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the country—the place to which, when NARROW ESCAPE. the time is ripe, he hopes to transplant BY THE AUTHOR OF 'nENIS DONNE,' 'NO ALTEiUtATIVE,' &C. &C. Kate; and that in la-vishing love and care on them, Eiite feels almost as if she were CHAPTER XXni. THE CRUEL TRUTH. bringing herself nearer to the donor. KATE'S -windows in the house in one Kate has stoutly backed up Mrs. An­ of the verdure-clad Bayswater roads are gerstein in the latter's determination not bright -with flowers, even in mid-winter. to accept an income from Captain Bellairs. In spring it is needless to say they bloom " I have enough for both ; I am making into most softly coloured and harmonised more money than I can spend on myself," beauty. She is qnite remarkable for her Kate says -with the unconscious egotism masses of snowdrops, her lemon-tinted and self-confidence of an author who has I tulips, and delicately pencilled crocuses; stUl to execute her first failure. " I'm as her clumps of Russian violets, and great proud for Cissy as I would be for myself, waxy-headed pale pink, and blue, and buff and, with my consent, she shall not Hve hyacinths. She is also quite remarkable on any man's bounty. You know, better for her tender, loving care of the same, than I can tell you, what would be said if and for her jealous guardianship of each she did—what would be said of her and leaf and bloom from contact with any thought of you," Kate says when he moots other hand than her own. the subject. Mrs. Angerstein has made, futile, feeble "Do you care about what is thought of efforts at watering and pruning K!ate's me, Kate ? " he asks. " You have thought pets once or twice, but Elate has sup­ badly enough of me in days gone by. pressed all these efforts. Have I redeemed myself in your eyes ? " "They are the only things that are She looks up at him, and there is a altogether my own," she says. " My truthful earnest look of desire for her family have cut me, my dog is dead, and good opinion in his eyes. With all a my cat has strayed away. Leave me woman's perspicuity she reads clearly that my flowers; let me feel that they lift up he loves her better now than he did in their heads and recognise me as their only those old days in Torquay. But still she friend. Tou have your children; I have dare not unbend, for she distrusts herself. nothing else." "How base I have been," she thinks, "My dear, I thought to save you self-reproachfully, "I'd have taken Prank trouble," Mrs. Angerstein responds. "One away from May without compunction, I would imag^e you had a sentiment about loved him so well. ShaU I ever dare to them ; that they were the gift of a lover, let myself think that I can go back and I instead of being ordered in from the take up the original feeling for Harry nurseryman's round the corner." Bellairs, and try to teach myself that it is Candid as Kate is in most things, she a good and true one ? " does not think it necessary to tell Mrs. She tnms questioningly to him, as she Angerstein that her "only friends" are thinks this, in her candour she is about to the gift of Captain Bellairs ; that they state the case to him, and leave it to his have been transplanted from his place in judgment. But as she hesitates, the op- ^ 299 VOL. XJI. ^ 434 [August -22,1874.] ALL THB TEAR B.ODBD. [Condncted by

ortuaity is lost. Cissy comes in, with for ihe first time in her life; " men are so tBf'garb of widowhaod on truly, but with much better advisers than women are, Ciny W> -other sign of widowhood about her, for dear; I'U go and see about ordering snpper she is smiling, radiant, perfectly satisfied and you'll stay and have some with nt thiat he is waiting here for her, and merely won't you ? " she adds, suddenly turning pnttii^g up with Kate in the meantime. to Bellairs, who is only praying that he ^'Kat«," she begins, with a little may be able to detain her to mount guard c^ort at addressing her communication to over the coming interview between himself Eate only, though *he inclines her head and Cissy. towards Captain Bellairs, as she speaks, " I am only too happy to stay near you and gives him her hand in sUent saluta­ under any circumstances; you know tbat tion. "Kate, tbe system of treating me weU enough," he says to Miss Mervyn; like a baby or a fool has been carried on " but can't you let the supper order iteelt by his lawyer even after my husband's for once, and stay and hear a more coherent death. I am not the helpless dependent statement of the good news than Cissy on yonr bounty that yon—that we aU has yet given ns ? Tell it over again, thought I was. So other wUl can be Cissy," he says, with a laugh that is found, and I and my children come in for painfully strained and exaggerated. everything, as next of kin, or something " The good news," she replies with a of that sort." Cissy adds vaguely, " And sigh, "is only that I am less unjnstly I have been kept in the dark aU this time, treated than I thought I was; but it won't even whUe things have been settling them­ sound very well in the ears of a snccesafol selves in my favour, by the brutaUty of -writer, nor in the ears of a man who puts my brother-m-law." everything in the scale against that sno­ " To say nothing of the time-serving cessfnl writer now, and finds everytliing spirit of your husband's lawyer," BeUairs •wanting," she winds np with; and tliere says coldly. There is an exaltation about is a degree of -vicious determination about Cwsy, a forgetfulness ot aU that she owes Cissy that staggers her nearest friends, to someone else who is present, which who are only accustomed to herlimperand chUls his warm Irish heart, and fires his more amiable maimer. hot Irish spirit. " I -wiU stay and hear anything that " He knew that I should be all right i» either of you may be pleased to say," the end, you see, Harry," the widow ex­ Kate says, in answer to that last remarlc plains eagerly; " he didn't mean it as a which Captain BeUairs has made. Then slur on me, as his odious famQy said he she sits do-wn under a reproachful battery did; but aJFter all,"—and here her face of glances from Cissy. faUs suddenly—"his income died with But the burden of being in another him, and it's a barren honour that he has woman's way is too heavy a one for Kate paid me, in letting everything just drift in to bear patiently for any long space of my direction. There is the house and the time. It occurs to her, also, that it is pro­ furniture (that woman wUl never enjoy bably only the natural duplicity of man either, thank goodness), and the interest which is causing Captain Bellairs to por­ of two thousand pounds; is that much ? tray satisfactioti in her society. "Cissy, Can I Uve on it, Kate ? it might almost as at least, is honest in the matter, she shows weU have been nothing as vvhat it is," the me plainly enough that she wishes me to complaining bereaved one goes on, before begone," Kate says to herself, and in a Kate has words at command with which to spasm of ill-founded jealousy and annoy­ make answer. " I couldn't get up a spark ance she rises up, and once more declares of gratitude for it under any circumstances, that there exists some strong household even if I tried, and with the family waiting reason for her presence elsewhere. expectantly for me to espress gratitude " The shops will be closed presently, and for what was only passive and limp justice there are several things that I mnst get towards me after all; I won't try. How for to-morrow. To-morrow is a Ban* codld he dare "—she goes on, quivering hoUday, you ought to remember; all shop­ vrith anger now—"how could he dare to ping mnst be done to-night," sbe argne.i, let me live as I did, and then to die as he when Captain Bellairs protests against her did without providing for what has be­ going out at this hour. come necessity- to me and my chUdren ?" " At least if you must go you mnst allow "I leave you to talk to Captain BeUairs me to escort you," he pleads. aijout it," Kite Bays, speaking awkwardly "Ko, ixo, no; *lie necessity for an 4 Oharlea Diokens.] A JBTARROW ESCAPE. [AuKust 22,1874.] 485 escort belongs to my past life, not to my declare it to be am. untimely disturbance of present; besides I should make bad and her children. unprofitable bargains, if I felt that yon " I don't have them down here very were standing about, waiting impatiently often," she begins explaining. " You see for the bargaining to be over. You mnst I have not had a proper person to look let me go, and you must let me go after them, and Kate says tiiey disturb her alone." when she's writing if they're playing about " Kate has a great knack of seeming to the room; or, at least, if she doesn't say it, be perpetually sacrificing herself," Cissy she looks as if she thought it, and so, as I says, complainingly, as K!ate goes out of can't bear the idea of my poor darlings the room. being in anybody's way, I keep them ia " Now I never knew anyone who Uked their o-wn room nearly always when they'ne less to play the part of social martyr," not at school." Bellairs says, quickly, as he recalls a thou­ "Poor Kate ! she has need of the con­ sand acts of unappreciated self-abnegation ditions of perfect, undisturbed quiet and on Kate's part. Perhaps even Bellairs solitude, for she works very hard in these does not realize the extent of the one she days," Captain Bellairs says, ignoring the is making now in leaving him alone -with tone of complaint which Cissy has infused the widow, who, weak in all else, is strong into her remark. in her flattering fondness for Bellairs him­ " Yes I have been most unfortunate in self. interfering with the peace and soKtude " I don't know how you can say that that is essential to her -writing," Mrs. conscientiously," Mrs. Angerstein goes Angerstein says, resignedly. on, with an aggravating air of putting it " She has never aUowed you to feel to his sense of justice; " whenever either anything approaching to being in her way; of us asks her to stay in the room -with us, I am sure of that," Captain Bellairs inter­ or to go out with us, she tells us that stem rupts hurriedly, "Kate is the soul of gene­ duty compels her to do something else, rosity." and the something else always sounds as He speaks warmly, reprovingly, his if it were disagreeable ; but she will go on thought is evidently more for Kate than doing her duty, disagreeable as it may be. for Cissy, and Cissy cannot forbear show­ She doesn't say this in so many words, but ing that she feels that it is so. she implies it, and I would almost rather " I believe you love her, Harry," she a person made herseM unpleasant straight­ says in a voice that is scarcely above a forwardly than in a roundabout way ; you whisper. men are so easily wheedled." Mrs. Anger­ "You surely love her yourseK ? Are we stein winds up with a little laughing toss not]all fond of her ? " he says, equivocating, of her head. " Kate is very good in one in the embarrassment which every man respect, though; I am sure ii I were as feels when openly charged with having clever as she is, and as beautiful as she is, fallen a prey to the tender passion. I'd have made you care ten thousand times " I am very grateful to her," Cissy says, more for me than you do for her." hardly, not that she is hard in reality, but " Perhaps you, like Miss Mervyn, would it is a blow to all her dearest hopes, to never have cared to try," he says, care­ find that he loves another woman so well, lessly ; " but we're drifting into a very that he is unable even to attempt to deny idle vein of conversation. Cissy ; talk about the fact. " I am very grateful to her," she love-making between us is simply absurd. repep-ts; "but Harry, I should feel, oh! so Brothers and sisters speak sterner stuff." infinitely more at peace, if I thought that "We're not brother and sister," she I should nevQr see either her or you again." says, meekly; " still I agree with you. Shall I have the children do-wn to see " Until seeing me again -will give you you?" she asks, with a fervent hope in the same happiness that the sight of a her heart that he will say "no," for she brother would give you. Cissy, I wiU not intrude on you," he says, rising up; then does prize this tSte-a-tSte with him very he gives the woman, who is rapidly break­ highly, unsatisfactory as it has been so far ing down, a few parting words of advice. aa it has gone. " But let me ask yon one last favour, "Yes, certainly, if they're not gone to and grant it to me, for your own sake, bed," he says, leaping at the suggestion and your children's, and for the sake gladly, and making for the beU before of the affectioast I have for you; dea't Cissy has time to change her mmd, and

