YOUNG ENGLAND 
 
 being 
 
 Vivian Grey, Coningsby, Sybil, Tancred 
 
 by Benjamin Disraeli 
 
 in 4 Vols.
 
 ^VIVIAN -GREY
 
 VIVIAN GREY 
 
 By 
 
 Benjamin Disraeli 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 BERNARD N. LANGDON-DAVIES, M.A. 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS BY 
 
 BYAM SHAW, R.I. 
 
 LONDON AND EDINBURGH 
 R. BRIMLEY JOHNSON 
 
 1904
 
 GLASGOW : PRINTKD AT T1IK UNIVERSITY PRESS 
 BY ROI1ERT MACI.KIIOSE AND CO. LTD.
 
 VIVIAN GREY 
 
 "Why then the world's mine oyster, 
 Which I with sword will open." 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 HENRY COLBURN, NEW BURLINGTON STREET. 
 1826.
 
 TO 
 THE BEST AND GREATEST OF MEN 
 
 I DEDICATE THESE VOLUMES. 
 HE, FOR WHOM IT IS INTENDED, WILL ACCEPT AND 
 
 APPRECIATE THE COMPLIMENT: 
 
 THOSE, FOR WHOM IT IS NOT INTENDED, WILL- 
 DO THE SAME.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 I'AGE 
 
 GENERAL INTRODUCTION, - xi 
 
 INTRODUCTION, xv 
 
 Book I., i 
 
 n - - 33 
 
 III., - - 134 
 
 IV., - 207 
 
 V, 254 
 
 vi, - 452 
 
 VII., 623 
 
 VIII, . 800
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Experience ; mysterious spirit ! - - Frontispiece 
 
 No sound ! not even a sigh ! - Page 451
 
 GENERAL INTRODUCTION 
 
 THE aim of this edition is to present the Young 
 England movement, the judgments and ideals of the 
 Young Tory party, as conceived by its leading states- 
 man in the enthusiasm of youth. The historical 
 and political significance of the four novels justifies 
 at once their isolation from Disraeli's other work 
 and their publication as a series complete in itself. 
 Coningsby, Sybil, and Tancred were actually con- 
 templated in sequence by their author. Vivian Grey 
 foreshadows what they expound. 
 
 Disraeli wrote many novels with no didactic 
 purpose : others were certainly inspired, if not 
 in every detail, by certain fundamental ideas in 
 politics and philosophy. It is these latter with 
 which we are concerned, and which we desire to 
 interpret. 
 
 Vivian Grey has been hitherto accepted as a mere 
 boyish freak of clever literary bravado an auto- 
 biography and a portrait gallery. It is neither, but 
 contains, in fact, a broader study of human life, 
 particularly illustrated by the fall and regeneration 
 of too presumptuous youth than its author ever 
 again attempted. I find here also unmistakable 
 indications of the ' Young England ' ideals to which 
 the later novels of our group are consciously and 
 b xi
 
 GENERAL INTRODUCTION 
 
 avowedly devoted. Coningsby represents the exist- 
 ing state of political parties : the new creed and its 
 mission. Sybil is a study of the conditions and the 
 relations of rich and poor in England, and of the 
 policies required to cure their defects. Tancred 
 illustrates the power of the Church as a national 
 institution and a remedial agency, while incidentally 
 revealing Disraeli's Imperial ideals. 
 
 Bearing in mind the special interest always attach- 
 ing to the youthful expression of an ideal one, too, 
 which is avowedly dependant on the strength and 
 inspiration of youth, I have determined to reprint 
 the novels as they were originally issued. In later 
 editions, now alone available, of Vivian Grey whole 
 chapters and characters were omitted, and minor 
 revisions confront us at every turn. Yet these 
 changes were never acknowledged and have not, so 
 far as I can ascertain, been remarked by his critics. 
 To-day we are more desirous of studying the 
 ideas of the youth, than that youth's ideas corrected 
 some twenty years later by the man. 
 
 At the present time, when the acquisition of wealth 
 is often openly adopted as an Ideal of Life, when Faith 
 is called Faddism, and Enthusiasm Fanaticism, it 
 cannot but be well to study through the writings of 
 its chief exponent a political movement which based 
 its practices on its faith, and its faith upon a nobler 
 ideal than materialism in an age when, as now, the 
 older political watchwords were outworn and con- 
 fused, and it was for the youth of the nation, ' the 
 trustees of posterity,' to form and mould them anew. 
 
 BERNARD N. LANGDON-DAVIES. 
 COPTHILL, 1904. 
 
 xn
 
 GENERAL INTRODUCTION 
 
 A few notes are appended to each volume on 
 obscure or forgotten incidental allusions and incidents 
 of contemporary history. Brief bibliographical notes 
 will point the way for any desirous of studying 
 the subject further for themselves. My thanks are 
 due to Mr. Lucian Oldershaw for his assistance in 
 reading proofs, as well as for the original conception 
 of the reprint, and for help and advice at every stage 
 of its progress. Of the two drawings in each novel 
 by Mr. Byam Shaw, one is designed as an allegorical 
 presentation of its central idea, the second is illustra- 
 tive of a leading incident. 
 
 B. N. L-D.
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 ' BOOKS written by boys ' said Disraeli in the 
 Advertisement to the re-issue of Vivian Grey twenty- 
 seven years after its first publication 'which pretend 
 to give a picture of manners, and to deal in know- 
 ledge of human nature, must necessarily be founded 
 on affectation.' Yet the fact that Vivian Grey was 
 written when its author was only just out of his 
 teens (while his plans for his own career were still 
 unformed, and his schemes for the regeneration of 
 political parties and through them of the English 
 people still unborn), makes it the best prelude to a 
 study of the Young England movement. And the 
 most fitting preface to Vivian Grey is an introduction 
 to the youth who preached that ' genius when young 
 is divine.' 
 
 Of the divinity of Disraeli at any time of his life 
 there is room for doubt, of his genius there can be 
 but little. He differed, however, from most men 
 of genius, and Englishmen are inclined to question 
 his claim to the title, because he himself was entirely 
 and frankly conscious of its possession. His asser- 
 tion at an early age to Lord Melbourne of his 
 intention to become Prime Minister, the dramatic 
 conclusion of his maiden speech in the House of 
 Commons, the minute self-study of a young man of 
 
 XV
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 genius detailed in his Psychological Autobiography 
 Contarini Fleming, the whole history of his life and 
 personality up to the time when the world began 
 perforce to take him seriously, show clearly enough 
 that, as he believed in his race as the chosen people 
 of God, so he believed in himself as one of that 
 other chosen people the men of genius. 
 
 Yet at the time when Vivian Grey appeared what 
 were his prospects ? How could he see his way 
 to the realisation of ambitions only justifiable from a 
 profound conviction of his own genius ? He was a 
 member of a race which, however favoured of Heaven, 
 was by Englishmen at that time not only regarded 
 with ill-concealed dislike, but excluded as far as pos- 
 sible from the control of affairs. He had no family 
 influence and no wealth wherewith to purchase it. 
 His education had not been such as to bring him into 
 contact and acquaintance with men of position and 
 power. His family were for the most part unable to 
 sympathise with or to understand his aspirations. 
 His friends could see little in him beyond a clever 
 young man whose intellect, like his dress, was original 
 but foppish. Conceive a youth who believed that his 
 race was still the chosen of God, and that he himself 
 was inspired and gifted with special powers ; conceive 
 the indomitable perseverance of the Jew chained to 
 yearning ambition for apparently unattainable ideals ; 
 conceive the brilliant and gifted mind which was 
 only too conscious of a strength whose scope and 
 character could not be determined through lack of 
 opportunity ; and make of all this a lawyer's clerk. 
 You will not then wonder how a young man of 
 twenty-one could write those words which form the 
 unexpected conclusion of Vivian Grey : ' The dis- 
 appointment of manhood succeeds to the delusion
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 of youth ; let us hope that the heritage of old age 
 is not despair.' 
 
 It is only by appreciating his personal position that 
 the reader can understand why the man who was 
 soon to represent the youth of England as her true 
 regenerators, should tell the story of so brilliant 
 and so hopeless a failure as young Vivian Grey ; 
 why, with the callow cynicism peculiar to dis- 
 appointed youth, he should assume decrees of 
 fortune against the ambition of one whose powers 
 and aspirations were at war with his circumstances ; 
 and why he should so constantly show a spirit of 
 rebellion against those decrees. If this be clear, 
 there will be no difficulty in gathering a sensible 
 meaning from the passage wherein young Vivian 
 Grey contemplates his future career. 
 
 ' In the plenitude of his ambition, he stopped one 
 day to enquire in what manner he could obtain his 
 magnificent ends. 
 
 ' The Bar : pooh ! law and bad jokes till we are 
 forty ; and then, with the most brilliant success, the 
 prospect of gout and a coronet. Besides, to succeed 
 as an advocate, I must be a great lawyer ; and, to be 
 a great lawyer, I must give up my chance of being a 
 great man. The services in war time are fit only 
 for desperadoes (and that truly am I) ; but, in peace, 
 are fit only for fools. The church is more rational. 
 Let me see : I should certainly like to act Wolsey ; 
 but, the thousand and one chances against me ! And 
 truly I feel my destiny should not be on a chance. 
 Were I the son of a Millionaire, or a noble, I might 
 have all. Curse on my lot ! that the want of a few 
 rascal counters, and the possession of a little rascal 
 blood, should mar my fortunes ! ' These are the 
 thoughts of young Benjamin Disraeli scorning the 
 
 xvii
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 limitations of the careers open to him and seeking 
 now here, now there, for some loophole of escape 
 into a wider and freer atmosphere. 
 
 Critics have been hitherto content to assume 
 that, because the author of Vivian Grey was con- 
 fronted with somewhat the same difficulties and 
 problems as his hero, his plans for surmounting 
 them were identical. Mr. T. P. O'Connor in his 
 Biography of Disraeli, following the lines of an 
 earlier work by a Mr. Macknight, has represented 
 with malicious cleverness, but with an obviously 
 conscious lack of discrimination, that in Vivian Grey's 
 scheme of his career, and in its early steps we may see 
 an exposition of Disraeli's own scheme and a forecast 
 of his early political fortunes. No interpretation 
 could be less probable, and few forecasts could be less 
 consonant with the facts. A clever young man does 
 not represent himself as entering on a course which 
 he proceeds to trace to its inevitable failure, nor does 
 the early political history of Disraeli in any way 
 agree with that of Vivian Grey. On the basis of his 
 own character and abilities, Disraeli has constructed 
 a personality and a story which his imagination, 
 in conjunction with his self-study, told him were 
 possible. It is thus, as we shall see later, that he 
 built up his principal characters from living originals; 
 and this is why detailed keys to the so called portraits 
 of distinguished men of the time are as misleading as 
 the autobiographical assumption. 
 
 Politics were the study which enthralled Vivian 
 Grey, and from many circumstances we may gather 
 that they also won the allegiance of the young Disraeli. 
 But while Vivian Grey plunged straight into schemes 
 of political machinations without any consideration of 
 what his views might be, it was not for some five 
 
 xviii
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 years after completing this novel that Disraeli took 
 any step in the political world. Then, so far from 
 entering on a career in which like Vivian Grey he 
 should consider mankind his great game and strive 
 to win his own way to distinction by the clever 
 manoeuvring of disappointed and vain magnificoes, 
 he came forward ' wearing the badge of no party 
 and the livery of no faction,' and indeed destroyed 
 his own chances of election by appearing as a man 
 of views rather than as a follower of any leader. 
 Nay, we may go further ; we may say that in 
 his character of Vivian Grey, who made so hopeless 
 a failure in politics, we may read the author's view 
 of what might happen to himself should he not 
 beware, as Vivian's father said, ' of endeavouring to 
 become a great man in a hurry.' In the advice of 
 that father we may see the conclusions arrived at 
 by the young Disraeli in council with his own 
 father. What does Mr. Grey, senior, say to his 
 son ? ' I hope you are not going to be one of 
 those sons of Aurora, " who, puffed up with the 
 glittering show of vanity and ostentation, attempt 
 actions above their strength." You talk to me 
 about the peculiarly active spirit of society ; if 
 the spirit of society be so peculiarly active, Mr. 
 Vivian Grey should beware lest it outstrip him. Is 
 neglecting to mature your mind, my boy, exactly 
 the way to win the race ? ' And it is perhaps to 
 these views, the resultants of the character and 
 ambitions of the son combined with the experience 
 and wise foresight of the father, that we must look 
 for an interpretation of the hitherto unexplained 
 dedication which appears only in the first edition : 
 
 c To the best and greatest of men I dedicate these 
 volumes. He, for whom it is intended, will accept 
 
 xix
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 and appreciate the compliment : those for whom it 
 is not intended will do the same.' 
 
 Of course, the dedication may have been intended 
 merely to add to the air of mystery in which the book 
 was shrouded. But if there was anything genuine 
 in it, and the fact of its omission in 1853 perhaps 
 gives some indication that it was a serious dedication, 
 of which the interest, in the eyes of the author, had 
 gone with his father's death, it is not easy to find 
 any other person to whom it would apply. To 
 almost any one else, whose character was in any 
 way suggested in the story, the comprehension of 
 the satire on themselves would hardly make them 
 regard the dedication of the work to them as a 
 compliment. The only character whose words, 
 manner, and mode of life are rendered in such a 
 way as to make the original able to recognise him- 
 self at once, and who at the same time would, as 
 a result of this recognition, regard the dedication 
 of the book to him as a compliment, is Mr. Grey. 
 Of Isaac Disraeli we know enough to recognise his 
 portrait and to appreciate that his relations to his 
 son were almost exactly those of Mr. Grey to Vivian. 
 It may then be regarded as almost certain that the 
 dedication was to him, that the conversations in 
 chapters six, nine, and elsewhere are resumes of 
 many conversations which had passed between him 
 and his son, and that Benjamin Disraeli in the 
 political escapades of Vivian Grey is showing how 
 he was convinced by his father's reasoning and 
 is portraying the dangers which he conceived that he 
 was avoiding by taking that father's advice. 
 
 There is one piece of direct evidence often 
 quoted to prove that the history of Vivian Grey 
 was that of Benjamin Disraeli which must not be 
 
 XX
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 passed over though it may be criticised. Lord 
 Lamington, better known perhaps as Baillie Coch- 
 rane (the Sir Charles Buckhurst of Coningsby), in 
 his amusing little book, In the Days of the Dandies, 
 makes the following remark : ' It was on such 
 occasions that Mr. Disraeli would tell us the tale 
 of his early life, which really was the life of Vivian 
 Grey.' This is a sufficiently direct statement by 
 a man who ought to know what he is talking 
 about. Yet there are a few considerations which 
 may incline the reader to doubt even this piece 
 of evidence. Lord Lamington is speaking of con- 
 versations which occurred some forty or more 
 years before, and may perhaps have unintentionally 
 given a false idea that Disraeli meant in these 
 conversations to imply that the incidents of Vivian 
 Grey's career were those of his own, whereas he 
 meant something quite different. The possibility 
 of such inaccuracy is, perhaps, borne out by the 
 carelessness with which Lord Lamington quotes in 
 the same book from Disraeli's novels. And further, 
 there is no indication as to whether Disraeli said 
 that he was describing his past or was foretelling 
 his future in the life of Vivian Grey. And, which- 
 ever he is represented to have said, all evidence 
 goes to show that neither was the case. Had 
 Disraeli gone through a political escapade before 
 the appearance of his first novel in 1826, there 
 must have been some record of it. As a matter 
 of fact there is none ; and none of his biographers, 
 eager as some of them must have been to find 
 evidence of it, have even hinted that such was the 
 case. If the history is supposed to have been 
 acknowledged by the author as a forecast of what 
 afterwards happened to him, where, it must again 
 
 xxi
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 be asked, is the evidence ? Mr. O'Connor asserts 
 that what the Marquess of Carabas was to Vivian 
 Grey, the Marquess of Buckingham and Chandos 
 subsequently became to Disraeli On what does 
 he base an assertion implying that Disraeli entered 
 into a definite alliance with the Marquess of Chandos 
 to put him and his friends into power as Vivian 
 Grey did with the Marquess of Carabas ? The only 
 pieces of evidence are the following : that at 
 a dinner at Aylesbury of the County Agricultural 
 Association in 1834, Disraeli, in a speech at the end 
 of the evening, included a few complimentary words 
 to the chairman, who was the Marquess of Chandos ; 
 that in the same year Greville in his Memoirs, said 
 that the Chancellor spoke of Disraeli as 'a friend 
 of Chandos' ; that at the time of the Repeal of the 
 Corn Laws, ten years later, the Marquess of Chandos 
 .was one of the leaders of the Anti-Peel Tories, the 
 party to which Disraeli also belonged. Surely this 
 is flimsy evidence, and there is not a jot more 
 to show that Disraeli ever used the Marquess of 
 Chandos as the catspaw to his own advancement 
 in the way that Vivian Grey used the Marquess of 
 Carabas. 
 
 It may, then, fairly be urged that what Disraeli 
 said, or implied, to Lord Lamington was, as has 
 been represented above, that the mere substructure 
 of Vivian Grey's character and early life was that 
 of his own. Anything more than this Lord Laming- 
 ton through carelessness, Mr. O'Connor and others 
 through malice, wrongly infer. And this view is 
 supported by a passage from the third volume, 
 omitted in later editions, in which the author in- 
 terrupts his story to express his indignation at the 
 charge that Vivian Grey was an autobiography, a 
 
 xxii
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 charge which had been brought within a month or two 
 of the publication of the first two volumes and was 
 therefore no new idea even of Mr. Macknight's. ' I 
 conceived,' he says, ' the character of a youth of great 
 talents, whose mind had been corrupted, as the 
 minds of many of our youth have been, by the artificial 
 age in which he lived. In his whole career he was to 
 be pitied ; but for his whole career he was not to be 
 less punished. When I sketched the feelings of his 
 early boyhood, as the novelist, I had already foreseen 
 the results to which those feelings were to lead ; 
 and had in store for the fictitious character the 
 punishment which he endured.' 
 
 But if Vivian Grey cannot be accepted as an auto- 
 biography, it has been, with no less injustice, dis- 
 missed as a mere gallery of portraits. There is but 
 one character in the novel, that of Mr. Grey, which 
 can be called a portrait ; many of them probably were 
 constructed from a combination of characteristics of 
 more than one original ; others had merely a single 
 trait borrowed from life interwoven with a personality 
 and circumstances which are entirely creatures of 
 imagination ; others again were pure fiction. Gossip, 
 scandal, and personal details about social celebrities 
 are the business of the less accredited society journals. 
 A novelist like Disraeli, whatever his limitations, 
 cannot but aim at something more creative than 
 this ; and, though he may be willing to use his 
 experience and to pique curiosity by suggesting 
 originals, if he have any trace of genius or even 
 of intelligence, must be led away from a mere 
 description of them and their doings, and an improb- 
 able forecast of their futures. 
 
 Yet Sir William Fraser in his egotistical work, 
 Disraeli and his Day, characteristically asserts that
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 he suggested to Disraeli late in his life that the 
 characters were ' idealised portraits,' and that Dis- 
 raeli repeated and confirmed the suggestion. But, 
 if the portraits were idealised, they were certainly 
 not presented as perfect types. A man does not 
 in the years of his responsibility and honour care 
 to enlarge on the rashest actions of his rash youth, 
 and Disraeli probably found a polite echo the 
 easiest way of turning off a pert question. The 
 arguments to be considered seriously are those 
 deduced from Disraeli's own assertions on the point 
 at or near the time of the publication of Vivian 
 Grey, and the evidence from the characters them- 
 selves and their alleged originals. And first of all 
 comes the letter written by Disraeli himself to Mr. 
 Colburn, who was pressing the author of the first 
 part of Vivian Grey for a key to his characters, just 
 after he had published the remaining parts : ' I am 
 very much surprised,' he wrote, ' at Mr. Colburn's 
 request. How my knowledge of the characters in 
 Vivian Grey can be necessary to, or indeed in the 
 slightest degree assist any one in understanding the 
 work, is to me a most inexplicable mystery. Let it 
 be taken for granted that the characters are purely 
 ideal, and the whole affair is settled. If any col- 
 lateral information be required in order to understand 
 the work, either Vivian Grey is unworthy to be read, 
 or, which is of course an impossible conclusion, the 
 reader is not sagacious enough to penetrate its 
 meaning. 
 
 ' Of course I have no intention of denying that 
 these volumes are in a very great degree founded on 
 my own observation and experience. Possibly, in 
 some instances, I may have very accurately depicted 
 existing characters. But Vivian Grey is not given
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 to the public as a gallery of portraits, nor have I any 
 wish that it should be considered as such. It will 
 give me great pleasure if the public recognise it as a 
 faithful picture of human nature in general. Whether 
 it be anything further rests with the author, and 
 should only interest him. I cannot prevent sur- 
 mises ; but I shall always take care that from me 
 they shall receive neither denial nor confirmation. 
 In part of the former volumes a number of names 
 and characters were introduced which were evident 
 portraits or caricatures. I can understand any reader 
 of those pages being naturally desirous to compre- 
 hend their full meaning, and seeking auxiliary means 
 to produce the desired knowledge ; but to com- 
 prehend the full meaning of the present volumes, the 
 public has only to read them ; and, if there be 
 anything obscure or unsatisfactory, it is the author's 
 fault he is a blunderer. All the notes and keys in 
 the kingdom will not make him more intelligible.' 
 
 His own direct statement just after writing the 
 novel amounts to this. The first four books, 
 that is to say those which dealt with his political 
 escapade, contained ' a number of names and char- 
 acters which were evident portraits or caricatures.' 
 The remaining volumes might contain characters 
 which suggested in some measure living originals, 
 but were not to be regarded as containing inten- 
 tional portraits. 
 
 There is, however, another source of information 
 which, though indirect, is undoubtedly of real value. 
 In Contarini Fleming, which was' written five years 
 atter Vivian Grey, Disraeli gives an account of the 
 composition, publication and effect of the hero's 
 novel Manstein. A careful reading of the twelfth, 
 fourteenth, and fifteenth chapters of the second part 
 
 XXV
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 of Contarini Fleming must convince us that this is 
 meant for a history of Disraeli's own Vivian Grey. 
 The passages most nearly concerned with the present 
 question it is perhaps allowable to quote : ' My 
 hero,' he says, ' was a youth whose mind was ever 
 combating with his situation. . . . All this was 
 serious enough, and the most singular thing is, that 
 all this time it never struck me that I was delineating 
 my own character. But now comes the curious part. 
 In depicting the scenes of society in which my hero 
 was forced to move, I suddenly dashed, not only 
 into slashing satire, but even into malignant per- 
 sonality. All the bitterness of my heart, occasioned 
 by my wretched existence among their false circles, 
 found its full vent. Never was anything so im- 
 prudent. Everybody figured, and all parties and 
 opinions alike suffered. The same hand that 
 immortalised the cream cheeses of poor Count de 
 Moltke now avenged his wrongs. For the work 
 itself, it was altogether a most crude performance, 
 teeming with innumerable faults. It was entirely 
 deficient in art. The principal character, although 
 forcibly conceived, for it was founded on truth, was 
 not sufficiently developed. Of course, the others 
 were much less so. The incidents were unnatural, 
 the serious characters exaggerations, the comic ones 
 caricatures ; the wit was too often flippant, the 
 philosophy too often forced ; yet the vigour was 
 remarkable, the licence of an uncurbed imagination 
 not without charms and, on the whole, there breathed 
 a freshness which is rarely found, and which, perhaps, 
 with all my art and knowledge, I may never again 
 afford : and, indeed, when I recall the heat with 
 which this little work was written, I am convinced 
 that, with all its errors, the parts of true creation 
 
 xxvi
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 animated its fiery page.' Later on, in speaking of 
 the effect the book had on society, Contarini says : 
 ' I can give no idea of the outcry. Everybody was 
 in a passion, or affected to be painfully sensitive of 
 their neighbours' wrongs. The very personality 
 was ludicrously exaggerated. Everybody took a 
 delight in detecting the originals of my portraits. 
 Various keys were handed about, all different ; and, 
 not content with recognising the very few decided 
 sketches from life which there really were, and which 
 were sufficiently obvious and not very malignant, 
 they mischievously insisted that not a human shadow 
 glided over my pages which might not be traced to 
 its substance, and protested that the Austrian minister 
 was the model of an old woman.' He says finally : 
 ' I never meant to ridicule any person in particular. 
 I wrote with rapidity. I wrote of what I had seen 
 and felt.' 
 
 Here again, we find the author of Vivian Grey, if 
 we may assume that the reference is autobiographical, 
 emphasising most strongly the fact that in his novel, 
 he was in a measure personal, but did not piece 
 together his entire dramatis persons from living 
 originals. Nevertheless, contemporary society be- 
 lieved itself to be represented throughout the novel, 
 and read with avidity the keys written to elucidate 
 the portraiture. 
 
 How many of such keys there may have been is 
 doubtful. There is now but one available, compris- 
 ing the tenth edition of a key to the second part 
 of the story and a quotation from the columns of 
 the Star Chamber containing a key to the first part. 
 The Star Chamber was a paper which appeared in 
 1826, and after struggling on for a few months died 
 in the same year. It is generally supposed that this 
 ( xxvii
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 paper, and therefore the criticism of Vivian Grey and 
 the key, was inspired, and in great part written, by 
 Disraeli; but the evidence for this view is slight. It 
 is founded on the fact that the style of many of the 
 articles was very like that of Disraeli, and that much 
 the same views as he expressed elsewhere appeared 
 from time to time in its columns. It is clear, how- 
 ever, that from this evidence alone no certain 
 conclusion can proceed. The paper might just as well 
 have been written by admirers of Disraeli as by 
 Disraeli himself. His political enemies, who have 
 always sought more to attack in him than there really 
 was, have asserted or insinuated that he was guilty 
 of puffing his own novel in an anonymous article. 
 It will be seen from the extract which follows that 
 the style of the review undoubtedly bears a resem- 
 blance to that of the author of Vivian Grey, but 
 before any deduction as to its authorship can be 
 assumed there are one or two questions which the 
 reader should put to himself. Apart from the lack 
 of evidence to show that Disraeli really did write in 
 this journal, is it likely that he would have reviewed 
 his own book ? That would have been a contra- 
 vention of the ordinary principles of decency, of 
 which even an eccentric young fop of twenty-two 
 would hardly be guilty. And, had he done this, 
 would he not rather have struggled to conceal his 
 own style of writing than to have exhibited so 
 marked a likeness? And lastly, in view of Disraeli's 
 own assertions as to the real extent of the portraiture, 
 and in view of the internal evidence as to the truth 
 of these assertions, would he not, if making the key 
 to his own book, either have given the originals to 
 the few characters which were really recognisable, or 
 have invented, for the sake of piquing curiosity, an 
 
 xxviii
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 inclusive list ? The author of the key, however, 
 ascribes originals to under thirty out of over sixty 
 characters appearing in the first four books, and, if 
 the usual interpretation of its initial letters and 
 skeleton outlines be correct, was betrayed into 
 error in more than one case. 
 
 The extract from the Star Chamber of the 24th of 
 May, 1826, runs as follows : 'Who is the Author ? 
 Not Lord Glengall, reader, though he has modestly 
 confessed it, not Lord Normanby, reader, though 
 he has, as modestly, denied it. Neither is the Author 
 of Vivian Grey Mr. Ward or Mr. Hook. These 
 names, we believe, however, have not of late passed 
 current, in spite of the Irish Earl's repeated assever- 
 ations. Lord Glengall the author of Vivian Grey ? 
 What next ? Another name has been whispered 
 through the town, and if we are to pay any credence 
 to a communication signed A. J. V., that name is 
 the right one, " a young gentleman of extraordinary 
 abilities hitherto unknown." Illustrious and innocent 
 young man ! 
 
 ' To be brief we do not believe Mr. A. J. V.'s 
 communication (although he is doubtless the " young 
 gentleman " himself) we do not believe it, although 
 to use his own phrase, " his conjecture almost 
 amounts to conviction," we do not believe it for one 
 simple reason, because We know who the Author of 
 Vivian Grey really is.' 
 
 Neither the key to the first nor that to the second 
 part is sufficiently explicit to offer certain ground 
 for the criticism of every individual assertion. 
 Many of the notables and notorieties of fashionable 
 London Society nearly eighty years ago are entirely 
 unknown to-day. If, for instance, by laborious 
 search it could be discovered who was the Lady
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 C mentioned as the original of Mrs. Del- 
 
 mont, we should learn but little. For Vivian Grey 
 might be read half a dozen times without the 
 allusion to Mrs. Delmont being recalled. She 
 
 neither interprets Lady C , nor could Lady 
 
 C possibly interpret her. But there are cases, 
 
 besides those incidentally referred to above, where 
 the keys show clearly enough the correct originals of 
 caricatures. The Attackall Review is certainly the 
 Quarterly, and Robert Southey is certainly its principal 
 writer. So too the Praiseall Review is intended for 
 the Edinburgh, Dr. von Spittergen for Abernethy, 
 Julius von Aslingen for Brummell, and Mr. Sher- 
 borne for a particular aspect of Isaac Disraeli. 
 Other identifications are doubtless true enough, but 
 some are as certainly false ; and as some of these occur 
 in the key falsely attributed to Disraeli himself, it is 
 perhaps allowable to give examples. Parthenopex 
 
 Puff is there asserted to be Mr. S R , 
 
 usually read as Samuel Rogers the poet, whom 
 Parthenopex Puff in no way suggests. Look up 
 the character and you will find that he has been 
 working at Ariosto, and has dedicated a book on 
 cats to the Guards. Mr. William Stewart Rose, 
 whose most famous work was a translation of 
 Partenopex of Blots, published in 1807, was at work 
 on Ariosto from 1823 to 1831 ; and had in 1823 pub- 
 lished a prose analysis of that poet ; in 1825 he wrote 
 a book called an Apology addressed to the Travellers' 
 Club ; or, Anecdotes of Monkeys. Here, then, is the 
 original of Parthenopex Puff, whose initials are 
 W. S. R., and not the famous S. R. A similar slight 
 error is the ascription of the original of Antilles to a 
 
 Mr. C E , whereas the initials should be 
 
 C. R. E., standing for Charles Rose Ellis, the highest 
 
 XXX
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 authority in Parliament on the West-Indian Islands, 
 often called the Antilles. But more important than 
 these slight mistakes is the statement that the Mar- 
 quess of Carabas stands for the Marquess of C , 
 
 usually supposed and confidently asserted by all 
 subsequent writers to have been the Marquess of 
 Clanricarde. Now the Marquess of Carabas is an 
 elderly, vain, disappointed man, whose career is past, 
 and on whose senile vanity Vivian Grey is able to 
 work in making his own future. The then Marquess 
 of Clanricarde was aged exactly twenty-four, and 
 had succeeded his father, a military man, in the title 
 some eighteen years before. He himself in the 
 very year of the production of Vivian Grey held 
 his first official post as Under Secretary for Foreign 
 Affairs. We may be asked to believe that Disraeli 
 foretold the circumstances of the Marquess of Clan- 
 ricarde some thirty or forty years later, and falsely 
 represented them, but it is absurd to expect us to 
 believe that the Marquess of Carabas could in any 
 way be intended to represent him as he then was. 
 The other Marquesses at that time whose names 
 began with C. were the Marquess of Cholmondeley, 
 the Marquess of Camden, and the Marquess of 
 Chandos. To none of these is the personality or 
 history of the Marquess of Carabas, at all events 
 as early as 1826, in any way germane. 
 
 Nor is the key, which has not been ascribed to 
 Disraeli's pen, more reliable. It is asserted, for 
 example, that the Count von Sohnspeer represents 
 the Duke of Wellington, with whom he had nothing 
 save his sex and profession in common. And 
 again, it is confidently stated that Madame Carolina 
 represents Lady Holland. Her ambiguous position 
 in the society in which her husband moves, and 
 
 xxxi
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 the brilliance and abilities of her circle no doubt 
 suggest Lady Holland. But when she is referred 
 to as ' Philosophical ! piquant ! Parisian,' and Lady 
 Holland has been described as ' polite, cold, and 
 haughty,' and is well known to have been care- 
 less of appearances, and in almost all her charac- 
 teristics different from Madame Carolina, it is 
 clear that the confidence of this assertion is mis- 
 leading. The keys, then, represent rather piquant 
 pieces of journalism than veracious records of 
 facts, and must only be accepted, even when their 
 own cryptic initials have been interpreted, with great 
 caution. 
 
 Here, then, is the best external evidence procurable 
 as to the extent and limitations of portraiture in the 
 novel. And it is remarkable, if the story is carefully 
 studied, how closely the internal evidence appears 
 to follow the lines of Disraeli's own accounts of it. 
 Remarkable indeed, not because Disraeli might have 
 been expected to give a false account, but because 
 the aggressive certainty of the keys, and the innate 
 desire of society to see itself, and more especially its 
 neighbours, pilloried, have caused all critics to take 
 unquestioningly the view that he told half truths only 
 in his own accounts, and that the characters are in 
 fact a string of portraits. If the reader will consider 
 the characters carefully, he must inevitably come to 
 the conclusion that, with the exception perhaps of 
 Vivian and his father, the more important a part the 
 personages play in the plot of the story the less they 
 savour of caricature, and the less certainty there is as 
 to the originals they are presumed to represent. The 
 only definite original suggested for the Marquess 
 of Carabas is wrong, Violet Fane has no charac- 
 teristics which could give any interest to the know- 
 
 xxxii
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 ledge of her original, Madame Carolina suggests 
 her reputed original about as little as one clever 
 queen of society could suggest another. On the 
 other hand, Stanislaus Hoax, Foaming Fudge, and 
 Lord Alhambra, who are not really personalities in 
 the story at all, are without doubt impressionist 
 caricatures of Theodore Hook, Lord Brougham, and 
 Lord Porchester. The conclusion then must be that, 
 in writing a story which contained a hasty, bitter, 
 and very youthful satire of society, one after another 
 of the personalities, which the author knew or knew 
 of, occurred to his mind. Sometimes, no doubt, the 
 creations of his imagination recalled living persons, and 
 he dubbed them with names or added a few further 
 points to suggest the associations ; sometimes a living 
 person was introduced for the purpose of the carica- 
 ture ; sometimes the guesses of readers have no 
 foundation whatever. When a minister who is all- 
 powerful in a German State, and who lives a 
 mysterious and retired life, is required for the story, 
 we may perhaps conjecture that Disraeli is reminded 
 of Metternich, and adds to the picture so as to make 
 the resemblance of Beckendorff to him more com- 
 plete. When he wishes to show how even the 
 pure-blooded aristocrat will bow down to vulgar 
 wealth, he bethinks him of the social position of 
 Mrs. Coutts, and satirises her as Mrs. Million. 
 When, on the other hand, he drags in, for no pur- 
 pose whatever in his story, such names as the Misses 
 Otranto and the Duke of Waterloo for the Misses 
 Berry and the Duke of Wellington, and merely passes 
 a word or a paragraph of comment upon them, we 
 may be pretty sure that this is done for the sake 
 of the caricature or portrait. And lastly, we may 
 count ourselves fairly safe in assuming that characters
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 like Essper George the mountebank, who is ' more 
 honest than moonlight, for that deceives everyone, 
 and less honest than self-praise, for that deceives no 
 one'; or like John Conyers, the distressed yeoman, 
 or Stapylton Toad, the successful manager of shady 
 business for distressed aristocrats, are simply descrip- 
 tions, satirical or otherwise, of types and not of 
 individuals. 
 
 Yet, despite this obvious conclusion, nearly all 
 critics have united in ascribing to Disraeli, at the 
 age of twenty-one, sufficient knowledge of psy- 
 chology and of society to gauge the characters of 
 many leading men of his time, and sufficient 
 technical skill to introduce them into a more or 
 less coherent story. The theory is improbable, 
 specifically denied, and unnecessary. A single por- 
 trait and a number of caricatures may have been 
 introduced into the story. But we do not seek 
 originals in Dickens and Thackeray for Mr. Toots, 
 Mr. Winkle, or Henry Esmond, because Harold 
 Skim pole, Mr. Micawber, and Lord Steyne are 
 reputed to be caricatures or portraits of Leigh Hunt, 
 Mr. Dickens senior, and Lord Hertford. ' My 
 principal objects in writing this work,' says Disraeli, 
 ' are to amuse myself and instruct society.' He had 
 not yet, as later in Coningsby, a band of people he 
 wished to represent in connection with a set of views, 
 nor had he the opportunity of knowing at all intim- 
 ately the people he is said to have described. He 
 had neither a purpose to serve in portraying them 
 nor the power to do it. He denied having done 
 so, and the facts bear out his denial. 
 
 But the views of Disraeli as a young man of 
 twenty-one, are to be found, as we have seen above, 
 by analysing those of Vivian Grey and his father, 
 
 xxxiv
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 and by noticing where the career of Vivian grows 
 out of the characteristics which Disraeli transferred 
 from himself to his hero, and where it is in the 
 light of a ' horrid example.' What connection is 
 there between these views and those which Disraeli 
 afterwards offered to the world as the mouthpiece 
 of Young England ? 
 
 One of the leading principles of the Young England 
 creed was the belief in the strength and inspiration 
 of youth. ' Genius, when young, is divine,' has 
 already been quoted from Coningsby. ( The history 
 of heroes is the history of youth,' comes from the 
 same novel. In the speech some years after this 
 time at the Manchester Atheneum and also at the 
 conclusion of Sybil occur the famous words : ' The 
 Youth of the nation are the trustees of posterity.' 
 Innumerable examples of these views might be 
 collected, but these three concise and luminous 
 sayings are sufficient to illustrate the point. And 
 the Youth of England, so ran the creed, were to be 
 the instruments of the great social and political 
 changes which were needed. The men, whose 
 principles of Government, when they had any, were 
 right, were the old Tory Aristocracy. It was the 
 young aristocracy and their friends who were to 
 effect the reformation on the lines of Tory 
 principles. And the first step in their reforma- 
 tion must be the education, the sifting and the 
 purification of their own order. This, in brief, 
 is the Young England creed which Coningsby, 
 Sybil, and Tancred were written to expound. How 
 far does Vivian Grey show the germ of these ideas in 
 Disraeli's mind ? 
 
 It needs no reading between the lines to discover 
 from Vivian Grey that Disraeli was already criticising 
 
 xxxv
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 the way in which the Tories of the old school lived, 
 and regarded political life. Consider the picture that 
 he draws of them. Self-indulgent, extravagant, and 
 idle, their faith was chiefly concentrated on three 
 things, rank, wealth, and fashion. Their sense of 
 responsibility was overwhelmed by their sense of 
 their own importance, and their political honour 
 had dwindled to an attachment they conceived 
 heroic to their own order. But though the Marquess 
 of Carabas and Sir Plantagenet Pure might believe in 
 themselves and each other, and be courted by others 
 for their rank, though they in their turn might 
 court the vulgar Mrs. Million for her money, and 
 though all the great ones might be the faithful 
 votaries of fashion, there was one other thing and a 
 worthier thing which Disraeli does represent them as 
 saluting, if not as adoring. ' Certain it is,' he says, 
 ' to enter high society a man must either have blood, 
 a million, or genius.' He believed that brains were 
 ' a passport to the society of the great.' Here, then, 
 was the way to their reformation and here the 
 opportunity for an unprincipled schemer like Vivian 
 Grey. 
 
 But do we find in Vivian Grey any assumption 
 that the principles of Government at the basis 
 of the Tory position were in the main right, or 
 more right than those of their opponents, and that 
 it was by their young men they were to be 
 reformed ? 
 
 There is not very much in the novel that can be 
 cited for certain to prove Disraeli's belief at that time 
 in the principles of the Tory party. Still from the 
 conversation between Vivian Grey and Cleveland in 
 the first chapter of the fourth book might be quoted 
 the praise of Giffbrd, the Tory editor of the Anti-
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 Jacobin and the Quarterly Re-view, as also the com- 
 mendations both speakers bestow upon Canning. 
 From the whole history of the formation of the 
 Carabas party, too, it is obvious that it was meant to 
 represent the highest of the high Tories. But the 
 Toryism of the Carabas party was not to be the 
 Toryism of Lord Liverpool. It is clear that some- 
 thing is added to the old Toryism, but in Vivian 
 Grey it was a counterfeit, a mistaken view of the 
 new principles ; it is left for Coningsby to develop 
 the real creed. But more than all is it certain that 
 the Tories were considered par excellence the Party 
 by the young Disraeli, because he hardly seems to 
 regard the Whigs seriously at all, or at all events 
 only as those with whom ' we have nothing to do.' 
 A curious instance of Disraeli's anxiety to make 
 this clear is shown in his alteration of the speech of 
 the Marquess of Carabas at the dinner. In the first 
 edition the Marquess takes too much wine, and makes 
 a disconnected and maudlin speech, which consists of 
 meaningless phrases ; in the later edition, in order to 
 mark the fact that the Carabas party is a branch of 
 the Tory party, the author makes him say, in the 
 course of his speech, ' There are few distinctions now 
 between the two sides of the House of Commons, 
 very different from the times in which most, I 
 believe all, of us, my Lords and Gentlemen, were 
 members of that assembly. The question then 
 naturally arises, why a certain body of individuals, 
 who now represent no opinions, should arrogate 
 to themselves the entire government and control of 
 the country ? A second question would occur, how 
 they contrive to succeed in such an assumption ? 
 They succeed clearly because the party who placed 
 them in power, because they represented certain
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 opinions, still continue their support. Some of the 
 most influential members of that party, I am bold 
 to say, may be found in this room.' As to the 
 question of who were to be the regenerators of the 
 Tory party, can we hesitate for an answer ? It was 
 scarcely to be the Marquess of Carabas or Lord 
 Courtown as represented in the novel, it could not 
 well be Vivian Grey, as he is there shown. What 
 are the author's reflections in the fifth book when 
 Vivian's political escapade has ended in failure, 
 and he is seeking to recuperate his shattered mind 
 and body in the romantic town of Heidelberg ? 
 * Experience,' he says, ' mysterious spirit ! whose 
 result is felt by all, whose nature is described by 
 none. The father warns the son of your approach, 
 and sometimes looks to you as his offspring's cure, 
 and his own consolation. We hear of you in the 
 nursery, we hear of you in the world, we hear of 
 you in books ; but who has recognised you until he 
 was your subject, and who has discovered the object 
 of so much fame until he has kissed your chain ? To 
 gain you is the work of all, and the curse of all ; 
 you are at the same time necessary to our happiness, 
 and destructive of our felicity ; you are the saviour 
 of all things, and the destroyer of all things; our 
 best friend and our bitterest enemy ; for you teach 
 us truth, and that truth is despair. Ye youth of 
 England, would that ye could read this riddle!' 
 And what is the reading of the riddle ? What can 
 it be, since experience begets despair, save that youth 
 is the season of enthusiasm and of action, but should 
 not fail to observe the lessons which experience has 
 taught to age ? Again, there is that ejaculation of 
 Vivian's father, ' God grant ! that our youth, the 
 hope of our State, may not be lost to us ! ' And 
 
 xxxviii
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 there is the young Grand Duke of Reisenburg, with 
 his tutor, ' a young man about ten years older than 
 his pupil,' who together conceive and carry into effect 
 the reaction against the bad old government of the 
 former Margrave. The young men were to be the 
 reformers, their principles were to be Tory, and the 
 first reforms were needed in the ranks of the aris- 
 tocracy themselves. 
 
 Here is the germ of the Young England creed 
 appearing in Vivian Grey. Other indications of the 
 development of minor points in the creed may be 
 found in such incidents as that of the honest yeo- 
 man, John Conyers, whose distress and misery 
 were caused by the fact that he had been handed 
 over as tenant to Lord Mounteney's man of busi- 
 ness, Mr. Stapylton Toad. For Lord Mounteney 
 was one of those decadent nobles to whom extra- 
 vagance and idleness had proved more attractive 
 than the discharge of their duties as landowners 
 and aristocrats. Here we may see signs of that 
 Young England tenet which forms one of the chief 
 themes of Coningsby, that the aristocrat is, or should 
 be, the protector and leader of his territorial depen- 
 dents, and that the yeoman class was still, as in the 
 days of the Heptarchy, the backbone of England. 
 Again, there is the history of the Grand Duke of 
 Reisenburg. For he represented the Monarch as the 
 friend and ruler of the people, with a real nobility 
 about his throne, and a free and strong representa- 
 tive assembly as counsellors. These and others are 
 anticipations of the creed afterwards displayed in 
 Coningsby, Sybil, and Tancred. The creed is not 
 yet formulated, nor has the writer apparently system- 
 atised his various enthusiasms ; but the visionary 
 outlines are already present to his mind. 
 
 xxxix
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 And now, before the reader tests the earliest work of 
 Disraeli for himself, there is one more point on which 
 the editor should speak. What is the literary stand- 
 ing of Disraeli ? It would be idle to pretend that 
 he is worthy to rank among the greatest masters 
 of fiction, especially in this, his early and even 
 puerile work. His English is not above reproach, 
 his delineation of character is faulty, his construction 
 of plot is weak. What can be claimed for him are 
 more subtle excellences than these. Instead of correct 
 English, we find in Disraeli, brilliance of expression 
 and descriptive power. Instead of faithful delineation 
 of character, we find a satirical and impressionist 
 manner of presenting his personalities, which makes 
 them derive their interest rather from their connection 
 with views and opinions than from our likes or 
 dislikes of them in themselves. Instead of a well- 
 constructed plot, he developes ideas. These powers 
 in Vivian Grey are unchastened, unpractised, and 
 often unsuccessful, but they are there. It is almost 
 unnecessary to quote from the many brilliant phrases 
 and fine descriptions to be found even in Vivian 
 Grey. The satire of Mr. Stapylton Toad, or 
 Mrs. Million, or the Marquess of Carabas will be 
 familiar to every reader. The trend of ideas after 
 which the crude plot wends its way is capable of 
 easy comprehension. Yet perhaps it is unfair to 
 claim merits without giving examples of them. 
 As regards brilliance of expression Mr. Siever's 
 remark, evidently pointed at the New Romanticists, 
 ' here we write novels like history, and history 
 like novels ; all our facts are fancy, and all 
 our imagination reality ' ; or the saying of the 
 same man that ' he who anticipates his century is 
 generally persecuted when living, and is always 
 
 xl
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 pilfered when dead ' ; and as regards descriptive 
 passages, that of the unmasking of the cardsharpers 
 in book V. chapter XIII., or of the storm in book 
 VIII. chapter V., will serve for examples. Of the 
 satirical impression of the characters, some instances 
 have already been mentioned, but only a reading of the 
 book can properly exemplify them. The chief ideas 
 which guide the wandering plot of the story are three. 
 In Vivian Grey's early history in England, we see 
 youth led into error by false confidence in itself 
 and its abilities ; in the second part of the story we 
 see the history of youth's first real passion and its 
 ennobling and purifying effect upon the character ; 
 in the third part we trace the final confirmation of 
 character brought about by contact with the knaves 
 and the fools, the worthy and the wise of European 
 society. 
 
 The reception of Vivian Grey was remarkable. 
 ' The town is divided,' wrote a distinguished foreigner 
 then resident in London, ' between the death of 
 Canning and the appearance of a most singular novel.' 
 Guizot, too, commented upon its publication, using 
 the words ' La carriere du roman politique est ouverte 
 en Angleterre.' Its fame was great in the drawing- 
 rooms of Mayfair, but it was also read and discussed in 
 the studies of scholars and men of affairs. And what 
 is the secret of the success and permanence of this 
 boy's book ? It is not merely the caricatures, it is 
 certainly not the fascination of the plot, and it is not 
 only the dialogue. We must look deeper to find the 
 spark of genius, we must look for something which is 
 universal and eternal in the life of man. And this 
 will be found in the special application of the fall 
 through pride and sin, and the regeneration through 
 sorrow and time. Vivian Grey fell and worked out 
 
 xli
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 his regeneration ; there his history breaks off. 
 The history of Benjamin Disraeli is continued for 
 us to the end. Here in his earliest work he shows 
 himself alive to the dangers of his proposed career. 
 Here too he outlines his faith and his ideal. 
 
 xlii
 
 VIVIAN GREY 
 
 BOOK THE FIRST 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 I AM not aware that the infancy of Vivian Grey was 
 distinguished by any extraordinary incident. The 
 solicitude of the most affectionate of mothers, and the 
 care of the most attentive of nurses, did their best to 
 injure an excellent constitution. But Vivian was an 
 only child, and these exertions were therefore excus- 
 able. For the first five years of his life, Master 
 Vivian, with his curly locks and his fancy dress, was 
 the pride of his own, and the envy of all neighbouring 
 establishments ; but, in process of time, the horrible 
 spirit of boyism began to develope itself, and Vivian 
 not only would brush his hair ' strait,' and rebel 
 
 against his nurse, but actually insisted upon being 
 
 breeched ! At this crisis it was discovered that he 
 had been spoiled, and it was determined that he should 
 be sent to school. Mr. Grey observed, also, that the 
 child was nearly ten years old, and did not know his 
 alphabet, and Mrs Grey remarked, that he was getting 
 very ugly. The fate of Vivian was decided. 
 
 ' I am told, my dear,' observed Mrs. Grey, one day 
 after dinner to her husband, ' I am told, my dear,
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK I 
 
 that Dr. Flummery's would do very well for Vivian. 
 Nothing can exceed the attention which is paid to the 
 pupils. There are sixteen young ladies, all the 
 daughters of clergymen, merely to attend to the 
 morals and the linen terms very moderate 100 
 guineas per annum, for all under six years of age, and 
 few extras, only for fencing, pure milk, and the guitar. 
 Mrs: Metcalfe has both her boys there, and she says 
 their progress is astonishing. Percy Metcalfe, she 
 assures me, was quite as backward as Vivian. Ah ! 
 indeed, much backwarder ; and so was Dudley 
 Metcalfe, who was taught at home on the new system, 
 by a pictorial alphabet, and who persisted to the last, 
 notwithstanding all the exertions of Miss Barrett, in 
 spelling A-P-E monkey, merely because over the 
 word, there was a monster munching an apple.' 
 
 ' And quite right in the child, my dear. Pic- 
 torial alphabet ! pictorial fool's head ! ' 
 
 'But what do you say to Flummery's, Grey?' 
 
 ' My dear, do what you like. I never trouble 
 
 myself, you know, about these matters' ; and Mr. 
 
 Grey refreshed himself, after this domestic attack, 
 
 with a glass of claret. 
 
 Mr. Grey was a gentleman who had succeeded, 
 when the heat of youth was over, to the enjoy- 
 ment of a life interest in an estate of about 2000 
 per annum. He was a man of distinguished literary 
 abilities, and he had hailed with no slight pleasure 
 his succession to a fortune, which, though limited 
 in its duration, was still a very great thing for a 
 young litterateur about town, not only with no 
 profession, but with a mind utterly unfitted for 
 every species of business. Grey, to the astonish- 
 ment of his former friends, the wits, made an excellent 
 domestic match ; and, leaving the whole manage-
 
 CHAPTER I VIVIAN GREY 
 
 ment of his household to his lady, felt himself as 
 independent in his magnificent library as if he had 
 never ceased to be that true freeman, A MAN OF 
 
 CHAMBERS. 
 
 The young Vivian had not, by the cares which 
 fathers are always heirs to, yet reminded his parent 
 that boys were anything else but playthings. 
 The intercourse between father and son was, of 
 course, extremely limited ; for Vivian was, as yet, 
 the mother's child ; Mr.. Grey's parental duties 
 being confined to giving his son a glass of claret 
 per diem, pulling his ears with all the awkwardness 
 of literary affection, and trusting to God ' that the 
 urchin would never scribble.' 
 
 ' I won't go to school, Mamma,' bawled Vivian. 
 
 ' But you must, my love,' answered Mrs. Grey ; 
 'all good boys go to school;' and in the plenitude 
 of a mother's love she tried to make her off- 
 spring's hair curl. 
 
 ' I won't have my hair curl, Mamma ; the boys 
 will laugh at me,' rebawled the beauty. 
 
 ' Now who could have told the child that ? ' 
 monologised Mamma, with all a Mamma's admira- 
 tion. 
 
 ' Charles Appleyard told me so ; his hair curled, 
 and the boys called him girl. Papa ! give me 
 some more claret; 1 won't go to school.' 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 PROGRESS 
 
 THREE or four years passed over, and the mind of 
 Vivian Grey most astonishingly developed itself. 
 He had long ceased to wear frills, had broached the 
 subject of boots three or t four times, made a sad 
 
 3
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK I 
 
 inroad during the holidays in Mr. Grey's aforesaid 
 bottle of claret, and was reported as having once 
 sworn at the footman. The young gentleman began 
 also to hint, during every vacation, that the fellows 
 at Flummery's were somewhat too small for his com- 
 panionship, and (first bud of puppyism !) the former 
 advocate of straight hair now expended a portion of 
 his infant income in the purchase of Macassar oil, 
 and began to cultivate his curls. Mrs. Grey could 
 not entertain for a moment the idea of her son's 
 associating with children, the eldest of whom, (to 
 adopt his own account) was not above eight years 
 old ; so Flummery's, it was determined, he should 
 leave. But where to go ? Mr. Grey wished Eton, 
 but his lady was one of those women whom nothing 
 in the world can persuade that a public school is 
 anything else but a place where boys are roasted 
 alive ; and so with tears, and taunts, and supplica- 
 tions, the point of private education was conceded. 
 As for Vivian himself, he was for Eton, and Win- 
 chester, and Harrow, and Westminster, all at once ; 
 the only point that he made was, ' not Rugby, it was 
 so devilish blackguard.' 
 
 At length it was resolved that the only hope, should 
 remain at home a season, until some plan should be 
 devised for the cultivation of his promising under- 
 standing. During this year, Vivian became a some- 
 what more constant intruder into the library than 
 heretofore ; and living so much among books, he 
 was insensibly attached to those silent companions, 
 that speak so eloquently. 
 
 How far the character of the parent may influence 
 the character of the child, I leave the metaphysician 
 to decide. Sure I am, that the character of Vivian 
 Grey underwent, at this period of his life, a sensible, 
 
 4
 
 CHAPTER II VIVIAN GREY 
 
 a prodigious change. Doubtless, constant communion 
 with a mind highly refined, severely cultivated, and 
 much experienced, cannot but produce a most bene- 
 ficial impression, even upon a mind formed, and upon 
 principles developed : how infinitely greater must the 
 influence of such communion be upon a youthful 
 heart, ardent, innocent and inexperienced ! As 
 Vivian was not to figure in the microcosm of a public 
 school, a place for which, from his temper, he was 
 almost better fitted than any young genius whom the 
 'playing fields' of Eton, or 'the hills' of Winton, 
 can remember ; there was some difficulty in fixing 
 upon his future Academus. Mr. Grey's two axioms 
 were, first, that no one so young as his son should 
 settle in the metropolis, and that Vivian must con- 
 sequently not have a private tutor; and, secondly, 
 that all private schools were quite worthless ; and, 
 therefore there was every probability of Vivian not 
 receiving any education whatever. 
 
 At length, an exception to axiom second started 
 up in the establishment of the Reverend Everard 
 Dallas. This gentleman was a clergyman of the 
 Church of England, a profound Grecian, and a poor 
 man. He had edited the Alcestis, and married his 
 laundress lost money by his edition, and his fellow- 
 ship by his match. In a few days, the hall of Mr. 
 Grey's London mansion was filled with all sorts of 
 portmanteaus, trunks, and travelling cases, directed 
 in a boy's sprawling hand to ' Vivian Grey, Esquire, 
 at the Reverend Everard Dallas, Burnsley Vicarage, 
 Hants.' 
 
 ' God bless you, my boy ! write to your mother 
 soon, and remember your Journal.'
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK I 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 PRIVATE EDUCATION. 
 
 THE rumour of the arrival of 'a new fellow,' cir- 
 culated with rapidity through the inmates of Burnsley 
 Vicarage, and about fifty young devils were preparing 
 to quiz the newcomer, when the school-room door 
 opened, and Mr. Dallas, accompanied by Vivian, 
 entered. 
 
 ' A dandy, by Jove ! ' whispered St. Leger Smith. 
 ' What a knowing set out,' squeaked Johnson secundus. 
 ' Mammy-sick,' growled Barlow primus. This last 
 exclamation was, however, a most scandalous libel, 
 for certainly no being ever stood in a pedagogue's 
 presence with more perfect sang froid, and with a 
 bolder front, than did, at this moment, Vivian Grey. 
 
 One principle in Mr Dallas' regime, was always to 
 introduce a new-comer in school-hours. He was 
 thus carried immediately in medias res, and the curi- 
 osity of his co-mates being in a great degree satisfied, 
 at a time when that curiosity could not personally 
 annoy him, the new-comer was, of course, much 
 better prepared to make his way, when the absence 
 of the ruler became .a signal /or some oral conversation 
 with ' the arrival.' 
 
 However, in the present instance the young savages 
 to Burnsley Vicarage had caught a Tartar ; and in a 
 very few days Vivian Grey was decidedly the most 
 popular fellow in the school. He was ' so dashing ! 
 as devilish good-tempered ! so completely up to 
 everything !' The magnates of the land were cer- 
 tainly rather jealous of his success, but their very 
 sneers bore witness to his popularity. ' Cursed 
 puppy,' said St. Leger Smith. ' Thinks himself 
 
 6
 
 CHAPTER III VIVIAN GREY 
 
 knowing,' squeaked Johnson secundus. 'Thinks him- 
 self witty,' growled Barlow -primus. 
 
 Notwithstanding this cabal, days rolled on at 
 Burnsley Vicarage only to witness the increase of 
 Vivian's popularity. Although more deficient than 
 most of his own age in accurate classical knowledge, 
 he found himself in talents, and various acquirements, 
 immeasurably their superior. And singular is it, that 
 at school, distinction in such points is ten thousand 
 times more admired by the multitude, than the most 
 profound knowledge of Greek Metres, or the most 
 accurate acquaintance with the value of Roman coins. 
 Vivian Grey's English verses, and Vivian Grey's 
 English themes, were the subject of universal com- 
 mendation. Some young lads made copies of these 
 productions, to enrich, at the Christmas holidays, 
 their sisters' albums; while the whole school were 
 scribbling embryo prize-poems, epics of twenty lines 
 on ' the Ruins ot Pcestum,' and ' the Temple of 
 Minerva ; ' ' Agrigentum,' and ' the Cascade of 
 Terni.' I suppose that Vivian's productions at this 
 time, would have been rejected by the commonest 
 twopenny publication about town yet they turned 
 the brain of the whole school ; while fellows who 
 were writing Latin Dissertations, and Greek Odes 
 which might have made the fortune of the Classical 
 Journal, were looked on by the multitude as as great 
 dunderheads as themselves : and such is the advan- 
 tage which, even in this artificial world, every thing 
 that is genuine has over every thing that is false and 
 forced. The dunderheads who wrote 'good Latin,' 
 and ' Attic Greek,' did it by a process, by means of 
 which, the youngest fellow in the school was con- 
 scious he could, if he chose, attain at the same per- 
 fection. Vivian Grey's verses were unlike any thing 
 
 7
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK I 
 
 which had yet appeared in the Literary Annals of 
 Burnsley Vicarage, and that which was quite novel 
 was naturally thought quite excellent. 
 
 There is no place in the world where greater hom- 
 age is paid to talent than at an English school. At 
 a public school, indeed, if a youth of great talents is 
 blessed with an amiable and generous disposition, he 
 ought not to envy the minister of England. If any 
 captain of Eton, or praefect of Winchester, is reading 
 these pages, I would most earnestly entreat him dis- 
 passionately to consider, in what situation of life he 
 can rationally expect that it will be in his power to 
 exercise such influence, to have such opportunities 
 of obliging others, and be so confident of an affection- 
 ate and grateful return. Aye, there's the rub! 
 Bitter, bitter thought! that gratitude should cease 
 the moment we become men. 
 
 And sure I am, that Vivian Grey was loved as 
 ardently, and as faithfully, as you might expect from 
 innocent young hearts. His slight accomplishments 
 were the standard of all perfection ; his sayings were 
 the soul of all good fellowship ; and his opinion, the 
 guide in any crisis which occurred in the monotonous 
 existence of the little commonwealth. And time 
 flew gaily on. 
 
 One winter evening, as Vivian, with some of his 
 particular cronies, was standing round the school- 
 room fire, they began, as all schoolboys do when it 
 grows rather dark, and they grow rather sentimental 
 to talk of HOME. 
 
 ' Twelve weeks more,' said Augustus Etherege 
 ' twelve weeks more, and we are free ! The glorious 
 
 O 
 
 day should be celebrated.' 
 
 ' A feast, a feast ! ' exclaimed Poynings. 
 ' A feast is but the work of a night,' said Vivian 
 
 8
 
 CHAPTER III VIVIAN GREY 
 
 Grey : something more stirring for me ! What say 
 you to private theatricals ?' 
 
 The proposition was, of course, received with 
 enthusiasm, and it was not until they had unani- 
 mously agreed to act, that they universally remembered 
 that acting was not allowed. And then they consulted 
 whether they should ask Dallas, and then they re- 
 membered that Dallas had been asked fifty times, 
 and then they ' supposed they must give it up ' ; and 
 then Vivian Grey made a proposition which the rest 
 were secretly sighing for, but which they were afraid 
 to make themselves he proposed that they should 
 act without asking Dallas. ' Well, then, we'll do it 
 without asking him,' said Vivian ; ' Nothing's 
 allowed in this life, and every thing is done : in 
 town there's a thing called the French play, and 
 that's not allowed, yet my aunt has got a private 
 box there. Trust me for acting but what shall we 
 perform ? ' 
 
 This question was, as usual, the fruitful source of 
 jarring opinions. One proposed Othello, chiefly 
 because it would be so easy to black a face with a 
 burnt cork. Another was for Hamlet, solely be- 
 cause he wanted to act the ghost, which he proposed 
 doing in white shorts and a night-cap. A third was 
 for Julius Caesar, because the murder scene ' would 
 be such fun ! ' 
 
 ' No ! no ! ' said Vivian, tired of these various and 
 varying proposals, ' this will never do. Out upon 
 Tragedies : let's have a Comedy ! ' 
 
 ' A Comedy ! a Comedy ! oh ! how delightful ! '
 
 VIVIAN GRKY HOOK I 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 PRIVATE THEATRICALS 
 
 AFTER an immense number of propositions, and an 
 equal number of repetitions, Dr. Hoadley's bustling 
 drama was fixed upon. Vivian was to act Ranger, 
 Augustus Etherege was to personate Clarinda, be- 
 cause he was a fair boy and always blushing ; and 
 the rest of the characters found able representatives. 
 Every halt-holiday v/as devoted to rehearsals, and 
 nothing could exceed the amusement and thorough 
 fun which all the preparations elicited. Every thing 
 went well Vivian wrote a most pathetic Prologue, 
 and a most witty Epilogue. Etherege got on 
 capitally in the mask scene, and Poynings was 
 quite perfect in Jack Meggot. There was, of course, 
 some difficulty in keeping all things in order, but 
 then Vivian Grey was such an excellent manager ! 
 and then, with infinite tact, the said manager con- 
 ciliated the classiques, for he allowed St. Leger Smith 
 to select a Greek motto, from the Andromache, if 
 I remember right, for the front of the theatre ; and 
 Johnson secundus and Barlow primus were compli- 
 mented by being allowed to act the chairmen. 
 
 But, alas ! in the midst of all this sunshine, the 
 seeds of discord and dissension were fast flourishing. 
 Mr. Dallas himself was always so absorbed in some 
 freshly imported German commentator, that it was a 
 fixed principle with him, never to trouble himself 
 with any thing that concerned his pupils, * out of 
 school hours.' The consequence was, that certain 
 powers were necessarily delegated to a certain set 
 of beings called USHERS. In the necessity of em- 
 ploying this horrible race of human beings, consists,
 
 CHAPTER IV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 in a great measure, the curse of what is called, 
 private education. Those, who, in all the fulness of 
 parental love, guard their offspring from the 
 imagined horrors of a public school, forget that, in 
 having recourse to ' an Academy for Youne Gentle- 
 
 O J O 
 
 men,' they are necessarily placing their children under 
 the influence of blackguards : it is of no use to mince 
 the phrase such is the case. And is not the con- 
 tagion of these fellows' low habits and loose principles 
 much more to be feared and shunned, than a system, 
 in which, certainly, greater temptations are offered to 
 an imprudent lad ; but under whose influence boys 
 usually become gentlemanly in their habits and 
 generous in their sentiments ? 
 
 The usherian rule had, however, always been com- 
 paratively light at Burnsley Vicarage, for the good 
 Dallas never, for a moment, entrusting the duties ot 
 tuition to a third person, engaged these deputies 
 merely as a sort of police, to regulate the bodies, 
 rather than the minds, of his youthful subjects. One 
 of the first principles of the new theory introduced 
 into the establishment of Burnsley Vicarage by Mr. 
 Vivian Grey, was, that the ushers were to be con- 
 sidered by the boys as a species of upper servants ; 
 were to be treated with civility, certainly, as all 
 servants are by gentlemen ; but that no further atten- 
 tion was to be paid them, and that any fellow volun- 
 tarily conversing with an usher, was to be cut dead 
 by the whole school. This pleasant arrangement 
 was no secret to those whom it most immediately 
 concerned, and, of course, rendered Vivian rather a 
 favourite with them. The men, who were suffici- 
 ently vu/gars, had not the tact to conciliate the boy 
 by a little attention, and were both, notwithstanding, 
 too much afraid of his influence in the school to 
 
 ii
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK I 
 
 attack him openly ; so they waited with that patience 
 which insulted beings can alone endure. 
 
 One of these creatures must not be forgotten; his 
 name was Mallett ; he was a perfect specimen of the 
 genuine usher. The monster wore a black coat and 
 waistcoat ; the residue of his costume was of that 
 mysterious colour known by the name of pepper- 
 and-salt. He was a pallid wretch with a pug nose, 
 white teeth, and marked with the small-pox; and 
 long greasy black hair ; and small black, beady eyes. 
 This daemon watched the progress of the theatrical 
 company with eyes gloating with vengeance. No 
 attempt had been made to keep the fact of the re- 
 hearsal a secret from the police ; no objection, on 
 their part, had as yet been made ; the twelve weeks 
 diminished to six ; Ranger had secretly ordered a 
 dress from town, and was to get a steel handled 
 sword from Fentum's for Jack Meggot : and every 
 thing was proceeding with unexpected success, when 
 one morning, as Mr. Dallas was apparently about to 
 take his departure, with a volume of Becker's Thu- 
 cydides under his arm, the respected Dominie 
 stopped, and thus harangued : ' I am informed that 
 a great deal is going on in this family, with which it 
 is intended that I shall be unacquainted. It is not 
 my intention to name any body or any thing at pre- 
 sent ; but I must say that of late the temper of this 
 family has sadly changed. Whether there be any 
 seditious stranger among you or not, I shall not at 
 present even endeavour to discover ; but I will warn 
 my old friends of their new ones : ' and so saying, the 
 Dominie withdrew. 
 
 All eyes were immediately fixed on Vivian, and 
 the faces of the Classiques were triumphant with 
 smiles ; those of the manager's particular friends, 
 
 12
 
 CHAPTER IV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 the Romantiques, we may call them, were clouded; 
 but who shall describe the countenance of Mallett ? 
 In a moment the school broke up with an agitated 
 and tumultuous uproar. ' No stranger ! ' shouted 
 St. Leger Smith ; ' No stranger ! ' vociferated a pre- 
 pared gang. Vivian's friends were silent, for they 
 hesitated to accept for their leader the insulting title. 
 Those, who were neither Vivian's friends, nor in the 
 secret, weak creatures who side always with the 
 strongest, immediately swelled the insulting chorus 
 of Mr. St. Leger Smith. That worthy, emboldened 
 by his success and the smiles of Mallett, contained 
 himself no longer : ' Down with the manager ! ' he 
 cried. His satellites chorussed. But now Vivian 
 rushed forward. ' Mr. Smith, I thank you for being 
 so definite ; -take that ! ' and he struck Smith with 
 such force that the Cleon staggered and fell ; but 
 Smith instantly recovered, and a ring was as instantly 
 formed. To a common observer, the combatants 
 were most unequally matched ; for Smith was a 
 burley, big-limbed animal, alike superior to Grey in 
 years and strength. But Vivian, though delicate in 
 frame, and more youthful, was full his match in 
 spirit, and, thanks to his being a Cockney ! ten times 
 his match in science. He had not built a white great 
 coat, nor drunk blue ruin at Ben Burn's for nothing ! 
 Oh ! how beautifully he fought ! how admirably 
 straight he hit ! and his stops quick as lightning ! and 
 his fallowings up confounding his adversary with their 
 painful celerity ! Smith, alike puzzled and punished, 
 yet proud in his strength, hit round, and wild, and 
 false, and foamed like a furious elephant. For ten 
 successive rounds the result was dubious ; but in 
 the eleventh the strength of Smith began to fail, and 
 the men were more fairly matched. ' Go it, Ranger ! 
 
 13
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK I 
 
 go it, Ranger ! ' halloed the Greyites. ' No 
 stranger ! no stranger ! ' eagerly bawled the more 
 numerous party. 'Smith's floored, by Jove!' ex- 
 claimed Poynings, who was Grey's second. ' At it 
 again ! at it again ! ' exclaimed all. And now, when 
 Smith must certainly have given in, suddenly stepped 
 
 forward Mr. Mallett, accompanied by Dallas ! 
 
 ' How, Mr. Grey ! No answer Sir ; I understand 
 that you have always an answer ready. I do not 
 quote Scripture lightly Mr. Grey ; but " Take heed 
 that you offend not, even with your tongue." Now, 
 Sir, to your room.' 
 
 When Vivian Grey again joined his companions he 
 found himself almost universally shunned. Ethcrege 
 and Poynings were the only .individuals who met him 
 with their former frankness 'A horrible row, Grey,' 
 said the latter. ' After you went, the Doctor har- 
 angued the whole school, and swears you have 
 seduced and ruined us all : every thing was happi- 
 ness until you came, &c. Mallett is of course at the 
 bottom of the whole business : but what can we do ? 
 Dallas says you have the tongue of a serpent, and 
 that he will not trust himself to hear your defence. 
 Infamous shame ! I swear ! And now every fellow 
 has got a story against you : some say you are a 
 dandy others want to know, whether the next piece 
 performed at your theatre will be " The Stranger ;" 
 as for myself and Etherege, we shall leave in a few 
 weeks, and it does not signify to us ; but what the 
 devil you're to do next half, by Jove, I can't say. 
 If I were you, I would not return.' ' Not return, 
 eh ! but that will I, though ; and we shall see who, in 
 future, can complain of the sweetness of my voice ! 
 Ungrateful fools ! '
 
 CHAPTER V VIVIAN GREY 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 A NEW FRIEND 
 
 THE Vacation was over, and Vivian returned to 
 Burnsley Vicarage. He bowed cavalierly to Mr. 
 Dallas on his arrival, and immediately sauntered up 
 into the school-room, where he found a tolerable 
 quantity of wretches looking as miserable as school- 
 boys, who have left their pleasant homes, generally 
 do, for some four-and-twenty hours. ' How d'ye 
 do, Grey ? ' ' How d'ye do, Grey ? ' burst from 
 a knot of unhappy fellows, who would have felt 
 quite delighted, had their newly arrived co-mate 
 condescended to entertain them, as usual, with 
 some capital good story fresh from town. But they 
 were disappointed. 
 
 ' We can make room for you at the fire, Grey,' 
 said Theophilus King. 
 
 ' I thank you, I am not cold.' 
 
 ' I suppose you know that Poynings and Etherege 
 don't come back, Grey ? ' 
 
 ' Every body knew that last half : ' and so he 
 walked on. 
 
 ' Grey, Grey ! ' halloed King, ' don't go in the 
 dining-room ; Mallett's there alone, and told us not 
 to disturb him. By Jove, the fellow's going in : 
 there'll be a greater row this half, between Grey and 
 Mallett, than ever.' 
 
 Days the heavy first days of the half, rolled on, 
 and all the citizens of the little commonwealth had 
 returned. 
 
 'What a dull half this will be!' said Eardley; 
 ( how one misses Grey's set! After all, they kept 
 the school alive : Poynings was a first-rate fellow ; 
 
 '5
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK I 
 
 and Etherege, so deuced good-natured ! I wonder 
 whom Grey will crony with this half! Have you 
 seen him and Dallas speak together yet ? He cut 
 the Doctor quite dead at Greek to-day.' 
 
 ' Why, Eardley ! Eardley ! there's Grey walking 
 round playing fields with Mallett ! ' halloed a sawney 
 who was killing the half-holiday by looking out of 
 the window. 
 
 ' The devil ! I say, Matthews, whose flute is that ? 
 It's a devilish handsome one ! ' 
 
 ' It's Grey's ! I clean it for him,' squeaked a little 
 boy. ' He's gives me sixpence a week ! ' 
 
 ' Oh, you sneak ! ' said one. 
 
 ' Cut him over ! ' said another. 
 
 ' Roast him ! ' cried a third. 
 
 ' Whom are you going to take the flute to ? ' 
 asked a fourth. 
 
 ' To Mallett,' squeaked the little fellow ; ' Grey 
 lends his flute to Mallett every day.' ' Grey lend 
 his flute to Mallett ! The deuce he does ! So Grey 
 and Mallett are going to crony ? ' 
 
 A wild exclamation burst forth from the little 
 party ; and away each of them ran, to spread, in all 
 directions, the astounding intelligence. 
 
 If the rule of the ushers had hitherto been light 
 at Burnsley Vicarage, its character was materially 
 changed during this half-year. The vexatious and 
 tyrannical influence of Mallett was now experienced 
 in all directions ; meeting and interfering with the 
 comforts of the boys, in every possible manner. His 
 malice was accompanied too by a tact, which could 
 not have been expected from his vulgar mind, and 
 which, at the same time, could not have been pro- 
 duced by the experience of one in his situation. It 
 was quite evident to the whole community that his 
 
 16
 
 CHAPTER V VIVIAN GREY 
 
 conduct was dictated by another mind, and that that 
 mind was one versed in all the secrets of a school- 
 boy's life, and acquainted with all the workings of a 
 school-boy's mind : a species of knowledge which no 
 pedagogue in the world ever yet attained. There 
 was no difficulty in discovering whose was the power 
 behind the throne. Vivian Grey was the perpetual 
 companion of Mallett in his walks, and even in the 
 school ; he shunned also the converse of every one 
 of the boys, and did not affect to conceal that his 
 quarrel was universal. Superior power, exercised by 
 a superior mind, was for a long time too much even 
 for the united exertions of the whole school. If any 
 one complained, Mallett's written answer (and such 
 Dallas always required) was immediately ready, ex- 
 plaining every thing in the most satisfactory manner, 
 and refuting every complaint with the most trium- 
 phant spirit. Dallas, of course, supported his deputy, 
 and was soon equally detested. This tyranny had 
 continued through a great part of the long half-year, 
 and the spirit of the school was almost broken, when 
 a fresh outrage occurred, of such a nature, that the 
 nearly enslaved multitude conspired. 
 
 The plot was admirably formed. On the first bell 
 ringing for school, the door was to be immediately 
 barred, to prevent the entrance of Dallas. Instant 
 vengeance was then to be taken on Mallett and his 
 companion the sneak ! the spy / the traitor ! The 
 bell rang : the door was barred : four stout fellows 
 seized on Mallett, four rushed to Vivian Grey : but 
 stop ! he sprang upon his desk, and, placing his back 
 against the wall, held a pistol at the foremost! "Not 
 an inch nearer, Smith, or I fire. Let me not, how- 
 ever, baulk your vengeance on yonder hound ; if I 
 could suggest any refinements in torture, they would 
 B 17
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK I 
 
 be at your service." Vivian Grey smiled, while the 
 horrid cries of Mallett indicated that the boys were 
 ' roasting ' him. He then walked to the door, and 
 admitted the barred-out Dominie. Silence was 
 restored. There was an explanation, and no defence ; 
 and Vivian Grey was expelled. 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE CLASSICS 
 
 VIVIAN GREY was now seventeen ; and, the system 
 of private education having so decidedly failed, it was 
 resolved that he should spend the years antecedent to 
 his going to Oxford, at home. Nothing could be a 
 greater failure than the first weeks of his ' course of 
 study.' He was perpetually violating the sanctity of 
 the drawing-room by the presence of Scapulas and 
 Hederics, and outraging the propriety of morning 
 visitors by bursting into his mother's boudoir, with 
 Lexicons and green slippers. 
 
 'Vivian, my dear,' said his father to him one day, 
 ' this will never do ; you must adopt some system for 
 your studies, and some locality for your reading. 
 Have a room to yourself; set apart certain hours in 
 the -day for your books, and allow no consideration 
 on earth to influence you to violate their sacredness; 
 and above all, my dear boy, keep your papers in 
 order. I find a Dissertation on ' The Commerce of 
 Carthage,' stuck in my large paper copy of ' Dibdin's 
 Decameron, and an ' Essay on the Metaphysics of 
 Music' (pray, my dear fellow, beware of magazine- 
 scribbling) cracking the back of Montfaucon's 
 ' Monarchic.' ' 
 
 Vivian apologised, promised, protested, and finally 
 sat down ' TO READ.' He had laid the first founda- 
 
 18
 
 CHAPTER VI VIVIAN GREY 
 
 tions of accurate classical knowledge under the 
 tuition of the learned Dallas ; and twelve hours a- 
 day, and self-banishment from society, overcame, in 
 twelve months, the ill effects of his imperfect educa- 
 tion. The result of this extraordinary exertion may 
 easily be conceived. At the end of twelve months, 
 Vivian, like many other young enthusiasts, had dis- 
 covered that all the wit and wisdom of the world 
 were concentrated in some fifty antique volumes, and 
 he treated the unlucky moderns with the most 
 sublime spirit of hauteur imaginable. A chorus in 
 the Medea, that painted the radiant sky of Attica, 
 disgusted him with the foggy atmosphere of Great 
 Britain ; and while Mrs. Grey was meditating a 
 sejour at Brighton, her son was dreaming of the gulf 
 of Salamis. The spectre in the Persae was his only 
 model for a ghost, and the furies in the Agamemnon 
 were his perfection of tragical machinery. 
 
 Most ingenious and educated youths have fallen 
 into the same error ; but few, I trust, have ever 
 carried such feelings to the excess that Vivian Grey 
 did ; for while his mind was daily becoming more 
 enervated under the beautiful but baneful influence of 
 CLASSIC REVERIE, the youth lighted upon PLATO, 
 
 Wonderful is it, that while the whole soul of Vivian 
 Grey seemed concentrated and wrapped in the glorious 
 pages of the Athenian, while, with keen and almost 
 inspired curiosity, he searched, and followed up, and 
 meditated upon, the definite mystery, the indefinite 
 developement, while his spirit alternately bowed in 
 trembling and in admiration, as he seemed to be listen- 
 ing to the secrets of the Universe revealed in the 
 glorious melodies of an immortal voice ; wonderful 
 is it, I say, that the writer, the study of whose works 
 appeared to the young scholar, in the revelling of his
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK I 
 
 enthusiasm, to be the sole object for which man was 
 born and had his being, was the cause by which Vivian 
 Grey was saved from being all his life a dreaming 
 scholar. 
 
 Determined to spare no exertions, and to neglect 
 no means, by which he might enter into the very 
 penetralia of his mighty master's meaning, Vivian 
 determined to attack the latter Platonists. These 
 were a race of men with whom he was perfectly un- 
 acquainted, and of whose existence he knew merely 
 by the references to their productions, which were 
 sprinkled in the commentaries of his 'best editions.' 
 In the pride of boyish learning, Vivian had limited his 
 library to Classics, and the proud leaders of the later 
 schools did not consequently grace his diminutive 
 book-case. In this dilemma he flew to his father, 
 and confessed by his request that his favourites were 
 not all-sufficient. 
 
 ' Father ! I wish to make myself master of the 
 latter Platonists. I want Plotinus, and Porphyry, and 
 lamblichus, and Syrianus, and Maximus Tyrius, 
 and Proclus, and Hierocles, and Sallustius, and 
 Damascius.' 
 
 Mr. Grey stared at his son, and burst into a fit of 
 laughter. 
 
 ' My dear Vivian ! are you quite convinced that 
 the authors you ask for are all pure Platonists ? or 
 have not some of them placed the great end rather in 
 practical than theoretic virtue, and thereby violated the 
 first principles of your master, which would be very 
 shocking ! Are you sure, too, that these gentlemen 
 have actually ' withdrawn the sacred veil, which covers 
 from profane eyes the luminous spectacles ?' Are you 
 quite convinced that every one of these worthies lived 
 at least five hundred years after the great master ; for
 
 CHAPTER VI VIVIAN GREY 
 
 I need not tell so profound a Platonist as yourself, 
 that it was not till that period that even glimpses of 
 the great master's meaning were discovered. Strange ! 
 that TIME should alike favour the philosophy of theory, 
 and the philosophy of facts. Mr. Vivian Grey, 
 benefiting, I presume, by the lapse of further cen- 
 turies, is about to complete the great work which 
 Proclus and Porphyry commenced.' 
 
 ' My dear sir, you are pleased to be very amusing 
 this morning.' 
 
 'My dear boy ! I smile, but not with joy. Sit down, 
 and let us have a little conversation together. Father 
 and son, and father and son on such terms as we are, 
 should really communicate oftener together than we 
 do. It has been, perhaps, my fault; it shall not be so 
 again.' 
 
 ' My dear sir ! ' 
 
 ' Nay, nay, it shall be my fault now. Whose it 
 shall be in future, Vivian, time will show. My dear 
 Vivian, you have now spent upwards of a year under 
 this roof, and your conduct has been as correct as 
 the most rigid parent might require. I have not 
 wished to interfere with the progress of your mind, and 
 I regret it. I have been negligent, but not wilfully so. 
 I do regret it ; because, whatever may be your powers, 
 Vivian, I at least have the advantage of experience. I 
 see you smile at a word which I so often use. Well, 
 well, were I to talk to you for ever, you would not 
 understand what I mean by that single word. The 
 time will come, when you will deem that single word 
 every thing. Ardent young men in their closets, 
 Vivian, too often fancy that they are peculiar beings ; 
 and I have no reason to believe that you are an ex- 
 ception to the general rule. In passing one whole 
 year of your life, as you have done, you doubtless
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK I 
 
 imagine that you have been spending your hours in a 
 manner which no others have done before. Trust 
 me, my boy, thousands have done the same ; and, 
 what is of still more importance, thousands are doing, 
 and will do the same. Take the advice of one who 
 has committed as many, ay, more follies than your- 
 self; but who would bless the hour that he had been 
 a fool, if his experience might be of benefit to his 
 beloved son.' 
 
 ' My father ! ' 
 
 'Nay, nay, don't agitate yourself; we are consult- 
 ing together. Let us see what is to be done. 
 Endeavour to discover, when you are alone, what are 
 the chief objects of your existence in this world. I 
 want you to take no theological dogmas for granted, 
 nor to satisfy your doubts by ceasing to think; but 
 whether we are in this world in a state of probation 
 for another, or whether we cease altogether when we 
 cease to breathe, human feelings tell me that we 
 have some duties to perform to our fellow-creatures 
 to our friends to ourselves. Pray, tell me, my 
 dear boy, what possible good your perusal of the 
 latter Platonists can produce to either of these three 
 interests ? I trust that my child is not one of those 
 who look with a glazed eye on the welfare of their 
 fellow-men, and who would dream away an useless 
 life by idle puzzles of the brain ; creatures who 
 consider their existence as an unprofitable mystery, 
 and yet are afraid to die. You will find Plotinus in 
 the fourth shelf of the next room, Vivian. Good 
 morning to you.'
 
 CHAFFER VII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 THE CLASSICS 
 
 THE communications between father and son after 
 this day were very constant ; and for some weeks 
 Vivian employed his time rather in conversing with 
 his father than with books. It must not be concealed 
 (and when the fact is stated, it must not be conceived 
 that Vivian's mind was a weak one) that his fixed 
 principles became daily loosened, and that his opinions 
 were very soon considerably modified. He speedily 
 began to discover that there were classics in other 
 languages besides Greek and Latin, and patient in- 
 quiry and dispassionate examination soon convinced 
 him of the futility of that mass of insanity and im- 
 posturethe Greek philosophy. Introduced to that 
 band of noble spirits, the great poets, and legislators, 
 and philosophers of modern Europe, the mind of 
 Vivian Grey recovered, in a study of their immortal 
 writings, a great portion of its original freshness and 
 primal vigour. Nor in his new worship did he 
 blaspheme against the former objects of his adoration. 
 He likened the ancient and the new literatures to the 
 two Dispensations of Holy Writ : the one arose to 
 complete the other. ^Eschylus was to him not less 
 divine, because Shakspeare was immortal ; nor did 
 he deny the inspiration of Demosthenes, because he 
 recognised in Burke the divine afflatus. The ancient 
 literature, lost in corruption, degraded, and forgotten, 
 ceased to benefit society ; the new literature arose. 
 It hurled from ' the high places,' the idols of corrupt 
 understandings and perverted taste ; but while ' it 
 purified the altars of the Lord,' while it commanded 
 our reverence and our gratitude, the new literature 
 
 23
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK I 
 
 itself vailed to the first grey fathers of the human 
 mind. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 SOCIETY 
 
 IN England, personal distinction is the only passport 
 to the society of the great. Whether this distinction 
 arise from fortune, family, or talent, is immaterial ; 
 but certain it is, to enter into high society, a man 
 must either have blood, a million, or a genius. 
 
 Neither the fortune nor the family of Mr. Grey 
 entitled him to mix in any other society than that of, 
 what is, in common parlance, termed, the middling 
 classes ; but from his distinguished literary abilities 
 he had always found himself an honoured guest 
 among the powerful and the great. It was for this 
 reason that he had always been anxious that his son 
 should be at home as little as possible ; for he feared 
 for a youth the fascination of London society. Al- 
 though busied with his studies, and professing ' not 
 to visit,' Vivian could not avoid occasionally finding 
 himself in company, in which boys should never be 
 seen ; and, what was still worse, from a certain esprit 
 de societ^ an indefinable tact^ with which Nature had 
 endowed him, this boy of nineteen began to think 
 this society very delightful. Most persons of his 
 age would have passed through the ordeal with 
 perfect safety : they would have entered certain 
 rooms, at certain hours, with stiff cravats, and Nugee 
 
 * 2 
 
 coats, and black velvet waistcoats ; and after having 
 annoyed all those who condescended to know of 
 their existence, with their red hands, and their white 
 kid gloves, they would have retired to a corner of 
 the room, and conversationised with any stray four 
 year older not yet sent to bed. 
 
 24
 
 VIVIAN GREY CHAPTER VIII 
 
 But Vivian Grey was an elegant, lively lad, with 
 just enough of dandyism to preserve him from com- 
 mitting gaucheries, and with a devil of a tongue. All 
 men, I am sure, will agree with me when I say, that 
 the only rival to be feared by a man of spirit is a 
 clever boy. What makes them so popular with the 
 women, it is not for me to explain ; however, Lady 
 Julia Knighton, and Mrs. Frank Delmington, and 
 half a score of dames of fashion, (and some of them 
 very pretty!) were always patronizing our hero, who 
 really found an evening spent in their company not 
 altogether dull ; for there is no fascination so irresis- 
 tible to a boy, as the smile of a married woman. 
 Vivian had really passed such a recluse life for the 
 last two years and a half, that he had quite forgotten 
 that he was once considered a very fascinating fellow ; 
 and so, determined to discover what right he ever 
 had to such a reputation, master Vivian entered into 
 all those amourettes in very beautiful style. 
 
 But Vivian Grey was a young and tender plant in 
 a moral hot-house. His character was developing 
 itself too soon. Although his evenings were now 
 generally passed in the manner we have alluded to, 
 this boy was, during the rest of the day, a hard and 
 indefatigable student ; and having now got through 
 an immense series of historical reading, he had 
 stumbled upon a branch of study certainly the most 
 delightful in the world, but, for a boy, as certainly 
 the most pernicious, -THE STUDY OF POLITICS. 
 
 And now every thing was solved ! the inexplicable 
 longings of his soul, which had so often perplexed 
 him, were at length explained. The want, the in- 
 definable want) which he had so constantly experienced, 
 was at last supplied ; the grand object on which to 
 bring the powers of his mind to bear and work was 
 
 25
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK I 
 
 at last provided. He paced his chamber in an agi- 
 tated spirit, and panted for the Senate. 
 
 It will be asked, what was the evil of all this ? and 
 the reader will, perhaps, murmur something about 
 an honourable spirit and youthful ambition. Ah ! I 
 once thought so myself but the evil is too apparent. 
 The time drew nigh for Vivian to leave for Oxford 
 that is, for him to commence his long preparation for 
 entering on his career in life. And now this person, 
 who was about to be a pupil this boy, this stripling, 
 who was going to begin his education, had all the 
 feelings of a matured mind of an experienced man ; 
 was already a cunning reader of human hearts; and 
 felt conscious, from experience, that his was a tongue 
 which was born to guide human beings. The idea of 
 Oxford to such an individual was an insult ! 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE NEW THEORY 
 
 I MUST endeavour to trace, if possible, more accu- 
 rately the workings of Vivian Grey's mind at this 
 period of his existence. In the plenitude of his 
 ambition, he stopped one day to inquire in what 
 manner he could obtain his magnificent ends. 
 
 'THE BAR pooh ! law and bad jokes till we are 
 forty; and then, with the most brilliant success, the 
 prospect of gout and a coronet. Besides, to succeed 
 as an advocate, I must be a great lawyer ; and, to 
 be a great lawyer, I must give up my chance of 
 being a great man. THE SERVICES in war time are 
 fit only for desperadoes (and that truly am I) ; but, 
 in peace, are fit only for fools. THE CHURCH is 
 more rational. Let me see ; I should certainly like 
 to act Wolsey; but the thousand and one chances 
 
 26
 
 CHAPTER IX VIVIAN GREY 
 
 against me ! And truly I feel my destiny should 
 not be on a chance. Were I the son of a 
 Millionaire, or a noble, I might have all. Curse 
 on my lot ! that the want of a few rascal counters, 
 and the possession of a little rascal blood, should 
 mar my fortunes ! " 
 
 Such was the general tenor of Vivian's thoughts, 
 until, musing himself almost into madness, he at 
 last made, as he conceived, the GRAND DISCOVERY. 
 ' Riches are Power, says the Economist : and is not 
 Intellect? asks the philosopher. And yet, while the 
 influence of the Millionaire is instantly felt in all 
 classes of society, how is it that " Noble Mind " so 
 often leaves us unknown and unhonoured ? Why 
 have there been statesmen who have never ruled, 
 and heroes who have never conquered ? Why have 
 glorious philosohers died in a garret ? and why have 
 there been poets whose only admirer has been Nature 
 in her echoes ? It must be that these beings have 
 thought only of themselves, and, constant and 
 elaborate students of their own glorious natures, 
 have forgotten or disdained the study of all others. 
 Yes ! we must mix with the herd ; we must enter 
 into their feelings ; we must humour their weak- 
 nesses ; we must sympathise with the sorrows that 
 we do not feel ; and share the merriment of fools. 
 Oh, yes ! to rule men, we must be men ; to prove 
 that we are strong we must be weak ; to prove that 
 we are giants, we must be dwarfs : even as the 
 Eastern Genie was hid in the charmed bottle. Our 
 wisdom must be concealed under folly, and our 
 constancy under caprice. 
 
 ' I have been often struck by the ancient tales 
 of Jupiter's visits to the earth. In these fanciful 
 adventures, the God bore no indication of the 
 
 27
 
 VIVIAN C,K1 \ BOOK I 
 
 Thunderer's glory ; but was a man of low estate, 
 a herdsman, or other hind ; and often even an 
 aninu'. A mighty spirit has in 7 ;;/</. . Time's 
 great moralist, perused ''the wisdom of the ancients." 
 
 n in the same spirit, I would explain ] 
 terrestrial visitings. For, to govern man, even the 
 God appeared to feel as a man ; and sometitr, 
 a beast, was apparently influenced by their vilest 
 passions. Mankind, then, is my great game. 
 
 'At this moment, how many a powerful noble 
 wants only wit to be a Minister; and what wants 
 Vivian Grey to attain the same end r That noble's 
 influence. When two persons can so materially 
 assist each other, why are they not brought to- 
 gether r Shall I, because my birth baulks my tancy 
 shall I pass my life a moping misanthrope in an 
 old chateau ? Supposing I am in contact with this 
 magnifico, am I prepared r Now, let me probe my 
 very soul. Does my cheek blanch r I have the 
 mind for the conception ; and I can perform right 
 skilfully upon the most splendid of musical instru- 
 ments the human voice to make those conceptions 
 beloved by others. There wants but one thing 
 more courage^ pure, perfect cour d does 
 
 Vivian Grey know fear?' He laughed an answer 
 of bitterest derision. 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 A LOUNGE 
 
 Is anyone surprised that Vivian Grey, with a mind 
 teeming with such feelings, should view the appr 
 of the season for his departure to Oxford, with senti- 
 ments of thorough disgust ? After many hours of 
 bitter meditation he sought his father ; he made him 
 
 28
 
 CHAPTER X VIVIAN (,KKY 
 
 acquainted with his feelings, but concealed from him 
 his actual views, and dwelt on the misery of being 
 thrown back in life, at a period when society seemed 
 instinct with a spirit peculiarly active, and when so 
 many openings were daily offered to the adventurous 
 and the bold. 
 
 ' Vivian,' said Mr. Grey, ' beware of endeavouring 
 to be a great man in a hurry. One such attempt in 
 ten thousand may succeed : these are fearful odds. 
 Admirer as you are of Lord Bacon, you may perhaps 
 remember a certain parable of his, called " Memnon, 
 or a youth; too forward." I hope you are not going 
 to be one of those sons of Aurora, " who, puffed up 
 with the glittering show of vanity and ostentation, 
 attempt actions above their strength." 
 
 ' You talk to me about the peculiarly active spirit 
 of society ; if the spirit of society be so peculiarly 
 active, Mr. Vivian Grey should beware lest it outstrip 
 him. Is neglecting to mature your mind, my boy, 
 exactly the way to win the race ? This is an age of 
 unsettled opinions and contested principles : in the 
 very measures of our administration, the speculative 
 spirit of the present day is, to say the least, not 
 impalpable. Nay, don't start, my dear fellow, and 
 look the very Prosopopeia of Political Economy ! 
 I know exactly what you're going to say, but if you 
 please we'll leave Turgot and Galileo to Mr. Canning 
 and the House of Commons, or your cousin Har- 
 grave and his Debating Society. However, jesting 
 apart, get your hat, and walk with me as far as 
 Evans's ; where I have promised to look in, to see 
 the Mazarin Bible, and we'll talk this affair over as 
 we go along. 
 
 ' I am no bigot you know, Vivian. I am not one 
 of those who wish to oppose the application of refined 
 
 29
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK I 
 
 philosophy to the common business of life. We are, 
 I hope, an improving race ; there is room, I am sure, 
 for great improvement, and the perfectibility of man 
 is certainly a very pretty dream. (How well that 
 Union Club House comes out now, since they have 
 made the opening ;) but, although we may have 
 steam kitchens, human nature is, I imagine, much the 
 same this moment that we are walking Pall-Mall 
 East, as it was some thousands of years ago, when as 
 wise men were walking on the banks of the Ilyssus. 
 When our moral powers increase in proportion to 
 our physical ones, then huzza for the perfectibility of 
 man ! and respectable, idle loungers, like you and I, 
 Vivian, may then have a chance of walking in the 
 streets of London without having their heels trodden 
 upon ; a ceremony which I have this moment under- 
 gone. In the present day we are all studying science, 
 and none of us are studying ourselves. This is not 
 exactly the Socratic process ; and as for the yvu>6i 
 a-eaurov of the more ancient Athenian, that principle 
 is quite out of fashion in the nineteenth century (I 
 believe that's the phrase). Self is the only person 
 whom we know nothing about. 
 
 ' But, my dear Vivian, as to the immediate point 
 of our consideration : in my library, uninfluenced 
 and uncontrolled by passion or by party, I cannot but 
 see that it is utterly impossible that all that we are 
 wishing and striving for can take place, without some 
 without much evil. In ten years' time, perhaps, 
 or less, the fever will have subsided, and in ten years' 
 time, or less, your intellect will be matured. Now, 
 my good Sir, instead of talking about the active spirit 
 of the age, and the opportunities offered to the 
 adventurous and the bold, ought you not rather to 
 congratulate yourself, that a great change is being 
 
 3
 
 CHAPTER X VIVIAN GREY 
 
 effected, at a period of your life when you need not, 
 individually, be subjected to the possibility of being 
 injured by its operation ; and when you are preparing 
 your mind to take advantage of the system, when 
 that system is matured and organized ? 
 
 ' As to your request, it assuredly is one of the 
 most modest, and the most rational, that I have lately 
 been favoured with. Although I would much rather 
 that any influence which I may exercise over your 
 mind, should be the effect of my advice as your 
 friend, than of my authority as your father ; still I 
 really feel it my duty, parentally, to protest against 
 this very crude proposition of yours. However, if 
 you choose to lose a term or two, do. Don't blame 
 me, you know, if afterwards you repent it.' 
 
 Here dashed by the gorgeous equipage of Mrs. 
 Ormolu, the wife of a man who was working all the 
 gold and silver mines in Christendom. ' Ah ! my 
 dear Vivian,' said Mr. Grey, ' it is this which has 
 turned all your brains. In this age every one is 
 striving to make an immense fortune, and, what is 
 most terrific, at the same time, a speedy one. This 
 thirst for sudden wealth it is, which engenders the 
 extravagant conceptions, and fosters that wild spirit 
 of speculation which is now stalking abroad ; and 
 which, like the Daemon in Frankenstein, not only 
 fearfully wanders over the whole wide face of nature, 
 but grins in the imagined solitude of our secret 
 chambers. Oh! my son, it is for the young men of 
 the present day that I tremble seduced by the tem- 
 porary success of a few children of fortune, I observe 
 that their minds recoil from the prospects which are 
 held forth by the ordinary, and, mark me, by the 
 only modes of acquiring property -fair trade, and 
 honourable professions. It is for you and your 
 
 3'
 
 VIVIAN GREY BK. I CHAP. X 
 
 companions that I fear. God grant ! that there may 
 not be a moral as well as a political disorganization ! 
 God grant! that our youth, the hope of our state, 
 may not be lost to us ! For, oh ! my son, the 
 wisest has said " He that maketh haste to be rich, 
 shall not be innocent." Let us step into Clarke's 
 and take an ice.' 
 
 3 2
 
 BOOK THE SECOND 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE MARQUESS OF CARABAS 
 
 THE Marquess of Carabas started in life as the cadet 
 of a noble family. The earl, his father, like the 
 woodman in the fairy tale, was blessed with three 
 sons the first was an idiot, and was destined for the 
 Coronet ; the second was a man of business, and was 
 educated for the Commons ; the third was a Roue, 
 and was shipped to the Colonies. 
 
 The present Marquess, then the Honourable Sidney 
 Lorraine, prospered in his political career. He was 
 servile, and pompous, and indefatigable, and talka- 
 tive so whispered the world : his friends hailed 
 him as, at once, a courtier and a sage, a man of 
 business, and an orator. After revelling in his fair 
 proportion of commissionerships, and under-secretary- 
 ships, and the rest of the milk and honey of the 
 political Canaan, the apex of the pyramid of his 
 ambition was at length visible, for Sidney Lorraine 
 became President of a board, and wriggled into the 
 adytum of the cabinet. 
 
 At this moment his idiot brother died. To com- 
 pensate for his loss of office, and to secure his votes, 
 the Earl of Carabas was promoted in the peerage, 
 and was presented with some magnificent office 
 c 33
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK II 
 
 meaning nothing, swelling with dignity, and void of 
 duties. As years rolled on, various changes took 
 place in the administration, of which his Lordship 
 was once a component part ; and the ministry, to 
 their surprise, getting popular, found that the com- 
 mand of the Carabas interest was not of such vital 
 importance to them as heretofore, and so his Lord- 
 ship was voted a bore, and got shelved. Not that 
 his Lordship was bereaved of his splendid office, or 
 that any thing occurred, indeed, by which the 
 uninitiated might have been led to suppose that the 
 beams of his Lordship's consequence were shorn ; 
 but the Marquess's secret application at the Treasury 
 was no longer listened to ; and pert under-secretaries 
 settled their cravats, and whispered ' that the Carabas 
 interest was gone by.' 
 
 The most noble Marquess was not insensible to his 
 situation, for he was what the world calls ambitious ; 
 but the vigour of his faculties had vanished beneath 
 the united influence of years and indolence and ill- 
 humour ; for his Lordship, to avoid ennui, had 
 quarrelled with his son, and then having lost his only 
 friend, had quarrelled with himself. 
 
 Such was the distinguished individual who graced, 
 one day at the latter end of the season of 1 8 , the 
 classic board of Horace Grey, Esquire. The reader 
 will, perhaps, be astonished, that such a man as his 
 Lordship, should be the guest of such a man as our 
 hero's father; but the truth is, the Marquess of 
 Carabas had just been disappointed in an attempt on 
 the chair of the President of the Royal Society ; 
 which, for want of something better to do, he was 
 ambitious of filling, and this was a conciliatory visit to 
 one of the most distinguished members of that body, 
 and one who had voted against him with particular 
 
 34
 
 CHAPTER I VIVIAN GREY 
 
 enthusiasm. The Marquess, still a politician, was 
 now, as he imagined, securing his host's vote for a 
 future St. George's day. 
 
 The cuisine of Mr. Grey was superbe; for although 
 an enthusiastic advocate for the cultivation of the 
 mind, he was an equally ardent supporter of the 
 cultivation of the body. Indeed, the necessary 
 dependence of the sanity of the one on the good 
 keeping of the other, was one of his most favourite 
 theories, and one which, this day, he was supporting 
 with very pleasant and facetious reasoning. His 
 Lordship was delighted with his new friend, and 
 still more delighted with his new friend's theory. 
 The Marquess himself was, indeed, quite of the same 
 opinion as Mr. Grey; for he never made a speech 
 without previously taking a sandwich, and would 
 have sunk under the estimates a thousand times, 
 had it not been for the juicy friendship of the fruit 
 of Portugal. 
 
 The guests were not numerous. A regius pro- 
 fessor of Greek; an officer just escaped from 
 Sockatoo ; a man of science, and two M.P.'s with 
 his Lordship ; the host, and Mr. Vivian Grey, 
 constituted the party. Oh, no ! there were two 
 others. There was a Mr. John Brown, a fashionable 
 poet, and who, ashamed of his own name, published 
 his melodies under the more euphonious and romantic 
 title of ' Clarence Devonshire,' and there was a Mr. 
 Thomas Smith, a fashionable novelist; that is to 
 say, a person who occasionally publishes three 
 volumes, one-half of which contain the adventures 
 of a young gentleman in the country ; and the other 
 volume and a-half, the adventures of the same young 
 gentleman in the metropolis ; a sort of writer, whose 
 constant tattle about beer and billiards, and eating 
 
 35
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK II. 
 
 soup, and the horribility of ' committing' puns, give 
 truly a most admirable and accurate idea of the 
 conversation of the refined society of the refined 
 metropolis of Great Britain. These two last gentle- 
 men were ' pets ' of Mrs. Grey. 
 
 The conversation may be conceived. Each person 
 was of course prepared with a certain quota of infor- 
 mation, without which no man in London is morally 
 entitled to dine out; and when the quota was expended, 
 the amiable host took the burthen upon his own 
 shoulders, and endeavoured, as the phrase goes, 
 ' to draw out' his guests. 
 
 Oh, London dinners ! empty artificial nothings ! 
 and that beings can be found, and those too the 
 flower of the land, who, day after day, and day after 
 day, can act the same parts in the same dull, dreary 
 farce ! The officer had discoursed sufficiently about 
 1 his intimate friend, the Soudan,' and about the chain 
 armour of the Sockatoo cuirassiers ; and one of the 
 M.P.'s, who was in the Guards, had been defeated in 
 a ridiculous attempt to prove, that the breast-plates 
 of the household troops of Great Britain were superior 
 to those of the household troops of Timtomtamtom- 
 too. Mrs. Grey, to whose opinion both parties 
 deferred, gave it in favour of the Soudan. And the 
 man of science had lectured about a machine which 
 might destroy fifteen square feet of human beings in 
 a second, and yet be carried in the waistcoat-pocket. 
 And the Classique, who, for a professor, was quite a 
 man of the world, had the latest news of the new 
 Herculaneum process, and was of opinion that, if 
 they could but succeed in unrolling a certain 
 suspicious-looking scroll, we might be so fortunate 
 as to possess a minute treatise on &c., &c., &c. 
 In short, all had said their say. There was a 
 
 36
 
 CHAPTER I VIVIAN GREY 
 
 dead pause, and Mrs. Grey looked at her husband 
 and rose. 
 
 How singular it is, that when this move takes 
 place every one appears to be relieved, and yet every 
 one of any experience must be aware that the dead 
 bore work is only about to commence. Howbeit, all 
 filled their glasses, and the Peer, at the top of the 
 table began to talk politics. I am sure that I cannot 
 tell what the weighty subject was that was broached 
 by the ex-minister ; for I did not dine with Grey 
 that day ; and had I done so, I should have been 
 equally ignorant ; for I'm a dull man, and always 
 sleep at dinner. However, the subject was political, 
 the claret flew round, and a stormy argument com- 
 menced. The Marquess was decidedly wrong, and 
 was sadly badgered by the civil M.P. and the Pro- 
 fessor. The host, who was of no party, supported 
 his guest as long as possible, and then left him to his 
 fate. The military M.P. fled to the drawing-room to 
 philander with Mrs. Grey ; and the man of science 
 and the African had already retired to the intellectual 
 idiotism of a May Fair ' At Home.' The novelist 
 was silent, for he was studying a scene and the poet 
 was absent, for he was musing a sonnet. 
 
 The Marquess refuted, had recourse to contra- 
 diction, and v/as too acute a man to be insensible to 
 the forlornness of his situation ; when, at this moment, 
 a voice proceeded from the end of the table, from 
 a young gentleman, who had hitherto preserved a 
 profound silence, but whose silence, if the company 
 were to have judged from the tones of his voice, and 
 the matter of his communication, did not altogether 
 proceed from a want of confidence in his own abilities. 
 ' In my opinion,' said Mr. Vivian Grey, as he sat 
 lounging in his father's vacated seat ' in my opinion, 
 
 37
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK II 
 
 his Lordship has been misunderstood ; and it is, as is 
 generally the case, from a slight verbal misconception 
 in the commencement of this argument, that the 
 whole of this difference arises.' 
 
 The eyes of the Marquess sparkled and the 
 mouth of the Marquess was closed. He was 
 delighted that his reputation might yet be saved ; 
 but as he was not perfectly acquainted how that 
 salvation was to be effected, he prudently left the 
 battle to his youthful champion. 
 
 Mr. Vivian Grey proceeded with the utmost sang 
 froid : he commented upon expressions, split and 
 subtilized words, insinuated opinions, and finally 
 quoted a whole passage of Bolingbroke to prove that 
 the opinion of the most noble the Marquess of 
 Carabas was one of the soundest, wisest, and most 
 convincing of opinions that ever was promulgated by 
 mortal man. The tables were turned, the guests 
 looked astounded, the Marquess settled his ruffles, 
 and perpetually exclaimed, ' Exactly what I meant!' 
 and his opponents, full of wine, and quite puzzled, 
 gave in. 
 
 It was a rule with Vivian Grey, never to advance 
 any opinion as his own. He had been too deep a 
 student of human nature, not to be aware that the 
 opinions of a boy of twenty, however sound, and 
 however correct, stood but a poor chance of being 
 adopted by his elder, though feebler, fellow-creatures. 
 In attaining any end, it was therefore his system 
 always to advance his opinion as that of some 
 eminent and considered personage ; and when, under 
 the sanction of this name, the opinion or advice was 
 entertained and listened to, Vivian Grey had no fear 
 that he could prove its correctness and its expediency. 
 He possessed also the singular faculty of being able to
 
 CHAPTER I VIVIAN GREY 
 
 improvise quotations, that is, he could unprerneditatedly 
 clothe his conceptions in language characteristic of 
 the style of any particular author : and Vivian Grey 
 was reputed in the world as having the most astonish- 
 ing memory that ever existed ; for there was scarcely 
 a subject of discussion in which he did not gain the 
 victory, by the great names he enlisted on his side of 
 the argument. His father was aware of the existence 
 of this dangerous faculty, and had often remonstrated 
 with his son on the use of it. On the present 
 occasion, when the buzz . had somewhat subsided, 
 Mr. Grey looked smiling to his son, and said : 
 ' Vivian, my dear, can you tell me in what work of 
 Bolingbroke I can find the eloquent passage you 
 have just quoted ? ' ' Ask Mr. Hargrave, Sir,' 
 replied the son, with the most perfect coolness ; then, 
 turning to the member : ' You know, Mr. Hargrave, 
 you are reputed the most profound political student 
 in the House, and more intimately acquainted than 
 any other person with the works of Bolingbroke.' 
 
 Mr. Hargrave knew no such thing ; but he was 
 a weak man, and, seduced by the compliment, he 
 was afraid to prove himself unworthy of it by con- 
 fessing his ignorance of the passage. 
 
 Coffee was announced. 
 
 Vivian did not let the Peer escape him in the 
 drawing-room. He soon managed to enter into 
 conversation with him ; and certainly the Marquess 
 of Carabas never found a more entertaining com- 
 panion. Vivian discoursed on a new Venetian 
 liqueur, and taught the Marquess how to mull 
 Moselle, an operation of which the Marquess had 
 never heard (as who has ?) ; and then the flood of 
 anecdotes, and little innocent personalities, and the 
 compliments so exquisitely introduced, that they 
 
 39
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK II 
 
 scarcely appeared to be compliments ; and the voice 
 so pleasant, and conciliating, and the quotation from 
 the Marquess's own speech! and the wonderful art 
 of which the Marquess was not aware, by which, 
 during all this time, the lively, chattering, amusing, 
 elegant conversationist, so full of scandal, politics, 
 and cookery, did not so much appear to be Mr. Vivian 
 Grey as the Marquess of Carabas himself. 
 
 ' Well, I must be gone,' said the fascinated noble ; 
 ' I really have not felt in such spirits for some time ; 
 I almost fear I have been vulgar enough to be 
 amusing, eh ! eh ! eh ! but you young men are sad 
 fellows, eh ! eh ! eh ! Don't forget to call on me 
 good evening ! and Mr. Vivian Grey ! Mr. Vivian 
 Grey ! ' said his Lordship returning, ' you'll not 
 forget the receipt you promised me for making 
 tomahawk punch.' 
 
 ' Certainly not, my Lord,' said the young man ; 
 ' only it must be invented first,' thought Vivian, as 
 he took up his light to retire. ' But never mind, 
 never mind ; 
 
 Chapenu has ! chapeau has ! 
 Gloire au Marquis de Carabas ! ' 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 THE RECEIPT 
 
 A FEW days after the dinner at Mr. Grey's, as the 
 Marquess of Carabas was sitting in his library, and 
 sighing, in the fulness of his ennui, as he looked on 
 his large library-table, once triply covered with 
 official communications, now thinly besprinkled with 
 a stray parliamentary paper or two, his steward's 
 accounts, and a few letters from some grumbling 
 tenants ; Mr. Vivian Grey was announced. 
 
 40
 
 CHAPTER II VIVIAN GREY 
 
 ' I fear I am intruding on your Lordship, but I 
 really could not refrain from bringing you the receipt 
 I promised.' 
 
 ' Most happy to see ye, most happy to see ye.' 
 c This is exactly the correct receipt, my Lord. To 
 
 EVERY TWO BOTTLES OF STILL CHAMPAGNE, ONE PINT 
 
 OF CURACOA.' The Peer's eyes glistened, and his 
 companion proceeded ; ' ONE PINT OF CURASOA ; CATCH 
 
 THE AROMA OF A POUND OF GREEN TEA, AND DASH 
 THE WHOLE WITH GLENLIVET.' 
 
 ' Splendid ! ' ejaculated the Marquess. 
 
 ' The nice point, however, which it is impossible 
 to define in a receipt, is catching the Aroma. What 
 sort of a genius is your Lordship's gastrical chef} ' 
 
 'Splendid!' re-ejaculated the Marquis; ' Laporte 
 is a genius.' 
 
 ' Well, my Lord ! I shall be most happy to 
 superintend the first concoction for you ; and re- 
 member particularly,' said Vivian, rising, ' remember, 
 it must be iced.' 
 
 ' Certainly, my dear fellow : but pray don't think 
 of going yet.' 
 
 ' I am very sorry, my Lord ; but such a pressure 
 of engagements your Lordship's kindness is so 
 great, and, really, I fear, that at this moment especially, 
 your Lordship can scarcely be in a humour for my 
 trifling.' 
 
 ' Why this moment especially , Mr. Vivian Grey ? ' 
 
 ' Oh, my Lord ! I am perfectly aware of your 
 Lordship's talents for business ; but still I had con- 
 ceived, that the delicate situation in which your 
 Lordship is now placed, requiring such anxious atten- 
 tion, such ' 
 
 ' Delicate situation ! anxious attention ! why man ! 
 you speak riddles. I certainly have a great deal of 
 
 41
 
 VIVIAN GItEY BOOK II 
 
 business to transact : people are so obstinate, or so 
 foolish, they will consult me, certainly, and cer- 
 tainly I feel it my duty, Mr. Vivian Grey, I feel it 
 the duty, Sir, of every Peer in this happy country 
 (here his Lordship got parliamentary) ; yes, Sir, I 
 feel it due to my character, to my family, to to to 
 assist with my advice, all those who think fit to con- 
 sult me.' Splendid peroration ! 
 
 'Oh, my Lord!' carelessly remarked Vivian, 'I 
 thought it was a mere on dit.' 
 
 ' Thought what) my dear Sir, you really quite 
 perplex me.' 
 
 ' I mean to say, my Lord I, I thought it was im- 
 possible the overtures had been made.' 
 
 ' Overtures, Mr. Vivian Grey ? ' 
 
 ' Yes, my Lord ! Overtures hasn't your Lord- 
 ship seen the Post ? but I knew it was impossible, 
 I said so, I ' 
 
 'Said wha^ Mr. Vivian Grey ?' 
 
 ' Said that the whole paragraph was unfounded.' 
 
 ' Paragraph ! what paragraph ? ' and his Lordship 
 rose, and rang the library bell, with a vehemence 
 worthy of a Marquess ' Sadler, bring me the 
 Morning Post.' 
 
 The servant entered with the paper: Mr. Vivian 
 Grey seized it from his hands before it reached the 
 Marquess, and glancing his eye over it, with the 
 rapidity of lightning, doubled up the sheet in a con- 
 venient readable form, and pushing it into his Lord- 
 ship's hands, exclaimed, ' There, my Lord ! there, 
 that will explain all' 
 
 His Lordship read : 
 
 ' We are informed that some alteration in the 
 composition of the present administration is in con- 
 templation ; Lord Past Century, it is said, will retire ; 
 
 42
 
 CHAPTER II VIVIAN GREY 
 
 Mr. Liberal Principles will have the ; 
 
 and Mr. Charlatan Gas the . A noble 
 
 peer, whose practised talents have already benefited 
 the nation, and who, on vacating his seat in the 
 Cabinet, was elevated in the peerage, is reported as 
 having had certain overtures made him, the nature 
 of which may be conceived; but which, under the 
 present circumstances, it would be indelicate in us to 
 hint at.' 
 
 It would have been impossible for a hawk to have 
 watched its quarry with eyes of more fixed and 
 anxious earnestness, than did Vivian Grey the Mar- 
 quess of Carabas, as his Lordship's eyes wandered 
 over the paragraph. Vivian drew his chair close to 
 the table opposite to the Marquess, and when the 
 paragraph was read, their eyes met. 
 
 ' Utterly untrue,' whispered the peer with an agi- 
 tated voice, and with a countenance which, for a 
 moment, seemed intellectual. ' But why, * Mr. 
 Vivian Grey should deem the fact of such over- 
 tures having been made, " impossible" I confess, 
 astonishes me.' 
 
 ' Impossible, my Lord ! ' 
 
 * Ay, Mr. Grey, impossible, that was your word.' 
 
 ' Oh, my Lord ! what should I know about these 
 matters ? ' 
 
 ' Nay, nay, Mr. Grey, something must have been 
 floating in your mind why impossible, why impossible ? 
 Did your father think so ? ' 
 
 ' My father ! Oh ! no, he never thinks about 
 these matters ; our's is not a political family ; I'm not 
 sure that he ever looks at a newspaper.' 
 
 ' But, my dear Mr. Grey, you would not have 
 used the word without having some meaning. Why 
 did you think it impossible? impossible is such a 
 
 43
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK II 
 
 peculiar word.' And here the Marquess looked up 
 with great earnestness to a portrait of himself, which 
 hung over the fire-place. It was one of Sir Thomas's 
 happiest efforts ; but it was not the happiness of the 
 likeness, nor the beauty of the painting, which now 
 attracted his Lordship's attention : he thought only 
 of the costume in which he appeared in that portrait 
 the court dress of a Cabinet Minister: 'Impossible, 
 Mr. Grey, you must confess is a very peculiar word,' 
 reiterated his Lordship. 
 
 ' I said impossible, my Lord, because I did conceive, 
 that had your Lordship been of a disposition, to 
 which such overtures might have been made with 
 any probability of success, the Marquess of Carabas 
 would have been in a situation which would have 
 precluded the possibility of those overtures being 
 made at all.' 
 
 * Hah ! ' and the Marquess nearly started from 
 his seat. 
 
 ' Yes, my Lord, I am a young, an inexperienced 
 young man, ignorant of the world's ways ; doubtless 
 I was wrong, but I have much to learn,' and his voice 
 faltered : ' but I did conceive, that having power at 
 his command, the Marquess of Carabas did not ex- 
 ercise it, merely because he despised it : but what 
 should / know of such matters, my Lord ? ' 
 
 ' Is power a thing so easily to be despised, young 
 man ? ' asked the Marquess. His eye rested on a 
 vote of thanks from the ' Merchants and Bankers of 
 London to the Right Honourable Sidney Lorraine, 
 President, &c. &c. &c.' which, splendidly emblazoned, 
 and gilt, and framed, and glazed, was suspended 
 opposite the President's portrait. 
 
 ' Oh, no ! my Lord, you do mistake me,' eagerly 
 burst forth Vivian, ' I am no cold-blooded philoso- 
 
 44
 
 CHAPTER II VIVIAN GREY 
 
 pher, that would despise that, for which, in my 
 opinion, men, real men, should alone exist. Power! 
 Oh ! what sleepless nights, what days of hot anxiety ! 
 what exertions of mind and body! what travel! what 
 hatred ! what fierce encounters ! what dangers of all 
 possible kinds, would I not endure with a joyous 
 spirit to gain it ! But such, my Lord, I thought 
 were feelings peculiar to inexperienced young men ; 
 and seeing you, my Lord, so situated, that you might 
 command all and every thing, and yet living as you 
 do, I was naturally led to believe that the object of 
 my adoration was a vain glittering bauble, which 
 those who could possess knew the utter worthless- 
 ness of.' 
 
 The peer sat in a musing mood, playing the Devil's 
 tatoo on the library table ; at last, he raised his eyes 
 from the French varnish, and said to Vivian, in a 
 low whisper, ' Are you so certain that I can command 
 all and every thing ? ' 
 
 ''All and every thlng\ did I say all and every 
 thing? Really, my Lord, you scan my expressions 
 so critically ; but I see your Lordship is smiling at 
 my boyish nonsense ! and really I feel that I have 
 already wasted too much of your Lordship's valu- 
 able time, and displayed too much of my own 
 ignorance.' 
 
 ' My dear Sir, I am not aware that I was smiling.' 
 ' Oh ! your Lordship is so very kind.' 
 * But, my dear Sir ! you are really labouring under 
 a very great mistake. I am desirous, I am particularly 
 desirous, of having your opinion upon this subject.' 
 
 ' My opinion, my Lord ! what should my opinion 
 be, but an echo of the circle in which I live, but a 
 faithful representation of the feelings of general 
 society.' 
 
 45
 
 VIVIAN GKKV BOOK II 
 
 ' And, Mr. Grey, I should be glad to know what 
 can possibly be more interesting to me than a faithful 
 representation of the feelings of general society on 
 this subject.' 
 
 ' The many, my Lord, are not always right.' 
 
 ' Mr. Grey, the many are not often wrong. Come, 
 my dear Sir, do me the favour of being frank, and 
 let me know why the public is of opinion that all and 
 every thing is in my power, for such, after all, were 
 your words.' 
 
 ' If I did use them, my Lord, it was because I was 
 thinking, as I often am, what after all in this country 
 is public life ? Is it not a race in which the swiftest 
 must surely win the prize and is not that prize 
 power ? Has not your Lordship treasure ? There 
 is your moral steam which can work the world. Has 
 not your Lordship treasure's most splendid conse- 
 quences, pure blood and aristocratic influence ? The 
 Millionaire has in his possession the seeds of every 
 thing, but he must wait for half a century till his 
 descendant finds himself in your Lordship's state- 
 till he is yclept noble, and then he starts fair in the 
 grand course. All these advantages your Lordship 
 has apparently at hand, with the additional advantage 
 (and one oh ! how great !) of having already proved 
 to your country, that you know how to rule.' 
 
 There was a dead silence, which at length the 
 Marquess broke. ' There is much in what you say ; 
 but I cannot conceal it from myself, I have no wish 
 to conceal it from you / am not what I was" Oh, 
 ambition ! thou art the parent of truth. 
 
 ' Ah, my Lord ! ' eagerly rejoined Vivian, ' here is 
 the terrible error into which you great statesmen 
 have always fallen. Think you not, that intellect is 
 as much a purchaseable article as fine parks and fair 
 
 46
 
 CHAPTER II VIVIAN GREY 
 
 castles ? With your Lordship's tried and splendid 
 talents, every thing might be done ; but, in my opinion, 
 if, instead of a practised, an experienced, and wary 
 Statesman, I was now addressing an idiot Ear/, I 
 should not see, that the great end might not equally 
 be consummated.' 
 
 ' Say you so, my merry man, and how?' 
 
 ' Why, my Lord, but, but, I feel that I am 
 trespassing on your Lordship's time, otherwise I 
 think I could show why society is of opinion that 
 your Lordship can do all and every thing- how, in- 
 deed, your Lordship might, in a very short time, be 
 Prime Minister.' 
 
 ' No, Mr. Grey ; this conversation must be 
 finished. I'll first give orders that we may not be 
 disturbed, and then we'll proceed immediately. Come, 
 now! your manner takes me, and we will converse 
 in the spirit of the most perfect confidence.' 
 
 Here, as the Marquess settled at the same time his 
 chair and his countenance, and looked as anxious as if 
 Majesty itself was consulting him on the formation 
 of a ministry, in burst the Marchioness, notwith- 
 standing all the remonstrances, entreaties, threats, 
 and supplications of Mr. Sadler. 
 
 Her Ladyship had been what they style a splendid 
 woman ; she was now passata, although with the aid of 
 cachemeres, diamonds, and turbans, her tout ensemble 
 was still very striking. Her Ladyship was not re- 
 markable for any thing, save a correct taste for 
 poodles, parrots, and bijouterie, and a proper admira- 
 tion of Theodore Hook, and John Bull. 
 
 ' Oh ! Marquess,' exclaimed her Ladyship, and a 
 favourite green parrot, which came flying in after its 
 accustomed perch, her Ladyship's left shoulder, 
 shrieked at the same time in concert ' Oh ! Mar- 
 
 47
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK II 
 
 quess, my poor Julie! You know we've noticed 
 how nervous she has been for some days past, and I 
 had just given her a saucer of arrow-root and milk, 
 and she seemed a little easier, and I said to Miss 
 Graves, " I really do think she is a leetle better," and 
 Miss Graves said, "Yes, my Lady, I hope she is;" 
 when just, as we flattered ourselves, that the dear 
 little creature was enjoying a quiet sleep, Miss Graves 
 called out, " Oh, my Lady! my Lady! Julie's in a 
 fit ! " and when I turned round she was lying on her 
 back, kicking, with her eyes shut." And here the 
 Marchioness detected Mr. Grey, and gave him as 
 fashionable a stare as might be expected from a Lady 
 Patroness of Almack's. 
 
 ' The Marchioness Mr. Vivian Grey My love, 
 I assure you we're engaged in a most important, a 
 most .' 
 
 'Oh! my life, I wouldn't disturb you for the 
 world, only if you will just tell me what you think 
 ought to be done ; leeches, or a warm bath ; or shall 
 I send for Doctor Blue Pill?' 
 
 The Marquess looked a little annoyed, as if he 
 
 wished her Ladyship in her own room again. 
 
 He was almost meditating a gentle reprimand, vexed 
 that his grave young friend should have witnessed 
 this frivolous intrusion, when that accomplished strip- 
 ling, to the astonishment of the future minister, 
 immediately recommended ' the warm bath,' and a 
 few grains of ' mustard seed,' and then lectured with 
 equal rapidity and erudition, on dogs, and their 
 diseases in general. 
 
 The Marchioness retired, ' easier in her mind about 
 Julie, than she had been for some days,' as Vivian 
 assured her ' that it was not apoplexy, but only the 
 first symptom of an epidemic.' And as she retired 
 
 48
 
 CHAPTER II VIVIAN GREY 
 
 she murmured her gratitude most gracefully to Julie's 
 young physician, and her prime minister, the parrot, 
 on her left shoulder, at the same time cackled a 
 compliment. 
 
 ' Now, Mr. Grey,' said his Lordship, endeavouring 
 to recover his dignity, ' we were discussing the public 
 sentiments, you know, on a certain point, when this 
 unfortunate interruption- 
 Vivian had not much difficulty in collecting his 
 ideas, and he proceeded, not as displeased as his 
 Lordship, with the domestic scena. 
 
 ' I need not remind your Lordship, that the two 
 great parties into which this State is divided, are 
 apparently very unequally proportioned. Your Lord- 
 ship well knows how the party to which your 
 Lordship is said to belong, your Lordship knows, 
 I imagine, how that is constituted. We have nothing 
 to do with the other. My Lord, I must speak out. 
 No thinking man, and such, I trust, Vivian Grey 
 is, no thinking man can for a moment suppose that 
 your Lordship's heart is very warm in the cause of a 
 party, which for I will not mince my words has 
 betrayed you. How is it, it is asked by thinking men, 
 how is it that the Marquess of Carabas is the tool of 
 a faction ?' 
 
 The Marquess breathed loud, ' they say so, do 
 they?' 
 
 ' Why, my Lord, listen even to your servants in 
 your own hall need I say more ? How, then ! is 
 this opinion true ? Let us look to your conduct to 
 the party, to which you are said to belong. Your 
 votes are theirs, your influence is theirs ; and for all 
 this, what return, my Lord Marquess, what return ? 
 My Lord, I am not rash enough to suppose, that your 
 Lordship, alone and unsupported, can make yourself 
 D 49
 
 VIVIAN (iKKV BOOK II 
 
 the arbiter of this country's destinies. It would be 
 ridiculous to entertain such an idea for a second. 
 The existence of such a man would not be endured 
 by the nation for a second. But, my Lord, union is 
 strength. Nay, my Lord, start not I am not going 
 to advise you to throw yourself into the arms of 
 opposition ; leave such advice for greenhorns. I am 
 not going to advise you to adopt a line of conduct, 
 which would, for a moment, compromise the con- 
 sistency of your high character ; leave such advice for 
 fools. My Lord, it is to preserve your consistency, 
 it is to vindicate your high character, it is to make the 
 Marquess of Carabas perform the duties which society 
 requires from him, that I, Vivian Grey, a member of 
 that society, and an humble friend of your Lordship, 
 speak so boldly.' 
 
 ' My friend,' said the agitated Peer, ' you cannot 
 speak too boldly. My mind opens to you. I have 
 felt, I have long felt, that I was not what I ought to 
 be, that I was not what society requires me to be : 
 but where is your remedy, what is the line of conduct 
 that I should pursue ? ' 
 
 ' The remedy, my Lord ! I never conceived, for a 
 moment, that there was any doubt of the existence of 
 means to attain all and every thing. I think that was 
 your Lordship's phrase. I only hesitated as to the 
 existence of the inclination , on the part of your 
 Lordship.' 
 
 * You cannot doubt it now,' said the Peer, in a low 
 voice ; and then his Lordship looked anxiously round 
 the room, as if he feared that there had been some 
 mysterious witness to his whisper. 
 
 ' My Lord,' said Vivian, and he drew his chair close 
 to the Marquess, 'the plan is shortly this. There 
 are others in a similar situation with yourself. All 
 
 5
 
 CHAPTER II VIVIAN GREY 
 
 thinking men know, your Lordship knows still better, 
 that there are others equally influential equally 
 ill-treated. How is it that I see no concert among 
 these individuals ? How is it that, jealous of each 
 other, or each trusting that he may ultimately prove 
 an exception to the system of which he is a victim ; 
 how is it, I say, that you look with cold hearts on 
 each other's situations ? My Lord Marquess, it is at 
 the head of these that I would place you ; it is these 
 that I would have act with you and this is the union 
 which is strength' 
 
 ' You are right, you are right ; there is Courtown, 
 but we do not speak. There is Beaconsfield, but we 
 are not intimate, but much might be done.' 
 
 ' My Lord, you must not be daunted at a few 
 difficulties, or at a little exertion. But as for Cour-- 
 town, or Beaconsfield, or fifty other offended men, 
 if it can be shown to them that their interest is to be 
 your Lordship's friend, trust me, that ere six months 
 are over, they will have pledged their troth. Leave 
 all this to me give me your Lordship's name,' said 
 Vivian, whispering most earnestly in the Marquess's 
 ear, and laying his hand upon his Lordship's arm - 
 ' give me your Lordship's name, and your Lordship's 
 influence, and I will take upon myself the whole 
 organization of the CARABAS PARTY.' 
 
 ' The Carabas party ! Ah ! we must think more 
 of this.' 
 
 The Marquess's eyes smiled with triumph, as he 
 shook Vivian cordially by the hand, and begged him 
 to call upon him on the morrow. 
 
 5 1
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK n 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 THE MOTTO 
 
 THE intercourse between the Marquess and Vivian, 
 after this interview, was constant. No dinner-party 
 was thought perfect at Carabas House, without the 
 presence of the young gentleman ; and as the 
 Marchioness was delighted with the perpetual presence 
 of an individual whom she could always consult about 
 Julie, there was apparently no domestic obstacle to 
 Vivian's remaining in high favour. 
 
 The Earl of Eglamour, the only child, in whom 
 were concentrated all the hopes of the illustrious 
 House of Lorraine, was in Italy. The only remaining 
 member of the domestic circle who was wanting, was 
 the Honourable Mrs. Felix Lorraine, the wife of the 
 Marquess's younger brother. This lady, exhausted 
 by the gaiety of the season, had left town somewhat 
 earlier than she usually did, and was inhaling fresh 
 air, and of course studying botany, at the magnificent 
 seat of the Carabas family, CHATEAU DESIR, at which 
 splendid place Vivian was to pass the summer. 
 
 Mr. Grey watched the movements of his son with 
 an anxious, but apparently with no curious eye. ' If 
 the Marquess will give my son a good place, why 
 Master Vivian's new system works rather better than 
 I conceived it would ; but how the young knave hath 
 so managed, shall I say ? the old fool, does, I confess, 
 puzzle my philosophy.' 
 
 Alas ! when Mr. Grey jocosely used the phrase, 
 ' new system? he was little aware of the workings of 
 his son's mind. But so it is in life ; a father is, per- 
 haps, the worst judge of his son's capacity. He knows 
 too much and too little. 
 
 52
 
 CHAPTER III VIVIAN GREY 
 
 In the meantime, as we before stated, all was sun- 
 shine with Vivian Grey. His noble friend and him- 
 self were in perpetual converse, and constantly 
 engaged in deep consultation. As yet, the world 
 knew nothing, except that, according to the Marquess 
 of Carabas, ' Vivian Grey was the most astonishingly 
 clever and prodigiously accomplished fellow that ever 
 breathed.' And as the Marquess always added, 
 * resembled himself very much when he was young.' 
 
 But it must not be supposed, that Vivian was to 
 all the world the fascinating creature that he was 
 to the Marquess of Carabas. Many complained that 
 he was reserved, silent, satirical, and haughty. But 
 the truth was, Vivian Grey often asked himself, ' who 
 is to be my enemy to-morrow?' He was too 
 cunning a master of the human mind, not to be 
 aware of the quicksands upon which all greenhorns 
 strike ; he knew too well the danger of unnecessary 
 intimacy. A SMILE FOR A FRIEND, AND A SNEER FOR 
 THE WORLD, is the way to govern mankind, and such 
 was the motto of Vivian Grey. 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 CHATEAU DESIR 
 
 How shall I describe CHATEAU DESIR, that place fit 
 for all princes ? In the midst of a park of great 
 extent, and eminent for scenery, as varied as might 
 please Nature's most capricious lover ; in the midst 
 of green lawns, and deep winding glens, and cooling 
 streams, and wild forest, and soft woodland, there 
 was gradually formed an elevation, on which was 
 situate a mansion of great size, and of that bastard, 
 but picturesque, style of architecture, called the 
 Italian Gothic. The date of its erection was about 
 
 53
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK II 
 
 the middle of the sixteenth century. You entered 
 by a noble gateway, in which the pointed style still 
 predominated; but in various parts of which, the 
 Ionic column, and the prominent keystone, and other 
 creations of Roman architecture, intermingled with 
 the expiring Gothic, into a large quadrangle, to which 
 the square casement windows, and the trianglar pedi- 
 ments or gable ends, supplying the place of battle- 
 ments, gave a varied and Italian feature. In the 
 centre of the court, from an immense marble basin, 
 the rim of which was enriched by a splendidly 
 sculptured lotus border, rose a marble group, re- 
 presenting Amphitrite with her marine attendants, 
 whose sounding shells and coral sceptres sent forth 
 their subject element in sparkling showers. This 
 work, the chef d'ceuwe of a celebrated artist of 
 Vicenza, had been purchased by Valerian, first Lord 
 Carabas, who having spent the greater part of his life 
 as the representative of his monarch at the Ducal 
 Court of Venice, at length returned to his native 
 country; and in the creation of Chateau Desir, en- 
 deavoured to find some consolation for the loss of his 
 gay palazzo on the banks of the Adige. 
 
 Over the gateway there rose a turreted tower, the 
 small square window of which, notwithstanding its 
 stout stanchions, illumined the muniment room of 
 the House of Carabas. In the spandrils of the gate- 
 way, and in many other parts of the building, might 
 be seen the arms of the family ; while the innumer- 
 able stacks of chimneys, which appeared to spring 
 from all parts of the roof, were carved and built in 
 such curious and quaint devices, that they were rather 
 an ornament than an excrescence. When you entered 
 the quadrangle, you found one side solely occupied 
 by the old hall, the immense carved rafters of whose 
 
 54
 
 CHAPTER IV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 oaken roof rested on corbels of the family supporters, 
 against the walls. 
 
 The walls of the hall were of stone, but these were 
 covered half way from the ground with a pannelling 
 of curiously carved oak ; whence were suspended the 
 family portraits in massy frames, painted partly by 
 Dutch, and partly by Italian artists. Near the Dais, 
 or upper part of the Hall, there projected an oriel 
 window, which, as you beheld, you scarcely knew 
 what most to admire, the radiancy of its painted 
 panes, or the fantastic richness of Gothic ornament, 
 which was profusely lavished in every part of its 
 masonry. Here too the Gothic pendent, and the 
 Gothic fan-work, were intermingled with the Italian 
 arabesques, which, at the time of the building of the 
 Chateau, had been recently introduced into England 
 by Hans Holbein and John of Padua. 
 
 How wild and fanciful are those ancient ara- 
 besques! Here at Chateau Desir, in the pannelling 
 of the old hall, might you see fantastic scrolls, 
 separated by bodies ending in termini, and whose 
 heads supported the Ionic volute, while the arch, 
 which appeared to spring from these capitals, had, 
 for a keystone, heads more monstrous than those of 
 the fabled animals of Ctesias ; or so ludicrous, that 
 you forgot the classic Griffin in the grotesque con- 
 ception of the Italian artist. Here was a gibbering 
 monkey, there a grinning Pulcinello ; now you 
 viewed a chattering devil, which might have figured 
 in the Temptation of St. Anthony ; and now a 
 mournful, mystic, bearded countenance, which might 
 have flitted in the back scene of a Witches' Sabbath. 
 
 A long Gallery wound through the upper story 
 of two other sides of the quadrangle, and beneath 
 were the show suite of apartments, with a sight of 
 
 55
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK II 
 
 which the admiring eyes of curious tourists were 
 occasionally delighted. 
 
 The grey stone walls of this antique edifice were, 
 in many places, thickly covered with ivy, and other 
 parasitical plants, the deep green of whose verdure 
 beautifully constrasted with the scarlet glories of the 
 papyrus japonica, which gracefully clustered round 
 the windows of the lower chambers. The mansion 
 itself was immediately surrounded by numerous 
 ancient forest trees. There was the elm, with its 
 rich branches, bending down like clustering grapes ; 
 there was the wide-spreading oak, with its roots 
 fantastically gnarled ; there was the ash, with its 
 smooth bark and elegant leaf; and the silver beech, 
 and the gracile birch ; and the dark fir, affording 
 with its rough foliage, a contrast to the trunks of its 
 more beautiful companions, or, shooting far above 
 their branches, with the spirit of freedom worthy of 
 a rough child of the mountains. 
 
 Around the Castle were extensive pleasure- 
 grounds, which realized the romance of the 
 Gardens of Verulam. And truly, as you wandered 
 through their enchanting paths, there seemed no end 
 to their various beauties, and no exhaustion of their 
 perpetual novelty. Green retreats succeeded to 
 winding walks ; from the shady berceau, you vaulted 
 on the noble terrace ; and if, for an instant, you 
 felt wearied by treading the velvet lawn, you might 
 rest in a mossy cell, while your mind was soothed 
 by the soft music of falling waters. Now, your 
 curious eyes were greeted by oriental animals, bask- 
 ing in a sunny paddock ; and when you turned from 
 the white-footed antelope, and the dark-eyed gazelle, 
 you viewed an aviary of such extent, that within 
 its trelliced walls the imprisoned songsters could 
 
 56
 
 CHAPTER IV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 build, in the free branches of a tree, their natural 
 nests. 
 
 ' Oh, fair scene ! ' thought Vivian Grey, as he 
 approached, on a fine summer's afternoon, the 
 splendid Chateau. ' Oh, fair scene ! doubly fair to 
 those who quit for you the thronged and agitated city. 
 And can it be, that those who exist within this 
 enchanted domain, can think of anything but sweet 
 air, and do aught but revel in the breath of per- 
 fumed flowers ? ' And here he gained the garden 
 gate : so he stopped his soliloquy, and gave his 
 horse to his groom. 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 A NEW CHARACTER 
 
 THE Marquess had preceded Vivian in his arrival 
 about three or four days, and of course, to use the 
 common phrase, the establishment 'was quite settled.' 
 It was was, indeed, to avoid the possibility of witness- 
 ing the domestic arrangements of a nobleman in any 
 other point of view, save that of perfection, that 
 Vivian had declined accompanying his noble friend 
 to the Chateau. Mr. Grey, junior, was an epicurean, 
 and all epicureans will quite agree with me, that his 
 conduct on this head was extremely wise. I am 
 not very nice myself about these matters ; but there 
 are, we all know, a thousand little things that go 
 wrong on the arrivals of even the best regulated 
 families, and to mention no others, for any rational 
 being voluntarily to encounter the awful gaping of 
 an English family, who have travelled one hundred 
 miles in ten successive hours, appears to me to be 
 little short of madness. 
 
 ' Grey, my boy, quite happy to see ye ! later 
 
 57
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK II 
 
 than I expected ; first bell rings in five minutes 
 Sadler will show you your room Father, I hope 
 quite well ? ' 
 
 Such was the salutation of the Marquess ; and 
 Vivian accordingly retired to arrange his toilet. 
 
 The first bell rang, and the second bell rang, and 
 Vivian was seated at the dinner-table. He bowed 
 to the Marchioness, and asked after her poodle, 
 and gazed with some little curiosity at the vacant 
 chair opposite him. 
 
 ' Mrs. Felix Lorraine Mr. Vivian Grey,' said the 
 Marquess, as a Lady entered the room. 
 
 Now, although I am one of those historians, who 
 are of opinion that the nature of the personages they 
 celebrate, should be developed rather by a recital of 
 their conduct, than by a set character au commence- 
 ment ; I feel it, nevertheless, incumbent upon me to 
 devote a few lines to the Lady that has just entered, 
 which the reader will be so good as to get through, 
 while she is accepting an offer of some white soup ; 
 by this means he will lose none of the conversation. 
 
 The Honourable Felix Lorraine, we have before 
 laconically described as a Roue, To the initiated, I 
 need say no more ; they will all know what sort of a 
 person a roue must be, who has the honour of being the 
 son of an English Earl. To the uninitiated, I shall 
 only observe, that after having passed through a career 
 with tolerable credit, which would have blasted the 
 character of any common personage, Felix Lorraine 
 ended by pigeoning a young nobleman, whom, for 
 that purpose, he had made his intimate friend. The 
 affair got wind. After due examination, was pro- 
 claimed ' too bad,' and the guilty personage was 
 visited with the heaviest vengeance of modern society 
 he was expelled his club. By this unfortunate 
 
 58
 
 CHAPTER V VIVIAN GREY 
 
 exposure, Mr. Felix Lorraine was obliged to give in 
 a match, which was on the tapis, with the celebrated 
 Miss Mexico, on whose million he had determined 
 to set up a character and a chariot, and at the same 
 time pension his mistress, and subscribe to the 
 Society for the Suppression of Vice. Felix left for 
 the Continent, and in due time was made drum- 
 major at Barbadoes, or fiscal at Ceylon, or something 
 of that kind ; I forget which. While he loitered in 
 Europe, he made a conquest of the heart of the 
 daughter of some German baron, who was ambas- 
 sador extraordinary from his Serene Highness the 
 Palsgrave of * * * * to his most Supreme Excel- 
 lency the Landgrave of * * * * and after six 
 weeks passed in the most affectionate manner, each 
 of the happy couple performing their respective 
 duties with perfect propriety, Felix left for his 
 colonial appointment, and also left his lady be- 
 hind him. 
 
 Mr. Lorraine had duly and dutifully informed his 
 family of his marriage, and they, as amiably and 
 affectionately, had never answered his letters, which 
 he never expected they would. Profiting by their 
 example, he never answered his wife's, who, in due 
 time, to the horror of the Marquess, landed in 
 England, and claimed the protection of her ' beloved 
 husband's family.' The Marquess vowed he would 
 never see her ; the lady, however, one morning 
 gained admittance, and from that moment she had 
 never quitted her brother-in-law's roof, and not only 
 had never quitted it, but now made the greatest 
 favour of her staying. 
 
 The extraordinary influence which Mrs. Felix 
 Lorraine possessed, was certainly not owing to her 
 beauty, for the lady opposite Vivian Grey had 
 
 59
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK II 
 
 apparently no claims to admiration, on the score of 
 her personal qualifications. Her complexion was 
 bad, and her features were indifferent, and these 
 characteristics were not rendered less uninterestingly 
 conspicuous, by what makes an otherwise ugly woman 
 toute au contraire, namely, a pair of expressive eyes ; 
 for certainly this epithet could not be applied to 
 those of Mrs. Felix Lorraine, which gazed in all the 
 vacancy of German listlessness. 
 
 The lady did bow to Mr. Grey, and that was all ; 
 and then she negligently spooned her soup, and then, 
 after much parade, sent it away untouched. As 
 Vivian wined with the Marchioness, he was not 
 under the necessity of paying any courtesy to his 
 opposite neighbour, whose silence, he plainly per- 
 ceived, was for the nonce, and consequently for him. 
 But the day was hot, and Vivian had been fatigued 
 by his ride, and the Marquess's champagne was 
 excellent ; and so, at last, the floodgates of his speech 
 burst, and talk he did. He complimented her Lady- 
 ship's poodle, quoted German to Mrs. Felix Lorraine, 
 and taught the Marquess to eat cabinet pudding with 
 cura^oa sauce (a custom which, by the bye, I recom- 
 mend to all) ; and then his stories, and his scandal, 
 and his sentiment ; stories for the Marquess, scandal 
 for the Marchioness, and sentiment for the Marquess's 
 sister ! That lady, who began to find out her man, 
 had no mind to be longer silent, and although a 
 perfect mistress of the English language, began to 
 articulate a horrible patois, that she might not be 
 mistaken for an Englishwoman, a thing which she 
 particularly dreaded. But now came her punish- 
 ment, for Vivian saw the effect which he had pro- 
 duced on Mrs. Felix Lorraine, and that Mrs. Felix 
 Lorraine now wished to produce a corresponding 
 
 60
 
 CHAPTER V VIVIAN GREY 
 
 effect upon him, and this he was determined she 
 should not do ; so new stories followed, and new 
 compliments ensued, and finally he anticipated her 
 sentences, and sometimes her thoughts. The lady 
 sat silent and admiring ! At last the important meal 
 was finished, and the time came when good dull 
 English dames retire ; but of this habit Mrs. Felix 
 Lorraine did not approve ; and, although she had 
 not yet prevailed upon Lady Carabas to adopt her 
 ideas on field days, still en domestique, the good- 
 natured Marchioness had given in, and to save her- 
 self from hearing the din of male voices at a time, at 
 which during her whole life she had been unaccustomed 
 to them, the Marchioness of Carabas dozed. Her 
 worthy spouse, who was prevented by the presence 
 of Mrs. Felix Lorraine, from talking politics with 
 Vivian, passed the bottle pretty briskly, and then 
 conjecturing that ' from the sunset we should have a 
 fine day to-morrow,' fell back in his easy chair, and 
 snored. 
 
 Mrs. Felix Lorraine looked at her noble relatives, 
 and shrugged up her shoulders with an air which 
 barHeth all description. ' Mr. Grey, I congratulate 
 you on this hospitable reception ; you see we treat 
 you quite en famille. Come ! 'tis a fine evening, you 
 have seen, as yet, but little of Chateau Desir : we 
 may as well enjoy the fine air on the Terrace.' 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE TERRACE. 
 
 ' You must know, Mr. Grey, that this is my favourite 
 walk, and I therefore expect that it will be yours.' 
 
 ' It cannot indeed fail to be such, the favourite as 
 it alike is, of nature, and Mrs. Felix Lorraine.' 
 
 61
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK II 
 
 ' On my word, a very pretty sentence ! and who 
 taught you, young gentleman, to bandy words so 
 fairly ?' 
 
 ' I never can open my mouth, except in the presence 
 of a woman,' bolted out Vivian, with the most im- 
 pudent mendacity, and he looked interesting and 
 innocent. 
 
 ' Indeed ! and what do you know about such 
 wicked work, as talking to women?" and here Mrs. 
 Felix Lorraine imitated Vivian's sentimental voice. 
 'Do you know,' she continued, 'I feel quite happy 
 that you have come down here ; I begin to think 
 that we shall be very great friends.' 
 
 'Nothing appears to me more evident,' said Vivian. 
 
 'How delicious is friendship,' exclaimed Mrs. Felix 
 Lorraine: 'delightful sentiment, that prevents life 
 from being a curse ! Have you a friend, Mr. Vivian 
 Grey ?' 
 
 'Before I answer that question, I should like to 
 know what meaning Mrs. Felix Lorraine attaches to 
 that important monosyllable, friend? 
 
 'Oh, you want a definition! I hate definitions; 
 and of all the definitions in the world, the one I've 
 been most unfortunate in has been a definition of 
 friendship, I might say' and here her voice sunk, 
 'I might say, of all the sentiments in the world, 
 friendship is the one which has been most fatal to 
 me ; but I must not inoculate you with my bad 
 spirits, bad spirits are not for young blood like yours, 
 leave them to old persons like myself.' 
 
 'Old!' said Vivian, in a proper tone of surprise. 
 
 ' Old ! ay old, how old do you think I am ?' 
 
 'You may have seen twenty summers,' gallantly 
 conjectured Vivian. 
 
 The lady looked pleased, and almost insinuated 
 62
 
 CHAPTER VI VIVIAN GREY 
 
 that she had seen one or two more. Mrs. Felix 
 Lorraine was about thirty. 
 
 'A clever woman,' thought Vivian, 'but vain; I 
 hardly know what to think of her.' 
 
 ' Mr. Grey, I fear you find me in bad spirits to-day ; 
 but, alas ! I I have cause. Although we see each 
 other to-day for the first time, yet there is something 
 in your manner, something in the expression of your 
 eyes, that make me believe my happiness is not alto- 
 gether a matter of indifference to you' These words, 
 uttered in one of the sweetest voices by which ever 
 human being was fascinated, were slowly and de- 
 liberately spoken, as if it was intended that they 
 should rest on the ear of the object to whom they 
 were addressed. 
 
 ' My dear Mrs. Lorraine ! it is impossible that / 
 can have but one sentiment with regard to you, that 
 of ' 
 
 ' Of what, Mr Grey ? 
 
 ' Of solicitude for your welfare.' 
 
 The lady gently took the arm of the young man, 
 and then with an agitated voice, and a troubled spirit, 
 dwelt upon the unhappiness of her lot, and the 
 cruelty of her fortunes. Her husband's indifference 
 was the sorrowful theme of her lamentations ; and 
 she ended by asking Mr. Vivian Grey's advice, as to 
 the line of conduct which she should pursue with 
 regard to him ; first duly informing Vivian that this 
 was the only time, and he the only person, to whom 
 this subject had been ever mentioned. 
 
 'And why should I mention it here and to whom ? 
 The Marquess is the best of men, but ' and here 
 she looked up in Vivian's fece, and spoke volumes; 
 'and the Marchioness is the most amiable of women, 
 at least, I suppose her lap-dog thinks so.' 
 
 63
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK II 
 
 The advice of Vivian was very concise. He sent 
 the husband to the devil in two seconds, and insisted 
 upon the wife's not thinking of him for another 
 moment ; and then the lady dried her eyes, and 
 promised to do her best. 
 
 'And now,' said Mrs Felix Lorraine, 'I must talk 
 about your own affairs I think your plan excellent" 
 
 'Plan! Madam.' 
 
 ' Yes, plan^ Sir ! the Marquess has told me all. I 
 have no head for politics, Mr Grey; but if I cannot 
 assist you in managing the nation, I perhaps may in 
 managing the family, and my services are at your 
 command. Believe me, you'll have enough to do : 
 there, I pledge you my troth. Do you think it a 
 pretty hand ?' 
 
 Vivian did think it a very pretty hand, and he 
 performed due courtesies in a very gallant style. 
 
 ' And now, good even to you,' said the lady ; ' this 
 little gate leads to my apartments. You'll have no 
 difficulty in finding your way back : ' so saying she 
 disappeared. 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 EARLY RISING 
 
 WHEN Vivian retired to his room, he found a 
 notellette on his dressing-case, which contained two 
 lines. They were as follows : ' A walk on the Ter- 
 race before breakfast is the fashion at Chateau DesirS 
 The espirit of the note sufficiently indicated the 
 authoress, even if the perfumed paper, and the dimi- 
 nutive French gem, with its piquant and peculiar 
 motto, had allowed him, /or an instant, to hesitate. 
 
 In spite of his travelling, and his champagne, and 
 his sound sleep, Vivian rose early, and was on the 
 
 64
 
 CHAPTER VII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 Terrace at a most reasonable hour, at least for him ; 
 Mrs. Felix Lorraine was already there. 
 
 ' I congratulate Mr. Grey,' said the lady, as she 
 extended him a finger, ' on being an early riser. 
 Nothing is so vulgar as getting up late. Oh ! what 
 a pretty morning gown that is ! and how nice your 
 hair curls ! and that velvet stock ! why I declare 
 you've quite a taste in costume ? but it does not set 
 quite right. 'There, that's better,' said Mrs. Lorraine, 
 adjusting the stock for him, ' not much beard yet, I 
 see ; you must take care to have one before you're a 
 privy counsellor. 1 
 
 ' I rejoice,' said Vivian, ' that I can in return sin- 
 cerely compliment you on your own good taste in 
 costume. That buckle is, of course, fresh from 
 Berlin, or Birmingham it's all the same, you know, 
 at least at Howell and James's ; and of all things in 
 the world, what I most admire, are your black velvet 
 slippers ! But, where's the Marquess ?' 
 
 ' Oh ! we're not very early honoured with the 
 presence of the Marquess of Carabas in his own 
 house.' 
 
 ' Why, what do you mean ?' 
 
 ' Oh ! I mean nothing, except that the future 
 minister never rises till noon bad habits, Mr. Grey, 
 for a man of business ! ' 
 
 ' Bad habits, indeed ! we must endeavour to cure 
 him, now that he's going, as you say, to be a man of 
 business.' 
 
 ' Oh, certainly ! cure him by all means. He'll 
 give you, I don't doubt, plenty of occupation. I 
 advise you regularly to reform the whole house. 
 Your influence is so great, that you can do anything 
 with the Marquess. Well, I hope he'll behave better 
 in future, for the Castle will be full in a few days, 
 E 65
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK II 
 
 There are the Courtowns coming, and Sir Berdmore 
 and Lady Scrope, and the Beaconsfields all next 
 week ; and crowds of all sorts of people, whose 
 names I forget, pawns in the great game of chess, 
 which is to be played by Vivian Grey, Esq., and the 
 most noble the Marquess of Carabas against all 
 England. There, there's the breakfast bell ; I hope 
 your appetite's good.' 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE FIRST WEEK 
 
 THE first week at Chateau Desir passed pleasantly 
 enough. Vivian's morning was amply occupied in 
 maturing with the Marquess the grand principles ot 
 the new political system : in weighing interests, in 
 balancing connections, and settling ' what side was to 
 be taken on the great questions \ ' Oh ! politics, thou 
 splendid juggle ! The whole business, although so 
 magnificent in its result, appeared very easy to the 
 two counsellors, for it was one of the first principles 
 of Mr. Vivian Grey, ' that every thing was possible.' 
 Men did fail in life to be sure, and after all, very 
 little was done by the generality ; but still all these 
 failures, and all this inefficiency might be traced to a 
 want of physical and mental courage. Some men 
 were bold in their conceptions, and splendid heads at 
 a grand system, but then when the day of battle 
 came, they turned out very cowards ; while others, 
 who had nerve enough to stand the brunt of the 
 hottest fire, were utterly ignorant of military tactics, 
 and fell before the destroyer, like the brave un- 
 tutored Indians, before the civilized European. Now 
 Vivian Grey was conscious, that there was at least 
 one person in the world, who was no craven either in 
 
 66
 
 CHAPTER VIII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 body or in mind, and so he had long come to the 
 comfortable conclusion, that it was impossible that 
 his career could be anything, but the most brilliant. 
 And truly, employed as he now was, with a peer of 
 the realm, in a solemn consultation on that realm's 
 most important interests, at a time when creatures 
 of his age were moping in Halls and Colleges, is it 
 to be wondered at, that he began to imagine that his 
 theory was borne out by experience, and by fact ? 
 Not that it must be supposed, even for a moment, 
 that Vivian Grey was, what that the world calls 
 conceited. Oh, no ! he knew the measure of his own 
 mind, and had fathomed the depth of his powers 
 with equal skill and impartiality ; but in the process 
 he could not but feel, that he could conceive much> 
 and dare do more. 
 
 I said the first week at Chateau Desir passed 
 pleasantly enough ; and so it did, for Vivian's soul 
 revelled in the morning councils on his future 
 fortunes, with as much eager joy, as a young 
 courser trying the turf, preliminary to running for 
 the plate. And then, in the evening, were moon- 
 lit walks with Mrs. Felix Lorraine ! and then the 
 lady abused England so prettily, and initiated her 
 companion in all the secrets of German Courts, and 
 sang beautiful French songs, and then she would 
 take him beside the luminous lake in the park, and 
 vow it looked just like the dark blue Rhine ! and 
 then she remembered Germany, and grew sad, and 
 abused her husband ; and then she taught Vivian 
 the guitar, and some other fooleries besides.
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK II 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 TACTICS 
 
 THE second week of Vivian's visit had come round, 
 and the flag waved proudly on the proud tower of 
 Chateau Desir, indicating to the admiring county, 
 that the most noble Sydney, Marquess of Carabas, 
 held public days twice a week at his grand Castle. 
 And now came the neighbouring peer, full of grace 
 and gravity, and the mellow baronet, with his hearty 
 laugh, and the jolly country squire, and the middling 
 gentry, and the jobbing country attorney, and the 
 flourishing country surveyor. Some honouring by 
 their presence, some who felt the obligation equal, 
 and others bending before the noble host, as if 
 paying him adoration was almost an equal pleasure 
 with that of guzzling his venison pasties, and quaff- 
 ing his bright wines. 
 
 Independent of all these periodical visitors, the 
 house was full of permanent ones. There was the 
 Viscount and Viscountess Courtown, and their three 
 daughters, and Lord and Lady Beaconsfield, and 
 their three sons, and Sir Berdmore and Lady Scrope, 
 and Colonel Delmington of the Guards, and Lady 
 Louisa Manvers, and her daughter Julia. Lady 
 Louisa was the only sister of the Marquess a 
 widow, proud and pennyless. 
 
 To all these distinguished personages, Vivian was 
 introduced by the Marquess as ' a monstrous clever 
 young man, and his Lordship's most particular friend' 
 and then the noble Carabas left the game in his 
 young friend's hands. 
 
 And right well Vivian did his duty. In a week's 
 time it would have been hard to decide with whom 
 
 68
 
 CHAPTER IX VIVIAN GREY 
 
 of the family of the Courtowns Vivian was the 
 greatest favourite. He rode with the Viscount, 
 who was a good horseman, and was driven by his 
 Lady, who was a good whip ; and when he had 
 sufficiently admired the tout ensemble of her Lady- 
 ship's pony phaeton, he entrusted her, '/ confidence? 
 with some ideas of his own about Martingales, a 
 subject which he assured her Ladyship ' had been 
 the object of his mature consideration.' The three 
 honourable Misses were the most difficult part of 
 the business ; but he talked sentiment with the first, 
 sketched with the second, and romped with the 
 third. 
 
 Ere the Beaconsfields could be jealous of the 
 influence of the Courtowns, Mr. Vivian Grey had 
 promised his Lordship, who was a collector of 
 medals, an unique, which had never yet been heard 
 of ; and her Ladyship, who was a collector of auto- 
 graphs, the private letters of every man of genius 
 who ever had been heard of. In this division of 
 the Carabas guests, he was not bored with a family ; 
 for sons, he always made it a rule to cut dead ; they 
 are the members of a family who, on an average, 
 are generally very uninfluential, for, on an average, 
 they are fools enough to think it very knowing, to 
 be very disagreeable. So the wise man but little 
 loves them, but woe to the fool who neglects the 
 daughters ! 
 
 Sir Berdmore Scrope, Vivian found a more un- 
 manageable personage ; for the baronet was con- 
 foundedly shrewd, and without a particle of sentiment 
 in his composition. It was a great thing, however, 
 to gain him ; for Sir Berdmore was a leading 
 country gentleman, and having quarrelled with 
 Ministers about the corn laws, had been accounted 
 
 69
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK II 
 
 disaffected ever since. The baronet, however, al- 
 though a bold man to the world, was luckily hen- 
 pecked ; so Vivian made love to the wife, and 
 secured the husband. 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 MARRIAGE 
 
 I THINK that Julia Manvers was really the most 
 beautiful creature that ever smiled in this fair world. 
 Such a symmetrically formed shape, such perfect 
 features, such a radiant complexion, such luxuriant 
 auburn hair, and such blue eyes, lit up by a smile 
 of such mind and meaning, have seldom blessed the 
 gaze of admiring man ! Vivian Grey, fresh as he 
 was, was not exactly the creature to lose his heart 
 very speedily. He looked upon marriage as a 
 certain farce in which, sooner or later, he was, as 
 a well-paid actor, to play his part ; and could it 
 have advanced his views one jot, he would have 
 married the Princess Caraboo to-morrow. But of 
 all wives in the world, a young and handsome one 
 was that which he most dreaded ; and how a states- 
 man, who was wedded to a beautiful woman, could 
 possibly perform his duties to the public, did most 
 exceedingly puzzle him. Notwithstanding, however, 
 these sentiments, Vivian began to think that there 
 really could be no harm in talking to so beautiful 
 a creature as Julia, and a little conversation with her 
 would, he felt, be no unpleasing relief to the difficult 
 duties in which he was involved. 
 
 To the astonishment of the Honourable Buckhurst 
 Stanhope, eldest son of Lord Beaconsfield, Mr. Vivian 
 Grey, who had never yet condescended to acknow- 
 ledge his existence, asked him one morning, with the 
 
 70
 
 CHAFFER X VIVIAN GREY 
 
 most fascinating of smiles, and with the most con- 
 ciliating voice, ' whether they should ride together ? ' 
 The young heir apparent looked stiff, and assented. 
 He arrived again at Chateau Desir in a couple of 
 hours, desperately enamoured of the eldest Miss 
 Courtown. The sacrifice of two mornings to the 
 Honourable Dormer Stanhope, and the Honourable 
 Gregory Stanhope, sent them home equally au desespoir 
 as to the remaining sisters. Having thus, like a man 
 of honour, provided for the amusement of his former 
 friends, the three Miss Courtowns, Vivian left Mrs. 
 Felix Lorraine to the Colonel, whose mustache, by 
 the bye, that lady considerably patronized, and then, 
 having excited an universal feeling of gallantry among 
 the elders, Vivian found his whole day at the service 
 of Julia Manvers. 
 
 ' Miss Manvers, I think that you and I are the 
 only faithful subjects in this Castle of Indolence. 
 Here am I lounging on an Ottoman, my ambition 
 reaching only so far as the possession of a cigar, 
 whose aromatic and circling wreathes, I candidly con- 
 fess, I dare not here excite; and you, of course, 
 much too knowing to be doing any thing on the 
 first of August, save dreaming of races, archery feats, 
 and county balls the three most delightful things 
 which the country can boast, either for man, woman, 
 or child.' 
 
 * Of course, you except sporting for yourself 
 shooting especially, I suppose.' 
 
 ' Shooting ! oh ! ah ! there is such a thing. No, 
 I'm no shot ; not that I have not in my time culti- 
 vated a Manton ; but the truth is, having, at an early 
 age, mistaken my most intimate friend for a cock 
 pheasant, I sent a whole crowd of "fours " into his 
 face, and thereby spoilt one of the prettiest counten-
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK II 
 
 ances in Christendom ; so I gave up the field. 
 Besides, as Tom Moore says, I have so much to do 
 in the country, that, for my part, I really have no 
 time for killing birds and jumping over ditches : 
 good work enough for country squires, who must, 
 like all others, have their hours of excitement. Mine 
 are of a different nature, and boast a different 
 locality ; and so when I come into the country, 'tis 
 for pleasant air, and beautiful trees, and winding 
 streams, things, which, of course, those who live all 
 the year round among, do not suspect to be lovely 
 and adorable creations. Don't you agree with Tom 
 Moore, Miss Manvers ? ' 
 
 ' Oh, of course ! but I think it's very improper, 
 that habit, that every one has, of calling a man of 
 such eminence as the author of Lalla Rookh, 'Tom 
 Moore.' 
 
 ' I wish he could but hear you ! But suppose I 
 were to quote Mr. Moore, or Mr. Thomas Moore, 
 would you have the most distant conception whom I 
 meant ? No, no, certainly not. By the bye, did 
 you ever hear the pretty name they gave him at 
 Paris ? ' 
 
 * No ! what was it ? ' 
 
 ' One day, Moore and Rogers went to call on 
 Denon. Rogers gave their names to the Swiss, 
 Monsieur Rogers et Monsieur Moore. The Swiss 
 dashed open the library door, and, to the great sur- 
 prise of the illustrious antiquary, announced, Monsieur 
 1' Amour ! While Denon was doubting whether the 
 God of Love was really paying him a visit or not, 
 Rogers entered. I should like to have seen Denon's 
 face!' 
 
 'And Monsieur Denon did take a portrait of Mr. 
 Rogers as Cupid, I believe, Mr. Grey ?' 
 
 72
 
 CHAPTER X VIVIAN GREY 
 
 ' Come, Madam, " no scandal about Queen Eliza- 
 beth, I hope." Mr. Rogers is one of the most 
 elegant-minded men in the country.' 
 
 ' Nay ! don't lecture me with such a riant face, or 
 else all your morale will be utterly thrown away.' 
 
 ' Ah ! you have Retsch's Faust there. I did not 
 expect on a drawing-room table at Chateau Desir, to 
 see anything so old, and so excellent. I thought the 
 third edition of Tremaine would be a very fair speci- 
 men of your ancient literature, and Major Denham's 
 hair-breadth escapes of your modern. There was an 
 excellent story about town, on the return of Denham 
 and Clapperton. The travellers took different routes, 
 in order to arrive at the same point of destination. 
 In his wanderings, the Major came unto an unheard- 
 of Lake, which, with a spirit, which they of the 
 Guards surely approved, he christened " Lake Water- 
 loo" Clapperton arrived a few days after him ; and 
 the pool was immediately re-baptised " Lake 'Tra- 
 falgar''' There was a hot quarrel in consequence. 
 Now, if I had been there, I would have arranged 
 matters, by proposing as a title to meet the views of 
 all parties, " The United Service Lake." 
 
 ' That would certainly have been very happy.' 
 
 ' How beautiful Margaret is ! ' said Vivian, rising 
 from his Ottoman, and seating himself on the sofa 
 by the lady. ' I always think, that this is the only 
 Personification where Art has not rendered Innocence 
 insipid.' 
 
 ' Do you think so ? ' 
 
 ' Why, take Una in the Wilderness, or Goody Two 
 Shoes. These, I believe, were the most innocent per- 
 sons tha't ever existed, and I'm sure you will agree 
 with me, they always look the most insipid. Nay, 
 perhaps I was wrong in what I said; perhaps it is 
 
 73
 
 VIVIAN (iHKV BOOK II 
 
 Insipidity that always look innocent, not Innocence 
 always insipid.' 
 
 ' How can you refine so, Mr. Grey, when the 
 thermometer is at 250 ! Pray, tell me some more 
 stories.' 
 
 * I cannot, I'm in a refining humour : I could 
 almost lecture to-day at the Royal Institution. You 
 would not call these exactly Prosopopeias of Inno- 
 cence ?' said Vivian, turning over a bundle of Stewart 
 Newton's beauties, languishing, and lithographed. 
 ' Newton, I suppose, like Lady Wortley Montague, 
 is of opinion, that the face is not the most beautiful 
 part of woman ; at least, if I am to judge from these 
 elaborate ancles. Now the countenance of this Donna, 
 forsooth, has a drowsy placidity worthy of the easy 
 chair she is lolling in, and yet her ancle would not dis- 
 grace the contorted frame of the most pious Faquir.' 
 
 ' Well ! I'm an admirer of Newton's paintings.' 
 
 ' Oh ! so am I. He's certainly a cleverish fellow, 
 but rather too much among the blues ; a set, of 
 whom, I would venture to say, Miss Matwers 
 knoweth little about ? ' 
 
 ' Oh, not the least ! Mamma does not visit that 
 way. What are they ? ' 
 
 ' Oh, very powerful people ! though * Mamma does 
 not visit that way' They live chiefly about Cumber- 
 land Gate. Their words are Ukases as far as Curzon 
 Street, and very Decretals in the general vicinity of 
 May Fair; but you shall have a further description 
 another time. How those rooks bore ! I hate stay- 
 ing with ancient families; you're always cawed to 
 death. If ever you write a novel, Miss Manvers, 
 mind you have a rookery in it. Since Tremaine, 
 and Washington Irving, nothing will go down 
 without.' 
 
 74
 
 CHAPTER X VIVIAN GREY 
 
 'Oh ! by the bye, Mr. Grey, who is the author of 
 Tremaine ?' 
 
 ' I'll tell you who is not.' 
 
 ' Who ? ' 
 
 < Mr. Ogle.' 
 
 ' But, really, who is the author ? ' 
 
 ' Oh ! I'll tell you in a moment. It's either Mr. 
 Ryder, or Mr. Spencer Percival, or Mr. Dyson, or 
 Miss Dyson, or Mr. Bowles, or the Duke of 
 Buckingham, or Mr. Ward, or a young Officer in the 
 Guards, or an old Clergyman in the North of Eng- 
 land, or a middle-aged Barrister on the Midland 
 Circuit. 
 
 ' You're really so giddy, Mr. Grey, I wish you 
 could get me an autograph of Mr. Washington 
 Irving ; I want it for a particular friend.' 
 
 ' Give me a pen and ink ; I'll write you one 
 immediately.' 
 
 ' Oh ! Mr. Grey.' 
 
 ' There ! now you've made me blot Faustus.' 
 
 At this moment the room-door suddenly opened, 
 and as suddenly shut. 
 
 ' Who was that, Mr. Grey ?' 
 
 4 Mephistophiles, or Mrs. Felix Lorraine ; one or 
 the other, perhaps both ! 
 
 ' Mr. Grey !' 
 
 ' What do you think of Mrs. Felix Lorraine, Miss 
 Manvers ?' 
 
 ' Oh ! I think her a very amusing woman, a very 
 clever woman, a very but ' 
 
 * But, what ? ' 
 
 ' But I can't exactly make her out.' 
 
 ' Nor I, nor I she's a dark riddle ; and, although 
 I am a very CEdipus, I confess I have not yet unra- 
 velled it. Come, there's Washington Irving's 
 
 75
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK II 
 
 autograph for you; read it, isn't it quite in character? 
 Shall I write any more ? One of Sir Walter's, or 
 Mr. Southey's, or Mr. Milman's, or Mr. D'Israeli's ? 
 or shall I sprawl a Byron ? 
 
 ' Mr. Grey ! I really cannot patronize such un- 
 principled conduct. You may make me one of Sir 
 Walter's, however.' 
 
 " Poor Washington, poor Washington ! ' said 
 Vivian, writing ; ' I knew him well in London. He 
 always slept at dinner. One day as he was dining at 
 Mr. Hallam's, they took him, when asleep, to Lady 
 Jersey's rout ; and, to see the Sieur Geoffrey, when 
 he opened his eyes in the illumined saloons, was really 
 quite admirable ! quite an Arabian tale ! ' 
 
 ' Oh, how delightful ! I should have so liked to 
 have seen him ! He seems quite forgotten now in 
 England. How came we to talk of him ? ' 
 
 ' Forgotten oh ! he spoilt his elegant talents in 
 writing German and Italian twaddle with all the raw- 
 ness of a Yankee. He ought never to have left 
 America, at least in literature : there was an uncon- 
 tested and glorious field for him. He should have 
 been managing Director of the Hudson Bay Com- 
 pany, and lived all his life among the beavers.' 
 
 ' I think there's nothing more pleasant, Mr. Grey, 
 than talking over the season in the country, in 
 August.' 
 
 ' Nothing more agreeable. It was dull, though, 
 last season, very dull ; I think the game cannot be 
 kept going another year. If it wasn't for the 
 General Election, we really must have a war for 
 variety's sake. Peace gets quite a bore. Everybody 
 you dine with commands a good cuisine, and gives you 
 twelve different wines, all perfect. And as for Dr. 
 Henderson, he is the amateur importer for the whole 
 
 76
 
 CHAPTER X VIVIAN GREY 
 
 nation. We cannot bear this any longer ; all the 
 lights and shadows of life are lost. The only good 
 thing I heard this year, was an ancient gentlewoman 
 going up to Gunter, and asking him for ' the receipt 
 for that white stuff,' pointing to his Roman punch. 
 I, who am a great man for receipts, gave it her 
 immediately : " One hod of mortar to one bottle of 
 Noyau' ' 
 
 ' Oh, that was too bad ! and did she thank you ? ' 
 
 ' Thank me! ay, truly ; and pushed a card into my 
 hand, so thick and sharp that it cut through my glove. 
 I wore my arm in a sling for a month afterwards.' 
 
 ' And what was the card ?' 
 
 ' Oh, you need not look so arch ! The old lady 
 was not even a faithless duenna. It was an invitation 
 to an assembly, or something of the kind, at a locale, 
 somewhere, as Theodore Hook, or John Wilson 
 Croker, would say, " between Mesopotamia and 
 Russell-square.'" 
 
 ' Do you know Mr. Croker, Mr. Grey ?' 
 
 ' Not in the least. I look upon Mr. Croker and 
 myself as the two sublimest men in the United 
 Kingdom. When we do meet, the interview will be 
 interesting.' 
 
 ' Pray, Mr. Grey, is it true that all the houses in 
 Russell-square are tenantless ?' 
 
 ' Quite true ; the Marquess of Tavistock has given 
 up the county in consequence. A perfect shame 
 is it not ? Let's write it up.' 
 
 ' An admirable plan ! but we'll take the houses 
 first ; of course we can get them at a pepper-corn 
 rent.' 
 
 ' What a pity, Miss Manvers, the fashion has gone 
 out of selling oneself to the devil.' 
 
 'Good gracious, Mr. Grey!' 
 
 77
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK II 
 
 ' On my honour, I am quite serious. It does 
 appear to me to be a very great pity. What a capital 
 plan for younger brothers ! It's a kind of thing I've 
 been trying to do all my life, and never could succeed. 
 I began at school with toasted cheese and a pitch-fork ; 
 and since then I've invoked, with all the eloquence of 
 Goethe, the evil one in the solitude of the Hartz ; 
 but without success. I think I should make an ex- 
 cellent bargain with him : of course, I don't mean 
 that ugly vulgar savage with a fiery tail. Oh, no ! 
 Satan himself for me, a perfect gentleman ! Or 
 Belial, Belial would be the most delightful He's 
 the fine genius of the Inferno, I imagine, the Beranger 
 of Pandemonium.' 
 
 ' Mr. Grey, I really cannot listen to such nonsense 
 one moment longer. What would you have if Belial 
 were here ? ' 
 
 ' Let us see. Now, you shall act the spirit, and I, 
 Vivian Grey. I wish we had a shorthand writer here 
 to take down the Incantation Scene. We'd send it 
 to Arnold. Commenfons Spirit ! I'll have a fair 
 castle.' 
 
 The lady bowed. 
 
 ' I'll have a palace in town.' 
 
 The lady bowed. 
 
 ' I'll have lots of the best Havannah cigars.' 
 
 The lady bowed. 
 
 ' I'll have a fair wife. Why, Miss Manvers, you 
 forget to bow !' 
 
 ' Oh, dear ! Mr. Grey, I really beg your pardon !' 
 
 ' Come, this is a novel way of making an offer, 
 and, I hope, a successful one.' 
 
 * Julia, my dear,' cried a voice in the veranda, 
 ' Julia, my dear, I want you to walk with me.' 
 
 'Say you are engaged with the Marchioness,' 
 78
 
 CHAPTER X VIVIAN GREY 
 
 whispered Vivian, with a low but distinct voice ; 
 his eyes fixed on the table, and his lips not appearing 
 to move. 
 
 ' Mamma, I'm ' 
 
 4 1 want you immediately and particularly, Julia,' 
 cried Lady Louisa, with an earnest voice. 
 
 ' I'm coming, I'm coming. You see I must go, 
 Mr. Grey.' 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE PARK 
 
 'CONFUSION on that old hag! Her eye looked evil 
 on me, at the very moment ! Although a pretty 
 wife is really the destruction of a young man's 
 prospects, still, in the present case, the niece of my 
 friend, my patron high family perfectly unexcep- 
 tionable, &c. &c. &c. Such blue eyes ! upon my 
 honour, this must be an exception to the general 
 rule.' Here a light step attracted his attention, and, 
 on turning round, he found Mrs. Felix Lorraine at 
 his elbow. 
 
 ' Oh ! you're here \ Mr. Grey, acting the Soli- 
 taire in the park. I want your opinion about a 
 passage in " Hermann and Dorothea." 
 
 ' My opinion is always at your service ; but, if the 
 passage is not perfectly clear to Mrs. Felix Lorraine, 
 it will be perfectly obscure, I am convinced, to me.' 
 
 ' Oh, dear ! after all my trouble, I've forgotten my 
 book. How mortifying ! Well, I'll show it you 
 after dinner : adieu ! and by the bye, Mr. Grey, as 
 I am here, I may as well advise you not to spoil all 
 the Marquess's timber, by carving a certain person's 
 name on his park trees. I think your plans in that 
 quarter are admirable. I've been walking with Lady 
 Louisa the whole morning, and you can't think how 
 
 79
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK II 
 
 I puffed you ! Courage, Cava/ier, and we shall 
 soon be connected, not only in friendship, but in 
 blood.' 
 
 The next morning at breakfast, Vivian was sur- 
 prised to find that the Manvers party was suddenly 
 about to leave the Castle. All were disconsolate at 
 their departure, for there was to be a grand entertain- 
 ment at Chateau Desir that very day ; but particularly 
 Mrs. Felix Lorraine, and Mr. Vivian Grey. The 
 sudden departure was accounted for by the arrival of 
 ' unexpected,' &c. &c. &c. There was no hope, 
 the green-post chariot was at the door a feeble pro- 
 mise of a speedy return ! Julia's eyes were filled 
 with tears. Vivian was springing forward to press 
 her hand, and bear her to the carriage, when Mrs. 
 Felix Lorraine seized his arm, vowed she was going 
 to faint, and, ere she could recover herself, or loosen 
 her grasp, the Manvers, were gone. 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 A MORNING VISIT 
 
 THE gloom which the parting had diffused over all 
 countenances, was quite dispelled when the Marquess 
 entered. 
 
 * Lady Carabas,' said he, ' you must prepare for 
 crowds of visitors to-day. There are the Amer- 
 shams, and Lord Alhambra, and Ernest Clay, and 
 twenty other young heroes, who, duly informed that 
 the Miss Courtowns were honouring us with their 
 presence, are pouring in from all quarters Isn't it so, 
 Juliana ? ' gallantly asked the Marquess of Miss Cour- 
 town : ' but who do you think is coming besides ? ' 
 
 ' Who, who ? ' exclaimed all. 
 
 ' Nay, you shall guess,' said the Peer. 
 80
 
 CHAPTER XII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 4 The Duke of Waterloo ? ' guessed Cynthia Cour- 
 town, the romp. 
 
 ' Prince Hungary ? ' asked her sister Laura. 
 
 ' Is it a gentleman ? ' asked Mrs. Felix Lorraine. 
 
 'No, no, you're all wrong, and all very stupid. 
 It's Mrs. Million.' 
 
 ' Oh, how delightful ! ' said Cynthia. 
 
 ' Oh, how annoying ! ' said the Marchioness. 
 
 ' You need not look so agitated, my love,' said 
 the Marquess ; ' I have written Mrs. Million to say 
 that we shall be most happy to see her ; but as the 
 Castle is very full, she must not come with fifty car- 
 riages and four, as she did last year.' 
 
 ' And will Mrs. Million dine with us in the hall, 
 Marquess ? ' asked Cynthia Courtown. 
 
 ' Mrs. Million will do what she likes ; I only 
 know that I shall dine in the hall, whatever happens, 
 and whoever comes ; and so, I suppose, will Miss 
 Cynthia Courtown ? ' 
 
 Vivian rode out alone, immediately after breakfast, 
 to cure his melancholy by a hard gallop. He left 
 his horse to choose its own road ; and, at length, he 
 found himself plunging in a corn field. 
 
 ' Halloo, sir ! beg pardon ; but your horse's feet 
 will do no good to that standing corn ; for when 
 there 's plenty of roads to ride over my maxim is, 
 keep out of inclosures.' 
 
 Vivian turned round, and recognized a friend in 
 the person of a substantial and neighbouring farmer. 
 
 Daniel Groves, or as he was commonly called 
 Mister Groves, was one of those singular personages 
 whose eccentricities procure them, from all the sur- 
 rounding neighbourhood, the reputation of being 
 ' quite a character.' Daniel was a stout-built, 
 athletic man, with a fine'*, florid countenance, and a 
 F 81
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK II 
 
 few grey hairs straggling over his forehead, and 
 beautifully contrasting with his carnationed com- 
 plexion. His hazel eyes were very small, but they 
 twinkled with perpetual action. A turned-up nose 
 gave his countenance a somewhat conceited expression ; 
 and, as he was in the habit of being consulted by the 
 whole county, this expression became so habitual, 
 that Mr. Groves always looked as if he himself quite 
 agreed with the general opinion that he was ' one 
 of the most long-headed fellows in these parts,' and 
 ' quite a character.' Daniel was not only opulent 
 but flourishing; but he was not above attending to 
 all the details of his farm, though frequently admitted 
 to the tables of the principal neighbouring gentry. 
 
 But by this time Mister Groves, with a peculiarly 
 large pet pitchfork over one shoulder, and a handful 
 of corn in the other hand, with which he occasionally 
 nourished his ample frame in his toilsome march 
 over the stubble, has reached the trespasser. 
 
 ' What ! is it you, Mr. Grey ? who thought of 
 seeing you here ? ' 
 
 ' Oh ! Mr. Groves, I was'nt aware I was trespassing 
 on your corn.' 
 
 ' Oh ! no matter, no matter ; friends are always 
 welcome, that's my maxim. But if you could keep a 
 kettle nearer to the hedge.' 
 
 * Oh ! I'll come out immediately. Which way are 
 you going ? I've been thinking of calling on you.' 
 
 ' Well now, do, Sir ; ride home with me and take 
 a bit of something to eat. My mistress will be 
 remarkable glad to see you. There's some nice 
 cold pickled pork we've an excellent cheese in cut ; 
 and as fine a barrel of ale in broach as you ever 
 tasted.' 
 
 'Why, Groves! really I can't turn back to-day, 
 82
 
 CHAPTER XII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 for I want to look in at Conyers, and ask him about 
 that trout stream.' 
 
 ' Well, Sir ! I'm sorry you're so pushed, but I do 
 wish you'd come in some day quite promiscuous. 
 You said you would, for I want your opinion of 
 some port wine I'm going to take with a friend.' 
 
 ' So I will with the greatest pleasure, but I'm not 
 at all a good judge of port, it's too heavy for me ; 
 I'd sooner taste your ale.' 
 
 ' Ah ! it's the fashion of you young squires to cry 
 down port wine ; but depend upon't, it's the real 
 stuff. We never should have beat the French, if it 
 hadn't been for their poor sour wines. That's my 
 maxim.' 
 
 ' Shall you dine at the Chateau to-day ? ' 
 
 * Why you see the Markiss makes such a point of 
 it, that I can't well be off. And the county should 
 be kept together sometimes. That's the ground I 
 go upon.' 
 
 ' Oh ! do come you must come we can't do 
 without you ; it's nothing without you, Groves.' 
 
 ' Well, really, you're very good to say so, so I 
 can't say but what I will ; but I hope there'll be 
 something to eat and drink, which I know the name 
 of, for the last time I 'tended, there was nothing but 
 kickshaws ; my stomach's not used to such Frenchified 
 messes, and I was altogether no-howish by the time I 
 got home. I said to my mistress, " really," says 
 I, " I don't know what's the matter with me, but my 
 stomach's going remarkable wrong;" so she advised 
 me to take a good stiff glass of brandy and water, 
 while she got a couple of ducks roasted for supper, 
 for peas were just in ; sure enough that's all I wanted, 
 for I slept well after it, and got up quite my own 
 man again. There's nothing like a glass of brandy 
 
 83
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK II 
 
 and water, cold, without sugar, when you're out of 
 sorts. That's my maxim.' 
 
 ' And a very good maxim too, Mr. Groves. I 
 wish I could get you one of these mornings to look 
 at a horse for me.' 
 
 ' I shall be very glad. The one you're on, seems 
 rather weak in the fore legs ; 1 should blister him, if 
 he belonged to me. But as to getting you a horse, 
 why, it's the wrong time of year ; and I'm so remark- 
 able pushed on that point, that I hardly know what 
 to say, but still I always like to do a good turn for a 
 friend, that's my maxim, so I can't say but what I'll 
 see about it. There's Harry Mounteney now, he 
 wants me to ride over to Woodbury, to look at 
 a brown mare; Stapylton Toad too, he says he's 
 never satisfied without my opinion, though he 
 generally takes his own in the long run. Ah ! those 
 Londoners know nothing about horseflesh. Well, 
 any day you'll call, I'm your man.' 
 
 ' Well, thank you, thank you, I shall keep you to 
 your promise.' 
 
 ' Well, Sir ! good morning, pleasant ride to you. 
 You'll keep to the roads, I'm sure, till harvest's in : 
 though they mayn't be over good for a carriage, 
 they're very fair for a bridle. That's the ground 
 I stand upon.' 
 
 As Vivian was returning home, he intended to look 
 in at a pretty cottage near the park, where lived one 
 John Conyers, an honest husbandman, and a great 
 friend of Vivian's. This man had, about a fortnight 
 ago, been of essential service to our hero, when 
 a vicious horse, which he was endeavouring to cure 
 of some ugly tricks, had nearly terminated his mortal 
 career. 
 
 ' Why are you crying so, my boy ? ' asked Vivian 
 84
 
 CHAPTER XII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 of a little Conyers, who was sobbing bitterly at the 
 cottage door. He was answered only with desperate 
 sobs. ' Is your father at home ?' 
 
 ' Oh, 'tis your honour ! ' said a decent-looking 
 woman, who came out of the cottage ; ' I thought 
 they had come back again.' 
 
 ' Come back again ! why, what's the matter, 
 dame ? ' 
 
 ' Oh ! your honour, we're in sad distress ; there's 
 been a seizure this morning, and I'm mortal fear'd 
 the good man's beside himself ! ' 
 
 ' Good Heavens ! why didn't you come to the 
 castle ? The Marquess surely never gave orders for 
 the infliction of this misery.' 
 
 ' Oh ! your honour, we a'n't his Lordship's tenants 
 no longer ; there's been a change for Purley Mead, 
 and now we're Lord Mounteney's people. John 
 Conyers has been behindhand ever since he had 
 the fever, but Mr. Sedgwick always gave time : but 
 Lord Mounteney's gem'man says the system's bad, 
 and so he'll put an end to it ; and so all's gone, your 
 honour ; all's gone, and I'm mortal fear'd the good 
 man's beside himself.' 
 
 ' And who's Lord Mounteney's man of business ? ' 
 
 ' Mr. Stapylton Toad,' sobbed the good dame. 
 
 * Here, boy, leave off crying, and hold my horse ; 
 keep your hold tight, but give him rein, he'll be quiet 
 enough then. I'll see honest John, dame Conyers.' 
 
 ' I'm sure your honour's very kind, but I'm mortal 
 feared the good man's beside himself, and he's apt to 
 do very violent things when the fit's on him. He 
 hasn't been so bad, since young Barton behaved so 
 wickedly to his sister.' 
 
 ' Never mind ! I'll see him ; there's nothing like a 
 friend's face in the hour of sorrow.' 
 
 85
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK II 
 
 ' I wouldn't advise your honour,' said the good 
 dame, with a fearful expression of countenance ; ' It's 
 an awful hour when the fit's on him ; he knows not 
 friend or foe, and scarcely seems to know me, your 
 honour.' 
 
 ' Never mind, never mind, I'll see him.' 
 
 Vivian entered the cottage, but, oh ! the scene of 
 desolation, who shall describe ? The room was 
 entirely stripped, literally of every thing ; there was 
 nothing left, save the bare white-washed walls, and 
 the red tiled flooring. The room was darkened ; 
 and seated on an old block of wood, which had been 
 pulled out of the orchard, since the bailiff had left, 
 was John Conyers. The fire was out, but his feet 
 were still among the ashes. His head was buried in 
 his hands, and bowed down nearly to his knees. The 
 eldest girl, a fine sensible child of about thirteen, was 
 sitting with two brothers on the floor in a corner of 
 the room, motionless, their faces grave, and still as 
 death, but tearless. Three young children, of an age 
 too tender to know grief, were acting unmeaning 
 gambols near the door. 
 
 ' Oh ! pray beware, your honour,' earnestly whis- 
 pered the poor dame, as she entered the cottage with 
 the visitor. 
 
 Vivian walked up with a silent step to the end of 
 the room, where John Conyers was sitting. He 
 remembered this little room, when he thought it the 
 very model of the abode of an English husbandman. 
 The neat row of plates, and the well-scoured utensils, 
 and the fine old Dutch clock, and the ancient and 
 amusing ballad, purchased at some neighbouring fair, 
 or of some itinerant bibliopole, and pinned against 
 the wall all, all were gone ! 
 
