GRAHAM’S MAGAZINE.
Vol. XX. May, 1842 No. 5.
Contents
Fiction, Literature and Articles
The Bride
Centre Harbor, N. H.
The Mask of the Red Death
Procrastination
The Chevalier Gluck
The Late Sir David Wilkie
Edith Pemberton
Thoughts on Music
Harry Cavendish
Recollections of West Point
Review of New Books
Poetry, Music and Fashion
Spring’s Advent
Perditi
Venus and the Modern Belle
My Bark Is Out upon the Sea
To Amie—Unknown
To an Antique Vase
The Old World
Euroclydon
Mystery
L’Envoy to E——
The Orphan Ballad Singers
Latest Fashions for May
Transcriber’s Notes can be found at the end of this eBook.
* * * * *
[Illustration:
Drawn by John Hayter, Rawdon, Wright, Hatch & Smillie
_The Bride_
_Engraved expressly for Graham’s Magazine_]
GRAHAM’S MAGAZINE.
Vol. XX. PHILADELPHIA: MAY, 1842. No. 5.
* * * * *
THE BRIDE.
_Ros._ Ah, sir, a body would think she was well counterfeited.
“The earl is out, sir—and so is Lord William;” said the obsequious
lacquey, as I was ushered into Fairlie Hall, “will you amuse yourself in
the library until dinner, or take a stroll in the park? You will
probably meet with some of the family about the grounds.”
Such was the salutation that greeted me on alighting at the princely
mansion of the earl of Fairlie, whither I had come at the invitation of
his only son—one of my inseparable friends at Oxford. The visit had
been promised for more than two years; and I was actuated to it, not
only by the desire of spending the vacation with my friend, but by a
lurking wish to behold the Lady Katharine, his only sister, whose beauty
I had heard extolled by a hundred lips. So I had given up a contemplated
run to the continent and come down to Fairlie Hall.
After changing my dress and gazing from the windows of my chamber, I
began to feel ennuied and descending the ample staircase I determined on
a stroll into the magnificent park, which surrounded the hall for some
miles on every hand. My walk led me by a wild woodland path into one of
the most romantic recesses of the forest. Naturally of a dreamy cast of
mind, I walked on in a sort of reverie, until I was suddenly recalled to
my more sober senses by coming in front of a little summer house,
perched airily on a rock, and overlooking a mimic waterfall. Feeling
somewhat fatigued with my day’s travel, I walked in and sat down. There
was little furniture in the room, but on a table in the centre, lay a
copy of Spencer, as if some one had lately been there. Picking up my
favorite poet I began reading, but whether the interminable allegory
exercised a drowsy influence over me, or whether it was the sharp
morning air in which I had been riding that affected me, I cannot say,
but in a few minutes I fell into a light doze, such a one as while it
gives a dreamy character to our thoughts, or lulls them altogether into
repose, never assumes wholly the character of sleep, and is dissipated
by the slightest noise. Mine was soon broken, by a quick light step on
the greensward without, and a musical female voice singing a gay ditty.
Starting up I beheld an apparition standing in the door of the summer
house, whose exceeding loveliness I was doubtful, for a moment, whether
to refer to earth or heaven.
This apparition bore the form of a young lady apparently about eighteen,
of a tall shapely figure, attired in a light summer dress—the sleeves
of which, being looped up at the shoulders, revealed a pair of
exquisitely rounded arms which might have vied with those of the fabled
Euphrosyne. Her dress came low down towards the bust, displaying the
full charms of her unrivalled shoulders and all the graceful swelling of
her snowy and swan-like neck. Her face was of the true oval shape, and
on either side of it flowed down her luxuriant auburn ringlets. The
features, without being regular, formed a combination of surpassing
beauty. The delicately arched eye-brows; the finely chiselled nose; the
small round chin; the rich lips whose luxuriance rivalled that of the
full blown rose; and the smooth pearly cheek, through which the vermeil
blood might be seen wandering in ten thousand tiny veins—so transparent
was the hue of the skin—united to form a countenance which would have
been beautiful, even without the constantly changing expression which
gave animation to each feature. The appearance of this wondrously lovely
being, just as I awoke from the half dreamy sleep I have described, in
which the visions of the poet and the sound of the waterfall had
contributed to fill my mind with fantastic images, made me doubt, for a
moment, whether the heavenly Una herself or one of her attendant nymphs
had not emerged on my dreaming vision. But the changing expressing of
her features soon convinced me that she was no airy visitant. At first a
look of surprise darted over her fine countenance, and she retreated a
step backwards, while the blood mantled her cheek, brow, and bosom, and
even tinged the ends of her delicate fingers. In an instant, however,
she regained her composure. No so myself. I had been equally startled,
but was longer in recovering my ease. A silence of a minute thus
occurred, during which we stood awkwardly regarding each other, but at
length the ludicrousness of the scene striking the fancy of the fair
apparition, she burst into a merry laugh, in which, despite my wounded
vanity, I was forced to follow her. She had now fully recovered from her
momentary embarrassment and advancing said,
“Mr. Stanhope I presume, for we have been expecting you for some days.”
I bowed. “I see I must introduce myself. The Lady Katharine, daughter of
the Earl of Fairlie.”
