WITH THE EYES OF YOUTH 
 
BY THE SAME AUTHOR 
 
 In uniform Post 8vo Volumes, red and blue cloth, 6s. each; 
 
 also New and Cheaper Edition, in uniform Crown 
 
 8vo Volumes, 2s. 6d. and 2s. each. 
 
 A Daughter of Heth. With 
 
 Portrait of the Author. 
 *The Strange Adventures 
 
 of a Phaeton. 
 A Princess of Thule. 
 
 * In Silk Attire. 
 Kilmeny. 
 Madcap Violet. 
 
 * Three Feathers. 
 The Maid of Killeena. 
 Green Pastures and Picca- 
 dilly. 
 
 Macleod of Dare. 
 Lady Silverdale's Sweet- 
 heart. 
 
 White Wings. 
 Sunrise. 
 
 The Beautiful Wretch. 
 *Shandon Bells. 
 Adventures in Thule. 
 
 Yolande. 
 
 Judith Shakespeare. 
 
 The Wise Women of Inver- 
 ness. 
 
 White Heather. 
 
 Sabina Zembra. 
 
 The Strange Adventures of 
 a House-Boat. 
 
 In Far Lochaber. 
 
 The Penance of John Logan. 
 
 The New Prince Fortuna- 
 tus. 
 
 Donald Ross of Heimra. 
 
 Stand Fast, Craig Royston ! 
 
 The Handsome Humes. 
 
 Highland Cousins. 
 
 Wolfenberg. 
 
 The Magic Ink. 
 
 Briseis. 
 
 Wild Eelin. 
 
 Limited editions at 6d. are done of these volumes. 
 
WITH THE EYES OF 
 YOUTH 
 
 AND OTHER SKETCHES 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM BLACK 
 
 AUTHOR OF " A DAUGHTER OF HETH," ETC. 
 
 LONDON 
 SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON & COMPANY 
 
 LIMITED 
 
 jet. Shmgtan'g fffougi 
 
 FETTER LANE, FLEET STREET, E.G. 
 
 1903 
 
PRINTED BY 
 
 WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, 
 LONDON AND BECCLES. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 WITH the view of making a complete 
 edition of William Black's works, the fol- 
 lowing fugitive pieces, which appeared 
 in magazines and elsewhere, have been 
 collected and published. 
 
 These sketches offer exceptional know- 
 ledge of their writer, and are so grouped 
 that they give in his own words, and in 
 his own charming way, an outline of his 
 life. 
 
 The first essay " With the Eyes 
 of Youth " appeared in the Fortnightly 
 Review of August, 1902. It was written 
 early in 1898 for an American publication, 
 and was the last thing that William 
 v a 3 
 
 253232 
 
PREFACE 
 
 Black ever wrote. It may be noted as 
 a point of great pathos that this final 
 piece of work was the record of first 
 impressions of nature, the power of see- 
 ing and portraying which made him 
 famous in later life. 
 
 The second sketch "A Wild Day in 
 '48 " appeared in Harper's Round Table , 
 in 1897, and is a memory of the riots 
 which occurred in Scotland as some faint 
 echo of the Continental revolutions of 
 that famous year. At that time William 
 Black was seven years of age. 
 
 "The Highland Wedding" is referred 
 to in the first essay, and is the story of 
 an actual experience of childhood; it is 
 retained here as a picture of fast- vanish- 
 ing customs. 
 
 The fourth sketch is taken from James 
 Merle, Black's first novel, written at the 
 age of nineteen, and long since out of print 
 and forgotten. But it was a wonderful 
 
 vi 
 
PREFACE 
 
 book for a lad to have written, and it 
 seemed worth while to rescue from its 
 pages the graphic representation of old 
 Lowland life, and of the celebrated Dr. 
 John Brown of Haddington. It also 
 gives us a reflex glimpse of the writer's 
 boyhood. 
 
 The next two excerpts, " Eound and 
 About Hampstead," and " The River of 
 Dart," are taken from another early 
 novel, which has not been procurable 
 for many years. Here we have English 
 scenery as it appealed to the young 
 Scotsman when he first came South ; 
 the description of the Dart has long 
 been dear to the few who possess copies 
 of "The Monarch of Mincing Lane;" 
 and it shows that even in those days 
 the minute analysis and accurate descrip- 
 tions of scenery was William Black's 
 strong point. 
 
 But incident also appealed to the young 
 
 vii 
 
PREFACE 
 
 Scot, and in 1866 he went to Bohemia 
 as. special correspondent during the Seven 
 Weeks' War. He sent home to the Star 
 certain sidelights on war that are well 
 worth considering, and which he put in 
 a narrative form that is eminently read- 
 able. Four of these studies are given 
 on pages 157- 240. 
 
 Then the last sketch is the " Conversa- 
 tion with Carlyle" telling of the time 
 when William Black settled down as an 
 author, and lived outwardly a quiet life 
 of prosaic work, but inwardly dwelt in 
 a land of lovely dreams. But the dream- 
 world is real enough in its strain and 
 trouble when it has to be portrayed for 
 others. It was not the Puritanic restraints 
 of childhood, it was not the hard fight 
 of fame in youth, it was not the rash 
 excursions of the journalist, that sapped 
 William Black's health and powers ; but 
 it was the earnestness and thoroughness 
 
 viii 
 
PREFACE 
 
 which he threw into his writing; it was 
 the effort of every year entering a new 
 inner life, and living it with new characters, 
 and living it at the rate of a lifetime a 
 year. This was shown strongly in the 
 touching epilogue to Madcap Violet. 
 
 On the other hand, William Black found 
 great enjoyment in the world around him 
 the earliest flowers, the coming of the 
 swallows, the light on the sea, all gave him 
 so much happiness that he often enjoyed 
 in one day that which others never see 
 nor enjoy in a lifetime. 
 
 William Black died December 10, 1898, 
 aged 57. 
 
 H. M. 
 
 IX 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 WITH THE EYES OF YOUTH 1 
 
 A WILD DAY IN '48 33 
 
 A HIGHLAND WEDDING 53 
 
 PUBLICANS AND SINNERS 73 
 
 ROUND AND ABOUT HAMPSTEA.D 99 
 
 THE RIVER OP DART .109 
 
 THE FIELD OF BATTLE 157 
 
 I. MUNCHENGRATZ 159 
 
 II. HORZITZ 180 
 
 III. SADOWA 201 
 
 IV. KONIGGRATZ 221 
 
 A CONVERSATION WITH CARLYLE . . . .241 
 THE BALLADE OF SOLITUDE 261 
 
 XI 
 
WITH THE EYES OF YOUTH 
 
WITH THE EYES OF YOUTH 
 
 PAET I 
 
 THE writer of these lines has seen a few 
 things here and there the rose-white 
 dawn awakening over Venice, the blue- 
 black waves of the Euxine thundering 
 along to the neck of the Bosphorus, the 
 red sunsets of Egypt, the glamour of the 
 moonlight irradiating the domes and 
 minarets of Stamboul, but never, never, 
 never has he seen anything so beautiful 
 and wonderful as a neglected little bit of 
 coppice lying just outside an insignificant 
 Scotch village. For he was town born and 
 town bred ; and when, as a small boy, he 
 was suddenly projected into the country, 
 
 3 B2 
 
WITH THE EYES OF YOUTH 
 
 and left to roam about pretty much at his 
 own will, the world seemed crowded with 
 mysteries, and surprises, and bewilder- 
 ments. 
 
 For example, in a town a rabbit is a 
 commonplace object, hung up in front of 
 a poulterer's shop : it is an entirely dif- 
 ferent thing when a brown living creature 
 looking for one thrilling moment about as 
 big as thirty thousand elephants springs 
 suddenly from beneath your feet and bolts 
 for its burrow : then the heart jumps and 
 the whole frame trembles. 
 
 But the great feature of this wood, in the 
 spring-time, was the extraordinary trans- 
 lucent shimmering greenness of the foliage 
 the beeches being our especial favourites, 
 because we could climb up the smooth 
 stems, and go out and still further out on 
 one of the branches until the slightest 
 motion produced an up-and-down swaying 
 very much like what is experienced in the 
 
 4 
 
WITH THE EYES OF YOUTH 
 
 bow of a sailing-boat facing a heavy sea 
 which some people enjoy, and which some 
 other people do not seeoa quite so much to 
 enjoy. And of course we ate the young 
 beech-leaves, and declared to each other 
 that they were good ; just as we professed 
 to like the young tips of the hawthorn 
 hedges and that is about the bitterest 
 food ever chewed by boy or donkey. 
 
 However, to come back to the wilderness 
 of greenwood and sunlight, it was here I first 
 discovered a bird's-nest to my own intense 
 amazement : in fact, I was so alarmed by 
 the sudden scurrying away of the mother- 
 bird that I stood stock still, thus enabling 
 an older lad (who knew the laws of the. 
 game) to rush forward and touch the nest 
 with his finger, and call out, " First pick ! " 
 which means that the discoverer claims 
 his first choice of the younglings. This 
 was not quite playing fair, for I had found 
 the nest, and directed his attention to it ; 
 
 5 
 
WITH THE EYES OF YOUTH 
 
 but it was nothing like what followed a 
 few days afterwards. For I had been 
 invited to the wedding of a farmer who 
 lived two or three miles further south ; and, 
 as the festivities were of an all-night cha- 
 racter, they had small attraction for me, 
 so I went to bed early, and got up early, 
 roaming about as usual. What was my 
 delight to find that the ploughman, who 
 was the great vocalist of this countryside, 
 had never gone to bed at all, but was now 
 at his work, while he regaled himself with 
 snatches of song, sung in a high and clear 
 tenor voice. And now it was the charms 
 of Annie Laurie that he chanted, and 
 again it was the sorrows and sad fate of 
 Prince Charlie, and yet again it was the 
 sylvan beauties of Craigieburn Wood ; but 
 generally (if memory serves) he came back 
 to an Irish song which, perhaps, is still 
 known as "The Kose of Tralee." The 
 theme is familiar. The young man, while 
 
 6 
 
WITH THE EYES OF YOUTH 
 
 taking good care to particularize the out- 
 ward and physical attractions of the young 
 lady whom he celebrates, hastens to assert 
 that it was not these that drew him towards 
 her. 
 
 " Oh no, 'twas the truth in her eye ever beaming, 
 That made me love Mary, the Rose of Tralee." * 
 
 And, following the clear tones of this tenor 
 voice, I might have been entranced away 
 into the wild- wood, like the Monk Felix 
 of "The Golden Legend," only that the 
 ploughshare had to be turned at the end 
 of the field ; and just at the same moment 
 there was a terrific tumult, as of the 
 bursting of a bomb-shell, immediately 
 behind my head. I wheeled round. I 
 saw, not only the departing blackbird, but 
 also her nest in the hedge; and when, 
 with some apprehensive nervousness, I 
 went to explore, behold, there were four 
 young "blackies " gazing at me from out 
 
 * The accuracy of this quotation is not guaranteed. 
 
 7 
 
WITH THE EYES OF YOUTH 
 
 of the almost bidden sanctuary among the 
 leaves. It was the last I ever saw of 
 them. Like a fool, I went and commu- 
 nicated my great secret to a farm-youth, 
 and I even had the indiscretion to bring 
 him along to the precise spot and show 
 him the nest. Something must have told 
 me that this was an unwise proceeding; 
 because subsequently, during the day, I 
 sought him out and explained to him 
 that, for myself, I did not want the young 
 blackbirds, but that I was anxious they 
 should be left alone. I also gave him a 
 penny on his solemn promise not to reveal 
 the whereabouts of the nest. 
 
 He was a scoundrel of the deepest dye. 
 When I went along in the afternoon 
 cautiously and at a distance to see if the 
 young brood were secure under the ministra- 
 tions of their mother, I found that all of 
 them had been taken, and the nest ruth- 
 lessly destroyed. From that moment my 
 
 8 
 
WITH THE EYES OF YOUTH 
 
 faith in human nature departed; and I 
 have never spoken to a farm-lad since. 
 
 All the same, it was about this time I 
 became possessed of a bird of my own a 
 strange-looking fowl, that not one of the 
 youths of the village could identify as 
 belonging to any known species. He was 
 a big, gaunt, half-fledged creature, with 
 staring eyes and a portentous yellow bill, 
 and his sole notion in life seemed to be to 
 keep that yellow bill open until it was 
 stuffed full of " drummock " which is a 
 decoction of oatmeal and water. He was 
 a most disappointing playmate. He never 
 even tried to sing. There was no re- 
 sponsive recognition in the goggle eyes ; 
 there was nothing but the eternally gaping 
 beak, asking to be fed from morning till 
 night. His destiny overtook him. Drum- 
 mock was his ruin or, rather, over-eating. 
 He must have died of gout. In the end 
 the unclassified beast passed away ; and 
 
 9 
 
WITH THE EYES OF YOUTH 
 
 there were not many tears shed over his 
 loss, for we could only associate him with 
 unlimited drummock. 
 
 Far different was it with the bright, alert 
 little sparrow my sister taught to eat out of 
 her hand and follow her about : he was an 
 object of general interest and admiration. 
 More than once a stranger has stopped to 
 watch the spry little Jackie trotting after 
 his mistress as she went along the road, 
 has courteously raised his hat and inquired 
 whether so intelligent a small creature was 
 to be bought. But Jackie was not to be 
 bought. Jackie was not a purchasable 
 commodity. Besides, how was Jackie's 
 affection to be transferred ? No money 
 could buy that result of long training and 
 natural disposition ; as soon as he found 
 himself not in his own accustomed home, 
 among familiar people, he would have 
 taken to himself wings and fled out into 
 the wilds. Alas ! to Jackie also the end 
 
 10 
 
WITH THE EYES OF YOUTH 
 
 came. He was accidentally trodden upon, 
 in the dark ; and, notwithstanding that 
 the most loving care was lavished on him, 
 he never rallied ; poor Jackie's life was 
 gone for ever. Next day the boys in the 
 village school were startled by an apparition : 
 it was my sister, who boldly marched up to 
 the schoolmaster's desk (the fact that the 
 schoolmaster was also our landlord may 
 have had something to do with this un- 
 heard-of temerity) and asked that I should 
 be allowed to go out with her for half an 
 hour. Permission was granted, though I 
 thought the heavens would fall upon us for 
 this infringement of all rules and regula- 
 tions. And there, in the garden, close by 
 the hedge, I was shown the carefully made 
 grave of our poor little Jack ; and at the 
 head of the small space an upright slate 
 had been inserted in the soil; and on 
 the slate had been inscribed a few words 
 recording his many qualities and virtues. 
 
 ii 
 
WITH THE EYES OF YOUTH 
 We ne'er shall look upon his like 
 
 again. 
 
 By the way, this garden was another 
 wonderland of marvels ; for I had been 
 allotted a restricted portion of it all to 
 myself, along with a due supply of slips, and 
 cuttings, and seeds ; and when the soft air 
 and sunlight of the spring began to awaken 
 these into life, each day brought forth new 
 miracles. The most amazing of all was 
 the gradual opening of the great crimson 
 buds of the paeonies which we called 
 " piano-roses," just as we corrupted " none- 
 so-pretty " into " Nancy pretty." Indeed, 
 some of these country phrases are to be 
 admired. Southernwood, with its delicious 
 scent, was universally known as " apple- 
 ringy ; " and scarlet-runners is surely more 
 poetical than " French beans," which is 
 suggestive of cookery. Each of us had also 
 a bit of a kitchen-garden, the produce of 
 which carrots, turnips, and the like was 
 
 12 
 
WITH THE EYES OF YOUTH 
 
 invariably pulled up, and surreptitiously 
 washed, and eaten raw, long before it had 
 reached maturity. The strangest part of 
 this performance has still to be stated we 
 are alive. 
 
 Another beneficent feature of the gardens 
 was that it permitted one to escape unseen 
 into the forest-land. You had only to go 
 away down to the foot of it, then get under 
 and through a hawthorn hedge, then hop 
 from one to the other of the stepping-stones 
 in the burn, then cross a wide meadow, 
 then scramble over a wall, and you found 
 yourself in a hushed and silent plantation 
 of young larches. And perhaps, by appoint- 
 ment, a companion might be found lurking 
 under this wall ; and supposing he had 
 brought with him that formidable-looking 
 " horse pistol" that is to say, a cavalry 
 pistol of the flint-striking times why then 
 the mysterious and enchanting process of 
 loading might begin in this safe shelter : 
 
WITH THE EYES OF YOUTH 
 
 first the charge of gunpowder, well shaken 
 down to the bottom of the barrel, next a 
 wad, next a charge of shot, and again a 
 wad, finally a careful priming warranted to 
 keep dry. Then would these two poachers, 
 slowly and breathlessly, sneak away through 
 the awe-inspiring stillness of the bushes, 
 whispering to each other, and pretending 
 every second moment that they could descry 
 something a pheasant, a hare, perhaps 
 even a roe-deer. And every now and again 
 the pistol would be discharged at some 
 imaginary object in the underwood ; and a 
 legend would have to be concocted on the 
 spot about the kind of creature that had 
 escaped destruction by just one-fifteenth of 
 an inch. As a matter of fact, we never 
 killed anything not even ourselves ; we 
 never saw a hare or a pheasant nor yet 
 a gamekeeper, who ought to have been 
 attracted by our repeated explosions : 
 but these furtive stalkings through the 
 
WITH THE EYES OF YOUTH 
 
 greenwood had an inexpressible fascination. 
 There were other and wilder delights in 
 this countryside of magic, but they must 
 be dealt with later on. 
 
PAET II 
 
 IT was an ever-memorable day when there 
 arrived an enormous kite (a kite was 
 usually called a " draigon " in those parts), 
 which had been sent out to me by a good 
 friend who had taken the trouble to make 
 it himself; and the great size of the drai- 
 gon, its weight, the length, and variegated 
 colours of its tail, and the huge ball of 
 twine that accompanied the whole, pro- 
 duced a profound impression on the district, 
 or, at least, on the younger inhabitants 
 thereof. 
 
 But such is the irony of life : when, 
 afternoon after afternoon, one had sum- 
 moned one's comrades, and had the un- 
 wieldy draigon carried out to an adjacent 
 meadow, we discovered that it entirely 
 
 16 
 
WITH THE EYES OF YOUTH 
 
 failed to fulfil the purpose of its existence. 
 We would set it up on end, and affix the 
 cord, and try to raise it against the wind, 
 but it simply fell flat on its face, like a 
 woman in a faint. Until there came the 
 never-to-be-forgotten morning. There was 
 a fresh northerly breeze, and we were 
 having one more try. Then, all of a sudden, 
 the hitherto inert draigon seemed to acquire 
 life ; when we heaved it up from the ground 
 it gradually rose and receded from us ; as 
 we quickly paid out the line it was still 
 rising and rising, until one began to fear it 
 might smash itself among the chimney-pots 
 of the cottages. Nothing of the kind ! It 
 soared steadily higher and higher, sailing 
 far above the cottages, and beyond the 
 gardens, and beyond the unseen fields, 
 until it was a mere brown speck in the sky, 
 while the delicious strain on the line was 
 just about all we could manage. Indeed, 
 to try what that strain was, I tied the end 
 
 17 c 
 
WITH THE EYES OF YOUTH 
 
 of the cord round the waist of a very small 
 boy, and asked him if he could hold his 
 ground. He could not. He was slowly 
 being hauled onward a miniature Gany- 
 mede when we had to rush to his rescue, 
 and unloosen him from his bonds. Ah me ! 
 it was during this disentangling business 
 that some mishap must have occurred. 
 When we turned we found that the remote 
 brown speck was slowly descending from 
 the silver-white skies. We pulled and 
 pulled, to awaken the draigon to a sense 
 of its duty, but the beast failed to respond ; 
 on the contrary, it gradually, and steadily, 
 and remorselessly sank to earth ; and still 
 we pulled and pulled, in some wild forlorn 
 hope of getting it to rise again. And then 
 the horror of the situation broke upon us. 
 The draigon was doubtless lying in some 
 distant field, and we had been hauling it, 
 face downward, over stones and brambles 
 and other obstacles. So, with shaking 
 
 18 
 
WITH THE EYES OF YOUTH 
 
 hearts, we ran off, and passed by the 
 cottages, and pursued our way down the 
 gardens, and jumped or splashed across the 
 burn, and got out on to the meadow, in 
 search of the thread of a line that would 
 show us where our wounded kite was lying. 
 Well, when at last we made the discovery, 
 there never was such a tragic sight. The 
 great brown draigon was all despoiled 
 lying in rags and tatters, while the long 
 tail had been almost entirely robbed of its 
 fancy colours. There was silence for a 
 time, in contemplation of this melancholy 
 spectacle. And then each one began 
 eagerly to assure the other that it could 
 easily be mended up. Why not with 
 paste and sheets of paper ? The cane-work 
 had not been much damaged. Oh yes, we 
 assured ourselves (or pretended to assure 
 ourselves), we should soon have the mighty 
 draigon again mounting into the skies. 
 And yet it was rather a silent procession 
 
 '9 
 
WITH THE EYES OF YOUTH 
 
 that carried the bedraggled kite towards 
 the village. We had inward qualms. To 
 each other we were confident, but each 
 one in his own mind was not so confident. 
 Of course, when we got home we set about 
 repairing damages with such small skill as 
 we had; and eventually the big draigon 
 was tinkered up in a fashion, and, after 
 a few days' drying, was once more taken 
 out into the meadow. Anxiously we waited 
 for the first performance. There was no 
 performance. The creature lay flat on 
 its face, and each time we hoisted it into 
 the air, to give it a chance of the favour- 
 ing breeze, it simply fell down again, and 
 lay prone on the grass. Antaeus would 
 not rebound. He had shown us what he 
 could do, in one remarkable and historical 
 flight, and now he would not move. We 
 tried all the tricks we knew getting up 
 on walls or trees to fling him into the 
 air, and give him a good send-off; but 
 
 20 
 
WITH THE EYES OF YOUTH 
 
 nothing was of any avail : down he would 
 come flat on his face, and refuse to stir. 
 What finally became of the great brown 
 draigon I cannot remember. It seemed 
 to pass out of our existence. Probably we 
 gave it to the smaller boys to torture 
 them with vain hopes and useless experi- 
 ments. 
 
 But the concentration of interest and 
 mystery in this magical neighbourhood was 
 a small, gloomy, sombre tarn, set deep in 
 the woods, and known by the name of the 
 Water Hole. It was so deep set in the 
 woods that never a breath of wind stirred 
 its black surface ; and the belief prevalent 
 in the district was that this secluded small 
 lake was bottomless, and therefore a place 
 to be shunned. In fact, when any one of 
 us made an expedition to this haunted 
 mere, it was by roundabout ways, as if 
 one were afraid of being seen ; and if one 
 spoke to one's companion, it was in a low 
 
 21 
 
WITH THE EYES OF YOUTH 
 
 tone, so conscious were we of the brooding 
 silence of the unfrequented place. But 
 what hobgoblin stories of the bottomless 
 pit could deter boys from invading its 
 sanctuary when it was known that perch 
 inhabited the sullen waters ? Nay, one 
 could see them the striped bodies of 
 them could be seen moving through the 
 clear deeps, and taking very little heed 
 of anything happening on the banks. Now, 
 " bobbing " for perch is not an exciting 
 form of angling not, for example, as 
 bobbing for salmon ; and if any one doubts 
 whether such a thing is possible, I will 
 give him a more recent experience of my 
 own. We were upon a remote Highland 
 river at the time, and fishing had practically 
 to be abandoned because of the steel-like 
 clearness of the weather. One day our old 
 gillie asked me, simply for amusement, to 
 crawl out on to the edge of a certain rock, 
 and look into the pool below. It was the 
 
 22 
 
WITH THE EYES OF YOUTH 
 
 strangest sight. Down there in the still 
 cauldron the salmon were slowly circling 
 round and round, like gold-fish in a globe, 
 and the huge creatures appeared to know 
 nothing and care nothing about what was 
 going on in the world above them. From 
 simple curiosity I motioned the gillie to 
 bring me my rod; and then, with a short 
 line, I gently dropped the fly into the pool. 
 The fish saw it, certainly, for they came 
 round in their monotonous circling ; one 
 after another would for a second rise a 
 few inches and examine the lure, and then 
 quietly drop down again and continue on 
 his not very exciting career. Nevertheless 
 there was some broken water at the side of 
 the pool; and all of a sudden a splendid 
 fellow came rushing out and seized the fly. 
 In an instant I was on my feet, paying line 
 to him as he dashed up and down the cir- 
 cumscribed water. "What are you doing 
 there ?" my companion had called to me 
 
 23 
 
WITH THE EYES OF YOUTH 
 
 from the bank. "Are you bobbing for 
 perch ? " I hadn't been bobbing for any- 
 thing, the weather being so sunny and 
 clear ; I merely dropped the fly into the 
 glassy pool to see what the fish would 
 say to it : yet here I had him fast and 
 firm ; and as he did not show any dis- 
 position to go down the falls, there was 
 little trouble with him ; eventually he was 
 landed on the rock. I will not state his 
 weight. There are some things that grow 
 with years like bushes, and trees, and the 
 national debt, and so forth and why not 
 the weight of fish ? Of course I was jeered 
 at for having " bobbed " for salmon ; but I 
 wish to observe that that twenty-pounder 
 oh, well, to propitiate the suspicious, one 
 may as well take off a little, and call it a 
 twelve-pounder was legitimately hooked 
 and landed with the fly. 
 
 However, to return to the Water Hole 
 and the perch. In those days we had no 
 
 24 
 
WITH THE EYES OF YOUTH 
 
 seventeen-foot split-cane rods with elaborate 
 tackle to match; we had to select a stiff 
 willow wand, and trim it carefully, and 
 attach a line (I fear the line was usually 
 and surreptitiously purloined from the cord 
 belonging to the now discredited and dis- 
 carded draigon), at the foot of the line 
 being a hook, artfully disguised in a 
 bit of hardly-kneaded paste. Then, when 
 everything was ready, we sallied forth ; 
 we opened the wooden gate leading into 
 the meadows ; we passed the disused coal- 
 pit (now, is it possible for any human being 
 to pass a disused coal-pit without heaving 
 a stone into it, to listen to the long trundle- 
 trundle, ending in a splash, that told of 
 unknown waters ?) ; and then we slunk 
 down again into the valley, carrying our 
 fishing-rods very low. Why there should 
 have been this concealment, or pretended 
 concealment, it is hard to say. The Water 
 Hole was never fished, for there was nothing 
 
 25 
 
WITH THE EYES OF YOUTH 
 
 in it but those perch, not attractive to an 
 angler ; the surrounding woods were never 
 visited by any sportsmen, so that we could 
 hardly be accused of trespassing; and we 
 had no dog with us, so that we could not 
 disturb the game, if any. Perhaps the 
 secret was that the elder folk of the 
 village had impressed on the younger 
 folk the extreme danger of going near 
 the Water Hole. The sides were so steep 
 that a single false step meant a plunge 
 into the bottomless pit. No rescue was 
 possible. No cries could be heard. You 
 would simply splash about in the horrible 
 tarn, until death swallowed you up. Now, 
 these were sound and sensible reasons for 
 our not going ; they were also the reasons 
 that compelled us to go. 
 
