THADDEUS'S FIRST DAY IN ENGLAND.
When he awoke in the morning, his head ached, and he felt as
unrefreshed as when he had lain down; he undrew the curtain, and saw,
from the strength of the light, it must be midday. He got up; and
having dressed himself, descended to the sitting-room, where he found
a good fire and the breakfast already placed. He rang the bell, and
walked to the window, to observe the appearance of the morning. A
heavy snow had fallen during the night; and the sun, ascended to its
meridian, shone through the thick atmosphere like a ball of fire. All
seemed comfortless without; and turning back to the warm hearth,
which was blazing at the other end of the room, he was reseating
himself, when Jenkins brought in the tea-urn.
"I hope, my lord," said the waiter, "that your lordship slept well
last night?"
"Perfectly, I thank you," replied the count, unmindful that the man
had addressed him according to his rank; "when you come to remove
these things, bring me my bill."
Jenkins bowed and withdrew, congratulating himself on his dexterity
in having saluted the stranger with his title.
During the absence of the waiter, Thaddeus thought it time to examine
the state of his purse. He well recollected how he had paid at
Dantzic; and from the style in which he was served here, he did not
doubt that to defray what he had already contracted would nearly
exhaust his all. He emptied the contents of his purse into his hands;
a guinea and some silver was all that he possessed. A flush of terror
suffused itself over his face; he had never known the want of money
before, and he trembled now lest the charge should exceed his means
of payment.
Jenkins entered with the bill. On the count's examining it, he was
pleased to find it amounted to no more than the only piece of gold
his purse contained. He laid it upon the tea-board, and putting half-
a-crown into the hand of Jenkins, who appeared waiting for something,
wrapped his cloak round him as he was walking out of the room.
"I suppose, my lord," cried Jenkins, pocketing the money with a
smirk, and bowing with the things in his hands, "we are to have the
honor of seeing your lordship again, as you leave your portmanteau
behind you?"
Thaddeus hesitated a few seconds, then again moving towards the door,
said, "I will send for it."
"By what name, my lord?"
"The Count Sobieski."
Jenkins immediately set down the tea-board, and hurrying after
Thaddeus along the passage, and through the coffee-room, darted
before him, and opening the door into the lobby for him to go out,
exclaimed, loud enough for everybody to hear, "Depend upon it, Count
Sobieski, I will take care of your lordship's baggage."
Thaddeus, rather displeased at his noisy officiousness, only bent his
head, and proceeded into the street.
The air was piercing cold; and on his looking around, he perceived by
the disposition of the square in which he was that it must be a
market-place. The booths and stands were covered with snow, whilst
parts of the pavement were rendered nearly impassable by heaps of
black ice, which the market people of the preceding day had shoveled
up out of their way. He recollected it was now Sunday, and
consequently the improbability of finding any cheaper lodgings on
that day. [Footnote: Those who remember the terrible winter of 1794,
will not call this description exaggerated. That memorable winter was
one of mourning to many in England. Some of her own brave sons
perished amidst the frozen dykes of Holland and the Netherlands,
vainly opposing the march of the French anarchists. How strange
appeared then to him the doom of nations.]
Thaddeus stood under the piazzas for two or three minutes, bewildered
on the plan he should adopt. To return to the hotel for any purpose
but to sleep, in the present state of his finances, would be
impossible; he therefore determined, inclement as the season was, if
he could not find a chapel, to walk the streets until night. He might
then go back to the Hummums to his bed chamber; but he resolved to
quit it in the morning, for a residence more suitable to his slender
means.
The wind blew keenly from the north-east, accompanied with a violent
shower of sleet and rain; yet such was the abstraction of his mind,
that he hardly observed its bitterness, but walked on, careless
whither his feet led him, until he stopped opposite St. Martin's
church.
"God is my only friend! and in any house of His I shall surely find
shelter!"
He turned up the steps, and was entering the porch, when he met the
congregation thronging out of it.
