entered the hall; pallets were ranged on each side, and on one or two
of the small tables stood cups and phials; but not a trace appeared of
an habitant. On she passed through the gloomy rooms; everything was in
disorder and out of place: it was indeed as if a multitude had there
suddenly taken up their abode and as suddenly departed. But Giulietta
hurried on to her uncle's sleeping apartment; it was vacant. Her heart
for the first time sank within her, and she leant against the
wainscot, sick and faint. "I have yet a hope," exclaimed she, and even
as she spoke she turned to seek the oratory. She was right. The
crucifix stood, and the breviary was open on the small table, even as
they were the first time she entered that room: and on a rude mattrass
beside it lay her uncle. She sank on her knees, for he lay motionless;
but, thanks to the holy Virgin, not breathless; no, as she bent over
him, and her lips touched his, she could perceive the breath, the
precious breath, of life: his hand too! it burnt in hers, but she
could feel the pulse distinctly.
Giulietta rose, and threw herself before the crucifix. A violent burst
of tears, the first she had shed, relieved her; and then calmly she
prayed aloud for strength to go through the task which she had
undertaken. The room was hot and oppressive; but she opened the
window, and the sweet air came in, fresh and reviving from the garden
below. She bathed her uncle's temples with aromatic waters, and poured
into his mouth a few drops of medicine. He opened his eyes, and turned
faintly on his pallet, but sank back, as though exhausted. Again he
stretched out his hand, as if in search for something, which failing
to find he moaned heavily. Giulietta perceived at once that parching
thirst was consuming him. From the balcony a flight of steps led to
the garden; she flew down them to the fountain, whose pure, cold water
made the shadow of the surrounding acacias musical as ever. She
returned with a full pitcher; and the eagerness with which the patient
drank told how much that draught had been desired. The cardinal raised
his head, but was quite unconscious; and all that long and fearful
night had Giulietta to listen to the melancholy complainings of
delirium.
The next day, she went to meet the gardener, who had waited, though,
as he owned, in hopelessness of her coming. How forcibly the sense of
the city's desolation rose before Giulietta, when she remembered that
her ignorance of the hour proceeded from there being no one now to
wind up the church-clocks! Again she returned to the unconscious
sufferer; but little needs it to dwell on the anxiety or the exertion
in which the next three days were passed. On the early morning of the
last, as she watched over her uncle's pillow, she perceived that there
was a slight moisture on his skin, and that his sleep was sound and
untroubled. His slumbers were long and refreshing; and when he awoke
it was with perfect consciousness. Dreading the effect of agitation,
Giulietta drew her veil over her face, and to his inquiry of "was any
one there?" she answered in a low and feigned voice.
"I am faint and want food; but who, daughter, are you, who thus
venture into the chamber of sickness and death?"
"A stranger; but one whose vow is atonement."
"Giulietta!" exclaimed the cardinal, and the next moment she was at
his side; and both wept the sweetest tears ever shed by affection and
forgiveness. Eagerly she prepared for him a small portion of food, and
then, exerting the authority of a nurse, forbade all further
discourse, and, soon exhausted, he slept again.
The cool shadows of the coming evening fell on the casement, when
Giulietta first ventured to propose that she should send a letter by
the gardener to Lorenzo, and desire that a litter might be sent to
convey her uncle to their villa.
"My sweet child, do with me as you will," said the cardinal; "take me
even to the house of a Carrara."
"And nowhere could you be so welcome," said a stranger entering, and
Giulietta, springing from her knees, found herself in the arms of her
husband. "I knew, Giulietta, I should find you here, though your
letter told me but of prayer and pilgrimage."
And what now remains to be told? The cardinal accompanied them to the
villa, where his recovery was rapid and complete: and the deep love
which he witnessed in that youthful pair made him truly feel how great
had been Giulietta's devotion to himself. The plague had done its
worst in Genoa; and men were enabled to return to their habits, their
occupations, and their duties, things ever inseparably connected. The
cardinal from that hour treated Lorenzo da Carrara as a son; and their
family union was happy as self-sacrifice and enduring affection could
make it. In the picture-gallery, there is still preserved a portrait
of the countess in her novice's garb; her cheek pale, her graceful
form hidden by the black serge robe, and her beautiful hair put out of
sight; and the count, her husband, used to say that "she never looked
more lovely."
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