CHAMBERS' EDINBURGH JOURNAL

 CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS, EDITORS OF 'CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE, ' 'CHAMBERS'S EDUCATIONAL COURSE, ' &c. 

 No. 452. NEW SERIES. SATURDAY, AUGUST 28, 1852. PRICE 1-1/2_d. _

THE BETROTHAL. 

Frances Seymour had been left an orphan and an heiress very early inlife. Her mother had died in giving birth to a second child, which didnot survive its parent, so that Frances had neither brother norsister; and her father, an officer of rank and merit, was killed atWaterloo. When this sad news reached England, the child was spendingher vacation with Mrs Wentworth, a sister of Mrs Seymour, andhenceforth this lady's house became her home; partly, because therewas no other relative to claim her, and partly, because amongstColonel Seymour's papers, a letter was found, addressed to MrsWentworth, requesting that, if he fell in the impending conflict, shewould take charge of his daughter. In making this request, it isprobable that Colonel Seymour was more influenced by necessity thanchoice; Mrs Wentworth being a gay woman of the world, who was notlikely to bestow much thought or care upon her niece, whom shereceived under her roof without unwillingness, but without affection. Had Frances been poor, she would have felt her a burden; but as shewas rich, there was some éclat and no inconvenience in undertaking theoffice of her guardian and chaperone--the rather as she had nodaughters of her own with whom Frances's beauty or wealth couldinterfere; for as the young heiress grew into womanhood, the charms ofher person were quite remarkable enough to have excited the jealousyof her cousins, if she had had any; or to make her own fortune, if shehad not possessed one already. She was, moreover, extremelyaccomplished, good-tempered, cheerful, and altogether what is called avery nice girl; but of course she had her fault like other people: shewas too fond of admiration--a fault that had been very much encouragedat the school where she had been educated; beauty and wealth, especially when combined, being generally extremely popular at suchestablishments. As long, however, as her admirers were only romanticschoolfellows and calculating school-mistresses, there was not muchharm done; but the period now approached in which there would be morescope for the exercise of this passion, and more danger in itsindulgence--Frances had reached the age of seventeen, and was about tomake her début in the world of fashion--an event to which, certain asshe was of making numerous conquests, she looked forward with greatdelight. 

Whilst engaged in preparations for these anticipated triumphs, MrsWentworth said to her one day: 'Now that you are coming out, Frances, I think it is my duty to communicate to you a wish of your father's, expressed in the letter that was found after his death. It is a wishregarding your choice of a husband. '

'Dear me, aunt, how very odd!' exclaimed Frances. 

'It is rather odd, ' returned Mrs Wentworth; 'and, to be candid, Idon't think it is very wise; for schemes of this sort seldom or neverturn out well. '

'Scheme! What scheme is it?' asked Frances with no little curiosity. 

'Why, you must know, ' answered her aunt, 'that your father had a veryintimate friend, to whom he was as much attached all his life as if hehad been his brother. '

'You mean Sir Richard Elliott. I remember seeing him and his son atOtterby, when I was a little girl; and I often heard papa speak of himafterwards. '

'Well, when young Elliott got his commission, your papa, in compliancewith Sir Richard's request, used his interest to have him appointed tohis own regiment, in order that he might keep him under his eye. Bythis means, he became intimately acquainted with the young man'scharacter, and, I suppose, as much attached to him as to his father. '

'And the scheme is, that I should marry him, I suppose?'

'Provided you are both so disposed, not otherwise; there is to be nocompulsion in the case. '

'It is a scheme that will never be realised, ' said Frances; 'for, ofall things, I should dislike a marriage that had been planned in thatway. The very idea of standing in such an awkward relation to a manwould make me hate him. '

'That's why I think all such schemes better let alone, ' returned MrsWentworth; 'but as your father desires that I will put you inpossession of his wishes before you go into the world, I have nochoice but to do it. '

'It does not appear, however, that this Mr Elliott is very anxiousabout the matter, since he has never taken the trouble of coming tosee me. Perhaps he does not know of the scheme?'

'O yes, he does; but, in the first place, he is abroad with hisregiment; and, in the second, he abstains upon principle from seekingto make your acquaintance. So Sir Richard told me, when I met him lastyear at Lady Grantley's fête. He said that his son's heart was yetperfectly free, but that he did not think it right to throw himself inyour way, or endeavour to engage your affections, till you had had anopportunity of seeing something of the world. The old gentleman had agreat desire to see you himself; and he would have called, but he wasonly passing through London on his way to some German baths, and hewas to start the next morning. '

'And what sort of a person is this Mr Elliott?'

'I really don't know, except that his father praised him to the skies. He's Major Elliott now, and must be about eight-and-twenty. '

'And is he the eldest son?'

'He's the eldest son, and will be Sir Henry--I think that's hisname--by and by. But he's not rich; quite the contrary, he's very poorfor a baronet; and I incline to think that is one of the reasons thatinfluenced your father. Being so fond of the Elliotts, he wished torepair, in some degree, the dilapidation of their fortunes by yours. '

'So that I shall have the agreeable consciousness of being marriedpurely for my money. I am afraid poor dear papa's scheme will fail;and I wish, aunt, you had never told me of it. '

'That was not left to my discretion; if it had been, I should not havetold you of it, I assure you. '

'Well, I can only hope that I shall never see Major Elliott; and if heever proposes to come, aunt, pray do me the favour to assure him, fromme, that it will not be of the smallest use. '

'That would be foolish till you've seen him. You may like him. '

'Never; I could not like a man whom I met under such circumstances, ifhe were an angel. '

Thus, with a heart steeled against Major Elliott and his attractions, whatever they might be, Frances Seymour made her début; and, howeverbrilliant had been her anticipations of success, she had thesatisfaction of finding them fully realised. She was the belle of theseason--admired, courted, and envied; and by the end of it, she hadrefused at least half-a-dozen proposals. As she was perfectlyindependent, she resolved to enjoy a longer lease of her liberty, before she put it in the power of any man to control her inclinations. 

Shortly after the termination of the season, some family affairscalled Mr and Mrs Wentworth to St Petersburg; and as it was notconvenient that Frances should accompany them, they arranged that sheshould spend the interval in visiting some families of their ownconnection residing in the country, who promised to take due charge ofher. 

The first of these, by name Dunbar, were worthy people enough, but, unfortunately for Frances, desperately dull; and the few neighboursthey had happened to be as dull as themselves. There were neitherballs nor routs to keep up the spirits of the London belle; and atiresome drive of six or eight miles to an equally tiresomedinner-party, was but a poor substitute for the gaieties which thelate season had given her a taste for. 

Frances was not without resources. She was a fine musician, and playedand sang admirably; but she liked to be told that she did so. AtDunbar House, nobody cared for music, nobody listened to her, and hermost _recherchées toilettes_ delighted nobody but her maid. She was_aux abois_, as the French say, and had made some progress in theconcoction of a scheme to get away, when an improvement took place inher position, from the arrival of young Vincent Dunbar, the only sonof the family. He was a lieutenant in a regiment of infantry that hadlately returned from the colonies, and had come, as in duty bound, towaste ten days or a fortnight of his three months' leave in the dullhome of his ancestors. As he was an extremely handsome, fashionable-looking youth, Frances, when she went down to dinner, feltquite revived by the sight of him. Here was something to dress for, and something to sing to; and although the young lieutenant'sconversation was not a whit above the usual standard of his class, itappeared lively and witty when compared with that of his parents. Hissmall colonial experiences were more interesting than Mrs Dunbar'sdomestic ones; and his account of a tiger hunt more exciting than hisfather's history of the run he had had after a fox. Frances was anequally welcome resource to him. Here was an opportunity, quiteunexpected, of displaying his most fashionable ties and most splendidwaistcoats; here was a listener for his best stories, and one who didnot repay him in kind, as his father did; and here were a pair ofbright eyes, that always looked brighter at his approach; and a pairof pretty lips, that pouted when he talked of going away to fulfil anengagement he had made to meet some friends at Brighton. 

As was to be expected, under circumstances so propitious, the youngman fell in love--as much in love as he could be with anybody buthimself; whilst his parents did not neglect to hint, that he could notdo better than prosecute a suit which the young lady's evidentpartiality justified. Pleased with the prospect of their son's makingso good a match, they even ventured one day a dull jest on the subjectin the presence of Frances--a jest which, heavy as it was, aroused herto reflection. Flirting with a man, and angling for his admiration, isone thing; loving and marrying him, is another. For the first, VincentDunbar answered exceedingly well; but for the second, he was whollyunfit. In spite of her little weaknesses, Frances had too much sensenot to see that the young lieutenant was an empty-headed coxcomb, andnot at all the man with whom she hoped to spend her years ofdiscretion--when she arrived at them--after an ample enjoyment of thedelights that youth, beauty, and wealth are calculated to procuretheir possessor. Her eyes were opened, in short; and the ordinaryeffect of this sort of awakening from an unworthy _penchant_--forattachment it could not be called--ensued: the temporary likingchanged into aversion, and the attentions that had flattered herbefore became hateful. In accordance with this new state of herfeelings, she resolved to alter her behaviour, in order to dissipateas quickly as possible the erroneous impression of the family; whilst, at the same time, she privately made arrangements for cutting shorther visit, and anticipating the period of her removal to the house ofMrs Gaskoin, betwixt whom and the Dunbars the interval of her friends'absence in Russia was to be divided. In spite of her stratagem, however, she did not escape what she apprehended. Vincent's leave hadnearly expired too; and when the moment approached that was toseparate them, he seized an opportunity of making his proposals. 

There is scarcely a woman to be met with in society, who does notknow, from experience, what a painful thing it is to crush the hopesof a man who is paying her the high compliment of wishing to place thehappiness of his life in her keeping; and when to this source ofembarrassment is added the consciousness of having culpably raisedexpectations that she shrinks from realising, the situation becomesdoubly distressing. On the present occasion, agitated, ashamed, andconfused, Frances, instead of honestly avowing her fault, which wouldhave been the safest thing to do, had recourse to a subterfuge; sheanswered, that she had been betrothed by her father to the son of hisdearest friend, and that she was not free to form any otherengagement. Of course, Vincent pleaded that such a contract could notbe binding on her; but as, whilst she declared her determination toadhere to it, she forbore to add, that were she at liberty hisposition would not be improved, the young man and his family remainedunder the persuasion, that this premature engagement was the only barto his happiness; and with this impression, which she allowed him toretain, because it spared him and herself pain, he returned to hisregiment, whilst she, as speedily as she could, decamped to her nextquarters, armed with a thousand good resolutions never again to bringherself into such an unpleasant dilemma. 

Mrs Gaskoin's was a different sort of house to the Dunbars'. It wasnot gay, for the place was retired, and Mrs Gaskoin being in illhealth, they saw little company; but they were young, cheerful, andaccomplished people, and in their society Frances soon forgot thevexations she had left behind her. She even ceased to miss theadmiration she was accustomed to; what was amiable and good in hercharacter--and there was much--regained the ascendant; her host andhostess congratulated themselves on having so agreeable an inmate asmuch as she did herself on the judicious move she had made, till herequanimity was disturbed by learning that Mr Gaskoin was expecting avisitor, and that this visitor was his old friend and brother-officer, Major Elliott, the person of all others, Vincent Dunbar excepted, shehad the greatest desire to avoid. 

'I cannot express how much I should dislike meeting him, ' she said toMrs Gaskoin, to whom she thought it better to explain how she wassituated. 'You must allow me to keep my room whilst he is here. '

'If you are determined not to see him, I think you had better go backto the Dunbars for a little while, ' answered the hostess; 'but Ireally think you should stay, and let things take their course. Ifyour aversion continues, you need not marry him; but my husband tellsme he's charming; and in point of character, I know no one whom heestimates so highly. '

But Frances objected, that she should feel so embarrassed and awkward. 

'In short, you apprehend that you will appear to a greatdisadvantage, ' said Mrs Gaskoin. 'That is possible, certainly; but asMajor Elliott is only coming for a day or two, I think we mightobviate that difficulty, by introducing you as my husband's niece, Fanny Gaskoin. What do you say? You can declare yourself whenever youplease, or keep the secret till he goes, if you prefer it. '

Frances said she should like it very much; the scheme would affordthem a great deal of amusement, and any expedient was preferable togoing back to Dunbar House. Neither, as regarded themselves, was it atall difficult of execution, since they always addressed her as Fannyor Frances; the danger was with the servants, who, however cautionedto call the visitor by no other name than Miss Fanny, mightinadvertently betray the secret. Still, if they did, a few blushes anda hearty laugh were likely to be the only consequences of thedisclosure; so the little plot was duly framed, and successfullyexecuted; Major Elliott not entertaining the most remote suspicionthat this beautiful, fascinating Fanny Gaskoin was his own _fiancée_. 

