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 D
 
 EVELYN; 
 
 OR, 
 
 A JOURNEY 
 
 FROM 
 
 STOCKHOLM TO ROME 
 
 IN 1847-48. 
 BY MISS BUNBUPtY. 
 
 Time, as it courses onward, still unrols the volume of concealment. 
 
 Coleridge. 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES. 
 VOL. I. 
 
 LONDON: 
 RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET, 
 
 1849.
 
 Printed by J. & H. COX (Beotueks), 74 & "5, Great Queen Street, 
 Lincoln's-Inn Fields.
 
 ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 The events of one year — a year the most 
 singular, perhaps, which the history of 
 modern Europe has to record — appear 
 to throw into the distance of time those 
 which, even immediately, preceded it. Such 
 a sentiment will probably be felt by the 
 reader of these Volumes. The style is that 
 of a record of passing occurrences ; the light 
 character of a work designed more for 
 amusement than instruction was best pre- 
 served by maintaining that style. It should, 
 however, be remembered that the time 
 spoken of as present, has actually passed 
 away. But while one year has produced a 
 change so universal as to render a book of 
 travels previous to 1848 a work of anti- 
 quitt/, to the author's own mind it is not 
 uninteresting to find that the opinions or 
 remarks expressed in these Volumes, as 
 
 2203325
 
 IV ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 having been made during a journey through 
 countries so soon to be convulsed by revolu- 
 tion, were mostly true guesses at events 
 the7i future, but now historical. Other sen- 
 timents, which, at the time, the writer never 
 had heard otherwise mentioned, have now 
 become more general. Eighteen hundred 
 and forty-eight left us in peace at home ; 
 yet its influence has been shed over England 
 also, and is becoming more and more visible 
 in the development of opinion. 
 
 The friends who read this narrative of 
 the events of a journey from Stockholm to 
 Rome, will know that it was made at a time 
 when the elements of revolution were every- 
 where at work, or ready for explosion. They 
 will know, also, that, while it ended with 
 the author's arrival in England almost si- 
 multaneously with the King of the French, 
 its complete record on paper could not be 
 commenced until tidings reached us of the 
 Pope's flight to Gaeta. 
 
 May 9, 1849.
 
 EVELYN. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Stockholm. 
 It was in the Djurgard, on one of those fes- 
 tive occasions in which the good people of 
 Stockholm delight, that I first saw Evelyn. 
 
 There was a royal supper in honour of his 
 present majesty of Denmark, at the pretty 
 villa of Rosendal, or the Vale of Roses, built 
 by the late king, Bernadotte, in that charm- 
 ing deer-park, or djurgard, wherein, however, 
 there are no deer. 
 
 All the world poured forth thither from 
 the capital of Sweden; the shops were closed 
 — the streets deserted. My good friend Fru 
 P. was as much alive as any of the com- 
 munity, and quite as anxious to go forth 
 with due loyalty to see King Oscar eat his 
 supper ; so she took me with her in a pretty 
 boat with a square green and white awning, 
 
 VOL. I. B
 
 2 EVELYN. 
 
 paddled by the stout Dahlkuller, across the 
 lovely Millar, to behold a scene which, in 
 some respects, was certainly unlike any fes- 
 tive scene I had ever witnessed. 
 
 Independently of the human creatures who 
 have rendered that evening to me one of 
 almost romantic interest, the season and the 
 scenes were too singularly beautiful and 
 novel to be easily effaced, even from an over- 
 loaded memory. 
 
 In summer there is no night here : the 
 invisible sun has left its light when its beams 
 are withdrawn ; but when we set out for the 
 Djurgard, those gorgeous beams were not 
 extinguished ; and Stockholm, the bright 
 Venice of the north, viewed from the western 
 side, flashing in reflected light from the 
 radiancy of a sinking sun, appears to a daz- 
 zled stranger like some enchanted city of 
 palaces, rising from the waters, and illumined 
 by the many-coloured northern lights. 
 
 The windows of the glitteringly white 
 houses, six and eight stories high, being 
 double, have the outer sash level with the 
 walls, a circumstance which adds consider- 
 ably to the effect ; when, mingled with the 
 curious variety of colouring in the pale blue
 
 EVELYN. 
 
 and yellow wooden buildings, houses, steeples, 
 palaces, and churches throw back on the 
 spectator the gorgeous tints of a richly 
 setting sun. 
 
 It was at such a moment that Stockholm 
 presented to me an appearance of indescrib- 
 able beauty and grandeur. The romantic 
 aspect of the surrounding rocky and woody 
 scenery gives it a charm, which the queen, 
 or rather the mournful widow, of the Adri- 
 atic, lacks. Rapidly-rolling streams of fresh 
 and salt water intersect the town, and throw 
 up here and there broken waves, and light 
 thin clouds of spray, which, catching the pris- 
 matic rays of evening, add their rainbow 
 hues to the dazzling effect of the many- 
 windowed and sparkling houses, and give to 
 the whole scene, rising thus from the wooded 
 lake at one side, and the ocean at the other, 
 an aspect that to the eye of fancy is magical. 
 On this occasion the Dalecarlian giant- 
 esses were in their holiday attire. These 
 industrious creatures, the Dahlkuller, or 
 peasant women of Dalecarlia, as we name the 
 province of Dalarne, gleaned some crumbs 
 from his majesty's supper, in the shape of 
 copper skillings. It would be a species of 
 b2
 
 4 EVELYN. 
 
 heresy to prefer their boats to the time and 
 romance-honoured gondolas of Venice ; I 
 must not therefore say whether they are 
 cleaner or prettier, — let Venice keep, if she 
 can, her gondolas, and Stockholm her paddle- 
 boats. The holiday garb of the Dalecarlian 
 boatwomen consists of a jacket, or boddice, 
 of red leather, with shoulder-straps, but no 
 sleeves, open in front, and laced across, at a 
 pretty wide interval, with a silvery-looking 
 cord, having islet-holes and clasps of the 
 same bright metal, and underneath a sto- 
 macher adorned with fringes. The under 
 garment is of coarse, but white, linen, with 
 long and very wide sleeves ; a thick petticoat, 
 fully plaited, reaches a little, a very little, 
 below the knee, economizing in length what 
 it expends in breadth ; a many-bordered 
 apron is curiously worked into it — a still 
 further saving of material. Their awfully 
 stout legs are cased in scarlet worsted stock- 
 ings, and shoes " of a most exquisite fashion," 
 as the dainty Amy Robsart would have said, — 
 the thick wooden sole being, for about half 
 its length, raised some inches higher than 
 the remaining portion, and these "high heels" 
 certainly add a good deal to their reputed
 
 EVELYN. 5 
 
 Stature. The head-dress is a sort of skull- 
 cap, of scarlet, or white, generally knitted, 
 and without a border, though adorned also 
 with the favourite fringes ; and this being 
 worn far back on the head over their thick 
 hair, might have a pretty bo7inet d" enfant 
 effect, when worn by a young girl — if indeed 
 a Dahlkulla is ever young ; I only saw one 
 who looked so, and she reminded me of a 
 picture of the ogre's daughter who lived in 
 the days of Jack the giant-killer. Some 
 people say the Dahlkuller are handsome ; 
 some, they are hideous. I certainly do be- 
 lieve that they have the worst noses and 
 the best teeth and hearts in the world. 
 
 Do not let any one suppose that the cos- 
 tume I have described is to be seen every 
 day in the week ; or that I want to represent 
 the boatwomen of Malaren as a French ar- 
 tist paints the weather-browned wood-car- 
 riers of the Pyrenees. I only describe what 
 I saw on a festive occasion. In winter, for 
 example, you may see a sheep-skin, worn in 
 the reverse manner from that in which a 
 sheep wears it, — forming their sweetly simple 
 and patriarchal attire ; not that I mean to 
 infer, as some one at my elbow hints, that
 
 6 EVELYN. 
 
 the petticoat, &e. do not maintain their 
 places. 
 
 Such were our picturesque boatwomen, 
 not rowers, for the tiny barks are impelled 
 by paddles, turned by hands instead of by 
 steam ; and this manual exercise being al- 
 ternately exerted by the two women em- 
 ployed, gave a pretty dancing appearance 
 over the lake, which was covered with these 
 water-carriages of Stockholm. 
 
 Backwards and forwards flitted the gay 
 little boats ; the Dalecarlians had not long" 
 to sit knitting or sewing, until each was laden 
 again with the loyal citizens of his Swedish 
 majesty; then the little tinkling bell sounded, 
 and they were off, paddling their cargoes 
 backwards and forwards to Djurgarden, while 
 the road that led more circuitously and less 
 agreeably to the same centre of attraction, 
 was literally thronged with droskies, carioles, 
 handsome carriages, walkers, riders, people 
 of all ages, classes, and conditions, moving 
 in any way they could, to and from the 
 royal villa of the Valley of Roses, or Ro- 
 sendal, but with more gravity, quietness, an4 
 decorum, than is sometimes seen at a funeral.
 
 EVELYN. 7 
 
 As we were slowly proceeding in the same 
 direction, two carriages, with four horses 
 each, dashed past us; the king raised his 
 white plumed hat far from his head, the 
 queen graciously bowed ; and as I felt it 
 was very pleasant to get such a fine bow 
 from the king of Sweden, I could not help 
 recollecting the tone of regret in which an 
 old, impoverished, miserable officer of " the 
 empire" used to say to me, long ago — " Ah ! 
 if I had never flogged Bernadotte, when he 
 served in my corps !" 
 
 The Djurgard is a charming spot. The 
 splendid oaks, the undulating grounds, the 
 grand masses of rock overlooking such lovely 
 views ; the cafes I could dispense with, 
 though they were now very gay, and most of 
 them bristling with military; but all the 
 rest made me sigh for such a retreat for our 
 toil-doomed citizens of London. The king, 
 for the benefit of his present ally, the ci- 
 devant arch-enemy of Sweden, Denmark, had 
 held a splendid review on the Ladugards- 
 gard, where, I suppose I should, in traveller- 
 phrase, inform the world, " may be seen as 
 fine a body of men" (judging from the half-
 
 8 EVELYN. 
 
 dozen officers I have known), " as any in 
 Europe/' There were a good many of them 
 still about Blaiie Pforten. 
 
 But we went on to Rosendal, and in the 
 space before that royal villa we found a 
 dense mass of living creatures, motionless 
 as the "Blue-Posts" itself; their heads were 
 about as close together, and as evenly placed 
 for walking over, as the huge paving-stones 
 of their streets. Not a word was heard, 
 scarcely the slightest movement seen ; and, 
 almost as moveless, before their eyes ap- 
 peared the whole royal family of Sweden ; 
 the queen, the princess, the queen dowager, 
 &c., attired in simple mourning costume, 
 with shawls and lemon-coloured bonnets, 
 quite a la JFranfaise, were seated in a row 
 in the balcony, and behind them, in the 
 open window, stood Oscar I., the crown 
 prince, the younger princes, and his present 
 majesty of Denmark. 
 
 A splendid military band, stationed at a 
 little distance, was all that disturbed the 
 silence, though not the harmony of the 
 scene ; the music was worthy of the land 
 of Lind, and certainly the military we saw
 
 EVELYN. 9 
 
 were worthy of the soldier-king who was no 
 more. 
 
 For the space of two hours the silent 
 crowds enjoyed the privilege of gazing on 
 that balcony ; and almost beneath the royal 
 eyes a poor woman was crouching on the 
 grass over her basket of cakes (there was 
 no policeman there to seize her gently by 
 the shoulder), and apparently bargaining 
 with an old man, who, holding one of them 
 in his hand, turned it over and over, and 
 then, in answer to the up-turned eyes, drop- 
 ped it into the basket again. 
 
 The motto on Bernadotte's coin is, " The 
 love of my people is my reward." Is that 
 love ever obtained when kings are a pageant 
 and a wonder, and close their eyes and their 
 senses from the sight of their people's poverty 
 and lowliness ? Behind a small grove, not 
 more than thirty yards from the royal win- 
 dows, through which the brilliant supper- 
 table was seen ready prepared, a booth was 
 erected, which offered all sorts of familiar 
 compounds for sale, for the refreshment of 
 the loyal subjects of good King Oscar, under 
 the fatigues of their long gaze. 
 b3
 
 10 EVELYN. 
 
 " There is no truth at all in mesmerism," 
 whispered Fru P., laughing, " or their ma- 
 jesties would have been asleep long ago, with 
 all these eyes fastened on them." 
 
 But their majesties were not asleep ; for 
 the queen — and every movement of the 
 grand-daughter of Josephine must be grace 
 — swayed at times slightly on her seat as 
 she said a word to the portly dowager, or 
 to the slender young princess, or turned 
 back her head to her royal husband, or his 
 guest, who bent and smiled, and then all 
 was moveless again, among the crowd below, 
 and in the balcony above ; until, perhaps, 
 a chamberlain appeared in his elegant dress, 
 a long-skirted dress coat, of dark blue, trim- 
 med with rich gold lace, the rest of his 
 attire pure white, delivered or received a 
 message, and disappeared again. 
 
 And still the people stood silent, and 
 gazed ; no head was uncovered, no accla- 
 mations raised, scarcely a whisper seen to 
 pass, and no word heard. The voice of 
 Fru P. caused some wandering looks to be 
 directed to us, as if asking — who is so rude 
 as to talk in public, and to laugh too ? 
 
 So, as we did not intend to join in the
 
 EVELYN. 11 
 
 mesmerizing of royalty, we went off, passed 
 round into the gardens, and saw the splendid 
 porphyry vase, the finest in the world, they 
 say, large enough for a bath for Odin, but 
 too beautiful for such a purpose, and made 
 at the manufactory of Elfsdal, in the re- 
 nowned province of Dalecarlia. Then we 
 moved on, away into the distance, escaping 
 from crowds, but not from noise, for, with 
 the most perfect unrestraint, the solemnity 
 and decorum of a religious ceremonial ap- 
 peared to be observed by all sorts and con- 
 ditions of people ; and we wandered away 
 through Djurgarden, and got among great 
 oak trees and rocks — such fine old trees, 
 such great brown rocks — and there, sitting 
 alone, in a spot where no one would think 
 of finding her, where no one but ourselves, 
 I believe, would have thought of straying 
 to — did Fru P., in that utter solitude, dis- 
 cover Evelyn. 
 
 She had wandered out there from the gar- 
 dens of Rosendal, and had nothing on her 
 head but the white handkerchief laid over it, 
 which is not an uncommon fashion Avith the 
 maidens of Sweden when in the country. 
 
 A gleam of most radiant hair, catching
 
 12 EVELYN. 
 
 through the foliage the declining sunbeams, 
 appeared to shed a brightness " on the shady 
 place." That hair, which always struck me 
 as the most remarkable part of her appear- 
 ance, concealed her face, while she sat lean- 
 ing forward, and looking like the musing 
 spirit of the legend-haunted scenes in which 
 we were ; — a fair water-spirit, pining for the 
 forbidden mortal love which alone could give 
 it " a soul." 
 
 When she raised her face, at our approach, 
 I beheld one which ever after left a sweet, 
 yet 
 
 " Troubled memory on my breast." 
 
 Why should I wish to describe it ? I only 
 know one way of giving an idea of it — 
 Guide's Beatrice Cenci — at least the picture 
 so called : copies of it in all styles are plenty 
 enough in England ; but whoever has seen 
 the original in the Barbarini Palace can guess 
 what I mean — the white handkerchief that 
 lay on her head, as she half turned it round 
 at the sound of our steps, was perhaps what 
 first gave me the idea of this likeness ; but 
 there was the same innocent, frightened 
 regard ; the same supplicating and depre- 
 cating gaze ; the same pure, delicate, mar-
 
 EVELYN. 13 
 
 tyrized expression of face, the same round 
 coral lips, telling of more sorrow than the 
 half-terrified eyes ; the same clear com- 
 plexion ; the same sweetness and sorrow — 
 as Guido fastened down on canvas. But the 
 hair of Guido's portrait is too auburn ; 
 Evelyn's did, without any figure of speech, 
 look like threads of gold, yet without a shade 
 of red ; but instead of the blue eyes which 
 would appear the more appropriate feature 
 in a face so fair, hers were large and lumi- 
 nous hazel ; thus the delicately traced eye- 
 brows and eyelashes, partaking of their 
 brown hue, did not strikingly contrast with 
 the almost glittering brightness of her beau- 
 tiful hair. Her colour had faded ; but still 
 there was a warm pinky hue in her pure 
 cheeks, not so deep as the sea-shell, or even 
 as the blush-rose, yet the colour was as deli- 
 cately shaded as that of the shell, and the 
 white as perfect as that of the rose. 
 
 This complexion, as well as the expres- 
 sion of the sweet face, appeared not quite its 
 native one ; it seemed to have lost a ruddier 
 bloom too soon ; — the peach bloom of youth 
 had not yielded to nature. The whole aspect 
 was timid and affectionate, like that of the
 
 14 EVELYN. 
 
 startled fawn, with some nervous apprehen- 
 sion of an undefined danger in its expres- 
 sion ; those large beautiful eyes, when they 
 looked fully at you, seemed to supplicate 
 sympathy, even protection. 
 
 Why was it that my heart at once de- 
 sired to approach that of the fair, lovely girl, 
 yet I felt it was unapproachable ? 
 
 There might be something rather mystic 
 in her aspect, as she sat on the bare granite 
 rocks beneath the great old trees, and in 
 the shadowy light of that romantic northern 
 sky. Its influence fell upon me. I have 
 known that foreshadowing of the future 
 many times, and seldom has it proved un- 
 prophetic. 
 
 " Your beautiful compatriote," whispered 
 Fru P., and Evelyn's silvery accents, as she 
 replied to her frank, joyous salutation, spoke 
 to me at once of my island home. 
 
 A ray of pleasure shone, like sunlight over 
 snow, on her fair countenance when she saw 
 me. We sat on the rocks beside her ; and 
 Fru P., amusing herself, let us talk as we 
 pleased. A similarity of taste and feeling is 
 usually discovered at once, if it is to be dis- 
 covered at all : I am a devout believer in the
 
 EVELYN. 15 
 
 doctrine whereon the theory of animal mag- 
 netism is founded. 
 
 Evelyn's manner and conversation were 
 merely those of a simple-minded, and per- 
 haps too sensitive, girl ; I was not brought 
 into contact with a mind at all out of the 
 common order ; and we were reclining at our 
 ease, speaking together like old friends newly 
 met, when — alas ! even in the remote places 
 of the Djurgard one is liable to such disturb- 
 ances, — a quick, manlike step came sound- 
 ing on, and stopped on turning round the 
 rocks. 
 
 " Lady Evelyn," cried a young, fine-look- 
 ing, fair-headed officer, in the uniform of 
 the royal guards — dark blue and red, with a 
 plumed cap, like what our Highlanders of 
 the glorious 42nd used to wear — " I have 
 found you at last ! " 
 
 Evelyn did not appear to be equally re- 
 joiced to be found. 
 
 " Is my presence required, baron?" she 
 demanded. 
 
 " Not now !" was the response, as he 
 threw himself on the turf at her feet : 
 turning to hers a countenance whose open 
 and winning expression gave a force, beyond
 
 16 EVELYN. 
 
 that of common-place gallantry, to these 
 two words. 
 
 Evelyn slightly coloured, and then the 
 bright pink that overspread her face quite 
 took away the asjDCct of singularity that had 
 at first struck me rather forcibly. 
 
 "Why did you follow me, baron?" she 
 asked in a tone of reproof; "I have met a 
 countrywoman here, whose society, you know, 
 nmst be preferable to me to all other." 
 
 The young man sprang to his feet ; with 
 a flushed countenance and haughty apology 
 he was turning away, when Evelyn's depre- 
 cating eyes were raised to his ; but as the 
 murky cloud on his open brow was fleeing 
 before the soft brightness of those sweet 
 orbs, a royal chamberlain appeared in sight. 
 
 "See!" cried Fru P., laughing, "there 
 is no use of quarrelling, for you are both 
 sent for, and must go home like good chil- 
 dren." 
 
 The chamberlain had indeed come with a 
 message, he said, from the baroness, who 
 was uneasy at Evelyn's absence. 
 
 " You must apologize to your mother," 
 she said, rising, and nodding her head at
 
 EVELYN. 17 
 
 the young baron ; " it was you asked me to 
 go into the gardens." 
 
 " Yes/' he replied, rather stiffly, " but I 
 did not ask you to go out of them, Lady 
 Evelyn, while you sent me back with a 
 message. '^ 
 
 She smiled, probably at her own little 
 ruse^ and taking my hand, said — 
 
 " Shall I see you soon ? " then, without 
 waiting for an answer, asked Fru P. if I 
 did not intend to leave Stockholm shortly. 
 
 " Very shortly, unless you or the baron 
 detain her," said the malicious Fru, in a 
 half-whisper. 
 
 " He could not, and I would not," replied 
 Evelyn, with some emphasis on the could 
 and would. 
 
 She waved her hand, and went off with 
 her double escort. 
 
 " That fine young. man has lost his heart 
 to your fascinating countrywoman," said 
 Fru P., looking after the graceful three, as 
 they disappeared among the trees — " What 
 a pity !" 
 
 " He will s,ureiy find one in exchange," I 
 remarked.
 
 18 EVELYN. 
 
 " Not there," she replied, shaking her 
 head like a puzzled doctor; "I do truly 
 fear there is no heart to give." 
 
 " How ? Lady Evelyn appears only too 
 susceptible; too much, for her own peace, 
 inclined to pity and love." 
 
 " That may be ; but if she does not love, 
 or pity another, depend upon it she has a 
 real aversion to matrimony." 
 
 I could not help laughing at the awful 
 face with which these words were pro- 
 nounced. 
 
 " Well, I scarcely think her love could 
 be hopeless ; but as to your latter suspicion, 
 surely in one so young, and so very lovely, 
 that disinclination may be got over." 
 
 " Perhaps so ; but if so, the baron is not 
 the man who is to awaken this sleeping 
 beauty. I assure you she turned quite pale 
 the other day, when I said something to her 
 of his devotion, and hinted, merely hinted, 
 the probability of her becoming a genuine 
 Swede, and forgetting that little England 
 altogether. You see she has all that sweet 
 softness of disposition and looks, which lead 
 you to say quite openly your thoughts and 
 sentiments ; and then, directly, you feel you
 
 EVELYN. 19 
 
 have done sometliing quite wrong, given 
 some secret pain, or dealt a blow where you 
 meant a caress ; and the worst of it is, that 
 she has not our command of either coun- 
 tenance or manner, but lets every heart- 
 twinge be plainly seen. In short, my dear, 
 with all her beauty, and it is marvellous, 
 just like one of the angels ; though, to be 
 sure, no one ever saw them, — at least not of 
 late years, — but with all her angelic beauty, 
 the fair Evelyn is not an easy person to deal 
 with ; and as for that fine, handsome, happy- 
 hearted young baron, I believe in my heart 
 pretty Lilla would suit him better; and 
 perhaps it is just as well he should leave it 
 to some one else to get over Lady Evelyn's 
 matrimonial antipathies. Oh ! yes ; depend 
 upon it, it is better." 
 
 There was that in Fru P.'s face which 
 somehow seemed to reconcile one to the 
 mysterious contrarieties of life ; and when 
 she said — it is better — you felt, despite your 
 opposing will, almost persuaded to think it 
 was so. 
 
 " Has she been long here ? " I asked, as 
 we walked back to our Dalecarlians and 
 their boat.
 
 20 EVELYN. 
 
 " Since last October : she came just after 
 the ice set in. You know it was severe last 
 winter. On that account the arrival of an 
 English lady was a strange event ; but the 
 circumstances of her arrival were stranger." 
 
 " What were these ? " 
 
 " I can tell you something about it. Fru- 
 
 herren C , you know, is my old and 
 
 best friend. Well, she was ill ; and I was 
 staying with her and Lilla. Some letters 
 had come, but the baroness, thinking they 
 were only on business, had not opened them. 
 When her son was off duty at the palace, 
 she made him do so. There was one which 
 required immediate attention ; it came from 
 an old friend of the baroness, whom she had 
 not seen for years ; that lady had resided 
 in Austria, or Hungary, or somewhere, I am 
 not sure where ; she wrote, however, from 
 Ystad, which, you know, is one of our fron- 
 tier towns on the Baltic. She said she had 
 just landed there with an English lady, whom 
 she was anxious to convey to the baroness's 
 care ; or, at least, to Stockholm, under her 
 own care, as she had wished to return and 
 end her days there ; but she was ill, she 
 could not get further ; she implored Fru-
 
 EVELYN. 21 
 
 herren C to come or send to her ; in 
 
 fact, poor woman, she felt the hand of death 
 was upon her, and it was for her companion, 
 a foreigner, not speaking a word of our lan- 
 guage, that she was anxious. 
 
 " The baroness niade her son set off in- 
 stantly to Ystad. It was, certainly, no 
 trifling undertaking. Do you know Ystad — 
 that dreary place on the sands, and that 
 horrible inn close to them ? Well, it was 
 there he found them — the poor old lady 
 dying, if not altogether dead ; and Evelyn 
 — you have seen her — think of that angel- 
 like figure, hanging over the bed of death ; 
 her bright hair and pale face ! — Do you not 
 fancy you see it all ? I do. Well, the poor 
 lady tried to speak — she was not, therefore, 
 quite dead — but she could not, so she put 
 Evelyn's hand into the young baron's ; for 
 she had, I believe, been the first teacher he 
 had had ; and when she could only utter 
 words he could not understand, she put the 
 terrified girl's hand into his, and made a sign 
 up to Heaven ; and Lady Evelyn says, that 
 what she meant was, that they were to trust 
 to Heaven, and that to God alone the secrets 
 of human hearts are known. But the young
 
 22 EVELYN. 
 
 baron, of course, thought that, — why, that, 
 as your English marriage service says, you 
 know, that he w^as to take Lady Evelyn 
 ' for better for worse ; ' and, to tell you the 
 truth, I believe he would have done so on 
 the spot, it was all so romantic. However, 
 I do not know any more of the secrets 
 that were told, or whether there were any ; 
 I only know that the dead body of the poor 
 lady was brought here, and interred in the 
 cemetery ; for they would not leave it at 
 Ystad; and when the baron brought his 
 living charge to his mother's house, I do 
 assure you, that if you wrote novel tales, 
 you could have got a good groundwork for 
 one then. If you had seen them come into 
 the' lighted house that night, you would 
 have thought it was a snow pillar that the 
 baron lifted from his sledge — it stood so 
 moveless, resting against the wall, enveloped 
 in his fur mantle white with snow. But 
 when he pulled it off, there was a perfect 
 Undine, only so much taller ; and then when 
 the warmth of the house acted on the frosted 
 skin, such a radiant colour came on the 
 fair face — oh ! you never saw anything half 
 so beautiful ; not just now even ; she is not
 
 EVELYN. 23 
 
 one-half so lovely noAv. We could do no- 
 thing but gaze. For my part, I was fright- 
 ened. I verily did believe the old times 
 were coming back, and that the baron had 
 brought home some of those lovely-looking 
 things that used to do such strange work 
 among mortals long ago. But he was not 
 frightened ; he kept hovering about the sofa, 
 just like a mother-bird over its ransomed 
 young; he thought, poor fellow, that the 
 sweet stranger was his treasure-trove ; but 
 he was mistaken, I think. He would not 
 let her speak one word, though she could 
 talk French afterwards to the baroness ; but 
 she was not well able to speak then ; indeed, 
 I believe, her tongue was frost-bound. The 
 next day I heard her say to her in French — 
 
 " Can you then trust me, and allow me to 
 be silent?" 
 
 And the baroness answered, as she should 
 have done, 
 
 " Why not ? I should be sorry to let 
 myself wish to know what you must not 
 reveal. Do let this house be your home, 
 and, if you can, look upon me as a mother, 
 until you can feel freer than you now do." 
 
 Fru P. was silent.
 
 24 EVELYN. 
 
 " And is this all you know of your in- 
 teresting friend?" I inquired, with most 
 intense curiosity. 
 
 " That is all : she has never told, and we, 
 of course, have never asked more. But what 
 is strangest is, that though she must be rich, 
 as all you English are, she had no attendants, 
 not a single servant, neither had the poor 
 old dead lady: in fact, they must have 
 reached Ystad like persons who fled from a 
 bombarded town, or a house on fire, or a 
 ship that had foundered at sea, or had es- 
 caped from banditti — or — but there is our 
 Dahlkulla — run, run ! we shall be late." 
 
 It was nearly eleven o'clock when we got 
 back to our dwelling, and trod over the mosaic 
 pavement of the hall and stairs — natural mo- 
 saic, for the dark stone of Sweden is inlaid 
 with petrified things ; a naturalist might have 
 sat on the blue stone stairs, and made out 
 fishes and mosses, and various et cetera ; but 
 I was tired -with a whole day's wandering 
 and sight-seeing, and went to bed directly. 
 Not to sleep, however, for truly the pro- 
 phetic description of a better state is here 
 already realized — " There is no night there." 
 So, being wide awake, I lay and read, with-
 
 EVELYN. 25 
 
 out any artificial light, till nearly mid- 
 night. 
 
 The watchman on the belfry blew out his 
 horn, and then, I am told — for I did not 
 see him, being in my bed — he turned to the 
 four quarters of the compass, and in a voice 
 which I have read of, he chants — 
 
 " Twelve is the clock ; 
 God keep the town 
 From fire and brand, 
 And hostile hand ; 
 Twelve is the clock." 
 
 Now whether the chant 
 
 " Twelve is the clock" 
 
 produced a somniferous effect on me or not, 
 I cannot truly say, but my book declined, 
 the shadows of the night deepened, or, 
 
 " The fringed curtains of my eyes" 
 
 closed over them, and made it night to me ; 
 but my book at last dropped ; and in place 
 of its lines, Evelyn stood before me, her 
 bright hair gleaming in that mystic light, 
 which is not the light of the sun, nor of 
 the moon, but something between both — a 
 light of poetry and of dreaminess, but not of 
 sleep — a light of the spirit-land ; and in that 
 VOL. I. c
 
 26 EVELYN. 
 
 mystic light I saw the pure spiritual face and 
 gleaming hair of that fair girl ; I saw her 
 lustrous eyes ; she held her fore-finger on her 
 lips, like the statue of the goddess of silence : 
 I looked imploringly at her : in answer, she 
 raised that finger upwards, as if indicating a 
 time when the secrets of all hearts should be 
 revealed, and every one have praise of God ; 
 and seemed to float away into the misty 
 light, as into a cloud-wreath, blending with 
 it, and growing dim and dimmer to my sight ; 
 I stretched my hand, grasped the air, and 
 awoke with a start. 
 
 My heart palpitated so violently, that I 
 could not at first draw aside the mosquito 
 curtain of my bed. When I looked round 
 the room, all was as still and solitary as it 
 had been when I sat there meditating about 
 the king of Sweden's supper at Rosendal : I 
 did truly see everything as I had left it, and 
 I saw no Evelyn there. You may think me 
 imaginative, but it is true; I got up and 
 tried the door, I found it locked inside ; and 
 I returned to my bed, saying, half aloud — 
 " It was a dream ; she has not been here." 
 Perhaps many other persons have done the 
 same ; but who can solve the mystery of our
 
 EVELYN. 27 
 
 being ? How often may we say — " It was a 
 dream ; she has not been here," — but a day 
 or two passes, and the post brings us a letter, 
 and we say — surely that person — she, he — 
 whoever it may be — must have known my 
 position, must have understood my thoughts ; 
 must have been present here. It is said that 
 infidels are the most credulous and super- 
 stitious of human creatures ; it may be so : 
 yet I think few, who reflect on the mysteries 
 of their own being, can be unbelievers in a 
 future existence ; in a soul-state, distinct, 
 even at present, from mere animal life. 
 
 c 2
 
 28 EVELYN, 
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 Stockholm. 
 Stockholm is a dull place in summer ; 
 the country houses are then alive with in- 
 dustry and hearty mirth, but the town houses 
 are dead. In winter the capital is all life and 
 gaiety : ice and snow are congenialities to 
 Swedish temperaments ; complain of the cold 
 as they nmy, their blood appears to warm as 
 their atmosphere freezes, and their spirits 
 rise as the thermometer falls. Then the 
 houses in town are made comfortable, and 
 well prepared for all "home-bred delights, and 
 busy labours ;" then the frozen lakes are all 
 alive with travellers and skaters ; then every- 
 thing but commerce starts into new vigour ; 
 people trudge along knee-deep in native snow, 
 and sledges skim along, and little one-horse 
 chairs with a one-passenger seat, and skates 
 that carry people without a seat, and all sorts
 
 EVELYN. 29 
 
 of curious flying conveyances — even to one 
 impelled by sails along the frozen Wettern — 
 may be seen in motion over Sweden, moving 
 as if time, at least in Stockholm, flew faster 
 than anywhere else in the world. 
 
 In one respect, perhaps, it does so ; for, 
 tired of staying up all night in summer, the 
 sun only rises for three or four hours a day 
 in winter. 
 
 Then the good country houses, where, in 
 the shorter season, the arts and labours of 
 husbandry and housewifery are carried on 
 much as they used to be in the good old 
 times of our Saxon ancestors, are left to 
 the subordinates, sometimes wholly shut up, 
 the furniture removed with the proprietors 
 to the metropolis. 
 
 In winter, especially, Stockholm is " the 
 Paris of the north," as its citizens love to 
 style it. No one has then much to do but 
 to spend the time as agreeably as it can be 
 spent. Trade and commerce are ice-bound ; 
 I believe the very jingle o^ the iron pigs (a 
 species of animal, the nature of which, to my 
 shame I confess it, I never understood until 
 I went to Sweden) is then unheard, although 
 in other seasons it is the chief sound that is
 
 30 EVELYN. 
 
 heard on their quays, as they are loaded and 
 unloaded to and from the vessels. 
 
 Happily the Swedes are a thoroughly do- 
 mesticated, and most industrious, as well as 
 pleasure-loving people ; and how happy the 
 combined dispositions ! Hail, then, even to 
 the long winter-nights of the north. 
 
 But the Swedes make the most of their 
 summer too. Long life to them ! would an 
 Irishman say ; they catch the sun as it flies 
 from them, and make the most of the dark- 
 ness that stays more patiently with them. 
 Here, in summer, the Malar is alive with 
 boats ; and in winter, it is alive "with skaters 
 and sledge-drivers. Well, everything is 
 beautiful in its season ; but I know, that in 
 Stockholm, the good shopkeepers would 
 rather go forth to the Djurgard, or take a 
 sail down the island-gemmed lake, than stand 
 behind their counters after four o'clock ; and 
 it is a chance almost if you could get a cup 
 of coffee, or a sheet of paper, or see anything 
 but closed-up windows and doors after such 
 an unseasonable hour, while the sun, which 
 is the modern Balder of old Scandinavia, 
 keeps his court day and night in their sky. 
 
 There is an advantage in loneliness ; it is,
 
 EVELYN. 31 
 
 that there can be no disagreement in taste. 
 This advantage is felt more in travel than 
 at other times. Think how truly horri- 
 ble it is to stand before a work of art, of 
 painting or sculpture, which penetrates your 
 very soul, and just as you feel its beauty, 
 not flashing upon you — perfection seldom 
 does so — but stealing slowly into the inner 
 depths of your mind — to hear some de- 
 lighted exclamation, to have yourself hurried 
 away to see some Avortliless object ! Never 
 can I forget my sensations, when in rambling 
 through the Vatican, I turned accidentally 
 into a cell-like compartment of that grand 
 museum and came suddenly before the Apollo 
 Belvedere. It was as an old friend, known 
 by correspondence, but never seen face to 
 face before. With clasped hands and a cry 
 of delight, I threw myself on a seat opposite 
 to the unmistakable statue, rejoiced still 
 more that no guide had formally introduced 
 me. A little, wild-looking man came and 
 looked at me, and conjectured there was 
 " something to see ; " so as he thought, I 
 suppose, that I was only resting, he planted 
 himself between me and Apollo, intently 
 to read the whole of the lengthy descrip-
 
 32 EVELYN. 
 
 tion, &c. in Mr. Murray's Hand-Book, 
 which, having finished, he raised his eyes 
 with half-a-second's glance to the statue, 
 and walked off with the red book " to see " 
 something else. 
 
 I have always found enjoyment in lone- 
 liness ; and I liked to ramble alone in the 
 charming environs of Stockholm, where I 
 found my only impediment the lack of 
 speech. 
 
 I went one day alone to Drottningholm, 
 or Queen's Island, a most lovely retreat for 
 royalty, and equally charming to a solitary 
 stranger, who could ramble through the 
 antique, old, Versailles-like gardens, with 
 their dark and light statues, and the far 
 more delightful park, where Nature is, 
 
 " When unadorned, adorned the most," 
 
 rocks, trees, beautiful and verdant earth, 
 rising out of the shining Malar, and bearing 
 up the stately palace, built by a queen two 
 hundred years ago ; for such is Drottning- 
 holm, the magnificent retreat of the widow 
 of Charles X. 
 
 Yet Haga is a more favourite resort of 
 the people of Stockholm. There is a sha-
 
 EVELYN. 03 
 
 dow of darkness around the memory of both 
 places. At Drottningbolm, Giistavus IV. 
 was at fii-st kept a " prisoner of state," be- 
 fore his removal to Gripsholm, when his de- 
 thronement by his subjects opened a path 
 for the singular advancement of Napoleon's 
 soldier of fortune. 
 
 " Make way ! — make way, my friends, the 
 king is ill," cried the stalwart Captain Greif, 
 as he carried in his arms, through the midst 
 of the guards, the sovereign he had seized 
 as he was effecting his escape from his own 
 palace. 
 
 Pleasant Haga, too, was built by Gus- 
 tavus III., whom the cruel Ankerstrom 
 shot at the masked ball with " a piece of 
 lead and two rusty nails." How can men 
 select such discordant scenes and means for 
 effecting a purpose of cruelty and murder ? 
 
 I did not wish one of the darkening 
 shadows, which overhang most royal resi- 
 dences, to fall upon me, as I wandered 
 among the parks, the rocks, and waters of 
 Drottningbolm and Haga; yet my visit to 
 the latter recalls to my mind recollections 
 of the scene I beheld at a tomb. 
 
 I had come from the old church of Solna, 
 c 3
 
 84 EVELYN. 
 
 old, they say, as the fierce faith of Odin and 
 Freya ; I entered the pretty cemetery near 
 to it; and weary of walking, I sat to rest 
 beneath a little shade, and looked round on 
 the beds of the sleepers, which presented 
 no revolting, gloomy spectacle, from which 
 the shuddering mind turns aside, as it does 
 from even the thought of the untended, 
 forgotten graves of a land that is considered 
 far more highly favoured. 
 
 It is strange that Christianity should 
 make death such a horrible thing : that it 
 should have personified it by a hideous 
 skeleton, armed with a scythe or a dart ; 
 whereas heathen mythology represented it 
 in the form of a lovely youth with folded 
 wings ; the Angel of Death — not the ter- 
 rific spectre. 
 
 Here, in this strictly Lutheran land, where 
 religious dissent is scarcely permitted, I 
 looked on the flower-decked, garland-hung 
 tombs, which we, in past years, regarded 
 with doubt and jealousy, being by no means 
 sure that popery did not lurk concealed be- 
 neath the flowers ; or that the visit to the 
 tomb, which in other lands is a sacred and 
 salutary duty, was not merely " prayer for
 
 EVELYN. 35 
 
 the dead." How much that was valuable, 
 lovely, and of good report, have we lost in 
 the same way ! 
 
 I was involuntarily feeling that yearning 
 desire of the human heart, which is seldom 
 gratified, that thus my grave might be che- 
 rished ; that thus some hands, in love and 
 reverence, might plant the blossom over me, 
 and shed on the turf the tear which blesses 
 the living, if not the dead, when the quick 
 roll of a Swedish carriaofe, the boundino^ of 
 the long-tailed, short-bodied black horses, 
 announced an arrival, and lo ! before me 
 appeared the young baron, whom I had met 
 at Rosendal, Evelyn, and a young girl, whom 
 I guessed to be the Lilla whom Fru P. had 
 assigned to him. 
 
 He threw away the reins, and leaped out, 
 but the English girl was before him ; he 
 helped her companion from her seat, who had 
 a fine, hardy-looking flowering shrub in her 
 hand ; Evelyn secured a beautiful plant, and 
 the young man drew out a spade : thus pre- 
 pared, they proceeded towards the only bare, 
 unornamented grave in the cemetery. 
 
 Evelyn stood a few moments at its foot, her 
 hands clasped, and head bowed down : thus
 
 36 EVELYN. 
 
 did she pray, as we all feel disposed to pray 
 when we stand at the grave of a friend ; not 
 for the dead, but for the living. 
 
 The baron fell to work with his spade, and 
 the young girl, with one knee on the ground, 
 held the plant in the burying-place he made 
 for its roots, looking up to him, as if asking 
 whether she performed her office aright, with 
 a face so timid, so sweetly youthful and full 
 of innocence, and yet so loving — pretty 
 enough, but quite unlike Evelyn's, without 
 one trace of that sudden sorrow, or secret 
 care, which had evidently made a cruel gash 
 in the young heart and hopes of the lovely 
 English girl. 
 
 But only once did the baron's eye dwell 
 longer than was necessary on that upturned 
 face, and he smiled affectionately upon it ; 
 then it returned to the other — the other, 
 which never once was directed towards him. 
 Evelyn stood now at the head of the grave, 
 her arms were on the stone, the hands hung 
 over it, and her form was pressed against it. 
 Her deep eyelids were lowered ; she was 
 silent, and shed no tears ; but the whiteness 
 of her cheeks was contrasted with the red-
 
 EVELYN. 37 
 
 ness of the rounded lips and glistening of the 
 golden hair. 
 
 The gentle Swede moved away to a distant 
 J3art of the ground with a basket of flowers 
 in her hand, and sat down there, without 
 seeing me, to weave a garland. I rose to 
 come forward, thinking the work at the grave 
 was over, and that I might make my presence 
 known. But I somehow fancied Evelyn was 
 uttering a prayer, and I stopped, unwilling, 
 once more, to disturb them. It was not so ; 
 for in answer to whatever ejaculation she 
 had breathed, the young man replied : 
 
 " Ah ! she is too happy, even in death, to 
 be thus loved and lamented." 
 
 Evelyn raised her hand reprovingly — " Do 
 not speak thus lightly, friend ;" she said. 
 " We know nothing of the state of the dead 
 — how they may be affected by our grief, 
 our hallowed remembrance, or careless in- 
 difference. But for her loss I do not mourn ; 
 — for what it occasions me, I may — I do." 
 
 " You loved her then so fondly ? — that 
 good old lady ; my mother's friend in their 
 youth ; and, they tell me, my first instruc- 
 tress."
 
 38 EVELYN. 
 
 " No," said Evelyn ; " deception I abhor ; 
 I cannot say I loved her ; I had not been 
 very well acquainted with her ; the tie that 
 bound us was recent — and" — she paused, 
 as if reflecting — " and," she added, slowly, 
 " was horrible. I mourn her death, because 
 with her lies buried my chief earthly hope of 
 help, or sympathy." 
 
 " Evelyn, dearest ! dearest ! " cried the 
 young Swede, losing all command over him- 
 self, and darting forward as if to catch the 
 hand that hung so lifelessly over the head- 
 stone of the grave, and only too eager to 
 offer the sympathy she appeared to want. 
 Evelyn started backward ; that upraised hand 
 and the look he met checked the burst of 
 feeling that rushed from the heart to the 
 lips of the young baron. 
 
 They stood there one minute, that young 
 and beautiful pair, pale and erect, beside the 
 tomb that separated them. 
 
 Then Evelyn, with that self-control which 
 women almost always possess when the pre- 
 rogative of mind is exerted, spoke as calmly 
 as if no heart palpitated to bursting within 
 that delicate and trembling form — 
 
 " Your kindness, your brotherly kindness,
 
 EVELYN. 39 
 
 Oscar," — and she placed, perhaps, a cruel em- 
 phasis on the word " brotherly " — " is more 
 deeply felt than my words can ever express. 
 Believe that it is so — for oh ! never, never 
 can I otherwise repay you but by this faint 
 expression of gratitude. I have never seen 
 this grave before, and I think I may never 
 see it again ; but you, in still happier days, 
 may come hither ; and then, I trust and 
 pray, that with a dearer, better, happier 
 friend by your side, you may tell how your 
 warm, kind heart opened to a stricken 
 stranger. Here you may recall that dread- 
 ful day at Ystad, that dreary inn close to the 
 sands, that dying bed, the speechless lips 
 that so vainly tried to utter what mine can 
 never reveal — and what the dying heart 
 broke in an effort to say. You will recall all 
 this, and you will tell her, who " — and Eve- 
 lyn looked full at the lover who gazed upon 
 her, and she softly smiled, though her lip 
 quivered — " you will tell her, who, I say, 
 will then be at your side, that your stranger- 
 friend "— 
 
 Between the pair, in walked, with down- 
 cast eyes and sweet humility, gentle Froken 
 Lilla,and hung her flower-wreath at the tomb.
 
 40 EVELYN. 
 
 " Sweet Lilla," said Evelyn, changing her 
 speech, " you bring flowers, the emblems of 
 fresh hopes ; hopes that should gladden the 
 pathway of the living and brighten the grave 
 of the dead." 
 
 I, too, joined the group, and they proposed 
 that I should make the fourth in their car- 
 riage back to the city. 
 
 " You will have shade, at least, from the 
 fine trees of Carlborg Park," said the young 
 baron, " if you will let me drive you by that 
 road." 
 
 Thus tempted, I exchanged my solitude 
 for society. 
 
 " There," he said, looking back, as he 
 drove along, " is the military college, which 
 was once the favourite palace of our ad- 
 mired hero Charles XII., whom some of 
 your authors, I think, style the mighty mad- 
 man of the north. Is not the old palace of 
 Charles XII. well employed as the Krigs 
 Akademi ? There I have spent some pleasant 
 days, dreaming perhaps of the never-to-be- 
 realized warrior-fame he has bequeathed to 
 us. But, in my own belief, our hero fell 
 most ingloriously at last at Frederickshall : 
 do you not think so? Par ecvemple, have
 
 EVELYN. 41 
 
 you seen his hat, pierced with the very same 
 small hole the pistol made in his head ? " 
 
 " No," said I, wondering what made the 
 young man talk so rapidly, and address me 
 only ; but I suspected the abrupt finish to 
 the scene at the grave had something to do 
 with this little excitation. 
 
 " Will you come and see it now V Evelyn 
 suddenly asked ; " if so, perhaps the baron 
 will attend us." 
 
 He turned almost fully round, and looked 
 earnestly into the eyes of the speaker. 
 
