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XXXVII.]

When he to give the buckler so readily agreed,

Then were there eyes in plenty that with hot tears were red.

Of gifts it was the latest that unto warrior e’er

By Rüdeger was given, the lord of Bechelar.

How fierce soe’er was Hagen, however hard in mood,

Yet stirr’d that gift his pity, with which the warrior good,

So nigh to his last moments, had freely him endow’d;

And with him fell to weeping full many a chieftain proud.

“Now God in Heaven reward thee, most noble Rüdeger;

The like of thee will never be met with anywhere,

Who unto exiled warriors so royally dost give:

God grant that all thy virtue for evermore may live.”

“Woe’s me for this betiding!” said Hagen yet again:

“We’ve had to bear already so great a load of pain,

Must we with friends be striving? Now God our refuge be!”

Then made the margrave answer: “It grieves me bitterly.”

“Your gift I’ll now requite you, most noble Rüdeger,—

Howe’er these high-born warriors themselves towards you bear,—

To wit that here in battle you ne’er shall feel my hand,

Though all by you should perish of the Burgundian land.”

In courtly wise he bent him, the worthy Rüdeger;

On all sides they were weeping that such heart-sorrows were

By no one to be mended:— a dread necessity!

The father of all virtues in Rüdeger would die.


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Rh Barreah, (Guzerât) March, 1824.

,

I have now, since the middle of last June, pretty nearly seen the eastern, northern, and western extremities of British India, having been to Dacca and Almorah, and having now arrived within a few days’ march of Ahmedabad, visiting by the way several of the most important, independant, or tributary principalities.

Of the way of performing this long journey, I was myself very imperfectly informed before I began it, and even then it was long before I could believe how vast and cumbersome an apparatus of attendance and supplies of every kind was necessary to travel in any degree of comfort or security. On the river, indeed, so long as that lasted, one’s progress is easy and pleasant, (bating a little heat and a few storms,) carried on by a strong south-eastern breeze, in a very roomy and comfortable boat, against the stream of a majestic body of water; but it is after leaving the Ganges for the land-journey that, if not “the tug,” yet no small part of the apparatus, proventus et commeatus, of “war” commences.

It has been my wish, on many accounts, to travel without unnecessary display; my tents, equipments, and number of servants, are all on the smallest scale which comfort or propriety would

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


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376

Then from the house-door speaking the minstrel Volker said;

“Since my companion Hagen a truce with you has made,

To you I also promise safe-conduct from my hand;

For well have you deserved it since came we to the land.

“You must, most noble margrave, be messenger of mine.

These ruddy golden armlets gave me the margravine,

That I should surely wear them here at the revelry:

You must yourself behold them and witness bear for me.”

“Would God in Heaven allow it,” then answer’d Rüdeger,

“The margravine should give you still more of such to wear!

Unto my wife your message right gladly will I give—

Thereof be ye not doubtful— if I to see her live.”

And even whilst he promised, his buckler Rüdeger

Raised: and in mood of madness no longer could forbear,

But rush’d upon the strangers,— a very warrior now;

And fast the mighty margrave dealt round him many a blow.

Aloof together standing Volker and Hagen stay’d,

According to the promise the warriors twain had made,

Yet more, as gallant, found he waiting beside the door;

Whence Rüdeger the battle began with trouble sore.

With murderous intention he was allow’d therein

By Gunther and by Gernot, who heroes should have been.

But Giselher aside stood, so great his sorrows were;—

For life he hoped, and therefore avoided Rüdeger.


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XXXVII.]

Anon the margrave’s liegemen rush’d forth upon the foe;

Like warriors true one saw them after their leader go;

They bore their keen-edged weapons ready in hand to wield,

And many a helm they shatter’d and many a noble shield.

Many the swift strokes also the weary warriors spent

On him of Bechelaren, that straight and surely went

Right through the bright mail armour, nigh to the very life;

And glorious deeds of daring achieved they in that strife.

When Rüdeger’s noble comrades within had made their way,

Volker along with Hagen rush’d swiftly to the fray:

They gave to no one quarter, save to that single man.

The blood through helmets, shatter’d by hands of either, ran.

How grimly in that chamber the clang of swords uprose,

And many of the shield-plates sprang off beneath their blows;

The jewels hack’d from off them fell on the bloody floor.

In such grim humour fought they as might be never more.

The lord of Bechelaren went up and down the hall,

As one who might in battle by strength accomplish all.

By Rüdeger’s achievements that day it might be told

He was indeed a warrior, right praiseworthy and bold.

Here also stood those warriors Gunther and Gernot too,

Who in the stress of battle full many a hero slew;

And Giselher and Dankwart,— the twain reck’d not for aught,—

And so full many a warrior unto his last day brought.


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378

Well Rüdeger bore witness that he was strong enow,

And brave, with proven armour; what heroes laid he low!

’Twas seen by a Burgundian: wrath strove within him deep.

On Rüdeger the noble then death began to creep.

Stout Gernot ’twas, who loudly the hero challenged then.

He cried unto the margrave: “Wilt thou of all my men

Not one unscathéd leave me, most noble Rüdeger?

It moves me beyond measure; the sight I cannot bear.

.

“Now lo! the gift you gave me to your own ruin tends,

Since you have taken from me so many of my friends.

Now turn towards me hither, thou noble, gallant man,

I’ll make your gift avail me with all the skill I can.”

Or ever that the margrave had won his way to him,

Mail coats that erst were shining must needs be spoilt and dim.

Then either at the other, thirsting for honour, ran;

And each to guard his body from deadly wounds began.

Yet smote their swords so keenly, against them all was vain.

And then was Gernot stricken by Rüdeger the thane

Athwart his flint-like helmet, till downward flow’d the blood;

All in a trice repaid him that gallant knight and good.

Aloft the gift of Rüdeger in hand he swung: and though

His own wound, too, was deadly, he dealt on him a blow

Right through his stalwart buckler unto his helmet’s slot.

The fair Gotlinda’s husband fell dead upon the spot.


text:
Author:Edith Summers Kelley

Novels

 * Weeds (1923)

title: Author:Edith Summers Kelley


text:
Weeds

 * "Weeds" (1852), an essay by Susan Fenimore Cooper
 * Weeds (1923), a novel by Edith Summers Kelley
 * Weeds (1928), a booklet by William Peterson and Delmar Clive Tingey

title: Weeds


text: Index:Letter to the Hon. Acting Comptroller General at Western Australia from William Sykes (26 January 1876).jpg


text:
Author:Oscar Solomon Straus

Works

 * The Origin of the Republican Form of Government in the United States (1886)
 * Roger Williams, the Pioneer of Religious Liberty (1894)
 * The Development of Religious Liberty in the United States (1896)
 * Reform in the Consular Service (1897)
 * United States Doctrine of Citizenship (1901)
 * Our Diplomacy with Reference to our Foreign Service (1902)
 * The American Spirit (1913)
 * Under Four Administrations (1922)

Works about Straus

 * Oscar S. Straus (1924), an essay by Stuart Pratt Sherman

title: Author:Oscar Solomon Straus


text:
Author:Oscar Straus

 * Oscar Solomon Straus (1850–1926), American politician and diplomat
 * Oscar Nathan Straus (1870–1954), Viennese composer of operettas, film scores, and songs

title: Author:Oscar Straus


text: Author:Oscar Nathan Straus

title: Author:Oscar Nathan Straus


text:
Page:Letter to the Hon. Acting Comptroller General at Western Australia from William Sykes (26 January 1876).jpg

Sir

I have the honour to submit my name to your notice for favourable consideration having now completed 10 years 1 month & 13 days probation out of 12 years 10 months & 15 days. I have been a Constable about 2 years and during the whole term of my probation have had but 2 reports for breach of rules.

I have been under to mayhew now for several months and I hope I every day that I have given him every satisfaction.

I can but ask that I may, like others, have a trial on my ticket of leave, and at this moment I feel assured you will have no future cause to regret the leniency

The Hon$ble$ The Acting Compt. General

Perth Regist.


text: Letter to the Hon. Acting Comptroller General at Western Australia from William Sykes (26 January 1876)


text: Index:Letter to William Sykes at Portsmouth Prison from Myra Sykes (15 March 1867).pdf


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 Rh “Now, what cocktail will you have?” said my companion. “There’s a new one this week, the Fantan, fifty cents each, will you have that? Right! Two Fantans. Now to eat—what would you like?”

“May I have a slice of cold beef and a pint of ale?”

“Beef!” said Knickerbocker contemptuously. “My dear fellow, you can’t have that. Beef is only fifty cents. Do take something reasonable. Try Lobster Newburg, or no, here’s a more expensive thing—Filet Bourbon à la something. I don’t know what it is, but by gad, sir, it’s three dollars a portion anyway.”

“All right,” I said. “You order the dinner.”

Mr. Knickerbocker proceeded to do so, the head-waiter obsequiously at his side, and his long finger indicating on the menu everything that seemed most expensive and that carried the most incomprehensible name. When he had finished he turned to me again.

“Now,” he said, “let’s talk.”

“Tell me,” I said, “about the old days and the old times on Broadway.”