Whether they might have fallen in love with each other had they metunder more prosaic circumstances, there is no saying. As it was, theydid so almost at first sight. It is needless to say, that MajorElliott extended his visit beyond the day or two he had engaged for;and when Mr and Mrs Gaskoin saw how matters were going, theyrecommended an immediate avowal of the little deception that had beenpractised, lest some ill-timed visitor should inopportunely let outthe secret, which had already been endangered more than once by theforgetfulness of the servants: but Frances wished to prolong theirdiversion till she should find some happy moment for the _dénouement_;added to which, she had an extreme curiosity to know how Major Elliottintended to release himself from the engagement formed by ColonelSeymour, in which he had tacitly, if not avowedly, acquiesced. It wascertainly very flattering that her charms had proved sufficientlypowerful to make him forget it; but that he should have yielded to thetemptation without the slightest appearance of a struggle, didsomewhat surprise her, as indeed, from their knowledge of hischaracter, it did Mr and Mrs Gaskoin. Not that they would haveexpected him to adhere to the contract, if doing so proved repugnanteither to himself or the young lady; but under all the circumstancesof the case, they would have thought his conduct less open toexception, if he had deferred entering into any other engagement tillhe had seen Miss Seymour. It was true, that he had not yet offered hishand to his friend Gaskoin's charming niece; but neither she, nor anyone else, entertained a doubt of his intention to do so; and Francesnever found herself alone with him, that her heart did not beat highwith the expectation of what might be coming. 

The progress of love affairs is no measure of time: where the_attrait_, or magnetic rapport (for perhaps magnetism has something todo with the mystery), is very strong, one couple will make as much wayin a fortnight as another will do in a year. In the present instance, Major Elliott's proclivity to fall in love with Frances may have beenaided by his persuasion that she was the niece of his friend. Be thatas it may, on the thirteenth day of his visit, Major Elliott invitedhis host to join him in a walk, in the course of which he avowed hisintention of offering his hand to Miss Gaskoin, provided her familywere not likely to make any serious objection to the match. 'My reasonfor mentioning the subject so early is, ' said he, 'that, in the firstplace, I cannot prolong my visit; I have already broken twoengagements, and now, however unwillingly, I must be off: and, in thesecond place, I felt myself bound to mention the subject to you beforespeaking to Miss Gaskoin, because you know how I am situated in regardto money-matters; and that I cannot, unfortunately, make such asettlement as may be expected by her friends. '

'I don't think that will be any obstacle to your wishes, ' answered MrGaskoin, with an arch smile. 'If you can find Fanny in the humour, I'll undertake to answer for all the rest. As for her fortune, she'llhave something at all events--but that is a subject, I suppose, youare too much in love to discuss. '

'It is one there is no use in discussing till I am accepted, ' returnedMajor Elliott; 'and I confess that is a point I am too anxious aboutto think of any other. '

'Prepare yourself, ' said Mrs Gaskoin to Frances: 'Major Elliott hasdeclared himself to my husband, and will doubtless take an opportunityof speaking to you in the course of the evening. Of course, now thetruth must be disclosed, and I've no doubt it will be a very agreeablesurprise to him. '

When the tea-things were removed, and Frances, as usual, was seated atthe pianoforte, and Major Elliott, as usual, turning over the leavesof her music-book, she almost lost her breath with agitation when thegentle closing of a door aroused her to the fact, that they werealone. Mr and Mrs Gaskoin had quietly slipped out of the room; andconscious that the critical moment was come, she was making a nervousattempt to follow them, when a hand was laid on hers, and---- But itis quite needless to enter into the particulars: such scenes do notbear relating. Major Elliott said something, and looked a thousandthings; Frances blushed and smiled, and then she wept, avowing thather tears were tears of joy; and so engrossed was she with thehappiness of the moment, that she had actually forgotten the falsecolours under which she was appearing, till her lover said: 'I havealready, my dear Fanny, spoken on this subject to your uncle. '

'Now, then, for the _dénouement_!' thought Frances; but she had formeda little scheme for bringing this about, which she forthwith proceededto put in execution. 

'But, dear Henry, ' she said, as, seated on the sofa hand in hand, theydilated on their present happiness and future plans--'dear Henry, there is one thing that has rather perplexed me, and does perplex mestill, a little--do you know, I have been told you were engaged?'

'Indeed! Who told you that?'

'Well, I don't know; but I'm sure I heard it. It was said that youwere engaged to Miss Seymour--the Miss Seymour that lives with MrsWentworth'----

'Do you know her?' inquired Major Elliott, interrupting her. 

'Yes, I do--a little. '

'Only a little?'

'Well, perhaps I may say I know her pretty well. Indeed, to confessthe truth, I'm rather intimate with her. '

'That is extremely fortunate, ' returned Major Elliott. 

'Then you don't deny the engagement?' said Frances. 

'Colonel Seymour, who was my father's friend and mine, very kindlyexpressed a wish, before he died, that, provided there was noobjection on either side, his daughter and I should be married; butyou see, my dearest Fanny, as there happens to be an objection on bothsides, the scheme, however well meant, is defeated. '

'On both sides!' reiterated Frances with surprise. 

'Yes; on both sides, ' answered he smiling. 

'But how do you know that, when you've never seen Miss Seymour--atleast I thought you never had?'

'Neither have I; but I happen to know that she has not the slightestintention of taking me for her husband. '

'Oh, ' said Frances, laughing at the recollection of her own violentantipathy to this irresistible man, who, after all, had taken herheart by storm--'I suppose you have somehow heard that she dislikedthe idea of being trammelled by an engagement to a person she neversaw, and whom she had made up her mind she could not love; butremember, Henry, she has never seen you. How do you know that shemight not have fallen in love with you at first sight?--as somebodyelse did, ' she added playfully. 

'Because, my dear little girl, she happens to be in love already. Shedid not wait to see me, but wisely gave away her heart when she met aman that pleased her. '

'But you're mistaken, ' answered Frances, beginning to feel alarmed;'you are indeed! I know Frances Seymour has no attachment. I know thattill she saw you--I mean that--I am certain she has no attachment, norever had any. '

'Perhaps you are not altogether in her confidence. '

'O yes, I am indeed. '

Major Elliott shook his head, and smiled significantly. 'Rely on it, 'he said, 'that what I tell you is the fact; but you have probably notseen Miss Seymour very lately, which would sufficiently account foryour ignorance of her secret. I am told that she is extremely handsomeand charming, and that she sings divinely. '

Five minutes earlier, Frances would have been delighted with thistestimony to her attractions; and would have been ready with arepartee about the loss he would sustain in relinquishing so manyperfections for her sake; but now her heart was growing faint withterror, and her tongue clove to the roof of her mouth. Thoughts thatwould fill pages darted through her brain like lightning--dreadfulpossibilities, that she had never foreseen nor thought of. 

Vincent Dunbar's regiment had been in India; she knew it was one ofthe _seventies_; but she had either never heard the exact number, orshe had not sufficiently attended to the subject to know which it was. Major Elliott's regiment had also been in India; and it was the 76th. Suppose it were the same, and that the two officers wereacquainted--and suppose they had met since Vincent's departure fromDunbar House! The young man had occasionally spoken to her of hisbrother-officers; she remembered Poole, and Wainright, and Carter; thename of Elliott he had certainly not mentioned; but it was naturallyof his own friends and companions he spoke, not of the field-officers. Then, when she told him that she had been betrothed by her father, shehad not said to whom; but might he not, by some unlucky chance, havefound that out? And might not an explanation have ensued!

Could Major Elliott have distinctly discovered the expression of herfeatures, he would have seen that it was something more thanperplexity that kept her silent; but the light fell obscurely on theseat they occupied, and he suspected nothing but that she was puzzledand surprised. 

'I see you are very curious to learn the secret, ' he said, 'and if itwere my own, you should not pine in ignorance, I assure you; but as itis a young lady's, I am bound to keep it till she chooses to discloseit herself. However, I hope your curiosity will soon be satisfied, forI have ascertained that Mr and Mrs Wentworth are to be in Englandalmost immediately--they have been some time on the continent--andthen we shall come to a general understanding. In the meantime, mydearest Fanny'----

But Frances, unable longer to control her agitation, took advantage ofa slight noise in the hall, to say that Mr and Mrs Gaskoin werecoming; and before he had time to finish his sentence, she started toher feet, and rushed out of the room. 

On the other side of the hall was Mrs Gaskoin's boudoir, where she andher husband were sitting over the fire, awaiting the result of thetête-à-tête in the drawing-room. 

'Well?' said they, rising as the door opened and a pale face lookedin. 'Is it all settled?'

'Ask me nothing now, I beseech you!' said Frances. 'I'm going to myroom; tell Major Elliott I am not well; say I'm agitated--anything youlike; but remember, he still thinks me Fanny Gaskoin'----

'But, my dear girl, I cannot permit that deception to be carried anyfurther; it has lasted too long already, ' said Mr Gaskoin. 

'Only to-night!' said Frances. 

'It is not fair to Major Elliott, ' urged Mrs Gaskoin. 

'Only to-night! only to-night!' reiterated Frances. 'There! he'scoming; I hear his step in the hall! Let me out this way!' and sosaying, she darted out of a door that led to the backstairs, anddisappeared. 

'She has refused him!' said Mrs Gaskoin. 'I confess I am amazed. '

But Major Elliott met them with a smiling face. 'What has become ofFrances?' said he. 

'She rushed in to us in a state of violent agitation, and begged wewould tell you that she is not well, and is gone to her room. I'mafraid the result of your interview has not been what we expected. '

'On the contrary, ' returned Major Elliott, 'you must both congratulateme on my good-fortune. '

'Silly girl!' said Mr Gaskoin, shaking his friend heartily by thehand. 'I see what it is: she is nervous about a little deception wehave been practising on you. '

'A deception!'

'Why, you see, my dear fellow, when I told Frances that you werecoming here, she objected to meeting you'----

'Indeed! On what account?'

'You have never suspected anything?' said Mr Gaskoin, scarcelyrepressing his laughter. 

'Suspected anything? No. '

'It has never by chance occurred to you that this bewitching niece ofmine is'----

'Is what?'

'Your betrothed lady, for example, Frances Seymour?'

Major Elliott's cheeks and lips turned several shades paler; but thecandles were not lighted, and his friends did not remark the change. 

'Frances Seymour!' he echoed. 

'That is the precise state of the case, I assure you;' and then MrGaskoin proceeded to explain how the deception came to be practised. 'I gave into it, ' he said, 'though I do not like jests of that sort, because I thought, as my wife did, that you were much more likely totake a fancy to each other, if you did not know who she was, than ifyou met under all the embarrassment of such an awkward relation. '

During this little discourse, Major Elliott had time to recover fromthe shock; and being a man of resolute calmness and greatself-possession--which qualities, by the way, formed a considerableelement in his attractions--the remainder of the evening was passedwithout any circumstance calculated to awaken the suspicions of hishost and hostess, further than that a certain gravity of tone andmanner, when they spoke of Frances, led them to apprehend that he wasnot altogether pleased with the jest that had been practised. 

'We ought to have told him the moment we saw that he was pleased withher; but, foolish child, she would not let us, ' said Mr Gaskoin to hiswife. 

'She must make her peace with him to-morrow, ' returned the lady; but, alas! when they came down to breakfast on the following morning, MajorElliott was gone, having left a few lines to excuse his suddendeparture, which, he said, he had only anticipated by a few hours, as, in any case, he must have left them that afternoon. 