This then was the Lady Katharine of whom I had heard so much! There was
something in the gaiety and originality of the address that pleased me,
while at the same time it increased my embarrassment. I bowed again and
was about to reply, but in bowing I inadvertently made a step backwards,
and trod on a pet greyhound, which accompanied this wilful creature. The
animal with a cry sought shelter by its mistress’ side, who, by this
time, had sunk into one of the seats.
“Poor Lama,” she said petting him, “you must be careful how you get in
the way of a bashful gallant again,” and then, turning to me, she said
in a tone of gay raillery. “Ah, Mr. Stanhope, you Oxford gentlemen,
knowing as you are in history, Greek, and Latin, are all alike awkward
at a bow—at least William is so, and his particular friend of whom I
have heard so much, and of whom I really hoped otherwise, is no better.”
There was much in this galling to my vanity, but it carried with it some
alleviation. I had then been the subject of conversation with this fair
being, and she had thought favorably of me. This idea did much to
restore me to the use of my tongue, which otherwise would have been gone
forever, under the merciless raillery of the Lady Katharine. Besides I
saw that I was losing ground with my fair companion, and that it was
necessary to call some assurance to my aid. I rallied therefore and
replied:
“Let me not be condemned without trial. Lady Katharine may yet soften
her sentence—or at least in the court of fashion over which she is
queen, I may have a chance of improvement.”
There was a tone of easy badinage in this, so different from what she
had been led to expect from my former embarrassment, that the lady
looked up in unaffected surprise.
“Very well, I declare—you improve on acquaintance. Why you have almost
earned for yourself the favor of being my knight homewards—quite
indeed, only that you have lamed my poor Lama. So I must even leave you
to Spencer, which I see you have been reading, and depart. We will meet
at dinner and I will see by that time if you have improved in your
bows.”
“Not so, fair lady,” said I, “Spencer would never forgive me, and I
would indeed be unworthy to be called true knight, if I permitted damsel
to brave the perils of this enchanted forest alone.” And I started
forward to accompany her.
She looked at me a minute dubiously, as if puzzled what to make of my
character, as she said:
“I pardon you, for this once, and allow you to accompany me. We shall,”
she continued, looking at her watch, “have scarcely time to reach the
hall before the dinner bell will sound.” And with the words, off she
tripped, with a bound as free as that of her agile greyhound. I
followed, determined not to be outdone, but to maintain the gay rattling
tone I had assumed, as the only one fitted to cope with this wilful
creature. I had so far succeeded that when we parted at the hall to
dress for dinner, I really believe she would have been puzzled to say
what part of my conversation had been serious or what not. She must have
been completely in the dark as to my real sentiments on any one of the
many subjects we had discussed. Indeed she admitted as much to me at
dinner, where I managed to secure a place beside her.
“You are a perfect puzzle—do you know it, Mr. Stanhope? At least I have
not yet decided what to think of you. At first I set you down for the
most bashful young man I had ever seen, and now you seem as if nothing
could intimidate you. Why, when pa was introduced to you, you talked
politics with him as if you had known him for years, and three minutes
after you were discussing the fashions with little Miss Mowbray, as if
you had been a man-milliner all your life. I scarcely know whether to
think you a cameleon, or attribute your wit to the champaigne.”
“Neither, Lady Katharine, while a better reason may be found nearer
home.”
“Ah! that wasn’t so badly said, although a little too plain. We ladies
like flattery well enough, but then it must be disguised.”
“And it would be almost impossible to flatter you!—is that it?”
“You puzzle me to tell, I declare, whether that is a compliment or
otherwise—but see, pa is waiting to drink champaigne with you.”
In such gay conversation passed the dinner and evening; and when I
retired for the night it was with the consciousness that I was in a fair
way to fall in love with the Lady Katharine. I lay awake for some two
hours, thinking of all I had said and of her replies; and I came to the
conclusion that she was, beyond measure not only the loveliest but the
most fascinating of her sex.
I had been among the first of the numerous guests to arrive; but the
remainder followed so close after me that in a few days the whole
company had assembled. It was an unusually gay party. The morning was
generally spent by the gentlemen in shooting among the preserves,
leaving the ladies to their indoor recreations or a ride around the
park. On these rides the gentlemen sometimes accompanied them. Lady
Katharine was always the star of the party; it was around her our sex
gathered. But, fascinating as I felt her to be I was, of all the beaux,
the most seldom found at her bridle-rein; and perhaps this comparatively
distant air was the most effectual means I could have taken to forward
my suit. At least I fancied more than once that I piqued the Lady
Katharine.
We still kept up the tone of badinage with which our acquaintance had
commenced. There was a playful wit about the Lady Katharine which was
irresistible; and I flattered myself that she was pleased with my
conversation, perhaps because it was different from that of her suitors
in general. But whether her liking for me extended further than to my
qualities as a drawing-room companion I was unable to tell. If I strove
to hide my love from her, she was equally successful in concealing her
feelings whatever they might be. Yet she gave me the credit of being a
keen observer.
“You take more notice of little things than any one of your sex I ever
saw,” she said to me one evening. “The ladies have a way of reading
one’s sentiments by trifles, which your sex generally deem beneath its
notice. But you! one would almost fear your finding out all one thinks.”
