"Have I not in my time heard lions roar?
Have I not heard the sea, puft up with wind,
Rage like an angry boar chafed with sweat?
Have I not heard great ordnance in the field,
And heaven's artillery thunder in the skies?
Have I not in the pitched battle heard
Loud 'larums, neighing steeds, and trumpets clang?"
SHAKSPEARE.
My first questions to Lafontaine, when I had his wound looked to, were
of course for those whom he had left in England.
"Ah, ha!" said he with a laugh, which showed the inextinguishable
Frenchman, "are you constant still? Well, then, Madame la Comtesse is
constant too; but it is to her boudoir, or the gaieties of Devonshire
House, or perhaps to her abhorrence of Monsieur le Mari."
"Le Mari!" I repeated the words with an involuntary start.
"Bah! 'tis all the same. She is affianced, and among us that tie is
quite as legitimate as marriage, and, our libellers say, a little
stronger. But they certainly are _not_ married yet, for Mademoiselle
Clotilde either is, or affects, the invalid; and considering the
probability that she abhors the man and the match, I think, on the
whole, that she acts diplomatically in informing the vainest colonel, in
or out of France, that she is sick of any thing rather than of him."
"But your Mariamne--how go on your interests there?" The question
brought a smile and a sigh together, before he could find an answer.
"How she is, what she is doing, or intends to do, or even what she is,
are matters that I can no more answer than I can why the wind blows. She
torments me, and takes a delight in tormenting me. I have been on the
point of throwing up my commission a hundred times since I saw you, and
flying to America, or the world's end. She controls me in every thing,
insists on knowing all my movements from hour to hour, finds them out
when I attempt to conceal them as matter of duty, tortures me for the
concealment, and then laughs at me for the confession. She is
intolerable."
"And yet you have obtained a lengthening of your chain, or how come
here? How long have you been in Paris?"
"Just two days; and busy ones, or I should have found you out before.
Yes, I had Mariamne's full permission to come; though to this moment I
cannot account for the change. I had received a sudden order from
Montrecour, who is deep in the emigrant affairs, to set out with letters
which could not be sent by the courier. But I dared not leave London
without asking _her_ permission; and I acknowledge asking her at the
same time to run away with me, and give herself a lawful title to be my
tyrant for life. Applying to Mordecai was out of the question. Her
answer was immediate; contemptuous in the extreme as to my proposal, yet
almost urgent on me to accept the mission, and lose no time between
London and Paris. Her postscript was the oddest part of all. It was a
grave recommendation to discover _you_, in whatever height or depth of
the capital you might exist; whether you figured in the court or the
cloister; were the idol of the maids of honour, or the model of the
monks of La Trappe; to remind you that you had forgotten every body on
the other side of the Channel who was worth remembering, including
herself; and commending _me_, as a truant and a trifler, to your
especial, grave, and experienced protection. Apropos! She sent me a
letter, to be delivered to you with my own hands. But for yourself it
had nearly failed in the delivery."
He gave me the letter. It was, like the writer, a pretty _melange_;
trifles gracefully expressed; strong sense expressed like trifles;
feeling carried off with a laugh; and palpable and fond anxiety for
Lafontaine couched in the most merciless badinage. While I gave this
missive a second, and even a third perusal--for it finished with some
gentle mention of the being whose name was a charm to my wearied
spirit--my eyes accidentally fell on Lafontaine. His were fixed on me
with an expression of inconceivable distress. At length his generous
nature broke forth.
"Marston, if I were capable of jealousy, I should be jealous of _you_
and of Mariamne. What _can_ be the caprice which dictated that letter?
what _can_ be the interest which you evidently take in it? I wish that
the bullet which laid me at your door this evening had finished its
work, and put an end to an existence which has been a perpetual fever. I
shall not ask _what_ Mariamne has said to you--but _I_ am miserable."
"Yes, but you _shall_ ask, and shall have all you ask," said I, giving
him the letter. "It is the language of the heart, and of a heart
strongly attached to _you_. I can see affection in every line of it. Of
course she mingles a little coquetry with her sentiment; but was there
ever a pretty woman, who was not more or less a coquette? She is a gem:
never think it the less pure because it sparkles. Rely upon your little
Mariamne."
"Then _you_ have no sincere regard for her--no wish to interfere with my
claims?" said my pallid friend, dubiously extending his hand towards me.
"Lafontaine, listen to me, and for the last time on the subject. I have
a very sincere regard for her." (My sensitive auditor started.) "But, I
have also a perfect respect for your claims. It is impossible not to
acknowledge the animated graces of the lady on whom you have fixed your
affections. But mine are fixed where I have neither hope to sustain
them, nor power to change.--Those matters have nothing to do with
choice. They are effects without a cause, judgments without a reason,
influences without an impulse--the problems of our nature, without a
solution since the beginning of the world."
"But, Marston, you will only laugh at me for all my troubles."
"Lafontaine, I shall do no such thing. Those pains and penalties have
been the lot of some of the noblest hearts and most powerful minds that
the earth has ever seen; and have been most keenly felt by the noblest
and the most powerful. The poet only tells the truth more gracefully
when he says--
"'The spell of all spells that enamours the heart,
To few is imparted, to millions denied;
'Tis the brain of the victim that poisons the dart,
And fools jest at that by which sages have died.'
"But now, my friend, let us talk of other things. We must not sink into
a pair of sentimentalists; these are terrible times. And now, tell me
what brought you out of quiet England among our madmen here?"
"I may now tell all the world," was the reply, "for the evil is done
beyond remedy. I was sent by our friends in London, to carry the last
warning to the royal family of all that has happened this day. My papers
contained the most exact details, the names of the leaders, their
objects, their points of assembling, and even their points of attack.
Those were furnished, as you may conceive, by one of the principal
conspirators; a fellow whom I afterwards saw on horseback in front of
the Tuileries, and whom, I think, I had the satisfaction of dismounting
by a shot from my carbine."
I mentioned the fruitlessness of my own efforts to awake the ministry.
"Ah," said he, with a melancholy smile, "my friend, if you had been
admitted into the palace, or into the council-chamber itself, you would
have had precisely the same tale to tell. All was infatuation. I was
ushered into the highest presence last midnight. My despatches were
read. I was complimented on my zeal, and then was told that every thing
was provided for. I was even closeted for two hours with the two
individuals who, of all France, or of all mankind, had the largest stake
in the crisis, and was again told that there was no crisis to be feared.
I even offered to take a squadron of dragoons, and arrest the
conspirators at the moment with my own hand. I saw the eyes of the
noblest of women fill with tears of grief and indignation at the
hopelessness of my appeal, and the answer, 'that though Frenchmen might
hate the ministers, they always loved their king.' I saw that all was
over."
"Still," said I, "I cannot comprehend how the mere mob of Paris could
have succeeded against the defenders of the palace."
"If you had seen it as I did, the only wonder is, how the Tuileries held
out so long. After passing a night on guard at the Pavilon de Flore, I
was summoned at daybreak to attend his majesty. What a staff for a
reviewing monarch! The queen endeavouring to support the appearance of
calmness; Madame Elizabeth, that human angel, following her, dissolved
in tears; the two royal children, weeping and frightened, making their
way through the crowd of nobles, guardsmen, domestics who had gathered
promiscuously in the chambers and corridors, armed with whatever weapons
they could find, and all in confusion. From the windows there was
another scene; and the only time when I saw the queen shudder, was when
she cast her eye across the Place du Carrousel, and saw it covered with
the dense masses of the multitude drawn up in battle-array. A more
gloomy sight never met the eye. From time to time the distant discharge
of cannon was heard, giving us the idea that some treachery was
transacting in the remoter parts of the city, every discharge answered
by a roar of--'Down with the King'--'Death to Marie Antoinette'--'The
lamp-iron to all traitors.' While, as I glanced on those around me, I
saw despair in every countenance; the resolution perhaps to die, but the
evident belief that their death must be in vain. You now know all."
