The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Strand Magazine: Volume VII, Issue 37.
January, 1894., by Edited by George Newnes
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Title: The Strand Magazine: Volume VII, Issue 37. January, 1894.
An Illustrated Monthly
Author: Edited by George Newnes
Release Date: November 8, 2003 [EBook #10020]
Language: English
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THE STRAND MAGAZINE
_An Illustrated Monthly_
EDITED BY GEORGE NEWNES
Vol. VII., Issue 37. January, 1894.
* * * * *
_Contents._
Stories from the Diary of a Doctor.
By the Authors of "The Medicine Lady."
VII.--The Horror of Studley Grange.
The Queen of Holland.
By Mary Spencer-Warren.
Zig-Zags at the Zoo.
By A. G. Morrison.
XIX.--Zig-Zag Batrachian.
The Helmet.
From the French of Ferdinand Beissier.
The Music of Nature.
By T. Camden Pratt.
Part II.
Portraits of Celebrities at Different Times of Their Lives.
Sir Henry Loch.
Madame Belle Cole.
The Lord Bishop of Peterborough.
Lord Wantage.
Sir Richard Temple, M.P.
A Terrible New Year's Eve.
By Kathleen Huddleston.
Personal Reminiscences of Sir Andrew Clark.
By E. H. Pitcairn.
Beauties:
XIII.--Children.
The Signatures of Charles Dickens (with Portraits).
By J. Holt Schooling.
The Mirror.
From the French of George Japy.
Handcuffs.
By Inspector Moser.
The Family Name.
From the French of Henri Malin.
The Queer Side of Things--
Among the Freaks.--Major Microbe.
Lamps of all Kinds and Times.
The Two Styles.
* * * * *
_Stories from the Diary of a Doctor._
_By the Authors of "THE MEDICINE LADY."_
VII.--THE HORROR OF STUDLEY GRANGE.
[Illustration: "THE HORROR OF STUDLEY GRANGE."]
I was in my consulting-room one morning, and had just said good-bye to
the last of my patients, when my servant came in and told me that a lady
had called who pressed very earnestly for an interview with me.
"I told her that you were just going out, sir," said the man, "and she
saw the carriage at the door; but she begged to see you, if only for two
minutes. This is her card."
I read the words, "Lady Studley."
"Show her in," I said, hastily, and the next moment a tall,
slightly-made, fair-haired girl entered the room.
She looked very young, scarcely more than twenty, and I could hardly
believe that she was, what her card indicated, a married woman.
The colour rushed into her cheeks as she held out her hand to me. I
motioned her to a chair, and then asked her what I could do for her.
"Oh, you can help me," she said, clasping her hands and speaking in a
slightly theatrical manner. "My husband, Sir Henry Studley, is very
unwell, and I want you to come to see him--can you?--will you?"
"With pleasure," I replied. "Where do you live?"
"At Studley Grange, in Wiltshire. Don't you know our place?"
"I daresay I ought to know it," I replied, "although at the present
moment I can't recall the name. You want me to come to see your husband.
I presume you wish me to have a consultation with his medical
attendant?"
"No, no, not at all. The fact is, Sir Henry has not got a medical
attendant. He dislikes doctors, and won't see one. I want you to come
and stay with us for a week or so. I have heard of you through mutual
friends--the Onslows. I know you can effect remarkable cures, and you
have a great deal of tact. But you can't possibly do anything for my
husband unless you are willing to stay in the house and to notice his
symptoms."
[Illustration: "LADY STUDLEY SPOKE WITH GREAT EMPHASIS."]
Lady Studley spoke with great emphasis and earnestness. Her long,
slender hands were clasped tightly together. She had drawn off her
gloves and was bending forward in her chair. Her big, childish, and
somewhat restless blue eyes were fixed imploringly on my face.
"I love my husband," she said, tears suddenly filling them--"and it is
dreadful, dreadful, to see him suffer as he does. He will die unless
someone comes to his aid. Oh, I know I am asking an immense thing, when
I beg of you to leave all your patients and come to the country. But we
can pay. Money is no object whatever to us. We can, we will, gladly pay
you for your services."
"I must think the matter over," I said. "You flatter me by wishing for
me, and by believing that I can render you assistance, but I cannot take
a step of this kind in a hurry. I will write to you by to-night's post
if you will give me your address. In the meantime, kindly tell me some
of the symptoms of Sir Henry's malady."
"I fear it is a malady of the mind," she answered immediately, "but it
is of so vivid and so startling a character, that unless relief is soon
obtained, the body must give way under the strain. You see that I am
very young, Dr. Halifax. Perhaps I look younger than I am--my age is
twenty-two. My husband is twenty years my senior. He would, however, be
considered by most people still a young man. He is a great scholar, and
has always had more or less the habits of a recluse. He is fond of
living in his library, and likes nothing better than to be surrounded by
books of all sorts. Every modern book worth reading is forwarded to him
by its publisher. He is a very interesting man and a brilliant
conversationalist. Perhaps I ought to put all this in the past tense,
for now he scarcely ever speaks--he reads next to nothing--it is
difficult to persuade him to eat--he will not leave the house--he used
to have a rather ruddy complexion--he is now deadly pale and terribly
emaciated. He sighs in the most heartrending manner, and seems to be in
a state of extreme nervous tension. In short, he is very ill, and yet he
seems to have no bodily disease. His eyes have a terribly startled
expression in them--his hand trembles so that he can scarcely raise a
cup of tea to his lips. In short, he looks like a man who has seen
a ghost."
"When did these symptoms begin to appear?" I asked.
"It is mid-winter now," said Lady Studley. "The queer symptoms began to
show themselves in my husband in October. They have been growing worse
and worse. In short, I can stand them no longer," she continued, giving
way to a short, hysterical sob. "I felt I must come to someone--I have
heard of you. Do, do come and save us. Do come and find out what is the
matter with my wretched husband."
"I will write to you to-night," I said, in as kind a voice as I could
muster, for the pretty, anxious wife interested me already. "It may not
be possible for me to stay at Studley Grange for a week, but in any case
I can promise to come and see the patient. One visit will probably be
sufficient--what your husband wants is, no doubt, complete change."
"Oh, yes, yes," she replied, standing up now. "I have said so scores of
times, but Sir Henry won't stir from Studley--nothing will induce him to
go away. He won't even leave his own special bedroom, although I expect
he has dreadful nights." Two hectic spots burnt in her cheeks as she
spoke. I looked at her attentively.
"You will forgive me for speaking," I said, "but you do not look at all
well yourself. I should like to prescribe for you as well as
your husband."
"Thank you," she answered, "I am not very strong. I never have been, but
that is nothing--I mean that my health is not a thing of consequence at
present. Well, I must not take up any more of your time. I shall expect
to get a letter from you to-morrow morning. Please address it to Lady
Studley, Grosvenor Hotel, Victoria."
She touched my hand with fingers that burnt like a living coal and left
the room.
I thought her very ill, and was sure that if I could see my way to
spending a week at Studley Grange, I should have two patients instead of
one. It is always difficult for a busy doctor to leave home, but after
carefully thinking matters over, I resolved to comply with Lady
Studley's request.
[Illustration: "LADY STUDLEY HAD COME HERSELF TO FETCH ME."]
Accordingly, two days later saw me on my way to Wiltshire, and to
Studley Grange. A brougham with two smart horses was waiting at the
station. To my surprise I saw that Lady Studley had come herself
to fetch me.
"I don't know how to thank you," she said, giving me a feverish clasp of
her hand. "Your visit fills me with hope--I believe that you will
discover what is really wrong. Home!" she said, giving a quick,
imperious direction to the footman who appeared at the window of
the carriage.
We bowled forward at a rapid pace, and she continued:--
"I came to meet you to-day to tell you that I have used a little guile
with regard to your visit. I have not told Sir Henry that you are coming
here in the capacity of a doctor."
Here she paused and gave me one of her restless glances.
"Do you mind?" she asked.
"What have you said about me to Sir Henry?" I inquired.
"That you are a great friend of the Onslows, and that I have asked you
here for a week's change," she answered immediately.
"As a guest, my husband will be polite and delightful to you--as a
doctor, he would treat you with scant civility, and would probably give
you little or none of his confidence."
I was quite silent for a moment after Lady Studley had told me this.
Then I said:--
"Had I known that I was not to come to your house in the capacity of a
medical man, I might have re-considered my earnest desire to help you."
She turned very pale when I said this, and tears filled her eyes.
"Never mind," I said now, for I could not but be touched by her
extremely pathetic and suffering face, by the look of great illness
which was manifested in every glance. "Never mind now; I am glad you
have told me exactly the terms on which you wish me to approach your
husband; but I think that I can so put matters to Sir Henry that he will
be glad to consult me in my medical capacity."
"Oh, but he does not even know that I suspect his illness. It would
never do for him to know. I suspect! I see! I fear! but I say nothing.
Sir Henry would be much more miserable than he is now, if he thought
that I guessed that there is anything wrong with him."
"It is impossible for me to come to the Grange except as a medical man,"
I answered, firmly. "I will tell Sir Henry that you have seen some
changes in him, and have asked me to visit him as a doctor. Please trust
me. Nothing will be said to your husband that can make matters at all
uncomfortable for you."
Lady Studley did not venture any further remonstrance, and we now
approached the old Grange. It was an irregular pile, built evidently
according to the wants of the different families who had lived in it.
The building was long and rambling, with rows of windows filled up with
panes of latticed glass. In front of the house was a sweeping lawn,
which, even at this time of the year, presented a velvety and well-kept
appearance. We drove rapidly round to the entrance door, and a moment
later I found myself in the presence of my host and patient. Sir Henry
Studley was a tall man with a very slight stoop, and an aquiline and
rather noble face. His eyes were dark, and his forehead inclined to be
bald. There was a courtly, old-world sort of look about him. He greeted
me with extreme friendliness, and we went into the hall, a very large
and lofty apartment, to tea.
Lady Studley was vivacious and lively in the extreme. While she talked,
the hectic spots came out again on her cheeks. My uneasiness about her
increased as I noticed these symptoms. I felt certain that she was not
only consumptive, but in all probability she was even now the victim of
an advanced stage of phthisis. I felt far more anxious about her than
about her husband, who appeared to me at that moment to be nothing more
than a somewhat nervous and hypochondriacal person. This state of things
seemed easy to account for in a scholar and a man of sedentary habits.
I remarked about the age of the house, and my host became interested,
and told me one or two stories of the old inhabitants of the Grange. He
said that to-morrow he would have much pleasure in taking me over
the building.
[Illustration: "'HAVE YOU A GHOST HERE?' I ASKED, WITH A LAUGH."]
"Have you a ghost here?" I asked, with a laugh.
I don't know what prompted me to ask the question. The moment I did so,
Sir Henry turned white to his lips, and Lady Studley held up a warning
finger to me to intimate that I was on dangerous ground. I felt that I
was, and hastened to divert the conversation into safer channels.
Inadvertently I had touched on a sore spot. I scarcely regretted having
done so, as the flash in the baronet's troubled eyes, and the extreme
agitation of his face, showed me plainly that Lady Studley was right
when she spoke of his nerves being in a very irritable condition. Of
course, I did not believe in ghosts, and wondered that a man of Sir
Henry's calibre could be at all under the influence of this
old-world fear.
"I am sorry that we have no one to meet you," he said, after a few
remarks of a commonplace character had divided us from the ghost
question. "But to-morrow several friends are coming, and we hope you
will have a pleasant time. Are you fond of hunting?"
I answered that I used to be in the old days, before medicine and
patients occupied all my thoughts.
"If this open weather continues, I can probably give you some of your
favourite pastime," rejoined Sir Henry; "and now perhaps you would like
to be shown to your room."
My bedroom was in a modern wing of the house, and looked as cheerful and
as unghostlike as it was possible for a room to be. I did not rejoin my
host and hostess until dinner-time. We had a sociable little meal, at
which nothing of any importance occurred, and shortly after the servants
withdrew, Lady Studley left Sir Henry and me to ourselves. She gave me
another warning glance as she left the room. I had already quite made up
my mind, however, to tell Sir Henry the motive of my visit.
The moment the door closed behind his wife, he started up and asked me
if I would mind coming with him into his library.
"The fact is." he said, "I am particularly glad you have come down. I
want to have a talk with you about my wife. She is extremely unwell."
I signified my willingness to listen to anything Sir Henry might say,
and in a few minutes we found ourselves comfortably established in a
splendid old room, completely clothed with books from ceiling to floor.
"These are my treasures," said the baronet, waving his hand in the
direction of an old bookcase, which contained, I saw at a glance, some
very rare and precious first editions.
"These are my friends, the companions of my hours of solitude. Now sit
down, Dr. Halifax; make yourself at home. You have come here as a guest,
but I have heard of you before, and am inclined to confide in you. I
must frankly say that I hate your profession as a rule. I don't believe
in the omniscience of medical men, but moments come in the lives of all
men when it is necessary to unburden the mind to another. May I give you
my confidence?"
"One moment first," I said. "I can't deceive you, Sir Henry. I have come
here, not in the capacity of a guest, but as your wife's medical man.
She has been anxious about you, and she begged of me to come and stay
here for a few days in order to render you any medical assistance within
my power. I only knew, on my way here to-day, that she had not
acquainted you with the nature of my visit."
While I was speaking, Sir Henry's face became extremely watchful,
eager, and tense.
"This is remarkable," he said. "So Lucilla is anxious about me? I was
not aware that I ever gave her the least clue to the fact that I am
not--in perfect health. This is very strange--it troubles me."
He looked agitated. He placed one long, thin hand on the little table
which stood near, and pouring out a glass of wine, drank it off. I
noticed as he did so the nervous trembling of his hand. I glanced at his
face, and saw that it was thin to emaciation.
"Well," he said, "I am obliged to you for being perfectly frank with me.
My wife scarcely did well to conceal the object of your visit. But now
that you have come, I shall make use of you both for myself and
for her."
"Then you are not well?" I asked.
"Well!" he answered, with almost a shout. "Good God, no! I think that I
am going mad. I know--I know that unless relief soon comes I shall die
or become a raving maniac."
"No, nothing of the kind," I answered, soothingly; "you probably want
change. This is a fine old house, but dull, no doubt, in winter. Why
don't you go away?--to the Riviera, or some other place where there is
plenty of sunshine? Why do you stay here? The air of this place is too
damp to be good for either you or your wife."
Sir Henry sat silent for a moment, then he said, in a terse voice:--
"Perhaps you will advise me what to do after you know the nature of the
malady which afflicts me. First of all, however, I wish to speak of
my wife."
"I am ready to listen," I replied.
"You see," he continued, "that she is very delicate?"
"Yes," I replied; "to be frank with you, I should say that Lady Studley
was consumptive."
He started when I said this, and pressed his lips firmly together. After
a moment he spoke.
"You are right," he replied. "I had her examined by a medical man--Sir
Joseph Dunbar--when I was last in London; he said her lungs were
considerably affected, and that, in short, she was far from well."
"Did he not order you to winter abroad?"
"He did, but Lady Studley opposed the idea so strenuously that I was
obliged to yield to her entreaties. Consumption does not seem to take
quite the ordinary form with her. She is restless, she longs for cool
air, she goes out on quite cold days, in a closed carriage, it is true.
Still, except at night, she does not regard herself in any sense as an
invalid. She has immense spirit--I think she will keep up until
she dies."
"You speak of her being an invalid at night," I replied. "What are her
symptoms?"
Sir Henry shuddered quite visibly.
"Oh, those awful nights!" he answered. "How happy would many poor mortals
be, but for the terrible time of darkness. Lady Studley has had dreadful
nights for some time: perspirations, cough, restlessness, bad dreams,
and all the rest of it. But I must hasten to tell you my story quite
briefly. In the beginning of October we saw Sir Joseph Dunbar. I should
then, by his advice, have taken Lady Studley to the Riviera, but she
opposed the idea with such passion and distress, that I abandoned it."
Sir Henry paused here, and I looked at him attentively. I remembered at
that moment what Lady Studley had said about her husband refusing to
leave the Grange under any circumstances. What a strange game of
cross-purposes these two were playing. How was it possible for me to get
at the truth?
"At my wife's earnest request," continued Sir Henry, "we returned to the
Grange. She declared her firm intention of remaining here until
she died.
"Soon after our return she suggested that we should occupy separate
rooms at night, reminding me, when she made the request, of the
infectious nature of consumption. I complied with her wish on condition
that I slept in the room next hers, and that on the smallest emergency I
should be summoned to her aid. This arrangement was made, and her room
opens into mine. I have sometimes heard her moving about at night--I
have often heard her cough, and I have often heard her sigh. But she has
never once sent for me, or given me to understand that she required my
aid. She does not think herself very ill, and nothing worries her more
than to have her malady spoken about. That is the part of the story
which relates to my wife."
"She is very ill," I said. "But I will speak of that presently. Now will
you favour me with an account of your own symptoms, Sir Henry?"
[Illustration: "HE LOCKED THE DOOR AND PUT THE KEY IN HIS POCKET."]
He started again when I said this, and going across the room, locked the
door and put the key in his pocket.
"Perhaps you will laugh at me," he said, "but it is no laughing matter,
I assure you. The most terrible, the most awful affliction has come to
me. In short, I am visited nightly by an appalling apparition. You
don't believe in ghosts, I judge that by your face. Few scientific
men do."
"Frankly, I do not," I replied. "So-called ghosts can generally be
accounted for. At the most they are only the figments of an over-excited
or diseased brain."
"Be that as it may," said Sir Henry, "the diseased brain can give such
torture to its victim that death is preferable. All my life I have been
what I consider a healthy minded man. I have plenty of money, and have
never been troubled with the cares which torture men of commerce, or of
small means. When I married, three years ago, I considered myself the
most lucky and the happiest of mortals."
"Forgive a personal question," I interrupted. "Has your marriage
disappointed you?"
"No, no; far from it," he replied with fervour. "I love my dear wife
better and more deeply even than the day when I took her as a bride to
my arms. It is true that I am weighed down with sorrow about her, but
that is entirely owing to the state of her health."
"It is strange," I said, "that she should be weighed down with sorrow
about you for the same cause. Have you told her of the thing which
terrifies you?"
"Never, never. I have never spoken of it to mortal. It is remarkable
that my wife should have told you that I looked like a man who has seen
a ghost. Alas! alas! But let me tell you the cause of my shattered
nerves, my agony, and failing health."
"Pray do, I shall listen attentively," I replied.
"Oh, doctor, that I could make you feel the horror of it!" said Sir
Henry, bending forward and looking into my eyes. "Three months ago I no
more believed in visitations, in apparitions, in so-called ghosts, than
you do. Were you tried as I am, your scepticism would receive a severe
shock. Now let me tell you what occurs. Night after night Lady Studley
and I retire to rest at the same hour. We say good-night, and lay our
heads on our separate pillows. The door of communication between us is
shut. She has a night-light in her room--I prefer darkness. I close my
eyes and prepare for slumber. As a rule I fall asleep. My sleep is of
short duration. I awake with beads of perspiration standing on my
forehead, with my heart thumping heavily and with every nerve wide
awake, and waiting for the horror which will come. Sometimes I wait half
an hour--sometimes longer. Then I know by a faint, ticking sound in the
darkness that the Thing, for I can clothe it with no name, is about to
visit me. In a certain spot of the room, always in the same spot, a
bright light suddenly flashes; out of its midst there gleams a
preternaturally large eye, which looks fixedly at me with a diabolical
expression. As time goes, it does not remain long; but as agony counts,
it seems to take years of my life away with it. It fades as suddenly
into grey mist and nothingness as it comes, and, wet with perspiration,
and struggling to keep back screams of mad terror, I bury my head in the
bed-clothes."
"But have you never tried to investigate this thing?" I said.
"I did at first. The first night I saw it, I rushed out of bed and made
for the spot. It disappeared at once. I struck a light--there was
nothing whatever in the room."
"Why do you sleep in that room?"
"I must not go away from Lady Studley. My terror is that she should know
anything of this--my greater terror is that the apparition, failing me,
may visit her. I daresay you think I'm a fool, Halifax; but the fact is,
this thing is killing me, brave man as I consider myself."
"Do you see it every night?" I asked.
[Illustration: "IT IS THE MOST GHASTLY, THE MOST HORRIBLE FORM OF
TORTURE.]
"Not quite every night, but sometimes on the same night it comes twice.
Sometimes it will not come at all for two nights, or even three. It is
the most ghastly, the most horrible form of torture that could hurry a
sane man into his grave or into a madhouse."
"I have not the least shadow of doubt," I said, after a pause, "that the
thing can be accounted for."
Sir Henry shook his head. "No, no," he replied, "it is either as you
suggest, a figment of my own diseased brain, and therefore just as
horrible as a real apparition; or it is a supernatural visitation.
Whether it exists or not, it is reality to me and in no way a dream. The
full horror of it is present with me in my waking moments."
"Do you think anyone is playing an awful practical joke?" I suggested.
"Certainly not. What object can anyone have in scaring me to death?
Besides, there is no one in the room, that I can swear. My outer door is
locked, Lady Studley's outer door is locked. It is impossible that there
can be any trickery in the matter."
I said nothing for a moment. I no more believed in ghosts than I ever
did, but I felt certain that there was grave mischief at work. Sir Henry
must be the victim of a hallucination. This might only be caused by
functional disturbance of the brain, but it was quite serious enough to
call for immediate attention. The first thing to do was to find out
whether the apparition could be accounted for in any material way, or if
it were due to the state of Sir Henry's nerves. I began to ask him
certain questions, going fully into the case in all its bearings. I then
examined his eyes with the ophthalmoscope. The result of all this was to
assure me beyond doubt that Sir Henry Studley was in a highly nervous
condition, although I could detect no trace of brain disease.
"Do you mind taking me to your room?" I said.
"Not to-night," he answered. "It is late, and Lady Studley might express
surprise. The object of my life is to conceal this horror from her. When
she is out to-morrow you shall come to the room and judge for yourself."
"Well," I said, "I shall have an interview with your wife to-morrow, and
urge her most strongly to consent to leave the Grange and go away
with you."
Shortly afterwards we retired to rest, or what went by the name of rest
in that sad house, with its troubled inmates. I must confess that,
comfortable as my room was, I slept very little. Sir Henry's story
stayed with me all through the hours of darkness. I am neither nervous
nor imaginative, but I could not help seeing that terrible eye, even in
my dreams.
I met my host and hostess at an early breakfast. Sir Henry proposed that
as the day was warm and fine, I should ride to a neighbouring meet. I
was not in the humour for this, however, and said frankly that I should
prefer remaining at the Grange. One glance into the faces of my host and
hostess told me only too plainly that I had two very serious patients on
my hands. Lady Studley looked terribly weak and excited--the hectic
spots on her cheeks, the gleaming glitter of her eyes, the parched lips,
the long, white, emaciated hands, all showed only too plainly the
strides the malady under which she was suffering was making.
"After all, I cannot urge that poor girl to go abroad," I said to
myself. "She is hastening rapidly to her grave, and no power on earth
can save her. She looks as if there were extensive disease of the lungs.
How restless her eyes are, too! I would much rather testify to Sir
Henry's sanity than to hers."
Sir Henry Studley also bore traces of a sleepless night--his face was
bloodless; he averted his eyes from mine; he ate next to nothing.
