Mademoiselle staid a little longer at Orléans, while the armies lay

watching each other, or fighting the battle of Bléneau, of which Condé

wrote her an official bulletin, as being generalissimo. She amused herself

easily, went to mass, played at bowls, received the magistrates, stopped

couriers to laugh over their letters, reviewed the troops, signed

passports, held councils, and did many things "for which she should have

thought herself quite unfitted, if she had not found she did them very

well." The enthusiasm she had inspired kept itself unabated, for she

really deserved it. She was everywhere recognized as head of affairs; the

officers of the army drank her health on their knees, when she dined with

them, while the trumpets sounded and the cannons roared; Condé, when

absent, left instructions to his officers, "Obey the commands of

Mademoiselle, as my own"; and her father addressed a despatch from Paris

to her ladies of honor, as Field-Marshals in her army: "À Mesdames les

Comtesses Maréchales de Camp dans l'Armée de ma Fille contre le Mazarin."

III.

CAMPAIGN THE SECOND.

Mademoiselle went back to Paris. Half the population met her outside the

walls; she kept up the heroine, by compulsion, and for a few weeks held

her court as Queen of France. If the Fronde had held its position, she

might very probably have held hers. Condé, being unable to marry her

himself, on account of the continued existence of his invalid wife, (which

he sincerely regretted,) had a fixed design of marrying her to the young

King. Queen Henrietta Maria cordially greeted her, lamented more than ever

her rejection of the "bashful" Charles II., and compared her to the

original Maid of Orléans,--an ominous compliment from an English source.

The royal army drew near; on July 1, 1652, Mademoiselle heard their drums

beating outside. "I shall not stay at home to-day," she said to her

attendants, at two in the morning; "I feel convinced that I shall be

called to do some unforeseen act, as I was at Orléans." And she was not

far wrong. The battle of the Porte St. Antoine was at hand.

Condé and Turenne! The two greatest names in the history of European wars,

until a greater eclipsed them both. Condé, a prophecy of Napoleon, a

general by instinct, incapable of defeat, insatiable of glory, throwing

his marshal's baton within the lines of the enemy, and following it;

passionate, false, unscrupulous, mean. Turenne, the precursor of

Wellington rather, simple, honest, truthful, humble, eating off his iron

camp-equipage to the end of life. If it be true, as the ancients said,

that an army of stags led by a lion is more formidable than an army of

lions led by a stag, then the presence of two such heroes would have given

lustre to the most trivial conflict. But that fight was not trivial upon

which hung the possession of Paris and the fate of France; and between

these two great soldiers it was our Mademoiselle who was again to hold the

balance, and to decide the day.

The battle raged furiously outside the city. Frenchman fought against

Frenchman, and nothing distinguished the two armies except a wisp of straw

in the hat, on the one side, and a piece of paper on the other. The people

of the metropolis, fearing equally the Prince and the King, had shut the

gates against all but the wounded and the dying. The Parliament was

awaiting the result of the battle, before taking sides. The Queen was on

her knees in the Carmelite Chapel. De Retz was shut up in his palace, and

Gaston of Orléans in his,--the latter, as usual, slightly indisposed; and

Mademoiselle, passing anxiously through the streets, met nobleman after

nobleman of her acquaintance, borne with ghastly wounds to his residence.

She knew that the numbers were unequal; she knew that her friends must be

losing ground. She rushed back to her father, and implored him to go forth

in person, rally the citizens, and relieve Condé. It was quite impossible;

he was so exceedingly feeble; he could not walk a hundred yards. "Then,

Sir," said the indignant Princess, "I advise you to go immediately to bed.

The world had better believe that you cannot do your duty, than that you

will not."

Time passed on, each moment registered in blood. Mademoiselle went and

came; still the same sad procession of dead and dying; still the same mad

conflict, Frenchman against Frenchman, in the three great avenues of the

Faubourg St. Antoine. She watched it from the city walls till she could

bear it no longer. One final, desperate appeal, and her dastard father

consented, not to act himself, but again to appoint her his substitute.

Armed with the highest authority, she hastened to the Hôtel de Ville,

where the Parliament was in irresolute session. The citizens thronged

round her, as she went, imploring her to become their leader. She reached

the scene, exhibited her credentials, and breathlessly issued demands

which would have made Gaston's hair stand on end.

"I desire three things," announced Mademoiselle: "first, that the citizens

shall be called to arms."

"It is done," answered the obsequious officials.

"Next," she resolutely went on, "that two thousand men shall be sent to

relieve the troops of the Prince."

They pledged themselves to this also.

"Finally," said the daring lady, conscious of the mine she was springing,

and reserving the one essential point till the last, "that the army of

Condé shall be allowed free passage into the city."

The officials, headed by the Maréchal de l'Hôpital, at once exhibited the

most extreme courtesy of demeanor, and begged leave to assure her Highness

that under no conceivable circumstances could this request be granted.

She let loose upon them all the royal anger of the House of Bourbon. She

remembered the sights she had just seen; she thought of Rochefoucauld,

with his eye shot out and his white garments stained with blood,--of

Guitant shot through the body,--of Roche-Giffard, whom she pitied, "though

a Protestant." Condé might, at that moment, be sharing their fate; all

depended on her; and so Conrart declares, in his Memoirs, that

"Mademoiselle said some strange things to these gentlemen": as, for

instance, that her attendants should throw them out of the window; that

she would pluck off the Marshal's beard; that he should die by no hand but

her's, and the like. When it came to this, the Maréchal de l'Hôpital

stroked his chin with a sense of insecurity, and called the council away

to deliberate; "during which time," says the softened Princess, "leaning

on a window which looked on the St. Esprit, where they were saying mass, I

offered up my prayers to God." At last they came back, and assented to

every one of her propositions.

In a moment she was in the streets again. The first person she met was

Vallon, terribly wounded. "We are lost!" he said. "You are saved!" she

cried, proudly. "I command to-day in Paris, as I commanded in Orléans."

"Vous me rendez la vie," said the reanimated soldier, who had been with

her in her first campaign. On she went, meeting at every step men wounded

in the head, in the body, in the limbs,--on horseback, on foot, on planks,

on barrows,--besides the bodies of the slain. She reached the windows

beside the Porte St. Antoine, and Condé met her there; he rode up, covered

with blood and dust, his scabbard lost, his sword in hand. Before she

could speak, that soul of fire uttered, for the only recorded time in his

career, the word _Despair_: "Ma cousine, vous voyez un homme au

désespoir,"--and burst into tears. But her news instantly revived him, and

his army with him. "Mademoiselle is at the gate," the soldiers cried; and,

with this certainty of a place of refuge, they could do all things. In

this famous fight, five thousand men defended themselves against twelve

thousand, for eight hours. "Did you see Condé himself?" they asked

Turenne, after it was over. "I saw not one, but a dozen Condés," was the

answer; "he was in every place at once."

But there was one danger more for Condé, one opportunity more for

Mademoiselle, that day. Climbing the neighboring towers of the Bastille,

she watched the royal party on the heights of Charonne, and saw fresh

cavalry and artillery detached to aid the army of Turenne. The odds were

already enormous, and there was but one course left for her. She was

mistress of Paris, and therefore mistress of the Bastille. She sent for

the governor of the fortress, and showed him the advancing troops. "Turn

the cannon under your charge, Sir, upon the royal army." Without waiting

to heed the consternation she left behind her, Mademoiselle returned to

the gate. The troops had heard of the advancing reinforcements, and were

drooping again; when, suddenly, the cannon of the Bastille, those Spanish

cannon; flamed out their powerful succor, the royal army halted and

retreated, and the day was won.

The Queen and the Cardinal, watching from Charonne, saw their victims

escape them. But the cannon-shots bewildered them all. "It was probably a

salute to Mademoiselle," suggested some comforting adviser. "No," said the

experienced Maréchal de Villeroi, "if Mademoiselle had a hand in it, the

salute was for us." At this, Mazarin comprehended the whole proceeding,

and coldly consoled himself with a _bon-mot_ that became historic. "Elle a

tué son mari," he said,--meaning that her dreams of matrimony with the

young king must now be ended. No matter; the battle of the Porte St.

Antoine was ended also.

There have been many narratives of that battle, including Napoleon's; they

are hard to reconcile, and our heroine's own is by no means the clearest;

but all essentially agree in the part they ascribe to her. One brief

appendix to the campaign, and her short career of heroism fades into the

light of common day.

Yet a third time did Fortune, showering upon one maiden so many

opportunities at once, summon her to arm herself with her father's

authority, that she might go in his stead into that terrible riot which,

two days after, tarnished the glories of Condé, and by its reaction

overthrew the party of the Fronde ere long. None but Mademoiselle dared to

take the part of that doomed minority in the city government, which, for

resisting her own demands, were to be terribly punished on that fourth-of-

July night. "A conspiracy so base," said the generous Talon, "never

stained the soil of France." By deliberate premeditation, an assault was

made by five hundred disguised soldiers on the Parliament assembled in the

Hôtel de Ville; the tumult spread; the night rang with a civil conflict

more terrible than that of the day. Condé and Gaston were vainly summoned;

the one cared not, the other dared not. Mademoiselle again took her place

in her carriage and drove forth amid the terrors of the night. The sudden

conflict had passed its cruel climax, but she rode through streets

slippery with blood; she was stopped at every corner. Once a man laid his

arm on the window, and asked if Condé was within the carriage. She

answered "No," and he retreated, the flambeaux gleaming on a weapon

beneath his cloak. Through these interruptions, she did not reach the

half-burned and smoking Hôtel de Ville till most of its inmates had left

it; the few remaining she aided to conceal, and emerged again amid the

lingering, yawning crowd, who cheered her with, "God bless Mademoiselle!

all she does is well done."

At four o'clock that morning she went to rest, weary with these days and

nights of responsibility. Sleep soundly, Mademoiselle, you will be

troubled with such no longer. An ignominious peace is at hand; and though

peace, too, has her victories, yours is not a nature grand enough to grasp

them. Last to yield, last to be forgiven, there will yet be little in your

future career to justify the distrust of despots, or to recall the young

heroine of Orléans and St Antoine.

IV.

THE CONCLUSION.

Like a river which loses itself, by infinite subdivision, in the sands, so

the wars of the Fronde disappeared in petty intrigues at last. As the

fighting ended and manoeuvring became the game, of course Mazarin came

uppermost,--Mazarin, that super-Italian, finessing and fascinating, so

deadly sweet, _l'homme plus agréable du monde_, as Madame de Motteville

and Bussy-Rabutin call him,--flattering that he might win, avaricious that

he might be magnificent, winning kings by jewelry and princesses by

lapdogs,--too cowardly for any avoidable collision,--too cool and

economical in his hatred to waste an antagonist by killing him, but always

luring and cajoling him into an unwilling tool,--too serenely careless of

popular emotion even to hate the mob of Paris, any more than a surgeon

hates his own lancet when it cuts him; he only changes his grasp and holds

it more cautiously. Mazarin ruled. And the King was soon joking over the

fight at the Porte St. Antoine, with Condé and Mademoiselle; the Queen at

the same time affectionately assuring our heroine, that, if she could have

got at her on that day, she would certainly have strangled her, but that,

since it was past, she would love her as ever,--as ever; while

Mademoiselle, not to be outdone, lies like a Frenchwoman, and assures the

Queen that really she did not mean to be so naughty, but "she was with

those who induced her to act against her sense of duty!"