By the same morning's post there arrived a letter from Vincent Dunbar, addressed to Miss Seymour. Its contents were as follow:--

'MY DEAREST, DEAREST FRANCES--I should have written to you ten daysago to tell you the joyful news--you little guess what--but that I hadapplied for an extension of leave _on urgent private affairs_, andexpected every hour to get it. But they have refused me, be hanged tothem! So I write to you, my darling, to tell you that it's allright--I mean between you and me. I'm not a very good hand at anexplanation on paper, my education in the art of composition havingbeen somewhat neglected; but you must know that old Elliott, whom yourdad wanted you to marry, is our senior major. Well, when I came downhere to meet Poole, as I had promised--his governor keeps hounds, youknow; a capital pack, too--I was as dull as ditch-water; I was, Iassure you; and whenever there was nothing going on, I used to takeout the verses you wrote, and the music you copied for me, to look at;and one day, who should come in but Elliott, who was staying with hisgovernor on the West Cliff, where the old gentleman has taken a house. Well, you know, I told you what a madcap fellow Poole is; and whatshould he do, but tell Elliott that I was going stark mad for a girlthat couldn't have me because her dad had engaged her to somebodyelse; and then he shewed him the music that was lying on the tablewith your name on it. So you may guess how Elliott stared, and all thequestions he asked me about you, and about our acquaintance and ourlove-making, and all the rest of it. And, of course, I told him thetruth, and shewed him the dear lock of hair you gave me; and thelittle notes you wrote me the week I ran up to London; for Elliott'san honourable fellow, and I knew it was all right. And it _is_ allright, my darling; for he says he wouldn't stand in the way of ourhappiness for the world, or marry a woman whose affections were notall his own. And he'll speak to your aunt for us, and get it allsettled as soon as she comes back, ' &c. &c. 

The paper dropped from poor Frances Seymour's hands. She comprehendedenough of Major Elliott's character to see that all was over. But forthe unfortunate jest they had practised on him, an explanation wouldnecessarily have ensued the moment he mentioned Vincent's name to her;but that unlucky deception had complicated the mischief beyond repair. It was too late now to tell him that she did not love Vincent; hewould only think her false or fickle. A woman who could act as she haddone, or as she appeared to have done, was no wife for Henry Elliott. 

There is no saying, but it is just possible, that an entire confidenceplaced in Mr Gaskoin might have led to a happier issue; but her ownconviction that her position was irrecoverable, her hopelessness andher pride, closed her lips. Her friends saw that there was somethingwrong; and when a few lines from Major Elliott announced his immediatedeparture for Paris, they concluded that some strange mystery haddivided the lovers, and clouded the hopeful future that for a shortperiod had promised so brightly. 

Vincent Dunbar was not a man to break his heart at the disappointmentwhich, it is needless to say, awaited him. Long years afterwards, whenSir Henry Elliott was not only married, but had daughters coming outin the world, he, one day at a dinner-party, sat next a pale-faced, middle-aged lady, whose still beautiful features, combined with thequiet, almost grave elegance of her toilet, had already attracted hisattention in the drawing-room. It was a countenance of perfectserenity; but no observing eye could look at it without feeling thatthat was a serenity not born of joy, but of sadness--a calm that hadsucceeded a storm--a peace won by a great battle. Sir Henry feltpleased when he saw that the fortunes of the dinner-table had placedhim beside this lady, and they had not been long seated before he tookan opportunity of addressing her. Her eyelids fell as she turned toanswer him; but there was a sweet, mournful smile on her lip--a smilethat awoke strange recollections, and made his heart for a momentstand still. For some minutes he did not speak again, nor she either;when he did, it was to ask her, in a low, gentle voice, to take winewith him. The lady's hand shook visibly as she raised her glass; but, after a short interval, the surprise and the pang passed away, andthey conversed calmly on general subjects, like other people insociety. 

When Sir Henry returned to the drawing-room, the pale-faced lady wasgone; and, a few days afterwards, the _Morning Post_ announced amongits departures that Miss Seymour had left London for the continent. 

THE CONTINENTAL 'BRADSHAW' IN 1852. 

Bradshaw's _Continental Railway Guide_--the square, pale-yellow, compact, brochure which makes its appearance once a month, and whichhas doubled its thickness in its brief existence of five years--issuggestive of a multitude of thoughts concerning the silent revolutionnow passing over Europe. Presidents may have _coups d'état_; kings mayput down parliaments, and emperors abrogate constitutions; Legitimistsmay dream of the past, and Communists of the future; but the_railways_ are marking out a path for themselves in Europe which willtend to obliterate, or at least to soften, the rugged social barrierswhich separate nation from nation. This will not be effected all atonce, and many enthusiasts are disappointed that the cosmopolitanismadvances so slowly; but the result is not the less certain in beingslow. 

Our facetious contemporary _Punch_ once gave a railway map of England, in which the face of the land was covered with intersecting lines atmutual distances of only a mile or two. A railway map of Europe hascertainly not yet assumed such a labyrinthine character; still, thelines of civilisation (for so we may well term them) are becomingcloser and closer every year. The outposts of Europe, where theScandinavian, the Sclavonian, the Italian, and the Spaniardrespectively rule, are scanty in their exhibition of such lines; butas we gradually approach the scenes of commercial activity, there dorailways appear in greater and greater proximity. France strikinglyexemplifies its own theory, that 'Paris is France, ' by shewing how allits important railways spring from the metropolis in six directions. Belgium exhibits its compact net-work of railways, by which nearly allits principal towns are accommodated. The phlegmatic Dutchman has asyet placed the locomotive only in that portion of Holland which liesbetween the Rhine and the Zuiderzee. Rhineland, from Bâle toWiesbaden, is under railway dominion. North Germany, within a circleof which Magdeburg may be taken as a centre, is railed pretty thickly;and Vienna has become a point from which lines of great length start. Exterior to all these are solitary lines, the pioneers of the neworder of things, pointing in directions which will one day come withinthe yellow covers of Bradshaw. There is one line straggling out toRostock; another to Stettin and Bromberg, on its way to Danzig;another to Warsaw, on its way to meet the czar at St Petersburg;another to Pesth, whence it will be carried through the scenes of thelate Hungarian war; another to the neighbourhood of the Adriatic;others from Central Germany southward to the Swiss highlands, whichbar further progress; and a very modest little group in North Italy. 

It is instructive to mark the steps by which these continentalrailways have been brought into existence. The English practice ofundertaking all such great works, is very little understood abroad;there is not capital enough afloat, and the commercial audacity of thepeople has not yet arrived at such a high-pressure point. Almost thewhole of the railways now under notice, have been constructed eitherby the governments of the respective countries, or by companies whichrequire some sort of government guarantee before they can obtain theircapital. 

Belgium was the first continental country to follow the railwayexample of England. Very soon after King Leopold was seated securelyon his throne, he initiated measures for the construction of railwaysin Belgium; and a law was passed in 1834, sanctioning that compactsystem which, having Mechlin as a centre, branches out in fourdirections--to Liege, Antwerp, Brussels, and Ostend; and there werealso lines sanctioned to the Prussian frontier, and the Frenchfrontier--the whole giving a length of about 247 English miles. Threeyears afterwards, a law was passed for the construction of 94additional miles of railway--to Courtrai, Tournay, Namur, and othertowns. In the western part of Belgium, the engineering difficultieswere not of a formidable character; but towards the Prussian frontier, the bridges, cuttings, and embankments are so extensive, as to haverendered the works far more costly than in the average of continentalrailways. The Belgian Chambers provided the money, or ratherauthorised the government to borrow it, year after year. The firstportion of railway was opened in 1835, and every year from thence till1843, witnessed the opening of additional portions; until at length, in this last-named year, all the 341 miles mentioned above were openedfor traffic. The cost varied from L. 6140 per mile (near Courtrai), toL. 38, 700 per mile (near Liege); the entire cost of the whole, including working-plant, was within L. 17, 000 per average mile. Whilethese railways were progressing, private companies were formed for theconstruction of other lines, to the extent of about 200 additionalmiles, most of which are now open--the Namur and Liege being opened in1851. These various railways are said to have yielded, on an average, about 3-1/2 per cent. On the outlay. 

It was of course impossible for France to see its little neighbour, Belgium, advancing in its railway course, without setting a similarmovement on foot; but various circumstances have given a lingeringcharacter to French railway enterprise. It was in 1837 that the shortrailway from Paris through Versailles to St Germain--the firstpassenger line in France--was opened. In the next following year, twocompanies, aided by the government in certain ways, undertook theconstruction of the railways from Paris to Rouen, and from Paris toOrleans. The French government, having a strong taste forcentralisation in national matters, formed in 1842 that plan which hassince, with some modifications, been carried into execution. The planconsisted in causing the great lines of communication to be surveyedand marked out by government engineers, and then to be ceded tojoint-stock companies, to be constructed on certain conditions. Therewere to be seven such lines radiating from Paris: to the Belgianfrontier; to one or more ports on the Channel; to the Atlantic ports;to Bordeaux; to the Spanish frontier; to Marseille; and to RhenishPrussia. The government has had to concede more favourable conditionsto some of these companies than were at first intended, to get thelines constructed at all. The first and second of the above lines ofcommunication are now almost fully opened; the third is finished toChartres; the fourth, to Nantes and Poitiers; the fifth, toChateauroux; the sixth, to Chalons, with another portion from Avignonto Marseille; while the seventh, or Paris and Strasbourg Railway, isthat of which the final opening has been recently celebrated with somuch firing of guns, drinking of healths, blessing of locomotives, andspeechifyings of presidents. At the close of 1851, the length ofFrench railway opened was about 1800 miles; while the portion sinceopened, or now in progress or projected, amounts to about as muchmore. In the president's speech to the National Assembly in 1851 (ofcourse, _before_ the _coup d'état_), it was announced that the lengthof French railway to be finished and opened in 1851 would be 516kilomètres (about 320 miles); and in 1852, about 330 kilomètres (205miles. )

Prussia loves centralisation little less than France in other matters;but in railway enterprise she has allowed mercantile competition tohave freer scope. Private companies have constructed nearly all thePrussian railways; but in cases where the traffic appeared likely tobe small, the government has rendered aid in one of three or fourmodes. The government will not permit any parallel or competing lines;and it holds the power of purchasing the railways after a lapse ofthirty years, on certain specified terms. On this principle have beenconstructed the railways which radiate from Berlin in five differentdirections--towards Hamburg, Hanover, Saxony, Silesia, and the Baltic;together with minor branches springing out of them, and also therailways which accommodate the rich Rhenish provinces belonging toPrussia. The Prussian railways open and at work at the close of 1851appear to have been about 1800 miles in length. 

In the heterogeneous mass of states which constitute Germany, therailways have for the most part been constructed by, and belong to, the respective governments. Such is the case in Baden, Hanover, Brunswick, Würtemberg, Bavaria, and many of the petty states; and suchis also the case in the imperial dominions in Austria, Hungary, Bohemia, Moravia, and Styria. There may be some among these lines ofrailway which belong to companies, but, as a general rule, theyconstitute government property. If we include Prussia and the Austriandominions in the general name of Germany, we find the railways veryunequally distributed. An oblong quadrangular district, measuringabout 400 miles from east to west, and 200 from north to south, andlying eastward of the Netherlands, contains a net-work of railwayswhich contrast remarkably with those of east, south, and centralGermany; it includes Hamburg, Berlin, Leipsic, Dresden, Magdeburg, Brunswick, Hanover, Bremen, and a busy knot of other important towns. Although the various German railways twist about in more tortuousforms than those of England--for the engineers have studied economy bygoing round hills rather than through them--and although they arebroken up into many different proprietorships by passing through somany petty states, yet there may be traced certain great lines ofcommunication which run nearly or entirely across the whole ofGermany. Starting from Cologne, we find one line running throughElberfeld, Minden, Hanover, Brunswick, Berlin, to Bromberg and Posen;another from Cologne--with a short break not yet completed inWestphalia--to Cassel, Gotha, Weimar, Leipsic, Dresden, Breslau, andCracow; a third from Hamburg, through Magdeburg, Leipsic, Dresden, Prague, Presburg, and Pesth, into the heart of Hungary; a fourth fromthe Baltic at Stettin, through Berlin, Leipsic, Nürnberg, Augsburg, tothe vicinity of the Lake of Constance; and a fifth from Warsaw, through Vienna, to the vicinity of the Adriatic. Dr Lardner hasestimated, that if we include the Netherlands and the Austrian andPrussian dominions within the German group, the German railways at thebeginning of 1851 were about 5100 miles in length, with 3000 milesmore either in progress or decided on--making a total of between 8000and 9000 miles. Many hundred miles of railway have been opened sincethe date to which this estimate refers. 