“Oh! not at all,” said I. “At any rate, if your sex are such keen
observers they are also apt at concealment. What lady that has not
striven to hide from her lover that she returned his passion, at least
until he has proposed, and that even though aware how wholly he adores
her? We all alike play a part.”
“Shame, shame, Mr. Stanhope! Would you have us surrender our only
protection, by betraying our sentiments too soon? And then to say that
we all play a part, as if hypocrisy—in little things, it is true, but
still _hypocrisy_—was an every-day affair. You make me ashamed of human
nature. You really cannot believe what you say!”
This was spoken with a warmth that convinced me the words were from the
heart. I felt that however flippant the Lady Katharine might be to the
vain and empty suitors that usually thronged around her, she had a
heart—a warm, true, woman’s heart—a heart that beat with noble
emotions and was susceptible to all the finer feelings of love. I would
have replied, but at this instant the Duke of Chovers approached and
requested the honor of waltzing with her.
The Duke of Chovers was a young man of about five and twenty. The
calibre of his mind was that of fashionable men in general; but then he
enjoyed a splendid fortune and wore the ducal coronet. He was
confessedly the best match of the season. The charms of the Lady
Katharine had been the first to divert his mind from his dress and
horses. It was whispered that a union was already arranged betwixt him
and my fair companion. As if to confirm this rumor, he always took his
place by her bridle-rein. The worldly advantages of such a connexion
were unanswerable; and I had been tortured by uneasy fears ever since I
heard the rumor. Now was a fair opportunity to learn the truth. I had
heard the Lady Katharine jestingly say a few days before, in describing
a late ball, that she refused to waltz with Lord —— because she
thought him unmarried, and that when she discovered her mistake she was
piqued at herself for losing the handsomest partner in the room. The
remark was made jestingly and casually, and was by this time forgotten
by her. But I still remembered it. Yet I know that if she was betrothed
to him she would accept his offer. How my heart thrilled, therefore,
when I heard her decline it! His grace walked away unable to conceal his
mortification.
“You should not be so hard-hearted,” said I, “although the duke ought
have known that you waltz with none of the proscribed race of
bachelors.”
She looked at me in unaffected surprise.
“How did you discover that?” she said. “We have had no waltzing since
you came,” and then, reflecting that these hasty words had confirmed my
bold assertion, she blushed to the very brow and looked for a moment
confused.
Our conversation was interrupted by her brother and one or two new
acquaintances who had driven home with him. I soon sauntered away. My
deductions respecting her and the duke were shaken, I confess, before
the evening was over, by seeing them sitting _tête-à-tête_, by one of
the casements, while the guests avoided them, as if by that tacit
agreement under which lovers are left to themselves.
The attentions of his grace became daily more marked, and there was an
evident embarrassment of manner in the Lady Katharine under them. A
month slipped away meanwhile, and the time when the company was to break
up drew near.
We were out on a ride one morning, and the duke, as usual, had
established himself at her bridle-rein, when, in cantering along the
brow of a somewhat precipitous hill, overlooking the country for miles
around, the horse of the Lady Katharine took fright, from some cause,
and dashed towards the edge of a precipice that sank sheer down for
nearly a hundred feet. The precipice was several hundred yards to the
right, but the pace at which the frighted steed went, threatened soon to
bring him up with it, while the efforts of the rider to alter his course
appeared to be unavailing. Our party was paralyzed, and his grace
particularly so. I alone retained my presence of mind. Driving my spurs
deep into the flanks of my steed, I plunged forward at full gallop, amid
the shrieks of the females and the warnings of the gentlemen of the
party. But I knew I could trust my gallant hunter. The Lady Katharine
heard my horse’s hoofs, and turned around. Never shall I forget her
pleading look. I dashed my rowels again into Arab, for only a few paces
yet remained betwixt the Lady Katharine’s frightened animal and the edge
of the precipice. One more leap and all would have been over; but
luckily at that instant I came head and head with her furious steed, and
catching him by the bridle, I swung him around with a superhuman
strength. But I was only partially successful. The animal plunged and
snorted, and nearly jerked me from the saddle.
“For God’s sake dismount, my dear Lady Katharine, as well as you can, or
all is over.”
The daring girl hesitated no more, but seizing a favorable instant when
the animal, though trembling all over, stood nearly still, she leaped to
the earth. The next instant her steed plunged more wildly than ever, and
seeing that she was safe I let go the bridle. He snorted, dashed forward
and went headlong over the precipice. In an instant I had dismounted and
was by the Lady Katharine’s side. I was just in time to catch her in my
arms as she fainted away. Before she recovered, the landau, with the
rest of the party, came up. I saw her in the hands of her mother, and
then giving reins to Arab, under pretence of sending medical aid, but in
reality to escape the gratulations of the company, I dashed off.
When I entered the drawing-room before dinner, there was no one in the
apartment but the Lady Katharine. She looked pale, but on recognizing
me, a deep blush suffused her cheek and brow, while her eye lit up for
the instant, with an expression of dewy tenderness that made every vein
in my body thrill. But these traces of emotion passed as rapidly as they
came, leaving her manner as it usually was, only that there was an
unnatural restraint about it, as if her feelings of gratitude were
struggling with others of a different character. She rose, however, and
extended her hand. There was nothing of its usual light tone in her
voice, but an expression of deep seriousness, perhaps emotion, as she
said,
“How shall I ever thank you sufficiently, Mr. Stanhope, for saving my
life?” and that same dewy tenderness again shone from her eyes.