 ' John Conyers ! ' exclaimed Vivian. 
 86
 
 CHAPTER XII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 There was no answer, nor did the miserable man 
 appear in the slightest degree to be sensible of 
 Vivian's presence. 
 
 ' My good John Conyers ! ' 
 
 The man raised his head from his resting place, 
 and turned to the spot whence the voice proceeded. 
 There was such an unnatural fire in his eyes, that 
 Vivian's spirit almost quailed. Any one, but Vivian 
 Grey, would have fled the house. His alarm was not 
 decreased when he perceived, that the master of the 
 cottage did not recognize him. The fearful stare 
 was, however, short, and again the sufferer's face was 
 hid. 
 
 The wife was advancing, but Vivian waved his 
 hand to her to withdraw, and she accordingly fell into 
 the back ground ; but her fixed eye did not leave her 
 husband for a second. 
 
 ' John Conyers, it is your friend, Mr. Vivian Grey, 
 who is here,' said Vivian. 
 
 ' Grey ! ' moaned the husbandman, ' Grey ! who 
 is he ? ' 
 
 ' Your friend, John Conyers. Do you quite forget 
 me ? ' said Vivian advancing, and with a tone which 
 Vivian Grey could alone assume. 
 
 ' I think I have seen you, and you were kind,' 
 and the face was again hid. 
 
 ' And always will be kind, John Conyers. I have 
 come to comfort you. I thought that a friend's 
 voice would do you good in this hour of your 
 affliction. Come, come, my good Conyers, cheer 
 up, my man ! ' and Vivian dared to touch him. His 
 hand was not repulsed. ' Do you remember what 
 good service you did me when I rode white-footed 
 Moll. Oh ! John Conyers, when the mare was 
 plunging on the hill-top, I was much worse off than 
 
 87
 
 VIVIAN GHKY BOOK II 
 
 you are now ; and yet, you see, a friend came and 
 saved me. You must not give way so, my good 
 fellow. After all, a little management will set every 
 thing right,' and he took the husbandman's sturdy 
 hand. John Conyers looked wildly round, but the 
 unnatural fire that had glistened in his eyes was 
 extinguished. 
 
 ' I do remember you,' he faintly cried ; ' I do 
 remember you. Ton were always very kind.' 
 
 ' And always will be, I repeat, John Conyers ; at 
 least to friends like you. Come, come, there's a man, 
 cheer up and look about you, and let the sunbeam 
 enter your cottage : ' and Vivian beckoned to the 
 wife to open the closed shutter. 
 
 Conyers stared around him, but his eye rested only 
 on bare walls, and the big tear coursed down his 
 hardy cheek. 
 
 ' Nay, never mind man ! ' said Vivian, ' we'll soon 
 have chairs and tables again. And as for the rent, 
 think no more about that at present.' 
 
 The husbandman looked up to heaven, and then 
 burst into the most violent hysterics. Vivian could 
 scarcely hold down the powerful, and convulsed, 
 frame of Conyers on his rugged seat ; but the wife 
 advanced from the back of the room, and her 
 husband's head rested against her bosom. Vivian 
 held his honest hand, and the eldest girl rose un- 
 bidden trom her silent sorrow, and clung to her 
 father's knee. 
 
 ' The fit is over,' whispered the wife. ' There, 
 there, there's a man, all is now well ; ' and Vivian 
 left him resting on his wife's bosom. 
 
 * Here, you curly-headed rascal, scamper down to 
 the village immediately, and bring up a basket of 
 something to eat ; and tell Morgan Price, that Mr.
 
 CHAPTER XII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 Grey says he's to send up a couple of beds, and some 
 chairs here immediately, and some plates and dishes, 
 and every thing else, and don't forget a bottle of 
 wine ;' so saying, Vivian flung the urchin a sovereign. 
 ' And now, Dame Conyers, for Heaven's sake ! 
 light the fire. As for the rent, John Conyers, do 
 not waste this trifle on ////,' whispered Vivian, 
 slipping his purse into his hand, 'for I'll see Stapylton 
 Toad, and get time. Why, woman, you'll never 
 strike a light, if your tears drop so fast into the 
 tinder-box. Here give it me. You're not fit for 
 work to-day. And how's the trout in Ravely Mead, 
 John, this hot weather ? You know you never kept 
 your promise with me. Oh ! you're a sad fellow ! 
 There ! there's a spark ! I wonder why old Toad 
 didn't take the tinder-box. It's a very valuable piece 
 of property, at least to us. Run and get me some 
 wood, that's a good boy. And so white-footed 
 Moll's past all recovery ? Well, she was a pretty 
 creature ! There, that will do famously,' said Vivian, 
 fanning the flame with his hat. ' See, it mounts 
 well ! And now, God bless you all ! for I'm an 
 hour too late, and must scamper for my very life.' 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 THE ARRIVAL 
 
 MRS. MILLION arrived, and kept her promise ; only 
 three carriages and four ! Out of the first descended 
 the mighty lady herself, with some noble friends, 
 who formed the most distinguished part of her suite : 
 out of the second came her physician, Dr. Sly ; her 
 toad-eater, Miss Gusset ; her secretary, and her page. 
 The third carriage bore her groom of the chambers, 
 and three female attendants. There were only two
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK II 
 
 men servants to each equipage ; nothing could be 
 more moderate, or, as Miss Gusset said, ' in better 
 taste.' 
 
 Mrs. Million, after having granted the Marquess 
 a private interview in her private apartments, signified 
 her imperial intention of dining in public, which, as 
 she had arrived late, she trusted she might do in her 
 travelling dress. The Marquess kotooed like a first- 
 rate mandarin, and vowed ' that her will was his 
 conduct.' 
 
 The whole suite of apartments was thrown open ; 
 and was crowded with guests. Mrs. Million entered; 
 she was leaning on the Marquess's arm, and in a 
 travelling dress, namely, a crimson silk pelisse, hat 
 and feathers, with diamond ear-rings, and a rope of 
 gold round her neck. A train of about twelve 
 persons, consisting of her noble fellow travellers, 
 toad-eaters, physicians, secretaries, &c. &c. &c. 
 followed. The entree of his Majesty could not 
 have created a greater sensation, than did that of 
 Mrs. Million. All fell back. Gartered peers, and 
 starred ambassadors, and baronets with titles older 
 than the creation, and squires, to the antiquity of 
 whose blood chaos was a novelty ; all retreated, with 
 eyes that scarcely dared to leave the ground even 
 Sir Plantagenet Pure, whose family had refused a 
 peerage regularly every century, now, for the first 
 time in his life, seemed cowed, and in an awkward 
 retreat to make way for the approaching presence, 
 got entangled with the Mameluke boots of my Lord 
 Alhambra. 
 
 At last, a sofa was gained, and the great lady was 
 seated, and the sensation having somewhat subsided, 
 conversation was resumed ; and the mighty Mrs. 
 Million was not slightly abused, particularly by those 
 
 90
 
 CHAPTER XIII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 who had bowed lowest at her entree; and now the 
 Marquess of Carabas, as was wittily observed by Mr. 
 Septimus Sessions, a pert young barrister, ' went the 
 circuit,' that is to say, made the grand tour of the 
 suite of apartments, making remarks to every one of 
 his guests, and keeping up his influence in the county. 
 
 ' Ah, my Lord Alhambra ! this is too kind : and 
 how is your excellent father, and my good friend ? 
 Sir Plan tagenet, your's most sincerely; we shall have 
 no difficulty about that right of common. Mr. 
 Leverton, I hope you find the new plough work 
 well your son, sir, will do the county honour. Sir 
 Godfrey, I saw Barton upon that point, as I promised. 
 Lady Julia, I'm rejoiced to see ye at Chateau Desir, 
 more blooming than ever ! Good Mr. Stapylton 
 Toad, so that little change was effected ! My Lord 
 Devildrain, this is a pleasure indeed ! ' 
 
 ' Why, Ernest Clay,' said Mr. Buckhurst Stan- 
 hope, ' I thought Alhambra wore a turban I'm 
 quite disappointed.' 
 
 ' Not in the country, Stanhope ; here, he only sits 
 cross-legged on an ottoman, and carves his venison 
 with an ataghan.' 
 
 ' Well, I'm glad he doesn't wear a turban that 
 would be bad taste, I think;' said Fool Stanhope. 
 ' Have you read his poem ? ' 
 
 ' A little. He sent me a copy, and as I'm in the 
 habit of lighting my cigar or so occasionally with a 
 leaf, why I can't help occasionally seeing a line it 
 seems quite first-rate.' 
 
 ' Indeed !' said Fool Stanhope, ' I must get it.' 
 
 ' My dear Puff ! I'm quite glad to find you here,' 
 said Mr. Cayenne, a celebrated reviewer, to Mr. 
 Parthenopex Puff, a small literateur and smaller wit. 
 ' Have you seen Middle Ages lately ?' 
 
 91
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK II 
 
 ' Not very lately,' drawled Mr. Parthenopex. ' I 
 breakfasted with him before I left town, and met a 
 Professor Bopp there, a very interesting man, and 
 Principal of the celebrated University of Heligoland, 
 the model of the London.' 
 
 ' Ah ! indeed ! talking of the London, is Foaming 
 Fudge to come in for Westmoreland ?' 
 
 * Doubtless ! Oh ! he's a prodigious fellow ! 
 What do you think Booby says ? he says, that 
 Foaming Fudge can do more than any man in Great 
 Britain : that he had one day to plead in the King's 
 Bench, spout at a tavern, speak in the house, and 
 fight a duel and that he found time for every thing 
 but the last.' 
 
 ' Excellent ! ' laughed Mr. Cayenne. 
 
 Mr. Parthenopex Puff was reputed in a certain 
 set, a sayer of good things, but he was a modest wit, 
 and generally fathered his bon mots on his valet 
 Booby, his monkey, or his parrot. 
 
 'I saw you in the last number,' said Cayenne. 
 ' From the quotations from your own works, I 
 imagine the review of your own book was by 
 yourself ? ' 
 
 ' What do you think Booby said ? ' 
 
 ' Mr. Puff, allow me to introduce you to Lord 
 Alhambra,' said Ernest Clay, by which means Mr. 
 Puff's servant's last good thing was lost. 
 
 4 Mr. Clay, are you an archer ? ' asked Cynthia 
 Courtown. 
 
 4 No, fair Dian ; but I can act Endymion.' 
 
 ' I don't know what you mean go away.' 
 
 * Aubrey Vere, welcome to shire. Have you 
 
 seen Prima Donna ? ' 
 
 ' No, is he here ? How did you like his last song 
 in the Age ? ' 
 
 92
 
 CHAPTER XIII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 ' His last song ! Pooh ! he only supplies the 
 scandal.' 
 
 * Groves,' said Sir Hanway Etherington, ' have 
 you seen the newspaper this morning ? Baron 
 Crupper has tried fifteen men for horse stealing at 
 York, and acquitted every one.' 
 
 ' Well then, Sir Hanway, I think his Lordship's 
 remarkable wrong ; for when a man gets a horse to 
 suit him, if he loses it, 'tisn't so easy to suit himself 
 again. That's the ground I stand upon.' 
 
 ' Well, there's a good deal in what you say, 
 Groves. By the bye, have you let that nice house 
 which your father used to live in ? ' 
 
 * No, Sir Hanway, no ! I keep it, in case any 
 thing should happen to Tom, for he's getting a very 
 likely young man, and he'll be fittish to marry soon. 
 That's the ground I stand upon.' 
 
 All this time the Marquess of Carabas had wanted 
 Vivian Grey twenty times, but that gentleman had 
 not appeared. The important moment arrived, and 
 his Lordship offered his arm to Mrs. Million, who, 
 as the Gotha Almanack says, ' takes precedence 
 of all Archduchesses, Grand Duchesses, Duchesses, 
 Princesses, Landgravines, Margravines, Palsgravines, 
 etc. etc. etc.' 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 THE HALL 
 
 IN their passage to the Hall, the Marquess and Mrs. 
 Million met Vivian Grey, booted and spurred, and 
 covered with mud. 
 
 ' Oh ! Mrs. Million Mr. Vivian Grey. How's 
 this, my dear fellow ? you'll be too late.' 
 
 ' Immense honour ! ' said Vivian, bowing to the 
 ground to the lady. ' Oh ! my Lord, I was late, 
 
 93
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK II 
 
 and made a short cut over Fearnley Bog. It has 
 proved a very Moscow expedition. However I'm 
 keeping you. I shall be in time for the guava and 
 liqueurs, and you know that's the only refreshment 
 I ever take.' 
 
 'Who is that, Marquess ?' asked Mrs. Million. 
 
 ' That is Mr. Vivian Grey, the most monstrous 
 clever young man, and nicest fellow I know.' 
 
 ' He does indeed seem a very nice young man, 
 said Mrs Million ; for she rather admired Vivian's 
 precocious taste for liqueurs. 
 
 I wish some steam process could be invented for 
 arranging guests when they are above five hundred. 
 In the present instance all went wrong when they 
 entered the Hall ; but, at last, the arrangements, 
 which, by the bye, were of the simplest nature, were 
 comprehended, and the guests were seated. There 
 were three tables, each stretching down the Hall ; 
 the Dais was occupied by a military band. The 
 number of guests, the contrast between the antique 
 chamber, and their modern costumes, the music, the 
 various liveried menials, all combined to produce 
 a tout ensemble, which at the same time was very 
 striking, and ' in remarkable good taste ' 
 
 In process of time, Mr. Vivian Grey made his 
 entree. There were a few vacant seats at the bottom 
 of the table, ' luckily for him,' as kindly remarked 
 Mr. Grumbleton. To the astonishment and indig- 
 nation, however, of this worthy squire, the late 
 comer passed by the unoccupied position, and pro- 
 ceeded onward with the most undaunted coolness, 
 until he came to about the middle of the middle table, 
 and which was nearly the best situation in the hall. 
 
 * Beautiful Cynthia,' said Vivian Grey, softly and 
 sweetly whispering in Miss Courtown's ear, ' I'm 
 
 94
 
 CHAPTER XIV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 sure you will give up your place to me ; you have 
 nerve enough, you know, for any thing, and would 
 no more care for standing out, than I for sitting in.' 
 There's nothing like giving a romp credit for a little 
 boldness. To keep up her character, she will out- 
 herod Herod. 
 
 ' Oh ! Grey, is it you ? certainly you shall have 
 my place immediately but I'm not sure that we 
 cannot make room for you. Dormer Stanhope, 
 room must be made for Grey, or I shall leave the 
 table immediately ; you men ! ' said the hoyden, 
 turning round to a set of surrounding servants, 'push 
 this form down, and put a chair between.' 
 
 The men obeyed. All who sat lower in the table 
 on Miss Cynthia Courtown's side than that lady, 
 were suddenly propelled downwards about the dis- 
 tance of two feet. Dr. Sly, who was flourishing an 
 immense carving-knife and fork, preparatory to dis- 
 secting a very gorgeous haunch, had these fearful 
 instruments suddenly precipitated into a trifle, from 
 whose sugared trellice-work he found great difficulty 
 in extricating them ; while Miss Gusset, who was on 
 the point of cooling herself with some exquisite iced 
 jelly, found her frigid portion as suddenly trans- 
 formed into a plate of peculiarly ardent curry, the 
 property, but a moment before, of old Colonel Ran- 
 goon. Every thing, however, receives a civil 
 reception from a toad-eater, so Miss Gusset burnt 
 herself to death by devouring a composition, which 
 would have reduced any one to ashes who had not 
 fought against Bundoolah. 
 
 ' Now, that's what I call a very sensible arrange- 
 ment ; what could go off better ?' said Vivian. 
 
 c You may think so, Sir,' said Mr. Boreall, a sharp- 
 nosed and conceited-looking man, who, having got 
 
 95
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK II 
 
 among a set whom he didn't the least understand, 
 was determined to take up Dr. Sly's quarrel, merely 
 for the sake of conversation. 'You, I say, Sir, may 
 think it so, but I rather imagine that the ladies and 
 gentlemen lower down can hardly think it a very 
 sensible arrangement ; ' and here Boreall looked as if he 
 had done his duty, in giving a young man a proper 
 reproof. 
 
 Vivian glanced a look, which would have been 
 annihilation to any one, not a freeholder of five 
 hundred acres. ' I had reckoned upon two deaths, 
 Sir, when I entered the hall, and finding, as I do, 
 that the whole business has apparently gone off with- 
 out any fatal accident, why, I think the circumstances 
 bear me out in my expression.' 
 
 Mr. Boreall was one of those unfortunate men 
 who always take things an pied de lettre : he con- 
 sequently looked amazed, and exclaimed, ' Two 
 deaths, Sir ? ' 
 
 ' Yes, Sir, two deaths ; I reckoned, of course, on 
 some corpulent parent being crushed to death in the 
 scuffle, and then I should have had to shoot his son 
 through the head for his filial satisfaction. Dormer 
 Stanhope, I never thanked you for exerting your- 
 self: send me that fricandeau you have just helped 
 yourself to.' 
 
 Dorman, who was, as Vivian well knew, something 
 of an epicure, looked rather annoyed, but by this 
 time he was accustomed to Vivian Grey, and sent him 
 the portion he had intended for himself could 
 epicure do more ? 
 
 'Who are we among, bright Cynthia?' asked 
 Vivian. 
 
 ' Oh ! an odd set,' said the lady, looking dignified ; 
 ' but you know we can be exclusive.'' 
 
 96
 
 CHAPTER XIV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 'Exclusive \ pooh ! trash talk to every body -it 
 looks as if you were going to stand for the county. 
 Have we any of the Millionaires near us ?' 
 
 ' The Doctor, and Toadey are lower down.' 
 
 ' Where's Mrs. Felix Lorraine ?' 
 
 ' At the opposite table, with Ernest Clay.' 
 
 4 Oh ! there's Alhambra next to Dormer Stan- 
 hope. Lord Alhambra, I'm quite rejoiced to see 
 you.' 
 
 ' Ah ! Mr. Grey I'm quite rejoiced to see you. 
 How's your father ? ' 
 
 ' Extremely well he's at Paris I heard from him 
 yesterday. Do you ever see the Weimar Literary 
 Gazette, my Lord ?' 
 
 ' No ; why ? ' 
 
 ' There's a most admirable review of your poem, 
 in the last number I've received.' 
 
 The young nobleman looked agitated. ' I think, 
 by the style,' continued Vivian, ' that it's by Goethe. 
 It is really quite delightful to see the oldest poet in 
 Europe, dilating on the brilliancy of a new star in the 
 poetical horizon.' 
 
 This was uttered with a perfectly grave voice, and 
 now the young nobleman blushed ' Who is GewterT 
 asked Mr. Boreall, who possessed such a thirst for 
 knowledge, that he never allowed an opportunity to 
 escape him of displaying his ignorance. 
 
 ' A celebrated German writer,' lisped the modest 
 Miss Macdonald, who was, of course, beginning 
 German. 
 
 ' I never heard his name,' persevered the indefatig- 
 able Boreall ; ' how do you spell it ?' 
 
 ' G O E T H E,' relisped modesty. 
 
 ' Oh ! Goty \ ' exclaimed the querist ' I know him 
 well : he wrote the Sorrows of Werther.' 
 G 97
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK II 
 
 ' Did he indeed, Sir ?' asked Vivian, with the most 
 innocent and inquiring face. 
 
 ' Oh ! don't you know that ?' said Boreall ; ' and 
 poor stuff it is ! ' and here the worthy, and vulgar, 
 landholder laughed loud and long. 
 
 ' Lord Alhambra ! I'll take a glass of Johannis- 
 berg with you, if the Marquess's wines are in the 
 state they should be 
 
 " The Crescent warriors sipped their sherbet spiced, 
 For Christian men the various wines were iced." 
 
 1 always think that those are the two most admirable 
 lines in your Lordship's poem,' said Vivian. 
 
 His Lordship did not exactly remember them : it 
 would have been a wonder if he had : but he 
 thought Vivian Grey the most delightful fellow he 
 ever met, and determined to ask him to Helicon 
 Castle for the Christmas holidays. 
 
 'Flat! flat!' said Vivian, as he dwelt upon the 
 flavour of the Rhine's glory. Not exactly from the 
 favourite binn of Prince Metternich, I think. By-the- 
 bye, Dormer Stanhope, you've a taste that way ; I'll 
 tell you two secrets, which never forget; decant your 
 Johannisberg, and ice your Maraschino. Ay, don't 
 stare, my dear Gastronome, but do it.' 
 
 'Oh, Vivian Grey, you little love! why didn't you 
 come and speak to me ? ' exclaimed a lady who was 
 sitting at the side opposite Vivian, but much higher 
 in the table. 
 
 ' Ah ! adorable Lady Julia ! and so you were done 
 on the grey filly.' 
 
 'Done!' said the sporting beauty with pouting 
 lips; 'but it's a long story, and I'll tell it you 
 another time.' 
 
 'Ah! do. How's Sir Peter?'
 
 CHAPTER XIV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 'Oh ! he's had a fit or two since you saw him last.' 
 'Poor old gentleman ! let's drink his health ;' and 
 the Baronet's recovery was quaffed by the lady, and 
 Vivian, with a very piquant expression of counten- 
 ance. 
 
 'Do you know Lady Julia Knighton ? ' asked Vivian 
 
 of his neighbour. Before he could receive an answer, 
 
 . . 
 
 he was again rattling on : 'This hall is bearable to 
 
 dine in ; but I once breakfasted here, and I never 
 shall forget the ludicrous effect produced by the sun 
 through the oriel window. Such complexions! Every 
 one looked like a prize fighter ten days after a battle. 
 After all, painted glass is a bore ; I wish the Marquess 
 would have it knocked out, and have plated.' 
 
 'Knock out the painted glass! ' said Mr. Boreall ; 
 ' well, I must confess / cannot agree with you.' 
 
 ' I should have been extremely surprised if you 
 could. If you don't insult that man, Miss Courtown, 
 in ten minutes I shall be no more. I've already a 
 nervous fever.' 
 
 ' May I have the honour of taking a glass of 
 Champagne with you, Mr. Grey ? ' said Boreall. 
 
 ' Mr. Grey, indeed ! ' muttered Vivian : ' Sir, I 
 never drink anything but brandy.' 
 
 ' Allow me to give you some Champagne, Miss,' 
 resumed Boreall, as he attacked the modest Miss 
 Macdonald; ' Champagne, you know,' continued he, 
 with a smile of agonising courtesy, ' is quite the lady's 
 wine.' 
 
 ' Cynthia Courtown,' whispered Vivian with a 
 sepulchral voice, 'tis all over with me I've been 
 thinking what could come next. This is too much 
 I'm already dead have Boreall arrested ; the chain 
 of circumstantial evidence is very strong.' 
 
 ' Baker !' said Vivian, turning to a servant, ' Go 
 
 99
 
 VIVIAN (iKKY BOOK II 
 
 and enquire if Mr. Stapylton Toad dines at the 
 Castle to-day.' 
 
 A flourish of trumpets announced the rise of the 
 Marchioness of Carabas, and in a few minutes the 
 most ornamental portion of the guests had dis- 
 appeared. The gentlemen made a general ' move 
 up,' and Vivian found himself opposite his friend, 
 Mr. Hargrave. 
 
 ' Ah ! Mr. Hargrave, how d'ye do ? What do you 
 think of the Secretary's state paper ?' 
 
 ' A magnificent composition, and quite unanswer- 
 able. I was just speaking of it to my friend here, 
 Mr. Metternich Scribe. Allow me to introduce you 
 to Mr. Metternich Scribe.' 
 
 'Mr. Metternich Scribe Mr. Vivian Grey!' and 
 here Mr. Hargrave introduced Vivian to an effemin- 
 ate-looking, perfumed, young man, with a handsome, 
 unmeaning face, and very white hands. In short, as 
 dapper a little diplomatist as ever tattled about the 
 Congress of Verona, smirked at Lady Almack's 
 supper after the opera, or vowed ' that Richmond 
 Terrace was a most convenient situation for official 
 men.' 
 
 ' We have had it with us many weeks before the 
 public received it,' said the future under-secretary, 
 with a look at once condescending, and conceited. 
 
 'Have you?' said Vivian: 'well, it does your 
 office credit. It's a singular thing, that Canning, and 
 Croker, are the only official men who can write 
 grammar.' 
 
 The dismayed young gentleman of the Foreign 
 Office was about to mince a repartee, when Vivian 
 left his seat, for he had a great deal of business to 
 transact. * Mr. Leverton,' said he,* accosting a 
 flourishing grazier, ' I have received a letter from my 
 
 TOO
 
 CHAPTER XIV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 friend, M. De Noe. He is desirous of purchasing 
 some Leicestershires for his estate in Burgundy. 
 Pray, may I take the liberty of introducing his agent 
 to you ? ' 
 
 Mr. Leverton was delighted. 
 
 ' I also wanted to see you about some other little 
 business. Let me see what was it. Never mind, 
 I'll take my wine here, if you can make room for 
 me ; I shall remember it, I dare say, soon. Oh ! 
 by-the-bye ah ! that was it. Stapylton Toad Mr. 
 Stapylton Toad ; I want to know all about Mr. 
 Stapylton Toad I dare say you can tell me. A 
 friend of mine intends to consult him on a little 
 parliamentary business, and he wishes to know some- 
 thing about him before he calls.' 
 
 As I am a great lover of conciseness, I shall 
 resumer* for the benefit of the reader, the informa- 
 tion of Mr. Leverton. 
 
 Stapylton Toad had not the honour of being 
 acquainted with his father's name ; but as the son 
 found himself, at an early age, apprenticed to a 
 solicitor of eminence, he was of opinion that his 
 parent must have been respectable. Respectable ! 
 mysterious word ! Stapylton was a very diligent and 
 faithful clerk, but was not as fortunate in his ap- 
 prenticeship as the celebrated Whittington, for his 
 
 * I have ventured on using this word, in spite of the plaintive 
 remonstrances contained in a pretty little article in the last Number 
 of the Quarterly Review. I deprecate equally with the Reviewer, 
 ' the hodge-podge of languages,' now so much in vogue ; and al- 
 though I am not quite prepared to say that I consider this practice 
 ' as nauseous as wearing perfumes,' I must exceedingly regret that 
 such an authority as the Quarterly Review, and so strenuous an 
 advocate for ' keeping our pure well of English undefiled,' as this 
 Quarterly Reviewer, should interlard his sentences with the tritest 
 Latin quotations, with a classical enthusiasm worthy of a very young 
 school-boy, or a very ancient school-master. 
 
 101
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK II 
 
 master had no daughter, and many sons ; in conse- 
 quence of which, Stapylton, not being able to become 
 his master's partner, became his master's rival. 
 
 On the door of one of the shabbiest houses in 
 Jermyn-street, the name of Mr. Stapylton Toad for 
 a long time figured, magnificently engraved on a 
 broad brass plate. There was nothing, however, 
 otherwise, in the appearance of the establishment, 
 which indicated that Mr. Toad's progress was very 
 rapid, or his professional career extraordinarily pros- 
 perous. In an outward office one solitary clerk was 
 seen, oftener stirring his office fire, than wasting his 
 master's ink ; and Mr. Toad was known by his 
 brother attorneys, as a gentleman who was not re- 
 corded in the courts as ever having conducted a 
 single cause. In a few years, however, a story was 
 added to the Jermyn-street abode, which new pointed, 
 and new painted, began to assume a most mansion- 
 like appearance. The house-door was also thrown 
 open, for the solitary clerk no longer found time to 
 answer the often agitated bell ; and the eyes of the 
 entering client were now saluted by a gorgeous green 
 baize office door ; the imposing appearance of which 
 was only equalled by Mr. Toad's new private portal, 
 splendid with a brass knocker, and patent varnish. 
 And now his brother attorneys began to wonder 
 ' how Toad got on ! and who Toad's clients were ! ' 
 
 A few more years rolled over, and Mr. Toad was 
 seen riding in the Park at a most classical hour, 
 attended by a groom in a most classical livery. And 
 now ' the profession ' wondered still more, and sig- 
 nificant looks were interchanged by ' the respectable 
 houses ; ' and flourishing practitioners in the City 
 shrugged up their shoulders, and talked mysteriously 
 of ' money business,' and ' some odd work in an- 
 
 IO2
 
 CHAPTER XIV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 nuities.' In spite, however, of the charitable surmises 
 of his brother lawyers, it must be confessed, that 
 nothing of even an equivocal nature, ever transpired 
 against the character of the flourishing Mr. Toad, 
 who, to complete the mortification of his less success- 
 ful rivals, married, and at the same time moved from 
 Jermyn-street to Cavendish-square. The new resi- 
 dence of Mr. Toad, had previously been the mansion 
 of a noble client, and one whom, as the world said, 
 Mr. Toad ' had got out of difficulties.' This sig- 
 nificant phrase will probably throw some light upon 
 the nature of the mysterious business of our prosper- 
 ous practitioner. Noble Lords who have been in 
 difficulties, will not much wonder at the prosperity of 
 those who get them out. 
 
 About this time Mr. Toad became acquainted with 
 Lord Mounteney, a nobleman in great distress, with 
 fifty thousand per annum. His Lordship ' really 
 did not know how he got involved; he never gamed, 
 he was not married, and his consequent expenses had 
 never been unreasonable ; he was not extraordinarily 
 negligent quite the reverse, was something of a 
 man of business, remembered once looking over his 
 accounts ; and yet, in spite of his regular and correct 
 career, found himself quite involved, and must leave 
 England.' 
 
 The arrangement of the Mounteney property was 
 the coup finale of Mr. Stapylton Toad's professional 
 celebrity. His Lordship was not under the necessity 
 of quitting England ; and found himself, in the 
 course of five years, in the receipt of a clear rental 
 of five-and-twenty thousand per annum. His Lord- 
 ship was in raptures ; and Stapylton Toad purchased 
 an elegant villa in Surrey, and became a Member of 
 Parliament. Goodburn Park, for such was the name 
 
 103
 
 VIVIAN GHKV BOOK II 
 
 of Mr. Toad's country residence, in spite of its 
 double lodges, and patent park pailing, was not, to 
 Mr. Toad, a very expensive purchase ; for he ' took 
 it off the hands ' of a distressed client, who wanted 
 an immediate supply, ' merely to convenience him,' 
 and, consequently, became the purchaser at about 
 half its real value. ' Attorneys,' as Bustle the 
 auctioneer says, ' have such opportunities ! ' 
 
 Mr. Toad's career in the House, was as correct as 
 his conduct out of it. After ten years' regular atten- 
 dance, the boldest conjecturer would not have dared 
 to define his political principles. It was a rule with 
 Stapylton Toad, never to commit himself. Once, in- 
 deed, he wrote an able pamphlet on the Corn Laws, 
 which excited the dire indignation of that egregious 
 body, the Political Economy Club. But Stapylton 
 cared little for their subtle confutations, and their 
 loudly expressed contempt. He had obliged the 
 country gentlemen of England, and ensured the 
 return, at the next election, of Lord Mounteney's 
 brother for the county. At this general election 
 also, Stapylton Toad's purpose in entering the House 
 became rather more manifest ; for it was found, to 
 the surprise of the whole county, that there was 
 scarcely a place in England county, city, town, or 
 borough in which Mr. Stapylton Toad did not 
 possess some influence. In short, it was discovered, 
 that Mr. Toad had 'a first rate parliamentary business ; ' 
 that nothing could be done without his co-operation, 
 and every thing with it. In spite of his prosperity, 
 Stapylton had the good sense never to retire from 
 business, and even to refuse a baronetcy, on con- 
 dition, however, that it should be offered to his son. 
 
 Stapylton, like the rest of mankind, had his weak 
 points. The late Marquess of Almacks was wont to 
 
 104
 
 CHAPTER XIV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 manage him very happily, and Toad was always 
 introducing that minister's opinion of his importance. 
 ' " My time is quite at your service, General," 
 although the poor dear Marquess used to say,' " Mr. 
 Staplyton Toad, your time is mine''' He knew the 
 business I had to get through ! ' The family por- 
 traits also, in most ostentatious frames, now adorned 
 the dining-room of his London mansion ; and it was 
 amusing to hear the worthy M. P. dilate upon his 
 likeness to his respected father. 
 
 ' You see, my Lord,' Stapylton would say, pointing 
 to a dark, dingy, picture of a gentleman in a rich 
 court dress, ' you see, my Lord, it is not in a very 
 good light, and it certainly is a very dark picture 
 by Hudson ; all Hudson's pictures were dark. But 
 if I were six inches taller, and could hold the light 
 just there, I think your Lordship would be astonished 
 at the resemblance ; but it's a dark picture, certainly 
 it's dark, all Hudson's pictures were.' 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 THE DRAWING ROOM 
 
 THE Cavaliers have left the ancient hall, and the old 
 pictures frown only upon empty tables. The Mar- 
 quess immediately gained a seat by Mrs. Million, 
 and was soon engrossed in deep converse with that 
 illustrious lady. In one room, the most eminent and 
 exclusive, headed by Mrs. Felix Lorraine, were now 
 winding through the soothing mazes of a slow waltz, 
 and now whirling, with all the rapidity of Eastern 
 dervishes, to true double Wien time. In another 
 saloon, the tedious tactics of quadrilles commanded 
 the exertions of less civilized beings ; here, Liberal 
 Snake, the celebrated Political Economist, was lecturing 
 
 105
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK II 
 
 to a knot of terrified country gentlemen, and there 
 a celebrated Italian improvisatore poured forth to 
 an ignorant and admiring audience, all the dullness 
 of his inspiration. Vivian Grey was holding an 
 earnest conversation in one of the recesses with Mr. 
 Stapylton Toad. He had already charmed that 
 worthy, by the deep interest which he took in 
 every thing relating to elections, and the House of 
 Commons, and now they were hard at work on the 
 Corn Laws. Although they agreed upon the main 
 points, and Vivian's ideas upon this important sub- 
 ject had, of course, been adopted after studying with 
 intenseness Mr. Toad's ' most luminous and con- 
 vincing pamphlet,' still there were a few minor 
 points, on which Vivian ' was obliged to confess,' 
 that ' he did not exactly see his way.' Mr. Toad 
 was astonished, but argumentative, and of course, in 
 due time, had made a convert of his companion ; ' a 
 young man,' as he afterwards remarked to Lord 
 Mounteney, ' in whom, he knew not which most to 
 admire, the soundness of his own views, or the can- 
 dour with which he treated those of others.' If you 
 wish to win a man's heart, allow him to confute you. 
 
 ' I think, Mr. Grey, you must admit, that that 
 definition of labour is the correct one ?' said Mr. 
 Toad, looking earnestly in Vivian's face, his finger 
 just presuming to feel a button. 
 
 ' That exertion of mind or body, which is not the 
 involuntary effect of the influence of natural sensa- 
 tions,' slowly repeated Vivian, as if his whole soul 
 was concentrated in each monosyllable ' Y e s, 
 Mr. Toad, I do admit it.' 
 
 'Then, my dear Sir, the rest follows of course,' 
 triumphantly exclaimed the Member. ' Don't you 
 see it ?' 
 
 106
 
 CHAPTER XV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 ' Although I admit the correctness of your defini- 
 tion, Mr. Toad, I am not free to confess, that I am 
 ex act ly convinced of the soundness of your con- 
 clusion,' said Vivian, in a very musing mood. 
 
 ' But, my dear Sir, I am surprised that you don't 
 see, that ' 
 
 ' Stop, Mr. Toad,' eagerly exclaimed Vivian, ' I see 
 my error. I misconceived your meaning : you are 
 right, Sir, your definition is correct.' 
 
 ' I was confident that I should convince you, Mr. 
 Grey.' 
 
 ' This conversation, I assure you, Mr. Toad, has 
 been to me a peculiarly satisfactory one. Indeed, Sir, 
 I have long wished to have the honour of making 
 your acquaintance. When but a boy, I remember at 
 my father's table, the late Marquess of Almacks 
 
 ' Yes, Mr. Grey.' 
 
 ' One of the ablest men, Mr. Toad, after all, that 
 this country ever produced.' 
 
 ' Oh, poor dear man ! ' 
 
 'I remember him observing to a friend of mine, 
 who was at that time desirous of getting into the 
 House. " Hargrave," said his lordship, " if you 
 want any information upon points of practical politics''' 
 that was his phrase ; you remember, Mr. Toad, 
 that his lordship was peculiar in his phrases ? ' 
 
 ' Oh ! yes, poor dear man ; but you were observ- 
 ing, Mr. Grey ' 
 
 ' Ay, ay ! " If you want any information," said 
 his Lordship, " on such points, there is only one 
 man in the kingdom whom you should consult, 
 and he's one of the soundest heads I know, and 
 that's Stapylton Toad, the member for Mounteney ;" 
 you know you were in for Mounteney then, Mr. 
 Toad.' 
 
 107
 
 VIVIAN (1KF.Y BOOK II 
 
 ' I was, I was, and accepted the Chilterns to make 
 room for Augustus Clay, Ernest Clay's brother ; 
 who was so involved, that the only way to keep 
 him out of the House of Correction, was to get him 
 into the House of Commons. But the Marquess 
 said so, eh?' 
 
 'Ay, and much more, which I scarcely can re- 
 member ; ' and then followed a long dissertation on 
 the character of the noble statesman, and his views 
 as to the agricultural interest, and the importance of 
 the agricultural interest ; and then a delicate hint 
 was thrown out, as to ' how delightful it would be 
 to write a pamphlet together,' on this mighty agri- 
 cultural interest; and then came an eloge on the 
 character of country gentlemen, and English yeomen, 
 and the importance of keeping up the old English 
 spirit in the peasantry, &c. &c. &c. &c. ; and then, 
 when Vivian had led Mr. Toad to deliver a most 
 splendid and patriotic oration on this point, he 'just 
 remembered, (quite apropos to the sentiments which 
 Mr. Toad had just delivered, and which he did not 
 hesitate to say, " did equal honour to his head and 
 heart,") that there was a little point, which, if it was 
 not trespassing too much on Mr. Toad's attention, 
 he would just submit to him;' and then he men- 
 tioned poor John Conyer's case, although 'he felt 
 convinced from Mr. Toad's well-known benevolent 
 character, that it was quite unnecessary for him to 
 do so, as he felt assured that it would be remedied 
 immediately it fell under his cognizance, but then 
 Mr. Toad had really so much business to transact, 
 that perhaps these slight matters might occasionally 
 not be submitted to him,' &c. &c. &c. 
 
 What could Stapylton Toad do but, after a little 
 amiable grumbling about 'bad system, and bad 
 
 1 08
 
 CHAPTER XV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 precedent,' promise everything that Vivian Grey 
 required ? 
 
 'Mr. Vivian Grey,' said Mrs. Felix Lorraine, 'I 
 cannot understand why you've been talking to Mr. 
 Toad so long ; will you waltz?' 
 
 Before Vivian could answer, a tittering, so audible 
 that, considering the rank of the parties, it might 
 almost be termed a loud shout, burst forth from the 
 whole room. Cynthia Courtown had stolen behind 
 Lord Alhambra, as he was sitting on an Ottoman, 
 a la Turque, and had folded a Cachemere shawl 
 round his head, with a most oriental tie. His 
 Lordship, who, notwithstanding his eccentricities, 
 was really a most amiable man, bore his blushing 
 honours with a gracious dignity, worthy of a 
 descendant of the Abencerrages. The sensation 
 which this incident occasioned, favoured Vivian's 
 escape from Mrs. Felix, for he had not left Mr. 
 Stapylton Toad with any intention of waltzing. 
 
 But he hardly escaped from the waltzers, ere he 
 found himself in danger of being involved in a much 
 more laborious duty ; for now he stumbled on the 
 Political Economist, and he was earnestly requested 
 by the contending theorists, to assume the office of 
 moderator. Emboldened by his success, Liberal 
 Snake had had the hardihood to attack a personage 
 of whose character he was not utterly ignorant, but 
 on whom he was extremely desirous of ' making 
 an impression.' This important person was Sir 
 Christopher Mowbray, who, upon the lecturer pre- 
 suming to inform him ' what rent was,' ' damned 
 himself if he didn't know what rent was, a damned 
 deal better than any damnation French smuggler.' 
 I don't wish to be coarse, but Sir Christopher is a 
 great man, and the sayings of great men, particularly 
 
 109
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK II 
 
 when they are representative of the sentiment of 
 a species, should not pass unrecorded. 
 
 Sir Christopher Mowbray is a member for the 
 
 County of shire ; and member for the county 
 
 he intends to be next election, although he is in 
 his seventy-ninth year, for he can still follow a fox, 
 with as plucky a heart, and with as stout a voice, as 
 any squire in Christendom. Sir Christopher, it 
 must be confessed, is rather peculiar in his ideas. 
 His grandson, Peregrine Mowbray, who is as pert a 
 genius as the applause of a common-room ever yet 
 spoiled, and as sublime an orator as the cheerings of 
 the Union ever yet inspired, says ' the Baronet is 
 not up to the nineteenth century ; ' and perhaps this 
 very significant phrase will give the reader a more 
 significant idea of Sir Christopher Mowbray, than a 
 character as long, and as laboured, as the most 
 perfect of my Lord Clarendon's. The truth is, 
 the good Baronet had no idea of 'liberal principles,' 
 or anything else of that school. His most peculiar 
 characteristic, is a singular habit which he has 
 got of styling political economists, French smugglers. 
 Nobody has ever yet succeeded in extracting a reason 
 from him for this singular appellation, and even if 
 you angle with the most exquisite skill for the 
 desired definition, Sir Christopher immediately salutes 
 you with a volley of oaths, and damns French 
 Wines, Bible Societies, and Mr. Huskisson. Sir 
 Christopher for half a century has supported in 
 the senate, with equal sedulousness and silence, the 
 constitution, and the corn laws ; he is perfectly aware 
 of ' the present perilous state of the country,' and 
 watches with great interest all ' the plans, and plots ' 
 of this enlightened age. The only thing which he 
 does not exactly comprehend, is the London Uni-
 
 CHAPTER XV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 versity. This affair really puzzles the worthy 
 gentleman, who could as easily fancy a county 
 member not being a freeholder, as an University 
 not being at Oxford or Cambridge. Indeed, 
 to this hour the old gentleman believes that the 
 whole business is ' a damnationed hoax ; ' and if 
 you tell him, that, far from the plan partaking of 
 the visionary nature he conceives, there are actually 
 four acres of very valuable land purchased near 
 White Conduit House for the erection ; and that 
 there is little apprehension, that in the course of a 
 century, the wooden poles which are now stuck 
 about the ground, will be fair, and flourishing, as 
 the most leafy bowers of New College gardens, the 
 old gentleman looks up to heaven, as if determined 
 not to be taken in, and leaning back in his chair, 
 sends forth a sceptical and smiling 'No! no! no! 
 that won't do.' 
 
 Vivian extricated himself with as much grace as 
 possible from the toils of the Economist, and indeed, 
 like a skilful general, turned this little rencontre to 
 account, in accomplishing the very end, for the 
 attainment of which he had declined waltzing with 
 Mrs. Felix Lorraine. 
 
 ' My Lord,' said Vivian, addressing the Marquess, 
 who was still by the side of Mrs. Million, 'I am 
 going to commit a most ungallant act ; but you 
 great men must pay a tax for your dignity. I am 
 going to disturb you. You are wanted by half the 
 county! What could possibly induce you ever to 
 allow a Political Economist to enter Chateau Desir ? 
 There are, at least, three Baronets and four Squires 
 in despair, writhing under the tortures of Liberal 
 Snake. They have deputed me to request your 
 assistance, to save them from being defeated in 
 
 in
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK II 
 
 the presence of half their tenantry; and I think, 
 my Lord,' said Vivian, with a very serious voice, 
 'if you could possibly contrive to interfere, it would 
 be desirable. That lecturing knave never knows 
 when to stop, and he's actually insulting men before 
 whom, after all, he ought not dare to open his lips. 
 I see that your Lordship is naturally not very much 
 inclined to quit your present occupation, in order to 
 act Moderator to a set of political brawlers ; but 
 come, you shall not be quite sacrificed to the county, 
 I will give up the waltz in which I was engaged, 
 and keep your seat until your return.' 
 
 The Marquess, who was always ' keeping up 
 county influence,' was very shocked at the obstre- 
 perous conduct of Liberal Snake. Indeed he had 
 viewed the arrival of this worthy with no smiling 
 countenance, but what could he say as he came in 
 the suite of Lord Pert, who was writing, with the 
 lecturer's assistance, a pretty little pamphlet on the 
 Currency? Apologising to Mrs. Million, and pro- 
 mising to return as soon as possible, and lead her to 
 the music room, the Marquess retired, with the 
 determination of annihilating one of the stoutest 
 members of the Political Ecomony Club. 
 
 Vivian began by apologising to Mrs. Million, for 
 disturbing her progress to the hall, by his sudden 
 arrival before dinner ; and then for a quarter of an 
 hour was poured forth the usual quantity of piquant 
 anecdotes, and insidious compliments. Mrs. Million 
 found Vivian's conversation no disagreeable relief to 
 the pompous prosiness of the late attache, and, 
 although no brilliant star dangled at his breast, she 
 could not refrain from feeling extremely pleased. 
 
 And now, having succeeded in commanding Mrs. 
 Million's attention by the general art of pleasing,
 
 CHAPTER XV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 which was for all the world, and which was of course, 
 formed upon his general experience of human nature, 
 Vivian began to make his advances to Mrs. 
 Million's feelings, by a particular art of pleasing ; 
 that is, an art which was for the particular person 
 alone, whom he was at any time addressing, and 
 which was founded on his particular knowledge of 
 that person's character. 
 
 ' How beautiful the old hall looked to-day ! It 
 is a scene which can only be met with in ancient 
 families.' 
 
 ' Ah ! there is nothing like old families ! ' remarked 
 Mrs. Million, with all the awkward feelings of a 
 nouveau riche. 
 
 ' Do you think so ? ' said Vivian ; ' I once thought 
 so myself, but I confess that my opinion is greatly 
 changed. After all, what is noble blood ? My eye 
 is now resting on a crowd of honourables, and yet, 
 being among them, do we treat them in a manner 
 differing in any way from that which we should 
 employ to any individuals of a lower caste, who were 
 equally uninteresting ? ' 
 
 ' Certainly not,' said Mrs. Million. 
 
 ' The height of the ambition of the less exalted 
 ranks is to be noble, because they conceive to be 
 noble, implies to be superior ; associating in their 
 minds, as they always do, a pre-eminence over their 
 equals. But, to be noble, among nobles, where is 
 the pre-eminence ? ' 
 
 ' Where indeed ? ' said Mrs. Million ; and she 
 thought of herself, sitting the most considered per- 
 sonage in this grand castle, and yet with sufficiently 
 base blood flowing in her veins. 
 
 ' And thus, in the highest circles,' continued Vivian, 
 ' a man is of course not valued because he is a 
 H 113
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK II 
 
 Marquess, or a Duke ; but because he is a great 
 warrior, or a great statesman, or very fashionable, or 
 very witty. In all classes but the highest, a peer, 
 however unbefriended by nature or by fortune, be- 
 comes a man of a certain rate of consequence, but to 
 be a person of consequence in the highest class, 
 requires something else, except high blood.' 
 
 ' I quite agree with you in your sentiments, Mr. 
 Grey. Now what character, or what situation in life, 
 would you choose, if you had the power of making 
 your choice ? ' 
 
 'That is really a most metaphysical question. As 
 is the custom of all young men, I have sometimes, 
 in my reveries, imagined what I conceived to be a 
 lot of pure happiness : and yet Mrs. Million will 
 perhaps be astonished that I was neither to be 
 nobly born, nor to acquire nobility, that I was not to 
 be a literary man, nor a warrior, nor indeed any 
 profession, nor a merchant, nor even a professional 
 dandy.' 
 
 'Oh! love in a cottage, I suppose;' interrupted 
 Mrs. Million. 
 
 ' Neither love in a cottage, nor science in a cell.' 
 
 ' Oh ! pray tell me what it is.' 
 
 ' What it is ? Oh ! Lord Mayor of London, I 
 suppose ; that is the only situation which answers to 
 my oracular description.' 
 
 ' Oh ! then you've been joking all this time ! ' 
 
 ' Oh ! no ; not at all. Come then, let us imagine 
 this perfect lot. In the first place, I would be born 
 in the middling classes of society, or even lower, 
 because I would wish my character to be impartially 
 developed. I would be born to no hereditary pre- 
 judices, nor hereditary passions. My course in life 
 should not be carved out by the example of a grand- 
 
 114
 
 CHAPTER XV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 father, nor my ideas modelled to a preconceived 
 system of family perfection. Do you like my first 
 principle, Mrs. Million ? ' 
 
 ' I must hear every thing before I give an opinion.' 
 
 ' When, therefore, my mind was formed, I would 
 wish to become the proprietor of a princely fortune.' 
 
 ' Yes ! ' eagerly exclaimed Mrs. Million. 
 
 ' And now would come the moral singularity of 
 my fate. If I had gained this fortune by commerce, 
 or in any other similar mode, my disposition, before 
 the creation of this fortune, would naturally be 
 formed, and be permanently developed ; and my 
 mind would be similarly affected, had I succeeded to 
 some ducal father ; for I should then, in all proba- 
 bility, have inherited some family line of conduct, 
 both moral and political ; but under the circumstances 
 I have imagined, the result would be far different. 
 I should then be in the singular situation of possess- 
 ing-, at the same time, unbounded wealth, and the 
 
 O * * ' 
 
 whole powers and natural feelings of my mind, 
 unoppressed and unshackled. Oh ! how splendid 
 would be my career ! I would not allow the change 
 in my condition to exercise any influence on my 
 natural disposition. I would experience the same 
 passions, and be subject to the same feelings, only 
 they should be exercised, and influential, in a wider 
 sphere. Then would be seen the influence of great 
 wealth, directed by a disposition similar to that of 
 the generality of men, inasmuch as it had been 
 formed like that of the generality of men ; and con- 
 sequently, one much better acquainted with their 
 feelings, their habits, and their wishes. Such a lot 
 would indeed be princely ! Such a lot would infal- 
 libly ensure the affection, and respect, of the great 
 majority of mankind ; and, supported by them, what
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK II 
 
 should I care, if I were misunderstood by a few 
 fools, and abused by a few knaves ? ' 
 
 Here came the Marquess to lead the lady to the 
 concert. As she quitted her seat, a smile, beaming 
 with graciousness, rewarded her youthful companion. 
 ' Ah ! ' thought Mrs. Million ; ' I go to the concert, 
 but leave sweeter music than can possibly meet me 
 there. What is the magic of these words ? It is 
 not flattery ; such is not the language of Miss 
 Gusset. It is not a refacimento of compliments : such 
 is not the style with which I am saluted by the Duke 
 of Doze, and the Earl of Leatherdale ! Apparently 
 I have heard a young philosopher delivering his 
 sentiments upon an abstract point in human life ; and 
 yet have I not listened to the most brilliant apology 
 for my own character, and the most triumphant 
 defence of my own conduct. Of course it was 
 unintentional, and yet how agreeable to be uninten- 
 tionally defended!' So mused Mrs. Million, and 
 she made a thousand vows, not to let a day pass 
 over, without obtaining a pledge from Vivian Grey, 
 to visit her on their return to the metropolis. 
 
 Vivian remained in his seat for some time after the 
 departure of his companion. ' On my honour, I 
 have half a mind to desert my embryo faction, and 
 number myself in her gorgeous retinue. Let me 
 see what part should I act ? her secretary, or her 
 toad-eater or her physician, or her cook ? or shall I 
 be her page ? Methinks I should make a pretty 
 page, and hand a chased goblet as gracefully, as any 
 monkey that ever bent his knee in a Lady's chamber. 
 Well ! at any rate, there is this chance to be kept 
 back, as the gambler does his last trump, or the 
 cunning fencer his last ruse' 
 
 He rose to offer his arm to some stray fair one ; 
 116
 
 CHAPTER XV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 for crowds were now hurrying to pine apples and 
 lobster salads : that is to say, supper was ready in 
 
 the LONG GALLERY. 
 
 In a moment Vivian's arm was locked in that of 
 Mrs. Felix Lorraine, 
 
 ' Oh, Mr. Grey, I have got a much better ghost 
 story than even that of the Leyden Professor for 
 you ; but I'm so wearied with waltzing, that I must 
 tell it you to-morrow. How came you to be so late 
 this morning ? Have you been paying many calls to- 
 day? I quite missed you at dinner. Do you think 
 Ernest Clay handsome ? I daren't repeat What Lady 
 Scrope said of you ! You're an admirer of Lady 
 Julia Knighton, I believe ? I don't much like this 
 plan of supping in the Long Gallery it's a favourite 
 locale of mine, and I have no idea of my private 
 promenade being invaded with the uninteresting pre- 
 sence of trifles and Italian creams. Have you been 
 telling Mrs. Million that she was very witty ? ' asked 
 Vivian's companion, with a very significant look. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 TOADEYS 
 
 SWEET reader! you know what a Toadey is? That 
 agreeable animal which you meet every day in civi- 
 lized society. But perhaps you have not speculated 
 very curiously upon this interesting race. Tant pis ! 
 for you cannot live many lustres, without finding it 
 of some service to be a little acquainted with their 
 habits. 
 
 The world in general is under a mistake as to the 
 nature of these vermin. They are by no means 
 characterised by that similarity of disposition, for 
 
 117
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK II 
 
 which your common observer gives them credit. 
 There are Toadeys of all possible natures. 
 
 There is your Common-place Toadey, who merely 
 echoes its feeder's common-place observations. There 
 is your Playing-up Toadey, who, unconscious to its 
 feeder, is always playing up to its feeder's weaknesses 
 and, as the taste of that feeder varies, accordingly 
 provides its cates and confitures. A little bit of 
 scandal for a dashing widow, or a pious little hymn 
 for a sainted one ; the secret history of a newly 
 discovered gas for a May Fair feeder, and an 
 interesting anecdote about a Newgate bobcap, or a 
 Penitentiary apron, for a charitable one. Then there 
 is your Drawing-out Toadey, who omits no oppor- 
 tunity of giving you a chance of being victorious, in 
 an argument where there is no contest, and a dispute 
 
 where there is no difference ; and then there is ; 
 
 but I detest essay writing, so I introduce you at once 
 to a party of these vermin. If you wish to enjoy a 
 curious sight, you must watch the Toadeys, when 
 they are unembarassed by the almost perpetual pre- 
 sence of their breeders when they are animated by 
 ' the spirit of freedom ' ; when, like Curran's Negro, 
 the chain bursts by the impulse of their swelling 
 veins. The great singularity is the struggle between 
 their natural and their acquired feelings : the eager 
 opportunity which they seize of revenging their 
 voluntary bondage, by their secret taunts on their 
 adopted task-masters ; and the servility, which they 
 habitually mix up, even with their scandal. Like 
 veritable Grimalkins, they fawn upon their victims 
 previous to the festival compliment them upon the 
 length of their whiskers, and the delicacy of their 
 limbs, prior to excoriating them, and dwelling on the 
 flavour of their crashed bones. Oh ! 'tis a beautiful 
 
 118
 
 CHAPTER XVI VIVIAN GREY 
 
 scene, and ten thousand times more piquant than the 
 humours of a Servant's Hall, or the most grotesque 
 and glorious moments of high life below stairs. 
 
 * Dear Miss Graves,' said Miss Gusset, ' you can't 
 imagine how terrified I was at that horrible green 
 parrot flying upon my head ! I declare it pulled out 
 three locks of hair.' 
 
 ' Horrible green parrot, my dear madam ! why it 
 was sent to my Lady by Prince Xtmnprqtosklw, and 
 never shall I forget the agitation we were in about 
 that parrot. I thought it would never have got to 
 the Chateau, for the Prince could only send his 
 carriage with it as far as Toadcaster ; luckily my 
 Lady's youngest brother, who was staying at Desir, 
 happened to get drowned at the time, and so 
 Davenport, very clever of him ! sent her on in my 
 Lord Dormer's hearse.' 
 
 ' In the hearse ! Good heavens, Miss Graves ! 
 How could you think of green parrots at such an 
 awful moment ! I should have been in fits for three 
 days. Eh ! Dr. Sly ? ' 
 
 ' Certainly you would, Madam your nerves are 
 very delicate.' 
 
 * Well ! I, for my part, never could see much use 
 in giving up to one's feelings. It's all very well for 
 commoners,' rather rudely exclaimed the Marchioness' 
 Toadey ' but we did not choose to expose ourselves 
 to the servants, when the old General died this year. 
 Every thing went on as usual. Her Ladyship 
 attended Almacks ; my Lord took his seat in the 
 House ; and I looked in at Lady Doubtful's ; where 
 we don't visit, but where the Marchioness wishes to 
 be civil.' 
 
 * Oh ! we don't visit Lady Doubtful either,' replied 
 Miss Gusset : she hadn't a card for our fete champetre. 
 
 119
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK II 
 
 Oh ! I was so sorry you were not in town. It was 
 so delightful ! 
 
 ' Oh ! do tell me who was there. I quite long to 
 know all about it. I saw an account of it in the 
 papers. Every thing seemed to go off so well. Do 
 tell me who was there ? ' 
 
 ' Oh ! there was plenty of Royalty at the head of 
 the list. Really I can't go into particulars, but every 
 body was there who is any body eh ! Dr. Sly ? ' 
 
 ' Certainly, Madam. The pines were most admir- 
 able ; there are few people for whom I entertain a 
 higher esteem than Mr. Gunter.' 
 
 ' The Marchioness seems very fond of her dog and 
 parrot, Miss Graves but she's a sweet woman ! ' 
 
 * Oh, a dear, amiable, creature ! but I can't think 
 
 how she can bear the eternal screaming: of that noisy 
 
 u- j ' J 
 
 bird. 
 
 'Nor I, indeed. Well, thank goodness, Mrs. 
 Million has no pets eh ! Dr. Sly ? ' 
 
 ' Certainly I'm clearly of opinion that it can't be 
 wholesome to have so many animals about a house. 
 Besides which, I have noticed that the Marchioness 
 always selects the nicest morsels for that little poodle ; 
 and I'm also clearly of opinion, Miss Graves, that the 
 fit it had the other day arose from repletion.' 
 
 * Oh ! I've no doubt of it in the world. She 
 consumes three pounds of arrow-root weekly, and 
 two pounds of the finest loaf sugar, which I have the 
 trouble of grating every Monday morning Mrs. 
 Million appears to be a most amiable woman, Miss 
 Gusset ? ' 
 
 * Oh ! quite perfection so charitable, so intel- 
 lectual, such a soul ! it's a pity though her manner 
 is so abrupt, she really does not appear to advantage 
 sometimes eh ! Dr. Sly ? ' 
 
 120
 
 CHAPTER XVI VIVIAN GREY 
 
 The Toadey's Toadey bowed assent as usual. 
 ' Well,' rejoined Miss Graves, ' that's rather a fault 
 of the dear Marchioness, a little want of considera- 
 tion for another's feelings, but she means nothing.' 
 
 ' Oh, no ! nor Mrs. Million, dear creature ! she 
 means nothing ; though, I dare say, not knowing her 
 so well as we do eh ! Dr. Sly ? you were a little 
 surprised at the way in which she spoke to me at 
 dinner.' 
 
 ' All people have their oddities, Miss Gusset. I'm 
 sure the Marchioness is not aware how she tries my 
 patience about that little wretch Julie ; I had to rub 
 her with warm flannels for an hour and a-half, before 
 the fire this morning ; that's that Vivian Grey's 
 doing.' 
 
 * Who is this Mr. Grey, Miss Graves ? * 
 
 ' Who, indeed ! Some young man the Marquess 
 has picked up, and who comes lecturing here about 
 poodles, and parrots, and thinking himself quite Lord 
 Paramount, I assure you ; I'm surprised that the 
 Marchioness, who is a most sensible woman, can 
 patronize such conduct a moment ; but whenever she 
 begins to see through him, the young gentleman has 
 always got a story about a bracelet, or a bandeau, and 
 quite turns her head.' 
 
 ' Very disagreeable, I'm sure eh ! Dr. Sly ? ' 
 
 ' Some people are very easily managed. By the 
 bye, Miss Gusset, who could have advised Mrs. 
 Million to wear crimson ? So large as she is, it does 
 not at all suit her : I suppose it's a favourite colour.' 
 
 ' Dear Miss Graves, you're always so insinuating. 
 What can Miss Graves mean eh ! Dr. Sly ? ' 
 
 A Lord Burleigh shake of the head. 
 
 ' Cynthia Courtown seems as lively as ever,' said 
 Miss Gusset. 
 
 121
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK II 
 
 ' Yes, lively enough, but I wish her manner was 
 less brusque' 
 
 ' Brusque, indeed ! you may well say so : she nearly 
 pushed me down in the hall ; and when I looked as 
 if I thought she might have given me a little more 
 room, she tossed her head and said, ' Beg pardon, 
 never saw you ! ' 
 
 ' I wonder what Lord Alhambra sees in that girl ? ' 
 
 ' Oh ! those forward Misses always take the men 
 -eh! Dr. Sly?' 
 
 ' Well,' said Miss Graves, ' I've no notion that it 
 will come to any thing. I am sure, I, for one, hope 
 not,' added she with all a Toadey's venom. 
 
 ' The Marquess seems to keep a remarkably good 
 table,' said the Physician. ' There was a haunch to- 
 day, which I really think was the finest haunch I 
 ever met with : but that little move at dinner, it 
 was, to say the least, very ill-timed.' 
 
 ' Yes, that was Vivian Grey again,' said Miss 
 Graves, very indignantly. 
 
 ' So, you've got the Beaconsfields here, Miss Graves: 
 nice, unaffected, quiet, people ? ' 
 
 ' Yes ! very quiet.' ' As you say, Miss Graves, 
 very quiet, but a little heavy.' 
 
 ' Yes, heavy enough.' 
 
 ' If you had but seen the quantity or pine-apples 
 that boy Dormer Stanhope devoured at our Fete 
 Champetre ! but I've the comfort of knowing that 
 they made him very ill eh ! Dr. Sly ? ' 
 
 ' Oh ! he learned that from his uncle,' said Miss 
 Graves ' it's quite disgusting to see how that Vivian 
 Grey encourages him.' 
 
 * What an elegant, accomplished, woman Mrs. 
 Felix Lorraine seems to be, Miss Graves ! I sup- 
 pose the Marchioness is very fond of her ?' 
 
 122
 
 CHAPTER XVI VIVIAN GREY 
 
 ' Oh, yes the Marchioness is so good-natured, 
 that I dare say she thinks very well of Mrs. Felix 
 Lorraine. She thinks well of every one but I 
 believe Mrs. Felix is rather a greater favourite with 
 the Marquess.' 
 
 ' O h ! ' drawled out Miss Gusset with a very 
 
 significant tone. ' I suppose she's one of your play- 
 ing-up ladies. I think you told me she was only on 
 a visit here.' 
 
 ' A pretty long visit though, for a sister-in-law if 
 sister-in-law she be. As I was saying to the Mar- 
 chioness the other day, when Mrs. Felix offended 
 her so violently by trampling on dear little Julie if 
 it came into a Court of Justice, I should like to see 
 the proof that's all. At any rate, it's pretty evident 
 that Mr. Lorraine has had enough of his bargain.' 
 
 ' Quite evident, I think eh ! Dr. Sly ? Those 
 German women never make good English wives,' 
 continued Miss Gusset, with all a Toadey's 
 patriotism. 
 
 ' Talking of wives, didn't you think Lady Julia 
 spoke very strangely of Sir Peter after dinner to-day ? 
 I hate that Lady Julia, if it's only for petting Vivian 
 Grey so. She positively called him " little love " 
 very flighty, and sickening.' 
 
 ' Yes, indeed it is quite enough to make one sick 
 -eh! Dr. Sly?' 
 
 The Doctor shook his head mournfully, remem- 
 bering the haunch. 
 
 ' They say Ernest Clay's in sad difficulties, Miss 
 Gusset.' 
 
 ' Well, I always expected his dash would end in 
 that. Those wild harum-scarum men are monstrous 
 disagreeable. I like a person of some reflection eh ! 
 Dr. Sly?' 
 
 123
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK II 
 
 Before the doctor could bow his usual assent, there 
 entered a pretty little page, very daintily attired in a 
 fancy dress of green and silver. Twirling his richly 
 chased dirk with one tiny white hand, and at the 
 same time playing with a pet curl, which was most 
 picturesquely flowing over his forehead, he advanced 
 with ambling gait to Miss Gusset, and, in a mincing 
 voice, and courtly phrase, summoned her to the im- 
 perial presence. 
 
 The lady's features immediately assumed the ex- 
 pression which befitted the approaching interview, 
 and in a moment Miss Graves and the physician were 
 left alone. 
 
 ' Very amiable young woman, Miss Gusset appears 
 to be, Dr. Sly?' 
 
 ' Oh ! the most amiable being in the world I owe 
 her the greatest obligations.' 
 
 ' So gentle in her manners.' 
 
 ' O yes, so gentle.' 
 
 * So considerate for every body.' 
 
 ' Oh, yes ! so considerate,' echoed the Aberdeen 
 M.D. 
 
 ' I am afraid though, she must sometimes meet with 
 people who don't exactly understand her character : 
 such extraordinary consideration for others is some- 
 times liable to misconstruction.' 
 
 ' Very sensibly remarked, Miss Graves ; I am sure 
 Miss Gusset means well ; and that kind of thing is 
 all very admirable in its way but but 
 
 'But what, Dr. Sly?' 
 
 ' Why, I was merely going to hazard an observa- 
 tion, that according to my feelings that is, to my 
 own peculiar view of the case, I should prefer some 
 people thinking more about their own business, and, 
 and but I mean nothing.' 
 
 124
 
 CHAPTER XVI VIVIAN GREY 
 
 ' Oh, no, of course not, Dr. Sly ; you know we 
 always except our own immediate friends at least, 
 when we can be sure they are our friends ; but as 
 you were saying, or going to say, those persons who 
 are so very anxious about other people's affairs, are 
 not always the most agreeable persons in the world 
 to live with. It certainly did strike me, that that in- 
 terference of Miss Gusset's about Julie to-day, was, 
 to say the least, very odd.' 
 
 ' Oh, my dear madam ! when you know her as well 
 as I do, you'll see she's always ready to put in a word.' 
 
 ' Well ! do you know, Dr. Sly, between ourselves, 
 that was exactly my impression ; and she is then very, 
 
 very 1 don't exactly mean to say meddling, or 
 
 inquisitive ; but but you understand me, Dr. Sly ?' 
 
 ' Perfectly ; and if I were to speak my mind, which 
 I don't hesitate to do in confidence to you, Miss 
 Graves, I really should say, that she's the most 
 jealous, irritable, malicious, meddling, and at the 
 same time, fawning, disposition, that I ever met with 
 in the whole course of my life and I speak from 
 experience.' 
 
 ' Well, do you know, Dr. Sly, from all I've seen, 
 that was exactly my impression ; therefore I have 
 been particularly careful not to commit myself to 
 such a person.' 
 
 ' Ah ! Miss Graves ! if all ladies were like you ! 
 O h!' 
 
 ' My dear Dr. Sly ! ' 
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 THE CABINET DINNER 
 
 VIVIAN had duly acquainted the Marquess with the 
 successful progress of his negotiations with their 
 
 I2 5
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK II 
 
 intended partisans, and his Lordship himself had 
 conversed with them singly on the important subject. 
 It was thought proper, however, in this stage of the 
 proceedings, that the parties interested should meet 
 together, and so the two Lords, and Sir Berdmore, 
 and Vivian, were invited to dine with the Marquess 
 alone, and in his library. 
 
 There was abundance of dumb waiters, and other 
 inventions, by which the ease of the guests might be 
 consulted, without risking even their secret looks to 
 the gaze of liveried menials. The Marquess's gentle- 
 man sat in an antichamber, in case human aid might 
 be necessary, and every thing, as his Lordship averred, 
 was ' on the same system as the Cabinet Dinners.' 
 
 In the ancient kingdom of England, it hath ever 
 been the custom to dine previously to transacting 
 business. This habit is one of those few which are 
 not contingent upon the mutable fancies of fashion, 
 and at this day we see Cabinet Dinners, and Vestry 
 Dinners, alike proving the correctness of my asser- 
 tion. Whether the custom really expedites the 
 completion, or the general progress of the business 
 which gives rise to it, is a grave question, which I 
 do not feel qualified to decide. Certain it is, that 
 very often, after the dinner, an appointment is made 
 for the transaction of the business on the following 
 morning : at the same time it must be remembered, 
 that had it not been for the opportunity which the 
 banquet afforded of developing the convivial qualities 
 of the guests, and drawing out, by the assistance of 
 generous wine, their most kindly sentiments, and 
 most engaging feelings, it is very probable that the 
 appointment for the transaction of the business 
 would never have been made at all. 
 
 There certainly was every appearance that ' the 
 126
 
 CHAPTER XVII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 great business,' as the Marquess styled it, would not 
 be very much advanced by the cabinet dinner at 
 Chateau Desir. For, in the first place, the table was 
 laden ' with every delicacy of the season,' and really 
 when a man is either going to talk sense, fight a 
 duel, or make his will, nothing should be seen at 
 dinner, save rump steaks, and the lightest Bourdeaux. 
 And, in the second place, it must be candidly con- 
 fessed, that when it came to the point of all the 
 parties interested meeting, the Marquess's courage 
 somewhat misgave him. Not that any particular 
 reason occurred to him, which would have induced 
 him to yield one jot of the theory of his sentiments, 
 but the putting them in practice rather made him 
 nervous. In short, he was as convinced as ever, that 
 he was an ill used man of first rate talent, but then 
 he remembered his agreeable sinecure, and his 
 dignified office, and he might not succeed. c The 
 thought did not please.' 
 
 But here they were all assembled ; receding was 
 impossible ; and so the Marquess dashed off a 
 tumbler of Burgundy, and felt more courageous. 
 His Lordship's conduct did not escape the hawk 
 eye of one of his guests, and Vivian Grey was rather 
 annoyed at seeing the Marquess's glass so frequently 
 refilled. In fact the Marquess was drinking deep, 
 and deep drinking was neither my Lord Carabas' 
 weak, nor strong point, for he was neither habitually 
 a toper, nor one who bore wine's sweet influence like 
 a docile subject. 
 
 The venison was so prime, that not one word 
 relative to the subject of their meeting was broached 
 during the whole dinner; and Lord Beaconsfield, 
 more than once, thought to himself, that had he ever 
 been aware that business was so agreeable, he too 
 
 127
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK II 
 
 would have been a statesman. But the haunch at 
 last vanished, and the speech from the throne 
 commenced. 
 
 ' My Lords and Gentleman,' began the Marquess, 
 ' although I have myself taken the opportunity of 
 communicating to you singly my thoughts upon a 
 certain subject, and although, if I am righty in- 
 formed, my excellent young friend has communicated 
 to you more fully upon that subject ; yet, my Lords 
 and Gentlemen, I beg to remark, that this is the 
 first time, that we have collectively assembled to 
 consult on the possibility of certain views, upon the 
 propriety of their nature, and the expediency of their 
 adoption.' Here the bottle passed, and the Marquess 
 took a bumper. c My Lords and Gentlemen, when 
 I take into consideration the nature of the various 
 interests, of which the body politic of this great 
 empire is regulated ; (Lord Courtown, the bottle 
 stops with you) when I observe, I repeat, this, I 
 naturally ask myself what right, what claims, what, 
 what, what, I repeat, what right, these governing 
 interests have to the influence which they possess ? 
 (Vivian, my boy, you'll find Champagne on the 
 waiter behind you.) Yes, gentlemen, it is in this 
 temper (the corkscrew's by Sir Berdmore,) it is, I 
 repeat, in this temper, and actuated by these views, 
 that we meet together this day. Gentlemen, to 
 make the matter short, it is clear to me that we have 
 all been under a mistake; that my Lord Courtown, 
 and my Lord Beaconsfield, and Sir Berdmore Scrope, 
 and my humble self, are not doing our duty to our 
 country, in not taking the management of its affairs 
 into our own hands ! Mr. Vivian Grey, a gentle- 
 man with whom you are all acquainted, Mr. Vivian 
 Grey is younger than myself, or you, my Lord Cour- 
 
 ' 128
 
 CHAPTER XVII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 town, or you, my Lord Beaconsfield, or even you, I 
 believe, Sir Berdmore. Mr. Vivian Grey has con- 
 sequently better lungs than any of us, and he will, I 
 make no doubt, do, what I would, if I were of his 
 age, explain the whole business to us all ; and now 
 my Lords, and Gentlemen, let us have a glass of 
 Champagne.' 
 
 A great deal of ' desultory conversation,' as the 
 reporters style it, relative to the great topic of debate, 
 now occurred ; and, as the subject was somewhat 
 dry, the Carabas Champagne suffered considerably. 
 When the brains of the party were tolerably elevated, 
 Vivian addressed them. The tenor of his oration 
 may be imagined. He developed the new political 
 principles, demonstrated the mistake under the bane- 
 ful influence of which they had so long suffered, 
 promised them place, and power, and patronage, and 
 personal consideration, if they would only act on the 
 principles which he recommended, in the most flow- 
 ing language, and the most melodious voice, in which 
 the glories of ambition were ever yet chaunted. 
 There was a buzz of admiration when the flattering 
 music ceased ; the Marquess smiled triumphantly, 
 as if to say, ' Didn't I tell you he was a monstrous 
 clever fellow ?' and the whole business seemed settled. 
 Lord Courtown gave in a bumper, ' Mr. Vivian Grey, 
 and success to his maiden speech ; ' and Vivian dashed 
 off a tumbler of Champagne to ' the New Union,' and 
 certainly the whole party were in extreme good 
 spirits. At last, Sir Berdmore, the coolest of them 
 all, raised his voice : * He quite agreed with Mr. 
 Grey in the principles which he had developed ; and, 
 for his own part, he was free to confess, that he 
 had the most perfect confidence in that gentle- 
 man's very brilliant abilities, and augured from 
 i 129
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK II 
 
 their exertion the most complete and triumphant 
 success. At the same time, he felt it his duty 
 to remark to their Lordships, and also to that 
 gentleman, that the House of Commons was a new 
 scene to him ; and he put it, whether they were quite 
 convinced that they were sufficiently strong, as re- 
 garded talent in that assembly. He could not take 
 it upon himself to offer to become the leader of the 
 party. Mr. Grey might be capable of undertaking 
 that charge, but still, it must be remembered, that, 
 in that assembly, he was, as yet, untried. He made 
 no apology to Mr. Grey for speaking his mind so 
 freely ; he was sure that his motives could not be 
 misinterpreted. If their Lordships, on the whole, 
 were of opinion that this charge should be entrusted 
 to him, he, Sir Berdmore, having the greatest confi- 
 dence in Mr. Grey's abilities, would certainly support 
 him to the utmost.' 
 
 ' He can do any thing,' shouted the Marquess ; 
 who was now quite tipsy. 
 
 ' He's a surprising clever man ! ' said Lord Cour- 
 town. 
 
 ' He's a surprising clever man ! ' echoed Lord 
 Beaconsfield. 
 
 ' Stop, my Lords,' burst forth Vivian, ' your good 
 opinion deserves my gratitude, but these important 
 matters do indeed require a moment's consideration. 
 I trust that Sir Berdmore Scrope does not imagine 
 that 1 am the vain idiot, to be offended at his most 
 excellent remarks, even for a moment. Are we not 
 met here for the common good and to consult for 
 the success of the common cause ? Whatever my 
 talents are, they are at your service and, in your 
 service, will I venture any thing; but surely, my 
 Lords, you will not unnecessarily entrust this great 
 
 130
 
 CHAPTER XVII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 business to a raw hand ! I need only aver, that I am 
 ready to follow any leader, who can play his great 
 part in a becoming manner.' 
 
 * Noble ! ' halloed the Marquess ; who was now 
 quite drunk. 
 
 But who was the leader to be ? Sir Berdmore 
 frankly confessed that he had none to propose ; and 
 the Viscount and the Baron were quite silent. 
 
 ' Gentlemen ! ' bawled the Marquess, and his eye 
 danced in his beaming face, ' Gentlemen ! there is a 
 man, who could do our bidding.' The eyes of every 
 guest were fixed on the haranguing host. 
 
 ' Gentlemen, fill your glasses I give you our 
 leader Mr. Frederick Cleveland.' 
 
 ' Cleveland ! ' was the universal shout. A glass of 
 claret fell from Lord Courtown's hand ; Lord 
 Beaconsfield stopped as he was about to fill his glass, 
 and stood gaping at the Marquess, with the decanter 
 in his hand ; and Sir Berdmore stared on the table, 
 as men do when something unexpected, and astound- 
 ing, has occurred at dinner, which seems past all their 
 management. 
 
 ' Cleveland ! ' shouted the guests. 
 
 ' I should as soon have expected you to have given 
 us Lucifer ! ' said Lord Courtown. 
 
 ' Or the present Secretary ! ' said Lord Beacons- 
 field. 
 
 ' Or yourself,' said Sir Berdmore Scrope. 
 
 ' And does any one mean to insinuate that Frederick 
 Cleveland is not capable of driving out every minister, 
 that has ever existed since the days of the deluge ?' 
 demanded the Marquess, with a fierce air. 
 
 ' We do not deny Mr. Cleveland's powers, my 
 Lord ; we only humbly beg to suggest that it appears 
 to us, that, of all the persons in the world, the man
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK II 
 
 with whom Mr. Cleveland would be least inclined to 
 coalesce, would be the Marquess of Carabas.' 
 
 In spite of the Champagne' the Marquess looked 
 blank. 
 
 'Gentlemen,' said Vivian, 'do not despair; it's 
 enough for me to know that there is a man who 
 is capable of doing our work. Be he animate man, 
 or incarnate fiend, provided he can be found within 
 this realm, I pledge myself that, within ten days, he 
 is drinking my noble friend's health at this very 
 board.' 
 
 The Marquess halloed, ' Bravo ! ' the rest laughed, 
 and rose in confusion ; Lord Beaconsfield fell over a 
 chair, and, extricating himself with admirable agility, 
 got entangled with a dumb-waiter, which came 
 tumbling down with a fearful crash of plates, bottles, 
 knives, and decanters. The pledge was, however, 
 accepted ; and the Marquess and Vivian were left 
 alone. The worthy Peer, though terrifically tipsy, 
 seemed quite overcome by Vivian's offer and engage- 
 ment. 
 
 ' Vivian, my boy ! you don't know what you've 
 done you don't, indeed take care of yourself, my 
 boy, you're going to call on the Devil ; you are, 
 indeed you're going to leave your card at the 
 Devil's. Didn't you hear what Lord Beaconsfield, 
 a very worthy gentleman, but, between ourselves, a 
 damned fool that's entre nous, though, entre nous I 
 say, didn't you hear Lord Beaconsfield no, was it 
 Lord Beaconsfield r No, no, your memory, Vivian, 's 
 very bad ; it was Lord Courtown : didn't you hear 
 him say that Frederick Cleveland was Lucifer. He 
 is Lucifer ; he is, upon my honor how shocking ! 
 What times we live in ! To think of you, Vivian 
 Grey ; you, a respectable young man, with a worthy 
 
 132
 
 CHAPTER XVII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 and respectable father ; to think of you leaving your 
 
 card at the Devil's ! Oh ! shocking ! shocking ! 
 
 But never mind, my dear fellow ! never mind, don't 
 lose heart. I'll tell you what to do talk to him, and 
 by Jove, if he doesn't make me an apology, I'm not 
 a Cabinet Minister. Good night, my dear fellow ; 
 he's sure to make an apology ; don't be frightened ; 
 remember what I say, talk to him, talk talk' So 
 saying, the worthy Marquess reeled and retired. 
 
 ' What have I done ? ' thought Vivian ; ' I'm sure 
 that Lucifer may know, for I do not. This Cleve- 
 land is, I suppose, after all but a man. I saw the 
 feeble fools were wavering; and to save all, made 
 a leap in the dark. Well ! is my skull cracked ? 
 Nous verrons. How hot, either this room or my 
 blood is ! Come, for some fresh air ; (he opened the 
 library window) how fresh and soft it is ! Just the 
 night for the balcony. Hah ! music ! I cannot mis- 
 take that voice. Singular woman ! I'll just walk 
 on, till I'm beneath her window.' 
 
 Vivian accordingly proceeded along the balcony, 
 which extended down one whole side of the Chateau. 
 While he was looking at the moon he stumbled 
 against some one. It was Colonel Delmington. He 
 apologised to the militaire for treading on his toes, 
 and ' wondered how the devil he got there ! '
 
 BOOK THE THIRD 
 
 CHAPTER 1 
 
 A COLLEAGUE 
 
 FREDERICK CLEVELAND was educated at Eton, and at 
 Cambridge ; and after having proved, both at the 
 school and the University, that he possessed talents 
 of the first order, he had the courage, in order to 
 perfect them, to immure himself for three years in a 
 German University. It was impossible, therefore, 
 for two minds to have been cultivated on more con- 
 trary systems, than those of Frederick Cleveland and 
 Vivian Grey. The systems on which they had been 
 educated were not, however, more discordant than 
 the respective tempers of the pupils. With that of 
 Vivian Grey the reader is now somewhat acquainted. 
 It has been shown that he was one precociously con- 
 vinced of the necessity of managing mankind by 
 studying their tempers and humouring their weak- 
 nesses. Cleveland turned from the Book of Nature 
 with contempt ; and although his was a mind of 
 extraordinary acuteness, he was, at three-and-thirty, 
 as ignorant of the workings of the human heart, as 
 when, in the innocence of boyhood, he first reached 
 Eton. The inaptitude of his nature to consult the 
 feelings, or adopt the sentiments of others, was visible 
 in his slightest actions. He was the only man who 
 
 134
 
 CHAPTER I VIVIAN GREY 
 
 ever passed three years in Germany, and in a German 
 University, who had never yielded to the magic influ- 
 ence of a Meerschaum ; and the same inflexibility of 
 character which prevented him from smoking in 
 Germany, attracted in Italy the loud contempt of 
 those accomplished creatures the Anglo-Italians. 
 The Duchess of Derwentwater, who saluted with 
 equal naivete a Cardinal, or a Captain of banditti, 
 was once almost determined to exclude Mr. Cleve- 
 land from her conversazione because he looked so 
 much like an Englishman ; and at Florence he was 
 still more unpopular ; for he abused Velluti, and pas- 
 quinaded his patroness. 
 
 Although possessed of no fortune, from the re- 
 spectability of his connexions, and the reputation of 
 his abilities, he entered Parliament at an early age. 
 His success was eminent. It was at this period that 
 he formed a great friendship with the present Mar- 
 quess of Carabas, many years his senior, and then 
 Under Secretary of State. His exertions for the 
 party to which Mr. Under Secretary Lorraine be- 
 longed were unremitting ; and it was mainly through 
 their influence that a great promotion took place in 
 the official appointments of the party. When the 
 hour of reward came, Mr. Lorraine and his friends 
 unfortunately forgot their youthful champion. He 
 remonstrated, and they smiled : he reminded them of 
 private friendship, and they answered him with poli- 
 tical expediency. Mr. Cleveland went down to the 
 House, and attacked his old comates in a spirit of 
 unexampled bitterness. He examined in review the 
 various members of the party that had deserted him. 
 They trembled on their seats, while they writhed 
 beneath the keenness of his satire : but when the 
 orator came to Mr. President Lorraine, he flourished
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK III 
 
 the tomahawk on high, like a wild Indian chieftain ; 
 and the attack was so awfully severe, so overpower- 
 ing, so annihilating, that even this hackneyed and 
 hardened official trembled, turned pale, and quitted 
 the house. Cleveland's triumph was splendid, but it 
 was only for a night. Disgusted with mankind, he 
 scouted the thousand offers of political connections 
 which crowded upon him ; and, having succeeded in 
 making an arrangement with his creditors, he accepted 
 the Chiltern Hundreds. 
 
 By the interest of his friends, he procured a judi- 
 cial situation of sufficient emolument, but of local 
 duty ; and to fulfil this duty he was obliged to reside 
 in North Wales. The locality, indeed, suited him 
 well, for he was sick of the world at nine-and-twenty; 
 and, carrying his beautiful and newly-married wife 
 from the world, which, without him she could not 
 love, Mr Cleveland enjoyed all the luxuries of a 
 cottage ornee, in the most romantic part of the Prin- 
 cipality. Here were born unto him a son and 
 daughter, beautiful children, upon whom the father 
 lavished all the affection which Nature had intended 
 for the world. 
 
 Four years had Cleveland now passed in his soli- 
 tude, it must not be concealed, an unhappy man. 
 A thousand times, during the first'year of his retire- 
 ment, he cursed the moment of excitation which had 
 banished him from the world ; for he found himself 
 without resources, and restless as a curbed courser. 
 Like many men who are born to be orators like 
 Curran, and like Fox, Cleveland was not blessed, or 
 cursed, with the faculty of composition ; and, indeed, 
 had his pen been that of a ready writer, pique would 
 have prevented him from delighting or instructing 
 a world, whose nature he endeavoured to persuade 
 
 136
 
 CHAPTER I VIVIAN GREY 
 
 himself was base, and whose applause ought conse- 
 quently to be valueless. In the second year he 
 endeavoured to while away his time, by interesting 
 himself in those pursuits which Nature has kindly 
 provided for country gentlemen. Farming kept him 
 alive six months ; but, at length, his was the prize 
 ox ; and, having gained a cup, he got wearied of 
 kine too prime for eating ; wheat, too fine for the 
 composition of the staff of life ; and ploughs so in- 
 geniously contrived, that the very ingenuity prevented 
 them from being useful. Cleveland was now seen 
 wandering over the moors, and mountains, with a 
 gun over his shoulder, and a couple of pointers at 
 his heels ; but ennui returned in spite of his patent 
 percussion ; and so, at length, tired of being a sports- 
 man, he almost became what he had fancied himself 
 in an hour of passion, a misanthrope. 
 
 With the aid of soda-water and Mr. Sadler, 
 Vivian had succeeded, the morning after the Cabinet- 
 dinner, in getting the Marquess up at a tolerably 
 early hour ; and, after having been closeted with his 
 Lordship for a considerable time, he left Chateau 
 Desir. 
 
 Vivian travelled night and day, until he stopped 
 at KENRICH LODGE. Such was the correct style of 
 Mr. Cleveland's abode. What was he to do now ? 
 After some deliberation, he despatched a note to 
 Mr. Cleveland, informing him, ' that he (Mr. Grey) 
 was the bearer, from England, to Mr. Cleveland, of 
 a " communication of importance." Under the cir- 
 cumstances of the case, he observed that he had 
 declined bringing any letters of introduction. He 
 was quite aware, therefore, that he should have no 
 right to complain, if he had to travel back three 
 hundred miles without having the honour of an
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK III 
 
 interview ; but he trusted that this necessary breach 
 of etiquette would be overlooked.' 
 
 The note produced the desired effect ; and an 
 appointment was made for Mr. Grey to call at 
 Kenrich Lodge on the following morning. 
 
 Vivian, as he entered the room, took a rapid 
 glance at the master of Kenrich Lodge. Mr. Cleve- 
 land was a tall and elegantly formed man, with a face 
 which might have been a model for manly beauty. 
 He came forward to receive Vivian, with a New- 
 foundland dog on one side, and a large black grey- 
 hound on the other; and the two animals, after 
 having elaborately examined the stranger, divided 
 between them the luxuries of the rug. The recep- 
 tion which Mr. Cleveland gave our hero, was cold 
 and constrained in the extreme, but it did not appear 
 to be purposely uncivil ; and Vivian flattered himself 
 that his manner was not unusually stiff. 
 
 ' I don't know whether I have the honour of 
 
 addressing the son of the author of ? ' said Mr. 
 
 Cleveland, with a frowning countenance, which was 
 intended to be courteous. 
 
 ' I have the honour of being the son of Mr. Grey.' 
 
 ' Your father, Sir, is a most amiable, and able man. 
 I had the pleasure of his acquaintance when I was in 
 London many years ago, at a time when Mr. Vivian 
 Grey was not entrusted, I rather imagine, with 
 missions " of importance." Although Mr. Cleveland 
 smiled when he said this, his smile was anything but 
 a gracious one. The subdued satire of his keen eye 
 burst out for an instant, and he looked as if he would 
 have said, ' Who is this younker who is trespassing 
 upon my retirement ? ' 
 
 ^Vivian had, unbidden, seated himself by the side 
 of Mr. Cleveland's library-table; and, not knowing 
 
 138
 
 CHAPTER I VIVIAN GREY 
 
 exactly how to proceed, was employing himself by 
 making a calculation, whether there were more black 
 than white spots on the body of the old New- 
 foundland, who was now apparently most happily 
 slumbering. 
 
 ' Well, Sir ! ' continued the Newfoundland's master, 
 'the nature of your communication? I am fond of 
 coming to the point.' 
 
 Now this was precisely the thing which Vivian had 
 determined not to do ; and so he diplomatised, in 
 order to gain time. ' In stating, Mr. Cleveland, that 
 the communication which I had to make was one of 
 importance, I beg it to be understood, that it was with 
 reference merely to my opinion of its nature that that 
 phrase was used, and not as relative to the possible, 
 or, allow me to say, the probable opinion of Mr. 
 Cleveland.' 
 
 ' Well, Sir ! ' said that gentleman, with a somewhat 
 disappointed air. 
 
 ' As to the purport or nature of the communica- 
 tion, it is,' said Vivian, with one of his sweetest 
 cadences, and, looking up to Mr. Cleveland's face, 
 with an eye expressive of all kindness, ' it is of a 
 political nature.' 
 
 * Well, Sir ! ' again exclaimed Cleveland ; looking 
 very anxious, and moving restlessly on his library 
 chair. 
 
 ' When we take into consideration, Mr. Cleveland, 
 the present aspect of the political world ; when we 
 call to mind the present situation of the two great 
 political parties, you will not be surprised, I feel 
 confident, when I mention that certain personages 
 have thought that the season was at hand, when a 
 move might be made in the political world with very 
 considerable effect 
 
 '39
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK III 
 
 ' Mr. Grey, what am I to understand ? ' inter- 
 rupted Mr. Cleveland, who began to suspect that the 
 envoy was no greenhorn. 
 
 ' I feel confident, Mr. Cleveland, that I am doing 
 very imperfect justice to the mission with which I 
 am intrusted; but, Sir, you must be aware that the 
 delicate nature of such disclosures, and ' 
 
 ' Mr. Grey, I feel confident that you do not doubt 
 my honour ; and, as for the rest, the world has, I 
 believe, some foolish tales about me ; but, believe me, 
 you shall be listened to with patience. I am certain 
 that, whatever may be the communication, Mr. Vivian 
 Grey is a gentleman, who will do its merits justice.' 
 
 And now Vivian, having succeeded in exciting 
 Cleveland's curiosity, and securing himself the cer- 
 tainty of a hearing, and having also made a favour- 
 able impression, dropped the diplomatist altogether, 
 and was explicit enough for a Spartan. 
 
 ' Certain Noblemen and Gentlemen of eminence, 
 and influence, hitherto considered as props of the 
 party, are about to take a novel and de- 
 cided course next Session. It is to obtain the aid, 
 and personal co-operation of Mr. Cleveland, that I 
 am now in Wales.' 
 
 ' Mr. Grey, I have promised to listen to you with 
 patience : you are too young a man to know much 
 perhaps of the history of so insignificant a personage 
 as myself; otherwise, you would have been aware, 
 that there is no subject in the world on which I am 
 less inclined to converse, than that of politics. If I 
 were entitled to take such a libe.rty, I would beseech 
 you to think of them as little as / do ; but enough 
 of this : who is the mover of the party ? ' 
 
 ' My Lord Courtown is a distinguished member 
 of it.' 
 
 140
 
 CHAPTER I VIVIAN GREY 
 
 ' Courtown Courtown ; respectable certainly : but 
 surely the good Viscount's skull is not exactly the 
 head for the chief of a cabal ? ' 
 
 ' There is my Lord Beaconsfield.' 
 
 ' Powerful but a dolt.' 
 
 'Well,' thought Vivian, 'it must out at last', and 
 so to it boldly. And, Mr. Cleveland, there is little 
 fear that we may secure the powerful interest, and 
 tried talents of the Marquess of Carabas.' 
 
 ' The Marquess of Carabas ! ' almost shrieked Mr. 
 Cleveland, as he started from his seat and paced the 
 room with hurried steps ; and the greyhound and the 
 Newfoundland jumped up from their rug, shook 
 themselves, growled, and then imitated their master 
 in promenading the apartment, but with more digni- 
 fied and stately paces. ' The Marquess of Carabas ! 
 Now, Mr. Grey, speak to me with the frankness 
 which one high-bred gentleman should use to another ; 
 is the Marquess of Carabas privy to this applica- 
 tion ? ' 
 
 c He himself proposed it.' 
 
 ' Then, Sir, is he baser than even 7 conceived. 
 Oh ! Mr. Grey, I am a man spare of my speech to 
 those with whom I am unacquainted ; and the world 
 calls me a soured, malicious man. And yet, when I 
 think for a moment, that one so young as you are, 
 with such talents, and, as I will believe, with so pure 
 a spirit, should be the dupe, or tool, or even present 
 friend, of such a creature as this perjured Peer, I 
 could really play the woman and weep.' 
 
 * Mr. Cleveland,' said Vivian and the drop which 
 
 glistened in his eye, responded to the tear of passion 
 
 which slowly quivered down his companion's cheek, 
 
 * I am grateful for your kindness ; and although 
 
 we shall most probably part, in a few hours, never to 
 
 141
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK III 
 
 meet again, I will speak to you with the frankness 
 which you have merited, and to which I feel you are 
 entitled. I am not the dupe of the Marquess of 
 Carabas ; I am not, I trust, the dupe, or tool, of any 
 one whatever. Believe me, Sir, there is that at work 
 in England, which, taken at the tide, may lead on to 
 fortune. I see this, Sir, I, a young man, uncom- 
 mitted in political principles, unconnected in public 
 life, feeling some confidence, I confess, in my own 
 abilities, but desirous of availing myself, at the same 
 time, of the powers of others. Thus situated, I find 
 myself working for the same end as my Lord Carabas, 
 and twenty other men of similar calibre, mental and 
 moral ; and, Sir, am I to play the hermit in the drama 
 of life, because perchance, my fellow-actors may be 
 sometimes fools, and occasionally knaves. Oh ! Mr. 
 Cleveland, if the Marquess of Carabas has done you 
 the ill service which Fame says he has, your sweetest 
 revenge will be to make him, your tool ; your most 
 perfect triumph, to rise to power by his influence. 
 
 * I confess that I am desirous of finding in you the 
 companion of my career. Your splendid talents have 
 long commanded my admiration ; and, as you have 
 given me credit for something like good reeling, I 
 will say that my wish to find in you a colleague is 
 greatly increased, when I see that those splendid 
 talents are even the least estimable points in Mr. 
 Cleveland's character. But, Sir, perhaps all this time 
 I am in error, perhaps Mr. Cleveland is, as the 
 world reports him, no longer the ambitious being that 
 once commanded the admiration of a listening 
 Senate ; perhaps, convinced of the vanity of human 
 wishes, Mr. Cleveland would rather devote his atten- 
 tion to the furtherance of the interests of his imme- 
 diate circle ; and, having schooled his intellect in the 
 
 142
 
 CHAPTER II VIVIAN GREY 
 
 Universities of two nations, is probably content to 
 pass the hours of his life in mediating in the quarrels 
 of a country village.' 
 
 Vivian ceased. Cleveland heard him, with his 
 head resting on both his arms. He started at the last 
 expression, and something like a blush suffused his 
 cheek, but-he did not reply. At last he jumped up, 
 and rang the bell. ' Come, come, Mr. Grey,' said 
 he, ' enough of politics for this morning. You shall 
 not, at any rate, visit Wales for nothing. Morris ! 
 send down to the village for all the sacs and port- 
 manteaus belonging to this gentleman. Even we 
 cottagers have a bed for a friend, Mr. Grey : come, 
 and I'll introduce you to my wife.' 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 A COLLEAGUE 
 
 AND Vivian was now an inmate of Kenrich Lodge. 
 It would have been difficult to have conceived a life 
 of more pure happiness, than that which was appa- 
 rently enjoyed by its gifted master. A beautiful 
 wife, and lovely children, and a romantic situation, 
 and an income sufficient, not only for their own, but 
 for the wants of all their necessitous neighbours ; 
 what more could man wish ? Answer me, thou 
 inexplicable myriad of sensations, which the world 
 calls human nature ! 
 
 Three days passed over in most delightful con- 
 verse. It was so long since Cleveland had seen any 
 one fresh from the former scenes of his life, that the 
 company of any one would have been delightful ; but 
 here was a companion who knew every one, every 
 thing, full of wit, and anecdote, and literature, and
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK III 
 
 fashion, and then so engaging in his manners, and 
 with such a winning voice. 
 
 The heart of Cleveland relented : his stern manner 
 gave way ; all his former warm and generous feeling 
 gained the ascendant : he was in turn amusing, 
 communicative, and engaging. Finding that he 
 could please another, he began to be pleased him- 
 self. The nature of the business on which Vivian 
 was his guest, rendered confidence necessary ; confi- 
 dence begets kindness. In a few days, Vivian 
 necessarily became more acquainted with Mr. 
 Cleveland's disposition, and situation, than if they 
 had been acquainted for as many years ; in short, 
 
 They talked with open heart and tongue, 
 Affectionate and true, 
 A pair of friends. 
 
 Vivian, for some time, dwelt upon every thing but 
 the immediate subject of his mission : but when, 
 after the experience of a few days, their hearts were 
 open to each other, and they had mutually begun to 
 discover, that there was a most astonishing similarity 
 in their principles, their tastes, their feelings, then the 
 magician poured forth his incantation, and raised the 
 once-laid ghost of Cleveland's ambition. The recluse 
 agreed to take the lead of the Carabas party. He 
 was to leave Wales immediately and resign his place ; 
 in return for which, the nephew of Lord Courtown 
 was immediately to give up, in his favour, an office of 
 considerable emolument ; and, having thus provided 
 some certainty for his family, Frederick Cleveland 
 prepared himself to combat for a more important 
 office. 
 
 144
 
 CHAPTER III VIVIAN GREY 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 THE ARRIVAL 
 
 ' Is Mr. Cleveland handsome ? ' asked Mrs. Felix 
 Lorraine of Vivian, immediately on his return, ' and 
 what colour are his eyes ? ' 
 
 ' Upon my honour, I haven't the least recollection 
 of ever looking at them ; but I believe he is not 
 blind.' 
 
 ' How foolish you are ? now tell me pray, point de 
 moquerie^ is he amusing ? ' 
 
 'What does Mrs. Felix mean by amusing?'' asked 
 Vivian with an arch smile. 
 
 ' Oh ! you always tease me with your definitions ; 
 Go away I'll quarrel with you.' 
 
 ' Oh ! by the bye, Mrs. Felix Lorraine, how is 
 Colonel Delmington ? ' 
 
 Vivian redeemed his pledge : Mr. Cleveland 
 arrived. It was the wish of the Marquess, if possible, 
 not to meet his old friend till dinner-time. He 
 thought that, surrounded by his guests, and backed 
 by his bottle, certain awkward senatorial reminis- 
 cences might be got over. But, unfortunately, Mr. 
 Cleveland arrived about an hour before dinner, and, 
 as it was a cold autumnal day, most of the visitors, 
 who were staying at Chateau Desir, were assembled 
 in the drawing-room. The Marquess sallied for- 
 ward to receive his guest with a most dignified 
 countenance, and a most aristocratic step ; but, before 
 he had got half-way, his coronation pace degenerated 
 into a strut, and then into a shamble, and with an 
 awkward and confused countenance, half impudent, 
 and half flinching, he held forward his left hand to 
 his newly-arrived visitor. Mr. Cleveland looked 
 K 145
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK III 
 
 terrifically courteous, and amiably arrogant. He 
 greeted the Marquess with a smile, at once gracious, 
 and grim, and looked something like Goliath, as you 
 see the Philistine depicted in some old German paint- 
 ing, looking down upon the pigmy fighting men of 
 Israel. 
 
 As is generally the custom, when there is a great 
 deal to be arranged, and many points to be settled, 
 days flew over, and very little of the future system of 
 the party was matured. Vivian made one or two 
 ineffectual struggles to bring the Marquess to a busi- 
 ness-like habit of mind, but his Lordship never dared 
 trust himself alone with Cleveland, and indeed almost 
 lost the power of speech when in presence of the 
 future leader of his party ; so, in the morning, the 
 Marquess played off the two lords, and the Baronet 
 against his former friend, and then to compensate for 
 not meeting Mr. Cleveland in the morning, he was 
 particularly courteous to him at dinner-time, and 
 asked him always ' how he liked his ride ?' and inva- 
 riably took wine with him. As for the rest of the 
 day, he had particularly requested his faithful coun- 
 sellor, Mrs. Felix Lorraine, ' for God's sake to take 
 this man off his shoulders' ; and so that lady, with 
 her usual kindness, and merely to oblige his Lord- 
 ship, was good enough to patronize Mr. Cleveland, 
 and on the fourth day was taking a moon-lit walk 
 with him. 
 
 Mr. Cleveland had now been ten days at Chateau 
 Desir, and was to take his departure the next 
 morning for Wales, in order to arrange every thing 
 for his immediate settlement in the Metropolis. 
 Every point of importance was postponed until their 
 meeting in London. Mr. Cleveland only agreed to 
 take the lead of the party in the Commons, and 
 
 146
 
 CHAPTER III VIVIAN GREY 
 
 received the personal pledge of Lord Courtown as to 
 the promised office. 
 
 It was a September day, and to escape from the 
 excessive heat of the sun, and at the same time to 
 enjoy the freshness of the air, Vivian was writing his 
 letters in the conservatory, which opened into one of 
 the drawing-rooms. The numerous party, which 
 then honoured the Chateau with their presence, were 
 out, as he conceived, on a pic nic excursion to the 
 Elfin's Well, a beautiful spot about ten miles off ; 
 and among the adventurers were, as he imagined, 
 Mrs. Felix Lorraine, and Mr. Cleveland. 
 
 Vivian was rather surprised at hearing voices in 
 the adjoining room, and he was still more so, when, 
 on looking round, he found that the sounds pro- 
 ceeded from the very two individuals whom he 
 thought were far away. Some tall American plants 
 concealed him from their view, but he observed all 
 that passed distinctly, and a singular scene it was. 
 Mrs. Felix Lorraine was on her knees at the feet of 
 Mr. Cleveland ; her countenance indicated the most 
 contrary passions, contending, as it were, for mastery 
 Supplication Anger and, shall I call it ? Love. 
 Her companion's countenance was hid, but it was 
 evident that it was not wreathed with smiles : there 
 were a few hurried sentences uttered, and then both 
 quitted the room at different doors the lady in 
 despair, and the gentleman in disgust. 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE ELFIN'S WELL 
 
 AND now Chateau Desir was almost deserted. Mrs. 
 Million continued her progress northward. The 
 Courtowns and the Beaconsfields, and the Scropes,
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK III 
 
 quitted immediately after Mr. Cleveland ; and when 
 the families that form the materiel of the visiting corps 
 retire, the nameless nothings that are always lounging 
 about the country mansions of the great, such as 
 artists, tourists, litterateurs, and other live stock, soon 
 disappear. Mr. Vivian Grey agreed to stay another 
 fortnight, at the particular request of the Marquess. 
 
 Very few days had passed, ere Vivian was ex- 
 ceedingly struck at the decided change which sud- 
 denly took place in his Lordship's general behaviour 
 towards him. 
 
 The Marquess grew reserved and uncommuni- 
 cative, scarcely mentioning 'the great business,' which 
 had previously been the sole subject of his conversa- 
 tion, but to -find fault with some arrangement, and 
 exhibiting, whenever his name was mentioned, a 
 marked acrimony against Mr. Cleveland. This rapid 
 change alarmed, as much as it astonished Vivian, and 
 he mentioned his feelings and observations to Mrs. 
 Felix Lorraine. That lady agreed with him, that 
 something certainly was wrong, but could not, un- 
 fortunately, afford him any clue to the mystery. 
 She expressed the liveliest solicitude, that any mis- 
 understanding should be put an end to, and offered 
 her services for that purpose. 
 
 In spite, however, of her well-expressed anxiety, 
 Vivian had his own ideas on the subject ; and, deter- 
 mined to unravel the affair, he had recourse to a 
 person, with whom he seldom interchanged a sentence 
 the Marchioness. 
 
 * I hope your Ladyship is well to-day. I had a 
 letter from Count Caumont this morning. He tells 
 me, that he has got the prettiest poodle from Paris 
 that you can possibly conceive ! waltzes like an angel, 
 and acts proverbes on its hind feet.' 
 
 148
 
 CHAPTER IV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 Her Ladyship's eyes glistened with admiration. 
 
 ' I've told Caumont to send it me down im- 
 mediately, and I shall then have the pleasure of 
 presenting it to your Ladyship.' 
 
 Her Ladyship's eyes sparkled with delight. 
 
 ' I think,' continued Vivian, ' I shall take a ride 
 to-day. By the bye, how's the Marquess ? he seems 
 in low spirits lately.' 
 
 ' Oh ! Mr. Grey, I don't know what you've done 
 to him,' said her Ladyship, settling at least a dozen 
 bracelets ; ' but but 
 
 But what, my lady ? ' 
 
 ' He thinks he thinks ' 
 
 ' Thinks what, my lady ? ' 
 
 ' That you've entered into a conspiracy, Mr. Grey.' 
 
 ' Entered into a conspiracy ! ' 
 
 ' Yes ! Mr. Grey, a conspiracy a conspiracy against 
 the Marquess of Carabas, with Mr Cleveland. He 
 thinks that you have made him serve your purpose, 
 and that now you're going to get rid of him.' 
 
 ' Well, that's excellent ; and what else does he 
 think?' 
 
 * He thinks you talk too loud,' said the Marchion- 
 ess, still working at her bracelets. 
 
 ' Well ! that's shockingly vulgar ! Allow me to 
 recommend your Ladyship to alter the order of those 
 bracelets , and place the blue and silver against the 
 maroon. You may depend upon it, that's the true 
 Vienna order and what else does the Marquess say ?' 
 
 ' He thinks you are generally too authoritative. 
 Not that I think so, Mr. Grey ; I'm sure your con- 
 duct to me has been most courteous the blue and 
 silver next to the maroon, did you say ? Yes, 
 certainly it does look better. I've no doubt the 
 Marquess is quite wrong, and I dare say you'll set 
 
 149
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK III 
 
 things right immediately. You'll remember the 
 pretty poodle, Mr. Grey ? and you'll not tell the 
 Marquess I mentioned any thing.' 
 
 ' Oh ! certainly not. I'll give orders for them to 
 book an inside place for the poodle, and send him 
 down by the coach immediately. I must be off now. 
 Remember the blue and silver next to the maroon. 
 Good morning to your Ladyship ! ' 
 
 4 Mrs. Felix Lorraine, I am your most obedient 
 slave,' said Vivian Grey, as he met that lady on the 
 landing-place ; ' I can see no reason why I should 
 not drive you this bright day to the Elfin's Well ; we 
 have long had an engagement together.' 
 
 The lady smiled a gracious assent ; the pony 
 phaston was immediately ordered. 
 
 4 How pleasant Lady Courtown and I used to dis- 
 course about martingales ! I think I invented one, 
 didn't I ? Pray, Mrs. Felix Lorraine, can you tell 
 me what a martingale is ? for upon my honour I've 
 forgotten, or never knew.' 
 
 ' If you found a martingale for the mother, Vivian, 
 it had been well if you had found a curb for the 
 daughter. Poor Cynthia! I had intended once to 
 advise the Marchioness to interfere ; but one forgets 
 these things.' 
 
 4 One does. Oh ! Mrs. Felix,' exclaimed Vivian, 
 4 1 told your admirable story of the Leyden Pro- 
 fessor to Mrs. Cleveland. It's universally agreed to 
 be the best ghost story extant. I think you said you 
 knew the Professor?' 
 
 4 Oh, well ! I have seen him often, and heard the 
 story from his own lips. And, as I mentioned be- 
 fore, far from being superstitious, he was an esprit 
 fort. Do you know, Mr. Grey, I have such an inter- 
 esting packet from Germany to-day ; from my cousin,
 
 CHAPTER IV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 Baron Rodenstein ; but I must keep all the stories 
 for the evening; come to my boudoir, and I will 
 read them to you there is one tale which I am sure 
 will make a convert even of you. It happened to 
 Rodenstein himself, and within these three months :' 
 added the lady in a serious tone. ' The Rodensteins 
 are a singular family. My mother was a Rodenstein. 
 Do you think this beautiful ? ' said Mrs. Felix, show- 
 ing Vivian a very small miniature which was attached 
 to a chain round her neck. It was the portrait of a 
 youth habited in the costume of a German student. 
 His rich brown hair was flowing over his shoulders, 
 and his dark blue eyes beamed with such a look of 
 mysterious inspiration, that they might have befitted 
 a young prophet. 
 
 ' Very, very beautiful ? ' 
 
 ' 'Tis Max Max Rodenstein,' said the lady with a 
 faltering voice. ' He was killed at Leipsic, at the 
 head of a band of his friends and fellow students. 
 Oh ? Mr. Grey, this is a fair work of art, but if you 
 had but seen the prototype, you would have gazed 
 on this as on a dim and washed out drawing. There 
 was one portrait, indeed, which did him more justice 
 but then, that portrait was not the production of 
 mortal pencil.' 
 
 Vivian looked at his companion with a somewhat 
 astonished air, but Mrs. Felix Lorraine's countenance 
 was as little indicative of jesting as that of the young 
 student whose miniature rested on her bosom. 
 
 ' Did you say not the production of a mortal hand, 
 Mrs. Felix Lorraine ? ' 
 
 ' I'm afraid I shall weary you with my stories, but 
 the one I am about to tell is so well evidenced, that 
 I think even Mr. Vivian Grey will hear it without a 
 sneer.'
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK III 
 
 ' A sneer ! Oh ! Lady love, do I ever sneer ? ' 
 
 ' Max Rodenstein was the glory of his house. A 
 being so beautiful in body, and in soul, you cannot 
 imagine, and I will not attempt to describe. This 
 miniature has given you some faint idea of his image, 
 and yet this is only the copy of a copy. The only 
 wish of the Baroness Rodenstein, which never could 
 be accomplished, was the possession of a portrait of 
 her youngest son for no consideration could induce 
 Max to allow his likeness to be taken. His old 
 nurse had always told him that the moment that his 
 portrait v/as taken, he would die. The condition 
 upon which such a beautiful being was allowed to 
 remain in the world was, as she always said, that his 
 beauty should not be imitated. About three months 
 before the battle of Leipsic, when Max was absent at 
 the University, which was nearly four hundred miles 
 from Rodenstein Castle, there arrived one morning a 
 large case directed to the Baroness. On opening it, 
 it was found to contain a picture the portrait of her 
 son. The colouring was so vivid, the general execu- 
 tion so miraculous, that for some moments they for- 
 got to wonder at the incident in their admiration of 
 the work of art. In one corner of the picture, in 
 small characters, yet fresh, was an inscription, which 
 on examining they found consisted of these words, 
 ' Painted last night. Now, lady, thou hast thy wish' 
 My aunt sunk into the Baron's arms. 
 
 ' In silence and in trembling the wonderful portrait 
 was suspended over the fire-place of my aunt's most 
 favourite apartment. The next day, they received 
 letters from Max. He was quite well, but men- 
 tioned nothing of the mysterious painting. 
 
 ' Three months afterwards, as a lady was sitting 
 alone in the Baroness's room, and gazing on the 
 
 '52
 
 CHAPTER IV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 portrait of him she loved right dearly, she suddenly 
 started from her seat, and would have shrieked, had 
 not an indefinable sensation prevented her. The 
 eyes of the portrait moved. The lady stood leaning 
 on a chair, pale, and trembling like an aspen, but 
 gazing stedfastly on the animated portrait. It was 
 no illusion of a heated fancy ; again the eyelids 
 trembled, there was a melancholy smile, and then 
 they closed. The clock of Rodenstein Castle struck 
 three. Between astonishment and fear, the Lady 
 was tearless. Three days afterwards came the news 
 of the battle of Leipsic, and at the very moment that 
 the eyes of the portrait closed, Max Rodenstein had 
 been pierced by a Polish Lancer.' 
 
 4 And who was this wonderful lady, the witness of 
 this wonderful incident ?' asked Vivian. 
 
 ' That lady was myself 
 
 There was something so singular in the tone of 
 Mrs. Felix Lorraine's voice, and so peculiar in the 
 expression of her countenance, as she uttered these 
 words, that the jest died on Vivian's tongue; and 
 for want of something better to do, he lashed the 
 little poneys, who were already scampering at their 
 full speed. 
 
 The road to the Elfin's Well ran through the 
 wildest parts of the park ; and after an hour and a 
 half s drive, they reached the fairy spot. It was a 
 beautiful and pellucid spring, that bubbled up in a 
 small wild dell, which, nurtured by the flowing 
 stream, was singularly fresh and green. Above the 
 spring, the taste of the Marquess, or the Marquess's 
 steward, had erected a Gothic arch of grey stone, 
 round which grew a few fine birch trees. In short, 
 Nature had intended the spot for pic nics. There 
 was fine water, and an interesting tradition ; and as
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK III 
 
 the parties always bring, or always should bring, a 
 trained punster, champagne, and cold pasties, what 
 more ought Nature to have provided ? 
 
 ' Come, Mrs. Lorraine, I will tie Gypsey to this 
 ash, and then you and I will rest ourselves beneath 
 these birch trees, just where the fairies dance.' 
 
 'Oh, delightful!' 
 
 ' Now truly, we should have some book of 
 beautiful poetry to while away an hour. You will 
 blame me for not bringing one. Do not. I would 
 sooner listen to your voice ; and, indeed, there is a 
 subject on which I wish to ask your particular 
 advice.' 
 
 ' Is there ? ' 
 
 ' I have been thinking that this is a somewhat rash 
 step of the Marquess, this throwing himself into 
 the arms of his former bitterest enemy, Cleveland.' 
 
 * You really think so ? ' 
 
 ' Why, Mrs. Lorraine, does it appear to you to be 
 the most prudent course of action, which could have 
 been conceived ? ' 
 
 ' Certainly not.' 
 
 ' You agree with me, then, that there is, if not 
 cause for regret at this engagement, at least for 
 reflection on its probable consequences ?' 
 
 ' I quite agree with you.' 
 
 ' I know you do. I have had some conversation 
 with the Marquess upon this subject, this very 
 morning.' 
 
 ' Have you ?' eagerly exclaimed the lady, and she 
 looked pale, and breathed short. 
 
 ' Ay ; and he tells me you have made some very 
 sensible observations on the subject. 'Tis a pity 
 they were not made before Mr. Cleveland left, the 
 mischief might then have been prevented.' 
 
 IS4
 
 CHAPTER IV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 ' I certainly have made some observations.' 
 
 ' And very kind of you ; what a blessing for the 
 Marquess to have such a friend ! ' 
 
 ' I spoke to him,' said Mrs. Felix, with a more 
 assured tone, ' in much the same spirit as you have 
 been addressing me. It does, indeed, seem a most 
 imprudent act, and I thought it my duty to tell him 
 so.' 
 
 4 Ay, no doubt ; but how came you, lady fair, to 
 imagine that / was also a person to be dreaded by his 
 Lordship /, Vivian Grey ? ' 
 
 1 Did I say you ? ' asked the lady, pale as death 
 
 ' Did you not, Mrs. Felix Lorraine ? Have you 
 not, regardless of my interests, in the most un- 
 warrantable and unjustifiable manner have you not, 
 to gratify some private pique which you entertain 
 against Mr. Cleveland, have you not, I ask you, 
 poisoned the Marquess's mind against one, who 
 never did aught to you, but what was kind and 
 honourable ? ' 
 
 ' I have been imprudent I confess it I have 
 spoken somewhat loosely.' 
 
 ' Now, madam, listen to me once more,' and 
 Vivian grasped her hand ' What has passed be- 
 tween you and Mr. Cleveland, it is not for me to 
 enquire I give you my word of honour, that he 
 never even mentioned your name to me. I can 
 scarcely understand how any man could have in- 
 curred the deadly hatred which you appear to 
 entertain for him. I repeat, I can contemplate no 
 situation in which you could be placed together, 
 which would justify such behaviour. It could not be 
 
 justified, even if he had spurned you while 
 
 kneeling at his feet :' 
 
 Mrs. Felix Lorraine shrieked and fainted. A
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK III 
 
 - 
 
 sprinkling from the fairy stream soon recovered 
 her. ' Spare me ! spare me ! " she faintly cried : 
 * do not expose me.' 
 
 * Mrs. Lorraine, I have no wish. I have spoken 
 thus explicitly, that we may not again misunderstand 
 each other I have spoken thus explicitly, I say, 
 that I may not be under the necessity of speaking 
 again, for if I speak again, it must not be to Mrs. 
 Felix Lorraine there is my hand, and now let the 
 Elfin's Well be blotted out of our memories.' 
 
 Vivian drove rapidly home, and endeavoured to 
 to talk in his usual tone, and with his usual spirit ; 
 but his companion could not be excited. Once, ay 
 twice, she pressed his hand, and as he assisted her 
 from the phaeton, she murmured something like 
 
 a blessing. She ran up stairs immediately. 
 
 Vivian had to give some directions about the 
 poneys ; Gypsey was ill, or Fanny had a cold, or 
 something of the kind, and so he was detained for 
 about a quarter of an hour before the house, speak- 
 ing most learnedly to grooms, and consulting on 
 cases with a skilled gravity worthy of Professor 
 Coleman. 
 
 When he entered the parlour he found the 
 luncheon prepared and Mrs. Felix pressed him 
 very earnestly to take some refreshment. He was 
 indeed wearied, and agreed to take a glass of hock 
 and seltzer. 
 
 ' Let me mix it for you,' said Mrs. Felix ; ' do 
 you like sugar ? ' 
 
 Tired with his drive, Vivian Grey was leaning on 
 the mantel-piece, with his eyes vacantly gazing on 
 the looking-glass which rested on the marble slab. 
 It was by pure accident that, reflected in the mirror, 
 he distinctly beheld Mrs. Felix Lorraine open a 
 
 156
 
 CHAPTER IV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 small silver box, and throw some powder into the 
 tumbler which she was preparing for him. She was 
 
 leaning down, with her back almost turned to the 
 o 
 
 glass, but still Vivian saw it distinctly. A sickness 
 came over him, and ere he could recover himself, 
 his Hebe tapped him on the shoulder 
 
 ' Here, drink, drink while it is effervescent.' 
 
 ' I cannot drink,' said Vivian, ' I am not thirsty 
 
 I am too hot I am anything ' 
 
 ' How foolish you are ! It will be quite spoiled.' 
 ' No, no, the dog shall have it. Here, Fidele, 
 you look thirsty enough come here 
 
 ' Mr. Grey, I do not mix tumblers for dogs,' said 
 the lady, rather agitated : ' If you will not take it,' 
 and she held it once more before him, ' here it 
 goes for ever.' So saying, she emptied the tumbler 
 into a large globe of glass, in which some gold and 
 silver fishes were swimming their endless rounds. 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 THE CONSERVATORY 
 
 THIS last specimen of Mrs. Felix Lorraine was 
 somewhat too much, even for the steeled nerves of 
 Vivian Grey, and he sought his chamber for relief. 
 
 ' Is it possible ? Can I believe my senses ? Or 
 has some daemon, as we read of in old tales, mocked 
 me in a magic mirror ? I can believe anything. 
 Oh ! my heart is very sick ! I once imagined, that 
 I was using this woman for my purpose. Is it 
 possible, that aught of good can come to one who 
 is forced to make use of such evil instruments as 
 these ? A horrible thought sometimes comes over 
 my spirit. I fancy, that in this mysterious foreigner, 
 that in this woman, I have met a kind of double of
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK III 
 
 myself. The same wonderful knowledge of the 
 human mind, the same sweetness of voice, the same 
 miraculous management which has brought us both 
 under the same roof: yet do I find her the most 
 abandoned of all beings ; a creature guilty of that, 
 which, even in this guilty age, I thought was 
 obsolete. And is it possible that I am like her ? 
 that I can resemble her ? that even the indefinite 
 shadow of my most unhallowed thought, can, for 
 a moment, be as vile as her righteousness ? Oh, 
 God ! the system of my existence seems to stop : I 
 cannot breathe.' He flung himself upon his bed, 
 and felt for a moment as if he had quaffed the 
 poisoned draught so lately offered. 
 
 ' It is not so it cannot be so it shall not be so ! 
 In seeking the Marquess, I was unquestionably im- 
 pelled by a mere feeling of self-interest ; but I have 
 advised him to no course of action, in which his 
 welfare is not equally consulted with my own. 
 Indeed, if not Principle, Interest would make me 
 act faithfully towards him, for my fortunes are 
 bound up in his. But am I entitled I, who can 
 lose nothing ; am I entitled to play with other 
 men's fortunes ? Am I, all this time, deceiving 
 myself with some wretched sophistry ? Am I then 
 an intellectual Don Juan, reckless of human minds, 
 as he was of human bodies a spiritual libertine ? 
 But why this wild declamation ? Whatever I have 
 done, it is too late to recede ; even this very 
 moment, delay is destruction, for now, it is not a 
 question as to the ultimate prosperity of our worldly 
 prospects, but the immediate safety of our very 
 bodies. Poison! Oh, God! Oh, God! Away with 
 all fear all repentance all thought of past all 
 reckoning of future. If I am the Juan that I 
 
 158
 
 CHAPTER V VIVIAN GREY 
 
 fancied myself, then, Heaven be praised ! I have a 
 confidant in all my trouble ; the most faithful of 
 counsellors ; the craftiest of valets ; a Leporello 
 often tried, and never found wanting my own 
 good mind. ' And now, thou female fiend ! the 
 battle is to the strongest ; and I see right well, that 
 the struggle between two such spirits will be a long 
 and a fearful one. Woe, I say, to the vanquished ! 
 You must be dealt with by arts, which even yourself 
 cannot conceive. Your boasted knowledge of human 
 nature shall not again stand you in stead ; for, mark 
 me, from henceforward, Vivian Grey's conduct to- 
 wards you shall have no precedent in human nature.' 
 
 As Vivian re-entered the drawing-room, he met 
 a servant carrying out the globe of gold and silver 
 fishes. 
 
 * What, still in your pelisse, Mrs. Lorraine,' said 
 Vivian. ' Nay, I hardly wonder at it, for surely, a 
 prettier pelisse never yet fitted prettier form. You 
 have certainly a most admirable taste in dress ; and 
 this the more surprises me, for it is generally your 
 plain personage, that is the most recherche in frills, 
 and fans, and flounces.' 
 
 The lady smiled. 
 
 ' Oh ! by the bye,' continued her companion, ' I've 
 a letter from Cleveland this morning. I wonder 
 how any misunderstanding could possibly have 
 existed between you, for he speaks of you in such 
 terms.' 
 
 ' What does he say ? ' was the quick question. 
 
 ' Oh! what does he say ? " drawled out Vivian ; and 
 he yawned, and was most provokingly uncommuni- 
 cative. 
 
 ' Come, come, Mr. Grey, do tell me.' 
 
 ' Oh ! tell you certainly. Come, let us walk
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK III 
 
 together in the conservatory : ' so saying, he took 
 the lady by the hand, and they left the room. 
 
 ' And now for the letter, Mr. Grey ! ' 
 
 'Ay, now for the letter;' and Vivian slowly 
 drew an epistle from his pocket, and therefrom read 
 some exceedingly sweet passages, which made Mrs. 
 Felix Lorraine's very heart's blood tingle. Con- 
 sidering that Vivian Grey had never in his life 
 received a single letter from Mr. Cleveland, this was 
 tolerably well: but he was always an admirable 
 Improvisatore! ' I am sure that when Cleveland 
 comes to town everything will be explained ; I am 
 sure, at least, that it will not be my fault, if you are 
 not the best friends. I am heroic in saying all this, 
 Mrs. Lorraine ; there was a time, when (and here 
 Vivian seemed so agitated that he could scarcely 
 proceed) there was a time when I could have called 
 that man liar! who would have prophesied that 
 Vivian Grey could have assisted another in rivetting 
 the affections of Mrs. Felix Lorraine ; but enough 
 of this. I am a weak inexperienced boy, and mis- 
 interpret, perhaps, that, which is merely the com- 
 passionate kindness natural to all women, into -a 
 feeling of a higher nature. But, I must learn to 
 contain myself; I really do feel quite ashamed of 
 my behaviour about the tumbler to-day : to act with 
 such unwarrantable unkindness, merely because I 
 had remembered that you once performed the same 
 kind office for Colonel Delmington was indeed too 
 bad!' 
 
 ' Colonel Delmington is a vain, empty-headed fool. 
 Do not think of him, my dear Mr. Grey,' said Mrs. 
 Felix, with a countenance beaming with smiles. 
 
 ' Well, I will not ; and I'll try to behave like a 
 man ; like a man of the world, I should say : but 
 
 160
 
 CHAPTER V VIVIAN GREY 
 
 indeed you must excuse the warm feelings of a 
 youth : and truly, when I call to mind the first days 
 of our acquaintance, and then remember that our 
 moon-lit walks are gone for ever and that our ' 
 
 ' Nay, do not believe so, my dear Vivian : believe 
 me, as I ever shall be, your friend, your 
 
 ' I will, I will, my dear, my own Amalia ! ' 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 THE LONG GALLERY 
 
 IT was an Autumnal night the wind was capricious 
 and changeable as a petted beauty, or an Italian 
 greyhound, or a shot silk. Now the breeze blew so 
 fresh, that the white clouds dashed along the sky, as 
 if they bore a band of witches, too late for their 
 sabbath meeting- or some other mischief: and now, 
 lulled and soft as the breath of a slumbering infant, 
 you might almost have fancied it Midsummer's Eve ; 
 and the bright moon, with her starry court, reigned 
 undisturbed in the light blue sky. Vivian Grey was 
 leaning against an old beech tree in the most secluded 
 part of the park, and was gazing on the moon. 
 
 Oh ! thou bright moon ! thou object of my first 
 love ! thou shalt not escape an invocation, although, 
 perchance at this very moment, some varlet sonneteer 
 is prating of * thy boy Endymion,' and ' thy silver 
 bow.' Here to thee, Queen of the Night ! in 
 whatever name thou most delightest ! Or Bendis, 
 as they hail you in rugged Thrace ; or Bubastis, as 
 they howled to you in mysterious Egypt ; or Dian, 
 as they sacrificed to you in gorgeous Rome ; or 
 Artemis, as they sighed to you on the bright plains of 
 ever glorious Greece ! Why is it, that all men gaze 
 L 161
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK III 
 
 on thee ? Why is it, that all men love thee ? Why 
 is it, that all men worship thee ? 
 
 Shine on, shine on, Sultana of the soul ! the 
 Passions are thy eunuch slaves ; Ambition gazes on 
 thee, and his burning brow is cooled, and his fitful 
 pulse is calm. Grief wanders in her moon-lit walk, 
 and sheds no tear ; and when your crescent smiles, 
 the lustre of Joy's revelling eye is dusked. Quick 
 Anger, in your light, forgets revenge ; and even 
 dove-eyed Hope feeds on no future joys, when 
 gazing on the miracle of thy beauty. 
 
 Shine on, shine on ! although a pure Virgin, thou 
 art the mighty mother of all abstraction ! The eye 
 of the weary peasant returning from his daily toil, 
 and the rapt gaze of the inspired poet, are alike 
 fixed on thee; thou stillest the roar of marching 
 armies; and who can doubt thy influence o'er the 
 waves, who has witnessed the wide Atlantic sleeping 
 under thy silver beams ? 
 
 Shine on, shine on! they say thou art Earth's 
 satellite ; yet when I do gaze on thee, my thoughts 
 are not of thy Suzerain. They teach us that thy 
 power is a fable, and that thy divinity is a dream. 
 Oh, thou bright Queen ! I will be no traitor to thy 
 sweet authority; and verily, I will not believe that 
 thy influence o'er our hearts is, at this moment, less 
 potent, than when we worshipped in thy glittering 
 fane of Ephesus, or trembled at the dark horrors of 
 thine Arician rites. Then, hail to thee, Queen of the 
 Night! Hail to thee, Diana, Triformis, Cynthia, 
 Orthia, Taunca, ever mighty, ever lovely, ever holy ! 
 Hail! hail! hail! 
 
 If I were a metaphysician, I would tell you why 
 Vivian Grey had been gazing two hours on the 
 moon, for I could then present you with a most 
 
 162
 
 CHAPTER VI VIVIAN GREY 
 
 logical programme of the march of his ideas, since he 
 whispered his last honied speech in the ear of Mrs. 
 Felix Lorraine, at dinner time, until this very 
 moment, when he did not even remember that such 
 a being as Mrs. Felix Lorraine breathed. Glory to 
 the metaphysician's all perfect theory ! When they 
 can tell me why, at a bright banquet, the thought of 
 death has flashed across my mind, who fear not death ; 
 when they can tell me, why, at the burial of my 
 beloved friend, when my very heart-strings seemed 
 bursting, my sorrow has been mocked by the involun- 
 tary remembrance of ludicrous adventures, and gro- 
 tesque tales ; when they can tell me why, in a dark 
 mountain pass, I have thought of an absent woman's 
 eyes; or why, when in the very act of squeezing 
 the third lime into a beaker of Burgundy cup, my 
 memory hath been of lean apothecaries, and their 
 vile drugs ; why then, I say again, glory to the 
 metaphysician's all perfect theory ! and fare you well, 
 sweet world, and you my merry masters, whom, 
 perhaps, I have studied somewhat too cunningly : 
 nosce teipsum shall be my motto. I'll doff my travel- 
 ling cap, and on with the monk's cowl. 
 
 There are mysterious moments in some men's 
 lives, when the faces of human beings are very agony 
 to them, and when the sound of the human voice is 
 jarring as discordant music. These fits are not the 
 consequence of violent or contending passions ; they 
 grow not out of sorrow, nor joy, nor hope, nor fear, 
 nor hatred, nor despair. For in the hour of afflic- 
 tion, the tones of our fellow-creatures are ravishing 
 as the most delicate lute ; and in the flush moment 
 of joy, where is the smiler, who loves not a witness 
 to his revelry, or a listener to his good fortune ? 
 Fear makes us feel our humanity, and then we fly to 
 
 163
 
 VIVIAN GKKY BOOK III 
 
 men, and Hope is the parent of kindness. The 
 misanthrope and the reckless, are neither agitated, 
 nor agonized. It is in these moments, that men 
 find in Nature that congeniality of spirit, which they 
 seek for, in vain, in their own species. It is in these 
 moments, that we sit by the side of a waterfall, and 
 listen to its music the live day long. It is in these 
 moments, that we gaze upon the moon. It is in 
 these moments, that Nature becomes our Egeria; 
 and refreshed and renovated by this beautiful com- 
 munion, we return to the world, better enabled to 
 fight our parts in the hot war of passions, to per- 
 form the great duties, for which man appears to 
 have been created, to love, to hate, to slander, and 
 to slay. 
 
 It was past midnight, and Vivian was at a con- 
 siderable distance from the Chateau. He proposed 
 entering by a side-door, which led into the billiard- 
 room, and from thence crossing the Long Gallery, he 
 could easily reach his apartment, without disturbing 
 any of the household. His way led through the 
 little gate, at which he had parted with Mrs. Felix 
 Lorraine on the first day of their meeting. 
 
 As he softly opened the door which led into the 
 Long Gallery, he found he was not alone. Leaning 
 against one of the casements, was a female. Her 
 profile was to Vivian as he entered, and the moon, 
 which shone bright through the window, lit up a 
 countenance, which he might be excused for not 
 immediately recognising as that of Mrs. Felix Lor- 
 raine. She was gazing stedfastly, but her eye did 
 not seem fixed upon any particular object. Her 
 features appeared convulsed, but their contortions 
 were not momentary, and pale as death, a hideous 
 grin seemed chiselled on her idiot countenance. 
 
 164
 
 CHAPTER VI VIVIAN GREY 
 
 Vivian scarcely knew whether to stay or to retire. 
 Desirous not to disturb her, he determined not even 
 to breathe ; and, as is generally the case, his very 
 exertions to be silent made him nervous ; and to 
 save himself from being stifled, he coughed. 
 
 Mrs. Lorraine immediately started, and stared 
 wildly around her; and when her eye caught 
 Vivian's, there was a sound in her throat something 
 like the death rattle. 
 
 ' Who are you ? ' she eagerly asked. 
 
 * A friend, and Vivian Grey.' 
 
 ' Grey ! how came you here ? ' and she rushed for- 
 ward and wildly seized his hand and then she mut- 
 tered to herself, ' 'tis flesh 'tis flesh.' 
 
 ' I have been playing, I fear, the mooncalf to-night ; 
 and find, that though I am a late watcher, I am not 
 a solitary one.' 
 
 Mrs. Lorraine stared earnestly at him, and then 
 she endeavoured to assume her usual expression of 
 countenance ; but the effort was too much for her. 
 She dropped Vivian's arm, and buried her face in her 
 own hands. Vivian was retiring, when she again 
 looked up. ' Where are you going ? ' she asked, 
 with a quick voice. 
 
 ' To sleep -as I would advise all : 'tis much past 
 midnight.' 
 
 ' Thou sayest not the truth. The brightness of 
 your eye belies the sentence of your tongue. You 
 are not for sleep.' 
 
 ' Pardon me, my dear Mrs. Lorraine, I really have 
 been gaping for the last hour,' said Vivian, and he 
 moved on. 
 
 ' Mr. Grey ! you are speaking to one who takes 
 her answer from the eye, which does not deceive, and 
 from the speaking lineaments of the face, which are
 
 VIVIAN GRFA r BOOK III 
 
 Truth's witnesses. Keep your voice for those who 
 can credit man's words. You will go, then. What ! 
 are you afraid of a woman, because ' 'tis past mid- 
 nigtitj and you're in an. old gallery.' 
 
 v Fear, Mrs. Lorraine, is not a word in my vocabu- 
 lary.' 
 
 ' The words in thy vocabulary are few, boy ! as are 
 the years of thine age. He who sent you here this 
 night, sent you here not to slumber. Come hither ! ' 
 and she led Vivian to the window : ' what see you ? ' 
 
 ' I see Nature at rest, Mrs. Lorraine ; and I would 
 fain follow the example of beasts, birds, and fishes.' 
 
 ' Yet gaze upon this scene one second. See the 
 distant hills, how beautifully their rich covering is 
 tinted with the moonbeam ! These nearer fir-trees 
 how radiantly their black skeleton forms are tipped 
 with silver ! and the old and thickly-foliaged oaks 
 bathed in light ! and the purple lake reflecting in its 
 lustrous bosom another heaven ! Is it not a fair 
 scene ? ' 
 
 ' Beautiful ! Oh, most beautiful ! ' 
 
 ' Yet, Vivian, where is the being for whom all this 
 beauty existeth ? Where is your mighty creature- 
 Man ? The peasant on his rough couch enjoys, 
 perchance, slavery's only service-money sweet sleep ; 
 or, waking in the night, curses at the same time his 
 lot and his lord. And that lord is restless on some 
 downy couch ; his night thoughts, not of this sheeny 
 lake and this bright moon, but of some miserable 
 creation of man's artifice, some mighty nothing, 
 which Nature knows not of, some offspring of her 
 bastard child Society. Why then is Nature loveliest 
 when man looks not on her ? For whom, then, 
 Vivian Grey, is this scene so fair ?' 
 
 ' For poets, lady ; for philosophers ; for all those 
 1 66
 
 CHAPTER VI VIVIAN GREY 
 
 superior spirits who require some relaxation from 
 the world's toils ; spirits who only commingle with 
 humanity, on the condition that they may sometimes 
 commune with Nature.' 
 
 ' Superior spirits ! say you ?' and here they paced 
 the gallery. ' When Valerian, first Lord Carabas, 
 raised this fair castle when, profuse for his posterity, 
 all the genius of Italian art and Italian artists was 
 lavished on this English palace ; when the stuffs, and 
 statues, the marbles, and the mirrors, the tapestry, 
 and the carvings, and the paintings of Genoa, and 
 Florence, and Venice, and Padua, and Vicenza, were 
 obtained by him at miraculous cost, and with still 
 more miraculous toil ; what think you would have 
 been his sensations, if, while his soul was revelling in 
 the futurity of his descendants keeping their state in 
 this splendid pile, some wizard had foretold to him, 
 that ere three centuries could elapse, the fortunes of 
 his mighty family would be the sport of two in- 
 dividuals ; one of them, a foreigner unconnected in 
 blood, or connected only in hatred ; and the other, a 
 young adventurer alike unconnected with his race, in 
 blood, or in love ; a being, ruling all things by the 
 power of his own genius, and reckless of all conse- 
 quences, save his own prosperity. If the future had 
 been revealed to my great ancestor, the Lord Valerian, 
 think you, Vivian Grey, that we should have been 
 walking in this long gallery ?' 
 
 ' Really, Mrs. Lorraine, I have been so interested 
 in discovering what people think in the nineteenth 
 century, that I have had but little time to speculate 
 on the possible opinions of an old gentleman who 
 flourished in the sixteenth.' 
 
 ' You may sneer, sir ; but I ask you, if there are 
 spirits so superior to that of the slumbering Lord 
 
 167
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK III 
 
 of this castle, as those of Vivian Grey and Amalia 
 Lorraine ; why may there not be spirits pro- 
 portionately superior to our own ?' 
 
 ' If you are keeping me from my bed, Mrs. 
 Lorraine, merely to lecture my conceit by proving 
 that there are in this world wiser heads than that 
 of Vivian Grey, on my honour, madam, you are 
 giving yourself a great deal of unnecessary trouble.' 
 
 ' You will misunderstand me, then, thou wilful 
 boy.' 
 
 ' Nay, lady, I will not affect to misunderstand your 
 meaning; but I recognise, you know full well, no 
 intermediate essence between my own good soul, and 
 that ineffable and omnipotent spirit, in whose existence 
 philosophers and priests alike agree.' 
 
 ' Omnipotent, and ineffable essence ! Oh ! leave 
 such words to scholars, and to schoolboys ! And 
 think you, that such indefinite nothings, such un- 
 meaning abstractions, can influence beings whose 
 veins are full of blood, bubbling like this ? And 
 here she grasped Vivian with a feverish hand 
 * Omnipotent, and ineffable essence ! Oh ! I have 
 lived in a land, where every mountain, and every 
 stream, and every wood, and every ruin, has its 
 legend, and its peculiar spirit ; a land, in whose dark 
 forests, the midnight hunter, with his spirit-shout, 
 scares the slumbers of the trembling serf; a land, 
 from whose winding rivers, the fair-haired Undine 
 welcomes the belated traveller to her fond, and fatal, 
 embrace; and you talk to me of omnipotent and 
 ineffable essences ! Oh ! miserable mocker ! It is 
 not true, Vivian Grey; you are but echoing the 
 world's deceit, and even at this hour of the night, 
 thou darest not speak as thou dost think. Thou 
 worshippest no omnipotent and ineffable essence 
 
 168
 
 CHAPTER VI VIVIAN GREY 
 
 thou believest in no omnipotent and ineffable essence ; 
 shrined in the secret chamber of your soul, there is 
 an image, before which you bow down in adoration, 
 
 and that image is YOURSELF. And truly when I 
 
 do gaze upon thy radiant eyes,' and here the lady's 
 tone became more terrestrial, ' and truly when I do 
 look upon thy luxuriant curls,' and here the lady's 
 small white hand played like lightning through 
 Vivian's dark hair, ' and truly when I do remember 
 the beauty of thy all-perfect form, I cannot deem thy 
 self-worship a false idolatry;' and here the lady's 
 arms were locked round Vivian's neck, and her head 
 rested on his bosom. 
 
 ' Oh ! Amalia ! it would be far better for you to 
 rest here, than to think of that; of which the know- 
 ledge is vanity.' 
 
 ' Vanity ! ' shrieked Mrs. Lorraine, and she 
 violently loosed her embrace, and extricated her- 
 self from the arm, which, rather in courtesy, than in 
 kindness, had been wound round her delicate waist 
 ' Vanity ! Oh ! if you knew but what I know ! 
 Oh ! if you had but seen what I have seen '- and 
 here her voice failed her, and she stood motionless 
 in the moonshine, with averted head and outstretched 
 arms. 
 
 ' Amalia ! this is very madness ; for Heaven's 
 sake calm yourself ! ' 
 
 'Calm myself! Oh! it is madness; very, very 
 madness ! 'tis the madness of the fascinated bird ; 
 'tis the madness of the murderer who is voluntarily 
 broken on the wheel ; 'tis the madness of the fawn, 
 that gazes with adoration on the lurid glare of the 
 anaconda's eye ; 'tis the madness of woman who flies 
 to the arms of her Fate ; ' and here she sprang like 
 a tigress round Vivian's neck, her long light hair 
 
 169
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK III 
 
 bursting from its bands, and clustering down her 
 shoulders. 
 
 And here was Vivian Grey, at past midnight, in 
 this old gallery, with this wild woman clinging round 
 his neck. The figures in the ancient tapestry looked 
 living in the moon, and immediately opposite him 
 was one compartment of some old mythological tale, 
 in which were represented, grinning, in grim majesty, 
 
 THE FATES. 
 
 The wind now rose again, and the clouds which 
 had vanished, began to re-assemble in the heavens. 
 As the blue sky was gradually being covered, the 
 gigantic figures of Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos, 
 became as gradually dimmer, and dimmer, and the 
 grasp of Vivian's fearful burthen looser, and looser. 
 At last the moon was entirely hid, the figures of the 
 Fates vanished, and Mrs. Felix Lorraine sank lifeless 
 into his arms. 
 
 Vivian groped his way with difficulty to the 
 nearest window, the very one at which she was 
 leaning, when he first entered the gallery. He 
 played with her wild curls; he whispered to her 
 in a voice sweeter than the sweetest serenade ; but 
 she only raised her eyes from his breast, and stared 
 wildly at him, and then clung round his neck with, if 
 possible, a tighter grasp. 
 
 For nearly half an hour did Vivian stand leaning 
 against the window, with his mystic and motionless 
 companion. At length the wind again fell : there 
 was a break in the sky, and a single star appeared in 
 the midst of the clouds, surrounded with a little 
 heaven of azure. 
 
 ' See there, see there !' the lady cried, and then she 
 unlocked her arms. ' What would you give, Vivian 
 Grey, to read that star ? ' 
 
 1 70
 
 CHAPTER VI VIVIAN GREY 
 
 ' Am I more interested in that star, Amalia, than 
 in any other of the bright host ?' asked Vivian, with 
 a serious tone, for he thought it necessary to humour 
 his companion. 
 
 'Are you not ? is it not the star of thy destiny ?' 
 
 'And are you learned in all the learning of the 
 Chaldeans too, lady ? ' 
 
 ' Oh, no, no, no ! ' slowly murmured Mrs. Lor- 
 raine, and then she started ; but Vivian seized her 
 arms, and prevented her from again clasping his neck. 
 
 ' I must keep these pretty hands close prisoners,' 
 he said, smiling, ' unless you promise to behave with 
 more moderation. Come, my Amalia ! you shall be 
 my instructress ! Why am I so interested in this 
 brilliant star ?' and holding her hands in one of his, 
 he wound his arm round her waist, and whispered 
 her such words, as he thought might calm her 
 troubled spirit. The wildness of her eyes gradually 
 gave way ; at length, she raised them to Vivian with 
 a look of meek tenderness, and her head sank upon 
 his breast. 
 
 ' It shines, it shines, it shines, Vivian ! ' she softly 
 whispered, ' glory to thee, and woe to me ! Nay, 
 you need not hold my hands, I will not harm you. 
 I cannot 'tis no use. Oh, Vivian ! when we first 
 met, how little did I know to whom I pledged 
 myself ! ' 
 
 ' Amalia, forget these wild fancies, estrange your- 
 self from the murky mysticism which has exercised 
 so baneful an influence, not only over your mind, 
 but over the very soul of the land from which you 
 come. Recognize in me only your friend, and leave 
 the other world to those who value it more, or more 
 deserve it. Does not this fair earth contain sufficient 
 of interest and enjoyment ? ' 
 
 171
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK III 
 
 ' Oh, Vivian ! you speak with a sweet voice, but with 
 a sceptic's spirit. Thou knowest not what I know.' 
 
 'Tell me then, my Amalia; let me share your 
 secrets, provided they be your sorrows.' 
 
 ' Oh, Vivian ! almost within this hour, and in this 
 
 park, there has happened that which ' and here 
 
 her voice died, and she looked fearfully round her. 
 
 ' Nay, fear not, fear not ; no one can harm you 
 here, no one shall harm you. Rest, rest upon me, 
 and tell me all thy grief 
 
 ' I dare not I cannot tell you.' 
 
 ' Nay, my own love, thou shalt.' 
 
 ' I cannot speak, your eye scares me. Are you 
 mocking me ? I cannot speak if you look so at me.' 
 
 ' I will not look on you ; I will play with your 
 long hair, and gaze on yonder star. Now, speak 
 on, my own love.' 
 
 ' Oh ! Vivian, there is a custom in my native 
 land the world calls it an unhallowed one ; you, in 
 your proud spirit, will call it a vain one. But you 
 would not deem it vain, if you were the woman now 
 resting on your bosom. At certain hours of par- 
 ticular nights, and with peculiar ceremonies, which 
 I need not here mention we do believe, that in a 
 lake or other standing water, fate reveals itself to the 
 solitary votary. Oh ! Vivian, I have been too long 
 a searcher after this fearful science ; and this very 
 night, agitated in spirit, I sought yon water. The 
 wind was in the right direction, and every thing con- 
 curred in favouring a most propitious divination. I 
 knelt down to gaze on the lake. I had always been 
 accustomed to view my own figure performing some 
 future action, or engaged in some future scene of 
 my life. I gazed, but I saw nothing but a brilliant 
 star. I looked up into the heavens, but the star was 
 
 172
 
 CHAPTER VI VIVIAN GREY 
 
 not there, and the clouds were driving quick across 
 the sky. More than usually agitated by this singular 
 occurrence, I gazed once more ; and just at the 
 moment, when with breathless and fearful expecta- 
 tion, I waited the revelation of my immediate destiny, 
 there flitted a figure across the water. It was there 
 only for the breathing of a second, and as it passed, 
 it mocked me.' Here Mrs. Lorraine writhed in 
 Vivian's arms ; her features were moulded in the 
 same unnatural expression as when he first entered 
 the gallery, and the hideous grin was again sculptured 
 on her countenance. Her whole frame was in such 
 a state of agitation, that she rose up and down in 
 Vivian's arms ; and it was only with the exertion of 
 his whole strength, that he could retain her. 
 
 ' Why, Amalia this this was nothing your 
 own figure.' 
 
 ' No, not my own it was yours \ ' 
 
 Uttering a loud and piercing shriek, which echoed 
 through the winding gallery, she fainted. 
 
 Vivian gazed on her in a state of momentary 
 stupefaction, for the extraordinary scene had begun 
 to influence his own nerves. And now he heard the 
 tread of distant feet, and a light shone through the 
 key-hole of the nearest door. The fearful shriek 
 had alarmed some of the household. What was to 
 be done ? In desperation Vivian caught the lady up 
 in his arms, and dashing out of an opposite door 
 bore her to her chamber. 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 SOUTH AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY 
 
 WHAT is this chapter to be about ? Come, I'm in- 
 clined to be courteous ! You shall choose the subject
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK III 
 
 of it. What shall it be sentiment or scandal ? a 
 love scene, or a lay-sermon or a lecture on omel- 
 ettes soufflees ? I am sick of the world ! Don't be 
 frightened, sweet reader ! and Pearson, bring me a 
 bottle of soda-water ! I am sick of the world, and 
 actually am now hesitating whether I shall turn mis- 
 anthrope, or go to the Ancient Music. Not that 
 you are to imagine that I am a dissatisfied, disap- 
 pointed, moody monster, who lectures the stars, and 
 fancies himself Rousseau secundus not in the least. 
 I am naturally a very amiable individual ; but the 
 truth is, I have been suffering the last three weeks 
 under a tremendous attack of bile, and if I chance to 
 touch a quill in this miserable state, why unfortun- 
 ately, I have the habit of discharging a little of that 
 ever-to-be abhorred juice. This, therefore, must be 
 my excuse for occasionally appearing to be a little 
 peevish. Far from disliking the world, I am always 
 ready to do its merits the most poetical justice. Oh ! 
 thou beautiful world ! thou art a very pleasant thing 
 to those who know thee not. Pah ! I can't get 
 on : and now, on looking in the glass again, I do 
 find myself a leetle yellow under the eyes still, a 
 twitch in the left temple, tongue like snow in a fog, 
 a violent nausea, pulse at one hundred and ten, yet 
 with the appetite of a Bonassus. Another fit of the 
 bile, by all that's sacred Oh ! thou vile world ! now 
 for a libel ! 
 
 When Vivian awoke in the morning, he found a 
 note upon his pillow. 
 
 ' Did you hear the horrid shriek last night ? It 
 must have disturbed every one. I think it must 
 have been one of the South American birds which 
 Captain Tropic gave the Marchioness. Do not they 
 sometimes favour the world with these nocturnal 
 
 '74
 
 CHAPTER VII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 shriekings ? Isn't there a passage in Spix apropos to 
 this ? l A ' 
 
 ' Did you hear the shriek last night, Mr Grey ? ' 
 asked the Marchioness, as Vivian entered the break- 
 fast-room. 
 
 ' Oh yes ! Mr. Grey, did you hear the shriek ?' 
 asked Miss Graves. 
 
 < Who didn't ? ' 
 
 ' Oh ! what could it be ? ' said the Marchioness. 
 
 ' Oh ! what could it be ? ' said Miss Graves. 
 
 ' Oh ! what should it be a cat in a gutter, or a 
 sick cow, or a toad dying to be devoured, Miss 
 Graves.' 
 
 Always snub toadeys, and fed captains. It's only 
 your greenhorns who endeavour to make their way 
 by fawning and cringing to every member of the 
 establishment. It is a miserable mistake. No one 
 likes his dependants to be treated with respect, for 
 .such treatment affords an unpleasant contrast to his 
 own conduct. Besides, it makes the toadey's blood 
 unruly. There are three persons, mind you, to be 
 attended to : my lord, or my lady, as the case may 
 be (usually the latter), the pet daughter, and the pet 
 dog. I throw out these hints en passant, for my 
 principal objects in writing this work are to amuse 
 myself, and to instruct society. In some future book, 
 probably the twentieth or twenty-fifth, when the plot 
 begins to wear threadbare, and we can afford a di- 
 gression, I may give a chapter on Domestic Tactics. 
 
 ' My dear Marchioness,' continued Vivian, ' see 
 there I've kept my promise there's your bracelet. 
 How's Julie to-day ?' 
 
 ' Oh ! Julie, poor dear, I hope she's better.' 
 
 ' Oh ! yes, poor Julie ! I think she's better.' 
 
 ' I don't know that, Miss Graves,' said her Lady-
 
 VIVIAN (iUKV BOOK III 
 
 ship somewhat tartly, not at all approving of a toadey 
 thinking. * I'm afraid that scream last night must 
 have disturbed her. Oh dear ! Mr. Grey, I'm afraid 
 she'll be ill again.' 
 
 Miss Graves looked mournful, and lifted up her 
 eyes, and hands, to Heaven, but did not dare to 
 speak this time. 
 
 ' I thought she looked a little heavy about the eyes 
 this morning,' said the Marchioness, apparently very 
 agitated ; ' and I've heard from Eglamour this post ; 
 he's not well too I think everybody's ill now he's 
 caught a fever going to see the ruins of Passtum : I 
 wonder why people go to see ruins ! * 
 
 ' I wonder indeed,' said Miss Graves ; ' I never 
 could see anything in a ruin.' 
 
 ' Oh dear Grey ! ' continued the Marchioness, I 
 really am afraid Julie's going to be very ill.' 
 
 * Oh ! let Miss Graves pull her tail, and give her 
 a little mustard seed ; she'll be better to-morrow.' 
 
 ' Well, Graves, mind you do what Mr. Grey tells 
 you.' 
 
 * Oh ! y-e-s, my Lady !' 
 
 ' Mrs. Felix Lorraine,' said the Marchioness, as 
 that lady entered the room, ' you are late to-day ; I 
 always reckon upon you as a supporter of an early 
 breakfast at Desir.' 
 
 ' Oh ! I've been half round the park.' 
 Did you hear the scream, Mrs. Felix ? ' 
 Do you know what it was, Marchioness ? ' 
 
 ' No do you ? ' 
 
 ' Ay ! ay ! see the reward of early rising, and a walk 
 before breakfast. It was one of your new American 
 birds, and it has half torn down your aviary.' 
 
 * One of the new Americans ! Oh, the naughty 
 thing ! and has it broke the new fancy wire-work ? ' 
 
 176
 
 CHAPTER VII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 Here a little odd-looking, snuffy old man, with a 
 brown scratch wig, who had been very busily em- 
 ployed the whole breakfast-time with a cold game 
 pie, the bones of which Vivian observed him most 
 scientifically pick and polish, laid down his knife and 
 fork, and addressed the Marchioness with an air of 
 great interest. 
 
 * Pray, will your Ladyship have the goodness to 
 inform me what bird this is ? ' 
 
 The Marchioness looked astounded at any one pre- 
 suming to ask her a question ; and then she drawled, 
 ' Vivian, you know everything tell this gentleman 
 what a bird is.' 
 
 Now this gentleman was Mr. Mackaw, the most 
 celebrated ornithologist extant, and who had written 
 a treatise on Brazilian parroquets in three volumes 
 folio. He had arrived late at the Chateau the preced- 
 ing night, and, although he had the honour of pre- 
 senting his letter of introduction to the Marquess, 
 this morning was the first time he had been seen by 
 any of the party present, who were of course pro- 
 foundly ignorant of his character. 
 
 ' Oh ! we were talking of some South American 
 bird given to the Marchioness by the famous Captain 
 Tropic ; you know him, perhaps, Bolivar's brother- 
 in-law, or aid-de-camp, or something of that kind ; 
 and which screams so dreadfully at night, that the 
 whole family is disturbed. The Chowchowtow it's 
 called -isn't it, Mrs. Lorraine ?' 
 
 ' The Chowchowtow ! ' said Mr. Mackaw ; ' I 
 don't know it by that name.' 
 
 ' Oh ! don't you ? ' I daresay we shall find an 
 account of it in Spix ; however,' said Vivian, rising, 
 and taking a volume from the book-case ; ay ! here 
 it is I'll read it to you. 
 M 177
 
 VIVIAN GRKV BooK ni 
 
 ' The Chowchowtow is about five feet seven inches 
 in length, from the point of the bill, to the extremity 
 of the claws. Its plumage is of a dingy, yellowish 
 white : its form is elegant, and in its movements, and 
 action, a certain pleasing and graceful dignity is ob- 
 servable ; but its head is by no means worthy of the 
 rest of its frame ; and the expression of its eye is 
 indicative of the cunning, and treachery, of its cha- 
 racter. The habits of this bird are peculiar : occa- 
 sionally most easily domesticated, it is apparently 
 sensible of the slightest kindness ; but its regard 
 cannot be depended upon, and for the slightest 
 inducement, or with the least irritation, it will fly 
 at its feeder. At other times, it seeks the most 
 perfect solitude, and can only be captured with the 
 greatest skill and perseverance. It generally feeds 
 three times a-day, but its appetite is not rapacious ; 
 it sleeps little ; is usually on the wing at sunrise, and 
 proves that it slumbers but little in the night by its 
 nocturnal and thrilling shrieks.' 
 
 ' What an extraordinary bird ! Is that the bird 
 you meant, Mrs. Felix Lorraine ?' 
 
 Mr. Mackaw was extremely restless the whole 
 time that Vivian was reading this interesting extract. 
 At last, he burst forth with an immense deal of 
 science, and a great want of construction a want, 
 which scientific men often experience, always ex- 
 cepting those mealy-mouthed professeurs who lecture 
 * at the Royal,' and get patronized by the blues the 
 Lavoisiers of May Fair ! 
 
 ' Chowchowtow, my Lady ! five feet seven inches 
 high ! Brazilian bird ! When I just remind your 
 Ladyship, that the height of the tallest bird to be 
 found in Brazil, and in mentioning this fact, I 
 mention nothing hypothetical, the tallest bird does 
 
 178
 
 CHAPTER VII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 not stand higher than four feet nine. Chowchow- 
 tow ! Dr. Spix is a name accurate traveller don't 
 remember the passage most singular bird !. Chow- 
 chowtow ! don't know it by that name. Perhaps, 
 your Ladyship isn't aware. I think you called 
 that gentleman Mr. Grey. Perhaps, Mr. Grey is 
 not aware, that I am Mr. Mackaw I arrived here 
 late last night whose work in three volumes 
 folio, on Brazilian Parroquets, although I had the 
 honour of seeing his Lordship is, I trust, a suffi- 
 cient evidence that I am not speaking at random 
 on this subject ; and consequently, from the lateness 
 of the hour, could not have the honour of being 
 introduced to your Ladyship.' 
 
 ' Mr. Mackaw ! ' thought Vivian. ' The deuce 
 you are ! Oh ! why didn't I say a Columbian cas- 
 sowary, or a Peruvian penguin, or a Chilian condor, 
 or a Guatemalan goose, or a Mexican mastard any 
 thing but Brazilian. Oh ! unfortunate Vivian Grey ! ' 
 
 The Marchioness, who was quite overcome with 
 this scientific appeal, raised her large, beautiful, sleepy 
 eyes, from a delicious compound of French roll and 
 new milk, which she was working up in a Sevre 
 saucer for Julie ; and then, as usual, looked to 
 Vivian for assistance. 
 
 ' Grey, dear ! You know every thing. Tell Mr. 
 Mackaw about a bird.' 
 
 ' Is there any point on which you differ from Spix 
 in his account of the Chowchowtow, Mr. Mackaw ?' 
 
 ' My dear sir, I don't follow him at all. Dr. Spix 
 is a most excellent man ; a most accurate traveller 
 quite a name but to be sure, I've only read his 
 work in our own tongue; and I fear from the 
 passage you have just quoted five feet seven inches 
 high ! in Brazil ! It must be a most imperfect version. 
 
 179
 
 VIM AN (.UFA BOOK III 
 
 I say, that four feet nine is the greatest height I know. 
 I don't speak without some foundation for my state- 
 ment. The only bird I know above that height is 
 the Paraguay cassowary ; which, to be sure, is some- 
 times found in Brazil. But the description of your 
 bird, Mr. Grey, does not answer that at all. I ought 
 to know. I do not speak at random. The only 
 living specimen of that extraordinary bird, the Para- 
 guay cassowary, in this country, is in my possession. 
 It was sent me by Bonpland ; and was given to him 
 by the dictator of Paraguay himself. I call it, in 
 compliment, Doctor Francia. I arrived here so late 
 last night only saw his Lordship or I would have 
 had it on the lawn this morning.' 
 
 'Oh! then, Mr. Mackaw,' said Vivian, ' that was 
 the bird which screamed last night ! ' 
 
 'Oh, yes ! Oh, yes ! Mr. Mackaw/ said Mrs. 
 Felix Lorraine. 
 
 | Marchioness ! Marchioness ! ' continued Vivian, 
 'it's found out. It's Mr. Mackaw's particular 
 friend, his family physician, whom he always travels 
 with, that awoke us all last night.' 
 
 * Is he a foreigner ?' asked the Marchioness, 
 looking up. 
 
 ' My dear Mr. Grey, impossible ! the Doctor 
 never screams.' 
 
 ' Oh ! Mr. Mackaw, Mr. Mackaw !' said Vivian. 
 
 'Oh! Mr. Mackaw, Mr. Mackaw! said Mrs. 
 Felix Lorraine. 
 
 'I tell you he never screams,' reiterated the man 
 of science, ' I tell you he can't scream, he's muzzled: 
 
 ' Oh ! then, it must have been the Chowchowtow.' 
 
 'Yes; I think it must have been the Chowchow- 
 tow. 
 
 ' I should very much like to hear Spix's description 
 180
 
 CHAPTER VII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 again,' said Mr. Mackaw, ' only I fear it's troubling 
 you too much, Mr. Grey.' 
 
 * Read it yourself, my dear Sir,' said Vivian, 
 putting the book into his hand, which was the third 
 volume of Tremaine. 
 
 Mr. Mackaw looked at the volume, and turned it 
 over, and sideways, and upside downwards : the 
 brain of a man who has written three folios on 
 parroquets is soon puzzled. At first, he thought 
 the book was a novel ; but then, an essay on pre- 
 destination, under the title of Memoirs of a Man 
 of Refinement, rather puzzled him ; then he mis- 
 took it for an Oxford reprint of Pearson on the 
 Creed ; and then he stumbled on rather a warm 
 scene in an old Chateau in the South of France. 
 
 Before Mr. Mackaw could gain the power of 
 speech, the door opened, and entered who? 
 Doctor Francia. 
 
 Mr. Mackaw's travelling companion possessed 
 the awkward accomplishment of opening doors, 
 and now strutted in, in quest of his beloved master. 
 Affection for Mr. Mackaw was not, however, the 
 only cause which induced this entree. 
 
 The household of Chateau Desir, unused to casso- 
 warys, had neglected to supply Dr. Francia with his 
 usual breakfast, which consisted of half a dozen 
 pounds of rump steaks, a couple of bars of hard 
 iron, some pig lead, and brown stout. The con- 
 sequence was, the dictator was sadly famished. 
 
 All the ladies screamed ; and then Mrs. Felix 
 Lorraine admired the Doctor's violet neck, and the 
 Marchioness looked with an anxious eye on Julie, 
 and Miss Graves, as in duty bound, with an anxious 
 eye on the Marchioness. 
 
 There stood the Doctor, quite still, with his large 
 181
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK III 
 
 yellow eye fixed on Mr. Mackaw. At length, he 
 perceived the cold pasty, and his little black wings 
 began to flutter on the surface of his immense body. 
 ' Che, che, che, che ! ' said the ornithologist, who 
 didn't like the symptoms at all : ' Che, che, che, che, 
 don't be frightened, ladies ! you see he's muzzled 
 che, che, che, che, now, my dear doctor, now, 
 now, now, Franky, Franky, Franky, now go away, 
 go away, that's a dear doctor che, che, che, che ! ' 
 
 But the large yellow eye grew more flaming and 
 fiery, and the little black wings grew larger, and 
 larger ; and now the left leg was dashed to and fro, 
 with a fearful agitation. Mackaw looked agonized. 
 Pop ! what a whirr ! Francia is on the table ! 
 All shriek, the chairs tumble over the Ottomans 
 the Sevre china is in a thousand pieces the muzzle 
 is torn off and thrown at Miss Graves; Mackaw's 
 wig is dashed in the clotted cream, and devoured on 
 the spot ; and the contents of the boiling urn are 
 poured over the beauteous and beloved Julie ! 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 THE VIVIAN PAPERS 
 
 MR. COLBURN insists, that this is the only title, 
 under which I can possibly publish the letters, which 
 
 Vivian Grey received on the day of , 18 . 
 
 I love to be particular in dates. 
 
 The Honourable Miss Cynthia Courtown, to 
 Vivian 'Grey, Esq. 
 
 'DEAR GREY, Alburies, Oct. 18 
 
 ' We have now been at Alburies for a fortnight 
 Nothing can be more delightful. Here is every 
 body in the world that I wish to see, except your- 
 
 182
 
 CHAPTER VIII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 self. The Knightons, with as many outriders as 
 usual : Lady Julia and myself are great allies ; I 
 like her amazingly. The Marquess of Grandgout 
 arrived here last week, with a most delicious party ; 
 all the men who write John Bull. I was rather 
 disappointed at the first sight of Stanislaus Hoax. 
 I had expected, I don't know why, something 
 juvenile, and squibbish -when lo ! I was introduced 
 to a corpulent individual, with his coat buttoned up 
 to his chin, looking dull, gentlemanly, and apoplectic. 
 However, on acquaintance, he came out quite rich 
 sings delightfully, and improvises like a prophet 
 ten thousand times more entertaining than Pistrucci. 
 We are sworn friends ; and I know all the secret 
 history of John Bull. There is not much, to be 
 sure, that you didn't tell me yourself ; but still 
 there are some things. I must not trust them, how- 
 ever, to paper, and therefore pray dash down to 
 Alburies immediately ; I shall be most happy to 
 introduce you to Lord Devildrain. There was an 
 interview. What think you of that ? Stanislaus 
 told me all, circumstantially, and after dinner I don't 
 doubt that it's quite true. What would you give 
 for the secret history of the " rather yellow, rather 
 yellow," chanson. I dare not tell it you. It came 
 from a quarter that will quite astound you, and in 
 a very elegant, small, female hand. You remember 
 Lambton did stir very awkwardly in the Lisbon 
 business. Stanislaus wrote all the songs that ap- 
 peared in the first numbers, except that ; but he 
 never wrote a single line of prose for the first three 
 months : it all came from Vivida Vis. 
 
 ' I like the Marquess of Grandgout so much ! 
 I hope he'll be elevated in the peerage : he looks 
 as if he wanted it so ! Poor dear man ! 
 
 '83
 
 VIVIAN (iKKY BooK nl 
 
 4 Oh ! do you know I've discovered a liaison 
 between Bull,' and Blackwood. I'm to be in the 
 next Noctes ; I forget the words of the chorus 
 exactly, but Courtown is to rhyme with port down, 
 or something of that kind, and then they're to dash 
 their glasses over their heads, give three cheers, and 
 adjourn to whiskey-toddy, and the Chaldee chamber. 
 How delightful ! 
 
 * The Prima Donnas are at Cheltenham, looking 
 most respectable. Do you ever see the Age ? It is 
 not proper for me to take it in. Pray send me down 
 your numbers, and tell me all about it ; that's a dear. 
 Is it true that his Lordship paragraphises a little ? 
 
 ' I have not heard from Ernest Clay, which I think 
 very odd. If you write to him, mention this, and 
 tell him to send me word how Dormer Stanhope 
 behaves at mess. I understand there has been a 
 metie, not much merely a rouette : do get it all out 
 of him. 
 
 ' Colonel Delmington is at Cheltenham, with the 
 most knowing beard you can possibly conceive : Lady 
 Julia rather patronizes him. Lady Doubtful has been 
 turned out of the rooms ; fifty challenges in conse- 
 quence, and one duel ; missed fire, of course. 
 
 ' I heard from Alhambra ; he has been wandering 
 about in all directions. He has been to the Lakes, 
 and is now at Edinburgh. He likes Southey. He 
 gave the laureate a quantity of hints for his next 
 volume of the Peninsular War, but does not speak 
 very warmly of Wordsworth : gentlemanly man, but 
 only reads his own poetry. I made him promise to 
 go and see De Quincy ; and, like a good boy he did ; 
 out he says he 's a complete humbug. What can he 
 mean ? He stayed some days at Sir Walter's, and 
 met Tom Moore. Singular, that our three great
 
 CHAPTER VIII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 poets should be together this summer ! He speaks 
 in raptures of the great Baronet, and of the beauties 
 of Abbotsford. He met Moore again in Edinburgh, 
 and was present at the interview between him and 
 Hogg. Lalla Rookh did not much like being called 
 " Tarn Muir," and rather kicked at the shepherd. 
 
 ' Edinburgh is more delightful than you can pos- 
 sibly conceive. I certainly intend to go next summer. 
 Alhambra is very intimate with John Wilson, who 
 seems indeed a first rate fellow, full of fun and 
 genius ; and quite as brilliant a hand at a comic song, 
 as at a tragic drama. Do you know it struck me 
 the other day, that comic songs and tragedies are 
 " the lights and shadows" of literature. Pretty idea, 
 is it not ? 
 
 ' Here has been a cousin of yours about us ; a 
 young barrister going the circuit ; by name, Har- 
 grave Grey. The name attracted my notice, and 
 due enquiries having been made, and satisfactorily 
 answered, I patronised the limb of law. Fortunate 
 for him ! I got him to all the fancy balls and pic 
 nics that were going on. He was in heaven for a 
 fortnight, and at length, having overstaid his time, 
 he left us, also leaving his bag, and only brief behind 
 him. They say he's ruined for life. Write soon. 
 
 ' Your's ever, 
 ' CYNTHIA COURTOWN.' 
 
 Ernest Clay, Esq., to Vivian Grey, Esq. 
 
 October, 18 
 
 ' DEAR GREY ! 
 
 ' I am sick of key-bugles and country balls ! All 
 the girls in the town -are in love with me or my 
 foraging cap. I am very much obliged to you for 
 your letter to Kennet, which procured every thing I 
 
 185
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK III 
 
 wanted. The family turned out bores, as you had 
 prepared me. I never met such a clever family in 
 my life ; the father is summoning up courage to 
 favour the world with a volume of sermons ; both 
 the sons have had sonnets refused by the London 
 magazines ; and Isabella Kennet most satisfactorily 
 proved to me, after an argument of two hours, which 
 for courtesy's sake, I fought very manfully, that Sir 
 Walter Scott was not the author of Waverley ; and 
 then she vowed, as I have heard fifty other young 
 literary ladies vow before, that she had " seen the 
 Antiquary in manuscript." 
 
 ' There has been a slight row to diversify the 
 monotony of our military life. Young Premium, 
 the son of the celebrated loan-monger, has bought 
 in ; and Dormer Stanhope, and one or two others 
 equally fresh, immediately anticipated another Battier 
 business : but, with the greatest desire to make a fool 
 of myself, I have a natural repugnance to mimicking 
 the foolery of others ; so with some little exertion, 
 and very fortunately for young Premium, I got the 
 tenth voted vulgar, on the score of curiosity, and we 
 were civil to the man. As it turned out, it was all 
 very well, for Premium is a quiet gentlemanly fellow 
 enough, and exceedingly useful. He'll keep extra 
 grooms for the whole mess, if they want it. He's 
 very grateful to me for what does not deserve any 
 gratitude, and for what gave me no trouble ; for I 
 did not defend him from any feeling of kindness. 
 And both the Monteneys, and young Stapylton Toad, 
 and Augustus, being in the regiment, why, I've very 
 little trouble in commanding a majority, if it comes 
 to a division. 
 
 * I dined the other day at old Premium's, who lives 
 near this town in a magnificent old hall ; which, how- 
 
 186
 
 CHAPTER VIII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 ever, is not near splendid enough, for a man who is 
 the creditor of every nation from California, to 
 China ; and, consequently, the great Mr. Stucco is 
 building a plaster castle for him in another part of 
 the park. Glad am I enough, that I was prevailed 
 upon to patronize the Premium ; for I think, I never 
 witnessed a more singular scene than I did the day I 
 dined there. 
 
 ' I was ushered through an actual street of servitors, 
 whose liveries were really cloth of gold, and whose 
 elaborately powdered heads would not have disgraced 
 the most ancient mansion in St. James's Square, into 
 a large and very crowded saloon. I was, of course, 
 received with the most miraculous consideration ; and 
 the ear of Mrs. Premium seemed to dwell upon the 
 jingling of my spurs (for I am adjutant), as upon the 
 most exquisite music. It was bona fide evidence of 
 " the officers being there." She'll now be visited by 
 the whole county. 
 
 ' Premium is a short, but by no means vulgar look- 
 ing man, about fifty, with a high forehead covered 
 with wrinkles, and with eyes deep sunk in his .head. 
 I never met a man of apparently less bustle, and of a 
 cooler temperament. He was an object of observa- 
 tion from his very unobtrusiveness. There were, I 
 immediately perceived, a great number of foreigners 
 in the room. They looked much too knowing for 
 Arguelles and Co., and I soon found that they were 
 members of the different embassies, or missions of 
 the various Governments, to whose infant existence 
 Premium is foster-father. There were two very 
 striking figures in Oriental costume, who were shown 
 to me as the Greek Deputies not that you are to 
 imagine that they always appear in this picturesque 
 dress. It was only as a particular favour, and to 
 
 187
 
 VIVIAN (iREY BOOK III 
 
 please Miss Premium ; there, Grey, my boy ! there's 
 a quarry ! that the illustrious envoys appeared, 
 habited, this day in their national costume. 
 
 ' Oh ! Grey, you would have enjoyed the scene. 
 In one part of the room was a naval officer, just hot 
 from the mines of Mexico, and lecturing eloquently 
 on the passing of the Cordillera. In another was a 
 man of science, dilating on the miraculous powers of 
 a newly-discovered amalgamation process, to a knot 
 of merchants, who, with bent brows and eager eyes, 
 were already forming a Company for its adoption. 
 Here floated the latest anecdote of Bolivar ; and there 
 a murmur of some new movement of Cochrane's. 
 And then the perpetual babble about " rising states," 
 and "new loans," and "enlightened views," and 
 "juncture of the two oceans," and "liberal principles," 
 and "steam boats to Mexico;" and the earnest look 
 which every one had in the room. Oh ! how 
 different to the vacant gaze that we have been 
 accustomed to ! I was really particularly struck by 
 this circumstance. Every one at Premium's looked 
 full of some great plan ; as if the fate of empires was 
 on his very breath. I hardly knew whether they 
 were most like conspirators, or gamblers, or the lions 
 of a public dinner, conscious of an universal gaze, 
 and consequently looking proportionately interesting. 
 5 circumstance particularly struck me : as I was 
 :chmg the acute countenance of an -individual, 
 who, young Premium informed me, was the Chilian 
 lister, and who was listening with great attention 
 a dissertation from Captain Tropic, the celebrated 
 traveller, on the feasibility of a rail road over the 
 I observed a very great sensation among all 
 e around me : every one shifting, and shuffling, 
 staring, and assisting in that curious, and confus- 
 188
 
 CHAPTER VIII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 ing ceremony, called making way. Even Premium 
 appeared a little excited, when he came forward with 
 a smile on his face to receive an individual, apparently 
 a foreigner, and who stepped on with great, though 
 gracious dignity. Being very curious to know who 
 
 this great man was, I found that this was an am- 
 
 t 
 
 bassador the representative of a recognised state. 
 
 ' Ton my honour, when I saw all this, I could not 
 refrain from moralizing on the magic of wealth, and 
 when I just remember the embryo plot of some 
 young Huzzar Officers to a// the son of the magician, 
 I rather smiled ; but while I, with even greater 
 reverence than all others, was making my way for his 
 Excellency, I observed Mrs. Premium looking at my 
 spurs " Farewell Philosophy ! " thought I, " Puppy- 
 ism for ever ! " 
 
 * Dinner was at last announced, and the nice 
 etiquette which was observed between recognised 
 states, and non-recognised states, was really excessively 
 amusing : not only the ambassador would take 
 precedence of the mere political agent, but his 
 Excellency's private secretary was equally tenacious 
 as to the agent's private secretary. At length we 
 were all seated : the spacious dining-room was 
 hung round with portraits of most of the successful 
 revolutionary leaders, and over Mr. Premium was 
 suspended a magnificent portrait of Bolivar. Oh ! 
 Grey, if you could but have seen the plate ! By 
 Jove ! I have eaten off the silver of most of the first 
 families in England, yet, never in my life, did it enter 
 into my imagination, that it was possible for the most 
 ingenious artist that ever existed, to repeat a crest 
 half so often in a table spoon, as in that of Premium. 
 The crest is a bubble, and really the effect produced 
 by it is most ludicrous. 
 
 189
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK III 
 
 ' I was very much struck at table, by the appearance 
 of an individual who came in very late, but who was 
 evidently, by his bearing, no insignificant personage. 
 He was a tall man, with a long hooked nose, and 
 high cheek bones, and with an eye (were you ever 
 at the Old Bailey ? there you may see its fellow) ; 
 his complexion looked as if it had been accustomed 
 to the breezes of many climes, and his hair, which 
 had once been red, was now silvered, or rather iron- 
 greyed, not by age. Yet there was in his whole 
 bearing, in his slightest actions, even in the easy, 
 desperate, air with which he took a glass of wine, an 
 indefinable something, (you know what I mean,) 
 which attracted your unremitting attention to him. 
 I was not wrong in my suspicions of his celebrity ; 
 for, as Miss Premium, whom I sat next to, (eh ! 
 Grey, my boy, how are you ? " 'tis a very fine thing 
 for a father-in-law," &c. &c.) whispered, "he was 
 quite a lion." It was Lord Ocean ville. What he is 
 after, no one knows. Some say he's going to Greece, 
 others whisper an invasion of Paraguay, and others of 
 course say other things; perhaps equally correct. I 
 think he's for Greece. I know he's the most extra- 
 ordinary man I ever met with. I'm getting prosy. 
 Good bye ! Write soon. Any fun going on ? How 
 is Cynthia ? I ought to have written. How's Mrs. 
 
 Felix Lorraine ? she's a d d odd woman ! 
 
 1 Yours faithfully, 
 
 'ERNEST CLAY.' 
 
 Mr. Daniel Groves, to Vivian Grey, Esq 
 'Silt, 
 
 ' I have just seen Sir Hanway, who gave me a 
 
 *ter from you, requesting me to furnish you with 
 
 my ideas on the state of the agricultural interest ; 
 
 190
 
 CHAPTER VIII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 and to think of John Conyers for the farm of Mares- 
 field, now vacant. 
 
 ' With respect to the former, I can't help thinking 
 Ministers remarkable wrong on the point of the 
 game laws particularly, to say nothing of the duty 
 on felled timber, malt, and brown mustard. 'Tayn't 
 the greatness of the duty that makes the increase of 
 the revenue. That's my maxim. 
 
 ' As for Maresfield, I certainly had an eye to it 
 for my second son, William, as my mistress says, 
 he's now getting fittish to look out for himself in the 
 world ; and then there's my nephew at Edgecombe, 
 the son of my sister Mary, who married one of the 
 Wrights at Upton, and I always promised old Mr. 
 Wright to see Tom well done by. That's the 
 ground I stand upon. But, certainly, to oblige 
 your honour, I can't say but what I'll think of it. 
 
 ' Sir Hanway says, Conyers told him that White- 
 footed Moll died on Wednesday. She was, as your 
 honour always said, a pretty creature. Talking of 
 this, puts me in mind, that if your honour comes in 
 for Mounteney, which they're talking of in these 
 parts, I hope you'll say something about the tax on 
 cart-horses. This is the ground I stand upon if a 
 gentleman keeps a horse for pleasure, it's only right 
 Government should have the benefit ; but when it's 
 to promote the agricultural interest, my maxim is, 
 it's remarkable wrong to tax them all promiscuous. 
 
 ' As for Conyers, I can't help thinking his cottage 
 might be removed : it stands in the midst of one of 
 the finest pieces of corn-land in this country ; and I 
 said so the other day to Mr. Stapylton Toad, but 
 he's not a man as'll take advice. That Maresfield 
 Farm is a nice bit for game, as I believe your honour 
 well knows. I took out Snowball, and Negro, the 
 
 191
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK III 
 
 other morning, with young Fletcher of Upton he's 
 the third cousin of old Mrs. Wright's sister-in-law's 
 niece we coursed three hares, and killed one just 
 opposite Gunter's on the hill, who's a bit of a relation 
 again on my wife's side ; so I just looked in and took a 
 crust of bread and cheese, for civility costs nothing 
 that's my maxim. 
 
 4 The new Beer bill is felt a grievance. John 
 Sandys says as my men won't be satisfied with less 
 than ten strike to the hogshead ; this is remarkable 
 wrong. So you may make your mind easy about 
 John Conyers : I've been talking to my mistress, and 
 the upshot of it is, that I'll take my old horse and 
 ride over to Stapylton Toad, and settle with him 
 about the removal ; and if I can give you any more 
 information on this point, or any thing else relating 
 to our part of the world, or the corn-laws in general, 
 I shall be very happy to remain 
 
 ' Your honour's obedient servant, 
 
 4 DANIEL GROVES. 
 
 f P.S. The half pipe of Port wine I told you of is 
 come in, and I think it promises to be as good, 
 sterling, stuff as ever you need wish to taste some 
 body in it none of your French vinegary slip-slop. 
 Depend on't, Port's the wine for Englishmen there's 
 some stamina in it : that's the ground I stand upon.' 
 
 Hargrave Grey, Esq., to Vivian Grey, Esq. 
 
 October , 1 8 
 * DEAR VIVIAN, 
 
 'You ought not to expect a letter from me. I 
 cannot conceive why you do not occasionally answer 
 your correspondents' letters, if correspondents they 
 may be called. It is really a most unreasonable habit 
 of yours; any one but myself would quarrel with you. 
 
 192
 
 CHAPTER VIII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 ' A letter from Baker met me at this place, and I 
 find that the whole of that most disagreeable, and 
 annoying, business is arranged. From the prompti- 
 tude, skill, and energy, which are apparent in the 
 whole affair, I suspect I have to thank the very 
 gentleman, whom I was just going to quarrel with. 
 You're a good fellow, Vivian, after all. For want of 
 a brief, I sit down to give you a sketch of my adven- 
 tures on this, my first, circuit. 
 
 ' This circuit is a cold, and mercantile adventure, 
 and I'm disappointed in it. Not so either, for I 
 looked for but little to enjoy. Take one day of my 
 life as a specimen ; the rest are mostly alike. The 
 sheriff's trumpets are playing, one, some tune of 
 which I know nothing, and the other no tune at all. 
 I'm obliged to turn out at eight. It is the first day 
 
 O O * 
 
 of the Assize, so there is some chance of a brief, 
 being a new place. I push my way into court 
 through files of attorneys, as civil to the rogues as 
 possible, assuring them there is plenty of room, 
 though I am at the very moment gasping for breath, 
 wedged in, in a lane of well-lined waistcoats. I get 
 into court, take my place in the quietest corner, and 
 there I sit, and pass other men's fees and briefs like 
 a twopenny postman, only without pay. Well ! 'tis 
 six o'clock dinner-time at the bottom of the table 
 carve for all speak to none nobody speaks 
 to me must wait till last to sum up, and pay the 
 bill. Reach home quite devoured by spleen, after 
 having heard every one abused, who happened to be 
 absent. 
 
 ' You wished me many briefs, but only one of 
 
 your wishes has come to pass, and that at this place ; 
 
 but I flatter myself I got up the law of the case in a 
 
 most masterly style ; and I am sure you will allow 
 
 N 193
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK III 
 
 me to be capable of so doing, when I relate the 
 particulars : 
 
 ' Indictment states, that prisoner on, &c., at, &c., 
 from out of a certain larder, stole a pork pie. 
 
 * 2d. count a meat pie. 
 '3d. count a pie in general. 
 
 ' The great question was, whether the offence was 
 complete or not, the felon not having carried it out 
 of the larder, but only conveyed it into his own 
 pocket : that is, all he could not eat. 
 
 * Plea : he was hungry. 
 
 ' Per Bolter Baron. " He must not satisfy his 
 appetite at another person's expense ; so let him be 
 whipped, and discharged ; and let the treasurer of 
 the county pay the expenses of this prosecution." 
 Which were accordingly allowed, to the amount of 
 something under fifty pounds. 
 
 * Don't turn up the whites of your eyes, Vivian ; 
 and, in the fulness of your indignation, threaten us 
 with all the horrors of parliamentary interference. 
 The fact is ; on this circuit, to judge of the number 
 of offences tried, such a theft is as enormous as a 
 burglary, with one or two throats cut, in London ; 
 for pork pies are the staple of the county ; and they 
 export them by canal, to all parts of the world, 
 whereto the canals run, which the natives imagine to 
 be to parts beyond seas at least. 
 
 'I travelled to this place with Manners, whom I 
 believe you know, and amused myself by getting 
 from him an account of my fellows, anticipating, at 
 the same time, what in fact happened ; to wit, that 
 I should afterwards get his character from them. It 
 is strange how freely they deal with each other 
 that is, the person spoken of being away. I would 
 not have had you see our Stanhope for half a hundred
 
 CHAPTER VIII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 pounds ; your jealousy would have been so excited. 
 To say the truth, we are a little rough our mane 
 wants pulling, and our hoofs trimming, but we jog 
 along without performing either operation : and, by 
 dint of rattling the whip against the splash-board, 
 using all one's persuasion of hand and voice, and 
 jerking the bit in his mouth, we do contrive to get 
 into the circuit town, usually, just about the time 
 that the sheriff and his posse comitatus are starting to 
 meet my Lord, the King's Justice : and that is the 
 worst of it ; for their horses are prancing and pawing 
 coursers just out of the stable, sleek skins, and 
 smart drivers. We begin to be knocked up just 
 then, and our appearance is the least brilliant of any 
 part of the day. Here I had to pass through a host 
 of these powdered, scented fops ; and the multitude 
 who had assembled to gaze on the nobler exhibi- 
 tion, rather scoffed at our humble vehicle. As 
 Manners had just then been set down to find the 
 inn, and lodging, I could not jump out, and leave 
 our equipage to its fate, so I settled my cravat, and 
 seemed not to mind it only I did. 
 
 ' Manners has just come in, and insists upon my 
 going to the theatre with him. I shall keep this 
 back another post, to tell you whether I receive 
 another letter from Baker, at d. 
 
 1 9th. 
 
 ' No letter from Baker, but I find it so dull sitting 
 in court with nothing to do, that I shall trouble you 
 with a few more lines from myself. The perform- 
 ance last night was rather amusing: Romeo and 
 Juliet turned into a melo-drame, to suit the taste of 
 the vicinity. The nasal tones of Juliet's voice in the 
 love-scenes, must have been peculiarly moving to any
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK III 
 
 Romeo, but to that for whom they were intended 
 they seemed so much in earnest, that he must have 
 been quite enraptured. There were no half meet- 
 ings. Juliet entered fully into the feeling of the 
 poet ; and hung about his neck, and kissed his lips- 
 all like life, to the great edification of the audience 
 assembled ; which, as it was assize week, was a very 
 brilliant one. In such a company, there must neces- 
 sarily be economy used in the actors and actresses. 
 Thus, as Mercutio is killed off in the first act, he 
 afterwards performs the Friar, and the Friar himself 
 figures as the chief dancer in the masquerade : but I 
 was most charmed at discovering Juliet's nasal tones 
 in her own dirge a wonderful idea, never before 
 introduced on any stage. I was led to make this 
 discovery, not merely by the fact of her voice being 
 undisguised, but from an unfortunate accident which 
 occurred at the funeral. As the deceased heroine 
 was a chief mourner, her beloved corpse had to be 
 performed by a bundle of rags, or something of the 
 kind, laid upon a sort of school form, and carried by 
 herself and five other ladies in white : so, as the 
 music was rather quick, and the mourners had to 
 perform pas de zephyr all round the stage, and Juliet 
 did not keep very good time, while the virgins on 
 one side were standing on their left legs towards the 
 audience, as nearly in a horizontal posture as possible; 
 the daughter of Capulet, and her battalion, began 
 performing on the wrong leg, and in the consequent 
 scuffle, the bier overturned ! The accident, however, 
 was speedily rectified, and the procession moved on 
 to the music of two fiddles and one bell. Juliet's 
 tomb was a snug little parlour with blue pannels, 
 and Romeo drank gin instead of poison, which Shak- 
 speare must have surely intended, or else it was quite 
 
 196
 
 CHAPTER VIII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 out of nature to make Juliet exclaim, " What, churl ! 
 not left one drop ?" 
 
 ' But I must leave off this nonsense, and attend to 
 his Lordship's charge, which is now about to com- 
 mence. I have not been able to get you a single 
 good murder, although I have kept a sharp look out 
 as you desired me ; but there is a chance of a first- 
 rate one at n. 
 
 ' I am quite delighted with Mr. Justice St. Prose. 
 He is at this moment in a most entertaining passion, 
 preparatory to a " conscientious " summing up ; and 
 in order that his ideas may not be disturbed, he has 
 very liberally ordered the door-keeper to have the 
 door oiled immediately, at his own expence. Now for 
 my Lord, the King's justice. 
 
 ' " Gentlemen of the Jury ! " 
 
 ' " The noise is insufferable the heat is intolerable 
 the door-keepers let the people keep shuffling in 
 the ducks in the corner are going quack, quack, 
 quack here's a little girl being tried for her life, and 
 the judge can't hear a word that's said. Bring me my 
 black cap, and I'll condemn her to death instantly." 
 
 ' " You can't, my Lord," shrieks the infant sinner ; 
 " it's only for petty larceny ! " 
 
 ' This is agreeable, is it not ? but let us see what 
 the next trial will produce : this was an action of 
 trespass, for breaking off the pump handle, knocking 
 down the back kitchen door, spitting on the parlour 
 carpet, and tumbling the maid's head about. 
 
 ' Plea. That the defendants, eight in number, 
 entered in aid of the constable, under warrant of a 
 magistrate, to search for stolen goods. 
 