I still expressed my strong anxiety to know what had been the events
within the palace.
"Marston, I cannot think of them. I cannot speak of them. I see nothing
but a vision of blood, shame, folly, wretchedness. There never was a
cause more fatally abandoned. Every thing that could be done to ruin a
monarchy was done. I was standing beside the royal group, when a
deputation from the National Assembly made its appearance. At its head
was a meagre villain, whom one might have taken for the public
executioner. He came up, cringing and bowing, to the unfortunate king;
but with a look which visibly said--We have you in our power. I could
have plunged my sword in the triumphant villain's heart. I had even
instinctively half drawn it, when I felt the gentle pressure of a hand
on mine. It was the queen's. 'Remember the king's presence. We must owe
nothing to violence,' were her words. And at this instant she looked so
heart-broken, yet so noble, that I could have worshipped her. The
deputation pressed the necessity of 'taking shelter,' as they phrased
it, 'in the bosom of the faithful Assembly.' The words, 'assembly of
traitors,' burst from my lips. A shout of approbation arose on all
sides. But I was more rewarded by a sorrowing smile from the queen. She
was indignant at the proposal. 'No; never shall I leave this spot but by
the king's command!' she exclaimed. 'I would rather be chained to the
walls.' As the guard pressed round her at the words, she suddenly
stopped, took a pistol from one of the Garde du Corps, and forcing it on
the king--'Now,' said the heroine--'now is the time to show yourself a
king of France!' An universal cry of enthusiasm arose, and hundreds of
swords were brandished in the air. The deputation, evidently expecting
to be massacred, made an effort to reach the door, and the monarchy was
on the point of being saved; when the leader of the party glanced back
at the royal circle. There stood unfortunate Louis, hesitating, with the
pistol in his hand. On such moments all depends. The villain crept up to
the king, and whispered in his ear--'Would you have all your family put
to death? In the Assembly all are safe.'--'Well, then, we shall go,' was
the simple answer. He might have added--'To the scaffold.' The queen
pressed her hands on her eyes, and wept bitterly. All were silent. In a
few minutes more our sad procession was crossing the garden to the door
of the Assembly, amid a roar, which could not have been fiercer or more
triumphant had we been going to execution."
It was already twilight; the fine summer's day, as if it had been
dimmed by the desperate scenes of which it was witness, set in sudden
clouds; and the distant shoutings of the populace seemed to be answered
by the voice of a storm. Lafontaine's wound began to bleed afresh by the
agitation of his story, and to find medical assistance, was my first
object. Having seen him conveyed to my bed, and leaving him in charge of
my valet, I hastened towards the residence of the physician to the
embassy. In doing this, I had to cross the Rue St Honore. But there my
course was stopped. I shrink from alluding to those horrid scenes and
times. The scene which there met my eyes has scarcely left them since.
The populace were returning from the conquest and plunder of the palace
to the Palais Royale, the headquarters of all convulsion; and they had
arranged their ranks into something like a triumphal procession on the
stage. The dead bodies of the brave Swiss were carried on boards or
biers, preceded by banners of all kinds; the plundered ornaments of the
Tuileries were borne on the heads of men; the horses from the royal
stables, caparisoned for the occasion, drew hearses, in which the bodies
of the mob who had fallen were deposited. Brief as the time for
decoration had been, wreaths of artificial flowers, taken from the shops
of the _marchandes de modes_, and theatrical shawls and mantles from the
stores of the _fripiers_, covered the biers; and the whole, surrounded
and followed by a forest of pikes and bayonets, plumes and flags, had no
other light than the lurid and shifting blaze of thousands of torches
tossing in the wild and howling wind.
The train seemed endless; shocked and sickened, I had made repeated
efforts to cross the column, but was repeatedly driven back. If all the
dead criminality of Paris had risen to join all the living, it could
scarcely have increased my astonishment at the countless thousands which
continued to pour on before me; nor scarcely, if the procession had
started from the grave, could it have looked more strange, squalid,
haggard, and woebegone. In the rear came the cannon, which had achieved
this melancholy victory. And they, again, were sometimes converted into
the carriage of the dead, sometimes of the plunder, and, in every
instance, were surmounted by women, female furies, drinking, shouting,
and uttering cries of unspeakable savageness and blasphemy against
priests, nobles, and kings; and, mingled with all this, were choruses of
bacchanal songs, accompanied with shouts of laughter. It was now near
midnight; and my anxiety for the condition of my unfortunate friend at
last urged me to make a desperate attempt to force my way through the
mass of pikes and daggers. After being swept far along with the stream,
I reached the street in which the physician lived. He set out with me
immediately, and, by his superior knowledge of the route, we were
enabled to make our way unimpeded through streets, that looked like dens
of robbers, to my hotel.
But there a new and still more alarming disappointment awaited me. I
found the porter and all the attendants of the establishment gathered on
the stairs in terror. Lafontaine was gone! Whether, frenzied by the
insults and yells of the populace, who continued to pass in troops from
time to time, or anxious for my safety, he had started from his bed, put
on his sword, and rushed into the street; without the possibility of
being restrained, and without uttering a word of explanation.
Exhausted as I was by fatigue, and still more by the sights and scenes
through which I had just passed, this intelligence was a severe blow.
The fate of a young enthusiast, and a foreigner, whom I had known but so
lately, and of whom I knew so little, might not have justified much
personal sacrifice. But the thought of the heart that would be broken by
his falling into the hands of the barbarians, who were now masters of
every thing, smote keenly upon me. Mariamne would die; and though I was
by no means a lover of Mariamne, yet, where I had seen so much that was
loveable, I might have a regard next in degree. There may, and does
often, exist the tenderness of love without the flame. I could have
looked on this pretty and animated creature as the wife of Lafontaine,
or of any other object of her choice, without the slightest pang; but I
could not have looked upon her pining away in hopelessness, wasting in
silent sorrow, or with her gay and gentle existence clouded by a loss
which nothing could repair, without thinking every effort of mine to
avert evil from her, due on every principle of common feeling.
While I pondered, a note was brought to me, written by Lafontaine before
he had sallied from his chamber, and evidently written under the wildest
emotion. It told me, in a few scarcely legible words, that he felt life
a burden to him, and thanked Heaven for the opportunity now offered of
dying for his king and the glory of France. That the monarchy had
perished beyond redemption. But that, though the royal family were
surrounded by the poniards of assassins, it was his determination to
follow and find them, rescue them, or die at their feet. This strange
production closed with--"You shall hear of me within twenty four hours,
living or dead. If I fall, remember me to my affianced wife; and
vindicate my character to the world."
This was so like insanity, that it perplexed me more and more; but, on
second thoughts, it appeared to offer some clue to his pursuit.--He had
gone to die in presence of the royal family. If they were to be found by
him at all, they must be found in the Assembly. I immediately went to
the garden of the Tuileries, where they met until their new legislative
palace should be erected. The multitude had now partially retired, for
it was midnight; and the entrance was comparatively clear. A strong
force of the National Guard still kept the drunken rabble at a distance;
and the five franc piece, with which I tempted the incorruptibility of a
peculiarly ferocious-looking patriot, admitted me without delay.