"Is the service over?" he inquired of a decent old woman who was
passing him down the stairs. The woman started at this question,
asked her in English by a person whose dress was so completely
foreign. He repeated it. Smiling and curtseying, she replied--
"Yes, sir; and I am sorry for it. Lord bless your handsome face,
though you be a stranger gentleman, it does one's heart good to see
you so devoutly given!"
Thaddeus blushed at this personal compliment, though it came from the
lips of a wrinkled old woman; and begging permission to assist her
down the stairs, he asked when service would begin again.
"At three o'clock, sir, and may Heaven bless the mother who bore so
pious a son!"
While the poor woman spoke, she raised her eyes with a melancholy
resignation. The count, touched with her words and manner, almost
unconsciously to himself, continued by her side as she hobbled down
the street.
His eyes were fixed on the ground, until somebody pressing against
him, made him look round. He saw that his aged companion had just
knocked at the door of a mean-looking house, and that she and himself
were surrounded by nearly a dozen people, besides boys who through
curiosity had followed them from the church porch.
"Ah! sweet sir," cried she, "these folks are staring at so fine a
gentleman taking notice of age and poverty."
Thaddeus was uneasy at the inquisitive gaze of the bystanders; and
his companion observing the fluctuation of his countenance, added, as
the door was opened by a little girl,
"Will your honor walk in out of the rain, and warm yourself by my
poor fire?"
He hesitated a moment; then, accepting her invitation, bent his head
to get under the humble door-way, and following her through a neatly-
sanded passage, entered a small but clean kitchen. A little boy, who
was sitting on a stool near the fire, uttered a scream at the sight
of the stranger, and running up to his grandmother, rolled himself in
her cloak, crying out,
"Mammy, mammy, take away that black man!"
"Be quiet, William; it is a gentleman, and no black man. I am so
ashamed, sir; but he is only three years old."
"I should apologize to you," returned the count, smiling, "for
introducing a person so hideous as to frighten your family."
By the time he finished speaking, the good dame had pacified the
shrieking boy, who stood trembling, and looking askance at the
tremendous black gentleman stroking the head of his pretty sister.
"Come here, my dear!" said Thaddeus, seating himself by the fire, and
stretching out his hand to the child. He instantly buried his head in
his grandmother's apron.
"William! William!" cried his sister, pulling him by the arm, "the
gentleman will not hurt you."
The boy again lifted up his head. Thaddeus threw back his long sable
cloak, and taking off his cap, whose hearse-like plumes he thought
might have terrified the child, he laid it on the ground, and again
stretching forth his arms, called the boy to approach him. Little
William now looked steadfastly in his face, and then on the cap,
which he had laid beside him; whilst he grasped his grandmother's
apron with one hand, he held out the other, half assured, towards the
count. Thaddeus took it, and pressing it softly, pulled him gently to
him, and placed him on his knee. "My little fellow," said he, kissing
him, "you are not frightened now?"
"No," said the child; "I see you are not the ugly black man who takes
away naughty boys. The ugly black man has a black face, and snakes on
his head; but these are pretty curls!" added he, laughing, and
putting his little fingers through the thick auburn hair which hung
in neglected masses over the forehead of the count.
"I am ashamed that your honor should sit in a kitchen," said the old
lady; "but I have not a fire in any other room."
"Yes," said her granddaughter, who was about twelve years old;
"grandmother has a nice first-floor up stairs, but because we have no
lodgers, there be no fire there."
"Be silent, Nanny Robson," said the dame; "your pertness teases the
gentleman."
"O, not at all," cried Thaddeus; "I ought to thank her, for she
informs me you have lodgings to let; will you allow me to engage
them!"
"You, sir!" cried Mrs. Robson, thunderstruck; "for what purpose?
Surely so noble a gentleman would not live in such a place as this?"
"I would, Mrs. Robson: I know not where I could live with more
comfort; and where comfort is, my good madam, what signifies the
costliness or plainness of the dwelling?"
"Well, sir, if you be indeed serious; but I cannot think you are; you
are certainly making a joke of me for my boldness in asking you into
my poor house."
"Upon my honor, I am not, Mrs. Robson. I will gladly be your lodger
if you will admit me; and to convince you that I am in earnest, my
portmanteau shall this moment be brought here."
