My entertainer received me with more civility than I had expected. He
was almost fashionably dressed; his grim features were smoothed into an
elaborate smile; and he repeated his gratification at seeing me, in such
variety of tones that I began to doubt the cordiality of my reception.
But I could have no doubt of the elegance of the apartment into which I
was shown. All was foreign, even to the flowers in the vases that filled
the windows. A few bas-reliefs in the most finished style; a few
alabasters as bright as if they had been brought at the moment from
Carrara; a few paintings of the Italian masters, if not original and of
the highest value, at least first-rate copies--caught the eye at once:
the not _too_ much, the not _too_ little, that exact point which it
requires so much skill to touch, showed that the eye of taste had been
every where; and I again thought of the dungeon in the city, and asked
myself whether it was possible that Mordecai could be the worker of the
miracle.
Naturally making him some acknowledgment for his invitation, and saying
some civil thing of his taste, he laughed, and said, "I have but little
merit in the matter. All this is my daughter's. Moorfields is _my_
house; this house is Mariamne's. As our origin and connexions are
foreign, we make use of our opportunities to indulge ourselves in these
foreign trifles. But we have a little 'réunion' of our neighbours this
evening, and I must first make you known to the lady of the _fête_." He
rang the bell.
"Neighbours!" said I; "all round me, as I came, seemed solitude; and
yours is so beautiful, that I almost think society would injure its
beauty."
"Well, well, Mr Marston, you shall see. But this I advise you, take care
of your heart if you are susceptible."
A servant announced that his mistress would attend us in a few minutes,
and I remained examining the pictures and the prospect; when a gay
voice, and the opening of a door, made me turn round to pay my homage to
the lady. I had made up my mind to see one of the stately figures and
magnificent countenances which are often to be found in the higher
orders of the daughters of Israel. I saw, on the contrary, one of the
gayest countenances and lightest figures imaginable--the _petit nez
retroussé_, and altogether much more the air of a pretty Parisian than
one of the superb race of Zion. Her manner was as animated as her eyes,
and with the ease of foreign life she entered into conversation; and in
a few minutes we laughed and talked together, as if we had been
acquaintances from our cradles.
The history of the house was simply, that "she hated town and loved the
country; that she loved the sea better than the land, and loved society
of her own selection better than society forced upon her.--On the
sea-shore she found all that she liked, and escaped all that she hated.
She therefore lived on the sea-shore.--She had persuaded her father to
build that house, and they had furnished it according to their own
recollections, and even their own whims.--Caprice was liberty, and
liberty was essential to the enjoyment of every thing. Thus, she loved
caprice, and laid herself open to the charge of being fantastic with
those who did not understand her."
In this sportive way she ran on, saying all kinds of lively nothings;
while we drank our coffee out of Saxon porcelain which would have shone
on the table of a crowned head.
The windows were thrown open, and we sat enjoying the noblest of all
scenes, a glorious sunset, to full advantage. The fragrance of the
garden stole in, a "steam of rich distilled perfumes;" the son of the
birds, in those faint and interrupted notes which come with such
sweetness in the parting day; the distant hum of the village, and the
low solemn sound of the waves subsiding on the beach, made a harmony of
their own, perhaps more soothing and subduing than the most refined
touches of human skill. We wanted nothing but an Italian moon to realize
the loveliness of the scene in Belmont.
"The moon shines bright. In such a night as this,
When the sweet wind did gently kiss the trees,
And they did make no noise--in such a night
Medea gather'd the enchanted herbs
That did renew old Jason."
As I glanced on the little, superbly dressed Jewess, sitting between her
father and myself, I thought of the possibilities to come.
----"In such a night
Did Jessica steal from the wealthy Jew,
And, with an unthrift love, did run from Venice."
We soon after had the moon herself, rising broad and bright from the
ocean; and all was romance, until a party were seen coming up the
avenue, laughing and talking very sportively.
"I beg a thousand apologies; but I had forgotten to mention that we have
a small dance this evening, chiefly foreign, and, as you may perceive,
they keep early hours," said Jessica, rising to receive them.
"They are French, and emigrants," added Mordecai. "All is over with them
and theirs in France, and they have made the best of their way to
England, therein acting more wisely than those who have stayed behind. I
know France well; the '_tigre-singe_,' as their countryman described
them. These unfortunates have been consigned to me by my correspondents,
like so many bales of silks, or barrels of Medoc. But here they come."
I certainly was not prepared for the names which I now heard
successively announced. Instead of the moderate condition from which I
had supposed Mordecai and his pretty daughter, aspiring as she was, to
have chosen their society, I found myself in a circle of names of which
the world had been talking since I was in my cradle, if not for a dozen
centuries before. I was in the midst of dukes, counts, and chevaliers,
maréchals and marchionesses, the patrons and patronesses of the
Marmontels and D'Alemberts, the charm of the Du Deffand _soirées_, and
the originals for the charming piquancies and exquisite impertinences of
L'Espinasse, and the _coterieisme_ of Paris.
All that I had seen of the peerage of our haughty country was dim and
dull to the gay glitter of the crowd around me. Nature never moulded two
national characters so distinct in all points, but the French exterior
carries all before it. Diamonds and decorations sparkled on every side.