“Ah, yes,” he answered, “the old days—you mean ten years ago before the Winter Garden was opened. We’ve been going ahead, sir, going ahead. Why, ten years ago there

title: Page:Frenzied Fiction.djvu/38


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Page:Letter to William Sykes at Portsmouth Prison from Myra Sykes (15 March 1867).pdf/1

 1867 March 15

Dear husband i rite these few line to you hopeing to find you better than it leaves us at present i have been very uneasy sinse you did not rite my children cried wehen we got no leter Mrs Bone has got two leters sinse i got one will you please to rite to me and send me word how you are getting on i have bilt myself up thinking i shall get


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Page:Letter to William Sykes at Portsmouth Prison from Myra Sykes (15 March 1867).pdf/2

 to you some time or another

My mother sends her best love to you she has been very ill but she is bitter at present we all c send hour kind love to you we all regret very much for you i hope their will be a lighting for you yet Woodhouse has been for giving hiself up severl times wehn he has been in drink i hope he will your John and Emma send their love to you we have wished scores


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Page:Letter to William Sykes at Portsmouth Prison from Myra Sykes (15 March 1867).pdf/3

 of time you was comeing in to the house we should syuse you to deth for we could like to see that

Jhon ward lives next door to us he sends his respects to you his Wife his pius womman she talks about you very often Joshua Sykes has sent word for me to go to their house but i have not had time to go you must not delay riteing if you can it will ease my mind if you can


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 if it ever lays in your power to send for us when you get abroad i would freely sell all up to come to you if i possibly could for health

Dear farther do pleas to writ to is i Sends one 100 kiss for you thirza Sykes

a kiss willhm

Ann Sykes sends Dear father father i send a 100 kiss for you

alfred Sends hiss kinds Love to you

Masbro MidLand Road 33


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text:
Somebody (anonymous)

 * "Somebody" in The Flowers of the Forest (1810s)
 * "Somebody" in Modern Beau (1810s)

title: Somebody (anonymous)


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RV 405 (CANTO III.])


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602] of the poor had been redressed — "We will rejoice that your benignity and piety are come to the imperial throne." Later letters to Phocas and his wife Leontia breathe the same spirit: of congratulations on the political change: of hope that it will mean relief and liberty for the Empire: of solicitude that the aid which Maurice had long denied might now be given to Italy, trodden down by the barbarian and the heretic. We are shocked as we read Gregory’s cordial letters to the brutal murderer of Maurice; but we must remember that the pope had no representative at Constantinople to tell him what had really happened: all that he may have known was that popular indignation had swept a tyrant from the throne and avenged its injuries on him and his innocent family, and that a soldier had been set up, with all due forms of law, as ruler in his stead. From a bed of suffering he indited these letters to those from whom he might have new hopes of the salvation of Italy. But he wrote as an official of the Church to an official of the State, and he mingled with his formal words of congratulation and the Church's Gloria in excelsis no words of personal adulation. Whatever may be the true judgment on Gregory's attitude at this moment, it is obvious that in the change of dynasty he hoped for a better prospect for Italy and knew that more power would come to Rome itself and the Roman bishop.

It is as a Roman and a Roman bishop that Gregory fills the great place he holds in the history of the Middle Age. He was a Roman of the Romans, nurtured on traditions of Rome's imperial greatness, cherishing the memories of pacification and justice, of control and protection. And these, which belonged to "The Republic," he was eager to transfer to the Church. Vague were the claims which the Roman bishops had already put forth in regard to the universal Church. But what all bishops held as inherent in their office, the right of giving advice and administration, was held by the Roman pontiffs to belong especially to the see which was founded in the imperial city. There was a prerogative of the Roman bishop as of the Roman Emperor, and already the one was believed to run parallel to the other. The pope directly superintended a large part of the Christian world: everywhere he could reprove and exhort with authority, though the authority was often contested. And Gregory's exercise of this power was one of the great moments in the world's history. To the practical assertions of his predecessors he gave a new moral weight, and it was that which carried the claims to victory. Well has it been said by Dean Church that "he so administered the vast undefined powers supposed to be inherent in his see, that they appeared to be indispensable to the order, the good government, and the hopes, not of the Church only, but of society." And this success was due not so much to the extent of her claims or the weakness of his competitors, but to the moral force which flowed from his life of intellectual, moral, and spiritual power.


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252 We can trace, in different but conspicuous ways, the effect of this force in Africa, in Britain, in Spain, and in Gaul, in Istria and Dalmatia, as well as nearer home. In Africa there was a period of revival since the imperial reconquest from the Vandals. For more than half a century the Church, diminished in power no doubt and weakened in its organisation, had been re-established, and Arianism had been successfully extirpated, if we may judge from the silence of the pope's letters. The imperial officials were ready to accept his advice, or even authority. Side by side with the bishops of Numidia and Carthage, we find Gennadius the exarch entending the influence of the papal see; and appeals to Rome seem to have been recognised and encouraged. On the other hand Gregory was careful to make no practical encroachment on the power of the bishops and even to encourage their independence, while he asserted the supremacy of Rome in uncompromising terms: "I know of no bishop who is not subject to the Apostolic See, when a fault has been committed." His intervention was chiefly invoked in regard to the still surviving Donatism of Numidia. Against the Donatists he endeavoured to encourage the action of both the secular and the ecclesiastical power. "God," he said to the praetorian praefect Pantaleo, "will require at your hand the souls that are lost." In one city even the bishop had allowed a Donatist rival to establish himself; and Church and State alike were willing to let the heretics live undisturbed on the payment of a ransom-rent. To Gregory it seemed that the organisation of the Church was defective and her ministers were slothful.

The primacy in northern Africa, except the proconsular province, where the bishop of Carthage was primate, belonged to the senior bishop, apart from the dignity of his see or the merits of his personal life; and it was claimed that the rule went back to the time of St Peter the Apostle and had been continued ever since. Gregory accepted the historic account of the origin of the African episcopate, as is shewn by a letter to Dominicus, bishop of Carthage. On it he based an impressive demand for stedfast obedience, and he appointed a bishop named Columbus to act as his representative, though he was not formally entitled Vicar Apostolic. A council in 593 received his instructions; but they do not seem to have been carried out. A long correspondence shews the urgency of the need for action against the Donatists, and the difficulty of getting anything done. By the toleration of the imperial government they had been enabled to keep their churches and bishops; they conducted an active propaganda, they secured the rebaptism of many converts. For six years, from 591 to 596, Gregory's letters shew the vehemence of the contest in which he was engaged. In 594 a council at Carthage received an imperial decree stirring Church and State to action; but the State did not abandon its tolerant attitude: still there was great slackness, and Gregory wrote urgently to the Emperor on the


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591-596] subject. It would seem that some measures were taken, and that the law was in some districts enforced; but Donatism if it died down did not become extinct. It was largely through his constant interventions in the matter of heresy that Gregory was able to establish on so firm a basis the papal authority in the exarchate of Africa. He concerned himself no less with the surviving pagans, urging Gennadius to wage war against them "not for the pleasure of shedding blood but with the aim of extending the limits of Christendom, that by the preaching of the faith, the Name of Christ should be honoured among the subject tribes." Constant in urging the secular officials to action, Gregory was still more urgent with the bishops. A continual correspondence was maintained with the African episcopate: everyone who had a grievance applied to him: no important decision was arrived at without his consent. He claimed to defend with unchanged determination "the rights and privileges of Saint Peter." Paul of Numidia applied to him for justice against the Donatists, and the patrician Gennadius, who persecuted him, bishop though he was. With stedfast persistence the pope insisted on securing the trial of the case himself, and sent the bishop back to Africa assured of the imperial protection. Almost insensibly his persistence and the moral grandeur of his character told on the independence of the imperial officials. They began to listen to his advice, and then to admit his authority; and it was soon hard to distinguish their respect for the man from their obedience to the See. And at the same time, amid the chaos of administrative disorder, the people put their trust in the Church: they took the bishops for their defenders, and most of all the Bishop of Rome. Gregory exercised the authority then bestowed upon him partly through Hilarus, whom he sent to be overseer of the patrimony of the Church, and partly through the Numidian bishop Columbus. If protest was made — as it seems to have been made by a Numidian primate Adeodatus and by Dominicus of Carthage — it was overruled: Rome, said Gregory, was the mother church of Africa, and her authority must be respected. Such a pope was one to make it respected, whether he advised and exhorted in regard to the decay of spiritual life in monasteries, or reproved administrators and judges for unjust exaction of tribute. No better illustration of the way in which the papal claims attained acceptance could be found than is afforded by the history of Africa in the time of Gregory the Great.

While Donatism died hard in Africa, nearer home the controversy of the Three Chapters was not yet concluded. In Istria the Church was in schism, for it had not submitted to the decision of East and West. Gregory invoked (with but small success) the secular arm against Severus, patriarch of Aquileia, and summoned him to Rome. The bishops of the province protested and adjured the Emperor to protect them, professing no obedience to Rome and threatening to acknowledge the ecclesiastical authority of Gaul. Maurice commanded Gregory to stay his hand, which


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XXXVII.]

In sooth a gift so precious was worse requited ne’er;

The two fell slain together, Gernot and Rüdeger,

Like-fated in the combat,  each by the other’s stroke.

When this great loss to Hagen was known, his wrath outbroke.

Thus spake the Tronian hero: “In evil plight are we!

In these two have we suffer’d so great an injury

As ne’er can be o’ertided by peoples or by lands;

Now hold we Rüdeger’s chieftains as bail in luckless hands.”

“Woe on me for my brother, who here in death doth lie!

How cometh, every moment, some tale of misery!

And I must mourn for ever the noble Rüdeger:

The loss to me is double, and grievous ’tis to bear.”

So Giselher, beholding his lady’s father dead:—

And they who still were living a grievous reckoning paid,

Death fell upon them sorely seeking to take his own;

Of them from Bechelaren there lived ere long not one.

Now Giselher and Gunther and with them Hagen too,

Dankwart and Volker also,— all warriors good and true,—

Came forward all together, to where the twain were laid;

Then was there by the heroes great lamentation made.

“Death sorely us despoileth,” spake the lad Giselher:

“But make an end of weeping, and get we to the air

To cool our mail-clad bodies, worn as we are with strife;

Here God, I ween, will grant us but scanty spell of life.”