Our Bradshaw leaves us little to notice on the continent beyond thegroups of railways included under the above four systems. The Dutchhave given a curious serpentine line of railway, about 150 miles inlength, from Rotterdam through Schiedam, Delft, The Hague, Leyden, Haarlem, Amsterdam, and Utrecht, to Arnhem--an economical mode oflinking most of the chief towns together. Holstein, the recent fieldof struggle between the Danes and the Germans, has its humble quota ofabout 100 miles of railway, from Altona to Glückstadt, Rendsburg, andKiel, connecting the German Ocean with the Baltic in a very convenientway. Russia has a railway in its Polish dominions from Warsaw toCracow; a short bit from St Petersburg to Tsarkoé-soélo; portions ofthe projected great lines from St Petersburg to Moscow and to Warsaw, and a horse railway connecting the Don with the Volga. Italy has a fewbits of railway--perhaps quite as much as we could yet expect in sostrangely governed a country; one from Venice through Padua, Vicenza, and Verona, to Mantua; another from Treviglio to Milan, Monza, andComo; a Piedmontese line from Genoa to Alessandria and Turin; a Tuscanweb which connects Florence, Sienna, Pistoja, Lucca, Pisa, andLeghorn, in a roundabout way; and a few miles of Neapolitan railway, to connect Naples with Pompeii, Portici, Castel-a-mare, and Capua. Rome, behindhand in most things, is behindhand in railways. Switzerland has its little railway of twenty-five miles, from Zurichto Baden. Spain has its two small lines, from Madrid to Aranjuez, andfrom Barcelona to Mataro. Turkey and Greece, in the south-east;Portugal, in the south-west; Sweden and Norway, [1] in the bleak north, have yet to become members of the great European railway system. 

In comparing all these continental railways with those of our owncountry, we find many instructive differences. In the first place, theengineering, as we lately remarked, is much less daring; there is notso much capital at command, and the engineers, therefore, bend todifficulties instead of cutting through them. Still, there are notwanting engineering works of great magnitude. One such is the greatrailway bridge over the Vistula, near Bromberg, the first stone ofwhich was laid with much form by the king of Prussia some short timeback, and which will form one link in the chain from Berlin toKönigsberg. Another is the double railway bridge over the Elbe atDresden, opened in April 1852, having a railway on its eastern half, and an ordinary roadway on its western. The stupendous Cologne Bridgewill be for the future to talk about: at present, not a single railwaybridge, we believe, crosses the Rhine; so that Western Europe is, infact, not yet connected by the iron pathway with Eastern. Among themany thousand miles of continental railway, there must, of course, benumerous constructions of great skill and magnitude; but the ratio issmall compared with those of England. 

Another feature, is the great prevalence of single lines of rail. InEngland, there is so much wrangling against single lines, and so greata tendency among directors to think that there _ought_ to be trafficenough for more, that double lines prevail almost everywhere. In theGerman railways, double lines are laid down only in places of greattraffic--single lines being the rule, and the others the exception. Where there are only three or four departures per day, which is thecase on most German railways, one line, with carefully-managedsidings, is amply sufficient. 'Express trains, ' and 'first-classtrains, ' and 'special trains, ' and anything which disturbs the steadyjog-trot mode of proceeding, are very little known in Germany; thegeneral speed, including stoppages, is about twenty miles an hour. Although the first-class fares are only a fraction above 1-1/2d. Permile, and the second-class just over 1d. , yet the Germans travel socheaply, and mix among each other with so little exclusiveness, thatit is said only 3-1/2 per cent. Of the whole number of passengerstravel by first-class, and 74 per cent. By third-class; the ratios inEngland being 14 and 46 per cent. Respectively. One apparent effect ofthese very low fares is, that although the railways are for the mostpart cheaply constructed, the net profits are not supposed to exceed 3per cent. On an average; but if the fares were higher, perhaps thenumber of passengers would be so reduced as to lessen the net profit. 

Whatever else may be the superiority of English railways over those ofthe continent, assuredly it is not apparent in the _carriages_. Thepublic press has made an onslaught on the English railway carriagesfor twenty years, but with very little success. Let those whose bonesache with the ill-conditioned wooden seats of our second-classcarriages, think wishfully of the cushioned seats, and theeasily-opened windows shielded with sun-blinds, and the usefulhat-hooks found in many of the French second-class carriages; letthose who shiver under English arrangements, think of the hot-watertin cases beneath the feet of the first-class French passengers; andlet those who wish to be usefully employed while travelling, think ofthe little table, and the pen and ink, provided in some of thePrussian carriages. The truth is, we spend money on magnificentstations which ought to be expended on carriages. The cramped-upposition of passengers on English railways is much reprobated byforeigners. In America, and in many parts of the continent, it iscustomary to have carriages long, broad, and high, with an avenue downthe middle, and short seats for two persons each on either side of theavenue; every person looks towards the engine, and there is aplentiful supply of window on both sides. In America, these shortseats are not only cushioned, but each seat has its two elbows and itscushioned back. 

Another English annoyance, is the _ticket-taking_. If all the wrathwhich is poured out on the heads of the railway directors during thisformality could take effect, they would be among the most miserableand unfortunate of mortals. Arrived at Euston Station, we will say, bythe last train from the north--some sleepy, some hungry, and alltired--the passengers are anxious to wend their several ways asquickly as possible; instead of this, the train is brought to astand-still, the man with his bull's-eye lantern pokes his head intoone doorway after another, and all are kept waiting until all thetickets are collected. One passenger may have dropped his ticket, andthen comes a search among the hat-boxes and carpet-bags beneath theseats; another may have underpaid his fare, or overridden the power ofhis ticket, and then occurs the fuss of paying up the difference; athird may be sleeping weariedly in the further corner of the carriage, and then comes the process of waking him, followed, perhaps, by asearch for the ticket in an incalculable number of pockets. All thisis nicely ill-managed! The larger size of many of the continentalcarriages, and the avenue through the centre, enable the ticket-takerto enter the carriage easily while the train is yet in motion, and tocollect the tickets by the time of arrival at the station. On one ofthe Austrian railways, the carriages have an exterior gangwayextending the whole length of the train, by which a guard can obtaineasy access to all the passengers: shortly before arriving at astation, he enters the carriages, calls out the name of the stationabout to be approached, and takes the tickets of those who are toalight at that station. There is one oddity about the railwaymanagement abroad. In England, a railway smoker commits a high crimeand misdemeanour, for which he is frowned at by his neighbours, andthreatened by the guard; but on the continent, not only do thepassengers smoke abundantly, but we were once rather struck at seeinga ticket-taker enter the carriage with a meerschaum in his mouth; onepassenger, whose pipe was out, asked the customary German question:'Haben sie feuer?' and the official gave him a light accordingly. Webelieve, however, that there is a wish at head-quarters to keep downthis habit of smoking on the continental railways. 

There are two sources of embarrassment which the Englishman is sparedin his own country, but which press upon him in full force whiletravelling by rail abroad--namely, the different kinds of distancemeasurement, and the different kinds of money employed. Accustomed toEnglish charges varying from three farthings to threepence per mile, he is frequently thrown out of his reckoning by the absence of milesabroad. The French kilomètre and the German meile are not Englishmiles; the former equals 1093 yards, and is therefore a troublesomefraction of an English mile; while the German meile is as long asabout four and a half English miles. 

But this, however, is a minor inconvenience; for our 'ContinentalBradshaw' gives most of the measurements in English miles. Not so inrespect to the current coinage abroad. Although there was a 'railwaycongress' held a few years ago, to determine on a plan forfacilitating the intercourse between country and country, yet thisplan did not go so far as to assimilate the moneys of the differentstates; the tourist speedily discovers that this is the case, and hebecomes perplexed with a multiplicity of cares. So long as he is inFrance or Belgium, the _franc_ (9-1/2d. ), with its multiples andsubmultiples, are easily managed; but when he gets beyond the Rhine, his troubles begin. If in Holland, he has to manage with the _guilder_(1s. 8d. ) and its fractional parts in _cents_. If in the neighbourhoodof Hamburg, he has to pay by means of the _mark_ (14-1/2d. ), andcertain strange-looking _schillings_ or _skillings_, of which sixteenequal one mark. Going south and east into Prussia, he finds the rulingcoin to be the _thaler_ (3s. ), divisible into thirty _groschen_. Andeach of these into twelve _pfennige_; but if he be hovering inthe frontiers of Prussia and Saxony, he will find that the_neu-groschen_ of the latter country is worth a little more than the_silber-groschen_ of the former, and that there is some difficulty ingetting rid of either in the country of the other. Getting furthersouth, to the regions belonging to or adjoining Austria, he will findhis thalers and groschen no longer welcome; he has to attend to the_florin_ (2s. ), and its divisions into sixty _kreutzers_. If hetravels north-east, to the few miles of railway yet existing inPoland, he will have to pay in _rubles_ (3s. 3d. ) and _kopecks_, whichrank at 100 to the ruble. On the little Zurich and Baden Railway, theonly one yet in Switzerland, our traveller meets again with his oldacquaintance the _franc_; but this is worth 14-1/2d. , instead of9-1/2d. , and, moreover, it is divided into ten _batzen_, each of whichis worth ten _rappen_. If he crosses the Alps to Austrian Italy, hefinds that his fare is reckoned in Austrian _lire_ (about 8d. ) In manycases, the different states take money from _through_ passengers inthe coin of either country; but the traveller who makes frequentstoppages, soon finds the embarrassment of the different moneys. Arailway has lately been completed from Dresden to Prague--the capitalsof the two kingdoms of Saxony and Bohemia--along the banks of theElbe; it is no great distance, and yet the fees north of the frontierare charged in _thalers_ and _neu-groschen_, while those south of itare in _florins_ and _kreutzers_. 

There have been very busy and important railway enterprises agreedupon or discussed within the last year or two, in various parts of thecontinent, which augur favourably for the future of Europe. We shallshortly pass these in review, to shew what may possibly be the aspectpresented by the 'Continental Bradshaw' in 1862. 

FOOTNOTES:

[1] A line of about forty-five miles, from Christiania to the end ofthe Miösin Lake, is surveyed, and in course of preparation. --_Ed. _

A SEARCH FOR ROBIN HOOD. 

The adventures of an amateur in search of a picture, of a foundling insearch of his father, and even of a dog in search of his master, havebeen severally recorded by skilful pens for the amusement of thepublic. But, however entertaining or romantic these narratives may beconsidered, they can hardly surpass in interest the curious historywhich has just been disclosed of the adventures of an antiquary insearch of a ballad-hero. We owe our knowledge of the facts to one of aseries of _Critical and Historical Tracts_, by the Rev. Joseph Hunter, now in course of publication. Mr Hunter is an assistant-keeper of thepublic records, and is well known, by his other publications, as oneof the most laborious and most judicious elucidators of mysteriouspassages in our national history. But the evidences of industry, ofminute knowledge, and of logical acuteness, contained in his littletreatise concerning 'the ballad-hero, Robin Hood, ' are reallysurprising. The story of an obscure outlaw, who chased deer and tookpurses in a northern forest five hundred years ago, has beeninvestigated with the painstaking sagacity of a Niebuhr; and a stronglight has been unexpectedly thrown on the state of public sentimentand manners existing at that period. Mr Hunter, it is proper to say, dwells in his treatise chiefly upon results, and says little, and thatvery modestly, of the labours by which they were obtained. He evenseems to fear that his subject may be considered trivial, and that hemay possibly receive 'the censure of being one who busies himself withthe mere playthings of antiquity. ' Dr Percy, when he compiled hisinvaluable Reliques, had similar apprehensions, which were then notaltogether groundless; but it may reasonably be hoped, that the raceof pedants, who wondered how a man of learning could be interested ina bundle of old ballads, is now extinct. 

