THE BALTIC.
Sobieski passed the greater part of each day and the whole of every
night on the deck of the vessel. He was too much absorbed in himself
to receive any amusement from the passengers, who, observing his
melancholy, thought to dispel it by their company and conversation.
When any of these people came upon deck, he walked to the head of the
ship, took his seat upon the cable which bound the anchor to the
forecastle, and while their fears rendered him safe from their well-
meant persecution, he gained some respite from vexation, though none
from misery.
The ship having passed through the Baltic, and entered on the British
sea, the passengers, running from side to side of the vessels,
pointed out to Thaddeus the distant shore of England, lying like a
hazy ridge along the horizon. The happy people, whilst they strained
their eyes through glasses, desired him to observe different spots on
the hardly-perceptible line which they called Flamborough Head and
the hills of Yorkshire. His heart turned sick at these objects of
their delight, for not one of them raised an answering feeling in his
breast. England could be nothing to him; if anything, it would prove
a desert, which contained no one object for his regrets or wishes.
The image of Pembroke Somerset, indeed, rose in his mind, like the
dim recollection of one who has been a long time dead. Whilst they
were together at Villanow, they regarded each other warmly, and when
they parted they promised to correspond. One day, in pursuit of the
enemy, Thaddeus was so unlucky as to lose the pocket-book which
contained his friend's address; but yet, uneasy at his silence, he
ventured two letters to him, directed merely at Sir Robert
Somerset's, England. To these he received no answer; and the palatine
evinced so just a displeasure at such marked neglect and ingratitude,
that he would not suffer him to be mentioned in his presence, and
indeed Thaddeus, from disappointment and regret, felt no inclination
to transgress the command.
When the young count, during the prominent interests of the late
disastrous campaign, remembered these things, he found little comfort
in recollecting the name of his young English guest; and now that he
was visiting England as a poor exile, with indignation and grief he
gave up the wish with the hope of meeting Mr. Somerset. Sensible that
Somerset had not acted as became the man to whom he could apply in
his distress, he resolved, unfriended as he was, to wipe him at once
from his memory. With a bitter sigh he turned his back on the land to
which he was going, and fixed his eyes on the tract of sea which then
divided him from all that he had ever loved, or had given him true
happiness.
"Father of mercy!" murmured he, in a suppressed voice, "what have I
done to deserve this misery? Why have I been at one stroke deprived
of all that rendered existence estimable? Two months ago, I had a
mother, a more than father, to love and cherish me; I had a country,
that looked up to them and to me with veneration and confidence. Now,
I am bereft of all. I have neither father, mother, nor country, but I
am going to a land of utter strangers."
Such impatient adjurations were never wrung from Sobieski by the
anguish of sudden torture without his ingenuous and pious mind
reproaching itself for such faithless repining. His soul was soft as
a woman's; but it knew neither effeminacy nor despair. Whilst his
heart bled, his countenance retained its serenity. Whilst affliction
crushed him to the earth, and nature paid a few hard-wrung drops to
his repeated bereavements, he contemned his tears, and raised his
fixed and confiding eye to that Power which poured down its tempests
on his head. Thaddeus felt as a man, but received consolation as a
Christian.
When his ship arrived at the mouth of the Thames, the eagerness of
the passengers increased to such an excess that they would not stand
still, nor be silent a moment; and when the vessel, under full sail,
passed Sheerness, and the dome of St. Paul's appeared before them,
their exclamations were loud and incessant. "My home! my parents! my
wife! my friends!" were the burden of every tongue.
Thaddeus found his calmed spirits again disturbed; and, rising from
his seat, he retired unobserved by the people, who were too happy to
attend to anything which did not agree with their own transports. The
cabin was as deserted as himself. Feeling that there is no solitude
like that of the heart, when it looks around and sees in the vast
concourse of human beings not one to whom it can pour forth its
sorrows, or receive the answering sigh of sympathy, he threw himself
on one of the lockers, and with difficulty restrained the tears from
gushing from his eyes. He held his hand over them, while he contemned
himself for a weakness so unbecoming his manhood.