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254 he did very reluctantly. He had long before intervened in the matter as the secretary of Pelagius II: he distrusted the Istrian bishops as schismatics and as assertors of independence, and when he became pope had again addressed them in lucid theological arguments. He received individual submissions, and he used every kind of pressure to heal the schism; but when he died his efforts had not been entirely successful. With Milan too he had similar difficulties. Defective theology was combined with provincial independence in resistance to papal power. In Dalmatia and Illyria other difficulties needed other treatment. An archbishop whose manner of life did not befit his office was rebuked, ironically exhorted, pardoned: when he died a strong attempt was made to fill his place by a man of austere life whom the pope had long honoured. The attempt was a failure, and a very long and bitter struggle ensued in which Maximus, the imperial candidate, was refused recognition, summoned to trial at Rome and only at last admitted to his see as lawful prelate when he had lain prone in penance at Ravenna, crying "I have sinned against God and the most blessed Pope Gregory." Over Illyria generally, in spite of the creation of Justiniana Prima as a patriarchate by the Emperor who had given it his name, he exercised the power of a patriarch. He forbade the bishops to attend a synod at Constantinople without his leave. He made it plain that Illyria belonged to the West and not to the East.

And in the West he was ever eager to enlarge the boundaries of the Church. Already as a young man he had set his heart on the conversion of the English. As pope he had the means to undertake it. It may be that he planned it, as Bede says, as soon as he came to discharge the office of pontiff, and also, as one of his letters suggests, that he prepared for it by ordering the purchase of English slave boys to be trained in Gaulish monasteries. It was probably in 595 that he first sent forth the monk Augustine and his companions to journey through Gaul to Britain for the conversion of the English. When, daunted by anticipated dangers, the monks sent Augustine back, Gregory ordered him to return as their abbot, and furnished him with letters to the bishops of Gaul, and notably to Vergilius of Arles, the bishop of Aix, and the abbot of Lerins, as well as to Theodebert of Austrasia and Theodoric of Burgundy, children of nine and ten, under the guardianship of Brunhild their grandmother. To Brunhild herself, "queen of the Franks," who went with him, he was sure, "in heart and soul," the pope said that the English nation, by the favour of God, wished to become Christian, and he was sending Augustine and other monks to take thought — in which he bade her help — for their conversion. He considered that the bishops of Gaul had been remiss, in doing nothing for the conversion of those English tribes whom he regarded as their neighbours: but when in 596 he set the new mission in motion, he was able, as his letters shew, to rely upon personal kindness from the queen towards the missionaries


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HIS lovely morn the dewdrops flash Like diamonds on the grass— A blaze of sparkling jewels! But The autumn wind, alas! Scatters them as I pass.

Asayasu, the son of the author of, lived about the end of the ninth century. He is said to have composed this verse at the request of the Emperor Daigo in the year 900. To liken the dewdrops to jewels or beads (tama) is typical of Japanese verse. The picture shows the grass, and the dewdrops scattered on the ground in front of the poet.

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Y broken heart I don’t lament, To destiny I bow; But thou hast broken solemn oaths,— I pray the Gods may now Absolve thee from thy vow.

The Lady Ukon is supposed to have been deserted by her husband, and in this poem she regrets, not so much her own sorrow, as the fact that he has broken his sworn oath, and is therefore in danger of divine vengeance. The illustration shows her all alone at the gate, with the house in the background, evidently waiting for the husband who has forsaken her.

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596-601] and upon the aid of Gaulish priests as interpreters of the barbarous English tongue. The mission was, vaguely, to "the nation of the English," for Gregory knew no difference between the men of Deira and the men of Kent; and Augustine would learn at Paris, if not before, that the wife of Aethelberht of Kent was daughter of a Frankish king.

The tale of the landing, the preaching, and the success will be told elsewhere. Here it belongs only to note that Gregory continued to take the keenest interest in the venture he had planned. He instructed Vergilius of Arles to consecrate Augustine as bishop, and spread over Christendom the news of the great work that was accomplished. To Eulogius, patriarch of Alexandria, he told of the conversion due, as he said, to their prayers, and he warmly thanked Syagrius, bishop of Autun, and Brunhild for their aid. To Augustine in 601 he sent the pallium, a mark of favour conferred by pope or emperor, not, it would seem, as conferring metropolitan authority, which Augustine had already exercised, but as recognising his position as a special representative of the Roman See. To the queen Berhta, whose somewhat tardy support of the Christian faith in her husband's land he was able now to eulogise and to report even to the Emperor at Constantinople, he wrote words of exhortation to support Augustine, and to Aethelberht her husband admonition and praise with his favourite eschatological reference. To the end Gregory remained the trusted adviser of the Apostle of the English. He sent special reinforcements, with all manner of things, says Bede, needed for public worship and the service of the Church, commending the new missionaries again to the Gaulish bishops and instructing them especially as to the conversion of heathen temples into Christian churches. And he gave a very careful reply, written with characteristic breadth and tact, to the questions which Augustine addressed to him when the difficulties of his work had begun to be felt. The authenticity of these answers, it is true, has been doubted, but the evidence, external as well as internal, appears to be sufficient. The questions related to the support of the mission clergy, the liturgical use of the national Church now formed in England, the co-operation necessary in the consecration of bishops, and to matters touching the moral law about which among a recently heathen nation a special sensitiveness was desirable. Gregory's answers were those of a monk, even of a precisian, but they were also eminently those of a man of affairs and a statesman. "Things," he said "are not to be loved for the sake of places, but places for the sake of good things," and the claim of Rome herself depended on such an assertion. As a monk he dealt firmly with morals: as a statesman he sketched out the future organisation of the English Church. London


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IS easier to hide the reeds Upon the moor that grow, Than try to hide the ardent love That sets my cheeks aglow For somebody I know.

Little is known of this poet, except that he lived some time in the tenth century.

Note the word shinowara, meaning ‘a bamboo moor’, contrasted with shinoburedo in the next line, which means ‘though I might manage to conceal’.

The picture shows Hitoshi on the wild moor, with the reeds growing all around him.

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380

Some sitting, others leaning, one saw there many a thane,

They once again were idle: and round about them, slain,

Lay Rüdeger’s companions. The uproar all was laid.

So long the silence lasted, that Etzel grew afraid.

“Woe on me for such service!” then spake the royal wife:

“These folk are not so trusty that on our foeman’s life

Shall vengeance due be taken by Rüdeger’s command:

He means to take them safely back to Burgundian land.

“What boots it us, King Etzel, that we with him and his

Have shared whate’er he wanted? The chief hath done amiss:

He who should wreak our vengeance, doth wish a peace to gain.”

Thereunto answer’d Volker, the all-accomplish’d thane:

“Not so, alas! the story, most noble queen, I rede;

And, dare I charge with falsehood a dame so nobly bred,

Thee, devilishly lying of Rüdeger, I heard;

For he and his companions from peace have sorely err’d,

“That which the king commanded he did so zealously,

That he and all his people dead in yon chamber lie.

Now cast about, Kriemhilda, on errands whom to send!

For Rüdeger the hero hath served thee to the end.

“And wilt thou not believe me, see it thou shalt anon!”

And to her heartfelt sorrow so was it straightway done:

They bore the mangled hero before the king and queen.

The thanes of Etzel never so sad a sight had seen.


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256 was to be one metropolitan see, York the other, each with the pallium and with twelve suffragan sees. Neither bishop was to be primate of all England by right, but the senior in consecration was to be the superior, according, it seems, to the custom of the Church in Africa of which he had experience, but restricted as his wisdom shewed to be desirable. It may be that Gregory had already heard of the position of the British Church: if so, he provided for its subjection to a metropolitan. Certainly he judged acutely according to the knowledge he possessed.

The beginnings of the English mission had brought the pope into closer observation than before with the kings and bishops of peoples but recently converted to the faith. In Austrasia, Neustria, and Burgundy reigned a race of kings whose wickedness was but slightly tempered by the Christianity they had accepted. In Spain there was more wisdom and more reality of faith.

From Britain we pass naturally to the country through which Gregory's envoys passed on their way to new spiritual conversion: from Gaul we may pass to Spain. So far did Gregory's interests extend: of his power it may not be possible to speak with so much certainty. In truth the Church in Europe was not yet a centralised body, and local independence was especially prominent among the Franks. Even in doctrine there are traces of divergence, though these were kept in check by a number of local councils which discussed and accepted the theological decisions which came to them from East and West. But the real power resided in the bishops, as administrators, rulers, shepherds of men's souls. Christianity at this period, and notably Frankish Christianity, has been described as a federation of city churches of which each one was a little monarchy in itself. If no one doubted the papal primacy, it was much further away than the arbitrary authority of the kings, and in nothing were the Merovingians more determined than in their control of the Church in their dominions. If in the south the bishop of Arles, as vicar of the Gauls, maintained close relations with the Roman see, the episcopate as a whole held aloof, respectful certainly but not obedient. The Church in Gaul had been engulfed in a barbarian conquest, cut off from Italy, severed from its ancient spiritual ties. The conversion of Clovis gave a new aspect to this separation. The kings assumed a powerful influence over the bishops, and asserted their supremacy in ecclesiastical matters. Whatever may have been the theory, in practice the interference of Rome in Gaul had become difficult, and was consequently infrequent: it had come to be considered unnecessary: the Church of the Franks had outgrown its leading-strings. But in practice? The special privileges of the see of Arles are evidence of a certain submission to the Papacy on the part of the Merovingian kings, though the monarchs were autocrats in matters of religion as well as in affairs of state, and did not encourage resort to the Holy See. It fell to Gregory, here as elsewhere, to inaugurate an era of defined authority.


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LAS! the blush upon my cheek, Conceal it as I may, Proclaims to all that I’m in love, Till people smile and say— ‘Where are thy thoughts to-day?’

This verse is said to have been composed in the year 949, at the request of the Emperor Daigo. The Taira family sprang from the Emperor Kwammu, attained great influence three hundred years later, but finally fell before the power of the Minamoto clan in the year 1185 (see note to ).