Departing a little from the method and order observed by Mr Hunter inhis tract, we will endeavour not only to state in a condensed form theremarkable conclusions at which he has arrived, but also to follow, asaccurately as his references will enable us to do so, the ingeniousprocesses of investigation which led to these results. The object ofthe inquiry was to determine, in the first place, whether such aperson as Robin Hood ever existed; and, in the second place, toascertain who and what he was, and to what extent the ballads of whichhe was the hero were based upon actual occurrences. What a vast amountof uncertainty there was to clear up, may be inferred from the widedifferences of opinion among writers of the highest credit whopreceded Mr Hunter in this inquiry. The celebrated historian of theNorman Conquest, M. Thierry, supposes Robin Hood to have been thechief of a small body of Saxons, who, in their forest strongholds, held out for a time against the domination of the Norman conquerors. On this point, as confessedly on others, the French historian seems tohave derived his opinions from the suggestive scenes in Scott'ssplendid romance of _Ivanhoe_. Another writer conjectures, that theoutlaws of whom Robin was the leader, may have been some of theadherents of Simon de Montfort, whose partisans were pursued toextremity after the fatal battle of Evesham, in the year 1264. Others, still, have denied altogether the existence, at any period, of such aperson as Robin Hood. They make him either a mere hero of romance--the'creation of some poetical mind;' or else, led by a similarity ofnames, they discover in him merely one of the embodiments of popularsuperstitions--a sylvan sprite, a Robin Goodfellow, or a Hudkin. Onlytwo years ago, a historical writer of no small acumen, Mr ThomasWright, published his opinion, that Robin Hood, in his originalcharacter, was simply 'one amongst the personages of the earlymythology of the Teutonic people. '

But Mr Hunter could not concur in these views, or be satisfied withthe mode of reasoning by which they were maintained. In his opinion, Robin Hood was neither a Saxon malcontent nor the hero of a poet'sromance; nor yet was he 'a goblin or a myth. ' He was, in allprobability, exactly such a person as the popular songs describedhim--an English yeoman, an outlaw living in the woods, and noted forhis skill in archery. Previous researches had proved, that many of ourold ballads are merely rhyming records of historical events. Mr Hunterhad already rescued one ballad-hero, Adam Bell, from the 'danger ofbeing reduced to an abstraction or a myth;' and it now remained forhim to undertake the same good office for a more renowned freebooter. 

The first thing to be done was, of course, to examine carefully theballads themselves, and to ascertain the amount and value of theevidence they afforded, as to the epoch and the real story of theirhero. It appeared, then, that 'three single ballads are found inmanuscript, which cannot be later than the fourteenth century. ' Thereis also a poem of considerable length, entitled _The Lytel Geste ofRobyn Hood_, which was printed by Winkyn de Worde, in or about theyear 1495. It is 'a kind of life' of the outlaw, and is composed ofseveral ballads, strung together by means of a few intermediatestanzas, which give continuity to the story. The language of theseballads is that of the preceding century--being, in fact, the same asthat of the ballads in manuscript. Thus the date of the songsthemselves is carried back as far as the fourteenth century. It is, moreover, in the middle of this century that the first allusion toRobin Hood occurs in any work of undoubted authority. In Longland'spoem, entitled _The Vision of Pierce Ploughman_, the date of which isbetween 1355 and 1365, mention is made of 'rymes of Robyn Hood andRandolph Earl of Chester, ' the outlaw and the earl being apparentlyboth regarded as historical personages, about whom songs had beenwritten. It may be observed, that if the Robin Hood ballads were mucholder than this date, it must be considered surprising that no earlierallusion to them should be found, since in the subsequent century theywere referred to by many writers. 

According to the story contained in the Lytel Geste, Robin Hood was atthe head of a band of outlaws, who made their head-quarters inBernysdale, or Barnesdale--once 'a woody and famous forest, ' on thesouthern confines of Yorkshire, in the neighbourhood of Doncaster, Wakefield, and Pontefract; and who infested the woodlands and thehighways from thence as far as Sherwood and Nottingham, near whichancient town some of their boldest exploits were performed. They slewthe king's deer, and plundered rich travellers, but spared the humble, relieved the distressed, and were courteous to all who did not offendthem. 

 Robyn was a proude outlaw Whyles he walked on ground; So curtyse an outlaw as he was one, Was never none yfound. 

All the ballads agree in ascribing to the outlaw chief a manly bearingand a generous disposition, such as might be expected to distinguish arespectable yeoman of a class somewhat above the ordinary, whom thefortune of war had driven from his home to a lawless life in theforest. That this was Robin Hood's condition, may be inferred from thegeneral language of the ballads; but the important question is, whether any other testimony can be found to confirm this conjecture, and to give us any definite and authentic information about the fact. This is the question which Mr Hunter has undertaken to answer. Theclue which first catches his experienced eye, is _the name of anEnglish king_. One of the most remarkable adventures which the balladsrecord of Robin Hood, is his meeting with the king, who induced him, for a time, to take service in his household. The king, according tothis authority, was exasperated with Robin and his men chiefly onaccount of the destruction which they had made of his deer. Findingthat it was impossible to capture the outlaw by force, the kingconsented to practise a stratagem, suggested by a forester who waswell acquainted with the outlaw's habits. He disguised himself as anabbot, and with five knights habited as monks, and a man leadingsumpter-horses, rode into the greenwood. A wealthy abbot's baggage, and his ransom, would be just the bait most tempting to Robin and hismen. The king, as he had expected, was seized by them, and led away totheir lodge in the forest. The outlaws, however, behave courteously asusual; and when the abbot announces that he comes from the king atNottingham, and brings a letter from his majesty, inviting Robin tocome to that town, the latter receives the information joyously, anddeclares that 'he loves no man in all the world so well as he does hisking. ' Presently the monarch discovers himself, and the outlaw chiefand his men kneel, and profess their loyalty--Robin at the same timeasking for mercy for him and his. The king grants it on condition thatRobin will leave the greenwood, and will come to court and enter hisservice. We quote the following after Mr Hunter, merely modernisingthe orthography:--

 'Yes, fore God!' then said our king, 'Thy petition I grant thee, With that thou leave the greenwood, And all thy company;

 'And come home, sir, to my court, And there dwell with me. ' 'I make mine avow to God, ' said Robin, 'And right so shall it be:

 'I will come to your court Your service for to see. '

Accordingly, Robin left the greenwood and his company, entered theking's household, went with him to the court at London, and remainedin his service for a year and three months. Having by that time becomeweary of this uncongenial mode of life, he obtained permission fromthe king to pay a visit to his old residence at Barnesdale. Here heresumes once more his former way of life 'under the greenwood-tree, 'and becomes again chief of the outlaws of Barnesdale and Sherwood. 

Now if, among the adventures ascribed to Robin by the old ballads, there is one far more improbable than all the rest, and one which anordinary commentator would set down at once as a pure fiction of thepoet, it is certainly that which has just been related. Mr Hunter, however, is not an ordinary commentator. If the story is a strangeone, he doubtless reflected, 'truth is stranger than fiction;' and ifit is intrinsically and evidently improbable, that is the very reasonwhy a poet would not have invented it. Mr Hunter, therefore, did whatno other inquirer had before thought of doing--he examined thehistorical and documentary evidence which might throw light upon thesubject. The ballad, fortunately, gives the name of the king who wasconcerned in this singular adventure. He is repeatedly spoken of as'Edward, our comely king'--a phrase, by the way, which clearly impliesthat the ballad was composed while the monarch was still living. Thiscircumstance is not noticed by Mr Hunter, but it is one of someimportance, inasmuch as a poet would hardly have ventured to introducethe name of the reigning monarch into a purely fictitious narrative. But there are three Edwards--the first, second, and third of the name, among whom it is necessary to distinguish the one to whom the poetreferred. Now, according to the ballad, this 'comely king, ' before hefell in with Robin, had journeyed through the county of Lancaster:

 All the pass of Lancashire, He went both far and near, Till he came to Plumpton Park, He failed [missed] many of his deer. 

The question then arises, which of the three Edwards did travel inthat county? To this question, Mr Hunter's researches fortunatelyenable him to return a decisive answer. King Edward I. Never was inLancashire after he became king. King Edward III. Was not inLancashire in the early years of his reign, and probably never at all. But King Edward II. Did make a 'progress' in Lancashire, and only one. The time was in the autumn of 1323, the seventeenth year of his reign, and the fortieth of his age. By the dates of the royal writs, and byother documents, Mr Hunter is enabled to trace the king's route andhis various removes on this occasion with great minuteness. He followshim, for example, from York to Holderness; thence to Pickering, toWherlton Castle, to Richmond and Jervaulx Abbey, and to Haywra Park, in the forest of Knaresborough. In this forest is situated PlumptonPark, which is mentioned in the ballad as having been visited by theking, who here became aware of Robin's depredations. King Edwardproceeded thence by way of Skipton, and several other towns, toLiverpool, and, continuing his progress, arrived on the 9th ofNovember at Nottingham, where he remained till the 23d of that month;and it was from Nottingham, it will be remembered, that the king setout in disguise to look for Robin Hood. 

But if the 'proud outlaw' on this occasion actually took service inthe king's household, his name would be likely to appear among thoseof the royal attendants, if any list of these is preserved. Thisconsideration occurred to Mr Hunter. The result of his search must betold in his own words. 'It will scarcely be believed, ' he observes, 'but it is, nevertheless, the plain and simple truth, that indocuments preserved in the Exchequer, containing accounts of expensesin the king's household, we find the name of "Robyn Hode, " not once, but several times occurring, receiving, with about eight-and-twentyothers, the pay of 3d. A day, as one of the "_valets, porteurs de lachambre_" of the king. Whether this was some other person who chancedto bear the same name, or that the ballad-maker has in this relatedwhat was mere matter of fact, it will become no one to affirm in atone of authority. I, for my part, believe it is the same person. 'Mr Hunter then quotes the words of the original record, whichis in Norman-French. It recites the names of the twenty-four'_portours_'--as the word is here spelled--who received pay from the24th of March to the 21st of April 1324; and among these are the namesof 'Robyn Hod' and 'Simon Hod. ' These names do not occur in anyprevious document. The date of the record, it will be observed, is inthe spring of the year following that in which the king made hisprogress through Lancashire, and stayed for some time at Nottingham onhis return southward. 

The office of valet, or _porteur de la chambre_, in those days, wasprobably similar to that of the present groom of the chamber, and ifso, was a highly respectable and confidential post. In the ballad, Robin Hood is represented, while at court, as spending his moneyfreely with knights and squires. His profusion, indeed, soon exhaustedhis purse, which the daily pay of 3d. , however munificent it may havebeen at that period, could not replenish. Robin became, observes MrHunter, moody and melancholy:

 'Alas!' then said good Robin, 'Alas, and well-a-day I If I dwell longer with the king, Sorrow will me slay. '

At last, he petitions the king for permission to pay a visit to hischapel at Barnesdale; declaring, that for seven nights he has not beenable to sleep, nor for seven days to eat or drink, so sore is hislonging to see Barnesdale again. The king consents, but only for ase'nnight; 'in which, ' says Mr Hunter, 'I suspect a corruption, forthere was no Great Northern in those days. ' Probably the leave ofabsence was for seven weeks instead of days. 

Now, it is remarkable, that in the Exchequer pay-lists, the newporteur's name continues to appear (once under the form of RobertHood) until the 22d of November 1324. Under this date appears anentry, which Mr Hunter has given in the original Norman-French, butwhich we prefer to translate: 'Robyn Hod, heretofore one of theporteurs, because he could no longer work, received as a gift, bycommand, 5s. ' After this, we are told, his name does not again appear. The 22d of November 1324, was just a year from the time when the kingwas at Nottingham, where he arrived on the 9th of November 1323. RobinHood, if he then took service, would have been in the royal householdabout a twelvemonth. The ballad, however, makes his service last for ayear and three months. The discrepancy is not great; and it may, perhaps, be explained by the circumstance, that when Robin left thecourt, it was at first merely on leave of absence; and he would, consequently, still regard himself as in the king's service until hehad finally determined to renounce it, which would probably not beuntil at least his term of leave had expired. The remarkableexpression in the record, 'because he could no longer work, ' seems, asMr Hunter remarks, to correspond with Robin's declarations in theballad, that he could neither eat, drink, nor sleep; and if heremained longer at court, sorrow would kill him. This apparentcoincidence, the author adds, 'may be but imagination; but it lookslike a reality. ' It must be admitted, that if the Robyn Hod, or RobertHood, of the Exchequer records be not Robin Hood the outlaw, then allthese singular agreements of names, of dates, and of circumstances, will make together a far greater marvel than any that is to be foundin the ballad-story itself, which some sceptics would require us todisbelieve. 