 " Us !" he repeated. " You, Lady Evelyn ! 
 will you truly come ? " 
 
 " Yes," she replied, smiling ; " if my 
 countrywoman wishes it, you may now take 
 us to see all your national wonders." 
 
 Away flew the coal-black steeds, as if 
 they bounded with the human heart which 
 throbbed with joy and hope at this small 
 mite of encouragement. 
 
 " You have seen our noble palace," he 
 said, still addressing me — " what think you 
 of it ? is it like any of Queen Victoria's ?" 
 
 " It strikes me," I answered, " as not 
 being at all a lady-like palace ; and much 
 more adapted to the successors of Odin, than
 
 42 EVELYN. 
 
 to the ' gentle lady throned by the west/ 
 That great granite basement, those huge 
 blocks of unhewn rock, the immense quad- 
 rangle, and massive military-looking style of 
 architecture, are more suited to your land 
 of the north than to our little garden of 
 England, and its gentle queen." 
 
 " Ah ! you do not admire it ! — but no 
 successor of Odin inhabits it now" — and the 
 baron whipped on his horses still faster. 
 
 " Pardon me, you mistake. I own that, 
 like most things long heard of, the so-called 
 new palace of Stockholm much disappointed 
 me. I saw merely a vast mass of building, 
 so formed as very conveniently to enable 
 the king to hold a military exercise in the 
 central square ; and you know there was 
 such the other day, when the troops figured 
 before his majesty in their newly adopted 
 Prussian uniform — a bad exchange, in my 
 opinion, for it is not becoming, and if Sweden 
 goes to war with Prussia, how is one to 
 be known from the other ?'^ 
 
 " Oh !" said the baron. 
 
 " Well, that is no matter — au reste — I 
 now have examined this wonderful palace 
 under different aspects, and I yield to the
 
 EVELYN. 43 
 
 opinions of others ; it is simple in its great- 
 ness, and chaste in its massive grandeur ; 
 I really admire those wings which flank the 
 pleasant, though very public garden sloping 
 to the sea, where, I believe, your good and 
 much-loved king and queen, like our own 
 happy sovereign and most estimable prince, 
 daily take their early walks before the eyes 
 of all who choose to behold them." 
 
 Just as I had made this complimentary 
 speech, he drove up to the " new palace" of 
 Stockholm, built about a century ago, and 
 we were conducted by the royal guardsman 
 into the museum within its walls. 
 
 As we passed through the picture-gallery, 
 where those who have visited a great many 
 others will not be tempted to linger — he led 
 me up to one, saying, with an ironical smile 
 in his well-opened blue eye — 
 
 " Admire the sleepy mildness of that 
 soft face !" 
 
 It was Dahl's expressive portrait of 
 Charles XII. The volcano soul breathed 
 in the countenance of the youth ; and, young 
 as it was, you felt it must explode, yea, 
 become extinct ere long. Then he took us 
 to see the cradle in which he had slept, and
 
 44 EVELYN. 
 
 the toys with which he had played at two 
 distinct eras of his life — when he frolicked 
 in infancy, and when he defied the Turks at 
 Bendar. The toys of the child, and the 
 sword of the man, are there. 
 
 " Deo soli Gloria " 
 
 is the inscription on a blade, which, me- 
 thinks, it would require the arm of a son of 
 Odin to wield; 
 
 Then we saw the library, which with 
 kingly liberality is literally given pro bono 
 publico. 
 
 Queen Christina conveyed her library to 
 Rome, and made it a present, with herself, 
 to the Pope, when she forsook the religion 
 of her father, the Protestant champion of 
 Europe. The admirable collection of mo- 
 dern times consists of more than seventy 
 thousand volumes; I saw a great many of 
 our English authors on the shelves, but most 
 of them, I thought, in a French dress. 
 
 " What I should most like to see," said 
 the soft voice of Evelyn, and our guide 
 leaped from my side at its sound, " is the 
 Golden Law." 
 
 " Oh ! the Codex Aureus." In a few
 
 EVELYN. 45 
 
 minutes it was produced; a beautiful and 
 interesting relic of the piety of our ovni 
 land in the sixth, or at latest, the seventh 
 century. The Gospels, written in Latin in 
 characters of gold, upon immense leaves of 
 vellum, of white and purple alternately. 
 The characters are gothic, and, being traced 
 in gold, have given the title of Codex Aureus 
 to this beautiful work, which was presented 
 by a pious Saxon couple to the cathedral of 
 Canterbury, having been by them purchased 
 from " a heathen war-troop," probably the 
 Danes. It found its way into Italy, brought 
 there, perhaps, by refugee monks, and was 
 there purchased for the royal library of 
 Sweden. 
 
 Evelyn begged for, and obtained, a copy 
 of the donor's inscription, which is written 
 in Anglo-Saxon. 
 
 " In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 I, Alfred, aldorman, and Werburg, my wife, 
 got us this book from a heathen war-troop, 
 with our treasure, which was pure gold. And 
 this we two did for our souls' behoof, and 
 for the love of God, and for that we would 
 not this holy book should longer abide in 
 heathenesse. And now we give it to Christ's
 
 46 EVELYN. 
 
 church, God to praise, and glory and wor- 
 ship, in thankful remembrance of his passion, 
 and for the use of the holy brotherhood, 
 who in Christ's church do daily speak God's 
 praise ; and that they may, every month, read' 
 for Alfred and for Werburg, and for Alhdryd, 
 their daughter, their souls to eternal health, 
 so long as they have declared before God 
 that baptism shall continue in this place. 
 Even so also, I, Alfred, Dux, and Werburg, 
 pray and beseech in the name of Almighty 
 God and his saints, that no man shall be so 
 daring as to sell or part with this holy book 
 from Christ's church, so long as baptism 
 there may stand. 
 
 " Alfred, Werburg, Alhdryd." 
 
 Here would seem, from the charge re- 
 specting baptism, to be internal evidence 
 here, that this interesting copy of the Gos- 
 pels was presented to the abbey of Canter- 
 bury at a time when the heathenesse of our 
 Danish oppressors appeared likely to uproot 
 the institutions of Christianity in England. 
 
 The most enormous book I ever saw was 
 in this library; a manuscript bible, written 
 on ass's skin ; a monkish labour, taken from
 
 EVELYN. 47 
 
 a convent at Prague, by Gustavus Adolphus. 
 Here is also one of the first printed bibles, 
 with marginal notes, by Martin Luther. 
 But while Evelyn was examining the Codex 
 Aureus, we went to peep at the sculpture. 
 
 The baron showed us what is considered 
 its gem, the sleeping Endymion, bought in 
 Italy, and taken from the ruins of Tivoli ; 
 and after this graceful relic of the southern 
 mythology, we were abruptly presented to 
 the terrible representatives of the northern — 
 the colossal statues of Odin, Thor, and 
 Freya, by the native artist Fogelberg. We 
 shrunk from the gloomy might of the Scan- 
 dinavian deity, and turned to the sweet 
 little Cupid and Psyche, by another of 
 Sweden's modern artists, Sergell. 
 
 The name of Bystrom is, perhaps, more 
 generally known to passing visitors as a 
 sculptor, from his name being given to the 
 villa in the Djurgard, a most elaborate edi- 
 fice, where his works are now preserved. 
 But though it is pleasant enough, especially 
 with pleasant companions, to see all these 
 things, it is tiresome to write them down, 
 and perhaps it would be as tiresome to read 
 them — doing either can be avoided.
 
 48 EVELYN. 
 
 I must not omit, liowever, to state, that 
 Baron Oscar did keep his promise of show- 
 ing me the hat of King Charles XII. ; a 
 curious-looking thing, very like the soft, 
 broad-leaved, round-crowned hats now in- 
 troduced into our imitative country, only 
 black, not grey. The orifice was not larger 
 than to admit his thumb ; and he explained 
 to me, with much clearness, how very stupid 
 every one but ourselves was, not to per- 
 ceive that by the manner in which that 
 hole was made, it was evident the ball could 
 not have come from the besieged town, but 
 was aimed by a closer and private assassin. 
 So, also, some affirm, fell the great Gustavus 
 Adolphus, even in the arms of victory — 
 " Moriens triumphavit.'' So says that great 
 man's tomb ; great, because he could resist 
 himself as well as vanquish others. 
 
 We had gone to the church of Riddar- 
 holmen, or the Isle of Knights, and, standing 
 by the tomb of Gustavus Adolphus, I uttered 
 something like the words I have written. A 
 hand was laid upon my shoulder, a soft voice 
 whispered in my ear — 
 
 " May we not too be strong in self- 
 resistance ; great even in weakness ; tri- 
 umphant in death?"
 
 EVELYN, 49 
 
 The voice was Evelyn's; her soft bright 
 eyes, like moonshine on water, looked into 
 mine. I answered them without words ; 
 for I felU though I did not quite under- 
 stand, her meaning; at least I did not 
 know how it might be applied to her own 
 circumstances ; and the organ of cautious- 
 ness, phrenologists say, is largely developed 
 on my head. 
 
 Baron Oscar, however, came up, and 
 prevented any moral-philosophy discussion 
 by asking me if I had seen the visor of 
 King Karl, which represents outwardly the 
 visage it was intended to conceal, mous- 
 taches and all. And when we had duly ad- 
 mired the face or the visor of Charles VIII., 
 he showed us the shields of the noble order 
 of Knights of the Seraphim, to which only 
 the blood-royal and a few of the haute- 
 noblesse are admitted ; pointing out among 
 them that of Monsieur Napoleon Buona- 
 parte, who admitted himself to the honours 
 of the order of the Seraphim. 
 
 This Riddarholms Kyrkan is indeed an 
 interesting, but most forlorn-looking place. 
 It was to Sweden what our Temple Church 
 once was to England ; but how are the 
 
 VOL. I. D
 
 50 EVELYN. 
 
 mighty fallen in both places ? Riddarholmen 
 is one of the islands on which Stockholm is 
 built, and connected with the rest by a 
 bridge. The church of the knights, who 
 once possessed it, is not now used for divine 
 service, except on an annual festival ; it is 
 made the mausoleum of Sweden's kings ; 
 but a range of stuffed equestrian figures in 
 ancient armour, one suit of which is of 
 beautiful Florentine workmanship, meet you 
 at your entrance, and just serve to tell you 
 that real living men in armour once dwelt 
 in the Isle of Knights. 
 
 Here rests the dust of the fiery Charles 
 XII., after thirty-six years of commotion in 
 this mortal life ; for it is reasonable to sup- 
 pose, that, like the infant Hercules, that 
 warrior began in the cradle the noise he 
 afterwards made in the world. Here, too, is 
 that of a longer-lived, but not less remark- 
 able man, whose life has done more good 
 to Sweden, — that of Charles John XIV., 
 who followed Napoleon's recruiting-party 
 from Pau, to ascend from the ranks of the 
 French army to the throne of Sweden and 
 Norway, and establish there a Bernadotte 
 dynasty, which there is at present no pro-
 
 EVELYN. 51 
 
 bability will be displaced, even by the revo- 
 lutionary spirit that is everywhere else pro- 
 gressing. But there is something miserably 
 neglected-looking about this interesting old 
 church ; you could hardly imagine it was the 
 modern burying-place of royalty; though it 
 contains the noblest dust of the land, in- 
 cluding that of the Wasa family — not Gus- 
 tavus himself, his tomb is at Upsala; — yet 
 all appears to be mouldering in decay, and 
 rusting in damp. 
 
 We left the church of Riddarholm to look 
 at the houses of parliament, or diet, of Swe- 
 den, which includes four classes of repre- 
 sentatives — the nobles, clergy, burgesses, or 
 trading and professional class, and the pea- 
 sants, or agricultural class. One class is thus 
 left out, as being, I suppose, nugatory in the 
 interests of a working country — that which 
 is nearly parallel to our ci-devant House of 
 Commons — the independent and private 
 gentlemen of Sweden, who, being of no pro- 
 fession, trade, or calling, have no vote in the 
 legislature. 
 
 Like our peers, the head of each noble 
 family possesses a seat in the Riddarhus. 
 The three other classes are elected for the 
 D 2
 
 52 EVELYN. 
 
 diets, which are held at intervals of five 
 years, and sit for about four or five months. 
 As in England, the assent of the crown 
 is requisite to sanction their decisions ; the 
 king can also summon a diet when the affairs 
 of state demand it. In the case of an act 
 which affects the constitution, the decision 
 of the four houses must be unanimous ; an 
 equal division of votes neutralizes a mea- 
 sure, unless that measure be one concerning 
 money ; in that case, as no financial affair 
 may be thus neutralized, the four houses go 
 into committee, and decide the matter by 
 the preponderance of votes given among 
 seventy-two members, equally selected from 
 each class. 
 
 This mode of legislature appears fair, sim- 
 ple, and likely to be agreeable to all parties ; 
 nevertheless, here, as elsewhere, the peasant- 
 house complains bitterly of the undue power 
 given to the three higher chambers. 
 
 Baron Oscar wanted me to tell him a 
 great deal more of our parliament than he 
 told me of his. But I assured him that our 
 political machine was too vast, too wonderful, 
 for such a head as mine to comprehend its 
 workings : but that I did not think it went
 
 EVELYN. 53 
 
 by steam ; the Parliament was at work nearly 
 all the year round ; the papers were full of 
 long speeches, and of thousands of proposed 
 measures ; that what was talked about even 
 I could sometimes guess, by looking over 
 these papers, but what was done remained 
 generally quite unknown to me. That an 
 election made a great noise in the country, 
 and cost a vast deal of money ; whether pro- 
 fitably disbursed or not, I was too ignorant 
 to be able to tell. So I left Baron Oscar 
 just as wise as he was before ; having told him 
 as much as, I dare say, most people — women 
 at least — know of their oM^n constitution. 
 
 The Riddarhus, or house of the knights 
 or nobles, is an interesting old place, the 
 assembly-room hung with three thousand 
 shields of Sweden's chivalry. Here it was 
 that the noble speech of Gustavus Adolphus, 
 recorded in Schiller's Thirty Years' War, 
 was made by him previous to his departure 
 for Germany. That strange little recreant 
 to her father s faith and fame, Christina, was 
 carried to the Riddarhus, when the delibe- 
 rating nobles w^ere on the point of for- 
 saking their allegiance to the baby-sovereign, 
 to whom the death of the hero of Lutzen
 
 54 EVELYN. 
 
 left the crown ; and this old hall rang with 
 a burst of loyal acclamation, when, recog- 
 nising in the face of the then innocent child 
 the features of the great Gustavus, they sa- 
 luted Christina queen. 
 
 Since then, the salique law has been 
 established in Sweden. 
 
 No one who is not of the religion of the 
 state — the Lutheran — is eligible to any 
 ofSce under the crown, and therefore is ex- 
 cluded from the senate. Dissent is barely 
 tolerated in Sweden : but though tolerated 
 when quiescent, no interference with the es- 
 tablished religion of the people is permitted. 
 
 The clergy hold a high and respectable 
 position ; in dress they do not differ much 
 from the secular clergy of Rome. Genius 
 and literature are not unfrequently rewarded 
 by a living, or, as in the case of the poet 
 Tegner, with a bishopric. The extraordinary 
 disjDarities of clerical income and labour, 
 which the changes of time and population 
 have produced in England, are happily un- 
 known to Sweden. The only archbishopric, 
 that of Upsala, is worth eight hundred 
 pounds a year ; the lowest bishopric about 
 two hundred and fifty pounds ; and the
 
 EVELYN. 55 
 
 parishes are certainly proportioned, in ex- 
 tent, amount of population, and of income, 
 in an apparently more reasonable manner, 
 allowing to each labourer enough to eat, and 
 not too much to do. 
 
 The nomination of the clergy rests with 
 the crown; but a sort of election usually 
 takes place when a living becomes vacant, 
 and the state generally ratifies the choice 
 made by the parishioners. Patronage is con- 
 sequently sought for by clerical candidates. 
 The bishops are selected by the inferior 
 clergy, but the decision is with the crown. 
 Three persons chosen by them are presented 
 as the candidates ; the king elects one of 
 these. No one can deny that there is great 
 room for improvement in spiritual things in 
 Sweden : but in its out\vard form there is 
 much that is worthy of imitation in the reli- 
 gion of this land. It is wonderful, in the 
 far north, to find the poorest peasant able to 
 read, and almost always to write. The benefit 
 of its parochial system may be seen in the 
 fact, that poor parents are obliged to be, in 
 most instances, the teachers of their own 
 children. In poor and thinly-populated 
 districts, schools are " few and far between.'^
 
 56 EVELYN. 
 
 In England, Ireland, or Wales, children 
 would in such cases grow up without learn- 
 ing anything more than other animals ; but, 
 in the Lutheran north, no one can be con- 
 firmed or admitted to the sacrament who 
 cannot read ; and no one can hold certain 
 offices, or perform certain acts, who has not 
 been admitted to these rites ; so that, in 
 order to be married, it is necessary to have 
 acquired the preliminary accomplishment of 
 the art of reading, because neither man nor 
 girl can be married who has not been con- 
 firmed, and is not able to receive the sacra- 
 ment. Thus an institution of the church 
 is actually the means of perpetuating a race 
 of parents able to instruct their own chil- 
 dren. 
 
 Education may still be on a low scale ; 
 but it is enough to enable almost every Swe- 
 dish peasant to read his bible and hymn- 
 book, and seldom do you see them going to 
 their church without these accompaniments. 
 
 The excellent king, however, who is now 
 on the throne, is making, we hear, strenuous 
 efforts to raise the tone of education. In- 
 deed, under the Bernadotte dynasty, there 
 is every reason to expect that Sweden will
 
 EVELYN. 57 
 
 rise high in the rank of nations. In the ups 
 and downs of this world, the generations 
 that come after us may see the remote north 
 brought into a more prominent position than 
 that which lands of milder temperature will 
 then hold. 
 
 We are told that the Swedes are not a 
 moral people. To that expression there is 
 generally a definite meaning given in our 
 language ; and in that sense I have had no 
 opportunity of proving or disproving the 
 charge. But on the subject of morals, 
 taking the word in its full sense, a diversity 
 of opinion exists : a simple, kind-hearted, 
 amusement-loving Swede, for instance, might 
 think the morals of London much more ap- 
 palling than those of his own land. 
 
 The professors and literary people of Swe- 
 den are a most liberal and unforbidding 
 tribe. Some of its learned bishops were 
 ready to receive us en route^ without even an 
 introduction. 
 
 In Stockholm they are most amiable to 
 strangers ; and here every facility is afforded 
 for seeing sights. These sights, however, 
 are really few, and are by no means likely 
 to be their attraction to that delightful capi- 
 D 3
 
 58 EVELYN. 
 
 tal. The Zoological Museum is good and 
 interesting as a national one. The Cabinet 
 of Northern Antiquities is far more so ; but 
 when we reflect on the " antiquities of Scan- 
 dinavia," we feel amazed at the scanty 
 amount of care and zeal which has been 
 expended in their collection and arrange- 
 ment. 
 
 I ought to make this complaint, in order 
 to excuse what follows ; for I left the an- 
 tiquities of Scandinavia to enjoy the modern 
 delights of its modern capital. 
 
 Evelyn, the baron, and young Lilla, after 
 having stood with their heads very close 
 together for some moments, gathered round 
 me with a petition, that I would give up all 
 such blue-stocking researches, and join them 
 that evening in a party to his island villa. 
 
 The idea was too attractive to admit of a 
 repulse ; I welcomed it, and agreed to be 
 on the shore of Malaren at six o'clock with 
 Fru P. 
 
 Shortly after that hour, we shot away 
 over the sparkling lake ; and certainly, if you 
 could only fancy that clear-rolling stream 
 changed into the fetid standing waters of 
 the Grand Canal, these islands and green
 
 EVELYN. 59 
 
 banks converted into old, sedgy, empty 
 palaces, and our pretty dancing boat ex- 
 changed for the funeral gondola, one might 
 enjoy oneself as well here, where all speaks 
 of a happy present, as there, where all tells 
 of a glorious, yet melancholy, past. 
 
 Up to the landing-place of the little islet, 
 whirled, with a skilful and graceful sweep, 
 our water-equipage, — as necessary almost to 
 a Stockholmer as a horse or a car is to a 
 native of Dublin, — and out sprang our young 
 host ; his extended hand, open countenance, 
 and large joyous blue eyes, adding to the 
 heartiness of his Swedish welcome. 
 
 His pretty villa was the lord of the lonely 
 place ; this summer-house, for such it was, 
 was a wooden one, delicately painted, and 
 almost hidden in flowering shrubs and trees. 
 An ^Eolian harp was in the open window : 
 the breeze just swept its chords as we 
 landed. 
 
 " What a fairy dwelling!" cried Evelyn, 
 in lowly-uttered accents of delight — " How 
 charming a retreat ! " 
 
 " You like it," the owner half whispered — 
 but what a long commentary might these 
 three words give rise to — " You like it ! "
 
 60 EVELYN. 
 
 and, added to the countenance of the speaker^ 
 perhaps it was no wonder that it stole a 
 gentle sigh from young Lilla's heart, as she 
 bent her eyes down on the flowers that made 
 a bower of the enchanting little room we 
 entered. 
 
 Our baron heard it, I think ; for, glancing 
 at her, as if with some slight pang of self- 
 reproach, he added, quickly — " Lilla is the 
 fairy : she adorned it for me." 
 
 *' Now truly do I think," said hearty Fru 
 P., " that our sweet Lilla would adorn any 
 place, palace or cottage." 
 
 " How I do like your Swedish heartiness 
 of manner," said Evelyn ; " I wanted to say 
 much the same;" and the brightness of her 
 smile, as she looked at the timid girl, made 
 her feel more gratified by it than by the 
 compliment of Fru P. 
 
 " Jak, jak," said Lilla, nodding her pretty 
 nod in that way which implies, " Thank 
 you," without any language. 
 
 And then she began to act the Eve of the 
 little Paradise, and, 
 
 " On hospitable thoughts intent," 
 
 prepared for us an entertainment, quite in 
 character with the locality.
 
 EVELYN. 61 
 
 When tlie sun had gone down — at least 
 gone so low down as not to be trouble- 
 some — we went out and sat by the water's 
 side, among some rocks and trees, and green 
 grass. The light became more and more 
 softened and lovely, the most profound still- 
 ness reigned around. 
 
 " I am surprised/' said Evelyn, " that the 
 Swedes are not a more imaginative people." 
 
 " Pardon me, I think we are an ima- 
 ginative people ; w^e are very superstitious ; 
 is not that tendency connected with ima- 
 gination?" said the baron. 
 
 " I do not know : perhaps so ; but I meant 
 to say, I wonder you have not more ima- 
 ginative writers, you have had so many 
 great men in science, and in history, from 
 Tycho Brahe and Linnaeus, up to Berzelius." 
 
 " Pray do not omit our lady-authors ; we 
 have Miss Bremer, and — " 
 
 "Oh!" I cried, interrupting him, and I 
 was sorry for it afterwards, " you do not 
 style Miss Bremer an imaginative writer; 
 she is admirable as a describer of everyday 
 home-scenes, which might, every one, be 
 compared to a certain picture I once saw, 
 which struck me as being so true a por-
 
 62 EVELYN. 
 
 trait, that I asked the poor woman, who 
 showed it, whose it was. She answered, 
 ' I do not think it was done for any one in 
 particular, it was taken from nature.' So 
 Miss Bremer's pictures, whether meant for 
 any one in particular, or not, are taken from 
 nature ; they give you a portrait, not an ima- 
 ginative composition." 
 
 " Perhaps your long winters may coun- 
 teract the influence of your summers," said 
 Evelyn, smiling. " I never could make out 
 a consistent theory of the influence of climate 
 on imagination; here, for instance, I should 
 fancy, were the clime and scenery to produce 
 it — those soft mystic nights, which are nei- 
 ther day nor night — ah ! Lilla, if, like you, I 
 had been a Swede, I should have been a poet 
 and a romancer. Can you tell us a legend 
 here, baron ? It would be delightful." 
 
 " Let us sing our favourite song first," 
 was his answer ; " then, if you command me 
 even to make a legend, I must do so." 
 
 " Oh, no ; no made legends ; we are tired 
 to death of them in the books of our English 
 travellers," I said. " Please, baron, tell us 
 a true story." 
 
 He bowed : they all then sang their Swe-
 
 EVELYN. 63 
 
 dish song ; Evelyn had her part : her voice 
 was melody itself, low and thrilling. When 
 it ceased, there was a fine figure reclining on 
 the grass, at her feet, and an earnest, thought- 
 ful face looking anxiously towards hers. 
 Evelyn turned from it, with a look of pain 
 and a sigh. 
 
 " Come, now for the story," she said, with 
 a little degree of awkwardness unusual to 
 her. 
 
 " Shall it be a love-tale ? " 
 
 " If the others are pleased with it, yes," 
 Evelyn answered, but she blushed deeply ; 
 " for my part, the subject is quite indifferent." 
 
 " I will tell you, then, a tale too true, of 
 our beautiful Dahlkulla," he said, quickly, 
 and began. 
 
 " Ebba lived on the banks of the Dahl 
 river, just where it opens into a lake. She 
 was betrothed to Erik, a young Dalecar- 
 lian ; but bad times came on, and Erik was 
 obliged to go to work in the copper-mines 
 of Falun. 
 
 *' It almost broke young Ebba's heart, to 
 think she might one day have to leave the 
 fair banks of the Dahl to live in the desert 
 region and copper smoke of Falun ; but to
 
 64 EVELYN. 
 
 think of her Erik working down there, in 
 these drear vaults, hid from the sunlight 
 and pleasantness of earth, was far worse. 
 
 " Ebba resolved she would earn enough 
 money to enable Erik to come and live with 
 her in the pleasant cottage on the Dahl, 
 where her father and mother had lived and 
 worked from their marriage to their death, 
 and where her sole ambition was to be able 
 to live and work from her marriage to her 
 death ; and she thought if she could but 
 earn money enough to enable him to culti- 
 vate the bit of land her parents had culti- 
 vated, and to keep on the cottage which 
 had been their home, her toil would be as 
 the labour of Jacob when he served for his 
 Rachel. 
 
 " Ebba resolved not to marry Erik and go 
 to live in the copper smoke of Falun ; for 
 then, she said, must he still work down in 
 those tremendous vaults, which it disturbed 
 her imagination to think even of entering. 
 She said to him, ' Wait : we are young 
 and strong ; better times will come, and we 
 shall yet have some happy years to live : 
 better a few that are bright and blessed, 
 than many that are drear and dark.'
 
 EVELYN. 65 
 
 " Yet while she spoke she felt she loved 
 Erik more than the cottage on the Dahl, 
 and more than the glad sunshine of Heaven. 
 But hers was a strong woman's heart, and its 
 love Avas strong and unselfish. So she told 
 her young miner she would go and work at 
 Stockholm, and sore against his will he saw 
 her depart. But as she went, she said to 
 him, 
 
 " ' Be true to me, Erik, for, come what 
 may, I will be true to thee ; and one day 
 thou wilt say it was well for thee I was not 
 now made thy wedded wife.' 
 
 " So Ebba came to Stockholm, and got a 
 boat from the owners. But the maiden was 
 very fair to look upon, not eighteen years 
 old, tall and strong, with a free, firm step 
 and open brow. Her eyes were blue as the 
 summer sky, and her hair dusky as its twi- 
 light hues, the rose of health was on her 
 face, and love and gladness in the sound of 
 her joyous laugh, and even in the gleam of 
 her shiny teeth. She was beautiful with 
 love and goodness ; and she was happy at 
 her work, for she worked for love ; and love 
 gave strength to her active arms, and hope 
 winged the boat she led over Malaren Zee.
 
 66 EVELYN. 
 
 " Now Ebba was too fair to pass and repass 
 as the common Dahlkuller may do. But she 
 had thrown around her a panoply of might, 
 and the woman who worked for love was 
 safe from the assaults of vice ; her story was 
 made known, and even the lovers who sought 
 her hand in marriage despaired of shaking 
 her purpose. 
 
 " ' I will work for Erik until I have got 
 money enough to enable us to work to- 
 gether,' she said ; and thus the boat of the 
 betrothed became a favourite one on the 
 Malar Zee ; it was thronged from morning 
 to night, and though half its earnings went 
 to the owners, many a dollar rigs-geld, and 
 dollar banco, too, were slipped into her hand 
 for Erik the miner, together with the copper 
 skillings that paid for the passage. 
 
 " At the close of the summer Ebba was 
 already rich. Ah ! poor girl, had she been 
 content, and then returned to Dalecarlia, all 
 might have gone well with her and Erik ! 
 
 " But success inspired new hopes ; she 
 thought after another summer she should be 
 able to set up Erik in the little farm. If 
 she went back for the winter, she feared he 
 would not suffer her to leave Dalecarlia
 
 EVELYN. 67 
 
 again ; and then he must still work in the 
 mines, and she must live at Falun. 
 
 " She stayed for the winter, and she got 
 a creditable and good employment. Now 
 to stay for the winter in Stockholm in- 
 spires mistrust and anxiety in the peasant- 
 homes of Dalecarlia. Yet Ebba the next 
 summer resumed her boat-paddles, strong 
 and good, active and happy as she had been 
 before ; and with even greater zeal did she 
 work for Erik, because hope told her that 
 the next winter she should work with him in 
 the pleasant cottage on the Dahl, where her 
 parents had lived, and that he would then 
 work for his bride, and love her and cherish 
 her all the days of his life. 
 
 " But jealous eyes had been on fair Ebba, 
 and evil tongues had not been idle when 
 the frost on the Malar had stopped the boat- 
 paddles. She had gained more in her first 
 summer than many others had gained in two 
 or three, or even four ; and when the women 
 went back to Dalecarlia, they had spread 
 this report. It reached to Erik in the mines, 
 and made him wonder ; and when the winter 
 came, and his betrothed did not return, it 
 made him fear, it made him mistrust. He
 
 68 EVELYN. 
 
 had not her strong human faith : the doubt 
 he felt had never entered her heart, and 
 she took, therefore, no steps to prevent 
 it. 
 
 " The summer had come ; the ice and snow 
 melted off, and seemed to leave the earth 
 ready furnished beneath them : where white 
 had been, there green had come, and the 
 shadowy sky was bright with sunshine : the 
 sledges and skates were laid up, and the 
 boats were again dancing over the Malar 
 Zee ; and Ebba, as she went down one morn- 
 ing to the water, met Erik watching for her 
 on its shore. 
 
 " His face was dark ; there was no glad 
 greeting in his eyes. She would have flown 
 to him and cried, ' I have worked for thee ; 
 I have been true to thee.' But these dark 
 eyes terrified her, and she gazed into them as 
 if it were her own conscience that scowled 
 upon her. 
 
 " Then did Erik's words frighten her more; 
 for they told hers were verified; it was truly 
 ■well for him she had not been made his 
 wedded wife. 
 
 " He accused her of betraying him, of being 
 faithless to his love.
 
 EVELYN. 69 
 
 " Ebba, for her sole reply, drew forth her 
 bag of Swedish paper-money, and said, 
 
 " ' All this have I gained for thee/ 
 
 " But he struck the money from her hand, 
 and cried, 
 
 " ' Accursed be thy gains ! Thinkest thou 
 I would touch the wages of shame ? ' 
 
 " Then Ebba stood moveless, and spoke 
 not at all. 
 
 " Erik thought she was verily guilty. He 
 went away in his wrath ; his heart was torn 
 with passion and grief, and the false tongue 
 M'hich had brought him Ebba's evil report 
 soothed him with more base slanders of her 
 he loved. 
 
 " So he went off again, and saw her no 
 more ; and Ebba sat in her boat, but she 
 did not now knit stockings for Erik while 
 she waited for customers ; she did not now 
 work for Love, neither did Hope wing her 
 boat over the shining Malar. Her head was 
 bowed down like the bruised bulrush ; her 
 songs ceased, for her heart was heavy ; her 
 eyes shone no more like the summer's sky ; 
 and, leaning over the side of her boat, she 
 dropped into the deep bosom of the lake the 
 bag of money Erik had struck from her
 
 70 EVELYN. 
 
 hand. It was ill-done, they said to Ebba,. 
 for it might have been given to the poor. 
 But, with a pale cheek and lustreless eye, 
 Ebba replied — ' Should I offer to the poor 
 of our good Lord the wages of shame ? ' for 
 the words of Erik never left her heart or 
 lips; she verily seemed to think that as 
 Erik believed her to be, so she was. 
 
 " Now, after a time, Erik heard in the 
 mines what Ebba had done, and how she had 
 buried in the lake her hard-earned money ; 
 and his heart smote him, for surely, he said, 
 it was an upright and virtuous, a proud and 
 unjustly wounded spirit that performed that 
 action. So he sent to Ebba to ask her, if 
 she knew herself to be innocent, to forgive 
 him, and come to him, and poor though she 
 was now, to be his wife. 
 
 " But Ebba said, ' I have no assurance of 
 innocence or of guilt to make: rich, happy,and 
 beloved, I would have gone to him, and have 
 been his wife ; poor, suspected, and disgraced, 
 he shall see me no more. Tell Erik that 
 Ebba forgave him ; but wine once spilled 
 cannot be gathered up, and confidence once 
 lost is not easily restored. She will stay 
 where the wages of her shame are buried.
 
 EVELYN. 71 
 
 until she goes to the land where shame is no 
 more : for her dear Lord and Master knew 
 shame unjustly, and hid not his face from it ; 
 He will not scorn one who has known it 
 also.' 
 
 " Her lover got the answer ; but he still 
 thought she would repent ; yet when his 
 proud love stayed all the next winter in 
 Stockholm, he said, ' I can live without her 
 no longer ; I will go to Stockholm and bring 
 her here ; I will labour for her, and she shall 
 work for me no longer.' 
 
 " So he set off on his journey. 
 
 " That long winter Ebba had ceased to 
 work ; they said the strong maiden was 
 drooping ; and when the summer came they 
 thought she would no more go forth to the 
 Malar. 
 
 " But the snow-cleared lake was gay, and 
 the people of Stockholm were glad : Ebba 
 sat one morning in her boat ; her head lay 
 on her arm over its side ; her comrade came 
 down, and thought she was asleep ; but when 
 passengers were coming she shook her, and 
 she did not awake ; then they lifted up the 
 head, and saw she would wake no more : the 
 slandered maiden was dead ; she had melted
 
 72 EVELYN. 
 
 away like the snow-maiden in the first rays 
 of the sun, and had gone to the land where 
 shame is no more. 
 
 " Her doubtful lover came, and embraced 
 her corpse." 
 
 " Beautiful Ebba!" said Evelyn, in a trem- 
 bling voice, as our young host concluded his 
 story with a bow ; " ah ! yes, confidence once 
 lost is not easily restored ! The woman who 
 must be doubted had better die ! " 
 
 " Erik was a wretch !" said Fru P., Lilla, 
 and the baron, at the same moment. 
 
 " He was natural," Evelyn and I uttered 
 quite as simultaneously. 
 
 " Well, I do truly fear there are many 
 Eriks in the world," said Fru P., shaking 
 her wise head ; " so I think we had better 
 all go home."
 
 EVELYN. 73 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Stockholm. 
 
 Society appears to me to be on very 
 easy and accessible terms in the Swedish 
 capital ; yet I am told by some of the citi- 
 zens that the lines of social demarcation are 
 very distinctively drawn, and that, like some 
 of the old-fashioned family-caste districts of 
 Wales, society here is parcelled out into dis- 
 tinctive circles, consisting each of its own 
 classification. 
 
 A foreigner, however, may be happily at 
 liberty to dine at the table of the people 
 of commerce in the afternoon, and end the 
 evening in the saloons of the aristocracy, 
 especially if he be one of the swarm to 
 whom the warning of Robert Burns would 
 apply, 
 
 " A cliiel's amang ye takin notes, 
 An faith he'll prent it." 
 VOL. I. E
 
 74 EVELYN. 
 
 Presuming on this self-assumed privilege, I 
 kept two diverse engagements on the same 
 day. I dined at " my banker's" villa, in the 
 Djurgard — the use of the possessive pro- 
 noun, when prefixed to the word " banker," 
 or " publisher," gives an air of importance to 
 the substantive it stands for, if it does not 
 confer additional honour on that it precedes 
 — and after that dinner I was to spend the 
 
 evening at , — [I must leave a blank 
 
 here, although I dislike such miserable sub- 
 terfuges] — where I was to meet Evelyn, and, 
 it may be supposed, some one else. 
 
 The dinner-party at the banker's assem- 
 bled without either formality or ostentation. 
 The time was four o'clock, the latest that is 
 usual : the guests entered the pleasant room 
 without having their names announced half 
 a dozen times; some very pretty girls, 
 in white dresses and bonnets, advanced to j| 
 the middle of the apartment, and then in- 
 clined so very lowly and reverentially to the 
 company assembled, that their tall stature 
 was most wonderfully, yet gracefully, dimin- 
 ished. That sweet reverential modesty, which 
 still appears to remain among the young 
 people of Sweden, is an attribute we would
 
 EVELYN. 75 
 
 pray might continue to be sheltered in that 
 remote part of our world. 
 
 Everything here was sans facon, even to 
 the taking off of the bonnets and shawls. 
 As a prelude to our adjournment to the 
 dining-room, a tray was handed round con- 
 taining bread, cheese, butter, and something 
 — I really suspect it was slips of dried her- 
 ring, but I am not certain, for my kind 
 host told me I was at liberty to decline 
 such a preparative for my dinner, although 
 it was as customary for Swedes to begin 
 theirs with bread and cheese, &c., and for 
 the men, a glass of spirits, as it was a 
 century ago for us to finish ours with a 
 similar bonne bouclie. 
 
 The most fastidious gourmand, however, 
 might have reconciled himself to a dinner 
 in the far north, if it were like that which 
 followed. The cuisine was quite French, 
 but served a V Anglais. 
 
 I believe that the citizens of Stockholm 
 are remarkable for the profuseness and hos- 
 pitality of these entertainments ; the wines, 
 of various and excellent qualities, were 
 equally abundant ; but all dismissed with 
 the repast. The ladies did not walk out of 
 E 2
 
 76 EVELYN. 
 
 the room, after the still cherished custom of 
 England, when they had had their share of 
 the good things, and leave the men to more 
 enlightened conversation than they and the 
 children could share in. 
 
 The ladies sauntered out, together with 
 the host and a few of the other gentlemen ; 
 the rest, I believe, went back to the town, 
 or — horrid to relate — to smoke ; while we 
 went to a pretty temple in the grounds, 
 commanding a charming view over the lake ; 
 tea was brought to us there, and in due 
 time I departed, to keep my evening en- 
 gagement. 
 
 In evening assemblies, I am told, the old 
 Swedish fashion of the three rooms still 
 exists, one for matrons, a second for single 
 ladies, a third for men ; but to make a fair 
 division, or classification, there ought to be 
 two more rooms at least; for now a bride 
 of seventeen may be consigned to the old 
 matrons, while a spinster of seventy remains 
 among the girls. I do not know exactly 
 how this is all managed, but I do know, 
 that a wedding consigns the respective par- 
 ties to the realms of matrimony in actual 
 location ; and before that event takes place, 
 a good deal of rigorous propriety and con-
 
 EVELYN. 77 
 
 ventional regulation maintain a proper dis- 
 tance between the opposing ranks. 
 
 But the realm of matrimony is no Utopia 
 in Sweden : it is as well defined as any of our 
 penal settlements are to our own convicts. 
 
 Listen to this description of a Swedish 
 wedding, by a Swedish writer, though from 
 which of Frederika Bremer's works I stole 
 it, I cannot now truly declare. 
 
 " The gilded crown waved and trembled 
 amid the attacks and defence of the con- 
 tending parties; for it was precisely the 
 trying moment of the Svvedish peasant wed- 
 ding, when the crown, as it is said, is danced 
 off the head of the bride. The married 
 women were endeavouring to vanquish and 
 take her captive, while the girls were doing 
 their utmost to defend and hold her back. 
 In the other half of the great room, all 
 went on more noisily and more violently 
 still; for there the married men strove to 
 dance the bridegroom from the unmarried 
 ones ; and they pushed, and tore, and pulled 
 unmercifully, amid shouts of laughter, while 
 the polska went on in its whirling measure." 
 
 But I was not meditating on matrimony, 
 or the civil combats it occasions; I was 
 gazing out of a window, and thinking only
 
 78 EVELYN. 
 
 of the charming bits of scenery with which 
 the neighbourhood of Stockholm abounds, 
 when some exclamations of Swedish-speak- 
 ing Swedes made me look round to see the 
 fair Engleshfrbken come in. I knew Evelyn 
 by her hair ; she now appeared so dazzlingly 
 bright and beautiful, I doubt if I should 
 have recognised at once the pale, sad girl I 
 had seen bending over the tomb on the day 
 of Haga, or the more mysteriously impres- 
 sive one I had seen in vision by night upon 
 my bed. 
 
 Evelyn wore a thin robe of ethereal-looking 
 white, in which she seemed to float like 
 those pictures of angels that are just lightly 
 shadowed by a cloud-wreath. Her only 
 ornaments were an antique cameo of the 
 same pure hue, and a white rose with two 
 green leaves ; her beautiful hair was quite 
 unadorned, and the sea-shell pink shone 
 even brightly on her cheek. Except in the 
 red rounded lips, the childlike, innocent 
 mouth, there was no likeness to Guide's 
 portrait. 
 
 Evelyn and Lilla were attended by a 
 matron, who took the part of the baroness, 
 that lady never going into society. The
 
 EVELYN. 79 
 
 young baron's face was looking out from the 
 door of the third apartment ; they were im- 
 mediately surrounded, and while Evelyn 
 was conversing either in English or French 
 to some few acquaintances who were in- 
 quiring for Friherrinnan , or in English, 
 
 for the baroness, the gentle Swede, seeing 
 I was expecting her, drew near to me, and 
 bending with that lowly reverence, which 
 even still, in Sweden, youth sometimes pays 
 to age, she took the side of my dress in the 
 tips of her fingers, and touched it to her 
 lips. 
 
 " My countrywoman appears to be a fa- 
 vourite here," I remarked to Lilla. 
 
 " Ah ! she may indeed easily become an 
 angel hereafter," she answered, " for she is 
 almost one now, in this present world. If 
 one should love the good angels, one should 
 love her." 
 
 Sweet Lilla ! I thought, as I listened to 
 this innocently warm eulogium, for even 
 then I fancied Evelyn was her rival. 
 
 " Of whom does our best Lilla speak?" 
 said the young baron, as he advanced, his 
 youthful head pre-eminent over all the men 
 who came trooping in to secure partners
 
 8Q EVELYN. 
 
 for the dance. He leaned on the back of 
 her chair, and bent those smiling blue eyes 
 on the young girl. A deep blush suffused 
 her face, neck, and brow. 
 
 " Do you not truly know that there is 
 only one I would speak so of?" she 
 answered, in her softest Swedish voice. 
 
 " Yes ; but we must not let her be quite 
 an angel yet : let her be only what she is, 
 the loveliest and best of human creatures." 
 
 Did a slight expression of pain cross that 
 loving face ? If it did, it was but slight, and 
 perhaps a better, or wiser, feeling chased it 
 away, as Lilla quietly said with a smile, 
 " Even so, Oscar, for our sake, we would 
 pray her to remain : but she comes to us at 
 last." 
 
 Oscar turned at the last words with a 
 quick eager glance, and then hastened for- 
 ward to meet Evelyn as she came to join 
 our group. 
 
 We could guess the request he had gone 
 to make from her words as she reached us. 
 
 " I have told you already that I never 
 dance." 
 
 " Yes ; but one believes sometimes that 
 importunity may at last prevail."
 
 EVELYN. 81 
 
 " Not with me," she replied ; " it cannot." 
 
 Some questions and answers were then 
 exchanged ; I know not what they were ; 
 but the final one, by Evelyn, was evidently 
 displeasing to the young officer ; — with all his 
 good-humour, I should not like to make 
 him angry. The colour mounted to his fair 
 brow, and his blue eyes grew almost dark. 
 Evelyn looked with appealing earnestness 
 into them, and the transitory anger changv d 
 to sorrow; the baron turned, and taking 
 Lilla's hand, said, 
 
 " Our sweetest Lilla, then, must obey Lady 
 Evelyn also ; the English ladies command 
 us to let them see our national dance, 
 Lilla." 
 
 Her hand lay quietly in his, and with a 
 blush, a smile, and a pretty inclination in 
 sign of obedience, she went with him to 
 the dance. 
 
 I felt displeased with Evelyn ; and the 
 petty indignation I felt broke out at once 
 into speech. 
 
 " How can you be so insensible to the 
 devotion of that fine young Swede ? " 
 
 " I am not insensible to it," she replied, 
 with a grave and placid candour, which at 
 E 3
 
 82 EVELYN. 
 
 once calmed my indignation, and removed 
 the apprehension I was beginning to feel 
 of finding her a heartless coquette ; " I 
 am far from being insensible to it ; but 
 I would give much to put an end to it. 
 I am glad you spoke ; for now I can ex- 
 press a hope which has to-day given me 
 new spirits. Fru P. told me you wished to 
 leave Stockholm as soon as possible, but had 
 been disappointed in your companions ; I, 
 too, wish to do so, but dare not travel alone; 
 she thought you would allow me to travel 
 with you ; at least to Germany, where I 
 should once more feel myself really on the 
 continent of Europe ; though I think I may 
 have to go to Rome." 
 
 " I shall be rejoiced to have your com- 
 pany," was my answer ; " but will not the 
 baroness object to my carrying away her 
 guest ? " 
 
 " No ; my arrival was unexpected, I might 
 say, uninvited; I, who never knew a mo- 
 ther's love, or a sister's, or a brother's, 
 have found all among these dear people. 
 I love them all, as if I belonged to them: 
 I could have wished to have stayed with 
 them, but I ought not, must not ; yet they
 
 EVELYN. 83 
 
 are perhaps the only friends I shall ever 
 desire to see again." 
 
 She spoke in a sorrowful accent, and the 
 last words were uttered as if unconsciously. 
 I suppose I looked surprised, for Evelyn 
 coloured as she rather hastily added, 
 
 " I mean, that I should like to meet them 
 again, when, what is, I believe, the single 
 earthly desire of the chastened mother shall 
 be gratified, and her son united to her 
 adopted Lilla." 
 
 "To, Lilla! is that the wish of the 
 baroness ? " 
 
 " Yes ; it is caused by circumstances 
 connected with the affecting story of that 
 young girl's parents and herself" 
 
 " Is that story a secret ? " 
 
 The word " secret " produced an electric 
 sort of effect on Evelyn, and transformed 
 her into the girl I had met in the Djurgard. 
 