 All the same, the wisdom of the ancientry 
 was nearly being justified on one striking 
 occasion. My companion on this expedition 
 was a youth named Andrew (he was named 
 
 26 
 
WITH THE EYES OF YOUTH 
 
 Andrew, but he was really called Anra), and 
 when we had passed by the echoing old 
 coal-pit, and down by the meadows, and 
 were well out of sight of the village, we 
 shouldered our rods with much pomp and 
 bravado. Catching fish is not everything ; 
 it is the noble endeavour that enchants. 
 And so we got through the woods and 
 reached the precipitous slopes of the Water 
 Hole. Certainly the perch were there ; 
 we could see their striped backs moving 
 hither and thither : nor did they appear 
 to take much notice of us, except that they 
 gradually moved a little way further out. 
 Our protracted efforts to inveigle them, 
 either with paste or with worm, were in 
 vain ; and so one of these anglers, not 
 having the true sportsman's instinct with- 
 in him, laid aside his rod, and began to 
 clamber up the bank in search of nests. 
 In that direction he was rewarded, for he 
 found one quite close by, with three gaping 
 
 27 
 
WITH THE EYES OF YOUTH 
 
 young ones in it. He was patiently en- 
 deavouring to induce them to eat a little 
 bit of paste, as a whet for the dinner their 
 mother would be bringing them in the 
 
 course of the day, when 
 
 When there was an appalling crash 
 behind ; and, turning round, one's startled 
 gaze beheld Anra in the Water Hole, face 
 upward, and kicking out his legs with 
 might and main to keep himself afloat. 
 He had attempted to reach the slowly 
 retreating perch by clambering out on an 
 elder branch ; he had missed his footing ; 
 and had gone headlong into the water. 
 What was to be done? The worst of it 
 was that he seemed unconsciously to be 
 making for the middle of this solitary mere 
 instead of returning to the bank. I yelled 
 to him to come back it was all I could 
 do, for he could swim and I could not ; 
 and, seeing that these frantic counsels were 
 of no avail, I fled away to the village with 
 
 28 
 
WITH THE EYES OF YOUTH 
 
 the desperate cry, " Andrew's in the Water 
 Hole ! " Then there was a turmoil, the 
 men searching for ropes, the women for 
 cordials ; and presently a small crowd was 
 running swiftly across the meadows, with 
 some wild hope that the drowning lad 
 might still be saved. Well, when they 
 got to the Water Hole, there was Anra 
 standing on the grass in front of them, 
 a pitiable spectacle, bonnetless, and drip- 
 ping from head to foot. He was too 
 paralyzed and frightened to run away ; 
 but the moment he had come ashore he 
 had made haste to hide his fishing-rod. 
 And now he was being severely questioned. 
 What had he been about ? How dared he 
 go near so dangerous a place? The men 
 were angry (through having been called 
 away from their work), and talked about 
 giving him a taste of the rope's end ; the 
 women were more sympathetic, and said, 
 " Poor lad, poor lad ! come away home now, 
 
 29 
 
WITH THE EYES OF YOUTH 
 
 and get some dry things put on you." And 
 so the bewildered and shivering Anra was 
 escorted back by the posse comitatus. As 
 for the present writer, as soon as these 
 people were well out of sight, he went 
 quickly and sought out both rods, and put 
 them into a better place of concealment. 
 For, of course, we were coming back to 
 the Water Hole. It was inevitable. The 
 brindled perch were there. One could see 
 them swimming this way and that, under 
 the hazel and willow bushes. 
 
 I suppose that by now the old-fashioned 
 village has been quite swept away. Prob- 
 ably the Water Hole has been drained, 
 and the sides of it turned into terraced 
 gardens ; no doubt the plantations sur- 
 rounding it are dotted with the villas of 
 rich merchants ; and the field in which 
 the ploughman sung, in the early morning, 
 the praises of Annie Laurie, and the Rose 
 of Tralee, and Bonnie Mary of Argyll, 
 
 30 
 
WITH THE EYES OF YOUTH 
 
 is most likely transformed into a tennis- 
 ground, with fashionable young ladies 
 having tea under a verandah. But to one 
 person at least it is the former condition 
 of things that remains vivid vivid to the 
 trembling of every leaf and the flight of 
 every bird ; and of the various objects that 
 memory summons up most vivid of all are 
 the beech trees swaying in the sunlight 
 in their splendour of shining yellow-green. 
 
A WILD DAY IN '48 
 
A WILD DAY IN '48 
 
 THEEE was a vague apprehension in the 
 air ; every one appeared conscious that 
 something was about to happen, though no 
 one seemed to know precisely what ; and 
 so, as childhood is naturally curious, the 
 writer of these lines, being then of the age 
 of seven, managed to escape from the 
 house unobserved, out into the great mur- 
 muring town. Half-frightened glances 
 turned towards the east were a kind of 
 guidance ; and in that direction he ac- 
 cordingly wandered, until he came in sight 
 of a crowd not a beautiful, richly coloured, 
 processional crowd such as might have 
 gone through the streets of Florence in 
 
 35 D 2 
 
A WILD DAY IN '48 
 
 mediaeval times, with boy choristers chant- 
 ing, and maidens carrying palms, but a 
 black and grimy and amorphous assemblage 
 of men, silent, in deadly earnest, who at 
 the moment were engaged in tearing down 
 the tall iron railing surrounding Glasgow 
 Green, in order to secure weapons for 
 themselves. And this small person of 
 seven thought that he too must be up and 
 doing. The others were wresting these 
 enormous bars from their soldered sockets : 
 why should not he also be furnished with 
 an implement of destruction ? And so he 
 tugged and pulled and struggled; and yet 
 the iron bar, about thrice as high as him- 
 self, remained obdurate; and again and 
 again he pulled, and dragged, and vainly 
 shook ; in the midst of which determined 
 endeavours a hand was swiftly laid on his 
 arm, and a young Highland lass (her eyes 
 jumping out of her head with terror), who 
 had been wildly running and searching all 
 
 36 
 
A WILD DAY IN '48 
 
 over the neighbourhood, dragged away the 
 young rebel from the now marshalling 
 crowd. Perhaps the alarm in her face 
 impressed him ; at all events he meekly 
 yielded. That was not the usual expression 
 of her face when she was telling marvel- 
 lous tales of children being carried away 
 by eagles and brought up in a nest on a 
 crag ; the heroine of these various adven- 
 tures, I remember, was called Angel; and 
 whatever else happened to her, in the end 
 her constancy, and virtue, and beauty were 
 invariably rewarded by a happy marriage. 
 
 But now the surging mass of rioters 
 came along, each man of them with one 
 of those long spikes over his shoulder ; and 
 the trembling Highland lass, still clinging 
 tightly to her charge, shrank hiding into 
 an archway, and tried to conceal the child 
 with her substantial skirts, till the man- 
 eating ogres should go by. "Willst du 
 nicht aufstehn, Wilhelm, zu schauen die 
 
 37 
 
A WILD DAY IN '48 
 
 Profession?" some one might have asked 
 but not this Highland girl, who was 
 doubtless thinking (in Gaelic) that the 
 people who dwelt in cities were capable of 
 dreadful things. Well, when one did peep 
 out, there was not much to see at least, 
 nothing picturesque to attract the wonder- 
 ing eyes of childhood : there were no flags, 
 no Maenads with flowing hair; nor was 
 there any gesticulation, nor any attempt at 
 oratory ; only this great dark multitude 
 moving on into the city, with two or three 
 leaders marching in front, these ominously 
 glancing from right to left, as if to judge 
 where the sacking should begin. For they 
 had come to sack a city, had these men. 
 There was a talk at the time of bread riots ; 
 and no doubt there was a great deal of 
 distress prevailing, as there generally is ; 
 and presumably there was a considerable 
 proportion of these demonstrators honestly 
 protesting against a social system that did 
 
 38 
 
A WILD DAY IN '48 
 
 not provide them with work. But it was 
 not loaves the instigators of this movement 
 were after, as events showed ; rather it was 
 silver teapots, and diamond brooches, and 
 silk umbrellas in short, a general par- 
 titioning of property; and of course there 
 were plenty of vagabonds and ne'er-do- 
 weels only too ready to fall in with that 
 entrancing idea. 
 
 By what secret and devious ways the 
 Highland lass managed to get herself and 
 her captive back to our home in the Tron- 
 gate the historic Trongate of the ancient 
 city of Glasgow I cannot now say ; but 
 she must have been clever and smart about 
 it ; for when one at length reached the 
 eagerly thronged windows, it was found 
 that the fun in the thoroughfare below was 
 only beginning. The whole thing looked 
 strange. Musgrave the gunsmith (his sign 
 was two gold guns crossed) was the first to 
 put up his shutters. Perhaps the police 
 
 39 
 
A WILD DAY IN '48 
 
 had warned him that the rioters would 
 make straight for his premises, to seize 
 arms and ammunition, though, to be sure, 
 there was not a policeman anywhere visible. 
 No ; what was visible was a great, swarm- 
 ing, tumultuous assemblage of men and 
 lads who, at a signal from their leaders, 
 had become stationary in front of a silver- 
 smith's shop. The silversmith, like the 
 rest of his neighbours, had hurriedly shut 
 and locked up his shop on hearing of the 
 approach of the mob ; but that did not 
 avail him much. Another signal was 
 given. Volunteers rushed forward, and 
 proceeded with their long iron pikes to 
 batter in the panels of the door. Then 
 a hole was made. Then one man stooped 
 and crawled in and opened the door from 
 the inside. The curious thing was that the 
 crowd did not rush into the shop. Perhaps 
 some instinct told them that they would 
 instantly block up the place, and would 
 
 40 
 
A WILD DAY IN '48 
 
 thus escheat themselves of the spoils of 
 victory. There was a cheer, doubtless, 
 when the panel was hammered in a long, 
 hoarse, raucous cheer; but the mass held 
 back ; only the leaders entered ; and for a 
 few minutes there was a dumb expect- 
 ancy. 
 
 What now followed was one of the most 
 singular scenes that any small boy of seven 
 ever set eyes upon. From the wide-opened 
 door flashing white things came flying out ; 
 high above the heads of the crowd they 
 came ; but as they descended a forest of 
 straining arms and hands received them ; 
 and there was cheer after cheer as the 
 plunder went on. It did not matter what 
 it was : silver fish-knives, coffee-pots, 
 biscuit -boxes, cruet-stands, opera-glasses 
 out they came flying to fall into this or 
 that one's clutch ; and again and again the 
 hoarse roar of exultation went up, even 
 from those who could not get near enough 
 
A WILD DAY IN '48 
 
 to share. Those people with the up- 
 stretched arms appeared to have no fear 
 whatever of getting their heads cut open 
 by an electro-plated salver, a drawing-room 
 lamp, or a brass candlestick. On the 
 missiles came ; and the covetous fingers 
 grabbed here and there ; and the fierce 
 tumult of applause ebbed and flowed. 
 Where were the police ? Well, there did 
 not seem to be any police. It is true, a 
 number of special constables had been 
 hastily sworn in (my eldest brother was 
 one of them, and according to his own 
 account performed prodigies of valour) ; but 
 they could not be everywhere ; and mean- 
 while the poor silversmith's goods were 
 being catapulted out to those clamorous 
 upstretched hands. 
 
 Of a sudden a new feature appeared in 
 this changing panorama. Ten or a dozen 
 men (I think they wore some sash or badge 
 of office, but I am not positive on this 
 
 42 
 
A WILD DAY IN '48 
 
 point) who seemed to have dropped from 
 the clouds were jamming their way through 
 the dense multitude ; and when at length 
 they had reached the pavement in front of 
 the silversmith's shop, they began "to lay 
 about them lustily with their staves, each 
 blow falling vertically on several heads at 
 once. In Egypt I have seen an old Arab 
 sheik do precisely the same thing, when 
 his young men had become unruly. And 
 in neither case was there the slightest 
 resistance to constituted authority. This 
 great mass of people could have turned 
 upon the handful of special constables and 
 rent them in pieces ; but they did not ; 
 they tried in a kind of way to move on, 
 though by this time all the central 
 thoroughfares of the city were blocked, and 
 a man who has a cruet-stand or a silver 
 dish-cover concealed under his coat can- 
 not glide easily between his neighbours. 
 Whether the constables succeeded in 
 
 43 
 
A WILD DAY IN '48 
 
 arresting any of the ringleaders at this 
 particular spot, I cannot recollect ; but all 
 the afternoon came wilder and wilder 
 stories of chases, and captures, and seizures 
 of booty. My brother was personally con- 
 ducting a party of five of the rioters to the 
 police-station, through a very bad neigh- 
 bourhood, when they turned on him, tripped 
 him, and threw him down. But he was 
 up again in a moment, with the cursory 
 declaration that if any one of them 
 advanced a step towards him, or attempted 
 to escape either, he would forthwith split 
 his, the thief's, skull in two. And what is 
 more, he would have done it ; for he was 
 a powerful man; and he had a drawn 
 truncheon ; and he was never at any time 
 a slave to punctilio. I forget the number 
 of gold and silver watches found in the 
 possession of these rascals. 
 
 But now the great event of the day, to 
 the imagination of childhood, at all events, 
 
 44 
 
.A WILD DAY IN '48 
 
 was approaching; for the bruit was gone 
 abroad that the cavalry had been ordered 
 in from their suburban barracks to ride 
 through the streets and disperse the mob, 
 and put an end to any lingering lawless- 
 ness. Plundering in the main thorough- 
 fares had by this time mostly ceased ; for 
 the chief ringleaders had been arrested 
 and haled off to the police-stations ; while 
 the worst of their followers roamed about 
 in a surreptitious way, seeking what they 
 could devour, rather than daring openly 
 to attack the shuttered shops. The central 
 parts of the city still remained congested, 
 notwithstanding the reading of the Biot 
 Act; for many simple country folk had 
 wandered in, perhaps out of curiosity, 
 perhaps anxious about their relatives ; and 
 of course they could not well get about, 
 because of the crush. Altogether they 
 formed a restless, half-frightened, elbowing, 
 and struggling crowd ; but it was a 
 
 45 
 
A WILD DAY IN '48 
 
 sombre crowd especially as the dusk 
 of the afternoon drew on to twilight; 
 so that the delight of one small spectator 
 may be imagined when there appeared in 
 the distance a fringe of coloura splendour 
 of uniforms the glint of helmet and 
 drawn sabre the prancing of horses. And 
 now began a wild hurry-and-scurry, the 
 people surging against themselves in their 
 frantic efforts to get free, a chaos and 
 confusion impossible to describe. On came 
 the dragoons, pressing against this nebu- 
 lous mass of humanity, sparing the women 
 as well as they could, but riding down the 
 men especially where any disposition was 
 shown to form defiant groups and striking 
 right and left with the back of their 
 swords. It was all very picturesque and 
 splendid to one youthful onlooker here 
 in the gathering gloom : the flash of brass 
 and steel, the clink-clank of bridle and 
 scabbard, the fleeing of fugitives, the 
 
 46 
 
A WILD DAY IN '48 
 
 pawing and rearing of reined-in chargers 
 where a group of terrified women found 
 themselves incapable of retreat. Why, it 
 was better than the fight with Apollyon 
 in the " Pilgrim's Progress ;" for that 
 was only a picture, in flaming red and 
 yellow colours ; whereas this was full of 
 movement and change, and a certain dim 
 fascination of fear. And so the dark came 
 down, and the gases in the house were 
 lit; but out there the dragoons were still 
 riding hither and thither through the night, 
 pursuing and dispersing, with a rattle of 
 horses' hoofs on the stony street. 
 
 What happened next was remarkable 
 enough. The fact is, you cannot at a 
 moment's notice drive a welded crowd out 
 of a long and narrow thoroughfare. It is 
 not to be done; and in this case it was 
 not done; for the people, seeing their 
 neighbours here and there knocked over 
 by the horses or slapped on the shoulder 
 
 47 
 
A WILD DAY IN '48 
 
 by those gleaming blades, forthwith fled 
 pell-raell into the adjacent " closes," lanes, 
 archways, and common stair-cases, which 
 were very speedily choked up. To all 
 outward seeming, the pavements and the 
 causeway, now dimly visible under the 
 yellow light of the street lamps, had been 
 swept clear ; but, none the less, the Tron- 
 gate held all these innumerable huddled 
 and hiding groups of frightened folk, as 
 we were soon to know. For, through some 
 accident or another, the outer door of our 
 house chanced to be opened for a second, 
 and instantly there burst into the lobby 
 and into the rooms a whole number of 
 women, panting, shaking, haggard-eyed, 
 and speechless. 
 
 They made no apology for taking pos- 
 session of a stranger's dwelling, the simple 
 reason being that in their agony of alarm 
 they were incapable of uttering a word; 
 they did not know what they were doing 
 
 48 
 
A WILD DAY IN '48 
 
 or where they were; they were entirely 
 bereft of their senses. A friend of mine 
 who was through a long war (I do not 
 mention his nationality, for fear of wound- 
 ing patriotic sensitiveness) told me that, on 
 one occasion, after an unexpected reverse, 
 the regiment in which he served was 
 seized by a perfectly ungovernable panic; 
 there was no withstanding the infection 
 of this madness ; the whole lot of them, 
 himself included, took to their heels, and 
 ran, and ran, and ran, hour after hour, 
 until they flung themselves exhausted on 
 the floor of any shanty that chanced to 
 be on their way ; ' and then there was 
 never more than ten minutes' sleep to be 
 snatched, for one or other of them was 
 sure to spring up with the cry, " They'e 
 coming!" and off they would set again, 
 in hysterical and insensate flight. It would 
 seem as if a regiment had a nervous 
 system just as a human being has, and 
 
 49 E 
 
A WILD DAY IN '48 
 
 that either may find it fail at a critical 
 moment, until reason reasserts itself. I 
 remember regarding with the greatest 
 curiosity these unaccountable visitors who 
 had invaded our home. Decent-looking, 
 respectably dressed women they were, who 
 obviously had no more to do with the riot 
 than the man in ^the moon ; most likely 
 they had never heard of such a thing as 
 a Eiot Act ; but here they were imprisoned, 
 their voice and wits alike gone from them, 
 and no means possible to them of com- 
 municating with their friends. Not any 
 one of them appeared to know any other 
 of them. Some stood in the middle of 
 the dining-room, seemingly unable to move 
 another step, pale, trembling, distraught; 
 one or two had sunk helplessly into chairs ; 
 one or two were looking out from the 
 windows at the terrors from which they 
 had just escaped, their scared eyes follow- 
 ing the clanking up and down of the 
 
 50 
 
A WILD DAY IN '48 
 
 dragoons, the charging of the horses, the 
 escape of this or that guilty-conscienced 
 runaway along the dark and gas-lit street. 
 And what was ; to be done with these 
 paralyzed and speechless guests, when 
 once they had partially come to them- 
 selves ? Among the elder members of the 
 family I gathered there was some talk of 
 our being able to pass them through the 
 lines of the soldiery when our special 
 constable should return ; but no one knew 
 at what hour his multifarious duties might 
 be over. Well, that is all I can relate 
 of this peculiar situation of affairs, for 
 now I was taken off to bed; and at what 
 hour, and under what escort these tremu- 
 lous fugitives were conveyed past the lines 
 of military occupancy I cannot determine. 
 Altogether it was a wild and memorable 
 day, and many and wild and wonderful 
 were the tales thereafter told of it; so 
 that, for the time being, in the case of one 
 
A WILD DAY IN '48 
 
 small listener, his old friends the Giants 
 Pope and Pagan, Eobinson Crusoe and 
 Friday, and even the eagle-captured chil- 
 dren of the far West Highlands were quite 
 put into the shade. 
 
A HIGHLAND WEDDING 
 
A HIGHLAND WEDDING 
 
 THE farm of Carn-sliosach is placed in the 
 centre of the bleakest portion of the bleak 
 island of lolay. Along its shores lolay 
 possesses considerable tracts of cultivated 
 and productive land, but here there is little 
 else than morass, broken by rocky eminences 
 occasionally rising into hills. So compara- 
 tively useless are these tracts of low-lying 
 and undrained moor, that in some places 
 the farmer is allowed a free lease for five 
 years of whatever be takes the trouble to 
 reclaim. 
 
 Carn-sliosach is bounded on the north, 
 south, east, and west by moors, and was 
 originally part of a moor itself. A more 
 55 
 
A HIGHLAND WEDDING 
 
 miserable, dirty, yet picturesque, old farm- 
 house it is impossible to conceive ; built of 
 roughly hewn stones, with the least possible 
 quantity of lime between, and thatched so 
 loosely with straw that along the roof are 
 several straw ropes to keep the house- 
 covering from being blown off; these ropes, 
 having at their extremity a large stone by 
 way of fastening, which pendulous and 
 dangerous ornaments go all round the 
 building. Inside, the chief apartment is, 
 of course, the kitchen, divided into two 
 portions, one end serving the purpose of a 
 cow-house, the other containing a bed and 
 old wooden table, several rickety stools, 
 and in centre of the open space the fire- 
 place. Chimney there is none; a hole in 
 the roof allows the peat smoke to escape- 
 when the peat smoke is so inclined. 
 
 But there is a room at Carn-sliosach a 
 museum ! Into this small apartment are 
 crammed the luxuries of the farm the 
 
 56 
 
A HIGHLAND WEDDING 
 
 peacock's feather brushes, the East Indian 
 shells, the engravings representing David 
 with the head of Goliath in his hand, and 
 Jonah being pitched into the sea ; the old 
 eight-day clock, which has long ago rusted 
 itself into disuse in this inclement region ; 
 with all the various natural and artificial 
 curiosities which please the fancy or gratify 
 the wonder of these simple Highlanders. 
 In this cabinet of treasures slept Duncan 
 Stewart's only daughter until the day of 
 her departure for the cold and distant 
 Carraig-dubh, which ceremony forms the 
 subject of the present paper. 
 
 Helen Stewart was lithe and graceful in 
 appearance, with a bright, intelligent face, 
 dark blue eyes, and raven-black hair. She 
 was to be married to the son of a small 
 farmer in the north-western portion of the 
 island ; and the first definite intimation of 
 the approaching ceremony which we re- 
 ceived was the arrival of two large jars of 
 
 57 
 
A HIGHLAND WEDDING 
 
 whisky, sent hither by the bridegroom's 
 father; for, as it turned out, no marriage 
 can be properly solemnized without being 
 preceded by the "bottling-night," an 
 evening set apart for the purpose of bring- 
 ing together all the friends of the bride 
 and bridegroom to test their respective 
 capacities for whisky-drinking. 
 
 Towards the afternoon Duncan Stewart 
 himself, with his three sons, Donald, John, 
 and Colin, came in from their farm work, 
 and proceeded to prepare the kitchen. 
 The cows were accommodated in a neigh- 
 bouring barn, the place cleaned out, all the 
 stools, chairs, and forms that could be laid 
 hold of were forthwith arranged in tiers, 
 and a large number of glasses had been got 
 on loan from the village of Bonore. At 
 nightfall the men arrived, one by one on 
 foot, many of them sorely tired with a long 
 journey after their day's labour had been 
 finished. Gradually the seats began to be 
 
 58 
 
A HIGHLAND WEDDING 
 
 occupied, and the hum of discordant Gaelic 
 waxed louder and stronger as friend met 
 friend, or enemy met enemy. Then began 
 the business of the evening. Duncan 
 Stewart brought out one of his own bottles 
 and sent it round the company, each man 
 filling his glass as far as the bottle went. 
 Then Duncan, a tall, spare man, with keen, 
 weather-beaten face, and dark piercing 
 eyes, rose to his feet, and in a speech of 
 nervous and disjointed Gaelic, proposed 
 the health of the bridegroom and all the 
 bridegroom's friends. The toast was re- 
 sponded to by the bridegroom's father, who 
 also nxide the most complimentary allusions 
 to his son's future wife, after which they 
 all sat down to the serious duty of drinking 
 each other's health, which is done in this 
 wise. Pouring out a glass of whisky, you 
 take it in your left hand, and make your 
 way round the tables to every man you 
 know or recognize. You shake him by the 
 
 59 
 
A HIGHLAND WEDDING 
 
 hand, wish him deoch-slainte, and toss off 
 the liquor. Then you fill your glass and 
 wait being so called upon in return ; for 
 no man will drink his glass until he has 
 shaken hands with you and seen you do 
 likewise. 
 
 Women are not supposed to honour the 
 convivialities of this evening with their 
 presence, but there was a loud and universal 
 call for the beauty of Carn-sliosach, and in 
 a few minutes there came out from the 
 room Helen Stewart, blushing and smiling 
 as unaffectedly as a Highland maiden 
 always blushes and smiles. She passed 
 along the tables and shook hands with all 
 her friends and acquaintances. One man 
 sprang up, and attempted to kiss her ; in 
 an instant his neighbour on the other side 
 of the narrow table felled him to the 
 ground. A serious altercation was likely 
 to ensue, but the respective friends of each 
 combatant summarily seized their man by 
 
 60 
 
A HIGHLAND WEDDING 
 
 the neck, and bound him over to keep 
 the peace in much guttural and vehement 
 Gaelic. Helen returned to her room ; the 
 drinking went on without interruption till 
 dawn began to steal into the apartment, 
 about four o'clock. Then the men, appear- 
 ing to shake off the effects of the night's 
 debauch in an almost miraculous manner, 
 severally walked out and departed for their 
 own farms, there to begin their day's work. 
 Three days after, and a beautiful August 
 morning breaks over Carn-sliosach. Duncan 
 Stewart's three stalwart sons are early up 
 and out over the farm, setting all things to 
 rights preparatory to the great event of the 
 day. The old man is now at the door of 
 the house, with his two shepherd collies at 
 his heels. " As mo-shealladh ! " he cries, 
 and in an instant the dogs have darted 
 from him, have crossed a small stream, 
 sprung up the bank, and are away over 
 a clover field. Duncan's keen eye follows 
 
 61 
 
A HIGHLAND WEDDING 
 
 them as they grow less and less in the 
 distance. " Air falbh thu ! " rings his voice 
 again, and, though the dogs are nigh out of 
 sight, they change their course and sweep 
 round the base of the hill. The sheep have 
 ceased to crop the scanty herbage, and now 
 stand with heads all turned one way, watch- 
 ing the approach of the wiry-limbed animals. 
 Now the dogs are on the farther side, you 
 hear the faint sound of the warning bark, 
 and see the moving mass of grey wool 
 slowly leaving the hillside. " Shocair ! 
 air do schocair ! Good, dogs, good ! " for 
 there come the whole troop of sheep trot- 
 ting across the clover field, through the 
 stream, and into this field of grass. The 
 dogs watch, with ears erect, for the slightest 
 sign or sound from their master. He raises 
 his hand, and they at once come submis- 
 sively to his heel. 
 