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595] When he became pope the royal power of the Merovingians was at its height: in a few years it would totter to its fall, but now the clergy were submissive and the bishops for the most part the creatures of the court. When he died the claims of Rome to supremacy were established, even if they were not fully admitted. With Gaul throughout his pontificate he maintained close relations. Gregory of Tours tells with what joy his namesake's election was received by the Franks, and from the first sets himself to tell his doings and sayings with an unusual minuteness. Within a year of his accession the new pope was called upon to judge the bishops of Arles and Marseilles, whom Jewish merchants accused to him of endeavouring forcibly to convert them: Gregory reproved and urged the bishops rather to preach and persuade than to coerce. Again, he reproved Vergilius of Arles and the bishop of Autun for allowing the marriage of a nun, commanding them to bring the woman to penitence, and exhorting them with all authority. He intervened in the affairs of monasteries, granting privileges and exemptions in a manner which shews the nature of the authority he claimed. By his advice the difficult questions raised by the insanity of a bishop in the province of Lyons were settled. He claimed to judge a Frankish bishop and restore him to his see, though here he felt it necessary to explain and justify his conduct to the masterful Brunhild. He is found reproving the iconoclastic tendencies of Serenus of Marseilles, and ordering him to replace the images which he has thrown down. He gave directions as to the holding of church councils, he advised bishops as to the administration of their dioceses and the enforcement of ecclesiastical discipline. His correspondence with bishops and monks was constant, the requests to him to intervene in the affairs of the Gallican Church were frequent. Thus he prepared himself to inaugurate in Gaul a decisive and necessary reform.

Here he came into direct relations with the kings. In 595 Childebert of Austrasia applied to him for a recognition of the powers, as papal representative, of the bishop of Arles — evidence of the survival of the traditional idea of dependence on the Roman Church. In granting the request Gregory took occasion to develop his scheme of ecclesiastical discipline. Simony, interference with the election of bishops, the nomination of laymen to the episcopate, were crying evils: and the kings were responsible for them. He believed that the Frankish monarchy, the purity of whose faith shone by comparison with the dark treachery of other peoples, would rejoice to carry out his wishes; and in the notorious Brunhild he strangely found a deep religious sense and good dispositions which should bear fruit in the salvation of men: to her he repeated the desires which he had expressed to Childebert and urged her to see that they were carried out. He applied to her to put down crime, idolatry, paganism, to prevent the possession by Jews of Christian slaves — with what success we do not know. Unsuccessful certainly he was when he


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Shira tsuyu ni Kaze no fukishiku Aki no no wa Tsuranuki-tomenu Tama zo chiri keru.

title: Page:Hundredversesfro00fujiuoft.djvu/88


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XXXVIII.]

When they beheld the margrave thus borne before them dead,

No penman could have written, nor elsewise could be said,

How manifold the mourning of women and of men,

Who one and all bore witness unto their heart-felt pain.

The sorrowing of Etzel so great was, that the noise

Was even as a lion’s,— the mighty king his voice

So lifted in his anguish: eke mourn’d his wife no less;

Good Rüdeger bewail’d they with utmost bitterness.

So great a sound of mourning on every side was heard,

From palace walls and turrets the echoes all were stirr’d.

By one of Dietrich’s liegemen of Bern ’twas heard as well;

How swiftly then he started the direful news to tell.

Unto the prince then spake he: “Hearken, my Lord Dietrich,

As long as I’ve been living, ne’er have I heard the like

Of such unearthly wailing as I have heard but now:

Some harm unto King Etzel himself hath come, I trow.

“How else would all the people be in distress so dread?

The king, or may be Kriemhild, must one of them be dead, —

Slain by those daring strangers, who bore them enmity:

And many goodly warriors are wailing bitterly.”


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Wasuraruru Mi woba omowazu Chikahite-shi Hito no inochi no Oshiku mo aru kana.

title: Page:Hundredversesfro00fujiuoft.djvu/90


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258 urged Theodoric and Theodobert to restore to the bishop of Turin the parishes which he had lost during the barbarian invasion and which the Frankish kings were by no means willing should be under the control of a foreign bishop. But with Brunhild he seems always to have held the most cordial relations: she asked his advice and assistance in matters of religion and politics, in regard to a question of marriage law and to the relation of the Franks with the Empire in the East. And throughout his pontificate the attitude of the kings was one of deep respect, that of the Pope that of father by counsel which easily wore the cloak of authority.

It was thus that early in his pontificate Gregory warned Childebert and Brunhild, as he warned Vergilius and the bishops of Childebert's realm, of the need of instant action against the gross simony which was eating away the spiritual life of the Church. Young men, evil livers, laymen snatched from the business or pleasures of the world, were hurriedly ordained or hurriedly promoted and thrust into the high places of the Church. In 599 he addressed the bishops of Arles, Autun, Lyons, and Vienne in vigorous protest, laying to their charge at least the acquiescence which made gross abuses possible. Ready though he was to submit to lawful exercise of the royal power in nomination, he utterly forbade the ordination of laymen in high office, as inexcusable and indefensible. The Church was to be strengthened against the world by total prohibition of marriage to the clergy and by the summoning of yearly councils for the confirmation of faith and morals. In the councils everything was to be condemned which was contrary to the canons; and two prelates should represent him and inform him of what was done. The abbot Cyriacus was sent on a special mission, with letters to bishops, to kings, and to the queen Brunhild, to bring discipline to the Gallican Church. But the murderous uncertainty of dynastic intrigues set every obstacle in the way of a reform which might make the bishops less the creatures of the kings. To Theodoric at one moment thanks were given for his submission to papal commands, and he was directed to summon a council. At another a special envoy was sent to indicate and insist on reform. At another letter after letter in vehement exhortation was addressed to Brunhild, apparently the real ruler of the distracted realm. Bishops were again and again reproved, exhorted, reproached. But it is difficult, perhaps through the scanty nature of the historical materials of the period, to discover cases of definite submission to the papal authority. It was asserted with all the moral fervour and all the sagacious prudence which belonged to the great man who sat in the papal chair. It was not repudiated by Frankish kings and bishops: rather the assertion was received with judicious politeness and respect.

But beyond this the evidence does not carry us. That the policy of the Frankish State was affected, or that the character of the kings, the ministers of the Crown, or even the bishops, was moulded by the influence


text: The Lay of the Nibelungs/Chapter 37

title: The Lay of the Nibelungs/Chapter 37


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Asajū no Ono no shinowara Shinoburedo Amarite nado ka Hito no koishiki.

title: Page:Hundredversesfro00fujiuoft.djvu/92


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585-586] of the Papacy it would be impossible to say. Tyrannous and fratricidal, the Merovingian kings lived their evil lives unchecked by more than a nominal regard for the teaching of Christian moralists. But Gregory's continual interest in the Frankish Church was not in vain. He had established a personal relation with the barbarous kings: he had created a papal vicar in the kingdom of the South: in granting the pallium to the bishop of Autun he had at least suggested a very special authority over the lands of the Gauls: he had claimed that the Roman Church was their mother to whom they applied in time of need. If the practical result was small; if the Frankish Church maintained a real independence of Rome, and Arles never became a papal vicariate; yet Frankish monks, priests, poets, as well as bishops and kings, began to look to Rome as patron and guide. Venantius Fortunatus, Columbanus, Gregory of Tours, in their different ways, shew how close was the relation of Gregory the Great to the religion of the Franks.

Brighter was the prospect when Gregory turned from the moral chaos of Gaul to the growing unity of Spain. The Visigothic race had produced a great warrior in Leovigild, whose power, as king of all the Goths, extended from Seville to Nîmes. He obtained for his son Hermenegild Ingundis the daughter of Brunhild (herself the child of Athanagild, Leovigild's predecessor as Visigothic king) and the Frankish king Sigebert. From Gregory's letters we learn a story of martyrdom as to which there is no reason to believe that he was deceived. Ingundis, beset by Arian teachers who had obtained influence over Leovigild, not naturally a persecutor, a tyrant, or a fanatic, remained firm in her faith, and when her husband was given rule at Seville she succeeded with the aid of his kinsman Leander, bishop of Seville and friend of Gregory, in converting him to the Catholic belief. War was the result. Leovigild attacked his son, says John of Biclar, for rebellion and tyranny. Hermenegild sought the aid of the Catholic Sueves and "the Greeks" — the imperial garrisons which had remained since the partial reconquest of Spain by Justinian. But Leovigild proved the victor: the Suevic kingdom was extinguished, and Hermenegild was thrown into prison. Ingundis escaped with the Greeks and died at Carthage on her way to Constantinople. "Hermenegild was killed at Tarragona by Sigisbert" is the simple statement of John of Biclar, Catholic bishop of Gerona. Gregory in his Dialogues tells the tale more fully. On Easter Eve 585 he was offered communion by an Arian bishop, and when he refused to receive it at his hands he was murdered by the order of his father. He was regarded as a martyr and 13 April was observed throughout all Spain. His blood proved the seed of the faith.

A year later his brother Recared became king and accepted Catholicism. "No wonder," says Gregory, "that he became a preacher of the true faith, for his brother was a martyr, by whose merits he is aided in bringing back many souls to the bosom of God." Nor could this have happened had


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Shinoburedo Iro ni ide ni keri Waga koi wa Mono ya omou to Hito no tou made.

title: Page:Hundredversesfro00fujiuoft.djvu/94


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Captain wandered despondingly up and down hill for several days, passing many hours of each in sitting on rocks; making, almost mechanically, sketches of waterfalls, and mountain pools; taking care, nevertheless, to be always before night-fall in a comfortable inn, where, being a temperate man, he wiled away the evening with making a bottle of sherry into negus. His rambles brought him at length into the interior of Merionethshire, the land of all that is beau-


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732-740] exarch, a plot of the Roman dux of Perusia against Bologna miscarried, and a Lombard army led by Hildeprand, another nephew of Liutprand, occupied the impregnable town of Ravenna, the centre of the imperial administration. But the exarch succeeded in regaining the capital by a sudden attack and making Hildeprand prisoner, with help of the navy of the lagoons, against which the Lombards were helpless. Soon after this misfortune Liutprand seems to have concluded an armistice, on account of which Hildeprand was sent back. Then Liutprand fell ill at Pavia (735), Hildeprand was proclaimed king by the Lombards, and Liutprand acknowledged him as co-regent after his recovery. New difficulties arose in Friuli, where the duke Pemmo had covered the Lombard name with fame in different combats with the Slavs and displayed great splendour in his princely court at Cividale; he got entangled in a quarrel with the king's favourite Calistus, whom Liutprand had made patriarch of Aquileia, because the latter wanted to remove his residence from the small town of Cormons to Cividale, and had taken by force the bishop's palace, which the dukes had resigned to the fugitive bishop of Julia Carnica. Liutprand interceded in the patriarch's favour, dismissed the duke Pemmo, and set up in his place his son Ratchis, who proved himself the king's faithful subject. No king had ever reigned so powerfully.