Immediately after breakfast, I followed Lady Studley into her
morning-room. I had already made up my mind how to act. Her husband
should have my full confidence--she only my partial view of the
situation.
"Well," I said, "I have seen your husband and talked to him. I hope he
will soon be better. I don't think you need be seriously alarmed about
him. Now for yourself, Lady Studley. I am anxious to examine your lungs.
Will you allow me to do so?"
"I suppose Henry has told you I am consumptive?"
"He says you are not well," I answered. "I don't need his word to assure
me of that fact--I can see it with my own eyes. Please let me examine
your chest with my stethoscope."
She hesitated for a moment, looking something like a wild creature
brought to bay. Then she sank into a chair, and with trembling fingers
unfastened her dress. Poor soul, she was almost a walking skeleton--her
beautiful face was all that was beautiful about her. A brief examination
told me that she was in the last stage of phthisis--in short, that her
days were numbered.
"What do you think of me?" she asked, when the brief examination was
over.
"You are ill," I replied.
"How soon shall I die?"
"God only knows that, my dear lady," I answered.
"Oh, you needn't hide your thoughts," she said. "I know that my days are
very few. Oh, if only, if only my husband could come with me! I am so
afraid to go alone, and I am fond of him, very fond of him."
I soothed her as well as I could.
"You ought to have someone to sleep in your room at night," I said. "You
ought not to be left by yourself."
"Henry is near me--in the next room," she replied. "I would not have a
nurse for the world--I hate and detest nurses."
Soon afterwards she left me. She was very erratic, and before she left
the room she had quite got over her depression. The sun shone out, and
with the gleam of brightness her volatile spirits rose.
"I am going for a drive," she said. "Will you come with me?"
"Not this morning," I replied. "If you ask me to-morrow, I shall be
pleased to accompany you."
"Well, go to Henry," she answered. "Talk to him--find out what ails him,
order tonics for him. Cheer him in every way in your power. You say he
is not ill--not seriously ill--I know better. My impression is that if
my days are numbered, so are his."
She went away, and I sought her husband. As soon as the wheels of her
brougham were heard bowling away over the gravel sweep, we went up
together to his room.
"That eye came twice last night," he said in an awestruck whisper to me.
"I am a doomed man--a doomed man. I cannot bear this any longer."
We were standing in the room as he said the words. Even in broad
daylight, I could see that he glanced round him with apprehension. He
was shaking quite visibly. The room was decidedly old-fashioned, but the
greater part of the furniture was modern. The bed was an Albert one with
a spring mattress, and light, cheerful dimity hangings. The windows were
French--they were wide open, and let in the soft, pleasant air, for the
day was truly a spring one in winter. The paper on the walls was light.
"This is a quaint old wardrobe," I said. "It looks out of place with the
rest of the furniture. Why don't you have it removed?"
[Illustration: "DON'T GO NEAR IT--I DREAD IT!"]
"Hush," he said, with a gasp. "Don't go near it--I dread it, I have
locked it. It is always in that direction that the apparition appears.
The apparition seems to grow out of the glass of the wardrobe. It always
appears in that one spot."
"I see," I answered. "The wardrobe is built into the wall. That is the
reason it cannot be removed. Have you got the key about you?"
He fumbled in his pocket, and presently produced a bunch of keys.
"I wish you wouldn't open the wardrobe," he said. "I frankly admit that
I dislike having it touched."
"All right," I replied. "I will not examine it while you are in the
room. You will perhaps allow me to keep the key?"
"Certainly! You can take it from the bunch, if you wish. This is it. I
shall be only too glad to have it well out of my own keeping."
"We will go downstairs," I said.
We returned to Sir Henry's library. It was my turn now to lock the door.
"Why do you do that?" he asked.
"Because I wish to be quite certain that no one overhears our
conversation."
"What have you got to say?"
"I have a plan to propose to you."
"What is it?"
"I want you to change bedrooms with me to-night."
"What can you mean?--what will Lady Studley say?"
"Lady Studley must know nothing whatever about the arrangement. I think
it very likely that the apparition which troubles you will be discovered
to have a material foundation. In short, I am determined to get to the
bottom of this horror. You have seen it often, and your nerves are much
shattered. I have never seen it, and my nerves are, I think, in
tolerable order. If I sleep in your room to-night--"
"It may not visit you."
"It may not, but on the other hand it may. I have a curiosity to lie on
that bed and to face that wardrobe in the wall. You must yield to my
wishes, Sir Henry."
"But how can the knowledge of this arrangement be kept from my wife?"
"Easily enough. You will both go to your rooms as usual. You will bid
her good-night as usual, and after the doors of communication are closed
I will enter the room and you will go to mine, or to any other that you
like to occupy. You say your wife never comes into your room during the
hours of the night?"
"She has never yet done so."
"She will not to-night. Should she by any chance call for assistance, I
will immediately summon you."
It was very evident that Sir Henry did not like this arrangement. He
yielded, however, to my very strong persuasions, which almost took the
form of commands, for I saw that I could do nothing unless I got
complete mastery over the man.
Lady Studley returned from her drive just as our arrangements were fully
made. I had not a moment during all the day to examine the interior of
the wardrobe. The sick woman's restlessness grew greater as the hours
advanced. She did not care to leave her husband's side. She sat with him
as he examined his books. She followed him from room to room. In the
afternoon, to the relief of everyone, some fresh guests arrived. In
consequence we had a cheerful evening. Lady Studley came down to dinner
in white from top to toe. Her dress was ethereal in texture and largely
composed of lace. I cannot describe woman's dress, but with her shadowy
figure and worn, but still lovely face, she looked spiritual. The gleam
in her large blue eyes was pathetic. Her love for her husband was
touching to behold. How soon, how very soon, they must part from each
other! Only I as a doctor knew how impossible it was to keep the lamp of
life much longer burning in the poor girl's frame.
We retired as usual to rest. Sir Henry bade me a cheerful good-night.
Lady Studley nodded to me as she left the room.
[Illustration: "'SLEEP WELL,' SHE SAID, IN A GAY VOICE."]
"Sleep well," she said, in a gay voice.
It was late the next morning when we all met round the breakfast table.
Sir Henry looked better, but Lady Studley many degrees worse, than the
night before. I wondered at her courage in retaining her post at the
head of her table. The visitors, who came in at intervals and took their
seats at the table, looked at her with wonder and compassion.
"Surely my hostess is very ill?" said a guest who sat next my side.
"Yes, but take no notice of it," I answered.
Soon after breakfast I sought Sir Henry.
"Well--well?" he said, as he grasped my hand. "Halifax, you have seen
it. I know you have by the expression of your face."
"Yes," I replied, "I have."
"How quietly you speak. Has not the horror of the thing seized you?"
"No," I said, with a brief laugh. "I told you yesterday that my nerves
were in tolerable order. I think my surmise was correct, and that the
apparition has tangible form and can be traced to its foundation."
An unbelieving look swept over Sir Henry's face.
"Ah," he said, "doctors are very hard to convince. Everything must be
brought down to a cold material level to satisfy them; but several
nights in that room would shatter even your nerves, my friend."
"You are quite right," I answered. "I should be very sorry to spend
several nights in that room. Now I will tell you briefly what occurred."
We were standing in the library. Sir Henry went to the door, locked it,
and put the key in his pocket.
"Can I come in?" said a voice outside.
The voice was Lady Studley's.
"In a minute, my darling," answered her husband. "I am engaged with
Halifax just at present."
"Medically, I suppose?" she answered.
"Yes, medically," he responded.
She went away at once, and Sir Henry returned to my side.
"Now speak," he said. "Be quick. She is sure to return, and I don't like
her to fancy that we are talking secrets."
"This is my story," I said. "I went into your room, put out all the
lights, and sat on the edge of the bed."
"You did not get into bed, then?"
"No, I preferred to be up and to be ready for immediate action should
the apparition, the horror, or whatever you call it, appear."
"Good God, it is a horror, Halifax!"
"It is, Sir Henry. A more diabolical contrivance for frightening a man
into his grave could scarcely have been contrived. I can comfort you on
one point, however. The terrible thing you saw is not a figment of your
brain. There is no likelihood of a lunatic asylum in your case. Someone
is playing you a trick."
"I cannot agree with you--but proceed," said the baronet, impatiently.
"I sat for about an hour on the edge of the bed," I continued. "When I
entered the room it was twelve o'clock--one had sounded before there was
the least stir or appearance of anything, then the ticking noise you
have described was distinctly audible. This was followed by a sudden
bright light, which seemed to proceed out of the recesses of the
wardrobe."
"What did you feel when you saw that light?"
"Too excited to be nervous," I answered, briefly. "Out of the circle of
light the horrible eye looked at me."
"What did you do then? Did you faint?"
"No, I went noiselessly across the carpet up to the door of the wardrobe
and looked in."
"Heavens! you are daring. I wonder you are alive to tell this tale."
"I saw a shadowy form," I replied--"dark and tall--the one brilliant eye
kept on looking past me, straight into the room. I made a very slight
noise; it immediately disappeared. I waited for some time--nothing more
happened. I got into your bed, Sir Henry, and slept. I can't say that I
had a comfortable night, but I slept, and was not disturbed by anything
extraordinary for the remaining hours of the night."
"Now what do you mean to do? You say you can trace this thing to its
foundation. It seems to me that all you have seen only supports my firm
belief that a horrible apparition visits that room."
"A material one," I responded. "The shadowy form had substance, of that
I am convinced. Sir Henry, I intend to sleep in that room again
to-night."
"Lady Studley will find out."
"She will not. I sleep in the haunted room again to-night, and during
the day you must so contrive matters that I have plenty of time to
examine the wardrobe. I did not do so yesterday because I had not an
opportunity. You must contrive to get Lady Studley out of the way,
either this morning or afternoon, and so manage matters for me that I
can be some little time alone in your room."
"Henry, Henry, how awestruck you look!" said a gay voice at the window.
Lady Studley had come out, had come round to the library window, and,
holding up her long, dark-blue velvet dress, was looking at us with a
peculiar smile.
"Well, my love," replied the baronet. He went to the window and flung it
open. "Lucilla," he exclaimed, "you are mad to stand on the damp grass."
"Oh, no, not mad," she answered. "I have come to that stage when nothing
matters. Is not that so, Dr. Halifax?"
"You are very imprudent," I replied.
She shook her finger at me playfully, and turned to her husband.
"Henry," she said, "have you taken my keys? I cannot find them
anywhere."
"I will go up and look for them," said Sir Henry. He left the room, and
Lady Studley entered the library through one of the French windows.
"What do you think of my husband this morning?" she asked.
"He is a little better," I replied. "I am confident that he will soon be
quite well again."
She gave a deep sigh when I said this, her lips trembled, and she turned
away. I thought my news would make her happy, and her depression
surprised me.
At this moment Sir Henry came into the room.
"Here are your keys," he said to his wife. He gave her the same bunch he
had given me the night before. I hoped she would not notice that the key
of the wardrobe was missing.
"And now I want you to come for a drive with me," said Sir Henry.
He did not often accompany her, and the pleasure of this unlooked-for
indulgence evidently tempted her.
"Very well," she answered. "Is Dr. Halifax coming?"
"No, he wants to have a ride."
"If he rides, can he not follow the carriage?"
"Will you do that, Halifax?" asked my host.
"No, thank you," I answered; "I must write some letters before I go
anywhere. I will ride to the nearest town and post them presently, if I
may." I left the room as I spoke.
Shortly afterwards I saw from a window Sir Henry and his wife drive
away. They drove in a large open landau, and two girls who were staying
in the house accompanied them. My hour had come, and I went up at once
to Sir Henry's bedroom. Lady Studley's room opened directly into that of
her husband, but both rooms had separate entrances.
I locked the two outer doors now, and then began my investigations. I
had the key of the wardrobe in my pocket.
[Illustration: "GOOD HEAVENS! WHAT HAD HAPPENED?"]
It was troublesome to unlock, because the key was a little rusty, and it
was more than evident that the heavy doors had not been opened for some
time. Both these doors were made of glass. When shut, they resembled in
shape and appearance an ordinary old-fashioned window. The glass was set
in deep mullions. It was thick, was of a peculiar shade of light blue,
and was evidently of great antiquity. I opened the doors and went
inside. The wardrobe was so roomy that I could stand upright with
perfect comfort. It was empty, and was lined through and through with
solid oak. I struck a light and began to examine the interior with care.
After a great deal of patient investigation I came across a notch in the
wood. I pressed my finger on this, and immediately a little panel slid
back, which revealed underneath a small button. I turned the button and
a door at the back of the wardrobe flew open. A flood of sunlight poured
in, and stepping out, I found myself in another room. I looked around me
in astonishment. This was a lady's chamber. Good heavens! what had
happened? I was in Lady Studley's room. Shutting the mysterious door of
the wardrobe very carefully, I found that all trace of its existence
immediately vanished.
There was no furniture against this part of the wall. It looked
absolutely bare and smooth. No picture ornamented it. The light paper
which covered it gave the appearance of a perfectly unbroken pattern. Of
course, there must be a concealed spring somewhere, and I lost no time
in feeling for it. I pressed my hand and the tips of my fingers in every
direction along the wall. Try as I would, however, I could not find the
spring, and I had at last to leave Lady Studley's room and go back to
the one occupied by her husband, by the ordinary door.
Once more I re-entered the wardrobe and deliberately broke off the
button which opened the secret door from within. Anyone who now entered
the wardrobe by this door, and shut it behind him, would find it
impossible to retreat. The apparition, if it had material foundation,
would thus find itself trapped in its own net.
What could this thing portend?
I had already convinced myself that if Sir Henry were the subject of a
hallucination, I also shared it. As this was impossible, I felt certain
that the apparition had a material foundation. Who was the person who
glided night after night into Lady Studley's room, who knew the trick of
the secret spring in the wall, who entered the old wardrobe, and
performed this ghastly, this appalling trick on Sir Henry Studley? I
resolved that I would say nothing to Sir Henry of my fresh discovery
until after I had spent another night in the haunted room.
Accordingly, I slipped the key of the wardrobe once more into my pocket
and went downstairs.
I had my way again that night. Once more I found myself the sole
occupant of the haunted room. I put out the light, sat on the edge of
the bed, and waited the issue of events. At first there was silence and
complete darkness, but soon after one o'clock I heard the very slight
but unmistakable tick-tick, which told me that the apparition was about
to appear. The ticking noise resembled the quaint sound made by the
death spider. There was no other noise of any sort, but a quickening of
my pulses, a sensation which I could not call fear, but which was
exciting to the point of pain, braced me up for an unusual and horrible
sight. The light appeared in the dim recess of the wardrobe. It grew
clear and steady, and quickly resolved itself into one intensely bright
circle. Out of this circle the eye looked at me. The eye was unnaturally
large--it was clear, almost transparent, its expression was full of
menace and warning. Into the circle of light presently a shadowy and
ethereal hand intruded itself. The fingers beckoned me to approach,
while the eye looked fixedly at me. I sat motionless on the side of the
bed. I am stoical by nature and my nerves are well seasoned, but I am
not ashamed to say that I should be very sorry to be often subjected to
that menace and that invitation. The look in that eye, the beckoning
power in those long, shadowy fingers would soon work havoc even in the
stoutest nerves. My heart beat uncomfortably fast, and I had to say over
and over to myself, "This is nothing more than a ghastly trick." I had
also to remind myself that I in my turn had prepared a trap for the
apparition. The time while the eye looked and the hand beckoned might in
reality have been counted by seconds; to me it seemed like eternity. I
felt the cold dew on my forehead before the rapidly waning light assured
me that the apparition was about to vanish. Making an effort I now left
the bed and approached the wardrobe. I listened intently. For a moment
there was perfect silence. Then a fumbling noise was distinctly audible.
It was followed by a muffled cry, a crash, and a heavy fall. I struck a
light instantly, and taking the key of the wardrobe from my pocket,
opened it. Never shall I forget the sight that met my gaze.
There, huddled up on the floor, lay the prostrate and unconscious form
of Lady Studley. A black cloak in which she had wrapped herself partly
covered her face, but I knew her by her long, fair hair. I pulled back
the cloak, and saw that the unhappy girl had broken a blood-vessel, and
even as I lifted her up I knew that she was in a dying condition.
I carried her at once into her own room and laid her on the bed. I then
returned and shut the wardrobe door, and slipped the key into my pocket.
My next deed was to summon Sir Henry.
"What is it?" he asked, springing upright in bed.
"Come at once," I said, "your wife is very ill."
"Dying?" he asked, in an agonized whisper.
I nodded my head. I could not speak.
My one effort now was to keep the knowledge of the ghastly discovery I
had made from the unhappy husband.
He followed me to his wife's room. He forgot even to question me about
the apparition, so horrified was he at the sight which met his view.
I administered restoratives to the dying woman, and did what I could to
check the haemorrhage. After a time Lady Studley opened her dim eyes.
"Oh, Henry!" she said, stretching out a feeble hand to him, "come with
me, come with me. I am afraid to go alone."
"My poor Lucilla," he said. He smoothed her cold forehead, and tried to
comfort her by every means in his power.
After a time he left the room. When he did so she beckoned me to
approach. "I have failed," she said, in the most thrilling voice of
horror I have ever listened to. "I must go alone. He will not come
with me."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
She could scarcely speak, but at intervals the following words dropped
slowly from her lips:--
"I was the apparition. I did not want my husband to live after me.
Perhaps I was a little insane. I cannot quite say. When I was told by
Sir Joseph Dunbar that there was no hope of my life, a most appalling
and frightful jealousy took possession of me. I pictured my husband with
another wife. Stoop down."
Her voice was very faint. I could scarcely hear her muttered words. Her
eyes were glazing fast, death was claiming her, and yet hatred against
some unknown person thrilled in her feeble voice.
"Before my husband married me, he loved another woman," she continued.
"That woman is now a widow. I felt certain that immediately after my
death he would seek her out and marry her. I could not bear the
thought--it possessed me day and night. That, and the terror of dying
alone, worked such a havoc within me that I believe I was scarcely
responsible for my own actions. A mad desire took possession of me to
take my husband with me, and so to keep him from her, and also to have
his company when I passed the barriers of life. I told you that my
brother was a doctor. In his medical-student days the sort of trick I
have been playing on Sir Henry was enacted by some of his
fellow-students for his benefit, and almost scared him into fever. One
day my brother described the trick to me, and I asked him to show me how
it was done. I used a small electric lamp and a very strong reflector."
"How did you find out the secret door of the wardrobe?" I asked.
"Quite by chance. I was putting some dresses into the wardrobe one day
and accidentally touched the secret panel. I saw at once that here was
my opportunity."
"You must have been alarmed at your success," I said, after a pause.
"And now I have one more question to ask: Why did you summon me to
the Grange?"
She made a faint, impatient movement.
"I wanted to be certain that my husband was really very ill," she said.
"I wanted you to talk to him--I guessed he would confide in you; I
thought it most probable that you would tell him that he was a victim of
brain hallucinations. This would frighten him and would suit my purpose
exactly. I also sent for you as a blind. I felt sure that under these
circumstances neither you nor my husband could possibly suspect me."
She was silent again, panting from exhaustion.
"I have failed," she said, after a long pause. "You have discovered the
truth. It never occurred to me for a moment that you would go into the
room. He will recover now."
She paused; a fresh attack of haemorrhage came on. Her breath came
quickly. Her end was very near. Her dim eyes could scarcely see.
Groping feebly with her hand she took mine.
"Dr. Halifax--promise."
"What?" I asked.
"I have failed, but let me keep his love, what little love he has for
me, before he marries that other woman. Promise that you will never
tell him."
"Rest easy," I answered, "I will never tell him."
Sir Henry entered the room.
I made way for him to kneel by his wife's side.
As the grey morning broke Lady Studley died.
Before my departure from the Grange I avoided Sir Henry as much as
possible. Once he spoke of the apparition and asked if I had seen it.
"Yes," I replied.
Before I could say anything further, he continued:--
"I know now why it came; it was to warn me of my unhappy wife's death."
He said no more. I could not enlighten him, and he is unlikely now ever
to learn the truth.
The following day I left Studley Grange. I took with me, without asking
leave of any-one, a certain long black cloak, a small electric lamp,
and a magnifying glass of considerable power.
It may be of interest to explain how Lady Studley in her unhealthy
condition of mind and body performed the extraordinary trick by which
she hoped to undermine her husband's health, and ultimately cause
his death.
I experimented with the materials which I carried away with me, and
succeeded, so my friends told me, in producing a most ghastly effect.
I did it in this way. I attached the mirror of a laryngoscope to my
forehead in such a manner as to enable it to throw a strong reflection
into one of my eyes. In the centre of the bright side of the
laryngoscope a small electric lamp was fitted. This was connected with a
battery which I carried in my hand. The battery was similar to those
used by the ballet girls in Drury Lane Theatre, and could be brought
into force by a touch and extinguished by the removal of the pressure.
The eye which was thus brilliantly illumined looked through a lens of
some power. All the rest of the face and figure was completely covered
by the black cloak. Thus the brightest possible light was thrown on the
magnified eye, while there was corresponding increased gloom around.
When last I heard of Studley Grange it was let for a term of years and
Sir Henry had gone abroad. I have not heard that he has married again,
but he probably will, sooner or later.
* * * * *
_The Queen of Holland._
BY MARY SPENCER-WARREN.
Her Majesty the Queen-Regent of Holland has graciously accorded
special permission to the writer of the following article to
visit the Royal Palaces of Amsterdam and The Hague to obtain
photographs for publication in this Magazine: a privilege of
the greatest value, which is now accorded for the first time,
the palaces never before having been photographed.
[Illustration: THE ROYAL PALACE, AMSTERDAM.
_From a Photo. by Gunn & Stuart, Richmond._]
"I know a city, whose inhabitants dwell on the tops of trees like
rooks." Thus spake Erasmus; and this literal fact makes Amsterdam a most
curious as well as a most interesting place.
Were I writing of any one of Queen Victoria's Palaces, I should have no
need to speak of its situation: but, travellers though we are, we do not
all see these quaint Dutch cities, so a few introductory words may not
come amiss.
A walk round the city reminds one of Paris with its Boulevards planted
with trees, and Venice with its all-present canals; indeed, it is
actually divided up into nearly one hundred islands, connected by over
three hundred bridges. A curious thing is, that its inhabitants are
really living below the level of the sea, which is stoutly dammed out.
Thus, if necessary, water could be made its protection from
any invasion.
To go back to the commencement, everything, streets, houses, and bridges
are all built upon wooden piles driven into the ground. This is
absolutely necessary, as the natural soil is such that no permanent
structure can be put up otherwise. On how many piles this city stands it
is impossible to form an accurate idea; one building--the Royal Palace
(Het Paleis)--resting on some 13,659. This is situated on the Dam, the
highest point of the city. It is 282ft. long; the height, with tower,
being 187ft. It was built from 1648-1655 for a town hall, and only
became a Royal Palace in 1808, when Napoleon first abode in it. As such,
it has a great drawback, the want of a suitable entrance.
[Illustration: THE HALL OR RECEPTION-ROOM.
