exemplification. It may not be the best imaginable poetry, and may not
indicate the very highest or most commanding genius; but it embraces a
great deal of that which gives the very best poetry its chief power of
pleasing, and would strike us perhaps as more impassioned and exalted,
if it were not regulated and harmonised by the most beautiful taste. It
is singularly sweet, elegant, and tender; touching, perhaps, and
contemplative, rather than vehement and overpowering; and not only
finished throughout with an exquisite delicacy and even severity of
execution, but informed with a purity and loftiness of feeling, and a
certain sober and humble tone of indulgence and piety, which must
satisfy all judgments, and allay the apprehensions of those who are most
afraid of the passionate exaggerations of poetry. Almost all her poems
are rich with fine descriptions, and studded over with images of visible
beauty. But these are never idle ornaments; all her pomps have a
meaning, and her flowers and her gems are arranged, as they are said to
be among Eastern lovers, so as to speak the language of truth or of
passion. This is peculiarly remarkable in some little pieces, which seem
at first sight to be purely descriptive, but are soon found to tell upon
the heart with a deep, moral, and pathetic impression. But it is in
truth nearly as conspicuous in the greater part of her productions,
where we scarcely meet with any striking sentiment that is not ushered
in by some such symphony of external nature, and scarcely a lovely
picture that does not serve as an appropriate foreground to some deep or
lofty emotion.
AUGUSTINA ZARAGOZA.
[BORN 1786. DIED 1826.]
ALISON.
They were happy who [in the siege of Saragossa] expired amidst that
scene of unutterable woe. Yet even they bequeathed with their last
breath to the survivors the most solemn injunctions to continue to the
last the unparalleled struggle; and from the dens of the living and the
dead issued daily crowds of warriors, attenuated indeed and livid, but
who maintained with unconquerable resolution a desperate resistance. But
human nature, even in its most exalted mood, cannot go beyond a certain
point. Saragossa was about to fall; but, like Numantia and Saguntum, she
was to leave a name immortal in the annals of mankind.
Such was the heroic spirit which animated the inhabitants, that it
inspired even the softer sex to deeds of valour. Amongst these,
Augustina Zaragoza was peculiarly distinguished. She had served with
unshaken courage a cannon near the gate of Portillo, at the former
siege, and she again took her station there when the enemy returned.
"See, General," said she to Palafox, when he visited that quarter, "I am
again with my old friend." Her husband being struck with a cannon-ball
as he served the battery, she calmly stepped into his place, and pointed
the gun as he lay bleeding at her side. Frequently she was to be seen
at the head of an assaulting party, wrapped in her cloak, sword in hand,
cheering on the soldiers to the discharge of their duty. She was at
length taken prisoner; but being taken dangerously ill, and carried to
the French hospital, she contrived to escape. A female corps was formed
to carry provisions and water to the combatants, and remove the wounded,
at the head of which was Donna Benita, a lady of rank. Several hundred
women and children perished during the siege, not by bombs or
cannon-shot, but in actual combat.
CHARLOTTE BRONTE.
[BORN 1816. DIED 1855.]
MRS GASKELL.
The authoress of "Jane Eyre" and other works is, as she calls herself
[August 1850], undeveloped then, and more than half a head shorter than
I am. Soft brown hair, not very dark; eyes very good and expressive,
looking straight and open at you, of the same colour as her hair; a
large mouth; the forehead square, broad, and rather overhanging. She has
a very sweet voice; rather hesitates in choosing her expressions, but
when chosen they seem without an effort admirable, and just befitting
the occasion; there is nothing overstrained, but perfectly simple. Her
nerves were severely taxed by the effort of going among strangers. On
one occasion, though the number of the party could not exceed twelve,
she suffered the whole day from acute headache, brought on by
apprehension of the evening.
It was now [1853] two or three years since I had witnessed a similar
effect produced on her, in anticipation of a quiet evening at a friend's
home; and since then she had seen many and various people in London; but
the physical sensations produced by shyness were still the same, and on
the following day she laboured under severe headache. I had several
opportunities of perceiving how this nervousness was ingrained in her
constitution, and how acutely she suffered in trying to overcome it. One
evening we had, among other guests, two sisters who sung Scotch ballads
exquisitely. Miss Bronte had been sitting quiet and constrained, till
they began "The Bonnie House of Airlie;" but the effect of that, and
"Carlyle Yetts" which followed, was as irresistible as the playing of
the piper of Hamelin. The beautiful clear light came into her eyes; her
lips quivered with emotion; she forgot herself, rose and crossed the
room to the piano, where she asked eagerly for song after song. The
sisters begged her to come and see them next morning, when they would
sing as long as ever she liked, and she promised gladly and thankfully.
But on reaching the house her courage failed. We walked some time up and
down the street, she upbraiding herself all the while for her folly, and
trying to dwell on the sweet echoes in her memory, rather than on the
thought of a third sister who would have to be faced if we went in. But
it was of no use; and dreading lest this struggle with herself might
bring on one of her trying headaches, I entered at last, and made the
best apology I could for her non-appearance.
Much of this nervous dread of encountering strangers I ascribed to the
idea of her personal ugliness, which had been strongly impressed upon
her imagination early in life, and which she exaggerated to herself in a
remarkable manner. "I notice," said she, "that after a stranger has once
looked at my face, he is careful not to let his eyes wander to that part
of the room again." A more untrue idea never entered into any one's
head. Two gentlemen who saw her during this visit, without knowing at
the time who she was, were singularly attracted by her appearance; and
this feeling of attraction towards a pleasant countenance, sweet voice,
and gentle, timid manners, was so strong in one as to conquer a dislike
he had previously entertained to her works.
There was another circumstance that came to my knowledge at this period,
which told secrets about the finely-strung frame. One night I was on the
point of narrating some dismal ghost-story, just before bed-time. She
shrank from hearing it, and confessed she was superstitious, and prone
at all times to the involuntary recurrence of any thoughts of ominous
gloom which might have been suggested to her. She said that in first
coming to us, she had found a letter on her dressing-table from a friend
in Yorkshire, containing a story which had impressed her vividly ever
since; that it mingled with her dreams at night, and made her sleep
restless and unrefreshing.
[There was a peculiarity about Charlotte Bronte's death.] Not long after
her marriage with the Rev. Mr Nicholls, she was attacked by new
sensations of perpetual nausea and ever-recurring faintness. "A wren
would have starved on what she ate during these last six weeks." Long
days and long nights went by; still the same relentless nausea and
faintness, and still borne on in patient trust. About the third week in
March [1856], there was a change; a low wandering delirium came on, and
in it she begged constantly for food, and even for stimulants; she
swallowed eagerly now, but it was too late. Wakening for an instant from
this stupor of intelligence, she saw her husband's woe-worn face, and
caught the sound of some murmured words of prayer that God would spare
her. "Oh," she whispered forth, "I am not going to die, am I? He will
not separate us, we have been so happy." Early on Saturday morning,
March 31, the solemn tolling of Haworth Church bell spoke forth the
fact of her death to the villagers who had known her from a child, and
whose hearts shivered within them as they thought of the two sitting
together [the father and husband] in the old grey house.
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