What a scene there presented itself to my eyes! The "Salle" was large
and showy; and when I had attended it in former debates, it exhibited
the taste and skill which the French, more than any other people on
earth, exhibit in temporary things. Nothing could exceed the elegance
with which the Parisian decorators had fitted up this silk and tinsel
abode, which was to be superseded, within a few months, by the solid
majesty of marble. But, on this memorable and melancholy night, the
ornaments bore, to me, the look of those sad frivolities with which
France is fond of ornamenting her tombs. The chandeliers burned dim; the
busts and statues looked ghostlike; the chief part of the members had
thrown themselves drowsily on the benches; and the debate had languished
into the murmurs of a speech, to which no one listened. If the loaded
table, with its pile of petitions and ordonnances, in the midst of the
hall, could have been imagined into a bier; the whole had the aspect of
a _chapelle ardente_; there, indeed, lay in state the monarchy of
France. My unlucky friend, of course, was not there; but I saw, in a
narrow box, on the right of the president, a group, from which, when
once seen, I found it impossible to withdraw my gaze--the first and most
exalted victims of the Revolution, the king and his family. All but one
were apparently overcome with fatigue; for they had sat there fifteen
hours. But that one sat with a steady eye and an erect front, as if
superior to all suffering. I had seen Marie Antoinette, the most
splendid figure, in all the splendours of her court. I had seen her
unshaken before vast popular assemblages, in which any rash or ruffian
hand might have taken her life at the instant; but she now gave me an
impression of a still higher order. Sitting in calm resignation and
unstained dignity, her stately form and countenance, pale and pure as
marble, looked like some noble statue on a tomb; or rather, sitting in
that chamber of death, like some pure spirit, awaiting the summons to
ascend from the relics of human guilt, infirmity, and passion before
her.
But the slumbers of the Assembly were soon to be broken. A tumult, and
the tramping of many feet, was heard at the door. It was followed by the
thunder of clubs and hammers breaking it in; the bars gave way; the
huissiers and other attendants rushed through the body of the hall, and
took refuge behind the chair of the president in affright; the sleepers
started from their seats; and, with a roar which spoke the true
supremacy of the new power in France, the mob poured in. They announced
themselves a deputation from the Municipality, and instantly took
possession of the benches. Men, women, and even children, composed this
barbarian invasion; like all that I had seen, half intoxicated; but
evidently trained by higher hands for more determined evil. A chosen
set of orators, in Roman robes, probably plundered from some suburb
theatre, moved forward to the table, and took their seats round it in as
much solemnity as conscript fathers. The chief speaker then advanced
from the door, preceded by the head of one of the murdered Swiss on a
pike, a hideous spectacle, and, drawing from his belt a dagger,
commenced a furious harangue against every thing that bore the shape of
authority in the kingdom. The Assembly did not escape in the general
outpouring of its bitterness. They were charged with want of zeal, with
want of honesty, and, most formidable of all, want of patriotism. I saw
many a member cower at the word; for it was the countersign of
Jacobinism; and the man, on whom that charge was personally fastened,
was sure to fall by pistol or dagger. But the rage of the harangue was
levelled at the royal family. "There sits the tyrant!" he exclaimed,
pointing with his poniard to the meekest of monarchs and of men. "The
vengeance of the people calls for victims. How long shall it be
insulted? If justice is blind, tear the bandage from her eyes. How long
shall the sword of the people rust in its sheath! Liberty sitting on her
altar demands new sacrifices to feed the flame. The blood of tyrants is
the only incense worthy to be offered by a regenerated people!"
At every pause of those fierce interjections, the crowd burst into yells
of applause, drew knives and daggers from their bosoms, flourished them
in the air, and echoed the words. The Assembly were evidently held in
terror of their lives. The president made some faint attempts to restore
order. A few of the members made faint attempts at speeches. But the mob
were masters; and a night of such horrors passed, as I had never dreamed
of before. At daybreak the orator demanded that a decree should be
instantly passed, suspending the king, the ministry, and even the
Assembly, in the midst of which he stood. Of all the extravagances ever
conceived--of all the insolences of power--of all the licenses of
popular licentiousness, this was the most daring, unrivalled, and
unimagined; and yet this was carried, with scarcely a voice raised
against it. The trembling president, with the dagger at his throat, put
the motion for extinguishing the throne, the cabinet, and calling a new
Assembly! From that hour the monarchy was no more.
During this tremendous discussion, I had not ventured to raise my eyes
towards the royal family; but, as all were now about to retire, I dared
a single glance. The king was slowly leaving the box, leading the
dauphin by the hand; the Princess Elizabeth was carrying the sleeping
dauphiness in her arms; the queen stayed behind, alone, for a moment,
sitting, as she had done for hours, with her eyes fixed on vacancy, and
her countenance calm, but corpselike. At length she seemed to recollect
that she was alone, and suddenly started up. Then nature had its way;
she tottered, and fainted. From that night forth, that glorious creature
never saw the light of day but through the bars of a prison. From the
Feuillans, the royal family were consigned to the cells of the Temple,
from which Louis and Marie Antoinette never emerged but to the grave!
This night taught me a lesson, which neither time nor circumstance has
ever made me forget. It cured me of all my republican fantasies at once,
and for ever. I believe myself above the affectation of romantic
sensibility. But it would not be less affectation to deny the feelings
to which that awful scene of human guilt and human suffering gave birth.
If the memory of the popular atrocities made me almost abhor human
nature, the memory of that innocent and illustrious woman restored my
admiration of the noble qualities that may still be found in human
nature. "If I forget thee even in my mirth," the language of the
Israelite to his beloved city, was mine, in scarcely a less solemn or
sacred spirit, in those hours of early experience. Let the hearts and
eyes of others refuse to acknowledge such feelings. I am not ashamed to
say, that I have shed many a tear over the fate of the King and Queen of
France. In the finest fictions of genius, in the most high-wrought
sorrows of the stage, I have never been so deeply touched, I have never
felt myself penetrated with such true and irresistible emotion, as in
reading, many a year after, the simplest record of the unhappy Bourbons.
What must it be, to have witnessed the last agonies of their hearts and
throne!
On returning to my chamber, shuddering and wretched, I found a despatch
on my table. It was from Downing Street; an order, that within twelve
hours after its receipt, I should set out from Paris, and make my way,
with the utmost secrecy, to the headquarters of the Austrian and
Prussian army; where further orders would be waiting for me.
This command threw me into new perplexity. It had been my purpose to
find my unfortunate friend, if he was not already in the bosom of the
Seine, or a victim to some of the popular violences. But my orders were
peremptory. I, however, did all that was in my power. I spent the day in
looking for him through all the hotels and hospitals; and, after a
hopeless search, gave my man of mystery, Mendoza, a commission--paid for
at a rate that made him open his hollow eyes wide with incredulity on
the coin--to discover and protect him, wherever he was to be found.
But I had now another difficulty which threatened to nip my diplomatic
honours in the bud. The news had just arrived, that the allied armies
had passed the frontier, and were sweeping all before them with fire and
sword. A populace is always mad with courage, or mad with cowardice; and
the Parisians, who, but yesterday, were ready to have made a march round
the globe, now thought the wells and cellars of the city not too deep,
or too dark to hold them. They would have formed a camp in the
catacombs, if they could. All was sudden terror. The barriers were shut.
Guards were posted tenfold at all the gates. Men were ranged on the
heights round the city, to make signals of the first approach of the
Prussian hussars; and the inhabitants spent half the day on every house
top that commanded a view of the country, waiting for the first glimpse
of their devourers. To escape from this city of terror now became next
to impossible. All my applications were powerless. The government were
themselves regarded as under lock and key; the populace, as if
determined that all should share a common massacre, were clustered at
the barriers, pike in hand, to put all "emigrants" to death; the
ambassador was, as ambassadors generally are in cases of real
difficulty, a cipher; and yet I _must_ leave Paris within twelve hours,
or be cashiered.
It at length occurred to me to avail myself of my Jewish spy, and I
found him listening to a midnight harangue in the midst of a Jacobin
crowd, in the Palais Royal. He considered the matter for a while; and I
walked about, leaving him to his free invention, while I contrasted the
brilliant blaze of the gaming and dancing-rooms above me with the
assassin-like darkness of the galleries below. At length he turned to
me. "There is but one way. Have you any objection to be arrested?"
"The greatest imaginable," was my answer.
"Just as you please," he replied; "but I have here an order for the
seizure of one of the emigrant agents, a Chevalier Lafontaine, lately
arrived in Paris. He has been seen in the palace, but we have missed him
for the last twelve hours. The order is for Vincennes. Will you take his
place?"