 ' John Staff, examined by Mr Shuffleton. 
 
 ' " Well, Mr. Constable, what have you to say 
 about this affair ?" 
 
 197
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK III 
 
 * " Why, Sir, I charged them men to assist me in 
 the King's name." 
 
 ' " What, eight of you ? why, there was only an 
 old woman, and a boy, and the servant girl in the 
 house. You must have been terribly frightened at 
 them, eh ?" 
 
 * " Can't say for that, Sir, only they was needful." 
 
 ' " Why, what could you want so many for ? " 
 
 ' " Why, you see, Sir, I couldn't read the warrant 
 myself, so I charged Abraham Lockit to read it for 
 me ; and when he came, he said as it was Squire 
 Jobson's writing, and so he could not ; and then I 
 had occasion to charge Simon Lockit, and he read 
 it." 
 
 ' " Well, that's only two : what were the rest 
 for?" 
 
 ' " Why, your honour, they was to keep the 
 women quiet." 
 
 ' Mr. Justice St. Prose. "Take care what you're 
 about, witness. I consider it my duty to advise you 
 not to laugh ; it is, in my opinion, a contempt of 
 court, and I therefore desire you to restrain your- 
 self." 
 
 ' Mr. Shuffleton. " But you haven't told me 
 why you wanted these other six men ? " 
 
 4 Why, the women d'ye see, Sir, was so very 
 unruly in the kitchen ; and so I charged them to 
 keep 'em quiet." 
 
 " Now, Sir, what do you call keeping the women 
 quiet, pulling the maid's cap off, and ?" 
 
 ' Mr. Justice St. Prose. (To a person opposite.) 
 | You'll excuse me, Sir, but I think that those two 
 little gentlemen had better leave the court till this 
 examination is over." 
 
 * His Lordship " thought it his duty " to give 
 
 198
 
 CHAPTER VIII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 a similar warning to two very pretty young ladies 
 in pink bonnets and green pelisses. They were, 
 however, so obstinate as to remain in court, until 
 they had heard the whole circumstantial, and im- 
 proper, evidence of the destruction of the maid's 
 cap. When it was all over, his Lordship once more 
 fixed his large eyes on the constable, and thus de- 
 livered himself: 
 
 ' " Now, Mr. Constable, to remove the sting of 
 any remark which may have dropped from me 
 during this trial, I will allow that, very probably, 
 you had reason to laugh."- Mr. Constable looked 
 quite relieved. 
 
 ' By way of variety, I will give you a specimen 
 of his Lordship's style of cross examination. 
 
 ' Enter a witness, with a flourishing pair of whis- 
 kers, approximating to a King Charles. 
 
 ' Mr. Justice St. Prose. ' Pray, Sir, who are 
 
 5 " 
 
 you r 
 
 * Whiskered Witness. " An architect, my Lord." 
 ' Mr. J. St. Prose. "An architect ! Sir ; are you 
 
 not in the army ?" 
 
 ' W. W. (agitated). " No, my Lord." 
 
 'Mr. J. St. Prose. "Never were?" 
 
 ' W. W. (much browbeat.) " No, my Lord." 
 
 * Mr. J. St. Prose. " Then, Sir, what right have 
 you to wear those whiskers ? I consider that you 
 can't be a respectable young man, and I shan't 
 allow you your expenses." 
 
 ' I have just got an invite from the Kearneys. 
 Congratulate me. 
 
 ' Dear Vivian, yours faithfully, 
 
 ' HARGRAVE GREY.' 
 
 199
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK III 
 
 Lady Scrope to Vivian Grey, Esq. 
 
 Ormsby Park, Oct. , 1 8 
 ' MY DEAR VIVIAN, 
 
 * By desire of Sir Berdmore, (is not this pretty and 
 proper ?) I have to request the fulfilment of a pro- 
 mise, upon the hope of which being performed, I 
 have existed through this dull month. Pray, my 
 dear Vivian, come to us immediately. Ormsby has 
 at present little to offer for your entertainment. 
 We have had that unendurable bore, Vivacity Dull, 
 with us for a whole fortnight. A report of the 
 death of the Lord Chancellor, or a rumour of the 
 production of a new tragedy, has carried him up to 
 town ; but whether it be to ask for the seals, or 
 to indite an ingenious prologue to a play which 
 will be condemned the first night, I cannot inform 
 you. I am quite sure he is capable of doing 
 either. However, we shall have other deer in a 
 few days. 
 
 ' I believe you have never met the Moun- 
 teneys no, I'm sure you have not. They have 
 never been at Hallesbrooke, since you have been at 
 Desir. They are coming to us immediately. I am 
 sure you will like them very much. Lord Moun- 
 teney is one of those kind, easy-minded, accom- 
 plished men, who, after all, are nearly the pleasant- 
 est society one ever meets. Rather wild in his 
 youth, but with his estate now unincumbered, and 
 himself perfectly domestic. His lady is an unaffected, 
 agreeable woman. But it is Caroline Mounteney 
 whom I wish you particularly to meet. She is one 
 of those delicious creatures who, in spite of not 
 being married, are actually conversable. Spirited, 
 without any affectation or brusquene ; beautiful, and 
 
 200
 
 CHAPTER VIII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 knowing enough to be quite conscious of it ; and 
 perfectly accomplished, and yet never annoying you 
 with tattle about Bochsa, and Ronzi de Begnis, and 
 D'Egville. 
 
 ' We also expect the Delmonts, the most endur- 
 able of the Anglo-Italians that I know. Mrs Del- 
 mont is not always dropping her handkerchief like 
 Lady Gusto, as if she expected a miserable cavalier 
 servente to be constantly upon his knees, or giving 
 those odious expressive looks which quite destroy 
 my nerves whenever I am under the same roof as 
 that horrible Lady Soprano. There is a little too 
 much talk, to be sure, about Roman churches, and 
 newly-discovered Mosaics, and Abbate Maii, but 
 still we cannot expect perfection. There are re- 
 ports going about that Ernest Clay is either ruined, 
 going to be married, or about to write a novel. 
 Perhaps all are true. Young Premium has nearly 
 lost his character by driving a square-built, striped 
 green thing drawn by one horse. Ernest Clay got 
 him through this terrible affair. What can be the 
 reasons of the Sieur Ernest's excessive amiability ? 
 
 ' Both the young Mounteneys are with their 
 regiment, but Aubrey Vere is coming to us, and I've 
 
 half a promise from ; but I know you never 
 
 speak to unmarried men, so why do I mention them ? 
 Let me, I beseech you, my dear Vivian, have a few 
 days of you to myself, before Ormsby is full, and 
 before you are introduced to Caroline Mounteney. 
 I did not think it was possible that I could exist so 
 long without seeing you ; but you really must not 
 try me too much, or I shall quarrel with you. I 
 have received all your letters, which are very, very 
 agreeable ; but I think rather, rather impudent. If 
 you don't behave better, I shan't pet you I shan't 
 
 201
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK III 
 
 indeed; so do not put off coming a single moment. 
 Adieu ! 
 
 4 HARRIETTS SCROPE.' 
 
 Horace Grey, Esq., to Vivian Grey, Esq. 
 
 Paris, Oct. 18 . 
 
 ' MY DEAR VIVIAN. 
 
 ' I have received your last letter, and have read it 
 with mixed feelings of astonishment, and sorrow. 
 
 ' You are now, my dear son, a member of what 
 is called, le grand monde society formed on anti- 
 social principles. Apparently, you have possessed 
 yourself of the object of your wishes; but the scenes 
 you live in are very moveable ; the characters you 
 associate with are all masked ; and it will always be 
 doubtful, whether you can retain that long, which 
 has been obtained by some slippery artifice. Vivian, 
 you are a juggler ; and the deceptions of your slight- 
 of-hand tricks depend upon instantaneous motions. 
 
 ' When the selfish combine with the selfish, be- 
 think you how many projects are doomed to dis- 
 appointment ! how many cross interests baffle the 
 parties, at the same time joined together without 
 ever uniting. What a mockery is their love ! but 
 how deadly are their hatreds ! All this great society, 
 with whom so young an adventurer has trafficked, 
 abate nothing of their price in the slavery of their 
 service, and the sacrifice of violated feelings. What 
 sleepless nights has it cost you to win over the dis- 
 obliged, to conciliate the discontented, to cajole the 
 contumacious ! You may smile at the hollow flat- 
 teries, answering to flatteries as hollow, which, like 
 bubbles when they touch, dissolve into nothing: 
 but tell me, Vivian, what has the self-tormentor felt 
 
 202
 
 CHAPTER VIII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 at the laughing treacheries, which force a man down 
 into self-contempt ? 
 
 ' Is it not obvious, my dear Vivian, that true 
 Fame, and true Happiness, must rest upon the 
 imperishable social affections ? I do not mean that 
 coterie celebrity, which paltry minds accept as fame, 
 but that which exists independent of the opinions, or 
 the intrigues of individuals ; nor do I mean that 
 glittering show of perpetual converse with the world, 
 which some miserable wanderers call Happiness ; but 
 that which can only be drawn from the sacred and 
 solitary fountain of your own feelings. 
 
 Active as you have now become in the great scenes 
 of human affairs, I would not have you be guided by 
 any fanciful theories of morals, or of human nature. 
 Philosophers have amused themselves by deciding on 
 human actions by systems ; but, as these systems are 
 of the most opposite natures, it is evident that each 
 philosopher, in reflecting his own feelings in the 
 system he has so elaborately formed, has only 
 painted his own character. 
 
 * Do not, therefore, conclude with Hobbes and 
 Mandeville, that man lives in a state of civil warfare 
 with man ; nor with Shaftesbury, adorn with a poeti- 
 cal philosophy our natural feelings. Man is neither 
 the vile, nor the excellent being which he sometimes 
 imagines himself to be. He does not so much act 
 by system, as by sympathy. If this creature cannot 
 always feel for others, he is doomed to feel for him- 
 self; and the vicious are, at least, blessed with the 
 curse of remorse. 
 
 ' You are now inspecting one of the worst portions 
 of society, in what is called the great world ; (St. 
 Giles' is bad, but of another kind ;) and it may be 
 useful, on the principle, that the actual sight of brutal 
 
 203
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK III 
 
 ebriety was supposed to have inspired youth with the 
 virtue of temperance; on the same principle, that 
 the Platonist, in the study of deformity, conceived 
 the beautiful. Let me warn you not to fall into the 
 usual error of youth, in fancying that the circle you 
 move in is precisely the world itself. Do not imagine 
 that there are not other beings, whose benevolent 
 principle is governed by finer sympathies ; by more 
 generous passions ; and by those nobler emotions, 
 which really constitute all our public and private 
 virtues. I give you this hint, lest, in your present 
 society, you might suppose these virtues were merely 
 historical. 
 
 ' Once more, I must beseech you, not to give 
 loose to any elation of mind. The machinery by 
 which you have attained this unnatural result, must 
 be so complicated, that in the very tenth hour, you 
 will find yourself stopped in some part where you 
 never counted on an impediment ; and the want of a 
 slight screw, or a little oil, will prevent you from 
 accomplishing your magnificent end. 
 
 ' We are, and have been, very dull here. There 
 is every probability of Madam de Genlis writing 
 more volumes than ever. I called on the old lady, 
 and was quite amused with the enthusiasm of her 
 imbecility. Chateaubriand is getting what you call 
 a bore ; and the whole city is mad about a new 
 opera by Boieldieu. Your mother sends her love, 
 and desires me to say, that the salmi of woodcocks, 
 d la Lucullus, which you write about, does not differ 
 from the practice here in vogue ; but we have been 
 much pleased with ducks, with olive sauce, about 
 which she particularly wishes to consult you. How 
 does your cousin Hargrave prosper on his circuit ? 
 The Delmingtons are here, which makes it very 
 
 204
 
 CHAPTER VIII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 pleasant for your mother, as well as for myself ; for 
 it allows me to hunt over the old bookshops at my 
 leisure. There are no new books worth sending 
 you, or they would accompany this ; but I would 
 recommend you to get Meyer's new volume from 
 Treuttel and Wurtz, and continue to make notes as 
 you read it. Give my compliments to the Marquess, 
 and believe me 
 
 ' Your most affectionate father, 
 
 ' HORACE GREY.' 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 THE DEPARTURE 
 
 IT was impossible for any human being to behave 
 with more kindness than the Marquess of Carabas 
 did to Vivian Grey, after that young gentleman's 
 short conversation with Mrs. Felix Lorraine, in the 
 conservatory. The only feeling which seemed to 
 actuate the peer, was an eager desire to compensate, 
 by his present conduct, for any past misunderstand- 
 ing, and he loaded his young friend with all possible 
 favour. Still Vivian was about to quit Chateau 
 Desir, and in spite of all that had passed, he was 
 extremely loth to leave his noble friend under the 
 guardianship of his female one. 
 
 About this time, the Duke and Duchess of 
 Juggernaut, the very pink of aristocracy, the 
 wealthiest, the proudest, the most ancient, and 
 most pompous couple in Christendom, honoured 
 Chateau Desir with their presence for two days ; 
 only two days, making the Marquess's mansion a 
 convenient resting-place in one of their princely 
 progresses, to one of their princely castles. 
 
 Vivian contrived to gain the heart of her Grace, 
 205
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK III 
 
 by his minute acquaintance with the Juggernaut 
 pedigree ; and having taken the opportunity, in 
 one of their conversations, to describe Mrs. Felix 
 Lorraine as the most perfect specimen of divine 
 creation with which he was acquainted, at the same 
 time the most amusing, and the most amiable of 
 women, that lady was honoured with an invitation 
 to accompany her Grace to HIMALAYA CASTLE. As 
 this was the greatest of all possible honours, and as 
 Desir was now very dull, Mrs. Felix Lorraine 
 accepted the invitation, or rather, obeyed the com- 
 mand, for the Marquess would not hear of a refusal, 
 Vivian having dilated, in the most energetic terms, 
 on the opening which now presented itself of gain- 
 ing the Juggernaut. The coast being thus cleared, 
 Vivian set off the next day for Sir Berdmore Scrope's.
 
 BOOK THE FOURTH. 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE PARKS 
 
 THE important time drew nigh. Christmas was to 
 be passed by the Carabas family, the Beaconsfields, 
 the Scropes, and the Clevelands, at Lord Courtown's 
 villa at Richmond ; at which place, on account of its 
 vicinity to the Metropolis, the Viscount had determined 
 to make out the holidays, notwithstanding the Thames 
 entered his kitchen windows, and the Donna del Lago 
 was acted in the theatre with real water, Cynthia 
 Courtown performing Elena, paddling in a punt. 
 
 'Let us order our horses, Cleveland, round to the 
 Piccadilly gate, and walk through the Guards. I 
 must stretch my legs. That bore, Horace Button- 
 hole, captured me in Pall Mall East, and has kept 
 me in the same position for upwards of half an 
 hour. I shall make a note to blackball him at the 
 Athenaeum. How's Mrs. Cleveland ? ' 
 
 ' Extremely well. She goes down to Buckhurst 
 Lodge with the Marchioness. Isn't that Lord 
 Lowersdale ? ' 
 
 ' His very self. He's going to call on Vivida Vis, 
 I've no doubt. Lowersdale is a man of very con- 
 considerable talent much more than the world 
 gives him credit for.' 
 
 207
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK IV 
 
 ' And he doubtless finds a very able counsellor 
 in Monsieur le Secretaire ? ' 
 
 4 Can you name a better one ? ' 
 
 * You rather patronize Vivida, I think, Grey ? ' 
 
 ' Patronize him ! he's my political pet ! ' 
 
 4 And yet Kerrison tells me, you reviewed the 
 Suffolk Papers in the Edinburgh.' 
 
 4 So I did what of that ? I defended them in 
 Black wood.' 
 
 ' This, then, is the usual method of you literary 
 gentlemen. Thank God ! I never could write a 
 line.' 
 
 ' York House rises proudly if York House be 
 its name.' 
 
 4 This confounded Catholic Question is likely to 
 give us a great deal of trouble, Grey. It's perfect 
 madness for us to advocate the cause of the "six 
 millions of hereditary bondsmen ; " and yet, with 
 not only the Marchese, but even Courtown and 
 Beacon sfield committed, it is, to say the least, a very 
 delicate business.' 
 
 * Very delicate, certainly ; but there are some pre- 
 cedents, I shrewdly suspect, Cleveland, for the 
 influence of a party being 4 opposed to measures, 
 which the heads of that party had pledged them- 
 selves to adopt.' 
 
 4 Does old Giffbrd still live at Pimlico, Grey ? ' 
 
 4 Still.' 
 
 4 He's a splendid fellow, after all.' 
 Certainly, a mind of great powers but bigotted.' 
 
 4 Oh !^ yes I know exactly what you are going to 
 say. It's the fashion, I'm aware, to abuse the old 
 gentleman. He's the Earl of Eldon of literature ; 
 not the less loved, because a little vilified. But, 
 when I just remember what GifFord has done when 
 
 208
 
 CHAPTER I VIVIAN GREY 
 
 I call to mind the perfect and triumphant success of 
 every thing he has undertaken the Anti-Jacobin - 
 the Baviad and Maeviad the Quarterly all palpable 
 hits on the very jugular upon my honour, I hesi- 
 tate before I speak of William Giffbrd in any other 
 terms, or in any other spirit, than those of admira- 
 tion and of gratitude.' 
 
 ' And to think, Grey, that the Tory administra- 
 tion, and the Tory party of Great Britain, should 
 never, by a single act, or in one single instance, have 
 indicated, that they were in the least aware, that the 
 exertions of such a man differed in the slightest 
 degree from those of Hunt and Hone ! Oh ! Grey, 
 of all the delusions which flourish in this mad world, 
 the delusion of that man is the most frantic, who 
 voluntarily, and of his own accord, supports the 
 interests of a party. I mention this to you, because 
 it is the rock on which all young politicians strike. 
 Fortunately, you enter life under different circum- 
 stances from those which usually attend most political 
 debutants. You have your connexions formed, and 
 your views ascertained. But if, by any chance, you 
 find yourself independent and unconnected, never, 
 for a moment, suppose that you can accomplish your 
 objects by coming forward, unsolicited, to fight the 
 battle of a party. They will cheer your youthful 
 exertions, and then smile at your youthful zeal or, 
 crossing themselves for the unexpected succour, be 
 too cowardly to reward their unexpected champion. 
 No, Grey ; make them fear you, and they will kiss 
 your feet. There is no act of treachery, or mean- 
 ness, of which a political party is not capable ; for in 
 politics there is no honour. 
 
 ' As to Gifford, I am surprised at their conduct 
 towards him, although I know better than most 
 o 209
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK IV 
 
 men, of what wood a minister is made, and how 
 much reliance may be placed upon the gratitude of a 
 party : but Canning from Canning I certainly did 
 expect different conduct.' 
 
 ' Oh, Canning ! I love the man : but, as you 
 say, Cleveland, ministers have short memories, and 
 Canning's that was Antilles that just passed us, 
 apropos to whom, I quite rejoice that the Marquess 
 has determined to take such a decided course on the 
 West India Question.' 
 
 ' Oh, yes ! curse your East India sugar.' 
 ' To be sure slavery, and sweetmeats, for ever ! ' 
 4 1 was always for the West India interest, from a 
 boy, Grey. I had an aunt who was a Creole, and 
 who used to stuff me with guava jelly, and small 
 delicate limes, that looked, for all the world, like 
 emeralds powdered with diamond dust.' 
 
 ' Pooh ! my dear Cleveland, they shouldn't have 
 looked like any such thing. What your Creole aunt 
 gave you must have been candied. The delicate fruit 
 should swim in an ocean of clarified sugar.' 
 
 ' I believe you're right, Grey : I sacrificed truth to 
 a trope. Do you like the Barbados ginger ?' 
 
 * If it is mild, and of a pale golden colour. How 
 delicious the Bourdeaux flows after it ! Oh ! the 
 West India interest for ever ! ' 
 
 ' But, aside with joking, Grey, I really think, that 
 if any man of average ability dare rise in the House, 
 and rescue many of the great questions of the day 
 from what Dugald Stuart, or D'Israeli would call the 
 spirit of Political Religionism, with which they are 
 studiously mixed up, he would not fail to make a 
 great impression upon the House, and a still greater 
 one upon the country.' 
 
 * I quite agree with you ; and certainly I should 
 
 210
 
 CHAPTER I VIVIAN GREY 
 
 recommend commencing with the West India Ques- 
 tion. Singular state of affairs ! when even Canning 
 can only insinuate his opinion, when the very exis- 
 tence of some of our most valuable colonies is at 
 stake, and when even his insinuations are only 
 indulged with an audience, on the condition that he 
 
 D ' 
 
 favours the House with an introductory discourse of 
 twenty minutes on " the divine Author of our faith " 
 and an eloge of equal length on the esprit du 
 Christianisme, in a style worthy of Chateaubriand.' 
 
 ' Miserable work, indeed ! I have got a pamphlet 
 on the West India Question sent me this morning. 
 Do you know any raving lawyer, any mad Master in 
 Chancery, or something of the kind, who meddles in 
 these affairs ?' 
 
 ' Oh ! Stephen ! a puddle in a storm ! He's for a 
 crusade for the regeneration of the Antilles the 
 most forcible of feebles the most energetic of 
 drivellers, Velluti acting Pietro L'Eremita.' 
 
 ' Do you know, by any chance, whether Southey's 
 Vindicias is out yet ? I wanted to look it over during 
 the holidays.' 
 
 ' Not out though it has been advertised some 
 time : but what do you expect ? ' 
 
 ' Nay ! it's an interesting controversy, as con- 
 troversies go. Not exactly Milton, and Salmasius 
 but fair enough.' 
 
 ' Oh ! I don't know. It has long degenerated into 
 a mere personal bickering between the Laureate and 
 Butler. Southey is, of course, revelling in the idea 
 of writing an English work with a Latin title ; and 
 that, perhaps, is the only circumstance for which the 
 controversy is prolonged.' 
 
 ' But Southey, after all, is a man of splendid 
 talents.' 
 
 211
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK IV 
 
 ' Doubtless the most philosophical of bigots, and 
 the most poetical of prose writers.' 
 
 ' Apropos to the Catholic Question there goes 
 Colonial Bother'em, trying to look like Prince 
 Metternich ; a decided failure.' 
 
 ' What can keep him in town ?' 
 
 ' Writing letters, I suppose. Heaven preserve me 
 from receiving any of them ! ' 
 
 ' Is it true, then, that his letters are of the awful 
 length that is whispered ?' 
 
 ' True ! Oh ! they're something beyond all concep- 
 tion ! Perfect epistolary Boa Constrictors. I speak 
 with feeling, for I have myself suffered under their 
 voluminous windings.' 
 
 ' Have you seen his quarto volume " The Cure 
 for the Catholic Question ?" ' 
 
 'Yes.' 
 
 ' If you have it, lend it to me. What kind of 
 thing is it ?' 
 
 ' Oh ! what should it be ! ingenious, and imbecile. 
 He advises the Catholics, in the old nursery language, 
 to behave like good boys to open their mouths, and 
 shut their eyes, and see what God will send them.' 
 
 * Well, that's the usual advice. Is there nothing 
 more characteristic of the writer ?' 
 
 'What think you of a proposition of making 
 Jocky of Norfolk Patriarch of England, and of an 
 ascertained credo for our Catholic fellow-subjects? 
 Ingenious isn't it ?' 
 
 Have you seen Puff's new volume of Ariosto ?' 
 
 ' 1 have. What could possibly have induced Mr. 
 Parthenopex Puff to have undertaken such a duty ? 
 Mr. Puff is a man destitute of poetical powers; 
 possessing no vigour of language, and gifted with no 
 happiness of expression. His translation is hard, 
 
 212
 
 CHAPTER I VIVIAN GREY 
 
 dry, and husky, as the outside of a cocoa-nut. I am 
 amused to see the excellent tact with which the public 
 has determined not to read his volumes, in spite of 
 the incessent exertions of a certain set to ensure their 
 pupularity; but the time has gone by, when the 
 smug coterie could create a reputation.' 
 
 ' Do you think the time ever existed, Cleveland ? ' 
 
 ' What could have seduced Puff into being so 
 ambitious ? I suppose his admirable knowledge of 
 Italian ; as if a man were entitled to strike a die for 
 the new sovereign, merely because he was aware how 
 much alloy might legally debase its carats of pure 
 gold. 
 
 ' I never can pardon Puff for that little book on 
 Cats. The idea was admirable ; but, instead of one 
 of the most delightful volumes that ever appeared, 
 to take up a dull, tame, compilation from Bingley's 
 Animal Biography ! ' 
 
 ' Yes ! and the impertinence of dedicating such 
 a work to the Officers of His Majesty's Household 
 Troops ! Considering the quarter from whence it 
 proceeded, I certainly did not expect much, but still 
 I thought that there was to be some little esprit. The 
 poor Guards ! how nervous they must have been at 
 the announcement ! What could have been the 
 point of that dedication ? ' 
 
 ' I remember a most interminable proser, that was 
 blessed with a very sensible-sounding voice, and who, 
 on the strength of that, and his correct and constant 
 emphases, was considered by the world, for a great 
 time, as a sage. At length it was discovered that he 
 was quite the reverse. Mr. Puff's wit is very like 
 this man's wisdom. You take up one of his little 
 books, and you fancy, from its title-page, that it's 
 going to be very witty ; as you proceed, you begin to 
 
 213
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK IV 
 
 suspect that the man is only a wag, and then, sur- 
 prised at not " seeing the point," you have a shrewd 
 suspicion that he is a great hand at dry humour. It 
 is not till you have closed the volume, that you 
 wonder who it is, that has had the hardihood to 
 intrude such imbecility upon an indulgent world.' 
 
 ' Come, come ! Mr. Puff is a worthy gentleman. 
 Let him cease to dusk the radiancy of Ariosto's 
 sunny stanzas, and I shall be the first man who will 
 do justice to his merits. He certainly tattles prettily 
 about tenses, and terminations, and is not an inelegant 
 grammarian.' 
 
 ' Another failure among the booksellers to-day ! ' 
 ' Indeed ! Literature, I think, is at a low ebb.' 
 ' Certainly. There is nothing like a fall of stocks 
 to affect what it is the fashion to style the Literature 
 of the present day a fungus production, which has 
 flourished from the artificial state of our society the 
 mere creature of our imaginary wealth. Every body 
 being very rich, has afforded to be very literary- 
 books being considered a luxury almost as elegant 
 and necessary as Ottomans, bonbons, and pier-glasses. 
 Consols at 100 were the origin of all book societies. 
 The Stockbrokers' ladies took off the quarto travels, 
 and the hot-pressed poetry. They were the patronesses 
 of your patent ink, and your wire wove paper. That 
 is all passed. Twenty per cent, difference in the 
 value of our public securities from this time last year 
 that little incident has done more for the restora- 
 tion of the old English feeling, than all the exertions 
 of Church and State united. Oh ! there is nothing 
 like a fall in Consols to bring the blood of our good 
 people of England into cool order. It's your grand 
 state medicine your veritable Doctor Sangrado ! 
 ' A fall in stocks ! and halt ! to " the spread of 
 214
 
 CHAPTER I VIVIAN GREY 
 
 knowledge ! " and " the progress of liberal principles " 
 is like that of a man too late for post-horses. A fall 
 in stocks ! and where are your London Universities 
 and your Mechanics' Institutes, and your new Docks ? 
 Where your philosophy, your philanthropy, and your 
 competition ? National prejudices revive, as national 
 prosperity decreases. If the Consols were at sixty, 
 we should be again bellowing, God save the King ! 
 eating roast beef and damning the French.' 
 
 ' And you imagine literature is equally affected, 
 Grey?' 
 
 ' Clearly. We were literary, because we were rich. 
 Amid the myriad of volumes which issued monthly 
 from the press, what one was not written for the 
 mere hour ? It is all very well to buy mechanical 
 poetry, and historical novels, when our purses have 
 a plethora; but now, my dear fellow, depend upon 
 it, the game is up. We have no scholars now no 
 literary recluses no men who ever appear to think. 
 " Scribble, scribble, scribble," as the Duke of Cumber- 
 land said to Gibbon, should be the motto of the 
 mighty " nineteenth century." 
 
 'Southey, I think, Grey, is an exception.' 
 
 ' By no means. Southey is a political writer a 
 writer for a particular purpose. All his works, from 
 those in three volumes quarto, to those in one duo- 
 decimo, are alike political pamphlets. Sharon Turner, 
 in his solitude, alone seems to have his eye upon 
 Prince Posterity ; but, as might be expected, the 
 public consequently has not its eye upon Sharon 
 Turner. Twenty years hence they may discover that 
 they had a prophet among them, and knew him not.' 
 
 ' His history is certainly a splendid work, but little 
 known. Lingard's, which in ten years time will not 
 be known even by name, sells admirably, I believe.' 
 
 215
 
 VIVIAN GRKV BoOK IV 
 
 ' I was very much amused, Cleveland, with Allen's 
 review of Lingard in the Edinburgh. His opinion 
 of " the historian's " style that it combined, at the 
 same time, the excellencies of Gibbon, and Hume- 
 was one of the most exquisite specimens of irony 
 that, I think, I ever met with : it was worthy of 
 former days. I was just going to give up the Edin- 
 burgh, when I read that sentence, and I continued it 
 in consequence.' 
 
 ' We certainly want a master-spirit to set us right, 
 Grey. Scott, our second Shakspeare, we, of course, 
 cannot expect to step forward to direct the public 
 mind. He is too much engaged in delighting it. 
 Besides, he is not the man for it. He is not a 
 litterateur. We want Byron.' 
 
 ' Ah ! there was the man ! And that such a man 
 should be lost to us, at the very moment that he had 
 begun to discover why it had pleased the Omnipotent 
 to have endowed him with such powers ! ' 
 
 ' If one thing was more characteristic of Byron's 
 mind than another, it was his strong, shrewd, com- 
 mon sense his pure, unalloyed sagacity.' 
 
 ' You knew the glorious being, I think, Cleve- 
 land ?' 
 
 'Well; I was slightly acquainted with him, when 
 in England ; slightly, however, for I was then very 
 young. But many years afterwards I met him in Italy. 
 It was at Pisa, just before he left for Genoa. I was 
 then very much struck at the alteration in his 
 appearance.' 
 
 Indeed ! ' 
 
 ' Yes ; his face was very much swollen, and he 
 was getting fat. His hair was grey, and his counte- 
 nance had lost that spiritual expression which it once 
 so eminently possessed. His teeth were decaying; 
 
 216
 
 CHAPTER I VIVIAN GREY 
 
 and he said, that If ever he came to England, it would 
 be to consult Wayte about them. I certainly was 
 very much struck at his alteration for the worse. 
 Besides, he was dressed in the most extraordinary 
 manner.' 
 
 ' Slovenly ? ' 
 
 ' Oh ! no, no, no in the most dandified style that 
 you can conceive; but not that of an English dandy 
 either. He had on a magnificent foreign foraging 
 cap, which he wore in the room, but his grey curls 
 were quite perceptible ; and a frogged surtout ; and 
 he had a large gold chain round his neck, and pushed 
 into his waistcoat pocket. I imagined, of course, 
 that a glass was attached to it : but I afterwards 
 found that it bore nothing but a quantity of trinkets. 
 He had also another gold chain tight round his neck, 
 like a collar.' 
 
 ' How extraordinary ! And did you converse 
 much with him ? ' 
 
 ' I was not long at Pisa, but we never parted, and 
 there was only one subject of conversation England, 
 England, England. I never met a man in whom 
 the maladie du pays was so strong. Byron was cer- 
 tainly at this time restless and discontented. He was 
 tired of his dragoon captains, and pensioned poetas- 
 ters, and he dared not come back to England with, 
 what he considered, a tarnished reputation. His 
 only thought was of some desperate exertion to clear 
 himself. It was for this he went to Greece. When 
 I was with him, he was in correspondence with some 
 friends in England, about the purchase of a large 
 tract of land in Colombia. He affected a great ad- 
 miration of Bolivar.' 
 
 ' Who, by the bye, is a great man.' 
 
 ' Assuredly.' 
 
 217
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK IV 
 
 ' Your acquaintance with Byron must have been 
 one of the most gratifying incidents of your life, 
 Cleveland ? ' 
 
 ' Certainly ; I may say with Friar Martin, in Goetz 
 of Berlichingen, " The sight of him touched my 
 heart. It is a pleasure to have seen a great man." 
 
 4 Hobhouse was a very faithful friend to him ? ' 
 
 ' His conduct has been beautiful and Byron had 
 a thorough affection for him in spite of a few squibs, 
 and a few drunken speeches, which damned good- 
 natured friends have always been careful to repeat.' 
 
 ' The loss of Byron can never be retrieved. He 
 was indeed a man a real man ; and when I say this, 
 I award him, in my opinion, the most splendid 
 character which human nature need aspire to. At 
 least, I, for my part, have no ambition to be con- 
 sidered either a divinity, or an angel ; and truly, 
 when I look round upon the creatures alike effemi- 
 nate in mind and body, of which the world is, in 
 general, composed, I fear that even my ambition is 
 too exalted. Byron's mind was like his own ocean- 
 sublime in its yesty madness beautiful in its glitter- 
 ing summer brightness mighty in the lone magni- 
 ficence of its waste of waters gazed upon from the 
 magic of its own nature, yet capable of representing, 
 but, as in a glass darkly, the natures of all others. I 
 say, Cleveland, here comes the greatest idiot in town ; 
 Craven Bucke. He came to me the other day com- 
 plaining bitterly of the imperfections of Johnson's 
 Dictionary. He had looked out Doncaster St. Leger 
 in it, and couldn't find the word.' 
 
 'How d'ye do, Bucke? you're just the man I 
 wanted to meet. Make a note of it while I re- 
 member. There is an edition of Johnson just pub- 
 lished, in which you'll find every single word you 
 
 218
 
 CHAPTER I VIVIAN GREY 
 
 want. Now put it down at once. It's published 
 under the title of John Bees' Slang Lexicon. Good 
 b'ye. How's your brother ? 
 
 * Pray, Cleveland, what do you think of Milman's 
 " new dramatic poem," Anne Boleyn ? ' 
 
 ' I think it's the dullest work on the Catholic 
 Question that has yet appeared.' 
 
 ' Is it true that Lockhart is going to have the 
 Quarterly ? ' 
 
 ' It was told me as a positive fact to-day. I 
 believe it.' 
 
 ' Murray can't do better. It's absolutely neces- 
 sary that he should do something. Lockhart is a 
 man of prodigious talents. Do you know him ? ' 
 
 ' Not in the least He certainly is a man of great 
 powers, but I think rather too hot for the Quarterly.' 
 
 ' Oh ! no, no, no a little of the Albemarle Anti- 
 attrition will soon cool the fiery wheels of his bound- 
 ing chariot. Come ! I see our horses.' 
 
 ' Hyde Park is greatly changed since I was a 
 dandy, Vivian. Pray, do the Misses Otranto still 
 live in that house ? ' 
 
 ' Yes blooming as ever.' 
 
 ' It's the fashion to abuse Horace Walpole, but I 
 really think him one of the most delightful writers 
 that ever existed. I wonder who is to be the Horace 
 Walpole of the present century ? some one perhaps 
 we least suspect.' 
 
 ' Vivida Vis, think you ? ' 
 
 ' More than probable. I'll tell you who ought to 
 be writing Memoirs Lord Dropmore.' 
 
 * Does my Lord Manfred keep his mansion there, 
 next to the Misses Otranto ?' 
 
 ' I believe so, and lives there.' 
 ' I knew him in Germany a singular man, and 
 219
 
 VIVIAN GBEY BOOK IV 
 
 not understood. Perhaps he does not understand 
 himself.' 
 
 ' I'll join you in an instant, Cleveland. I just 
 want to speak one word to Master Osborne, who I 
 see coming down here. Well, Osborne ! I must 
 come and knock you up one of these mornings. I've 
 got a nice little commission for you from Lady 
 Julia Knighton, which you must pay particular 
 atention to.' 
 
 * Well, Mr. Grey, how does Lady Julia like the 
 bay mare ? ' 
 
 * Very much, indeed ; but she wants to know what 
 you've done about the chesnut ?' 
 
 ' Oh ! put it off, Sir, in the prettiest style, on 
 young Mr. Feoffment, who has just married, and 
 taken a house in Gower-street. He wanted a bit of 
 blood hopes he likes it ! ' 
 
 1 Hopes he does, Jack. There's a particular 
 favour which you can do me, Osborne, and which 
 I'm sure you will. Ernest Clay you know Ernest 
 Clay a most excellent fellow is Ernest Clay, you 
 know, and a great friend of yours, Osborne ; I wish 
 you'd just step down to Connaught Place, and look 
 at these bays he bought of Harry Mounteney. 
 He's in a little trouble, and we must do what we 
 can for him you know he's an excellent fellow, 
 and a great friend of yours. Thank you, thank 
 you I knew you would. Good morning : re- 
 member Lady Julia. So you really fitted young 
 Feoffment with the chestnut. Well, that was ad- 
 mirable ! Good morning ; good morning.' 
 
 ' I don't know whether you care for these things 
 at all, Cleveland, but Premium, a famous Million- 
 aire, has gone this morning, for I don't know 
 how much ! Half the new world will be ruined ; 
 
 220
 
 CHAPTER I VIVIAN GREY 
 
 and in this old one, a most excellent fellow, my 
 friend Ernest Clay. He was engaged to Premium's 
 daughter his derniere resource ; and now, of course, 
 it's all up with him.' 
 
 ' I was at College with his brother, Augustus Clay. 
 He's a nephew of Lord Mounteney's, is he not ? ' 
 
 ' The very same. Poor fellow ! I don't know 
 what we must do for him. I think I shall advise 
 him to change his name to Chyvi//e ; and if the 
 world ask him the reason of the euphonious aug- 
 mentation, why, he can swear that it was to dis- 
 tinguish himself from his brothers. Too many roues 
 of the same name will never do. And now spurs 
 to our steeds, for we are going at least three miles 
 out of our way, and I must collect my senses, and 
 arrange my curls before dinner ; for I have to flirt 
 with, at least, three fair ones.' 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 DEVELOPEMENT OF THE PLOT 
 
 THESE conversations play the very deuce with one's 
 story. I had intended to have commenced this 
 book with something quite terrific a murder, or a 
 marriage : and I find that all my great ideas have 
 ended in a lounge. After all it is perhaps, the 
 most natural termination. In life, surely, man is 
 not always as monstrously busy as he appears to be 
 in novels and romances. We are not always in 
 action not always making speeches, or making 
 money, or making war, or making love. Occasion- 
 ally we talk, about the weather, generally some- 
 times about ourselves oftener about our friends 
 as often about our enemies at least, those who 
 have any ; which, in my opinion, is the vulgarest 
 
 221
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK. IV 
 
 of all possessions ; I have no enemies. Am I not 
 an amiable fellow ? At this moment I am perfectly 
 happy am I not a lucky fellow ? 
 
 And what is your situation, Mr. Felicity, you 
 will ask ? Have you just made a brilliant speech 
 in the House ? or have you negotiated a great loan 
 for a little nation ? or have you touched, for the 
 first time, some fair one's cheek ? In short, what 
 splendid juggle have you been successful in ? 
 Have you deluded your own country, or another ? 
 Have you deceived another's heart or, are you, 
 yourself, a dupe ? Not at all, my sweet questioner 
 I am strolling on a sunny lawn, and flanking 
 butterflies with a tandem whip. 
 
 I have not felt so well for these six months. 
 What would I have given to have had my blood 
 dancing as it is now, while I was scribbling the first 
 volume and a half of this dear book. But there is 
 nothing like the country ? I think I was saying 
 that these lounges in St. James's Park do not al- 
 ways very materially advance the progress of our 
 narrative. Not that I would insinuate that the pro- 
 gress of our narrative has flagged at all; not in the 
 least, I am sure we can't be accused of being prosy. 
 There has been no Balaam (I don't approve this 
 neologism; but I am too indolent, at present, to 
 think of another word,) in these books. I have with- 
 stood every temptation ; and now, though I scarcely 
 know in what way to make out this volume, here I 
 am, without the least intention of finally proving that 
 our Vivian Grey is the son of the Marquess of 
 Carabas by a former and secret marriage in Italy, 
 of course, Count Anselmo Naples and an old 
 nurse, &c. &c. ; or that Mrs. Felix Lorraine is 
 Horace Grey, Esquire, in disguise ; or of making 
 
 222
 
 CHAPTER II VIVIAN GREY 
 
 that much neglected beauty, Julia Manvers, arrive in 
 the last scene with a chariot with four horses and a 
 patent axle-tree just in time ! Alas ! dear Julia ! 
 we may meet again. In the meantime the memory 
 of your bright blue eyes shall not escape me ; and 
 when we do meet, why, you shall talk more and 
 laugh less. But you were young when last you 
 listened to my nonsense ; one of those innocent 
 young ladies, who, on entering a drawing-room, take 
 a rapid glance at their curls in a pier glass, and then, 
 flying to the eternal round table, seek refuge in an 
 admiring examination of the beauties of the Florence 
 Gallery, or the binding of Batty's views. 
 
 This slight allusion to Julia is a digression. I was 
 about to inform you, that I have no intention of 
 finishing this book by any thing extraordinary. The 
 truth is, and this is quite confidential, invention is 
 not to be l the feature ' of this work. What I have 
 seen, I have written about ; and what I shall see, I 
 shall perhaps, also write about. Some day I may, 
 perchance, write for fame ; at present, I write for 
 pleasure. I think, in that case, I'll write an epic, but 
 it shall be in prose. The reign of Poesy is over, at 
 least for half a century ; and by that time my bones 
 will be bleached. I think I should have made a 
 pretty poet. Indeed, it is with great difficulty that I 
 prevent my paragraphs from hobbling into stanzas. 
 
 Stop! I see the finest PURPLE EMPEROR, just 
 alighting upon that myrtle. Beautiful insect ! thy 
 title is too humble for thy bright estate ! for what is 
 the pageantry of princes to the splendour of thy 
 gorgeous robes ? I wish I were a purple Emperor ! 
 I came into the world naked and you in a garment 
 of glory. I dare not subject myself to the heat of 
 the sun, for fear of a coup de soleil \ nor to a damp 
 
 223
 
 VIVIAN GRFA r BOOK IV 
 
 day for fear of the rheumatism ; but the free sky is 
 your proper habitation, and the air your peculiar 
 element. What care you, bright one, for Dr. 
 Kitchener, or the Almanach des Gourmands ? you, 
 whose food is the dew of heaven, and the honied 
 juices which you distil from every flower ? Shadowed 
 by a leaf of that thick shrub, I could for a moment 
 fancy that your colour was sooty black ; and yet now 
 that the soft wind has blown the leaf aside, my eye 
 is suddenly dazzled at the resplendent glow of your 
 vivid purple. Now I gaze in admiration at the 
 delightful, and amazing variety of your shifting tints 
 playing in the sunbeam ; now, as it is lighting up 
 the splendour of your purple mantle, and now 
 lending fresh brilliancy to your rings of burnished 
 gold ! 
 
 My brilliant purple Emperor ! I must have you 
 I must indeed : but I wish, if possible, to bring you 
 down, rather by the respiration of my flank than 
 the impulse of my thong. Smack! Confound the 
 easterly wind playing up my nostril. I've missed 
 him and there he flies, mounting higher and higher, 
 till at last he fixes on the topmost branch of yon 
 lofty acacia. What shall I do ? I'm not the least in 
 the humour for writing. 
 
 There is the luncheon bell ! Luncheon is a meal, 
 if meal it may be called, which I do not patronise. 
 Tis very well for school-boys and young ladies; 
 acceptable to the first, because they are always ready 
 to devour and to the second, because a glass of 
 sherry and a slice of reindeer's tongue, and a little 
 marmalade, and a little Neufchatel, enable them to 
 toss their pretty little heads at dinner, and 'not 
 touch any thing ; ' be proportionately pitied, and look 
 proportionately interesting. Luncheon is the modern 
 
 224
 
 CHAPTER II VIVIAN GREY 
 
 mystery of the Bona Dea. I say nothing, but I once 
 acted Clodius, in this respect. I never wondered 
 afterwards at a woman's want of appetite. 
 
 But in the dear delicious country, and in a house 
 where no visitor is staying, and where I am tempted 
 to commit suicide hourly, I think I must take a very 
 thin crust, or one traveller's biscuit, and a little 
 Hock and Seltzer ; although I'm in that horrid 
 situation, neither possessing appetite, nor wanting 
 refreshment. What shall I do now ? Who can 
 write when the sun shines ? It's a warm, soft, sunny 
 day, though in March. I'll lie down on the lawn 
 and play with my Italian greyhound. Don't think 
 me a puppy for having one. It was given to me by 
 . That's a sufficient excuse, is it not ? 
 
 Now Hyacinth, now my Hyacinth, now my own 
 dog ; try to leap over me ! frolick away, my beau- 
 tiful one ; I love thee, and have not I cause ? What 
 confidence have you violated ? What sacred oaths 
 have you outraged ? Have you proved a craven in 
 the hour of trial ? Have I found you wanting when 
 I called, or false when I fondled ? Why do you 
 start so, my pretty dog ? Why are your eyes so 
 fixed, your ears so erect. Pretty creature ! does any 
 thing frighten you ? Kiss me, my own Hyacinth, 
 my dear, dear dog ! Oh ! you little wretch ! you've 
 bit my lip. Get out ! I'll not speak to you for a 
 fortnight. 
 
 I'll get Spenser's Faery Queen I'm just in the 
 humour for reading it ; but still its a horrid bore to 
 get up and go to the library. Come ! a desperate 
 exertion ! On my legs again there's nothing like 
 energy. Here's the book. Oh ! how I shall revel 
 in his sweet and bitter fancies ! Confusion ! I've 
 brought a volume of Tillotson's sermons. I hate 
 p 225
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK IV 
 
 the fellow ! That's the advantage of your country 
 libraries, having all your books bound the same. 
 
 Now I don't know what I shall do. I think I'll 
 amuse myself by jumping over that ha-ha', I'm 
 quite confident I can do it and yet whenever I'm 
 about trying, my heart sadly misgives me. It's a 
 complete fallacy; it's devilish deep though. There 
 that easterly wind has baulked me again ; and here 
 I am, up to my knees in mud, and my pretty violet- 
 coloured slippers spoilt ! 
 
 First dinner bell ! A hecatomb to the son of 
 Latona, his rays are getting less powerful, and it's 
 getting a little later. Though nobody is staying 
 here, I'll go and dress myself in the most elaborate 
 manner ; it will assist in the destruction of the time. 
 What a dull dinner! I have eaten of every thing: 
 soupe printanniere (twice) fillets of turbot a la 
 crime fowl a la Montmorenci, garnished with ragout 
 
 a rAllemande neck of veal a la S te . Menehoult 
 
 marinade of chickens a la St. Florentin Muriton of 
 red tongue, with spinach six quails two dishes of 
 kale, merely with plain butter half a dozen orange 
 jellies, en mosdiques cauliflowers with veloute sauce, 
 and a petit gateau a la M<enonz souffiee with lemon, 
 and a dozen Neufchatel cheeses a bottle of' Marke- 
 brunnen, a pint of Latour, and a pint of Maraschino. 
 Gone through it all ; and yet here I am, breathing as 
 freely as a young eagle. Oh ! for an indigestion, if 
 merely for the sake of variety ! Good heavens ! 
 I'm afraid I'm getting healthy! 
 
 Now for Vivian Grey again ! I don't know how 
 
 I cannot write to-day ; the room's so hot. 
 
 Open that door: now I shall get on better. Oh 
 
 what a wretched pen! I can't get out a sentence. 
 
 he room s too cold ; shut that horrid door. Write 
 
 226
 
 CHAPTER II VIVIAN GREY 
 
 I must, and will, what's the matter ? It's this 
 great bowstring of a cravat. Off with it ! who could 
 ever write in a cravat ? 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 BUCKHURST LODGE 
 
 MR. CLEVELAND and Mrs. Felix Lorraine again met, 
 and the gentleman scarcely appeared to be aware that 
 this meeting was not their first. The lady sighed, 
 and fainted, and remonstrated ; and terrific scenes 
 followed each other in frightful succession. She 
 reproached Mr. Cleveland with passages of letters. 
 He stared, and deigned not a reply to an artifice, 
 which he considered equally impudent and shallow. 
 Vivian was forced to interfere ; but as he deprecated 
 all explanation, his interference was of little avail ; 
 and, as it was ineffectual for one party, and uncalled 
 for by the other, it was, of course, not encouraged. 
 At length Mrs. Felix broke through all bounds. 
 Now the enraged woman insulted Mrs. Cleveland, 
 and now humbled herself before Mrs. Cleveland's 
 husband. Her insults, and her humility, were 
 treated with equal hauteur ; and at length the Cleve- 
 lands left Buckhurst Lodge. 
 
 Peculiar as was Mrs. Lorraine's conduct in this 
 particular respect, we should, in candour, confess, 
 that, at this moment, it was in all others most exem- 
 plary. Her whole soul seem concentrated in the 
 success of the approaching struggle. No office was 
 too mechanical for her attention, or too elaborate for 
 her enthusiastic assiduity. Her attentions were not 
 confined merely to Vivian, and the Marquess, but 
 were lavished with equal generosity on their col- 
 leagues. She copied letters for Sir Berdmore, and 
 
 227
 
 VIVIAN GRKV BOOK IV 
 
 composed letters for Lord Courtown, and construed 
 letters to Lord Beaconsfield ; they, in return, echoed 
 her praises to her delighted relative, who was daily 
 congratulated on the possession of * such a fascinating 
 sister-in-law.' 
 
 * Well, Vivian,' said Mrs. Lorraine, to that young 
 gentleman, the day previous to his departure from 
 Buckhurst Lodge ; ' you are going to leave me 
 behind you.' 
 
 ' Indeed ! ' 
 
 ' Yes ! I hope you will not want me. I'm very 
 much annoyed at not being able to go to town with 
 you, but Lady Courtown is so pressing ! and I've 
 really promised so often to stay a week with her, that 
 I thought it was better to make out my promise at 
 once, than in six months hence.' 
 
 ' Well ! I'm exceedingly sorry, for you really are 
 so useful ! and the interest you take in every thing 
 is so encouraging, that, really, I very much fear that 
 we shall not be able to get on without you. The 
 important hour draws nigh.' 
 
 ' It does indeed, Vivian and I assure you that 
 there is no person awaiting it with intenser interest 
 than myself. I little thought,' she added, in a low, 
 but distinct voice, * I little thought, when I first 
 reached England, that I should ever again be inter- 
 ested in any thing in this world.' Vivian was silent 
 for he had nothing to say. 
 
 ' Vivian ! ' very briskly resumed Mrs. Lorraine, 
 ' I shall get you to frank all my letters for me. 
 I shall never trouble the Marquess again. Do 
 you know, it strikes me you'll make a very good 
 speaker ! ' 
 
 * You flatter me exceedingly suppose you give 
 me a few lessons.' 
 
 228
 
 CHAPTER III VIVIAN GREY 
 
 But you must leave off some of your wicked 
 tricks, Vivian ! You must not improvise Parlia- 
 mentary papers ! ' 
 
 * Improvise papers, Mrs. Lorraine ! what can you 
 mean ? ' 
 
 ' Oh ! nothing. I never mean any thing.' 
 ' But you must have had some meaning.' 
 ' Some meaning ! Oh ! yes, I dare say I had ; 
 I meant I meant do you think it'll rain to-day ? ' 
 
 * Every prospect of a hard frost. I never knew 
 before that I was an improvisatore.' 
 
 * Nor I. Have you heard from papa lately. I 
 suppose he's quite in spirits at your success ? ' 
 
 ' My father is a man who seldom gives way to any 
 elation of mind.' 
 
 4 Ah, indeed ! a philosopher, I've no doubt, like 
 his son.' 
 
 * I have no claims, I believe, to the title of philo- 
 sopher, although I have had the advantage of study- 
 ing in the school of Mrs. Felix Lorraine.' 
 
 ' Lord ! what do you mean ? If I thought you 
 meant to be impertinent, I really would pull that 
 pretty little curl ; but I excuse you I think the boy 
 means well.' 
 
 ' Oh ! the boy " means nothing he never means 
 any thing.' ' 
 
 ' Come, Vivian ! we are going to part. Don't let 
 us quarrel the last day. There, my little pet, there's 
 a sprig of myrtle for you ! 
 
 " What ! not accept my foolish flower ? 
 Nay then, I am unblest indeed ' " 
 
 and now you want it all ! Oh, you unreasonable 
 young man ! If I were not the kindest lady in the 
 in the land, I should tear this little sprig into a 
 thousand pieces sooner ; but come, my pretty pet ! 
 
 229
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK IV 
 
 you shall have it. There ! it looks quite imposing 
 in your button-hole. How handsome you look 
 to-day ! ' 
 
 ' How agreeable you are to-day ! I do so love 
 compliments ! ' 
 
 ' Oh ! Vivian will you never give me credit for 
 any thing but a light and callous heart ? Will you 
 never be convinced that that but why make this 
 humiliating confession ? Oh ! no, let me be mis- 
 understood for ever ! The time may come, when 
 Vivian Grey will find that Amalia Lorraine was 
 
 ' Was what, Lady ? ' 
 
 ' You shall choose the word, Vivian.' 
 
 'Say then my friend' 
 
 ' 'Tis a monosyllable full of meaning, and I will 
 not quarrel with it. And now, adieu! Heaven 
 prosper you ! Believe me, that my first thoughts, 
 and my last, are for you, and of you ! ' 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 THE POST 
 
 ' THIS is very kind of you, Grey ! I was afraid my 
 note might not have caught you. You hav'n't break- 
 fasted ? Really, I wish you'd take up your quarters 
 in Carabas House, for I want you now every 
 moment.' 
 
 ' What is the urgent business of this morning, my 
 
 ' Oh ! I've seen Beresford.' 
 
 'Hah!' 
 
 'And everything is most satisfactory. I did not 
 go into detail ; I left that for you : but I ascertained 
 sufficient to convince me, that management is now 
 alone required.' 
 
 230
 
 CHAPTER IV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 ' Well, my Lord, I trust that will not be wanting.' 
 
 ' No, Vivian, you have opened my eyes to the 
 situation in which fortune has placed me. The 
 experience of every day only proves the truth, and 
 soundness, of your views. Fortunate, indeed, was 
 the hour in which we met.' 
 
 ' My Lord, I do trust that it was a meeting, which 
 neither of us will live to repent.' 
 
 'Impossible ! my dearest friend. I do not hesitate 
 to say, that I would not change my present lot for 
 that of any peer of this realm ; no, not for that of 
 His Majesty's most favoured counseller. What ! 
 with my character, and my influence, and my connec- 
 tions, I to be a tool ! I, the Marquess of Carabas ! I 
 say nothing of my own powers ; but, as you often 
 most justly, and truly, observe, the world has had the 
 opportunity of judging of them ; and I think, I may 
 recur, without vanity, to the days in which my voice 
 had some weight in the Royal Councils. And as I 
 have often remarked, I have friends I have you, 
 Vivian. My career is before you. I know what I 
 should have done, at your age ; not to say what 
 I did do I to be a tool ! The very last person 
 that ought to be a tool. But I see my error : you 
 have opened my eyes, and blessed be the hour in 
 which we met. But we must take care how we act, 
 Vivian ; we must be wary eh ! Vivian wary wary. 
 People must know what their situations are, eh ! 
 Vivian ?' 
 
 ' Exceedingly useful knowledge, my Lord, but I 
 don't exactly understand the particular purport of 
 your Lordship's last observation.' 
 
 ' You don't, eh ? asked the peer, and he fixed his 
 eyes as earnestly, and expressively, as he possibly 
 could upon his young companion. ' Well, I thought 
 
 231
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK IV 
 
 not. I was positive it was not true,' continued the 
 Marquess, in a murmur. 
 
 * What, my Lord ? ' 
 
 ' Oh ! nothing, nothing ; people talk at random 
 at random at random. I feel confident you quite 
 agree with me, eh ! Vivian ? ' 
 
 * Really, my Lord, I fear I'm unusually dull this 
 morning.' 
 
 " Dull ! no, no, you quite agree with me. I feel 
 confident you do. People must be taught what their 
 situations are that's what I was saying, Vivian. My 
 Lord Courtown,' added the Marquess in a whisper, 
 ' is not to have everything his own way eh ! 
 Vivian?" 
 
 ' Oh, oh ! ' thought Vivian, ' this then is the result 
 of that admirable creature, Mrs. Felix Lorraine, stay- 
 ing a week with her dear friend, Lady Courtown. '- 
 * My Lord, it would be singular, if, in the Carabas 
 party, the Carabas interest was not the predominant 
 one.' 
 
 * I knew you thought so. I couldn't believe for a 
 minute, that you could think otherwise : but some 
 people take such strange ideas into their heads I 
 can't account for them. I felt confident what would 
 be your opinion. My Lord Courtown is not to 
 carry every thing before him, in the spirit that I have 
 lately observed or rather, in the spirit which I 
 understand, from very good authority, is exhibited. 
 Eh ! Vivian that's your opinion, isn't it ? ' 
 
 ' Oh, my dear Marquess, we must think alike on 
 this, as on all points.' 
 
 4 1 knew it. I felt confident as to your sentiments 
 upon this subject. I cannot conceive, why some 
 people take such strange ideas into their heads ! I 
 knew that you couldn't disagree with me upon this 
 
 232
 
 CHAPTER IV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 point. No, no, no, my Lord Courtown must feel 
 which is the, predominant interest, as you so well 
 express it. How choice your expressions always are ! 
 I don't know how it is, but you always hit upon the 
 right expression, Vivian, The predominant interest 
 the pre-do-mi-nant in-te-rest. To be sure. What ! 
 with my high character and connections with my 
 stake in society, was it to be expected that I, the 
 Marquess of Carabas, was going to make any move 
 which compromised the predominancy of my interests. 
 No, no, no, my Lord Courtown the predominant 
 interest must be kept predominant eh ! Vivian ?' 
 
 ' To be sure, to be sure, my Lord ; explicitness 
 and decision will soon arrange any desagremens? 
 
 ' I have been talking to the Marchioness, Vivian, 
 upon the expediency of her opening the season early. 
 I think a course of Parliamentary dinners would pro- 
 duce a good effect. It gives a tone to a political 
 party.' 
 
 ' Certainly ; the science of political gastronomy 
 has never been sufficiently studied.' 
 
 ' Egad ! Vivian, I'm in such spirits this morning. 
 This business of Beresford so delights me; and 
 finding you agree with me about Lord Courtown, 
 I was confident as to your sentiments on that point. 
 But some people take such strange ideas into their 
 heads ! To be sure, to be sure, the predominant 
 interest, mine that is to say, our's, Vivian, is the 
 predominant interest. I've no idea of the predo- 
 minant interest, not being predominant ; that would 
 be singular ! I knew you'd agree with me we 
 always agree. 'Twas a lucky hour when we met. 
 Two minds so exactly alike ! I was just your very 
 self when I was young ; and as for you my career 
 is before you.' 
 
 233
 
 VIVIAN 7 GREY BOOK IV 
 
 Here entered Mr. Sadler with the letters. 
 
 4 One from Courtown. I wonder if he has seen 
 Mounteney. Mounteney is a very good-natured 
 fellow, and I think might be managed. Ah ! I 
 wish you could get hold of him, Vivian ; you'd soon 
 bring him round. What it is to have brains, Vivian ! ' 
 and here the Marquess shook his head very pomp- 
 ously, and at the same time, tapped very significantly 
 on his left temple. ' Hah ! what -what's all this ! 
 Here, read it, read it, man. I've no head to-day.' 
 
 Vivian took the letter, and his quick eye dashed 
 through its contents in a second. It was from Lord 
 Courtown, and dated far in the country. It talked 
 of private communications, and premature conduct, 
 and the suspicious, not to say dishonest, behaviour of 
 Mr. Vivian Grey: it trusted that such conduct was 
 not sanctioned by his Lordship, but ' nevertheless 
 obliged to act with decision regretted the necessity,' 
 &c. &c. &c. &c. In short, Lord Courtown had 
 deserted, and recalled his pledge as to the official 
 appointment promised to Mr. "Cleveland, ' because 
 that promise was made, while he was the victim of 
 delusions created by the representations of Mr. Grey.' 
 
 ' What can all this mean, my Lord ?' 
 
 The Marquess swore a fearful oath, and threw 
 another letter. 
 
 'This is from Lord Beaconsfield, my Lord,' said 
 Vivian, with a face pallid as death, * and apparently 
 the composition of the same writer ; at least, it is the 
 same tale, the same re f admen to of lies, and treachery, 
 and cowardice, doled out with diplomatic politesse. 
 
 But I will off to shire instantly. It is not yet 
 
 too late to save every thing. This is Wednesday; 
 on Thursday afternoon, I shall be at Norwood Park. 
 Thank God ! I came this morning.' 
 
 234
 
 CHAPTER IV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 The face of the Marquess, who was treacherous as 
 the wind, seemed already to indicate, ' Adieu ! Mr. 
 Vivian Grey ! ' but that countenance exhibited some 
 very different passions, when it glanced over the 
 contents of the next epistle. There was a tremen- 
 dous oath and a dead silence. His Lordship's 
 florid countenance turned as pale as that of his com- 
 panion. The perspiration stole down in heavy drops. 
 He gasped for breath ! 
 
 ' Good God ! my Lord, what is the matter ?' 
 
 ' The matter ! ' howled the Marquess, ' the matter ! 
 That I have been a vain, weak, miserable fool ! ' and 
 then there was another oath, and he flung the letter 
 to the other side of the table. 
 
 It was the official conge of the Most Noble Sydney 
 Marquess of Carabas. His Majesty had no longer 
 any occasion for his services. His successor was 
 Lord Courtown ! 
 
 I will not affect to give any description of the 
 conduct of the Marquess of Carabas at this moment. 
 He raved ! he stamped ! he blasphemed ! but the 
 whole of his abuse was levelled against his former 
 ' monstrous clever ' young friend ; of whose character 
 he had so often boasted that his own was the proto- 
 type, but who was now an adventurer a swindler 
 a scoundrel a liar a base, deluding, flattering, 
 fawning villain, &c. &c. &c. &c. 
 
 ' My Lord !' said Vivian. 
 
 ' I'll not hear you out on your fair words ! 
 They have duped me enough already. That I, 
 with my high character, and connections ! that I, 
 the Marquess of Carabas, should have been the 
 victim of the arts of a young scoundrel ! ' 
 
 Vivian's fist was once clenched but it was only 
 for a moment. The Marquess leant back in his 
 
 235
 
 VIVIAN GRKY BOOK IV 
 
 chair, with his eyes shut. In the agony of the 
 moment, a projecting tooth of his upper jaw, had 
 forced itself through his under lip, and from the 
 wound, the blood was flowing freely over his dead 
 white countenance. Vivian left the room. 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 THE RACK 
 
 HE stopped one moment on the landing-place, ere he 
 was about to leave the house for ever. 
 
 ' 'Tis all over ! and so, Vivian Grey, your game is 
 up ! and to die too, like a dog ! a woman's dupe ! 
 Were I a despot, I should perhaps satiate my 
 vengeance upon this female fiend, with the assistance 
 of the rack but that cannot be ; and after all, it 
 would be but a poor revenge in one who has wor- 
 shipped the EMPIRE OF THE INTELLECT, to vindicate 
 the agony I am now enduring, upon the base body of 
 a woman. No ! 'tis not all over. There is yet an 
 intellectual rack few dream of, far, far more terrific 
 than the most exquisite contrivances of Parysatis. 
 Madeleine,' said he to a female attendant that passed, 
 ' is your mistress at home ? ' 
 
 ' She is, Sir.' 
 
 ' 'Tis well,' said Vivian, and he sprang up stairs. 
 
 ' Health to the lady of our love ! ' said Vivian 
 Grey, as he entered the elegant boudoir of Mrs. 
 Felix Lorraine. 'In spite of the easterly wind, 
 which has spoiled my beauty for the season, I could 
 not refrain from enquiring after your prosperity, 
 before I went to the Marquess. Have you heard 
 the news ? ' 
 
 * News ! no ; what news ? ' 
 236
 
 CHAPTER V VIVIAN GREY 
 
 ' 'Tis a sad tale,' said Vivian, with a melancholy 
 voice. 
 
 ' Oh ! then, pray don't tell it me. I'm in no 
 humour for sorrow to-day. Come ! a bon mot, or 
 a calembourg, or exit Mr. Vivian Grey.' 
 
 ' Well then, good morning ! I'm off for a black 
 crape, or a Barcelona kerchief. Mrs. Cleveland is 
 dead' 
 
 ' Dead ! ' exclaimed Mrs. Lorraine. 
 
 ' Ay ; cold dead. She died last night suddenly. 
 Isn't it horrible ?' 
 
 .' Shocking ! ' exclaimed Mrs. Lorraine, with a 
 mournful voice, and an eye dancing with joy. 
 ' Why ! Mr. Grey, I do declare you're weeping.' 
 
 ' It is not for the departed ! ' 
 
 1 Nay, Vivian ! for Heaven's sake, what's the 
 matter ?' 
 
 ' My dear Mrs. Lorraine ! ' But here the speaker's 
 voice was choaked with grief, and he could not 
 proceed. 
 
 ' Pray, compose yourself.' 
 
 ' Mrs. Felix Lorraine, can I speak with you half 
 an hour, undisturbed ?' 
 
 ' Oh ! certainly, by all means. I'll ring for 
 Madeleine. " Madeleine ! mind, I'm not at home 
 to any one." Well ! what's the matter ?' 
 
 ' Oh ! Madam, I must pray your patience I wish 
 you to shrive a penitent.' 
 
 'Good God ! Mr. Grey! for Heaven's sake, be 
 explicit,' 
 
 4 For Heaven's sake for your sake for my soul's 
 sake, I would be explicit; but explicitness is not the 
 language of such as I am. Can you listen to a tale 
 of horror ? Can you promise me to contain your- 
 self?' 
 
 2 37
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK IV 
 
 ' I will promise any thing. Pray, pray proceed.' 
 
 But in spite of her earnest solicitations, her 
 companion was mute. At length he arose from his 
 chair, and leaning on the chimney-piece, buried his 
 face in his hands, and wept most bitterly. 
 
 ' Vivian,' said Mrs. Lorraine, ' have you seen the 
 Marquess yet ?' 
 
 ' Not yet,' he sobbed ; ' I am going to him ; but 
 I'm in no humour for business this morning.' 
 
 ' Oh ! compose yourself, I beseech you. I will 
 hear every thing. You shall not complain of an 
 inattentive, or an irritable auditor. Now, my dear 
 Vivian, sit down and tell me all.' She led him to a 
 chair, and then, after stifling his sobs, with a broken 
 voice he proceeded. 
 
 ' You will recollect, Madam, that accident made 
 me acquainted with certain circumstances connected 
 with yourself, and Mr. Cleveland. Alas ! actuated 
 by the vilest of sentiments, I conceived a violent 
 hatred against that gentleman a hatred only to be 
 equalled by my passion for you ; but, I find difficulty 
 in dwelling upon the details of this sad story of 
 jealousy and despair.' 
 
 ' Oh ! speak, speak ! compensate for all you have 
 done, by your present frankness; be brief be 
 brief.' 
 
 'I will be brief] shouted Vivian, with terrific 
 earnestness ; < I will be brief. Know then, Madam, 
 that in order to prevent the intercourse between you 
 and Mr. Cleveland from proceeding, I obtained his 
 friendship, and became the confidant of his heart's 
 sweetest secret. Thus situated, I suppressed the 
 letters, with which I was entrusted from him to you, 
 and poisoning his mind, I accounted for your silence, 
 by your being employed in other correspondence- 
 
 238
 
 CHAPTER V VIVIAN GREY 
 
 nay, I did more, with the malice of a fiend, I boasted 
 of nay, do not stop me; I have more to tell.' 
 
 Mrs. Felix Lorraine, with compressed lips, and 
 looks of horrible earnestness, gazed in silence. 
 
 ' The result of all this you know, but the most 
 terrible part is to come ; and, by a strange fascination, 
 I fly to confess my crimes at your feet, even, while 
 the last minutes have witnessed my most heinous 
 one. Oh ! Madam, I have stood over the bier of 
 the departed ; I have mingled my tears with those of 
 the sorrowing widower, his young, and tender, child 
 was on my knee ; and, as I kissed his innocent lips, 
 methought it was but my duty to the departed, to 
 save the father from his mother's rival He 
 stopped. 
 
 ' Yes, yes, yes,' said Mrs. Felix Lorraine, in a 
 low whisper. 
 
 ' It was then, even then, in the hour of his desola- 
 tion, that I mentioned your name, that it might the 
 more disgust him ; and, while he wept over his 
 virtuous and sainted wife, I dwelt on the vices of 
 his rejected Mistress' 
 
 Mrs. Lorraine clasped her hands, and moved 
 restlessly on her seat. 
 
 ' Nay ! do not stop me; let me tell all. "Cleve- 
 land," said I, " if ever you become the husband of 
 Mrs. Felix Lorraine, remember my last words : it 
 will be well for you, if your frame be like that of 
 Mithridates of Pontus, and proof against poison'" 
 
 ' And did you say this ?' shrieked the woman. 
 
 'Even these were my words.' 
 
 ' Then may all evil blast you ! ' She threw herself 
 on the sofa : her voice was choked with the convul- 
 sions of her passion, and she writhed in the most 
 fearful agony. 
 
 2 39
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK [V 
 
 Vivian Grey, lounging in an arm-chair, in the 
 the easiest of postures, and with a face brilliant with 
 smiles, watched his victim with the eye of a Mephis- 
 tophiles. 
 
 She slowly recovered, and with a broken voice 
 poured forth her sacred absolution to the relieved 
 penitent. 
 
 ' You wonder I do not stab you, hah ! hah ! hah ! 
 there is no need for that', the good powers be 
 praised, that you refused the draught I once proffered. 
 Know, wretch, that your race is run. Within five 
 minutes, you will breathe a beggar, and an outcast. 
 Your golden dreams are over your cunning plans 
 are circumvented your ambitious hopes are crushed 
 for ever you are blighted in the very spring of your 
 life. Oh ! may you never die ! May you wander 
 for ever, the butt of the world's malice ! and may the 
 slow moving finger of scorn, point where'er you go 
 at the ruined Charlatan ! ' 
 
 * Hah, hah ! is it so, my lady ? Oh ! think you, 
 that Vivian Grey would fall by a woman's wile ? 
 Oh ! think you that Vivian Grey, could be crushed 
 by such a worthless thing as you \ Know, then, that 
 your political intrigues have been as little concealed 
 from me, as your personal ones ; I have been 
 acquainted with all. The Marquess has, himself, 
 seen the Minister, and is more firmly stablished in 
 his pride of place than ever. I have, myself, seen 
 our colleagues, whom you tampered with, and their 
 hearts are still true, and their purpose still fixed. 
 All, all prospers ; and ere five days are passed, " the 
 Charlatan " will be a Senator' 
 
 The shifting expression of Mrs. Lorraine's counte- 
 nance, while Vivian was speaking, would have baffled 
 the most cunning painter. Her complexion was 
 
 240
 
 CHAPTER V VIVIAN GREY 
 
 capricious as the chamelion's, and her countenance 
 was so convulsed, that her features seemed of all 
 shapes and sizes. One large vein protruded nearly a 
 quarter of an inch from her forehead ; and the dank 
 light which gleamed in her tearful eye, was like an 
 unwholesome meteor quivering in a marsh. When 
 he ended, she sprang from the sofa, and looking up, 
 and extending her arms with unmeaning wildness, 
 she gave one loud shriek, and dropped like a bird 
 shot on the wing she had burst a blood-vessel. 
 
 Vivian raised her on the sofa, and paid her every 
 possible attention. There is always a vile apothecary 
 lurking about the mansions of the noble, and so a 
 Mr. Andrewes soon appeared, and to this worthy, 
 and the attendant Madeleine, Vivian delivered his 
 patient. 
 
 Had Vivian Grey left the boudoir a pledged bride- 
 groom, his countenance could not have been more 
 triumphant ; but he was labouring under the most 
 unnatural excitation : for it is singular, that when, 
 as he left the house, the porter told him that Mr. 
 Cleveland was with his Lord, Vivian had no idea at 
 the moment, what individual bore that name. The 
 fresh air of the street revived him, and somewhat 
 cooled the bubbling of his blood. It was then that 
 the man's information struck upon his senses. 
 
 ' So, poor Cleveland ! ' thought Vivian, ' then he 
 knows all ! ' His own misery he had not yet thought 
 of; but, when Cleveland occurred to him, with his 
 ambition once more baulked his high hopes once 
 more blasted and his honourable soul once more 
 deceived, when he thought of his fair wife, and his 
 infant children, and his ruined prospects; a sickness 
 came over his heart, he grew dizzy, and fell. 
 
 ' And the gentleman's ill, I think,' said an honest 
 Q 241
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK IV 
 
 Irishman ; and in the fulness of his charity, he placed 
 Vivian on a door step. 
 
 ' So it seems,' said a genteel passenger in black ; 
 and he snatched, with great sang-froid^ Vivian's gold 
 watch. 'Stop thief! ' halloed the Hibernian. Paddy 
 was tripped up. There was a row ; in the midst of 
 which, Vivian Grey crawled to an hotel. 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE CLUB 
 
 IN half an hour Vivian was at Mr. Cleveland's door. 
 
 'My master is at the Marquess of Carabas', sir; 
 he will not return, but is going immediately to Rich- 
 mond, where Mrs. Cleveland is staying.' 
 
 Vivian immediately wrote to Mr. Cleveland. ' If 
 your Master has left the Marquess's, let this be for- 
 warded to him at Richmond immediately.' 
 
 ' Cleveland ! 
 
 ' You know all. It would be mockery were I to 
 say, that at this moment I am not thinking of myself. 
 I am a ruined man, in body and in mind. But my 
 own misery is nothing ; I can die I can go mad 
 and who will be harmed ? But you ! I had wished 
 that we should never meet again ; but my hand 
 refuses to trace the thoughts with which my heart is 
 full, and I am under the sad necessity of requesting 
 you to see me once more. We have been betrayed 
 and by a woman ; but, there has been revenge ! oh ! 
 what revenge ! 
 
 VIVIAN GREY.' 
 
 When Vivian left Mr. Cleveland's, he actually did 
 not know what to do with himself. Home, at pre- 
 sent, he could not face, and so he continued to 
 
 242
 
 CHAPTER VI VIVIAN GREY 
 
 wander about, quite unconscious of locality. He 
 passed in his progress many of his acquaintance, who, 
 from his distracted air and rapid pace, imagined that 
 he was intent on some important business. At 
 length he found himself in one of the most seques- 
 tered parts of Kensington Gardens. It was a cold, 
 frosty day, and as Vivian flung himself upon one of 
 the summer seats, the snow drifted from ofF the 
 frozen board ; but Vivian's brow was as burning hot, 
 as if he had been an inhabitant of Sirius. Throwing 
 his arms on a small garden table, he buried his face 
 in his hands, and wept as men can but once weep 
 in this world ! 
 
 Oh ! thou sublime and most subtle philosopher, 
 who, in thy lamp-lit cell, art speculating upon the 
 passions which thou hast never felt ! Oh ! thou 
 splendid and most admirable poet, who, with cun- 
 ning words, art painting with a smile a tale of woe ! 
 tell me what is Grief ? and solve me the mystery of 
 Sorrow ? 
 
 Not for himself for after the first pang, he would 
 have whistled off his high hopes with the spirit of 
 a Ripperda not even for Cleveland for at this 
 moment, it must be confessed, his thoughts were not 
 for his friend did Vivian Grey's soul struggle, as if 
 it were about to leave its fleshly chamber. I said he 
 wept, as men can weep but once in this world ; and 
 yet it would have been impossible for him to have 
 defined what, at that fearful moment, was the cause 
 of his heart's sorrow. Incidents of childhood, of the 
 most trivial nature, and until this moment forgotten, 
 flashed across his memory; he gazed on the smile of 
 his mother he listened to the sweet tones of his 
 father's voice and his hand clenched, with still more 
 agonized grasp, his rude resting-place ; and the scald- 
 
 243
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK IV 
 
 ing tears dashed down his cheek in still more ardent 
 torrents. He had no distinct remembrance of what 
 had, so lately, happened ; but characters flitted before 
 him as in a theatre in a dream dim and shadowy, 
 yet full of mysterious and undefinable interest; and 
 then there came a horrible idea across his mind, that 
 his glittering youth was gone, and wasted ; and then 
 there was a dark whisper of treachery and dissimula- 
 tion, and dishonour; and then he sobbed as if his 
 very heart were cracking. All his boasted philosophy 
 vanished his artificial feelings fled him. Insulted 
 Nature re-asserted her long spurned authority, and 
 the once proud Vivian Grey felt too humble, even to 
 curse himself. Gradually his sobs became less con- 
 vulsed, and his brow more cool ; and calm from very 
 exhaustion, he sat for upwards of an hour motionless. 
 At this moment there issued, with their attendant, 
 from an adjoining shrubbery, two beautiful children. 
 They were so exceedingly lovely, that the passenger 
 would have stopped to gaze upon them. The eldest, 
 who yet was very young, was leading his sister hand 
 in hand, with slow and graceful steps, mimicking the 
 courtesy of men. But when his eye caught Vivian's, 
 the boy uttered a loud cry of exultation, and rushed, 
 with the eagerness of infantine affection, to his gentle 
 and favourite playmate. They were the young Cleve- 
 lands. With what miraculous quickness will man 
 shake off the outward semblance of grief, when his 
 sorrow is a secret! The mighty Merchant, who 
 knows that in four-and-twenty hours the world must 
 be astounded by his insolvency, will walk in the front 
 of his confident creditor, as if he were the lord of a 
 thousand argosies the meditating Suicide will smile 
 on the arm of a companion, as if to breathe in this 
 sunny world, were the most ravishing, and rapturous 
 
 244
 
 CHAPTER VI VIVIAN GREY 
 
 bliss. We cling to our stations in our fellow creatures' 
 
 O 
 
 minds, and memories ; we know, too well, the frail 
 tenure on which we are in this world, great and con- 
 sidered personages. Experience makes us shrink 
 from the specious sneer of Sympathy ; and when we 
 are ourselves falling, bitter Memory whispers, that 
 we have ourselves been neglectful. 
 
 And so it was, that, even unto these infants, Vivian 
 Grey dared not appear other than a gay, and easy- 
 hearted man ; and in a moment he was dancing them 
 on his knee, and playing with their curls, and joining 
 in their pretty prattle, and pressing their small and 
 fragrant lips. 
 
 It was night when he paced down. He passed 
 
 his club ; that club, to become a member of which, 
 had once been the object of his high ambition, and to 
 gain which privilege had cost such hours of canvas- 
 sing ; such interference of noble friends; and the in- 
 curring of favours from five thousand people, ' which 
 never could be forgotten.' 
 
 I know not what desperate feeling actuated him, 
 but he entered the Club-house. He walked into 
 the great saloon, and met some fifty ' most particular 
 friends,' all of whom asked him, ' how the Marquess 
 did,' or ' have you seen Cleveland ?' and a thousand 
 other as comfortable queries. At length, to avoid 
 these disagreeable rencontres ; and, indeed, to rest 
 himself, he went to a smaller and more private 
 room. As he opened the door, his eyes lighted 
 upon Cleveland. 
 
 He was standing with his back to the fire. There 
 were only two other persons in the room : one was 
 a friend of Cleveland's, and the other an acquaintance 
 of Vivian's. The latter was writing at the table. 
 
 When Vivian saw Cleveland, he would have re- 
 245
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK IV 
 
 tired, but he was bid to ' come in,' in a voice of 
 thunder. 
 
 As he entered, he instantly perceived that Cleve- 
 land was under the influence of wine. When in this 
 situation, unlike other men, Mr. Cleveland's con- 
 duct was not distinguished by any of the little im- 
 proprieties of behaviour, by which a man is always 
 known by his friends ' to be very drunk,' He 
 neither reeled, nor hiccupped, nor grew maudlin. 
 The effect of drinking upon him, was only to in- 
 crease the intensity of the sensation by which his 
 mind was, at the moment, influenced. He did not 
 even lose the consciousness of identity of persons. 
 At this moment, it was clear to Vivian that Cleveland 
 was under the influence of the extremest passion : his 
 eyes rolled widely, and seemed fixed only upon 
 vacancy. As Vivian was no friend to scenas before 
 strangers, he bowed to the two gentlemen, and 
 saluted Cleveland with his wonted cordiality ; but his 
 proffered hand was rudely repelled. 
 
 * Away ! ' exclaimed Cleveland, in a furious tone ; 
 ' I have no friendship for traitors ! ' 
 
 The two gentlemen stared, and the pen of the 
 writer stopped. 
 
 ' Cleveland ! ' said Vivian, in an earnest whisper, as 
 he came up close to him; 'for God's sake, contain 
 yourself. I have written you a letter which explains 
 ail-but-' 
 
 ' Out ! out upon you ! Out upon your honied 
 words, and your soft phrases ! I've been their dupe 
 too long;' and he struck Vivian with tremendous 
 force. 
 
 ' Sir John Poynings ! ' said Vivian, with a quivering 
 lip, turning to the gentleman who was writing at the 
 table' we were school-fellows ; circumstances have 
 
 246
 
 CHAPTER VI VIVIAN GREY 
 
 prevented us from meeting often in after-life, but I 
 now ask you with the frankness of an old acquaint- 
 ance, to do me the sad service of accompanying me 
 in this quarrel a quarrel which, I call Heaven to 
 witness, is not of my seeking.' 
 
 The Baronet, who was in the Guards, and, al- 
 though a great dandy, quite a man of business in 
 these matters, immediately rose from his seat, and 
 led Vivian to a corner of the room. After some 
 whispering, he turned round to Mr. Cleveland, and 
 bowed to him with a very significant look. It was 
 evident that Cleveland comprehended his meaning, 
 for, though he was silent, he immediately pointed to 
 the other gentleman his friend, Mr. Castleton. 
 
 ' Mr. Castleton,' said Sir John, giving his card, 
 ' Mr. Grey will accompany me to my rooms in Pall 
 Mall ; it is now ten o'clock ; we shall wait two hours, 
 in which time I hope to hear from you. I leave 
 time, and place, and terms, to yourself. I only wish 
 it to be understood, that it is the particular desire of 
 my principal that the meeting should be as speedy as 
 possible.' 
 
 About eleven o'clock, the communication from 
 Mr. Castleton arrived. It was quite evident that 
 Cleveland was sobered, for in one instance, Vivian 
 observed that the style was corrected by his own 
 
 hand. The hour was eight, the next morning, at 
 
 Common, about six miles from town. 
 
 Poynings wrote to a professional friend to be on 
 the ground at half-past seven, and then he and 
 Vivian retired. 
 
 Did you ever fight a duel ? No ! nor send a 
 challenge either ? Well ! you're fresh indeed ! 'Tis 
 an awkward business after all even for the boldest. 
 After an immense deal of negociation, and giving 
 
 247
 
 VIVIAN GHI-:V BOOK IV 
 
 the party every opportunity of coming to an honour- 
 able understanding, the fatal letter is, at length, 
 signed, sealed, and sent. You pass your morning at 
 your second's apartments, pacing his drawing-room, 
 with a quivering lip, and uncertain step. At length 
 he enters with an answer, and while he reads, you 
 endeavour to look easy, with a countenance merry 
 with the most melancholy smile. You have no 
 appetite for dinner, but you are too brave not to 
 appear at table ; and you are called out after the 
 second glass by the arrival of your solicitor, who 
 comes to alter your will. You pass a restless night, 
 and rise in the morning as bilious as a Bengal general. 
 Urged by impending fate, you make a desperate 
 effort to accommodate matters, but in the contest 
 between your pride and your terror, you, at the same 
 time, prove that you're a coward, and fail in the 
 negociation. You both fire and miss and then 
 the seconds interfere, and then you shake hands, 
 every thing being arranged in the most honourable 
 manner, and to the mutual satisfaction of both 
 parties. The next day you are seen pacing Bond 
 Street, with an erect front, and a flashing eye with 
 an air at once dandyish, and heroical a mixture, at 
 the same time, of Brummell, and the Duke of 
 Wellington. 
 
 It was a fine February morning. Sir John drove 
 Vivian to the ground in his cabriolet. 
 
 ' Nothing like a cab, Grey, for the business you're 
 going on. I only keep it for meetings. You glide 
 along the six miles in such style, that it actually 
 makes you quite courageous. I remember once 
 going down, on a similar purpose, in a post and 
 pair; and 'pon my soul, when I came to the ground, 
 my hand shook so that I could scarcely draw. But 
 
 248
 
 CHAPTER VI VIVIAN GREY 
 
 I was green then. Now, when I go in my cab, with 
 Philidor with his sixteen-mile-an-hour paces, egad ! 
 I wing my man in a trice ; and take all the parties 
 home to Pall Mall, to celebrate the event with a 
 grilled bone, Havannahs, and Regent's punch. Ah ! 
 there ! that's Cleveland that we have just passed, 
 going to the ground in a chariot : he's a dead man, 
 or my name's not Poynings ' 
 
 ' Come, Sir John ; no fear of Cleveland's dying,' 
 said Vivian with a smile. 
 
 ' What, you mean to fire in the air, and all that 
 sort of thing ? sentimental, but slip-slop ! ' 
 
 The ground is measured all is arranged. Cleve- 
 land, a splendid shot, fired first. His pistol grazed 
 Vivian's elbow. Vivian fired in the air. The 
 seconds interfered. Cleveland was implacable and 
 'in the most irregular manner,' as Sir John declared, 
 insisted upon another shot. To the astonishment of 
 all, he fired quite wild. Vivian shot at random ; and 
 his bullet pierced Cleveland's heart. Cleveland sprang 
 nearly two yards from the ground, and then fell upon 
 his back, In a moment Vivian was at the side of his 
 fallen antagonist; but the dying man 'made no sign' 
 he stared wildly, and then closed his eyes for ever ! 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 TRAVEL 
 
 WHEN Vivian Grey remembered his existence, he 
 found himself in bed. The curtains of his couch 
 were closed ; but, as he stared around him, they were 
 softly withdrawn, and a face that recalled every thing 
 to his recollection gazed upon him with a look of 
 affectionate anxiety. 
 
 * My father ! ' exclaimed Vivian but the finger 
 249
 
 VIVIAN GHKY BOOK IV 
 
 pressed on the parental lip warned him to silence. 
 His father knelt by his side, and softly kissed his 
 forehead, and then the curtains were again closed. 
 
 Six weeks, unconsciously to Vivian, had elapsed 
 since the fatal day, and he was now recovering from 
 the effects of a fever, from which, his medical 
 attendants had supposed he never could have escaped. 
 And what had been the past ? It did, indeed, seem 
 like a hot and feverish dream. Here was he, once 
 more in his own quiet room, watched over by his 
 beloved parents ; and had there then ever existed 
 such beings as the Marquess, and Mrs. Lorraine, 
 and Cleveland, or were they only the actors in a 
 vision ? ' It must be so,' thought Vivian ; and he 
 jumped up in his bed, and stared wildly around him. 
 ' And yet it was a horrid dream ! Murder ! horrible 
 murder ! : and so real ! so palpable ! I muse upon 
 their voices, as upon familiar sounds, and I recal all 
 the events, not as the shadowy incidents of sleep 
 that mysterious existence, in which the experience of 
 a century seems caught in the breathing of a second 
 but as the natural, and material consequences of 
 time and stirring life. Oh ! no ! it is too true ! ' 
 shrieked the wretched sufferer, as his eye glanced 
 upon a desk which was on the table, and which had 
 been given to him by the Marquess ; ' it is true ! it 
 is true ! Murder ! murder ! ' He foamed at the 
 mouth, and sunk exhausted on his pillow. 
 
 But the human mind can master many sorrows, 
 and after a desperate relapse, and another miraculous 
 rally, Vivian Grey rose from his bed. 
 ' My father ! I fear that I shall live ! ' 
 
 * Hope, rather, my beloved.' 
 
 * Oh ! why should I hope ! ' and the sufferer's head 
 sank upon his breast. 
 
 250
 
 CHAPTER VII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 ' Do not give way, my son ; all will yet be well, 
 and we shall yet be happy,' said the father with 
 streaming eyes. 
 
 ' Happy ! oh, not in this world, my father ! ' 
 
 ' Vivian, my dearest, your mother visited you this 
 morning, but you were asleep. She was quite happy 
 to find you slumbering so calmly.' 
 
 ' And yet my dreams were not the dreams of joy. 
 Oh ! my mother, you were wont to smile upon 
 me alas ! you smiled upon your sorrow.' 
 
 ' Vivian, my beloved ! you must indeed restrain 
 your feelings. At your age, life cannot be the lost 
 game you think it. A little repose, and I shall yet 
 see my boy the honour to society which he deserves 
 to be.' 
 
 ' Alas ! my father, you know not what I feel ! 
 The springiness of my mind has gone. Oh ! man, 
 what a vain fool thou art ! Nature has been too 
 bountiful to thee. She has given thee the best of 
 friends, and you value not the gift of exceeding price, 
 until your griefs are past even friendship's cure. Oh ! 
 my father ! why did I leave you ! ' and he seized Mr. 
 Grey's hand with a convulsive grasp. 
 
 Time flew on, even in this house of sorrow. 'My 
 boy,' said Mr. Grey, to his son one day, ' your 
 mother and I have been consulting together about 
 you ; and we think, now that you have somewhat 
 recovered your strength, it may be well for you to 
 leave England for a short time. The novelty of 
 travel will relieve your mind, without too much 
 exciting it ; and if you can manage by the autumn, 
 to settle down any where within a thousand miles of 
 England, why we will come and join you, and you 
 know that will be very pleasant. What say you, my 
 boy, to this little plan ? ' 
 
 251
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK IV 
 
 In a few weeks after this proposition had been 
 made, Vivian Grey was in Germany. He wandered 
 for some months in that beautiful land of rivers, 
 among which flows the Rhine, matchless in its loveli- 
 ness ; and at length the pilgrim shook the dust off 
 his feet at Heidelburg, in which city Vivian proposed 
 taking up his residence. It is, in truth, a place of 
 surpassing loveliness ; where all the romantic wildness 
 of German scenery, is blended with the soft beauty 
 of the Italian. An immense plain, which, in its 
 extent and luxuriance, reminds you of the most 
 fertile tracts of Tuscany, is bordered on one side by 
 the Bergstrasse mountains, and on the other by the 
 range of the Vosges. Situated on the river Neckar, 
 in a ravine of the Bergstrasse, amid mountains covered 
 with vines, is the city of Heidelburg : its ruined 
 castle backing the city, and still frowning from one of 
 the most commanding heights. In the middle of the 
 broad plain, may be distinguished the shining spires 
 of Mannheim, Worms, and Frankenthal; and, pour- 
 its rich stream through this luxuriant land, the 
 beautiful and abounding Rhine receives the tribute 
 of the Neckar. The range of the Vosges forms the 
 extreme distance. 
 
 To the little world, of the little city, of which he 
 was now a habitant, Vivian Grey did not appear 
 a broken-hearted man. He lived neither as a 
 recluse, nor a misanthrope. He became extremely 
 addicted to field sports, especially to hunting the 
 wild boar ; for he feared nothing so much as thought, 
 and dreaded nothing so much as the solitude of his 
 own chamber. He was an early riser, to escape from 
 hideous dreams ; and at break of dawn, he wandered 
 among the wild passes of the Bergstrasse ; or climb- 
 ing a lofty ridge, was a watcher for the rising sun ; 
 
 252
 
 CHAPTER VII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 and in the evening he sailed upon the star-lit 
 Neckar. 
 
 I fear me much, that Vivian Grey is a lost man ; 
 but, I am sure that every sweet and gentle spirit, who 
 has read this sad story of his fortunes, will breathe a 
 holy prayer this night, for his restoration to society 
 and to himself. 
 
 253
 
 BOOK THE FIFTH 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THOU rapid AAR ! thy waves are swollen by the 
 snows of a thousand hills but for whom are thy 
 leaping waters fed ? Is it for the RHINE ? 
 
 Calmly, oh ! placid NECKAR, does thy blue stream 
 glide through thy vine-clad vales but calmer seems 
 thy course when it touches the rushing RHINE ! 
 
 How fragrant are the banks which are cooled by 
 thy dark-green waters, thou tranquil MAINE ! but 
 is not the perfume sweeter of the gardens of the 
 RHINE ? 
 
 Thou impetuous NAH ! I lingered by thine islands 
 of nightingales, and I asked thy rushing waters why 
 they disturbed the music of thy groves ? They told 
 me, they were hastening to the RHINE ! 
 
 Red MOSELLE ! fierce is the swell of thy spreading 
 course but why do thy broad waters blush when 
 they meet the RHINE ? 
 
 Thou delicate MEUSE ! how clear is the current 
 of thy limpid wave as the wife yields to the hus- 
 band, do thy pure waters yield to the RHINE ! 
 
 And thou ! triumphant and imperial River, flushed 
 with the tribute of these vassal streams ; thou art 
 thyself a tributary, and hastenest even in the pride of 
 conquest to confess thine own vassalage ! But no 
 
 254
 
 CHAPTER I VIVIAN GREY 
 
 superior stream exults in the homage of thy servile 
 waters : the Ocean, the eternal Ocean, alone comes 
 forward to receive thy kiss ! not as a conqueror, but 
 as a parent, he welcomes with proud joy his gifted 
 child, the offspring of his honour ; thy duty his 
 delight ; thy tribute thine own glory ! 
 
 Once more upon thy banks, most beauteous 
 RHINE ! In the spring-time of my youth I gazed on 
 thee, and deemed thee matchless. Thy vine- 
 enamoured mountains thy spreading waters thy 
 traditionary crags thy shining cities the sparkling 
 villages of thy winding shores thy antique convents 
 thy grey and silent castles the purple glories of 
 thy radiant grape the vivid tints of thy teeming 
 flowers the fragrance of thy sky the melody of thy 
 birds, whose carols tell the pleasures of their sunny 
 woods, are they less lovely now, less beautiful, less 
 sweet ? 
 
 Once more upon thy banks, most beauteous 
 RHINE ! Since I first gazed on thee, other climes 
 have revealed to me their wonders, and their glory 
 other climes, which Fame, perhaps, loves more ; 
 which many deem more beautiful but not for a 
 moment have I forgotten thy varied banks, and my 
 memory still clings to thee, thou River of my Youth ! 
 
 The keen emotions of our youth are often the 
 occasion of our estimating too ardently ; but the first 
 impression of beauty, though often overcharged, is 
 seldom supplanted : and as the first great author 
 which he reads is reverenced by the boy as the most 
 immortal, and the first beautiful woman that he meets 
 is sanctified by him as the most adorable ; so the 
 impressions created upon us by those scenes of 
 nature which first realize the romance of our reveries 
 never escape from our minds, and are ever conse- 
 
 2 55
 
 VIVIAN GIIKV BOOK V 
 
 crated in our memories ; and thus some great 
 spirits, after having played their part on the theatre 
 of the world, have retired from the blaze of courts 
 and cities, to the sweet seclusion of some spot, which 
 they have accidently met with in the earliest years of 
 their career. 
 
 But we are to speak of one who had retired from 
 the world before his time ; of one, whose early vices, 
 and early follies, have been already obtruded, for no 
 unworthy reason, on the notice of the public, in as 
 hot and hurried a sketch as ever yet was penned ; 
 but like its subject ; for what is youth but a sketch 
 a brief hour of principles unsettled, passions 
 unrestrained, powers undeveloped, and purposes 
 unexecuted ! 
 
 I am loth to speak even one moment of the author, 
 instead of the hero ; but with respect to those who 
 have with such singular industry associated the 
 character of the author of Vivian Grey with that of 
 his hero ; I must observe, that as this is an incon- 
 venience which I share in company with more cele- 
 brated writers, so also is it one which will never 
 prevent me from describing any character which 
 my mind may conceive. 
 
 To those who, alike unacquainted with my person, 
 my life, my habits, have, with that audacious 
 accuracy for which ignorance is celebrated, not only 
 boldly avowed that the original of my hero may be 
 discovered in myself, but that the character, at the 
 same time, forms also a flattering portrait of a more 
 frail original, I shall say nothing. Most of these 
 chatterers are included in that vast catalogue of 
 frivolous beings who carry on in society an espionage 
 on a small scale, not precisely through malice, but 
 from an invincible ambition of having something to 
 
 256
 
 CHAPTER I VIVIAN GREY 
 
 say, when they have nothing to think about. A few 
 of these persons, I am informed, cannot even plead a 
 brainless skull as an excuse for their indecent conduct ; 
 but dreading that in time the lash might be applied 
 to their own guilty littleness, they have sought in 
 the propagation of falsehood on their part, a boasted 
 means for the prevention of further publication on 
 mine. Unlucky rogues ! how effectual have been 
 your exertions ! Let me not by one irritable expres- 
 sion console these clumsy midwives of calumny for 
 the abortion of their slander ; but pass over their 
 offences with that merciful silence, to which even 
 insolent imbecility is ever entitled. 
 
 Of the personal, and political matter contained in 
 the former books of this work, I can declare, that 
 though written in a hasty, it was not written in a 
 reckless spirit ; and that there is nothing contained 
 in those volumes of which I am morally ashamed. 
 As to the various satires in verse, and political and 
 dramatic articles of unsuccessful newspapers, which 
 have been palmed, with such lavish liberality, upon 
 myself, or upon another individual as the supposed 
 author of this work inasmuch, as I never wrote one 
 single line of them, neither of the articles nor of the 
 satires, it is unnecessary for me to apologise for their 
 contents. They have been made the ostensible, the 
 avowed pretext for a series of attacks, which I now, 
 for once, notice, only to recommend them to the 
 attentive study of those ingenious gentlemen who 
 wish to be libellers with impunity ; and who are 
 desirous of vindicating imaginary wrongs, or main- 
 taining a miserable existence by the publication of 
 periodical rhapsodies, whose foul scurrility, over- 
 wrought malice, ludicrous passion, evident mendacity, 
 and frantic feebleness, alike exempt them from the 
 R 257
 
 VIVIAN GRKY BOOK V 
 
 castigation of literary notice, or the severer penalties 
 of an outraged law. 
 
 Of the literary vices of Vivian Grey, no one is 
 perhaps more sensible than their author. I con- 
 ceived the character of a youth of great talents, whose 
 mind had been corrupted, as the minds of many of 
 our youth have been, by the artificial age in which 
 he lived. The age was not less corrupted than the 
 being it had generated. In his whole career he was 
 to be pitied ; but for his whole career he was not to 
 be less punished. When I sketched the feelings of 
 his early boyhood, as the novelist, I had already fore- 
 seen the results to which those feelings were to lead ; 
 and had in store for the fictitious character the pun- 
 ishment which he endured. I am blamed for the 
 affectation, the flippancy, the arrogance, the wicked 
 wit of this fictitious character. Yet was Vivian Grey 
 to talk like Simon Pure, and act like Sir Charles 
 Grandison ? 
 
 But to our tale. Upwards of a year had now 
 elapsed since Vivian Grey left England. The mode 
 of life which he pursued at Heidelburg for many 
 months, has already been mentioned. He felt him- 
 self a broken-hearted man, and looked for death, 
 whose delay was no blessing ; but the feelings of 
 youth which had misled him in his burning hours of 
 joy, equally deceived him in his days of sorrow. He 
 lived; and in the course of time, found each day 
 that life was less burdensome. The truth is, that if 
 it be the lot of man to suffer, it is also his fortune to 
 forget. Oblivion and Sorrow share our being in 
 much the same manner, as Darkness and Light 
 divide the course of time. It is not in human nature 
 to endure extremities, and sorrows soon destroy either 
 us, or themselves. Perhaps the fate of Niobe is no 
 
 258
 
 CHAPTER I VIVIAN GREY 
 
 fable, but a type of the callousness of our nature. 
 There is a time in human suffering when succeeding 
 sorrows are but like snow falling on an iceberg. It 
 is true, that it is horrible to think that our peace of 
 mind should arise, not from a retrospection of the 
 past, but from a forgetfulness of it ; but, though this 
 peace of mind is produced at the best by a mental 
 laudanum, it is not valueless ; and Oblivion, after all, 
 is a just judge. As we retain but a faint remem- 
 brance of our felicity, it is but fair that the smartest 
 stroke of sorrow should, if bitter, at least be brief. 
 But in feeling that he might yet again mingle in the 
 world, Vivian Grey also felt that he must meet man- 
 kind with different feelings, and view their pursuits 
 with a different interest. He woke from his secret 
 sorrow in as changed a state of being, as the water 
 nymph from her first embrace ; and he woke with a 
 new possession, not only as miraculous as Undine's 
 soul, but gained at as great a price, and leading to as 
 bitter results. The nymph woke to new pleasures, 
 and to new sorrows ; and innocent as an infant she 
 deemed mankind a god, and the world a paradise. 
 Vivian Grey discovered that this deity was but an 
 idol of brass, and this garden of Eden but a savage 
 waste ; for if the river nymph had gained a soul, he 
 had gained EXPERIENCE. 
 
 EXPERIENCE word so lightly used, so little under- 
 stood ! Experience, mysterious spirit ! whose result 
 is felt by all, whose nature is described by none. 
 The father warns the son of your approach, and 
 sometimes looks to you as his offspring's cure, and 
 his own consolation. We hear of you in the nursery 
 we hear of you in the world we hear of you in 
 books ; but who has recognised you until he was 
 your subject, and who has discovered the object of 
 
 2 59
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 so much fame, until he has kissed your chain ? To 
 gain you is the work of all, and the curse of all ; you 
 are at the same time necessary to our happiness, 
 and destructive of our felicity ; you are the saviour 
 of all things, and the destroyer of all things ; 
 our best friend, and our bitterest enemy; for you 
 teach us truth, and that truth is despair. Ye 
 youth of England, would that ye could read this 
 riddle! 
 
 To wake from your bright hopes, and feel that all 
 is vanity to be roused from your crafty plans, and 
 know that all is worthless, is a bitter, but your sure 
 destiny. Escape is impossible; for despair is the 
 price of conviction. How many centuries have fled, 
 since Solomon, in his cedar palaces, sung the vanity 
 of man ! Though his harp was golden, and his 
 throne of ivory, his feelings were not less keen, and 
 his conviction not less complete. How many sages 
 of all nations, have, since the monarch of Jerusalem, 
 echoed his sad philosophy ! yet the vain bubble still 
 glitters, and still allures, and must for ever. 
 
 The genealogy of Experience is brief; for Experi- 
 ence is the child of Thought, and Thought is the 
 child of Action. We cannot learn men from books, 
 nor can we form, from written descriptions, a more 
 accurate idea of the movements of the human heart, 
 than we can of the movements of nature. A man 
 may read all his life, and form no conception of the 
 rush of a mountain torrent, or the waving of a forest 
 of pines in a storm ; and a man may study in his 
 closet the heart of his fellow creatures for ever, and 
 have no idea of the power of ambition, or the strength 
 of revenge. 
 
 It is when we have acted ourselves, and have seen 
 others acting ; it is when we have laboured ourselves 
 
 260
 
 CHAPTER I VIVIAN GREY 
 
 under the influence of our passions, and have seen 
 others labouring ; it is when our great hopes have been 
 attained, or have been baulked ; it is when, after 
 
 having had the human heart revealed to us, we have 
 
 
 
 the first opportunity to think ; it is then, if we can 
 think, that the whole truth lights upon us ; it is then 
 that we ask of ourselves whether it be wise to endure 
 such anxiety of mind, such agitation of spirit, such 
 harrowing of the soul, to gain what may cease to 
 interest to-morrow, or for which, at the best, a few 
 years of enjoyment can alone be afforded ; it is then 
 that we waken to the hollowness of all human things; 
 it is then that the sayings of sages, and the warnings 
 of prophets are explained and understood ; it is then 
 that we gain EXPERIENCE. 
 
 To deem all things vain is not the part of a 
 disappointed man, who may feign it, but who can 
 never feel it. To deem all things vain is the bitter 
 portion of that mind, who, having known the world, 
 dares to think. Experience will arise as often from 
 satiety of joy as from the sting of sorrow. But 
 knowledge of the world is only an acquaintance with 
 the powers of human passions, formed from our 
 observation of our fellow creatures, and of ourselves. 
 He whose courage has been put to the test who has 
 relied on the love, or suffered by the hate of woman 
 has been deceived by man, and has deceived him- 
 self may have as much knowledge of the world at 
 twenty, as if he had lived a century. We may travel 
 over the whole globe and not gain more, although, 
 certainly, we might have more opportunities of seeing 
 the same farce repeated, the same game of broken 
 promises, and baulked hopes, false expectation, and 
 self-delusion. Few men were better acquainted with 
 their species than Gil Bias, when he sat down at 
 
 261
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 Lirias, and yet he had only travelled in two or three 
 Spanish provinces. 
 
 Vivian Grey woke, as we have said, to a convic- 
 tion of the worthlessness of human fortunes. His 
 character was changed ; and this is the most wonder- 
 ful of all revolutions a revolution which precept or 
 reason can never bring about, but which a change of 
 circumstances or fortune may. In his career through 
 the world he resembled a turbid mountain river, 
 whose colour had been cleared, and whose course 
 had been calmed in its passage through a lake. 
 
 But he commenced by founding his philosophy on 
 a new error ; for he fancied himself passionless, which 
 man never is. His trial had been severe, and be- 
 cause he could no longer interest himself in any of 
 the usual pursuits of men, he believed that he could 
 interest himself in none. But doubting of all things, 
 he doubted of himself ; and finding himself so changed 
 from what he had been only a year or two before, he 
 felt as if he should not be astonished if he changed 
 again. 
 
 With all his grief, he was no cynic if he smiled 
 on men, it was not in bitterness ; if he thought them 
 base, he did not blame them. He pitied those whose 
 baseness, in his opinion, was their sufficient punish- 
 ment ; for nothing they could attain could repay 
 them for the hot contest of their passions. Subdued, 
 but not melancholy ; contemplative, but not gloomy ; 
 he left his solitude. Careless of what was to come, 
 the whole world was before him. Indifference is at 
 least the boon of sorrow ; for none look forward to 
 the future with indifference who do not look back to 
 the past with dread. 
 
 Vivian Grey was now about to join, for the second 
 time, the great and agitated crowd of beings, who are 
 
 262
 
 CHAPTER I VIVIAN GREY 
 
 all intent in the search after that undiscoverable talis- 
 man HAPPINESS. That he entertained the slightest 
 hopes of being the successful inquirer, is not for a 
 moment to be imagined. He considered that the 
 happiest moment in human life is exactly the sensa- 
 tion of a sailor who has escaped a shipwreck ; and 
 that the mere belief that his wishes are to be indulged 
 is the greatest bliss enjoyed by man. 
 
 How far his belief was correct, how he prospered 
 in this, his second venture on the great ocean of life, 
 it is our business to relate. There were moments, 
 when he wished himself neither experienced nor a 
 philosopher moments when he looked back to the 
 lost paradise of his innocent boyhood those glorious 
 hours, when the unruffled river of his Life mirrored 
 the cloudless heaven of his Hope ! 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 VIVIAN pulled up his horse as he ascended through 
 the fine beech wood, which leads immediately to the 
 city of Frankfort, from the Darmstadt road. The 
 crowd seemed to increase every moment, but as they 
 were all hastening in the same way, his progress was 
 not much impeded. It was Frankfort fair ; and all 
 countenances were expressive of that excitement which 
 we always experience at great meetings of our fellow 
 creatures ; whether the assemblies be for slaughter, 
 pleasure, or profit, and whether or not we ourselves 
 join in the banquet, the battle, or the fair. At the 
 top of the hill is an old Roman tower, and from this 
 point the flourishing city of Frankfort, with its pic- 
 turesque Cathedral, its numerous villas, and beautiful 
 gardens in the middle of the fertile valley of the 
 Maine, burst upon Vivian's sight. On crossing the 
 
 261
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 bridge over the river the crowd became almost im- 
 passable, and it was with the greatest difficulty that 
 Vivian steered his way through the old narrow wind- 
 ing streets, full of tall ancient houses, with heavy 
 casements and notched gable ends. These structures 
 did not, however, at the present moment, greet the 
 traveller with their usual sombre and antique appear- 
 ance : their outside walls were in most instances 
 entirely covered with pieces of broad cloth of the 
 most showy colours ; red, blue, and yellow predomi- 
 nating. These standards of trade were not merely 
 used for the purpose of exhibiting the quality of the 
 articles sold in the interior, but, also, of informing the 
 curious traveller, the name and nation of their adven- 
 turous owners. Inscriptions in German, French, 
 Russian, English, Italian, and even Hebrew, appeared 
 in striking characters on each woollen specimen ; 
 and, as if these were not sufficient to attract the 
 attention of the passenger, an active apprentice, or 
 assistant, commented in eloquent terms on the 
 peculiar fairness and honesty of his master. The 
 public squares, and other open spaces, and indeed 
 every spot which was secure from the hurrying 
 wheels of the heavy old-fashioned coaches of the 
 Frankfort aristocracy, and the spirited pawings of 
 their sleek and long-tailed coach horses, were covered 
 with large and showy booths, which groaned under 
 the accumulated treasures of all countries : French 
 silks, and French clocks, rivalled Manchester cottons, 
 and Sheffield Cutlery ; and assisted to attract, or 
 entrap the gazer, in company with Venetian chains, 
 Neapolitan coral, and Vienna pipeheads : here was 
 the booth of a great bookseller, who looked to the 
 approaching Leipsic fair for some consolation for his 
 slow sale, and the bad taste of the people of Frank- 
 
 264
 
 CHAPTER II VIVIAN GREY 
 
 fort ; and there was a dealer in Bologna sausages, who 
 felt quite convinced that in some things the taste of 
 the Frankfort public was by no means to be lightly 
 spoken of. All was bustle, bargaining, and business : 
 there were quarrels, and conversation in all languages ; 
 and Vivian Grey, although he had no chance either of 
 winning or losing money, was amused. 
 
 At last, Vivian gained the High street ; and here, 
 though the crowd was not less, the space was greater ; 
 and so in time he arrived at the grand hotel of the 
 ' Roman Emperor,' where he stopped. It was a long 
 time before he could be informed whether Baron 
 Julius von Konigstein at present honoured that re- 
 spectable establishment with his presence ; for, al- 
 though Vivian did sometimes succeed in obtaining an 
 audience of a hurrying waiter, that animal, when in 
 a hurry, has a peculiar habit of never attending to a 
 question which a traveller addresses to him. In this 
 dilemma Vivian was saluted by a stately-looking per- 
 sonage above the common height. He was dressed 
 in a very splendid uniform of green and gold, covered 
 with embroidery and glittering with frogs. He wore 
 a cocked hat, adorned with a flowing party-coloured 
 plume, and from his broad golden belt was suspended 
 a weapon of singular shape and costly workmanship. 
 This personage was as stiff and stately, as he was 
 magnificent. His eyes were studiously preserved 
 from the profanation of meeting the ground, and his 
 well supported neck seldom condescended to move 
 from its perpendicular position. His coat was but- 
 toned to the chin and over the breast, with the 
 exception of one small aperture, which was elegantly 
 filled up by a delicate white cambric handkerchief, 
 very redolent of rich perfumes. This gorgeous 
 gentleman, who might have been mistaken for an 
 
 265
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 elector of the German empire, had the German empire 
 been in existence, or the governor of the city at the 
 least, turned out to be the chasseur of the Baron 
 von Konigstein ; and with his courtly assistance, Vivian 
 soon found himself ascending the staircase of the 
 Roman Emperor. 
 
 Vivian was ushered into an apartment, in which 
 he found three or four individuals at breakfast. A 
 middle-aged man of very elegant appearance, in a 
 most outrt morning gown of Parisian chintz, sprung 
 up from a many-cushioned easy-chair of scarlet 
 morocco, and seized his hand as he was announced. 
 
 ' My dear Mr. Grey ! and so you are really kind 
 enough to call upon me I was so fearful lest you 
 should not come Eugene was so desirous that we 
 should meet, and has said so many things of you, 
 that I should have been mortified beyond expression 
 if we had missed. I have left notes for you at all 
 the principal hotels in the city. And how is Eugene ? 
 his, is wild blood for a young student, but a good 
 heart, an excellent heart and you have been so 
 kind to him ! he feels under such particular obliga- 
 tions to you under very particular obligations I 
 assure you and will you breakfast? Ah! I see 
 you smile at my supposing a horseman unbreak- 
 fasted. And have you ridden here from Heidelburg 
 this morning ? impossible ! Only from Darmstadt ! 
 I thought so ! You were at the Opera then last 
 night. And how is the little Signora ? We are to 
 gain her though ? trust the good people of Frankfort 
 for that ! Pray be seated but really I'm forgetting 
 the commonest rules of breeding. Next to the 
 pleasure of having friends, is that of introducing 
 them to each other Prince, you will have great 
 pleasure in being introduced to my friend Mr. Grey 
 
 266
 
 CHAPTER II VIVIAN GREY 
 
 Mr. Grey ! Prince Salvinski ! my particular 
 friend, Prince Salvinski. The Count von Alten- 
 burgh ! Mr. Grey ! my very particular friend, the 
 Count von Altenburgh and the Chevalier de 
 Bceffleurs ! Mr. Grey ! my most particular friend, 
 the Chevalier de Bceffleurs.' 
 
 After this most hospitable reception from a man 
 he had never seen before, Vivian Grey sat down. 
 Baron Julius von Konigstein was minister to the 
 Diet of Frankfort, from what is termed a ' first rate ' 
 German power. In person he was short, but most 
 delicately formed; his head was a little bald, but as 
 he was only five-and-thirty, this could scarcely be 
 from age ; and his remaining hair, black, glossy, and 
 curling, proved that their companion ringlets had 
 not been long lost. His features were small, but 
 not otherwise remarkable ; except a pair of luscious- 
 looking, liquid black eyes, of great size, which would 
 have hardly become a stoic, and which gleamed with 
 great meaning, and perpetual animation. 
 
 ' I understand, Mr. Grey, that you're a regular 
 philosopher. Pray who is the favourite master ? 
 Kant or Fichte ? or is there any other new star who 
 has discovered the origin of our essence, and proved 
 the non-necessity of eating ! Count, let me help 
 you to a little more of these saucisses aux choux. 
 I'm afraid, from Eugene's account, that you're almost 
 past redemption ; and I'm sorry to say, that although 
 I'm very desirous of being your physician and effect- 
 ing your cure, Frankfort will supply me with very 
 few drugs to work your recovery. If you could but 
 get me an appointment once again to your delightful 
 London, I might indeed produce some effect; or 
 were I even at Berlin, or at your delicious Vienna, 
 Count Altenburgh ! (the Count bowed) ; or at that 
 
 267
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 Paradise of women, Warsaw, Prince Salvinski ! ! (the 
 Prince bowed) ; or at Paris ! ! ! Chevalier (the Che- 
 valier bowed) ; why then, indeed, you should have 
 some difficulty in finding an excuse for being in low 
 spirits with Julius von Konigstein ! But, Frankfort, 
 my dear fellow, is really the most horrible of 
 all human places ! perfectly provincial eh ! de 
 Bceffleurs ? ' 
 
 ' Oh ! perfectly provincial,' sighed the French 
 Chevalier, who was also attached to a mission in this 
 very city, and who was thinking of his own gay 
 Boulevards, and his brilliant Tuileries. 
 
 'And the men, such brutes ! mere citizens ! ' con- 
 tinued the Baron, taking a long pinch of snuff, 
 'mere citizens! Do you take snuff? I merely 
 keep this box for my friends ; ' and here he extended 
 to Vivian a magnificent gold snuff-box, covered with 
 the portrait of a crowned head, surrounded with 
 diamonds: 'A present from the King of Sardinia, 
 when I negociated the marriage of the Duke of 
 and his niece, and settled the long agitated contro- 
 versy about the right of anchovy fishing on the left 
 bank of the Mediterranean : I merely keep it for my 
 friends; my own snuff is here' And the Baron 
 pointed very significantly to his waistcoat-pocket, 
 cased with tin. 
 
 ' But the women,' continued the Baron, ' the 
 women that is a different thing. There's some 
 amusement among the little bourgeoises, who are 
 glad enough to get rid of their commercial beaus ; 
 whose small talk, after a waltz, is about bills of 
 exchange, mixed up with a little patriotism about 
 their free city, and some chatter about what they call 
 
 " the fine arts ; " their horrid collections of " the 
 Dutch school : " School forsooth ! a cabbage, by 
 
 268
 
 CHAPTER II VIVIAN GREY 
 
 Gerard Dow ! and a candlestick, by Mieris ! And 
 now will you take a basin of soup, and warm your- 
 self, while his Highness continues his account of 
 being frozen to death this spring at the top of Mont- 
 Blanc : how was it, Prince ? ' 
 
 ' I think I was at the second attempt ? ' asked the 
 Pole, collecting himself after this long interruption. 
 He was, as all Poles are, a great traveller; had 
 seen much, and described more though a great 
 liar, he was a dull man ; and the Baron, who never 
 allowed himself to be outdone in a good story, 
 affected to credit the Prince's, and returned him his 
 thanks in kind, which his Highness, in spite of his 
 habitual mendacity on the point of his own travels, 
 singularly enough, always credited. 
 
 ' Did your Highness ultimately ascend to the top 
 of Mont Blanc ? ' asked Vivian. 
 
 ' No ' said the Prince very slowly, as if he 
 
 confessed the fact with reluctance : ' I did not I 
 certainly did not ; although I did reach a much 
 higher point than I contemplated after my repulse ; 
 a point, indeed, which would warrant some indivi- 
 duals in asserting that they had even reached the 
 summit ; but in matters of science 1 am scrupulously 
 correct, and I certainly cannot say that I did reach 
 the extreme top. I say so, because, as I believe, I 
 mentioned before, in matters of science I make it a 
 point to be particularly correct. It is singular, but 
 no less true, that after reaching the fifth glacier, I 
 encountered a pyramidal elevation of, I should calcu- 
 late, fifteen hundred feet in height. This pyramidal 
 elevation was not perpendicular, but had an unhappy 
 inclination forward, of about one inch in eight. It 
 was entirely of solid, green, polished ice. Nature 
 had formed no rut to assist the philosopher. I 
 
 269
 
 VIVIAN GKKV BOOK V 
 
 paused before this pyramidal elevation of polished, 
 slippery, green ice. I was informed that it was 
 necessary for me to. ascend this pyramidal elevation 
 during the night ; and this pyramidal elevation of 
 solid, green, polished, slippery ice, Mr. Grey, with 
 an unhappy inclination forward, of one inch in eight 
 from the perpendicular, was the top of Mont Blanc. 
 Saussure may say that he ascended it for ever \ For 
 my part, when I beheld this pyramidal elevation, 
 gentlemen, I was not surprised that there was some 
 little variance as to the exact height of this mighty 
 mountain, among all those philosophers who profess 
 to have reached its summit.' On this head the 
 travelling Pole would have discoursed for ever ; but 
 the Baron, with his usual presence of mind, dexter- 
 ously interfered. 
 
 ' You were fortunate, Prince ; I congratulate you. 
 I've heard of that iceberg before. I remember, my 
 cousin, who ascended the mountain about ten years 
 ago was it ten years ago ? yes, ten years ago. I 
 remember he slept at the foot of that very pyramidal 
 elevation, in a miserable mountain-hut, intending to 
 climb it in the morning. He was not so well- 
 instructed as your Highness, who, doubtless, avoided 
 the diurnal ascent, from fear of the effect of the sun's 
 rays on the slippery ice. Well, my cousin, as I said 
 before, slept in the mountain-hut ; and in the night 
 there came such a fall of snow, that when he awoke, 
 he found the cottage-door utterly blocked up. In 
 fact, the whole building was encrusted in a coating of 
 snow, of above forty feet thick. In this state of 
 affairs, having previously made a nuncupative will, to 
 which the guides were to be witnesses, in case of their 
 escape, he resigned himself to his fate. But Provi- 
 dence interfered ; a violent tornado arose. Among 
 
 270
 
 CHAPTER II VIVIAN GREY 
 
 other matter, the gigantic snow-ball was lifted up in 
 the air with as much ease as if it were merely a drop 
 of sleet. It bounded from glacier to glacier with the 
 most miraculous rapidity, and at length vaulted on 
 the Mer-de-glace, where it cracked into a thousand 
 pieces. My cousin was taken up by a couple of 
 young English ladies, who were sketching the Mont- 
 anvert, with three or four of the principal glaciers 
 for a back-ground. The only inconveniences he 
 sustained were a severe cold, and a slight contusion ; 
 and he was so enchanted with the manners of the 
 youngest lady, who, by the bye, had a very con- 
 siderable fortune, that he married her the next 
 week.' Here the Baron took a long pinch of 
 snuff. 
 
 ' Mon Dieu ! ' exclaimed the Polish Prince, who 
 affected French manners. 
 
 ' Mon Dieu ! ' exclaimed the Austrian Count, who 
 was equally refined. 
 
 ' Mon Dieu I ' exclaimed the Frenchman; who, 
 believing his own country superior in every possible 
 particular, was above borrowing even an oath, or an 
 ejaculation, from another land. 
 
 ' Mr. Grey I wish that Frankfort could have 
 been honoured by your presence yesterday,' said the 
 Baron ; ' there really was an entertainment at the 
 President's, which was not contemptible, and a fine 
 display of women, a very fine display ! eh, de 
 Bceffleurs ? ' 
 
 ' Remarkably so indeed ! but what a room ! ' said 
 the Chevalier, shrugging up his shoulders, and elevat- 
 ing his eye-brows. 
 
 ' We want the saloon of Wisbaden here,' said the 
 Baron ; ' with that, Frankfort might be endurable. 
 As it is, I really must give up my appointment ; I 
 
 271
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 cannot carry on public business in a city with such a 
 saloon as we met in last night.' 
 
 ' The most imposing room, on the whole, that I 
 ever was in,' said Prince Salvinski, ' is the chief hall of 
 the Seraglio at Constantinople. It's a most magnifi- 
 cent room.' 
 
 ' You have been in the interior of the seraglio 
 then?' asked Vivian. 
 
 ' All over it, Sir, all over it ! The women unfor- 
 tunately were not there ; they were at a summer 
 palace on the Bosphorus, where they are taken 
 regularly every year for an airing in large gold 
 cages.' 
 
 ' And was the furniture of the room you are 
 speaking of very gorgeous ? ' 
 
 ' No, by no means ; a great deal of gilding and 
 carving, but rude, rude ; very much like the exterior 
 carving of a man of war ; nothing exquisite, I 
 remember the floor was covered with carpets, which, 
 by the by, were English. To give you an idea of the 
 size of the room, it might have taken, perhaps, 
 sixty of the largest carpets that you ever saw to cover 
 the floor of it.' 
 
 'Does your Highness take snufF?' asked the 
 Baron drily. 
 
 'Thank you, no ; I've left off snuf? ever since I 
 passed a winter at Baffin's Bay. You've no idea how 
 very awkward an accidental sneeze is near the pole.' 
 
 * Your Highness, I imagine, has been a great 
 traveller ;' said Vivian, to the Baron's great annoy- 
 ance. Unfortunately Vivian was not so much used 
 to Prince Salvinski as his Excellency. 
 
 ' I have seen a little of most countries : these 
 things are interesting enough when we are young ; 
 but when we get a little more advanced in life, the 
 
 272
 
 CHAPTER II VIVIAN GREY 
 
 novelty wears off, and the excitement ceases. I have 
 been in all quarters of the globe. In Europe I have 
 seen every thing except the miracles of Prince 
 Hohenlohe. In Asia I have seen every thing except 
 the ruins of Babylon. In Africa, I have seen every 
 thing but Timbuctoo ; and in America, I have seen 
 every thing except Croker's Mountains.' 
 
 All this time the Austrian had not joined in the 
 conversation ; not, however, because his mouth was 
 shut that is never the fault of an Austrian. Count 
 von Altenburgh had now, however, finished his 
 breakfast. Next to eating, music is the business in 
 which an Austrian is most interested. The Count 
 having had the misfortune of destroying, for the 
 present, one great source of his enjoyment, became 
 very anxious to know what chance there existed of 
 his receiving some consolation from the other. 
 Flinging down his knife and fork, as if he estimated 
 those instruments very slightly, now that their ser- 
 vices were useless, and pushing his plate briskly from 
 him, he demanded with an anxious air ' Can any 
 gentleman inform me what chance there is of the 
 Signora coming ?' 
 
 ' No news to-day,' said the Baron, with a mournful 
 look ; * I'm almost in despair ; what do you think 
 of the last notes that have been interchanged?' 
 
 ' Very little chance,' said the Chevalier de 
 Bceffleurs, shaking his head ; ' really these burghers, 
 with all their affected enthusiasm, have managed the 
 business exceedingly bad. No opera can possibly 
 succeed, that is not conducted by a committee of 
 noblemen.' 
 
 ' Certainly ! ' said the Baron ; ' we're sure then to 
 have the best singers, and be in the Gazette the same 
 season.' 
 
 s 273
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 ' Which is much better, I think, Von Konigstein, 
 than paying our bills, and receiving no pleasure.' 
 
 ' But these burghers/ continued the Baron, ' these 
 clumsy burghers, with their affected enthusiasm, as 
 you well observe, who could have contemplated such 
 novices in diplomacy ! Whatever may be the issue, 
 I can at least lay my head upon my pillow, and feel 
 that I have done my duty. Did not I, de Bceffleurs, 
 first place the negociation on a basis of acknowledged 
 feasibility and mutual benefit ? Who drew the pro- 
 tocol, I should like to know ? Who baffled the 
 intrigues of the English Minister, the Lord Amelius 
 Fitz-fudge Boroughby ? Who sat up one whole 
 night with the Signora's friend, the Russian Envoy, 
 Baron Squallonoff and who was it that first arranged 
 about the extra chariot ? ' and here the representa- 
 tive of a first rate German Power looked very much 
 like a resigned patriot, who feels that he deserves a 
 ribbon. 
 
 * No doubt of it, my dear von Konigstein,' echoed 
 the French Charge d'Affaires, ' and I think, whatever 
 may be the result, that I too may look back to this 
 negociation with no ungratified feelings. Had the 
 arrangement been left as I had wished, merely to 
 the ministers of the Great Powers, I am confident 
 that the Signora would have been singing this night 
 in our Opera House.' 
 
 ' What is the grand point of difference at present ? ' 
 asked the Austrian. 
 
 'A most terrific one,' said the Baron; 'the lady 
 demanded six-and-thirty covers, two tables, two car- 
 riages, one of which I arranged should be a chariot ; 
 that at least the town owes to me ; and, let me see, 
 what else ? merely a town mansion and establishment. 
 Exerting myself day and night, these terms were, at 
 
 274
 
 CHAPTER II VIVIAN GREY 
 
 length, agreed to by the municipality, and the lady 
 was to ride over from Darmstadt to sign and seal. 
 In the course of her ride, she took a cursed fancy to 
 the country villa of a great Jew banker, and since 
 that moment the arrangement has gone off. We 
 have offered her every thing the commandant's 
 country castle his lady's country farm the villa of 
 the director of the Opera the retreat of our present 
 prima donna all, all in vain. We have even hinted 
 at a temporary repose in a neighbouring royal residence 
 but all, all useless. The banker and the Signora 
 are equally intractable, and Frankfort is in despair.' 
 
 ' She ought to have signed and sealed at Darm- 
 stadt,' said the Count very indignantly. 
 
 ' To be sure ! they should have closed upon her 
 caprice, and taken her when she was in the fancy.' 
 
 ' Talking of Opera girls,' commenced the Polish 
 Prince, ' I remember the Countess Katszinski ' 
 
 ' Your Highness has nothing upon your plate,' 
 quickly retorted the Baron, who was in no humour 
 for a story. 
 
 ' Nothing more, I thank you,' continued the 
 Prince : ' as I was saying, I remember the Countess 
 Katszinski 
 
 'Mr. Brinkel!' announced the Chasseur; and the 
 entrance of a very singular looking personage saved 
 the company from the Pole's long story. 
 
 Mr. Brinkel was a celebrated picture-dealer. He 
 was a man about the middle size, with keen black 
 eyes, a sharp nose rather unduly inclining to his 
 right cheek, and which somewhat singular contortion 
 was, perhaps, occasioned by an habitual and sardonic 
 grin which constantly illuminated his features, and 
 lit up his shining dark brown face, which was of 
 much the same tint as one of his own varnished, 
 
 275
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 ' deep-toned ' modern antiques. There were odd 
 stories about, respecting Mr. Brinkel, and his ' un- 
 doubted originals,' in which invaluable pieces of 
 property he alone professed to deal. But the Baron 
 von Konigstein was, at any rate, not one of Mr. 
 Brinkel's victims ; and his Excellency was among the 
 rare few, whom a picture-dealer knows it is in vain to 
 attempt to take in ; he was an amateur who thoroughly 
 understood art, one of the rarest characters in exis- 
 tence. The Baron and Brinkel were, however, great 
 
 * O 
 
 friends; and at the present moment the picture- 
 dealer was assisting the diplomatist in the accomplish- 
 ment of a very crafty and splendid plan. Baron von 
 Konigstein, for various reasons, which shall now be 
 nameless, was generally in want of money. Now the 
 Baron, tired with his perpetual shifts, determined to 
 make a fortune at one great coup. He had been in 
 England, and was perfectly aware of the rising feeling 
 for the arts which at the present moment daily 
 flourishes in this country. The Baron was generous 
 enough to determine materially to assist in the forma- 
 tion of our national taste. He was, himself, forming 
 at a cheap rate a very extensive collection of original 
 pictures, which he intended to sell at an enormous 
 price, to the National Gallery. Brinkel, in order to 
 secure the entrte of the Baron's room, which afforded 
 various opportunities of getting off his ' undoubted ' 
 originals on English and Russian travellers, was in 
 return assisting the minister in his great operation, 
 and acted as his general agent in the affair, on which 
 he was also to get a respectable commission. This 
 business was, of course, altogether a close secret. 
 
 And now, before Mr. Brinkel opens his mouth, I 
 may, perhaps, be allowed to say a few words upon a 
 subject, in which we are all interested. We are now 
 
 276
 
 CHAPTER II VIVIAN GREY 
 
 forming, at great expense, and with greater anxiety, a 
 National Gallery. What is the principal object of 
 such an Institution ? Doubtless to elevate the pro- 
 ductions of our own school, by affording our artists 
 an opportunity of becoming acquainted with the 
 works of the great masters who have preceded them. 
 Why, then, have we deviated from the course which 
 has been pursued in the formation of all other 
 National Galleries. There we shall see arranged in 
 chronological order, specimens of the art in all ages, 
 from the period in which Cimabue rescued it from 
 the Greek painters, unto the present time. The ex- 
 cellent is doubtless to be conceived in the study of 
 the excellent ; but we should always remember, that 
 excellence is relative, and that to the philosopher, the 
 frescos of Masaccio, are perhaps more marvellous 
 than the frescos of the Vatican. Introduce a young 
 and inexperienced painter to the Assumption of 
 Titian, the Madonna della Pieta of Guido, the Leo 
 of Raffael, the St. Jerome of Domenichino ; and, 
 instead of being incited and inspired, he will leave 
 the chamber in despair. But, before he witnesses 
 these miracles, let him trace on the walls of the 
 gallery, the history of his art. Let him view the 
 first hazardous efforts of the inexperienced, wavering, 
 and timid pencil, depicting mummies, rather than 
 men sticks, rather than trees : let him view the un- 
 relieved surface the ill-proportioned extremities 
 the harsh and unsubdued tints ; then let him watch 
 perspective, stealing into the back-ground; let him 
 witness the attenuated forms falling into graceless, 
 but energetic groups ; let him admire the first decep- 
 tion of chiaro 'scuro ; then bring him to the correct 
 design, the skilful foreshortening, the exact ex- 
 tremities ; to the rounded limb to the breathing 
 
 277
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 mouth to the kindled eye to the moving group ! 
 Add to these all the magic of colour, and lo ! a grand 
 picture. We stand before the work with admiring 
 awe ; forgetting the means in the result ; the artist, 
 in the creator. 
 
 Thus gradually, I repeat, should our young artist 
 be introduced to the great masters, whom then the 
 wise pride of human nature would incite him to 
 imitate. Then too, he would feel that to become a 
 great artist he must also become a great student ; 
 that no sudden inspiration produced the virgins of 
 Raffael ; that, by slow degrees, by painful observa- 
 tion, by diligent comparison, by frequent experiment, 
 by frequent failure, by the experience of many styles, 
 the examination of all schools, the scholar of Peru- 
 gino won for himself a name, than which no one is 
 more deeply graven on Fame's eternal tablets. 
 
 For half the sum that we are giving for a sus- 
 picious Corregio, the young English artist would be 
 able to observe all this, and the efforts of the early 
 Germans to boot. I make these observations with 
 no disposition to disparage the management of our 
 gallery; nor in that carping humour, which some 
 think it safe to assume, when any new measure is 
 proposed, or is being carried into execution. I know 
 the difficulties that the Directors have to contend 
 with. I know the greater difficulties that await 
 them ; and 1 have made these observations, because 
 
 believe there is a due disposition, in the proper 
 quarter, to attend to honest suggestions ; and because 
 I feel, that the true interests of the Arts, have, at this 
 present time, in our Monarch, a steady, a sincere, 
 and powerful advocate ; one, who in spite of the 
 disheartening opposition of vulgar clamour, and un- 
 educated prejudice, has done more in a short reign 
 
 278
 
 CHAPTER II VIVIAN GREY 
 
 for the patronage of the fine Arts than all the 
 dynasties of all the Medicis, Roman and Florentine, 
 together. And now for Mr. Brinkel. 
 
 ' My dear Baron ! ' commenced the picture-dealer ; 
 and here seeing strangers he pulled up, in order to 
 take a calm view of the guests, and see whether there 
 were any unpleasant faces among them ; any gentle- 
 men to whom he had sold a Leonardo da Vinci, or a 
 Salvator Rosa. All looking very strange, and ex- 
 tremely amiable, Mr. Brinkel felt reassured, and 
 proceeded. 
 
 ' My dear Baron ! merely a few words.' 
 
 ' Oh, my dear Brinkel ! proceed proceed.' 
 
 ' Another time ; your Excellency is engaged at 
 present.' 
 
 ' My dear Brinkel ! before these gentlemen you 
 may say any thing.' 
 
 ' Your Excellency's so kind ! ' continued Mr. 
 Brinkel, though with a hesitating voice, as if he 
 thought that when the nature of the communica- 
 tion was known, the Baron might repent his over 
 confidence. ' Your Excellency's so kind ! ' 
 
 ' My dear little Rembrandt, you may really say 
 any thing' 
 
 'Well then,' continued he, half hesitating, and half 
 in a whisper ; ' may it please your Excellency, I 
 merely stepped in to say, that I am secretly, but 
 credibly informed, that there is a man just arrived 
 from Italy, with a marble Pieta of Michel Angelo, 
 stolen from a church in Genoa. The fact is not yet 
 known, even to the police ; and long before the 
 Sardinian minister can apply for the acquirer's appre- 
 hension, he will be safely stowed in one of my 
 cellars.' 
 
 * A marble Pieta ! by Michel Angelo,' exclaimed 
 
 279
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 the Prince, with great eagerness. The Polish noble- 
 man had a commission from the imperial Viceroy of 
 his country, to make purchases of all exquisite speci- 
 mens of art that he could meet with ; as the Imperial 
 government was very desirous of reforming the taste 
 of the nation in matters of art, which indeed was in a 
 particularly depraved state. Caricatures had been 
 secretly circulated in the highest circles of Warsaw 
 and Wilna, in which the Emperor and his ministers 
 did not look quite as dignified as when shrouded in 
 the sacred sanctuary of the Kremlin ; and although 
 the knout, the wheel, and Siberia suppressed these 
 little intemperances for the moment, still it was 
 imagined by the prime minister, who chanced to be 
 a philosopher, that the only method of permanent 
 prevention was directing the public taste to the study 
 of the beautiful ; and that therefore the only mode of 
 saving the Sovereign from being squibbed, was the 
 formation of a national gallery. Ours, therefore, is 
 not the only infant institute. 
 
 4 A marble Pieta, by Michel Angelo ! ' exclaimed 
 the Prince ; ' but a great price, I suppose, demanded ?' 
 
 ' Dear but cheap ; ' oracularly answered Mr. 
 Brinkel : and the sinistral fore-finger was signifi- 
 cantly applied to the left side of his nose. 
 
 * I confess I am no extravagant admirer of Michel 
 Angelo,' said the Baron. ' In the sacred shades of 
 Santa Croce, Sculpture, Painting, and Architecture 
 mourn him as their lost master. Poetry might have 
 been added to the charming Sisters. But in all these 
 glorious arts, though his performances were remark- 
 able, they were not miraculous ; and I look in vain 
 for any production of Michel Angelo, which per se 
 stamps him as a master spirit. 
 
 ' It was his custom to treat sculpture as his pro- 
 280
 
 CHAPTER II VIVIAN GREY 
 
 fession, and in his profession he has left scarcely one 
 finished work. The tombs of the Medicis are not 
 completed, and although there is a mysterious and 
 undefinable moral in his ' Night and Day,' which 
 may attract the contemplative, and interest the poet, 
 yet I imagine few, who have preconceived that 
 monument from the written descriptions, have looked 
 on the original without disappointment. His Moses, 
 and for a moment I will grant that the legislator is as 
 sublime as his warmest admirers maintain, is only 
 one finished figure of a monument, in which it was 
 to have been not the most remarkable. But what, if 
 this statue be only a kindred personification of the 
 same conception which he has depicted in the brawny 
 prophets of theSistine chapel, where it would seem that 
 the artist had mistaken contortion for inspiration, and 
 largeness of stature for dilation of soul ! His marble 
 Pietas and Madonnas unfinished, abound in the 
 Italian churches ; and though I grant a striking 
 simplicity is often observable in the countenances of 
 his virgins, yet that simplicity is often severe, and 
 sometimes sullen. We look in vain for the subdued 
 loveliness of the mother of God for that celestial 
 resignation which is not akin to despair. As for the 
 corpse, it might suit the widow's child, or the 
 deceased Lazarus ; and if not always absolutely 
 vulgar, the face is at best but that of a young, and 
 not very intellectual Rabbi. If we turn from sacred 
 subjects to ancient mythology, I canftot forget that 
 Michel Angelo was the first artist who dared to 
 conceive a god as less than a man ; and in his 
 " Drunken Bacchus," presented us with the sove- 
 reign of the grape, as the slave of his own subject, 
 in a position too clumsy for a Faun, and too dull 
 for a Silenus ! 
 
 281
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 * Although sculpture was the profession of Michel 
 Angelo, he is still more esteemed by his admirers as 
 a painter. Notwithstanding Sir Joshua Reynolds 
 ranks him even above Raffael, it seems now pretty 
 well understood that his fame as a painter must 
 depend upon his Roman frescos, and his one oil 
 painting the Holy Family at Florence. Whether 
 this painting really be in oil is doubtful, but that is 
 of little moment. I will only ask, what mind un- 
 prejudiced by the doctrines, and uncontaminated by 
 the babble of schools, has looked upon that boasted 
 treasure of the Tribune, with any other feeling except 
 disgust ? Where is the divinity of the boy ? Where 
 the inspiration of the mother ? Where the proud 
 felicity of the human husband ? 
 
 * Of fresco-painting, Michel Angelo was confes- 
 sedly ignorant, and once threw down the brush in 
 disgust at his own incompetence. The theorist of 
 art still finds some plan, and order, lurking in the 
 inexplicable arrangement of the Sistine ceiling ; but 
 while he consoles himself for the absence of the more 
 delightful effects of art, by conjuring up a philoso- 
 phical arrangement of the prophets, and a solution of 
 the dark mysteries of theocracy, he turns in silence 
 from the walls, gloomy with the frightless purgatory, 
 and the unexhilarating paradise of ' The last Judg- 
 ment ; ' where the Gothic conceptions of the middle 
 ages are again served up in the favourite temple of 
 modern Rome, and in a manner in which crude 
 composition seems only to be exceeded by confused 
 arrangement in which the distraced eye turns to a 
 thousand points, and is satisfied by none wearied 
 with tints, which though monotonous, are not sub- 
 dued, and which possessing none of the attractions of 
 colour, seem cursed with all its faults. 
 
 282
 
 CHAPTER II VIVIAN GREY 
 
 ' Michel Angelo was not educated as an architect ; 
 but an Italian, and a man of genius, may become a 
 great architect, even without an education. Let us 
 briefly examine his works. The domestic architec- 
 ture of Florence is due to him ; and if we complain 
 of palaces, which look like prisons, and lament the 
 perpetual presence of rustic bossages, we are told 
 that the plans of Michel Angelo were dictated by the 
 necessities of the times ; and that, in his age, it was 
 absolutely requisite that every palace should be pre- 
 pared to become a fortress. If this be admitted as 
 a valid excuse for the absence of beauty, it is against 
 all principles of logic, that, because in these structures 
 beauty was incompatible with safety, Michel Angelo 
 could therefore have conceived the beautiful. In the 
 chapel of the Medicis, we in vain look for the 
 master, where is that happy union of the sciences 
 ot the harmony of proportion, and the harmony of 
 combination, which mark the great architect ! where 
 the harmonious whole consisting of parts beautiful in 
 detail, and unobtrusive in effect ! We see only a 
 dungeon, at once clumsy and confined. 
 
 ' If we turn from Florence to Rome, who is there 
 to defend the complexities of the Capitoline Galleries, 
 and the absurdities of the Porta Pia ? We approach 
 St. Peter's : although the work of many artists, the 
 design of Michel Angelo has, on the whole, been 
 very faithfully adhered to. That St. Peter's is 
 magnificent, who can deny ? but how could such 
 a mass of stone, and masonry, and architectural 
 embellishment, such a blaze of gilding, marbles, and 
 mosaics, be otherwise than magnificent ? We must 
 not be deceived by the first impression of a general 
 effect which could not be avoided. It is acknow- 
 ledged that this church, which is the largest in 
 
 283
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 Christendom ; which required so many years for its 
 erection ; which exhausted the Papal treasures, and 
 endangered the Papal dominion ; affects the mind 
 of the entering stranger, neither with its sublimity, 
 nor its grandeur ; and presents no feature which 
 would lead him to suppose, that he was standing in 
 the most celebrated temple in Europe. All our 
 travellers and writers, who have alike experienced 
 disappointment on entering this famous building, 
 have attempted to account for this effect, by attri- 
 buting the cause to the exactness of the proportions. 
 But this is like excusing a man's ignorance, by as- 
 suring you that he has received a regular education. 
 If exactness of proportion produce poverty of effect, 
 exactness of proportion ceases to be a merit ; but is 
 this true ? What lover of Palladio can deny that it 
 is the business of the great architect to produce 
 striking and chaste effects, from poor and limited 
 materials ; and that exactness of proportion satisfying 
 the mind, and not forcing it to ask for more, does 
 in fact make that which is less appear greater, and 
 that which is great, immense. 
 
 ' But if I mention the faults of Michel Angelo, I 
 am bid to remember the early period of art in which 
 he lived ; I am reminded of the mean elevations of 
 those who preceded him of the tone which he gave 
 to the conceptions of his successors. Yet many 
 celebrated sculptors were his contemporaries, and 
 surely Leonardo da Vinci was not the scholar of his 
 genius. But in painting, especially, he was preceded 
 by Fra Bartolomeo, a miraculous artist ; who, while 
 in his meek Madonnas he has only been equalled by 
 Raffael, has produced in his St. Mark his Job- 
 arid his Isaiah creations which might have entitled 
 him to the panegyrics which Posterity has so liber- 
 
 284
 
 CHAPTER II VIVIAN GREY 
 
 ally bestowed upon the sculptor of Moses, and the 
 painter of the Sistine Chapel. 
 
 ' In architecture, I will not notice Brunelleschi ; 
 but let me mention this astonishing fact : San 
 Michele was born only nine or ten years after 
 Michel Angelo, and as he died a few years before 
 him, may be considered his exact contemporary. 
 While the chapel of the Medicis was erected at 
 Florence, at Verona, in the chapel of the Pellegrini, 
 San Michele was reproducing ancient beauty, in com- 
 binations unknown to the antique. While the bar- 
 baric absurdities of the Porta Pia disgraced the capi- 
 tal of the Papal state, San Michele produced in the 
 Porta Stupa a structure worthy of ancient Rome. 
 And while Michel Angelo was raising palaces for his 
 Florentine contemporaries, whose dark and rugged 
 elevations are to be excused, on account of the 
 necessity of their being impregnable to the assaults 
 of popular tumult, the streets of Verona, the constant 
 seat of sedition, were filling under the direction of 
 San Michele, with numberless palaces, which, while 
 they defended their owners alike among the dangers of 
 civil broils and foreign invasion, at the same time pre- 
 sented elevations which, for their varied beauty, and 
 classic elegance, have only been equalled by Palladio ! ' 
 
 Nothing is more delightful than to hear the sound 
 of our own voice. The Baron's lecture was rather 
 long, but certainly unlike most other lecturers, he 
 understood his subject. Before Vivian could venture 
 an observation in defence of the great Florentine, the 
 door opened, and ErnstorfF handed a dispatch to the 
 Baron, recommending it to his Excellency's particular 
 attention. 
 
 * Business, I suppose,' said the Plenipotentiary : ' it 
 may wait till to morrow.'
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 ' From M. Clarionet, your Excellency.' 
 
 'From M. Clarionet!' eagerly exclaimed the 
 Baron, and tore open the epistle. ' Gentlemen ! 
 gentlemen ! gentlemen ! congratulate me congratu- 
 late yourselves congratulate Frankfort such news 
 it is really too much for me,' and the diplomatist, 
 overcome, leant back in his chair. ' She is ours, 
 Salvinski ! she is ours, Von Altenburgh ! she is ours, 
 my dear de Bceffleurs ! Grey, you're the happiest 
 fellow in Christendom ; the Signora has signed and 
 sealed all is arranged she sings to-night ! What 
 a fine spirited body is this Frankfort municipality ! 
 what elevation of soul ! what genuine enthusiasm ! 
 eh ! de Boeffleurs ! ' 
 
 ' Most genuine ! ' exclaimed the Chevalier, who 
 hated German music with all his heart, and was now 
 humming an air from the Dame Blanche. 
 
 ' But mind, my dear fellows this is a secret, a 
 cabinet secret the municipality are to have the grati- 
 fication of announcing the event to the city in a 
 public decree it is but fair. I feel that I have only 
 to hint, to secure your silence.' 
 
 At this moment, with a thousand protestations of 
 secrecy, the party broke up, each hastening to have 
 the credit of first spreading the joyful intelligence 
 through their circles, and of depriving the Frankfort 
 senate of their hard-earned gratification. The Baron, 
 who was in high spirits, ordered the carriage to drive 
 Vivian round the ramparts, where he was to be in- 
 troduced to some of the most fashionable beauties, 
 previous to the evening triumph. Mr. Brinkel, dis- 
 appointed at present of increasing, through the assist- 
 ance of the Polish Prince, any collection in the North, 
 directed his subtle steps up another flight of the 
 staircase of the Roman Emperor, where lodged an 
 
 286
 
 CHAPTER II VIVIAN GREY 
 
 English gentleman, for whom Mr. Brinkel had a 
 very exquisite mor$eau; having received the night 
 before from Florence a fresh consignment of Carlo 
 Dolces. 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 VIVIAN passed a week very agreeably at Frankfort. 
 In the Baron and his friends he found the companions 
 that he had need of; their conversation and pursuits 
 diverted his mind without engaging his feelings, and 
 allowed him no pause to think. There were moments, 
 indeed, when he found in the Baron a companion 
 neither frivolous nor uninstructive. His Excellency 
 had travelled in most countries, and had profited by 
 his travels. His taste for the fine arts was equalled 
 by his knowledge of them ; and his acquaintance 
 with many of the most eminent men of Europe 
 enriched his conversation with a variety of anecdotes, 
 to which his lively talents did ample justice. He 
 seemed fond, at times, of showing Vivian that he 
 was not a mere artificial man of the world, destitute 
 of all feelings, and thinking only of himself: he re- 
 curred with satisfaction to moments of his life, when 
 his passions had been in full play ; and, while he 
 acknowledged the errors of his youth with candour, 
 he excused them with grace. In short, Vivian and 
 he became what the world calls friends; that is to 
 say, they were men who had no objection to dine in 
 each other's company, provided the dinner were good ; 
 assist each other in any scrape, provided no particular 
 personal responsibility were incurred by the assistant ; 
 and live under the same roof, provided each were 
 master of his own time. Vivian and the Baron, 
 indeed, did more than this they might have been 
 described as very particular friends for his Excellency 
 
 287
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 had persuaded our hero to accompany him for the 
 summer to the Baths of Ems, a celebrated German 
 watering place, situated in the duchy of Nassau, in 
 the vicinity of the Rhine. 
 
 On the morrow they were to commence their 
 journey. The fair of Frankfort, which had now 
 lasted nearly a month, was at its close. A bright 
 sun-shiny afternoon was stealing into twilight, when 
 Vivian escaping from the principal street, and the 
 attractions of the Braunfels, or chief shops under the 
 Exchange, directed his steps to some of the more 
 remote and ancient streets. In crossing a little 
 square, his attention was excited by a crowd, which 
 had assembled round a conjuror ; who from the top 
 of a small cart, which he had converted into a stage, 
 was haranguing, in front of a green curtain, an 
 audience with great fervency, and apparently with 
 great effect ; at least Vivian judged so, from the 
 loud applauses which constantly burst forth. The 
 men pressed nearer, shouted, and clapped their 
 hands ; and the anxious mothers struggled to lift 
 their brats higher in the air, that they might early 
 form a due conception of the powers of magic ; and 
 learn that the maternal threats which were sometimes 
 extended to them at home, were not mere idle 
 boasting. Altogether the men with their cocked 
 hats, stiff holiday coats, and long pipes ; the women 
 with their glazed gowns of bright fancy patterns, 
 close lace caps, or richly chased silver headgear ; and 
 the children with their gaping mouths and long heads 
 of hair, offered very quaint studies for a Flemish 
 painter. Vivian became also one of the audience, 
 and not an uninterested one. 
 
 The appearance of the conjuror was very peculiar. 
 He was not much more than five feet high, but so 
 
 288
 
 CHAPTER III VIVIAN GREY 
 
 slightly formed, that he reminded you rather of the 
 boy, than the dwarf. The upper part of his face 
 was even delicately moulded ; his sparkling black eye 
 became his round forehead, which was not too much 
 covered by his short glossy black hair ; his complexion 
 was clear, but quite olive ; his nose was very small 
 and straight, and contrasted singularly with his 
 enormous mouth, the thin bluish lips of which were 
 seldom closed, and consequently did not conceal his 
 large square teeth, which, though very white, were 
 set apart, and were so solid that they looked almost 
 like double teeth. This enormous mouth, which 
 was supported by large jawbones, attracted the 
 attention of the spectator so keenly that it was some 
 time before you observed the prodigious size of the 
 ears, which also adorned this extraordinary coun- 
 tenance. The costume of this singular being was 
 not less remarkable than his natural appearance. 
 He wore a complete under-dress of pliant leather, 
 which fitted close up to his throat, and down to his 
 wrists and ankles, where it was clasped with large 
 fastenings either of gold or some gilt material. 
 This, with the addition of a species of hussar jacket 
 of green cloth, which was quite unadorned, with the 
 exception of its vivid red lining, was the sole covering 
 of the conjuror; who, with a light cap and feather in 
 his hand, was now haranguing the spectators. The 
 object of the discourse was a panegyric of himself, 
 and a satire on all other conjurors. He was the 
 only conjuror the real conjuror a worthy descen- 
 dant of the magicians of old. 
 
 ' Were I to tell that broad-faced Heer,' continued 
 
 the conjuror, ' who is now gaping opposite to me, 
 
 that this rod is the rod of Aaron, mayhap he would 
 
 call me a liar ; yet were I to tell him that he was the 
 
 T 289
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 son of his father, he would not think it wonderful ! 
 And yet, can he prove it ? My friends, if I am a 
 liar, the whole world is a liar and yet any one of 
 you who'll go and proclaim that on the Braunfels, 
 will get his skull cracked. Every truth is not to be 
 spoken, and every lie is not to be punished. I've 
 told you that it's better for you to spend your money 
 in seeing my tricks, than it is in swigging schnaps in 
 the chimney corner ; and yet, my friends, this may 
 be a lie. I've told you that the profits of this whole 
 night shall be given to some poor and worthy person 
 in this town; and perhaps I shall give them to my- 
 self. What then ! I shall speak the truth ; and you 
 will perhaps crack my skull. Is this a reward for 
 truth ? Oh, generation of vipers ! My friends, 
 what is truth ? who can find it in Frankfort ? Sup- 
 pose I call upon you, Mr. Baker, and sup with you 
 this evening ; you will receive me as a neighbourly 
 man should, tell me to make myself at home, and do 
 as I like. Is it not so ? I see you smile, as if my 
 visit would make you bring out one of the bottles of 
 your best Asmanshausen ! ' 
 
 Here the crowd laughed out ; for we are always 
 glad when there is talk of another's hospitality being 
 put to the test, although we stand no chance of 
 sharing in the entertainment ourselves. The baker 
 looked foolish, as all men singled out in a crowd do. 
 
 ' Well, well,' continued the conjuror ; ' I've no 
 doubt his wine would be as ready as your tobacco, 
 Mr. Smith ; or a wafila from your basket, my honest 
 Cake-seller;' and so saying, with a peculiarly long 
 thin wand, the conjuror jerked up the basket of an 
 itinerant and shouting Pastry-cook, and immediately 
 began to thrust the contents into his mouth with a 
 rapidity ludicrously miraculous. The laugh now 
 
 290
 
 CHAPTER III VIVIAN GREY 
 
 burst out again, but the honest baker joined in it 
 this time with an easy spirit. 
 
 ' Be not disconcerted, my little custard-monger ; 
 if thou art honest, thou shalt prosper. Did I not 
 say that the profits of this night were for the most 
 poor, and the most honest ? If thy stock in trade 
 were in thy basket, my raspberry-puff, verily you 
 are not now the richest here ; and so, therefore, if 
 your character be a fair onethat is to say, if you 
 only cheat five times a-day, and give a tenth of your 
 cheatery to the poor, you shall have the benefit. I 
 ask you again, what is truth ? If I sup with the 
 baker, and he tells me to do what I like with all that 
 is his, and I kiss his wife, he will kick me out ; yet 
 to kiss his wife might be my pleasure, if her breath 
 were sweet. I ask you again, what is truth ? Truth 
 they say lies in a well ; but perhaps this is a lie. 
 How do we know that truth is not in one of these 
 two boxes ?' asked the conjuror, placing his cap on 
 his head, and holding one small snuff-box to a tall 
 savage-looking one-eyed Bohemian, who, with a 
 comrade, had walked over from the Austrian garrison 
 at Mentz. 
 
 ' I see but one box,' growled the soldier. 
 
 ' It is because thou hast only one eye, friend ; open 
 the other, and thou shalt see two,' said the conjuror, 
 in a slow malicious tone, with his neck extended, and 
 his hand with the hateful box outstretched on it. 
 
 ' Now, by our black lady of Altoting, I'll soon 
 stop thy prate, chitterling ! ' bellowed the enraged 
 Bohemian. 
 
 ' Murder ! murder ! murder ! the protection of 
 the free city against the Emperor of Austria, the 
 King of Bohemia, Hungary, and Lombardy ! ' and 
 the knave retreated to the very extremity of the 
 
 291
 
 \I\IAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 stage, and affecting the most agitating fear, hid him- 
 self behind the green curtain, from a side of which 
 his head was alone visible, or rather an immense red 
 tongue, which wagged in all shapes at the unlucky 
 soldier, except when it retired to the interior of his 
 mouth, to enable him to reiterate ' Murder ! ' and 
 invoke the privileges of the free city of Frankfort. 
 
 When the soldier was a little cooled, the conjuror 
 again came forward ; and, having moved his small 
 magical table to a corner, and lit two tapers, one of 
 which he placed at each side of the stage, he stripped 
 off his hussar jacket, and began to imitate a monkey ; 
 an animal which, by the faint light, in his singular 
 costume, he very much resembled. How amusing 
 were his pranks ! He first plundered a rice planta- 
 tion, and then he cracked cocoa-nuts; then he 
 washed his face, and arranged his toilet with his right 
 paw ; and finally, he ran a race with his own tail, 
 which humorous appendage to his body was very 
 wittily performed for the occasion, by a fragment of 
 an old tarred rope. His gambols were so diverting, 
 that they even extracted applause from his enemy 
 the one-eyed Serjeant; and, emboldened by the 
 acclamations, from monkeys the conjuror began to 
 imitate men. He first drank like a Dutchman, and 
 having reeled round with a thousand oaths to the 
 manifold amusement of the crowd, he suddenly 
 began to smoke like a Prussian. Nothing could be 
 more admirable than the look of complacent and 
 pompous stolidity with which he accompanied each 
 puff of the cigar. The applause was continued ; and 
 the one-eyed Bohemian serjeant, delighted at the 
 ridicule which was heaped on his military rival, 
 actually threw the mimic some groschen. 
 
 * Keep your pence, friend/ said the conjuror ; 
 292
 
 CHAPTER III VIVIAN GREY 
 
 ' you'll soon owe me more ; we have not yet closed 
 accounts. My friends, I have drank like a Dutch- 
 man ; I have smoked like a Prussian ; and now I 
 will eat like an Austrian ! ' and here the immense 
 mouth of the actor seemed distended even a hundred 
 degrees bigger, while with gloating eyes and extended 
 arms, he again set to at the half-emptied wafila basket 
 of the unhappy pastry-cook. 
 
 ' Now, by our black Lady of Altoting, thou art 
 an impudent varlet! ' growled the Austrian soldier. 
 
 ' You are losing your temper again,' retorted the 
 glutton, with his mouth full ; ' how difficult you are 
 to please ! Well, then, if the Austrians may not be 
 touched, what say you to a Bohemian a tall one- 
 eyed Bohemian serjeant, with an appetite like a hog, 
 and a liver like a lizard ? ' 
 
 ' Now, by our black Lady of Altoting, this is too 
 much ! ' and the frantic soldier sprang at the conjuror. 
 
 ' Hold him ! hold him ! ' cried Vivian Grey ; for 
 the mob, frightened at the soldier, gave way. 
 
 ' There is a gentle's voice under a dark cloak ! ' 
 cried the conjuror ; ' but I want no assistance ; ' and 
 so saying, with a dexterous spring, the conjuror leapt 
 over the heads of two or three staring children, and 
 lighted on the nape of the Serjeant's gigantic neck ; 
 placing his forefingers behind each of the soldier's 
 ears, he threatened to slit them immediately, if he 
 were not quiet. The Serjeant's companion, of course, 
 came to his rescue, but Vivian engaged him, and 
 attempted to arrange matters. ' My friends, my 
 friends, surely a gay word at a kermis is not to meet 
 with military punishment! What is the use of living 
 in the free city of Frankfort, or, indeed, in any other 
 city, if jokes are to be answered with oaths, and a 
 light laugh met with a heavy blow ? Avoid blood- 
 
 293
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 shed, if possible; but stand by the conjuror. His 
 business is gibes and jests, and this is the first time 
 that I ever saw Merry Andrew arrested. Come, 
 come, my good fellows ! ' said he to the soldiers, ' we 
 had better be off: men so important as you and I 
 should not be spectators of these mummeries.' The 
 Austrians, who understood Vivian's compliment lite- 
 rally, were not sorry to make a dignified retreat ; 
 particularly as the mob, encouraged by Vivian's inter- 
 ference, began to show fight. Vivian also took his 
 departure as soon as he could possibly steal off un- 
 noticed; but not before he had been thanked by the 
 conjuror. 
 
 ' I knew there was gentle blood under that cloak ! 
 If you like to see the Mystery of the Crucifixion, 
 with the Resurrection, and real fire-works, it 
 begins at eight o'clock, and you shall be admitted 
 gratis. I knew there was gentle blood under that 
 cloak, and some day or other, when your Highness 
 is in distress, you shall not want the aid of ESSPER 
 GEORGE ! ' 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 IT was late in the evening, when a britchka stopped 
 at the post-house of Coblentz. M. Maas, whom all 
 English travellers must remember, for all must have 
 experienced his genuine kindness, greeted its two 
 inmates with his usual hospitality : but regretted that, 
 as his house was very full, his Excellency must have 
 the condescension to sup in the public-room. The 
 passage-boat from Bingen had just arrived ; and a 
 portly judge from the Danube, a tall, gaunt Prussian 
 officer, a sketching English artist, two University 
 students, and three or four travelling cloth-merchants, 
 chiefly returning from Frankfort-fair, were busily 
 
 294
 
 CHAPTER IV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 occupied at a long table in the centre of the room, 
 at an ample banquet, in which sour-crout, cherry 
 soup, and very savory sausages were not wanting. 
 So keen were the appetites, and so intense the atten- 
 tion of these worthies, that the entrance of the new 
 comers was scarcely noticed ; and the Baron and his 
 friend seated themselves very quietly at a small table 
 in the corner of the room, where they waited with 
 due patience for the arrival of one of Monsieur Maas' 
 exquisite little suppers ; although hunger, more than 
 once, nearly induced them to join the table of the 
 boat's-crew ; but as the Baron facetiously observed, 
 a due terror of the Prussian officer, who, the moment 
 they arrived, took care to help himself to every dish 
 at table, and a proper respect for ErnstorfF prevented 
 a consummation which they devoutly wished for. 
 
 For half an hour nothing was heard but the sound 
 of crashing jaws, and of rattling knives and forks. 
 How singular is the sight of a dozen hungry in- 
 dividuals intent upon their prey ! what a noisy 
 silence ! A human voice was at length heard. It 
 proceeded from the fat judge from the Danube. He 
 was a man at once convivial, dignified, and eco- 
 nomical : he had not spoke for two minutes before his 
 character was evident to every person in the room, 
 although he flattered himself that his secret purpose 
 was concealed from all. Tired with the thin Moselle 
 which M. Maas gratuitously allowed to the table, 
 the convivial judge from the Danube wished to com- 
 fort himself with a glass of more generous liquor ; 
 aware of the price of a bottle of good Rudesheimer, 
 the economical judge from the Danube was desirous 
 of forming a co-partnership with one or two gentle- 
 men in the bottle ; still more aware of his exalted 
 situation, the dignified judge from the Danube felt 
 
 2 9S
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 it did not become him to appear in the eyes of any 
 one as an unsuccessful suppliant. 
 
 'This Moselle is very thin,' observed the judge, 
 shaking his head. 
 
 ' Very fair table-wine, I think,' said the artist, re- 
 filling his tumbler, and then proceeding with his 
 sketch, which was a rough likeness, in black chalk, 
 of the worthy magistrate himself. 
 
 ' Very good wine, I think,' swore the Prussian, 
 taking the bottle. With the officer there was cer- 
 tainly no chance. 
 
 The cloth-merchants mixed even this thin Moselle 
 with water, and therefore they could hardly be looked 
 to as boon companions ; and the students were alone 
 left. A German student is no flincher at the bottle, 
 although he generally drinks beer. These gentry, 
 however, were no great favourites with the magis- 
 trate, who was a loyal man, of regular habits, and 
 no encourager of brawls, duels, and other still more 
 disgraceful outrages; to all which abominations, 
 besides drinking beer and chewing tobacco, the 
 German student is most remarkably addicted ; but 
 in the present case, what was to be done ? He offered 
 the nearest a pinch of snuff, as a mode of commenc- 
 ing his acquaintance, and cultivating his complaisance. 
 The German student dug his thumb into the box, and 
 with the additional aid of the fore-finger sweeping 
 out half its contents, growled out something like 
 thanks, and then drew up in his seat, as if he had 
 too warmly encouraged the impertinent intrusion of 
 a Philistine, to whom he had never been introduced. 
 
 The cloth-merchant ceasing from sipping his meek 
 liquor, and taking out of his pocket a letter, from 
 which he tore off the back, carefully commenced 
 collecting with his fore-finger the particles of dis- 
 
 296
 
 CHAPTER IV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 persed snuff in a small pyramid, which, when formed, 
 was dexterously slided into the paper, then folded up 
 and put into his pocket ; the prudent merchant con- 
 tenting himself for the moment with the refreshment 
 which was afforded to his senses by the truant 
 particles which had remained in his nail. 
 
 " Kelner ! ' never call a German waiter Garfon, 
 or else you'll stand a chance of going supperless to- 
 bed ; ' Kelner ! a bottle of Rudesheimer ! ' bellowed 
 the convivial judge from the Danube; 'and if any 
 gentleman or gentlemen would like to join me, they 
 may;' added the economical judge from the Danube, 
 in a more subdued tone. No one answered, and the 
 bottle was put down. The judge slowly poured out 
 the bright yellow fluid into a tall bell glass, adorned 
 with a beautiful and encircling wreath of vine leaves : 
 he held the glass a moment before the lamp, for his 
 eye to dwell with still greater advantage on the 
 transparent radiancy of the contents ; and then 
 deliberately pouring them down his throat, and 
 allowing them to dwell a moment on his palate, he 
 uttered an emphatic 'bah!' 1 and sucking in his 
 breath, leant back in his chair. The student imme- 
 diately poured out a glass from the same bottle, and 
 drank it off. The dignified judge from the Danube 
 gave him a look ; the economical judge from the 
 Danube blessed himself that though his boon com- 
 panion was a brute, still he would lessen the expense 
 of the bottle, which nearly amounted to a day's pay ; 
 and the convivial judge from the Danube again filled 
 his glass but this was merely to secure his fair por- 
 tion. He saw the student was a rapid drinker ; and, 
 although he did not like to hurry his own enjoyment, 
 he thought it most prudent to keep his glass well 
 stored by his side. 
 
 297
 
 VIVIAN GKKV BOOK V 
 
 ' I hope your Highnesses have had a pleasant 
 voyage,' halloed out a man, entering the room very 
 rapidly as he spoke ; and deliberately walking up to 
 the table, he pushed between two of the cloth mer- 
 chants, who quietly made way ; and then placing a 
 small square box before him, he immediately opened 
 it, and sweeping aside all the dishes and glasses which 
 surrounded him, he began to fill their places with 
 cups, balls, rings, and other mysterious-looking 
 matters, which generally accompany a conjuror. 
 
 ' I hope your Highnesses have had a pleasant 
 voyage. I've been thinking of you all the day. 
 (Here the cups were arranged.) Next to myself, 
 I'm interested for my friends. (Here the rice was 
 sprinkled.) I came from Fairy-land this morning. 
 (Here the trick was executed.) Will any gentleman 
 lend me a handkerchief? Now, Sir, tie any knot you 
 choose : tighter tighter tight as you can tight as 
 you can : now pull ! Why, Sir, where's your 
 knot ?' Here most of the company good-naturedly 
 laughed at a trick which had amused them, before a 
 hundred times. But the dignified judge from the 
 Danube had no taste for such trivial amusements; 
 and, besides, the convivial judge from the Danube 
 thought that all this noise spoilt the pleasure of his 
 wine, and prevented him from catching the flavour of 
 his Rudesheimer. Moreover, the judge from the 
 Danube was not in a very good humour. The 
 German student appeared to have very little idea of 
 the rules and regulations of a fair partnership ; for 
 not only did he not regulate his draughts by the 
 moderate example of his bottle companion, but 
 actually filled the glass of his University friend, 
 and even offered the precious green flask to his 
 neighbour, the cloth-merchant. That humble indi- 
 
 298
 
 CHAPTER IV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 vidual modestly refused the proffer. The very 
 unexpected circumstance of having his health drank 
 by a stranger seemed alone to have produced a great 
 impression upon him ; and adding a little more water 
 to his already diluted potation, he bowed most 
 reverently to the student, who, in return, did not 
 notice him. All these little circumstances prevented 
 the judge from the Danube from being in his usual 
 condescending and amiable humour, and therefore 
 the judge from the Danube did not laugh at the 
 performances of our friend Essper George : for I 
 need hardly mention that the conjuror was no other 
 than that quaint personage. His ill-humour did not 
 escape the lord of the cups and balls ; who, as was 
 his custom, immediately began to torment him. 
 
 4 Will your Highness choose a card?' asked the 
 magician of the judge, with a most humble look. 
 
 This was too much for the magistrate. 
 
 'No, Sir!' 
 
 Essper George looked very penitently, as if he felt 
 he had taken a great liberty by his application ; and 
 so to compensate for his incorrect behaviour, he 
 asked the magistrate whether he would have the 
 goodness to lend him his watch. The judge was 
 very irate, and determined to give the intruder a set 
 down. 
 
 4 No, Sir ; I am not one of those who can be 
 amused by tricks that his grandfather knew.' 
 
 ' Grandfather ! ' shrieked Essper ; ' what a won- 
 derful grandfather your's must have been ! All my 
 tricks are fresh from Fairy-land this morning. 
 Grandfather, indeed ! Pray, is this your grand- 
 father?' and here the conjuror, leaning over the 
 table, with a rapid catch drew out from the fat paunch 
 of the judge, a long, grinning wooden figure, with 
 
 299
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 great staring eyes, and the parrot nose of a pulcinello. 
 The laugh which followed this humorous specimen 
 of sleight-of-hand was loud, long, and universal. 
 The judge lost his temper ; and Essper George took 
 the opportunity of the contusion to drink off the 
 glass of Rudesheimer, which stood, as we have men- 
 tioned, ready-charged at the magistrate's elbow. 
 
 The kelner now went round to collect the money 
 of the various guests who had partaken of the boat- 
 supper ; and, of course, charged the judge extra for 
 his ordered bottle, bowing at the same time very low, 
 as was proper to so good a customer. These little 
 attentions at inns encourage expenditure. The judge 
 tried at the same time the bottle, which he found 
 empty, and applied to his two boon companions for 
 their quota ; but the students affected a sort of 
 brutal surprise at any one having the presumption to 
 imagine that they were going to pay their proportion ; 
 and flinging down the money for their own supper 
 on the table, they retired ; the frantic magistrate, 
 calling loudly for M. Maas, followed them out of 
 the room. 
 
 Essper George stood moralizing at the table, and 
 emptying every glass whose contents were not 
 utterly drained ; with the exception of the tumblers 
 of the cloth-merchants, of whose liquor he did not 
 approve. 
 
 * Dear me ! poor man ! to get only one glass out 
 of his own bottle! I wish I hadn't taken his wine ; 
 it was rather sour. Ay! call call away for Mr. 
 Maas : threaten threaten threaten as you will. 
 Your grandfather will not help you here. Blood out 
 of a wall, and money out of a student come the same 
 day.- Ah ! is your Highness here?' said Essper, 
 turning round to our two travellers with affected 
 
 300
 
 CHAPTER IV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 surprise, although he had observed them the whole 
 time. ' Is your Highness here ?' I've been looking 
 for you through Frankfort this whole morning. 
 There ! it will do for your glass. It is of chamois 
 leather ; and I made it myself, from a beast I caught 
 last summer in the valley of the Rhone.' So saying 
 he threw over Vivian's neck a neat chain, or cord, of 
 very curiously-worked leather. 
 
 ' Who the devil's this, Grey ?' asked the Baron. 
 
 ' A funny knave, whom I once saved from a 
 thrashing, or something of the kind, which I do him 
 justice to say he well deserved.' 
 
 'Who the devil's this?' said Essper George. 
 ' Why, that's exactly the same question I myself 
 asked when I saw a tall, pompous, proud fellow, 
 dressed like a peacock on a May morning, standing 
 at the door just now. He looked as if he'd pass 
 himself off for an ambassador at least ; but I told 
 him that if he got his wages paid, he was luckier than 
 most servants. Was I right, your Excellency?' 
 
 ' Poor ErnstorfF ! ' said the Baron, laughing. 
 'Yes; he certainly gets paid. Here, you're a 
 clever varlet ; fill your glass.' 
 
 ' No, no, no, no wine- no wine. Don't you hear 
 the brawling, and nearly the bloodshed, which are 
 going on up-stairs about a sour bottle of Rudes- 
 heimer ? and here I see two gentles who have ordered 
 the best wine merely to show that they are masters 
 and not servants of the green peacock and lo ! 
 cannot get through a glass Lord ! lord ! what is 
 man ? If my fat friend and his grandfather, would 
 come down stairs again, here is liquor enough to 
 make wine and water of the Danube ; for he comes 
 from thence by his accent. No, no, I'll have none 
 of your wine ; keep it to throw on the sandy floor, 
 
 301
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 that the dust may not hurt your delicate shoes, nor 
 dirt the hand of the gentleman in green and gold 
 when he cleans them for you in the morning.' 
 
 Here the Baron laughed again, and, as he bore his 
 impertinence, Essper George immediately became 
 polite. 
 
 ' Does your mighty Highness go to Ems ?' 
 
 ' We hardly know, my friend.' 
 
 ' Oh ! go there, gentlemen. I've tried them all 
 Aix-la-Chapelle, Spa, Wisbaden, Carlsbad, Pyrmont, 
 every one of them ; but what are these to Ems ? 
 there we all live in the same house, and eat from the 
 same table. When there, I feel that you are all 
 under my protection I consider you all as my 
 children. Besides, the country- how delightful ! 
 the mountains the valleys the rivers the woods 
 and then the company so select ! no sharpers no 
 adventurers no blacklegs : at Ems you can be 
 taken in by no one except your intimate friend. 
 Oh ! go to Ems, go to Ems, by all means. I'd 
 advise you, however, to send the gentleman in the 
 cocked hat on before you to engage rooms ; for I 
 can assure you that you'll have a hard chance ; the 
 baths are very full.' 
 
 ' And how do you get there, Essper ? ' asked 
 Vivian. 
 
 'Those are subjects on which I never speak,' 
 answered the conjuror, with a solemn air. 
 
 ' But have you all your stock in trade with you, 
 my good fellow ? Where's the Mystery ? ' 
 
 ' Sold, Sir, sold ! I never keep to any thing long ; 
 Variety is the mother of Enjoyment. At Ems I 
 shall not be a conjuror : but I never part with my 
 box. It takes no more room than one of those 
 medicine chests, which I dare say you've got with 
 
 302
 
 CHAPTER IV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 you in your carriage, to prop up your couple of 
 shattered constitutions.' 
 
 * By Jove ! you're a merry impudent fellow,' said 
 the Baron ; ' and if you like to get up behind my 
 britchka, you may.' 
 
 " No, no, no ; a thousand thanks to your mighty 
 Highnesses, I carry my own box, and my own body, 
 and I shall be at Ems to-morrow in time enough to 
 receive your lordships.' 
 
 IN a delightful valley of Nassau, formed by the 
 picturesque windings of the Taunus mountains, and 
 on the banks of the noisy river Lahn, stands an 
 immense brick pile, of very irregular architecture, 
 which nearly covers an acre of ground. This build- 
 ing was formerly a favourite palace of the ducal house 
 of Nassau ; but for reasons which 1 cannot give, and 
 which the reader will perhaps not require, the present 
 Prince has thought proper to let out the former 
 residence of his family, as an hotel for the accommo- 
 dation of the company, who in the season frequent 
 this, the most lovely spot in his lovely little Duchy. 
 This extensive building contains two hundred and 
 thirty rooms, and eigthy baths; and these apart- 
 ments, which are under the management of an official 
 agent, who lives in the ' Princely Bathing House,' 
 for such is its present dignified title, are to be .en- 
 gaged at fixed prices, which are marked over the 
 doors. All the rooms in the upp.er story of the 
 Princely Bathing House open on, or are almost 
 immediately connected with, a long corridor, which 
 extends the whole length of the building. The 
 ground floor, besides the space occupied by the baths, 
 
 33
 
 \I\IAN (iKKV BOOK V 
 
 also affords a very spacious promenade, arched with 
 stone, and surrounded with stalls, behind which are 
 marshalled vendors of all the possible articles which 
 can be required by the necessities of the frequenters 
 of a watering-place. There you are greeted by the 
 jeweller of the Palais Royal, and the merchande de 
 mode of the Rue de la Paix ; the printseller from 
 Manheim, and the china-dealer from Dresden ; and 
 other little speculators in the various fancy articles 
 which abound in Vienna, Berlin, Geneva, Basle, 
 Strasburgh and Lausanne ; such as pipes, costumes 
 of Swiss peasantry, crosses of Mont-Blanc crystal, 
 and all varieties of national bijouterie. All things 
 may here be sold, save those which administer to 
 the nourishment of the body, or the pleasure of the 
 palate. Let not those of my readers, who have 
 already planned a trip to the sweet vales of the 
 Taunus, be frightened by this last rather alarming 
 sentence. At Ems, ' eatables and drinkables ' are 
 excellent, and abounding ; but all those are solely 
 supplied by the restaurateur, who farms the mono- 
 poly from the Duke. This gentleman, who is a 
 pupil of Beauvillier's, and who has conceived an 
 exquisite cuisine, by adding to the lighter graces of 
 French cookery something of the more solid virtues 
 of the German, presides in a saloon of immense size 
 and magnificent decoration ; in which, during the 
 season, upwards of three hundred persons frequent 
 the Table d'Hote. It is the etiquette at Ems, that, 
 however distinguished, or however humble, the rank 
 of the visitors, their fare and their treatment must be 
 alike. In one of the most aristocratic countries in 
 the world, the sovereign prince, and his tradesman 
 subject, may be found seated in the morning at the 
 same board, and eating from the same dish ; as in 
 
 34
 
 CHAPTER V VIVIAN GREY 
 
 the evening they may be seen staking on the same 
 colour at the gaming-table, and sharing in the same 
 interest at the Redoute. 
 
 I have said that the situation of Ems was delight- 
 ful. The mountains which form the valley are not, 
 as in Switzerland, so elevated that they confine the 
 air, or seem to impede the facility of breathing. In 
 their fantastic forms, the picturesque is not lost in the 
 monotonous ; and in the rich covering of their 
 various woods, the admiring eye finds, at the same 
 time, beauty and repose. Opposite the ancient 
 palace, on the banks of the Lahn, are the gardens. 
 In these, in a neat pavilion, a band of excellent 
 musicians seldom cease from enchanting the visitors 
 by the execution of the most favourite specimens 
 of German and Italian music. Numberless acacia 
 arbours, and retired sylvan seats are here to be found, 
 where the student, or the contemplative, may seek 
 refuge from the noise of his more gay companions, 
 and the tedium of eternal conversation. Here too, 
 a tete-a-tete will seldom be disturbed ; and in some 
 species of tete-a-tetes, we all know how very necessary 
 and how very delightful are the perfumes of flowers, 
 and the shade of secret trees, and the cooling sound 
 of running waters. In these gardens also, are the 
 billiard-room, and another saloon, in which each night 
 meet, not merely those who are interested in the 
 mysteries of rouge et noir y and the chances of roulette ; 
 but, in general, the whole of the company, male and 
 female, who are frequenting the baths. In quitting 
 the gardens for a moment, we must not omit men- 
 tioning the interesting booth of our friend the 
 restaurateur, where coffee, clear and hot, exquisite 
 confitures, delicious liqueurs, and particularly genuine 
 maraschino of Zara are never wanting. Nor should 
 u 3S
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 I forget the glittering pennons of the gay boats 
 which glide along the Lahn ; nor the handsome 
 donkies, who, with their white saddles and red 
 bridles, seem not unworthy of the princesses whom 
 they sometimes bear. The gardens, with an alley of 
 lime-trees, which are further on, near the banks of 
 the river, afford easy promenades to the sick and 
 debilitated ; but the more robust and active need not 
 fear monotony in the valley of the Lahn. If they 
 sigh for the champaign country, they can climb the 
 wild passes of the encircling mountains, and from 
 their tops enjoy the most magnificent views of the 
 Rhine-land. There they may gaze on that mighty 
 river, flowing through the prolific plain, which, at the 
 same time, it nourishes and adorns, bounded on 
 each side by mountains of every form, clothed with 
 wood, or crowned with castles. Or, if they fear the 
 fatigues of the ascent, they may wander further up 
 the valley, and in the wild dells, romantic forests, 
 and grey ruins of Stein and Nassau, conjure up the 
 old times of feudal tyranny when the forest was the 
 only free land; and he who outraged the laws, the 
 only one who did not suffer from their authority. 
 
 Besides the Princely Bathing- House, I must 
 mention, that there was another old and extensive 
 building near it, which, in very full seasons, also 
 accommodated visitors on the same system as the 
 palace. At present, this adjoining building was 
 solely occupied by a Russian Archduke, who had 
 engaged it for the season. 
 
 Such is the faint description of Ems, a place 
 almost of unique character ; for it is a watering-place 
 with every convenience, luxury, and accommodation ; 
 and yet without shops, streets, or houses. 
 
 The Baron and Vivian were fortunate in finding 
 306
 
 CHAPTER V VIVIAN GREY 
 
 rooms, for the Baths were very full ; the extra- 
 ordinary beauty of the weather having occasioned a 
 very early season. They found themselves at the 
 baths early on the morning after their arrival at 
 Coblentz, and at three o'clock in the same day, had 
 taken their places at the dinner-table in the great 
 saloon. At the long table upwards of two hundred 
 and fifty guests were assembled, of different nations, 
 and very different characters. There was the 
 cunning intriguing Greek, who served well his 
 imperial master the Russian. The order of the 
 patron saint of Moscow, and the glittering stars of 
 other nations which sparkled on his green uniform, 
 told how well he had laboured for the interest of all 
 other countries except his own ; but his clear pale 
 complexion, his delicately-trimmed mustachios, his 
 lofty forehead, his arched eye-brow, and his Eastern 
 eye, recalled to the traveller, in spite of his barbarian 
 trappings, the fine countenance of the JEgezn ; 
 and became a form which apparently might have 
 struggled in Thermopylae. Next to him was the 
 Austrian diplomatist, the Sosia of all cabinets ; in 
 whose gay address, and rattling conversation you 
 could hardly recognize the sophistical defender of 
 unauthorized invasion, and the subtle inventor of 
 Holy Alliances, and Imperial Leagues. Then came 
 the rich usurer from Frankfort, or the prosperous 
 merchant from Hamburgh ; who, with his wife and 
 daughters, were seeking some recreation from his 
 flourishing counting-house, in the sylvan gaieties of 
 a German bathing-place. Flirting with these, was 
 an adventurous dancing-master from Paris, whose 
 profession at present was kept in the background, 
 and whose well-curled black hair, diamond pin, and 
 frogged coat, hinted at the magnifico incog : and also 
 
 37
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 enabled him, if he did not choose in time to follow his 
 own profession, to pursue another one, which he had 
 also studied, in the profitable mystery of the Redoute. 
 There were many other individuals, whose common- 
 place appearance did not reveal a character which 
 perhaps they did not possess. There were officers in 
 all uniforms, and there were some uniforms with- 
 out officers. But all looked perfectly comme il faut, 
 and on the whole very select ; and if the great 
 persons endeavoured for a moment to forget their 
 dignity, still these slight improprieties were amply 
 made up by the affected dignity of those little 
 persons who had none to forget. 
 
 ' And how like you the Baths of Ems ? ' asked 
 the Baron of Vivian ; ' we shall get better seats to- 
 morrow, and perhaps be among those whom you 
 shall know. I see many friends and some agreeable 
 ones. In the meantime, you must make to-day a 
 good dinner, and I'll amuse you, and assist your 
 digestion by putting you up to all the curious 
 characters whom you are dining with.' So saying, 
 the Baron seized the soup-ladle. 
 
 At this moment a party entered the room, who 
 were rather late in their appearance, but who attracted 
 the attention of Vivian so keenly, that he almost 
 forgot the gay crowd on whom he was lately gazing 
 with such amusement. The group consisted of 
 three persons ; a very handsome fashionable-looking 
 young man, who supported on each arm a female. 
 The lady on his right arm was apparently of about 
 five-and-twenty years of age. She was of majestic 
 stature ; her complexion of untinged purity. Her 
 features were like those conceptions of Grecian 
 sculptors, which in moments of despondency, we 
 sometimes believe to be ideal. Her full eyes were 
 
 308
 
 CHAPTER V VIVIAN GREY 
 
 of the same deep blue as a mountain-lake, and 
 gleamed from under their long lashes, as that purest 
 of waters beneath its fringing sedge. Her light 
 brown hair was braided from her high forehead, and 
 hung in long full curls over her neck ; the mass 
 gathered up into a Grecian knot, and confined by a 
 bandeau of cameos. She wore a superb dress of the 
 richest black velvet, whose folding drapery was con- 
 fined round a waist which was in exact symmetry with 
 the proportions of her full bust, and the polished 
 roundness of her bending neck. On the little finger 
 of an ungloved hand, sparkled a diamond of un- 
 known value, which was linked by a small Venetian 
 chain to a gorgeous bracelet of the most precious 
 stones. The countenance of the lady was dignified, 
 without any expression of pride ; and reserved, 
 without any of the harshness of austerity. In gazing 
 on her, the enraptured spectator for a moment 
 believed that Minerva had forgotten her severity, 
 and had entered into a delightful rivalry with Venus. 
 Her companion was much younger, much shorter, 
 and of slender form. The long tresses of her 
 chestnut hair shaded her oval face. Her small 
 aquiline nose, bright hazel eyes, delicate mouth, and 
 the deep colour of her lips, were as remarkable as 
 the transparency of her complexion. The flush of 
 her cheek was singular -it was of a brilliant pink : 
 you may find it in the lip of an Indian shell. The 
 blue veins played beneath her arched forehead, like 
 lightning beneath a rainbow. She was simply dressed 
 in white, and a damask rose, half hid in her clustering 
 hair, was her only ornament. This lovely creature 
 glided by Vivian Grey almost unnoticed, so fixed 
 was his gaze on her companion. Yet, magnificent as 
 was the style of LADY MADELEINE TREVOR, there 
 
 39
 
 VIVIAN (iKKV BOOK V 
 
 were few who preferred even her commanding 
 graces, to the softer beauties of VIOLET FANE. 
 
 This party having passed Vivian, proceeded to the 
 top of the room, where places had been kept for 
 them. Vivian's eye watched them till they were lost 
 among surrounding visitors : their peculiar loveliness 
 could not deceive him. 
 
 ' English, no doubt, observed he to the Baron ; 
 ' who can they be ? ' 
 
 ' I haven't the least idea that is, I don't exactly 
 know that is, I think they are English,' answered 
 the Baron, in such a confused manner that Vivian 
 stared. Whether his Excellency observed his friend's 
 astonishment or not, I cannot say; but, after musing 
 a moment, he recovered himself. 
 
 ' The unexpected sight of a face we feel that we 
 know, and yet cannot immediately recognize, is 
 extremely annoying it is almost agitating. They 
 are English ; the lady in black is Lady Madeleine 
 Trevor; I knew her in London.' 
 
 ' And the gentleman ? ' asked Vivian, rather 
 anxiously: 'is the gentleman a Mr. Trevor?' 
 
 ' No, no, no ; Trevor, poor Trevor is dead, I 
 think is, I'm sure, dead. That, I am confident, is 
 
 not he. He was of the family, and was in 
 
 office when I was in England. It was in my diplo- 
 matic capacity that I first became acquainted with 
 him. Lady Madeleine was, and, as you see, is a 
 charming woman, a very charming woman is Lady 
 Madeleine Trevor.' 
 
 ' And the young lady with her ? ' 
 
 ' The young lady with her I cannot exactly say 
 I do not exactly know. Her face is familiar to 
 me, and yet I cannot remember her name. She 
 must have been very young, as you may see, when I 
 
 310
 
 CHAPTER V VIVIAN GREY 
 
 was in England; she cannot now be above eighteen. 
 Miss Fane must therefore have been very young 
 when I was in England. Miss Fane ! how singular 
 I should have mentioned her name !-^-that is her 
 name Violet Fane a cousin, or some relation of 
 Lady Madeleine's ; good family, very good family. 
 Shall I help you to some soup ? ' 
 
 Whether it was from not being among his friends, 
 or some other cause, I know not, but the baron was 
 certainly not in his usual spirits this day at dinner. 
 Conversation, which with him was generally as easy 
 as it was brilliant like a fountain at the same time 
 sparkling and fluent was evidently constrained. 
 For a few minutes he talked very fast, and was then 
 uncommunicative, absent, and dull. He moreover 
 drank a great deal of wine, which was not his 
 custom ; but the grape did not inspire him. Vivian 
 found amusement in his next neighbour, a forward, 
 bustling man, clever in his talk, very fine, but rather 
 vulgar. He was the manager of a company of 
 Austrian actors, and had come to Ems on the chance 
 of forming an engagement for his troop, who gener- 
 ally performed at Vienna. He had been successful 
 in his adventure, the Archduke having engaged the 
 whole band at the New House, and in a few days the 
 troop were to arrive ; at which time, the manager 
 was to drop the character of a travelling gentleman, 
 and cease to dine at the Table d'Hote of Ems. 
 From this man Vivian learnt that Lady Madeleine 
 Trevor had been at the Baths for some time before 
 the season commenced ; that at present, her's was 
 the party which, from its long stay, and eminent 
 rank, gave the tone to the amusements of the place ; 
 the influential circle, which those who have frequented 
 watering-places have often observed, and which may 
 
 3 11
 
 VIVIAN GUKV BOOK V 
 
 be seen at Ems, Spa, or Pyrmont, equally as at 
 Harrowgate, Tunbridge Wells, or Cheltenham. 
 