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cast yourself adrift from the truest, the melons and mUlet and pulse to supplement warmest, and best woman friend you the curds and roast meat, tho dates and have." boUed partridges, of the family fare. "The last! then is this good-bye?" she The men considered that to follow the asks in bewUderment. cattle afield, and to fight their -way "Tes—nntU you recaU me as a brother," against foes, brute and human, with some he says. Then he shakes her hand, with of the accomplishments of the tanner a quiet kindness that nearly kiUs her, and butcher, and felt maker, comprised all goes away. that could reasonably be expected from She stands where he left her, for a long them. Of this primitive division of time, her tear-stained face buried in her labour we see distinct signs among those hands. She recaUs with piteous fideUty roving races of hunters who stiU survive. every incident of her life with which he The squaw of Colorado, the gin of the haa had any connection. " Always good, Australian bush, deems it no luirdahip to generous, and true, and always cold to collect roots and ben-ies, to carry burthens, me," she thinks, "bnt he never chUled to pitch the skin lodge or the lark gnnyo. my life until I found him lying half dead To kiU game, and to confront tbe enaiw, on Barnes Common. Blankness! I never are the sole occupations accepted byt^ knew what utter blankness was tiU to­ noble savage. night." Widely different is the caae of Sme She tries to stir herself baok into anima­ large and purely agricultural populations tion, by telling herself that she has her that we find settled on fertile plains, and chUdren stUl, her three clever, beautiful, especiaUy on the rich deltas of some great loving children; and then, with a hopeless river, such as NUe or Gauges. There, gasp, shp bethinks herself that when they thronghont the historical epoch, we per­ cease to be pets and playthings, they wUl ceive the existence of a warlike dominant go out into the world, and find other class, bearing sway over an immense ma­ loves, and other interests, and leave her jority of meek cultivators. So mnch was behind alone! this the case in Egypt, that after the ex­ "Alone, always alone, from this time tinction of the martial aristocracy of the tiU the end comes," the weak unhappy Pharaohs, and of their Persian, Macedonian, woman whispers; " for as for staying to and Arab successors in the government^ see her happiness—Oh! Harry, that is the the slave nobUity of the Mamelukes came most cruel suggestion yon ever made to from afar to estabUsh what was perhaps Uving thing." the most extraordinary rule over the haid- working FeUaheen that ever was set up in any land. In most instances, tbe miliiary NATIVE INDUSTRT. caste in a rich and populous country will be found to be alien iu blood from tie IHDUSTET, in the pastoral period, was, as mass of the people. It is so in Russia, a matter of course, conducted on patri­ where fully fonr-iifths of tho nobles are of archal principles. The tribe, in itself an Tartar, German, or Polish descent. It is overgrown famUy, tended the flocks and so in India, where the Hindoo Eajab and herds of their nomad commonwealth, with the Mohammedan Zemindar ai-e of another no assistance but that supplied by the race from that of the swarming Sndras adoption of an occasional captive or hire­ who tiU their domains. Tbe haughty ling, who had intermarried -with the Dorians of Sparta constituted a perpetual original stock. Pour-fifths of the work garrison, in the midst of slavish helots and was done—and in Mongolia and the submissive periokoi. In France, poUtical grazing districts of both Tartary and struggles hsive been envenomed by the Arabia is still done—by the women of the frequent contests between the descendants clan. It was the duty of Fatimah and of conquering Franks and those of van­ Ayesha to bake the thm tongh cakes on quished Gauls, between the Eomanised the iron griddle, to twirl the wooden Celts of Armagnac and the French-speak­ mallet in the leather churn untU the sweet ing Goths of Burgundy. And wherever milk became butter, to broil the kabobs we observe this system to flourish, aa in and to season the pilaif. LeUa could weave mediiBval Europe, we may bo tolerably andspin, shape and sew, valuable arts where certain that labour wUl be despised, and tailors and drapers are unknown; and Lara, some of its most profitable developments during the summer camping out, raised impeded or forbidden. Cbarlea Diokena.] NATIVE INDUSTRY, [August 22,1874] 437

Those who wonder at the tenacity -with ings not enjoyed a-> large, though hard- which a French peasant clings to his few won, measure of practical freedom, they poor acres of land, stony or swampy soil, would never have converted a sterile, perhaps a very Moloch which the owner sandy sea-bottom into a market garden and his -wife, his son, and his daughter overbrimming -with abundance. Who half kill themselves to cultivate at a profit, would reclaim waste land, or select rare should remember that but fourscore years breeds of such cattle as Cuyp loved to have elapsed since the fall of the cruel and paint, merely that bey, or captain of free absurd system which crippled the chief lances, or robber knight, might drive off industry of France. It seems marvellous— the sleek kine at the point of the spear, when we read the long list of prohibited and perhaps quiet the complaints of the crops and modes of cultivation, when we owner, by hanging him in front of his own know that much of the land was legally abode. During the middle ages, as now, assigned to forest, that bad husbandry, in the greater part of India, hired labour neglected fallow fields, and a thriftless was in little request, from sheer lack of rotation of harvests, were imposed by law— enterprise and capital, neither of which that poor Jacques could -wring a wretched can be looked for in the absence of security livelihood from the land. The seigneur's that he who sows shall also reap. game preyed at -will on his meagre corn The natives of some few islands, and the patch; the seigneur had a right to claim his possessors of certain exceptionally rich and unpaid labour ; so had the king's intendant, unhealthy tracts of land, have been urged, and even at the very harvest-home the as it were, by necessity or prejudice, to peasantry might be swept off to repair the import or invite foreign labour. A small high road ; to beat the woods for wolf or proprietor in Corsica or Sardinia, would boar; or to scare the frogs whose croaking think himself degraded did he execute the in the castle-moat disturbed the slumbers tasks on which a French or Piedmontese of some fair marchioness fresh from Paris. peasant spends his laborious Hfe. Neither Taillable et corveable a mer9i, the luckless could he, if he wished it, find among his tiller had the pleasure of knowing that o-wn countrymen the patience or the adroit­ high Government financiers were busy in ness needed to extract a profit from his cunning calculations as to how many more fertUe farm. It is the mainland of Italy straws of taxation the patient camel's that furnishes him with the brain and back would bear, unbroken, and on how muscle requisite. Labourers from Lucca small a modicum of black bread and cab­ and Modena tUl his corn-fields, trioa his bage-soup soul and body could be kept vines, and fiU the wine-vats with seeth­ together. ing must. We see the same state of things in Ceylon, where rice, and coffee, A large poptdation, dependent on agri­ and cinnamon, are cultivated by drudging culture, and inhabitiug a flat and fertile coolies from Continental India. The native country, is, unfortunately, one peculiarly Cingalese, than whom no defter woodman easy to oppress. A pastoral tribe stands ever plied an axe, scorns the hoe and in but little awe of a foreign master. spade, and is not to be relied on for the Should the pasha or the mirza prove un­ continuous toil of agriculture. The rich bearably i-apacious, an exodus is easily Roman Campagna has never been culti­ managed. A few forced marches carry vated save by the hands of labourers the clan and its four-footed wealth securely brought from a distance. It was once across the frontier, or into some trackless the Jamaica of Europe, tilled by the slaves desert where troops cannot readily follow. whom Roman patricians collected from Bat the land-tax, the grist-tax, the poll- every quarter of the compass, Briton and tax, the tithe, toll, and tribute, cannot be Spaniard, Jew and Negro, working to­ evaded by an nnwarlike people, whose gether in the chain-gang. It now depends possessions lie open to observation and for tUlage on the immigrants, whom high seizure. Accordingly, excepting in China, wages allure from the rugged Abruzzi there have been few instances of really highlands, to face decrepitude and death scientific tillage in the countries which, to amidst the sickly mists of the malaria. all appearance, were the most favoured by Bhootan, again, relies for her scanty crops nature. The black alluvial soU is scratched, on the obedient captives, whom her kid­ and from the shallow furrows there nappers, tin lately, drove up the mountain sprouts up a crop, plentiful indeed, but very passes from the lowlands of British India. inferior to that which greater skill would I A wonderful example of what industry produce. Had the Hollanders and Flem- T CMsustss.ie?*] ALL THB TBAE BOUND. (CandiuMlir

can accomplish was that set by the Moors " middle passage " to become proverbial. in Spain. The plain of SevUlc, tbe valley The only difference is that tho latter were of Malaga, and stiU more the blooming middlemen, selling the prisoners of war Vega of Granada, extorted the en-vious vended to them by some African king, while admiration of the Christian foe. The the former are constrained themselvea to latter, vrith its innumerable gardens, inter­ decoy and capture the poor wretches who sected by riUs of pure water from the are in such request among the angar Darro and the XenU, studded by thousands canes and cotton plants. It is the mis­ of viUas, towers, and kiosks, red vrith roses fortune of a black man, whether from Qte and gleaming vrith verdure, was the amaze­ Niger or the Solomon Group, that his ment of the dwellers on the parched physical strength and small development plateaux of Central Spain. SkUful irri­ of brain combine to point him out to tiie gation, loving culture, and a more orderly cupidity of shrewder races as a valnahle government than that of neighbo-uring flesh and blood machine to be coerced inln States, had achieved these victories over nsefnlness. Nature, soon to be blotted out when the The coolie trafiic, so caUed, is very apt Moriscoes had been driven back to their to assume the shape of thinly disgnised ancestral Africa. In ihe early part of the slavery. The Lascars and low-caste natives fourteenth century the Albigenses, on the of India who are welcomed by the planters other side of the Pyrenees, had followed of Jamaica or the Mauritius are, indeed, the Moorish plan of cultivation with as­ thanks to severe regulations, tolerably free tonishing results, when Pope Innocent's agents, and do in effect return bome after Cmsaders, the steel-clad chivalry of a whUe -with a hoard of rupees sufficient Northern France, came to root out the to buy a farm in Malabar or Bengal. Bni heretics vrith fire and sword. Neither the the Chinese, so many of whom South Moors nor the unfortunate schismatics of America absorbs, are inveigled on board Aquitaine depended on hired or enforced ship, in many cases, on the falsest of false labour, and their productive agrictUture pretences, and have some justification for found few or no imitators elsewhere. the savage mutinies which often turn an Plantationlabour, devised by the Bomans, immigrant vessel into a gore-stained was in a sense re-invented by the Spanish shamble. The native agents who recnrit conquerors of the New World. Work, in for the Guano Islands or the estates of the vast realms which Columbus, as his Boli-via transcend, in unscrnpulonsness as epitaph tells us, gave to CastiUe, made weU as in stupendous power of lying, the itself manifest in the guise of no benefi­ worst crimps who ever infested our sea­ cent fairy, but as a ravening ogre, hunger­ ports ; and poor Ching, his brain reeling ing for human flesh. The gentle islanders -with the fumes of opium, suffers himself of the AntUles, the docUe people of Peru, to be embarked, under the faith of some died off by myriads aa they toiled at the false oath sworn to bim in a temple, and mines or tUled the lands of their Spanish amidst steaming incense burned to hallow taskmasters. The whole Indian popula­ the monstrous figment which bis credoliiy tion of Hispaniola, numbering seventy has swaUowed whole. He is to have good thousand souls, perished thus within the treatment, high pay, tbe best of food and short space of two generations. The more clothing, a free passage home in two years, robust negro waa next imported from vrith a handsome lump of savings to bring Africa to fiU up the gap, and for hundreds back vrith him to the banks of the mnddy of years Europe owed her sugar and river beside which he was bom. He begins tobacco, her rice and cotton, to the labour to entertain suspicions when he sees gnns, of the sturdy blacks shipped iu droves loaded vrith grape-shot, trained so as to from the Guinea coast. Fiji and Queens­ sweep the 'tween decks, where he and his land seem now to occupy the same posi­ brother pigtaUs are herded together, whilo tion as that of Demerara and Cuba some sentries vrith charged muskets keep jealom half century since. The kidnappers whose watch, and swords and revolvers are earned light schooners undertake " blackbmding " by the officers of the ship; and ho finds voyages amidst the islands of the South out his mistake altogether when he gets Seas, and who purvey Polynesian thews among his co-untrymen beyond the seas, and sinews for the settlers on fertUe shores and heare that, articles or no articles, he beneath the flag of King Cacauban, are is never to return. neither better nor worse than the slavers whose cruelty caused the horrors of the There are countries, and those tbe mosi opposite, which could not carry on tlu 4 Oharles Diokens.] NATIVE INDUSTRY. [AagnBt22.1S7iJ 439 regular machinery of daUy life, were it growing on t^ie bamboo loom of the Ben­ not for the continuous supply of domestic galee weaver, were beyond our reach. But labom" which they receive from abroad. cheapness, plenty, and rapidity of produc­ Egypt, Arabia, and Western Asia in tion soon enabled the highly-paid workmen general rely for their servants on those of Englajid to beat, on their own ground, long kafilas of miserable captives that the most frugal and pertinacious of their leave so many dead on the Une of their Eastern competitors. painful march from the far interior, as The idea of protection to native industry, they wend their weary way towards the proneness to regard native industry as Zanzibar. Without this constant stream something which it was laudable to en­ of enforced negro immigration, it would courage at any sacrifice, is not, after all, be difficult for Turkish, Arab, or Persian a very old one. It can, however, boast of konsekeeping to go on in the fashion a pedigree of respectable length, being which custom dictates. On the other among the most powerful of mediseval hand, without Irish men-servants and prejudices, and made itself felt in England maid-servants, the wealthiest famUies in almost immediately after the Norman the United States would be forced to conquest. The violent assaults upon the depend on the services of the coloured persons and property of those thrifty race around them. Native industry, so Flemish settlers, whom a wise policy in­ fai- as the transatlantic variety of the vited over to utUise the wool from English Anglo-Saxon stock is concerned, declines fleeces, was an early manifestation of that to devote itself to the making of beds or spirit of narrow jealousy which afterwards the preparation of dinners. culminated in the evil May-day of London, and which, so late as the reign of WiUiam The factory system, in manufactures, in., prompted the fenners of the East of has always been the direct antithesis of the England maliciously to cut the dykes and family, or individual, industry which its destroy the dams and sluice-gates of the more economic results have enabled it to Dutch "adventurers" who were struggling surpass. Without the use of elaborate to reclaim the swampy lands, where then machinery, impelled by some motive power the bittern and the curlew dwelt afi in a stronger and more untiring than human desert. But in truth there was a ten­ muscle, a factory wonld in vain have striven dency in each large town to guard its own to compete with the patient skUl of the especial industries from foreign rivalry, solitary worker whose life has been devoted and to treat as foreignera all who had to his ci-aft. Even as it is, opticians, gun­ not by birth or grant the freedom of smiths, and cutlers are weU aware that for the city. The .Duke of Buckingham, the most highly-finished and costly portion when in Charles II.'s reign he earned the of their goods they must rely on the intel­ easily evoked cheers of the House of ligent labour of a trained mechanic. There Lords by denouncing the knave dealers are, and perhaps always wUl be, industrial who dared to bring in Irish beef and products, hand-made, and far surpassing bacon, Irish eggs and butter, at prices anything which machinery can turn out. lower than those of WUts and Suffolk, Bnt on a broader scale it is impossible for was but giving Parliamentary utterance human eyes and fingers to contend in to a doctrine that had been preached for the vast commercial arena of the world's centuries in every guUdhaU of Western markets, with the htindred-handed giant Europe. The burghers of Ghent, or Ypres, whose sinews are of steel and whose or Lincoln, or Norwich had, in their own mighty lungs are filled with all-com­ eyes, the same right to divide the profits pelling steam. The traditional manufac­ of trade as now appertains to the members tures of India, the thin cottons that derive of a co-operative society. He was a false their name from that rich city of Calicut, brother, and worthy of condign punish­ on which Vasco de Gama brought his ment, who would bring in over many cannon to bear ; the matchless muslms of 'prentice lads, and a suspicious number of Benares, the " woven wind " of Decca, the interloping journeymen, to study the art gorgeous embroideries of Delhi, and the and mystery of tanning, or taUoring, or unequalled shawls of Cashmere, could not cordwaining, within the magic limits of vie with the wares of Manchester, Leeds, the civU club. and Paisley. So far as beauty went, the The agricultural riots and rick-bumings shawl on which patient Cassun and his which attended the introduction of the sons and daughters had laboured lovmgly first clumsy reaping, threshing, and hay- for three years, the filmy whiteness slowly