 " No," she said, with a sigh, " I hate that 
 word ; but there is no secret in this little 
 history ; it is generally known. The baron- 
 ess, you know, has been many years a widow : 
 in her youth she was exceedingly hand- 
 some, very like what her son now is : at 
 present her complexion is lost, her once
 
 84 EVELYN. 
 
 bright eyes are dull, her fair hair turned 
 almost to grey. At seventeen she was be- 
 trothed to a young man in the same rank of 
 life as herself, which was not then a high 
 one. They were both poor, but the love of 
 each was intense. Their marriage was de- 
 layed by poverty ; and during her first visit 
 to the capital the country beauty met the 
 baron, Oscar's father, who was then high in 
 favour with the late king, having been his 
 companion in arms when he was made 
 crown prince. This man was also engaged 
 to a young woman, of whom, they say, Lilla 
 is the antitype : but he was captivated by 
 the superior beauty and brilliancy of the 
 present baroness, and she was dazzled by the 
 prospect of such elevation. The lonely, 
 poor young man, and the gentle, loving girl, 
 were both forsaken ; the baron and the be- 
 trothed broke their vows and married. Both 
 were disappointed : could it be otherwise, 
 when" — Evelyn paused, as if a sudden re- 
 collection crossed her, and broke the thread 
 of her discourse — " when human hearts were 
 trampled on in their road to the altar, 
 sacred words forgotten?" 
 
 " Happiness," I observed, " can never be
 
 EVELYN. 85 
 
 the fruit of selfishness, though deep sorrow 
 is too often the result of self-renunciation." 
 
 " Oh ! true ! true !" cried Evelyn, and a 
 flash of pure enthusiasm shed a holy light 
 on her sweet face. " True ! but welcome 
 such sorrow, though its reward be not here ! 
 
 " The forsaken pair," she continued, " were 
 also unhappy, for no soul-sustaining princi- 
 ple of such a nature comforted them ; they 
 had been ill-treated, and were mortified. 
 Some mistaken ideas led to the result we 
 so often see take place when wounded hearts, 
 however disharmonized, attempt to rush into 
 unison because they have been repelled from 
 their natural course. 
 
 " Each wished to conceal from the world, 
 perhaps even from each other, the pain that 
 was felt, and in the hope of doing so, they 
 married, very soon after their unfaithful 
 lovers. 
 
 "Lilla's mother made a good, peaceful wife ; 
 but her own heart was broken, and she 
 knew her husband's would love no more. 
 
 " Perhaps an equal trial would, in our dear 
 Lilla's case, lead to the same consequences, 
 for soon after her birth, her motlier fell into 
 a decline. She was watched and nursed with
 
 86 EVELYN. 
 
 unremitting tenderness by her husband, to 
 the moment of her death : up to that mo- 
 ment she had never grieved him, he had 
 never cost her a sigh. 
 
 " The baron, too, died while on a mission to 
 Russia. The baroness then saw all impedi- 
 ment removed to a union with the man who 
 alone had ever possessed her affections. She 
 was now rich ; she could elevate him. She 
 waited to hear from him, to be told, what 
 she already felt, that they both were free 
 again. She did not hear; she supposed 
 timidity restrained him, and impelled by 
 feelings she believed to be generous, she 
 wrote to him. 
 
 " His answer stung her very soul, and still, 
 as an act of penance, she reads it over. 
 
 " It told her that, after having preferredthe 
 wealth, fame, and honours of the world to 
 him, and after having found Ichabod written 
 on them all, she had returned to offer to him 
 the dregs of an exhausted heart. It told her 
 her forsaken lover would not take second- 
 hand the heart which had been stolen from 
 him when new : it told her that her selfish 
 worldliness had broken the gentle heart of 
 the mother of his child, the woman who
 
 EVELYN. 87 
 
 loved him as a sister, but whose heart had 
 been irrevocably given to the man she had 
 so wrongfully married. 
 
 " And after this, the worldly-wise woman, 
 who now stood alone, the survivor of wrecked 
 happiness, hoped to reach the harbour she 
 had missed before. ' But, go,' he con- 
 cluded ; ' go, and offer on the tinselled 
 shrine of the world all that may yet remain 
 of the heart that once professed itself my 
 own ; withhold not what may remain, for 
 verily, for what hath been given, thou hast 
 had thine reward.' 
 
 " The world-loving woman cowered into 
 herself, as she read the epistle ; the mask 
 fell from her heart, she saw it as it was: 
 vanity had been its gangrene. She laid 
 that letter next it ; literally so, I have seen 
 it in the case she keeps it in, and believe it 
 will be buried there. Her time ever since 
 has been passed in seclusion, in acts of be- 
 nevolence, and in devotion. 
 
 " Some years passed, and her only child 
 was at the military college, when she got a 
 letter from her early and only love ; it con- 
 tained but a few lines, yet they showed her 
 he had known her manner of life, known
 
 88 EVELYN. 
 
 that she had lived as 'a widow indeed,' 
 doubly a widow, and had approved of it. 
 They told her also that he was ill, and con- 
 jured her, by the remembrance of her first 
 love, to come to him ; to forgive, if she had 
 aught against him, and to accept his last 
 bequest. She flew to him. He was in a 
 poor abode ; lassitude and melancholy had 
 impeded his labours, and brought him again 
 to poverty, and he was dying. He told her 
 he had vowed never willingly to see her 
 before then. He showed her his child, his 
 Lilla ; he desired to bequeath to her care 
 his only earthly treasure. The contrite 
 woman accepted it. Her love was recog- 
 nised in death ; the snares of the world were 
 broken, the husband of her heart died in 
 her arms : purified and chastened, she re- 
 turned with his child to her house, to de- 
 vote the remnant of her days to a double 
 object ; to effect the happiness of that child 
 on the earth, the happiness of all around 
 her, and of her own soul, in a holier 
 life. 
 
 " She brought Lilla to her house. She has 
 been as dear to her as her own son. The 
 baroness hoped the marriage of the children
 
 EVELYN. 89 
 
 miofht make some atonement for that of the 
 parents." 
 
 I drew my handkerchief before my eyes as 
 I said, 
 
 " Do you share the hope ? " 
 
 " Yes ; for Lilla has ever loved him, and 
 he, too, I think, has loved her. I do not 
 know ; a man's love is more easily distracted 
 than a woman's. But still " — Evelyn hesi- 
 tated — " still the romance, nay, even the 
 mystery of our first meeting, might readily 
 fire a youthful brain, and interest a warm 
 and generous heart. Such emotions Oscar 
 has mistaken, but he will return to his polar 
 star." 
 
 *' But " — then I hesitated longer than she 
 had done, and at last blurted out — " but 
 your own inclinations, must they be sacri- 
 ficed ? and perhaps to an ideal " — 
 
 " My own inclinations ! " Evelyn repeated 
 in a voice that was really solemn ; and lifting 
 up her large clear eyes, " Oh ! would Hea- 
 ven in its mercy grant me no severer sacri- 
 fice than that ! the marriage of Oscar and 
 Lilla ! " Her folded hands fell together on 
 her bosom, and a look of serene happiness 
 beamed on her countenance.
 
 90 EVELYN. 
 
 " No," she said, a moment afterwards, 
 smiling, and shaking her fair head at me, 
 " no, believe me, I am not of those who 
 think a woman acts a noble, or even a 
 right part, in giving up to another a man 
 whom she loves, and who also loves her. If 
 he loves her not, it is another matter ; then 
 she ought to resign her claim, even if he 
 had given her one in haste or error ; but if 
 he does, and that she truly loves him more 
 than herself, and desires his happiness more 
 than her own, then all the nonsense of pre- 
 ferring the happiness of a third person, 
 which is sometimes found in books, but 
 never, I believe, in real life, is, as the judges 
 of Galileo said of the earth's revolution, 
 false in philosophy and erroneous in faith." 
 
 " I understand you, now ; " I said ; " and 
 if, from no sentimental notion of promoting 
 the happiness of others, which would be 
 sure to end in making them unhappy as 
 well as yourself, you wish to leave Stock- 
 holm, I quite agree with you that your 
 absence will be more likely than your pre- 
 sence to promote the marriage of Oscar and 
 Lilla." 
 
 " Decidedly," said Evelyn, in a very ab-
 
 EVELYN. 91 
 
 sent manner. " When do you intend to 
 leave this place?" 
 
 " I cannot say any moment, but any day 
 I can be ready ; I wish, however, to go by 
 the Gottenburg Canal, and I believe the boat 
 goes the day after to-morrow, at a very early 
 hour." 
 
 *' I shall be ready," cried Evelyn. 
 
 " The whole journey of four days and a 
 half," I considerately added, " will only cost, 
 I think, about two pounds, meals and all 
 included. But are you prepared for what 
 you may meet ? " 
 
 " How ? " she said, with a start. 
 
 " Why, the whole entomological tribe of 
 Sweden bite ; and to be bitten must be your 
 fate, while you can, I fear, get nothing to bite." 
 
 " How ridiculous ! You mean that I 
 cannot eat knacken, and other northern 
 compounds." 
 
 " Nor drink finkel, or corn-spirit : as to 
 knacken, it is only fit for flag-stones, and 
 finkel — ach ! I assure you, however, se- 
 riously, that the whole power of my hands 
 could not subdivide that Swedish bread, ex- 
 pressively called knacken, which means — does 
 it not — the knack ? — so I never yet tried
 
 92 EVELYN. 
 
 it with my teeth. But as to the sleeping 
 accommodation, it is the neatest, cleanest, 
 most compact and delightful in the whole 
 range of invention: little dormitories, with 
 one or two couches, mosquito blinds to 
 the window, and blue curtains to the doors, 
 if you do not choose to close them. You 
 take a little room for one or two, d volonte. 
 The salle d manger is at the far end, the 
 aft, I think they call it, of the vessel, or 
 the fore end, down where the sailors are ; 
 and there, a discontented traveller said, 
 you have three times a day to go down a 
 ladder, ' feet foremost,' for your meals, and 
 get nothing you can eat after all. But you 
 know, when travellers are rude and trouble- 
 some, they are naturally discontented, and 
 will say anything: for my part, I would 
 rather go down a ladder feet foremost; would 
 not you?" 
 
 " Decidedly. So I think you will not 
 find me a discontented traveller, if you will 
 only let me travel with you," Evelyn smil- 
 ingly answered. 
 
 But almost while she was saying the 
 words, the young baron came back with his 
 now happy-looking partner: we had seen
 
 EVELYN. 93 
 
 enough of their mad-cap dance to be able to 
 speak of it, but he did not give us time. 
 Merely placing Lilla in a seat, he made his 
 bow, drew back, and after the law of the 
 land, bowed again, and so again, until bows 
 and the baron disappeared, I know not 
 whither ; but I heard that he was not seen at 
 his mother's all the next day, and conse- 
 quently did not hear of Evelyn's intended 
 escape.
 
 94 EVELYN. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Stockholm. 
 
 Fear of being too late often makes one be 
 too early : such was the case with me when, 
 at a very early hour on the morning but one 
 after the evening aforesaid, I arrived at the 
 house of Friherrinnan ■ nearly an hour 
 
 before the last moment. 
 
 The baroness had not risen, and Lilla was 
 engaged in weeping with her over the sudden 
 departure of their friend. 
 
 The houses in Stockholm are usually so 
 contrived that privacy and publicity are 
 united in most of the apartments ; com- 
 municating with each other in interminable 
 succession, you never feel quite sure you are 
 alone when alone. 
 
 I was shown into a large, cold, handsome 
 saloon, and spying a cosy-looking little one at 
 the farther end, I hastened into it, knowing
 
 EVELYN. 95 
 
 I had a full hour to wait, and anxious to 
 seize on all the repose I could find before I 
 entered the steamboat, of which a dreary 
 guide-book had given me a rather dreary 
 idea. An early starting-hour involves a 
 wakeful or restless night ; and the conse- 
 quent irritability of the nerves made me 
 long to ensconce myself in the great luxu- 
 rious sofa which half-filled the little apart- 
 ment. 
 
 There, then, much to my shame and con- 
 fusion, as it afterwards proved, I placed 
 myself in such a position that both eyes and 
 ears must command all that passed in the 
 antechamber, while arranged on the soft 
 sofa, and involved in its huge pillows, I was 
 unlikely to be seen by any one who did not 
 actually enter the place of my retreat ; and 
 certain of not being sought for till the mo- 
 ment of departure, I directly fell into a 
 very dozy state. 
 
 The sound of hasty, noisy footsteps startled 
 me ; but before I could get free from my nest, 
 the young baron, with a highly-excited air, 
 came into the grand saloon before me, just as 
 Evelyn, by an every-day accident, popped 
 into it by the opposite door ; for there were 
 three at least to tliat room.
 
 96 EVELYN. 
 
 I tried to get up, but, in fact, when I tell 
 what followed, it will be seen that I could 
 not. 
 
 He sprang with no little clang across the 
 floor, and took her prisoner. 
 
 *' Evelyn ! is it true ? Tell me it is not 
 true !" 
 
 " What ?" she said, quite trembling. 
 
 " That you were going to leave me." 
 
 " Yes ; I am going. Let me go," she 
 cried, writhing out of his grasp, " and hear 
 what I have to say. It was painful to de- 
 part without a farewell, but I thought it 
 wiser to do so." 
 
 " Yes ; but such wisdom is useless now ; 
 you shall not go ! — not without me." 
 • "Baron!" cried Evelyn, looking up at 
 him, as if indig-nant at the speech ; but the 
 countenance she saw changed her emotions. 
 
 " Oscar, listen to what I have to say." 
 
 " Say nothing," he replied in a low hoarse 
 voice ; " say nothing, unless you say my 
 love is not hopeless." 
 
 " It must be so, if set on me," she replied, 
 with gentle firmness ; " but I hope you will 
 yet find it was not so. Circumstances, friend, 
 have given me a strange claim on your noble
 
 EVELYN. 97 
 
 heart, your generous sympathies, your manly 
 protection ; but some day you will find this 
 was not love." 
 
 Words such as burst from the full pas- 
 sionate heart of youth cut short her calm 
 but faltering accents. 
 
 I heard Evelyn's attempted words lost in 
 the torrent of her lover's eloquence, and I 
 thought she was yielding to it. I wished 
 myself away, but escape was impossible. 
 
 " Ah ! truly, so to speak," cried Oscar to 
 her in reply, " shows that you at least can 
 know no love !" 
 
 " Blessed will be the woman to whom 
 your love is intrusted, Oscar," she replied 
 equivocally; " but I am not, never could be, 
 that woman." 
 
 Her words were putting out fire with oil ; 
 Evelyn saw this, and took another tone. 
 With a pure pale face, and hand laid softly 
 on his shoulder, she looked up to him, as he 
 bent, stilled like a child, by the soft pressure 
 of that hand, and thus she said : — 
 
 " Dear, good friend, my protector and 
 consoler in fearful trial, your memory will 
 be dear to me ; dear as that of a brother's. 
 But, Oscar, the beautiful prayer of my church 
 
 VOL. I. F
 
 98 EVELYN. 
 
 tells me there is one Being to whom all 
 hearts are open, all desires known, and from 
 whom no secrets are hid; that knowledge 
 gives me comfort and peace ; for whatever 
 I may hide from others, I would not, if I 
 could, hide aught that has befallen me from 
 the eyes that are too pure to look upon evil. 
 Believe this when you think of me ; but 
 believe also that I do not now speak from 
 maidenly coquettishness or prudish affecta- 
 tion, when I truly declare to you that I 
 cannot, will not, marry." 
 
 " Are you not mysterious, Evelyn?" 
 
 " Ah, yes ! and you, open as the day ; 
 happy and joyous : oh ! trust me, the sun- 
 light of your life will not pass away with the 
 friend over whose future days you already 
 know some fatal circumstances have cast a 
 shade." 
 
 " Evelyn, be my wife," cried Oscar, " and 
 preserve any secret you wish to keep. My 
 trust, my love, will never be diminished by 
 your necessary reserve. But ah ! sweet friend, 
 why, for your own sake, will you not repose 
 confidence in me ? Evelyn, I feel, I could 
 help, protect, perhaps avenge you." 
 
 " God forbid ! " she exclaimed, almost in 
 a voice of horror, " that any one should do
 
 EVELYN. 99 
 
 the last. Bat see now, Oscar," she added, 
 with a faint smile, " to what marriage might 
 bring me : could I resist such solicitations ? 
 You know not how frail poor nature is, how 
 great the desire to trust ; how the solitary 
 heart aches for human sympathy, and longs 
 to repose its burden on an arm of flesh : 
 that must not be ; there is One alone from 
 whom no secrets can be hid. No, my friend, 
 my resolution is, indeed, unalterable ; but 
 add your prayers to mine, that God may 
 give me grace and strength to keep it, and 
 to trust in him only. I wish you to be 
 happy ; I could never make you so, but I 
 can show you the way. Next to the service 
 and love of God, dear Oscar, the greatest 
 happiness is to be loved with all the fer- 
 vour of a fond and single affection. This 
 you would vainly seek from me ; but it yet 
 may be yours. Lilla can present the bless- 
 ing which it is not mine to bestow. She 
 loves you with an innocent, but a deep and 
 fervid love ; let her be your consolation 
 when I am gone ; and, believe me, that one 
 of the few things which can ever cause me 
 to feel real joy again, will be to hear from 
 yourself that the sweet girl is your bride." 
 F 2
 
 100 EVELYN. 
 
 It was curious to see the effect of these 
 words. The storm of, perhaps, hasty passion 
 was cahning ; an opposite current of milder 
 and re-awakened feeling set against it. They 
 sat side by side on the sofa, and he, bending 
 down his head, murmured the words, 
 
 " And Lilla loves me !" 
 
 " Only from my own perception do I 
 know it," said Evelyn, with that tender jea- 
 lousy for the honour of her sex which is so 
 lovely in woman, " not by word or token 
 from her. Such love as hers is too low, too 
 soft, too beautiful for human ear ; it is the 
 down on the butterfly's wing; the finger 
 that touches it bears trace of its existence, 
 but the common eye perceives it not." 
 
 The young baron laid his arms on the 
 table, and his head upon them. A groan 
 burst from his heart : the love he had lost 
 was at that moment dearer to him than that 
 he had found. 
 
 Evelyn rose gently up from her seat; a 
 tear, as she bent over it, fell on that young 
 manly head ; she lifted her arm, as if, in 
 woman's unadulterated affection, she would 
 have twined it round the neck of one she 
 had involuntarily made unhappy; but she
 
 EVELYN. 101 
 
 held the hand suspended over the bright 
 locks and hidden face, looked upwards, and 
 breathed a blessing or a prayer ; then glided 
 from the room, unheard and unseen. 
 
 I sprang with wonderful activity from 
 my sofa, and got out, I know not how. We 
 met in the gallery, and were gone from the 
 door, I do believe, before poor Oscar had lifted 
 up his head, and discovered that his English 
 
 love was lost to him for ever. 
 
 ****** 
 
 And now, steaming slowly, we pass on 
 through a beautiful archipelago : rocky and 
 woody islets are here as dark gems in a dia- 
 mond setting, the waters are sparkling so 
 brightly in the fresh morning sun. 
 
 The beating hearts in our circumscribed 
 space throb, perhaps, less wildly than one 
 we have left behind. 
 
 But what know we of human hearts? 
 What know I of that which almost touches 
 my elbow as I write ? Evelyn sits beside 
 me ; her soft eyes are full of tears which 
 never overflow; they beam like the moon 
 through the light haze of a summer night : 
 she is sad, yet happy ; " sorrowful, yet always 
 rejoicing." She surely feels she has done right.
 
 102 EVELYN. 
 
 And on, and on, we move slowly through 
 a fair and intricate course : soon the city 
 disappears, and silence, the deepest and most 
 solemn, reigns around us, and dwells in the 
 countless islets that throng our course; a 
 silence meet for the poet and day-dreamer ; a 
 silence lovely in the warm summer-time, but 
 which in an ice-wrapped scenery must have 
 an awful effect. 
 
 The approach to this Venice of the north 
 by the Baltic shows the city to much greater 
 advantage than this way of exit of ours by 
 Lake Malar; both want the charming 
 uniqueness of the Venice of the south, which, 
 unlike any city of earth, seems to spring 
 forth 
 
 " fresh from ocean, 
 Rising with her tiara of round towers," 
 
 on a level with the sea, and without apparently 
 a foot of earth to rest on. Stockholm, built 
 on its seven islands, is, on the contrary, 
 clearly seen, even at a distance, to be partly 
 elevated on a high rocky site, and partly de- 
 scending to the water's edge. It is sur- 
 rounded, too, by trees, rocks, hills, and turf- 
 banks covered with flowers ; instead of ris- 
 ing like fair Venice from a bed of waters,
 
 EVELYN. 103 
 
 its site undistinguished from them by a tree, 
 or rock, or glimpse of solid land. But if 
 it were not for that beautiful singularity, and 
 for the romance-history which invests the 
 widow of the Adriatic with a character all 
 her own, in beauty or in grandeur, the 
 water-approach to the capital of the north 
 might well compete the palm with her. 
 
 It appears much more delightful to leave 
 Stockholm by the Malar than by the Baltic. 
 In the first place, there is not the dreary 
 prospect of sailing for three or four days 
 over the deep green sea; but the more 
 pleasing one of traversing the great old 
 mystic lakes of Sweden, ever since the 
 marvel-loving time of my own sweet child- 
 hood associated with all the ideas I ever 
 formed of the land of Odin : and then the 
 whole water-journey to Gottenburg is the 
 most curious, and to me one of the most 
 interesting that can be imagined. 
 
 I certainly never felt on Como, or Mag- 
 giore, the sense of interest and enjoyment 
 which Lake Malar has given me. It is 
 seventy-five English miles in length ; at 
 times its banks contract so as to bring close 
 to you their luxuriant verdure, their flowers,
 
 104 EVELYN. 
 
 pretty villas, and handsome chateaux ; then 
 it expands again, and presents you with 
 large and small islands, to the amount, in 
 its whole course, of one thousand four hun- 
 dred ; some of these dotted with pretty 
 houses, others filled only with fir-trees, others 
 a bare rock : and these last were the favoured 
 haunts of superstition, and scarcely one of 
 them but would furnish matter for a legend, 
 if we had time, en passant, to make one up. 
 
 As we moved away from the city, its 
 steeples and towers, and afterwards the green 
 banks, with their pleasant villas, were more 
 distinctly visible to us when we looked 
 down on the sunny water. We seemed to 
 sail over a splendid picture, dividing the 
 crystal that covered it: the last, and the 
 first, of sights, as of everything else, are the 
 most impressive ; but the last more than the 
 first ; perhaps such is the reason that Stock- 
 holm, as seen in the waters of Lake Malar, 
 is most distinctly mirrored still in my 
 memory. 
 
 Now we go round a fine promontory, and 
 adieu, a really affectionate adieu, to dear 
 Malaren. We now get into the first of the 
 numerous and extraordinary canals which
 
 EVELYN. 105 
 
 striniT together the various natural waters 
 which are employed in making our romantic 
 water-route to Gottenburg. 
 
 The high, picturesque banks and narrow 
 channel of this connecting bit of canal, which 
 is said to be on the site of that cut by the 
 famed St. OlafF, Viking of Norway before he 
 was sainted, to carry his ships away from the 
 blockade of the fleets of Sweden and Den- 
 mark, gave me the notion of a pretty gallery, 
 leading into a handsome saloon. A single 
 door, or lock, admitted us into the latter, a 
 vik, or deep small bay of the Baltic ; but the 
 sea is here like a lake, in scenery and peace- 
 fulness. The town of Sodertelje, and its 
 picturesque swing-bridge, are left behind ; 
 the grey crags of East Gotaland are at each 
 side, and numerous islands, bare, or fir- 
 crowned, and half-hidden rocks, begin to 
 render our passage a slow and cautious one ; 
 but the proper channel is generally marked 
 out for anxious mariners, by painting the 
 rocks white, or, in shallow water, erecting 
 sign-poles. One little island left its memory 
 with me ; it bore, on a rocky soil, one tall, 
 sad-looking young fir-tree. I pointed it out 
 to Evelyn. 
 
 F 3
 
 106 EVELYN. 
 
 " It is," she said, " a melancholy type of 
 some human lives or hearts." 
 
 At Mem we enter the Gota Canal ; it is a 
 pretty spot, the scenery to us was novel. 
 In the perfectly circular basin before the 
 village, an admixture of salt and fresh water 
 occurs. The deep solitude which had marked 
 a great part of our course had been to me 
 delightful ; but, as Evelyn remarked, I was 
 equally delighted here with the change. 
 Handsome houses of the higher orders, and 
 comfortable stone ones for the more lowly, 
 neat farms, grazing herds, troops of horses, 
 kept somewhat as they are in Bretagne, en 
 masse, and immense droves of coal-black pigs 
 (not iron ones), are seen among the pastures ; 
 and young ladies are angling in the clear basin 
 of Mem with much grace and dexterity. 
 
 " An angling lady ! " cried Evelyn, who, 
 contrary to my prohibition, had peeped over 
 my shoulder to look at w^hat I wrote, — " how 
 can you record such an offence against our 
 nature ? Who could pity her if she were 
 caught by some treacherous bait herself?" 
 
 " They say cold-blooded animals do not 
 feel," I replied, without stopping my pencil. 
 
 " In that case our pity for her might be
 
 EVELYN. 107 
 
 thrown away, you mean, I fear, to infer. 
 But I will only believe that assertion when 
 a fish tells me so." 
 
 Our kind, English-speaking captain of the 
 John Telford — for the pretty little steam- 
 boat was named after our engineer, who 
 assisted in constructing the Gottenburg 
 Canal — came to tell us that the town of 
 Soderkoping (N.B. The k in Swedish is pro- 
 nounced like cli soft in this and similar 
 names) was one of the first seaports of Swe- 
 den in the age of Gustavus Wasa ; and that 
 the great chalk cliff before that now quiet 
 place was, at a still earlier date, the abode of 
 the renowned pirate. Giant Ramundar, and 
 is still named Ramundarshall. 
 
 I do not know whether the giant-pirate 
 patronised the water cure, or was partial to 
 the purity of that pure beverage, but the 
 hall of Ramundar is famous for it still, and 
 we eagerly intercepted the bare-legged boy 
 who brought down a supply for the use of 
 the passengers of the John Telford. 
 
 Soderkoping is a watering-place in ano- 
 ther sense, but I do not think my descrip- 
 tion of it would send as many English there 
 as that of the Old Man did to the Brunnen
 
 108 EVELYN. 
 
 of Nassau. A single "bubble" it would be 
 useless for me to cast up. 
 
 We left the canal to enter the small lake 
 of Asplongen, — our valuable captain wrote 
 all names in my pocket-book ; — then we got 
 into the canal again to lead us into lovely 
 Lake Rosen. 
 
 Now at this point we should call to mind 
 that the waters of the great Lake Wettern, 
 and small contiguous lakes, or natural 
 streams, at the Stockholm side, flow, in that 
 direction, to the Baltic Sea ; whereas those 
 of the mighty Wenern flow by the Gota 
 river to the Kattegat at Gottenburg, so 
 that the course of this truly wonderful canal 
 is divisible into two sections : of which, one, 
 that which we are upon, ascends from the 
 Baltic at Stockholm to Lake Wettern ; the 
 other, which we enter into after leaving the 
 Wettern, will descend from the Wenern to 
 the Kattegat. 
 
 Now, then, we are going up granite hills 
 in a steamboat ; presently we shall go down 
 them. I only note what is most remark- 
 able ; for as we were four days and a half in 
 our packet, it may be reasonable to imagine
 
 EVELYN. 109 
 
 I was asleep some part of the route. And, 
 indeed, I am now just reminded, by a cruel 
 mosquito-bite, that I should be where other 
 people are, — asleep in their nice little dor- 
 mitories.
 
 110 EVELYN. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The Gottenburg Canal. 
 
 It was after crossing Rosen-Zee that the 
 feats which our little packet performed ap- 
 peared to me singularly interesting, and, 
 united with the scenery through which it led 
 us, rendered this journey unlike any I had 
 ever made. 
 
 From the Rosen the canal is carried up 
 the face of a hill, and by a series of seven 
 locks, admits us into the Wettern. 
 
 Two hours are required for the passage of 
 these locks. Almost all our passengers, 
 Evelyn among them, spent the time in visit- 
 ing Vretakloster, an old church, where are 
 the tombs of ancient Swedish kings and 
 other great personages, including some of 
 the gallant Scots once so famous in Sweden, 
 the Douglas, who fought with Gustavus 
 Adolphus.
 
 EVELYN. Ill 
 
 I should like to have seen Vretakloster, 
 but an injured foot made me avoid the risk 
 of being left there, as there was no Giant 
 llamundar to carry me back. 
 
 T spent the time in my own fashion, and 
 I do not regret having stayed behind. 
 
 It was a sweet evening : diverging from 
 the road, I went into a field of tall grass, 
 whose rising ground gave me the view I 
 wanted. I sat under a large hawthorn, 
 pulled wild-flowers, looked backwards and 
 forwards and straight before me, and I 
 wondered much. Nature was very beautiful, 
 and art was admirable. 
 
 When my head turned one Avay, I saw 
 the poor, patient, afflicted-looking steam- 
 boat standing at the bottom of a steep 
 rocky hill, rising seventy feet above it, and 
 awaiting there the moment of its toilsome 
 tug. The locks are divided into sections, 
 but, at that distance, appeared to me to 
 form one continuous dark staircase, ascend- 
 ing from the pretty boudoir-like lake that 
 lay at its foot. Then, when I turned to the 
 other side, there lay the fair, smiling, gentle 
 Rosen, gemmed with its islets, and bright 
 with the rays of the declining sun.
 
 112 EVELYN. 
 
 The tall tower of Linkoping rose among 
 the more distant trees on the opposite land ; 
 and there was the old castle of the bishop, 
 who so steadily resisted the Reformation of 
 Luther, preferring a prison for life to an 
 improvement in faith. 
 
 Not a creature in the world appeared to 
 be stirring but myself, not even the mos- 
 quitoes, — their hour was not come ; but the 
 banks of the lake, wooded to the water's 
 edge, the noble oaks, the bright green of the 
 verdure, so far removed all aspect and 
 thought of gloom, that I could hardly fancy 
 this pretty scene was the vestibule of the 
 haunted and dreaded Lake Wettern. Boren, 
 a less interesting and smaller lake, is con- 
 nected with both by a piece of canal. 
 
 We assembled again ; the boat mounted 
 the hill ; we passed Motalla, the great iron- 
 manufactory of this iron-producing land, and 
 we passed, too, the grave of Admiral Von 
 Platen, who helped to make the canal. A 
 short time ago the captains used to fire a 
 salute in so doing, but now they content 
 themselves by saying to all strangers, " There 
 is the grave of Admiral Von Platen ; " and 
 this answers as well as the discharge of guns.
 
 EVELYN. 113 
 
 The great architect of Italy desired to be 
 buried where he could see his beautiful 
 spire ; and the engineer of Sweden has just 
 as good a view of his canal. 
 
 Night came on, — the still and glorious night 
 of the north. We got out on the vast and 
 beautiful and mystic Lake Wettern. The 
 moon rose clear and calm, mingling its light 
 with the twilight of the sky. Not a breath 
 stirred the soft, strange atmosj^here. The 
 upper deck was empty ; I had crept from 
 my cabin when others crept to theirs. I 
 sat there in blissful solitude, and felt the in- 
 fluence of the solemn and majestic scene ; 
 Wettern by moonlight ! Deep thanks be 
 thine, Parent of all good, who, with whatever 
 hath been taken, hast left me the capacity 
 to love and enjoy thy works ! 
 
 Wettern Lake is about ten miles less in 
 length than its sister Wenern, but much 
 less in breadth. It is ninety English miles 
 long, and only fifteen broad : Wenern, the 
 largest lake in Europe, except Ladoga, is 
 one hundred long, and extends to fifty miles 
 in breadth; although, like Malaren, it fre- 
 quently contracts narrowly. Wettern Lake 
 is two hundred and ninety-five feet above the
 
 114 EVELYN. 
 
 sea, its sister is only elevated one hundred 
 and forty-seven. 
 
 Wettern is in parts immensely deep ; 
 perhaps from that cause arises the deep 
 green of its waters, green almost as those of 
 the Baltic. 
 
 Our polite captain, a lieutenant in the 
 navy, out for his three years, when, as the 
 pay is small, they are allowed to take other 
 employment, gave me a description of it 
 quite in unison with my earliest ideas. 
 
 Its exposure throughout its vast length to 
 the winds of the north and south, and other 
 causes, " arising from its physical formation," 
 as a pedant said — without an island to inter- 
 rupt the continuous swell of its sea-like 
 billows, or offer a refuge to the foundering 
 mariners, whose heavily-laden vessels have 
 to pass it, might alone cause it to be an 
 object of dread ; but it is besides subject 
 to some strange caprices, which render it 
 decidedly their aversion. Its incertitude 
 sets at nought their skill and foreknowledge. 
 When a profound calm prevails on land and 
 sea, the waves of this paradoxical lake 
 "arise and toss themselves:" on the con- 
 trary, when a tempest sweeps the land, and
 
 EVELYN. 115 
 
 the waves of the sea roar horribly, Lake 
 Wettern reposes in tranquillity. 
 
 Such phenomena, arising as aforesaid from 
 physical constitution, however natural to 
 human compositions, are calculated to give 
 a mysterious character to a lake. Even 
 modern superstition — and this in Sweden is 
 not as threadbare a thing- as it is in other 
 parts of Europe — is not unimpressed with the 
 awe that is reflected from the terrible days 
 of old. r 
 
 The fierce and gloomy legends which the 
 genius of Scandinavia created, are indeed 
 well-nigh worn out ; but still the Wettern 
 may recall the idea of those unholy things 
 which sported in the storm, and exulted in 
 the shriek of the drowning, which danced on 
 the surge of the billow, and sang in the 
 whistling wind. And where, in the clear 
 white gloom of a northern winter night, 
 could there be found a more fitting scene 
 for the savage wolf-witch, with her jaws 
 drij^ping blood, to pursue her ghastly flight, 
 than over this vast lonely lake of ice ? 
 There are real wolves in abundance, which 
 prowl and worry, if they dare not devour, 
 the sledge-driving traveller.
 
 116 EVELYN. 
 
 A white, ghost-like form stood beside me 
 on the deck; noiselessly it planted itself 
 there ; it stood between me and the full- 
 orbed moon that hung clear and pale in the 
 twilight sky. 
 
 " Cruel, that you are," said a silvery voice, 
 quite full of reproach; "why not awake 
 me ? I was asleep, and might have lost this 
 magnificent scene." 
 
 " You looked so like a ghost," I replied, 
 drawing a long breath, " with that great 
 mosquito veil over your head ; if you had 
 not spoken so matter-of-fact-like, I should 
 have had a mysterious story to record." 
 
 " Ah ! I hate mysteries ; never invent 
 them," said Evelyn, " lest as a punishment 
 you, too, should have to experience their 
 real misery." 
 
 " Yet are you not sometimes mysterious ; 
 at least, is there not some mystery about 
 you ? " I boldly said. 
 
 " Yes, to my deep sorrow," she instantly, 
 and without either offence or prevarication, 
 made answer ; " yes ; if not mystery, there is 
 concealment ; and I have been always taught 
 to think that so wrong ; to feel that one's 
 heart and thoughts should be seen as in a
 
 EVELYN. 117 
 
 looking-glass; that every feeling should be 
 bared to the view of others." 
 
 " That system in early education often 
 leads to subsequent error, or unhappiness," I 
 remarked. 
 
 " I do not think it has led to error in my 
 case," she replied ; " to unhappiness — oh, 
 yes!" 
 
 There was silence between us ; we looked 
 over the mystic moonlit, and daylit lake ; 
 then turned and looked into each other's 
 eyes. Moonlight then again met mine. 
 Without word or sign, we felt our hearts 
 conversed, understood each other's language ; 
 yet mystically still. 
 
 " You can, then, trust me," said Evelyn, in 
 a voice of emotion ; " you can leave me to 
 myself, and let me bear my own burden, as 
 I must, as I ought to bear it." 
 
 " I can do so," I replied, " and without 
 explaining why." 
 
 Evelyn was quite silent for some time ; I 
 could not even see her face. 
 
 " I have lately," she said, after this long 
 pause, " met some noble hearts ; perhaps 
 God never sends to his children a trial, 
 that he does not also send some way of
 
 118 EVELYN. 
 
 escape that they may be able to bear it ; 
 though," she added, deeply sighing, "though 
 it be not the way their hearts would desire. 
 I have honoured you for your silence ; your 
 avoidance of all questions." 
 
 " Be assured that I shall always avoid 
 asking what you may appear to wish to leave 
 unanswered," I replied. 
 
 " Ah !" and that "ah !" must typify a great 
 sigh, " that is just what I longed for you to 
 say. I have feared to speak, lest I should 
 be drawn out to say too much. Oh ! w^hen 
 the pent-up heart longs to expand itself, 
 to vent even the least part — " 
 
 A great figure, muffled in a long-sleeved 
 cloak, came up the steps; Evelyn sprang 
 close to me, a scream was bursting from her 
 lips. 
 
 " Sail you natt be too cald, ladees?" said 
 our ever-attentive captain. 
 
 I could answer as to the improbability of 
 our trembling from cold, but Evelyn trem- 
 bled from some other reason. Here, how- 
 ever, was a Swede, wrapped up to the eyes, 
 and fearing the cold of a summer night ; he 
 had a delicate chest, to be sure ; but, strange 
 to say, it is always affirmed that foreigners
 
 EVELYN. 119 
 
 bear the winter cold of Sweden better than 
 the natives. 
 
 " How solemn must this scene be in win- 
 ter," I said to Evelyn, when he had retired 
 again ; " those trees gemmed with icicles, 
 — those vast frozen lakes, white and path- 
 less." 
 
 " I have passed over a part of this in the 
 baron's sledge," Evelyn observed ; " we 
 came this w-ay from Ystad, and for a part 
 of it we were obliged to come on the 
 frozen lake. It was a grand but terrible 
 scene, and the cry of the wolves!" — she 
 shuddered — " when I think of that long 
 adventurous journey, just four hundred and 
 fifty of our miles, performed under his pro- 
 tection, his kind-hearted servant our sole 
 attendant ; half-dead as I w^as with fear, 
 grief, and cold, surely it is not wonderful, 
 that a man so brave, young, and noble in 
 mind, should even fancy he loved the forlorn 
 creature for whom he endured such hard- 
 ship ? One night w^e reached the edge of 
 that vast solemn forest : to get through it 
 was impossible; a friendly old wood-cutter 
 took us into his hut ; — ah ! if you had seen 
 how like a father young Oscar watched over
 
 120 EVELYN. 
 
 me ; Heaven bless him, more than I ever 
 can." 
 
 " I never have," I said, " v/ondered at the 
 love of the noble young Swede ; I only won- 
 der how you, so young, lovely, and formed, 
 one would say, to love and be loved, could 
 not return the sentiment you inspired." 
 
 Evelyn fastened her deeply tender eyes on 
 me, and said, 
 
 " You wonder at that ! Well," she added, 
 turning the direction, though not the subject, 
 of our conversation, " the heart is often a 
 mystery to oneself, it must be so, therefore, to 
 others. But the baron's love for me was the 
 growth merely of circumstances ; I am con- 
 vinced he had loved Lilla first ; I am sure 
 they both had felt she was his destined 
 bride, his legitimate and first love. I came 
 between them like the wandering star that 
 might eclipse for a moment our view of the 
 planet ; but now the eclipse is passed ; or, a 
 more appropriate simile is to say, that the 
 parted waters will meet, now that the di- 
 viding rock is removed. Sweet Lilla ; she 
 saw I was that rock ; but she bowed her 
 meek heart, and appeared only to love and 
 reverence me the more, because she saw he
 
 EVELYN. 121 
 
 did so. She fancied, dear girl, that hers was 
 the love of the moth for the star. Her love 
 for Oscar is almost devotion." 
 
 And now the moon was gone ; the gorgeous 
 sun came forth rejoicing from his chamber 
 in the east. He shone over lovely and 
 varied scenery. Wanas, the great fortress 
 and military depot of Sweden, guards the 
 entrance of the Wettern; it would doubt- 
 less be to Sweden what the Capitol was to 
 Rome, should that land become the scene of 
 war. 
 
 Viken is a deep pool in the bosom of fir- 
 covered mountains : here the scenery became 
 most lovely ; the foliage of more genial tem- 
 perature mingled with that of the dark pine 
 and fir and the silvery stem of the hardy 
 birch. A number of beautiful islands throno-ed 
 the passage, and rendered it a curiously 
 labyrinthine one. The passage is threaded, 
 and the West Gota Canal is entered, — with 
 the exception of that at Trollhiittan, the 
 most astonishing thing of the kind I ever 
 beheld. It is hewn out of granite ; and the 
 labour and expense of cutting the passage 
 were so great, that, to save a couple of feet in 
 width, it is so narrow, that the poor little 
 
 VOL. I. G
 
 122 EVELYN. 
 
 packet is in danger of crushing its ribs 
 against the walls of rock between which it is 
 wedged in passing the locks. We feel for 
 its position, as well as for that of the anxious 
 crew and captain who have to conduct the 
 panting, puffing thing through the many- 
 curving and dangerous bends of the canal. 
 Its progress is naturally slow, but, to my 
 fancy, interesting, as we, idle passengers, 
 have constantly to run from side to side, 
 exclaiming and admiring, as we momentarily 
 expect to come dash against the high black 
 walls. But the captain says the boats very 
 rarely meet with an accident, they are so 
 skilfully managed ; yet there, at that projec- 
 tion of the curve, a poor sailor who held the 
 pole, shoving the boat off from it, toppled 
 over, and was killed between that horrid 
 paddle and the black wall. The locks are 
 numerous, and dignified with royal names, 
 as theatres and other things are with us. 
 They have the advantage, which royal per- 
 sons themselves do not always possess, of 
 giving liberty to prisoners ; at the name of 
 Charles John, or Prince Oscar, we leap from 
 confinement, and ramble at liberty through 
 the pleasant country.
 
 EVELYN. 123 
 
 But beauty is rapidly passing away. The 
 highest level of our course is marked on a 
 column, as, I think, three hundred feet 
 above the sea. We shall soon begin to 
 descend, but for some time we have a nearly 
 level run, and perhaps therefore an unin- 
 teresting one ; the scenery is flat and unro- 
 mantic, though more populated and ani- 
 mated. 
 
 At this crisis in our journey, Evelyn and I 
 went to sleep. 
 
 My general impression of this West Gota 
 Canal, however, is, that fir and birch now take 
 place of trees of a more temperate latitude ; 
 lichens are in great variety, and the largest 
 mosses I ever saw; also heaths, and a profusion 
 of wild strawberries in the woods, with an 
 equal abundance of wild flowers ; of the lat- 
 ter fact w^e had incontrovertible evidence, by 
 often getting a smart salute on the cheek from 
 a great bunch of these flowers — no matter if 
 the nettle or thistle were among them — 
 flung with all the benevolence which the 
 hope of receiving in return the smallest mite 
 into which the Swedish threepenny bank- 
 note is divisible, could impart to the poor 
 young girl, bare-legged boy, or old woman. 
 G 2
 
 124 EVELYN. 
 
 who threw it at us. Very different from the 
 pretty flower-offerers of Florence, who have 
 won so much English money, if not hearts, 
 they yet made their offering with quite the 
 same intentions. 
 
 The banks of this canal were, indeed, in 
 some parts, lined with poor creatures, both 
 men and women ; some of the former the 
 largest I have ever seen in any country. I 
 never saw such large men as in this part of 
 Sweden. These poor people had not shoes 
 nor stockings ; their fair, but tanned or 
 freckled faces, and dirty light hair, presented 
 nothing of comeliness or interest. The 
 head-dress of the women was that most re- 
 pulsive one of a dirty-coloured handkerchief, 
 wound round the forehead, and all. But if 
 there was nothing sentimental or engaging, 
 there was nothing offensive in their manner 
 or aspect ; they appeared to be civil and 
 quiet ; not pertinacious like the beggars of 
 Austria, nor clamorous like those of Italy, 
 nor impudent like those of Ireland. 
 
 I sometimes seriously incline to the belief 
 that my journeys are productive of some 
 skiey influences. I know not how it is, but 
 I fancy if any one particularly wanted fine
 
 EVELYN. 125 
 
 weather, and were to send me on a journey, — 
 of course paying its expenses, — the weather 
 would be fine. It is always so when I am 
 en route. 
 
 Now, on Midsummer's Eve, it might have 
 been raining if I had been stationary in 
 England, but not a drop fell on the banks of 
 the West Gota Canal ; never have I to record 
 the usual complaints of travellers against 
 weather and disappointments. It is very 
 strange, but it is true. 
 
 The feast of St. John in the north has 
 taken place of the feast of the Scandinavian 
 deity Balder. We came in our rambles on 
 a gala group of young peasants, celebrating 
 in the pleasant ball-room of a meadow that 
 ancient fete of the sun. A high pole was 
 decorated with a parachute-like crown of 
 wild flowers, and a spiral rope of the same 
 wound it around. The dance went on in a 
 circle about it, like that of our old May- 
 day, which is now only celebrated by the 
 chimney-sweepers of London. We were 
 in the land of Jenny Lind and of Taglioni, 
 but neither the music nor dancing reminded 
 us of either the Swedish nightingale or Swe- 
 dish danseuse. The notes of a home-made
 
 126 EVELYN. 
 
 Yiolin were eked out at irregular intervals 
 by a chorus of vocal sounds ; but whether 
 these proceeded from the nightingales or 
 corncreaks of Sweden, I, unfortunately, was 
 not ornithologist enough to discover. Yet 
 it was a happy and innocent scene. Many 
 of our merry passengers took part in it, and 
 the young people received the dancing tri- 
 bute to their flower-pole in good part, and 
 were in no degree " put out of the way " by 
 the accession of a foreign troop. 
 
 This was near to Carlstad, where we had 
 to stop for three hours ; it is the chief town 
 of the province, the residence of a bishop 
 and governor, and seated on the brink of the 
 Wenern, on an island formed by the junc- 
 tion there of the great river Klar, which, 
 after a roll of two hundred and fifty miles 
 from Norway, pours itself here into the 
 Avaters of this vast lake, with them to find 
 its only passage through the narrow opening 
 of the rocks at Trollhattan. Most of our pas- 
 sengers went off to examine the pet fortress 
 of the late soldier king ; I found Evelyn 
 sitting with her feet almost in the lake, 
 her head encircled with a coronet of mos- 
 quitoes, wheeling round the brow they ap-
 
 EVELYN. 127 
 
 peared afraid to touch. My forehead was 
 one great red blister, and hers was as white 
 as ever. It is curious that that part of " the 
 human face divine" is the sphere of their 
 malignant attacks. They are evidently an 
 intellectual tribe. 
 