"Well, sir," resumed she, "I shall be honored in having you in my
house; but I have no room for any one but yourself, not even for a
servant."
"I have no servant."
"Then I will wait on him, grandmother," cried the little Nanny; "do
let the gentleman have them; I am sure he looks honest."
The woman colored at this last observation of the child, and
proceeded:
"Then, sir, if you should not disdain the rooms when you see them, I
shall be too happy in having so good a gentleman under my roof.
Pardon my boldness, sir; but may I ask? I think by your dress you are
a foreigner?"
"I am," replied Thaddeus, the radiance which played over his features
contracting into a glow; "if you have no objection to take a stranger
within your doors, from this hour I shall consider your house my
home?"
"As your honor pleases," said Mrs. Robson; "my terms are half-a-
guinea a week; and I will tend on you as though you were my own son!
for I cannot forget, excellent young gentleman, the way in which we
first met."
"Then I will leave you for the present;" returned he, rising, and
putting down the little William, who had been amusing himself with
examining the silver points of the star of St. Stanislaus which the
count wore on his breast. "In the meanwhile," said he, "my pretty
friend," stooping to the child, "let this bit of silver," was just
mounting to his tongue, as he put his hand into his pocket to take
out half-a-crown; but he recollected that his necessities would no
longer admit of such gifts, and drawing his hand back with a deep and
bitter sigh, he touched the boy's cheek with his lips, and added,
"let this kiss remind you of your new friend."
This was the first time the generous spirit of Sobieski had been
restrained; and he suffered a pang, for the poignancy of which he
could not account. His had been a life accustomed to acts of
munificence. His grandfather's palace was the asylum of the unhappy--
his grandfather's purse a treasury for the unfortunate. The soul of
Thaddeus did not degenerate from his noble relative: his generosity,
begun in inclination, was nurtured by reflection, and strengthened
with a daily exercise which had rendered it a habit of his nature.
Want never appeared before him without exciting a sympathetic emotion
in his heart, which never rested until he had administered every
comfort in the power of wealth to bestow. His compassion and his
purse were the substance and shadow of each other. The poor of his
country thronged from every part of the kingdom to receive pity and
relief at his hands. With those houseless wanderers he peopled the
new villages his grandfather had erected in the midst of lands which
in former times were the haunts of wild beasts. Thaddeus participated
in the happiness of his grateful tenants, and many were the old men
whose eyes he had closed in thankfulness and peace. These honest
peasants, even in their dying moments, wished to give up that life in
his arms which he had rescued from misery. He visited their cottage;
he smoothed their pillow; he joined in their prayers; and when their
last sigh came to his ear, he raised the weeping family from the
dust, and cheered them with pious exhortations and his kindest
assurances of protection. How often has the countess clasped her
beloved son to her breast, when, after a scene like this, he has
returned home, the tears of the dying man and his children yet wet
upon his hand! how often has she strained him to her heart, whilst
floods of rapture have poured from her own eyes! Heir to the first
fortune in Poland, he scarcely knew the means by which he bestowed
all these benefits; and with a soul as bounteous to others as Heaven
had been munificent to him, wherever he moved he shed smiles and
gifts around him. How frequently he had said to the palatine, when
his carriage-wheels were chased by the thankful multitude, "O my
father! how can I ever be sufficiently grateful to God for the
happiness he hath allotted to me in making me the dispenser of so
many blessings! The gratitude of these people overpowers and humbles
me in my own eyes; what have I done to be so eminently favored of
Heaven? I tremble when I ask myself the question." "You may tremble,
my dear boy," replied his grandfather, "for indeed the trial is a
severe one. Prosperity, like adversity, is an ordeal of conduct. Two
roads are before the rich man--vanity or virtue; you have chosen the
latter, and the best; and may Heaven ever hold you in it! May Heaven
ever keep your heart generous and pure! Go on, my dear Thaddeus, as
you have commenced, and you will find that your Creator hath bestowed
wealth upon you not for what you have done, but as the means of
evincing how well you would prove yourself his faithful steward."