But now the time had come when Liutprand thought it necessary to deal the death-blow to the Roman Empire in Italy, as soon as the independence of the duke in middle Italy was broken. This duke, Transamund of Spoleto, had taken the Roman castle Gallese and might have been of great use to the king in barring the communication between Ravenna and Rome, but he preferred to deliver up the castle to the pope Gregory III, engaging himself never to carry arms against him any more. But Liutprand, crossing the Pentapolis, arrived at Spoleto in June 739, and appointed a new duke Hilderich, while Transamund fled to Rome. The king demanded in vain the rebel's delivery before the walls of Rome, took away the castles of Ameria, Horta, Polimartium, and Bleda from the ducatus Romae, but then returned to North Italy. Meanwhile a Roman party in Benevento set up one Godescalc in the duchy in place of the deceased duke Gregorius, without regard to the king's claims. In the following year (740) Liutprand and Hildeprand attacked Ravenna and laid the exarchate under contribution, and at the same time Lombard hordes breaking out of the castles devastated the Campagna. The pope sent an embassy, praying the king to give back these border forts, and also claimed the help of the Lombard bishops by a circular letter. At the same time the army of the ducatus Romae, aided by Benevento, reinstated in Spoleto the duke Transamund, who was accepted with open arms by his own people (Dec. 740). But even now Transamund did not dare to attack the king and win back to the Romans the four castles, as the pope had wished. Pope Zachary, who had followed Gregory at the


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 tiful in nature, and all that is lovely in woman.

Here, in a secluded village, he found a little inn, of small pretension and much comfort. He felt so satisfied with his quarters, and discovered every day so much variety in the scenes of the surrounding mountains, that his inclination to proceed farther, diminished progressively.

It is one thing to follow the high road through a country, with every principally remarkable object carefully noted down in a book, taking, as therein directed, a guide, at particular points, to the more recondite sights: it is another to sit down on one chosen spot, especially when the choice is unpremeditated, and from thence, by a series of explorations, to come day by day on unanticipated scenes. The latter process has many advantages over the former; it is free from the disappoint-


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 ment which attends excited expectation, when imagination has outstripped reality, and from the accidents that mar the scheme of the tourist's single day, when the valleys may be drenched with rain, or the mountains shrouded with mist.

The Captain was one morning preparing to sally forth on his usual exploration, when he heard a voice without, inquiring for a guide to the ruined castle. The voice seemed familiar to him, and going forth into the gateway, he recognised Mr. Chainmail. After greetings and inquiries for the absent; "You vanished very abruptly, Captain," said Mr. Chainmail, "from our party on the canal."

To tell you the truth, I had a particular reason for trying the effect of absence from a part of that party.


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 I surmised as much: at the same time, the unusual melancholy of an in general most vivacious young lady made me wonder at your having acted so precipitately. The lady's heart is yours, if there be truth in signs.

Hearts are not now what they were in the days of the old song; "Will love be controlled by advice?"

Very true; hearts, heads, and arms have all degenerated, most sadly. We can no more feel the high impassioned love of the ages, which some people have the impudence to call dark, than we can wield King Richard's battleaxe, bend Robin Hood's bow, or flourish the oaken graff of the Pindar of Wakefield. Still we have our tastes and


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 feelings, though they deserve not the name of passions; and some of us may pluck up spirit to try to carry a point, when we reflect that we have to contend with men no better than ourselves.

We do not now break lances for ladies.

No, nor even bulrushes. We jingle purses for them, flourish paper-money banners, and tilt with scrolls of parchment.

In which sort of tilting I have been thrown from the saddle. I presume it was not love that led you from the flotilla.

By no means. I was tempted by the sight of an old tower, not to leave this land of ruined castles, without having collected a


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 few hints for the adornment of my baronial hall.

I understand you live en famille with your domestics. You will have more difficulty in finding a lady who would adopt your fashion of living, than one who would prefer you to a richer man.

Very true. I have tried the experiment on several as guests; but once was enough for them: so, I suppose, I shall die a bachelor.

I see, like some others of my friends, you will give up any thing except your hobby.

I will give up any thing but my baronial hall.


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You will never find a wife for your purpose, unless in the daughter of some old-fashioned farmer.

No, I thank you. I must have a lady of gentle blood; I shall not marry below my own condition: I am too much of a herald; I have too much of the twelfth century in me for that.

Why then your chance is not much better than mine. A well-born beauty would scarcely be better pleased with your baronial hall, than with my more humble offer of love in a cottage. She must have a town-house, and an opera-box, and roll about the streets in a carriage; especially if her father has a rotten borough, for the sake of which he


text: Crotchet Castle/Chapter 12

title: Crotchet Castle/Chapter 12


text:
Page:Journal of Conversations with Lord Byron.pdf/71

 ing her defeat, and covering a retreat, a tolerable logician must have always discovered the scrapes she got into. Poor dear Madame de Staël! I shall never forget seeing her one day, at table with a large party, when the busk (I believe you ladies call it) of her corset forced its way through the top of the corset, and would not descend though pushed by all the force of both hands of the wearer, who became crimson from the operation. After fruitless efforts, she turned in despair to the valet de chambre behind her chair and requested him to draw it out, which could only be done by his passing his hand from behind over her shoulder, and across her chest, when, with a desperate effort, he unsheathed the busk. Had you seen the faces of some of the English ladies of the party, you would have been, like me, almost convulsed; while Madame remained perfectly unconscious that she had committed any solecism on la décence Anglaise. Poor Madame de Staël verified the truth of the lines -

She thought like a man, but, alas! she felt like a woman; as witness the episode in her life with Monsieur Rocca, which she dared not avow. (I mean her marriage with him,) because she was more jealous, of her reputation as a writer than a


text:
Author:Itō Hirobumi

Works

 * “The Commercial Future of Japan” (1902), in The Independent, LIV(2777), 431–433.
 * A Maker of New Japan: Marquis Ito's Experience (1904), translated by Teizo Kuramata
 * “The Constitution of the Empire,” “The Growth of Japan,” and “The Duties of Political Parties,” in Japan by the Japanese (1904), edited by Alfred Snead
 * Commentaries on the Constitution of the Empire of Japan (1889) (2nd ed., 1906)

Works about Prince Itō

 * “Marquis Ito: The Great Man of Japan” (1901), by Frederick Palmer, in Scribner’s Magazine, 30(5), 613–621.
 * “Marquis Ito, the Japanese Statesman” (1904), by John W. Foster, in International Quarterly, 9(2), 261–273.
 * “Reminiscences of Prince Ito” (1909), by Joseph H. Longford, in National Review, LIV(322), 601–610.
 * “The Statesmanship of Ito” (1910), by William Elliot Griffis, in North American Review, CXCI(DCL), 114–127.
 * “Prince Itō: His Life Work, and His Influence Upon the National Policy of Japan” (1910), by Lancelot Lawton, in Asiatic Quarterly Review, [3]XXIX(58), 308–337.
 * Prince Ito, the Man and Statesman: A Brief History of His Life (1910), by Kaju Nakamura
 * “Prince Itō” (1911), by K. Yoshizawa, in Transactions and Proceedings of the Japan Society, London, IX(121), 206–224.

title: Author:Itō Hirobumi


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it not be a fine thing, Captain, you being picturesque, and I poetical; you being for the lights and shadows of the present, and I for those of the past, if we were to go together over the ground which was travelled in the twelfth century by Giraldus de Barri, when he accompanied Archbishop Baldwin to preach the crusade?

Nothing, in my present frame of mind, could be more agreeable to me.


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We would provide ourselves with his Itinerarium; compare what has been, with what is; contemplate in their decay the castles and abbeys, which he saw in their strength and splendour; and, while you were sketching their remains, I would dispassionately inquire what has been gained by the change.

Be it so. But the scheme was no sooner arranged, than the Captain was summoned to London by a letter on business, which he did not expect to detain him long. Mr. Chainmail, who, like the Captain, was fascinated with the inn and the scenery, determined to await his companion's return; and, having furnished him with a list of books, which he was to bring with him from London, took


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 leave of him, and began to pass his days like the heroes of Ariosto, who

One day Mr. Chainmail traced upwards the course of a mountain-stream, to a spot where a small waterfall threw itself over a slab of perpendicular rock, which seemed to bar his farther progress. On a nearer view, he discovered a flight of steps, roughly hewn in the rock, on one side of the fall. Ascending these steps, he entered a narrow winding pass, between high and naked rocks, that afforded only space for a rough footpath, carved on one side, at some height above the torrent.

The pass opened on a lake, from which the stream issued, and which lay like a dark mirror, set in a gigantic frame of mountain precipices. Fragments of rock lay scattered


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67 retelling have changed them into pure myths. This is, for instance, true of the saga of Orvarodd (Arrow-Odd) and in a still more marked degree of the sagas of Ketil Hæng, of Grim Lodinkinn, and others, which are connected with the saga of Orvarodd and of others which all deal with Norwegian affairs.

