The silver gleams of a winter morning streaked the horizon, as the
chaise which conveyed Louis de Montemar from the friends of his youth,
mounted the heights of Warkworth, and gave him a last glimpse of
Morewick-hall, lying in its shroud of mist at the bottom of the valley.
The smoke of his uncle's chimney, beside which he had just received
that venerable man's parting embrace and blessing, was mingling its
dark volumes with the ascending vapours. A bleak and gusty wind tossed
their white billows around the ancient pinnacles of the building;
but no smoke arose from any other chimney!--; There was no opened
window-shutter; no sign of any other of the dear inhabitants being
awake. The good old man was then weeping alone, and mingling with his
tears, the earnest prayer of solicitude for the preservation of his
beloved nephew!
"And the prayer of the righteous availeth much!" said Louis to himself,
fixing his eye on the golden disk just peeping above the distant rim of
the ocean: "lovers have preserved their constancy, by a promise that
each would remember the other when the sun set or rose! Why shall I not
preserve my constancy to a better love than that of woman, whenever I
look on yon rising or setting orb, and remember, that at those hours my
venerable uncle is on his knees to Heaven for the conservation of my
soul?"
As the turning of his carriage down an abrupt declivity snatched the
whole of the vale of Coquet from his view, Louis thought of his aunt
and Cornelia; how, in another hour, they would be looking in vain for
his entrance into the breakfast parlour: and, what would be the burst
of their grief, when they should be told that he was gone; that he had
found the heart to leave them without one affectionate farewell! He
almost regretted that he had spared himself and them a pang, which,
he began to think, would have been more tolerable than the idea they
might entertain, that a passion for novelty had rendered him neglectful
of their parting tenderness. The wan countenance, and piteous accents
of Alice, next presented themselves to his imagination; and, painful
as were many of his thoughts connected with her recent disclosure,
he could not but rejoice that her timely remorse, and as critical a
resolution, had afforded him an opportunity to make his last act in the
home of his youth, one that would eventually repay his vast debt of
gratitude to her mother.
These reflections accompanied him over many a heathy track, caverned
with coal-mines; and at night, the gleaming fires on their bituminous
surface, with their wandering vapoury lights, lit him along moor and
fell, till the sulphurous cloud which usually canopies the city of
Newcastle, received his vehicle as it whirled down the steep northern
hill into the town.
At Athelstone-manor, a few miles south of the city, he met his uncle
Sir Anthony; and, as he expected, had to listen to many a rough
remonstrance against obedience to so abrupt a summons. Louis did not
use much argument in replies, the reasoning of which, good or bad, he
knew would be equally disregarded; but with assurances that neither
distance nor time should lessen his affection for the friends he left
behind, he sought to dissipate his uncle's thoughts from the subject
of debate; and so far succeeded, as to pass the remainder of the day
with him in tolerable cheerfulness. But when the captain of the vessel
that was to convey the travellers to Ostend, appeared at the manor,
to announce that the wind served and the ship was ready to sail; the
newly-restored good-humour of the baronet was put to the proof: and
it did not stand the trial. He burst into invectives against the
Baron, for reclaiming his son; against the Pastor, for admitting his
authority; and poured forth a torrent of reproaches on his nephew, for
so readily consenting to quit relations who loved and honoured him, to
become dependant on the caprices of a father who seemed to consider
himself rather the patron than the parent of his son.
Louis saw it would be vain to reason with this violence; and that all
he could do, was to take a grateful and steady leave of his uncle.
Sir Anthony clung to him, mingling entreaties for his stay, with
upbraidings for his departure. And amidst vows of entailing all on
him, if he would remain; and oaths, to cut him off with a shilling, if
he persisted to go, Louis tore himself away; leaving his uncle in an
agony of grief and exasperation in the arms of his servants.
Distressed by the outrageous emotions of Sir Anthony; so different
from the chastised feelings of the Pastor, whose profound affections
smoothed by their fulness the rising sorrow of the parting moment;
Louis found a refuge, though a dreary one, in the solitude of his
cabin. He sat for some hours, alone and silent, in the encreasing
gloom. The evening-gun fired from the fort at the mouth of the harbour;
and in a few minutes Castanos appeared with a lamp. He set it on the
table, and silently threw himself into the birth appropriated to his
use. Louis was not in a mood to desire companionship; and with little
more than a gracious word or two of thanks to the civilities of the
captain and his mate, as they stepped in at intervals to enquire how he
fared, he passed the remainder of the night.
Next morning at dawn, when he pressed his repeater and counted the
hour, he calculated that if the breeze had continued, his vessel must
now be far from the coast; and fearing to lose a last look of the
shore where he first remembered consciousness of being, and where he
had imbibed, from friends dear to his heart, all the valued impulses
of his soul; he sprang from the cot on which he lay, and stepped upon
deck. The lonely helmsman was at his post, gazing at the stars, and
steering, slowly to leeward.--To windward, stretched darkly along the
horizon, lay the embattled cliffs of Northumberland.
"Majestic England!" said he, as he turned towards them; "How do thy
lofty rocks declare thy noble nature! There, liberty has stationed her
throne; there, virtue builds her altar; and there peace has planted her
groves! I leave thee, to prove myself worthy of being thy adopted son.
I go far away, to send a good report to the dear friends slumbering
behind thy promontories. England, beloved, honoured! Where shall I
find a country like thee? Will gorgeous Spain be to me what thy simple
glades have been?" He smiled at his own soliloquy.
"I go not to luxurious groves, and gorgeous indolence," cried he, "my
errand is to the arena of populous cities; to win, or lose myself, in
the Olympian struggles of man with man."
Louis forgot the receding shores of his country and its beloved
inhabitants, in the ideas these images suggested; and forgetful alike
of the wintery blast, he only drew his thick cloak closer around
him; and cradled in the coiled rope of the anchor, with his eyes
half-closed, he continued to muse on his future destiny: dreaming of
martial achievements, and a succession of visionary triumphs, till the
bright phantoms were lost in the chaos of sound sleep.