I naturally looked all surprise, and peremptorily refused.
"Do as you will," said my intractable adviser; "but there is no other
way to pass the gates. I shall take you to Vincennes as a state
prisoner; I have influence there. In short, if you trust me, you shall
be safe, and on your road by daybreak. If you do not, here your life is
uncertain; you are known, watched, and the first order that I receive
to-morrow, may be one for your apprehension."
All this was likely enough; there was but a moment to deliberate, and I
got into the first cabriolet, and drove with him to the barrier. The
streets still exhibited scattered bands, who questioned us from time to
time, but the words, "By order of the Municipality," which were enough
to terrify the stoutest hearts, and the display of his badge, carried us
through. We passed the guard at the gate, after a slight examination of
the order, and galloped to Vincennes.
At the sight of the frowning fortress my blood chilled, and I refused to
go further. "In that case," said my conductor, "_I_ am compromised, and
_you_ are ruined; the first patrol will seize you, while I shall be
shot. I pledge myself, that here you shall not remain; but I must be
acquitted to the head of the police. You shall be M. le Chevalier
Lafontaine for the night; and, if such a man exists, you will probably
be the means of saving his life. To-morrow I shall bring proofs of my
mistake, and then you will be outside the walls of Paris, and free to go
where you please."
The name of Lafontaine decided me. Even the risk seemed less serious
than before, and we drove over the drawbridge. The interior of the
fortress formed a striking contrast to the scenes which I had just left
behind me. All was still stern, and noiseless.
"Give me your papers," said Mendoza; "they will be safer in my hands
than in yours."
I had but time to give him my despatch, as we passed through the court
which led to the governor's apartments. I was searched in the presence
of that important functionary, a meagre old captain of invalids, who had
been roused from his bed, and was evidently half asleep. I stoutly
denied my being "the criminal who had offended the majesty of the
people." But as the governor himself, on gazing at me with his purblind
eyes, was perfectly satisfied of my identity, there was no use in
contesting the point. A couple of sentinels were placed at the door of
my cell, and I was left, like himself, to my slumbers. Before the door
closed, I grasped my guide by the throat. The thought that I had been
entrapped, actually agonized me.
"Am I betrayed?" I asked, in a whisper of fury.
The only answer was, "Mordecai."
I felt security in the word, and, without a further pang, heard his
tread echoing along the distant corridor.
Time rolls on, whether we are happy or miserable. Morning came, and
found me feverish from a thousand dreams. Noon came, and my impatience
grew with the hour. Evening came, and yet no symptom of my liberation.
If, "hope deferred maketh the heart sick," confidence duped, and
blindly, weakly, rashly duped, turns to torture.
Why trust a known agent of the police? Why put my liberty into his
hands? Why, above all, make him master of my papers? I was overwhelmed
with shame. I writhed with remorse. As hour after hour dragged into slow
length along, I sank from dejection to dejection, or burst from rage to
rage. But at last, when the drums of the garrison were making their
final flourish for the night, the key turned in the door of my cell, and
the Jew entered. I almost sprang upon him, and his life would have been
worth little, but for the words--"You may now leave the fortress." He
told me, further, that my absence was fortunate, for a domiciliary visit
had been paid to my apartments by direction of the municipality; my
trunks examined, and my doors sealed. My absence was imputed to flight;
and, as jails were then the only safe residences in France, I had
escaped actual imprisonment simply by my volunteer detention; to watch
the event, had been the source of his delay. All was speedily settled
with the old commandant, who was now as perfectly "convinced, on his own
knowledge," that I was not the chevalier, as he had been convinced on
the night before that I was. Mendoza's proofs were registered in due
form; and with unspeakable delight I once again mounted his cabriolet,
and heard the chains of the drawbridge rattle behind me.
My Jew had been true to his pledge. I found horses provided for me at a
lonely cabaret, a league off. With the minute foresight which men of his
trade learn, he had provided for me a couple of disguises--the garb of a
peasant, which I was to use when I passed among the soldiery; and the
uniform of an aide-de-camp, with which I was to keep down enquiries when
I came among the peasantry. But I was weary of disguise. It had never
thriven with my temperament. I was determined, at all events, now to
trust to chance and my proper person; and if I must fail, have the
satisfaction of failing after my own style. The only recompense which my
magnanimous police-officer would receive, was a promise that I should
mention his conduct to Mordecai; and, gathering up his rejected
wardrobe, he departed.
Fortunately I found disguises unnecessary, though at any other time they
might have been essential. The country was all in a state of flight, and
every man was too much employed in securing himself, to think of laying
hold of others. Thus galloped I through hill and dale, through bush and
brier, unquestioned and almost unseen; until, on the evening of the
fourth day, as I plunged into a forest, which for the last half hour I
had been imagining into a scene of fairyland, a bower where a pilgrim
might finish his journey for life, or a man, "crazed by care, or crossed
in hopeless love," might forget woman and woe together--I was awakened
to the realities of things by the whistle of a bullet, which struck off
a branch within an inch of my head, followed by a fierce howl for the
countersign. By all the laws of war, the howl should have come first;
but these were not times for ceremony. A troop of Hulans rushed round
me, sabre in hand. I stood like a stoic; and, of course, attempted to
tell who I was. But my German was unintelligible to my captors, and my
French, a suspicious language on a Prussian outpost, only confirmed
their opinion that I was born to be stripped. Accordingly one demanded
my watch, another my purse, and I was in a fair way of entering the
Prussian lines in a state of pauperism, or of being "left alone in my
glory" by shot or sabre, when an officer rode up, whom I had casually
known in some Parisian circle. To him I could explain myself, and to him
I exhibited the envelope of my letter, inscribed with the words, "Grand
Quartier General." My new friend bowed to this awful address like a Turk
to the firman of the padisha, poured out a volley of wrath on the troop,
ordered the instant and very reluctant restitution of my property, and
with a couple of the squadron at our heels, took me under his escort, to
deliver my papers in person.
After an hour's gallop through rocks, rivulets, and brambles, which
seemed without end, and totally uninhabited, except by an occasional
patrol of the irregulars of the Austrian and Prussian forces--barbarians
as savage-looking as ever were Goth or Hun, and capital substitutes for
the wolves and wild-boars which they had ejected for the time--a sudden
opening of the forest brought us within view of the immense camp of the
combined armies.
All the externals of war are splendid; it is the interior, the
consequences, the operation of that mighty trampler of man that are
startling. This was my first sight of that most magnificent of all the
atrocious inventions of human evil--an army. The forces of the two most
warlike monarchies of Europe were spread before me; nearly a hundred and
fifty thousand troops, with all the numberless followers of a host in
the field, covering a range of low hills which circled the horizon.
While we were still at a considerable distance, a gun was fired from the
central hill, answered by others from the flanks. The rolling of drums
set the vast line in motion, and just at the moment when the sun was
lying on the edge of the west, the brigades, descending each from its
height, halted on the slope. The whole vast manoeuvre was executed
with the exactness of a single mind. The blaze of the sun on the arms,
the standards, and the tents crowning the brow of the hills, was
magical. "Are they marching to battle?" was my amazed question to my
companion. His only answer was to check his charger, take off his shako,
and bend his forehead to his saddle-bow. A burst of universal harmony,
richer than I had ever yet conceived, explained the mystery. It was the
evening prayer. The fine bands of the regiments joined the voices of the
soldiery, and I listened, in unbroken rapture and reverence, until its
close. In court or cathedral, in concert or shrine, I had never before
so much felt the power of sound. It finished in a solemn chorus, and
accumulation of music. I could have almost imagined it ascending,
embodied, to heaven.
The fire of cannon announced the conclusion of the service; we put spurs
to our horses, and soon entered the lines; and, on the strength of my
credentials, I had distinguished quarters assigned to me.