“By never alluding, my dear Lady Katharine, to this day’s occurrence. I
have only done what every other gentleman would have done.”
She sighed. Was she thinking of the tardiness of the duke? I thought so,
and sighed too. She looked up suddenly, with her large full eyes fixed
on me, as if she would read my very soul; while a deep roseate blush
suffused her face and crimsoned even her shoulders and bosom. There was
something in that look that changed the whole current of my convictions,
and bid me hope. In the impulse of the moment, I took her hand. Again
that conscious blush rushed over her cheek and bosom; but this time her
eyes sought the ground. My brain reeled. At length I found words, and,
in burning language poured forth my hopes and fears, and told the tale
of my love. I ceased; her bosom heaved wildly, but she did not answer. I
still knelt at her feet. At length she said,
“Rise.”
There was something in the tone, rather than in the word, which assured
me I was beloved. If I needed further confirmation of this it was given
in the look of confiding tenderness with which she gazed an instant on
me, and then averted her eyes tremblingly. I stole my arm around her,
and drew her gently toward me. In a moment she looked up again half
reproachfully, and gently disengaged herself from my embrace.
“We have been playing a part, dear Lady Katharine!” said I, still
retaining her hand.
A gay smile, for the instant, shot over her face, but was lost as
quickly in the tenderness which was now its prevailing expression, as
she said,
“I’m afraid we have! But now, Henry, _dear_ Henry, let me steal away,
for one moment, before they descend to dinner.”
I restrained her only to press my first kiss on her odorous lips, and
then she darted from the room, leaving me in a tumult of feelings I
cannot attempt to describe.
The duke had never been the Lady Katharine’s choice, and she had only
waited for him to propose in form to herself personally, to give him a
decided refusal. Although I was but the heir of a commoner—of a wealthy
and ancient family it is true; and he was the possessor of a dukedom,
she had loved me, as I had loved her, from the first moment we had met.
The duke had been backed by her parents, but when we both waited on
them, and told them that our happiness depended on their consent, they
sacrificed rank to the peace of their daughter, and gave it without
reluctance. Before winter came the Lady Katharine was my Bride.
J. H. D.
* * * * *
[Illustration:
W. H. Bartlett., A. J. Dick.
CENTRE HARBOUR.
(Lake Winnipisseogee)
_Engraved expressly for Graham’s Magazine_]
* * * * *
CENTRE HARBOR, N. H.
This town is situated on one of the three bays jutting out at the
north-western extremity of Lake Winnipiseogee—a sheet of water situated
near the centre of New Hampshire, and celebrated for its picturesque
beauty. The lake is diversified with innumerable islands and
promontories. It is seen, perhaps, to the best advantage from Red Hill,
whence a magic landscape of hill, island and water stretches far away
beneath the beholder’s feet. The name of Winnipiseogee signifies in the
Indian language “the beautiful lake.”
The view from Centre Harbor has always won the admiration of tourists,
there being a quiet beauty about it which few can resist. The best view
is from the highlands back of the town. The place itself is small, and
lies immediately beneath the gazer’s feet; but the lake, diversified
with its green islands, and shut in by its rolling hills, instantly
arrests the eye. In the quiet of a summer noon, or under a clear moonlit
sky, there is a depth of repose brooding over the scene which seems akin
to magic.
The lake is, in some places, unfathomable, but abounds with fish. At
present it boasts little navigation, for the comparatively thinly
scattered population on its borders has not yet ruffled its quiet waters
with the keels of commerce. It is yet protected from the ravages of
utilitarianism; and the lover of the picturesque will pray that it may
long continue so.
* * * * *
THE MASK OF THE RED DEATH.
A FANTASY.
BY EDGAR A. POE.
The “Red Death” had long devastated the country. No pestilence had been
ever so fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its Avator and its seal—the
redness and the horror of blood. There were sharp pains, and sudden
dizziness, and then profuse bleedings at the pores, with dissolution.
The scarlet stains upon the body and especially upon the face of the
victim, were the pest-ban which shut him out from the aid and from the
sympathy of his fellow-men. And the whole seizure, progress and
termination of the disease were the incidents of half an hour.
But the Prince Prospero was happy and dauntless, and sagacious. When his
dominions were half depopulated, he summoned to his presence a thousand
hale and light-hearted friends from among the knights and dames of his
court, and with these retired to the deep seclusion of one of his
castellated abbeys. This was an extensive and magnificent structure, the
creation of the prince’s own eccentric yet august taste. A strong and
lofty wall girdled it in. This wall had gates of iron. The courtiers,
having entered, brought furnaces and massy hammers and welded the bolts.
They resolved to leave means neither of ingress or egress to the sudden
impulses of despair from without or of frenzy from within. The abbey was
amply provisioned. With such precautions the courtiers might bid
defiance to contagion. The external world could take care of itself. In
the meantime it was folly to grieve, or to think. The prince had
provided all the appliances of pleasure. There were buffoons, there were
improvisatori, there were ballêt-dancers, there were musicians, there
were cards, there was Beauty, there was wine. All these and security
were within. Without was the “Red Death.”