This, however, is only the commencement of Mr Hunter's researches, which we cannot here follow in the same detail. The ballads relatethat Robin Hood, after continuing twenty-two years in the greenwood, died--through some foul play--at the convent of Kirklees, the prioressof which was nearly related to him. On this hint, Mr Hunter seeks todiscover, through this relationship, the original social position andfamily connections of the outlaw. He finds reason for believing, thatthe prioress of Kirklees at that period was a certain Elizabeth deStaynton, a member of a family of some note, established nearBarnesdale. The Stayntons were tenants in chief of both the 'honours'of Tickhill and Pontefract. One of them was prior of Monk Bretton, andtwo were incumbents of churches in that vicinity. If Robin Hood wasnearly related to this family, the connection would raise him somewhatabove the rank of an ordinary yeoman; it might, as the authorobserves, 'give him that kind of generous air in which he is invested, and qualify him for his station among the valets of the crown. '

But if Robin Hood was a person of good condition, his name mightperhaps be found in the law-records of the local courts; and, in fact, Mr Hunter has found, in the court-rolls of the manor of Wakefield, thename of 'Robertus Hood, ' as that of the defendant in a suit relativeto a small piece of land, in the ninth year of Edward II. He againappears in a subsequent year, when he is described as being ofWakefield; and the name of his wife, Matilda, is mentioned. Here isanother curious coincidence. Mr Hunter says: 'The ballad testimonyis--not the Lytel Geste, but other ballads of uncertainantiquity--that the outlaw's wife was named Matilda, which name shechanged for Marian when she joined him in the greenwood. '

But what cause could have driven a respectable yeoman like Robin Hood, along with so many others, apparently not much below him in rank, tothe fastnesses of the forest? It is evident that only a great civilconvulsion could have made, in one district, so large a number ofoutlaws of this peculiar character. Now, the rising of thediscontented barons under the Earl of Lancaster, provoked by theking's favouritism and misgovernment, took place in the early part ofthe year 1322. By the battle of Boroughbridge, fought on the 16th ofMarch in that year, the insurrection was suppressed. It was punishedwith great severity. The Earl of Lancaster and many of his adherentswere beheaded, and their property was confiscated. Someoffenders--probably persons who were not conspicuous in theoutbreak--escaped with heavy fines; and among these are mentioned twomembers of the Staynton family, Robin Hood's supposed connections. Wemay thence infer the part which he himself probably took in themovement. From his skill with the bow, and from the personal esteem inwhich he was held, it is likely that he would be a leader of thearchers in the rebel force, and would consequently be of importanceenough to become specially obnoxious to the king's party. Manyothers--perhaps the whole company which followed him to thebattle--might be in the same plight. If so, it would account not onlyfor their outlawry, but for the goodwill with which they were regardedby the people of their neighbourhood, who were generally favourable tothe cause of the Earl of Lancaster, and looked upon him as a martyr. The battle of Boroughbridge, it should be observed, was fought in theyear preceding that in which the king made his progress through thenorth, and rested for a fortnight at Nottingham. 

Mr Hunter, in conclusion, sums up the results of his investigation inwhat he cautiously styles his 'theory' concerning the career of thefamous ballad-hero. He considers that Robin Hood was one of the'contrariantes, ' or malcontents, of the reign of King Edward II. , andthat he was still living in the early years of King Edward III. ; butthat his birth must 'be carried back into the reign of King Edward I. , and fixed in the decennary period, 1285 to 1295; that he was born in afamily of some station and respectability, seated at Wakefield or invillages around; that he, like many others, partook of the popularenthusiasm which supported the Earl of Lancaster, the great baron ofthose parts, who, having attempted in vain various changes in thegovernment, at length broke out into open rebellion, with manypersons, great and small, following his standard; that when the earlfell, and there was a dreadful proscription, a few persons who hadbeen in arms not only escaped the hazards of battle, but the arm ofthe executioner; that he was one of these; and that he protectedhimself against the authorities of the time, partly by secretinghimself in the depths of the woods of Barnesdale or of the forest ofSherwood, and partly by intimidating the public officers by theopinion which was abroad of his unerring bow, and his instant commandof assistance from numerous comrades as skilled in archery as himself;that he supported himself by slaying the wild animals which were foundin the forests, and by levying a species of blackmail on passengersalong the great road which united London with Berwick, occasionallyreplenishing his coffers by seizing upon treasure as it was beingtransported on the road; that there was a self-abandonment and acourtesy in the way in which he proceeded, which distinguishes himfrom the ordinary highwayman; that he laid down the principle, that hewould take from none but those who could afford to lose, and that, ifhe met with poor persons, he would bestow upon them some part of whathe had taken from the rich: in short, that in this respect he was thesupporter of the rights or supposed reasonable expectations of themiddle and lower ranks--a _leveller_ of the times; that he continuedthis course for about twenty months--April 1322 to December1323--meeting with various adventures, as such a person must needs do, some of which are related in the ballads respecting him; that when, in1323, the king was intent upon freeing his forests from suchmarauders, he fell into the king's power; that this was at a time whenthe bitter feeling with which the king and the Spencers had firstpursued those who had shewn themselves such formidable adversaries, had passed away, and a more lenient policy had supervened--the king, possibly for some secret and unknown reason, not only pardoned him allhis transgressions, but gave him the place of one of the _valets_, _porteurs de la chambre_, in the royal household; which appointment heheld for about a year, when the love for the unconstrained life he hadled and for the charms of the country returned, and he left the court, and betook himself again to the greenwood shade; that he continuedthis mode of life we know not exactly how long; and that at last heresorted to the prioress of Kirklees, his own relative, for surgicalassistance, and in that priory he died and was buried. '

These conclusions must of course be looked upon at present merely as aseries of probable suppositions. Mr Hunter does not pretend to haveplaced them within the domain of authentic history. But it is by nomeans unlikely, that future researches will produce evidence of theindubitable truth of some of them. To Mr Hunter is due the credit ofhaving first pointed out the direction in which this evidence must besought, and of having, at the same time, indicated by his example thetrue value of such researches in the light which they cast on thepolitics and social life of the period to which they refer. 

SNOW-STORM IN THE SAHARA. 

NOTES FROM THE JOURNAL OF A MILITARY SURGEON. 

When it was determined by the French government in the spring of 1847, to undertake several military expeditions simultaneously into thedeserts to the south of Algeria, it was my lot to accompany the columnof General Cavaignac, both in a medical and scientific capacity. Thewestern route, being the most difficult and dangerous, was thatassigned to him. He was to penetrate the hitherto unexplored regionstraversed by the Hamian-garabas--a powerful tribe, who could bring2000 horsemen into the field, and among whom the various tribes thathad at different times sworn allegiance to the French governmentalways found willing allies whenever they chose to break theirtreaties and throw off the yoke. He was to destroy every villagethroughout this region that refused submission; and thus it was hopedthat the retreats of Abd-el-Kader might be cut off, and that by aspeedy termination of the war, the country might become settled, andits commerce be restored. 

We were a motley and grotesque-enough-looking caravan; for our sixbattalions of infantry and four squadrons of cavalry were accompaniedby 3000 camels laden with provisions and attended by Arab drivers, besides 500 mules carrying water-barrels, and cacolets--jointedarm-chairs--for the sick. It was not deemed desirable to observe thestrictest military regularity in our march; so that French uniformsand Arab burnooses, military chargers, camels of the desert, andpack-saddled mules travelled side by side, pretty much as fancydictated. 

It was nearly three weeks before we reached the enemy's country. Wehad meanwhile met with the usual adventures incident to these regions. We had set fire to the forests of the Little Atlas Mountains, and beenobliged to raise our camp, and fly in terror from the conflagration. We had crossed the dreary solitudes of Goor and Shott, through whichour daily march had been enlivened by songs, or beguiled by listeningto the wild legends of our Arab guides; and night after night we hadencamped, like the vagabond tribes of Sahara, either round the mouthsof wells, or without water in the open plains, each man receiving ascanty supply from the barrels, while the beasts were left to beartheir thirst as they could. But now, after passing the basins of theShott, and gaining the slight elevation beyond, we entered on a tractof desert as yet untrodden by European feet, and met with trials of anature the least of all expected. 

The wide wastes which lay before us appeared uniform and level as faras the eye could reach, but somewhat diversified by verdant patches ofhalfa (coarse grass of the desert), and by deceitful appearances ofsheets of water, produced by the reflection of the light in theundulating vapours rising from the burning sand. In the distance, something like blue waves appeared: it was part of the great Atlaschain; but close at hand, to our right, was a long line of dunes. These eminences, smooth and sterile as marble domes, were apparentlyas solid too; but we knew that, if the desert wind should blow, theywould be shaken into moving clouds of sand, overwhelming all beforethem. 

Our column proceeded in silence. The soft sand yielded no echo to thetread. Every one appeared thoughtful and abstracted. This place hasterrors even for the Arabs; they tell a thousand stories of the Passof Sidi-Mohammed-el-Aoori: it was there, in times remote, that greatarmies were overpowered and slain by hostile bands, or destroyed bythe scarcely less merciless elements; there many travellers havedisappeared in the storm, or fallen under the hand of the murderer. Itis the 'gate' of the desert; and the tutelar genii have placed theterrific dunes as a hieroglyphic warning to those who rashly approach. They seem to say, 'here begins the empire of Sterility and Death;enter if thou darest!' Doubtless the Arab tales had some influence onour minds, increasing the well-grounded fears inspired by the naturalfeatures of these arid wastes. Several of us mentally repeated thatmelancholy line from Dante--

 Lasciate ogni speranza voi che entrate;[2]

and not a few pictured to themselves a body of troops visiting thesesands half a century later, and finding the bones of Cavaignac's armyscattered here and there over the plains. 

Hitherto the atmosphere had always been perfectly clear, but now itwas thick and cold, the horizon wearing that gray, heavy aspect whichin Europe precedes a fall of snow. No one, however, ventured topronounce this word; it appeared an occurrence so unlikely in theplain, at such a season and under such a latitude. What, then, was oursurprise, on awaking on the morning of the 19th of April, to find thetents covered with a thick sheet of snow, and to see the vast expanseof the desert white to the verge of the horizon, like the frozensteppes of Siberia! The general ordered the camp to be raisedimmediately, for the bivouac afforded very scanty materials for fire, and he hoped there might be wood in the mountains if he could reachthem. The snow continued to fall in large flakes; the troops, anxiousand sorrowful, described a thousand circuits and made a thousanduseless turnings, for our Arab guides were utterly at fault. Duringthree or four months previous to the expedition, Cavaignac had beenselecting and retaining as guides whatever Saharians he could findacquainted with that part of the desert he intended to traverse. TheArabs are gifted with remarkable dexterity in steering withoutcompass, recognising a footstep imperceptible to the common eye, scenting the water at a distance, and finding their way by marks whichwould escape the most observant European. A Saharian once affirmed toColonel Daumas: 'I am not considered remarkably sharp-sighted, but Ican distinguish a goat from a sheep at the distance of a day'sjourney; and I know some who smell the smoke of a pipe, or of broiledmeat, at thirty miles! We all know each other by the track of our feetin the sand, for no one tribe walks like another, nor does a wifeleave the same footprint as an unmarried woman. If a hare has passed, we know by its footprint whether it is male or female, and, in thelatter case, whether it is with young. If we see the stone of a date, we know the particular tree that produced it. '

Our conductors, though not pretending to all this sagacity, werenevertheless far in advance of some of us who proudly called ourselves'old Africans, ' and considered ourselves wonderfully expert intracking the desert paths. But now the landmarks on which theydepended had disappeared beneath the snow; and the atmosphere was sosurcharged with it, that the mountain summits could no longer bedescried. At length the guides abandoned the hopeless effort, anddeclared that they had entirely lost the way, and knew not in whatdirection to proceed. At this juncture, Cavaignac, remembering thatthe mountains had appeared due south on the preceding evening, seizedhis compass, and boldly ordered the troops in that direction. It wasthe only hope; but the march became so fatiguing, and the natives gaveso little encouragement to the expectation of finding the mountainswooded, that a halt was ordered, and a bivouac on the snowy plain. 

Many were the miseries that attended this encampment. The rattling ofarms was heard on every side, for the soldiers were shivering to sucha degree that they could not hold their guns steadily. What would theynot now have given for some of the wood they had so wantonly destroyedin the forests of the Tell! But the bivouac was not even supplied withchiah--one of the commonest plants in Sahara, having a ligneous root, which had hitherto served us for fuel when everything else failed. Nothing was to be found but halfa, green, and steeped in snow; and themost skilful kindlers succeeded only in amusing themselves for a timewith poor, little fires, that emitted more smoke than flame. The men, of course, could not make their soup; but the general ordered themrations of biscuit and coffee. For my own part, not being able to makea fire of wet halfa, I was looking disconsolately at a bit of biscuit, and a little morsel of cheese, which was to compose my dinner, whenLieutenant N---- sent word that his fire-makers had been moresuccessful, and that they offered me a corner. In a few minutes, I satdown to two boiled eggs, which appeared delicious. Meanwhile, thenight drew on. The soldier's bed out-of-doors is a sheepskin laid onthe bare ground, under a tent so small that he cannot stand upright init. Now, as the earth was very damp, those who did not take theprecaution of choosing a little mound, and removing a portion of thewet soil, soon found themselves literally in the mud, and were obligedto get up, and walk about all night. 