The day of civil war was over. The daring heroines and voluptuous blonde

beauties of the Frondeur party must seek excitement elsewhere. Some looked

for it in literature; for the female education of France in that age was

far higher than England could show. The intellectual glory of the reign of

the Grand Monarque began in its women. Marie de Médicis had imported the

Italian grace and wit,--Anne of Austria the Spanish courtesy and romance;

the Hôtel de Rambouillet had united the two, and introduced the _genre

précieux_, or stately style, which was superb in its origin, and dwindled

to absurdity in the hands of Mlle. de Scudéry and her valets, before

Molière smiled it away forever. And now that the wars were done, literary

society came up again. Madame de Sablé exhausted the wit and the cookery

of the age in her fascinating entertainments,--_pâtés_ and Pascal,

Rochefoucauld and _ragoûts_,--Mme. de Brégy's Epictetus, Mme. de Choisy's

salads,--confectionery, marmalade, elixirs, Des Cartes, Arnould,

Calvinism, and the barometer. Mme. de Sablé had a sentimental theory that

no woman should eat at the same table with a lover, but she liked to see

her lovers eat, and Mademoiselle, in her obsolete novel of the "Princesse

de Paphlagonie," gently satirizes this passion of her friend. And

Mademoiselle herself finally eclipsed the Sablé by her own entertainments

at her palace of the Luxembourg, where she offered no dish but one of

gossip, serving up herself and friends in a course of "Portraits" so

appetizing that it became the fashion for ten years, and reached

perfection at last in the famous "Characters" of La Bruyère.

Other heroines went into convents, joined the Carmelites, or those nuns of

Port-Royal of whom the Archbishop of Paris said that they lived in the

purity of angels and the pride of devils. Thither went Madame de Sablé

herself, finally,--"the late Madame," as the dashing young abbés called

her when she renounced the world. Thither she drew the beautiful

Longueville also, and Heaven smiled on one repentance that seemed sincere.

There they found peace in the home of Angélique Arnould and Jacqueline

Pascal. And thence those heroic women came forth again, when religious war

threatened to take the place of civil: again they put to shame their more

timid male companions, and by their labors Jesuit and Jansenist found

peace.

But not such was to be the career of our Mademoiselle, who, at twenty, had

tried the part of devotee for one week and renounced it forever. No doubt,

at thirty-five, she "began to understand that it is part of the duty of a

Christian to attend High Mass on Sundays and holy days"; and her

description of the deathbed of Anne of Austria is a most extraordinary

jumble of the next world and this. But thus much of devotion was to her

only a part of the proprieties of life, and before the altar of those

proprieties she served, for the rest of her existence, with exemplary

zeal. At forty, she was still the wealthiest unmarried princess in Europe;

fastidious in toilette, stainless in reputation, not lovely in temper,

rigid in etiquette, learned in precedence, an oracle in court traditions,

a terror to the young maids-of-honor, and always quarrelling with her own

sisters, younger, fairer, poorer than herself. Her mind and will were as

active as in her girlhood, but they ground chaff instead of wheat. Whether

her sisters should dine at the Queen's table, when she never had; who

should be her trainbearer at the royal marriage; whether the royal Spanish

father-in-law, on the same occasion, should or should not salute the

Queen-mother; who, on any given occasion, should have a _tabouret_, who a

_pliant_, who a chair, who an arm-chair; who should enter the King's

_ruelle_, or her own, or pass out by the private stairway; how she should

arrange the duchesses at state-funerals: these were the things which tried

Mademoiselle's soul, and these fill the later volumes of that

autobiography whose earlier record was all a battle and a march. From

Condé's "Obey Mademoiselle's orders as my own," we come down to this: "For

my part, I had been worrying myself all day; having been told that the new

Queen would not salute me on the lips, and that the King had decided to

sustain her in this position. I therefore spoke to Monsieur the Cardinal

on the subject, bringing forward as an important precedent in my favor,

that the Queen-mother had always kissed the princesses of the blood"; and

so on through many pages. Thus lapsed her youth of frolics into an old age

of cards.

It is a slight compensation, that this very pettiness makes her chronicles

of the age very vivid in details. How she revels in the silver brocades,

the violet-colored velvet robes, the crimson velvet carpets, the purple

damask curtains fringed with gold and silver, the embroidered _fleurs de

lis_, the wedding-caskets, the cordons of diamonds, the clusters of

emeralds _en poires_ with diamonds, and the Isabelle-colored linen,

whereby hangs a tale! She still kept up her youthful habit of avoiding the

sick-rooms of her kindred, but how magnificently she mourned them when

they died! Her brief, genuine, but quite unexpected sorrow for her father

was speedily assuaged by the opportunity it gave her to introduce the

fashion of gray mourning, instead of black; it had previously, it seems,

been worn by widows only. Servants and horses were all put in deep black,

however, and "the court observed that I was very _magnifique_ in all my

arrangements." On the other hand, be it recorded, that our Mademoiselle,

chivalrous royalist to the last, was the only person at the French court

who refused to wear mourning for the usurper Cromwell!

But, if thus addicted to funeral pageants, it is needless to say that

weddings occupied their full proportion of her thoughts. Her schemes for

matrimony fill the larger portion of her history, and are, like all the

rest, a diamond necklace of great names. In the boudoir, as in the field,

her campaigns were superb, but she was cheated of the results. Her picture

should have been painted, like that of Justice, with sword and scales,--

the one for foes, the other for lovers. She spent her life in weighing

them,--monarch against monarch, a king in hand against an emperor in the

bush. We have it on her own authority, which, in such matters, was

unsurpassable, that she was "the best match in Europe, except the Infanta

of Spain." Not a marriageable prince in Christendom, therefore, can hover

near the French court, but this middle-aged sensitive-plant prepares to

close her leaves and be coy. The procession of her wooers files before our

wondering eyes, and each the likeness of a kingly crown has on: Louis

himself, her bright possibility of twenty years, till he takes her at her

own estimate and prefers the Infanta,--Monsieur, his younger brother,

Philip IV. of Spain, Charles II. of England, the Emperor of Germany, the

Archduke Leopold of Austria,--prospective king of Holland,--the King of

Portugal, the Prince of Denmark, the Elector of Bavaria, the Duke of

Savoy, Condé's son, and Condé himself. For the last of these alone she

seems to have felt any real affection. Their tie was more than cousinly;

the same heroic blood of the early Bourbons was in them, they were trained

by the same precocious successes, only six years apart in age, and

beginning with that hearty mutual aversion which is so often the parent of

love, in impulsive natures like theirs. Their flirtation was platonic, but

chronic; and whenever poor, heroic, desolate Clémence de Maille was sicker

than usual, these cousins were walking side by side in the Tuileries

gardens, and dreaming, almost in silence, of what might be, while Mazarin

shuddered at the thought of mating two such eagles together.--So passed

her life, and at last, like many a matchmaking lady, she baffled all the

gossips, and left them all in laughter when her choice was made.

The tale stands embalmed forever in the famous letter of Madame de Sévigné

to her cousin, M. de Coulanges, written on Monday, December 15, 1670. It

can never be translated too often, so we will risk it again.

"I have now to announce to you the most astonishing circumstance, the most

surprising, most marvellous, most triumphant, most bewildering, most

unheard-of, most singular, most extraordinary, most incredible, most

unexpected, most grand, most trivial, most rare, most common, most

notorious, most secret, (till to-day,) most brilliant, most desirable;

indeed, a thing to which past ages afford but one parallel, and that a

poor one; a thing which we can scarcely believe at Paris; how can it be

believed at Lyons? a thing which excites the compassion of all the world,

and the delight of Madame de Rohan and Madame de Hauterive; a thing which

is to be done on Sunday, when those who see it will hardly believe their

eyes; a thing which will be done on Sunday, and which might perhaps be

impossible on Monday: I cannot possibly announce it; guess it; I give you

three guesses; try now. If you will not, I must tell you. M. de Lauzun

marries on Sunday, at the Louvre,--whom now? I give you three guesses,--

six,--a hundred. Madame de Coulanges says, 'It is not hard to guess; it is

Madame de la Vallière.' Not at all, Madame! 'Mlle. de Retz?' Not a bit;

you are a mere provincial. 'How absurd!' you say; 'it is Mlle. Colbert.'

Not that, either. 'Then, of course, it is Mlle. de Créqui.' Not right yet.

Must I tell you, then? Listen! he marries on Sunday, at the Louvre, by his

Majesty's permission, Mademoiselle,--Mademoiselle de,--Mademoiselle (will

you guess again?)--he marries MADEMOISELLE,--La Grande Mademoiselle,--

Mademoiselle, daughter of the late Monsieur,--Mademoiselle, grand-

daughter of Henri Quatre,--Mademoiselle d'Eu,--Mademoiselle de Dombes,--

Mademoiselle de Montpensier,--Mademoiselle d'Orléans,--Mademoiselle, the

King's own cousin,--Mademoiselle, destined for the throne,--Mademoiselle,

the only fit match in France for Monsieur [the King's brother];--there's

a piece of information for you! If you shriek,--if you are beside

yourself,--if you say it is a hoax, false, mere gossip, stuff, and

nonsense,--if, finally, you say hard things about us, we do not complain;

we took the news in the same way. Adieu; the letters by this post will

show you whether we have told the truth."

Poor Mademoiselle! Madame de Sévigné was right in one thing,--if it were

not done promptly, it might prove impracticable. Like Ralph Roister

Doister, she should ha' been married o' Sunday. Duly the contract was

signed, by which Lauzun took the name of M. de Montpensier and the largest

fortune in the kingdom, surrendered without reservation, all, all to him;

but Mazarin had bribed the notary to four hours' delay, and during that

time the King was brought to change his mind, to revoke his consent, and

to contradict the letters he had written to foreign courts, formally

announcing the nuptials of the first princess of the blood. In reading the

Memoirs of Mademoiselle, one forgets all the absurdity of all her long

amatory angling for the handsome young guardsman, in pity for her deep

despair. When she went to remonstrate with the King, the two royal cousins

fell on their knees, embraced, "and thus we remained for near three

quarters of an hour, not a word being spoken during the whole time, but

both drowned in tears." Reviving, she told the King, with her usual

frankness, that he was "like apes who caress children and suffocate them";

and this high-minded monarch soon proceeded to justify her remark by

ordering her lover to the Castle of Pignerol, to prevent a private

marriage,--which had probably taken place already. Ten years passed,

before the labors and wealth of this constant and untiring wife could

obtain her husband's release; and when he was discharged at last, he came

out a changed, soured, selfish, ungrateful man. "Just Heaven," she had

exclaimed in her youth, "would not bestow such a woman as myself upon a

man who was unworthy of her." But perhaps Heaven was juster than she

thought. They soon parted again forever, and he went to England, there to

atone for these inglorious earlier days by one deed of heroic loyalty

which it is not ours to tell.

And then unrolled the gorgeous tapestry of the maturer reign of the Grand

Monarque,--that sovereign whom his priests in their liturgy styled "the

chief work of the Divine hands," and of whom Mazarin said, more honestly,

that there was material enough in him for four kings and one honest man.