It was towards the close of the fifth or sixth month of his seclusion,
and while the pestilence raged most furiously abroad, that the Prince
Prospero entertained his thousand friends at a masked ball of the most
unusual magnificence. It was a voluptuous scene that masquerade.
But first let me tell of the rooms in which it was held. There were
seven—an imperial suite. In many palaces, however, such suites form a
long and straight vista, while the folding doors slide back nearly to
the walls on either hand, so that the view of the whole extent is
scarcely impeded. Here the case was very different; as might have been
expected from the duke’s love of the _bizarre_. The apartments were so
irregularly disposed that the vision embraced but little more than one
at a time. There was a sharp turn at every twenty or thirty yards, and
at each turn a novel effect. To the right and left, in the middle of
each wall, a tall and narrow Gothic window looked out upon a closed
corridor which pursued the windings of the suite. These windows were of
stained glass whose color varied in accordance with the prevailing hue
of the decorations of the chamber into which it opened. That at the
eastern extremity was hung, for example, in blue—and vividly blue were
its windows. The second chamber was purple in its ornaments and
tapestries, and here the panes were purple. The third was green
throughout, and so were the casements. The fourth was furnished and
litten with orange—the fifth with white—the sixth with violet. The
seventh apartment was closely shrouded in black velvet tapestries that
hung all over the ceiling and down the walls, falling in heavy folds
upon a carpet of the same material and hue. But, in this chamber only,
the color of the windows failed to correspond with the decorations. The
panes here were scarlet—a deep blood color. Now in no one of the seven
apartments was there any lamp or candelabrum, amid the profusion of
golden ornaments that lay scattered to and fro or depended from the
roof. There was no light of any kind emanating from lamp or candle
within the suite of chambers. But in the corridors that followed the
suite, there stood, opposite to each window, a heavy tripod, bearing a
brasier of fire that projected its rays through the tinted glass and so
glaringly illumined the room. And thus were produced a multitude of
gaudy and fantastic appearances. But in the western or black chamber the
effect of the fire-light that streamed upon the dark hangings through
the blood-tinted panes, was ghastly in the extreme, and produced so wild
a look upon the countenances of those who entered, that there were few
of the company bold enough to set foot within its precincts at all.
It was in this apartment, also, that there stood against the western
wall, a gigantic clock of ebony. Its pendulum swung to and fro with a
dull, heavy, monotonous clang; and when its minute-hand made the circuit
of the face, and the hour was to be stricken, there came forth from the
brazen lungs of the clock a sound which was clear and loud and deep and
exceedingly musical, but of so peculiar a note and emphasis that, at
each lapse of an hour, the musicians in the orchestra were constrained
to pause, momently, in their performance, to hearken to the sound; and
thus the waltzers perforce ceased their evolutions; and there was a
brief disconcert of the whole gay company; and, while the chimes of the
clock yet rang, it was observed that the giddiest grew pale, and that
the more aged and sedate passed their hands over their brows as if in
confused reverie or meditation. But when the echoes had fully ceased, a
light laughter at once pervaded the assembly; the musicians looked at
each other and smiled as if at their own nervousness and folly, and made
whispering vows, each to the other, that the next chiming of the clock
should produce in them no similar emotion; and then, after the lapse of
sixty minutes, (which embrace three thousand and six hundred seconds of
the Time that flies,) there came yet another chiming of the clock, and
then there were the same disconcert and tremulousness and meditation as
before.
But, in spite of these things, it was a gay and magnificent revel. The
tastes of the duke were peculiar. He had a fine eye for colors and
effects. He disregarded the _decora_ of mere fashion. His plans were
bold and fiery, and his conceptions glowed with barbaric lustre. There
are some who would have thought him mad. His followers felt that he was
not. It was necessary to hear and see and touch him to be _sure_ that he
was not.
He had directed, in great part, the moveable embellishments of the seven
chambers, upon occasion of this great _fête_, and it was his own guiding
taste which had given character to the costumes of the masqueraders. Be
sure they were grotesque. There were much glare and glitter and piquancy
and phantasm—much of what has been since seen in “Hernani.” There were
arabesque figures with unsuited limbs and appointments. There were
delirious fancies such as the madman fashions. There was much of the
beautiful, much of the wanton, much of the _bizarre_, something of the
terrible, and not a little of that which might have excited disgust. To
and fro in the seven chambers there stalked, in fact, a multitude of
dreams. And these, the dreams—writhed in and about, taking hue from the
rooms, and causing the wild music of the orchestra to seem as the echo
of their steps. And, anon, there strikes the ebony clock which stands in
the hall of the velvet. And then, momently, all is still, and all is
silent save the voice of the clock. The dreams are stiff-frozen as they
stand. But the echoes of the chime die away—they have endured but an
instant—and a light, half-subdued laughter floats after them as they
depart. And now again the music swells, and the dreams live, and writhe
to and fro more merrily than ever, taking hue from the many-tinted
windows through which stream the rays from the tripods. But to the
chamber which lies most westwardly of the seven there are now none of
the maskers who venture; for the night is waning away; and there flows a
ruddier light through the blood-colored panes; and the blackness of the
sable drapery appals; and to him whose foot falls upon the sable carpet,
there comes from the near clock of ebony a muffled peal more solemnly
emphatic than any which reaches _their_ ears who indulge in the more
remote gaieties of the other apartments.