This _was_ the fortune of Thaddeus; and _now_, he who had
scattered thousands without counting them drew back his hand with
something like horror at his own injustice, when he was going to give
away one little piece of silver, which he might want in a day or two,
to defray some indispensible debt.
"Mrs. Robson," said he, as he replaced his cap upon his head, "I
shall return before it is dark."
"Very well, sir," and opening the door, he went out into the lane.
Ignorant of the town, and thanking Providence for having prepared him
an asylum, he directed his course towards Charing Cross. He looked
about him with deepened sadness; the wet and plashy state of the
streets gave to every object so comfortless an appearance, he could
scarcely believe himself to be in that London of which he had read
with so much delight. Where were the magnificent buildings he
expected to see in the emporium of the world? Where that cleanliness,
and those tokens of greatness and splendor, which had been the
admiration and boast of travellers? He could nowhere discover them;
all seemed parts of a dark, gloomy, common-looking city.
Hardly heeding whither he went, he approached the Horse-Guards; a
view of the Park, as it appears through the wide porch, promised him
less unpleasantness than the dirty pavement, and he turned in, taking
his way along the Bird-Cage Walk. [Footnote: The young readers of
these few preceding pages will not recognize this description of St.
Martin's Lane, Charing Cross, and St. James's Park, in 1794, in what
they now see there in 1844. St. Martin's noble church was then the
centre of the east side of a long, narrow, and somewhat dirty lane of
mean houses, particularly in the end below the church. Charing Cross,
with its adjoining streets, showed nothing better than plain
tradesmen's shops; and it was not till we saw the Admiralty, and
entered the Horse-Guards, that anything presented itself worthy the
great name of London. The Park is almost completely altered. The
lower part of the lane has totally disappeared; also its adjunct, the
King's Mews, where now stands the royal National Gallery, while the
church of St. Martin's rears its majestic portico and spire, no
longer obscured by its former adjacent common buildings; and the
grand naval pillar lately erected to the memory of Britain's hero,
Nelson, occupies the centre of the new quadrangle now called
Trafalgar Square.]
The trees, stripped of their leaves, stood naked, and dripping with
melten snow. The season was in unison with the count's fate. He was
taking the bitter wind for his repast, and quenching his thirst with
the rain that fell on his pale and feverish lips. He felt the cutting
blast enter his soul, and shutting his eyelids to repel the tears
which were rising from his heart, he walked faster; but in spite of
himself, their drops mingled with the wet that trickled from his cap
upon his face. One melancholy thought introduced another, until his
bewildered mind lived over again, in memory, every calamity which had
reduced him from happiness to all this lonely misery. Two or three
heavy convulsive sighs followed these reflections; and quickening his
pace, he walked several times quite round the Park. The rain ceased.
But not marking time, and hardly observing the people who passed, he
threw himself down upon one of the benches, and sat in a musing
posture, with his eyes fixed on the opposite tree.
A sound of voices approaching roused him. Turning his eyes, he saw
the speakers were two young men, and by their dress he judged they
must belong to the regiment of a sentinel who was patrolling at the
end of the Mall.
"By heavens! Barrington," cried one, "it is the best shaped boot I
ever beheld! I have a good mind to ask him whether it be English
make."
"And if it be," replied the other, "you must ask him who shaped his
legs, that you may send yours to be mended."
"Who the devil can see my legs through that boot?"
"Oh, if to veil them be your reason, pray ask him immediately."
"And so I will, for I think the boot perfection."
At these words, he was making towards Sobieski with two or three long
strides, when his companion pulled him back.
"Surely, Harwold, you will not be so ridiculous? He appears to be a
foreigner of rank, and may take offence, and give you the length of
his foot!"
"Curse him and rank too; he is some paltry emigrant, I warrant! I
care nothing about his foot or his legs, but I should like to know
who made his boots!"
While he spoke he would have dragged his companion along with him,
but Barrington broke from his arm; and the fool, who now thought
himself dared to it, strode up close to the chair, and bowed to
Thaddeus, who (hardly crediting that he could be the subject of this
dialogue) returned the salutation with a cold bend of his head.