_From a Photo. by Gunn & Stuart, Richmond._]
I enter now at the rear of the building, which--situated in the Gedempte
Voorburgwal--is the entrance used by their Majesties. In spite of its
civic associations, when once inside there is much of the state and
grandeur inseparable from Royalty, and I soon determine that Holland can
almost equal England for its palatial contents and embellishments. The
staircases and corridors are severe to simplicity, but when I look round
the first apartment I intend inspecting, I am struck with the immensity
and the exceeding beauty of its appearance. This is known as the Hall or
Reception-Room, and is said to be the finest in Europe. Its proportions
are certainly magnificent, 125ft. by 55ft.--a special feature being a
remarkably fine roof, 100ft. in height, with entire absence of columns
or other support. Roof, walls, and the hall entire are lined with white
Italian marble, the floor having an inlaid copper centre representative
of the Firmament. The large flag you see drooping from the roof is
commemorative of the siege of Antwerp, being the one used by General
Chassé on that occasion, the various groups of smaller ones being
reminiscences of the eighty years' Spanish war and of Indian foes. Some
very beautiful examples of the sculptor's art are manifest, the
photographic work here introduced giving some idea of the exquisite
detail and most remarkable execution of Artus Quellin and his able
assistants.
Here you will observe an allegorical group denoting Plenty, Wisdom, and
Strength, typical of the City of Amsterdam. We had a little adventure in
securing views of this hall. At one end is a small gallery, used as the
mainstay for the temporary orchestra, which is erected on festal
occasions. Thinking our work could be better shown from that point, we
proceeded to it by a dark and winding staircase in the rear.
All went well for a time, but during a period of watchful quietude our
artist was suddenly and unexpectedly confronted with a gathering of rats
of anything but peaceable aspect. It was too much for him! He made a
wild rush for the staircase, which, being narrow and treacherous,
resulted in a too rapid descent, a very forcible alighting at the foot,
and a much bruised and shaken body.
For a few minutes we thought our photographic work would be closed for a
season; but when spirits and energies revived, we began to think of the
camera and the very long exposure plate up at the top; so up we went
again with much clattering commotion to warn our enemies of our
approach, and thus you have a view that one of our party will ever
regard as dearly obtained.
Note the extremely delicate crystal chandeliers, for these are quite a
feature in the Dutch Palaces; so graceful and handsome, and so unlike
the generality of heavily-constructed appendages one is accustomed to
behold. The other end of the hall has also some choice sculptured
marble, but unfortunately part of it is hidden by the before-mentioned
gallery. Could you obtain a clear view, you would see a figure of
Justice, with Ignorance and Quarrelsomeness crouched at her feet: on one
side a skeleton, and on the other Punishment. Above all is the figure of
Atlas supporting the globe.
Here I am given a full description of the appearance of this hall when
laid for the State banquet on the occasion of the somewhat recent visit
of the German Emperor. Splendid, indeed, must have been the effect of
the hundreds of lights gleaming upon the pure marble, the rare exotics,
the massive plate, the State dresses, and the rich liveries; and I am
not surprised at the enthusiasm of the narrator as he dilates on the
grandeur displayed.
[Illustration: THE THRONE ROOM.
_From a Photo. by Gunn & Stuart, Richmond._]
Passing through the doorway immediately under Atlas, I am at once in the
Throne Room. This is a fine apartment; its ceiling in alternate painted
panels and arms in relief, Marble columns stand out from the rich oaken
walls, rich draperies giving colour to the whole. I hear of a rare old
painting and a fine chimney-piece hidden away behind the throne, but
have no opportunity of seeing, so perforce turn my attention elsewhere.
On either side are some glass fronted cases containing quite a
collection of ragged and venerable regimental colours of unmistakable
Spanish origin. Had I time to linger, I should hear of many fierce
struggles and much gallant conduct ere these trophies were taken; but
all this is of the past, and so I leave them, silent tokens of
national pride.
[Illustration: THE QUEEN OF HOLLAND.
_From a Photo. by W. G. Kuijer, Amsterdam._]
The chandeliers here are of very unique and costly appearance: Royal
Arms and crowns in ormolu, with pendants of curious device in pure
crystal; three hundred and sixty-four lights are here displayed.
While I have been looking round, attentive servitors have been busily
engaged in uncovering the throne and canopy for my inspection, and the
crown which surmounts the chair is fetched from its safe keeping place,
screwed on, and I am at liberty to thoroughly examine the most important
piece of furniture in the kingdom.
It is essentially new looking; and really _is_ so, only having been
fitted up some three years since, on the death of the late King and the
consequent accession of Wilhelmina, the present child-Queen. Virtually
this seat is unoccupied, as five years must elapse ere the coming of age
and coronation of her youthful Majesty. Meanwhile her mother is
Queen-Regent, governing wisely and well, and endearing herself to the
people in every way; but more especially in the care she manifests in
the training of their future ruler to the proper regard of the important
position she will have to fill, and the faithful observance of duties
appertaining to such a position.
[Illustration: THE QUEEN-REGENT.
_From a Photo. by W. G. Kuijer, Amsterdam._]
Accomplishments are imparted as a matter of course, but very much
attention is given to formation of character, and many stories reached
me of the wise method displayed, and the already promising result,
giving much hope for a bright future. As most of my readers are aware,
the Queen Regent and our Duchess of Albany are sisters, and all who know
anything of the sweet-faced widow of our beloved Queen's youngest son
will at once comprehend much of the sister whom she so nearly resembles.
Perhaps you would like a description of the throne. The chair is
beautifully burnished, covered with ruby velvet, and edged with ruby and
gold fringe; the back is surmounted by a crown containing sapphires,
with lions in support; another crown and the letter W being wrought on
the velvet immediately underneath. In front of the chair is a footstool
to match. The canopy is curtained in ruby velvet, with lining of cream
silk--in token of the youth of its future occupant--with fringe, cord,
and tassels of gold. It is surmounted by crowns and ostrich plumes, on
the inner centre being worked the Royal Arms, with the motto "Je
Maintiendrai" standing out in bold relief. On either side the canopy may
be noted the floral wreaths containing the "Zuid Holland" and "Noord
Holland" respectively. The room--as are the major part of them--is
richly carpeted with hand-made "Deventers" of artistic design and
colour blend.
[Illustration: THE QUEEN'S SITTING-ROOM.
_From a Photo. by Gunn & Stewart, Richmond._]
Leaving here, I pass on to a room which is of much importance, namely,
the sitting-room of Her Majesty the Queen. In the lifetime of the late
King it was his habit to pass very much of his time here; thus, this was
really His Majesty's audience chamber. Here he would have his little
daughter of whom he was passionately fond--taking a great delight in
listening to her merry prattle, and her amusing remarks on whatever
attracted her attention. The windows of the room look out on to the Dam,
a large square, which is quite the busiest part of the city. The view
from these windows is a never-ending source of interest to the little
Princess, and here she is wont to station herself, the inhabitants
continually congregating and greeting her with hearty cheering.
The room has an artistic ceiling by Holsteyn, and on the walls are some
paintings rich in detail, and of much historic interest. One of Flinck's
largest works--"Marcus Curius Dentatus"--is at one end: at the other,
one of Ferdinand Bol's--"Fabricius in the Camp of Pyrrhus." Facing the
windows is one by Wappers and Eeckhout: one that irresistibly appeals
to the hearts of all Hollanders. It is called the "Self-Sacrifice of Van
Speyk," and depicts the brave admiral of that name blowing up his vessel
rather than surrender.
Van Speyk was educated in one of the public schools for which Amsterdam
is famous. Quite early in life he entered the navy, where his career was
brilliant and his promotion rapid, but never did he so gain the devoted
admiration of his countrymen as when he had nothing before him but death
or defeat, and chose the former, calling on his men to jump and swim, if
they cared to; if not, to remain and share his fate. Only one jumped:
the others stood by their commander, faced death calmly, and won a
never-dying renown for their heroism.
There is a wonderful chandelier from the ceiling centre, made of copper
and ormolu, burning seventy-two lights, and of such enormous size that
one wonders how many floors it would crash through if it were to give
way; then I learn that it is supported by concealed cross-beams hidden
away under the ceiling. After that information, it is a great deal more
comfortable to walk about under it than hitherto, as the men in
uncovering it had moved it, and it was still swinging backwards and
forwards in anything but a reassuring manner. Some fine marble columns
and a sculptured chimney-piece are worth attention, as are the costly
hangings and carpet. Here I may say that the greater part of the
furniture in this Palace is "First Empire" style, and of the costliest
description.
[Illustration: A CORNER OF THE QUEEN'S SITTING-ROOM.
_From a Photo. by Gunn & Stuart, Richmond._]
What will, no doubt, greatly interest you is the accompanying photograph
of small furniture specially made for her youthful Majesty, and used
exclusively by her. The frames are of the finest over-burnish, the plush
upholstery being decorated with the rarest specimens of art needlework.
On one of the little tables you will note a battledore and shuttlecock,
with another thrown upon the floor, as though the player had been
suddenly interrupted in the midst of her play. Very ordinary make and
shape are these toys, such as you may see in any middle-class English
home, and each of them looking like favourites--judging from the signs
of much use they present.
Play-days are not yet over for the Queen, and doubtless she does not
wish to hasten their departure, for children are children all the world
over, whether born in palace or cottage. This particular one is not to
be envied by those of lower station, who have not the responsibility of
position ever looming in front of them--for she is shut away from many
youthful pleasures, and denied the constant companionship of those
suited to her age.
I heard a story that on one occasion, in playing with her dolls, she was
thus heard to speak to a supposed refractory one: "Now, be good and
quiet, because if you don't I will turn you into a Queen, and then you
will not have anyone to play with at all." That is sufficiently pathetic
to speak volumes of what it is to be born in the purple, as was
Wilhelmina of the Netherlands.
[Illustration: PAINTED FRIEZE ON MANTEL-PIECE IN DINING-ROOM.
_From a Photo. by Gunn & Stuart, Richmond_.]
The Hall of the Mosé is the next place I visit, used as the small dining
room of the Royal Family. Unfortunately, this is just undergoing
partial restoration, so no proper picture or description can be
obtained. I observe a painted ceiling, some marble columns of the Ionic
order, blue and gold furniture and hangings; and then some costly and
rare paintings, three in number.
Facing the windows is a masterpiece of Jakob de Wit, "Moses Choosing the
Seventy Elders." The figures are life-size, the painting--extending the
entire length of the room--said to be the largest in Europe. There are
marble fireplaces at either end, over one "Solomon's Prayer," by G.
Flinck, and over the other "Jethro Counselling Moses to Appoint
Judges from the People," by Bronkhorst. Quite a feature of this room is
the wonderful deceptive painting by this master over each door, and on a
continuous frieze. All of this is such an exact representation of
sculptured relief, that it is almost necessary to touch it ere one can
be convinced of its really level surface. I was told that this is the
only known example of this truly wonderful work.
[Illustration: THE JUDGMENT OF SOLOMON.
_From a Photo. by Gunn & Stuart, Richmond_.]
Continuing my way through the aides-de-camps' waiting-room--stopping
merely to note one of Jan Livensz' works--I go on to the Vierschaar.
Here the walls are lined entirely with white marble, and present a fine
sculptured frieze representing Disgrace and Punishment, with reliefs
emblematical of Wisdom and Justice. The one here presented is Wisdom, as
shown in the Judgment of Solomon.
In the large dining-room may also be seen more of the matchless white
marble ornamentation, and I should much like to linger and admire, but
as Her Majesty the Queen-Regent has graciously promised me the _entrée_
of other of her Royal Palaces, I am obliged rather to curtail my work in
Amsterdam.
Just now their Majesties are not at this particular Palace, so I see
nothing of State dinners, receptions, and other functions, but although
I do not see them, I hear very much; and it would seem that when they
_are_ here, the Palace is a sort of open house, and festivity is the
order of the day. To all appearance the etiquette is not quite so rigid
as at _our_ Court, the Sovereign being more accessible to the people.
Persons wishing to pay their respects call at the Palace about five days
previous, write their name in a book kept for the purpose, then they are
admitted on the specified day, provided no good reason exists for their
exclusion. The people are eminently loyal, and speak of the little Queen
in tones of warmest affection, an affection which is also extended to
the Queen-Regent, who has evidently made herself a firm position in
the country.
The Palace at Den Haag is before me now, but first perhaps you would
like to know something of the Palace at the Loo, a place I had the
privilege of seeing; though, as their Majesties were actually in
residence there, photographic work was not possible.
The Loo is near Apeldoorn, and some considerable distance from
Amsterdam. I have only the one day to spare, so am off early in the
morning. Steaming out of the Central Station, I soon find myself
speeding along in such comfortable, well-warmed carriages as would
rejoice the unfortunate winter traveller in this country, who is all but
dependent on his ability to pay for the not very useful foot-warmer.
The country is pretty but flat, dykes instead of hedges, windmills
without number; hundreds of cows in the fields, very fine cattle, but
they _do_ look comical, for the majority of them are wearing coats!
At frequent intervals along the line are road crossings, each with their
little gatehouse, and each kept by a woman, who turns out as we pass,
dressed in her long blue coat with scarlet facings, quaint, tall shiny
hat, and in her hand the signal-flag.
At length I reach Apeldoorn, and there a difficulty presents itself.
That the Palace is some distance away I am aware, but _how_ far I do not
know, or in which direction, and while I am parleying and gesticulating
in a mixture of French, English, and a _few_ words of Dutch, the only
conveyance obtainable takes itself off, and I am left to tramp through
the woods with a jargon of Dutch directions ringing in my ears, and a
very faint idea of longitude or latitude in my mind.
The first part lay through a long, straggling village leading right into
a beautiful forest. Given a fine day, and a certainty of route, it would
have been simply grand; but as it soon poured in torrents, my situation
was anything but enviable--in fact, I was almost in despair, when a huge
cart laden with trunks of trees came slowly from a turning near.
Making the man in charge understand that I wanted the "Paleis," I found
he was bound in the same direction. By this time the rutty roads were
almost ankle deep in mud, so when I was invited to ride, I gladly
scrambled to the top of the pile, and so jogged along; my good-natured
guide trudging at the side, pipe in mouth, regardless of the weather. In
such stately style, then, I at length sighted the Palace, but was
careful to make a descent before getting _too_ near, as THE STRAND
MAGAZINE must make a more dignified appearance at a Royal residence than
a wood-cart and a smock-frocked driver can impart.
Four or five men in State liveries bow profoundly as I enter, one of
whom conducts me to an ante-room, and, after a short interval, through
some long corridors, up some stairs and into the presence of one of Her
Majesty's Gentlemen of the Household. A courteous interview with him,
and I am asked to wait for Her Majesty's Private Secretary, who, out at
present, will see me on his return.
[Illustration: THE ROYAL PALACE AT DEN HAAG.
_From a Photo. by Gunn & Stuart, Richmond_.]
Of course I make the best use of the interval and see all I can of the
Palace. A fine-looking and imposing building it is, standing back in a
large quadrangle, the latter being gay with flowers. The outer rails are
literally on the edge of the wood, and no more secluded spot can be
imagined than this--the favourite residence of their Majesties. His
Majesty the late King also preferred this residence to those more
immediately near or in towns, and it was here he breathed his last.
What I see of the interior is superbly grand, but it is more to the
purpose that I have the honour of seeing their Majesties during the day,
and the opportunity of some observation. The youthful Queen seems a most
pleasing and intelligent-looking child, and is eminently child-like and
unaffected in her manner and movements. Readers may be interested in
knowing that, in addition to masters provided for Her Majesty's
training, she has an English governess, under whose charge she is more
immediately placed.
The Queen-Regent, as I have already said, much resembles her sister; not
so tall, rather stouter, but with much the same gentle and rather sad
expression of countenance. Strange that these two sisters should both
become widows at an early age. One comfort they have, there is no very
great distance between them; and though, of course, the Queen-Regent
cannot leave her country much, there is nothing to prevent the Duchess
of Albany going there; so a suite of apartments is kept for her at
each Palace.
My interview with Her Majesty's Private Secretary is of the most
pleasant, and I cannot but record my grateful appreciation of this
gentleman's kindness and courtesy extended towards me throughout my stay
in Holland; such courteous attention much facilitating my work.
Back again to Amsterdam; and the next day off in quite an opposite
direction to Den Haag, one of the cleanest and most picturesque places I
have ever seen.
[Illustration: STATUE OF WILLIAM II, WITH THE CHURCH.
_From a Photo. by Gunn & Stuart, Richmond_.]
Here the Palace was built by William II. It is in the Grecian style, and
stands on the site of a former hunting-lodge, dating back to the 9th
century. Facing the principal entrance is an equestrian statue of
William II., at the back of which you note the church attended by the
family. The entrance hall and staircase are lined with marble, the
stairs themselves being of the same. Before proceeding up them, however,
we go through to the pretty and well-kept garden and take a view from
the lawn. In the right wing of the building as it faces you, the Queen's
private apartments are situated, the left wing containing the rooms
occupied by the Duchess of Albany when at The Hague.
Now we pass up the grand staircase, where I pause to note the Ionic
columns, the ormolu and porcelain candelabra, a Siberian vase from the
Emperor Nicholas, five immense vases from the Emperor of China, a
painting of William IV., and one of Maria of Stockholm and family.
[Illustration: THE LATE KING'S RECEPTION-ROOM.
_From a Photo. by Gunn & Stuart, Richmond_.]
Leaving here, the first room I enter is the King's reception-room. This
is a very bright looking and expensively fitted apartment, furnished in
electric blue and gold, massive gold-framed panels, and a ceiling
decorated in relief with arms and mottoes in gold and white. The
chimney-piece is purest marble, the frescoes showing crowns, arms, etc.
The candelabra are over-burnished brass and Dresden china, some
being Japanese.
[Illustration: THE QUEEN'S BALL-ROOM.
_From a Photo. by Gunn & Stuart, Richmond._]
The next room is most interesting, for it is a small ball-room, the
ball-room in fact of Her Majesty the Queen. It has a beautiful inlaid
floor, a white ceiling worked in relief, crimson and gold curtains, and
furniture of the First Empire, some of it upholstered in gold silk, with
a variety of colours intermixed. Here are shown some priceless Sèvres
china, and a present of vases from the Emperor Napoleon. Also I note a
fine marble vase from the King's Palace in Luxemburg. On the wall are
some handsome gold-framed mirrors, and from the ceiling costly
chandeliers with two hundred and twenty lights. The mantel is
exquisitely carved marble, with an ormolu frieze. On one side you will
note a small piano; it is a French one, of very clear and fine tone, and
beautifully finished in every respect. In this room Her Majesty the
Queen may be imagined enjoying the balls given to the youthful
aristocracy, something different to the State dances in the larger room;
and, doubtless, by a long way, much more enjoyable. By the time the
Queen can command the State balls, she will have commenced to feel the
cares of her position; and will look back with real regret to the
assemblies here, when she had merely to enjoy herself, a devoted mother
observing the graver duties, her own greatest trouble, perhaps, being
the acquirement of the tasks assigned by the governess and masters.
[Illustration: THE LARGE DINING-ROOM.
_From a Photo by Gunn & Stuart, Richmond._]
The large dining-room has some fine family portraits on its walls. The
first you will notice is that of William II., on horseback, leading an
attack; the artist (Keirzer) has produced a first-rate work of both man
and horse. Underneath this picture stands the favourite horse of William
II., one which carried him through numerous engagements, and earned from
his Royal master a gratitude and affection that caused him to wish for
his preservation in a position where he would constantly be reminded of
him.
[Illustration: FAVOURITE HORSE OF WILLIAM II.
_From a Photo. by Gunn & Stuart, Richmond._]
The ceiling of this room shows some beautiful relief carving of fruit
and flowers, also some fine fresco work; the chandeliers here are
massive, as is the furniture and other appointments. The room is long
and of not much width, but lofty and well-lighted.
The buffet adjoining the dining-room has some very costly and, at the
same time, some very interesting contents. The Empire furniture is
draped in rich crimson silk, the walls being covered with silk brocade
of the same colour. The chimney-piece of sculptured marble, with an
ormolu frieze, holds some choice antique porcelain vases and a valuable
Roman timepiece. A massive chandelier hangs from the centre of a ceiling
wrought with the arms of the house--this chandelier being solid silver.
It was presented by the inhabitants of Amsterdam, while two silver
lustres at the sides of the fireplace were presented by Rotterdam. Two
exquisite statues stand in front of the windows, one of Venus, the other
Diana, midway between which is an immense porcelain vase on a pedestal.
This you will note in the view given of the room. It has special
interest just now, as it was given by Marshal MacMahon, whose death
recently occurred, and whose funeral--a State military one--I had the
opportunity of witnessing a few weeks ago in Paris.
[Illustration: THE CRYSTAL ROOM.
_From a Photo. by Gunn & Stuart, Richmond._]
The windows are of very fine stained glass, the different panes giving
portraits of Kings and Princes, under each being depicted battles they
had fought. Note this rare Florentine mosaic table with pedestal of
ormolu; then we will pass on to the crystal room, an ante-room to the
ball-room. Some immense candelabra of purest crystal at once attracted
my attention; not only were they of the largest I had ever seen, but
they were absolutely unique in composition: the pedestals in support
were ormolu and marble.
[Illustration: SIDEBOARD AND MINIATURES IN SMALL DINING-ROOM.
_From a Photo by Gunn & Stuart, Richmond._]
The appointments here are again in the First Empire style. The view here
shown is looking into the small dining-room, the private dining-room of
their Majesties. In it there is to be seen a costly collection of
miniatures, nearly a hundred and twenty in number, every one of them
from the hand of Dutch masters. They are all beautifully framed in
groups. In the photograph you will observe a finely carved side-board
with some of these miniatures showing on either side. Also in this room
you will find several specimens of engraving on brass and some Russian
productions in malachite.
[Illustration: THE STATE BALL-ROOM.
_From a Photo by Gunn & Stuart, Richmond._]
Now to the State ball-room--a nobly proportioned room, but of somewhat
severe aspect Some good relief carving is shown and a splendid parquetry
floor; also some costly furniture, over-burnished and upholstered in
crimson with floral devices. No doubt it has a very imposing and gay
appearance when lighted up and filled with guests. Nearly seven hundred
lights are displayed, which would naturally cause a most brilliant
effect. Somehow ball-rooms are never satisfactory when viewed in the
day-time, unless you have an eye for proportions only; in that case this
one could not fail to please, as it cannot be less than 90ft. long and
is of magnificent height, added to by a glass concave roof.
[Illustration: THE QUEEN'S RECEPTION-ROOM.
_From a Photo by Gunn & Stuart, Richmond._]
The Queen's reception-room is prettily hung in crimson with designs
depicting art and music; the furniture bright and handsome in crimson
and cream. On either side of the fireplace stand some crimson velvet
screens in burnished frames, the crown and arms worked on the velvet in
characters of gold. In the accompanying view you will observe a large
album on a stand; this was given to the Queen-Regent by the ladies of
Holland. It is of leather, with ormolu mounts, on the covers being
painted panels and flowers worked in silk, these flowers being
surrounded with rubies and pearls; and at either corner is a large
sapphire. The interior shows pages of vellum, with names of subscribers
beautifully inscribed.
This room will, of course, be the one where the young Queen will receive
when she commences to reign.