But these other apartments were densely crowded, and in them beat
feverishly the heart of life. And the revel went whirlingly on, until at
length was sounded the twelfth hour upon the clock. And then the music
ceased, as I have told; and the evolutions of the waltzers were quieted;
and there was an uneasy cessation of all things as before. But now there
were twelve strokes to be sounded by the bell of the clock; and thus it
happened, perhaps, that more of thought crept, with more of time, into
the meditations of the thoughtful among those who revelled. And thus,
again, it happened, perhaps, that before the last echoes of the last
chime had utterly sunk into silence, there were many individuals in the
crowd who had found leisure to become aware of the presence of a masked
figure which had arrested the attention of no single individual before.
And the rumor of this new presence having spread itself whisperingly
around, there arose at length from the whole company a buzz, or murmur,
expressive at first of disapprobation and surprise—then, finally, of
terror, of horror, and of disgust.
In an assembly of phantasms such as I have painted, it may well be
supposed that no ordinary appearance could have excited such sensation.
In truth the masquerade license of the night was nearly unlimited; but
the figure in question had out-Heroded Herod, and gone beyond the bounds
of even the prince’s indefinite decorum. There are chords in the hearts
of the most reckless which cannot be touched without emotion. Even with
the utterly lost, to whom life and death are equally jests, there _are_
matters of which no jest can be properly made. The whole company,
indeed, seemed now deeply to feel that in the costume and bearing of the
stranger neither wit nor propriety existed. The figure was tall and
gaunt, and shrouded from head to foot in the habiliments of the grave.
The mask which concealed the visage was made so nearly to resemble the
countenance of a stiffened corpse that the closest scrutiny must have
had difficulty in detecting the cheat. And yet all this might have been
endured, if not approved, by the mad revellers around. But the mummer
had gone so far as to assume the type of the Red Death. His vesture was
dabbled in _blood_—and his broad brow, with all the features of the
face, was besprinkled with the scarlet horror.
When the eyes of the Prince Prospero fell upon this spectral image
(which with a slow and solemn movement, as if more fully to sustain its
_rôle_, stalked to and fro among the waltzers) he was seen to be
convulsed, in the first moment, with a strong shudder either of terror
or distaste; but, in the next, his brow reddened with rage.
“Who dares?” he demanded hoarsely of the group that stood around him,
“who dares thus to make mockery of our woes? Uncase the varlet that we
may know whom we have to hang to-morrow at sunrise from the battlements.
Will no one stir at my bidding?—stop him and strip him, I say, of those
reddened vestures of sacrilege!”
It was in the eastern or blue chamber in which stood the Prince Prospero
as he uttered these words. They rang throughout the seven rooms loudly
and clearly—for the prince was a bold and robust man, and the music had
become hushed at the waving of his hand.
It was in the blue room where stood the prince, with a group of pale
courtiers by his side. At first, as he spoke, there was a slight rushing
movement of this group in the direction of the intruder, who at the
moment was also near at hand, and now, with deliberate and stately step,
made closer approach to the speaker. But from a certain nameless awe
with which the mad assumptions of the mummer had inspired the whole
party, there were found none who put forth hand to seize him; so that,
unimpeded, he passed within a yard of the prince’s person; and, while
the vast assembly, as if with one impulse, shrank from the centres of
the rooms to the walls, he made his way uninterruptedly, but with the
same solemn and measured step which had distinguished him from the
first, through the blue chamber to the purple—through the purple to the
green—through the green to the orange,—through this again to the
white—and even thence to the violet, ere a decided movement had been
made to arrest him. It was then, however, that the Prince Prospero,
maddening with rage and the shame of his own momentary cowardice, rushed
hurriedly through the six chambers—while none followed him on account
of a deadly terror that had seized upon all. He bore aloft a drawn
dagger, and had approached, in rapid impetuosity, to within three or
four feet of the retreating figure, when the latter, having attained the
extremity of the velvet apartment, turned suddenly round and confronted
his pursuer. There was a sharp cry—and the dagger dropped gleaming upon
the sable carpet, upon which instantly afterwards, fell prostrate in
death the Prince Prospero. Then, summoning the wild courage of despair,
a throng of the revellers at once threw themselves into the black
apartment, and, seizing the mummer, whose tall figure stood erect and
motionless within the shadow of the ebony clock, gasped in unutterable
horror at finding the grave-cerements and corpse-like mask which they
handled with so violent a rudeness, untenanted by any tangible form.
And now was acknowledged the presence of the Red Death. He had come like
a thief in the night. And one by one dropped the revellers in the
blood-bedewed halls of their revel, and died each in the despairing
posture of his fall. And the life of the ebony clock went out with that
of the last of the gay. And the flames of the tripods expired. And
Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all.
* * * * *
SPRING’S ADVENT.
BY PARK BENJAMIN.
From Winter into Spring the Year has passed
As calm and noiseless as the snow and dew—
The pearls and diamonds which adorn his robes—
Melt in the morning, when the solar beam
Touches the foliage like a glittering wand.