He despised himself: but let not others despise him. It is difficult
for those who lie morning and evening in the lap of domestic
indulgence to conceive the misery of being thrown out into a bleak
and merciless world; it is impossible for the happy man, surrounded
by luxury and gay companions, to figure to himself the reflections of
a fellow-creature who, having been fostered in the bosom of affection
and elegance, is cast at once from all society, bereft of home, of
comfort, of "every stay, save innocence and Heaven." None but the
wretched can imagine what the wretched endure from actual distress,
from apprehended misfortune, from outraged feelings, and ten thousand
nameless sensibilities to offence which only the unfortunate can
conceive, dread and experience. But what is it to be not only without
a home, but without a country? Thaddeus unconsciously uttered a groan
like that of death.
The noise redoubled above his head, and in a few minutes afterwards
one of the sailors came rumbling clown the stairs.
"Will it please your honor," said he, "to get up? That be my chest,
and I want my clothes to clean myself before I go on shore. Mother I
know be waiting me at Blackwall."
Thaddeus rose, and with a withered heart again ascended to the deck.
On coming up the hatchway, he saw that the ship was moored in the
midst of a large city, and was surrounded by myriads of vessels from
every quarter of the globe. He leaned over the railing, and in
silence looked down on the other passengers, who where bearing off in
boats, and shaking hands with the people who came to receive them.
"It is near dark, sir," said the captain; "mayhap you would wish to
go on shore? There is a boat just come round, and the tide won't
serve much longer: and as your friends don't seem to be coming for
you, you are welcome to a place in it with me."
The count thanked him; and after defraying the expenses of the
voyage, and giving money amongst the sailors, he desired that his
portmanteau might be put into the wherry. The honest fellows, in
gratitude to the bounty of their passenger, struggled who should obey
his commands, when the skipper, angry at being detained, snatched
away the baggage, and flinging it into the boat, leaped in after it,
and was followed by Thaddeus.
The taciturnity of the seamen and the deep melancholy of his guest
were not broken until they reached the Tower stairs.
"Go, Ben, fetch the gentleman a coach."
The count bowed to the captain, who gave the order, and in a few
minutes the boy returned, saying there was one in waiting. He took up
the portmanteau, and Thaddeus, following him, ascended the Tower
stairs, where the carriage stood. Ben threw in the baggage and the
count put his foot on the step. "Where must the man drive to?"
Thaddeus drew it back again.
"Yes, sir," continued the lad; "where be your honor's home?"
"In my grave," was the response his aching heart made to this
question. He hesitated before he spoke. "An hotel," said he, flinging
himself on the seat, and throwing a piece of silver into the lad's
hat.
"What hotel, sir?" asked the coachman.
"Any."
The man closed the door, mounted his box, and drove off.
It was now near seven o'clock, on a dark December evening. The lamps
were lighted; and it being Saturday-night, the streets were crowded
with people. Thaddeus looked at them as he was driven along. "Happy
creatures!" thought he; "you have each a home to go to; you have each
expectant friends to welcome you; every one of you knows some in the
world who will smile when you enter; whilst I, wretched, wretched
Sobieski where are now all thy highly-prized treasures, thy boasted
glory, and those beloved ones who rendered that glory most precious
to thee? Alas! all are withdrawn; vanished like a scene of
enchantment, from which I have indeed awakened to a frightful
solitude."
His reflections were broken by the stopping of the carriage. The man
opened the door.
"Sir, I have brought you to the Hummums, Covent Garden; it has as
good accommodations as any in the town. My fare is five shillings."
Thaddeus paid the amount, and followed him and his baggage into the
coffee-room. At the entrance of a man of his figure, several waiters
presented themselves, begging to know his commands.
"I want a chamber."
He was ushered into a very handsome dining-room, where one of them
laid down the portmanteau, and then bowing low, inquired whether he
had dined.
The waiter having received his orders, (for the count saw that it was
necessary to call for something,) hastened into the kitchen to
communicate them to the cook.