 Evelyn had been conversing with a finely- 
 dressed officer of the Swedish navy, one of 
 the enrolled, but not employed, who hold 
 lands after the ancient tenure of military 
 service. He had come to Carlstad to see 
 the governor, whom, as he, like all seamen 
 of his country, spoke English, he called " the 
 general." But he had the double object of 
 making one at the midsummer ball; and 
 fearing to be late for it, he went away soon 
 after I returned. 
 
 " Do you really never dance?" I said to 
 her. 
 
 She answered my question, as a certain 
 people are said to do, by asking another. 
 
 "Do you?" 
 
 " I am too old." 
 
 " Equivocal ! But did you ever ?" 
 
 *' Many a time ; and giddily as any one ; 
 even as the Swedes can do ; as that young 
 Oscar and Lilla did the other night. But I
 
 128 EVELYN. 
 
 gave it up when I came to years of dis- 
 cretion. I have not danced since I was 
 seventeen years old." 
 
 " What a droll person you are ! What 
 could make you give up dancing when most 
 people begin ?" 
 
 " Sorrow, and, people say, religion." 
 
 Evelyn sighed. 
 
 " Well," she said, " such was not my case ; 
 I never was taught to dance. I always 
 thought it was sinful." 
 
 " You were then religiously brought up ?" 
 
 " I was brought up by what are termed 
 strictly evangelical people ; pious, excellent, 
 well-meaning w^omen." 
 
 Out rung the little imperative bell from 
 the boat, and down came running all the 
 straggling passengers, leaving their various 
 employments ; some from taking a warm 
 bath, some from eating a better supper in the 
 town than they could find on board, — but 
 these were neither natives nor Germans, for 
 the supper was paid for, eaten or not, — and 
 Evelyn and I from criticising our early edu- 
 cation. That work was postponed, for we 
 had now to dive down " feet foremost," in 
 the manner aforesaid, in order to try to mas-
 
 EVELYN. 129 
 
 ticate our daily bread ; a work of more prac- 
 tical utility, but so much more difficult, that, 
 overcome with the labour of trying to break 
 knacken into eatable subdivisions, and of 
 shaking my head at the sundry plates pre- 
 sented to me by the busy Flika, I went to 
 my berth, and slept the sleep of the weary. 
 
 G 3
 
 130 EVELYN. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 TUE GiJTTENBURG CaNAL. 
 
 I WAS fast asleep when we got into the 
 Wenern : but I was awoke by Evelyn, in 
 her white dress and gleaming hair, bending 
 over me, and, with a low whisper, causing me 
 to jump up in an instant to the living world. 
 
 She wanted me, so naturally, to come on 
 deck, and see the dangers of our passage. 
 It was indeed most intricate : parts of the 
 Wenern are exceedingly shallow, and so 
 beset with rocks that the only safe channel 
 is marked by sticks, so close to each other 
 as barely to leave room for a vessel between 
 them, while the rocks and sharp-pointed 
 crags bristle up equally close, and the nu- 
 merous islets render the passage tortuous, 
 as well as difficult. 
 
 To the fearfully disposed, all this at night 
 would not be agreeable ; even the chiar-
 
 EVELYN. 131 
 
 oscuro of a northern sky might be insuf- 
 ficient to guide a steersman, less skilful 
 than a Norwegian one, through its clusters 
 of rocks and islets ; but Evelyn was quite 
 delighted when she got me to stand beside 
 her, and with a sense of perfect safety we 
 saw our young captain guide our packet 
 within a hair's breadth of the jutting crags ; 
 sometimes just the least little scrape, and off 
 again. 
 
 This was only for a part of our passage ; 
 though for some distance the shores of the 
 vast lakes are near, and form even jutting 
 peninsulas far into it ; and though the Kine- 
 kulle, the Brocken of Sweden, was shown 
 to me from it, yet does the boat take another 
 course, and gets out on the wide, deep lake, 
 and then no eyes can range over its expanse 
 of fifty miles, neither can they meet any 
 object whereon to rest in the intermediate 
 space. 
 
 " Now, Evelyn," I said, " I really am very 
 sleepy ; there are no more dangers to awake 
 me to see : the sun performs the part of the 
 night-police in Sweden, and you remind me 
 of the old watchmen of by-gone days in 
 England, who made the country gentleman
 
 132 EVELYN. 
 
 complain that they awoke him to tell him 
 what o'clock it was." 
 
 " Yet I am not a coward," she replied, 
 with a smile. 
 
 '' You have moral courage, perhaps too 
 much," I answered ; " good night. Do you 
 sleep too." 
 
 We both did so. 
 
 The words of command given by the 
 captain in Swedish are almost the same as 
 those used in our language, so that some 
 travellers have imagined that English words 
 are used ; the calling out of some of these 
 words, though in the silky voice of Sweden, 
 awoke us both ; we started up, and found 
 we were at Wenersborg, or the town of the 
 Wener, as would be its interpretation. 
 
 Here we had to take in wood, an opera- 
 tion at which others might grumble, but at 
 which I was much pleased, we saw so much 
 to amuse us, and passed the time so agree- 
 ably. Certainly in England, where time is 
 money, and a person who steals a man's 
 time is therefore a pickpocket, and ought, 
 if our laws were consistent, to be more 
 severely punished than he who steals a 
 handkerchief, the Gottenburg Canal would
 
 EVELYK. 133 
 
 not answer as well as the railroads ; but 
 everything is beautiful in its season, and 
 perhaps when the railroad is made between 
 Gottenburg and Stockholm we shall find it 
 beautiful too. 
 
 We left any one to grumble that pleased ; 
 and while some of the immense piles of 
 wood, which are most artistically built up 
 along the banks, were being carried into the 
 boat by herculean, yet very poor-looking 
 Swedes, we walked forth into the rather 
 dreary town of Wenersborg. 
 
 The houses, raised only one story above 
 the ground-floor, are laid out in regular 
 order, at a distance so wide apart as to 
 give an idea of unsociability ; they seem to 
 say, " I am obliged to be near you, but I will 
 keep as far off as I can." In fact, they look 
 like the streets of Berlin, where a certain 
 space of ground was obliged to be covered 
 with buildings. 
 
 Land cannot be as dear on the banks of 
 the Wenern as in over-crowded England ; 
 the object, however, is, not to keep peace 
 between neighbours, but to prevent them 
 from taking fire from each other. 
 
 Since a terrible conflagration that took
 
 134 EVELYN. 
 
 place here about a dozen years ago, Weners- 
 borg, like princely Hamburg, is rising like 
 the phoenix from its ashes. The ancient 
 church stands in the centre of a desolate 
 square ; we saw nothing to charm us in the 
 town, but in returning we found occupation 
 in examining the national vehicles ; the 
 small carriages, and the compact little 
 horses that draw them, the antique ploughs, 
 and rude farming implements, all worthier 
 of a simpler age than the nineteenth cen- 
 tury. I could not help thinking what a 
 mutual-advantage system it might prove if 
 English or Scotch farmers were encouraged 
 to settle in this agricultural country. But 
 some one told me Sweden did not like such 
 settlements. 
 
 Here we saw cars and carts patched up in 
 a primitive fashion, the timber not altogether 
 stripped of its bark. Here too we were 
 amused by the curious carriages used by 
 these people for the transit of their frozen 
 lakes ; but some of them were too awful to 
 be lightly spoken of — a sailing carriage upon 
 ice ! literally propelled by sails. Hail to the 
 old genius of Scandinavia ! could anything 
 be more in keeping with it ?
 
 EVELYN. 135 
 
 The less imaginative vehicle consists of 
 two shafts of rough fir, extending two or 
 three feet behind the part on which the 
 body rests ; these trail on the ground, and are 
 rarely cased in iron, labour and wood not 
 rendering the first expense the best. 
 
 A wooden bridge, a mile long, was our 
 next promenade ; it crosses the broad Gota 
 river at its exit from its source in the lake, 
 and is the only medium of communication, 
 except that of boats, between the eastern 
 and western shores of the Wenern, and 
 opens to permit vessels to pass. The effect 
 of the miniature carriages of the country, 
 with their Lilliputian steeds, making the 
 rapid transit of this bridge, — for every driver 
 in Sweden appears the lineal descendant of the 
 son of Nimshi, — contrasts almost enchantingly 
 with the immensity of the lake they gallop 
 over, its stilly surface shadowed along the dis- 
 tant shore by the wood-clothed bank. 
 
 Fish, which we were told — alas, are w^e not 
 always told so of things we are not to pos- 
 sess ?— were of a delicious quality, sported in 
 our very sight, as if mocking us with the cry, 
 " Come eat me, come eat me," and breaking, 
 together with the sleep of the deep, our
 
 136 EVELYN. 
 
 charm of poetry and imagination, by exciting 
 the covetous desire of being able to add them 
 to the more easily subdivided provisions of 
 our steamboat salle d manger. Well, every- 
 thing is beautiful in its season, and so, too, is 
 knacken, for I have brought a bit of it to 
 England, and I look upon it with affection, 
 as on an old, but very crusty friend. I 
 wanted very much to go to see Walchall, a 
 singular rock which we had been told to 
 see, but which we could not see. It is a 
 heart-shaped rock, supposed to have formed 
 an altar of pagan sacrifice : some say that 
 on this rock victims were immolated, and 
 others say, that from this rock the elderly 
 heroes of old Scandinavia used to precipitate 
 themselves, from impatience to meet the 
 embrace of Odin in Valhalla. Had my re- 
 searches been pursued on the spot, I might 
 have been able to throw light on the sub- 
 ject ; but I must leave the rock and its 
 offices just where I found them. Indeed, 
 while I was coveting an excursion to the 
 neighbouring mountain of Hunneberget, the 
 name of which commemorates a battle of the 
 Huns, and to the splendid valley, which has, 
 for a longer period, commemorated " the
 
 EVELYN. 137 
 
 dread magnificence " of nature, Evelyn took 
 my arm, saying, 
 
 " The mountains, the valley, and rock 
 will remain where they are, and the fish are 
 beyond your grasp, but the boat is moving 
 off to Trollhattan." 
 
 " And to effect the possible, instead of 
 speculating on the impossible, is, I con- 
 clude, the moral you would imply," I an- 
 swered. "AIl07lS." 
 
 The passage of the locks at Trollhattan 
 occupies fully two hours. The canal is car- 
 ried over a height of a hundred and twenty> 
 feet above the Gota river, which issues 
 from the falls ; and its channel for half an 
 English mile has been blasted out of the 
 granite mountain. 
 
 In the contemplation of this really stu- 
 pendous work, the mind is strongly yet 
 agreeably divided between admiration of art 
 and nature ; both spring from the same 
 source, the fountain of wisdom and love. 
 
 Hans Anderson, in his story of a Life, has 
 given a brief expression to the wonder of a 
 native of level Denmark at this sight : — " I 
 was in the highest degree astonished at the 
 Trollhattan voyage. It sounds to the unin-
 
 138 EVELYN. 
 
 itiated like a fable, or fairy tale, when one 
 says that the steamboat goes up across lakes, 
 over mountains, from whence may be seen 
 the outstretched pine and beech (?) woods 
 below. Immense sluices heave up and lower 
 the vessel, while the travellers ramble in the 
 woods. None of the cascades of Switzer- 
 land, none in Italy, not even that of Terni, 
 have in them anything so imposing as that 
 of Trollh'attan. Such, at least, is the im- 
 pression it made upon me." 
 
 And, taken in connection with the singular 
 adaptation of the falls, and even of the sur- 
 rounding works, to the nature of the scenery, 
 such also is the impression that it made upon 
 me. 
 
 Having made this voyage both in the 
 ascent and descent, that is to say, in going 
 towards Stockholm and coming from it, I 
 deem a great advantage ; but prefer the 
 former both for grandeur and interest. In 
 coming from Gottenburg, the first point of 
 view is from the river Gota, when an almost 
 unequalled sight holds you spell-bound be- 
 fore the mystical Trollhattan. Hanging on 
 the side of a wood-crowned mountain, you 
 see a white fallen cloud, a hill of snow.
 
 EVELYN. 139 
 
 anything, you fancy it, but a torrent of 
 water; and when you are told it is water, 
 you imagine the old Troll has arrested its 
 accumulated froth and spray, and suspended 
 it for ages in a stationary mass, a mountain 
 of snow-white vapour. 
 
 Then you see, as you ascend towards its 
 source, how the young " exulting river," 
 fresh from its struggle for freedom, bears on 
 its surface some of that " young republic" 
 excitement which a lengthened course will 
 subdue, while the great old grey granite 
 rock looks over it, like the stern guardian 
 that frowns on the escapade of the impe- 
 tuous scapegrace, bursting with a shout of 
 wild delight from its parent lake. 
 
 Here, it is running away beneath the boat 
 you sail in ; there, it is still, white, calm, and 
 moveless, hanging on the mountain-side with 
 the tall green trees above it, and its voice is 
 yet unheard. 
 
 On we come, and gaze round with a sen- 
 sation of awe. 
 
 " Truly, this is like Scandinavia," Evelyn 
 murmured. 
 
 Never did I see a place where the art of 
 man had been brought among the sublimities
 
 140 EVELYN. 
 
 of nature without creating a sense of vexa- 
 tion in the beholder's mind, except at Troll- 
 hattan,the astonishing works of this engineer- 
 ing achievement are so entirely in character 
 with the aspect of the scenery. 
 
 That singular chain of locks, as they rise 
 up the face of the mountain, look in the 
 distance like the wards of a giant key ; and 
 the waters, you may fancy, roar out his im- 
 patience, as he waits its turning to plunge 
 into the abyss below. Imagination may 
 riot at Trollhattan ; but, in simple reality, 
 our poor little packet stood at the top of 
 that vast chain of locks, with its nose just 
 peeping over them ; for, be it remembered, 
 I have been now sketching the upward route, 
 not our actual downward one. 
 
 We got out near to the large stone-built 
 inn, quite a great affair for Sweden ; but this 
 is a show-place ; all our fellow-passengers, 
 having taken their peep at the falls, went 
 there for another species of enjoyment, and 
 we were left alone. 
 
 Trollhattan Falls consist of four vast 
 rapids, formed by the water of Wenern Lake, 
 which can only find vent by a fissure in the 
 rocks two hundred yards wide, through
 
 EVELYN. 141 
 
 which this great body of water rushes, iu 
 this head-over-heels fashion, to soothe itself 
 to a quieter demeanour in the channel of 
 the Gota river. 
 
 Some one remarked, that if these falls 
 were perpendicular, they would be the great- 
 est in Europe ; I should think so, as their 
 length is about an English mile. 
 
 Their roar is heard at a great distance, 
 and its sublime effect is quite in harmony 
 with that of the scene. 
 
 This spot is well named TroUhattan,* for 
 there is something magical about it alto- 
 gether, and one can easily believe that the 
 Troll kept here his dwelling-place as well as 
 his hat. 
 
 This water is not a cataract, neither is it 
 like any waterfall I ever saw ; around it 
 there is no Alpine scenery, no eternal snow, 
 or savage desert ; its character is its own ; 
 it is a whirling, powerful mass of water that 
 will have its own way, and roars and dashes 
 through the rocks and woods, making them 
 appear to tremble at its fury, and re-utter 
 its passionate voice, as it whirls down its 
 wide, but encumbered descent, encircling in 
 
 * Anglice^ the Conjurer's Hat.
 
 142 EVELYN. 
 
 its way that adjunct of Swedish water- 
 scenery, a fir-covered island. 
 
 This small island is reached by a wooden 
 bridge ; where, alas, for such nuisances ! a 
 guardian dragon is stationed to collect a toll. 
 This is the point de vue. Here, in the midst 
 of the roaring, tearing stream, you think the 
 rocky island trembles beneath your feet: 
 here we are told a German fainted, from 
 fear, I suppose, of the island sailing off with 
 him ; and there, more melancholy still, a 
 sensitive Frenchman is said to have died ! 
 
 There is a great cavern down lower, which 
 w^as, I believe, the residence of the Troll: 
 many a wild and fearful superstition is still 
 connected with it. But the Conjurer's Hat, 
 which has stood sponsor to the king of tor- 
 rents, is merely a circular hole in the rock, 
 in vertically covered with autogTaphs, said to 
 be those of the kings, queens, and great 
 folks of Sweden, from I know not who, down 
 to Bernadotte ; together with those of many 
 more, who got into the Conjurer's Hat in 
 order thus to inform the world that they 
 once had " a local habitation and a name." 
 
 I stood there, thinking of the Troll more 
 than of the autographs in his hat, while
 
 EVELYN. 148 
 
 Evelyn walked on before me, and entered 
 the island. 
 
 I saw her standing there gazing on the 
 advancing torrent ; but she turned, and the 
 earnest, and then frightened look she fast- 
 ened on the great dark rock below the upper 
 fall, made me wonder whether she too fan- 
 cied she felt that tremblement de terre which 
 had caused the sad results before mentioned. 
 With a low, faint cry, as if in exquisite 
 pain, she moved a pace or two backward, 
 and fell against me as I came on. 
 
 " He is not in danger, do not alarm your- 
 self," I cried ; for, naturally looking in the 
 direction she had turned to, I perceived a 
 man clinging to the abrupt rocks, down 
 which a rash curiosity, that seemed to write 
 him English, had evidently made him de- 
 scend, in hope of having a finer view from 
 beneath it. 
 
 But surely, I thought, the old Troll had 
 endued this island with the faculty of in- 
 spiring terrors, when Evelyn, grasping my 
 arm with a pressure that even from her light 
 hand was painful, cried in a low voice of 
 anguish, " Ah ! save me ! hide me ! take me 
 awav."
 
 144 EVELYN. 
 
 I drew her arm through mine, and led her 
 so quickly away that she had not time to 
 faint. 
 
 We did not say a word, but walked on 
 over the sawdust-strewn path until we came 
 near the small lake, from which the blue 
 frocks and red caps of the seamen, who there 
 anchor their barges, appeared picturesquely 
 through the trees. I had an idea that it was 
 well to keep in the way of help : it never 
 once struck me that Evelyn's terror was 
 caused by love. But truly Trollhattan was 
 to be a place of mystery to me.
 
 EVELYN. 145 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Trollhattan. 
 
 I REMEMBERED my promise, and resolved 
 to die a martyr to curiosity, rather than ask 
 Evelyn a question, I put her to sit on a felled 
 tree, and I stood beside her. It was as much 
 as to say, Here I am, but there is no com- 
 munication between us unless you make the 
 first move." 
 
 In fact, she did so ; but I believe she spoke 
 only to herself. " He will go the other 
 way," she said ; " he will join the boat that 
 is going to Stockholm." 
 
 " To Stockholm," I repeated, just by way 
 of keeping open the channel of communi- 
 cation without being inquisitive. 
 
 " Yes, must he not," she demanded, lifting 
 up such a face, — a face of bewilderment, agony, 
 and affection, — " when he is going for me?" 
 
 " For you, Evelyn ? Oh ! I see, you wish to 
 avoid this person." 
 
 VOL. I. H
 
 146 EVELYN. 
 
 She threw me a reproachful glance ; then 
 put her elbows on her knees, laid her face in 
 her open palms, and burst into a flood of tears. 
 
 " Dear, dear Frank," she murmured ; but 
 the words came from the heart rather than 
 from the lips ; the very tone in which the 
 common-place name of Frank was uttered 
 revealed to me whole pages in a chapter of 
 life. 
 
 " Evelyn, Evelyn!" I cried, " we can stop 
 him yet ; I can run." I was almost off, 
 when she caught my dress. She held it for 
 a minute silently, and without lifting up her 
 face. 
 
 " No, no," she said, with a deep sigh, " it 
 is better not ; I have not strength ; at least it 
 is better not to trust our strength too far ; if 
 
 I should fail, if I should betray Oh, no, 
 
 let him go." 
 
 " Incomprehensible girl," I exclaimed, for 
 when one is in a benevolent humour, it is 
 hard to be thus checked ; " yet you love 
 that man, I know you do." 
 
 Evelyn's large, clear, brown eyes rose up, 
 and looked fully into mine ; their first ex- 
 pression changed, for that had been like dis- 
 pleasure.
 
 EVELYN. 147 
 
 " And even if you are right," she said, 
 with a faltering voice and a varying colour, 
 " does not true love act for the happiness and 
 good of the beloved ?" 
 
 " You are right, and true," I answered ; 
 " but may not the happiness of one or two 
 lives hang on the decision of this moment ? 
 let it then be wisely made." 
 
 She bent down her face again ; and once 
 more burst into such a passion of grief as I 
 scarcely thought she could have given way 
 to. She wept like a child ; sobbed and 
 trembled with emotion. I drew away one 
 hand, and silently pressed it between mine. 
 
 The poor girl became calmer, and faintly 
 returning the pressure looked anxiously up, 
 and said, 
 
 " You will not forsake me now ?" 
 
 " Decidedly not." 
 
 She sat some moments as if listening to 
 the roar of the falls, the murmur of the saw- 
 mills, the hush of the summer leaves. 
 
 She heard them not ; her mind was in far 
 other scenes. 
 
 " I will not see him," she said at last, 
 looking to me with that agitated and work- 
 ing countenance, which I think would have 
 H 2
 
 148 EVELYN. 
 
 enlisted a host of the crusaders of old in her 
 cause ; " we may be strong for others, and 
 weak for ourselves ; but, ah ! dear friend, do 
 you go ; I can rely upon you, you will not 
 betray me. Just go and bring me word if he 
 is still there ; if he is still the same, or if 
 he looks anxious and altered. Bring me his 
 description, and I will bless you for it." 
 
 I went off without a word. The last direc- 
 tion was sufficiently explicit to act upon ; 
 though how I was to perform the foregoing, 
 without having previously seen the object in 
 question, poor Evelyn forgot to explain. 
 
 As I re-approached the falls, I saw the 
 unknown had got out of his rather hazard- 
 ous predicament, and was now standing in 
 the little island quite in the established ^ero- 
 attitude, for his arms were actually folded, 
 and every novel hero folds his arms on every 
 possible contingency. 
 
 I drew an augury from the fact. 
 
 The stranger was watching the torrent 
 that came madly dashing down, as if it would 
 hurl his resting-place before it. I stopped, 
 and, leaning on the little gate, made my 
 observations also. 
 
 I saw a young man who at first sight struck
 
 EVELYN. 149 
 
 me as being like Evelyn, yet liis hair was 
 nearly black, and his eyes a clear, bright 
 blue. His figure possessed that grace which 
 is certainly preferable in men to mere regu- 
 larity of feature, yet his countenance was one 
 of no common cast, and you felt that such a 
 person, once seen, was not again easily for- 
 gotten. 
 
 Intent as he was on the wild scene before 
 him, it was not easy for me to fulfil Evelyn's 
 commission, and report whether anxiety or 
 sorrow marked that countenance. It was 
 grave, and I was going to say earnest, but 
 that is the word used to express everything 
 now ; and who could stand in such a spot 
 with a different expression of the tone of 
 minc^ it inspired ? His dress, also, might 
 reasonably account for something of the same 
 expression ; for while it resembled that of no 
 other priesthood, there was a certain air of 
 stiffness about it, which, together with the 
 distinctive badge of a white neckerchief, told 
 me he was a clergyman of the Church of 
 Endand. A few moments sufficed for such 
 observations ; but they were interrupted by 
 the movements of their object, who, after a 
 gaze of intense, though silent emotion, at
 
 150 EVELYN. 
 
 the scene around him, declined his head, as 
 if the action involuntarily expressed the 
 bowing of the spirit to the great, holy Power, 
 which it felt and discerned " in the things 
 that are made." 
 
 Then he had to pass out of the little 
 wicket on which I was leaning. I drew 
 back, and he made me a bow, and gave a 
 glance that said "Are you English?" But 
 he passed me in silence, and I felt as if 
 Evelyn's fate, her spirit-twin, had gone by 
 me. 
 
 The stranger to me — what was he to her? 
 — took the way to the inn, and I went back 
 as fast as I could in the contrary direction. 
 I almost expected to find this too mysterious 
 girl had been caught up by the strange beings 
 of the cave, called Sjafboden, or conjured 
 away by the Troll. 
 
 She had crept on to meet me, and stood 
 leaning against a tall tree ; a look of girlish 
 excitement, one that made visible the flutter- 
 ings of a fond and fearful heart, was bent 
 forward to me, as she said anxiously, " Well, 
 how does he look?" 
 
 " He looks like a handsome, yet iatellec- 
 tual, young Englishman," I replied ; " but
 
 EVELYN. 151 
 
 never having seen him before, I cannot tell 
 whether he ever looked otherwise." 
 
 " Ah ! I forgot that. But does he look 
 anxious, sorrowful?" 
 
 " No. His aspect is grave ; perhaps, espe- 
 cially about the mouth, which is not at all 
 like yours, bordering on severe, at least ex- 
 pressive of a moral strength, which often 
 gives a character of severity. But, Evelyn, 
 .we must now act like sensible people. Our 
 packet will soon have passed the locks ; there 
 is still a choice for you to make. Let us 
 either give up our progress to Gottenburg, 
 stop here, meet this man, and — I own in my 
 own idea of the case — put an end to your 
 troubles and difficulties, and make yourself 
 happy ; or let us come on to meet our boat. 
 If you wish it, I will stay here with you." 
 There was a moment's silence. Then Evelyn 
 put her arm through mine, and said, 
 
 " To the boat ; " and she set off at a 
 rapid pace. I think if she had walked 
 slower her purpose might have altered. 
 
 The paths from the falls to the canal 
 meander, for about an hour's walk, through 
 delicious scenery : it was a sunny and breezy 
 day; the wind was hot, and it flung from
 
 152 EVELYN. 
 
 the tall trees dancing shadows over the bright 
 grass. There is something wild and pecu- 
 liar, something that, as I have said, imagina- 
 tion can associate with the Trolls and Valas 
 of old times, in particular aspects which 
 Trollhiittan presents. 
 
 The path was thickly covered with dry, 
 clean sawdust, and, homely as the covering 
 might be, there was a degree both of plea- 
 sure and poetry in the soft noiseless tread,, 
 which harmonized with the not ungentle, 
 and to me most pleasing murmur of the 
 humming saw-mills, the rustle of the foliage 
 so loftily raised above our heads, and the 
 distinct, but not stunning voice of the ever- 
 roaring torrent. 
 
 Wild and beautifully frantic as it is, that 
 current has been tamed in a degree to man's 
 more resistless will, or made subservient to 
 his arts and purposes. These saw-mills are 
 a curious feature in the scene, and while 
 they detract from its original air of lonely 
 grandeur, are more in keeping with it than 
 many other works would be. 
 
 Man, that ever-toiling ant, brings his 
 schemes and labours into the mightiest, and 
 apparently the most unalterable of nature's
 
 EVELYN. 153 
 
 operations, and proves that to him alone, 
 little as he is in comparison, was primevally 
 given dominion over the works of God's 
 hands. 
 
 The saws which, without manual labour, 
 divide into planks the immense quantity of 
 wood carried by this channel to Gottenburg, 
 are kept in motion by the water, and their 
 sound is a soft dreamy hum, quite unlike the 
 harsh grating of the steam machinery for 
 the same purpose which I have heard in 
 England. The wind was so warm, the sun 
 so bright, and the place so charming, that I 
 found it impossible to walk as fast as Evelyn ; 
 she had dropped my arm, and finally got 
 on far before me, while I sauntered after, 
 making these observations on scenery and 
 saw-mills. 
 
 Our packet had passed the locks of Troll- 
 hattan Canal, which, as I think I before 
 described, has been the means of opening 
 this water-passage to Stockholm, by avoiding 
 the tremendous obstacle interposed by the 
 rapids. 
 
 All our passengers, a great many fresh 
 ones having joined us, were already crowded 
 on the little decks when I got on board. I 
 H 3
 
 154 EVELYN. 
 
 (lid not see Evelyn. I went here and there 
 among the Swedes, Germans, Fins, Nor- 
 wegians, Lapps, and sundries, but she was 
 too distinct a being not to be discerned. 
 
 A thousand ideas can, in such a dilemma, 
 come and go in one moment through the 
 brain ; one settled conviction rested in my 
 mind ; I knew I should never be at peace 
 with myself again if I went on and left her 
 behind, uncertain whether accident, design, 
 or, })erhaps, compulsion, had detained her. 
 
 I was on the point of springing from the 
 boat, though the words " Gji an " had been 
 given, when it struck me that she might 
 very naturally have gone straight down to 
 our little cabin. It was better to go there 
 and look, as I could get out at the next 
 station. 
 
 The blue striped curtain was drawn across 
 the door ; putting the least bit of it aside, 
 I peeped within. Evelyn was kneeling on 
 the floor with her back to me, her face 
 raised towards the opposite window ; her 
 hands lay cross-wise on her breast ; her face 
 expressed even passionate emotion. Her 
 small travelling bonnet, which more resem- 
 bled a cap, had been thrown hurriedly off,
 
 EVELYN. 155 
 
 and her glowing hair made her look, when 
 thus falling around her, a Magdalen, in all 
 but humiliation. There was nothing of hu- 
 miliation, nothing of penitence, in that work- 
 ing countenance ; it was rather the appeal 
 to Heaven of an upright and pure soul, de- 
 sirous amid mortal weakness, or against the 
 sinfulness of others, to maintain the course 
 it was called to pursue. Such was the 
 reflection of the soul that seemed to be 
 wrought in that fair face, which, amidst the 
 workings of a passionate tenderness, was 
 still full of a sweetness that mi^ht be called 
 holy. I withdrew, in the conviction that 
 Evelyn knelt not there at that moment to 
 plead for pardon, or implore grace to regain 
 a better path. 
 
 We passed Lilla Edet, a great saw-mill 
 station, and a village prettily named, which 
 reminded me of the sweet young Swede, 
 and her silent love ; but Lilla, in Swedish, 
 signifies nothing but "little." 
 
 The Stroms Canal, says our John Tel- 
 ford captain, was constructed to avoid the 
 fall at Lilla Edet. The fall here is indeed 
 the herald of the king of torrents. The 
 waters from TroUhiittan here take a last, and
 
 156 EVELYN. 
 
 splendid leap, before they settle down in the 
 quiet stream of the Gota, bounding beauti- 
 fully from the edge of a huge rock which 
 nearly fills their bed. 
 
 Here then commences, or ends, that pro- 
 digy of engineering art, Trollhattan Canal, 
 although five pieces of canal, between this 
 and the mountain town of Wenersborg, are 
 distinguished by distinct names. Now we 
 are taking leave of canals, and are to finish 
 our wonderful journey on the river. De- 
 lighted myself with all I saw, felt, or under- 
 stood, it was with a feeling of repulsion from 
 a mind so opposite, that I read this note in 
 a travellers pocket-book : 
 
 " These canals and locks are tedious and 
 monotonous, and when the mind has stretched 
 itself in wonder and admiration at the co- 
 lossal proportions of this masterpiece of 
 engineering skill, it becomes affected with 
 ennui at the endless repetition of locks, over 
 which the little packet creeps and scrambles 
 in its ascending way." 
 
 " Ah," said Evelyn, faintly smiling, " a 
 mental collapse appears to have succeeded 
 the stretching process." 
 
 From Strom to Kongelf the scenery is
 
 EVELYN. 157 
 
 pleasing and diversified, and the rest of the 
 course to Gottenburg becomes of a different 
 character to that of our previous course. 
 
 Coloured wooden houses, chiefly red, though 
 of a large size, are scattered over bright pas- 
 tures covered with herds of cattle ; grey and 
 fantastic crags are often partly clothed with 
 a long moss of the same hue ; a great variety 
 of lichens and gigantic firs mingle with 
 glimpses of interesting home scenery, and 
 constitute an aspect which is not at all ex- 
 traordinary, yet totally unfamiliar to English 
 travellers. 
 
 At the ancient town of Kongelf the moun- 
 tains begin to rise, and much more animation 
 is seen ; picturesque ruins of fortresses and 
 castles crown the heights; the towering 
 pine, the lonely lord of the solitary rock, 
 still, Crusoe-like, looks out over the rich, 
 verdant strip of pasture which lies in the 
 midst of harsh piles of granite, reminding 
 one, as I said to my now silent companion, 
 of a gentle woman's mind thrown into rough 
 ungenial circumstances. 
 
 " I like you," said Evelyn, " for seeing 
 beauty everywhere and in everything ; those 
 little speeches often touch my heart, be-
 
 158 EVELYN. 
 
 cause the comparison applies to its feel- 
 ings/' 
 
 " Well, if Gottenburg was not in sight, 
 I should try to make another ; but now we 
 are going slowly through all these barges 
 and boats, with their cargoes of wood, and 
 iron, and corn, and I suppose, cranberries, 
 too, for I think I read somewhere that Got- 
 tenburg exported thirty thousand quarts of 
 cranberries one year. Look, Evelyn, do 
 look at those boats, rowed by the great stout 
 women of Sweden ! " 
 
 How curious it is to hear the remarks of 
 travellers. People, of course, have said the 
 same in regard to ourselves. But we had 
 taken in at Trollhattan three or four natives 
 of Great Britain. One was a chubby-faced 
 John Bull, who was on some trading affair, 
 or railway speculation at Gottenburg: the 
 other was a man with a pocket-book, in 
 which, with a look of some wildness, he wrote 
 an abbreviation of anything he heard which 
 he understood. But, like the poor Welsh- 
 man, who lately lost his life in an attempt 
 to prove that the blankets of the American 
 Indians were fabricated by a tribe of the 
 same people who fabricate the same things
 
 EVELYN. 159 
 
 in Wales, this good man found out in all he 
 saw, or all he heard of, some resemblance, 
 or some discrepancy between Wales and its 
 people, and the people and country wherein 
 he travelled. I have observed in Scotch- 
 men's books of travel the same tendency. 
 Now, when I made Evelyn look at the female 
 row^ers, a young enthusiastic man, who was 
 not either of these two, exclaimed, 
 
 " The Amazons of the north ! the daugh- 
 ters of Odin ! " 
 
 " What a many big daughters he must 
 have, that Mr. Odin," said the chubby-faced 
 John, turning his own great dull eyes on the 
 speaker. 
 
 " The women of Sweden are robust," said 
 the observer with the book, " but they do 
 not exceed the women of Wales. From what 
 I have seen of Sweden, I should say the men 
 are well made, the upper classes especially so, 
 that is, judging from that fine young artillery 
 officer at the passport-office in Gottenburg ; 
 but not more so than the Welsh." 
 
 " The girls," said the young man, " are 
 fair, but freckled; the children have blue 
 eyes, when they are not grey, and the wo- 
 men are plain, with some exceptions."
 
 160 EVELYN. 
 
 " Hum, hum, hum," the man with the 
 note-book kept murmuring between his lips, 
 while he wrote down the qualified descrip- 
 tion. 
 
 And now we are landed. Our four days 
 and a half are ended : farewell, a long fare- 
 well, I fear, to the dear little John Tel- 
 ford. All I can say is, that I could spend my 
 four days and a half over again very willingly ; 
 much more willingly, I fear, than ever I 
 shall spend a fourth of the time in the famous 
 railroad they are going to make to supply 
 the place of this wonderful canal. 
 
 Guided by an old hand-book, of which, be 
 it remarked, that our inestimable captain 
 said, very expressively, " If I had behaved 
 so very badly in a foreign country, as the 
 man who wrote that account of the Gotten- 
 burg journey says he did in this, I do not 
 think I should have liked to publish it when 
 I came back to my own." 
 
 Would that many young tourists, or voy- 
 agers, and scribblers, would take the Swe- 
 dish sailor's hint. 
 
 But to return to our hand-book, for I feel 
 a wicked spirit stirring when I think of good 
 paper and print being employed to cele-
 
 EVELYN. 161 
 
 brate the schoolboy pranks that the know- 
 ledge of having a little English gold in their 
 pockets enables — but I dare not proceed ; — 
 as an old woman said, looking over her 
 spectacles, " the chap should go to school 
 again ;" and so in their tongues, if they 
 understood them, have, I fear, the people 
 of every clime been saying, while the happy 
 natives of England thought they were staring- 
 out their admiration. 
 
 Well, once more, to return. This book 
 told us that " at Mrs. Todd's hotel, at Got- 
 tenburg, all the household speaks English." 
 Comforting ourselves with the pleasant pros- 
 pect of being surrounded on all sides by the 
 speech of our beloved queen, we loyally 
 repaired to Mrs. Todd's hotel. As we drew 
 near her door, we beheld a stout dame — not 
 Mrs. Todd, for she, Ave afterwards found, was 
 on her travels — standing in the doorway, one 
 shoulder leaning against one door-post, and 
 the opposite elbow, the hand of which was 
 stuck into her side, resting against the other. 
 I do not invent any part of my story, and this 
 may be received as well as any declaration 
 before a magistrate, for I put that great bug- 
 bear, called the public, in his place.
 
 162 EVELYN. 
 
 She looked at us, but did not stir nor 
 speak. We felt she was not one of the 
 English-speaking household, for the faculty 
 of uttering our words gives a wonderful and 
 easy presumption to the smart waiter who in 
 all lands trips forth to receive the gold- 
 bringing people of England. 
 
 The dame did not alter her attitude, nor 
 withdraw from the barricaded door; but 
 seeing, I suppose, on our resolute English 
 countenances, as we advanced, a cool de- 
 termination to carry the fortress, she yielded 
 at discretion ; making a sign with her head, 
 over her shoulder, to a tall young w^oman 
 who advanced, and stood erect on the posi- 
 tion she had yielded. The young woman 1{ 
 regarded us with all the quiet gravity of her 
 nation, when in repose ; I saw she was made 
 over to us, and with a smile, I said, 
 " You speak English, min flika?" 
 " Yes," she answered. 
 I nodded both to her and Evelyn, and 
 feeling quite at home now, we entered the inn. 
 The odour of the juniper-leaves which cover 
 the passages and floors of these very clean 
 northern receptacles, is not exactly adapted 
 to sensitive organs ; but stifling ours, we
 
 EVELYN. 163 
 
 followed the tall Swede to an immensely 
 long room, with a very small room at each 
 end. The small rooms held two equally 
 small beds. Evelyn put down her bonnet 
 and shawl on one bed of one room, and I 
 walked to the opposite extremity, and did 
 nearly the same thing. 
 
 "And now as to eating," I said, as we 
 both simultaneously issued from the dormi- 
 tory, and stood face to face in the long 
 saloon, where the young Swede was standing 
 also ; " as to eating, that is the question 
 now. I am starving. I had not strength to 
 pound the bread ; and, in short, notwith- 
 standing the three meals of meat per diem 
 in the boat, I am very hungry, and I long 
 for a cup of tea. As they all speak English 
 here, we can get anything ; shall I order 
 cutlets and tea, Evelyn ?" 
 
 " Very well." 
 
 " Can you give us tea?" I asked of the 
 tall flika. 
 
 " Yes," she replied, very gravely. 
 
 " And some mutton cutlets?" 
 
 « Yes." 
 
 " Be so good as to get them directly, with 
 fresh bread and butter, and some boiled milk."
 
 164 EVELYN. 
 
 " Yes." She stood as if waiting for a more 
 luxuriant order ; but as I turned away, she 
 did so too. 
 
 Evelyn lay down on her bed, I took pos- 
 session of the red sofa. Being accustomed 
 to Austrian, Tyrolese, and German waiters, 
 we were naturally patient, and let our 
 Swedes take their time ; but when a whole 
 hour had passed, my longing for tea became 
 irresistible. 
 
 " Will it never come ? " I cried. 
 
 " I wish you would call for it," said 
 Evelyn's languid voice, from the inner room. 
 Fortunately there was a bell, and a bell- 
 rope. In answer to its summons came a 
 different flika; who was an exception to 
 the English-speaking household of Mrs. 
 Todd. 
 
 She poured forth a flood of soft words, 
 not one of which I understood ; and finding 
 I did not respond to her eloquence, the non- 
 English-speaking Swede came nearer, and 
 repeated the same at my ear. 
 
 " She means," said Evelyn, " to tell you 
 that the flika who speaks English will come 
 presently." 
 
 " Oh, then, we will wait," I answered,
 
 EVELYN. 165 
 
 thinking she might as well understand my 
 language as I hers ; but in addition I nodded 
 my head, and uttered the word, which in 
 Swedish signifies good, but looks irreverent 
 to our eye — " god." 
 
 She went away, and we waited. 
 " How very ridiculous," I said, " it is to 
 come to a country without understanding the 
 language, though no one thinks of learning 
 that of Sweden ; I have been often re- 
 minded of the speech of a sweet little fellow 
 of four years old, who in his living days, 
 which barely exceeded that term, was seized 
 with the longing for travel, which I believe 
 all such intellectual creatures more or less 
 experience. 
 
 " I should like," he once said, " to travel to 
 the moon ; some time one may go there in 
 a balloon; but there would be no use in 
 going unless I could speak moonish." 
 
 " But, Evelyn, is this ' tea and chops' to 
 come at all ? " 
 
 " Pray, ring again; perhaps our good 
 English genius is now at hand." 
 
 " But I thought all the household spoke 
 English well ;" so with a heavy sigh I rose 
 off the sofa and rang again.
 
 166 EVELYN. 
 
 In, to our joy, came the English-speaking 
 flika. 
 
 " Have you got the tea and cutlets ready ?" 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " Will you bring them, then, directly ?" 
 
 « Yes." 
 
 We waited again. 
 
 " It is necessary to have patience," said 
 Evelyn ; " you know in Sweden it is hard to 
 get anything after four o'clock." 
 
 " Yes ; but I would not eat a morsel in 
 the boat to-day, because I knew that here, 
 where all the household spoke English, we 
 could have even what they thought were our 
 national whims satisfied." 
 
 " Try to sleep," said Evelyn, still in her 
 dormitory. 
 
 '* I cannot, I am so hungry." 
 
 I got up, and rang again ; in came the 
 grave tall Swede. 
 
 *' We are tired of waiting for this tea and 
 cutlets." 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " Is yes the only word of English you can 
 say?" 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 A hearty burst of laughter, much as I dis-
 
 EVELYN. 167 
 
 like the words, followed the last " yes " we 
 extracted from the English-speaking member 
 of this English-speaking household. Our 
 tea and cutlets, alas ! were somewhere, I 
 suppose, in the kingdom of Utopia. We 
 were now reduced to the language of signs, 
 and by that means, and the help of a few 
 words Evelyn had picked up, we convinced 
 our grave tall Swede that we wanted food 
 and refreshment ; and we obtained — lobsters 
 and porter ! The first is a native produc- 
 tion, the last an engrafted one ; resulting 
 from the speculative energies of Scotchmen, 
 who are rivalling, by our potent beverage, 
 the much-loved finkel, or fiery corn-spirit of 
 the north. Indeed, lobsters and porter, like 
 them or not like them, you are sure to be 
 treated with as specimens of the gourman- 
 dize of Gottenburg. Unhappily, the one I 
 never could eat, and the other, could such 
 lips as Evelyn's ever imbibe ? — I will not say 
 drink, for they tell me that word is vulgar — 
 such an act is not to be even suspected ; and 
 the fact was, that, leaving a most enormous 
 red lobster and great bottle of porter on 
 the table, we went out, and got a warm 
 bath at the pretty and well-kept establish-
 
 168 EVELYN. 
 
 ment, also set up by the enterprising emi- 
 grants, who, while they love their mountain 
 land the fondest, are found more diffusely 
 dispersed than perhaps any other people, ex- 
 cept the Jews, among all nations. Almost 
 everywhere one may trace the Scotch, and 
 almost everywhere they are found to prosper, 
 in ancient records and in recent times. The 
 old slander says, that a turnpike-keeper will 
 allow a Scotchman credit if he is going into 
 his country, but never if he is leaving it ; 
 yet never was the amor patricB more strong, 
 scarcely even among the Tyrolese. In Swit- 
 zerland the case is the same ; the Swiss love 
 their country, and the Swiss we find settled 
 and thriving everywhere. 
 
 We returned from the baths tired, but still 
 wakeful. I went to my little bed, and lay 
 there, thinking of the manner in which some 
 persons learn to speak a language ; and of all 
 the serious dilemmas to which the faculty of 
 saying " yes " only might give rise ; and of 
 lobsters and porter, and Scotch enteriDrise, 
 and many et ceteras, which kept me half 
 awake, half asleep, until a tap came to my 
 door.
 
 EVELYN. 169 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 GoTTENBCRG. 
 
 A TAP came to my door. In this English- 
 speaking house I knew the English words 
 " come in " were unavailing, but 1 had some 
 idea that the all-answering word " yes " 
 would effect the purpose. So I said, 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 And the door opened, and Evelyn walked in. 
 
 The light she carried shone on her pale 
 face ; she was wrapped in a loose white dress, 
 her hair let down, but not yet " done up " 
 for the night. 
 
 " Evelyn ! this is the second time, — the 
 third, indeed, I might say, that you have 
 appeared to me so spirit-like ! Yet at other 
 times you are such an every-day creature ; 
 formed to be a household divinity, perhaps, 
 but certainly not quite either a ghost or an 
 angel." 
 
 VOL. I. I
 
 170 EVELYN. 
 
 She held up a warning linger, and passing 
 silently on, set down the light on the table, 
 and seated herself at its further side. 
 
 " You are like the serpents of the Lao- 
 coon," she said ; " you press the life-blood 
 from my heart while you twine around it. 
 You show me that you understand me ; that 
 you know, or feel, what nature meant me to 
 be ; and oh ! my own sad heart knows all 
 the rest." 
 
 " Yet there is happiness in it still, Evelyn, 
 happiness too in store for it." 
 
 " Oh ! yes, yes ! " she cried, her soft 
 brilliant eyes half raised ; " yes, yes ! I 
 know that. The manner, the time, the 
 place, all that is uncertain ; — now, here, or 
 hereafter." 
 
 " If God places happiness within our 
 reach at any time," I answered, " the hearts 
 that let it slip will repent it." 
 
 " True," said Evelyn, looking fully at me ; 
 " but while I agree in your sentiment, it 
 does not, as perhaps you think, affect my 
 case. I do not let happiness slip ; others 
 may have snatched it from me. But will 
 you let me sit with you, and talk a little ? it 
 is early, and I cannot sleep : besides, when-
 
 EVELYN. 171 
 
 ever I am sorrowful, or fancy I have done 
 wrong, it is a relief to be near some one, 
 or to get any one to blame me but my- 
 self." 
 
 " Perhaps you think others might do so 
 more gently," I remarked. 
 
 " It is very probable : but is it not the 
 Dane, Andersen, who says, ' when those 
 who smite us are those we love, then do the 
 scourges become scorpions ? ' I wanted, how- 
 ever, to ask you if you think I was wrong to 
 let my poor cousin go on to Stockholm ?" 
 
 " Your cousin, Evelyn ! " 
 
 " I thought I had called him so ; he is 
 not exactly a cousin, there is an in-law in 
 the case ; but he is my only relative, at 
 least the only one I feel to be such ; for 
 you know I am an orphan, without brother 
 or sister, or any close connection, but this. 
 I had another" — she paused, and visibly 
 shuddered. 
 