 % 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 WHEN dinner was finished, the party broke up, and 
 most of them assembled in the gardens. The Baron, 
 whose countenance had assumed its wonted cheerful- 
 ness, and who excused his previous dulness by the 
 usual story of a sudden head-ache, proposed to 
 Vivian to join the promenade. The gardens were 
 very full, and the Baron recognized many of his 
 acquaintance. 
 
 ' My dear Colonel, who possibly expected to 
 meet you here ? why ! did you dine in the saloon ? 
 I only arrived this morning this is my friend, Mr. 
 Grey Colonel von Trumpetson.' 
 
 ' An Englishman, I believe ? ' said the Colonel 
 bowing. He was a starch titilitaire, with a blue 
 frock coat buttoned up to his chin, a bald head with 
 a few grey hairs, and long thin mustachios like a 
 mandarin's. ' An Englishman, I believe ; pray, 
 Sir, can you inform me whether the waistcoats of 
 the household troops, in England, have the double 
 braid ?' 
 
 ' Sir ! ' said Vivian. 
 
 ' I esteem myself particularly fortunate in meeting 
 with an English gentleman, your Excellency. It was 
 only at dinner to-day that a controversy arose between 
 Major von Musquetoon, and the Prince of Button- 
 stein, about the waistcoats of the English Household 
 troops. As I said to the Prince, you may argue for 
 ever, for at present we cannot decide the fact. How 
 little did I think when I parted from the Major, that, 
 in a few minutes, I should be able to settle this 
 
 312
 
 CHAPTER VI VIVIAN GREY 
 
 important question beyond a doubt ; I esteem 
 myself particularly fortunate in meeting with an 
 Englishman.' 
 
 ' I regret to say, Colonel, that far from being able 
 to decide this important question, I hardly know 
 what Household troops really are.' 
 
 ' Sir, I wish you good morning,' said the Colonel, 
 very drily ; and, staring very keenly at Vivian, he 
 walked away. 
 
 ' Well, that's beautiful, Grey, to get rid of that 
 horrible old bore with such exquisite tact Double 
 braid ! an old dunder-pate ! he should be drummed 
 out of the regiment; but he's good enough to fight, 
 I suppose,' added the plenipotentiary, with a smile 
 and shrug of the shoulders, which seemed to return 
 thanks to Providence, for having been educated in 
 the civil service. 
 
 At this moment Lady Madeleine Trevor, leaning 
 on the arm of the same gentleman, passed, and the 
 Baron bowed. The bow was stiffly returned. 
 
 ' You know her ladyship, then ! well ! ' 'I did 
 know her,' said the Baron, ' but I see from her bow, 
 that I am at present in no very high favour. The 
 truth is, she is a charming woman, but I never 
 expected to see her in Germany, and there was some 
 little commission of her's which I neglected some 
 little order for Eau de Cologne or a message about 
 a worked pocket handkerchief, or a fancy shawl, 
 which I utterly forgot ; and then, I never wrote! 
 and you know, Grey, that these little sins of 
 omission are never forgiven by women.' 
 
 ' My dear friend, De Konigstein one pinch ! one 
 pinch ! ' chirped out a little old, odd-looking man, 
 with a very poudre head, and dressed in a costume in 
 which the glories of the vieille cour seemed to retire 
 
 313
 
 VIVIAN (illKV BOOK V 
 
 with reluctance. A diamond ring twinkled on the 
 snuffy hand, which was encircled by a rich ruffle of 
 dirty lace. The brown coat was not modern, and 
 yet not quite such an one as was worn by its master, 
 when he went to see the King dine in public, at Ver- 
 sailes, before the Revolution : large silver buckles 
 still adorned the well-polished shoes ; and silk stock- 
 ings, whose hue was originally black, were picked 
 out, with clock-work of gold. 
 
 ' My dear Marquis I'm most happy to see you ; 
 will you try the boulangero ? ' 
 
 ' With pleasure ! with pleasure ! A-a-h ! what a 
 box ! a Louis-quatorze, I think ?' 
 
 ' Oh, no ! by no means so old.' 
 
 ' Pardon me, my dear fellow, my dear De Konig- 
 stein; I've studied the subject! I think a Louis- 
 quatorze' 
 
 ' I tell you I bought it in Sicily.' 
 
 'A-a-h! slowly exclaimed the little man: then 
 shaking his head -' I think a Louis-quatorze ?' 
 
 ' Well, have it so, if you like, Marquis.' 
 
 ' A-a-h ! I thought so I thought a Louis-qua- 
 torze. Will you try mine ! will your friend try a 
 pinch ! does he take snuff ? what box has he got ? 
 is it an old one ? is it a Louis-quatorze r ' 
 
 ' He doesn't take snuff at all.' 
 
 'A-a-h! if he did, perhaps he'd have a box- 
 perhaps it would be an old one most likely a 
 Louis-quatorze.' 
 
 ' Very probably,' said the Baron. 
 
 1 A-a-h ! I thought so,' said the old man. 
 
 ' Well, good afternoon,' said the Baron passing on. 
 
 ' My dear De Konigstein one pinch, one pinch 
 you've often said you have a particular regard for 
 me.'
 
 CHAPTER VI VIVIAN GREY 
 
 ' My dear Marquis ! ' 
 
 ' A-a-h ! I thought so you've often said you'd 
 serve me, if possible.' 
 
 ' My dear Marquis, be brief.' 
 
 ' A-a-h ! I will there's a cursed crusty old 
 Prussian officer here one Colonel de Trumpetson.' 
 
 ' Well, my dear Marquis, what can 1 do ? you're 
 surely not going to fight him ! ' 
 
 ' A-a-h ! no, no, no I wish you to speak to 
 him.' 
 
 ' Well, well, what ? ' 
 
 ' He takes snuff.' 
 
 * What's that to me ? ' 
 
 ' He's got a box.' 
 
 'Well!' 
 
 'It's a Louis-quatoize couldn't you get it for 
 me?' 
 
 ' Good morning to you,' said the Baron, pulling on 
 Vivian. 
 
 ' You've had the pleasure, Grey, of meeting this 
 afternoon two men, who have each only one idea. 
 Colonel Von Trumpetson, and the Marquis de la 
 Tabatiere, are equally tiresome. But are they more 
 tiresome than any other man who always speaks 
 on the same subject ? We are more irritable, but 
 not more wearied, with a man who is always thinking 
 of the pattern of a button-hole, or the shape or a 
 snuff-box, than with one who is always talking about 
 pictures, or chemistry, or politics. The true bore is 
 that man who thinks the world is only interested in 
 one subject, because he, himself, can only compre- 
 hend one.' 
 
 Here the Lady Madeleine passed again ; and this 
 time the Baron's eyes were fixed on the ground. 
 
 A buzz and bustle at the other end of the gardens,
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 to which the Baron and Vivian were advancing, 
 announced the entry of the Archduke. His Im- 
 perial Highness was a tall man, with a quick, piercing 
 eye, which was prevented from giving to his counte- 
 nance the expression of intellect which it otherwise 
 would have done, by the dull and almost brutal 
 effect of his flat, Calmuck nose. He was dressed in 
 a plain, green uniform, adorned by a single star ; but 
 his tightened waist, his stiff stock, and the elaborate 
 attention which had evidently been bestowed upon 
 his mustachios, denoted the military fop. The 
 Archduke was accompanied by three or four stiff 
 and stately-looking personages, in whom the severity 
 of the martinet, seemed sunk in the servility of the 
 aide-de-camp. 
 
 The Baron bowed very low to the Prince, as he 
 drew near, and His Highness, taking off his cocked- 
 hat with an appearance of cordial condescension, made 
 a full stop. The silent gentlemen in the rear, who 
 had not anticipated this suspense in their promenade, 
 almost foundered on the heels of their royal master ; 
 and frightened at the imminency of the profanation, 
 forgot their stiff pomp in a precipitate retreat of half 
 a yard. 
 
 ' Baron,' said his Highness, ' why have I not seen 
 you at the New House ? ' 
 
 * I have but this moment arrived, may it please 
 your Imperial Highness.' 
 
 ' Your companion,' continued the Archduke, 
 pointing very graciously to Vivian. 
 
 ' My intimate friend, my fellow-traveller, and an 
 Englishman. May I have the honour of presenting 
 Mr. Grey to your Highness ?' 
 
 ' Any friends of the Baron von Konigstein I shall 
 always feel great pleasure in having presented to me. 
 
 316
 
 CHAPTER VI VIVIAN GREY 
 
 Sir, I feel great pleasure in having you presented to 
 me. Sir, you ought to be proud of the name of 
 Englishman Sir, the English are a noble nation- 
 Sir, I have the highest respect for the English 
 nation ! ' 
 
 Vivian of course bowed very low, and of course 
 made a very proper speech on the occasion, which, 
 as all speeches of that kind should be, was very 
 dutiful and quite inaudible. 
 
 1 And what news from Berlin, Baron ? let us move 
 on,' and the Baron, with Vivian on his arm, turned 
 with the Archduke. The silent gentlemen, settling 
 their mustachios, followed in the rear. For about 
 half an hour, anecdote after anecdote, scene after 
 scene, caricature after caricature, were poured out 
 with prodigal expenditure for the amusement of his 
 Highness ; who did nothing during the exhibition 
 but smile, stroke his whiskers, and at the end of the 
 best stories fence with his forefinger at the Baron's 
 side with a gentle laugh, and a mock shake of the 
 head and a " Eh ! Von Konigstein, you're too bad ! " 
 Here Lady Madeline Trevor passed again, and the 
 Archduke's hat nearly touched the ground. He 
 received a most gracious bow. 
 
 ' Finish the story about Salvinski, Baron, and then 
 I'll introduce you for a reward to the most lovely 
 creature in existence a countrywoman of your's, Mr 
 Grey Lady Madeleine Trevor.' 
 
 ' I have the honour of slight acquaintance with her 
 ladyship,' said the Baron ; ' I had the pleasure of 
 knowing her in England.' 
 
 ' Indeed ! Oh ! most fortunate mortal ! I see 
 she has stopped talking to some stranger. Let 
 us turn and join her.' 
 
 The Archduke and the two friends accordingly
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 turned, and of course the silent gentlemen in the 
 rear followed with due precision. 
 
 ' Lady Madeleine ! ' said his Highness, ' I flattered 
 myself for a moment that I might have had the 
 honour of presenting to you a gentleman for whom 
 I have a great esteem ; but he has proved to me this 
 moment that he is more fortunate than myself, since 
 he had the honour before me of an acquaintance with 
 Lady Madeleine Trevor.' 
 
 ' I have not forgotten Baron von Konigstein,' said 
 her ladyship, with a serious air ; ' may I ask your 
 Highness how you prospered in your negociation 
 with the Austrian troop ?' 
 
 ' Perfectly successful ! perfectly successful ! 
 Inspired by your ladyship's approbation, my steward 
 has really done wonders. He almost deserves a 
 diplomatic appointment for the talent which he has 
 shown ; but what should I do without Cracowsky ? 
 Lady Madeleine, can you conceive what I should do 
 without Cracowsky ?' 
 
 ' Not the least,' said her ladyship, very good- 
 naturedly. 
 
 ' Cracowsky is every thing to me every thing. 
 It is impossible to say what Cracowsky is to me. I 
 owe every thing to Cracowsky. To Cracowsky I 
 owe being here.' The Archduke bowed very low, 
 for this eulogium on his steward also conveyed a 
 compliment to her ladyship. The Archduke was 
 certainly right in believing that he owed his summer 
 excursion to Ems to his steward. That wily Pole, 
 regularly every year put his Imperial master's 
 summer excursion up to auction, and according to 
 the biddings of the proprietors of the chief baths, 
 did he take care that his master regulated his visit. 
 The restaurateur of Ems, in collusion with the official 
 
 318
 
 CHAPTER VI VIVIAN GREY 
 
 agent of the Duke of Nassau, were fortunate this 
 season in having the Archduke knocked down to 
 them. 
 
 ' May I flatter myself that Miss Fane feels herself 
 better ?' asked the Archduke. 
 
 ' She certainly does feel herself much better, but 
 my anxiety about her does not decrease. In her 
 illness apparent convalescence is sometimes more 
 fearful than actual suffering.' 
 
 The Archduke continued by the side of her lady- 
 ship for about twenty minutes, seizing every oppor- 
 tunity of uttering, in the most courtly tone, the most 
 inane compliments ; and then trusting that he might 
 soon have her ladyship's opinion respecting the 
 Austrian troop at the New House ; and that 
 von Konigstein and his English friend would not 
 delay letting him see them there, his Imperial 
 Highness, followed by his silent suite, left the 
 gardens. 
 
 ' I am afraid, your ladyship must have almost 
 mistaken me for a taciturn lord chamberlain,' said 
 the Baron, occupying immediately the Archduke's 
 vacated side. 
 
 ' Baron von Konigstein must be very changed, if 
 silence be imputed to him as a fault,' said Lady 
 Madeleine, with rather a severe smile. 
 
 'Baron von Konigstein is very much changed since 
 last he had the pleasure of conversing with Lady 
 Madeleine Trevor ; more changed than her ladyship 
 will perhaps believe ; more changed than he can some- 
 times himself believe ; I hope, I flatter myself, I feel 
 sure, that he will not be less acceptable to Lady 
 Madeleine Trevor, because he is no longer rash, 
 passionate and unthinking; because he has learnt to 
 live more for others and less for himself.'
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 ' Baron von Konigstein does indeed appear 
 changed ; since, by his own account, he has be- 
 come in a very few years, a being, in whose existence 
 philosophers scarcely believe a perfect man.' 
 
 ' My self-conceit has been so often reproved by 
 your ladyship, that I will not apologize for a quality 
 which I almost flattered myself I no longer possessed ; 
 but you will excuse, I am sure, one, who in zealous 
 haste to prove himself amended, has, I fear, almost 
 shown that he has deceived himself.' 
 
 Some strange thoughts occurred to Vivian, whose 
 eyes had never quitted her ladyship's face while this 
 conversation was taking place. ' Is this a woman to 
 resent the neglect of an order for Eau de Cologne ? 
 my dear von Konigstein, you're a very pleasant fellow, 
 but this is not the way men apologize for the non- 
 purchase of a pocket-handkerchief ! ' 
 
 ' Has your ladyship been long at Ems ?' 
 
 ' Nearly a month : we are travelling in consequence 
 of the ill-health of a relation. It was our intention 
 to have gone on to Pisa, but our physician, in conse- 
 quence of the extreme heat of the summer, is afraid 
 of the fatigue of travelling, and has recommended 
 Ems. The air between these mountains is very soft 
 and pure, and I have no reason to regret at present 
 that we have not advanced farther on our journey.' 
 
 ' The lady who was with your party at dinner is, I 
 fear, your invalid. She certainly does not look like 
 one. I think,' said the Baron, with an effort, ' I 
 think that her face is not unknown to me. It is 
 difficult, even after so many years, to mistake 
 Miss .' 
 
 ' Fane ' said Lady Madeleine, very firmly ; for 
 it seemed that the Baron required a little assistance 
 at the end of his sentence. 
 
 320
 
 CHAPTER VI VIVIAN GREY 
 
 ' Ems,' returned his Excellency, with great rapidity 
 of utterance. ' Ems is, indeed, a charming place at 
 least to me. I have, within these few years quite re- 
 curred to the feelings of my boyhood ; nothing to me 
 is more disgustingly wearisome than the gay bustle of 
 a city. My present diplomatic appointment at 
 Frankfort ensures a constant life among the most 
 charming scenes of nature. Naples, which was offered 
 to me, I refused. Eight years ago, I should have 
 thought an appointment at Naples a Paradise on earth.' 
 
 ' Your Excellency must indeed be changed,' re- 
 marked her ladyship. 
 
 ' How beautiful is the vicinity of the Rhine ! I 
 have passed within these three days, for almost the 
 twentieth time in my life, through the Rheingau ; 
 and yet how fresh, and lovely, and novel, seemed all 
 its various beauties. My young travelling companion 
 is very enthusiastic about this gem of Germany. He 
 is one of your ladyship's countrymen. Might I take 
 the liberty of introducing to you Mr. Grey ! ' 
 
 Her ladyship, as if it could now no longer be post- 
 poned, introduced to the two gentlemen, her brother, 
 Mr. St. George. This gentleman, who, during the 
 whole previous conversation, had kept his head in a 
 horizontal position, looking neither to the right, nor 
 to the left, and apparently unconscious that any one 
 was conversing with his sister, because, according to 
 the English custom, he was not 'introduced' now 
 suddenly turned round, and welcomed his acquaint- 
 ance with great cordiality. 
 
 ' Mr. Grey,' asked her ladyship, ' are you of 
 Dorsetshire ?' 
 
 * My mother is a Dorsetshire woman ; her family 
 name is Vivian, which name I also bear Sir Har- 
 grave Vivian, of Chester Grange.' 
 x 321
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 ' Have you a father living, may I ask ? } 
 
 ' At present in England.' 
 
 < Then I think we are longer acquainted than we 
 have been introduced. I met your father at Sir 
 Hargrave Vivian's only last Christmas. Of such a 
 father you must indeed be proud. He spoke of 
 you in those terms that make me congratulate my- 
 self that I have met the son. You have been long 
 from England, I think.' 
 
 c Nearly a year and a half ; and I only regret 
 my absence from it, because it deprives me of the 
 presence of my parents.' 
 
 The Baron had resigned his place by Lady 
 Madeleine, and was already in close conversation 
 with Mr. St. George, from whose arm Lady 
 Madeleine's was disengaged. No one acted the 
 part of Asmodeus with greater spirit than his 
 Excellency ; and the secret history of every person 
 whose secret history could be amusing, delighted 
 Mr. St. George. 
 
 ' There,' said the Baron, c goes the son of an un- 
 known father; his mother followed the camp, and 
 her offspring was early initiated in the mysteries of 
 military petty larceny. As he grew up, he became 
 the most skilful plunderer that ever rifled the dying 
 of both sides. Before he was twenty, he followed 
 the army as a petty chapman, and amassed an excel- 
 lent fortune by re-acquiring after a battle, the very 
 goods and trinkets which he had sold at an immense 
 price before it. Such a wretch could do nothing 
 but prosper, and in due time, the sutler's brat be- 
 came a Commissary general. He made millions in 
 a period of general starvation, and cleared at least a 
 hundred thousand dollars, by embezzling the shoe 
 leather during a retreat. He is now a Baron, 
 
 322
 
 CHAPTER VI VIVIAN GREY 
 
 covered with orders, and his daughters are married 
 to some of our first nobles. There goes a Polish 
 Count, who is one of the greatest gamblers in 
 Christendom. In the same season he lost to a Rus- 
 sian general, at one game of chess, his chief castle, 
 and sixteen thousand acres of woodland ; and re- 
 covered himself on another game, on which he won 
 of a Turkish Pashaw one hundred and eighty thou- 
 sand leopard skins. The Turk, who was a man of 
 strict honour, paid the Count, by embezzling the 
 tribute in kine of the province he governed ; and, 
 as on quarter day he could not, of course, make 
 up his accounts with the Divan, he joined the 
 Greeks.' 
 
 While the Baron was entertaining Mr. St. George, 
 the conversation between Lady Madeleine and Vi- 
 vian proceeded. 
 
 ' Your father expressed great disappointment to 
 me, at the impossibility of his paying you a visit, in 
 consequence of your mother's illness. Do you not 
 long to see him ?' 
 
 4 More, much more, than I can express. Did 
 your ladyship think my father in good spirits?' 
 
 ' Generally so ; as cheerful as all fathers can be 
 without their only son,' said her ladyship, smiling 
 very kindly. 
 
 ' Did he complain then of my absence?' 
 
 4 He regretted it.' 
 
 4 1 linger in Germany with the hope of seeing 
 him ; otherwise I should have now been much far- 
 ther south. You will be glad to hear that my 
 mother is quite recovered ; at least, my last letters 
 inform me so. Did you find Sir Hargrave as amus- 
 ing as ever?' 
 
 'When is the old gentleman otherwise than the 
 323
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 most delightful of old men? Sir Hargrave is one 
 of my greatest favourites. I should like to persuade 
 you to return, and see them all. Can't you fancy 
 Chester Grange very beautiful now, Albert?' said 
 her ladyship, turning to her brother, < what is the 
 number of our apartments ? Mr. Grey, the sun has 
 now disappeared, and I fear the night air among 
 these mountains. We have hardly yet summer 
 nights, though we certainly have summer days. 
 We shall be happy to see you at our rooms.' So 
 saying, bowing very cordially to Vivian, and less 
 stiffly to the Baron than she had done, Lady Made- 
 leine left the gardens. 
 
 ' There -goes the most delightful woman in the 
 world,' said the Baron ; ' how fortunate that you know 
 her! for really, as you might have observed, I have 
 no great claims on her indulgent notice. I was cer- 
 tainly very wild in England ; but then, young men, 
 you know, Grey! and I didn't leave a card, or call, 
 before I went ; and the English are very stiff, and 
 precise about those things ; and the Trevors had 
 been very kind to me. I think we'd better take a 
 little coffee now ; and then, if you like, we'll just 
 stroll into the REDOUTE.' 
 
 In a brilliantly illuminated saloon, adorned with 
 Corinthian columns, and casts from some of the most 
 famous antique statues, assembled between nine and 
 ten o'clock in the evening, many of the visitors at 
 Ems. On each side of the room was placed a long 
 narrow table, one of which was covered with green 
 baize, and unattended ; while the variously coloured 
 leather surface of the other was very closely sur- 
 rounded by an interested crowd. Behind this table 
 stood two individuals of very different appearance. 
 The first was a short, thick man, whose only busi- 
 
 324
 
 CHAPTER VI VIVIAN GREY 
 
 ness was dealing certain portions of playing cards 
 with quick succession, one after the other ; and as 
 the fate of the table was decided by this process, did 
 his companion, an extremely tall, thin man, throw 
 various pieces of money upon certain stakes, which 
 were deposited by the bystanders on different parts 
 of the table ; or, which was much oftener the case, 
 with a silver rake with a long ebony handle, sweep 
 into a large enclosure near him, the scattered sums. 
 This enclosure was called the Bank, and the mysteri- 
 ous ceremony in which these persons were assisting, 
 was the celebrated game of Rouge-et-Noir. A deep 
 silence was strictly preserved by those who immedia- 
 tely surrounded the table ; no voice was heard, save 
 that of the little, short, stout dealer ; when, without 
 an expression of the least interest, he seemed 
 mechanically to announce the fate of the different 
 colours. No other sound was heard, except the jingle 
 of the dollars and Napoleons, and the ominous rake 
 of the tall, thin banker. The countenances of those 
 who were hazarding their money were grave and 
 gloomy : their eyes were fixed, their brows con- 
 tracted, and their lips projected ; and yet there was 
 an evident effort visible, to show that they were both 
 easy and unconcerned. Each player held in his 
 hand a small piece of pasteboard, on which, with a 
 steel pricker, he marked the run of the cards ; in 
 order, from his observations, to regulate his own 
 play : the Rouge-et-Noir player imagines that 
 Chance is not capricious. Those who were not in- 
 terested in the game, promenaded in two lines within 
 the tables ; or, seated in recesses between the pillars, 
 formed small parties for conversation. 
 
 As Vivian and the Baron entered, Lady Made- 
 leine Trevor, leaning on the arm of an elderly man, 
 
 325
 
 \I\I.\\ (, 
 
 left the room ; but as she was in earnest conversa- 
 tion, she did not observe them. 
 
 4 1 suppose we must throw away a dollar or two, 
 Grey,' said the Baron, as he walked up to the 
 table. 
 
 4 My dear De Konigstein one pinch one 
 pinch ! ' 
 
 4 Ah! Marquis, what fortune to-night?' 
 
 * Bad bad ! I have lost my Napoleon : I never 
 risk farther. There's that cursed crusty old De 
 Trumpetson, persisting, as usual, in his run of bad 
 luck ; because he never will give in. Trust me, 
 my dear De Konigstein, it'll end in his ruin ; and 
 then, if there's a sale of his effects, I shall, perhaps, 
 get his snuff-box a-a-h!' 
 
 4 Come, Grey ; shall I throw down a couple of 
 Napoleons on joint account. I don't care much for 
 play myself ; but I suppose, at Ems, we must make 
 up our minds to lose a few Louis. Here ! now, for 
 the red joint account, mind!' 
 
 4 Done.' 
 
 4 There's the Archduke ! Let's go and make our 
 bow ; we needn't stick at the table as if our whole 
 soul were staked with our crown-pieces : we'll 
 make our bow, and then return in time to know our 
 fate.' So saying, the gentlemen walked up to the 
 top of the room. 
 
 4 Why, Grey! Surely no it cannot be and 
 yet it is. De Boeffleurs, how d'ye do?' said the 
 Baron, with a face beaming with joy, and a hearty- 
 shake of the hand. 4 My dear, dear fellow, how the 
 devil did you manage to get off so soon ? I thought 
 you were not to be here for a fortnight : we only 
 arrived ourselves to-day.' 
 
 1 Yes but I've made an arrangement which I 
 326
 
 CHAPTER VI VIVIAN GREY 
 
 did not anticipate ; and so I posted after you im- 
 mediately. Whom do you think I have brought 
 with me?' 
 
 4 Who?' 
 
 ' Salvinski.' 
 
 < Ah ! And the Count ?' 
 
 * Follows immediately. I expect him to-morrow 
 or next day. Salvinski is talking to the Archduke ; 
 and see, he beckons to me. I suppose I'm going to 
 be presented.' 
 
 The Chevalier moved forward, followed by the 
 Baron and Vivian. 
 
 < Any friend of Prince Salvinski I shall always 
 have great pleasure in having presented to me. 
 Chevalier, I feel great pleasure in having you pre- 
 sented to me. Chevalier, you ought to be proud 
 of the name of Frenchman. Chevalier, the French 
 are a grand nation. Chevalier, I have the highest 
 respect for the French nation.' 
 
 ' The most subtile diplomatist,' thought Vivian, 
 as he recalled to mind his own introduction, ' would 
 be puzzled to decide to which interest his Imperial 
 Highness leans.' 
 
 The Archduke now entered into conversation with 
 the Prince, and most of the circle who surrounded 
 him. As his Highness was addressing Vivian, the 
 Baron let slip our hero's arm, and seizing hold of 
 the Chevalier de Boeffleurs, began walking up and 
 down the room with him, and was soon engaged in 
 very animated conversation. In a few minutes, the 
 Archduke, bowing to his circle, made a move, and 
 regained the side of a Saxon lady, from whose in- 
 teresting company he had been disturbed by the ar- 
 rival of Prince Salvinski an individual of whose 
 long stories and dull romances the Archduke had, 
 
 327
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 from experience, a particular dread : but his High- 
 ness was always very courteous to the Poles. 
 
 < Grey, I've despatched De BrefHeurs to the house, 
 to instruct his servant and Ernstorff to do the im- 
 possible, in order that our rooms may be altogether. 
 You'll be delighted with De BoefHeurs when you 
 know him, and I expect you to be great friends. 
 Oh! by the bye, his unexpected arrival has quite 
 made us forget our venture at Rouge-et-Noir. Of 
 course we're too late now for any thing ; even if we 
 had been fortunate, our doubled stake, remaining on 
 the table, is, of course, lost : we may as well, how- 
 ever, walk up.' So saying, the Baron reached the 
 table. 
 
 'That is your Excellency's stake! that is your 
 Excellency's stake!' exclaimed many voices as he 
 came up. 
 
 ' What's the matter, my friends ? what's the mat- 
 ter?' asked the Baron very calmly. 
 
 ' There's been a run on the red ! there's been a 
 run on the red! and your Excellency's stake has 
 doubled each time. It has been 4 8 16 32 
 64 128 256 and now it's 512!' quickly rattled 
 a little thin man in spectacles, pointing at the same 
 time to his unparalleled line of punctures. This was 
 one of those officious, noisy little men, who are al- 
 ways ready to give you unasked information on every 
 possible subject ; and who are never so happy as 
 when they are watching over the interest of some 
 stranger, who never thanks them for their unneces- 
 sary solicitude. 
 
 Vivian, in spite of his philosophy, felt the excite- 
 ment and wonder of the moment. He looked very 
 earnestly at the Baron, whose countenance, however, 
 was perfectly unmoved. 
 
 328
 
 CHAPTER VI VIVIAN GREY 
 
 ' Grey,' said he, very coolly, ' It seems we are in 
 luck.' 
 
 ' The stake's then not all your own ?' very eagerly 
 asked the little man in spectacles. 
 
 ' No part of it is yours, Sir,' answered the Baron 
 very drily. 
 
 ' I'm going to deal,' said the short, thick man be- 
 hind, ' Is the board cleared ?' 
 
 c Your Excellency then allows the stake to re- 
 main?' inquired the tall thin banker, with affected 
 nonchalance. 
 
 'Oh! certainly,' said the Baron, with real non- 
 chalance. 
 
 ' Three eight fourteen twenty-four thirty- 
 four. Rouge 34 ' 
 
 All crowded nearer ; the table was surrounded 
 five or six deep, for the wonderful run of luck had 
 got wind, and nearly the whole room were round the 
 table. Indeed, the Archduke and Saxon lady, and 
 of course the silent suite, were left alone at the upper 
 part of the room. The tall banker did not conceal 
 his agitation. Even the short, stout dealer ceased 
 to be a machine. All looked anxious except the 
 Baron. Vivian looked at the table ; his Excellency 
 watched, with a keen eye, the little dealer. No one 
 even breathed as the cards descended ' Ten 
 twenty ' (Here the countenance of the banker 
 brightened) ' twenty-two twenty-five twenty- 
 eight thirty-one Noir 3 1 . The bank's broke : 
 no more play to-night. The Roulette table opens 
 immediately.' 
 
 In spite of the great interest which had been ex- 
 cited, nearly the whole crowd, without waiting to con- 
 gratulate the Baron, rushed to the opposite side of the 
 room, in order to secure places at the Roulette table. 
 
 3 2 9
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 ' Put these five hundred and twelve Napoleons 
 into a bag,' said the Baron ; * Grey, this is your 
 share, and I congratulate you. With regard to the 
 other half, Mr. Hermann, what bills have you got?' 
 
 { Two on Gogel's house of Frankfort, accepted 
 of course, for two hundred and fifty each, and these 
 twelve Napoleons will make it right,' said the tall 
 banker, as he opened a large black pocket-book, 
 from which he took out two small bits of paper. 
 The Baron examined them, and after having seen 
 them endorsed, put them calmly into his pocket, not 
 forgetting the twelve Napoleons ; and then taking 
 Vivian's arm, and regretting extremely that he should 
 have the trouble of carrying such a weight, he 
 wished Mr. Hermann a very good night and success 
 at his Roulette, and walked with his companion 
 quietly home. Thus passed a day at Ems ! 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 ON the following morning, Vivian met with his 
 friend Essper George, behind a small stall in the 
 Bazaar. 
 
 ' Well, your Highness, what do you wish ? Here 
 are Eau de Cologne, violet soap, and watch-ribbons ; 
 a smelling bottle of Ems crystal ; a snuff-box of fig- 
 tree wood. Name your price, name your price : the 
 least trifle that can be given by a man who breaks a 
 bank, must be more than my whole stock in trade's 
 worth.' 
 
 * I have not paid you yet, Essper, for my glass 
 chain. There is your share of my winnings : the 
 fame of which, it seems, has reached even you!' 
 added Vivian, with no pleased air. 
 
 ' I thank your Highness for the Nap ; but I hope 
 33
 
 CHAPTER VII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 I have not offended by alluding to a certain event, 
 which shall be past over in silence,' continued Essper 
 George, with a look of mock solemnity. ' I really 
 think your Highness has but a faint appetite for 
 good fortune. They deserve her most who value 
 her least.' 
 
 4 Have you any patrons at Ems, Essper, that have 
 
 induced you to fix on this place in particular for 
 
 .your speculations. Here, I should think you have 
 
 many active rivals,' said Vivian, looking round the 
 
 various stalls. 
 
 ' I have a patron here, may it please your High- 
 ness, a patron who has never deceived, and who will 
 never desert me, I want no other ; and that's 
 myself. Now here conies a party : could your 
 Highness just tell me the name of that tall lady 
 now?' 
 
 ' If I tell you it is Lady Madeleine Trevor, what 
 will it profit you?' 
 
 Before Vivian could well finish his sentence, Ess- 
 per had drawn out a long horn from beneath his 
 small counter, and sounded a blast which echoed 
 through the arched passages. The attention of 
 every one was excited, and no part of the following 
 speech was lost. 
 
 ' The celebrated Essper George, fresh from Fairy- 
 land, dealer in pomatum and all sorts of perfumery, 
 watches, crosses, Ems crystal, coloured prints, Dutch 
 toys, Dresden china, Venetian chains, Neapolitan 
 coral, French crackers, chamois bracelets, tame 
 poodles, and Cherokee corkscrews, mender of man- 
 dolins, and all other musical instruments, &c. &c. 
 &c. &c. to her Royal Highness, Lady Madeleine 
 Trevor, and all her royal family, has just arrived at 
 Ems, where he only intends to stay two or three
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 days, and a few more weeks besides. Now, your 
 ladyship, what do you wish?' 
 
 ' Mr. Grey,' said her ladyship, smiling, ' you can 
 perhaps explain the reason of this odd greeting. 
 Who is this singular being?' 
 
 ' The celebrated Essper George, just ' again 
 
 commenced the conjuror ; but Vivian prevented the 
 repetition. 
 
 ' He is an odd knave, Lady Madeleine, that I've 
 met with before, at other places. I believe I may 
 add, an honest one. What say you, Essper?' 
 
 ' More honest than moonlight, my lady, for that 
 deceives every one ; and less honest than self-praise, 
 my lady, for that deceives no one.' 
 
 ' My friend, you have a ready wit.' 
 
 ' My wit is like a bustling servant, my lady ; al- 
 ways ready when not wanted ; and never present at 
 a pinch.' 
 
 * Come, I must have a pair of your chamois brace- 
 lets. How sell you them ?' 
 
 * I sell nothing, my lady ; all here is gratis to 
 beauty, virtue, and nobility : and these are my only 
 customers.' 
 
 * Thanks will not supply a stock-in-trade though, 
 Essper,' said Vivian. 
 
 1 Very true ! your Highness ; but my customers 
 are apt to leave some slight testimonies behind them 
 of the obligations which they are under to me ; and 
 these, at the same time, are the prop of my estate 
 and the proof of their discretion. But who comes 
 here ?' said Essper, drawing out his horn. The sight 
 of this terrible instrument, reminded Lady Madeleine 
 how greatly the effect of music is hightened by dis- 
 tance, and she made a speedy retreat. Her lady- 
 ship, with her companion, the elderly gentleman with 
 
 332
 
 CHAPTER VII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 whom she left the Redoubte the preceding night, 
 and Vivian, stopped one moment to watch the party 
 to whom Essper George alluded. It was a family 
 procession of a striking character. 
 
 Three daughters abreast, flanked by two elder 
 sons, formed the first file. The father, a portly pros- 
 perous-looking man, followed, with his lady on his 
 arm. Then came two nursery maids, with three 
 children, between the tender ages of five and 
 six. The second division of the grand army, 
 consisting of three younger sons, immediately fol- 
 lowed. This was commanded by a tutor. A gover- 
 ness and two young daughters then advanced ; and 
 then came the extreme rear the suttlers of the 
 camp in the persons of two footmen in rich laced 
 liveries, who each bore a basket on his arm, filled 
 with various fancy articles, which had been all pur- 
 chased during the promenade of this nation through 
 only part of the bazaar. 
 
 ' Who can they be?' said her ladyship. 
 
 { English,' said the elderly gentleman ; who had 
 been already introduced by Lady Madeleine to 
 Vivian as her uncle, Mr. Sherborne. 
 
 The trumpet of Essper George produced a due 
 effect upon the great party. The commander-in- 
 chief stopped at his little stall, and as if this were the 
 signal for general attack and plunder, the files were 
 all immediately broken up. Each individual dashed 
 at his prey, and the only ones who struggled to main- 
 tain a semblance of discipline, were the nursery 
 maids, the tutor, and the governess, who experienced 
 the greatest difficulty in suppressing the early tasfe 
 which the detachment of light infantry indicated for 
 booty. But Essper George was in his element : he 
 joked, he assisted, he exhibited, he explained ; tapped 
 
 333
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 the cheeks of the children, and complimented the 
 elder ones; and finally, having parted at a pro- 
 digious profit with nearly his whole stock, paid him- 
 self out of a large and heavy purse, which the portly 
 father, in his utter inability to comprehend the com- 
 plicated accounts and the debased currency, with 
 great frankness deposited in the hands of the master 
 of the stall, desiring him to settle his own claims. 
 
 * The tradesman is more singular even than his 
 customers,' said Mr. Sherborne ; ' I think you said 
 you knew something of him, Mr. Grey.' 
 
 { I knew him, Sir, before, as a conjuror at Frank- 
 fort fair.' 
 
 4 By a conjuror, do you mean, Mr. Grey, one of 
 those persons who profess an ability to summon, by 
 the adjuration in a sacred name, a departed spirit ; 
 or merely one, who by his dexterity in the practice 
 of sleight-of-hand, produces certain optical delusions 
 on the sight and senses of his fellow men ?' 
 
 ' I met Essper George certainly only in your lat- 
 ter capacity, Mr. Sherborne.' 
 
 * Then, Sir, I cannot agree with you in your defi- 
 nition of his character. I should rather style him a 
 juggler than a conjuror. Would you call that man 
 a conjuror who plays a trick with a cup and balls a 
 sprinkling of rice, or a bad shilling?' 
 
 * You are perhaps, Sir, critically speaking right ; 
 but the world in general are not such purists as Mr. 
 Sherborne. I should not hesitate to describe Essper 
 George as a conjuror. It is an use of the word 
 which common parlance has sanctioned. We must 
 always remember that custom is stronger than ety- 
 mology.* 
 
 ' Sir, are you aware that you're giving loose to 
 very dangerous sentiments? I may be too precise, 
 
 334
 
 CHAPTER VII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 I may be too particular ; but Sir, I read Addison 
 and Sir, I think Pope a poet.' 
 
 { Then Sir, I am happy to say that our tastes 
 agree,' said Vivian, bowing. 
 
 * I'm very happy to hear it I'm very glad of it 
 Sir, I congratulate you give me your hand 
 you're the first bearable young man that I've met 
 with for these last twenty years. Sir, they some- 
 times talk of our laws and constitution being in 
 danger, which is seldom true how is it that no one 
 calls out that our language is in danger? A noble 
 poet, whom I honour for his defence of Pope, and 
 who, in my opinion, has gained more glory by that 
 letter of his, than by all the rhapsodies of false bril- 
 liancy, bad taste, and exaggerated feeling, which ever 
 claimed the attention of the world under the title of 
 Eastern Tales, has called this the AGE OF BRONZE 
 why didn't he call it the AGE OF SLANG?' 
 
 ' But, my dear uncle,' said Lady Madeleine, * now 
 that you and Mr. Grey understand each other, you 
 surely will not maintain that his use of the word 
 conjuror was erroneous. Custom surely has some 
 influence upon language. You would think me very 
 affected, I'm sure, if I were to talk of putting on a 
 neck-kerchief.' 
 
 ' My dear, Mr. Grey was right, and I was wrong ; 
 I carried the point a little too far ; but I feel it my 
 duty to take every opportunity of informing the 
 youth of the present day that I hold them in absolute 
 contempt. Their affectation, their heartlessness, 
 their artificial feelings, their want of all real, genuine, 
 gentlemanly, English sentiments, and, above all, 
 their slang, have disgusted me I'm very glad to 
 find that Mr. Grey is not guilty of these follies 
 I'm very glad to find that he believes that a man 
 
 335
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 older than himself is not quite a fool I wish I could 
 say as much for Albert. Mr. Grey was certainly 
 right : next to being correct, a man should study 
 to be candid I haven't met with a candid man these 
 fifty years no one now will own, by any chance, 
 they're ever wrong. Now, for myself, it's very odd, 
 I never form a hasty opinion, and yet I'm not always 
 right : but I always own it I make it the principle 
 of my life to be candid.' 
 
 ' I hope I may be allowed to ask after Miss Fane, 
 although I have not the honour of her acquaint- 
 ance.' 
 
 4 She continues much better ; my uncle and my- 
 self are now about to join her in the Limewalk, 
 where, by this time, she and Albert must have ar- 
 rived ; if you are not otherwise engaged, and will 
 join our morning stroll, it will give us much plea- 
 sure.' 
 
 Nothing in the world could give Vivian greater 
 pleasure ; he felt himself irresistibly impelled to 
 the side of Lady Madeleine ; and only regretted his 
 acquaintance with the Baron, because he felt con- 
 scious that there was some secret cause, which pre- 
 vented that intimacy from existing between his 
 Excellency and the Trevor party, which his amusing 
 talents and his influential rank would otherwise have 
 easily produced. When they reached the Lime- 
 walk, Miss Fane and her cousin were not there, al- 
 though the time of appointment was considerably 
 past. 
 
 { I hope nothing has happened,' said Lady Made- 
 leine ; { I trust she is not taken unwell.' 
 
 'Quite improbable!' said Mr. Sherborne ; < there 
 must be some other reason : if she were unwell, the 
 servant would have been here.' 
 
 336
 
 CHAPTER VII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 ' Let us return,' said Lady Madeleine. 
 
 ' By no means, my dear,' said Mr. Sherborne, who 
 had the greatest affection for his nieces ; ' Mr. Grey 
 will, I have no doubt, have the goodness to remain 
 w r ith your ladyship, and I will fetch Violet ; you may 
 depend upon it, she is ready to come ; ' so saying, 
 Mr. Sherborne stalked off at a very quick pace. 
 
 c My dear uncle is rather a character, Mr. Grey ; 
 but he is as remarkable for his excellence of heart, 
 as for any little peculiarities in his habits. I am glad 
 that you have made a favourable impression upon 
 him; because, as I hope you will be much in his 
 company, you stand now no chance of being in- 
 cluded in the list of young men whom he delights 
 to torment, at the head of which, I regret to say, is 
 my brother. By-the-bye, I do not know whether I 
 may be allowed to congratulate you upon your bril- 
 liant success at the Redoute last night. It is for- 
 tunate, that all have not to regret your arrival at 
 Ems as much as poor Mr. Hermann.' 
 
 ' The run of fortune was certainly most extraor- 
 dinary. I'm only sorry that the Goddess should 
 have showered her favours on one who neither 
 deserves, nor desires them ; for I've no wish to be 
 rich ; and as I never lost by her caprices, it is hardly 
 fair that I should gain by them.' 
 
 ' You do not play then, much ?' 
 
 ' I never played in my life, till last night. Gamb- 
 ling has never been one of my follies ; although my 
 catalogue of errors is fuller, perhaps, than most 
 men's.' 
 
 ' I think Baron von Konigstein was your partner 
 in the exploit.' 
 
 1 He was ; and apparently as little pleased at the 
 issue, as myself.' 
 
 Y 337
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 ' Indeed! Have you known the Baron long?' 
 
 ' You will be surprised to hear that we are only 
 friends of a week. I have been living, ever since I 
 was in Germany, a most retired life. A circumstance 
 of a most painful nature drove me from England 
 a circumstance of which, I can hardly flatter my- 
 self, and can hardly wish, that your ladyship should 
 be ignorant.' 
 
 * I am not unacquainted, Mr. Grey,' said Lady 
 Madeleine, much moved, * with an unhappy event, 
 which we need not again mention. Believe me, 
 that I learnt the sad history from one, who, while he 
 spoke the rigid truth, spoke of the living sufferer in 
 terms of the fondest affection.' 
 
 'A father!' said Vivian, with an agitation which 
 he did not affect to suppress, c a father can hardly be 
 expected to be impartial.' 
 
 ' Such a father as yours must always be so. He 
 is one of those men who must be silent, or speak 
 truth. I only wish that he was with us now, to 
 assist me in bringing about what he must greatly 
 desire your return to England.' 
 
 4 It cannot be it cannot be I look back to the 
 last year which I spent in that country with feelings 
 of such disgust, I look forward to a return to that 
 country with feelings of such repugnance that 
 but I feel I'm trespassing beyond all bounds, in 
 dwelling on these subjects to your ladyship. They 
 are those on which I have never yet conversed with 
 human being; but the unexpected meeting with a 
 friend with a friend of my father, I mean, has sur- 
 prised me into a display of feelings which I thought 
 were dead within me ; and for which, I am sure, the 
 custom of society requires an apology.' 
 
 ' Oh ! do not say so, Mr. Grey do not say so ! 
 338
 
 CHAPTER VII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 When I promised your father, that in case we met, I 
 should even seek your society, I entered into an en- 
 gagement, which, though I am surprised I am now 
 called upon to fulfil, I did not form in a careless spirit. 
 Let us understand each other : I am inclined to be 
 your friend, if you will permit it ; and the object 
 which I wish to obtain by our friendship, I have not 
 concealed : at least, I am frank. I have suffered too 
 much myself, not to understand how dangerous, and 
 how deceitful is the excess of grief. You have al- 
 lowed yourself to be overcome by that which Provid- 
 ence intended as a lesson of instruction not as a 
 sentence of despair. In your solitude you have 
 increased the shadow of those fantasies of a heated 
 brain, which converse with the pure sunshine of the 
 world, would have enabled you to dispel.' 
 
 ( The pure sunshine of the world, Lady Made- 
 leine! would that it had ever lighted me! My 
 youth flourished in the unwholesome sultriness of a 
 blighted atmosphere, which I mistook for the re- 
 splendent brilliancy of a summer-day. How deceived 
 I was, you may judge, not certainly from finding me 
 here ; but I am here, because I have ceased to suffer, 
 only in having ceased to hope.' 
 
 ' You have ceased to hope, Mr. Grey, because 
 hope and consolation are not the visible companions 
 of solitude, which are of a darker nature. Hope 
 and consolation spring from those social affections, 
 which your father, among others, has taught me to 
 believe imperishable. With such a parent, are you 
 justified in acting the part of a misanthrope ? Ought 
 you not rather to hope, to believe that there are 
 others, whose principle of being is as benevolent, if 
 not as beneficial as his own ?' 
 
 4 Lady Madeleine, I do believe it ; if I had 
 
 339
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 doubted it, my doubts must end this day ; but you 
 mistake in believing that I am a misanthrope. It 
 is not Sorrow now that makes me sad ; but Thought 
 that has made me grave. I have done with grief ; 
 but my release from suffering has been gained at a 
 high price. The ransom which freed me from the 
 slavery of sorrow was HAPPINESS.* 
 
 ' I am no metaphysician, Mr. Grey, but I fear you 
 have embraced a dark philosophy. Converse with 
 the world, now that your passions are subdued, and 
 your mind matured, will do more for you than all 
 the arguments of philosophers. I hope yet to find 
 you a believer in the existence of that good which we 
 all worship, and all pursue. Happiness comes when 
 we least expect it, and to those who strive least to 
 obtain it as you were fortunate yesterday at the 
 Redoute, when you played without an idea of win- 
 ning. The truth seems, that after all, we are the 
 authors of our own sorrow. In an eager pursuit to 
 be happy, and to be rich, men do many unwise, and 
 some unprincipled actions ; it ends in their becoming 
 miserable, and continuing poor. The common 
 course of events will bring to each mortal his fair 
 share of fortune. The whole secret of life seems to 
 be to restrain our passions, and let the common 
 course of events have its run. But I will not enter 
 into an argument which I have not the vanity to 
 suppose that I possess the ability to maintain ; and 
 yet which I feel that I ought not to have the weak- 
 ness to lose. But here comes my uncle, and Violet 
 too ! Well, my dear Sir, you've brought the truant, 
 I see!' 
 
 Brought her, indeed, dear little thinjr! I knew 
 it was not her fault ; I said she was not unwell ; I 
 wonder what St. George will do next! Mr. Grey, 
 
 340
 
 CHAPTER VII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 this is my niece, Violet, Miss Fane : and Violet, my 
 dear, this is Mr. Grey, and I wish all persons of his 
 age were like him. As for the Honourable Mr. St. 
 George, he gets more unbearable every day. I sup- 
 pose soon he'll " cut " his own family.' 
 
 ' Well, I regret uncle, that I think in this business 
 you are entirely wrong,' said Miss Fane. 
 
 ' Now, Violet ! now, how can you be so wilful ! 
 to contradict me so, when you haven't a shadow of a 
 defence for your cousin's unprincipled conduct!' 
 
 ' My dear uncle, is it so unprincipled to break an 
 appointment? I think it is one of the most agree- 
 able and pleasant habits in the world. No young 
 man is expected to keep an appointment.' 
 
 ' Now, Violet ! how can you go on so ? You 
 know if there's one thing in the world that I detest 
 more than another, it is breaking an appointment 
 a vice, which, as far as I can observe, has originated 
 in your young men of the present day. And who 
 the devil are these young men, that the whole sys- 
 tem of civilized society is to be disorganised for their 
 convenience? Young men, indeed! I hate the 
 phrase. I wish I could hear of more young gentle- 
 men, and fewer young men. There isn't a young 
 man in the world for whom I haven't the most sover- 
 eign contempt ; I don't mean you, Mr. Grey. I've 
 the highest respect for you. I mean that mass of 
 half-educated, inexperienced, insolent, conceited 
 puppies, who think every man's a fool who's older 
 than themselves ; whose manners are a mixture of 
 the vices of all nations, and whose talk is the lan- 
 guage of none ; at the head of whom is my nephew 
 your brother, Lady Madeleine Trevor your 
 cousin, Violet Fane I mean Mr. Albert St. George.' 
 
 Mr. Sherborne had now worked himself into a
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 terrible passion ; and the two ladies increased his 
 irritability, by their incessant laughter. 
 
 ' Well, I confess I do not see that Albert deserves 
 this tirade,' continued Miss Fane ; ( only think, my 
 dear uncle, how many unexpected demands a man 
 has upon his time. For all we know, unforeseen busi- 
 ness may have peremptorily required Albert's atten- 
 tion. How do you know that he hasn't been look- 
 ing at a horse for a friend ; or completing the 
 purchase of a monkey ; or making some discoveries 
 in the highest branches of experimental philosophy ? 
 perhaps he has succeeded in lighting his cigar with a 
 burning glass.' 
 
 * Miss Fane ! ' 
 
 'Mr. Sherborne." 
 
 ' If I were here alone, if Lady Madeleine were only 
 here, I could excuse this ; but how are you to answer 
 to your conscience giving a stranger, Mr. Grey, a 
 young gentleman for whom I have the greatest re- 
 spect, the impression that you, my niece, can tolerate 
 for a moment, the existence of such monstrous ab- 
 surdities is to me the most unaccountable thing 
 
 that ' 
 
 ^ c My dear uncle ! how do you know that Mr. 
 Grey has not got a monkey himself? You really 
 should remember who is present, when you are de- 
 livering these philippics on the manners of the 
 present century, and be cautious, lest, at the same 
 time, you are not only violent, but personal.' 
 
 ' Now Violet, my dear ! ' 
 
 4 My dear Sir!' said Lady Madeleine, 'Violet is 
 exerting herself too much ; you know you are an 
 enchanted lady at present, and may neither laugh, 
 ; speak, nor sing.' 
 
 ' Well then, dear uncle, let us talk no more of poor 
 342
 
 CHAPTER VII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 Albert's want of memory. Had he come, I should 
 very likely have been unwell, and then he would 
 have stayed at home the whole morning for no 
 earthly good. As it is, here I am ; with the pros- 
 pect of a very pleasant walk, not only feeling quite 
 well, but decidedly better every day, so now let us 
 make an apology to Mr. Grey, for having kept him 
 so long standing.' 
 
 1 Violet, you're an angel ! though I'm your uncle, 
 who say so ; and perhaps, after all, as it wasn't a 
 positive appointment, St. George is not so much to 
 blame. And I will say this for him, that with all 
 his faults, he is on the whole very respectful to me, 
 and I sometimes try him hard. I'm not in the habit 
 of making hasty observations, but if ever I find my- 
 self doing so, I'm always ready to own it. There's 
 no excuse, however, for his not fetching you, my 
 dear! what business had he to be going about with 
 that Baron von Konigstein that foreign ' 
 
 ' Friend of Mr. Grey's, my dear uncle,' said Lady 
 Madeleine. 
 
 'Humph!' 
 
 As Mr. Sherborne mentioned the Baron's name, 
 the smiling face of Lady Madeleine Trevor became 
 clouded, but the emotion was visible only for a 
 moment, as the soft shadow steals over the sunny 
 wood. Miss Fane led on her uncle, as if she were 
 desirous to put an end to the conversation. 
 
 ' You would scarcely imagine, Mr. Grey, from 
 my cousin's appearance, and high spirits, that we 
 are travelling for her health ; nor do her physicians, 
 indeed, give us any cause for serious uneasiness 
 yet I confess, that at times, I cannot help feeling very 
 great anxiety. Her flushed cheek, and the alarming 
 languor which constantly succeeds any exertion or 
 
 343
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 excitement, make me fear that her complaint is more 
 deeply seated than they are willing to acknowledge.' 
 
 ' Let us hope that the extraordinary heat of the 
 weather may account, in a great degree, for this dis- 
 tressing languor.' 
 
 ' We are willing to adopt any reasoning that gives 
 us hope, but I cannot help remembering that her 
 mother died of consumption.' 
 
 ' Oh ! Lady Madeleine,' said Miss Fane, looking 
 back, ' do not you think I'm strong enough to walk 
 as far as the New Spring? My uncle says, he is 
 sure that I should be much better if I took more 
 exercise, and I really want to see it. Can't we go 
 to-morrow? I dare say, as Albert played truant to- 
 day, he will condescend to escort us.' 
 
 ' Condescend, indeed ! when I was a young 
 man ' 
 
 ' You a young man ! I don't believe you ever 
 were a young man,' said Miss Fane, putting a small 
 hand before a large open mouth, which was about 
 to deliver the usual discourse on the degeneracy of 
 the ' present day.' 
 
 The walk was most agreeable ; and, with the ex- 
 ception of one argument upon the principles of the 
 picturesque, which Mr. Sherborne insisted upon 
 Vivian's entering into, and in which, of course, that 
 gentleman soon had the pleasure of proving himself 
 candid by confessing himself confuted, it passed over 
 without any disturbance from that most worthy and 
 etymological individual. This was the first day, for 
 nearly a year and a half, that Vivian Grey had joined 
 with beings whose talents and virtues he respected, 
 in calm and rational conversation ; this was nearly 
 the first day in his life that Vivian Grey had con- 
 versed with any individuals, with no sinister views 
 
 344
 
 CHAPTER VII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 of self-advancement, and self-interest. He found 
 his conversation, like his character, changed ; treat- 
 ing of things, rather than men ; of nature, rather 
 than society. To-day there was no false brilliancy 
 to entrap the unwary ; no splendid paradoxes to as- 
 tound the weak ; no poignant scandal to amuse the 
 vile. He conversed calmly, without eagerness, and 
 without passion ; and delivering with ability his 
 conscientious opinion upon subjects which he had 
 studied, and which he understood, he found that 
 while he interested others, he had also been interested 
 himself. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 WHEN the walking party returned home, they found 
 a crowd of idle domestics assembled opposite the 
 house, round a group of equipages, consisting of 
 two enormous crimson carriages, a britchka, and a 
 large caravan, on all which vehicles the same coat of 
 arms was most ostentatiously blazoned. 
 
 ' Some great arrival!' said Miss Fane. 
 
 ' It must be the singular party that we watched 
 this morning in the bazaar,' said Lady Madeleine. 
 ' Oh, Violet ! I've such a curious character to intro- 
 duce you to, a particular friend of Mr. Grey's, who 
 wishes very much to have the honour of your ac- 
 quaintance, MR. ESSPER GEORGE. 
 
 4 What an odd name! Is he an Englishman?' 
 
 ' His appearance is still more singular than his 
 title. You shall see him to-morrow.' 
 
 c These carriages, then, belong to him ?' 
 
 c Not exactly,' said Vivian. 
 
 In an hour's time, the party again met at dinner 
 in the saloon. By the joint exertions of Ernstorff, 
 and Mr. St. George's servants, the Baron, Vivian, 
 
 345
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 and the Chevalier de Breffleurs, were now seated next 
 to the party of Lady Madeleine Trevor. 
 
 * My horses fortunately arrived from Frankfort 
 this morning,' said the Baron. ' Mr. St. George and 
 myself have been taking a ride very far up the val- 
 ley. Has your ladyship yet been to the Castle of 
 Nassau?' 
 
 ' I am ashamed to say we have not. The expedi- 
 tion has been one of those plans, often arranged, and 
 never executed.' 
 
 ' Oh ! you should go by all means ; it was one of 
 my favourite spots : I took Mr. St. George there 
 this morning. The ruin is one of the finest in Ger- 
 many, which, as your ladyship is well aware, is the 
 land of ruins. An expedition to Nassau Castle 
 would be a capital foundation for a pic-nic. Con- 
 ceive, Miss Fane, a beautiful valley which was dis- 
 covered by a knight, in the middle ages, following 
 the track of a stag how exquisitely romantic! 
 The very incident vouches for its sweet seclusion. 
 Cannot you imagine the wooded mountains, the old 
 grey ruin, the sound of the unseen river? What 
 more should we want, except agreeable company, 
 fine music, and the best provisions, to fancy ourselves 
 in Paradise ?' 
 
 1 You certainly give a most glowing description,' 
 said Miss Fane. < Why, Mr. Grey, this lovely val- 
 ley would be a model for the solitude we were plan- 
 ning this morning. I almost wish that your Excel- 
 lency's plan were practicable.' 
 
 4 1 take the whole arrangement upon myself ; 
 there is not a difficulty. The ladies shall go on 
 donkeys, or we might make a water excursion of it 
 part of the way, and the donkeys can meet us at the 
 pass near Stein, and then the gentlemen may walk ; 
 
 346
 
 CHAPTER VIII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 and if you fear the water at night, which is, perhaps, 
 dangerous, why then the carriages may come round : 
 and if your own be too heavy for mountain roads, 
 my britchka is always at your command. You see 
 there is not a difficulty.' 
 
 ' Not a difficulty,' said Mr. St. George : ' Made- 
 leine, we only wait for your consent.' 
 
 ' Which will not be withheld a minute, Albert ; 
 but I think we had better put off the execution of 
 our plan till June is a little more advanced. I must 
 have a fine summer night for Violet.' 
 
 ' Well, then, I hold the whole party present, en- 
 gaged to follow my standard whenever I have per- 
 mission from the high authority to unfold it,' said 
 the Baron, bowing to Lady Madeleine : ' and lest, 
 on cool reflection, I shall not possess influence enough 
 to procure the appointment, I shall, like a skilful 
 orator, take advantage of your feelings, which grati- 
 tude for this excellent plan must have already enlisted 
 in my favour, and propose myself as Master of the 
 Ceremonies.' The Baron's eye caught Lady Made- 
 leine's, as he uttered this, and something: like a smile, 
 
 o * 
 
 rather of pity than derision, lighted up her face. 
 
 Here Vivian turned round to give some directions 
 to an attendant, and to his horror, found Essper 
 George standing behind his chair. 
 
 ' Is there any thing your Highness wants?' 
 
 Essper was always particularly neat in his appear- 
 ance, but to-day the display of clean linen was quite 
 ostentatious ; and to make the exposure still more 
 terrific, he had, for the purpose of varying his cos- 
 tume, turned his Huzzar-jacket inside-out, and now 
 appeared in a red coat, lined with green.' 
 
 c Who ordered you here, Sir?' 
 
 1 My duty.' 
 
 347
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 * In what capacity do you attend ?' 
 ' As your Highness' servant.' 
 
 * I insist upon your leaving the room directly.' 
 Here Essper looked very suppliant, and began to 
 
 pant like a hunted hare. 
 
 4 Ah ! my friend, Essper George,' said Lady 
 Madeleine, ' are you there ? What's the matter, is 
 any one ill-treating you?' 
 
 ' This then is Essper George ! ' said Violet Fane, 
 ' what kind of creature can he possibly be ? Why, 
 Mr. Grey, what's the matter?' 
 
 ' I'm merely discharging a servant at a moment's 
 warning, Miss Fane ; and if you wish to engage his 
 constant attendance upon yourself, I have no objec- 
 tion to give him a character for the occasion.' 
 
 * What do you want, Essper?' said Miss Fane. 
 
 { I merely wanted to see whether your walk this 
 morning had done your Highness' appetite any- 
 good,' answered Essper, looking very disconsolate ; 
 ' and so I thought I might make myself useful at 
 the same time; and though I don't bring on the 
 soup in a cocked hat, and carve the venison with a 
 couteau-de-chassej continued he, bowing very low to 
 Ernstorff, who standing stiff behind his master's 
 chair, seemed utterly unaware that any other person 
 in the room could experience a necessity ; * still I 
 can change a plate, or hand the wine, without crack- 
 ing the first, or drinking the second.' 
 
 jAnd very good qualities too!' said Miss Fane. 
 * Come, Essper, you shall put your accomplishments 
 into practice immediately, so change my plate.' 
 
 This Essper did with the greatest dexterity and 
 quiet, displaying at the same time a small white 
 hand, on the back of which was marked a comet and 
 three daggers. As he had the discretion not to open 
 
 348
 
 CHAPTER VIII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 his mouth, and performed all his duties with great 
 skill, his intrusion in a few minutes was not only 
 pardoned but forgotten. 
 
 ' There has been a great addition to the visitors 
 to-day, I see,' said Lady Madeleine : pray who are 
 the new-comers?' 
 
 ' English,' said the Chevalier, who, seated at a 
 considerable distance from her ladyship, had not 
 spoken a word during the whole dinner. 
 
 ' I'll tell you all about them,' said the Baron. 
 'This family is one of those, whose existence astounds 
 the Continent much more than any of your mighty 
 dukes and earls, whose fortunes, though colossal, can 
 be conceived ; and whose rank is understood. Mr. 
 Fitzloom is a very different personage ; for, thirty 
 years ago he was a journeyman cotton-spinner ; some 
 miraculous invention in machinery entitled him to 
 a patent, which has made him one of the most im- 
 portant landed-proprietors in Great Britain. He 
 has lately been returned a member for a great manu- 
 facturing city ; and he intends to get over the two 
 first years of his parliamentary career, by successively 
 monopolizing the accommodation of all the prinicpal 
 cities of France, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy ; 
 and by raising the price of provisions and post-horses 
 through a track of five thousand miles. My infor- 
 mation is authentic, for I had a casual acquaintance 
 with him in England. There was some talk of a 
 contract for supplying our army from England, and I 
 saw Fitzloom often on the subject ; I have spoken 
 to him to-day. This is by no means the first of the 
 species that we have had in Germany. I can assure 
 you, that the plain traveller feels seriously the incon- 
 venience of following such a caravan. Their money 
 flows with such unwise prodigality, that real liberality 
 
 349
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 ceases to be valued ; and many of your nobility have 
 complained to me, that, in their travels, they are now 
 often expostulated with, on account of their parsi- 
 mony, and taunted with the mistaken extravagance 
 of a stocking-maker, or a porter-brewer.' 
 
 ' What pleasure can such people find in travel- 
 ling?' wondered the honourable and the aristocratic 
 Mr. St. George. 
 
 ' As much pleasure, and more profit, than half the 
 young men of the present day. In my time, travel- 
 ling was undertaken on a very different system to 
 what it is now. The English youth then travelled 
 to frequent, what Lord Bacon says are " especially 
 to be seen and observed the Courts of Princes." 
 You all travel now, it appears, to look at mountains, 
 and catch cold in spouting trash on lakes by moon- 
 light. You all think you know every thing, none of 
 you know any thing.' 
 
 4 But my dear Sir ! ' said the Baron, < although I 
 willingly grant you, that one of the great advan- 
 tages of travel is the opportunity which it affords 
 us of becoming acquainted with human nature in 
 all its varieties, as developed by different climates, 
 different customs, different governments, and con- 
 sequently of becoming enabled to form an opinion 
 as to the general capabilities of man ; and which 
 knowledge is, of course, chiefly gained where human 
 beings most congregate great cities, and as you say, 
 the Courts of Princes : still, Sir, we must also not 
 the less forget, that one of the great benefits of travel 
 is, that it enlarges a man's experience, not only of his 
 fellow-creatures in particular, but of Nature in gene- 
 ral. And this not merely by enabling him to see a 
 quantity and a variety of landscape, but by permit- 
 ting him to watch Nature at various times and sea- 
 
 35
 
 CHAPTER VIII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 sons. Many men pass through life without seeing 
 a sunrise : a traveller cannot. If human experience 
 be gained by seeing men in their undress, not only 
 when they are conscious of the presence of others ; 
 natural experience is only to be acquired by studying 
 Nature at all periods, not merely when man is busy, 
 and the beasts asleep.' 
 
 ' But what's the use of this deep experience of 
 Nature? Men are born to converse with men, not 
 with stocks and stones. He who has studied Le 
 Sage, will be more happy and more successful in this 
 world, than the man who muses over Rousseau.' 
 
 ' There I agree with you, Mr. Sherborne, I have 
 no wish to make man an anchorite. But as to the 
 utility, the benefit of a thorough experience of 
 Nature, it appears to me to be evident. It increases 
 our stock of ideas ' 
 
 ' So does every thing.' 
 
 ' But it does more than this, Sir. It calls into be- 
 ing new emotions, it gives rise to new and beautiful 
 associations ; it creates that salutary state of mental 
 excitement which renders our ideas more lucid, our 
 conceptions more vivid, and our conclusions more 
 sound. Can we too much esteem a study which, at 
 the same time, renders our imagination more active, 
 and our judgment more correct?' 
 
 * Well, Sir, there may be something in what you 
 say, but not much.' 
 
 ' * But my dear Sir,' said Lady Madeleine, c if his 
 Excellency will allow me to support an argument, 
 which in his hands can require no assistance, do not 
 you think that a full communion with Nature is 
 calculated to elevate our souls, and purify our pas- 
 sions, to ' 
 
 * So is reading your bible, my dear. A man's
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 soul should always be elevated ; and his passions 
 would then require little purification. If they are 
 not, he might look at mountains for ever, but I 
 should not trust him a jot more.' 
 
 { But, Sir,' continued the Baron, with unusual 
 warmth ; * I am clear that there are cases in which 
 the influence of nature has worked what you profess 
 to treat as an impossibility, or a miracle. I am my- 
 self acquainted with an instance of a very peculiar 
 character. A few years ago, a gentleman of high 
 rank found himself exposed to the unhappy sus- 
 picion of being connected with some disgraceful and 
 dishonourable transactions, which took place in the 
 highest circles of England. Unable to find any 
 specific charge which he could meet, he added one 
 to the numerous catalogue of those unfortunate be- 
 ings who have sunk in society, the victims of a 
 surmise. He quitted England ; and disgusted with 
 the world, became the profligate which he had been 
 falsely believed to be. At the house of Cardinal 
 *, at Naples, celebrated even in that city 
 for its midnight orgies, and not only for its baccha- 
 nal revels, this gentleman became a constant guest. 
 He entered with a mad eagerness into every species 
 of dissipation, although none gave him pleasure ; 
 and his fortune, his health, and the powers of his 
 mind, were all fast vanishing. One night, one hor- 
 rible night of frantic dissipation, a mock election of 
 Master of the Sports was proposed, and the hero of 
 my tale had the splendid gratification of being chosen 
 by unanimous consent to this new office. About 
 two o'clock of the same night, he left the palace of 
 the Cardinal, with an intention of returning. His 
 way on his return led by the Chiaja, which you, Mr. 
 Sherborne, who have been in Naples, perhaps re- 
 
 35*
 
 CHAPTER VIII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 member. It was one of those nights which we 
 witness only in the South. The blue and brilliant 
 sea was sleeping beneath a cloudless sky; and the 
 moon not only shed her light over the orange and 
 lemon trees, which, springing from their green banks 
 of myrtle, hung over the water, but added fresh 
 lustre to the white domes, and glittering towers of 
 the city ; and flooded Vesuvius and the distant coast 
 with light, as far even as Capua. The individual of 
 whom I am speaking, had passed this spot on many 
 nights when the moon was not less bright, the waves 
 not less silent, and the orange trees not less sweet ; 
 but to-night to-night something irresistible im- 
 pelled him to stop. What a contrast to the artificial 
 light, and heat, and splendour of the palace to which 
 he was returning. He mused in silence. Would 
 it not be wiser to forget the world's injustice, in 
 gazing on a moonlit ocean, than in discovering in the 
 illumined halls of Naples, the baseness of the crowd 
 which forms the world's power? To enjoy the re- 
 freshing luxury of a fanning breeze which now arose, 
 he turned and gazed on the other side of the bay. 
 Upon his right stretched out the promontory of 
 Pausilippo ; there were the shores of Baiae. But it 
 was not only the loveliness of the land which now 
 overcame his spirit; he thought of those whose 
 fame had made us forget even the beauty of these 
 shores, in associations of a higher character, and a 
 more exalted nature. He remembered the time 
 when it was his only wish to be numbered among 
 them. How had his early hopes been fulfilled! 
 What just account had he rendered to himself and 
 to his country that country that had expected so 
 much that self that had aspired even to more! 
 ' Day broke over the city, and found him still 
 z 353
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 pacing down the Chiaja. He did not return to the 
 Cardinal's Palace; and in two days he had left 
 Naples. I can myself, from personal experience, 
 aver that this individual is now an useful and honour- 
 able member of society. The world speaks of him 
 in more flattering terms.' 
 
 The Baron spoke with great energy and anima- 
 tion. Violet Fane, who had been very silent, and 
 who certainly had not encouraged by any apparent 
 interest the previous conversation of the Baron, 
 listened to this anecdote with the most eager atten- 
 tion ; but the effect it produced upon Lady Made- 
 leine Trevor was most remarkable. At one moment 
 Vivian thought that her ladyship would have fainted. 
 
 * Well ! ' said Mr. Sherborne, who first broke sil- 
 ence, ' I suppose you all think I'm wrong : I should 
 like to hear your opinion, Mr. Grey, of this busi- 
 ness. What do you think of the question ?' 
 
 ' Yes, pray give us your opinion, Mr. Grey,' said 
 Lady Madeleine with eagerness ; as if she thought 
 that conversation would give her relief. The ex- 
 pression of her countenance did not escape Vivian. 
 
 * I must side against you, Mr. Sherborne,' said 
 he ; * his Excellency has, I think, made out his point. 
 It appears to me, however, that there is one great 
 argument in favour of a study of Nature, and, in- 
 deed, of travelling, which I think I have never seen 
 used. It matures a man's mind, because it teaches 
 him to distrust his judgment. He who finds that 
 his preconceptions of natural appearances are erron- 
 eous, will in time suspect that his opinions of human 
 nature may be equally incorrect; in short, that 
 his moral conceptions may be as erroneous as his 
 material ones.' 
 
 ' Well ! I suppose I must give up. Its very odd, 
 354
 
 CHAPTER VIII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 I never form a hasty opinion, and yet I'm sometimes 
 wrong. Never above owning it though never 
 above owning it not like the young men of the 
 present day, who are so confoundedly addicted to 
 every species of error, that, for my own part, when- 
 ever they seem to suspect that they're wrong, I'm 
 always sure that they're right.' 
 
 Here the party broke up. The promenade fol- 
 lowed the Archduke his compliments and cour- 
 tiers then came the Redoute. Mr. Hermann 
 bowed low as the gentlemen walked up to the table. 
 The Baron whispered Vivian that it was ( expected ' 
 that they should play, and give the tables a chance 
 of winning back their money. Vivian staked with 
 the carelessness of one who wishes to lose. As is 
 generally the case under such circumstances, he again 
 left the Redoute a most considerable winner. He 
 parted with the Baron at his Excellency's door, and 
 proceeded to the next, which was his own. Here he 
 stumbled over something at the doorway, which ap- 
 peared like a large bundle. He bent down with his 
 light to examine it, and found Essper George, lying 
 on his back, with his eyes half-open. It was some 
 moments before Vivian perceived he was asleep ; 
 stepping gently over him, he entered his apart- 
 ment. 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 WHEN Vivian rose in the morning, a gentle tap at 
 his door announced the presence of an early visitor, 
 who, being desired to enter, appeared in the person 
 of Essper George. 
 
 1 Does your Highness want any thing?' asked 
 Essper, with a very submissive air. 
 
 355
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 Vivian stared at him for a moment, and then or- 
 dered him to come in. 
 
 * I had forgotten, Essper, until this moment, that 
 on returning to my room last night, I found you 
 sleeping at my door. This also reminds me of your 
 conduct in the saloon yesterday ; and as I wish to 
 prevent the repetition of such improprieties, I shall 
 take this opportunity of informing you once for all, 
 that if you do not in future conduct yourself with 
 more discretion, I must apply to the Maitre d'Hotel. 
 Now, Sir! what do you want?' 
 
 Essper was silent, and stood with his hands crossed 
 on his breast, and his eyes fixed on the ground. 
 
 c If you do not want any thing, quit the room 
 immediately.' 
 
 Here the singular being began to weep and sob 
 most bitterly. 
 
 * Poor fellow!' thought Vivian, <I fear with all 
 thy wit and pleasantry, and powers, thou art, after 
 all, but one of those capriccios, which Nature some- 
 times indulges in ; merely to show how superior is 
 her accustomed order to eccentricities, even accom- 
 panied with the rarest and most extraordinary 
 powers.' 
 
 'What is your wish, Essper?' continued Vivian, 
 in a kinder tone. < If there be any service, any real 
 service, that I can do you, you will not find me back- 
 ward. Are you in trouble? you surely are not in 
 want ?' 
 
 ' No, no, no ! ' sobbed Essper ; c I wish to be to 
 be your Highness' servant,' here he hid his face in 
 his hands. 
 
 ' My servant ! why surely if, as I have reason to 
 suppose, you can maintain yourself with ease by 
 your own exertions, it is not very wise conduct, 
 
 356
 
 CHAPTER IX VIVIAN GREY 
 
 voluntarily, to seek out a dependence upon any man. 
 Pm afraid that you've been keeping company too 
 much with the set of lazy, indolent, and insolent lac- 
 queys, that are always loitering about these bathing 
 places. Ernstorff's green livery and sword, have 
 they not turned your brain, Essper? how is it? 
 tell me.' 
 
 4 No, no, no ! but I want to be your Highness' 
 servant, only your Highness' servant, I'm tired of 
 living alone.' 
 
 ' But, Essper, remember, that to gain a situation 
 as a servant, you must be a person of regular habits 
 and certain reputation. I have myself a very good 
 opinion of you, but I have myself seen very little of 
 you, though more than any one here ; and I am a 
 person of a peculiar turn of mind. Perhaps there is 
 not another individual in this house, who would even 
 allude to the possibility of engaging a servant with- 
 out a character.' 
 
 ' Does the ship ask the wind for a character, when 
 he bears her over the sea without hire, and without 
 reward ? and shall your Highness require a character 
 from me, when I request to serve you without wages, 
 and without pay?' 
 
 ' Such an engagement, Essper, it would be impos- 
 sible for me to enter into, even if I had need of your 
 services, which at present I have not. But I tell 
 you, frankly, that I see no chance of your suiting 
 me. I should require an attendant of steady habits 
 and experience ; not one whose very appearance 
 would attract attention when I wished to be unob- 
 served, and acquire a notoriety for the master which 
 he detests. There is little likelihood of my requiring 
 any one's services, and with every desire to assist 
 you, I warmly advise you to give up all idea of en- 
 
 357
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 tering into a state of life, for which you are not the 
 least suited. If, on consideration, you still retain 
 your wish of becoming a servant, and remain at the 
 Baths with the expectation of finding a master, I 
 recommend you to assume, at least for the moment, 
 a semblance of regularity of habits. I have spoken 
 to a great many ladies here, about your chamois 
 bracelets, for which I think you will find a great 
 demand. Believe me, your stall will be a better 
 friend than your master. Now leave me.' 
 
 Essper remained one moment with his eyes still 
 fixed on the ground ; then walking very rapidly up 
 to Vivian, he dropped on his knee, kissed his hand, 
 and disappeared. 
 
 Mr. St. George breakfasted with the Baron, and 
 the gentlemen called on Lady Madeleine early in the 
 morning to propose a drive to Stein Castle ; but her 
 ladyship excused herself, and Vivian following her 
 example, the Baron and Mr. St. George ' patronized ' 
 the Fitzlooms, because there was nothing else to do. 
 Vivian again joined the ladies in their morning walk ; 
 but Violet Fane was not in her usual high spirits 
 she complained more than once of her cousin's ab- 
 sence ; and this, connected with some other circum- 
 stances, gave Vivian the first impression that her 
 feelings towards Mr. St. George were not merely 
 those of a relation. As to the Chevalier de Bocf- 
 fleurs, Vivian soon found that it was utterly impos- 
 sible to be on intimate terms with a being without an 
 idea. The Chevalier was certainly not a very fit 
 representative of the gay, gallant, mercurial French- 
 man : he rose very late, and employed the whole of 
 the morning in reading the French newspapers, and 
 playing billiards alternately with Prince Salvinski, 
 and Count von Altenburgh. 
 
 358
 
 CHAPTER IX VIVIAN GREY 
 
 These gentlemen, as well as the Baron, Vivian, 
 and Mr. St. George, were to dine this day at the 
 New House. 
 
 They found assembled, at the appointed hour, a 
 party of about thirty individuals. The dinner was 
 sumptuous the wines superb. At the end of the 
 banquet, the company adjourned to another room, 
 where play was proposed, and immediately com- 
 menced. His Imperial Highness did not join in the 
 game ; but, seated in a corner of the apartment, was 
 surrounded by five or six aid-de-camps, whose only 
 business was to bring their master constant accounts 
 of the fortunes of the table, and the fate of his bets. 
 His Highness did not stake. 
 
 Vivian soon found that the game was played on a 
 very different scale at the New House to what it 
 was at the Redoute. He spoke most decidedly to 
 the Baron of his detestation of gambling, and ex- 
 pressed his unwillingness to play ; but his Excel- 
 lency, although he agreed with him in his sentiments, 
 advised him to conform for the evening to the uni- 
 versal custom. As he could afford to lose, he con- 
 sented, and staked boldly. This night very con- 
 siderable sums were lost and won ; but none returned 
 home greater winners than Mr. St. George and 
 Vivian Grey. 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 THE first few days of an acquaintance with a new 
 scene of life, and with new characters, generally ap- 
 pear to pass very slowly ; not certainly from the 
 weariness which they induce, but rather from the 
 keen attention which every little circumstance com- 
 mands. When the novelty has worn off, when we 
 have discovered that the new characters differ little 
 
 359
 
 VIVIAN GKKV BOOK V 
 
 from all others we have met before, and that the 
 scene they inhabit is only another variety of the great 
 order we have so often observed, we relapse into our 
 ancient habits of inattention ; we think more of our- 
 selves, and less of those we meet ; and musing our 
 moments away in reverie, or in a vain attempt to 
 cheat the coming day of the monotony of the present 
 one, we begin to find that the various-vested Hours 
 have bounded, and are bounding away in a course 
 at once imperceptible, uninteresting, and unprofit- 
 able. Then it is, that terrified at our nearer approach 
 to the great river, whose dark windings it seems the 
 business of all to forget, we start from our stupor 
 to mourn over the rapidity of that collective sum 
 of past-time, every individual hour of which we 
 have in turn execrated for its sluggishness. 
 
 Vivian had now been three weeks at Ems, and the 
 presence of Lady Madeleine Trevor and her cousin 
 alone induced him to remain. Whatever was the 
 mystery existing between her ladyship and the Baron, 
 and that there was some mystery Vivian could not 
 for a moment doubt, his Excellency's efforts to at- 
 tach himself to her party had been successful. The 
 great intimacy subsisting between the Baron and her 
 Ladyship's brother materially assistecj in bringing 
 about this result. For the first fortnight, the Baron 
 was Lady Madeleine's constant attendant in the 
 evening promenade, and often in the morning walk ; 
 and though there were few persons whose com- 
 panionship could be preferred to that of Baron von 
 Konigstein, still Vivian sometimes regretted that his 
 friend and Mr. St. George had not continued their 
 morning rides. The presence of his Excellency 
 seemed always to have an unfavourable influence 
 upon the spirits of Violet Fane, and the absurd and 
 
 360
 
 CHAPTER X VIVIAN GREY 
 
 evident jealousy of Mr. St. George, prevented 
 Vivian from finding, in her agreeable conversation, 
 some consolation for the loss of the sole enjoyment 
 of Lady Madeleine's exhilarating presence. Mr. St. 
 George had never met Vivian's advances with cordi- 
 ality, and he now treated him with studied coldness. 
 
 .The visits of the gentlemen to the New House 
 had been frequent. The saloon of the Archduke 
 was open every evening, and in spite of his great 
 distaste for the fatal amusement which was there in- 
 variably pursued, Vivian found it utterly impossible 
 to decline frequently attending, without subjecting 
 his motives to painful misconception. His fortune, 
 his extraordinary fortune did not desert him, and 
 rendered his attendance still more a duty. The 
 Baron was not so successful as on his first evening's 
 venture at the Redoute ; but Mr. St. George's 
 star remained favourable. Of Essper George, Vi- 
 vian had seen little. In passing through the Bazaar 
 one morning, which he seldom did, he found to his 
 surprise that the former conjuror had doffed his 
 quaint costume, and was now attired in the usual 
 garb of men of his condition of life. As Essper was 
 busily employed at the moment, Vivian did not stop 
 to speak to him ; but he received a most respectful 
 bow. Once^or twice also, he had met Essper in the 
 Baron's apartments ; and he seemed to have become 
 a very great favourite with the servants of his Ex- 
 cellency, and the Chevalier de Bocffleurs, particularly 
 with his former butt, Ernstorff, to whom he now 
 behaved with the greatest deference. 
 
 I said, that for the first fortnight, the Baron's at- 
 tendance on Lady Madeleine was constant. It was 
 after this time that his Excellency began to slacken in 
 his attentions. He first disappeared from the morn- 
 
 361
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 ing walks, and yet he did not ride ; he then ceased 
 from joining the party at Lady Madeleine's apart- 
 ments in the evening, and never omitted increas- 
 ing the circle at the New House for a single night. 
 The whole of the fourth week the Baron dined with 
 his Imperial Highness. Although the invitation 
 had been extended to all the gentlemen from the 
 first, it had been agreed that it was not to be accepted, 
 in order that the ladies should not find their party 
 in the Salon less numerous or less agreeable. The 
 Baron was the first to break through a rule which he 
 had himself proposed ; and Mr. St. George and the 
 Chevalier de Boeffleurs soon followed his example. 
 
 * Mr. Grey,' said Lady Madeleine one evening, 
 as she was about to leave the gardens, c we shall be 
 happy to see you to-night if you are not engaged 
 Mr. Sherborne only will be with us.' 
 
 * I thank your ladyship, but I fear that I am en- 
 gaged,' said Vivian ; for the receipt of some letters 
 From England made him little inclined to enter into 
 society. 
 
 c Oh, no ! you can't be engaged,' said Violet Fane ; 
 ' pray come ! pray come ! I know you only want 
 to go to that terrible New House ; I wonder what 
 St. George can find to amuse him there so keenly ; I 
 fear no good : men never congregate . together for 
 any beneficial purpose. I am sure, with all his gas- 
 tronomical affectations, he would not, if all were 
 right, prefer the most exquis dinner in the world to 
 our society. As it is, we scarcely see him a moment. 
 I think, Mr. Grey, that you are the only one who 
 has not deserted the Salon. For once, give up the 
 New House I'm sure you are not in your usual 
 spirits; you will be more amused, more innocently 
 amused at least, even if you go to sleep like Mr. 
 
 362
 
 CHAPTER X VIVIAN GREY 
 
 Sherborne, than you will with playing at that disgust- 
 ing Rouge-et-noir, with a crowd of suspicious-look- 
 ing men in mustachios.' 
 
 Vivian smiled at Miss Fane's warmth, and was 
 too flattered by the interest which she seemed to 
 take in his welfare, to persist in his refusal, although 
 she did dilate most provokingly on the absence of her 
 cousin. Vivian soon joined them. 
 
 ' Lady Madeleine is assisting me in a most im- 
 portant work, Mr. Grey. I am making drawings of 
 the whole Valley of the Rhine ; I know that you are 
 very accurately acquainted with the scenery ; you 
 can, perhaps, assist me with your advice about this 
 view of Old Hatto's Castle ; I am sure I'm not quite 
 right.' 
 
 Vivian was so completely master of every spot in 
 the Rhine-land, that he had no difficulty in suggest- 
 ing the necessary alterations. The drawings, unlike 
 most young ladies' sketches, were vivid representa- 
 tions of the scenery which they professed to depict ; 
 and Vivian forgot his melancholy as he attracted the 
 attention of the fair artist to points of interest, un- 
 known or unnoticed by the Guide-books, and the 
 Diaries. 
 
 ' You must look forward to Italy with great in- 
 terest, Miss Fane?' 
 
 ( The greatest ! I shall not, however, forget the 
 Rhine, even among the Apennines.' 
 
 ' Our intended fellow-travellers, Lord Mounteney 
 and his family, are already at Milan,' said Lady 
 Madeleine to Vivian ; ' we were to have joined 
 their party Lady Mounteney is a Trevor.' 
 
 ' I have had the pleasure of meeting Lord Mount- 
 eney in England, at Sir Berdmore Scrope's : do you 
 know him?' 
 
 363
 
 VIVIAN GRKY BOOK V 
 
 ' Very slightly. The Mounteneys pass the win- 
 ter at Rome, where I hope we shall join them. Do 
 you know the family intimately?' 
 
 ' Mr. Ernest Clay, a nephew of his lordship's, I 
 have seen a great deal of ; I suppose, according to 
 the adopted phraseology, I ought to describe him as 
 my friend, although I am utterly ignorant where he 
 is at present : and, although, unless he is himself ex- 
 tremely altered, there scarcely can be two persons 
 who now more differ in their pursuits and tempers 
 than ourselves.' 
 
 ' Ernest Clay ! is he a friend of yours ? He's 
 somewhere on the continent now ; I forget where ; 
 with some diplomatic appointment I think. Indeed, 
 I'm sure of the fact, though I'm perfectly ignorant 
 of the place, for it was through Mr. Trevor's interest 
 that he obtained it. I see you smile at the idea of 
 Ernest Clay drawing up a protocol!' 
 
 4 Lady Madeleine, you have never read me 
 Caroline Mounteney's letter, as you promised,' said 
 Miss Fane ; * I suppose full of raptures " the Alps, 
 and Apennines, the Pyrenaean, and the River Po." > 
 
 ' By no means : the whole letter of four sides, 
 double crossed, is filled with an account of the Ballet 
 at La Scala ; which, according to Caroline, is a thou- 
 sand times more interesting than Mont-Blanc, or the 
 Simplon.' 
 
 ' One of the immortal works of Vigano, I sup- 
 pose,' said Vivian ; ' he has raised the ballet of action 
 to an equality with tragedy. I have heard my 
 father mention the splendid effect of his Vestale and 
 his Otello.' 
 
 * And yet,' said Violet Fane, < I do not like 
 Othello to be profaned. It is not for operas and 
 ballets. We require the thrilling words.' 
 
 364
 
 CHAPTER X VIVIAN GREY 
 
 ' It is very true ; yet Pasta's acting in the opera, 
 and in an opera acting is only a secondary point, was 
 a grand performance ; and I have myself seldom 
 witnessed a more masterly effect produced by any 
 actor in the world, than I did a fortnight ago, at the 
 Opera at Darmstadt, by Wild in Othello.' 
 
 1 1 think the history of Desdemona is the most 
 affecting of all tales,' said Miss Fane. 
 
 4 The violent death of a woman, young, lovely, 
 and innocent, is assuredly the most terrible of tra- 
 gedies,' observed Vivian ; c and yet, I know not 
 why, I agree with you that Desdemona's is the 
 most affecting of fates more affecting than those of 
 Cordelia, or Juliet, or Ophelia.' 
 
 c It is,' said Lady Madeleine, { because we always 
 contrast her misery with her previous happiness. 
 The young daughter of Lear is the child of mis- 
 fortune : Juliet has the anticipation, not the posses- 
 sion of happiness ; and the characters in Hamlet, 
 seem so completely the sport of a mysterious, but 
 inexorable destiny, that human interest ceases for 
 those whose conduct does not appear to be influenced 
 by human passions. The exquisite poetry the 
 miraculous philosophy of Hamlet, will always make 
 us read it with delight, and study it with advantage ; 
 but, for Ophelia we do not mourn. We are inte- 
 rested in the fortunes of a fictitious character, be- 
 cause in witnessing a representation of a scene of 
 human life, we form our opinion of the proper course 
 to be pursued by the imaginary agents ; and our 
 attention is excited, in order to ascertain whether 
 their conduct and our opinions agree. But where 
 the decree of fate is visibly being fulfilled, or the 
 interference of a supernatural power is revealed, we 
 know that human faculties can no longer be of avail ; 
 
 365
 
 that prudence can no longer protect courage no 
 longer defend. We witness the tragedy with fear, 
 but not with sympathy.' 
 
 ' I have often asked myself,' said Miss Fane, 
 ' which is the most terrible destiny for a young 
 woman to endure : to meet death after a life of 
 trouble, anxiety, and suffering ; or suddenly to be 
 cut off in the enjoyment of all things that make life 
 delightful ; with a heart too pure to be tainted by 
 their possession, and a mind too much cultivated to 
 over appreciate their value?' 
 
 * For my part,' said Vivian, c in the last instance, 
 I think that death can scarcely be considered an evil. 
 The pure spirit would have only to sleep until the 
 Great Day ; and then as Dryden has magnificently 
 said " wake an angel still." How infinitely is such 
 a destiny to be preferred to that long apprenticeship 
 of sorrow and suffering, at the end of which men are 
 generally as unwilling to die as at the commence- 
 ment ! ' 
 
 * And yet,' said Miss Fane, ' there is something 
 fearful in the idea of sudden death.' 
 
 * Very fearful ! ' muttered Vivian ; ' very fearful 
 in some cases ;' for he thought of one whom he had 
 sent to his great account before his time. 
 
 ' Violet, my dear ! ' said Lady Madeleine, in a very 
 agitated voice ; * have you finished your drawing of 
 the Bingenloch?' But Miss Fane would not leave 
 the subject. 
 
 { Very fearful in all cases, Mr. Grey. How few 
 of us are prepared to leave this world without warn- 
 ing ! And if from youth, or sex, or natural disposi- 
 tion, or from the fortunate union of the influence of 
 all these three, a few may chance to be better fitted 
 for the great change than their companions, still, I 
 
 366
 
 CHAPTER X VIVIAN GREY 
 
 always think that in those cases in which we view our 
 fellow-creatures suddenly departing from this world, 
 apparently without a bodily or mental pang, there 
 must be a moment of suffering, which none of us 
 can understand ; suffering, occasioned by a con- 
 sciousness of immediately meeting death in the very 
 flush of life, and earthly thoughts a moment of 
 suffering, which, from its intense and novel character, 
 may appear an eternity of anguish. I shall, perhaps, 
 not succeed in conveying my peculiar feeling on this 
 subject to you. I have always looked upon such 
 an end as the most terrible of dispensations.' 
 
 4 1 enter into your feelings,' answered Vivian ; 
 1 although the light in which you view this subject 
 is new to me. Terrible, however, as we may univer- 
 sally consider the event of a sudden death, I still do 
 not believe that a long and painful illness ever ex- 
 empts man from the suffering which you mention ; 
 
 but that he always quits life with the same unwilling- 
 
 i- 
 ness to die. 
 
 4 1 cannot agree with you, Mr. Grey, in this 
 opinion, which you seem to entertain of the ineffi- 
 cacy of " a long apprenticeship of sorrow and suffer- 
 ing." From my own experience, I should say that 
 it robbed death of all its terrors. Death is most 
 dreadful at a distance illness weakens the mind in 
 a wise proportion with the body ; and therefore, at 
 a certain period, the feelings are too enervated by 
 debility, or too blunted by personal suffering, to 
 experience that which in health appears the greatest 
 trial in our dissolution the parting with our 
 friends. In the enjoyment of every pleasure which 
 health and affluence can afford, I confess that it ap- 
 pears most dreadful to encounter the agonies of dis- 
 ease ; and parting with all we love here, to sink into 
 
 367
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 the grave, and be forgotten by those of whose every 
 thought, when living, we seemed to be the centre. 
 But when we are worn out with pain, the selfishness 
 of our nature makes us look upon those around us, 
 with little more interest than as the ministers of our 
 wants. We forget all but the present suffering, and 
 only look forward to the future as a release from 
 it. If ever you have experienced a long and dan- 
 gerous illness, Mr. Grey, I am confident that, on 
 reflection, you will agree with me. 3 
 
 c My dear Violet,' said Lady Madeleine ; * I 
 thought that Mr. Grey came here to-night to forget 
 his melancholy. These surely are subjects which do 
 not make men gay.' 
 
 ' I assure you, Lady Madeleine,' said Vivian, 
 < that I take great the greatest interest in this sub- 
 ject. I have indured a most dangerous illness, Miss 
 Fane, but it was not one of the kind you allude to. 
 It was a violent fever, and I was not sensible of my 
 disease till its danger was past. I have no very clear 
 conception of my state of mind when I recovered ; 
 but I think, if I remember right, that I dreaded life 
 as much as I feared death.' 
 
 { That was a peculiar case,' said Miss Fane ; ( a 
 case in which death, from the state of mind, could 
 have had no terrors. Of course my argument refers 
 to the generality of long and dangerous illnesses, 
 when the patient is only too sensible of the daily 
 increasing debility. For myself, I distinctly remem- 
 ber being reduced to such fearful weakness, that the 
 physicians and nurses round my bed believed me 
 dying, if not dead ; and from my complete inanition, 
 entirely past a knowledge of what was going on 
 around me. They were deceived, however, in this. 
 I heard them say that I was dying ; more than once 
 
 368
 
 CHAPTER X VIVIAN GREY 
 
 they thought that all was over ; but it produced no 
 emotion in my mind, neither fear, nor sorrow, nor 
 hope. I felt my breath fluttering fainter, and fainter. 
 I could not move even my finger ; and I thought 
 indeed that all would soon be over ; but it brought 
 no pang for the sufferers who surrounded my bed, 
 no anxiety, or desire for myself. At last I sunk 
 into a deep sleep ; and after a length of time I awoke 
 with quickened feelings. My natural affections re- 
 turned, and then I had a strong longing for life. 
 Here I am now, enjoying excellent health, in spite of 
 my dear physician's grave looks,' said Miss Fane, 
 putting her arm round Lady Madeleine's neck ; 
 ' and not only health, but every blessing which youth 
 can bring me. Nevertheless, dreading death as I do 
 now, with the feelings of health and a happy life, I 
 sometimes almost regret that I ever awoke from that 
 perfect calm of every earthly passion.' 
 
 As Vivian was thinking that Violet Fane was the 
 most beautiful creature he had ever beheld, Lady 
 Madeleine Trevor bent down, and kissed her fore- 
 head. Her ladyship's large blue eyes were full of 
 tears. A woman's eye never seems more bright 
 than when it glances through a tear as the light of 
 a star seems more brilliant when sparkling on a 
 wave. 
 
 ' Violet, my dear,' said her ladyship, ' let us talk 
 no more of death.' 
 
 ' Who was talking of death ?' said Mr. Sherborne, 
 waking from a refreshing nap ; ' I'm sure I wasn't. 
 Let me see I forget what my last observation was ; 
 I think I was saying, Lady Madeleine, that a little 
 music would refresh us all. Violet, my dear, will 
 you play me one of my favourites?' 
 
 ' What shall it be, dear Sir ? I really think I may 
 2 A 369
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 sing to-night. What think you, Lady Madeleine? 
 I have been silent a fortnight.' So saying, Miss 
 Fane sat down to the piano. 
 
 Mr. Sherborne's favourite ensued. It was a 
 lively air, calculated to drive away all melancholy 
 feelings, and cherishing those bright sunny views of 
 human life which the excellent old man had invari- 
 ably professed. But Rossini's Muse did not smile 
 to-night upon her who invoked its gay spirit ; and 
 ere Lady Madeleine could interfere, Violet Fane had 
 found more congenial emotions in one of Weber's 
 prophetic symphonies. 
 
 Oh! Music! miraculous art, that makes the poet's 
 skill a jest ; revealing to the soul inexpressible feel- 
 ings, by the aid of inexplicable sounds! A blast of 
 thy trumpet, and millions rush forward to die : a 
 peal of thy organ, and uncounted nations sink down 
 to pray. Mighty is thy three-fold power! 
 
 First, thou canst call up all elemental sounds, and 
 scenes, and subjects, with the definiteness of reality. 
 Strike the lyre! Lo! the voice of the winds the 
 flash of the lightning the swell of the wave the 
 solitude of the valley! 
 
 Then thou canst speak to the secrets of a man's 
 heart as if by inspiration. Strike the lyre! Lo! 
 our early love our treasured hate our withered 
 joy our flattering hope! 
 
 And, lastly, by thy mysterious melodies, thou 
 canst recall man from all thought of this world and 
 of himself bringing back to his soul's memory, 
 dark but delightful recollections of the glorious heri- 
 tage which he had lost, but which he may win again. 
 Strike the lyre! Lo! Paradise, with its palaces of 
 inconceivable splendor, and its gates of unimagin- 
 able glory !
 
 CHAPTER X VIVIAN GREY 
 
 When Vivian left the apartment of Lady Made- 
 leine, he felt no inclination to sleep ; and instead of 
 retiring to rest, he bent his steps towards the gardens. 
 It was a rich summer night ; the air, recovered from 
 the sun's scorching rays, was cool not chilling. 
 The moon was still behind the mountains ; but the 
 dark blue heavens were studded with innumerable 
 stars, whose tremulous light quivered on the face of 
 the river. All human sounds had ceased to agitate ; 
 and the note of the nightingale, and the rush of the 
 waters, banished monotony without disturbing re- 
 flection. But not for reflection had Vivian Grey 
 deserted his chamber : his heart was full but of in- 
 definable sensations ; and forgetting the world in the 
 intenseness of his emotions, he felt too much to 
 think. 
 
 How long he had been pacing by the side of the 
 river he knew not, when he was awakened from his 
 reverie by the sound of voices. He looked up, and 
 saw lights moving at a distance. The party at the 
 New House had just broke up. He stopped be- 
 neath a branching elm-tree for a moment, that the 
 sound of his steps might not attract their attention ; 
 and at this very instant the garden gate opened, and 
 closed with great violence. The figure of a man 
 approached. As he passed Vivian, the moon rose up 
 from above the brow of the mountain, and lit up 
 the countenance of the Baron. Despair was stamped 
 on his distracted features. 
 
 WHEN Vivian awoke in the morning, he found that 
 the intenseness of his emotions had subsided ; and 
 that his sensations were not quite so indefinite as on
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 the preceding night : he found himself in loye 
 with whom, however, was perhaps still doubtful. 
 The image of Violet Fane had made his dreams de- 
 licious ; but it must be confessed, that the eidolon 
 sometimes smiled with the features of Lady Made- 
 leine Trevor : but that he looked on the world with 
 new feelings, and a changed spirit, with hope, and 
 almost with joy, was certain. The sweet summer 
 morning had succeeded to the soft summer night. 
 The sun illumined as yet only the tops of the western 
 mountains ; and the morning breeze, unheated by 
 his beams, told that it was June by the odours which 
 it wafted around. At such a moment the sense of 
 existence alone is happiness ; but to Vivian it seemed 
 that the sun was about to light up a happier world, 
 and that the sweet wind blew from Paradise. 
 
 Young love ! young Love, ' thy birth was of the 
 womb of morning dew, and thy conception of the 
 joyous prime ! ' so Spenser sings ; and there are 
 few, perhaps, who, on this subject, have not scribbled 
 some stray stanzas in their time, if not as sweet, it 
 may be more sincere. They will understand feel- 
 ings which none can describe. How miraculous is 
 that power, which, in an instant, can give hope to 
 the desperate, and joy to the forlorn ; which, with- 
 out an argument, can vanquish all philosophy ; and 
 without a gibe silence all wit ; which turns the light- 
 hearted serious, while it makes the sorrowful smile ; 
 which is braver than courage, and yet more cautious 
 than fear ; which can make the fool outwit wisdom, 
 and wisdom envy the fool! 
 
 It was in one of those sweet bowers, with which, 
 as we have before mentioned, the gardens of Ems 
 wisely abound, that Vivian Grey had spent more 
 than three hours, unconscious of the passing of a 
 
 372
 
 CHAPTER XI VIVIAN GREY 
 
 moment. A rustling among the trees first attracted 
 his attention ; and on looking quickly up the wind- 
 ing walk, he thought he saw Essper George vanish 
 in the shrubbery. Was he watched? But he soon 
 forgot his slight anger in another fit of abstraction, 
 from which he was wakened, as he imagined by the 
 same sound. c This time, I'll catch you,' thought 
 Vivian. He jumped suddenly up, and nearly 
 knocked down Lady Madeleine Trevor, who had 
 entered the arbour. 
 
 ' I hope I've not disturbed you, Mr. Grey,' said 
 her Ladyship, who saw that he was confused ; ' I am 
 in want of an escort, and I have come to reclaim a 
 truant knight. You forget that I had your pledge 
 yesterday, to accompany me to the New Spring.' 
 
 Vivian made a violent struggle to recover himself, 
 and began to talk a quantity of nonsense to her lady- 
 ship, by way of apology for his negligence, and 
 thanks for her kindness ; Lady Madeleine listened, 
 with her usual gentle smile, to a long and muttered 
 discourse, in which the words ' Essper George, Miss 
 Fane, and fine morning,' were alone intelligible. 
 
 ' Shall we have the pleasure of Miss Fane and Mr. 
 Sherborne's company in our walk to-day?' asked 
 Vivian. 
 
 ' No ! they are not going with us,' said Lady 
 Madeleine. ' You will join our party at the Arch- 
 duke's to-night, I hope, Mr. Grey,' continued her 
 Ladyship. 
 
 'Yes I don't know: that is, are you going, 
 Lady Madeleine?' 
 
 ' Why, my dear Sir, isn't this the fete night ?' 
 
 'Ah! ah! I understand I remember it will 
 give me the greatest pleasure to join the party at 
 your Ladyship's rooms.' 
 
 373
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 Lady Madeleine looked very earnestly at her com- 
 panion, and then talked about the weather, and the 
 beauty of summer, and the singing of birds, and a 
 thousand other little topics, by which she soon re- 
 stored him to his usual state of mind. In a quarter 
 of an hour Vivian had quite recovered his senses ; 
 and only regretted the part which he necessarily took 
 in the conversation, because it prevented him from 
 listening to the soft tones of her ladyship's voice, 
 who he thought to-day looked a thousand times 
 more beautiful than ever. He began also to think, 
 that he should like to walk to the New Spring alone 
 with her every morning of his life. 
 
 Vivian had been so occupied by his own feelings, 
 that he and his companion had completed nearly half 
 their walk, before it struck him that something was 
 dwelling on the mind of Lady Madeleine. In the 
 midst of the gayest conversation, her features more 
 than once appeared to be in little accordance with the 
 subject of discussion ; and her voice often broke off 
 abruptly at the commencement of a sentence some 
 sentence which it seemed she had not courage to 
 finish. 
 
 ' Mr. Grey,' said her ladyship, suddenly ; ' I can- 
 not conceal any longer, that I am thinking of a very 
 different subject to the Archduke's ball. As you 
 form part of my thoughts at this moment, I shall not 
 hesitate to disburthen my mind to you ; although, 
 perhaps, I run the risk of being considered at the 
 same time both impertinent and officious. Under- 
 stand me, however, distinctly, that whatever I may 
 say, you are not, for a moment, to believe that I am 
 ostentatiously presuming to give you advice. There 
 are many points, however, to which the hint or inti- 
 mation of a friend may attract our attention with 
 
 374
 
 CHAPTER XI VIVIAN GREY 
 
 advantage ; and although our conversation to-day 
 may not be productive of any to you, believe me 
 that I should very much grieve, if my gentle sug- 
 gestion were construed into an unwarrantable inter- 
 ference.' 
 
 * Any thing that Lady Madeleine Trevor can do, 
 surely cannot be construed by any one as unwarrant- 
 able any thing that Lady Madeleine Trevor can 
 be kind enough to address to me, must always be 
 received with the most respectful, the most grateful 
 attention. 5 
 
 ' I wish not to keep you in suspense, Mr. Grey. 
 It is of the mode of life which I see my brother, 
 which I see you pursuing here, that I wish to speak,' 
 said her ladyship, with an agitated voice. ' May I 
 may I really speak with freedom?' 
 
 4 Any thing every thing, with the most perfect 
 unreserve and confidence,' answered Vivian. 
 
 ' You are aware, Mr. Grey, that Ems is not the 
 first place at which I have met Baron von Konig- 
 stein ?' 
 
 { I am not ignorant that his Excellency has been in 
 England.' 
 
 ' It cannot have escaped you, Mr. Grey, that I 
 acknowledged his acquaintance with reluctance.' 
 
 ' 1 should judge, with the greatest reluctance, Lady 
 Madeleine.' 
 
 ' And yet it was with still more reluctance, Mr. 
 Grey, that I prevailed upon myself to believe you 
 were his friend. I experienced the greatest delight, 
 when you told me how short and accidental had been 
 your acquaintance. I have experienced the greatest 
 pain in witnessing to what that acquaintance has led ; 
 and it is with extreme sorrow, for my own weakness, 
 in not having had courage to speak to you before, 
 
 375
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 and with a hope of yet benefiting you, that I have 
 been induced to speak to you now.' 
 
 ' Lady Madeleine, I trust there is no cause either 
 for your sorrow or your fear ; but much, much cause 
 for my gratitude. Do not fear to be explicit.' 
 
 ' Now that I have prevailed upon myself to speak, 
 Mr. Grey, and have experienced from you the recep- 
 tion that I gave you credit for ; do not fear that 
 there will be any want of openness on my part. I 
 have observed the constant attendance of yourself, 
 and my brother, at the New House with the greatest 
 anxiety. I have seen too much of the world, not to 
 be perfectly aware of the danger the terrific danger, 
 which young men, and young men of honour, must 
 always experience at such places. Alas ! I have seen 
 too much of Baron von Konigstein, not to know that 
 at such places especially, his acquaintance is fatal. 
 The evident depression of your spirits yesterday, 
 determined me on a step which I have for the last 
 few days been considering. Your abstraction this 
 morning frightened me. I can learn nothing from 
 my brother. I fear that I am even now too late ; 
 but I trust, that whatever may be your situation, you 
 will remember, Mr. Grey, that you have friends ; 
 that you will decide on nothing rash.' 
 
 ' Lady Madeleine,' said Vivian, 4 1 have too much 
 respect for your feelings to stop even one moment to 
 express the gratitude the pride the honourable 
 pride, which your generous conduct allows me to 
 feel. This moment repays me for a year of agony. 
 I affect not to misunderstand one syllable of your 
 meaning. My opinion, my detestation of the gam- 
 ing-table has always, and must always, be the same. 
 I do assure you this, and all things, upon my honour. 
 Far from being involved, my cheek burns while I 
 
 376 '
 
 CHAPTER XI VIVIAN GREY 
 
 confess, that I am master of a considerable sum a 
 most considerable sum, acquired by this unhallowed 
 practice. But for this I am scarcely to be blamed. 
 You are yourself aware of the singular fortune which 
 awaited my first evening at Ems ; that fortune was 
 continued at the New House, the very first day 
 I dined with his Highness, and when, unexpectedly, 
 I was forced to play ; that fatal fortune has rendered 
 my attendance at the New House absolutely neces- 
 sary. I found that it was impossible to keep away, 
 without subjecting myself to the most painful ob- 
 servations. I need scarcely say now, that my depres- 
 sion of yesterday was occasioned by the receipt of 
 letters from England ; and as to my abstraction this 
 mornin.fr, believe me, Lady Madeleine, it was not a 
 state of mind which grew out of any disgust to the 
 world, or its inhabitants. I am ashamed of having 
 spoken so much about myself, and so little about 
 those for whom you are more interested. As far as 
 I can judge, you have no cause, at present, for any 
 serious uneasiness with regard to Mr. St. George. 
 You may, perhaps, have observed that we are not 
 very intimate, and therefore I cannot speak with any 
 precision as to the state of his fortunes ; but I have 
 reason to believe that they are by no means unfavour- 
 able. And now for the Baron, Lady Madeleine.' 
 
 ' Yes, yes ! ' 
 
 ' I hardly know what I am to infer from your 
 observations respecting him. I certainly should in- 
 fer something extremely bad, were not I conscious, 
 that, after the experience of five weks, I, for one, 
 have nothing to complain of him. The Baron, cer- 
 tainly, is fond of play plays high, indeed. He has 
 not had equal fortune at the New House as at the 
 Redoute ; at least I imagine so, for he has given me 
 
 377
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 no cause to believe, in any way, that he is a loser ; 
 and I need not tell Lady Madeleine Trevor, that at 
 the table of an Archduke, losses are instantly paid.' 
 
 ' Now that I know the truth the joyful truth, 
 Mr. Grey,' said her ladyship, with great earnestness 
 and animation ; ' I feel quite ashamed of my bold- 
 ness ; must I say my suspicions?' But if you could 
 only understand the relief, the ease, the happiness, 
 I feel at this moment, I am sure you would not won- 
 der that I prevailed upon myself to speak to you. 
 It may still be in my power, however, to prevent 
 evil.' 
 
 ' Yes yes, certainly ! After what has passed, I 
 would, without any fear of my motives being mis- 
 interpreted, submit to your Ladyship, that the wisest 
 course now, would be to speak to me frankly respect- 
 ing Von Konigstein ; and if you are aware of any- 
 thing which has passed in the circles in England, of 
 a nature which may render it more prudent for ' 
 
 'Oh! stop, stop!' said Lady Madeleine, in the 
 greatest agitation. Vivian was silent, and many 
 minutes elapsed before his companion again spoke. 
 When she did, her eyes were fixed on the ground, 
 and her tones were low; but her voice was calm, 
 and steady. It was evident that she had mastered 
 her emotions. 
 
 4 1 am going to accept, Mr. Grey, the confidence 
 which you have proffered me. I feel, I am con- 
 vinced, that it is due to you now, that I should say 
 all ; but I do not affect to conceal that I speak, even 
 now, with reluctance an effort, and it will soon be 
 over. It is for the best.' Lady Madeleine paused 
 one moment, and then resumed with a firm voice : 
 
 < Upwards of six years, Mr. Grey, have now 
 passed since Baron von Konigstein was appointed 
 
 378
 
 CHAPTER XI VIVIAN GREY 
 
 Minister to London, from the Court of . 
 
 Although apparently young for such an impor- 
 tant mission, he had already eminently distin- 
 guished himself as a diplomatist ; and with all 
 the advantages of brilliant talents, various ac- 
 complishments, rank, reputation, person, and a 
 fascinating address, I need not tell you, that 
 he immediately became of consideration, even 
 in the highest circles. Mr Trevor I was then 
 just married was at this period high in office, 
 and was constantly in personal communication 
 with the Baron. They became intimate, and his 
 Excellency our constant guest. The Baron had the 
 reputation of being a man of pleasure. Few men 
 ever existed, for whose indiscretions there could be 
 a greater excuse ; nor had any thing ever transpired 
 which could induce us to believe, that Baron von 
 Konigstein could be guilty of any thing, but an 
 indiscretion. At this period a relation, and former 
 ward of Mr. Trevor's, a young man of considerable 
 fortune, and one whom we all most fondly loved, 
 resided in our family. Trevor, and myself, con- 
 sidered him as our brother. With this individual 
 Baron von Konigstein formed a strong friendship ; 
 they were seldom apart. Our relation was not ex- 
 empted from the failings of all young men. He led a 
 very dissipated, an alarmingly dissipated life ; but 
 he was very young ; and, as unlike most relations, 
 we never allowed any conduct on his part, for an 
 instant to banish him from our society ; we trusted 
 that the contrast which his own family afforded to 
 his usual companions, would in time render his tastes 
 more refined, and his habits less irregular. We had 
 now known Baron von Konigstein for upwards of a 
 year and a half, most intimately. Nothing had trans-
 
 VIVIAN (iUKV BOOK V 
 
 pired during this period to induce Mr. Trevor to 
 alter the opinion which he had entertained of him 
 from the first ; he believed him to be a man of the 
 purest honour, and, in spite of a few imprudencies, 
 of the correctest principles. Whatever might have 
 been my own opinion of his Excellency at this period, 
 I had no reason to doubt the natural goodness of his 
 disposition ; and though I could not hope that he 
 was one who would assist us in our plans for the 
 reformation of Augustus, I still rejoiced to observe, 
 that in the Baron he would at least find a companion 
 very different from the unprincipled and selfish be- 
 ings by whom he was too often surrounded. Some- 
 thing occurred at this time, Mr. Grey, which it is 
 necessary for me only to allude to ; but which placed 
 Baron von Konigstein, according to his own declara- 
 tion, under the most lasting obligations to myself. 
 In the warmth of his heart he asked if there was any 
 real, and important service which he could do me. 
 I took advantage of the moment to speak to him 
 about our young friend ; I detailed to him all our 
 anxieties ; he anticipated all my wishes, and pro- 
 mised to watch over him ; to be his guardian ; his 
 friend his real friend. Mr. Grey,' continued her 
 ladyship, < I struggle to restrain my feelings ; but 
 the recollections of this period of my life are so pain- 
 ful, that for a moment I must stop to recover my- 
 self.' 
 
 For a few minutes they walked on in silence; 
 Vivian did not speak, his heart was too full; and 
 when her ladyship resumed her tale, he, uncon- 
 sciously, pressed her arm. 
 
 Mr. Grey, I study to be brief. About three 
 months after the Baron had given me the pledge 
 which I mentioned, Mr. Trevor was called up at an 
 
 380
 
 CHAPTER XI VIVIAN GREY 
 
 early hour one morning with the alarming in- 
 telligence, that his late ward was supposed to 
 be at the point of death at a neighbouring 
 hotel. He instantly accompanied the messenger, 
 and on the way the fatal truth was broken to 
 him our young friend had committed suicide! 
 He had been playing all night with one whom 
 I cannot now name.' Here Lady Madeleine's 
 voice died away, but with a struggle she again spoke 
 firmly. 
 
 ( I mean, Mr. Grey with the Baron some for- 
 eigners also, and an Englishman all intimate friends 
 of Von Konigstein, and scarcely known to Captain 
 
 -, I mean the deceased. Our friend had been 
 
 the only sufferer ; he had lost his whole fortune 
 and more than his fortune : and, with a heart full of 
 despair and remorse, had, with his own hand, ter- 
 minated his unhappy life. The whole circumstances 
 were so suspicious, that public attention was keenly 
 attracted, and Mr. Trevor spared no exertion to 
 bring the offenders to punishment. The Baron had 
 the hardihood to call upon us the next day ; admit- 
 tance was, of course, refused. He wrote the most 
 violent letters, protesting by all that was sacred that 
 he was innocent ; that he was asleep during most of 
 the night, and accusing the others who were present 
 of a conspiracy. The unhappy business now attrac- 
 ted universal attention. Its consequence on me was 
 an alarming illness of a most unfortunate kind ; I 
 was therefore prevented from interfering, or, indeed, 
 knowing any thing that took place ; but Trevor 
 informed me that the Baron was involved in a cor- 
 respondence in the public prints ; that the accused 
 parties recriminated, and that finally he was con- 
 vinced that Von Konigstein, if there were any differ- 
 
 381
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 ence, was, if possible, the most guilty. However 
 this might be, he soon obtained his recall from his 
 own government. He wrote to myself, and to 
 Trevor before he left England ; but I was too ill 
 to hear of his letters, until Mr. Trevor informed me 
 that he had returned them unopened. And now, 
 Mr. Grey, I am determined to give utterance to that 
 which as yet has always died upon my lips the vic- 
 tim the unhappy victim was the brother of Miss 
 Fane ! ' 
 
 'Oh, God!' 
 
 4 And Mr. St. George,' continued Vivian, ' Mr. 
 St. George knowing all this, which surely he must 
 have done ; how came he to tolerate, for an instant, 
 the advances of such a man ?' 
 
 1 My brother,' said Lady Madeleine, ' is a very 
 good, a very excellent young man, with a kind heart 
 and warm feelings ; but my brother has not much 
 knowledge of the world, and he is too honourable 
 himself ever to believe that what he calls a gentle- 
 man can be dishonest. My brother was not in Eng- 
 land when the unhappy event took place, and of 
 course the various circumstances have not made the 
 same impression upon him, as upon us. He has 
 heard of the affair only from me ; and young men, 
 Mr. Grey, young men too often imagine that women 
 are apt to exaggerate in matters of this nature, which, 
 of course, few of us can understand. Von Konig- 
 stein had not the good feeling, or perhaps had not 
 the power, connected as he was with the Archduke, 
 to affect ignorance of our former acquaintance, or to 
 avoid a second one. I was obliged formally to intro- 
 duce him to my brother. I was quite perplexed 
 how to act. I thought of writing to Von Konig- 
 stein the next morning, a letter a calm letter ; im- 
 
 382
 
 CHAPTER- XI VIVIAN GREY 
 
 pressing upon him, without the expression of any 
 hostile feeling, the utter impossibility of the acquaint- 
 ance being renewed : but this proceeding involved a 
 thousand difficulties. How was a man of his dis- 
 tinction a man, who not only from his rank, but 
 from his disposition, is always a remarkable, and a 
 remarked character, wherever he may be, how 
 could he account to the Archduke, and to his numer- 
 ous friends, for his not associating with a party with 
 whom he was perpetually in contact. Explanations 
 painful explanations, and worse, much worse than 
 these must have been the consequence. I could 
 hardly expect him to leave Ems ; it was, perhaps, 
 out of his power : and for Miss Fane to leave Ems 
 at this moment, was most strenuously prohibited by 
 our physician. While I was doubtful and deliberat- 
 ing, the conduct of Von Konigstein himself pre- 
 vented me from taking any step whatever. Feeling 
 all the awkwardness of his situation, he seized, with 
 eagerness, the opportunity of becoming intimate 
 with a member of the family whom he had not before 
 known. His amusing conversation, and insinuating 
 address, immediately enlisted the feelings of my 
 brother in his favour. You know yourself that the 
 very morning after their introduction they were rid- 
 ing together. As they became more intimate, the 
 Baron boldly spoke to St. George in confidence of 
 his acquaintance with us in England, and of the un- 
 happy circumstances which led to its termination. 
 St. George was deceived by this seeming courage and 
 candour. He has become the Baron's friend, and 
 has adopted his version of the unhappy story ; and 
 as the Baron has had too much delicacy to allude to 
 the affair in a defence of himself to me, he calculated 
 that the representations of St. George, who he was 
 
 383
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 conscious, would not preserve the confidence which 
 Von Konigstein has always intended him to betray, 
 would assist in producing in my mind an impression 
 in his favour. The Neapolitan story which he told 
 the other day at dinner, was of himself ; relating it, 
 as he might with truth, of a gentleman of rank, who 
 was obliged to leave England, he blinded all present, 
 except Miss Fane and myself. I confess to you, 
 Mr. Grey, that though I have not for a moment 
 doubted the guilt of the Baron, still I was weak 
 enough to consider that his desire to become recon- 
 ciled to me was at least an evidence of a repentant 
 heart ; and the Neapolitan story deceived me. Wo- 
 men are so easily to be deceived. We always hail 
 with such credulous pleasure the prospect of the 
 amendment of a fellow creature. Actuated by these 
 feelings, and acting as I thought wisest under exist- 
 ing circumstances, I ceased to discourage the atten- 
 tions of the Baron to myself and my friends. Your 
 acquaintance, which we all desired to cultivate, was 
 another reason for enduring his presence. His sub- 
 sequent conduct has undeceived me : I am convinced 
 now, not only of his former guilt, but also that he 
 is not changed ; and that with his accustomed talent, 
 he has been acting a part which for some reason or 
 other he has no longer any object in maintaining. 
 Both Mr. Sherborne and myself have remonstrated 
 with my brother ; but the only consequence of our 
 interference has been, that he has quarrelled with his 
 uncle, and treated both my own and Miss Fane's 
 interposition with indifference or irritability.' 
 
 { And Miss Fane,' said Vivian, she must know 
 all ?' 
 
 ' She knows nothing in detail ; she was so young 
 at the time, that we had no difficulty in keeping the 
 
 384
 
 CHAPTER XI VIVIAN GREY 
 
 particular circumstances of her brother's death, and 
 the sensation which it excited, a secret from her. 
 As she grew up, I have thought it proper that the 
 mode of his death should no longer be concealed 
 from her ; and she has learnt from some incautious 
 observations of St. George's, enough to make her 
 look upon the Baron with horror. It is for Violet,' 
 continued Lady Madeleine, ' that I have the severest 
 apprehensions. For the last fortnight her anxiety 
 for her cousin has produced an excitation of mind, 
 which I look upon with more dread than any thing 
 that can happen to her. She has intreated both Mr. 
 Sherborne and myself, to speak to St. George, and 
 also to you, Mr. Grey ; and, since our unsuccessful 
 interference with my brother, we have been obliged 
 to have recourse to deceit to calm her mind, and 
 banish her apprehensions. Mr. Sherborne has per- 
 suaded her, that, at the New House, play is seldom 
 pursued ; and when pursued, that the limit is very 
 moderate. The last few days she has become more 
 easy and serene. She accompanies us to-night ; the 
 weather is so beautiful that the night air is scarcely 
 to be feared ; and a gay scene will, I am convinced, 
 have a favourable influence upon her spirits. Your 
 depression last night did not, however, escape her 
 notice. Once more let me say how I rejoice at hear- 
 ing what you have told me. I have such confidence 
 in your honour, Mr. Grey, that I unhesitatingly be- 
 lieve all that you have said. I have such confidence 
 in your sense and courage, Mr. Grey, that I have 
 now no apprehensions for the future. For God's 
 sake, watch St. George. I have no fear for your- 
 self.' 
 
 Here they had reached home : Vivian parted with 
 her ladyship at the door of her apartments, and 
 2B 385
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 pressed her hand as he refused to come in. He 
 hastened to the solitude of his own chamber. His 
 whole frame was in a tumult ; he paced up and down 
 his room with wild steps ; he pressed his hand to his 
 eyes to banish the disturbing light ; and tried to call 
 up the image of her who was lately speaking of her, 
 for whom alone he now felt that he must live. But 
 what chance had he of ever gaining this glorious 
 creature ? what right ? what claims ? His brow 
 alternately burnt with maddening despair, and excit- 
 ing hope. How he cursed himself for his foul 
 sacrifice of his talents! those talents, the proper 
 exercise, the wise administration of which, might 
 have placed happiness in his power, the enjoyment 
 of a state of feeling, whose existence he had once 
 ridiculed, because his imperfect moral sense was in- 
 capable of comprehending it, once, and once only, 
 it darted across his mind, that feelings of mere friend- 
 ship could not have dictated this confidence, and 
 occasioned this anxiety on her part ; but the soft 
 thought dwelt on his soul only for an instant as 
 the shadow of a nightingale flits over the moonlit 
 moss. 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE company at the Archduke's fete was most select ; 
 that is to say, it consisted of every single person who 
 was then at the Baths : those who had been presented 
 to his Highness, having the privilege of introducing 
 any number of their friends ; and those who had no 
 friend to introduce them, purchasing tickets at an 
 enormous price from Cracowsky the wily Polish 
 Intendant. The entertainment was most imperial ; 
 no expense, and no exertion were spared to make the 
 hired lodging-house look like an hereditary palace ; 
 
 386
 
 CHAPTER XII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 and for a week previous to the great evening, the 
 whole of the neighbouring town of Wisbaden, the 
 little capital of the duchy, had been put under contri- 
 bution. What a harvest for Cracowsky! What a 
 commission from the restaurateur for supplying the 
 refreshments! What a per-centage on hired mirrors 
 and dingy hangings! 
 
 The Archduke, covered with orders, received 
 every one with the greatest condescension, and made 
 to each of his guests a most flattering speech. His 
 suite, in new uniforms, simultaneously bowed 
 directly the flattering speech was finished. 
 
 ' Madame von Furstenburg, I feel the greatest 
 pleasure in seeing you. My greatest pleasure is to 
 be surrounded by my friends. Madame von Fur- 
 stenburg, I trust that your amiable and delightful 
 family are quite well. [The party passed on.] 
 Cravatischeff!' continued his Highness, inclining his 
 head round to one of his aid-de-camps ; ' Cravatis- 
 cheff! a very fine woman is Madame von Fursten- 
 burg. There are few women whom I more admire 
 than Madame von Furstenburg.' 
 
 ' Prince Salvinski, I feel the greatest pleasure in 
 seeing you. My greatest pleasure is to be sur- 
 rounded by my friends. Poland honours no one more 
 than Prince Salvinski. Cravatischeff! a remarkable 
 bore is Prince Salvinski. There are few men of 
 whom I have a greater terror than Prince Salvinski.' 
 
 ' Baron von Konigstein, I feel the greatest plea- 
 sure in seeing you. My greatest pleasure is to be 
 surrounded by my friends. Baron von Konigstein, 
 I have not yet forgot the story of the fair Venetian. 
 Cravatischeff! an uncommonly pleasant fellow is 
 Baron von Konigstein. There are few men whose 
 company I more enjoy than Baron von Konigstein's.' 
 
 387
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 ' Count von Altenburgh, I feel the greatest plea- 
 sure in seeing you. My greatest pleasure is to be 
 surrounded by my friends. You will not forget to 
 give me your opinion of my Austrian troop. Cra- 
 vatischeff! a very good billiard player is Count 
 von Altenburgh. There are few men whose play 
 I'd sooner bet upon than Count von Alten- 
 burgh' s.' 
 
 4 Lady Madeleine Trevor, I feel the greatest plea- 
 sure in seeing you. My greatest pleasure is to be 
 surrounded by my friends. Miss Fane, your ser- 
 vant Mr. Sherborne Mr. St. George Mr. Grey. 
 Cravatischeff! a most splendid woman is Lady 
 Madeleine Trevor. There is no woman whom I 
 more admire than Lady Madeleine Trevor ; and Cra- 
 vatischeff! Miss Fane, too! a remarkably fine girl 
 is Miss Fane.' 
 
 The great saloon of the New House afforded ex- 
 cellent accommodation for the dancers. It opened 
 on the gardens, which, though not very large, were 
 tastefully laid out ; and were this evening brilliantly 
 illuminated with coloured lamps. In the smaller 
 saloon, the Austrian troop amused those who were 
 not fascinated by waltz or quadrille, with acting pro- 
 verbes : the regular dramatic performance was 
 thought too heavy a business for the evening. There 
 was sufficient amusement for all ; and those who did 
 not dance, and to whom proverbes were no novelty, 
 walked and talked, stared at others, and were them- 
 selves stared at ; and this perhaps was the greatest 
 amusement of all. Baron von Konigstein did cer- 
 tainly to-night look neither like an unsuccessful 
 gamester, nor a designing villain. Among many 
 who were really amusing, he was the most so ; and 
 apparently without the least consciousness of it, 
 
 388
 
 CHAPTER XII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 attracted the admiration of all. To the Trevor party 
 he had attached himself immediately, and was con- 
 stantly at her ladyship's side, introducing to her, in 
 the course of the evening, his own and Mr. St. 
 George's particular friends Mr. and Mrs. Fitzloom. 
 Among many smiling faces, Vivian Grey's was 
 clouded ; the presence of the Baron annoyed him. 
 When they first met, he was conscious that he was 
 stiff and cool extraordinarily cool. One moment's 
 reflection convinced him of the folly of his conduct, 
 and he made a struggle to be very civil extraordin- 
 arily civil. In five minutes time he had involun- 
 tarily insulted the Baron, who stared at his friend, 
 and evidently did not comprehend him. 
 
 ' Grey,' said his Excellency, very quietly, ( you're 
 not in a good humour to-night. What's the matter ? 
 This is not at all a temper to come to a fete in. 
 What! won't Miss Fane dance with you?' asked 
 the Baron, with an arch smile. 
 
 ' I wonder what can induce your Excellency to 
 talk such nonsense!' 
 
 'Your Excellency! by Jove! that's good, Ex- 
 cellency ! why, what the deuce is the matter with the 
 man. It is Miss Fane then eh?' 
 
 * Baron von Konigstein I wish you to under- 
 stand ' 
 
 ' My dear fellow, I never could understand any 
 thing. I think you have insulted me in a most dis- 
 graceful manner, and I positively must call you out, 
 unless you promise to dine at my rooms with me to- 
 morrow, to meet de Boeffleurs.' 
 
 ' I cannot.' 
 
 ' Why not ? you've no engagement with Lady 
 Madeleine I know, for St. George has agreed to 
 come.' 
 
 389
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 4 Yes?' 
 
 ' De Boeffleurs leaves Ems next week. It is 
 sooner than he expected, and I wish to have a quiet 
 evening together before he goes. I should be very 
 vexed if you were not there. We've scarcely been 
 enough together lately. What with the New House 
 in the, evening, and riding parties in the morning, 
 and those Fitzloom girls, with whom St. George is 
 playing a most foolish game he'll be taken in now, 
 if he's not on his guard we really never meet, at 
 least not in a quiet friendly way ; and so now, will 
 you come?' 
 
 4 St. George is positively coming?' 
 
 'Oh yes? positively; don't be afraid of his 
 gaining ground on the little Violet in your ab- 
 sence.' 
 
 ' Well, then, my dear Von Konigstein, I will 
 come.' 
 
 ' Well, that's yourself again. It made me quite 
 unhappy, to see you look so sour and melancholy ; 
 one would have thought that I was some troublesome 
 bore, Prince Salvinski at least, by the way you spoke 
 to me. Well, mind you come it's a promise: 
 good. I must go and say just one word to the lovely 
 little Saxon, and by the bye, Grey, one word before 
 I'm off. List to a friend, you're on the wrong scent 
 about Miss Fane ; St. George, I think, has no chance 
 there, and now no wish to succeed. The game's 
 your own, if you like ; trust my word, she's an 
 angel. The good powers prosper you!' so saying, 
 the Baron ran off. 
 
 Mr. St. George had danced with Miss Fane the 
 only quadrille in which Lady Madeleine allowed her 
 to join. He was now waltzing with Aurelia Fitz- 
 loom, and was at the head of a band of adventurous
 
 CHAPTER XII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 votaries of Terpsichore ; who, wearied with the 
 common-place convenience of a saloon, had ventured 
 to invoke the Muse on the lawn. 
 
 ' A most interesting sight, Lady Madeleine Tre- 
 vor!' said Mr. Fitzloom, as he offered his arm to 
 her ladyship, and advised their instant presence as 
 patrons of the ' Fete du Village^ for such Baron 
 Von Konigstein had most happily termed it. l A 
 delightful man that Baron Von Konigstein, and says 
 such delightful things! Fete du Village! how very 
 good ! ' 
 
 ' That is Miss Fitzloom then, whom my brother 
 is waltzing with ?' asked Lady Madeleine in her usual 
 kind tone. 
 
 ' Not exactly, my Lady Madeleine,' said Mr. 
 Fitzloom, ' not exactly Miss Fitzloom, rather Miss 
 Aurelia Fitzloom, my third daughter; our third 
 eldest, as Mrs. Fitzloom sometimes says ; for really 
 it is necessary to distinguish, with such a family as 
 ours, you know, my Lady Madeleine!' 
 
 ' But don't you think, Mr. Fitzloom, that your 
 third daughter is a sufficiently definite description?' 
 asked her ladyship. 
 
 ' Why you know, my Lady Madeleine, there 
 might be a mistake. There's the third youngest! 
 and if one say the third merely, why, as Mrs. Fitz- 
 loom sometimes says, the question is, "which is 
 which?' 
 
 ' That view of the case, I confess, did not strike 
 me before.' 
 
 ' Mr. Grey,' said Miss Fane, for she was now 
 leaning upon his arm : ' have you any objection to 
 walk up and down the terrace ? the evening is delici- 
 ously soft, but even with the protection of a Cache- 
 mere I scarcely dare venture to stand still. Lady 
 
 39'
 
 VIVIAN GKKY BOOK V 
 
 Madeleine seems very much engaged at present. 
 What amusing people these Fitzlooms are!' 
 
 ' Mrs. Fitzloom ; I've not heard her voice yet.' 
 
 4 No ; Mrs. Fitzloom does not talk. St. George 
 says she makes it a rule never to speak in the pres- 
 ence of a stranger. She deals plenteously, however, 
 at home in domestic apothegms. If you could but 
 hear him imitating them all! Whenever she does 
 speak, she finishes all her sentences by confessing that 
 she is conscious of her own deficiencies ; but that 
 she has taken care to give her daughters the very 
 best education. They are what St. George calls fine 
 dashing girls, and I'm very glad he's made friends 
 with them ; for, after all, he must find it rather dull 
 here. By the bye, Mr. Grey, I'm afraid that you can't 
 find this evening very amusing ; the absence of a 
 favourite pursuit always makes a sensible void ; and 
 these walls must remind you of more piquant plea- 
 sures than waltzing with fine London ladies, or pro- 
 menading up a dull terrace with an invalid.' 
 
 ' Miss Fane, I fear that you are a bitter satirist ; 
 but I assure you that you are quite misinformed 
 as to the mode in which I generally pass my even- 
 ings.' 
 
 'I hope I am, Mr. Grey!' said Miss Fane, in 
 rather a serious tone ; ' I wish I could also be mis- 
 taken in my suspicions of the mode in which St. 
 George spends his time. He's sadly changed. For 
 the first month that we were here, he seemed to pre- 
 fer nothing in the world to our society, and now 
 I was nearly saying that we had not seen him for 
 one single evening these three weeks. I cannot 
 understand what you find at this house of such ab- 
 sorbing interest. Although I know you think I am 
 much mistaken in my suspicions, still I feel very 
 
 392
 
 CHAPTER XII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 anxious, very anxious indeed. I spoke to St. George 
 to-day, but he scarcely answered me ; or said that, 
 which it was a pleasure for me to forget.' 
 
 ' Mr. St. George should feel highly gratified in 
 having excited such an interest in the mind of 
 Miss Fane.' 
 
 ' He cannot he should not feel more gratified 
 than all who are my friends ; for all who are such, I 
 must ever experience the liveliest interest.' 
 
 ' How happy must those be who feel that they 
 have a right to count Miss Fane among their 
 friends ! ' 
 
 ' I have the pleasure then, I assure you, of making 
 many happy, and among them Mr. Grey.' 
 
 Vivian was surprised that he did not utter some 
 usual complimentary answer ; but he knew not why, 
 the words stuck in his throat ; and instead of speak- 
 ing, he was thinking of what had been spoken. In 
 a second he had mentally repeated Miss Fane's 
 answer a thousand times it rang in his ears it 
 thrilled his blood. In another moment he was 
 ashamed of being such a fool. 
 
 'How brilliant are these gardens!' said Vivian, 
 looking at the sky. 
 
 ' Very brilliant ! ' said Violet Fane, looking on the 
 ground. Conversation seemed nearly extinct, and 
 yet neither offered to turn back. 
 
 ' Good heavens ! you are ill, Miss Fane,' suddenly 
 exclaimed Vivian, when, on accidentally turning to 
 his companion, he found she was in tears. * Shall 
 we go back, or will you wait here ? Can I fetch any- 
 thing? I fear you are very ill!' 
 
 ' No, no ! not very ill, but very foolish ; let us 
 walk on, Mr. Grey, walk on walk on.' Here 
 Vivian thought that she was going into hysterics ; 
 
 393
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 but heaving a deep sigh, she seemed suddenly to 
 recover. 
 
 ' I am ashamed, Mr. Grey, of myself this 
 trouble, this foolishness what can you think? but 
 I am so agitated, so nervous I hope you'll forget 
 1 hope .' 
 
 * Perhaps the air has suddenly affected you had 
 we not better go in? Pray, pray compose yourself. 
 I trust that nothing I have said that nothing has 
 happened that no one has dared to say, or do, any 
 thing to offend you to annoy you? Speak, pray 
 speak, Miss Fane dear Miss Fane, the the ' 
 
 the words died on Vivian's lips, yet a power he 
 
 could not withstand urged him to speak ' the the 
 the Baron?' 
 
 ' Oh ! ' almost shrieked Miss Fane ' No, no, stop 
 one second let me compose myself an effort, and 
 I must be well nothing, nothing has happened, and 
 no one has done or said any thing ; but it is of some- 
 thing that should be said of something that should 
 be done, that I was thinking, and it overcame me.' 
 
 ' Miss Fane,' said Vivian, ' if there be any ser- 
 vice which I can do any advice which I can give 
 any possible way that I can exert myself for you, oh, 
 speak! oh, speak! speak with the most perfect 
 confidence with firmness -with courage ; do not 
 fear that your motives will be misconceived that 
 your purpose will be misinterpreted that your con- 
 fidence will be misunderstood. You are addressing 
 one who would lay down his life for you who is 
 willing to perform all your commands, and forget 
 them when performed. I beseech you to trust me 
 believe me that you shall not repent.' 
 
 She answered not, but holding down her head, 
 covered her face with her small white hand ; her 
 
 394
 
 CHAFFER XII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 lovely face which was crimsoned with her flashing 
 blood. They were now at the end of the terrace 
 to return was impossible. If they remained station- 
 ary, they must be perceived and joined. What was 
 to be done! Oh moment of agony! He led her 
 down a solitary walk still further from the house. 
 As they proceeded in silence, the bursts of the music, 
 and the loud laughter of the joyous guests became 
 fainter and fainter, till at last the sounds died away 
 into echo and echo into silence. 
 
 A thousand thoughts dashed through Vivian's 
 mind in rapid succession ; but a painful one a most 
 painful one to him, to any man always remained 
 the last. His companion would not speak ; yet to 
 allow her to return home without freeing her mind 
 of the burthen, the fearful burthen, which evidently 
 overwhelmed it, was impossible. At length he broke 
 a silence which seemed to have lasted an age. 
 
 ' Miss Fane, do not believe for an instant that I 
 am taking advantage of an agitating moment, to 
 extract from you a confidence which you may repent. 
 I feel assured that I am right in supposing that you 
 have contemplated in a calmer moment the possibility 
 of my being of service to you ; that, in short, there 
 is something in which you require my assistance, my 
 co-operation an assistance, Miss Fane a co-opera- 
 tion, which, if it produce any benefit to you, will 
 make me at length feel that I have not lived in vain. 
 I cannot, I cannot allow any feelings of false delicacy 
 to prevent me from assisting you in giving utterance 
 to thoughts, which you have owned it is absolutely 
 necessary should be expressed. Remember, remem- 
 ber that you have allowed me to believe that we are 
 friends : do not, do not prove by your silence, that 
 we are friends only in name.' 
 
 395
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 ' I am overwhelmed I cannot speak my face 
 burns with shame ; I have miscalculated my strength 
 of mind perhaps my physical strength ; what, what 
 must you think of me?' She spoke in a low and 
 smothered voice. 
 
 ' Think of you, Miss Fane ! every thing which 
 the most devoted respect dare think of an object 
 which it reverences. Oh ! understand me ; do not 
 believe that I am one who would presume an instant 
 on my situation because I have accidentally wit- 
 nessed a young and lovely woman betrayed into a dis- 
 play of feeling which the artificial forms of cold so- 
 ciety cannot contemplate, and dare to ridicule. You 
 are speaking to one who also has felt ; who, though a 
 man, has wept ; who can comprehend sorrow ; who 
 can understand the most secret sensations of an agi- 
 tated spirit. Dare to trust me. Be convinced that 
 hereafter, neither by word, nor look, hint, nor sign 
 on my part, shall you feel, save by your own wish, 
 that you have appeared to Vivian Grey in any other 
 light than as the accomplished Miss Fane, the idol of 
 an admiring circle.' 
 
 * You are too, too good generous, generous man, 
 I dare trust any thing to you that I dare trust to 
 human being ; but, ' here her voice died away. 
 
 1 Miss Fane, it is a painful, a most painful thing for 
 me to attempt to guess your thoughts, or anticipate 
 your confidence; but, if if if "it be of Mr. St. 
 George that you are thinking, have no fear respecting 
 him have no fear about his present situation trust 
 to me that there shall be no anxiety for his future one. 
 I will be his unknown guardian, his unseen friend ; 
 the promoter of your wishes, the protector of 
 your ' 
 
 * No, no, Mr. Grey/ said Miss Fane, with firmness, 
 
 396
 
 CHAPTER XII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 and looking quickly up, as if her mind were relieved 
 by discovering that all this time Vivian had never 
 imagined she was thinking of him. * No, no, Mr. 
 Grey, you are mistaken ; it is not of Mr. St. George, 
 of Mr. St. George only, that I am thinking. I I 
 I am much better now ; I shall be able in an instant 
 to speak be able, I trust, to forget how foolish 
 how very foolish I have been.' 
 
 c Let us walk on,' continued Miss Fane ; ( let us 
 walk on ; we can easily account for our absence if it 
 be remarked ; arid it is better, much better, that it 
 should be all over : I feel quite well, quite, quite 
 well ; and shall be able to speak quite firmly now.' 
 
 ' Do not hurry ; compose yourself, I beseech you ; 
 there is no fear of our absence being remarked, Lady 
 Madeleine is so surrounded.' 
 
 ' After what has passed, Mr. Grey, it seems ridicul- 
 ous in me to apologize, as I had intended, for speak- 
 ing to you on a graver subject than what has generally 
 formed the point of conversation between us. I 
 feared that you might misunderstand the motives 
 which have dictated my conduct : I have attempted 
 not to appear agitated, and I have been overcome. I 
 trust that you will not be offended if I recur to the 
 subject of the New House. Do not believe that I 
 ever would have allowed my fears, my girlish fears, 
 so to have overcome my discretion, so to have over- 
 come, indeed, all propriety of conduct on my part, 
 as to have induced me to have sought an interview 
 v/ith you, to moralize to you about your mode of life. 
 No, no, it is not of this that I wish to speak, or 
 rather that I will speak. I will hope, I will pray, that 
 St. George and yourself have never found in that 
 which you have followed as an amusement, the source, 
 the origin, the cause of a single unhappy, or even 
 
 397
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 anxious moment ; Mr. Grey, I will believe all 
 this.' 
 
 * Dearest Miss Fane, believe it, believe it with con- 
 fidence. Of St. George, I can with sincerity aver, 
 that it is my firm opinion, that far from being in- 
 volved, his fortune is not in the slightest degree 
 injured. Believe me, I will not attempt to quiet you 
 now, as I would have done at any other time, by tell- 
 ing you that you magnify your fears, and allow your 
 feelings to exaggerate the danger which exists. There 
 has been danger there is danger ; play, very high, 
 tremendously high play, has been, and is pursued at 
 this New House, but Mr. St. George has never been 
 a loser ; and, believe me, if the exertions of man can 
 avail, never shall never shall at least unfairly. Of 
 the other individual, Miss Fane, whom you have 
 honoured by the interest which you have kindly pro- 
 fessed in his welfare, allow me to say one word : no 
 one can detest, more thoroughly detest, any practice 
 which exists in this world Miss Fane cannot detest 
 impurity with a more perfect antipathy than he 
 does the gaming-table. You know the miserable, 
 but miraculous fortune, which made my first night 
 here notorious. My luck has stuck by me like a 
 curse ; and from the customs of society, from which 
 it is impossible to emancipate ourselves, a man in my 
 situation cannot cease to play without incurring a slur 
 upon his reputation. You will smile at a reputation 
 which depends almost upon the commission of a vile 
 folly ; we have not time to argue these subtile points 
 at present. It is sufficient for me to say, that I can- 
 not resist this custom without being prepared to 
 chastise the insolence of those who will consequently 
 insult me. In that case, my reputation, already tar- 
 nished by the non-commission of a folly, will, accord- 
 
 398
 
 CHAPTER XII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 ing to the customs of society, be utterly ruined, unless 
 it be re-burnished by the commission of a crime. I 
 have no pistol now, Miss Fane, for my fellow- 
 creatures, my right hand is still red with the blood 
 of my friend. To play therefore, with me has been a 
 duty : I still win the duty continues but, believe 
 me, that I shall never lose ; and I look forward with 
 eagerness to the moment when this thraldom shall 
 cease.' 
 
 1 Oh ! you've made me so happy ! I feel so per- 
 suaded that you have not deceived me the tones of 
 your voice, your manner, your expression, convince 
 me that you have been sincere, and that I am happy 
 happy at least for the present.' 
 
 4 For ever I trust, Miss Fane.' 
 
 * Let me, let me now prevent all future misery 
 let me speak about that which has long dwelt on my 
 mind like a nightmare about that which I did fear it 
 was almost too late to speak. Not of your pursuit, 
 Mr. Grey not even of that fatal and horrid pursuit, 
 do I now think, but of your companion in this amuse- 
 ment, in all amusements it is he, he that I dread, 
 that I look upon with horror, even to him, I cannot 
 say, with hatred!' 
 
 ' The Baron!' said Vivian, calmly. 
 
 ( I cannot name him Oh ! dread him, fear him, 
 avoid him! it is he that I mean, he of whom I 
 thought that you were the victim. Possessing, as he 
 does, all the qualifications which apparently would 
 render a man's society desirable you must have 
 been surprised, you must have wondered at our con- 
 duct towards him. Oh! Mr. Grey, when Lady 
 Madeleine turned from him with coolness, when she 
 answered him in tones which to you might have ap- 
 peared harsh ; she behaved to him, in comparison to 
 
 399
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 what is his due, and what we sometimes feel to be our 
 duty, with affection actually with affection and re- 
 gard. Oh! no human being can know what horror 
 is, until he looks upon a fellow-creature with the eyes 
 that I look upon that man.' She leant upon Vivian's 
 arm with her whole weight, and even then he thought 
 she must have sunk neither spoke. How solemn is 
 the silence of sorrow! 
 
 * I am overcome,' continued Miss Fane ; ' the 
 remembrance of what he has done overwhelms me 
 I cannot speak it the recollection is death yet you 
 must know it. That you might know it, I have 
 before attempted. I wished to have spared myself 
 the torture which I now endure. It would perhaps 
 have been more consistent with my dignity^ it would 
 perhaps have been more correct, to have been silent 
 but I felt it I felt it a duty which I owed to a fellow- 
 creature and your conduct, your kind, your gener- 
 ous conduct to me this evening, repays me even for 
 all this pain. You must know it, you must know it. 
 I will write ay! that will do. I will write I can- 
 not speak now, it is impossible, but beware of him ; 
 you, you are so young ! ' 
 
 * I have no words now to thank you, Miss Fane, for 
 this. Had I been the victim of von Konigstein, I 
 should have been repaid for all my misery by feeling 
 that you regretted its infliction ; but I trust that I 
 am in no danger : though young, though very 
 young, I fear that I am one who must not count my 
 time by calendars. I may truly say of myself, " an 
 aged interpreter, though young in days." Would 
 that I could be deceived! Fear not for your cousin. 
 Trust to one whom you have made think better of 
 this world, and of his fellow-creatures.' 
 
 The sound of approaching footsteps, and the light 
 400
 
 CHAPTER XII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 laugh of pleasure, told of some who were wandering 
 like themselves. 
 
 ' We had better return,' said Miss Fane ; ' I fear 
 that Lady Madeleine will observe that I look unwell. 
 Some one approaches! No! they pass only the 
 top of the walk.' It was St. George and Aurelia 
 Fitzloom. 
 
 Quick flew the brilliant hours ; and soon the dance 
 was over, and the music mute. Lady Madeleine 
 Trevor and Miss Fane retired long before the party 
 broke up, and Vivian accompanied them and Mr. 
 Sherborne. He did not return to the gay saloon, but 
 found himself walking in the same gardens, by the 
 side of the same river, lighted by the same moon, and 
 listening to the same nightingale, as on the preceding 
 night. How much had happened to him in the 
 course of one day's circle! How changed were his 
 feelings ; not merely from yesternight, but even from 
 a few hours since. She loved him! yes, she must 
 love him. All was forgotten : he felt as if his dilated 
 soul despised its frail and impure tenement. Now, 
 indeed, he was in love. The interview with Violet 
 Fane came, after his conversation with Lady Made- 
 leine, like incense after music. Think not that he 
 was fickle, inconstant, capricious ; his love for the first 
 had insensibly grown out of his admiration of the 
 other ; as a man gazing on a magnificent sunset, re- 
 mains, when the heavens have ceased to glow, with 
 his eyes fixed on the Evening star. 
 
 It was late when he retired. As he opened his door 
 he was surprised to find lights in his chamber. The 
 figure of a man appeared seated at the table. It 
 moved it was Essper George. 
 
 401
 
 VIVIAN GREY BoOK V 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 THE reader will remember that Vivian had agreed to 
 dine, on the day after the fete, with the Baron, in his 
 private apartments. This was an arrangement which, 
 in fact, the custom of the house did not permit ; but 
 the irregularities of great men who are attended by 
 Chasseurs, are occasionally winked at by a supple 
 maitre d'hotel. Vivian had various reasons for not 
 regretting his acceptance of the invitation; and he 
 never shook hands with the Chevalier de Bceffleurs, 
 apparently, with greater cordiality, than on the day 
 on which he met him at dinner at the Baron von 
 Konigstein's. Mr. St. George had not arrived. 
 
 'Past five!' said his Excellency; 'riding out, I 
 suppose, with the Fitzlooms. Aurelia is certainly a 
 fine girl; but I should think that Lady Madeleine 
 would hardly approve the connexion. The St. 
 Georges have blood in their veins ; and would, I 
 suppose, as soon think of marrying a Fitzloom, as we 
 Germans should of marrying a woman without a vow 
 before her name. We're quite alone, Grey, only the 
 Chevalier and St. George. I had an idea of asking 
 Salvinski ; but he is such a regular steam-engine, 
 and began such a long story last night about his inter- 
 view with the King of Ashantee, that the bare pos- 
 sibility of his taking it into his head to finish it to-day 
 frightened me. You were away early from the 
 Archduke's last night. The business went ofF well.' 
 
 'Very well, indeed!' said the Chevalier de Boef- 
 fleurs ; completing by this speech the first dozen 
 of words which he had uttered since his stay at 
 Ems. 
 
 * J think that last night Lady Madeleine Trevor 
 402
 
 CHAPTER XIII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 looked perfectly magnificent ; and a certain lady too, 
 Grey, eh ? Here's St. George. My dear fellow, 
 how are you ? Has the fair Aurelia recovered from 
 the last night's fatigues ? All in that quarter goes on 
 quite well, I hope. Now, Ernstorff dinner, as soon 
 as possible.' 
 
 The Baron made up to-day, certainly, for the 
 silence of his friend, the Chevalier. He outdid him- 
 self. Story after story, adventure after adventure, 
 followed each other with the most exciting haste. 
 In fact, the Baron never ceased talking the whole 
 dinner, except when he refreshed himself with wine, 
 which he drank copiously. A nice observer would 
 perhaps have considered the Baron's high spirits 
 artificial, and his conversation an effort. Yet his 
 Excellency's temper, though lively, was generally 
 equable ; and his ideas, which always appeared to 
 occur easily, were usually thrown out in fluent 
 phraseology. The dinner was long, and a great deal 
 of wine was drunk ; more, much more, than most 
 of the parties present for a long time had been ac- 
 customed to. About eight o'clock the Chevalier 
 proposed going to the Redoute, but the Baron 
 objected. 
 
 ' Let's have an evening altogether : surely we've 
 had enough of the Redoute. In my opinion one of 
 the advantages of the fete is, that there is no New 
 House to-night. Conversation is a novelty. On a 
 moderate calculation, I must have told you to-day at 
 least two thousand original anecdotes. I've done 
 my duty. It's the Chevalier's turn now. Come, 
 de Boeffleurs a choice one!' 
 
 ' I remember a story Prince Salvinski once told 
 me.' 
 
 ' No, no that's too bad none of that Polish 
 403
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 bear's romances ; if we have his stories, we may as 
 well have his company.' 
 
 ' But it's a very curious story,' continued the 
 Chevalier, with a little animation. 
 
 * Oh ! so is every story, according to the storier.' 
 
 4 I think, von Konigstein, you imagine no one can 
 tell a story but yourself,' said de Boeffleurs, actually 
 indignant. Vivian had never heard him speak so 
 much before, and really began to believe that he was 
 not quite an automaton. 
 
 * Let's have it ! ' said St. George. 
 
 ' It's a story told of a Polish nobleman a Count 
 somebody: I never can remember their crack-jaw 
 names. Well! the point is this,' said the silent 
 little Chevalier, who apparently, already repented of 
 the boldness of his offer, and, misdoubting his 
 powers, wished to begin with the end of his tale ' the 
 point is this he was playing one day at ecarte with 
 the Governor of Wilna the stake was trifling ; but 
 he had a bet, you see, with the Governor of a thou- 
 sand roubles ; a bet with the Governor's secretary 
 never mind the amount, say two hundred and fifty, 
 you see ; then, he went on the turn-up with the 
 Commandant's wife ; and took the pips on the trumps 
 with the Archbishop of Warsaw. To understand 
 the point of the story, you see, you must have a 
 distinct conception how the game stood. You see, 
 St. George, there was the bet with the Governor, one 
 thousand roubles ; the Governor's secretary, never 
 mind the amount, say two hundred and fifty; the 
 turn-up with the Commandant's lady, and the pips 
 with the Archbishop of Warsaw. Proposed three 
 times one for the king the Governor drew ace 
 the Governor was already three and the ten. When 
 the Governor scored king, the Archbishop gave the 
 
 404
 
 CHAPTER XIII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 odds drew knave queen one hand the Count of- 
 fered to propose fourth time Governor refused. 
 King to six, ace fell to knave queen cleared on 
 Governor lost, besides bets with the whole etat- 
 major ; the Secretary gave his bill ; the Command- 
 ant's lady pawned her jewels ; and the Archbishop 
 was done on the pips!' 
 
 c By Jove, what a Salvinski!' 
 
 ' How many trumps had the Governor?' asked St. 
 George. 
 
 ' Three,' said the Chevalier. 
 
 ' Then it's impossible : I don't believe the story ; 
 it couldn't be.' 
 
 ' I beg your pardon,' said the Chevalier ; * you see 
 the Governor had ' 
 
 ' For heaven's sake, don't let us have it all over 
 again ! ' said the Baron. ' Well ! if this be your 
 model for an after-dinner anecdote, which ought to 
 be as piquant as an anchovy toast, I'll never complain 
 of your silence in future. I'm sure you never learnt 
 this in the Palais Royal!' 
 
 ' The story's a true story,' said the Chevalier ; 
 ' have you got a pack of cards, von Konigstein ? 
 I'll show it you.' 
 
 ' There is not such a thing in the room,' said the 
 Baron. 
 
 ' Well, I never heard of a room without a pack of 
 cards before,' said the Chevalier ; ' I'll send for one 
 to my own apartments.' 
 
 ' Oh ! by-the-bye, perhaps Ernstorff has got a 
 pack. Here Ernstorff, have you got a pack of 
 cards ? That's good ; bring it immediately.' 
 
 The cards were brought, and the Chevalier began 
 to fight his battle over again ; but could not satisfy 
 Mr. St. George. * You see there was the bet with 
 
 405
 
 VIVIAN (iHEY BOOK V 
 
 the Governor, and the pips, as I said before, with the 
 Archbishop of Warsaw.' 
 
 ' My dear de Boeffleurs, let's no more of this. If 
 you like to have a game of ecarte with St. George, 
 well and good ; but as for quarrelling the whole even- 
 ing about some blundering lie of Salvinski's, it really 
 is too much. You two can play, and I can talk to 
 Don Vivian, who, by-the-bye, is rather of the rueful 
 countenance to-night. Why, my dear fellow, 
 I haven't heard your voice this evening : frightened 
 by the fate of the Archbishop of Warsaw, I sup- 
 pose?' 
 
 ' Ecarte is so devilish dull,' said St. George ; ' and 
 it's such a trouble to deal.' 
 
 ' I'll deal for both, if you like,' said de Boeffleurs ; 
 ' I'm used to dealing.' 
 
 'Oh! no I won't play ecarte; let's have some- 
 thing in which we can all join.' 
 
 ' Rouge-et-Noir,' suggested the Chevalier, in a 
 careless tone, as if he had no taste for the amuse- 
 ment. 
 
 { There isn't enough is there?' asked St. George. 
 
 ' Oh ! two are enough, you know one deals, 
 much more four.' 
 
 * Well, I don't care Rouge-et-Noir then let's 
 have Rouge-et-Noir: von Konigstein, what say 
 you to Rouge-et-Noir? De Boeffleurs says we can 
 play it here very well. Come, Grey ! ' 
 
 ' Oh ! Rouge-et-Noir, Rouge-et-Noir,' said the 
 Baron ; haven't you both had Rouge-et-Noir 
 enough? Ain't I to be allowed one holiday? 
 Well! any thing to please you ; so Rouge-et-Noir, 
 if it must be so.' 
 
 'If you all wish it, I have no objection,' said 
 Vivian. 
 
 406
 
 CHAPTER XIII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 * Well then, let's sit down ; Ernstorff has, I dare 
 say, another pack of cards, and St. George will be 
 dealer, I know he likes that ceremony.' 
 
 * No, no, I appoint the Chevalier.' 
 
 * Very well,' said de Boeffleurs ; * the plan will be 
 for two to bank against the table ; the table to play 
 on the same colour by joint agreement. You can 
 join me, von Konigstein, and pay or receive with me, 
 from Mr. St. George and Grey.' 
 
 ' I'll bank with you, if you like, Chevalier,' said 
 Vivian, very quietly. 
 
 ' Oh ! certainly Mr. Grey certainly, Grey most 
 certainly; that is if you like: but perhaps the 
 Baron is more used to banking ; you perhaps don't 
 understand it.' 
 
 ' Perfectly ; it appears to me to be very simple.' 
 
 ' No don't you bank, Grey,' said St. George ; 
 ' I want you to play with me against the Chevalier 
 and the Baron I like your luck.' 
 
 ' Luck is very capricious, remember, Mr. St. 
 George.' 
 
 ' Oh, no ! I like your luck ; I like your luck 
 don't bank.' 
 
 ' Be it so.' 
 
 Playing commenced : an hour elapsed, and the 
 situation of none of the parties was materially differ- 
 ent to what it had been when they began the game. 
 Vivian proposed leaving off ; but Mr. St. George 
 avowed that he felt very fortunate, and that he had a 
 presentiment that he should win. Another hour 
 elapsed, and he had lost considerably. Eleven 
 o'clock. Vivian's luck had also deserted him. Mr. 
 St. George was losing desperately Midnight 
 Vivian had lost back half his gains on the season. 
 St. George still more desperate ; all his coolness had 
 
 407
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 deserted him. He had persisted obstinately against 
 a run on the red ; then floundered, and got en- 
 tangled in a see-saw, which alone cost him a thousand. 
 
 ErnstorfF now brought in refreshments ; and for a 
 moment they ceased playing. The Baron opened a 
 bottle of champaign ; and St. George and the Cheva- 
 lier were stretching their legs and composing their 
 minds in very different ways the first in walking 
 rapidly up and down the room, and the other by 
 lying very quietly at his full length on the sofa. 
 Vivian was employed in building houses with the 
 cards. 
 
 ' Grey,' said the Chevalier de Bocffleurs ^ ' I can't 
 imagine why you don't for a moment try to forget 
 the cards ; that's the only way to win. Never sit 
 musing over the table.' 
 
 But Grey was not to be persuaded to give up 
 building his pagoda ; which, now many stories high, 
 like a more celebrated, but scarcely more substantial 
 structure, fell with a crash. Vivian collected the scat- 
 tered cards into two divisions. 
 
 ' Now!' said the Baron, seating himself; ' for St. 
 George's revenge.' 
 
 The Chevalier, and the greatest sufferer took their 
 places. 
 
 'Is Ernstorff coming in again, Baron?' asked 
 Vivian, very calmly. 
 
 1 No! I think not.' 
 
 4 Let us be sure : it's disagreeable to be dis- 
 turbed at this time of night, and so interested as we 
 are.' 
 
 ' Lock the door, then,' said St. George. 
 ' A very good plan,' said Vivian ; and he locked it 
 accordingly. 
 
 'Now gentlemen,' said Vivian, rising from the 
 408
 
 CHAPTER XIII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 table, and putting both packs of cards into his pocket 
 ' Now gentlemen, I have another game to play.' 
 The Chevalier started on his chair the Baron turned 
 quite pale, but both were silent. ' Mr. St. George,' 
 continued Vivian ; ' I think that you are in debt to 
 the Chevalier de Boeffleurs, upwards of two thousand 
 pounds ; and to Baron von Konigstein, something 
 more than half that sum. I have to inform you, Sir, 
 that it is utterly unnecessary for you to satisfy the 
 claims of either of these gentlemen, which are 
 founded neither in law, nor in honour.' 
 
 ' Mr. Grey, what am I to understand?' asked the 
 quiet Chevalier de Boeffleurs, with the air of a wolf, 
 and the voice of a lion. 
 
 ' Understand Sir!' answered Vivian, sternly ; c that 
 I am not one who will be bullied by a black- 
 leg.' 
 
 'Grey! good God! Grey, what do you mean?' 
 asked the Baron. 
 
 * That which it is my duty, not my pleasure, to ex- 
 plain, Baron von Konigstein.' 
 
 ' If you mean to insinuate,' burst forth the Cheva- 
 lier, < if you mean to insinuate ' 
 
 * I mean to insinuate nothing, Sir ; I leave insinua- 
 tions and inuendos to shuffling chevaliers d'industrie. 
 I mean to prove everything.' 
 
 Mr. St. George did not speak, but seemed as utter- 
 ly astounded and overwhelmed as Baron von Konig- 
 stein himself ; who, with his arm leaning on the 
 table, his hands clasped, and the forefinger of his right 
 hand playing convulsively on his left, was pale as 
 death, and did not even breathe. 
 
 ' Gentlemen,' said Vivian, I shall not detain you 
 long, though I have much to say that is to the pur- 
 pose. I am perfectly cool, and believe me, perfectly 
 
 409
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 resolute. Let me recommend to you all the same 
 temperament it may be better for you. Rest as- 
 sured, that if you flatter yourselves that I am one to 
 be pigeoned, and then bullied, you are mistaken. In 
 one word, I am aware of every thing that has been 
 arranged for the reception of Mr. St. George and my- 
 self this evening. Your marked cards are in my 
 pocket, and can only be obtained by you with my life. 
 Here are two of us against two ; we are equally 
 matched in number, and I, gentlemen, am armed. 
 If I were not, you would not dare to go to extremi- 
 ties. Is it not, then, the wisest course to be tem- 
 perate, my friends?' 
 
 * This is some vile conspiracy of your own, fellow,' 
 said de Boeffleurs ; ' marked cards indeed ! a pretty 
 tale, forsooth! The Ministers of a first-rate power 
 playing with marked cards! The story will gain 
 credit, and on the faith of whom? An adventurer 
 that no one knows ; who, having failed this night in 
 his usual tricks, and lost money which he cannot pay, 
 takes advantage of the marked cards, which he has 
 not succeeded in introducing, and pretends, forsooth, 
 that they are those which he has stolen from our 
 table ; our own cards being, previously to his accusa- 
 tion, concealed in a secret pocket.' 
 
 The impudence of the fellow staggered even 
 Vivian. As for Mr. St. George, he stared like a wild 
 man. Before Vivian could answer him, the Baron 
 had broke silence. It was with the greatest effort 
 that he seemed to dig his words out of his 
 breast. 
 
 ' No no this is too much ! it is all over ! I am 
 lost ; but I will not add crime to crime. Your cour- 
 age and your fortune have saved you, Mr. Grey, and 
 your friend, from the designs of villains. And you ! 
 
 410
 
 CHAPTER Xlli VIVIAN GREY 
 
 wretch,' said he, turning to De Boeffleurs, c sleep now 
 in peace at length you have undone me.' He 
 leant on the table, and buried his face in his 
 hands. 
 
 ' Chicken-hearted fool ! ' said the Chevalier ; ' is 
 this the end of all your promises, and all your 
 pledges? But remember, Sir! remember. I have 
 no taste for scenes. Good night, gentlemen. Baron, 
 I expect to hear from yow.' 
 
 ' Stop, Sir ! ' said Vivian ; ' no one leaves this room 
 without my permission.' 
 
 ' I am at your service, Sir, when you please,' said 
 the Chevalier, throwing down his card. 
 
 ' It is not my intention to detain you long, Sir ; 
 far from it ; I have every inclination to assist you in 
 your last exit from this room, had I time, it should 
 not be by the door ; as it is, go ! in the devil's name.' 
 So saying, he hurled the adventurous Frenchman half 
 down the corridor. 
 
 ' Baron von Konigstein,' said Vivian, turning to the 
 Baron ; ' you have proved yourself, by your conduct 
 this evening, to be a better man than I imagined you. 
 I confess that I thought you had been too much 
 accustomed to such scenes, to be sensible of the horror 
 of detection.' 
 
 'Never!' said the Baron, with emphasis, with 
 energy. The firm voice and manner in which he 
 pronounced this single word, wonderfully contrasted 
 with his delivery when he had last spoke, but his 
 voice immediately died away. 
 
 1 'Tis all over! 'tis all over! I have no wish to 
 excite your pity, gentlemen, or to gain your silence, 
 by practising upon your feelings. Be silent ; I am 
 not the less ruined ; not the less disgraced ; not the 
 less utterly undone. Be silent ; my honour, all the 
 
 411
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 same in four and twenty hours, has gone for ever : I 
 have no motive then to deceive you. You must be- 
 lieve what I speak ; even what / speak, the most 
 degraded, the vilest of men. I say again, never, 
 never, never, never, never was my honour before 
 sullied, though guilty of a thousand follies. You 
 see before you, gentlemen, the unhappy victim of cir- 
 cumstances ; or circumstances which he has in vain 
 struggled to control ; to which he has at length fallen 
 a victim. I am not pretending, for a moment, that 
 my crimes are to be accounted for by an inexorable 
 fate, and not to be expiated by my everlasting misery : 
 No, no ! I have been too weak to be virtuous : but 
 I have been tried ; tried most bitterly. I am the 
 most unfortunate of men ; I was not born to be a 
 villain. Four years have passed since I was banished 
 from the country in which I was honoured; my 
 prospects in life blasted ; my peace of mind de- 
 stroyed ; and all because a crime was committed, of 
 any participation in which I am as innocent as your- 
 selves. Driven in despair to wander, I tried, in the 
 wild dissipation of Naples, to forget my existence, 
 and my misery. I found my Fate in the person of 
 this vile Frenchman, who never since has quitted me. 
 Even after two years of madness in that fatal place, 
 my natural disposition rallied ; I struggled to save 
 myself ; I quitted it. I was already involved to De 
 Boeffleurs ; I became still more so, in gaining from 
 him the means of satisfying all claims against me. 
 Alas ! I found I had sold myself to a scoundrel ; a 
 most unadulterated villain ; a devil, a very devil ; 
 with a heart like an adder's. Incapable of a stray 
 generous sensation, he has looked upon mankind 
 during his whole life, with the eyes of a bully of a 
 gaming-house. I still struggled to free myself from 
 
 412
 
 CHAPTER XIII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 this man ; and I indemnified him for his advances, by 
 procuring him a place in the mission to which, with 
 the greatest difficulty and perseverance, I had at 
 length procured my appointment. In public life I 
 yet hoped to forget my private- misery. At Frank- 
 fort I felt, that though not happy, I might be calm. I 
 determined never again even to run the risk of endur- 
 ing the slavery of debt. I forswore, with the most 
 solemn oaths, the gaming table ; and had it not been 
 for the perpetual sight of De Boeffleurs, I might, per- 
 haps, have felt at ease ; though the remembrance of 
 my blighted prospects, the eternal feeling that I ex- 
 perienced of being born for nobler ends, was quite 
 sufficient perpetually to embitter my existence. The 
 second year of my Frankfort appointment, I was 
 tempted to this unhappy place. The unexpected 
 sight of faces which I had known in England, though 
 they called up the most painful associations, strength- 
 ened me, nevertheless, in my resolution to be virtu- 
 ous. My unexpected, my extraordinary fortune at 
 the Redoute, the first night, made me forget all my 
 resolves, and has led to all this misery. I make my 
 sad tale brief. I got involved at the New House : 
 De Boeffleurs once more assisted me ; though his 
 terms were most severe. Yet, yet again, I was mad 
 enough, vile enough, to risk what I did not possess. 
 I lost to Prince Salvinski and a Russian gentleman, a 
 considerable sum on the night before the fete. It 
 is often the custom at the New House, as you know, 
 among men who are acquainted, to pay and receive all 
 losses which are considerable on the next ni^ht of 
 meeting. The fete gave me breathing time : It was 
 not necessary to redeem my pledge till the fourth 
 night. I rushed to De Boeffleurs ; he refused to 
 assist me ; alleging his own losses, and his previous 
 
 413
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 advance. What was to be done ? No possibility of 
 makino- any arrangement with Salvinski. Had he 
 won of me as others have done, an arrangement, 
 though painful, would perhaps have been possible ; 
 but, by a singular fate, whenever I have chanced to be 
 successful, it is of this man that I have won. De 
 Boeffleurs then was the only chance. He was in- 
 exorable. I prayed to him ; I promised him every 
 thing ; I offered him any terms ; I besought him on 
 my knees ; in vain ! in vain ! At length, when he 
 had worked me up to the point of last despair, he 
 whispered hope. I listened, let me be quick! 
 why finish why finish; you know I fell!' The 
 Baron again covered his face, and appeared perfectly 
 overwhelmed. 
 
 * By God ! it's too horrible,' said St. George. 
 'Grey, let's do something for him?' 
 
 ' My dear St. George,' said Vivian, ' be calm you 
 are taken by surprise : I was prepared for all this. 
 Believe me, it is better for you to leave us. If, on 
 consideration, we think that anything, any real 
 benefit can be done to this unhappy gentleman, I am 
 sure that we shall not be backward. But I cannot 
 permit your generous feelings to be taken advantage 
 of, by a gamester a madman, who, if freed from his 
 present difficulties this moment, will commit the same 
 follies, and the same crimes to-morrow. I recom- 
 mend you to retire, and meet me in the morning: 
 breakfast with me at eight, we can then arrange every- 
 thing.' 
 
 Vivian's conduct had been so decisive, and evi- 
 dently so well matured, that St. George felt, that in 
 the present case, it was for him only to obey ; and 
 squeezing Vivian's hand very warmly, he retired, 
 with wonder still expressed on his countenance ; for 
 
 414
 
 CHAPTER XIII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 he had not yet, in the slightest degree, recovered from 
 the first surprise. 
 
 ' Baron von Konigstein,' said Vivian, to the un- 
 happy man, ' we are alone. Mr. St. George has left 
 the room : you are freed from the painful presence 
 of the cousin of Captain Fane.' 
 
 f You know all then !' exclaimed the Baron, quickly 
 looking up ; 'or you have read my secret thoughts. 
 How wonderful! at that very moment I was think- 
 ing of my friend. Would I had died with him! 
 You know all then ; and now now you must believe 
 me guilty. Yet, Mr. Grey, at this moment at this 
 moment of deepest affliction, of annihilating sorrow ; 
 when I can gain nothing by deceit ; when, whatever 
 may have been my loose expressions in a lighter hour, 
 I am thinking of another world : I swear and if I 
 swear falsely, may I fall down a livid corpse at your 
 feet, I swear that I was guiltless of the crime for 
 which I suffered, guiltless as yourself. Dare I ask if 
 you believe me?' 
 
 He awaited Vivian's answer, with the most eager 
 anxiety ; his mouth was open ; his eyes half started 
 from their sockets : had his life or reputation de- 
 pended upon the answer, he could not have gasped 
 with more convulsive agony. 
 
 * I do believe you.' 
 
 ' Then God be thanked ! I owe you the greatest 
 favour that I yet owe human being. What may be 
 my fate my end I know not. Probably a few 
 hours, and all will be over. Yet, before we part, Sir, 
 it would be a relief ; you would be doing a kind and 
 Christian service to a dying man, to bear a message 
 from me to one with whom you are acquainted to 
 one whom I cannot now name.' 
 
 'Lady Madeleine Trevor, Sir?'
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 Again you have read my thoughts ! Lady Made- 
 leine! is it she who told you of my early history? 
 Answer me, I beseech you?' 
 
 ' I cannot answer. All that I know, is known to 
 many.' 
 
 ' I must speak ! if you have time, Mr. Grey, if 
 you can listen for half an hour to a miserable being, 
 it would be a consolation to me. I should die with 
 ease, if I thought that Lady Madeleine could believe 
 me innocent of that first great offence.' 
 
 4 Your Excellency may address anything to me, if 
 it be your wish, even at this hour of the night. It 
 may be better ; after what has passed, we neither of 
 us can sleep, and this business must be arranged at 
 once.' 
 
 ' My object, Mr. Grey, is, that Lady Madeleine 
 should receive from me at this moment, at a time 
 when I can have no interest to deceive, an account of 
 the particulars of her cousin's, and my friend's death. 
 I sent it written after the horrid event, but she was 
 ill ; and Trevor, who was very bitter against me, 
 returned the letters unopened. For four years, I 
 have never travelled without these rejected letters ; 
 this year I have them not. But you could convey to 
 Lady Madeleine my story as now given to you ; to 
 you at this horrid moment. For God's sake do, Sir, 
 I beseech you ! ' 
 
 ' Speak on, speak on ! ' 
 
 4 I must say one word of my connexion with the 
 family, to enable you fully to understand the horrid 
 event, of which, if, as I believe, you only know what 
 all know, you can form but a most imperfect concep- 
 tion. When I was Minister at the Court of London, 
 became acquainted became, indeed, intimate with 
 Mr. Trevor, then in office, the husband of Lady 
 
 416
 
 CHAPTER XIII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 Madeleine. Her ladyship was just married. Trevor 
 was an able and honourable man, but advanced in 
 years ; had he been younger he was not the man to 
 have rivetted the affections of any woman. As it 
 was, his marriage was a mere political match. I will 
 not stop now to moralize on these unhappy con- 
 nexions, in which the affections on neither side are 
 consulted ; but assuredly, in the present instance, 
 Trevor had been more cautious in securing the 
 boroughs of the Earl, than the heart of the Earl's 
 daughter. I saw all this, Mr. Grey ; I, still young, 
 and with such blood flowing in my veins, that the 
 youth of common men was actually old age in com- 
 parison with my sensations : I saw all this in the 
 possession of all those accomplishments and qualities, 
 which, according to the world, work such marvels 
 with women. I saw all this, Mr. Grey : I, a liber- 
 tine by principle. Of Lady Madeleine's beauty, of 
 her soul, I need not speak. You have the happiness 
 of being the friend of that matchless creature. Of 
 myself, at that time, I may say, that though depraved, 
 I was not heartless ; and that there were moments 
 when I panted to be excellent. Lady Madeleine and 
 myself became friends ; she found in me a com- 
 panion, who not only respected her talents, and 
 delighted in her conversation ; but one who in 
 return was capable of instructing, and was overjoyed 
 to amuse her. I loved her ; but when I loved her, 
 Sir, I ceased to be a libertine. At first I thought that 
 nothing in the world could have tempted me to have 
 allowed her for an instant to imagine that I dared to 
 look upon her in any other light than as a friend ; 
 but the negligence, the coldness of Trevor, the over- 
 powering mastery of my own passions, drove me one 
 day past the line, and I wrote that which I dared not 
 20 4x7
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 utter. But understand me, Sir ; it was no common, 
 no usual letter that I wrote. It never entered into 
 my mind for an instant to insult such a woman with 
 the common-place sophistry the disguised senti- 
 ments of a ribald. No! no! I loved Lady Made- 
 leine with all my spirit's strength. I would have 
 sacrificed all my views in life my ambition my 
 family my fortune my country, to have gained 
 her ; and I told her this in terms of the most respect- 
 ful adoration. I worshipped the divinity, even while 
 I attempted to profane the altar. Sir, when I had 
 sent this letter, I was in despair. Conviction of the 
 perfect insanity of my conduct flashed across my 
 mind. I expected never to see her again. There 
 came an answer ; I opened it with the greatest agita- 
 tion ; to my surprise an appointment. Why, why 
 trouble you with a detail of my feelings at this 
 moment my mad hope my dark despair. The 
 moment for the interview arrived. I was received 
 neither with affection, nor anger. In sorrow, in 
 sorrow she spoke. I listened in despair. I was 
 more madly in love with her than ever. That very 
 love made me give her such evidences of a contrite 
 spirit, that I was pardoned. I rose with a resolution 
 to be virtuous with a determination to be her 
 friend ; then, then I made the fatal promise which 
 you know of to be doubly the friend of a man, 
 whose friend I already was; it was then that I 
 pledged myself to Lady Madeleine to be the guardian 
 spirit of her cousin.' Here the Baron was so over- 
 powered by his emotions that he leant back in his 
 chair and ceased to speak. In a few minutes he 
 resumed. 
 
 < Mr. Grey, I did my duty ; by all that's sacred I 
 did my duty! night, and day, I was with young 
 
 418
 
 CHAPTER XIII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 Fane. A thousand times he was on the brink of 
 ruin a thousand times I saved him. One day 
 one never to be forgotten day, one most dark and 
 damnable day, I called on him, and found him on the 
 point of joining a coterie of the most desperate char- 
 acter. I remonstrated with him ; I entreated ; I 
 supplicated him not to go in vain. At last he 
 agreed to forego his engagement, on condition that I 
 dined with him. There were reasons that day of 
 importance for my not staying with him ; yet every 
 consideration vanished, when I thought of her for 
 whom I was exerting myself. I stayed with him. 
 Fane was frantic this day ; and, imagining, of 
 course, that there was no chance of his leaving his 
 home, I did not refuse to drink freely to drink 
 deeply! My doing so was the only chance of keep- 
 ing him at home. On a sudden he started up, and 
 would quit the house. My utmost exertions could 
 not prevent him. At last I prevailed upon him to 
 call upon the Trevors, as I thought that there, at 
 least, he would be safe. He agreed. As we were 
 passing down Pall Mall, we met two foreigners of 
 distinction, and a Noble of your country ; they were 
 men of whom we both knew little. I had myself 
 introduced Fane to the foreigners a few days before, 
 being aware that they were men of high rank. After 
 some conversation, they asked us to join them at 
 supper, at the house of their English friend. I 
 declined ; but nothing could induce Fane to refuse 
 them ; and I finally accompanied him. Play was 
 introduced after supper; I made an ineffectual 
 struggle to get Fane home ; but I was too full of 
 wine to be energetic. After losing a small sum, I got 
 up from the table, and staggering to a sofa, fell fast 
 asleep. Even as I passed Fane's chair in this condi- 
 
 419
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 tion, my master-thought was evident, and I pulled 
 him by the shoulder ; all was useless, I woke to 
 madness ! ' It was terrible to witness the anguish of 
 Von Konigstein. 
 
 * Could you not clear yourself?' asked Vivian, for 
 he felt it necessary to speak. 
 
 4 Clear myself ! Every thing told against me. 
 The villains were my friends, not the sufferer's ; I 
 was not injured ; my dining with him was part of the 
 conspiracy ; he was intoxicated previous to his ruin. 
 Conscious of my innocence, quite desperate, but con- 
 fiding in my character, I accused the guilty trio, 
 publicly accused them ; they recriminated, and an- 
 swered ; and without clearing themselves, convinced 
 the public that I was their dissatisfied and dis- 
 appointed tool. I can speak no more.' Here the 
 head of the unhappy man sunk down upon his breast. 
 His sad tale was told ; the excitement was over ; he 
 now only felt his despair. 
 
 It is awful to witness sudden death ; but, oh ! how 
 much more awful it is to witness in a moment the 
 moral fall of a fellow-creature ! How tremendous is 
 the quick succession of mastering passions! The 
 firm, the terrifically firm, the madly resolute denial of 
 guilt ; that eagerness of protestation, which is a sure 
 sign of crime ; then the agonizing suspense before 
 the threatened proof is produced the hell of detec- 
 tion! the audible anguish of sorrow the curses of 
 remorse the silence of despair ! Few of us, unfor- 
 tunately, have passed through life without having 
 beheld some instance of this instantaneous degrada- 
 tion of human nature. But oh! how terrible is it 
 when the confessed criminal has been but a moment 
 before our friend. What a contrast to the laugh of 
 joyous companionship is the quivering tear of an 
 
 420
 
 CHAPTER XIII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 agonized frame! how terrible to be prayed to by 
 those, whose wishes a moment before we lived only to 
 anticipate ! 
 
 And bitter as might have been the feelings, and 
 racked as might have been the heart of Von Konig- 
 stein, he could not have felt more at this moment 
 more exquisite anguish deeper remorse than did 
 Vivian Grey. Openly to have disgraced this man! 
 How he had been deceived! His first crime the 
 first crime of such a being ; of one who had suffered 
 so much so unjustly! Could he but have guessed 
 the truth, he would have accused the Baron in private 
 have awakened him to the enormity of his con- 
 templated crime have saved him from its perpetra- 
 tion have saved him from the perpetration of any 
 other. But he had imagined him to be a systematic, 
 a heartless villain and he looked forward to this 
 
 night to avenge the memory of the brother of 
 
 her that he loved. 
 
 1 Von Konigstein,' said Vivian, after a long silence ; 
 ' I feel for you. Had I known this, believe me, that 
 I would have spared both you and myself this night 
 of misery. I would have prevented you from look- 
 ing back to this day with remorse. I am not one 
 who delight in witnessing the misery or degradation 
 of my species. Do not despair ; you have suffered 
 for that of which you were not guilty ; you must not 
 suffer now for what has passed. Much, much would 
 I give to see you freed from that wretched knave, 
 whose vile career I was very nearly tempted this even- 
 ing to have terminated for ever. To Lady Made- 
 leine I shall make the communication you desire, and 
 I will answer for her Ladyship that your communica- 
 tion will be credited. Let this give you hope. As 
 to the transactions of this evening, the knowledge of 
 
 421
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 them can never transpire to the world. It is the 
 interest of De Bceffleurs to be silent : if he speak, no 
 one will credit the tale of such a creature, who, if he 
 speak truth, must proclaim his own infamy. For the 
 perfect silence of the Trevor party, I pledge myself. 
 They have done you too much injustice not to hail 
 with pleasure the opportunity of making you some 
 atonement. And now for the immediate calls upon 
 your honour ; in what sum are you indebted to 
 Prince Salvinski, and his friend?' 
 
 'Thousands! two three thousand!' 
 
 ' I shall then have an opportunity of ridding myself 
 of that, the acquisition of which, to me, has been 
 matter of the greatest sorrow. Baron Von Konig- 
 stein, your honour is saved ; I pledge myself 
 to discharge the claims of Salvinski, and his 
 friend.' 
 
 4 Impossible ! I cannot allow ' 
 
 * Stop sir! in this business I must command. I 
 wished not to recur to what has passed you make 
 me. Surely there can be no feelings of delicacy 
 between us two now. If I gave you the treasures of 
 the Indies you would not be under so great an 
 obligation to me as you are already : I say this with 
 pain. I recommend you to leave Ems to-morrow. 
 Public business will easily account for your sudden 
 departure. Let us not meet again. And now, 
 Von Konigstein, your character is yet safe; 
 you are yet in the prime of life ; you have 
 vindicated yourself from that which has preyed 
 upon your mind for years. Cease to accuse your 
 fate ; find the causes of your past misery in your own 
 unbridled passions. Restrain them, and be happy!' 
 Vivian was about to leave the room, when the Baron 
 started from his seat, and seized his hand ; he would 
 
 422
 
 CHAPTER XIII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 have spoken, but the words died upon his lips ; 
 and before he could recover himself, Vivian had 
 retired. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 THE sudden departure of Baron Von Konigstein 
 from the Baths excited great surprise, and sorrow. 
 All wondered at the cause, and all regretted the effect. 
 The Archduke missed his good stories : the Rouge- 
 et-noir table, his constant presence ; and Monsieur le 
 Restaurateur gave up, in consequence, an embryo 
 idea of a fete and fire-works for his own benefit ; 
 which agreeable plan he had trusted with his Excel- 
 lency's generous co-operation as steward, or patron, 
 he should have had no difficulty in carrying into 
 execution. But no one was more surprised, and 
 more regretted the absence of his Excellency, than 
 his friend Mr. Fitzloom. What could be the 
 reason? Public business of course. Indeed he had 
 learnt as much, confidentially, from Cracowsky. He 
 tried Mr. Grey, but could elicit nothing satisfac- 
 torily ; he pumped Mr. St. George, but produced 
 only the waters of oblivion : Mr. St. George was 
 gifted, when it suited his purpose, with a most con- 
 venient want of memory. There must be something 
 in the wind perhaps a war. Was the independence 
 of Greece about to be acknowledged, or the depend- 
 ence of Spain about to be terminated? What first- 
 rate power had marched a million of soldiers into the 
 land of a weak neighbour, on the mere pretence of 
 exercising the military? What patriots had had the 
 proud satisfaction of establishing a constitutional 
 government without bloodshed to be set aside in 
 the course of the next month in the same manner? 
 Had a conspiracy for establishing a republic in Russia 
 
 423
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 been frustrated by the timely information of the in- 
 tended first Consuls! Were the Janissaries learning 
 mathematics? or had Lord Cochrane take Constan- 
 tinople in the James Watt steam-packet? One of 
 these many events must have happened but which ? 
 At length Fitzloom decided on a general war. Eng- 
 land must interfere either to defeat the ambition of 
 France or to curb the rapacity of Russia or to 
 check the arrogance of Austria or to regenerate 
 Spain or to redeem Greece or to protect Portugal 
 or to shield the Brazils or to uphold the Bible 
 Societies or to consolidate the Greek Church or to 
 monopolize the commerce of Mexico or to dissemi- 
 nate the principles of free trade or to keep up her 
 high character or to keep up the price of corn. 
 England must interfere. In spite of his conviction, 
 however, Fitzloom did not alter the arrangements of 
 his tour he still intended to travel for two years. 
 All he did, was to send immediate orders to his 
 broker in England to sell two millions of consols. 
 The sale was of course effected the example fol- 
 lowed stocks fell ten per cent. the exchange turned 
 money became scarce. The public funds of all 
 Europe experienced a great decline smash went the 
 country banks consequent runs on the London a 
 dozen Baronets failed in one morning Portland- 
 place deserted the cause of infant Liberty at a ter- 
 rific discount the Greek loan disappeared like a 
 vapour in a storm all the new American States 
 refused to pay their dividends manufactories 
 deserted the revenue in a decline the country in 
 despair orders in council meetings of parliament 
 change of ministry and new loan! Such were 
 the terrific consequences of a diplomatist turning 
 black-leg! This secret history of the late distress is 
 
 424
 
 CHAPTER XIV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 a lesson to all modern statesmen. Rest assured, that 
 in politics, however tremendous the effects, the causes 
 are often as trifling, and sometimes still more despic- 
 able. 
 
 Vivian found his reception by the Trevor party, 
 the morning after the memorable night, a sufficient 
 reward for all his anxiety and exertion. St. George, 
 a generous, open-hearted young man, full of grati- 
 tude to Vivian, and regretting his previous want of 
 cordiality towards him, now delighted in doing full 
 justice to his coolness, courage, and ability. Lady 
 Madeleine said a great deal in the most graceful and 
 impressive manner ; but Violet Fane scarcely spoke. 
 Vivian, however, read in her eyes her approbation 
 and her gratitude. Mr. Sherborne received our hero 
 with a set speech, in the middle of which he broke 
 down ; for the old gentleman's stout heart was full : 
 and, shaking Vivian warmly by the hand, he gave 
 him, in a manner which affected all present, his bless- 
 ing ' I knew I was right in my opinion of you ; I 
 saw directly you were not a mere young man of the 
 present day you all see I was right in my opinion ; 
 if I hadn't been, I should have owned it I should 
 have had the candour to acknowledge I was wrong 
 never ashame'd to confess I'm mistaken.' 
 
