signifies not which. The throne is _not vacant_--after them
comes an infant; will you condemn the innocent?
"'What blood now cries out against him? Can you say it is
that of his father? That orphan educated in the school of his
country, in attachment to a constitutional throne, and in
the ideas of his age, will become a king in harmony with the
cravings of the future. It is to the guardian of his infancy
that you would first tender the oath to be faithful to it.
Arrived at mature years, he would himself renew it. The king
at this moment, the real king for a time, would be the Duke of
Orleans, the regent of the kingdom; a prince who has lived near
the people, and who knows that the monarchy now can only be a
monarchy of concession and reason. That combination, so natural,
so obvious, appears a main element in reconciliation, and would
save France from the convulsions which are the consequence of
violent changes in a state.
"'To say that this infant, separated from his masters, would not
have leisure to forget their precepts before becoming a man: to
say that he would remain infatuated by certain dogmas of his
birth, after a long popular education, after the terrible lesson
which has discrowned two kings in two nights: is that reasonable?
"'It is neither from a sentimental devotion, nor the affection
of a nurse for the cradle of Henry IV., that I plead a cause
where all would turn against me if it triumphed. I am neither
influenced by the ideas of romance nor of chivalry: I do not
desire the crown of martyrdom. I do not believe in the divine
right of kings: I am alive to the power of revolutions, and the
evidence of facts. I do not even invoke the charter: I ascend
to a higher source. I draw my principles from the philosophic
ideas of the age in which my life expires: I propose the Duke of
Bordeaux simply as a necessity preferable to the Duke of Orleans.
"'You proclaim the sovereignty of force. It is well. _Look
carefully after it: guard it well; for, if it escapes you,
who will pity your lot?_ Such is human nature. The most
enlightened minds are not always raised above the temptations
of success. The _esprits forts_ were the first to invoke the
right of violence; they supported it by all the force of their
talents; and at the moment when the truth of what they said is
demonstrated by the abuse of that force, and its overthrow,
the conquerors seize the weapon they have broken! Dangerous
trophies, which may wound the hand which seized them.
"'A useless Cassandra, I have fatigued the throne and the
country sufficiently with my disdained predictions: it remains
for me only to seat myself on the remains of the wreck which I
have so often predicted. I recognise in misfortune every power
except that of absolving us from our oaths. I must render my
life uniform: after all I have written, said, and done for the
Bourbons, I should be the basest of the base if I deserted them
when for the third time they bend their steps into exile.
"'Far from me be the thought of casting the seeds of division
into France: thence it is that I have avoided in my discourse
the language of the passions. If I had the firm conviction that
an infant should be left in the obscure and tranquil ranks of
life, to secure the repose of thirty-three millions of men, I
should have regarded any opinion expressed against the declared
wishes of the age as a crime. I have no such conviction. If I
was entitled to dispose of the crown, I should willingly lay it
at the feet of the Duke of Orleans. But I have no such right. I
see no place vacant but a tomb at St Denis, and not a throne.
"'Whatever destinies may attend the lieutenant-general of the
kingdom, I shall never be his enemy, if he acts for the good of
his country. I only ask to be allowed to preserve the freedom of
my conscience, and to go and leave my bones where I shall find
independence and repose. I vote against the motion.'"--Vol. ix.
386-388.
Chateaubriand was as good as his word. He resigned all his
appointments, even his pension of £600 a-year as Peer of France: he
sold off all his effects, which scarcely paid his debts: he refused
the offer of Charles X. to restore that pension out of the wreck
of that Prince's own fortune: he set out again penniless on the
pilgrimage of life: and till his death, in 1848, supported himself
entirely by his literary talents.
Such was honour in the olden time. We do not say that it would not
find imitators, on a similar crisis, on this side of the Channel: we
believe it would find many. But this we do say, that it would find
them only among those who are imbued with the ancient ideas, among
whom, whether patrician or plebeian, the spirit of chivalry is not
extinct. It will not be found among the worshippers of mammon, or
the slaves of interest. Woe to the nation by whom such feelings are
classed with the age of the mammoth and the mastodon! It has entered
the gulf of destruction, for it deserves to be destroyed.
THE GREEN HAND.
A "SHORT" YARN.
PART XI.
"Well, ma'am," continued our narrator, addressing himself, as usual,
to his matronly relative in the chair, and with the accustomed
catch-word, which was like the knotting together of his interrupted
yarn: "well--it was between a fortnight and three weeks after losing
sight of St Helena, that, being at last fairly in the latitude of
the Cape, the frigate and schooner tacked in company, and stood
close-hauled on a wind to the eastward. By the middle watch that
night, when the moon set, we could make out the long flat top of
Table Mountain heaving in sight off the horizon over against her.
