Lung MR. NIGHTINGALE. " That Matters Not; Only Let Me Go." •T THB ACTHOR of "HOBSON's CHOICB," &C

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CO^(JCT£DBY

WITH WHICH IS l|NICOF\Po^XED

a^^»rri in m rii I "i .n- Tl nji i'^ ^MtNBwSEEUs.j SATUEDAT, AUGUST 2, 1873.

" And where to, may I ask ?'' lUNG MR. NIGHTINGALE. " That matters not; only let me go." •T THB ACTHOR OF "HOBSON'S CHOICB," &C. " To your husband's house, of course. » Overbury Hall is, without doubt, the proper L'i •CHAPTER XXII. HER LADYSHIP. place, the only place, for Lady Overbury JBBTTA"abruptly resumed possesrion of to return to. Where else could she go ?" f(^ded paper, the proof, as she had Rosetta hesitated. Then she tossed her jed, of her marriage with Lord Over- head and stamped her foot impatiently. How strange and unaccounta'jle it There was silence for a few moments. ieemed ! I was speechless, motionless " Let it be so," sbe said at length. " I'll surprise. go back to the hall." 'Let me pass," she said. "I'll not re- " It Avill be best, I think, if your lady­ here a moment longer." ship really feels well enough to undertake [ Jly mother interposed. the journey. His lordship must be already L" Pardon me. YoUi ladyship forgets, I anxious on your ladyship's account. But Ilk, that it is now night, and bitter cold, I can send to the hall to let him know snow deep, the way very dangerous, that you are here In safety, if your lady­ were safer, better, surely, to remain ship Avill honour us by remaining here -at least until the morning. You until the morning." endured much already." "No, I'll go back; at once," Rosetta mother's staid manner and sober said, peevishly. She was nearly crying, I 1—she was really troubled and ex- think. " Perhaps you can send some one I was certain, but she had great to point out the best and nearest way. I'll rer of self-control—appeared to irritate not trouble you to do more than that." 9setta curiously. She Avas losing ber grand manner. "I'll go hence," she said, sharply. " I'll " It is no question of trouble. I'll go with ' stay here to be insulted." you myself," said my mother, promptly. 'Ton mistake, indeed. There is no in- And she rang a bell which communicated Ltention to insult you. I have bidden you with the stables. Hcome. Our poor house is much at your "Mother," I cried, "let me go. It is ihip's service. My brother, Mr. Orme, not fit for you to venture out. The night part, a tenant of Lord Overbury's. is very bitter." But she put me from her •re bound, therefore, if only on that AvItb calm decision. it, to do all we may on behalf of " Your uncle is not here at this moment, Overbury's lady." or it Avould be for him to see her ladyship r mother spoke with an old-fashioned safely to the liaU. In his absence It is aallty and precision ; and there was no my duty to undertake the task. Kem, tell ^pi^ciable lack of respectfulness in ber Truckle to get the covered cart ready and and bearing. Yet her impasslvencss to harness the old chestnut; he's very sure­ Jts galling effect in some way. I felt it footed, and will take us by the doAvu L°"yetf, and Rosetta no less. track Avell enough If Truckle leads him. 111 go," Rosetta repeated, roughly. There is no fear. I knoAv every step of And at once." the Avav. I have been out in worso I ass 31% A li olt [Aut;uht-.MP:.!.] ALL THE YEAR ROUND. [Oondacttd

Aveather than this—and Truckle and the will be back soon. I cannot think chestnut too." has detained bim so late," she wi Kem departed on ber errand. My " You Avill tell him that I havo gone iiiolher took doAvn a large lantern from a and explain the errand I am boiaii high shelf above tbe dresser, and lighted hope to be back before very long, it. Then sbe equijiped herself in a heavy bim that there is no danger. TflMlfim cloak of scarlet cloth Avith a close hood to I have taken Truckle Avith me, and tl it, that hung behind the kitchen door. She chestnut. Kem Avill see to his Avas scon ready for the journey. Keep up good fires." Rosetta sank down again by the kitchen The cart moved off slowly, Avith a lire, and listlessly kicked the fender as she muffled sound as tbe wheels forced gazed into the gloAving coals. Her face Avay along tbe heavy choked path. A\ ore the pouting looks of a vexed child. "Good-bye, Duke," cried She had played out her part. Sbe looked merrily. more herself—the Rosetta of my love. There What an exquisite voice it was! Avus silence for some minutes, broken only by laughed again, and I thought I saw hupj^pfc'''': the loud ticking of the old Dutch clock, the hand waving adieu to me. She seemiift;!!"™'*'''' occasional cracklinjr and rustlinj; of the coals like a child enjoying Its first ride. W^ '^' in the grate, the light silvery sound of falling this acting still? I felt how httle Htijiial*' cinders, and the jarring of Rosetta's foot strange mirth would commend her to my ^ilnn kicking against the iron fender. ^mother's favour. -^ To me there Avas something dreamlike For some time I stood, leaning againrill'/: r about the whole scene. I could not yet the farm-yard gate, watching the depart. j|t fully believe that it was all real and true. ing cart as it jogged and struggled on it>; j; Rosetta—the tight-rope dancer—my Ro­ uneven way, looking jet black upon theiii setta—Lady Overbury ! and seated in front field of dead white it traversed, the lanterak,!, h of our kitchen fire. My mother, standing my mother carried within casting in froaC,,p;en 0 apai-t, cloaked and carrying a lantern, a circle of dim orange light upon the ^. i^ ready to see her ladyship safe back to the snow. I could bear the creaking of tho'.;^'j^( ] hall. And I, leaning against the dresser, spi'ings and the jolting of the wheels, long i^j^gj looking on, bewildered, helpless, dumb. It after I had failed to discern the figure of. tttek Avas all most strange. old Truckle at the chestnut's head andt^ Soon Kem returned to say tbat tbe form of the high hood of the cart. Itwafi,^ covered cart was ready and waiting at the quite out of sight at last, hidden by th^.j^i i' iiirm-yard gate. It could not be drawn shoulder of the down. Yet still I stooil:-,,,' nearer to the house because of tbe snow. listening to the dull sounds of its uneasjt. ,„', Rosetta rose. I approached to assist her progress. 1 almost longed to hear cneij. iu resuming her fur-trimmed mantle, but for assistance—for I knew the snow TOMI,^,|' ' my mother was beforehand with me. She very deep just outside Purrington—thatl., *"' saw herself to the due wrapping-up of her might hasten forward released from mj^-* ^^ ladyship for her night's trip across the promise, and see Rosetta once again 1J35MT down. Again I w^as compelled to be a Yet what madness it was ! What co^ mere useless bystander, forbidden to take she ever be to me? Was she not lost tO|J/j'^* active part in the scene. me for ever? There was shame and siw '''' Rosetta was herself once more. She in even thinking of her. She was Lordn'^.*' turned upon me a most radiant smile. Overbury's wife. The night was bitterly " Good-bye, Duke, and thank you. I cold. I returned to the house, and sat dowwf'*' (p shall never forget this day." She stretched in Rosetta's chair beside the fire, moodn^Pi'iiic forth her hand to me. I pressed it, timidly and vexed, and despondent enough. I liM^'Jyl); and aAvkwardly, I fear. I bad not a word never felt so wretched. 'i ' ^ s: to say. I Avent out with them to the farm­ " And to think of her being a real lady,** ^ VK yard gate. said Kem, "and sitting avore the fire in ^'^tlii Rosetta, declining my aid, sprang lightly my kitchen, warming herself just as yoa -heTf into tbe high cart. or I might do. Master Duke. There, it^'h'je " It reminds me of mounting to the quite mazes me, it does. A pretty crea- 4 tl rope," she whispered, with a musical laugh. ture she was, too; I'll say that for h«jj \ My mother drew me on one side. though not in her ways like the quaUtyivjitfyj " You Avill remain at home, Duke. folks quite, to ray thinking. She'datempfflrlnfijfi'lt Promise me." I promised, for she spoke of her own. She'd no need that I could flW'fi^tr urgently, although, in truth, I had in­ to fall out with the missus. But she was qoi^'W'iiim tended to follow the cart. " Your uncle in a miff, all on a sudden. Lady Overbury aitit ^ *?= I Dl^ena.] YOUNG MR. NIGHTINGALE. [Aoru^t 2. Ifi73.] lyhis lordship must be terrible old for snow-drift in Bulb ironcrti meadows for (ung a wife ! What Avere they stones three Avhole days during one very severe she wore in her ears, ^Master Duke, winter, within sight of her OAvn cottage. know ? Not glass, surely, though 'em She Avas released at last, it appeared, much snmmut like It." more dead than alive, bv a neifrhbour Diamonds, I suppose, Kem." approaching her by chance in his search Dimauts, was they ? I've heerd tell after a strayed pig. As I gathered, the ants, but I dunno as I ever set lady was a scold, and her husband had on un avore. Tbey Avas main bright, not stirred himself mnch to search for his w sure, and glittered so you'd think missing partner. Her sufl\M'ings, it was was arire; but they Avasn't so much suggested, had a beneficial effect upon her That there pebble I Avears o' sub.sequent conduct as a Avife. ys in my tucker is a sight bigger. " Her Avore a red cloak," said Kem, Ibe gave it I. I didn't care to take " and there her Avas, unable to move hand but he said he'd chuck un In sheep- or foot, all but froar to death, and yet her if I didn't. 'Twas a fairing he could see her own kitchen chimney all the t at Dripford, so a' said." She Avhile. Poor soul, for sure she suflered hed, and then returned to the subject terrible." "Where did sbe come from, My sympathies did not attend this story Duke, hast heerd tell ?" very closely. I remember I Avas cruel To this question I made no reply. enough to ponder over a certain picturesque " Not from these parts, I reckon," con- character suggested by it, and mentally to Kem. " She'd something of London paint the scene with an Impressive juxta­ her talk, I'm thinking. Not but position and contrast of the dazzling Avhite It she spoke pretty, too, avore she fell snow-drift, and the poor old woman's scarlet with the missus; and then she was cloak. rudderlsh. 'I'm Lady Overbury,' " Here's the master," said Kem, sud­ iaes, getting up, terrible huffed. And to denly. nink of her being lost in snow. Out In My uncle's footfall was heard without. plantation wasn't she, Master Duke? HOAV He entered tbe kitchen. Briefly I informed se she there, I wonder ? His lordship him of all that had happened. ktto take better heed on's wife. Strange, " Gone to the hall ! Gone to the hall! rer heerd on's marrying. But gentle- Such a night as this ! With Lady Ovei-- has queer ways. There's no tell- bury ! Lady Overbury ? It can't be, what they'll do, and what they'll let surely!" , And his lord.ship's allays been a I could only repeat my news. Ho had quist, so folks allays says hereabout. great dilliculty apparently in comprehenil- a's got a young AvIfe, and a sprack ing me. too. There's no saying hoAv 'tAvill "Truckle's Avith her, you say?" He out. 'Tis like shovelling coals on a seemed more at ease on learning this. fire. There may be a blaze, and there " You're sure ? Well, well, Ave can but he a smother. Red-haired girls is Avait a bit. But if they're not back .soon, ily fractious I've been told. I mind Duke, Ave must go out and look for them. fiither could never abide a ginger For Lady Overbury—I don't understand de, as a' called un. But I dunno, I it. But yourmother AVIII explain all AVIICJI jht her ladyship main pretty, and her she returns. I'm sorry I Avasn't in Avhen 'a wonder for quantity. Not that it's all this happened. But Ave've bad a deal le to be judging of such things and of trouble doAvn in the meadoAvs." Jg about my betters. But they di- It was my uncle's AA'ay to let one subject was a real sight to look on, and eno-ross him to the bimlrance of all others. on her fingers she had, and a gold He could i*arely distribute his contempla­ round her throat, and for lace and tions. Jnst now the trouble in the niea- there, I never did seo a prettier doAvs possessed hira. So he put from him i and for the like of she to be out for the time my news, and spoke solely ;_Ui plantation this weather, and night of an accident that had happened to one of on! 'TAvas liko to be her death. his oxen (a bi-uken limb it Avas teared, due . mind once years ago " and Kem, to a fall upon soino rotten ice), discussing ifcras Inoted what sho AA'as saying, Avan- as to what Avas best to be done, and as to into a protracted uairative of bow Avhether the butcher should be sent for, or Truckle's aunt, or it might havo been the coAV-doctor of our district. great aunt, had remained fixed in a " One of my finest o.veii, worth twenty "V ^:=^ [Aup;isl •.'. ISTH.] ALL THE YEAR ROUND. [Condnctadbf pound at ha.st. The Avcather's cruel bad stilf from the cold. Sho Avas agitated- loi- the c.ittle,1. . Thcie's not a farm here- but her eyes Avere very bright. "Mi alu'Ut that Avon't sufler lor it this time. Truckle, and give the old horse a A \v< liderfully fine ox; the best I had; one feed of corn. He's done bravely. "J of tho.sc red Devons 1 bought last ycai-, been a hard night's AA'ork for all of you remember." And you'll come into tho kitchen .^ If Avas some time before he could relin- scntly, Truckle, and have your BnpperaBd>''^^ln C|ui.>>h this topic and take up Avitb another. a mug of strong beer. You've Avell d^ iDll But presently I noticed an abstracted look served it upon his face, and heard bim muttering, " You left her ladyship safely at tha^ " Lady Overbury ! Lady Overburj', ball ?" I asked. |^f^"™ indeed !" again and again. But he did " Yes, Ave saAv her ladyship, as you call'^ '"^ not address me on the subject. He sat her, safely home." ;«f J staring Into the fire, drying his boots, and " As I call ber, mother ? Is shenot har a''* ,' tapj)ing his snuff-box. He Avas noAV occu­ ladyship, then ?" ^JW^^"' pied, hoAA'cver, with my mother's mission, She Avas about to speak abruptly, almost and Avas plainly perplexed about it, and angrily, I thought, but she checked her­ anxious for her return. Every noAV and self. then he turned in his chair to look at the " Well, well, let It be so. Call her what iltje le clock. Meantime Kem placed his supper she calls herself—' Her ladyship.' What before him. He Avas Avet and soiled Avith does It matter?" his labours, and, as Avas usual with him in " But she offered you proof of her right 1 iLit i such case, prefeiTcd to remain in the kit­ to that title." rfttkt chen, rather than move to the parlour. " I declined to see it. It was nothing jtJIr.( Every ten minutes I Avent out to gaze to me." , .:il,ltlii in the dii-ection of Purrington, in hopes " But you, yourself, addressed her as i;^ fsk of seeing the returning cart. There was Lady Overbury." Tikraffl no sign of life or movement in the drear " And you addressed her as Rosetta." '^HCIIO Avhite landscape. Sometimes I folloAved the " I knew her by no other name." .arkj p track for a hundred yards or so, listening "You knew her? You had met her biin ^ for the sound of the wheels ploughing before, then? Where? When?" -iciaWi through the snoAV. But I could hear no­ I briefly explained. I had seen her first -jjjjDij thing; all was very still. There Avas no in the booth at the fair; and not again i^, ^^ Avind, and tho sky had lost tbe frosty clear­ until I had found her in the plantation. -j^^jfi ness it had Avorn of late. It seemed as " At a booth in the fair ? an actress?" though there might be a heavier fall of " A rope-dancer." 'M int snoAv before morning. It was less cold, I " I might have been sure of it." thought; or I Avas heated by my feverish We Avere now at tbe kitchen door. My -l)i:;a fears and hopes. So some hours passed. uncle came out to meet us. Even my uncle, though he said little, grew " Well, Mildred," he .said, " what's all uneasy and anxious, I noted. this been about ?" At length I Avalked out towards the " Presently, Hugh, presently." Kii higherdoAvn, and discovered—a star? No, " Thank God ! you're home again in it Avas moving — the dim gleam of the safety. What a night for you to be out •:b cr lantern my mother carried, swayed about In. Come and warm yourself at the fire. by the rocking of the cart. It seemed but No, not a word now. You can tell me all ^-'^ itliP a spark in the distance—now it grew by-and-bye." brighter. The cart was returning in safety. I hastened to meet it. '^ fir 3' The old chestnut was nearly dead beat. CONCERNING SOME ANCIENT lift." ' He moved along very sloAvly in a dense ENGLISH CHORUSES. cloud of steam. Still the veteran toiled on gallantly. Truckle was much exhausted, ALL Avho are acquainted with the early aud his temper had suffered. lyrical literature of England, preserved in " A nation hard job," he said. " Drattle the songs and ballads of the days imme­ the snow !" diately before and after Shakespeare, must " Is all Avell, mother ?" sometimes have asked themselves the '' 'if! " All's well, Duke, thank God !" she meaning of such old choruses as "Down, answered, cheerily. But as I helped her down, derry down," " With a fal, lal, W down on the cart's arrival at the farm, I " Tooral, looral," " Hey nonnie, nonnie," found she could scarcely stand, she Avas so and many others. These choruses are by no