-N" A =4. 440 [August 22, isrt] AT.T. THB TBAB BOUND. [Oculnctod b;

making machines, the Luddite breaking arms, and had the bitterest scorn for the of steam-loom and jenny, the uprising rascal commonalty that dwelt -without the of wrathful thousands to resent the incur­ gates, and envied the prosperity of the sion of " foreign " miners or factory hands, craftsmen. Hence, when the waU was have aU been identical in motive with the breached, and the hostile spears and far more savage outbursts against Jew and standards came streaming in, and the bells Fleming, Frenchman and Hollander, which tolled dismaUy as the red light arose from leave a stain upon the page of the historian. burning houses, the indigenous rabble of Twenty-five years ago, no English shoe­ the place made common cause with the maker would reconcUe it to his conscience invaders, only too glad to sack the mansions to repair a French made boot. It was and quell the pride of their former masters. deemed a proof of dubious patriotism to Some countries, such as Russia, for wear sUks and ribbons from abroad, and he instance, have always done their best to who owned a Geneva watch with a broken attract foreign workmen, foreign artists, mainspring had to seek far, and sue in aU foreign talent of every sort, conceding humUity, before he conld pre-vaU upon a special rights and immunities to the valu­ fellow-countryman to mend the alien time, able colonists -vhose skUl and knowledge keeper. So late as 1846, the exportation silently help to reclaim the natives from of potatoes from French ports was in more barbarism. But for such importations from than one instance prevented by au indig­ England, HoUand, and Germany, the great nant mob, who held that the produce of Empire of the Czars would not, as at the the soU should be consumed where it was accession of Peter the Great, have possessed grown, whUe, after the Bevolntion of a ship, or a saUor i» narigate it, or a two years later many thousands of English foundry for cannon. Despotic rulers of workmen were, as is well-known, sum­ Central Asia, such as Timour, have pre­ marily expeUed from France. ferred to sweep oS into distant captivity The spirit of municipal exclusiveness, weavers and stone-masons, gardeners and which lies at the root of aU preference for dyers, and roughly to attempt the trans­ native industry, has naturally been the planting of the useful arts to regions where more able to evince itself, in proportion to culture was unkno-wn. These arbitnuy the degree of self-government enjoyed by measures have never been cro-wned by the members of the community. Thus in more than a partial success. Skilled in­ monarchical France, where the king was dustry is in fact a delicate plant, and one constantly encroaching on the pririleges hard to acclimatise on an unoongeniid soil. of the great cities, there is less trace of a Thus the sUk-weavers of Spitalfields have sturdy, selfish corporate feeling than at always been quoted as the very type of Bruges or Hamburgh. FuUy to under­ a sufiering and poverty-stricken class, stand the seeming historical puzzles which while the clothiers of Torkshire and the we meet with when we read of the past, West, the linen manufacturers of Ulster, we should remember that there were, for and the potters of Staffoi-dshire, have long instance, some dozen Bnglanda, wheel since outstripped tbe Dutchmen who within wheel, and often vrith conflicting taught them the rudiments of their craft. interests. A moss-trooping north country North Italy, so far as the Po, depends in a borderer would have seemed strange and great degree on the industry of the hardy savage iu the eyes of a Kentish rustic or a volunteers who come plodding over the Cornish fisherman. A citizen of haughty mountain roads from beyond tho Alps. Bristol hardly felt himself of the same Lombard vrindows are glazed, Lombard blood as the gaunt young cow-boy from house fronts are painted, the gilding of the Gloucestershire uplands, who came the shi'ines in Lombard churches is re­ tramping in search of bread into the rich touched, by the cunning bands of Swiss town, and was very likely sold as a slave workmen. Sun-bronzed Savoyards toss to the pagan Danes in Ireland, or, at a about the Piedmontese hay, or bear a hand later date, to the planters of Virginia. at the Ligurian harvest-home, or toil The same diyiaion occurs, more forcibly, amidst the dangerous malaria of the nce- in Flemish and Italian chronicles. Any fields, beside the lofty embankments of the ducal spoUer or foreign foe could rely on great river. aid from Florence, when Pisa or Genoa was the object of attack. A burgher of The wonderful dexterity with which Ghent hated a burgher of Bruges as Japanese workmen can imitate European cordially as he did a Burgundian man-at- wares of any sort, was matter of notonety even in those old days when the extremest h Oharlea Diokena.] SAXON DWARFS AND NIXIES. [Auguat 22, isri] 441 east was as a sealed book to onr enquirers. The king, Coryllis, had a high reputa­ In a less remarkable degree the same may tion for -wisdom, and if any ordinary mortal be said of the Chinese, and it may be •wished to consult him, he had simply to broadly stated that the most teachable toss three smooth pebbles into the cave, nations belong, not to the Aryan, but to with his face averted, and beg the saga­ the Turanian stock. The great Indo-Ger- cious monarch to come forward in visible manic family, of which we are a branch, shape. are by far more distinguished as original For a long time, doubtless on account of thinkers or contrivers than can be pre­ the -wisdom of Coryllis, the dwarfs and dicated of the Mongol race. The mariner's their neighbours lived on tolerably good compass, the cultivation of the sUkworm, terms -with each other, but the former at gunpowder, and printing, are certainly last became unpopular with the latter, discoveries of which the Flowery Land may especially the citizens of Gera, through a be justly prond. But the list is nearly an bad habit of stealing bread, which they exhaustive one, and for each Slavonic preferred newly-baked. So frequent were inventor a dozen might be culled from their dep-'edations, that a famine was the records of our own and our neigh­ apprehended, and the people gladly listened bours'scientific achievements. The Russian to the counsel of a sage priest, who recom­ jewellers can, indeed, bring out the lustre mended them to mix some of their dough and the sparkle of diamonds in a manner -with carraways. The recipe answered its elsewhere unequalled; whUe for cheap purpose ; the dwarfs fell ill, many of them goldsmith's work, and the showy display died, and a general emigration was the of coloured gems, Prague is supreme. result. Some famous old manufactures are now Shortly after the consumption pf the all bnt extinct in the birthplace of the art. carraway-bread by the puny robbers, a Toledo and Damascus no longer furnish fisherman, named Wollmar, happened to their historic sword-blades to half a world; be -with his boat in the neighbourhood. Florence and Mantua no longer clothe Suddenly he beheld King Coryllis, who Europe; the Venetian glass has been bnt requested a passage with his people across artificially revived. For none can chain the river Ekter, and bade him place his the subtle sprite. Prosperity, to their chariot hat towards the front of the boat, that the wheels, and when greed or neglect has fare might be duly received. brought abont the period of decay, it is but a The request was readUy granted, and blank prospect that awaits Native Industry. WoUmar soon heard a successive chinking like that of small coin, and though he could see no one besides the kiog, the SAXON DWARFS AND NIXIES. gradual sinking of his boat showed that he IN the vicinity of the town of Gera, situ­ carried a large freight. Indeed, when he ated towards the southern extremity of pushed off, the edge was scarcely a couple Saxony, flourished in the olden time a very of inches above the water. When he had large population of dwarfs, under the rule reached the opposite bank the boat graduaUy of their king, Coryllis. According to some rose, though nobody, with one exception, was visible, and he perceived that his hat authorities their height varied from one was nearly fiUed -with smaU gold coin. foot to three; according to others they AU of a sudden, when the dwarfs, having were much shorter. It seems, however, left the boat, had gone some distance, he generally agreed that they were ugly, was able to see them, and marvelled at wizen, deformed little creatures, whose their vast number. _ shape was scarcely human, and whose speech was a sort of buzz. Their place of According to one tradition the price paid residence was a cavern, near Stublach, to Wollmar made him a rich man, to the which is stiU caUed the " Dwarfs' Hollow," great astonishment of his neighbours, who and in the midst of which, according to did not know whence his wealth was tradition, once stood a goodly castle, which, derived. According to another he did not when they quitted the spot, the mannikins at first recognise the value of the coins, demolished. If any too venturesome wight and flung them away tUl only a few were entered the cavern, with the view of in­ left, when, to his infinite grief, he dis­ specting the castle, he was sure never to covered his mistake. The rejected corns, reappear, and his disappearance was uni­ as was common on such occasions, were at versally attributed to the murderous indig­ once converted into dry leaves. The nation of the dwarfs. memory of the dwarfs is stUl held m affec- T ~X 442 tAugm* 22,187<.] ALL THB TEAB BOUND. [Condnctod by