Next day, in fact, we were both of us quietly at anchor outside of
the shipping in Table Bay; Cape Town glittering along on the green
flat amongst the trees to southward, with the hills on each side
of it like some big African lion lying on guard close by; while
Table Mountain hove up, square-shouldered, blue to the left, four
thousand feet high, as bare and steep as a wall, with the rocks and
trees creeping up from the foot, and the wreaths of light cloud
resting halfway, like nothing else but the very breakwater of the
world's end. The sea stretched broad off to north and west, and
a whole fleet of craft lay betwixt us and the land--half of them
Indiamen--amongst which, you may be sure, I kept a pretty sharp
look-out with the glass, to see if the Seringapatam were there still.
I was soon saved further pains on this head, however, when shortly
afterwards the frigate was beset by a whole squadron of bumboats,
shoving against each other, and squabbling, in all sorts of Nigger
tongues, who should be first: the chief of them being in evident
command of a fat old Dutch Frouw, with an immense blue umbrella
over her, two greasy-looking Hottentot rowers in blankets, and a
round-faced Dutch boy, the picture of herself, steering the boat; as
the old lady made a clear berth for herself, by laying about with
her blue umbrella, till she was close under our quarter, sitting all
the while with the broad round stern of her bright-coloured gown
spread over a couple of beer-barrels, like a peacock's train. In
two minutes more the little fellow was up the side, flourishing a
bundle of papers under the first lieutenant's very nose, and asking
the ship's custom, even whilst the sentries were ordering them all
off. A midshipman took this youth by the cuff of the neck, and
was handing him rather roughly along to the care of the purser's
steward, when I stepped betwixt them; and a bumboat being the best
directory on the point, of course, I soon found the old lady had
had dealings with the Seringapatam, which her bluff-built little
progeny described as a very good ship indeed, all having paid their
bills, except one young officer, who had left a balance standing,
for which he had given a letter to his brother in a ship that was
to come after. As for the Indiaman herself, the Dutch boy said she
had sailed about a week before our arrival, along with two others;
and he was anxious to know if we were the vessel in question. I
accordingly unfolded the open letter, which was addressed,--"Thomas
Spoonbill Simm, Esquire, of His Britannic Majesty's ship Nincompoop,
(or otherwise;") and it ran somehow thus:--"_Hon. East India
Company's ship Seringapatam, Table Bay, September 1, 1816._--My
dear Brother, This is to certify, that I have eaten four dozen and
a half of eggs, supplied by the worthy Vrouw Dulcken, the bearer
of this, whom I can recommend as an old screw, and am due her for
the same the sum of nine shillings and sixpence sterling, which you
will kindly pay her, taking her receipt or mark, unless you are
willing to forfeit our family watch, herewith deposited by me in
the hands of said Mother Dulcken. I may add that, in justice to the
worthy Vrouw, three of the above-mentioned eggs ought to be charged
as _fowls_, which, by the way, I did not consume; and, with love
to all at home, remain your affectionate brother, JOHN SIMM, H.
E. I. C. S.--_P. S._ The watch I have discovered to be pinchbeck,
and it does not go; so that a sad trick must have been originally
played upon our venerated Uncle, from whom it descended. J. S." This
precious epistle was, without doubt, a joke of the fat mid. Simm,
who used to come such rigs over Ford the cadet, and that jumped
overboard one night by mistake out of the Indiaman's quarter-boat,
during the voyage. As for the existence of his brother Thomas,
or the chance of his touching at that port, I set them down with
the coming home of Vanderdecken; though the thought of this young
scamp of a sea-lawyer breakfasting for a fortnight so comfortably,
only a few feet distant from my charmer's state-room, sent me all
abroad again, and right into the Indiaman's decks, by this time far
out of sight of land. Piece of impudent roguery though it was, I
was actually loath to part with the scrawl, which the reefer had
fisted, no doubt, on the lid of his chest--probably with a pipe
in his mouth at the time, it smelt so of tobacco--only seven days
before. I could even see the grin on his fat face as he wrote it
below in the steerage, with his chin up, and his eyes looking down
past his pipe; while the little Dutch boy's round flat frontispiece
glistened as he peered up at me, in the evident notion of my being
the brother expected. In fact, ma'am, I was so soft as to intend
paying the nine-and-sixpence myself, and keeping the letter, when
I was startled to see the old lady herself had contrived to be
hoisted on board amongst her cabbages; and having got wind of the
thing, seemingly, she came waddling towards me to hand over Simm's
watch to boot. In another half minute the letter was being read
aloud in the midst of the whole gun-room officers, amongst roars
of laughter; the honest old Dutchwoman holding aloft the precious
article, and floundering through to find out the rightful owner, as
every one claimed it and offered the nine-and-sixpence; while for my
part I tried first to get down one hatchway, then another, and Lord
Frederick himself came up on the starboard side of the quarterdeck
in the height of the scene. Indeed, I believe it was a joke for
months after in the Hebe, of a night, to say it was "the second
lieutenant's watch;" the sole revenge I had being to leave Mother
Dulcken and her boy to expect the "ship that was coming after."