 " Before," I said, " I can answer your 
 inquiry as to right or wrong, I should know 
 what he is going to Stockholm for." 
 
 " To make me his wife," she answered 
 quickly, and her full heart heaved. 
 
 I started straight up in the little crib. 
 I 2
 
 1 72 EVELYN. 
 
 " Evelyn ! you promised to be that man's 
 wife, and served him so !" 
 
 " No : would to Heaven I had !" A pause 
 followed her quick reply. " I utter that 
 wish," she said, averting her face, so that 
 with the light between us I could not see 
 its expression, " because, had I made that 
 promise, my present entanglements might 
 have been avoided. A promise ought, per- 
 haps, to be as binding as the most awful and 
 solemn vow." 
 
 " Decidedly so. But is it long since you 
 saw this cousin, or cousin-in-law?" 
 
 " It is more than two years. We were 
 almost brought up together, not often sepa- 
 rated, except when he was at college. Ours, 
 unhappily, was a house divided against itself, 
 and such we know shall not stand : perhaps 
 it was the rancorous feeling that existed 
 among the elder generation which caused 
 the younger to attach themselves more 
 strongly together. 
 
 " Frank, his brother, and myself, were as 
 warm friends as our aunts and uncles, fathers 
 or mothers, have been unkind or jealous re- 
 latives. Our fathers were step-brothers ; we 
 both lost our parents in early childhood. I
 
 EVELYN. 173 
 
 was left to the care of my two maiden aunts, 
 and he and his brother to that of their own 
 aunt. 
 
 " My guardians were good, plain, pious 
 and respectable old maids ; fondly attached 
 to each other, and bitterly opposed to their 
 sister-in-law. They dressed alike, thought 
 alike, acted alike : the very bow at the back 
 of their bonnets was cut in the exact same 
 fashion : only in one respect did they differ. 
 Every Sunday morning and evening they left 
 their rooms at the same moment, came down 
 stairs together, went out together, and walked 
 to a certain street corner together : then one 
 went to the right, and the other to the left; 
 they had each their favourite church and 
 favourite preacher; and my preference for 
 either, as a child of eight years old, I well 
 recollect being the only subject of jealousy 
 respecting me. 
 
 "My step-aunt resided with my step-cousins 
 just beyond the village ; it was her bitterness 
 against my guardians which provoked theirs 
 towards her; whatever was done by them 
 would, for that reason, be left undone by 
 her, and vice versa. She regarded me, there- 
 fore, with a prejudice which I do believe
 
 174 EVELYN. 
 
 was merely founded in this antipathy to her 
 sisters-in-law. Nevertheless Frank, her idol, 
 and adopted heir, did not partake in that 
 prejudice ; even from infancy I was his dar- 
 ling and pet. 
 
 " Excepting these cousins, I had only one 
 other companion, and that only for four 
 years. This was the young daughter of an 
 old Hungarian officer, who was possessed of 
 some j)roperty in his native land ; he had 
 married an Englishwoman, a lady not re- 
 motely allied to our family, whose declining 
 health had excited that yearning after a 
 native clime which is generally symptomatic 
 of death ; she came with her child to visit 
 her former friends in our neighbourhood, and 
 died there. The old man resolved to leave 
 young Bertha to be educated in England, 
 and my aunts had her placed with them to 
 share in my studies." 
 
 " Pardon me, Evelyn, for interrupting 
 you, but there is one thing I do not under- 
 stand. You say Frank had a brother, but 
 you appear to lose sight of that brother 
 altogether." 
 
 " Have I lost sight of him ?" cried Eve- 
 lyn, turning her face round to me with an
 
 EVELYN. 175 
 
 air of almost wildness ; " yes, yes, culpably, 
 weakly. But what can I do ? where ought I 
 to go ? Oh ! I dare not, could not, go there 
 again." 
 
 I believe my fixed and wondering regard 
 recalled her recollection : she pressed her 
 hand on her forehead, and drew her breath. 
 
 " What was I saying? That question 
 drew me back from the past to the present ; 
 to my every-day thoughts ; reminded me of 
 my promise, and all it should involve. But 
 you did not mean that ; you inquired about 
 previous events ? " 
 
 " I only wanted to know why you did not 
 speak of Frank's brother." 
 
 " Frank had a brother," she added, with a 
 sigh, ** a beloved and only brother ; we all 
 loved him : he was a fine youth, but wild, 
 impetuous, incapable of the least self-control. 
 He was the elder brother, but only inherited 
 his portion of the funded property bequeathed 
 by their father ; and Frank's serious studies 
 and very contrary disposition always made 
 him act the part of a tender and anxious 
 parent towards the wild youth, rather 
 than that of a younger brother. Finally, 
 all I can tell you of him is, that when dear
 
 176 EVELYN. 
 
 Bertha left us, the poor prodigal gathered 
 together the portion of goods that fell to 
 him, and went into a far country, where all^ 
 worldly, moral, and spiritual good was wasted 
 in riotous living. He had a connection at 
 Vienna who plunged him into all the dissi- 
 pations of that gay capital, and soon with- 
 drew him widely apart from the paths of 
 piety and peace in which his brother walked. 
 His family, however, knew nothing of this ; 
 they only understood that he had entered 
 into the military service of Hungary. 
 
 " Previous to his departure from among 
 us, a great change had occurred in my life. 
 My two good aunts had died within a few 
 months of each other; the one suddenly, 
 the other from the effects of the shock, and 
 of grief. They had left me their little pro- 
 perty, but I had no protector, or other rela- 
 tive, except my step-aunt; she therefore 
 received me, and I inhabited the same house 
 with Frank. But his guardian never could 
 bring herself to believe that I had been 
 trained up in the way I should go, simply 
 because I had been trained by her sisters-in- 
 law. 
 
 " One of the misfortunes which pursued
 
 EVELYN. 177 
 
 me in consequence of this in-lawisra was, 
 that my poor aunts, not wishing all their little 
 religious, charitable, or other proceedings to 
 be talked over by her, had often charged me, 
 in my visits to her house, not to mention 
 certain small matters, which probably would 
 have done no injury if they had not been 
 concealed. I was always tenaciously ob- 
 servant of a promise, and yet naturally can- 
 did and communicative, so that I was fre- 
 quently involved in embarrassment when 
 questioned as to matters at home ; and the 
 result was that my step^aunt was convinced, 
 and steadfastly affirmed, that I was brought 
 up in habits of secrecy and concealment, and 
 that my nature was inclined to the same. 
 
 " She constantly strove to impress that fact 
 on the mind of Frank ; and now you see 
 what reason 1 can give him to believe it.'' 
 Evelyn said these words with the only smile, 
 tinctured with bitterness, I ever saw on her 
 lips. 
 
 " This insinuation always rendered me 
 highly indignant ; dear Frank, finding his 
 efforts to soothe me ineffectual, often changed 
 them into reproofs : these had more effect, 
 for my respect for him equalled my affection. 
 I 3
 
 178 EVELYN. 
 
 I thought I loved him as I should have 
 loved a brother ; I knew no difference in the 
 sentiments. 
 
 " But one day, when I was just half-way 
 through my seventeenth year, my step-aunt 
 startled me with an assurance that I had 
 formed a secret engagement with Frank. 
 
 " Her health was failing; she was irrit- 
 able and easily excited ; I had then but 
 little self-control, — I was a creature of im- 
 pulse and feeling, yet I feared to produce 
 one of the paroxysms to which she was sub- 
 ject. I burst from her room, and ran out 
 to the field where I had seen Frank medi- 
 tating among the newly-cut grass. The idea 
 she suggested had never before occurred to 
 my mind; I never stopped to consider the 
 propriety of imparting it to him ; I had 
 thought of neither love nor marriage. I 
 viewed the charge as simply one of conceal- 
 ment, and with flashing eyes I stood before 
 my cousin, and called upon him to vindicate 
 my sincerity, and convince his aunt that no 
 engagement existed. 
 
 " Frank looked earnestly at me ; then, 
 with his own grave smile, taking my hand, 
 he made me sit beside him, and said.
 
 EVELYN. 179 
 
 " ' I cannot do that with truth, Evelyn ; 
 you, I fear, dear girl, could do so ; but the 
 heart may have formed an engagement 
 while the lips have made none. Yet will I 
 never demand a promise, Evelyn, until I can 
 also demand a wife.' He looked into my 
 eyes, and for the first time in our lives they 
 were cast down from his. His aunt had 
 done what she was anxious to prevent ; what 
 had been a vague dream became a real fact, 
 to a young untutored mind. I felt then I 
 was loved, and my heart for the first time 
 told me I loved with another love from what 
 I had hitherto thought. 
 
 " We sat long there, in that pleasant 
 field, and we did not talk of love, or hint 
 at any future ; but while dear Frank's arm 
 held me to his side, I am sure that in silence 
 we both owned that our hearts had made an 
 engagement — a betrothal, that never should 
 be broken. Yet no w^ord was spoken, no 
 promise asked or given ; all, except that 
 sense of deep and present happiness, was 
 forgotten. My friend, this was all the en- 
 gagement that has ever subsisted between 
 the man you saw at Trollhiittan and myself. 
 
 " Very soon afterwards I w^as sent to Ger-
 
 180 EVELYN. 
 
 many, about six months afterwards ; Frank's 
 college term was then nearly over. His 
 aunt, who had travelled in Germany and 
 Italy in her younger days, thought it was 
 advisable I should do so too. My friend 
 Bertha, who had returned to her old father, 
 had been anxious to see me ; but an ex- 
 pedition to Hungary appeared formidable. 
 My step-aunt — I call her so still, for I never 
 called her my aunt in the lifetime of my 
 others — had, for a few years past, been fond 
 of talking of her ' sister the countess ; ' and 
 to this sister, then residing at Vienna, she 
 determined to send me. A family, going 
 from London there, offered to take charge of 
 me ; I was furnished with the address of the 
 countess, and dejjarted with my friends just 
 before Frank arrived from Oxford to find 
 me gone. An inexperienced girl as I was, 
 I met a sensible shock on reaching the place 
 of my destination. We had loitered nearly 
 four months in Germany. I found my poor 
 aunt on her death-bed, speechless. I was 
 told dear Bertha had just married, and was 
 with her father and husband in Hungary. 
 Her former governess, the old lady who died 
 at Ystad, was there, the friend of my poor
 
 EVELYN. 181 
 
 aunt. As soon as my aunt was dead I wrote 
 to inform Bertha of my arrival, and set out 
 with that good woman for her abode, little 
 suspecting what was there to befal me. 
 We spent some time happily together ; then 
 an awful change came on ; but of all that 
 I am unable — may till the end of my life be 
 unable — to speak." 
 
 " And I am bound not to ask ; but, Evelyn, 
 is your step-cousin still unable to demand 
 either a promise or a wife ? " 
 
 " No ; I told you he was going to Stock- 
 holm to seek for both. The very day I first 
 saw you in the Djurgard, I had had a letter 
 to that effect, and had answered it in a way 
 to give him room to believe that my senti- 
 ments, at least as regards matrimony, had 
 changed, and that I now inclined to a con- 
 vent life. Don't shake your head : I was not 
 quite insincere ; that very evening when you 
 first found me musing on the rock, such a 
 retreat was the subject of my contemplation. 
 I was thinking Frank would regret me ; 
 but would gradually get over the pain of his 
 loss ; whereas, if he were to know all that I 
 know, a cloud would rest upon his life for 
 ever. I do not think I could be happy in a
 
 182 EVELYN. 
 
 convent, consistently with my own religious 
 convictions ; and I have, besides, an impera- 
 tive duty to perform, one I have solemnly 
 promised to endeavour at least to perform, and 
 which could not be fulfilled, I believe, in a 
 cloister. My perplexity chiefly arises from 
 not knowing how to place myself in circum- 
 stances to fulfil the work T have undertaken. 
 Throughout the severe winter which I have 
 spent in Sweden, I have been nearly cut off 
 from all communication with any world but 
 that of Stockholm. Reviving spring only 
 brought reviving anxieties ; for I felt I 
 ought to do something, to take some steps, 
 towards the attainment of my object, which 
 there I could not take. I have a cor- 
 respondent who occasionally gives me some 
 tidings respecting the object of my solici- 
 tude. That correspondent is a priest. I 
 have felt certain that I ought to go to Rome, 
 and hearing that you were going there, I 
 thought that Providence might indicate my 
 way. I wished to tell you something of 
 myself; but what I have said is not satis- 
 factory. Darkness, however, may yet be 
 light. I do not wish to accuse the step-aunt 
 I spoke of : — and poor Frank ! it was of him
 
 EVELYN. 183 
 
 only I wished to speak ; it is so miserable 
 to think of him now, passing over these 
 strange lakes ; going on such a strange jour- 
 ney, to be so cruelly disappointed. Ah ! if 
 he could know that I saw him ; saw him, 
 and let him pass on ! " 
 
 " You want me, I think, to tell you if 
 you were wrong," I said ; " but how is it 
 possible for me to judge of your conduct 
 when I have not the least clue to the mo- 
 tives that actuate it ? When persons live in 
 constant intercourse, it is difficult, while one 
 is bound to secrecy, for the other not to 
 overstep the limits of discretion, through 
 the desire of affording consolation or guid- 
 ance." 
 
 " I understand you," she replied ; " it is 
 my weakness only that brings me to you. 
 What you say is true, but what would it be 
 if those persons were united indissolubly, in 
 a state where every thought must be under- 
 stood, every feeling shared ?" 
 
 " That maxim has been stretched too far 
 by some persons, Evelyn, who have deemed 
 it a sin for a man to keep a secret from his 
 wife, or a wife to conceal any sentiment from 
 her husband."
 
 184 EVELYN. 
 
 " I have been tauglit to think so ; and 
 therefore I could not confide aught that 
 burdened my mind to a clergyman of our 
 church." 
 
 I fancied I had now got some clue to her 
 avoidance of the cousin-in-law. 
 
 " Do you not then approve of the clergy 
 marrying?" I said. 
 
 " I have never thought about it," she re- 
 plied, "nor does it affect this question, so 
 long as confession is not admitted in the 
 church." 
 
 " The two institutions are closely united^ 
 it is true ; for I remember a story of a Rus- 
 sian priest, who was banislied to Siberia for 
 revealing the secrets of the confessional to 
 his wife. However, all that I wanted to 
 know was, whether any question of a religious 
 nature interfered to prevent your union with 
 this clerical relative?" 
 
 •' Of a religious nature ? oh yes ! most 
 religious !" she answered ; " but if you mean 
 any question of ordinances, or institutions, 
 any question disputed by churches, oh no ! 
 nothing save the question of truth before 
 God ; save that I must try to fulfil a sacred 
 promise."
 
 EVELYN. 185 
 
 " Well, Evelyn," I said, after a good, long 
 silence, " I really can give you no opinion ; 
 I cannot tell you if you were right or 
 wrong to let that singularly interesting-look- 
 ing young man steam on his lonely way to 
 Stockholm, while the object of his mission 
 took hers in the contrary direction ; all I 
 can say is, that I should not have done so 
 had it been my case." 
 
 " What would you have done ? " she 
 asked. 
 
 " I should have run to meet him, and 
 been just as glad to see him as he was to 
 see me." 
 
 The dove's breast felt to touch my cheek : 
 it was Evelyn's that was pressed to it. 
 
 " Oh ! how gladly would I have done 
 so !" she whispered ; and I felt a tear on that 
 soft cheek. 
 
 " Evelyn," I said, " I have promised to 
 ask no questions ; but this one, if you mw, 
 answer me this once and for ever. Do you 
 conceal guilt?" 
 
 She stood straight up, and looked into my 
 face. 
 
 " Guilt !" she repeated, and shuddered ; 
 " guilt," — and again she looked doubtfully at
 
 186 EVELYN. 
 
 me ; " if you mean the guilt of others, yes ; 
 if you mean my own," — she fell down on her 
 knees beside the bed, threw back her head, 
 and added, " God, who has seen fit to try 
 me more than such a creature might appear 
 able, without his grace, to bear, knows that 
 there is not an action of my short life, how- 
 ever worthless in his sight, which I would 
 shrink from having upholded to the eyes 
 of the world." 
 
 The fair head dropped down on the 
 coverlet, and the full heart gave way in 
 tears. 
 
 Evelyn rose, took the candle, and was 
 leaving the room. From the door she looked 
 back to me, and the face was Guide's por- 
 trait ; the head turned over the shoulder, 
 the white robe, the colourless cheeks, the 
 red lips and eyelids, even the tear beneath 
 them — that young, innocent look of sorrow. 
 
 " Evelyn, dear girl, forgive me," I cried, 
 extending my hand. She ran back, and 
 threw herself sobbing on my neck. 
 
 " Oh ! why did I not think of this before ! 
 suspect in the least what you might imagine ; 
 how kindly, how nobly, you have acted !" 
 
 Some more words, not necessary here to
 
 EVELYN. 187 
 
 introduce, followed; Evelyn closed them 
 with another pressure of her downy cheek, 
 and we repeated the words of Oscar and 
 Lilla, 
 
 " Farvall ; god natt ;" which is almost as 
 plain English as " farewell; good night." But 
 were either of us wiser than when the con- 
 versation began ? 
 
 * * * * 
 
 The next morning the kindness of one of 
 the kindest merchants of Gottenburg, to 
 whom I happened to have a letter of recom- 
 mendation, came to our relief; and by his 
 negotiation we obtained a breakfast in the 
 English-speaking household of Mrs. Todd. 
 
 We went out with him afterwards to see 
 the town, as he also informed us that the 
 packet from Christiana to Copenhagen called 
 at Gottenburg the next day, and we could 
 not depart sooner. We had time therefore 
 to look over the first commercial city of 
 Sweden, and that which is second to Stock- 
 holm in amount of population. 
 
 The foundation of the town, which owes 
 its origin to Gustavus Adolphus, is laid 
 on piles. The houses, built of stone, re- 
 semble in general those of Germany ; they
 
 188 EVELYN. 
 
 are massive and lofty, and have the under 
 floors uninhabited, on account of the cold. 
 
 A great many canals, formed by means of 
 the river, run through the town, and are 
 crossed by stone bridges, high, and very much 
 arched, to allow the passage of boats ; they 
 are the most antique, primitive-looking 
 bridges I ever saw, though Gottenburg is 
 not the most antique town. 
 ■ The business and shipping department is 
 quite unlike the higher and more fashionable 
 quarter, where many British merchants re- 
 side ; there is an English church and chap- 
 lain, but no bodily physician here for the 
 English. 
 
 Mr. S., our amiable Scottish merchant, 
 conducted us up the granite heights on 
 which stands the castle, which in former 
 times, when Denmark frowned across the 
 Kattegat at her then oppressed neighbour, 
 and noAv powerful ally, was used as the 
 citadel of Gottenburg. 
 
 From here we had a fine view of the 
 country. It presented a varied, yet rather 
 tame panorama ; grey granitic ridges were 
 but little enlivened by valleys of beauty 
 or richness ; yet the pretty villas of the
 
 EVELYN. 189 
 
 mercliants, the river, which could be seen for 
 miles covered with laden barges, and the 
 vast piles of wood, in which its merchants so 
 largely trade, piled all along the banks, gave 
 it an animated and picturesque aspect, which 
 was considerably heightened by the effect of 
 the coloured cottages. 
 
 Some of these wooden tenements are of 
 brilliant red, others yellow, green, blue, or 
 deep pink. The picturesqueness of effect is, 
 in my opinion, increased by having the 
 frames of the windows, which are numerous, 
 and large in proportion to the size of the 
 houses, painted a different colour : thus the 
 red houses have green or white window- 
 frames and doors ; the green, red or white ; 
 the yellow, green, and so on. 
 
 The projecting roofs, with very low eaves, 
 are formed to protect the walls from the 
 inclemency of the weather ; they are covered 
 with red tiles, but these are not glazed as in 
 Denmark. 
 
 The effect of these houses is to my taste 
 pleasing and fanciful ; and to a utilitarian, I 
 think they must be unexceptionable, as the 
 owner of a coloured house would, in a Swe- 
 dish winter, more readily find his home
 
 190 EVELYN. 
 
 than one who possessed a whitewashed 
 one. 
 
 In this land of stone and granite, wooden 
 houses, of the minor sort, are almost uni- 
 versal. The labour and expense of cutting 
 the hard stone render its abundance almost 
 unavailing to the poorer classes, and they 
 say, that besides the advantage which wood 
 possesses from its plentifulness, it is also 
 warmer in winter and cooler in summer. 
 
 " Do you think," said Evelyn, to Mr. S., 
 " that the women of Sweden, I mean the 
 peasants, are so pretty, as the German and 
 some French writers seem to think ? " 
 
 " I never have seen here a native face so 
 beautiful as one from our own good land," he 
 answered, looking at her with a smile. " But 
 in sterling value, that is to say, if the value of 
 human creatures be rated, like that of others, 
 at the amount of labour they can perform, or 
 of service they can endure, or j)rofit they can 
 produce, I believe this female peasantry 
 might rival the factory-girls of England ; 
 and they, too, possess a gift not vouchsafed 
 to those poor girls, — that of longevity. 
 
 " Look at the old creature who has come 
 in sight so a propos ; she is, to my knowledge,
 
 EVELYN. 191 
 
 eighty years old :" he pointed to a brown- 
 skinned, white-haired, strange-looking crea- 
 ture, who was carrying up the steep ascent 
 a burden I could not have moved. 
 
 " Wonderful ! " we exclaimed ; but soon 
 afterwards we saw a gentler, if not a feebler 
 animal even than woman, hard at work. 
 Sheep, poor, timid, lazy things, are here to 
 be seen harnessed in small carts. 
 
 " Do you recollect the absurd description," 
 said Evelyn to me, " we read in Marmier's 
 ' Lettres du Nord,' of a young Swede, with 
 legs, arms, and shoulders bare, her fair hair 
 flowing in ringlets over the latter, going to 
 work in the fields, and like Ruth, to find a 
 bridegroom among the reapers ? We have not 
 seen a Swedish Ruth yet." 
 
 "Oh!" said Mr. S , "never mind a 
 
 Frenchman's descrif)tions ; if he does not 
 travel scientifically, he will do so senti- 
 mentally. I say nothing against the display 
 of the legs and arms, however; yet surely, 
 in such a demi-toilette, the fair Ruths of 
 Sweden do not look very unlike those of 
 Scotland, — I will not say Ireland, for the 
 Swedes are almost alwavs clean."
 
 192 EVELYN. 
 
 This is nationality, I thought, for surely 
 the Scots are not always so. 
 
 The beggars of Gdttenburg are as abun- 
 dant as in most parts of the world. Such is 
 usually the case in seaports : but one sight 
 we beheld there made us believe that real 
 poverty existed. A cart loaded with sacks 
 of dried peas was passing along a road im- 
 mensely deep with dust ; some of the peas 
 were spilled, and in an instant, like a swoop 
 of crows, the spot was covered and crowded 
 with really decently attired people, boys and 
 girls, men and women, eagerly picking up a 
 few grains with a handful of dust. In 
 Stockholm there is not a beggar to be 
 seen ; and even here you are not struck by 
 the same miserable aspects which our great 
 towns present, where wealth and wretched- 
 ness congregate together. 
 
 We spent a pleasant evening with Mr. 
 
 S , his charming wife, and fine little 
 
 boys ; left them with some faint hope that 
 they should hear of us again, and embarked 
 the next day in the packet that calls at 
 Gottenburg on its way from Christiana. 
 
 There was a young, white-haired, white-
 
 EVELYN. 193 
 
 faced, and white-hatted German on board, 
 who said he spoke " Engleesch ; " he came 
 up to us, and said, 
 
 " It is no shoke to cross the Katte- 
 gat." 
 
 And truly no joke, or shoke, according to 
 a vulgarism metamorphosed, did we find it. 
 The Kattegat is as cross-grained as its name 
 appears to imply. 
 
 What a scene we had on board ! I never 
 thought la maladie de tiier, — for disguised in 
 French that one phrase is less appalling, — I 
 never did think it could look beautiful ; but 
 the " sea-change," usually so horrible, really 
 appeared in Evelyn to be 
 
 ••• Into something rare and strange." 
 
 She lay on a couch without a sign or breath 
 of life ; she was like the statue on the tomb, 
 which shows the loveliness of life and the 
 repose of death without any other cha- 
 racteristic of either. It was in fact just the 
 statue of the fair queen of Prussia, by Ranch, 
 at Potsdam, only with Evelyn's bright hair 
 showered over it in all its living radiancy. 
 
 Poor thing, to see her thus calmly subju- 
 gated by that cross, conflicting channel, I 
 
 VOL. I. K
 
 194 EVELYN. 
 
 could not help repeating, with a selfish groan, 
 " It is no shoke to cross the Kattegat." 
 
 " But here we are in calm water. Evelyn 
 arise, and look at the Sound." 
 
 The wind fell, and the glorious scene broke 
 on our view under the brilliancy of the even- 
 ing sun. There was a Russian fleet of fine 
 men-of-war, and there was the flag of, I be- 
 lieve, every nation of earth that sends a vessel 
 on the sea. " There go the merchantmen 
 bringing goods from afar, and there are the 
 sailors whose cry is in the ships ;" and peace, 
 blessed peace, spread her own white flag over 
 all, and the varied colours that fluttered side 
 by side in the breeze told that the pruning- 
 hook had supplanted the sword. Alas ! for 
 how long ? The rumbling of the earthquake 
 that was to heave the kingdoms of Europe 
 was only then distantly beginning. 
 
 Did any English traveller ever pass the 
 Sound or visit Elsineur without talking of 
 sweet Caroline Matilda, and of Prince 
 Hamlet ? 
 
 It is so pleasant to be exceptions to a 
 general rule, that though I was at Cronberg 
 and Marienburg, I will not say a word about 
 them. The story of the sister of oiir good
 
 EVELYN. 195 
 
 George III. is just like an eastern tale, 
 where we hear of a cruel mother-in-law and 
 jealous husband shutting up a fair girl in 
 such a great tower ; and though this was 
 a mere political cabal, it is interesting to 
 think of the young wife and queen of Den- 
 mark writing on her palace window with a 
 diamond, " God keep me innocent ; make 
 others great." 
 
 " What," said Evelyn, " promise not to 
 say a word, and say all that." 
 
 " I have done," I replied ; and lo ! as I 
 spoke, we stopped at the pier of Copen- 
 hagen. 
 
 The broad-shouldered, blue -eyed, red- 
 cheeked Holsteiner, who took charge of our 
 baggage for the form of inspection, came up 
 to the solemn-looking official with a laugh 
 on his broad face, and one of its articles in 
 his hands, which appeared the most sus- 
 picious. 
 
 Never did a Holsteiner appear less like a 
 discontented subject ; and little did I then 
 imagine, although I heard complaints which 
 I did not understand, about Schleswig and 
 Holstein, that we should soon hear so much of 
 the duchy of which our porter was a native. 
 K 2
 
 196 EVELYN. 
 
 It was simply what is called in England a 
 milliner's basket, which he had got hold of; 
 I had adopted it as a bonnet-box on account 
 of its lightness and portability. With that 
 knowing laugh, he clapped it down before 
 the revenue officer, and shook his great 
 head, making a Danish speech, of which the 
 only word that was familiar to me sounded 
 like " hen." The officer scrutinized me 
 over his spectacles ; but the Holsteiner's 
 droll expression enlightened me more, and 
 I recollected that the octroi system is in 
 practice here, and a toll is levied on all eat- 
 able goods brought into the capital of Den- 
 mark ; therefore, reasoning from analogy, 
 and thinking of German and English, I made 
 no doubt but that the word which sounded 
 like " hen" signified " fowl," and that my 
 bonnet-basket was considered to contain 
 these creatures. 
 
 I took hold of the leaf of the bonnet which 
 was on my head, and in a mixture of unin- 
 telligible language, said, laughing, in answer, 
 at the Holstein porter, " Nei, nei, das ist 
 
 nicht hen, das ist " and unable to finish, 
 
 I shook the leaf of my bonnet at the eyes 
 that were peering over the spectacles.
 
 EVELYN. 
 
 197 
 
 "What on earth do you mean?" said 
 Evelyn, who stood leaning on my arm, wait- 
 ing to see the end. 
 
 " They think I carry fowl in that basket, 
 and they are going to open it, in hope of 
 levying a toll for the king of Denmark ; but 
 it is duty free, containing only my bonnet 
 and caps." 
 
 " Why do you not speak German ? they 
 will understand it." 
 
 " I spoke a little German, a little Swe- 
 dish, and a word of English, and they have 
 understood all, with the help of that sym- 
 bolic language which is known everywhere." 
 
 It was so, for the great jocund Holsteiner 
 laughed, and the grave official gave a Jupiter- 
 like nod ; and my basket and myself, with 
 Evelyn and sundries, were deposited in the 
 droskies, and with due stateliness of motion, 
 conveyed to the Hotel d'Angleterre. 
 
 I always wish to avoid h6tels d'Angleterre; 
 but they told us the landlord spoke French, 
 and I believe it is a very excellent hotel 
 d'Angleterre. 
 
 The landlord, as usual, ran out to receive 
 us ; we were duly installed : finding our way 
 to our rooms through numerous tall house-
 
 198 EVELYN. 
 
 maids, carrying buckets of water, brooms 
 and mops. Such insignia of office appear to 
 be seldom dispensed with in Denmark. 
 
 "How much we have to see here!" I 
 cried, putting my giddy head, still swimming 
 with the Kattegat, to rest on the sofa. 
 " How delightful to ramble through Copen- 
 hagen, to see all Denmark, to explore the 
 Danish islands V 
 
 " How long do you intend to stay here?" 
 Evelyn demanded in a voice full of appre- 
 hension. 
 
 " Ah ! you do not then wish to stop in 
 Copenhagen?" 
 " Oh no ! but "— 
 
 Evelyn stopped ; but her face, full of an 
 affectionate fearfulness, the innocent expres- 
 sion of the rounded lips, told me more plainly 
 than her words, what it was she meant. She 
 feared a similar occurrence to what had 
 taken place at Trollhattan, and it was not 
 likely that from another such she could 
 escape in the same manner. 
 " You zviil go on, Evelyn?" 
 " I must ; I never thought of asking you 
 if you intended to stop long en route." 
 
 " True ; we should have arranged that
 
 EVELYN. 199 
 
 point. For your own sake, I should like to 
 stop here ; but for mine, merely, I will not. 
 I shall come back for a winter to Stock- 
 holm, and will leave Copenhagen now when- 
 ever you please. But to morrow is Sunday ; 
 you will not travel then V 
 
 " Decidedly not." 
 
 I was disappointed at this abrupt de- 
 parture ; but to make the best of a bad case 
 was all that could be done ; and, as a present 
 means of doing so, I went to bed, and slept 
 till the water-buckets, brooms, and mops in 
 the passage next my room awoke me in the 
 morning.
 
 200 EVELYN. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Copenhagen. 
 
 When will our world become sufficiently 
 enlightened to allow countries, capitals, 
 towns, and rivers to be called everywhere 
 as their own respective geographies name 
 them ? A party of English, who wanted to 
 see Ratisbon, passed it by, because they were 
 told they were at Regensburg, and did not 
 recognise the native name. Surely, on 
 seeing the written name in Danish of Kjo- 
 benhavn, we too might have gone on looking 
 in vain for a Copenhagen. Why should not 
 London be London, and Munich be Miin- 
 chen, all over the world? If all Europe 
 were to break out into a revolution, I should 
 propose this reform to the president of the 
 grand republic. 
 
 The date of my paper made me think of 
 this, for I wished to write Kjobenhavn, but
 
 EVELYN. 201 
 
 it looked pedantic, when every one else says 
 Copenhagen. 
 
 " God morgen min Froken," I said to 
 Evelyn : " What will you do to day V 
 
 " Go to church, I suppose." 
 
 " But where?" 
 
 " To the church of the embassy, I con- 
 clude." 
 
 " You do not then follow the usual travel- 
 ling plan of going anywhere but to one's 
 native worship ? " 
 
 " No ; I shall be too happy to hear again 
 our beautiful Liturgy in the tongue wherein 
 I was born." 
 
 We set out for the church of the British 
 embassy, attended by a French-speaking 
 commissionaire^ a good old man, who ap- 
 peared to remember "the misfortune," as 
 he called the bombardment of the capital 
 by the English ; and as he delicately pointed 
 out to us from the ramparts which afford 
 splendid points of view, the damages too 
 wantonly eifected by our arms, he also 
 called it le feu, with a glance that said. Do 
 you understand the term ? That sore spot 
 will long remain on Danish history; and amid 
 K 3
 
 202 EVELYN. 
 
 all the glories of our Nelson's epoch, we might 
 be content to have had it omitted. 
 
 We took a circuitous route to church, in 
 order to see as much as we could of the 
 town. 
 
 " There," said our commissionaire, " is Vor 
 Frue Kirke." 
 
 I forgot all else, but that we were at Our 
 Lady's Church ; and darting up the steps, I 
 entered the portico, and got inside the doors 
 without even looking at Evelyn, who was 
 thus obliged to come in too. 
 
 I would not have seen that sight more 
 premeditatedly : it burst upon me with a sud- 
 denness which rendered it more distinct to 
 my after-vision. The congregation were at 
 ])rayers : the minister at the altar appeared 
 looked down on by the colossal statue of 
 Christ ; while the twelve apostles, in their 
 respective niches, placed round the simple 
 oblong building, appear in like manner to 
 regard the worshippers. The effect alto- 
 gether of Thorwaldsen's works was certainly 
 heightened by being thus beheld ; although I 
 fully feel how wrong it is to enter a church 
 during the time of service merely to admire ; 
 still more to condemn.
 
 EVELYN. 203 
 
 When I saw this church, therefore, the 
 next morning, I could examine, but at this 
 moment I could only feel. 
 
 When the church was empty, I could 
 lament, perhaps with bad taste, that the 
 figure of our blessed Lord was of such co- 
 lossal and rather Odin-like dimensions ; but 
 the subject is one I never like to see de- 
 picted in any form. 
 
 The eifect of the kneeling angel, holding 
 the baptismal font, when seen in the midst 
 of the worshippers, was most beautiful. It 
 is an exquisite work of art : and the charm- 
 ing bas-relief of the child walking forth into 
 life, with his guardian angel's hand extended 
 over his head, is at once the embodiment of 
 a poetic conception and a divine verity. 
 
 The first impression the Frue Kirke made 
 on me was, that the building was too small 
 for the size and number of the statues and 
 bas-reliefs, with which the great sculptor, 
 the son of Iceland, by blood, though not by 
 birth, adorned this favourite church of his 
 native capital, when it was to be rebuilt 
 after having been nearly demolished by 
 English cannon at the time of le feu. But, 
 with becoming taste, all other adornment has
 
 204 EVELYN. 
 
 been omitted, and its elegant proportions 
 may have the effect of rendering its apparent 
 size, like that of the mighty St. Peter's, less 
 at first sight than the reality. 
 
 Thorwaldsen, from a sentiment not quite 
 in accordance with a Christian tone of mind, 
 formed his own tomb, to be placed in the 
 centre of the museum which his country was 
 raising as the depository of his works and 
 the monument of his fame. There he rests ;" 
 but until that museum was completed, his 
 coffin lay in this church ; a black curtain 
 screened the dust of the artist, while his art 
 appeared to live before us. The crown 
 prince, now king of Denmark, was his chief 
 mourner. 
 
 " A sudden death," said Evelyn, as we 
 walked on to our church, " appears to me an 
 enviable one ; if we can indeed drop off this 
 mortal to be clothed witli immortality ; slip 
 away gently from the corruptible to put on 
 the incorruptible. But who would wish to 
 die like Thorwaldsen, at a theatre ?" 
 
 We entered the English church. 
 
 Oh ! reader, I have not often apostrophized 
 you, because while I write you are to me a 
 veiy imaginative personage, perhaps never
 
 EVELYN. 205 
 
 to become a real one ; but if ever a reader 
 has been put off with that most impotent 
 conclusion — " it is left to his imagination," — 
 then, will such a person pardon me for 
 begging the help of imagination to accom- 
 pany us from the chaste and beautiful Frue 
 Kirke of Lutheran Copenhagen, into the 
 place which represents, I suppose, the church 
 of England in Denmark, just as our ambas- 
 sador there represents her government. 
 
 A cold, cheerless, neglected place ; with a 
 floor of uneven flags, a rude painted pulpit, 
 and sundry brown square boxes, with one 
 person in one such box, and another in an- 
 other ; a man standing with arms in an angle, 
 resting on the sides, and an open book in his 
 hand ; a few women of decent appearance, 
 probably from the seamen's quarter, but not 
 one of what are termed " the better classes," 
 men or women, though I think one table 
 dli6te would furnish more English than there 
 were in the church. The regular chaplain, 
 I believe, was absent, and no trace of " the 
 Embassy" was present. 
 
 Certainly, on the continent, our spiritual 
 power does not share in much of the pomp 
 and expenditure bestowed on the temporal.
 
 206 EVELYN. 
 
 Copenhagen is not the only place in Europe 
 where our ecclesiastical dignity contrasts 
 rather painfully with our secular representa- 
 tion. 
 
 It was in returning from this most de- 
 pressing church that we walked on the ram- 
 parts, and saw how agreeably they are laid 
 out for the convenience and enjoyment of 
 the citizens ; but here our guide, after re- 
 garding us with a glance that said, " Do not 
 be angry, but T hate you on Sir Parker's 
 account," as he called Sir Hyde, would again 
 and again show traces of " the misfortune," 
 until we began to think that as in our Anglo- 
 Saxon Liturgy the clause was once inserted, 
 " From the attacks of the Northmen, good 
 Lord deliver us," the Danes might have 
 returned the compliment, or reversed the 
 prayer. In the interesting cemetery for the 
 deceased of the Danish navy, there is an 
 obelisk something like that which stands on 
 the heights of Toulouse, where a cruel battle 
 was fought, when cause for battle was no 
 more. At Toulouse the obelisk bears the 
 inscription, " To the brave, who died for 
 the country." In the naval cemetery of 
 Copenhagen, the obelisk says, " They fell
 
 EVELYN. 207 
 
 for their country. April 2, 1801." Round 
 that column clusters the hardy oak and 
 sturdy pine ; the granite blocks around bear 
 the warriors' names, — meeter and more in- 
 spiring memorial than the hidden and stately 
 monument which an abbey or cathedral 
 may enclose to a single Leader's memory, 
 while those he led pass unnoticed, and for 
 affording a sight of which the amor patrice is 
 manifested by the demand of a fee ! 
 
 We drove down a pleasant road ; the 
 Sound, with the cold, bleak, scraggy coast of 
 Sweden, was at one side, and on the other 
 the famous beech-woods of Denmark, pretty 
 villas and most agreeable paysage. 
 
 In the water we saw the memorable isle 
 of Hveen, where Tycho Brahe spent twenty 
 years in his " city of heavens," or Uranien- 
 borg, and expended, it is said, a ton of gold 
 in his establishment, where he kept open 
 house for philosophers, nobles, and princes ; 
 was visited by that singular personage 
 James I., of England ; and created as much 
 wonder and suspicion among the supersti- 
 tious people, by the gold and silver nose 
 which he wore, instead of the natural one 
 he had lost in a duel, as he did by his mid-
 
 208 EVELYN. 
 
 night commerce with the skies ; his spectral 
 automatons with which he delighted to 
 frighten them, and his invisible bells, by 
 which he could summon any student he pre- 
 tended to call for. 
 
 Dangerous pranks were these for a man to 
 play who lived before his age. Whether any 
 age will come after this strange one of ours 
 we know not ; but no one now lives before 
 his age. 
 
 Poor Tycho ! it was the physicians, and 
 not the priests, who feared his craft ; for he 
 cured diseases by astrology ; and so he was 
 persecuted and impoverished, and driven to 
 Prague, where, welcomed and honoured, he 
 lived, died, and was buried. And now of 
 the great astronomer's city of the heavens, 
 an old traveller has recorded this pithy ob- 
 servation, " There is on the island a field 
 where Uranienborg was." 
 
 Then we went to the Dyrhave, answering 
 to our fondly-remembered Djurgard, or deer- 
 park ; a noble forest, where the great annual 
 fair is held, where all sorts and conditions of 
 men mingle together without constraint or 
 annoyance. Here is a pleasant royal lodge 
 named the Hermitage, but rather misnamed.
 
 EVELYN. 209 
 
 especially under the aspect it presents on a 
 fine Sunday afternoon. 
 
 Then we went into the grounds of Sorgen- 
 frie, — or Sans-Souci, or Free-from-Care. But 
 our wish, amongst all these royal residences, 
 was to get into the grounds of Frederiksberg, 
 and there accordingly we went, seeing that 
 splendid avenue of chestnut-trees, where the 
 wealthier of the citizens have villas, and 
 all classes love to have a cup of tea, or some- 
 thing else, in the so-called tea-gardens. 
 
 The Danes make the most of their sum- 
 mer, as well as the Swedes ; and rightly so, 
 if it be true that previous to the famous 
 peace of Roeskilde, Charles X. brought his 
 Swedes, baggage, artillery ^i horses and-rail; 
 over both theGreat and Little Belt, on the ice. 
 
 If such may be the winter, who would not 
 make use of the summer? There is a pro- 
 found moral in the remark, for the benefit 
 of all who discover it. 
 
 All continental Protestants — I do not 
 speak of the Neologists of Germany, but of 
 those who, I really believe, cling to their re- 
 formed religion — spend the evening of Sun- 
 day in recreation. In the morning and at mid- 
 day the churches are crowded ; the sacrament
 
 210 EVELYN. 
 
 administered, not to a few out of a congrega- 
 tion, while the rest walk out of the church, 
 but to the entire ; and the rest of the day is 
 only made a Sabbath from toil. There is, on 
 all holiday occasions, nothing that the trading 
 and lower classes, and even the higher 
 ones too, among the citizens of Copenhagen, 
 enjoy more than a supper or tea in some of 
 the many royal parks which render its en- 
 virons so agreeable. 
 
 The accommodation there afforded to 
 them, the liberty they have to make use 
 of them, is something quite wonderful to 
 natives of England. Booths, tents, all sorts 
 of things, are there to offer them refresh- 
 ment ; but none of the more vulgar amuse- 
 ments, which may be seen in some of the 
 approaches to these pleasant resorts, are 
 allowed access to the royal domains. 
 
 The feudal institutions, which, with all 
 this apparent liberty, inflicted a species of 
 slavery on the lower classes, were only 
 abrogated by the late king. His present 
 majesty is called " The friend of the people." 
 May the title be preserved, for in it is the 
 safety of monarchs, and the welfare of a 
 state.
 
 EVELYN. 211 
 
 " But there," I cried, — breaking off a dis- 
 course which, though to save time and space 
 I do not put it in the form of question 
 and answer, had nearly that character, — 
 " what would our notions of English liberty 
 say to that spectacle?" It was a gang of 
 malefactors working in chains (not on Sun- 
 day, however), with a soldier standing sen- 
 tinel over them. 
 
 " I have often heard or read the same 
 remark from English travellers," said Eve- 
 lyn, smiling. " Such sights are indeed un- 
 pleasing to refined eyes, and it is marvellous 
 hoAV well England contrives to keep hers 
 averted from them. But do our colonists 
 forget that the masses they see are as truly 
 British subjects?" 
 
 " Ah ! it is only in our little country, and 
 not in our kingdom," I replied, " that such 
 sights could not be tolerated. I did not 
 think of that before. But there are a great 
 many things in England one does not well 
 understand. We are, beyond doubt, the 
 greatest, and richest, and wisest nation in 
 the world. All foreigners, I am told, admire 
 our noble institutions, our great charities, 
 our magnificent workhouses ! But how is it
 
 212 EVELYN. 
 
 that here, no more than in Stockholm, not 
 a beggar is seen in the streets ? and yet they 
 are not suppressed by policemen. The ap- 
 palling contrast of misery and magnificence 
 does not strike the passer by as it does in 
 London ; and still more horribly in Dublin, 
 where a tax on carriages and horses would 
 be one of the most merciful acts ever passed 
 by our legislature." 
 
 " You forget," said Evelyn, " when you 
 gallop on in this manner, drawing your con- 
 clusions only from what strikes your eye — in 
 the first place, the different subdivision of 
 landed property, the more improAed con- 
 dition of the agricultural labourer, and above 
 all, the superior mode of education. Then, 
 as to Copenhagen, the population is about 
 half as much as the town of Liverpool, one 
 hundred and twenty-seven thousand, I think ; 
 and it certainly holds out no such attrac- 
 tions to the needy or speculative as our own 
 awful metropolis does. 
 
 " That the state of the poor in England, 
 and the moral and social condition of its 
 hard-working classes, appear to us much 
 more cruel than those of the good Danes 
 we now see, I readily admit. We see them
 
 EVELYN. 213 
 
 in the unrestricted enjoyment of these noble 
 domains, revelling quietly in pure air and 
 delicious scenery ; and so far as our great 
 towns are concerned, we must feel how much 
 more likely the minds of the lower orders 
 are to be elevated and refined by such a 
 liberty, than are those of people who, like the 
 poor denizens of London, are enclosed in 
 that murky atmosphere ; spending their even- 
 ing or Sunday hours in those dreadful dens, 
 which I believe in no other country in the 
 world but Christian England, are legally and 
 nationally made the only places of recreation 
 for the working classes ; shut during the 
 hours of service, but allowed to be open at 
 other times, in a land which in general de- 
 precates any innovation on the strictness of 
 the Sabbath observance. There is a strange 
 prejudice in the English mind against allow- 
 ing the people any intellectual amusements." 
 
 " The people of England have little taste 
 for such," I remarked. 
 
 " How can they, when they are rarely 
 formed, and seldom can be exercised ? There 
 is little open to them. They are excluded 
 from all resorts of the higher orders : if 
 payment forms the right of admission, it is
 
 214 EVELYN. 
 
 purposely made high to attain that end. We 
 feel satisfied that it is so, because the people 
 of England do not know how to behave in 
 public. Their only notions of independence 
 lead to gross and rude behaviour ; they never 
 have been taught to feel any right in public 
 property ; and when they have the oppor- 
 tunity, they generally take a brutal sort of 
 pleasure in injuring what they imagine was 
 only intended for the luxurious and great." 
 
 " You remind me," I said, " of a notice I 
 read in the pleasant promenade of Metz, 
 that great garrison town of France : ' The 
 Prefect invites the inhabitants to assist him 
 in the preservation of these walks and flow- 
 ers, designed for their gratification.' In our 
 language this would read, ' Trespassers will 
 be prosecuted according to law.' 
 