I now, for the first time since I left England, began to feel the
advantages of birth. In London every man is so submerged in the
multitude, that he who can hold his head high enough out of the living
surge to be known, must have something of remarkable buoyancy, or
peculiar villany, about him. Even Parliament, except to a few of the
leaders, is no distinction. The member for the shire is clipped of all
his plumage at the moment of his entering that colossal poultry-yard,
and must take his obscure pickings with other unnoticeable fowl. In
Paris, once the Mahometan paradise of stars and garters, the central
herald's office of the earth, the royal region of the Parliament
aristocracy, where the beggar with a _cordon_ on his breast outshone the
banker with millions in his pocket-book, the world was changed; and to
be the son or brother of a peer might have been only a speedier passport
to the lamp-post. But, in Germany, the land of pedigrees, to be an
"honourable" was to be one on whom the sun shone with double beams; the
sex, young and old, smiled with double softness and the whole host of
Serenities were doubly serene. In camp, nothing could be more hospitable
or distinguished than my reception; for the soldier is always
good-humoured under canvass, and the German is good-humoured every
where. Perhaps he has rather too high an opinion of his descent from
Goth and Vandal, but he makes allowance for the more modern savagery of
Europe; and although the stranger may neither wear spectacles, nor smoke
cigars, neither muzzle his visage with mustaches, nor speak the most
formidable tongue on earth, the German will good-naturedly admit, that
he may be a human being after all.
But the man with whom my mission brought me most immediately into
contact, and to whom I was most indebted for courtesy, would have been a
remarkable personage in any country of Europe; that man was the Duke of
Brunswick.
On my arrival, I found two letters forwarded from London, and in the
hands of an aide-de-camp of the generalissimo. The first which I opened
was from the Foreign Office, a simple statement of the purpose for which
I was sent--namely, to stimulate the activity of the Prussian councils,
and to urge on the commander of the army an immediate march on the
French capital; with a postscript, directing me, in case of tardiness
being exhibited at headquarters, instantly to transmit a despatch home,
and return to my post in Paris. The second letter--which I must, however
undiplomatically, admit that I opened with much stronger interest--was
from Mordecai. I glanced over it for some mention of the "ane braw
name," and bitterly laughed at my own folly in expecting to find such
communications in the letter of the hard-headed and busy Jew. All was
brief and rapid.
"If this shall find you in the Prussian camp, you will have no more time
for me than I have for you. Let me not clip your diplomatic hopes; but
this I forewarn you, you will not obtain a single object of your
journey; except, perhaps, showing that you can gallop a hundred miles in
the four-and-twenty hours, and can make your way through a country of
lunatics without being piked or sabred.
"The campaign is over already--over before it was begun. The battle was
fought in the council at Berlin, and the allies were beaten. The duke,
within the next fortnight, will be deciding on the merits of the ballet
in Brunswick, and the French will be madder than ever with triumphs
which they never won, preparing for conquests which are already gained,
and knocking down thrones, the owners themselves supplying the pickaxes
and hammers. You will see the two best armies of the Continent running
away from their own shadows; the old councillors of Frederick and Maria
Theresa baffled by cabinets of cobblers and tinkers; grey-beard
generals, covered with orders, hunted over the frontier by boys, girls,
and old women; and France, like a _poissarde_ in a passion, with her
hair flying about her ears, a knife in her hand, and her tongue in full
swing, scampering half naked over Europe, to the infinite wonder of the
wearers of velvet, Mechlin lace, and diadems,--ha, ha, ha!"
While I was trying to decipher this riddle, which was rather too
contemptuous for my new views of things, but which I referred to the
habitual feelings of a strong-headed man in humble life, brought just
close enough to higher to feel his exclusion, an officer was announced
as Count Varnhorst, on the staff of the duke. His countenance struck me
at first sight, as one which I had seen before; and I soon discovered,
that when I was a boy at Eton, he had been on a visit of a few days at
Mortimer castle, in the suite of one of the Prussian princes. We had
been thus old friends, and we now became young ones within the first
quarter of an hour. His countenance was that of a humourist, and his
recollections of the Great Frederick rendered him sarcastic on all
things of the later generation.
"The duke has sent me for you," said he, "with his apology for keeping
you out of bed; but he has appointed midnight for the delivery of your
despatches. The truth is, that hitherto we have all slept so soundly,
that we must make up for lost time by turning night into day now, just
as we have turned day into night for the last twelvemonth."
"But what can you tell me of the duke?"
"Oh! a great deal; but you know that I am on his staff, and therefore
bound to keep his secrets."
"Yet, count, remember that we have sworn an eternal friendship within
the last five minutes. What can he or I be the worse for my knowing his
great and good qualities?"
"My dear young friend, when you are as old as I am, you will see the
improprieties of such questions."
"Well, then, to come to the point; is he a great general?"
"He speaks French better than any other prince in Germany."
"Is he an able politician?"
"You must see him on horseback; he rides like a centaur."
"Well, then, in one sentence, will he fight the French?"
"That wholly depends on whether he turns his horse's head towards Paris
or Berlin."
"Count, but one question more, which you may answer without a riddle. Do
you think that he will receive my mission cordially?"
"He speaks your language; he wears your broad cloth; he loves your
porter; and he has married one of your princesses."
"All my difficulties are answered. I am ready; but what shall I find him
doing at this extraordinary hour?"
"If asleep, dreaming of the opera at Brunswick; if awake, dreaming of
the opera at Paris."
His diamond repeater, which he had laid on the table between us, struck
twelve as he spoke; and, wrapping ourselves in our cloaks, we sallied
forth into one of the most starry nights of autumn, and made our way,
through long ranges of patrols and videttes, to the quarters of the
generalissimo.
The mansion was an old chateau, evidently long abandoned to loneliness
and decay one of those huge edifices; whose building had cost one
fortune, and whose support had exhausted another. But the struggle had
been over for the last fifty years, and two or three shrivelled
domestics remained to keep out the invasion of the bats and owls. But at
this period the chateau exhibited, of course, another scene;
aides-de-camp, generals, orderlies, couriers--all the clang and clamour
of the staff of a great army--rang through the wild old halls, and
echoed up the long ghostly corridors. Every apartment was a blaze of
light, and filled with groups of officers of the Prussian and Austrian
guards; all was billiard-playing, talking, singing in chorus, and
carousing in all the noisy gaiety of the soldier in good quarters.
"All this is tempting enough," said the old count, as we hastened along
a gallery that seemed endless, but on which the open doors of the
successive apartments threw broad illumination. "I dare say, Mr Marston,
that you would prefer taking your seat among those lively fellows, to
the honour of a ducal conference; but my orders are, that you must not
be seen until the duke gives you _carte blanche_ to appear among human
beings again."
The count now opened the door of an apartment, which appeared to have
been more lately tenanted than the rest, yet which exhibited signs of
the general desertion; a marble table, covered with a decaying drapery,
a Carrara alabaster of Niobe and her children on the mantelpiece, a huge
mirror, and a tapestry of one of the hunts of Henri Quatre, showed that
Time had been there, and that the Prussians had not; but the indistinct
light of the single chandelier left me but little opportunity of
indulging my speculations on the furniture. The count had left me, to
ascertain when the duke should be at leisure to receive me; and my first
process was, like a good soldier, to reconnoitre the neighbouring
territory. The first door which I opened led into a conservatory, filled
with the remnants of dead foliage, opening on the gardens of the
chateau, which, wild as they now were, still sent up a fragrance doubly
refreshing, after the atmosphere of meershaums, hot brandy, and Rhine
beer, which filled the galleries. The casement distantly overlooked the
esplanade in front of the chateau; and the perpetual movements of the
couriers and estafettes, arriving and departing every moment, the
galloping of cavalry, and the march of patrols, occupied me until a
valet of the duke came to acquaint me that supper was served, by his
highness's commands, in the apartment which I had lately quitted, and
that he would be present in a few minutes.