From here I went to view a suite of apartments, formerly the property of
Queen Sophia, the first Consort of the late King. These rooms are still
in the same condition as when Her Majesty died; they are very fine
rooms, and contain a vast number of curios of every description. They
are lined entirely from floor to ceiling with mahogany; the furniture,
which is massive, antique, and beautifully carved, being also of
mahogany and tulip wood. I find one of Erard's grand pianos standing in
the boudoir, and am told that it was a favourite instrument of the late
Queen. There are some fine specimens of vases: one an "Adam and Eve,"
some of Swiss make, and others of Dresden. Also I note an exquisite
model of a ship, an inlaid Empire mirror, and other treasures too
numerous to particularize.
[Illustration: OVER-MANTEL IN TEA-ROOM.
_From a Photo by Gunn & Stuart, Richmond._]
The tea-room is another that I must make brief mention of. It contains
some valuable souvenirs in the form of vases, some from the Emperor
Napoleon (these are jewelled), some from William IV. of Germany, and
some from the Emperor Frederick. Then there are others from Berlin and
Potsdam, and still others of Sèvres. On the marble mantel is a very
intricate French timepiece, and over it an exquisite silver-framed
mirror. An inlaid mosaic table is a feature here. The worth of it must
be fabulous; the design is marvellously executed. Pope Pius IX. was the
donor. This room is really the tea-room for the Royal ladies when in
residence. Music is again to the fore, and here Steinway is the
favourite, one of his grand pianos occupying the place of honour.
Now I go downstairs for a brief survey of the private apartments of the
late King. I shall not attempt to describe them in detail, but content
myself with mention of one or two things I specially noticed. I started
with the billiard-room, a good-sized room and well fitted; but obscured
by the covers denoting non-usage. One curious article I must note. It is
a clock and musical-box combined, giving out a variety of twenty-seven
tunes. The visible part of it is a pure alabaster representation of the
tomb of our Henry II, supported by lions couchant. Rather a strange
model for a musical-box containing lively airs, is it not?
[Illustration: THE LATE KING'S SITTING-ROOM.
_From a Photo. by Gunn & Stuart, Richmond._]
Then I pass on through the King's dining-room, a stately and
richly-appointed apartment. On through the Ministers' room, and so into
His Majesty's private sitting-room. Here I cannot but linger, there are
so many treasures rich and rare, the chief of which consists in the
elaborate cabinets and other furniture, all of tortoiseshell and silver,
quite the best I have seen of its kind. Some of it looks as though
crammed with secret drawers, and I stand before it wondering whether
Queen Wilhelmina will be as anxious to discover and overhaul them as _I_
should be.
I could tell you a deal more of what I saw at this Palace at Den Haag,
but, doubtless, have said enough to show you something of its wealth of
appointments and costly treasures. One cannot help thinking what a sum
all this has cost, and what it must take to keep up so many places; but
the Royal Family of the Netherlands have well-lined coffers, as it is
not only their own country that owns their supremacy, but they have also
many dependencies in the Indies, bringing in enormous revenues.
[Illustration: "T'HUIS IN'T BOSCH," NEAR DEN HAAG.
_From a Photo. by Gunn & Stuart, Richmond._]
I have mentioned three Palaces; I know of five; but will close with just
a few words respecting a fourth, and a view of the same, which is
charmingly pretty. This Palace is called "T'Huis in't Bosch," and is
just a nice carriage drive from the town of Den Haag. It stands right in
the midst of a beautiful park, with herds of deer and hundreds of
gay-plumaged birds--a park that far and away surpasses even our vaunted
Richmond Park--magnificent timber, dense undergrowth, wild flowers in
profusion, and now and again winding lakes and streams, crossed by
rustic bridges, and such views over hill and dale as would delight
either an artist or an admirer of Nature. The above view of the house
will give a good idea of its outside appearance. I have no time for
interiors, or should be tempted to prolong this indefinitely. We have
had a peep at the Palaces of Holland, and many of us will know more of
the country and its reigning family for the visit.
Holland, with its youthful Queen, has a future we cannot wot of, but we
all hope it is a prosperous and bright one, and we all agree in thanking
Her Majesty the Queen-Regent for the opportunity of gaining this
information, and wish for her daughter all the happiness and wisdom that
she--the Royal mother--could desire for her.
* * * * *
[_The Illustrated Interviews will be continued as usual next month_.]
* * * * *
_Zig-Zags at the Zoo._
XIX. ZIG-ZAG BATRACHIAN.
[Illustration]
The frog and the toad suffer, in this world of injustice, from a
deprival of the respect and esteem that is certainly their due. In the
case of the frog this may be due largely to the animal's headlong and
harlequin-like character, but the toad is a steady personage, whose
solemnity of deportment, not to speak of his stoutness, entitles him to
high consideration in a world where grave dulness and personal
circumference always attract reverence. The opening lines of a certain
famous poem have without a doubt done much to damage the dignity of the
frog. "The frog he would a-wooing go" is not, perhaps, disrespectful,
although flippant; but "whether his mother would let him or no" is a
gross insult. Of course, it is a matter upon which no self-respecting
frog ever consults his mother; but the absurd jingle is immortal, and
the frog's dignity suffers by it. Then there is a certain pot-bellied
smugness of appearance about the frog that provokes a smile in the
irreverent. Still, the frog has received some consideration in his time.
The great Homer himself did not disdain to sing the mighty battle of the
frogs and mice; and Aristophanes gave the frogs a most important chorus
in one of his comedies; moreover, calling the whole comedy "The Frogs,"
although he had his choice of title-names among many very notable
characters--Æschylus, Euripides, Bacchus, Pluto, Proserpine, and other
leaders of society. Still, in every way the frog and the toad are
underesteemed--as though such a thing as a worthy family frog or an
honourable toad of business were in Nature impossible. It is not as
though they were useless. The frog's hind legs make an excellent dish
for those who like it, as well as a joke for those who don't. Powdered
toad held in the palm is a fine thing to stop the nose bleeding--or, at
any rate, it was a couple of hundred years ago, according to a dear old
almanac I have. On the same unimpeachable authority I may fearlessly
affirm a smashed frog--smashed on the proper saint's day--in conjunction
with hair taken from a ram's forehead and a nail stolen from a piebald
mare's shoe, to be a certain remedy for ague, worn in a little leather
bag. If it fails it will be because the moon was in the wrong quarter,
or the mare was not sufficiently piebald, or the nail was not stolen
with sufficient dishonesty, or some mistake of that sort.
[Illustration: A SMALL LUNCH.]
Personally, I am rather fond of frogs and toads. This, of course, in a
strictly platonic sense, and entirely apart from dinner. A toad I admire
even more than a frog, because of his gentlemanly calm. He never rushes
at his food ravenously, as do so many other creatures. Place a worm near
him and you will see. He inspects the worm casually, first with one eye
and then with the other, as who would say: "Luncheon? Certainly.
Delighted, I'm sure." Then he sits placidly awhile, as though thinking
of something else altogether. Presently he rises slightly on his feet
and looks a little--very little--more attentively at the worm. "Oh,
yes," he is saying--"luncheon, of course. Whenever you like, you know."
And he becomes placid again, as though interested in the general
conversation. After a little he suddenly straightens his hind legs and
bends down over the worm, like a man saying, "Ah, and what have we got
here now? Oh, worm--_ver au naturel_--capital, capital!" After this
there is nothing to do but to eat, and this the toad does without the
smallest delay. For leisurely indifference, followed by a business-like
grab, nothing can beat a toad. Almost before the cover is lifted,
figuratively speaking, the worm's head and tail are wriggling, like a
lively moustache, out of the sides of the toad's mouth. The head and
tail he gently pats in with his hands, and there is no longer any worm;
after which the toad smiles affably and comfortably, possibly meditating
a liqueur. I have an especial regard for the giant toad in one of the
cases against the inner wall of the reptile-house lobby. There is a
pimpliness of countenance and a comfortable capaciousness of waistcoat
about him that always make me wonder what he has done with his
churchwarden and pewter. He has a serene, confidential,
well-old-pal-how-are-you way of regarding Tyrrell, his keeper. Of late
(for some few months, that is) the giant toad has been turning something
over in his mind, as one may perceive from his cogitative demeanour. He
is thinking, I am convinced, of the new Goliath Beetle. The Goliath
Beetle, he is thinking, would make rather a fit supper for the Giant
Toad. This because he has never seen the beetle. His mind might be set
at rest by an introduction to Goliath, but the acquaintanceship would do
no good to the beetle's morals. At present Goliath is a most exemplary
vegetarian and tea-drinker, but evil communications with that pimply,
dissipated toad would wreck his principles.
[Illustration: "THINK I COULD MANAGE THAT BEETLE, TYRRELL?"]
[Illustration: EVIL COMMUNICATIONS.]
Why one should speak of the Adorned Ceratophrys when the thing might
just as well be called the Barking Frog, I don't know. Let us compromise
and call him the Adorned C., in the manner of Mr. Wemmick. I respect the
Adorned C. almost as much as if he were a toad instead of a frog, but
chiefly I admire his mouth. A crocodile has a very respectable
mouth--when it separates its jaws it opens its head. But when the
Adorned C. smiles he opens out his entire anatomical bag of tricks--
comes as near bisecting himself indeed as may be; opens, in short, like
a Gladstone bag. From a fat person, of course, you expect a broad,
genial smile; but you are doubly gratified when you find it extending
all round him. That, you feel, is indeed no end of a smile--and that is
the smile of the Adorned C.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: "DON'T SQUEEZE SO, TYRRELL!"]
[Illustration: "WANT ME TO BARK?"]
[Illustration: "HE CALLS THIS WINDING ME UP!"]
[Illustration: "SHAN'T BARK--"]
[Illustration: "SO THERE!"]
[Illustration: "STOW THAT, TYRRELL!"]
[Illustration: "HE'S ALWAYS DOING THAT."]
[Illustration: "I'LL GET SO WILD IN A MINUTE!"]
[Illustration: "GUR-R-R-R-."]
[Illustration: "WOW, WOW!"]
[Illustration: "SNAP! WOW-WOW!"]
[Illustration: "WHAT, GOT TO GO BACK?"]
[Illustration: "GOOD NIGHT. TYRRELL!"]
But, notwithstanding this smile, the Adorned C. is short of temper.
Indeed, you may only make him bark by practising upon this fact.
Tyrrell's private performance with the Adorned C. is one that
irresistibly reminds the spectator of Lieutenant Cole's with his
figures, and would scarcely be improved by ventriloquism itself. The
Adorned C. prefers biting to barking, and his bite is worse than his
bark--bites always are, except in the proverb. This is why Tyrrell holds
the Adorned C. pretty tight whenever he touches him. The one aspiration
of the Adorned C. is for a quiet life, and he defends his aspiration
with bites and barks. Tyrrell touches him gently, cautiously, and
repeatedly on the back until the annoyance is no longer to be tolerated,
and then the Adorned C. duly barks like a terrier. Now, the most
interesting thing about the Adorned C., after his mouth, is his bark,
and why he should be reluctant to exhibit it except under pressure of
irritation--why he should hide his light under a bushel of ill-temper--I
can't conceive. It is as though Patti wouldn't sing till her manager
threw an egg at her, or as though Sir Frederick Leighton would only
paint a picture after Mr. Whistler had broken his studio windows with a
brick. Even the whistling oyster of London tradition would perform
without requiring a preliminary insult or personal assault. But let us
account everything good if possible; perhaps the Adorned C. only suffers
from a modest dislike for vain display; although this is scarcely
consistent with the internal exhibition afforded by his smile.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
With the distinction of residence in the main court of the reptile-house
itself, as also with the knowledge of its rarity, the Smooth-clawed
Frog sets no small value on himself. He lives in water perpetually, and
is always bobbing mysteriously about in it with his four-fingered hands
spread out before him. This seems to me to be nothing but a vulgar
manifestation of the Smooth-clawed Frog's self-appreciation. He is like
a coster conducting a Dutch auction, except that it is himself that he
puts up for the bids of admiring visitors. With his double bunch of four
fingers held eagerly before him he says--or means to say--"'Ere--eight!
Ain't that cheap enough? Eight! Going at eight. Who says eight? Now
then--eight; for a noble frog like me!" Presently, he wriggles a little
in the water, as though vexed at the slackness of offers; then he drops
one of the hands and leaves the other outstretched. "'Ere--four!
Anythink to do business. Four! Nobody say four? Oh, blow this!" and with
a jerk of one long paddle he dives among the weeds. "Them shiny-lookin'
swells ain't got no money!" is what I am convinced he reports to
his friends.
The Smooth-clawed Frog has lately begun to breed here, a thing before
unknown; so that his rarity and value are in danger of depreciation. But
such is his inordinate conceit of himself that I am convinced he will
always begin the bidding with eight.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
[Illustration: "HAPPY?"]
[Illustration: "I AM HAPPY."]
[Illustration: "WHY SHOULDN'T I BE HAPPY?"]
[Illustration: "THE SOCIETY LODGES ME."]
[Illustration: "TYRRELL FEEDS ME."]
[Illustration: "NO EXPENSE TO ME, YOU KNOW."]
[Illustration]
[Illustration: "GOOD DAY TO YOU."]
If you rejoice in the sight of a really happy, contented frog, you
should stand long before White's Green Frog, and study his smile. No
other frog has a smile like this; some are wider, perhaps, but that is
nothing. A frog is ordained by Nature to smile much, but the smile seems
commonly one of hunger merely, though often one of stomach-ache. White's
Green Frog smiles broad content and placid felicity. Maintained in
comfort, with no necessity to earn his living, this is probably natural;
still, the bison enjoys the same advantages, although nobody ever saw
him smile; but, then, an animal soon to become extinct can scarcely be
expected to smile. In the smile of White's Green Frog, however, I fear,
a certain smug, Pecksniffian quality is visible. "I am a Numble
individual, my Christian friends," he seems to say, "and my wants, which
are few and simple, are providentially supplied. Therefore, I am Truly
Happy. It is no great merit in my merely batrachian nature that I am
Truly Happy; a cheerful countenance, my friends, is a duty imposed on me
by an indulgent Providence." White's Green Frog may, however, be in
reality a frog of excellent moral worth: and I trust that Green's White
Frog, if ever he is discovered, will be a moral frog too.
[Illustration: "HERE WE ARE!"]
[Illustration: "HOW DO? I'M OFF."]
[Illustration: "EH?"]
[Illustration: "WHAT?"]
[Illustration: "WHO'S THAT?"]
[Illustration]
By-the-bye, some green frogs are blue. That is to say, individuals of
the green species have been found of the skyey colour and sold at a good
price as rarities. When it was not easy to find one already blue, the
prudent tradesman kept a green frog in a blue glass vase for a few
weeks, and brought it out as blue as you might wish. The colour stayed
long enough, as a rule, to admit of sale at a decent price, but was
liable to fade after. As I think I have said, the toad is distinguished
by a placid calm denied to the frog; therefore it is singular that the
ordinary toad's Latin name should be _Bufo vulgaris_--a name suggestive
of nothing so much as a low--disgracefully low--comedian. _Bufo
vulgaris_ should be the name of a very inferior, rowdy clown. The frog
is a much nearer approximation to this character than the toad. The frog
comes headlong with a bound, a bunch of legs and arms, with his "Here we
are again! Fine day to-morrow, wasn't it?" and goes off with another
bound, before the toad, who is gravely analyzing the metaphysical aspect
of nothing in particular, can open his eyes to look up. The toad has one
comic act, however, of infinitely greater humour than the bouncing
buffooneries of the frog. When the toad casts his skin he quietly rolls
it up over his back and head, just as a man skins off a close-fitting
jersey. Once having drawn it well over his nose, however, he immediately
proceeds to cram it down his throat with both hands, and so it finally
disappears. Now, this is a performance of genuine and grotesque humour,
which it is worth keeping a toad to see.
* * * * *
_The Helmet._
From the French by Ferdinand Beissier.
[Illustration]
"But, uncle--I love my cousin!"
"Get out!"
"Give her to me."
"Don't bother me!"
"It will be my death!"
"Nonsense! you'll console yourself with some other girl."
"Pray--"
My uncle, whose back had been towards me, whirled round, his face red to
bursting, and brought his closed fist down upon the counter with a
heavy thump.
"Never!" he cried; "never: Do you hear what I say?"
And as I looked at him beseechingly and with joined hands, he went on:--
"A pretty husband you look like!--without a sou, and dreaming of going
into housekeeping! A nice mess I should make of it, by giving you my
daughter! It's no use your insisting. You know that when I have said
'No,' nothing under the sun can make me say 'Yes'!"
I ceased to make any further appeal. I knew my uncle--about as
headstrong an old fellow as could be found in a day's search. I
contented myself with giving vent to a deep sigh, and then went on with
the furbishing of a big, double-handed sword, rusty from point to hilt.
This memorable conversation took place, in fact, in the shop of my
maternal uncle, a well-known dealer in antiquities and _objets d'art_,
No. 53, Rue des Claquettes, at the sign of the "Maltese Cross"--a
perfect museum of curiosities.
The walls were hung with Marseilles and old Rouen china, facing ancient
cuirasses, sabres, and muskets, and picture frames; below these were
ranged old cabinets, coffers of all sorts, and statues of saints,
one-armed or one-legged for the most part and dilapidated as to their
gilding; then, here and there, in glass cases, hermetically closed and
locked, there were knick-knacks in infinite variety--lachrymatories,
tiny urns, rings, precious stones, fragments of marble, bracelets,
crosses, necklaces, medals, and miniature ivory statuettes, the yellow
tints of which, in the sun, took momentarily a flesh-like transparency.
Time out of mind the shop had belonged to the Cornuberts. It passed
regularly from father to son, and my uncle--his neighbours said--could
not but be the possessor of a nice little fortune. Held in esteem by
all, a Municipal Councillor, impressed by the importance and gravity of
his office, short, fat, highly choleric and headstrong, but at bottom
not in the least degree an unkind sort of man--such was my uncle
Cornubert, my only living male relative, who, as soon as I left school,
had elevated me to the dignity of chief and only clerk and shopman of
the "Maltese Cross."
But my uncle was not only a dealer in antiquities and a Municipal
Councillor, he was yet more, and above all, the father of my cousin
Rose, with whom I was naturally in love.
To come back to the point at which I digressed.
Without paying any attention to the sighs which exhaled from my bosom
while scouring the rust from my long, two-handed sword, my uncle,
magnifying glass in hand, was engaged in the examination of a lot of
medals which he had purchased that morning. Suddenly he raised his head;
five o'clock was striking.
"The Council!" he cried.
When my uncle pronounced that august word, it made a mouthful; for a
pin, he would have saluted it bare-headed. But, this time, after a
moment's consideration, he tapped his forehead and added, in a tone of
supreme relief:--
"No, the sitting does not take place before to-morrow--and I am
forgetting that I have to go to the railway station to get the
consignment of which I was advised this morning."
Rising from his seat, and laying down his glass, he called out:--
"Rose, give me my cane and hat!"
Then, turning towards me, he added, in a lowered tone and speaking very
quickly:--
"As to you--don't forget our conversation. If you think you can make me
say 'yes,' try!--but I don't think you'll succeed. Meanwhile, not a word
to Rose, or, by Saint Barthélemy, my patron of happy memory, I'll
instantly kick you out of doors!"
[Illustration: "AT THAT MOMENT ROSE APPEARED."]
At that moment Rose appeared with my uncle's cane and hat, which she
handed to him. He kissed her on the forehead; then, giving me a last but
eloquent look, hurried from the shop.
I went on scouring my double-handed sword. Rose came quietly towards me.
"What is the matter with my father?" she asked; "he seems to be angry
with you."
I looked at her--her eyes were so black, her look so kind, her mouth so
rosy, and her teeth so white that I told her all--my love, my suit to
her father, and his rough refusal. I could not help it--after all, it
was _his_ fault! He was not there: I determined to brave his anger.
Besides, there is nobody like timid persons for displaying courage under
certain circumstances.
My cousin said nothing; she only held down her eyes--while her cheeks
were as red as those of cherries in May.
I checked myself.
"Are you angry with me?" I asked, tremblingly. "Are you angry with me,
Rose?"
She held out to me her hand. On that, my heart seething with audacity,
my head on fire, I cried:--
"Rose--I swear it! I will be your husband!" And as she shook her head
and looked at me sadly, I added: "Oh! I well know that my uncle is
self-willed, but I will be more self-willed still; and, since he must be
forced to say 'yes,' I will force him to say it!"
"But how?" asked Rose.
Ah! how? That was exactly the difficulty. But, no matter; I would find a
way to surmount it!
At that moment a heavy step resounded in the street. Instinctively we
moved away from each other; I returned to my double-handed sword, and
Rose, to keep herself in countenance, set to dusting, with a corner of
her apron, a little statuette in its faded red velvet case.
My uncle entered. Surprised at finding us together, he stopped short and
looked sharply at us, from one to the other.
We each of us went on rubbing without raising our heads.
"Here, take this," said my uncle, handing me a bulky parcel from under
his arm. "A splendid purchase, you'll see."
The subject did not interest me in the least.
I opened the parcel, and from the enveloping paper emerged a steel
helmet--but not an ordinary helmet, oh, no!--a superb, a monumental
morion, with gorget and pointed visor of strange form. The visor was
raised, and I tried to discover what prevented it from being lowered.
"It will not go down--the hinges have got out of order," said my uncle;
"but it's a superb piece, and, when it has been thoroughly cleaned and
touched up, will look well--that shall be your to-morrow's job."
"Very good, uncle," I murmured, not daring to raise my eyes to his.
That night, on reaching my room, I at once went to bed. I was eager to
be alone and able to think at my ease. Night brings counsel, it is said;
and I had great need that the proverb should prove true. But, after
lying awake for an hour without receiving any assistance, I fell off to
sleep, and, till next morning, did nothing but dream the oddest dreams.
I saw Rose on her way to church in a strange bridal costume, a
14th-century cap, three feet high, on her head, but looking prettier
than ever; then suddenly the scene changed to moonlight, in which
innumerable helmets and pieces of old china were dancing a wild
farandola, while my uncle, clad in complete armour and with a formidable
halberd in his hand, conducted the bewildering whirl.
[Illustration: "MY UNCLE SAT SMOKING HIS PIPE AND WATCHING ME."]
The next day--ah, the next day!--I was no nearer. In vain, with clenched
teeth, I scoured the immense helmet brought by my uncle the previous
evening--scoured it with such fury as almost to break the iron; not an
idea came to me. The helmet shone like a sun: my uncle sat smoking his
pipe and watching me; but I could think of nothing, of no way of forcing
him to give me his daughter.
At three o'clock Rose went into the country, whence she was not to
return until dinner-time, in the evening. On the threshold she could
only make a sign to me with her hand; my uncle had not left us alone for
a single instant. He was not easy in his mind; I could see that by his
face. No doubt he had not forgotten our conversation of the
previous evening.
I went on rubbing at my helmet.
"You have made it quite bright enough--put it down," said my uncle.
I put it down. The storm was gathering: I could not do better than allow
it to blow over.
But suddenly, as if overtaken by a strange fancy, my uncle took up the
enormous morion and turned and examined it on all sides.
"A handsome piece of armour, there is no doubt about it; but it must
have weighed pretty heavily on its wearer's shoulders," he muttered;
and, urged by I know not what demon, he clapped it on his head and
latched the gorget-piece about his neck.
Struck almost speechless, I watched what he was doing--thinking only
how ugly he looked.