In reference to Iceland, this love for the mythical is prominent in several of the family sagas, as, for example, in the Grettis Saga, where, however, fact decidedly predominates over fiction, while the reverse is the case in the Kjalnesinga saga. Finally this tendency develops completely into folk-tales, as in the saga of Bárd Snæfelláss and others. Among Norwegian fictions of this kind may be mentioned the sagas of Hromund Greipsson, of Gautrek and Herraud, and of Bose.

In this field, in which obscure and confused recollections of antiquity naturally, yet lingered for some time, there was still life, after literature had ceased to be produced, and all the northern lands, but especially Norway, are rich in folk-lore tales in which are found reminiscences of the olden time. The creation of folk-lore extends in the North as elsewhere into the remotest antiquity, into a time when there is not a single trace of the literary productions described in this work. When the literature of the middle ages, which surely for a


text:
Translation:The Akkerman Steppes

The Akkerman Steppes

I sailed onto waterless ocean expanses,

Wagon dives in grasslands and like a boat plowing,

Though rustling meadows ripples, through flowery flooding,

I'm avoiding the coral heads of the red thistles.

It darkens, not a trail, not a kurgan in sight,

I look upward, in search of the stars, the boat ushers;

Afar shines a cloud? Goddess of the Dawn rises?

It shines Dniester, visible Akerman's guiding light.

Halt! - The Silence! - I hear the clangor of cranes flying,

Further than hawk's eyes could have them discovered;

I hear a butterfly gently in the grasses swaying,

Where snake's slippy belly on herbage is crawling,

In such silence, with my ears, so alertly attuned,

I d' hear voice from Litwa*. Let's go, no one's calling!

 * Lithuania (Polish/pron.'lit.fa'/)

title: Translation:The Akkerman Steppes


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 on the edge of the lake, some half-buried in the water: Mr. Chainmail scrambled some way over these fragments, till the base of a rock sinking abruptly in the water, effectually barred his progress. He sat down on a large smooth stone; the faint murmur of the stream he had quitted, the occasional flapping of the wings of the heron, and at long intervals the solitary springing of a trout, were the only sounds that came to his ear. The sun shone brightly half-way down the opposite rocks, presenting, on their irregular faces, strong masses of light and shade. Suddenly he heard the dash of a paddle, and, turning his eyes, saw a solitary and beautiful girl gliding over the lake in a coracle; she was proceeding from the vicinity of the point he had quitted, towards the upper end of the lake. Her apparel was rustic, but there was in its style something


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 more recherchée, in its arrangement something more of elegance and precision, than was common to the mountain peasant girl. It had more of the contadina of the opera, than of the genuine mountaineer; so at least thought Mr. Chainmail; but she passed so rapidly, and took him so much by surprise, that he had little opportunity for accurate observation. He saw her land, at the farther extremity, and disappear among the rocks: he rose from his seat, returned to the mouth of the pass, stepped from stone to stone across the stream, and attempted to pass round by the other side of the lake; but there again the abruptly sinking precipice closed his way.

Day after day he haunted the spot, but never saw again either the damsel or the coracle. At length, marvelling at himself for being so solicitous about the apparition of a


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 woman, and the faiblesse de cœur, this alliance proved she had not courage to affiche. A friend of hers, and a compatriot into the bargain, whom she believed to be one of the most adoring of her worshippers, gave me the following epigrams :- SUR LA GROSSESSE DE MADAME DE STAEL.

Quel esprit! quel talent! quel sublime génie!

En elle tout aspire à l'immortalite;

Et jusqu'a son hydropisie,

Rien n'est perdu pour la posterite.

PORTRAIT DE MADAME DE STAEL.

Armande a pour esprit des momens de délire,

Armande a pour vertu le mepris des appas:

Elle craint le railleur que sans cesse elle inspire,

Elle evite l'amant que ne la cherche pas:

Puisqu'elle n'a point l'art de cacher son visage,

Et qu'elle a la fureur de montrer son esprit,

Il faut la defier de cesser d'être sage

Et d'entendre ce qu'elle dit.

"The giving the epigrams to me, a brother of the craft of authors, was worthy of a friend, and was another proof, if proof were wanting, of the advantages of friends :-

No epigram such pointed satire lends

As does the memory of our faithful friends.

I have an exalted opinion of friendship, as you see. You look incredulous, but you will not only give me credit for being sincere in this opinion, but one day arrive at the same conclusion your-


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 peasant girl in a coracle, who could not, by any possibility, be anything to him, he resumed his explorations in another direction.

One day he wandered to the ruined castle, on the sea-shore, which was not very distant from his inn; and sitting on the rock, near the base of the ruin, was calling up the forms of past ages on the wall of an ivied tower, when on its summit appeared a female figure, whom he recognised in an instant for his nymph of the coracle. The folds of the blue gown pressed by the sea-breeze against one of the most symmetrical of figures, the black feather of the black hat, and the ringleted hair beneath it fluttering in the wind; the apparent peril of her position, on the edge of the mouldering wall, from whose immediate base the rock went down perpendicularly to the sea, presented a singularly


text: Crotchet Castle/Chapter 13

title: Crotchet Castle/Chapter 13


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Susannah Touchandgo had read the four great poets of Italy, and many of the best writers of France. About the time of her father's downfall, accident threw into her way Les Rêveries du Promeneur Solitaire; and from the impression which these made on her, she carried with her into retirement all the works of Rousseau. In the midst of that startling light, which the conduct of old


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 self. Shake not thy jetty locks at me;' ten years hence, if we both live so long, you will allow that I am right, though you now think me a cynic for saying all this. Madame de Staël," continued Byron, "had peculiar satisfaction in impressing on her auditors the severity of the persecution she underwent from Napoleon; a certain mode of enraging her, was to appear to doubt the extent to which she wished it to be believed this had been pushed, as she looked on the persecution as a triumphant proof of her literary and political importance, which she more than insinuated Napoleon feared might subvert his government. This was a weakness, but a common one. One half of the clever people of the world believe they are hated and persecuted, and the other half imagine they are admired and beloved. Both are wrong, and both false conclusions are produced by vanity, though that vanity is the strongest which believes in the hatred and persecution, as it implies a belief of extraordinary superiority to account for it."

I could not suppress the smile that Byron's reflections excited, and, with his usual quickness, he instantly felt the application I had made of them to himself, for he blushed, and half angry, and half laughing, said: "Oh! I see what you are smiling at; you think that I have described my


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 that can befall a voyager stared me in the face, and it was some seconds before I could recover sufficient composure to inquire when the fire was first discovered.

"Six days ago," replied the mate.

"Six days ago! " I exclaimed; "why, then, it was that night."

"Yes," he said, interrupting me; "it was the night you heard the disturbance upon deck. The men on watch noticed a slight smoke issuing from the large hatchway and immediately called Captain Huntly and myself. We found beyond all doubt, that the cargo was on fire, and what was worse, that there was no possibility of getting at the seat of the combustion. What could we do? Why, we took the only precaution that was practicable under the circumstances, and resolved most carefully to exclude every breath of air from penetrating into the hold. For some time I hoped that we had been successful. I thought that the fire was stifled; but during the last three days there is every reason to make us know that it has been gaining strength. Do what we will, the deck gets hotter and hotter, and unless it were kept constantly wet, it would be unbearable to the feet. But I am glad, Mr. Kazallon," he added; "that you have made the discovery. It is better that you should know it." I listened in silence. I was now fully aroused to the gravity of the situation and thoroughly comprehended how we were in the very face of a calamity which it seemed that no human power could avert.

"Do you know what has caused the fire?" I presently inquired.

"It probably arose," he answered," from the spontaneous combustion of the cotton. The case is rare, but it is far from unknown. Unless the cotton is perfectly dry when it is shipped, its confinement in a damp or ill-ventilated hold will sometimes cause it to ignite; and I have no doubt it is this that has brought about our misfortune."

"But after all," I said, "the cause matters very little. Is there no remedy? Is there nothing to be done?"

"Nothing, Mr. Kazallon," he said. "As I told you before, we have adopted the only possible measure within our power to check the fire. At one time I thought of knocking a hole in the ship's timbers just on her water-line, and letting in just as much water as the pumps could afterward


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 get rid of again; but we found the combustion was right in the middle of the cargo and that we should be obliged to flood the entire hold before we could get at the right place. That scheme consequently was no good. During the night, I had the deck bored in various places and water poured down through the holes; but that again seemed of no use. There is only one thing that can be done; we must persevere in excluding most carefully every breath of outer air, so that perhaps the conflagration, deprived of oxygen, may smoulder itself out. That is our only hope."

"But, you say the fire is increasing?"

"Yes; and that shows that in spite of all our care there is some aperture which we have not been able to discover, by which, somehow or other, air gets into the hold."

"Have you ever heard of a vessel surviving such circumstances?" I asked.

"Yes, Mr. Kazallon," said Curtis; "it is not at all an unusual thing for ships laden with cotton to arrive at Liverpool or Havre with a portion of their cargo consumed; and I have myself known more than one captain run into port with his deck scorching his very feet, and who, to save his vessel and the remainder of his freight has been compelled to unload with the utmost expedition. But, in such cases, of course the fire has been more or less under control throughout the voyage; with us, it is increasing day by day, and I tell you I am convinced there is an aperture somewhere which has escaped our notice."

"But would it not be advisable for us to retrace our course, and make for the nearest land?"

"Perhaps it would," he answered. "Walter and I, and the boatswain, are going to talk the matter over seriously with the captain to-day. But, between ourselves, I have taken the responsibility upon myself; I have already changed the tack to the southwest; we are now straight before the wind, and consequently we are sailing toward the coast."

"I need hardly ask," I added; "whether any of the other passengers are at all aware of the imminent danger in which we are placed."

"None of them," he said; "not in the least; and I hope you will not enlighten them. We don't want terrified women and cowardly men to add to our embarrassment; the


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 crew are under orders to keep a strict silence on the subject. Silence is indispensable."