 ' And now, how came you to discover the whole 
 plot, Mr. Grey ?' asked Lady Madeleine for we have 
 not yet heard. Was it at the table?' 
 
 ' They would hardly have had recourse to such 
 clumsy instruments, as would have given us the 
 chance of detecting the conspiracy by casual observa- 
 tion. No, no, we owe our preservation and our 
 gratitude to one, whom we must hereafter count 
 among our friends. I was prepared, as I told you, 
 for everything ; and though I had seen similar cards 
 
 425
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 to those with which they played only a few hours 
 before, it was with difficulty that I satisfied myself at 
 the table, that the cards we lost by were prepared ; so 
 wonderful is the contrivance!' 
 
 'But who is the unknown friend?' said Violet 
 Fane, with great eagerness. 
 
 ' I must have the pleasure of keeping you all 
 in suspense,' said Vivian : l cannot any of you 
 guess ?' 
 
 ' None none none ! ' 
 
 ' What say you then to Essper George?' 
 
 ' Impossible!' 
 
 ' It is the fact, that he, and he alone, is our pre- 
 server. Soon after my arrival at this place, this 
 singular being was seized with the unaccountable 
 fancy of becoming my servant. You all remember 
 his unexpected appearance one day in the saloon. In 
 the evening of the same day,, I found him sleeping at 
 the door of my room ; and thinking it high time that 
 he should be taught more discretion, I spoke to him 
 very seriously the next morning respecting his 
 troublesome and eccentric conduct. It was then that 
 I learnt his wish. I objected, of course, to engaging 
 a servant of whose previous character I was ignorant, 
 and of which I could not be informed ; and one 
 whose peculiar habits would render both himself and 
 his master notorious. While I declined his services, 
 I also advised him most warmly to give up all idea of 
 deserting his present mode of life, for which I 
 thought him extremely well suited. The conse- 
 quence of my lecture, was what you all perceived with 
 surprise, a great change in Essper's character. He 
 became serious, reserved, and retiring; and com- 
 menced his career as a respectable character, by throw- 
 ing off his quaint costume. In a short time, by dint 
 
 426
 
 CHAPTER XIV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 of making a few bad bargains, he ingratiated himself 
 with Ernstorff, Von Konigstein's pompous Chasseur. 
 His object in forming this connection, was to gain an 
 opportunity of becoming acquainted with the duties 
 of a gentleman's servant, and in this he has succeeded. 
 About a week since, he purchased from Ernstorff a 
 large quantity of cast-off apparel of the Baron's and 
 other perquisites of a great man's valet ; among these 
 were some playing cards which had been borrowed 
 one evening in great haste from the servant of that 
 rascal De Boeffleurs, and never returned. On acci- 
 dentally examining these cards, Essper, to his horror 
 and surprise, detected they were marked. The 
 system on which the marks are formed and under- 
 stood, is so simple and novel, that it was long before 
 I could bring myself to believe that his suspicions 
 were founded even on a probability. At length, how- 
 ever, he convinced me. It is at Vienna, he tells me, 
 that he has met with these cards before ; or with some 
 marked, if not on the same, certainly on a similar 
 principle. The marks are all on the rim of the cards ; 
 and an experienced dealer, that is to say a black-leg, 
 can with these marks produce any results, and com- 
 binations, which may suit his purpose. Essper tells 
 me that De Boeffleurs is even more skilled in sleight 
 of hand than himself. From Ernstorff, Essper learnt 
 on the day of the Fete that Mr. St. George was to 
 dine with the Chevalier at the Baron's apartments on 
 the morrow, and that there was a chance that I should 
 join them. He suspected that villainy was in the 
 wind, and when I retired to my room at a late hour 
 on the night of the fete, I there met him, and it was 
 then that he revealed to me every thing which I have 
 told you. Am I not right then, in calling him our 
 preserver?' 
 
 427
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 ' What can be done for him ?' said Lady Made- 
 leine. 
 
 ' His only wish is already granted ; he is my ser- 
 vant. That he will serve me diligently, and faith- 
 fully, I have no doubt. I only wish that he would 
 accept, or could appreciate a more worthy reward.' 
 
 ' Can man be more amply rewarded,' said Miss 
 Fane, ' than by choosing his own remuneration ? I 
 think he has shown in his request, his accustomed 
 talent. I must go and see him this moment.' 
 
 * Say nothing of what has passed, he is prepared for 
 silence from all parties.' 
 
 A week, a happy week passed over, and few 
 minutes of the day found Vivian absent from the 
 side of Violet Fane ; and now he thought again of 
 England, of his return to that country under very 
 different circumstances to what he had ever con- 
 templated. Soon, very soon, he trusted to write to 
 his father, to announce to him the revolution in his 
 wishes, the consummation of his hopes. Soon, very 
 soon, he trusted that he should hail his native cliffs, a 
 reclaimed wanderer, with a matured mind, and a con- 
 tented spirit ; his sorrows forgotten, his misanthropy 
 laid aside. 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 IT was about a week after the departure of the Baron, 
 that two young Englishmen, who had been College 
 friends of Mr. St. George, arrived at the Baths, 
 .hese were Mr. Anthony St. Leger, and Mr. 
 Adolphus St. John. In the academic shades of 
 ^hnstchurch, these three gentlemen had, when 
 youths, succeeded to the admiring envy of all under 
 graduates, and to the heavy cost both of their purses 
 
 428
 
 CHAPTER XV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 and their constitutions, in a faint imitation of the 
 second-rate debauchery of a metropolis. At Oxford, 
 that venerable nurse of wit and humour, where fun, 
 like their sermons, though orthodox is rather dull, 
 a really facetious fellow of New College, had dubbed 
 these infant libertines ' All Saints.' Among their 
 youthful companions they bore the more martial style 
 of ' The Three Champions,' St. George, St. John, and 
 St. Anthony. 
 
 St. John and St. Anthony had just completed the 
 grand tour ; and after passing the Easter at Rome, 
 had returned through the Tyrol from Italy. Since 
 then, they had travelled over most parts of Germany ; 
 and now, in the beginning of July, found them- 
 selves at the Baths of Ems. Two years travel had 
 not produced any very beneficial effect on either of 
 these sainted personages. They left the University 
 with empty heads, and vitiated minds. A season in 
 London introduced them to the life of which they had 
 previously only read and heard in the accounts of 
 lying novels, and the boastings of worn-out roues ; 
 and they felt disgust at their college career, only 
 because they could now compare their former crude 
 dissipation, with the resources of the most miraculous 
 of modern cities. Travelling, as they had done, with 
 minds utterly incapable either of observation or re- 
 flection, they had gained by visiting the capitals of all 
 Europe, only a due acquaintance with the vices of 
 each ; and the only difference that could be observed 
 in their conduct on their return, was, that their affec- 
 tation was rather more disgusting, because it was 
 more obtrusive. What capital companions for old 
 Sherborne ! 
 
 * Corpo di Bacco ! my champion, who ever thought 
 of meeting thee, thou holy saint! By the eye-brow 
 
 429
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 of Venus, my spirit rejoiceth!' exclaimed St. 
 Anthony, whose peculiar affectation was an adoption 
 in English of the Italian oaths. 
 
 1 This is the sweetest spot, St. Anthony, that we 
 have found since we left Paradiso ; that is, St. 
 George, in the vulgar tongue, since we quitted Italia. 
 " Italia ! oh, Italia !" I forget the rest, probably you 
 remember it. Certainly a most sweet spot this, quite 
 a Caspar ! ' 
 
 Art was the peculiar affectation of St. John, he 
 was indeed, quite a patron of the belle Aril had 
 scattered his orders through the studios of most of 
 the celebrated sculptors of Italy, and spoke on all 
 subjects and all things, only with a view to their cap- 
 ability of forming materiel for the painter. Accord- 
 ing to the school of which Mr. St. John was an 
 humble disciple, the only use of the human passions 
 is, that they produce situations for the historical 
 painter ; and Nature, according to these votaries of 
 the TO KoXov, is only to be valued as affording hints 
 for the more perfect conceptions of a Claude or a 
 Salvator.' 
 
 ' By the girdle of Venus, a devilish fine woman!' 
 exclaimed St. Anthony. 
 
 4 A splendid bit!' ejaculated St. John; ' touched 
 in with freedom a grand tournure a great gout 
 in the swell of the neck. What a study for Retsch !' 
 
 * In the name of the Graces, who is it, mio Santo ?' 
 
 c Ay! name, name la bellissima SignoraS 
 
 ' The " fine bit," St. John, is my sister.' 
 
 < The devil!' 
 
 ' Diavolol* 
 
 ' Will you introduce us, most holy man ?' 
 
 This request from both, simultaneously arranging 
 their mustachios. 
 
 430
 
 CHAPTER XV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 The two Saints were accordingly, in due time, in- 
 troduced ; but finding the attention of Violet Fane 
 always engrossed, and receiving some not very en- 
 couraging responses from Lady Madeleine, they 
 voted her ladyship cursedly satirical ; and passing a 
 general censure on the annoying coldness of English 
 women, they were in four-and-twenty hours attached 
 to the suite of the Miss Fitzlooms, to whom they 
 were introduced by St. George as his most particular 
 friends, and were received with the most flattering 
 consideration. 
 
 ' By the aspect of Diana ! fine girls, and some 
 blood in them ! ' swore St. Anthony. 
 
 4 Truly most gorgeous colouring ! quite Venetian ! 
 Aurelia is a perfect Giorgione!' said St. John. 
 
 * Madeleine,' said St. George, one morning to his 
 sister ; * have you any objection to make up a party 
 with the Fitzlooms to pass a day at Nassau? You 
 know we have often talked of it ; and as Violet is so 
 well now, and the weather so delightful, there surely 
 can be no objection. The Fitzlooms are very agree- 
 able people ; and though you don't admire the Santi, 
 still, upon my word, when you know them a little 
 more, you'll find them very pleasant fellows ; and 
 they're extremely good-natured ; and just the fellows 
 for such a party ; and I'll take care that they don't 
 slang Mr. Sherborne, whom, by the bye, Mr. St. John 
 very much admires. He says he'd make a grand 
 head for Ludovico Caracci something very Bolog- 
 nese in the grey tints of his forehead. Do not give 
 me a refusal ! I've set my mind upon your joining 
 the party. Pray nod assent thank you thank you. 
 Now I must go and arrange every thing. Let's see 
 there are seven Fitzlooms ; for we can't count on 
 less than two horrid boys ; yourself, Mr. Sherborne, 
 
 431
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 Grey, Violet, and myself, five the Santi quite 
 enough quite enough a most delightful party. 
 Half a dozen servants, and as many donkeys, will 
 manage the provisions. Then three light carriages 
 will take us all. " By the wand of Mercury!" as St. 
 Anthony would vow, most admirably planned!' 
 
 * By the breath of Zephyr ! a most lovely day, 
 Miss Fane,' said St. Anthony, on the morning of the 
 intended excursion. 
 
 * Quite a Claude!' said St. John. 
 
 { Almost as beautiful as an Italian winter's day, Mr. 
 St. Leger?' asked Miss Fane. 
 
 ' Hardly, hardly ! ' said St. Anthony, with a serious 
 air ; for he imagined the question to be quite 
 genuine. 
 
 * Lady Madeleine, I cannot take my eyes off that 
 venerable countenance!' said St. John, speaking of 
 Mr. Sherborne. c There are some flesh-tints on the 
 higher cheek, which almost make me fancy myself in 
 the gallery at Bologna. He doesn't rouge now, does 
 he? You may speak perfectly in confidence. I 
 assure your ladyship that nothing shall transpire ; 
 only I'm very curious to know ; such tints I never 
 saw before ! ' 
 
 ' Really, Mr. St. John,' said her ladyship, smiling ; 
 * I regret very much that I am not initiated in the 
 mysteries of Mr. Sherborne's toilet ; but my uncle is 
 a very candid man, and I have no doubt he will con- 
 fess in a minute if he's guilty of making up ; suppose 
 you ask him.' 
 
 ' Why, no ; at his age, people of his country have 
 odd prejudices. He may not make up; and he 
 might feel a little offended. To say the truth, I 
 think it is au naturel. There is a grey tint under the 
 eye, which I don't think that any modern colours 
 
 432
 
 CHAPTER XV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 could have produced perfectly Ludovico, perfectly. 
 If he do make up, I should like very much to know 
 where he gets his colour : that's a secret, Lady Made- 
 leine, which seems to be lost for ever. I was talking 
 the other day to Benvenuti, the great Florentine 
 painter, about that very point : " Benvenuti," said I 
 * a very gentlemanly man is Benvenuti. It has 
 often struck me, I don't know whether it has your 
 ladyship probably it may have ; that all men of 
 genius are very gentlemanly. For instance, take all 
 the artists of ancient and modern times. We know 
 very little of Apelles ; yet we do know that he was 
 the intimate friend of Alexander the Great : and all 
 painters who are intimate friends of crowned heads, 
 and who are in the habit of going to court, are, I have 
 remarked, very gentlemanly. Now, for instance, can 
 you possibly meet with a more gentlemanly man than 
 Sir Thomas Lawrence? and Benvenuti, too, as I 
 said before, Benvenuti is a very gentlemanly man. I 
 was saying to him one day, as I mentioned 
 " Cavaliero!" for I need not tell your ladyship that 
 the great artist has the honour of being a Knight 
 
 f^f 5 
 
 \Jl __ 
 
 c Thrice holy man ! ' halloed out St. Anthony to St. 
 John ; ' thrice holy man ! the champion wishes to 
 know whether you have arranged about the malvoisie. 
 Miss Fane has decided for the malvoisie. By the 
 body of Bacchus, a right good liquor ! ' 
 
 * Lady Madeleine, will you excuse the anecdote of 
 Benvenuti at present ? the truth is, I am butler, and 
 your charming conversation is making me, I fear, 
 neglect my duties.' So saying, ran off the Saint. 
 
 The carriages are at the door; into the first 
 ascended Mrs. Fitzloom, two daughters and the 
 travelling Saints. The second bore Lady Madeleine, 
 2E 433
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 Mr. Fitzloom, and his two sons ; the third division 
 was commanded by Mr. Sherborne, and was formed 
 of St. George and Aurelia Fitzloom, Miss Fane, and 
 Vivian. 
 
 Away, away rolled the carriages, the day was 
 beautiful, the sky was without a cloud, and a mild 
 breeze prevented the heat of the sun from being over- 
 powering. All were in high spirits ; for St. George 
 had made a capital master of the ceremonies, and had 
 arranged the company in the carriages to their mutual 
 satisfaction. St. Anthony swore, by the soul of 
 Psyche ! that Augusta Fitzloom was an angel ; and 
 St. John was in equal raptures with Araminta, who 
 had an expression about the eyes which reminded 
 him of Titian's Flora. Mrs. Fitzloom's natural 
 silence did not disturb the uninterrupted jargon of 
 the Santi, whose affectation, slang, and foppery, 
 elicited loud and continued approbation from the fair 
 sisters. The mother sat admiring these sprigs of 
 noble trees. The young Fitzlooms, in crimson 
 cravats, conversed with Lady Madeleine with a de- 
 lightful military air ; and their happy parent, as he 
 gazed upon them with satisfied affection, internally 
 promised them both a commission in a crack regi- 
 ment. Each of the boys already imagined that Lady 
 Madeleine was in love with him ; and her ladyship 
 being convinced that all were happy, did not regret 
 the absence of those she really did love, but was 
 amused ; even Mr. Sherborne was contented, and did 
 not complain. Had he been put in the same carriage 
 with those fools, he really did not think that he 
 should have been able to get on. It showed St. 
 George's sense, making a different arrangement ; and 
 he must say, that though they did sometimes dis- 
 agree, he had no right to complain of the general 
 
 434
 
 CHAPTER XV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 behaviour of St. George towards him. This was said 
 with a bow to Miss Aurelia Fitzloom ; need I say 
 that Violet and Vivian were satisfied with the arrange- 
 ment ? 
 
 The road from Ems to Nassau winds along the 
 banks of the Lahn, through two leagues of most de- 
 lightful scenery ; at the end of which, springing up 
 from the peak of a bold and richly wooded mountain, 
 the lofty tower of the ancient castle of Nassau meets 
 your view. Winding walks round the sides of the 
 mountain, lead through all the varieties of sylvan 
 scenery, and command in all points the most magni- 
 ficent views of the surrounding country. These 
 finally bring you to the old castle, whose spacious 
 chambers, though now choked up with masses of grey 
 ruin, or covered with underwood, still bear witness to 
 the might of their former lord ; the powerful Baron 
 whose sword gained for his posterity a throne. Here 
 it was, by the massy keep, * all tenantless, save to the 
 crannying wind,' that Mr. Sherborne delivered to a 
 youthful auditory, who, seated on the fragments of 
 the ancient walls, rested after the toils of the ascent, 
 the following lecture on Gothic architecture. 
 
 On second thoughts, I shall keep it for Mr. Col- 
 burn's magazine. The Misses Fitzloom, with that 
 vivid genius for which young unmarried ladies are 
 celebrated, entered with the most delightful enthusi- 
 asm into all the interest of Mr. Sherborne's discourse. 
 In a few minutes they perfectly understood all the 
 agitated questions which had puzzled the architects 
 of all ages, and each had her separate solution of 
 mysteries, which never can be solved. How delight- 
 ful is this elegant and enraptured ignorance! How 
 decisive is the opinion of a young lady who has 
 studied architecture in the elevations of the Regent's 
 
 435
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 Park, on the controversy of the round arch, and the 
 pointed style! How exquisite their animated tattle 
 about mullions, spandrils, and trefoils ! 
 
 But Mr. Sherborne was delighted with his pupils, 
 and all seemed happy; none happier than Violet 
 Fane. Never did she look so beautiful as to-day 
 never were her spirits so animated never had she 
 boasted that her pulse beat more melodious music, 
 nor her lively blood danced a more healthful measure. 
 After examining all the antique chambers of the 
 castle, and discovering, as they flattered themselves, 
 secret passages, and dark dungeons, and hidden doors, 
 they left this interesting relic of the middle ages ; 
 and soon, by a gradual descent through the most 
 delightful shrubberies, they again found themselves 
 at the bottom of the valley. Here they visited the 
 modern Chateau of Baron von Stein, one of the most 
 enlightened and able politicians that Germany has 
 ever produced. As Minister of Prussia, he com- 
 menced those reforms which the illustrious Harden- 
 berg perfected. For upwards of five centuries the 
 family of Stein have retained their territorial posses- 
 sions in the valley of the Lahn. Their family castle, 
 at present a ruin, and formerly a fief of the house of 
 Nassau, is now only a picturesque object in the 
 pleasure-grounds of the present lord. 
 
 The noon had passed some hours, before the de- 
 lighted wanderers complained of fatigue, and by that 
 time they found themselves in a pleasant green glade 
 on the skirts of the forest of Nassau. It was nearly 
 environed by mountains, covered with hanging 
 woods, which shaded the beautiful valley, and gave 
 it the appearance of a sylvan amphitheatre. From a 
 rocky cleft in these green mountains, a torrent, dash- 
 ing down with impetuous force, and whose fall was 
 
 436
 
 CHAPTER XV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 almost concealed by the cloud of spray which it ex- 
 cited, gave birth to a small and gentle river ; whose 
 banks were fringed with the most beautiful trees, 
 which prevented the sun's darts from piercing its 
 coldness, by bowing their fair heads over its waters. 
 From their extending branches, Nature's choristers 
 sent forth many a lovely lay 
 
 ' Of God's high praise, and of their loves' sweet teen.' 
 
 Near the banks of this river, the servants, under 
 the active direction of Essper George, had prepared 
 some refreshments for the party. The cloth had been 
 laid with great neatness on a raised work of wood 
 and turf ; and rustic seats of the same material sur- 
 rounded the rude table. All kinds of cold meats, and 
 all kinds of pasties, venison, pheasants, plovers, 
 rabbits, pickled fish, prawns, and craw fish, greeted 
 the ravished eyes of the wearied band of foresters. 
 July is not a month for eating ; but, nevertheless, in 
 Germany we are somewhat consoled for the want of 
 the curious varieties of cookery, by the exhilarating 
 presence of white young partridges, delicious duck- 
 lings, and most tender leverets. Then there were all 
 sorts of forced meats, and stuffed birds. You com- 
 menced with a pompous display of unnecessary 
 science, to extract for a famished fair one the wing and 
 merrythought of a fairer chicken when lo, and be- 
 hold! the facile knife sunk without an effort into the 
 plump breast, and the unresisting bird discharged a 
 cargo of rich stuffed balls, of the most fascinating 
 flavour. Then July, above all, is the season for 
 fruits ; and though few of the Rhenish grapes were 
 yet ripe, still money had procured some plates of the 
 red and rich Asmanhausens ; and the refreshing 
 strawberry, the luscious peach, the grateful apricot, 
 
 437
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 the thrilling nectarine, and above all, the peerless 
 pine-apple were not wanting. Shall I forget the 
 piquant currant, and the mellow gooseberry ? Pom- 
 ona forbid! Humble fruits I love you, and once 
 loved you more! 
 
 4 Well ! ' said Violet Fane, c I never will be a 
 member of an adventurous party like the present, of 
 which St. George is not manager; this is admir- 
 able!' 
 
 ' I must not take the whole credit upon myself, 
 Violet ; St. John is butler, and St. Leger my vice- 
 chamberlain.' 
 
 ' Well, I can't praise Mr. St. John, till I've tasted 
 the malvoisie which he has promised ; but as for the 
 other part of the entertainment Mr. St. Leger, I'm 
 sure, this is a temptation which it would be a sin even 
 in St. Anthony to withstand.' 
 
 ' By the body of Bacchus, very good ! ' swore Mr. 
 St. Leger. 
 
 * These mountains,' said Mr. St. John, remind 
 me of one of Nicolo Poussin's cool valleys. The 
 party, indeed, give it a different character quite a 
 Watteau!' 
 
 | Now, Mrs. Fitzloom,' said St. George, who was 
 quite in his element ; let me recommend a little of 
 this pike? Lady Madeleine, I've sent you some 
 lamb. Miss Fitzloom, I hope St. Anthony is taking 
 care of you. Wrightson! plates to Mr. St. Leger. 
 Holy man, and much beloved ! send that beef to Mr. 
 Sherborne. Araminta, some poulet? Grey has 
 helped you, Violet? Aurelia, my dear, some part- 
 ridge ? William Pitt Fitzloom, I leave you to your- 
 self. George Canning Fitzloom, take care of the 
 ladies near you. Essper George ! where's Essper 
 George ? St. John, who is your deputy in the wine 
 
 438
 
 CHAPTER XV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 department? Wrightson! bring those long green 
 bottles out of the river, and put the champaigne 
 underneath the willow. Will your ladyship take 
 some light claret? Mrs. Fitzloom, you must use 
 your tumbler ; nothing but tumblers allowed, by 
 Miss Fane's particular request!' 
 
 4 St. George! thou holy man!' said Miss Fane; 
 * methinks you are very impertinent. You shall not 
 be my patron saint, if you go on so.' 
 
 For the next hour there was nothing heard save the 
 calling of servants ; the rattling of knives and forks ; 
 the drawing of corks ; and continued bursts of 
 laughter, which were not occasioned by any brilliant 
 observations, either of the Saints, or any other per- 
 sons ; but merely the result of an exuberance of 
 spirits on the part of every one present. At last the 
 voice of St. Anthony was heard. 
 
 c Mr Sherborne, will you wine?' 
 
 ' Sir ! I don't understand you,' answered the old 
 gentleman. A cloud was on his brow. 
 
 ' Oh ! save my uncle from exploding, Mr. Grey ! 
 for heaven's sake, put out his passion. If he do not 
 take some liquid immediately, I'm sure he must go 
 off in a rage. ' Holy St. Anthony has been talking 
 " slang." Uncle ! Mr Sherborne ! Mr. St. Leger 
 wishes to know whether he may have the honour of 
 taking wine with you. You don't seem to under- 
 stand him.' 
 
 1 No ; nor any body else.' 
 
 * Old Chrononhotonthologos seems as crusty as a 
 bottle of his own undrinkable port,' whispered St. 
 Anthony to Miss Fitzloom, who was delighted with 
 this brilliant sally. I wonder what's the use of 
 these boring old uncles!' Miss Fitzloom laughed still 
 more at a remark which was still more brilliant. 
 
 439
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 ( A magnificent study, that old uncle of St. 
 George's!' whispered St. John to Araminta. * I wish 
 I could get him to sit. I dare say there's some poor 
 devil of an artist at the Baths, who'd touch him in 
 very prettily with black chalk. I must ask the old 
 man. Let me give you a little more pheasant.' 
 
 'Well, Aurelia!' said Lady Madeleine, { do you 
 prefer our present mode of life to feasting in an old 
 hall, covered with banners and battered shields, and 
 surrounded by mysterious corridors and dark 
 dungeons.' Aurelia was so flattered by the notice 
 of Lady Madeleine, that she made her no an- 
 swer ; probably because she was intent on a plover's 
 
 e gg- 
 
 ' I think we might all retire to this valley,' said 
 
 Miss Fane, * and revive the old feudal times with 
 great success. St. George might take us to Nassau 
 Castle, and you, Mr. Fitzloom, might refortify the 
 old tower of Stein. With two sons, however, who 
 are about to enter the Guards, I'm afraid we must be 
 your vassals. Then what should we do? We 
 couldn't have wood parties every day ; I suppose we 
 should get tired of each other. No ! that does seem 
 impossible ; don't you all think so ?' 
 
 Omnes, ' Impossible, impossible!' 
 
 1 We must, however, have some regular pursuit, 
 some cause of constant excitement, some perpetual 
 source of new emotions. New ideas of course, we 
 must give up ; there would be no going to London 
 for the season, for new opinions to astound country 
 cousins on our return. Some pursuit must be in- 
 vented ; we all must have something to do. I have 
 it, I have it! St. George shall be a tyrant!' 
 
 * I'm very much obliged to you, Violet.' 
 
 ' Yes ! a bloody, unprincipled, vindictive, remorse- 
 440
 
 CHAPTER XV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 less tyrant, with a long black beard ; I can't tell how 
 long ! about twenty thousand times longer than Mr. 
 St. Leger's mustachios.' 
 
 ' By the beard of Jove!' swore St. Anthony, as he 
 started from his seat, and arranged with his thumb 
 and forefinger the delicate Albanian tuft of his upper 
 lip ; ' By the beard of Jove, Miss Fane, I'm obliged 
 to you!' 
 
 ' Well then,' continued Violet, ' St. George being a 
 tyrant, Lady Madeleine must be an unhappy, illused, 
 persecuted woman!' 
 
 ' Now, Violet, my dear ! do be calm, do restrain 
 yourself ! ' 
 
 ' An unhappy, illused, persecuted woman, living on 
 black bread and green water, in an unknown dungeon. 
 My part shall be to discover her imprisonment. 
 Sounds of strange music attract my attention to a 
 part of the castle which I have not before frequented. 
 There I shall distinctly hear a female voice chaunting 
 the " Bridesmaids' Chorus," with Erard's double 
 pedal accompaniment. By the aid of the Confessors 
 of the two families two drinking,. rattling, imperti- 
 nent, most corrupt, and most amusing friars : to wit 
 our sainted friends ' 
 
 Here both Mr. St. Leger, and Mr. St. John bowed 
 low to Miss Fane. 
 
 ' A most lively personage is Miss Fane,' whispered 
 St. Anthony to his neighbour Miss Fitzloom, 
 ' great style ! ' 
 
 * Most amusing, delightful girl great style 
 rather a display to-day, I think.' 
 
 ' Oh, decidedly ! and devilish personal too devil- 
 ish ; some people wouldn't like it. I've no doubt 
 she'll say something about you next.' 
 
 { Oh ! I shall be very surprised, indeed, if she does, 
 441
 
 VIVIAN GREY BooK v 
 
 very surprised indeed ! It may be very well to you, 
 but Miss Fane must be aware ' 
 
 Before this pompous sentence could be finished, 
 an incident occurred which prevented Miss Fane 
 from proceeding with her allotment of characters, and 
 rendered unnecessary the threatened indignation of 
 Miss Fitzloom. 
 
 Miss Fane, as we mentioned, suddenly ceased 
 speaking ; the eyes of all were turned in the direc- 
 tion in which she was gazing gazing as if she had 
 seen a ghost. 
 
 4 What are you looking up at, Violet?' asked St. 
 George. 
 
 * Didn't you see any thing? didn't any of you see 
 any thing?' 
 
 1 None none none ! ' 
 
 ' Mr. Grey, surely you must have seen it!' 
 
 ' No ; I saw nothing.' 
 
 ' It could not be fancy impossible ! I saw it dis- 
 tinctly. I cannot be in a dream. See there! there 
 again, on that topmost branch. See! see! it 
 moves!' 
 
 Some odd shrill sounds, uttered in the voice of a 
 Pulcinello, attracted the notice of them all, and lo ! 
 high in the air, behind a lofty chesnut tree, the figure 
 of a Pulcinello did appear, hopping and vaulting in 
 the unsubstantial air. Now it sent forth another 
 shrill piercing sound, and now, with both its hands, it 
 patted and complacently stroked its ample paunch ; 
 dancing all the time, with unremitting activity, and 
 wagging its queer head at the astounded guests. 
 
 * Who, what can it be ?' cried all. The Misses 
 Fitzloom shrieked, and the Santi seemed quite 
 puzzled. 
 
 ' Who, what can it be?' 
 442
 
 CHAPTER XV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 Ere time could be given for any one to hazard a 
 conjecture, the figure had advanced from behind the 
 trees, and had spanned in an instant the festal board, 
 with two enormous stilts, on which they now per- 
 ceived it was mounted. The Misses Fitzloom 
 shrieked again. The figure imitated their cries in his 
 queer voice, and gradually raising one enormous stilt 
 up into the air, stood only on one support, which was 
 planted behind the lovely Araminta. 
 
 * Oh ! inimitable Essper George ! ' exclaimed Violet 
 Fane. 
 
 Here Signer Punch commenced a chanson, which 
 he executed in the tone peculiar to his character, and 
 in a style which drew applauses from all ; and then, 
 with a hop, step, and a jump, he was again behind the 
 chesnut tree. In a moment he advanced without his 
 stilts, towards the table. Here, on the turf, he again 
 commenced his antics ; kicking his nose with his right 
 foot, and his hump with his left one ; executing the 
 most splendid somersets, and cutting all species of 
 
 J C f 
 
 capers ; and never ceasing for a moment from per- 
 forming all his movements to the inspiring music of 
 his own melodious voice. At last, jumping up im- 
 mensely high in the air, he fell as if all his joints were 
 loosened, and the Misses Fitzloom, imagining that 
 his bones were really broken, shrieked again. But 
 now Essper began the wonderful performance of a 
 dead body possessed by a devil ; and in a minute his 
 shattered corpse, apparently without the assistance of 
 any of its members, began to jump, and move about 
 the ground with the most miraculous rapidity. At 
 length it disappeared behind the chesnut tree. 
 
 * Grey ! said St. George ; < we owe all this timely 
 entertainment to you. I really think it is the most 
 agreeable day I ever passed in all my life.' 
 
 443
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 'Oh, decidedly!' said St. Anthony. 'St. John, 
 you remember, our party to Pscstum with Lady 
 Calabria M 'Crater, and the Marquess of Agrigentum. 
 It was nothing to this! Nothing! nothing! Do 
 you know I thought that rather dull.' 
 
 'Yes, dull, dull; too elaborate; too highly fin- 
 ished ; nothing of the pittore improvisator e. A 
 party of this kind should be more sketchy in its style ; 
 the outline more free, and less detail.' 
 
 ' This is all very well for you, young folks,' said 
 Mr. Sherborne, ' and Essper is certainly a clever 
 knave ; but my dear young friends, if you had had 
 the good fortune of living fifty years ago, when the 
 first Scaramouch that I remember appeared in Lon- 
 don, then you might have laughed. As it is, this is 
 all very well of Essper ; but ' Here Mr Sherborne 
 jumped on his chair, and suddenly stopped. A great 
 green monkey was seated opposite to him, imitating 
 with ludicrous fidelity his energetic action. The 
 laugh was universal. The monkey, with one 
 bound, jumped over Mr. Sherborne's head and dis- 
 appeared. 
 
 ' Essper is coming out to-day,' said Vivian, to Miss 
 Fane, ' after a long, and I venture to say, painful for- 
 bearance. However, I hope you'll excuse him. It 
 seems to amuse us.' 
 
 ' Amuse us ! I think it's delightful. See ! here he 
 comes again.' 
 
 He now appeared in his original costume ; the one 
 in which Vivian first met him at the fair. Bowing 
 very respectfully to the company, he threw his hand 
 carelessly over his mandolin, and having tried the 
 melody of its strings, sang with great taste, and a 
 sweet voice sweeter, from its contrast with its pre- 
 vious shrill tones, a very pretty romance. All 
 
 444
 
 CHAPTER XV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 applauded him very warmly, and no one more so than 
 Violet Fane. 
 
 * Ah ! inimitable Essper George, how can we suf- 
 ficiently thank you ! How admirably he plays ! and 
 his voice is quite beautiful. Oh ! couldn't we dance ? 
 wouldn't it be delightful ; and he could play on his 
 guitar. Think of the delicious turf!' 
 
 Omnes 'Delightful! delightful! delightful!' 
 they rose from table. 
 
 ' Violet, my dear,' asked Lady Madeleine, ' what 
 are you going to do ?' 
 
 ' By the toe of Terpsichore ! as Mr. St. Leger 
 would say, I am going to dance.' 
 
 * But remember, dearest, to-day you have done so 
 much ! let us be wise let us be moderate ; though 
 you feel so much better, still think what a change 
 to-day has been from your usual habits!' 
 
 ' But, dearest Lady Madeleine, think of dancing on 
 the turf, and I feel so well so ' 
 
 ' Oh ! let the dear creature dance if she likes,' said 
 Mr. Sherborne : c my opinion is, that dancing never 
 does a young woman any harm. Who you'll get to 
 dance with you though,' turning to the Misses Fitz- 
 loom, * I can't tell ; as to what the young men of the 
 present day call dancing ' 
 
 ' By the Graces ! I am for the waltz,' said St. 
 Anthony. 
 
 ' It has certainly a very free touch to recommend 
 it,' said St. John. 
 
 ' No, no,' said Violet ; c let us all join in a country 
 dance. Mr. Sherborne, shall I introduce you to a 
 partner?' 
 
 ' Ah ! you little angel,' said the delighted old man ; 
 ' you look just like your dear mother, that you do !' 
 
 ' We staid old personages do not dance, 1 said Lady 
 445
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 Madeleine ; * and therefore I recommend you a quad- 
 rille.' 
 
 The quadrille was soon formed : Violet made up 
 for not dancing with Vivian, at the Archduke's. She 
 was in the most animated spirits, and kept up a suc- 
 cessful rivalry with Mr. St. Leger, who evidently 
 prided himself, as Mr. Fitzloom observed, ' on his 
 light fantastic toe.' Now he pirouetted like Paul, 
 and now he attitudinized like Albert ; and now Violet 
 Fane eclipsed all his exertions by her inimitable imita- 
 tions of Ronzi Vestris's rushing and arrowy manner. 
 St. Anthony, in despair, but quite delighted, revealed 
 a secret which had been taught him by a Spanish 
 dancer at Milan ; but then Violet Fane vanquished 
 him for ever, with the pas de Zephyr of the exquisite 
 Fanny Bias. 
 
 The day was fast declining when the carriages ar- 
 rived ; the young people were in no humour to return ; 
 and as, when they had once entered the carriage, the 
 day seemed finished for ever, they proposed walking 
 part of the way home. Lady Madeleine made little 
 objection to Violet joining the party, as she feared 
 after the exertion that Miss Fane had been making, a 
 drive in an open carriage would be dangerous ; and 
 yet the walk was too long, but all agreed that it would 
 be impossible to shorten it ; and," as Violet declared 
 that she was not the least fatigued, the lesser evil was 
 therefore chosen. The carriages rolled off ; at about 
 half way from Ems, the two empty ones were to wait 
 for the walking party. Lady Madeleine smiled with 
 fond affection, as she waved her hand to Violet the 
 moment before she was out of sight. 
 
 'And now,' said St. George; 'good people all, 
 instead of returning by the same road, it strikes me, 
 that there must be a way through this little wood 
 
 446
 
 CHAPTER XV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 you see there is an excellent path. Before the sun has 
 set, we shall have got through it, and it will bring us 
 out I have no doubt, by the old cottage which you 
 observed, Grey, when we came along. I saw a gate, and 
 path there just where we first got sight of Nassau 
 castle there can be no doubt about it. You see it's 
 a regular right-angle, and besides varying the walk, 
 we shall at least gain a quarter of an hour, which, 
 after all, as we have to walk near three miles, is an 
 object. It's quite clear quite clear : If I've a head 
 for any thing, it's for finding my way.' 
 
 4 1 think you've a head for every thing,' said 
 Aurelia Fitzloom, in a soft sentimental whisper ; ' I'm 
 sure we owe all our happiness to-day to you ! ' 
 
 * If I have a head for every thing, I have a heart 
 only for one person!' 
 
 As every one wished to be convinced, no one 
 offered any argument in opposition to St. George's 
 view of the case ; and some were already in the 
 wood. 
 
 4 St. George, St. George,' said Violet Fane, c I don't 
 like walking in the wood so late ; pray come back.' 
 
 'Oh, nonsense, Violet! come, come. If you 
 don't like to come, you can walk by the road you'll 
 meet us round by the gate it's only five minutes 
 walk.' Ere he had finished speaking, the rest were 
 in the wood, and some had advanced. Vivian 
 strongly recommended Violet not to join them ; he 
 was sure that Lady Madeleine would not approve it 
 he was sure that it was very dangerous extremely 
 dangerous ; and, by the bye, while he was talking, 
 which way had they gone ? he didn't see them. He 
 halloed all answered and fifty thousand echoes be- 
 sides. < We certainly had better go by the road we 
 shall lose our way if we try to follow them ; nothing 
 
 447
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 is so puzzling as walking in woods we had much 
 better keep to the road.' So by the road they went. 
 
 The Sun had already sunk behind the mountains, 
 whose undulating forms were thrown into dark 
 shadow against the crimson sky. The thin crescent 
 of the new moon floated over the eastern hills, whose 
 deep woods glowed with the rosy glories of twilight. 
 Over the peak of a purple mountain, glittered the 
 solitary star of Evening. As the sun dropped, uni- 
 versal silence seemed to pervade the whole face of 
 Nature. The voice of the birds was stilled ; the 
 breeze, which had refreshed them during the day, 
 died away, as if its office were now completed ; and 
 none of the dark sounds and sights of hideous Night 
 yet dared to triumph over the death of Day. Unseen 
 were the circling wings of the fell bat ; unheard the 
 screech of the waking owl ; silent the drowsy hum of 
 the shade-born beetle ! What heart has not acknow- 
 ledged the influence of this hour the sweet and 
 soothing hour of twilight! the hour of love, the 
 hour of adoration, the hour of rest! when we think 
 of those we love, only to regret that we have not loved 
 more dearly ; when we remember our enemies only 
 to forgive them! 
 
 And Vivian, and his beautiful companion owned 
 the magic of this hour, as all must do by silence. 
 No word was spoken, yet is silence sometimes a 
 language. They gazed, and gazed again, and their 
 full spirits held due communion with the starlit sky, 
 and the mountains, and the woods, and the soft 
 shadows of the increasing moon. Oh! who can 
 describe what the o'ercharged spirit feels at this 
 sacred hour, when we almost lose the consciousness 
 of existence, and our souls seem to struggle to pierce 
 futurity! In the forests of the mysterious Oden- 
 
 448
 
 CHAPTER XV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 wald, in the solitudes of the Bergstrasse, had Vivian 
 at this hour often found consolation for a bruised 
 spirit often in adoring Nature had forgotten man. 
 But now, when he had never felt Nature's influence 
 more powerful ; when he had never forgotten man, 
 and man's world more thoroughly ; when he was ex- 
 periencing emotions, which, though undefinable, he 
 felt to be new ; he started when he remembered that 
 all this was in the presence of a human being ! Was 
 it Hesperus he gazed upon, or something else that 
 glanced brighter than an Evening star ? Even as he 
 thought that his gaze was fixed on the countenance 
 of Nature, he found that his eyes rested on the face 
 of Nature's loveliest daughter! 
 
 * Violet ! dearest Violet ! ' 
 
 As in some delicious dream, the sleeper is awak- 
 ened from his bliss by the sound of his own rapturous 
 voice ; so was Vivian roused by these words from 
 his reverie, and called back to the world which he had 
 forgotten. But ere a moment had passed, he was 
 pouring forth in a rapid voice, and incoherent man- 
 ner, such words as men speak only once. He spoke 
 of his early follies his misfortunes his misery of 
 his matured views his settled principles his plans 
 his prospects his hopes his happiness his 
 bliss : and when he had ceased, he listened, in his 
 turn, to some small still words, which made him the 
 happiest of human beings. He bent down he 
 kissed the soft silken cheek which now he could call 
 his own. Her hand was in his ; her head sank upon 
 his breast. Suddenly she clung to him with a strong 
 grasp. c Violet ! my own, my dearest ; you are 
 overcome. I have been rash, I have been imprudent. 
 Speak, speak, my beloved! say you are not ill!' 
 
 She spoke not, but clung to him with a fearful 
 2F 449
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK V 
 
 strength her head still upon his breast her full 
 eyes closed. In the greatest alarm, he raised her off 
 the ground, and bore her to the river side. Water 
 might revive her. But when he tried to lay her a 
 moment on the bank, she clung to him gasping, as a 
 sinking person clings to a stout swimmer. He leant 
 over her ; he did not attempt to disengage his arms ; 
 and, by degrees, by very slow degrees, her grasp 
 loosened. At last her arms gave way and fell by her 
 side, and her eyes partly opened. 
 
 ' Thank God ! thank God ! Violet, my own, my 
 beloved, say you are better!' 
 
 She answered not evidently she did not know 
 him evidently she did not see him. A film was 
 on her sight, and her eye was glassy. He rushed 
 to the water-side, and in a moment he had sprinkled 
 her temples, now covered with a cold dew. Her 
 pulse beat not her circulation seemed suspended. 
 He rubbed the palms of her hands he covered her 
 delicate feet with his coat ; and then rushing up the 
 bank into the road, he shouted with frantic cries on 
 all sides. No one came, no one was near. Again, 
 with a cry of fearful anguish, he shouted as if an 
 hyaena were feeding on his vitals. No sound : no 
 answer. The nearest cottage he remembered was 
 above a mile off. He dared not leave her. Again 
 he rushed down to the water-side. Her eyes were 
 still open still fixed. Her mouth also was no 
 longer closed. Her hand was stiff her heart had 
 ceased to beat. He tried with the warmth of his 
 own body to revive her. He shouted he wept 
 he prayed. All, all in vain. Again he was in the 
 road again shouting like an insane being. There 
 was a sound. Hark! It was but the screech of an 
 owl! 
 
 450
 
 ^VIVIA
 
 CHAPTER XV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 Once more at the river-side once more bending 
 over her with starting eyes once more the attentive 
 ear listening for the soundless breath. No sound! 
 not even a sigh! Oh! what would he have given 
 for her shriek of anguish! No change had occurred 
 in her position, but the lower part of her face had 
 fallen ; and there was a general appearance which 
 struck him with awe. Her body was quite cold : 
 her limbs stiffened. He gazed, and gazed, and 
 gazed. He bent over her with stupor, rather than 
 grief stamped on his features. It was very slowly 
 that the dark thought came over his mind very 
 slowly that the horrible truth seized upon his soul. 
 He gave a loud shriek, and fell on the lifeless body of 
 VIOLET FANE!
 
 
 BOOK THE SIXTH 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE green and bowery Summer had passed away. 
 It was midnight when two horsemen pulled up their 
 steeds beneath a wide oak ; which, with other lofty 
 trees, skirted the side of a winding road in an exten- 
 sive forest in the south of Germany. 
 
 * By heavens ! ' said one, who apparently was the 
 master * we must even lay our cloaks I think under 
 this oak ; for the road winds again, and assuredly 
 cannot lead now to our village.' 
 
 4 A starlit sky in Autumn, can scarcely be the 
 fittest curtain for one so weak as your Highness. I 
 should recommend travelling on, if we keep on our 
 horses' backs till dawn.' 
 
 4 But if we are travelling in a directly contrary way 
 to our voiturier honest as we may suppose him to 
 be, if he find in the morning no paymaster for his job, 
 he may with justice make free with our baggage. 
 And I shall be unusually mistaken if the road we are 
 now pursuing does not lead back to the city.' 
 
 1 City, town, or village, your Highness must sleep 
 under no forest tree. Let us ride on. It will be 
 hard if we do not find some huntsman's or ranger's 
 cottage ; and for aught we know a neat snug village 
 some comfortable old manor-house, which has 
 452
 
 CHAPTER I VIVIAN GREY 
 
 been in the family for two centuries ; and where, 
 with God's blessing, they may chance to have wine 
 as old as the bricks. I know not how your Highness 
 may feel, but a ten hours' ride when I was only pre- 
 pared for half the time, and that too in an Autumn 
 night, makes me somewhat desirous of renewing my 
 acquaintance with the kitchen-fire.' 
 
 * I could join you in a glass of hock and a slice of 
 venison, I confess, my good fellow ; but in a noc- 
 turnal ride I am no longer your match. However, 
 if you think it best, we'll prick on our steeds for 
 another hour. If it be only for them, I'm sure we 
 must soon stop.' 
 
 * Ay ! do, Sir ; and put your cloak well round you 
 all is for the best. Your Highness, I guess, is no 
 Sabbath-born child?' 
 
 < That am I not but how would that make our 
 plight worse than it is? Should we be farther off 
 supper?' 
 
 ' Nearer nearer, perhaps, than you imagine ; for 
 we should then have a chance of sharing the spoils of 
 the Spirit Hunter.' 
 
 * Ah! Essper, is it so?' 
 
 * Truly, yes, Sir ; and were either of us a Sabbath- 
 born child, by holy cross ! I would not give much for 
 our chance of a down bed this night.' 
 
 Here a great horned owl flew across the road. 
 
 ' Were I in the north,' said Essper, c I would sing 
 an Ave Mary against the STUT OZEL.' 
 
 'What call you that?' asked Vivian. 
 
 ' 'Tis the great bird, Sir ; the great horned owl, 
 that always flies before the Wild Hunter. And 
 truly, Sir, I have passed through many forests in my 
 time, but never yet saw I one where I should sooner 
 expect to hear a midnight bugle. If you'll allow me, 
 
 453
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VI 
 
 Sir, I'll ride by your side. Thank God, at least, it's 
 not the Walpurgis night!' 
 
 * I wish to Heaven it were ! ' said Vivian, ' and that 
 we were on the Brocken. It must be highly amus- 
 ing!' 
 
 ' Hush ! hush ! hush ! it's lucky we're not in the 
 Hartz but we know not where we are, nor who at 
 this moment may be behind us.' 
 
 And here Essper began pouring forth a liturgy of 
 his own half Catholic, and half Calvinistic, quite in 
 character with the creed of the country through which 
 they were travelling. 
 
 4 My horse has stumbled,' continued Essper, * and 
 your s, Sir, is he not shying ? There's a confounded 
 cloud over the moon but I've no sight in the dark 
 if that mass before you be not a devil's-stone. The 
 Lord have mercy upon our sinful souls ! ' 
 
 1 Peace ! peace ! Essper,' said Vivian, who was sur- 
 prised to find him really alarmed ; ' peace ! peace ! I 
 see nothing but a block of granite, no uncommon 
 sight in a German forest.' 
 
 ' It is a devil-stone, I tell you, Sir there has been 
 some church here, which he has knocked down in the 
 night. Look! look! is it the moss-people that I 
 see ! As sure as I'm a hungry sinner, the Wild One 
 is out a-hunting to-night.' 
 
 ' More luck for us, if we meet him. His dogs, as 
 you say, may gain us a supper. I think our wisest 
 course will be to join the cry.' 
 
 * Hush ! hush ! hush ! your Highness would not 
 talk so if you knew what your share of the spoils 
 might be. Ay! if your Highness did, your cheek 
 would be paler, and your very teeth would chatter. 
 I knew one man who was travelling in a forest, just 
 as we are now, it was about this time, and he be- 
 
 454
 
 CHAPTER I VIVIAN GREY 
 
 lieved in the Wild Huntsman about as much as your 
 Highness does that is, he liked to talk of the spirit, 
 merely to have the opportunity of denying that he 
 believed in him ; which showed, as I used to say, 
 that his mind was often thinking of it. He was a 
 merry knave, and as firm a hand for a boar-spear, as 
 ever I met with, and I've met with many. We used 
 to call him, before the accident, Left-handed Hans, 
 but they call him now, your Highness, the Child- 
 Hunter. Oh! it's a very awful tale, your Highness, 
 and I'd sooner tell it in blazing hall than in free 
 forest. Your Highness didn't hear any sound to the 
 left, did you?' 
 
 * Nothing but the wind) Essper ; on with your 
 tale, my man.' 
 
 . 4 It's a very awful tale, Sir, but I'll make short 
 work of it. You see, your Highness, it was a night 
 just like this ; the moon was generally hid, but the 
 stars prevented it from ever being pitch dark. And 
 so, Sir, he was travelling alone ; he'd been up to the 
 castle of the baron, his master you see, Sir, he was 
 head-ranger to his lordship and he always returned 
 home through the forest. What he was thinking of, 
 I cannot say, but most likely of no good ; when all 
 on a sudden he heard the baying or hounds in the 
 distance. Now, your Highness, directly he heard it 
 I've heard him tell the story a thousand times 
 directly he heard it, it struck him that it must be the 
 Spirit Huntsman ; and though there were many ways 
 to account for the hounds, still he never for a moment 
 doubted that they were the hell-dogs. The sounds 
 came nearer and nearer. Now your Highness, I tell 
 you this, because if ever, which the Holy Virgin 
 forbid! if ever you meet the Wild Huntsman, 
 you'll know how to act: conduct yourself always 
 
 455
 
 VIVIAN GKKY BOOK VI 
 
 with propriety, make no noise, but behave like a 
 gentleman, and don't put the dogs off the scent; 
 stand aside, and let him pass. Don't talk, he has 
 no time to lose, for if he hunt after day break, a 
 night's sport is forfeited for every star left in the 
 morning sky. So, Sir, you see nothing puts him in 
 a greater passion than to lose his time in answering 
 impertinent questions. Well, your Highness, Left- 
 handed Hans stood by the road side. The baying of 
 the dogs was so distinct, that he felt that in a moment 
 the Wild One would be up : his horse shivered like 
 a sallow in a storm. He heard the tramp of the 
 Spirit-steed : they came in sight. As the tall figure 
 of the Huntsman passed I cannot tell your High- 
 ness what it was it might have been, Lord forgive 
 me for thinking what it might have been! but a 
 voice from behind Hans, a voice so like his own, that 
 for a moment he fancied that he had himself spoken, 
 although he was conscious that his lips had been 
 firmly closed the whole time, a voice from the road 
 side, just behind poor Hans, mind, said " Good 
 sport, Sir Huntsman, 'tis an odd light to track a 
 stag!" The poor man, Sir, was all or an ague ; but 
 how much greater, your Highness, was his horror, 
 when the tall Huntsman stopped ! He thought that 
 he was going to be eaten up on the spot, at least : 
 not at all, your Highness " My friend ! " said the 
 Wild One, in the kindest voice imaginable ; " my 
 friend, would you like to give your horse a breathing 
 with us?" Poor Hans, your Highness, was so 
 alarmed, that it never entered into his head for a 
 single moment to refuse the invitation, and instantly 
 he was galloping by the side of the Wild Huntsman. 
 Away they flew ! away ! away ! away ! over bog, and 
 over mere ; over ditch, and over hedge ; away ! 
 
 456
 
 CHAPTER I VIVIAN GREY 
 
 away! away! and the Ranger's horse never failed, 
 but kept by the side of the Wild Spirit without the 
 least distress ; and yet, your Highness, it's very 
 singular that Hans was about to sell this very beast 
 only a day before, for a matter of five crowns : you 
 see, your Highness, he only kept it just to pick his 
 way at night from the castle to his own cottage. 
 Well! your Highness, it's very odd, but Hans soon 
 lost all fear, for the sport was so fine and he had such 
 a keen relish for the work, that far from being 
 alarmed, he thought himself one of the luckiest 
 knaves alive. But the oddest thing all this time was, 
 that Hans never caught sight for one moment of 
 either buck or boar ; although he saw by the dogs' 
 noses that there was something keen in the wind ; 
 and although he felt that if the hunted beast were 
 like any that he had himself ever followed before, it 
 must have been run down with such dogs, quicker 
 than a priest could say a pater-noster. At last, Sir, 
 for he had grown quite bold, says Hans to the Wild 
 Huntsman, " The beasts run quick o' nights, Sir, I 
 think ; it's been a long time I ween, e'er I scampered 
 so far, and saw so little!" Do you know, your High- 
 ness, that the old gentleman was not the least af- 
 fronted, but said, in the pleasantest voice imaginable, 
 " A true huntsman should be patient, Hans, you'll 
 see the game quick enough ; look forward, man ! 
 what see you?" and sure enough, your Highness, 
 he did look forward. It was near the skirts of the 
 forest, there was a green glade before them, and very 
 few trees, and therefore he could see far a-head. The 
 moon was shining very bright, and sure enough, what 
 did he see? Running as fleet over the turf as a 
 rabbit, was a child. The little figure was quite black 
 in the moonlight, and Hans could not catch its face : 
 
 457
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VI 
 
 in a moment the hell-dogs were on it. Hans 
 quivered like a windy reed, your Highness, and the 
 Wild One laughed till the very woods echoed. 
 "How like you hunting mossmen?" asked the 
 Spirit. Now when Hans, your Highness, found it 
 was only a mossman, he took heart again, and said in 
 a shaking voice, that " It is rare good sport in good 
 company ;" and then the Spirit jumped off his horse, 
 and said " Now, Hans, you must watch me well, for 
 I'm little used to bag game." He said this with a 
 proudish air, your Highness, as much as to hint, that 
 hadn't he expected Hans, he wouldn't have rode out 
 this evening without his groom. So the Wild One 
 jumped on his horse again, and put the bag before 
 him. It was nearly morning, your Highness, when 
 Hans found himself at the door of his own cottage ; 
 and bowing very respectfully to the Spirit Hunter, 
 he thanked him for the sport, and begged his share of 
 the night's spoil. This was all in joke, your High- 
 ness, but Hans had heard that " talk to the devil, and 
 fear the last word ;" and so he was determined, now 
 that they were about to part, not to appear to tremble, 
 but to carry it off with a jest. " Truly Hans," said 
 the Huntsman, " thou art a bold lad, and to encour- 
 age thee to speak to wild huntsmen again, I have a 
 mind to give thee for thy pains, the whole spoil. 
 Take the bag, knave, a mossman is good eating, had 
 I time I would give thee a receipt for sauce ;" 
 and so saying, the Spirit rode off, laughing very 
 heartily. Well, your Highness, Hans was so 
 anxious to examine the contents of the bag, and see 
 what kind of thing a mossman really was, for he 
 had only caught a glimpse of him in the chace, that 
 instead of going to bed immediately and saying his 
 prayers, as he should have done, he lighted a lamp 
 
 458
 
 CHAPTER I VIVIAN GREY 
 
 and undid the string ; and what think you he took 
 out of the bag, your Highness? As sure as I'm a 
 born sinner his own child!' 
 
 * 'Tis a wonderful tale,' said Vivian ; and did the 
 unfortunate man tell you this himself ?' 
 
 1 Often and often, Sir, I knew Left-handed Hans 
 well. He was ranger, as I said, to a great lord ; and 
 was quite a favourite, you see. For some reason or 
 other he got out of favour. Some said that the 
 Baron had found him out a-poaching ; and that he 
 used to ride his master's horses a-night. Whether 
 this be true or not, who can say? But, howsoever, 
 Hans went to ruin ; and instead of being a flourish- 
 ing active lad, he was turned out, and went a begging 
 all through Saxony ; and he always told this story as 
 the real history of his misfortunes. Some say, he's 
 not as strong in his head as he used to be. However, 
 why should we say it's not a true tale? What's 
 that?' almost shrieked Essper. 
 
 Vivian listened, and heard distinctly the distant 
 baying of hounds. 
 
 ''Tis he! 'tis he!' said Essper ;' now don't speak, 
 Sir, don't speak ; and if the devil make me join him, 
 as may be the case, for I'm but a cock-brained thing, 
 particularly at midnight ; don't be running after me 
 from any foolish feeling, but take care of yourself, 
 and don't be chattering. To think you should come 
 to this, my precious young master!' 
 
 ' Cease your blubbering, for heaven's sake ! Do 
 you think that I'm to be frightened by the idiot tales 
 of a parcel of old women, and the lies of a gang of 
 detected poachers? Come sir, ride on. We are, 
 most probably, near some huntsman's cottage. That 
 distant baying is the sweetest music I've heard a great 
 while.' 
 
 459
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VI 
 
 < Don't be rash, Sir don't be rash don't be rash. 
 If you were to give me fifty crowns now, I couldn't 
 remember a single line of a single prayer. Ave 
 Maria! it always is so when I most want it. Pater 
 noster! and whenever I've need to remember a 
 song, sure enough I'm always thinking of a prayer. 
 Unser vater, der du bist im himmel sanctificado se 
 el tu nombra ; il tuo regno venga.' Here Essper 
 George was proceeding with a scrap of modern Greek, 
 when the horsemen suddenly came upon one of those 
 broad green vistas which we often see in forests, and 
 which are generally cut, either for the convenience of 
 hunting, or carting wood. It opened on the left side 
 of the road ; and at the bottom of it, though ap- 
 parently at a great distance, a light was visible. 
 
 { So much for your Wild Huntsman, my friend 
 Essper! I shall be much disappointed if here are not 
 quarters for the night. And see! the moon comes 
 out a good omen!' 
 
 After about ten minutes sharp trot over the noise- 
 less turf, the travellers found themselves before a 
 large and many-windowed mansion. The building 
 formed the farthest side of a quadrangle, which you 
 entered through an ancient and massy gate ; on each 
 side of which was a small building of course the 
 lodges. Essper soon found that the gate was closely 
 fastened ; and though he knocked often and loudly, 
 it was with no effect. That the inhabitants of the 
 mansion had not yet retired was certain, for lights 
 were moving in the great house; and one of the 
 lodges was not only very brilliantly illuminated, but 
 full,^ as Vivian was soon convinced, of clamorous, if 
 not jovial guests. 
 
 ' Now, by the soul of my unknown father ?' said 
 the enraged Essper, < I'll make these saucy porters 
 
 460
 
 CHAPTER I VIVIAN GREY 
 
 learn their duty. What ho ! there what ho ! with- 
 in! within!' But the only answer he received, was 
 the loud reiteration of a rude and roaring chorus ; 
 which, as it was now more distinctly and audibly 
 enunciated, evidently for the purpose of enraging the 
 travellers they detected to be something to the fol- 
 lowing effect : 
 
 ' Then a prayer to St. Peter, a prayer to St. Paul, 
 A prayer to St. Jerome a prayer to them all 
 A prayer to each one of the saintly stock, 
 But devotion alone, devotion to Hock ! ' 
 
 { A right good burden ! ' said Essper. The very 
 words had made him recover his temper, and ten 
 thousand times more desirous of gaining admittance. 
 He was off his horse in a moment, and scrambling up 
 the wall with the aid of the iron staunchions, he 
 clambered up to the window. The sudden appear- 
 ance of his figure startled the inmates of the lodge; 
 and one of them soon staggered to the gate. 
 
 * What want you, ye noisy and disturbing varlets ? 
 what want you, ye most unhallowed rogues at such a 
 place, and at such an hour ? If you be thieves look 
 at our bars (here a hiccup). If you be poachers 
 our master is engaged, and ye may slay all the game 
 in the forest (another hiccup) but if ye be good 
 men and true ' 
 
 { We are, we are!' hallooed Essper eagerly. 
 
 1 You are, you are ! ' said the porter, in a tone of 
 great surprise ; ' then you ought to be ashamed of 
 yourselves for disturbing holy men at their devo- 
 tions!' 
 
 * Is this the way,' said Essper, < to behave, ye 
 shameless rascals, to a noble and mighty Prince, who 
 happens to have lost his way in one of your cursed 
 forests ; but who, though he has parted with his 
 
 461
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VI 
 
 suite, has still in his pocket a purse full of ducats? 
 Would you have him robbed by any others but 
 yourselves ? Is this the way you behave to a prince 
 of the Holy Roman Empire a knight of every 
 order under the sun, and a most particular friend of 
 your own master ? Is this the way to behave to his 
 secretary, who is one of the merriest fellows living ; 
 can sing a jolly song with any of you, and so bedevil 
 a bottle of Geisenheim with lemons and brandy, that 
 for the soul of ye, you wouldn't know it from the 
 greenest Tokay. Out, out on ye! you know not 
 what you have lost!' 
 
 Ere Essper had finished more than one stout bolt 
 had been drawn, and the great key had already en- 
 tered the stouter lock. 
 
 * Most honourable Sirs ! ' hiccuped the porter ; < in 
 Our Lady's name enter. I had forgot myself ; for 
 in these autumn nights it is necessary to anticipate 
 the cold with a glass of cheering liquor ; and God 
 forgive me! if I didn't mistake your most mighty 
 Highnesses for a couple of forest rovers, or small 
 poachers at least. Thin entertainment here, kind 
 Sir (here the last bolt was withdrawn) a glass of 
 indifferent liquor, and a prayer-book. I pass the 
 time chiefly these cold nights with a few holy-minded 
 friends, at our devotions. You heard us at our 
 prayers, honourable lords! 
 
 A prayer to St. Peter, a prayer to St. Paul ! 
 A prayer to St. Jerome, a prayer to them all ! 
 
 Here the devout porter most reverently crossed him- 
 self. 
 
 ' A prayer to each one of the saintly stock, 
 But devotion alone, devotion to Hock ! ' 
 
 bellowed Essper George You forget the best part 
 of the burthen, my honest friend.' 
 
 462
 
 CHAPTER I VIVIAN GREY 
 
 4 Oh!' said the porter, with an arch smile, as he 
 opened the lodge door ; * I'm glad to find that your 
 honourable Excellencies have a taste for hymns!' 
 
 The porter led them into a room, at a round table 
 in which, about half a dozen individuals were busily 
 engaged in discussing the merits of various agree- 
 able liquors. There was an attempt to get up a show 
 of polite hospitality to Vivian as he entered ; but the 
 man who offered him his chair fell to the ground in 
 an unsuccessful struggle to be courteous ; and an- 
 other one, who had filled a large glass for the guest 
 on his entrance, offered him, after a preliminary 
 speech of incoherent compliments, the empty bottle 
 by mistake. The porter and his friends, although 
 they were all drunk, had sense enough to feel that the 
 presence of a Prince of the Holy Roman Empire, a 
 Chevalier of every order under the sun, and the par- 
 ticular friend of their master, was not exactly a fit 
 companion for themselves, and was rather a check on 
 the gay freedom of equal companionship ; and so, 
 although the exertion was not a little troublesome, 
 the guardian of the gate reeled out of the room to 
 inform his honoured Lord of the sudden arrival of a 
 stranger of distinction. Essper George immediately 
 took his place, and ere the master of the lodge had 
 returned, the noble secretary had not only given a 
 choice toast, sung a choice song, and been hailed by 
 the grateful plaudits of all present ; but had pro- 
 ceeded in his attempt to fulfil the pledge which he 
 had given at the gate to the very letter, by calling out 
 lustily for a bottle of Geisenheim, lemons, brandy, 
 and a bowl. 
 
 * Fairly and softly, my little son of Bacchus,' said 
 the porter as he re-entered ' fairly and softly, and 
 then thou shall want nothing ; but remember I have 
 
 463
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VI 
 
 to perform my duties unto the noble Lord my master, 
 and also to the noble Prince. your master. If thou 
 wilt follow me,' continued the porter, reeling as he 
 bowed with the greatest consideration to Vivian ; 
 ' if thou wilt follow me, most high and mighty Sir, 
 my master will be right glad to have the honour of 
 drinking your health. And as for you, my friends ; 
 fairly and softly, fairly and softly say I again. We'll 
 talk of the Geisenheim anon. Am I to be absent 
 from the first brewing? No, no! fairly and softly, 
 fairly and softly ; you can drink my health when I 
 am absent in cold liquor, and say those things which 
 you could not well say before my face. But mind, 
 my most righteous and well-beloved, I'll have no 
 flattery no flattery. Flattery is the destruction of 
 all good-fellowship ; it's like a qualmish liqueur in 
 the midst of a bottle of wine. No flattery, no flat- 
 tery ; speak your minds, say any little thing that 
 comes first, as thus " well, for Hunsdrich the por- 
 ter, I must declare that I never heard evil word 
 against him ;" or thus, " a very good leg has Huns- 
 drich the porter, and a tight made lad altogether ; no 
 enemy with the girls, I warrant me ;" or thus, " well, 
 for a good-hearted, good-looking, stout-drinking, 
 virtuous, honourable, handsome, generous, sharp- 
 witted knave, commend me to Hunsdrich the por- 
 ter ;" but not a word more my friends, not a word 
 more, no flattery, no flattery. Now, Sir, I beg your 
 pardon.' 
 
 The porter led the way through a cloistered walk, 
 until they arrived at the door of the great mansion, 
 to which they ascended by a lofty flight of steps ; it 
 opened into a very large octagonal hall, the sides of 
 which were covered with fowling-pieces, stags-heads, 
 couteaux de chasse, boar-spears, and hugh fishing- 
 
 464
 
 CHAPTER I VIVIAN GREY 
 
 nets. Passing through this hall they ascended a very 
 noble staircase, on the first landing-place of which 
 was a door, which Vivian's conductor opened, and 
 ushering him into a large and well-lighted chamber, 
 immediately withdrew. From the centre of this 
 room descended a magnificently cut chandelier, which 
 threw a graceful light upon a sumptuous banquet- 
 table, at which were seated eight very singular-look- 
 ing personages. All of them wore hunting-dresses 
 of various shades of straw-coloured cloth, with the 
 exception of one, who sat on the left hand of the 
 master of the feast, and the colour of whose costume 
 was a rich crimson-purple. From the top to the 
 bottom of the table extended a double file of wine- 
 glasses and goblets, of all sizes and all colours. 
 There you might see brilliant relics of that ancient 
 ruby-glass, the vivid tints of which seem lost to us 
 for ever. Next to these were marshalled, goblets of 
 Venetian manufacture, of a clouded, creamy white; 
 then came the huge hock-glass of some ancient Pri- 
 mate of Mentz, nearly a yard high ; towering above 
 its companions, as the church, its former master, pre- 
 dominated over the simple laymen of the middle 
 ages. Why should I forget a set of most curious 
 and antique drinking-cups of painted glass, on whose 
 rare surfaces were emblazoned the Kaiser and ten 
 Electors of the old Empire ? 
 
 Vivian bowed to the party, and stood in silence, 
 while they stared a most scrutinising examination. 
 At length the master of the feast spoke. He was a 
 very stout man, with a prodigious paunch, which his 
 tightened dress set off to great advantage. His 
 face, and particularly his forehead, were of great 
 breadth. His eyes were set far apart. His long 
 ears hung down almost to his shoulders ; yet sin- 
 
 ?G 465
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VI 
 
 gular as he was, not only in these, but in many other 
 respects, everything was forgotten when your eyes 
 lighted on his nose. It was the most prodigious 
 nose that Vivian ever remembered not only seeing, 
 but hearing, or even reading of. In fact, it was too 
 monstrous for the crude conception of a dream. 
 This mighty nose hung down almost to its owner's 
 chest. 
 
 ' Be seated,' said this personage, in no unpleasing 
 voice, and he pointed to the chair opposite to him. 
 Vivian took the vacated seat of the Vice President, 
 who moved himself to the right. * Be seated, and 
 whoever you may be welcome! If our words be 
 few, think not that our welcome is scant. We are 
 not much given to speech, holding it for a principle 
 that if a man's mouth be open, it should be for the 
 purpose of receiving that which cheers a man's spirit ; 
 not of giving vent to idle words, which, as far as we 
 have observed, produce no other effect save filling 
 the world with crude and unprofitable fantasies, and 
 distracting our attention when we are on the point 
 of catching those flavours which alone make the 
 world endurable. Therefore, briefly but heartily 
 welcome! Welcome, Sir Stranger from us and 
 from all ; and first from us, the Grand Duke of 
 Schoss Johannisberger.' Here his Highness rose, 
 and pulled out a large ruby tumbler from the file. 
 Each of those present did the same, without how- 
 ever rising, and the late Vice President, who sat 
 next to Vivian, invited him to follow their example. 
 
 The Grand Duke of Schoss Johannisberger 
 brought forward, from beneath the table, an ancient 
 and exquisite bottle of that choice liquor from 
 which he took his exhilarating title. The cork was 
 drawn, and the bottle circulated with rapidity ; and 
 
 466
 
 CHAPTER I VIVIAN GREY 
 
 in three minutes the ruby glasses were filled and 
 emptied, and the Grand Duke's health quaffed by 
 all present. 
 
 * Again, Sir Stranger,' continued the Grand Duke, 
 'briefly but heartily welcome! welcome from us, 
 and welcome from all and first from us, and now 
 from the Archduke of Hockheimer!' 
 
 The Archduke of Hockheimer was a thin, sinewy 
 man, with long, carroty hair eyelashes of the same 
 colour, but of a remarkable length and mustachios, 
 which, though very thin, were so long that they met 
 under his chin. Vivian could not refrain from notic- 
 ing the extreme length, whiteness, and apparent 
 sharpness of his teeth. The Archduke did not speak, 
 but leaning under the table, soon produced a bottle 
 of Hockheimer. He then took from the file one of 
 the Venetian glasses of clouded white. All followed 
 his example the bottle was sent round, his health 
 was pledged and the Grand Duke of Schoss Johan- 
 nisberger again spoke: 
 
 * Again, Sir Stranger, briefly but heartily welcome ! 
 welcome from us, and welcome from all and first 
 from us, and now from the Elector of Steinberg ! ' 
 
 The Elector of Steinberg was a short, but very 
 broad-backed, strong-built man. Though his head 
 was large, his features were small, and appeared 
 smaller from the miraculous quantity of coarse, 
 shaggy, brown hair, which grew over almost every 
 part of his face, and fell down upon his shoulders. 
 The Elector was as silent as his predecessor, and 
 quickly produced a bottle of Steinberg. The curious 
 drinking cups of painted glass were immediately 
 withdrawn from the file, the bottle was sent round, 
 the Elector's health was pledged, and the Grand 
 Duke of Schoss Johannisberger again spoke: 
 
 467
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VI 
 
 4 Again, Sir Stranger, briefly but heartily wel- 
 come! welcome from us, and welcome from all 
 and first from us, and now from the Margrave of 
 Rudesheimer!' 
 
 The Margrave of Rudesheimer was a slender man, 
 of elegant appearance. As Vivian watched the 
 glance of his speaking eye, and the half satirical and 
 half jovial smile which played upon his features, he 
 hardly expected that his Highness would be as silent 
 as his predecessors. But the Margrave spoke no 
 word. He gave a kind of shout of savage exulta- 
 tion as he smacked his lips after dashing off his 
 glass of Rudesheimer ; and scarcely noticing the 
 salutations of those who drank his health, he threw 
 himself back in his chair, and listened seemingly 
 with a smile of derision, while the Grand Duke of 
 Schoss Johannisberger again spoke : 
 
 f Again, Sir Stranger, briefly but heartily wel- 
 come! welcome from us, and welcome from all 
 and first from us, and now from the Landgrave of 
 Grafenberg ! ' 
 
 The Landgrave of Grafenberg was a rude, awk- 
 ward-looking person, who, when he rose from his 
 seat, stared like an idiot, and seemed utterly ignorant 
 of what he ought to do. But his quick companion, 
 the Margrave of Rudesheimer, soon thrust a bottle 
 of Grafenberg into the Landgrave's hand, and with 
 some trouble and bustle the Landgrave extracted the 
 cork ; and then helping himself, sat down, forgetting 
 either to salute, or to return the salutations of those 
 present. 
 
 'Again, Sir Stranger, briefly but heartily wel- 
 come! welcome from us, and welcome from all 
 and first from us, and now from the Palsgrave of 
 Geisenheim!' 
 
 468
 
 CHAPTER I VIVIAN GREY 
 
 The Palsgrave of Geisenheim was a dwarf in spec- 
 tacles. He drew the cork from his bottle like 
 lightning, and mouthed at his companions, even 
 while he bowed to them. 
 
 ' Again, Sir Stranger, briefly but heartily wel- 
 come! welcome from us, and welcome from all 
 and first from us, and now from the Count of Mark- 
 brunnen ! ' 
 
 The Count of Markbrunnen was a sullen-looking 
 personage, with lips protruding nearly three inches 
 beyond his nose. From each side of his upper jaw 
 projected a large tooth. 
 
 ' Thanks to Heaven ! ' said Vivian, as the Grand 
 Duke again spoke ' thanks to Heaven, here is our 
 last man!' 
 
 * Again, Sir Stranger, briefly but heartily wel- 
 come! welcome from us, and welcome from all 
 and first from us, and now from the Baron of Asmans- 
 hausen.' 
 
 The Baron of Asmanshausen sat on the left hand 
 of the Grand Duke of Schoss Johannisberger, and 
 was dressed, as we have before said, in an unique 
 costume of crimson purple. The Baron stood, with- 
 out his boots, about six feet eight. He was a sleek 
 man, with a head not bigger than a child's, and a 
 pair of small, black, beady eyes, of singular bril- 
 liancy. The Baron introduced a bottle of the only 
 red wine that the Rhine boasts ; but which, for its 
 fragrant and fruity flavour, and its brilliant tint, is 
 perhaps even superior to the sunset glow of Bur- 
 gundy. 
 
 ' And now,' continued the Grand Duke, ' having 
 introduced you to all present, Sir, we will begin 
 drinking.' 
 
 Vivian had submitted to the introductory cere- 
 469
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VI 
 
 monies with the good grace which becomes a man of 
 the world ; but the coolness of his Highness's last 
 observation recalled our hero's wandering senses ; 
 and, at the same time, alarmed at discovering that 
 eight botles of wine had been discussed by the party, 
 merely as a preliminary, and emboldened by the con- 
 tents of one bottle which had fallen to his own share, 
 he had the courage to confront the Grand Duke of 
 Schoss Johannisberger in his own castle. 
 
 ' Your wine, most noble Lord, stands in no need 
 of my commendation ; but as I must mention it, 
 let it not be said that I ever mentioned it without 
 praise. After a ten hours' ride, its flavour is as 
 grateful to the palate as its strength is refreshing to 
 the heart ; but though old Hock, in homely phrase, 
 is styled meat and drink, I confess to you that, at 
 this moment, I stand in need of even more solid' 
 sustenance than the juice of the sunny hill.' 
 
 ' A traitor ! ' shrieked all present, each with 
 his right arm stretched out, glass in hand ; * A 
 traitor!' 
 
 ' No traitor,' answered Vivian ; ' no traitor, my 
 noble and right thirsty lords ; but one of the most 
 hungry mortals that ever yet famished.' 
 
 The only answer that he received for some time, 
 was a loud and ill-boding murmur. The long whis- 
 ker of the Archduke of Hockheimer curled with 
 renewed rage : audible, though suppressed, was the 
 growl of the hairy Elector of Steinberg ; fearful the 
 corporeal involutions of the tall Baron of Asmans- 
 hausen ; and savagely sounded the wild laugh of 
 the bright-eyed Margrave of Rudesheimer. 
 
 ' Silence, my lords ! ' said the Grand Duke. For- 
 get we that ignorance is the stranger's portion, and 
 that no treason can exist among those who are not 
 
 470
 
 CHAPTER I VIVIAN GREY 
 
 our sworn subjects? Pity we rather the degeneracy 
 of this bold spoken youth ; and in the plenitude of 
 our mercy, let us pardon his demand! Know ye, 
 unknown knight, that you are in the presence of an 
 august society, who are here met at one of their ac- 
 customed convocations ; whereof the purport is the 
 frequent quaffing of those most glorious liquors, of 
 which the sacred Rhine is the great father. We 
 profess to find a perfect commentary on the Pindaric 
 laud of the strongest element, in the circumstance of 
 the banks of a river being the locality where the juice 
 of the grape is most delicious and holding, there- 
 fore, that water is strongest, because, in a manner, 
 it giveth birth to wine ; we also hold it as a sacred 
 element, and consequently, most religiously refrain 
 from refreshing our bodies with that sanctified and 
 most undrinkable fluid. Know ye, that we are the 
 children of the Rhine the conservators of his fla- 
 vours profound in the learning of his exquisite 
 aroma, and deep students in the mysteries of his 
 inexplicable nare. Professing not to be immortal, 
 we find in the exercise of the chace a noble means to 
 preserve that health which is necessary for the per- 
 formance of the ceremonies to which we are pledged. 
 At to-morrow's dawn our bugle sounds, and thou, 
 stranger, may engage the wild boar at our side ; at 
 to-morrow's noon the castle bell will toll, and thou, 
 stranger, may eat of the beast which thou hast con- 
 quered : but to feed after midnight, to destroy the 
 power of catching the delicate flavour, to annihilate 
 the faculty of detecting the undefinable nare, is 
 heresy most rank and damnable heresy! There- 
 fore, at this hour soundeth no plate nor platter 
 jingleth no knife nor culinary instrument in the 
 PALACE OF THE WINES. Yet, in consideration of
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VI 
 
 thy youth, and that on the whole thou hast tasted 
 thy liquor like a proper man, from which we augur 
 the best expectations of the manner in which thou 
 wilt drink it, we feel confident that our brothers of 
 the goblet will permit us to grant thee the substan- 
 tial solace of a single shoeing horn.' 
 
 ' Let it be a Dutch herring then,' said Vivian ; 
 ' and as you have souls to be saved, grant me one 
 slice of bread.' 
 
 { It cannot be,' said the Grand Duke ; ' but as we 
 are willing to be indulgent to bold hearts, verily, we 
 will wink at the profanation of a single toast ; but 
 you must order an anchovy one, and give secret in- 
 structions to the waiting-man to forget the fish. It 
 must be counted as a second shoeing horn ; and you 
 will forfeit for the last a bottle of Markbrunnen.' 
 
 ' And now, illustrious brothers,' continued the 
 Grand Duke, ' let xis drink 1726!' 
 
 All present gave a single cheer, in which Vivian 
 was obliged to join ; and they honoured with a glass 
 of the very year, the memory of a celebrated vin- 
 tage. 
 
 c 1748!' said the Grand Duke. 
 
 Two cheers, and the same ceremony. 
 
 1766, and 1779, were honoured in the same man- 
 ner ; but when the next toast was drank, Vivian 
 almost observed in the countenances of the Grand 
 Duke and his friends, the signs of incipient insanity. 
 
 ' 1783!' hallooed the Grand Duke, in a tone of 
 the most triumphant exultation ; and his mighty 
 proboscis, as it snuffed the air, almost caused a 
 whirlwind round the room Hockeimer gave a roar 
 Steinberg a growl Rudesheimer a wild laugh 
 Markbrunnen a loud grunt Grafenberg a bray 
 Asmanshausen's long body moved to and fro with
 
 CHAPTER I VIVIAN GREY 
 
 wonderful agitation ; and little Geisenheim's bright 
 eyes glistened through their glasses, as if they were 
 on fire. How ludicrous is the incipient inebriety of 
 a man who wears spectacles! 
 
 Thanks to an excellent constitution, which recent 
 misery however had somewhat shattered, Vivian bore 
 up against all these attacks ; and when they had got 
 down to 1802, from the excellency of his digestion, 
 and the inimitable skill with which he emptied many 
 of the latter glasses under the table, he was, perhaps, 
 in better condition than any one in the room. 
 
 And now rose the idiot Grafenberg ; Rudesheimer 
 all the time, with a malicious smile, faintly pulling 
 him down by the skirt of his coat ; as if he were 
 desirous of preventing an exposure which his own 
 advice had brought about. He had been persuad- 
 ing Grafenberg the whole evening to make a speech. 
 
 4 My Lord Duke,' brayed the jackass ; and then 
 he stopped dead, and looked round the room with 
 an unmeaning stare. 
 
 4 Hear, hear, hear ! ' was the general cry ; but 
 Grafenberg seemed astounded at any one being de- 
 sirous of hearing his voice, or for a moment seriously 
 entertaining the idea that he could have anything to 
 say ; and so he stared again, and again, and again ; 
 till at last, Rudesheimer, by dint of kicking his shins 
 under the table, the Margrave the whole time 
 seeming perfectly motionless at length extracted a 
 sentence from the asinine Landgrave. 
 
 4 My Lord Duke!' again commenced Grafenberg ; 
 and again he stopped. 
 
 4 Go on ! ' shouted all. 
 
 4 My Lord Duke! Rudesheimer is treading on 
 my toes!' 
 
 Here little Geisenheim gave a loud laugh of de- 
 
 473
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VI 
 
 rision ; in which all joined, except surly Mark- 
 brunnen whose lips protruded an extra inch beyond 
 their usual length, when he found that all were 
 laughing at his friend. The Grand Duke at last 
 procured silence. 
 
 4 Shame ! shame ! most mighty Princes ! Shame ! 
 shame! most noble lords. Is it with this irreverent 
 glee, these scurvy flouts, and indecorous mockery, 
 that you would have this stranger believe that we 
 celebrate the ceremonies of our father Rhine? 
 Shame, I say and silence ! It is time that we should 
 prove to him, that we are not merely a boisterous 
 and unruly party of swilling varlets, who leave their 
 brains in their cups. It is time that we should do 
 something to prove that we are capable of better 
 and worthier things. What ho ! my Lord of Geisen- 
 heim! shall I speak twice to the guardian of the 
 horn of the Fairy King?' 
 
 The little dwarf instantly jumped from his seat, 
 and proceeded to the end of the room ; where, after 
 having bowed three times with great reverence be- 
 fore a small black cabinet made of vine wood, he 
 opened it with a golden key, and then with great 
 pomp and ceremony bore its contents to the Grand 
 Duke. His Royal Highness took from the little 
 dwarf the horn of a gigantic and antediluvian elk. 
 The cunning hand of an ancient German artificer 
 had formed this curious relic into a drinking cup. 
 It was exquisitely polished, and cased in the interior 
 with silver. On the outside the only ornaments 
 were three richly chased silver rings, which were 
 placed nearly at equal distances. When the Grand 
 Duke had carefully examined this most precious 
 horn, he held it up with great reverence to all pre- 
 sent, and a party of devout catholics could not have 
 
 474
 
 CHAPTER I VIVIAN GREY 
 
 paid greater homage to the elevated Host, than did 
 the various guests to the horn of the Fairy King. 
 Even the satanic smile on Rudesheimer's counten- 
 ance was for a moment subdued ; and all bowed. 
 The Grand Duke then delivered the mighty cup to 
 his neighbour, the Archduke of Hockheimer, who 
 held it with both hands until his Royal Highness 
 had emptied into it, with great care, three bottles of 
 Johannisberger. All rose : the Grand Duke took 
 the goblet in one hand, and with the other he dexter- 
 ously put aside his most inconvenient and enormous 
 nose. Dead silence prevailed, save the roar of the 
 liquor as it rushed down the Grand Duke's throat, 
 and resounded through the chamber like the distant 
 dash of a waterfall. In three minutes his Royal 
 Highness had completed his task, the horn had 
 quitted his mouth, his nose had again resumed its 
 usual situation, and as he handed the cup to the 
 Archduke, Vivian thought that a material change 
 had taken place in his countenance since he had 
 quaffed his last draught. His eyes seemed more 
 apart ; his ears seemed broader and longer ; and his 
 nose was most visibly lengthened. The Archduke, 
 before he commenced his draught, ascertained with 
 great scrupulosity that his predecessor had taken his 
 fair share by draining the horn as far as the first ring ; 
 and then he poured off with great rapidity his own 
 portion. But though, in performing the same task, 
 he was quicker than the master of the party, the 
 draught not only apparently, but audibly, produced 
 upon him a much more decided effect than it had on 
 the Grand Duke ; for when the second ring was 
 drained, the Archduke gave a loud roar of exulta- 
 tion, and stood up for some time from his seat, with 
 his hands resting on the table, over which he leant 
 
 475
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VI 
 
 as if he were about to spring upon his opposite 
 neighbour. The cup was now handed across the 
 table to the Baron of Asmanshausen. His lordship 
 performed his task with ease ; but as he withdrew 
 the horn from his mouth, all present, except Vivian, 
 gave a loud cry of ' Supernaculum ! ' The Baron 
 smiled with great contempt as he tossed, with a care- 
 less hand, the great horn upside downwards, and was 
 unable to shed upon his nail even the one excusable 
 pearl. He handed the refilled horn to the Elector 
 of Steinberg, who drank his portion with a growl ; 
 but afterwards seemed so pleased with the facility of 
 his execution, that instead of delivering it to the 
 next bibber, the Palsgrave of Markbrunnen, he com- 
 menced some clumsy attempts at a dance of triumph, 
 in which he certainly would have proceeded, had not 
 the loud grunts of the surly and thick-lipped Mark- 
 brunnen occasioned the interference of the Grand 
 Duke. Supernaculum now fell to the Margrave of 
 Rudesheimer, who gave a loud and long-continued 
 laugh as the dwarf of Geisenheim filled the horn 
 for the third time. 
 
 While this ceremony was going on a thousand 
 plans had occurred to Vivian for his escape ; but all, 
 on second thoughts, proved impracticable. With 
 agony he had observed that supernaculum was his 
 miserable lot. Could he but have foisted it on the 
 idiot Grafenberg, he might, by his own impudence 
 and the other's stupidity, have escaped. But he 
 could not flatter himself that he should be successful 
 in bringing about this end, for he observed with 
 sorrow that the malicious Rudesheimer had not for 
 a moment ceased watching him with a keen and ex- 
 ulting glance. Geisenheim performed his task ; and 
 ere Vivian could ask for the goblet, Rudesheimer, 
 
 476
 
 CHAPTER I VIVIAN GREY 
 
 with a fell laugh, had handed it to Grafenberg. The 
 greedy ass drank his portion with ease, and indeed 
 drank far beyond his limit. The cup was in Vivian's 
 hand, Rudesheimer was roaring (supernaculum) 
 louder than all Vivian saw that the covetous 
 Grafenberg had providentially rendered his task com- 
 paratively light ; but even as it was, he trembled at 
 the idea of drinking at a single draught, more than a 
 pint of most vigorous and powerful wine. 
 
 ' My Lord Duke,' said Vivian, ' you and your 
 companions forget that I am little used to these cere- 
 monies ; that I am yet uninitiated in the mysteries 
 of the nare. I have endeavoured to prove myself 
 no chicken-hearted water-drinking craven, and I 
 have more wine within me at this moment than any 
 man yet bore without dinner. I think, therefore, 
 that I have some grounds for requesting indulgence ; 
 and I have no doubt that the good sense of yourself 
 and your friends ' 
 
 Ere Vivian could finish, he almost fancied that a 
 well-stocked menagerie had been suddenly .emptied 
 in the room. Such roaring, and such growling, and 
 such hissing, could only have been exceeded on some 
 grand feast-day in the recesses of a Brazilian forest. 
 Asmanshausen looked as fierce as a boa constrictor 
 before dinner. The proboscis of the Grand Duke 
 heaved to and fro like the trunk of an enraged ele- 
 phant. Hockheimer glared like a Bengal tiger, 
 about to spring upon its prey. Steinberg growled 
 like a Baltic bear. In Markbrunnen Vivian recog- 
 nised the wild boar he had himself often hunted. 
 Grafenberg brayed like a jackass ; and Geisenheim 
 chattered like an ape. But all was forgotten and un- 
 noticed when Vivian heard the fell and frantic shouts 
 of the laughing hyaena, the Margrave of Rudes- 
 
 477
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VI 
 
 heimer! Vivian, in despair, dashed the horn of 
 Oberon to his mouth. One pull a gasp another 
 desperate draught it was done! and followed by a 
 supernaculum almost superior to the exulting As- 
 manshausen's. 
 
 A loud shout hailed the exploit, and when the 
 shout had subsided into silence, the voice of the 
 Grand Duke of Schoss Johannisberger was again 
 heard : 
 
 ' Noble Lords and Princes ! I congratulate you on 
 the acquisition of a congenial comate, and the acces- 
 sion to our society of one, who I now venture to 
 say, will never disgrace the glorious foundation ; but 
 who, on the contrary, with heaven's blessing and the 
 aid of his own good palate, will, it is hoped, add to 
 our present knowledge of flavours by the detection 
 of new ones, and by illustrations drawn from fre- 
 quent study and constant observation of the mys- 
 terious nare. In consideration of his long journey 
 and his noble achievement, I do propose that we 
 drink but very lightly to-night, and meet by two 
 hours after to-morrow's dawn, under the mossman's 
 oak. Nevertheless, before we part, for the refresh- 
 ment of our own good bodies, and by way of reward 
 and act of courtesy unto this noble and accomplished 
 stranger, let us pledge him in some foreign grape of 
 fame, to which he may perhaps be more accustomed 
 than unto the ever preferable juices of our Father 
 Rhine.' Here the Grand Duke nodded to little 
 Geisenheim, who in a moment was at his elbow. 
 
 It was in vain that Vivian remonstrated, excused 
 himself from joining, or assured his Royal High- 
 ness that his conduct had already been so peculiarly 
 courteous, that any further attention was at present 
 unnecessary. A curiously cut glass, which on a 
 
 478
 
 CHAPTER I VIVIAN GREY 
 
 moderate calculation Vivian reckoned would hold 
 at least three pints, was placed before each guest ; 
 and a basket, containing nine bottles of sparkling 
 champagne, premiere qualite, was set before his 
 Highness. 
 
 ' We are no bigots, noble stranger,' said the Grand 
 Duke, as he took one of the bottles, and scrutinized 
 the cork with a very keen eye ; ' We are no bigots, 
 and there are moments when we drink Champagne, 
 nor is Burgundy forgotten, nor the soft Bourdeaux, 
 nor the glowing grape of the sunny Rhone?' His 
 Highness held the bottle at an oblique angle with 
 the chandelier. The wire is loosened, whirr! 
 The exploded cork whizzed through the air, extin- 
 guished one of the burners of the chandelier, and 
 brought the cut drop which was suspended under it 
 rattling down among the glasses on the table. The 
 Grand Duke poured the foaming fluid into his great 
 goblet, and bowing to all around, fastened on its con- 
 tents with as much eagerness as a half-insane dog 
 rushes to a puddle in July. 
 
 The same operation was performed as regularly 
 and as skilfully by all, except Vivian. Eight bur- 
 ners were extinguished ; eight diamond drops had 
 fallen clattering on the table ; eight human beings 
 had finished a miraculous carouse, by each drinking 
 off a bottle of sparkling champagne. It was Vivian's 
 turn. All eyes were fixed on him with the most per- 
 fect attention. He was now, indeed, quite desper- 
 ate ; for had he been able to execute a trick which 
 long practice alone could have enabled any man to 
 perform, he felt conscious that it was quite out of 
 his power to taste a single drop of the contents of his 
 bottle. However, he loosened his wire and held 
 the bottle at an angle with the chandelier ; but the 
 
 479
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VI 
 
 cork flew quite wild, and struck with great force the 
 mighty nose of the Grand Duke. 
 
 ' A forfeit!' cried all. 
 
 ' Treason and a forfeit ! ' cried the Margrave of 
 Rudesheimer. 
 
 * A forfeit is sufficient punishment,' said the Grand 
 Duke ; who, however, still felt the smarting effect 
 of the assault on his proboscis. ' You must drink 
 Oberon's Horn full of champagne,' continued his 
 Highness. 
 
 ' Never ! ' said Vivian, ' Enough of this ; I have 
 already conformed in a degree which may injuriously 
 affect my health, with your barbarous humours, 
 but there is moderation even in excess, and so if 
 you please my lord your servant may show me to 
 my apartment, or I shall again mount my horse.' 
 
 ' You shall not leave this room,' said the Grand 
 Duke, with great firmness. 
 
 'Who shall prevent me?' asked Vivian. 
 
 * I will all will!' said the Grand Duke. 
 
 * Now, by heavens ! a more insolent and inhospit- 
 able old ruffian did I never meet. By the wine you 
 worship, if one of you dare touch me, you shall rue 
 it all your born days ; and as for you, Sir, if you 
 advance one step towards me, I'll take that sausage 
 of a nose of your's and hurl you half round your own 
 castle ! ' 
 
 'Treason!' shouted all, and looked to the Grand 
 Duke. 
 
 'Treason!' said enraged majesty. The allusion 
 to the nose had done away with all the constitutional 
 doubts which his Highness had sported so moder- 
 ately at the commencement of the evening. 
 
 'Treason!' howled the Grand Duke: 'instant 
 punishment!' 
 
 480
 
 CHAFFER I VIVIAN GREY 
 
 'What punishment?' asked Asmanshausen. 
 
 ' Drown him in the new butt of Moselle,' re- 
 commended Rudesheimer. The suggestion was im- 
 mediately adopted. Every one rose : the little 
 Geisenheim already had hold of Vivian's shoulder ; 
 and Grafenberg, instigated by the cowardly but 
 malicious Rudesheimer, was about to seize him by 
 the neck. Vivian took the dwarf and hurled him 
 at the chandelier, in whose brazen chains the little 
 being got entangled, and there remained. An un- 
 expected cross-buttocker floored the incautious and 
 unscientific Grafenburg ; and following up these ad- 
 vantages, Vivian laid open the skull of his prime 
 enemy, the retreating Margrave of Rudesheimer, 
 with the assistance of the horn of Oberon ; which 
 flew from his hand to the other end of the room, 
 from the force with which it rebounded from the 
 cranium of the enemy. All the rest were now on the 
 advance ; but giving a vigorous and unexpected 
 push to the table, the Grand Duke and Asmans- 
 hausen were thrown over, and the nose of the for- 
 mer got entangled with the awkward windings of 
 the fairy king's horn. Taking advantage of this 
 move, Vivian rushed to the door. He escaped, but 
 had not time to secure the lock against the enemy, 
 for the stout Elector of Steinberg was too quick for 
 him. He dashed down the stairs with extraordinary 
 agility ; but just as he had gained the large octagonal 
 hall, the whole of his late boon companions, with the 
 exception of the dwarf of Geisenheim who was left 
 in the chandelier, were visible in full chace. Escape 
 was impossible, and so Vivian, followed by the seven 
 nobles who were headed by the Grand Duke, de- 
 scribed with all possible rapidity a circle round the 
 hall. He, of course, gave himself up for lost ; but 
 
 2H 481
 
 VIVIAN GJIKY BOOK VI 
 
 luckily for him, it never occurred to one of his pur- 
 suers to do anything but follow their leader ; and as, 
 therefore, they never dodged Vivian, and as also he 
 was a much fleeter runner than the fat Grand Duke, 
 whose pace, of course, regulated the progress of his 
 followers, the party might have gone on at this rate 
 until all of them had dropped from fatigue, had not 
 the occurrence of a still more ludicrous incident pre- 
 vented this consummation. 
 
 The hall-door was suddenly dashed open, and 
 Essper George rushed in, followed in full chace by 
 Hunsdrich and the guests of the lodge, who were 
 the servants of Vivian's pursuers. Essper darted in 
 between Rudesheimer and Markbrunnen, and Huns- 
 drich and his friends following the same tactics as 
 their lords and masters, without making any attempt 
 to surround and hem in the object of their pursuit, 
 merely followed him in order ; describing, but in a 
 contrary direction, a lesser circle within the eternal 
 round of the first party. It was only proper for the 
 servants to give their masters the wall. In spite of 
 their very disagreeable and dangerous situation, it 
 was with difficulty that Vivian refrained from laugh- 
 ter as he met Essper regularly every half minute at 
 the foot of the great staircase. Suddenly, as Essper 
 passed, he took Vivian by the waist, and with a single 
 jerk placed him on the stairs ; and then, with a dex- 
 terous dodge, he brought Hunsdrich the porter and 
 the Grand Duke in full contact. 
 
 ( I have got you at last,' said Hunsdrich, seizing 
 hold of his Grace of Schoss Johannisberger by the 
 ears, and mistaking him for Essper. 
 
 < I have got you at last,' said his Royal High- 
 ness, grappling with his porter, whom he supposed to 
 be Vivian. Both struggled : their followers pushed 
 / 482
 
 CHAPTER I VIVIAN GREY 
 
 on with impetuous force ; the battle was general ; 
 the overthrow universal. In a moment all were on 
 the ground ; and if any less inebriated, or more active 
 individual attempted to rise, Essper immediately 
 brought him down with a boar spear. 
 
 ' Give me that large fishing-net,' said Essper to 
 Vivian; 'Quick, quick, your Highness!' 
 
 Vivian pulled down an immense coarse net, which 
 covered nearly five sides of the room. It was im- 
 mediately unfolded, and spread over the fallen crew. 
 To fasten it down with half a dozen boar-spears, 
 which they drove into the floor, was the work of a 
 moment. Essper had one pull at the proboscis of 
 the Grand Duke of Schoss Johannisberger before he 
 hurried Vivian away ; and in ten minutes they were 
 again on their horses' backs, and galloping through 
 the star-lit wood. 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 IT is the hour before the labouring bee has left his 
 golden hive ; not yet the blooming day buds in the 
 blushing East ; not yet has the victorious Lucifer 
 chased from the early sky the fainting splendor of 
 the stars of night. All is silent, save the light 
 breath of Morn waking the slumbering leaves. 
 Even now a golden streak breaks over the grey 
 mountains. Hark! to shrill chanticleer! As the 
 cock crows, the owl ceases. Hark! to shrill chan- 
 ticleer's feathered rival! the mounting lark springs 
 from the sullen earth, and welcomes with his hymn 
 the coming day. The golden streak has expanded 
 into a crimson crescent, and rays of living fire flame 
 over the rose-enamelled East. Man rises sooner 
 than the Sun ; and already sound the whistle of the 
 ploughman, the song of the mower, and the forge of 
 
 483
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VI 
 
 the smith, and hark! to the bugle of the hunter, 
 and the baying of his deep-mouthed hound. The 
 Sun is up the generating Sun! and temple, and 
 tower, and tree ; the massy wood, and the broad 
 field, and the distant hill, burst into sudden light- 
 quickly upcurled is the dusky mist from the shining 
 river quickly is the cold dew drunk from the raised 
 heads of the drooping flowers! 
 
 These observations are not by our hero ; for 
 although, like all other British youth, he had been 
 accustomed from an early age to scribble, and gene- 
 rally devoted his powers to the celebration of sunrise, 
 sunset, the moon, the evening star, and the other 
 principal planets ; nevertheless, at the present 
 moment, he was far from being in a disposition to 
 woo the muse. A quick canter, by a somewhat 
 clearer light than the one which had so unfortunately 
 guided himself and his companion to the castle of 
 the Grand Duke of Schoss Johannisberger, soon 
 carried them again to the skirts of the forest, and at 
 this minute they were emerging on the plain from 
 yonder dark wood. 
 
 ' By heavens ! Essper, I cannot reach the town 
 this morning. Was ever any thing more terribly 
 unfortunate! A curse on those drunken fools! 
 What with no rest, and no solid refreshment, and 
 the whole rivers of hock that are flowing within me, 
 and the infernal exertion of running round that vile 
 hall, I feel fairly exhausted, and could at this moment 
 fall from my saddle. See you no habitation, my 
 good fellow, where there might be a chance of a 
 breakfast and a few hours rest? We are now well 
 out of the forest Oh! surely there is smoke from 
 behind those pines! Some good wife, I trust, is by 
 her chimney corner.' 
 
 484
 
 CHAPTER II VIVIAN GREY 
 
 ' If my sense be not destroyed by the fumes of 
 that mulled Geisenhein, which still haunts me, I 
 could swear that the smoke is the soul of a burning 
 weed.' 
 
 ' A truce to your jokes, good Essper, I really am 
 very ill. A year ago I could have laughed at our 
 misfortunes, but now it is very different ; and by 
 heavens, I must have breakfast! So stir exert 
 yourself, and although I die for it, let us canter up 
 to the smoke.' 
 
 ' No, my dear master, I will ride on before. Do 
 you follow gently, and if there be a pigeon in the pot 
 in all Germany, I swear by the patron saint of every 
 village for fifty miles round, provided they be not 
 heretics, that you shall taste of its breast-bone this 
 morning.' 
 
 The smoke did issue from a chimney, but the door 
 of the cottage was shut. 
 
 ' Hilloa! hilloa! within, within!' shouted Essper; 
 ' who shuts the sun out on a September morning?' 
 
 The door was at length slowly opened, and a most 
 ill-favoured and inhospitable-looking dame deman- 
 ded in a sullen voice, * What's your will ?' 
 
 ' Oh ! you pretty creature ! ' said Essper, who was 
 still a little tipsy. 
 
 The door would have been shut in his face, had not 
 he darted into the house before the woman was aware. 
 
 ' Truly, a very neat and pleasant dwelling ! and 
 you would have no objection, I guess, to give a 
 handsome young gentleman some little sop of some- 
 thing, just to remind him you know that it isn't 
 dinner-time.' 
 
 ' We give no sops here ; what do you take us for? 
 and so, my handsome young gentleman, be off, or I 
 shall call the good man.' 
 
 485
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VI 
 
 ' Oh ! you beauty : why, I'm not the handsome 
 young gentleman, that's rny master! who, if he 
 were not half-starved to death, would fall in love 
 with you at first sight.' 
 
 ' Oh! your master is he in the carriage?' 
 
 ' Carriage ! no on horseback.' 
 
 ' Travellers?' 
 
 ' To be sure, my dearest dame ; travellers true.' 
 
 ' Travellers true, without luggage, and at this 
 time of morn! Methinks, by your looks, queer 
 fellow, that you're travellers whom it may be wise for 
 an honest woman not to meet.' 
 
 ' What ! some people have an objection, then, 
 to a forty kreiizer piece on a sunny morning?' 
 
 So saying, Essper, in a careless manner, tossed a 
 broad piece in the air, and made it ring on a fellow 
 coin, as he caught it in the palm of his hand when it 
 descended. 
 
 ' Is that your master ?' asked the woman. 
 
 ' Ay ! is it ; and the prettiest piece of flesh I've 
 seen this month, except yourself.' 
 
 { Well ! if the gentleman likes bread, he can sit 
 down here,' said the woman, pointing to a dirty 
 bench, and throwing a sour black loaf upon the 
 table. 
 
 ' Now, Sir ! ' said Essper, wiping the bench with 
 great care, ' lie you here and rest yourself. I've 
 known a marshal sleep upon a harder sofa. Break- 
 fast will be ready immediately, won't it, Ma'am?' 
 
 ' Haven't I given you the bread ? if you cannot 
 eat that, you may ride where you can find better 
 cheer.' 
 
 ' Yes ! you beauty yes ! you angel yes ! you 
 sweet creature but what's bread for a traveller's 
 breakfast ? But I dare say his Highness will be con- 
 
 486
 
 CHAPTER II VIVIAN GREY 
 
 tented young men are so easily pleased when there's 
 a pretty girl in the case you know that, you wench ! 
 you do, you little hussy, you're taking advantage of 
 it.' 
 
 Something like a smile lit up the face of the sul- 
 len woman when she said ' There may be an egg 
 in the house, but I don't know.' 
 
 ( But you will soon, you dear creature ! you see 
 his Highness is in no hurry for his breakfast. He 
 hasn't touched the bread yet, he's thinking of you> 
 I've no doubt of it ; now go and get the eggs, that's 
 a beauty ! Oh ! what a pretty foot ! ' bawled Essper 
 after her, as she left the room. ' Now confound this 
 old hag, if there's not meat about this house, may I 
 keep my mouth shut at our next dinner. I wonder 
 what's in that closet fastened! Here the knave 
 began sniffing and smelling in all the crevices. ' Oh ! 
 here's our breakfast ! my good lady, is it so ? What's 
 that in the corner? a boar's tusk! Ay! ay! a 
 huntsman's cottage and when lived a huntsman on 
 black bread before! Good cheer! good cheer, Sir! 
 we shall have such a breakfast to-day, that, by the 
 gods of all nations, we shall never forget it! Oh! 
 bless your bright eyes for these eggs, and that basin 
 of new milk.' 
 
 So saying, Essper took them out of her hand, and 
 placed them before Vivian. 
 
 * I was saying to myself, my pretty girl, when you 
 were out of the room " Essper George, Essper 
 George good cheer, Essper George say thy 
 prayers, and never despair come what, come may, 
 you'll fall among friends at last ; and how do you 
 know that your dream mayn't come true after all." 
 "Dream!" said I to myself, "what dream?" 
 " Dream!" said myself to I, " didn't you dream that 
 
 487
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VI 
 
 you breakfasted in the month of September with a 
 genteel young woman with gold ear-rings ; and isn't 
 she standing before you now! and didn't she do 
 every thing in the world to make you comfortable. 
 Didn't she give you milk and eggs, and when you 
 complained that you and meat had been but slack 
 friends of late, didn't she open her own closet, and 
 give you as fine a piece of hunting beef as 
 was ever set before a Jagd Junker." Oh! you 
 beauty ! ' 
 
 1 I think you'll turn me into an inn-keeper's wife 
 at last,' said the dame, her stern features relaxing 
 into a smile ; and while she spoke she advanced to 
 the great closet, Essper George following her, walk- 
 ing on his toes, lolling out his enormous tongue, and 
 stroking his mock paunch. As she opened it he 
 jumped upon a chair, and had examined every shelf 
 in less time than a pistol could flash. c White 
 bread ! Oh ! you beauty, fit for a countess. Salt ! 
 Oh ! you angel, worthy of Poland. Boar's head ! ! 
 Oh! you sweet creature, no better at Troyes! and 
 hunting beef! ! ! my dream is true!' and he bore in 
 triumph to Vivian, who was nearly asleep, the ample 
 round of salt and pickled beef, well stuffed with all 
 kinds of savory herbs. 
 
 'Now, Sir!' said he, putting before his master a 
 plate and necessary implements ; * let your heart 
 gladden No Sir! no Sir! cut the other side cut 
 the other side there's the silver edge. Now Sir, 
 some fat drink your milk drink your milk such 
 beef as this will soon settle all your Rhenish. Why 
 your eyes are brighter already .-Have you breakfasted 
 ma'am? You have, eh! Oh! breakfast again 
 never too much of a good thing. I always break- 
 fast myself till dinner-time ; and when dinner's fin- 
 
 488
 
 CHAPTER II VIVLVN GREY 
 
 ished, I begin my supper. Pray, where the devil are 
 we ? Is this Reisenberg ! ' 
 
 ' So we call it.' 
 
 ' And a very good name, too! Let me give you 
 a little stuffing, Sir. And are the Grand Duke's 
 gentlemen out a hunting?' 
 
 ' No, it's the Prince.' 
 
 ' The Prince ah ! I dare say you've a little more 
 milk. What a nice cottage this is! How I should 
 like to live here with you though with you 
 thank you for the milk quite fresh beautiful! 
 I'm my own man again! How do you feel, Sir?' 
 
 * Thanks to this good woman, much better ; and 
 with her kind permission, I will now rest myself on 
 this bench for a couple of hours. This, good lady,' 
 said Vivian, giving her some florins, ' I do not offer 
 as a remuneration for your kindness, but as a slight 
 token of ' 
 
 Here Vivian began to snore. Essper George, who 
 always slept with his eyes open, and who never sat 
 still for a second, save when eating, immediately left 
 the table ; and in five minutes was as completely 
 domesticated in the huntsman's cottage, as if he had 
 lived there all his life. The woman was quite de- 
 lighted with a guest, who, in the course of half-an- 
 hour had cleaned her house from top to bottom, dug 
 up half her garden, mended her furniture, and milked 
 her cow. 
 
 It was nearly an hour before noon ere the travel- 
 lers had remounted. Their road again entered the 
 enormous forest which they had been skirting for the 
 last two days. The huntsmen were abroad ; and the 
 fine weather, his good meal, and seasonable rest, and 
 the inspiriting sounds of the bugle, made Vivian 
 feel quite recovered from his late fatigue. 
 
 489
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VI 
 
 ' That must be a true-hearted huntsman, Essper, 
 by the sound of his bugle. I never heard one played 
 with more spirit. Hark! how fine it dies away in 
 the wood fainter and fainter, yet how clear! It 
 must be now half a mile distant.' 
 
 ' I hear nothing so wonderful,' said Essper, put- 
 ting the two middle fingers of his right hand before 
 his mouth, and sounding a note so clear and beauti- 
 ful, so exactly imitative of the fall which Vivian had 
 noticed and admired, that for a moment he imagined 
 that the huntsman was at his elbow. 
 
 ' Thou art a cunning knave! do it again.' This 
 time Essper made the very wood echo. In a few 
 minutes a horseman galloped up. He was as spruce 
 a cavalier as ever pricked gay steed on the pliant 
 grass. He was dressed in a green military uniform, 
 and a small gilt bugle hung down his side. His 
 spear told them that he was hunting the wild boar. 
 When he saw Vivian and Essper he suddenly pulled 
 up his horse, and seemed very much astonished. 
 
 ( I thought that his Highness had been here,' said 
 the huntsman. 
 
 ' No one has passed us, Sir,' said Vivian. 
 
 ' I could have sworn that his bugle sounded from 
 this very spot,' said the huntsman. ' My ear seldom 
 deceives me.' 
 
 ' We heard a bugle to the right, Sir,' said Essper. 
 
 ' Thanks, thanks, thanks my friend,' and the 
 huntsman was about to gallop off. 
 
 ' May I ask the name of his Highness,' said Vi- 
 vian. ' We are strangers in this country.' 
 
 ' That may certainly account for your ignorance,' 
 said the huntsman ; ' but no one who lives in this 
 land can be unacquainted with his Serene Highness 
 the Prince of Little Lilliput, my illustrious master. 
 
 490
 
 CHAPTER II VIVIAN GREY 
 
 I have the honour,' continued the huntsman, * of 
 being Jagd Junker, or Gentilhomme de la Chasse to 
 his Serene Highness.' 
 
 ' 'Tis an office of great dignity,' said Vivian, ' and 
 one that I have no doubt you most admirably per- 
 form I will not stop you, Sir, to admire your 
 horse.' 
 
 The huntsman bowed very courteously, and gal- 
 loped off. 
 
 ' You see, Sir,' said Essper George, ' that my bugle 
 has deceived even the Jagd Junker, or Gentilhomme 
 de la Chasse of his Serene Highness the Prince of 
 Little Lilliput himself ;' so saying, Essper again 
 sounded his instrument. 
 
 ' A joke may be carried too far, my good fellow,' 
 said Vivian. ' A true huntsman, like myself, 
 must not spoil a brother's sport. So silence your 
 bugle.' 
 
 Now again galloped up the Jagd Junker, or Gen- 
 tilhomme de la Chasse of his Serene Highness the 
 Prince of Little Lilliput. He pulled up his horse 
 again, apparently as much astounded as ever. 
 
 * I thought that his Highness had been here,' said 
 the Huntsman. 
 
 c No one has passed us,' said Vivian. 
 
 ' We heard a bugle to the right, said Essper 
 George. 
 
 4 1 am afraid his Serene Highness must be in dis- 
 tress. The whole suite are off the scent. It must 
 have been his bugle, for the regulations of this forest 
 are so strict, that no one dare sound a blast but his 
 Serene Highness.' Away galloped the huntsman. 
 
 ' Next time I must give you up Essper,' said 
 Vivian. 
 
 ' One more blast, my good master ! ' begged Ess- 
 
 49 i
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VI 
 
 per, in a very supplicating voice. ' This time to the 
 left the confusion will be then complete.' 
 
 ' On your life not I command you not/ and so 
 they rode on in silence. But it was one of those 
 days when Essper could neither be silent nor sub- 
 dued. Greatly annoyed at not being permitted to 
 play his bugle, he amused himself for some time by 
 making the most hideous grimaces ; but as there were 
 none either to admire or to be alarmed by the con- 
 tortions of his countenance, this diversion soon palled. 
 He then endeavoured to find some entertainment in 
 riding his horse in every mode except the right one ; 
 but again, who was to be astounded by his standing 
 on one foot on the saddle, or by his imitations of the 
 ludicrous shifts of a female equestrian, perfectly 
 ignorant of the manege. At length he rode with 
 his back to his horse's head, and imitated the peculiar 
 sound of every animal that he met. A young fawn, 
 and various kinds of birds already followed him ; and 
 even a squirrel had perched on his horse's neck. And 
 now they came to a small farm house which was 
 situated in the forest. The yard here offered great 
 amusement to Essper. He neighed, and half a 
 dozen horses' heads immediately appeared over the 
 hedge ; another neigh, and they were following him 
 in the road. The dog rushed out to seize the dan- 
 gerous stranger, and recover his charge ; but Essper 
 ave an amicable bark, and in a second the dog was 
 jumping by his side, and engaged in the most ear- 
 nest and friendly conversation. A loud and 
 continued grunt soon brought out the pigs ; and 
 meeting three or four cows returning home, a 
 few lowing sounds soon seduced them from 
 keeping their appointment with the dairy-maid. 
 A stupid jackass, who stared with astonishment 
 
 492
 
 CHAPTER II VIVIAN GREY 
 
 at the procession, was saluted with a lusty 
 bray, which immediately induced him to swell 
 the ranks ; and as Essper passed the poultry-yard, he 
 so deceitfully informed its inhabitants that they were 
 about to be fed, that twenty broods of ducks and 
 chickens were immediately after him. The careful 
 hens were terribly alarmed at the danger which their 
 offspring incurred from the heels and hoofs of the 
 quadrupeds ; but while they were in doubt and de- 
 spair, a whole flock of stately geese issued in solemn 
 pomp from another gate of the farm-yard, and com- 
 menced a cackling conversation with the delighted 
 Essper. So contagious is the force of example, and 
 so great was the confidence which the hens placed in 
 these pompous geese ; who were not the first fools 
 whose solemn air has deceived a few old females ; 
 that as soon as they perceived them in the train of the 
 horseman, they also trotted up to pay their respects 
 at his levee. And here Vivian Grey stopped his 
 horse, and burst into a fit of laughter. 
 
 But it was not a moment for mirth ; for rushing 
 down the road with awful strides appeared two sturdy 
 and enraged husbandmen, one armed with a pike, 
 and the other with a pitchfork, and accompanied by 
 a frantic female, who never for a moment ceased 
 hallooing, ' Murder, rape, and fire!' every thing but 
 < theft.' 
 
 * Now, Essper, here's a pretty scrape!' 
 
 ' Stop, you rascals ! ' hallooed Adolph the herds- 
 man. 
 
 ' Stop, you gang of thieves!' hallooed Wilhelm 
 the ploughman. 
 
 'Stop, you bloody murderers!' shrieked Phil- 
 lippa, the indignant mistress of the dairy and the 
 poultry-yard. 
 
 493
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VI 
 
 ' Stop, you villains!' hallooed all three. The vil- 
 lains certainly made no attempt to escape, and in half 
 a second the enraged household of the forest farmer 
 would have seized on Essper George ; but just at 
 this crisis he uttered loud sounds in the respective 
 language of every bird and beast about him ; and 
 suddenly they all turned round, and counter-marched. 
 Away rushed the terrified Adolph the herdsman, 
 while one of his own cows was on his back. Still 
 quicker scampered off the scared Wilhelm the 
 ploughman, while one of his own steeds kicked him 
 in his rear. Quicker than all these, shouting, 
 screaming, shrieking, dashed back the unhappy mis- 
 tress of the hen-roost, with all her subjects crowding 
 about her ; some on her elbow, some on her head, 
 her lace-cap destroyed, her whole dress disorganized. 
 Another loud cry from Essper George, and the re- 
 treating birds cackled with redoubled vigour. Still 
 louder were the neighs of the horses, the bray of the 
 jackass, the barking of the dog, the squeaking of the 
 swine, and the lowing of the cows! Essper enjoyed 
 the scene at his ease, leaning his back in a careless 
 manner against his horse's neck. The movements 
 of the crowd were so quick that they were soon out 
 of sight. 
 
 { A trophy!' called out Essper, as he jumped off 
 his horse, and picked up the pike of Adolph, the 
 herdsman. 
 
 t A boar-spear, or I am no huntsman,' said Vivian 
 * give it me a moment!' He threw it up into the 
 air, caught it with ease, poised it on his finger with 
 the practised skill of one well used to handle the 
 weapon, and with the same delight imprinted on his 
 countenance as greets the sight of an old friend. 
 
 ' This forest, Essper, and this spear, make me re- 
 
 494
 
 CHAPTER II VIVIAN GREY 
 
 member days when I was vain enough to think that 
 I had been sufficiently visited with sorrow. Ah! 
 little did I then know of human misery, although I 
 imagined I had suffered so much! But not my will 
 be done!' muttered Vivian to himself. 
 
 As he spoke, the sounds of a man in distress were 
 heard from the right side of the road. 
 
 1 Who calls, who calls ?' cried Essper ; a shout was 
 the only answer. There was no path, but the under- 
 wood was low, and Vivian took his horse, an old 
 forester, across it with ease. Essper's jibbed. Vi- 
 vian found himself in a small green glade of about 
 thirty feet square. It was thickly surrounded with 
 lofty trees, save at the point where he had entered ; 
 and at the farthest corner of it, near some grey rocks, 
 a huntsman was engaged in a desperate contest with 
 a wild-boar. 
 
 The huntsman was on his right knee, and held his 
 spear with both hands at the furious beast. It was 
 an animal of extraordinary size and power. Its eyes 
 glittered like fire. On the turf to its right a small 
 grey mastiff, of powerful make, lay on its back, 
 bleeding profusely, with its body ripped open. An- 
 other dog, a fawn-coloured bitch, had seized on the 
 left ear of the beast ; but the under-tusk of the boar, 
 which was nearly a foot long, had penetrated the 
 courageous dog, and the poor creature writhed in 
 agony, even while it attempted to wreak its revenge 
 upon its enemy. The huntsman was nearly exhaus- 
 ted. Had it not been for the courage of the fawn- 
 coloured dog, which, clinging to the boar, prevented 
 it making a full dash at the man, he must have been 
 instantly gored. Vivian was off his horse in a 
 minute, which, frightened at the sight of the wild 
 boar, dashed again over the hedge. 
 
 495
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VI 
 
 ' Keep firm, keep firm, Sir!' said he, ' do not move. 
 I'll amuse him behind, and make him turn.' 
 
 A graze of Vivian's spear on its back, though it 
 did not materially injure the beast, for there the boar 
 is nearly invulnerable, annoyed it ; and dashing off 
 the fawn-coloured dog with great force, it turned on 
 its new assailant. Now there are only two places in 
 which the wild-boar can be assailed with any effect ; 
 and these are just between the eyes, and between the 
 shoulders. Great caution however is necessary in 
 aiming these blows, for the boar is very adroit in 
 transfixing the weapon on his snout, or his tusks ; 
 and if once you miss, particularly if you are not 
 assisted by your dogs, which Vivian was not, 'tis all 
 over with you ; for the enraged animal rushes in like 
 lightning, and gored you must be. 
 
 But Vivian was quite fresh, and quite cool. The 
 animal suddenly stood still, and eyed its new enemy. 
 Vivian was quiet, for he had no objection to give the 
 beast an opportunity of retreating to its den. But 
 retreat was not its object it suddenly darted at the 
 huntsman, who, ' however, was not off his guard, 
 though unable from a slight wound in his knee to 
 rise. Vivian again annoyed the boar at the rear, and 
 the animal soon returned to him. He made a feint, 
 as if he were about to strike his pike between its 
 eyes. The boar not feeling a wound, which had not 
 been inflicted, and very irritated, rushed at him, and 
 he buried his spear a foot deep between its shoulders. 
 The beast made one fearful struggle, and then fell 
 down quite dead. The fawn-coloured bitch, though 
 terribly wounded, gave a loud bark ; and even the 
 other dog, which Vivian thought had been long dead, 
 testified its triumphant joy by an almost inarticulate 
 groan. As soon as he was convinced that the boar 
 
 496
 
 CHAPTER II VIVIAN GREY 
 
 was really dead, Vivian hastened to the huntsman, 
 and expressed his hope that he was not seriously 
 hurt. 
 
 ' A trifle, a trifle, which our surgeon, who is used 
 to these affairs, will quickly cure Sir! we owe you 
 our life!' said the huntsman, with great dignity, as 
 Vivian assisted him in rising from the ground. He 
 was a tall man, of imposing appearance ; but his 
 dress, which was the usual hunting costume of a 
 German nobleman, did not indicate his quality. 
 
 ' Sir, we owe you our life ! ' repeated the stranger ; 
 ' five minutes more, and our son must have reigned 
 in Little Lilliput.' 
 
 * I have the honour then of addressing your Serene 
 Highness. Far from being indebted to me, I feel 
 that I ought to apologize for having so unceremoni- 
 ously joined in your sport.' 
 
 ' Nonsense, man, nonsense ! We have killed in 
 our time too many of these gentlemen to be ashamed 
 of owning that, had it not been for you, one of them 
 would at last have revenged the species. But many 
 as are the boars that we have killed or eaten, we 
 never saw a more furious or powerful animal than the 
 present. Why, Sir, you must be one of the best 
 hands at the spear in all Christendom!' 
 
 ' Indifferently good, your Highness : your High- 
 ness forgets that the animal was already exhausted by 
 your assault.' 
 
 ' Why, there's something in that ; but it was 
 neatly done, man it was neatly done. You're fond 
 of the sport, we think ?' 
 
 { I have had some practice, but illness has so weak- 
 ened me that I have given up the forest.' 
 
 'Indeed! pity, pity, pity! and on a second ex- 
 amination, we observe that you are no hunter. This 
 
 21 497
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VI 
 
 coat is not for the free forest ; but how came you 
 by the pike?' 
 
 ' I am travelling to the next post town, to which 
 I have sent on my luggage. I am getting fast to 
 the south ; and as for this pike, my servant got it 
 this morning from some peasant in a brawl, and was 
 showing it to me when I heard your Highness call. 
 I really think now that Providence must have sent it. 
 I certainly could not have done you much service 
 with my riding whip Hilloa ! Essper, Essper, where 
 are you ?' 
 
 ' Here, noble Sir ! here, here why what have you 
 got there? The horses have jibbed, and will not stir 
 I can stay no longer they may go to the devil!' 
 so saying, Vivian's valet dashed over the underwood, 
 and leapt at the foot of the Prince. 
 
 4 In God's name, is this thy servant ?' asked his 
 Highness. 
 
 ( In good faith am I,' said Essper ; ' his valet, his 
 cook, and his secretary, all in one ; and also his Jagd 
 Junker, or Gentilhomme de la Chasse as a puppy 
 with a bugle horn told me this morning.' 
 
 'A very merry knave!' said the Prince; 'and 
 talking of a puppy with a bugle horn, reminds us 
 how unaccountably we have been deserted to-day by 
 a suite that never yet were wanting. We are indeed 
 astonished. Our bugle, we fear, has turned traitor.' 
 So saying, the Prince executed a blast with great 
 skill, which Vivian immediately recognised as the 
 one which Essper George had so admirably imi- 
 tated. 
 
 ' And now, my good friend,' said the Prince, ' we 
 cannot hear of your passing through our land, with- 
 out visiting our good castle. We would that we 
 could better testify the obligation which we feel 
 
 498
 
 CHAPTER II VIVIAN GREY 
 
 under to you, in any other way than by the offer of 
 an hospitality which all gentlemen, by right, can 
 command. But your presence would, indeed, give 
 us sincere pleasure. You must not refuse us. Your 
 looks, as well as your prowess, prove your blood ; 
 and we are quite sure no cloth-rnerchant's order will 
 suffer by your not hurrying to your proposed point 
 of destination. We are not wrong we think, 
 though your accent is good, in supposing that we 
 are conversing with an English gentleman. But here 
 they come.' 
 
 As he spoke, three or four horsemen, at the head 
 of whom was the young huntsman whom the tra- 
 vellers had met in the morning, sprang into the 
 glade. 
 
 'Why, Arnelm!' said the Prince, 'when before 
 was the Jagd Junker's ear so bad that he could not 
 discover his master's bugle, even though the wind 
 were against him?' 
 
 ' In truth, your Highness, we have heard bugles 
 enough this morning. Who is violating the forest 
 laws, we know not ; but that another bugle is sound- 
 ing, and played, St. Hubert forgive me for saying 
 so, with as great skill as your Highness', is certain. 
 Myself, Von Neuwied, and Lintz, have been gallop- 
 ing over the whole forest. The rest, I doubt not, 
 will be up directly.' The Jagd Junker blew his own 
 bugle. 
 
 In the course of five minutes about twenty other 
 horsemen, all dressed in the same unifo'rm, had ar- 
 rived ; all complaining of their wild chases after the 
 Prince in every other part of the forest. 
 
 ' It must be the Wild Huntsman himself!' swore 
 an old hand. This solution of the mystery satisfied 
 all. 
 
 499
 
 VIVIAN GRMV BOOK VI 
 
 ' Well, well ! ' said the Prince ; ' whoever it may 
 be, had it not been for the timely presence of this 
 gentleman, you must have changed your green jac- 
 kets for mourning coats, and our bugle would have 
 sounded no more in the forest of our fathers. Here, 
 Arnelm! cut up the beast, and remember that the 
 left shoulder is the quarter of honour, and belongs 
 to this stranger ; not less honoured because un- 
 known.' 
 
 All present took off their caps and bowed to Vi- 
 vian ; who took this opportunity of informing the 
 Prince who he was. 
 
 * And now,' continued his Highness, ' Mr. Grey 
 will accompany us to our Castle ; nay, Sir, we can 
 take no refusal. We will send on to the town for 
 your luggage. Arnelm, do you look to this! 
 And, honest friend!' said the Prince, turning to 
 Essper George, c we commend you to the special 
 care of our friend Von Neuwied, and so, gentle- 
 men, with stout hearts and spurs to your steeds to 
 the Castle!' 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 THE cavalcade proceeded for some time at a very 
 brisk but irregular pace, until they arrived at a less 
 wild and wooded part of the forest. The Prince of 
 Little Lilliput reined in his steed as he entered a 
 very broad avenue of purple beeches, at the end of 
 which, though at a considerable distance, Vivian per- 
 ceived the towers and turrets of a Gothic edifice 
 glittering in the sunshine. 
 
 * Welcome to Turriparva!' said his Highness. 
 
 1 1 assure your Highness,' said Vivian, < that I 
 view with no unpleasant feeling, the prospect of a 
 reception in any civilized mansion ; for to say the 
 
 500
 
 CHAPTER III VIVIAN GREY 
 
 truth, for the last eight-and-forty hours, Fortune has 
 not favoured me either in my researches after a bed, 
 or that which some think still more important than 
 nightly repose.' 
 
 ' Is it so ?' said the Prince ; ' Why, we should 
 have thought by your home thrust this morning, that 
 you were as fresh as the early lark. In good faith, 
 it was a pretty stroke ! And whence come you then, 
 good Sir?' 
 
 ' Know you a most insane and drunken idiot, who 
 styles himself the Grand Duke of Schoss Johannis- 
 berger ?' 
 
 * No, no!' said the Prince, staring in Vivian's face 
 very earnestly, and then bursting into a loud fit of 
 laughter; 'No, no, it cannot be! hah! hah! hah! 
 but it is though ; and you have actually fallen among 
 that mad crew. Hah! hah! hah! a most excellent 
 adventure! Arnelm! why, man, where art thou? 
 ride up, ride up! Behold in the person of this 
 gentleman a new victim to the overwhelming hospi- 
 tality of our uncle of the Wines. And did they 
 confer a title on you on the spot? Say, art thou 
 Elector, or Palsgrave, or Baron ; or, failing in thy 
 devoirs, as once did our good cousin Arnelm, confess 
 that thou wert ordained with becoming reverence, 
 the Archprimate of Puddledrink. Eh! Arnelm, is 
 not that the style thou bearest at the Palace of the 
 Wines?' 
 
 ' So it would seem, your Highness. I think the 
 title was conferred on me the same night that your 
 Highness mistook the Grand Duke's proboscis for 
 Oberon's Horn, and committed treason not yet par- 
 doned.' 
 
 ' Hah ! hah ! hah ! good ! good ! good ! thou 
 hast us there. Truly a good memory is often as
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VI 
 
 ready a friend as a sharp wit. Wit is not thy strong 
 point, friend Arnelm ; and yet it is strange, that in 
 the sharp encounter of ready tongues and idle logo- 
 machies, thou hast sometimes the advantage. But, 
 nevertheless, rest assured, good cousin Arnelm, that 
 wit is not thy strong point.' 
 
 ' It is well for me that all are not of the same 
 opinion as your Serene Highness,' said the young 
 Jagd Junker, somewhat nettled ; for he prided him- 
 self peculiarly on his repartees. 
 
 The Prince was exceedingly diverted with Vivian's 
 account of his last night's adventure ; and our hero 
 learnt from his Highness, that his late host was no 
 less a personage than the cousin of the Prince of 
 Little Lilliput, an old German Baron, who passed his 
 time with some neighbours of congenial tempera- 
 ment, in hunting the wild boar in the morning, and 
 speculating on the flavours of the fine Rhenish wines 
 during the rest of the day. ' He and his com- 
 panions,' continued the Prince, ' will enable you to 
 form a tolerably accurate idea of the character of the 
 German nobility half a century ago. The debauch 
 of last night was the usual carouse which crowned the 
 exploits of each day when we were a boy. The re- 
 volution has rendered all these customs obsolete. 
 Would that it had not sent some other things equally 
 out of fashion! 5 
 
 At this moment the Prince sounded his bugle, and 
 the gates of the castle, which were not more than 
 twenty yards distant, were immediately thrown open. 
 The whole cavalcade set spurs to their steeds, and 
 dashed at a full gallop over the hollow-sounding 
 drawbridge, into the courtyard of the castle. A 
 crowd of servingrmen, in green liveries, instantly 
 appeared ; and Arnelm and Von Neuwied, jumping 
 
 502
 
 CHAPTER III VIVIAN GREY 
 
 from their saddles, respectively held the stirrup and 
 the bridle of the Prince as he dismounted. 
 
 ' Where is Master Rodolph?' asked his Highness, 
 with a loud voice. 
 
 < So please your Serene Highness, I am here ! ' an- 
 swered a very thin treble ; and bustling through the 
 surrounding crowd, came forward the owner of the 
 voice. Master Rodolph was not above five feet high, 
 but he was nearly as broad as he was long. Though 
 more than middle-aged, an almost infantine smile 
 played upon his broad fair face ; to which his small 
 turn-up nose, large green goggle eyes, and unmean- 
 ing mouth, gave no expression. His long hair hung 
 over his shoulders, the flaxen locks in some places 
 maturing into grey. In compliance with the taste of 
 his master, this most unsportsman-like looking 
 steward was clad in a green jerkin, on the right arm 
 of which was embroidered a giant's head the crest 
 of the Little Lilliputs. 
 
 ' Truly, Rodolph, we have received some scratch 
 in the chace to-day, and need your assistance. The 
 best of surgeons we assure you, Mr. Grey, if you 
 require one: and look you that the blue chamber 
 be prepared for this gentleman ; and we shall have 
 need of our Cabinet this evening. See that all this 
 be done, and inform Prince Maximilian that we 
 would speak with him. And look you, Master 
 Rodolph, there is one in this company, what call 
 you your servant's name, Sir? Essper George! 'tis 
 well : look you, Rodolph, see that our friend Essper 
 George be well provided for. We know that we can 
 trust him to your good care. And now, gentlemen, 
 at sunset we meet in the Giants' Hall.' So saying, 
 his Highness bowed to the party ; and taking Vivian 
 by the arm, and followed by Arnelm and Von Neu- 
 
 53
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VI 
 
 wied, he ascended a staircase which opened into the 
 court, and then mounted into a covered gallery which 
 ran round the whole building. The interior wall of 
 the gallery was alternately ornamented with stags' 
 heads, or other trophies of the chace ; and coats of 
 arms blazoned in stucco. The Prince did the hon- 
 ours of the castle to Vivian with great courtesy. The 
 armoury, and the hall, the knight's chamber, and even 
 the donjon keep were all examined ; and when Vivian 
 had sufficiently admired the antiquity of the struc- 
 ture, and the beauty of the situation, the Prince, hav- 
 ing proceeded down a long corridor, opened the door 
 into a small chamber which he introduced to Vivian 
 as his Cabinet. The furniture of this room was 
 rather quaint, and not unpleasing. The wainscoat 
 and ceiling were painted alike, of a very light green 
 colour, and were richly carved and gilt. The walls 
 were hung with dark green velvet, of which costly 
 material were also the chairs, and a sofa, which was 
 placed under a large and curiously cut looking-glass. 
 The lower panes of the windows of this room were 
 of stained glass, of the most vivid tints ; but the 
 upper panes were untinged, in order that the light 
 should not be disturbed which fell through them upon 
 two magnificent pictures ; one a hunting-piece by 
 Schneiders, and the other a portrait of an armed 
 chieftain on horseback, by Lucas Cranach. 
 
 And now the door opened, and Master Rodolph 
 entered, carrying in his hand a white wand, and bow- 
 ing very reverently as he ushered in two servants 
 bearing a cold collation. As he entered, it was with 
 difficulty that he could settle his countenance into 
 the due and requisite degree of gravity ; and so often 
 was the fat steward on the point of bursting into 
 laughter, as he arranged the setting out of the re- 
 
 54
 
 CHAPTER III VIVIAN GREY 
 
 freshments on the table, that the Prince, with whom 
 he was, at the same time, both a favourite and a butt, 
 at last noticed his unusual and unmanageable risi- 
 bility. 
 
 ' Why, Rodolph, what ails thee ? hast thou just 
 discovered the point of some good saying of yester- 
 day?' 
 
 The Steward could now contain his laughter no 
 longer, and he gave vent to his emotion in a most 
 treble 'He! he! he!' 
 
 ' Speak, man, in the name of St. Hubert, and on 
 the word of as stout a huntsman as ever yet crossed 
 horse. Speak, we say, what ails thee?' 
 
 ' He ! he ! he ! in truth, a most comical knave ! 
 I beg your Serene Highness ten thousand most 
 humble pardons, but in truth a more comical knave 
 did I never see. How call you him ? Essper 
 George, I think, he! he! he! In truth, your High- 
 ness was right when you styled him a merry knave 
 in truth a most comical knave he! he! he! a very 
 funny knave! he! he! he! He says, your High- 
 ness, that I'm like a snake in a consumption he! 
 he! he! in truth a most comical knave!' 
 
 ( Well, Rodolph, as long as you do not quarrel 
 with his jokes, they shall pass as true wit. But why 
 comes not our son ? Have you bidden the Prince 
 Maximilian to our presence?' 
 
 ' In truth have I, your Highness ; but he was en- 
 gaged at the moment with Mr. Sievers, and therefore 
 he could not immediately attend my bidding ; never- 
 theless, he bade me deliver to your Serene Highness 
 his dutiful affection ; saying, that he would soon 
 have the honour of bending his knee unto your 
 Serene Highness.' 
 
 ' He never said any such nonsense. At least, if 
 
 55
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VI 
 
 he did, he must be much changed since last we 
 hunted.' 
 
 ' In truth, your Highness, I cannot aver upon my 
 conscience as a faithful steward, that such were the 
 precise words and exact phraseology of his Highness, 
 the Prince Maximilian. But in the time of the good 
 Prince, your father, whose memory be ever blessed, 
 such were the words and style of message, which I 
 was schooled and instructed by Mr. Von Lexicon, 
 your Serene Highness's most honoured tutor, to bear 
 unto the good Prince, your father, whose memory be 
 ever blessed ; when I had the great fortune of being 
 your Serene Highness's most particular page, and it 
 fell to my lot to have the pleasant duty of informing 
 the good Prince, your father, whose memory be ever 
 blessed ' 
 
 ' Enough ! enough ! but Sievers is not Von Lexi- 
 con, and Maximilian, we trust, is ' 
 
 'Papa! papa! dearest papa!' shouted a young 
 lad, as he dashed open the door ; and rushing into 
 the room, threw his arms round the Prince's neck. 
 
 ' My darling!' said the father, forgetting at this 
 moment of genuine feeling, the pompous plural in 
 which he had hitherto spoken of himself. The 
 Prince fondly kissed his child. The boy was about 
 ten years of age, exquisitely handsome. Courage, 
 not audacity, was imprinted on his noble features. 
 
 ' Papa! may I hunt with you to-morrow?' 
 
 ' What says Mr. Sievers?' 
 
 ' Oh ! Mr. Sievers says I am an excellent fellow ; 
 I assure you upon my honour he does. I heard you 
 come home ; but though I was dying to see you, I 
 would not run out until I had finished my Roman 
 History. I say, Papa! what a grand fellow Brutus 
 was what a grand thing it is to be a patriot! I 
 
 506
 
 CHAPTER III VIVIAN GREY 
 
 intend to be a patriot myself, and to kill the Grand 
 Duke of Reisenberg. Papa, who's that?' 
 
 < My friend, Max, Mr. Grey. Speak to him.' 
 
 ' I am very happy to see you at Turriparva, Sir,' 
 said the boy, bowing to Vivian with great dignity. 
 ' Have you been hunting with his Highness this 
 morning?' 
 
 ' I can hardly say I have.' 
 
 ' Max, I have received a slight wound to-day. 
 Don't look alarmed it is very slight. I only men- 
 tion it, because had it not been for this gentleman, it 
 is very probable you would never have seen your 
 father again. He has saved my life!' 
 
 ' Saved your life ! saved my papa's life ! ' said the 
 young Prince, seizing Vivian's hand ' Oh ! Sir, 
 what can I do for you! Mr. Sievers!' said the boy, 
 with great eagerness, to a gentleman who entered the 
 room ' Mr. Sievers! here is a young lord who has 
 saved papa's life!' 
 
 Mr. Sievers was a very tall, thin man, perhaps 
 about forty, with a clear sallow complexion, a high 
 forehead, on which a few wrinkles were visible, very 
 bright keen eyes, narrow arched brows, and a quantity 
 of grey curling hair, which was combed back off his 
 forehead, and fell down over his shoulders. He was 
 instantly introduced to Vivian as the Prince's most 
 particular friend ; and then he listened, apparently 
 with great interest, to his Highness' narrative of the 
 morning's adventure ; his danger, and his rescue. 
 Young Maximilian never took his large, dark-blue 
 eyes off his father while he was speaking ; and when 
 he had finished, the boy rushed to Vivian, and threw 
 his arms round his neck. Vivian was delighted with 
 the affection of the child, who whispered to him in a 
 low voice ' I know what you are!' 
 
 57
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VI 
 
 ' What, my young friend ?' 
 
 'Ah! I know.' 
 
 'But tell me!' 
 
 ' You thought I shouldn't find out : you're a 
 patriot ! ' 
 
 ' I hope I am,' said Vivian ; ' but travelling in a 
 foreign country is hardly a proof of it. Perhaps you 
 do not know that I am an Englishman.' 
 
 'An Englishman!' said the child, with an air of 
 great disappointment ' I thought you were a 
 patriot! I am one. Do you know I'll tell you a 
 secret. You must promise not to tell though. Pro- 
 mise upon your word ! Well then,' said the urchin, 
 whispering with great energy in Vivian's ear, through 
 his hollow fist : ' I hate the Grand Duke of Reisen- 
 berg, and I mean to stab him to the heart ;' so saying, 
 the little Prince grated his teeth with an expression 
 of the most bitter detestation. 
 
 'What the devil is the matter with the child!' 
 thought Vivian ; but at this moment his conversa- 
 tion with him was interrupted. 
 
 ' Am I to believe this young gentleman, my dear 
 Sievers,' asked the Prince, ' when he tells me that his 
 conduct has met your approbation?' 
 
 ' Your son, Prince,' answered Mr. Sievers, ' can 
 only speak truth. His excellence is proved by my 
 praising him to his face.' 
 
 The young Maximilian, when Mr. Sievers had 
 ceased speaking, stood blushing, with his eyes fixed 
 on the ground ; and the delighted parent catching 
 his child up in his arms, embraced him with un- 
 affected fondness. 
 
 ' And now, all this time Master Rodolph is waiting 
 for his patient. By St. Hubert, you can none of you 
 think me very ill ! Your pardon, Mr. Grey, for leav- 
 
 508
 
 CHAPTER III VIVIAN GREY 
 
 ing you. My friend Sievers will, I am sure, be de- 
 lighted to make you feel at ease at Turriparva. Max, 
 come with me!' 
 
 Vivian found in Mr. Sievers a very interesting 
 companion ; nothing of the pedant, and much of the 
 philosopher. Their conversation was of course 
 chiefly on topics of local interest, anecdotes of the 
 castle and the country, of Vivian's friends the 
 drunken Johannisberger and his crew, and such 
 matters ; but there was a keenness of satire in some 
 of Mr. Sievers's observations which was highly amus- 
 ing, and enough passed to make Vivian desire oppor- 
 tunities of conversing with him at greater length, 
 and on subjects of greater interest. They were at 
 present disturbed by Essper George entering the 
 room to inform Vivian that his luggage had arrived 
 from the village ; and that the blue-chamber was now 
 prepared for his presence. 
 
 * We shall meet, I suppose, in the Hall, Mr. 
 Sievers?' 
 
 * No, I shall not dine there. If you remain at 
 Turriparva, which I trust you will, I shall be happy to 
 see you in my room. If it have no other inducement 
 to gain it the honour of your visit, it has here, at least, 
 the recommendation of singularity ; there is, at any 
 rate, no other chamber like it in this good castle.' 
 
 The business of the toilet is sooner performed for 
 a hunting party in a German forest, than for a state 
 dinner at Chateau Desir ; and Vivian was ready long 
 before he was summoned. 
 
 ' His Serene Highness has commenced his pro- 
 gress towards the hall,' announced Essper George to 
 Vivian, in a very treble voice, and bowing with great 
 ceremony as he offered to lead the way, with a long 
 white wand waving in his right hand. 
 
 59
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VI 
 
 ' I shall attend his Highness,' said his master ; 
 ' but before I do, if that white wand be not 
 immediately laid aside, it will be broken about 
 your back.' 
 
 1 Broken about my back ! what, the wand of office 
 of your Highness' steward ! Master Rodolph says 
 that, in truth, a steward is but half himself who hath 
 not his wand. Methinks when his rod of office is 
 wanting, his Highness of Lilliput's steward is but 
 unequally divided. In truth he is stout enough to 
 be Aaron's wand that swallowed up all the rest. But 
 has your Nobleness really any serious objection to my 
 carrying a wand ? It gives such an air ! I really 
 thought your Highness could have no serious objec- 
 tion. It cost me a good hour's talking with Master 
 Rodolph to gain his permission. I was obliged to 
 swear that he was a foot taller than myself, ere he 
 would consent ; and then only on the condition that 
 my wand should be full twelve inches shorter than his 
 own. The more's the pity,' continued Essper : * it 
 spoils the sport, and makes me seem but half a 
 steward after all. By the honour of my mother! it 
 shall go hard with me if I do not pick the pith of his 
 rush this night! Twelve inches shorter! you must 
 have a conscience, Master Rodolph ! ' 
 
 Come, come, silence ! and no more of this frip- 
 pery.' 
 
 * No, your Highness, not a word, not a word : 
 but twelve inches, your Highness twelve inches 
 shorter, what do you think of that ? Twelve inches 
 shorter than Master Rodolph's Master Rodolph, 
 forsooth! Master Treble-Paunch! If he had as 
 much brains in his head, as he has something else in 
 his body, why then, your Highness ' 
 
 * No more, no more ! '
 
 CHAPTER III VIVIAN GREY 
 
 ' Not a word, not a word, your Highness ! Not a 
 word should your Highness ever have heard, but for 
 the confounded folly of this goggle-eyed gander of 
 a steward: twelve inches, in good truth! Why, 
 twelve inches, your Highness twelve inches is no 
 trifle twelve inches is a size twelve inches is only 
 six shorter than the Grand Duke of Schoss Johannis- 
 berger's nose.' 
 
 * It matters little, Essper, for I shall tolerate no 
 such absurdities.' 
 
 * Your Highness is the best judge it isn't for me 
 to differ with your Highness. I am not arguing for 
 the wand ; I am only saying, your Highness, that if 
 that overgrown anchovy, whom they call Master 
 Rodolph, had shown a little more sense upon the 
 occasion, why then I should have had a better opinion 
 of his judgment ; as it is, the day he can tell me the 
 morrow of Easter eve, I'll make a house-steward of a 
 Michaelmas goose.' 
 
 The Giants' Hall was a Gothic chamber of impos- 
 ing appearance. The oaken rafters of the curiously 
 carved roof rested on the grim heads of gigantic 
 figures of the same material. These statues extended 
 the length of the hall on each side ; they were 
 elaborately sculptured and highly polished, and each 
 one held in its outstretched arm a blazing and aroma- 
 tic torch. Above them, small windows of painted 
 glass admitted a light which was no longer necessary 
 at the banquet to which I am now about to introduce 
 the reader. Over the great entrance doors was a 
 gallery, from which a band of trumpeters, arrayed in 
 ample robes of flowing scarlet, sent forth many a 
 festive and martial strain. More than fifty in- 
 dividuals, all wearing hunting-dresses of green cloth 
 on which the giant's head was carefully emblazoned, 
 
 5"
 
 VIVIAN (iKEY BOOK VI 
 
 were already seated in the hall when Vivian entered. 
 He was conducted to the upper part of the chamber, 
 and a seat was allotted hirn on the left hand of the 
 Prince. His Highness had not arrived, but a chair 
 of state, placed under a crimson canopy, denoted the 
 style of its absent owner ; and a stool, covered with 
 velvet of the same regal colour and glistening with 
 gold lace, announced that the presence of Prince 
 Maximilian was expected. While Vivian was mus- 
 ing in astonishment at the evident affectation of royal 
 pomp which pervaded the whole establishment of the 
 Prince of Little Lilliput, the trumpeters in the gallery 
 suddenly commenced a trimphant flourish. All rose 
 as the princely procession entered the hall. First 
 came Master Rodolph, twirling his white wand with 
 the practised pride of a drum-major, and looking as 
 pompous as a turkey-cock in a storm. Six footmen 
 in splendid liveries, two by two, immediately followed 
 him. A page heralded the Prince Maximilian, and 
 then came the Serene father ; the Jagd Junker, and 
 four or five other gentlemen of the court formed the 
 suite. 
 
 His Highness ascended the throne, Prince Maxi- 
 milian was on his right, and Vivian had the high hon- 
 our of the left hand ; the Jagd Junker seated himself 
 next to our hero. The table was profusely covered, 
 chiefly with the sports of the forest, and the cele- 
 brated wild boar was not forgotten. Few minutes 
 had elapsed ere Vivian perceived that his Highness 
 was always served on bended knee. Surprised at 
 this custom, which even the mightiest and most de- 
 spotic monarchs seldom exact, and still more surprised 
 at the contrast which all this state afforded to the 
 natural ease and affable amiability of the Prince, 
 Vivian ventured to ask his neighbour Arnelm
 
 CHAPTER III VIVIAN GREY 
 
 whether the banquet of to-day was in celebration of 
 any particular event of general or individual 
 interest. 
 
 * By no means,' said the Jagd Junker ; ' this is 
 the usual style of the Prince's daily meal, except that 
 to-day there is perhaps rather less state and fewer 
 guests than usual ; in consequence of many of our 
 fellow subjects having left us with the purpose of 
 attending a great hunting party, which is now being 
 held in the dominions of his Highness's cousin, the 
 Duke of Micromegas.' 
 
 When the more necessary, but, as most hold, the 
 less delightful part of banquetting was over, and the 
 numerous serving-men had removed the more 
 numerous dishes of wild boar, red deer, kid, and 
 winged game ; a stiff Calvinistic-looking personage 
 rose, and delivered a long, and most grateful grace, 
 to which the sturdy huntsmen listened with a due 
 mixture of piety and impatience. When his starch 
 Reverence, who in his black coat looked, among the 
 huntsmen very like, as Essper George observed, a 
 black-bird among a set of moulting canaries, had 
 finished, an old man, with long snow-white hair, 
 and a beard of the same colour, rose from his seat ; 
 and with a glass in his hand, bowing first to his 
 Highness with great respect, and then to his com- 
 panions with an air of condescension, gave in a stout 
 voice, ' The Prince ! ' A loud shout was immedia- 
 tely raised, and all quaffed with rapture the health of 
 a ruler whom evidently they adored. Master 
 Rodolph now brought forward an immense silver 
 goblet, full of some crafty compound, from its odour 
 doubtless delicious. The Prince held the goblet by 
 its two massy handles, and then said in a loud 
 voice : 
 
 2K
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VI 
 
 ' My friends ! the Giant's Head ! and he who 
 sneers at its frown, may he rue its bristles!' 
 
 The toast was welcomed with a loud cry of 
 triumph. When the noise had subsided, the Jagd 
 Junker rose ; and prefacing the intended pledge 
 by a few observations, as remarkable for the delicacy 
 of their sentiments as the elegance of their expres- 
 sion, he gave, pointing to Vivian, ' The Guest ! and 
 may the Prince never want a stout arm at a strong 
 push!' The sentiment was again echoed by the 
 lusty voices of all present, and particularly by his 
 Highness. As Vivian shortly returned thanks and 
 modestly apologized for the German of a foreigner, 
 he could not refrain from remembering the last time 
 when he was placed in the same situation. It was 
 when the treacherous Earl of Courtown had drunk 
 success to Mr. Vivian Grey's maiden speech in a 
 bumper of claret, at the political orgies of Chateau 
 Desir. Could he really, in very fact, be the same 
 individual as the bold, dashing, fearless youth, who 
 then organized the crazy councils of those ambitious, 
 imbecile greybeards? What was he then? What 
 had happened since ? What was he now ? He turned 
 from the comparison with feelings of sickening 
 disgust, and it was with difficulty that his counten- 
 ance could assume the due degree of hilarity which 
 befitted the present occasion. 
 
 * Truly, Mr. Grey,' said the Prince ; * your Ger- 
 man would pass current at Weimar. Arnelm, good 
 cousin Arnelm, we must trouble thy affectionate 
 duty to marshal and regulate the drinking devoirs of 
 our kind subjects to-night ; for by the advice of our 
 trusty surgeon, Master Rodolph, of much fame, we 
 shall refrain this night from our accustomed pota- 
 tions, and betake ourselves to the solitude of our 
 
 5M
 
 CHAPTER III VIVIAN GREY 
 
 Cabinet a solitude in good sooth, unless we can 
 persuade you to accompany us, kind Sir,' said the 
 Prince, turning to Mr. Grey. ' Methinks eight-and- 
 forty hours without rest, and a good part spent in 
 the mad walls of our cousin of Johannisberger, are 
 hardly the best preparatives for a drinking bout. 
 Unless, after Oberon's horn, ye may fairly be con- 
 sidered to be in practice. Nevertheless, I advise 
 the Cabinet and a cup of Rodolph's coffee. What 
 sayest thou?' Vivian acceded to the Prince's pro- 
 position with eager pleasure ; and accompanied by 
 Prince Maximilian, and preceded by the little Stew- 
 ard, who, surrounded by his serving-men, very much 
 resembled a planet eclipsed by his satellites, they left 
 the Hall. 
 
 { 'Tis almost a pity to shut out the moon on such 
 a night,' said the Prince, as he drew a large green 
 velvet curtain from the windows of the Cabinet. 
 
 ' 'Tis certainly a magnificent night!' said Vivian; 
 c How fine the effect of the light is upon the picture 
 of the warrior. I declare the horse seems quite 
 living, and its fierce rider actually frowns upon 
 us.' 
 
 1 He may well frown,' said the Prince of Little 
 Lilliput, in a voice of deep melancholy ; and he 
 hastily redrew the curtain. In a moment he started 
 from the chair on which he had just seated himself, 
 and again admitted the moonlight. ' Am I really 
 afraid of an old picture? No, no, it has not yet 
 come to that.' 
 
 This was uttered in a very distinct voice, and of 
 course excited the astonishment of Vivian ; who, 
 however, had too much discretion to evince his sur- 
 prise, or to take any measure by which his curiosity 
 might be satisfied.
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VI 
 
 His companion seemed instantly conscious of the 
 seeming singularity of his expression. 
 
 4 You are surprised at my words, good Sir,' said 
 his Highness, as he paced very rapidly up and down 
 the small chamber ; ' you are surprised at my words ; 
 but, Sir, my ancestor's brow was guarded by a dia- 
 dem ! ' 
 
 * Which was then well won, Prince, and is now 
 worthily worn.' 
 
 'By whom? where? how?' asked the Prince, in 
 a very rapid voice. { Maximilian,' continued his 
 Highness, in a more subdued tone ; ' Maximilian, 
 my own love, leave us go to Mr. Sievers God 
 bless you, my only boy good night ! ' 
 
 * Good night, dearest Papa, and down with the 
 Grand Duke of Reisenburg ! ' 
 
 ' He echoes the foolish zeal of my fond followers,' 
 said the Prince, as his son left the room. ' The idle 
 parade to which their illegal loyalty still clings my 
 own manners, the relics of former days habits will 
 not change like stations all these have deceived you, 
 Sir. You have mistaken me for a monarch ; I 
 should be one. A curse light on me the hour I can 
 mention it without a burning blush. Oh, shame! 
 shame on the blood of my father's son ! Can my 
 mouth own that I once was one? Yes, Sir! you 
 see before you the most injured, the least enviable of 
 human beings I am a MEDIATISED PRINCE!' 
 
 Vivian had resided too long in Germany to be igno- 
 rant of the meaning of this title ; with which, as 
 most probably few of my readers are acquainted, I 
 may be allowed for a moment to disturb the tete-a- 
 tete in the Cabinet merely, as a wordy and windy 
 orator preliminarily protests, when he is about to 
 bore the house with an harangue of five hours
 
 CHAPTER III VIVIAN GREY 
 
 merely to say, ' just one single word.' A mediatised 
 Prince is an unhappy victim of those Congresses, 
 which, among other good and evil, purged with 
 great effect the ancient German political system. 
 By the regulations then determined on, that country 
 was freed at one fell swoop from the vexatious and 
 harassing dominion of the various petty Princes who 
 exercised absolute sovereignties over little nations of 
 fifty thousand souls. These independent sovereigns 
 became subjects ; and either swelled, by their media- 
 tization, the territories of some already powerful 
 potentate, or transmuted into a state of importance 
 some more fortunate petty ruler than themselves ; 
 whose independence, through the exertions of poli- 
 tical intrigue or family influence, had been preserved 
 inviolate. In most instances, the concurrence of 
 these little rulers in their worldly degradation was 
 obtained by a lavish grant of official emoluments or 
 increase of territorial possessions, and the media- 
 tised prince, instead of being an impoverished and 
 uninfluential sovereign, became a wealthy and power- 
 ful subject. But so dominant in the heart of man is 
 the love of independent dominion, that even with 
 these temptations, few of the petty princes could 
 have been induced to have parted with their cherished 
 sceptres, had they not been conscious, that in case of 
 contumacy, the resolutions of a Diet would have been 
 enforced by the armies of an Emperor. As it is, 
 few of them have yet given up the outward and 
 visible signs of regal sway. The throne is still pre- 
 served, and the tiara still revered. They seldom fre- 
 quent the Courts of their sovereigns, and scarcely 
 condescend to notice the attentions of their fellow- 
 nobility. Most of them expend their increased 
 revenues in maintaining the splendour of their little
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VI 
 
 courts at their ancient capitals ; or in swelling the 
 ranks of their retainers at their solitary forest castles. 
 
 The Prince of Little Lilliput was the first media- 
 tised sovereign that Vivian had ever met. At an- 
 other time, and under other circumstances, he might 
 have smiled at the idle parade and useless pomp 
 which he had this day witnessed ; or moralized on 
 that weakness of human nature which seemed to con- 
 sider the inconvenient appendages of a throne, as 
 the great end for which power was to be coveted : 
 but at the present moment he only saw a kind, and, 
 as he believed, estimable individual disquieted and 
 distressed. It was painful to witness the agitation 
 of the Prince ; and Vivian felt it necessary to make 
 some observations, which from his manner expressed 
 much, though in fact they meant nothing. 
 
 { Sir,' said his Highness ; ' your sympathy consoles 
 me. Do not imagine that I can misunderstand it 
 it does you honour. You add, by this, to the many 
 favours you have already conferred on me, by saving 
 my life and accepting my hospitality. I trust, I sin- 
 cerely hope, that your departure hence will be post- 
 poned to the last possible moment. Your conversa- 
 tion and your company, have made me pass a more 
 cheerful day than I am accustomed to. All here love 
 me ; but with the exception of Sievers, I have no 
 companion ; and although I esteem his principles and 
 his talents, there is no congeniality in our tastes, or 
 in our tempers. As for the rest, a more devoted 
 band cannot be conceived ; but they think only of 
 one thing the lost dignity of their ruler ; and al- 
 though this concentration of their thoughts on one 
 subject may gratify my pride, it does not elevate my 
 spirits. But this is a subject on which in future we 
 will not converse. One of the curses of my unhappy
 
 CHAPTER III VIVIAN GREY 
 
 lot is, that a thousand circumstances daily occur which 
 prevent me forgetting it.' 
 
 The Prince rose from the table, and pressing with 
 his right hand on part of the wall, the door of a small 
 closet sprung open. The interior was lined with 
 crimson velvet. He took out of it a cushion of the 
 same regal material, on which reposed, in solitary 
 magnificence, a golden coronet of antique workman- 
 ship. 
 
 ' The crown of my fathers ! ' said his Highness, as 
 he placed the treasure, with great reverence, on the 
 table ; * won by fifty battles and lost without a blow ! 
 Yet, in my youth I was deemed no dastard ; and I 
 have shed more blood for my country in one day, 
 than he who claims to be my suzerain, in the whole of 
 his long career of undeserved prosperity. Ay ! this, 
 this is the curse the ancestor of my present sove- 
 reign was that warrior's serf!' The Prince pointed 
 to the grim chieftain, whose stout helmet Vivian now 
 perceived was encircled by a crown, exactly similar to 
 the one which was now lying before him. ' Had I 
 been the subject had I been obliged to acknowledge 
 the sway of a Caesar, I might have endured it with re- 
 signation : had I been forced to yield to the legions 
 of an Emperor, a noble resistance might have con- 
 soled me for the clanking of my chains ; but to sink 
 without a struggle, the victim of political intrigue 
 to become the bondsman of one who was my father's 
 slave ; for such was Reisenburg even in my own 
 remembrance, our unsuccessful rival. This, this was 
 too bad ; it rankles in my heart ; and unless I can be 
 revenged, I shall sink under it. To have lost my 
 dominions would have been nothing. But revenge 
 I will have! It is yet in my power to gain for an 
 enslaved people, the liberty I have myself lost. Yes!
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VI 
 
 the enlightened spirit of the age shall yet shake the 
 quavering councils of the Reisenburg cabal. I will, 
 in truth I have already seconded the just, the unan- 
 swerable, demands of an oppressed and insulted 
 people ; and ere six months are over, I trust to see 
 the convocation of a free and representative council, 
 in the capital of the petty monarch to whom I have 
 been betrayed. The chief of Reisenburg has, in his 
 eagerness to gain his grand ducal crown, somewhat 
 overstepped the mark. 
 
 ' Besides myself, there are no less than three other 
 powerful princes, whose dominions have been de- 
 voted to the formation of his servile Duchy. We 
 are all animated by the same spirit, all intent upon 
 the same end. We have all used, and are using, our 
 influence as powerful nobles, to gain for our fellow- 
 subjects their withheld rights, rights which belong 
 to them as men, not merely as Germans. Within 
 this week I have forwarded to the Residence a 
 memorial subscribed by myself, my relatives, the 
 other princes, and a powerful body of discontented 
 nobles ; requesting the immediate grant of a consti- 
 tution similar to those of Wirtemburg and Bavaria. 
 My companions in misfortune are inspirited by my 
 joining them. Had I been wise, I should have 
 joined them sooner ; but until this moment, I have 
 been the dupe of the artful conduct of an unprin- 
 cipled Minister. My eyes, however, are now open. 
 The Grand Duke and his crafty counsellor, whose 
 name shall not profane my lips, already tremble. 
 Part of the people, emboldened by our representa- 
 tions, have already refused to answer an unconstitu- 
 tional taxation. I have no doubt that he must yield. 
 Whatever may be the inclination of the Courts of 
 Vienna or St. Petersburg, rest assured that the liberty 
 
 520
 
 CHAPTER III VIVIAN GREY 
 
 of Germany will meet with no opponent except 
 political intrigue ; and that Metternich is too well 
 acquainted with the spirit which is now only slumber- 
 ing in the bosom of the German nation, to run the 
 slightest risk of exciting it by the presence of foreign 
 legions. No, no! that mode of treatment may do 
 very well for Naples, or Poland, or Spain ; but the 
 moment that a Croat or a Cossack shall encamp upon 
 the Rhine or the Elbe, for the purpose of supporting 
 the unadulterated tyranny of their new-fangled Grand 
 Dukes, that moment Germany becomes a great and 
 united nation. The greatest enemy of the prosper- 
 ity of Germany is the natural disposition of her sons ; 
 but that disposition, while it does now, and may for 
 ever, hinder us from being a great people, will at the 
 same time infallibly prevent us from ever becoming 
 a degraded one.' 
 
 At this moment, this moment of pleasing anticipa- 
 tion of public virtue and private revenge, Master 
 Rodolph entered, and prevented Vivian from gaining 
 any details of the history of his host. The little 
 round steward informed his master that a horseman 
 had just arrived, bearing for his Highness a dispatch 
 of importance, which he insisted upon delivering into 
 the Prince's own hands. 
 
 ( Whence comes he ?' asked his Highness. 
 
 ( In truth, your Serene Highness, that were hard 
 to say, inasmuch as the messenger refuses to inform 
 us.' 
 
 ' Admit him.' 
 
 A man whose jaded looks proved that he had 
 travelled far that day, was soon ushered into the 
 room ; and bowing to the Prince, delivered to him, 
 in silence, a letter. 
 
 ' From whom comes this?' asked the Prince. 
 521
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VI 
 
 * It will itself inform your Highness,' was the only 
 answer. 
 
 ' My friend, you are a trusty messenger, and have 
 been well trained. Rodolph, look that this gentle- 
 man be well lodged and attended.' 
 
 * I thank your Highness,' said the messenger, ' but 
 I do not tarry here. I wait no answer, and my only 
 purpose in seeing you was to perform my commission 
 to the letter, by delivering this paper into your own 
 hands.' 
 
 ' As you please, Sir ; you must be the best judge 
 of your own time ; but we like not strangers to leave 
 our gates while our drawbridge is yet echoing with 
 their entrance steps.' 
 
 The Prince and Vivian were again alone. Aston- 
 ishment and agitation were very visible on his High- 
 ness' countenance as he dashed his eye over the letter. 
 At length he folded it up, put it into his breast- 
 pocket, and tried to resume conversation ; but the 
 effort was both evident and unsuccessful. In another 
 moment the letter was again taken out, and again 
 read with not less emotion than accompanied its first 
 perusal. 
 
 4 1 fear I have wearied you, Mr. Grey,' said his 
 Highness ; ' It was inconsiderate in me not to re- 
 member that you require repose.' 
 
 Vivian was not sorry to have an opportunity of 
 retiring, so he quickly took the hint, and wished his 
 Highness agreeable dreams. 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 No one but an adventurous traveller can know the 
 luxury of sleep. There is not a greater fallacy in the 
 world than the common creed that ' sweet sleep is 
 
 522
 
 CHAPTER IV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 labour's guerdon.' Mere regular, corporeal labour 
 certainly procures us a good, sound, refreshing slum- 
 ber, disturbed often by the consciousness of the 
 monotonous duties of the morrow : but how sleep 
 the other great labourers of this laborious world? 
 Where is the sweet sleep of the politician ? After 
 hours of fatigue in his office, and hours of exhaustion 
 in the House, he gains his pillow ; and a brief, fever- 
 ish night, disturbed by the triumph of a cheer and the 
 horrors of a reply. Where is the sweet sleep of the 
 poet, or the novelist? We all know how harassing 
 are the common dreams which are made up of inco- 
 herent images of our daily life, in which the actors 
 are individuals that we know, and whose conduct 
 generally appears to be regulated by principles which 
 we can comprehend. How much more enervating 
 and destroying must be the slumber of that man who 
 dreams of an imaginary world! waking, with a 
 heated and excited spirit, to mourn over some im- 
 pressive incident of the night, which is nevertheless 
 forgotten ; or to collect some inexplicable plot which 
 has been revealed in sleep, and has fled from the 
 memory as the eyelids have opened. Where is the 
 sweet sleep of the artist? of the lawyer? Where, 
 indeed, of any human being to whom to-morrow 
 brings its necessary duties? Sleep is the enemy of 
 Care, and Care is the constant companion of regular 
 labour, mental or bodily. 
 
 But your traveller, your adventurous traveller 
 careless of the future, reckless of the past with a 
 mind interested by the world, from the immense and 
 various character which that world presents to him, 
 and not by his own stake in any petty or particular 
 contingency ; wearied by delightful fatigue, daily 
 occasioned by varying means, and from varying 
 
 5 2 3
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VI 
 
 causes ; with the consciousness that no prudence can 
 regulate the fortunes of the morrow, and with no 
 curiosity to discover what those fortunes may be, 
 from a conviction that it is utterly impossible to as- 
 certain them ; perfectly easy whether he lie in a 
 mountain-hut or a royal palace ; and reckless alike of 
 the terrors and chances of storm and bandits ; seeing 
 that he has as fair a chance of meeting both with 
 security and enjoyment this is the fellow who, 
 throwing his body upon a down couch or his mule's 
 packsaddle, with equal eagerness and equal sang- 
 froid, sinks into a repose, in which he is never re- 
 minded by the remembrance of an appointment or an 
 engagement for the next day, a duel, a marriage, or a 
 dinner, the three perils of man, that he has the mis- 
 fortune of being mortal ; and wakes, not to combat 
 care, but only to feel that he is fresher and more 
 vigorous than he was the night before ; and that 
 come what come may, he is, at any rate, sure this day 
 of seeing different faces, and of improvising his un- 
 premeditated part upon a different scene. 
 
 I have now both philosophically accounted, and 
 politely apologized, for the loud and unfashionable 
 snore which sounded in the blue chamber about five 
 minutes after Vivian Grey had entered that most 
 comfortable apartment. In about twelve hours time 
 he was scolding Essper George for having presumed 
 to wake him so early, quite unconscious that he had 
 enjoyed any thing more than a twenty minutes' 
 doze. 
 
 ' I should not have come in, Sir, only they are all 
 out. They were off by six o'clock this morning, 
 Sir; most part at least. The Prince has gone; I 
 don't know whether he went with them, but Master 
 Rodolph has given me I breakfasted with Master 
 
 524
 
 CHAPTER IV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 Rodolph. Holy Virgin! your Highness, what 
 quarters we have got into ; the finest venison pasties, 
 
 corned beef, hare soup, cherry sauce ' 
 
 ' To the point, to the point, my good Essper ; 
 what of the Prince ?' 
 
 * His Highness has left the Castle, and desired 
 
 O 
 
 Master Rodolph if your Grace had only seen 
 Master Rodolph tipsy last night : hah ! hah ! hah ! 
 he rolled about like a turbot in a tornado.' 
 
 * What of the Prince, Essper ; what of the 
 Prince ?' 
 
 ' His Highness, your Grace, has left the Castle ; 
 and Master Rodolph, who, by the bye ' 
 
 1 No more of Master Rodolph, Sir ; what of the 
 Prince?' 
 
 Your Highness won't hear me. The Prince de- 
 sired Master Rodolph if your Highness had only 
 seen him last night I beg pardon, I beg par- 
 don the Prince, God bless him for his breakfast ; 
 the finest venison pasties, corned beef, hare soup, 
 cherry sauce I beg pardon, I beg pardon the 
 Prince desired this letter to be given to your High- 
 ness.' 
 
 Vivian read the note, which supposed that, of 
 course, he would not wish to join the chase this 
 morning, and regretted that the writer was obliged 
 to ride out for a few hours to visit a neighbouring 
 nobleman, but requested the pleasure of his guest's 
 company at a private dinner in the Cabinet, on his 
 return. 
 
 After breakfast Vivian called on Mr. Sievers. He 
 found that gentleman busied in his library. 
 
 { These are companions, Mr. Grey,' said he, point- 
 ing to his well-stored shelves, * that I ever find 
 interesting. I hope, from the mysterious account of 
 
 5 2 5
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VI 
 
 my retreat which I gave you yesterday, that you did 
 not expect to be introduced to the sanctum of an old 
 conjuror; but the truth is, the cell of a magician 
 could not excite more wonder at Turriparva than 
 does the library of a scholar.' 
 
 < I assure you, Sir,' said Vivian, * that nothing in 
 the world could give me greater pleasure than to pass 
 a morning with you in this retreat. Though born 
 and bred in a library, my life, for the last two years, 
 has been of so very adventurous a nature, that I have 
 seldom had the opportunity of recurring to those 
 studies which once alone occupied my thoughts : and 
 your collection, too, is quite after my heart Politics 
 and Philosophy.' 
 
 Vivian was sincere in his declaration, and he had 
 not for a long time passed a couple of hours with 
 more delight than he did this morning with Mr. 
 Sievers ; who, at the same time that he was a perfect 
 master of principles, was also a due reverencer of 
 facts : a philosophical antiquarian, in the widest and 
 worthiest acceptation of the title ; one who extracted 
 from his deep knowledge of the past, beneficial in- 
 struction for the present. 
 
 ' Come,' said Mr. Sievers, ' enough of the super- 
 stitions of the middle ages ; after all, superstition 
 is a word that it hardly becomes a philosopher to use : 
 nothing is more fatal in disquisition than terms which 
 cannot be defined, and to which different meanings 
 are attached, according to the different sentiments of 
 different persons. A friend of mine once promised 
 to give us a volume on " The Modes of Belief of the 
 Middle Ages." I always thought it a very delicate 
 and happy title, a most philosophically-chosen phrase. 
 I augured well of the volume ; but it has never ap- 
 peared. Some men are great geniuses at a title-page ! 
 
 526
 
 CHAFFER IV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 And to give a good title to a book does, indeed, re- 
 quire genius. I remember when I was a student at 
 Leipsic, there was an ingenious bookseller in that city 
 who was a great hand at title-making. He pub- 
 lished every year magnificent lists of works " in the 
 press." At first, these catalogues produced an im- 
 mense sensation throughout Germany, since there 
 was scarcely a subject that could possibly interest 
 mankind, which was not to be discussed in a forth- 
 coming volume. The list always regularly began 
 with an epic poem : it as regularly contained some 
 learned history, in ten volumes, quarto a grand 
 tragedy a first-rate historical novel works on 
 criticism, natural philosophy, general literature, 
 politics, and on every other subject that you can 
 possibly conceive, down to a new almanack for the 
 coming year. Not one of these works ever appeared. 
 Such treatment, after our appetites had been so 
 keenly excited, was really worse than the Barmecide's 
 conduct to the Barber's brother. It was like asking 
 a party of men to dine with you at some Restaura- 
 teur's in the Palais Royal, and then presenting to 
 each of them for dinner a copy of the carte.' 
 ' You never hunt, I suppose, Mr. Sievers?' 
 ' Never, never. His Highness is, I imagine, out 
 this morning ; the beautiful weather continues ; 
 surely we never had such a season. As for myself, 
 I almost have given up my in-door pursuits. The 
 sun is not the light of study. Let us take our caps, 
 and have a stroll.' 
 
 The gentlemen accordingly left the library, and 
 proceeding through a different gate to that by which 
 Vivian had entered the castle, they came upon a part 
 of the forest in which the timber and brushwood had 
 been in a great measure cleared away ; large clumps 
 
 5 2 7
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VI 
 
 of trees being left standing on an artificial lawn, and 
 newly-made roads winding about in pleasing irregu- 
 larity until they were all finally lost in the encircling 
 woods. 
 
 ' I think you told me,' said Mr. Sievers, ' that 
 you had been long in Germany. What course do 
 you think of taking from here?' 
 
 * Straight to Vienna.' 
 
 c Ah ! a delightful place. If, as I suppose to be 
 the case, you are fond of dissipation and luxury, 
 Vienna is to be preferred to any city with which I am 
 acquainted. And intellectual companions are not 
 wanting there, as some have said. There are one or 
 two houses in which the literary soirees will yield 
 to none in Europe ; and I prefer them to any, because 
 there is less pretension, and more ease. The Arch- 
 duke John is really a man of considerable talents, 
 and of more considerable acquirements. A most ad- 
 mirable geologist ! Are you fond of geology ?' 
 
 ' I am not the least acquainted with the science.' 
 
 ' Naturally so at your age if, in fact, we study at 
 all, we are fond of fancying ourselves moral philo- 
 sophers, and our study is mankind. Trust me, my 
 dear Sir, it is a branch of research soon exhausted ; 
 and in a few years you will be very glad, for want of 
 something else to do, to meditate upon stones. See 
 now,' said Mr. Sievers, picking up a stone, < to what 
 associations does this little piece of quartz give rise ! 
 I am already an antediluvian, and instead of a stag 
 bounding by that wood, I witness the moving mass 
 of a mammoth. I live in other worlds which, at the 
 same time, I have the advantage of comparing with 
 the present. Geology is indeed a magnificent study ! 
 What excites more the imagination? What exer- 
 cises more the mind? Can you conceive any thing 
 
 528
 
 CHAPTER IV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 sublimer than the gigantic shadows, and the grim 
 wreck of an antediluvian world? Can you devise 
 any plan which will more brace our powers and 
 develope our mental energies, than the formation of 
 a perfect chain of inductive reasoning to account for 
 these phenomena ? What is the boasted communion 
 which the vain poet holds with Nature, compared 
 with the conversation which the geologist perpetu- 
 ally carries on with the elemental world? Gazing 
 on the strata of the earth, he reads the fate of his 
 species. In the undulations of the mountains is re- 
 vealed to him the history of the past ; and in the 
 strength of rivers, and the powers of the air, he dis- 
 covers the fortunes of the future. To him, indeed, 
 that future, as well as the past and the present, are 
 alike matter for meditation : for the geologist is the 
 most satisfactory of antiquarians, the most interesting 
 of philosophers, and the most inspired of prophets ; 
 demonstrating that which has past by discovery, 
 that which is occurring by observation, and that 
 which is to come by induction. When you go to 
 Vienna I will give you a letter to Frederic Schlegel ; 
 we were fellow-students, and are friends, though for 
 various reasons we do not at present meet ; never- 
 theless a letter from me will command proper respect. 
 I should advise you, however, before you go on to 
 Vienna to visit Reisenburg.' 
 
 * Indeed ! from the Prince's account I should 
 have thought that there was little to interest me 
 there,' 
 
 ' His Highness is not an impartial judge. You 
 are probably acquainted with the disagreeable man- 
 ner in which he is connected with that Court. Far 
 from his opinion being correct, or his advice in this 
 particular to be followed, I should say there are few 
 
 2L 529
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VI 
 
 places in Germany more worthy of a visit than the 
 little Court near us; and above all things in the 
 world, my advice is that you should not pass it 
 over.' 
 
 ' I am inclined to follow your advice. You are 
 right in supposing that I am not ignorant that his 
 Highness has the misfortune of being a mediatised 
 Prince ; but what is the exact story about him ? I 
 have heard some odd rumours, some vague expres- 
 sions, some ' 
 
 ' Oh ! don't you know it all ? It's a curious story, 
 but Pm afraid you'll find it rather long. Neverthe- 
 less, if you really visit Reisenburg, it may be of use 
 to you to know something of the singular characters 
 you will meet there ; and our present conversation, 
 if it do not otherwise interest you will, at least on 
 this score, give you all requisite information. In the 
 first place, you say you know that Little Lilliput is 
 a mediatised Prince ; and, of course, are precisely 
 aware what that title means. About fifty years ago, 
 the rival of the illustrious family, in whose chief 
 castle we are both of us now residing, was the Mar- 
 grave of Reisenberg, another petty Prince, with ter- 
 ritories not so extensive as those of our friend, and 
 with a population more limited : perhaps fifty thou- 
 sand souls, half of whom were drunken cousins. The 
 old Margrave of Reisenberg who then reigned, was 
 a perfect specimen of the old-fashioned, narrow- 
 minded, brutal, bigoted, German Prince ; he did 
 nothing but hunt, and drink, and think of the ten 
 thousand quarterings of his immaculate shield, all 
 duly acquired from some Vandal ancestor as barbarous 
 as himself. His little Margravinate was mis- 
 governed enough for a great Empire. Half of his 
 nation, who were his real people, were always starv- 
 
 53
 
 CHAPTER IV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 ing, and were unable to find crown pieces to maintain 
 the extravagant expenditure of the other moiety, 
 the five-and-twenty thousand cousins ; who, out of 
 gratitude to their fellow-subjects for their generous 
 support, or as a punishment for their unreasonable 
 unwillingness to starve, in order that the cousins 
 might drink, harassed them with every species of 
 brutal excess. Complaints were of course immedi- 
 ately made to the Margrave, and loud cries for justice 
 resounded at the palace gates. This Prince was a 
 most impartial chief magistrate ; he prided himself 
 especially upon his " invariable " principles of justice, 
 and he allowed nothing to influence or corrupt his 
 decisions. His infallible plan for arranging all differ- 
 ences had the merit of being brief ; and if brevity 
 be the soul of wit, it certainly was most unreasonable 
 in his subjects to consider his judgments no joke. 
 He always counted the quarterings in the shields 
 of the respective parties, and decided accordingly. 
 Imagine the speedy redress gained by a muddy- 
 veined peasant against one of the cousins ; who, of 
 course, had as many quarterings as the Margrave him- 
 self. The defendant was always regularly acquitted. 
 At length, a man's house having been burnt down out 
 of mere joke in the night, the owner had the temerity 
 in the morning to accuse one of the five-and-twenty 
 thousand ; and produced, at the same time, a shield 
 with ten thousand and one quarterings, exactly one 
 more than the reigning shield itself contained. The 
 Margrave was astounded, the nation in raptures, and 
 the five-and-twenty thousand cousins in despair. 
 The complainant's shield was examined and counted, 
 and not a flaw discovered. What a dilemma ! The 
 chief magistrate consulted with the numerous branches 
 of his family, and the next morning the complain-
 
 VIVIAN GRF,Y BOOK VI 
 
 ant's head was struck off for high treason, for daring 
 to have one more quartering than his monarch ! 
 
 ' In this way they passed their time about fifty 
 years since in Reisenburg : occasionally, for the sake 
 of variety, declaring war against the inhabitants of 
 Little Lilliput ; who, to say the truth, in their habits 
 and pursuits did not materially differ from their 
 neighbours. The Margrave had one son, the pre- 
 sent Grand Duke. A due reverence of the great 
 family shield, and a full acquaintance with the " in- 
 variable principles " of justice were early instilled 
 into him ; and the royal stripling made such rapid 
 progress under the tuition of his amiable parent, that 
 he soon became highly popular with his five-and- 
 twenty thousand cousins. At length his popularity 
 became troublesome to his father ; and so the old 
 Margrave sent for his son one morning, and informed 
 him that he had dreamed the preceding night that 
 the air of Reisenburg was peculiarly unwholesome 
 for young persons, and therefore he begged him to 
 get out of his dominions as soon as possible. The 
 young prince had no objection to see something of 
 the world, and so with dutiful affection he immedi- 
 ately complied with the royal order, without putting 
 his cousins 5 loyalty to the test. He flew to a relative 
 whom he had never before visited. This nobleman 
 was one of those individuals who anticipate their age, 
 which, by the bye, Mr. Grey, none but noblemen 
 should do ; for he who anticipates his century, is 
 generally persecuted when living, and is always pil- 
 fered when dead. Howbeit, this relation was a 
 philosopher ; all about him thought him mad ; he, 
 in return, thought all about him fools. He sent the 
 Prince to an University, and gave him for a tutor, a 
 young man about ten years older than his pupil.
 
 CHAPTER IV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 This person's name was Beckendorff. You will hear 
 more of him. 
 
 ' About three years after the sudden departure of 
 the young Prince, the old Margrave his father, and 
 the then reigning Prince of Little Lilliput, shot each 
 other through the head in a drunken brawl, after a 
 dinner given in honour of a proclamation of peace 
 between the two countries. The five-and-twenty 
 thousand cousins were not much grieved, as they 
 anticipated a fit successor in their former favourite. 
 Splendid preparations were made for the reception of 
 the inheritor of ten thousand quarterings, and all 
 Reisenburg was poured out to witness the triumph- 
 ant entrance of their future monarch. At last two 
 horsemen, in plain dresses, and on very indifferent 
 steeds, rode up to the palace-gates, dismounted, and 
 without making any enquiry, ordered the attendance 
 of some of the chief nobility in the presence-chamber. 
 One of them, a young man, without any preparatory 
 explanation introduced the Reisenburg chieftains to 
 his companion as his Prime Minister ; and com- 
 manded them immediately to deliver up their porte- 
 feuilles and golden keys to Mr. Beckendorff. The 
 nobles were in dismay, and so astounded that they 
 made no resistance ; though the next morning they 
 started in their beds, when they remembered that they 
 had delivered their insignia of office to a man without 
 a von before his name. They were soon, however, 
 roused from their sorrow and their stupor, by receiv- 
 ing a peremptory order to quit the palace ; and as 
 they retired from the walls which they had long con- 
 sidered as their own, they had the mortification of 
 meeting crowds of the common people, their slaves 
 and their victims, hurrying- with joyful countenances 
 and triumphant looks to the palace of their Prince ; 
 
 533
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VI 
 
 in consequence of an energetic proclamation for the 
 redress of grievances, and an earnest promise to 
 decide cases in future without examining the quarter- 
 ings of the parties. In a week's time the five-and- 
 twenty thousand cousins were all adrift. At length 
 they conspired, but the conspiracy was tardy they 
 found their former servants armed, and they joined in 
 a most unequal struggle ; for their opponents were 
 alike animated with hopes of the future, and with 
 revenge for the past. The cousins got well beat, and 
 this was not the worst ; for Beckendorff took advan- 
 tage of this unsuccessful treason, which he had him- 
 self fomented, and forfeited all their estates ; de- 
 stroying in one hour the foul system which had 
 palsied, for so many years, the energies of his master's 
 subjects. In time, many of the chief nobility were 
 restored to their honours and estates ; but the power 
 with which they were again invested was greatly 
 modified, and the privileges of the Commons greatly 
 increased. At this moment the French Revolution 
 broke out the French crossed the Rhine and carried 
 all before them ; and the Prince of Little Lilliput, 
 among other true Germans, made a bold but fruitless 
 resistance. The Margrave of Reisenburg, on the 
 contrary, received the enemy with open arms he 
 raised a larger body of troops than his due contingent, 
 and exerted himself in every manner to second the 
 views of the Great Nation. In return for his ser- 
 vices he was presented with the conquered principal- 
 ity of Little Lilliput, and some other adjoining lands ; 
 and the Margravinate of Reisenburg, with an in- 
 creased territory and population, and governed with 
 consummate wisdom, began to be considered the 
 most flourishing of the petty states in the quarter of 
 the empire to which it belonged. On the contrary, 
 
 534
 
 CHAPTER IV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 our princely and patriotic friend, mortified by the 
 degenerate condition of his country and the prosperity 
 of his rival house, quitted Little Lilliput, and became 
 one of those emigrant princes who abounded during 
 the first years of the Revolution in all the northern 
 courts of Europe. Napoleon soon appeared upon 
 the stage ; and vanquished Austria, with the French 
 dictating at the gates of her capital, was no longer in 
 a condition to support the dignity of the Empire. 
 The policy of the Margrave of Reisenburg was as 
 little patriotic, and quite as consistent, as before. 
 Beckendorff became the constant and favoured coun- 
 sellor of the French Emperor. It was chiefly by his 
 exertions that the celebrated Confederation of the 
 Rhine was carried into effect. The institution of 
 this body excited among many Germans, at the time, 
 loud expressions of indignation ; but I believe few 
 impartial and judicious men now look upon that 
 league as any other than one, in the formation of 
 which the most consummate statesmanship was ex- 
 hibited. In fact it prevented the subjugation of Ger- 
 many to France, and by flattering the pride of 
 Napoleon, it saved the decomposition of our Empire. 
 But how this might be, it is not at present necessary 
 for us to enquire. Certain, however, it was, that the 
 pupil of Beckendorff was amply repaid for the advice 
 and exertions of his master and his Minister ; and 
 when Napoleon fell, the brows of the former Mar- 
 grave were encircled with a grand-ducal crown ; and 
 his duchy, while it contained upwards of a million 
 and a half of inhabitants, numbered in its 
 limits some of the most celebrated cities in 
 Germany, and many of Germany's most flourishing 
 provinces. But Napoleon fell. The Prince of 
 Little Lilliput and his companions in patriot- 
 
 535
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VI 
 
 ism and misfortune returned from their exile, 
 panting with hope and vengeance. A Congress was 
 held to settle the affairs of agitated Germany. 
 Where was the Grand Duke of Reisenburg? His 
 hard-earned crown tottered on his head. Where 
 was his crafty Minister, the supporter of revolution- 
 ary France, the friend of its Imperial enslaver, the 
 constant enemy of the House of Austria? At the 
 very Congress which, according to the expectations of 
 the exiled Princes, was to restore them to their own 
 dominions, and to reward their patriotic loyalty with 
 the territories of their revolutionary brethren ; yes ! 
 at this very congress was Beckendorff ; not as a 
 suppliant, not as a victim ; but seated at the right 
 hand of Metternich, and watching, with parental 
 affection, the first interesting and infantine move- 
 ments of that most prosperous of political bantlings 
 the Holy Alliance. You may well imagine that 
 the military Grand Duke had a much better chance 
 in political negociation than the emigrant Prince. 
 In addition to this, the Grand Duke of Reisenburg 
 had married, during the war, a Princess of a powerful 
 House ; and the allied Sovereigns were eager to gain 
 the future aid nnd constant co-operation of a mind 
 like Beckendorff's. The Prince of Little Lilliput, 
 the patriot, was rewarded for his conduct by being 
 restored to his forfeited possessions ; and the next 
 day he became the subject of his former enemy, the 
 Grand Duke of Reisenburg, the traitor. What think 
 you of Monsieur Beckendorff? He must be a 
 curious gentleman, I imagine?' 
 
