In all lives, the highest and the humblest, there is a crisis in the
formation of character, and in the bent of the disposition. It comes
from many causes, and from some which on the surface are apparently even
trivial. It may be a book, a speech, a sermon; a man or a woman; a
great misfortune or a burst of prosperity. But the result is the same; a
sudden revelation to ourselves of our secret purpose, and a recognition
of our perhaps long shadowed, but now masterful convictions.
A crisis of this kind occurred to Endymion the day when he returned to
his chambers, after having taken the oaths and his seat in the House of
Commons. He felt the necessity of being alone. For nearly the last three
months he had been the excited actor in a strange and even mysterious
drama. There had been for him no time to reflect; all he could aim
at was to comprehend, and if possible control, the present and urgent
contingency; he had been called upon, almost unceasingly, to do or to
say something sudden and unexpected; and it was only now, when the
crest of the ascent had been reached, that he could look around him and
consider the new world opening to his gaze.
The greatest opportunity that can be offered to an Englishman was now
his--a seat in the House of Commons. It was his almost in the first
bloom of youth, and yet after advantageous years of labour and political
training, and it was combined with a material independence on which he
never could have counted. A love of power, a passion for distinction, a
noble pride, which had been native to his early disposition, but which
had apparently been crushed by the enormous sorrows and misfortunes of
his childhood, and which had vanished, as it were, before the sweetness
of that domestic love which had been the solace of his adversity, now
again stirred their dim and mighty forms in his renovated, and, as it
were, inspired consciousness. “If this has happened at twenty-two,”
thought Endymion, “what may not occur if the average life of man be
allotted to me? At any rate, I will never think of anything else. I
have a purpose in life, and I will fulfil it. It is a charm that its
accomplishment would be the most grateful result to the two beings I
most love in the world.”
So when Lady Montfort shortly after opened her views to Endymion as to
his visiting Paris, and his purpose in so doing, the seeds were thrown
on a willing soil, and he embraced her counsels with the deepest
interest. His intimacy with the Count of Ferroll was the completing
event of this epoch of his life.
Their acquaintance had been slight in England, for after the Montfort
Tournament the Count had been appointed to Paris, where he was required;
but he received Endymion with a cordiality which contrasted with his
usual demeanour, which, though frank, was somewhat cynical.
“This is not a favourable time to visit Paris,” he said, “so far as
society is concerned. There is some business stirring in the diplomatic
world, which has re-assembled the fraternity for the moment, and the
King is at St. Cloud, but you may make some acquaintances which may be
desirable, and at any rate look about you and clear the ground for the
coming season. I do not despair of our dear friend coming over in the
winter. It is one of the hopes that keep me alive. What a woman! You
may count yourself fortunate in having such a friend. I do. I am not
particularly fond of female society. Women chatter too much. But I
prefer the society of a first-rate woman to that of any man; and Lady
Montfort is a first-rate woman--I think the greatest since Louise of
Savoy; infinitely beyond the Princess d’Ursins.”
The “business that was then stirring in the diplomatic world,” at a
season when the pleasures of Parisian society could not distract him,
gave Endymion a rare opportunity of studying that singular class of
human beings which is accustomed to consider states and nations as
individuals, and speculate on their quarrels and misunderstandings, and
the remedies which they require, in a tongue peculiar to themselves, and
in language which often conveys a meaning exactly opposite to that which
it seems to express. Diplomacy is hospitable, and a young Englishman
of graceful mien, well introduced, and a member of the House of
Commons--that awful assembly which produces those dreaded blue books
which strike terror in the boldest of foreign statesmen--was not only
received, but courted, in the interesting circle in which Endymion found
himself.
There he encountered men grey with the fame and wisdom of half a century
of deep and lofty action, men who had struggled with the first Napoleon,
and had sat in the Congress of Vienna; others, hardly less celebrated,
who had been suddenly borne to high places by the revolutionary wave
of 1830, and who had justly retained their exalted posts when so many
competitors with an equal chance had long ago, with equal justice,
subsided into the obscurity from which they ought never to have emerged.