 As the day wears on, the friends of the 
 bride assemble, coming from every direction 
 
 62 
 
A HIGHLAND WEDDING 
 
 in all their holiday finery the men with 
 pea-green coats and brass buttons ; the 
 women with wonderful bonnets and gorgeous 
 shawls, the latter for the most part of 
 foreign manufacture and of quite dazzling 
 colour. Those men who are not so pros- 
 perous as to be owners of a Sunday suit of 
 broad-cloth have, at all events, a sort of 
 home-made, coarse, grey woollen stuff, 
 which is held in equal veneration, and this 
 suit they have donned for the occasion. 
 Finally come a couple of pipers, skirling on 
 their instruments as they approach the 
 farm. The party having been arranged in 
 couples, we set out on our journey across 
 the moors, these pipers leading the way 
 and startling the lonely pewits with their 
 alarming din. 
 
 After a few hours' walking we come in 
 sight of the blue waters of Loch Lyndal, 
 with the inn of Brind nestled among the 
 trees at the foot of the hill ; while as luck 
 
 63 
 
A HIGHLAND WEDDING 
 
 will have it, at this moment arrives the 
 magnificent cavalcade of the bridegroom's 
 friends, also preceded by two pipers. Into 
 the inn flow both streams of people, occu- 
 pying and almost filling the chief room of 
 the place, while the indescribable clamour 
 and discord of two or three bagpipes 
 simultaneously playing in vain seek to 
 drown the vehement conversation that 
 ensues. In the midst of this uproar the 
 " minister " walks into the room, and 
 presently there is not a whisper to be 
 heard. The good man's time, it seems, 
 is precious; wherefore a little circle is 
 immediately formed at one end of the 
 apartment ; Helen Stewart, with her rosy- 
 cheeked bridesmaids, is led into this open 
 space ; the bridegroom, with one or two 
 Carraig-dubh friends, likewise comes for- 
 ward, and the ceremony begins. The 
 minister prays in Gaelic; gives a short 
 address to the pair before him, also in 
 
 64 
 
A HIGHLAND WEDDING 
 
 Gaelic; declares them man and wife, like- 
 wise in Gaelic ; and finally kisses the bride, 
 which, too, is possibly a Gaelic custom. 
 Then Duncan Stewart comes forward, 
 bottle in hand, and offers the minister 
 his deoch-slainte. The old man tastes the 
 liquor in acknowledgment of the courtesy, 
 gives the people a parting benediction, of 
 course in Gaelic, and departs. 
 
 No sooner is he gone than Colin Stewart, 
 with one spring, bounds upon the nearest 
 table, and proceeds to tune his violin as 
 a signal; whereupon those who are not 
 inclined to dance move towards the wall 
 or towards the door, while in the centre of 
 the room are being formed couples for the 
 performance of infuriated Highland reels. 
 The girls toss off their bonnets and shawls, 
 and set to work with a will. Upon the 
 celebrity which they may that day gain 
 may rest their chance of a prospective 
 husband, for your Highland peasant, in 
 
 65 F 
 
A HIGHLAND WEDDING 
 
 choosing a wife, does not always seek her 
 who will be his best farm-servant, as has 
 been laid to his charge. Donald can 
 admire grace and suppleness, and so forth ; 
 and if he does not require that his wife 
 should be able to perform upon the piano, 
 it is possibly for the reason that he has 
 no piano upon which she could per- 
 form. 
 
 The most imposing part of the day's 
 celebration, however, was to come. Having 
 indulged in reel dancing, pipe playing, and 
 whisky drinking almost to satiety, both 
 parties, joined into one, proceeded in the 
 gathering twilight to wend their way 
 towards the farm of Carn-sliosach. Imme- 
 diately behind the pipers came Helen 
 Stewart now Mrs. M'Alister of Carraig- 
 dubh with her young husband ; then 
 came Duncan Stewart and old Mr. and 
 Mrs. M'Alister ; while in their wake 
 stretched out a long line of friends, 
 
 66 
 
A HIGHLAND WEDDING 
 
 coupled as their taste or friendship sug- 
 gested. A sore and perplexing journey it 
 was as nightfall came down upon them, 
 for over these wild Highland moors was 
 no footpath or even the shadow of a foot- 
 path ; so each man and woman, young 
 man and maiden, had to stumble on 
 through the darkness, picking for him- 
 self or herself what piece of ground 
 seemed in the gloom to be most trust- 
 worthy footing. 
 
 But at length we heard the barking of 
 the Carn-sliosach dogs, and presently our 
 troubles ceased, for no sooner had we 
 arrived than we were ushered into a large 
 barn, lit up by great chandeliers composed 
 of long pieces of wood radiating from a 
 common centre, at the apex of which pieces 
 was placed a candle. Then along the barn 
 were arranged a series of narrow tables 
 with forms on either side. Without more 
 ado, the girls once more threw aside their 
 
 67 
 
A HIGHLAND WEDDING 
 
 shawls and bonnets, and sat down to await 
 supper. 
 
 . First came soup, served out in large 
 trenches, and so thick that one could 
 almost have cut it with a knife ; black, 
 likewise, it was, and excessively unpleasant 
 in odour ; while the manner of its prepara- 
 tion was not exciting to the appetite, as the 
 greasy mixture had been obtained by boiling 
 from forty to fifty fowls, in those large iron 
 boilers used on other occasions to prepare 
 food for the cattle. However, the soup was 
 taken away, and in its stead we had the 
 fowls themselves. The rapacity with which 
 some of the men seized upon these unlucky 
 birds was something to make one shudder. 
 A piper, who adorned the head of one of 
 the tables with his presence, scorning 
 carving, laid hold of one of the fowls, and, 
 deliberately tearing it in halves with his 
 unwashed and snuff-covered fingers, pro- 
 ceeded to eat the one half while placing 
 
 68 
 
A HIGHLAND WEDDING 
 
 the other on the present writer's plate. It 
 is, perhaps, unnecessary to state that 
 objection was taken to a sauce composed 
 of snuff and whisky. 
 
 All parties seemed to enjoy this more 
 profuse than select supper immensely ; and 
 as the clatter of knives and forks died down, 
 trays containing oatmeal cakes and cheese, 
 with supplies of clean glasses, were handed 
 round. In a short time, however, the 
 younger members of the company began to 
 manifest signs of impatience, and as one of 
 the pipers struck up the " Earl of Gordon's 
 Strathspey," it was taken as a signal that 
 dancing should be resumed. Presently the 
 long table and forms were denuded of their 
 white coverings, and carried out to the 
 side of the stream; while inside, young 
 M'Alister and his blooming bride proceeded 
 to lead off the first dance. The wild, 
 hilarious merriment which followed alto- 
 gether eclipsed the mild performances of 
 
 69 
 
A HIGHLAND WEDDING 
 
 the "bottling-night." Several couples in- 
 sisted on dancing outside on the green 
 sward in front of the farm, and bore off 
 with them two of the pipers. The older 
 men, with those who were not dancing, 
 retired into corners for the more comfort- 
 able enjoyment of their Lagavulin. Then 
 we had speeches and toasts, and songs, 
 native and foreign. One song seemed to 
 be a special favourite, as at least three men 
 persisted in singing it, the one after the 
 other. The following is a translation of 
 the opening lines, certainly not intrinsically 
 brilliant : 
 
 " 0, will you be married, Maggie ? 
 0, will ye take a man ? 
 O, will ye be married, Maggie ? 
 Will ye take a husband ? 
 He lives in Kilchiron, 
 His name it is Red William, 
 His legs are as two crooked sticks, 
 But he lies in bed sick of love ; etc." 
 
 These various amusements continued till 
 morning, when the people separated to 
 
 70 
 
A HIGHLAND WEDDING 
 
 resume their ordinary avocations. But the 
 following night they returned, and again 
 the same orgies took place ; nay, for a week 
 there was constant drinking, dancing, and 
 singing at Carn-sliosach, while, strange to 
 say, the farm work seemed to be not in the 
 least impeded. How any human beings 
 can so tax themselves night and day, and 
 survive it, is more than we Lowlanders 
 can understand ; certainly they did so, and 
 seemed to take the greatest pride and 
 pleasure in their laborious merrymakings. 
 
PUBLICANS AND SINNERS 
 
PUBLICANS AND SINNERS 
 
 "HE was a wonderfu' man, the father of 
 our minister/' said my Aunt Blair to Mrs. 
 Macaulay ; " a wonderfu' pious man. Weel 
 do I remember that day on which he brought 
 those worthy servants of God, Mr. Bbenezer 
 Erskine, and Mr. Balph, and Mr. Kid o' 
 Queensferry, to our house, which was then 
 in Whitburn. That was a proud day for 
 our Bben (Jamie wasna born then) ; but it 
 was nae mair than we had a right to 
 expect; for the Merles, as ye ken, Mrs. 
 Macaulay, have been kent far and wide, 
 for generations, to be pious and godly 
 people." 
 
 " 'Deed, yes ! " said Mrs. Macaulay, who 
 
 75 
 
PUBLICANS AND SINNERS 
 
 would as soon have thought of questioning 
 the authenticity of the Confession of Faith 
 as of doubting the statements of her grand 
 old friend. 
 
 " And weel do I mind the peculiar way 
 that auld Mr. Brash had o' stirring his tea, 
 puir man ! He took more time to it than 
 maist folks, and did it sedately and thought- 
 fully ; no as if he was in a hurry to partake 
 o' creature comforts. But it's a mournfu' 
 world atweel, as Solomon saith, ' What 
 hath man of all his labour, and o' the 
 vexation o' his heart, wherein he hath 
 laboured under the sun ! J and sae, just 
 before the present Mr. Brash was ca'd to 
 Muirend, the auld man depairtit this life, 
 and sae was hindered from seein' his son's 
 advancement." 
 
 Why did Aunt Blair pause when she 
 came to the word " son " ? That very 
 morning she had come into my room 
 where I still lay in bed from loss of 
 
PUBLICANS AND SINNERS 
 
 blood and remonstrated with me, in her 
 stately, dialectic way, on the exceeding 
 sinfulness of my having dealings with a 
 publican. 
 
 " Your father is grieved," she said ; " nor 
 is that a'. It is no for the temptation o' 
 strong drink ; he kens brawly there was 
 nane o' our family but is proof against 
 that. But, Jamie, he has another sore 
 suspicion troubling his mind. Will I say 
 it?" 
 
 " Surely, aunt." 
 
 " Then, Jamie, he is led to predict a sad 
 future for ye, if ye go about this public. 
 Indeed, Jamie, I saw he was thinking about 
 his only son marrying the daughter of a 
 public-house keeper, and if sic a thing 
 should happen, as I pray God to forfend, 
 weel ken I he would cry wi' Eebecca, in 
 the bitterness o' his heart, ' I am weary of 
 my life because of the daughters of Heth ; 
 if Jacob take a wife of the daughters of 
 
 77 
 
PUBLICANS AND SINNERS 
 
 Heth . . . what good shall my life do 
 me?'" 
 
 But whatever cause for anxiety my father 
 may have had in this matter was allayed 
 by the one feeling of expectation becoming 
 general in Eastburn and over the whole 
 country-side. Next Sabbath was to be a 
 great day a day to be marked with a white 
 stone. Dr. Brown of Haddington * was to 
 preach in Muirend kirk. 
 
 The Sabbath morning came round, bright, 
 and blue, and breezy ; and there were such 
 numbers flocked to hear this pious servant 
 of God, that the little kirk could not contain 
 them by one half. Wherefore Dr. Brown 
 bade them go out to the churchyard, which 
 they did ; and there, in the sunshine, look- 
 ing far down on purple miles of moorland, 
 
 * John Brown of Haddington, Scotch theologian and 
 scholar; born 1722; published "Dictionary of the Bible" 
 1778; " Self-Interpreting Bible" 1769; died 1787. To later 
 editions of the " Dictionary of the Bible " a Life of John Brown 
 by his son has been affixed. 
 
 78 
 
PUBLICANS AND SINNERS 
 
 they sat on stones or on the grass, while 
 the old man told them of the living springs 
 and beautiful valleys of the heavenly Canaan. 
 Not full of the terrors of the law was this 
 sermon, as has been objected to the sermons 
 of some of the Secession preachers. 
 
 That point on which John Brown of 
 Haddington, and his spiritual fathers, the 
 Erskines, mainly delighted to dwell as 
 may yet be seen in their printed works 
 was the wonderful riches of Christ. They 
 were never wearied of this subject. These 
 sermons of theirs, which have been pre- 
 served, are full of it. And on that beautiful 
 Sabbath morning long to be remembered 
 by many a one there, when the old man 
 who spoke to them had passed away from 
 this earth he told them of " the holy city, 
 the new Jerusalem, prepared as a bride 
 adorned for her husband." Looking far 
 across the moor that lay between him and 
 the Tinto Hills, he saw the little cottages 
 
 79 
 
PUBLICANS AND SINNERS 
 
 dropped here and there amid the brown 
 heather, and spoke to the people before 
 him of the many sore trials and vexations 
 of this life. " But," added he, with kindling 
 eye, and finger lifted up to the blue heaven, 
 " all this will be forgotten in yonder holy 
 city of our God. For there, having been 
 washed in the blood of the Lamb, having 
 gotten the white stone with the name 
 written thereon, ' God shall wipe away all 
 tears from our eyes ; and there shall be 
 no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, 
 neither shall there be any more pain : for 
 the former things shall have passed away.' " 
 And so the service proceeded, quiet and 
 solemn in its simple ritual. Nor was it 
 without some of that wild fire of eloquence 
 which had been handed down from covenant- 
 ing forefathers; for eloquence is little else 
 than vocal earnestness, and surely those 
 men were in earnest who rose up indi- 
 vidually to do battle with a collected 
 
 80 
 
PUBLICANS AND SINNERS 
 
 power, and with an authority that almost 
 arrogated to itself the infallibility of the 
 Church of Borne, about what appeared to 
 some people a ridiculous matter of con- 
 science. And yet, as Bben Merle said, 
 it " didna seem ridiculous to him, that 
 a man should stand up for his right to 
 fecht for his ain soul against the devil, 
 without interference from the General 
 Assembly o' the Kirk o j Scotland, or ony 
 ither assembly o' mortal men." 
 
 In the evening, when my father was 
 sitting by his own fireside, reading Mr. 
 Hutcheson's " Exposition of John's Gos- 
 pel," and when I also was there engaged in 
 a similar fashion, the latch of the door 
 lifted, and Mr. Brown entered with out- 
 stretched hand. He had walked across the 
 moor to pay a visit to his old friend, 
 attended only by a member of Muirend 
 Session, a long and " spaly " man, beside 
 whom Mr. Brown looked like a well-knit 
 
 81 G 
 
PUBLICANS AND SINNERS 
 
 Saxon sentence, terse, firm, and vigorous, 
 placed in front of a long Latin-English one, 
 full of ins, and pros, and cons. And as 
 Aunt Blair drew in a chair for them to the 
 fireside, " she trusted that Mr. Dryhope 
 hadna been wearied in crossing the moor." 
 
 " No, Mrs. Blair," said John Dryhope, 
 seriously, as being somewhat in awe of the 
 venerable dame, " though some o' the 
 shengles are verra deep, and the grun unco 
 sliddery." 
 
 " I wouldna, Mr. Merle," said the 
 minister, "have interrupted your private 
 meditations on a Sabbath night, had I not 
 to leave for Stirling early to-morrow morn- 
 ing ; for I consider the practice o' visiting 
 on Sabbath nights, chiefly for the purpose 
 o' gossiping now becoming fashionable in 
 our big towns as maist reprehensible." 
 
 My father was thinking of sending over 
 for John Macaulay, but this settled the 
 point. 
 
 82 
 
PUBLICANS AND SINNERS 
 
 Then Mr. Brown, knowing how they 
 should best enjoy the visit, and put it 
 to most profit, bade me draw in my chair 
 to the fireside. He then placed Alick 
 between his knees, parting back the light 
 brown curls from the lad's forehead, while 
 my father began to speak of those matters 
 over which he had been gravely pondering 
 for some years back matters which it had 
 been vain to lay before the like of John 
 Macaulay. Not of the broader points of 
 the law and gospels were they not of 
 heresies, though heresies then, as now, were 
 rife not even of the Marrow, for the 
 Marrow controversy was well-nigh at an 
 end. But on such points as the Experience 
 of Believers, the Manifestation of the Holy 
 Spirit, the Voluntary or Involuntary Accep- 
 tation of the Spirit by Sinners, Eben Merle 
 wished to have his own opinions confirmed 
 or refuted. 
 
 And in course of time my father thought 
 83 
 
PUBLICANS AND SINNERS 
 
 the moment had arrived for the introduc- 
 tion of his more immediate perplexity. He 
 was not without some hope that this man 
 of God so great an authority in the 
 Church, so skilled in all the mysteries of 
 human evil and Divine good might be 
 instrumental in bringing him help. 
 
 " Mr. Brown," he said, approaching with 
 some timidity a difficult subject, " we have 
 had changes in Bastburn since last ye were 
 here. It is with no little sorrow I maun 
 tell it, but there is now a public-house in 
 the place." 
 
 " A public-house in Eastburn ? " 
 " Even so, sir," said my father; " and it 
 is a sair thing for me to sit here the night 
 and say any such thing. For I hae been 
 proud o' this bit village o' ours, sir, and 
 was aye glad that you should visit it 
 when you were this airt ; for till this 
 time there dwelt not a man in Eastburn 
 under whose roof, Mr. Brown, ye wouldna 
 
 84 
 
PUBLICANS AND SINNERS 
 
 hae been pleased to sit. But it is far 
 otherwise now. 7 ' 
 
 " Ye perhaps take this matter too much 
 to heart, Mr. Merle," said Dr. Brown ; " 'tis 
 maybe but a place of accommodation such 
 as I have sorely felt the want of at times ; 
 and surely it has not brought any positive 
 evil amongst ye." 
 
 Now had the time come. Positive evil ? 
 For a moment my father glanced back to 
 all the ancestry of the Merles ; thought of 
 their great and good name for piety; thought 
 of that hereditary godliness that had come 
 down without intermission from generation 
 to generation. He thought of all the 
 Merles now alive without exception pious 
 people ; and the old man's eyes filled as he 
 came to tell Mr. Brown the man whose 
 friendship was an honour to the whole 
 family that the last of that race had 
 demeaned himself, and made himself un- 
 worthy. Yet he hesitated not, nor did 
 
 85 
 
PUBLICANS AND SINNERS 
 
 his tongue swerve as he uttered the 
 words 
 
 " Sir, my son there, I am loath to say, is 
 in a fair way to be in daily communion with 
 the publican himself, and with his house- 
 hold." 
 
 Sadly he said it, though firmly ; and he 
 looked in the old minister's face as that 
 man may have looked in the face of his 
 Lord, when he cried 
 
 " Master, my daughter is even now dead, 
 but come and lay Thy hand upon her, and 
 she shall live." 
 
 I answered nothing to the accusation. 
 The matter was not to be made better by 
 talking. But Aunt Blair raised her head 
 with an indignant look, and even inter- 
 rupted Dr. Brown. 
 
 " Minister," she said, " ye must not leave 
 this house thinking that my nephew goes 
 drinking about a public. It is no his way 
 to speak for himser, or brawlys he could 
 
 86 
 
PUBLICANS AND SINNERS 
 
 tell ye what it is which takes him to Mr. 
 Eraser, who is a decent man, in spite o' the 
 manner o' his leevin'. 'Deed, sir, believe 
 me, he wouldna harm ony leeving thing; 
 and even when ither lads and lassies stand 
 bletherin' by the roadside, he's awa' out 
 oure the muir, picking up these queer 
 stanes, which are innocent enough, I'se 
 warrant, in spite o j what they say. And it 
 is thatj sir, which has taken him to Mr. 
 Fraser, as can be made manifest to you if 
 ye speir at himsel' ! " 
 
 During this outburst my father had been 
 sitting fidgeting with his satin vest, 
 evidently about to break forth with an 
 exhortation concerning the silence of 
 women. But now he deferentially waited 
 for a moment, to see if Dr. Brown would 
 speak, which the minister accordingly did. 
 
 "You leave me little to say, madam. 
 When I consider his family, and the way 
 he has been brought up, I can well believe 
 
 87 
 
PUBLICANS AND SINNERS 
 
 that no nephew o j yours would go far 
 astray. And you must remember, Mr. 
 Merle, that this man Eraser may be a 
 decent man, despite his calling our Lord 
 Himself was not ashamed to consort with 
 publicans and sinners and the publicans o' 
 these days, as you know, Mr. Merle, had a 
 worse character than those o 7 ours. And 
 yet, Jamie lad, I'd have ye tak' tent o' 
 your companions. A grand preservation of 
 virtue is the choosing of honest and God- 
 fearing friends ; and such are seldom to be 
 got about a public-house. " 
 
 Suddenly Mr. Dryhope lifted his chin 
 with a jerk, as though newly awoke from 
 sleep. He took a pinch of snuff, looked 
 wise, and said 
 
 " As Mr. Ealph Erskine hath observed 
 in one o 1 his sermons, i The very sight o' 
 gaunting and yawning smites others with 
 the same trouble ; a fit o' laughter will pro- 
 voke others to laughter ; and so will the 
 
 88 
 
PUBLICANS AND SINNERS 
 
 weeping and wailing of a few set an hundred 
 weeping, merely by a sympathetic temper 
 amongst people, which temper is doubly 
 dangerous in places o' temptation ! ' And 
 young people whose feet are apt to be 
 unwary fall oftentimes through careless- 
 ness; for, as Mr. Erskine again says, 'It 
 is but our own guiltiness and faithless- 
 ness that aims Satan's malice against 
 
 us.' " 
 
 " Mr. Brown," I said, " were the devil's 
 ends ever furthered by inquiry ? " 
 
 " Never, lad." 
 
 "I think not. I take it, ignorance and 
 Satan go hand in hand ; and I think that 
 if people would inquire as much as they 
 imagine [ about a man's character, there 
 would be less slander in the world. I 
 know little of this man Fraser ; but I take 
 him to be an honest man, who has been 
 unfortunate and 'tis no wonder people 
 are so careful about appearances, when 
 
PUBLICANS AND SINNERS 
 
 we see how charity is withheld from those 
 who have been unfortunate in worldly 
 things. Further, and not to continue a 
 subject which is no pleasing one, it were 
 better that we had more of this same 
 charity even for the most wicked. I think 
 it would be a poor thing for sinners such 
 as we ourselves are to seek to limit 
 the doctrine o' salvation by grace. " 
 
 I had said what I had to say on that 
 subject, and resolved to speak no more on 
 it that night. But Mr. Dryhope, not 
 seeing how therein he had been ignored, 
 ventured forth again. 
 
 " But it is right for all young persons 
 to flee temptation. He would be a fool 
 who should rush into battle merely to try 
 the strength o' his armour." 
 
 "What!" said Dr. Brown, with a quiet 
 smile, for it was but seldom Mr. Dryhope 
 was moved to deliver an opinion. "Ye 
 should remember Mr. Erskine's context 
 
 90 
 
PUBLICANS AND SINNERS 
 
 ' Temptation is a school for training up 
 Christ's soldiers ; as a sword glitters by 
 using, which would rust in the scabbard. 7 " 
 
 " Eh, but isn't he gleg at quoting ! " 
 whispered Aunt Blair, who was proud that 
 John Brown of Haddington was taking 
 her nephew's part. 
 
 Then Dr. Brown rose to leave ; and 
 my father took down his gnarled and 
 knotted holly, to accompany his friend a 
 part of the way over the moor. 
 
 Dr. Brown bade farewell to us all, 
 counselling me to be diligent in the 
 pursuit of all knowledge, but especially 
 the knowledge of life everlasting. 
 
 "Like you," he said, "I was eager on 
 such matters in my younger days, and 
 my father used to say to me, ' Ah, Johnnie 
 lad, I'm no ower anxious to ken much 
 about the stars, for 111 get a braw glint o' 
 them when I'm going hame to my Father's 
 house.' " 
 
PUBLICANS AND SINNERS 
 
 They were going towards the door, when 
 my aunt, not knowing very well how to 
 testify her gratitude for the great honour 
 done to her house, came forward with two 
 little parcels. 
 
 " Minister, ye'll maybe take this bit 
 parcel ? And ye, likewise, Mr. Dryhope ? 
 They're no verra fine atweel, being but 
 home-made bannocks." 
 
 " I must differ with ye, madam," said 
 the minister ; " I have tasted your ban- 
 nocks before, and I never come this airt 
 but the very wind seems to savour o' 
 them.' 1 
 
 And so, again bidding us farewell, they 
 were gone. 
 
 " He was a wonderfu' man for a com- 
 pliment," said my aunt, long after this 
 day, "was Dr. Brown; and so grave was 
 he, and dignifit in his manner, ye but kent 
 he was speaking the words o' truth and 
 soberness. 'Deed, it was worth while 
 
 92 
 
PUBLICANS AND SINNERS 
 
 baking bannocks a' your life to see the 
 way he acceptit ane or twa and the 
 hamely way that he, a professor in 
 Enbro', spak the auld-farrant Lanarkshire 
 words." 
 
 My father, returning from his convoy, 
 must needs call in upon John Macaulay, 
 to impart to him the news of the minister's 
 visit. John Macaulay's house was the 
 largest in the village, by reason of the 
 smiddy and his dwelling-house being in 
 one. He had likewise a considerable 
 garden behind ; and John, being a thrifty 
 man, sent to the Lanark market part of 
 the produce of his fruit trees. Aunt Blair 
 was also remembered pretty often with a 
 basket of rosy-cheeked Lanarkshire apples 
 and better apples there are none which 
 she forthwith converted into the most 
 wonderful and inscrutable of dumplings. 
 
 My father entered. John, his wife, and 
 a little girl were sitting by the fire. 
 
 93 
 
PUBLICANS AND SINNERS 
 
 "Where is Flora ?" was the first 
 question. 
 
 " She just gaed up," said Mrs. Macaulay, 
 a little nervously, " a wee while to see 
 Robin Smith's lassie that's Jeannie 
 wha is rather ailin' the now wi' her 
 throat." 
 
 " She gaed up to see Robin Smith's son, 
 I'se warrant," said Eben Merle, severely ; 
 " and whether or no, it ill befits any 
 Christian household to have ane o' its 
 members out stravaygin here and there 
 on a Sabbath night, as if there werena 
 such a thing as eternity to prepare 
 for!" 
 
 This may have been rude of my father, 
 for it is often hard to say where decision 
 of character ends and rudeness begins. I 
 know, at least, that the old man never 
 intended anything he said to be rude ; he 
 was too kindly hearted for that. 
 
 " We saw whom ye had the privelege o' 
 94 
 
PUBLICANS AND SINNERS 
 
 entertaining 5 ' said the smith, thinking 
 enough had been said about Flora's 
 absence. 
 