 4 One of the most interesting characters I have 
 long heard of. But his pupil appears to be a man of 
 mind. 5 
 
 c You shall hear, you shall hear. I should how- 
 516
 
 CHAPTER IV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 ever first mention, that while Beckendorff has not 
 scrupled to resort to any measures, or adopt any 
 opinions in order to further the interests of his mon- 
 arch and his country, he has in every manner shown 
 that persona] aggrandisement has never been his ob- 
 ject. He lives in the most perfect retirement, 
 scarcely with an attendant, and his moderate official 
 stipend amply supports his more moderate expendi- 
 ture. The subjects of the Grand Duke may well be 
 grateful that they have a Minister without relations, 
 and without favourites. The Grand Duke is, un- 
 questionably, a man of talents ; but at the same time, 
 perhaps, one of the most weak-minded men that ever 
 breathed. He was fortunate in meeting with Beck- 
 endorff early in life ; and as the influence of the 
 Minister has not for a moment ceased over the mind 
 of the Monarch, to the world, the Grand Duke of 
 Reisenburg has always appeared to be an individual 
 of a strong mind and consistent conduct. But when 
 you have lived as much, and as intimately in his court 
 as I have done, you will find how easily the world 
 may be deceived. Since the close connexion which 
 now exists between Reisenburg and Austria took 
 place, Beckendorff has, in a great degree, revived the 
 ancient privileges of blood and birth. A Minister 
 who has sprung from the people will always conciliate 
 the aristocracy. Having no family influence of his 
 own, he endeavours to gain the influence of others ; 
 and it often happens that merit is never less con- 
 sidered, than when merit has made the Minister. A 
 curious instance of this occurs in a neighbouring 
 state. There the Premier, decidedly a man of great 
 talents, is of as low an origin as Beckendorff. With 
 no family to uphold him, he supports himself by a 
 lavish division of all the places and patronage of the 
 
 537
 
 VIVIAiN GREY BOOK VI 
 
 state among the nobles. If the younger son or 
 brother of a peer dare to sully his oratorical virginity 
 by a chance observation in the Lower Chamber, the 
 Minister, himself a real orator, immediately rises to 
 congratulate in pompous phrase, the House and the 
 Country on the splendid display which has made this 
 night memorable ; and on the decided advantages 
 which must accrue both to their own resolutions and 
 the national interests, from the future participation of 
 his noble friend in their deliberations. All about 
 him are young nobles, utterly unfit for the discharge 
 of their respective duties. His private Secretary is 
 unable to coin a sentence, almost to direct a letter, 
 but he is noble! The secondary officials cannot be 
 trusted even in the least critical conjunctures, but 
 they are noble ! And the Prime Minister of a power- 
 ful Empire is forced to rise early and be up late ; not 
 to meditate on the present fortunes or future destinies 
 of his country, but by his personal exertions, to com- 
 pensate for the inefficiency and expiate the blunders 
 of his underlings, whom his unfortunate want of 
 blood has forced him to overwhelm with praises which 
 they do not deserve, and duties which they cannot 
 discharge. I do not wish you to infer that the policy 
 of Beckendorff has been actuated by the feelings 
 which influence the Minister whom I have noticed, 
 from whose conduct in this very respect his own 
 materially differs. On the contrary, his connexion 
 with Austria is in all probability the primary great 
 cause. However this may be, certain it is, that all 
 offices about the Court and connected with the army, 
 (and I need not remind you, that at a small German 
 Court these situations are often the most important 
 in the State), can only be filled by the nobility ; nor 
 can any person who has the misfortune of not in- 
 
 538
 
 CHAPTER IV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 heriting the magical monosyllable von before his 
 name, which, as you know, like the French de y is the 
 shibboleth of nobility, and the symbol of territorial 
 pride, violate by their unhallowed presence the sanc- 
 tity of Court dinners, or the as sacred ceremonies of 
 a noble fete. But while a monopoly of those offices 
 which tor their due performance require only a showy 
 exterior or a schooled address, is granted to the nobles, 
 all those state charges which require the exercise of 
 intellect, are now chiefly filled by the bourgeoisie. 
 At the same time, however, that both our Secretaries 
 of State, many of our privy Councillors, war Council- 
 lors, forest Councillors, and finance Councillors, are 
 to be reckoned among the second-class, still not one 
 of these exalted individuals, who from their situations 
 are necessarily in constant personal communication 
 with the Sovereign, ever see that Sovereign except in 
 his Cabinet and his Council-chamber. BeckendorfF 
 himself, the Premier, is the son of a peasant ; and of 
 course not noble. Nobility, which has been prof- 
 fered him, not only by his own monarch, but by most 
 of the sovereigns of Europe, he has invariably re- 
 fused ; and consequently never appears at Court. 
 The truth is, that, from disposition, he is little in- 
 clined to mix with men ; and he has taken advantage 
 of his want of an escutcheon, completely to exempt 
 himself from all those duties of etiquette which his 
 exalted situation would otherwise have imposed upon 
 him. None can complain of the haughtiness of the 
 nobles, when, ostensibly, the Minister himself is not 
 exempted from their exclusive regulations. If you 
 go to Reisenburg, you will not therefore see Becken- 
 dorfF, who lives, as I have mentioned, in perfect soli- 
 tude, about thirty miles from the capital ; communi- 
 cating only with his Royal master, the foreign Minis- 
 
 539
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VI 
 
 ters, and one or two official characters of his own 
 country. I was myself an inmate of the Court for 
 upwards of two years. During that time I never 
 saw the Minister ; and, with the exception of some 
 members of the royal family, and the characters I have 
 mentioned, I never knew one person who had even 
 caught a glimpse of the individual, who may indeed 
 be said to be regulating their destinies. 
 
 ' It is at the Court, then,' continued Mr. Sievers, 
 ' when he is no longer under the control of Becken- 
 dorff, and in those minor points which are not sub- 
 jected to the management or influenced by the mind 
 of the Minister, that the true character of the Grand 
 Duke is to be detected. Indeed it may really be said, 
 that the weakness of his mind has been the origin of 
 his fortune. In his early youth, his pliant temper 
 adapted itself without a struggle to the barbarous 
 customs and the brutal conduct of his father's Court : 
 that same pliancy of temper prevented him opposing 
 with bigoted obstinancy the exertions of his relation 
 to educate and civilise him ; that same pliancy of 
 temper allowed him to become the ready and the en- 
 thusiastic disciple of Beckendorff. Had the pupil, 
 when he ascended the throne, left his master behind 
 him, it is very probable that his natural feelings 
 would have led him to oppose the French ; and at 
 this moment, instead of being the first of the second- 
 rate powers of Germany, the Grand Duke of Reisen- 
 burg might himself have been a mediatised Prince. 
 As it was, the same pliancy of temper which I have 
 noticed, enabled him to receive Napoleon, when an 
 Emperor, with outstretched arms ; and at this 
 moment does not prevent him from receiving, with 
 equal rapture, the Imperial Archduchess, who will 
 soon be on her road from Vienna to espouse his son 
 
 540
 
 CHAPTER IV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 for, to crown his wonderful career, Beckendorff 
 has successfully negotiated a marriage between a 
 daughter of the house of Austria and the Crown 
 Prince* of Reisenburg. It is generally believed that 
 the next step of the Diet will be to transmute the 
 father's Grand Ducal coronet into a Regal crown ; 
 and perhaps, my good Sir, before you reach Vienna, 
 you may have the supreme honour of being presented 
 to his Majesty the King of Reisenburg.' 
 
 ' Beckendorff' s career, you may well style wonder- 
 ful. But when you talk only of his pupil's pliancy 
 of temper, am I to suppose, that in mentioning his 
 talents you were speaking ironically?' 
 
 ' By no means ! The Grand Duke is a brilliant 
 scholar ; a man of refined taste ; a real patron of the 
 fine arts ; a lover of literature ; a promoter of 
 science ; and what the world would call a philo- 
 sopher. His judgment is sound, and generally cor- 
 rect his powers of discrimination singularly acute 
 and his knowledge of mankind greater than that 
 of most sovereigns : but with all these advantages, 
 he is cursed with such a wavering and indecisive 
 temper, that when, which is usually the case, he has 
 come to a right conclusion, he can never prevail upon 
 himself to carry his theory into practice ; and with 
 all his acuteness, his discernment, and his knowledge 
 of the world, his mind is always ready to receive any 
 impression from the person who last addresses him ; 
 though he himself be fully aware of the inferiority 
 of his adviser's intellect to his own, or the imper- 
 
 * Hereditary Prince is, I believe, in all cases, the correct style of 
 the eldest son of a German Grand Duke. I have not used a title 
 which would not be understood by the English Reader. Crown 
 Prince is also a German title ; but, in strictness, only assumed by 
 the son of a King. 
 
 541
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VI 
 
 faction of that adviser's knowledge. Never for a 
 moment out of the sight of BeckendorfF, the royal 
 pupil has made a most admirable political puppet ; 
 since his own talents have always enabled him to 
 understand the part which the Minister had forced 
 him to perform. Thus the world has given the 
 Grand Duke credit, not only for the possession of 
 great talents, but almost for as much firmness of mind 
 and decision of character as his Minister. But since 
 his long-agitated career has become calm and tran- 
 quil, and Beckendorff, like a guardian spirit, has 
 ceased to be ever at his elbow, the character of the 
 Grand Duke of Reisenburg begins to be understood. 
 His Court has been, and still is, frequented by all the 
 men of genius in Germany, who are admitted with- 
 out scruple, even if they be not noble. But the 
 astonishing thing is, that the Grand Duke is always 
 surrounded by every species of political and philoso- 
 phical quack that you can imagine. Discussions on a 
 free press, on the reformation of the criminal code, 
 on the abolition of commercial duties, and suchlike 
 interminable topics, are perpetually resounding with- 
 in the palace of this arbitrary Prince ; and the people, 
 fired by the representations of the literary and politi- 
 cal journals with which Reisenburg abounds, and 
 whose bold speculations on all subjects elude the 
 vigilance of the censor, by being skilfully amalga- 
 mated with a lavish praise of the royal character, are 
 perpetually flattered with the speedy hope of becom- 
 ing freemen. Suddenly, when all are expecting the 
 grant of a charter or the institution of Chambers, Mr. 
 Beckendorff rides up from his retreat to the Resid- 
 ence, and the next day the whole crowd of philo- 
 sophers are swept from the royal presence, and the 
 censorship of the press becomes so severe, that for a 
 
 542
 
 CHAPTER IV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 moment you would fancy that Reisenburg instead of 
 being, as it boasts itself, the modern Athens, had 
 more right to the title of the modern Boeotia. The 
 people, who enjoy an impartial administration of 
 equal laws, who have flourished, and are flourishing, 
 under the wise and moderate rule of their new 
 monarch, have in fact no inclination to exert them- 
 selves for the attainment of constitutional liberty, in 
 any other way than by their voices. Their barbar- 
 ous apathy astounds the philosophes ; who, in de- 
 spair, when the people tell them that they are happy 
 and contented, artfully remind them that their happi- 
 ness depends on the will of a single man ; and that, 
 though the present character of the monarch may 
 guarantee present felicity, still they should think of 
 their children, and not less exert themselves for the 
 insurance of future. These representations, as con- 
 stantly reiterated as the present system will allow, 
 have at length, I assure you, produced an effect ; and 
 political causes of a peculiar nature, of which I shall 
 soon speak, combining their influence with these 
 philosophical exertions, have of late frequently fright- 
 ened the Grand Duke ; who, in despair, would per- 
 haps grant a Constitution, if Beckendorff would 
 allow him. But the Minister is conscious that the 
 people would not be happier, and do not in fact 
 require one : he looks with a jealous and an evil eye 
 on the charlatanism of all kinds which is now so 
 prevalent at Court : he knows, from the characters of 
 many of these philosophers and patriots, that their 
 private interest is generally the secret spring of their 
 public virtue ; that if the Grand Duke, moved by 
 their entreaties or seduced by their flattery, were to 
 yield a little, he would soon be obliged to grant all, 
 to their demands and their threats; and finally, 
 
 543
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VI 
 
 Beckendorff has, of late years, so completely inter- 
 woven the policy of Reisenburg with that of Austria, 
 that he feels that the rock on which he has determined 
 to found the greatness of his country must be quitted 
 for ever, if he yield one jot to the caprice or the weak- 
 ness of his monarch.' 
 
 ' But Beckendorff,' said Vivian ; ' why can he not 
 crush in the bud the noxious plant which he so much 
 dreads? Why does the press speak in the least to 
 the people? Why is the Grand Duke surrounded 
 by any others except pompous Grand Marshals, and 
 empty-headed Lord Chamberlains? I am surprised 
 at this indifference, this want of energy!' 
 
 ( My dear Sir, there are reasons for all things. 
 Rest assured that Beckendorff is not a man to act 
 incautiously or weakly. The Grand Duchess, the 
 mother of the Crown Prince, has been long dead. 
 Beckendorff, who, as a man, has the greatest con- 
 tempt for women as a statesman, looks to them as 
 the most precious of political instruments. It was 
 his wish to have married the Grand Duke to the 
 young Princess who is now destined for his son ; but 
 for once in his life he failed in influencing his pupil. 
 The truth was, and it is to this cause that we must 
 trace the present disorganized state of the Court, and 
 indeed of the kingdom, that the Grand Duke had 
 secretly married a lady to whom he had long been 
 attached. This lady was a Countess, and his sub- 
 ject ; and as it was impossible, by the laws of the 
 kingdom, that any one but a member of a reigning 
 family could be allowed to share the throne, his Royal 
 Highness had recourse to a plan which is not un- 
 common in this country, and espoused the lady with 
 his left hand. The ceremony, which we call here a 
 morganatic marriage, you have probably heard of 
 
 544
 
 CHAPTER IV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 before. The favoured female is, to all intents and 
 purposes, the wife of the monarch, and shares every 
 thing except his throne. She presides at Court, but 
 neither she nor her children assume the style of 
 majesty ; although in some instances the latter have 
 been created princes, and acknowledged as heirs ap- 
 parent, when there has been a default in the lineal 
 royal issue. The lady of whom we are speaking, 
 according to the usual custom, has assumed a name 
 derivative from that of her royal husband ; and as the 
 Grand Duke's name is Charles, she is styled Madame 
 Carolina.' 
 
 4 And what kind of Lady is Madame Carolina?' 
 asked Vivian. 
 
 * Philosophical! piquant! Parisian! a genius, 
 according to her friends ; who, as in fact she is a 
 Queen, are of course the whole world. Though a 
 German by family, she is a Frenchwoman by birth. 
 Educated in the salons spirituels of the French metro- 
 polis, she has early imbibed superb ideas of the 
 perfectibility of man, and of the " science " of con- 
 versation ; on both which subjects you will not be 
 long at Court, ere you hear her descant ; demon- 
 strating by the brilliancy of her ideas the possibility 
 of the one, and by the fluency of her language her 
 acquaintance with the other. She is much younger 
 than her husband ; and though not exactly a model 
 for Phidias, a most fascinating woman. Variety is 
 the talisman by which she commands all hearts, and 
 gained her Monarch's. She is only consistent in 
 being: delightful ; but, though changeable, she is not 
 capricious. Each day displays a new accomplish- 
 ment, as regularly as it does a new costume ; but as 
 the acquirement seems only valued by its possessor as 
 it may delight others, so the dress seems worn, not so 
 
 2M 545
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VI 
 
 much to gratify her own vanity, as to please her 
 friends' tastes. Genius is her idol ; and with her, 
 genius is found in every thing. She speaks in equal 
 raptures of an opera dancer, and an epic poet. Her 
 ambition is to converse on all subjects ; and by a 
 judicious management of a great mass of miscel- 
 laneous reading, and by indefatigable exertions to 
 render herself mistress of the prominent points of 
 the topic of the day, she appears to converse on all 
 subjects with ability. She takes the liveliest interest 
 in the progress of mind, in all quarters of the globe ; 
 and imagines that she should, at the same time, im- 
 mortalize herself and benefit her species, could she 
 only establish a Quarterly Review in Ashantee, and 
 a scientific Gazette at Timbuctoo. Notwithstanding 
 her sudden elevation, no one has ever accused her of 
 arrogance, or pride, or ostentation. Her liberal prin- 
 ciples, and her enlightened views, are acknowledged 
 by all. She advocates equality in her circle of privi- 
 leged nobles ; and is enthusiastic on the rights of 
 man, in a country where justice is a favour. Her 
 boast is to be surrounded by men of genius, and her 
 delight to correspond with the most celebrated per- 
 sons of all countries. She is herself a literary char- 
 acter of no mean celebrity. Few months have 
 elapsed since enraptured Reisenburg hailed, from her 
 glowing pen, two neat octavos, bearing the title of 
 " MEMOIRS OF THE COURT OF CHARLEMAGNE," 
 which give an interesting and accurate picture of the 
 age, and delight the modern public with vivid de- 
 scriptions of the cookery, costume, and conversation 
 of the eighth century. You smile, my friend, at 
 Madame Carolina's production. Do not you agree 
 with me, that it requires no mean talent to convey 
 a picture of the bustle of a levee during the middle 
 
 546
 
 CHAPTER IV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 ages? Conceive Sir Oliver looking in at his club! 
 and fancy the small talk of Roland during a morning 
 visit! Yet even the fame of this work is to be 
 eclipsed by Madame's forthcoming quarto of 
 " HAROUN AL RASCHID AND HIS TIMES." This, it 
 is whispered, is to be a chef-d'oeuvre, enriched by a 
 chronological arrangement, by a celebrated oriental 
 scholar, of all the anecdotes in the Arabian Nights 
 relating to the Caliph. It is, of course, the sun of 
 Madame's patronage that has hatched into noxious 
 life the swarm of sciolists who now infest the Court, 
 and who are sapping the husband's political power, 
 while they are establishing the wife's literary reputa- 
 tion. So much for Madame Carolina! I need 
 hardly add, that during your short stay at Court, you 
 will be delighted with her. If ever you know her as 
 well as I do, you will find her vain, superficial, heart- 
 less : her sentiment a system : her enthusiasm 
 exaggeration ; and her genius merely a clever adop- 
 tion of the profundity of others.' 
 
 'And Beckendorff and the lady are not friendly?' 
 asked Vivian, who was delighted with his communi- 
 cative companion. 
 
 * Beckendorff's is a mind that such a woman can- 
 not, of course, comprehend. He treats her with con- 
 tempt, and, if possible, views her with hatred ; for he 
 considers that she has degraded the character of his 
 pupil ; while she, on the contrary, wonders by what 
 magic spell he exercises such influence over the con- 
 duct of her husband. At first, Beckendorff treated 
 her and her circle of illuminati with contemptuous 
 silence ; but, in politics, nothing is contemptible. 
 The Minister, knowing that the people were prosper- 
 ous and happy, cared little for projected constitutions, 
 and less for metaphysical abstractions ; but some cir- 
 
 547
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VI 
 
 cumstances have lately occurred, which, I imagine, 
 have convinced him that for once he has miscal- 
 culated. After the arrangement of the German 
 States, when the Princes were first mediatised, an 
 attempt was made, by means of a threatening league, 
 to obtain for these political victims a very ample share 
 of the power and patronage of the new State of Reis- 
 enburg. This plan failed, from the lukewarmness 
 and indecision of our good friend of Little Lilliput ; 
 who, between ourselves, was prevented from joining 
 the alliance by the intrigues of Beckendorff. Beck- 
 endorff secretly took measures that the Prince should 
 be promised, that in case of his keeping backward, he 
 should obtain more than would fall to his lot by 
 leading the van. The Prince of Little Lilliput and 
 his peculiar friends accordingly were quiet, and the 
 attempt of the other chieftains failed. It was then 
 that his Highness found he had been duped. Beck- 
 endorff would not acknowledge the authority, and, of 
 course, did not redeem the pledge of his agent. The 
 effect that this affair produced upon the Prince's 
 mind you can conceive. Since then, he has never 
 frequented Reisenberg, but constantly resided either 
 at his former Capital, now a provincial town of the 
 Grand Duchy, or at this castle ; viewed, you may 
 suppose, with no very cordial feeling by his com- 
 panions in misfortune. But the thirst of revenge 
 will inscribe the bitterest enemies in the same muster- 
 roll, and the Princes, incited by the bold carriage of 
 Madame Carolina's philosophical proteges, and in- 
 duced to believe that Beckendorff's power is on the 
 wane, have again made overtures to our friend, with- 
 out whose powerful assistance they feel that they have 
 but little chance of success. Observe how much 
 more men's conduct is influenced by circumstances, 
 
 548
 
 CHAPTER IV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 than principles! When these persons leagued to- 
 gether before, it was with the avowed intention of 
 obtaining a share of the power and patronage of the 
 State : the great body of the people, of course, did 
 not sympathise in that, which, after all, to them, was 
 a party quarrel ; and by the joint exertions of open 
 force and secret intrigue, the Court triumphed. But 
 now, these same individuals come forward, not as 
 indignant Princes demanding a share of the envied 
 tyranny, but as ardent patriots advocating a people's 
 rights. The public, though I believe that in fact 
 they will make no bodily exertion to acquire a con- 
 stitutional freedom, the absence of which they can 
 only abstractedly feel, have no objection to attain 
 that, which they are assured will not injure their 
 situation, provided it be by the risk and exertions of 
 others. As far, therefore, as clamor can support 
 the Princes, they have the people on their side ; and 
 as upwards of three hundred thousand of the Grand 
 Ducal subjects are still living on their estates, and 
 still consider themselves as their serfs, they trust that 
 some excesses from this great body may incite the 
 rest of the people to similar outrages. The natural 
 disposition of mankind to imitation, particularly 
 when the act to be imitated is popular, deserves at- 
 tention. The Court is divided ; for the exertions of 
 Madame, and the bewitching influence of Fashion, 
 have turned the heads even of grey-beards : and to 
 give you only one instance, his Excellency the Grand 
 Marshal, a portege of the House of Austria, and a 
 favourite of Metternich, the very person to whose 
 interests, and as a reward for whose services, our 
 princely friend was sacrificed by the Minister, has 
 now himself become a pupil in the school of modern 
 philosophy, and drivels out, with equal ignorance and 
 
 549
 
 VIVIAN (illKV BOOK VI 
 
 fervor, enlightened notions on the most obscure sub- 
 jects. In the midst of all this confusion, the Grand 
 Duke is timorous, dubious, and uncertain. Becken- 
 dorff has a difficult game to play ; he may fall at last. 
 Such, my dear Sir, are the tremendous consequences 
 of a weak Prince marrying a blue-stocking ! ' 
 
 ' And the Crown Prince, Mr. Sievers, how does he 
 conduct himself at this interesting moment? or is 
 his mind so completely engrossed by the anticipa- 
 tion of his Imperial alliance, that he has no thought 
 for any thing but his approaching bride?' 
 
 ' The Crown Prince, my dear Sir, is neither think- 
 ing of his bride, nor of any thing else : he is a hunch- 
 backed idiot. Of his deformities I have myself been 
 a witness ; and though it is difficult to give an 
 opinion of the intellect of a being with whom you 
 have never interchanged a syllable, nevertheless his 
 countenance does not contradict the common creed. 
 I say the common creed, Mr. Grey, for there are 
 moments when the Crown Prince of Reisenburg is 
 spoken of by his future subjects in a very different 
 manner. Whenever any unpopular act is committed, 
 or any unpopular plan suggested by the Court or the 
 Grand Duke, then whispers are immediately afloat 
 that a future Brutus must be looked for in their 
 Prince : then it is generally understood that his idiot- 
 ism is only assumed ; and what woman does not de- 
 tect, in the glimmerings of his lack-lustre eye, the 
 vivid sparks of suppressed genius? In a short time 
 the cloud blows over the Court ; dissatisfaction dis- 
 appears ; and the moment that the Monarch is again 
 popular, the unfortunate Crown Prince again be- 
 comes the uninfluential object of pity or derision. 
 All immediately forget that his idiotism is only as- 
 sumed ; and what woman ever ceases from deploring
 
 CHAPTER IV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 the unhappy lot of the future wife of their impuis- 
 sant Prince! Such, my dear Sir, is the way of man- 
 kind! At the first glance it would appear, that in 
 this world, monarchs, on the whole, have it pretty 
 well their own way ; but reflection will soon enable 
 us not to envy their situations ; and speaking as a 
 father, which unfortunately I am not, should I not 
 view with disgust that lot in life, which necessarily 
 makes my son my enemy. The Crown Prince of 
 all countries is only a puppet in the hands of the 
 people, to be played against his own father.' 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 THE Prince returned home at a late hour, and im- 
 mediately inquired for Vivian. During dinner, 
 which he hastily dispatched, it did not escape our 
 hero's attention that his Highness was unusually 
 silent and, indeed, agitated. 
 
 ' When we have finished our meal, my good 
 friend,' at length said the Prince, * I very much wish 
 to consult with you on a most important business.' 
 Since the explanation of last night, the Prince, in 
 private conversation, had dropped his regal plural. 
 
 4 I am ready this moment,' said Vivian. 
 
 ' You will think it very strange, Mr. Grey, when 
 you become acquainted with the nature of my com- 
 munication ; you will justly consider it most strange 
 most singular that I should choose for a confi- 
 dant, and a counsellor in an important business, a 
 gentleman with whom I have been acquainted so 
 short a time as yourself. But, Sir, I have well 
 weighed, at least I have endeavoured well to weigh, 
 all the circumstances and contingencies which such a 
 confidence would involve ; and the result of my re- 
 
 55 1
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VI 
 
 flection is, that I will look to you as a friend and an 
 adviser, feeling assured that both from your situa- 
 tion and your disposition, no temptation exists which 
 can induce you to betray, or to deceive me.' Though 
 the Prince said this with an appearance of perfect 
 sincerity, he stopped and looked very earnestly in 
 his guest's face, as if he would read his secret 
 thoughts, or were desirous of now giving him an 
 opportunity of answering. 
 
 ' As far as the certainty of your confidence being 
 respected,' answered Vivian, ' I trust your Highness 
 may communicate to me with the most assured spirit. 
 But while my ignorance of men and affairs in this 
 country will ensure you from any treachery on my 
 part, I very much fear that it will also preclude me 
 from affording you any advantageous advice or assist- 
 ance.' 
 
 ' On that head,' replied the Prince, ' I am of course 
 the best judge. The friend whom I need is a man 
 not ignorant of the world, with a cool head and an 
 impartial mind. Though young, you have said and 
 told me enough to prove that you are not unac- 
 quainted with mankind. Of your courage, I have 
 already had a convincing proof. In the business in 
 which I require your assistance, freedom from na- 
 tional prejudices will materially increase the value of 
 your advice ; and therefore I am far from being 
 unwilling to consult a person ignorant, according to 
 your own phrase, of men and affairs in this country. 
 Moreover, your education as an Englishman has 
 early led you to exercise your mind on political sub- 
 jects ; and it is in a political business that I require 
 your aid.' 
 
 ' Am I fated always to be the dry nurse of an 
 embryo faction!' thought Vivian in despair, and he 
 
 55 2
 
 CHAPTER V VIVIAN GREY 
 
 watched earnestly the countenance of the Prince. In 
 a moment he expected to be invited to become a 
 counsellor of the leagued Princes. Either the lamp 
 was burning dim, or the blazing wood fire had sud- 
 denly died away, or a mist was over Vivian's eyes ; 
 but for a moment he almost imagined that he was 
 sitting opposite his old friend, the Marquess of Cara- 
 bas. The Prince's phrase had given rise to a thou- 
 sand agonizing associations : in an instant Vivian 
 had worked up his mind to a pitch of nervous excite- 
 ment. 
 
 ' Political business ! ' said Vivian, in an agitated 
 voice. ' You could not address a more unfortunate 
 person. I have seen, Prince, too much of politics, 
 ever to wish to meddle with them again.' 
 
 ' You are too quick too quick, my good friend,' 
 continued his Highness. ' I may wish to consult 
 you on political business, and yet have no intention 
 of engaging you in politics which indeed is quite 
 a ridiculous idea. But I see that I was right, in sup- 
 posing that these subjects have engaged your atten- 
 tion.' 
 
 ' I have seen, in a short time, a great deal of the 
 political world,' answered Vivian, who was almost 
 ashamed of his previous emotion ; ' and I thank 
 heaven daily, that I have no chance of again having 
 any connection with it.' 
 
 * Well, well! that as it may be. Nevertheless, 
 your experience is only another inducement to me to 
 request your assistance. Do not fear that I wish to 
 embroil you in politics ; but I hope you will not 
 refuse, although almost a stranger, to add to the very 
 great obligations which I am already under to you, 
 and give me the benefit of your opinion.' 
 
 ' Your Highness may speak with the most perfect 
 
 553
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VI 
 
 unreserve, and reckon upon my delivering my most 
 genuine sentiments.' 
 
 ' You have not forgotten, I venture to believe,' 
 said the Prince, ' our short conversation of last 
 night?' 
 
 ' It was of too interesting a nature easily to escape 
 my memory.' 
 
 ' Before I can consult you on the subject which at 
 present interests me, it is necessary that I should 
 make you a little acquainted with the present state 
 of public affairs here, and the characters of the prin- 
 cipal individuals who control them.' 
 
 ' As far as an account of the present state of poli- 
 tical parties, the history of the Grand Duke's career, 
 and that of his Minister Mr. Beckendorff, and their 
 reputed characters, will form part of your Highness' 
 narrative, by so much may its length be curtailed, 
 and your trouble lessened ; for I have at different 
 times picked up, in casual conversation, a great deal 
 of information on these topics. Indeed, you may 
 address me, in this respect, as you would any German 
 gentleman, who, not being himself personally inter- 
 ested in public life, is of course not acquainted with 
 its most secret details.' 
 
 ' I did not reckon on this,' said the Prince, in a 
 cheerful voice. ' This is a great advantage, and an- 
 other reason that I should no longer hesitate to devel- 
 ope to you a certain affair which now occupies my 
 mind. To be short,' continued the Prince, c it is of 
 the letter which I so mysteriously received last night, 
 and which, as you must have remarked, very much 
 agitated me, it is on this letter that I wish to con- 
 sult you. Bearing in mind the exact position the 
 avowed and public position in which I stand, as con- 
 nected with the Court ; and having a due acquaint- 
 
 554
 
 CHAPTER V VIVIAN GREY 
 
 ance, which you state you have, with the char- 
 acter of Mr. Beckendorff, what think you of this 
 letter?' 
 
 So saying, the Prince leant over the table, and 
 handed to Vivian the following epistle. 
 
 'TO HIS HIGHNESS THE PRINCE OF LITTLE 
 LILLIPUT. 
 
 ' I am commanded by his Royal Highness to in- 
 form your Highness, that his Royal Highness has 
 considered the request which was signed by your 
 Highness and other noblemen, and presented by you 
 to his Royal Highness in a private interview. His 
 Royal Highness commands me to state, that that 
 request will receive his most attentive consideration. 
 At the same time, his Royal Highness also com- 
 mands me to observe, that in bringing about the 
 completion of a result desired by all parties, it is 
 difficult to carry on the necessary communications 
 merely by written documents ; and his Royal High- 
 ness has therefore commanded me to submit to your 
 Highness, the advisability of taking some steps in 
 order to further the possibility of the occurrence of 
 an oral interchange of the sentiments of the respec- 
 tive parties. Being aware, that from the position 
 which your Highness has thought proper at 
 present to maintain, and from other causes 
 which are of too delicate a nature to be 
 noticed in any other way except by allusion, 
 that your Highness may feel difficulty in 
 personally communicating with his Royal Highness, 
 without consulting the wishes and opinions ^>f the 
 other Princes ; a process to which it must be evident 
 to your Highness, his Royal Highness feels it im- 
 
 555
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VI 
 
 possible to submit ; and, at the same time, desirous 
 of forwarding the progress of those views, which his 
 Royal Highness and your Highness may conjunc- 
 tively consider calculated to advance the well-being 
 of the State, I have to submit to your Highness the 
 propriety of considering the propositions contained 
 in the enclosed paper ; which, if your Highness 
 keep unconnected with this communication, the 
 purport of the letter will be confined to your 
 Highness. 
 
 ' PROPOSITIONS. 
 
 ' i st. That an interview shall take place between 
 your Highness and myself ; the object of which 
 shall be the consideration of measures by which, 
 when adopted, the various interests now in agitation 
 shall respectively be regarded. 
 
 ' 2nd. That this interview shall be secret ; your 
 Highness being incognito.' 
 
 ' If your Highness be disposed to accede to the 
 first proposition, I beg to submit to you, that from 
 the nature of my residence, its situation, and other 
 causes, there will be no fear that any suspicion of the 
 fact of Mr. von Philips on acceding to the two pro- 
 positions will gain notoriety. This letter will be 
 delivered into your own hands. If Mr. von Philip- 
 son determine on acceding to these propositions, he 
 is most probably aware of the general locality in 
 which my residence is situated ; and proper measures 
 will be taken that, if Mr. von Philipson honour me 
 with a visit, he shall not be under the necessity of 
 attracting attention, by inquiring the way to my 
 house. It is wished that the fact of the second pro- 
 position being acceded to, should only be known to 
 Mr. von Philipson and myself ; but if to be perfectly 
 
 556
 
 CHAPTER V VIVIAN GREY 
 
 unattended be considered as an insuperable objection, 
 I consent to his being accompanied by a single 
 friend. I shall be alone. 
 
 ' BECKENDORFF.' 
 
 'Well!' said the Prince, as Vivian finished the 
 letter. 
 
 ' The best person,' said Vivian, ' to decide upon 
 your Highness consenting to this interview, is your- 
 self.' 
 
 4 That is not the point on which I wish to have 
 the benefit of your opinion ; for I have already con- 
 sented. I rode over this morning to my cousin, the 
 Duke of Micromegas, and dispatched from his resid- 
 ence a trusty messenger to Beckendorff. I have 
 agreed to meet him and to-morrow ; but on the 
 express terms that I should not be unattended. 
 Now then,' continued the Prince, with great energy, 
 c now then, will you be my companion ?' 
 
 'I!' said Vivian, in the greatest surprise. 
 
 c Yes ; you, my good friend ! voz<, you. I should 
 consider myself as safe if I were sleeping in a burn- 
 ing house, as I should be were I with Beckendorff 
 alone. Although this is not the first time that we 
 have communicated, I have never yet seen him ; and 
 I am fully aware, that if the approaching interview 
 were known to my friends, they would consider it 
 high time that my son reigned in my stead. But I 
 am resolved to be firm to be inflexible. My course 
 is plain. I am not to be again duped by him ; 
 which,' continued the Prince, very much confused, 
 ' I will not conceal that I have been once.' 
 
 ' But I ! ' said Vivian ; * I what good can I pos- 
 sibly do? It appears to me, that if Beckendorff is 
 to be dreaded as you describe, the presence or the 
 
 557
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VI 
 
 attendance of no friend can possibly save you from 
 his crafty plans. But surely, if any one attend you, 
 why not be accompanied by a person whom you have 
 known long, and who knows you well on whom 
 you can confidently rely, and who may be aware, 
 from a thousand signs and circumstances which will 
 never attract my attention, at what particular and 
 pressing moments you may require prompt and ener- 
 getic assistance. Such is the companion you want ; 
 and surely such an one you may find in Arnelm 
 Von Neuwied ' 
 
 'Arnelm! Von Neuwied!' said the Prince; 'the 
 best hands at sounding a bugle, or spearing a boar, 
 in all Reisenburg! Excellent men, forsooth, to 
 guard their master from the diplomatic deceits of the 
 wily BeckendorfT ! Moreover, were they to have 
 even the slightest suspicion of my intended move- 
 ment, they would commit rank treason out of pure 
 loyalty, and lock me up in my own Cabinet! No, 
 no ! they will never do : I want a companion of ex- 
 perience and knowledge of the world ; with whom I 
 may converse with some prospect of finding my 
 wavering firmness strengthened, or my misled judg- 
 ment rightly guided, or my puzzled brain cleared, 
 modes of assistance to which the worthy Jagd Junker 
 is but little accustomed, however quickly he might 
 hasten to my side in a combat, or the chace.' 
 
 4 If these, then, will not do, surely there is one 
 man in this Castle, who, although he may not be a 
 match for BeckendorfF, can be foiled by few others 
 Mr. Sievers!' said Vivian, with an inquiring 
 eye. 
 
 ( Sievers!' exclaimed the Prince with great eager- 
 ness ; ( the very man ! firm, experienced, and sharp- 
 witted well schooled in political learning, in case I 
 
 558
 
 CHAPTER V VIVIAN GREY 
 
 required his assistance in arranging the terms of the 
 intended Charter, or the plan of the intended Cham- 
 bers ; for these, of course, are the points on which 
 Beckendorff wishes to consult. But one thing I am 
 determined on : I positively pledge myself to noth- 
 ing, while under BeckendorfPs roof. He doubtless 
 anticipates, by my visit, to grant the liberties of the 
 people on his own terms : perhaps Mr. Beckendorff, 
 for once in his life, may be mistaken. I am not to 
 be deceived twice ; and I am determined not to 
 yield the point of the Treasury being under the con- 
 trol of the Senate. That is the part of the harness 
 which galls ; and to preserve themselves from this 
 rather inconvenient regulation, without question, my 
 good friend Beckendorff has hit upon this plan.' 
 ' Then Mr. Sievers will accompany you ?' asked 
 
 Vivian, calling the Prince's attention to the point of 
 
 . ' . 
 consultation. 
 
 ' The very man for it, my dear friend ! but al- 
 though Beckendorff, most probably respecting my 
 presence, and taking into consideration the circum- 
 stances under which we meet, would refrain from 
 consigning Sievers to a dungeon ; still, although the 
 Minister invites this interview, and although I have 
 no single inducement to conciliate him ; yet it would 
 scarcely be correct, scarcely dignified on my part, to 
 prove, by the presence of my companion, that I had 
 for a length of time harboured an individual who, by 
 Beckendorff's own exertions, was banished from the 
 Grand Duchy. It would look too much like a 
 bravado.' 
 
 'Oh!' said Vivian, { is it so; and pray of what 
 was Mr. Sievers guilty?' 
 
 * Of high treason against one who was not his 
 Sovereign.' 
 
 559
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VI 
 
 < How is that ?' 
 
 ' Sievers, who is a man of most considerable tal- 
 ents, was for a long time a professor in one of our 
 great Universities. The publication of many able 
 works procured him a reputation which induced 
 Madame Carolina to use every exertion to gain his 
 attendance at Court ; and a courtier in time the 
 professor became. At Reisenburg Mr. Sievers was 
 the great authority on all possible subjects philoso- 
 phical, literary, and political. In fact, he was the 
 fashion ; and, at the head of the great literary jour- 
 nal which is there published, he terrified admiring 
 Germany with his profound and piquant critiques. 
 Unfortunately, like some men as good, he was un- 
 aware that Reisenburg was not an independent State ; 
 and so, on the occasion of Austria attacking Naples, 
 Mr. Sievers took the opportunity of attacking 
 Austria. His article, eloquent, luminous, profound, 
 revealed the dark colours of the Austrian policy ; as 
 an artist's lamp brings out the murky tints of a Spag- 
 noletto. Every one admired Sievers' bitter sarcasms, 
 enlightened views, and indignant eloquence. Ma- 
 dame Carolina crowned him with laurel in the midst 
 of her coterie ; and it is said that the Grand Duke 
 sent him a snuff-box. In a very short time the ar- 
 ticle reached Vienna ; and in a still shorter time Mr. 
 Beckendorff reached the Residence, and insisted on 
 the author being immediately g-iven U P to the Aus- 
 trian Government. Madame Carolina was in despair, 
 the Grand Duke in doubt, and Beckendorff threat- 
 ened to resign if the order were not signed. A kind 
 friend, perhaps his Royal Highness himself, gave 
 Sievers timely notice, and by rapid flight he reached 
 my castle, and demanded my hospitality ; he has 
 lived here ever since, and has done me a thousand. 
 
 560
 
 CHAPTER V VIVIAN GREY 
 
 services, not the least of which, is the education which 
 he has given my son, my glorious Maximilian.' 
 
 ' And Beckendorff,' asked Vivian, ' has he always 
 been aware that Sievers was concealed here?' 
 
 ' That I cannot answer : had he been, it is not im- 
 probable that he would have winked at it ; since it 
 never has been his policy, unnecessarily, to annoy a 
 mediatised Prince, or without great occasion to let 
 us feel that our independence is gone, I will not, 
 with such a son as I have, say for ever.' 
 
 ' Mr. Sievers, of course then, cannot visit Bec- 
 kendorff,' said Vivian. 
 
 c That is clear,' said the Prince, c and I therefore 
 trust that now you will no longer refuse my first 
 request.' 
 
 It was, of course, impossible for Vivian to deny 
 the Prince any longer ; and indeed he had no objec- 
 tion, as his Highness could not be better attended, 
 to seize the singular and unexpected opportunity, 
 which now offered itself, of becoming acquainted 
 with an individual, respecting whom his curiosity 
 was very much excited. It was a late hour ere the 
 Prince and his friend retired ; having arranged every 
 thing for the morrow's journey, and conversed on the 
 probable subjects of the approaching interview at 
 great length. 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 ON the following morning, before sunrise, the 
 Prince's valet roused Vivian from his slumbers. 
 According to the appointment of the preceding even- 
 ing, Vivian repaired in due time to a certain spot in 
 the park. The Prince reached it at the same moment. 
 A mounted groom, leading two English horses, of 
 very showy appearance, and each having a travelling 
 2N 561
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VI 
 
 case strapped on the back of its saddle, awaited them. 
 His Highness mounted one of the steeds with skilful 
 celerity, although Arnelm and Von Neuwied were 
 not there to do honour to his bridle and his stirrup. 
 
 ' You must give me an impartial opinion of your 
 courser, my dear friend,' said the Prince to Vivian, 
 ' for if you deem it worthy of being bestridden by 
 you, my son requests that you will do him the great 
 honour of accepting it ; if so, call it Max ; and pro- 
 vided it be as thorough-bred as the donor, you need 
 not change it for Bucephalus.' 
 
 ' Not unworthy of the son of Ammon ! ' said 
 Vivian, as he touched the spirited animal with the 
 spur, and proved its fiery action on the springing turf. 
 
 A man never feels so proud or so sanguine as when 
 he is bounding on the back of a fine horse. Cares 
 fly with the first curvet ; and the very sight of a spur 
 is enough to prevent one committing suicide. What 
 a magnificent creature is man, that a brute's prancing 
 'hoof can influence his temper or his destiny! and 
 truly, however little there may be to admire in the 
 rider, few things in this admirable world can be 
 conceived more beautiful than a horse, when the 
 bloody spur has thrust some anger in his resentful 
 side. How splendid to view him with his dilated 
 nostril, his fiamino- eye, his arched neck, and his 
 waving tail, rustling like a banner in a battle ! to see 
 him champing his slavered bridle, and sprinkling the 
 snowy foam upon the earth, which his hasty hoof 
 seems almost as if it scorned to touch! 
 
 When Vivian and his companion had proceeded 
 about five miles, ^ the Prince pulled up, and giving a 
 sealed letter to the groom, he desired him to leave 
 them. The Prince and Vivian amused themselves 
 for a considerable time, by endeavouring to form a 
 
 562
 
 CHAPTER VI VIVIAN GREY 
 
 correct conception of the person, manners, and habits 
 of the wonderful man to whom they were on the 
 point of paying so interesting a visit. 
 
 ' I bitterly regret,' said Vivian, ' that I have for- 
 gotten my Montesquieu ; and what would I give now 
 to know by rote only one quotation from Machiavel ! 
 I expect to be received with folded arms, and a brow 
 lowering with the overwhelming weight of a brain 
 meditating for the control of millions. His letter 
 has prepared us for the mysterious, but not very 
 amusing style of his conversation. He will be per- 
 petually on his guard not to commit himself ; and 
 although public business, and the receipt of papers, 
 by calling him away, will occasionally give us an 
 opportunity of being alone ; still I regret most bit- 
 terly, that I did not put up in my case some interesting 
 volume which would have allowed me to feel less 
 tedious those hours during which you will necessarily 
 be employed with him in private consultation.' 
 
 After a ride of five hours, the horsemen arrived at 
 a small village. 
 
 * Thus far I think I have well piloted you,' said the 
 Prince : ' but I confess my knowledge here ceases ; 
 and though I shall disobey the diplomatic instructions 
 of the great man, I must even ask some old woman 
 the way to Mr. BeckendorfPs.' 
 
 While they were hesitating as to whom they should 
 address, an equestrian, who had already passed them 
 on the road, though at some distance, came up, and 
 inquired, in a voice which Vivian immediately recog- 
 nized as that of the messenger who had brought 
 Beckendorff's letter to Turriparva, whether he had 
 the honour of addressing Mr. von Philipson. 
 Neither of the gentlemen answered, for Vivian of 
 course expected the Prince to reply ; and his High- 
 
 563
 
 VIVIAN GHKV BOOK VI 
 
 was, as yet, so unused to his incognito, that he 
 had actually forgotten his own name. But it was 
 evident that the demandant had questioned, rather 
 from system, than by way of security ; and he waited 
 very patiently until the Prince had collected his 
 senses, and assumed sufficient gravity of countenance 
 to inform the horesman that he was the person in 
 question. ' What, Sir, is your pleasure?' 
 
 * I am instructed to ride on before you, Sir, that 
 you may not mistake your way ;' and without waiting 
 for an answer, the laconic messenger turned his 
 steed's head, and trotted off. 
 
 The travellers soon left the high road, and turned 
 up a wild turf path, not only inaccessible to carriages, 
 but even requiring great attention from horsemen. 
 After much winding, and some floundering, they 
 arrived at a light and very fanciful iron gate, which 
 apparently opened into a shrubbery. 
 
 1 1 will take your horses here, gentlemen,' said the 
 guide ; and getting off his horse, he opened the gate. 
 * Follow this path, and you can meet with no dif- 
 ficulty.' The Prince and Vivian accordingly dis- 
 mounted ; and the guide immediately, with the end 
 of his whip, gave a loud shrill whistle. 
 
 The path ran, for a very short way, through the 
 shrubbery, which evidently was a belt encircling the 
 grounds. From this, the Prince and Vivian emerged 
 upon an ample lawn, which formed on the farthest 
 side a terrace, by gradually sloping down to the mar- 
 gin of a river. It was enclosed on the other sides by 
 an iron railing of the same pattern as the gate, and a 
 great number of white pheasants were quietly feed- 
 ing in its centre. Following the path which skirted 
 the lawn, they arrived at a second gate, which opened 
 into a garden, in which no signs of the taste at present 
 
 564
 
 CHAPTER VI VIVIAN UiKY 
 
 existing in Germany for the h system of 
 
 picturesque pleasure-grounds were at all visible. 
 The walk was bounded on both sides by tall borders, 
 or rather hedges, of box, cut into the shape of battle- 
 ments ; the sameness of these turrets being occasion- 
 ally varied by the immoveable form of some trusty 
 warder, carved out of yew or laurel. Raised ter 
 and arched walks, aloes and orange trce^ mounted on 
 sculptured pedestals, columns of cypress, and pyra- 
 mids of bay, whose dark foliage strikingly o 
 with the marble statues, and the white vases shining 
 in the sun, rose in all directions in methodical con- 
 fusion. The sound of a fountain was not want 
 and large beds of the most beautiful flowers 
 abounded ; but, in no instance did Vivian observe 
 that two kinds of plants were ever mixed together. 
 Pro< -hrough a very lofty berceau, occasional 
 
 openings in whose curving walks allowed effective 
 glimp<-eb of a bust or a statue, the companions at 
 h came in sight of the house. It was a long, 
 uneven, low building, evidently of ancient architec- 
 ture. Numerous stacks of tall and fantastically 
 shaped chimneys rose over three thick and heavy 
 gables, which reached down farther than the middle 
 of the elevation, forming three compartments, one of 
 them including a large and modern bow-window, 
 over which clustered in profusion, the sweet and 
 glowing blossoms of the clematis, and the pomegran- 
 ate. Indeed, the whole front of the house was so 
 complete] v covered with a rich scarlet-creeper, that 
 it was almost impossible to ascertain of what materials 
 it was built. 'vian was admiring a large white 
 
 peacock, which, attracted by their approach had taken 
 the opportunity of unfurling its wheeling train, a man 
 came forward from the bow-window. 
 
 565
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VI 
 
 I shall be particular in my description of his ap- 
 pearance. In height he was about five feet eight 
 inches, and of a spare, but well-proportioned figure. 
 He had very little hair, which was highly powdered, 
 and dressed in a manner to render more remarkable 
 the extraordinary elevation of his conical, and pol- 
 ished forehead. His long piercing black eyes were 
 almost closed, from the fulness of their upper lids. 
 His cheeks were sallow, his nose aquiline, his mouth 
 compressed. His ears, which were quite uncovered 
 by hair, were so wonderfully small, that it would be 
 wrong to pass them over unnoticed ; as indeed were 
 his hands and feet, which in form were quite feminine. 
 He was dressed in a coat and waistcoat of black vel- 
 vet, the latter part of his costume reaching to his 
 thighs ; and in a button hole of his coat was a large 
 bunch of tube-rose. A small part of his flannel 
 waistcoat appeared through an opening in his exquis- 
 itely plaited shirt, the broad collar of which, though 
 tied round with a wide black ribbon, did not conceal 
 a neck which agreed well with his beardless chin, and 
 would not have misbecome a woman. In England 
 we should have called his breeches buck-skin. They 
 were of a pale yellow leather, and suited his large, 
 and spur-armed cavalry boots, which fitted closely to 
 the legs they covered, reaching over the knees of the 
 wearer. A ribbon round his neck, tucked into his 
 waistcoat pocket, was attached to a small French 
 watch. He swung in his right hand the bow of a 
 violin ; and in the other, the little finger of which 
 was nearly hid by a large antique ring, he held a 
 white handkerchief strongly perfumed with violets. 
 Notwithstanding the many feminine characteristics 
 which I have noticed, either from the expression of 
 the eyes, or the formation of the mouth, the coun- 
 
 566
 
 CHAPTER VI VIVIAN GREY 
 
 tenance of this individual generally conveyed an im- 
 pression of the greatest firmness and energy. This 
 description will not be considered ridiculously minute 
 by those who have never had an opportunity of be- 
 coming acquainted with the person of so celebrated 
 a gentleman as MR. BECKENDORFF. 
 
 He advanced to the Prince with an air which 
 seemed to proclaim, that as his person could not be 
 mistaken, the ceremony of introduction was perfectly 
 unnecessary. Bowing in the most ceremonious and 
 courtly manner to his Highness, Mr. Beckendorff 
 in a weak, but not unpleasing voice, said that he was 
 ' honoured by the presence of Mr. von Philipson.' 
 The. Prince answered his salutation in a manner 
 equally ceremonious, and equally courtly ; for having 
 no mean opinion of his own diplomatic abilities, his 
 Highness determined that neither by an excess of 
 coldness, nor cordiality on his part, should the Min- 
 ister gather the slightest indication of the temper in 
 which he had attended the interview. You see that 
 even the bow of a diplomatist is a very serious busi- 
 ness! 
 
 ' Mr Beckendorff,' said his Highness ; ' my letter 
 doubtless informed you that I should avail myself of 
 your permission to be accompanied. Let me have 
 the honour of presenting to you my friend Mr. Grey, 
 an English gentleman.' 
 
 As the Prince spoke, Beckendorff stood with his 
 arms crossed behind him, and his chin resting upon 
 his chest ; but his eyes at the same time so raised as 
 to look his Highness full in the face. Vivian was so 
 struck by his posture, and the expression of his coun- 
 tenance, that he nearly omitted to bow when he was 
 presented. As his name was mentioned, the Min- 
 ister gave him a sharp, sidelong glance, and moving 
 
 567
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VI 
 
 his head very gently, he invited his guests to enter 
 the house. The gentlemen accordingly complied 
 with his request. Passing through the bow window, 
 they found themselves in a well-sized room, the sides 
 of which were covered with shelves filled with richly 
 bound books. There was nothing in the room which 
 gave the slightest indication that the master of the 
 library was any other than a private gentleman. Not 
 a book, not a chair was out of its place. A purple 
 inkstand of Sevre china, and a very highly-tooled 
 morocco portfolio of the same colour, reposed on a 
 rose-wood table, and that was all. No papers, no 
 dispatches, no red tape, and no red boxes. Over an 
 ancient chimney, lined with blue china tiles, on which 
 were represented the most grotesque figures cows 
 playing the harp monkies acting monarchs and 
 tall figures all legs, flying with rapidity from pursuers 
 who were all head over this chimney were sus- 
 pended some curious pieces of antique armour, 
 among which an Italian dagger, with a chased and 
 jewelled hilt, was the most remarkable, and the most 
 precious. 
 
 < This,' said Mr. Beckendorff, c is my library.' 
 ' What a splendid poignard!' said the Prince, who 
 had no taste for books ; and he immediately walked 
 up to the chimney-piece. Beckendorff followed 
 him, and taking down the admired weapon from its 
 resting-place, proceeded to lecture on its virtues, its 
 antiquity, and its beauty. Vivian seized this oppor- 
 tunity of taking a rapid glance at the contents of his 
 library. He anticipated interleaved copies of Mac- 
 hiavel, Vattel, and Montesquieu ; and the lightest 
 works that he expected to meet with were the lying 
 memoirs of some intriguing Cardinal, or the deluding 
 apology of an exiled Minister. To his surprise he 
 
 568
 
 CHAPTER VI VIVIAN GREY 
 
 found that, without an exception, the collection 
 merely consisted of poetry and romance ; and while 
 his eye rapidly passed over, not only the great names 
 of Germany, but also of Italy and of France, it was 
 with pride that he remarked upon the shelves an 
 English Shakespeare ; and perhaps with still greater 
 delight, a complete edition of the enchanted volumes 
 of our illustrious Scott. Surprised at this most un- 
 expected circumstance, Vivian looked with a curious 
 eye on the unlettered backs of a row of mighty folios 
 on a corner shelf ; ' These,' he thought, ' at least 
 must be royal ordinances, and collected state-papers.' 
 The sense of propriety struggled for a moment with 
 the passion of curiosity ; but nothing is more difficult 
 for the man who loves books, than to refrain from 
 examining a volume which he fancies may be un- 
 known to him. From the jewelled dagger, Becken- 
 dorff had now got to an enamelled breast-plate. Two 
 to one he should not be observed ; and so, with a 
 desperate pull, Vivian extracted a volume it was a 
 herbal! He tried another it was a collection of 
 dried insects! He immediately replaced it, and star- 
 ing at his host, wondered whether he really could be 
 the Mr. BeckendorfF of whom he had heard so much. 
 
 ' And now,' said Mr. Beckendorff, ' I will show 
 you my drawing-room.' 
 
 He opened a door at the further end of the library, 
 and introduced them to a room of a very different 
 character. The sun, which was shining very 
 brightly, lent additional brilliancy to the rainbow- 
 tinted birds of paradise, the crimson mackaws, and 
 the green parroquets that glistened on the splendid 
 Indian paper, which covered not only the walls, but 
 also the ceiling of the room. Over the fire-place, a 
 black frame, projecting from the wall and mournfully 
 
 5 6 9
 
 VIVIAN GHKV BOOK VI 
 
 contrasting with the general brilliant appearance of 
 the apartment, inclosed a picture of a beautiful 
 female ; and bending over its frame, and indeed partly 
 shadowing the countenance, was the withered branch 
 of a tree. A harpsichord, and several cases of musi- 
 cal instruments were placed in different parts of the 
 room ; and suspended by very broad black ribbons 
 from the wall on each side of the picture, were a 
 guitar and a tambourine. On a sofa of unusual size 
 lay a Cremona ; and as Mr. Beckendorff passed the 
 instrument, he threw by its side the bow, which he 
 had hitherto carried in his hand. 
 
 4 We may as well now take something,' said Mr. 
 Beckendorff, when his guests had sufficiently admired 
 the room ; c my pictures are in my dining-room let 
 us go there.' 
 
 So saying, and armed this time, not only with his 
 bow, but also with his violin, he retraced his steps 
 through the library, and crossing a small passage, 
 which divided the house into two compartments, he 
 opened the door into his dining-room. The moment 
 that they entered the room, their ears were saluted, 
 and indeed their senses ravished, by what appeared 
 to be a concert of a thousand birds ; yet none of the 
 winged choristers were to be seen, and not even a 
 single cage was visible. The room, which was very 
 simply furnished, appeared at first rather gloomy ; 
 for though lighted by three windows, the silk blinds 
 were all drawn. 
 
 ' And now,' said Mr. Beckendorff, raising the 
 first blind ; ' you shall see my pictures. At what do 
 you estimate this Breughel?' 
 
 The window, which was of stained green glass, 
 gave to the landscape an effect similar to that gener- 
 ally produced by the artist mentioned. The Prince, 
 
 57
 
 CHAPTER VI VIVIAN GREY 
 
 who was already very puzzled by finding one who, 
 at the same time, was both his host and his enemy, 
 so perfectly different a character to what he had 
 conceived, and who, being by temper superstitious, 
 considered that this preliminary false opinion of his 
 was rather a bad omen, did not express any very 
 great admiration of the gallery of Mr. Beckendorff : 
 but Vivian, who had no ambitious hopes or fears to 
 affect his temper, and who was delighted with the 
 character with whom he had become so unexpectedly 
 acquainted good-naturedly humoured the fantasies 
 of the Minister ; and said that he preferred his 
 picture to any Breughel he had ever seen. 
 
 ' I see you have a fine taste,' said Mr. Beckendorff, 
 with a very serious air, but in a most courteous tone ; 
 c You shall see my Claude ! ' 
 
 The rich yellow tint of the second window, gave to 
 the fanciful garden all that was requisite to make it 
 look Italian. 
 
 ' Have you ever been in Italy, Sir?' asked Becken- 
 dorff. 
 
 ' I have not.' 
 
 ' You have, Mr. von Philipson ?' 
 
 1 Never south of Germany,' answered the Prince, 
 who was exceedingly hungry, and eyed, with a rapa- 
 cious glance, the capital luncheon which he saw 
 prepared for him. 
 
 ' Well then, when either of you go, you will of 
 course not miss the Lago Maggiore. Gaze on Isola 
 Bella at sunset, and you will not view as fair a scene 
 as this ! And now, Mr. von Philipson,' said Becken- 
 dorff, c do me the favour of giving me your opinion 
 of this Honthorst ?' 
 
 His Highness would rather have given his opinion 
 of the fine dish of stewed game which still smoked 
 
 57'
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VI 
 
 upon the table, but which he was mournfully con- 
 vinced would not smoke long ; or of the large cucum- 
 bers, of which he was particularly fond, and which, 
 among many other vegetables, his amorous eye had 
 already detected. ' But,' thought he, ( this is the last ! ' 
 and so he very warmly admired the affect produced by 
 the flaming panes, to which Beckendorff swore that 
 no piece ever painted by Gerard Honthorst, for bril- 
 liancy of colouring and boldness of outline, could be 
 compared : ' besides,' continued Beckendorff, ' mine 
 are all animated pictures. See that cypress, waving 
 from the gentle breeze which is now stirring and 
 look ! look at this crimson peacock ! look ! Mr. von 
 Philipson.' 
 
 ' I am looking, Mr. von I beg pardon, Mr. 
 
 Beckendorff,' said the Prince, with great dignity- 
 making this slight mistake in the name, either from 
 being unused to converse with such low people as had 
 not the nominal mark of nobility, or to vent his 
 spleen at being so unnecessarily kept from the re- 
 freshment which he so much required. 
 
 ' Mr. von Philipson,' said Beckendorff, suddenly 
 turning round ; ' all my fruits and all my vegetables, 
 are from my own garden. Let us sit down and help 
 ourselves.' 
 
 The only substantial food at table was a great dish 
 of stewed game, which I believe I have mentioned 
 before. The Prince seized the breast and wings of 
 a young pheasant, Vivian attacked a fine tender hare, 
 and Beckendorff himself cut off the wing of a part- 
 ridge. The vegetables and the fruits were numerous 
 and superb ; and there really appeared to be a fair 
 prospect of the Prince of Little Lilliput making as 
 good a luncheon as if the whole had been conducted 
 under the 'auspices of Master Rodolph himself, 
 
 572
 
 CHAPTER VI VIVIAN GREY 
 
 had it not been for the confounded melody of the 
 unseen vocalists, which, probably excited by the 
 sounds of the knives and plates, too evidently in- 
 creased every moment. But this inconvenience was 
 soon removed by Mr. Beckendorff rising, and giving 
 three loud knocks on the door opposite to the one by 
 which they had entered. Immediate silence ensued. 
 
 ' Clara will be here in an instant, to change your 
 plate, Mr. von Philipson,' said Beckendorff ' and 
 here she is?' 
 
 Vivian eagerly looked up, not with the slightest 
 idea that the entrance of Clara would prove that the 
 mysterious picture in the drawing-room was a por- 
 trait ; but it must be confessed with a little curiosity 
 to view the first specimen of the sex who lived under 
 the roof of Mr. Beckendorff. Clara was a hale old 
 woman, with rather an acid expression of counte- 
 nance ; very prim in her appearance, and evidently 
 very precise in her manners. She placed a bottle, 
 and two wine-glasses with long thin stems, on the 
 table ; and having removed the game, and changed 
 the plates, she disappeared. 
 
 * Pray what wine is this, Mr. Beckendorff?' eagerly 
 asked the Prince, with a countenance glowing with 
 delight and his Highness was vulgar enough to 
 smack his lips, which, for a Prince, is really shocking. 
 
 { I really don't know. I never drink wine.' 
 
 ' Not know ! Grey, take a glass. What's your 
 opinion ? I never tasted such wine in my life. Why 
 I do declare it is real Tokay!' 
 
 { Probably it may be,' said Mr. Beckendorff ; ' I 
 think it was a present from the Emperor. I have 
 never tasted it.' 
 
 ' My dear Sir, take a glass!' said the Prince ; his 
 natural kind and jovial temper having made him 
 
 573
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VI 
 
 completely forget whom he was addressing, the busi- 
 ness he had come upon, and indeed every thing else 
 except the astounding circumstance that there was an 
 individual in the room who refused to take his share 
 of a bottle of real Tokay : c My dear Sir, take a 
 glass.' 
 
 * I never drink wine ; I'm glad you like it, I have 
 no doubt Clara has more.' 
 
 4 No, no, no ! we must be moderate, we must be 
 moderate,' said the Prince ; who, though a great 
 admirer of a good luncheon, had also a due respect 
 for a good dinner, and consequently had no idea at 
 this awkward hour in the day, of preventing himself 
 from properly appreciating the future banquet. 
 Moreover, his Highness, taking into consideration 
 the very piquant sauce with which the game had been 
 dressed, and the marks of refinement and good taste 
 which seemed to pervade every part of the establish- 
 ment of Mr. Beckendorff, did not imagine that he 
 was much presuming, when he conjectured that there 
 was a fair chance of his dinner being something very 
 superior. The Prince, therefore, opposed a further 
 supply of Tokay, and contented himself for the pre- 
 sent with assisting his Gruyere with one of the very 
 fine-looking cucumbers his favourite cucumbers ; 
 which, though yet untasted, had not, in spite of the 
 wine, been banished from his memory. 
 
 ' You seem very fond of cucumbers, Mr. von 
 Philipson,' said Beckendorff. 
 
 ' So fond of them, that I prefer them to any 
 vegetable, and to most fruits. What is more cooling 
 more refreshing? What ' 
 
 4 1 never eat them myself ; but I'll tell you, if you 
 like, what I think the best way of treating a cucum- 
 ber.' 
 
 574
 
 CHAPTER VI VIVIAN GREY 
 
 His Highness was the most ready, and the most 
 grateful of pupils ; and Vivian could scarcely sup- 
 press his laughter, when the Prime Minister, with a 
 grave countenance, and in his peculiarly subdued 
 voice and somewhat precise mode of speaking, com- 
 menced instructing his political opponent upon the 
 important topic of dressing a vegetable. 
 
 ' You must be careful,' said Mr. Beckendorff, c to 
 pick out the straightest, thinnest-skinned, most seed- 
 less cucumber that you can find. Six hours before 
 you want to eat it, put the stalk in cold water on a 
 marble slab not the whole cucumber that's non- 
 sense. Then pare it very carefully, so as to take off 
 all the green outside, and no more. Slice it as thin 
 as possible, spread it over your dish, and sprinkle it 
 with a good deal of white pepper, red pepper, salt, and 
 mustard-seed. Mix some oil and common vinegar 
 with a little Chili, and drown it in them. Open a 
 large window very wide and throw it all out!' 
 
 It was quite evident that Mr. von Philipson was 
 extremely disappointed, and perhaps a little offended 
 at the unexpected termination of Mr. Beckendorff's 
 lecture, to which he had listened with the most inter- 
 ested attention. As for Vivian Grey, he did not 
 affect to contain himself any longer ; but gave way 
 to a long and loud laugh a laugh not so much 
 excited by the manner in which Beckendorff had de- 
 tailed the desired information, although it was ex- 
 tremely humorous, as by the striking contrast which 
 the speaker and the speech afforded to the concep- 
 tions which he and his companion had formed of their 
 host during their ride. His rather boisterous risi- 
 bility, apparently, did not offend Mr. Beckendorff, 
 on whose upper lip, for an instant, Vivian thought 
 he detected a smile or a sneer. It was, however, only 
 
 575
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VI 
 
 for an instant ; for the Minister immediately rose 
 from table, and left the room by the same door, on 
 which his three loud knocks had previously produced 
 so tranquillising an effect. 
 
 The sudden arrival and appearance of some new 
 and unexpected guests through the very mysterious 
 portal by which Mr. Beckendorff had vanished, not 
 only were the source of fresh entertainment to our 
 hero, but also explained the character of the apart- 
 ment, which, from its unceasing melody, had so much 
 excited his curiosity. These new guests were a 
 crowd of piping bullfinches, Virginia nightingales, 
 trained canaries, Java sparrows, and Indian lorys ; 
 which having been freed from their cages of golden 
 wire by their fond master, had fled, as was their 
 custom, from his superb aviary to pay their respects 
 and compliments at his daily levee. 
 
 The table was immediately covered, and the Prince 
 immediately annoyed. Nothing did he detest so 
 much as the whole feathered race ; and now, as far 
 as he could observe, he might as well have visited a 
 bird-catcher as Mr. Beckendorff. The white pheas- 
 ants, and the white peacock, could have been borne ; 
 but as for the present intrusion, a man had better live 
 in Noah's ark than in the liberties of an aviary. The 
 Prince was quite right : it was extremely annoying. 
 A couple of bullfinches respectively perched on each 
 of his shoulders, and commenced a most thrilling, and 
 Jacobinical hymn of liberty, in celebration of their 
 release ; and an impudent little canary attacked his 
 cucumber. As if this were not sufficient to produce 
 instantaneous insanity, a long-tailed scarlet lory 
 lighted on his head, and commenced its usual fond- 
 ling tricks, by rubbing its beak in the Prince's hair, 
 fluttering its wing on his cheek, and pecking his eye- 
 
 576
 
 CHAPTER VI VIVIAN GREY 
 
 brows. As it got more delighted, it shrieked its joy 
 into his ear with such shrillness, that he started from 
 his chair ; and the little favourite consequently slip- 
 ping down, to save itself from falling, hung upon his 
 lip by its beak. As soon as his Highness had extri- 
 cated himself from this unpleasing situation, the 
 lory, making a perch on the back of his chair, re- 
 gained its first position. 
 
 Just as the Prince was asking Vivian to hasten to 
 his assistance, Mr. Beckendorff returned, ' Never 
 mind, Mr. von Philipson,' said the Minister, ' never 
 mind, never mind ; it only wants to make a nest, 
 poor thing!' 
 
 ' But I do mind, Mr. Beckendorff ; I detest birds, 
 and this annoying little animal, I beg to inform you, 
 is exceedingly troublesome.' 
 
 'Wheugh!' said the prime Minister of Reisen- 
 burg, and the troublesome lory flew to his shoulder. 
 ' I am glad to see that you like birds, Sir,' said Beck- 
 endorff to Vivian ; for our hero, good-naturedly 
 humouring the tastes of his host, was impartially 
 dividing the luxuries of a peach among a crowd of 
 gaudy and greedy little sparrows. ' You shall see 
 my favourites,' continued Beckendorff, and tapping 
 rather loudly on the table, he held out the forefinger 
 of each hand. The two bullfinches who were still 
 singing on the shoulder of the Prince, recognized the 
 signal, and immediately hastened to their perch. 
 
 * My dear!' trilled out one little songster; and it 
 raised its speaking eyes to its delighted master. 
 
 * My love!' warbled the other, marking its affec- 
 tion by looks equally personal. 
 
 These monosyllables were repeated fifty times : at 
 each one Beckendorff, with sparkling eyes, and a 
 countenance radiant with delight, triumphantly 
 20 577
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VI 
 
 looked round at Vivian, as if the frequent reiteration 
 were a proof of the sincerity of the affection of these 
 singular friends. 
 
 At length, to the Prince's great relief, Mr. Beck- 
 endorff's feathered friends having finished their 
 dessert, were sent back to their cages, with a strict 
 injunction not to trouble their master at present with 
 their voices an injunction which, to Vivian's great 
 surprise, was obeyed to the letter ; and when the 
 door was closed, few persons in the world could have 
 been persuaded that the next room was an aviary. 
 
 ' I am proud of my peaches, Mr. von Philipson,' 
 said Beckendorff, recommending the fruit to his 
 guest's attention ; then, rising from the table, he 
 threw himself on the sofa, and began humming a 
 tune in a very low voice. Presently he took up his 
 Cremona, and using the violin as a guitar, accom- 
 panied himself in a very beautiful air, but not in a 
 more audible tone. While Mr. Beckendorff was 
 singing, he seemed quite unconscious that any person 
 was in the room ; and the Prince, who detested music, 
 certainly gave him no hint, either by his approbation 
 or his attention, that he was listened to. Vivian, 
 however, like most unhappy men, did love music with 
 all his spirit's strength ; and actuated by this feeling, 
 and the interest which he began to take in the char- 
 acter of Mr. Beckendorff, he could not, when that 
 gentleman had finished his air, refrain from very sin- 
 cerely saying ' encore ! ' 
 
 Beckendorff started and looked round, as if he 
 were for the first moment aware that any being had 
 heard him. 
 
 * Encore!' said he, with a kind sneer ; < who ever 
 could sing or play the same thing twice! Are you 
 fond of music, Sir?' 
 
 578
 
 CHAPTER VI VIVIAN GREY 
 
 ' Very much so, indeed ; I fancied I recognized 
 that air. You are an admirer, I imagine, of 
 Mozart?' 
 
 ' I never heard of him : I know nothing of those 
 gentry. But if you really like music, I'll play you 
 something worth listening to.' 
 
 Mr. Beckendorff began a beautiful air very adagio, 
 gradually increasing the time in a kind of variation, 
 till at last his execution became so wonderfully rapid, 
 that Vivian, surprised at the mere mechanical action, 
 rose from his chair in order better to examine the 
 player's management and motion of his bow. Ex- 
 quisite as were the tones, enchanting as were the 
 originality of his variations, and the perfect harmony 
 of his composition, it was nevertheless extremely 
 difficult to resist laughing at the ludicrous contor- 
 tions of his face and figure. Now, his body bending 
 to the strain, he was at one moment with his violin 
 raised in the air, and the next instant with the lower 
 nut almost resting upon his foot. At length, by well 
 proportioned degrees, the air died away into the 
 original soft cadence ; and the player becoming com- 
 pletely entranced in his own performance, finished by 
 sinking back on the sofa, with his bow and violin 
 raised over his head. Vivian would not disturb him 
 by his applause. An instant after, Mr. Beckendorff, 
 throwing down the instrument, rushed through an 
 opened window into the garden. 
 
 As soon as Beckendorff was out of sight, Vivian 
 looked at the Prince ; and his Highness, elevating 
 his eye-brows, screwing up his mouth, and shrugging 
 his shoulders, altogether presented a very comical 
 picture of a puzzled man. 
 
 < Well, my dear friend,' said he, * this is rather dif- 
 ferent to what we expected.' 
 
 579
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VI 
 
 ' Very different indeed ; but much more amusing.' 
 
 * Humph ! ' said the Prince, very slowly, * I do 
 not think it exactly requires a ghost to tell us that Mr. 
 Beckendorff is not in the habit of going to Court. 
 I don't know how he is accustomed to conduct him- 
 self when he is honoured by a visit from the Grand 
 Duke ; but I am quite sure, that as regards his treat- 
 ment of myself, to say the least, the incognito is very 
 well observed.' 
 
 ' Mr. von Philipson,' said the gentleman of whom 
 they were speaking, putting his head in at the win- 
 dow ; ' you shall see my blue passion flower. 
 We'll take a walk round the garden.' 
 
 The Prince gave Vivian a look, which seemed to 
 suppose they must go ; and accordingly they stepped 
 into the garden. 
 
 * You do not see my garden in its glory,' said Mr. 
 Beckendorff, stopping before the bow-window of the 
 library ; * this spot is my strong point ; had you been 
 here earlier in the year, you might have admired with 
 me my invaluable crescents of tulips such colours! 
 such brilliancy! so defined! And last year I had 
 three king-tulips ; their elegant-formed, creamy cups, 
 I have never seen equalled. And then my double 
 variegated ranunculuses ; 'my hyacinths of fifty bells, 
 in every tint, single and double ; and my favourite 
 stands of auriculas, so large and powdered, that the 
 colour of the velvet leaves was scarcely discoverable ! 
 The blue passion-flower is, however, now very beauti- 
 ful. You see that summer-house, Sir,' continued 
 he, turning to Vivian, ' the top is my observatory ; 
 you will sleep in that pavilion to-night, so you had 
 better take notice how the walk winds.' 
 
 The passion-flower was trained against the summer- 
 house in question. 
 
 580
 
 CHAPTER VI VIVIAN GRF.Y 
 
 ' There ! ' said Mr. BeckendorfF, and he stood 
 admiring with outstretched arms, ' the latter days of 
 its beauty, for' the autumn frosts will soon stop its 
 flower : Pray Mr. von Philipson, are either you or 
 your friend a botanist ?' 
 
 ' Why,' said the Prince, ( I am a great admirer of 
 flowers, but I cannot exactly say that ' 
 
 ' Ah ! I see you are no botanist. The flower of 
 this beautiful plant continues only one day, but there 
 is a constant succession from July to the end of the 
 
 autumn ; and if this fine weather continue Pray, 
 
 Sir, how is the wind?' 
 
 ' I really cannot say,' said the Prince ; ' but I think 
 the wind is either ' 
 
 'Ah! do you know how the wind is, Sir?' con- 
 tinued BeckendorfF to Vivian. 
 
 * I think, Sir, that it is ' 
 
 4 Ah ! I see it's westerly. Well ! If this weather 
 continue, the succession may still last another month. 
 You will be interested to know, Mr. von Philipson, 
 that the flower comes out at the same joint with the 
 leaf, on a peduncle near three inches long ; round the 
 centre of it are two radiating crowns ; look, look Sir! 
 the inner inclining towards the centre column now 
 examine this well, and I'll be with you in a moment.' 
 So saying, Mr. BeckendorfF, running with great 
 rapidity down the walk, jumped over the railing, and 
 in a moment was coursing across the lawn, towards 
 the river, in a desperate chase after a dragon-fly. 
 
 Mr. BeckendorfF was soon out of sight ; and after 
 lingering half an hour in the vicinty of the blue 
 passion-flower, the Prince proposed to Vivian that 
 they should quit the spot. ' As far as I can observe,' 
 continued his Highness ; ' we might as well quit the 
 house. No wonder that BeckendorfF's power is on
 
 VIVIAN GRKY BOOK VI 
 
 the wane, for he appears to me to be growing childish. 
 Surely he could not always have been this frivolous 
 creature ! ' 
 
 ' I really am so overwhelmed with astonishment,' 
 said Vivian, * that it is quite out of my power to 
 assist your Highness in any supposition. But I 
 should recommend you not to be too hasty in your 
 movements. Take care that staying here does not 
 affect the position which you have taken up, or 
 retard the progress of any measures on which you 
 have determined, and you are safe. What will it 
 injure you, if, with the chance of achieving the great 
 and patriotic purpose to which you have devoted your 
 powers and energies, you are subjected for a few 
 hours to the caprices, or even rudeness, of any man 
 whatever. If Beckendorff be the character which 
 the world gives him credit to be, I do not think he 
 can imagine that you are to be deceived twice ; and 
 if he do imagine so, we are convinced that he will be 
 disappointed. If, as you have supposed, not only 
 his power is on the wane, but his intellect also, four- 
 and-twenty hours will convince us of the fact ; for 
 in less than that time your Highness will necessarily 
 have conversation of a more important nature with 
 him. I strenuously recommend, therefore, that we 
 continue here to-day, although,' added Vivian smiling, 
 ' I have to sleep in his Observatory.' 
 
 After walking in the gardens about an hour, the 
 Prince and Vivian again went into the house, imagin- 
 ing that Beckendoff might have returned by another 
 entrance ; but he was not there. The Prince was 
 very much annoyed ; and Vivian, to amuse himself, 
 had recourse to the Library. After re-examining 
 the armour, looking at the garden through the 
 painted windows, conjecturing who might be the 
 
 582
 
 CHAPTER VI VIVIAN GREY 
 
 original of the mysterious picture, and what could be 
 the meaning of the withered branch, the Prince was 
 fairly worn out. The precise dinner-hour he did not 
 know ; and notwithstanding repeated exertions, he 
 had hitherto been unable to find the blooming Clara. 
 He could not flatter himself, however, that there 
 were less than two hours to kill before the great 
 event took place ; and so, quite miserable, and 
 heartily wishing himself back again at Turriparva, he 
 prevailed upon Vivian to throw aside his book, and 
 take another walk. 
 
 This time they extended their distance, stretched 
 out as far as the river, and explored the adjoining 
 woods ; but of Mr. Beckendorff they saw and heard 
 nothing. At length they again returned : it was 
 getting dusk. They found the bow-window of the 
 Library closed. They again entered the dining- 
 room ; and, to their surprise, found no preparations 
 for dinner. This time the Prince was more fortu- 
 nate in his exertions to procure an interview with 
 Madam Clara, for that lady almost immediately en- 
 tered the room. 
 
 ' Pray, my good Madam,' enquired the Prince ; 
 ( has your master returned?' 
 
 ' Mr. Beckendorff is in the Library, Sir,' said the 
 old lady very pompously. 
 
 ' Indeed ! we don't dine in this room, then ?' 
 
 'Dine, Sir!' said the good dame, forgetting her 
 pomposity in her astonishment. 
 
 ' Yes dine,' said the Prince. 
 
 ' La ! Sir ; Mr. Beckendorff never takes any thing 
 after his noon meal.' 
 
 * Am I to understand then, that we are to have no 
 dinner?' asked his Highness, angry and agitated. 
 
 ' Mr. Beckendorff never takes any thing after his 
 
 583
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VI 
 
 noon meal, Sir ; but I'm sure if you and your friend 
 are hungry, Sir, I hope there's never a want in this 
 house. 5 
 
 ' My good lady, I am hungry, very hungry in- 
 deed ; and if your master, I mean Mr. Von that is 
 Mr. Beckendorff, has such a bad appetite that he can 
 satisfy himself with picking, once a day, the breast 
 of a pheasant ; why, if he expect his friends to be 
 willing, or even able to live on such fare, the least 
 that I can say is, that he is very much mistaken ; and 
 so, therefore, my good friend Grey, I think we had 
 better order our horses, and be off.' 
 
 ' No occasion for that, I hope,' said Mrs. Clara, 
 rather alarmed at the Prince's passion ; ( no want, 
 I trust, ever here, Sir ; and I make no doubt you'll 
 have dinner as soon as possible ; and so, Sir, I hope 
 you'll not be hasty.' 
 
 ' Hasty ! I have no wish to be hasty ; but as for 
 disarranging the whole economy of the house, and 
 getting up an extemporaneous meal for me I cannot 
 think of it. Mr. Beckendorff may live as he likes, 
 and if I stay here, I am contented to live as he does. 
 I do not wish him to change his habits for me, and I 
 shall take care that, after to-day, there will be no 
 necessity for his doing so. However, absolute hun- 
 ger can make no compliments ; and therefore I will 
 thank you, my good Madam, to let me and my 
 friend have the remains of that cold game, if they 
 be still in existence, on which we lunched, or, as you 
 term it, took our noon meal this morning ; and 
 which, if it were your own cooking, Mrs. Clara, I 
 assure you, as I observed to my friend at the time, 
 did you infinite credit.' 
 
 The Prince, although his gentlemanly feelings had, 
 in spite of his hunger, dictated a deprecation of Mrs. 
 
 584
 
 CHAPTER VI VIVIAN GREY 
 
 Clara's making a dinner merely for himself, still 
 thought that a seasonable and deserved compliment 
 to the lady, might assist in bringing about a result, 
 which, notwithstanding his politeness, he very much 
 desired ; and that was the production of another 
 specimen of her culinary accomplishments. Having 
 behaved, as he considered, with such moderation and 
 dignified civility, he was, it must be confessed, rather 
 astounded, when Mrs. Clara, duly acknowledging 
 his compliment by her curtsey, was sorry to inform 
 him that she dared give no refreshment in this house, 
 without Mr. BeckendorfPs special order. 
 
 1 Special order ! why ! surely your master will not 
 grudge me the cold leg of a pheasant ?' 
 
 4 Mr. Beckendorff is not in the habit of grudging 
 any thing,' answered the housekeeper, with offended 
 majesty. 
 
 c Then why should he object ?' asked the Prince. 
 
 ' Mr. Beckendorff is the best judge, Sir, of the 
 propriety of his own regulations.' 
 
 1 Well, well!' said Vivian, more interested for his 
 friend than himself, ' there is no difficulty in asking 
 Mr. Beckendorff.' 
 
 ' None in the least, Sir,' answered the housekeeper, 
 ' when he is awake.' 
 
 ' Awake ! ' said the Prince, * why ! is he asleep 
 now?' 
 
 ' Yes, Sir, in the Library.' 
 
 ' And how long will he be asleep ?' asked the 
 Prince, with great eagerness. 
 
 ' It is uncertain ; he may be asleep for hours he 
 may wake in five minutes ; all I can do, is to watch.' 
 
 * But, surely in a case like the present, you can 
 wake your master?' 
 
 ' I could not wake Mr. Beckendorff, Sir, if the 
 585
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VI 
 
 house were on fire. No one can enter the room 
 when he is asleep.' 
 
 ' Then how can you possibly know when he is 
 awake?' 
 
 ' I shall hear his violin immediately, Sir.' 
 
 ' Well, well ! I suppose it must be so. Grey, I 
 wish we were in Turriparva, that is all I know. Men 
 of my station have no business to be paying visits 
 to the sons of the Lord knows who ! peasants, shop- 
 keepers, and pedagogues!' 
 
 The Prince of Little Lilliput thought that man- 
 kind were solely created to hunt and to fight ; and 
 unless you could spear a boar or owned a commis- 
 sion, you were not included in his list of proper men. 
 We smile at what we consider the narrow-minded 
 ideas of a German Prince ; yet, perhaps, if we en- 
 quire, we shall find that mankind, on an average, are 
 influenced in all countries by the same feelings, and 
 in the same degree ; and the definition of a gentle- 
 man by a hero of St. James's-Street, if not exactly 
 similar, will not be less unwise and less ridiculous, 
 than the Prince of Little Lilliput's description of a 
 proper man. An officer in the guards once told me, 
 that no person was a gentleman, who was not the 
 son of a man who had twenty thousand a year landed 
 property. Convinced that his declaration was sin- 
 cere, I respected his prejudices, and did not dispute 
 his definition. I should have behaved the same, had 
 I been in Africa, and had a Hottentot dandy declared, 
 that no person was to be visited who dared to de- 
 vour the smoking entrails of a sheep in less than a 
 couple of mouthfuls. 
 
 As a fire was blazing in the dining-room, which 
 Mrs. Clara informed them Mr. Beckendorff never 
 omitted having every night in the year, the Prince 
 
 586
 
 CHAPTER VI VIVIAN GREY 
 
 and his friend imagined that they were to remain 
 there, and they consequently did not attempt to dis- 
 turb the slumbers of Mr. Beckendorff. Resting his 
 feet on the hobs, his Highness, for the fiftieth time, 
 declared that he wished he had never left Turriparva ; 
 and just when Vivian was on the point of giving up, 
 in despair, the hope of consoling him, Mrs. Clara 
 entered, and proceeded to lay the cloth. 
 
 ' Your master is awake, then?' asked the Prince, 
 very quickly. 
 
 ' Mr. Beckendorff has been long awake, Sir! and 
 dinner will be ready immediately.' 
 
 His Highness's countenance brightened ; and in 
 a short time the supper appearing, the Prince again 
 fascinated by Mrs. Clara's cookery and Mr. Becken- 
 dorff's wine, forgot his chagrin, and regained his 
 temper. 
 
 In about a couple of hours Mr. Beckendorff en- 
 tered. 
 
 ' I hope that Clara has given you wine you like, 
 Mr. von Philipson?' 
 
 'Excellent, my dear Sir! the same binn, Pll an- 
 swer for that.' 
 
 Mr. Beckendorff had his violin in his hand ; but 
 his dress was much changed. His great boots being 
 pulled off, exhibited the white silk stockings which 
 he invariably wore ; and his coat had given place to 
 the easier covering of a very long and handsome 
 brocade dressing-gown. He drew a chair round the 
 fire, between the Prince and Vivian. It was a late 
 hour, and the room was only lighted by the glim- 
 mering coals, for the flames had long died away. 
 Mr. Beckendorff sat for some time without speak- 
 ing, gazing very earnestly on the decaying embers. 
 Indeed, before many minutes had elapsed, complete 
 
 587
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VI 
 
 silence prevailed ; for both the endeavours of the 
 Prince, and of Vivian, to promote conversation had 
 been unsuccessful. At length the master of the 
 house turned round to the Prince, and pointing to 
 a particular mass of coal, said, ' I think, Mr. von 
 Philipson, that is the completest elephant I ever saw. 
 We will ring the bell for some coals, and then have 
 a game of whist.' 
 
 The Prince was so surprised by Mr. BeckendorfPs 
 remark, that he was not sufficiently struck by the 
 strangeness of his proposition ; and it was only when 
 he heard Vivian professing his ignorance of the game, 
 that it occurred to him that to play at whist was 
 hardly the object for which he had travelled from 
 Turriparva. 
 
 ' An Englishman not know whist!' said Mr. Bec- 
 kendorff: 'ridiculous! you do know it. You're 
 thinking of the stupid game they play here, of 
 Boston whist. Let us play! Mr. von Philipson, I 
 know, has no objection.' 
 
 * But, my good Sir,' said the Prince, ( although 
 previous to conversation I may have no objection to 
 join in a little amusement, still it appears to me that 
 it has escaped your memory that whist is a game 
 which requires the co-operation of four persons.' 
 
 * Not at all ! I take dumbmy. I'm not sure it is 
 not the finest way of playing the game.' 
 
 The table was arranged, the lights brought, the 
 cards produced, and the Prince of Little Lilliput, 
 greatly to his surprise, found himself playing whist 
 with Mr. Beckendorff. Nothing could be more dull. 
 The Minister would neither bet nor stake ; and the 
 immense interest which he took in every card that 
 was played, most ludicrously contrasted with the 
 rather sullen looks of the Prince, and the very sleepy 
 
 588
 
 CHAPTER VI VIVIAN GREY 
 
 ones of Vivian. Whenever Mr. Beckendorff played 
 for dumbmy, he always looked with the most search- 
 ing eye into the next adversary's face, as if he would 
 read his cards in his features. The first rubber lasted 
 an hour and a half three long games, which Mr. 
 Beckendorff, to his triumph, hardly won. In the 
 first game of the second rubber Vivian blundered ; 
 in the second he revoked ; and in the third, having 
 neglected to play, and being loudly called upon, and 
 rated both by his partner and Mr. Beckendorff, he 
 was found to be asleep. Beckendorff threw down his 
 hand with a loud dash, which roused Vivian from 
 his slumber. He apologized for his drowsiness ; but 
 said that he was so extremely sleepy that he must 
 retire. The Prince, who longed to be with Becken- 
 dorff alone, winked approbation of his intention. 
 
 ' Well ! ' said Beckendorff, c you spoiled the rub- 
 ber. I shall ring for Clara. Why you are all so 
 fond of going to bed, I cannot understand. I have 
 not been to bed these thirty years.' 
 
 Vivian made his escape ; and Beckendorff, pitying 
 his degeneracy, proposed to the Prince, in a tone 
 which seemed to anticipate that the offer would meet 
 with instantaneous acceptation double dumbmy ; 
 this, however, was too much. 
 
 ( No more cards, Sir, I thank you,' said the Prince ; 
 ' if, however, you have a mind for an hour's con- 
 versation, I am quite at your service.' 
 
 ' I am obliged to you I never talk good night, 
 Mr. von Philipson.' 
 
 Mr. Beckendorff left the room. His Highness 
 could contain himself no longer. He rang the 
 bell. 
 
 ' Pray, Mrs. Clara,' said he, * where are my 
 horses ?' 
 
 589
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VI 
 
 * Mr. Beckendorff will have no quadrupeds within 
 a mile of the house, except Owlface.' 
 
 ' How do you mean ? let me see the man-ser- 
 vant.' 
 
 1 The household consists only of myself, Sir.' 
 
 ' Why! where is my luggage then?' 
 
 ' That has been brought up, Sir ; it is in your 
 room.' 
 
 ' I tell you, I must have my horses.' 
 
 ' It is quite impossible to-night, Sir. I think, 
 Sir, you had better retire ; Mr. Beckendorff may 
 not be home again these six hours.' 
 
 ' What ! is your master gone out ?' 
 
 4 Yes, Sir, he is just gone out to take his ride.' 
 
 ' W T hy ! where is his horse kept then ?' 
 
 < It's 'Owlface, Sir.' 
 
 ' Owlface, indeed ! what, is your master ( in the 
 habit of riding out at night?' 
 
 ' Mr. Beckendorff rides out, Sir, just when it hap- 
 pens to suit him.' 
 
 c It is very odd I cannot ride out when it happens 
 to suit me! However, I'll be off to-morrow; and 
 so, if you please, show me my bed-room at once.' 
 
 ' Your room is the Library, Sir.' 
 
 ' The Library! why, there's no bed in the Library.' 
 
 c We have no beds, Sir ; but the sofa is made up.' 
 
 ' No beds ! well ! it's only for one night. You 
 are all mad, and I am as mad as you for coming 
 here.' 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE morning sun peeping through the window 
 of the little Summer-house, roused its inmate at an 
 early hour ; and finding no signs of Mr. Becken- 
 dorff and his guest having yet arisen from their 
 
 59
 
 CHAPTER VII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 slumbers, Vivian took the opportunity of strolling 
 about the gardens and the grounds. Directing his 
 way along the margin of the river, he soon left the 
 lawn, and entered some beautiful meadows, whose 
 dewy verdure glistened in the brightening beams of 
 the early sun. Crossing these, and passing through 
 a gate, he found himself in a rural road, whose lofty 
 hedge-rows, rich with all the varieties of wild fruit 
 and flower, and animated with the cheering presence 
 of the busy birds chirping from every bough and 
 spray, altogether presented a scene which greatly re- 
 minded him of the soft beauties of his own country. 
 With some men, to remember is to be sad ; and un- 
 fortunately for Vivian Grey, there were few objects 
 which with him did not give rise to associations of a 
 most painful nature. Of what he was thinking 
 as he sat on a bank with his eyes fixed on the ground, 
 it is needless to enquire. He was roused from his 
 reverie by the sound of a trotting horse. He looked 
 up, but the winding road prevented him at first from 
 seeing the steed which evidently was approaching. 
 The sound came nearer and nearer ; and at length, 
 turning a corner, Mr. Beckendorff came in sight. 
 He was mounted on a very strong built, rough, and 
 particularly ugly pony, with an obstinate mane, which 
 defying the exertions of groom or ostler, fell in 
 equal divisions on both sides of its bottle neck ; and 
 a large white face, which, combined with its blind, 
 or blinking vision, had earned for it the euphonious 
 and complimentary title of Owlface. Both master 
 and steed must have travelled hard and far, for both 
 were covered with dust and mud from top to toe 
 from mane to hoof. Mr. BeckendorfF seemed sur- 
 prised at meeting Vivian, and pulled up his pony as 
 he reached him.
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VI 
 
 ' An early riser, I see, Sir. Where is Mr. von 
 Philipson?' 
 
 ' I have not yet seen him, and imagined that both 
 he and yourself had not yet risen.' 
 
 'Hum! how many hours is it to noon?' asked 
 Mr. Beckendorff, who always spoke astronomically. 
 
 ' More than four, I imagine.' 
 
 ' Pray do you prefer the country about here to 
 Turriparva ?' 
 
 ' Both, I think, are very beautiful.' 
 
 'You live at Turriparva?' asked Mr. Becken- 
 dorff. 
 
 ' When I am there,' answered Vivian, smiling, 
 who was too practised a head to be pumped even by 
 Mr. Beckendorff. 
 
 * Pray has it been a fine summer at Turri- 
 parva ?' 
 
 ' It has been a fine summer, I believe, every- 
 where.' 
 
 ' I am afraid Mr. von Philipson finds it rather dull 
 here?' 
 
 * I am not aware of it.' 
 
 4 He seems a ve ry ?' said Beckendorff, 
 
 looking keenly in his companion's face. But Vivian 
 did not supply the desired phrase ; and so the Minis- 
 ter was forced to finish the sentence himself ' a very 
 
 gentlemanly sort of man?' A low bow was 
 
 the only response. 
 
 ' I trust, Sir, I may indulge the hope,' continued 
 Mr. Beckendorff ; * that you will honour me with 
 your company another day.' 
 
 ' You are most exceedingly obliging, Sir ! ' 
 
 * Mr. von Philipson is fond, I think, of a country 
 life?' said Beckendorff. 
 
 ' Most men are, I think, Sir.' 
 592
 
 CHAPTER VII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 ' I suppose he has no innate objection to live 
 occasionally in a city?' 
 
 * Few men have, I think, Sir.' 
 
 * You probably have known him long?' 
 
 ' Not long enough to wish our acquaintance at an 
 end.' 
 
 'Hum!' 
 
 They proceeded in silence for about five minutes, 
 and then Beckendorff again turned round, and this 
 time with a direct question. 
 
 ' I wonder if Mr. von Philipson can make it con- 
 venient to honour me with his company another day. 
 Can you tell me?' 
 
 ' I think the best person to inform you of that, 
 Sir, would be his Highness himself,' said Vivian, 
 using his friend's title purposely to show Mr. Bec- 
 kendorff how very ridiculous he considered his pre- 
 sent use of the incognito. 
 
 'You think so, Sir, do you?' answered Becken- 
 dorff, very sarcastically. 
 
 They had now arrived at the gate by which Vivian 
 had reached the road. 
 
 ' Your course, Sir,' said Mr. Beckendorff, ' lies 
 that way. I see, like myself, you are no great 
 talker. We shall meet at breakfast.' So saying, 
 the Minister set spurs to his pony, and was soon out 
 of sight. 
 
 When Vivian reached the house, he found the 
 bow-window of the Library thrown open ; and as 
 he approached, he saw Mr. Beckendorff enter the 
 room and bow to the Prince. His Highness had 
 passed a most excellent night, in spite of not sleep- 
 ing in a bed ; and he was at this moment commenc- 
 ing a most delicious breakfast. His ill-humour had 
 consequently all vanished. He had made up his 
 
 2P 593
 
 VIVIAN GUKV BOOK VI 
 
 mind that Beckendorff was a madman ; and although 
 he had given up all the secret and flattering hopes 
 which he had dared to entertain when the interview 
 was first arrano-ed, he nevertheless did not regret his 
 
 O ' O 
 
 visit, which on the whole had been very amusing, 
 and had made him acquainted with the person and 
 habits, and, as he believed, the intellectual powers 
 of a man with whom, most probably, he should soon 
 be engaged in open hostility. Vivian took his seat 
 at the breakfast table, and Beckendorff stood con- 
 versing with them with his back to the fire-place, 
 and occasionally, during the pauses of conversation, 
 pulling the strings of his violin with his fingers. It 
 did not escape Vivian's observation that the Minister 
 was particularly courteous, and even attentive to his 
 Highness ; and that he endeavoured by his quick, 
 and more communicative answers, and occasionally 
 by a stray observation, to encourage the good hum- 
 our which was visible on the cheerful countenance of 
 the Prince. 
 
 'Have you been long up, Mr. Beckendorff?' 
 asked the Prince ; for his host had resumed his 
 dressing-gown and slippers. 
 
 ' I generally see the sun rise.' 
 
 'And yet you retire late! out riding last night, 
 I understand?' 
 
 ' I never go to bed.' 
 
 'Indeed!' said thePrince. 'Well, for my part, 
 without my regular rest, I am nothing. Have you 
 breakfasted, Mr. Beckendorff?' 
 
 ' Clara will bring my breakfast immediately.' 
 
 The dame accordingly soon appeared, bearing a 
 tray with a basin of boiling water, and one very large 
 thick biscuit. This, Mr. Beckendorff having well 
 soaked in the hot fluid, eagerly devoured ; and then 
 
 594
 
 CHAPTER VII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 taking up his violin, amused himself until his guests 
 had finished their breakfast. 
 
 When Vivian had ended his meal, he left the 
 Prince and Mr. Beckendorff alone, determined that 
 his presence should not be the occasion of the Minis- 
 ter any longer retarding the commencement of busi- 
 ness. The Prince, who by a private glance had been 
 prepared for his departure, immediately took the 
 opportunity of asking Mr. Beckendorff, in a very 
 decisive tone, whether he might flatter himself that 
 he could command his present attention to a subject 
 of great importance. Mr. Beckendorff said that he 
 was always at Mr. von Philipson's service ; and 
 drawing a chair opposite him, the Prince and Mr. 
 Beckendorff now sat on each side of the fire-place. 
 
 * Hem!' said the Prince, clearing his throat; and 
 he looked at Mr. Beckendorff, who sat with his heels 
 close together, his toes out square, his hands resting 
 on his knees, which, as well as his elbows, were 
 turned out, his shoulders bent, his head reclined, and 
 his eyes glancing. 
 
 'Hem!' said the Prince of Little Lilliput. 'In 
 compliance, Mr. Beckendorff, with your wish, devel- 
 oped in the communication received by me on the 
 inst., I assented in my answer to the arrangement 
 then proposed ; the object of which was, to use your 
 own words, to facilitate the occurrence of an oral in- 
 terchange of the sentiments of various parties inter- 
 ested in certain proceedings, by which interchange it 
 was anticipated that the mutual interests might be 
 respectively considered and finally arranged. Prior, 
 Mr. Beckendorff, to either of us going into any 
 detail upon those points of probable discussion, which 
 will, in all likelihood, form the fundamental features 
 of this interview, I wish to recall your attention to 
 
 595
 
 VIVIAN GKKY BOOK VI 
 
 the paper which I had the honour of presenting to 
 his Royal Highness, and which is alluded to in your 
 communication of the inst. The principal heads 
 of that document I have brought with me, abridged 
 in this paper.' 
 
 Here the Prince handed to Mr. Beckendorff a MS. 
 pamphlet, consisting of about sixty foolscap sheets 
 closely written. The Minister bowed very graci- 
 ously as he took it from his Highness's hand ; and 
 then, without even looking at it, he laid it on the 
 table. 
 
 f You, Sir, I perceive,' continued the Prince, { are 
 acquainted with its contents ; and it will therefore be 
 unnecessary for me at present to expatiate upon their 
 individual expediency, or to argue for their particular 
 adoption. And, Sir, when we observe the progress 
 of the human mind, when we take into consideration 
 the quick march of intellect, and the wide expansion 
 of enlightened views and liberal principles when 
 we take a bird's-eye view of the history of man from 
 the earliest ages to the present moment, I feel that it 
 would be folly in me to conceive for an instant, that 
 the measures developed and recommended in that 
 paper, will not finally receive the approbation of his 
 Royal Highness. As to the exact origin of slavery, 
 Mr. Beckendorff, I confess that I am not, at this 
 moment, prepared distinctly to speak. That the 
 Divine Author of our religion was its decided enemy, 
 I am informed, is clear. That the slavery of ancient 
 times was the origin of the feudal service of a more 
 modern period, is a point on which men of learning 
 have not precisely made up their minds. With 
 regard to the exact state of the ancient German 
 people, Tacitus affords us a great deal of most inter- 
 esting information. Whether or not, certain pas- 
 
 596
 
 CHAPTER VII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 sages which I have brought with me marked in the 
 Germania, are incontestable evidences that our ances- 
 tors enjoyed or understood the practice of a wise and 
 well-regulated liberty, is a point on which I shall be 
 happy to receive the opinion of so distinguished a 
 statesman as Mr. Beclcendorff. In stepping forward, 
 as I have felt it my duty to do, as the advocate of 
 popular rights and national privileges, I am desirous 
 to prove that I have not become the votary of innova- 
 tion and the professor of revolutionary doctrines. 
 The passages of the Roman Author in question, and 
 an ancient charter of the Emperor Charlemagne, are, 
 I consider, decisive and sufficient precedents for the 
 measures which I have thought proper to sanction by 
 my approval, and to support by my influence. A 
 Minister, Mr. Beckendorff, must take care that in the 
 great race of politics the minds of his countrymen do 
 not leave his own behind them. We must never 
 forget the powers and capabilities of man. On this 
 very spot, perhaps, some centuries ago, savages 
 clothed in skins were committing cannibalism in a 
 forest. We must not forget, I repeat, that it is the 
 business of those to whom Providence has allotted 
 the responsible possession of power and influence 
 that it is their duty our duty, Mr. Beckendorff to 
 become guardians of our weaker fellow-creatures 
 that all power is a trust that we are accountable for 
 its exercise that, from the people, and for the people, 
 all springs, and all must exist ; and that, unless we 
 conduct ourselves with the requisite wisdom, prud- 
 ence, and propriety, the whole system of society will 
 be disorganized ; and this country, in particular, fall 
 a victim to that system of corruption and misgovern- 
 ment, which has already occasioned the destruction of 
 the great kingdoms mentioned in the Bible ; and 
 
 597
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VI 
 
 many other States besides Greece, Rome, Carthage, 
 &c.' 
 
 Thus ended the peroration of an harangue, con- 
 sisting of an incoherent arrangement of imperfectly 
 remembered facts, and misunderstood principles ; all 
 gleaned by his Highness from the enlightening 
 articles of the Reisenburg journals. Like Brutus, 
 the Prince of Little Lilliput paused for a reply. 
 
 ' Mr. von Philipson,' said his companion, when 
 his Highness had finished, ' you speak like a man of 
 sense.' Having given this answer, Mr. Beckendorff 
 rose from his seat, and walked straight out of the 
 room. 
 
 The Prince, at first, took the answer for a compli- 
 ment ; but Mr. Beckendoff not returning, he began 
 to have a very faint idea that he was neglected. In 
 this uncertainty, he rang the bell for his old friend 
 Clara. 
 
 ' Mrs. Clara! where is your master?' 
 
 ' Just gone out, Sir.' 
 
 ' How do you mean?' 
 
 ' He has gone out with his gun, Sir.' 
 
 ' You are quite sure he has gone out ?' 
 
 * Quite sure, Sir. I took him his coat and boots 
 myself.' 
 
 * I am to understand, then, that your master has 
 gone out?' 
 
 ' Yes, Sir, Mr. Beckendorff has gone out. He 
 will be home for his noon meal. 3 
 
 < That is enough! Grey!' hallooed the indignant 
 Prince, darting into the garden ; ' Grey ! Grey ! 
 where are you, Grey?' 
 
 ' Well, my dear Prince,' said Vivian ; what can 
 possibly be the matter?' 
 
 'The matter! insanity can be the only excuse; 
 59S
 
 CHAPTER VII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 insanity can alone account for his preposterous con- 
 duct. We have seen enough of him. The repeti- 
 tion of absurdity is only wearisome. Pray assist me 
 in getting our horses immediately.' 
 
 ' Certainly, if you please ; but remember you 
 brought me here as your friend and counsellor. As 
 I have accepted the trust, I cannot help being sensible 
 of the responsibility. Before, therefore, you finally 
 resolve upon departure, pray let me be fully ac- 
 quainted with the circumstance which has impelled 
 you to this sudden resolution.' 
 
 4 Willingly, my good friend, could I only command 
 my temper ; and yet to fall into a passion with a 
 madman is almost a mark of madness : but his man- 
 ner and his conduct are so provoking and so puzzling, 
 that I cannot altogether repress my irritability. And 
 that ridiculous incognito ! why I sometimes begin to 
 think that I really am Mr. von Philipson! An in- 
 cognito forsooth ! for what ? to deceive whom ? His 
 household apparently only consists of two persons, 
 one of whom has visited me in my own castle ; and 
 the other is a cross old hag, who would not be able to 
 comprehend my rank if she were aware of it. But 
 to the point! When you left the room, I was deter- 
 mined to be trifled with no longer, and I asked him in 
 a firm voice, and very marked manner, whether I might 
 command his immediate attention to very important 
 business. He professed to be at my service. I 
 opened the affair by taking a cursory, yet definite, 
 review of the principles in which my political conduct 
 had originated, and on which it was founded. I 
 flattered myself that I had produced an impression. 
 Sometimes, my dear Grey, we are in a better cue for 
 these expositions than at others, and to-day, I was 
 really unusually felicitous. My memory never 
 
 599
 
 VIVIAN (iRKV BOOK VI 
 
 deserted me. I was, at the same time, luminous and 
 profound ; and while I was guided by the philo- 
 sophical spirit of the present day, I showed by my 
 various reading, that I respected the experience of 
 antiquity. In short, I was perfectly satisfied with my- 
 self ; and with the exception of one single point 
 about the origin of slavery, which unfortunately got 
 entangled with the feudal system, I could not have 
 got on better had Sievers himself been at my side. 
 Nor did I spare Mr. Beckendorff ; but on the con- 
 trary, my good fellow, I said a few things which, had 
 he been in his senses, must, I imagine, have gone 
 home to his feelings. Do you know I finished by 
 drawing his own character, and showing the inevitable 
 effects of his ruinous policy : and what do you think 
 he did?' 
 
 ' Left you in a passion?' 
 
 ' Not at all. He seemed very much struck by 
 what I had said, and apparently understood it. I 
 have heard that in some species of insanity the patient 
 is perfectly able to comprehend every thing addressed 
 to him, though at that point his sanity ceases, and he 
 is unable to answer, or to act. This must be Becken- 
 dorff's case ; for no sooner had I finished, than he 
 rose up immediately, and saying that I spoke like a 
 man of sense, he abruptly quitted the room. The 
 housekeeper says he will not be at home again till 
 that infernal ceremony takes place, called the noon- 
 meal. Now do not you advise me to be off as soon 
 as possible?' 
 
 ' It will require some deliberation. Pray did you 
 not speak to him last night?' 
 
 ' Ah ! I forgot that I had not been able to speak to 
 you since then. Well! last night, what do you 
 think he did ? When you were gone, he had the 
 
 600
 
 CHAPTER VII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 insolence to congratulate me on the opportunity then 
 afforded of playing double dumbmy ; and when I 
 declined his proposition, but said that if he wished 
 to have an hour's conversation I was at his service, he 
 very coolly told me that he never talked, and bade me 
 good night ! Did you ever know such a madman ? 
 He never goes to bed. I only had a sofa. How 
 the deuce did you sleep?' 
 
 ' Well, and safely, considering that I was in a 
 summer-house without lock or bolt.' 
 
 ' Well ! I need not ask you now as to your opinion 
 of our immediately getting off. We shall have, how- 
 ever, some trouble about our horses, for he will not 
 allow a quadruped near the house, except some mon- 
 ster of an animal that he rides himself ; and by St. 
 Hubert! I cannot find out where our steeds are. 
 What shall we do?' But Vivian did not answer. 
 ' Grey,' continued his Highness ; ' what are you 
 thinking of? Why don't you answer?' 
 
 ' Your Highness must not go,' said Vivian, shak- 
 ing his head. 
 
 ' Not go! why so, my good fellow?' 
 
 ' Depend upon it, you are wrong about Becken- 
 dorff. That he is a humourist there is no doubt ; 
 but it appears to me to be equally clear, that his queer 
 habits and singular mode of life are not of late adop- 
 tion. What he is now, he must have been these ten, 
 perhaps these twenty years, perhaps more. Of this 
 there are a thousand proofs about us. As to the 
 overpowering cause which has made him the char- 
 acter he appears at present, it is needless for us to 
 enquire. Probably some incident in his private life, 
 in all likelihood connected with the mysterious 
 picture. Let us be satisfied with the effect. If the 
 case be as I state it, in his private life and habits Beck- 
 
 60 1
 
 VIVIAN GUEY BOOK VI 
 
 endorff must have been equally incomprehensible and 
 equally singular at the very time that, in his public 
 capacity, he was producing such brilliant results, as at 
 the present moment. Now then, can we believe him 
 to be insane ? I anticipate your objections. I know 
 you will enlarge upon the evident absurdity of his 
 inviting his political opponent to his house, for a 
 grave consultation on the most important affairs, and 
 then treating him as he has done you ; when it must 
 be clear to him that you cannot be again duped, and 
 when he must feel that were he to amuse you for as 
 many weeks as he has days, your plans and your 
 position would not be injuriously affected. Be it so. 
 Probably a humourist like Beckendorff cannot, 
 even in the most critical moment, altogether restrain 
 the bent of his capricious inclinations. However, my 
 dear Prince, I will lay no stress upon this point. My 
 opinion, indeed my conviction is, that Beckendorff 
 acts from design. I have considered his conduct 
 well ; and I have observed all that you have seen, 
 and more than you have seen, and keenly. Depend 
 upon it, that since you assented to the interview, 
 Beckendorff has been obliged to shift his intended 
 position for negotiation. Some of the machinery has 
 gone wrong. Fearful, if he had postponed your 
 visit, you should imagine that he was only again 
 amusing you, and consequently listen to no future 
 overtures, he has allowed you to attend a conference 
 for which he is not prepared. That he is making 
 desperate exertions to bring the business to a point is 
 my firm opinion ; and you would perhaps agree with 
 me, were you as convinced as I am, that since we 
 parted last night our host has been to Reisenburg and 
 back again.' 
 
 4 To Reisenburg, and back again!' 
 602
 
 CHAPTER VII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 ' Ay ! I rose this morning at an early hour, and 
 imagining that both you and Beckendorff had not 
 yet made your appearance, I escaped from the 
 grounds, intending to explore part of the surround- 
 ing country. In my stroll I came to a narrow wind- 
 ing road, which I am convinced lies in the direction 
 towards Reisenburg ; there, for some reason or other, 
 I loitered more than an hour, and very probably 
 should have been too late for breakfast, had I not 
 been recalled to myself by the approach of a horse- 
 man. It was Beckendorff, covered with dust and 
 mud. His horse had been evidently hard ridden. 
 I did not think much of it at the time, because I sup- 
 posed he might have been out for three or four hours, 
 and hard-worked, but I nevertheless was struck by 
 his appearance ; and when you mention that he went 
 out riding at a late hour last night, it immediately 
 occurred to me, that had he come home at one or two 
 o'clock, it was not very probable that he would have 
 gone out again at four or five. I have no doubt that 
 my conjecture is correct Beckendorff has been at 
 Reisenburg.' 
 
 ' You have placed this business in a new and im- 
 portant light,' said the Prince, his expiring hopes 
 reviving; ' what, then, do you advise me to do?' 
 
 ' To be quiet. If your own view of the case be 
 right, you can act as well to-morrow or the next day 
 as this moment ; on the contrary, if mine be the cor- 
 rect one, a moment may enable Beckendorff himself 
 to bring affairs to a crisis. In either case, I should 
 recommend you to be silent, and in no manner to 
 allude any more to the object of your visit. If you 
 speak, you only give opportunities to Beckendorff of 
 ascertaining your opinions and your inclinations ; and 
 your silence, after such frequent attempts on your 
 
 603
 
 VIVIAN GRKV BOOK VI 
 
 side to promote discussion upon business, will soon 
 b'e discovered by him to be systematic. This will not 
 decrease his opinion of your sagacity and firmness. 
 The first principle of negotiation is to make your 
 adversary respect you.' 
 
 After long consultation, the Prince determined to 
 follow Vivian's advice; and so firmly did he adhere 
 to his purpose, that when he met Mr. Beckendorff at 
 the noon meal, he asked him, with a very unembar- 
 rassed voice and manner, ' what sport he had had in 
 the morning?' 
 
 The noon meal again consisted of a single dish, as 
 exquisitely dressed, however, as the preceding one. 
 It was a splendid haunch of venison. 
 
 c This is my dinner, gentlemen,' said Beckendorff ; 
 ' let it be your luncheon : I have ordered your dinner 
 at sunset.' 
 
 After having eaten a slice of the haunch, Mr. 
 Beckendorff rose from table, and said, ' we will 
 have our wine in the drawing-room, Mr. von Philip- 
 son, and then you will not be disturbed with my 
 birds.' 
 
 He left the room. 
 
 To the drawing-room, therefore, his two guests 
 soon adjourned. They found him busily employed 
 with his pencil. The Prince thought it must be a 
 chart or a fortification at least, and was rather sur- 
 prised when Mr. Beckendorff asked him the magni- 
 tude of Mirac in Bootes : and the Prince, confessing 
 his utter ignorance of the subject, the minister threw 
 aside his unfinished Planisphere, and drew his chair to 
 them at the table. It was with great pleasure that 
 his Highness perceived a bottle of his favourite 
 Tokay ; and with no little astonishment he observed, 
 that to-day, there were three wine-glasses placed be- 
 
 604
 
 CHAPTER VII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 fore them. They were of peculiar beauty, and almost 
 worthy, for their elegant shapes and great antiquity, 
 of being included in the collection of the Duke of 
 Schoss Johannisberger. 
 
 * Your praise of my cellar, Sir,' said Mr. Becken- 
 dorff, very graciously, ' has made me turn wine- 
 drinker.' So saying, the Minister took up one of 
 the rare glasses and held it to the light. His keen, 
 glancing eye, detected an almost invisible cloud on 
 the side of the delicate glass, and jerking it across 
 him, he flung it into the farthest corner of the room 
 it was shivered into a thousand pieces. He took up 
 the second glass, examined it very narrowly, and then 
 sent it, with equal force, after its companion. The 
 third one shared the same fate. He rose and rang 
 the bell. 
 
 4 Clara ! ' said Mr. Beckendorff, in his usual tone 
 of voice, ' some clean glasses, and sweep away that 
 litter in the corner.' 
 
 ' He is mad then!' thought the Prince of Little 
 Lilliput, and he shot a glance at his companion, which 
 Vivian could not misunderstand. 
 
 After exhausting their bottle, in which they were 
 assisted to the extent of one glass by their host, who 
 drank Mr. von Philipson's health with cordiality, 
 they assented to Mr. Beckendorff's proposition of 
 visiting his fruitery. 
 
 To the Prince's great relief, dinner-time soon 
 arrived ; and having employed a couple of hours on 
 that meal very satisfactorily, he and Vivian adjourned 
 to the drawing-room, having previously pledged their 
 honour to each other, that nothing should again in- 
 duce them to play dumbmy whist. Their resolu- 
 tions and their promises were needless. Mr. Beck- 
 endorff, who was sitting opposite the fire when they 
 
 605
 
 VIVIAN (iRKV BOOK VI 
 
 came into the room, neither by word nor motion 
 acknowledged that he was aware of their entrance. 
 Vivian found refuge in a book ; and the Prince, after 
 having examined and re-examined the brilliant birds 
 that figured on the drawing-room paper, fell asleep 
 upon the sofa. Mr. Beckendorff took down the 
 guitar, and accompanied himself in a low voice for 
 some time ; then he suddenly ceased, and stretching- 
 out his legs, and supporting his thumbs in the arm- 
 holes of his waistcoat, he leant back in his chair, and 
 remained perfectly motionless, with his eyes fixed 
 upon the picture. Vivian, in turn gazed upon this 
 singular being, and the fair pictured form which he 
 seemed to idolize. Was he, too, unhappy? Had 
 he too been bereft in the hour of his proud and 
 perfect joy? Had he too lost a virgin bride? His 
 agony overcame him, the book fell from his hand, and 
 he groaned aloud! Mr. Beckendorff started, and 
 the Prince awoke. Vivian, confounded, and unable 
 to overpower his emotions, uttered some hasty words, 
 explanatory, apologetical, and contradictory, and re- 
 tired. In his walk to the summer-house, a man 
 passed him. In spite of a great cloak, Vivian recog- 
 nized him as their messenger and guide ; and his 
 ample mantle did not conceal his riding boots, and 
 the spurs which glistened in the moonlight. 
 
 It was an hour past midnight when the door of the 
 summer-house softly opened, and Mr. Beckendorff 
 entered. He started when he found Vivian still un- 
 dressed, and pacing up and down the little chamber. 
 The young man made an effort, when he witnessed 
 an intruder, to compose a countenance whose agita- 
 tion could not be concealed. 
 
 ' What are you up again ?' said Mr. Beckendorff. 
 4 Are you ill?' 
 
 606
 
 CHAPTER VII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 ' Would I were as well in mind as in body ! I 
 have not yet been to rest. We cannot command our 
 feelings at all moments, Sir ; and at this especially, I 
 felt that I had a right to consider myself alone.' 
 
 ' I most exceedingly regret that I have disturbed 
 you,' said Mr. Beckendorff, in a very kind voice, and 
 in a manner which responded to the sympathy of his 
 tone. ' I thought that you had been long asleep. 
 There is a star which I cannot exactly make out. I 
 fancy it must be a comet, and so I ran to the Observa- 
 tory ; but let me not disturb you,' and Mr. Becken- 
 dorff was retiring. 
 
 ' You do not disturb me, Sir. I cannot sleep : 
 pray ascend.' 
 
 ' Oh no ! never mind the star. But if you really 
 have no inclination to sleep, let us sit down, and have 
 a little conversation ; or perhaps we had better take 
 a stroll. It is a very warm night.' As he spoke, 
 Mr. Beckendorff gently put his arm within Vivian's, 
 and led him down the steps. 
 
 ' Are you an astronomer, Sir,' asked Beckendorff. 
 
 ' I can tell the great Bear, from the little Dog ; 
 but I confess that I look upon the stars rather in a 
 poetical than a scientific spirit.' 
 
 1 Hum ! I confess I do not.' 
 
 ' There are moments,' continued Vivian, ' when I 
 cannot refrain from believing that these mysterious 
 luminaries have more influence over our fortunes 
 than modern times are disposed to believe. I feel 
 that I am getting less sceptical, perhaps I should say 
 more credulous, every day ; but sorrow makes us 
 superstitious.' 
 
 ' I discard all such fantasies,' said Mr. Becken- 
 dorff ; ' they only tend to enervate our mental ener- 
 gies, and paralize all human exertion. It is the 
 
 607
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VI 
 
 belief in these, and a thousand other deceits I could 
 mention, which teach man that he is not the master of 
 his own mind, but the ordained victim, or the chance 
 sport of circumstances, that makes millions pass 
 through life unimpressive as shadows ; and has 
 gained for this existence the stigma of a vanity which 
 it does not deserve.' 
 
 ' I wish that I could think as you do,' said Vivian ; 
 ' but the experience of my life forbids me. Within 
 only these last two years, my career has, in so many 
 instances, indicated that I am not the master of my 
 own conduct ; that no longer able to resist the con- 
 viction which is hourly impressed on me, I recognize 
 in every contingency the pre-ordination of my fate.' 
 
 ' A delusion of the brain ! ' said Beckendorff, very 
 quickly. * Fate, Destiny, Chance, particular and 
 special Providence idle words! Dismiss them all, 
 Sir ! A man's Fate is his own temper ; and accord- 
 ing to that will be his opinion as to the particular 
 manner in which the course of events is regulated. 
 A consistent man believes in Destiny a capricious 
 man in Chance.' 
 
 ' But, Sir, what is a man's temper ? It may be 
 changed every hour. I started in life with very dif- 
 ferent feelings to those which I profess at this 
 moment. With great deference to you, I imagine 
 that you mistake the effect for the cause ; for surely 
 temper is not the origin, but the result of those cir- 
 cumstances of which we are all the creatures.' 
 
 ( Sir, I deny it. Man is not the creature of cir- 
 cumstances. Circumstances are the creatures of men. 
 We are free agents, and man is more powerful than 
 matter. I recognize no intervening influence be- 
 tween that of the established course of Nature, and 
 my own mind. Truth may be distorted may be 
 
 608
 
 CHAPTER VII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 stifled be suppressed. The invention of cunning 
 deceits may, and in most instances does, prevent man 
 from exercising his own powers. They have made 
 him responsible to a realm of shadows, and a suitor 
 in a court of shades. He is ever dreading authority 
 which does not exist, and fearing the occurrence of 
 penalties which there are none to enforce. But the 
 mind that dares to extricate itself from these vulgar 
 prejudices, that proves its loyalty to its Creator by 
 devoting all its adoration to his glory such a spirit 
 as this becomes a master-mind, and that master-mind 
 will invariably find that circumstances are its slaves.' 
 
 c Mr. Beckendorff, your's is a very bold philo- 
 sophy, of which I, myself, was once a votary. How 
 successful in my service, you may judge by finding 
 me a wanderer.' 
 
 c Sir ! your present age is the age of error : your 
 whole system is founded on a fallacy : you believe 
 that a man's temper can change. I deny it. If you 
 have ever seriously entertained the views which I pro- 
 fess ; if, as you lead me to suppose, you have dared 
 to act upon them, and failed ; sooner or later, what- 
 ever may be your present conviction, and your pre- 
 sent feelings, you will recur to your original wishes, 
 and your original pursuits. With a mind experi- 
 enced and matured, you may in all probability be suc- 
 cessful ; and then I suppose, stretching your legs in 
 your easy chair, you will at the same moment be con- 
 vinced of your own genius, and recognize your own 
 Destiny!' 
 
 1 With regard to myself, Mr. Beckendorff, I am 
 convinced of the erroneousness of your views. It is 
 my opinion, that no one who has dared to think, can 
 look upon this world in any other than a mournful 
 spirit. Young as I am, nearly two years have elapsed 
 
 2Q 609
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VI 
 
 since, disgusted with the world of politics,. I retired 
 to a foreign solitude. At length, with passions sub- 
 dued, and, as I flatter myself, with a mind matured, 
 convinced of the vanity of all human affairs, I felt 
 emboldened once more partially to mingle with my 
 species. Bitter as my lot had been, as a philosopher, 
 I had discovered the origin of my misery in my own 
 unbridled passions ; and, tranquil and subdued, I 
 now trusted to pass through life as certain of no fresh 
 sorrows, as I was of no fresh joys. And yet, Sir, I 
 am at this moment sinking under the infliction of 
 unparalleled misery misery which I feel I have a 
 right to believe was undeserved. But why expatiate 
 to a stranger on sorrow which must be secret? I 
 deliver myself up to my remorseless Fate.' 
 
 'What is Grief?' said Mr. Beckendorff ; 'if it 
 be excited by the fear of some contingency, instead of 
 grieving, a man should exert his energies, and prevent 
 its occurrence. If, on the contrary, it be caused by 
 an event, that which has been occasioned by any thing 
 human, by the co-operation of human circumstances, 
 can be, and invariably is, removed by the same means. 
 Grief is the agony of an instant ; the indulgence of 
 Grief, the blunder of a life. Mix in the world, and 
 in a month's time you will speak to me very differ- 
 ently. A young man, you meet with disappointment, 
 in spite of all your exalted notions of your own 
 powers, you immediately sink under it. If your 
 belief of your powers were sincere, you should have 
 proved it by the manner in which you struggled 
 against adversity, not merely by the mode in which 
 you laboured for advancement. The latter is but a 
 very inferior merit. If in fact you wish to succeed, 
 success, I repeat, is at your command. You talk to 
 me of your experience ; and do you think that my 
 
 610
 
 CHAPTER VII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 sentiments are the crude opinions of an unpractised 
 man ? Sir ! I am not fond of conversing with any 
 person ; and therefore, far from being inclined to 
 maintain an argument in a spirit of insincerity, 
 merely for the sake of a victory of words. Mark 
 what I say : it is truth. No minister ever yet fell, 
 but from his own inefficiency. If his downfall be 
 occasioned, as it generally is, by the intrigues of one 
 of his own creatures, his downfall is merited for 
 having been the dupe of a tool, which in all prob- 
 ability he should never have employed. If he fall 
 through the open attacks of his political opponents, 
 his downfall is equally deserved, for having occa- 
 sioned by his impolicy the formation of a party ; for 
 having allowed it to be formed ; or for not having 
 crushed it when formed. No conjuncture can pos- 
 sibly occur, however fearful, however tremendous it 
 may appear, from which a man, by his own energy, 
 may not extricate himself as a mariner by the 
 rattling of his cannon can dissipate the impending 
 water-spout ! ' 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 IT was on the third day of the visit to Mr. Becken- 
 dorff, just as that gentleman was composing his 
 mind after his noon meal with his favourite Cremona, 
 and in a moment of rapture raising his instrument 
 high in air, that the door was suddenly dashed open, 
 and Essper George rushed into the room. The in- 
 truder, the moment that his eye caught Vivian, flew 
 to his master, and seizing him by the arm, com- 
 menced and continued a loud shout of exultation, 
 accompanying his scream the whole time by a kind 
 of quick dance ; which, though not quite as clamour - 
 
 611
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VI 
 
 ous as the Pyrrhic, nevertheless completely drowned 
 the scientific harmony of Mr. Beckendorff. 
 
 So perfectly astounded were the three gentlemen 
 by this unexpected entrance, that some moments 
 elapsed ere either of them found words at his com- 
 mand. At length the master of the house spoke. 
 
 * Mr. von Philipson, I beg the favour of being 
 informed who this person is?' 
 
 The Prince did not answer, but looked at Vivian 
 in great distress ; and just as our hero was about to 
 give Mr. Beckendorff the requisite information, Ess- 
 per George, taking up the parable himself, seized 
 the opportunity of explaining the mystery. 
 
 * Who am I ? who are you ? I am an honest 
 man, and no traitor ; and if all were the same, why, 
 then there would be no rogues in Reisenburg, and 
 no lone houses in woods and bye places to wheedle 
 young lords to. Who am I ? a man. There's an 
 arm! there's a leg! Can you see through a wood 
 by twilight? if so, your's is a better eye than mine. 
 Can you eat an unskinned hare, or dine on the haunch 
 of a bounding stag ? if so, your teeth are sharper than 
 mine. Can you hear a robber's footstep when he's 
 kneeling before murder? or can you listen to the 
 snow falling on Midsummer's day? if so, your ears 
 are finer than mine. Can you run with a chamois ? 
 can you wrestle with a bear ? can you swim with 
 an otter? if so, I'm your match. How many cities 
 have you seen ? how many knaves have you gulled ? 
 what's the average price of lawyer's breath in all the 
 capitals in Christendom? Which is dearest, bread 
 or justice i Why do men pay more for the protec- 
 tion of life, than life itself ? Who first bought gold 
 with diamonds? Is cheatery a staple at Constanti- 
 nople as it is at Vienna ? and what's the difference 
 
 612
 
 CHAPTER VIII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 between a Baltic merchant and a Greek pirate? 
 Tell me all this, and I will tell you who went in 
 mourning in the moon at the death of the last comet. 
 Who am I, indeed ! ' 
 
 The agony of the Prince and Vivian, while Ess- 
 per George, with inconceivable rapidity, addressed 
 to Mr. Beckendorff these choice queries, was incon- 
 ceivable. Once Vivian tried to check him, but in 
 vain. He did not repeat his attempt, for he was 
 sufficiently employed in restraining his own agita- 
 tion, and keping his own countenance ; for in spite 
 of the mortification and anger that Essper's appear- 
 ance had excited in him, still an unfortunate, but 
 innate taste for the ludicrous, did not allow him to 
 be perfectly insensible to the humour of the scene. 
 Mr. Beckendorff listened very quietly till Essper 
 had finished he then rose. 
 
 { Mr. von Philipson,' said he * as a personal favour 
 to yourself, and to my own great inconvenience, I 
 consented that in this interview you should be at- 
 tended by a friend. I did not reckon upon your 
 servant, and it is impossible that I can tolerate his 
 presence for a moment. You know how I live, and 
 that my sole attendant is a female. I allow no male 
 servants within this house. Even when his Royal 
 Highness honours me with his presence, he is unat- 
 tended. I desire that I am immediately released 
 from the presence of this buffoon.' 
 
 So saying, Mr. Beckendorff left the room. 
 
 1 Who are you?' said Essper, following him, with 
 his back bent, his head on his chest, and his eyes 
 glancing. The imitation was perfect. 
 
 As soon as Mr. Beckendorff had retired, the Prince 
 raised his eyes to heaven, and clasped his hands with 
 a look of great anguish. 
 
 613
 
 VIVIAN tiUKV BOOK VI 
 
 1 Well, Grey! here's a business. What is to be 
 done ?' 
 
 4 Essper,' said Vivian, * your conduct is inexcus- 
 able, the mischief that you have done irreparable, 
 and your punishment shall be most severe.' 
 
 1 Severe! Why, what day did your Highness sell 
 your gratitude tor a silver groschen! Severe! Is 
 this the return for finding you out, and saving you 
 from a thousand times more desperate gang than that 
 Baron at Ems! Severe! Severe indeed will be your 
 lot when you are in a dungeon in Reisenburg Castle, 
 with black bread for roast venison, and sour water 
 for Rhenish! Severe, indeed!' 
 
 * Why, what are you talking about?' 
 
 * Talking about ! About bloody treason, and arch 
 traitors, and an old scoundrel who lives in a lone lane, 
 and dares not look you straight in the face. Why, 
 his very blink is enough to hang him without trial! 
 Talking about! About a young gentleman, whom, 
 if he were not my master, no one, with my leave, 
 should say was not as neat a squire as ever kissed a 
 maid instead of going to church.' 
 
 * Essper, you will be so good as to drop all this 
 gesticulation, and let this rhodomontade cease im- 
 mediately ; and then in distinct terms inform his 
 Highness and myself of the causes of this unparal- 
 leled intrusion.' 
 
 The impressiveness of Vivian's manner produced 
 a proper effect ; and except that he spoke somewhat 
 affectedly slow, and ridiculously precise, Essper 
 George delivered himself with great clearness. 
 
 1 You see, your Highness never let me know that 
 you were going to leave, and so when I found that 
 you didn't come back, I made bold to speak to Mr. 
 Arnelm when he came home from hunting ; but I 
 
 614
 
 CHAPTER VIII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 couldn't get enough breath out of him to stop a lady- 
 bird on a rose-leaf. I didn't much like it, your 
 honour, for I was among strangers and so were you, 
 you know. Well, then I went to Master Rodolph : 
 he was very kind to me, and seeing me in low spirits, 
 and thinking me, I suppose, in love, or in debt, or 
 that I had done some piece of mischief, or had some- 
 thing or other preying on my mind ; he comes to me, 
 and says, " Essper," said he you remember Master 
 Rodolph's voice, your Highness?' 
 
 * Go on, go on to the point. Never let me hear 
 Master Rodolph's name again.' 
 
 'Yes, your Highness! Well, well! he said to 
 me, " come and dine with me in my room ;" says I, 
 " I will." A good offer should never be refused, 
 unless we have a better one at the same time. Where- 
 upon, after dinner, Master Rodolph said to me 
 " we'll have a bottle of Burgundy for a treat." You 
 see, Sir, we were rather sick of the Rhenish. Well, 
 your Highness, we were free with the wine ; and 
 Master Rodolph, who is never easy, except when he 
 knows every thing, must be trying, you see, to get 
 out of me what it was that made me so down in the 
 mouth. I, seeing this, thought I'd put off the secret 
 to another bottle ; which being produced, I did not 
 conceal from him any longer what was making me so 
 low. Rodolph, said I, I don't like my young 
 master going out in this odd way : he's of a temper 
 to get into scrapes, and I should like very much to 
 know what he and the Prince (saving your High- 
 ness's presence) are after. They have been shut up 
 in that Cabinet these two nights, and though I 
 walked by the door pretty often, devil a bit of a word 
 ever came through the key-hole ; and so you see, 
 Rodolph,' said I, c it requires a bottle or two of Bur- 
 
 615
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VI 
 
 gundy to keep my spirits up.' Well, your High- 
 ness, strange to say, no sooner had I spoken, than 
 Master Rodolph, he has been very kind to me 
 very kind indeed he put his head across the little 
 table we dined at the little table on the right hand 
 of the room as you enter ' 
 
 * Go on.' 
 
 ' I am going on. Well ! he put his head across 
 the little table, and said to me in a low whisper, 
 cocking his odd-looking eye at the same time ; " I 
 tell you what, Essper, you're a damned sharp fel- 
 low ! " and so, giving a shake of his head, and another 
 wink of his eye, he was quiet. I smelt a rat, but I 
 didn't begin to pump directly, but after the third 
 bottle " Rodolph," said I, " with regard to your 
 last observation (for we had not spoken lately, Bur- 
 gundy being too fat a wine for talking) we are both 
 of us damned sharp fellows. I dare say now, you 
 and I are thinking of the same thing." " No doubt 
 of it," said Rodolph. And so, your Highness, he 
 agreed to tell me what he was thinking of, on condi- 
 tion that I should be equally frank afterwards. Well, 
 your Highness, he told me that there were sad goings 
 on at Turriparva.' 
 
 ' The deuce ! ' said the Prince. 
 
 ' Let him tell his story,' said Vivian. 
 
 ' Sad goings on at Turriparva! He wished that 
 his Highness would hunt more, and attend less to 
 politics ; and then he told me quite confidentially, 
 that his Highness the Prince, and heaven knows how 
 many other Princes besides, had leagued together, 
 and were going to dethrone the Grand Duke, and 
 that his master was to be made King, and he, Master 
 Rodolph, Prime Minister. Hearing all this, and 
 duly allowing for a tale over a bottle, I made no 
 
 616
 
 CHAPTER VIII . VIVIAN GREY 
 
 doubt, as I find to be the case, that your Highness 
 was being led into some mischief ; and as I know 
 that conspiracies are always unsuccessful, I've done 
 my best to save my master ; and I beseech you, upon 
 my knees, my darling Sir, to get out of the scrape 
 as soon as you possibly can.' Here Essper George 
 threw himself at Vivian's feet, and entreated him in 
 the most earnest terms, to quit the house immedia- 
 tely. 
 
 ' Was ever any thing so absurd and so mischiev- 
 ous ! ' ejaculated the Prince ; and then he conversed 
 with Vivian for some time in a whisper. ' Essper,' 
 at length Vivian said, 4 you have committed one of 
 the most perfect and most injurious blunders that 
 you could possibly perpetrate. The mischief which 
 may result from your imprudent conduct is incalcul- 
 able. How long is it since you have thought proper 
 to regulate your conduct on the absurd falsehoods of 
 a drunken steward ? His Highness and myself wish 
 to consult in private ; but on no account leave the 
 house. Now mind me ; if you leave this house 
 without my permission, you forfeit the little chance 
 which remains of being retained in my service.' 
 
 4 Where am I to go, Sir ?' 
 
 ' Stay in the passage.' 
 
 * Suppose ' (here he imitated Beckendorff) * comes 
 to me.' 
 
 ' Then open the door, and come into this room.' 
 
 Essper looked very doubtful, and rather disap- 
 pointed. He quitted the room, and the Prince and 
 Vivian thought themselves alone ; but Essper sud- 
 denly opened the door, and said in a loud and very 
 lamentable tone, with a most rueful expression of 
 countenance ' Oh, my young master ! beware ! be- 
 ware ! beware ! ' 
 
 617
 
 VIVIAN GREY . BOOK VI 
 
 ' Well,' said the Prince, when the door was at 
 length shut ; ' one thing is quite clear. He does not 
 know who Beckendorff is.' 
 
 ' So far satisfactory ; but I feel the force of your 
 Highness's observations. It is a most puzzling case. 
 To send him back to Turriparva would be madness : 
 the whole affair would be immediately revealed over 
 another bottle of Burgundy with Master Rodolph : 
 in fact, your Highness's visit would be a secret to 
 no one in the country : your host would be soon dis- 
 covered, and the evil consequences are incalculable. 
 1 know no one to send him to at Reisenburg ; and if 
 I did, it appears to me, that the same objections 
 equally apply to his proceeding to that city as to his 
 returning to Turriparva. What is to be done? 
 Surely some daemon must have inspired him. We 
 cannot now request Beckendorff to allow him to stay 
 here ; and if we did, I am convinced, from his tone 
 and manner, that nothing could induce him to com- 
 ply with our wish. The only course to be pursued is 
 certainly an annoying one ; but as far as I can judge, 
 it is the only mode by which very serious mischief 
 can be prevented. Let me proceed forthwith to 
 Reisenburg with Essper. Placed immediately under 
 my eye, and solemnly adjured by me to silence, I 
 think I can answer, particularly when I give him a 
 gentle hint of the station of Beckendorff, for his 
 preserving the confidence with which it will now be 
 our policy partially to entrust him. It is, to say the 
 least, awkward and distressing to leave you alone, 
 but what is to be done? It does not appear that I 
 can now be of any material service to you. I have 
 assisted you as much, and more than we could reason- 
 ably have supposed it would have been in my power 
 to have done, by throwing some light upon the char- 
 
 618
 
 CHAPTER VIII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 acter and situation of Beckendorff. With the clue 
 to his conduct, which my chance meeting with him 
 yesterday morning has afforded us, the only point 
 for your Highness to determine is, as to the length 
 of time you will resolve to wait for his communica- 
 tion. As to your final agreement together, with your 
 Highness's settled views and decided purpose, all 
 the difficulty of negotiation will be on his side. 
 ' whatever, my dear Prince,' continued Vivian, with 
 a very significant voice and very marked emphasis ; 
 ' Whatever, my dear Prince, may be your secret 
 wishes, be assured that to attain them in your present 
 negotiation, you have only to be firm. Let nothing 
 divert you from your purpose, and the termination 
 of this interview must be gratifying to you.' 
 
 The Prince of Little Lilliput was very disinclined 
 to part with his shrewd counsellor, who had already 
 done him considerable service ; and he strongly op- 
 posed Vivian's proposition. His opposition, how- 
 ever, like that of most other persons, was unaccom- 
 panied by any suggestion on his part ; and as both 
 agreed that something must be done, it of course 
 ended in the Prince's being of opinion that Vivian's 
 advice must be followed. Having once come to a 
 resolution, it was always a rule with Vivian Grey to 
 carry it into effect as quickly as possible ; and he 
 therefore suggested that they should immediately go 
 to Beckendorff, and inform him of the result of their 
 consultation. The Prince was really very much af- 
 fected by this sudden and unexpected parting with 
 one for whom, though he had known him so short a 
 time, he began to entertain a very sincere regard. ' I 
 owe you my life,' said the Prince ; ' and perhaps 
 more than my life ; and here we are about suddenly 
 to part, never to meet again. I wish I could get you 
 
 619
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VI 
 
 to make Turriparva your home. You should have 
 your own suite of rooms, your own horses, your own 
 servants ; and never feel for an instant that you were 
 not master of all around you. In truth,' continued 
 the Prince, with great earnestness, ' I wish, my dear 
 friend, you would really think seriously of this. 
 You know you could visit Vienna, and even Italy, 
 and yet return to me. Max would be delighted to 
 see you : he loves you already : and Sievers and his 
 library would be at your- command. Agree to my 
 proposition, my dear friend.' 
 
 ' I cannot express to your Highness how sensible 
 I am of your kindness. Your friendship I sincerely 
 value, and shall never forget : but I am too unhappy 
 and unlucky a being to burden any one with my con- 
 stant presence. Adieu! or will you go with me to 
 Beckendorft'?' 
 
 ' Oh, go with you by all means ! But,' said the 
 Prince, taking a ruby ring of great antiquity off his 
 finger ; ' I should feel happy if you would wear this 
 for my sake.' 
 
 The Prince was so much affected at the thoughts 
 of parting with Vivian, that he could scarcely speak. 
 Vivian accepted the ring with a cordiality which the 
 kind-hearted donor deserved ; and yet our hero un- 
 fortunately had had rather too much experience of 
 the world, not to be aware that, most probably, in 
 less than another week his affectionate friend would 
 not be able to recall his name under an hour's recol- 
 lection. Such are friends! The moment that we 
 are not at their side, we are neglected ; and the 
 moment that we die, we are forgotten ! 
 
 They found Mr. Beckendorff in his Library. In 
 apprising Mr. Beckendorff of his intention of im- 
 mediately quitting his roof, Vivian did not omit to 
 
 620
 
 CHAPTER VIII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 state the causes of his sudden departure. These not 
 only accounted for the abruptness of his movement, 
 but also gave Beckendorff an opportunity of prevent- 
 ing its necessity, by allowing Essper to remain. But 
 the opportunity was not seized by Mr. Beckendorff. 
 The truth was, that gentleman had a particular wish 
 to see Vivian out of his house. In allowing the 
 Prince of Little Lilliput to be attended during the 
 interview by a friend, Beckendorff had prepared him- 
 self for the reception of some brawny Jagd Junker, 
 or some thick-headed Chamberlain, who he reckoned 
 would act rather as an incumbrance than an aid to his 
 opponent. It was with great mortification, there- 
 fore, that he found him accompanied by a shrewd, 
 experienced, wary, and educated Englishman. A 
 man like Beckendorff soon discovered that Vivian 
 Grey's was no common mind. His conversation 
 with him, of the last night, had given him high no- 
 tions of his powers ; and the moment that Beckendorff 
 saw Essper George enter the house, he determined 
 that he should be the cause of Vivian leaving it. 
 There was also another and weighty reason for Mr. 
 Beckendorff desiring that the Prince of Little Lilli- 
 put should at this moment be left to himself. 
 
 1 Mr. Grey will ride on to Reisenburg immedia- 
 tely,' said the Prince ; < and, my dear friend, you 
 may depend upon having your luggage by the day 
 after to-morrow. I shall be at Turriparva early to- 
 morrow morning, and it will be my first care.' 
 
 This was said in a very loud voice, and both gen- 
 tlemen watched Mr. Beckendorff's countenance as 
 the information was given ; but no emotion was vis- 
 ible. 
 
 1 Well, Sir, good morning to you,' said Mr. Bec- 
 kendorff ; * I am very sorry you are going. Had I 
 
 621
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VI 
 
 known it sooner, I would have given you a letter. 
 If you are likely to travel much, I would recommend 
 you to wear flannel waistcoats. Perhaps you do 
 wear them. Mr. von Philipson,' said Beckendorff, 
 * do me the favour of looking over that paper.' So 
 saying, Mr. Beckendorff put some official report into 
 the Prince's hand ; and while his Highness' attention 
 was attracted by this sudden request, Mr. Becken- 
 dorff laid his finger on Vivian's arm, and said, in a 
 lower tone, c I shall take care that you find a power- 
 ful friend at Reisenburg!' 
 
 622
 
 BOOK THE SEVENTH 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 As Vivian left the room, Mr. Beckendorff was seized 
 with an unusual desire to converse with the Prince of 
 Little Lilliput, and his Highness was consequently 
 debarred the consolation of walking with his friend 
 as far as the horses. At the little gate Vivian and 
 Essper encountered the only male attendant who was 
 allowed to approach the house of Mr. Beckendorff. 
 As Vivian quietly walked his horse up the rough turf 
 road, he could not refrain from recurring to his con- 
 versation of the previous night ; and when he called 
 to mind the adventures of the last six days, he had 
 new cause to wonder at, and perhaps to lament over, 
 his singular fate. In that short time he had saved the 
 life of a powerful Prince, and been immediately 
 signalled out, without any exertion on his part, as the 
 object of that Prince's friendship. The moment he 
 arrives at his castle, by a wonderful contingency, he 
 becomes the depositary of important state secrets, 
 and assists in a consultation of the utmost importance 
 with one of the most powerful Ministers in Europe. 
 And now the object of so much friendship, confid- 
 ence, and honour, he is suddenly on the road to the 
 capital of the State of which his late host is the prime 
 Minister, and his friend the chief subject, without 
 
 623
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 even the convenience of a common letter of introduc- 
 tion ; and with i.o prospect of viewing with even the 
 usual advantages of a common traveller, one of the 
 most interesting of European Courts. 
 
 When he had proceeded about half way up the turf 
 lane, he found a private road to his right ; which, 
 with that spirit of adventure for which Englishmen 
 are celebrated, he immediately resolved must not only 
 lead to Reisenburg, but also carry him to that city 
 much sooner than the regular high road. He had 
 not advanced far up this road before he came to the 
 gate at which he had parted with Beckendorff on the 
 morning that gentleman had roused him so unex- 
 pectedly from his reverie in a green lane. He was 
 surprised to find a horseman dismounting at the gate. 
 Struck by this singular circumstance, the appearance 
 of the stranger was not unnoticed. He was a tall 
 and well-proportioned man, and as the traveller passed 
 he stared Vivian so fully in the face, that our hero did 
 not fail to remark his very handsome countenance, 
 the expression of which, however, was rather vacant 
 and unpleasing. He was dressed in a riding-coat, 
 exactly similar to the one always worn by Becken- 
 dorff's messenger ; and had Vivian not seen him so 
 distinctly, he would have mistaken him for that per- 
 son. The stranger was rather indifferently mounted, 
 and carried his cloak and a small portmanteau at the 
 back of his saddle. 
 
 * I suppose it is the butler,' said Essper George, 
 who now spoke for the first time since his dismissal 
 from the room. Vivian did not answer him ; not 
 because he entertained any angry feeling on account 
 of his exceedingly unpleasant visit. By no means : 
 it was impossible for a man like Vivian Grey to 
 cherish an irritated feeling for a second. The Em- 
 
 624
 
 CHAPTER I VIVIAN (JKKY 
 
 peror Augustus, (I quote from my last school theme ;) 
 the Emperor Augustus had a habit, whenever he was 
 on the point of falling into a passion, of repeating his 
 alphabet. It was then the fashion for emperors to be 
 somewhat more erudite than they are at present. 
 Whether the Roman's recipe for keeping his temper 
 could be pursued by some modern emperors, or many 
 private persons that I could mention, is a point on 
 which I do not feel qualified to decide. Saying the 
 alphabet, for instance, accurately in the language of 
 Thibet, where the characters are of two kinds the 
 uchem and the umin and consist principally of arbi- 
 trary gutteral and nasal sounds, would be no joke. 
 My plan to moderate a temper is much briefer than 
 that of Imperial Coesar. You have only to repeat 
 nine letters, and spell human life; and if there be a 
 man who can grieve or rage when any thing so inex- 
 pressibly ludicrous is recalled to his attention, why 
 then he deserves to live all his life in a volcano, 
 and snuff high-dried cayenne instead of pounded 
 tobacco. 
 
 Rut Vivian Grey did not exchange a syllable with 
 Essper George, merely because he was not in the 
 humour to speak. He could not refrain from musing 
 on the singular events of the last few days ; and, 
 above all, the character of Beckendorff particularly 
 engrossed his meditation. Their extraordinary con- 
 versation of the preceding night excited in his mind 
 new feelings of wonder, and revived emotions which 
 he thought were dead, or everlastingly dormant. 
 Apparently, the philosophy on which Beckendorff 
 had regulated his extraordinary career, and by which 
 he had arrived at his almost unparalleled pitch of 
 greatness, was exactly the same with which he him- 
 self, Vivian Grey, had started in life ; which he had 
 ?R 62 5
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 found so fatal in its consequences ; which he believed 
 to be so vain in its principles. How was this? 
 What radical error had he committed? It required 
 little consideration. Thirty, and more than thirty, 
 years had passed over the head of Beckendorff, ere 
 the world felt his power, or indeed was conscious of 
 his existence. A deep student, not only of man in 
 detail, but of man in groupes not only of indi- 
 viduals, but of nations, Beckendorff had hived up 
 his ample knowledge of all subjects which could 
 interest his fellow-creatures ; and when that oppor- 
 tunity, which in this world occurs to all men, occurred 
 to Beckendorff, he was prepared. With acquire- 
 ments equal to his genius, Beckendorff depended 
 only upon himself, and succeeded. Vivian Grey, 
 with a mind inferior to no man's, dashed on the 
 stage, in years a boy, though in feelings a man. 
 Brilliant as might have been his genius, his acquire- 
 ments necessarily were insufficient. He could not 
 depend only upon himself ; a consequent necessity 
 arose to have recourse to the assistance of others ; 
 to inspire them with feelings which they could not 
 share ; and humour and manage the petty weak- 
 nesses which he himself could not experience. His 
 colleagues were, at the same time, to work for the 
 gratification of their own private interests, the most 
 palpable of all abstract things ; and to carry into 
 execution a great purpose, which their feeble minds, 
 interested only by the first point, cared not to com- 
 prehend. The unnatural combination failed ; and 
 its originator fell. To believe that he could recur 
 again to the hopes, the feelings, the pursuits of his 
 boyhood, he felt to be the vainest of delusions. It 
 was the expectation of a man like Beckendorff 
 whose career, though difficult, though hazardous, 
 
 626
 
 CHAPTER I VIVIAN GREY 
 
 had been uniformly successful of a man who mis- 
 took cares for grief, and anxiety for sorrow. 
 
 The travellers entered the city at sunset. Pro- 
 ceeding through an ancient and unseemly town, full 
 of long, narrow, and ill-paved streets, and black 
 uneven built houses, they ascended the hill, on the 
 top of which was situated the new and Residence 
 town of Reisenburg. The proud palace, the white 
 squares, the architectural streets, the new churches, 
 the elegant opera house, the splendid hotels, and the 
 gay public gardens full of busts, vases, and statues, 
 and surrounded by an iron railing cast out of the 
 cannon taken from both sides during the war, by the 
 Reisenburg troops, and now formed into pikes and 
 fasces, glittering with gilded heads all these shining 
 in the setting sun, produced an effect which, at any 
 time, and in any place, would have been beautiful and 
 striking ; but on the present occasion were still more 
 so, from the remarkable contrast they afforded to the 
 ancient, gloomy, and filthy town through which 
 Vivian had just passed ; and where, from the lowness 
 of its situation, the sun had already set. There was 
 as much difference between the old and new town of 
 Reisenburg, as between the old barbarous Margrave, 
 and the new and noble Grand Duke. 
 
 A man is never sooner domesticated than in a first- 
 rate hotel, particularly on the Continent ; where, in 
 fact, life is never domestic, and where, dining every 
 day as you do at a table d'hote, at which half of the 
 respectable housekeepers in the city attend, you feel 
 from this circumstance that there is no mode of life 
 to be preferred to the one that your situation obliges 
 you to adopt. In London it is sometimes different ; 
 and a man retiring, after his daily lounge, to his 
 solitary meal at Long's or Stevens's, is apt sometimes 
 
 627
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 to feel lonely, particularly when he has not an engage- 
 ment for the evening, or his claret is not in the most 
 superb condition. 
 
 CLARET, bright Claret ! solace of the soul, and 
 the heart's best friend! How many suicides hast 
 thou prevented ! how many bruised spirits and 
 breaking hearts has thy soft and soothing flow 
 assuaged and made whole! Man, do thy worst 
 and woman, do thy best one consolation always 
 remains. Long bills and libels, a duel and a dun, a 
 jealous woman and a boring man are evils, and the 
 worst as also are a rowing father and a surly son, 
 pert daughters and manoeuvring mothers. Some dis- 
 like old maids, few dislike young ones. Few have a 
 partiality for taxes ; but this is a national grievance, 
 and if judiciously arranged, does not press upon the 
 individual. Sermons on Sunday are proper and 
 pleasant, if not over long. I only know one man 
 who loves a losing card. Poetry also is endurable, 
 particularly if it be a Tragedy, and make us laugh. 
 A rabid poetaster, foaming over a critque, none can 
 tolerate. Yet bills and slander, duels, duns and 
 dungeons, and bores and green-eyed dames, dis- 
 organized families, old maids and cold maids, and 
 grinding taxes, sermons and tragedies, and bards and 
 cards, all can be borne, if we may only forget their 
 noise and nonsense in the red glories of thy oblivious 
 stream! By stream, I mean the stream of Claret. 
 From the length of the sentence, it might be mis- 
 understood ; and if any one, in our chill winter clime, 
 at any time find this liquor lie cold within its accus- 
 tomed receptacle, why, after every third glass, let him 
 warm it with one of Cognac. 
 
 4 Chill winter clime ' is, after all, a vulgar error, 
 and merely brought in to round the period. Our 
 
 628
 
 CHAPTER I VIVIAN GREY 
 
 atmosphere, like our taste, has of late much im- 
 proved ; and it is probable, that when our present 
 monarch has concluded his architectural labours by 
 perfectly banishing brick from all outward appear- 
 ance, our climate proportionately improving, an 
 Italian sky may illumine our palaces of stucco. By 
 which phrase I do not mean to sneer at modern 
 London. Some wiseheads laugh at our plaster, and 
 talk of our unhappy deficiency in marble. I wish to 
 know which of the boasted cities of the European 
 continent is built of this vaunted marble? As for 
 myself, the only difference that I ever observed be- 
 tween our own new streets and the elevations of 
 foreign cities, is, that our stucco being of a much 
 superior quality, and kept in a much superior 
 condition, produces a general effect which their 
 cracked and peeling walls never can. But we are the 
 victims of smoke, and the Italians have a magnificent 
 climate! True! they have a sky like Belshazzar's 
 purple robe, and a sea blue enough to make a modern 
 poet a bedlamite. They have a land covered with 
 myrtle, and glittering with aloes, and radiant with 
 orange, and lemon, and citron trees. They have all 
 these, and a thousand other glories besides. The 
 Italians live in a garden of Eden ; but it is a Paradise 
 which they will never forfeit by plucking the golden 
 fruit. All their religion consists in confession, and 
 all their food in macaroni. What can you expect 
 from such a people ? A length of time elapses before 
 the action of the air affects their stucco ; but when it 
 is affected, it is never renovated. The boasted Pal- 
 ladian palaces are all of stucco, and look like the 
 lonely and dilapidated halls of Irish Lords. 
 
 The result of midnight promenades, whether philo- 
 sophical or poetical, analytical or amatory, is usually 
 
 629
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 the same a cold ; and as Vivian Grey sat shivering 
 in his chair on the evening of his arrival at Reisen- 
 burg, he sent Mr. Beckendorff and his theory, his 
 politics, his philosophy, and his summer-house, to the 
 devil, with a most hearty imprecation. It is astonish- 
 ing how a little indisposition unfits us for meditation. 
 Man with a head-ache, a cold, or a slight spasm, is 
 not exactly in the humour to pile Ossa upon Pelion, 
 and scale the skies. The perfectibility of the species 
 seems never at a more woful discount than on a morn- 
 ing after a debauch ; and ourselves never less like 
 
 O * 
 
 reasoning animals than when suffering under indiges- 
 tion. Nothing is more ludicrous than a philosopher 
 with the tooth-ache, except perhaps a poet with the 
 gout. 
 
 Essper George, who, in a much more serious ill- 
 ness, had already proved himself to Vivian the most 
 skilful of nurses, was now of infinite use. Though 
 having the greatest contempt for the power and pro- 
 fessors of medicine when in perfect health, Vivian, 
 now that he was indisposed was quite ready to accept 
 the proffered assistance of the first quack who pre- 
 sented himself. The landlord of the hotel had a 
 relation who, since the war, had given up his pro- 
 fession of farrier, and commenced that of physician. 
 This disciple of Esculapius was speedily introduced to 
 our hero, as the first physician at Reisenburg ; and 
 judging by his appearance that his patient was a man 
 of blood, he proceeded to prescribe for him the re- 
 medies usually applied to a first rate courser. This 
 indeed was the grand and sole principle of Dr. von 
 Hoofstettein's Pharmacopeia. Considering his pre- 
 sent patients as horses, he arranged them in classes 
 according to their station in society. A substantial 
 burgher, went for a stout cavalry charger ; a peasant, 
 
 630
 
 CHAPTER I VIVIAN GREY 
 
 for a sutler's hack ; a lawyer or ignoble official, was 
 treated as attentively as the steed of an aid-de-camp ; 
 and the precedent for a recipe for a prime Minister, 
 might be found in that of his former General's crack 
 charger. Prime Ministers, however, were persons 
 whom von Hoofstettein seldom had the pleasure of 
 killing ; for he was not the Court-physician. Seeing 
 that Vivian had a cold and slight fever, he ordered 
 him a very recherche mash, and wished him good 
 morning. Essper George saved our hero from a 
 dose strong enough to have reduced a cart-horse to a 
 lady's jennet ; and by quickly extricating his master 
 from the fatal grasp of this Galen of fetlocks, whose 
 real origin he suspected, from the odd manner in 
 which he felt a pulse, his action strangely resembling 1 
 a delicate examination of a hoof Essper, perhaps, 
 prevented the history of Vivian Grey from closing 
 with the present chapter. 
 
 On the second day after his arrival at Reisenburg, 
 Vivian received the following letter from the Prince 
 of Little Lilliput. His luggage did not accompany 
 the epistle. 
 
 " MR. VON GREY. 
 ' MY DEAR FRIEND, 
 
 * By the time you have received this, I shall have 
 returned to Turriparva. My visit to a certain gentle- 
 man was prolonged for one day. I never can convey 
 to you by words the sense I entertain of the value of 
 your friendship, and of your services; I trust that 
 time will afford me opportunities of testifying it by 
 my actions. I return home by the same road by 
 which we came; you remember how excellent the 
 road was, as indeed are all the roads in Reisenburg ; 
 that must be confessed by all. I fear that the most 
 
 631
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 partial admirers of the old regime cannot say as much 
 for the convenience of travelling in the time of our 
 fathers. Good roads are most excellent things, and 
 one of the first marks of civilization and prosperity. 
 The Emperor Napoleon, who, it must be confessed, 
 was after all no common mind, was celebrated for his 
 roads. You have doubtless admired the Route 
 Napoleon on the Rhine, and if you travel into Italy, 
 I am informed that you will be equally, and even 
 more struck by the passage over the Simplon, and 
 the other Italian roads. Reisenburg has certainly 
 kept pace with the spirit of the time : nobody can 
 deny that ; and I confess to you that the more I con- 
 sider the subject, it appears to me that the happiness, 
 prosperity, and content of a State, are the best evi- 
 dences of the wisdom and beneficent rule of a govern- 
 ment. Many things are very excellent in theory, 
 which are quite the reverse in practice, and even 
 ludicrous. And while we should do our most to 
 promote the cause and uphold the interests of rational 
 liberty, still, at the same time, we should ever be on 
 our guard against the crude ideas and revolutionary 
 systems of those, who are quite inexperienced in that 
 sort of particular knowledge which is necessary for 
 all statesmen. Nothing is so easy as to make things 
 look fine on paper, we should never forget that : 
 there is a great difference between high sounding 
 generalities, and laborious details. Is it reasonable 
 to expect that men who have passed their lives dream- 
 ing in Colleges and old musty Studies, should be at 
 all calculated to take the head of affairs, or know 
 what measures those at the head of affairs ought to 
 adopt? I think not. A certain personage, who by 
 the bye, is one of the most clear-headed, and most 
 perfect men of business that I ever had the pleasure 
 
 632
 
 CHAPTER I VIVIAN GREY 
 
 of being acquainted with ; a real practical man, in 
 short ; he tells me that Professor Skyrocket, whom 
 you will most likely see at Reisenburg, wrote an 
 article in the Military Quarterly Review which is 
 published there, on the probable expenses of a war 
 between Austria and Prussia, and forgot the commis- 
 sariat altogether. Did you ever know any thing so 
 ridiculous? What business have such fellows to 
 meddle with affairs of state ? They should certainly 
 be put down : that I think none can deny. A liberal 
 spirit in government is certainly a most excellent 
 thing ; but we must always remember that liberty 
 may degenerate into licentiosness. Liberty is cer- 
 tainly an excellent thing, that all admit ; but, as a 
 certain person very well observed, so is physic, and 
 yet it is not to be given at all times, but only when 
 the frame is in a state to require it. People may be 
 as unprepared for a wise and discreet use of liberty, 
 as a vulgar person may be for the management of a 
 great estate, unexpectedly inherited : there is a great 
 deal in this, and in my opinion there are cases in 
 which to force liberty down a people's throat, is pre- 
 senting them, not with a blessing, but a curse. I 
 shall send your luggage on immediately ; it is very 
 probable that I may be in town at the end of the 
 week, for a short time. I wish much to see, and to 
 consult you, and therefore hope that you will not 
 leave Reisenburg before you see 
 
 Your faithful and obliged friend, 
 
 LITTLE LILLIPUT.' 
 
 Two days after the receipt of this letter, Essper 
 George ran into the room with greater animation 
 than he was usually accustomed to exhibit in the 
 
 633
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 chamber of an invalid ; and with a much less solemn 
 physiognomy than he had thought proper to assume 
 since his master's arrival at Reisenburg. 
 
 ' Lord, Sir! whom do you think I have just met ?' 
 
 'Whom?' asked Vivian with eagerness, for, as is 
 always the case when such questions are asked us, he 
 was thinking of every person in the world except the 
 right one. It might be 
 
 ( To think that I should see him!' continued 
 Essper. 
 
 ' It is a man then,' thought Vivian ; ' who is it at 
 once, Essper?' 
 
 ' I thought your Highness would not guess ; it 
 will quite cure you to hear it Master Rodolph!' 
 
 < Master Rodolph!' 
 
 ' Ay! and there's great news in the wind.' 
 
 ' Which of course you have confidentially ex- 
 tracted from him. Pray let us have it.' 
 
 4 The Prince of Little Lilliput is coming to Reisen- 
 burg,' said Essper. 
 
 ( Well ! I had some idea of that before,' said 
 Vivian. 
 
 ' Oh ! then your Highness knows it all, I suppose,' 
 said Essper, with a look of great disappointment. 
 
 < 1 know nothing more than I have mentioned,' 
 said his master. 
 
 f What ! does not your Highness know that the 
 Prince has come over ; that he is going to live at 
 Court ; and be, heaven knows what ! that he is to 
 carry a staff every day before the Grand Duke at 
 dinner, stuffed out with padding, and covered with 
 orders ; does not your Highness know that ?' 
 
 ' I know nothing of all this ; and so tell me in 
 plain German what the case is.' 
 
 ' Well, then,' continued Essper ; ' I suppose you 
 634
 
 CHAPTER I VIVIAN GREY 
 
 do not know that his Highness the Prince is to be his 
 Excellency the Grand Marshal that unfortunate, but 
 principal Officer of state, having received his dis- 
 missal yesterday : they are coming up immediately. 
 Not a moment is to be lost, which seems to me very 
 odd. Master Rodolph is arranging everything ; 
 and he has this morning purchased from his master's 
 predecessor, his palace, furniture, wines, and pictures ; 
 in short, his whole establishment : the late Grand 
 Marshal consoling himself for his loss of office, and 
 revenging himself on his successor, by selling him his 
 property at a hundred per cent, profit. However, 
 Master Rodolph seems quite contented with his bar- 
 gain ; and your luggage is come, Sir. His High- 
 ness, the Prince, will be in town at the end of the 
 week ; and all the men are to be put in new livery. 
 Mr. Arnelm is to be his Highness' chamberlain ; 
 and Von Neuwied master of the horse. So you see, 
 Sir, you were right ; and that old puss in boots was 
 no traitor, after all. Upon my soul, I did not much 
 believe your Highness, until I heard all this good 
 news.' 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 ABOUT a week after his arrival at Reisenburg, as 
 Vivian was at breakfast, the door opened, and Mr. 
 Sievers entered. 
 
 * I did not think that our next meeting would be in 
 this city,' said Mr. Sievers, smiling. 
 
 4 His Highness, of course, informed me of your 
 arrival,' said Vivian, as he greeted him very cordially. 
 
 ' You, I understand, are the diplomatist whom I 
 am to thank for finding myself again at Reisenburg. 
 Let me, at the same time, express my gratitude for 
 your kind offices to me, and congratulate you on the 
 
 635
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 brilliancy of your talents for negotiation. Little did 
 I think when I was giving you, the other day, an 
 account of Mr. Beckendorff, that the information 
 would have been of such service to you.' 
 
 ' I am afraid you have nothing to thank me for ; 
 though certainly, had the office of arranging the 
 terms between the parties devolved on me, my first 
 thoughts would have been for a gentleman for whom 
 I have so much regard and respect as Mr. Sievers.' 
 
 ' Sir ! I feel honoured : you already speak like a 
 finished courtier. Pray, what is to be your office ?' 
 
 ' I fear Mr. Beckendorff will not resign in my 
 favour ; and my ambition is so exalted, that I can- 
 not condescend to take any thing under the Premier- 
 ship.' 
 
 ' You are not to be tempted by a Grand Marshal- 
 ship!' said Mr. Sievers, with a very peculiar look. 
 ' You hardly expected, when you were at Turriparva, 
 to witness such a rapid termination of the patriotism 
 of our good friend. I think you said you have seen 
 him since your arrival : the interview must have 
 been piquant!' 
 
 c Not at all. I immediately congratulated him on 
 the judicious arrangements which had been con- 
 cluded ; and, to relieve his awkwardness, took some 
 credit to myself for having partially assisted in bring- 
 ing about the result. The subject was not again 
 mentioned, and I dare say never will be.' 
 
 ' It is a curious business,' said Sievers. * The 
 Prince is a man who, rather than have given me up 
 to the Grand Duke me, with whom he was not in 
 the slightest degree connected, and who, of my own 
 accord, sought his hospitality sooner, I repeat, than 
 have delivered me up, he would have had his castle 
 razed to the ground, and fifty swords through his 
 
 636
 
 CHAPTER II VIVIAN GREY 
 
 heart ; and yet, without the slightest compunction, 
 has this same man deserted, with the greatest coolness, 
 the party of which, ten days ago, he was the zealous 
 leader. How can you account for this, except 
 it be, as I have long suspected, that in politics there 
 positively is no feeling of honour? Every one is 
 conscious that not only himself, but his colleagues and 
 his rivals, are working for their own private purpose ; 
 and that however a party may apparently be assisting 
 in bringing about a result of common benefit, that 
 nevertheless, and in fact, each is conscious that he is 
 the tool of another. With such an understanding, 
 treason is an expected affair ; and the only point to 
 consider is, who shall be so unfortunate as to be the 
 deserted, intead of the deserter. It is only fair to his 
 Highness to state, that Beckendorff gave him incon- 
 testable evidence that he had had a private interview 
 with every one of the mediatised Princes. They 
 were the dupes of the wily Minister. In these 
 negotiations he became acquainted with their plans 
 and characters, and could estimate the probability of 
 their success. The golden bribe, which was in turn 
 dandled before the eyes of all, had been always re- 
 served for the most powerful our friend. His 
 secession, and the consequent desertion of his rela- 
 tives, destroy the party for ever ; while, at the same 
 time, that party have not even the consolation of a 
 good conscience to uphold them in their adversity ; 
 but feel that in case of their clamour, or of any 
 attempt to stir up the people by their hollow patriot- 
 ism, it is in the power of the Minister to expose and 
 crush them for ever.' 
 
 { All this,' said Vivian, c makes me the more rejoice 
 that our friend has got out of their clutches-; he will 
 make an excellent Grand Marshal ; and you must 
 
 637
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 not forget, my dear Sir, that he did not forget you. 
 To tell you the truth, although I did not flatter my- 
 self that I should benefit during my stay at Reisen- 
 burg by his influence, I am not the least surprised at 
 the termination of our visit to Mr. Beckendorff. I 
 have seen too many of these affairs, not to have been 
 quite aware, the whole time, that it would require 
 very little trouble, and very few sacrifices on the part 
 of Mr. Beckendorff, to quash the whole cabal. By 
 the bye, our visit to him was highly amusing ; he is 
 a most singular man.' 
 
 ( He has had nevertheless,' said Sievers, * a very 
 difficult part to play. Had it not been for you, the 
 Prince would have perhaps imagined that he was only 
 being trifled with again, and terminated the interview 
 abruptly and in disgust. Having brought the Grand 
 Duke to terms, and having arranged the interview, 
 Beckendorff of course imagined that all was finished. 
 The very day that you arrived at his house, he had 
 received dispatches from his Royal Highness, recall- 
 ing his promise, and revoking Beckendorff's author- 
 ity to use his unlimited discretion in this business. 
 The difficulty then was to avoid discussion with the 
 Prince, with whom he was not prepared to negotiate ; 
 and at the same time, without letting his Highness 
 out of his sight, to induce the Grand Duke to resume 
 his old view of the case. The first night that you 
 were there, BeckendorfF rode up to Reisenburg 
 saw the Grand Duke was refused, through the in- 
 trigues of Madame Carolina, the requested authority 
 and resigned his power. When he was a mile on 
 his return, he was summoned back to the palace ; 
 and his Royal Highness asked, as a favour from his 
 tutor, four-and-twenty hours' consideration. This, 
 Beckendorff granted, on the condition that, in case 
 
 638
 
 CHAPTER II VIVIAN GREY 
 
 the Grand Duke assented to the terms proposed, his 
 Royal Highness should himself be the bearer of the 
 proposition ; and that there should be no more 
 written promises to recall, and no more written 
 authorities to revoke. The terms were hard, but 
 Beckendorff was inflexible. On the second night of 
 your visit, a messenger arrived with a dispatch, advis- 
 ing Beckendorff of the intended arrival of his Royal 
 Highness on the next morning. The ludicrous in- 
 trusion of your amusing servant prevented you from 
 being present at the great interview, in which I under- 
 stand Beckendorff for the moment laid aside all his 
 caprices. Our friend acted with great firmness and 
 energy. He would not be satisfied even with the 
 personal pledge and written promise of the Grand 
 Duke, but demanded that he should receive the seals 
 of office within a week ; so that, had the Court not 
 been sincere, his situation with his former party would 
 not have been injured. It is astonishing how very 
 acute even a dull man is, when his own interests are 
 at stake ! Had his Highness been the agent of an- 
 other person, he would most probably have com- 
 mitted a thousand blunders, have made the most 
 disadvantageous terms, or perhaps have been 
 thoroughly duped. Self-interest is the finest eye- 
 water.' 
 
 ' And what says Madame Carolina to all this?' 
 * Oh ! according to custom, she has changed al- 
 ready, and thinks the whole business most admirably 
 arranged. His Highness is her grand favourite, and 
 my little pupil Max, her pet. I think, however, on 
 the whole, the boy is fondest of the Grand Duke ; 
 whom, if you remember, he was always informing 
 you in confidence, that he intended to assassinate. 
 And as for your obedient servant,' said Sievers, bow- 
 
 639
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 ing, < here am I once more the Aristarchus of her 
 coterie. Her friends, by the bye, view the acces- 
 sion of the Prince with no pleased eyes ; and, an- 
 ticipating that his juncture with the Minister is 
 only a prelude to their final dispersion, they are com- 
 pensating for the approaching termination of their 
 career, by unusual violence and fresh fervor sting- 
 ing like mosquitos before a storm, conscious of their 
 impending destruction from the clearance of the at- 
 mosphere. As for myself, I have nothing more to 
 do with them. Liberty and philosophy are very fine 
 words ; but until I find men are prepared to cultivate 
 them both in a wiser spirit, I shall remain quiet. I 
 have no idea of being banished and imprisoned, be- 
 cause a parcel of knaves are making a vile use of the 
 truths which I disseminate. In my opinion, philoso- 
 phers have said enough ; now let men act. But all 
 this time I have forgotten to ask you how you like 
 Reisenburg.' 
 
 1 1 can hardly say ; with the exception of yester- 
 day, when I rode Max round the ramparts, I have not 
 been once out of the hotel. But to-day I feel so 
 well, that if you are disposed for a lounge, I should 
 like it above all things.' 
 
 f I am quite at your service ; but I must not for- 
 get that I am the bearer of a message to you from 
 his Excellency the Grand Marshal. He wishes you 
 to join the Court-dinner to-day, and be presented 
 
 c Really, my dear Sir, an invalid ' 
 
 ' Well ! if you do not like it, you must make your 
 excuses to him ; but it really is the pleasantest way 
 of commencing your acquaintance at Court, and only 
 allowed to distingues ; among which, as you are the 
 friend of the new Grand Marshal, you are of course 
 considered. No one is petted so much as a political 
 
 640
 
 CHAPTER II VIVIAN GREY 
 
 apostate, except, perhaps, a religious one ; so at pre- 
 sent we are all in high feather. You had better dine 
 at the palace to-day. Every thing quite easy ; and, 
 by an agreeable relaxation of state, neither swords, 
 bags, nor trains, are necessary. Have you seen the 
 palace ? I suppose not ; we will look at it, and then 
 call on the Prince.' 
 
 The gentlemen accordingly left the hotel ; and pro- 
 ceeding down the principal street of the New Town, 
 they came into a very large Square, or Place d'Armes. 
 A couple of regiments of infantry were exercising 
 in it. 
 
 4 A specimen of our standing army,' said Sievers. 
 ' In the war time, this little State brought thirty thou- 
 sand highly disciplined and well appointed troops 
 into the field. This efficient contingent was, at the 
 same time, the origin of our national prosperity, and 
 our national debt. For we have a national debt, Sir ! 
 I assure you we are very proud of it, and consider it 
 the most decided sign of being a great people. Our 
 force in times of peace is, of course, very much re- 
 duced. We have, however, still eight thousand 
 men, who are perfectly unnecessary. The most curi- 
 ous thing is, that, to keep up the patronage of the 
 Court, and please the nobility, though we have cut 
 down our army two-thirds, we have never reduced 
 the number of our Generals : and so, at this moment, 
 among our eight thousand men, we count about 
 forty General officers, being one to every two hun- 
 dred privates. We have, however, which perhaps 
 you would not suspect, one military genius among 
 our multitude of heroes. The Count von Sohns- 
 peer is worthy of being one of Napoleon's marshals. 
 Who he is, no one exactly knows : some say an ille- 
 gitimate son of Beckendorff. Certain it is, that he 
 
 2S 641
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 owes his nobility to his sword ; and as certain is it 
 that he is to be counted among the very few who 
 share the Minister's confidence. Von Sohnspeer 
 has certainly performed a thousand brilliant exploits ; 
 yet, in my opinion, the not least splendid day of his 
 life, was that of the battle of Leipsic. He was on 
 the side of the French, and fought against the Allies 
 with desperate fury. When he saw that all was over, 
 and the Allies triumphant, calling out " Germany 
 for ever!" he dashed against his former friends, and 
 captured from the flying Gauls a hundred pieces of 
 cannon. He hastened to the tent of the Emperors 
 with his blood-red sword in his hand, and at the same 
 time congratulated them on the triumph of their 
 cause, and presented them with his hard-earned tro- 
 phies. The manoeuvre was perfectly successful ; and 
 the troops of Reisenburg, complimented as true Ger- 
 mans, were pitied for their former unhappy fate in 
 being forced to fight against their father-land, and 
 were immediately enrolled in the allied army : as 
 such, they received a due share of all the plunder. 
 He is a grand genius, young Master von Sohns- 
 peer ?' 
 
 f Oh, decidedly ! Quite worthy of being a com- 
 panion of the fighting Bastards of the middle ages. 
 This is a fine Square ! ' 
 
 * Very grand indeed ! Precedents for some of the 
 architectural combinations could hardly be found at 
 Athens or Rome ; nevertheless, the general effect is 
 magnificent. Do you admire this plan of making 
 every elevation of an order consonant with the pur- 
 pose of the building? See! for instance, on the 
 opposite side of the Square is the palace. The Cor- 
 inthian order, which is evident in all its details, suits 
 well the character of the structure. It accords with 
 
 642
 
 CHAPTER II VIVIAN GREY 
 
 royal pomp and elegance with fetes and banquets, 
 and interior magnificence. On the other hand, what 
 a happy contrast is afforded to this gorgeous struc- 
 ture, by the severe simplicity of this Tuscan Palace 
 of Justice. The School of Arts, in the farthest 
 corner of the square, is properly entered through an 
 Ionic portico. Let us go into the palace. Here, not 
 only does our monarch reside, but, an arrangement 
 which I much admire, here are deposited, in a gallery 
 worthy of the treasures it contains, our very superb 
 collection of pictures. They are the private property 
 of his Royal Highness ; but, as is usually the case 
 under despotic Princes, the people, equally his pro- 
 perty, are flattered by the collection being styled the 
 " Public Gallery." We have hardly time for the 
 pictures to-day ; let us enter this hall, the contents 
 of which, if not as valuable, are to me more interest- 
 ing the Hall of SCULPTURE. 
 
 1 Germany, as you must be aware, boasts no chefs 
 d'ceuvre of ancient sculpture. In this respect, it is 
 not in a much more deplorable situation than, I be- 
 lieve, England is itself ; but our Grand Duke, with 
 excellent taste, instead of filling a room with unin- 
 teresting busts of ancient emperors, or any second- 
 rate specimens of antique art, which are sometimes 
 to be purchased, has formed a collection of casts 
 from all the celebrated works of antiquity. These 
 casts are of great value, and greater rarity. 
 
 ' There,' said Mr. Sievers, pointing to the Venus 
 de Medicis, { there is a Goddess, whose divinity is 
 acknowledged in all creeds. It is commonly said, 
 that no cast of this statue conveys to you the slight- 
 est idea of the miraculous original. This I deny ; 
 the truth is, that the plaster figures which every 
 where abound under the title of the Venus de Medi- 
 
 643
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 cis, are copies five hundred times repeated, and of 
 course all resemblance is lost. It would be lost in 
 a great measure, were the original a dancing Faun or 
 a fighting Gladiator. The incalculable increase of 
 difficulty in transferring the delicate traits of female 
 beauty, need not be expatiated on. Of this statue 
 the whole of the right arm, a portion of the left, and 
 some other less important parts, are restorations. 
 But who cares for this? Who, in gazing on the 
 Venus, dwells on any thing but the body ? Here is 
 the magic! Here is to be discovered the reason of 
 the universal fame of this work of art ! We do not 
 consider the Venus de Medicis as the personification 
 of a sculptor's dream. Her beauty is not ideal.' 
 
 Mr. Sievers did not stop here in his criticism on 
 the Venus de Medicis, but fully demonstrated, which 
 has never yet been done, the secret cause of the fame 
 of this statue. His language, though highly philo- 
 sophical, might, however, be misinterpreted in this 
 precise age ; and as this work is chiefly written for 
 the entertainment of families, I have been induced to 
 cut out the most instructive passage in the book. 
 
 'And this, of course, is a very fine cast?' asked 
 Vivian. 
 
 ' Admirable ! It was presented by the Grand 
 Duke of Tuscany to his Royal Highness, and is, of 
 course, from the original. See now! the Belvidere 
 Apollo ; an inferior production, I think, to the Venus 
 perhaps a copy. Yet in that dilated nostril, that 
 indignant lip, and that revengeful brow, we recognise 
 the indomitable Pythius ; or, rather, perhaps the per- 
 secutor of the miserable Niobe. The Director of 
 the Gallery has made, with great discrimination, the 
 unhappy rival of Latona the object to which the God 
 of the silver bow points his avenging arm. The 
 
 6 44
 
 CHAPTER II VIVIAN GREY 
 
 Niobe is a splendid production. Some complain of 
 her apparent indifference to the fate of her offspring. 
 But is not this in character? To me the figure ap- 
 pears faultless. Even as I now gaze on her, the 
 mother and the marble are still struggling ; and, 
 rooted to the ground by her overwhelming affliction, 
 she seems weeping herself into a statue. I have 
 often thought that some hidden meaning lurked un- 
 der the dark legend of Niobe. Probably she and her 
 family were the first victims of priest-craft. Come, 
 my dear fellow, as Protestants, let us, though late, 
 pay our tribute of respect to the first heretic.' Here 
 Mr. Sievers bowed with great solemnity before the 
 statue. 
 
 ' I will now show you,' resumed Mr. Sievers, ' four 
 works of art, which, if not altogether as exquisite as 
 those we have examined, nevertheless, for various 
 reasons, deserve our attention. And let us stop be- 
 fore this dying man. This statue is generally known 
 by the title of the Dying Gladiator. According to 
 Winkelman, he is a dying Herald : either Polifontes, 
 herald of Laius, killed by Qidipus ; or Cepreas, her- 
 ald of Euritheus, killed by the Athenians ; or An- 
 themocritus, herald of the Athenians, killed by the 
 Megarenses ; or, in short, any other herald who ever 
 happened to be killed. According to another anti- 
 quary, he is a Spartan shield-bearer ; and according 
 to a third, a barbarian. What an imagination it re- 
 quires to be a great antiquary!' said Mr. Sievers, 
 shrugging his shoulders. 
 
 * I think this statue is also supposed to be a copy,' 
 said Vivian. 
 
 ' It is ; and the right arm is altogether by Michel 
 Angelo, the ablest restorer that ever existed. He 
 was deeply imbued with the spirit of antiquity, 
 
 645
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 though himself incapable of finishing a single work. 
 Had he devoted himself to restoration, it would have 
 been better for Posterity. 
 
 ' This,' continued Mr. Sievers, pointing to a kneel- 
 ing figure, * is a most celebrated work ; and one of 
 which you have doubtless heard. It generally is 
 known by the name of the Knifegrinder ; though 
 able judges have not yet decided whether it be a re- 
 presentation of that humble artizan, or of the flayer 
 of Marsyas, or the barber of Julius Caesar. I never 
 can sufficiently admire these classical antiquaries! 
 They are determined to be right : see, for instance, 
 that heroic figure! The original is in the Louvre, 
 and described in the catalogue of the French Savans 
 as a statue of " Jason, otherwise Cincinnatus." 
 What a pity that it did not occur to Plutarch to write 
 a parallel between two characters in which there is, in 
 every respect, such a striking similarity!' 
 
 'What are these horses?' said Vivian. 'They 
 surely are not the Elgin ?' 
 
 4 Oh no ! ' said Mr. Sievers ; ' as an Englishman, 
 you should know better. There are casts of the 
 Elgin marbles, presented to his Royal Highness by 
 the King of England. The exquisite tact, and wise 
 liberality with which your accomplished monarch has 
 disseminated sets of these casts among the principal 
 galleries of Europe, has made the Continent at length 
 believe, that it is no longer high treason in your coun- 
 try to admire a picture or a statue. The horses which 
 you have remarked are, I assure you, very celebrated 
 beasts ; although, for my part, I confess that their 
 beauty is not to me very evident. Either the an- 
 cients had no conception how to mould a horse, or 
 their breeds were poor. These are casts from the 
 famous brazen steeds of Venice, in the front of the 
 
 646
 
 CHAPTER II VIVIAN GREY 
 
 church of St. Mark. They were given by the Em- 
 peror of Austria. That the original are antique 
 there is no doubt : I will not trouble you with my 
 opinion as to their nation. Learn, however, from 
 far deeper scholars than myself, that they are either 
 Roman or Grecian either Roman of the reign of 
 Nero, or Grecian of the isle of Chios, or of the work 
 of Lysippus. All these opinions are developed and 
 supported by ponderous dissertations in quarto ; and 
 scarcely a year escapes without these brazen beasts 
 giving rise to some controversy or other. Oh ! these 
 antiquaries ! Count Cicognara, the President of the 
 Venetian Academy, has lately summed up the merits 
 of the long-agitated question, and given it as his 
 opinion, that to come to a final and satisfactory re- 
 sult, we must search and compare all the horses, of 
 all the cabinets, of all Europe. What sublime ad- 
 vice about nothing! Oh! I am tired of these fel- 
 lows. In my opinion, this little Cupid of Dannecker 
 is worth all St. Mark's together. It is worthy of 
 being placed by the Venus. When you were at 
 Frankfort, you saw his Ariadne?' 
 
 * Yes ! at Bethmann's, and a delightful work it is. 
 Ease and grace are produced by an original but most 
 involved attitude, and that is the triumph of Art.' 
 
 The hour of the Court-dinner at Reisenburg was 
 two o'clock ; about which time, in England, a St. 
 James's man first remembers the fatal necessity of 
 shaving ; though, by the bye, this allusion is not a 
 very happy one, for in this country shaving is a cere- 
 mony at present somewhat obsolete. Were the cele- 
 brated Packwood now living, he would have as much 
 chance of making a fortune by the sale of his instru- 
 ments, in this refined city, as at a settlement of blue 
 baboons. At two o'clock, however, our hero, accom- 
 
 647
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 panying the Grand Marshal and Mr. Sievers, reached 
 the palace. In the saloon were assembled various 
 guests, chiefly attached to the Court. Immediately 
 after the arrival of our party, the Grand Duke and 
 Madame Carolina, followed by their Chamberlains 
 and Ladies in waiting, entered. The little Prince 
 Maximilian strutted in between his Royal Highness 
 and his fair Consort, having hold of a hand of each. 
 The urchin was very much changed in appearance 
 since Vivian first saw him ; he was dressed in the 
 complete uniform of a captain of the Royal Guards, 
 having been presented with a commission on the day 
 of his arrival at Court. A brilliant star glittered on 
 his scarlet coat, and paled the splendour of his golden 
 epaulettes. The duties, however, of the princely 
 captain were at present confined to the pleasing exer- 
 tion of carrying the bon-bon box of Madame Caro- 
 lina, the contents of which were chiefly reserved for 
 his own gratification. In the Grand Duke, Vivian 
 was not surprised to recognise the horseman whom 
 he had met in the private road on the morning of his 
 departure from Mr. BeckendorfPs ; his conversation 
 with Sievers had prepared him for this. Madame 
 Carolina was in appearance Parisian of the highest 
 order. I am not in a humour for a laboured de- 
 scription, at which very probably few will grieve. 
 The phrase I have used will enable the judicious 
 reader to conceive all that is necessary. ' Parisian 
 of the highest order,' that is to say, an exquisite 
 figure and an indescribable tournure, an invisible 
 foot, a countenance full of esprit and intelligence, 
 without a single regular feature, and large and very 
 bright black eyes. Madame's hair was of the same 
 colour, and arranged in the most effective manner. 
 Her Cachemere would have graced the Feast of 
 
 648
 
 CHAPTER II VIVIAN GREY 
 
 Roses, and so engrossed your attention, that it was 
 long before you observed the rest of her costume, in 
 which, however, traces of a creative genius were im- 
 mediately visible : in short, Madame Carolina was 
 not fashionable, but Fashion herself. In a subse- 
 quent chapter, at a ball which I have in preparation, 
 I will make up for this brief notice of her costume, 
 by publishing her Court-dress. For the sake of my 
 fair readers, however, I will not pass over the orna- 
 ment in her hair. The comb which supported her 
 elaborate curls was invisible, except at each end, 
 whence it threw out a large Psyche's wing of the 
 finest golden web, the eyes of which were formed of 
 precious garnets encircled with turquoises. Let Mr. 
 Hamlet immediately introduce this ornament, and 
 make his fortune by the ' Carolina comb.' 
 
 The royal party made a progress round the circle, 
 to which the late lamented Mr. Nichols could have 
 done more justice than myself. Madame Carolina 
 first presented her delicate and faintly-rouged cheek 
 to the hump-backed Crown-Prince, who did not 
 raise his eyes from the ground as he performed the 
 accustomed courtesy. One or two royal relatives, 
 who were on a visit at the palace, were honoured by 
 the same compliment. The Grand Duke bowed in 
 the most gracious and graceful manner to every in- 
 dividual ; and his lady accompanied the bow by a 
 speech, which was, at the same time personal and 
 piquant. The first great duty of a monarch is to 
 know how to bow skilfully! nothing is more diffi- 
 cult, and nothing more important. A royal bow 
 may often quell a rebellion, and sometimes crush a 
 conspiracy. It should, at the same time, be both 
 general and individual ; equally addressed to the 
 company assembled, and to every single person in 
 
 649
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 the assembly. Our own king bows to perfection. 
 His bow is eloquent, and will always render an 
 oration on his part perfectly unnecessary ; which is 
 a great point, for harangues are not regal. Nothing 
 is more undignified than to make a speech. It is 
 from the first an acknowledgment that you are under 
 the necessity of explaining, or conciliating, or con- 
 vincing, or confuting ; in short, that you are not 
 omnipotent, but opposed. Every charlatan is an 
 orator, and almost every orator a charlatan. But I 
 never knew a quack, or an adventurer, who could 
 bow well. It requires a dignity which can only re- 
 sult from a consciousness of high breeding, or a high 
 moral character. The last cause, of course, will never 
 inspire the charlatan ; and as for the first, I never met 
 a scoundrel, however exalted his situation, who in 
 his manners was a perfect high-bred gentleman. He 
 is either ridiculously stiff, pompous, and arrogant, 
 or his base countenance is ever gilt by an insidious, 
 cunning, conciliatory smile ; which either is intended 
 to take you in, or, if habitual, seems to imply, 
 * What a confounded clever fellow I am ; how I 
 understand human nature ; how skilfully I adapt my- 
 self to the humours of mankind ; how I sneak with 
 a smile into their bosoms!' Miserable knaves! 
 these fellows are invariably overbearing and tyran- 
 nical to their inferiors. They pass their mornings 
 in cringing to a minister, and then go home and bully 
 their butler. 
 
 The bow of the Grand Duke of Reisenburg was a 
 first-rate bow, and always produced a great sensation 
 with the people, particularly if it were followed up by 
 a proclamation for a public fete, or fire-works ; then 
 his royal Highness's popularity was at its height. 
 But Madame Carolina, after having by a few magic 
 
 650
 
 CHAFFER II VIVIAN GREY 
 
 sentences persuaded the whole room that she took a 
 peculiar interest in the happiness of every individual 
 present, has reached Vivian, who stood next to his 
 friend the Grand Marshal. He was presented by 
 that great Officer, and received most graciously. 
 For a moment the room thought that his Royal High- 
 ness was about to speak ; but he only smiled. 
 Madame Carolina, however, said a great deal ; and 
 stood not less than five minutes, complimenting the 
 English nation, and particularly the specimen of that 
 celebrated people who now had the honour of being 
 presented to her. No one spoke more in a given 
 time than Madame Carolina ; and as, while the 
 eloquent words fell from her deep red lips, her bright 
 eyes were invariably fixed on those of the person she 
 addressed, what she did say, as invariably, was very 
 effective. Vivian had only time to give a nod of 
 recognition to his friend Max, for the company, arm- 
 in-arm, now formed into a procession to the dining- 
 saloon. Vivian was parted from the Grand Marshal, 
 who, as the highest Officer of state present, followed 
 immediately after the Grand Duke. Our hero's com- 
 panion was Mr. Sievers. Although it was not a state 
 dinner, the party, from being swelled by the suites 
 of the Royal visitors, was numerous ; and as the 
 Court occupied the centre of the table, Vivian was too 
 distant to listen to the conversation of Madame, who, 
 however, he well perceived, from the animation of 
 her countenance and the elegant energy of her action, 
 was delighted and delighting. The Grand Duke 
 spoke little ; but listened, like a lover of three days, 
 to the accents of his accomplished Consort. The 
 arrangement of a German dinner promotes conversa- 
 tion. The numerous dishes are at once placed upon 
 the table ; and when the curious eye has well exam- 
 
 651
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 ined their contents, the whole dinner, untouched, 
 disappears. Although this circumstance is rather 
 alarming to a novice, his terror soon gives place to 
 self-congratulation, when he finds the banquet re- 
 appear, each dish completely carved and cut up. A 
 bottle of wine being placed to each guest, your only 
 business is, at the same time, to refresh both your 
 body and your mind, by gratifying your palate and 
 conversing with your neighbour. Would that this 
 plan were adopted in our own country! 
 