The "Moi-même" of his boyish resolution became the "L'état, c'est moi" of

his maturer egotism; Spain yielded to France the mastery of the land, as

she had already yielded to Holland and England the sea; Turenne fell at

Sassbach, Condé sheathed his sword at Chantilly; Bossuet and Bourdaloue,

preaching the funeral sermons of these heroes, praised their glories, and

forgot, as preachers will, their sins; Vatel committed suicide because his

Majesty had not fish enough for breakfast; the Princess Palatine died in a

convent, and the Princess Condé in a prison; the fair Sévigné chose the

better part, and the fairer Montespan the worse; the lovely La Vallière

walked through sin to saintliness, and poor Marie de Mancini through

saintliness to sin; Voiture and Benserade and Corneille passed away, and

Racine and Molière reigned in their stead; and Mademoiselle, who had won

the first campaigns of her life and lost all the rest, died a weary old

woman at sixty-seven.

Thus wrecked and wasted, her opportunity past, her career a

disappointment, she leaves us only the passing glimpse of what she was,

and the hazy possibility of what she might have been. Perhaps the defect

was, after all, in herself; perhaps the soil was not deep enough to

produce anything but a few stray heroisms, bright and transitory;--perhaps

otherwise. What fascinates us in her is simply her daring, that inborn

fire of the blood to which danger is its own exceeding great reward; a

quality which always kindles enthusiasm, and justly,--but which is a thing

of temperament, not necessarily joined with any other great qualities, and

worthless when it stands alone--But she had other resources,--weapons, at

least, if not qualities; she had birth, wealth, ambition, decision, pride,

perseverance, ingenuity; beauty not slight, though not equalling the

superb Longuevilles and Chevreuses of the age; great personal magnetism,

more than average cultivation for that period, and unsullied chastity. Who

can say what these things might have ended in, under other circumstances?

We have seen how Mazarin, who read all hearts but the saintly, dreaded the

conjunction of herself and Condé; it is scarcely possible to doubt that it

would have placed a new line of Bourbons on the throne. Had she married

Louis XIV., she might not have controlled that steadier will, but there

would have been two Grand Monarques instead of one; had she accepted

Charles II. of England, she might have only increased his despotic

tendencies, but she would easily have disposed of the Duchess of

Portsmouth; had she won Ferdinand III., Germany might have suffered less

by the Peace of Westphalia; had she chosen Alphonso Henry, the House of

Braganza would again have been upheld by a woman's hand. But she did none

of these things, and her only epitaph is that dreary might-have-been.

Nay, not the only one,--for one visible record of her, at least, the soil

of France cherishes among its chiefest treasures. When the Paris

butterflies flutter for a summer day to the decaying watering-place of

Dieppe, some American wanderer, who flutters with them, may cast perchance

a longing eye to where the hamlet of Eu stands amid its verdant meadows,

two miles away, still lovely as when the Archbishop Laurent chose it out

of all the world for his "place of eternal rest," six centuries ago. But

it is not for its memories of priestly tombs and miracles that the summer

visitor seeks it now, nor because the _savant_ loves its ancient sea-

margin or its Roman remains; nor is it because the little Bresle winds

gracefully through its soft bed, beneath forests green in the sunshine,

glorious in the gloom; it is not for the memories of Rollo and William the

Conqueror, which fill with visionary shapes, grander than the living, the

corridors of its half-desolate château. It is because these storied walls,

often ruined, often rebuilt, still shelter a gallery of historic portraits

such as the world cannot equal; there is not a Bourbon king, nor a Bourbon

battle, nor one great name among the courtier contemporaries of Bourbons,

that is not represented there; the "Hall of the Guises" contains kindred

faces, from all the realms of Christendom; the "Salon des Rois" holds Joan

of Arc, sculptured in marble by the hand of a princess; in the drawing-

room, Père la Chaise and Marion de l'Orme are side by side, and the

angelic beauty of Agnes Sorel floods the great hall with light, like a

sunbeam; and in this priceless treasure-house, worth more to France than

almost fair Normandy itself, this gallery of glory, first arranged at

Choisy, then transferred hither to console the solitude of a weeping

woman, the wanderer finds the only remaining memorial of La Grande

Mademoiselle.

THE SWAN-SONG OF PARSON AVERY.

1635.

When the reaper's task was ended, and the summer wearing late,

Parson Avery sailed from Newbury with his wife and children eight,

Dropping down the river harbor in the shallop Watch and Wait.

Pleasantly lay the clearings in the mellow summer-morn,

And the newly-planted orchards dropping their fruits first-born,

And the homesteads like brown islands amidst a sea of corn.

Broad meadows reaching seaward the tided creeks between,

And hills rolled, wave-like, inland, with oaks and walnuts green:

A fairer home, a goodlier land, his eye had never seen.

Yet away sailed Parson Avery, away where duty led,

And the voice of God seemed calling, to break the living bread

To the souls of fishers starving on the rocks of Marblehead!

All day they sailed: at nightfall the pleasant land-breeze died,

The blackening sky at midnight its starry lights denied,

And, far and low, the thunder of tempest prophesied.

Blotted out was all the coast-line, gone were rock and wood and sand;

Grimly anxious stood the helmsman with the tiller in his hand,

And questioned of the darkness what was sea and what was land.

And the preacher heard his dear ones, nestled round him, weeping sore:

"Never heed, my little children! Christ is walking on before

To the pleasant land of Heaven, where the sea shall be no more!"

All at once the great cloud parted, like a curtain drawn aside,

To let down the torch of lightning on the terror far and wide;

And the thunder and the whirlwind together smote the tide.

There was wailing in the shallop, woman's wail and man's despair,

A crash of breaking timbers on the rocks so sharp and bare,

And through it all the murmur of Father Avery's prayer.

From the struggle in the darkness with the wild waves and the blast,

On a rock, where every billow broke above him as it passed,

Alone of all his household the man of God was cast.

There a comrade heard him praying in the pause of wave and wind:

"All my own have gone before me, and I linger just behind;

Not for life I ask, but only for the rest thy ransomed find!

"In this night of death I challenge the promise of thy Word!

Let me see the great salvation of which mine ears have heard!

Let me pass from hence forgiven, through the grace of Christ, our Lord!

"In the baptism of these waters wash white my every sin,

And let me follow up to Thee my household and my kin!

Open the sea-gate of thy Heaven and let me enter in!"

The ear of God was open to his servant's last request;

As the strong wave swept him downward the sweet prayer upward pressed,

And the soul of Father Avery went with it to his rest.

There was wailing on the mainland from the rocks of Marblehead,

In the stricken church of Newbury the notes for prayer were read,

And long by board and hearthstone the living mourned the dead.

And still the fishers out-bound, or scudding from the squall,

With grave and reverent faces the ancient tale recall,

When they see the white waves breaking on the "Rock of Avery's Fall!"

THE DENSLOW PALACE.

It is the privilege of authors and artists to see and to describe; to "see

clearly and describe vividly" gives the pass on all state occasions. It is

the "cap of darkness" and the _talaria_, and wafts them whither they will.

The doors of boudoirs and senate-chambers open quickly, and close after

them,--excluding the talentless and staring rabble. I, who am one of the

humblest of the seers,--a universal admirer of all things beautiful and

great,--from the commonwealths of Plato and Solon, severally, expulsed, as

poet without music or politic, and a follower of the great,--I, from my

dormitory, or nest, of twelve feet square, can, at an hour's notice, or

less, enter palaces, and bear away, unchecked and unquestioned, those

_imagines_ of Des Cartes which emanate or are thrown off from all forms,--

and this, not in imagination, but in the flesh.

Whether it was the "tone of society" which pervaded my "Florentine

letters," or my noted description of the boudoir of Egeria Mentale, I

could not just now determine; but these, and other humble efforts of mine,

made me known in palaces as a painter of beauty and magnificence; and I

have been in demand, to do for wealth what wealth cannot do for itself,--

namely, make it live a little, or, at least, spread as far, in fame, as

the rings of a stone-plash on a great pond.

I enjoy friendships and regards which would satisfy the most fastidious.

Are not the Denslows enormously rich? Is not Dalton a sovereign of

elegance? It was I who gave the fame of these qualities to the world, in

true colors, not flattered. And _they_ know it, and love me. Honoria

Denslow is the most beautiful and truly charming woman of society. It was

I who first said it; and she is my friend, and loves me. I defy poverty;

the wealth of all the senses is mine, without effort. I desire not to be

one of those who mingle as principals and sufferers; for they are less

causes than effects. As the Florentine in the Inferno saw the souls of

unfortunate lovers borne upon a whirlwind, so have I seen all things fair

and precious,--outpourings of wealth,--all the talents,--all the offerings

of duty and devotion,--angelic graces of person and of soul,--borne and

swept violently around on the circular gale. Wealth is only an enlargement

of the material boundary, and leaves the spirit free to dash to and fro,

and exhaust itself in vain efforts.--But I am philosophizing,--oddly

enough,--when I should describe.

An exquisite little note from Honoria, sent at the last moment, asking me

to be present that evening at a "select" party, which was to open the "new

house,"--the little palace of the Denslows,--lay beside me on the table.

It was within thirty minutes of nine o'clock, the hour I had fixed for

going. A howling winter out of doors, a clear fire glowing in my little

grate. My arm-chair, a magnificent present from Honoria, shaming the

wooden fixtures of the poor room, invited to meditation, and perhaps the

composition of some delicate periods. They formed slowly. Time, it is

said, devours all things; but imagination, in turn, devours time,--and,

indeed, swallowed my half-hour at a gulp. The neighboring church-clock

tolled nine. I was belated, and hurried away.

It was a _reunion_ of only three hundred invitations, selected by my

friend Dalton, the intimate and adviser of Honoria. So happy were their

combinations, scarce a dozen were absent or declined.

At eleven, the guests began to assemble. Introductions were almost

needless. Each person was a recognized member of "society." One-half of

the number were women,--many of them young, beautiful, accomplished,--

heiresses, "charming widows," poetesses of real celebrity, and, rarer

still, of good repute,--wives of millionnaires, flashing in satin and

diamonds. The men, on their side, were of all professions and arts, and of

every grade of celebrity, from senator to merchant,--each distinguished by

some personal attribute or talent; and in all was the gift, so rare, of

manners and conversation. It was a company of undoubted gentlemen, as

truly entitled to respect and admiration as if they stood about a throne.

They were the untitled nobility of Nature, wealth, and genius.

As I stood looking, with placid admiration, from a recess, upon a

brilliant _tableau_ of beautiful women and celebrated men that had

accidentally arranged itself before me, Dalton touched my arm.

"I have seen," said he, "aristocratic and republican _réunions_ of the

purest mode in Paris, the court and the banker's circle of London,

_conversazioni_ at Rome and Florence. Every face in this room is

intelligent, and nearly all either beautiful, remarkable, or commanding.

Observe those five women standing with Denslow and Adonaïs,--grandeur,

sweetness, grace, form, purity; each has an attribute. It is a rare

assemblage of superior human beings. The world cannot surpass it. And, by

the by, the rooms are superb."