^^ ^ 0art« Dfc*«»J ANCIENT ENGLISH CHORUSES. [Au^u-ti, is;5.] 317

8 obsolete, though not so frequently published by tbe Religious Tract Society, in our day as they used to be a " to represent the object of their worship, red years ago. "Down, doAvn, derry nor did they meet in temples or buildings I," still flourishes in immortal youth of any kind for the performance of their every village alehouse and beershop sacred rites. A circle of stones, gene­ re the farm labourers and mechanics rally of A^ast size, and surrounding an area accustomed to assemble. One of the of from twenty feet to thirty yards in dia­ [•SpJ t living authorities on the subject meter, constituted their sacred place; and English song and music—!Mr. William in the centre of this stood the cromleach ^\ ppell, the erudite editor of the Popular (crooked stone), or altar, which was an ric of the Olden Time—is of opinion obelisk of immense size, or a large oblong these choruses or burdens were flat stone, supported by pillars. These nonsense AVords that went glibly 'mere sacred circles were usually situated beside the tongue." He adds (vol. i. page a river or stream, and under the shadow I), " I am aware that' Hey doAvn, down, of a grove, an arrangement which was down,' has been said to be a modern probably designed to inspire reverence and on of 'Hai down, ir, deri danno,' the aAvc in the minds of the Avorshippers, or of en of an old song of the Druids, those Avho looked from afar on their rites. C)! ifying, ' Come let us haste to the Like others of the Gentile nations also, grove' (Jones, Welsh Bard, vol. i. they had their ' high places,' Avhich Avere 128), but this I believe to be mere large stones, or piles of stones on the ijecture, and that it Avould now be im- summits of hills; these Avere called earns ble to prove tbat the Druids had such (cairns), and were used in the worship of song." That Mr. Chappell's opinion Is the deity under the symbol of the sun. correct, will, I think, appear from the " In Avhat manner and with what rites logical proofs of their antiquity the Druids Avorshipped their deity, there is ed by tho venerable language Avblch now no means of ascertaining Avith minute vna spoken throughout the Briti.sh Isles accuracy. There Is reason to believe tbat the aboriginal people for centuries they attached much importance to tho f. by the Duke of AI-LTVH in his book on the Tooml is the Celtic turail — alow; ^^^ ' remarkable i.->la>i(l of Avhich he is the pro­ looral, in the same venerable speech/3>"*',; prietor, is sitiiatetl between the ruins of the luathrail—(pronounced luai*all) quick, ais^ *^;*: etitliedral of lona and the sea-shore, and is nifying a variation in the time of soma *; •* Avell Avorthy of a visit from the hundreds musical composition or march. Tooral "*'4l of tourists Avho annually make the voyage looral is thus akin in construction to the ^i^ii! round the noble Isle ut ^lull, on purpose to Avords more recently adopted from tit^ fiiliw'* visit lona and Stall'a. There is another Italian, to signify the harpsichord of oars j. tte Druidic circle on the main land of Mull, ancestors—the pianoforte. ^f] '; i / and a large and more i-emarkable one at A third chorus, Avhich, thanks to th#|'' jut; Lochnell, near Oban, in Argyllshire, Avhich Elizabethan Avriters, has not been vulgai^ ^, , promises to beconu; as celebrated as Stone ised. Is tbat Avhich occurs in John ChiJhw ' ° benge it.self, combining as it does not only j hill's Praise of a Countryman's Life, quotedr'^ r the mystic circle, but a repr.•esentiitio n bv Izaak Walton : ,!-'-^i^ - clearly defined of the mysterious serpent, Oh the sweet contentment the Avurship of Avhicli entered so largely into The countrjman doth find. all the Oriental religions of remote anti­ High troloUie, loliie, lot! High trolollie, lee! ,;-S!r!"4t quity. There are other circles in the various These words are easily resolvable into the xi >M islands of the Hebrides, and as far north as Celtic; AI! or Aibhe ! Hail! or All hailf}»"»f-' Orkney and Shetland. It Avas, as Ave learn Tratli — pronounced trah, early, and li,J'" ^ from various authorities, the practice of day ! or " Ai, tra, la, la, la"—Hail early day if«'«' the Druidical i)riests and bards to inarch in early day ! a chorus Avhich Moses anftf'^''* *P? procession round the inner circle of these Aaron may have heard in the temples off rude temples, chanting religious hymns in Egypt, as the priests of Baal saluted the aAaJ honour of the sunrise, the noon, or the rising sun ; and which was repeated by thej'^™'!"' sunset; hymns Avhich have not been Avholly Dniids on the remote shores of Westertr''*''' lost to posterity, though posterity has failed Europe, In now desolate Stonehenge, anda'^^-'^^' to undirstaud them, or imagined, as Mr. thousand other circles, Avhere the sun Hl^^^i^^' Chappell bus done, that their burdens— Avorshipped as the emblem of the Divinii^i^ra theii" sole relics—are but unmeauinjj Avords, The second portion of the chorus, "Hif^r^^Kii mvented for mu.sical purposes alone, and trolollie, lee," is in Celtic, " Ai tra la, la, ^ it divested of all intellectual signification. Avhicb signifies, " Hail early day! H«dl First among these choruses is "Down, bright day !" The repetition of the word down, deny, down," the English rendering la as often as it was required for the eo* of " Dun, dun, daragan, dun," signifying gencies of the music, accounts for tH» " To the hill, to the hill, to the oaks, to the chorus, in the form in Avhich it has 9»' ; kt hill," which in all probability was the burden scended to modern times. * of a religious chant sung by the priests as " Fal, lal, la," a chorus even more fa­ they Avalked in procession from the interior miliar to the readers of old songs, is froB of the stone circle to some neighbouring the same source. Lord Bathurst, afterwards grove upon a down or hill. This chorus Earl of Dorset, wrote, in 1665, the well^ KurA'Ives In many hundreds of English known ballad, commencing: popular songs, but notably in the beautiful To all jou ladies now on land. ballad The Three Ravens, preserved in We men at sea indite. Mebsuiata (IGll). But first would have vou underBtand, 'Ihore wtre three ravens sat on a tree. How hard it is to write. l)own-d-d()wn ! hev down, hcv down. With a fal. lal, la, and a fal, lal, li. Thpy w«re as black as black might be, And a fal, lal, lal, lal, 14. With a down! Then one f't them said to his mate, Fal signifies a circle, and la, a day, and th*: "\\'li«'re shall we now our breaktiist take, Avords should properly be written, fal, '* •a? It ^N ith a down, down, derry, derry, down! or falla la. ~Th e Avords appear in the Invitation to May, by Thomas Morley, •Site 15«J5: ^ =i. I DiekenB.] ANCIENT ENGLISH CHORUSES. [August 2, H7).] 319 How is the month of majin^. which Avas sung to the tune of Hie dildo, When merry lads are playing. Fal, la, 14! dil. This also appears to be Druidical, and Each with his bonnie lass. to be resolvable into Ai, dile dun dile, or Upon the greeny grass, "Welcome to the rain upon the hill," a Fal, la, 141 thanksjriving for rain after a drought. s Celtic or Druidical interpretation of " Trim go trix" Is a chorus that continued i syllables is, " the circle or completion to be popular until the time of Charles the ^tijltihe day." , Second, when Tom D'Urfey wrote a song "lal, lero, loo, appears as a chorus m a entitled Under the Greenwood Tree, of by George Wither (1588—1667). which he made it the burden. Another There was a lass a fair one. appears in Allan Ramsay's Tea-table Mis­ As fair as e'er was seen, cellany : e Sbe was indeed a rare one, Another Sheba queen. ThePo^e, that pagan full of pride, But fool, as then 1 was, He has us blinded long. I thought she loved me true For where the blind the blind does guide, But now alas! she's left me, No wonder things go wrong. Fal, lero, lero, loo ! Like prince and king, he led the ring Of all iniquitie. fel, as in the previous instance, Hey trix, trim go trix! s a circle ; lear (corrupted into lero), Under the greenwood tree. ; and luaidh (the dh silent), praise; chorus of a song of praise to the sun In Celtic trelm, or dreim, signifies to climb, seen rising above the ocean. and gu trie, with frequency, often, so that these apparently unnecessary words re­ The song of Sir Eglamour, in Mr. Chap- present a Druidical exhortation to climb Mil's collection, has another variety of the aat often to the bill of worship under the green­ itli fW, la, of a much more composite cha- wood tree. xtcter: Sir Eglamour that valiant knight, There Is an old Christmas carol which Fal, la ! lanky down dilly! commences He took his sword and went to fight, Nowell! Nowell! No well! Nowell. Fal, la ! lanky down dilly ! This is the salutation of tho angel Gabriel. -Es*.In another song, called The Friar in tbe Mr. Halllwell, in his Archaic Dictionary, n \ well, this chorus appears in a slightly dif- says " Nowel was a cry of joy," properly tk^bcent form: at Christmas, of joy for the birth of the Listen awhile, and I will tell Sariour. A political song in a manuscript Of a friar that loved a bonnie lass well, la! IW, lal, lal, 14! Fal, la, langtre down dilly ! of the time of King Henry the Sixth, con­ cludes : one version has lanky, tbe other lang- Let us all sing nowelle, hoth of which are corruptions of the Nowelle, nowelle, nowelle, nowelle, Celtic. The true reading is Fal! la, Ian— And Christ save merry England and spcde it well. ife—dun—dile, which signifies, " The circle The modern Gaelic and Celtic for Christ­ of the day is full, let us go to the hill of mas Is Nollaig—a con-nptionof the ancient I* Druidical name for a holiday—from naomh, 'Hey, nonnie, nonnie." " Such unmean- holy, and la, day, Avhence naola, the burden burdens of songs," says Nares, In his of a Druidical hymn, announcing the fact oral! I r, " are common to ballads in most that a day of religious rejoicing bad ar­ Jguages." But this burden is not un- rived for tho people. [ijeanliig, and signifies " Hail to the noon." One more and a very remarkable example or noon was so-called in the Celtic of the vitality of these Druidic chants is se at midsummer in our northern afforded by the Avell-known political song itudes, it Avas the ninth hour after sun- of Lilli Buriero, of Avhich Lord Macaulay With the Romans, in a more southern o-ivcs tbe following account In bis History le, noon was the ninth hour after of England : sunrise, at six In the morning, ansAvering "Thomas Wharton, who, in the last to onr three o'clock of the afternoon. A parliament, had represented Buckingham­ [if'^ •ong with this burden was sung In England shire, and Avbo Avas already conspicuous in the days of Charles the Second: both as a libertine and as a Whig, had I am a senieless thing, with a hey! Avritten a .satirical ballad on the adminis­ Mtn call me a king, with a ho I tration of Tyrconnel. In this little poem For my luxury and taso, They brought me o'er the seas, an Irishman congratulates a brother Irish­ With a heigh, nonnie, nonnie, nonnie, no! man in a barbarous jargon on the ap­ Mr. Chappell cites an ancient ballad, proaching triumph of popery and of the ^5* .r. [Conda C2o f.August 2. l.";"..] ALL THE TEAR ROUND. :Milesian rae(>. The Protestant hliei r AVIil l spoken of by scholars and philosophers iSpr"^ be excluded. Th(> Protestant ofliccrs will be tra.sb, gibberish, nonsense, and an broken. The Great Charter and tbe farrago of sounds, of no more philolo pmters who appeal to It Avill be hanged in value than tbe loAving of cattle or the \ one rope. The good Talbot AVIH .shoAver com­ ing of sheep. But I trust that all attenC missions on bis countrymen, and will cut readers of the foregoing pages will the throats of the English. These verses, upon the old choruses—so sadly p« A\ hich Avere In no respect above the ordi- In tbe destructive progress of time, .