Blue is the sky above, the wave below;
Slow through the ether glide transparent clouds
Just wafted by the breeze, as on the sea
White sails are borne in graceful ease along.
Lifting its green spears through the hardened ground
The grass is seen; though yet no verdant shields,
United over head in one bright roof,—
Like that which rose above the serried ranks
Of Roman legions in the battle plain—
Defend it from assailing sun and shower.
In guarded spots alone young buds expand,
Nor yet on slopes along the Southward sides
Of gentle mountains have the flowers unveiled
Their maiden blushes to the eyes of Day.
It is the season when Fruition fails
To smile on Hope, who, lover-like, attends
Long-promised joys and distant, dear delights.
It is the season when the heart awakes
As from deep slumber, and, alive to all
The soft, sweet feelings that from lovely forms
Like odors float, receives them to itself
And fondly garners with a miser’s care,
Lest in the busy intercourse of life,
They, like untended roses, should retain
No fragrant freshness and no dewy bloom.
To me the coming of the Spring is dear
As to the sailor the first wind from land
When, after some long voyage, he descries
The far, faint outline of his native coast.
Rocked by the wave, when grandly rose the gale,
He thought how peaceful was the calm on shore.
Rocked by the wave, when died the gale away,
He dreamed of quiet he should find at home.
So, when I heard the Wintry storm abroad,
So, when upon my window beat the rain,
Or when I felt the piercing, arrowy frost,
Or, looking forth, beheld the frequent snow,
Falling as mutely as the steps of Time,
I longed for thy glad advent, and resigned
My spirit to the gloom that Nature wore,
In contemplation of the laughing hours
That follow in thy train, delicious Spring!
* * * * *
PROCRASTINATION.
BY MRS. M. H. PARSONS.
“To-morrow, I will do it to-morrow,” was the curse of Lucy Clifton’s
life. When a child, she always had it in view to make such charming
little dresses—to-morrow. When girlhood came her lessons were never
perfect,—“only excuse me this once mamma, and I will never put off my
lessons again!” The pleader was lovely, and engaging, mamma was weakly
indulgent; Lucy was forgiven and the fault grew apace, until she rarely
did any thing to-day, that could be put off till to-morrow. She was a
wife, and the mother of two children, at the period our story commences.
With a cultivated mind, most engaging manners, and great beauty of form,
and features, Lucy had already lost all influence over the mind of her
husband, and was fast losing her hold on his affections. She had been
married when quite young, as so many American girls unfortunately are,
and with a character scarcely formed, had been thrown into situations of
emergency and trial she was very unprepared to encounter. Her husband
was a physician, had been but a year or two in practice, at the time of
their marriage. William Clifton was a young man of fine abilities, and
most excellent character; of quick temper, and impatient, he was ever
generous, and ready to acknowledge his fault. When he married Lucy, he
thought her as near perfection as it was possible for a woman to be;
proportionate was his disappointment, at finding the evil habit of
procrastination, almost inherent in her nature from long indulgence,
threatening to overturn the whole fabric of domestic happiness his fancy
had delighted to rear. There was no order in his household, no comfort
by his fireside; and oftimes when irritated to bitter anger, words
escaped the husband, that fell crushingly on the warm, affectionate
heart of the wife. The evil habit of procrastination had “grown with her
growth” no parental hand, kind in its severity, had lopped off the
excrescence, that now threatened to destroy her peace, that shadowed by
its evil consequences her otherwise fair and beautiful character. In
Lucy’s sphere of life there was necessity for much self-exertion, and
active superintendance over the affairs of her household. They lived
retired; economy and good management were essential to render the
limited income Doctor Clifton derived from his practice fully adequate
to their support—that income was steadily on the increase, and his
friends deemed the day not far distant, when he would rise to eminence
in his profession. Lucy’s father, a man of considerable wealth, but
large family, had purchased a house, furnished it, and presented it to
Lucy; she was quite willing to limit her visiting circle to a few
friends, as best suited with their present means. Surely William Clifton
was not unreasonable, when he looked forward to a life of domestic
happiness, with his young and tenderly nurtured bride. He could not know
that her many bright excelling virtues of character would be dimmed, by
the growth of the _one fault_, until a shadow lay on the pathway of his
daily life. If _mothers_ could lift the dim curtain of the future, and
read the destiny of their children, they would see neglected faults,
piercing like sharp adders the bosoms that bore them, and reproach
mingling with the agony, that she, who had moulded their young minds,
had not done her work aright!
It was four years after their marriage, Doctor Clifton entered the
nursery hurriedly.
“Lucy my dear, will you have my things in order by twelve o’clock? I
must leave home for two days, perhaps longer, if I find the patient I am
called to see very ill.”
“Yes, yes! I will see to them. What shall I do with the child, William,
he is so very fretful? How I wish I had given him the medicine
yesterday; he is very troublesome!”
“If you think he needs it, give it to him at once;” said her husband
abruptly, “and don’t I beg Lucy forget my clothes.” He left the room,
and Lucy tried to hush baby to sleep, but baby would not go, then the
nurse girl who assisted her could not keep him quiet, and the mother, as
she had often been before, became bewildered, and at a loss what to do
first.