 "I was etchin' to send across for ye, 
 but it sae happened that his first words 
 were directed against the growin' evil o' 
 Sabbath-day visiting. " 
 
 " Thinking o 7 Mr. Brown," said John, 
 " and o' Mr. Ealph Erskine, I took out 
 the ' Gospel Sonnets/ and read ance mair 
 the < Think and Smoke Tobacco.' And 
 really, Mr. Merle,", he added, " ye maun 
 acknowledge that a body has some autho- 
 rity for takin' a bit draw o' the cutty, 
 when such an eminent and pious man 
 countenances it." 
 
 " John Macaulay," said my father, with 
 a humorous twinkle in his eye, " ye are 
 like the bairns wha get a bowl o j milk 
 and cogie o j parritch set down to them. 
 They would fain drink the milk and leave 
 the porritch untasted. And if ye smoke 
 
 95 
 
PUBLICANS AND SINNERS 
 
 upon the strength o' Ealph Erskine's 
 sonnet, ye maun bear in mind that think 
 comes before smoke. He says, ' Thus 
 think and smoke tobacco/ and ye'll find, 
 John, that the maist feck o' folk, while 
 smoking, dinna bother themselves much 
 wi' the thinking pairt." 
 
 "But surely, Mr. Merle, if we think to 
 the best of our abeelities, we are not to be 
 held responsible for the imperfections o' 
 our powers." 
 
 " John Macaulay, listen to me. It seems 
 to me that naebody has a richt to smoke 
 but them who are compelled to think 
 mair than is common to the human frame 
 sich as ministers, doctors, and the like. 
 But for you and me, John, wha are but 
 common people, we have nae real need 
 o' ony sic thing, and it but begets an 
 indolent and lazy disposition o' mind ; for, 
 as I was reading in Mr. Hutcheson the 
 day, ' It is a fault incident to our nature 
 
 96 
 
PUBLICANS AND SINNERS 
 
 to be muckle addicted to our own ease, 
 and to that which brings present com- 
 fort, and to abhor any lot or way of 
 God's service which proves contrary to 
 that.' " 
 
 "Verra true, Mr. Merle; but 'tis hard, 
 hard to gie up a habit o' thirty years' 
 standing." 
 
 " I didna bid ye gie't up, John ; I 
 only endeavoured to show ye wherein ye 
 were wrang in attempting to get Mr. 
 Ealph Erskine's authority to countenance 
 it." 
 
 " 'Deed, Mr. Merle," said John's wife, 
 "I'm afeard he'll no stop it now, though 
 I wish he would. I canna get the smell 
 o' his tabawka scrubbed out o' my dresser, 
 let me fecht wi't as I like ! " 
 
 " When there's nae positeeve enactment, 
 Mrs. Macaulay, against it in the Word, 
 and when it has maist become pairt 
 and paircel o' a man's being, I think he 
 
 97 H 
 
PUBLICANS AND SINNERS 
 
 would be a fushionless gowk to gie't up for 
 one man's opinion or for another man's 
 opinion." 
 
 And there spoke the blood of the Eben 
 Merle of twenty years bygone. 
 
 98 
 
ROUND AND ABOUT 
 HAMPSTEAD 
 
ROUND AND ABOUT 
 HAMPSTEAD* 
 
 IT was a pleasant mild morning in early 
 March, with plenty of bright sunlight, and 
 a strong breeze blowing fresh and grateful 
 from the south. James Lawson's cottage 
 lay down at the east end of the Heath, so 
 that his Sunday rest was not broken in 
 upon by the revellers who frequented the 
 higher portions of the common. Indeed, it 
 was only from the top windows of the 
 
 * The following two sketches, taken from " The Monarch of 
 Mincing Lane," deal with the love-story of Philip Drew and 
 Lilian Seaford. The girl is the penniless ward of an old Scotch 
 couple (Jims Lawson and his wife), and the first part shows the 
 dawn of love between this girl and Philip, the son of a rich 
 merchant. In the second part Philip has renounced his people 
 and his name for Lilian, and is spending his last few sovereigns 
 in a holiday on the Dart. Lilian does not know he has 
 quarrelled with his people. In the novel all ends well " after 
 long grief and pain." 
 
 101 
 
ROUND AND ABOUT HAMPSTEAD 
 
 cottage that you could catch a glimpse' 
 of Highgate; and, when you left the 
 house, you had to climb up the East 
 Heath Eoad before you had anything like 
 a view. 
 
 As they went up this road, the horizon 
 gradually widened, until they could see, far 
 up in the north, the white houses and the 
 grey church-spire shining in the sun. The 
 strong south wind had swept along all the 
 smoke of the City until it lay in a great 
 bronze-coloured cloud behind the gleaming 
 houses of Highgate, while over their head 
 the sky was of a keen blue, and the warm 
 spring light fell on the green slopes of the 
 common and the unsightly red gashes of 
 the brickfields down in the hollow. You 
 should have seen how the brisk breeze had 
 brought a tingling colour into the young 
 girl's cheeks, and how the sunlight played 
 hide-and-seek among her rich brown hair, 
 throwing clear shadows across the warm 
 102 
 
ROUND AND ABOUT HAMPSTEAD 
 
 colour of her face, or down on the perfect 
 whiteness of her neck. 
 
 Yet what was there to mention about this 
 commonplace stroll, on an ordinarily bright 
 forenoon, through scenes which were suffi- 
 ciently familiar to all of them? Years 
 afterward we may look back upon some 
 such insignificant morning, and find its 
 every incident transfigured and made 
 memorable by tender or tragic association. 
 The lover walks with his mistress, and he 
 does not see how fair the country is if 
 looking at her eyes. But when she has 
 gone away, and he returns to the old place 
 where they used to walk together, he finds 
 the landscape imbued with the mournful 
 recollections of those happy times, and it 
 is very beautiful as well as sad to him. 
 Then he paid no attention to the tree 
 under which they sat, to the stile at which 
 they parted ; but now both are sacred to 
 him, and his eyes are full of tears as he 
 103 
 
ROUND AND ABOUT HAMPSTEAD 
 
 looks at them. Perhaps he goes down to 
 the brook where they used to wander in 
 the evenings : there are forget-me-nots 
 growing there, but they grow for others 
 now. 
 
 And if these three unconscious creatures 
 who cheerfully wandered up the East 
 Heath Eoad, and passed Well Walk, think- 
 ing of the brightness of the morning, if 
 they thought of anything, had known with 
 what terrible associations these common- 
 place localities were hereafter to be in- 
 vested by them, they would not have 
 passed them so carelessly. As it was, 
 there was but little to attract their notice. 
 Highgate was beautiful enough up in the 
 silvery north, but Well Walk and the 
 eastern end of the Heath, and the Vale of 
 Health were not much to look at. As they 
 strolled on, the two younger people listened 
 with delight to a number of old-fashioned 
 stories of her youth, which were told them 
 104 
 
ROUND AND ABOUT HAMPSTEAD 
 
 by Mrs. Lawson. Sometimes it was difficult 
 enough for them to follow her broad Scotch ; 
 but then they were " airted " on to her 
 meaning by the wonderful play of expression 
 across the old woman's face. For herself, 
 she enjoyed these reminiscences heartily, 
 and she was possessed of the excellent 
 memory which frequently accompanies 
 sharp observation and a happy notion of 
 fun. 
 
 As they descended into the vale, Lilian 
 turned to admire the pretty lake, and grotto 
 work, and shrubbery, down in the hollow. 
 There was no human being about the place 
 on this morning, no trace of the flashy 
 dissipation which at certain seasons invades 
 Hampstead Heath ; and, in the clear light 
 and the silence, these poor tavern decora- 
 tions seemed quite pretty and pleasant to 
 look at. Then they crossed over, and 
 ascended the other side of the little valley. 
 
 " Don't you think," said Lilian, looking 
 105 
 
ROUND AND ABOUT HAMPSTEAD 
 
 up to where the line of the road ran along 
 the blue sky, " that when we reach the top 
 we must find the sea on the other side ? " 
 
 It was natural enough to think that the 
 strong light and the strong breeze should 
 be coming over to them from a great windy 
 plain and sea ; but when they got up to the 
 road it was a very different prospect which 
 met their eyes. The long stretch of western 
 country lay under the bright spring sun- 
 shine, the faint lines of hedge and road 
 fading into a thin blue mist that hovered 
 along the hills by the horizon. Down in 
 the south the houses of Hendon shone 
 whitely among the thick trees ; up in the 
 north lay the scattered cottages of Finchley, 
 with the pale stones of the cemetery glit- 
 tering in the light ; and in the far spaces 
 between and beyond lay clumps of wood, 
 and tiny glints of water, with here and 
 there a farmstead rich in yellow stacks and 
 red tiles. All around them, too, were the 
 1 06 
 
ROUND AND ABOUT HAMPSTEAD 
 
 dark-green patches of furze of the Heath 
 itself, scattered among the rough sand- 
 pits ; over there stood a cluster of fir-trees, 
 and a still blacker green ; and everywhere 
 were the tall leafless elms rising into the 
 blue sky, with the sunlight shining on their 
 green trunks and black branches. All this 
 spring landscape, cold and clear and bright, 
 was full of anticipation and promise full 
 of the tingling of coming life ; but as yet 
 there was scarcely a bird or a leaf visible. 
 Some of the fields were green and shining 
 (with the glossy rooks watching you warily 
 as you passed), and here and there you saw 
 a tree that was just tipped with buds ; but 
 the mild south wind blew as yet over 
 rugged ploughed fields and miry fallow, and 
 the sunlight shone on branches that were 
 hard and black. 
 
 " The first wild flowers I have seen this 
 year ! " cried Lilian, making a sudden rush 
 downward into a sand-pit, and halting by 
 107 
 
ROUND AND ABOUT HAMPSTEAD 
 
 the side of a large patch of furze, which 
 was covered with half-opened yellow buds. 
 She tried to pick a piece, but the jagged 
 spears of the gorse were too strong for her 
 slight fingers ; and so she turned away with 
 a petulant gesture of disappointment. Of 
 course Philip was down at her side in a 
 moment, engaged in damaging his hands 
 severely and unnecessarily in trying to 
 secure the largest piece of bloom. That 
 trophy having been duly presented, they 
 were about to climb up again to where 
 Mrs. Lawson stood, when Lilian turned and 
 confronted, him. 
 
 "Do you know when furze is out of 
 bloom? " she asked merrily, with a bright 
 laugh on her face. 
 
 "No," said Philip. 
 
 " Why when kissing's out of fashion ! " 
 
 1 08 
 
THE RIVER OF DART 
 
THE RIVER OF DART 
 
 HERE, down in Devonshire, Lilian was at 
 home. She knew every lane and bay, 
 every quiet nook and old ruin, and all the 
 secret haunts of the wild flowers ; and she 
 took her two companions about with a sort 
 of anxious care that they should be 
 amused and gratified, and was filled with 
 a proud satisfaction when she saw them 
 pleased. 
 
 How could they tire of the perpetual 
 change of picture visible from the large 
 windows, or the warm terraces, or the 
 exposed promontories of rock ? Was there 
 any hour of the day in which the land and 
 the sky and the sea preserved the same 
 aspect ? On the evening of their arrival a 
 IT i 
 
THE RIVER OF DART 
 
 misty yellow sunlight lay over the bay, 
 and the opposite coast seemed far and 
 dreamlike in the haze. But next morning 
 the land had come strangely and sharply 
 near, so that you could see every house, 
 and field, and hedge ; a brisk breeze from 
 the south-west was bringing up heavy 
 swift masses of cloud over the sky, and 
 these threw splatches of shadow on the 
 great tumbling breadth of green waves that 
 ran, white-crested, in from shore. The 
 boats rolled in the harbour with creaking 
 cordage, and the wind that blew through 
 the small town was laden with the smell 
 of seaweed. Towards midday the wind 
 moderated, and the sun was faintly hidden 
 by a fleece of grey cloud ; the opposite 
 shore receded, and the long line stretching 
 out to Berry Head lay like a dusky bar of 
 blue in the blinding grey light of the sea 
 and sky. And then again, towards the 
 afternoon, the clouds thickened and grew 
 
 I 12 
 
THE RIVER OF DART 
 
 thunderous ; and suddenly when one had 
 forgotten all about sunset, and expected a 
 grey and listless evening there appeared 
 a lurid glow of dusky brown in the west; 
 the masses of cloud over Paignton shore 
 became illuminated as if with fire, and 
 their lower edges, with the sunlight shin- 
 ing on the other side, came down in a 
 red smoke of rain. Behind these ragged 
 streaks of crimson, again, there were 
 glimpses of the far green and gold of 
 the sunset ; and this keener and clearer 
 colour, as the thunder clouds slowly lifted, 
 sent a pallid glow over the waters of the 
 bay and the full tide of the harbour. 
 Finally, above the clouds, there rose the 
 clear stillness of the twilight, that glim- 
 mered on the fronts of houses high up 
 on the wooded hills; and overhead, in 
 the pale green sky, yellow stars began to 
 burn. 
 
 They explored all the neighbourhood 
 
 113 i 
 
THE RIVER OF DART 
 
 too, and had small picnics down in secret 
 clefts of the coast, where the sea had eaten 
 out a semicircle in the red sandstone or 
 grey rock, and washed up a shelf of clear 
 white shingle. They drove down the narrow 
 leafy lanes, with the tall banks and the 
 wilderness of foliage about. Mr. Philip 
 hired a yacht, furthermore ; and they went 
 cruising round the land, looking up at the 
 precipitous cliffs, with their great caverns 
 or bold arches jutting into the water, or 
 looking far out on the blue plain of the sea, 
 with the sails of distant ships, or a faint 
 string of wild duck, sinking down into the 
 horizon. It was a happy time. 
 
 "Don't you think," said Philip, as they 
 sat down to breakfast on the morning of 
 their departure, " that it would be very 
 hard to die at Torquay, and leave behind 
 the sea, and the clear air, and the sunlight ? 
 I shouldn't so much mind dying in a dingy 
 hole in Islington, I think in a sickly 
 114 
 
THE RIVER OF DART 
 
 atmosphere, with blinds drawn, and bottles 
 on the table. One might almost be glad to 
 get quit of the smell of physic. And going 
 away from here leaving that blue bay and 
 the green country round about it seems in 
 itself a sort of little death." 
 
 " I am so glad we are getting a beautiful 
 day, though, to leave," said Lilian. " This 
 morning, when I looked out, the sea was 
 green and windy ; and over there, at Brix- 
 ham, the land was quite hidden behind a 
 mist of rain." 
 
 " And when I came down and found her," 
 said Jims, " she was nearly wild wi j delight, 
 and there was a glimmer o' sun behind the 
 mist." 
 
 "And it was so curious to see a light 
 green colour beginning to shine through," 
 said Lilian ; " the sunlight, you know, 
 breaking on the hills behind the rain ; and 
 then the clouds lifted, and you could see 
 the slates of houses in Brixham glittering 
 
THE RIVER OF DART 
 
 across the bay, and the sea changing from 
 green to blue. And now look ! the clouds 
 have all disappeared, and the bay has grown 
 still, and Berry Head has got misty and 
 white out there." 
 
 When their luggage had been despatched 
 to the station, to be sent on to Totnes by 
 rail, they went down to the harbour, got 
 into a small boat, and were pulled out to 
 the yacht which Mr. Philip had hired. It 
 was to be their last excursion in her ; they 
 were to leave her at Dartmouth. 
 
 And when the tiny vessel, outside the 
 harbour, dipped over to the gentle wind 
 that was coming up from the west, Torquay 
 was already receding from them. How 
 fair and stately she looked, seated white 
 and radiant on the summit of her green 
 hills ! The morning sunlight shone on 
 the great grey crags, and on the gleaming 
 fronts of the houses, and on the dense 
 foliage around the old abbey; while round 
 
 116 
 
THE RIVER OF DART 
 
 at Livennead the masses of red sandstone 
 that finished the curve of the beach 
 fairly burned in the sunshine, over the 
 intense blue of the water. As they got 
 further out into the bay a sort of silvery 
 haze seemed to dwell over the place, only 
 broken here and there by the glitter of a 
 window that happened to catch the rays 
 of the sun. 
 
 " Oh, Philip, we have been so happy 
 here ! " said Lilian, with tears coming into 
 her eyes. "Why should we ever go back 
 to London ?" 
 
 And why? And it seemed to him that 
 behind and encompassing the beautiful 
 and smiling picture that lay before them 
 there was hidden a darker circle full of 
 dismay, and trouble, and the weariness 
 of waiting into which they must soon 
 enter. Why could they not stay here for 
 ever? He was almost on the point of 
 confessing to her the tender hypocrisy of 
 117 
 
THE RIVER OF DART 
 
 which he had been guilty during this brief 
 and happy time; and then he looked at 
 her face and her anxious eyes, and could 
 not. 
 
 " You're no fitted to be the wife o' a 
 man that has to battle wi' these times, " 
 said Jims, putting his hand affectionately 
 on her shoulder. " Ye mind me o' a white 
 kitten, that likes to play and frisk about 
 a while wi' a reel o' cotton, and then 
 snoozle down afore the fire on a thick 
 rug. What would you think o 1 a man 
 that could content himself to live a' his 
 life up at the big hotel yonder, and do 
 naething but kick his heels on the grass 
 in the sun, when around him the world is 
 working and storing, and they who have 
 time are up in the great centre o't 
 in London fechting in Parliament for 
 them that are otherwise engaged ? Them 
 that are working have nae time to think 
 and understand about laws ; and yet the 
 118 
 
THE RIVER OF DART 
 
 laws are crushin' them, and takin j frae 
 them to give to the wealthy idlers in the 
 land what ocht to gang to them that are 
 starvin' for want o' work. The taxation 
 of the workin'-man should gang to help 
 his poorer brethren, instead o' helpin' to 
 fill the pockets o' them that are rich 
 enough already. But folk are beginning 
 to understand the duties o' the capitalists 
 now ; and there's many a rare battle focht 
 o j mair consequence than Waterloo, or 
 Peterloo either. And wi' a 7 this coming 
 foward singing i' the air, as it were- ye 
 would like to have him leeve a' his life 
 down by the shore here, like a limpet on 
 the rocks, or a dandelion in the grass." 
 
 " Then there's no pleasure in life for 
 anybody!" said Miss Lilian, contemptu- 
 ously. "For if you happen to have no 
 troubles of your own, you are to go and 
 take up the trouble of other people who 
 won't thank you. What difference does 
 119 
 
THE RIVER OF DART 
 
 one man make ? If the nation wanted 
 Philip, it would have told him so long 
 ago. He is not of much consequence to 
 it; but but he's of some consequence 
 to me." 
 
 She glanced timidly at Jims, with an 
 arch look in her eyes and a conscious 
 blush on her face. 
 
 "You selfish little heathen ! " said 
 Philip. " Do you know what blasphemy 
 against the whole duty of man you are 
 talking? If every single person were to 
 take as an excuse that he individually 
 would not be of much service 
 
 "I am not going to argue," she said 
 defiantly, changing her position. " You 
 always get the best of me there, because 
 you have been to college, but I know I 
 am right all the same." 
 
 "Well, of course," said Philip; "since 
 the beginning of time women have been 
 celebrated 
 
 120 
 
THE RIVER OF DART 
 
 With that she put her hand over his 
 month. 
 
 " I have told you before," she said 
 petulantly, "that I will not be called 
 * women.' You are always putting me 
 in the ranks with all the thousands of 
 women, you know, and some day you will 
 be losing sight of me. I don't wish to 
 stand to be compared with everybody you 
 know; I wish to be all by myself. I am 
 not a woman, or a girl, or anybody, 
 or anything, except just what you 
 see." 
 
 And she threw out her two hands with 
 a laugh, as if she were showing herself 
 off. 
 
 " Do you think you could ever be lost 
 in the ranks ? " said Philip, taking hold 
 of a curl of golden-brown hair that was 
 near the white neck. " Wouldn't this be 
 a decoration to single you out? Do you 
 think that Perdita, dressed in her lover's 
 121 
 
THE RIVER OF DART 
 
 clothes, would have passed muster among 
 Frederick's Pomeranian giants ? " 
 
 "I don't think Perdita lived in the 
 time of Frederick the Great," said she, 
 demurely. 
 
 " Perdita lived then, lives now, will 
 live always. When you and I shall have 
 got out of this dream, that we call life, 
 Perdita will still be going about with her 
 flowers, and singing her snatches of old 
 ballads/' 
 
 "I wonder if she ever did live, and if 
 she was happy?" said Lilian. "I wonder 
 if Shakespeare ever saw any girl that he 
 thought might be Perdita ? Don't you 
 think he must have been desperately in 
 love to have written so tenderly about 
 love ? and don't you think he must have 
 suffered dreadful misery about love to have 
 written so much about that ? Other things 
 he could imagine ambition, or pride, or 
 avarice without actually experiencing 
 122 
 
THE RIVER OF DART 
 
 them; but I think he must have been 
 very miserable about some one he loved 
 before he could have written about it." 
 
 " Why, what do you know of it ? " said 
 Philip with a look of wonder. 
 
 " I know only by anticipation/ 7 she said 
 wistfully. "I know what I shall suffer 
 -if if- -" 
 
 She never completed the sentence. It 
 was as if her soul had gone out of her, and 
 was already moving in the years to come. 
 Jims never liked these fits of strange brood- 
 ing which fell over the girl's eyes, and he 
 invariably interrupted them. 
 
 "I'm thinking," said he, "that Perdita 
 had an extra chance of being happy, sa 
 there was nae Parliament then to tak' her 
 sweetheart frae her." 
 
 " Parliaments are for old men," said 
 Lilian, sharply. " I would have no man 
 go into Parliament until he is sixty, and 
 fit for nothing else." 
 
 123 
 
THE RIVER OF DART 
 
 "You are too hard on me," said Jims 
 with a smile. 
 
 " Oh, I didn't mean you!" she said 
 anxiously, and at once taking his hand, 
 as if to atone for her indiscretion. " You 
 know I didn't mean you. I ought to have 
 said that no one should go into Parliament 
 who has got any relations, or any friends, 
 or anybody who cares a pin about him." 
 
 " But look what such a Parliament would 
 immediately do," said Philip. " They would 
 set to work to destroy all conjugal and 
 domestic ties, and make everybody as 
 miserable as themselves." 
 
 "But nobody would pay any attention 
 to what they did," said Lilian, scornfully. 
 
 "And we should have a very efficient 
 Parliament," said Jims. 
 
 So the desultory careless talk flowed on, 
 
 as they slowly made their way southward, 
 
 with the drowsiness of a hazy sunlight 
 
 around them, with the blue waves lapping 
 
 124 
 
THE RIVER OF DART 
 
 along the side of the boat, and a curl of 
 white at the prow ; with a gentle wind 
 just filling the sails, and causing the 
 pennon to flutter overhead. And now 
 they were about to see the last of Torquay 
 and its beautiful neighbourhood, for they 
 had nearly reached the point of Berry 
 Head. The spacious blue bay lay behind 
 them ; down there, on the left, the creek 
 of Buxham, with its clustered houses and 
 fleet of smacks ; then the white line of 
 Goodrington Sands, then the long brown 
 curve of Paignton beach, on which Lilia^ 
 had played for many a day when a child ; 
 and so round by the sandstone cliffs 01 
 Livermead to the massive hills and the 
 shining villas of Torquay, with the Thatcher 
 and Ore-stones jutting out from the point. 
 
 " Good-bye, Tor Hill, and Waldon Hill, 
 
 and Warbery Hill, and all the houses and 
 
 trees you have ! " said Lilian, standing up 
 
 and looking with a wistful smile towards 
 
 125 
 
THE RIVER OF DART 
 
 the receding shore ; " good-bye, Paignton, 
 with your pretty sands ! good-bye, with 
 your fishing-boats and your rocks ! I wish 
 I could take you all into my arms and kiss 
 you ! Good-bye ! good-bye ! good-bye ! " 
 
 And then, as the great cliffs and Berry 
 Head interposed, and cut off, one by one, 
 the various places on which her eyes 
 lingeringly and fondly dwelt, the smile 
 died away from her lips; and when the 
 last house of Torquay was shut out from 
 her sight, she sat down in the boat, and 
 covered her face with her hands, and 
 sobbed bitterly. 
 
 The gates of the old world the fair 
 world of her childhood and youth seemed 
 to for ever shut ; and there opened before 
 her another world, full of indeterminate 
 terror and sadness, and the pain of re- 
 nunciation. What might come she knew 
 not ; but she felt she would have to meet 
 it alone. 
 
 126 
 
THE RIVER OF DART 
 
 " My darling," said Philip, laying his 
 hand tenderly on the downcast head, 
 " we shall see all these places again." 
 
 " We shall never see them again, we two 
 together," she said, looking up with a white 
 face. 
 
 "If you say anything like that again," 
 he said, " do you know what I shall do ? I 
 will have this veritable and actual boat in 
 which you sit turned round ; and in an hour 
 or so we shall run into Torquay harbour. 
 Then, do you know what will follow, yo.u 
 timid little bird ? Mrs. Lawson will be 
 telegraphed for to bring down a special 
 license with her from London ; we shall 
 be married in Torquay ; and not only shall 
 we see all these places together, but we 
 shall not have them out of our sight ever 
 after; for I shall remain in Torquay, and 
 support my household by becoming what 
 shall I say ? a billiard marker. No ; I 
 should lose form down here. I shall be- 
 127 
 
THE RIVER OF DART 
 
 come a coastguardsman, and spend the 
 day in leaning over the parapet of the 
 quay and staring at nothing ; or I may 
 drive a cab. Do you know there is 
 nothing more probable than that I may 
 have to earn our joint living by driving 
 a cab?" 
 
 She looked up with a glance of surprise ; 
 and he saw that he had made a mistake. 
 It was not time yet to speak of what was 
 ahead in his affairs. So he adroitly con- 
 tinued the conversation, as if the chance 
 remarks had been only a bit of idle talk 
 in which they had been indulging ; and so, 
 by-and-by, he won her round into a more 
 cheerful humour. 
 
 But now the new line of coast, stretch- 
 ing down into the white haze of the south, 
 opened out before them; and they sailed 
 past the immense cliffs of limestone and 
 rock, which fell sheer into the green 
 water, with here and there a shelf of slate 
 128 
 
THE RIVER OF DART 
 
 gleaming through the thin veil of mist 
 that the sun had thrown over the land. 
 Spectral and vast loomed these silent cliffs 
 through the heat, their craggy headlands 
 throwing natural bridges out into the 
 water, their steep sides seamed with rugged 
 scars and black lines of caves. Over their 
 smooth summits stretched a faint surface 
 of green, with a few sheep or cattle visible 
 only as specks in the light ; while in some 
 sheltered bay the rocks sloped more gently 
 down to the water. There were trees and 
 a cottage or two lying warm and snug in 
 the valley, and a line of white shingle 
 where the dark sea met the shore. From 
 the splendid masses of Sparkham on to 
 Down End Point, these successive pro- 
 montories and bays were sufficiently familiar 
 to Lilian; and yet she did not care to 
 name them, so strange and unfamiliar they 
 appeared in this dream-like haze. Indeed, 
 at any time, there is something very 
 129 K 
 
THE RIVER OF DART 
 
 solemn in the look of the tall and silent 
 cliffs that stand unmoved above the great 
 murmuring plain of the waves, and are 
 so still you cannot but think that an awful 
 quiet has fallen upon them because they 
 have through so many years held commune 
 with the night and with the stars, and 
 that they have grown mournful because 
 they have looked over the sea towards 
 the grey east and beheld the mystery of 
 innumerable dawns. 
 