(-.to narv standard of street poetry, bad for demolishes languages as Avell as emi ira and systems of religious belief—with burden some gibberish, Avliicb Avas said to '5 have been used as a Avatclnvord by the in­ thing of tbe respect due to their imnie surgents of Ulster in 1G41. The verses and antiquity, and tbeir once sacred funot the'^tune caught tbe fancy of the nation. in a form of Avorship, which, what tie to From one end of England to the other all Avere its demerits as compared withi classes Avere constantly singing this Idle purer religion that has taken its place, hi rhyme. It was especially the delight of at least the merit of inculcating the mo tbe English army. ^More than seventy exalted ideas of the Power, the Love, vears after the Revolution, a great writer tbe Wisdom of the Great Creator. delineated, Avith exquisite skill, a veteran Avbo had fought at the Boyne and at Namur. One of the chai-acteristics of the good old THE BEST BINS. tolflTe' soldier Is his trick of Avhistling Lillibullero. ItesiD? Wharton afterwards boasted that he had WHAT sort of wine it was that trie! :]|i!lldC( sung a king out of three kingdoms. But from tbe purple grapes of Noah's prime' in truth the success of Lillibullei'o was the vineyard AVO can guess Avitli tolerable eflcct, and not the cause of that excited state tainty. There are not, it is true, now Kppeii of public feeling AVIIich produced the Revo- days, many \'inc-gi*owers among the ution. slopes of Kurdish or Armenian hillsi( The mysterious syllables Avhich Lord but there is a strong family likeness ami y Macaulay asserted to be gibberish, and the rough, red, full-bodied wines of Avhieb in this corrupt form w^ere enough to East. Thick, rich in alcohol, and richeT'i^^lar puzzle a Celtic scholar, and more than still in sugar, they bear transport with;*The! enough to puzzle Lord Macaulay, who diflficulty, and are not very attractive to J kncAv nothing of tbe venerable language European palates. Yet there are vintagM' lidiJtSI of tbe first inhabitants of the British among them that have deserved more aiw tl I.sles, and of all Western I^urope, resolve honourable mention. The generous wine 'i!^t!il themselves into "Li! Li! Beur. Lear-a! Avhicb Solomon sipped and praised was buille na la," Avbich freely rendered, sig­ probably the dainty Vino d'oro of Lebanon, or some now forgotten groAvth of a sunny nify, " Light ! Light ! on the sea, beyond ijffifr the promontory ! 'Tis the stroke (or dawn) Syrian valley long left desolate. The of the day!" Like all the choruses pre­ frothing grape juice of which Hafiz sang viously cited, these words are part of a In strains worthy to rank with those of his Ionian prototype bad certainly seethed in hymn to tbe sun, and entirely astro­ v\[ nomical and Druidic. the vats of Shiraz. But If there be truth the proverb as to the toothsome cha- Tbe perversion of so many of these once in sacred chants to tbe service of common racter of stolen fruit, the maxim may not literature, and the street ballad, suggests Improbably bold good with reference to the trite remark of Hamlet to Horatio : tbe life-blood of Bacchus, and the Mussul­ To what base uses we may come at last! man Anacreon may have snatched a fearfal joy from the fact that he Avas quaffing the Imperial Cissar, dead and turned to clay. precise liquor which the Prophet had for­ May stop a hole to keep the wind away. bidden to the faithful. The hymns once sung by thousands of deep- That the native home and cradle of the voiced priests marching in solemn pro­ grape lay in Asia is a lesson that sacred cession from their mystic shrines to salute and profane history unite to teach ul. Avith music and song, and reverential ho­ The conquering march of Bacchus Is one mage, the rising of the glorious orb which of the most graceful myths that ever em­ cheers and fertilises the Avorld, have wholly ployed the fiery imagination of a Greek departed from the recollection of man, and poet or the dexterous pencil of a Greek their poor and dishonoured relics are limner. High on his leopard-drawn car y A^ Obtrles Dickens.] THE BEST BINS. [August-.M^rs.] ol\ the victor came westwards in bloodless thawed in hot water, was most probably an ^triumph, flowers springing unbidden into importation from Umbria or from Thrace. Hfe beneath the wheels of his chariot, music The Hungarian vineyards, the terraced causing the very air to throb with a tem­ rows of vines that clothe the sterile sides pest of sweet sounds, art and science, of the Rhenish cliflfs, the acres of valuable plenty and prosperity, following in his plants that dower Champagne AvIth a faain. There was nothing of cruelty, no­ Avealtb beyond that of corn or oil, had as thing of suffering, to mar that pageant. yet no existence. If a pointless spear appeared, it Avas girt The Norman Conquest found Europe, banmnd with clinging Ivy; if a standard as regarded the growth, manufiicture, and 'jTOse above the long array of harmless In- sale of Avine, in a transitional state. Italy, Tiders, it was wreathed with vine tendrils in the vinous scale, attained to perhaps the ftom which the heavy grapes dangled highest rank, although Burgundian grapes temptingly. True, Sllenus, drowsy and already yielded their liquid ruby to fill grotesque, was nodding on his long-eared the hanaps of such knights and princes steed, and goat-footed satyrs, and wild- as dAvelt betAveen Loire and Rhine, AvhIle eyed bacchantes, danced to pipe and tabor Aqultaine sent many a cask of Gascon along the line of march, but the general wine to the port of London, before the idea was one of universal bounty, gentle­ landing at Pevensey, and the defeat of ness, and goodwill. The Greeks, like the Senlac. Bnt England did not depend en­ Jews, seem to have received AvIne as one tirely on Ypres or Bordeaux for her supply of the chief blessings of life; a tempei-ate of wine. Old charters, the bygone names race by habit and constitution, they used of half-forgotten vineyards belonging to it more than they abused it, and the allu- monastic houses, prove that the cultivation iions to the grape in Hellenic poetry are of the grape, even up to the Roman wall vore decorous and respectful than those and the banks of TAveed, was once by far which stud the pages of the authors of more frequent than it now Is. England self-indulgent Rome. was probably the most northerly of tliose The Romans, fond as tbey were of wine, countries in which vines were groAving at had but a limited area whence to replenish the time of the great millenary jubilee, thrir cellars. The Falernian which Horace and that they flourished at all, is a proof loved so well was perhaps their most ex­ how resolute Avere the monks to drink pensive as well as their choicest beverage, what the difficulties of land transport de­ but preferable to all the other vintages of barred to those who lived too remote from Italy was the crimson grape juice that ' the coast. London and Bristol, Boston and oame in tall jars from Lesbos, from Chios, Norwich, could pick and choose betAveen and the other sun-gilded isles of Greece. tbe amber Rhenish and the crimson nectar It was only some exceptionally delicate from the Garonne, but a long stretch of wine that was deemed worth the storing dry land was a serious impediment to the and sealing in those huge stone amphora) carriage of so bulky an article of commerce. which we may yet behold in the museura MeauAvhile the vineyards of Lombardy, of Naples. Goatskins and pigskins, the frora one of which carae that famous leathern " bottles" mentioned in Scripture, growth, the temptations of Avliich, as com- were the usual recipients for the coarser raeraorated In Ferrara by the emphatic growths, and these, as Is still the case in Avords, "Est! Est! Est!" proved fatal to Spain, yielded a marked and disagreeable the bibulous German bishop, Avbo on his llavour to the wine which they contained. road to Rome sent on a mounted servant il^ There were grapes in the Spanish penin- to taste and note the best vintages at every Bnla, even before tbe siege of Saguntum inn, preserved their classic renoAvn. But and the struggle for mastery between wine was all but an unknown bcA'crage to Aoman and Carthaginian, and there Avere the ale drinking Scandinavians, to Wend |T»pe8 in (Jaul. But a Celtic population and Pole, Prussian and Muscovite, Avhosc M usually more prone to brew beer than to ordinary drink was black beer, AvItb a bom go through the labours of pruning and of bright honey-distilled mead for high- fWMing, and not much Avine Avas made In tide and holiday. Spain contributed no "•western provinces of the bloated era- wine to the markets of rich England and P>fe until Roman colonists had taken the richer Flanders, for the miscreant Saracens onlture into their own bands. The frozen had grubbed up the vines of Andalusia, Wine which unhappy Ovid, In bis exile on and sherry continued to be almost un­ wo Danube, sawed into ruddy lumps and known to foreign consumers, until the

-X3 A (AuFu^t :', IbTC] ALL THE YEAR ROUND. [Oondnotedhjr llnal ruin of the Moorish empire on this more than likely that tho old Cavalici|f| f ide of the Straits of Gibraltar. who bad fought under Ruport looked with The political connexion, for so many some contempt. Champagne was not^ vears, betAveen our island and the south­ under either the Stuarts or the early western provinces of France, no doubt Georges, what it has since become. At the helped to bring about the fixci ihat Avhen Regent Philip's famous suppers, the gat- ;it coronation feast or thanksgiving for geous lackeys uncorked a dozen flasks f| victory, our London fountains .spouted Burgundy for every bottle of the spark> I'ortli showers of red AvIne to be thirstily ling grape-juice of Epemay. SAvallowed by the shouting populace, it The conclusion of tbe Methnen tretir was Bordeaux that supplied the liquor. brought port wine into fashion among onr Bnt even had our Gascon wine-growers not great-grandfathers, and claret was been subjects of the same sovereign as placed to an extent which would have their English cu.storaers, there would still mischievous indeed to Gascon wuif>* have remained the broad fact that a ship growers, had not the latter, fortunately for could unload at a Thames Avharf tho hogs­ them, found a new market that made up heads that she had taken on board of her for the partial loss of English custom. when lying beside a quay on tbe Garonne, The Mare.shal de Richelieu, sometime while our wool and our silver were as wel- governor of Gascony, really believed to the eoine In Aqultaine as were the casks of end of bis life tbat he owed the re-eatab- claret to the vintners of London. Accor­ lishment of his health to the good wine of dingly, long after the Plantaganets' pos­ the district, and his praises of the southern n sessions in France Avere limited to the growth, and his influence with Louis the .single toAvn of Calais, tho consumption of Fifteenth, made Bordeaux fashionable. ? French Avincs In London continued to be