Suddenly there was a sharp sound--as if a spring had
snapped--and--crack!--down fell the visor; and there was my uncle, with
his head in an iron cage, gesticulating and swearing like a pagan!
I could contain myself no longer, and burst into a roar of laughter; for
my uncle, stumpy, fat, and rubicund, presented an irresistibly comic
appearance.
[Illustration: "THREATENINGLY HE CAME TOWARDS ME."]
Threateningly, he came towards me.
"The hinges!--the hinges, fool!" he yelled.
I could not see his face, but I felt that it was red to bursting.
"When you have done laughing, idiot!" he cried.
But the helmet swayed so oddly on his shoulders, his voice came from out
it in such strange tones, that the more he gesticulated, the more he
yelled and threatened me, the louder I laughed.
At that moment the clock of the Hôtel-de-Ville, striking five, was
heard.
"The Municipal Council!" murmured my uncle, in a stifled voice. "Quick!
help me off with this beast of a machine! We'll settle our business
afterwards!"
But, suddenly likewise, an idea--a wild, extraordinary idea--came into
my head; but then, whoever is madder than a lover? Besides, I had no
choice of means.
"No!" I replied.
My uncle fell back two paces in terror--and again the enormous helmet
wobbled on his shoulders.
"No," I repeated, firmly, "I'll not help you out, unless you give me the
hand of my cousin Rose!"
From the depths of the strangely elongated visor came, not an angry
exclamation, but a veritable roar. I had "done it!"--I had burned
my ships!
"If you do not consent to do what I ask of you," I added, "not only will
I not help you off with your helmet, but I will call in all your
neighbours, and then go and find the Municipal Council!"
"You'll end your days on the scaffold!" cried my uncle.
"The hand of Rose!" I repeated. "You told me that it would only be by
force that you would be made to say 'yes'--say it, or I will call in the
neighbours!"
The clock was still striking; my uncle raised his arms as if to curse
me.
"Decide at once," I cried, "somebody is coming!"
"Well, then--yes!" murmured my uncle. "But make haste!"
"On your word of honour?"
"On my word of honour!"
The visor gave way, the gorget-piece also, and my uncle's head issued
from durance, red as a poppy.
Just in time. The chemist at the corner, a colleague in the Municipal
Council, entered the shop.
"Are you coming?" he asked; "they will be beginning the business without
us."
"I'm coming," replied my uncle.
And without looking at me, he took up his hat and cane and hurried out.
The next moment all my hopes had vanished. My uncle would surely not
forgive me.
At dinner-time I took my place at table on his right hand in low
spirits, ate little, and said nothing.
"It will come with the dessert," I thought.
Rose looked at me, and I avoided meeting her eyes. As I had expected,
the dessert over, my uncle lit his pipe, raised his head, and then--
"Rose--come here!"
Rose went to him.
"Do you know what that fellow there asked me to do, yesterday?"
I trembled like a leaf, and Rose did the same.
[Illustration: "DO YOU LOVE HIM?"]
"To give him your hand," he added. "Do you love him?"
Rose cast down her eyes.
"Very well," continued my uncle; "on this side, the case is complete.
Come here, you."
I approached him.
"Here I am, uncle," and, in a whisper. I added quickly: "Forgive me!"
He burst into a hearty laugh.
"Marry her, then, donkey--since you love her, and I give her to you!"
"Ah!--uncle!"
"Ah!--dear papa!"
And Rose and I threw ourselves into his arms.
"Very good! very good!" he cried, wiping his eyes. "Be happy, that's all
I ask."
And, in turn, he whispered in my ear:--
"I should have given her to you all the same, you big goose; but--keep
the story of the helmet between us two!"
I give you my word that I have never told it but to Rose, my dear little
wife. And, if ever you pass along the Rue des Claquettes, No. 53, at the
place of honour in the old shop, I'll show you my uncle's helmet, which
we would never sell.
* * * * *
_The Music of Nature._
BY A. T. CAMDEN PRATT.
II.
Reference was made at the close of the last article to the voice of the
dog, and his method of making his feelings and desires understood. It
is, of course, well known that this is an acquired habit, or
accomplishment. In a state of Nature the dog does not even bark; he has
acquired the art or knowledge from his companionship with man. Isaiah
compares the blind watchman of Israel to dogs, saying, "They are dumb;
they cannot bark." Again, to quote the argument of Dr. Gardiner: "The
dog indicates his different feelings by different tones." The following
is his yelp when his foot is trod upon.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: DOG YELPING.]
Haydn introduces the bark of a dog into the scherzo in his 38th
quartette. Indeed, the tones of the "voice" of the dog are so marked,
that more than any other of the voices of Nature they have been utilized
in music. The merest tyro in the study of dog language can readily
distinguish between the bark of joy--the "deep-mouthed welcome as we
draw near home," as Byron put it--and the angry snarl, the yelp of pain,
or the accents of fear. Indeed, according to an assertion in the
"Library of Entertaining Knowledge," the horse knows from the bark of a
dog when he may expect an attack on his heels. Gardiner suggests that it
would be worth while to study the language of the dog. Perhaps Professor
Garnier, when he has reduced the language of the monkey to "A, B, C,"
might feel inclined to take up the matter.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: THE OX.]
Next to the dog there is no animal in which there is more variation of
sound than in oxen: "Their lowing, though rough and rude, is music to
the farmer's ear save one who moans the loss of her sportive young; with
wandering eye and anxious look she grieves the livelong day." It is
specially difficult in the case of oxen to suppose that they have a
language; but it is impossible to doubt that the variations of their
lowing are understood of one another, and serve to express their
feelings if not their thoughts.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: COW LOWING.]
In the matter of exclamations, one knows how readily these may be
imitated upon the violin, or in the case of the deeper or more guttural
sounds, on the violoncello. The natural effect is greatly aided by the
sliding of the finger along the note, especially in the case of the
lowing of cattle; but there are other exclamations that are readily
reduced to music. Gardiner gives one or two interesting cases, and the
common salutation, "How d'ye do?" may be instanced. It usually starts on
B natural, and the voice rising to D ends on C; whereas, the reply,
"Pretty well, thank you," begins on D, and falling to A, ends again on
D. After a few attempts on the piano, the reader will be able readily to
form these notes for himself.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: HORSE NEIGHING.]
The horse, on the other hand, is rarely heard, and, though having a
piercing whinny which passes through every semitone of the scale, it is
scarcely ever varied.
[Illustration: THE CHIRP OF THE GRASSHOPPER.]
The music of the insects has already been alluded to, and everyone will
agree with Gilbert White that "not undelightful is the ceaseless hum, to
him who musing walks at noon." The entomologist has laboured hard to
show us that the insect has no voice, and that the "drowsy hum" is made
by the wings; a fact which, being beyond all cavil, puts to the blush
the old-world story of Plutarch, who tells us that when Terpander was
playing upon the lyre, at the Olympic games, and had enraptured his
audience to the highest pitch of enthusiasm a string of his instrument
broke, and a _cicada_ or grasshopper perched on the bridge supplied by
its voice the loss of the string and saved the fame of the musician. To
this day in Surinam the Dutch call them lyre-players. If there is any
truth in the story, the grasshopper then had powers far in advance of
his degenerated descendants; for now the grasshopper--like the
cricket--has a chirp consisting of three notes in rhythm, always forming
a triplet in the key of B.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: FLY BUZZING.]
[Illustration]
[Illustration: DUCK.]
Gardiner, on the authority of Dr. Primatt, states that, to produce the
sound it makes, the house-fly must make 320 vibrations of its wings in
a second; or nearly 20,000 if it continues on the wing a minute. The
sound is invariably on the note F in the first space. The music of a
duck's note is given in the annexed score.
In conclusion, an article on the music of Nature would not be complete
without an allusion to the music of the winds and the storm. Admirers of
Beethoven will recall numerous passages that would serve as
illustrations. One particularly might be mentioned--the chorus in
"Judah" (Haydn), "The Lord devoureth them all," which is admirably
imitative of the reverberations of the cataract and the thundering of
mighty waters. The sounds at sea, ominous of shipwreck, will also occur
to the minds of some. At Land's End it is not uncommon for storms to be
heralded by weird sounds; and in the northern seas sailors, always a
superstitious race of people, used to be much alarmed by a singular
musical effect, which is now well known to be caused by nothing more
fearsome than a whale breathing.
These instances might be still further multiplied, but enough have,
perhaps, been given to excite some general interest in "the _Music
of Nature_."
* * * * *
_Portraits of Celebrities at Different Times of Their Lives._
SIR HENRY LOCH.
BORN 1827.
Sir Henry Brougham Loch, G.C.M.G., K.C.B., whose name has recently been
so prominently before the public in connection with the disturbances in
Mashonaland, is Chief Commissioner at the Cape. In his diplomatic career
he was taken prisoner during the war with China; and, with Mr. Boulby,
the _Times_ correspondent, was carried about in a cage by his captors,
and exhibited to the natives. After his liberation he returned to
England, and was appointed Governor of the Isle of Man, and subsequently
Governor of Victoria; and, in 1889, was appointed to succeed Sir
Hercules Robinson as Chief Commissioner at the Cape.
[Illustration: AGE 22.
_From a Painting._]
[Illustration: AGE 39.
_From a Painting by G. Richmond, R.A._]
[Illustration: PRESENT DAY.
_From a Photo. by Foster & Martin, Melbourne._]
MADAME BELLE COLE.
It was in Jubilee Year that the British public were first charmed by the
singing of this admirable American contralto. She sang in London, and
successive audiences were quick to confirm the judgments of Sir Joseph
Barnby and certain other critics who had heard her only in private. Her
advance to the front rank of English singers was exceedingly rapid, and
her position amongst us was long since made secure. Madame Cole has
taken part in nearly all the great musical events in this country during
the past four years. She has sung everywhere in London--with the Royal
Choral Society at the Albert Hall, at the Handel Festival at the Crystal
Palace, at the Ballad Concerts, at the Monday Popular Concerts, at Sir
Charles Hallé's Concerts, and at Bristol, Chester, Leeds, Birmingham,
and other leading towns. As seems to have been the case with most
well-dowered musicians, Madame Cole's talent owes something to heredity.
Musical ability, greater or less, may at all events be traced back in
her family for a considerable period. Madame Cole's first distinct
success in public was gained with Mr. Theodore Thomas, during that
gentleman's first "grand transcontinental tour from ocean to ocean"
in 1883.
[Illustration: AGE 8.
_From a Photograph._]
[Illustration: AGE 20.
_From a Photo. by Naegeli, New York._]
[Illustration: PRESENT DAY.
_From a Photo. by Walery, Regent Street._]
THE LORD BISHOP OF PETERBOROUGH.
BORN 1843.
Professor the Rev. Mandell Creighton, M.A., was born at Carlisle, and
educated at Durham Grammar School and Merton College, Oxford. He was
ordained deacon in 1870 and priest in 1873, and in 1875 accepted the
living of Embleton, in Northumberland. In 1884 he was elected to the
newly founded professorship of Ecclesiastical History in the University
of Cambridge. In 1885 he was appointed by the Crown canon residentiary
of Worcester Cathedral. He is the author of several historical works:
"Primer of Roman History," 1875; "The Age of Elizabeth," 1876; etc. His
principal work is a "History of the Papacy During the Period of the
Reformation." He was appointed Bishop of Peterborough in 1891.
[Illustration: AGE 17.
_From a Photograph._]
[Illustration: AGE 23.
_From a Photo. by Wheeler & Day, Oxford._]
[Illustration: AGE 48.
_From a Photo. by H.S. Mendelssohn, Newcastle._]
[Illustration: PRESENT DAY.
_From a Photo. by Elliott & Fry._]
LORD WANTAGE.
BORN 1832.
Robert James Loyd-Lindsay, K.C.B., V.C. is the eldest son of the late
Lieut.-General James Lindsay. He was educated at Eton, and at an early
age entered the Army. He served in the Guinea, 1854-5, part of the time
as _Aide-de-Camp_ to the Commander-in-Chief. At the battle of Alma,
amidst great disorder, he reformed the line and stood firm with the
colours. At Inkerman he distinguished himself by charging and repulsing
a strong body of Russians with a few men; for which distinctions he was
justly awarded the Victoria Cross. Lord Wantage was Equerry to the
Prince of Wales, 1858-9; and has been Extra Equerry to His Royal
Highness since 1874. He is also the Lord Lieutenant and a County
Councillor of Berkshire. He married, in 1858, Harriet Sarah, only child
of the first Baron Overstone.
[Illustration: AGE 17.
_From a Drawing._]
[Illustration: AGE 32.
_From a Photograph._]
[Illustration: AGE 41.
_From a Photograph by Chémar Frères, Brussels._]
[Illustration: AGE 50.
_From a Painting by W. Onless, R.M._]
[Illustration: PRESENT DAY.
_From a Photograph by W. & A. H. Fry, Brighton._]
SIR RICHARD TEMPLE, BART, M.P.
BORN 1826.
Sir Richard Temple, Bart., G.C.S.I., M.P., D.C.L.(Oxon), LL.D. (Cantab),
of The Nash, Kempsey, near Worcester, entered the third class of the
Bengal Civil Service in 1846. He was Secretary to Sir John Lawrence in
the Punjab, and eventually was appointed Chief Commissioner of the
Central Provinces, and the Political Resident at Hyderabad. He was
Foreign Secretary to the Governor-General, and Finance Minister of
India, from 1868 to 1874. In January, 1874, he was appointed to
superintend the relief operations in the famine-stricken districts of
Bengal. He became Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal in 1875; was created a
Baronet in August, 1876; and was appointed Governor of the Presidency of
Bombay in January, 1877, which office he held till March, 1880. He sits
for the Kingston Division of Surrey.
[Illustration: AGE 20.
_From a Painting._]
[Illustration: AGE 30.
_From a Photo. by Southwell Brothers, Baker Street, London._]
[Illustration: AGE 42.
_From a Photo. by Bourne & Shepherd._]
[Illustration: PRESENT DAY.
_From a Photo. by Elliott & Fry._]
* * * * *
_A Terrible New Year's Eve._
BY KATHLEEN HUDDLESTON.
In a little Belgian village not many miles from Brussels the winter sun
shone brightly. It shone through the quaint old windows of a little,
red-tiled cottage, and on the figure of a girl who stood in the centre
of the kitchen reading a long, closely written letter. Over the blazing
fire, where the "pot au feu" was simmering, bent an old woman, and the
girl's voice came joyously to her as she stirred the savoury mess.
[Illustration: "MY AUNT, PAUL HAS SENT FOR ME."]
"My aunt, Paul has sent for me. At last he has got permanent work. It is
nothing very great at present, but it may lead to better things, and the
pay is enough, with what he has saved, to enable him to rent a little
'appartement.' If I can, he wants me, with our little Pierre, to catch
the coach at 'Les Trois Frères' to-morrow. We should then reach Brussels
by night and spend our New Year together."
As Babette spoke, her cheeks all flushed with hope and joy, the eyes of
both the women rested on a cradle that stood in the room. In this, baby
Pierre, only a twelvemonth old, lay sleeping peacefully.
Then said the old woman, sadly, "I shall miss you, dearest, and the baby
too. Still, it is only right you should go. Perhaps in the summer you
may return for a bit. Time passes quickly. A year ago you were weeping
over Paul's departure; and now, behold, you are going to join him, and
lay in his arms the son he has never seen."
Babette nodded. She was between tears and smiles. There was grief, true
and deep, at leaving the dear old aunt, who had been so good to her and
to her child. There was joy at the thought of seeing again the brave
young husband whom she had wedded in the little village church two years
before, and from whom the parting had been so bitter, when he left her,
just before the birth of their baby boy, to seek work in the
Belgian capital.
But there was no time to waste. After the simple mid-day meal there were
many things to be done, and all through the short winter day they were
busy. There was a bundle of warm wraps to be put together for Babette to
take with her. Her little trunk, with Pierre's cradle, and some odds and
ends of furniture, would follow in a few days, when her aunt had
collected and packed them all. Her little store of money was counted
over. Alas! it was very slender. She must travel quickly and cheaply if
it was to last her till she reached Brussels.
"Jean's cart will take you as far as 'Les Trois Frères,'" said the old
lady, cheerfully, after finding that counting the little heap of francs
and half-francs over and over did not increase them. "That will save
something. You can catch the coach that stops there at two, and by six
you will be in Brussels. I pray the little one may not take cold."
Babette agreed to all her aunt suggested. Jean was a farmer of the
village; well-to-do and good-natured. She knew he would gladly give her
a seat in his waggon, which was going next day to "Les Trois Frères," an
inn six miles from the village. The coach for Brussels stopped there
twice a week, and when once she had taken her place in it, the worst of
her journey would be over.
They went to rest early that night, and by eleven next morning the last
good-bye had been said. Pretty Babette was seated by the side of Farmer
Jean, with her baby boy, wrapped up in numerous shawls, clasped tightly
to her, and the great Flemish horses were plodding, slowly but surely,
towards "Les Trois Frères".
The day was not as bright as the preceding one. Snow had fallen during
the night, and the sky looked heavy, as though there were more to come.
Babette shivered, in spite of her long, warm cloak. The roads were
freezing hard, but they managed to proceed for a mile or two, and then
suddenly there came a sway and a lurch, for one of the horses had
slipped and fallen on the snowy road, and the other was trying to free
himself from his struggling companion by frantic kicks and plunges.
Farmer Jean had a man with him, and between them they got the poor
animal up, while Babette stood in the cold highway, her baby peeping
wonderingly from the folds of her cloak.
The horse was bruised and cut about the knees, but otherwise unhurt, so
the men resumed their places; Babette climbed back to hers, and the
heavy cart went jolting on. The farmer cracked his whip, and whenever
the road grew worse he or his man got down and led the horses. In spite
of this, their progress grew slower and slower.
"I don't like to say so," said the master, "but we've two more miles to
go, and it is past one o'clock now. My girl, if the coach is gone, I'll
get you back and drive you in again next time it passes."
But Babette would not hear of this. Not to see Paul by nightfall! Not to
be clasped in his arms, she and little Pierre together, in one warm
embrace! Not to spend New Year's Day with him! No! she would not think
of it. And yet when, more than an hour later, they rolled into the yard
of "Les Trois Frères," there was no sign of the Brussels coach. It had
started half an hour before. "Les Trois Frères" was a quiet, homely inn,
little used excepting when the coach stopped there. Babette, pale and
trembling, got down and ran into the bar, where the landlord stood
smiling behind a row of bright pewter taps.
"Am I too late for the coach?" she cried. "Has it gone?" And then, when
the man told her she was indeed too late, all strength and energy left
her, and she sank sobbing on the wooden bench by the door.
There were two other men in the room, who looked at her curiously; she
was such a pretty girl, even in the midst of her grief. One was an old
pedlar, with his well-filled pack on the floor beside him. He had a
pleasant, homely face, and thin, bent figure. The other was a
middle-sized, powerful fellow, clean shaven and beetle-browed, and
dressed in shabby, ill-fitting garments. It was hard to tell what his
rank in life might be. He stared once again at Babette, and then handed
his glass to the host to be re-filled. The pedlar was the first to break
the silence.
[Illustration: "'CHEER UP, MY LASS', HE SAID KINDLY."]
"Cheer up, my lass," he said, kindly; "I too have missed the coach, and
I too must reach Brussels to-night. I have two thousand francs in notes
and gold in my pocketbook, which are the savings of a lifetime, and I am
going to pay them into the bank tomorrow. Then I shall give up my trade
and start a little shop."
"I would not talk too much about them in the meantime, friend. In some
countries it might be dangerous, but we are honest in Belgium."
It was the other man who spoke, and his voice, though rough, was not
unpleasant. He paid the landlord, caught up his stick, and with a curt
"Good-day" passed out of "Les Trois Frères."
"He, also, perhaps, is going to Brussels. He means to walk, and if he,
why not I?" said the pedlar. He had come in cold and tired, and the
landlord's good ale had made him slightly loquacious. "Yes, I shall try
and walk. The roads are better walking than driving. It is not so very
many miles, and most likely I shall be overtaken by some cart going the
same way." And he rose as he spoke.
Babette rose also and caught him eagerly by the hand. "I will walk with
you," she cried. "I am strong, well shod, and the fastest walker in our
village. We can get to Brussels before dark, in spite of my having my
boy to carry. Oh! bless you for thinking of it, for now I shall see Paul
before the year is out."
Nor would she be dissuaded. Farmer Jean came in and said something about
snow. "The sky was darkening for it already." But Babette was firm. The
landlord's buxom wife came forth from an inner room and offered her a
lodging for the night, and then, when she could not persuade her, helped
her to wrap the baby up afresh, and finally made her place in her pocket
a tiny flask of brandy, "in case," she said, "the snow should
overtake them."
So they started. Babette had spoken the truth when she called herself a
good walker. She was but twenty, and was both slight and active. The
pedlar too, in spite of his bent form, got over the ground quickly. They
had put four or five good miles between themselves and "Les Trois
Frères" when the snow began to fall. It came down steadily in thick,
heavy flakes. Babette drew her cloak yet closer round her boy and they
plodded on, but walking became more and more difficult, and they grew
both weary and cold. Suddenly, by the roadside, several yards ahead,
they saw a man's figure. He was coming to meet them, and drew near
rapidly, and then they recognised their friend in the shabby brown
clothes, who had left the inn so shortly before them.
"I saw you coming," he explained, "so came to meet you. Madame"--with a
bow to Babette, polite for one so uncouth looking--"can go no further
to-night; the storm will not pass off yet. I live not far from here with
my mother and brothers, and if madame likes, we can all take shelter
under my humble roof. It is but a poor place, but you will be welcome,
and doubtless we can find two spare beds."
They could do nothing but thank him and accept his offer. Even Babette
acknowledged that all hope of reaching Brussels was now over. The New
Year would have dawned before she and her husband met.
The wind had risen and the snow, half turned to sleet, was now beating
furiously into their faces. It was all they could do to keep their feet.
They struggled on after their guide as best they could, till he turned
out of the high road into a lane; and thankful were they when he
stopped, and, pushing open a gate that creaked on rusty hinges, led them
up a narrow, gravelled pathway to a small, bare house, flanked on either
side by some dreary bushes of evergreens.
In answer to his peremptory knock, the door was opened by a man
slighter and shorter than himself, but sufficiently like him to be known
as his brother, and the travellers staggered in--the door, with a heavy
crash, blowing to behind them.
Perhaps now for the first time it really struck Babette that she had
been headstrong in persisting in her journey, and in trusting herself
and child to the mercy of utter strangers so far from home. The same
thought passed through the old pedlar's mind, but it was too late to
retreat, so they silently followed their new host and his brother. They
went down a passage and into a room, half kitchen, half parlour, snugly
and even comfortably furnished.
[Illustration: "A MAN AND A WOMAN SAT OVER THE FIRE."]