 Then, as they drew near the estuary of 
 the Dart, they ran close under the black 
 Mewstone the solitary jagged mass of 
 rock that stands out in the sea. Far 
 below them stretches the long blue line 
 of Start Bay, losing itself in a silver mist 
 in the south ; and as they turned inward 
 from the sea they found themselves in the 
 green haven of Dartmouth, with the old- 
 fashioned little town huddled along the 
 side of the steep hill that overlooks it. 
 130 
 
THE RIVER OF DART 
 
 Having rowed ashore to Kingswear, on 
 the opposite side of the river, they put 
 up at the Yacht Hotel there; and Jims 
 must needs go out on the balcony, to look 
 at the broad stream, the boats, the quaint 
 houses, and the lofty stretches of pasture 
 and fields of wheat that seemed to be 
 tumbling over the chimneys. The mid- 
 day sun was shining down on the place ; 
 but the hill is so vertical that, while it 
 remained in shadow, the light only caught 
 here and there on the top of a tree or 
 the slates of a house ; and these shone 
 out in yellow from the misty blue behind. 
 A still sleepy old-fashioned little place, with 
 picturesque houses and walls, built down 
 into the clear green deeps of the Dart, 
 with glimpses of rounded hill and sunny 
 pasture glimmering at the end of pre- 
 cipitous streets, and with a few villas on the 
 outskirts buried in trees, and perched upon 
 the steep rocks that rise from the water. 
 
THE RIVER OF DART 
 
 " This is anither place like Torquay," said 
 Jirns. " A man must either have his nose 
 level wi' his neighbour's doorstep or else 
 find himself lookin' down his sky-light 
 window. I wonder how they keep the 
 bairns frae flinging stanes down the 
 chimneys ? " 
 
 But Miss Lil, as they sometimes called 
 her, would have no one say a word against 
 the place; for it appertained to the Darfc, 
 and the Dart she had insisted on their 
 seeing before returning to London. She 
 had conducted them all over the neigh- 
 bourhood that she was familiar with; and 
 now, like the proprietor of a merry-go- 
 round, she was going to give them " a good 
 one for the last." When they praised 
 the beauty of the country she was pleased ; 
 but she always said, " You have not seen 
 the Dart yet ! " And now they were on 
 the very threshold of the mystic and 
 beautiful region; and they were to carry 
 
 132 
 
THE RIVER OF DART 
 
 the memory of this day's wanderings with 
 them to London, whither they were bound 
 on the morrow. 
 
 "What if it were to begin and rain 
 now ? " said Philip, as they sat in the 
 hotel. 
 
 " I should make you wait here for days 
 or weeks, till it cleared," said Miss Lil, 
 decidedly. 
 
 "You talk as if you were the owner 
 of the whole country, you arrogant little 
 woman," he said. " Whereas all that 
 belongs to you is some of the blue of 
 the sea that you have stolen into your 
 eyes by constantly looking out on Tor 
 Bay." 
 
 " The Dart is my river," she said 
 proudly. "You talk of those rivers 
 abroad that you have seen. My river is 
 the Dart ; and you will see whether it 
 is not prettier than any river you ever 
 
 saw." 
 
THE RIVER OF DART 
 
 " What shall be my punishment if I say 
 it is not half so fine as the Danube, for 
 instance ? " 
 
 " Why, your own blindness," she said, 
 with a toss of her head. 
 
 " But you have never seen any foreign 
 river." 
 
 " That doesn't matter," she observed 
 sententiously. "I "know the Dart is the 
 prettiest river in the whole world." 
 
 " And I know who is the absurdest little 
 woman that ever looked on the prettiest 
 river in the whole world. I wish I could 
 write poetry, Miss Lil, and I would call you 
 the Wild Kose of the Dart." 
 
 "But roses don't grow in rivers, you 
 stupid boy ! " she said. 
 
 " They grow by the banks of rivers ; and 
 isn't that the same ? " 
 
 " There, again ! " she said petulantly. 
 " Whenever I talk common sense " 
 
 " Which isn't often," he interjected. 
 
 134 
 
THE RIVER OF DART 
 
 "You bring logic into it, just to show 
 you have been to college." 
 
 "I wish college had taught him simple 
 addition/' said Jims, frowning over a scrap 
 of paper which Philip had handed him. 
 
 Mr. Philip, on being called upon to say 
 what was the share of the hotel expenses at 
 Torquay which fell to Jims and his young 
 charge, replied vaguely, five pounds. Jims 
 was not satisfied ; for he would not enter- 
 tain the notion that Mr. Philip should pay 
 anything beyond his own expenses ; so that 
 Philip was forced to draw up an imaginary 
 bill, which he presented to the old man. 
 
 " Three pounds ten and three pounds ten 
 make five pounds ! " said he. " I'm think- 
 ing yell no make your fortune as a clerk." 
 
 "Very well," said Philip, getting hold of 
 the paper, crumbling it up, and pitching it 
 into the grate. " You would have a state- 
 ment, and now you're not satisfied. If you 
 want to give me another five pounds, do. 
 
THE RIVER OF DART 
 
 Between the two of you I lead a happy life : 
 bullying and grumbling from the one, sneers 
 and contempt from the other. Now it is 
 my arithmetic, now it is my logic, that is 
 faulty. When I undertook to come down 
 here, it was to have a pleasant trip, not to 
 go into training for a senior wranglership." 
 
 " When you gentlemen have quite done 
 fighting," remarked Miss Lilian, with a 
 gracious politeness, " you may follow me to 
 the church out at the point ; " with which 
 she left the room. 
 
 The next moment Jims, still looking 
 down from the balcony, cried out 
 
 "Losh me! there she is, all by herself, 
 in the ferry." 
 
 " Come along, then," said Philip; " we 
 shall soon overtake her." 
 
 " 'Deed no," said Jims; "Im for nae 
 mair scrambling among the rocks like a 
 partan. I've had plenty o't lately. Gang 
 after her yersel'." 
 
 136 
 
THE RIVER OF DART 
 
 Mr. Philip, rushing downstairs, found 
 that the ordinary ferry-boat had left, but 
 that a horse-ferry, with two or three horses 
 and a waggon, was just being pushed off. 
 Without considering, he jumped on to the 
 raft as it was leaving the landing-stage, and 
 took his place by the neck of one of the 
 horses. It was an unlucky resolve. The 
 small steam-tug which generally drags the 
 ferry across was not in use, and there were 
 only two men, with long oars, to pull this 
 heavy craft across a broad stream, with a 
 swift current running down. Their plan of 
 operations was to pull the thing up the 
 bank, where there was a slight back current, 
 and then let it float down with the stream 
 to the opposite side; so that Mr. Philip 
 found himself being slowly taken up the 
 river, while the ordinary ferry-boat was 
 quietly plying both ways below. Nor was 
 there much more progress made when the 
 raft got farther over ; and, indeed, a more 
 
THE RIVER OF DART 
 
 ridiculous spectacle could not well be con- 
 ceived than he then presented, standing 
 angrily and helplessly, in the middle of the 
 river, with Jims grinning afc him from the 
 balcony of the hotel, and with Miss Lil 
 ready to die of laughing at him from the 
 opposite shore. He shook his hand at her ; 
 in reply she kissed her finger-tips to him in 
 mockery, for there was no one near to see. 
 When at length he gained the opposite 
 shore, and began to scold her for her hard- 
 heartedness, she was drying her eyes from 
 the effects of her merriment, and was 
 assuming a more sedate and gentle air, 
 with which to walk into and through the 
 old town. 
 
 " If the Dart is your river," said he, 
 " you might find some better means of 
 taking people across." 
 
 u Did you never try a horse-ferry be- 
 fore?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 138 
 
THE RIVER OF DART 
 
 "Then you deserve credit for your 
 courage/' she said, laughing. 
 
 He was glad to see that the happy 
 light never once died out of her eyes. 
 She was, in truth, in the brightest of 
 spirits ; for she looked forward to charm- 
 ing the hearts of her two companions 
 with the scenery of her pet river as 
 they sailed up in the afternoon. In the 
 mean time the day was warm and fine, 
 and there was overhead a clear intense 
 colour, almost as deep as that in her eyes, 
 as she and her companions wandered out 
 to the rugged point on which the old 
 church of St. Bedrock is built, over- 
 looking the narrow channel of the river 
 and the broad ocean. They entered the 
 small graveyard that is perched out on 
 these rocks, and glanced over the brief 
 narratives of deaths by sea and land which 
 were inscribed on the weather-worn tomb- 
 stones, with pathetic assurances that these 
 139 
 
THE RIVER OF DART 
 
 poor men and women were only "gone 
 before/ 1 
 
 "And here we must bid good-bye to 
 the sea," said Lilian, with more cheerful- 
 ness in her tone than when she saw Tor 
 Bay fading out of sight. " How blue it is." 
 
 They had strolled up from the old church 
 and the ruined castle to the lonely downs 
 above, and from the summit of the hill 
 they were gazing out on the sea and the far 
 ships. The wind had risen somewhat, and 
 the great blue plain before them had ruffled 
 streaks of green across it, with here and 
 there the deep purple of a cloud-shadow 
 moving briskly over the water. 
 
 "Look at it hard," she said to Philip, 
 " and then shut your eyes suddenly, and 
 turn round, and let us go away. And then 
 ever after, when you want to see the sea, 
 you need only shut your eyes and you will 
 see it, just as it is now." 
 
 "When I want to see the sea," he said, 
 140 
 
THE RIVER OF DART 
 
 "I shall look for it in your eyes, not by 
 shutting my own." 
 
 And so they turned away, and left the 
 sea. When they had gone down the hill- 
 side, and got into the cool shadow of the 
 trees that overhung the road, Lilian stopped 
 and put her hands over her eyes. 
 
 "Yes, yes, yes," she cried, "it is all 
 here ! Shall I tell you what I see ? First 
 there is the old grey church and the castle, 
 and then the steep rocks going straight 
 down to a little bay, with green water, and 
 rocks, and sea- weed, and white sand. Then 
 out there is the sea, blue and green, with 
 a few tiny tips of white ; and then, farther 
 out, it gets grey, and there are ships on 
 the line of the sky. Don't you see it too, 
 Philip?" 
 
 He took down her hands from her eyes 
 and held them. 
 
 "Look up," said he ; and she turned the 
 beautiful, frank eyes towards his. 
 141 
 
THE RIVER OF DART 
 
 " Yes," he said, "I can see it all here 
 every bit. Only the sea that I look at is 
 all blue ; and there are no clouds near ; and 
 it is safe and kind not treacherous and 
 angry like the one you speak of; and then, 
 besides, it is a sea that I can take up to 
 London, and it will shine there among the 
 smoke, and people will not know where you 
 and I get the sunshine for our house." 
 
 " Our house ! ' ! she said, almost sadly ; 
 and so, to prevent her thinking about this 
 hazardous future, he began to try the effect 
 of various wild flowers in her hair, and she 
 took one of them and kissed it, and gave it 
 to him. They were so young then, both of 
 them ; and overhead the sky was so fair. 
 
 By the time they returned Jims had got 
 luncheon ready, and had provided a suitable 
 and modest repast. Philip grumbled, never- 
 theless, saying that in honour of the Dart, 
 and of the fair young show-woman who 
 was to be their guide, something more 
 142 
 
THE RIVER OF DART 
 
 decorative in treatment should have been 
 ordered. You would have thought this 
 young gentleman had the mines of Gol- 
 conda in his waistcoat-pocket to hear him 
 speak ; whereas the fact was, of the two, 
 Jims was the moneyed man, and Mr. Philip 
 he who ought to have been economical. 
 But Mr. Philip was possessed by the 
 thoroughly masculine notion that one way 
 to please and gratify a woman is to give 
 her ostentatious meals, such as would suit 
 an elderly clubbist ; and was not this the 
 last day of Lilian's pilgrimage in Devon- 
 shire ? 
 
 You should have seen the sedate little 
 empress dressed all in black, with a touch 
 of white muslin round her neck seated in 
 the stern of the small steamer that was 
 about to go up the Dart. At first she was 
 calm and gracious, suffering herself to be 
 pleased with the cool breeze, and the sun- 
 shine, and the moving by of the various 
 
THE RIVER OF DART 
 
 vessels. But when the tiny steamer had 
 left its moorings, when Dartmouth was 
 slowly left behind, and the wonders of the 
 river began to unroll themselves as they 
 steamed up the green tide, her repose 
 and gentle satisfaction quite left her. She 
 became anxiously delighted, and would give 
 her companions no peace until they had 
 examined every corner and bend of the 
 stream. Now it was : 
 
 " Oh, Philip, isn't it lovely ? " 
 
 Or, again, u Look, look, Mr. Lawson ! 
 These are the Mount Boone woods; and 
 see how they come down to the river's 
 edge ! And that is Dittisham that cluster 
 of cottages smothered in orchards; and 
 above it is Bramble Torr ! Do you 
 see how green the water is with the 
 sea?" 
 
 So they sailed up between the overhang- 
 ing woods, that lay dusky and warm in 
 the sunlight, and had their masses of light 
 
 144 
 
THE RIVER OF DART 
 
 foliage mirrored in the smooth stream 
 below. They glided as in a dream past 
 the pleasant banks of this pretty Devon- 
 shire river, past the tiny villages, with 
 the grey spire of a church visible over the 
 trees, past steep hillsides with cattle and 
 farmyards on them, past verdant knolls 
 surmounted by some big old house. It 
 was all very pretty, doubtless ; and perhaps 
 to one who was familiar, as Philip was, 
 with the Scotch lochs and the South 
 German rivers, it was no more than 
 pretty; but they had to vow and swear, 
 both of them, that there was no river like 
 Lilian's river. 
 
 At length even the wonders of the Dart 
 came to an end, as the small steamer was 
 finally roped to its moorings outside 
 Totnes town. And here they found their 
 luggage waiting them at the hotel ; and 
 having wandered about the old place and 
 visited the castle, as in duty bound, they 
 H5 L 
 
THE RIVER OF DART 
 
 had some tea, and prepared to go out for 
 a pleasant walk in the sunset. 
 
 Jims preferred to stay indoors, probably 
 fancying that the two young people would 
 as soon walk by themselves. Philip, how- 
 ever, got an opportunity of telling him in 
 a few minutes' private conversation of all 
 that had occurred and all that he had 
 concealed. 
 
 "Were ye clean wud to come down 
 here and spend money, when every shilling 
 was o' consequence to you ? " 
 
 "Don't you remember Lilian saying 
 something about wishing to have this 
 little trip a time of perfect enjoyment?" 
 replied Philip, as if that were a complete 
 answer. 
 
 "Bless me," said Jims, "if a man is 
 to make a fule o' himself every time a 
 woman asks him ! and I'm sure the lassie 
 would never have allowed it had she 
 
 known " 
 
 146 
 
THE RIVER OF DART 
 
 " That was precisely why I didn't tell 
 her." 
 
 "And you'll catch it when you do," 
 said Jims, with an angry smile. " 'Deed, 
 I never heard the like. When you should 
 ha' been saving up every farthing ye had, 
 when you should ha' been looking out 
 for work, to come stravaging down here, 
 and living like a king at that wearifu' 
 hotel in Torquay. I never heard o' sich 
 a daftlike trick in my born days." 
 
 "I think I never did anything more 
 sensible all my life," said Philip. " The 
 chances were that she and I should never 
 have an opportunity again at least 
 not for a long while of having such a 
 pleasant time together ; and if I had 
 told her, she would not have allowed 
 it, as you say. What signifies a few 
 pounds ? " 
 
 " Tell me this," said the old man, 
 abruptly. " Do you mean to make your 
 
THE RIVER OF DART 
 
 own living, marry a wife o' your own 
 choosing, and be inaister o' your own 
 coming and going ? Or do you only mean 
 to make-believe you're doing that, and 
 hang on i' th' expectation o' your father 
 turnin' round ? " 
 
 "You don't know my father," said 
 Philip, " or you wouldn't speculate on that 
 chance. You might as well hope for 
 Bramble Tor to turn round." 
 
 " Then you are positeevely determined to 
 gang your ain gate ? " 
 
 "Most decidedly," said Philip; "that 
 is to say, I mean to do what that would 
 probably be if it were translated into 
 English. I dare say I know what you 
 mean ; and I mean to ( gang my ain 
 gate.' " 
 
 " I'm no sayin' you're right," said Jims, 
 with grave Scotch caution, " and I'm no 
 sayin' you're wrong. Every man has his 
 ain notion o' what's better for him in this 
 
 148 
 
THE RIVER OF DART 
 
 world ; and it is no great maitter to any 
 case, for it lasts so little a time. But, 
 my certes, if you mean to make your own 
 living, you'll find out that a few pounds 
 is of mair consequence than ye seem to 
 think." 
 
 " Probably," said Philip, with a fine 
 carelessness. " But the money I spent 
 down here would have been good for 
 nothing in the way of helping me to 
 work. The want of it will be a better 
 spur." 
 
 The entrance of Lilian at this time 
 prevented their further talk over the 
 matter. She had on her outdoor cos- 
 tume, and stood at the door of the 
 room. 
 
 " Who is coming ? " she said. " I shall 
 be your valet de place again." 
 
 Philip and she left together. They 
 passed out of the town, and got down 
 to the side of the Dart, by the alders. 
 149 
 
THE RIVER OF DART 
 
 The great glow of light from the west 
 was shining along the tops of the woods, 
 and farther down the crimson overhead 
 was reflected in the bend of the stream, 
 that lay like a line of blood between the 
 green meadows. Most of the birds were 
 silent now ; but the blackbird's flute-like 
 note was heard from among the trees 
 down by the river; and occasionally, as 
 they strolled along the narrow path, a 
 thrush would send out a long, clear, 
 wavering trill from the deeps of the 
 bushes along the bank. They met no 
 one but a young girl, who was coming 
 home with both hands filled with flowers. 
 She bade them " good evening" as she 
 passed, and her voice seemed strange in 
 the silence of the place ; for Lilian had 
 spoken scarcely a word since they left 
 the inn. 
 
 " Why are you so very quiet ? " he said. 
 " Are you not pleased that our trip has 
 150 
 
THE RIVER OF DART 
 
 been so pleasant throughout, and has 
 closed so pleasantly ? " 
 
 " It has been very pleasant, has it 
 not ? " she said (her veil was down, and 
 he could not see the expression of her 
 face). " And this is our last evening and 
 our last walk together." 
 
 "For the present, yes," said Philip, 
 cheerfully. 
 
 She said nothing further for some time, 
 until they had gone down to the bend 
 of the river, where the red colour lay, 
 and beyond that there was the dusk of 
 the twilight, from which they both in- 
 stinctively turned. 
 
 "Let us go back," she said; and there 
 was something in the tone of her voice, 
 as they turned away from the ruddy stream 
 and the silent trees, that made him regard 
 more attentively the inscrutable veil that 
 was over her face. The hand on his arm 
 had been trembling for some time, and 
 
THE RIVER OF DART 
 
 all at once she said, in heart-breaking 
 accents 
 
 " Oh, my love, my love ! Shall we 
 never be here again, yon and I ? " 
 
 She turned her face up to him, and he 
 saw now that she had been crying all this 
 time, as they were walking down the river- 
 path. And it seemed to him then that 
 something more was required than the 
 ordinary gentle assurances to remove the 
 passionate despair into which she was 
 plunged. So he said 
 
 " Why do you ask that, Lilian? What 
 are you afraid of? Do you know that, 
 before I came down here, I gave up every- 
 thing in the world for you, so sure I was 
 that we two should go through the world 
 together ? " 
 
 And then he told her, rapidly and clearly, 
 the position in which he stood towards 
 herself and towards her friends. 
 
 He had long dreaded this necessity, 
 
 152 
 
THE RIVER OF DART 
 
 and he had pictured to himself what her 
 reception of these disclosures would be. 
 She would not consent to this abnegation 
 for her sake; she would implore him to 
 go back to his family ; she would be in 
 misery over what had happened, and 
 blame herself for it. 
 
 Surely she could not have understood? 
 The veil she had drawn back from her 
 face, and now she looked up to him with 
 a strange, proud, confident look in her 
 eyes. 
 
 "Is what you tell me true?" she said. 
 " You have done all this for me ? " 
 
 " And have I not done right ? " 
 
 There was an almost wild look of 
 courage, and joy, and triumph passing 
 across her face, and she said 
 
 " I am not afraid now, Philip. It seems 
 
 to me that you have come so much nearer 
 
 to me that I need not be afraid. We will 
 
 go to London together. It will not make 
 
 153 
 
THE RIVER OF DART 
 
 us afraid now, will it ? Oh, my dear, my 
 dear, you have made my heart full of love 
 for you ! " 
 
 Her eyes were wet and wild; yet there 
 was joy shining in them. She turned 
 round to have one last look at the Dart; 
 and then she said to him, in a low 
 voice 
 
 " A few minutes ago, Philip, I wished 
 that I was lying underneath the stream. 
 You know they say 
 
 " ' river of Dart ! river of Dart ! 
 Every year you break a heart ; ' 
 
 and I thought it was mine the river had 
 taken this year. And now I feel so strong 
 and brave ; and I am ready oh, I am 
 ready, my dear, to face twenty Londons, 
 and fight them all for your sake ! " 
 
 Then he stooped down and kissed her, 
 almost solemnly; and he felt on his fore- 
 head the light touch of her lips, as though 
 the wing of a butterfly had touched him. 
 154 
 
THE RIVER OF DART 
 
 It was the first embrace she had bestowed 
 on him; it was his royal accolade; and 
 there he became her knight, and swore to 
 be faithful to this sweet mistress for ever. 
 
THE FIELD OF BATTLE 
 
I 
 
 OUR FLIGHT FROM MUNCHEN- 
 GRATZ * 
 
 WHEN I arrived in Mtinchengratz on the 
 morning of the 28th of June, I found the 
 little town in a state of the greatest 
 possible consternation. The Prussians were 
 
 * The war between the Austrians and Prussians in the 
 summer of 1866 is generally known as the "Seven Weeks' 
 War. 11 The decisive battle of Koniggratz took place on 
 July 3rd, King William I. commanding the Prussians, and 
 Marshal Benedek being in charge of the Austrians. The 
 attack began at Sadowa about 10 a.m., and the result was 
 uncertain until shortly after noon, when the Crown Prince 
 of Prussia appeared with reinforcements, and the Austrians 
 were gradually beaten back, and finally forced into a disastrous 
 flight. Over 400,000 men were engaged in this battle, and the 
 Austrians lost 40,000 killed and 20,000 taken prisoners. The 
 war decided the supremacy of Prussia to Germany, gave unity 
 to North Germany and Venetia to Italy. It also led to the 
 independence of Hungary. 
 
 159 
 
THE FIELD OF BATTLE 
 
 advancing from Hiihnerwasser already 
 their foreposts had encountered the fore- 
 posts of our army ; and from ten o'clock 
 in the forenoon we could hear the dull 
 throbbing of the firing, which to my 
 mind most resembles the distant tumbling 
 of a waggon of coals. The main body 
 of our army was stationed immediately 
 behind the village of Mtinchengratz a 
 line extending almost to the hamlet of 
 Bossin ; but as yet we had no idea that 
 the Prussians would eventually occupy 
 Miinchengratz ; for, as I said, our out- 
 posts were on the north of the village, 
 were pretty strong, and were, as we be- 
 lieved, to be supported by the whole 
 strength of the army as soon as they were 
 attacked. 
 
 It is not for me, who am a commercial 
 man, to say what our military commanders 
 should have done. Doubtless they know 
 their trade better than I do. But what I 
 
 1 60 
 
OUR FLIGHT FROM MUNCHENGRATZ 
 
 can affirm is this that we in Miinchengratz 
 saw the wounded being carried in from this 
 fight at the outposts, while Prince Rohan, 
 and Generals Clam - Gallas, Krismanic, 
 and Honigstein still remained in Prince 
 Schwartzenburg's castle. The Prussians 
 continued to advance at least, so we 
 heard in the town and by twelve o'clock 
 every shop in the place was closed. The 
 people began to gather together whatever 
 of their goods was most valuable and most 
 easily carried ; for it was known that a 
 train for private passengers would leave 
 Miinchengratz at two o'clock, and proceed 
 southward by Buntzlau. You could not 
 buy a cigar, or a loaf of bread, or a 
 sausage, or a glass of beer every place 
 was closed ; and had it , not been that I 
 was personally acquainted with the excellent 
 landlord of the biggest inn in Miinchengratz, 
 I should have had starvation added to other 
 discomforts. It seemed as if the entire town 
 161 M 
 
THE FIELD OF BATTLE 
 
 had fled to the railway station ; and there 
 the crowd of people, carrying with them 
 bundles wrapped in handkerchiefs, port- 
 manteaus filled with bits of silver, plate, 
 and other household luxuries, chests con- 
 taining their best clothes, or the most 
 portable of their merchandise this crowd, 
 I say, eagerly flocked into the station and 
 surrounded the train that was expected to 
 leave at two o'clock. A number of extra 
 carriages were attached; and the people 
 saw that they were likely to be all accom- 
 modated : it was the only train which the 
 military would grant that day for the use of 
 civilians. 
 
 I, also, might have left with this train ; 
 but, in the first place, I had some urgent 
 business with one or two persons who still 
 remained in the town ; and, secondly, I did 
 not believe that there was the slightest 
 chance of the Prussians driving our soldiers 
 out of Mlinchengratz. Had we not an army 
 
 162 
 
OUR FLIGHT FROM MUNCHENGRATZ 
 
 of nearly forty thousand men, commanded 
 by brave officers ? had we not the advantage 
 of knowing the country well, with the Iser 
 as a line of defence on our left ? and had 
 not the Prussians at least, so we had 
 heard been routed everywhere along the 
 borders as they crossed from Saxony ? So 
 it was that in this belief I remained in 
 Miinchengratz. 
 
 It was not a very cheerful afternoon. 
 The central square of the place, upon 
 which my window in the inn looked, was 
 wholly deserted the shutters were on the 
 windows of the small shops there was 
 no one passing along the narrow streets, 
 except when a country waggon came 
 rumbling over the stones, guarded by Prus- 
 sian soldiers, and bearing a number of 
 their wounded companions. What were 
 the generals doing? We heard that they 
 were still up in the castle, while the 
 army lay inactive behind the town, and 
 163 
 
THE FIELD OF BATTLE 
 
 the Prussians were cutting down our out- 
 posts without mercy. 
 