'^'- A (jtukB Diekens.] THE BEST BINS. [August 2,1S73.] 323

^ pjme haters of innovation protested, like public, weary of the coarse and ill-raade ''^ idfred de Musset, that the first duty of iraitations which the Cape furnished, threw ;inBe was to be red, and that other and over ISIadeIra, and the reign of sherry mate daring dissidents refused the vinous began. title to the frothing interloper. Cham­ The history of sherry, its rise, and its pagne's victorious progress overleaped decline and fall, would of itself expand . nountain and sea; it took precedence alike into a volume. Ever since the Moors wero in St. Petersburg and in Constantinople, once fairly done with, Cadiz bad been the ^fall other members of the Bacchic family, seat of a great export trade ; but all An- pad to this day the finder of a great nugget dalusian wine is not sherry, and there are poong the gold rushes of California or other provinces which grow grapes in even Australia celebrates his good luck by as- greater profusion. The various Ill-starred sembhng half a score of red-shlrted diggers attacks on Cadiz that have been ordered by to imbibe Gargantuan draughts of cham­ different English governments have gene­ pagne, at prices that would seem pre­ rally failed because the troops, breaking posterous to even the proprietor of the into the vast warehouses near the landing- Haison Doree. place, drank themselves into a disgraceful liadeira, the only African wine that has oblivion of discipline and duty. But even ever taken a place in the foremost rank, when Charles the First's disorderly recruits mas fortunate in finding a royal sponsor In rioted among the enormous cellars of Port deo!!^ the Fourth. A kindred growth St. Mary, tbe pipes and hogsheads that tbey Jiad been retailed, during the Tudor reigns, staved in with hard blows of their musket imder the name of Canary, but it was not butts Avere not all filled with honest sherry. until the Regent's approval of Madeira had Already Teneriffe wine, Murcian Avine, become notorious, that the importation into wine of La Mancha, bad been mixed and England became considerable. Then, in­ doctored Into a counterfeit of tbe rarer pro­ deed, the vogue of the new favourite knew duct. And when sherry carae Into Its full no hounds. It was strongly recommended popularity in the great English market, the by the faculty, by bevrigged old Sir Joseph days of its excellence were numbered. It Doublejee, by Doctor Buckram, with his had never been very cheap. But, until portentous neckcloth and gold-headed very recently, the customer Avho was eane, and by the other courtly physicians willing to pay a fair price, had the penny­ ef the Corinthian epoch. " London par­ worth for his penny. So highly prized was ticular" was voted a liquor worthy to have a delicate appreciation of the best vintages, been served by Hebe at the banquets of tbat there Avere worse positions than that of Olympus, but West, and especially East, the salaried taster to some rich Cadiz firm jwdian Madeira, at ever so many shillings of exporters. He received from four to ft doien, was respectfully spoken of, and five hundred pounds a year as his retain­ iBverently drunk. It was an article of ing fee, and his only liardship w.as ab­ feith that this royal wine, liko the young stinence from the beloved cigarette, since gentleman whose education received its ! it Avas thought of vital consequence that the anal polish by the grand tour, improved critic should be not only a Spaniard, but ly travel, and that the further it Avent the one who had ceased to blunt the natural Better. Some of the dearest liadeira of subtlety of his gustatory nerves by the use the post Waterloo period must have been of tobacco. •Ue, unless the merchants Avho sold it It Is probable that real Pasearete, genuine were false knaves, to boast of as many Manzanilla, and even Amontillado guiltless voyages as Ulysses, and to have been to of imposture, may still be bought at a high tiwcutta and back was a very common ex- price from exceptionally high-minded ven­ i#ii|onoe for the generous grape-juice. At dors. It is certain that at a less co.st a •pgth it was accidentally discovered that nutty sherry of reasonable quality can **!>• of very inferior quality could be yet be had. But it is scarcely to be ex­ iWinauiuted into nectar fit for an emperor's pected that an average AvIne worth five fAte by simply leaving the cask for shillings a bottle, or thereabouts, as it •weral months in a furnace-heated room, melloAvs in cask at Cadiz, can be sold for •d that it was the high temperature, and three shillings, half a crown, or IAVO shil­ *>t the knocking about on board ship, that lings, in London, carriage, duty, glass, •0 much enhanced the flavour of East India labour, retail pi'ofit, advertising, ami de­ •adelra. But already fickle fashion Avas livery, all included. Yet a beverage of g her lato idol, and the British some alcoholic strength, and that shall

'•S' .5= 324 [AagnatS. 1973.] ALL THE YEAR ROUND. [OoadaoiMIr look, and taste, and smell soracAvhat like kings of Navarre, and always loved by the AvIne it professes to be, is in request at Henry tbe Fourth of France, cannot In loAv prices, and must be had, somehow. bought. EA'cry drop is bespoken, yeii|i^,i Wherefore tbe alchemist of the cellarage before, by far-sighted Legitimist consnmen. ' is called in AvIth his unholy arts, Avith his It Is hard, even at Vienna or Presburg, to umber and burnt sugar, bis Cape, and bis buy one of those quaint bottles, of white Mountain, with malt brandy, and fiei*y glass and bulbous shape, that hold aa Imperial pint of imperial Tokay. It Ji potato spirit, and fusel-oil, and water from ^« the rlA'crs Elbe or Thames, according to the dearer, bulk for bulk, than any wine in the site of bis necromatlc operations, and hey, Avorld. It is almost as strong as French presto, the paying public has its glass re­ brandy, almost as substantial as a 8yra& plenished at a charge less than that of the and is in fact only a very superior raiam AvinegroAver at tbe gate of his vineyard. Port, Avine, luscious and cloying. But it is a a cordial of the utmost value, ought scarcely Porpherogenltc, born to grandeur. Those to be counted in the list of natui*al Avines. who grow the grapes are princes, whoae Our Lisbon diplomatic staff" write word, Hungarian territories are administered hy %-^ now and then, to the Foreign Oflfice, tbat prefects and councils, and those who buy port contains as much juice of elder-berries the wonderful wine arc kings and kaianiy as it does of grapes, and the infonnation is whose august demands leave only a hand­ printed at tbe national expense, but it ful of flasks to be scrambled for by tbe ncA'cr comprises as many unattractive de­ outside public. So, In a less degree, with tails of the process of manufacture as may Prince Metternich's Cabinet Johaunisberg, be learned, in moments of confidence, from monarch of Rhine Avines, the best of which any retired wine merchant who has spent scorns to find purchasers not commemo­ a few years in Portugal. Still, Ave could rated in the courtly Almanac de Crotha, ill spare port, and it lends itself in a less but pseudo specimens of which, at about degree to adulteration than does its cousin- tAvo napoleons a bottle, are to be had ai gerraan sherry, since, if too much tam­ Rhineland hotels and Paris restaurants, in pered Avith, it is apt to be rendered not quantities that Avould make a thoughtful merely deleterious, but nauseous into the man marvel at the fertility of the few stony bargain. Its merits in some cases of ill­ acres of the historical vineyard. Con- '\k ness are indisputable; it often forms the stantia, the sAveet strong wine which the sheet-anchor of the parish doctor who sees Dutch governor of the Cape named after half his poor patients shivering with ague, his dead Avife, is noAv, like Malmsey, and Boards of Guardians who are liberal on Madeira, Frontlgnac, Hermitage, and Rive- this score find that their open-bandedness satte Lunel, chiefly employed to give has In reabty proved itself a wise economy flavour to other wines, and the Stein rines of the rates. Comet vintages, on the other need to be as tall as Jack's enchanted hand, that priceless '20 port, which is more beanstalk in the nursery tale, if the pale often met AvItb in fiction than in fact, and juice of their transparent grapes fills aU the produce of other years only a little less the sturdy bottles Avhich bear the name of famous, are merely the toys of rich ama­ that celebrated convent. teurs Avhose numbers death thins annually, Some of the best champagne in the but Avliose costly Avbims are still as a gold world, and some of the very Avorst, gets mine to those eminent dealers, Messrs. Bees­ into the London market. The old classi­ wing and Sloe. There are still sold a few fication, by Avhicb the highest quality wai cases of that " loaded" claret, which used reserved for Russia, the second for France to be made expressly for the English and number three for English use, is long market, but a butler of George tbe since obsolete. It may more truly now be ^ Fourth's reign would hardly recognise the said tbat there Is good wine for those who ^ , ' genial fluid tbat noAv passes under that have long purses, and who combine with .J* familiar name. an accurate sense of taste the resolution ' There are sorae wines which very few not to buy trash hawked under the forged people drink, not only because they are brand of some famous maker. Of course scarce and dear, but because they have a Veuve Clicquot, Roederer, and the rest, an» sraack that is not to the general taste. as blaraeless for the vile turnip-juice, spoilt Lacrima CbristI is sipped by travellers at Moselle, and decoction of rhubarb that Naples, but hoAv many flasks of it do masquerade under their well-known nanw*»

^ y «

(jhsries Dickens.] A SUMMER NOON. [August 2,1373.] 325 cologne. It has long been a recognised the Gascon Bacchus—deserve all the com­ truth that anything, from a white country mendations which their delicate perfume wine at six sous the litre, to mere sugar and the velvet of their soft touch, as they and water, will pass muster as champagne, tickle over the palate, justly elicit. But In and tbat silvery necks, rose-coloured foil, the instance of wines that are expensive or seals of gold-specked resin guarding but not genuine, mere vinous charlatans the precious store within the bottles, are under borrowed names, the bouquet, the matters by far more important than the flavour, the very softness may be due to composition of the contents. There must the cunning of the chemist. Coal-tar be a sparkling effervescent fluid, and it Is yields, among other products, a light oil better not to inquire over-curiously into that ennobles poor and thin wine mightily. its origin. Champagne, like sherry, illus­ The essences of various fruits give scents trates the fact that demand is pretty sure and after-tastes to humble vintages that it to be followed by its faithful handmaid needs practice to detect and account for. inpply. Just as high duties evoke the A dash of raspberry vinegar, a little water, smuggler, so does a cry for wine of a some beetroot sugar, and a modicum of roiowned sort at a cheap rate call into the coarsest alcohol, so disguise a light actirity the fraudulent concocter of sham claret that its foster-father, the vine-grower, vintages. The imps of the cellar, gnomes would not know it if he sipped it. Some who may well blush for the dark doings so-called Bordeaux Is no true Gascon, but that they hide under ground, are especially simply the thick strong wine of Aragon or busy when the London party-giving season Roussillon, watered until its alcoholic is approaching. At a ball supper in­ standard is reduced to the usual level of genuous youth, heated with dancing, and inferior Medoc groAvths, and sophisticated thinking ten times more of bright eyes and with sugar, sliced quinces, and logAvood. soft speeches than of probable headache on It should never be forgotten that good the morrow, will swallow anything. So wine, like a good horse, can ahA'ays com­ will some who are old enough to be Aviser, mand its price. It is quite possible for an and who have not the same excuse of a experienced judge of vintages, at any great brain dizzy with waltzing and flirtation. seat of the wine trade, to pick up a cask After all, the girls and boys knoAV no or two, here and there, that needs but a better than to irablbe a compound of goose­ little keeping to make it Avorth double the berry-juice and carbonic acid gas, but who original cost. Wine, in a wine-growing shall excuse the householder who, under district, is the cheapest of all articles of the guise of hospitality, thus imperils the household consumption. The poorest day- constitutions of his mature guests ! No labourer, Avho looks on coflfee as a luxury, one can well believe that Eastern France and Avhose dinner Is of dry bread and raw can furnish, carriage, customs, and middle­ cloves of garlic, can yet get his tAvo or man's profit comprised, wholesome cham­ three daily quarts of local grape-juice at pagne at about three shillings a bottle. a nominal cost. But this Is because the Any landed proprietor of the neighbour­ worst of tbe must produces a fermented hood of Rheims and Epernay could tell liquor, that can neither be kept nor carried the too credulous Briton that decent Avine, to any distance, and when we come across grown within a league or tAvo of his own wine AvIth a high-sounding name, and at door, costs bim at tbe least four francs by prices alluringly IQAV, we may be pretty the time it is fit to drink, and when bought sure that it is but as a daAv In peacock's from the grower direct. It is a AvIne tbat plumage, and has no sterling right to needs care, patience, and the daintiest occupy the Best Bins. manipulation, and must be fined, and lacked, and recorked, and made to stand upon its head like an acrobat, and be heed- A SUMilER NOON. fully mellowed in cool vaults, before It is A DBLL knee-deep with flower-sprinkled grass, Grand, stately beeches, on whose silvery bark ready to leap forth, beading and foaming, Deep-cut are lovers' names; tall feathery ferns, and loosen the tongues of men. Wherein the rabbit crouches—nodding cups Of myriad harebells, wealth of orchid-blooms. It has been plausibly said that a good Lie 'neath the warm glow of a summer noon. razor is an accident, and much the same The lazy sun-gold flickers on the leaves, may be averred as regards good claret. And in the blackthorn-thicket, voiceless, mute, Couches the blackbird, resting until eve, The higher cms — tracing their AVCU- AVbcn he again may tunc his mellow pipe. authenticated genealogy to Chateaux Mar- Nature is hushed, and her siesta tnkcs. ganx and Laftitte, and other spots dear to lioDi-atb the ardent sun-rays—all is btill I A [Conducted^ ?,'2C) [Aupi»t 2, is:3.] ALL THE YEAR ROUND.