A Government boat came aboard in the afternoon, and as soon as it
left us, Lord Frederick took his gig, and steered for a frigate
lying some distance off, which had the harbour flag hoisted at her
main, being the only man-o'-war besides ourselves, and commanded
by a senior captain. Till it got dark I could see the crews of the
nearest merchantmen looking over their bulwarks at us and our prize,
apparently comparing the schooner with the frigate, and speculating
on her character, as she lay a few fathoms off the Hebe's quarter,
both of us rising and falling in turn on the long heave of the
Cape swell from seaward. 'Twas hard to say, in fact, so far as
their hulls went, which was the most beautiful sample of its kind;
though the schooner's French-fashioned sticks and off-hand sort
of rigging, showed rather like jury-gear beside the tall regular
sticks aloft of the Hebe's decks, with all her hamper perfect to
a tee. The Hebe's men very naturally considered their own ship a
model for everything that floated, a sort of a Solomon's temple, in
short; and to hear the merciless way they ran down the Indiamen all
round, would have raised the whole homeward-bound fleet against us;
whereas the schooner was our own, at any rate, and she was spoken of
much in the manner one mentions an unfortunate orphan, as good as
already christened by the name of "the Young Hebe." This our learned
chaplain said was quite improper, and he gave another name in place
of it--the "Aniceta"--which meant, as he observed, the Hebe's
youngest daughter; so the Aniceta she was called, happening to be a
title that went, according to the boatswain, full as sweetly through
the sheave-hole.
Next day the schooner had landed not only her passengers from St
Helena, but the prisoners also, as we still understood the French
and their Kroomen to be. Not long after that Lord Frederick came
back from Cape Town, looking grave, and went straight down to his
cabin, or "cabins," as his lordship preferred to have it said. The
first lieutenant dined that day with the captain; but they could
scarcely have finished when the "young gentlemen" who had been
as usual from the reefer's mess, came up with a message from the
captain, that his lordship would be glad if I would join the first
lieutenant and himself in a glass of wine. I found them sitting at
the side of the table nearest the open port, with the decanters
between them, and the broad bright bay in full sight to the shore
and the foot of Table Mountain, which rose up blocking the port with
the top of it beyond view; the sounds of the merchantmen clicking at
their heavy windlasses, and hoisting in water-casks, floated slowly
in from every side, while the schooner had hauled on her cable more
abreast of the frigate, leaving the sight clear over the eddy round
her low counter.
"A lovely piece of workmanship, certainly!" observed Lord Frederick
thoughtfully, as he leant back swinging his eyeglass round his
finger, with the other hand in the breast of his waistcoat, and
looking out at what was seen of the schooner. "And how one might
have improved her spars, too!" said Mr Hall, wistfully. "I should
have recommended longer lower-masts altogether, Lord Frederick, and
a thorough overhaul, I may say, from the combings upwards!" "I would
not have her hull touched for the world, Mr Hall!" said the captain;
"'tis too--excessively provoking, at least! But pass the bottles to
Mr Collins, if you please." I had taken a chair and quietly filled
my glass, wondering what could be the matter, when his lordship
turned to me and said, "Do you know, Mr Collins, this schooner of
ours is likely to be laid up in Chancery, heaven knows how long. The
Admiralty court ashore are doubtful of condemning her, apparently,
and she must either be sent home or to Monte Video or somewhere,
where the master of her claims to belong!" "Indeed, my lord," said
I, setting down my glass, "that is curious." "Curious indeed, sir!"
replied he, biting his lips, "though, after all, we really can
scarce say what she is to be condemned for--only in the meantime I
sail to-morrow for India." "She's French to the backbone, that I'll
swear, Lord Frederick!" I said; "and what's more, she was"----"Ah,"
broke in the captain, "I know, I know; but the less we say of
that, in present circumstances, the better! Once get her entangled
with politics, and we may give her up altogether." Lord Frederick
twisted his eyeglass round his forefinger faster than before, still
watching the schooner; the first lieutenant held up his claret
betwixt himself and the light, and I sipped mine. "I tell you what,
gentlemen," exclaimed his lordship suddenly, "I _must_ have that
schooner at any cost!--What is to be done, Mr Hall?" "She'd be of
great service in the China seas, my lord, certainly," said the first
lieutenant, looking thoughtfully into his empty glass; "a perfect
treasure for light service, especially if new sparred and--" I
noticed Lord Frederick glancing sideways at me, as I thought, with a
slight gleam in his eye; and accordingly I suggested that he might
buy her from the Frenchman himself; a very poor idea, no doubt, as
both the captain and first luff seemed to think, and we all three
kept eyeing her doubtfully through the port, without a word.