 The men with whom I had business to do 
 not arriving, I went out to seek for them. 
 The dull grey sky had now commenced to 
 rain, and this added to the desolate look of 
 the closed houses and empty streets. The 
 still silence was only broken by the regular 
 boom of the guns, that one fancied came 
 always nearer. I could not find the men. 
 I went to the railway station; the train 
 had gone two hours before ; they were not 
 to be seen anywhere. As I returned to the 
 inn, we heard that the generals had left the 
 castle, and had gone no one knew whither 
 we were only certain that they had not gone 
 in the direction of the conflict. The people 
 who had ventured to remain in the town 
 now discovered the box in which their 
 temerity had placed them. Our army 
 behind Miinchengratz did not advance; 
 our foreposts retreated, pursued by the 
 164 
 
OUR FLIGHT FROM MUNCHENGRATZ 
 
 Prussians ; and towards evening it became 
 evident that the latter were in the im- 
 mediate neighbourhood of the town. What, 
 then, was to be done? The heavy rain- 
 clouds made the twilight fall more rapidly ; 
 and we still hoped that the darkness would 
 cause a cessation of hostilities. 
 
 It was about half-past ten that I was 
 seated in the parlour of the inn, by the 
 window which looked out on the market- 
 place. There was no screen on the window. 
 Suddenly I heard a sharp metallic ring 
 outside, and as I turned immediately to 
 discover the cause, the whole square was 
 lit up by a flash of bright orange flame, 
 while a terrific explosion made the small 
 houses shake to their foundation. It is 
 impossible to conceive the startling effect 
 of this instantaneous shock in the perfect 
 stillness of the night ; and for a moment 
 I could not imagine what had produced 
 such a strange occurrence. Presently, 
 
THE FIELD OF BATTLE 
 
 however, the landlord rushed into the 
 room, his face livid with fear. 
 
 " Did you hear that ? " he cried. 
 
 " Yes, and saw it too," I said. 
 
 " The Prussians are firing upon the 
 town. That is the first bombshell. Our 
 houses will be burned we shall be killed 
 the town will be in flames before the 
 morning." 
 
 For the moment he seemed beside him- 
 self. The grenade had come too near; he 
 was unable to face the prospect of being 
 shelled all night with the same equanimity 
 with which he had borne the distant firing 
 of the guns. 
 
 "They are just without the town," he 
 said gaspingly. 
 
 " How do you know ? " I asked. 
 
 " Has not the bombshell fallen just 
 outside in the market-place ? " 
 
 "But they may be a mile and a half 
 distant all the same." 
 
 1 66 
 
OUR FLIGHT FROM MUNCHENGRATZ 
 
 "What does that matter," he said, 
 pathetically, " if they can blow us up ? " 
 
 "I quite agree with you," I said ; " and 
 I should be happy to run away from the 
 place were it not that I should be sure 
 to run against either the Prussian outposts 
 or our own outposts, and either would 
 certainly shoot me." 
 
 He sank into a chair, overcome by this 
 horrible vision. 
 
 " Our army is down by the road to 
 Fiirstenbriick," he said presently; " could 
 we not get away by the Kosmanos road? 
 I know a way over the fields that would 
 lead us thither." 
 
 I confess that I was as anxious to escape 
 as he was. I could have done no good to 
 our arms had I been ever so patriotic ; and 
 by this time I had despaired of obtaining 
 my money from the men of whom I had 
 been in search. Momentarily, too, the 
 firing seemed to be coming nearer; and 
 167 
 
THE FIELD OF BATTLE 
 
 though no more grenades fell in the 
 square, it was evident that the Prussians 
 were advancing, that they were near the 
 town, and that as they could not in the 
 dark know that any town was before them, 
 they would continue to fire upon what 
 they supposed to be the position of our 
 troops. 
 
 So said I to the landlord, "If we remain 
 here we shall be shot. If we go away we 
 have at least a chance of escape ; let us go 
 away." 
 
 A very few moments sufficed for our 
 preparation. I had no luggage ; and I 
 suppose my friend only took his money 
 with him. I went to the front door and 
 looked out into that blank darkness, where 
 one or two lights were twinkling down 
 upon the pools formed by the rain. There 
 was no sound but the hissing of the shower 
 on the stones, with the occasional dead 
 throbbing of the guns ; but it seemed to 
 1 68 
 
OUR FLIGHT FROM MUNCHENGRATZ 
 
 me as if every dusky shadow of an arch- 
 way or door concealed a group of watching 
 Prussians. If the Prussians were not there, 
 where were the Austrians? One could 
 scarcely keep from believing that this 
 silence was the silence of an ambuscade, 
 and that so soon as one ventured forth 
 from one's house there would again leap 
 forth the swift fire and swifter bullet of 
 some weapon, and so the end of all things 
 arrive. The landlord caught me by the 
 arm. 
 
 " Where are you going?" he said in 
 a stage whisper. 
 
 " To Kosrnanos." 
 
 "But if you go through the streets you 
 will be shot to a certainty. I know a better 
 way. Come ! " 
 
 He dragged me in and locked the door. 
 
 He took me to the back of the house ; and 
 
 having also secured the doors there, we 
 
 made our way down through his garden. 
 
 169 
 
THE FIELD OF BATTLE 
 
 At the foot of the garden was a tall 
 brick wall, with some cherries, or vines, 
 or peaches trained against it; here my 
 friend had to grope about for a summer 
 seat, with the aid of which we speedily 
 got over, and clambered down into a 
 ditch on the opposite side. From this 
 ditch rose a cornfield on a considerable 
 incline; and it was now that we first 
 began to appreciate the pleasures of our 
 flight. In the first place, the clayey soil 
 was so slippery that we had to pull our- 
 selves along by clutching handfuls of the 
 grain, and every two or three minutes 
 we found ourselves on our knees in the 
 thick, yielding mud. Then the corn was, 
 of course, dripping wet ; and as, to avoid 
 detection, we had to crouch along with 
 our head and shoulders down, a very 
 short time only was needed to drench us 
 from top to toe. My companion began to 
 puff and pant; I could hear him blowing 
 
 170 
 
OUR FLIGHT FROM MUNCHENGRATZ 
 
 away from his face the rain that the 
 corn dashed against his mouth, eyes, 
 and nose ; and at certain intervals I 
 knew, by a strange sound, that he had 
 sunk down on hands and knees in the 
 soft earth. At another time I should 
 have given him credit for a remarkable 
 patience, in that not a word of complaint 
 escaped from his lips; but I knew that 
 this silence was occasioned by his fear of 
 receiving a rifle-bullet through his head. 
 
 When we had gained the top of this 
 incline we were even more cautious in 
 our movements, for now there was the 
 greatest chance of our running against 
 the sentries, who, of course, would not 
 pause in the darkness to ask us whether 
 we were Austrians or Prussians. The 
 cornfields now gave way to pasture- 
 land, and we could discern vaguely the 
 outline of bushes and trees against the 
 black sky. Need I say that every bush 
 
 171 
 
THE FIELD OF BATTLE 
 
 took the form of a man, and that every 
 shadow of a tree seemed to be some tent, 
 or sentry-box, or provision- waggon ? We 
 never lifted our heads but we saw some 
 faint outline that sent a shudder through 
 us, as we thought of the terrible swiftness 
 of a rifle-bullet. Firing we heard con- 
 stantly; but, though yet apparently some 
 distance off, it was impossible to say that 
 the army had withdrawn its outposts and 
 gone to the south-east. 
 
 " I cannot go much farther," whispered 
 the landlord to me, in a despairing tone; 
 " this mud is too much for me. I must 
 lie down and wait for the morning." 
 
 "If you fall asleep in this rain," I 
 represented to him, "you will not awaken 
 in Germany." 
 
 He only groaned, and then puffed again 
 the raindrops from his face. 
 
 So we struggled on, blindly, stumbling 
 down into ditches, and creeping up again, 
 
 172 
 
OUR FLIGHT FROM MUNCHENGRATZ 
 
 crossing pathways and fields of all sorts 
 of produce. 
 
 "I know the way/' he said; "but I 
 don't think we shall ever see Kosmanos." 
 
 He had scarcely uttered the words when 
 I heard a suppressed shriek, and the next 
 moment I knew that he had stumbled 
 forward and fallen upon the ground. 
 
 " What is it, then ? " I said. 
 
 "Who are you?" said a gruff voice; 
 and I could now see before me the figure 
 of a man, who was apparently a soldier. 
 
 " We are Austrians, and we want to go 
 to Kosmanos," I said. 
 
 I watched the outline of the man's 
 figure, ready to seize him if he lifted 
 his arm. I knew it was my only chance, 
 for if he fired once he would call a hundred 
 of his companions. Fire once ! Sure as 
 two and two make four this man had 
 been hiding. Probably sent out as a 
 scout, he was down on his knees when 
 
THE FIELD OF BATTLE 
 
 my friend tumbled over him ; and to 
 judge by voices, the soldier was a great 
 deal more frightened than we were. 
 
 " Where are the Prussians ? " he asked. 
 
 " How can we tell ? " I said. " I 
 hear, from the firing, that they are near 
 Miinchengratz." 
 
 " And you are not spies, then ? " 
 
 He was assuming a magnificent air of 
 authority. Well he knew that we were 
 not spies; and I can fancy that there 
 was a blush on his brown face as he 
 asked the question. He condescended to 
 be satisfied with our response that we 
 were not. 
 
 "You may go," he saidjjprandly, 
 
 " Thank you," we said humbly. 
 
 "Mind you," he observed, as he went 
 off, "keep to the right, or you will fall 
 in with our army, and you will be shot." 
 
 "Thank you." 
 
 So again we stumbled on, and left the 
 
 174 
 
OUR FLIGHT FROM MUNCHENGRATZ 
 
 poor scout once more to creep down and 
 hide in the field. 
 
 It seemed to me that the night would 
 never end, that the firing would never 
 cease, that the rain was to continue for 
 ever. I fear that the shock of meeting 
 with the sentry had somewhat dulled the 
 clearness of my friend's intellect. When 
 I asked him if he still knew the way, 
 his replies became more uncertain. He 
 gave me vague assurance that it was " all 
 right/ 7 and finally declared that he knew 
 nothing whatever of our position. 
 
 The confession came too late. As he 
 spoke I felt the ground give way beneath 
 my feet, and the next instant I was 
 slipping rapidly down a steep incline, 
 whither I knew not. Suddenly my feet 
 caught a bush ; I was about to slip past 
 this also, but I threw out my arms and 
 caught the branches. I was safe. 
 
 But what was this broad line of deep 
 
 175 
 
THE FIELD OF BATTLE 
 
 black beneath? I listened intently, and 
 through the dripping of the rain I could 
 hear the murmur of water. It was the 
 Iser; and I was but a few feet from the 
 brink. 
 
 "Was, dann?" I heard the landlord 
 say, in a terrified whisper. 
 
 He had paused on the brink, and was 
 doubtless peering down into the gulf into 
 which I had fallen. I knew not whether 
 to move or remain by this bush until the 
 morning ; but as my eyes became more 
 accustomed to the place I recognized 
 the outline of other bushes, and, a short 
 distance off, I saw the bank was covered 
 by young trees. Cautiously (I feared that 
 deep line of . black water more than any 
 sentry or musket) I crept along on hands 
 and knees, and reached the miniature 
 forest. With what a thrill of joy I 
 clasped the first trunk the slim stem 
 of a birch tree ! In a few minutes I 
 176 
 
OUR FLIGHT FROM MUNCHENGRATZ 
 
 had clambered to the summit, and here 
 my friend received me with both his 
 trembling hands. 
 
 " I thought you had fallen into a quarry, " 
 he said. 
 
 " Worse ; I was nearly in the Iser." 
 
 " The Iser ! " 
 
 "That is the Iser down in the hollow. 
 Don't you know where we are now ? " 
 
 u Ah! the Iser?" he said vaguely; and 
 I knew that he had no better notion than 
 before of our whereabouts. 
 
 " Yes, the Iser," I said, in no very good 
 temper. "I thought you knew all this 
 district." 
 
 "And so I do," he said piteously; "but 
 how can one tell in the dark? And the 
 Iser runs for miles ; and how am I to tell 
 which part of the Iser it is ? " 
 
 So there was nothing for it but again 
 to blunder on the same wild tramping 
 through corn and over mud hour after 
 
 177 N 
 
THE FIELD OF BATTLE 
 
 hour until a thin grey light began to 
 steal along the face of the sky. We 
 now kept pretty much the same course 
 as did the river, my companion having 
 recovered his scent. For some hours the 
 firing had totally ceased, and as the day- 
 light broke over the dull plains we could 
 detect no dark lines of uniform through 
 the white smoke of the morning mist. At 
 seven o'clock we saw before us Kosmanos ! 
 
 If you look upon the map you will say 
 we took a long time to walk that short 
 distance ; but no one knows how far we 
 wandered in the darkness of that horrible 
 night. Our stay in Kosmanos was short ; 
 so soon as our clothes were dried we again 
 set out for Jung-Buntzlau, and remained 
 there the following evening. 
 
 The landlord in Buntzlau thought to 
 reap some profit by the war; and, at a 
 late hour of the night, said he could 
 only give me a room if I paid five 
 
OUR FLIGHT FROM MUNCHENGRATZ 
 
 florins for it. I paid the five florins, 
 and the next morning went to the magis- 
 trate, who forthwith sent for the man. 
 The truth of the matter having been 
 established, he was ordered to return me 
 four florins and fifty kreutzers, and to pay 
 besides five florins to the poor-box. 
 
 Then I bade good-bye to my friend, 
 the other landlord, who said he would 
 remain in Buntzlau until he could return 
 to Miinchengratz, and set out for the south. 
 
 179 
 
II 
 
 OUR QUARTERS IN HORZITZ 
 
 AN extraordinary piece of good luck befel 
 our little party in Glitschin. We had 
 wandered for nearly an hour through 
 the mud and rain and darkness of that 
 miserable little town, in search of such 
 modest luxuries as a supper and a sack 
 of hay. Every house was full, every small 
 inn crammed, and we stumbled over the 
 rough stones, over heaps of wet straw, 
 and between ammunition waggons, in 
 vain. About ten o'clock, however, we 
 caught sight of a large room in which 
 had congregated a crowd of Bohemian 
 peasants, their ragged appearance being 
 softened by a blue halo of thick tobacco 
 smoke; and with joy we observed that 
 180 
 
OUR QUARTERS IN HORZITZ 
 
 one of the rude home-made tables was 
 unoccupied. We entered; the landlady 
 was gracious. A Prussian soldier, fast 
 asleep on the form which was placed 
 against the wall, was begged to sit up- 
 right, and thus we obtained seats. 
 
 "Can we have something to eat?" said 
 Waldek. 
 
 "Yes, certainly/' said the woman, run- 
 ning off, and presently returning with a 
 big, round loaf of dark-brown bread. 
 
 " You have nothing else ? " 
 
 "No," she replied, looking very much 
 hurt. 
 
 Were we princes or travelling English- 
 men that we wanted more ! 
 
 "And I can give you beer, also," she 
 said, in a quite sumptuous manner, as 
 though this prospect would be to us (as 
 indeed it was) a glimpse of fairyland. 
 
 " That is good," said Waldek; " and can 
 we sleep here to-night ? " 
 
 181 
 
THE FIELD OF BATTLE 
 
 "Ja, freilich," she replied, momentarily 
 growing more magnificent in that splendid 
 self-consciousness of being a good genius. 
 "I will let you have the chairs and forms 
 when the men have left, and when the 
 soldiers have gone to their rooms/' 
 
 So we temporarily secured this accom- 
 modation by leaving as deposits the persons 
 of Vecko, Waldek, and Eosenfeld; while 
 Heinz and I once more set out through 
 the darkness to see if our good fortune 
 would further attend us. In the centre 
 of Gitschin is the square which ordinarily 
 forms the market-place, but which was 
 now filled with Prussian waggons. Around 
 the square the houses project from the 
 first storey upwards, and are supported 
 by pillars; while in the rustic piazza 
 underneath are the chief shops of the 
 town and two hostelries. Forcing a pas- 
 sage through the dense crowd of people 
 and soldiers, we reached one of these 
 182 
 
OUR QUARTERS IN HORZITZ 
 
 inns, and were greeted by a savoury odour 
 of cooking. As all the rooms were full 
 we went into the kitchen, where were a 
 lot of women running about in a seem- 
 ingly distracted state. A young lieutenant 
 had unbuckled his sword, and put it under- 
 neath the table; and was now, with a 
 saucepan in his hand, bending over one 
 of the stoves, and watching the eggs he 
 was trying to make ready. Another officer 
 came in a much older man, with green 
 spectacles and with a grave accent asked 
 how the affair went. 
 
 "All right," cries his younger brother; 
 " bring me a plate, will you ? " 
 
 A third officer made his appearance, 
 with a large loaf in his hand. He asked 
 several times for a knife ; no one would 
 attend to him. 
 
 "Mem hiibsches Madchen, will you not 
 give me a knife ?" he said, putting his 
 arm coaxingly round the waist of a young 
 
 183 
 
THE FIELD OF BATTLE 
 
 girl who was about to lift a bit of steak 
 from a pan. 
 
 She made a quick movement to free 
 herself the steak dropped on the floor 
 and she turned to him with indignation 
 on her round, rosy face. In an instant 
 he had picked up the piece of meat with 
 his fingers and carried it oif. 
 
 " You see, it was my fault, my girl, 
 and I must eat the steak myself," he 
 said, as he departed in triumph. 
 
 And now Heinz put in his plea. Would 
 she kindly cook something for us? We 
 should be glad to make room for ourselves 
 in the passage or elsewhere, if she would 
 only give us plates. He would pay any- 
 thing that was asked. 
 
 Whereupon she turned upon him. " Do 
 you think we are Prussians? If we had 
 the meat to cook you should have it with- 
 out being robbed. But when we have it 
 not, what then? " 
 
 184 
 
OUR QUARTERS IN HORZITZ 
 
 So we disconsolately left, and, passing 
 underneath the church tower, skulked 
 along the front of the houses which here 
 face the Horzitz road. Judge of our 
 delight on looking through one of these 
 windows and seeing within a saloon, with 
 only a few civilians and one or two officers 
 in the place, who were seated before a 
 table with a white cloth upon it. We stole 
 into the passage. 
 
 "Do you think there is a chance of 
 our getting some supper here ? " asked 
 Heinz of the first man who made his 
 appearance, and who turned out to be 
 the owner of the place. 
 
 "Certainly." 
 
 "I mean some cooked supper." 
 
 "Certainly." 
 
 "And beer?" 
 
 " Certainly." 
 
 A broad smile of joy broke over Heinz's 
 roseate countenance. 
 
 185 
 
THE FIELD OF BATTLE 
 
 "And could you send a messenger for 
 our three companions, and give them also 
 supper ? " 
 
 " Certainly." 
 
 " And could you lodge us for the night?" 
 
 " I could give you a room, and put 
 some straw beds on the floor," said this 
 king of men. 
 
 Such was our good fortune in Gitschin. 
 There was a different story to tell in 
 Horzitz. As we entered the little town, 
 which had lately been the headquarters 
 of the king, we encountered an evil omen 
 in the crowd of people that had assembled 
 round a small white building which bore 
 the inscription, " Office for the billeting of 
 the wounded." Dark stories were afloat 
 of numbers of soldiers having been found 
 in the fields and the ditches long after 
 the battle of Sadowa, and it was expected 
 that on this very evening these unfortunate 
 creatures, who, to the pain of their wounds, 
 1 86 
 
OUR QUARTERS IN HORZITZ 
 
 had added several days' exposure to bitter 
 cold and rain, would arrive at Horzitz. 
 Where were they to be housed? As we 
 walked along the narrow, muddy street 
 we were told that there was not one of 
 the small white-washed buildings which 
 had not already received its apportion- 
 ment of the wounded; and any further 
 accession to these numbers would only 
 glut the rooms, which were already too 
 full, and add to the general misery. The 
 extent of accommodation to be found in 
 the different dwellings was already pretty 
 well known to the officers who had charge 
 of the billeting; but in view of this fresh 
 demand upon their resources they were 
 again visiting the various houses and inns, 
 armed with authority to claim and obtain 
 the last inch of room. 
 
 The landlady of the hostelry to whom 
 we had been directed was in a state of 
 hysterics. Utterly regardless as to whether 
 187 
 
THE FIELD OF BATTLE 
 
 her hearers were Austrians or Prussians, 
 she was pouring forth lamentations over 
 the ruin of her house, much to the em- 
 barrassment of a large-bodied, soft-faced, 
 servant girl, who stood behind her mistress 
 and waited for orders. The large apart- 
 ment was filled by a company of peasants, 
 Prussian soldiers, and others, who certainly 
 made quite sufficient noise ; but high above 
 the buzz and din of conversation soared 
 the thin, shrill voice of the woman, as 
 she denounced the monsters who had left 
 her house and cellar a wreck. She took 
 a seat beside Waldek, and began to repeat 
 to him the tale of her sufferings which we 
 had already heard in several parts of the 
 room. 
 
 "It is very bad," he said, compas- 
 sionately; "but will you be good enough 
 to see that what we want for supper is 
 being got ready ? " 
 
 "And my Chateau-Margaux, that I had 
 1 88 
 
OUR QUARTERS IN HORZITZ 
 
 from Vienna direct that, too, they stole. 
 Everything everything stolen ! When 
 one has worked all their life honestly, and 
 hoped to lay past something : then to have 
 it all all taken away in one day ! " 
 
 "It is, indeed, shameful," said Waldek; 
 " and can we have supper soon ? " 
 
 "My house clock, too what did they 
 want with that ? " 
 
 " What, indeed ! " said Waldek, in- 
 dignantly ; " and would you please let us 
 have supper ? " 
 
 " Do they want a house clock for the 
 army?" 
 
 " Certainly not," said Waldek ; " and 
 do you think our supper is ready ? " 
 
 " They are robbers robbers every one ! 
 They take with them everything ; they 
 leave only ruin behind." 
 
 " That is true/' said Waldek ; " and pray, 
 do you know if we can have some beer to 
 our supper ? " 
 
 189 
 
THE FIELD OF BATTLE 
 
 "Beer? No; there is not a drop in 
 the house. Everything I tell you every- 
 thing stolen." 
 
 She began to cry ; while the girl standing 
 patiently behind her assumed an expression 
 of deep grief. She might have been crying 
 still, had not five artillerymen tramped into 
 the room, and demanded beer. 
 
 " How can I give you beer?" she 
 whimpered. " You have left me none." 
 
 " What do you mean ? " said one of the 
 men, angrily. " I never saw you or your 
 beer before. And if you have not beer, 
 bring wine directly ! " 
 
 She rose from the chair. 
 
 "And please don't forget our supper," 
 suggested Waldek, as she was about to go. 
 
 "You shall have it at once; but but 
 these last few days have turned my 
 head." 
 
 About three minutes thereafter, we heard 
 a magnificent uproar in the kitchen ; and 
 190 
 
OUR QUARTERS IN HORZITZ 
 
 this woman's voice, not sobbing forth her 
 sorrow, but angrily and loudly denouncing 
 the soft-featured girl. Presently the latter 
 came sleepily into the room with some 
 plates; followed by her mistress, who con- 
 tinued to pour out the vials of her wrath 
 upon the poor, dull-eyed, fat-shouldered 
 creature, who had to encounter the eyes 
 of all the people. What a virulent little 
 woman it was ! She watched after the 
 girl she pursued her with that sharp, 
 stinging tongue ; and we wondered at the 
 bravery of the soldiers who had dared to 
 rob this scorpion of her young. The 
 domestic turmoil had scarcely ceased when 
 another tumult arose, in which one could 
 detect the deep voice of a man. 
 
 " What do I care for your guests ? You 
 must have the room cleared out in five 
 minutes, I tell you." 
 
 Here the shrill voice of the woman broke 
 down into a sobbing remonstrance. 
 191 
 
THE FIELD OF BATTLE 
 
 "I have given you my whole house, 
 except this one room. Is that to be taken 
 also, and these people turned into the 
 street ?" 
 
 The officer, for such he was, made no 
 answer ; but in a few minutes there entered 
 several men clad in loose white canvas. 
 In an inconceivable short space of time 
 they had turned out into the passage 
 chairs, tables, and all articles of luggage ; 
 whilst the travellers, who had been looking 
 forward to the luxury of being allowed to 
 sleep on the forms, which were here covered 
 with leather and stuffed, were politely 
 but firmly ordered to follow. Then these 
 emissaries of the hospital officer proceeded 
 to drag into the apartment a number of 
 large straw mattresses, which were ranged 
 along the floor, and finally covered with 
 two white sheets. The men left the field 
 lazaret was ready. 
 
 Vecko, Heinz, Waldek, and Eosenfeld 
 192 
 
OUR QUARTERS IN HORZITZ 
 
 stood in the passage, watching a lot of 
 dusky figures which one could at times see 
 in the dark street outside, as they passed 
 to and fro before a glimmering light. Pre- 
 sently three of the officer's sprites appeared, 
 carrying a young man of about twenty 
 years of age, whom they bore into the 
 extemporized hospital. He wore a white 
 coat, tight blue trousers ornamented with 
 yellow braid, a peaked blue cap, and he 
 had three white stars on his collar; he 
 was therefore a non-commissioned officer 
 in a Hungarian regiment, and, as he after- 
 wards explained, had been shot through 
 the arm at Sadowa, where he had since 
 lain in a peasant's house. He seemed 
 quite comfortable, and smoked his cigar 
 leisurely as the other men were being 
 carried in. 
 
 "They are very good to us," he said. 
 " You see there is nothing to prevent my 
 walking, though I became a little giddy at 
 193 
 
THE FIELD OF BATTLE 
 
 times ; but they would carry me in from 
 the waggon." 
 
 Those who followed him were less fortu- 
 nate. One after another they came, help- 
 lessly clinging to the neck or shoulder 
 of the men who carried them, some of 
 them crying, most of them groaning 
 piteously as they were being jolted about. 
 
 "You, also, were wounded at Konig- 
 gratz ? " asked Heinz of one young lad 
 with a swarthy face and jet black eyes 
 and hair. 
 
 "I don't understand," he said. 
 
 " An Italian?" 
 
 "Yes?" 
 
 Another and another gave the same 
 answer, some of them with an eager 
 question as to whether there was an 
 Italian doctor there; others languidly, as 
 if it mattered little now whether they had 
 medical aid or not. When as many men 
 as the room would hold had been carried 
 194 
 
OUR QUARTERS IN HORZITZ 
 
 in, the door was shut, and we saw BO more 
 of that sad spectacle. 
 
 Meanwhile the people who had been 
 expelled held a council of war in the 
 passage. Vecko had perched himself on the 
 top of a beer-barrel, and vowed that no 
 man or woman would deprive him of that 
 seat during the night. Heinz was sitting 
 on the stair, wondering if that also would 
 be "requirirt." 
 