 And now, having placed them down at dinner, I 
 will, for once in my life, allow the meal to pass over 
 without reporting the conversation ; for I have a 
 party in the evening which must not be slurred over ; 
 and if my characters may not sometimes be dumb, I 
 fear the plot, which all this time is gradually develop- 
 ing, will stand a chance of being neglected. There- 
 fore imagine the dinner over. 
 
 ' Not being Sunday,' said Mr. Sievers, ' there is no 
 opera to-night. We are to meet again, I believe, at 
 the palace, in a few hours, at Madame Carolina's 
 soiree. In the mean time, you had better accompany 
 his Excellency to the public gardens ; that is the 
 fashionable drive. I shall go home and smoke a 
 pipe.' 
 
 Let us pass over the drive without a description 
 why should it be described? The circle of the 
 Public Gardens of Reisenburg exhibited exactly, al- 
 though upon a smaller scale, the same fashions and 
 the same frivolities, the same characters and the same 
 affectations, as the Hyde Park of London, or the 
 Champs Elysees of Paris, the Prater of Vienna, the 
 Corso of Rome or Milan, or the Cascine of Florence. 
 There was the female leader of ton, hated by her own 
 sex, and adored by the other, and ruling both ruling 
 
 652
 
 CHAPTER II VIVIAN GREY 
 
 both by the same principle of action, and by the in- 
 fluence of the same quality which creates the Arbi- 
 tress of Fashion in all countries by courage to 
 break through the conventional customs of an arti- 
 ficial class, and by talents to ridicule all those who 
 dare follow her innovating example attracting uni- 
 versal notice by her own singularity, and at the same 
 time conciliating the support of those from whom she 
 dares to differ, by employing her influence in prevent- 
 ing others from violating their laws. The Arbitress 
 of Fashion is one who is allowed to be singular, in 
 order that she may suppress singularity ; she is ex- 
 empted from all laws ; but, by receiving the dictator- 
 ship, she ensures the despotism. Then there was 
 that mysterious being whose influence is perhaps even 
 more surprising than the dominion of the female 
 despot of manners, for she wields a power which can 
 be analysed and comprehended, I mean the male 
 authority in coats, cravats, and chargers ; who, with- 
 out fortune and without rank, and sometimes merely 
 through the bold obtrusion of a fantastic taste, be- 
 comes the glass of fashion, in which even Royal 
 Dukes and the most aristocratic nobles hasten to 
 adjust themselves ; and the mould by which the in- 
 genious youth of a whole nation is enthusiastically 
 formed. There is a Brummell in every country. 
 
 Vivian, who, after a round or two with the Grand 
 Marshal, had mounted Max, was presented by the 
 young Count von Bernstorff, the son of the Grand 
 Chamberlain, to whose care he had been specially 
 commended by the Prince, to the lovely Countess 
 
 Von S . The examination of this high authority 
 
 was rigid, and her report satisfactory. When Vivian 
 quitted the side of her britchka, half a dozen dandies 
 immediately rode up to learn the result; and, on 
 
 653
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 being informed, they simultaneously cantered on to 
 young Von Bernstorff, and requested to have the 
 honour of being introduced to his highly interesting 
 friend. All these exquisites wore white hats lined 
 with crimson, in consequence of the head of the all- 
 influential Emilius von Aslingen having, on the pre- 
 ceding day, been kept sacred from the profaning air, 
 by that most tasteful covering. The young lords 
 were loud in their commendations of this latest evi- 
 dence of Von Aslingen's happy genius, and rallied, 
 with a most unmerciful spirit, the unfortunate Von 
 Bernstorff for not having yet mounted the all-perfect 
 chapeau. Like all Von Aslingen's introductions, it 
 was as remarkable for good taste as for striking singu- 
 larity : they had no doubt it would have a great run ; 
 exactly the style of thing for a hot autumn, and it 
 suited so admirably with the claret-coloured riding 
 coat, which Madame considered Von Aslingen's chef- 
 d'oeuvre. Inimitable Von Aslingen! As they were 
 in these raptures, to Vivian's great delight, and to 
 their great dismay, the object of their admiration 
 appeared. Our hero was of course, anxious to see so 
 interesting a character ; but he could scarcely believe 
 that he, in fact, beheld the ingenious introducer of 
 white and crimson hats, and the still happier inventor 
 of those chef-d'oauvres, claret-coloured riding coats, 
 when his attention was directed to a horseman who 
 wore a peculiarly high, heavy black hat, and a frogged 
 and furred frock, buttoned up, although it was a most 
 sultry day, to his very nose. How singular is the 
 slavery of fashion! Notwithstanding their morti- 
 fication, the unexpected costume of Von Aslingen 
 appeared only to increase the young lords' admiration 
 of his character and accomplishments ; and instead of 
 feeling that he was an insolent pretender, whose fame 
 
 654
 
 CHAPTER II VIVIAN GREY 
 
 originated in his insulting their tastes, and existed 
 only by their sufferance, all cantered away with the 
 determination of wearing on the. next day, even if it 
 were to cost them each a calenture, furs enough to 
 keep a man warm during a winter party at St. Peters- 
 burg, not that winter parties ever take place there ; 
 on the contrary, before the winter sets in, the Court 
 moves on to Moscow ; which, from its situation and 
 its climate, will always, in fact, continue the real 
 capital of Russia. 
 
 The royal carriage, drawn by six horses, and backed 
 by three men servants, who would not have disgraced 
 the fairy equipage of Cindarella, has now left the 
 gardens. 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 MADAME CAROLINA held her soiree in her own private 
 apartments ; the Grand Duke himself appearing in 
 the capacity of a visitor. The company was very 
 numerous, and very brilliant. His Royal Highness, 
 surrounded by a select circle, dignified one corner of 
 the saloon : Madame Carolina at the other end of the 
 room, in the midst of poets, philosophers, and poli- 
 ticians, in turn decided upon the most interesting and 
 important topics of poetry, philosophy, and politics. 
 Boston, and Zwicken, and Whist interested some ; 
 and Puzzles, and other ingenious games, others. A 
 few were above conversing, or gambling, or guess- 
 ing ; superior intelligences who would neither be 
 interested, nor amused ; among these, Emilius von 
 Aslingen was most prominent ; he leant against a 
 door, in full uniform, with his vacant eyes fixed on no 
 object. The others were only awkward copies of an 
 easy original ; and among these, stiff or stretching, 
 
 655
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 lounging on a chaise-longue, or posted against the 
 wall, Vivian's quick eye recognized more than one 
 of the unhappy votaries of white hats lined with 
 crimson. 
 
 When Vivian made his bow to the Grand Duke, 
 he was surprised by his Royal Highness coming for- 
 ward a few steps from the surrounding circle, and 
 extending to him his hand. His Royal Highness 
 continued conversing with him for upwards of 
 a quarter of an hour ; expressed the great 
 pleasure he felt at seeing at his Court a 
 gentleman of whose abilities he had the high- 
 est opinion ; and after a variety of agreeable 
 compliments compliments are doubly agreeable 
 from crowned heads the Grand Duke retired to a 
 game of Boston with his royal visitors. Vivian's 
 reception made a great sensation through the room. 
 Various rumours were immediately afloat. 
 
 ' Who can he be ?' 
 
 4 Don't you know ? Oh ! most curious story 
 killed a boar as big as a bonassus, which was ravaging 
 half Reisenburg, and saved the lives of his Excel- 
 lency the Grand Marshal and his whole suite.' 
 
 ' What is that about the Grand Marshal, and a 
 bear as big as a bonassus ? Quite^ wrong natural 
 son of Beckendorff know it for a fact don't you 
 see he is being introduced to von Sohnspeer! 
 brothers, you know managed the whole business 
 about the leagued Princes not a son of Beckendorff, 
 only a particular friend the son of the late General 
 
 , I forget his name exactly killed at Leipsic you 
 
 know that famous General, what was his name? 
 that very famous General don't you know ? Never 
 mind well! he is his son father particular friend 
 of Beckendorff College friend brought up the 
 
 656
 
 CHAPTER III VIVIAN GREY 
 
 orphan very handsome of him! they say he does 
 handsome things sometimes.' 
 
 { Ah ! well I've heard so too and so this young 
 man is to be the new Under Secretary! very much 
 approved by the Countess von S .' 
 
 ' No, it can't be! your story is quite wrong. He 
 is an Englishman.' 
 
 c An Englishman ! no ! ' 
 
 ' Yes he is. I had it from Madame high rank 
 incog going to Vienna secret mission.' 
 
 ' Something to do with Greece ? of course inde- 
 pendence recognized?' 
 
 * Oh ! certainly pay a tribute to the Porte, and 
 governed by a Hospodar. Admirable arrangement ! 
 have to support their own government and a 
 foreign one besides!' 
 
 It was with great pleasure that Vivian at length 
 observed Mr. Sievers enter the room, and extricating 
 himself from the enlightened and enthusiastic crowd 
 who were disserting round the tribunal of Madame, 
 he hastened to his amusing friend. 
 
 1 Ah ! my dear Sir, how glad I am to see you ! I 
 have, since we met last, been introduced to your 
 fashionable ruler, and some of her most fashion- 
 able slaves. I have been honoured by a long con- 
 versation with his Royal Highness, and have listened 
 to some of the most eloquent of the Carolina 
 coterie. What a Babel! there all are, at the same 
 time, talkers and listeners. To what a pitch of per- 
 fection may the " science " of conversation be carried ! 
 My mind teems with original ideas to which I can 
 annex no definite meaning. What a variety of con- 
 tradictory theories, which are all apparently sound! 
 I begin to suspect that there is a great difference be- 
 tween reasoning and reason!' 
 ZT 657
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 ' Your suspicion is well founded, my dear Sir,' said 
 Mr. Sievers ; * and I know no circumstance which 
 would sooner prove it, than listening for a few 
 minutes to this little man, in a snuff-coloured coat, 
 near me. But I will save you from so terrible a 
 demonstration. He has been endeavouring to catch 
 my eye these last ten minutes, and I have as studi- 
 ously avoided seeing him. Let us move.' 
 
 ' Willingly : who may this fear-inspiring monster 
 be?' 
 
 *A philosopher,' said Mr. Sievers, ( as most of us 
 call ourselves here ; that is to say, his profession is to 
 observe the course of Nature ; and if by chance he 
 can discover any slight deviation of the good dame 
 from the path which our ignorance has marked out 
 as her only track, he claps his hands, cries eiy//ra ! 
 and is dubbed " illustrious " on the spot. Such is 
 the world's reward for a great discovery, which gener- 
 ally in a twelvemonth's time is found out to be a 
 blunder of the philosopher, and not an eccentricity of 
 Nature. I am not underrating those great men who, 
 by deep study, or rather by some mysterious inspira- 
 tion, have produced combinations, and effected re- 
 sults, which have materially assisted the progress of 
 civilization, and the security of our happiness. No, 
 no! to them be due adoration. Would that the re- 
 verence of posterity could be some consolation to 
 these great spirits, for neglect and persecution when 
 they lived! I have invariably observed of great 
 natural philosophers, that if they lived in former ages 
 they were persecuted as magicians, and in periods 
 which profess to be more enlightened, they have 
 always been ridiculed as quacks. The succeeding 
 century the real quack arises. He adopts and de- 
 velopes the suppressed, and despised, and forgotten 
 
 658
 
 CHAPTER III VIVIAN GREY 
 
 discovery of his unfortunate predecessor ; and Fame 
 trumpets this resurrection-man of science with as 
 loud a blast of rapture, as if, instead of being merely 
 the accidental animator of the corpse, he were the 
 cunning artist himself, who had devised and executed 
 the miraculous machinery which the other had only 
 wound up.' 
 
 ' Let us sit down on this sofa. I think we have 
 escaped from your brown-coated friend.' 
 
 * Ay ! I forgot we were speaking of him. He is, 
 as the phrase goes, a philosopher. To think that a 
 student of butterflies and beetles, a nice observer of 
 the amorous passions of an ant, or the caprices of a 
 cockchaffer, should bear a title once consecrated to 
 those lights of Nature who taught us to be wise, and 
 free, and eloquent. Philosophy! I am sick of the 
 word.' 
 
 ' And this is an entomologist, I suppose ?' 
 { Not exactly. He is about to publish a quarto 
 on the Villa Pliniana on the Lake of Como. Sir 
 Philosopher, forsooth! has been watching for these 
 eight months the intermittent fountain there ; but 
 though his attention was quite unlike his subject, no 
 " discovery " has taken place. Pity that a freak of 
 Nature should waste eight months of a philosopher's 
 life! Though annoyed by his failure, my learned 
 gentleman is consoled by what he styles " an approxi- 
 mation to a theory ;" and solves the phenomenon by 
 a whisper of the evening winds.' 
 
 * But in this country,' said Vivian, c surely you 
 have no reason to complain of the want of moral phil- 
 osophers, or of the respect paid to them. The coun- 
 try of Kant of ' 
 
 * Yes, yes ! we have plenty of metaphysicians, if 
 you mean them. Watch that lively-looking gentle- 
 
 659
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 man, who is stuffing kalte schale so voraciously in the 
 corner. The leader of the Idealists a pupil of the 
 celebrated Fichte! To gain an idea of his character, 
 know that he out-herods his master ; and Fichte is 
 to Kant, what Kant is to the unenlightened vulgar. 
 You can now form a slight conception of the spiritual 
 nature of our friend who is stuffing kalte schale. 
 The first principle of his school is to reject all ex- 
 pressions which incline in the slightest degree to 
 substantiality. Existence is, in his opinion, a word 
 too absolute. Being, principle, essence, are terms 
 scarcely sufficiently etherial, even to indicate the sub- 
 tile shadowings of his opinions. Some say that he 
 dreads the contact of all real things, and that he 
 makes it the study of his life to avoid them. Matter 
 is his great enemy. When you converse with him, 
 you lose all consciousness of this world. My dear 
 Sir,' continued Mr. Sievers, c observe how exquisitely 
 Nature revenges herself upon these capricious and 
 fantastic children. Believe me, Nature is the most 
 brilliant of wits ; and that no repartees that were ever 
 inspired by hate, or wine, or beauty, ever equalled 
 the calm effects of her indomitable power upon those 
 who are rejecting her authority. You understand 
 me ? Methinks that the best answer to the idealism 
 of M. Fichte is to see his pupil devouring kalte 
 schale ! ' 
 
 4 And this is really one of your great lights?' 
 1 Verily ! His works are the most famous, and 
 the most unreadable, in all Germany. Surely you 
 have heard of his " Treatise on Man ?" A treatise 
 on a subject in which every one is interested, written 
 in a style which no one can understand.' 
 
 ' I could point you out,' continued Mr. Sievers, 
 another species of Idealist more ridiculous even 
 
 660
 
 CHAPTER III VIVIAN GREY 
 
 than this. Schelling has revived pantheism in Ger- 
 many. According to him, on our death our identity 
 is lost for ever, but our internal qualities become part 
 of the great whole. I could show you also, to prove 
 my impartiality, materialists more ridiculous than 
 both these. But I will not weary you. You asked 
 me, however, if, in Germany, we had not philoso- 
 phers. I have pointed them out to you. My dear 
 Sir, as I told you before, philosophy is a term which 
 it is the fashion for every one to assume. We have a 
 fellow at Reisenburg who always writes, "On the 
 Philosophy," of something. He has just published 
 a volume "On the Philosophy of Pipe-heads!" 
 We have even come to this! But considering the 
 term philosophy as I do myself, and as I have reason 
 to believe you do, I am not rash when I say, that in 
 Germany she has no real votaries. All here are imi- 
 tating to excess the only part of the ancient philoso- 
 phy, which is as despicable as it is useless. The ever 
 inexplicable enigma of the Universe is what the 
 modern Germans profess to solve ; the ring which 
 they ever strive to carry off in their intellectual tilts. 
 In no nation sooner than in Germany, can you gain 
 more detailed information about every other world 
 except the present. Here, we take nothing for 
 granted ; an excellent preventive of superficialness ; 
 but as our premises can never be settled, it unfortu- 
 nately happens that our river of knowledge, though 
 very profound, is extremely narrow. While we are 
 all anticipating immortality, we forget that we are 
 mortal. Believe me, that the foundations of true 
 philosophy are admissions. We must take some- 
 thing for granted. In morals, as well as in algebra, 
 we must form our calculations by the assistance of 
 unknown numbers. Whatever doubts may exist as 
 
 661
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 to the causes of our being, or the origin of our pas- 
 sions, no doubt can exist respecting their results. 
 It is those results that we must regulate, and it is 
 them that we should study. For the course of the 
 river, which is visible to all, may be cleared or 
 changed ; but the unknown and secret fountain 
 what profits it to ponder on its origin, or even to dis- 
 cover its site, or to plumb its unfathomable and mys- 
 terious waters? When I find a man, instead of 
 meditating on the nature of our essence, and the 
 principle of our spirit, on which points no two per- 
 sons ever agreed developing and directing the ener- 
 gies of that essence and that spirit, energies 
 which, all feel and all acknowledge ; when I find 
 a man, instead of musing over the absolute principle 
 of the universe, forming a code of moral principles 
 by which this single planet may be regulated and har- 
 monized ; when I find him, instead of pouring forth 
 obscure oracles on the reunion of an inexplicable 
 soul with an unintelligible nature, demonstrating the 
 indissoluble connexion of private happiness and pub- 
 lic weal, and detailing the modes by which the in- 
 terests of the indispensable classes of necessary society 
 may at the same time be considered and confirmed, I 
 recognize in this man the true philosopher ; I dis- 
 tinguish him from the dreamers who arrogate that 
 title ; and if he be my countryman, I congratulate 
 Germany on her illustrious son.' 
 
 * You think, then,' said Vivian, < that posterity 
 will rank the German metaphysicians with the latter 
 Platonists?' 
 
 * I hardly know they are a body of men not less 
 acute, but I doubt whether they will be as celebrated. 
 In this age of print, notoriety is more attainable than 
 in the age of manuscript ; but lasting fame certainly 
 
 662
 
 CHAPTER III VIVIAN GREY 
 
 is not. That tall thin man in black, that just bowed 
 to me, is the editor of one of our great Reisenburg 
 reviews. The journal he edits is one of the most 
 successful periodical publications ever set afloat. 
 Among its contributors may assuredly be classed 
 many men of eminent talents ; yet to their abilities, 
 the surprising success and influence of this work is 
 scarcely to be ascribed : it is the result rather of the 
 consistent spirit which has always inspired its mas- 
 terly critiques. One principle has ever regulated 
 its management ; it is a simple rule, but an effective 
 one every author is reviewed by his personal enemy. 
 You may imagine the point of the critique ; but you 
 would hardly credit, if I were to inform you, the cir- 
 culation of the review. You will tell me that you are 
 not surprised, and talk of the natural appetite of our 
 species for malice and slander. Be not too quick. 
 The rival of this review, both in influence and in 
 sale, is conducted on as simple a principle, but not a 
 similar one. In this journal every author is reviewed 
 by his personal friend of course, perfect panegyric. 
 Each number is flattering as a lover's tale, every 
 article an eloge. What say you to this ? These are 
 the influential literary and political journals of 
 Reisenburg. There was yet another ; it was edited 
 by an eloquent scholar ; all its contributors were, at 
 the same time, brilliant and profound. It numbered 
 among its writers some of the most celebrated names 
 in Germany ; its critiques and articles were as im- 
 partial as they were able as sincere as they were 
 sound ; it never paid the expense of the first num- 
 ber. As philanthropists and admirers of our species, 
 my dear Sir, these are gratifying results ; they satis- 
 factorily demonstrate, that mankind have no innate 
 desire for scandal, calumny, and backbiting ; it only 
 
 663
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 proves that they have an innate desire to be gulled 
 and deceived. 
 
 1 The Editor of the First Review,' continued Mr. 
 Sievers, ' is a very celebrated character here. He 
 calls himself a philosophical historian. Professing 
 the greatest admiration of Montesquieu, this lumin- 
 ous gentleman has, in his " History of Society in all 
 Nations and all Ages," produced one of the most 
 ludicrous caricatures of the " Esprit des Loix," that 
 can be possibly imagined. The first principle of 
 these philosophical historians is to generalize. Ac- 
 cording to them, man, in every nation and in every 
 clime, is the same animal. His conduct is influenced 
 by general laws, and no important change ever takes 
 place in his condition through the agency of acciden- 
 tal circumstances, or individual exertion. All, neces- 
 sarily, arises by an uniform and natural process, which 
 can neither be effectually resisted, nor prematurely 
 accelerated. From these premises, our philosophical 
 historian has deduced a most ingenious and agree- 
 able delineation of the progress of society from bar- 
 barism to refinement. With this writer, recorded 
 truth has no charms, and facts have no value. They 
 are the consequence of his theory ; and it is there- 
 fore easier for him, at once, to imagine his details, 
 than to give himself the trouble of collecting them 
 from dusty chronicles, or original manuscripts. With 
 these generalizes, man is a machine. Accident, and 
 individual character, the two most powerful springs 
 of revolution, are not allowed to influence their theo- 
 retic calculations; and setting out, as they all do, 
 with an avowed opinion of what man ought to be, 
 they have no difficulty in proving what, in certain 
 situations, he has been, and what, in singular situa- 
 tions, he ever must be.' 
 
 664
 
 CHAPTER III VIVIAN GREY 
 
 ' We have no want of these gentry in my own 
 country,' said Vivian ; ' although, of late years, this 
 mode of writing history has become rather unfashion- 
 able. The English are naturally great lovers of de- 
 tail. They like a Gerard Dow better than a Pous- 
 sin ; and in literature, in spite of their philosophical 
 historians, their old chronicles are not yet obsolete. 
 Of late, indeed, even the common people have ex- 
 hibited a taste for this species of antique literature.' 
 
 * The genius, and delightful works of the Cheva- 
 lier Scott (the Germans always use titles, and speak- 
 ing even of their most illustrious men, never omit 
 their due style, as " the Baron von Goethe," the 
 " Baron von Leibnitz,") of the Chevalier Scott,' con- 
 tinued Mr. Sievers, ' has in a great measure revived 
 this taste. You are of course aware that he has in- 
 fluenced the literatures of the Continent scarcely less 
 than that of his own country : he is the favourite 
 author of the French, and in Germany we are fast 
 losing our hobgoblin taste. When I first came to 
 Reisenburg, now eight years ago, the popular writer 
 of fiction was a man, the most probable of whose 
 numerous romances was one in which the hero sold 
 his shadow to a demon, over the dice-box ; then 
 married an unknown woman in a church-yard ; after- 
 wards wedded a river nymph ; and having committed 
 bigamy, finally stabbed himself, to enable his first 
 wife to marry his own father. He and his works are 
 quite obsolete ; and the star of his genius, with those 
 of many others, has paled before the superior bril- 
 liancy of that literary comet, Mr. Von Chronicle, 
 our great historical novelist. Von Chronicle is one 
 of those writers who never would have existed had 
 it not been for the Chevalier Scott : he is a wonderful 
 copyist of that part of your countryman's works 
 
 665
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 which is easy to copy, but without a spark of genius. 
 According to Von Chronicle, we have all, for a long 
 time, been under a mistake, and your great author 
 among us. We have ever considered that the first 
 point to be studied in novel writing is character: 
 miserable error! It is costume. Variety of inci- 
 dent, novelty, and nice discrimination of character ; 
 interest of story, and all those points which we have 
 hitherto looked upon as necessary qualities of a fine 
 novel ; vanish before the superior attractions of 
 variety of dresses, exquisite descriptions of the cloak 
 of a signor, or the trunk-hose of a serving-man. 
 
 ' Amuse yourself while you are at Reisenburg, by 
 turning over some volumes which every one is read- 
 ing ; Von Chronicle's last great historical novel. 
 The subject is a magnificent one Rienzi yet it is 
 strange that the hero only appears in the first and the 
 last scenes. You look astonished. Ah! I see you 
 are not a great historical novelist. You forget the 
 effect which is produced by the contrast of the cos- 
 tume of Master Nicholas, the notary in the quarter 
 of the Jews, and that of Rienzi the tribune, in his 
 robe of purple, at his coronation in the Capitol. 
 Conceive the effect, the contrast. With that corona- 
 tion, Von Chronicle's novel terminates ; for, as he 
 well observes, after that, what is there in the career 
 of Rienzi which would afford matter for the novelist ? 
 Nothing! All that afterwards occurs is a mere con- 
 test of passions, and a developement of character ; 
 but where is a procession, a triumph, or a marriage? 
 
 4 One of Von Chronicle's great characters in this 
 novel is a Cardinal. It was only last night that I 
 was fortunate enough to have the beauties of the 
 work pointed out to me by the author himself. He 
 entreated, and gained my permission, to read to me 
 
 666
 
 CHAPTER III VIVIAN GREY 
 
 what he himself considered " the great scene ;" I 
 settled myself in my chair, took out my handker- 
 chief, and prepared my mind for the worst. While 
 I was anticipating the terrors of a heroine, he intro- 
 duced me to his Cardinal. Thirty pages were de- 
 voted to the description of the prelate's costume. 
 Although clothed in purple, still, by a skilful adjust- 
 ment of the drapery, Von Chronicle managed to 
 bring in six other petticoats. I thought this begin- 
 ning would never finish, but to my surprise, when 
 he had got to the seventh petticoat, he shut his book, 
 and leaning over the table, asked me what I thought 
 of his " great scene?" " My friend," said I, " you 
 are not only the greatest historical novelist that ever 
 lived, but that ever will live." ' 
 
 ' I shall certainly get Rienzi,' said Vivian ; ' it 
 seems to me to be an original work.' 
 
 ' Von Chronicle tells me that he looks upon it as 
 his master-piece, and that it may be considered as the 
 highest point of perfection to which his system of 
 novel-writing can be carried. Not a single name is 
 given in the work, down even to the rabble, for which 
 he has not contemporary authority ; but what he is 
 particularly proud of, are his oaths. Nothing, he 
 tells me, has cost him more trouble than the manage- 
 ment of the swearing ; and the Romans, you know, 
 are a most profane nation. The great difficulty to 
 be avoided, was using the ejaculations of two dif- 
 ferent ages. The " 'sblood " of the sixteenth cen- 
 tury, must not be confounded with the " zounds " 
 of the seventeenth. Enough of Von Chronicle! 
 The most amusing thing,' continued Mr. Sievers, 
 * is to contrast this mode of writing works of fiction, 
 with the prevalent and fashionable method of writ- 
 ing works of history. Contrast the " Rienzi " of 
 
 667
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 Von Chronicle, with the " Haroun Al Raschid " of 
 Madame Carolina. Here we write novels like his- 
 tory, and history like novels : all our facts are fancy, 
 and all our imagination reality.' So saying, Mr. 
 Sievers rose, and wishing Vivian good night, quitted 
 the room. He was one of those prudent geniuses 
 who always leave off with a point. 
 
 Mr. Sievers had not left Vivian more than a 
 minute, when the little Prince Maximilian came up, 
 and bowed to him in a very condescending manner. 
 Our hero, who had not yet had an opportunity of 
 speaking with him, thanked him cordially for his 
 handsome present, and asked him how he liked the 
 Court. 
 
 ' Oh delightful ! I pass all my time with the Grand 
 Duke and Madame : ' and here the young apostate 
 settled his military stock, and arranged the girdle of 
 his sword. ' Madame Carolina,' continued he, ' has 
 commanded me to inform you, that she desires the 
 pleasure of your attendance.' 
 
 ' The summons was immediately obeyed, and Vi- 
 vian had the honour of a very long conversation with 
 the interesting Consort of the Grand Duke. He 
 was, for, a considerable time, complimented by her 
 enthusiastic panegyric of England ; her original ideas 
 of the character and genius of Lord Byron ; her 
 veneration for Sir Humphrey Davy, and her ad- 
 miration of Sir Walter Scott. Not remiss was Vi- 
 vian in paying, in his happiest manner, due compli- 
 ments to the ifair and royal authoress of the Court of 
 Charlemagne. While she spoke his native tongue, 
 he admired her accurate English ; and while she pro- 
 fessed to have derived her imperfect knowledge of 
 his perfect language from a study of its best authors, 
 she avowed her belief of the impossibility of ever 
 
 668
 
 CHAPTER III VIVIAN GREY 
 
 speaking it correctly, without the assistance of a 
 native. Conversation became more interesting. Ma- 
 dame Carolina lamented Vivian's indisposition, and 
 fearing that he had not been properly attended, she 
 insisted upon his seeing the Court physician. It was 
 in vain he protested that he was quite well. She, 
 convinced by his looks, insisted upon sending Dr. 
 von Spittergen to him the next morning. 
 
 When Vivian left the palace, he was not unmind- 
 ful of an engagement to return there the next day, to 
 give a first lesson in English pronunciation to Ma- 
 dame Carolina. 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 ON the morning after the Court dinner, as Vivian 
 was amusing himself over Von Chronicle's last new 
 novel, Essper George announced Dr. von Spittergen. 
 Our hero was rather annoyed at the kind interest 
 which Madame Carolina evidently took in his con- 
 valescence. He was by no means in the humour to 
 endure the affectations and perfumes of that most 
 finical of prigs, a Court physician ; but so important 
 a personage could scarcely be refused admission, and 
 accordingly Dr. von Spittergen entered the room. 
 He was a very tall, and immensely stout man, with a 
 small head, short neck, and high shoulders. His 
 little quick grey eyes saved his countenance from the 
 expression of sullen dullness, which otherwise would 
 have been given to it by his very thick lips. His 
 dress was singular, and was even more striking from 
 the great contrast which it afforded to the costume 
 which Vivian had anticipated. There was no sword, 
 no wig, no lace ruffles, no diamond ring. The tail 
 of his dark mixture coat nearly reached the ground ; 
 
 669
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 its waist encircled his groin, and the lappets of his 
 waistcoat fell over his thighs. He wore very 
 square-toed shoes, and large silver buckles, and part- 
 ridge-coloured woollen stockings were drawn over the 
 knees of his black pantaloons. Holding in one hand 
 his large straw hat, and in the other a gold-headed 
 cane as big as Goliath's spear, without any prelimi- 
 nary, he thus addressed, in a loud voice, his new 
 patient : 
 
 ( Well, Sir! what is the matter with you?' 
 
 * Pray be seated, doctor. The honour of this visit 
 very sensible ' 
 
 c Never sit down.' 
 
 As Vivian, rather confounded by the unexpected 
 appearance and manners of his visitor, did not im- 
 mediately answer, Dr. von Spittergen again spoke. 
 
 'Well, Sir! have you got any thing to say to 
 me?' 
 
 * Really, doctor, you are so very kind! unneces- 
 sarily so. I am not quite well that is, not exactly 
 quite well ; perhaps a little cold nothing more.' 
 
 ' Little cold, indeed ! Why what would you have, 
 young man ; the Plague ?' 
 
 4 Dr. von Spittergen,' thought Vivian, ' is evi- 
 dently one of those mild practitioners, who are of 
 opinion, that Learning is never so lovely as when 
 Brutality is her handmaid ; and that Skill is never so 
 respected, as when she not only cures, but disgusts 
 you.' 
 
 * Ah!' continued the doctor; ' I suppose you got 
 this cold by forgetting to wear your gloves one day. 
 Gloves are the origin of every disease. Nobody can 
 expect to be well, who ever covers the palm of his 
 hand.' 
 
 * Well, doctor, I confess I do not ascribe my present 
 
 670
 
 CHAPTER IV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 indisposition to encouraging the glove manufactory 
 of Reisenburg.' 
 
 ' Pish! what should you know about it, Sir?' 
 
 c Oh ! nothing. Do not be alarmed that 1 am 
 about to destroy a favourite theory.' 
 
 ' Pish ! young men have always something to say ; 
 never to the purpose. Show your teeth, Sir! I don't 
 want to see your tongue ; show your teeth all pulled 
 out at five years old? suppose you know nothing 
 about it : well ! if they were not, there is no chance 
 for you ; you will be an invalid all your life.' 
 
 ' Well, doctor ! ' said Vivian, with imperturbable 
 good humour ; ' however crazy may be my body, I 
 still trust, with your good assistance, to reach a very 
 advanced period.' 
 
 { You do, do you ? I don't think you will ; 
 there's nothing of you ; no stamina : see what can 
 be done though.' Here the good doctor rang the bell. 
 
 4 Kelner ! go and ask your master for his list of 
 medicines.' 
 
 'Sir!' said the astonished waiter at the Grand 
 Hotel of the Four Nations ' Sir ! ' 
 
 ' What, are you deaf ? Go, and bring the list 
 directly.' 
 
 ' I don't know what you mean, Sir.' 
 
 ( How long have you lived here ?' 
 
 * Three days, Sir.' 
 
 'Pish! go, and tell your master what I said.' 
 
 The waiter accordingly departed ; and the master 
 of the house, bowing and smiling, soon appeared in 
 his own person. 
 
 1 I beg your pardon, doctor,' said he ; * but it was 
 a new hand who answered your bell ;' and so saying 
 the good gentleman delivered to Dr. von Spittergen 
 the Carte des Vins. 
 
 671
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 4 Stop here a moment, my friend!' said Von Spit- 
 tergen, * while I prescribe for this young man.' He 
 began reading < Vins de Bourgogne pish! Clos 
 de Vougeot Moussenx Chambertin St. George 
 Richebourg pish! vins de Bordeaux Lafitte 
 Margaux Hautbrion Leonville Medoc Saut- 
 erne Barsac Preignac Grave pish ! pish ! pish ! 
 pish! Cotes du Rhone paille rouge grille St. 
 Peray pish! pish! pish! Champagne p i s h! 
 Vins du Rhine drank too much or them al- 
 ready Porto-Porto Ah! that will do Give him 
 a pint or two Let him dine at that hour, en particu- 
 lier and not at the table d'hote Give him a pint, I 
 say, with his dinner, and repeat the dose before he 
 goes to bed. Young man, I have done for you all 
 that human skill can I have given you a very 
 powerful medicine, but all medicine is trash Are 
 you a horseman ? you are ! very well ! I will send 
 my daughter to you good morning!' 
 
 Vivian duly kept his appointment with Madame 
 Carolina. The Chamberlain ushered him into a 
 Library, where Madame Carolina was seated at a 
 large table covered with books and manuscripts. Her 
 costume and her countenance were equally engaging. 
 Fascination was alike in her smile, and her sash her 
 bow, and her buckle. What a delightful pupil to 
 perfect in English pronunciation ! Madame pointed, 
 with a pride pleasing to Vivian's feelings as a Eng- 
 lishman, to her shelves, graced with the most eminent 
 of English writers. Madame Carolina was not like 
 one of those admirers of English literature which you 
 often meet on the Continent : people who think that 
 Beattie's Minstrel is our most modern and fashion- 
 able poem ; that the Night Thoughts are the master- 
 piece of our literature ; and that Richardson is our 
 
 672
 
 CHAPTER IV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 only novelist. Oh, no! Madame Carolina would 
 not have disgraced May Fair. She knew Childe 
 Harold by rote, and had even peeped into Don Juan. 
 Her admiration of the Edinburgh and Quarterly 
 Reviews, was great and similar. To a Continental 
 liberal, indeed, even the Toryism of the Quarterly is 
 philosophy ; and not an under-Secretary ever yet 
 massacred a radical innovator, without giving loose 
 to some sentiments and sentences, which are con- 
 sidered rank treason in the meridian of Vienna. 
 
 After some conversation, in which Madame evinced 
 great eagerness to gain details about the persons and 
 manners of our most eminent literary characters, she 
 naturally began to speak of the literary productions 
 of other countries ; and in short, ere an hour was 
 passed, Vivian Grey, instead of giving a lesson in 
 English pronunciation to the Consort of the Grand 
 Duke of Reisenburg, found himself listening, in an 
 easy chair, and with folded arms, to a long treatise by 
 that lady de I* Esprit de Conversation. It was a 
 most brilliant dissertation. Her kindness, in reading 
 it to him was most particular ; nevertheless, for un- 
 expected blessings we are not always sufficiently 
 grateful. 
 
 Another hour was consumed by the treatise. How 
 she refined ! what unexpected distinctions ! what ex- 
 quisite discrimination of national character! what 
 skilful eulogium of her own! Nothing could be 
 more splendid than her elaborate character of a re- 
 partee ; it would have sufficed for an epic poem. At 
 length Madame Carolina ceased de I' Esprit de Con- 
 versation^ and Vivian was most successful in conceal- 
 ing his weariness, and testifying his admiration. 
 < The evil is over,' thought he ; < I may as well gain 
 credit for my good taste.' The lesson in English 
 2U 673
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 pronunciation, however, was not yet terminated. 
 Madame was charmed with our hero's uncommon dis- 
 crimination and extraordinary talents. He was the 
 most skilful, and the most agreeable, critic with whom 
 she had ever been acquainted. How invaluable must 
 the opinion of such a person be to her, on her great 
 work ! No one had yet seen a line of it ; but there 
 are moments when we are irresistibly impelled to seek 
 a confidant that confidant was before her. The 
 morocco case was unlocked, and the manuscript of 
 Haroun Al Raschid revealed to the enraptured eye of 
 Vivian Grey. 
 
 4 1 flatter myself,' said Madame Carolina, ' that this 
 work will create a great sensation ; not only in Ger- 
 many. It abounds, I think, with the most interest- 
 ing story, the most engaging incidents, and the most 
 animated and effective descriptions. I have not, of 
 course, been able to obtain any new matter respecting 
 His Sublimity, the Caliph. Between ourselves, I do 
 not think this is very important. As far as I have 
 observed, we have matter enough in this world on 
 every possible subject already. It is manner in which 
 the literature of all nations is deficient. It appears 
 to me, that the great point for persons of genius now 
 to direct their attention to, is the expansion of matter. 
 This, I conceive to be the great secret ; and this must 
 be effected by the art of picturesque writing. For 
 instance, my dear Mr. Grey, I will open the Arabian 
 Night's Entertainments, merely for an exemplifica- 
 tion, at the one hundred and eighty-fifth night 
 good ! Let us attend to the following passage : 
 
 " In the reign of the Caliph Haroun Al Raschid, 
 there was at Bagdad a druggist, called Alboussan Ebn 
 Thaher, a very rich handsome man. He had more 
 wit, and politeness, than people of his profession 
 
 674
 
 CHAPTER IV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 ordinarily have. His integrity, sincerity, and jovial 
 humour, made him beloved and sought after by all 
 sorts of people. The Caliph, who knew his merit, 
 had an entire confidence in him. He had so great an 
 esteem for him, that he entrusted him with the care to 
 provide his favourite ladies with all the things they 
 stood in need of. He chose for them their clothes, 
 furniture, and jewels, with admirable taste. His 
 good qualities, and the favour of the Caliph, made 
 the sons of Emirs, and other Officers of the first rank, 
 be always about him. His house was the rendez- 
 vous of all the nobility of the Court." 
 
 'What capabilities lurk in this dry passage!' ex- 
 claimed Madame Carolina ; * I touch it with my pen, 
 and transform it into a chapter. It shall be one of 
 those that I will read to you. The description of 
 Alboussan alone demands ten pages. There is no 
 doubt that his countenance was oriental. The tale 
 says that he was handsome : I paint him with his 
 eastern eye, his thin arched brow, his fragrant beard, 
 his graceful mustachio. The tale says he was rich : 
 I have authorities for the costume of men of his 
 dignity in contemporary writers. In my history, he 
 appears in an upper garment of green velvet, and 
 loose trowsers of pink satin ; a jewelled dagger lies 
 in his golden girdle ; his slippers are of the richest 
 embroidery ; and he never omits the bath of roses 
 daily. On this system, which in my opinion elicits 
 truth, for by it you are enabled to form a conception 
 of the manners of the age, on this system I proceed 
 throughout the paragraph. Conceive my account of 
 his house being the " rendezvous of all the nobility 
 of the Court." What a brilliant scene ! what variety 
 of dress and character! what splendour! what lux- 
 ury ! what magnificence ! Imagine the detail of the 
 
 675
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 banquet ; which, by the bye, gives me an opportunity 
 of inserting, after the manner of your own Gibbon, 
 " a dissertation on sherbet." What think you of 
 the art of picturesque writing?' 
 
 'Admirable!' said Vivian; 'Von Chronicle him- 
 self ' 
 
 ' How can you mention the name of that odious 
 man!' almost shrieked Madame Carolina, forgetting 
 the dignity of her semi-regal character, in the jealous 
 feelings of the author. * How can you mention him ! 
 A scribbler without a spark, not only of genius, but 
 even of common invention. A miserable fellow, 
 who seems to do nothing but clothe and amplify, in 
 his own fantastic style, the details of a parcel of old 
 chronicles ! ' 
 
 Madame's indignation reminded Vivian of a very 
 true, but rather vulgar proverb of his own country ; 
 and he extricated himself from his very awkward 
 situation, with a dexterity worthy of his former 
 years. 
 
 * Von Chronicle himself,' said Vivian, c Von 
 Chronicle himself, as I was going to observe, will be 
 the most mortified of all on the appearance of your 
 work. He cannot be so blinded by self-conceit, as 
 to fail to observe that your history is a thousand times 
 more interesting than his fiction. Ah! Madame 
 Carolina, if you can thus spread enchantment over 
 the hitherto weary page of history, what must be your 
 work of imagination ! ' 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 ALTHOUGH brought up with a due detestation of the 
 Methuen treaty, Vivian by no means disapproved of 
 Dr. von Spittergen's remedy. The wine was good 
 
 676
 
 CHAPTER V VIVIAN GREY 
 
 and very old ; for, not being a very popular liquor 
 with any other European nation, except ourselves, 
 the Porto-Porto had been suffered to ripen under the 
 cobwebs of half a century, in the ample cellar of the 
 Grand Hotel of the Four Nations, at Reisenburg. 
 As Vivian was hesitating whether he should repeat 
 the dose, or join the Court dinner, Essper George 
 came into the room. 
 
 ' Please your Highness, here is a lady who wants 
 you!' 
 
 ( A lady! who can she be?' 
 
 ' She did not give her name, but wishes to speak to 
 you.' 
 
 ' Ask her to come up.' 
 
 ' I have, your Highness ; but she is on horseback, 
 and refused.' 
 
 'What kind of person is she?' 
 
 ' Oh,' drawled out Essper, she is not as tall as a 
 horseguard, and yet might be mistaken for a church- 
 steeple when there was a cloud over the moon ; she is 
 not as stout as Master Rodolph, and yet she would 
 hardly blow away when the wind was down.' 
 
 The fair horsewoman must not, however, be kept 
 waiting, even is she were as mysterious as an unlaid 
 ghost, or a clerk in a public office ; and consequently, 
 Vivian speedily made his bow to his interesting 
 visitant. 
 
 Miss Melinda von Spittergen, for the Amazon was 
 no other than the dread Doctor's fair daughter, was 
 full six feet high, thin, and large boned ; her red 
 curly hair was cut very short behind ; yet, in spite of 
 this, and her high-boned cheeks, her fine florid com- 
 plexion, blue eyes, small mouth, and regular white 
 teeth, altogether made up a countenance which was 
 prepossessing. She was mounted on a very beautiful 
 
 677
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 white horse, which never ceased pawing the ground 
 the whole time that it stood before the Hotel ; and 
 she was dressed in a riding-habit of blue and silver, 
 with buttons as large as Spanish dollars. As the 
 construction of riding-habits is a subject generally 
 interesting to Englishwomen, let me say, that Miss 
 von Spittergen's was of a very full make, with a very 
 long waist, and a very high collar. A pink cravat 
 almost as effectively contrasted with the colour of her 
 dress, as her white hat and feathers. She sat her 
 spirited steed with the nonchalance of a perfect horse- 
 woman ; and there was evidently no doubt, that, had 
 it been necessary, she could have used with becoming 
 spirit her long-lashed riding-whip ; the handle of 
 which, I should not omit to mention, was formed of 
 a fawn's foot, graced by a silver shoe. 
 
 ' Good morning, Sir!' said Miss von Spittergen, as- 
 Vivian advanced. * My father hopes to have the 
 pleasure of your company at dinner to-day. A ride 
 is the very best thing he can prescribe for you ; 
 and if you will order your horse, we will be off 
 immediately.' 
 
 ' Dr. von Spittergen is very kind ! ' said Vivian, 
 quite confused quite wonder-struck. 
 
 ' Oh ! not at all ; my father is always most happy 
 to see his friends.' 
 
 4 Dr. von Spittergen is very kind,' again stam- 
 mered out our hero ; ' but I fear an unfortunate en- 
 gagement an ' 
 
 4 1 must take no refusal,' said Miss von Spittergen, 
 smiling : ' a physician's commands are peremptory. 
 You can have no engagement which may not be 
 broken ; for you should not have made one without 
 his permission. He expects you at dinner, and to 
 stay the night. Your bed is prepared.' 
 
 678
 
 CHAPTER V VIVIAN GREY 
 
 * Really Dr. von Spittergen is very kind but 
 quite ashamed so much trouble so ' 
 
 4 Oh ! not at all. If it were trouble, of course, we 
 should not insist on that which would be alike dis- 
 agreeable to our friends and to ourselves. Come, 
 order your horse!' 
 
 ' Really I cannot withstand,' said Vivian, a little 
 more collected, 4 what is at the same time an invita- 
 tion and a command. It gives me equal pleasure 
 both to accept and to obey.' 
 
 4 I am very happy that I have not failed in my 
 embassy,' said Miss von Spittergen. ' We will then 
 be off: time presses. Marcus Aurelius flung a 
 shoe on the road, and lost me half an hour, and 
 I wish you to see a little of the country before 
 dinner.' 
 
 * I will detain you not five minutes ; but will you 
 not dismount and walk up stairs till my horse is 
 ready?' 
 
 4 No : if I dismount, I must stand at his head,' 
 said Miss von Spittergen, pointing to her horse; 
 4 1 cannot trust Marcus Aurelius to any strange 
 groom.' 
 
 4 Well then, you will excuse me for a moment. I 
 am half engaged at the Court dinner; and I must 
 scribble a line to his Excellency the Grand Marshal. 
 You will excuse me?' 
 
 4 Most assuredly ! but give them directions about 
 your horse at once.' 
 
 In ten minutes time, Vivian and Miss Melinda 
 von Spittergen had left the Hotel of the Four 
 Nations. They cantered through the Public 
 Gardens, and quitted the city through a new gate, 
 which may truly be described as commemorative of 
 the triumph of the Reisenburg troops during the late 
 
 679
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 war. This arch was commenced by Napoleon, after 
 the arrangement of the Confederation of the Rhine. 
 It was not finished, when the event of the battle of 
 Leipsic virtually dissolved that body. By skilfully 
 placing the most personal bas-reliefs in the very 
 highest and obscurest parts of the elevation, and by 
 adroitly converting the countenances in those already 
 placed into the more successful heads of the Allied 
 Sovereigns, the Triumphal Arch of the Emperor 
 Napoleon finally commemorated his defeat ; and, 
 at this moment, it bears the dignified title of the Gate 
 of the Allies. Through this portal, gaily cantered 
 Miss Melinda von Spittergen and Mr. Vivian Grey. 
 1 This road,' said the lady, * leads to our house ; 
 but half an hour would carry us there, and from so 
 short a ride you cannot expect any very great benefit ; 
 therefore we will make a round, and as there is no 
 cross road nigh, follow me.' So saying, Miss von 
 Spittergen cleared a hedge, with an air which, had it 
 been witnessed by certain gentlemen whom I could 
 mention, would have caused her immediately to be 
 elected an honorary member of the Melton. Vivian 
 Grey followed. Miss von Spittergen, touching Mar- 
 cus Aurelius with a silver spur, dashed over a field of 
 stubble. Max was not to be beat, even by Marcus 
 Aurelius! and his master consequently kept by the 
 lady's side. Another leap, and another field, and 
 then a gate all at a full gallop. An extensive plain 
 succeeded, over which Miss Melinda and Vivian 
 scudded for an hour without speaking, like Faust 
 and Mephistophiles on the enchanted steeds. The 
 plain is passed, and a down-hill gallop over most 
 rugged and broken ground, proved at the same time 
 the sure-footedness of the horses, the courage of 
 Miss von Spittergen, and the gallantry of Vivian 
 
 680
 
 CHAPTER V VIVIAN GREY 
 
 Grey. At the bottom of the hill, they found them- 
 selves in marsh ground, and the next turn revealed to 
 them a river : the stream was broad and strong, and 
 looked deep. 
 
 ' Come on ! ' said Miss von Spittergen, turning 
 round. 
 
 'Are we obliged to cross this river?' asked Vivian. 
 'Is there no bridge no ferry?' 
 
 'Bridge or ferry!' said Miss von Spittergen, 
 laughing ; ' what do you want with a bridge or ferry ? 
 Follow me, if you please. We'll soon cure this 
 " little cold " of yours ! ' So saying, Miss von Spit- 
 tergen pulled up Marcus Aurelius, turned her knees 
 over his neck, and then tucking her habit several 
 times round them, so that no part of it hung lower 
 than her horse's mane, she cracked her whip with 
 great spirit, skilfully lashed the Roman emperor on 
 the ham, and almost before Vivian had observed what 
 she was doing, Marcus Aurelius and Miss Melinda 
 von Spittergen were buffeting the boisterous waves. 
 To be outdone by a woman! impossible! and so 
 Vivian Grey, elevating his legs as much as he possibly 
 could, and throwing his stirrups over his saddle, 
 dashed into the stream. It was a tight business ; 
 and certainly, had not the summer been extremely 
 dry, the river would not have been fordable. As it 
 was, after much puffing, and panting, and struggling, 
 the lady and gentleman found themselves on the op- 
 posite bank. They had now to ascend awhile, for the 
 stream which they had just forded watered a valley. 
 The road being very steep, and the horses being 
 rather pressed by their passage, Miss von Spittergen, 
 to Vivian's great relief, did not immediately start off 
 at full gallop ; and consequently her companion, who 
 actually had not yet had an opportunity of convers- 
 
 681
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 ing with her, seized the present one to compliment 
 her on her horsemanship. 
 
 ' A most delightful run ! ' continued Vivian : c I 
 trust it will not fatigue you.' 
 
 * Why should it?' said Miss von Spittergen, smil- 
 ing her surprise at his apprehensions. ' What then ! 
 I suppose you think, because I chance to wear a 
 riding-habit instead of a frock-coat, that I am to sink 
 under the effects of half an hour's canter. I know 
 that is your regular English creed.' 
 
 c No, indeed ! ' said Vivian * but such exertions 
 as clearing hedges, and fording rivers ! ' 
 
 ' Clearing hedges ! fording rivers ! you have gone 
 over nothing this morning which need have pre- 
 vented you sleeping on your horse's back. I see you 
 are not prepared for German cross roads ; a little 
 amble in the park, in the morning, and a dance with 
 a fainting fair one for two or three hours in the even- 
 ing, furnish, I suppose, your ideas of fatigue. Now 
 if I were to pass such a day, I should die at the end 
 of it.' 
 
 ' Really, you are shockingly severe ;' said Vivian 
 in a deprecating tone. ' One would think that I was 
 Emilius von Aslingen himself, by your description of 
 my life. I had hoped that my prowess this morning 
 would have saved me from such a reputation ; but as 
 I now learn that these feats count for nothing, I con- 
 fess that I begin to tremble.' 
 
 ' I was not dreaming of casting the least imputa- 
 tion on you,' rejoined Miss von Spittergen ; ' I was 
 merely undeceiving you as regarded myself. If you 
 think that any accidental exhilaration of spirits has 
 produced this exertion, and that I am consequently to 
 be a stupid, sleepy, companion for the rest of the day, 
 your alarm will cease, when I inform you that I have 
 
 682
 
 CHAPTER V VIVIAN GREY 
 
 not this morning taken one fourth of my usual exer- 
 cise ; and that even if I were ever so tired, I should 
 be immediately refreshed by half an hour's diving in 
 our great bath. But if you were to tighten me up 
 like one of your native belles, and set me gliding 
 through a quadrille in a hot room, I should expire on 
 the spot. Now, as you look either surprised or in- 
 credulous, remember I have proved to you that I can 
 ride ; now see that I am prepared to swim.' And 
 taking off her hat, Miss von Spittergen exhibited to 
 her companion her close cut hair, in a state as natur- 
 ally dishevelled as his own. 
 
 ' Indeed your proof is unnecessary ! ' said Vivian ; 
 1 1 admire, but do not doubt. Believe me that I did 
 not remonstrate with you from any selfish an- 
 ticipation for the evening ; but from an habitual 
 apprehension for the natural fragility of the 
 sex.' 
 
 * The natural fragility of the sex!' exclaimed Miss 
 von Spittergen, laughing. ' Good heavens, Mr. 
 Grey, what a very pretty apprehension ! I have a 
 vast mind, as a reward for your consideration, that 
 you should listen to a lecture from my father to-night, 
 on the natural powers of the sex. He will tell you, 
 what I am sure is very true that your creed is a 
 gallant apology for idleness ; and vain as that which it 
 attempts to excuse. Depend upon it, that if woman 
 choose to put forth her energies, she will equal you 
 lords of the universe, much as you may think of your- 
 selves ! ' 
 
 ' I am the last man in the world to dispute woman's 
 superiority on any point,' rejoined Vivian, ' except 
 as to that physical power which is no proof of excel- 
 lence ; it being an attribute we can neither acquire 
 nor command, and one in which even the brutes sur- 
 
 683
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 pass us. For all those qualities of mind which dis- 
 tinguish ' 
 
 4 Mercy ! Mr. Grey,' exclaimed Miss von Spitter- 
 gen, ' you are running headlong into metaphysics, 
 which always distract me. I am not a metaphysician, 
 but a naturalist ; and I argue from the experience of 
 facts ; that the natural power of woman is equal to 
 the natural power of man, bodily and mental ; and 
 that the difference supposed to exist, does not arise 
 from want of capability, but from want of exercise 
 just as we ridiculously imagine that the right hand is 
 stronger and more useful than the left, and that the 
 feet are given to us only to walk with. I can fire a 
 musket, and hit my mark as surely with the one hand 
 as with the other ; and I know a man who writes 
 beautifully, and can adjust the nicest piece of 
 mechanism with his feet, because, being born without 
 arms, he has used the substitute which Nature has 
 given him. But our argument and our ride must 
 now end together ; for see ! we are at home, and my 
 father is just arriving before us.' 
 
 Miss von Spittergen pointed through a rising 
 plantation to an old-fashioned house, many rooms in 
 which would have been consigned to utter obscurity, 
 had it not been for the light which streamed through 
 a small heart cut in the upper part of their heavy oak 
 window-shutters. The house stood on a green, 
 which was surrounded by a wall not more than two 
 feet high ; and to the left, barns, stables, stacks, and 
 piles of wood, presented the appearance of a well- 
 ordered farm. Miss von Spittergen and Vivian 
 crossed a dyke from the plantation, and immediately 
 passing through a large white wooden gate, with two 
 hideous griffins grinning on the top of it, Marcus 
 Aurelius dashed up to the stable door, followed by 
 
 684
 
 CHAPTER V VIVIAN GREY 
 
 Max. They were instantly saluted by an immense 
 Newfoundland, whose joyous bark was answered by 
 a responsive neigh from his companion of the stable ; 
 and in an instant, Triton was scrambling up Marcus 
 Aurelius, for the pleasure of biting Miss von Spitter- 
 gen's silver buttons, and licking her face with his 
 great red tongue. 
 
 ' Down down, Triton ! ' 
 
 Triton obeyed very unwillingly, but turning 
 round, felt himself greatly consoled for his rebuff, 
 by seeing he had to welcome a visitor. He flew up 
 at Max's neck. The princely pet, unused to such 
 rude embraces, showed certain signs of exclusiveness, 
 which made Vivian exercise his whip across master 
 Triton's back ; who, in his turn, was equally irate 
 at this unusual and ungrateful reception of his car- 
 esses. The dog slunk from under Vivian's lash, and 
 springing up behind Max, made him give a sudden 
 and violent kick, which sent Vivian, unprepared as 
 he was, head foremost into some low, thick bushes 
 of box, which had been planted to screen a pig-sty. 
 It was fortunate for him that he did not make an 
 unexpected appearance in the abode of Miss von 
 Spittergen's favourite Columbine a Chinese lady- 
 pig, with a young family of delicate daughters, all 
 so exquisitely high-bred, that they were almost with- 
 out heads, bones, or feet. Columbina's maternal 
 fears might have inflicted on Vivian some wounds, 
 which he escaped receiving in the yielding box 
 from which, indeed, he most quickly extricated him- 
 self animated in his rapid exertions to regain the 
 dignified perpendicular by the loud and unrestrained 
 laughter of Miss von Spittergen, who saw that he 
 had not received the slightest injury, and was there- 
 fore most unmercifully mirthful. 
 
 685
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 1 Well, Mr. Grey ! my father need not have been 
 afraid of your inertness. I never met with a finer 
 instance of agility. It is fortunate that I did not 
 take Triton out with me, according to my usual cus- 
 tom, if this be a specimen of the result of your com- 
 panionship. How came you to jump off your horse 
 in such a hurry? You should have given Max a 
 lesson, instead of leaving him to caper about by him- 
 self.' 
 
 4 How came I to jump off!' said Vivian; 'in 
 truth, Max was not courteous enough to offer me 
 an alternative ; but we must remember that he is 
 not yet used to your treatment, and excuse a little ill 
 humour.' 
 
 Vis-a-vis drove up to the door, just as Miss von 
 Spittergen and Vivian were about to enter. They 
 were met on the broad flight of steps by a very old 
 white-headed domestic, who bowed low as he passed 
 them, to open the carriage door for his master. The 
 door was opened, but no Dr. von Spittergen alighted. 
 The old valet gently closed it again, but remained 
 standing by the side of the vehicle. 
 
 * Well, Francis,' said Miss von Spittergen ; * why 
 have you shut the door?' 
 
 ' Please you, my young lady,' said the venerable 
 attendant ; < my master is dozing : is it your pleasure 
 that I should try to wake him?' 
 
 ' Asleep, is he ? oh ! I'll wake him myself Sir ! 
 here is Mr. Grey, our visitor ; will not you come 
 into the house?' 
 
 ' Ah ! ah ! true ! which is he ?' how much does he 
 weigh? more than me?' asked the good doctor wak- 
 ing, his morning doze having presented to him an 
 image, of which he was always either thinking or 
 dreaming a man larger than himself. This charac- 
 
 686
 
 CHAPTER V VIVIAN GREY 
 
 ter, Dr. von Spittergen had not yet been so fortunate 
 as to meet ; though his first inquiry, on the mention 
 of any stranger's name, invariably was, * how much 
 does he weigh ?' 
 
 Miss von Spittergen, perfectly aware that her 
 father was not yet quite awake, only laughed at his 
 question, and instead of replying to it, asked an- 
 other. 
 
 4 Whom have you seen to-day, Sir and what 
 news have you brought us?' 
 
 1 News ! why I have been in a confounded passion ; 
 perhaps that is no news.' 
 
 4 What is all this about, Sir ? who has been dis- 
 obeying orders?' 
 
 1 If you ask twenty questions at the same time, I 
 should like to know how I am to answer them ; let 
 me out!' 
 
 The doctor descended, and leaning on the arm of 
 his daughter, and followed by Vivian, he entered the 
 house ; muttering the whole way without ceasing, 
 much after the following fashion. 
 
 * My mind's made up. I have said it before 
 most people make a great talk, and it ends in nothing 
 that's not my way when I say a thing, I do it. 
 Melinda ! why haven't you gathered the seed of that 
 geranium ? it won't be worth a kreiizer. How do 
 you feel after your ride, Mr. Grey? Don't both 
 speak at the same time I can't bear such a Babel in 
 my ears not that I believe there ever was such a 
 thing! Well, Sir! you haven't told me how you 
 are, though glad to go to your room, I suppose? 
 But, I say, Melinda in spite of all I have said to 
 the Grand Duke, here's Madame Carolina ill again 
 that is, I don't think there is anything the matter 
 with her som'e whim-wham! though if she were to 
 
 687
 
 VIVIAN GHEY BOOK VII 
 
 die, I shouldn't much wonder, breathing the same air 
 over and over again every night, smothered up in 
 that state-bed. I told the Grand Duke this morn- 
 ing, for the hundredth time, that bed-curtains were 
 the origin of every disease, and that if he doesn't 
 order away those heavy hangings, he may find a 
 Court physician where he can. Where's Theresa, 
 that she doesn't come to show Mr. Grey his room? 
 He's tired to death I dare say ; just as I said no- 
 thing of him! no stamina! Pray Sir, what sort of 
 man was your father ? how much did he weigh ? J 
 
 ' This way, Sir, if you please,' said a little thin old 
 woman, in a starched ruff and cap ; as she led Vivian 
 down a long passage. ' Mind the step, Sir, if you 
 please ; these old houses are full of them ; master 
 often talks of levelling them, but it's all talk with 
 him, Sir. I have lived in this house fifty years with- 
 out seeing any alteration. This is your room, Sir ; 
 you will remember it by the great beau-pot, which I 
 have put beside your toilet table. I don't know 
 whether you'll find the bed too high at the head, Sir ; 
 we have no curtains, and master does not allow any 
 of us to sleep under eider-down. He has his par- 
 ticularities, and there's no getting him out of an old 
 way. This bottle is rose-water, Sir, for your face ; 
 and this is eau de Cologne of my own making. 
 There is a bell, Sir. I wish you good day!' 
 
 Although Vivian's toilet was far from being a 
 complicated one, a considerable time elapsed before 
 it was completed. Indeed he found some difficulty, 
 even in taking off his coat ; for every exertion of 
 his arms set him sliding a yard or two on the highly- 
 polished floor, and in five minutes, he had unwit- 
 tingly described all the complicated figures of a first 
 rate skaiter. He first flew up agairrst a large em- 
 
 688
 
 CHAPTER V VIVIAN GREY 
 
 broidered fire-screen, which the delicate fingers of 
 
 * O 
 
 some female von Spittergen had, ages ago, covered 
 with carnations and ranunculuses ; and then whirling 
 through the mazes of a figure of eight, he nearly 
 drove his elbow through a small pane of the heavy- 
 framed window. A semi-circle brought him in con- 
 tact with the foot of his low bed, from which he 
 bounded off at a right angle, and found himself 
 seated in a high-backed, carved oaken chair. Here, 
 while he sat forming plans for reaching the so-often 
 missed toilet-table, the sound of the dinner-bell made 
 him desperate ; and thinking that he could best se- 
 cure his steps by walking fearlessly over the floor, 
 he made a courageous advance, which ended in up- 
 setting Mistress Theresa's beau-pot. Scarcely flat- 
 tering himself that the good lady would suspect a 
 favourite cat of the injury done to her toilet garni- 
 ture, Vivian, in a precipitate retreat forgot the fatal 
 step, of which he had been previously warned, and 
 measured his length in the corridor. 
 
 'WELL, Mr. Grey!' said the Doctor, as Vivian en- 
 tered the dining-room, c have you been asleep after 
 your ride, or has Mistress Theresa, according to her 
 usual custom, being showing you the family curio- 
 sities?' 
 
 * Neither the one nor the other, Doctor ; but I 
 was delayed in my room.' 
 
 4 Ah ! I don't want any explanation. I hate ex- 
 planations. What sort of an appetite have you 
 got?' 
 
 * Oh ! a very good one ; and I have no doubt that 
 I shall do full justice to ' 
 
 2X 689
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 ' Ah ! you need not tell me what you are going to 
 do. Come, sit down to the table. Melinda, give 
 me some soup and Mr. Grey, I'll thank you for an 
 outside slice of that beef in it and Francis, bring 
 me some sour kraut, and those stewed apricots from 
 the side table.' 
 
 While Miss von Spittergen was helping Vivian, 
 the Doctor proceeded to chop and mash up all these 
 contrasting viands in his large soup plate. Four 
 spoonfuls emptied it, before his guest had tasted a 
 mouthful ; for, though in violation of all etiquette, 
 Vivian could not take his eyes off the owner of the 
 appetite. His astonishment did not escape notice. 
 
 'What are you looking at?' asked the Doctor, 
 gruffly. ' You had better eat your own dinner than 
 stare at me.' 
 
 ' I beg pardon, but ' 
 
 ' Ah! don't beg pardon. I hate apologies.' 
 
 Vivian, much confused, turned round to his fairer 
 neighbour ; and, to his horror, found that she was 
 consuming her dinner after the same fashion, thoug^ 
 it must be confessed not with equal rapidity of exe- 
 cution. 
 
 ' You see your dinner, Mr. Grey,' said Miss von 
 Spittergen. ' We never consider any one a stranger. 
 Shall I give you some more soup?' 
 
 ' More soup ! what is he going to dine off soup ? 
 Why don't you give him some beef, and cream, and 
 kid, and custard ? He must eat.' 
 
 ' Yes, Doctor, I thank you ; I will taste your good 
 dishes but not all at once.' 
 
 'Pish! what should you know about it! You 
 eat your dinner on a wrong principle, or rather on no 
 principle at all. Take all that you want on your 
 plate at once. I suppose, if you were set down to a 
 
 690
 
 CHAPTER VI VIVIAN GREY 
 
 venison pasty, you would eat the flour and water, 
 and butter and balls, and eggs and truffles, and wine 
 and spices, and fat and flesh, all separately! that's 
 your notion of feeding, is it ? What are you laugh- 
 ing at?' 
 
 ' Do you, then, recommend Doctor ' 
 
 ' Recommend ! I recommend nothing ! what's the 
 use of recommending ? people never attend.' 
 
 ' But I will attend, Doctor,' said Vivian. ' Re- 
 member, I am already an obedient patient ; there- 
 fore, I believe I shall trouble you, Miss von Spitter- 
 gen, in the first place, for a small slice of that kid ' 
 
 1 Couldn't take any thing worse ! no nourishment 
 in it! How comes it here, Melinda?' 
 
 c Well then, Doctor, I'll follow your example, and 
 take some of the beef.' 
 
 ' Ah ! you should have begun with it at once : 
 better late than never though. You have been badly 
 managed, I see that ! Stay with us a month ; we'll 
 soon get you round. Now, you must have some of 
 your physic! Francis, give Mr Grey the wine.' 
 
 ' Perhaps I may have the honour of taking a glass 
 with you, Miss von Spittergen ?' asked Vivian. 
 
 { Taking a glass with her ! what's the matter with 
 her, that she is to take wine ?' 
 
 ' Possibly you are not aware, Mr. Grey,' said Miss 
 von Spittergen, c that in this house we never take 
 wine, except as a medicine : let me join you in my 
 usual beverage.' 
 
 { A glass of filtered water ! ' growled the doctor ; 
 if you are a wise man, you'll make that your drink ; 
 that is, as soon as we have made something of you.' 
 
 'Filtered water!' exclaimed Vivian, with sur- 
 prise. 
 
 ' Yes, filtered water! who the deuce drinks water 
 691
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 without filtering it ? I suppose you are fond of fat- 
 tening yourself with the scum of eels, vipers, lizards, 
 newts, tadpoles, frogs, rats, and all other filth, animal 
 and vegetable.' 
 
 ' If water contain all these monsters and horrors,' 
 said Vivian laughing, c I should have thought that 
 it would have been the favourite beverage of your 
 system, Doctor. Is it not correct, then, to drink 
 all things at once, as well as eat them ? But surely,' 
 continued Vivian, ' a glass of spring water must be 
 free from all these disgusting appurtenances.' 
 
 c Pish ! it shows how much you know about the 
 matter. Did 'you ever see a drop of water through 
 a microscope? You haven't, eh? I thought not. 
 Melinda, after dinner show him the microscope. 
 We'll amuse you as well as we can.' 
 
 Dinner being over, the Doctor retired to his study, 
 and Miss von Spittergen and Vivian agreed to take 
 a stroll. 
 
 ' Now, Mr. Grey,' said the lady, { you must know 
 that I am a great walker. Some dislike moving 
 after dinner ; but if that be not your case, I propose 
 taking you my usual round : and first of all, as I see 
 Peter coming out of the stable, I wish to say a word 
 to him about Marcus Aurelius.' Miss von Spitter- 
 gen proceeded to give directions for all her horse's 
 shoes to be taken off overnight, and his frogs looked 
 to in the morning. c Now,' continued she, ' I must 
 see how they go on with their wood-stacking. We 
 have lately had a fall of beech-wood ; and although 
 all of us have been busily picking and splitting for 
 the last week, we have not yet finished. It is very 
 important that the stacks should be well piled. Last 
 year, when I was absent, and trusted the business to 
 our neighbour's steward, we had more than half our 
 
 692
 
 CHAPTER VI VIVIAN GREY 
 
 stock spoiled by the rains, and a great quantity be- 
 sides fell over. I admire nothing more than a well- 
 stacked pile of wood. It is always a sign of good 
 management.' 
 
 * I am ashamed to own,' said Vivian, c how igno- 
 rant I am upon all these points ; though I assure you 
 I do not the less admire your perfect acquaintance 
 with the subject. To me, it is equally new and de- 
 lightful to see a lady so completely interesting her- 
 self in her domestic economy.' 
 
 ' There is little merit in my exertions ;' said Miss 
 von Spittergen. c Although I am, at the present 
 moment, extremely fond of the life I lead, necessity, 
 not choice, first made me mistress of these details. 
 Their acquisition is, at least, a proof of the truth of 
 my observations of this morning ; though, I sup- 
 pose, according to your theory,' continued Miss von 
 Spittergen, smiling ; ' to direct a fall of wood or the 
 thatching of a granary, which I must superintend to- 
 morrow morning, are not very meritorious actions ; 
 I being, in a great measure, enabled to interfere in 
 such affairs, from the possession of that unfortunate 
 physical strength, which, if you remember, Mr. Grey, 
 is no proof or excellence.' 
 
 The walk lasted some hours ; there was much 
 done much said. The fields, the meadows, the 
 orchards, the woods, all demanded some care, and 
 received some superintendence. Many men were to 
 be instructed, and ordered and directed. One field 
 was to lie fallow, another to be sown with different 
 seed. The cattle were to change their meadows. 
 Some woods were to be counted, some hills to be 
 planted. On all these affairs, and on all these sub- 
 jects, Miss von Spittergen was the directing head. 
 No one applied to her, and returned unsatisfied : 
 
 693
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 every one received a ready answer. Yet with all 
 these calls upon her attention and her judgment, she 
 did not fail to prove a most interesting companion. 
 Her general conversation showed that her mind was 
 highly cultivated and accomplished. She also de- 
 tailed to Vivian, as passing objects gave rise to the 
 subject, the various plans of her father and herself, 
 for the amelioration of the condition of their ten- 
 ants, which they wished principally to bring about by 
 extricating them from the harassing restraints of the 
 old feudal system, injurious alike to the landlord 
 and the tenant. Her admiration of Nature also was 
 sincere, and her taste refined. As they walked along, 
 she called her companion's attention to any striking 
 combination and effect a peep at the distant coun- 
 try, through an opening in a deep wood the light 
 of the declining sun, seen through the trunks of a 
 grove of beeches a waterfall caused by a strong 
 brook dashing over some sand rocks, and cooling the 
 boughs of the white-rind willows. Although Vivian, 
 the latter years of his life, had actually lived in a 
 forest, it seemed that he had gained more informa- 
 tion on his much-loved trees in a few hours' walk 
 with Miss von Spittergen, than he had during the 
 whole time that he was roaming about Heidelbergh. 
 He was now strongly reminded of the great differ- 
 ence between reverie, and observation. He remem- 
 bered sitting for hours with his eyes fixed upon a 
 tree, of whose nature he now found himself utterly 
 ignorant ; for Miss von Spittergen spoke of the phy- 
 siology of trees ; and Vivian was ashamed when he 
 confessed his want of knowledge. While he expres- 
 sed his wonder and admiration of much that she 
 said, she promised that in the evening, the micro- 
 scope should elucidate and reveal more. The air 
 
 694
 
 CHAPTER VI VIVIAN GKKY 
 
 was mild and sweet the exercise exhilarating 
 conversation never flagged. Without annoying 
 such a woman with unmeaning compliments, Vivian 
 properly evinced his admiration of Miss von Spitter- 
 gen's accomplishments ; and delicately conveyed to 
 her his sincere declarations that, for a long time, he 
 had not passed a day so agreeably, and with such 
 satisfaction. 
 
 c I told you,' continued Miss von Spittergen, 
 ' that necessity, not choice, first induced me to adopt 
 a mode of life, which now has for me the greatest 
 charms. I passed my earliest years with an uncle, 
 an old baron, in a Gothic castle. A library full of 
 romances soon convinced me that I was born to be a 
 heroine, and that unless I were a heroine, life had 
 no delight. For the common-place realities of life, 
 I entertained a thorough disgust ; I rode all day 
 through my uncle's park and forests in quest of a 
 hero for the romance which I formed in my nightly 
 reveries. I lived in a world of my own creation ; I 
 conversed with no one. My mind was constantly 
 occupied with an impossible idea. Passing my time 
 thus, I formed no conception of the existence of 
 duties. My fellow creatures, if I thought of them 
 at all, were merely the instruments by whose agency 
 I was to pass my life in a constant state of excite- 
 ment. Very short time elapsed, before I was con- 
 vinced that I was a peculiar being, and was ordained 
 to occasion some singular revolution. I expected, 
 every day, the crisis of my fate. About this time 
 my dear and only brother died in battle ; and my 
 mother, overcome by the loss, followed him in a few 
 weeks, to the grave. My desolate parent now de- 
 manded from my uncle, his only remaining child. 
 I left the castle with no reluctance, for I was firmly 
 
 695
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 convinced that my career was now to begin. The 
 appearance of my father, whom I had seen regularly 
 every year, was the first shock to my romance. He 
 was so overwhelmed by his misery, that his terrible 
 grief called forth in me those natural sensations, of 
 the existence of which I was ignorant. You must 
 know, Mr. Grey,' continued Miss von Spittergen, 
 with a smile ; c that I am the most decided enemy 
 of long stories, and therefore I shall cut my own very 
 short. The result of my return to my home is evi- 
 dent to you. To be the consoler, and then the con- 
 fidant, and then the assistant of my father, were quick 
 decrees of my destiny. A mind naturally ardent 
 and enthusiastic, was now, I am sure, well directed ; 
 and has been, I trust, well employed. To my beloved 
 and highly gifted parent, I have endeavoured to be 
 both wife, and son, and daughter. By my exertions, 
 the loss of his dear connexions has not disarranged 
 the accustomed tenour of his life ; nor has his mind 
 been troubled by duties, for which his temper and 
 education have completely unfitted him. Under a 
 rough exterior, he conceals the most generous and 
 beneficent of dispositions ; and in spite of his quaint 
 humour, you cannot live many days with him with- 
 out discovering the cultivation of his intellect. I 
 need not add that my romance was quickly dissipated, 
 and my father has become to me the hero of my 
 reality.' 
 
 Miss von Spittergen entered the house, to arrange 
 her dress for the evening. Vivian remained on the 
 terrace. The red autumnal sun had just sunk over 
 an immense extent of champaign country. The 
 evening mists from the ruddy river were already as- 
 cending, and the towers and steeples of a neighbour- 
 ing city rose black against the shining sky. Sunset 
 
 696
 
 CHAPTER VI VIVIAN GREY 
 
 is the time when memory is most keen ; and as 
 Vivian Grey sat on the marble wall, gazing on the 
 wide landscape, his sorrowing mind was not inactive. 
 Never, until this moment, had he felt how precious, 
 how invaluable, were the possession and the per- 
 formance of a duty! The simple tale of his late 
 companion had roused a thousand thoughts. His 
 early, his insane career, flitted across his mind. He 
 would have stiffled the remembrance with a sigh ; 
 but man is the slave of Memory. He, too, had 
 thought himself a peculiar creature : he, too, had 
 lived in a world of his own creation : he, too, had 
 sacrificed himself to an idea: he, too, had looked 
 upon his fellow-creatures as the puppets of his will. 
 Would that his reveries had been as harmless as this 
 maiden's ! Would that he could compensate for his 
 errors, and forget his follies in a life of activity, of 
 usefulness, of beneficence! To the calm satisfac- 
 tion and equal tenor of such a life, why had he madly 
 preferred the wearing anxiety, the consuming care, 
 the eternal vigilance, the constant contrivance, the 
 agonizing suspense, the distracting vicissitudes of 
 Ins own career? Alas! it is our nature to sicken, 
 from our birth, after some object of unattainable 
 felicity to struggle through the freshest years of 
 our life in an insane pursuit after some indefinite 
 crood, which does not even exist! But sure, and 
 quick, is the dark hour which cools our doting 
 frenzy in the frigid waves of the ocean of Oblivion ! 
 We dream of immortality until we die. Ambition! 
 at thy proud and fatal altar, we whisper the secrets of 
 our mighty thoughts, and breathe the aspirations of 
 our inexpressible desires. A clouded flame licks up 
 the offering of our ruined souls, and the sacn 
 vanishes in the sable smoke of Death. 
 
 697
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 But where are his thoughts wandering? Had he 
 forgot that day of darkest despair ? There had that 
 happened to him, which had happened to no other 
 man. In the conflict of his emotions he ceased to rea- 
 son. This moment he believed himself the slave of 
 Destiny, and the next, the sport of Chance. Sad, 
 and serious, and wavering, Vivian entered the house, 
 uncertain of everything except his misery. 
 
 He found Dr. von Spittergen and his agreeable 
 daughter at the tea-table. 
 
 ' Well, Mr. Grey,' said the Doctor, ' which do 
 you prefer? the Ficki-tsiaa, or the Ben-tsiaa?' 
 
 ' Really, Sir, I am almost afraid to avow, that I 
 am perfectly ignorant of what you are talking about.' 
 
 ' Perfectly ignorant of what I am talking about 1 
 Why, Melinda, here is Mr. Grey drinking tea every 
 day of his life, and does hot know the proper name of 
 it, even when he hears it mentioned ; and he belongs 
 to a tea-drinking nation too ! ' 
 
 ' Why, my good Sir, I know the difference be- 
 tween black, and green tea.' 
 
 ' How do you know that there is a difference ? 
 Linnaeus says there is : Thunberg says there is not. 
 If you can decide, pray instruct us.' 
 
 f I believe,' said Vivian, ' there is no nation which 
 drinks more tea, and knows less of its nature and 
 culture, than the English. We are always satisfied 
 to take what is given us for black or green.' 
 
 * You are not so easy to be dealt with about wine 
 though,' said the Doctor, laughing : ' merely to be 
 aware of the difference between red and white wine 
 is, I imagine, information not sufficiently definite to 
 tempt an Englishman to taste it ; and why should 
 you be less particular about tea? of which you re- 
 ceive in your country eight or nine different kinds. 
 
 698
 
 CHAPTER VI VIVIAN GREY 
 
 I suppose you are so indifferent about it, because 
 you drink it twice a-day, and wine only once! Ho! 
 ho o o o !' This was the learned doctor's laugh : 
 something like the hoot of a facetious owl. 
 
 ' Well, my dear father,' said Miss von Spittergen, 
 1 the best way to teach Mr. Grey the difference will 
 be, to* give him a basin of your curious Ficki-tsiaaS 
 
 ' Yes : and while you make it, I'll tell him what 
 it means. As society is divided into three classes,' 
 continued the Doctor, ' so are there three different 
 gatherings of tea, suited to the quality of each, 
 suppose you know that tea is the leaf of a shrub? 
 The first gathering commences in the beginning of 
 March, when the leaves are small and tender, not 
 more than four days' growth. This kind you are 
 going to drink the Ficki-tsiaa, or imperial, kept for 
 the Court and the people of quality. This was 
 given to me by a young Prince of Orange, who sick- 
 ened at our Court. No wonder! He thought I 
 had saved his life; I only sent him home. The 
 second gathering takes place in the beginning of 
 April. The leaves are then pretty well grown. This 
 they call Too-tsiaa: this infusion is good enough for 
 the middling classes. And in June, all the leaves 
 which have not been stripped off for their betters, 
 get tou^h and pungent, and are left for the mob, and 
 this they call Ben-tsiaa; and I think it is the best of 
 all. We always drink it ; don't we, Melinda?' 
 
 Vivian, though very much amused by the Doctor's 
 lecture, could not help watching his fair daughter, 
 whose novel method of infusing this very rare bever- 
 acre not a little surprised him. Miss von Spittergen 
 fi?st filled a cup with boiling water, and then threi 
 into it a teaspoonful of powder, which she took out 
 of a small porcelain vase. She stirred the powde 
 
 699
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 in the water till the liquid began to foam, and then 
 she offered the cup to Vivian. 
 
 ( Drink it off!' said the Doctor ; * and let us hear 
 how you like Ficki-tsiaaS 
 
 'But are not all these particles to settle first?' 
 asked Vivian, who was rather fearful of the boiling 
 draught. 
 
 c I suppose,' said the Doctor, < you let all your 
 vegetables settle in your soup, before your delicacy 
 can venture to sip it Drink it off, man ! Perhaps 
 you think it is like that confounded stuff made in 
 England, called bohea, which deposits in every cup 
 a mash of sloe-leaves ! ' 
 
 The Doctor drank plentifully of his favourite 
 Ben-tsiaa, and praised the shrub in proportion to his 
 enjoyment. He compared it with wine, on which 
 latter beverage he wreaked his spleen without mercy, 
 enumerating all the evils which the immoderate use 
 of fermented liquors produces ; while tea, on the con- 
 trary, he declared would contribute more to the so- 
 briety of a nation, than the severest laws, the most 
 eloquent sermons, or the best moral treatises. It 
 was a perfect antidote to intemperance. The man 
 who relishes tea, seldom wants wine. 
 
 Vivian reminded Miss von Spittergen of her pro- 
 mise about the microscope and the trees ; and in a 
 few minutes they were busily examining a cutting of 
 ash. She first pointed out to him the bark, and de- 
 scribed its uses ; and then explained the sap-vessels, 
 the lymph-ducts, the great and lesser air-vessels, the 
 pith, and the true wood. She also pointed out the 
 annual rings which mark the age of the tree, and 
 showed likewise a dissected leaf, exhibiting the nerves 
 branching out into innumerable small threads ; and 
 explained to him how the pores in the leaf served 
 
 700
 
 CHAPTER VI VIVIAN GREY 
 
 both for perspiration and absorption. Vivian was 
 quite surprised to discover the proximity in the 
 economy of vegetable and animal life. It appeared 
 to him, that, with the exception of sensibility and 
 motion, one system was nearly as complete as the 
 other. Nor, while he found himself acquiring so 
 much new information, could he help mournfully 
 feeling, how very different an acquaintance with the 
 World is, to a knowledge of Nature. 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE acquaintance between Master Rodolph and Ess- 
 per George had been renewed with as much cordia- 
 lity as that between their respective masters. When 
 one man is wealthy, and another agreeable, intimacy 
 soon ensues. The Wit is delighted with the good 
 dishes of the man of wealth, and the man of wealth 
 with the good sayings of the Wit. Such friendships, 
 in general, are as lasting, as they are quickly cemen- 
 ted. They are formed on equal terms. Each party 
 has some failing to be excused, as each has some good 
 quality to recommend him. While the pun of the 
 Wit is bartered for the pasty of his host, he can en- 
 dure the casual arrogance of the master of the feast, 
 provided he may occasionally indulge in a little malice 
 of his own. 
 
 A place was never wanting for Essper George at 
 the table of the former Steward of the Prince of 
 Little Lilliput ; or, as he was now styled, the Inten- 
 dant of his Excellency the Grand Marshal ; and as 
 the worthy Master Rodolph pressed with vehem- 
 ence his pursy sides, from a well-founded apprehen- 
 sion that his frequently-excited laughter might dis- 
 turb the organization of his stupendous system, he 
 
 701
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 felt that the good stories of Essper George amply 
 repaid him for his often-exercised hospitality. But 
 it was not merely his laughter-loving humour that 
 occasioned Essper's company to be acceptable to his 
 friend the Intendant. Easily as Master Rodolph was 
 tickled by a jest, and remarkable as was his quickness 
 in detecting the point of a very evident joke, the 
 facetious qualities of Essper George were not the 
 only causes which gained our hero's valet a welcome 
 reception at all times in the Steward's hall. Caesar 
 loved to be surrounded by sleek men ; the Intendant 
 of the Grand Marshal by short ones. Five feet five 
 inches, exactly Master Rodolph's own height, was, 
 according to the worthy Steward's theory of the beau- 
 tiful, a perfect altitude. Nevertheless, a stature 
 somewhat beneath this model ever found favour in 
 his sight. In short, a tall man was Master Ro- 
 dolph's aversion ; and it was the study of his life, that 
 his friends and boon companions should be shorter 
 than himself. For many years his intimate friend 
 was the late Princess of Little Lilliput's dwarf. 
 When their mistress died, Master Rodolph's friend, 
 either through grief for her loss, or from water in 
 his head, it was never decided which, c set also his 
 foot within grim Charon's boat.' Master Rodolph 
 was in despair. There was not a full grown indivi- 
 dual at Turriparva under six feet two ; and even the 
 young Prince Maximilian, although still much be- 
 neath the due limit, grew so apace, that, as all were 
 perpetually observing, there was a very fair chance of 
 his rivalling in height old Ernestus von Little Lilli- 
 put himself the founder of the family whose ar- 
 mour, still rusting in the Giant's Hall, proved that 
 the stature of the great figures themselves was not 
 ideal. The hospitable Prince himself could not 
 
 702
 
 CHAPTER VII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 therefore welcome the presence of his preserver in 
 his own castle with greater joy, than did Master Ro- 
 dolph the presence of that preserver's valet. Essper 
 George, he immediately determined, was a good three 
 inches shorter than himself: eternal friendship was 
 the instant consequence. At first Essper, who of 
 course could not be intuitively aware of the foible 
 of Master Rodolph, seized every opportunity of 
 maintaining and proving, that the good Steward was 
 much the shortest of the two ; and as the knave could 
 stand and walk on his toes the whole day, with the 
 greatest facility, and without the least chance of 
 detection, he found little difficulty, the first day, in 
 making his kind host extremely miserable. But 
 four-and-twenty hours could not elapse without Ess- 
 per discovering that, which was as constantly the 
 subject of Master Rodolph's thought and conversa- 
 tion, as the hitherto unseen, and unmet, and unheard 
 of ' stouter man,' was of the dreams and researches 
 of Dr. von Spittergen. Consequently, on the second 
 day of his visit at Turriparva, Mr. Essper George 
 sunk down to his natural height ; confessed, and con- 
 tinually dwelt on the superiority of Master Rodolph ; 
 and was daily rewarded for the shortness of his stat- 
 ure, and the candour of his disposition, by the best 
 wines and choicest dishes that Turriparva could 
 afford. 
 
 On the day that his master dined with Dr. von 
 Spittergen, Essper George had made a particular en- 
 gagement with Mr. Intendant, to drink the health of 
 the new Grand Marshal, over a bottle of the very 
 Burgundy, by the influence of which they had, a few 
 weeks before, discovered his treason. Accordingly, 
 about four hours after noon, Essper found himself in 
 Master Rodolph's private room. He was introduced 
 
 73
 
 VIVIAN GUKY BOOK VII 
 
 to two strangers the first, Mr. Speigelburg, was 
 about five feet four inches and a half high. He was 
 a decayed gentleman-usher, who had retired on a 
 pension of eighty dollars per annum. Although 
 this stipend may be considered a very scanty one, 
 by some who incumber the civil list of this country, 
 nevertheless Mr Speigelburg contrived, not only to 
 exist without incurring debts to his tradesmen or his 
 friends, but even to procure the reputation of being a 
 man who lived within his income ; and this, too, 
 without the suspicion of being a niggard. The full 
 Court-suit in which he now bowed to Essper George, 
 although the very one in which he had assisted at the 
 entrance of the Emperor Napoleon into Reisenburg, 
 was still not unworthy of a Royal drawing-room. 
 His shoes were the most highly polished in the city, 
 his buckles the brightest, his linen the most pure. 
 If the expenses of his wardrobe did not materially 
 reduce his hard-earned pension of eighty crowns, 
 assuredly the cost of living, naturally fond as Mr. 
 Speigelburg was -of good cheer, was likewise no great 
 obstacle to his saving passion. A prudently- 
 cherished friendship, of old standing, with the Court - 
 cook, insured the arrival of a welcome hamper more 
 than once during the week, at his neat lodging ; and 
 besides this, Mr. Speigelburg was as systematic and 
 as schooled a diner-out, as if he had been born and 
 bred in Brook Street. His former connexion, and 
 present acquaintance with the Court, allowed him to 
 garnish his conversation with many details interest- 
 ing to the females of the humbler bourgeoisie. With 
 them, indeed, from his various little accomplish- 
 ments, Mr. Speigelburg was an especial favourite ; 
 and a Sunday party to the Royal Retreat, or the 
 Royal Farm, or a Sunday promenade on the Ram- 
 
 704
 
 CHAPTER VII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 parts, or in the Public Gardens, was never thought 
 complete without his presence. His highly-polished 
 and obliging manners, his facetious humour, his good 
 stories, on which he very much prided himself, and 
 in which frequent repetition had rendered him very 
 perfect, and above all the dignified and rather con- 
 sequential bearing which he knew well when to as- 
 sume, made him as popular and considered a person- 
 age with the men, as with their wives. But the 
 brightest moment in Mr. Speigelburg's existence, 
 was the apostacy of the Prince of Little Lilliput. In 
 due time he had been introduced by the Intendant of 
 his Excellency the Grand Chamberlain, to the Inten- 
 dant of his Excellency the Grand Marshal ; and 
 Master Rodolph no sooner set his eyes upon him, 
 than he internally vowed that Mr. Speigelburg 
 should dine at the Prince's expense as long as his 
 master continued a great Officer of state, and he 
 that master's Intendant. Such was one of the 
 guests invited to meet our friend Essper George. 
 The other was a still more singular looking 
 personage. 
 
 When Essper was introduced to Mr. Lintz, a con- 
 siderable time elapsed before he perceived a figure, 
 which he considered to be a child, bowing to him 
 without ceasing, in the corner of the room. Had 
 Essper George been a longer resident in Reisenburg, 
 an introduction to Mr. Lintz would have been un- 
 necessary. Indeed, that gentleman had already 
 called upon Vivian, though hitherto, unfortunately, 
 without succeeding in seeing him. Mr., or to use a 
 title by which he was better known, Little Lintz, was 
 one of those artists whose fame is indissolubly 
 bound up with that of their native city ; and who 
 seem to value no reputation which is not liberally 
 
 2V "705
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 shared with the place of their residence. The pencil 
 of Mr. Lintz immortalised the public buildings of 
 Reisenburg, and the public buildings of Reisenberg 
 supported their artist. ' The Grand Square, the 
 Royal Palace, the Public Gardens, and the Grand 
 Hotel of the Four Nations ' these were the con- 
 stant, the only subjects of Mr. Lintz's pencil. Few 
 were the families in the city whose rooms, or whose 
 collections, were not adorned or enriched with these 
 accurate representations. Few were the travellers 
 who sojourned at the Hotel, who were allowed to 
 quit its hospitable roof unaccompanied by a set of 
 Mr. Lintz's drawings. The discreet discrimination 
 of the artist in the selection of his subjects, of course 
 made the landlord of the Four Nations his sworn 
 friend and warmest patron. On quitting the house, 
 it was as regular an affair to encourage the Arts, as 
 to fee the waiters. With this powerful patronage, 
 Little Lintz of course flourished. Day after day 
 passed over, only to multiply his already innumer- 
 able and favourite four views. Doubtless Little 
 Lintz could have given a most faithful representa- 
 tion of every brick of the Great Square of Reisen- 
 burg with his eyes shut. In spite of his good fortune, 
 and unlike most artists, Little Lintz was an extremely 
 modest and moral personage. Not being much 
 above four feet and a half high, Master Rodolph had, 
 of course, immediately sunned him with the rays of 
 his warmest patronage. Orders were showered down 
 and invitations sent in, with profusion and rapidity. 
 Every member of the Grand Marshal's household 
 was obliged, as a personal favour to the Intendant, 
 to take a set of the four views. Every room in the 
 Grand Marshal's house was graced by their eternal 
 presence ; and as for the artist himself, free war- 
 
 706
 
 CHAPTER VII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 ren of cellar and larder was immediately granted 
 him. 
 
 Perhaps a merrier party never met together than 
 these four little men. Mr. Speigelburg, who was 
 well primed for the occasion, let off a good story be- 
 fore the first bottle was finished. The salute was 
 immediately returned by Essper George. Master 
 Rodolph presented the most ludicrous instance of 
 ungoverned mirth ; and laying down his knife and 
 fork, vowed that they were * in truth a pair of most 
 comical knaves.' Little Lintz said nothing, but he 
 sat biting his lips, lest laughter should destroy his 
 miniature lungs ; his diminutive hands and eyes, 
 ever and anon raised up in admiration of the wit of 
 his companions, and his heels resting on the bar of 
 his chair. No one, at first, was more surprised and 
 less pleased with Essper George's humour, than Mr. 
 Speigelburg himself. A rival Wit is the most bit- 
 terly detested of mortals ; and the little old courtier, 
 alarmed at the rapidity and point of Essper's narra- 
 tives and repartees, began to think that the poacher 
 on his manor might prove almost too strong for the 
 game laws ; and so Mr. Speigelburg drew up in his 
 seat, and grew dull and dignified. But a very short 
 time elapsed ere Mr. Speigelburg discovered that 
 Essper George was neither envious of his reputa- 
 tion, nor emulous of rivaling it ; and that his jokes 
 and jollity were occasioned rather by the o'erflowings 
 of a merry spirit, than by any dark design to super- 
 sede him in the favour of their host. No one laughed 
 at Mr. Speigelburg's stories with more thorough en- 
 thusiasm no one detected the point of Mr. Speigel- 
 burg's jests with more flattering celerity, than the 
 man whom he had at first mistaken for an odious 
 and a dangerous rival. Mr. Speigelburg's present 
 
 707
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 satisfaction was in proportion to his previous discon- 
 tent, and he and Essper were soon on the most inti- 
 mate terms. 
 
 The Burgundy in due time produced every regu- 
 lar effect, and the little men made noise enough for 
 as many Brobdingnags. First they talked very loud, 
 then they sang very loud ; then they talked all to- 
 gether very loud, then they sang all together very 
 loud. Such are four of the five gradations of Bur- 
 gundian inebrity! Burgundy! but we have had 
 invocations enough ; it is a wine of which we know 
 nothing in England. No man should presume to 
 give an opinion upon Burgundy, who has not got 
 tipsy at Dijon. In the course of half a dozen hours 
 one of the party experienced some inconvenient 
 symptoms of an approach to the fifth and final grada- 
 tion. Master Rodolph began to get very drowsy ; 
 the fat Chambertin was doing its duty. In order to 
 rouse himself from his stupor, the Intendant pro- 
 posed that they should amuse themselves with a little 
 Zwicken ; but as this game was no favourite with 
 Mr. Speigelburg, the party finally resolved to sit 
 down to Whist. 
 
 The table was cleared, and Essper was Rodolph's 
 partner. The Intendant managed to play through 
 the game very well, and to Mr. Speigelburg's morti- 
 fication, won it. He would probably have been 
 equally successful in the rubber, had he remained 
 awake ; but invincible sleep at last crept over Master 
 Rodolph's yielding senses, and although he had two 
 by honours in his own hand, he snored. Oh, Bur- 
 gundy ! but I forgot I will go on with my story. 
 
 No sooner had the nasal sound of Master Rodolph 
 caught the ever-ready ear of Essper George, than 
 that wicked knave quickly pressed his finger to his 
 
 708
 
 CHAPTER VII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 mouth, and winking to Mr. Speigelburg and little 
 Lintz, immediately obtained silence, a silence which 
 was not disturbed by the soundless whisper in which 
 Essper spoke to both his companions. What he was 
 detailing or suggesting, time will reveal ; his violent 
 gesticulation, animated action, and the arch and mis- 
 chievous expression of his countenance, promised 
 much. Apparently the other guests readily acceded 
 to his proposition, and Essper George accordingly 
 extinguished the two candles. As there was no fire, 
 and the shutters were closed, the room was now in 
 perfect darkness. 
 
 'Play!' shouted Essper George in a loud voice, 
 and he dashed his fist upon the table. 
 
 4 Play ! ' halloed Mr. Speigelburg. 
 
 ' Play ! ' even screamed Little Lintz. 
 
 ' What, what, what's the matter ?' mumbled Mas- 
 ter Rodolph, rubbing his eyes and fumbling for his 
 cards. 
 
 ' Play ! ' again shouted Essper George. 
 
 ' Play ! ' again halloed Mr. Speigelburg. 
 
 < Play ! ' again screamed Little Lintz. 
 
 ' Play ! ' said Master Rodolph, who was now pretty 
 well awake. ' Play! play what?' 
 
 ' Why, a diamond if you have got one,' said Ess- 
 per George. ' Can't you see ? Are you blind ? 
 Hasn't Mr. Speigelburg led a diamond ?' 
 
 * A diamond!' said Master Rodolph. 
 
 ' Yes, a diamond to be sure ; why what's the mat- 
 ter with you? I thought you played the last trick 
 very queerly.' 
 
 ' I can't see,' said Master Rodolph, in a very dole- 
 ful voice. 
 
 * Come, come!' said Essper ; ' let us have no jok- 
 ing. It is much too important a point in the game 
 
 709
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 to warrant a jest. Play a diamond if you have one, 
 and if not, trump!' 
 
 { You have no right to tell your partner to trump,' 
 said Mr. Speigelburg, with mock indignation ; for 
 he had entered into the conspiracy with readiness, as 
 he now saw a chance, by its concoction, of saving 
 himself from losing the rubber. 
 
 ' He has a right to tell his partner any thing,' said 
 Master Rodolph, equally indignant at this interfer- 
 ence ; ' But I tell you I can't see.' 
 
 'Can't see!' said Essper George; 'what do you 
 mean ?' 
 
 4 1 mean exactly what I say,' said Master Rodolph, 
 somewhat testy. ' I can't see ; I am not joking the 
 least. I can't see a single pip of a single card. Have 
 I been asleep?' 
 
 'Asleep!' said Essper George, in a tone of ex- 
 treme surprise. ' It's an odd thing for a man to be 
 asleep, and play every card as regularly as you have 
 done, and as well too. I never remember you play- 
 ing so well as you have done to-night ; that finesse 
 with the spade last trick, was quite admirable. Had 
 you only played half as well, the night you and I sat 
 against Long Halbert and Sax the pikeman, the 
 night, you remember, in the yellow room at Turri- 
 parva, I should not have lost a silver dollar. But 
 what has having been asleep to do with it ?' continued 
 Essper. ' Had you slept for a century, your eyes are 
 open wide enough now. Why you stare like a pig 
 four and twenty hours before salting. Speigelburg, 
 did you ever see a man stare so in all your life ? 
 Little Lintz, did you?' 
 
 'Never!' said Speigelberg with enthusiasm; the 
 rubber was now certainly saved. 
 
 ' Never ! ' screamed Little Lintz. 
 710
 
 CHAPTER VII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 ' I. have been asleep,' said Master Rodolph, in a 
 very loud, and rather angry voice ; ' I have been 
 asleep I am asleep you are all asleep we are all 
 talking in our sleep a'n't we?' 
 
 c Talking in our sleep!' said Essper George, affect- 
 ing to be stifled with laughter ; ' well ! this is what 
 I call carrying a joke rather too far. Come, Master 
 Rodolph, play like a man.' 
 
 ' Yes, yes!' said Mr. Speigelburg ; ' play, play.' 
 
 4 Yes, yes!' said Little Lintz ; ' play, play.' 
 
 < How can I play?' said Master Rodolph, his 
 anger now turning into alarm. 
 
 'Why, with your hands to be sure!' said Essper 
 George. 
 
 ' Good Master Rodolph,' said Mr. Speigelburg, 
 in rather a grave tone, as if he were slightly offen- 
 ded ; ' be kind enough to remember that cards were 
 your own proposition. I have no wish to continue 
 playing if it be disagreeable to you ; nor have I any 
 objection, if it be your pleasure, although I have a 
 very good hand, to throw up my cards altogether. 
 What say you, Mr. Lintz?' 
 
 ' No objection at all,' said the little man ; biting 
 his lips in the dark with renewed vigour. 
 
 ' Thank you, Mr. Speigelburg,' said Essper 
 George ; ' but I, and my partner, have a great objec- 
 tion to your throwing up your cards. If you are 
 satisfied with your hand, so much the better : I am 
 satisfied with mine. I am sure, however, your part- 
 ner cannot be with his ; for I see nothing but twos 
 and threes in it. Now, do me the favour, Mr. Lintz, 
 to hold your cards nearer to you. There is nothing 
 I detest so much as seeing my adversary's hand. I 
 say this, I assure you, not out of any affected admira- 
 tion of fair play ; but the truth is, it really puzzles 
 
 711
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 me. I derive no benefit from this improper know- 
 ledge. Now, do hold your cards up : you really are 
 a most careless player. Nearer, nearer, nearer still!' 
 
 These matter-of-fact observations and requests of 
 Essper George, effectually settled Master Rodolph's 
 brain ; never very acute, and now muddled with 
 wine. 
 
 c Do you mean to say,' asked he, in a most tremu- 
 lous and quavering voice, ( Do you mean to say that 
 you are all seeing at this very moment ?' 
 
 ' To be sure!' was the universal shout. 
 
 ' Every one of us !' continued Essper ; c why, what 
 maggot have you got into your brain! I actually 
 begin to believe that you are not joking after all. 
 Cannot you really see? and yet you stare so! did 
 you ever see a man stare so, Mr. Speigelburg? and 
 now that I look again the colour of your eyes is 
 changed ! ' 
 
 'Is it, indeed?' asked Master Rodolph, with 
 gasping breath. 
 
 ' Oh ! decidedly ; but let us be quite sure. Little 
 Lintz, put that candle nearer to Master Rodolph. 
 Now I can see well ; the light just falls on the pupil. 
 Your eyes, Sir, are changing as fast as the skin of a 
 chameleon ; you know they are green : your eyes, 
 if you remember, are green, Master Rodolph.' 
 
 4 Yes, yes ! ' agreed the Intendant, almost unable to 
 articulate. 
 
 ' They were green, rather,' continued Essper 
 George ; < and now they are crimson ; and now they 
 are a whitish brown ; and now they are as black as a 
 first day's mourning!' 
 
 * Alack and alack-a-day ! it has come at last,' 
 exclaimed Master Rodolph in a voice of great terror. 
 ' We have blindness in our family, if I remember 
 
 712
 
 CHAPTER VII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 right ; if indeed I can remember any thing at this 
 awful moment, and my mind has not left me as well 
 as my eye-sight ; we have blindness in our family. 
 There was my uncle, black Hunsdrich the trooper, 
 the father of that graceless varlet who lives with his 
 lordship of Schoss Johannisberger, whom never 
 shall I see again. What would I now give for one 
 glimpse at his nose! There is blindness in our 
 family!' continued Master Rodolph, weeping very 
 bitterly ; ' blindness in our family ! Black Huns- 
 drich the trooper, the father of that graceless varlet, 
 my good uncle Black Hunsdrich, what would he 
 now say to see his dearly beloved nephew, the off- 
 spring of his excellent sister my good mother, to 
 whom he was much affected, what would he say 
 now, were he to see his dearly beloved nephew in 
 this sad and pitiable condition! Weep for me, my 
 friends! weep and grieve! How often has my 
 dear uncle, Hunsdrich the trooper, how often has 
 he dandled me on his knee! There is blindness in 
 our family,' continued the poor Intendant. ' Black 
 Hunsdrich the trooper, my uncle, my dearly beloved 
 uncle, kind Hunsdrich, who was much affected to 
 me. How much I repent at this sad hour, the 
 many wicked tricks I have played unto my dear 
 uncle! Take example by me, dear friends! I 
 would give my place's worth, that I had not set fire 
 to my dear uncle's pig-tail ; and it sits heavy on my 
 heart at this dark moment, the thought that in priv- 
 acy and behind his back, I was wickedly accustomed 
 to call him Shagface. A kind man was Black Huns- 
 drich the trooper ! His eyes were put out by a pike, 
 fighting against his own party by mistake in the dark 
 there was always blindness in our family!' 
 
 Here Master Rodolph was so overcome by his 
 
 713
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 misfortune, that he ceased to speak, and began to 
 moan very piteously ; Essper George was not less 
 affected, and sobbed bitterly ; Mr. Speigelburg 
 groaned ; Little Lintz whimpered. Essper at length 
 broke silence. 
 
 ' I have been many trades, and learnt many things 
 in my life,' said he, with a very subdued voice ; ' and 
 I am not altogether ignorant of the economy of our 
 visual nerves. I will essay, good Master Rodolph, 
 my dear friend, my much-beloved friend. I will 
 essay, and examine, whether some remnants of a 
 skill once not altogether inglorious, may not produce 
 benefit unto thy good person. Dry thine eyes, my 
 dear Mr. Speigelburg ; and thou, little Mr. Lintz, 
 compose thyself. We cannot control fate ; we are 
 not the masters of our destiny. Terrible is this 
 visitation ; but it becomes us to conduct ourselves 
 like men ; to struggle against misfortune ; and verily 
 to do our best to counteract evil. Good Mr. 
 Speigelburg, do thou hold up and support the head of 
 our much-valued friend ; and thou, kind and little 
 Mr. Lintz, arrange the light, so that it fall full upon 
 his face. (Here Essper, overpowered by grief, 
 paused for a moment.) Well placed, Mr. Lintz! 
 exceedingly well placed! and yet, a little more to 
 the right. Now I will examine these dear eyes.' 
 So saying, Essper, groping his way round Mr. 
 Speigelburg's chair, reached Master Rodolph. 
 ' There is a hope,' continued he, after a pause of a 
 few minutes; 'hope for our much beloved friend. 
 It is not a cataract, and methinks that the sight is not 
 lost. The attack,' continued Essper, in a tone of 
 confident pomposity ; ' the attack is either bilious or 
 nervous. From the colour of our friend's eyes, I 
 at first imagined that it was a sudden rush of bile ; 
 
 7M
 
 CHAPTER VII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 but on examining them more minutely, I am inclined 
 to think otherwise. Give me thy pulse, Master 
 Rodolph ! Hum ! nervous, I think. Show me thy 
 tongue, good Master Rodolph. Hum! very nerv- 
 ous! Does that affect your breath?' asked Essper.; 
 and he gave the little lusty Intendant a stout thrust in 
 his paunch. ' Does that affect thy breath, beloved 
 friend?' 
 
 ' In truth,' answered Master Rodolph, but with 
 great difficulty, for he gasped for breath from the 
 effects of the punch ; ' in truth it very much affects 
 me.' 
 
 ' Hum ! decidedly nervous ! ' said Essper George ; 
 * and a little on the lungs the nerves of the lungs 
 slightly touched : indeed, your whole nervous system 
 is disarranged. Fear not, my good friend, I perfectly 
 understand your case. We will soon cure you. The 
 first thing to be done, is to apply a lotion of a simple, 
 but very peculiar nature, the secret was taught me 
 by a Portuguese and then I must bind your eyes 
 up.' 
 
 Essper now dipped his handkerchief in water, and 
 then bandaged Master Rodolph's eyes with it very 
 tightly. When he had decidedly ascertained that the 
 Intendant's sight was completely suppressed, he 
 sought his way to the door with becoming caution, 
 and soon re-entered the room with a lamp. The ex- 
 tinguished candles were immediately relit. Master 
 Rodolph continued the whole time moaning without 
 ceasing. < Alack-a-day and alack, that it should 
 come to this! Oh! Burgundy is a vile wine! 
 Often have I said to myself that I would never dry 
 another bottle of Burgundy. Why have I deserted, 
 like an ungrateful traitor, my own country liquors! 
 Alack-a-day, and alack ! the whole house will now go
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 to ruin! Tall Halbert will always be back in his 
 accounts ; and as for that rascally Vienna bottle- 
 merchant, he will ever be cheating me in the ex- 
 changes. Much faith have I in thee, good Essper 
 truly much faith. Thy skill is great, and also thy 
 kindness, good Mr. Speigelburg ; and thou too, my 
 little friend ; never more shall I see thy pleasing views 
 of this fair town ! ' 
 
 ' Now, Mr. Speigelburg,' said Essper, * and thou 
 also, kind Mr. Lintz, assist me in moving away the 
 table, and in placing our dearly beloved and much- 
 afflicted friend in the centre of the room ; so that we 
 may all of us have a fair opportunity of witnessing 
 the progress or alteration of his disorder, the shifting 
 of the symptoms, and indeed the general appearance 
 of the case.' 
 
 They accordingly placed Master Rodolph, who was 
 seated in his large easy chair, in the very centre of the 
 room. 
 
 'How feel you now, dear friend?' asked Essper 
 George. 
 
 ( In truth, very low in spirits, but confiding much 
 in thy skill, good Essper. Hast thou hope, I pray 
 thee tell me, or recommendest thou that I should 
 send for some learned professor of this city ? Me- 
 thinks, in the multitude of counsellors there is 
 wisdom!' 
 
 * Yes ! and in the multitude of fees there is ruin. 
 I tell thee, much-loved Master Rodolph, that I under- 
 take thy cure fear not and thy purse shall suffer 
 as little as thy body. But I must find in thee a 
 ready, satisfied, tractable, and confiding patient. The 
 propriety of my directions must not be questioned, 
 and my instructions must be strictly obeyed.' 
 
 c In truth, thou hast only to command, good 
 716
 
 CHAPTER VII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 Essper; but might I not part with this bandage? 
 Methinks thy lotion, simple as thou dost profess it to 
 be, has already produced very marvellous effects ; 
 and I already feel my sight, as it were, struggling 
 through the folds of this linen cincture.' 
 
 ' Take off that bandage,' said Essper, ' and you are 
 stone-blind for life ! ' 
 
 < Alack-a-day ! ' exclaimed Master Rodolph ; ' how 
 awful! In truth there is blindness in our family. 
 Black Hunsdrich the trooper ' 
 
 ' Silence ! ' said the physician ; ' I must seal your 
 mouth for the present.' 
 
 * Alack-a-day ! ' said Master Rodolph ; * in truth, 
 without conversation, life appears to me like a prince 
 without a steward ! ' 
 
 'Hush! hush!' again exclaimed Essper ; 'your 
 attack, good Rodolph, is decidedly nervous, and your 
 cure must be effected by causing an instantaneous re- 
 action of your whole system.' Here Essper whis- 
 pered to Mr. Speigelburg, who immediately quitted 
 the room. * You are perhaps not aware,' continued 
 Essper, ' of the intimate connexion which exists in the 
 human frame, between the pupils of the eyes and the 
 calves of the legs?' 
 
 * Alack-a-day ! ' exclaimed the simple Intendant. 
 
 ' Silence ! silence ! you must listen, not answer : 
 now,' continued he, * the attack in your eyes, good 
 Rodolph, has been occasioned by a sort of cramp in 
 your legs ; and before any of my remedies can pro- 
 duce an effect upon you, a prior effect must be pro- 
 duced by yourself upon the dormant nerves of the 
 calves of your legs. This must be produced also by 
 manual friction before a large fire.' This fire was 
 now being lighted by Mr. Lintz, under Essper's 
 directions. 
 
 717
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 ' Alack-a-day ! ' again burst forth Master Ro- 
 dolph. 
 
 ' Silence ! silence ! ' 
 
 ' I tell you, good Essper, I cannot be silent ; I 
 must speak, if I be blind for it for my whole life. I 
 rub the calves of my legs ! I tell you it would be an 
 easier task for me to rub the Grand Duke's, or 
 Madame Carolina's. I rub the calves of my legs! 
 Why, my dear Essper, I cannot even reach them. It 
 was only last Wednesday, that walking through the 
 Great Square, I saw his Excellency approaching me, 
 when my shoe-string was most unluckily untied. 
 There was no idle boy near to help me, and from the 
 greatness of the exertion, I sank down upon a step. 
 Much fear I that my good Prince credited that I had 
 smelt the wine-cup before dinner. In truth, I think 
 I must again betake myself to buckles. I rub my 
 calves, indeed ! Impossible, my dear Essper ! ' 
 
 * Choose then, between a little temporary incon- 
 venience and eternal blindness. I pledge myself to 
 cure you, but it must be by my own remedies. Im- 
 plicit obedience on your part is the condition of your 
 cure : decide at once ! ' 
 
 ' If then it must be so,' said Master Rodolph, in a 
 very doleful voice ; ' if then it must be so, I must 
 even obey thee. Pray for me, my good friends, I am 
 much afflicted. Awful is this visitation and great 
 this fatigue!' 
 
 In truth the fatigue was great. Imagine an un- 
 wieldy being like Master Rodolph, stooping down 
 before a blazing fire, and rubbing his calves with un- 
 ceasing rapidity ; Essper George standing over him, 
 and preventing him, by constant threats and ever 
 ready admonitions, from flagging in the slightest 
 degree from his indispensable exertions. Poor 
 
 718
 
 CHAPTER VII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 Master Rodolph ! how he puffed and panted, sighed, 
 and sobbed, and groaned ! What rivers of perspira- 
 tion coursed down his ample countenance! But in 
 the midst of his agony, this faithful steward, never, 
 for one moment, ceased deploring the anticipated 
 peculations of tall Halbert, and the certain cheatery 
 of the Vienna merchant. 
 
 While he was in this condition, and thus active, 
 Mr. Speigelburg returned ; and it was with difficulty 
 that the little man could suppress his laughter, when 
 he witnessed his simple host performing this singular 
 ceremony, and making these unusual and almost im- 
 possible exertions. Nor was he assisted in his painful 
 struggle to stifle his indecent mirth, by his eyes light- 
 ing on Little Lintz, who was blowing the fire with 
 unparalleled vigour, and raising his eyes to heaven 
 with increasing wonder at Essper George, who stood 
 opposite Master Rodolph, lolling out his great red 
 tongue at him, winking his eyes, twisting his nose, 
 and distorting his countenance into the most original 
 grimaces. Mr. Speigelburg brought some cigars, 
 and a large jar of hot water. The cigars were im- 
 mediately lighted, and one placed in each side of 
 Master Rodolph's mouth ; tobacco, according to 
 Essper, being a fine stimulant. Little Lintz was set 
 to trim them, and every five minutes he shook off the 
 grey ashes. Master Rodolph was never allowed for 
 a moment to cease exciting the dormant nerves of the 
 calves of his legs. 
 
 The clock struck eleven. 
 
 ' All the symptoms, I am happy to say,' observed 
 Essper, * are good. I have no hesitation in declaring 
 that it is my firm conviction, that our much-valued 
 friend will be reinstated in the possession of one of 
 the greatest blessings of life. Before midnight, I 
 
 719
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 calculate, if he be wise enough to obey all my direc- 
 tions, that he will find his sight restored.' 
 
 4 1 shall die first,' said Master Rodolph, in a very 
 faint voice ; ' I feel sinking every moment ; Adieu, 
 my dear friends ! Little did I think this jovial after- 
 noon, that it would end in this. Adieu!' 
 
 ' We cannot think of quitting you, dearest Master 
 Rodolph ! ' said Essper. ' Do not despair ! exert 
 yourself I beseech you : and never cease from excit- 
 ing the dormant nerves of your calves, until it strike 
 twelve o'clock. The reaction will then have taken 
 place ; but mind you rub low, good Rodolph : reach 
 well down ; you cannot rub too low. I stake my 
 reputation upon your cure. Think of this, and do 
 not despair. Shave that cigar, and mend the fire, 
 Little Lintz ; and now, good Mr. Speigelburg it is 
 time for the last remedy ; and then my good friends, 
 the most profound silence. Not a word from either 
 of you ; you must not even answer a single question.' 
 
 Mr. Speigelburg wanted no fresh instructions, and 
 a stream of warm water was poured down the nape of 
 poor Master Rodolph's neck, with the continuity of 
 a cataract, so that the good steward at last fairly 
 thought that he was born to be drowned. When the 
 great jar was emptied, the confederates sat down to 
 Boston ; the patient, the whole time, continuing his 
 exertions, though almost exhausted, and having no 
 idea that he was not unceasingly watched by his gifted 
 physician and faithful nurses. 
 
 At length Essper rose, and again felt Master Ro- 
 dolph's pulse. ' The important moment is at hand, 
 my dear friend,' said he ; c and I rejoice to say that 
 the symptoms could not be better. Your pulse has 
 recovered, your nerves are rebraced. There!' he 
 pried, jerking off the bandage. 
 
 720
 
 CHAPTER VII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 Master Rodolph gave a loud shout, and in spite of 
 his previous exertions, and without speaking a 
 syllable, jumped upon his legs, and began dancing and 
 hallooing with the most ungoverned enthusiasm. 
 He would have stood upon his head, had not Essper 
 George prevented him ; but the interference of his 
 physician called him a little to himself, and he em- 
 braced his preserver without mercy. Truly that af- 
 fectionate hug of Master Rodolph, revenged all his 
 previous suffering! The good Intendant was fairly 
 beside himself. He gave Mr. Speigelburg such a 
 joyous slap on his back, that the Court-suit suffered 
 more in that one moment, than it had for years ; and 
 as for Little Lintz, he insisted upon putting him in 
 the empty jar. The dwarf ran round the room for 
 his life ; and would decidedly have been potted, had 
 it not been for the stout interference of Mr. Speigel- 
 burg. The little men ended by dancing in a circle, 
 hand-in-hand : no one kicked his heels about with 
 greater spirit than Master Rodolph, and supper was 
 immediately ordered, to celebrate his miraculous 
 recovery. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 VIVIAN quitted the Von Spittergens with regret, and 
 with a promise of a speedy return. He would gladly 
 indeed have lengthened his stay at the present 
 moment ; but a fete which was to be given this even- 
 ing by his Excellency the Grand Marshal, rendered 
 his return necessary. 
 
 After dining with the doctor and his interesting 
 daughter, Vivian mounted Max, and took care not to 
 return to the city by a cross road. He met Emilius 
 von Aslingen in his ride through the gardens. As 
 that distinguished personage at present patronised the 
 22 721
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 English nation, and astounded the Reisenburg natives 
 by driving an English mail, riding English horses, 
 and ruling English grooms, he condescended to be 
 exceedingly polite to our hero, whom he had publicly 
 declared at the soiree of the preceding night, to be ' a 
 very bearable being.' Such a character from such a 
 man, raised Vivian even more in the estimation of the 
 Reisenburg world, than his flattering reception by the 
 Grand Duke, and his cordial greeting by Madame 
 Carolina. 
 
 ' Shall you be at his Excellency the Grand Mar- 
 shal's, to-night?' asked Vivian. 
 
 4 Who is he ?' inquired Mr. Emilius von Aslingen ; 
 ' ah ! that is the new man the man who was medi- 
 atised, is not it ?' 
 
 ' The Prince of Little Lilliput, I mean.' 
 
 c Yes ! ' drawled out Mr. von Aslingen ; ' a bar- 
 barian who lived in a castle in a wood. I shall go if I 
 have courage enough ; but they say his servants wear 
 skins, and he has got a tail. Good morning to you ! 
 I believe he is your friend.' 
 
 The ball-room was splendidly illuminated. Vivian 
 never recollected witnessing a more brilliant scene. 
 The whole of the Royal Family was present, and did 
 honour to their new Officer of state. His Royal 
 Highness was all smiles, and his Consort all diamonds. 
 Stars and uniforms, ribands and orders abounded. 
 All the diplomatic characters wore the different State 
 dresses of their respective Courts. Emilius von 
 Aslingen having given out in the morning, that he 
 should appear as a Captain in the Royal Guards, all 
 the young lords and fops of fashion were consequently 
 ultra militaires. They were not a little annoyed 
 when, late in the evening, their model lounged in, 
 wearing the rich scarlet uniform of a Knight of 
 
 722
 
 CHAPTER VIII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 Malta ; of which newly-revived order, Von Aslingen, 
 who had served half a campaign against the Turks, 
 was a member. 
 
 The Royal Family had arrived only a few minutes : 
 dancing had not yet commenced. Vivian was at the 
 top of the room, honoured by the notice of Madame 
 Carolina, who complained of his yesterday's absence 
 from the palace. Suddenly the universal hum and 
 buzz, which are always sounding in a crowded room, 
 were stilled ; and all present, arrested in their con- 
 versation and pursuits, stood with their heads turned 
 towards the great door. Thither also Vivian looked, 
 and wonderstruck, beheld Mr. Beckendorff. His 
 singular appearance, for with the exception of his 
 cavalry boots, he presented the same figure as when 
 he first came forward to receive the Prince of Little 
 Lilliput and Vivian on the lawn, immediately 
 attracted universal attention ; but in this crowded 
 room, there were a few who, either from actual experi- 
 ence, or accurate information, were not ignorant that 
 this personage was the Prime Minister. The report 
 spread like wildfire. Even the etiquette of a German 
 ball-room, honoured as it was by the presence of the 
 Court, was no restraint to the curiosity and wonder of 
 all present. Yes ! even Emilius von Aslingen raised 
 his glass to his eye, and then, shrugging his 
 shoulders, his eyes to heaven! But great as was 
 Vivian's astonishment, it was not only occasioned by 
 this unexpected appearance of his former host. Mr. 
 BeckendorfF was not alone : a female was leaning on 
 his left arm. A quick glance in a moment convinced 
 Vivian, that she was not the original of the mysteri- 
 ous picture. The companion of Beckendorff was 
 very young. Her full voluptuous growth gave you, 
 for a moment, the impression that she was somewhat 
 
 723
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 low in stature ; but it was only for a moment, for the 
 lady was by no means short. Her beauty it is im- 
 possible to describe. It was of a kind that baffles all 
 phrases, nor have I a single simile at command, to 
 make it more clear, or more confused. Her luxuri- 
 ous form, her blonde complexion, her silken hair, 
 would have all become the languishing Sultana ; but 
 then her eyes, they banished all idea of the Seraglio, 
 and were the most decidedly European, though the 
 most brilliant, that ever glanced : eagles might have 
 proved their young at them. To a countenance 
 which otherwise would have been calm, and perhaps 
 pensive, they gave an expression of extreme vivacity 
 and unusual animation, and perhaps of restlessness 
 and arrogance it might have been courage. The 
 lady was dressed in the costume of a Chanoinesse of a 
 Convent des dames nobles; an institution to which 
 Protestant and Catholic ladies are alike admitted. 
 The orange-coloured cordon of her canonry, was 
 slung gracefully over her plain black silk-dress, and 
 a diamond cross hung below her waist. 
 
 Mr. Beckendorff and his fair companion were in- 
 stantly welcomed by the Grand Marshal ; and 
 Arnelm, and half-a-dozen Chamberlains, all in new 
 uniforms, and extremely agitated, did their utmost, 
 by their exertions in clearing the way, to prevent the 
 Prime-Minister of Reisenburg from paying his re- 
 spects to his Sovereign. At length, however, Mr. 
 Beckendorff reached the top of the room, and pre- 
 sented the young lady to his Royal Highness, and 
 also to Madame Carolina. Vivian had retired on 
 their approach, and now found himself among a set of 
 young officers idolaters of Von Aslingen, and of 
 white hats lined with crimson. ' Who can she be ?' 
 was the universal question. Though all by the query 
 
 724
 
 CHAPTER VIII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 acknowledged their ignorance, yet it is singular that, 
 at the same time, every one was prepared with a 
 response to it. Such are the sources of accurate in- 
 formation ! 
 
 'And that is Beckendorff, is it?' exclaimed the 
 the young Count of Eberstein ; ' and his daughter 
 of course ! Well ; there is nothing like being a 
 plebeian and a Prime Minister! I suppose Becken- 
 dorff will bring an anonymous friend to Court next.' 
 
 ' She cannot be his daughter,' said Bernstorff. < To 
 be a Chanoinesse of that order, remember she must 
 be noble.' 
 
 ' Then she must be his niece,' answered the young 
 Cout of Eberstein. ' I think I do remember some 
 confused story about a sister of Beckendorff, who ran 
 away with some Wirtemberg Baron. What was that 
 story, Gernsbach?' 
 
 ' No, it was not his sister,' said the Baron of Gerns- 
 bach ; ' it was his aunt, I think.' 
 
 * Beckendorff's aunt, what an idea ! as if he ever 
 had an aunt! Men of his calibre make themselves 
 out of mud. They have no relations. W T ell, never 
 mind ; there was some story, I am sure, about some 
 woman or other. Depend upon it, that this girl is 
 the child of that woman ; whether she be aunt, niece, 
 or daughter. I shall go and tell every one that I know 
 the whole business ; this girl is the daughter of some 
 woman or other.' So saying, away walked the young 
 Count of Eberstein, to disseminate in all directions 
 the important conclusion to which his logical head 
 had allowed him to arrive. 
 
 ' Von Weinbren,' said the Baron of Gernsbach, 
 c how can you account for this mysterious appearance 
 of the Premier?' 
 
 * Oh ! when men are on the decline, they do 
 
 725
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 desperate things. I suppose it is to please the re- 
 negado.' 
 
 ' Hush ! there's the Englishman behind you.' 
 
 ' On dit, another child of Beckendorff.' 
 
 'Oh no! secret mission.' 
 
 'Ah! indeed.' 
 
 ' Here comes Von Aslingen ! Well, great 
 Emilius! how solve you this mystery?' 
 
 ' What mystery ? Is there one ?' 
 
 ' I allude to this wonderful appearance of Becken- 
 dorff.' 
 
 'Beckendorff! what a name! who is he?' 
 
 'Nonsense! the Premier.' 
 
 'Well!' 
 
 ' You have seen him of course ; he is here. Have 
 you just come in ?' 
 
 ' Beckendorff here ! ' said Von Aslingen, in a tone 
 of affected horror ; ' I did not know that the fellow 
 was to be visited. It is all over with Reisenburg. 
 I shall go to Vienna to-morrow.' 
 
 But hark ! the sprightly music calls to the dance : 
 and first the stately Polonaise, an easy gradation be- 
 tween walking and dancing. To the surprise of the 
 whole room, and the indignation of many of the high 
 nobles, the Crown-Prince of Reisenburg led off the 
 Polonaise with the unknown fair one. Such an atten- 
 tion to Beckendorff was a distressing proof of present 
 power and favour. The Polonaise is a dignified pro- 
 menade, with which German balls invariably com- 
 mence. The Cavaliers, with an air of studied grace, 
 offer their right hands to their fair partners ; and the 
 whole party, in a long file, accurately follow the lead- 
 ing couple through all their scientific evolutions, as 
 they wind through every part of the room. Waltzes 
 in sets speedily followed the Polonaise ; and the un- 
 
 726
 
 CHAPTER VIII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 known, who was now an object of universal attention, 
 danced with Count von Sohnspeer another of Beck- 
 endorff's numerous progeny, if the reader remember. 
 How scurvily are poor single gentlemen, who live 
 alone, treated by the candid tongues of their fellow- 
 creatures ! The Commander-in-chief of the Reisen- 
 burg troops was certainly a partner of a very different 
 complexion to the young lady's previous one. The 
 Crown-Prince had undertaken his duty with reluct- 
 ance, and had performed it without grace : not a 
 single word had he exchanged with his partner during 
 the promenade, and his genuine listlessness was even 
 more offensive than affected apathy. Von Sohn- 
 speer, on the contrary, danced in the true Vienna 
 style, and whirled like a dervish. All our good Eng- 
 lish prejudices against the soft, the swimming, the 
 sentimental, melting, undulating, dangerous waltz, 
 would quickly disappear, if we only executed the 
 dreaded manoeuvres in the true Austrian style. As 
 for myself, far from trembling for any of my 
 daughters, although I particularly pride myself upon 
 my character as a father, far from trembling for any of 
 my daughters while joining in the whirling waltz, I 
 should as soon expect them to get sentimental in a 
 swing. 
 
 Vivian did not choose to presume upon his late 
 acquaintance with Mr. Beckendorff, as it had not been 
 sought by that gentleman, and he consequently did 
 not pay his respects to the Minister. Mr. Becken- 
 dorff continued at the top of the room, standing be- 
 tween the state chairs of his Royal Highness and 
 Madame Carolina, and occasionally addressing an 
 observation to his Sovereign, and answering one of 
 the lady's. Had Mr. Beckendorff been in the habit 
 of attending balls nightly, he could not have exhibited 
 
 727
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 more perfect nonchalance. There he stood, with his 
 arms crossed behind him, his chin resting on his 
 breast, and his raised eyes glancing! 
 
 4 My dear Prince,' said Vivian to the Grand Mar- 
 shal, * you are just the person I wanted to speak to. 
 How came you to invite Beckendorff and how came 
 he to accept the invitation ?' 
 
 ' My dear friend,' said his Highness, shrugging his 
 shoulders, * wonders will never cease. I never in- 
 vited him ; I should just as soon have thought of 
 inviting old Schoss Johannisberger.' 
 
 ' Were not you aware, then, of his intention?' 
 
 'Not the least! you should rather say attention; 
 for I assure you, I consider it a most particular one. 
 It is quite astonishing, my dear friend, how I mistook 
 that man's character. He really is one of the most 
 gentlemanly, polite, and excellent persons I know : 
 no more mad than you are! And as for his power 
 being on the decline, we know the nonsense of that!' 
 
 ( Better than most persons, I suspect. Sievers, of 
 course, is not here?' 
 
 ' No ! you have heard about him, I suppose.' 
 
 ' Heard! heard what?' 
 
 ' Not heard ! well he told me yesterday, and said 
 he was going to call upon you directly to let you 
 know.' 
 
 ' Know what?' 
 
 c He is a very sensible man, Sievers ; and I am very 
 glad at last that he is likely to succeed in the world. 
 All men have their little imprudencies, and he was a 
 little too hot once. What of that? He has come 
 to his senses so have I ; and I hope you will never 
 lose yours!' 
 
 ' But pray, my dear Prince, tell me what has hap- 
 pened to Sievers.' 
 
 728
 
 CHAPTER VIII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 4 He is going to Vienna immediately, and will be 
 very useful there I have no doubt. He has got a 
 very good place, and I am sure he will do his duty. 
 They cannot have an abler man.' 
 
 * Vienna ! well that is the last city in the world in 
 which I should expect to find Mr. Sievers. What 
 place can he have ? and what services can he perform 
 there ?' 
 
 ' Many! he is to be Editor of the Austrian Ob- 
 server, and Censor of the Austrian Press. I thought 
 he would do well at last. All men have their im- 
 prudent day. I had. I cannot stop now I must 
 go and speak to the Countess von S .' 
 
 As Vivian was doubting whether he should most 
 grieve or laugh, at this singular termination of Mr. 
 Sievers' career, his arm was suddenly seized, and on 
 turning round, he found it was by Mr. Beckendorff. 
 
 ' There is another very strong argument, Sir,' said 
 the Minister, without any of the usual phrases of 
 recognition ; ' there is another very strong argument 
 against your doctrine of Destiny.' And then Mr. 
 Beckendorff, taking Vivian by the arm, began walk- 
 ing up and down part of the saloon with him ; and 
 in a few minutes, quite forgetting the scene of the 
 discussion, he was involved in the deepest meta- 
 physics. This incident created another great sensa- 
 tion, and whispers of ' secret mission Secretary of 
 State decidedly a son,' &c. &c. &c. were in an instant 
 afloat in all parts of the room. 
 
 The approach of his Royal Highness extricated 
 Vivian from an argument, which was as profound as it 
 was interminable ; and as Mr. Beckendorff retired 
 with the Grand Duke into a recess in the ball-room, 
 Vivian was requested by Von Neuwied to attend his 
 Excellency the Grand Marshal. 
 
 729
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 ' My dear friend,' said the Prince, I saw you talk- 
 ing with a certain person ; now is not he what you 
 call a proper man, gentlemanly, polite, and exceed- 
 ingly attentive ? I did not say anything to you when 
 I passed you before ; but to tell you the truth now, I 
 was a little annoyed that he had not spoken to you. 
 I knew you were as proud as Lucifer, and would not 
 salute him yourself ; and between ourselves I had no 
 great wish you should ; for, not to conceal it, he did 
 not even mention your name. But the reason of this, 
 is now quite evident, and you must confess he is re- 
 markably attentive. You know, if you remember, 
 we thought that incognito was a little affected rather 
 annoying, if you recollect. I remember in the green 
 lane, you gave him a gentle cut about it : you have 
 not forgot you told me, perhaps? It was very kind 
 of you, very spirited, and I dare say, did good. 
 Well! what I was going to say about that, is this, 
 I dare say now, after all,' continued his Excellency, 
 with a very knowing look, ' a certain person had very 
 good reasons for that : not that he ever told them to 
 me, nor that I have the slightest idea of them ; but 
 when a person is really so exceedingly polite and at- 
 tentive, I always think he would never do any thing 
 disagreeable without a cause, and it was exceed- 
 ingly disagreeable, if you remember, my dear friend. 
 I never knew to whom he was speaking. Von Philip- 
 son indeed! hah! hah! hah! when one does re- 
 member certain things in one's life hah ! hah ! hah ! 
 eh Grey ? you remember that cucumber ? and Owl- 
 face, eh ? hah ! hah ! hah ! and Madame Clara, eh ? 
 Well! we did not think, the day we were floundering 
 down that turf road, that it would end in this. Grand 
 Marshal! rather a more brilliant scene than the 
 Giants' Hall at Turriparva, I think, eh ? hah ! hah ! 
 
 730
 
 CHAPTER VIII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 hah ! But all men have their imprudent days : the 
 best way is to forget them. There was poor Sievers : 
 who ever did more imprudent things than he? and 
 now it is very likely he will do very well in the world, 
 eh ? Well ! there is no end to talking so. What I 
 want of you, my dear fellow, is this. There is that 
 girl who came with Beckendorff : who the deuce she 
 is, I don't know: let us hope the best! We must 
 pay her every attention. I dare say she is his 
 daughter. You have not forgotten the portrait, I 
 dare say. Well! we all were gay once, you know, 
 Grey. All men have their imprudent day ; why 
 should not Beckendorff ? speaks rather in his favour, 
 I think. Well, this girl, you know ; His Royal 
 Highness very kindly made the Crown-Prince walk 
 the Polonaise with her very kind of him, and very 
 proper. What attention can be too great for the 
 daughter or friend of such a man! a man who, in 
 two words, may be said to have made Reisenburg. 
 For what was Reisenburg before Beckendorff ? Ah ! 
 what ? Perhaps we were happier then, after all : and 
 then there was no Royal Highness to .bow to ; no 
 person to be condescending, except ourselves. But 
 never mind ! we'll forget. After all, this life has its 
 charms. What a brilliant scene! but I ramble so 
 this girl every attention should be paid her, of 
 course. The Crown-Prince was so kind as to walk 
 the Polonaise with her ; and Von Sohnspeer he is 
 a brute, to be sure ; but then he is a Field Marshal. 
 I did not know, till to-day, that in public processions 
 the Grand Marshal takes precedence of the Field 
 Marshal! That is, I walk before Von Sohnspeer: 
 and what is more just? precisely as it should be. 
 Ah! I never shall come to the point this girl, 
 every attention should be paid her ; and I think, con-
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 sidering what has taken place between Beckendorff 
 and yourself, and the very polite, and marked, and 
 flattering, and particularly attentive manner in which 
 he recognised you, I think, that after all this, and 
 considering every thing, the etiquette is for you, my 
 dear Grey, particularly as you are a foreigner, and my 
 personal friend indeed my most particular friend, 
 for in fact I owe every thing to you my life, and 
 more than my life, I think, I repeat, considering all 
 this, that the least you can do is to ask her to dance 
 with you ; and I, as the host, will introduce you. I 
 am sorry, my dear friend,' continued his Excellency, 
 with a look of great regret, ' to introduce you 
 
 to ; but we will not speak about it. We have 
 
 no right to complain of Mr. BeckendorfF. No per- 
 son could possibly behave to us in a manner more 
 polite, and gentlemanly, and attentive.' 
 
 After an introductory speech, in his Excellency's 
 happiest manner, and in which an eulogium of 
 Vivian, and a compliment to the fair unknown, got 
 almost as completely entangled as the origin of slav- 
 ery, and the history of the feudal system, in his more 
 celebrated harangue ; Vivian found himself waltzing 
 with the anonymous beauty. The Grand Marshal, 
 during the process of introduction, had given the 
 young lady every opportunity of declaring her name ; 
 but every opportunity was thrown away. ' She must 
 be incog.' whispered his Excellency : ' Miss von 
 Philipson, I suppose?' 
 
 Vivian was extremely desirous of discovering the 
 nature of the relationship, or connexion, between 
 BeckendorfF and his partner. The rapid waltz 
 allowed no pause for conversation ; but after the 
 dance, Vivian seated himself at her side, with the 
 determination of not very quickly deserting it. The 
 
 73 2
 
 CHAPTER VIII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 lady did not even allow him the satisfaction of com- 
 mencing the conversation ; for no sooner was she 
 seated, than she begged to know who the person was 
 with whom she had previously waltzed. The history 
 of Count von Sohnspeer exceedingly amused her ; 
 and no sooner had Vivian finished his anecdote, than 
 the lady said, ' Ah ! I see you are an amusing person. 
 Now tell me the history of every body in the room.' 
 
 ' Really,' said Vivian, c I fear I shall forfeit my re- 
 putation of being amusing very speedily ; for I am 
 almost as great a stranger at this Court as you appear 
 to be yourself! Count von Sohnspeer is too cele- 
 brated a personage at Reisenburg, to have allowed 
 even me to be long ignorant of his history ; and, as 
 for the rest, as far as I can judge, they are most of 
 them as obscure as myself, and not nearly as interst- 
 ing as you are!' 
 
 * Are you an Englishman ?' asked the lady. 
 < I am.' 
 
 1 1 supposed so, both from your travelling and your 
 appearance : I think the English countenance is very 
 peculiar.' 
 
 1 Indeed ! we do not flatter ourselves so at home.' 
 ' Yes ! it is peculiar,' said the lady, in a tone which 
 seemed to imply that contradiction was unusual ; * and 
 I think that you are all handsome! I admire the 
 English, which in this part of the world is singular ; 
 in the South, you know, we are generally franciseS 
 
 * I am aware of that,' said Vivian. ' There, for 
 instance,' pointing to a very pompous-looking person- 
 age, who at that moment strutted by ; ' there, for 
 instance, is the most francise person in all Reisen- 
 burg! that is our Grand Chamberlain. He con- 
 siders himself a most felicitous copy of Louis the 
 Fourteenth! He allows nothing in his opinions and 
 
 733
 
 VIVIAN GREY ' BOOK VII 
 
 phrases, but what is orthodox. As it generally hap- 
 pens in such cases, his orthodoxy is rather obsolete.' 
 
 ' Who is that knight of Malta?' asked the lady. 
 
 c The most powerful individual in the room,' an- 
 swered Vivian. 
 
 'Who can he be?' asked the lady with eager- 
 ness. 
 
 ' Behold him, and tremble!' rejoined Vivian : ' for 
 with him it rests to decide, whether you are civilized, 
 or a savage ; whether you are to be abhorred, or 
 admired ; idolized, or despised. Nay, do not be 
 alarmed! there are a few heretics, even in Reisen- 
 burg, who, like myself, value from conviction, and 
 not from fashion ; and who will be ever ready, in 
 spite of a Von Aslingen anathema, to evince our 
 admiration where it is due.' 
 
 The lady pleaded fatigue, as an excuse for not 
 again dancing ; and Vivian, of course, did not quit 
 her side. Her lively remarks, piquant observations, 
 and very singular questions, highly amused him ; and 
 he was equally flattered by the evident gratification 
 which his conversation afforded her. It was chiefly 
 of the principal members of the Court that she 
 spoke : she was delighted with Vivian's glowing 
 character of Madame Carolina, whom she said she 
 had this evening seen for the first time. Who this 
 unknown could be, was a question which often 
 occurred to him ; and the singularity of a man like 
 Beckendorff, suddenly breaking through his habits, 
 and outraging the whole system of his existence, to 
 please a daughter, or niece, or female cousin, did not 
 fail to strike him. 
 
 ' I have the honour of being acquainted with Mr. 
 Beckendorff,' said Vivian. This was the first time 
 that the Minister's name had been mentioned. 
 
 734
 
 CHAPTER VIII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 ' I perceived you talking with him,' was the an- 
 swer. 
 
 'You are staying, I suppose, at Mr. Beckendorff's?' 
 ' Not at present.' 
 
 * You have, of course, been at his retreat delight- 
 ful place!' 
 
 ' Very elegant ! ' 
 
 'Are you an ornithologist?' asked Vivian, 
 smiling. 
 
 ' Not at all scientific ; but I, of course, can now 
 tell a lory from a Java sparrow and a bullfinch from 
 a canary. The first day I was there, I never shall 
 forget the surprise I experienced, when, after the noon 
 meal being finished, the aviary door was opened. 
 After that, I always let the creatures out myself ; and 
 one day I opened all the cages at once. If you could 
 but have witnessed the scene! I am sure you would 
 have been quite delighted with it. As for poor Mr. 
 Beckendorff, I thought even he would have gone out 
 of his mind ; and when I brought in the white pea- 
 cock, he actually left the room in despair. Pray how 
 do you like Madame Clara, and Owlface too? 
 Which do you think the most beautiful? I am no 
 great favourite with the old lady. Indeed, it was 
 very kind of Mr. Beckendorff to bear with every 
 thing as he did : I am sure he is not much used to 
 lady visitors.' 
 
 ' I trust that your visit to him will not be very 
 short ?' 
 
 ' My stay at Reisenburg will not be very long ;' 
 said the young lady, with rather a grave countenance. 
 ' Have you been here any time?' 
 
 * About a fortnight : it was a mere chance my 
 coming at all. I was going on straight to Vienna.' 
 
 ' To Vienna ! indeed ! Well, I am glad you did 
 735
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 not miss Reisenburg ; you must not quit it now. 
 You know that this is not the Vienna season?' 
 
 * I am aware of it ; but I am such a restless person, 
 that I never regulate my movements by those of other 
 people.' 
 
 * But surely you find Reisenburg very agreeable?' 
 ' Very much so ; but I am a confirmed wanderer.' 
 4 Why are you ?' asked the lady, with great 
 
 naivete. 
 
 Vivian looked grave ; and the lady, as if she were 
 sensible of having unintentionally occasioned him a 
 painful recollection, again expressed her wish that 
 he should not immediately quit the Court, and 
 trusted that circumstances would not prevent him 
 acceding to her desire. 
 
 * It does not even depend upon circumstances,' said 
 Vivian ; ' the whim of the moment is my only prin- 
 ciple of action, and therefore I may be off to-night, or 
 be here a month hence.' 
 
 ' Oh ! pray stay then,' said his companion, eagerly ; 
 c I expect you to stay now. If you could only have 
 an idea what a relief conversing with you is, after 
 having been dragged by the Crown-Prince, and 
 whirled by that Von Sohnspeer! Heigho! I could 
 almost sigh at the very remembrance of that doleful 
 Polonaise.' 
 
 The lady ended, with a faint laugh, a sentence 
 which apparently had been commenced in no light 
 vein. She did not cease speaking, but continued to 
 request Vivian to remain at Reisenburg at least as 
 long as herself. Her frequent requests were per- 
 fectly unnecessary, for the promise had been pledget! 
 at the first hint of her wish ; but this was not the only 
 time during the evening, that Vivian had remarked, 
 that his interesting companion occasionally talked 
 
 736
 
 CHAPTER VIII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 without apparently being sensible that she was con- 
 versing. 
 
 The young Count of Eberstein, who, to use his 
 own phrase, was " sadly involved," and consequently 
 very desirous of being appointed a forest Councillor, 
 thought that he should secure his appointment, by 
 condescending to notice the person whom he delicately 
 styled " the Minister's female relative." To his 
 great mortification and surprise, the honour was 
 declined ; and " the female relative," being unwilling 
 to dance again, but perhaps feeling it necessary to 
 break off her conversation with her late partner, it 
 having already lasted a most unusual time, highly 
 gratified his Excellency the Grand Marshal by declar- 
 ing that she would dance with Prince Maximilian. 
 * This, to say the least, was very attentive of Miss 
 von Philipson. J 
 
 Little Max, who had just tact enough to discover, 
 that to be the partner of the fair incognita was the 
 place of honour of the evening, now considered him- 
 self by much the most important personage in the 
 room. In fact, he was only second to Emilius von 
 Aslingen. The evident contest which was ever tak- 
 ing place between his natural feelings as a boy, and 
 his acquired habits as a courtier, made him a very 
 amusing companion. He talked of the Gardens, and 
 the Opera, in a style not unworthy of the young 
 Count of Eberstein. He thought that Madame 
 Carolina was as charming as usual to-night ; but, on 
 the contrary, that the Countess von S - was look- 
 ing rather ill and this put him in mind of her lady- 
 ship's new equipage ; and then, a propos to equip- 
 ages, what did his companion think of the new fashion 
 of the Hungarian harness? His lively and kind 
 companion encouraged the boy's tattle ; and em- 
 3A 737
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 boldened by her good-nature, he soon forgot his 
 artificial speeches, and was quickly rattling on about 
 Turriparva, and his horses, and his dogs, and his 
 park, and his guns, and his grooms. Soon after the 
 waltz, the lady, taking the arm of the young Prince, 
 walked up to Mr. Beckendorff. He received her 
 with very great attention, and led her to Madame 
 Carolina, who rose, seated Mr. Beckendorff's "female 
 relative " by her side, and evidently said something 
 extremely agreeable, 
 
 Mr. Beckendorff had been speaking to Von Sohn- 
 speer, who was now again dancing ; and the Minister 
 was standing by himself, in his usual attitude, and 
 quite abstracted. Young Maximilian, who seemed 
 to be very much struck by the Minister's appearance, 
 continued, after losing his partner, to eye Mr. Beck- 
 endorff with a very scrutinizing glance. By degrees 
 he drew nearer and nearer to the object of his ex- 
 amination, sometimes staring at him with intenseness, 
 and occasionally casting his eyes to the ground as if he 
 thought he was observed. At length he had come 
 up quite close to the Premier, and waiting for an 
 instant until he had caught his eye, he made a most 
 courteous bow, and said in a very agitated voice, as if 
 he already repented his rash venture, ' I think, Sir, 
 that you have dropped the pin out of this part of your 
 dress.' 
 
 Here the young Prince pointed with a shaking 
 finger to the part of the breast in Mr. Beckendorff's 
 costume, where the small piece of flannel waistcoat 
 invariably made its appearance. 
 
 ' You think so, Sir, do you ?' said the Prime Min- 
 ister of Reisenburg. ' Pray, at what o'clock do you 
 go to bed ? J 
 
 If you have ever seen a barking dog, reached by 
 738
 
 CHAPTER VIII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 the dexterous lash of some worried equestrian, sud- 
 denly slink away ; his annoying yell instantaneously 
 silenced, and his complacent grin of ludicrous import- 
 ance changed into a doleful look of unexpected dis- 
 comfiture ; you may form some idea of the shuffling 
 rapidity with which the young Prince Maximilian dis- 
 appeared from the presence of Mr. Beckendorff ; and 
 the countenance of actual alarm with which he soon 
 sought refuge in another part of the room. In the 
 fright of the moment, the natural feelings of the 
 
 O C.5 
 
 child all returned ; and, like all frightened children, 
 he sought a friend he ran to Vivian. 
 
 O 
 
 ' I know something ! ' said the boy. 
 
 'What?' 
 
 ' I'll tell you a secret : you must not say a word 
 though upon your honour?' 
 
 { Oh, certainly ! ' 
 
 c Put your ear down lower : any body looking ?' 
 
 'No, no!' 
 
 ' Sure nobody can hear?' 
 
 Certainly not!' 
 
 < Then I'll tell you what : lean down a little lower 
 sure nobody is listening ? I I I don't like that 
 Mr. Beckendorff!' 
 
 VIVIAN had promised Madame Carolina a second 
 English lesson on the day after the Grand Marshal's 
 fete. The great progress which the lady had made, 
 and the great talent which the gentleman had evinced 
 during the first, had rendered Madame the most en- 
 thusiastic of pupils, and Vivian, in her estimation, 
 the ablest of instructors. Madame Carolina's pas- 
 sion was patronage. To discover concealed merit, 
 
 739
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 to encourage neglected genius, to reveal the mysteries 
 of the world to a novice in mankind ; or in short, to 
 make herself very agreeable to any one whom she 
 fancied to be very interesting ; was the great busi- 
 ness, and the great delight, of her existence. No 
 sooner had her eyes lighted on Vivian Grey, than she 
 determined to patronize. His country, his appear- 
 ance, the romantic manner in which he had become 
 connected with the Court, all pleased her lively im- 
 agination. She was intuitively acquainted with his 
 whole history, and in an instant he was the hero of a 
 romance, of which the presence of the principal char- 
 acter compensated, we may suppose, for the some- 
 what indefinite details. His taste, and literary ac- 
 quirements, completed the spell by which Madame 
 Carolina was willingly enchanted. A low Dutch 
 professor, whose luminous genius rendered unneces- 
 sary the ceremony of shaving ; and a dumb dwarf, 
 in whose interesting appearance was forgotten its 
 perfect idiotism ; a prosy improvisatore, and a South 
 American savage, were all superseded on the appear- 
 ance of Vivian Grey. 
 
 As Madame Carolina was, in fact, a very delight- 
 ful woman, our hero had no objection to humour her 
 harmless foibles ; and not contented with making 
 notes in an interleaved copy of her Charlemagne, he 
 even promised to read Haroun Al Raschid in manu- 
 script. The consequence of his courtesy, and the 
 reward of his taste, was unbounded favour. Apart- 
 ments in the palace were offered him, and declined ; 
 and when Madame Carolina had become acquainted 
 with sufficient of his real history, to know that, on 
 his part, neither wish nor necessity existed to return 
 immediately to his own country, she tempted him to 
 remain at Reisenburg by an offer of a place at Court ; 
 
 740
 
 CHAPTER IX VIVIAN GREY 
 
 and doubtless, had he been willing, Vivian might in 
 time have become a Lord Chamberlain, or perhaps 
 even a Field Marshal. 
 
 On entering the room, the morning in question, 
 he found Madame Carolina writing. At the end of 
 the apartment, a lady ceased, on his appearance, hum- 
 ming an air to which she was dancing, and at the 
 same time imitating castanets. Madame received 
 Vivian with expressions of the greatest delight, say- 
 ing also, in a very peculiar and confidential manner, 
 that she was just sealing up a packet for him, the pre- 
 face of Haroun ; and then she introduced him to 
 * the Baroness ! ' Vivian turned and bowed : the lady 
 who was lately dancing, came forward. It was his 
 unknown partner of the preceding night. ' The 
 Baroness ' extended her hand to Vivian, and unaffec- 
 tedly expressed her great pleasure at seeing him 
 again. Vivian trusted that she was not fatigued 
 by the fete, and asked after Mr. Beckendorff. Ma- 
 dame Carolina was busily engaged at the moment in 
 duly securing the precious preface. The Baroness 
 said that Mr. Beckendorff had returned home, but 
 that Madame Carolina had kindly insisted upon her 
 staying at the palace. She was not the least wearied. 
 Last night had been one of the most agreeable she 
 had ever spent, at least she supposed she ought to 
 say so : for if she had experienced a tedious or mourn- 
 ful feeling for a moment, it was hardly for what was 
 then passing, so much as for 
 
 * Pray, Mr. Grey,' said Madame Carolina, inter- 
 rupting them, ' have you heard about our new 
 ballet?' 
 
 <No!' 
 
 ( I do not think you have ever been to our Opera. 
 To-morrow is Opera night, and you must not be 
 
 74i
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 again away. We pride ourselves here very much 
 upon our Opera.' 
 
 ' We estimate it even in England,' said Vivian, 
 { as possessing perhaps the most perfect orchestra 
 now organized.' 
 
 * The orchestra is very perfect. His Royal High- 
 ness is such an excellent musician, and he has spared 
 no trouble nor expense in forming it : he has always 
 superintended it himself. But I confess, I admire 
 our ballet department still more. I expect you to 
 be delighted with it. You will perhaps be gratified 
 to know, that the subject of our new splendid 
 ballet, which is to be produced to-morrow, is 
 from a great work of your illustrious poet 
 my Lord Byron.' 
 
 ' From which of his works ?' 
 
 'The Corsair. Ah! what a sublime work! 
 what passion! what energy! what knowledge of 
 feminine feeling! what contrast of character! 
 what sentiments! what situations! Oh! I wish 
 this was Opera night Gulnare! oh! my favourite 
 character beautiful! beautiful! beautiful! How 
 do you think they will dress her?' 
 
 ' Are you an admirer of our Byron ?' asked Vivian 
 of the Baroness. 
 
 ' I think he is a very handsome man. I once saw 
 him at the carnival at Venice.' 
 
 1 But his works his grand works ! ma chere 
 petite,' said Madame Carolina, in her sweetest tone ; 
 * you have read his works ?' 
 
 * Not a line,' answered the Baroness, with great 
 naivete ; ' I never saw them.' 
 
 ' Oh! pauvre enfant!' said Madame Carolina; ' I 
 will employ you then while you are here.' 
 
 c I never read,' said the Baroness ; ' I cannot bear 
 742
 
 CHAPTER IX VIVIAN GREY 
 
 it. I like poetry and romances, but I like somebody 
 to read to me.' 
 
 'Very just!' said Madame Carolina; 'We can 
 judge with greater accuracy of the merit of a com- 
 position, when it reaches our mind merely through 
 the medium of the human voice. The soul is an 
 essence, invisible and indivisible. In this respect, 
 the voice of man resembles the principle of his exist- 
 ence ; since few will deny, though there are some 
 materialists who will deny every thing, that the 
 human voice is both impalpable, and audible only in 
 one place at the same time. Hence, I ask, is it 
 illogical to infer its indivisibility ? The soul and the 
 voice then, are similar in two great attributes ; there 
 is a secret harmony in their spiritual construction. 
 In the earliest ages of mankind a beautiful tradition 
 
 O 
 
 was afloat, that the soul and the voice, were one and 
 the same. We may perhaps recognize in this fanci- 
 ful belief, the effect of the fascinating and imagina- 
 tive philosophy of the East ; that mysterious portion 
 of the globe,' continued Madame Carolina with re- 
 newed energy, ' from which we should frankly con- 
 fess that we derive every thing : for the South is but 
 the pupil of the East, through the mediation of 
 Egypt. Of this opinion,' said Madame with in- 
 creased fervour, ' I have no doubt : of this opinion, 
 continued the lady with additional enthusiasm, ' I 
 have boldly avowed myself a votary in a dissertation 
 appended to the second volume of Haroun : for this 
 opinion I would die at the stake ! Oh, lovely East ! 
 Why was I not oriental! Land where the voice of 
 the nightingale is never mute! Land of the cedar 
 and the citron, the turtle and the myrtle of ever- 
 blooming flowers, and ever-shining skies! Illus- 
 trious East! Cradle of Philosophy! Oh, my 
 
 743
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 dearest Baroness, why do not you feel as I do ! From 
 the East we obtain every thing!' 
 
 ' Indeed ! ' said the Baroness, with great simplicity ; 
 * I thought we only got Cachemere shawls.' 
 
 This puzzling answer was only noticed by Vivian ; 
 for the truth is, Madame Carolina was one of those 
 individuals who never attend to any person's answers. 
 Always thinking of herself, she only asked questions 
 that she herself might supply the responses. And 
 now having made, as she flattered herself, a very 
 splendid display to her favourite critic, she began to 
 consider what had given rise to her oration. Lord 
 Byron and the ballet again occurred to her ; and as 
 the Baroness, at least, was not unwilling to listen, and 
 as she herself had no manuscript of her own which 
 she particularly wished to be perused, she proposed 
 that Vivian should read to them part of the Corsair, 
 and in the original tongue. Madame Carolina 
 opened the volume at the first prison scene between 
 Gulnare and Conrad. It was her favourite. Vivian 
 read with care and feeling. Madame was in rap- 
 tures, and the Baroness, although she did not under- 
 stand a single syllable, seemed almost equally de- 
 lighted. At length Vivian came to this passage 
 
 " My love stern Seyd's ! Oh no no not my love ! 
 Yet much this heart, that strives no more, once strove 
 To meet his passion but it would not be. 
 I felt I feel love dwells with with the free 
 I am a slave, a favour'd slave at best, 
 To share his splendour, and seem very blest ! 
 Oft must my soul the question undergo, 
 Of ' Dost thou love ? ' and burn to answer ' No ! ' 
 Oh ! hard it is that fondness to sustain, 
 And struggle not to feel averse in vain ; 
 But harder still the heart's recoil to bear, 
 And hide from one perhaps another there ; 
 He takes the hand I give not nor withhold 
 
 744
 
 CHAPTER IX VIVIAN GREY 
 
 Its pulse nor check'd nor quicken'd calmly cold : 
 
 And when resign'd, it drops a lifeless weight 
 
 From one I never lov'd enough to hate. 
 
 No warmth these lips return by his imprest, 
 
 And chill'd remembrance shudders o'er the rest. 
 
 Yes had I ever proved that passion's zeal, 
 
 The change to hatred were at least to feel : 
 
 But still he goes unmourn'd returns unsought 
 
 And oft when present absent from my thought. 
 
 Or when reflection comes, and come it must 
 
 I fear that henceforth 'twill but bring disgust ; 
 
 I am his slave but, in despite of pride, 
 
 'Twere worse than bondage to become his bride." 
 
 ' Oh ! how superb ! ' said Madame in a voice of 
 enthusiasm ; c how true ! what passion ! what en- 
 ergy ! what sentiments ! what knowledge of feminine 
 feeling ! Read it again, I pray : it is my favourite 
 passage.' 
 
 4 What is this passage about ?' asked the Baroness 
 with great anxiety ; ' tell me?' 
 
 ( I have a French translation, ma mignonne,' said 
 Madame ; ' you shall have it afterwards.' 
 
 c No ! I detest reading,' said the young lady with 
 a very imperious air ; { translate it to me at once.' 
 
 ' You are rather a self-willed, petted, little beauty!' 
 thought Vivian ; ' but your eyes are so brilliant that 
 nothing must be refused you ! ' and so he did trans- 
 late it. 
 
 On its conclusion, Madame was again in raptures. 
 The Baroness was not less affected, but she said no- 
 thing. She appeared extremely agitated ; she 
 changed colour raised her beautiful eyes with an 
 expression of great sorrow looked at Vivian very 
 earnestly, and then walked to the other end of the 
 room. In a few moments she returned to her seat. 
 
 4 1 wish you would tell me the story,' she said, with 
 great earnestness. 
 
 745
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 ' I have a French translation, ma belle ! ' said Ma- 
 dame Carolina ; ' at present I wish to trouble Mr. 
 Grey with a few questions.' Madame Carolina led 
 Vivian into a recess. 
 
 ' I am sorry we are troubled with this sweet little 
 savage ; but I think she has talent, though evidently 
 quite uneducated. We must do what we can for 
 her. Her total ignorance of all breeding is amusing, 
 but then I think she has a natural elegance. We 
 shall soon polish her. His Royal Highness is so 
 anxious that every attention should be paid to her. 
 Beckendorff, you know, is a man of the greatest 
 genius. (Madame Carolina had lowered her tone 
 about the Minister since the Prince of Little Lilli- 
 put's apostacy.) The country is greatly indebted to 
 him. This, between ourselves, is his daughter. At 
 least / have no doubt of it. Beckendorff was once 
 married to a lady of great rank died early beau- 
 tiful woman very interesting! His Royal High- 
 ness had a great regard for her. The Premier, in 
 his bereavement, turned humourist, and has brought 
 up this lovely girl in the oddest possible manner- 
 nobody knows where. Now that he finds it neces- 
 sary to bring her forward, he, of course, is quite at 
 a loss. His Royal Highness has applied to me. 
 There was a little coldness before, between the Mini- 
 ster and myself. It is now quite removed. I must 
 do what I can for her. I think she must marry Von 
 Sohnspeer, who is no more BeckendorfPs son than 
 you are : or young Eberstein or young Bernstorff 
 or young Gernsbach. We must do something for 
 her. I offered her last night to Emilius von Aslin- 
 gen ; but he said, that unfortunately he was just 
 importing a savage or two of his own from the 
 Brazils, and consequently was not in want of her.' 
 
 746
 
 CHAPTER IX VIVIAN GREY 
 
 A Chamberlain now entered, to announce the 
 speedy arrival of his Royal Highness. The Baron- 
 ess, without ceremony, expressed her great regret 
 that he was coming, as now she should not hear the 
 wished-for story. Madame Carolina reproved her, 
 and the reproof was endured rather than submitted 
 to. 
 
 His Royal Highness entered, and was accompanied 
 by the Crown-Prince. He greeted the young lady 
 with great kindness ; and even the Crown-Prince, 
 inspired by his father's unusual warmth, made a shuf- 
 fling kind of bow, and a stuttering kind of speech. 
 Vivian was about to retire on the entrance of the 
 Grand Duke ; but Madame Carolina prevented him, 
 and his Royal Highness turning round, very graci- 
 ously seconded her desire, and added that Mr. Grey 
 was the very gentleman with whom he was desirous 
 of meeting. 
 
 ' I am anxious,' said he to Vivian, in rather a low 
 tone, ' to make Reisenburg agreeable to Mr. Bec- 
 kendorff's fair friend. As you are one of the few 
 who are honoured by his intimacy, and are familiar 
 with some of our State secrets,' added the Grand 
 Duke with a smile ; c I am sure it will give you plea- 
 sure to assist me in the execution of my wishes.' 
 
 His Royal Highness proposed that the ladies 
 should ride ; and he himself, with the Crown-Prince 
 and Mr. Grey, would attend them. Madame Caro- 
 lina expressed her willingness ; but the Baroness, like 
 all forward girls unused to the world, suddenly grew 
 at the same time both timid and disobliging. She 
 looked sullen and discontented, and coolly said that 
 she did not feel in the humour to ride for, at least, 
 these two hours. To Vivian's surprise, even the 
 Grand Duke humoured her fancy, and declared that 
 
 747
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 he should then be happy to attend them after the 
 Court-dinner. Until that time Vivian was amused 
 by Madame ; and the Grand Duke exclusively de- 
 voted himself to the Baroness. His Royal High- 
 ness was in his happiest mood ; and his winning man- 
 ners and elegant conversation, soon chased away the 
 cloud which, for a moment, had settled on the young 
 lady's fair brow. 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 THE Grand Duke of Reisenburg was an enthusiastic 
 lover of music, and his people were consequently 
 music mad. The whole city were fiddling day and 
 night, or blowing trumpets, oboes, and bassoons. 
 Sunday, however, was the most harmonious day in 
 the week. The Opera amused the Court and the 
 wealthiest bourgeoisie ; and few private houses could 
 not boast their family concert, or small party of per- 
 formers. In the guingettes, or tea-gardens, of which 
 there were many in the suburbs of the city, bearing 
 the euphonious, romantic, and fashionable titles of 
 Tivoli, Arcadia, and Vauxhall, a strong and amateur 
 orchestra was never wanting. Strolling through the 
 city on a Sunday afternoon, many a pleasing picture 
 of innocent domestic enjoyment might be observed. 
 In the arbour of a garden a very stout man, with a 
 fair, broad, good-natured, solid German face, may be 
 seen perspiring under the scientific exertion of the 
 French horn ; himself wisely disembarrassed of the 
 needless incumbrance of his pea-green coat and 
 showy waistcoat, which lay neatly folded by his side ; 
 while his large and sleepy blue eyes actually gleam 
 with enthusiasm. His daughter, a soft and delicate 
 girl, touches the light guitar ; catching the notes of 
 the music from the opened opera, which is placed 
 
 748
 
 CHAPTER X VIVIAN GREY 
 
 before the father on a massy music stand. Her 
 voice joins in melody with her mother ; who, like all 
 German mothers, seems only her daughter's self, 
 subdued by an additional twenty years. The bow 
 of one violin is handled, with the air of a master, by 
 an elder brother ; while a younger one, an Univer- 
 sity student, grows sentimental over the flute. The 
 same instrument is also played by a tall and tender- 
 looking young man in black, who stands behind the 
 parents, next to the daughter, and occasionally looks 
 off his music-book to gaze on his young mistress* 
 eyes. He is a clerk in a public office ; and on next 
 Michaelmas day, if he succeed, as he hopes, in gain- 
 ing a small addition to his salary, he will be still more 
 entitled to join in the Sunday family concert. Such 
 is one of the numerous groups, the sight of which, 
 must assuredly give pleasure, to every man who de- 
 lights in seeing his fellow-creatures refreshed after 
 their weekly labours, by such calm and rational en- 
 joyment. I would gladly linger among such scenes, 
 which to me have afforded, at many an hour, the most 
 pleasing: emotions : and, moreover, the humours of 
 
 i r i 
 
 a gumgette are not unworthy or our attention : but 
 I must introduce the reader to a more important 
 party, and be consoled for leaving a scene where I 
 fain would loiter, by flattering myself that my atten- 
 tion is required to more interesting topics. 
 
 The Court chapel and the Court dinner are over. 
 We are in the Opera-house of Reisenburg ; and, of 
 course, rise as the Royal party enters. The house, 
 which is of a moderate size perhaps of the same 
 dimensions as our small theatres was fitted up with 
 great splendour ; I hardly know whether I should 
 say with great taste ; for although, not merely the 
 scenery, but indeed every part of the house, was 
 
 749
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 painted by eminent artists, the style of the ornaments 
 was rather patriotic than tasteful. The house had 
 been built immediately after the war, at a period when 
 Reisenburg, flushed with the success of its thirty 
 thousand men, imagined itself to be a great military 
 nation. Trophies, standards, cannon, eagles, conse- 
 quently appeared in every corner of the Opera-house ; 
 and quite superseded lyres, and timbrels, and tragic 
 daggers, and comic masks. The Royal box was con- 
 structed in the form of a tent, and held nearly fifty 
 persons. It was exactly in the centre of the house, 
 its floor over the back of the pit, and its roof reach- 
 ing to the top of the second circle ; its crimson hang- 
 ings were restrained by ropes of gold, and the whole 
 was surmounted by a large and radiant crown. The 
 house was, of course, merely lighted by a chandelier 
 from the centre. 
 
 The Opera for the evening was Rossini's Otello. 
 As soon as the Grand Duke entered, the overture 
 commenced ; his Royal Highness coming forward to 
 the front of the box, and himself directing the musi- 
 cians ; keeping time earnestly with his right hand, 
 in which was a very long black opera glass. This he 
 occasionally used, but merely to look at the orchestra ; 
 not assuredly, to detect a negligent or inefficient per- 
 former ; for in the schooled orchestra of Reisenburg, 
 it would have been impossible even for the eagle-eye 
 of his Royal Highness, assisted as it was by his long 
 black opera glass, or for his fine ear, matured as it 
 was by the most complete study, to discover there, 
 either inattention or feebleness. The house was per- 
 fectly silent ; for when the Monarch directs the 
 orchestra, the world goes to the Opera to listen. 
 Perfect silence at Reisenburg then, was etiquette 
 and the fashion ; and being etiquette and the fashion 
 
 75
 
 CHAPTER X VIVIAN GREY 
 
 was thought no hardship ; for at our own Opera- 
 house, or at the Academic at Paris, or the Pergola, 
 or La Scala, or San Carlo, we do not buzz, and 
 chatter, and rattle, and look as if to listen to the per- 
 formance were rank heresy, either because music is 
 disagreeable, or to buzz, chatter, and rattle, the re- 
 verse ; but in truth, merely because there, to listen 
 to the performer is not etiquette and the fashion ; 
 and to buzz, chatter, and rattle, is. Emilius von 
 Aslingen was accustomed to say, that at Reisenburg 
 he went to the Chapel in the morning to talk, and to 
 the Opera, in the evening, to pray. Between the 
 acts of the Opera, however, the Ballet was performed ; 
 and then every body might talk, and laugh, and re- 
 mark, as much as they chose. 
 
 The Opera, I have said, was Otello. The Grand 
 Duke prided himself as much upon the accuracy of 
 hi? scenery and dresses and decorations, as upon the 
 exquisite skill of his performers. In truth, an opera 
 at Reisenburg was a spectacle which could not fail to 
 be interesting to a man of taste. When the curtain 
 drew up, the first scene presented a view of old Bra- 
 bantio's house. It was accurately copied from one of 
 the sumptuous structures of Scamozzi, or Sansovino, 
 or Palladio, which adorn the Grand Canal of Venice. 
 In the distance rose the domes of St. Mark, and the 
 lofty Campanile. Vivian could not fail to be de- 
 lighted with this beautiful work of art, for such in- 
 deed it should be styled. He was more surprised, 
 however, but not less pleased, on the entrance of 
 Othello himself. In England we are accustomed to 
 deck this adventurous Moor in the costume of his 
 native country but is this correct? The Grand 
 Duke of Reisenburg thought not. Othello was an 
 adventurer; at an early age he entered, as many
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 foreigners did, into the service of Venice. In that 
 service he rose to the highest dignities became 
 General of their armies, and of their fleets ; and 
 finally the Viceroy of their favourite kingdom. Is 
 it natural to suppose, that such a man should have 
 retained, during his successful career, the manners 
 and dress of his original country? Ought we not 
 rather to admit, that, had he done so, his career 
 would, in fact, not have been successful ? In all pro- 
 bability, he imitated to affectation the manners of 
 the country which he had adopted. It is not probable 
 that in such, or in any age, the turbaned Moor would 
 have been treated with great deference by the com- 
 mon Christian soldier of Venice or indeed, that the 
 scandal of a heathen leading the armies of one of the 
 most powerful of European States, would have been 
 tolerated for an instant by indignant Christendom. 
 If Shylock even, the Jew merchant, confined to his 
 quarter, and herding with his own sect, were bearded 
 on the Rialto, in what spirit would the Venetians 
 have witnessed their doge and nobles, whom they 
 ranked above kings, holding equal converse, and 
 loading with the most splendid honours of the Re- 
 public, a follower of Mahound? Such were the 
 sentiments of the Grand Duke of Reisenburg on this 
 subject, a subject interesting to Englishmen ; and I 
 confess I think, that they are worthy of attention. 
 In accordance with his opinions, the actor who per- 
 formed Othello, appeared in the full dress of a Vene- 
 tian magnifico of the middle ages ; a fit companion 
 for Cornaro, or Grimani, or Barberigo, or Foscari. 
 
 The first act of the Opera was finished. The 
 Baroness expressed to Vivian her great delight at its 
 being over ; as she was extremely desirous of learn- 
 ing the story of the ballet, which she had not yet 
 
 75 2
 
 CHAPTER X VIVIAN GREY 
 
 \ 
 
 been able to acquire. His translation of yesterday 
 had greatly interested her. Vivian shortly gave her 
 the outline of the story of Conrad. She listened 
 with great attention, but made no remark. 
 
 The ballet at Reisenburg was not merely a vehicle 
 for the display of dancing. It professed by gesture 
 and action, aided by music, to influence the minds of 
 the spectators not less than the regular drama. Of 
 this exhibition dancing was a casual ornament, as it is 
 of life. It took place therefore only on fitting occa- 
 sions, and grew out, in a natural manner, from some 
 event in the history represented. For instance, sup- 
 pose the story of Othello the subject of the ballet. 
 The dancing, in all probability, would be introduced 
 at a grand entertainment, given in celebration of the 
 Moor's arrival at Cyprus. All this would be in char- 
 acter. Our feelings would not be outraged by a 
 husband chassezing forward to murder his wife ; or 
 by seeing the pillow pressed over the innocent Des- 
 demona by the impulse of a pirouette. In most 
 cases, therefore, the chief performers in this species 
 of spectacle, are not even dancers. This, however, 
 may not always be the case. If Diana be the heroine, 
 poetical probability will not be offended by the god- 
 dess joining in the chaste dance with her huntress 
 nymphs ; and were the Baiadere of Goethe made the 
 subject of a ballet, the Indian dancing girl would 
 naturally be the heroine, both of the drama and the 
 poem. I know, myself, no performance more affect- 
 ing than the serious pantomime of a master. In 
 some of the most interesting situations, it is in fact 
 even more natural than the oral drama logically, it 
 is more perfect. For the soliloquy is actually 
 thought before us ; and the magic of the representa- 
 tion not destroyed by the sound of the human 
 SB 753
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 voice, at a moment when we all know man never 
 speaks. 
 
 The curtain again rises. Sounds of revelry and 
 triumph are heard from the Pirate Isle. They cele- 
 brate recent success. Various groups, accurately 
 attired in the costume of the Greek islands, are seated 
 on the rocky foreground. On the left rises Medora's 
 tower, on a craggy steep ; and on the right gleams 
 the blue TEgean. A procession of women enters. 
 It heralds the presence of Conrad and Medora : they 
 honour the festivity of their rude subjects. The 
 pirates and the women join in the national dance ; 
 and afterwards, eight warriors, completely armed, 
 move in a warlike measure, keeping time to the 
 music with their bucklers and clattering sabres. Sud- 
 denly the dance ceases ; a sail is in sight. The 
 neatest pirates rush to the strand, and assist the dis- 
 embarkation of their welcome comrades. The com- 
 mander of the vessel comes forward with an agitated 
 step, and gloomy countenance. He kneels to Con- 
 rad, and delivers him a scroll, which the chieftain 
 reads with suppressed agitation. In a moment the 
 faithful Juan is at his side the contents of the scroll 
 revealed the dance broken up, and preparations 
 made to sail in an hour's time to the city of the 
 Pacha. The stage is cleared, and Conrad and Me- 
 dora are alone. The mysterious leader is wrapt in 
 the deepest abstraction. He stands with folded 
 arms, and eyes fixed on the yellow sand. A gentle 
 pressure on his arm calls him back to recollection : he 
 starts, and turns to the intruder with a gloomy brow. 
 He sees Medora and his frown sinks into a sad 
 smile. c And must we part again ! this hour this 
 very hour; it cannot be!' She clings to him with 
 agony, and kneels to him with adoration. No hope! 
 
 754
 
 CHAPTER X VIVIAN GREY 
 
 no hope ! a quick return promised with an air of 
 foreboding fate. His stern arm encircles her waist. 
 He chases the heavy tear from her fair cheek, and 
 while he bids her be glad in his absence with her 
 handmaids, peals the sad thunder of the signal gun. 
 She throws herself upon him. The frantic quick- 
 ness of her motion strikingly contrasts with the for- 
 mer stupor of her appearance. She will not part. 
 Her face is buried in his breast ; her long fair hair 
 floats over his shoulders. He is almost unnerved ; 
 but at this moment the ship sails on : the crew and 
 their afflicted wives enter : the page brings to Lord 
 Conrad his cloak, his carbine, and his bugle. He 
 tears himself from her embrace, and without daring 
 to look behind him, bounds over the rocks, and is in 
 the ship. The vessel moves the wives of the Pir- 
 ates continue on the beech, waving their scarfs to 
 their desolate husbands. In the foreground Medora, 
 motionless, stands rooted to the strand ; and might 
 have inspired Phidias with a personification of 
 despair. 
 
 In a hall of unparalleled splendour, stern Seyd 
 reclines on innumerable 'pillows, placed on a carpet 
 of golden cloth. His bearded chiefs are ranged 
 around. The rooms are brilliantly illuminated with 
 large coloured lamps ; and an opening at the further 
 end of the apartments exhibits a portion of the shin- 
 ing city, and the glittering galleys. Gulnare, covered 
 with a silver veil, which reaches even to her feet, is 
 ushered into the presence of the Pacha. Even the 
 haughty Seyd rises to honour his beautiful favourite. 
 He draws the precious veil from her blushing feat- 
 ures, and places her on his right hand. The dancing 
 girls now appear ; and then are introduced the prin- 
 cipal artists. Now takes place the scientific part of 
 
 755
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 the ballet ; and here might Bias, or Noblet, or Ronzi 
 Vestris, or her graceful husband, or the classical 
 Albert, or the bounding Paul, vault without stint, 
 and attitudinize without restraint ; and not the least 
 impair the effect of the tragic tale. The Dervise, 
 of course, appears ; the galleys, of course, are fired ; 
 and Seyd, of course, retreats. A change in the 
 scenery gives us the blazing Haram the rescue of 
 its inmates the deliverance of Gulnare the cap- 
 ture of Conrad. 
 
 It is the prison scene. On a mat, covered with 
 irons, lies the forlorn Conrad. The flitting flame of 
 a solitary and ill-fed lamp, hardly reveals the heavy 
 bars of the huge grate that forms the entrance to its 
 cell. For some minutes nothing stirs. The mind 
 of the spectator is allowed to become fully aware of 
 the hopeless misery of the hero. His career is ended 
 secure is his dungeon trusty his guards over- 
 powering his chains. To-morrow he wakes to be 
 impaled. A gentle noise, so gentle that the spec- 
 tator almost deems it unintentional, is now heard. 
 A white figure appears behind the dusky gate : is 
 it a guard, or a torturer ? The gate softly opens, and 
 a female comes forward. Gulnare was represented 
 by a young girl, with the body of a Peri and the soul 
 of a Poetess. The Haram Queen advances with an 
 agitated step : she holds in her left hand a lamp, 
 and in the girdle of her light dress is a dagger. She 
 reaches, with a soundless step, the captive. He is 
 asleep. Ay! he sleeps, while thousands are weep- 
 ing his ravage or his ruin ; and she, in restlessness 
 is wandering here! A thousand thoughts are seen 
 coursing over her flushed brow, she looks to the 
 audience, and her dark eye asks why this Corsair is 
 so dear to her ? She turns again, and raises the lamp 
 
 756
 
 CHAPTER X VIVIAN GREY 
 
 with her long white arm, that the light may fall on 
 the captive's countenance. She gazes, without mov- 
 ing, on the sleeper touches the dagger with a slow 
 and tremulous hand, and starts from the contact with 
 terror. She again touches it ; it is drawn from her 
 vest it falls to the ground. He wakes he stares 
 with wonder : he sees a female not less fair than 
 Medora. Confused, she tells him her station : she 
 tells him that her pity is as certain as his doom. He 
 avows his readiness to die ; he appears undaunted 
 he thinks of Medora he buries his face in his hands. 
 
 She grows pale, as he avows he loves another. 
 
 She cannot conceal her own passion. He, wonder- 
 ing, confesses that he supposed her love was his 
 enemy's was Seyd's. Gulnare shudders with hor- 
 ror at the name : she draws herself up to her full 
 stature she smiles in bitterness : 
 
 " My love stern Seyd's ! Oh ! no, no, not my love ! " 
 
 The acting was perfect. The enthusiastic house 
 burst out into unusual shouts of admiration. Ma- 
 dame Carolina applauded with her little finger on 
 her fan. The Grand Duke himself gave the signal 
 of applause. Vivian never felt before, that words 
 were useless. His hand was violently pressed. He 
 turned round : it was the Baroness. She was lean- 
 ing back in her chair ; and though she did her utmost 
 to conceal her agitated countenance, a tear coursed 
 down her cheek, big as the miserable Medora's! 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 ON the evening of the Opera, arrived at Court part 
 of the suite of the young Archduchess, the betrothed 
 of the Crown Prince of Reisenburg. These consisted 
 
 757
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 of an old grey-headed General, who had taught her 
 Imperial Highness the manual exercise ; and her tutor 
 and confessor, an ancient and toothless Bishop. Their 
 youthful mistress was to follow them in a few days ; 
 and this arrival of such a distinguished portion of her 
 suite, was the signal for the commencement of a long 
 series of sumptuous festivities. After interchanging 
 a number of compliments, and a few snuff-boxes, 
 the new guests were invited by his Royal Highness 
 to attend a Review, which was to take place the next 
 morning, of five thousand troops, and fifty Generals. 
 
 The Reisenburg army was the best appointed in 
 Europe. Never were men seen with breasts more 
 plumply padded, mustachios better trained, or gaiters 
 more spotless. The Grand Duke himself was a mili- 
 tary genius, and had invented a new cut for the 
 collars of the Cavalry. His Royal Highness was 
 particularly desirous of astonishing the old grey- 
 headed governor of his future daughter, by the skilful 
 evolutions and imposing appearance of his legions. 
 The affair was to be of the most refined nature ; and 
 the whole was to be concluded by a mock battle, in 
 which the spectators were to be treated by a display 
 of the most exquisite evolutions, and complicated 
 movements, which human beings ever yet invented to 
 destroy others, or to escape destruction. Field Mar- 
 shal Count von Sohnspeer, the Commander-in-chief 
 of all the Forces of his Royal Highness the Grand 
 Duke of Reisenburg, condescended, at the particular 
 request of his sovereign, to conduct the whole affair 
 himself. 
 
 At first it was rather difficult to distinguish between 
 the army and the staff; for Darius, in the straits of 
 Issus, was not more sumptuously and numerously 
 attended, than Count von Sohnspeer. Wherever he 
 
 758
 
 CHAPTER XI VIVIAN GREY 
 
 moved, he was followed by a train of waving plumes 
 and radiant epaulettes, and foaming chargers, and 
 shining steel. In fact he looked like a large military 
 comet. Had the fate of Reisenburg depended on the 
 result of the day, the Field-Marshal, and his Generals 
 and Aid-de-camps, and Orderlys, could not have 
 looked more agitated and more in earnest. Von 
 Sohnspeer had not less than four horses in the field, 
 on every one of which, he seemed to appear in the 
 space of five minutes. Now he was dashing along 
 the line of the Lancers on a black charger, and now 
 round the column of the Cuirassiers on a white one. 
 He exhorted the Tirailleurs on a chesnut, and added 
 fresh courage to the ardour of the Artillery on a 
 bay. 
 
 It was a splendid day. The bands of the respec- 
 tive regiments played the most triumphant tunes, as 
 each marched on the field. The gradual arrival of 
 the troops was very picturesque. Distant music was 
 heard, and a corps of Infantry soon made its appear- 
 ance. A light bugle sounded, and a body of Tirail- 
 leurs issued from the shade of a neighbouring wood. 
 The kettle-drums and clarions heralded the presence 
 of a troop of Cavalry ; and an advanced guard of 
 Light-horse, told that the Artillery were about to 
 follow. The arms and standards of the troops shone 
 in the sun ; military music sounded in all parts of the 
 field ; unceasing w r as the bellow of the martial drum, 
 and the blast of the blood-stirring trumpet. Clouds 
 of dust, ever and anon excited in the distance, denoted 
 the arrival of a regiment of Cavalry. Even now, one 
 approaches it is the Red Lancers. How gracefully 
 their Colonel, the young Count of Eberstein, bounds 
 on his barb! Has Theseus turned Centaur? His 
 spur and bridle seem rather the emblems of sove- 
 
 759
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 reignty, than the instruments of government : he 
 neither chastises nor directs. The rider moves with- 
 out motion, and the horse judges without guidance. 
 It would seem that the man had borrowed the beast's 
 body, and the beast the man's mind. His regiment 
 has formed upon the field, their stout lances erected 
 like a young and leafless grove : but although now 
 in line, it is with difficulty that they can subject the 
 spirit of their warlike steeds. The trumpet has 
 caught the ear of the horses ; they stand with open 
 nostrils, already breathing war, ere they can see an 
 enemy ; and now dashing up one leg, and now the 
 other, they seem to complain of Nature, that she has 
 made them of any thing earthly. 
 
 The troops have all arrived ; there is an unusual 
 bustle in the field. Von Sohnspeer is again changing 
 his horse, giving directions while he is mounting, to 
 at least a dozen Aid-de-camps. Orderlys are scamp- 
 ering over every part of the field. Another flag, 
 quite new, and of immense size, is unfurled by the 
 Field Marshal's pavilion. A signal gun ! the music 
 in the whole field is hushed : a short silence of agita- 
 ting suspense another gun and another! All the 
 bands of all the regiments burst forth at the same 
 moment into the national air : the Court dash into the 
 field! 
 
 Madame Carolina, the Baroness, the Countess Von 
 
 S , and some other ladies, wore habits of the 
 
 uniform of the Royal Guards. Both Madame and 
 the Baroness were perfect horsewomen ; and the ex- 
 cited spirits of Mr. Beckendorff's female relative, 
 both during her ride, and her dashing run over the 
 field, amidst the firing of cannon, and the crash of 
 drums and trumpets, very strikingly contrasted with 
 her agitation and depression of the preceding night. 
 
 760
 
 CHAPTER XI VIVIAN GREY 
 
 c Your Excellency loves the tented field, I think!' 
 said Vivian ; who was at her side. 
 
 * I love war ! it is a diversion fit for kings ! ' was 
 the answer. * How fine the breast-plates and helmets 
 of those Cuirassiers glisten in the sun!' continued 
 the lady. ' Do you see Von Sohnspeer ? I wonder 
 if the Crov/n Prince be with him?' 
 
 ' I think he is.' 
 
 ' Indeed ! ah ! can he interest himself in any 
 thing? He seemed Apathy itself at the Opera last 
 night. I never saw him smile, or moved, and have 
 scarcely heard his voice ; but if he love war, if he be 
 a soldier, if he be thinking of other things than a 
 pantomime and a ball, 'tis well! very well for his 
 country! Perhaps he is a hero?' 
 
 At this moment, the Crown Prince, who was of 
 Von Sohnspeer's staff, slowly rode up to the Royal 
 party. 
 
 ' Rudolph ! ' said the Grand Duke ; ' do you head 
 your regiment to-day?' 
 
 4 No/ was the muttered answer. 
 
 The Grand Duke moved his horse to his son, and 
 spoke to him in a low tone ; evidently very earnestly. 
 Apparently he was expostulating with him : but the 
 effect of the royal exhortation was only to render the 
 Prince's brow more gloomy, and the expression of his 
 withered features more sullen and more sad. The 
 Baroness watched the father and son as they were 
 conversing, with the most intense attention. When 
 the Crown Prince, in violation of his father's wishes, 
 fell into the party, and allowed his regiment to be 
 headed by the Lieutenant-colonel, the young lady 
 raised her lustrous eyes to heaven, with that same 
 beautiful expression of sorrow or resignation, which 
 had so much interested Vivian on the morning that 
 
 761
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 he had translated to her the moving passage in the 
 Corsair. 
 
 But the field is nearly cleared, and the mimic war 
 has commenced. On the right appears a large body 
 of Cavalry, consisting of Cuirassiers and Dragoons. 
 A van-guard of Light Cavalry and Lancers, under 
 the command of the Count of Eberstein, is ordered 
 out, from this body, to harass the enemy : a strong 
 body of Infantry supposed to be advancing. Several 
 squadrons of Light Horse immediately spring for- 
 ward ; they form themselves into line, they wheel into 
 column, and endeavour, by well directed manreuvres, 
 to out-flank the strong wing of the advancing enemy. 
 After succeeding in executing all that was committed 
 to them, and after having skirmished in the van of 
 their own army, so as to give time for all necessary 
 dispositions of the line of battle, the van-guard sud- 
 denly retreats between the brigades of the Cavalry 
 of the line ; the prepared battery of cannon is un- 
 masked ; and a tremendous concentric fire opened on 
 the line of the advancing foe. Taking advantage of 
 the confusion created by this unexpected salute of his 
 artillery, Von Sohnspeer, who commands the Cavalry, 
 gives the word to ' Charge ! ' 
 
 The whole body of Cavalry immediately charge in 
 masses the extended line of the enemy is as im- 
 mediately broken. But the Infantry, who are com- 
 manded by one of the royal relatives and visitors, the 
 Prince of Pike and Powdren, dexterously form into 
 squares, and commence a masterly retreat in square 
 battalions. At length, they take up a more favour- 
 able position than the former one. They are again 
 galled by the Artillery, who have proportionately 
 advanced, and again charged by the Cavalry in their 
 huge masses. And now the squares of Infantry parti- 
 
 762
 
 CHAPTER XI VIVIAN GREY 
 
 ally give way. They admit the Cavalry, but the 
 exulting Horse find to their dismay, that the enemy 
 are not routed, but that there are yet inner squares 
 formed at salient angles. The Cavalry for a moment 
 retire, but it is only to give opportunity to their 
 Artillery to rake the obstinate foes. The execution 
 of the battery is fearful. Headed by their Com- 
 mander, the whole body of Cuirassiers and Dragoons, 
 again charge with renewed energy and concentrated 
 force. The Infantry are thrown into the greatest con- 
 fusion, and commence a rout, increased and rendered 
 irremediable by the Lancers and Huzzars, the former 
 van-guard ; who now, seizing on the favourable 
 moment, again rush forward, increasing the effect 
 of the charge of the whole army, overtaking 
 the fugitives with their lances, and securing the 
 prisoners. 
 