 " But perhaps you have been too long 
 absent from our great metropolis to be 
 aware of a delightful fact ; namely, that the 
 National Museum is open to tout le monde^ and 
 that the people take advantage of the pri- 
 vilege. We shall soon see there what is com- 
 monly seen at the Louvre, — soldiers spend- 
 ing their idle moments in copying sculpture. 
 Yes, believe me, it would be almost worth
 
 EVELYN. 215 
 
 while to come on earth again fifty years 
 hence. You, to be sure, may not then have 
 left it ; your threescore years and ten will 
 be only just about completed ; but I should 
 so like to see, or at least to hear, what a dif- 
 ferent England there will be. 
 
 " We have already an artist-prince, and 
 we have an open museum : this latter is one 
 fait accompli. It actually did my heart good 
 to feel myself there among a group of ragged 
 urchins ; though a lady did tell me she would 
 not enter it now for fear of having her 
 pocket picked. Such accidents, it is true, 
 may happen ; but the character of a people 
 will be modified by the advantages offered 
 to them, or the trust reposed in them : the 
 idle ragamuffins who may loiter through the 
 British Museum, are forming, insensibly, 
 material for the intellect of another genera- 
 tion. It is worth while to have patience 
 with the present ; and besides this good mo- 
 tive, the naive remarks one hears on works 
 of art are, in my opinion, quite as excellent 
 as learned criticisms. Par e^emple: just 
 after the great opium war with China was 
 brought to a glorious end, I was looking at 
 the Etruscan vases in our museum, when
 
 216 EVELYN. 
 
 two respectably attired women came in, and 
 one said to the other, ' What are all these 
 jars for, I wonder?' 
 
 " ' Oh,' said her companion, who seemed 
 to act as valet de place, ' I know ; these are 
 things that were taken in. the China war. 
 Don't you see they are all china?'" 
 
 " I suppose," said Evelyn, " you want to 
 prove that the good woman's children, or 
 children's children, will know the distinction 
 between a China jar and an Etruscan vase?" 
 
 " Saucy ! But, Evelyn, seriously, as to 
 education, do not they say in England that 
 it is the hope of the country ? " 
 
 " We are certainly wise people if we can 
 settle the education question," she answered, 
 smiling, "and perhaps even you^' — 
 
 " Silly as I appear to be, would smile at 
 your presumption if you propounded your 
 ideas ; now is not that just what you would 
 have said if you had spoken out? " 
 
 " Well ! my idea is, that the question of 
 education in England is as much embar- 
 rassed as that of the poverty of the many. 
 I mean that, as matters are at present con- 
 stituted, the same cause appears to rise up 
 as an obstacle to redress or improvement, —
 
 EVELYN. 217 
 
 the increase of population. If we are to 
 have a religious people, we ought to have a 
 church education ; how can that be, when 
 the church establishment is not only in- 
 sufficient for the demands upon it, but when 
 its existing state is so utterly disproportioned 
 to that of the times, that it has become, in 
 many districts, a mere nominal power, to be 
 referred to in certain acts, births, mar- 
 riages, deaths, for registries, and so forth ; 
 while the real, individual, and spiritual 
 power, for which it was originally consti- 
 tuted, is, it may be said, almost totally lost ? 
 The pastoral office is lost in the ministerial : 
 the best of the working clergy feel that it is 
 so : what can be the individual influence of 
 one, or even two men, over a charge of twenty 
 or thirty thousand souls ? Not to speak of 
 the frightful fact, that one rector or vicar 
 may be appointed as the spiritual overseer 
 of two hundred and fifty thousand, or per- 
 haps nearly double that number, so that 
 a rector or vicar more resembles a bishop 
 than a curate of souls : and this is not be- 
 cause the population is really too great, but 
 because modifications in the existing state 
 of things have never been made to meet it, 
 
 VOL. I. L
 
 218 EVELYN. 
 
 Parishes remain as they were constituted 
 when the population amounted perhaps to 
 one-tenth, or one-twentieth of its present 
 number. Liverpool, formerly a hamlet, is 
 still one parish ; Manchester, the second city 
 in England, with a population of four hun- 
 dred thousand, is still one parish. To meet 
 this ' enormous anomaly ' in a professedly 
 Christian land, district churches have been 
 called into existence, which have produced 
 another lamentable feature in our once ex- 
 cellent system, by placing the clergymen of 
 these churches almost on a level with the 
 dissenting minister, making him more or 
 less dependent on ' the sittings ' for his 
 payment ; thus keeping up that painful prac- 
 tice of caste, even within the walls of the 
 churches ; as well as producing the more 
 obvious evils and painful consequences which 
 must result from such a false position. The 
 only part which the clergy can now be sup- 
 posed to take in the actual education or 
 training of their people, is by an occasional 
 inspection of their national schools ; by 
 opening the Sunday school perha])s with 
 prayer ; or by ' giving an address ' to the 
 children. The work that ought to belong
 
 EVELYN. 219 
 
 to them is made over to Sunday school 
 teachers or district visitors ; and the people, 
 too generally, know little more of their 
 church than what the actual sight of the 
 building informs them of ; namely, that such 
 a place exists, and that if they belong to it, 
 they ought to go there on Sundays." 
 
 " How very odd it is," I said, " to find 
 minds running on in small separate rills, each 
 quite unobserved, or considered to be a dis- 
 agreeable sort of puddle, Avliich has become 
 muddy by taking some tortuous track, until 
 they all meet in the broad open stream of 
 ' public opinion ;' and then all the obstruc- 
 tions they have encountered at once give 
 way, the hostile few are won over by de- 
 grees, or taken by a coup de main, and 
 join the amalgamating mass. Then there is 
 an end of the matter, whatever it be. The 
 thing must be done. Why ? Because every 
 one says so. Now, do you know, Evelyn, 
 that I, too, have been thinking of these 
 things, but I was afraid to speak of them, 
 because people would say I was a schismatic, 
 or a Jesuit in disguise." 
 
 Evelyn laughed. " Well," said she, " I 
 fear they will not alter their opinion because 
 l2
 
 220 EVELYN. 
 
 my sentiments coincide with yours. But 
 Jesuit though you may be, let me tell you 
 that I would never j^resume to argue on 
 subjects certainly out of a woman's pro- 
 vince, and mine especially, if " — 
 
 " If what, Evelyn ? Dear ! how you 
 blush." 
 
 " Ah, Jesuit!" she cried, raising a finger, 
 while she yet turned the tell-tale cheek 
 aside. " But since you will know the truth, 
 I have only been saying what I have often 
 heard from one of the clergy I spoke of." 
 
 " The step-cousin ? Well, go on : let me 
 have all his opinions, even second-hand." 
 
 " All his opinions," said Evelyn, looking 
 gravely in my face, " are not made known 
 to me ; but I have often heard him lament 
 that the office of pastor is now, in the church 
 of England, almost superseded by that of 
 what is called the ' minister,' and that when 
 persons have what they consider a good and 
 useful preacher to give them two or three able 
 sermons weekly, they are well content with 
 the spiritual advantages of their own lot ; 
 and seldom reflect on the enormous amount 
 of loss, of want, if not of actual evil, which 
 is produced to the mass of the population,
 
 EVELYX. 221 
 
 who are totally deprived of the advantages 
 which are possessed by them even in this 
 respect. Now, since I have been in the north, 
 I have observed the advantages which result 
 from the strict carrying out of the parochial 
 system, the more, because in Denmark, Swe- 
 den, and Norway" — 
 
 " Oh, Evelyn ! would you barter the spi- 
 ritual blessings which England enjoys for 
 any, or all, which these three lands can 
 afford?" 
 
 " Pardon me. I meant not to speak of 
 spiritual blessings ; or, if I may use such a 
 phrase, I did not speak of internal religion. 
 I alluded only to the externals, which are 
 aids, or means, to producing national reli- 
 gion. There is, I believe, in England, both 
 among the clergy and the better instructed 
 portion of the laity, an amount of real and 
 active religion which far surpasses that of 
 any other country in the world. But there 
 is also a frightful amount of utter godlessness, 
 of indifference, or of profane irreverence 
 among the people, which very nearly borders 
 on infidelity. Were the object of the church 
 of England only to save a few of the elite of 
 society, who could afford to enjoy a luxurious
 
 222 EVELYN. 
 
 seat in a chiircb, and might occasionally 
 receive the visits of their minister in their 
 houses, it were indeed well to leave it as it \ 
 is ; but if its object be to instruct, to raise, 
 to restore, or purify each individual of the 
 land, then it were well to make the means . 
 in some degree proportionate to the end. j 
 
 " This can only be done by the revival of 
 the parochial system ; by restoring pastoral 
 influence, and insisting on pastoral instruc- 
 tion ; by dividing and subdividing enor- 
 mous parishes, and dividing and subdividing 
 enormous clerical labour. It was to this 
 only I alluded, when I spoke of the Lutheran 
 church of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway ; 
 because there the pastoral office is strictly 
 maintained; and without it, what would '^ 
 these countries be? The church, indeed,} 
 may be dependent on the state, but the state 
 is surely, in great degree, dependent on the 
 church ; because the formation of the minds 
 and characters of the people is greatly in- 
 trusted to the clergy. 
 
 " Religious surveillance is there a part of 
 the law. Not only is the secular education 
 of children obligatory at every village school 
 provided for them, and not only are Latin
 
 EVELYN. 223 
 
 schools, at the most moderate charges, acces- 
 sible to the youth of Denmark, but the 
 highest instruction, that which concerns the 
 immortal part of our being, is secured by 
 the law which makes it incumbent, nearly in 
 the same manner as in Sweden, on every 
 subject to obtain from his pastor a certificate 
 of confirmation ; as a document much more 
 necessary than a baptismal register is with 
 us, since, without it, men are not eligible to 
 certain offices, and without it, neither man 
 nor woman can be married ; so that you see 
 there are even temporal inducements to 
 obtain it. And for that purpose young per- 
 sons have all to undergo six months' exami- 
 nation from the clergymen of their parishes : 
 this alone affords to every individual in these 
 lands, high and low, such instruction in 
 the doctrines and observances of their 
 church, as I fear can never be derived from 
 the merely ministerial offices which the in- 
 adequate number of subordinate clergy 
 renders practicable in our church, or from 
 the irregular efforts of what is termed 
 ' lay agency.' 
 
 " Were there a subordinate order of 
 clergy, whose chief work should be the
 
 224 EVELYN. 
 
 care of education, spiritual instruction, and 
 religious training, and who by performing 
 certain offices, or being able to read the 
 Liturgy in churches, might allow us to have 
 the daily service performed in them, no 
 matter how few were the worshippers, we 
 might hope yet to see England really become, 
 what, alas ! only a portion of its good or 
 great ones now enable it professedly to be — 
 a religious land. Would that we might see 
 this change ! — see the parishes, the offices, 
 the clergy of our church, both divided and 
 multiplied ;* the parishes smaller, the clergy 
 more numerous, the services shorter and 
 more frequent ; each little flock brought 
 
 * Since Evelyn uttered this wish at Copenhagen, 
 Lord Ashley has expressed a somewhat similar one in 
 the English Parliament ; and while I revise the proofs 
 of this work (then never intended to be written), a 
 petition from the clergy of Manchester, on nearly the 
 same subject, has appeared in the papers. Thus are 
 the " rills of mind " flowing on in similar channels, yet 
 unconnected with each other. Soon shall we see them 
 conjoined in the broad stream of public opinion, which 
 those alone who are opposed to the interests and influ- 
 ence of the church of England will continue to oppose. 
 Then will such thoughts as those of my gentle Evelyn 
 be no longer deemed visionary or speculative.
 
 EVELYN. 225 
 
 again under its own modest pastor, who 
 would be the instructor of their faith, the 
 almoner of their bounty, the reliever of their 
 wants, their warning, advising, reproving, or 
 consoling friend ; a now nearly godless mul- 
 titude, who too often know not even the 
 name of their clergyman, receiving with re- 
 vived reverence the instruction of their 
 church ; while its beautiful services, instead 
 of being so lengthy, in consequence of 
 making three services into one, were 
 more frequent, and consequently less con- 
 fused." 
 
 " You must become a parson's spouse, 
 Evelyn ; then you may have excellent oppor- 
 tunities for stirring up the church reform 
 you seem to desire, for I believe whatever is 
 to be done must be done by what are em- 
 phatically called the working clergy ; they 
 hold in relation to the church just the same 
 position that the people do in respect to the 
 state." 
 
 " We shall become would-be politicians 
 if we go on in this manner ; so to change 
 the conversation, which has crept from the 
 virtues of Denmark to the wants of Eng- 
 land, let me remind you that there is one 
 l3
 
 22 G EVELYN. 
 
 feature in the financial department of this 
 country which must strike you as admir- 
 able." 
 
 "And what is that?" 
 
 " Poor little Denmark, which you have 
 heard Germans a hundred times say ought 
 not to be a separate kingdom, allots twenty 
 thousand two hundred and twenty pounds to 
 the advancement of science and literature ; 
 and one thousand six hundred and sixty-six 
 pounds to paying the travelling expenses 
 of young artists and men of genius, like 
 Thorwaldsen and Andersen, both of whom 
 were sent to Rome ; where you know the 
 former, after a long struggle, was brought 
 into notice by an Englishman : thus Den- 
 mark gives her literary and scientific sons 
 their first push, launches them on the sea of 
 life with an oar to begin the struggle ; and 
 if, like Thorwaldsen, they mount its waves 
 triumphantly, welcomes them back with 
 open arms." 
 
 " And her daughters," I said, " what of 
 them ?" 
 
 " Oh ! women have no right to possess 
 genius. Poor things ! if such an accident of 
 nature befal them, they are more to be
 
 EVELYN. 
 
 227 
 
 pitied than blamed. But in rich and liberal 
 England, I have known literary women as 
 well as men to receive handsome pensions." 
 
 " I really do not know how that was 
 managed, Evelyn ; for some one told me the 
 literary pension-list only amounted to one 
 thousand two hundred pounds a year ; but 
 then the civil list, you know, in other re- 
 spects is heavy. Some time ago I think I 
 read in some speech in the House, that six- 
 teen thousand pounds a year went to the 
 Poles ; but now I believe the sum is really 
 only seven thousand eight hundred pounds." 
 
 " To the Poles !" cried Evelyn, with a 
 start. 
 
 " Yes. I do not mean that the govern- 
 ment sends that annual sum on voyages of 
 discovery ; but to the Polish refugees. And 
 then, besides that, it keeps them in medicine 
 and doctors, in case the change of climate 
 or manner of life should make them ill. I 
 wish I could pretend to be a Polish coun- 
 tess in disguise, and have my doctor paid 
 from the treasury, and get a pension for 
 living in England. But what is the matter, 
 Evelyn ? My wish has made you grow pale 
 as death."
 
 228 EVELYN. 
 
 It was the words " Polish countess " that 
 had caused her to tremble ; but averting her 
 face, she murmured, as if considering my 
 former piece of information, 
 
 " Only seven thousand eight hundred a 
 year ! and our poor — our broken-hearted 
 men of genius and literature, our struggling 
 artists !" 
 
 " Ah ! that is quite another question : 
 how could England either pay the poor for 
 doing nothing, or pay the whole herd who 
 in this day come forth to swell the ranks 
 you name ? No, no ; if people cannot live by 
 writing or by art, they should live by some- 
 thing else ; women especially." 
 
 " But if they have nothing else to live 
 by. In England they are excluded from 
 many departments they can fill in other 
 countries ; and surely the trade of govern- 
 esses is most frightfully overdone. If a 
 woman, therefore, possess talent, and use 
 it as a woman should, why should not the 
 talent be recognised, more especially on ac- 
 count of the difficulties which belong to her 
 class?" 
 
 " Would you have a poor authoresses' 
 institution," I said, laughing, " as well as a
 
 EVELYN. 229 
 
 governesses' ? But do you not feel, as well 
 as know, that there is a deep, indelible dis- 
 grace attached to those who live hy literature 
 or art, instead of living for either ? The 
 rich man may receive both money and a 
 bow from his publisher, because he wants 
 fame alone ; but the poor author, to whom 
 fame is best represented in the tangible 
 form of a banker's cheque, may be invited 
 to ' divide the profits.' I never met the 
 man or woman yet who did not feel shame 
 in confessing they were ' dependent on their 
 writings for support ;' and I believe there is 
 no other trade or profession of which this 
 could be averred. And therefore it is na- 
 tural that this feeling should extend to the 
 government, and to the patrons of art and 
 literature ; and the claims of such persons be 
 regarded with something like a contempt 
 that is not shown to the poor and hard- 
 working of other orders. But what on 
 earth has all this to do with the Poles ? 
 There was such an eclat about them ; and 
 to see them dancing, for their annual benefit, 
 was so interesting. Then they are all 
 princes or counts ; — un comte sans comte is 
 general now. My hatred, too, to that great
 
 230 EVELYN. 
 
 monster, Russia, led me to admire the brave 
 people who tried to evade its great jaws." 
 
 Evelyn looked at me earnestly. 
 
 " Poor, degraded wanderers !" she said, or 
 almost sighed. 
 
 " You do not mean what you say, sure- 
 Iv?" 
 
 " I do, now. Time was when I shared 
 in all the enthusiasm that could be felt for 
 the cause of Poland and its brave patriots. 
 Still I feel the same for its cause ; alas ! for 
 the fate of its exiles ! There were brave 
 and high minds among them, doubtless ; but 
 what a vile alloy of mean, sordid, dangerous, 
 wicked adventurers ! Such every revolution 
 is the cause of transmitting to other lands, 
 to push a fortune there which could not be 
 made at home ; and often to prosecute plans, 
 to which generous sympathy and unsuspect- 
 ing confidence give too easy scope." 
 
 Did Evelyn speak thus from experience ? 
 I fancied she did so, and asked if she had 
 been intimately acquainted with the people 
 alluded to. 
 
 " Not with many," she replied. " The 
 Poles now excite little attention or interest ; 
 and there are some of the proscribed living
 
 EVELYN. 231 
 
 under the strict government of Austria. In 
 the castles of the Hungarian nobility I have 
 known some." 
 
 " I have always thought them," I said, 
 " in many respects, a noble race, although I 
 believe that term can never fully apply 
 where a nation is divided into the classes of 
 lords and serfs ; the lords of Poland, who 
 hate their Russian and Austrian devourers, 
 are also hated by their serfs : but as to the 
 Polish exiles, with the exception of those to 
 whom the beneficence of governments, which 
 disburse as munificently with one hand as 
 they withhold tenaciously with the other, 
 and of those who, combined with a liberal 
 pension, enjoy the benefits of Enghsh trade, 
 I can well imagine what the lives of men 
 may be, separated from ties of home and 
 country ; reduced to struggle for daily bread, 
 without one of those restraints which, in the 
 absence of all higher principle, would bind a 
 native subject to seek it lawfully, if not 
 honourably. In such cases we must expect 
 that the course of moral degradation will 
 become deeper. The brave, dashing Poles, 
 who were so captivating in Paris some years 
 ago, and who, while accompanied with much
 
 232 EVELYN. 
 
 that was spurious, excited no little en- 
 thusiasm in England, are become like a 
 thrice-told tale now ; and nations begin to 
 open their eyes, and wonder why, if their 
 own people must starve, or languish in toil 
 and disappointment, foreigners must be fed 
 and supported." 
 
 " And how," said Evelyn, " such a man as 
 poor Gerald Griffin might go for three days 
 without food while experiencing 
 
 " how hard it is to climb 
 The steep where Fame's proud temple shines afar ;" 
 
 and how many others, men and women, too, 
 have to feel that their talents and their 
 genius go unnoticed and unrewarded ; until, 
 in old age, the pittance, that might, if earlier 
 accorded, have given scope to their talents, 
 by saving them from writing to meet the 
 exigencies of the moment, is at last vouch- 
 safed just to gild their tomb, or tell the 
 world that such a one, on his, or her, dying 
 bed, met the bounty that might some years 
 sooner have saved their lives," 
 
 " But you forget," I said, " how this pretty 
 tirade militates against the theory of over- 
 population in England. If that theory be
 
 EVELYN. 233 
 
 true, surely it is more patriotic to let poor 
 authors die than to pay them, as well as the 
 Poles, to live. Demnark is not so over- 
 stocked with population, and so she thought 
 it more politic to save her poor Andersen, 
 one, now, of her best known and best re- 
 ceived authors. A friend, he tells us, said 
 to him, ' Your misfortune is, that you have 
 been obliged to print every thing ; the public 
 has been able to follow you step by step. I 
 believe even a Goethe himself must have 
 suffered the same fate if he had been in your 
 situation.' 
 
 " But Denmark gave her lowly son a pen- 
 sion, and lent him wings to climb ; in Eng- 
 land it would have been more politic or 
 patriotic to have let him die, and to have 
 pensioned his widow or his child." 
 
 " Andersen has, I believe, neither wife nor 
 child," said Evelyn, looking at me very 
 gravely, "and sometimes you would make 
 one think you were almost satirical, if we 
 did not know that satire from you might be 
 as natural as snow at midsummer." 
 
 " Indeed," I replied, " we have been so 
 ramblino^ hither and thither in our discourse, 
 that I, for my part, do not recollect a word
 
 234 EVELYN. 
 
 of it. What was it brought on all this dis- 
 quisition? It would be curious to trace it 
 back now : but somehow I have an idea that 
 when Thorwaldsen designed his beautiful 
 ' Childhood's Aid/ he meant rather to signify 
 by the guardian angel, the temporal power 
 which first sent the poor neglected ship-car- 
 penter's son forth into the world to study his 
 noble art in the land where art has been 
 perfected. To the first friends and in- 
 structors of our childhood we feel a love and 
 gratitude that no others claim. Thus when 
 installed in apartments of the royal palace 
 of Charlottenburg, when loaded with honours 
 and riches, perhaps Thorwaldsen remembered 
 with more affection the mite bestowed by his 
 maternal government which paid his travel- 
 ling expenses to Rome. In the seamen's 
 quarter of Copenhagen, the sailors have made 
 the poor Icelander's son a sort of divinity, 
 and take the dates of his age, birth, and 
 death, as their fortunate numbers in the lot- 
 tery which is so much in use in that town."
 
 EVELYN. 235 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 RoESKiLDE. Slagelse. Nyeborg. Hamburg. 
 
 I HAVE been at a loss for a date, and at 
 last given a pretty long one. We are going 
 to start for the old town of King Roe, called 
 Roeskilde, or Roe's Well, because they say 
 King Roe had a favourite Avell at that place, 
 whose waters, if they still exist, may be 
 easily more abundant and salubrious than 
 those of Copenhagen. 
 
 There are few things more provoking than 
 to leave a place of which you know just 
 enough to make you wish to stay and know 
 more; and yet there are few things more 
 delightful than to do so. We leave it with 
 all the delight of inexperience, and with a 
 sort of young love which urges you ever to 
 return and pursue its sequel. What is half 
 seen is, they say, always most thought of. 
 
 I had time to take another peep at Vor
 
 236 EVELYN. 
 
 Frue Kirke ; to admire most what has there- 
 fore left the most impression on my memory, 
 " The kneeling Angel," " Childhood's Aid," 
 and " St. James with his Palmer's hat/' I 
 did not know till afterwards that Thor- 
 waldsen himself preferred the latter to the 
 other statues. Then there was a rapid 
 glance over the Museum of Northern Anti- 
 quities ; alas ! only a glance at that most 
 interesting collection of Scandinavian relics ! 
 Here also we find evidences of the quiet 
 pastoral surveillance which the Lutheran 
 clergy exercise in Denmark ; for, to the 
 pastor of every parish throughout the king- 
 dom is intrusted the care of forwarding to 
 this national and royal collection, M^here a 
 liberal price is paid for them, every remnant 
 of the past which is discovered in his dis- 
 trict. 
 
 Amid the strange and interesting relics of 
 Scandinavia, how dreadful was it thus to 
 hurry ! An Icelandic almanac is the only 
 thing clearly impressed on my memory ; it is 
 such a thing as may easily remain there. 
 You cannot well forget that a goose stands 
 for " Michaelmas term," though some of the 
 symbols are, to my fancy, less explanative ;
 
 EVELYN. 237 
 
 for instance, a hatchet for the sweet season 
 of spring. In such a manner, for about 
 nine hundred years past, have the calendars 
 of Iceland been kept. Merely strips of 
 wood, carved Mith emblematic signs, to de- 
 note the months and seasons of the year. 
 Wonderful Iceland ! rude, yet most literate 
 land ; contrarieties as great as a land of ice, 
 mountains of fire, and fountains of boiling 
 water, seem generated in the genius of its 
 children. 
 
 But adieu to Copenhagen, and its museums 
 and palaces : I have seen and known enough 
 to make me long to see and know more : 
 and there is no use in talking about what I 
 have neither seen nor known. 
 
 " So come, Evelyn," I said, " if we are to 
 go, we may as well start at once ; but let 
 us go across the Great Belt, that I may try 
 if it will realize the idea I had of it, when 
 I used, in my blessed childhood, to repeat 
 something about it in ' Guy's Geography.' " 
 
 So we settled to go by land to Korsor, 
 and thence across the Belt to Nyeborg, in 
 the island of Funen. 
 
 I had already seen, in going to Stock- 
 holm, the Danish Switzerland ; that is to say,
 
 238 EVELYN. 
 
 the pretty island of Moen, where the highest 
 Alp is rather more in elevation than four 
 hundred and fifty feet above the sea, but 
 where beauty and loveliness appear unim- 
 paired by the fairy size of the romantic 
 cliffs. It is a charming place for a summer 
 ramble, and the Danes adore it ; but as I 
 had to post on with Evelyn, I preferred a 
 route I had not yet traversed. 
 
 The railroad was open to Roeskilde, the 
 ancient caj^ital of Denmark, now memorable 
 for its peace. It was the ancient bishop of 
 Roeskilde who built, A. D. 1168, the first 
 fortifications that surrounded Kjobenhavn, 
 or the Merchant's Haven, then a fishing 
 hamlet, and afterwards sold by him to the 
 king of Denmark. 
 
 The railroad goes on to Slagelse, but we 
 preferred travelling in an open drosky, hav- 
 ing with us our good commissionai7'e, whom 
 we took as a " tolk," which to our ear is a 
 significant Swedish term for interpreter. 
 
 In the old brick cathedral of Roeskilde, 
 which was completed in the eleventh cen- 
 tury, is the tomb of the Scandinavian heroine 
 who united Denmark, Sweden, and Norway 
 into one kingdom, — Queen Margaret, and a
 
 EVELYN. 239 
 
 vast number of other Danish sovereigns are 
 interred in this catliedraL But, at the an- 
 cient church of Ringstead Abbey, a little 
 further on our route, rests, they say, the 
 dust of the memorable Canute the Great. 
 
 A part of our road to Slagelse was most 
 lovely. On the bank of the charming lake 
 of Soro, stands the fine conventual-looking 
 academy, once a rich Bernardino abbey, a 
 seat of learning as well as wealth, where 
 lived and wrote the ancient historian of 
 Scandinavia, Saxo Grammaticus, and which 
 was transformed at the transforming era of 
 the Reformation into a school for the youth 
 of Denmark. 
 
 A school for the nobles was added by the 
 good and great Christian IV. ; and in this 
 academy, not very long ago, the young no- 
 bility were by law kept distinct and separated 
 from the other students. But now all such 
 distinctions are abrogated : the Danish pea- 
 sant is a free man, and his voice can be 
 raised in the interests of his country, as well 
 as that of the noble. 
 
 As we came up before this sweet lake, its 
 quiet woods, and academic abodes, Evelyn's 
 admiration was excited.
 
 240 EVELYN. 
 
 " How peacefully miglit life flow on here !" 
 she said. " Look at those charming cottages 
 on the bank." 
 
 " The professors live there," our tolk 
 remarked. " The great Holberg, who wrote 
 our plays and history, was one of them, and 
 left the academy all his fortune." 
 
 " Ah ! do you recollect the few lines that 
 pleased me so in Hans Andersen's rather 
 disappointing ' Story of Life,' about sailing 
 on a lake with a poet, who had an ^olian 
 harp fastened to the mast ? Surely it was of 
 this very Soro he spoke." 
 
 " So it was. I paid no attention to the 
 locality at the moment, but now I recollect 
 it perfectly ; it was Professor Ingerman's life 
 which he said appeared to him at Soro like 
 a beautiful story." 
 
 " What a sweet situation for a convent," 
 said Evelyn ; " the repose of these national 
 beech-woods, the stillness of that soft lake." 
 
 " Yes ; but study and repose may be as 
 much enjoyed here now," I added, " as when 
 this academy was a wealthy and learned 
 monastery." 
 
 " And without an irrevocable doom," she 
 replied, " which is all that is truly repugnant
 
 EVELYN. 241 
 
 to me in convent life, so far as temporal 
 matters are concerned. But was this same 
 building a monastery ? " 
 
 " No ; the original one was burnt down, 
 and only this old church of the Bernardines 
 remains of all their establishment, and in it 
 Holberg kept himself a tomb in exchange 
 for the fortune he left it. 
 
 " The monastery, I think, was built in the 
 thirteenth century, by that same devout 
 Asser Rig, who, when he was departing for 
 the wars, while his wife boped soon to pre- 
 sent him with an heir, made her promise 
 that if she became the living mother of a 
 living child, she would build a church of 
 thanksgiving for him during his absence. If 
 the child were a boy, the church was to have 
 a tower, and a spire on the tower ; but if a 
 girl, the tower was to be omitted, and a 
 simple spire only erected. 
 
 " The worthy dame, to reward her lord's 
 devotion, brought two fine boys safely into 
 the world. This was a case unprovided for 
 by his directions : but a woman's wit and 
 mother's gratitude pointed out her proceed- 
 ings, and she built the church with two 
 towers and two spires." 
 
 VOL. L M
 
 242 EVELYN. 
 
 We saw tlie tomb of one of these famous 
 tM'ins in the old church, that of Bishop 
 Absalon, who became the first statesman of 
 his country ; and without let or hinderance 
 we arrived at Slagelse. 
 
 Having fixed our time of arrival at Kor- 
 sor, so as to make the passage of the Belt in 
 accordance with the arrival of the steamer 
 at Nyeborg, we found we had a couple of 
 hours to spare, and chose to spend them at 
 Slagelse. 
 
 We went for a ramble up the height 
 which is named Hvilehoi, the meaning of 
 which in our interpretation is, the Hill of 
 Rest ; so called, because on the top of that 
 hill, Holy Anders, a monk of the convent 
 that once was in the adjacent wood, and the 
 patron saint of Slagelse even now, when 
 patrons are quite out of fashion, was found 
 reposing after having travelled in his sleep 
 from Jerusalem on the back of an ass, 
 
 " The story looks like a fable, but no one 
 can ever prove it to be so ; and other people 
 at Slagelse will tell you more fully than 
 Andersen has done, how Holy Anders Avent 
 on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem with a goodly 
 number of the devout, and how that when
 
 EVELYN. 243 
 
 the vessel (not a steamboat I suppose) was 
 ready to sail from the Holy City, after some 
 geographical chart of its own devising, 
 Anders could not depart without a last 
 prayer in the Holy Sepulchre. 
 
 " The vessel in consequence sailed from 
 Jerusalem without him. Anders, finding 
 it gone, was walking disconsolately on the 
 shore, M'hen an old man, riding on an ass, 
 came up, and inquired the cause of his grief. 
 Anders told him that his last prayer had 
 lost him his passage to Denmark. 
 
 " The old man told him to mount behind 
 him : he did so ; fell asleep, and was awoke 
 by the people of Slagelse on the Hill of Rest. 
 He found the vessel had not yet arrived 
 from Jerusalem ; and apparently it had a 
 toilsome tug, for it did not come for two 
 years after Holy Anders's quiet passage. 
 
 " After this time the prayers of the good 
 monk were attended by other circumstances 
 of wonder ; for whenever he wished to per- 
 form his devotions out of doors, he hung his 
 hat and gloves on the sunbeams, a favourite 
 sort of hand-rail with saints, for the same 
 memorial is found in the legends of Ireland." 
 
 " If the sunbeams were so complacent," 
 M 2
 
 244 EVELYN. 
 
 said Evelyn, " why did they not allow him to 
 dispense entirely with these memorials of a 
 fallen state?" 
 
 " That would be dispensing with the 
 miracle : a miracle is never negative. Holy 
 Anders, too, obtained for the town of Sla- 
 gelse a grant of land, in a manner more mar- 
 vellous and decent, than that by which Queen 
 Godiva served the people of Coventry. 
 
 " King Waldemar tauntingly agreed to 
 give them as much as Holy Anders could ride 
 round on a new-born foal. The Saint mounted, 
 and set off as comfortably and speedily as 
 he had travelled from Jerusalem. It was 
 so ordained that the king was in his bath, 
 and no other orders could stop the galloping 
 foal, or its rider. In this predicament the 
 least danger was preferred, and the ministers 
 broke in on his majesty's retirement, entreat- 
 ing him to come forth on the instant and 
 stop the new-born foal, before Holy Anders 
 liad galloped round the whole island of 
 Zealand, and won it in perpetuity for his 
 good town of Slagelse." 
 
 From the top of Hvilehoi, there is a 
 fine view of the opposite coast of Funen ;
 
 EVELYN. 245 
 
 and on that shore our commissionaire told us 
 a strange battle had taken place in the last 
 war, about the time that the fire, or mis- 
 fortune, occurred at Copenhagen, under the 
 command of our gallant Nelson and Sir H. 
 Parker. 
 
 A battle which had something in it truly 
 horrible, akin to the legends of the north, 
 was about that time fought on the sands of 
 Funen. It was a battle of war-horses with- 
 out riders. 
 
 The Spanish troops, having been detached 
 from the service of Napoleon, were taken on 
 board our fleet, but their cavalry horses 
 could not be accommodated, and at the mo- 
 ment of embarkation were left behind on 
 the beach. The fury of men possessed the 
 animals ; they knew, they felt, they were 
 deserted and betrayed ; that no longer they 
 should "rejoice in their strength, going on to 
 meet the armed men, when they mocked at 
 fear, and wereno^ affrighted ; neither turned 
 back from the sword, the quiver that rattled 
 against them ; the glittering spear and the 
 shield. When they swallowed the ground 
 with fierceness and rage, and smelled the
 
 246 EVELYN. 
 
 battle afar off; the thunder of the captains 
 and the shouting." The captains had deserted 
 them, and the horses made the battle among 
 themselves, imitated their Spanish masters, 
 and fought with wild fury against each other. 
 A strange spectacle to the trembling natives, 
 then menaced by two rival hosts, who ap- 
 pear to have let the horses fight out their 
 own quarrel, until nearly all the sanguinary 
 steeds were slain. A few exhausted and 
 wounded survivors were taken prisoners, 
 and it would seem made peace, and even 
 intermarried with the natives of the isle, as 
 they say their descendants are to be traced 
 in a peculiarly fine breed of horses now 
 existing. 
 
 " But if Madame will be in time at Nye- 
 borg for the boat, it is necessary to set off 
 for Korsor," said our Dane, who, I fancy, had 
 picked up his French in his boyhood from 
 Napoleon's soldiers ; he was an old and poor 
 man, and it required to be very far from 
 France to believe that he spoke that lan- 
 guage. 
 
 " Allans ; en route,'' was my reply, as with 
 a deep sigh I rose up, from reclining near
 
 EVELYN. 247 
 
 the cross which marks the spot where Holy 
 Anders was laid down ; — " farvel to Hvile- 
 hoi, and soon, farvel, also, with sincere re- 
 gret, to Denmark, which, if it can remain 
 at peace, will surely now arise from its long 
 depression."
 
 248 EVELYN. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Hamburg. 
 
 I WONDER if that great man of old, Char- 
 lemagne, who was found sitting in regal state 
 in Aix-la-Chapelle, with the crown on his 
 fleshless brow, the sceptre in his bony 
 grasp, the sword by his loose robes of state, 
 and the Gospels on his skeleton knee, could 
 exercise the attributes as well as retain the 
 mocking semblance of life, what he would 
 now think of the city for commerce he 
 founded in his rude and wonderful age ? — a 
 merchant city of palaces ; " her merchants are 
 princes." Hamburg, like the phoenix, has 
 started gloriously from her ashes. That 
 awful conflagration, which ruined so many of 
 its inhabitants, has not a little added to its 
 magnificent aspect. 
 
 I never had seen Hamburg before, and 
 never saw a place which proved so totally
 
 EVELYN. 249 
 
 unlike what my prejudices had imagined. 
 It is a place of trade and transit, and there- 
 fore I had kept away from it. 
 
 After seeing such great commercial towns 
 as Liverpool, Manchester, or Bristol, one 
 imagines that the wealth of such a splendid 
 place as Hamburg must vastly exceed that 
 of our own dingy but monied towns. There 
 is so much lightness and beauty in modern 
 Hamburg; the Maiden's Walk, or Jung- 
 fernstieg, with all its afternoon animation, 
 contrasts strikingly with our gaunt, gloomy 
 docks at Liverpool ; though in sterling great- 
 ness, of course, we eclipse all others : and 
 those pretty flower-girls, with their pic- 
 turesque costume and captivating air, would 
 lead one to forget the dark counting-houses 
 and sombre faces which the art of money- 
 making produces here as well as everywhere 
 else. 
 
 However, the Poste Restante was the most 
 attractive place to me in that fine city of 
 Hamburg, which bears on its very aspect the 
 declaration, that a German will no more 
 permit his business to interfere with his 
 recreation than he will allow his recreation 
 to interfere with his business. 
 M 3
 
 250 EVELYN. 
 
 What an important spot is the Poste 
 Restante ! My heart was not left long to 
 palpitate : two newly-arrived letters ; one 
 from England, one from Stockholm. Fru 
 P. wrote the latter. 
 
 When I had read both, I thought over 
 their contents, altogether in relation to 
 Evelyn and her circumstances, although one 
 of them only concerned her. In these rather 
 random records of my journeyings, no one 
 can fully understand how much my feelings, 
 I might say affections, had become interested 
 in that fair girl. I had of course been more 
 in contact with her heart and mind than 
 these pages have ever developed. 
 
 I thought her a sensitive, tender-hearted 
 girl, possessed of intellect and information, 
 but totally wanting in that clear judgment 
 and iron will which enable persons to triumph 
 over circumstances of difficulty, or even to 
 bend them to their advantage ; and only liable 
 to suffer acutely from a too scrupulous con- 
 science, if involved in the unjust meshes 
 woven by others, or too likely to fall a sacri- 
 fice to what her unselfish heart considered 
 to be the good of another. I had formed a
 
 EVELYN. 251 
 
 gloomy suspicion that she would immolate 
 herself within a convent. 
 
 But the letter of Fru P. was full of the 
 step-cousin, whose arrival at Stockholm, and 
 visit to the baroness, had occasioned no little 
 wonder and admiration. A very wise friend 
 of mine once included in his rules for epis- 
 tolary correspondence this item, "Do not 
 place a letter before the inspection of a third 
 person unless desired to do so." The con- 
 tents, therefore, of Fru P.'s letter shall re- 
 main for the present poste restante. But in 
 one respect they changed my sentiments 
 respecting Evelyn ; that is, they made me 
 regret having yielded to her wish and left 
 Copenhagen so speedily. Had we delayed a 
 little, this impressive step-cousin might have 
 overtaken us there. 
 
 Now, however, we were in the first sea- 
 port of Germany, the free city of Hamburg, 
 and here a decision must be made. Evelyn, 
 I said to myself, must go to England. Not 
 for worlds would I be in any way an acces- 
 sory to the unhappiness which this singular 
 avoidance of the man, who, from Fru P.'s 
 account, loves her so deeply, and whom, 
 from her own involuntary concessions, or
 
 252 EVELYN. 
 
 unconscious admissions, it is easy to see is 
 the sole object of her love. What folly it is 
 in people to be thus always chasing happi- 
 ness out of each other's paths. It is bad 
 enough to read such stupid or silly blunders 
 in a novel ; but in e very-day life, in the dry 
 details of a journey, to be mixed up with 
 such nonsense is too bad. Evelyn must go 
 back to England, and be a good parson's 
 wife. She may be very useful there, may be 
 the means of having a model church, and — 
 but before the addition was made I was at 
 her door, and her voice bade me enter. 
 Evelyn was reclining on the couch. She 
 started up when I said I had had letters, 
 and uttered an anxious 
 
 " Well ! " 
 
 " One is from England, from my sister ; I 
 am not wanted there, and am even advised, 
 as I am abroad, to stay, and spend the win- 
 ter, as I wash, in Italy. Abroad,, you know, 
 is a generic term, which scarcely implies re- 
 flection on the space between Stockholm 
 and Rome." 
 
 "And you will stay !" she cried, clasping 
 her hands with a look of joy that brightened 
 her whole face.
 
 EVELYN. 253 
 
 " I have had a letter from Fru P., also, 
 Evelyn." 
 
 " Tidings of him ! speak!" But as she 
 uttered the impatient command, she turned 
 her head aside, and hid it on the back of 
 the sofa we sat on. 
 
 There was a silence after I had com- 
 municated what I thought I might and 
 should communicate of the tidings, regrets, 
 and speculations of the good Fru. 
 
 " Noble Oscar !" said Evelyn at last ; " so 
 he told poor Frank that my rejection of 
 himself arose from no prior attachment, but 
 from a firm resolve against marriage ? " 
 
 " He has concealed nothing from your 
 cousin, apparently. But you know you gave 
 the young baron that reason for your refusal ; 
 at least, I believe it was the only one he was 
 likely to understand." 
 
 " True," said Evelyn, looking earnestly 
 up into my face ; " but if you should not 
 marry the only man you ever would marry, 
 might you not say it was unlikely you could 
 marry ? " 
 
 " I fear one's brains might be puzzled 
 among the shoulds, woulds, or coulds," I 
 answered, " and a decision made between
 
 254 EVELYN. 
 
 the two last;" and as a laughing reply 
 often leads to a familiar question, my speech 
 was inadvertently continued by one. 
 
 " But, Evelyn, will you tell me why you 
 should not marry this captivating step-cousin 
 of whom Fru P. raves ? " 
 
 A little to my surprise, she sprang up 
 from her seat beside me; a paleness, even 
 to her lips, overspread her face : she lifted 
 up her hand, and I thought of the soft 
 midnight sun of Sweden, when I saw her 
 thus dread an approach to a questioner. 
 
 " I have broken my engagement," I said ; 
 " I ought not to have asked that question." 
 But before I could apologize further, her 
 mood was changed, and sitting down again 
 she said, 
 
 " Yes, I will answer that question. I 
 cannot marry him, because I am solemnly 
 bound not to reveal to him the fatal secret 
 which burdens my heart. The possession of 
 that secret has thus blighted my life ; its 
 betrayal would render his miserable : yet he 
 has been brought up in abhorrence of 
 concealment. Can you not perceive that 
 on every side unhappiness would await 
 us?" 
 
 I could not say I did; for I thought
 
 EVELYN. 255 
 
 Evelyn was a romantic girl, and that her se- 
 cret might be better told than kept ; or might 
 be kept without causing her husband to die 
 of baffled curiosity ; so I answered, 
 
 " Was it not Charlotte Steiglitz who said 
 to her good-for-nothing husband, when speak- 
 ing of the beauty of reserve even with those 
 we love best, ' I have one secret I never speak 
 of, even to thee ; it is for thy good, but it 
 looks a little gloomy sometimes/ " 
 
 " Ah ! I have often recalled the words," 
 said Evelyn ; " but poor, erring, yet noble- 
 hearted Charlotte, alluded then to her pro- 
 jected self-murder for her husband's good ; 
 my secret regards not the destruction, but 
 the preservation, of a life." 
 
 I could not question ; so, biting my lips, to 
 prevent the attempt, I said, " Well, what 
 will you do now, Evelyn ? We are fairly on 
 what you called at Stockholm * continental 
 ground ;' and here, you recollect, our plans 
 were to be arranged. A packet sails for Hull 
 to-morrow, which is I believe a pleasant 
 course." 
 
 She laid her hand upon mine ; it was icy 
 cold. 
 
 " Hull ! England ! oh no ! " she said in a 
 low, trembling voice.
 
 256 EVELYN. 
 
 " What will you do then ?" 
 
 " Stay with you !" she cried, and throwing 
 her arms around me, hid her pale, terri- 
 fied face upon my neck. " Oh, friend, 
 friend !" she almost sobbed, "will you send 
 me from you ? " 
 
 My eyelids were damp as they touched 
 her glowing hair; and quite involuntarily, 
 and against my own judgment, and every 
 one's common sense, I answered, 
 
 « No!" 
 
 " Heaven with its best blessing bless 
 you ! " was the reply. 
 
 And so, though I had come into the room 
 determined to employ some of the many 
 friendly merchants of Hamburg to consign 
 the dear girl safely to our native land, we 
 had settled, before I left it, to start very 
 early in the morning for the Hartzge- 
 berge. 
 
 I then went to my own room ; but one of 
 the misfortunes to which people possessed 
 both of some cool judgment, and of some 
 warm feelings are exposed is, that whenever 
 one of these antagonistic qualities gains the 
 pre-eminence, the other is sure to retaliate ; 
 that is to say, when Mrs. Feeling runs away, 
 as we say, with Mr. Judgment, she gets
 
 EVELYN. 257 
 
 tired, and stops to rest, and then Mr. Judg- 
 ment comes up with all the calmness of 
 power, and sets poor Feeling aside, or tells 
 her she is like a foolish nurse giving sweets 
 to a child who wants medicine to save its 
 life. And then, on the other hand, when 
 we listen to Judgment, and will not let 
 Feeling say a word, w^e often lament the 
 cold worldly wisdom which has made our 
 own hearts and the hearts of others to ache. 
 
 Now in this scene at the Hotel de Russie 
 at Hamburg, Feeling had, just in the man- 
 ner aforesaid, run away with Judgment ; 
 but when I was alone at night. Judgment 
 rose up and gained the victory, and I felt 
 very doubtful whether I ought to have 
 yielded to Evelyn's apparent whim. I could 
 not rest until I had gone back and told her 
 that I would go to England with her, if 
 she wished it, and stay there till I consigned 
 her to the charge of this parson Frank. 
 What, if I should take her to Rome to 
 leave her in a convent ? said I to myself; 
 every one would say I was half a nun 
 myself ! 
 
 Before my candle had quite burned out, 
 this clamour of Judgment versus Feeling 
 became so imperative, that I left my room.
 
 258 EVELYN. 
 
 and found my way along the passage that 
 divided us to Evelyn's apartment. We 
 had been unable to get contiguous ones. 
 When I entered it, Evelyn stood partly un- 
 dressed in the middle of the floor, and 
 looked quite frightened. 
 
 " Did I alarm you ? " I said. 
 