tionate respect, and their departui-e has been their equally diminutive husbands can be mentioned vrith regret, as bringing to an mischievous and vindictive, they are capable end one of the blessings of the " good old of gratitude, and are not witliont a sense times." They were useful in attending to of justice. As an instance of the former the household, took active part whenever case, we may mention tbe anecdote of a brewing and baking was going on, looked vUlage surgeon who one evening heard a after cattle, ploughed by moonlight, and knocking at his window, and a voice calling thrashed the com in vrinter. Sometimes for help. The sight of a grey "little they asked for a piece of bread, and if it woodman" (Holzmannel) with a switch was freelygiven, the donor, on the foUowing was not reassuring, and he felt un-willing day, would find on one of the furrows of the to leave the house; but his Uttle visitor field, a white cloth, upon which was placed represented in terms so pathetic that his a cake of exquisite savour. The dwarfs wife had broken her arm, and so strongly were also distinguished for their rigid assured him thathe should suffer no hann, sense of propriety, and among families that he accompanied the mannikin into who used bad language, and paid no the neighbouring wood. Here be found, respect to Sunday, they were careful not in a tiny hut, the poor little woman, whoso to remain. arm he set and bandaged. Thrice did he repeat his visit, but at the last he was As this excellent testimonial seems to rewarded, as he considered, handsomely; agree but iU with the reported depredations for he received five old doUars, whidi npon the bakers of Gera, it should be shows that in those days surgeons' bUls stated that the story abont the carraways is were not heavy. told in a different way. According to this, a wealthy farmer of Stublach held a wed­ In the hay-making season the little ding-feast at his house, and some of the woodwomen are apt to grow miscbievons, dwarfs were among the company. The and a story is told of one of them, who, on joviality of the day had somewhat tumed a certain fine day, amused herself by per­ the farmer's head, and by way of a prac­ petually upsetting the hay-cocks in a large tical joke, he placed before his little guests meadow. Bepeatedly warned to desist, some bread spiced with carraways, which she paid no attention to tbe admonitions, he knew they detested. A loud wail was tiU at last the farmer, to whom the meadow heard, and the dwarfs declared vrith grief belonged, gave her a smart rap with the that they must quit the spot which they handle of a rake. She uttered a piercing had loved so well, never to return. It cry, and her husband made his appearance was when they left the farm, that, accor­ to ask what was the matter. The case ding to thia version of the story, they being explained, the Uttle man honestly appUed to the fisherman by the river. confessed that his wife had been rightly The "Uttle woodwomen" (Holzweibel), served, but he added that he would have who, it is said, Uved in the forests of the kUled the farmer if she had received a same region, some seventy years ago, blow vrithout sufficient cause. although not identical vrith the dwarfs In the history of those Uttle people, the mentioned above, resembled them in many notion that pretematui-al gifts are not to particulars. Their height was that of a be irreverently treated, which we find chUd three years old, but they were quite Ulnstrated by the tale of fisherman Woll­ grey, and had elderly faces. Their dress mar, not unfrequently reappears. On one •was that of an ordinary peasant, and they occasion a plongbboy overhearing the erics were particularly fond of brownish aprons. of some of the tiny ladies, as they talked Their timidity was singular, but they were about baking their cakes, called ont that equally remarkable for their spirit of inde­ he would gladly have a specimen of their pendence. Thus, one of them became cookery. Accordingly, a cake appeared attached to a young shepherd, and the on his plough, and though, like a churl as attachment was highly beneficial to the he -was, he pushed it off, it persistently sheep, for the little woman shook from her returned to its appointed place. At last apron food enough for the whole flock. he flung it -to a considerable distance, bni In au unlucky fit of gallantry, her lover immediately beard a shout of indignation, presented her -with a new gown, but she that frightened him out of his wits. disappeared at once, having first declared Shortly afterwards he fell iU and died. that she was perfectly ashamed of him, if he was not ashamed of himself. The most formidable enemy of the little woodwomen is our old friend the Wild Thongh the "little woodwomen" and Huntsman, of whom such frequent mention

^ * Oharlea Diokens.] SAXON DWARFS AND NIXIES. [August22.1874.] 443 is made in the records of German supersti­ even tliese sports were varied by the tion, and wo hear of a man who lived in a useful occupation of washiog linen. Let village near Gera, and who was qxiietly us not forget to state that there was a sitting with his family at supper, when paterfamUias called a Nix. the door suddenly flew open, and a wood- Like the dwarfs proper, the Uttle women woman rushed in, uttering piercing and their husbands are now no more to be screams, and declaring that the WUd seen. The Nixies have also vanished, but Huntsman had shot her husband. More­ they stopped the longed, and Herr Robert over, she attributed the calamity to the Eisel, to whom we are indebted for much rash act of the owner of the house, who, information respecting the traditions of that very day, had stripped a tree of its Voigt-land, writes in 1871 of an old man, bark, and that the death either of her or then Uving, who declared that inhis youth he her husband was the inevitable conse­ had danced with one of these river beauties. quence of such an act. She implored him AU classes seem to have been actuated by not to repeat the offence, and going round a cause substantially the same—a change begged all the famUy to join in her sup­ in the habits of living in Gera and the plications. The man's -wife, touched with vicinity which was not at all to their liking. compassion, gave a plateof sauer-kraut and When people began not only to put carra- bread to the strange visitor, who crept with way seeds into their bread, but to count it into a corner, and wept whUe she ate. the dumplings in the pot, and manifest The application of the law of cause ajid indignation if one of them was missing, effect seems somewhat hard in this strange the time for departure had arrived. story, but we suspect that it has come These Nixies of Southern Saixony were down to us in not quite a complete state, much more mischievous than the little and that a belief in the eflicacy of the sign people of whom we have already spoken, of the cross has something to do with it; and had propensities like those of the for the story is told of a little wood woman ancient Sirens and the Rhenish Lorelei. who, in the same region, appeared to a ChUdren were warned to keep out of their man who had just feUed a tree and sat upon way, when they began their fascinating the stump, which was marked with three dances, and grovm-np people were often crosses. But all that we have gathered so moved by their fascination, that they in reference to this subject is marked by in­ pursued them to the river, never, as a rule, consistency and obscurity. Sometimes the to return. In the Saale there was one crosses seem to be protection to the pigmies; especially dangerous Nixie who was de­ sometimes they seem to be otherwise. termined to have her victim on a certain The odd feature about these dwarfs of day in every year, and on that day swim­ the Voigt-land—so is the district caUed—is ming and fishing in the river were sedu­ the position they take between fairies and lously avoided by all prudent folks. But ' ordinary mortals. On the one hand, that there were always imprudent and pre­ they have magical treasures at their dis­ sumptuous people enough, to hinder the posal, and can sometimes do the work of Nixie of the Saale from being wholly dis­ malignant fiends; on the other, they seem to appointed. be almost dependent on the goodwUl of man. The younger Nixies not only went to A similar remark may be made with market in the towns, but they joined respect to the Nixies, who inhabit the -vrUlage dances, disguised after a fashion waters of the Voigt-land, principal among which could deceive the unwary, but faUed which are the rivers Elster and Saale. to impose upon the experienced, who co-nld Like the little women, they are family always recognise a Nixie by the wet edge people. We often heard of a mother of her dress. Detected or not, they were nisie, who goes about with two handsome sure to find abundance of admirers, who daughters, and the habits of these nymphs accompanied them part of the way home, were so decidedly amphibious, that they but were generally cautious enough not to would frequently quit their streams to visit go too far. Some young feUows have the neighbouring towns and vUlages, and been heard to say that, looking after the there purchase butcher's meat and other dear creatures, they sometimes saw them comestibles. On the banks of the river strike with a switch the waters of a river or pond, which obUgingly opened to aUow they of course disported themselves after them to pass. The dresses worn by the the good old fashion, some sitting on Nixies, when they visited dancing-rooms, stones, and combing bright green hair, varied greatly, sometimes being those of a whfle others sported in the water. But A= =-h 444 tAuE;u«t 22,1B7M ALL THB TEAB BOUND. [Conducted by

higher, sometimes those of a lower class; tempting appearance, was a prominent bnt the wet hem was irrepressible. Like feature; bnt the hostess -warned her visitor the "little people," they were subject to to resist temptation, as the seeminw deli, many common-place injuries, and one who cacies were, in reality, nothing bnt toads patronised a butcher in Posneck, had her snakes, and lizards. But, from this story finger chopped off whUe she was holding we must not draw hasty conclusions, tor the meat. We regret to say that the we have heard of a girl who, happening injury was purposely inflicted by the to see an enormous toad, as sbe walked churlish butcher, and add, withont any along, jestingly offered to stand aa god­ grief, that when afterwards he strayed by mother, in case the toad became a parent the Nixie's peculiar pond, he was dragged The jeat was taken in earnest, and not to the bottom. The case of a huntsman long afterwards, a grey little man bronght who saw a fine fish in the Bister was much a formal invitation to a christening that waa harder. He did, indeed, shoot the fish; to be held at a spot charactei-istically called but, like most of us, he was unaware that the Nixenstein. The girl was iu donbt as tn among fishes famUy feeUng is strong. No how she ought to act; but, following the sooner had the shot been fired, than a voice advice of her pastor, she accepted the in­ waUed forth: " Thou hast killed my vitation, and found herself in a handsome child." The huntsman took to his heels, room, in the presence of a stately-looking but the owner of the voice, who waa a Nixie. The banquet, on this occasion, was Nixie, overtook him before he had reached most magnificent, and so unobjectionable, home, and tvristed his neck. that the godmother of the infant Niiie apoke of it vrith pleasure ever afterwards. Though it was unquestionably dan­ That an elderly Nix encouraged the gerous to escort a Nixie home, such an flirtations with ordinary mortals to which act of courtesy was not necessarily at­ his daughters were notoriously addicted, tended by disastrous consequences. For we have no right to assume. Two yonng instance, one gallant young gentleman, Nixies, so exceptionally pretty that their who accompanied his partner from the admirers thought they could not suffi­ ball, -was assisted in reaehing her residence ciently honour them otherwise than by by a white cloth, which was spread over calling them " doUs," were in the habit rf the water, and aUowed him to -walk dry- attending balls in the neighbourhood of footed ; and he came back in good condi­ their pond; and, on one occasion, were tion on the following morning. Another accompanied home by their partners, who was allowed to go under watei', by means descended into the pond by a flight of of a flight of steps, which did not become steps, and found themselves in a spacious visible tUl the Nixie had struck the pond apartment. The Nixies hid them behind with her staff, and which, at a wave of the doors, saying, that the old Nix, her band, was again covered over. The their father, conld not tolerate Christian visitor was hospitably treated with coffee; men. In their place of concealment the and it is worthy of remark, that he found young men overheard a dialogue between in the subterranean abode, not only the the Nix and his daughters, in which the mother of the Nixie, but also a chUd, who former asserted that the latter had either was not a fish. bronght Christians home or bud associated The coffee, in this case, was reported good; with them elsewhere. The reply that the but it was not always expedient to accept the latter was the case, seemed, for a time, hospitaUty of a Nix or Nixie. Two young somewhat to satisfy the aquatic Virginias, damsels were once bathing, when, all of a and nothing serious happened for the sudden, a door opened under the water; a moment; but, a short time afterwards, grey little Nix popped up, and carried one of the young men were missing, and nothing them oft. Nothing had been heard of her more was heard of the " dolls," wher^ for some time, when a letter waa received fore it was supposed that these, also, had by her more (or less) fortunate friend, oome to grief. inviting her to undertake the responsi- bUities of a godmother. The invitation was courteously accepted; and the girl, CEEES. on reaching the well-known spot, waa con­ HER car, thick bound with scarlet poppy flowers. ducted into a very decent room, where the With golden wbeat-eaia, aud the whiskered lobM ceremony of baptism was duly performed. Of white-blcaohed barley, with the comflowOT me, There was also a banquet in honour of the That glint like gleaming stars amid the rows Of stately^ helms, ripe for the reftper's hand. occasion, in which fish, of a remarkably The teeming goddess comes! Oharlea Dickens.] EARLY EASTERN TRAVELLERS. [August 22,1874.] 445 ., , ,, . , ,, The clover-fielda. Lush and luxunant, blush beneath tho tonch dered. Penelope, too, had not grown Of her quick chariot-wheels, burst into wealth younger, and the suitors were all kUled Of fair rose-tinted blossoms; and the vetch off, so that Ithaca was a dullish spot for a Her purple fi-onds expandeth to the warmth. Of the all-ripening sun. Tho rich fuU koba. hero, who must have felt that after aU the Of the imperial maize, grow amber-hued. Great Trojan Marauding Company (Un­ Their broad green ribands rustling in the breeze limited) had been rather a failure than A vast imposing boat of banners, weft ' By cunning workmanship, of Nature's looms. otherwise. Julius CsBsar saw a great deal Drives on the goddess, scattering in her track of the world, mainly because Rome had Bounties and blessings. Plenty at her bid, become too hot to hold him, and it was Hand-graspeth Peace, and they all-blessed'twain, principally owing to the great Roman's On either side their sovereign hold the reins Of her white steeds, the whUe they smiUug pour. embarrassed circumstances that Gaul was From their e.xhaustless cornaoopiiie conquered, and Britannia brought under A stream continuous on the grateful ettrth ! the shadow of the Eagle's wing. When the barbarians got their turn, they showed EARLY EASTERN TRAVELLERS. little reluctance to abandon the pictur- esque scenery of their native land, and TILLE-HARDOUIN. went south, not to admire the Apen­ THE spirit of travel—that true Wander- nines or the Bay of Naples, but for Geist which drives the being possessed by what they could get. Equally were the it to wander " up and down on the earth hardy Norsemen impelled to man their and to and fi-o in it "—is a modern spirit ships by a desire for the res aliennm—^the altogether, dating from the invention of raven being an acquisitive bird, and not the picturesque. UntU the romantic school simply a curious one. It is not probable persuaded mankind to look upon nature that RoUo -visited the valley of Seine with a loving eye, the beauties of lofty with the -view of impro-ving his mind by mountains cro-wned -with streaming foreign travel, but far more likely that the glaciers and dark pine forests, of mighty mead was running short at home, and that cliffs, wild fells and roaring torrents re­ the Viking had received a hint in the mained unrecognised. Persons who wrote nature of that famous dish—served up by more than a hundred years ago reserved borderers' wives when their lords showed their raptures for golden corn-fields, teem­ a lack of enterprise^-kno-wn as spur stew. ing orchards, and purple vineyards, re­ Dnke WUliam most assuredly did not garded the gander bulwarks of nature, collect his out-at-elbows army, in order to such as the Alps, -with horror and disgust, show them the view from Snowdon or and viewed S-witzerland less as a storehouse Richmond HiU. A more matter-of-fact of the picturesque than as an impediment and prosy filibustering expedition never to the traveller seeking Rome or Venice. started than that led to success by the Nothing is more common than to find the tanner's grandson. finest passes of the Alps and the grandest Before history was understood a certain scenery in the Highlands described as halo of romance hung over the crusades, "awful solitudes," frightful mountains, but this vanishes entirely on a close and savage wastes. examination of contemporary -writers. Wandering, in these days, was re­ The devotional element may, perhaps, garded as a disagreeable necessity. By have counted for something among the Moses—himself a traveller—due emphasis early promoters of these expeditions; is laid upon that part of the curse of but the crusades were really " floated" Cain, which condemns him to become a and organised by the noble army of wanderer and a vagabond. Ishmael, the barons and men-at-arms out of work, who typical Arab, was driven to a nomad had waxed weary of breaking each other's existence, simply because Sarah had a heads, just to keep their hands in, and temper of her own. Ulysses, that much- were only too glad of an opportunity of enduring man, saw men and cities because making an onslaught on the East, then he could not help himself. He, like reputed to be fiUed -with fabulous treasures. Achilles, tried hard enough to escape the The " meaner sort" were delighted to go Trojan war, bnt fate was too strong for anywhere out of the miserable world they him. It is true that he became restless lived in. So far as they were concerned, after his return to Ithaca, and grew dis­ the right of private war and a few other satisfied with that dreary island—rather a privileges enjoyed by their feudal lords, " one horse " kingdom to settle down in, had gone far to make Europe uninhabit­ after the realms he had seen, and plun­ able; and the poor wretches were natnraily A= 446 [.i.ugust22,187*.] ALL THB TBAB BOUND. [OoQdnotedbr