Heavy wooden shutters dulled the noise of the boisterous gale outside. A
thick red curtain hung over the door, and a cheery log fire burnt in the
stove. A man and woman sat over it; the man, a tall, repulsive-looking
creature, with unkempt hair and matted beard, his age apparently about
fifty. The woman looked seventy or more. She too had once been tall, but
now old age gave her a withered, witch-like appearance, in spite of her
great height. She was dressed in limp, faded garments, with a tattered
shawl crossed over her chest, and had a scared, miserable look in her
bleared old eyes. There were a few words of explanation from the man who
had come home, and then, in gruff but not unkindly tones, he bade
Babette be seated, and told his mother to get some supper speedily. She
spread a coarse cloth on the wooden table, and when all was ready,
lifted a large black saucepan from the stove and turned out a smoking,
savoury-looking stew. The youngest son produced a bottle containing the
thin acid wine of the country, and another of spirits. As he set them on
the table, Babette noticed that across one of his hands, which were much
smaller and whiter than those of his brothers, there ran a dull red scar
that looked as if he had had a bad cut there. Then they all sat down,
excepting the old mother, who busied herself in waiting on them.
"It's the last good meal you'll get for some time, I'm thinking," she
croaked, as she watched them devouring their supper, "unless you turn to
and find more work than you've done lately. The landlord called for his
rent again to-day and swore he would wait no longer, but turn us out if
we did not pay in three days' time."
"Curse him!" muttered the man who had brought the strangers in, half
under his breath; then aloud he added, "Shut up, good mother: remember,
we have visitors; and one a man of property, who will hardly sympathize
with our poverty."
Babette looked up as he spoke, and intercepted a glance so strange and
savage that passed between the brothers and then rested on her friend
the pedlar, that involuntarily she shuddered and turned pale.
The old man, however, did not appear to notice anything unsatisfactory
in the appearance or manners of his hosts. He had eaten to his liking,
and had allowed the grim-looking eldest brother to fill his glass again
and again with "Genievre" till his face began to flush, and his eyes
grew dazed and heavy. Babette felt more and more uneasy. Oh! to be back
at "Les Trois Frères" again, or even out in the snowy road! Anything
would be better than sitting in this lonely house, with those three
forbidding faces glaring on her. She rose hastily and caught up her
sleeping child. "I am very tired, good people," she said, timidly, "and
I must start betimes in the morning. If I might go to bed now, I should
be so thankful."
In answer to her request, the old woman lighted a candle, and Babette
followed her upstairs into a small, low chamber. There was no
superfluous furniture in it, but the little bed looked clean and
inviting, and the curtains that hung in front of the tiny window were
made of light, fresh-looking chintz. Facing the bed was a door, leading
apparently into another room. Babette wondered if it was the one her
friend the pedlar was to occupy, but she was not long left in doubt. The
old woman wished her good-night and left her, and Babette, after hushing
her boy to sleep again, had just sunk wearily into the one chair the
room boasted, when she heard a slow, heavy step ascending, and knew the
pedlar was coming to bed. He shut the outer door behind him, and began
arranging his pack.
Babette could hear the pedlar moving backwards and forwards with
uncertain, tired footsteps. There was no sound below, even the wind was
hushed. She drew aside the curtains and looked out, and saw that the
snow had ceased to fall, and lay thick and white on the ground.
Then there came a sudden presentiment upon her. A sense of danger, vague
and undefined, seemed to surround her. It was all the more terrible on
account of its vagueness. She did not know what she feared, yet the
terror of something horrible was strong upon her.
She slipped off her boots, and stole gently up to the door that divided
her room from the pedlar's.
"Sir," she whispered, "you are very, very tired, and will sleep heavily.
I am so anxious, I don't know why; but forgive me and do trust me. Push
your pocket-book that contains your money under the door. See--it does
not fit tight! We don't know who the people of the house are: they may
try to rob you. I will tie it up inside my baby's shawls, and will give
it back to you as soon as we are out of this place. Oh, would to God
that we had never entered it! Your money will be safe with me, and they
will never think of looking for it here. Will you give it me?"
In answer to her pleadings, a shabby little leather book was pushed into
her room. As she picked it up and proceeded to hide it securely away
beneath the baby's many wrappings, the pedlar said, in a voice rendered
hoarse and indistinct by the spirits he had partaken of in such
unaccustomed quantities: "Here, my dear, take it. It will, I know, be
safe with you. I feel so tired that I don't think a cannon would wake me
to-night once I get to sleep." He groped his way to his bed, and flung
himself down on it, dressed as he was. Soon Babette heard him snoring
loudly and regularly, and then she took off her clothes, and rolling her
cloak around her, lay down by the side of her child.
In after years, when she looked on that awful time, she often wondered
how, feeling as she did that she was surrounded by so many unknown
perils, she had ever closed her eyes. Perhaps the long walk and the
excitement she had undergone accounted for the profound sleep into which
she fell almost immediately, and from which she was aroused in the dead
of night by a noise in the next room. It was neither snore nor cry. It
was more like a long, shuddering gurgle, and then--silence! Frightful,
terrible silence, broken at last by the sound of stealthy footsteps and
hushed voices. Babette sunk down on her pillow again, her baby clutched
in her arms. A voiceless prayer went up to Heaven for the child's safety
and her own, for already she heard them approaching her door, and made
sure her last hour was come. Through nearly closed eyelids she watched
two of the men enter; the one who had brought them to the house and his
elder brother. They were muttering curses, low but deep.
"To have risked so much for nothing!" whispered one. "Can she have it,
or was the old fool jesting with us?"
"It's a jest that has cost him dear," answered the other, as he watched
his brother search the girl's clothes and then slip his murderous hands
beneath her pillow. He withdrew them empty.
"Shall we settle her?" he asked, "or let her go? Is it not best to be
on the safe side?"
But the smooth-shaven one said, decisively: "Let her alone; we have
enough to answer for. See, she is sound asleep, and if not, it will be
easy to find out before she reaches Brussels how much she knows. Let
her be."
Babette lay like a log, stirring neither hand nor foot. In that awful
moment, when her life or death was trembling in the balance, her mother
love, that divine instinct implanted in every woman's breast, came to
her and saved her. She knew that if she moved her baby's life was
gone--her own she hardly cared about just then. But those little limbs
that were nestling so soft and warm against her own, and that little
flaxen head that was cuddled against her arm, for their sake she
was brave.
[Illustration: "SHE LAY MOTIONLESS"]
So she lay motionless and listened, fearing that the men would hear even
the quick, heavy throbs of her heart. But they did not. They searched
quickly and systematically amongst all her clothing. They felt under her
pillow again, but never thought of looking at the shawls of the baby who
lay so peacefully by her side; and then at last they crept away and
closed the door gently behind them.
The room was in utter darkness. For ages, as it seemed, Babette lay
there, afraid to stir, and listening vainly for some sound; then she sat
up, all white and trembling.
"My God!" she thought. "What awful thing has happened? Oh, give me
strength and courage, for my baby's sake."
As an inspiration, there came to her the thought of the little bottle
that the good-natured landlady of "Les Trois Frères" had given her. She
felt in the pocket of her dress and drew it out, taking a long, deep
draught of the fiery spirit. She had been on the verge of fainting,
though she knew it not, and the brandy put new life into her. She
listened for a long time and then gently--very gently--she crept out of
bed and drew aside the little curtain from the window.
Perhaps a wild idea of escaping into the cold, dark night outside, aided
by a sheet or blanket, flashed through her brain. If so, she soon
realized that it would not be practicable. The window was not high, but
it was small, and divided by thick, old-fashioned bars of iron. To get
out was impossible.
[Illustration: "SHE STOOD CONSIDERING."]
As she stood considering, a thin, flickering moonbeam crept in and
partially lighted up the room. It fell on to the door that led into the
pedlar's chamber, and showed her something dark and slimy that was
flowing slowly--slowly from under it into her room. She did not cry out
or fall senseless. She bent down and put her hand into it, and saw that
it was blood--her poor old friend's life-blood--for she knew now beyond
all doubt that he had been murdered for the sake of his supposed wealth.
She knew she was helpless till morning. To get out of the house was
impossible, for to do so she must pass down the stairs and through the
room below, where probably they were either sleeping or watching. If she
had courage and could only let them think she knew and suspected
nothing, she might still escape. Surely they would not dare to murder
her also, for they knew her husband would be expecting her next day, and
would be looking for her if she did not come.
With another prayer, this time uttered shiveringly, for the soul of the
pedlar, she nerved herself to get into bed again, and lay there till
morning with her child against her heart; gazing with staring, sleepless
eyes at the door which divided her from that awful room; keeping surely
the most terrible vigil that ever woman kept.
At last the morning dawned, clear and bright. A frost had set in, and
the roads were clean and hard, the sky was blue. If it had not been for
that ghastly stain that had crept across the far end of her room, she
might almost have thought that the events of the night had been but a
fearful dream.
Her child awoke, fresh and smiling, and she could hear them stirring in
the living room below. She felt that now, indeed, the hardest part of
her task was still before her. On a little table by the side of her bed
there was a small, cracked looking-glass. When she was dressed she
looked into it and saw that it reflected a face death-like in its
pallor, with burning lips and feverish eyes. She took the bottle from
her pocket again and gulped down the rest of its contents. It sent a
flush into her cheeks and steadied the sick trembling that was shaking
her through and through.
Without stopping to think or look round again, she took up her boy and
descended the stairs, and entered the room where they had supped on the
previous night.
The old woman was its sole occupant now. She was bending over the fire
frying something for breakfast, and the table in the centre of the room
was prepared for the meal. She looked if possible more untidy and
slovenly than when Babette had last seen her, and greeted the girl with
a feeble smile.
Then she poured her out a cup of coffee, and Babette had sat down and
begun to sip it (for she knew she must make a pretence of breakfasting)
when the eldest son came in. There was a very uneasy look upon his
evil-looking face.
"How are you?" he asked, sullenly, as he sat down opposite her. "I hope,
rested. Did you sleep well?"
Never afterwards did she know how she found courage to answer him as she
did, quietly and firmly:--
"Yes, very well, thank you. But my friend--he must have over-slept
himself--why is he not down?"
The old woman dropped a plate with a clatter and turned round. The man
looked Babette straight in the face as he replied, and she met his
glance with one just as steady.
"The pedlar is gone," he said, as he sugared his coffee carefully. "He
paid his bill and was off before seven. You will probably see him in
Brussels, for he was going there."
"Yes," repeated Babette, "I shall very likely meet him in Brussels, but
I don't even know his name. And I, too, good people, ought to be
starting. The morning is fine, and walking will be easy." She drank down
her coffee as she spoke and rose. "I cannot eat," she exclaimed, seeing
that they both looked suspiciously at the thick slice of currant-bread,
that lay untouched on her plate. "I think I am excited at the thought of
seeing my husband again. It seems so long since we parted, and now we
shall meet so soon."
In her own ears her voice sounded far away and unnatural, but they did
not seem to notice anything strange in her. The old woman, with a meek
"Thank you," took the humble payment she tendered, and they let her go;
only the big, burly eldest son stood at the door and watched her as she
went slowly down the little pathway and out through the creaking gate
into the snowy road. She only looked back once, and then she saw that a
dingy signboard hung in front of the house. The picture of what was
meant for a cow, and had once been white, was depicted on it, and the
words "A la Vache Blanche" were clumsily painted underneath. So the
house was an inn, evidently, and as Babette read the words she dimly
remembered having heard, long ago, that there was an inn of that name
not far from Brussels. It was kept by some people named Marac, whose
characters were anything but good, and who had been implicated in
several robberies that had taken place some years before, although the
utmost efforts of the police had failed to trace any crime directly
home to them.
"Oh, heavens! Why did I not see that sign last night?" the girl thought,
despairingly, as she trudged along the hard, frosty road. "It would have
saved his life and perhaps my reason."
She sped along faster and faster, for the house was now quite out of
sight. In the distance the way began to wind up-hill, and a stunted,
leafless wood straggled along one side of the highway. Babette was just
considering whether going through it would shorten her journey, when a
woman, dressed in the ordinary peasant costume of the country, emerged
from it and came towards her with quick, firm steps. She was tall and
rather masculine looking. The black Flemish cloak she wore hung round
her in straight, thick folds. She carried a market basket on one arm; a
neat white cloth concealing the eggs and butter that probably lay
underneath.
"Good-day," she said, in thick, guttural tones, as she reached Babette.
"Are you on the way to Brussels?"
Babette made way for her to pass, somewhat shyly.
"Yes," she said, "and I am in haste; but the roads are heavy and I have
my baby to carry."
As she answered, her eyes happened to fall on the stranger's right hand,
which was ungloved and clasping the basket. And as she looked her heart
seemed suddenly to quiver and stand still, for across that strong right
hand there ran a deep red scar, precisely similar to the one she had
noticed on the previous night on the hand of the youngest brother at the
"Vache Blanche."
It did not take long for the whole horrible truth to flash across her.
Doubtless they had felt insecure after their terrible deed, and the
youngest Marac had been dispatched after her, disguised as a woman, with
instructions to way-lay her by some shorter cut, in order to find out if
she was really ignorant of the frightful way in which the pedlar had met
his untimely end.
As these thoughts chased each other through her mind, she felt as if her
great terror was slowly blanching her face, and her limbs began to
tremble till she could hardly drag herself over the ground. But her
baby's warm little heart, beating so closely against her own, once more
gave her strength. She dropped her eyes so that she might no longer see
that awful hand, and tottered on by the new-comer's side, striving to
imagine that it was indeed only a harmless peasant woman who was walking
by her and trying to remember that every step was bringing her nearer to
Brussels and protection. Her companion glanced at her curiously, and
Babette shivered, for she fancied she saw suspicion in the look.
"You seem tired." she, or rather he, said, always speaking in the same
low, thick tones. "Brussels is barely two miles off, and it is yet
early, but perhaps you have not rested well. Where did you sleep?"
Too well did the girl know why that question was asked her, and now that
her first sickening horror was over, her brave spirit nerved itself
once more.
"I was journeying with a friend yesterday," she replied, "when the
snow-storm overtook us. Luckily we met a man whose home lay in our road.
He was very good, and took us there and gave us supper and beds."
The stranger laughed.
"A good Samaritan, indeed! And your friend? Where is he now? Did he find
his hosts so hospitable that he was unable to tear himself away?"
"No," said Babette, gently, "he started early; before I came down he was
far on his road. They were very good to me, and gave me coffee before I
left. I am a poor woman, and could do but little to repay them. The two
francs I gave them were almost my last."
This speech, uttered in such a soft, even voice--for Babette had
schooled herself well by now--seemed to satisfy her companion, and they
walked on side by side in silence for what seemed to the poor girl the
longest hour she had ever passed.
At last, in the far distance there rose the spires and roofs of
Brussels. The chiming of church bells came gaily towards them through
the frosty air, and Babette knew that her terrible journey was well-nigh
ended. At the entrance of the town the stranger stopped.
[Illustration: "GOOD-BYE."]
"Good-bye," she said, curtly; "I am late for the market, and must sell
my eggs quickly or shall not get my price."
[Illustration: "SHE SANK DOWN IN A HEAVY, DEATH-LIKE SWOON."]
She turned down a side street and disappeared, and Babette felt her
strength and mind both failing her now that she was out of danger. She
staggered weakly into a big, dim church, by the door of which the
parting happened to have taken place. Here she sank down in a heavy,
death-like swoon in front of one of the side altars, with her baby
wailing fretfully at her breast. When she came to herself again she was
seated in the sacristy, and her hair and face were wet with the water
they had flung over her. By her side stood a black-robed, kindly-faced
curé and two or three women, who were trying to force some wine down her
throat. By degrees her strength came back, and she raised herself and
asked piteously for her child. Then, when he was in her arms, she told
her story.
Wonder, horror, and bewilderment all dawned in turns on her hearers'
countenances, and it was not until she unpinned her baby's shawls and
handed the shabby pocket-book to the priest that they were quite certain
they had not to deal with some poor, wandering lunatic. But when the
money had been looked at and replaced, then, indeed, they saw the
necessity for prompt action. The curé caught up his hat, and, after
whispering a few words to the women, hurried out of the sacristy.
"He is gone to the police," said one. "Poor child"--laying her hand
caressingly on the girl's damp hair--"what hast thou not passed through!
Mercifully the mass was not over, so we found thee at once. Lie still
and rest. Give me but thy husband's name and address, and in one little
half-hour he shall be by thy side."
And so he was, and then, when she had been examined by the chief of the
police and sobbed out her story all over again, from the shelter of
Paul's broad arms, she felt safe at last. She went peacefully home with
her husband, and after a good night's rest in the little rooms he had
taken for her, she was able to listen calmly when told next day of the
capture of the whole Marac family. They had been taken red-handed in
their guilt, for had not the pedlar's body been found in a disused
cellar under their house?
He was brought to Brussels to be buried, but his name was never known,
and his money was never claimed. Probably, as he had told Babette, he
had been a friendless old man, wandering alone from place to place.
The police were generous. Half his money was given to the poor and the
rest was handed to Babette, and helped to furnish her new home. A simple
stone cross now marks the unknown pedlar's grave: but flowers bloom
there abundantly, and though nameless, he is not forgotten. Many a
prayer is uttered for him both by Babette and her children, for the
memory of that terrible New Year's Eve will never fade from her mind.
* * * * *
_Personal Reminiscences of Sir Andrew Clark._
BY E. H. PITCAIRN.
[Illustration: SIR ANDREW CLARK.]
With a heartfelt pang, hundreds read in an evening paper on October 20th
of the serious illness of Sir Andrew Clark, so truly spoken of by George
Eliot as "the beloved physician." Only the previous day he had presided
at the Annual Harveian Oration as President of the College of
Physicians.
He had more than one warning by severe attacks of illness, and by the
recurrence of very painful symptoms, that he was over-taxing his
strength, but they were unheeded. A patient once told him he had a
horror of having a fit. "Put it away," said Sir Andrew; "I always do."
There was only one person to whose fatigue and exhaustion he was
indifferent that was himself.
It is said that he always hoped to die in his carriage or
consulting-room, and it was in the latter, while talking with a lady
(the Hon. Miss Boscawen) about some charity, that he was seized with the
illness which ended so fatally. In his case it is no morbid curiosity
which makes thousands interested in every detail concerning him.
On one day as many as six hundred people, several of whom were quite
poor patients, called to ask how he was, and daily inquiries from all
parts, including the Royal Family were a proof how much he was
respected. Very peacefully, on Monday, November 6th, about five o'clock,
he passed away, and on the following Saturday, after a service at
Westminster Abbey, he was buried at Essendon, near Camfield, the
property he had so lately bought and where he spent his last holiday.
The world has already been told how the English nation showed their
respect for the President of the College of Physicians, and in him the
profession he so dearly loved was honoured.
What was the reason of this demonstration of respect? Because
individuals seem to have felt a sense of irreparable _loss_. Very many
have the idea that there are few others with his gifts who would respond
in the same way to their demand for sympathy and help; for Sir Andrew's
interest in each patient was real. There was an attractive force about
him, difficult to describe, and which only those who knew him could
understand, for he was nothing if not original. It is impossible in this
brief sketch to give an adequate portrait of a great personality and to
tell the story of his life's work. I shall but try to mention some of
his distinctive qualities and characteristics, illustrated by a few
facts. Two or three real incidents sometimes give a better idea of a
man's character than pages of generalities.
[Illustration: THE GRAVE IN ESSENDON CHURCHYARD.
_From a Photo. by Mavor & Meredith._]
Sir Andrew was born at Aberdeen in October, 1826. His father died when
he was seven years old, and his mother at his birth. To the end of his
life he regretted never having known a mother's love. His childhood,
spent with two uncles, does not seem to have been very happy, and he had
no brother or sister. He was educated at Aberdeen and Edinburgh, and at
the former place took his degree.
As a young man he gained first medals in anatomy, physiology, chemistry,
botany, materia medica, surgery, pathology, and practice of physic.
At twenty-two, in very delicate health, he entered the Royal Navy as
assistant-surgeon, and was appointed to the hospital at Haslar. His
subsequent medical career is pretty generally known. He obtained almost
every possible honour, culminating in the Presidency of the College of
Physicians for the lengthy term of six years.
Sir Andrew was devoted to the College. He made an excellent President,
and a dignified, courteous, and just chairman. His successor will find
it no easy task to fill his place.
He took an intense interest in all that concerned the welfare of the
College, and gave many proofs of his affection, one of the last being a
donation of £500 last year towards its redecoration. Not a great many
laymen know the College by sight. It is a corner building in Trafalgar
Square, the entrance facing Whitcomb Street. The meetings of the Fellows
are held in the magnificent library, lined with 60,000 volumes, chiefly
classics. Opening out of the library is the Censors' room, panelled with
old oak, and hung with portraits of former Presidents, chiefly by old
masters. At an examination the President sits at the end of the table
with his back to the fireplace, the Registrar (Dr. Liveing) opposite,
and the Censors on either side. In front of the President is a cushion
with the Caduceus, the Mace, and the Golden Cane. It was in the library
that Sir Andrew presided at the Harveian Oration the day before he was
taken ill.
Sir Andrew could not be judged of by the surface. As Sir Joseph Phayres
truly says: "I have known him intimately, and the more I knew him the
more I respected and admired him." Those who knew him best loved him
best. One has only to read how one leading man after another writes of
him with enthusiastic appreciation (in the _Medical Journal_) to learn
what his colleagues thought of his medical skill and personal character.
A bishop recently spoke of him as the truthful doctor: and a young girl,
who from a small child had stayed with him, told me he would always
correct himself if he had told an anecdote the least inaccurately; and
one day this summer when walking round their garden with him she said
the caterpillars had eaten all their gooseberry trees; "I mean the
gooseberry _leaves_," she added. Sir Andrew immediately said, "I am glad
you are particular to say what is exactly true"; but, she added, there
was always _something_ to remember in everything he said. With regard to
another point, a clergyman who knew Sir Andrew very intimately once told
me that "No man of this century had a more keenly religious mind; he was
so saturated with thoughts of God and so convinced that God had spoken
to man. He was intensely religious, with a profound sense of the
supernatural; he certainly was a great example to very busy men in the
way he always managed to find time for church, and even when called away
to a distance he would, if possible, go to a church near where he
happened to be." In addition to these qualities, he was very just,
sympathetic, and generous.
[Illustration: CAMFIELD HOUSE, ESSENDON.
_From a Photo. by Mavor & Meredith._]
I have come across many friends who knew him well, and it is interesting
to note that the same cardinal points seem to have struck everyone as
the key-notes of his life. In almost identical words each one speaks of
his strong faith, his strict veracity, and his intense devotion to duty.
One of his old friends said to me the other day: "_Nothing_ would tempt
Clark away from what he thought right; his conscientiousness was
unbounded."
His love of metaphysics, combined with a very high motive, made him
naturally interested in the _whole_ man--body, mind, and spirit. To
quote the words of a well-known bishop: "It was his intrepid honesty
which was so valuable a quality. In Sir Andrew Clark men felt that he
wished to do them good, and to do them the best good, by making men
of them."
[Illustration: SIR ANDREW CLARK'S HOUSE IN CAVENDISH SQUARE.
_From a Photograph by Mavor & Meredith._]
The bishop told me a characteristic anecdote illustrating this: "A
clergyman complained to him of feeling low and depressed, unable to face
his work, and tempted to rely on stimulants. Sir Andrew saw that the
position was a perilous one, and that it was a crisis in the man's life.
He dealt with the case, and forbade resort to stimulants, when the
patient declared that he would be unequal to his work and ready to sink.
'Then,' said Sir Andrew, 'sink like a man!'" This is but one of many
incidents showing his marvellous power in restraining his patients and
raising them to a higher moral level. The writer could tell a far more
wonderful story of the saving of a drunkard, body and soul, but it is
too touching and sacred for publication. At the top of the wall of that
well-known consulting-room (in which Sir Andrew is said to have seen
10,000 patients annually), immediately facing the chair where he always
sat, are the words: "Glory to God."