 " Oh no ! but I am nervous, I know not 
 why. Do you see this door opening into 
 another room ? I did not notice it till lately ; 
 it is locked, but there is no fastening on 
 this side : it makes me shudder, I feel so 
 lonely, so unprotected here in this great 
 room." 
 
 *' You are more nervous than you were 
 in the north, Evelyn." 
 
 " Oh yes !" she replied ; " I felt quite at 
 ease in Sweden, because it is so remote, so 
 out of the way of disturbances, or of con- 
 spirators, or of" — she looked round the 
 room, and changing her tone, added, "you 
 have made me think over frightful things 
 by that question you asked me not very long 
 ago ; and besides, I am naturally timid, and 
 since I have been in Germany, I am con- 
 stantly apprehensive : it is foolish, for there 
 is really no cause."
 
 EVELYN. 259 
 
 " Ah ! Evelyn, that apprehensiveness just 
 opens the way for what I wanted to talk 
 to you about. You are indeed lonely and 
 unprotected : you ought not to be so. You 
 have pitied the shaken rose-branch that has 
 got loose from the sheltering wall ; you have 
 seen it blown by the breeze, its fair blossoms 
 seeming to tremble even in the sunbeams. 
 Well, you remind me of that." 
 
 The large, clear brown eyes filled quite 
 full of tears. But with more energy than 
 she usually spoke with, Evelyn exclaimed, 
 
 " But if the nail that held it to the wall 
 be gone, if the poor rose-branch can never 
 again be attached to the sheltering wall, 
 would it not be well to cut it quite away, 
 and hide it out of sight, where it can never 
 be seen again in the breezes or sunbeams ? " 
 
 " As a last resource, perhaps," I answered 
 her, smiling ; " but if I could find the nail, and 
 know that the wall is always there, methinks 
 I would rather employ the hammer to make 
 it fast again, than the knife to cut it away. 
 And that is what I want to do in your case, 
 Evelyn. I think I should make a very good 
 hammer, and I fancy I know the wall ; all I 
 want is for you to find me the nail ; if you will
 
 260 EVELYN. 
 
 not, then it is your own fault that the poor 
 rose-branch flutters, so painfully detached 
 from its position." 
 
 " Say cannot, instead of will not," said 
 Evelyn, " and you speak truly. You mean 
 that I cannot afford you that clue to my 
 position which might enable you to perform 
 tlie good work I see you long to undertake. 
 I must not, dare not, nay, with the help of 
 God, I will not do so. 
 
 " If you think I do not suffer by this de- 
 tachment from all that once formed to me 
 the hope and joy of life, you are wrong ; and 
 if you think that I do not feel, as all sensi- 
 tive women do, the painful unpleasantness 
 of an independent position, you may be con- 
 vinced that I do when I tell you, that 
 abhorrent to me as the thoug-ht of marriao^e 
 is, when the image of the person one marries 
 is not the first and onlv one enshrined in the 
 heart, I found at first a soothing relief in the 
 affection of that noble Oscar, and was fully 
 sensible of the hope of protection, and degree 
 even of happiness I renounced, when I re- 
 solved to check or divert it. 
 
 " I am thankful that two motives appeared 
 to me in time to be strong enoug-h to enable
 
 EVELYN. 261 
 
 me to act upon them. One was in itself 
 overruling, — a regard for the happiness of 
 him who loved me, and who had not the 
 first place in my heart. I knew that if I 
 were his wife, such warmth of feeling as he 
 possessed would be like the fire of Hecla 
 fallino- on the surface of Iceland. When the 
 degree of fascination which, unhappily, cir- 
 cumstances had caused me to exercise over 
 him was moderated by time, he would ex- 
 perience the bitterest feeling a heart can 
 know, when it loves with ardour and meets 
 no ardour in return. His happiness, there- 
 fore, and not my own, was the chief cause of 
 my refusal. 
 
 " My other reason was the knowledge of his 
 mother's wishes, and the discovery I made, 
 at first by observation, and afterwards by an 
 unmistakable occurrence, of the faithful 
 Lilla's secret love. I explain all this to you 
 now, because I cannot give you a stronger 
 proof of my sensitiveness to the pain of an 
 isolated and independent position, than by 
 owning that, to avoid it, I was at one time 
 almost tempted to accept Baron Oscar, and 
 spend the rest of my life in the seclusion of 
 the happy North."
 
 262 EVELYN. 
 
 " But another consideration must have oc- 
 curred to you, Evelyn : would not your step- 
 cousin be miserable if you married another 
 person ? " 
 
 " He would be far more miserable if I 
 married himself," she replied, "and was still 
 forced to maintain the reserve and mystery 
 he abhors." 
 
 Twice she crossed the floor, as if the move- 
 ment proceeded, as it often does, from the 
 impulsion of a mind whose workings could 
 not otherwise be manifested. Then she came 
 and sat down on a low arm-chair just before 
 me, leaned forwards, and covered her face 
 with her open hands. Perhaps for ten 
 minutes we sat thus, nearly face to face, in 
 total silence. I thought she was revolving 
 in her thoughts the course she would pursue, 
 and that any speech of mine might only im- 
 pede the process. 
 
 But when she lifted up her head, all agi- 
 tation, all apparent perplexity, had disap- 
 peared ; her sweet face, though pale, was 
 perfectly calm, and I felt she had been pray- 
 ing rather than thinking. 
 
 Her white hands lifted back the golden 
 tresses that had fallen round her, and those
 
 EVELYN. 263 
 
 soft moonlight eyes, which few people could 
 look into unmoved, gazed rather solemnly 
 into mine, as Evelyn gently said, 
 
 " What do you think of the spirit-world?" 
 Tlie question startled me, especially when 
 thus proposed after midnight; but I an- 
 swered it very wisely, 
 
 " How do you mean, bad or good ?" 
 " Good ; I never wish to think of the bad." 
 " Still you must define your meaning : do 
 you allude to the spirits which St. Paul tells 
 us are sent forth to minister to the heirs of 
 salvation ; or to the ' spirits of the just made 
 perfect,' who have departed from their mor- 
 tal probation ?" 
 
 " I mean the departed spirits of earth — of 
 our friends ; but I love to think that they 
 are the ministers St. Paul alludes to." 
 
 " What? that the spirits of the dead are 
 around us?" 
 
 " Does the thought alarm you? to me it 
 is pleasing. I like to think that they see our 
 mortal course continued ; our struo-des, our 
 errors, and victories ; that they behold us 
 much as we behold a little child whose suf- 
 ferings are self-made, whose faults produce 
 our pity, but do not cause us pain. And
 
 264 EVELYN. 
 
 then, when we sometimes perform a good 
 action, or express a noble resolve, are we 
 not startled by a conviction that some dear 
 departed one has looked at us with a smile ?" 
 
 " I fear theologians would dissent from 
 your belief, Evelyn." 
 
 " It is not a belief ; only an idea, which I 
 think the most arbitrary creed might allow 
 me to cherish." 
 
 " Provided it does not lead to two errors; 
 obscuring the sense of the omnipresent Fa- 
 ther of spirits taking cognizance of the same 
 things ; or tending to produce superstitious 
 and fearful imaginations." 
 
 " There is, I think, greater danger of the 
 first than the last error. But we pray to 
 God only ; and, when we invite His presence 
 and help to be with us, I think the minister 
 in the church is as much likely to make us 
 forget the God he serves, as our sense of 
 being ministered to by our departed friends, 
 from the spiritual world, is likely to cause us 
 to overlook the Spirit of God under whom 
 they act." 
 
 " The notion," I said, " is one too pleasing 
 to my own mind for me to argue against it, 
 if I could argue on any subject. But what 
 
 I
 
 EVELYN. 265 
 
 can this theory of departed spirits have to 
 say to the question of the shaken rose-branch 
 and its native wall ? " 
 
 " Little, yet much," was her reply ; and 
 she resumed her former attitude, her elbows 
 on her knees, her face in the open hands ; 
 her long bright hair hanging loose over the 
 white robe de chambre, making her look not 
 unlike some pure spirit herself, mourning 
 over a loved wanderer of our sinful earth. 
 Thus sitting, and speaking through the partly 
 opened hands, Evelyn continued, 
 
 " I may suppose a case, to give you an idea 
 of what I mean. It may appear a romantic 
 one ; but, as I say, it is only to give you an 
 idea of my meaning. 
 
 " Imagine, then, a remote country house, 
 built in fact out of the remains of a ruined 
 monastery, the chapel of which stood as it 
 had been when the monks had sung there 
 their midnight prayers ; a solemn yet neg- 
 lected place. Suj^pose that in the house to 
 which it was attached, you watched a fair 
 young creature who some few months be- 
 fore had stood at the altar, when she was, it 
 appeared, made a happy bride ; whom you 
 had loved with a fond sisterly love, and 
 
 VOL. I. N
 
 266 EVELYN. 
 
 wliose spirit, though she had not lived nine- 
 teen years in this life, was, from some 
 unknown cause, just hovering on the border 
 land of eternity. 
 
 "Suppose that in the gloom of the twi- 
 light, when you alone watched beside her, 
 and doubted whether life yet lingered in 
 that slender, scarcely breathing form, she 
 were suddenly to rise up from her couch, 
 and with a life-like energy, that yet more 
 resembled what we hear of galvanic action 
 on the dead, draw you within that disused 
 chapel ; and there, kneeling by her side at the 
 altar, cause you, not compulsorily, but from 
 the power of holy and deep feelings, to 
 pledge yourself solemnly to the fulfilment of 
 her dying injunctions, — would you not after- 
 wards be likely to fancy that her spirit was 
 around you whenever you were tempted to 
 go back from the contract ; or whenever you 
 were strengthened to resist all the tempta- 
 tions which the world or the flesh might offer 
 you to do so ?" 
 
 " The case you propose is an awful as well 
 as romantic one," I answered ; " yet it is not 
 too much of the latter to be a real one. As 
 to the propriety of observing such a vow —
 
 EVELYN. 267 
 
 for I can readily imagine its having been 
 undeliberately made — that depends on the 
 nature of the dying injunctions that were to 
 be fulfilled." 
 
 " The vow was not undeliberately made," 
 said Evelyn quickly, for she was a poor dis- 
 sembler, and could not even carry out her 
 supposed case as an imaginary one ; " and 
 as to the nature of those injunctions, let us 
 believe them dictated by a spirit going to its 
 Redeemer, 'washed, sanctified, justified,' — 
 believe them such as His own death on 
 Calvary, and His own last prayer, might have 
 inspired." 
 
 " In such a case, Evelyn, I can say no 
 more. But if that dying friend knew the 
 sacrifice of self her required pledge de- 
 manded, could she be right still in demand- 
 ing it?" 
 
 " She would still, poor girl, have been 
 right," said Evelyn, with a deep sigh ; " but 
 she knew it not. I myself at first knew not 
 how diflficult it would be to try to fulfil it." 
 
 She paused, and looked up with a start, 
 while recollecting how quickly she had come 
 to speak personally in her supposed case. 
 " Ah ! there ! there is the danger of be- 
 N 2
 
 268 EVELYN. 
 
 ginning to speak. Oil ! if I were thus to 
 converse with Frank, in one hour all would 
 be told, all would be destroyed." 
 
 " I think," I replied, " there appears little 
 fear of your betraying to me anything which 
 you are obliged absolutely to conceal ; and I 
 should think you might be equally firm with 
 him." 
 
 " Hovv can you think so ? You do not 
 possess the knowledge, even the family know- 
 ledge, which alone could give you a danger- 
 ous power in questioning me as to recent 
 events. You, too, would not suffer from my 
 silence ; and you, perhaps, do not think the 
 appearance of mystery sinful. But let me 
 add to the case I proposed to you, for I did 
 not finish it. Suppose, further, that just as 
 your dying friend's communication had been 
 made, and when she, almost ghost-like, had 
 left your side, you saw a man retiring with a 
 well-known, cat-like step, from the same 
 place, and knew that he had made himself a 
 witness and a hearer of all that had been 
 said and done ; that he knew you held his 
 life in your hands, but knew also that he 
 held the life of another man in his hands ; 
 that for the sake of the last you must pre-
 
 EVELYN. 269 
 
 serve the first, — would not the sense of 
 standing in such a situation change the very 
 aspect you had worn, make you at times 
 feel alarmed without cause?" 
 
 " I think so, undoubtedly ; and this latter 
 part of the case I should most certainly 
 repeat to any friends likely to advise or 
 assist me." 
 
 " I may mention it to you," she answered, 
 " but I could not do so to my own family or 
 connections, because, if I did so, my secret 
 would be betrayed. Even what I say to you 
 I dare not say to them." 
 
 " You will then continue to avoid your 
 cousin?" I said. 
 
 *' For his own peace' sake, and for the 
 salvation of another, I must do so," was her 
 answer. " Half confidence," she continued, 
 " never can do good, and may do much harm. 
 The only person who could have saved me 
 from bearing alone what I must now bear, 
 is buried at Stockholm. Circumstances, 
 which many years ago took place in my 
 family, were only lately made known to my- 
 self ; unless you were acquainted with these, 
 in connection with the strange events of my 
 recent history, you could give me no advice
 
 270 EVELYN. 
 
 likely to reach my case. My only hope 
 must be in time, for, 
 
 ' Time as it courses onward still unrolls 
 The volume of concealment ; * 
 
 and in God, to whom I may venture to say 
 with David, ' I am afflicted and oppressed, 
 without any offence or fault of mine, 
 Lord.' Strange commotions are likely soon 
 to take place in Italy : who knows but they 
 may affect me ; be the means even of releas- 
 ing me from mystery ? "' 
 
 " You allude to the return of the amnes- 
 tied conspirators?" 
 
 " I allude to what will follow that return.'' 
 
 "Evelyn, for one so young, and still so 
 really ignorant of the world, you appear to 
 have gained a singular branch of inform- 
 ation ! " 
 
 " The means were the simplest in the 
 world," she replied ; " the man of whom I 
 spoke is one of the amnestied of Pope Pius." 
 
 " And it is for his sake you"— 
 
 " No, no, no ! Nothing for his sake; for one 
 connected with him — but, dear friend, let us 
 say no more. I have already said enough to 
 show you I cannot, must not, go to England ;
 
 EVELYN. 271 
 
 as yet, I know not where I ought to go, but 
 not there at all events." 
 
 " You have convinced me you will not," I 
 replied. 
 
 " Cruel ! ah ! if you knew the cousin 
 whose cause you think you advocate, you 
 would feel, as I do, that his peace, his honour, 
 are worth the sacrifice of oneself." 
 
 " More and more puzzled, Evelyn." 
 
 " Alas ! you must be so, if you will talk with 
 me of myself, or of him. Five minutes of 
 plain speaking would make all clear, but that 
 is forbidden. Only then agree, for once and 
 for ever, as far as your journey goes, to let 
 me stay with you ; let me accompany you 
 to Rome, and you shall see the end, if an 
 end there be. Do not now forsake me : 
 your heart will reprove you heareafter if 
 you do." 
 
 I kissed the poor trembler, scarcely know- 
 ing whether to think her the best and most 
 heroic, or the most foolish of all lovely 
 creatures. 
 
 But Evelyn's eyes, the expression of those 
 sorrowful lips, even the touch of her soft 
 hands, had somehow an effect on me which 
 her arguments had not; and, however deter-
 
 272 EVELYN. 
 
 mined I was to say no, I always said yes, to the 
 request which, but for her own sake, would 
 have been very agreeable to me. One cir- 
 cumstance, indeed, had shown me that she 
 was determined not to go to England, and 
 that was her anxiety not to meet her step- 
 cousin on our road. If she was to meet 
 him there, she might as well meet him here ; 
 but Evelyn now seems to think that an inter- 
 view with him, with the only man she affirms 
 she ever could marry, would have a fatal 
 influence on her destiny, or perhaps on the 
 destiny of others ; I know not which, for I 
 feel as I used to do in the nights of the 
 north, I can neither see clearly, nor feel 
 myself in the dark ; it is neither day nor 
 night around me. 
 
 I was going to my bed, when, finding we 
 had talked so long, that it was scarcely w^orth 
 while to do so, and remembering Evelyn's 
 fear of the door, I placed myself on the spare 
 bed in her room, and fell, very soon, at 
 least half asleep. 
 
 When I opened my eyes, however, wonder- 
 ing that the light still burned, I saw Evelyn 
 kneeling at the table. Resting against a 
 bible was an open portrait ; Evelyn's back 
 was to me, but the table being quite near, I
 
 EVELYN. 273 
 
 could see the portrait of a young preacher, 
 robed in black. The clear blue-eye appeared 
 to ])ierce beyond the limits of our time-state, 
 and the one upraised finger to point the 
 minds of others in the same direction. 
 
 There was something in that eye, which, 
 though the face was almost youthful, could 
 awe the careless, and impress the conviction 
 of truth, eternal truth, on those who met its 
 calm, powerful regard. There was a re- 
 semblance in those eyes to the eyes I had 
 seen fastened on the falls of Trollhattan; but 
 in the portrait they appeared to be dwelling 
 on the thinofs of eternitv, at Trollhattan 
 they were softer and brighter : you could 
 even imagine them melting in earthly love, 
 or smiling in worldly joy. 
 
 There, now, with those solemn eyes look- 
 ing at her, Evelyn knelt ; what was passing 
 in her heart I know not. 
 
 When I rose in the light of day, she was 
 sleeping, calm as a child, and more youthful- 
 looking than when awake. I bent over her 
 to awake her for our railroad journey, and 
 felt that her slumbers betokened a spirit 
 that had reposed itself in the love of God 
 before the body sunk to rest. 
 N 3
 
 274 EVELYN. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Neustad. 
 At uninteresting Brunswick we were de- 
 layed for half an hour : while waiting at the 
 railway station, a personage, who announced 
 himself as a Pole who had come from Lon- 
 don, and been at the soirees of the Countess 
 of something, came to look about for a com- 
 mission ; he 
 
 " left half-told 
 The story of Cambuscan bold ; " 
 
 for a puff of the engine freed us from the 
 civilities, which he assured us his gratitude 
 to the English nation alone inspired. 
 
 We reached the handsome and really 
 comfortable hotel of Neustad, newly built, as 
 its name imports, at the terminus of the 
 Hartsburg Railway. 
 
 The next morning we went to the Brocken. 
 I had no desire to tread that too much trod-
 
 EVELYN. 275 
 
 den ground ; yet I had a little curiosity to 
 see the often-talked-of scene of the Wal- 
 purgis Nacht. 
 
 genius ! how are thy footsteps followed 
 over earth. On every spot where thou hast 
 set thy mark, thither does a motley group of 
 pilgrims, from age to age, repair. 
 
 Let a writer like Gdthe do evil, or let 
 him like Scott do good, the effect as to the 
 places he has celebrated becomes the same. 
 If Mephistopheles and Dr. Faust had not 
 flown, in an extraordinary manner, over the 
 Hartz, fewer travellers would have wended 
 their more common-place way over the 
 Brocken. 
 
 " Our mantles spread before the wind, 
 Are all such fellow-travellers need ; 
 No common wants our speed abate ; 
 Our luggage is not overweight : " 
 
 an. essential particular for Mephistopheles 
 to remember, which shows us he was of Ger- 
 man origin. And how many other scenes 
 are made the object of a pilgrimage for the 
 sake of the person who wrote, not of the 
 place written of. 
 
 Evelyn and I were no adorers of Gothe, 
 nor the least thankful to him for what he
 
 276 EVELYN. 
 
 had clone, by means of imitators, either for 
 English poetry or German religion ; but ^ve 
 wanted to see, as I have said, the wild theatre 
 of the Walpurgis Nacht,not in the least know- 
 ing why the first Christian missionary's name 
 should be given to the night on which witches 
 and ghosts, and all unholy manner of things, 
 are said to assemble — were, I should say, for 
 superstition is well-nigh defunct every- 
 where. 
 
 We sat down on a fantastic block on the 
 summit of the Brocken, not very far from 
 the inn. 
 
 " I should like to be here on the eve of 
 May-day," I said, " if there were any chance 
 of seeing my own ghost, with its name pinned 
 on its back ; it would look so droll ! poor 
 little thing." 
 
 " Hush !" said Evelyn, quite solemnly ; " I 
 fear to jest with the spiritual world." 
 
 " Nonsense!" I cried; but the next mo- 
 ment added, " I believe you are right. The 
 error of our age is not superstition, but in- 
 credulity." 
 
 " Superstition ! " Evelyn ejaculated ; " un- 
 belief has driven it from tlie world ; in- 
 fidelity is treading down even its traces."
 
 EVELYN. 277 
 
 I knew quite well she did not mean what 
 I meant ; yet I answered, for I did not want 
 a serious discussion, 
 
 " Oh yes ! railroads and steamboats, and 
 the whirr of this every-day working life, have 
 quite run through and through the Blocksberg 
 and its spectres. Only see how that Mur- 
 ray, with his cool matter-of-factism, fore- 
 warns every traveller of the dull realities 
 which have supplanted the dear old wonders 
 of a very different age. What says he in his 
 curious encyclopsedias of travel ? 
 
 " ' The spectre of the Brocken, occasion- 
 ally seen from this spot, may have con- 
 tributed to strengthen the belief of its being 
 haunted. It appears at sunset, or sunrise, 
 whenever the mists happen to ascend per- 
 pendicularly out of the valley on the side 
 opposite to the sun, and leave the mountain- 
 tops free from vapour. The shadow of the 
 mountain is reflected against the face of the 
 vapour : the inn becomes a palace in size, 
 and the human beings on the summit appear 
 giants. The size of the figures increases or 
 diminishes as the fog is driven further or 
 nearer to the Brocken by the wind.' 
 
 " ' And/ adds Mr. Howitt, * if the fog be
 
 278 EVELYN. 
 
 very dry, you see not only yourself but your 
 neighbour ; if very damp, yourself only, sur- 
 rounded by a rainbow-coloured glory, the 
 more lustrous and beautiful the damper the 
 fog is, and the nearer it approaches.' How 
 strangely lovely you would look, Evelyn, sur- 
 rounded with that rainbow-coloured glory ; 
 I wish I could see you in the fog ! " 
 
 " I fear you think me too much in cloud- 
 land already," she answered, laughing. 
 
 " That is quite true. But do not such 
 plain John Bullisms as these lift the veil 
 provokingly high ; and render all the delight- 
 ful old-world phantasmagoria a mere raw- 
 head-and-bloody-bones story for old heads 
 on young shoulders to scoff at ? How shall 
 fare the generation that is following us ? 
 Imagination in this age has died a violent 
 death ; strangled, choked, in machinery ; our 
 railroads, et cetera^ have crushed its soul 
 out : we have lived on the shreds of the 
 past, and worn them completely out." 
 
 " There is nothing new under the sun," 
 said Evelyn ; " what dies in one age revives 
 in another ; a generation or two, or more, 
 even a century or two, may be passed over ; 
 but, like personal beauty, which you know
 
 EVELYN. 279 
 
 is said to run the same (at times) invisible 
 course, the thing that hath been, reappears. 
 The world presents a succession of changes ; 
 but it is a great kaleidescope ; if we could 
 stand still, and watch its revolutions, we 
 should see what we had seen before." 
 
 " Yes, so far as fashions, opinions, perhaps 
 graver matters also, are concerned, you are 
 right ; but the dear old credulities of by- 
 gone times, the innocent mythology, which 
 the alffebra and mathematics of our infant 
 
 o 
 
 education have quite destroyed, will it again 
 delight the imagination of such a child as I 
 myself was ? Will the wonder-flower bloom 
 again on the Brocken ; or will its spectres ap- 
 pear when called for ? Have not the micro- 
 scopic glasses of our times looked through and 
 through all such dear illusions ? Have not 
 our never-resting travellers ransacked and 
 burlesqued their retreats and sanctuaries ; 
 and the great, dry platter-faced genius of 
 Anno Domini 1800 nodded its head, for 
 nearly fifty years, at all the relics which the 
 sacristies of imagination had preserved, and 
 caused them to vanish into curious nothings ?" 
 " Do not get angry," Evelyn said, smiling; 
 " what hath been shall be, and what is, is
 
 2804 EVELYN. 
 
 that which shall come after. Ah ! friend, in 
 matters great and small there is wisdom in 
 that word — wait." 
 
 We heard voices murmuring at the other 
 side of the granite block on which we sat. 
 
 " Let us go to the inn," said my com- 
 panion, rising; " even on the Blocksberg we 
 may have listeners." 
 
 " Perhaps a Mephistopheles is at the other 
 side, with some silly Dr. Faust ; they have 
 heard no dangerous secrets ; but I am tired, 
 and could almost drink Birchen-wasser ; so, 
 come," I made answer. 
 
 In moving round towards the Brocken 
 Haus, we passed a young man and a lady, 
 who were at the wild-looking scene of the 
 Witches' Festival. The lady had her back 
 to us, but the other person was full before 
 us ; as we came near, she said, in the tongue 
 wherein we were born, 
 
 " Yes ; but while you are quoting Gothe, 
 I cannot help thinking of an English version 
 of some of the words of Faust : 
 
 " The wild wind sweeps like a storm o'er a wreck ; 
 It is icy cold, and it cuts my neck." 
 
 The young man sprang up, and with an 
 exclamation, rather over-proportioned in ve- 
 
 i
 
 EVELYN. 281 
 
 hemence to the occasion, and in the sweetest 
 tones of a decidedly Irish voice, exclaimed 
 against himself and his forgetfulness, in. 
 letting her sit there and suffer ; and, with a 
 nurse's care, he endeavoured to draw a shawl 
 around the threatened neck. 
 
 " Why will you always think of me, and 
 not of yourself?" was the answer, as the 
 efFortwas rather impatiently resisted. "Surely, 
 you must know it was of you I thought ? I 
 am not suffering from delicate lungs. You 
 never think of yourself; never take the least 
 care of yourself." 
 
 *'Who would do so, if he could be so thought 
 of?" said the young man, with flashing eyes ; 
 " but I am wrong, very wrong," he added, in 
 an altered manner, " to give any one the 
 trouble of caring for me." 
 
 In the Mountain Inn we were shown into 
 a room already occupied by an elderly couple, 
 and a quantity of shawls and cloaks, suffi- 
 cient almost for a party of Germans ; but 
 we knew, instinctively, we were not with 
 the natives. The man appeared sixty years of 
 age, the woman, perhaps, five years younger ; 
 they seemed to belong to that rather unde- 
 fined rank called the middle classes, and had 
 good, broad, honest-looking, yet not quite
 
 282 EVELYN. 
 
 English, faces. They talked in whispers for 
 a few moments, and then the old lady, ap- 
 proaching us, put her face very close to mine, 
 and Avithout the least of that scared appear- 
 ance, which the address of a stranger usually 
 gives a native of England, speaking very 
 loud, and pointing her finger through the 
 panes of the narrow window, to make her 
 meaning still plainer, she said, 
 
 " Dere — in dat plaace — have — you — seen 
 a lady — and a — yung man ?" 
 
 The unequal pauses, the difficulty with 
 which she tried to s])eak English, and yet 
 her broad Irish accent, was the most ludi- 
 crous thing I almost ever heard ; but aware 
 that such tricks are practised, I was not dis- 
 posed to laugh as I replied coldly, 
 
 " We did see a lady and gentleman not 
 far from here." 
 
 The effect of this speech was marvellous. 
 The old lady's face "broke in pieces with 
 joy," as my French master, an officer of 
 Napoleon's, used to make me translate " la 
 joie ^clatait sur le visage de Calypso ;" and 
 at the sound of my voice the old man rose 
 up and came over to the window, exclaiming, 
 in downright good Irish,
 
 EVELYN. 283 
 
 " Heavens bless my heart and soul ! you 
 are English ! " 
 
 " Ah ! then," cried his good wife, " isn't it 
 a mercy to meet any one that can speak a 
 decent tongue, and understands you without 
 your talking gibberish? And, ladies, upon 
 my honour and word, I never met a human 
 creature, since I have been in foreign parts, 
 that didn't speak English just as I spoke to 
 you ; for all the world like babies ; so when I 
 thought you w^ere foreigners, I knew there 
 was no use of speaking to you like sensible 
 people." 
 
 " Certainly not," I answered, with a gravity 
 that made Evelyn actually laugh. But my 
 heart warmed to the exquisite old woman ; 
 I felt as if I should be her friend for life. 
 There is something so delicious now-a-days 
 in open, undisguised, unblushing ignorance. 
 Let others say what they will, when I meet 
 it in honest, hearty simplicity, I love it ; it 
 wins and warms my heart. 
 
 " Maybe I'd better step out after them, 
 dear?" said husband Patrick to his sposa, 
 with the tone of a man who generally stated 
 an opinion in the form of a question. 
 
 " Then is it mad entirely you'd be, Patrick,
 
 284 EVELYN. 
 
 man, to go out there, wandering about on 
 the wild hills, and you not able to say a 
 word for yourself if I'm not with you ? " 
 
 " Well, dear, I know that ; but sure, if he 
 gets cold, or breaks a bloodvessel again, it's 
 you that'll be blamed for it, when you are 
 here to take care of him ; so it's only to save 
 you trouble I speak." 
 
 " And it's kind and considerate of you, 
 Patrick, that it is ; but you see I must per- 
 form my own duties, for, upon my word and 
 honour, I do believe no one could ever per- 
 form them for me. Now, ladies, it's won- 
 dering you'll be at my anxieties ; but you 
 see my nephew that's out there, is a great 
 genius ; indeed, between ourselves, I fear he 
 is too great a genius to live, poor boy ; they 
 said he was going into a decline, and the 
 doctors sent him to travel ; and then — and 
 then — why then some one made me come 
 to take care of him ; and my husband, you 
 know, couldn't be left behind ; and there's a 
 young lady, a very grand young lady indeed, 
 under my care too, and so you may think I 
 have enough to do." 
 
 " Undoubtedly. But if you wish to find 
 your friends, you can easily do so ; I will 
 show you the place."
 
 EVELYN. 285 
 
 " Thank you, ma'am, thank you," slie said, 
 drawing a step or two from me as she 
 spoke : " very much obliged, ma'am, but I'd 
 rather not go near such places as that ; 
 why, ma'am, perhaps you don't know it's a 
 very improper and wicked place they are 
 gone to ? " 
 
 " Oh, indeed ! I did not know that." 
 
 " No, ma'am, it's likely not ; but I knew 
 better ; I said to my nephew, ' Albert,' says 
 I, ' I am agreeable to go with you all over 
 the whole world as we are doing, and any- 
 where else in reason you wish, but when 
 you want me to go to a witch's altar ' " — 
 
 " Altar is a papist word," said the husband. 
 
 " True for you, Patrick ; well I won't 
 say against that word ; but pulpit, Patrick, 
 pulpit is Protestant ; and there's a thing out 
 there they call the devil's pulpit ! Well, 
 heaven forgive them ! that's all I say " — and 
 as people usually do when they utter a similar 
 good wish, she held up her hands with a 
 gesture that said such forgiveness would 
 never be accorded, — " it's a pretty sermon 
 he'd give us, I'm thinking." 
 
 " And the witch must be clerk, and say 
 amen," cried husband Pat, with a hearty 
 laugh.
 
 286 EVELYN. 
 
 " Don't laugh, Patrick, don't, dear ; I 
 don't approve of such things ; I do not in- 
 deed ; I say it's making light of sacred 
 things." 
 
 " But I think in Ireland you have got a 
 ' Devil's Bit,' and his glen, and his bridge," 
 I said. 
 
 " Aye, that's true ; and some people thinl^ 
 we have got too much of his work alto- 
 gether," said the husband ; and he laughed 
 again. 
 
 " Now Patrick, dear, I wish you wouldn't 
 be jesting at sacred things," said the old 
 lady ; " it's not right, indeed it isn't. But, 
 ladies, may I ask how you knew we were 
 from Ireland ? " 
 
 " Oh !" I exclaimed ; and Evelyn and I 
 laughed in spite of ourselves, " I guessed it 
 by — by a sort of accent." 
 
 " Accent ! have I any accent, Patrick ? 
 Upon my word, I thought my husband and 
 myself had not the least Irish accent ; we 
 were a whole month, too, or more, in London 
 before we came here." 
 
 " But we never left the sweet banks of 
 the Shannon in our lives before then," said 
 husband Patrick, " and I give you my word,
 
 EVELYN. 287 
 
 ladies, I never saw anything like them 
 since/' 
 
 " I suppose not," was my reply. 
 
 " Well, Ireland has its evils too, Patrick ; 
 but nothing, I think, so bad as the horrible 
 superstitions that are practised here." 
 
 " What are they?" asked Evelyn, with 
 a look of innocent wonder ; but I believe 
 our new acquaintances were stranger to her 
 than the witches. 
 
 She received a glance of pitying admira- 
 tion from the old woman. 
 
 " I declare now if it isn't a pity to see 
 innocent, sweet creatures going about such 
 places ; and them as ignorant as the child 
 unborn of the impropriety and sinfulness 
 of them. Well, ladies, you see my nephew 
 will follow his own opinion, because he is a 
 great genius, and you know they can per- 
 suade any one that black is white ; and the 
 young lady that's under my care — well, I 
 suppose she's too good to see evil in any- 
 thing, or I'm sure she'd never come to this 
 desolate mountain to see the Devil's Pulpit 
 and the Witches' Altar; and sit out there 
 listening to stories that would make your 
 blood run cold, and your hair stand on an
 
 288 EVELYN. 
 
 end, if you were to hear them : how Satan 
 flew over this mountain with a German 
 doctor ; and of the horrid witches' feast ; and 
 how on May-day eve he is here, with a 
 great congregation round his pulpit ; and 
 how any one who calls for his own ghost 
 can see it, or any other ; and how the ghost 
 will appear with its name pinned on its back. 
 The poor deluded creatures ; it's benighted 
 they are ! Now isn't it a wonder that in 
 these missionary times, no one ever thought 
 of sending a missionary to them — a mission to 
 the Brocken ; isn't it the Brocken they call 
 it ? Well, we have nothing worse in Ireland 
 than this, Patrick." 
 
 " Try and get a meeting about it at the 
 Rotunda," said I ; for though I never "jest 
 about sacred things," there was something 
 irresistible in this excellent lady's innocent 
 zeal. But we were very hungry, and so we 
 left her to consider the proposal, and went 
 to look for something to eat. 
 
 We wandered afterwards a little about 
 the Brocken, and returned to our hotel at 
 Neustad. 
 
 The next day was Sunday. Had we 
 known what a scene this railway terminus
 
 EVELYN. 289 
 
 would have exhibited, we might have chosen 
 another halting-place. I fancied there was 
 a quiet significance on our obliging Kellner's 
 countenance, when I said something of our 
 English custom of spending the Sunday 
 quietly, for which reason we would remain 
 there, contrary to our first intention, and 
 start off on Monday ; but he only answered, 
 
 " Si Madame le veut." 
 
 On that evening, thinking that Evelyn 
 would not like to go out among such a mass 
 of people (all the citizens of Brunswick, I 
 believe, poured out to Neustadt, and all the 
 peasants of the neighbourhood came to look 
 at them, eating, drinking, knitting, and 
 waltzing), I was stealing along the great 
 corridor, to see if I could effect an escape 
 into some quiet suburb, when I heard a 
 quick step patting after me, and a voice, 
 in very suppressed tones, crying " Honey, 
 honey ; stop a bit, honey." I looked back, 
 and saw the old lady of the Brocken. 
 
 " Ah then, honey, maybe you could tell 
 me where my room is ? Upon my word and 
 honour, I'm lost entirely." 
 
 " Do you know the number ? " 
 
 "Number: it's numbered they are, like 
 
 VOL. I. o
 
 290 EVELYN. 
 
 the doors of a street? Well, now I remem- 
 ber, there was, I think, 56 on it." 
 
 " Fifty-six ; come this way, I will try to 
 find it." 
 
 " Thank you, dear ; I'll be for ever obliged 
 to you. You see, my dear, when strangers 
 meet in a strange land, they should be 
 friendly, and do a good turn for one another. 
 I'm sure I'll be heartily glad to help you at 
 any time. You see, dear, when anything 
 happens to me, I don't like to be disturbing 
 the young lady that's under my care, though 
 she speaks all the tongues that ever were 
 invented ; but then she's an authoress, you 
 know, and she's always by herself, and always, 
 I suj3pose, Avriting, or reading, or thinking." 
 
 " And you have an authoress and a genius 
 under your care !" I exclaimed, surveying 
 the vulgar-looking, good-humoured little 
 woman from head to foot. 
 
 " Hush, hush ! you mustn't say I said so ; 
 it's only particular friends, you know, are in 
 the secret." 
 
 " Yes, like you and I." 
 
 " Just so, dear." 
 
 " Madame, voici votre chambre." 
 
 " Och ! do you speak that gibberish, too ?"
 
 EVELYN. 291 
 
 " This is 56." 
 
 " So it is, and there is my cloak. Yes, 
 it's right. Come in, dear, come in ; come in 
 for a moment. Now, upon my word you 
 must. Patrick 's out, and even if he wasn't, 
 sure they eat, and sit, and sleep in the same 
 room here, the savages ! but he is out with 
 my nephew, and you needn't be afraid. 
 Come in, and let us have a bit of chat ; my 
 tongue is tired of never saying a word ; for 
 you know, dear, authoresses and geniuses 
 don't talk like other people." 
 
 " Not at all like you and I," was my saga- 
 cious rejoinder. 
 
 " Not at all, not at all ; there, now, sit 
 down, and make yourself easy, for I am sure 
 it's a real pleasure to get any one to talk to." 
 
 " Why do you not learn to speak French 
 and German, madam ?" 
 
 " I do speak, ma'am, I do speak them ; 
 how could I travel, and make myself useful, 
 if I couldn't speak ? But ma'am, my opinion 
 is, that when people speak the language of 
 these heathens, they grow like them. Why, 
 my dear creature, let me ask you if you ever 
 beheld such a scene as this on the Sabbath 
 day ? and the women knitting too ; fine- 
 o 2 
 
 tBBSmBMH
 
 292 EVELYN. 
 
 dressed ladies, actually knitting away as if for 
 a morsel of bread, as if they hadn't six week- 
 days to make their husbands' stockings. But 
 they are heathens — they are heathens ! with 
 their ghosts, and witches' altars, and devils' 
 pulpits. Ah ! maybe it's the sermons they 
 hear there that make them Sabbath- 
 breakers." 
 
 " Very probably ; yet they are Protestants 
 too : this is Martin Luther's own land." 
 
 " Bless my heart ! it's wonderful now, isn't 
 it?" 
 
 " Wonderful ! But I fear the English do 
 not always set other people the example they 
 say they follow at home; their favourite 
 motto is, to ' do at Rome as Rome does;' 
 they often refuse to act upon it in little 
 matters, but observe it in great ; and after 
 joining in most of the Sunday amusements 
 and customs abroad, lifoey go back and write, 
 or talk, against them at home." 
 
 " That is not my way, my dear ; nor, in- 
 deed, I must say, is it my nephew's, or — or 
 any one else's ; but I should like to tell you 
 what a scrape I got into once by trying to 
 set people a good example, and to show 
 them how to keep the Sabbath day."
 
 EVELYN. 293 
 
 « Pray, tell me." 
 
 " Well, I will, then ; there, now, just sit 
 on that couch : upon my word, the couches 
 here are the only good things I have seen ; 
 as for the beds, they are only like stuffed 
 coffins." 
 
 So when she had settled me to her wish, 
 her tongue once more began to use its re- 
 stored freedom. 
 
 " So, my dear, we were on the Rhine — a 
 mighty fine river it is, but nothing to com- 
 pare to the Shannon, I think — and my ne- 
 phew stayed somewhere to see the students. 
 Did you ever see them, my dear ? Such 
 creatures ! not like our collegians ; I declare, 
 they are like things come out of Bedlam ; 
 and sometimes they don't look a bit like 
 man or woman, with coats like dressing- 
 gowns, only covered over with braids and 
 tassels and things, tag-rag and bob-tail ; and 
 their whity hair hanging down their necks, 
 and their bewildered looks, just like raving 
 poets, pretending they are thinking; and 
 them with an embroidered reticule that 
 they call a tobacco sack, round their necks, 
 or fastened in their button-holes, and a long 
 walking-stick, with a painted china bowl at
 
 294 EVELYN. 
 
 the end of it, in their mouths ; and doing 
 nothing but drinking great cans of nasty 
 beer, and puffing smoke into your face, and 
 then staring with their great wild eyes, just 
 as if they were saying, ' How do you like 
 that?^ Upon my word, my opinion is, that 
 if these fellows learn anything, it is a shame 
 they don't teach them manners too." 
 
 " Why," I said, " there might be a diffi- 
 culty there ; for I have heard of an adver- 
 tisement that once appeared in a little school- 
 room window of your country, with this post- 
 cript, ' Them as larns manners, twopence 
 more.' " 
 
 " Well, my dear, if it did cost a little 
 more, it wouldn't be money thrown away. 
 But if you were to hear my nephew talking 
 of the great professors he has seen here, 
 why maybe you'd think it no wonder about 
 the others. Do you know that some of them 
 live in a room that's so black with tobacco 
 smoke, you couldn't see to the end of it ; 
 and their hair is all wild, and their faces 
 yellow, and there they are shut up with 
 musty books and dusty papers, and T de- 
 clare, I think their thoughts must be as 
 musty and dusty and smoky as all about
 
 EVELYN. 295 
 
 them is, for I'm sure no one could make 
 head or tail out of what I have heard my 
 nephew read ; you just feel as if you were 
 in a dream at the end of all ; and you begin 
 to think that maybe you have been dream- 
 ing all your life, and yet that there would 
 be no manner of use in wakening : and 
 there is a great, great heap of words, that I 
 declare do not tell you anything at all, nor 
 teach you how to be a bit better yourself, nor 
 how to make any creature a bit better. And 
 yet they do nothing but write, write, and 
 read and read, and think and think/"' 
 
 " And perhaps you think they avouM be 
 better, and do better, if they would act, 
 act?" I said, laughing. 
 
 " To be sure I do, my dear ; they wouldn't 
 write such strange, useless dreams then, take 
 my word for it. But I must tell you the 
 way I set these Sabbath-breakers a good 
 example. 
 
 " You see, my nephew had stayed with 
 those aifected-looking creatures they call 
 students, and the young lady who is under 
 my care had gone with some friends she had 
 with her then, but who have left us now, to 
 see some place or other, I forget what, so
 
 296 EVELYN. 
 
 Patrick and I were left to act for ourselves. 
 She left us directions written on a card, and 
 told us we could get on so as to spend the 
 Sunday in Frankfort, where there is an Eng- 
 lish church. So when we were alone, I said 
 to Patrick, says I, ' Now we are left to act 
 for ourselves, and we'll set these people a 
 good example, and teach them how they 
 should observe the Sabbath.' But, says Pa- 
 trick, 'How will you do that, when you cannot 
 speak to them ?' 'Oh !' says I, 'I'll teach them 
 by actions, — that is the best teaching; besides, 
 I have learned enough French to manage 
 very well. So to-morrow will be Saturday,' 
 says I, ' and we'll get to Frankfort in time to 
 be settled for the Sunday, that we may spend 
 it properly.' Well, the next day we went off; 
 and a fine piece of work we had, for there 
 was my nephew's luggage, and the young 
 lady's, and our own, and we had only the 
 card to go by, and the landlord, and I don't 
 know how many porters, had a fine fuss. 
 At last we got to the railway, and came to 
 Frankfort ; and then there was all the fuss 
 over again ; but a porter took our card, and 
 got us three carriages, and we drove off to 
 the hotel. It was about half-past one o'clock,
 
 EVELYN. 297 
 
 and Patrick said it was a very fine town, 
 but there seemed very little business in 
 it, and it looked a deal quieter than 
 Dublin. 
 
 " So when we got to the hotel, I do 
 assure you the landlord came running out 
 to meet us, and he so fine, and all the 
 waiters looking so smart, that I was ashamed 
 to speak to them. Well, after a while, when 
 we were in our room, a waiter came and 
 made a speech ; and I said to him, ' What do 
 you mean ?' and then he said 'Table dliote,' for 
 table d'hote means, dinner is on the table ; 
 so we went down stairs to our dinner, and 
 you know here you must eat fifty dishes, 
 and have twenty plates changed, before you 
 can get anything you like, for they bring in 
 a leg of mutton or a piece of roast beef for 
 dessert, so that nearly two hours were spent 
 at our dinner ; but when we got back to our 
 room, Patrick was saying how much plea- 
 santer it was to sit over one's glass of wine, 
 or something else, you know, by oneself, 
 than to be fed like the beasts of the Zoolo- 
 gical Gardens, altogether at one hour, and 
 be made to eat as much as would do for half- 
 a-dozen dinners ; but I said, ' Patrick,' says I, 
 o 3
 
 298 
 
 EVELYN. 
 
 ' no matter what other customs we conform 
 to, only let us show them we'll keep the 
 Sabbath as Ave do at home, and not conform 
 in that to their heathenish ways.' So then, 
 I looked round for our luggage, that I mio-ht 
 get our clean things out ; and it wasn't in 
 the room. I rang the bell, and the waiter 
 came, but not until I rang two or three 
 times ; so as I knew the word they called 
 luggage, I said to him 'Baggage;' and he 
 came up close to me, and spoke a good deal ; 
 but I only said ' Baggage.' 
 
 " So at last he opened the door and made a 
 bow, and stood for me to walk out, and 
 Patrick said he thought he wanted me to go 
 and show him the luggage. Well, he took 
 me down stairs to a lumber-room, and there 
 was all the luggage piled up, and a great 
 deal of other things over it. So I touched 
 all of ours with my hand, and told him it 
 must go up stairs. He understood me, for 
 I pointed with my hand ; but he said, « De- 
 mang, madame, demang.' ' No, no,' I said, 
 ' no demang for me ; ' for T knew that 
 demang was to-morrow, and that the fellow 
 wanted to put off his work to the Sabbath ; 
 so I said ' No, no ; no demang.' Well, after
 
 EVELYN. 299 
 
 a great piece of work, the landlord himself 
 came, and he sent the waiter to look for 
 another man, and we had the luggage all 
 carried up stairs. When it was all in at 
 last, I put my hand in my pocket, — and if I 
 had not lost my keys ! not a bit of them was 
 to be found. 
 
 " ' Well, Patrick,' said I, ' there's no use 
 fretting, these boxes must be opened.' 
 
 " ' Wait till Monday,' said he ; ' we are 
 strangers here, and it's no matter about our 
 best clothes.' 
 
 " ' No, Patrick,' said I, ' I'll do abroad as 
 I do at home, on the Sunday at least, and 
 set these people a good example. I'll get 
 out your clean things, and my own too.' 
 