I returned of course; and found the chamber which I had left so dark and
dilapidated, changed, as if by a fairy wand, into pomp and elegance. The
duke was renowned for splendid extravagance, and the table was covered
with rich plate, the walls glittered with a profusion of gilt lamps, and
all round me had the look of regal luxury. But one object suddenly
caught my gaze, and left me no power to glance at any other. In a
recess, which had hitherto been obscure, but over which now blazed a
brilliant girandole, hung a full-length portrait of a nun, which, but
for the dress, I should have pronounced to be Clotilde; the same Greek
profile, the same deep yet vivid eye, the same matchless sweetness of
smile, and the same mixture of melancholy and enthusiasm, which had made
me think my idol fit to be the worship of the world. I stood wrapped in
astonishment, delight, pain, a thousand undefined feelings, until I
could have almost imagined that the canvass before me lived. I saw its
eye all but glisten, its lips all but open to speak; the very marble of
its cheek begin to glow; when I was awakened by a lively voice, saying,
in French--"Ah, Mr Marston, I perceive that you are a connoisseur." I
turned, and saw the speaker, a man somewhat above the middle size; a
remarkably noble-looking personage; in full dress even at that hour,
powdered and perfumed, and altogether a court figure; his hands loaded
with jewels, and a diamond star of the order of the garter upon his
breast. It required no introducer to tell me that I was in the presence
of the Duke of Brunswick.
"Come," said he, "we have no time for etiquette, nor indeed for any
thing else to-night--we must sup first, and then talk of your mission."
We sat down; a double file of valets, in liveries, loaded with
embroidery, attended at the table; though the party consisted of but
four; Varnhorst, and a Colonel Guiseard, chief of the secret diplomacy,
a pale Spanish-featured officer--to whom his highness did me the honour
of introducing me, as the son of one of his old friends.
"You remember Marston," said he, "at Brunswick, five-and-twenty years
ago, in his envoyship--a capital horseman, a brilliant dresser, and a
very promising diplomatist. I augured well of his future career,
but" ----the infinite elevation of the ducal shoulders, and the infinite
drooping of the ducal eyes, completed the remainder of my unfortunate
parent's history; but whether in panegyric or censure, I was not
sufficiently versed in the science of saying nothing and implying all
things, to tell. Guiseard fixed his deep sallow eye on me, without a
word: at that moment he reminded me exactly of one of the
Inquisitors--the deep, dark-visaged men whom the matchless pencil of
Velasquez has immortalized.
Varnhorst burst out into a laugh.
"What, Guiseard," said he, "are you reconnoitring the ground before you
make the attack? Your royal highness, I think we ought to vindicate our
country to this English gentleman, by assuring him that the colonel is
not a cardinal in disguise."
The colonel merely smiled, which seemed an effort for his cloistered
physiognomy; the duke laughed, and began a general conversation upon all
possible topics--England forming the chief; the royal family--the
court--the theatres--parliament--the people--all whirled over with the
ease and rapidity of one turning the leaves of an album; here a verse
and there a portrait--here a sketch of a temple, and there an outline of
a cottage--the whole pretty, and as trifling as pretty, and cast aside
at the first moment when any thing better worth thinking of occurred.
In the midst of our gaiety, in which the duke had completely laid down
his sceptre, and taken his full share, the great clock of the chateau
tolled one. The table was instantly swept of supper--the valets
withdrew. I heard the tread of a sentinel at the door of the apartment;
and the duke, instantly changing from the man of fashion to the
statesman, began to enter into the questions then so deeply disturbing
all the cabinets of Europe.
I found the duke a very superior man to what I had conceived of him. He
was frank and free, spoke of the intentions of the Allies in the most
open manner, and censured the errors which they had already committed,
with a plainness which I had not expected to find out of London. He had
evidently made himself master of a great variety of knowledge, and with
the happy but most unusual power of rendering it all applicable to the
point in question. My impressions of him and his order, imbibed among
the prejudices of England and the libels of France, was that of
frivolity and flutter--an idle life and a stagnant understanding. I
never was more surprised at the contrast between this conception and the
animated and accomplished prince before me. He seemed to know not merely
the persons of all the leading men of Europe--which might have naturally
been the case with one who had visited every capital--but to be
acquainted with their characters, their abilities, and even their modes
of thinking. He seemed to me a man born to rule. It was in later days
that the habits of a voluptuary, of which his peculiar love of dress
might have been slightly symptomatic, produced their effect, in
enfeebling a mind made for eminence. I saw him afterwards, broken with
years and misfortune. But on this night I could only see a man on whom
the destinies of Europe were rightly reposed. I pay this tribute of
honour to his memory.
He spoke a great deal, in our conference, on the necessity of a strong
European combination against France, and flatteringly addressed to me a
strong panegyric on my country.
"If we can obtain," said he, "the cordial co-operation of the English
people, I see no difficulty before us. We already have the Ministry with
us; but I know the Englishman's hatred of a foreign war, his horror of
public expenditure on continental interests, and his general distrust of
the policy of foreign courts. And until we can give the people some
evidence, not only that our intentions are sincere, but that our cause
is their own, we shall never have the nation on our side."
My remark was, "that the chief difficulty with the nation would be, to
convince them that the Allied Powers were not influenced by personal
motives; I said that the seizure of territory, while the French remained
in their defenceless state, would probably excite strong public
displeasure in England; and plainly stated, that the only thing which
could engage the public spirit in the war, would be a conviction of its
absolute justice and stern necessity."
The conversation was here interrupted by the arrival of a staff-officer
with despatches from Berlin. A number of papers were laid on the table,
and handed over to Varnhorst and Guiseard to read. They proved chiefly
notes and orders relative to the advance of the army. One paper,
however, the duke read with evident interest, and marked with his pencil
down the margin.
"I am delighted," said he, "that this paper has reached us at last. Mr
Marston will now see what my real advice has been from the beginning.
The French journals have attacked me furiously for the declaration
issued at our entrance on the frontier. The journals of England have
partly echoed the French, and I am held up to the world as the author of
the _Declaration of Pilnitz_. This paper, which Mr Marston will do me
the honour to send at daybreak to his court by a special messenger, will
clear my character with his countrymen at once--with the rest of Europe,
I am content to wait a little longer."
He then read the paper in his hand; and it was a long and striking
protest against the idea of partitioning France, or having any other
intention in the movement of the troops than the security of the French
throne. This document had been sent to the Council at Berlin, and been
returned by them for revision by the duke, and the softening of its
rather uncourtly decisiveness of expression. It stated, that even the
conquest of France, if it could be effected, must be wholly useless
without the conciliation of the people: that it must be insecure, that
it never could be complete, and that even the attempt might rouse this
powerful people to feel its own force, and turn its vast resources to
war. The first measure ought, therefore, to be an address to the nation,
pronouncing, in the clearest language, an utter abjuration of all local
seizure.
The paper thus returned, and containing the observations of the council,
was given to Varnhorst, to be copied. "And now," said the duke,
"gentlemen, I think we may retire for the night; for we have but three
hours until the march in the morning."
I said some common-place thing, of the obligations which Europe must owe
to a sovereign prince, exposing himself to such labours, honourable as
they were.
"No," he smilingly replied; "they are part of our office, the routine of
the life of princes, the vocation of men born for the public, and living
for the public alone. The prince must be a soldier, and the soldier must
make the camp his home, and the palace only his sojourn. It is his
fortune, perhaps his misfortune, that but one profession in life is left
open to him, whether it be the bent of his temperament or not--while
other men may follow their tastes in the choice, serve their fellows in
a hundred different ways, and raise a bloodless reputation among
mankind. And now, good-night. To-morrow at five the _advance_ moves. At
six I shall be on horseback, and then--Well! what matter for the
_then_? We shall sleep at least to-night; and so, farewell."
INDEX TO VOL. LIV.