The w<*ari''d wajjjjKner—his fac» on arm— Fort Niagara in 1740, and took part ii Lies shimbi riiip > ii tbe hay-cart, monn-nts brief several engagements that led to the fin|l Of Bwilt f(>rg« tfulnefs, quick-snatched from toil, And doubly hwect the theft. The crickets rest conquest of Canada. It Avas engaged agai« Amid the rip«'nmg wheat ; the grasshopper in tho American war, arriving in 1775 i^ Has cea.sci his amorous chirp; the very reeds reinforce the Boston troops under GeneNll Scarce care to bend them in the river breeze, I'or all creation seeks a brief, sweet rest. Gage. ) Drowsily in the passion-flowers hum We find the flank companies of the g^ Brown-banded bees, and on the unripe peach lant regiment next distinguishing the^*;. Mnrauder-wasps settle in pirate swarms, seh-es. In 1704, at tho taking of Mart^, Eager for plunder. From the green leaves peep Tho ripening necturines and apricots; nique, St. Lucia, and Gaudaloupe; and thi ! The jnrgoncUc hangs rcddi'iniig on the wall, regiment itself formed part of the Dnkd * .\nd the first purple hue of lusciousness of York's army in Holland. In 1796^ Tinges the melt-wing plum ; the sovereign quince Is burdened with ber treasures; yellowing globes it helped in the second capture of Si or apples bend the laden orchard boughs Lucia, and, subsequently, in the harasaing Low to the rank, tall grass; rich mulberries pursuit of the runaway slaves and Caribi. Colour apace, and the green haiel-nuts Begin t>> change to russet, bounteous gifts In 1800, tbe regiment joined Abercromby'i Of God-directed nature unto man ! army at Malta, and sailed for Egypt. ' When the Forty-fourth returned to England in 1801, there is a tradition that FAMOUS BRITISH REGIMENTS. the flank companies were represented by THE FORTY - FOUHTIT ("THE TAA'O FOURS "). two men alone, Sergeants Mackrell and IN 1730, Avhen Avar Avas proclaimed with Donaldson, who. In 1814, were promoted Spain, two regiments of marines were to commissions, and subsequently died as raised, and one of them was numbered the lieutenants in the regiment. In 1803, a Forty-fourth. In 1741, during the Avar of second battalion was added to the Forty- the Austrian succession, seven additional fourth. Infantry regiments were raised, and one of Colonel Burney, who served as a subal­ these, the Fifty-fifth, became in 1748, on tern at the capture of Malta and Procida, the Treaty of Aix-la-Cbapelle, the present aff"ords the following description of the Forty-fourth. uniform of the Forty-fourth, on his joiup The Fifty-fifth, as it was at first called, ing it In 1808. The officers wore large took part In the battle of Gladsmuir, during cocked-hats, leather breeches, and long the rebellion of '45, when the Highlanders boots above the knees, like dragoons, vrith surprised and completely routed Sir John powder and long tails, tbe curl of which was Cope's force, cutting doAvn four hundred generally formed of sorae favourite lady's men and taking twelve hundred prisoners. hair, no matter what the colour might be. The facings at this time Avere yellow, and The evening dress was grey cloth tights, the regimental colour yellow silk. with Hessian boots and tassels in front. In General Braddock's unfortunate The facings of the coat were buttoned back, march, In 1755, over tbe Alleghanies to and every one was powdered and correctly attack Fort du Quesne, the Forty-fourth dressed before sitting down to dinner. joined. Colonel lialkett In vain ni'glng For duty, officers and men wore white his brave but rash general to use Indian cloth breeches, black cloth leggings or scouts, and to beware of ambuscades. With gaiters, with about tAventy-five flat silver only six hundred men, Braddock still buttons to each, and a gorget, showing the pushed on, heedless of all remonstrance, oflBcer was on duty. At Malta, as in other and proudly contemptuous of his undis­ garrisons, oflBcers for duty were regularly ciplined enemies. In a place surrounded examined, tbat their buttons and swords by Avoods, the Americans suddenly opened were quite bright; if not they were turned fire, and at tbe first discharge only twenty- back, and the one in waiting brought for­ two men of the adA'anced guard of the ward. Members of court-martial were sent Forty-fourth, under Brevet Lieutenant- back by the president if they had not their Colonel Gage, Avere left standing. gorgets on, and their duty dress and hair In 175G, Major-General Abercromby properly powdered. To appear out of Avas appointed colonel of the Forty-fourth barracks without being in strict regi­ regiment, and in 1758 It joined in the mentals and swords, was never dreamt of. unsuccessful attack on Ticonderoga, when, The poor soldiers ordered for duty were by great rashness In not waiting for our excused the adjutant's drill, as they took artillery, we lost five hundred and fifty- some hours to make themselves up to pass one men. The regiment helped to take muster for all the examinations for guard-

•^ HP :» CbttletWcietiB.] FAMOUS BRITISH REGIMENTS. [August 2.1873.] 32; ting, vrith pomatum (sometimes a chosen to attack the enemy in front, and low candle), soap, and flour, particu- they took the eagle of the Sixty-second _ -ly the men of flank companies, whose regiment. The French oflBcer was just hair was turned up behind as stiflf as a secreting the eagle under his grey great­ ramrod. The queues were doomed by coat, when Lieutenant Pierce made at him, ^-eneral orders from the Horse Guards, assisted by several private soldiers of the 20th of July, 1808. The oflBcers wore Forty-fourth. A French soldier driving at les, made of black ribbon. Instead of a Lieutenant Pierce with his fixed bayonet, attached to the collar of the coat be­ was shot dead by Private Bill Murray, and hind, to distinguish them as flankers. This Pierce divided twenty dollars among his costume has been for years preserved in the four assistants. The Forty-fourth also Bffyal Welsh Fusiliers. took a French drum, which AA'as kept as a The second battalion of the Forty-fourth trophy till the regiment embarked for the embarked for the Peninsular war in 1810, Mediterranean in 1848. Ensign Standley ,nd at the siege of Cadiz supplied rein­ was killed, carrying one of tbe colours of forcements for the fort at Matagorda. the Forty-fourth. The regiment lost in The Forty-fourth then sailed for Lisbon tbis victory. Captain Berwick, Ensign and joined the army at the lines of Torres Standley, and four rank and file, while Vedres. They fought at Sabugal, and the twenty-two men were wounded. light companies were actively engaged at In 1812, Wellington finding the second Fuentes d'Onoro, where Captain Jessop battalion of the Forty-fourth so reduced In commanded. numbers, formed It Into four companies. At the siege of Badajoz the Forty-fourth, The reraalning six companies returned to under Lieutenant-Colonel the Honourable England. They had earned in Spain the George Carleton, was told oflf to make a title of *' The Little Fighting Fours," &l8e attack on the Pardaleras, and a real being small men and fond of blows. aasanlt on the bastion of San Yincent. In 1814, the second battalion, sent to After breaking down the palisading and Belgium in 1813, joined In the unfortunate entering a ditch, tbe regiment Avas exposed attack on the strong fortress of Bergen- to such a murderous fire of grape and op-Zoom. The Forty-fourth lost above musketry, that no ladder could possibly be forty men In this catastrophe. A soldier raised. Lieutenant John Brooke at once of the Forty - fourth, named M'Cullnp, sent Lieutenant Pierce to the reserve, and who had received nine hundred la.shes two companies were sent up under Captain within nine weeks, and on the night of John Cleland Guthrie, who, frora tho the assault Avas a prisoner, begged to be glacis, soon silenced the guns and mus­ released, saying he bad never been out of ketry. The ladders were then raised, and fire Avlien the regiment bad been engaged the stormers entered, folloAvcd by the since his joining, and although he kncAv he brigade, and the colours of the Forty- was a bad soldier In quarters, yet he Avas a fourth were planted on the bastion. A good one In the field. The man had his bugler of the Forty-fourth sounding the wish, and being an excellent shot, managed advance. Lord Wellington, who Avas Avait­ to kill the first nine sentries that were ing anxiously for news, exclaimed, "There's raet Avitb; he was killed, however, during an EngHsh bugle in the tower!" The the night. Torty-fourth, on this occasion, lost two At Waterloo the Forty-fourth (witb lieutenants, two sergeants, thirty - eight Pack's brigade) performed one of the rank and file killed, and about a hun­ bravest feats ever executed by British dred men wounded. Of the light com­ soldiers; being suddenly assailed by lancers pany alone above thirty men perished. In rear Avhen already engaged In front, and Next morning Lieutenant Untbank was having no time to form square, tbey ac­ found in an embrasure dying. The chap- tually received the cavalry in line and de­ lam of the division came up just In time feated it, as Alison proudly records, by one to administer the sacrament to hira as he single well-directed volley of tbe rear ranks, wated on Lieutenant Pierce's knee. Lieu­ who faced about for that purpose. Lieu tenant-Colonel Carleton had his jaw broken tenant-Colonel Hamerton knew his men by a bullet, and Captain Jervolse died of bis well, or be would hardly have risked such bounds. The word ** Badajoz " on the a desperate measure. A French lancer, regimental colours coramemorates these says Mr. T. Carter, gallantly charged at •ervices of the Forty-fourth. the colours, and seAcrely Avounded En.sign At Salamanca the Forty-fourth Avere Christie, AVIIO carried one of them, by a