I promised to keep the matter a profound secret, as I fully entered into Curtis's views as to the absolute necessity for concealment.

20 and 21.—The Chancellor is now crowded with all the canvas she can carry, and at times her topmasts threaten to snap with the pressure. But Curtis is ever on the alert; he never leaves his post beside the man at the helm, and without compromising the safety of the vessel, he contrives, by tacking to the breeze, to urge her on at her utmost speed.

All day long on the 2Oth the passengers were assembled on the poop. Evidently they found the heat of the cabins painfully oppressive, and most of them lay stretched upon benches and quietly enjoyed the gentle rolling of the vessel. The increasing heat of the deck did not reveal itself to their well-shod feet, and the constant scouring of the boards did not excite any suspicion in their torpid minds. M. Letourneur, it is true, did express his surprise that the crew of an ordinary merchant vessel should be distinguished by such extraordinary cleanliness; but as I replied to him in a very casual tone, he passed no further remark. I could not help regretting that I had given Curtis my pledge of silence, and longed intensely to communicate the melancholy secret to the energetic Frenchman; for at times when I reflect upon the eight-and-twenty victims who may probably, only too soon, be a prey to the relentless flames, my heart seems ready to burst.

The important consultation between captain, mate, lieutenant and boatswain has taken place. Curtis has confided the result to me. He says that Huntly, the captain, is completely demoralized; he has lost all power and energy; and practically leaves the command of the ship to him. It is now certain the fire is beyond control, and that sooner or later it will burst out in full violence. The temperature of the crew's quarters has already become almost unbearable.


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 One solitary hope remains; it is that we may reach the shore before the final catastrophe occurs. The Lesser Antilles are the nearest land; and although they are some five or six hundred miles away, if the wind remains northeast there is yet a chance of reaching them in time.

Carrying royals and studding-sails, the Chancellor during the last four-and-twenty hours has held a steady course. M. Letourneur is the only one of all the passengers who has remarked the change of tack; Curtis, however, has set all speculation on his part at rest by telling him that he wanted to get ahead of the wind, and that he was tacking to the west to catch a favorable current.

To-day, the 21st, all has gone on as usual; and as far as the observation of the passengers has reached, the ordinary routine has been undisturbed. Curtis indulges the hope even yet that by excluding the air the fire may be stifled before it ignites the general cargo; he has hermetically closed every accessible aperture, and has even taken the precaution of plugging the orifices of the pumps, under the impression that their suction-tubes, running as they do to the bottom of the hold, may possibly be channels for conveying some molecules of air. Altogether, he considers it a good sign that the combustion has not betrayed itself by some external issue of smoke.

The day would have passed without any incident worth recording, if I had not chanced to overhear a fragment of a conversation which demonstrated that our situation, hitherto precarious enough, had now become most appalling.

As I was sitting on the poop, two of my fellow-passengers, Falsten, the engineer, and Ruby, the merchant, whom I had observed to be often in company, were engaged in conversation almost close to me. What they said was evidently not intended for my hearing, but my attention was directed toward them by some very emphatic gestures of dissatisfaction on the part of Falsten, and I could not forbear listening to what followed.

"Preposterous! shameful!" exclaimed Falsten; "nothing could be more imprudent."

"Pooh! pooh!" replied Ruby, "it's all right; it is not the first time I have done it."

"But don't you know that any shock at any time might cause an explosion?"


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 could, at such a moment, have any weight; nevertheless, the appeal was made, and, incredible as it may seem, prevailed.

Just as the boatswain was about to act the part of butcher, and Dowlas stood, hatchet in hand, ready to complete the barbarous work, Miss Herbey advanced, or rather crawled, toward them.

"My friends," she pleaded," will you not wait just one more day? If no land or ship is in sight to-morrow, then I suppose our poor companion must become your victim. But allow him one more day; in the name of mercy I entreat, I implore you."

My heart bounded as she made her pitiful appeal. It seemed to me as though the noble girl had spoken with an inspiration on her lips, and I fancied that, perhaps, in supernatural vision she had viewed the coast or the ship of which she spoke; and one more day was not much to us who had already suffered so long, and endured so much.

Curtis and Falsten agreed with me, and we all united to support Miss Herbey's merciful petition. The sailors did not utter a murmur, and the boatswain in a smothered voice said:

"Very well, we will wait till daybreak to-morrow," and threw down his hatchet.

To-morrow, then, unless land or a sail appear, the horrible sacrifice will be accomplished. Stifling their sufferings by a strenuous effort, all returned to their places. The sailors crouched beneath the sails, caring nothing about scanning the ocean. Food was in store for them to-morrow, and that was enough for them.

As soon as Andre Letourneur came to his senses, his first thought was for his father, and I saw him count the passengers on the raft. He looked puzzled; when he lost consciousness there had been only two names left in the hat, those of his father and the carpenter; and yet M. Letourneur and Dowlas were both there still. Miss Herbey went up to him and told him quietly that the drawing of the lots had not yet been finished. Andre asked no further question, but took his father's hand. M. Letourneur 's countenance was calm and serene; he seemed to be conscious of nothing except that the life of his son was spared, and as the two sat conversing in an undertone at the back of the


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 own case, and proved myself guilty of vanity." I allowed that I thought so, as he had a thousand times repeated to me, that he was feared and detested in England, which I never would admit. He tried various arguments to prove to me that it was not vanity, but a knowledge of the fact, that made him believe himself detested; but I, continuing to smile, and look incredulous, he got really displeased, and said: "You have such a provoking memory, that you compare notes of all one's different opinions, so that one is sure to get into a scrape." Byron observed, that he once told Madame de Staël that he considered her "Delphine" and "Corinne" as very dangerous productions to be put into the hands of young women. I asked him how she received this piece of candor, and he answered: "Oh! just as all such candid avowals are received - she never forgave me for it. She endeavored to prove to me, that, the tendencies of both her novels were super-eminently moral. I begged that we might not enter on Delphine, as that was hors du question, (she was furious at this,) but that all the moral world thought, that her representing all the virtuous characters in Corinne' as being dull; common-place, and tedious, was a most insidious blow aimed at virtue, and calculated to throw it into the shade. She was so excited and impa-


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 M. Letourneur continued his painful task. Since Burke's first exclamation of joy not a sound had escaped our lips, but all were listening in breathless silence. The seventh name was Miss Herbey's, but the young girl heard it without a start. Then came mine, yes, mine! and the ninth was was that of Letourneur.

"Which one?" asked the boatswain.

"Andre," said M. Letourneur.

With one cry Andre fell back senseless. Only two names now remained in the hat those of Dowlas and M. Letourneur himself.

"Go on!" almost roared the carpenter, surveying his partner in peril as though he could devour him. M. Letourneur almost had a smile upon his lips, as he drew forth the last paper but one, and with a firm, unfaltering voice, marvelous for his age, unfolded it slowly, and read the name of Dowlas. The carpenter gave a yell of relief as he heard the word.

M. Letourneur took the last bit of paper from the hat, and, without looking at it, tore it to pieces. But, unperceived by all but myself, one little fragment flew into a corner of the raft. I crawled toward it and picked it up. On one side of it was written Andr—; the rest of the word was torn away. M. Letourneur saw what I had done, and, rushing toward me, snatched the paper from my hands, and flung it into the sea.

26.—I understood it all; the devoted father having nothing more to give, had given his life for his son.

M. Letourneur was no longer a human being in the eyes of the famished creatures who were now yearning to see him sacrificed to their cravings. At the very sight of the victim thus provided, all the tortures of hunger returned with redoubled violence. With lips distended, and teeth displayed, they waited like a herd of carnivora until they could attack their prey with brutal voracity; it seemed almost doubtful whether they would not fall upon him while still alive. It seemed impossible that any appeal to their


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 "Oh, it's all properly secured," said Ruby, "tight enough; I have no fears on that score, Mr. Falsten."

"But why," asked Falsten, "did you not inform the captain?"

"Just because if I had informed him, he would not have taken the case on board."

The wind dropped for a few seconds; and for a brief interval I could not catch what passed; but I could see that Falsten continued to remonstrate, while Ruby answered by shrugging his shoulders. At length I heard Falsten say.

"Well, at any rate, the captain must be informed of this, and the package shall be thrown overboard. I don't want to be blown up."

I started. To what could the engineer be alluding? Evidently he had not the remotest suspicion that the cargo was already on fire. In another moment the words "picrate of potash" brought me to my feet, and with an involuntary impulse I rushed up to Ruby, and seized him by the shoulder.

"Is there picrate of potash on board?" I almost shrieked.

"Yes," said Falsten, "a case containing thirty pounds."

"Where is it?" I cried.

"Down in the hold, with the cargo."

my feelings were I cannot describe; but it was hardly in terror so much as with a kind of resignation that I made my way to Curtis on the forecastle, and made him aware that the alarming character of our situation was now complete, as there was enough explosive matter on board to blow up a mountain. Curtis received the information as coolly as it was delivered, and after I had made him acquainted with all the particulars said, "Not a word of this must be mentioned to anyone else, Mr. Kazallon. Where is Ruby, now?"

"On the poop," I said.

"Will you then come with me, sir?"

Ruby and Falsten were sitting just as I had left them. Curtis walked straight up to Ruby, and asked him whether what he had been told was true.


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 "Yes, quite true," said Ruby, complacently, thinking that the worst that could befall him would be that he might be convicted of a little smuggling.

I observed that Curtis was obliged for a moment or two to clasp his hands tightly together behind his back to prevent himself from seizing the unfortunate passenger by the throat; but suppressing his indignation, he proceeded quietly, though sternly, to interrogate him about the facts of the case. Ruby only confirmed what I had already told him. With characteristic Anglo-Saxon incautiousness he had brought on board, with the rest of his baggage, a case containing no less than thirty pounds of picrate, and had allowed the explosive matter to be stowed in the hold with as little compunction as a Frenchman would feel in smuggling a single bottle of wine. He had not informed the captain of the dangerous nature of the contents of the package, because he was perfectly aware that he would have been refused permission to bring the package on board.