 " I rang the bell again, and again, and 
 again ; at last the waiter came, and really he 
 looked a little cross ; and then Patrick 
 thought he should help me in speaking, and 
 so he put his hand on the boxes, and took 
 the key of the door, and made as if he threw 
 it out of the window, to show the keys were 
 lost ; and the man, stupid as he was, under- 
 stood that. But still the fellow kept saying 
 ' Demang, demang ;' but 'No demang for me,' 
 I said ; ' I'll sanction no Sabbath-breaking.'
 
 300 EVELYN. 
 
 So then, I recollected that in Dublin they 
 called an evening party a soirry ; and I put 
 my hand on the trunk, and said distinctly, 
 ' Dis soirry,' with the greatest determin- 
 ation. ' Dis soirry,' says I. So, after some 
 time, a fine gentleman, in a yellow waist- 
 coat, and with a gold chain, came up with a 
 pick-lock. I was really frightened to see 
 him, and to think of all the expense it would 
 be to have such a grand person to pick the 
 locks of the trunks. However, he did it 
 just as well as any sooty blacksmith, and I 
 really believe did not charge a bit more. 
 When it was over, however, I said to Pat- 
 rick, ' Well, my dear,' says I, ' I think we 
 shall triumph over them, and show them how 
 we keep the Sabbath.' Then I wanted a 
 fire to air the clothes, for I never let any 
 one put on anything without airing ; and 
 after a while I rang again, and I assure you 
 I was sorry to see that good, resf)ectable- 
 looking waiter's face ; it appeared to us that 
 there was only himself in the house, and 
 when he came to us again, it had grown 
 quite cross. 
 
 " I was unwilling to give him so much 
 trouble ; and to cut the matter short, I
 
 EVELYN. 301 
 
 looked at him resolutely and said, 'Fou.' 
 He stared, and quite frowned, but did not 
 say a word. My nephew had trouble enough 
 afterwards to teach me how I ought to have 
 said the word, for he told me ' fou ' meant 
 fool, but when it is said mincing-like, it 
 means fire. So the poor waiter stared ; but 
 when I put my hand on the stove, he made 
 the queerest face, and went away. 
 
 " Then a woman came and made a fire, and 
 I put all the things to air ; but the room 
 was so stifling, we could not endure it, and so 
 we w^ent out to take a little walk, and 
 Patrick took the card, with the name of the 
 hotel, that we might find our way back. 
 
 *' Well, it's a fact, I never did see such 
 streets, such fine-dressed people, such beau- 
 tiful carriages, every one seemed astir ; and 
 Patrick says, says he, ' Oh ! this is quite a dif- 
 ferent town to what we came into at half- 
 past one o'clock to-day ; it's alive now, and 
 upon my word I think it looks as gay as 
 Dublin ; only there are not so many beggars 
 and frieze coats, and carriages and horses, 
 in it.' 
 
 " So we were walking on, making our 
 observations, when a little boy came up to
 
 302 EVELYN. 
 
 US, and he spoke English just in the way I 
 first spoke to you on that superstitious moun- 
 tain ; we understood him quite well, and 
 were glad to get any one to speak at all, so 
 as we could understand ; and the little fel- 
 low said he had got two tickets for the opera, 
 and he and his friend could not go, and he 
 wanted to sell them, and a great singer, 
 Viardot Garcia, he called her, was to be there. 
 
 " I did not think it right to go to the opera, 
 but I did not know what it was ; and Patrick 
 said he would like to see it, just for once ; 
 and 'You know,' he said, 'as it costs so little 
 we can come out if we find it is not proper.' 
 
 " So we went in; and I do assure you, we 
 were so amused, and found it all so droll, we 
 stayed till it was over. 
 
 " But when we got back, I said, ' Well, this 
 is all very well, but we mustn't forget to- 
 morrow is Sunday, Patrick.' 
 
 " And to-morrow came ; and I was putting 
 on my best gown and bonnet to go to church, 
 and Patrick was dressed, and looking out of 
 the window, when he says, 
 
 " ' Well, my dear, I believe you are right ; 
 but to be sure you are always right ; see now 
 if Sunday isn't the busy day here.' 
 
 "So I went to the window, and, upon my
 
 EVELYN. 303 
 
 word, the carts were going about, and every 
 shop open ; then I said, ' They must be Jews, 
 Patrick ; for those shops were shut yesterday.' 
 
 " * Ah, then, dear,' said he, ' could you 
 have made a mistake, and yesterday be 
 Sunday?' 
 
 " So I cried out for shame of him to think 
 such a thing ; but I told him he had better 
 ring the bell, and ask ; for somehow my heart 
 misgave me when I looked at the street. 
 
 " When the waiter came in, Patrick said to 
 me, that I must speak, as I knew French ; 
 but for the life of me I could not think of 
 the word for Sunday. 
 
 " So Patrick, who is quick enough when he 
 pleases, took a prayer-book, and his hat, and 
 looked very demure, as if he was walking 
 out to church ; but the waiter stared, and 
 stared, and said nothing. So then Patrick 
 fell down on his knees, and held up his 
 joined hands, and began as if he was pray- 
 ing ; but you would hardly believe it, when 
 the stupid man saw that, he ran out of the 
 room as if he was mad. Presently up comes 
 the big landlord, his chest heaving and puf- 
 fing; and Patrick, making sure that he 
 would understand him, falls down on his 
 knees before him, and holds up his hands.
 
 304 EVELYN. 
 
 and begins mumbling and muttering over 
 again. Off runs landlord, waiter, and porter, 
 post-haste, as if a madman was after them ; 
 and away they ran to an English gentleman's 
 room, and told him, I suppose, some frightful 
 story, for back they came. Englishman and 
 all, and the Englishman said, very gravely, 
 
 " ' What is the matter V 
 
 " ' I want to know if this is Sunday,' says 
 Patrick. 
 
 " 'Why, Sir, the landlord said you had gone 
 mad,' said the gentleman. ' No, Sir ; if that 
 is all the madness, I can cure it. This is 
 Monday ; yesterday was Sunday, Sir.' 
 
 " Then he said something in their own 
 gibberish to the landlord ; and he lifted his 
 shoulders almost over his head, and they all 
 went away. So, my dear, that was the way 
 I set a good example, and taught them 
 how to spend the Sabbath. And to think 
 of going to the opera, too ! a place I never 
 was in, in my life, before ; and that it should 
 prove to be Sunday : but you see, my dear, it 
 was all their own fault, not mine." 
 
 I was sorry Evelyn had not been present 
 to hear this exquisite little history ; but 
 while I was thinking how I could make an 
 abrupt retreat from the suddenly loosened
 
 EVELYN. 305 
 
 tongue, the door gently opened, and with a 
 noiseless step came in one who looked a 
 " lady of the land." The tall graceful figure, 
 the neck tlirown a little back, the dark hair 
 arranged in a circlet on the beautiful Grecian- 
 formed head, the dark-grey eyes, the intel- 
 lectual forehead, and full, yet not florid com- 
 plexion, were what I had seen before, and 
 involuntarily I said, 
 
 " It is, is it not. Miss ? " 
 
 " Yes," said Geraldine, with her own truly 
 fascinating smile, " and it was you we heard 
 speaking on the Brocken, and you passed 
 us with that lovely girl ; I thought so, but 
 you were out of sight before I could be 
 sure whether I might claim an acquaintance. 
 Let me make amends for lost time, and 
 beg of you and your friend to join our tea- 
 table d V Anglaise ; I came to summon you," 
 she added, nodding her head to the old 
 lady. 
 
 " Come, dear ; say you'll come," whispered 
 the good woman, touching my shoulder slily 
 with hers, " it'll make a bit of a change for 
 you ; and you can talk to me, you know, all 
 the time, or I'll talk to you." 
 
 " Thank you ! then I will come, if Evelyn 
 will."
 
 306 EVELYN. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Dresden. 
 
 Evelyn did come ; and the result of that 
 tea-table cl VAnglaise was, that we all started 
 off together the next morning to the deso- 
 late region of Clausthal, the highest town of 
 the Hartz, a mining district, where little, if 
 any, corn is grown, the cold, which scarcely 
 allows it to ripen, rendering the internal 
 produce of the earth the chief object of 
 labour. 
 
 From here, engaging two light carriages, 
 we passed through the pleasant valley of 
 the Oker, one of the most picturesque of 
 those to be found among the Hartzgeberge. 
 
 The scenery was varied by the effect of 
 the early and sparkling morning sun, now 
 shining on dark granite cones, now tinging 
 gloomy pines with light, then glancing on 
 the meandering Oker, or smiling on the
 
 EVELYN. 807 
 
 white stem and quivering leaves of the tall 
 birch. Like the playful effects of those 
 glancing beams, were the coruscations of 
 our new companion's genius ; the genius of 
 his ill-fated land — an anomaly among all 
 lands — soft and wild, and bright and fitful, 
 playing with its own fire, and sporting amid 
 the chains that shackled it ; revealing 
 gloom, and dashing it aside with an elec- 
 tric spark, that made you forget it had 
 existed. 
 
 O'Donnell — his name will tell you he was 
 an Irishman — represented the character of 
 his country in its best, its loveliest, perhaps 
 its genuine form ; without its recklessness, 
 without that madness which has surely 
 sprung from its despair. Amidst this lovely 
 scene, we passed on our road to 
 
 " the U- 
 
 niversity of Gottingen," 
 
 which he wished to see. His conversation, 
 whether amusing or intellectual, playful or 
 profound, might have beguiled a journey 
 over the Landes, so that it is not wonderful 
 we all exclaimed " So soon ! " when we 
 stopped at the hotel of Gottingen. 
 
 However, notwithstanding the nobler
 
 308 EVELYN, 
 
 feasts we had enjoyed, we were all quite 
 ready for something to eat; and when 
 O'Donnell came, in serious-comic manner, 
 to announce the request of the landlord that 
 we would join the table dliote of, I believe, 
 two or three hundred students, and some 
 professors, of the said 
 
 niversity of Gottingen," 
 
 we could not reject the offer of a ready-pre- 
 pared meal, knowing that those who, especi- 
 ally in the more out-of-the-way parts of Ger- 
 many, do so, are liable to wait longer than they 
 like. It was a curious spectacle ; we were 
 the only women-kind that varied it. Many 
 of the students had their cheeks hideously 
 gashed or seamed, from sabre-cuts in duels, 
 and, I believe, few could boast of less than 
 half-a-dozen marks of honour on his person. 
 There were some English youths among 
 them ; one, who was studying chemistry, 
 took Mr. O'Donnell off aftel- dinner to the 
 university. 
 
 As for us, there was little either to in- 
 terest or amuse in the silent, grass-grown 
 streets, or their sausage, pipe, and tobacco 
 shops ; but an evening of repose is no slight
 
 EVELYN. 309 
 
 privilege when travelling, so we enjoyed it ; 
 and, as correspondents say, we got safe to 
 Dresden. 
 
 I have indeed been retracing our route, 
 for I meant to have begun at the spot 
 where I took up my pen, that is, in Dresden. 
 
 We had gone to the notorious picture- 
 gallery, which Frederick the Great, when 
 his cannon had laid the rest of the town 
 in ruins, asked the conquered electress of 
 Saxony leave to visit. But even that great 
 robber of works of art. Napoleon, spared the 
 gallery of Dresden. 
 
 We were standing before that wonderful 
 picture, which, once beheld, is seen for ever, 
 — -Raphael's Madonna. The adoring Pope, 
 and beautiful St. Barbara, are soon for- 
 gotten ; but that inspired and glorious form, 
 soaring to its native skies with the lovely 
 infant on her arm, which she seems to have 
 snatched from the pollutions of earth, and 
 to bear in triumph to heaven, remains an 
 ever distinct picture in the mind. 
 
 Although we have an artist among us, I 
 do not mean to note down a single attempt 
 at criticism on works of art. There have 
 been blunderers and critics enough ; I must 
 
 g»Si >'M.'"*"#*>*?"»"i'i11W»lMiiiiiiwiiiiii|)«i|wwn^
 
 810 EVELYN. 
 
 also leave to artists the technicalities of the 
 tribe ; I only profess to feel the power of 
 genius, but often cannot explain either why 
 or wherefore. 
 
 , I saw Evelyn's almost adoring gaze on that 
 picture, and as we withdrew to the end of 
 the room, and sat down before it, my 
 thoughts were almost unconsciously ut- 
 tered : 
 
 " She is the Saviour ; she is the Redeemer ; 
 she has led captivity captive, and received 
 gifts for men ! " 
 
 Evelyn and Albert O'Donnell both looked 
 at me with something like wonder. 
 
 " Was not that idea in the painter's mind? " 
 I asked them ; " or did he not, in that resplen- 
 dent figure, embody rather the idea of his 
 church ? She carries the infant Jesus in her 
 arms to God, a child in all the radiant inno- 
 cence, yet feebleness, of humanity ; but she 
 ascends from earth in all the graceful majesty 
 of the Queen of Heaven, as if saying to the 
 Eternal Father, ' I have finished the work 
 that thou gavest me to do.' Is it for the 
 child, or the mother, that the demand shall 
 be made, ' Lift up your heads, ye gates, 
 and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and
 
 EVELYN. 311 
 
 the king of glory shall come in?' Can we 
 look at that marvellous picture, and not feel 
 that the God is lost, — the woman is deified ?" 
 
 " It is a beautiful superstition," said 
 O'Donnell, " a lovely and most poetic form 
 of idolatry." 
 
 " I do not like that sentiment," Evelyn 
 whispered to me. "I agree with you" — 
 speaking more loudly than timidity allowed 
 her to do in expressing her dissent — " I 
 agree with you, that the Church of Rome 
 has gone too far, and pushed veneration into 
 idolatry ; but then how much too short have 
 we come? Fear of the superstitions of 
 Rome has surely driven us into revolting 
 irreverence. 
 
 " There is something so touching to the 
 heart in that sense of sympathy which may 
 exist between the afflicted mother, who 
 received at once the tidings that she should 
 be highly favoured, blessed among women, 
 and that a sword should pierce through her 
 own soul also, and the afflicted sufferers of 
 the world, who know not and see not the 
 cause of their sufferings. Oh ! there was a 
 wonderful mystery in that life, before which 
 our souls should bow in reverence, instead
 
 312 EVELYN. 
 
 of rashly and rudely levelling it to our com- 
 mon apprehensions." 
 
 Geraldine, who was seated at her other 
 side, turned and looked earnestly at the 
 speaker : then putting her hand on Evelyn's 
 arm, 
 
 " True," she said ; " great is the mystery 
 of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh, 
 that by taking our nature upon Him, He 
 miffht enable us to take His into ours ; and 
 so, step by step, raise and restore us to that 
 from which we had fallen. What avails 
 that divine and human unity, if the medium 
 by which it was effected, the ever-blessed 
 mother of the human, supply the lost link 
 between God and man, and yield the sym- 
 pathy which our nature requires ? He, the 
 Son, and not the mother, is the Being who 
 can be touched with the feeling of our infir- 
 mities. But, with you, I feel no less the 
 gross irreverence which a rebound from the 
 contrary error has produced." 
 
 Evelyn smiled, as if she had found a kin- 
 dred mind, and touching the hand that rested 
 affectionately on hers, whispered that she 
 must speak to her again. 
 
 "The history of art," said O'Donnell, 
 
 I
 
 EVELYN. 813 
 
 "appears to me one of the most interesting, 
 and perhaps unfailing, exponents of that of 
 creeds. It is, I believe, admitted, that for 
 the first three centuries of the Christian era, 
 no representation of the Virgin is known to 
 have existed. The first rude attempts at 
 that subject were as clearly indicative of the 
 belief of the Church then, as the multiplied 
 madonnas of a later and a more glorious era 
 in art came to be. There appears to have 
 been an exceeding beauty in the early and 
 poetic idea which described the holy mother 
 as entirely veiled, appearing merely as an 
 accessary to the holier child ; and this not 
 only explained the position assigned to her 
 by the early Church, but harmonized well 
 with her own meek words, ' Behold the 
 handmaid of the Lord ; be it unto me ac- 
 cording to Thy word.' " 
 
 " Add to these," said Geraldine, " the 
 words of her magnificent hymn, ' My spirit 
 hath rejoiced in God my Saviour, for he 
 hath regarded the low estate of his hand- 
 maiden. For behold, from henceforth all 
 generations shall call me blessed.' Yet there 
 have been persons who, strangely enough, 
 deemed it a relic of Popery to call her blessed, 
 
 VOL. I. p
 
 314 EVELYN. 
 
 or to speak of her otherwise than as 
 'Mary.'" 
 
 " There is a picture here, perhaps more in 
 accordance with such sentiments as yours," 
 he answered ; " La Notte, of Correggio : will 
 you come and see it?" 
 
 We followed him to another room, and 
 stood in silence before that most exquisite 
 conception. The Night. It is night, yet 
 the spiritual morn is breaking. The infant 
 Saviour is born into the world's gross dark- 
 ness : the light of the world is come ; and 
 this is typified by a radiancy emanating from 
 the body, and shining on the holy face of 
 the virgin mother, who bends over it in 
 adoring love, while another woman turns 
 aside hers, unable to bear the light of hea- 
 ven. Above them angels are hovering. At 
 a distance the day-spring from on high is 
 dawning on a group of the shepherds, to 
 whom glad tidings of great joy are brought. 
 It is the typical embodiment of divine and 
 mysterious truth. 
 
 They say the effect of the effulgence is 
 vulgarized by the labours of picture-cleaners. 
 But it is one of those works of genius which 
 leave an unobliterated impression on the 
 memory.
 
 EVELYN. 315 
 
 Evelyn turned to Mr. O'Donnell with a 
 countenance almost as irradiated as that we 
 had been looking at. " Were you not right 
 in thinking that the history of art is one of 
 the best exponents of that of creeds ? Here 
 the glory of the Virgin is that reflected from 
 her incarnate God. True, she alone is able 
 to bear the radiancy undazzled ; but does not 
 that circumstance place her in the position 
 the Church should assign her, blessed above 
 all women, but deriving her glory from her 
 God ? " 
 
 " I think," he answered, smiling at her 
 enthusiasm, "that from these two pictures 
 the world might learn, if it could learn such 
 a lesson, to silence the clamour of bigotry 
 and prejudice, to cease to judge on a part 
 until the entire is known. The reverse of a 
 medal generally makes its obverse more sig- 
 nificant. Raphael and Correggio both em- 
 bodied the popular creed of their Church, 
 and both at the same epoch ; but from each 
 of these embodiments a different opinion 
 upon it could be derived." 
 
 " I fear," she said, looking at him with 
 an expression of almost childish simplicity, 
 " I fear you are what is termed a liberal." 
 p 2
 
 316 EVELYN. 
 
 He laughed. 
 
 " In the best sense of the term, perhaps I 
 am : does it alarm you ? " 
 
 " Yes. I abhor it. Liberalism and re- 
 volutionalism go hand in hand ; and infidelity 
 is at once their result and their spring." 
 
 " And are marching on |pretty quickly over 
 Europe," he rejoined : " by consenting to 
 admit railroads into his dominions, the new 
 Pope has done more than he is perhaps 
 aware of to abrogate for ever the iron rule 
 of his predecessors, and to draw the Eternal 
 City from the repose of the middle ages. 
 He appears to be exactly ' a man of the 
 times :' his free pardon of Pope Gregory's 
 enemies has made him a merely popu- 
 lar man, rather than the mysterious demi- 
 god of ancient belief. We may not for very 
 long have a war of tongues and pens carried 
 on against the superstitions which have re- 
 placed ' the old mythology of Greece and 
 Rome.'" 
 
 " Infidelity," said Evelyn, " is worse than 
 superstition ; it is fast superseding it." 
 
 At this moment my old lady of the 
 Brocken came close to my ear and said, 
 
 " Are these Papist pictures, my dear?"
 
 EVELYN. 317 
 
 " Ask your nephew," I whispered. 
 
 " Och ! dear, sure it's always laughing- at 
 me he is. Poor boy ! I believe, verily, that 
 he does not know the difference between 
 them himself, genius though he is. But are 
 the people here Pajjists or Protestants?"' 
 
 " The king is a Catholic." 
 
 " Oh ! that's the reason of it, then. Well, 
 if it isn't a shame to see that picture in a 
 Christian land ; but they are not Christians : 
 with flames coming out of the child's body !" 
 She nodded back her head, raised up her 
 hands, and turned away. 
 
 Well, thought I to myself, there is nothing 
 much more edifying than to hear a diversity 
 of opinion.
 
 318 EVELYN. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Prague. 
 It was evening when we approached the 
 ancient 'capital of Bohemia by the long 
 avenue bordered with the greatest quantity 
 of cherries I ever saw : the women cherry- 
 carriers, with their baskets curiously fitted 
 to their backs, were returning from their 
 day's sale in the town. We drew up on 
 the top of a high hill, and looked down 
 on that remarkable capital, now a capi- 
 tal no longer, yet possessing a history so 
 full of interest and splendour. The Hrad- 
 schin, high up as it is above the other 
 buildings, was below us ; above it still, rose 
 the heights whereon the fire-worshippers of 
 the East had in other times adored their 
 deity ; and up the sides of the basin in 
 which the city lies, did the sloping buildings 
 ascend ; towers, minarets, domes, and spires 
 were gleaming in a proud and dull Asiatic
 
 EVELYN. 319 
 
 splendour in the declining sun that sparkled 
 in the waters of the Moldau, which divides 
 the basin-shaped valley nearly in two. 
 
 Of all the ancient capitals of Europe, 
 Prague has to me been the most interesting : 
 Rome, perhaps, always excepted. In Rome 
 you must live in the memory of the past, as 
 the Romans do when they are at peace, and 
 do not aspire to a future ; and in Prague we 
 are in the middle ages, as they are called, far 
 back in centuries gone by ; though how long 
 these are to be the middle ages, this world 
 as yet saith not. 
 
 That Prague was once a capital seems in- 
 scribed on every tower, and gate, and proud 
 ruined palace of its once proud nobility. 
 Now it is a provincial town of Austria. But 
 even then, when we trod its streets, and 
 sighed over its fall, the fire was smouldering ; 
 the torch only was wanted, and the fiame 
 was ready. We stopped at the Schwarzes 
 Ross, a fine-looking hotel, where we got the 
 greatest profusion of caraway seeds imagin- 
 able : they are, I believe, a component part 
 of Bohemian cookery, for the potatoes, boiled 
 as in England, were always sprinkled with 
 them.
 
 320 EVELYN. 
 
 The great old bridge which crosses the 
 Moldau arrested our footsteps to examine 
 it. A more curious piece of what may now 
 well be called antiquity can hardly be seen : 
 not only defended by embattled towers, tetes 
 du pont, at each end, but additionally guarded 
 by the statues, larger than life, of twenty- 
 eight saints, with crucifixes and chapels 
 besides. Gustavus Adolphus, being a here- 
 tic, may well have planted his cannon in 
 vain against that old tower : but it was a 
 brave Jesuit, however, who took the office 
 of St. Nepomuk, and closed the portcullis, 
 which saved the passage of the bridge. A 
 purely Protestant imagination, like that of 
 our now dear lady of the Brocken, could 
 hardly picture to itself the antique aspect of 
 this bridge. In the centre of the parapet 
 five fine gilt stars commemorate, in the midst 
 of the saints, &c., the form of the flames 
 which played in the waters of the Moldau 
 underneath them, until the miracle having 
 excited attention, the river was dragged, and 
 the body of St. John Nepomuk was found. 
 
 " But why was he drowned?" Evelyn de- 
 manded, with that look of simplicity which 
 often makes more learned people smile.
 
 EVELYN. 321 
 
 " Because King Wenceslaus was suspi- 
 cious of his queen, and wanted him to reveal 
 the secrets she had told him in confession," 
 said Mr. O'Donnell, with arch gravity. 
 
 " And he would not, to save his life ? " she 
 asked. 
 
 " Not even to save his life ; and see what 
 honour he has come to by being able to keep 
 a secret ! Some slanderers would say there is 
 no female saint in the calendar for such a 
 cause. St. John Nepomuk's statue not only 
 defends the bridge of Prague, but he himself 
 has become the patron saint of all bridges 
 in Catholic Christendom." 
 
 I do not know if Evelyn attended to this 
 piece of information ; she had turned away, 
 and was looking over the parapet. I guessed 
 her thoughts, but wished to divert them. 
 
 " You do not surely believe this old story?" 
 I said. " Why, Evelyn, some people say 
 that Catholic John Nepomuk was merely 
 substituted for Protestant John Huss, who 
 was killed by fire, not water. They say that 
 the Bohemians held his memory in such 
 esteem, that the Jesuits, when compulsorily 
 established here at the downfal of Pro- 
 testantism, and of the kingdom, brought up 
 p 3
 
 322 EVELYN. 
 
 the legend of the royal confessor, and had 
 him canonized three hundred years after his 
 death. So, perhaps, like many other things 
 that cause a great deal of trouble, the secret 
 was not worth what it has cost." 
 
 Everywhere here we see the remains of the 
 Protestant struggle, and proofs of the fond- 
 ness with which the memory of the Bohe- 
 mians clung to it, notwithstanding its cruel 
 consequences to their land. Everywhere, too, 
 do we find evidences of the zeal with which 
 Austria sought to obliterate the hold it had 
 taken on the affections of the people. 
 
 It is curious to see, in a land where the 
 Austrian police are more vigilant supervisors 
 of education and opinion than the clergy of 
 Rome, how carefully preserved, and even 
 proudly shown, are the relics of its Protestant 
 times. 
 
 In a monastery there is to be seen a por- 
 trait of Ziska (the one-eyed, as he was nick- 
 named, though he afterwards lost two), with 
 his savage club. In the Theological Academy, 
 once the Jesuit College, are the Theses of 
 Huss, written by his own hand ; and a splen- 
 didly illustrated Liturgy, used by his follow- 
 ers ; among the coloured paintings of which
 
 EVELYN. 323 
 
 appear, one above the other, the three re- 
 formers — WicklifFe, in the act of strikhig 
 light from a flint ; Huss, beneath him, blow- 
 ing the spark ; and Luther, below, hold- 
 ing up the blazing torch in his powerful 
 hand. 
 
 Jerome of Prague visited Wickliffe in 
 England, and brought back those doctrines, 
 which, unhappily, through the results of 
 bigotry and intolerance on the part of the 
 oppressing power, and of misguided fanaticism 
 on that of their wild professors, were made 
 the means of plunging Bohemia and its 
 capital into all the miseries, losses, and savage 
 demolitions caused by the Hussite, or, more 
 projDerly, by the Ziska war. It is a singular 
 circumstance, that the Bohemian controversy 
 with Rome commenced only one century 
 after the conversion of that nation to Christi- 
 anity ; Bohemia became Christian in the 
 ninth century, and controversy began before 
 the close of the tenth. 
 
 When Austria triumphed over the ambi- 
 tious and fascinating daughter of our James I., 
 and her weaker-minded husband, in the 
 seventeenth century, that controversy ceased ; 
 Bohemia and Protestantism fell together.
 
 324 EVELYN. 
 
 But are tliey extinct ? Who can now say 
 what will not be ? 
 
 The Hradschin is a fine-sounding name, 
 which loses its charm when we find it is the 
 Bohemian for steep little hill ; but the 
 Hradschin, with its curious, half-finished old 
 cathedral, is a most imposing and chivalric- 
 looking mass of building. Here indeed may 
 be found a study for the artist, a museum 
 for the lover of curiosities, a scene for the 
 romance of history, a thinking-place for the 
 reflective mind. Methinks, in the precincts 
 of that singular cathedral, Walter Scott 
 might have lingered for awhile, waited on by 
 the genius of the past. As you tread the 
 neglected court that separates it from the 
 ancient palace of the Bohemian kings, and 
 from the more modern one erected by the 
 foreign rulers who succeed them, you feel, 
 without being told, that there is an air of 
 subjugation around you ; and that the guide 
 who walks at your side, and tells you, in his 
 own manner, of things that were, and are not, 
 is quite alive to Solomon's admonition re- 
 specting the danger of a " thing that hath 
 wings" carrying the matter, if he should 
 utter too carelessly the sentiments that are 
 now becoming scarcely repressed in Prague.
 
 EVELYN. 825 
 
 But, while separated from my party I was 
 more engrossed in past glories than amused 
 by the relics they have left, my old lady, 
 who made use of me as a sort of traveller's 
 dictionary whenever she was puzzled, came 
 up confidentially and broke my reverie with 
 the following inquiry : 
 
 " Just tell me, dear, didn't you say on the 
 bridge that the king, who was here long 
 ago, burned John Huss in the fire and 
 drowned him in the water at once ? Maybe 
 I didn't quite understand you, for it was 
 strange enough ; but I'm sure my nephew 
 was telling both of fire and water ; and then 
 you said it was John Huss. Now, Albert 
 says he is here too, buried with forty hun- 
 dred-weio'ht of silver over him. He was a 
 
 o 
 
 o-reat man, to be sure !" 
 
 " Oh ! the saint who, they say, lies under 
 this load of silver, is a Papist saint," I re- 
 plied, avoiding explanatory details. 
 
 " A saint ! the poor deluded creatures ! 
 and they have wasted forty hundred -weight 
 of silver over a Popish saint !" 
 
 The silver, however, on St. John Nepo- 
 muk's tomb, is sadly tarnished, or, surrounded 
 with burning lights, its effect Avould be most 
 dazzling. The tomb is surrounded by huge,
 
 326 EVELYN. 
 
 knobbed rails of silver ; the silver coffin is 
 borne up by silver angels, as " large as life," 
 and, if silver angels could hover with sus- 
 pended wings on air, we might imagine these 
 were self-suspended. Within the precious 
 coffin, enclosed in one of crystal, reposes 
 what is called the body of the faithful con- 
 fessor. But Mr. O'Donnell took a rather 
 worldly view of this rich tomb, and said, 
 " I wonder if a war of liberty were ever to 
 occur again in Bohemia, would this silver 
 be converted into ' good crown-pieces,' after 
 the pious fashion of the olden time ? But 
 if you wish to see an old-fashioned robe, 
 there is one, we are told, in the sacristy 
 made by Maria Theresa, for the service of 
 the priests, out of her bridal dress. And there 
 is one relic there which you," he said, look- 
 ing at Evelyn, "will be interested in, — the 
 tongue of Nepomuk, which, as a reward for 
 keeping a secret, never decayed, and is still 
 to be seen just as it was five hundred years 
 ago." 
 
 Aware that 
 
 " Many a word at random spoken 
 May soothe, or wound, a heart that's broken," 
 
 I interfered by saying, that such a relic as 
 St. John Nepomuk's tongue was purely ridi-
 
 EVELYN. 327 
 
 culous, while others were painful by casting 
 a shade of that ridicule on the most solemn 
 and sacred of subjects. Here, for instance, 
 is a bit of the sponge, which we are told was 
 " dipped in hyssop and put upon a reed ;" 
 and one of the thorns that mocked the brow 
 of him w^hose kingdom was not of this world. 
 
 The plan of this church was never com- 
 pleted, but the chapels are astonishingly rich, 
 and tell of a species of piety which has, pro- 
 bably for ever, fled from our world. The 
 walls of one in particular are inlaid with 
 jasper, agate, and other precious stones. 
 
 In few countries have the people displayed 
 a more religious tendency than in Bohemia ; 
 and even now, when they are seen almost 
 -everywhere rejecting spiritual control, and 
 manifesting irreverence for all that was once 
 deemed a constituted authority, the capital 
 here witnesses a scene seldom beheld out of 
 Rome. 
 
 The festival of St. John Nepomuk, who 
 takes his title from the little town that gave 
 him birth in the fourteenth century, is an- 
 nually held in the month of May, when the 
 priests have a hard day's work in confessing 
 and shriving the devotees who resort to the 
 chapel on the bridge. If the legend of the
 
 328 EVELYN. 
 
 saint were really substituted for an attach- 
 ment to the martyr Huss, how curious it 
 might be to trace back the gradual change 
 of sentiment, and by an ingenious artifice, 
 find superstition implanted in the soil of 
 truth. 
 
 The palaces of most of the Bohemian 
 nobility, although generally as deserted as 
 the great houses that once were in Dublin, 
 still remain as they were ; Wallenstein, or 
 Waldstein's, for which the site of one hun- 
 dred dwellings was occupied, we went to ; 
 and having seen what remained of that 
 splendour which is now as a gorgeous fairy 
 tale to the ear that hears of it, and looked at 
 the stuffed charger, and at the bath of the 
 man who held an emperor in his power, we 
 went out to the garden and sat in a little pa- 
 vilion, and Albert O'Donnell, looking round 
 him as if entranced, said, with wonderful 
 Avisdom, 
 
 " Sic transit gloria muudi." 
 
 " Yes," said Geraldine, " we say that again 
 and again ; and then each in his own way, 
 little or great, pursues that glory as the 
 child runs to catch the rainbow."
 
 EVELYN. 329 
 
 She knew the mind she spoke to, though 
 we did not, and the look she met in answer 
 from those dark, too brilliant eyes, told her 
 that words, to us so insignificant, were un- 
 derstood. 
 
 Now, to exemplify that often-quoted 
 motto, let us go down to the Judenstadt, or 
 Jews' Town, in Prague, and see there a por- 
 tion of the people whose forefathers raised 
 the Temple of Jerusalem. 
 
 Here resides the oldest colony of that 
 extraordinary people, whose doom it was to 
 be scattered among all nations, yet to amal- 
 gamate with none. Modern infidelity would 
 repeal the decree. The Jews, the chosen of 
 God, too long a by-word, a hissing, and re- 
 proach, have in great degree cast off their zeal 
 for the faith for which their fathers endured 
 the most cruel persecution that cupidity 
 and bigotry could excite. Now they would 
 merge their strange non-nationality, and be- 
 come a part of the nations among whom 
 they reside ; they would have a voice in their 
 legislatures, and an influence on their coun- 
 cils : we see them in France, in Prussia, 
 Austria, England, even in Italy, in Rome 
 itself, assuming a position that, since the fall
 
 330 EVELYN. 
 
 of Jerusalem, they never held ; and this, 
 perhaps, at the sacrifice of those principles 
 to which their former generations clung, 
 through torture, robbery, and death. Not 
 that any sacrifice has been demanded ; no, 
 our times require neither steadfastness nor 
 sacrifice in this respect ; but because the 
 infidelity of the age has deeply infected them 
 also, and political influence, not religious 
 liberty, is the object they would attain. We 
 honour the Jew for his past tenacity of faith ; 
 but the present age appears to open a new 
 era to the Jew also. 
 
 But what a wonderful place is this Juden- 
 stadt ! The Jews of Prague are said to 
 have been settled in that locality w^hen the 
 legions of Rome were on the Danube, and 
 to have then traded in Pagan flesh, buying 
 and selling slaves. There is something in 
 the aspect of the wonderful old creatures, 
 who burrow round the vicinity of their 
 strange and ancient burying-ground and 
 synagogue, which makes them appear coeval 
 with their wandering countrymen ; you can 
 hardly believe they ever were young, yet 
 you can hardly think they ever will die. 
 There is a perpetuity of existence on their 
 
 I
 
 EVELYN. 331 
 
 dry, hard, withered physiognomies and stone- 
 like figures, that seems to contradict the 
 natural notion of a crumbling to dust. 
 
 Their appearance is miserable ; when un- 
 asked, I gave one of the old women some 
 coppers she probably did not want, she re- 
 ceived the alms with avidity, but the great 
 black eyes and stone-coloured face looked up 
 to me, as much as to say, What a fool you 
 must be to part with money. 
 
 The old man, who performed the office of 
 sacristan, led us into the ancient synagogue, 
 which, they say, dates further back than the 
 twelfth century. It is a remakable place; 
 its dust, dirt, and gloom appear to be sacred 
 in the estimation of its preservers, and its 
 aspect is in unison with that of the people 
 around it ; with that of the dried-up, 
 mummy-like old man who unfolded for us 
 the rolls of the Holy Law, and displayed to 
 us the old robes and breastplates of its 
 priests, and showed us the pomegranates 
 and bells, as if quite aware that to Christian 
 eyes these once sacred things were a cu- 
 riosity for which Christian silver could pay. 
 
 And in harmony with this more living 
 memorial of a great, old, never-expiring
 
 332 EVELYN. 
 
 race, ever, like the Burning Bush, con- 
 tinuing in the desert of life unconsumed, is 
 the frightful burying-place of the children 
 of Abraham at Prague. Heaped up, till 
 its confined space can contain no more ; 
 gaunt, bare, horrible stones alone meet 
 the eye, marked with their own peculiar 
 heraldry, a pair of raised hands, to desig- 
 nate the tribe of Aaron, the high priest ; 
 a pitcher, I think, for that of Levi. But 
 the crooked, deformed, stunted old elder- 
 trees, which were the only living thing in 
 this place of Hebrew tombs, among the 
 stones of which they forced their half- 
 withered stems, appeared to us even hideously 
 in character with the soil they sprang from. 
 Instead of the flower-woven cross which 
 imaginatively depicts faith and hope when 
 hung by a survivor's hand over " the narrow 
 house," a Jewish friend casts a stone on the 
 tomb of the deceased whose grave is visited ; 
 and thus, in this awful dwelling-place for 
 the dead, unsightly piles add to the gaunt 
 and dreary effect. 
 
 Outside it, the immensely high, dark, 
 mysterious-looking houses of the narrow 
 streets, literally swarmed with occupants,
 
 EVELYN. 833 
 
 whose faces bring- to your remembrance the 
 strangest romance that this world has ever 
 known — the History of the Jews. 
 
 Now that a new, yet unopened chapter in 
 that history is about to commence, what 
 will be its nature ? Liberty, equality, and 
 fraternity are now extended to the Jew ; 
 will the faith that endured ages of persecu- 
 tion unmoved, now fraternize with popular 
 infidelity, or so-called liberalism ? 
 
 The Jews of Prague, though almost anni- 
 hilated in cruel persecutions, are now 10,000 
 strong, and only the lower and poorer classes 
 toil in these outer courts of the temple of 
 mammon, and are dwellers in the Judenstadt. 
 Austria extends her favour to the Jew. 
 
 There have been some Rebeccas found 
 among the Jewish maidens of Prague, to 
 attend on wounded Ivanhoes. Rahel Varn- 
 hagel says, in writing of the spectacle Prague 
 presented during one of Napoleon's cam- 
 paigns, " We have had, since the affair of 
 Dresden, a countless number of wounded. 
 These sons of misery lay by thousands 
 crowded together, some in carts, some on 
 the stones, under a pelting rain. The inha- 
 bitants did as in the old patriarchal times,
 
 334 EVELYN. 
 
 they bound them and fed them. One Jew^- 
 ish maiden bound three hundred in one 
 day." 
 
 After our dinner we went to Sophien 
 Insel, or Sophia's Island, a favourite evening 
 resort for the higher classes of Prague. The 
 chief attraction there was, to us, a splendid 
 national band. On our way we called at the 
 poste restante. Evelyn found a letter there, 
 which had followed her from paste restante to 
 poste restante all the way from Stockholm. 
 It came, however, from Hungary; I saw 
 that its reception rather agitated her, and 
 said to myself that it was from her corre- 
 spondent the priest. 
 
 She forbore to open it until we entered 
 that pretty island on the Moldau, laid out in 
 shady walks, and possessing a great house of 
 amusement and refreshment. Then, draw- 
 ing me away both from the crowd and from 
 the rest of our party, she sat with me on a 
 bench half hidden in trees, a pleasant out- 
 of-the-way sort of spot, and there began to 
 peruse the epistle. 
 
 While thus engaged, with her head bent 
 down, and her thick lace veil accidentally 
 dropping over one side of her face, she was
 
 EVELYN. 835 
 
 unseen by, and did not herself observe, two 
 persons who came along the walk at the 
 side of which we were sitting-, and one of 
 whom caught my attention. The lady was, 
 I think, one of the most splendid, and cer- 
 tainly the most remarkable woman I ever 
 beheld ; with a step so proud, a gesture 
 so haughty, she looked every inch a queen. 
 
 Her beauty was of such a commanding 
 nature, that I could not disobey its influ- 
 ence. I was forced to gaze with all my 
 eyes ; consequently, I only saw that her 
 companion was a man, a male individual; 
 but I never thought of observing whether 
 he too was in outward form and bearing- 
 superior to most of the species or not. The 
 woman engrossed my admiration ; and, for- 
 getting Evelyn and her letter, I exclaimed 
 when she had passed, " What a splendid 
 creature ! " 
 
 Evelyn looked up, and only saw the pair 
 disappearing among the trees. She grasped 
 my arm, and its trembling pressure excited 
 my nerves once more. 
 
 " It is she ; I am sure it is she ! " Evelyn 
 murmured : " let us go away." 
 
 " Away, Evelyn ? Oh no, it is so pleasant 
 here."
 
 336 EVELYN. 
 
 " Pleasant ! wliere they are ? Well," she 
 added, with more self-recollection, " to you 
 and to others it may be pleasant, to me it 
 is not so ; for recollections are now forced 
 back upon me, which are of a very different 
 character. Let me therefore return to the 
 hotel in the carriage, which is waiting", it 
 can come back in time to bring you all 
 away, and do you stay and enjoy yourself. 
 Do not oppose me in this ; I want to be 
 alone, to read this letter. I have already 
 seen enough of its contents to lead me to 
 believe that the woman you have been ad- 
 miring is the very last on earth I could bear 
 to meet. I know her step, — that sweep of 
 the proud figure." Evelyn shuddered, and 
 paused. " Bohemia," she continued, " will 
 not long be at rest ; the leaven is at work. 
 What a strange breaking-up of the Austrian 
 empire there will be ere long !" 
 
 "Evelyn!" 
 
 " You w^onder ; you upbraid me. But 
 look at the people around us, the three 
 nations at least, military and all, — Bohe- 
 mians, Austrians, and Hungarians. Look 
 at them, listen to the spirit that murmurs 
 around us, and you need not wonder at words
 
 EVELYN. 337 
 
 any observer might utter ; but besides per- 
 sonal observation, I have learned from this 
 letter that two persons are probably in 
 Bohemia who certainly would not be here 
 unless political excitement were at work. 
 Let me go now to the carriage ; or come — 
 yes, you will come with me there — I am so 
 fearful of being alone." 
 
 " I will go with you to the hotel." 
 " No, thank you, kindest, for the pro- 
 posal ; but I would rather be alone. I do 
 not quite understand this letter; I read 
 German writing with difficulty." 
 
 I went over the bridge with Evelyn, and 
 put her into the carriage. When it had 
 rolled away with her, I turned to go back ; 
 but a restive horse obstructed my passage, 
 and frightened me not a little. A timid 
 man, quite as much alarmed, was holding 
 the bridle at its full length ; and the spirited 
 animal, alarmed by the rapid passing off of 
 the carriage, was plunging and leaping, and 
 on the point of gaining its freedom, when 
 forth, with a slow and steady step, walked 
 the magnificent woman I had observed, and, 
 looking full into the wildly flashing eyes of 
 the rearing steed, took hold of the bit, 
 
 VOL. I. Q
 
 338 EVELYN. 
 
 planting herself, as I fancied, quite under its 
 upraised fore-feet, and pushed it back with 
 a firm hand that said, Submit! The crea- 
 ture was quiet in an instant. 
 
 I did not stay to see her resign her con- 
 quest, but washing that women always had 
 such power over all unruly monsters, and 
 wondering at Evelyn's fear of such a person, 
 I hastened on to rejoin my party. 
 
 When we got back to our hotel, Albert 
 O'Donnell, who happened, I know not why, 
 to be leading the way, stopped short within 
 sight of the saloon, and with that serious- 
 comic look that so often gave a peculiar 
 charm to his expressive eyes, whispered to us, 
 
 " Is it a real, downright angel, or an 
 actual, beautiful \voman ? " 
 
 I looked on through the open door, and 
 saw Evelyn standing just under the light 
 that fell through the coloured glass of the 
 upper part of the window like a glory on her 
 head. Her hands were pressed upon her 
 breast, and at her feet lay the open letter 
 she had been deciphering. 
 
 O'Donnell's words certainly signified no- 
 thing, yet Geraldine looked thoughtfully at 
 the speaker.
 
 EVELYN. 339 
 
 As soon as Evelyn perceived me, she ran 
 forward, and taking both my hands in hers, 
 said aloud, and with more decision than 
 usual, 
 
 " I must leave this, I must go on !" 
 I had taken a lesson from the clever 
 woman who sobered the runaway horse, so 
 I looked steadily in Evelyn's rather impas- 
 sioned countenance, in a way that plainly 
 said, " Will you ? I have the rein." I am 
 sure, poor thing, she felt the bit ; for, changing 
 her tone, she added, 
 
 " Do let me ; come, ah ! come with me !" 
 Aunt Patrick put her head between ours : 
 " She is right, dear, quite right," she whis- 
 pered ; " it's the caraway seeds that have 
 disagreed with her. We are sick of them 
 too. Sure the potatoes is the only thing 
 that can be eaten here, out of all their 
 messes ; and they are so covered with cara- 
 way seeds no living creature could touch 
 them. Take her away, dear, or it's ill she'll 
 be, and all of us too." 
 
 During this speech, Geraldine had been 
 reading Albert O'Donnell's only too intel- 
 ligent eyes, and coming forward at its close, 
 to Aunt Patrick's great joy, she said.
 
 340 EVELYN. 
 
 " We too are ready to leave Prague ; let 
 us go together to Vienna." 
 
 " Vienna ! " screamed Evelyn, and drop- 
 ping my hands, she put the tips of her own 
 to her eyes ; " anything but that ! indeed, it 
 would kill me." 
 
 Geraldine turned a look of perfect wonder 
 on Albert O'Donnell ; but he appeared even 
 already to have understood something of 
 poor Evelyn's mind, and instead of answer- 
 ing that wondering appeal, he replied, as if 
 he misinterpreted its meaning, 
 
 " I have no wish to go to Vienna." 
 
 " And I," said Geraldine, " know the 
 Prater far better than Regent's Park. 
 Where do you then wish to go to ? " she 
 asked Evelyn. 
 
 " To Rome." 
 
 " Ah !" said Albert with a sigh, " I should 
 be sorry to die before I had seen Rome." 
 
 Geraldine more than echoed the sigh. 
 
 " Let us then go on together," she con- 
 cluded, " through Tyrol ; will you like 
 that?" 
 
 " Oh yes !" and evidently unable to say 
 more, Evelyn darted from the room. 
 
 Hah ! said I to myself, for I had caught
 
 EVELYN. 341 
 
 that exclamation from om* Irish artist, Ge- 
 raldine fancies she sees what I too, I think, 
 have seen, Mr. O'Donnell's admiration of my 
 mysterious protegee. Well, is this to be a 
 second Baron Oscar affair ? 
 
 " But we must go and pack up again," 
 cried Aunt Patrick: "Oh, dear! what a 
 life!" 
 
 END OF VOL. I. 
 
 Printed by J. & H. COX (Brothers), 74 & 75, Great Queen Street, 
 Lincoln's-Inn Fields.
 
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