They were, indeed, magnificent: two grand suites, on either side a central

hall of Gothic structure, in white marble, with light, aërial staircases

and gilded balconies. Each suite was a separate miracle: the height, the

breadth, the columnal divisions; the wonderful delicacy of the arches,

upon which rested ceilings frescoed with incomparable art. In one

compartment the arches and caryatides were of black marble; in another, of

snowy Parian; in a third, of wood, exquisitely carved, and joined like one

piece, as if it were a natural growth; vines rising at the bases of the

walls, and spreading under the roof. There was no forced consistency.

Forms suitable only for the support of heavy masses of masonry, or for the

solemn effects of church interiors, were not here introduced. From

straight window-cornices of dark wood, slenderly gilt, but richly carved,

fell cataracts of gleaming satin, softened in effect with laces of rare

appreciation.

The frescoes and panel-work were a study by themselves, uniting the

classic and modern styles in allegorical subjects. The paintings, selected

by the taste of Dalton, to overpower the darkness of the rooms by

intensity of color, were incorporated with the walls. There were but few

mirrors. At the end of each suite, one, of fabulous size, without frame,

made to appear, by a cunning arrangement of dark draperies, like a

transparent portion of the wall itself, extended the magnificence of the

apartments.

Not a flame nor a jet was anywhere visible. Tinted vases, pendent, or

resting upon pedestals, distributed harmonies and thoughts of light rather

than light itself; and yet all was visible, effulgent. The columns which

separated the apartments seemed to be composed of masses of richly-colored

flames, compelled, by some ingenious alchemy, to assume the form and

office of columns.

In New York, _par excellence_ the city of private gorgeousness and

_petite_ magnificence, nothing had yet been seen equal to the rooms of the

glorious Denslow Palace. Even Dalton, the most capricious and critical of

men, whose nice vision had absorbed the elegancies of European taste,

pronounced them superb. The upholstery and ornamentation were composed

under the direction of celebrated artists. Palmer was consulted on the

marbles. Page (at Rome) advised the cartoons for the frescoes, and gave

laws for the colors and disposition of the draperies. The paintings,

panelled in the walls, were modern, triumphs of the art and genius of the

New World.

Until the hour for dancing, prolonged melodies of themes modulated in the

happiest moments of the great composers floated in the perfumed air from a

company of unseen musicians, while the guests moved through the vast

apartments, charmed or exalted by their splendor, or conversed in groups,

every voice subdued and intelligent.

At midnight began the modish music of the dance, and groups of beautiful

girls moved like the atoms of Chladni on the vibrating crystal, with their

partners, to the sound of harps and violins, in pleasing figures or

inebriating spirals.

When supper was served, the ivory fronts of a cabinet of gems divided

itself in the centre,--the two halves revolving upon silver hinges,--and

discovered a hall of great height and dimensions, walled with crimson

damask, supporting pictures of all the masters of modern art. The dome-

like roof of this hall was of marble variously colored, and the floor

tessellated and mosaicked in grotesque and graceful figures of Vesuvian

lavas and painted porcelain.

The tables, couches, chairs, and _vis-a-vis_ in this hall were of plain

pattern and neutral dead colors, not to overpower or fade the pictures on

the walls, or the gold and Parian service of the cedar tables.

But the chief beauty of this unequalled supper-room was an immense bronze

candelabrum, which rose in the centre from a column of black marble. It

was the figure of an Italian elm, slender and of thin foliage, embraced,

almost enveloped, in a vine, which reached out and supported itself in

hanging from all the branches; the twigs bearing fruit, not of grapes, but

of a hundred little spheres of crimson, violet, and golden light, whose

combination produced a soft atmosphere of no certain color.

Neither Honoria, Dalton, nor myself remained long in the gallery. We

retired with a select few, and were served in an antechamber, separated

from the grand reception-room by an arch, through which, by putting aside

a silk curtain, Honoria could see, at a distance, any that entered, as

they passed in from the hall.

My own position was such that I could look over her shoulder and see as

she saw. _Vis-a-vis_ with her, and consequently with myself, was Adonaïs,

a celebrated author, and person of the _beau monde_. On his left, Dalton,

always mysteriously elegant and dangerously witty. Denslow and Jeffrey

Lethal, the critic, completed our circle. The conversation was easy,

animated, personal.

"You are fortunate in having a woman of taste to manage your

entertainments," said Lethal, in answer to a remark of Denslow's,--"but in

bringing these people together she has made a sad blunder."

"And what may that be?" inquired Dalton, mildly.

"Your guests are too well behaved, too fine, and on their guard; there are

no butts, no palpable fools or vulgarians; and, worse, there are many

distinguished, but no one great man,--no social or intellectual sovereign

of the occasion."

Honoria looked inquiringly at Lethal. "Pray, Mr. Lethal, tell me who he

is? I thought there was no such person in America," she added, with a look

of reproachful inquiry at Dalton and myself, as if we should have found

this sovereign and suggested him.

"You are right, my dear queen; Lethal is joking," responded Dalton; "we

are a democracy, and have only a queen of"----

"Water ices," interrupted Lethal; "but, as for the king you seek, as

democracies finally come to that,"----

"Good Heavens!" exclaimed Honoria, raising the curtain, "it must be he

that is coming in."

Honoria frowned slightly, rose, and advanced to meet a new-comer, who had

entered unannounced, and was advancing alone. Dalton followed to support

her. I observed their movements,--Lethal and Adonaïs using my face as a

mirror of what was passing beyond the curtain.

The masses of level light from the columns on the left seemed to envelope

the stranger, who came toward us from the entrance, as if he had divined

the presence of Honoria in the alcove.

He was about the middle height, Napoleonic in form and bearing, with

features of marble paleness, firm, and sharply defined. His hair and

magnificent Asiatic beard were jetty black, curling, and naturally

disposed. Under his dark and solid brows gleamed large eyes of abysmal

blackness and intensity.

"Is it Lord N----?" whispered Lethal, moved from his habitual coldness by

the astonishment which he read in my face.

"Senator D----, perhaps," suggested Denslow, whose ideas, like his person,

aspired to the senatorial.

"Dumas," hinted Adonaïs, an admirer of French literature. "I heard he was

expected."

"No," I answered, "but certainly in appearance the most noticeable man

living. Let us go out and be introduced."

"Perhaps," said Lethal, "it is the d----."

All rose instantly at the idea, and we went forward, urged by irresistible

curiosity.

As we drew near the stranger, who was conversing with Honoria and Dalton,

a shudder went through me. It was a thrill of the universal Boswell; I

seemed to feel the presence of "the most aristocratic man of the age."

Honoria introduced me. "My Lord Duke, allow me to present my friend, Mr.

De Vere; Mr. De Vere, the Duke of Rosecouleur."

Was I, then, face to face with, nay, touching the hand of a highness,--and

that highness the monarch of the _ton_? And is this a ducal hand, white as

the albescent down of the eider-duck, which presses mine with a tender

touch, so haughty and so delicately graduated to my standing as "friend"

of the exquisite Honoria? It was too much; I could have wept; my senses

rather failed.

Dalton fell short of himself; for, though his head stooped to none, unless

conventionally, the sudden and unaccountable presence of the Duke of

Rosecouleur annoyed and perplexed him. His own sovereignty was threatened.

Lethal stiffened himself to the ordeal of an introduction; the affair

seemed to exasperate him. Denslow alone, of the men, was in his element.

Pompous and soft, he "cottoned" to the grandeur with the instinct of a

born satellite, and his eyes grew brighter, his body more shining and

rotund, his back more concave. His _bon-vivant_ tones, jolly and

conventional, sounded a pure barytone to the clear soprano of Honoria, in

the harmony of an obsequious welcome.

The Duke of Rosecouleur glanced around him approvingly upon the

apartments. I believed that he had never seen anything more beautiful than

the _petite_ palace of Honoria, or more ravishing than herself. He said

little, in a low voice, and always to one person at a time. His answers

and remarks were simple and well-turned.

Dalton allowed the others to move on, and by a slight sign drew me to him.

"It is unexpected," he said, in a thoughtful manner, looking me full in

the eyes.

"You knew the Duke of Rosecouleur in Europe?"

"At Paris, yes,--and in Italy he was a travel friend; but we heard lately

that he had retired upon his estates in England; and certainly, he is the

last person we looked for here."

"Unannounced."

"That is a part of the singularity."

"His name was not in the published list of arrivals; but he may have left

England incognito. Is a mistake possible?"

"No! there is but one such man in Europe;--a handsomer or a richer does

not live."

"An eye of wonderful depth."

"Hands exquisite."

"Feet, ditto."

"And his dress and manner."

"Unapproachable!"

"Not a shadow of pretence;--the essence of good-breeding founded upon

extensive knowledge, and a thorough sense of position and its advantages;

--in fact, the Napoleon of the parlor."

"But, Dalton," said I, nervously, "no one attends him."

"No,--I thought so at first; but do you see that Mephistophelean figure,

in black, who follows the Duke a few paces behind, and is introduced to no

one?"

"Yes. A singular creature, truly!--how thin he is!"

"That shadow that follows his Highness is, in fact, the famous valet, Rêve

de Noir,--the prince of servants. The Duke goes nowhere without this man

as a shadow. He asserts that Rêve de Noir has no soul; and I believe him.

The face is that of a demon. It is a separate creation, equally wonderful

with the master, but not human. He was condensed out of the atmosphere of

the great world."

As we were speaking, we observed a crowd of distinguished persons

gathered about and following his Highness, as he moved. He spoke now to

one; now to another. Honoria, fascinated, her beauty every instant

becoming more radiant, just leaned, with the lightest pressure, upon the

Duke's arm. They were promenading through the rooms. The music, soft and

low, continued, but the groups of dancers broke up, the loiterers in the

gallery came in, and as the sun draws his fifty, perhaps his hundreds of

planets, circling around and near him, this noble luminary centred in

himself the attention of all. If they could not speak with him, they could

at least speak of him. If they could not touch his hand, they could pass

before him and give one glance at his eyes. The less aristocratic were

even satisfied for the moment with watching the singular being, Rêve de

Noir,--who caught no one's eye, seemed to see no one but his master,--and

yet was not here nor there, nor in any place,--never in the way, a thing

of air, and not tangible, but only black.

At a signal, he would advance and present to his master a perfume, a laced

handkerchief, a rose of rubies, a diamond clasp; of many with whom he

spoke the liberal Duke begged the acceptance of some little token, as an

earnest of his esteem. After interchanging a few words with Jeffrey

Lethal,--who dared not utter a sarcasm, though he chafed visibly under the

restraint,--the Duke's tasteful generosity suggested a seal ring, with an

intaglio head of Swift cut in opal, the mineral emblem of wit, which dulls

in the sunlight of fortune, and recovers its fiery points in the shade of

adversity;--Rêve de Noir, with a movement so slight, 'twas like the

flitting of a bat, placed the seal in the hand of the Duke, who, with a

charming and irresistible grace, compelled Lethal to receive it.

To Denslow, Honoria, Dalton, and myself he offered nothing.--Strange?--Not

at all. Was he not the guest, and had not I been presented to him by

Honoria as her "friend?"--a word of pregnant meaning to a Duke of

Rosecouleur!