anxious to exchange the part of the auvU which they passed, that these nonu. for that of the hammer. The beavers had lations rose against them and smot< a hard time of it during the middle ages, them hip and thigh. The grandees for when the nobler beasts of prey did pretty the most part escaped pretty well hn- mnch as they liked in the world. Peaceful the rank and file suffered severely industry was a losing game. Towns and Shortly before tho advent of onr her, villages were incessantly being stormed things had gone much against tbe warrior by somebody, who, of course, exercised of the Cross. Philip Augustus of Pranci all the rights of a conqueror. and Bichard of England had been stirreij Many adventurous spirits grew tired of into action, by the direful news that tlii this state of things, and thua it happened Saracen had seized upon Jerusalem. Tbi^ that the crusades received much popular intelligence had given a tremondonsi shoct support. Taken altogether, the armies jiar- to European pubUc opinion, such aa it then took of a cnriously AduUamite character. was. At least one Pope died of it, and tlie Monarchs out of luck, bankrupt barons, and EngUsh king being in want of a fight, and pennUess squires rushed to the front, fol­ the French king meaning to make a raid io wed by crowds of burnt-out yeomen,ruined on his rival's dominions if he could get the traders, and by those professional brigands chance, went on the expedition. Richard who found business slack in consequence -was a bom troubadour and crusader. Uis of their haring "cleaned out" everybody mother Eleanor of Acquitaine—the golden. in their part of the country. In tbe East footed dame—had founded the eonria of there waa something to be got. The hope love in gay Gnienne, and had distinguished of ultimate salvation waa sweetened by herself in a previous crusade, wherein she, the immediate prospect of plunder, princi­ vrith her light brigade of dames ami palities, and power for the big fish, with demoiseUes, had acquired a certain celc- prize-money galore, and a life of riot and brity, or notoriety. Richard and tho violence for the leaaer wanderers. These French king quarrelled, of course; PhiU]> very mixed motives led the mail-clad bar­ Augustus went home to take advanta.. barians of the west to make a tremendous of Bichard's absence, and the crusadt onslaught on the comparatively civilised was a complete failure. Under those Moslems, then pressing hard upon the con­ doleful circumstances an entirely new cru­ fines of the effete Byzantine empire. At sade waa preached, but PhUip AngustoB first the Greeks were not disincUned to had had enough of one venture, and, hke welcome their deliverers; but,. not less a wise monarch, thought it a capital cunning than cowardly, the degenerate opportnnity to ship off some of his Byzantines soon discovered that foes may great and exceedingly troublesome be more endurable than powerful and vassals. Among these tremendous per­ rapacious friends, aud, after a short ac­ sonages — the " uncrowned monarchs quaintance vrith the Western Crusaders, of the Christian world—two tali heads heartUy wished their aUies at the bottom towered above the rest: those of Baldwin, of the Bosphorus. It was true that the Count of Flanders, and Thibaut, Connt of extending horns of the Crescent threat­ Champagne. The latter great feudatory ened to envelop the city of Constantino in had recently come into his property at an time; but this danger waa yet afar off, early age—his brother Henry, who had whUe the crusading nuisance was present gone on the pre-rious abortive expedition, and oppressive in the extreme. Terms having walked out of a window mt* could be made with the Mohammedans, eternity. Chief-constable of Champagne, who had got almost everything they and counseUor of its ruler, was the wanted; but nothing conld be done with Sire Geoffrey de VUle-Hardouin, no in­ the Crusaders, whose appetite for pay, considerable person, and moreover, the plunder, and the good things of this life author of one of the earUest prose books was insatiable. written in the Langue d'OU, or niodem Prenoh. It is, however, an injustice to Before the time of Ville-Hardouin the this noble gentleman to say tbat the work Crusaders had undergone some terrible was written by him. Noblemen of the reverses. Thanks to their own atrocious period disdained the use of the pen, jnstlj conduct and the bad faith of the Greeks, esteeming the sword their proper weapon. the adventurers of Western Europe had Throughout the pages of the narrative of been oonaiderably thinned. More than the Siege of Constantinople occurs the thia they endeared themselves so much to name of the author—who dictated the the inhabitants of the countries through

^ \ Oharles Dickens.] EARLY EASTERN TRAVELLERS. [August 22. ISTA] 447 k, ^! narrative to a clerk or some such base crea- not taken at a disadvantage, when the ^5; -fcnre, and always speaks of himself CsBsar- business came to a bargain. The Republic >^ -wise, or in the tliird person. His story undertook to furnish ships for four thou­ •^; commences with the preaching of the sand five hundred horses and thirty-thi-ee c crusade referred to. " Know," he says, thousand five hundred men, in considera­ 9t "that in the year of the inciunation of our tion of ninety-five thousand marks of ••.> Lord one thousand one hundred and ninety- silver, weU and duly paid. Another diffi­ iii(, eight," at which date Ville-Hardouin was culty was to find a leader for the expedi­ i,, abont thirty-one years of age, " at the tion. Ultimately, the Marquis of Mont- ;,f time of Pope Innocent III., of Philip ferrat accepted the post of commander-in- 1-^ Augustus, King of Prance, and of Richard, chief, and one of the most successful :^, King of England, there was in Francfe a speculations of the middle ages was fairly .^" holy man named Foulqnes, surnamed of launched. Over the Mont Oenis, and by r^ Nueilly, because he was cure of that place, other routes, the pUgrims made their way ;., which is a -village between Lagny-sur- to Venice, whence, ha-ving undertaken to - • Mame and Paris." This Poulques "com- capture, en route, the to-nvn of Zara for y. menced to speak the word of God in their allies, they set sail. Some few of the f!^ Prance and other countries around, and Cmsaders entertained a species of reluct­ our Lord performed many miracles throngh ance to drawing first blood in a Christian ^^ him." Tho preaching of Poulques led city; but, as the reduction of Zara had "; to his being appointed by the Pope to been made a condition by the Venetians, !*' preach the new crusade, in conjunction there was no escape from the unpleasant •'' -with the Cardinal of Capua. Pardons and duty. ViUe-Hardouin's account of Zara, '" indulgences were granted to those who a trumpery town in Dalmatia, is deeply :'''• took the cross, and on Poulques making his interesting as sho-wing what sort of place "^ appearance at a tournament at the Chateau was considered in his day as a strongly •^ of Escriz, Thibaut, or Tybalt, Count of fortified, nay, almost impregnable, city, ' Champagne and Brie, Louis, Count of handsome and rich into the bargain. The - Blois and Chartres, two great barons, marshal, as he loves to describe himself, had seen the great cities of France and the - Simon de Montfort and Renaud de Mont- greater city of Venice, and yet confesses p mirail, together with many other nobles his wonder at the splendour of Zara, now - eager for Oriental kingdoms, joined the known only to mankind by the manufac­ - crusade. This example was followed in ture of maraschino. After a number of ' the year 1200, by Baldwin, Count of Flan- serious quarrels between the Crusaders ; ders, and his wife Mary, the sister of themselves and their aUies, the Venetians, Thibaut of Champagne. In spite of some the town was assaulted, and surrendered •- rather eilervescent enthusiasm, the affair at discretion. Having got his city, the was beginning to hang fire, when in 1201, doge, not caring to risk his ships in stormy Ville-Hardouin went -with other envoys to weather, suggested that the Crusaders • arrange with the RepubKc of Venice for should rest and be thankful, and that, as :. the transport of the troops by sea. The Zara was a very rich place, weU suppUed - Doge, Henry Dandolo, had once suffered with everything, the city should be divided r from the tender mercies of a Greek Em- into two parts, between the French and • peror, who had handed him over to the tor^ the Venetians. This having been settled, ; mentors, to be blinded. Di.ndolo having "Ostel," saith ViUe-Hardouin, "was given J succeeded in escaping with his eyesight only to each man according to his rank," and partially damaged, now enjoyed a dignity the army entered in and dwelt there, but second to that of no secular prince in not in peace; for three days after the Christendom, and recoUecting his wrongs, occupation of Zara, the French and Vene­ was not likely to miss a chance of paying tians came to blows : a general melee off the Greeks in their own coin, especiaUy took place, many were kUled, and more as a claimant to the Imperial throne had wounded, and it was only by the strenuous presented himself at Venice. exertions of the chiefs that something like Before starting on this memorable mis­ order was restored. sion, ViUe-Hardonin set his house in order, made some heavy settlements on his family Shortly after this affair a turn -was given and on the church, and set out eastwards to the projects of the Crusaders by the in gearch of greater fortune. arrival of an embassy from Alexis Comne- Although a certain enthusiasm was ex­ nus, son of the Emperor Isaac Comnenus, hibited at Venice, the keen Italians were who had been dethroned and imprisoned 448 rAngnst22, 1874.] ALL THB TBAB BOUND.