The snow continued to fall thick and fast, the thermometer marking 7degrees below the freezing-point during the night. Some days before, it had been 125 degrees Fahrenheit in the sun; so that we were doomed, as in the Purgatory of Dante--

 A sofferir tormenti caldi e geli;

from which, by the way, Milton has obviously borrowed his idea ofinfernal torment:

 ---- And feel by turns the bitter change Of fierce extremes, extremes by change more fierce, From beds of raging fire, to starve in ice Their soft ethereal warmth, and there to pine Immovable, infixed, and frozen round, Periods of time, thence hurried back to fire. 

At the sound of the morning watch-gun, the camp presented a mostdistressing spectacle. The Arabs and negroes of the convoy were lyingmotionless in the open air, rolled in their burnooses. Many of thesepoor creatures were but lightly clad, and had the lower limbs entirelynaked. They were so benumbed and stupified with cold, that theyrefused to rise and load the camels; they begged to be allowed to liestill and die in peace. The cattle also were in a sad condition, notonly from cold, but hunger; for the snow-covered ground afforded themno pasture. As part of the provisions had been damaged, it was nowasked in dismay, what would become of the army if the beasts shouldperish? The recollection of the disaster at Boo-Taleb, where thecolumn of General Levasseur left so many men in the snow, occurred tothe stoutest hearts. But even darker shades mingled in the prospectsof our troops; for 'General Levasseur, ' said they, 'was only thirtymiles from a post occupied by French troops, and the neighbouringtribes raised and reanimated those whom they found alive, thoughbenumbed on the plain; but we, in the midst of the desert, far fromany human dwelling, what will become of us? Hunger, thirst, and theenemy, will soon finish the remains of our unfortunate army. '

But the officers are on foot, setting the example of vigorousexertion, and striving to comfort and encourage the men; while thecalm and quiet prudence of the general inspires every one withconfidence in endeavouring to obey his orders, as the only hope ofdeliverance. We begin our march: the snow is now falling only atintervals; it lies two feet deep in the hollow plains, and above afoot on the level and rising ground. 

Some of the men, however, remained as if nailed to the soil--not onlytheir limbs benumbed, but their mental energies so paralysed as to beincapable of acting on the physical; the mind inaccessible to moralincentives, and the body insensible to the influence of outwardstimulants. By and by they found energy to beg that they might behoisted on the arm-chairs; but this was peremptorily refused. SinceNapoleon's retreat from Moscow, and the recent work of Dr Shrimpton onthe disaster at Boo-Taleb, every one knows the consequence ofindulging this deceitful stupor. 

But we found we must do more than talk; so we set the drums andtrumpets about the ears of the sleepers, and made their comrades shakethem with all their might. It was not till after an hour's march, inwhich coaxing, scolding, and pushing, stimulants to laughter andprovocatives to anger, had been incessantly employed in turn, that thevital powers appeared to be in tolerably full play. There was one manmore obstinate than the rest, who, in order to get a place on one ofthe cacolets, threatened every minute to lie down on the ground. Islid among the ranks, and began telling one of his comrades all thehorrible stories I knew of those who, yielding to sleep in the cold, had awaked no more; adding, with affected indifference: 'I am afraidwe shall have to leave some of our poor men as a supper for the hyenasto-night. There are two or three of them so benumbed and stupified, that they will perish if they halt for a single instant. ' In a fewminutes, I learned that the soldier had done begging to be carried; hesaid his strength was returning. 

In the midst of so much human distress, it seems almost like triflingto advert to the poor swallows. On awaking in the morning, I had foundtwo under my bed-cover. They allowed themselves to be taken, andeither could not, or would not fly away when I tried to banish them. So I put them in the hood of my cloak, and allowed it to fall down myback, while I raised over my head that of the ample burnoose which Iwear in the cold above all my other garments. The swallows travelledthus for several hours, and gradually recovered in their warm nest. When the sun emitted some genial rays, I took them out, and set themfree. They fluttered for some time round my horse, uttering a littlecry, which I took for an expression of gratitude before taking flightinto the mountains. 

Other companies of them had taken shelter under the matted hair whichhangs from the flanks of the camel; and when the pitiless driverpersisted in dislodging them, they departed with a plaintive cry, toseek an asylum with a camel whose driver was more hospitable. Asentinel had found one in his pocket during the night, but it paiddearly for its lodging--he roasted it for his supper! These poor birdshad fled from the rigours of a European winter, to find cold as severein the heart of Africa. Alas! how many of us felt that, like theswallows, we had exiled ourselves to improve our fortunes, and werenow in danger of perishing. How gladly would we have resigned all ourhopes of glory and advantage for the fireside of the modest paternaldwelling!

But before night we encamped in the shelter of the mountains; thechiah, which grew in abundance around us, enabled us to kindle fires, and a salutary reaction took place in the spirits of the troops. According to a common practice of mine, I invited to supper the manwhose life I had saved by frightening him into exertion. Afterswallowing a glass of warm wine, well sugared, and spiced withtincture of cinnamon, he licked his lips, sucked the edges of hisglass, and said: 'Thank ye, doctor; but for you I should have beendead, ' with a naïveté which I can never forget, and which even nowmingles pleasing associations with the thoughts of those days ofsuffering. 

The next day nearly 200 of the men were affected with partial or totalblindness. Some had merely a sensation like fatigue of the visualorgans, with heaviness, watering, and inflammation of the conjunctivemembrane. But with others the pain was acute, the eye much inflamed, and the cornea covered with minute ulcerations. Those who were moreslightly affected, marched like persons enveloped in a cloud of smoke, and trying to see their way out of it; they took a few steps withtheir eyes shut, then half opened them with evident pain toreconnoitre the ground before them, and quickly closed them again. Butmany had for the time wholly lost their sight; they stumbled on thetufts of halfa, and rolled on the ground, so that we were obliged tohoist them on the cacolets. The general, in a state of muchuneasiness, called a council of such members of the military corps ofhealth as were found in his column. Some were of opinion that thisepidemic was occasioned by the sudden cold, others that it wasattributable to the smoke of the chiah; but the truth is, that, bothbefore and after this period, we had experienced nearly as greatextremes of heat by day and cold by night without any suchconsequences, and that some, who had not approached the chiah fireswere as severely affected as those who had. It was concluded, withevery appearance of reason, that the real cause was the dazzling lightreflected from the snow during our march on the 20th of April. Irecollect one artilleryman, who was conducting his gun, when suddenly, as the sun broke out afresh, he stopped, rubbed his eyes, turned hishead in every direction, and exclaimed: 'I cannot see; I am quiteblind!' Although we had not expected snow in the plains of Sahara, thegeneral had anticipated the effects of the reflection of light fromthe sand, and the possibility of small particles of it getting intothe eyes; and with this view each man had been provided with a greengauze veil. But the soldier dislikes anything out of his regularroutine as much as the most ignorant peasant; so when the order wasgiven that these veils should be worn, [3] the soldiers wore them tobe sure--in their pockets. I insisted that each man should fasten hison his helmet, and this, too, was done; but it was allowed to fly likea streamer behind, instead of being drawn over the eyes. Happily theepidemic was but temporary, and none permanently suffered the loss ofsight as the punishment of his folly. 

FOOTNOTES:

[2] All hope abandon ye that enter here. 

[3] _Porter_, to carry, is the word by which the French express towear a thing, so that the error of Cavaignac's soldiers was somewhatmore excusable than it would have been in Englishmen. 

THINGS TALKED OF IN LONDON. 

 _August 1852. _

The great heat, which has been more talked about than anything else, if it does not prove that the meteorologists, who predicted that thissummer was to bring a return of the warm cycle, were right in theirconclusions, at least coincides with their vaticinations. Not leastremarkable was the suddenness with which we plunged into it, as thoughthe cause which had produced a precisely similar effect in the UnitedStates a month earlier, had slowly crossed the Atlantic for ourbenefit. 

It follows, when 'everybody' is going out of town, that the number ofthose who stay behind to talk must be greatly diminished; and to seethat the things to be talked about undergo a collapse at this season, it is only necessary to look at the newspapers. A new actor, or anout-door place of amusement, is treated to a whole column ofcriticism, whereas, at other times, they would be dismissed in a briefparagraph. Penny-a-liners of lively imagination, find their reportsless subjected to curtailment. Emigration comes in for a considerableshare of notice, and the statements put forth of the numbers who sailweekly for Australia and the 'Diggins, ' must be taken as decidedevidence of a desire to better their condition on the part of a largesection of the population. It is easy to foresee that thousands willbe disappointed, if they are not made of that stuff which can bravehardship, and triumph over the wild work of pioneer colonisation. Nowand then we see accounts of unsuspecting emigrants having been deludedand robbed by a mock 'company, ' whose ships are perhaps in the moon, for they are never seen in terrestrial seas; but with so manyfacilities as now exist for getting a passage in a straightforward, business-like way, it is not easy to understand how it is that peopleshould persist in giving their money to swindlers. It would appearthat to some the _verbum sap. _ never suffices. Means are not lackingfor putting the unwary on their guard, among which the conferences andgroup-meetings held by the indefatigable Mrs Chisholm are especiallyto be commended. At these meetings, those who desire to expatriatethemselves are informed of the most economical mode of effecting theirpurpose, and counselled as to what they should do during the voyage. Whatever be the result to those who go, there are indications that thelabour-market is bettered for those who stay; in connection with whicha noteworthy fact may be mentioned, which is, that in the southern, western, and midland counties, scarcely an Irish labourer is to beseen; and who is there that does not remember what troops of theragged peasantry used to come over for haymaking and the harvest?

The lovers of the picturesque, who are apt to become migratory at thisperiod of the year, will be glad to hear of Earl de Grey'sannouncement to the Society of British Architects, that he hasrepaired Fountains' Abbey--one of the beautiful ruins for whichYorkshire is famous--without modernising its appearance or alteringits character. It is to be hoped that so praiseworthy an attempt topreserve a relic of the olden time from decay will find manyimitators. Pilgrims will thank his lordship for many a generation tocome. And, to leave the past to the present; metropolitan promenadersare about to have a cause of satisfaction, for the embankment of theThames from Vauxhall Bridge to Chelsea Gardens is at last to becommenced; and London will cease to be the only capital in Europewhich cannot obtain a view of its river. If the authorities could bepersuaded to extend this beneficial work through the whole length ofthe city, what popularity would be theirs!

An official notice from the Post-office states, that from the first ofthe present month London is to be placed on the same footing, withrespect to letters, as the rest of the country--that is, they musteither be stamped before being posted, or sent unpaid. This is ameasure which will materially diminish the labour of keeping accountsat the central office; and the more that labour is saved, the morewill there be left to facilitate postal communication. Books andperiodicals can now be sent to most of our colonies at the rate of ashilling a pound--a fact which those who have hitherto sent theirparcels at any one's trouble and expense but their own, will do wellto bear in mind. Ocean Penny Postage is growing into favour, and istalked about in such a way as to shew that the project will not beleft to take care of itself. 