"Upon my word, Betty," cried he, "you must do your best to-night; for
the chicken is for the finest-looking fellow you ever set eyes on. By
Jove, I believe him to be some Russian nobleman; perhaps the great
Suwarrow himself! and he speaks English as well as I do myself."
"A prince, you mean, Jenkins!" said a pretty girl who entered at that
moment. "Since I was borne I never see'd any English lord walk up and
down the room with such an air; he looks like a king. For my part, I
should not wonder if he is one of them there emigrant kings, for they
say there is a power of them now wandering about the world."
"You talk like a fool, Sally," cried the sapient waiter. "Don't you
see that his dress is military? Look at his black cap, with its long
bag and great feather, and the monstrous sword at his side; look at
them, and then if you can, say I am mistaken in deciding that he is
some great Russian commander,--most likely come over as ambassador!"
"But he came in a hackney-coach," cried a little dirty boy in the
corner. "As I was running up stairs with Colonel Leson's shoes, I
see'd the coachman bring in his portmanteau." "Well, Jack-a-napes,
what of that?" cried Jenkins; "is a nobleman always to carry his
equipage about him, like a snail with its shell on its back? To be
sure, this foreign lord, or prince, is only come to stay here till
his own house is fit for him. I will be civil to him."
"And so will I, Jenkins," rejoined Sally, smiling; "for I never see'd
such handsome blue eyes in my born days; and they turned so sweet on
me, and he spoke so kindly when he bade me stir the fire; and when he
sat down by it, and throwed off his great fur cloak, I see'd a
glittering star on his breast, and a figure so noble, that indeed,
cook, I do verily believe he is, as Jenkins says, an enthroned king!"
"You and Jenkins be a pair of fools," cried the cook, who, without
noticing their description, had been sulkily basting the fowl. "I
will be sworn he's just such another king as that palavering rogue
was a French duke who got my master's watch and pawned it! As for
you, Sally, you had better beware of hunting after foreign men-folk:
it's not seemly for a young woman, and you may chance to rue it."
The moralizing cook had now brought the whole kitchen on her
shoulders. The men abused her for a surly old maid, and the women
tittered, whilst they seconded her censure by cutting sly jokes on
the blushing face of poor Sally, who stood almost crying by the side
of her champion, Jenkins.
Whilst this hubbub was going forward below stairs, its unconscious
subject was, as Sally had described, sitting in a chair close to the
fire, with his feet on the fender, his arms folded, and his eyes bent
on the flames. He mused; but his ideas followed each other in such
quick confused succession, it hardly could be said he thought of
anything.
The entrance of dinner roused him from his reverie. It was carried in
by at least half a dozen waiters. The count had been so accustomed to
a numerous suite of attendants, he did not observe the parcelling out
of his temperate meal: one bringing in the fowl, another the bread,
his neighbor the solitary plate, and the rest in like order, so
solicitous were the male listeners in the kitchen to see this
wonderful Russian.
Thaddeus partook but lightly of the refreshment. Being already
fatigued in body, and dizzy with the motion of the vessel, as soon as
the cloth was withdrawn, he ordered a night candle, and desired to be
shown to his chamber.
Jenkins, whom the sight of the embroidered star confirmed in his
decision that the foreigner must be a person of consequence, with
increased agility whipped up the portmanteau and led the way to the
sleeping-rooms. Here curiosity put on a new form; the women servants,
determined to have their wishes gratified as well as the men, had
arranged themselves on each side of the passage through which the
count must pass. At so strange an appearance, Thaddeus drew back; but
supposing that it might be a custom of the country, he proceeded
through this fair bevy, and bowed as he walked along to the low
curtesies which they continued to make, until he entered his
apartment and closed the door.
The unhappy are ever restless; they hope in every change of situation
to obtain some alteration in their feelings. Thaddeus was too
miserable awake not to view with eagerness the bed on which he
trusted that, for a few hours at least, he might lose the
consciousness of his desolation, with its immediate suffering.