To Adonaïs he gave _a lock of hair_ of the great novelist, Dumas, in a

locket of yellow tourmaline,--a stone usually black. Lethal smiled at

this. He felt relieved.

"The Duke," thought he, "must be a humorist."

From my coarse way of describing this, you would suppose that it was a

farcical exhibition of vulgar extravagance, and the Duke a madman or an

impostor; but the effect was different. It was done with grace, and, in

the midst of so much else, it attracted only that side regard, at

intervals, which is sure to surprise and excite awe.

Honoria had almost ceased to converse with us. It was painful to her to

talk with any person. She followed the Duke with her eyes. When, by some

delicate allusion or attention, he let her perceive that she was in his

thoughts, a mantling color overspread her features, and then gave way to

paleness, and a manner which attracted universal remark. It was then

Honoria abdicated that throne of conventional purity which hitherto she

had held undisputed. Women who were plain in her presence outshone

Honoria, by meeting this ducal apparition, that called itself

Rosecouleur,--and which might have been, for aught they knew, a fume of

the Infernal, shaped to deceive us all,--with calm and haughty propriety.

The sensation did not subside. The music of the waltz invited a renewal of

that intoxicating whirl which isolates friends and lovers, in whispering

and sighing pairs, in the midst of a great assemblage. All the world

looked on, when Honoria Denslow placed her hand upon the shoulder of the

Duke of Rosecouleur, and the noble and beautiful forms began silently and

smoothly turning, with a dream-like motion. Soon she lifted her lovely

eyes and steadied their rays upon his. She leaned wholly upon his arm, and

the gloved hands completed the magnetic circle. At the close of the first

waltz, she rested a moment, leaning upon his shoulder, and his hand still

held hers,--a liberty often assumed and permitted, but not to the nobles

and the monarchs of society. She fell farther, and her ideal beauty faded

into a sensuous.

Honoria was lost. Dalton saw it. We retired together to a room apart. He

was dispirited; called for and drank rapidly a bottle of Champagne;--it

was insufficient.

"De Vere," said he, "affairs go badly."

"Explain."

"This cursed thing that people call a duke--it kills me."

"I saw."

"Of course you did;--the world saw; the servants saw. Honoria has fallen

to-night. I shall transfer my allegiance."

"And Denslow?"

"A born sycophant;--he thinks it natural that his wife should love a duke,

and a duke love his wife."

"So would you, if you were any other than you are."

"Faugh! it is human nature."

"Not so; would you not as soon strangle this Rosecouleur for making love

to your wife in public, as you would another man?"

"Rather."

"Pooh! I give you up. If you had

simply said, 'Yes,' it would have satisfied me."

Dalton seemed perplexed. He called a servant and sent him with an order

for Nalson, the usher, to come instantly to him.

Nalson appeared, with his white gloves and mahogany face.

"Nalson, you were a servant of the Duke in England?"

"Yes, Sir."

"Is the person now in the rooms the Duke of Rosecouleur?"

"I have not seen him, Sir."

"Go immediately, study the man well,--do you hear?--and come to me. Let no

one know your purpose."

Nalson disappeared.

I was alarmed. If "the Duke" should prove to be an impostor, we were

indeed ruined.

In five minutes,--an hour, it seemed,--Nalson stood before us.

"Is it he?" said Dalton, looking fixedly upon the face of the usher.

No reply.

"Speak the truth; you need not be afraid."

"I cannot tell, Sir."

"Nonsense! go and look again."

"It is of no use, Mr. Dalton; you, who are as well acquainted with the

personal appearance of his Highness as I am, you have been deceived,--if I

have."

"Nalson, do you believe that this person is an impostor?" said Dalton,

pointing at myself.

"Who? Mr. De Vere, Sir?"

"If, then, you know at sight that this gentleman is my friend Mr. De Vere,

why do you hesitate about the other?"

"But the imitation is perfect. And there is Rêve de Noir."

"Yes, did Rêve de Noir recognize you?"

"I have not caught his eye. You know, Sir, that this Rêve is not, and

never was, like other men; he is a devil. One knows, and one does not know

him."

"Were you at the door when the Duke entered?"

"I think not; at least--I cannot tell. When I first saw him, he was in the

room, speaking with Madam Denslow."

"Nalson, you have done wrong; no one should have entered unannounced. Send

the doorkeeper to me."

The doorkeeper came; a gigantic negro, magnificently attired.

"Jupiter, you were at the door when the Duke of Rosecouleur entered?"

"Yes, Sir."

"Did the Duke and his man come in a carriage?"

"Yes, Sir,--a hack."

"You may go. They are not devils," said Dalton, musingly, "or they would

not have come in a carriage."

"You seem to have studied the spiritual mode of locomotion," said I.

Dalton frowned. "This is serious, De Vere."

"What mean you?"

"I mean that Denslow is a bankrupt."

"Explain yourself."

"You know what an influence he carries in political circles. The G----rs,

the S----es, and their kind, have more talent, but Denslow enjoys the

secret of popularity."

"Well, I know it."

"In the middle counties, where he owns vast estates, and has been liberal

to debtors and tenants, he carries great favor; both parties respect him

for his ignorance and pomposity, which they mistake for simplicity and

power, as usual. The estates are mortgaged three deep, and will not hold

out a year. The shares of the Millionnaire's Hotel and the Poor Man's Bank

in the B----y are worthless. Denslow's railroad schemes have absorbed the

capital of those concerns."

"But he had three millions."

"Nominally. This palace has actually sunk his income."

"Madness!"

"Wisdom, if you will listen."

"I am all attention."

"The use of money is to create and hold power. Denslow was certain of the

popular and county votes; he needed only the aristocratic support, and the

A---- people would have made him Senator."

"Fool, why was he not satisfied with his money?"

"Do you call the farmer fool, because he is not satisfied with the soil,

but wishes to grow wheat thereon? Money is the soil of power. For much

less than a million one may gratify the senses; great fortunes are not for

sensual luxuries, but for those of the soul. To the facts, then. The

advent of this mysterious duke,--whom I doubt,--hailed by Denslow and

Honoria as a piece of wonderful good-fortune, has already shaken him and

ruined the _prestige_ of his wife. They are mad and blind."

"Tell me, in plain prose, the _how_ and the _why_."

"De Vere, you are dull. There are three hundred people in the rooms of the

Denslow Palace; these people are the 'aristocracy.' They control the

sentiments of the 'better class.' Opinion, like dress, descends from them.

They no longer respect Denslow, and their women have seen the weakness of

Honoria."

"Yes, but Denslow still has 'the people.'"

"That is not enough. I have calculated the chances, and mustered all our

available force. We shall have no support among the 'better class,' since

we are disgraced with the 'millionnaires.'"

At this moment Denslow came in.

"Ah! Dalton,--like you! I have been looking for you to show the pictures.

Devil a thing I know about them. The Duke wondered at your absence."

"Where is Honoria?"

"Ill, ill,--fainted. The house is new; smell of new wood and mortar;

deused disagreeable in Honoria. If it had not been for the Duke, she would

have fallen. That's a monstrous clever fellow, that Rosecouleur. Admires

Honoria vastly. Come,--the pictures."

"Mr. John Vanbrugen Denslow, you are an ass!"

The large, smooth, florid millionnaire, dreaming only of senatorial

honors, the shouts of the multitude, and the adoration of a party press,

cowered like a dog under the lash of the "man of society."

"Rather rough,--ha, De Vere? What have _I_ done? Am I an ass because I

know nothing of pictures? Come, Dalton, you are harsh with your old

friend."

"Denslow, I have told you a thousand times never to concede position."

"Yes, but this is a duke, man,--a prince!"

"This from you? By Jove, De Vere, I wish you and I could live a hundred

years, to see a republican aristocrat. We are still mere provincials,"

added Dalton, with a sigh.

Denslow perspired with mortification.

"You use me badly,--I tell you, Dalton, this Rosecouleur is a devil.

Condescend to him! be haughty and--what do you call it?--urbane to him! I

defy _you_ to do it, with all your impudence. Why, his valet, that shadow

that glides after him, is too much for me. Try him yourself, man."

"Who, the valet?"

"No, the master,--though I might have said the valet."

"Did I yield in Paris?"

"No, but you were of the embassy, and--and--_no one really knew us_, you

know."

Dalton pressed his lips hard together.

"Come," said he, "De Vere, let us try a fall with this Titan of the

carpet."

Denslow hastened back to the Duke. I followed Dalton; but as for me, bah!

I am a cipher.

The room in which we were adjoined Honoria's boudoir, from which a secret

passage led down by a spiral to a panel behind hangings; raising these,

one could enter the drawing-room unobserved. Dalton paused midway in the

secret passage, and through a loop or narrow window concealed by

architectural ornaments, and which overlooked the great drawing-rooms,

made a reconnaissance of the field.

Nights of Venice! what a scene was there! The vine-branch chandeliers,

crystal-fruited, which depended from the slender ribs of the ceiling, cast

a rosy dawn of light, deepening the green and crimson of draperies and

carpets, making an air like sunrise in the bowers of a forest. Form and

order were everywhere visible, though unobtrusive. Arch beyond arch, to

fourth apartments, lessening in dimension, with increase of wealth;--

groups of beautiful women, on either hand, seated or half reclined; the

pure or rich hues of their robes blending imperceptibly, or in gorgeous

contrasts, with the soft outlines and colors of their supports; a banquet

for the eyes and the mind; the perfect work of art and culture;--gliding

about and among these, or, with others, springing and revolving in that

monarch of all measures, which blends luxury and purity, until it is

either the one or the other, moved the men.

"That is my work," exclaimed Dalton, unconsciously.

"Not _all_, I think."

"I mean the combinations,--the effect. But see! Honoria will again accept

the Duke's invitation. He is coming to her. Let us prevent it."

He slipped away; and I, remaining at my post of observation, saw him, an

instant later, passing quickly across the floor among the dancers, toward

Honoria. The Duke of Rosecouleur arrived at the same instant before her.

She smiled sorrowfully upon Dalton, and held out her hand in a languid

manner toward the Duke, and again they floated away upon the eddies of the

music. I followed them with eyes fixed in admiration. It was a vision of

the orgies of Olympus,--Zeus and Aphrodite circling to a theme of Chronos.

Had Honoria tasted of the Indian drug, the weed of paradise? Her eyes,

fixed upon the Duke's, shone like molten sapphires. A tress of chestnut

hair, escaping from the diamond coronet, sprang lovingly forward and

twined itself over her white shoulder and still fairer bosom. Tints like

flitting clouds, Titianic, the mystery and despair of art, disclosed to

the intelligent eye the feeling that mastered her spirit and her sense.

Admirable beauty! Unrivalled, unhappy! The Phidian idol of gold and ivory,

into which a demon had entered, overthrown, and the worshippers gazing on

it with a scorn unmixed with pity!

The sullen animal rage of battle is nothing to the livor, the burning

hatred of the drawing-room. Dalton, defeated, cast a glance of deadly

hostility on the Duke. Nor was it lost. While the waltz continued, for ten

minutes, he stood motionless. Fearing some untoward event, I came down and

took my place near him.

The Duke led Honoria to a sofa. But for his arm she would again have

fallen. Dalton had recovered his courage and natural haughtiness. The tone

of his voice, rich, tender, and delicately expressive, did not change.