[Illustration: CENSORS' ROOM--COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS.
_From a Photo. by Mavor & Meredith_.]
With regard to his profession he was an enthusiast. He termed medicine
"the metropolis of the kingdom of knowledge," and in one of his
addresses to students, said: "You have chosen one of the noblest, the
most important, and the most interesting of professions, but also the
most arduous and the most self-denying, involving the largest sacrifices
and the fewest rewards. He who is not prepared to find in its
cultivation and exercise his chief recompense, has mistaken his calling
and should retrace his steps."
He had an ideal, and he did his utmost to live up to it. His words in
many instances did as much good as his medicine.
To explain what I mean I cannot do better than quote part of a letter
received since Sir Andrew's death, from a delicate, hardworking
clergyman, whom I have known some years. After speaking of Sir Andrew's
painstaking kindness, "never seeming the least hurried," he says: "He
had a wonderful way of inspiring one with confidence and readiness to
face one's troubles. I remember his saying once, 'It is wonderful how we
get _accustomed_ to our troubles,' and at another time, while
encouraging me to go on with work--reading for Orders: 'If one is to
die, it is better to die doing something, than doing nothing.' I have
often found that a help when feeling done-up and useless. In the old
days when people used to go and see him without an appointment, I have
often sat for hours in his dining-room, feeling so ill that I felt as if
I should die before I saw him, but after having seen him I felt as if I
had got a new lease of life. I was not at all hypochondriacal or
fanciful, I think, but that was the moral effect of an interview with
him. I believe he revolutionized the treatment of cases like mine, and
that he, to a certain extent, experimented on me; at any rate, he
treated me on philosophical principles, and told me often" (he went to
him for twenty years) "that I had become much stronger than he had
expected. He said to me several times: 'You are a wonderful man; you
have saved many lives.'"
[Illustration: ENTRANCE HALL--COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS.
_From a Photo. by Mavor & Meredith_]
This my correspondent understood to mean the experiments had been
successful.
"He once said that if I had died at that time, there was not a doctor in
London would have approved of his treatment. He gave a description of my
case some years ago, in a lecture I think at Brighton--but of course
without the name. The particular weakness was valvular disease of the
heart, the consequence of rheumatic fever, and this treatment was
founded on the principle that Nature always works towards compensation.
He told me many years ago that that particular mischief was fully
compensated for."
[Illustration: THE READING ROOM--COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS.
_From a Photo. by Mavor & Meredith_]
He loved his work and never tired of it. He often told the story how
his first serious case, and encouraging cure, was himself. With severe
hemorrhage of the lungs, he was told it would be at the risk of his life
if he went on with his studies. A doctor, however, he made up his mind
he would be, and that he would begin by making every effort to cure
himself. With characteristic determination, he persisted in a strict
regimen of diet and fresh air. "I determined," said Sir Andrew, "as far
as my studies would allow me--for I never intended to give them up--to
live in the fresh air, often studying out of doors; and in a short time
I was so much better that I was able to take gentle exercise. I got
well, and I may almost say I got over the trouble which threatened me."
The lungs were healed, and a result which seemed inevitable avoided. He
would often say he obtained his first appointment at the London Hospital
chiefly out of pity, the authorities thinking he would not live six
months, but he outlived almost every one of them.
[Illustration: THE CADUCENS, MACE, BOOK, AND SEAL--COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS
_From a Photo by Mavor & Meredith_]
No man could have kept on for fourteen and sixteen hours a day, as Sir
Andrew did, without unbounded enthusiasm and an absorbing interest.
His enormous correspondence must have been the great tax. Most people
are disinclined to write a dozen letters at the end of a hard day's
work; but Sir Andrew often came home at eight o'clock with the knowledge
that letters would occupy him until after midnight. His letters averaged
sixty per day. These would be answered by return, except where minute
directions were inclosed.
Only the other day, a friend of his told me, Sir Andrew came in the
morning, a short time before he was taken ill, looking very tired and
worried. On being asked the reason, he said he had not slept all night,
for he went to see a patient three days before, and because he had not
sent the table of directions, the patient wrote saying he would not try
his treatment. "I never slept," said Sir Andrew, "thinking of the state
of mind to which I had unavoidably reduced that poor patient."
In order to get through his work he had a light breakfast at 7.30, when
he read his letters, which were opened for him. From eight until two or
three he saw patients, his simple luncheon being taken in the
consulting-room. He would then go to the hospital, College of
Physicians, or some consultation; he had often after that to go to see
someone at a distance, but he never worried a patient by seeming in a
hurry, however much pressed for time.
He had a very strong sense of responsibility, and would never rest
himself by staying the night if it were unnecessary. A rich patient in
Devonshire once offered him a large sum to stay until the next morning.
"I could do you no good," said Sir Andrew, "and my patients will want me
to-morrow." Among his patients were almost all the great authors,
philosophers, and intellectual men of the day. Longfellow, Tennyson,
Huxley, Cardinal Manning, and numerous others were his warm friends. He
always declared he caught many a cold in the ascetic Cardinal's "cold
house." An old pupil truly says Sir Andrew had the rare faculty of
surveying the conditions and circumstances of each one, gathering them
up, and clearly seeing what was best to do. Professor Sheridan Delapine
says: "He was specially fond of quoting Sydenham's words: 'Tota ars
medici est in observationibus.'"
After asking what was amiss and questioning them on what they told him,
he would say: "Give me a plan of your day. What is your work? When do
you take your meals? Of what do they consist? What time do you get up,
and when do you go to bed?" Notwithstanding the keenness of his eye and
natural intuition, which found out instantly far more than was told, he
not only eagerly and attentively listened, but _remembered_ what his
patient said. Sir Henry Roscoe gave me a striking instance of this, and
I cannot do better than quote his exact words:--
"I first made Sir Andrew's acquaintance about twenty years ago at
Braemar, where he was spending the autumn, and, as was his kindly wont,
had with him a young Manchester man, far gone in consumption, to whom he
acted as friend, counsellor, and physician. In our frequent walks and
talks, I confided in the eminent doctor that I had suffered from that
frequent plague of sedentary men, the gout. 'Come and see me any morning
in Cavendish Square before eight,' said he, 'and I will do what I can
for you.' Many years slipped by; living then in Manchester, I never took
advantage of the kind offer, and I never saw Sir Andrew until some eight
years afterwards. I was calling on my old friend, Sir Joseph Whitworth,
who at that time had rooms in Great George Street. As I came quickly out
of the front door, Clark's carriage drove up, and almost before it
stopped the Doctor 'bounced' out and we nearly ran against each other.
In one 'instant-minute,' as our American friends say, he accosted me:
'Well! How's the gout?' He had no more idea of meeting me at that moment
than of meeting the man in the moon, and yet, no sooner had he seen my
face--which he had not looked upon for eight years--than the whole
'case' flashed upon him. Since that time I have often seen him, and I
shall always retain not only a high opinion of his great gifts, but also
an affectionate remembrance of his great-heartedness."
Literary people and brain-workers particularly interested him, and they
found in the kind doctor a friend who understood them. He would advise
all writing that involved thought to be done in the morning before
luncheon. The evening might be spent in "taking in" or reading up the
subject of a book or paper, but there must be no giving out. For
brain-workers who were not strong, he insisted on meat in the middle of
the day; he declared that for this class it was "physiologically wicked"
even to have luncheon without.
To one who spoke of fatigue after a comparatively short walk, he
replied: "Walk little, then. Many who work their brain are not up to
much exercise. I hardly ever walk a mile myself; but that need not
prevent men having plenty of fresh air."
[Illustration: THE LONDON HOSPITAL
_From a Photo. by Mavor & Meredith._]
Some people laugh at his rules for diet, etc., forgetting that these
simple directions are based on deep knowledge of the human frame. Let
them laugh. Many who have tried them know they have been different
people in consequence. His incisive words--"My friend, you eat too
much!" "My friend, you drink too much!" would not he appreciated by
all; but Sir Andrew thought nearly all diseases were the outcome of the
constant and apparently unimportant violation of the laws of health.
Those who were hopelessly ill would always hear the truth from him, but
he would leave no stone unturned to lessen their suffering. Many an
incurable patient has he sent to a home from the London Hospital, and
visited them afterwards. Only the other day I heard of patients he had
sent to St. Elizabeth's, Great Ormond Street, where incurable patients
are nursed and cared for until they die, and never left the hospital
without leaving a guinea with one of the nuns. Sir Andrew had no
stereotyped plan. It was not merely the disease, but the individual he
treated. A friend told me he saved her aunt's life. She could not sleep,
and Sir Andrew ordered them to give her breakfast at five, "for after
tossing about all night she might sleep after having some food," and so
it proved.
[Illustration: THE HARRISON WARD--LONDON HOSPITAL.
_From a Photo. by Mavor & Meredith._]
To others who might get well, he would say: "Fight for your life."
Twelve years ago a lady (whom I met lately) had hemorrhage of the lungs
three times. She was told by seven doctors in the country that she "had
not a week to live." She had young children, and determined to make a
great effort to see Sir Andrew Clark. He prophesied she would get well,
providing she at once left the damp climate where she was then living
and made her permanent home at Malvern. A week after she had taken his
remedies she walked up the Wrekin. From that day she saw Sir Andrew once
every year, and looks upon herself as a monument of his skill.
"Die to live," was a favourite saying of Sir Andrew's. "In congenial
work you will find life, strength, and happiness." This certainly was
his own experience. Only in July last he said to the writer of this
notice: "I never know what it is to feel well now, but work is the joy
of my life."
He could, however, place strict limits as to how much a _patient_ might
work. It is well known how docile and obedient a patient he had in Mr.
Gladstone. One evening, coming downstairs muffled up to avoid a worse
cold, he was met by Sir Andrew with the greeting, "Where are you going?"
"To the House," said Mr. Gladstone. "No, you are not," replied his
friend; "you are going straight to bed!" and to bed he went. Sir Andrew
also limited the time Mr. Gladstone should speak. On one occasion,
however, notwithstanding the fact that the peremptory adviser was
present, watch in hand, Mr. Gladstone, after throwing down the written
speech as the clock struck, went on for another half-hour![A] This
disobedience was the exception which proved the rule.
[A] The substance of this anecdote which I quote from memory,
appeared in the _Daily News_, and happened at Newcastle.
Mr. Gladstone was a friend for whom Sir Andrew had the highest respect
and veneration, and hardly ever passed a day without going to see him.
Shortly before he was taken ill he said: "For twenty years I have never
heard Gladstone say an unkind or vituperative word of anyone."
[Illustration: NURSE HARRISON--LONDON HOSPITAL.
(The nurse who tended Sir Andrew Clark in his last illness.)
_From a Photograph by Mavor & Meredith._]
With respect to fees, he always took what was offered: sometimes he
would receive £500 for a long journey, sometimes two guineas. The
following is no doubt but one of many similar experiences. After a hard
day's work he was urgently summoned to a place 120 miles from London. It
was a very wet night. There was no carriage to meet him; no fly to be
had. After walking a mile or two he arrived at a small farm, and found
the daughter suffering from an attack of hysteria. Sir Andrew, with his
usual kindness, did what he could and evidently gave satisfaction, for
when he left the mother said: "Well, Sir Andrew, you have been so kind
we must make it double," and handed him two guineas. He thanked them and
said: "Good-bye."
Sir Andrew would never hear of charging more than his usual fee because
a person happened to be very rich. In a word, he was honest. On one
occasion when going to see a patient in the south, the doctor who was to
meet him in consultation met Sir Andrew at the station, told him they
were rich, and quite prepared to pay a very high fee. But Sir Andrew
replied: "I did not come from London," and naming the place where he was
staying, said, "My fee is only a third of the sum you name." Sir Andrew
was not indifferent to fees; on the contrary, he rather took a pride in
telling how much he earned. He is said to have once received £5,000 for
going to Cannes, the largest _medical_ fee known. Some, however, have
wondered who did pay him--so numerous were his non-paying patients. From
Anglican and Roman Catholic clergy, sisters, nuns, and all engaged in
any charitable work (unless rich men) he would never consent to receive
a fee, at the same time making it felt that unwillingness to accept his
advice "would deprive him of a pleasure"; and it was felt that this was
literally true, and if anything the patients whom he saw "as a friend"
were shown more consideration than others. "Come and see me next week,"
he said to one who demurred to the necessity for going again, knowing he
would not accept a fee, "and I will arrange that you shall not be
kept waiting."
[Illustration: FACSIMILE OF A PRESCRIPTION WRITTEN BY SIR ANDREW CLARK.]
The present Lord Tennyson writes: "We are among the many who are much
indebted to Sir Andrew Clark. It was in a great measure owing to him
that my father recovered from his dangerous attack of gout in 1888, when
'he was as near death as a man could be.' After this illness Sir Andrew
paid us a visit, at Aldworth, in the summer of 1889. He told us that he
had come in spite of a summons from the Shah, to which he had replied
that the Shah's Hakim could not obey, as he had promised to visit his
old friend--the old Poet. Sir Andrew added: 'This disobedience of your
humble and devoted physician for the sake of his friend, the crowned
King of Song, struck the crowned King of Kings so much that, so far from
being offended, he took a noble view, and, as a mark of signal honour,
sent me the Star of the Second Class of the Lion and Sun of Persia.'"
[Illustration: SIR JAMES CLARK.
(Eldest son of Sir Andrew Clark.)
_From a Photograph by Wyrall, Aldershot._]
Sundays were often spent out of town, at Hawarden and elsewhere, and
latterly at Camfield, the house so lately purchased. Both this and his
town house were entirely furnished, as he wished each to be complete
in itself.
Already at Essendon the example of his life was felt to be a power for
good, as well as the kind interest he took in his poorer neighbours,
inviting them up to his house, promising to give the men a dinner at
Christmas, etc. Yet Sir Andrew was no "country gentleman"; his favourite
recreation was books. On being asked: "Which way are we looking? In
which direction is London?" he replied: "I don't know." "Don't you know
how the house stands, or what soil it is built upon?" and again he had
to plead ignorance.
Nevertheless, his love of neatness made him notice if a place was in
good order. One day, driving over to see some neighbours, after
congratulating them on the well-kept garden, he was getting into the
carriage, when he suddenly remembered he had not told the gardener how
much pleased he was with the whole place, and with his usual courtesy
insisted on going back to find him.
One of Sir Andrew's holidays was a trip to Canada, when he accompanied
the Marquis of Lorne and Princess Louise, on the former being appointed
Governor-General there. This he did as a friend, and in no way in a
medical capacity. He was most popular on the voyage out among the
passengers, keeping the ship alive with jokes and amusing stories, and
many called him "Merry Andrew." He was almost boyish in his keen
enjoyment of a holiday. He was evidently devoted to music, and was
delighted with the beautiful string band the Duke of Edinburgh brought
on board at Halifax. In Canada, Sir Andrew was most warmly received and
universally liked by everyone. Amongst others he made the acquaintance
of Sir John Macdonald.
The Princess told me without doubt there was one predominating interest
in his mind, and that the supernatural--whether at a British Association
meeting, the College of Physicians, or speaking privately to his own
friends. He realized the impossibility of explaining by scientific
methods the supernatural. He would often say: "There is more in Heaven
and earth than this world dreams of. Given the most _perfect_ scientific
methods, you will find beyond abysses which you are powerless
to explore."
He had the greatest charm of mind, and, needless to say, was a
delightful companion. His topics of conversation were extremely varied:
he liked dialectics for talk and argument's sake, and enjoyed talking to
those who had somewhat the same taste. Possibly for this reason he did
not fully appreciate children, although they amused him, and he liked to
understand their ideas. A friend of Sir Andrew's staying with him at the
time told me the following characteristic anecdote: One afternoon during
his autumn holiday in Scotland the footman came in to put coals on the
fire, and a child (a relation) coughed vehemently. "Why do you cough so
much?" said Sir Andrew. "To make James look at me," said the child. Sir
Andrew was "solemnly interested," and afterwards took it as a parable of
a woman's nature, which, speaking generally, he considered morally and
ethically inferior to a man's. In his opinion very many women were
wanting in the two great qualities--justice and truth--considering their
own, their children's, or their husband's interests first rather than
what was absolutely right.
One subject that interested him very much was heredity, and he had, of
course, countless opportunities of studying it. "Temperance and
morality," he would say, "are most distinctly transmitted, especially by
the mother; but," said Sir Andrew, "in spite of heredity, I am what I
am by my own choice."
Sir Andrew was a great reader. Metaphysics, philosophy, and theology
were his favourite subjects, especially the latter--he also occasionally
read a good novel. Reading was his only relaxation, for it was one he
could enjoy while driving or in the train. Dr. Russell, who was with him
when going to attend the tercentenary of Dublin College, tells the story
how Sir Andrew not only read but wrote hour after hour in the railway
carriage, and, in addition, listened to the conversation. Dr. Russell
Reynolds, Sir James Paget, Sir Dyce Duckworth, and Sir R. Quain were of
the party, and the two latter joined Dr. Russell in remarking with him
that it would ruin his eyesight. "I am using my eyes, not abusing them,"
replied Sir Andrew; "you cannot injure any organ by the exercise of it,
but by the excess of exercise of it. I would not do it were I not
accustomed to read and write without the smallest amount of mischief."
I much regret that lack of space prevents my describing the London
Hospital as I should like. Of most hospitals Sir Andrew was a governor,
but his great interest was the London, of which he and Lady Clark were
both life governors.
While Sir Andrew was visiting physician he came regularly twice a week,
as well as for consultation. He was interested in everything that
concerned the patients, and always had a kind word for the nurses. One
nurse in the Charlotte Ward (Sir Andrew Clark's) said he used literally
to shovel out half-crowns at Christmas when he asked what the patients
were going to do. Everyone speaks Of the pecuniary sacrifice and strain
his connection with the hospital involved. He endowed a medical
tutorship, also scholarships for students. Students, nurses, etc., would
eagerly listen to his informal expositions in the wards, as he
invariably showed a grasp of the subject that was equally minute and
comprehensive. "He would start from some particular point and work his
way point by point down to the minutest detail, not bewildering by a
multiplicity of facts, but keeping them all in order with perfect
handling, until the framing of the whole thing stood out luminously
clear to the dullest comprehension. An old pupil says his well-known
authoritative manner was the result of a profound and laboriously
acquired knowledge of his art, acquired by years of careful work in
hospital wards and post-mortem rooms."--_Medical Journal_.
[Illustration: SIR ANDREW CLARK.
_From a Painting by G.F. Watts, R.A._]
Happily there are two portraits of Sir Andrew. The last beautifully
painted picture by Mr. Watts (which by the great kindness of the artist
is allowed to be reproduced in this sketch) was only finished a few days
before Sir Andrew was taken ill--for he could only sit from eight till
nine a.m. It is one of the series Mr. Watts is so generously giving to
the nation, and he "thinks it one of his best." Sir Andrew himself was
delighted with it, saying in his hearty way to Mrs. Watts: "Why, it
_thinks_!" The position in the picture by Frank Holl is unfortunate.
Very imperfectly I have described the varied work of a man of limitless
energy, with an exceptionally keen appreciation of men and things. A
great man has passed away, and we are poorer in consequence.
* * * * *
_Beauties:--Children._
[Illustration: Winnifred Emma Heale.
_From a Photo. by Heath & Bradnee, Exeter._]
[Illustration: Edith Marguerite Dickinson.
_From a Photo. by J. Hargreaves, Barrow-in-Furness._]
[Illustration: Myrta Vivienne Stubbs.
_From a Photo. by Medringtons, Ltd., Liverpool._]
[Illustration: Kathleen Keyse
_From a Photograph._]
[Illustration: Madge Erskine
_From a Photo. by Allison & Allison, Belfast._]
[Illustration: Dorothy Birch Done
_From a Photo. by Stanley Hurst, Wrexham._]
[Illustration: Evelyn Mary Dowdell.
_From a Photo. by G. Ridsdale Cleare, Lower Clapton, N. E._]
[Illustration: Nelly M. Morris.
_From a Photo. by J. W. Thomas, Colwyn Bay._]
[Illustration: Aligander Smith.
_From a Photo. by Norman, May, & Co., Ltd., Malvern._]
* * * * *
_The Signatures of Charles Dickens (with Portraits)._
FROM 1825 TO 1870.
(Born 7th February, 1812; died 9th June, 1870.)
BY J. HOLT SCHOOLING.
"Everybody knows what Dickens's signature is like"--says the reader who
bases acquaintance with it upon the familiar, gold-impressed facsimile
on the well-known red covers of his works--"a free, dashing signature,
with an extensive and well-graduated flourish underneath." (No. 1.)
Aye! But have you ever seen an original Dickens-letter? Have you ever
handled, not one, but hundreds of his documents--letters, franked
envelopes, cheques signed by Dickens, cheques indorsed by him, legal
agreements bearing his signature, and the original MSS. of his works?
Owing to the kindness of owners and guardians of Dickens-letters, etc. I
have been able to supplement the materials in my own collection by
numerous facsimiles taken direct from a priceless store of Dickens-MSS.
Here are some of the specimens. We will glance over them, and in doing
so will view them, not merely as signatures, but also as
permanently-recorded tracings of Dickens's nerve muscular action--of his
_gesture_. The expressive play of his facial muscles has gone, the
varying inflections of voice have gone, but we still possess the
self-registered and characteristic tracings of Charles Dickens's
hand-gesture.
[Illustration: NO. 1.--FAMILIAR "BOOK COVER" SIGNATURE.]
[Illustration: NO. 2.--WRITTEN IN 1825.]
In No. 1 we have the signature of Dickens as he wrote it when aged
forty-five to fifty; in No. 2 there is the boy's signature at the age of
thirteen, written to a school-fellow. This youthful signature shows the
existence in embryo form of the "flourish" so commonly associated with
Dickens's signature. It is interesting to note that the receiver of this
early letter has stated that its schoolboy writer had "more than usual
flow of spirits, held his head more erect than lads ordinarily do," and
that "there was a general smartness about him." We shall perhaps see
that the direct emphasis of so many of Charles Dickens's signatures
which is given by his "flourish" may be fitly associated with certain
characteristics of the man himself. We may also note that high spirits
and vigorous nervous energy are productive of redundant nerve-muscular
activity in any direction--hand gesture included.
[Illustration: AGE 18. _From a Miniature by Mrs. Janet Barrow_.]
Let us look at some other early signatures. Hitherto they have been
stowed away in various collections, and they are almost unknown.
[Illustration: NO. 3.--WRITTEN IN 1830.]
The next facsimile, No. 3, is remarkable as being almost the only full
signature out of hundreds I have seen which lacks the flourish; this
specimen is also worth notice, owing to the "droop" of every word below
the horizontal level from which each starts--a little piece of
nerve-muscular evidence of mental or physical depression, which may be
tested by anyone who cares to examine his own handwriting produced under
conditions which diminish bodily vigour or mental _élan_.
[Illustration: NO. 4.--WRITTEN IN 1831.]
The writing of No. 4 is very like that of No. 3; the easy curves below
the signature are cleverly made, and while they indicate much energy,
they also point to a useful confidence in self, owing to the deliberate
way of accentuating the most personal part of a letter--its signature.