Aberdeen, Lord, remarks on his church bill, 545.
Adventures in Louisiana, No. I., The Prairie and the Swamp, 43
--No. II., The Blockhouse, 234.
Adventures in Texas, No. I., A Scamper in the Prairie of Jacinto, 551
--No. II., A Trial by Jury, 777.
Ahmed-Kiuprili, career of, 175.
Anti-corn-law League, proceedings of the, 539.
Ancient Towns, a plea for, against railways, 398.
Aristocracy of England, the, 51.
Armada, the, from Schiller, 143.
Armansperg, Count, administration of, in Greece, 348.
Arne the composer, 26.
Art, British, present state of, 188.
Athens, population, institutions, &c., of, 352.
Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, on the best means of establishing a
communication between the, 658.
Austria, commerce, &c., of, 251.
Ballads of Schiller, the. _See_ Schiller.
Balzac, M., Two Dreams, a sketch by, 672.
Banking-house, the, a history in three parts. Part I. Chap. I.,
Prospective, 576
--Chap. II., Retrospective, 578
--Chap. III., The beginning of the end, 582
--Chap. IV., Miching mallecho, it means mischief, 585
--Chap. V., Matters of course, 588
--Chap. VI., A discovery, 592
--Chap. VII., The end of the beginning, 594.
Part II. Chap. I., A negotiation, 719
--Chap. II., A lull. 723
--Chap. III., A sweet couple, 725
--Chap. IV., A speculation, 730
--Chap. V., A landed proprietor, 733.
Bankruptcy of the Greek kingdom, the, 345
--means of averting it, 361.
Barrett, Elizabeth B., Cry of the Children, by, 260.
Bavarian government of Greece, effects of the, 345.
Bennett's Ceylon and its capabilities, review of, 622.
Blockhouse, the, an adventure in Louisiana, 234.
Bridge over the Thur, the, from the German of Gustav Schwab, 717.
British institution, exhibition at the, 203.
Brownrigg, Sir Robert, conquest of Kandy, by, 632.
Bulwer, Sir Edward Lytton, Bart., translation of the poems and ballads
of Schiller, by. Part the last, 139.
--Love and Death, by, 717.
Bute, lines written in, by Delta, 749.
Byrd, the composer, 24.
Cabinet, the Greek, construction and powers of the, 350.
Canadian corn bill, the, 543.
Canal, proposed between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, 658.
Carlyle's Past and Present, review of, with notices of his other works,
121.
Ceylon and its capabilities, by Bennett, review of, 622
--its climate, 626
--sketch of its history, 627.
Chapters of Turkish History; No. X. The Second Siege of Vienna, 173.
Charles Edward at Versailles on the Anniversary of the Battle of
Culloden, a poem, 107.
Chronicles of Paris--the Rue St Denis, 524.
Cinghalese, character of the, 627.
Cobden, Mr, refutation of his statements regarding the colonies, 407, 637
--his misrepresentations on the corn question, 539.
College Theatricals, a tale, 737.
Colonies, the, examination of Cobden's statements regarding, 409, 637.
Commencement of the New Century, the, from the German of Schiller, 151.
Commercial Intercourse between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, on the
best means of establishing, 658.
Commercial Policy, Europe, 243
--ships, colonies, and commerce, 406
--the same continued, 637.
Comparison of the protective and free-trade
systems, 243, 406, 637.
Conflict, the, on the German of Schiller, 144.
Continental nobility, comparison of with the British, 56.
Corn-law Question, the, 539.
Council of State, the Greek, 350.
Creswick, Mr, remarks on the style of, 188.
Cry of the Children, the, 260.
Darien company, the, 661.
Davie, Major, conduct of, in Ceylon, 628.
Death from the Sting of a Serpent, lines on, 798.
Delta, a Vision of the World by, 343
--Lines written in the Isle of Bute by, 749.
Devil's Frills, the, a Dutch illustration of the water cure,
--Chap. I. 225
--Chap. II. ib.
--Chap. III. 227
--Chap. IV. 228
--Chap. V. 230
--Chap. VI. 232.
Disturbed Districts of Wales, notes on a tour in the, by Joseph Downes,
766.
Downes, Joseph, tour in the disturbed districts of Wales by, 766.
Dutch, landing of the, in Ceylon, 627.
Early English Musicians, notices of, 23.
Early Greek Romances, the Ethiopics of Heliodorus, 109.
Education, institutions for, in Greece, 357.
Education, the government scheme of, 548.
Emma, lines to, from the German of Schiller, 150.
England, the aristocracy of, 51.
English music and musicians, 23.
Epigram on Dr Toe, &c., 263.
Erigena, letter from, to Christopher North, 263.
Ethiopics of Heliodorus, account of the, 109.
Europe, commercial policy of, 243.
Exhibitions, notices of--the Royal Academy's, 188
--the Suffolk Street gallery, 199
--paintings in water-colours, 201
--the British Institution, 203.
Factory bill, the, 548.
Fanariotes, character of the, 351.
Farewell to the Reader, from the German of Schiller, 152.
Fate of Polycrates, the, 483.
France, conduct of, towards Greece, 359.
Frederick Schlegel, review of the works and character of, 311.
Free-trade and protective systems, comparison of the, 248.
French academy, 519.
French and German works of fiction, comparison between, 672.
Fuseli's Lectures at the Royal Academy: his introduction, 691
--Lecture I., 694
--II., 697
--III., 703.
Game up with the repeal agitation, the, 679.
German and French literature, comparison between, 672.
Gibbons the composer, 24.
Gifts of Terek the, translated from the Russian of Lermontoff, by J. B.
Shaw, 799.
Gods of Greece, the, from the German of Schiller, 146.
Goethe, remarks by, on the Schlegels, 311.
Great Britain, proceedings of, towards Greece, 359.
Greece, present state and prospects of, 345
--peculiarities of its inhabitants, 350
--its present revenues and expenditure, 361.
Guizot, M., opinion of, on the union of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans,
659.
Heliodorus, the Ethiopics of, 109.
Heber, Bishop, the Whippiad, a poem, by. Canto I., 100
--Canto II., 102
--Canto III., 104.
Hendia, the history of, 479.
Hullah's method of teaching, strictures on, 37.
Humboldt, M., on uniting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, 659.
Hymn to Joy, from the German of Schiller, 142.
Inscription on the foundation stone of the new dining-hall, &c., 79.
Invincible Armada, the, from the German of Schiller, 143.
Irish arms bill, the, 549.
Jacinto, a scamper in the prairie of, 521.
Jack Stuart's bet on the Derby, and how he paid his losses, 67.
Jolly Father Joe, a tale from the Golden Legend, 255.
Joy, hymn to, from the German of Schiller, 142.
Jury trial in Texas, a, 777.
Kandy, description of the district of, 627
--its conquest by the British, 632.
Kerim Khan, travels of. Part I., 453
--Part II., 564
--Part III., 753.
King Arthur, Purcell's opera of, and its revival, 25.
Last Session of Parliament, review of the, 538
--the corn question, 539
--the Canadian corn bill, 543
--the Scotch church bill, 545
--the factory bill, 548
--the Irish arms bill, 549.
Letter to Christopher North, 263.
Lectures at the Royal Academy--Henry Fuseli, 691.
Lines written in the Isle of Bute, by Delta, 749.
Lloyd, Mr, report by, on uniting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, 663.
Locke, Mathew, the composer, 25.
Logic, Mill's elements of, reviewed, 415.
Louisiana, adventures in; the Prairie and the Swamp, 43
--No. II., the Blockhouse, 234.
Love and Death, by Sir Edward Lytton Bulwer, 717.
M'Dowall, General, proceedings of, in Ceylon, 628.
Maclise, Mr, remarks on the style of, 188.
Mainzer and Hullah, comparison of the methods of, 37.
Marston; or, Memoirs of a Statesman. Part II., 1
--Part III., 207
--Part IV., 325
--Part V., 608
--Part VI., 801.