"Honoria, you sent for _me_; and the Duke wishes to see the pictures. The

air of the gallery will relieve your faintness."

He offered his arm, which she, rising mechanically, accepted. A deep blush

crimsoned her features, at the allusion to her weakness. Several of the

guests moved after us, as we passed into the gallery. The Duke's shadow,

Rêve de Noir, following last, closed the ivory doors. We passed through

the gallery,--where pyramids of sunny fruits, in baskets of fine

porcelain, stood relieved by gold and silver services for wine and coffee,

disposed on the tables,--and thence entered another and smaller room,

devoid of ornament, but the crimson tapestried walls were covered with

works or copies of the great masters of Italy.

Opposite the entrance there was a picture of a woman seated on a throne,

behind which stood a demon whispering in her ear and pointing to a

handsome youth in the circle of the courtiers. The design and color were

in the style of Correggio. Denslow stood close behind me. In advance were

Honoria, Dalton, and the Duke, whose conversation was addressed

alternately to her and Dalton. The lights of the gallery burst forth in

their full refulgence as we approached the picture.

The glorious harmony of its colors,--the force of the shadows, which

seemed to be converging in the rays of a single unseen source of light,--

the unity of sentiment, which drew all the groups together, in the idea;--

I had seen all this before, but with the eyes of supercilious criticism.

Now the picture smote us with awe.

"I have the original of this excellent work," said the Duke, "in my house

at A----, but your copy is nearly as good."

The remark, intended for Honoria, reached the pride of her companion, who

blandly replied,--

"Your Highness's exquisite judgment is for once at fault. The piece is

original. It was purchased from a well-known collection in Italy, where

there are none others of the school."

Honoria was gazing upon the picture, as I was, in silent astonishment.

"If this," said she, "is a copy, what must have been the genuine work? Did

you never before notice the likeness between the queen, in that picture,

and myself?" she asked, addressing Dalton.

The remark excited general attention. Every one murmured, "The likeness is

perfect."

"And the demon behind the queen," said Denslow, insipidly, "resembles your

Highness's valet."

There was another exclamation. No sooner was it observed, than the

likeness to Rêve de Noir seemed to be even more perfect.

The Duke made a sign.

Rêve de Noir placed himself near the canvas. His profile was the

counterpart of that in the painting. He seemed to have stepped out of it.

"It was I," said the Duke, in a gentle voice, and with a smile which just

disclosed the ivory line under the black moustache, "who caused this

picture to be copied and altered. The beauty of the Hon. Mrs. Denslow,

whom it was my highest pleasure to know, seemed to me to surpass that of

the queen of my original. I first, with great secrecy, unknown to your

wife," continued the Duke, turning to Denslow, "procured a portrait from

the life by memory, which was afterwards transferred to this canvas. The

resemblance to my attendant is, I confess, remarkable and inexplicable."

"But will you tell us by what accident this copy happened to be in Italy?"

asked Dalton.

"You will remember," replied the Duke, coldly, "that at Paris, noticing

your expressions of admiration for the picture, which you had seen in my

English gallery, I gave you a history of its purchase at Bologna by

myself. I sent my artist to Bologna, with orders to place the copy in the

gallery and to introduce the portrait of the lady; it was a freak of

fancy; I meant it for a surprise; as I felt sure, that, if you saw the

picture, you would secure it.

"It seems to me," replied Dalton, "that the _onus_ of proof rests with

your Highness."

The Duke made a signal to Rêve de Noir, who again stepped up to the

canvas, and, with a short knife or stiletto, removed a small portion of

the outer layer of paint, disclosing a very ancient ground of some other

and inferior work, over which the copy seemed to have been painted. The

proof was unanswerable.

"Good copies," remarked the Duke, "are often better than originals."

He offered his arm to Honoria, and they walked through the gallery,--he

entertaining her, and those near him, with comments upon other works. The

crowd followed them, as they moved on or returned, as a cloud of gnats

follow up and down, and to and fro, a branch tossing in the wind.

"Beaten at every point," I said, mentally, looking on the pale features of

the defeated Dalton.

"Yes," he replied, seeing the remark in my face; "but there is yet time. I

am satisfied this is the man with whom we travelled; none other could have

devised such a plan, or carried it out. He must have fallen in love with

Honoria at that time; and simply to see her is the object of his visit to

America. He is a connoisseur in pictures as in women; but he must not be

allowed to ruin us by his arrogant assumptions."

"Excepting his manner and extraordinary personal advantages, I find

nothing in him to awe or astonish."

"His wealth is incalculable; he is used to victories; and that manner

which you affect to slight,--that is everything. 'Tis power, success,

victory. This man of millions, this prince, does not talk; he has but

little use for words. It is manner, and not words, that achieves social

and amatory conquests."

"Bah! You are like the politicians, who mistake accidents for principles.

But even you are talking, while this pernicious foreigner is acting. See!

they have left the gallery, and the crowd of fools is following them. You

cannot stem such a tide of folly."

"I deny that they are fools. Why does that sallow wretch, Lethal, follow

them? Or that enamelled person, Adonaïs? They are at a serpent-charming,

and Honoria is the bird-of-paradise. They watch with delight, and sketch

as they observe, the struggles of the poor bird. The others are

indifferent or curious, envious or amused. It is only Denslow who is

capped and antlered, and the shafts aimed at his foolish brow glance and

wound us."

We were left alone in the gallery. Dalton paced back and forth, in his

slow, erect, and graceful manner; there was no hurry or agitation.

"How quickly," said he, as his moist eyes met mine, "how like a dream,

this glorious vision, this beautiful work, will fade and be forgotten!

Nevertheless, I made it," he added, musingly. "It was I who moulded and

expanded the sluggish millions."

"You will still be what you are, Dalton,--an artist, more than a man of

society. You work with a soft and perishable material."

"A distinction without a difference. Every _man_ is a politician, but only

every artist is a gentleman."

"Denslow, then, is ruined."

"Yes and no;--there is nothing in him to ruin. It is I who am the

sufferer."

"And Honoria?"

"It was I who formed her manners, and guided her perceptions of the

beautiful. It was I who married her to a mass of money, De Vere."

"Did you never love Honoria?"

He laughed.

"Loved? Yes; as Praxiteles may have loved the clay he moulded,--for its

smoothness and ductility under the hand."

"The day has not come for such men as you, Dalton."

"Come, and gone, and coming. It has come in dream-land. Let us follow your

fools."

The larger gallery was crowded. The pyramids of glowing fruit had

disappeared; there was a confused murmur of pairs and parties, chatting

and taking wine. The master of the house, his wife, and guest were nowhere

to be seen. Lethal and Adonaïs stood apart, conversing. As we approached

them unobserved, Dalton checked me. "Hear what these people are saying,"

said he.

"My opinion is," said Lethal, holding out his crooked forefinger like a

claw, "that this _soi-disant_ duke--what the deuse is his name?"

"Rosecouleur," interposed Adonaïs, in a tone of society.

"Right,--Couleur de Rose is an impostor,--an impostor, a sharper.

Everything tends that way. What an utter sell it would be!"

"You were with us at the picture scene?" murmured Adonaïs.

"Yes. Dalton looked wretchedly cut up, when that devil of a valet, who

must be an accomplice, scraped the new paint off. The picture must have

been got up in New York by Dalton and the Denslows."

"Perhaps the Duke, too, was got up in New York, on the same principle,"

suggested Adonaïs. "Such things are possible. Society is intrinsically

rotten, you know, and Dalton"----

"Is a fellow of considerable talent," sneered Lethal,--"but has enemies,

who may have planned a duke."

Adonaïs coughed in his cravat, and hinted,--"How would it do to call him

'Barnum Dalton'?"

Adonaïs appeared shocked at himself, and swallowed a minim of wine to

cleanse his vocal apparatus from the stain of so coarse an illustration.

"Do you hear those creatures?" whispered Dalton. "They are arranging

scandalous paragraphs for the 'Illustration.'"

A moment after, he was gone. I spoke to Lethal and Adonaïs.

"Gentlemen, you are in error about the picture and the Duke; they are as

they now appear;--the one, an excellent copy, purchased as an original,--

no uncommon mistake; the other, a genuine highness. How does he strike

you?"

Lethal cast his eyes around to see who listened.

"The person," said he, "who is announced here to-night as an English duke

seemed to me, of all men I could select, least like one."

"Pray, what is your ideal of an English duke, Mr. Lethal?" asked Adonaïs,

with the air of a connoisseur, sure of himself, but hating to offend.

"A plain, solid person, well dressed, but simple; mutton-chop whiskers;

and the manners of a--a----"

"Bear!" said a soft female voice.

"Precisely,--the manners of a bear; a kind of gentlemanly bear, perhaps,--

but still, ursine and heavy; while this person, who seems to have walked

out of ----- or a novel, affects me, by his ways and appearance, like a--

a--h'm"----

"Gambler!" said the same female voice, in a conclusive tone.

There was a general soft laugh. Everybody was pleased. All admired, hated,

and envied the Duke. It was settled beyond a doubt that he was an

impostor,--and that the Denslows were either grossly taken in, or were

"selling" their friends. In either case, it was shocking and delightful.

"The fun of the thing," continued Lethal, raising his voice a little, "is,

that the painter who got up the old picture must have been as much an

admirer of the Hon. Mrs. Denslow as--his--Highness; for, in touching in

the queen, he has unconsciously made it a portrait."

The blow was final. I moved away, grieved and mortified to the soul,

cursing the intrusion of the mysterious personage whose insolent

superiority had overthrown the hopes of my friends.

At the door of the gallery I met G----, the painter, just returned from

London. I drew him with me into the inner gallery, to make a thorough

examination of the picture. I called his attention to the wonderful

resemblance of the queen to Honoria. He did not see it; we looked

together, and I began to think that it might have been a delusion. I told

the Duke's story of the picture to G----. He examined the canvas, tested

the layers of color, and pronounced the work genuine and of immense value.

We looked again and again at the queen's head, viewing it in every light.

The resemblance to Honoria had disappeared; nor was the demon any longer a

figure of the Duke's valet.

"One would think," said G----, laughing, "that you had been mesmerized. If

you have been so deceived in a picture, may you not be equally cheated in

a man? I am loath to offend; but, indeed, the person whom you call

Rosecouleur cannot be the Duke of that title, whom I saw in England. I had

leave to copy a picture in his gallery. He was often present. His manners

were mild and unassuming,--not at all like those of this man, to whom, I

acknowledge, the personal resemblance is surprising. I am afraid our good

friends, the Denslows, and Mr. Dalton,--whom I esteem for their patronage

of art,--have been taken in by an adventurer."

"But the valet, Rêve de Noir?"

"The Duke had a valet of that name who attended him, and who may, for

aught I know, have resembled this one; but probability is against

concurrent resemblances. There is also an original of the picture in the

Duke's gallery; in fact, the artist, as was not unusual in those days,

painted two pictures of the same subject. Both, then, are genuine."

Returning my cordial thanks to the good painter for his timely

explanation, I hastened to find Dalton. Drawing him from the midst of a

group whom he was entertaining, I communicated G----'s account of the two

pictures, and his suspicions in regard to the Duke.