iP 328 fAugust 2, 1873.J ALL THE YEAR ROUND. [Oondnetiail iW

thrust of his lance, Avhich, entering the left out, " Here is a staff* officer, open out;" eye, penetrated to the loAver jaAv. The this. Ensign Dunlevie—Avho held one •^'ll Frenchman then endeavoured to seize the the colours (and which the French officer standard ; but the brave Christie, notwith­ made a snap at as ho rode through)— :[^p^ standing the agony of bis Avound, Avith a stabbed tbe horse in the stomach; thaf'l' ii presence of mind almost unequalled, flung animal staggered and fell about twenty liimself upon the flag, not to save himself, yards in front. Dunlevie and two soldiers but to preserve the honour of the regiment. iiastened on, and the Frenchman was bayo> As the colour fluttered in its fall, tho noted whilst disengaging himself, piatdS^r^ Frenchman tore off" a portion of the silk in hand, frora his saddle. His watch '-^^ 1^ with the point of his lance; but be Avas not and gold chain fell into their hands, and l\^ permitted to bear the fragments beyond the Avere afterAvards purchased by Lieutenant J ^^'\1 ranks. Both shot and bayoneted by the Colonel Burney for thirty napoleons. En-l ';'''''! nearest of the soldiers of the Forty-fourth, sign Dunlevie subsequently took this re-. ^3:Jra he was borne to the earth, paying Avitb the peater to a Avatcbmaker in the sacrifice of his life for bis display of un- Royal, Avho recognised it, and at i^il!once' ^ aA'ailing bravery. claimed it and locked it up, only half the Captain Burney of the Forty-fourth, In purchase money having been paid. There bis narrative of the battle, says, "The being an order from the duke not to dis­ French Avere In line, AvItb skirmishers In the pute AvIth Frenchmen, Dunlevie quietly , fields of rye, AvhIch Avas about five feet high. asked the man to let hira compare the 2 Btat'3 Wc adA-.anced Avith tbe light company ex­ Avatch with his time, and on gaining pos­ tended, but finding tbat the French bad the session of it put it in bis pocket, and with advantage of seeing us, and picking off a polite " Bon jour," Avalked away. On the many, Colonel Hamerton called tliem In, 16th of June the Forty-fourth had four­ and file-firing commenced from each com­ teen killed, and one hundred and fifly-om pany, to clear the rye as we advanced. After Avounded. Lieutenant Tomkins and Ensign several movements the Forty-fourth were Cooke were killed. The second battalion detached at double quick to a rising ground, Avas disbanded soon after Waterloo. where we found the French cavalry had In 1825, the Forty-fourth had an active driven our artillerymen from their guns, and share in the Burmese war. In 1841, had taken possession of, but could not shortly before the breaking out of the move them, as the horses Avere gone; many Afghan war, the regimental strength con­ of our artillerymen Avere sheltered under sisted of tAventy-five oflBcers, thirty-five the guns. We were in quarter-distance sergeants, fourteen drummers, and six column, and soon put our men in charge hundred and thirty-five rank and file, 'Si!- of their guns again. A German regiment nearly all of whom Avere destined to perish then came up, and tbe Forty-fourth re­ in the ravines of Afghanistan. On the joined their brigade. Soon afterAvards the 2nd of Novenvber, 1841, the storm broke division Avas in line on the plain ; tbe roar out at Cabul, and our political agent, Sir of artillery Avas aAvful. The French cavalry Alexander Burnes, bis brother, and Lieu­ repeatedly charged, and AVC formed squares ; tenant Broadfoot, perished in their burn­ on the third occasion I Avas wounded." ing house. In a repulsed attack on the Captain Burney Avas then carried to the Rika Bashee Fort, Lieutenant-Colonel rear, wounded in the head and leg. A Mackrell was sabred, and Captain M'Crea, bullet was soon after extracted from his of the Forty.fourth, cut to pieces. The trea­ bead, Avitbout Avhich operation the doctors cherous assassination of the British envoy. agreed he would have died mad. Sir William !Macnagbten, was followed, A repeater watch was taken on the 18th on the 5th of February, 1842, by the at Waterloo, by Ensign Dunlevie, of the retreat from Cabul of four thousand five Forty-fourth. When the regiment had hundred English soldiers, Avith about three reformed line from square, a French ca­ times that number of camp followers, valry oflBcer found himself the sole repre­ Avoraen, and children. Heavy show had sentative of his squadron, and hemmed In fallen, and the Afghans were in full between tAvo lines of our troops. Where­ pursuit. At the Little Cabul Pass con­ upon he thrcAv oflf his helmet, disguised him­ fusion, slaughtei*, and plunder began. The self in his cloak, and, being splendidly Sepoys were so benumbed with cold that mounted, charged the rear centre of tbe the Afghans Avrested their firelocks from Forty-fourth (tirst line), making a great them in many instances Avithout re­ grasp at the colours. The sergeants called sistance. Whenever a European fell the

•^ =& Obutos Dickens.] FAMOUS BRITISH REGIMENTS. [ Augu.st 2,137 32i) mountaineers chopped him up with their morning, who was making straight for the larga knives, as if he had been a dead tent, brandishing a sword as sharp as a sheep. Once the Forty-fourth charged, razor. Dodgin called to Halahan, who and drove the Afghans gallantly back, came out with a thick stick and felled the bayoneting many, but the relentless pur­ man lifeless with a single blow; but not In suit still continued. The road was strcAvn time, however, to aid poor Dodgin, who, frith dead. At the Tezeen Pass there in attempting to step out of the fellow's was more fighting, but Brigadier-General way, stumbled over a tent rope, and re­ Shelton halted the Forty-fourth, and ceived from him so severe a Avound as to averted immediate destruction. Here fell occasion amputation of the leg. He was Major Scott, Captain Leigbton, and Lieu­ also killed at the barrier in tbe JugduUuck tenant White of the Forty-fourth. At bar­ Pass. riers thrown up near JugduUuck, many of " Shortly after dayligh't on the 13th of the Forty-fourth were killed. The oflBcers January," says the regimental biographer, ehiiu here and in the pass Avere Lieute­ " the exhausted survivors found their pro­ nants William Henry Dodgin and Francis gress arrested by a numerous body of Montressor Wade, Paymaster Thomas horse and foot. In a strong position across Bcurke, Quarter-master Richard R. Hala- the road, whereupon they ascended a han, and Surgeon John Harcourt. height on their left hand, and, reaching Paymaster Bourke, says Mr. Carter, the top, waved a handkerchief; some of had been nearly forty years In tbe service, the Afghans then came to them, and which he entered as paymaster in 1804. agreed that Major Griffiths (Thirty-se­ He had joined the Forty-fourth in 1823, venth Native Infantry) should proceed to and served with the regiment in Arracan. the Chief of Gundamuck to make terms; Some of the oflBcers of the avenging army whilst he was gone, a few of them gave the recognised the remains of the poor old men some bread, and possibly gaining con­ man, from there being a small portion of fidence from tbis, the enemy yielded to his silvery grey hair still adhering to the their usual propensity to plunder, and en­ skull. Many valuable papers Avere lost deavoured to snatch the arms out of the with his eflTects; the funds of the regi­ soldiers' bands, when an oflBcer exclaim­ ment, which were unusually flourishing, ing, 'Here Is treachery!' Avords came to were in his hands, and some of them Avere blows. The Afghans Avere Instantly driven altogether lost. What appeared to be a down tbe hill; firing Avas then recommenced piece of dirty paper Avas picked up in the and continued for nearly two hours, during Tezeen valley, and proved to be an order Avbich these heroic fcAv kept the enemy at bay, for three hundred pound.s, belonging to till their numbers being reduced to about the officers' mess-fund. The amount Avas twenty, and their ammunition expended, recovered by the regiment. the Afghans rushed in suddenly with their Quarter-master Halahan bad been lieu­ knives. An awful scene ensued, and ended tenant in the Eightieth regiment, but Avas in the massacre of all except Lieutenant placed on half-pay on the reduction of the Thomas Alexander Souter, Lance - Ser­ army in 1817. He Avas appointed quarter­ geant Alexander Fair, six soldiers of the master of the Forty-fourth in 1822, and Forty-fourth, three artillerymen, and Major •erved with the regiment In Arracan. He GriflBths, Thirty-seventh Native Infantry, was of great strength, and was knoAvn to whose lives the Afghans, with unwonted be the most poAverful man in the regi- humanity, spared. In this last struggle taent. He carried a musket from Cabul, Lieutenant Thomas Collins, Arthur Hogg, and fonght with the ranks, killing many Edward Sandford Cumberland, Samuel of the enemy. He fell Avhile crossing the SAvinton, and Doctor William Primrose, barrier in the JugduUuck Pass, and had assistant-surgeon, all of the ill-fated Forty- been wounded at Cabul, at the Commis­ fourth, were killed." sariat Fort. Of the one hundred and two oflBcers Lieutenant Dodgin had lost a leg near killed at Cabul and In tbe retreat, twenty- Peahawnr, when on the march to Cabul, two belonged to the Forty-fourth. Of six in the following unlucky manner. He was hundred and eighty-four men of the Forty- at tiffin in his tent with Quarter-master fourth, six hundred and fifty-eight perished, Halahan, Avhen a cry Avas i-alscd In tho nine were prisoners, seventeen survived camp of " a man running a muck." the last brave stand at Gundamuck, and Dodgin stepped out to see, and It turned of these fourteen died In captivity. out to be a Syce ho had discharged tbat In one of the last fights Lieutenant N^

'.','•',() fAupust i, it.7; ALL THE YEAR ROUND. [Condaotad by

Suuter, seeing the peril, tore the regimental In 1854, Avhcn the Forty-fourth colours from the stall', and Avrapped thera barked at Varna for the Crimean war, round his body. The Queen's coh)ur Lieu­ the regiment's strength Avas thirty oifioei|< tenant Cumberland handed to Colour-Ser­ and eight hundred and ninety-nine men of geant Patrick Carey, Avho wrapped it all ranks. After the battle of the Ahna, round him; but Carey was killed, and the Doctor James Thomas, of the Forty-fonrtii, colour never seen again. The first colour and Private Magrath, a soldier servaoti Avas more lucky. Lieutenant Souter, In for four or five days volunteered to renudn a letter to his wife, from his captivity behind, and alleviate the suflferings of sevoi near Sughman, in the hills, not many hundred Avounded Russians; subsequentty miles from Jellalabad, thus wrote: " In the doctor took three hundred and forty, the conflict my posteen flcAV open and of them to Odessa, and died on his ret exposed the colour. They thought I Avas to BalaklaA'a, of cholera, a victim to hig some gi'cat man, looking so flash. I was generous exertions. The Forty-fourth par- seized by tAvo fellows (after my sword ticularly distinguished itself in the attack bad droj)ped from my hand by a severe on and occupation of the cemetery at tbA) cut in the shoulder, and my pistols had head of the Dockyard Creek, the day missed fire) ; they hurried me to a dis­ Pelissier was repulsed at the Malakoff. tance, took my clothes from oflT me except Our men had the dangerous task of pull- my trousers and cap, led me away to a ing down bairicades of stone walls while village by command of some horsemen under fire. The Forty-fourth swarmed that Avcre on the road, and I was made Into the advanced houses, and kept np a over to the bead man of the village, who continuous fire on the embrasures at the treated me well, and had my Avound head of the creek. The brigade was alto­ attended to. Here I remained a month, gether eighteen hours under fire, and got, seeing occasionally a couple of men of my for the first time, actually into the town of regiment Avho Avere detained In an adjoin­ Sebastopol, althou'gb exposed to aplungbg ing village. At the end of a month I Avas fire from the Redan and Barrack batteries. handed over to Akbar Khan, and joined Five hundred and sixty-two men were the the ladies and the other oflBcers at total casualties of the day. Colonel the Sughman. I lost everything I possessed. Honourable Augustus Spencer, who com­ .... My Avound, which is from my right manded tho Forty-fourth, was wounded, shoulder a long Avay down my blade-bone, and Lieutenant - Colonel Staveley suc­ is an ugly one, but It is quite healed. The ceeded to the comraand. Altogether the cut AA'as made through a sheepskin posteen, Forty-fourth lost in killed and wounded, under which the colour Avas concealed, one hundred and thirty-three men. Of lying over my right shoulder, that thick six captains who Avent into action, four Petersham coat I used to wear at Kurnaul, (FeiiAvick, Agar, Mansfield, and Caulfield) a flannel and shirt. I then threw my pistol were killed. Colonel Spencer and Lieu­ upon the ground, and gave myself up to tenants Logan, Haworth, and Hoskins be butchered. The man I tried to shoot Avere wounded. The Victoria Cross was seized me, assisted by his son-in-law, and afterAvards given to Sergeant William dragged me down the bill; then took my M'Whiney. The Gazette of the day says clothes, the colour, and my money. I was M'WhIney " Volunteered as sharp-shooter L ventually walked oflf to a village two miles at the commencement of the siege of Se­ away. This same man and his son-in-law, bastopol, and Avas in charge of the party Avhosc names are Meer Jaun, came after­ of the Forty-fourth ; Avas always vigilant Avards to the village where I was, with my and active, and signalised himself on the telescope, to get me to show them how to 26th of October, 1854, when one of his nse it. AfterAvards the son-in-law and I party, Privato John Keane, Forty-fourth became thick; he brought me back the regiraent, Avas dangerously wounded in the colour (though divested of the tassels and Woronzoflf road, at the time the sharp­ most of the tinsel), to my agreeable sur- shooters Avere repulsed from the quarries piise." by overwhelming numbers. Sergeant Both the colours had for some years M'Whiney, on bis return, took the wounded been mere bundles of ribbons, and the man on bis back and brought him to a colour thus saved was eventually placed in place of safety. This was under a very the church of Alverstoke, Hants. Colonel heavy fire. He was also the means of Shelton Avas killed iu 1845, by a fall from saving the life of Corporal John Courtenay. his horse in the square of Richmond Bar- This man was one of the shaiTi-shooters, and racks, Dublin. was severely Avounded in the bead on the5th