Around these chief personages were others not less distinguished by
their abilities, but a more youthful generation, who knew how to wait,
and were always prepared or preparing for the inevitable occasion when
it arrived--fine and trained writers, who could interpret in sentences
of graceful adroitness the views of their chiefs; or sages in
precedents, walking dictionaries of diplomacy, and masters of every
treaty; and private secretaries reading human nature at a glance, and
collecting every shade of opinion for the use and guidance of their
principals.
Whatever their controversies in the morning, their critical interviews
and their secret alliances, all were smiles and graceful badinage at
the banquet and the reception; as if they had only come to Paris to show
their brilliant uniforms, their golden fleeces, and their grand crosses,
and their broad ribbons with more tints than the iris.
“I will not give them ten years,” said the Count of Ferroll, lighting
his cigarette, and addressing Endymion on their return from one of these
assemblies; “I sometimes think hardly five.”
“But where will the blow come from?”
“Here; there is no movement in Europe except in France, and here it will
always be a movement of subversion.”
“A pretty prospect!”
“The sooner you realise it the better. The system here is supported by
journalists and bankers; two influential classes, but the millions care
for neither; rather, I should say, dislike both.”
“Will the change affect Europe?”
“Inevitably. You rightly say Europe, for that is a geographical
expression. There is no State in Europe; I exclude your own country,
which belongs to every division of the globe, and is fast becoming more
commercial than political, and I exclude Russia, for she is essentially
oriental, and her future will be entirely the East.”
“But there is Germany!”
“Where? I cannot find it on the maps. Germany is divided into various
districts, and when there is a war, they are ranged on different
sides. Notwithstanding our reviews and annual encampments, Germany is
practically as weak as Italy. We have some kingdoms who are allowed
to play at being first-rate powers; but it is mere play. They no more
command events than the King of Naples or the Duke of Modena.”
“Then is France periodically to overrun Europe?”
“So long as it continues to be merely Europe.”
A close intimacy occurred between Endymion and the Count of Ferroll. He
not only became a permanent guest at the official residence, but when
the Conference broke up, the Count invited Endymion to be his companion
to some celebrated baths, where they would meet not only many of his
late distinguished colleagues, but their imperial and royal masters,
seeking alike health and relaxation at this famous rendezvous.
“You will find it of the first importance in public life,” said the
Count of Ferroll, “to know personally those who are carrying on
the business of the world; so much depends on the character of an
individual, his habits of thought, his prejudices, his superstitions,
his social weaknesses, his health. Conducting affairs without this
advantage is, in effect, an affair of stationery; it is pens and paper
who are in communication, not human beings.”
The brother-in-law of Lord Roehampton was a sort of personage. It was
very true that distinguished man was no longer minister, but he had been
minister for a long time, and had left a great name. Foreigners rarely
know more than one English minister at a time, but they compensated for
their ignorance of the aggregate body by even exaggerating the qualities
of the individual with whom they are acquainted. Lord Roehampton had
conducted the affairs of his country always in a courteous, but still in
a somewhat haughty spirit. He was easy and obliging, and conciliatory in
little matters, but where the credit, or honour, or large interests
of England were concerned, he acted with conscious authority. On the
continent of Europe, though he sometimes incurred the depreciation of
the smaller minds, whose self-love he may not have sufficiently spared,
by the higher spirits he was feared and admired, and they knew, when he
gave his whole soul to an affair, that they were dealing with a master.
Endymion was presented to emperors and kings, and he made his way with
these exalted personages. He found them different from what he had
expected. He was struck by their intimate acquaintance with affairs, and
by the serenity of their judgment. The life was a pleasant as well as
an interesting one. Where there are crowned heads, there are always some
charming women. Endymion found himself in a delightful circle. Long days
and early hours, and a beautiful country, renovate the spirit as well
as the physical frame. Excursions to romantic forests, and visits to
picturesque ruins, in the noon of summer, are enchanting, especially
with princesses for your companions, bright and accomplished. Yet,
notwithstanding some distractions, Endymion never omitted writing to
Lady Montfort every day.