His perplexity was great. "Worse and worse, De Vere! To be ruined by a

common adventurer is more disgraceful even than the other misfortune.

Besides, our guests are leaving us. At least a hundred of them have gone

away with the first impression, and the whole city will have it. The

journal reporters have been here. Denslow's principal creditors were among

the guests to-night; they went away soon, just after the affair with the

picture; to-morrow will be our dark day. If it had not been for this demon

of a duke and his familiar, whoever they are, all would have gone well.

Now we are distrusted, and they will crush us. Let us fall facing the

enemy. Within an hour I will have the truth about the Duke. Did I ever

tell you what a price Denslow paid for that picture?"

"No, I do not wish to hear."

"You are right. Come with me."

The novel disrespect excited by the scandal of Honoria and the picture

seemed to have inspired the two hundred people who remained with a

cheerful ease. Eating, drinking excessively of Denslow's costly wines,

dancing to music which grew livelier and more boisterous as the musicians

imbibed more of the inspiriting juice, and, catching scraps of the

scandal, threw out significant airs, the company of young persons,

deserted by their scandalized seniors, had converted the magnificent suite

of drawing-rooms into a carnival theatre. Parties of three and four were

junketing in corners; laughing servants rushed to and fro as in a _café_;

the lounges were occupied by reclining beauties or languid fops

overpowered with wine, about whom lovely young women, flushed with

Champagne and mischief, were coquetting and frolicking.

"I warrant you, these people know it is our last night," said Dalton; "and

see what a use they make of us! Denslow's rich wines poured away like

water; everything soiled, smeared, and overturned; our entertainment, at

first stately and gracious as a queen's drawing-room, ending, with the

loss of _prestige_, in the riot of a _bal masqué_. So fades ambition! But

to this duke."

Denslow, who had passed into the polite stage of inebriation, evident to

close observers, had arranged a little exclusive circle, which included

three women of fashionable reputation, his wife, the Duke, Jeffrey Lethal,

and Adonaïs. Rêve de Noir officiated as attendant. The _fauteuils_ and

couches were disposed around a pearl table, on which were liquors, coffee,

wines, and a few delicacies for Honoria, who had not supped. They were in

the purple recess adjoining the third drawing-room. Adonaïs talked with

the Duke about Italy; Lethal criticized; while Honoria, in the full

splendor of her beauty, outshining and overpowering, dropped here and

there a few musical words, like service-notes, to harmonize.

There is no beauty like the newly-enamored. Dalton seemed to forget

himself, as he contemplated her, for a moment. Spaces had been left for

us; the valet placed chairs.

"Dalton," cried Lethal, "you are in time to decide a question of deep

interest;--your friend, De Vere, will assist you. His Highness has given

preference to the women of America over those of Italy. Adonaïs, the

exquisite and mild, settles his neck-tie against the Duke, and objects in

that bland but firm manner which is his. I am the Duke's bottle-holder;

Denslow and wife accept that function for the chivalrous Adonaïs."

"I am of the Duke's party," replied Dalton, in his most agreeable manner.

"To be in the daily converse and view of the most beautiful women in

America, as I have been for years, is a privilege in the cultivation of a

pure taste. I saw nothing in Italy, except on canvas, comparable with what

I see at this moment. The Duke is right; but in commending his judgment, I

attribute to him also sagacity. Beauty is like language; its use is to

conceal. One may, under rose-colored commendations, a fine manner, and a

flowing style, conceal, as Nature does with personal advantages in men,

the gross tastes and vulgar cunning of a charlatan."

Dalton, in saying this, with a manner free from suspicion or excitement,

fixed his eyes upon the Duke's.

"You seem to have no faith in either men or women," responded the rich

barytone voice of his Highness, the dark upper lip disclosing, as before,

the row of square, sharp, ivory teeth.

"Little, very little," responded Dalton, with a sigh. "Your Highness will

understand me,--or if not now, presently."

Lethal trod upon Adonaïs's foot; I saw him do it. Adonaïs exchanged

glances with a brilliant hawk-faced lady who sat opposite. The lady smiled

and touched her companion. Honoria, who saw everything, opened her

magnificent eyes to their full extent. Denslow was oblivious.

"In fact," continued Dalton, perceiving the electric flash he had excited,

"skepticism is a disease of my intellect. Perhaps the most noticeable and

palpable fact of the moment is the presence and identity of the Duke who

is opposite to me; and yet, doubting as I sometimes do my own existence,

is it not natural, that, philosophically speaking, the presence and

identity of your Highness are at moments a subject of philosophical

doubt?"

"In cases of this kind," replied the Duke, "we rest upon circumstantial

evidence."

So saying, he drew from his finger a ring and handed it to Dalton, who

went to the light and examined it closely, and passed it to me. It was a

minute cameo, no larger than a grain of wheat, in a ring of plain gold; a

rare and beautiful work of microscopic art.

"I seem to remember presenting the Duke of Rosecouleur with a similar

ring, in Italy," said Dalton, resuming his seat; "but the coincidence does

not resolve my philosophic doubt, excited by the affair of the picture. We

all supposed that we saw a portrait of the Hon. Mrs. Denslow in yon

picture; and we seemed to discover, under the management of your valet,

that Denslow's picture, a genuine duplicate of the original by the author,

was a modern copy. Since your Highness quitted the gallery, those

delusions have ceased. The picture appears now to be genuine. The

likeness to Mrs. Denslow has vanished."

An exclamation of surprise from all present, except the Duke, followed

this announcement.

"And so," continued Dalton, "it may be with this ring, which now seems to

be the one I gave the Duke at Rome, but to-morrow may be different."

As he spoke, Dalton gave back the ring to the Duke, who received it with

his usual grace.

"Who knows," said Lethal, with a deceptive innocence of manner, "whether

aristocracy itself be not founded in mesmerical deceptions?"

"I think, Lethal," observed Adonaïs, "you push the matter. It would be

impossible, for instance, even for his Highness, to make Honoria Denslow

appear ugly."

We all looked at Honoria, to whom the Duke leaned over and said,--

"Would you be willing for a moment to lose that exquisite beauty?"

"For my sake, Honoria," said Dalton, "refuse him."

The request, so simply made, was rewarded by a ravishing smile.

"Edward, do you know that you have not spoken a kind word to me to-night,

until now?"

Their eyes met, and I saw that Dalton trembled with a deep emotion. "I

will save you yet," he murmured.

A tall, black hound, of the slender breed, rose up near Honoria, and,

placing his fore-paws upon the edge of the pearl table, turned and licked

her face and eyes.

It was the vision of a moment. The dog sprang upon the sofa by the Duke's

side, growling and snapping.

"Rêve de Noir," cried Lethal and Adonaïs, "drive the dog away!"

The valet had disappeared.

"I have no fear of him, gentlemen," said the Duke, patting the head of the

hound; "he is a faithful servant, and has a faculty of reading thoughts.

Go bring my servant, Demon," said the Duke.

The hound sprang away with a great bound, and in an instant Rêve de Noir

was standing behind us. The dog did not appear again.

Honoria looked bewildered. "Of what dog were you speaking, Edward?"

"The hound that licked your face."

"You are joking. I saw no hound."

"See, gentlemen," exclaimed Lethal, "his Highness shows us tricks. He is a

wizard."

The three women gave little shrieks,--half pleasure, half terror.

Denslow, who had fallen back in his chair asleep, awoke and rubbed his

eyes.

"What is all this, Honoria?"

"That his Highness is a wizard," she said, with a forced laugh, glancing

at Dalton.

"Will his Highness do us the honor to lay aside the mask, and appear in

his true colors?" said Dalton, returning Honoria's glance with an

encouraging look.

"Gentlemen," said the Duke, haughtily, "I am your guest, and by

hospitality protected from insult."

"Insult, most noble Duke!" exclaimed Lethal, with a sneer,--"impossible,

under the roof of our friend, the Honorable Walter Denslow, in the small

hours of the night, and in the presence of the finest women in the world.

Dalton, pray, reassure his Highness!"

"Edward! Edward!" murmured Honoria, "have a care,--even if it be as you

think."

Dalton remained bland and collected.

"Pardon, my Lord, the effect of a little wine, and of those wonderful

fantasies you have shown us. Your dog, your servant, and yourself interest

us equally; the picture, the ring,--all are wonderful. In supposing that

you had assumed a mask, and one so noble, I was led into an error by these

miracles, expecting no less than a translation of yourself into the person

of some famous wonder-worker. It is, you know, a day of miracles, and even

kings have their salaried seers, and take counsel of the spiritual world.

More!--let us have more!"

The circle were amazed; the spirit of superstitious curiosity seized upon

them.

"Rêve de Noir," said the Duke, "a carafe, and less light."

The candelabra became dim. The Duke took the carafe of water from the

valet, and, standing up, poured it upon the air; it broke into flames,

which mounted and floated away, singly or in little crowds. Still the Duke

poured, and dashing up the water with his hand, by and by the ceiling was

illuminated with a thousand miniature tongues of violet-colored fire. We

clapped our hands, and applauded,--"Beautiful I marvellous! wonderful,

Duke!--your Highness is the only magician,"--when, on a sudden, the flames

disappeared and the lights rose again.

"The world is weary of skepticism," remarked Lethal; "there is no

chemistry for that. It is the true magic, doubtless,--recovered from

antiquity by his Highness. Are the wonders exhausted?"

The Duke smiled again. He stretched out his hand toward Honoria, and she

slept. It was the work of an instant.

"I have seen that before," said Dalton.

"Not as we see it," responded his Highness. "Rêve de Noir, less light!"

The room was dark in a moment. Over the head of Honoria appeared a cloud,

at first black, and soon in this a nucleus of light, which expanded and

shaped itself into an image and took the form of the sleeper, nude and

spiritual, a belt of rosy mist enveloping and concealing all but a head

and bust of ravishing beauty. The vision gazed with languid and beseeching

eyes upon Dalton, and a sigh seemed to heave the bosom. In scarce a

breathing-time, it was gone. Honoria waked, unconscious of what had

passed.

Deep terror and amazement fell upon us all.

"I have seen enough," said Dalton, rising slowly, and drawing a small

riding-whip, "to know now that this person is no duke, but either a

charlatan or a devil. In either case, since he has intruded here, to

desecrate and degrade, I find it proper to apply a magic more material."

At the word, all rose exclaiming,--"For God's sake, Dalton!" He pressed

forward and laid his hand upon the Duke. A cry burst from Rêve de Noir

which rent our very souls; and a flash followed, unspeakably bright, which

revealed the demoniacal features of the Duke, who sat motionless,

regarding Dalton's uplifted arm. A darkness followed, profound and

palpable. I listened in terror. There was no sound. Were we transformed?

Silence, darkness, still. I closed my eyes, and opened them again. A pale,

cold light became slowly perceptible, stealing through a crevice, and

revealing the walls and ceiling of my narrow room. The dream still

oppressed me. I went to the window, and let in reality with the morning

light. Yet, for days after, the images of the real Honoria and Dalton, my

friends, remained separated from the creatures of the vision; and the

Denslow Palace of dreamland, the pictures, the revelry, and the magic of

the Demon Duke haunted my memory, and kept with them all their visionary

splendors and regrets.