•«= ^

:&» Diekens.] NO ALTERNATIVE. [August 2, 1873.J 331 of December, 1854. Sergeant M'Whiney seventh were the first Englishmen insidethe brought him from under fire, and dug up walls of the North Taku Forts; they climbed a sh^'ht cover with his bayonet, where the up the embrasure by sticking bayonets in two remained until dark, Avhen they the AA-all, and so earned the Victoria Cross, retired. Sergeant M'Whiney volunteered Avhich was also conferred on Lieutenant for the advanced guard of Major-Genei-al Burslem, Ensign Chaplin, and Private Lane Byre's brigade in the cemetery, on the of the Sixty-seventh. The Chinese, driven 18th of June, 1855, and was never absent back foot by foot, were at last burled firom duty during tbe Avar." through the opposite embrasures into the In 1860, the Forty-fourth sailed for muddy ditches. About an hour after all China, the emperor having refused to ratify the forts hoisted flags of truce, yet still the treaty of Tieu-Tsin. On the 6th of defied the allies. Eventually the allied In­ August, the regiment landed on the banks fantry, pushing on to the outer North Fort, of the Pehtang riA'er, and advanced to scaled the walls, and made prisoners the attack the Tartar posts at the Sin-bo en­ garrison of two thou!5and men. Towards trenchments. The roads Avere so bad that evening the Chinese evacuated the South it cost the troops two hours' bard labour to Forts. The loss Avas scA'cre. The Forty- march two miles. The tremendous Arm­ fourth had Captain Ingham and Lieu­ strong guns, then first used In actual war- tenant Rogers severely hurt, fourteen men fore, astonished the Tartar horsemen, Avho killed, and one drummer and forty-five nevertheless streamed out and enveloped Sir men wounded. Captain Gregory Avas one Bobert Napier's force, Avho was taking the of the tirst in the Taku Forts after those position iu flank. Tbe Tartars were soon who obtained the Victoria Cross; Brigadier put to flight, but again broke out in swarms, Reeves, who commanded the troops for and threatened the artillery. They were the assault, Avas severely wounded in five driven oflFby four companies of the Forty- places. The words "Taku Forts" are fourth, who wheeled up and fired volleys. noAv borne on the colours of the Forty- The rear guard also received and repulsed fourth regiment. a charge of Tartar cavalry. After taking Tangken, Sir James Hope Grant deter­ mined to reduce the North Taku Forts, NO ALTERNATIVE. near the mouth of the Peiho. On the BY THK AUTHOR OF "CE.NIS DOXN'E," &0. 2l8t of August, a storming party Avas chosen from the Forty-fourth, to be led CnAPTEU V. BY THE LEETH. by Lieutenant - Colonel Patrick William THE excitement, in which there had been Macmahon, a Aving of the Sixty-seventh, a strong element of bitter sorroAvful dis­ and some marines, who carried a pontoon appointment for Harty, was over. She bridge for crossing the Avet ditches. The realised that it Avas over the instant she magazines in both forts having exploded, aAvoke tbe morning after the party. a breach was commenced near the gate, Realised it with a pang in spite of that and a portion of the storming party ad­ aforesaid element of bitter disappointment. vanced to within thirty yards and opened At any rate, it had been a real genuine a muaketry fire, Avhich the Chinese returned excitement, and anything was better than with interest. The resistance was so this dead dull level of monotony on which rigorous that the French, having crossed sbe AAas condemned to dwell. the wet ditches, were unable to escalade The repulse of her band, the rejection the walls. Nor could the sappers succeed of the olive-branch by Claude Powers, had m laying the pontoon bridge, thirteen of been very cruel, pitifully hard to bear, imt the men being knocked down in succession, It bad acted as a stimuhuit for the tini •, and one of the pontoons destroyed. More­ and forced her into the display of an eagii- over the troops had to wade through deep vivacity that deceived herself even. Catcli- mud, swim three wet ditches, and clamber Ing sight of her OAVU face in the glass, she over two belts of pointed bamboo stakes. felt a momentary surprise at seeing the At this crisis Napier ordered up two face of a happy girl, a momentary convic­ howitzers to AvithIn fifty yards of the gate, tion that the happiness Avas a reality. But and soon created a breach suflBcient for one tbe excitement Avas over UOAV, and she knew man to enter. In like terriers tho stormers that the happiness had been a sham, and went in singlo file; Lieutenant Robert that memory and feeling Avould combine to Alontressor llogers of tho E company, then give her plenty of pain and sorrow, phi.ty Private John Macdougall of tho Forty- of monotonous hopelessness in the future. fourth, and Lieutenant Lenon of tbe Sixty- The lirst result of the; reaction from the =5* \5i A 332 [AnjniHt 2. 187n.l ALL THE YEAR ROUND. [Conda^tod bj overwrought condition of the previous day The man Avho.so tender sensitiveneas Avas that her nerves Averc thoroughly un­ Avould have been outniged by the mother strung. She shrank from the idea of showing sympathy for her daughter, (|uittlng the sanctuary of her bed, and marked that daughter's agitation presently, going down to bear her share of the burden and resented it. and lieat of the day. Everything Avould " I seo that, in addition to everything be harder to do and to bear during tbe else which I have to bear, I am treated to coming hours, she felt sure, than they had a lachrymose exhibition of temper if I ever seemed. The tension of her nerves make an attempt to check, or even presume AA'as such that the mere sound of her step­ to point out that there is lavish expen­ father's voice, raised in its ordinary house­ diture going on iu tbis ill-regulated family. hold tone of fretful fault-finding, made ber Where the money goes I can't tell; my shiver back from the door, Avith a feeling habits are Inexpensive enough I am sure. that she was in some raeasure to blarae However, there'll be an end to it some day." about something unknown AvIth which the " Thank Heaven there Avill be an end to atmosphere AA'as highly charged. Notes of it some day," broken-doAvn Harty sobbed domestic discord sounding from the kitchen out; but, as Mrs. Devenish and Mabel felt, made her wince. All her fearlessness, all there was no ring of defiance in the words her bright elasticity was gone, and she such as Avould have portended a speedy had a conviction that Mr. Devenish Avould rebound from this despair. She waa over­ achieve a series of easy victories over her thrown, and ber tone told in its plaintive tbis day, and crush her spirit In the dust. wail that she was only helplessly anxious She had never before faltered aAvay from that the end should come. facing the personal disagreeables of their Tbe head of the house Avould not have poverty-stricken state. But it made her missed such a golden opportunity of forging shiver like an aspen, when this morning fresh fetters for his Avifc for the world. she bad to take ber coflfee to the music of So noAv be rose up, fractiousness (and how a lamentation Mr. Devenish was pouring poAverf ul tbat same fractiousness in a man out with fretful fluency, as to the exorbitant is in quelling the hearts and spirits and amount of racat which must be consumed happiness of the Avretched women who in that household judging from the but- dAvell Avith him, none can tell but those cher's-book. It was a favourite and fre­ Avho have watched its force increasing) quent pastime of his, this of bemoaning the stamped on every lineament, expressed in bills at breakfast and dinner. It always every limb and gesture, pervading the depressed bis Avife and Mabel to the degree Avholc man in a soul-sickening way. Avliieb he deemed a fitting tribute of sym­ " I am going to sit in the garden, my pathy to bis OAVU despondency. But Harty dear," he said to bis wife; " it's very odd generally contested tbe question with him that 1 can't have a chair kept out there, if she took any verbal notice of It; con­ with a couple of lazy servants in the house, tested the question of unnecessary ex­ to say nothing of — however, it doesn't pense bordering on Avasteful extravagance, matter, I'm accustomed to it; and you and proved with perspicuity and zeal that, must speak to the servants about the row owing to her mother's skill in housekeep­ they make, I will not submit to that any ing, they subsisted on the minimum alloAv- longer; like a pot-house, screams of laugh­ ance of absolutely essential viands. ter from the kitchen directly my back Is But in the present exceptional state of turned ; ttiey're a couple of Avasteful, idle, her nerves, the sound of the odiously extravagant, giddy Avomen, and will take familiar words, "books, and bills, and us to the Avorkhouse at a quicker pace than money," broke her down. A future had wc should go without them." spread out before her once in which these Having .said which, and being anxious things would have had no power to distress to read his newspaper, Mrs. Devenish's her, and that future had been marred by lord and master betook himself to the tbe querulous, complaining man at the garden, followed by Mabel Avith all the opposite .side of the table. The tears came cushions and cloaks she thought he might into her eyes in a sudden rush of self-pity, possibly Avant. and her Infinitely distressed mother saAv by And Harty sat there still, twisted round the quivering of her hps that there would on her chair, with her head reclining on be a convulsive breakdown presently. the back of it. Doing Avhat she hated " And if I say a word to my poor child, herself for doing, crying simply, in a drear Edward AVUI fancy that I am reflecting on kind of Avay that would have maddened him ; he is so sensitive, poor fellow !" her in another woman. =5= :S. entries Dicbens.] NO ALTERNATIVE. [August 2.1873.] 333 " Harty !" her mother began, going up pet, Avhen I couldn't help crying," Harty to the girl and taking the Avan brown laughed. " Yes, mother, he did, really, head home to her heart the instant they pushed it aAvay in a pet; we all have were alone; " Harty, tell me ! tell me, our little Aveaknes.^e.s, and an utter in­ dear; did you hope still, until you met ability to stand the sight of another person's him again, last night; is it that, my doAvnheartedness is one of Mr. Devenish's, child?" I should say." " No, it isn't that," Harty said, shaking " He has had so mueh to try him, so herself up; "hope, no, I've never had any ranch to rob bis nature of sorae of its hope of Claude's being my lover again, if original brightness," the loving, self-de­ you mean that, mother; but he Avon't see ceiving woman Avent on ; " if you could but that I'm right about something, and so that remember bim as I do, Harty, playing AvIth makes him seem a little cruel, and " you two children, making himself a self- I " Cruel! cruel is no word for his mon- sacrifice to your little caprices, thinking gtrous conduct, I think, Harty. He behaved nothing a trouble that he did for you, to poor dear EdAvard last night in a Avay you'd lament the change as deeply as I that makes me blush to think tbat I ever do." liked Claude Powers; cut him, cut Edward !Mrs. Devenish brought her sentence to dead, shamefully; what would you have a close Avith a sigh that was full of faith done if you had seen it, my poor child ? At In and love for her husband, and Harty least you were spared that sight." had not the courage or the cruelty to " I think I could have borne It," Harty speak the truth Avhich would have tripped said, philosophically, rousing herself, and oflT her tongue readily enough if Mr. De­ drying her eyes, and then looking in the venish only would have been bui-t by the glass and mercilessly examining and en­ utterance of it. As It Avas, she said: larging upon the effect the uuAvonted fit " Do you believe In our having guardian of weeping had had on her personal ap­ spirits about us, mother ; good angels who pearance. " Goodness me ! look at ray lips, guide and direct us ?" they're swollen, and the tip of ray nose is Yes ^Irs. Devenisb did believe in red; hateful result of nature having its the vague, abstract kind of Avay in Avhich own way " people do believe a vast number of things " But, Harty !" Mrs. Devenisb inter­ about Avhich they know absolutely no­ rupted, " I don't think I understood you; thing. why Mr. PoAvers should cut poor dear Ed­ " So do I, whenever I think of you and ward because he has broken his engage­ ^Ir. Devenisb. mother; you're his guardian ment with you, I can't understand; be angel, if ever a man had one" And Harty can speak to me and to you, it appears ; It thought, almost regretfully, that there Is so invidious to vent his annoyance on Avere times Avhen she had it in heart to poor Edward." Avisb that her mother Avas not quite so " Oh I you poor, dear, mistaken darling adroit In the interposition of the shield of mother," Harty thought, " hoAv your loving her aflfection betAveen tbe man she loved, heart would be divided If you only knoAv and some rebuflfs that he well deserved. the truth," but she only suflfered herself " Ah !" the wife said, " he Is the guar­ to say aloud : dian spirit, the good angel of my life, dear; " Don't let us concern ourselves about but It's no use trying to make you under­ Mr. Powers and Avhat be does, and why stand that yet, until you meet, as I pray he does it, mother dear; he Avon't about you may, Avith such another." as." Then for the sake of pleasing her Then Mrs. Devenish Avent aAvay to order mother, of giving her a fcAv crumbs of dinner, and to tone down, as well as she comfort, she constrained herself to add : could, the exuberant mirth of the two ** I am very sorry that anything hap­ callous creatures Avho dared to be glad pened to hurt papa, last night; It Avas un­ Avhen Mr. Devenish decreed sadness should fortunate, for he doesn't get over things." reign. " It was unfortunate, dreadfully," Mrs. " I ought to go and put away that tat­ Devenish responded, heartily, " it was tered, mutilated grey bundle of mere shreds, cruelly unfortunate; it robbed him of his about Avhich fond memory clings In a most wat, and Avhen that is the case be gets ridiculous Avay," Harty thought; " but 1 writable naturally, and can't eat his break- bate the thoughts It will conjure up, and &«t; thero, you see, he has left half that the A'IsIon of the tAvirling noodle I made sweet-bread." myself for the sake of giving Mr. Ferri