by his brother, another Alexis. The young gloomy castles, small towns—built mostiv prince offered almost any price to the of wood—and here and there a Gothic Crusaders, if they would restore his father church. The environs of Constantinople to the throne; and also impressed upon which contained within its walls upwards them the necessity of rescuing a daughter of a miUion of inhabitants, were covered of Prance, Agnes, sister of PhiUp Augustus, with palaces, churches, and vast monas­ from the clutches of the usurper. He had teries, decorated with all the meretricious already explained his case to his sister aUurements of Byzantine art. Hardly lea Irene, wife of PhUip of Snabia, and had remarkable, and not less appetising to the tried many of the Crusaders individuaUy. hungry band of Cmsaders, were evidences The last great attempt was successful. of incessant and thriving industry. After long debate, the chiefs agreed to Without following the Sire de Ville- support the Greek prince, who, in addition Hardouin through all the assaults and to offers of a more mundane kind, had intrigues which finally led to the founda­ undertaken to bring the empire nnder the tion of the Latin empire, I cannot pass sway of Bome, and thus remove the stain over in sUence the sense of rugged faith of schism from the Christian church. The and straightforward honesty which signal- dissentients represented the enterprise as ised this worthy gentleman. Although extravagant and impracticable; but they prepared to sink, bum, destroy, or cap­ were ultimately overruled, and the great ture everything he could lay his hands French barons signed and sealed the on, the exceUent marshal never fails treaty. to record his disgust at the cruelty At last the army—having suffered mnch and faithlessness of the Greeks among by the defection of many impatient spirits themselves, nor does he forget to record —set sail from Zara, on the 7th April, the misgivings felt by the Cmsadere 1203. After delaying a short while at on first looking at the chances of taking Durazzo, the Crusadera reached Corfu, Constantinople. These people, who had where the malcontents wanted to remain. never seen anything like a great city, It is a peculiar feature of these expeditions excepting Venice, were thunderstruck at that the fiUbusters were always wanting the formidable aspect of tbe town they to stop everywhere for a year or two, and proposed to conquer. Perfectly fortified required very Uttle persuasion to "take by land and sea, strengthened by formid­ root," in a promising spot. After many able towers, and containing a hundred delays they again set saU, and the sight of thousand fighting men, Constantinople the whole fleet sailing on a summer sea, must have appeared a hard nut to crack roused ViUe - Hardouin to enthusiasm. to the French and Venetians, who, together, " And bears vritness Geoffrey Marshal of did not number forty thousand souls. Champagne, who dictated this work, and It was nevertheless decided to assaolt lies not one word to his knowledge, and the town at once, the Venetians taking who was of all the councils, that never was charge of the attack from the water and seen anything so beautiful. It seemed aa the French assaulting from the land side. if the whole world were to be conquered, Oddly enough the attack from the water and so far as one could see, was nothing succeeded admirably, whUe the task im­ to be seen but sails and ships, so that the posed upon the French warriors proved hearts of men rejoiced exceedingly." too much for them, possibly from the After many more delays and stoppages length of the land fortifications—three at Negropont and elsewhere, the Cmsaders leagues. It appears, however, that the entered the Hellespont, and landed at Venetians enjoyed greater facilities in Abydos, where, being weU received by the working their siege engines from their inhabitants, care was taken that "they ships than could be got on land, where the did not lose the -value of a penny," a troops were worried by constant sorties. On statement probably worth about as much the ships was fixed a quantity of laddei^ as the sum indicated. On arriving at and also a large number of mangonels and Chalcedon, the adventurers were amazed other ancient stone-hurling artillery, and at the luxury and splendour of the east. the Venetians, says VUle Hardouin " ordered It is easy to imagine the feelings of the their assault right weU." On land m^'*^ western barbarians, at the sight of a went badly, the besiegers were besieged civiUsed country. In their own land, in their own camp, were short of food, ftuu the northern French and Flemish had " could not seek forage more than fonr been accustomed to see nothing beyond bowshots from the camp." Several des- 4i= JfcJ Obarlea Diokens.] EARLY EASTERN TRAVELLERS. itAugust22.i874.i 449

perate encounters took place, to the great became anxious to get rid of his father's r irritation of the Prench, who at length deUverers. But there was a financial determined on a grand assault led by the difficulty. Only a few instalments of . great chiefs of the army : but, to the dis- the sum promised had been paid-up, and , comfiture of these warriors, the waU was the Crusaders declined to depart for the ; not defended by the wretched Greeks, Holy Land untU the whole bUl was ; but were " strongly manned by English "settled." Ultimately it was decided : - and Danes," says VUle-Hardouin. These that the chiefs should wait for a year in northern warriors probably formed part the neighbourhood of Constantinople. ^, of the famous Varangian Guard—a Imnd It wonld be tedious to follow the do­ ," of foreign mercenaries in the pay of the mestic revolutions among the Greeks. The Greek Emperors, who, like their Mahom- young Alexis, after trying his best to , medan successors, preferred to entrust shuffle off the Crusaders, who had settled their personal safety to Varangians, Janis­ down by no means quietly in his neigh­ saries, or Mamelukes rather than to place bourhood, was kUled off himself by an confidence in their o-wn countrymen. The usurper named Murtznphle, who at the "northmen were armed with axes, which first gleam of success, thought himself they used to such purpose that, although equal to the task of sweeping the Crusaders • at one moment some fifteen of the assault- out of the country. Their number was ; ing party obtained a lodgment on the now reduced to twenty thousand, and many • battlements, they were ultimately hurled croakers were found in the camp; but the " back in disorder. impetuosity of Baldwin, Count of Flanders, '" MeanwhUe the Venetians were making prevaUed, the city became the prey of its •; '• their way. friends, and Baldwin was made the first ^' "Then you should have seen the Latin Emperor of Constantinople. The *^ mangonels and other machines of war, town was sacked. Express orders were -^ adjusted on the poops of the vessels, given that the inhabitants were neither to - throwing great stones into the to-wn, be murdered nor outraged, and were and the number of cross-bow bolts and obeyed as such orders generally are. Every • arrows flying in the air, whUe those kind of Ucence prevaUed in the city. St. -'; within defended themselves generously. Sophia was pillaged and profaned. The ::, Prom outside, the ladders, mounted on -wretched Greeks sought in vain to protect their famUies from the fury of the soldiery, : the ships, approached so closely to the and wandered abont the environs of Con­ -• walls that in many places the soldiers stantinople in the most -wretched condi­ t;. were fighting hand to hand, exchanging tion. An unheard-of amount of plunder •i sword and lance thrusts, the cries being so gratified the conquerors. The French, :, great that it seemed as if earth and sea after paying fifty thousand marks they i were about to melt together." This attack owed to the Venetians, found themselves :; was successful. Twenty-five towers were in the possession of four hundred thousand .-: taken and the city was at the mercy of the marks and an empire. - crusading army. Disasters now brought about a revolution -within the city. The Baldwin—one of the unlucky -wights of ;_. nsm-per fled, the former emperor was re- history—was not destined to enjoy his . instated, and the object of young Alexis victory. To begin -with, his wife, the sister 1. was achieved. VUle-Hardouin took an of Tybalt of Champagne, VUle-Hardouin's ' important part in arranging a treaty liege lord, died of joy at hearing that her between the Cmsaders and the restored husband had become Emperor of the East, ; emperor. The Christian heroes did not and he himself did not long survive her. forget to ask enough. They insisted A general outbreak occurred in the pro­ vinces of Greece proper. Theodore Lascaris, that the emperor should pay them two the native claimant to the Imperial throne, ' hundred thousand sUver marks — an attracted the bulk of the Iniperial forces enormous sum at that period — shonld to pursue him into Asia, while the Euro­ ' furnish the army with food during a year, pean provinces burst into revolution, and ; should maintain five hundred chevaUers the Bulgarians let loose their savage hordes in the Holy Land, should eerve either in upon the empire. VUle-Hardouin had ; person or by his son in the crusade, and been dispatched to keep these barbarians finally should bring the Byzantine Empire in check, and the warUke Baldwin, ignor­ under the spiritual jurisdiction of Rome. ing all the entreaties of the venerable These terms were agreed to; but young doge, insisted on hurrying to his assistance. Alexis, having got all he wanted, soon

\ 450 [August 22,1B7

After an unsuccessful attack upon Adriau- later—on the occasion of a great feast- ople, it was decided to risk a battle iu had the emperor brought before him, the field. VUle-Hardouin being left to sabred in his presence, and thi-ownoutiu guard the camp with a portion of the a " dish for dogs." Thus perished Bald, army, the Emperor Baldwin gave battle, win, sometime Count of Flanders, aad but was entirely out-manoeuvred by tbe Emperor of Conatantinople, thix>ugh hia enemy, who, making a running fight of dislike for the MongoUan style of beanlj. it, succeeded ia outfianking him. The He was succeeded by his brother Hem Christian ai-my waa scattered, and the who man-ied the daughter of the Marquis Emperor taken prisoner. ViLV-Hardouin, of Montferrat — subsequently King of however, held his own. Baldwin waa a ThessaJonica. The brave constable received prisoner, the Count of Blois kiUed, and the bride on her arrival, and presented her the main body of the army scattered, but to the bridegroom. AU diflicnlties between the tough old Constable of Champagne— the Cmsaders themselves being now ar- " ferr6 sur les quatre pattes "—kept his ranged by the absorption and partition of troops together, raUied the scattered frag­ the eastern empire, the Greek claimant ments of the host, and made good his having been driven off, and the Bnlgarians retreat to Constantinople. finally scattered, our old friend, Ville The fate of the Emperor Baldwin was Hardouin, received his share of the spoil. both melancholy and curious. A prisoner EquaUy dear to the young emperor and at Ternova, the principal residence of to the King of Thessalonica, he received John, King of the Bulgarians, he was from the one the marshalate ot Bonmania, treated fairly for a whUe, but was ulti­ and from the other the city and territory mately thrown into a dungeon. Under of Messinople, among which vast domains these unhappy circumstances, deUverance he took up his residence, having, like a was offered from an unhoped-for quarter. gaUant warrior, found the principality i: The Queen of the Bulgarians—a native of had aU along been fighting for. IIJ Tartary—having seen him at his arrival, doughty marshal died about the year had taken au exceeding interest in him. 1213, before the splendour of the &tin This waa natural enough. Baldwin waa empire had gi-own dim. Hia nephew, only thirty-five years old, and was in every Geoffi-ey, who conquered the ilorea, Wt respect a gallant cavalier. descendants, who maintained their position tUl the final downfaU of the Greek empire, Handsome, brave, and calm under mis­ when the last representative of the family fortune, he attracted the affection of a became absorbed iu the Boyal Honae d woman whose only previous idea of a man Savoy. waa a Tartar. Under the pretext of charity, she often visited Baldwin in his dungeon, and lost Uttle time in revealing to him the affection he had inspired. Finally, she proposed to fly vrith him to SAfELY MAERIED. BT THB ATTTHOS OF " AK EXPERIENCE," " OlKfS Constantinople. Why he refused is not TRIALS," &C., d:C. very clear. Perhaps it was becauae he had made a vow of chastity on the death CnAPTEE XVII. of Marie of Champagne, perhaps becauae MT progress along passages and np- the Tartar queen was ill-favoured, but at stairs, leaning on Mai'kham's arm—to her any rate he " refused the proposition -?rith best care AUan had commended me—WM horror." He might at least have been very slow. I was c(Jd and sick at heart, civU. He soon experienced the conse­ and my limbs felt leaden-weighted. quences of his rudeness, and found out to " She waots yon, ma'am," said Ifak- his cost, that— ha^n; " she's been alone almost ever smco you left her. She won't safier me nor Heaven knowa no rage like love to hatred tomei}. Nor hell a fury Hke a woman scorned. Parker in the room, except just while we Ughted it up ; but she wants you, ma'am, The qneen did what women have she said as you was to be brought up to always done in these cases, since the days her directly as. you left master." Mwk- of Potiphar's -wife. She told her husband ham used an undertone, fuU of mystery. that Baldwin had proposed to elope with I found myseU apeculating, as I listened her, and make her Empress of Constan­ to this, what sort of change iu JIai-kham» tinople. King John, of Bulgaria, said Uttle, feeUngs towards Elfie, whether m the but thought the more, and a few daya direction of pity or of contemptuous coa-