 The victorious Von Sohnspeer, followed by his 
 staff, now galloped up to receive the congratulations 
 of his Sovereign. 
 
 ' Where are your prisoners, Field Marshal?' asked 
 His Royal Highness, with a flattering smile. 
 
 ' What is the ransom of our unfortunate guest ?' 
 asked Madame Carolina. 
 
 ' I hope we shall have another affair,' said the 
 Baroness, with a flushed face and glowing eyes. 
 
 But the Commander-in-chief must not tarry to 
 bandy compliments. He is again wanted in the field. 
 The whole troops have formed in line. Some most 
 scientific evolutions are now executed. With them I 
 will not weary the reader, nor dilate on the compara- 
 tive advantages of forming en cremailliere and en 
 echiquier; nor upon the duties of Tirailleurs, nor 
 upon concentric fires and eccentric movements, nor 
 upon deploying, nor upon enfilading, nor upon 
 
 763
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 oblique points, nor upon echellons. The day finished 
 by the whole of the troops again forming in line, and 
 passing in order before the Commander-in-chief, to 
 give him an opportunity of observing their discipline 
 and inspecting their equipments. 
 
 The Review being finished, Count von Sohnspeer 
 and his staff joined the royal party ; and after walking 
 their horses round the field, they proceeded to his 
 pavilion, where refreshments were prepared for them. 
 The Field Marshal, flattered by the interest which the 
 young Baroness had taken in the business of the day, 
 and the acquaintance which she evidently possessed 
 of the more obvious details of military tactics, was 
 inclined to be particularly courteous to her, but the 
 object of his admiration did not encourage attentions, 
 by which half the ladies of the Court would have 
 thought themselves as highly honoured as by those of 
 the Grand Duke himself ; so powerful a person was 
 the Field Marshal, and so little inclined by temper to 
 cultivate the graces of the fair sex ! 
 
 ' In the tent keep by my side : ' said the Baroness 
 to Vivian. ' Although I am fond of heroes, Von 
 Sohnspeer is not to my taste. I know not wby I 
 flatter you so by my notice, for I suppose like all 
 Englishmen you are not a soldier ? I thought so. 
 Never mind ! you ride well enough for a Field Mar- 
 shal. I really think I could give you a commission 
 without much stickling of my conscience. No no! 
 I should like you nearer me. I have a good mind to 
 make you my Master of the Horse, that is to say 
 when I am entitled to have one.' 
 
 As Vivian acknowledged the young Baroness' com- 
 pliment by becoming emotion, and vowed that an 
 office near her person would be the consummation of 
 all his wishes, his eye caught the lady's : she blushed 
 
 764
 
 CHAPTER XI VIVIAN GREY 
 
 deeply, looked down upon her horse's neck, and then 
 turned away her head. 
 
 Von Sohnspeer's pavilion excellently became the 
 successful leader of the army of Reisenburg. Tro- 
 phies taken from all sides decked its interior. The 
 black eagle of Austria formed part of its roof, and the 
 brazen eagle of Gaul supported part of the side. The 
 grey-headed General looked rather grim when he saw 
 a flag belonging to a troop, which perhaps he had 
 himself once commanded. He vented his indigna- 
 tion to the toothless Bishop, who crossed his breast 
 with his fingers, covered with diamonds, and preached 
 temperance and moderation in inarticulate sounds. 
 
 During the collation, the conversation was prin- 
 cipally military. Madame Carolina, who was en- 
 tirely ignorant of the subject of discourse, enchanted 
 all the officers present by appearing to be the most 
 interested person in the tent. Nothing could exceed 
 the elegance of her eulogium of " petit guerre." 
 The old grey General talked much about " the good 
 old times," by which he meant the thirty years of 
 plunder, bloodshed, and destruction, which were occa- 
 sioned by the French Revolution. He gloated on 
 the recollections of horror, which he feared would 
 never occur again. The Archduke Charles and 
 Prince Schwartzenburg were the gods of his idolatry ; 
 and Nadasti's huzzars and Wurmser's dragoons, the 
 inferior divinities of his bloody heaven. One evolu- 
 tion of the morning, a discovery made by Von Sohn- 
 speer himself, in the deploying of cavalry, created a 
 great sensation ; and it was settled that it would have 
 been of great use to Dessaix and Clairfayt in the 
 Netherlands affair of some eight-and-twenty years 
 ago ; and was not equalled even by Seidlitz's cavalry 
 in the affair with the Russians at ZorndorfF. In 
 
 765
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 short, every " affair " of any character during the late 
 war, was fought over again in the tent of Field Mar- 
 shal von Sohnspeer. At length from the Archduke 
 Charles, and Prince Schwartzenburg, the old grey- 
 headed General got to Polybius and Monsieur Fol- 
 ard ; and the Grand Duke now thinking that the 
 " affair " was taking too serious a turn, broke up the 
 party. Madame Carolina and most of the ladies used 
 their carriages on their return. They were nearly 
 fifteen miles from the city ; but the Baroness, in spite 
 of the most earnest solicitations, would remount her 
 charger. Her singularity attracted the attention of 
 Emilius von Aslingen, who immediately joined her 
 party. As a captain in the Royal Guards, he had 
 performed his part in the day's horrors ; and the 
 Baroness immediately complimented him upon his 
 exertions and his victory. 
 
 * It was an excellent affair ! ' said the lady ; * I 
 should like a mock battle every day during peace.' 
 
 ' A mock battle!' said Emilius von Aslingen, with 
 a stare of great astonishment ; has there been a 
 battle to-day ? My memory, I fear, is failing me ; 
 but now that your Excellency has recalled it to my 
 mind, I have a very faint recollection of a slight 
 squabble?' 
 
 They cantered home the Baroness in unusual 
 spirits Vivian thinking very much of his fair com- 
 panion. Her character puzzled him. That she was 
 not the lovely simpleton that Madame Carolina be- 
 lieved her to be, he had little doubt. Some people 
 have great knowledge of society, and very little of 
 mankind. Madame Carolina was one of these. She 
 viewed her species through only one medium. That 
 the Baroness was a woman of acute feeling, Vivian 
 could not doubt. Her conduct at the Opera, which 
 
 766
 
 CHAPTER XI VIVIAN GREY 
 
 had escaped every one's attention, made this evident. 
 That she had seen more of the world than her previ- 
 ous conversation had given him to believe, was 
 equally clear by her conduct and conversation this 
 morning. He determined to become more ac- 
 quainted with her character. Her evident partiality 
 to his company would not render the execution of his 
 purpose difficult. At any rate, if he discovered 
 nothing, it was something to do : it would at least 
 amuse him. 
 
 In the evening he joined a large party at the palace. 
 He looked immediately for the Baroness. She was 
 surrounded by all the dandies, in consequence of the 
 flattering conduct of Emilius von Aslingen in the 
 morning. Their attentions she treated with con- 
 tempt, and ridiculed their compliments without 
 mercy. Without obtruding himself on her notice, 
 Vivian joined her circle, and witnessed her demolition 
 of the young Count of Eberstein with great amuse- 
 ment. Emilius von Aslingen was not there ; for 
 having now made the interesting savage the fashion, 
 she was no longer worthy of his attention, and con- 
 sequently deserted. The young lady soon observed 
 Vivian ; and saying, without the least embarrassment, 
 that she was delighted to see him, she begged him to 
 share her chaise-longue. Her envious levee wit- 
 nessed the preference with dismay ; and as the object 
 of their attention did not now notice their remarks, 
 even by her expressed contempt, one by one fell 
 away. Vivian and the Baroness were left alone, and 
 conversed together the whole evening. The lady dis- 
 played, on every subject, the most engaging ignor- 
 ance ; and requested information on obvious topics 
 with the most artless naivete. Vivian was convinced 
 that her ignorance was not affected, and equally sure 
 
 767
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 that it could not arise from imbecility of intellect ; for 
 while she surprised him by her crude questions, and 
 her want of acquaintance with all those topics which 
 generally form the staple of conversation ; she equally 
 amused him with her poignant wit, and the imperious 
 and energetic manner in which she instantly expected 
 satisfactory information on every possible subject. 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 ON the day after the Review, a fancy-dress ball was 
 to be given at Court. It was to be an entertainment 
 of a very peculiar nature. The lively genius of 
 Madame Carolina, wearied of the common-place 
 effect generally produced by this species of amuse- 
 ment in which usually a stray Turk, and a wander- 
 ing Pole, looked sedate and singular among crowds 
 of Spanish girls, Swiss peasants, and gentlemen in 
 uniforms had invented something novel. Her idea 
 was ingenious. To use her own sublime phrase, she 
 determined that the party should represent ' an age ! ' 
 Great difficulty was experienced in fixing upon the 
 century which was to be honoured. At first a poetical 
 idea was started of having something primeval per- 
 haps antediluvian, but Noah, or even Father 
 Abraham, were thought characters, hardly sufficiently 
 romantic for a fancy-dress ball ; and consequently the 
 earliest postdiluvian ages were soon under considera- 
 tion. Nimrod, or Sardanapalus, were distinguished 
 personages, and might be well represented by the 
 Master of the Staghounds, or the Master of the Re- 
 vels ; but then the want of an interesting lady-character 
 was a great objection. Semiramis, though not without 
 style in her own way, was not sufficiently Parisian for 
 Madame Carolina. New ages were proposed, and 
 
 768
 
 CHAPTER XII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 new objections started ; and so the " Committee of 
 Selection," which consisted of Madame herself, the 
 Countess von S , and a few other dames of fashion, 
 gradually slided through the four great empires. 
 Athens was not aristocratic enough, and then the 
 women were nothing. In spite of her admiration 
 of the character of Aspasia, Madame Carolina some- 
 what doubted the possibility of persuading the ladies 
 of the Court of Reisenburg to appear in the char- 
 acters of eraipai. Rome presented great capabilities, 
 and greater difficulties. Finding themselves, after 
 many days sitting and study, still very far from com- 
 ing to a decision, Madame called in the aid of the 
 
 O f 
 
 Grand Duke, who proposed " something national." 
 The proposition was plausible : but, according to 
 Madame Carolina, Germany, until her own time, 
 had been only a land of barbarism and bar- 
 barians ; and, therefore, in such a country, in 
 a national point of view, what could there 
 be interesting? The middle ages, as they are 
 usually styled, in spite of the Emperor Charle- 
 magne " that oasis in the desert of barbarism" 
 to use her own eloquent and original image were her 
 particular aversion. 'The age of chivalry is past!' 
 was as constant an exclamation of Madame Carolina, 
 as it was of Mr. Burke. c The age of chivalry is past 
 and very fortunate that it is. What resources could 
 they have had in the age of chivalry ? an age without 
 either moral or experimental philosophy ; an age in 
 which they were equally ignorant of the doctrine of 
 association of ideas, and of the doctrine of electric- 
 ity ; and when they were as devoid of a know- 
 ledge of the incalculable powers of the human mind, 
 as of the incalculable powers of steam!' Had 
 Madame Carolina been the Consort of an Italian 
 3 c 769
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 Grand Duke, selection would not be difficult ; and, 
 to inquire no farther, the Court of the Medicis alone 
 would afford them every thing they wanted. But 
 Germany never had any character, and never pro- 
 duced, nor had been the resort of illustrious men, and 
 interesting persons. What was to be done? The 
 age of Frederick the Great was the only thing ; and 
 then that was so recent, and would offend the Aus- 
 trians ; it could not be thought of. 
 
 At last, when the " Committee of Selection " was 
 almost in despair, some one proposed a period, which 
 not only would be German not only would compli- 
 ment the House of Austria, but, what was of still 
 greater importance, would allow of every contempo- 
 rary character of interest of every nation the age of 
 Charles the Fifth ! The suggestion was received with 
 enthusiastic shouts, and adopted on the spot. " The 
 Committee of Selection " was immediately dissolved, 
 and its members as immediately formed themselves 
 into a " Committee of Arrangement." Lists of all 
 the persons of any fame, distinction, or notoriety, 
 who had lived either in the Empire of Germany, the 
 Kingdoms of Spain, Portugal, France, or England, 
 the Italian States, the Netherlands, the Americas, 
 and, in short, in every country in the known world, 
 were immediately formed. Von Chronicle, rewarded 
 for his last historical novel by a riband and the title of 
 Baron, was appointed Secretary to the " Committee 
 of Costume." All guests who received a card of in- 
 vitation, were desired, on or before a certain day, to 
 send in the title of their adopted character, and a 
 sketch of their intended dress, that their plans might 
 receive the sanction of the Ladies of the " Committee 
 of Arrangement," and their dresses the approbation 
 of the Secretary of Costume. By this method, the 
 
 770
 
 CHAPTER XII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 chance and inconvenience of two persons selecting and 
 appearing in the same character, were destroyed and 
 prevented. After exciting the usual jealousies, in- 
 trigues, dissatisfaction, and ill-blood, by the influence 
 and imperturbable temper of Madame Carolina, every 
 thing was arranged Emilius von Aslingen being the 
 only person who set both the Committees of Arrange- 
 ment and Costume at defiance ; and treated the re- 
 peated applications of their respected Secretary, with 
 the most contemptuous silence. The indignant Baron 
 von Chronicle entreated the strong interference of the 
 " Committee of Arrangement ;" but Emilius von 
 Aslingen was too powerful an individual to be treated 
 by others as he treated them. Had the fancy-dress 
 ball of the Sovereign been attended by all his subjects, 
 with the exception of this Captain in his Guards, the 
 whole affair would have been a failure ; would have 
 been dark, in spite of the glare of ten thousand 
 lamps, and the glories of all the jewels of his State ; 
 would have been dull, although each guest were 
 wittier than Pasquin himself ; and very vulgar, 
 although attended by lords of as many quarterings 
 as the ancient shield of his own antediluvian house ! 
 Oh Fashion! I have no time for invocations. All, 
 therefore, that the ladies of the " Committee of 
 Arrangement " could do, was to enclose to the rebelli- 
 ous Von Aslingen a list of the expected characters, 
 and a resolution passed in consequence of his con- 
 tumacy ; that no person, or persons, was, or were, to 
 appear as either or any of these characters, unless he, 
 or they, could produce a ticket, or tickets, granted 
 by a member of the " Committee of Arrangement," 
 and countersigned by the secretary of the " Commit- 
 tee of Costume." At the same time that these vigor- 
 ous measures were resolved on, no persons spoke of 
 
 771
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 Emilius von Aslingen's rebellious conduct in terms of 
 greater admiration than the ladies of the Committee 
 themselves. If possible, he, in consequence, became 
 even a more influential and popular personage than 
 before ; and his conduct procured him almost the 
 adoration of persons, who, had they dared to imitate 
 him, would have been instantly crushed ; and would 
 have been banished society principally by the exer- 
 tions of the very individual whom they had the pre- 
 sumption to mimic. Oh Fashion! I forgot. 
 
 In the gardens of the palace was a spacious amphi- 
 theatre, cut out in green seats for the spectators of the 
 plays which, during the summer months, were some- 
 times performed there by the Court. There was a 
 stage in the same taste, with rows of trees for side- 
 scenes, and a great number of arbours and summer- 
 rooms, surrounded by lofty hedges of laurel, for the 
 actors to retire and dress in. Connected with this 
 " rural Theatre," for such was its title, were a number 
 of labyrinths and groves, and arched walks in the 
 same style. Above twelve large fountains were in 
 the immediate vicinity of this theatre. At the end of 
 one walk a seahorse spouted its element through its 
 nostrils ; and in another, Neptune turned an Ocean 
 out of a vase. Seated on a rock, Arcadia's half-goat 
 god, the deity of silly sheep and silly poets, sent forth 
 trickling streams through his rustic pipes ; and in the 
 centre of a green grove, an enamoured Salmacis, 
 bathing in a pellucid basin, seemed watching for her 
 Hermaphrodite. 
 
 It was in this rural Theatre, and its fanciful con- 
 fines, that Madame Carolina and her councillors re- 
 solved, that their magic should, for a night, not only 
 stop the course of time, but recall past centuries. It 
 was certainly rather late in the year for choosing such 
 
 773
 
 CHAPTER XII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 a spot for the scene of their enchantment ; but the 
 season, as I have often had occasion to remark in the 
 course of these volumes, was singularly fine ; and 
 indeed at the moment of which I am speaking, the 
 nights were as warm, and as clear from mist and dew, 
 as they are during an Italian midsummer. 
 
 But it is eight o'clock we are already rather late. 
 Is that a figure by Holbein, just started out of the 
 canvass, that I am about to meet ? Stand aside ! It 
 is a page of the Emperor Charles the Fifth. The 
 Court is on its way to the theatre. The theatre and 
 the gardens are brilliantly illuminated. The effect 
 of the thousands of coloured lamps, in all parts of the 
 foliage, is very beautiful. The moon is up, and a 
 million stars ! If it be not quite as light as day, it is 
 just light enough for pleasure. You could not per- 
 haps endorse a bill of exchange, or engross a lawyer's 
 parchment, by this light ; but then it is just the light 
 to read a love-letter by, and do a thousand other 
 things besides I have a long story to tell, and 
 so o-uess them ! 
 
 O 
 
 All hail to the Emperor ! I would give his costume, 
 were it not rather too much in the style of the Von 
 Chronicles. Reader! you have seen a portrait of 
 Charles by Holbein : very well what need is there of 
 a description ? No lack was there in this gay scene of 
 massy chains and curious collars, nor of cloth of gold, 
 nor of cloth of silver! No lack was there of trem- 
 bling plumes, and costly hose ! No lack was there of 
 crimson velvet, and russet velvet, and tawny velvet, 
 and purple velvet, and plunket velvet, and of scarlet 
 cloth, and green taffeta, and cloth of silk embroid- 
 ered ! No lack was there of garments of estate, and 
 of quaint chemews, nor of short crimson cloaks, 
 covered with pearls and precious stones. No lack 
 
 773
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 was there of party-coloured splendour, of purple 
 velvet embroidered with white, and white satin 
 dresses embroidered with black. No lack was there 
 of splendid koyfes of damask, or kerchiefs of fine 
 Cyprus ; nor of points of Venice silver of ducat fine- 
 ness, nor of garlands of friars' knots, nor of coloured 
 satins, nor of bleeding hearts embroidered on the 
 bravery of dolorous lovers, nor of quaint sentences 
 of wailing gallantry. But for the details, are they 
 not to be found in those much-neglected and much- 
 plundered persons, the old chroniclers ? and will they 
 not sufficiently appear in the most inventive portion 
 of the next great historical novel? 
 
 The Grand Duke looked the Emperor. Our 
 friend the Grand Marshal was Francis the First ; and 
 Arnelm, and Von Neuwied, figured as the Marshal 
 Montmorency, and the Marshal Lautrec. The old 
 toothless Bishop did justice to Clement the Seventh ; 
 and his companion, the ancient General, looked grim 
 as Pompeo Colonna. A prince of the House of 
 Nassau, one of the royal visitors, represented his 
 adventurous ancestor the Prince of Orange. Von 
 Sohnspeer was that haughty and accomplished rebel, 
 the Constable of Bourbon. The young Baron Gerns- 
 bach was worthy of the Seraglio, as he stalked along 
 as Solyman the Magnificent, with all the family 
 jewels, belonging to his old dowager mother, shining 
 in his superb turban. Our friend the Count of Eber- 
 stein personified chivalry, in the person of Bayard. 
 The younger Bernstorff, the intimate friend of Gerns- 
 bach, attended his sumptuous sovereign as that Turk- 
 ish Paul Jones, Barbarossa. An Italian Prince was 
 Andrew Doria. The Grand Chamberlain, our fran- 
 cise acquaintance, and who affected a love of litera- 
 ture, was the Protestant Elector of Saxony. His 
 
 774
 
 CHAPTER XII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 train consisted of the principal litterateurs of Reisen- 
 burg : the Editor of the Attack-all-Review,' who 
 originally had been a Catholic, but who had been 
 skilfully converted some years ago, when he thought 
 Catholicism was on the decline, was Martin Luther, 
 an individual whom, both in his apostacy and 
 brutality, he much and only resembled ; on the con- 
 trary, the Editor of the ' Praise-all-Review,' ap- 
 peared as the mild and meek Melancthon. Mr. 
 Sievers, not yet at Vienna, was Erasmus. Ariosto, 
 Guicciardini, Ronsard, Rabelais, Machiavel, Pietro 
 Aretino, Garcilasso de la Vega, Sannazaro, and Para- 
 celsus, afforded names to many nameless critics. Two 
 Generals, brothers, appeared as Cortez and Pizarro. 
 The noble Director of the Gallery was Albert Durer ; 
 and his deputy, Hans Holbein. The Court painter, 
 a wretched mimic of the modern French school, did 
 justice to the character of Corregio ; and an indif- 
 ferent sculptor looked sublime as Michel Angelo. 
 
 Von Chronicle had persuaded the Prince of Pike 
 and Powdren, one of his warmest admirers, to appear 
 as Henry the Eighth of England. His Highness 
 was one of those true north German patriots who 
 think their own country a very garden of Eden, and 
 verily believe that original sin is to be finally put an 
 end to, in a large sandy plain between Berlin and 
 Hanover. The Prince of Pike and Powdren passed 
 his whole life in patriotically sighing for the concen- 
 tration of all Germany into one great nation, and in 
 secretly trusting that if ever the consummation took 
 place, the North would be rewarded for their con- 
 descending union, by a monopoly of all the privileges 
 of the empire. Such a character was of course ex- 
 tremely desirous of figuring to-night in a style 
 peculiarly national. The persuasions of Von Chron- 
 
 775
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 icle, however, prevailed, and induced his Highness of 
 Pike and Powdren to dismiss his idea of appearing as 
 the ancient Arminius ; although it was with great 
 regret that the Prince gave up his plan of personating 
 his favourite hero, with hair down to his middle and 
 skins up to his chin. Nothing would content Von 
 Chronicle, but that his kind patron should represent 
 a crowned head : any thing else was beneath him. 
 The patriotism of the Prince disappeared before the 
 flattery of the novelist, like the bloom of a plum 
 before the breath of a boy, when he polishes the 
 powdered fruit ere he devours it. No sooner had 
 his Highness agreed to be changed into bluff Harry, 
 than the secret purpose of his adviser was immedi- 
 ately detected. No Court confessor, seduced by the 
 vision of a red hat, ever betrayed the secrets of his 
 sovereign with greater fervour, than did Von Chron- 
 icle labour for the Cardinal's costume, which was the 
 consequence of the Prince of Pike and Powdren 
 undertaking the English monarch. To-night, proud 
 as was the part of the Prince as regal Harry, his strut 
 was a shamble compared with the imperious stalk of 
 Von Chronicle as the arrogant and ambitious Wolsey. 
 The Cardinal in Rienzi was nothing to him ; for 
 to-night Wolsey had as many pages, as the other had 
 petticoats! 
 
 But, most ungallant of scribblers! Place aux 
 dames! Surely Madame Carolina, as the beautiful 
 and accomplished Margaret of Navarre, might well 
 command, even without a mandate, your homage and 
 your admiration! The lovely Queen seemed the 
 very Goddess of smiles and repartee : young Max, 
 as her page, carried at her side a painted volume of 
 her own poetry. The arm of the favourite sister 
 of Francis, who it will be remembered once fascinated 
 
 776
 
 CHAPTER XII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 even the Emperor, was linked in that of Caesar's 
 natural daughter her beautiful namesake, the 
 bright-eyed Margaret of Austria. Conversing with 
 these royal dames, and indeed apparently in attend- 
 ance upon them, was a young gallant of very courtly 
 bearing, and attired in a very fantastic dress. It is 
 Clement Marot, the " Poet of Princes, and the Prince 
 of Poets," as he was styled by his own admiring age : 
 he offers to the critical inspection of the nimble-witted 
 Navarre a few lines in celebration of her beauty, and 
 the night's festivity ; one of those short Marotique 
 poems once so celebrated perhaps a page culled from 
 those gay and airy psalms, which, with characteristic 
 gallantry, he dedicated " to the Dames of France ! " 
 Observe well the fashionable bard! Marot was a 
 true poet, and in his day not merely read by queens, 
 and honoured by courtiers : observe him, I say, well ; 
 for the character is supported by one who is a great 
 favourite with myself, and I trust also with you, 
 sweet reader, our Vivian Grey. It was with great 
 difficulty that Madame Carolina had found a character 
 for her favourite, for the lists were all filled before his 
 arrival at Reisenburg. She at first wished him to 
 appear as some celebrated Englishman of the time, 
 but no character of sufficient importance could be 
 discovered. All our countrymen in contact or con- 
 nexion with the Emperor Charles were churchmen 
 and civilians ; and Sir Nicholas Carew and the other 
 fops of the reign of Henry the Eighth, who, after 
 their visit to Paris, were even more ridiculously 
 francise than the Grand Chamberlain of Reisenburg 
 himself, were not, after mature deliberation, con- 
 sidered entitled to the honour of being ranked in 
 Madame Carolina's age of Charles the Fifth. 
 
 But who is this, surrounded by her ladies and her 
 
 777
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 chamberlains and her secretaries? Four pages in 
 dresses of cloth of gold, and each the son of a prince 
 of the French blood, support her train ; a crown en- 
 circles locks, grey, as much from thought as from 
 time ; but which require no show of royalty to prove 
 that they belong to a mother of princes : that ample 
 forehead, aquiline nose, and the keen glance of her 
 piercing eye, denote the Queen, as much as the regal- 
 ity of her gait and her numerous and splendid train. 
 The young Queen of Navarre hastens to proffer her 
 duty to the mother of Francis, the celebrated Louise 
 of Savoy ; and exquisitely did the young and lovely 
 
 Countess of S personate the most celebrated of 
 
 female diplomatists. 
 
 I have forgotten one character : the repeated com- 
 mands of his father, and the constant entreaties of 
 Madame Carolina, had at length prevailed upon the 
 Crown Prince to shuffle himself into a fancy dress. 
 No sooner had he gratified them by his hard-wrung 
 consent, than Baron von Chronicle called upon him 
 with drawings of the costume of the Prince of 
 Asturias, afterwards Philip the Second of Spain. If 
 I for a moment forgot so important a personage as the 
 future Grand Duke, it must have been because he 
 supported his character so ably, that no one for an 
 instant believed that it was an assumed one : stand- 
 ing near the side scenes of the amphitheatre, with his 
 gloomy brow, sad eye, protruding under lip, and 
 arms hanging straight by his sides he looked a bigot 
 without hope, and a tyrant without purpose. . 
 
 The first hour is over, and the guests are all assem- 
 bled. As yet, they content themselves with pro- 
 menading round the amphitheatre ; for before they 
 can think of dance or stroll, each of them must be 
 duly acquainted with the other's dress. Certainly it 
 
 778
 
 CHAPTER XII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 was a most splendid scene. The Queen of Navarre 
 has now been presented to the Emperor ; and leaning 
 on his arm, they head the promenade. The Emperor 
 had given the hand of Margaret of Austria to his 
 legitimate son ; but the Crown Prince, though he 
 continued in silence by the side of the young Baron- 
 ess, soon resigned a hand which did not struggle to 
 retain his. Clement Marot was about to fall back 
 into a less conspicuous part of the procession ; but 
 the Grand Duke, witnessing the regret of his loved 
 Consort, condescendingly said, ' We cannot afford to 
 lose our poet ;' and so Vivian found himself walking 
 behind Madame Carolina, and on the left side of the 
 young Baroness. Louise of Savoy followed with her 
 son, the King of France ; most of the ladies of the 
 Court, and a crowd of officers, among them Mont- 
 morency and De Lautrec, after their Majesties. The 
 King of England moves by ; his state unnoticed in 
 the superior Magnificence of Wolsey. Pompeo 
 Colonna apologizes to Pope Clement for having be- 
 sieged his Holiness in the Castle of St. Angelo. The 
 Elector of Saxony and the Prince of Orange follow. 
 Solyman the Magnificent is attended by his Admiral ; 
 and Bayard's pure spirit almost quivers at the whis- 
 pered treason of the Constable of Bourbon. Luther 
 and Melancthon, Erasmus and Rabelais, Cortez and 
 Pizarro, Corregio and Michel Angelo, and a long 
 train of dames and dons of all nations, succeed ; so 
 long that the amphitheatre cannot hold them ; and 
 the procession, that all may walk over the stage, 
 makes a short progress through an adjoining summer- 
 room. 
 
 Just as the Emperor and the fair Queen are in the 
 middle of the stage, a wounded warrior, with a face 
 pale as an eclipsed moon; a helmet, on which is 
 
 779
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 painted the sign of his sacred order ; a black mantle 
 thrown over his left shoulder, but not concealing his 
 
 3 O 
 
 armour ; a sword in his right hand, and an out- 
 stretched crucifix in his left ; rushes on the scene. 
 The procession suddenly halts all recognize Emilius 
 von Aslingen! and Madame Carolina blushes 
 through her rouge, when she perceives that so cele- 
 brated, c so interesting a character ' as Ignatius 
 Loyola, the Founder of the Jesuits, has not been 
 included in the all-comprehensive lists of her com- 
 mittee. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 HENRY of England led the polonnaise with Louise 
 of Savoy ; Margaret of Austria would not join in it : 
 waltzing quickly followed. The Emperor seldom 
 left the side of the Queen of Navarre, and often con- 
 versed with her Majesty's poet. The Prince of 
 Asturias hovered for a moment round his father's 
 daughter, as if he were summoning resolution to ask 
 her to waltz. Once indeed, he opened his mouth. 
 Could it have been to speak ? but the young Mar- 
 garet gave no encouragement to this unusual exer- 
 tion ; and Philip of Asturias looking, if possible, 
 more sad and sombre than before, skulked away. 
 The Crown Prince left the gardens, and now a smile 
 lit up every face, except that of the young Baroness. 
 The gracious Grand Duke, unwilling to see a gloomy 
 countenance any where to-night, turned to Vivian, 
 who was speaking to Madame Carolina, and said, 
 4 Gentle poet, would that thou hadst some chanson 
 or courtly compliment, to chase the cloud which 
 hovers on the brow of our much-loved daughter of 
 Austria ! Your popularity, Sir,' continued the Grand 
 Duke, dropping his mock heroic vein, and speaking 
 
 780
 
 CHAPTER XIII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 in a much lower tone ; ' your popularity, Sir, among 
 the ladies of the Court, cannot be increased by any 
 panegyric of ours ; nor are we insensible, believe us, 
 to the assiduity and skill with which you have com- 
 plied with our wishes, in making our Court agree- 
 able to the relative of a man, to whom we owe so 
 much as Mr. Beckendorff. We are informed, Mr. 
 Grey,' continued his Royal Highness, { that you have 
 no intention of very speedily returning to your 
 country ; we wish that we could count you among 
 our peculiar attendants. If you have an objection to 
 live in our palace, without performing your quota of 
 duty to the State, we shall have no difficulty in find- 
 ing you an office, and clothing you in our official 
 costume. Think of this!' So saying, with a graci- 
 ous smile, his Royal Highness, leading Madame 
 Carolina, commenced a walk round the gardens. 
 
 The young Baroness did not follow them. Soly- 
 man the Magnificent, and Bayard the irreproachable, 
 and Barbarossa the pirate, and Bourbon the rebel, 
 immediately surrounded her. Few persons were 
 higher ton than the Turkish Emperor and his Ad- 
 miral few persons talked more agreeable nonsense 
 than the Knight, sans peur et sans reproche no per- 
 son was more important than the warlike Constable ; 
 but their attention, their amusement, and their hom- 
 age, were to-night thrown away on the object of their 
 observance. The Baroness listened to them without 
 interest, and answered them with brevity. She did 
 not even condescend, as she had done before, to enter 
 into a war of words, to mortify their vanity or exer- 
 cise their wit. She treated them neither with con- 
 tempt nor courtesy. If no smile welcomed their 
 remarks, at least her silence was not scornful, and 
 the most shallow-headed prater that fluttered around 
 
 781
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 her, felt that he was received with dignity and not 
 with disdain. Awed by her conduct, not one of 
 them dared to be flippant, and every one of them 
 soon became dull. The ornaments of the Court of 
 Reisenburg, the arbiters of ton and the lords of taste, 
 stared with astonishment at each other, when they 
 found, to their mutual surprise, that at one moment, 
 in such a select party, universal silence pervaded. 
 In this state of affairs, every one felt that his dignity 
 required his speedy disappearance from the lady's 
 presence. The Orientals, taking advantage of Bour- 
 bon's returning once more to the charge, with an 
 often unanswered remark, coolly walked away : the 
 Chevalier made an adroit and honourable retreat, by 
 joining a passing party ; and the Constable was the 
 only one, who, being left in solitude and silence, was 
 finally obliged to make a formal bow, and retire dis- 
 comfited, from the side of the only woman with 
 whom he had ever condescended to fall in love. 
 Leaning against the trunk of a tree at some little dis- 
 tance, Vivian Grey watched the formation and dis- 
 solution of the young Baroness's levee, with the 
 liveliest interest. His eyes met the lady's, as she 
 raised them from the ground, on Von Sohnspeer 
 quitting her. She immediately beckoned to Vivian, 
 but without her usual smile. He was directly at 
 her side, but she did not speak. At last he said, ' I 
 think this is a most brilliant scene!' 
 
 ' You think so do you?' answered the lady, in a 
 tone and manner which almost made Vivian believe 
 for a moment, that his friend Mr. Beckendorff was 
 at his side. 
 
 ' Decidedly his daughter!' thought he. 
 
 ' You do not seem in your usual spirits to-night?' 
 
 j T7- ' 
 
 said Vivian. 
 
 782
 
 CHAPTER XIII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 1 1 hardly know what my usual spirits are,' said 
 the lady ; in a manner which would have made Vi- 
 vian imagine that his presence was as disagreeable to 
 her as that of Count von Sohnspeer, had not the lady 
 herself invited his company. 
 
 ' I suppose the scene is very brilliant,' continued 
 the Baroness, after a few moments' silence. * At 
 least all here seem to think so, except two persons.' 
 
 1 And who are they ?' asked Vivian. 
 
 ' Myself, and the Crown Prince. I am almost 
 
 sorry that I did not dance with him. There seems 
 a wonderful similarity in our dispositions.' 
 
 ' You are pleased to be severe to-night ! ' 
 
 ' And who shall complain when the first person that 
 I satirize is myself?' 
 
 1 It is most considerate in you,' said Vivian, ' to 
 undertake such an office ; for it is one which you, 
 yourself, are alone capable of fulfilling. The only 
 person that can ever satirize your Excellency is 
 yourself; and I think even then, that in spite of 
 your candour, your self-examination must please us 
 with a self-panegyric.' 
 
 ( Nay, a truce to compliments : at least, let me 
 hear better things from you. I cannot any longer 
 endure the glare of these lamps and dresses ; your 
 arm! Let us walk for a few minutes in the more 
 retired and cooler parts of the gardens.' 
 
 The Baroness and Vivian left the amphitheatre, by 
 a different path to that by which the Grand Duke and 
 Madame Carolina had quitted it. They found the 
 walks quite solitary ; for the royal party, which was 
 very small, contained the only persons who had yet 
 left the stage. 
 
 Vivian and his companion strolled about for some 
 time, conversing on subjects of casual interest. The 
 
 783 

 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 Baroness, though no longer absent, either in her man- 
 ner or her conversation, was not in her accustomed 
 spirits ; and Vivian, while he flattered himself 
 that he was more entertaining than usual, felt, 
 to his mortification, that the lady was not enter- 
 tained. 
 
 ' I am afraid you find it very dull here,' said he ; 
 ' shall we return ?' 
 
 ' Oh, no ; do not let us return ! We have so 
 short a time to be together, that we must not allow 
 even one hour to be dull.' 
 
 As Vivian was about to reply, he heard the joyous 
 voice of young Maximilian ; it sounded very near ; 
 the royal party was approaching. The Baroness ex- 
 pressed her earnest desire to avoid it ; and as to 
 advance or to retreat, in these labyrinthine walks, 
 was almost equally hazardous, they retired into one 
 of those green recesses which I have before men- 
 tioned ; indeed, it was the very evergreen grove, in 
 the centre of which the Nymph of the Fountain 
 watched for her loved Carian youth. A shower of 
 moonlight fell on the marble statue, and showed the 
 Nymph in an attitude of consummate skill : her mo- 
 desty struggling with her desire, and herself crouch- 
 ing in her hitherto pure waters, while her anxious 
 ear listens for the bounding step of the regardless 
 huntsman. 
 
 ' The air is cooler here,' said the Baroness, ( or 
 the sound of the falling water is peculiarly refreshing 
 to my senses. They have passed ; I rejoice that we 
 did not return ; I do not think that I could have 
 remained among those lamps another moment. How 
 singular, actually to view with aversion a scene which 
 appears to enchant all!' 
 
 ' A scene which I should have thought would have 
 784
 
 CHAPTER XIII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 been particularly charming to you,' said Vivian ; 
 * you are dispirited to-night ?' 
 
 ' Am I ?' said the Baroness. * I ought not to be ; 
 not to be more dispirited than I ever am. To-night 
 I expected pleasure ; nothing has happened which I 
 did not expect, and every thing which I did. And 
 yet I am sad ! Do you think that happiness can ever 
 be sad? I think it must be so. But whether I am 
 sorrowful, or happy, I can hardly tell ; for it is only 
 within these few days that I have known either grief 
 or joy.' 
 
 * It must be counted an eventful period in your 
 existence, which reckons in its brief hours a first 
 acquaintance with such passions?' said Vivian, with a 
 searching eye and inquiring voice. 
 
 c Yes ; an eventful period certainly an eventful 
 period,' answered the Baroness ; with a thoughtful 
 air and in measured words. 
 
 4 1 cannot bear to see a cloud upon that brow!' 
 said Vivian. ' Have you forgotten how much was 
 to be done to-night ? How eagerly you looked for- 
 ward to its arrival ? How bitterly we were to regret 
 the termination of the mimic empire?' 
 
 ( I have forgotten nothing ; would that I had ! I 
 will not look grave. I will be gay ; and yet when I 
 remember how soon other mockery, besides this 
 splendid pageant, must be terminated, why should 
 I look gay ? why may I not weep ?' 
 
 * Nay, if we are to moralize on worldly felicity, I 
 fear, that instead of inspiriting you, which is my 
 wish, I shall prove but a too congenial companion ; 
 but such a theme is not for you.' 
 
 ' And why should it be for one, who though he 
 lecture me with such gravity and gracefulness, can 
 scarcely be entitled to play the part of Mentor by the 
 3P 785
 
 VIVIAN GRF.Y BOOK VII 
 
 weight of years ?' said the Baroness, with a smile ; 
 ' for one, who, I trust who, I should think, as little 
 deserved, and was as little inured to sorrow as my- 
 self!' 
 
 c To find that you have cause to grieve,' said Vi- 
 vian ; ' and to learn from you, at the same time, 
 your opinion of my own lot, prove what I have too 
 often had the sad opportunity of observing ; that 
 the face of man is scarcely more genuine and less de- 
 ceitful, than these masquerade dresses which we now 
 wear.' 
 
 1 But you are not unhappy?' asked the Baroness 
 with a quick voice. 
 
 ' Not now,' said Vivian. 
 
 His companion seated herself on the marble balus- 
 trade which surrounded the fountain : she did not 
 immediately speak again, and Vivian was silent, for 
 he was watching her motionless countenance as her 
 large brilliant eyes gazed with earnestness on the fall- 
 ing v/ater sparkling in the moonlight. Surely it was 
 not the mysterious portrait at Beckendorff's that he 
 beheld! How came he not to remark this likeness 
 before ! 
 
 She turned she seized his hand she pressed it 
 with warmth. 
 
 * Oh friend ! too lately found ; why have we met 
 to part!' 
 
 ' To part, dearest!' said he, in a low and rapid 
 voice ; < to part ! and why should we part ? why ' 
 
 ' Oh! ask not, ask not ; your question is agony!' 
 She tried to withdraw her hand, he pressed it with 
 renewed energy, it remained in his, she turned 
 away her head, and both were silent. 
 
 ' Oh ! lady,' said Vivian, as he knelt at her side ; 
 f why are we not happy ?' 
 
 786
 
 CHAPTER XIII VIVIAN GREY 
 
 His arm is round her waist gently he bends his 
 head their speaking eyes meet, and their trembling 
 lips cling into a kiss! 
 
 A seal of love and purity and faith! and the 
 chaste moon need not have blushed as she lit up the 
 countenances of the lovers. 
 
 ' Oh! lady, why are we not happy?' 
 
 { We are, we are : is not this happiness is not 
 this joy is not this bliss? Bliss,' she continued, 
 in a low broken voice, ' to which I have no right, no 
 title. Oh! quit, quit my hand! Happiness is not 
 for me!' She extricated herself from his arm, and 
 sprang upon her feet. Alarm, rather than affection, 
 was visible on her agitated features. It seemed to 
 cost her a great effort to collect her scattered senses ; 
 the effort was made with pain, but with success. 
 
 * Forgive me, forgive me,' she said, in a hurried 
 and indistinct tone ; ' forgive me ! I would speak, 
 but cannot, not now at least ; we have been long 
 away, too long ; our absence will be remarked to- 
 night ; to-night we must give up to the gratification 
 of others, but I will speak. For your's, for my own 
 sake, let us let us go. You know that we are to 
 be very gay to-night, and gay we will be. Who 
 shall prevent us? At least the present hour is our 
 own ; and when the future ones must be so sad, 
 why, why trifle with this?' 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 THE reader is not to suppose that Vivian Grey 
 thought of the young Baroness, merely in the rapid 
 scenes which I have sketched. There were few 
 moments in the day in which her image did not occupy 
 his thoughts, and which indeed, he did not spend in 
 
 787
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 her presence. From the first, her character had inter- 
 ested him. His accidental but extraordinary ac- 
 quaintance with Beckendorff, made him view any 
 individual connected with that singular man, with a 
 far more curious feeling than could influence the 
 young nobles of the Court, who were ignorant of the 
 Minister's personal character. There was an evident 
 mystery about the character and situation of the 
 Baroness, which well accorded with the eccentric and 
 romantic career of the Prime Minister of Reisenburg. 
 Of the precise nature of her connexion with Becken- 
 dorff, Vivian was wholly ignorant. The world spoke 
 of her as his daughter, and the affirmation of Madame 
 Carolina confirmed the world's report. Her name 
 was still unknown to him ; and although, during the 
 few moments that they had enjoyed an opportunity 
 of conversing together alone, Vivian had made every 
 exertion, of which good breeding, impelled by curi- 
 osity, is capable, and had devised many little artifices, 
 with which a schooled address is well acquainted, to 
 obtain it, his exertions had hitherto been perfectly 
 unsuccessful. If there were a mystery, the young 
 lady was perfectly competent to preserve it ; and with 
 all her naivete, her interesting ignorance of the world, 
 and her evidently uncontrollable spirit, no hasty word 
 ever fell from her cautious lips, which threw any light 
 on the objects of his inquiry. Though impetuous, 
 she was never indiscreet, and often displayed a caution 
 which was little in accordance with her youth and 
 temper. The last night had witnessed the only 
 moment in which her passions seemed for a time to 
 have struggled with, and to have overcome, her 
 judgment ; but it was only for a moment. That 
 display of overpowering feeling had cost Vivian a 
 sleepless night ; and he is at this instant pacing up 
 
 788
 
 CHAPTER XIV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 and down the chamber of his hotel, thinking of that 
 which he had imagined could exercise his thought no 
 more. 
 
 She was beautiful she loved him ; she was un- 
 happy! To be loved by any woman is flattering to 
 the feelings of every man, no matter how deeply he 
 may have quaffed the bitter goblet of worldly know- 
 ledge. The praise of a tool is incense to the wisest 
 of us ; and though we believe ourselves broken- 
 hearted, it still delights us to find that we are loved. 
 The memory of Violet Fane was still as fresh, as 
 sweet, to the mind of Vivian Grey, as when he 
 pressed her blushing cheek, for the first and only 
 time. To love again really to love as he had done 
 he once thought was impossible ; he thought so 
 still. The character of the Baroness, as I have said, 
 had interested him from the first. Her ignorance of 
 mankind, and her perfect acquaintance with the most 
 polished forms of society ; her extreme beauty, her 
 mysterious rank, her proud spirit and impetuous feel- 
 ings ; her occasional pensiveness, her extreme way- 
 wardness, had astonished, perplexed, and enchanted 
 him. But he had never felt in love. It never, for a 
 moment, had entered into his mind, that his lonely 
 bosom could again be a fit resting-place, for one so 
 lovely, and so young. Scared at the misery which 
 had always followed in his track, he would have 
 shuddered ere he again asked a human being to share 
 his sad and blighted fortunes. The partiality of the 
 Baroness for his society, without flattering his vanity, 
 or giving rise to thoughts more serious than how he 
 could most completely enchant for her the passing 
 hour, had certainly made the time passed in her pre- 
 sence, the least gloomy which he had lately experi- 
 enced. At the same moment that he left the saloon 
 
 789
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 of the palace, he had supposed that his image quitted 
 her remembrance ; and if she had again welcomed 
 him with cheerfulness and cordiality, he had felt that 
 his reception was owing to not being, perhaps, quite 
 as frivolous as the Count of Eberstein, and being 
 rather more amusing than the Baron of Gernsbach. 
 
 It was therefore with the greatest astonishment 
 that, last night, he had found that he was loved 
 loved too, by this beautiful and haughty girl, who 
 had treated the advances of the most distinguished 
 nobles with ill-concealed scorn ; and who had so pre- 
 sumed upon her dubious relationship to the bour- 
 geois Minister, that nothing but her own surpassing 
 loveliness, and her parent's all-engrossing influence, 
 could have excused or authorised her conduct. 
 
 Vivian had yielded to the magic of the moment, 
 and had returned the love, apparently no sooner prof- 
 fered than withdrawn. Had he left the gardens of 
 the palace the Baroness's plighted lover, he might 
 perhaps have deplored his rash engagement ; and the 
 sacred image of his first, and hallowed love, might 
 have risen up in judgment against his violated affec- 
 tion but how had he, and the interesting stranger 
 parted? He was rejected, even while his affection 
 was returned ; and while her flattering voice told 
 him that he alone could make her happy, she had 
 mournfully declared that happiness could not be hers. 
 How was this ? Could she be another's ? Her agi- 
 tation at the Opera, often the object of his thought, 
 quickly occurred to him. It must be so. Ah! an- 
 other's! and who this rival? this proud possessor 
 of a heart which could not beat for him! Madame 
 Carolina's declaration that the Baroness must be mar- 
 ried off, was at this moment remembered : her 
 marked observation, that Von Sohnspeer was no son 
 
 790
 
 CHAPTER XIV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 of Beckendorff's, not forgotten. The Field Marshal 
 too was the valued friend of the Minister ; and it did 
 not fail to occur to Vivian that it was not Von Sohn- 
 speer's fault, that his attendance on the Baroness was 
 not as constant as his own. Indeed, the unusual 
 gallantry of the Commander-in-chief had been the 
 subject of many a joke among the young lords of the 
 Court ; and the reception of his addresses by their 
 unmerciful object, not unobserved or unspared. But 
 as for poor Von Sohnspeer, what could be expected, 
 as Emilius von Aslingen observed, ' from a man 
 whose softest compliment was as long, loud, and 
 obscure, as a birth-day salute!' 
 
 No sooner was the affair clear to Vivian no 
 sooner was he convinced that a powerful obstacle 
 existed to the love or union of himself and the 
 Baroness, than he began to ask, what right the inter- 
 ests of third persons had to interfere between the 
 mutual affection of any individuals. He thought of 
 her in the moonlit garden, struggling with her pure 
 and natural passion. He thought of her exceeding 
 beauty her exceeding love. He beheld this rare 
 and lovely creature in the embrace of Von Sohnspeer. 
 He turned from the picture in disgust and indigna- 
 tion. She was his Nature had decreed it. She 
 should be the bride of no other man. Sooner than 
 yield her up, he would beard Beckendorff himself in 
 his own retreat, and run every hazard, and meet every 
 danger, which the ardent imagination of a lover could 
 conceive. Was he madly to reject the happiness 
 which Providence or Destiny, or Chance had at length 
 offered him? If the romance of boyhood could 
 never be realized, at least with this engaging being 
 for his companion, he might pass through his remain- 
 ing years in calmness and in peace. His trials were 
 
 791
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 perhaps over. Alas ! this is the last delusion of un- 
 happy men! 
 
 Vivian called at the palace, but the fatigues of the 
 preceding night prevented either of the ladies from 
 being visible. In the evening, he joined a very small 
 and select circle. The party indeed, only consisted 
 of the Grand Duke, Madame, their visitors, and the 
 usual attendants, himself, and Von Sohnspeer. The 
 quiet of the little circle did not more strikingly con- 
 trast with the noise, and glare, and splendour of the 
 last night, than did Vivian's subdued reception by the 
 Baroness, with her agitated demeanour in the garden. 
 She was cordial, but calm. He found it quite im- 
 possible to gain even one moment's private conversa- 
 tion with her. Madame Carolina monopolized his 
 attention, as much to favour the views of the Field 
 Marshal, as to discuss the comparative merits of 
 Pope, as a moralist and a poet ; and Vivian had the 
 mortification of observing his odious rival, whom he 
 now thoroughly detested, discharge, without ceasing, 
 his royal salutes in the impatient ear of Beckendorff's 
 lovely daughter. 
 
 Towards the conclusion of the evening, a Cham- 
 berlain entered the room, and whispered his mission 
 to the Baroness. She immediately rose, and quitted 
 the apartment. As the party was breaking up, she 
 again entered. Her countenance was very agitated. 
 Madame Carolina was being overwhelmed with the 
 compliments of the Grand Marshal, and Vivian 
 seized the opportunity of reaching the Baroness. 
 After a few very hurried sentences she dropped her 
 glove. Vivian gave it her. So many persons were 
 round them, that it was impossible to converse except 
 on the most common topics. The glove was again 
 dropped. 
 
 792
 
 CHAPTER XIV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 4 1 see,' said the Baroness, with a very meaning 
 look, ' that you are but a recreant knight, or 
 else you would not part with a lady's glove so 
 easily. 
 
 Vivian gave a rapid glance round the room. No 
 one was observing him, and the glove was immedi- 
 ately in his pocket. He hurried home, rushed up 
 the staircase of the hotel, ordered lights, locked the 
 door, and with a sensation of indescribable anxiety, 
 tore the precious glove out of his pocket ; seized, 
 opened, and read the enclosed, and following note. 
 It was written in pencil, in a very hurried hand, and 
 some of the words were repeated. 
 
 ' I leave the Court to-night. He is here himself. 
 No art can postpone my departure. Much, much, I 
 wish to see you ; to say to say to you. He is to 
 have an interview with the Grand Duke to-morrow 
 morning. Dare you come to his place in his absence ? 
 You know the private road. He goes by the high- 
 road, and calls in his way on a Forest Councillor : I 
 forget his name, but it is the white house by the 
 barrier ; you know it ? Watch him to-morrow 
 morning ; about nine or ten I should think here, 
 here ; and then for heaven's sake let me see you. 
 Dare every thing! Fail not, fail not! Mind, by 
 the private road by the private road: beware 
 the other. You know the ground. God bless 
 
 you! 
 
 SYBILLA.' 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 VIVIAN read the note over a thousand times. He 
 could not retire to rest. He called Essper George, 
 and gave him all necessary directions for the morn- 
 
 793
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 ing. About three o'clock Vivian lay down on a sofa, 
 and slept for a few hours. He started often, in his 
 short and feverish slumber. His dreams were un- 
 ceasing and inexplicable. At first Von Sohnspeer 
 was their natural hero ; but soon the scene shifted. 
 Vivian was at Ems walking under the well-remem- 
 bered lime trees, and with the Baroness. Suddenly, 
 although it was mid-day, the Sun became very large, 
 blood-red, and fell out of the heavens his com- 
 panion screamed a man rushed forward with a 
 drawn sword. It was the idiot Crown Prince of 
 Reisenburg. Vivian tried to oppose him, but with- 
 out success. The infuriate ruffian sheathed his 
 weapon in the heart of the Baroness. Vivian 
 shrieked, and fell upon her body and to his 
 horror, found himself embracing the cold corpse 
 of Violet Fane ! 
 
 Vivian and Essper mounted their horses about 
 seven o'clock. At eight, they had reached a small 
 inn near the Forest Councillor's house, where Vivian 
 was to remain until Essper had watched the entrance 
 of the Minister. It was a very few minutes past 
 nine, when Essper returned, with the joyful intellig- 
 ence that Owlface and his master had been seen to 
 enter the court-yard. Vivian immediately mounted 
 Max, and telling Essper to keep a sharp watch, he 
 set spurs to his horse. 
 
 { Now, Max, my good steed, each minute is 
 golden serve thy master well!' He patted the 
 horse's neck the animal's erected ears proved how 
 well it understood its master's wishes ; and taking 
 advantage of the loose bridle, which was confidently 
 allowed it, the horse sprang, rather than galloped to 
 the Minister's residence. Nearly an hour, however, 
 was lost in gaining the private road, for Vivian, 
 
 794
 
 CHAPTER XV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 after the caution in the Baroness's letter, did not dare 
 the high road. 
 
 He is galloping up the winding rural lane, where 
 he met Beckendorff on the second morning of his 
 visit. He has reached the little gate, and following 
 the example of the Grand Duke, ties Max at the 
 entrance. He dashes over the meadows, not follow- 
 ing the path, but crossing straight through the long 
 and dewy grass he leaps over the light iron railing ; 
 he is rushing up the walk ; he takes a rapid glance 
 in passing, at the little summer house the blue pas- 
 sion flower is still blooming the house is in sight ; 
 a white handkerchief is waving from the drawing- 
 room window ! He sees it ; fresh wings are added 
 to his course ; he dashes through a bed of flowers, 
 frightens the white peacock, darts through the lib- 
 rary window, is in the drawing-room ! 
 
 The Baroness was there : pale and agitated she 
 stood beneath the mysterious picture, with one arm 
 leaning on the old carved mantelpiece. Overcome 
 by her emotions, she did not move forward to meet 
 him as he entered ; but Vivian observed neither her 
 constraint, nor her agitation. 
 
 * Sybilla ! dearest Sybilla ! say you are mine ! ' 
 
 He caught her in his arms. She struggled not to 
 disengage herself ; but as he dropped upon one 
 knee, she suffered him gently to draw her down upon 
 the other. Her head sank upon her arm, which 
 rested upon his shoulder. Overpowered, she sobbed 
 convulsively. He endeavoured to calm her, but her 
 agitation increased ; and many, many minutes 
 elapsed, ere she seemed to be even sensible of his 
 presence. At length she became more calm, and 
 apparently making a struggle to compose herself, she 
 raised her head. 
 
 795
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 ' Are you better, dearest ?' asked Vivian, with a 
 voice of the greatest anxiety. 
 
 ' Much ! much ! quite, quite well ! Let us walk 
 for a moment about the room!* 
 
 As Vivian was just raising her from his knee, he 
 was suddenly seized by the throat with a strong 
 graps. He turned round it was Mr. Beckendorff, 
 with a face deadly white, his full eyes darting from 
 their sockets like a hungry snake's, and the famous 
 Italian dagger in his right hand. 
 
 'Villain!' said he, in the low voice of fatal pas- 
 sion. ' Villain! is this your Destiny?' 
 
 Vivian's first thoughts were for the Baroness ; and 
 
 O 7 
 
 turning his head from Beckendorff, he looked with 
 the eye of anxious love to his companion. But, in- 
 stead of fainting, instead of being overwhelmed by 
 this terrible interruption, she seemed, on the contrary, 
 to have suddenly regained her natural spirit and self- 
 possession. The blood had returned to her hitherto 
 pale cheek, and the fire to an eye before dull with 
 weeping. She extricated herself immediately from 
 Vivian's encircling arm ; and by so doing, enabled 
 him to spring upon his legs, and to have struggled, 
 if it had been necessary, more equally with the power- 
 ful grasp of his assailant. 
 
 ' Stand off, Sir!' said the Baroness, with an air of 
 inexpressible dignity, and a voice which even at this 
 crisis seemed to anticipate that it would be obeyed. 
 ' Stand off, Sir ! stand off, I command you ! ' 
 
 Beckendorff, for one moment, was motionless : he 
 then gave her a look of the most piercing earnest- 
 ness, threw Vivian, rather than released him, from 
 his hold, and flung the dagger, with a bitter smile, 
 into the corner of the room. 'Well, madam!' said 
 he, in a choking voice, ' you are obeyed!' 
 
 796
 
 CHAPTER XV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 ' Mr. Grey,' continued the Baroness, ' I regret 
 that this outrage should have been experienced by 
 you, because you have dared to serve me. My pres- 
 ence should have preserved you from this contumely ; 
 but what are we to expect from those who pride 
 themselves upon being the sons of slaves! You 
 shall hear further from me.' So saying, the lady 
 bowing to Vivian, and sweeping by the Minister, 
 with a glance of indescribable disdain, quitted the 
 apartment. As she was on the point of leaving the 
 room, Vivian was standing against the wall, with a 
 pale face and folded arms, Beckendorff with his 
 back to the window, his eyes fixed on the ground 
 and Vivian to his astonishment perceived, what 
 escaped the Minister's notice, that while the lady 
 bade him adieu with one hand, she made rapid 
 signs with the other to some unknown person 
 in the garden. 
 
 Mr. Beckendorff and Vivian were left alone, and 
 the latter was the first to break silence. 
 
 ' Mr. Beckendorff,' said he, in a calm voice, ' con- 
 sidering the circumstances under which you have 
 found me in your house this morning, I should have 
 known how to excuse, and to forget, any irritable 
 expressions which a moment of ungovernable pas- 
 sion might have inspired. I should have passed 
 them over unnoticed. But your unjustifiable be- 
 haviour has exceeded that line of demarcation, which 
 sympathy with human feelings allows even men of 
 honour to recognize. You have disgraced both me, 
 and yourself, by giving me a blow. It is, as that 
 lady well styled it, an outrage an outrage which the 
 blood of any other man but yourself could only 
 obliterate from my memory ; but while I am inclined 
 to be indulgent to your exalted station, and your 
 
 797
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VII 
 
 peculiar character, I at the same time expect, and 
 now wait for an apology.' 
 
 1 An apology ! ' said Beckendorff, now beginning 
 to stamp up and down the room ; ' An apology ! 
 Shall it be made to you, Sir, or the Archduchess?' 
 
 < The Archduchess ! ' said Vivian ; ' Good God ! 
 what can you mean! Did I hear you right?' 
 
 ' I said, the Archduchess,' answered Beckendorff 
 with firmness ; < a Princess of the House of Aus- 
 tria, and the pledged wife of his Royal Highness the 
 Crown Prince of Reisenburg. Perhaps you may 
 now think that other persons have to apologize?' 
 
 ' Mr. Beckendorff,' said Vivian, < I am over- 
 whelmed ; I declare, upon my honour- 
 
 ' Stop, Sir! you have said too much already- 
 
 ' But, Mr. Beckendorff, surely you will allow me 
 to explain ' 
 
 'Sir! there is no need of explanation. I know 
 every thing more than you do yourself. You can 
 have nothing to explain to me ; and I presume you 
 are now fully aware of the impossibility of again 
 speaking to her. It is at present within an hour of 
 noon. Before sunset, you must be twenty miles 
 from the Court so far you will be attended. Do 
 not answer me you know my power. A remon- 
 strance only, and I write to Vienna : your progress 
 shall be stopped throughout the South of Europe. 
 For her sake, this business will be hushed up. An 
 important and secret mission will be the accredited 
 reason of your leaving Reisenburg. This will be 
 confirmed by your official attendant, who will be an 
 Envoy's Courier farewell ! ' 
 
 As Mr. Beckendorff quitted the room, his confi- 
 dential servant, the messenger to Turriparva, en- 
 tered ; and with the most respectful bow, informed 
 
 798
 
 CHAPTER XV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 Vivian that the horses were ready. In about three 
 hours time, Vivian Grey, followed by the Govern- 
 ment messenger, stopped at his hotel. The land- 
 lord, and waiters, bowed with increased obsequious- 
 ness, on seeing him so attended ; and in a few min- 
 utes, Reisenburg was ringing with the news, that his 
 appointment to the Under-secretaryship of state, was 
 now ' a settled thing.' 
 
 799
 
 BOOK THE EIGHTH 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE landlord of the Grand Hotel of the Four 
 Nations at Reisenburg, was somewhat consoled for 
 the sudden departure of his distinguished customer, 
 by selling the Plenipoteniary a travelling carriage, 
 lately taken for a doubtful bill from a gambling Rus- 
 sian General, at one hundred per cent, profit. In 
 this convenient vehicle, in the course of a couple of 
 hours after his arrival in the city, was Mr. Vivian 
 Grey borne through the gate of the Allies. Essper 
 George, who had reached the hotel about half an 
 hour after his master, followed behind the carriage 
 on his hack, leading Max. The Courier cleared the 
 road before, and expedited the arrival of the special 
 Envoy of the Grand Duke of Reisenburg at the point 
 of his destination, by ordering the horses, clearing 
 the barriers, and paying the postilions in advance. 
 Vivian had never travelled before with such style and 
 speed. 
 
 Our hero covered himself up with his cloak, and 
 drew his travelling cap over his eyes, though it was 
 one of the hottest days of this singularly hot autumn ; 
 but the very light of heaven was hateful to him. 
 Perfectly overwhelmed with this last crushing mis- 
 fortune, he was unable even to moralize : to reflect, 
 
 800
 
 CHAPTER I VIVIAN GREY 
 
 or to regret, or even to remember. Entranced in a 
 reverie, the only figure that occurred to his mind was 
 the young Archduchess, and the only sounds that 
 dwelt on his ear, were the words of Beckendorff : 
 but neither to the person of the first, nor to the voice 
 of the second, did he annex any definite idea. 
 
 After nearly three hours travelling, which to Vivian 
 seemed both an age and a minute, he was roused from 
 his stupor by the door of his caleche being opened. 
 He shook himself as a man does, who has wakened 
 from a benumbing and heavy sleep, although his eyes 
 were the whole time wide open. The disturbing 
 intruder was his courier ; who bowing, with his hat 
 in hand, informed his Excellency that he was now 
 twenty miles from Reisenburg, and that the last 
 postilions had done their duty so exceedingly well, 
 that he trusted his Excellency would instruct his ser- 
 vant to give them double the tariff. Here he re- 
 gretted that he was under the necessity of quitting 
 his Excellency, and he begged to present his Excel- 
 lency with his passport. ' It is made out for Vienna,' 
 continued the messenger. ' A private pass, Sir, of 
 the Prime Minister, and will entitle you to the 
 greatest consideration.' The messenger receiving 
 a low bow for his answer and reward, took his 
 leave. 
 
 The carriage was soon again advancing rapidly to 
 the next post-house ; when, after they had proceeded 
 about half a mile, Essper George, calling loudly from 
 behind, the drivers suddenly stopped. Just as 
 Vivian, to whose tortured mind the rapid movement 
 of the carriage was some relief for it produced an 
 excitement which prevented thought was about to 
 inquire the cause of this stoppage, Essper George 
 rode up to the caleche. 
 
 3E 801
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VIII 
 
 ' Kind Sir ! ' said he, with a very peculiar look, * I 
 have a packet for you.' 
 
 ' A packet ! from whom ? speak ! give it me ! ' 
 ' Hush ! hush ! hush ! softly, softly, good master. 
 Here am I about to commit rank treason for your 
 sake ; and a hasty word is the only reward of my 
 rashness.' 
 
 ' Nay, nay, good Essper try me not now ! ' 
 ( I will not, I will not, kind Sir ; but the truth is, I 
 could not give you the packet while that double-faced 
 knave was with us, or even while he was in sight. 
 " In good truth," as Master Rodolph was wont to 
 say ah ! when shall I see his Sleekness again ! ' 
 
 * But of this packet ?' 
 
 ' " Fair and softly, fair and softly," good Sir ! as 
 Hunsdrich the porter said, when I would have drank 
 the mulled wine, while he was on the cold stair- 
 case ' 
 
 ' Essper! do you mean to enrage me?' 
 ' " By St. Hubert ! " as that worthy gentleman, 
 the Grand Marshal, was in the habit of swearing, 
 
 ' This is too much, what are the idle sayings of 
 these people to me?' 
 
 ' Nay, nay, kind Sir, they do but show that each of 
 us has his own way of telling a story ; and that he 
 who would hear a tale, must let the teller's breath 
 come out of his own nostrils.' 
 
 ' Well, Essper, speak on ! Stranger things have 
 happened to me than to be reproved by my own 
 servant.' 
 
 * Nay, nay, my kind master, say not a bitter word 
 to me, because you have slipped out of a scrape with 
 your head on your shoulders. The packet is from 
 Mr. BeckendorfT's daughter.' 
 
 802
 
 CHAPTER I VIVIAN GREY 
 
 ' Ah! why did not you give it to me before?' 
 
 ' Why do I give it you now ? Because I'm a fool 
 that's why. What! you wanted it when that 
 double-faced scoundrel was watching every eyelash of 
 yours, as it moved from the breath of a fly ? a fellow 
 who can see as well at the back of his head, as from 
 his face. I should like to poke out his front eyes, to 
 put him on an equality with the rest of mankind. 
 He it was, who let the old gentleman know of your 
 visit this morning, and I shrewdly suspect that he has 
 been nearer your limbs of late than you have imag- 
 ined. Every dog has his day, and the oldest p-g 
 must look for his knife! The Devil was once 
 cheated on Sunday, and I have been too sharp for 
 Puss in boots and his mouse-trap! Prowling about 
 the Forest Councillor's house, I saw your new servant, 
 Sir, gallop in, and his old master soon gallop out ; I 
 was off as quick as they, but was obliged to leave my 
 horse within two miles of the house, and then trust to 
 my legs. I crept through the shrubs like a land tor- 
 toise ; but, of course, too late to warn you. How- 
 ever, I was in for the death, and making signs to the 
 young lady, who directly saw that I was a friend, 
 bless her ! she is as quick as a partridge, I left you 
 to settle it with papa, and after all, did that which I 
 suppose your Highness intended to do yourself 
 made my way into the young lady's bed-chamber.' 
 
 c Hold your tongue, you rascal ! and give me the 
 packet.' 
 
 4 There it is, Sir, and now we will go on ; but we 
 must stay an hour at the next post, if your honour 
 pleases not to sleep there ; for both Max and my own 
 hack have had a sharp day's work.' 
 
 Vivian tore open the packet. It contained a long 
 letter, written on the night of her return to Becken- 
 
 803
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VIII 
 
 dorff's ; she had stayed up the whole night writing. 
 It was to have been forwarded to Vivian, in case of 
 their not being able to meet. In the enclosure were 
 a few hurried lines, written since the catastrophe. 
 They were these : ' May this safely reach you ! 
 Can you ever forgive me? The enclosed, you will 
 see, was intended for you, in case of our not meeting. 
 It anticipated sorrow ; yet what were its anticipations 
 to our reality!' 
 
 The Archduchess's letter was evidently written 
 under the influence of the most agitated feelings. I 
 omit it ; because, as the mystery of her character is 
 now explained, a great portion of her communication 
 would be irrelevant to our tale. She spoke of her 
 exalted station as a woman that station which so 
 many women envy in a spirit of the most agonizing 
 bitterness. A royal princess is only the most flattered 
 of state victims. She is a political sacrifice, by which 
 enraged Governments are appeased, wavering allies 
 conciliated, and ancient amities confirmed. De- 
 barred by her rank and her education from looking 
 forward to that exchange of equal affection, which is 
 the great end and charm of female existence ; no 
 individual finds more fatally, and feels more keenly, 
 that pomp is not felicity, and splendour not content. 
 
 Deprived of all those sources of happiness which 
 seem inherent in woman, the wife of the Sovereign 
 sometimes seeks in politics and in pleasure, a means 
 of excitement which may purchase oblivion. But 
 the political queen is a rare character ; she must pos- 
 sess an intellect of unusual power, and her lot must 
 be considered as an exception in the fortunes of 
 female royalty. Even the political queen generally 
 closes an agitated career with a broken heart. And 
 for the unhappy votary of pleasure, who owns her 
 
 804
 
 CHAPTER I VIVIAN GREY 
 
 cold duty to a royal husband, we must not forget, 
 that even in the most dissipated courts, the conduct of 
 the queen is expected to be decorous ; and that the 
 instances are not rare, where the wife of the monarch 
 has died on the scaffold, or in a dungeon, or in exile, 
 because she dared to be indiscreet, where all were de- 
 bauched. But for the great majority of royal 
 wives, they exist without a passion ; they have 
 nothing to hope nothing to fear nothing to 
 envy nothing to want nothing to confide no- 
 thing to hate and nothing to love. Even their 
 duties, though multitudinous, are mechanical ; and 
 while they require much attention, occasion no 
 anxiety. Amusement is their moment of greatest 
 emotion, and for them amusement is rare ; for 
 amusement is the result of equal companionship. 
 Thus situated, they are doomed to become frivolous 
 in their pursuits, and formal in their manners : and 
 the Court chaplain, or the Court Confessor, is the 
 only person who can prove they have a soul, by con- 
 vincing them that it will be saved. 
 
 The young Archduchess had assented to the pro- 
 position of marriage with the Crown Prince of Rei- 
 senburg without opposition ; as she was convinced 
 that requesting her assent, was only a courteous form 
 of requiring her compliance. There was nothing 
 outrageous to her feelings in marrying a man whom 
 she had never seen ; because her education, from her 
 tenderest years, had daily prepared her for such an 
 event. Moreover, she was aware that, if she suc- 
 ceeded in escaping from the offers of the Crown 
 Prince of Reisenburg, she would soon be under the 
 necessity of assenting to those of some other suitor ; 
 and if proximity to her own country, accordance with 
 its sentiments and manners, and previous connection 
 
 805
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VIII 
 
 with her own house, were taken into consideration, an 
 union with the family of Reisenburg was even desir- 
 able. It was to be preferred, at least, to one which 
 brought with it a foreign husband, and a foreign 
 clime ; a strange language, and strange customs. 
 The Archduchess a girl of ardent feelings and lively 
 mind had not, however, agreed to become that all- 
 commanding slave a Queen without a stipulation. 
 She required that she might be allowed, previous to 
 her marriage, to visit her future Court, incognita. 
 This singular and unparalleled proposition was not 
 easily acceded to : but the opposition with which it 
 was received, only tended to make the young Princess 
 more determined to be gratified in her caprice. Her 
 Imperial Highness did not pretend that any end was 
 to be obtained by this unusual procedure, and indeed 
 she had no definite purpose in requesting it to be per- 
 mitted. It was originally the mere whim of the 
 moment, and had it not been strongly opposed, it 
 would not have been strenuously insisted upon. As 
 it was, the young Archduchess persisted, threatened, 
 and grew obstinate ; and the grey-headed negotiators 
 of the marriage, desirous of its speedy completion, 
 and not having a more tractable tool ready to supply 
 her place, at length yielded to her bold importunity. 
 Great difficulty, however, was experienced in carrying 
 her wishes into execution. By what means, and in 
 what character she was to appear at Court, so as not 
 to excite suspicion or occasion discovery, were often 
 discussed, without being resolved upon. At length 
 it became necessary to consult Mr. BeckendorfF. 
 The upper lip of the Prime Minister of Reisenburg 
 curled, as the Imperial Minister detailed the caprice 
 and contumacy of the Princess ; and treating with 
 the greatest contempt, this girlish whim, Mr. Becken- 
 
 806
 
 CHAPTER I VIVIAN GREY 
 
 dorff ridiculed those by whom it had been humoured, 
 with no suppressed derision. The consequence of his 
 conduct was an interview with the future Grand 
 Duchess, and the consequence of his interview, an 
 unexpected undertaking on his part to arrange the 
 visit, according to her Highness's desires. 
 
 The Archduchess had not yet seen the Crown 
 Prince ; but six miniatures, and a whole length por- 
 trait had prepared her for not meeting an Adonis, or a 
 Baron Trenck ; and that was all for never had the 
 Corregio of the age of Charles the Fifth, better sub- 
 stantiated his claims to the office of Court painter, 
 than by these accurate semblances of his Royal High- 
 ness ; in which his hump was subdued into a Grecian 
 bend, and his lack-lustre eyes seemed beaming with 
 tenderness and admiration. His betrothed bride 
 stipulated with Mr. Beckendorff, that the fact of her 
 visit should be known only to himself, and the Grand 
 Duke ; and before she appeared at Court, she had 
 received the personal pledge, both of himself, and his 
 Royal Highness, that the affair should be kept a com- 
 plete secret from the Crown Prince. 
 
 Most probably, on her first introduction to her 
 future husband, all the romantic plans of the young 
 Archduchess, to excite an involuntary interest in his 
 heart, vanished but how this may be, it is needless 
 for us to inquire : for that same night introduced 
 another character into her romance, for whom she was 
 perfectly unprepared, and whose appearance totally 
 disorganised its plot. 
 
 Her inconsiderate, her injustifiable conduct, in 
 tampering with that individual's happiness and affec- 
 tion, was what the young and haughty Archduchess 
 deplored in the most energetic, the most feeling, and 
 the most humble spirit ; and anticipating, that after 
 
 807
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VIII 
 
 this painful disclosure, they would never meet again, 
 she declared, that for his sake alone she regretted 
 what had passed and praying that he might be hap- 
 pier than herself, she supplicated to be forgiven, and 
 forgotten. 
 
 Vivian read the Archduchess's letter over, and over 
 again ; and then put it in his breast. At first he 
 thought that he had lived to shed another tear ; but he 
 was mistaken. In a few minutes he found himself 
 quite roused from his late overwhelming stupor 
 quite light-hearted almost gay. Remorse, or re- 
 gret for the past care, or caution for the future, 
 seemed at the same moment to have fled from his 
 mind. He looked up to Heaven, with a wild smile 
 half of despair, and half of defiance. It seemed 
 to imply, that Fate had now done her worst ; and that 
 he had at last the satisfaction of knowing himself to 
 be the most unfortunate and unhappy being that ever 
 existed. When a man, at the same time, believes in, 
 and sneers at his Destiny, we may be sure that he 
 considers his condition past redemption. 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 THEY stopped for an hour at the next post, accord- 
 ing to Essper's suggestion. Indeed he proposed rest- 
 ing there for the night, for both men and beasts much 
 required repose ; but Vivian panted to reach Vienna, 
 to which city two days travelling would now carry 
 him. His passions were so roused, and his powers 
 of reflection so annihilated, that while he had deter- 
 mined to act desperately, he was unable to resolve 
 upon anything desperate. Whether, on his arrival 
 at the Austrian capital, he should plunge into dissipa- 
 tion, or into the Danube, was equally uncertain. He 
 
 808
 
 CHAPTER II VIVIAN GREY 
 
 had some thought of joining the Greeks or Turks 
 no matter which probably the latter or perhaps of 
 serving in the Americas. The idea of returning to 
 England never once entered his mind : he expected 
 to find letters from his father at Vienna, and he 
 almost regretted it ; for, in his excessive misery, it 
 was painful to be conscious that a being still breathed, 
 who was his friend. 
 
 It was a fine moonlight night, but the road was 
 very mountainous ; and in spite of all the encourage- 
 ment of Vivian, and all the consequent exertions of 
 the postilion, they were upwards of two hours and a 
 half going these eight miles. To get on any further 
 to-night was quite impossible. Essper's horse was 
 fairly knocked up, and even Max visibly distressed. 
 The post-house was fortunately an Inn. It was not 
 at a village ; and, as far as the travellers could learn, 
 not near one ; and its appearance did not promise 
 very pleasing accommodation. Essper, who had 
 scarcely tasted food for nearly eighteen hours, was 
 not highly delighted with the prospect before them. 
 His anxiety, however, was not merely selfish : he 
 was as desirous that his young master should be re- 
 freshed by a good night's rest, as himself ; and antici- 
 pating that he should have to exercise his skill in 
 making a couch for Vivian in the carriage, he pro- 
 ceeded to cross-examine the post-master on the possi- 
 bility of his accommodating them. The host was a 
 most pious-looking personage, in a black velvet cap, 
 with a singularly meek and charitable expression of 
 countenance. His long black hair was exquisitely 
 braided ; and he wore round his neck a collar of 
 pewter medals, all which had been recently sprinkled 
 with holy water, and blessed under the petticoat of 
 the saintly Virgin ; for the post-master had only just 
 
 809
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VIII 
 
 returned from a pilgrimage to the celebrated shrine 
 of the Black Lady of Altoting. 
 
 ' Good friend ! ' said Essper, looking him cunningly 
 in the face ; ' I fear that we must order horses on : 
 you can hardly accommodate two ?' 
 
 ' Good friend ! ' answered the innkeeper, and he 
 crossed himself very reverently at the same time ; 
 * it is not for man to fear, but to hope.' 
 
 ' If your beds were as good as your adages,' said 
 Essper George laughing, ' in good truth, as a friend 
 of mine would say, I would sleep here to-night.' 
 
 ' Prithee, friend,' continued the innkeeper, kissing 
 a medal of his collar very devoutly, ' what accommo- 
 dation dost thou lack?' 
 
 ' Why,' said Essper, ' in the way of accommoda- 
 tion, little for two excellent beds will content us ; 
 but in the way of refreshment by St. Hubert! as 
 another friend of mine would swear he would be a 
 bold man, who would engage to be as hungry before 
 his dinner, as I shall be after my supper.' 
 
 ' Friend ! ' said the innkeeper, ' Our Lady forbid 
 that thou shouldst leave our walls to-night : for the 
 accommodation, we have more than sufficient ; and 
 as for the refreshment by Holy Mass! we had a 
 priest tarry here last night, and he left his rosary 
 behind : I will comfort my soul, by telling my beads 
 over the kitchen fire ; and for every Paternoster, my 
 wife shall give thee a rasher of kid, and for every 
 Ave, a tumbler of Augsburg ; which, Our Lady 
 forget me! if I did not myself purchase, but yester- 
 day se'nnight, from the pious fathers of the Convent 
 of St. Florian!' 
 
 ' I take thee at thy word, honest Sir,' said Essper. 
 ' By the creed ! I liked thy appearance from the first : 
 nor wilt thou find me unwilling, when my voice has 
 
 810
 
 CHAPTER II VIVIAN GREY 
 
 taken its supper, to join thee in some pious hymn or 
 holy canticle. And now for the beds ?' 
 
 ' There is the green room the best bedroom in 
 my house,' said the innkeeper. ' Holy Mary forget 
 me! if in that same bed have not stretched their 
 legs, more valorous generals, more holy prelates, and 
 more distinguished councillors of our Lord the 
 Emperor, than in any bed in all Austria.' 
 
 ' That then, for my master and for myself ? ' 
 
 * H u m ! ' said the host, looking very earnestly 
 in Essper's face ; ' 1 should have thought that thou 
 wert one more anxious after dish and flaggon, than 
 curtain and eiderdown!' 
 
 ' By my mother ! I love good cheer,' said Essper 
 earnestly ; ' and want it more at this moment than 
 any knave that ever yet starved : but if thou hast 
 not a bed to let me stretch my legs on, after four- 
 and-twenty hours' hard riding, by holy Virgin! I 
 will have horses on to Vienna.' 
 
 1 Our Black Lady forbid!' said the innkeeper, with 
 a quick voice, and with rather a dismayed look 
 ' Said I that thou shouldst not have a bed? St. Flo- 
 rian desert me! if I and my wife would not sooner 
 sleep in the chimney-corner, than that thou shouldst 
 miss one wink of thy slumbers!' 
 1 In one word, have you a bed ?' 
 ' Have I a bed ? Where slept, I should like to 
 know, the Vice-Principal of the Convent of Molk, 
 on the day before the last holy Ascension? The 
 waters were out in the morning ; and when will my 
 wife forget, what his Reverence was pleased to say, 
 when he took his leave! " Good woman!" said he, 
 " my duty calls me ; but the weather is cold ; and 
 between ourselves, I am used to great feasts ; and I 
 should have no objection, if I were privileged, to 
 
 8n
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VIII 
 
 stay, and to eat again of thy red cabbage and cream ! " 
 what say you to that ? Do you think we have got 
 beds now? You shall sleep to-night, Sir, like an 
 Aulic Councillor!' 
 
 This adroit introduction of the red cabbage and 
 cream settled every thing when men are wearied 
 and famished, they have no inclination to be incredu- 
 lous and in a few moments Vivian was informed 
 by his servant, that the promised accommodation was 
 satisfactory ; and having locked up the carriage, and 
 wheeled it into a small outhouse, he and Essper were 
 ushered by their host into a room, which, as is usual 
 in small German inns in the South, served at the same 
 time both for kitchen and saloon. The fire was lit 
 in a platform of brick, raised in the centre of the 
 floor: the sky was visible through the chimney, 
 which, although of a great breadth below, gradually 
 narrowed to the top. A family of wandering Bo- 
 hemians, consisting of the father and mother, and 
 three children, were seated on the platform when Vi- 
 vian entered : the man was playing on a coarse 
 wooden harp, without which the Bohemians seldom 
 travel. The music ceased, as the new guests came 
 into the room, and the Bohemian courteously offered 
 his place at the fire to our hero ; who, however, de- 
 clined disturbing the family group. A small table, 
 and a couple of chairs, were placed in a corner of the 
 room by the innkeeper's v/ife a bustling, active 
 dame who apparently found no difficulty in laying 
 the cloth, dusting the furniture, and cooking the sup- 
 per, at the same time. At this table, Vivian and 
 his servant seated themselves ; and, in spite of his 
 misfortunes, Vivian was soon engaged in devouring 
 the of ten- supplied and savoury rashers of the good 
 woman ; nor, indeed, did her cookery discredit the 
 
 812
 
 CHAPTER II VIVIAN GREY 
 
 panegyric of the Reverend Vice-Principal of the Con- 
 vent of Molk. 
 
 Alike wearied in mind and body, Vivian soon 
 asked for his bed ; which, though not exactly fit 
 for an Aulic Councillor, as the good host perpetually 
 avowed it to be, nevertheless afforded very decent 
 accommodation. 
 
 The Bohemian family retired to the hay-loft ; and 
 Essper George would have followed his master's 
 example, had not the kind mistress of the house 
 tempted him to stay behind, by the production of a 
 new platter of rashers : indeed, he never remembered 
 meeting with such hospitable people as the post- 
 master and his wife. They had evidently taken a 
 great fancy to him ; and, though extremely wearied, 
 the lively little Essper endeavoured, between his 
 quick mouthfuls and long draughts, to reward and 
 encourage their kindness by many a good story and 
 sharp joke. With all these, both mine host and his 
 wife were exceedingly amused ; seldom containing 
 their laughter, and frequently protesting, by the 
 sanctity of various Saints, that this was the pleas- 
 antest night, and Essper the pleasantest fellow, that 
 they had ever met with. 
 
 ' Eat, eat, my friend ! ' said his host ; { by the 
 Mass ! thou hast travelled far ; and fill thy glass, 
 and pledge with me Our Black Lady of Altoting. 
 By Holy Cross! I have hung up this week in her 
 chapel a garland of silk roses ; and have ordered to 
 be burnt before her shrine three pounds of perfumed 
 wax tapers! Fill again, fill again! and thou, too, 
 good mistress ; a hard day's work hast thou had a 
 glass of wine will do thee no harm : join me with 
 our new friend! Pledge we together the Holy 
 Fathers of St. Florian, my worldly patrons, and my 
 
 813
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VIII 
 
 spiritual pastors : let us pray that his Reverence the 
 Sub-Prior may not have his Christmas attack of gout 
 in the stomach ; and a better health to poor Father 
 Felix! Fill again, fill again! this Augsburg is 
 somewhat acid ; we will have a bottle of Hungary. 
 Mistress, fetch us the bell-glasses, and here's to the 
 Reverend Vice-Principal of Molk ! our good friend : 
 when will my wife forget what he said to her on the 
 morning of last holy Ascension! Fill again, fill 
 again ! ' 
 
 Inspired by the convivial spirit of the pious and 
 jolly post-master, Essper George soon forgot his 
 threatened visit to his bed-room, and ate and drank, 
 laughed and joked, as if he were again with his 
 friend, Master Rodolph : but wearied Nature at 
 length avenged herself for this unnatural exertion ; 
 and leaning back in his chair, he was, in the course of 
 an hour, overcome by one of those dead and heavy 
 slumbers, the effect of the united influence of fatigue 
 and intemperance in short, it was like the midnight 
 sleep of a fox-hunter. 
 
 No sooner had our pious votary of the Black Lady 
 of Altoting observed the effect of his Hungary wine, 
 than making a well-understood sign to his wife, he 
 took up the chair of Essper in his brawny arms ; and, 
 preceded by Mrs. Post-mistress with a lantern, he 
 left the room with his guest. Essper's hostess led 
 and lighted the way to an outhouse, which occasion- 
 ally served as a remise, a stable, and a lumber-room. 
 It had no window, and the lantern afforded the only 
 light which exhibited its present contents. In one 
 corner was a donkey tied up, belonging to the Bo- 
 hemian ; and in another a dog, belonging to the post- 
 master. Hearing the whispered voice of his master, 
 this otherwise brawling animal was quite silent. 
 
 814
 
 CHAPTER II VIVIAN GREY 
 
 Under a hay-rack was a large child's cradle : 
 it was of a very remarkable size, having been 
 made for twins ; who, to the great grief of the 
 post-master and his lady, departed this life at 
 an early, but promising age. Near it was a 
 very low wooden sheep-tank, half filled with 
 water, and which had been placed there for the 
 refreshment of the dog and his feathered friends 
 a couple of turkeys, and a considerable number 
 of fowls, who also at present were quietly roosting 
 in the rack. 
 
 The pious innkeeper very gently lowered to the 
 ground the chair on which Essper was soundly sleep- 
 ing ; and then, having crossed himself, he took up 
 our friend with great tenderness and solicitude, and 
 dexterously fitted him in the huge cradle. This 
 little change must have been managed with great 
 skill like all other skill, probably acquired by prac- 
 tice for overwhelming as was Essper's stupor, it 
 nevertheless required considerable time, nicety, and 
 trouble, to arrange him comfortably on the mouldy 
 mattress of the deceased twins so very fine was the 
 fit! However, the kind-hearted host had the satis- 
 faction of retiring from the stable, with the conscious- 
 ness that the guest, whose company had so delighted 
 him, was enjoying an extremely sound slumber ; and 
 fearing the watchful dog might disturb him, he 
 thought it only prudent to take Master Rouseall 
 along with him. 
 
 About an hour past midnight, Essper George 
 awoke. He was lying on his back, and excessively 
 unwell ; and on trying to move, he found, to his 
 great astonishment, that he was rocking. Every 
 circumstance of his late adventure was perfectly ob- 
 literated from his memory ; and the strange move- 
 
 815
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VIII 
 
 ment, united with his peculiar indisposition, left him 
 no doubt that the dream, which was in fact the effect 
 of his intemperance, combined with the rocking of 
 the cradle on the slightest motion, was a melancholy 
 reality ; and that what he considered the greatest 
 evil of life, was now his lot in short, that he was on 
 board a ship! As is often the case when we are 
 tipsy or nervous, Essper had been woke by the fright 
 of falling from some immense height ; and finding 
 that his legs had no sensation, for they were quite 
 benumbed, he concluded that he had fallen down the 
 hatchway, that his legs were broken, and himself 
 jammed in between some logs of wood in the hold : 
 and so he began to cry lustily to those above, to come 
 down to his rescue. How long he would have con- 
 tinued hailing the neglectful crew, it is impossible 
 to ascertain ; but, in the midst of his noisy alarm, 
 he was seized with another attack of sickness, which 
 soon quieted him. 
 
 4 Oh, Essper George!' thought he 'Essper George! 
 how came you to set foot on salt timber again ! Had 
 not you had enough of it in the Mediterranean and 
 the Turkish seas, that you must be getting aboard 
 this lubberly Dutch galliot ; for Pm sure she's Dutch, 
 by being so low in the water. How did I get here ? 
 Who am I ? Am I Essper George, or am I not ? 
 Where was I last? How came I to fall? Oh! 
 my poor legs! How the vessel rocks! Sick again! 
 Well, they may talk of a sea-life, but for my part, 
 I never even saw the use of the Sea. Oh, Lord! 
 how she rolls what a heave! I never saw the use 
 of the Sea. Many a sad heart has it caused, and 
 many a sick stomach has it occasioned ! The boldest 
 sailor climbs on board with a heavy soul, and leaps 
 on land with a light spirit. Oh! thou indifferent 
 
 816
 
 CHAPTER II VIVIAN GREY 
 
 ape of Earth! thy houses are of wood, and thy 
 horses of canvass ; thy roads have no landmarks, 
 and thy highways no inns ; thy hills are green with- 
 out grass, and v/et without showers! and as for 
 food, what art thou, oh, bully Ocean ! but the stable 
 of horse-fishes, the stall of cow-fishes, the sty of 
 hog-fishes, and the kennel of dog-fishes! Oh! 
 commend me to a fresh-water dish for meagre days! 
 Sea-weed, stewed with chalk, may be savoury 
 stuff for a merman ; but, for my part, give me red 
 cabbage and cream : and as for drink, a man may 
 live in the midst of thee his whole life, and die for 
 thirst at the end of it! Besides, thou blasphemous 
 salt lake, where is thy religion? Where are thy 
 churches, thou heretic ? Thou would'st be burnt by 
 the Inquisition, were it not that thy briny water is fit 
 for nothing but to extinguish an Auto-da-Fe! Ah 
 me ! would that my legs were on my body again, 
 and that body on Terra-firma! I am left to perish 
 below, while the rascally Surgeon above, is joining 
 with the Purser to defraud the Guinea-pigs at dice. 
 I'll expose him!' So saying, Essper made a desper- 
 ate effort to crawl up the hold. His exertions, of 
 course, set the cradle rocking with renewed violence ; 
 and at last, dashing with great force against the sheep- 
 tank, that pastoral piece of furniture was overset, and 
 part of its contents poured upon the inmate of the 
 cradle. 
 
 'Sprung a leak in the hold, by St. Nicholas!' 
 bawled out Essper George. 'Caulkers, a-hoy! a-hoy! 
 Can't you hear, you scoundrels ; you stone-hearted 
 ruffians! a-hoy! a-hoy! I can't cry, for the life of 
 me! They said I should be used to the rocking 
 after the first month ; and here, by the soul of a sea- 
 man ! I can't even speak ! Oh ! the liars, the wicked 
 3 r 817
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VIII 
 
 liars! If the captain expect anything from me, he 
 is mistaken. I know what I shall do when he 
 comes. "Captain!" I shall say, "when you be- 
 have like a gentleman, you may expect to be 
 treated as such." ' 
 
 At this moment three or four fowls, roused by the 
 fall of the tank, and the consequent shouts of Ess- 
 per, began fluttering about the rack, and at last perch- 
 ed upon the cradle. ' The live-stock got loose ! ' 
 screamed Essper, in a voice of terror, in spite of a 
 new attack of sickness ; c the live-stock got loose ! 
 sprung a leak ! below here ! below ! below ! and the 
 breeze is getting stiffer every instant ! Where's the 
 captain ? I will see him ; I'm not one of the crew : 
 I belong to the Court! What Court? what am I 
 talking about ? One would think that I was drunk. 
 Court indeed ! what can I mean ? I must have 
 cracked my skull when I fell like a lubber down that 
 confounded hatchway! Court indeed! Egad! I 
 feel as if I had been asleep, and been dreaming I was 
 at Court. Well, it's enough to make one laugh, 
 after all ! What's that noise ? why, here's a jackass 
 in the hold ! this is not right some job of that vil- 
 lainous Purser! Well, he's found out at last! 
 Rasher of kid indeed ! What business has he to put 
 me off with rashers of kid, and give me sour wine! 
 This is the first voyage that I ever heard of, where a 
 whole crew were fed for months on rashers of kid, 
 and sour wine. Oh, the villain! is this what he 
 
 calls doing his duty! is this why, here are all 
 
 the turkeys screaming! all the live-stock loose be- 
 low here! below! Above deck, a-hoy! ye lubbers 
 a-hoy! live stock loose! sprung a leak! purser's 
 job! purser has got a jackass purser's jackass 
 purser is a j a c k jack jack jack jack - 
 
 8x8
 
 CHAPTER II VIVIAN GREY 
 
 jackass !' Here our sailor, overcome by his exertions 
 and the motion of his vessel, again fell asleep. 
 
 Presently he was awakened, not by the braying of 
 the jackass, nor the screaming of the turkeys, nor the 
 cackling of the chickens ; but by the sound of heavy 
 footsteps over his head. These noises were at once 
 an additional proof that he was in the hold, and an 
 additional stimulus to his calls to those on deck. In 
 fact, these sounds were occasioned by the Bohemians, 
 who always rose before break of day ; and conse- 
 quently, in a few minutes, the door of the stable 
 opened, and the Bohemian, with a lantern in his 
 hand, entered. 
 
 'Who are you?' hallooed out Essper George, 
 greatly refreshed by his last slumber ; ' what do 
 you want ?' continued he ; for the man, astoun- 
 ded at hearing a human voice, at first could not 
 reply. 
 
 ' I want my jackass,' he at length said. 
 
 ' You do,' said Essper, c do you ? Now a'n't you 
 a pretty fellow? You a Purser! A fellow who 
 gives us rashers of kid a whole voyage ; nothing but 
 kid, kid, kid, every day ! and here are detected keep- 
 ing a jackass among the poultry! a jackass, of all 
 animals! eating all the food of our live-stock, and 
 we having kid every day kid, kid, kid! Pray 
 why didn't you come to me before? Why didn't 
 you send the Surgeon ? Now, a'n't you a scoundrel ! 
 Though both my legs are off, I'll have a fling at you ! ' 
 and so saying, Essper, aided by the light of the 
 lantern, and with infinite exertion, scrambled out of 
 the cradle, and taking up the sheep-tank, sent it 
 straight at the astonished Bohemian's head. The 
 aim was good, and the man fell ; more, however, 
 from fright than injury. Seizing his lantern, which 
 
 819
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VIII 
 
 had fallen out of his hand,Essper escaped through the 
 stable-door, and rushed into the house. He found 
 himself in the kitchen. The noise of his entrance 
 roused the landlord and his wife, who had been sleep- 
 ing by the fire ; since, not having a single bed besides 
 their own, they had given that up to Vivian. The 
 countenance of the innkeeper effectually dispelled 
 the clouds which had been fast clearing off from 
 Essper's intellect. Giving one wild stare, and then 
 rubbing his eyes, the whole truth lighted upon him ; 
 and so, being in the humour for flinging, he sent 
 the Bohemian's lantern at his landlord's head. The 
 post-master seized the poker, and the post-mistress 
 a faggot ; and as the Bohemian, who had now re- 
 covered himself, had entered in the rear, Essper 
 George certainly stood a fair chance of receiving a 
 thorough drubbing ; which doubtless he would have 
 got, had not his master, roused by the suspicious 
 noises and angry sounds which had reached his room, 
 entered the kitchen with his pistols. The group is 
 a good one ; and I therefore will not disturb it till 
 the next Chapter. 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 As it was now morning, Vivian did not again retire 
 to rest, but took advantage of the disturbance in the 
 Inn, to continue his route at an earlier hour than he 
 had previously intended. As he was informed that 
 he would meet with no accommodation for the next 
 fifty or sixty miles, his projected course lying through 
 an extremely mountainous and wild tract in the 
 vicinity of the Lake of Gmunden, he was fain to 
 postpone his departure, until he and his attendant had 
 procured their breakfasts ; and moreover, willingly 
 
 820
 
 CHAPTER III VIVIAN GREY 
 
 acceded to a suggestion of the post-master, of taking 
 with him a small basket, containing some slight re- 
 freshment for their " noon meal." Accordingly the 
 remnants of their breakfast, a cold fowl a relation 
 of the live-stock which had so terribly disturbed 
 Essper during the night some fruit, and a bottle of 
 thin white wine, were packed by the dapper post- 
 mistress in a neat little basket. The horses were now 
 put to, and nothing remained to be done, but to dis- 
 charge the innkeeper's bill. The conduct of mine 
 host and his good wife, had been so exceedingly 
 obliging for Vivian had not even listened to 
 Essper's complaint, treating the whole affair as a 
 drunken brawl that Vivian had nearly made up his 
 mind to wave the ceremony of having a regular bill 
 presented to him ; and feeling that the greatest charge 
 which the post-master could make for his accommoda- 
 tion, could not reward him for his considerate conduct, 
 he was on the point of making him a very handsome 
 present, when the account was sent in. To Vivian's 
 astonishment, he found that the charge exceeded, by 
 about five times as much, the amount of his intended, 
 and, as he had considered it, rather extravagant 
 gratuity. The first item was for apartments a 
 saloon, and two best bed-chambers! Then came 
 Vivian's light supper, figuring as a dinner pour un 
 maitre ; and as for Essper George's feed, it was in- 
 serted under two different heads, " servant's dinner," 
 and " servant's supper ;" the retirement of Vivian 
 from the smoky kitchen, having been the event which 
 distinguished the moment when the first meal had 
 terminated, and the second commenced. More cere- 
 monious accuracy could not have been displayed in 
 settling the boundaries of two Empires, or deciding 
 the commencement of the Sabbath. And as for 
 
 821
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VIII 
 
 wine, the thin Augsburg, though charged by the 
 dozen, did not cost as much as the Hungary, charged 
 by the bottle. It appeared by the bill also, that there 
 had been no slight breakage of bell-glasses, nor was 
 the sheep-tank, minus a leg by the overthrow of the 
 Bohemian, forgotten ; but looked imposing under 
 the title of " injured bed-room furniture." Vivian 
 scarcely got as far as their breakfasts, but even their 
 excessive price passed from his mind, when his eye 
 lighted on the enormous item which entitled them 
 to the basket of provisions. It would have sup- 
 ported the poor Bohemians for a year! 
 
 Our hero's indignation was excessive, particularly 
 as he now felt it his duty to listen to Essper's bitter 
 complaints. Vivian contented himself, however, 
 with returning the account by Essper to the post- 
 master, who took care not to be in his customer's pre- 
 sence ; informing mine host that there was some 
 little mistake in his demand, and requesting him to 
 make out a new charge. But the character of the 
 pious, loquacious, complaisant, and convivial inn- 
 keeper, seemed suddenly to have undergone a very 
 strange revolution. He had become sullen, and 
 silent ; listened to Vivian's message with imperturb- 
 able composure, and then refused to reduce his charge 
 one single kreiitzer. 
 
 Vivian, whose calm philosophy had received rather 
 a rude shock since his last interview with Mr. Becken- 
 dorff, and who was not therefore in the most amiable 
 of humours, did not now conceal his indignation ; 
 nor, as far as words could make an impression, spare 
 the late object of his intended generosity. That 
 pious person bore his abuse like a true Christian ; 
 crossing himself at every opprobrious epithet that 
 was heaped upon him, with great reverence, and kiss- 
 
 822
 
 CHAPTER III VIVIAN GREY 
 
 ing a holy medal of his blessed necklace whenever 
 his guest threatened vengeance and anticipated re- 
 dress. But no word escaped the whole time from the 
 mouth of the spiritual protege of the Holy Fathers of 
 St. Florian : pale and pigheaded, he bore all with that 
 stubborn silence, which proved him no novice in such 
 scenes ; and not even Our Black Lady of Altoting 
 was called upon to interfere in his favour, or to for- 
 give, or forget, his innocent imposition. But his 
 mild, and active, and obliging wife amply compen- 
 sated, by her reception of our hero's complaints, for 
 the rather uncourteous conduct of her husband. 
 With arms a-kimbo, and flashing eyes, the vixen 
 poured forth a volley of abuse both of Vivian and his 
 servant, which seemed to astonish even her experi- 
 enced husband. To leave the house without satis- 
 fying the full demand was impossible ; for the de- 
 mandant, being post-master, could of course prevent 
 the progress of his victim. In this state of affairs, 
 irritated and defied, Vivian threatened to apply to the 
 Judge of the district. His threat bore with it no 
 terrors : and imagining that the post-master reckoned 
 that his guest was merely blustering, Vivian deter- 
 mined to carry the business through ; and asked of a 
 few idle persons who were standing round, which of 
 them would show him the way to the Judge of the 
 district. 
 
 c I will myself attend your Highness,' said the inn- 
 keeper, with a bow of insolent politeness. 
 
 Vivian, however, did not choose to rely upon the 
 post-master's faith ; and so, attended by a young 
 peasant, and followed at a few yards distance by their 
 host, he and Essper proceeded to find the Judge of 
 the district. The Judge lived at a small village two 
 miles up the country ; but even this did not daunt our 
 
 823
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VIII 
 
 hero, who, in spite of the meek and constant smile of 
 his host, bade his guide lead on. 
 
 Half an hour brought them to the hamlet. They 
 proceeded down the only street which it contained, 
 until they came to a rather large, but most dilapidated 
 house, which their guide informed them was the 
 residence of the Judge. The great front gates being 
 evidently unused, they rang the rusty bell at a small 
 white door at the side of the mansion ; and in a short 
 time it was opened by a hard-working Austrian 
 wench, who stared very much at the demand, as if she 
 were but little accustomed to the admission of 
 suitors. She bade them follow her down the court. 
 Passing a heavy casement window, thickly over- 
 shadowed by a vine, she opened a door into a small 
 and gloomy room, and the party were ushered into 
 the solemn presence of the district Judge. His Wor- 
 ship was seated at a table, on which a few very ancient 
 and dusty papers attempted to produce a show of 
 business. He was earnestly engaged with his choco- 
 late, and wore a crimson velvet cap, with a broad fur 
 border, and a very imposing tassel. I need not de- 
 scribe his appearance very minutely his Worship 
 being an individual whom we have had the honour of 
 meeting with before ; he being no less a personage 
 than that dignified, economical, convivial, and most 
 illtreated Judge from the Danube, whose unlucky 
 adventure about the bottle of Rudesheimer was de- 
 tailed in an early chapter of these volumes ; and 
 whom it will be recollected was, at that time, if more 
 good-humouredly, scarcely more courteously, treated 
 by one of the present complainants, Essper George, 
 than by his brutal boon companions the University 
 students. 
 
 { Pray, gentlemen, be seated : take a chair, Sir ! ' 
 824
 
 CHAPTER III VIVIAN GREY 
 
 said his Worship as he raised himself on his elbows, 
 staring in Vivian's face. ' H u u m ! ' growled 
 the fat Judge, as he perceived the innkeeper standing 
 on the threshold. ' Come in there, and shut the 
 door. Well, gentlemen, what is your pleasure?' 
 
 Vivian very temperately and briefly detailed the 
 occasion of his visit. The Judge listened in pro- 
 found silence ; his pouting lips and contracted brow 
 making it difficult to ascertain whether he were 
 thoughtful or sulky. The innkeeper did not attempt 
 to interrupt the complainant during his statement, at 
 least not by speech ; but kept up a perpetual com- 
 mentary on the various charges, by repeatedly cross- 
 ing himself, sighing, and lifting up his hands and 
 eyes, as much as to say, ' What liars men are ! ' and 
 then humbly throwing out his arms, and bending his 
 head, he seemed to forgive their mendacity, and at 
 the same time, trust that Heaven would imitate his 
 example. While this scene was acting, Essper 
 George got wound up to such a pitch of frenzy, be- 
 tween the injustice which he considered his master 
 was doing to their case, the hypocritical gesticulations 
 of the defendant, and the restraint laid upon his per- 
 petual interference by Vivian, and the looks of the 
 Judge ; that he could only be compared to a wild cat 
 in a cage, hissing, spitting, threatening with his paw- 
 ing hands, and setting up his back, as if he were 
 about to spring upon his adversary and throttle him. 
 
 * Now ! ' said the Judge sternly to the post-master, 
 1 what have you to say ? How can you answer to 
 yourself for treating a foreign gentleman in this 
 manner?' 
 
 'St. Florian be my help!' said mine host with 
 downcast eyes, ' I am confounded : this worthy 
 gentleman has most unaccountably deceived himself. 
 
 825
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VIII 
 
 Our Lady be my guide, while I speak the truth! 
 Late last night this noble traveller and his worthy 
 attendant arrived at our poor dwelling. I was busy- 
 ing myself to get horses for his carriage, when the 
 gentleman complained of so much illness and fatigue, 
 that his servant entreated me to strive to give him 
 
 O 
 
 accommodation for the night. Indeed, poor gentle- 
 men ! it is no wonder they were fatigued ; for the 
 young man himself, as he will bear witness for me,' 
 said the speaker, pointing to Essper, ' declared, that 
 for four-and-twenty hours he had scarcely been off 
 his horse ; and had not, in that time, tasted food ! ' 
 
 ' Yes ! that was when you promised me the bed 
 which the Vice-Principal of Molk slept in,' said 
 Essper ; stamping with such violence, that the old 
 Judge started with fright, and dropped his spoon! 
 His Worship looked angrily round, and Vivian again 
 commanded Essper to be silent. 
 
 ' Go on with your story,' said the Judge to the 
 defendant. 
 
 ' Hear me speak, your Worship,' said Essper ; 
 c he'll never have done. When once a man begins 
 lying, he'll tell the truth on Tuesday se'nnight. The 
 whole affair is this ' 
 
 ' This person must be kept silent,' said the Judge. 
 { You go on,' continued he, pointing to the innkeeper, 
 who was crossing himself most devoutly. 
 
 ' The Mother of Mercy forgive me ! ' said the inn- 
 keeper, * if I have said aught unconsciously to hurt 
 the feelings of any fellow-christian. If the tale told 
 me were untrue, is it my fault that I gave it credit? 
 My wife and I, pitying their sad condition, deter- 
 mined to exert ourselves for their relief. Our house, 
 by the blessing of St. Florian ! was filled. A respect- 
 able Bohemian family, who, from the treatment they 
 
 826
 
 CHAPTER III VIVIAN GREY 
 
 have invariably received, consider our house their 
 home, had taken up their lodgings with us for the 
 night. Of a verity, we had no beds remaining, ex- 
 cept the one in which I and my wife repose ourselves 
 after our hard day's labour ; and another which was 
 made on purpose for, and scarcely ever used by any 
 persons except, our two dear and lamented children ! ' 
 
 ' A mouldy cradle!' bawled Essper George. 
 
 ' Our two lovely children slept together in it ! ' said 
 the innkeeper, with a softened voice and a starting 
 tear. 
 
 ' A crib, I suppose?' said the Judge. 
 
 ' Verily a large sized crib ! excuse this emotion,' 
 said mine host, swallowing a sob ; ' it is a subject on 
 which I unwillingly dwell.' 
 
 In' this manner were nearly two hours occupied ; 
 the pious post-master calmly and charitably explain- 
 ing his conduct, defending himself against every 
 count of the indictment, and never once giving way 
 to an irritable expression, although constantly inter- 
 rupted and abused by Essper George ; whose rage, 
 and mortification, at the complexion which the history 
 of his ill-treatment was assuming before the Judge, 
 exceeded all bounds. 
 
 ' Gentlemen!' said the Judge, when the innkeeper 
 had finished, ' it appears to me that this poor man's 
 case has been a little misunderstood by you. In the 
 first place, it seems, that far from desiring you to stay 
 under his roof, your lodging there must have put him 
 to very serious inconvenience. I find that his wife, 
 who had been hard worked the whole day, and 
 was, moreover, far from being in strong health, was 
 obliged to give up her bed for the accommodation of 
 her unexpected guest ; and what more could your 
 servant desire, than the bed in which their own 
 
 827
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VIII 
 
 children were accustomed to repose? As to the 
 charge for your meals, and wine, and the basket of 
 provisions, you are little aware at how much cost and 
 labour we, who live among these mountains., procure 
 even the commonest provisions, now rendered doubly 
 scarce by the excessive heat and drought of the 
 season. (Here the Judge poured out another cup of 
 chocolate.) Remember also, that this is not a large 
 city, and that we are obliged to provide at the begin- 
 ning of the week for the wants of the remainder. 
 You have probably, therefore, deprived this poor 
 family of their sustenance for six days to come. Con- 
 sider also, that it was not necessary for the post- 
 master to put himself to the expense of living in so 
 large a house, and that it was entirely for the accom- 
 modation of respectable families travelling from 
 Bohemia and Bavaria, and other places, that he has 
 incurred the cost of maintaining this establishment! 
 It is only fair, therefore, that you should properly 
 remunerate him for the conveniences which, in such a 
 country, you could hardly have expected to find, and 
 for the extraordinary risk incurred by this hazardous 
 investment of his capital. Respecting the treatment 
 of which you complain, from his wife, I put it to your 
 own feelings, as a gentleman, whether great allowance 
 should not be made in a case where such exertions and 
 sacrifices may have produced a slight degree of irrit- 
 ability and discomposure the natural result of 
 female delicacy, and overpowering fatigue ? For her 
 husband, the present defendant, I should feel I was 
 not discharging my duty, if I did not declare that this 
 is the first time I have heard word of complaint 
 against him by man, woman, or child ; and if I were 
 called upon to pick out the most civil, obliging, con- 
 scientious, liberal, charitable, unassuming, and 
 
 828
 
 CHAPTER III VIVIAN GREY 
 
 thoroughly honest, and truly pious man within my 
 district, it is this worthy person whom I now see 
 before me ; and whose demand I feel it incumbent 
 upon me to insist, shall this moment be satisfied. My 
 clerk is not in the way just now, but his fee you may 
 leave upon the table : it is twenty per cent v upon the 
 amount of the disputed sum. There is also one 
 dollar due for the warrant ; which, though not issued 
 in the present instance, must be accounted for to 
 Government.' 
 
 Vivian threw down the sum in disgust, without 
 deigning to reply ; but Essper George was not so 
 dignified. His rage was ludicrously excessive. 
 
 ' I knew it would end so ! You would not let me 
 speak. Don't pay, Sir, don't pay ! The fat rascal 
 is the worst of the two ; and whenever I prosecute a 
 person for stealing clothes off a naked man, or a beard 
 from a child's elbow, I'll bring them before you, and 
 they shall be found guilty!' 
 
 ' Fellow ! ' said the magistrate, ' do you know who 
 I am?' 
 
 'Know you!' screamed Essper, with a malicious 
 laugh : * know you ! The very sight of you does 
 my heart good. How did that Rudesheimer at Cob- 
 lentz agree with you ? I think you got a glass when 
 the bottle was empty ? Oh ! you old cheat ! this is 
 not the first time that you have wanted to make 
 honest travellers pay for what they did not order! 
 Shame! shame!' 
 
 ' You loose-tongued rascal ! ' said the agonised and 
 choking magistrate, as he shuffled back his chair, and 
 threw his cup of chocolate at Essper's head. The 
 knave, however, skilfully avoided it, and ran down 
 the court after his master. His agility baffled the 
 exertions of the gouty judge, who thinking he was 
 
 829
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VIII 
 
 fairly rid of his tormentor, determined to forget his 
 mortification in his per centage. He had just re- 
 seated himself in his easy chair, and was spinning the 
 dollar on his thumb, revelling in his peculation, when 
 Essper poked his head in at the opened casement. 
 
 4 I forgot one thing ! ' said he, in an exulting 
 whisper. ' Pray how is your Grandfather ?' 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 THIS unsuccessful appeal to justice cost Vivian almost 
 as many golden hours, as it had golden Sovereigns. 
 At length, however, his carriage drove off. His host 
 neither showed pique at his opposition, nor triumph 
 at his defeat : he was just as pious and polite as on 
 the evening of their arrival, and crossed himself, and 
 bowed to his departing guest, with emulative fervor. 
 His wife, however, standing in the window, testified 
 her exultation by clapping her hands, and laughing, 
 as the carriage went off. 
 
 The postilion drove so well, that Essper had dif- 
 ficulty in keeping up with the horses ; particularly as, 
 when he had found himself safely mounted, he had 
 lagged behind a few minutes to vent his spleen against 
 the innkeeper's wife. 
 
 1 May St. Florian confound me, madam ! ' said 
 Essper, addressing himself to the lady in the window, 
 { if ever I beheld so ugly a witch as yourself ! Pious 
 friend! thy chaplet of roses was ill bestowed, and 
 thou needest not have travelled so far to light thy wax 
 tapers at the shrine of the Black Lady at Altoting ; 
 for, by the beauty of holiness! an image of ebony is 
 mother of pearl, to that Soot-face whom thou callest 
 thy wife. Fare thee well! thou couple of saintly 
 sinners ; and may the next traveller who tarries in thy 
 
 830
 
 CHAPTER IV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 den of thieves, qualify thee for canonization, by thy 
 wife's admiring pastor, the cabbage-eating Vice Prin- 
 cipal of MolkV 
 
 The postilion blew his horn with unusual spirit, to 
 announce the arrival of a traveller of consequence, at 
 the next post-house ; and Vivian had the mortifica- 
 tion of being whirled up to the gateway of a large and 
 well-appointed Inn, situated in the high street of a 
 smart-looking little town. The consciousness that he 
 had been seduced into staying at the miserable place 
 where he had passed the night, under the pretence 
 that there was no better accommodation within fifty 
 miles, the sight of his costly basket of broken victuals, 
 and the recollection of the expense of time and money 
 which he had incurred through his credulity, were 
 not calculated to render his mood the most amiable. 
 The postilion, perhaps observing a cloud upon his 
 brow, and anticipating that he might suffer for his 
 master's villainy, bowed very low when he came up to 
 the door of the carriage to be paid, and trusted most 
 respectfully that his drink-money would not be 
 diminished, for any thing that had happened. * I 
 was very sorry Sir,' continued he, { for what took 
 place with my master ; but I could do nothing, Sir : 
 I could not drive you without an order. I am sorry 
 to say, it is nothing particular new, Sir. It wasn't 
 much use your troubling yourself to go to the Judge, 
 for he always sides with master. Master married his 
 sister, Sir!' 
 
 While Vivian was speaking to the postilion, he 
 heard the sound of a hammer behind the carriage ; 
 and, on looking round, perceived a man busily em- 
 ployed in working at one of the springs. This fellow 
 was one of those officious smiths, who, on the Con- 
 tinent, regularly commence, without permission or 
 
 831
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VIII 
 
 necessity, their operations upon every carriage which 
 drives up to the post-house. Vivian, convinced that 
 his caleche did not, or ought not, to require the exer- 
 cise of this artist's talents, after much trouble and 
 some high talking, prevented him from proceeding. 
 The man, however, tendered a demand for services 
 which ought to have been performed, or ought to 
 have been required. It was always the custom, he 
 said, in that town, to have carriages examined and 
 repaired ; and if his Highness' did not require his 
 attention, it was not his fault. He was ready to 
 repair the carriage it ought to have been broken. 
 Vivian, of course, refused to satisfy the fellow's in- 
 solent demand ; and begged to assure him that he was 
 not one of those English lords, whom evidently the 
 considerate smith was in the habit of practising upon. 
 The man retired grumbling, with a most gloomy 
 face. 
 
 On they went again, but not quite as comfortably 
 as before ; either the road was much worse, or the 
 smith had been right in supposing that something 
 was displaced. In the course of an hour, Vivian was 
 obliged to desire the postilion to drive carefully ; and 
 before the end of another, they had to ford a rivulet, 
 running between two high banks. The scenery just 
 here was particularly lovely, and Vivian's attention 
 was so engrossed by it, that he did not observe the 
 danger which he was about to incur. 
 
 As this scene is important to the narrative, I shall 
 describe it with great accuracy, and I hope that it will 
 be understood. 
 
 On the left of the road, a high range of rocky 
 mountains abruptly descended into an open, but 
 broken country ; and the other side of the road was 
 occasionally bounded by low undulating hills, parti- 
 
 832
 
 CHAPTER IV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 ally covered with dwarf woods, not high enough to 
 obstruct the view of the distant horizon. Rocky 
 knolls jutted out near the base of the mountains ; 
 and on the top of one of them, overlooked by a 
 gigantic grey peak, stood an ancient and still in- 
 habited feudal castle. Round the base of this insu- 
 lated rock, a rustic village peeped above the encircling 
 nut-woods its rising smoke softening the hard 
 features of the naked crag. On the side of the 
 village nearest to Vivian, a bold sheet of water dis- 
 charged itself in three separate falls, between the 
 ravine of a wooded mountain ; and flowing round the 
 village as a fine broad river, expanded, before it 
 reached the foundation of the castled rock, into a long 
 and deep lake, which was also fed by numerous 
 streams, the gulleys only of which were now visible 
 down the steep sides of the mountains their springs 
 having been long dried up. 
 
 Vivian's view was interrupted by his sudden de- 
 scent into the bed of the rivulet, one of the numerous 
 branches of the mountain torrent, and by a crash 
 which as immediately ensued. Through the unpaid 
 assistance of the rejected smith, the spring of his 
 carriage was broken, and various loosened nuts jolted 
 out. The carriage of course fell over, but Vivian 
 sustained no injury ; and while Essper George rode 
 forward to the village for assistance, his master helped 
 the postilion to extricate the horses and secure them 
 on the opposite bank. They had done all that was in 
 their power some time before Essper returned ; and 
 Vivian, who had seated himself on some tangled 
 beech-roots, was prevented growing impatient by con- 
 templating the enchanting scenery. The postilion, 
 on the contrary, who had travelled this road every day 
 of his life, and who found no gratification in gazing 
 30 833
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VIII 
 
 upon rocks, woods, and waterfalls, lit his pipe, and 
 occasionally talked to his horses. So essential an 
 attribute of the beautiful, is novelty! Essper at 
 length made his appearance, attended by five or six 
 peasants, all dressed in holiday costume, with some 
 fanciful decorations ; their broad hats wreathed with 
 wild flowers, their short brown jackets covered with 
 buttons and fringe, and various-coloured ribands 
 streaming from their knees. 
 
 * Well, sir ! the grandson is born the day the grand- 
 father dies! a cloudy morning has often a bright 
 sunset! and though we are now sticking in a ditch, 
 by the aid of St. Florian, we may be soon feasting in 
 a castle! Come, come, my merry men, I did not 
 bring you here to show your ribands the sooner you 
 help us out of this scrape, the sooner you will be 
 again dancing with the pretty maidens on the green ! 
 Lend a hand! lend a hand! What's your name?' 
 asked Essper, of a sturdy red-haired lad, ' Wolf ? if 
 it is not, it ought to be ; and so, Mr. Wolf, put your 
 shoulder to this fore-wheel, and you two go to the 
 off-wheel, and Master Robert, as I think they call 
 you, help me here! Now, all lift together 
 H o i g h! h o i g h! sharp there, be- 
 hind! once more h o i g h! pull pull 
 pull! there! gently, gently, that's it!' 
 
 The caleche appeared to be so much shattered, that 
 they only ventured to put in one horse ; and Vivian, 
 leaving his carriage in charge of Essper and the pos- 
 tilion, mounted Max, and rode to the village, attended 
 by the peasants. He learnt from them, on the way, 
 that they were celebrating the marriage of the 
 daughter of their Lord ; who, having been informed 
 of the accident, had commanded them to go immedi- 
 ately to the gentleman's assistance, and then conduct 
 
 834
 
 CHAPTER IV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 him to the castle. Vivian immediately made some 
 excuse for not accepting their master's hospitable in- 
 vitation, and requested to be shown to the nearest 
 Inn. He learnt, to his dismay, that the village did not 
 boast a single one ; the existence of such an estab- 
 lishment not being permitted by their Lord, who, 
 however, was always most happy to entertain any 
 stranger at his castle. As his caleche was decidedly 
 too much injured to proceed farther that day, Vivian 
 had evidently, from the account of these persons, no 
 alternative ; and therefore allowed himself to be in- 
 troduced according to their instructions. 
 
 They crossed the river over a light stone bridge of 
 three arches, the key-stone of the centre one being 
 decorated with a very splendidly-sculptured shield. 
 
 c This bridge appears to be very recently built?' 
 said Vivian to one of his conductors. 
 
 ' It was opened, Sir, for the first time, yesterday, to 
 admit the bridegroom of my young lady, and the 
 foundation-stone of it was laid on the day she was 
 born.' 
 
 4 1 see that your good Lord was determined that it 
 should be a solid structure.' 
 
 c Why, Sir, it was necessary that the foundation 
 should be strong, because three succeeding winters it 
 was washed away by the rush of that mountain- 
 torrent. Turn this way, if you please, sir, through 
 the village.' 
 
 Vivian was much struck with the appearance of the 
 little settlement, as he rode through it. It did not 
 consist of more than fifty houses, but they were all 
 detached, and each beautifully embowered in trees. 
 The end of the village came upon a large rising green, 
 leading up to the only accessible side of the castle. 
 It presented a most animated scene, being covered 
 
 835
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VIII 
 
 with various groups, all intent upon different rustic 
 amusements. An immense pole, the stem of a gigan- 
 tic fir-tree, was fixed nearly in the centre of the green, 
 and crowned with a chaplet the reward of the most 
 active young man of the village, whose agility might 
 enable him to display his gallantry, by presenting it 
 to his mistress ; she being allowed to wear it during 
 the remainder of the sports. The middle-aged men 
 were proving their strength by raising weights ; while 
 the elders of the village joined in the calmer and more 
 scientific diversion of skittles, which, in Austria, are 
 played with bowls and pins of very great size. Others 
 were dancing ; others sitting under tents, chattering 
 or taking refreshments. Some were walking in pairs, 
 anticipating the speedy celebration of a wedding-day 
 happier to them, if less gay to others. Even the 
 tenderest infants, on this festive day, seemed con- 
 scious of some unusual cause of excitement ; and 
 many an urchin, throwing himself forward in a vain 
 attempt to catch an elder brother or a laughing sister, 
 tried the strength of his leading-strings, and rolled 
 over, crowing in the soft grass. 
 
 At the end of the green a splendid tent was erected, 
 with a large white bridal flag waving from its top, 
 embroidered in gold, with a true-lover's knot. From 
 this pavilion came forth, to welcome the strangers, the 
 Lord of the village. He was an extremely tall, but 
 very thin bending figure, with a florid benevolent 
 countenance, and a great quantity of long white hair. 
 This venerable person cordially offered his hand to 
 Vivian, regretted his accident, but expressed much 
 pleasure that he had come to partake of their happi- 
 ness. { Yesterday,' continued he, ' was my daughter's 
 wedding-day, and both myself and our humble 
 friends .are endeavouring to forget, in this festive 
 
 836
 
 CHAPTER IV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 scene, our approaching loss and separation. If you 
 had come yesterday, you would have assisted at the 
 opening or my new bridge, J^ray, what do you think 
 or it? tiut i will show it to you myself, which 1 
 assure you will give me great pleasure : at present, 
 let me introduce you to my family, who will be quite 
 delighted to see you. It is. a pity that you have 
 missed the Regatta ; my daughter is just going to 
 reward the successful candidate : you see the boats 
 upon the lake ; the one with the white and purple 
 streamer was the conqueror, iou will have the 
 pleasure, too, or seeing my son-in-law : 1 am sure 
 you will like him he quite enjoys our sports. We 
 shall have a fete champetre to-morrow, and a dance 
 on the green to-night. 5 
 
 The old gentleman paused for want of breath, and 
 having stood a moment to recover himself, he intro- 
 duced his new guests to the inmates of the tent : 
 first, his maiden sister, a softened fac-simile of him- 
 self ; behind her stood his beautiful and blushing 
 daughter, the youthful bride, wearing on her head a 
 coronal of white roses, and supported by three 
 bride' s-maids, the only relief to whose snowy dresses 
 were large bouquets on their left side. The bride- 
 groom was at first shaded by the curtain ; but, as he 
 came forward, Vivian started when he recognised his 
 Heidelburg friend, Eugene von Konigstem ! ' 
 
 Their mutual delight and astonishment were so 
 great, that for an instant neither of them could speak ; 
 but when the old man learnt from his son-in-law, that 
 the stranger was his most valued and intimate friend, 
 and one to whom he was under the greatest personal 
 obligations, he absolutely declared that he would have 
 the wedding to witness which, appeared to him the 
 height of human felicity solemnized over again.
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VIII 
 
 The bride blushed, the bride' s-maids tittered ; the 
 joy was universal. 
 
 ' My dear sister!' said the old lord, bawling very 
 loud in her ear ; ' very likely your deafness prevented 
 you understanding that this gentleman is Eugene's 
 particular friend. Poor dear!' continued he, lower- 
 ing his tone ; ' it is a great misfortune to be so very 
 deaf!' 
 
 ' I dare say you will soon perceive, Sir,' said the old 
 lady to Vivian, while his lordship was speaking, ' that 
 my dear brother is debarred, in a great degree, from 
 enjoying your society, by his unfortunate deafness : 
 he scarcely ever hears even what I say to him : though 
 he has been accustomed to my voice so many 
 years. Poor creature! It is a great denial to 
 him!' 
 
 It was quite curious to observe how perfectly un- 
 conscious were this excellent pair of their own infirm- 
 ity, though quite alive to each other's. 
 
 Vivian inquired after the Baron. He learnt from 
 Eugene that he had quitted Europe about a month, 
 having sailed as Minister to one of the New Ameri- 
 can States. ' My uncle,' continued the young man, 
 ' was neither well, nor in spirits before his departure : 
 I cannot understand why he plagues himself so about 
 politics ; however, I trust he will like his new appoint- 
 ment : you found him, I am sure, a most delightful 
 companion ?' 
 
 ' Come ! you two young gentlemen,' said the 
 father-in-law, ' put off your chat till the evening. 
 The business of the day stops ; for I see the proces- 
 sion coming forward to receive the Regatta prize. 
 Now, my dear! where is the scarf? You know 
 what to say? Remember, I particularly wish to do 
 honour to the victor! The sight of all these happy 
 
 838
 
 CHAPTER IV VIVIAN GRFA r 
 
 faces makes me feel quite young again. I declare I 
 think I shall live a hundred years!' 
 
 The procession advanced. First came a band of 
 young children strewing flowers ; then followed four 
 stout boys carrying a large purple and white banner. 
 The victor, proudly preceding the other candidates, 
 strutted forward, with his hat on one side, a light 
 scull decorated with purple and white ribands in his 
 right hand, and his left arm round his wife's waist. 
 The wife, a beautiful young woman, to whom were 
 clinging two fat flaxen-headed children, was the most 
 interesting figure in the procession. Her tight dark 
 boddice set off her round full figure, and her short red 
 petticoat displayed her springy foot and ankle. Her 
 neatly braided and plaited hair was partly concealed 
 by a silk cap, covered with gold spangled gauze, 
 flattened rather at the top, and finished at the back 
 of the head with a large bow. This costly head-gear, 
 the highest fashion of her class, was presented to the 
 wearer by the bride, and was destined to be kept for 
 festivals. After the victor and his wife, came six 
 girls and six boys, at the side of whom walked a very 
 bustling personage in black, who seemed extremely 
 interested about the decorum of the procession. A 
 long train of villagers succeeded. 
 
 ' Well ! ' said the old lord to Vivian, ' this must be 
 a very gratifying sight to you! how fortunate that 
 your carriage broke down just at my castle! I think 
 my dear girl is acquitting herself admirably. Ah! 
 Eugene is a happy fellow ; and I have no doubt that 
 she will be happy too. The young sailor receives his 
 honours very properly : they are as nice a family as I 
 know. Observe, they are moving off now to make 
 way for the pretty girls and boys! That person in 
 black is our Abbe as benevolent, worthy a creature 
 
 839
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VIII 
 
 as ever lived ! and very clever too : you'll see in a 
 minute. Now they are going to give us a little 
 bridal chorus, after the old fashion ; and it is all the 
 Abbe's doing. I understand that there is an elegant 
 allusion to my new bridge in it, which I think will 
 please you. Who ever thought that bridge would be 
 opened for my girl's wedding? Well! I am glad 
 that it was not finished before. But we must be 
 silent ! You will notice that part about the bridge ; 
 it is in the fifth verse I am told ; beginning with 
 something about Hymen, and ending with something 
 about roses.' 
 
 By this time the procession had formed a semi- 
 circle before the tent ; the Abbe standing in the 
 middle, with a paper in his hand, and dividing the two 
 bands of choristers. He gave a signal with his cane, 
 and the girls commenced : 
 
 Chorus of Maidens. 
 
 Hours fly ! it is Morn : he has left the bed of 
 love ! She follows him with a strained eye, when his 
 figure is no longer seen : she leans her head upon her 
 arm. She is faithful to him, as the lake to the 
 mountain ! 
 
 Chorus of Youths. 
 
 Hours fly ! it is Noon : fierce is the restless sun ! 
 While he labours, he thinks of her ! while he controls 
 others, he will obey her ! A strong man subdued by 
 love, is like a vineyard silvered by the moon ! 
 
 Chorus of Youths and Maidens. 
 
 Hours fly ! it is Eve : the soft star lights him to 
 his home! she meets him as his shadow falls on the 
 
 840
 
 CHAPTER IV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 threshold ! she smiles, and their child stretching forth 
 its tender hands from its mother's bosom, struggles to 
 lisp " Father ! " 
 
 Chorus of Maidens. 
 
 Years glide! it is i outh : they sit within a secret 
 bower. .Purity is in her raptured eyes Faith in his 
 warm embrace. He must Hy He kisses his fare- 
 well : the fresh tears are on her cheek ! He has 
 gathered a lily with the dew upon its leaves! 
 
 Chorus of Xouths. 
 
 Years glide! it is Manhood. He is in the fierce 
 Camp : ne is in the deceitful Court. He must 
 mingle sometimes with others, that he may be always 
 with her! In the false world, she is to him like a 
 green olive among rocks! 
 
 Chorus of Youths and Maidens. 
 
 Years glide! it is Old Age. They sit beneath a 
 branching elm. As the moon rises on the sunset 
 green, their children dance before them! Her hand 
 is in his they look upon their children, and then 
 upon each other ! 
 
 ' The fellow has some fancy,' said the old Lord, 
 4 but given, I think, to conceits. I did not exactly 
 catch the passage about the bridge, but I have no 
 doubt it was all right.' 
 
 Vivian was now invited to the pavilion, where re- 
 freshments were prepared. Here our hero was intro- 
 duced to many other guests, relations of the family, 
 who were on a visit at the castle, and who had been 
 on the lake at the moment of his arrival. 
 
 841
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VIII 
 
 < This gentleman,' said the old Lord, pointing to 
 Vivian, ' is my son's most particular friend, and I am 
 quite sure that you are all delighted to see him. He 
 arrived here quite accidentally his carriage having 
 fortunately broken down in passing one of the 
 streams. All those rivulets should have bridges built 
 over them ! A single arch would do ;. one bold 
 single arch, of the same masonry as my new bridge, 
 with a very large key-stone, and the buttresses of the 
 arch rounded, so that the water should play against 
 them no angles to be eaten, and torn, and crumbled 
 away. A fine bridge with the arches well propor- 
 tioned, and the key-stones bold, and the buttresses 
 well rounded, is one of the grandest and most in- 
 spiriting sights I know. I could look at my new 
 bridge for ever. I often ask myself " Now how can 
 such a piece of masonry every be destroyed?" It 
 seems quite impossible ; does not it ? We all know 
 Experience teaches us all that every thing has an 
 end ; and yet, whenever I look at that bridge, I often 
 think that it can only end, when all things end. I 
 will take you over it myself, Mr. Grey : it is not fair, 
 because you came a day too late, that you should miss 
 the finest sight of all. If you had only been here 
 yesterday, I am sure you would have said it was the 
 happiest day in your life ! ' 
 
 The old gentleman proceeded to give Vivian a long 
 description of the ceremony. He was terribly dis- 
 appointed, and equally annoyed, when he found that 
 our hero could not be present at the festivities of the 
 morrow. At first my Lord was singularly deaf ; he 
 could not conceive the bare idea of the possibility of 
 any person wishing to leave him at the present 
 moment ; but when his guest assured, and finally by 
 frequent repetition made him understand, that no- 
 
 842
 
 CHAPTER IV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 thing but the most peremptory business could com- 
 mand, under such circumstances, his presence at 
 Vienna ; the old gentleman, a great stickler for duty, 
 and a great respecter of public business, which he had 
 persuaded himself could alone prevail upon Vivian to 
 make such a sacrifice, kindly commiserated his situa- 
 tion ; and consoled him by saying, that he thought he 
 was the most unlucky fellow with whom he ever had 
 the pleasure of being acquainted. ' To come just 
 one day after the bridge ! and then to go off just the 
 morning before the fete champetre! It is very hard 
 for you ! I quite pity you ; don't you, my dear 
 sister ?' bawled he to the old lady. ' But what is the 
 use of speaking to her, poor dear ! it is a great misfor- 
 tune to be so very deaf! It seerns to me that she 
 gets worse every day.' 
 
 ' I am glad, Sir,' said the old lady to Vivian, seeing 
 that she was spoken to ; ' I am glad that we shall have 
 the pleasure of your company at the fete to-morrow. 
 My dear brother!' bawled she to the old gentleman, 
 ' you feel, I am sure, very happy that Eugene's- friend 
 has arrived so fortunately to participate in the 
 pleasures of the fete. But what is the use of speak- 
 ing to him ! poor creature ! it is a great denial to him 
 to be so very deaf ! I fear it gains on him hourly ! ' 
 
 In the evening they all waltzed upon the green. 
 The large yellow moon had risen ; and a more agree- 
 able sight, than to witness two or three hundred per- 
 sons so gaily occupied, and in such a scene, is not easy 
 to imagine. How beautiful was the stern old castle, 
 softened by the moonlight, the illumined lake, the 
 richly silvered foliage of the woods, and the white 
 brilliant cataract ! 
 
 Vivian waltzed with the bride, little qualified as he 
 now was to engage in the light dance ! But to refuse 
 
 843
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VIII 
 
 the distinguished honour was impossible ; and so, in 
 spite of his misery, he was soon spinning on the 
 green. The mockery, however, could not be long 
 kept up ; and pleading overwhelming fatigue, from 
 late travelling, and gently hinting to Eugene, that 
 from domestic circumstances the present interesting 
 occasion could alone have justified him in the slightest 
 degree joining in any thing which bore the appearance 
 of lightness and revelry, he left the green. 
 
 His carriage was now being repaired by the castle 
 smith ; and by the advice and with the assistance of 
 the old lord, he had engaged the brother of the family 
 steward, who was a voiturier, about to set off for 
 Vienna the next morning, to take charge of his equip- 
 age and luggage, as far as Burkesdorf, which was 
 about ten miles from Vienna. At that place, Vivian 
 and Essper were also to arrive ori the afternoon of 
 their second day's journey. They would there meet 
 the carriage, and get into Vienna before dusk. 
 
 As the castle was quite full of visitors, its hospitable 
 master apologized to Vivian for lodging him for the 
 night, at the cottage of one of his favourite tenants. 
 Nothing would give greater pleasure to Vivian than 
 this circumstance, nor more annoyance to the- worthy 
 old gentleman. 
 
 The cottage belonged to the victor in the Regatta, 
 who himself conducted the visitor to his dwelling. 
 Vivian did not press Essper's leaving the revellers, so 
 great an acquisition did he seem to their sports! 
 Teaching them a thousand new games, and playing 
 all manner of antics ; but perhaps none of his powers 
 surprised them more, than the extraordinary facility 
 and freedom with which he had acquired, and used all 
 their names. The cottager's pretty wife had gone 
 home an hour before her husband, to put her two 
 
 8 44
 
 CHAPTER IV VIVIAN GREY 
 
 fair-haired children to bed, and prepare her guest's 
 accommodation for the night. Nothing could be 
 more romantic and lovely than the situation of the 
 cottage. It stood just on the gentle slope of the 
 mountain's base, not a hundred yards from the lower 
 waterfall. It was in the middle of a patch of highly 
 cultivated ground, which bore creditable evidence to 
 the industry of its proprietor. Fruit trees, Turkey 
 corn, vines, and flax, flourished in the greatest luxuri- 
 ance. The dwelling itself was covered with myrtle 
 and arbutus, and the tall lemon-plant perfumed the 
 window of the sitting-room. The casement of 
 Vivian's chamber opened full on the foaming cataract. 
 The distant murmur of the mighty waterfall, the 
 gentle sighing of the trees, the soothing influence of 
 the moonlight, and the faint sounds occasionally 
 caught of dying revelry the joyous exclamation of 
 some successful candidate in the day's games, the song 
 of some returning lover, the plash of an oar in the 
 lake all combined to produce that pensive mood, in 
 which we find ourselves involuntarily reviewing the 
 history of our life. 
 
 As Vivian was musing over the last harassing 
 months of his burthensome existence, he could not 
 help feeling that there was only one person in the 
 world on whom his memory could dwell with solace 
 and satisfaction ; and this person was Lady Madeleine 
 Trevor ! 
 
 It was true that with her he had passed some most 
 agonizing hours ; but he could not forget the angelic 
 resignation with which her own affliction had been 
 borne, and the soothing converse by which his had 
 been alleviated. This train of thought was pursued 
 till his aching mind sunk into indefiniteness. He sat, 
 for some little time, almost unconscious of existence, 
 
 845
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VIII 
 
 till the crying of a child, waked by its father's return, 
 brought him back to the present scene. His thoughts 
 naturally ran to his friend Eugene. Surely this 
 youthful bridegroom might reckon upon happiness! 
 Again Lady Madeleine recurred to him. Suddenly 
 he observed a wonderful appearance in the sky. The 
 moon was paled in the high heavens, and surrounded 
 by luminous rings almost as vividly tinted as the 
 rainbow spreading, and growing fainter, till they 
 covered nearly half the firmament. It was a glorious, 
 and almost unprecedented halo! 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 THE Sun rose red, the air was thick and hot. An- 
 ticipating that the day would be very oppressive, 
 Vivian and Essper were on their horses' backs at an 
 early hour. Already, however, many of the rustic 
 revellers were about, and preparations were com- 
 mencing for the fete champetre, which this day was 
 to close the wedding festivities. Many and sad were 
 the looks which Essper George cast behind him, at 
 the old castle on the lake. c No good luck can come 
 of it ! ' said he to his horse ; for Vivian did not en- 
 courage conversation. ( Oh ! master of mine, when 
 wilt thou know the meaning of good quarters ! To 
 leave such a place, and at such a time ! Why, Turri- 
 parva was nothing to it! The day before marriage, 
 and the hour before death, is when a man thinks least 
 of his purse, and most of his neighbour And where 
 are we going ? I slept the other night in a cradle : 
 and, for aught I know, I may sleep this one in a 
 coffin ! I, who am now as little fit for rough riding, 
 and rough eating, and rough sleeping, as a pet mon- 
 key with a scalded tail! Oh! man, man, what art 
 
 846
 
 CHAPTER V VIVIAN GREY 
 
 thou, that the eye of a girl can make thee so pass all 
 discretion, that thou wilt sacrifice for the whim of a 
 moment, good cheer enough to make thee last an 
 age!' 
 
 Vivian had intended to stop and breakfast, after 
 riding about ten miles ; but he had not proceeded 
 half that way, when, from the extreme sultriness of 
 the morning, he found it impossible to advance with- 
 out refreshment. Max, also, to his rider's surprise, 
 was much distressed ; and, on turning round to his 
 servant, Vivian found Essper's hack panting and 
 puffing, and breaking out, as if, instead of commenc- 
 ing their day's work, they were near reaching their 
 point of destination. 
 
 ' Why, how now, Kssper ? One would think that 
 we had been riding all night. What ails the beast ?' 
 
 ' In truth, Sir, that which ails its rider ; the poor 
 dumb brute has more sense than some not exactly 
 brutes, who have the gift of speech. Who ever 
 heard of a horse leaving good quarters without much 
 regretting the indiscretion ; and seeing such a pro- 
 mising road as this before him, without much desir- 
 ing to retrace his steps ? Is there marvel, your High- 
 ness? 1 
 
 ' The closeness of the air is so oppressive, that I 
 do not wonder at even Max being distressed. Per- 
 haps when the Sun is higher, and has cleared away 
 the vapours, it may be more endurable : as it is, 1 
 think we had better stop at once, and breakfast here. 
 This wood is as inviting as, I trust, are the contents 
 of your basket! 5 
 
 ' St. Florian devour them!' said Essper, in a very 
 pious voice ; * if I agree not with your Highness ; 
 and as for the basket, although we have left the land 
 of milk and honey, by the blessing of our Black 
 
 847
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VIII 
 
 Lady ! I have that within it, which would put cour- 
 age in the heart of a caught-mouse. Although we 
 may not breakfast on bride-cake and beccaficos, yet 
 is a neat's tongue better than a fox's tail ; and I have 
 ever held a bottle of Rhenish to be superior to rain- 
 water, even though the element be filtered through 
 a gutter. Nor, by All Saints! have I forgotten a 
 bottle of Kerchen Wasser, from the Black Forest ; 
 nor a keg of Dantzic brandy, a glass of which, when 
 travelling at night, I am ever accustomed to take 
 after my prayers ; for I have always observed, that 
 though devotion doth sufficiently warm up the soul, 
 the body all the time is rather the colder for stopping 
 under a tree to tell its beads.' 
 
 The travellers, accordingly led their horses a few 
 yards into the wood, and soon met, as they had ex- 
 pected, with a small green glade. It was surrounded, 
 except at the slight opening by which they had 
 entered it, with fine Spanish chesnut trees ; which 
 now, loaded with their large brown fruit, rich and 
 ripe, clustered in the starry foliage, afforded a retreat 
 as beautiful to the eye, as its shade was grateful to 
 their senses. Vivian dismounted, and stretching out 
 his legs, leant back against the trunk of a tree ; and 
 Essper, having fastened Max and his own horse to 
 some branches, proceeded to display his stores. 
 Vivian was silent, thoughtful, and scarcely tasted any 
 thing : Essper George, on the contrary, was in un- 
 usual and even troublesome spirits ; and had not his 
 appetite necessarily produced a few pauses in his 
 almost perpetual rattle, the patience of his master 
 would have been fairly worn out. At length Essper 
 had devoured the whole supply ; and as Vivian not 
 only did not encourage his remarks, but even in a 
 peremptory manner had desired his silence, he was 
 
 848
 
 CHAPTER V VIVIAN GREY 
 
 fain to amuse himself by trying to catch in his mouth 
 a large brilliant fly, which every instant was dancing 
 before him. Two individuals, more singularly con- 
 trasting in their appearance than the master and the 
 servant, could scarcely be conceived ; and Vivian 
 lying with his back against a tree, with his legs 
 stretched out, his arms folded, and his eyes fixed on 
 the ground ; and Essper, though seated, in perpetual 
 motion, and shifting his posture with feverish rest- 
 lessness now looking over his shoulder for the fly, 
 then making an unsuccessful bite at it, and then 
 
 O 
 
 wearied with his frequent failures, amusing himself 
 with acting Punch with his thumbs altogether pre- 
 sented two figures, which might have been considered 
 as not inapt personifications of the rival systems of 
 Idealism and Materialism. 
 
 At length Essper became silent for the sake of 
 variety ; and imagining from his master's example, 
 that there must be some sweets in meditation hitherto 
 undiscovered by him, he imitated Vivian's posture! 
 So perverse is human nature, that the moment 
 Vivian was aware that Essper was perfectly silent, he 
 began to feel an inclination to converse with him. 
 
 4 Why, Essper!' said he, looking up and smiling; 
 ' this is the first time during our acquaintance, that 
 I have ever seen thought upon your brow. What 
 can now be puzzling your wild brain ?' 
 
 c I was thinking, Sir,' said Essper, with a very 
 solemn look, ' that if there were a deceased field- 
 mouse here, I would moralize on Death.' 
 
 'What! turned philosopher!' 
 
 1 Ay ! Sir it appears to me,' said he, taking up 
 a husk which lay on the turf, < that there is not a 
 nut-shell in Christendom, which may not become 
 matter for very grave meditation!' 
 3H 849
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VIII 
 
 * Can you expound that?' 
 
 ' Verily, Sir, the whole philosophy of life seems 
 to me to consist in discovering the kernel. When 
 you see a courtier out of favour, or a merchant out 
 of credit when you see a soldier without pillage, a 
 sailor without prize-money, and a lawyer without 
 papers a bachelor with nephews, and an old maid 
 with nieces be assured the nut is not worth the 
 cracking, and send it to the winds, as I do this husk 
 at present.' 
 
 * Why, Essper!' said Vivian laughing, 'consider- 
 ing that you have taken your degree so lately, you 
 wear the Doctor's cap with authority! Instead of 
 being in your noviciate, one would think that you 
 had been a philosopher long enough to have outlived 
 your system.' 
 
 ( Bless your Highness ! for philosophy, I sucked it 
 in with my mother's milk. Nature then gave me the 
 hint, which I have ever since acted on ; and I hold, 
 that the sum of all learning, consists in milking an- 
 other man's cow. So much for the recent acquisi- 
 tion of my philosophy! I gained it, you see, your 
 Highness, with the first wink of my eye ; and though 
 I lost a great portion of it by sea-sickness in the 
 Mediterranean, nevertheless, since I served your 
 Highness, I have assumed my old habits ; and do 
 opine that this vain globe is but a large football, to 
 be kicked and cuffed about by moody philosophers! 1 
 
 ( You must have seen a great deal in your life, 
 Master Essper,' said Vivian, who was amused by his 
 servant's quaint humour. 
 
 * Like all great travellers,' said Essper, { I have 
 seen more than I remember, and remember more 
 than I have seen.' 
 
 < Have you any objection to go to the East again ?' 
 850
 
 CHAPTER V VIVIAN GREY 
 
 asked Vivian. < It would require but little persua- 
 sion to lead me there.' 
 
 1 1 would rather go to a place where the religion is 
 easier : I wish your Highness would take me to 
 England ! ' 
 
 * Nay, not there with me if with others.' 
 ' With you or with none.' 
 
 c I cannot conceive, Essper, what can induce you 
 to tie up your fortunes with those of such a sad look- 
 ing personage as myself.' 
 
 ' In truth, your Highness, there is no accounting 
 for tastes. My grandmother loved a brindled cat ! ' 
 
 4 Your grandmother, Essper ! Nothing would 
 amuse me more than to be introduced to your family.' 
 
 c My family, Sir, are nothing more, nor less, than 
 what all of us must be counted worms of five feet 
 long mortal angels the world's epitome heaps of 
 atoms, which Nature has kneaded with blood into 
 solid flesh little worlds of living clay sparks of 
 heaven inches of earth Nature's quintessence 
 moving dust the little all smooth-faced cherubim, 
 in whose souls the King of stars has drawn the image 
 of himself!' 
 
 ' And how many years has breathed the worm of 
 five feet long, that I am now speaking to?' 
 
 * Good, your Highness, I was no head at calculat- 
 ing from a boy ; but I do remember that I am two 
 days older than one of the planets.' 
 
 * How is that ?' 
 
 * There was one born in the sky, Sir, the day I was 
 christened with a Turkish crescent.' 
 
 { Come, Essper,' said Vivian, who was rather in- 
 terested by the conversation ; Essper having, until 
 this morning, skilfully avoided any discourse upon 
 the subject of his birth or family, adroitly turning the 
 
 85'
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VIII 
 
 conversation whenever it chanced to approach these 
 subjects, and silencing enquiries, if commenced, by 
 some ludicrous and evidently fictitious answer. 
 ( Come, Essper,' said Vivian, 1 1 feel by no means in 
 the humour to quit this shady retreat. You and I 
 have now known each other long, and gone through 
 much together. It is but fair that I should become 
 better acquainted with one who, to me, is not only a 
 faithful servant, but what is more valuable, a faith- 
 ful friend I might now almost add, my only one. 
 What say you to wiling away a passing hour, by giv- 
 ing me some sketch of your curious and adventurous 
 life. If there be any thing that you wish to conceal, 
 pass it over ; but no invention ; nothing but the 
 truth, if you please the whole truth, if you like.' 
 
 * Why, your Highness, as for this odd knot of 
 soul and body, which none but the hand of Heaven 
 could have twined, it was first seen, I believe, near 
 the very spot where we are now sitting ; for my 
 mother, when I saw her first, and last, lived in 
 Bohemia. She was an Egyptian, and came herself 
 from the Levant. I lived a week, Sir, in the Ser- 
 aglio, when I was at Constantinople, and I saw there, 
 the brightest women of all countries ; Georgians and 
 Circassians, and Poles ; in truth, Sir, Nature's master- 
 pieces ; and yet, by the Gods of all nations ! there 
 was not one of them half as lovely as the lady who 
 gave me this tongue!' Here Essper exhibited at 
 full length, the enormous feature, which had so much 
 enraged the one-eyed Serjeant at Frankfort. 
 
 4 When I first remember myself,' he continued, * I 
 was playing with some other gipsey-boys in the midst 
 of a forest. Here was our settlement. It was large 
 and powerful. My mother, probably from her 
 beauty, possessed great influence, particularly among 
 
 852
 
 CHAPTER V VIVIAN GREY 
 
 the men ; and yet, I found not among them all, a 
 father. On the contrary, every one or my com- 
 panions had a man whom he reverenced as his parent, 
 and who taught him to steal ; but I was called by 
 the whole tribe the mother-son and was honest, 
 from my first year, out of mere wilfulness ; at least, 
 if I stole any thing it was always from our own 
 people. Many were the quarrels I occasioned ; 
 since, presuming on my mother's love and power, I 
 never called mischief a scrape ; but acting just as 
 my fancy took me, I left those who suffered by my 
 conduct to apologize for my ill-behaviour. Being 
 thus an idle, unprofitable, impudent, and injurious 
 member of this pure community, they determined 
 one day to cast me out from their bosom ; and in 
 spite of my mother's exertions and entreaties, the 
 ungrateful vipers succeeded in their purpose. As a 
 compliment to my parent, they allowed me to tender 
 my resignation, instead of receiving my expulsion. 
 My dear mother gave me a donkey, a wallet, and a 
 ducat, a great deal of advice about my future con- 
 duct, and, what was more interesting to me, much 
 information about my birth. 
 
 ' " Sweet child of my womb ! " said my mother, 
 pressing me to her bosom ; " be proud of thy white 
 hands and straight nose! Thou gottest them not 
 from me, and thou shalt take them from whence 
 they came. Thy father is a Hungarian Prince ; and 
 though I would not have parted with thee, had I 
 thought that thou wouldst ever have prospered in our 
 life even if he had made thee his child of the law, 
 and lord of his castle still, as thou canst not tarry 
 with us, haste thou to him ! Give him this ring and 
 this lock of hair ; tell him, none have seen them but 
 the father, the mother, and the child ! He will look
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VIII 
 
 on them, and remember the days that are passed ; 
 and thou shalt be unto him as a hope for his lusty 
 years, and a prop for his old age!" 
 
 ' My mother gave me all necessary directions, 
 which I well remembered ; and much more advice, 
 which I directly forgot. 
 
 ' Although tempted, now that I was a free-man, 
 to follow my own fancy, 1 still was too curious to see 
 what kind of a person was my unknown father, to 
 deviate either from my route, or my maternal in- 
 structions ; and in a fortnight's time, I had reached 
 my future Principality. 
 
 ' The Sun sunk behind the proud castle of my 
 princely father ; as, trotting slowly along upon my 
 humble beast, with my wallet slung at my side, I 
 approached it through his park. A guard, consist- 
 ing of twenty or thirty men in magnificent uniforms, 
 were lounging at the portal. I but your High- 
 ness, what is the meaning of this darkness? I al- 
 ways made a vow to myself, that I never would tell 
 my history Ah! murder! murder! what ails me?' 
 
 A large eagle fell dead at their feet. 
 
 'Protect me, master!' screamed Essper, seizing 
 Vivian by the shoulder, ' what is coming ! I cannot 
 stand the earth seems to tremble! Is it the wind 
 that roars and rages? or is it ten thousand cannon 
 blowing this globe to atoms?' 
 
 ' It is it must be the wind ! ' said Vivian, very 
 agitated. ' We are not safe under these trees : look 
 to the horses ! ' 
 
 ' I will, I will,' said Essper ; ' if I can stand. Out 
 out of the forest ! Ah, look at Max ! ' 
 
 Vivian turned, and beheld his spirited horse raised 
 on his hind legs, and dashing his fore feet against 
 the trunk of the tree to which they had tied him. 
 
 854
 
 CHAPTER V VIVIAN GREY 
 
 The terrified and furious creature was struggling to 
 disengage himself, and would probably have sus- 
 tained, or inflicted, some terrible injury, had not the 
 wind suddenly hushed. Covered with foam, he 
 stood panting, while Vivian patted and encouraged 
 him. Essper's less spirited beast, had, from the first, 
 crouched upon the earth, covered with sweat, his 
 limbs quivering, and his tongue hanging out. 
 
 4 Master,' said Essper ; ' what shall we do ? Is 
 there any chance of getting back to the Castle? I 
 am sure our very lives are in danger. See that tre- 
 mendous cloud! It looks like eternal night! 
 Whither shall we go what shall we do ?' 
 
 ' Make for the Castle the Castle!' said Vivian 
 mounting. 
 
 They had just got into the road, when another 
 terrific gust of wind nearly took them off their 
 horses ; and blinded them with the clouds of sand, 
 which it drove out of the crevices of the mountains. 
 
 They looked round on every side, and Hope gave 
 way before the scene of desolation. Immense bran- 
 ches were shivered from the largest trees ; small ones 
 were entirely stripped of their leaves ; the long grass 
 was bowed to the earth ; the waters were whirled in 
 eddies out of the little rivulets ; birds deserting their 
 nest to seek shelter in the crevices of the rocks, un- 
 able to stem the driving air, flapped their wings, and 
 fell upon the earth : the frightened animals in the 
 plain almost suffocated by the impetuosity of the 
 wind sought safety, and found destruction : some 
 of the largest trees were torn up by the roots ; the 
 sluices of the mountains were filled, and innumerable 
 torrents rushed down the before-empty gulleys. The 
 Heavens now open, and lightning and thunder con- 
 tend with the horrors of the wind ! 
 
 855
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VIII 
 
 In a moment all was again hushed. Dead silence 
 succeeded the bellow of the thunder the roar of 
 the wind the rush of the waters the moaning of 
 the beasts the screaming of the birds! Nothing 
 was heard, save the plash of the agitated lake, as it 
 beat up against the black rocks which girt it in. 
 
 ' Master ! ' again said Essper, ' Is this the day of 
 doom?' 
 
 ' Keep by my side, Essper ; keep close, make the 
 best of this pause : let us but reach the village ! ' 
 
 Scarcely had Vivian spoken, when greater dark- 
 ness enveloped the trembling Earth. Again the 
 heavens were rent with lightning, which nothing 
 could have quenched but the descending deluge. 
 Cataracts poured down from the lowering firmament. 
 In an instant the horses dashed round ; beast and 
 rider, blinded and stifled by the gushing rain, and 
 gasping for breath. Shelter was no where. The 
 quivering beasts reared, and snorted, and sunk upon 
 their knees. The horsemen were dismounted. 
 With wonderful presence of mind, Vivian succeeded 
 in hood-winking Max, who was still furious : the 
 other horse appeared nearly exhausted. Essper, 
 beside himself with terror, could only hang over its 
 neck. 
 
 Another awful calm. 
 
 ' Courage, courage, Essper ! ' said Vivian. * We 
 are still safe : look up, my man ! the storm cannot 
 last long thus, and see! I am sure the clouds are 
 breaking.' 
 
 The heavy mass of vapour which had seemed to 
 threaten the earth with instant destruction, suddenly 
 parted. The red and lurid Sun was visible, but his 
 light and heat were quenched in the still impending 
 waters. 
 
 856
 
 CHAPTER V VIVIAN GREY 
 
 ' Mount! mount! Essper!' said Vivian, * this is 
 our only chance ; five minutes good speed will take 
 us to the village.' 
 
 Encouraged by his master's example, Essper, once 
 more got upon his horse ; and the panting animals, 
 relieved by the cessation of the hurricane, carried 
 them at a fair pace towards the village, considering 
 that their road was now impeded by the overflowing 
 of the lake. 
 
 ' Master ! master ! ' said Essper, ' cannot we get 
 out of these waters?' 
 
 He had scarcely spoken, before a terrific burst a 
 noise, they knew not what a rush they could not 
 understand a vibration which shook them on their 
 horses made them start back, and again dismount. 
 Every terror sung before the appalling roar of the 
 cataract. It seemed that the mighty mountain, un- 
 able to support its weight of waters, shook to the 
 foundation. A lake had burst on its summit, and 
 the cataract became a falling Ocean. The source of 
 the great deep appeared to be discharging itself over 
 the range of mountains ; the great grey peak 
 tottered on its foundations! It shook! it fell! 
 and buried in its ruins, the Castle, the village, and 
 the bridge! 
 
 Vivian with starting eyes beheld the whole washed 
 away ; instinct gave him energy to throw himself 
 on the back of his horse, a breath and he had 
 leaped up the nearest hill! Essper George, in a 
 state of distraction, was madly laughing as he climbed 
 to the top of a high tree : his horse was carried off 
 in the drowning waters, which had now reached the 
 road. 
 
 ' The desolation is complete ! ' thought Vivian. 
 At this moment the wind again rose the rain again 
 
 857
 
 VIVIAN GREY BOOK VIII 
 
 descended the heavens again opened the light- 
 ning again flashed! -An amethystine flame hung 
 upon rocks and waters, and through the raging ele- 
 ments a yellow fork darted its fatal point at Essper's 
 resting place. The tree fell! Vivian's horse, with a 
 maddened snort, dashed down the hill-, his master, 
 senseless, clung to his neck ; the frantic animal was 
 past all government he stood upright in the air 
 flung his rider and fell dead! 
 
 Here leave we Vivian! It was my wish to have 
 detailed, in the present portion of this work, the 
 singular adventures which befel him in one of the 
 most delightful of modern cities light-hearted 
 Vienna! But his history has expanded under my 
 pen, and I fear that I have, even now, too much pre- 
 sumed upon an attention which, probably, I am not 
 entitled to command. I am, as yet, but standing 
 without the gate of the Garden of Romance. True 
 it is, that as I gaze through the ivory bars of its 
 Golden Portal, I would fain believe that, following 
 my roving fancy, I might arrive at some green re- 
 treats hitherto unexplored, and loiter among some 
 leafy bowers where none have lingered before me. 
 But these expectations may be as vain as those dreams 
 of our Youth, over which we have all mourned. 
 The Disappointment of Manhood succeeds to the 
 Delusion of Youth : let us hope that the heritage of 
 Old Age is not Despair. 
 
 Sweet reader ! I trust that neither you, nor myself, 
 have any cause to repent our brief connection. I 
 
 see we part good friends and so I press you 
 
 gently by the hand! 
 
 END.
 
 NOTE A 
 
 CHRONOLOGICAL 
 
 1804. Dec. 2 1 st. Benjamin d'Israeli born, probably at 6 King's 
 Road, Gray's Inn, now 22 Theobald's Road, to Isaac 
 d'Israeli, author, and Maria, sister of George Basevi, 
 architect. 
 
 Dec. 29th. Circumcised at synagogue in Bevis Marks by 
 D. A. Lindo. 
 
 1813-1817. At Mr. Potticary's school, Blackheath. 
 
 1817. July 3 1 st. Baptised at St. Andrew's, Holborn, by the 
 Rev. J. Thimblely, probably at the instigation of Samuel 
 Rogers. 
 
 1 8 1 7-1 820. At Dr. Cogan's School, Walthamstow. Poor scholar, 
 but popular, and a leader among the boys. Probably 
 expelled for being the ringleader in a barring-out. 
 
 1820. Wrote A True Story in Leigh Hunt's Indicator. 
 
 1821. Nov. roth. Apprenticed to William Stevens, of Frederick 
 Place (Swain, Stevens & Co., solicitors) as clerk. 
 
 1824. Entered at Lincoln's Inn (kept nine terms). 
 
 1825-1826. Wrote Lawyers and Legislators in The Representative, 
 The Modern Dunciad in The Star Chamber, a preface to an 
 edition of Paul Jones, and Aylmer Papillon (refused by 
 John Murray). 
 
 1826. APPEARANCE OF FIRST PART OF * VIVIAN GREY' (i.e. Books 
 I.-IV., pp. 1-253). Published by Henry Colburn. 
 
 May 24th. Criticism and key in The Star Chamber. 
 Went abroad with Mr. and Mrs. Austin. 
 
 1827. APPEARANCE OF SECOND PART OF VIVIAN GREY' (i.e. 
 Books V.-VIIL, pp. 254-858). 
 
 859
 
 NOTES 
 
 NOTE B 
 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL 
 
 British Museum 
 Press Mark. 
 
 I. Vivian Grey : 
 
 (1) First edition, London: Henry Colburn. N. 435. 
 
 1826-7. 
 
 With the second volume in the British N. 436 
 Museum copy is bound up a contemporary 
 criticism and key to the characters of the 
 Second Part, containing the extract from 
 The Star Chamber which criticized and 
 gave a key to the First Part. 
 
 (2) The advertisement to Messrs. Longmans' 
 
 modern reprints is dated 1853. Disraeli 
 there speaks of re-publishing Vivian Grey ; 
 neither the General Catalogue of the 
 British Museum nor the English Catalogue 
 show any reprint in that year. 
 
 (3) Reprint in 1862. London: George Rout- 
 
 ledge & Co. Not in British Museum's 
 General Catalogue. 
 
 (4) Collected edition of the Novels and Tales 12603 ddd. 
 
 by the Right Honourable Benjamin Dis- 
 raeli. London : Longmans, Green & Co. 
 1870-71. 
 
 This is the first edition now available 
 with the revised text. 
 
 (5) Novels and Tales by the Earl of Beaconsfield, 2350. c. 
 
 with portrait and sketch of his life. 
 
 (Hughenden edition) London: Long- 
 mans, Green & Co. 1881. 
 
 Revised text. 
 
 (6) Routledge's sixpenny edition of Disraeli's 12603. * H 
 
 novels. London : George Routledge & 
 Co. 1888. 
 
 Original text. Now out of print. 
 
 (7) Vivian Grey. London: Ward, Lock, & Co. 12603. n - 2 - 
 
 1888. Original text. Now out of print. 
 
 (8) Frequent cheap modern reprints by Messrs. 
 
 Longmans, with the revised text. 
 860
 
 NOTES 
 
 British Museum 
 Press Mark. 
 
 II. Tales and Sketches by the Right Honourable 012611. h. 
 
 Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield, 
 K.G. With a Prefatory Memoir by J. 
 Logic Robertson, M.A. London : William 
 Paterson & Co. 1891. 
 
 This gives his earliest works. 
 
 III. La Jeunesse de Lord Beaconsfieldt, by E. Val- 
 
 mont, and the early chapters of the bio- 
 graphies which will be mentioned in later 
 volumes of this series, supply studies of 
 Disraeli in his youth. 
 
 NOTE C 
 THE CHARACTERS 
 
 I. Books I. -IV., as given in The Star Chamber, May 24th, 1820. 
 The names filled in are taken from the MS. additions to the 
 British Museum copy. The notes are identifications not hitherto 
 appended to the text, though in some cases remarked by Disraeli's 
 biographers. The numbers on the right indicate the pages on 
 which the characters may be found : 
 
 Disguised Names. 
 
 (1) Marquess of Carabas P- 33 
 Mr. Foaming Fudge p. 92 
 Mr. Charlatan Gas p. 43 
 Colonel Delmington, pp. 68, 160 
 Lord Past Century p. 42 
 Mr. Liberal Principles p. 43 
 
 (2) Lord Alhambra, pp. 91, 97, etc. 
 Ernest Clay p. 185 
 The Duke of Waterloo p. 81 
 Prince Hungary p. 81 
 Mrs. Million pp. 89 fF. 
 Stapylton Toad p. 101 
 
 (3) Mr. Parthenopex Puff, pp. 81,212 
 Lord Prima Donna pp. 92, 184 
 Mr. Hargrave P- 39 
 
 Real Names. 
 
 Marquess of C(lanricarde) 
 
 Mr. B(rougha)m 
 
 Right Hon. G. C(annin)g 
 
 Colonel L m 
 
 EarlofE(ldo)n 
 Mr. H(uskisso)n 
 
 LordP 
 
 S r G , Esq. 
 
 Duke of W(ellington) 
 Prince E(sterhazy) 
 Mrs. C(outts) 
 J P , Esq. M.P. 
 
 Mr. S- 
 
 R- 
 
 Lord William L(ennox) 
 Mr. S , M.P 
 
 IVA.J.tJ.Jka.LgJ.clV'- J / 
 
 Marchioness of Almacks, p. TOO Marchioness of L(ondonderry) 
 
 (4) Liberal Snake pp. 109 fF. Mr. M'C h 
 
 Sir Christopher Mowbray, p. 1 10 Sir T- - W , Bart. 
 
 (5) Lady Doubtful pp. 119, 184 Lady B 
 
 86 1
 
 NOTES 
 
 Disguised Names. 
 
 (6) Prince Xtmnpqurtosklw, p. 119 
 Mrs. Felix Lorraine pp. 59 ff. 
 
 (7) Frederick Cleveland p. 134 
 Stanislaus Hoax 
 
 Real Names. 
 
 (8) 
 (9) 
 
 Prince G 1 f 
 
 Lady C(aroline) L(amb) 
 R. A , Esq. 
 
 Marquess of Grandgout 
 
 p. 183 
 p. 183 
 p. 187 
 
 p- 177 
 p. 190 
 p. 197 
 
 p. 2OO 
 p. 201 
 p. 2OI 
 p. 205 
 p. 2O8 
 p. 207 
 p. 210 
 p. 212 
 p. 219 
 p. 2I 9 
 
 T(heodore) H(ook), Esq. 
 Marquis of H(ertfor)d 
 Mr N 
 
 
 
 Mr. Justice P. 
 H. T(wiss), Esq. 
 
 T arlv R 
 
 Lidy C 
 
 Duke of N(orfolk) 
 
 T W C Fsa 
 
 T ord T 
 
 C F F-n 
 
 R W H Fsn 
 
 Lord D 
 
 Misses B. 
 
 Mr. Stucco 
 Captain Tropic 
 Lord Oceanville 
 
 (10) Mr. Justice St. Prose 
 Vivacity Dull 
 Lady Soprano 
 
 (n) Mrs. Delmont 
 
 Duke of Juggernaut 
 
 (12) Vivida Vis 
 
 (13) Lord Lowersdale 
 
 (14) Antilles 
 Colonial Bother'em 
 Lord Manfred 
 
 (15) The Misses Otranto 
 
 (1) Certainly not the Marquess of Clanricarde (cf. Intro., p. xxxi). 
 
 The Key probably meant the Marquess of Chandos, who was 
 a friend of Disraeli's and the leader of the landed Conserva- 
 tives in the Commons from 1818 to 1839. Disraeli meant, 
 if anyone, the father of this Marquess, in 1826 Duke of 
 Buckingham and Chandos. He had held several appoint- 
 ments twenty years before, and was now on the shelf. 
 
 (2) Lord Porchester. Born 1800. Eton and Christ Church, 
 
 Oxford. Traveller in Barbary, Portugal, and Spain. Pub- 
 lished in 1825 The Moor. 
 
 (3) William Stewart Rose. Cf. Intro., p. xxx. 
 
 (4) Mr. John Ramsay McCulloch (1789-1864), political economist. 
 
 In 1825 he had urged before a Select Committee on the 
 state of Ireland that absenteeism could not injure the country, 
 because the rent was usually sent to England by means of 
 Bills of Exchange (sic). 
 
 (5) Lady Blessington, with whom as yet Disraeli was not intimate. 
 
 (6) Prince Gortschakoff is intended by the Key. 
 
 (7) George Canning, who practically retired from an active 
 
 political life from 1809 till 1822 in consequence of a quarrel 
 with Castlereagh, may perhaps have beeji in Disraeli's mind 
 when he drew this character. 
 862
 
 NOTES 
 
 (8) Theodore Hook first attained celebrity in 1809 by the Berners 
 Street Hoax. 
 
 (9) John Nash (1752-1835), the architect. Designed Regent 
 Street, Haymarket Theatre, the terraces in Regent's Park, etc. 
 
 (10) Mr. Justice Park. 
 
 (n) Perhaps Lady Charleville, the famous hostess. 
 
 (12) John Wilson Croker (1750-1857), the Mr. Rigby of 
 Coningtby, politician and essayist. Edited in 1824 Horace 
 Walpole's Letters to the Marquis of Hertford ; contributed 260 
 articles to the Quarterly Review. 
 
 (13) Lord Lonsdale is probably meant. 
 
 (14) Charles Rose Ellis. Cf. Intro, p. xxxi. 
 
 (15) The Misses Berry, among whose numerous literary and political 
 friends was Horace Walpole, author of The Castle of Otranto. 
 
 There are several points of interest in regard to this list which 
 should be touched upon. Lady Caroline Lamb is the lady who 
 was inspired with a passion for Byron. Sir W. Eraser denies that 
 she is represented in Mrs. Felix Lorraine. Mrs. Coutts was the 
 famous and vulgar Sarah Mellon who married Coutts the banker. 
 The Marquis of Hertford is the same individual who was satirised 
 by Thackeray in Vanity Fair as Lord Steyne. But more import- 
 ant than what the key includes is the fact of its omissions. 
 The Greys themselves, father and son, (passim) ; the school- 
 masters, Flummery (p. 2), Dallas (p. 5), and Mallett (p. 12); the 
 guests at Mr. Grey's dinner (p. 35); many of the guests of the 
 Marquess of Carabas (pp. 68, etc.); Mrs. Million's suite (pp. 
 117 ff) ; Cayenne (p. 91), Metternich Scribe (p. 100), Boreall 
 (p. 96), Mr. Leverton (p. 101), Mr. Mackaw (p. 177), Premium 
 (p. 1 86 ff), and a dozen others are just as likely or as unlikely 
 to have possessed originals as those mentioned above. 
 
 II. To Books V.-VIII. as given in the contemporary criticism 
 and key, dated 1827, and bound up with the first edition in 
 the British Museum copy. 
 
 Disguised Names. Real Names. 
 
 (1) Vivian Grey. The Author. 
 
 (2) Lady Madeleine Trevor, pp. Lady C. C 11 
 
 308 ff 
 
 Violet Fane, pp. 309 ff. Hon. Miss F . 
 
 Marquis de la Tabatiere, Lord P m. 
 
 P- 3H- 
 
 (3) Russian Archduke, pp. 3 1 6 ff. Prince Es h y. 
 
 (4) Mr. Sherborne, pp. 334 ff. Mr. d'l i, Sen. 
 
 863
 
 NOTES 
 
 Disguised Names. Real Names. 
 
 Baron von Konigstein, pp. Lord , l 
 
 266 ff, 378 ff. 
 
 Chevalier de Boeuffleurs, M. B a. 
 
 pp. 267 ft". 
 
 Prince Salvinski, pp. 267 ff. Sir R. K. P. 
 
 (5) Mr. Fitzloom, pp. 333, 349, Sir R. P 1. 
 
 4 2 3- 
 
 Mr. St. Leger, p. 428. Mr D x, late of C.C., 
 
 Mr. St. John, p. 428. 
 
 Oxford. 
 Sir E. Z- 
 
 -y, of ditto. 
 
 (6) Prince of Little Lilliput, Prince of S - C - g. 
 
 pp. 516 ff. 
 
 (7) Grand Duke or Reisenburg, Grand Duke of Saxe- Weimar. 
 
 PP- 533 ff- 
 
 (8) Beckendorft" pp. 533 ff, Metternich 
 
 566 ff. 
 
 11 
 
 (9) Madame Carolina, pp. 545, Lady H 
 
 648, 655 ff. 
 
 (10) The Baroness, pp. 723 ft". 
 
 d. 
 
 Mr. Sievers, p. 560, etc. 
 (n) Principal writer in Attack- Mr. R. S 
 
 all Review, p. 663. 
 (12) Professor Sky Rocket, p. Col. T 
 
 Her late R.H. the Princess of 
 
 A a. 
 
 The late Mr. G d. 
 
 7- 
 
 (13) Julius von Aslingen, p. 654. Brummell. 
 Philr. of the Villa Plini- Sir W. G- 
 
 ana, p. 658. 
 
 (14) Attackall Review, p. 663. 
 
 (15) Praiseall Review, p. 663. 
 
 (16) Dr. Spittergen, pp. 669 ff, A 
 
 689 ff. 
 Melinda, pp. 677 ff. 
 
 Quarterfy Review. 
 Edinburgh Review. 
 n thy. 
 
 Miss D n, daugher of the 
 
 late celebrated Dr. D n. 
 
 (17) Count von Sohnspeer, p. Duke of W n. 
 
 641. 
 
 (18) Von Chronicle, p. 665. M. de Sismondi, author of 
 
 Julia Severa. 
 
 1 Our fashionable readers will have no difficulty in supplying this blank, 
 though we may not print even the initials. Should they require any clue, 
 we beg to call their recollection to a late disgraceful gambling transaction 
 recently exposed in the newspapers. 
 
 864
 
 NOTES 
 
 Disguised Names. Real Names. 
 
 Count Eberstein, p. 725. Hon. Capt. K. 
 
 (19) Lord Amelias Fitzfudge Lord B g h. 
 
 Boroughby, p. 274. 
 
 (20) Col. von Trumpetson, p. M s of L d y. 
 
 312. 
 
 Mr. St. George, pp. 382, Mr. A . 
 
 etc. 
 
 Little Lintz, pp. 705, ft". Mr. B tt n. 
 
 Speigelburg, pp. 704 ff. Lieut. W r. 
 
 (21) Brinkel, pp. 276 ff. Mr. S r. 
 
 (1) Cf. Intro., p. xix. 
 
 (2) Might either be Lady Caroline Churchill or Lady Charlotte 
 
 Campbell. 
 
 (3) Prince Esterhazy. 
 
 (4) Isaac d'Israeli. 
 
 (5) Certainly not Sir Robert Peel, as the key implies. 
 
 (6) Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, afterwards King Leopold of 
 
 Belgium. 
 (~) Karl August, Duke of Saxe-Weimar, who made Weimar the 
 
 centre of the intellectual and artistic life of Germany. 
 (8) Metternich, the Austrian diplomatist, is clearly indicated, 
 
 and his bringing of Marie-Louise of Austria to Paris to 
 
 marry Napoleon. He visited England after the Peace of 
 
 Paris. 
 (9) Cf. Intro., pp. xxxi., xxxii. 
 
 (10) Probably Marie-Louise, Crown Princess of Austria and wife 
 of Napoleon, is meant by the key. 
 
 (11) Robert Southey, the poet-laureate, who contributed 93 
 articles to the Quarterly. 
 
 (12) Colonel Torrens, M.P., the political economist, who wrote 
 Essays on External Corn Trade and the Production of Wealth. 
 
 (13) The key means George Bryan, better known as "Beau," 
 Brummell. Disraeli may possibly have thought of him, but 
 he had left England in 1818 and was at this time living at 
 Calais. The caricature may be one of Count d'Orsay, or 
 of any of the dandies of the day. 
 
 (14) The Quarterly Review was started in 1809 by John Murray, 
 with Gifford as editor. Scott, Southey, Ellis, Heber, Borrow, 
 Croker, and Captain Head were among its contributors. 
 Its politics were Tory cf. Byron's "Elegy on Keats" in 
 1821 : 
 
 31 865
 
 NOTES 
 
 " Who killed John Keats ? 
 
 ' I,' says the Quarterly." etc. 
 
 (15) How far this name is applicable to the Edinburgh Review 
 is doubtful. Byron's English Bards and Scotch Reviewers 
 would seem to tell another tale. The Review was started 
 by Constable in 1802 with Sydney Smith, succeeded by 
 Jeffrey, as editors. Horner and Brougham were among its 
 contributors. Its politics were Whig. 
 
 (16) The famous Abernethy, anatomist, lecturer, and inventor of 
 a cure for aneurism. He wrote an essay on The Constitutional 
 Origin of Local Diseases. By this time he was over sixty years 
 of age and irritable, but the defects of his manners and his 
 references to his own works were pardoned by dyspeptic 
 society. 
 
 (17) The key means the Duke of Wellington, which is absurd. 
 
 (18) M. de Sismondi, the historian and friend of Madame de 
 Stael ; the discription, however, of Von Chronicle does not 
 apply very nearly to him. 
 
 (19) Said to be Lord Burghersh. 
 
 (20) The Marquis of Londonderry, a distinguished general and 
 diplomat. 
 
 (21) Most probably Brinkel is intended for a caricature, malicious 
 enough, of W. Seguier, the first keeper of the National 
 Gallery. 
 
 This key is of less value than the other. The second part 
 of Vivian Grey having been written abroad, Disraeli may have 
 been caricaturing anyone he happened to meet in his travels. 
 The key, being incorrect in several particulars, is hardly worth 
 verifying minutely. 
 
 NOTE D. 
 
 THE TEXT. 
 
 In 1853 Disraeli seems to have revised carefully the text of 
 Vivian Grey. This revision extends to words and phrases ; a 
 comparison of the text here used with that of Messrs. Longman's 
 current edition will reveal these. The more important omis- 
 sions in the later edition are as follows : 
 
 (l) The Dedication (cf. Intro, p. xix.) and the names of the 
 chapters. 
 
 866
 
 NOTES 
 
 (2) pp. IQ-II. ' In the necessity . . . in their sentiments.' 
 
 (3) PP- 23-24- Book I., Chap. VII. 
 
 (4) pp. 64-66. Book II., Chap. VII. 
 
 (5) pp. 81-84. The episode of Daniel Groves. 
 
 (6) p. 101. Word resumer and note. 
 
 (7) pp. 127-133. The drunkenness of the Marquess of Carabas. 
 
 N.. In the later edition the following takes the place of the 
 Marquess' speech, p. 128, ' their adoption. . . . Mr. Vivian Grey 
 is younger,' etc. : ' The present state of parties,' the Marquess 
 continued, ' has doubtless for a long time engaged your attention. 
 It is very peculiar, and although the result has been gradually 
 arrived at, it is, nevertheless, now that it is realised, startling, and 
 not, I apprehend, very satisfactory. There are few distinctions 
 now between the two sides of the House of Commons, very 
 different from the times in which most, I believe all, of us, my 
 Lords and Gentlemen, were members of that assembly. The 
 question then naturally arises, why a certain body of individuals, 
 who now represent no opinions, should arrogate to themselves 
 the entire government and control of the country ? A second 
 question would occur, how they contrive to succeed in such an 
 assumption ? They succeed clearly because the party who placed 
 them in power, because they represented certain opinions, still 
 continue to them their support. Some of the most influential 
 members of that party, I am bold to say, may be found in this 
 room. I don't know, if the boroughs of Lord Courtown and 
 Lord Beaconsfield were withdrawn at a critical division, what 
 might be the result. I am quite sure that if the forty country 
 gentlemen who follow, I believe I am justified in saying, our 
 friend Sir Berdmore, and wisely follow him, were to declare their 
 opposition to any particular tax, the present men would be beaten, 
 as they have been beaten before. I was myself a member of the 
 government when so beaten, and I know what Lord Liverpool 
 said the next morning, " Forty country gentlemen, if they choose, 
 might repeal every tax in the Budget." Under these circum- 
 stances, my Lords and Gentlemen, it becomes us, in my opinion, 
 to consider our situation. I am far from wishing to witness any 
 general change, or, indeed, very wide reconstruction of the pre- 
 sent administration. I think the interests of the country require 
 that the general tenor of their system should be supported ; but 
 there are members of that administration whose claims to that 
 distinction appear to me more than questionable, while at the 
 
 867
 
 NOTES 
 
 same time there are individuals excluded, personages of great 
 influence and recognised talents, who ought no longer, in my 
 opinion, to occupy a position in the background.' 
 
 (8) p. 174. 'or a lecture on omelette soufflees . . . now for a 
 
 libel.' 
 
 (9) pp. 184-185. 'I made him promise. . . . Pretty idea is 
 
 it not ?' 
 
 (10) pp. 190-192. Daniel Grove's letter. 
 
 (11) pp. 193-194. 'you wished me . . . beyond seas at least.' 
 
 (12) pp. 215-216. 'Sharon Turner . . . continued it in conse- 
 quence.' 
 
 (13) pp. 222-227. 'I have no enemies' . . . end of chapter. 
 
 (14) p. 253. Concluding paragraph. 
 
 (15) pp. 256-258. 'of one, whose early vices. . . . But to 
 our tale.' 
 
 (16) pp. 261-262. 'To deem all things . . . past with dread.' 
 
 (17) pp. 269-272. 'I think it was ... as his Excellency.' 
 
 (18) pp. 275-285. 'Mr. Brinkel . . . understood his subject.' 
 
 (19) pp. 333 ff. All references to Mr. Sherborne. 
 
 (20) pp. 371-374. ' When Vivian awoke . . . courage to finish.' 
 
 (21) pp. 624-625. 'The Emperor . . . pounded tobacco.' 
 
 (22) pp. 627-631. 'A man is never . . . present chapter.' 
 
 (23) pp. 643-647. ' We have hardly time . . . triumph of Art.' 
 
 (24) p. 659. 'Let us sit down . . . evening winds.' 
 
 (25) pp. 660-662. ' I could point you out . . . illustrious son.' 
 
 (26) pp. 664-665. 'The Editor of ... hobgoblin taste.' 
 
 (27) pp. 669-672. 'On the morning . . . good morning !' 
 
 (28) pp. 676-721. Chapters V., VI., VII. Being the episode 
 and description of the Spittergens, Speigelburg, Little 
 Lintz, etc. 
 
 (29) pp. 738-739. 'Mr. BeckendorfF had been . . . that Mr. 
 Beckendorff.' 
 
 (30) pp. 820-830. 'As he was informed . . . innkeeper's wife.' 
 
 (31) pp. 842-843. 'I will take you over it ... gains on him 
 hourly.' 
 
 (32) p. 858. Last paragraph. 
 
 868
 
 NOTES 
 NOTE E. 
 
 p. 13. Ben Burn was a noted pugilist, who, at this date, in the 
 
 days of his retirement, was landlord of the Rising Sun in Air 
 
 Street, a great resort of the patrons of ' the Fancy.' 
 p. 72. Samuel Rogers the poet was not famous for his personal 
 
 beauty. 
 
 Dominique Vivant Baron de Denon was a famous artist and 
 
 author up to 1825. He was a friend both of Louis XV. 
 
 and of Louis XVI. 
 p. 73. Colonel Denham and Captain C/apperton were appointed by 
 
 the Government to explore North Africa. Clapperton alone 
 
 reached Sackatu or Sokoto (cf. The Sockatoos, pp. 35, 36). 
 
 See the Narratives of Travels and Discoveries in Northern and 
 
 Central Africa in the years 1822-24. 
 p 75. Tremaine. There is an anonymous novel of that name 
 
 and of about that date, but it is extremely dull, and would 
 
 hardly, save in the early seventeenth century, have created 
 
 much sensation. It contains some very heavy theological 
 
 discussions carried on in a French chateau; and on p. 181 
 
 of Vivian Grey, is referred to again as including ' a warm 
 
 scene in a chateau in the South of France.' 
 p. 183. John Bull was a Tory paper started by Theodore Hook 
 
 in 1825. Its chief aim was to vilify Queen Caroline. 
 p. 208. The Catholic Association had been suppressed in 1825. 
 
 The Whigs consistently supported Catholic emancipation, 
 
 and as yet Peel was opposed to them. Later on he was 
 
 convinced of the justice of the claims of O'Connell and his 
 
 friends, 
 p. 209. The Baviad (1794) was a satire on the inept scribblers 
 
 known as the Delia Cruscans. 
 
 The Mceviad (1796) was a satire on the corrupters of the 
 
 drama. 
 
 The Anti-Jacobin (1797-8) was a Tory Journal. Gifford 
 
 was editor of The Quarterly from 1809 to 1824. 
 
 Hunt, probably Leigh Hunt is meant. His paper, the 
 
 Liberal, had just died. 
 
 William Hone was a versatile but not particularly brilliant 
 
 writer. He had started the Traveller and the Reformist 
 
 Register, which were unsuccessful, 
 p. 210. West India Question, i.e. the question of the settleme 
 
 of the planters' claims consequent on the abolition of slavery, 
 
 and the settlement of the freed slaves. 
 869
 
 NOTES 
 
 p. 215. Sharon Turner had at this time written a History of the 
 Anglo-Saxons, and a History of England from the 'Norman Conquest 
 to the Death of Elizabeth. 
 
 John Lingard was at this time writing and publishing 
 volume by volume a History of England to 1688. It was 
 attacked in the Edinburgh Review. 
 
 p. 216. Byron died in 1824. 
 
 p. 217. Bolivar, the Venezuelan patriot, who won the indepen- 
 dence of his country from the Spaniards. He had visited 
 London in 1810. In 1825 he had aided the Bolivians to 
 establish their government, and had quelled an insurrection 
 in Venezuela. 
 
 p. 218. Dean Milman wrote Ann Boleyn in 1826. 
 
 John Gibson Lockhart, the biographer of Scott, was editor of 
 The Quarterly from 1826 to 1853. 
 
 p. 277. The National Gallery was founded in 1824 with thirty- 
 eight pictures, the Angerstein collection, purchased for 
 57,000. Mr. Seguier was the first director, and settled 
 the arrangement of the pictures. 
 
 p. 424. England, France, and Russia formed the Treaty of 
 London in 1827 for the pacification of Greece, which of 
 course brought all into difficult relations with Turkey. 
 
 Infant Liberty refers to the new South American States, 
 whose independence was being established by Bolivar, and 
 gradually being recognised by the Powers. 
 
 p. 455. Similar legends of The Wild Huntsman are to be met 
 with in many parts of Germany. They arise from the 
 sound of the wind roaring in the pine forests. 
 
 p. 516. A Mediatised Prince. The meaning of this expression is 
 sufficiently explained in the text. This merging of the 
 small States was a part of Napoleon's German policy in 1802, 
 and of Stein's policy in 1814. 
 
 p. 520. Probably intended for description of the inter-relations 
 of the Saxon Duchies of Coburg, Gotha, Altenburg, Weimar, 
 etc. But the details do not correspond precisely. 
 
 p. 529. Frederic Scklegel, the critic and author, was the brother 
 of August Welhelm von Schlegel the poet. He and his 
 brother were leaders of the Romantic movement in Germany. 
 He was employed at this time in the public service of Austria. 
 
 pp. 53ofF. The Old Margrave and the Grand Duke are types of 
 Disraeli's old and new aristocracy. The Grand Duke of 
 Reisenburg is the Grand Duke of Weimar. The des- 
 cription, however, as nearly agrees with the relative charac- 
 870
 
 NOTES 
 
 ters of Frederick Augustus II. and Frederick Augustus III. 
 of Saxony. 
 
 p. 536. The Congress of Vienna in 1814 is that referred to. The 
 picture of Metternich, the Austrian diplomatist, is confused 
 by making Beckendorff sit by Metternich, and act with 
 Austria at the Congress. 
 
 p. 537. The Premier of the neighbouring state is probably 
 Canning, whose birth and whose Cabinet in 1827 answer in 
 most respects to this description. 
 
 p. 542. The Court of Karl August, Grand Duke of Weimar, was 
 frequented by, amongst others, Goethe, Schiller, Herder, and 
 Wieland. 
 
 p. 627. The new town of Reisenburg is undoubtedly intended to 
 represent Munich. 
 
 p. 649. Mr Nichols was an antiquarian who wrote in the Gentle- 
 man's Magazine, and died in 1826. 
 
 p. 657. Greece ; cf. note to p. 424. 
 
 p. 665. Hobgoblin taste refers to what is commonly called the 
 Gothic Romance, of which Horace Walpole was the most 
 famous exponent in England. ' Monk ' Lewis was a writer 
 of the same school. 
 
 p. 749. The Opera-House is probably intended for the Weimar 
 theatre, rebuilt in 1825. It was at this theatre that Liszt 
 produced Wagner's Lohengrin in 1848. 
 
 p. 759. With the passage concerning the horsemanship of Eber- 
 stein should be compared the following passage from Sidney's 
 Arcadia, Book II., in the description of the riding of Dorus : 
 ' But he, as if, centaur-like, he had been one piece with the 
 horse, was no more moved than one with the going of his 
 own legs, and in effect so did he command him as his own 
 limbs ; for though he had both spurs and wand, they seemed 
 rather marks of sovereignty than instruments of punishment ; 
 his hand and leg, with most pleasing grace, commanding 
 without threatening, and rather remembering than chastising ; 
 at least, if sometimes he did, it was so stolen as neither our 
 eyes could discern it nor the horse with any change did 
 complain of it, he ever going so just with the horse, either 
 forthright or turning, that it seemed, as he borrowed the 
 horse's body, so he lent the horse his mind.' 
 
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