“If you please ma’am what am I to get for dinner?” said the cook, the
only servant they kept in the kitchen, putting her head in at the door,
and looking round with a half smile, on the littered room, and squalling
baby.
“Directly, I shall be down directly Betty, I must first get baby to
sleep.”
“Very well ma’am,” was the reply, and going down an hour afterwards,
Mrs. Clifton found Betty with her feet stretched out and her arms folded
one over the other, comfortably seated before an open window, intent in
watching, and enjoying the movements of every passer-by.
“Betty, Betty!” said her mistress angrily, “have you nothing to do, that
you sit so idly here?”
“I waited for orders, ma’am.” Dinner was an hour back, Lucy assisted for
a short time herself, and then went up stairs to arrange Clifton’s
clothes. Baby was screaming terribly, and Lucy half terrified did
_yesterday’s_ work, by giving him a dose of medicine. So the morning
sped on. Clifton came in at the appointed time.
“Are my clothes in readiness, Lucy?”
She colored with vexation, and shame. “The baby has been very cross; I
have not indeed had time. But I will go now.” Clifton went down to his
solitary dinner, and when he returned found Lucy busy with her needle;
it was evident even to his unskilled eye there was much to be done.
“It is impossible to wait. Give me the things as they are; I am so
accustomed to wearing my shirts without buttons, and my stockings with
holes in, that I shall find it nothing new—nor more annoying than I
daily endure.” He threw the things carelessly into his carpet-bag, and
left the room, nor did he say one kindly word in farewell, or affection.
It was this giving away to violent anger, and using harsh language to
his wife that had broken her spirit, almost her heart. She never even
thought of reforming herself; she grieved bitterly, but hopelessly.
Surely it is better when man and wife are joined together by the tie
that “no man may put asunder,” to strive seriously, and in affection to
correct one another’s faults? There is scarcely any defect of character,
that a husband, by taking the right method may not cure; always
providing his wife is not unprincipled. But he must be very patient;
bear for a season; add to judicious counsel much tenderness and
affection; making it clear to her mind that love for herself and
solicitude for their mutual happiness are the objects in view. Hard in
heart, and with little of woman’s devotion unto him to whom her faith is
plighted, must the wife be who could long resist. Not such an one was
Lucy Clifton; but her husband in the stormy revulsion of feeling that
had attended the first breaking up of his domestic happiness, had done
injustice to her mind, to the sweetness of disposition that had borne
all his anger without retorting in like manner. If Clifton was conscious
of his own quickness of temper, approaching to violence, he did not for
one moment suppose, that _he_ was the cause of any portion of the misery
brooding over his daily path. He attributed it all to the
procrastinating spirit of Lucy, and upon her head he laid the blame with
no unsparing hand. He forgot that she had numbered twenty years, and was
the mother of two children; that her situation was one of exertion, and
toil under the most favorable circumstances; that he was much her
senior, had promised to cherish her tenderly. Yet the first harsh word
that dwelt on Lucy’s heart was from the lips of her husband! How
tenderly in years long gone had she been nurtured! The kind arm of a
father had guided and guarded her; the tender voice of a mother had
lighted on her path like sunshine—and now? Oh ye, who would crush the
spirit of the young and gentle, instead of leading it tenderly by a
straight path in the way of wisdom—go down into the breaking heart and
learn its agony; its desolation, when the fine feelings of a wasted
nature go in upon the brain and consume it!
One morning Clifton entered the nursery, “Lucy,” he said; “my old
classmate, and very dear friend Walter Eustace is in town. He came
unexpectedly; his stay is short; I should like to ask him to spend the
day with me. Could you manage, love, to have the time pass _comfortably_
to my friend?” Lucy felt all the meaning conveyed in the emphasis on a
word that from his lips sounded almost formidable in her ears.
“I will do what I can,” she answered sadly.
“Do not scruple Lucy to get assistance. Have every thing ready _in
time_, and do not fail in having order, and good arrangement. There was
a time Lucy, when Eustace heard much of you; I should be gratified to
think he found the wife worthy of the praise the lover lavished so
freely upon her. Sing for us to-night—it is long since the piano was
opened!—and look, and smile as you once did, in the days that are gone,
but not forgotten Lucy.” His voice softened unconsciously, he had gone
back to that early time, when love of Lucy absorbed every feeling of his
heart. He sighed; the stern, and bitter realities of his life came with
their heavy weight upon him, and there was no balm in the future, for
the endurance of present evils.
He turned and left the room; Lucy’s eye followed him, and as the door
closed she murmured—“_not_ forgotten! Oh, Clifton how little reason I
have to believe you!” Lucy was absorbed in her own thoughts so long as
to be unconscious of the flight of time. When she roused, she thought
she would go down stairs and see what was to be done, but her little boy
asked her some question, which she stopped to answer; half an hour more
elapsed before she got to the kitchen. She told Betty she meant to hire
a cook for the morrow—thought she had better go at once and engage
one—yet, no, on second thoughts, she might come with her to the parlors
and assist in arranging them; it would be quite time enough to engage
the cook when they were completed. To the parlors they went, and Lucy
was well satisfied with the result of their labor—but mark her comment:
“What a great while we have been detained here; well, I am sure I have
meant this three weeks to clean the parlors, but never could find time.
If I could but manage to attend them every day, they would never get so
out of order.”