^ A 334 [AugUBt 2. 187;).] ALL THE YEAR ROUND. [Condaoled bv

self I am not likely to Avant It again, so Tliis recollection of her love, and lur I'll let it repose in its rumples, and go love-troubles, Avas the only one she thought down to the Leeth instead." of Indulging in, she cared to indulge ia. There Ava.s something attractive to her now that sbe Avas away from the stifliTv fancy in the idea of an hour or two on the liorae atmosphere, in Avbich .she had to i banks of the SIOAV, silent river, that ran short hazardous breaths, and walk as though along so darkly. It Avas not a beautiful she were treading on hot plough-shares. river, the Leeth. It has no bright beauty The vile, fractious ill-temper, and peevish of cascade and boulder, no charm of sil­ irritability of the bead of the house, the very ripple, no dashing little Avaterfalls. one Avho possessed within himself the proud But it has a sombre, steady, subdued power of making the Avholc household un- charm of its OAVU, as it sluggishly rolls comfortable, was beginning to tell with along betAveen straight banks that are Avell frightful force on Harty. The girl might planted with rows of trees whose boughs have been driven down to any depths of almost SAveep the ground, affording the degradation and sin by it. To a refined very best shelter that the heart of man and sensitive and noble nature, there is can desire between himself and tbe sky. nothing so demoralising as contact with a A lovely, light, lime-tree ceiling, full of fretful, peevish, narrow, and ill-tempered fissures and cracks, through Avhich splashes one. In this case, for example, Harty of heavenly blue, and flakes of sunshine longed so to escape from the everlasting came flickering down, deluding feebly sound of the eternal whine of complaint confiding passers-by, or passers-under about something or somebody—the eternal rather, into the belief tbat the world is full whine, the eternal look of dissatisfection of Avarmth and beauty. in tbe clouded eyes, and drawn in nostrilfl, " Oh, dear !" Harty thought, as sbe aud the discontented droop of the mouth made her Avay through the meadow that She so longed to escape from this special intervened between their garden and the phase of facial power as portrayed by Mr* river, and stood at last under the shade of Devenish, that she went straight away into green trees on its bank, and Avatched the the opposite extreme of yearning for smiles dark quiet water floAving on, " bow soft, and amiability, no matter from whom, with­ and soothing, and satisfying it seems to be out any regard for or dread of the danger just now; I wonder if the Leeth ever had she might brave if her yearning were gra­ an angry thought to ruffle its surface in tified. " Give me a smiling demon any day, its existence ; 1 wonder if the same sort of rather than a scowling saint," she thought thing has gone on happening at intervals this morning in her utter disgust and on its banks ? I wonder if ever a girl stood loathing for that futile ill-humour wliich here before, like me, who laughed over a breathes like a noxious vapour through baffled love, and cried tears of blood over the lives of so many wretched human a butcher's book ? I wonder—no, I don't beings. Almost as the thought flashed wonder a bit more about you, stupid Leeth, into her strained, harassed mind. Jack Fer­ I'm sick of you already," sho Avound up rier came strolling along, contrasting with, in a burst of pas.sionate truthfulness. vividly with the dull, dank river, and the "Emblem of ray life!" she cried in a dark unsmiling home. rage, casting herself doAvn on the bank in Jack Ferrier came strolling along impotent, childish fury. " IMocking, ever­ sunnily, looking like a beam of radiance, lasting emblem ! How dull, aud dark, and by contrast with that dusky - visaged, sloAv you are ! I wonder if Claude has got temper-corroded Mr. Devenish, the re­ hold of you, if you pass through his collection of whose meanly inquisitive, grounds ? If you do be Avill dam you up fretful, suspicious, pettily domineering face in one place in order to make you unna­ was Aveighing her down at the moment. turally bold and bright in another; he'll She turned as a sun-floAver turns to the try to control, and fetter, and curb you, god of day as the fair-faced man, with in order to see Avhat you'll do and dare, in happy eyes, came lightly Into her presence, order to see hoAV you'll destroy yourself, in and she threw oflf a goodly portion of her order to be amused by your idiotic eflforts deadly gloom Avitb the words : to seem free and unrestrained when you're " 1 came down here to enjoy the river, chained and hedged in, and tied down on just because it is water, and moves, and every .side, aud in every way. Don't I has something like life. Now I am so glad know it all—all he can do and may do, and to see you, because you're so utterly unHke don't I think it all so riirht, so right be- the Leeth " cause it's Claude." " Do you mean that, as you see me, I •5= (jkaitesDlduns.] NO ALTERNATIVE. [August 2,1^7 -,.] 335 hare neither movement nor life," he "No, that I swear you needn't alx)ut laughed. " I shall hurl that statement in yourself," he said, warmly. But somehow Mr. Powers's teeth whenever he a.sserts, as his thoughts of her had been tinged with he does, on an average, twice a day, that another hue during tbe last few moments. my excessive vitaUty overpoAvers him." He no longer thought her either very plain " No, no! hear all I have to say before or a little artificial. The sudden gleams of yon quote me to suit your own ends. The animation were genuine things. So were Leeth has about as much movement and the clouds of absent gloom that mingled Uleas a tortoise Avhen it first wakes up. with them. On the Avhole be deemed it "Sow yon came ' leaping like a merry brown more sagacious not to tell the girl Avbat he l«re' Into my solitude a minute ago." thought of ber just then, and, as judging "Much to your annoyance ?" interroga- from her next remark, her interest had tively. veered away from the subject, it was easy "Much to my delight," she answered, for him to carry out his resolution of reti­ fieankly. " I can have the companionship cence. of the torpid river any day, but you're " Do you know, your friend Mr. Powers qute new, and I shall probably not have and you are as utterly unlike each other as your companionship A^ery often?" tAVO human beings can be ?" Jack Ferrier's experience of women was "Yes. But Avhy should we be other wide, but he was a little puzzled now. His than unlike?" Jack Ferrier asked, laugh­ judgment refused this morning to indorse ing. " I tell you now what you meant. the hasty conclusion to which he had come Miss Carlisle: not so much that Powers ihe previous night respecting her. He and I are unlike, as that I am hopelessly coald no longer look npon her as a shy inferior to him in most things. I know ooantry girl. But he could not make up tbat; I know very Avell that he is one in his mind as to whether she was daring from a thousand—there are many duplicates of indifference or design, Avhether she Avas me." playing a part in order to stonn him into " He's obstinate, I should think, and thinking about her, or merely suflTering you're not," Harty said, slowly searching h^self to be seen by him just as she was, his face keenly as sbe spoke; " but you're out of carelessness as to whether he thought right, he is very clever." about her or not. " You soon made the discovery. I didn't He had seated himself on tbe green bank see you talking to bim very much last of the river by her side now, and he was night; but he has the art of giving one taking iu her three-quarter face as tbe sun the clue to tbe topic that's nearest one's flickered down upon it, and she bent It interest at tho time very quickly, as I told slightly to avoid the glare. you." " A plain little thing seen by the morn­ " Yes, he gave me the clue to the topic ing Hght," he thought. " Why doesn't her that was nearest my interest last night •ister, who is a pretty girl, teach her how very quickly indeed," Harty said, with a to do her hair better ?" little dry laugb ; " so quickly that it con­ "What are you thinking about?" Harty fused me; it was conversational conjuring." asked, suddenly, as bis thoughts culmi­ " Did he now ?" Jack Ferrier asked, nated in this rather derogatory question with unfeigned, admiring simplicity. concerning her. " What are you thinking And Harty felt even more at her ease as about? Me?" she reflected, " Claude has not told bim any­ " Well, at that moment I was, if you thing of our story yet." must know," he answered, determined to " Do you ride ?" Mr. Ferrier asked at take her on her own ground of frankness, this point, suddenly and irrelevantly cut­ and try whether or not he could disarm ting into her meditations. " I suppose her. •' I was thinking about you ; there's you do; all girls do In these days." nothing either complimentary or the re­ " Well, let me see. How I shall answer verse of complimentary, you know, in my that question, concisely and veraclously, is doing so, considering you're well in my beyond me. I don't ride because I have line of vision, and there's no one else here." no horse; but I did ride once when I had She laughed a genuine, musical laugb. a horse—lent me. Perhaps I may have "Will you mind telling me Avluat you forgotten all about the noble art; perhaps Were thinking about me ?" she asked, I might ride as well as ever if I Avere put coaxingly ; " say out, nothing extenuate ; to the test. Why ?" I know I needn't ask you to set down " Why I asked I think because you h>ok nought in malice." like a girl who could ride. You have go,

-^ ^ 33G ALL THE YEAR ROUND. [August a, 1878.) and grace, and suppleness, and you look as She turned a face full of warm, kinciiy if you'd enjoy It. I hope you AVIU." explanation of Mr. Devenish's cnrrc nt " Hope i will. Why ?" suffering toAvards Jack Ferrier as " Because Powers is going to fill his spoke, and he admired her infinitely, ainl stabh s as Avell as he can, as soon as he felt bis heart expand with pity of an in- can; and AVC must all aid hira in exercising definite and not too harroAving order fur his bor.ses. I ara going to be master of the lightly sketched malady of the un­ the horse, and I'll take care that you have known man. He thought Mabel a pretty, a good mount." kind-hearted girl, Avith Avhom Harty con­ " Thank you; when I ride one of Mr. trasted unfavourably just then. For Harfy Powers's horses probably he AVIII tako care was allowing her face to assume its most that I have a good mount. Oh dear, Avhat unsympathetic, most doubtful expression. folly wc are talking ! How remorseful I " She's harder and more selfish than her shall feel about It in about half an hour sister," be told himself: " the sort of girl Avhen I'm sitting down at early dinner, who theoretically would sacrifice everything Avith no appetite, and the consciousness in the AA'orld, herself included, for any tbat there Is nothing in the rest of my life one she loves, and who practically would to justify me in having ventured to enjoy sacrifice everything in the world, including this little scrap of It." the one she loves, to herself." Then filled He Avas on the brink of uttering a with a strong sense of the truth of this un­ platitude about the probability of the real just conclusion to which he come concern­ state of the case being that her surround­ ing Harty, he turned impressively to her ings Avere all so silken and so soft that the sister and said: merest crumple in a rose-leaf disturbed " I Avas very much struck with Mr. her, Avhcn there was an expression of such Devenish's appearance last night. Miss Car­ Impatience AA'ith what was, of such a lisle ; he has one of those refined, sensitive yeanling for something else, as never flits faces that speak of a very high organisa­ over the face of one to whom fate is even tion, and that unconsciously plead for gentle moderately tender. And before he could usage and tender consideration." substitute another form of words, Mabel Mabel's eyes flashed gratefully, Mabel's was seen coming toAvards them across the soft, tender face softened and grew more meadow, lojjklng like a blossom in the tender still, in her perfect womanly appre­ freshest of muslins, with peace on ber brow ciation of his sentiments. She was about and goodAvill In her heart, and contentment to eagerly indorse his VICAV of Mr. De* in her mind, even with that order of things venish's case, when Harty Interposed. which had chained her to Mr. Devenish's " You will be gratified to hear that Mr. chariot wheels all the morning. Devenish gets all his face unconsciously Mr. Devenish had been in one of what pleads for, Mr. Ferrier." Then she felt may be described as his most despicably sorry and ashamed of herself, and added, discontented of moods. He would have none " For my mother and sister are very dif­ of anybody's care, consideration, or kind­ ferent to me; they're good and unselfish, ness ; at least, he had all these things, but and can bear to be put out of their way, he took care to portray vividly that he did and given a little trouble without thinking neither solicit, desire, nor deign to be themselves ill-used and genei-ally put grateful for them. Truly, it was an ex­ upon." asperating mood for a man to take shelter Then while Jack Ferrier's opinion of her in, the Avhile he prepared to take aim at was veering round again to that point from other people's inoffensive foibles. which he had fb-st started, while Harty, Mabel made the real state of the case with her elbows on her knees, and her chin manifest to Harty in perfect unconscious­ resting on her hands, aud her eyes riveted ness this morning when she joined the pair on the sluggish stream, was looking like a on the river bank. little crumpled up figure of humble medita­ " Poor papa has been finding the atmo­ tion, and saying, " Good gracious ! what a sphere this morning dreadfully trying," mercy it is for men that more women are she began. In tones of solemn sympathy. like mamma and Iklab than like me," they "Mamma and I haven't been able to saw Claude PoAvers coming down a meadow persuade him to take anything this morn­ path that led from the Court to the town ing either; he's looking dreadfully weak." close on the opposite bank of the river.

Th^ Bight of Translating A> tides from ALL THE YEAU ItouxD is reserved hy the Authors.

•?1Publiaue d at tbe oaice, 26, WeUington St., Strand. Printed by C. AVHlima. Beaufort Honae. Uuko tjt. Lincoln's Inn ileidfc =iP