The dresses of the women were as superb as if they had never known fear
or flight; and the conversation was as light, sportive, and _badinant_,
as if we were all waiting in the antechamber of Versailles till the
chamberlain of Marie Antoinette should signify the royal pleasure to
receive us. Here was stateliness to the very summit of human pride, but
it was softened by the taste of its display; the most easy familiarity,
yet guarded by the most refined distinctions The _bon-mot_ was uttered
with such natural avoidance of offence, and the arch allusion was so
gracefully applied, that the whole gave me the idea of a new use of
language. They were _artistes_ of conversation, professors of a study of
society, as much as painters might be of the style of the Bolognese or
the Venetian school.
I was delighted, but I was still more deeply interested; for the chief
topics of the evening were those on which public curiosity was most
anxiously alive at the moment--the hazards of the revolutionary tempest,
which they had left raging on the opposite shore. Yet, "Vive la France!"
we had our cotillon, and our songs to harp and piano, notwithstanding
the shock of governments.
But we had scarcely sat down to the supper which Mordecai's hospitality
and his daughter's taste had provided for us--and a most costly display
of plate and pine-apples it was--when our entertainer was called out of
the room by a new arrival. After some delay, he returned, bringing in
with him a middle-aged officer, a fine soldierly-looking figure, in the
uniform of the royal guard. He had just arrived from France with letters
for some of the party, and with an introduction to the Jew, whom I now
began to regard as an agent of the French princes. The officer was known
to the whole table; and the enquiries for the fate of their friends and
France were incessant and innumerable. He evidently suppressed much, to
avoid "a scene;" yet what he had to tell was sufficiently alarming. The
ominous shake of the Jew's head, and the changes of his sagacious
visage, showed me that he at least thought the evil day on the point of
completion.
"Living," said he, "at this distance from the place of events which
succeed each other with such strange rapidity, we can scarcely judge of
any thing. But, if the king would rely more on his peasantry and less on
his populace, and more on his army than either, he might be king of
France still."
"True!--true!" was the general acclamation.
"He should have clung to his noblesse, like Henri Quatre," said a duke.
"He should have made common cause with his clergy," said a prelate, with
the physiognomy of one of Titian's cardinals.
"Any thing but the Tiers Etat," was uttered by all, with a general voice
of horror.
"My letters of this evening," said Mordecai, "tell me that the _fête_ at
Versailles has had dangerous consequences."
"_Ciel_!" exclaimed a remarkably handsome woman of middle age, with the
"air noble" in every feature. "Pardon me, it must be an error. I was
present. It was the most brilliant of all possible réunions. It was a
pledge to the salvation of France. I hear the sound of 'Richard, O mon
Roi!' in my ear at this moment. When, oh when, shall I hear it again!"
She burst into a passion of tears.
The name was electric. All began that very charming air at the moment.
Sobs and sighs stole in between the pauses of the harmony. Their rich
and practised voices gave it the sweetness and solemnity of a hymn. Fine
eyes were lifted to heaven; fine faces were buried in their clasped
hands; and the whole finished like the subsidence of a prayer.
But madame la duchesse was full of her subject, and we were full of
curiosity. We implored her to give us some idea of a scene, of which all
Europe was thinking and talking. She required no importunity, but told
her tale with the majesty of a Clairon. It was at first all exclamation.
"O my king!--O my unhappy but noble queen!--O my beloved but noble
France! _O Richard! O mon Roi!--Le monde vous abandonné!_" She again
wept, and we again sympathized.
"For weeks," said she, "we had been tortured at Versailles with reports
from the capital. We lived in a perpetual fever. The fury of the
populace was terrible. The wretches who inflamed it constantly
threatened to lead the armed multitude to the palace. We were almost
without defence. The ministers could not be prevailed on to order the
advance of the troops, and we felt our lives from hour to hour dependent
on chance."
"It was my month of waiting as lady of honour. I found the queen always
firm; or, if she ever trembled, it was at the want of firmness in
others. She had made up her mind for the worst long before. She often
said to me, in those revolutionary nights when we sat listening for the
sound of the cannon or the tocsin from Paris--'France is an abyss, in
which the throne must sink. But sovereigns may be undone--they must not
be disgraced.' The world never possessed a more royal mind.
"At length an opportunity seemed to offer of showing the true feeling of
the court to the army. The regiment of Flanders had come to take its
tour of service at the palace, and the _garde du corps_ had sent them an
invitation to a grand military banquet. There was nothing new, and could
have been nothing suspicious, in the invitation; for it was the custom
of the _garde_, on the arrival of any regiment at Versailles, as a
commencement of mutual civility. The regiment of Flanders was a
distinguished corps--but the whole army had been tampered with; and the
experiment was for the first time a doubtful one. As if to make it still
more doubtful, the invitation was extended to the national guard of
Versailles."
Every eye was now fixed on the narrator, as she went on with increasing
animation.
"Never was there a day of greater anxiety. We were sure of the _garde du
corps_; but treachery was roving through France, and the banquet might
only produce a collision. The entertainment, by being in the opera
salon, was actually within the palace, and all the royal suite remained
in the royal apartments, in fear and trembling, during the entire day.
"But as the night advanced, the intelligence, which was brought to us
every five minutes from the salon, became more tranquillizing. The
coldness which had existed in the beginning between the _garde_ and the
troops of the line had vanished, and loyal healths, gay speeches, and
charming songs succeeded. At length a gallant young lieutenant of the
_garde_, in a fit of noble enthusiasm, cried--'We all are the soldiers
of France--we all are loyal, all are happy--Why shall not our king
witness our loyalty and our happiness?' The tidings were instantly
conveyed to the royal apartments. The king rose--the court followed. We
entered the salon. Oh, that sight!--so new, so touching, so
indescribable!"