Harwold looked a little confounded at this haughty demeanor; and,
once in his life, blushing at his own insolence, he roared out, as if
in defiance of shame.
"Pray, sir, where did you get your boots?"
"Where I got my sword, sir," replied Thaddeus, calmly; and rising
from his seat, he darted his eyes disdainfully on the coxcomb, and
walked slowly down the Mall. Surprised and shocked at such behavior
in a British officer, while he moved away he distinctly heard
Barrington laughing aloud, and ridiculing the astonished and set-down
air of his impudent associate.
This incident did not so much ruffle the temper of Thaddeus as it
amazed and perplexed him.
"Is this a specimen," though he, "of a nation which on the Continent
is venerated for courage, manliness, and generosity? Well, I find I
have much to learn. I must go through the ills of life to estimate
myself thoroughly; and I must study mankind in themselves, and not in
reports of them, to have a true knowledge of what they are."
This strange rencontre was of service to him, by diverting his mind
from the intense contemplation of his situation; and as the dusk drew
on, he turned his steps towards the Hummums.
On entering the coffee-room, he was met by the obsequious Jenkins,
who, being told by Thaddeus that he wanted his baggage and a carnage,
went for the things himself, and sent a boy for a coach.
A man dressed in black was standing by the chimney, and seemed to be
eyeing Thaddeus, as he walked up and down the room, with great
attention. Just as he had taken another turn, and so drew nearer the
fireplace, this person accosted him rather abruptly--
"Pray, sir, is there any news stirring abroad? You seem, sir, to come
from abroad."
"None that I know of, sir."
"Bless me, that's strange! I thought, sir, you came from abroad, sir;
from the Continent, from Poland, sir? at least the waiter said so,
sir."
Thaddeus colored. "The waiter, sir?"
"I mean, sir," continued the gentleman, visibly confused at the
dilemma into which he had brought himself, "the waiter said that you
were a count, sir--a Polish count; indeed the Count Sobieski! Hence I
concluded that you are from Poland. If I have offended, I beg pardon,
sir; but in these times we are anxious for every intelligence."
Thaddeus made no other reply than a slight inclination of his head,
and walking forward to see whether the coach had arrived, he thought,
whatever travellers had related of the English, they were the most
impertinent people he had ever met with.
The stranger would not be contented with what he had already said,
but plucking up new courage, pursued the count to the glass door
through which he was looking, and resumed:
"I believe, sir, I am not wrong? You are the Count Sobieski; and I
have the honor to be now speaking with the bravest champion of Polish
liberty!"
Thaddeus again bowed. "I thank you, sir, for the compliment you
intend me, but I cannot take it to myself; all the men of Poland, old
and young, nobles and peasants, were her champions, equally sincere,
equally brave."
Nothing could silence the inquisitive stranger. The coach drew up,
but he went on:
"Then I hope that many of these patriots, besides your excellency,
have taken care to bring away their wealth from a land which they
must now see is abandoned to destruction?"
For a moment Thaddeus forget himself, indignation for his country,
and all her rights and all her sufferings rose in his countenance.
"No, sir! not one of those men, and least of all would I have drawn
one vital drop from her heart! I left in her murdered bosom all that
was dear to me--all that I possessed; and not until I saw the chains
brought before my eyes that were to lay her surviving sons in irons
did I turn my back on calamities I could no longer avert or
alleviate."
The ardor of his manner and the elevation of his voice had drawn the
attention of every person in the room upon him, when Jenkins entered
with his baggage. The door being opened, Sobieski sprang into the
coach, and gladly shut himself there, from a conversation which had
awakened all his griefs.
"Ah, poor enthusiast!" exclaimed his inquisitor, as the carriage
drove off. "It is a pity that so fine a young man should have made so
ill a use of his birth, and other natural advantages!"
"He appears to me," observed an old clergyman who sat in an adjoining
box, "to have made the best possible use of his natural advantages;
and had I a son, I would rather hear him utter such a sentiment as
the one with which that young man quitted the room, than see him
master of millions."