At this time the schooner's counter had been slowly sheering toward
the frigate's beam, owing to the ebb-tide, and her holding only by a
single cable, till her stern began to show right opposite the cabin,
I should say not twenty feet off. Lord Frederick put his glass to
his eye, and was peering through it, when he remarked that they had
brought up rather too near, leaving scarce room for the schooner to
swing as she did, earlier than we, so that she would be in danger
of getting foul of the frigate's cables. "The worst of it is, Lord
Frederick," said I, "that in case of a gale from seaward here, she
might have to slip and run upon very short warning, whereas the Hebe
has plenty of ground-tackle to let her ride it out. Considering it
was Table Bay, at this season, he ought to have kept her a clearer
berth for herself, or else have gone well outside!"--"Ah!" said
Lord Frederick quickly, meeting my eye for half a minute, till the
gleam came into his again; and somehow or other mine must have
caught it, though I must say the notion that struck me then all at
once wasn't in my head before. "Do you know, that's well thought
of, Collins!" said his lordship. "You've weathered the Cape before,
by the bye?"--"A dozen times, Lord Frederick," said I; when a
regularly jovial roar of laughter broke fair through the port into
the cabin, from over the schooner's taffrail, as she sheered end-on
to the frigate's quarter, and Lord Frederick leant forward with the
glass screwed into his right eye to see along their decks, which
were covered aft with an awning like the open gable of a tent at a
fair. "Singular!" said he; "by the lord Harry, who or what can that
be Mr Hammond has got there?" Dangling over the French schooner's
taffrail were to be seen the soles of two immense boots, with calves
and knees to match, and a pair of tightish striped trousers worked
up more than half way, 'till you saw the tops of the stockings;
just beyond the knees was the face leaning back in the shade of
the awning and a straw hat together, out of which a huge green
cabbage-leaf hung like a flap over one eye, while the other kept
gazing in a half-closed sleepy sort of way at the sky, and the red
end of a cigar winked and glowed in the midst of the puffs of smoke
lower down. The first lieutenant started up shocked at the sight,
the noble captain of the Hebe sat with his eyeglass fixed, between
amusement and wonder; for my own part, when the voice of this same
prodigy broke all of a sudden on us out of the awning, in a mixture
of stuttering, hiccuping, Yankee drawling, and puffs at the cigar,
'twas all I could do to hold on, with the knowledge of where I was.
"W_a_ll now, general," said the American, as if he were talking
to some one aloft or in the sky, "ye-you're qui-quite wrong--I
ki-kick-calc'late I've fit a deal more be-be-battles than you
have--I re-respect you, Ge-Ge-General Washington; but I ho-ho-hope
you know who--hic--whom I am!" Here Mr Daniel Snout, who was in a
state of beastly intoxication, swayed himself up bodily into the
schooner's taffrail, and sat with his arms folded, his long legs
swinging over the stern, and his head trying to keep steady, as he
scowled solemnly aloft over the frigate's mizen-royal-masthead;
while the third lieutenant, Mr Hammond, and the master's mate he had
aboard with him, could be heard laughing at his back, as if they had
gone mad--Hammond being a wild sprig of an Irishman, who would go
any length for a piece of fun.
Just then the American's one eye lighted on the side of the frigate,
till it settled lazily on the port of the captain's cabin: first he
seemed to notice Lord Frederick Bury, and then myself, the first
lieutenant having just recovered himself enough to rush toward
the door to get on deck. Daniel himself surveyed me scornfully
for a moment, then with a sort of doubtful frown, and a gravity
that passes me to describe, unless by the look of an old cock
a-drinking--evidently trying to recollect me. "Hallo, mister!"
shouted he suddenly, "you haven't touched those _notions_ of mine,
I hope." With that he made a spring off where he sat, as if to come
towards us--no doubt thinking of the Seringapatam, and the valuables
he had left aboard, without seeing the water between; and a pretty
deep dive Mr Snout would have made of it, into an ebb-tide that
would have swept him under the frigate's bottom, if Mr Hammond and
the midshipman hadn't both sprung forward in time to catch him by
the neck of the coat. There, accordingly, was the Yankee hanging
like a spread eagle over the schooner's taffrail, yelling and
turning round at the same time like a fowl on a spit--the third
lieutenant's and the mate's faces, two pictures of dismay, as they
held on, at finding for the first time where the schooner had shied
them round to, with their two pairs of eyes fair in front of the
captain's eyeglass,--while Mr Hall was singing out like thunder from
the deck above us, "The schooner ahoy--d'ye see where you've got
to, sir; haul ahead on that cable, d'ye hear, you lubbers, and keep
clear of the ship!"