Maurer, M., administration of, in Greece, 348.
Meeting, the, from the German of Schiller, 149.
Memoir on the best means of establishing a communication between the
Atlantic and Pacific oceans, 658.
Mill's elements of logic, review of, 415.
Minstrels of Old, the, from the German of Schiller, 152.
Modern painters, their superiority in the art of landscape painting to
the old masters, review of, 485.
Municipal institutions of Greece, the, 352.
Music, something about, 709.
Music and musicians, English, 23
--present state of, in England, 33.
My country neighbours, a tale, 431.
Napier's (Colonel) reminiscences of Syria, review of, 476.
Nobility of England, characteristics of the, 56.
Non-intrusionism, remarks on, and on the proceedings of the party, 545.
Notes on a tour in the disturbed districts in Wales, by Joseph Downes, 766.
O'Connell, Mr, present position of, 264
--proceedings of the government against, and their consequences, 685.
Otho, King, state of Greece on his accession to the throne, 345
--effects of his government, 348.
Over-production, effects of, 243.
Pacific and Atlantic oceans, proposed communication between the, 658.
Panama, the isthmus of, its advantages for a communication between the
two oceans, 658
--description of the town, 665.
Paris, chronicles of--the Rue St Denis, 524.
Parliament, last session of, review of its measures, 538
--the corn-law question, 539
--Canadian corn-bill, 543
--Scotch church bill, 545
--Factory bill, 548
--the Irish arms bill, 549.
Past and Present, by Thomas Carlyle, review of, 121.
Patent law, effects of the, 519.
Peel, Sir Robert, review of his speech on the Irish question, 270.
Persian princes, notices of the narrative of the, 453.
Philhellenic drinking-song, by B. Simmons, 41.
Physical science in England, state and prospects of, 514.
Plea for ancient towns against railways, a, 398.
Poems and ballads of Schiller, the. _See_ Schiller.
Poetry--Philhellenic drinking-song, by B. Simmons, 41
--inscription on the foundation stone of the new dining-hall, &c., 79
--the Whippiad, a satirical poem, by Bishop Heber, Canto I., 100
--Canto II., 102
--Canto III., 104
--Charles Edward at Versailles on the anniversary of the battle of
Culloden, 107
--Poems and Ballads of Schiller; Part the Last, 139
--Jolly Father Joe, a tale from the Golden Legend, 255
--the Cry of the Children, by Elizabeth B. Barrett, 260
--a Vision of the World, by Delta, 343
--the Fate of Polycrates, 483
--Lines written in the Isle of Bute, by Delta, 749
--Death from the sting of a serpent, 798
--the Purple Cloak, or the return of Syloson to Samos, 714
--Love and Death, 717
--the Bridge over the Thur, from the German, ib.
--Gifts of Terek, the, 799.
Polycrates, the Fate of, a poem, 483.
Poole, Mr, critique on his painting, "Solomon Eagle," &c., 189.
Portugal, the French invasion of, causes of its success, 53.
Prairie and the Swamp, the, an adventure in Louisiana, 43.
Protective and free-trade systems, comparison of the, 243, 406, 637.
Puppet-show of Life, the, from the German of Schiller, 150.
Purcell the composer, revival of his opera King Arthur, and remarks on
it, 25.
Purple Cloak, the, or the return of Syloson to Samos, 714
--Part II., 715.
Railroad, proposed, across the isthmus of Panama, 658.
Railways, a plea for ancient towns against, 398.
Reading party during the long vacation, a, 153.
Rebeccaites in Wales, the, 766.
Reminiscences of Syria, 476.
Repeal agitation, the, 264
--game up with, 679.
Resignation, from the German of Schiller, 145.
Reviews.--Scrope's Days and nights of salmon fishing, 80
--Carlyle's Past and Present, 121
--the works of Frederick Schlegel, 311
--Woman's rights and duties, 373
--Mill's elements of logic, 415
--Colonel Napier's reminiscences of Syria, 476
--Modern painters, their superiority in the art of landscape painting to
the old masters, 485
--Bennett's Ceylon and its capabilities, 622.
Roads, deficiency of, in Greece, 336.
Royal Academy, exhibition of the, 188
--Fuseli's Lectures at the, 691.
Royal salute, the, a tale, 504.
Royal Society of London, the, 518.
Rue St Denis, chronicles of the, 524.
Russia, conduct of, towards Greece, 359.
Salmon fishing, Scrope's days and nights of, reviewed, 80.
Scamper in the prairie of Jacinto, a, 521.
Schiller, the poems and ballads of, translated, Part the Last,
introduction, 139
--remarks on those of the second period, 140
--hymn to joy, 142
--the invincible armada, 143
--the conflict, 144
--resignation, 145
--the gods of Greece, 146
--the meeting, 149
--to Emma, 150
--to a young friend devoting himself to philosophy, ib.
--the puppet-show of life, ib.
--the commencement of the new century, 151
--the minstrels of old, 152
--farewell to the reader, ib.
Schlegel, Frederick, review of the works of, 311.
Schwab, Gustav, the Bridge over the Thur, by, translated, 717.
Scotch Church, remarks on the bill for the settlement of the, 544.
Scrope on salmon fishing, review of, 80.
Second siege of Vienna, the, a chapter of Turkish history, 173.
Senses, a speculation on the, 650.
Simmons, B., Philhellenic drinking-song, by, 41.
Singers, English, notices of, 31.
Singhalese, character of the, 627.
Sketch in the tropics, a, from a super-cargo's log, 362.
Sobieski, John, deliverance of Vienna, by, 184.
Society of British artists, exhibition of the, 199.
Something about Music, 709.
Spain, effects of the want of an aristocracy in, 52.
Speculation on the senses, a, 650.
Stahrenberg, Count, defence of Vienna by, 181.
Statesman, memoirs of a. Part II., 1
--Part III., 207
--Part IV., 325
--Part V., 608
--Part VI., 801.
Suffolk street gallery, exhibition at the, 199.
Supercargo's log, sketch from a, 362.
Switzerland, commercial policy, &c., of, 248.
Syloson's return to Samos, 714
--Part II., 715.
Syria, Colonel Napier's reminiscences of, 476.
Tallis, the English musician, notices of, 23-24.
Taprobane of the Romans, the, 623.
Taxation, pressure of, in Greece, 358.
Texas, adventures in. No. I., a scamper in the prairie of Jacinto, 551
--No. II., a trial by jury, 777.
Thirteenth, the, a tale of doom, 465.
To a young friend devoting himself to philosophy, from the German of
Schiller, 150.
Travels of Kerim Khan. Part I., 453
--Part II., 564
--conclusion, 753.
Trial by jury, a; an adventure in Texas, 777.
Tropics, a sketch in the, from a super-cargo's log, 362.
Turkish history, chapters of. No. X., the second siege of Vienna, 173.
Turner, J. W., strictures on the works of, 497.
Two dreams, from the French of Balzac, 672.
University of Athens, the, 358.
Vienna, the second siege of, a chapter of Turkish history, 173.
Vision of the world, a, by Delta, 343.
Wales, notes on a tour in the disturbed districts of, 766.
Water-colour paintings, exhibitions of, 201.
"We are all low people there," a tale of the assizes. Chapter I., 273
--Chapter II., 288.
Whewell's philosophy of the inductive sciences, remarks on, 422.
Whippiad, the, a satirical poem, by Bishop Heber. Canto I., 100
--Canto II., 102
--Canto III., 104
--Letter relating to, 263.
Woman's rights and duties, review of, 373.
Women, the wrongs of, 597.
Wood-paving for locomotives, advantages of, 398.
World, a vision of the, by Delta, 343.
Wrongs of women, the, 597.
Young, A., on the habits of the Salmon, 82.
END OF VOL. LIV.
_Edinburgh: Printed by Ballantyne and Hughes, Paul's Work._