"May be so," cried the questioner, with a contemptuous glance;
"'different minds incline to different objects!' His has decided for
'the wonderful, the wild;' and a pretty finale he has made of his
choice!"
"Why, to be sure," observed another spectator, "young people should
be brought up with reasonable ideas of right and wrong, and prudence;
nevertheless, I should not like a son of mine to run harum-scarum
through my property, and his own life; and yet one cannot help, when
one hears such a brave speech as that from yonder Frenchman just gone
out,--I say one cannot help thinking it very fine." "True, true,"
cried the inquisitor; "you are right, sir; very fine indeed, but too
fine to wear; it would soon leave us acreless, as it has done him;
for it seems, by his own confession, he is penniless; and I know that
a twelvemonth ago he was an heir to a fortune which, however
incalculable, he has managed, with all his talents, to see the end
of."
"Then he is in distress!" exclaimed the clergyman, "and you know him.
What is his name?"
The man colored at this unexpected inference; and glad the company
had not attended to that part of the dialogue in which the name of
Sobieski was mentioned, he stammered some indistinct words, took up
his hat, and looking at his watch, begged pardon, having an
appointment, and hurried out of the room without speaking further;
although the good clergyman, whose name was Blackmore, hastened after
him, requesting to know where the young foreigner lived.
"Who is that spectacled coxcomb?" cried the reverend doctor, as he
returned from his unavailing application.
"I don't know, sir," replied the waiter "I never saw him in this
house before last night, when he came in late to sleep; and this
morning he was in the coffee-room at breakfast, just as that foreign
gentleman walked through; and Jenkins bawling his name out very loud,
as soon as he was gone, this here gentleman asked him who that count
was. I heard Jenkins say some Russian name, and tell him he came last
night, and would likely come back again; and so that there gentleman
has been loitering about all day till now, when the foreign gentleman
coming in, he spoke to him."
"And don't you know anything further of this foreigner?"
"No, sir; I forget what he is called; but I see Jenkins going across
the street; shall I run after him and ask him?"
"You are very obliging," returned the old clergyman; "but does
Jenkins know where the stranger lives?"
"No, sir I am sure he don't."
"I am sorry for it," sighed the kind questioner; "then your inquiry
would be of no use; his name will not do without his direction. Poor
fellow! he has been unfortunate, and I might have befriended him."
"Yes, to be sure, doctor," cried the first speaker, who now rose to
accompany him out; "it is our duty to befriend the unfortunate; but
charity begins at home; and as all's for the best, perhaps it is
lucky we did not hear any more about this young fellow. We might have
involved ourselves in a vast deal of unnecessary trouble; and you
know people from outlandish parts have no claims upon us."
"Certainly," replied the doctor, "none in the world, excepting those
which no human creature can dispute,--the claims of nature. All
mankind are born heirs of suffering; and as joint inheritors, if we
do not wipe away each other's tears, it will prove but a comfortless
portion."
"Ah! doctor," cried his companion, as they separated at the end of
Charles-street, "you have always the best of an argument: you have
logic and Aristotle at your finger ends."
"No, my friend; my arguments are purely Christian. Nature is my
logic, and the Bible my teacher."
"Ah, there you have me again. You parsons are as bad as the lawyers;
when once you get a poor sinner amongst you, he finds it as hard to
get out of the church as out of chancery. However, have it your own
way; charity is your trade, and I won't be in a hurry to dispute the
monopoly. Good-day! If I stay much longer, you will make me believe
that black is white."
Dr. Blackmore shook him by the hand, and wishing him good-evening,
returned home, pitying the worldliness of his friend's mind, and
musing on the interesting stranger, whom he could not but admire, and
compassionate with a lively sorrow, for he believed him to be a
gentleman, unhappy and unfortunate. Had he known that the object of
his solicitude was the illustrious subject of many a former eulogium
from himself, how increased would have been his regret--that he had
seen Count Thaddeus Sobieski, that he had seen him an exile, and that
he had suffered him to pass out of the reach of his services!