^ =K:>- Oharlea Diokena.l SAFELT MARRIED. I [August 22, UH.] 4<5I demnation, had caused so scrupulously complete abandonment, the head thro-wn proper a person to substitute that " she " back upon the blue-veined, inner side of for "my mistress, Mrs. Braithwait." I the white, uplifted arm, the other hand also, in those few moments of tedious upon her breast—^have been already one pilgrimage, speculated on the ironies of hour dead. Fate, which made of so feeble an old That she wap dead, in spite of the soft woman something of a ball to be tossed to ease of attitude, suggested itself to me. and fro between that terrible, stern "he," Somehow, the brilliant lighting of the from whom I had just parted, and this room seemed to me to make this trance- sinful" she," towards whom I was making like stUlness of Elfie's the more unnatural my difficult way. and ghastly. When Markham presently, in her dis­ I lifted Elfie's hand from off her breast, creet voice, the veiy sound of which pro­ untied the ribbons fastening her loose mised inviolable confidence, as did the -wrapper, and tore open the muslins, and whole aspect of her iron-grey, closely- the laces, and fine cambric underneath; compressed person, asked two or three but I did this as gently as I could, recog­ most discreet questions, I could only groan nising that, if this was a trance in which ont a request not to be spoken to. she lay, any rough awakening would have That Markham supposed her mistress its danger. At first I thought there was no to be mad was the idea that occurred to movement, but, by-and-by, assured myself me, when I found that she had tumed the of a very faint and weak, but regular, key of her bed-room door upon her, before pulsation. This was sleep, then, deep and obeying the summons from Mr. Braith­ death-like, but stUl sleep, and not death wait, though Parker was sitting at work itself. in the dressing-room. She coidd not, any­ Lifting up my head, when I had satisfied way, think her dangerously mad, for she myself of this, in one of the room's many now dismissed Parker, and then let me go mirrors I saw reflected the group we made. in alone, telling me, at the same time, that " Good heavens ! " I thought, " could she would, -with my permission, look at even an angry husband look upon her now some linen that was to be packed for her and believe that she was foul of heart! master whUe I remained -with her mistress. Heartless she may be, but not foul of heart. Elfie's great room was indeed " lighted SouUess, but not wUi a poUuted soul." up," lighted au jour, what with blazing Having as well as I could restored the fire-light and many wax-lights. She had disorder I had made in her dainty drapings, wished this, I found, complaining of the I resolved that, if I could manage it, her cold and the dark. In spite of this brU­ husband should look upon her thus and liant lighting up, or, perhaps, because of now. it, I did not at first see Elfie; I thought The outer room waa empty and I did the great cage was empty and the bird not wish to ring a beU, not kno-wing by escaped. But, after a few moments, I whom it might be answered; so, again, I found that a white heap on a couch, in a made my difficult and painful pUgrimage far comer, meant Elfie. But the white through the great house. I had no hesi­ heap was soundless and motionless. I had tation in leaving Elfie, confident that she not come in quietly, for I had stumbled would not wake. over a footstool and had nearly faUen, " Tou said you would like to look at her and, in recovering myself, I had uttered a again if it might be when she slept; she pretty sharp exclamation of pain, for I had sleeps now," was all I said to AUan. a very tender com; nevertheless, there " She can sleep ! " was aU his comment; was no stir nor speech from Elfie. but he rose at once and led me baok. As quickly as I could, -with limbs that I made him go in alone. trembled under me, I made my way to her While I waited in the outer room I couch. Because I could not stand or stoop, prayed the foolish prayer that she might I went down on my stiff old knees beside wake ! Might wake to throw her arms it, to bring my face close to hers. I could about his neck, and by some words of not detect the flicker of an eyelash, the penitence succeed in touching the heart, slightest sighing breath, or any faintest which her passive and most innocent-look­ indication of life. But for the absence of ing loveliness must already have softened. any of the rigidity of death, she might, for " The gods help those who help them­ the pale and perfect stUhiess in which she selves." I tried to help on the fuifihEnent lay_in the prettiest attitude and one of of my prayer; forgetting what might be --r =fe 452 [August 22,1874.1 ALL THE TEAR EOUUD. [Couduedti; the danger of such a courae for Elfie, I sensible of the sacrifice you are making brushed some toUette ornaments off a for me. God only can reward yon. Hr table, falling to the ground they broke will, in the consciousness that you hari and made a considerable crash. prevented the heaping up of crime npon I listened, but there was no sound from crime, madness upon madness, misery upon the inner room. misery I " The time tiU Allan came ont seemed to Directly he released my handa I was me long; but whether it was nearer five busy with my handkerchief; when I minutes or fifty I have no means of looked np he was gone, and there stood knovring. Markham waiting to take me to my own When he came out I avoided looking rooma. into his face. CHAITEE XVni. " Tou are sure that is sleep ?" he questioned, as he closed the door upon the " Nm the rooms you had before this, room in which she lay, and there was a Miss Hammond, ma'am," said Markham, strange, an eager vibration in his voice. guiding me in a different direction from "It looks like death. When there was that I had been about to take. "Tonr tbat crash iu here she never so much aa own rooms, as was meant to be a pleasant flickered an eyelash. It looks like death. aurpriae to you, wasn't quite ready then. Are yon sure it is only sleep ? " It's not much as you'll care abont plea­ " I could feel her heart beat. It is not, santness and surprises to-night, I know, therefore, death," I answered. ma'am," she added, as ahe led me into a After a pause, " Let her sleep on," was very Paradise of elegant and Inxnrions all that came from him, and his voice was comfortableness. not the voifce that had just apoken, bnt I just dropped into a large, low chair one that aounded deaf and muffled. by the fireside and sobbed. When an old " Tou may be certain I shaU not wake woman once takes to crying it's not easy her," I assured him. for her to leave off. He kept his face tumed from me; he " Mrs. Hannah will be here soon, had taken up and made show of atten­ ma'am,". Markham told me, soothingly, tively examining some pretty trifle from " Mr. Braithwait has sent for her. He says the dressing-table, Eridently he did not my hands -wiU be fuU in looking after my vrish me to see his face, but, to a keener mistress, and that you'U be the better for ear and quicker inteUigence than mine, that having your own woman abont you." change of voice might have been as sigiu- I couldn't control my sobbing. 1 pulled ficant as any expression of face. But I— off my bonnet, worn untU now, and dashed I did not dare even to try to understand it on to the ground. (My best bonnet, too, it! usually treated -with respect! Of course, Presently he dropped the thing on which Markham immediately picked it up.) I his eyes had been for some moments fixed; threw my handkerchief over my head, to dropped it suddenly as if it burnt his sob behind it unrestrainedly, as tbe cottage fingers, only then noticing, as I, too, only women do behind their aprons. Why, I then noticed, what it was—a snake of had often wondered—whether to give the massive gold Elfie often wore round her sacredness of secresy to their sorrow, or to throat. hide what they might think the unseemly He looked at his watch then, and then working of convulsed featnres. tumed towards me. " There's nothing you can do tor me. " It is later than I thought," he said; Look to your mistress," I managed to say " hoping yon may now soon get to rest I to Markham, who, on that hint, left me. wUl bid you good-bye now, not to disturb I must have sobbed myseU to sleep, for you again. Ton shall hear from me very the next thing I remember was waking at soon, nothing unforeseen happening. When some noise in the room,, to a confused I am away from here I shall be more sense of danger aud disaster, snatching master of myself." tho handkerchief off my face to see I tried to mutter some blessing npon Haimah replenishing the fire, and to find him, some prayer for him, but I broke by the clock upon tiie mantel-shelf that it down. was past midnight. He took both my hands iu hia. He "In my opinion it don't do nobodjr kissed them, and he kissed my cheek. much good to sleep out of their beds, "Believe me, I am not, as I seem, in­ observed Hannah, answering my bewUdered Gharles Dickens.l :;o

look; "but Mr. Braithwait, as is master here, present or absent, as I suppose, said so, to teU them that and nothing more I so particular not to wake you, that I've don t thmk as that would pacify them." not a done so." i>for would it satisfy your curiosity, Hannah's broad famUiar face in the un- S^rf Ha^^t. Tou can tell them then famiUar room at first rather added to, that Mrs. Braithwait has offended her than diminished, my bewilderment. I re­ husband, by doing what was thoughtless, mained some time apparently wide awake, foolish, wrong—by riding out when he but with my inner senses stUl asleep! had forbidden her to ride, and in company Then, by degrees things came back to he did not think fit for her. That theU- me. master, m his anger, has hastened the journey his doctors had (as they know) "Is Mr. Braithwait gone?" was my ordered him to take—that he is going a first question. long sea-voyage, and may remain many " But now, ma'am. I heard the carriage months abroad. Tou can tell them, too, diive off just before I began to do up the that their mistress is Ul, from grief at her ,,' fire. It's the two o'clock maU from Tork disobedience, and its consequences, and, to London as he's going by, seemingly." also, from the fright of having seen that " And Mrs. Braithwait, Hannah ? What old man. Sir Granton Brakespear, kiUed, have you heard of her ? " close at her side, and in a very shocking "More than enough, ma'am, you may manner. Tou can teU them that." be sure! " was Hannah's answer. Then, partly to hinder her from asking I "Did she wake before her husband more questions, I began to bemoan myself :' left?" to Hannah, crying how tired I was, and " No ; she sleeps as if she never meant how bad my head. On which I had to to wake again. They've undressed her, yield to her command, that I should get at - as if she'd been a doU—Mrs. Markham has once between sheets (as she expressed it) and Parker—and took her up, and laid and afterwards should take something of - her in her bed, and she never give no the supper she would fetch me. " It's far sign. But now. Miss Hammond, ma'am, on to one o'clock, it's true," she said, "but would it be making too bold in me for me I make no donbt they're all up stUl, a ^ to ask what is it as has happened ? For gossiping." there's foolish talk below, ma'am ; and That she herself was not among th* - there's disrespectful-speaking persons, and gossippers, gave bitterness to the tone in • if there was one as knew the truth to tell which she spoke of them. : • it them, why, ma'am, a word in season, I sent for the last news of Elfie, before how good it is." I would allow myself to be either coaxed " What is it the disrespectful-speaking or tempted into that downy nest, for persons are saying, Hannah ?" which my worn and fevered frame was " It's in my duty to teU you, if you ask. longing. In Elfie's state there was no Miss Hammond, ma'am ; otherwise, yon change. The old family physician had being, hke myself, a maiden lady, not, of been to see her, by whom sent, no one course, that I'm a lady, but " seemed to know. He had ordered them "Too many words, Hannah; speak to do nothing, just to let her sleep on, and quick and plain." had said he hoped to see me when he " The plainness you must forgive, then, should come in the morning. ma'am, as being your own orders. They The waking of that next moming was say, then, ma'am, that Mrs. Braithwait not an enviable sensation. I had upon she was going to run away from Master me such a woful weight of weary con­ AUan—Mr. Braithwait, I should say ; that sciousness of painful and difficiUt work, he, somehow, found it out and brought for which my feeble powers were aU unfit, her home; that he's sworn a great oath awaiting me. StUl, I thanked Heaven, to never to see her or to speak to her no find myself more capable than I had the more ; and that he's gone away to destroy night before expected ever to feel again. hisself. They say all this, and there's It was pretty late in the niorning, and, worse than this they says." through one of the windows, which " TeU them Miss Hammond sends them Hannah had set open, there streamed in a her compliments, and that what she says very flood of sunshine, and sweetness, and is, that they're fools and liars," I ex­ of song. The first waves of the fuU claimed in a sudden flare up. spring-tide were pouring over wood and " Not much use, ma'am, if I may say dale, rock and stream, lawn and bed and