 Waldeck proposed that we should at 
 once set out it was now eleven o'clock, 
 walk during the night, and sleep in some 
 peasant's house the next morning or the 
 next forenoon. Eosenfeld said nothing, 
 but the first time the landlady passed he 
 jumped up and approached her, twirling 
 his hat as usual. She was . inexorable, 
 indignant, violent ; she looked upon us 
 as fellow-conspirators with the hospital 
 officer, and would pay no attention. He 
 repeated his entreaties; he represented 
 195 
 
THE FIELD OF BATTLE 
 
 how much we were obliged to her for 
 kindness already received; he desired to 
 have only a barn and some straw. She 
 began again to complain of her grievances ; 
 that was a sign of relenting. She hinted 
 that there was a hayloft yes, there was 
 a hayloft but one or two gentlemen had 
 already engaged a space ; and finally she 
 called upon that soft-faced young woman 
 to bring a candle and take us upstairs. 
 
 It was a long, narrow hayloft, which 
 naturally smelt of damp, seeing that from 
 one end to the other hung lines of wet 
 clothes, which were supposed to be drying. 
 Underneath these various garments and 
 table-covers and towels we crept, and 
 arrived at a clear space where no water 
 had been dripping on the floor ; and here 
 the girl kindly brought us an armful of 
 fresh straw, which she disposed into layers. 
 Heinz was the first to lie down, and 
 boldly wrapped the straw right round him, 
 
 196 
 
OUR QUARTERS IN HORZITZ 
 
 having some prophetic intimation of what 
 was coming. We followed his example ; 
 but the girl had not yet departed with 
 the flickering light of the candle when 
 I saw a very large figure emerge from 
 behind the screen of white cloth. Then 
 came another. 
 
 " Are we to sleep here all the time 
 we are in Horzitz ? " was the querulous 
 inquiry of the latter, as he stumbled over 
 Heinz's legs. 
 
 " Sacramente ! There are men here," 
 he cried ; " and here is the Englishman ! 
 Why, how in the world have you got 
 here?" 
 
 The new-comers were no others than 
 Drs. H. and N., with whom I had 
 travelled to Turnau ; and this was the 
 sort of accommodation offered to men who 
 had given up their time and money, and 
 run some considerable personal risk, in 
 order to help the wounded. 
 197 
 
THE FIELD OF BATTLE 
 
 " How did you come from Turnau ? " 
 I asked. 
 
 "In a 'required' waggon. And why 
 have you come here without a travelling- 
 rug or a top-coat ? " 
 
 " Because I had to walk, having no 
 authority to steal a horse and cart." 
 
 And it soon became apparent that with- 
 out some covering there was no sleep to 
 be had in the garret that night. There 
 was a small window in the place, ingeniously 
 arranged so as to allow a healthy current 
 of air to pass through the hayloft night 
 and day. We knew it was raining outside, 
 and the wind that came whistling into the 
 loft seemed to be both damp and intensely 
 cold. Every few minutes one could hear 
 his neighbour making a fresh effort to heap 
 straw over himself; and then, in a few 
 minutes after, turning round with a groan 
 about the bitter cold. The night seemed 
 as if it would never end as if the weary 
 198 
 
OUR QUARTERS IN HORZITZ 
 
 flashing of the rain outside and the shiver- 
 ing currents of air inside would never cease. 
 Joyfully we recognized the first light-grey 
 of the morning ; and at three o'clock, by 
 mutual consent, we went downstairs to 
 the kitchen. 
 
 Here there were about five-and-thirty 
 men and boys fast asleep, crowded upon 
 the floor, upon forms, tables, and chairs 
 wherever there was a support for the head ; 
 more especially had they monopolized every 
 bit of space around the large stove, which 
 was still warm with a slumbering fire. 
 They were mostly poor country people, 
 perhaps having fled when their houses 
 were burned down ; and very likely they 
 were not particularly sorry thus to secure 
 a good night's rest without having to pay 
 for it in the morning. 
 
 About half-past three the servant began 
 to make coffee, and this intelligence soon 
 raised these drowsy heads. She served 
 199 
 
THE FIELD OF BATTLE 
 
 out the rich black fluid, without sugar, 
 in beer glasses; and very eager was the 
 scramble with which each successive glass 
 was fought for and secured. Bread there 
 was none to be had, though Waldeck's 
 entreaties might have drawn tears from 
 the eyes of the Sphinx; and so it was 
 with this breakfast that we set out, at 
 four o'clock, through heavy rain, for 
 Koniggratz. 
 
 200 
 
Ill 
 
 THE FIELD OF SADOWA 
 
 OUT of the neighbourhood of the Iser and 
 Biezen Gebirge there is not in Bohemia 
 a more lonely and desolate-looking district 
 than the country lying between Horzitz 
 and the battle-field of Koniggratz. The 
 small clusters of houses seem to be miser- 
 ably poor ; the peasantry are ill-clad ; there 
 is no brisk sound of coach or carriage along 
 the dull and unfrequented roads. One can 
 scarcely imagine what must have been 
 the terror and awe of one of these men 
 who have lived year after year the same 
 monotonous existence in the same mono- 
 tonous place, when the oppressive silence 
 which usually broods over these wearisome 
 
 201 
 
THE FIELD OF BATTLE 
 
 plains and hills was suddenly broken by 
 the roar and tumult and confusion of the 
 passing of 440,000 men; and still further 
 when, instead of the quiet rustle of leaves 
 and the still lapping of the small river, 
 there came the crackling of innumerable 
 rifles and the long boom of the bigger 
 guns. It is little wonder that families 
 dwelling in cottages miles distant from 
 the scene of the battle were glad to flee 
 from their homes ; and that even yet these 
 swarthy-faced, dark-eyed people have not 
 amassed sufficient courage to return. 
 
 And if this district ordinarily looks so 
 melancholy, what did it not appear on that 
 morning when we left Horzitz at four 
 o'clock, with a thick mist of rain hanging 
 over the distant trees, and falling like 
 smoke upon the fields of corn; while the 
 road was inches deep with yellow mud, 
 the product of the long night's rain ? 
 
 Unfortunately we undertook to leave this 
 202 
 
THE FIELD OF SADOWA 
 
 road in the expectation that the country 
 by-paths might be less cut up; Waldek 
 having taken down at a Bohemian's dicta- 
 tion elaborate instructions by which we 
 should arrive at Sadowa by way of 
 Horzenowitz. We certainly found that 
 these rugged stony lanes had not been 
 ploughed by the wheels of artillery 
 waggons ; but instead of a level plain 
 of mud we had now deep pools of water, 
 which were only to be avoided by climbing 
 up clayey banks and treading down some 
 poor peasant's grain. Then the clouds 
 became thicker and heavier ; the incessant 
 showers more drenching ; until, about eiglit 
 o'clock, our little party, wet " through and 
 through," was forced to seek refuge in a 
 cottage. 
 
 It was a poor little place, the home of 
 
 a country weaver, whose two looms, two 
 
 beds, cooking apparatus, and what not, 
 
 were all in the one room which the 
 
 203 
 
THE FIELD OF BATTLE 
 
 cottage contained. There were inside the 
 weaver and his brother, the wife and 
 mother-in-law of the former, and a little 
 boy who lay asleep on a straw bed placed 
 in the middle of the floor. No one of 
 them could speak German; but through 
 Waldek we were given to understand that 
 they were glad to be able to afford us 
 shelter, and that in a few minutes they 
 would kindle a fire, in front of which we 
 could dry ourselves. They seemed to take 
 it very much amiss that Heinz and Vecko 
 continued standing, until it was with some 
 difficulty explained to them that as the 
 nether garments of both of our travellers 
 were dripping with the rain, their sitting 
 down would only add to their discomfort. 
 The heap of sticks having been lighted, 
 we were invited to enjoy the vapour-bath 
 which the fire offered; while the woman 
 proceeded to prepare breakfast for her 
 husband and his brother, though the only 
 204 
 
THE FIELD OF SADOWA 
 
 food I could see in the place was twenty 
 or thirty dried mushrooms carefully spread 
 out on a board. Had bread been visible, 
 we should gladly have besought them to 
 sell us a loaf; but as there seemed no 
 such prospect and no chance of the rain 
 ceasing, we again set out. 
 
 Our subsequent journey was a wild 
 scramble up and down these ruts that 
 here serve for country roads, seeking by- 
 paths through fields and by the side of 
 streams, until it appeared to us that we 
 had passed the extreme limit of the in- 
 habited world, and come into the region 
 of perpetual rain. There was not even 
 a turnip which one could annex; the 
 only thing we could get to eat was the 
 fruit of some wild plum-trees, which was, 
 of course, green and acrid to the last 
 degree. About eleven o'clock in the fore- 
 noon, however, we came upon several rows 
 of cherry-trees, which were planted along 
 205 
 
THE FIELD OF BATTLE 
 
 the borders of some cornfields ; and as 
 the fruit was ruddy, if not ripe, we set 
 about making a capital breakfast. 
 
 "What, then, do you want there?" 
 cried a man, suddenly emerging from a 
 sort of sentry-box we had not noticed. 
 
 " You," said Waldeck. " We want you 
 to tell us where we can buy some riper 
 cherries and some bread." 
 
 "Does everybody here live upon mush- 
 rooms, then? " 
 
 But with a little entreaty he directed 
 us to the house, and here they were good 
 enough to sell to us for twenty kreutzers 
 a hatful of cherries and a half loaf of 
 bread. These having been divided with a 
 scrupulous care, we sat down upon the 
 trunk of a fallen tree and finished our 
 breakfast ; then once more set out upon this 
 seemingly endless quest through fields, and 
 fields, and again fields, while no trace of 
 a village was to be seen in any direction. 
 206 
 
THE FIELD OF SADOWA 
 
 Coming, however, to the top of a little 
 hill, we saw in the plain beneath the long 
 slopes of corn evenly trodden down, while 
 at regular intervals were the baked beds 
 of clay whereon the camp fires had been 
 kindled. Knowing that by following this 
 trampled track we should certainly reach 
 the field of Sadowa, we did so for a certain 
 space ; and found that it led us once more 
 to the main road, and almost directly in 
 front of the village itself. There, behind 
 the chestnuts and the tall poplars, were 
 the charred walls of the houses; down 
 in the river a few ducks were paddling 
 about in the water as if there were no 
 Prussian soldiers near; here, not two 
 yards from the main road, and under- 
 neath the chestnuts, was a long, large 
 grave of red clay, with the usual wooden 
 cross above it, and around were a few 
 villagers who seemed to have nothing 
 now to do but stand and watch the 
 
 207 
 
THE FIELD OF BATTLE 
 
 waggons that passed carrying wounded 
 men. By the roadside, in front of the 
 grave, two hawkers had displayed upon 
 their barrow an array of cigars, loaves, 
 and two kinds of cognac. The cigars 
 were five a penny, the loaves a half- 
 penny each, the cognac a penny farthing 
 a glass. Presently there came clattering 
 along a procession of Prussian artillerymen, 
 in charge of twenty-three Austrian cannon ; 
 and as each man came forward he reined 
 up his horse, and throwing back his great 
 blue cloak drank off a glass of this horrible 
 mixture of bad brandy, brown sugar, and 
 water. Then he generally purchased two 
 cigars, and rode joyfully off in the rain to 
 overtake his companions. The destitution 
 of Sadowa was rapidly making the fortune 
 of these two speculators; for the villagers 
 themselves came out and bought a loaf, 
 which they stood by the wayside to eat. 
 The mixture sold as cognac must have been 
 208 
 
THE FIELD OF SADOWA 
 
 of home manufacture ; and had General 
 Benedek, who, they say, after the battle 
 rode about trying to get killed, drank 
 half a bottle of this fluid he might easily 
 have accomplished his wish. 
 
 We crossed the small stone bridge over 
 the Bistricz, and ascended the hill on the 
 other side, the patrols allowing us to pass 
 without a question. Here we were joined 
 by a party of men and boys who, for a 
 considerable time, kept watching us in a 
 curiously suspicious way. It subsequently 
 appeared that these peasants had come 
 from their remote homes in order to get 
 some of the spoil of the recent battle ; and 
 that they suspected we were there on a 
 similar errand. Were the two small armies, 
 then, to be mutually destructive? or was 
 the clan Phairson to exterminate the clan 
 McTavish, and annex all the booty? As 
 we made our way through the long forest 
 of birches and firs which many a Prussian 
 209 p 
 
THE FIELD OF BATTLE 
 
 soldier will remember, these men followed 
 us, as though we possessed the keener scent 
 for booty ; and as they saw us stumble over 
 knapsacks, and helmets, and what not, 
 without pocketing anything, they began 
 to be very friendly, and in the intervals 
 of their labour which consisted in wrench- 
 ing off the metal of any article that 
 happened to be lying in their way they 
 occasionally offered us this or the other 
 curiosity. I could not help admiring fche 
 extraordinary dexterity which one old man 
 evinced in unbuckling the inner flaps of 
 the knapsacks, throwing the whole open, 
 and at once pitching the thing aside if 
 there was nothing to be found. While 
 his companions were examining with a 
 vague wonder the bottles, or percussion- 
 pouches, or belts which lay around, this 
 old man surely he must have been 
 descended from a Highland chieftain 
 went from knapsack to knapsack with 
 210 
 
THE FIELD OF SADOWA 
 
 those keen, penetrating eyes, unfolding 
 the leather pockets as though he had 
 the nimble fingers of a milliner, and 
 appropriating whatever he considered 
 valuable. Thus a great many cartridge- 
 pouches were still full; but, the grooved 
 bullets being of little use to him, he broke 
 the cartridges in two halves, and put the 
 powder end only into his wallet. Once, 
 however, he was cruelly imposed upon. 
 I happened to kick with my foot a 
 percussion-box which was full, and, hear- 
 ing the rattle, he at once jumped to the 
 place, doubtless expecting to find a Prussian 
 officer's purse crammed with silver thalers. 
 When he picked up the box and saw the 
 contents, he pretended not to be disgusted, 
 and examined the copper caps with much 
 attention. 
 
 As we emerged from the wood we en- 
 countered a strong south-westerly wind, 
 laden with the horrible stench of the dead 
 211 
 
THE FIELD OF BATTLE 
 
 bodies. At first it was possible to avoid 
 this evil odour by keeping to windward 
 of thirty or forty dead horses which were 
 lying in a neighbouring ditch; but after- 
 wards .there came from all points of the 
 compass the same frightful message. The 
 old hero he must have been descended 
 from a Highland freebooter paid not 
 the slightest attention ; for now the 
 long flat cornfields were thickly strewn 
 with scabbards, and battered helmets, and 
 so forth a perfect harvest of plunder. 
 Here were no longer such articles as 
 the soldiers had thrown away ; here were 
 what had been stripped from the dead, 
 or what had fallen from the hands of 
 the dying. So it was that the other 
 men began to use their sticks, having 
 a sort of superstitious fear of the blood 
 with which most of these innumerable 
 relics were dyed ; but the old man was 
 not so dainty. It did not matter to him 
 212 
 
THE FIELD OF SADOWA 
 
 though his fingers were stained purple 
 as he unscrewed the brass eagle from the 
 helmets, or cut the buckle off the white 
 belts ; and with a sort of wild luxury, as 
 though he was about to swim in this sea 
 of riches, he dragged a large number of 
 things together, and then went down on his 
 knees to pick and choose what best suited 
 his fancy. 
 
 Kleptomania is infectious. Presently we 
 saw Heinz touching delicately one after 
 another helmet, and when he had obtained 
 one with no ugly stains inside, he proceeded 
 to unscrew the scowling bird in brass which 
 adorned the head-piece. Then we arrived 
 at an upset artillery waggon, beside which 
 lay a large number of 12-pound grenades, 
 filled with powder. 
 
 Vecko looked wistfully at this display; 
 there were certainly not less than 300 
 worth of ammunition lying there. 
 
 " If one could only carry home such a 
 213 
 
THE FIELD OF BATTLE 
 
 weight ! " he sighed, regarding one of the 
 grenades. 
 
 " If we could only pass the patrols ! " 
 said Heinz, plaintively. 
 
 " We may get a seat in a returning 
 waggon," said Waldek. 
 
 " Do you want to blow us up in the air ? " 
 said Eosenfeld, angrily. 
 
 Yecko went down into the ditch, took up 
 one of the heavy grenades, and pulled it 
 out of its case. 
 
 " It would be an interesting relic/* said 
 he, " if one could only get the powder 
 oat." 
 
 "Hist!" cried Eosenfeld, "here comes 
 a Prussian.' 7 
 
 The grenade was dropped on the ground ; 
 and with an innocent look the prospective 
 thief turned to regard the soldier who 
 had "required" a man, horse, and cart, 
 all of which he was directing as best he 
 could. 
 
 214 
 
THE FIELD OF SADOWA 
 
 "Do any of you gentlemen speak Bohe- 
 mian ? " he asked. 
 
 Vecko, with much unnecessary profuse- 
 ness of courtesy, said he did. 
 
 " Will you, then, tell this man that he 
 must take this waggon straight over the 
 hill there, underneath the wood? " 
 
 The poor peasant received his instructions, 
 and scarcely had they departed when both 
 Heinz and Vecko began to conceal one of 
 these large grenades underneath their coat. 
 Then we passed on to where they were 
 burying the dead. 
 
 The first man we saw had his foot on the 
 thigh of a dead Austrian soldier, and with 
 both hands was trying to pull off the blue 
 and braided trousers, preparatory to the 
 corpse being pitched into the hole which 
 three other men were digging. A number 
 of bodies lay around also waiting to be 
 stripped; and some one had put a knap- 
 sack over the wounds, which were too 
 215 
 
THE FIELD OF BATTLE 
 
 horrible to be looked upon. I do not know 
 why they were so anxious to tear the clothes 
 off the bodies, unless it was through some 
 superstitious fear of rifling a dead man's 
 pockets so long as the corpse was in the 
 garments. 
 
 The peasants who were with us took off 
 their caps as they passed this group ; except 
 the old man, who merely lifted a leathern 
 pouch, and asked the grave-diggers if he 
 might have it. Further on was a similar 
 cluster of dead bodies, carelessly flung 
 together ; and further still half a dozen 
 men were engaged in the work of shovelling 
 earth over a long line of dead horses that 
 were lying on their backs. 
 
 " The soldiers have carried away all the 
 rifles and swords/' said the old man. 
 
 As we reached the top of the hill which 
 lies south of the village of Horzenowicz, we 
 had now an extended view of the battle- 
 field on every hand stretching away over 
 216 
 
THE FIELD OF SADOWA 
 
 these long plains of trampled corn into the 
 dull blue lines of the horizon. Indistinctly 
 we could perceive the white circles of water 
 surrounding the fortress of Koniggratz, and 
 the dark traces of the great walls ; for we 
 were now beyond Sadowa, and on the track 
 of the retreating Austrians. Far as one 
 could see there was no human being visible 
 on these wide plains ; only bar after bar of 
 faint grey, or yellow, or green, with a few 
 rows of trees, and overhead a weary stretch 
 of leaden sky. On the road beside us, how- 
 ever, the Prussian patrols still rode up and 
 down, eyeing us curiously, and almost 
 causing Vecko and Heinz to drop the 
 grooved and conical lump of lead they still 
 endeavoured to keep beneath their coat. 
 It was a blank, cheerless prospect ; espe- 
 cially as we knew that further progress was 
 impossible, and that instead of pressing on 
 to overtake the army of which we were in 
 search, we must return along these liquid 
 217 
 
THE FIELD OF BATTLE 
 
 roads and under the lowering sky, to 
 Turnau. 
 
 A large rudely built waggon came along, 
 dragged by two horses. 
 
 " We will each give you a florin if you 
 take us to Gitschin," said Heinz to the 
 driver, as he cast a despairing look upon 
 our weather prospects. 
 
 " Who are you ? " 
 
 " Eeichenbergers all." 
 
 " Have you passes from the comman- 
 dant ? " 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " And you won't get me into trouble at 
 the outposts ? " 
 
 " Certainly not." 
 
 " Come in, then, and God bless you ! " 
 
 Towards evening we reached Gitschin, 
 and the next morning set out for Turnau. 
 There was now added to our party a young 
 Bohemian girl, with rosy cheeks and black 
 hair, who seemed unable to look at anybody 
 218 
 
THE FIELD OF SADOWA 
 
 without simpering, and smiling bashfully, 
 and looking down. Now, on the road 
 to Turnau the slow lumbering waggon 
 passed, I should think, about eight hundred 
 mounted soldiers; and not one of these 
 men, who were in charge of provision carts, 
 passed our rustic vehicle without paying 
 some vocal or pantomimic compliment to 
 the beauty who sat throned on an empty 
 beer-barrel, supported on the one side by 
 Vocko, on the other by Rosenfeld. She 
 had never been the object of so much 
 attention, and she giggled and laughed and 
 pretended to be frightened in the most 
 interesting way as each successive soldier 
 sought a new method of testifying his deep 
 regard for her. One would turn away his 
 head and sob as he left her ; another would 
 spur his horse until the animal's head had 
 almost knocked the princess off her throne ; 
 a third in dumb show represented the 
 delight with which he was anxious to place 
 219 
 
THE FIELD OF BATTLE 
 
 her on the horse beside him. The priest 
 of Libun was not a little astonished to see 
 us return in this fashion ; and probably 
 thought that our triumphal procession was 
 but in anticipation of the carnival of 
 Cologne. 
 
 So it was that we entered the market- 
 place of Turnau, much to the wonderment 
 of the simple people who were there 
 assembled ; we scrambled out of the waggon 
 in which we had been cramped up so long, 
 and paid our florins to the worthy driver ; 
 the princess with the bare head and the 
 rosy cheeks descended from her beer-barrel 
 and departed, and we saw her no more. 
 
 220 
 
IV 
 KONIGGRATZ 
 
 THANK you : the doctor says no window 
 must remain open after five o'clock. 
 
 And you want to know what I saw of 
 the battle of Koniggratz ? Not much, in 
 truth, though I was on the field all that 
 day, and all the next day, and a bit of 
 the following night. You see, a corporal 
 isn't allowed to stand two miles off with 
 a field-glass in his hand, and look down 
 on the battle like Napoleon in the pictures 
 of Waterloo. What I saw of the fight was 
 something very different ; and I shall tell 
 you. 
 
 You have seen Sadowa? Well, you 
 221 
 
THE FIELD OF BATTLE 
 
 know the broad and muddy road that, 
 coming from Horzitz, sweeps round a sort 
 of hill about half a mile on this side of 
 the village ; and perhaps you know that 
 over the hill goes another path for foot 
 passengers which has a row of young lime 
 trees on each side. Our regiment was 
 posted on the brow of this little hill ; and 
 all around, as far as you could see on 
 every hand, were crowds of our soldiers 
 busy getting wood for the camp fires, 
 building up the big clay ovens for the 
 cooking, and bringing branches from the 
 birch-wood opposite for the officers' tents. 
 We were stationed on this hill, as I said, 
 and a worse spot for an encampment I 
 have never seen. We were pretty well 
 accustomed to rain by this time (I believe 
 there has not been a gleam of sunshine in 
 Bohemia since Noah's rainbow twinkled 
 over it) ; but, instead of the rain running 
 down the hill, as you would naturally 
 
 222 
 
KONIGGRATZ 
 
 expect, it gathered in pools beneath the 
 trampled corn, and you could not see it 
 until you had walked through it. During 
 the night before the battle the rain fell 
 only slightly and at intervals; but some- 
 how everything seemed wet and cold 
 the fires could scarcely be kept alight 
 from the dampness of the wood ; our 
 cloaks, instead of keeping us warm, only 
 kept us wet; and the wind that blew 
 across the fields seemed as if it had come 
 direct from the North Pole. 
 
 Yes, the cigars here are very bad; but 
 you must ask the doctor if I can smoke 
 another before supper. 
 
 Need you wonder that I slept little? 
 I looked with envy on my comrades, most 
 of whom were fast asleep in spite of the 
 cold, and in spite of the knowledge that 
 at any moment we might be called into 
 line and marched off against the Austrians, 
 whom we knew were almost within cannon 
 223 
 
THE FIELD OF BATTLE 
 
 distance. I sat and watched the flickering 
 of our camp fires away along these slopes ; 
 and I wondered how many of our 250,000 
 men were in like manner looking on the 
 twinkling bits of orange and red that 
 seemed to be continued for miles. 
 
 Early in the morning we saw that part 
 of our army was already moving; and as 
 the great squares of dark blue silently 
 covered field after field and disappeared 
 farther to the east, we could only guess 
 that they were about to engage the 
 Austrians. About six o'clock we were 
 also ordered to advance. I do not think 
 there was a word said as we left the ground 
 on which we had encamped ; perhaps every 
 one was thinking, as I was thinking, of 
 the people I had left at home. The noise 
 and confusion around me seemed to be 
 shut out as if my ears were stuffed with 
 cotton; and somehow it appeared to me 
 that there were faces looking at me which 
 224 
 
KONIGGRATZ 
 
 were certainly not the faces of my com- 
 rades. Perhaps I am more of a coward 
 than others are one can't help being 
 what Nature has made him but I won- 
 dered then if I should ever return to 
 Aachen, and carry with me the recollec- 
 tion of having seen that dull and dreary 
 picture of wet plains, and gloomy woods, 
 and long grey belts of mist. Even now 
 I can remember the aspect of individual 
 trees; and when I shut my eyes I can 
 see every field, every ditch, and every 
 line of pale yellow or grey. I looked at 
 my comrades ; they said nothing, but I 
 thought they were quite careless and con- 
 tented. You see, you can't tell of what 
 a man is thinking by the colour of his 
 eyes or the profusion of his beard; and 
 at that time I envied my neighbours the 
 apparent equanimity with which they 
 marched forward, and wished that I, too, 
 had had the same indifference. It may 
 225 Q 
 
THE FIELD OF BATTLE 
 
 be that I wronged them, and that they 
 also were thinking of their friends in the 
 north. 
 
 I have a watch an English watch, 
 too but I left it at home when our 
 regiment came away; and so I can't tell 
 you when we first heard the sound of the 
 firing. It was very dull at first just as 
 if one allowed his rifle to fall upon grass 
 and for a considerable time it was kept 
 up with a sort of soft regularity which 
 made one feel as if it was not very dan- 
 gerous. Besides, we knew that it was 
 very distant; and as our battalions were 
 again ordered to halt, we began to wonder 
 whether we should ever enter the battle 
 at all. The firing had produced a little 
 excitement among us; and as we stopped 
 near the foot of this hill, the men in the 
 ranks began to speak more freely about 
 the chances of the fight. After some 
 time we heard that the nearest troops of 
 226 
 
KONIGGRATZ 
 
 the Austrians had altered their position, 
 and many said that they were already 
 retreating. When this rumour got abroad 
 there was much discontentment amongst 
 the men that they should be kept back 
 here ; and one of us asked our second- 
 lieutenant if we were not even to see the 
 battle. 
 
 " The battle is not over," said he. 
 
 "The Austrians are going away," said 
 the man who had ventured to ask the 
 question. 
 
 The young fellow only smiled, and said, 
 " Not yet." He was about the first man 
 among us whom I subsequently saw shot 
 down. 
 
 Yes, if you would put the pillow a little 
 higher I should be obliged to you. What ! 
 tire myself speaking ? Why, to get 
 somebody to speak to is about as good as 
 a good cigar ! 
 