"Anyway," he said, with a shrug of his shoulders, "you can't hang me for it; and if the package gives you so much concern, you are quite at liberty to throw it into the sea. My luggage is insured."

I was beside myself with fury; and not being endowed with Curtis's reticence and self-control, before he could interfere to stop me, I cried out:

"You fool! don't you know that there is fire on board? "

In an instant I regretted my words. Most earnestly I wished them unuttered. But it was too late—their effect upon Ruby was electrical. He was paralyzed with terror; his limbs stiffened convulsively; his eye was dilated; he gasped for breath, and was speechless. All of a sudden he threw up his arms, and, as though he momentarily expected an explosion, he darted down from the poop, and paced frantically up and down the deck, gesticulating like a madman, and shouting:

"Fire on board! Fire! Fire!"

On hearing the outcry, all the crew, supposing that the fire had now in reality broken out, rushed on deck; the rest of the passengers soon joined them, and the scene that ensued was one of the utmost confusion. Mrs. Kear fell down senseless on the deck, and her husband, occupied in looking after himself, left her to the tender mercies of Miss Herbey.


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 Curtis endeavored to silence Ruby's ravings, whilst I, in as few words as I could, made M. Letourneur aware of the extent to which the cargo was on fire. The father's first thought was for Andre, but the young man preserved an admirable composure, and begged his father not to be alarmed, as the danger was not immediate. Meanwhile the sailors had loosened all the tacklings of the long-boat, and were preparing to launch it, when Curtis's voice was heard peremptorily bidding them to desist; he assured them that the fire had made no further progress; that Mr. Ruby had been unduly excited and not conscious of what he had said; and he pledged his word that when the right moment should arrive he would allow them all to leave the ship; but that moment, he said, had not yet come.

At the sound of a voice which they had learned to honor and respect, the crew paused in their operations, and the long-boat remained suspended in its place. Fortunately, even Ruby himself in the midst of his ravings, had not dropped a word about the picrate that had been deposited in the hold; for although the mate had a power over the sailors that Captain Huntly had never possessed, I feel certain that if the true state of the case had been known, nothing on earth would have prevented some of them, in their consternation, from effecting an escape. As it was, only Curtis, Falsten, and myself were cognizant of the terrible secret.

As soon as order was restored, the mate and I joined Falsten on the poop, where he had remained throughout the panic, and where we found him with folded arms, deep in thought, as it might be, solving some hard mechanical problem. He promised, at my request, that he would reveal nothing of the new danger to which we were exposed through Ruby's imprudence. Curtis himself took the responsibility of informing Captain Huntly of our critical situation.

In order to insure complete secrecy, it was necessary to secure the person of the unhappy Ruby, who, quite beside himself, continued to rave up and down the deck with the incessant cry of "Fire! fire!" Accordingly Curtis gave orders to some of his men to seize him and gag him; and before he could make any resistance the miserable man was captured and safely lodged in confinement in his own cabin.


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22.—Curtis has told the captain everything; for he persists in ostensibly recognizing him as his superior officer, and refuses to conceal from him our true situation. Captain Huntly received the communication in perfect silence, and merely passing his hand across his forehead as though to banish some distressing thought, re-entered his cabin without a word.

Curtis, Lieutenant Walter, Falsten, and myself have been discussing the chances of our safety, and I am surprised to find with how much composure we can all survey our anxious predicament.

"There is no doubt," said Curtis, "that we must abandon all hope of arresting the fire; the heat toward the bow has already become well-nigh unbearable, and the time must come when the flames will find a vent through the deck. If the sea is calm enough for us to make use of the boats, well and good; we shall of course get quit of the ship as quietly as we can; if, on the other hand the weather should be adverse, or the wind be boisterous, we must stick to our place, and contend with the flames to the very last; perhaps, after all, we shall fare far better with the fire as a declared enemy than as a hidden one."

Falsten and I agreed with what he said, and I pointed out to him that he had quite overlooked the fact of there being thirty pounds of explosive matter in the hold.

"No," he gravely replied, "I have not forgotten it, but it is a circumstance of which I do not trust myself to think. I dare not run the risk of admitting air into the hold by going down to search for the powder, and yet I know not at what moment it may explode. No; it is a matter that I cannot take at all into my reckoning; it must remain in higher hands than mine."

We bowed our heads in a silence which was solemn. In the present state of the weather, immediate flight was, we knew, impossible.

After considerable pause, Mr. Falsten, as calmly as though he were delivering some philosophic dogma, quietly observed:

"The explosion, if I may use the formula of science, is not necessary, but contingent."


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 "But tell me, Mr. Falsten," I asked, "is it possible for picrate of potash to ignite without concussion?"

"Certainly it is," replied the engineer. "Under ordinary circumstances, picrate of potash although not more inflammable than common powder, yet possesses the same degree of inflammability."

We now prepared to go on deck. As we left the saloon, in which we had been sitting, Curtis seized my hand.

"Oh, Mr. Kazallon," he exclaimed, "if you only knew the bitterness of the agony I feel at seeing this fine vessel doomed to be devoured by flames, and at being so powerless to save her." Then quickly recovering himself, he continued: "But I am forgetting myself; you, if no other, must know what I am suffering. It is all over now," he said more cheerfully.

"Is our condition quite desperate?" I asked.

"It is just this," he answered deliberately, "we are over a mine, and already the match has been applied to the train. How long that train may be, 'tis not for me to say."

And with these words he left me.

The other passengers, in common with the crew, are still in entire ignorance of the extremity of peril to which we are exposed, although they are all aware that there is fire in the hold. As soon as the fact was announced, Mr. Kear, after communicating to Curtis his instructions that he thought he should have the fire immediately extinguished, and intimating that he held him responsible for all contingencies that might happen, retired to his cabin, where he has remained ever since, fully occupied in collecting and packing together the more cherished articles of his property and without the semblance of a care or a thought for his unfortunate wife, whose condition, in spite of her ludicrous complaints, was truly pitiable. Miss Herbey, however, is unrelaxing in her attentions, and the unremitted diligence with which she fulfills her offices of duty, commands my highest admiration.

23.—This morning, Captain Huntly sent for Curtis into his cabin, and the mate has since made me acquainted with what passed between them.

"Curtis," began the captain, his haggard eye betraying only too plainly some mental derangement, "I am a sailor, am I not?"


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 "Certainly, captain," was the prompt acquiescence of the mate.

"I do not know how it is," continued the captain, "but I seem bewildered; I can not recollect anything. Are we not bound for Liverpool? Ah! yes! of course. And have we kept a northeasterly direction since we left?"

"No, sir, according to your orders we have been sailing southeast, and here we are in the tropics."

"And what is the name of the ship?"

"The Chancellor, sir."

"Yes, yes, the Chancellor, so it is. Well, Curtis, I really can't take her back to the north. I hate the sea, the very sight of it makes me ill, I would much rather not leave my cabin."

Curtis went on to tell me how he had tried to persuade him that with a little time and care he would soon recover his indisposition, and feel himself again; but the captain had interrupted him by saying:

"Well, well; we shall see by-and-by; but for the present you must take this for my positive order; you must, from this time, at once take the command of the ship, and act just as if I were not on board. Under present circumstances, I can do nothing. My brain is all in a whirl, you can not tell what I am suffering;" and the unfortunate man pressed both his hands convulsively against his forehead.

"I weighed the matter carefully for a moment," added Curtis, "and seeing what his condition too truly was, I acquiesced in all that he required and withdrew, promising him that all his orders should be obeyed."

After hearing these particulars, I could not help remarking how fortunate it was that the captain had resigned of his own accord, for although he might not be actually insane, it was very evident that his brain was in a very morbid condition.

"I succeeded him at a very critical moment," said Curtis thoughtfully; "but I shall endeavor to do my duty."

A short time afterward he sent for his boatswain and ordered him to assemble the crew at the foot of the main-mast. As soon as the men were together, he addressed them very calmly, but very firmly.

"My men," he said, "I have to tell you that Captain Huntly, on account of the dangerous situation in which


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  have placed us, and for other reasons known to myself, has thought right to resign his command to me. From this time forward, I am captain of this vessel."

Thus quietly and simply was the change effected, and we have the satisfaction of knowing that the Chancellor is now under the command of a conscientious, energetic man, who will shirk nothing that he believes to be for our common good. M. Letourneur, Andre, Mr. Falsten, and myself immediately offered him our best wishes, in which Lieutenant Walter and the boatswain most cordially joined.

The ship still holds her course southwest, and Curtis crowds on all sail and makes as speedily as possible for the nearest of the Lesser Antilles.

24 to 29.—For the last five days the sea has been very heavy, and although the Chancellor sails with wind and wave in her favor, yet her progress is considerably impeded. Here on board this veritable fire-ship I cannot help contemplating with a longing eye this vast ocean that surrounds us. The water supply should be all we need.

"Why not bore the deck?" I said to Curtis. "Why not admit the water by tons into the hold? What could be the harm? The fire would be quenched; and what would be easier than to pump the water out again?"

"I have already told you, Mr. Kazallon," said Curtis, "that the very moment we admit the air, the flames will rush forth to the very top of the masts. No; we must have courage and patience; we must wait. There is nothing whatever to be done, except to close every aperture."

The fire continued to progress even more rapidly than we had hitherto suspected. The heat gradually drove the passengers nearly all on deck, and the two stern cabins, lighted, as I said, by their windows in the aft-board were the only quarters below that were inhabitable. Of these Mrs. Kear occupied one, and Curtis reserved the other for Ruby, who, a raving manaic, had to be kept rigidly under restraint. I went down occasionally to see him, but invariably found him in a state of abject terror, uttering horrible shrieks, as