The French are going to send a new Scientific Exploring Expedition toSouth America, chiefly for researches in Brazil and Paraguay. Perhapsthe veteran Bonpland, who was so long detained by the dictatorFrancia, may be induced to come home in it, as he has written toexpress his desire of returning to France. And something has been saidat Washington, about sending a couple of frigates to survey the greatriver Amazon, in which, as the official document states, there is asufficient depth of water to float a large ship at the foot of theAndes, 1500 miles from the sea. America will surely be well known someday. Meanwhile, we are extending our knowledge of Africa; a map ofthat country is about to be published, comprising the whole regionfrom the equator to 19 degrees of south latitude. In this the recentdiscoveries will be laid down, and we shall see Mr Galton's route of1600 miles from Walfish Bay to Odonga, near a large river named theNourse, and to the country of the Ovampo, described as an intelligenttribe of natives. We shall find also, that the snow-peaked mountainsseen by the German missionaries, and considered to be the source ofthe White Nile, are not more than about 300 miles distant from theeastern coast; and it is said that no more promising enterprise couldbe undertaken, than an attempt to ascend and explore them, startingfrom Mombas. Barth and Overweg were at the eastern end of Lake Tchadwhen last heard from; and we are told that the slave-traders, findingtheir occupation decreasing on the western coast, have lately, for thefirst time, penetrated to the interior, and tempted many of thenatives to sell their children for showy European goods. LieutenantMacleod, of the Royal Navy, proposes to ascend the Niger in asteam-launch, and when up the country, to cross over to, and descendthe Gambia, with a view to discover new sources of trade; and MrMacgregor Laird is still ready to carry a vessel up any river of thewestern coast to which government may please to send him. Besides thetravellers mentioned, there are others pushing their way in differentparts of the south; and the French are not idle in the north--theyhave added to our information concerning Abyssinia, and the countriesbordering on the Great Desert. But in addition to African geography, all these explorations have added to our knowledge of African geology. A vast portion of the interior is supposed to have been an inland sea, of which Ngami and other lakes are the remains; fossil bones of mostpeculiar character have been found, but only of terrestrial andfresh-water animals. A name is already given to a creature of a remotesecondary period; Professor Owen, from the examination of a fewrelics, pronounces it to be a _Dicynodon_. According to Sir B. Murchison, such have been the main features of Africa during countlessages; 'for the old rocks which form her outer fringe, unquestionablycircled round an interior marshy or lacustrine country, in which thedicynodon flourished at a time when not a single animal was similar toany living thing which now inhabits the surface of our globe. Thepresent central and meridian zone of waters, whether lakes, rivers, ormarshes, extending from Lake Tchad to Lake Ngami, with hippopotami ontheir banks, are, therefore, but the great modern, residual, geographical phenomena of those of a mesozoic age. '

The publication of special scientific works is going on under theauspices of different European governments. The Batavian Society ofRotterdam have just issued an elaborate illustrated Report on the bestmethod of improving permanently the estuary of Goedereede--a questionof considerable moment to the merchants of Rotterdam. The Frenchgovernment have had a new fount of Ethiopic types cast, to enable M. D'Abbadie to prepare a catalogue of African manuscripts. And ourSecretary of State for the Home Department has presented variouslibraries and public institutions with two portly folios, entitled_Liber Munerum Publicorum Hiberniæ, or the Establishments of Ireland, from the Nineteenth of King Stephen to the Seventh of George IV. _, which we may accept as an addition to the _Memorials of History_, commenced two or three years since. Then, as a private enterprise, wehave a scheme for a new edition of Shakspeare, in twenty volumesfolio, which is to be completed in six years, with all that can berequired in the way of illustration, be it archæological, philological, historical, or exegetical. Mr Halliwell is to be theeditor; and it is said that not more than 150 copies will be printed. Another birth for the spirit of the dust that lies in the tomb atStratford. 

Research is as active as ever in France. M. Bernard, who is well knownas a physiologist and anatomist, after a careful study of the salivaryglands, finds that each of the three, common to nearly all animals, furnishes a different secretion. The saliva from the sublingual glandis viscous and sticky, fit to moisten the surface of substances, butnot to penetrate them, giving them a coat which facilitates theirbeing swallowed. That from the parotid gland, on the contrary, is thinand watery, easily penetrates substances taken into the mouth, andthereby favours their assimilation; while the saliva from thesubmaxillary gland is of a nature between these two. These facts wereverified by soaking portions of the membrane in water, as well as byexperiments on the living subject; the liquid in which they weresoaked presented the same character as that of the secretions. 

The varying of the parotid secretion with the nature of the foodtaken, is considered by M. Bernard to be a proof that this secretionis especially intended to favour mastication. A horse kept onperfectly dry food gives out a far greater quantity than when the foodis moistened. Experiments on the dog and rabbit supplied similarresults; and, extraordinary as it may appear, the gland will secretesaliva in the course of an hour weighing eight or ten times as much asits own tissue. A striking example this of the rapidity with whichsaliva can be separated from the blood under certain circumstances, and of the fallacy of founding conclusions on the quantity secretedwithin the twenty-four hours. 

The sublingual gland is inert during mastication, and only begins toact as swallowing commences, when it envelops or lubricates the chewedsubstance with a fluid that assists its passage to the stomach. Thefunction of the submaxillary has much to do with taste; the fluidwhich it pours out dilutes and diminishes the pungent flavour of sapidsubstances, and at the same time weakens the energy of their contact. The three organs are identical in texture, though so different intheir secretions; 'each gland, ' as M. Bernard says, 'having a specialact, its function is exercised under separate and independentinfluences. Notwithstanding their discharging into and mixing in themouth, their use remains distinct, ' as above stated. To complete thisbrief summary of an interesting subject, it may be added, that birdsand reptiles have but one kind of saliva, answering to the viscous inmammalia. 

M. Vogt, in a communication to the Académie, adds to the proofs thatwhat is called the spontaneous generation of certain worms, is due tonatural causes. For instance, a worm, which has no reproductiveorgans, is often found in the body of the stickle-back; this worm, however, is known to breed, but it does so only when the stickle-backhappens to be eaten by a bird; the worm is then placed in the propercondition for development, 'for it is then only that its segmentsbecome filled with eggs, which, egested by the bird, pass into thebodies of other fishes;' in a way more in accordance with naturaloperations than spontaneous generation. 

Again, of two kinds of worms which infest human beings, the_Bothriocephalus_ is found among the Poles, Swiss, and Dutch, whilethe _Tenia_, or tape-worm, is common among the French and Germans. If, however, the latter reside in Switzerland, they also become infestedwith the first-named worm, the reason given being, that in Switzerlandliquid _excretæ_ from cesspools are largely used for manuringvegetables, and that, in the eating of these vegetables, the eggs ofthe worms are taken into the body, and become hatched by means of theintestinal warmth. These investigations, which are to be continued, are important, seeing that they have a bearing on the phenomena ofhealth and disease. 

There are some curious facts, too, concerning oysters. M. Dureau de laMalle states, that 100, 000, 000 of these bivalves are collectedannually from a bank off the port of Granville; and that, by a propercourse of feeding, white oysters have been converted into a muchesteemed green sort, which sell at a high price. And further, aphysician at Morlaix has succeeded in crossing a big, tough specieswith one that is small and delicate, and has obtained 'hybrids oflarge size and of an excellent quality. '

M. Verdeil informs the Académie, that he has proved the chlorophyll, or resinous green colouring-matter of plants, to be 'a mixture of aperfectly colourless fat, capable of crystallising, and of a colouringprinciple which presents the greatest analogies with the red colouringprinciple of the blood, but which has never yet been obtained in aperfectly pure state. ' He has isolated a quantity for experiment andexamination by a chemical process, and has added another fact to thelist of those which shew a relation between animal and vegetablefunctions. It has been known for some time, that certain functions ofthe liver are similar to those of certain plants. 

M. Marcel de Serres shews, that marine petrifactions are notnecessarily of ancient date, for they are formed at the present day inexisting seas; that shells are now being petrified in theMediterranean. All that is required for the result, is the presence ofcertain calcareous salts in the water; repose even is not essential, for the process goes on below, though the surface may be stormy. Thesepetrifactions are not, as some suppose, to be regarded as fossils, thelatter designation belonging only to 'those organic remains which arefound in geological deposits. '

Apropos of the burning of the _Amazon_: M. Dujardin relates, that afire broke out a short time since in a spinning-mill at Douai. Itpenetrated to the carding-room; destruction seemed inevitable, and theengines were sent for, when it was proposed to fill the blazing roomwith steam. A steam tube traversed the apartment; it was broken by astroke with an axe, the steam rushed out, 'and in a few minutes theconflagration was extinguished as if by enchantment. '

Attempts are still being made towards aërial navigation. M. ProsperMeller, of Bordeaux, proposes to construct an aërial locomotive 200mètres in length, 62 wide, and 60 high, the form to be cylindrical, with cone-shaped ends, as best adapted for speed. The outer case is tobe varnished leather, which is to be filled with gas, and to containfive spherical balloons. A net, which covers the whole, is to supportsixteen helices by ropes, eight on each side; and to these twogalleries are to be attached, one for the machinery, the other forpassengers. The affair looks well on paper; but there is little riskin saying, that the days of flying machines are not yet come, neitheris the scheme for aërial railways--a series of cables stretched fromone high building to another--to be regarded as any more promising. 

THE SHIP'S FIRST VOYAGE. 

BY MRS ALARIC WATTS. 

 That ship was nought to me, nor I to her, But I pursued her with a lover's look. 

 WORDSWORTH. 

 A stranger in a foreign land, Soft music met mine ear-- _O Richard, O mon roi_, struck up In flute-notes wild and clear: And scarce had died that plaintive strain, When lo! how could it be? Thy thunder pealed above the tide, 'Britannia rules the sea!' I knew not whence the magic came, But sought the distant shore, And there a stately pageant lay Unseen, undreamt before: A gallant vessel newly dressed With flags and streamers gay, An untried wanderer on the wing, To cleave an untried way. 

 And joy was with the multitude, And gladness on the earth, The tongue of every living thing Rang with a sound of mirth. All that stern Wisdom could desire, Or Fancy fair engage-- Danger-defying youth was there, And calm experienced age. It seemed as though earth's very best To that brave barque were given-- Science for nature's mysteries, And childlike faith for Heaven. 

 How strangely is sensation formed, How mingled hope and fear, Since Mirth herself can oft repel And Sadness' self endear! Whence is it that a sigh can soothe, And sweetest sounds may jar? Those wingèd words my thoughts had sent A thousand leagues afar. I listened to the thrilling strain, Unbidden tears would start, The sound fell lightly on the ear, But heavy on the heart. The low breath of the summer wind Seemed but the siren's voice, In vain I chid my coward fears, And struggled to rejoice!

 Her gallant hearts were numbered, Her snowy wings were set, Her pilot's hand was on the helm, But there she lingered yet. The ringing laugh suspended, The voice of mirth was hushed, When the twilight's holy anthem In a burst of music gushed. Warm hearts of many nations Were blended in that prayer, And the incense that went up to heaven, Was surely welcomed there. Like rain upon the thirsting earth Was that sweet chant to me, Like a cool breeze in a desert-- Like a gale from Araby. And the mental clouds, late veiling The charm of sea and shore, Rolled off like mist before the sun, And I was sad no more. Slow sailed the stately vessel, And slowly died the strain; But I knew that God was with it, THE HARE AND THE LION: AN INDIAN POLITICAL LIBEL. 

Who knows not this story? Nevertheless we publish it; for even as thehare conquered the lion, so does the Bengalee overcome theEnglishman:--A hare sat in the jungle with his wife, and he said:'There is our king, the lion, come into the wood, and he will devourour children. ' 'No, ' said the little hare, 'for I will go to confronthim, and conquer the great lion, the king of the beasts. ' Then herhusband laughed, and said: 'Intellect is power; we can die but once;let us see what you can do. ' Then the little hare, taking her littleson in her paws, jumped and jumped till she came to the lion. Then sheput down her son before his face, and put her two paws together in allhumility, and said: 'Lo! king of kings, I have brought you anuzzurana; oblige me by eating it. Also, I have some news to giveyou. ' Then the lion looked at the hare's baba, and saw it was soft andjuicy, and was pleased in his soul, and laughed, and his laugh was asthe roar of the thunder of Indro. Then he asked her news, and thelittle hare replied: 'You are the sovereign of the forest, but anotherhas come who calls himself king of the beasts, and demands tribute. 'Then the roar of the lion shook the forest, and the little hare nearlydied with fear as he asked: 'Where is the scoundrel? Can you shew himto me?' Then the little hare leaped along with the lion till she cameto an old well. The well was nearly full, but had no wall. And shesaid: 'Look, he is hiding there in fear. ' Then the lion, craning hisneck, looked and saw his own shadow, and with a fearful roar, leapedinto the well. So the little hare, with a glad heart, took up her son, and went to her husband, and said: 'Lo! intellect is power: I havekilled the lion, the king of the beasts. '--_From the Sumochar Durpun, a Bengalee newspaper, of the 2d August 1851. _

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_Just Published_, _Price 2s. 6d. Sewed, 3s. Cloth, lettered_, LIFE AND WORKS OF BURNS. --Volume IV. Edited by ROBERT CHAMBERS. Thiswork is now completed. 

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_Price 6d. Paper Cover_, CHAMBERS'S POCKET MISCELLANY: forming a LITERARY COMPANION for theRAILWAY, the FIRESIDE, or the BUSH. 

VOLUME IX. 

To be continued in Monthly Volumes. 

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