 The wind was bitterly cold. It came 
 227 
 
THE FIELD OF BATTLE . 
 
 whistling over these blank fields, and 
 made one shiver as though it was 
 December. Then all over the sky was 
 a dull grey; and along the south-east 
 were heavy masses of dark cloud, which 
 every now and again melted into a soft 
 mist and hid from us the distant lines 
 of fields and woods along the horizon. 
 The farther we advanced the farther off 
 seemed to be the Austrians; everywhere, 
 as we passed down into the hollow and 
 marched up the opposite incline, we saw 
 only the dark squares of our own troops. 
 It was not until we passed a long forest 
 of young birches that we first saw the 
 Austrians. That was a strange sight ! 
 There seemed to be no fields over yonder 
 only miles of grey uniforms rising and 
 falling like waves until they were hid in 
 the blue mist. We saw that these grey 
 undulations were in movement; we could 
 not tell whether they were advancing or 
 228 
 
KONIGGRATZ 
 
 retreating; but we were very sure that 
 the battle was not yet over, for every 
 moment the firing seemed to come nearer 
 and nearer, and now an occasional grenade 
 fell in the neighbouring wood and burst 
 with a terrific noise. We were ordered 
 to march round the extremity of the wood, 
 over some fields of potatoes ; and here the 
 grenades began to fall more rapidly and 
 in our immediate neighbourhood. The 
 first man struck was the young lieutenant 
 of whom I told you. I did not see the 
 shell, or even notice that it had exploded 
 near us ; but suddenly the young officer 
 uttered a cry, his sword fell out of his 
 hand, and he tumbled back on the field. 
 The very next instant a grenade buried 
 itself in the earth not twenty yards from 
 us. I shut my eyes; immediately there 
 was a loud explosion; and, that over, 
 I looked round and saw no one hurt 
 only our first-lieutenant's horse was shot 
 229 
 
THE FIELD OF BATTLE 
 
 through the head with one of the splin- 
 ters. 
 
 I can't say what my comrades then 
 thought; but I think I should gladly 
 have given everything I possess for the 
 chance of rushing forward into the thick 
 of the battle. It was terrible to await 
 there, in cold blood, the falling of these 
 shells, every one of which now struck 
 down one or two men or horses better 
 to have rushed against a wall of bayonets, 
 such as we saw glittering in front of the 
 grey squares of the Austrians. Fortunately 
 at this moment we were ordered to 
 advance we marched more rapidly for 
 now every step revealed to us more and 
 more Austrians lying down there in the 
 hollow in front of us. You know, we are 
 not allowed to fire our needle guns until 
 we are very near the enemy; but I think 
 the greatest luxury I could then have 
 enjoyed was to be allowed to throw away 
 230 
 
KONIGGRATZ 
 
 my cartridge-pouch and to charge upon 
 the Austrian lines of blue and grey with 
 the bayonet. More and more rapidly we 
 advanced now no one spoke, but the 
 silence was not the silence of fear. I felt 
 my eyes grow red, and instead of a grey 
 sky and grey fields I only saw an atmo- 
 sphere of dull orange and every shell 
 that exploded near us only made us 
 long the more to get at these lines, be- 
 hind which the artillery were posted. 
 Suddenly as if we had been cut in the 
 face with a sword we were ordered to 
 change our front; and the next moment 
 I saw what even now seems to oppress my 
 eyes. 
 
 Yes, you may reach me the water ; 
 but don't put too much wine in it. 
 
 It appeared to me, then, that directly 
 
 out of the gloomy grey sky there came 
 
 an immense black wall; and that this 
 
 mass of darkness grew momentarily larger 
 
 231 
 
THE FIELD OF BATTLE 
 
 and larger, until it seemed about to break 
 upon us and overwhelm us. The next 
 moment there was a flashing of long 
 white sabres, a noise as of thunder, and 
 then nothing. 
 
 You think it impossible that a squadron 
 of cavalry could ride over you without 
 killing you? At all events, I am not 
 dead yet ; and hope once more to see 
 Aschen. 
 
 When I awoke, as if from a long sleep, 
 I found that I could not breathe. I gasped 
 and struggled but there was a heavy 
 weight on my chest that I thought would 
 kill me. I was lying on my back; and, 
 as I opened my eyes I saw between me 
 and the grey clouds a bank of red earth, 
 over the summit of which drooped some 
 wet corn. It was evident, then, that 
 I was lying in a ditch; but what was 
 this weight that threatened to choke me ? 
 I lifted my left arm and put it on my 
 232 
 
KONIGGRATZ 
 
 breast here I felt something that was 
 at first very strange to the touch, but 
 which I presently knew to be the leg and 
 hoof of a horse. It only required, then, 
 that I should remove the weight in order 
 to free myself; and to accomplish this 
 I lifted my right arm. May you never 
 experience the pang that shot through 
 my whole body then! It seemed to burn 
 me up ; then there came a drowsy sleep, 
 and again everything went away from 
 my eyes. 
 
 It was raining when I came to myself 
 again a soft, slow, silent rain that fell 
 on my eyelids and my chest until I was 
 numbed with the intense cold. Once 
 more I tried to lift the horse's foot, and 
 once more that shiver of keen pain ran 
 through me. The more I tried to shove 
 it from me, the more it seemed to weigh 
 upon me ; and at last I resolved to await 
 the coming of some passers-by. I could 
 233 
 
THE FIELD OF BATTLE 
 
 not lift my head to see in what part of 
 the field I was ; beside me there was 
 only visible the red bank of earth, a 
 cartridge-box, and a bayonet, which I 
 fancied was mine, and which was stained 
 with blood. 
 
 No one came. I could indistinctly hear 
 the noise of wheels; but whether these 
 were of the waggons carrying the wounded, 
 or of the provision carts on the main 
 road, I was unable to determine. 
 
 You read in novels of days being years, 
 and so forth ; and these are pretty phrases 
 to describe the anguish of a stupid girl 
 on discovering that her mother is wiser 
 than herself; but then I had no idea of 
 days, or years, or ages. I seemed to be 
 surrounded only by grey mist, and to 
 know only one thing that the weight 
 upon my chest was about to kill me. 
 I did not know whether this was the day 
 of the battle, or a day after the battle, 
 234 
 
KONIGGRATZ 
 
 or a week after; I only knew that all 
 the life in my body seemed to be con- 
 centrated in my chest, and that there 
 it was being slowly taken away from me. 
 The grey blank above my head grew darker 
 and more dark, until I could with difficulty 
 trace the lines of the trodden straw that 
 hung over the edge of the ditch ; and 
 then a slow rain again began to descend. 
 
 I think I hear the doctor in the passage ; 
 would you be so good as to ask him now 
 if I may smoke. . . . Ah, so ? Then pray 
 light the cigar for me ; I can't raise my 
 right arm. 
 
 It must have been late in the night 
 when I looked up and saw two or three 
 dark figures pass along the edge of the 
 bank. At first I fancied I only dreamed 
 they were there, so accustomed had I 
 grown to look up and see nothing but 
 clouds. Nevertheless, I tried to cry out; 
 and then I saw them pause. 
 235 
 
THE FIELD OF BATTLE 
 
 " Here is another down here," said one 
 of the men. 
 
 " Not at all," said his neighbour ; " we 
 have looked the whole length of this 
 ditch down from the wood/' 
 
 I endeavoured to cry once more I found 
 that the effort very nearly choked me. 
 I had quite expected to see the men 
 walk off, when the first speaker jumped 
 down from the bank. 
 
 He jumped upon the dead horse ; and 
 this shock, as communicated to me, seemed 
 to take away my last chance of life. When 
 he came to me I could only groan; and 
 I have a vague remembrance of the three 
 men struggling to drag the leg of the 
 horse from my breast. Then I was lifted 
 up and laid on the field; and one of 
 the soldiers took off his cloak and spread 
 it over me, while the other two went 
 away for a stretcher. 
 
 But the pain of being lifted from the 
 236 
 
KONIGGRATZ 
 
 ditch made me wish to be dead before 
 they returned, so as to escape a repetition 
 of the torture. I scarcely know how I was 
 placed in the canvas when it was brought ; 
 I remember only being carried into a poor 
 little room, in which there were about 
 twenty men lying on couches on the 
 floor. 
 
 There were two candles burning on a 
 side-table, and in the dim orange light I 
 could see the eyes of the white and brown 
 faces lying there turned to see who was 
 the new comer. An old woman and a girl 
 were present, busily helping the doctor 
 to tie up bandages and so forth; and 
 as soon as I was carried in they made 
 a little room for me, and placed another 
 couch on the floor. The doctor came 
 and looked into my face. 
 
 " Where are you wounded ? " he 
 said. 
 
 I could not speak then ; perhaps it was 
 237 
 
THE FIELD OF BATTLE 
 
 the warmth of the room that made a sort 
 of drowsiness float through my head. 
 
 " Here, in the shoulder," said one of 
 the men, and I shivered lest he should 
 touch that spot. 
 
 "He must have fallen into the river," 
 said the doctor. 
 
 " No," said the man who had at first 
 spoken; "we found him in one of the 
 ditches." 
 
 " There are plenty more there," said 
 the man ; " but it will be light in an 
 hour or two." 
 
 So they placed me on the couch how 
 very gentle they were to me ! and then 
 they began to rip up the sleeve of rny 
 coat, so that the doctor might get at 
 my shoulder. 
 
 I was very grateful to them ; but I 
 
 wished they would only let me alone, and 
 
 let me die. I envied the other men who 
 
 were wounded, and who were past the 
 
 238 
 
KONIGGRATZ 
 
 stage of having their wounds dressed; it 
 seemed to me then that all these men 
 were being allowed to die in peace, while 
 I only was being subjected to the most 
 horrible torture. All that night I lay and 
 heard them groaning in their agony; and 
 I thought to myself that I, at least, 
 should cheat the doctor and be dead 
 before he came in the morning. But 
 after the second day the fire in the 
 wound lessened ; and so long as I did 
 not move I suffered very little pain. 
 Yesterday they brought me here, along 
 with six others, in a covered waggon ; 
 and you see what a nice, airy room we 
 have got. I hear, too, that the Berlin 
 people are going to send us better wine 
 instead of that sweet stuff we get here; 
 but I hope they will first send down to 
 the houses near Koniggratz. We here 
 can well afford to want it until they 
 are supplied. 
 
 239 
 
THE FIELD OF BATTLE 
 
 You will come again in the morning ? 
 Then, perhaps, you will write a letter 
 for me to the people at home, to say 
 that I am not dead yet. 
 
 240 
 
A CONVERSATION WITH 
 CARLYLE 
 
A CONVERSATION WITH 
 CARLYLE 
 
 IN a somewhat shabbily furnished room 
 (but on the walls there was a large copy of 
 the Berlin picture of Frederick the Great 
 dressed as a drummer-boy; and on the 
 table a number of Frederick's snuff-boxes 
 were strewn about) in a dingy little street 
 in Chelsea, an old man, worn, and tired, 
 and bent, with deeply lined, ascetic features, 
 a firm under-jaw, tufted grey hair and tufted 
 grey and white beard, and sunken and un- 
 utterably sorrowful eyes, returned from the 
 fireplace, where with trembling fingers he 
 had been lighting his long clay pipe, and 
 243 * 2 
 
A CONVERSATION WITH CARLYLE 
 
 resumed his seat in front of the reading- 
 desk. 
 
 "I do not think/' he was saying, in an 
 absent kind of way, " that I shall see Scot- 
 land again. To me it has become a sad 
 and strange and solemn country ; now that 
 all my kinsfolk and friends are gone. And 
 then there is the fatigue of the long 
 journey; and the noise and the sleep- 
 lessness make travelling almost impossible 
 for me. As it is, I suffer a great deal 
 of physical misery, and also of mental 
 gloom." 
 
 But presently he had resumed in a lighter 
 strain 
 
 " I well remember my first voyage to 
 Glasgow. I was early up on deck ; and I 
 found that all around me was no atmo- 
 sphere, nothing that could be called an 
 atmosphere, but just a vast immensity of 
 smoke and yellow vapour ; and through the 
 yellow vapour there pulsated an extra- 
 244 
 
A CONVERSATION WITH CARLYLE 
 
 ordinary light a red glare that flashed up 
 and across the skies, as if the whole world 
 were in conflagration. I turned, and asked 
 the man at the wheel what it meant. 
 1 Dixon's Ironworks/ said he. This Dixon 
 family were of enormous wealth, according 
 to popular repute ; and yet there was a 
 wild story of one of them, supposed to be 
 worth nine millions, being suddenly con- 
 fronted with the question whether he was 
 worth nine pence a story that gave rise 
 to much talk and foolish wonder at the 
 time. Doubtless he has long ere now 
 gone down to Erebus and Nox. . . . The 
 Glasgow merchants seemed to me a shrewd, 
 well-to-do, plain, kindly, and hospitable 
 folk ; but their wives I cannot recollect 
 having ever taken notice of women's dress 
 before but I thought when I saw them 
 in the streets that their gowns were just 
 a little extravagant a little marked and 
 extravagant. . . . Glasgow is the ' west 
 245 
 
A CONVERSATION WITH CARLYLE 
 
 country ' to the Edinburgh people ; and I 
 got to know something of the west-country, 
 chiefly through the long excursions that 
 Edward Irving and I used to make through 
 the Trossachs, and round by Loch Katrine, 
 and Wordsworth's Inversnaid. Well I mind 
 those walks ; almost the individual trees 
 down by the side of the water, the brown 
 burns, the blue hills over Loch Lomond 
 way. We had much to talk of in those 
 days." 
 
 The pipe is laid aside ; an afternoon 
 stroll is proposed ; and the old man suggests 
 that the window should be opened, to let 
 in the fresh air and let out the tobacco- 
 smoke. His visitor would fain perform 
 this little office for him ; but no. With a 
 gentle, old-fashioned courtesy one seldom 
 encounters nowadays, the offer is declined ; 
 though the trembling hands find difficulty 
 with the sash. But eventually the window 
 is raised. Then he goes off to exchange 
 246 
 
A CONVERSATION WITH CARLYLE 
 
 his grey woollen dressing-gown for the 
 cloak and slouched hat familiar to Chelsea 
 thoroughfares ; and in a few minutes the 
 house in Cheyne Row is left behind. 
 
 247 
 
II 
 
 Now, in endeavouring to place on paper 
 a few of Caiiyle's obiter dicta, it is im- 
 possible to convey to the reader how 
 immeasurably they lose in the process. 
 Carlyle did not talk Scotch not any dialect 
 of it ; * but he spoke with a strong South- 
 of- Scotland insistence of emphasis ; then 
 he had a fine abundance of picturesque 
 phraseology ; and, above all, he liked to 
 
 * I have frequently seen put into Carlyle's mouth, as his 
 native dialect, that strange and fearsome speech that for centuries 
 has done duty among English humorists as the Scotch language. 
 Shakespeare was an early offender. His Captain Jamy says : 
 " It sail be vary gud, gud feith, gud captains bath ; and I sail 
 quit you with gud leve," etc. It is needless to observe that 
 gibberish of this kind bears no relation whatsoever to any speech 
 spoken anywhere outside the Zoological Gardens ; but it and 
 the various emendations of it that have been handed down, 
 and are now extant may serve : gud feith, as a specimen of 
 southern wit. 
 
 248 
 
A CONVERSATION WITH CARLYLE 
 
 wind up a sentence with something a wild 
 exaggeration, it might be, or a sardonic 
 paradox, or a scornful taunt but, anyhow, 
 with something that sounded like the crack 
 of a whip.* It was rather startling to be 
 asked, as a preliminary inquiry as to what 
 was afoot in the literary world 
 
 "Is that young man still going 
 
 about vomiting forth blasphemy and the 
 fires of Tophet ? " 
 
 One was happy to be able to assure him 
 
 that the young man was not doing 
 
 anything of the kind ; that, on the contrary, 
 he was fast winning his way to a proud and 
 
 * It is amusing to notice how the chief of Carlyle's disciples 
 Ruskin, Froude, Kingsley, to name no others have been 
 now and again led away by the temptation of this trick of 
 reckless climax. I have before me, as I write, a letter from 
 Mr. Froude, in which he says that Victor Hugo is not worth 
 notice, " except as illustrative of the tendencies of modern pro- 
 ductiveness ; " and he goes on : " The soil and atmosphere are 
 unfavourable to high genius ; and gifted men, for the most part, 
 remain silent, or else go mad." Now, what does this mean ? It 
 means nothing at all. It is merely the crack of a whip, lashing 
 the harmless and unresisting air. 
 
 249 
 
A CONVERSATION WITH CARLYLE 
 
 honoured position in the very front rank of 
 English poets. 
 
 But it was different when he came to 
 talk of Tennyson ; for he had somehow 
 formed the impression that Tennyson was 
 being ousted from his throne by the younger 
 men ; and this appeared greatly to concern 
 him. It was a difficult matter to convince 
 him that the " banjo Byrons " had not dis- 
 placed Tennyson from the affections of the 
 English people ; and then, of course, the 
 irrefragable argument an appeal to Tenny- 
 son's publishers could not be mentioned ; 
 for in these days, to say of a man that his 
 books are bought by the public, is to con- 
 vict him (at least the whipper-snappers of 
 criticism appear to think so) of having 
 sinned the unforgivable sin. How this 
 delusion about Tennyson's waning popu- 
 larity got implanted in Carlyle's mind, it 
 is hard to say ; but I venture to make a 
 guess. It is well known though it sounds 
 250 
 
A CONVERSATION WITH CARLYLE 
 
 incredible enough that Tennyson was 
 sensitive to newspaper comment he who 
 ought never to have looked at a line of it ; 
 and it is just possible that he may have 
 made complaint to Carlyle of the treatment 
 he was receiving at the hands of some of 
 the obscurities of the press. But that was 
 not the treatment liberally and generously 
 accorded him by the public the great 
 public of the English-speaking peoples ; 
 which, after all, to an English author, is 
 the sole important thing. 
 
 About certain novelists : " There's that 
 
 woman they call Miss , and there's that 
 
 other woman who calls herself ; God 
 
 forbid that I should read their trash; but 
 if what I am told of it be true, then when 
 they go before Ehadamanthus, I should 
 think their sentence would be forty stripes 
 
 save one." 
 
 About Disraeli: "There's that man Dis- 
 raeli. They tell me he is a good speaker. 
 
 251 
 
A CONVERSATION WITH CARLYLE 
 
 Perhaps I do not know what a good speaker 
 is. But I read a speech of his that he 
 delivered at Glasgow a year or two ago; 
 and it appeared to me the greatest jargon 
 of nonsense that ever got into any poor 
 creature's head ! " 
 
 Nevertheless, he was not always grum- 
 bling and growling. 
 
 " This Chelsea Embankment now is about 
 the cheerfullest place I know of : the bright- 
 ness and general liveliness of it ; the river 
 flowing and shining ; those small eager 
 steamers puffing on their way, and carrying 
 their loads ; the open sky ; the trees ; the 
 people walking up and down, to breathe 
 the fresh air ; the nursemaids and the per- 
 ambulators and the children the young 
 generation coming on ; even those brats o' 
 laddies " 
 
 But at this point one of the brats o' 
 laddies got a swift surprise. He had been 
 twirling himself round the iron rail 
 252 
 
A CONVERSATION WITH CARLYLE 
 
 overlooking the Thames; and threatening 
 every moment to pitch himself into the 
 stream ; when, of a sudden, he was gripped 
 by the scruff of the neck, and hauled on 
 to the pavement. 
 
 " You young rascal, do ye want to throw 
 yourself into the water ? " 
 
 That tatterdemalion, if he is alive, must 
 now be a man of five-and-twenty : one 
 wonders where he is, and whether he knows 
 that in his youth he got a friendly word 
 (and grip) from the greatest man of letters 
 of the nineteenth century. 
 
 253 
 
Ill 
 
 He appeared to be greatly interested in 
 the Chelsea Pensioners, and in the various 
 gardening occupations and amusements with 
 which the ancient warriors managed to pass 
 the time. 
 
 " There are two of them I do not see 
 them at the moment who serve as an ex- 
 cellent example of the economy of human 
 force. One of them is a helpless cripple, 
 and cannot get about by himself ; the other 
 has lost his eyesight, and cannot get about 
 by himself; so the lame man places himself 
 in a Bath chair, and directs it, while the 
 blind man pushes behind; and together 
 they have their small rambles, doing no 
 harm to any living creature, and each of 
 2 54 
 
A CONVERSATION WITH CARLYLE 
 
 them profiting by lending to the other what 
 the other lacks. . . . We had fine men 
 for soldiers in those days; look at their 
 stature even now, old and shrunken as they 
 
 are." 
 
 But here the talk wandered away into Ger- 
 many, partly perhaps because Carlyle had 
 been reading a very frivolous little book of 
 mine, the characters in which are supposed to 
 have espoused the side of Germany at a time 
 when Germany was not popular in England. 
 Carlyle's personal experiences of Germany, 
 however, seemed to have been distinctly 
 disappointing ; and although he did not 
 expressly say so, one somehow gathered 
 that the chief reason was a conclusion he 
 had formed that the Germans did not 
 properly appreciate Goethe. 
 
 " The most notable man in literature for 
 
 two hundred years. . . . The one man who 
 
 has shown us what Christianity might be 
 
 without the husks and cloaks that have been 
 
 255 
 
A CONVERSATION WITH CARLYLE 
 
 heaped upon it. ... But there is no real 
 religion at the present day. And the man 
 or the nation that has no religion will come 
 to no thing. 7 ' 
 
 It was a matter of keen regret to him 
 that he had never seen Goethe face to 
 face. 
 
 " Thackeray's recollection of Goethe was 
 vague and inaccurate ; Thackeray had a 
 confused memory of Goethe's being a dark 
 
 man." 
 
 And then, as the conversation wandered 
 on to other German authors, and when one 
 was challenged to say which of them one 
 had the greatest affection for, there was 
 nothing possible but an honest answer, 
 though it was easily to be foreseen that 
 it would prove the letting in of waters. 
 And it did. It proved to be the letting 
 in of many waters. For the next quarter 
 of an hour poor Heine had a bad time 
 ofit- 
 
 256 
 
A CONVERSATION WITH CARLYLE 
 
 " That slimy and greasy Jew fit only to 
 eat sausages made of toads." 
 
 Thunders and lightnings raged round 
 the head of poor Heinrich, and struck out 
 at all his race as well "no real fun in 
 the Jews a cynical grin no honest 
 laughter." 
 
 But at last the dispensation of wrath 
 came to an end. 
 
 "After all, let us remember that he 
 wrote the * Lorelei.' And there was good- 
 humour in his satire of Borne." 
 
 This mention of the " Lorelei " in miti- 
 gation of punishment was somewhat re- 
 markable. Mr. Allingham, an old friend and 
 frequent companion of Carlyle's, assured 
 me that he, Carlyle, had no sense whatever 
 of the magic of lyrical poetry; while he 
 had unmistakably a magnificent disdain for 
 anything, whether in art or literature, that 
 he could not personally appreciate. He had 
 himself tried verse-making; conspicuously 
 257 s 
 
A CONVERSATION WITH CARLYLE 
 
 he did not succeed ; and ever thereafter 
 he kept repeating, " If you have anything 
 to say, say it : why sing it ? " In like 
 manner he tried novel writing ; he failed ; 
 and ever thereafter he scoffed at fiction 
 fiction, which from the time of Homer 
 to the time of Thackeray has been 
 the one beautiful and resplendent feature 
 of the mental world. The same anthro- 
 pometric tendency is clearly traceable 
 throughout his article on Scott. If Carlyle 
 mistook the agonies of dyspepsia for a 
 mysterious and imperious call urging a 
 man to go out into rocky places and wrestle 
 with the Mystery of Existence; Scott, on 
 the other hand, having a perfectly happy 
 digestion, found it no part of his duty 
 to wander into dark regions and fight 
 imaginary dragons anywhere : much good 
 it would have done either the world or 
 him ! none the less the Westminster article 
 had to be written, the one man measuring 
 258 
 
A CONVERSATION WITH CARLYLE 
 
 the other by himself; and if there was 
 any hurt done, it was not done to Scott. 
 However, with regard to the "Lorelei," it 
 is quite possible that Carlyle was crediting 
 Heine, not with the strange lyrical en- 
 chantment of these verses, but with 
 merely having written a universally popular 
 song ; for he can have travelled but for a 
 short time in Germany who has not heard 
 German mothers and their daughters sing 
 the "Lorelei" duet, when the "Luft ist 
 kiihl, und es dunkelt, und ruhig fliesset 
 der Rhein." 
 
 259 
 
IV 
 
 Thereafter the talk was of a more private 
 and personal nature ; for this man ap- 
 peared to have the kindliest and huinanest 
 interest in the family relationships and 
 circumstances of any one he might chance 
 to be talking to, however unimportant; 
 and more than that, he had frank words of 
 sympathy and encouragement for literary 
 aims and ambitions that must to him, at his 
 age, have seemed trivial enough. "I wish 
 you well," he said, in earnest tones, at the 
 parting of our ways. One could not help 
 lingering for a moment or two, regarding 
 that solitary and pathetic figure as it passed 
 away along the grey pavement. I saw him 
 no more. 
 
 260 
 
BALLADE OF SOLITUDE 
 
BALLADE OF SOLITUDE* 
 
 THANK Heaven, in these despondent days, 
 
 I have at least one faithful friend, 
 Who meekly listens to my lays, 
 
 As o'er the darkened downs we wend. 
 
 Nay, naught of mine may him offend; 
 In sooth he is a courteous wight, 
 
 His constancy needs no amend 
 My shadow on a moonlight night. 
 
 Too proud to give me perjured praise, 
 
 He hearkens as we onward tend, 
 And ne'er disputes a doubtful phrase, 
 
 Nor says he cannot comprehend. 
 
 Might God such critics always send ! 
 He turns not to the left or right, 
 
 But patient follows to the end 
 My shadow on a moonlight night. 
 
 * First published in Longman's Magazine, and afterwards in- 
 cluded in the Canterbury volume of " Ballades and Rondeaus." 
 
 263 
 
BALLADE OF SOLITUDE 
 
 And if the public grant me bays, 
 
 On him no jealousies descend ; 
 But through the midnight woodland ways, 
 
 He velvet-footed will attend ; 
 
 Or where the chalk-cliffs downward bend 
 To meet the sea all silver bright, 
 
 There will he come, most reverend 
 My shadow on a moonlight night. 
 
 ENVOY. 
 
 wise companion, I commend 
 Your grace in being silent quite ; 
 
 And envy with approval blend 
 My shadow on a moonlight night. 
 
 THE END 
 
 PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND BECCLES. 
 264 
 
BOOK ON THE DATE DU 
 
 f '4 W33 
 
 se tfToH-u 
 \tt* 
 
 tf* 
 o.c 
 
 0H 
 
 ,VC^ 
 
 LD 21-50w-l,'33 
 
YB 139(3 
 
 
 253232 
 
 r