MYRTLE FLOWERS

Since Love within my heart made nest,

With the fond trust of brooding bird,

I find no all-embracing word

To say how deeply I am blest.

Though wintry clouds are in the air

And the dead leaves unburied lie,

Nor open is the violet's eye,

I see new beauty everywhere.

I walk beneath the naked trees,

Where wild streams shiver as they pass,

Yet in the sere and sighing grass

I hear a murmur as of bees,--

The bees that in love's morning rise

From tender eyes and lips to drain,

In ecstasies of blissful pain,

The sweets that bloomed in Paradise.

There twines a joy with every care

That springs within this sacred ground;

But, oh! to give what I have found

Doth thrill me with divine despair.

If distant, thou dost rise a star

Whose beams are with my being wrought,

And curvest all my teeming thought

With sweet attractions from afar.

As a winged ship, in calmest hour,

Still moves upon the mighty sea

To some deep ocean melody,

I feel thy spirit and thy power.

CHESUNCOOK

[Continued]

How far men go for the material of their houses! The inhabitants of the

most civilized cities, in all ages, send into far, primitive forests,

beyond the bounds of their civilization, where the moose and bear and

savage dwell, for their pine-boards for ordinary use. And, on the other

hand, the savage soon receives from cities iron arrow-points, hatchets,

and guns to point his savageness with.

The solid and well-defined fir-tops, like sharp and regular spear-heads,

black against the sky, gave a peculiar, dark, and sombre look to the

forest. The spruce-tops have a similar, but more ragged outline,--their

shafts also merely feathered below. The firs were somewhat oftener regular

and dense pyramids. I was struck by this universal spiring upward of the

forest evergreens. The tendency is to slender, spiring tops, while they

are narrower below. Not only the spruce and fir, but even the arbor-vitae

and white pine, unlike the soft, spreading second-growth, of which I saw

none, all spire upwards, lifting a dense spear-head of cones to the light

and air, at any rate, while their branches straggle after as they may; as

Indians lift the ball over the heads of the crowd in their desperate game.

In this they resemble grasses, as also palms somewhat. The hemlock is

commonly a tent-like pyramid from the ground to its summit.

After passing through some long rips and by a large island, we reached an

interesting part of the river called the Pine-Stream Dead-Water, about six

miles below Ragmuff, where the river expanded to thirty rods in width and

had many islands in it, with elms and canoe-birches, now yellowing, along

the shore, and we got our first sight of Katadn.

Here, about two o'clock, we turned up a small branch three or four rods

wide, which comes in on the right from the south, called Pine Stream, to

look for moose signs. We had gone but a few rods before we saw very recent

signs along the water's edge, the mud lifted up by their feet being quite

fresh, and Joe declared that they had gone along there but a short time

before. We soon reached a small meadow on the east side, at an angle in

the stream, which was for the most part densely covered with alders. As we

were advancing along the edge of this, rather more quietly than usual,

perhaps, on account of the freshness of the signs,--the design being to

camp up this stream, if it promised well,--I heard a slight crackling of

twigs deep in the alders, and turned Joe's attention to it; whereupon he

began to push the canoe back rapidly; and we had receded thus half a dozen

rods, when we suddenly spied two moose standing just on the edge of the

open part of the meadow which we had passed, not more than six or seven

rods distant, looking round the alders at us. They made me think of great

frightened rabbits, with their long ears and half-inquisitive, half-

frightened looks; the true denizens of the forest, (I saw at once,)

filling a vacuum which now first I discovered had not been filled for me,

--_moose-_men, _wood-eaters_, the word is said to mean,--clad in a sort of

Vermont gray, or homespun. Our Nimrod, owing to the retrograde movement,

was now the farthest from the game; but being warned of its neighborhood,

he hastily stood up, and, while we ducked, fired over our heads one barrel

at the foremost, which alone he saw, though he did not know what kind of

creature it was; whereupon this one dashed across the meadow and up a high

bank on the north-east, so rapidly as to leave but an indistinct

impression of its outlines on my mind. At the same instant, the other, a

young one, but as tall as a horse, leaped out into the stream, in full

sight, and there stood cowering for a moment, or rather its

disproportionate lowness behind gave it that appearance, and uttering two

or three trumpeting squeaks. I have an indistinct recollection of seeing

the old one pause an instant on the top of the bank in the woods, look

toward its shivering young, and then dash away again. The second barrel

was levelled at the calf, and when we expected to see it drop in the

water, after a little hesitation, it, too, got out of the water, and

dashed up the hill, though in a somewhat different direction. All this was

the work of a few seconds, and our hunter, having never seen a moose

before, did not know but they were deer, for they stood partly in the

water, nor whether he had fired at the same one twice or not. From the

style in which they went off, and the fact that he was not used to

standing up and firing from a canoe, I judged that we should not see

anything more of them. The Indian said that they were a cow and her calf,

--a yearling, or perhaps two years old, for they accompany their dams so

long; but, for my part, I had not noticed much difference in their size.

It was but two or three rods across the meadow to the foot of the bank,

which, like all the world thereabouts, was densely wooded; but I was

surprised to notice, that, as soon as the moose had passed behind the veil

of the woods, there was no sound of foot-steps to be heard from the soft,

damp moss which carpets that forest, and long before we landed, perfect

silence reigned. Joe said, "If you wound 'em moose, me sure get 'em."

We all landed at once. My companion reloaded; the Indian fastened his

birch, threw off his hat, adjusted his waistband, seized the hatchet, and

set out. He told me afterward, casually, that before we landed he had seen

a drop of blood on the bank, when it was two or three rods off. He

proceeded rapidly up the bank and through the woods, with a peculiar,

elastic, noiseless, and stealthy tread, looking to right and left on the

ground, and stepping in the faint tracks of the wounded moose, now and

then pointing in silence to a single drop of blood on the handsome,

shining leaves of the Clintonia Borealis, which, on every side, covered

the ground, or to a dry fern-stem freshly broken, all the while chewing

some leaf or else the spruce gum. I followed, watching his motions more

than the trail of the moose. After following the trail about forty rods in

a pretty direct course, stepping over fallen trees and winding between

standing ones, he at length lost it, for there were many other moose-

tracks there, and, returning once more to the last bloodstain, traced it a

little way and lost it again, and, too soon, I thought, for a good hunter,

gave it up entirely. He traced a few steps, also, the tracks of the calf;

but, seeing no blood, soon relinquished the search.

I observed, while he was tracking the moose, a certain reticence or

moderation in him. He did not communicate several observations of interest

which he made, as a white man would have done, though they may have leaked

out afterward. At another time, when we heard a slight crackling of twigs

and he landed to reconnoitre, he stepped lightly and gracefully, stealing

through the bushes with the least possible noise, in a way in which no

white man does,--as it were, finding a place for his foot each time.

About half an hour after seeing the moose, we pursued our voyage up Pine

Stream, and soon, coming to a part which was very shoal and also rapid, we

took out the baggage, and proceeded to carry it round, while Joe got up

with the canoe alone. We were just completing our portage and I was

absorbed in the plants, admiring the leaves of the aster macrophyllus, ten

inches wide, and plucking the seeds of the great round-leaved orchis, when

Joe exclaimed from the stream that he had killed a moose. He had found the

cow-moose lying dead, but quite warm, in the middle of the stream, which

was so shallow that it rested on the bottom, with hardly a third of its

body above water. It was about an hour after it was shot, and it was

swollen with water. It had run about a hundred rods and sought the stream

again, cutting off a slight bend. No doubt, a better hunter would have

tracked it to this spot at once. I was surprised at its great size, horse-

like, but Joe said it was not a large cow-moose. My companion went in

search of the calf again. I took hold of the ears of the moose, while Joe

pushed his canoe down stream toward a favorable shore, and so we made out,

though with some difficulty, its long nose frequently sticking in the

bottom, to drag it into still shallower water. It was a brownish black, or

perhaps a dark iron-gray, on the back and sides, but lighter beneath and

in front. I took the cord which served for the canoe's painter, and with

Joe's assistance measured it carefully, the greatest distances first,

making a knot each time. The painter being wanted, I reduced these

measures that night with equal care to lengths and fractions of my

umbrella, beginning with the smallest measures, and untying the knots as I

proceeded; and when we arrived at Chesuncook the next day, finding a two-

foot rule there, I reduced the last to feet and inches; and, moreover, I

made myself a two-foot rule of a thin and narrow strip of black ash which

would fold up conveniently to six inches. All this pains I took because I

did not wish to be obliged to say merely that the moose was very large. Of

the various dimensions which I obtained I will mention only two. The

distance from the tips of the hoofs of the fore-feet, stretched out, to

the top of the back between the shoulders, was seven feet and five inches.

I can hardly believe my own measure, for this is about two feet greater

than the height of a tall horse. The extreme length was eight feet and two

inches. Another cow-moose, which I have since measured in those woods with

a tape, was just six feet from the tip of the hoof to the shoulders, and

eight feet long as she lay.

When afterward I asked an Indian at the carry how much taller the male

was, he answered, "Eighteen inches," and made me observe the height of a

cross-stake over the fire, more than four feet from the ground, to give

me some idea of the depth of his chest. Another Indian, at Oldtown, told

me that they were nine feet high to the top of the back, and that one

which he tried weighed eight hundred pounds. The length of the spinal

projections between the shoulders is very great. A white hunter, who was

the best authority among hunters that I could have, told me that the male

was _not_ eighteen inches taller than the female; yet he agreed that he

was sometimes nine feet high to the top of the back, and weighed a

thousand pounds. Only the male has horns, and they rise two feet or more

above the shoulders,--spreading three or four, and sometimes six feet,--

which would make him in all, sometimes, eleven feet high! According to

this calculation, the moose is as tall, though it may not be as large, as

the great Irish elk, Megaceros Hibernicus, of a former period, of which

Mantell says that it "very far exceeded in magnitude any living species,

the skeleton" being "upward of ten feet high from the ground to the

highest point of the antlers." Joe said, that, though the moose shed the

whole horn annually, each new horn has an additional prong; but I have

noticed that they sometimes have more prongs on one side than on the

other. I was struck with the delicacy and tenderness of the hoofs, which

divide very far up, and the one half could be pressed very much behind the

other, thus probably making the animal surer-footed on the uneven ground

and slippery moss-covered logs of the primitive forest. They were very

unlike the stiff and battered feet of our horses and oxen. The bare, horny

part of the fore-foot was just six inches long, and the two portions could

be separated four inches at the extremities.

The moose is singularly grotesque and awkward to look at. Why should it

stand so high at the shoulders? Why have so long a head? Why have no tail

to speak of? for in my examination I overlooked it entirely. Naturalists

say it is an inch and a half long. It reminded me at once of the

camelopard, high before and low behind,--and no wonder, for, like it, it

is fitted to browse on trees. The upper lip projected two inches beyond

the lower for this purpose. This was the kind of man that was at home

there; for, as near as I can learn, that has never been the residence, but

rather the hunting-ground of the Indian. The moose will perhaps one day

become extinct; but how naturally then, when it exists only as a fossil

relic, and unseen as that, may the poet or sculptor invent a fabulous

animal with similar branching and leafy horns,--a sort of fucus or lichen

in bone,--to be the inhabitant of such a forest as this!