--^ ^ ZL A-- 4S4 [Augn«t22,1874.] ALL THB TBAB EOUND. [Ooiiductrtby

border of the Braithwait park and shrub­ her^ hair, her eyes, aU seemed to have lost beries and gardens. their lustre. It was as if some inward As I lay, thinking of how the poor Ught had become extinct. Was the elvish young master of these fair lands was gleam and glamour for ever gone ? I gjy driven forth from his Eden, by the lovely advisedly, I had time to begin to recognise creature I had bred up to be his scourge, this change, but only to begin. I conld have wept my heart out, for the " I want AUan," were Elfie's first words. pity of it, but that my old heart felt too Her voice, too, was changed. It was such hot and dry for tears. I tried, instead, to a joyless, toneless voice as ia used by a Uft it np in supplication, and then I was very sick and suUen chUd. just saying to myself, " you mnst rest no When she had said for the third time, longer," was just getting into my slippers vrith no change of tone, and never taking and my dressing-gown, to go and see her eyes from my face, " I want Allan," I after Elfie, when Hannah, entering with anawered her, keenly watching how she my breakfast-tray, ordered me Ixick to bore the words, bed. "Ton vriU have to live on with that Mrs. Braithwait's condition was un­ want, Elfie, or to die of it." changed, she told me. She stiU slept on. " I -want Allan," was said with shghtly Dr. Carruthers, who had already been, more emphasis. stiU said nothing was to be done, except "He has gone, Elfie, he has left yon. to take moderate pains not to wake her ; He went away the night before la-st while he had left his kind regards and compU- you were asleep. He ia not coining back ments for me, and his promise to caU again." again later in the day. It was something of a wail now with I wished at least to go and look at Blfie, which she spoke those same words, "I but Hannah decreed that I should not want AUan." The waU of a sick, spoi': leave my room tiU I had breakfasted. sulky child. These old servanta get dreadfuUy tyran­ To ail I aaid she answered only by the nical. In thia world a price has to be paid words, repeated iu almost aU varieties of for everything worth having, and of such intonation. faithful service as Haimab's, such tyranny Had she become an idiot ? I wondered. %s Hannah's is usuaUy the price. I drew np some blinds tbat bad been Memy times that day, that night, and dra-wn do-wn, letting aU the Hght I conld the foUowing moming, I looked at Blfie, into the room, and I studied her face. sometimes for an hour together, watching The normal gr.^und colonr ot Elfie's beside her; the doctor, after several visita, flesh was the white you see in the whitest left word that he was to be sent for petal of an old-fashioned white rose. 1 directly she woke, or gave signs of waking, mean such white roses as seem to have a or if there seemed to be any change, either potential blush within their whiteness in her look or in the manner of her (indeed, "the maiden's blush " was, in my breathing. StUl she slept on. young days, the name given to those roses of which I am thinking), a potential blush CHAPTEE XIX. within their whiteness warming that white­ ATTEE sleeping two nights, the whole of ness, but nothing of that tinge of greenish- the day between those nights, and on gold, or of saffron-yellow, or of salmon- towards the close of the second day, so pink, to be found in so many modem that eigbt-and-forty hours had passed varieties of white roses. since ahe feU asleep, Elfie suddenly opened That was its normal ground colonr, bnt her eyes whUe I was aitting by her. She on Elfie's face would come and go at looked at me, I looked at her; it was some slightest cause, almost always, however, time before a word was spoken. The room physical canse, every possible gradation of was for the moment very Ijght, for the aun that clear, flame-tinted red, the rose of just before setting had burst from behiud rose, of such red roses as have in tneir a cloud and shone in on the south-western rich red no bluish Ughts or riolet shadows. side of a large projecting window. Not To-day, Elfie's face -was of an unvary­ vrishing to speak first, I had time to begin ing opaque dead white. Her eyes, under to recognise a change in Blfie, a vrith- which were bruise-like, dark markings, drawal of brightnesa. She had always had that curious look of blank absence of hitherto been snch a radiant creature— outward intelligence, together with intense now the radiance was gone. Her skin. inward concentration, something of which Charlea Diokens.] SAPELT MARRIED. [August 22,1874.] 455

is to be seen in a cat about to spring upon a glass of milk, a cup of broth, a plate of her prey. But it was, I think, her mouth bread-and-butter, or of biscuits, should be -which had changed the most, and her left in her sight, and in her easy reach, at mouth had always been her most charac­ times when she might believe herself to teristic feature, characteristic in its want be alone. of character (if it is not too paradoxical an abuse of language so to speak), employing OHAPTEB XX. the word character to mean written signs FOB another day and night tMngs of conscience, principle, rectitude. I never remained much the same. Sometimes knew a mouth so pretty, with all phy­ Elfie would, for a short while, be open- sical prettiness, and so completely without eyed, but even then her mind seemed to . spiritual beauty as Elfie's had been; so be asleep ; she did not speak, nor stir, nor ' mobUe and so various, and yet never, by touch nor taste the food and drink, always '^ any chance, expressing anything better set in her easy reach. than easy good humour, mischievous On the evening of the third day—^it mirth, enjoyment of life, sense of pleasant- was Sunday, and I had, so sure was I that • ness, and love of luxury. Now, its phy- I should not want anything, let both ~' sical prettiness was gone, it seemed dra-wn, Markham and Parker go to the evening and pinched, and parched, as I have so service at a rather distant vUlage church— ' often seen the mouths of sick children, at Braithwait church there was no evening •' serving only as indexes of the physical de- service—while Hannah had my leave for ' rangement and suffering. As I bent over an hour's gossip with an old crony at one Elfie thus, studying her face searchingly, of the lodges. I was sitting, where Elfie '•'•' the mouth began to quiver, and the eyes could not see me, by one of the windows '- to fill: suddenly she threw her arms about in her room. I had been reading, and had • my neck and drew me dcfwn beside her, not long laid down my Bible—at first to cheek to cheek. listen for a moment to the Rusmoor beUs. » " I want Allan," was said once again; Something in their irregular sweet music, E: and then she began to cry, a low, plain­ ringing through the spiing sunset, and tive wailing, most melancholy crying, as athwart the contented cawing of home­ 3 of a lost child. She cried and she cried, ward circling rooks; something, after Si and sometimes I cried -with her, and some- they had ended, and the sunset had faded, 5] times I was quiet, because I could cry no in the clear piping of blackbird, and a; more. She cried and she cried, tUl the glorious song-gushes of the thrush, some­ .; chnging arms relaxed their hold of me; how caused to sweep through me, wave .,, and I, releasing myself, and bringing a upon wave, such a flood of confused ..J light by which to look at her, found she memories, of youth, and hope, and love, ,,^ was again asleep. She had, of course, of how it used to feel in the springs of '^ touched no food since the breakfast-time long ago, when the beUs' music, and the ,^ of that fatal morning. WTien I spoke of birds' song, and the meUow sunsets, and ^, this to Dr. Carruthers, for whom I had the " coloured t-vriUghts," and the moon- .! sent, and told him of what had been Elfie's births, and the scents of flowers, all ^ only and often-repeated words whUe seemed merely as so many voices to one's " awake, and told him of my fears about own delicious consciousness of being young and fair, with all the splendid * her—^her state seeming to me like that of possibilities of life, and all its enchanting ^i. a person fallen into imbecile melancholy— mysteries lying hidden, only lightly folded, ' he treated her long fast as a thing of no close at hand. Such a flood of such consequence; for the rest, he only lifted memories, as I say, swept through me, '' his bushy black brows, saying, "Tirne -wUl -with so strong a sweep as for the moment ' show. In these cases it is always difficult to carry me away beyond recognition of '"^ to decide how much is cannot, how much present time and place, tUl some move­ ^^•' wUl not." And then, turning his back ment of Elfie's, foUowed an instant after upon his patient, whom altogether he by a long and heavy sigh, aroused me. seemed to think of Httle or no consequence, I had not beai able to look at Elfie's he entered into a long and interested talk state with the indifference shown by Dr. about AUan Braithwait. Carruthers. To me it did not seem im­ As he left, he said that probably Elfie possible that she might soon sigh out her might fast a week with perfect impunity last breath. My heart beat violently as I He advised that she should not be asked hastUy rose up to go to her. to take food, but that some simple matter. 4 4,56 AT.T. THE TEAB ROUND. [Angml-;2,ujy

Elfie had lifted herself to a sitting serious, sincere, that had been at once position, and was looking about her j her elvish and coquettish, a mii-thful mis­ face, Uke a white flower, absorbed the chievous mockei-y. twUight, which sufficed to show that it was wan and drawn. Time went on, and no letter from Alimi " I am disappointed," she breathed out and no tidings of him, direct or indirect in a sighing whisper, which I could just reached me. Of course this silence made catch. me increasingly anxious, for I was certain " At what are you disappointed ? " I that when he left me he had meant that I asked her, trying to speak very softly. should hear from him very soon. She stared at me blankly a good long I wrote to my good old friend Mr. Brock, time. senior partner of the firm. Brock and " I am hungry I " she then said. " I Greenstreet, by whom all Braithwait law- thought I was dead, but I'm not, and I'm business was always transaeted. 1 got a hungry! " That was all she would say. kind letter by return of post, but one that I poured out a cup of milk and gave it to could give me no satisfaction. her. Quite late in the afternoon of the day She only sipped a Uttle and set it down. but one foUowing that on which I had Again she looked about her, with a forlorn last seen him, Mr. Braithwait had called air of discontent, as if seeking what she at their office, Mr. Brock told me. did not flnd. Was there any thought of It had been a brief call, Mr. Braithwait her husband in this I wondered ? Then stating that he had but just arrived in she began to cry, a faint whimpering sort town, that he had, by letter, taken hia of crying, as of a disappointed dissatisfied passage on board the North Star, and chUd. But she did not cry long, probably must join the vessel immediately. she had not strength enough for much Why, I wondered, on reading this, had crying. When she had left off, I said, he only qnite late that afternoon bnt i tentatively, wanting to test how far she arrived in town ? He should have l- conld understand what was said to her, in town before mid-day upon the previous " Ton should be thankful to find your­ day! Where, npon the road, could he self alive, Elfie ! Tou are not fit to die, have so long delayed ?—I wondered, not poor child, you need to leam to Uve." so very long afterwards, that I had Por all answer she dropped her head wondered, that I had not without any back among her pillows, aighed out, wondering known. " I am 80 tired! " and slept again. Mr. Braithwait, Mr. Brock said, looked Next day she aUowed herself to be iU, hurried, haggard, anxious, and had moved out of bed and dressed. She took owned to feeling Ul, and Ul in a manner bite or sup of whatever food was brought which especially affected and confased her, vrithout any heed given, even by a his brain. He spoke of the sea-air as the look, to what that food might be, thongh thing which was to " set him right," hut her former wont was to be very deUcately spoke of it, so thought Mr. Brook, with dainty. the expression of face and tone of voice of Two days after, she waa down-stairs, a man who knows he never can, hy any then soon outdoors—^looking as if the earthly agency, be " set right." wind might blow her away, and the sun­ Mr. Braithwait had said that directly he shine pierce through her, but not, as yet, felt sufficiently better to be somewhat more seeming to aU anything physically, not master of his own mind (and this ho hoped even to be very noticeably weak. She might be the case within the next eight- hardly ever spoke. A wondering widening and-forty hours) he would forward to of her eyes, and a startled twitching of Messrs. Brock and Greenstreet tnller m- their brows, was almost always her only structions than he waa able to give them answer to any question asked her. The then as to what was to be done in certam few words she did say were childish in conjunctures and emergencies. Ho had, 1 the extreme, but vrith a childishness quite leamt, remembered to warn tbem, as he different from that she had sometimes had warned me, against giving too easy affected formerly: this was real, sunple. credence to any rumour of his death.

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