[Illustration: NO. 5.--WRITTEN IN 1832.]
No. 5 is the facsimile of a signature to a letter which was written in
the Library of the British Museum to "My dear Knolle"; the letter ends:
"Believe me (in haste), yours most truly." At this time--1832--Dickens
was a newspaper reporter, and it is curious to notice that in spite of
"haste" he yet managed to execute this complex movement underneath the
signature. Its force and energy are great, but we shall see even more
pronounced developments of this flourish before it takes the moderated
and graceful form of confident and assured power.
[Illustration: NO. 6.--WRITTEN IN 1833 OR 1834.]
There is still more force and "go" about No. 6: it was written on
"Wednesday night, past 12," and also in haste. Dickens was reporting for
the _Morning Chronicle_, and was just starting on a journey, but yet
there are here two separate flourishes; one begins under the _s_ of
_Charles_ and ends under the _C_ of that name; the other starts under
the capital _D_ and finishes below the _n_ of _Dickens_.
[Illustration: AGE 23.
_From a Miniature by Miss R. E. Drummond._]
[Illustration: NO. 7.--WRITTEN IN 1836.]
[Illustration: NO. 8.--WRITTEN OCT. 1, 1836.]
The intricacy of the next facsimile, No. 7, is an ugly but a very active
piece of movement. This group of curves is equal to about a two-feet
length of pen-stroke, a fact which indicates an extraordinary amount of
personal energy. Dickens was then writing his "Sketches by Boz," and
this ungraceful elaboration of his signature was probably accompanied by
a growing sense of his own capacity and power. During the time-interval
between the signatures shown in Nos. 7 and 8, the first number of the
"Pickwick Papers" was published--March, 1836--and Charles Dickens
married Catherine Hogarth on the 2nd of April in that year. The original
of a very different facsimile (No. 9) was written as a receipt in the
account-book of Messrs. Chapman and Hall for an advance of £5.
[Illustration: NO. 9.--WRITTEN IN 1837.]
The six facsimiles numbered 9 to 15 deserve special notice. The
originals were all written in the year 1837, and I have purposely shown
them because their extraordinary variations entirely negative the
popular idea about the uniformity of Dickens's handwriting, and because
these mobile hand-gestures are a striking illustration of the mobility
and great sensibility to impressions which were prominent features in
Charles Dickens's nature.
[Illustration: NO. 10.--WRITTEN IN 1837.]
Common observation show us that a man whose mind is specially receptive
of impressions from persons and things around him, and whose sensibility
is very quick, can scarcely fail to show much variation in his own forms
of outward expression--such, for example, as facial "play,"
voice-inflections, hand-gestures, and so on. Notice the originality in
the position of the flourishes shown in No. 9, and compare the
ungraceful movement of it with the much more dignified and pleasing
flourishes in some of the later signatures. A whimsical originality of
mind comes out also in the curious "B" of "Boz" (No. 10).
[Illustration: NO. 11.--WRITTEN NOV. 3, 1837.]
[Illustration: NO. 12.--WRITTEN NOV. 3, 1837.]
[Illustration: AGE 25.
_From a Drawing by H. K. Browne._]
The next pair--Nos. 11 and 12--are interesting. No. 11 shows the
signature squeezed in at the bottom of a page; the flourish was
attempted, and accompanied by the words: "No room for the flouish," the
_r_ of _flourish_ being omitted. No. 12 was written on the envelope of
the same letter.
[Illustration: NO. l3.--WRITTEN NOV. 18, 1837.
_Taken from the Legal Agreement re "Pickwick."_]
[Illustration: AGE 29.
_From a Drawing by Alfred Count D'Orsay._]
No. 13 is a copy of a very famous signature: the original is on a great
parchment called "Deed of License Assignment and Covenants respecting a
Work called 'The Pickwick Papers,'" and which, after a preamble,
contains the words: "Whereas the said Charles Dickens is the Author of a
Book or Work intituled 'The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club,'
which has been recently printed and published in twenty parts or
numbers," etc. It is probable that the fact of the seal being placed
between _Charles_ and _Dickens_ prevented the flourish which almost
invariably accompanied his signatures on business documents; the marked
enlargement of this signature takes the place of the flourish, and shows
an unconscious emphasis of the _ego_. It would be almost unreasonable
for us to expect that so impressionable a man, who was also feeling his
power and fame, could abstain from showing outward signs of his own
consciousness of abnormal success. Yet, in the private letters of
Dickens, the simple "C. D." is very frequent; a few examples of it are
given in this article, and their present number in no way represents the
numerical relation of these simple signatures to the more "showy" ones.
It may at once be said that this point of difference is alike
interesting to the student of gesture and to the student of Dickens's
character. He was certainly a very able man of business, and the wording
of his "business" letters fully bears out the idea conveyed by his
"business" signature--so to speak--that Dickens was fully aware of his
own powers, and that, quite fairly, he did not omit to impress the fact
upon other people when he thought fit. Both the wording and the
signature of many of his private letters are simple and unostentatious
to a high degree. This curious fact, which is now illustrated by Charles
Dickens's own hand-gesture, ought to be remembered when people talk
about Dickens's "conceit" and "love of show." My explanation is, I
think, both logical and true.
[Illustration: NO. 14.--WRITTEN IN 1837.]
[Illustration: AGE 30.
_From a Portrait-Bust by H. Dexter._]
No. 14 closes this series for the year 1837. It shows a quaint and
pretty signature on a wrapper.
[Illustration: NO. 15.--WRITTEN MARCH 12, 1841.
_(Announcing the Death of "Raven", a prominent character in "Barnaby
Rudge")_]
[Illustration: AGE ABOUT 30.
_From a Drawing by R.J. Lane, A.E._]
No. 15 shows part of a very humorous and famous letter announcing the
death of the raven which figures in "Barnaby Rudge." Notice the curious
originality of form shown in the capital _Y_ and _R_. The wording of
this letter is also quaintly original, and the sensitive mind of this
man again caused his nerve-muscular action--his gesture--to harmonize
with his mood. Points of this kind, which the handwriting of Dickens
illustrates so well, have a deeper meaning for the observant than for
the casual reader of a magazine article; they indicate that these little
human acts, which have been so long overlooked by intelligent men, do
really give us valuable data for the study of mind by means of
written-gesture.
[Illustration: NO. 16.--WRITTEN IN 1841]
[Illustration: NO. 17.--WRITTEN IN 1841.]
[Illustration: NO. 18.--WRITTEN IN 1843.]
[Illustration: CHARLES DICKENS READING "THE CHIMES," 1844.
_From the original Sketch by David Maelise, R.A._]
[Illustration:
CHARLES DICKENS AS "CAPTAIN BOBADIL" IN "EVERY MAN IN HIS HUMOUR."
_From a Painting by C.R. Leslie, R.A._]
In No. 16 we see another and very original form of the "Boz" signature.
No. 17 has a curious stroke of activity above the signature. No. 18 is a
fine, strong signature.
[Illustration: NO. 19.--WRITTEN IN 1845.]
[Illustration: NO. 20.--WRITTEN MAY 12, 1848. (PASS TO THE STAGE.)]
[Illustration:
CHARLES DICKENS AS "SIR CHARLES COLDSTREAM" IN "USED UP", 1850.
_From a Painting by Augustus Egg, R.A._]
No. 19 is remarkably vigorous and active. The well-controlled activity
and energy of the signatures are now strongly marked. No. 20 explains
itself; the curious _P_ of _Pass_ is worth notice.
[Illustration: NO. 21.--WRITTEN JULY 22, 1854.]
[Illustration: CHARLES DICKENS IN HIS STUDY, 1854.
_From the Picture by E.M. Ward, R.A._]
[Illustration: AGE 44.
_From the Painting by Ary Scheffer_.]
No. 21 is a stray illustration of clever and gracefully-executed
movements which abound in Dickens's letters.
[Illustration: NO. 22.--WRITTEN WHEN ILL, OCT. 29, 1859]
[Illustration: AGE 47.
_From an Oil Painting by W.P. Frith, R.A._]
See, in No. 22, how illness disturbed the fine action of this splendid
organism; but illness did not prevent attention to detail--the dot is
placed after the _D_.
[Illustration: NO. 23.--WRITTEN NOV. 1, 1860.]
[Illustration: NO. 24.--WRITTEN JAN. 17, 1861.]
[Illustration: NO. 25.--WRITTEN NOV. 25, 1861.]
[Illustration: DICKENS AS "RICHARD WARDOUR" IN "THE FROZEN DEEP."]
[Illustration: AGE 49.
_From a Photograph_.]
[Illustration: AGE 51.
_From a Photo. by Alphonse Maze, Paris._]
When on a reading tour, Dickens wrote at Bideford the letter from which
No. 23 has been copied. After writing that he could get nothing to eat
or drink at the small inn, he wrote the sentence facsimiled. The
exaggeration of the words is matched by the use of two capital _T_'s in
place of two small _t_'s. The letter continues: "The landlady is playing
cribbage with the landlord in the next room (behind a thin partition),
and they seem quite comfortable." No. 24 is another instance of the
variation which, in fact, obtained up to the very day before death. No.
25 was written at Berwick-on-Tweed; it is an amusing letter, and states
how the local agents wanted to put the famous reader into "a little
lofty crow's nest," and how "I instantly struck, of course, and said I
would either read in a room attached to this house ... or not at all.
Terrified local agents glowered, but fell prostrate." By the way,
notice, in No. 25, the emphasis of gesture on the _me_.
[Illustration: NO. 26.--WRITTEN FEB. 3, 1864.]
[Illustration: DICKENS IN HIS BASKET CARRIAGE.
_From a Photo. by Mason._]
No. 26 is written in one continuous stroke with a noticeably good
management of the curves. The graceful imagination of this is
very striking.
[Illustration: NO. 27.--WRITTEN JUNE 7, 1866.]
[Illustration: CHARLES DICKENS READING TO HIS DAUGHTERS, 1863.
_From a Photograph by R. H. Mason._]
No. 27 shows the endorsement on a cheque.
[Illustration: NO. 28.--WRITTEN JUNE 6, 1870 (THREE DAYS BEFORE DEATH).]
[Illustration: NO. 29.--WRITTEN JUNE 8, 1870 (ONE DAY BEFORE DEATH).]
[Illustration: AGE 56.
_From a Photograph by Garney, New York._]
But we near the end. Doctors had detected the signs of breaking up,
which are not less plain in the written gesture, and had strenuously
urged Dickens to stop the incessant strain caused by his public
readings. The stimulus of facing an appreciative audience would spur him
on time after time, and then, late at night, he would write affectionate
letters giving details of "the house," etc., but which are painful to
see if one notices the constant droop of the words and of the lines
across the page. Contrast the writing in No. 28, broken and agitated,
with some of the earlier specimens I have shown you. This was written
three days before death. The wording of the letter from which No. 29 has
been copied tells no tale of weakness, but the gesture which clothes the
words is tell-tale. The words, and the lines of words, run downward
across the paper, and No. 29 is very suggestive of serious trouble--and
it is specially suggestive to those who have studied this form of
gesture: look, for example, at the ill-managed flourish.
[Illustration: NO. 30.--WRITTEN JUNE 8, 1870 (ONE DAY BEFORE DEATH.)
_From the last letter written by Charles Dickens._]
Now comes a facsimile taken from the last letter written by Charles
Dickens. It has been given elsewhere, but, not satisfied with the
facsimile I saw, I obtained permission to take this direct from the
letter in the British Museum. This was written an hour or so before the
fatal seizure. Every word droops below the level from which each starts,
each line of writing descends across the page, the simple _C. D._ is
very shaky, and the whole letter is broken and weak. Charles Dickens was
not "ready" at "3 o'clock"--he died at ten minutes past six p.m. And so
ends this too scanty notice of a great man's written-gesture.
* * * * *
NOTE:--Considerations of space and of the avoidance of technicalities
have prevented a really full account of the written gesture of Charles
Dickens; scanty as the foregoing account is, the illustrations it
contains could not have been supplied by any one collector of Charles
Dickens's letters. I express my sincere gratitude to the many persons
who have enabled me to give these illustrations, and only regret that
one collector refused my request for the loan of some very early and
interesting letters.
J.H.S.
* * * * *
_The Mirror._
By George Japy.
[Illustration]
It has always been said that the Japanese are the French of the Orient.
Be that as it may, it is very clear that in certain traits which
characterize the French, there is no resemblance whatever between the
people of those two nations.
Almost as soon as a French baby (a girl, be it understood) is born, its
first instinct is to stretch out its tiny hands for a mirror, in which
to admire its beautiful little face and its graceful movements. This
natural, and we may say inborn, taste grows with the child's growth, and
ere the fair girl has reached her seventeenth year, her ideal of perfect
bliss is to find herself in a room with mirrors on every side. There is
indeed a room in the Palace of Versailles which is the elysium of the
Frenchwoman. It is a long room with looking-glasses from ceiling to
floor, and the said floor is polished so that it reflects, at any rate,
the shadow of the feet.
Now, in the little Japanese village of Yowcuski a looking-glass was an
unheard-of thing, and girls did not even know what they looked like,
except on hearing the description which their lovers gave them of their
personal beauty (which description, by-the-bye, was sometimes slightly
biased, according as the lover was more or less devoted).
[Illustration: "HE PICKED UP ONE DAY IN THE STREET A SMALL POCKET
HAND-MIRROR."]
Now it happened that a young Japanese, whose daily work was to pull
along those light carriages such as were seen at the last Paris
Exhibition, picked up one day in the street a small pocket hand-mirror,
probably dropped by some English lady-tourist on her travels in that
part of the world.
It was, of course, the first time in his life that Kiki-Tsum had ever
gazed on such a thing. He looked carefully at it, and to his intense
astonishment saw the image of a brown face, with dark, intelligent eyes,
and a look of awestruck wonderment expressed on its features.
Kiki-Tsum dropped on his knees, and gazing earnestly at the object he
held in his hand, he whispered, "It is my sainted father. How could his
portrait have come here? Is it, perhaps, a warning of some kind for me?"
He carefully folded the precious treasure up in his handkerchief, and
put it in the large pocket of his loose blouse. When he went home that
night he hid it away carefully in a vase which was scarcely ever
touched, as he did not know of any safer place in which to deposit it.
He said nothing of the adventure to his young wife, for, as he said to
himself "Women are curious, and then, too, _sometimes_ they are given to
talking," and Kiki-Tsum felt that it was too reverent a matter to be
discussed by neighbours, this finding of his dead father's portrait in
the street.
For some days Kiki-Tsum was in a great state of excitement. He was
thinking of the portrait all the time, and at intervals he would leave
his work and suddenly appear at home to take a furtive look at
his treasure.
[Illustration: "ALWAYS WITH THE SAME SOLEMN EXPRESSION."]
Now, in Japan, as in other countries, mysterious actions and irregular
proceedings of all kinds have to be explained to a wife. Lili-Tsee did
not understand why her husband kept appearing at all hours of the day.
Certainly he kissed her every time he came in like this. At first she
was satisfied with his explanation when he told her that he only ran in
for a minute to see her pretty face. She thought it was really quite
natural on his part, but when day after day he appeared, and always with
the same solemn expression on his face, she began to wonder in her heart
of hearts whether he was telling her the whole truth. And so Lili-Tsee
fell to watching her husband's movements, and she noticed that he never
went away until he had been alone in the little room at the back of
the house.
[Illustration: "WHAT WAS IT SHE SAW?"]
Now the Japanese women are as persevering as any others when there is a
mystery to be discovered, and so Lili-Tsee set herself to discover this
mystery. She hunted day after day to see if she could find some trace of
anything in that little room which was at all unusual, but she found
nothing. One day, however, she happened to come in suddenly and saw her
husband replacing the long blue vase in which she kept her rose leaves
in order to dry them. He made some excuse about its not looking very
steady, and appeared to be just setting it right, and Lili-Tsee
pretended there was nothing out of the common in his putting the vase
straight. The moment he had gone out of the house, though, she was up on
a stool like lightning, and in a moment she had fished the looking-glass
out of the vase. She took it carefully in her hand, wondering whatever
it could be, but when she looked in it the terrible truth was clear.
What was it she saw?
Why, the portrait of a woman, and she had believed that Kiki-Tsum was so
good, and so fond, and so true.
Her grief was at first too deep for any words. She just sat down on the
floor with the terrible portrait in her lap, and rocked herself
backwards and forwards. This, then, was why her husband came home so
many times in the day. It was to look at the portrait of the woman she
had just seen.
Suddenly a fit of anger seized her, and she gazed at the glass again.
The same face looked at her, but she wondered how her husband could
admire such a face, so wicked did the dark eyes look: there was an
expression in them that she certainly had not seen the first time she
had looked at it, and it terrified her so much that she made up her mind
not to look at it again.
She had no heart, however, for anything, and did not even make any
attempt to prepare a meal for her husband. She just went on sitting
there on the floor, nursing the portrait, and at the same time her
wrath. When later on Kiki-Tsum arrived, he was surprised to find nothing
ready for their evening meal, and no wife. He walked through to the
other rooms, and was not long left in ignorance of the cause of the
unusual state of things.
"So this is the love you professed for me! This is the way in which you
treat me, before we have even been married a year!"
"What do you mean, Lili-Tsee?" asked her husband, in consternation,
thinking that his poor wife had taken leave of her senses.
"What do I mean? What do you mean? I should think. The idea of your
keeping portraits in my rose-leaf vase. Here, take it and treasure it,
for I do not want it, the wicked, wicked woman!" and here poor Lili-Tsee
burst out crying.
"I cannot understand," said her bewildered husband.
"Oh, you can't?" she said, laughing hysterically. "I can, though, well
enough. You like that hideous, villainous-looking woman better than your
own true wife. I would say nothing if she were at any rate beautiful;
but she has a vile face, a hideous face, and looks wicked and murderous,
and everything that is bad!"
"Lili-Tsee, what do you mean?" asked her husband, getting exasperated in
his turn. "That portrait is the living image of my poor dead father. I
found it in the street the other day, and put it in your vase
for safety."
Lili-Tsee's eyes flashed with indignation at this apparently barefaced
lie.
"Hear him!" she almost screamed. "He wants to tell me now that I do not
know a woman's face from a man's."
Kiki-Tsum was wild with indignation, and a quarrel began in good
earnest. The street-door was a little way open, and the loud, angry
words attracted the notice of a _bonze_ (one of the Japanese priests)
who happened to be passing.
"My children," he said, putting his head in at the door, "why this
unseemly anger, why this dispute?"
"Father," said Kiki-Tsum, "my wife is mad."
"All women are so, my son, more or less," interrupted the holy _bonze_.
"You were wrong to expect perfection, and must abide by your bargain
now. It is no use getting angry, all wives are trials."
"But what she says is a lie."
"It is not, father," exclaimed Lili-Tsee. "My husband has the portrait
of a woman, and I found it hidden in my rose-leaf vase."
"I swear that I have no portrait but that of my poor dead father,"
explained the aggrieved husband.
"My children, my children," said the holy _bonze_, majestically, "show
me the portraits."
"Here it is; there is only one, but it is one too many," said Lili-Tsee,
sarcastically.
The _bonze_ took the glass and looked at it earnestly. He then bowed low
before it, and in an altered tone said: "My children, settle your
quarrel and live peaceably together. You are both in the wrong. This
portrait is that of a saintly and venerable _bonze_. I know not how you
could mistake so holy a face. I must take it from you and place it
amongst the precious relics of our church."
So saying, the _bonze_ lifted his hands to bless the husband and wife,
and then went slowly away, carrying with him the glass which had wrought
such mischief.
END.
[Illustration]
* * * * *
_Handcuffs._
WRITTEN AND ILLUSTRATED BY INSPECTOR MAURICE MOSER,
_Late of the Criminal Investigation Department, Great Scotland Yard._
The ordinary connection of ideas between handcuffs and policemen does
not need very acute mental powers to grasp, but there is a further
connection, a philological one, which is only evident at first sight to
those who have made a small acquaintance with the science of words.
The word "handcuff" is a popular corruption of the Anglo-Saxon
"handcop," _i.e._, that which "cops" or "catches" the hands.
Now, one of the most common of the many slang expressions used by their
special enemies towards the police is "Copper"--_i.e._, he who cops the
offending member. Strange as it may seem, handcuffs are by no means the
invention of these times, which insist on making the life of a prisoner
so devoid of the picturesque and romantic.
We must go back, past the dark ages, past the stirring times of Greek
and Roman antiquity, till we come to those blissful mythological ages
when every tree and every stream was the home of some kindly god.
In those olden days there dwelt in the Carpathian Sea a wily old deity,
known by the name of Proteus, possessing the gift of prophecy, the
fruits of which he selfishly denied to mankind.
Even if those who wished to consult him were so fortunate as to find
him, all their efforts to force him to exert his gifts of prophecy were
useless, for he was endowed with the power of changing himself into all
things, and he eluded their grasp by becoming a flame of fire or a drop
of water. There was one thing, however, against which all the miracles
of Proteus were of no avail, and of this Aristæus was aware.
So Aristæus came, as Virgil tells us, from a distant land to consult the
famous prophet. He found him on the sea-shore among his seals, basking
in the afternoon sun. Quick as thought he fitted handcuffs on him, and
all struggles and devices were now of no avail. Such was then the
efficacy of handcuffs even on the persons of the immortal gods.
Having established this remote and honourable antiquity, we are not
surprised at the appearance of handcuffs in the fourth century B.C.,
when the soldiers of a conquering Greek army found among the baggage of
the routed Carthaginians several chariots full of handcuffs, which had
been held ready in confident anticipation of a great victory and a
multitude of prisoners.
The nearest approach to a mention that we find after that is in the Book
of Psalms: "To bind their kings in chains and their nobles in fetters of
iron." But in the Greek, the Latin, Wickliffe's, and Anglo-Saxon Bible
we invariably find a word of which handcuffs is the only real
translation. It is also interesting to note that in the Anglo-Saxon
version the kings are bound in "footcops" and the nobles in "handcops."
In the early Saxon times, therefore, we find our instrument is familiar
to all and in general use, as it has continued to be to this day. But
during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries there is no instance of the
use of the word "handcop"; its place is taken by "swivel manacle" and
"shackbolt," the latter word being often used by Elizabethan authors.
Handcuffs, like other things, have improved with time. Up to 1850 there
were two kinds in general use in England. One of the forms, most common
in the earlier part of this century, went under the name of the "Figure
8." This instrument does not allow the prisoner even that small amount
of liberty which is granted by its modern counterpart. It was chiefly
used for refractory prisoners who resorted to violence, for it had the
advantage of keeping the hands in a fixed position, either before or on
the back of the body. The pain it inflicted made it partake of the
nature of a punishment rather than merely a preventive against
resistance or attack. It was a punishment, too, which was universally
dreaded by prisoners of all kinds, for there is no more unbearable pain
than that of having a limb immovably confined.
[Illustration: NO. 1.--THE "FLEXIBLE."]
The other kind of form known as the "Flexible" (No. 1) resembled in
general outlines the handcuffs used every day by detectives.
Contrivances, chiefly the result of American ingenuity, for the rapid
and effectual securing of prisoners have not been wanting, and among
them the "Snap," the "Nippers" (No. 3) and the "Twister" must be
mentioned.
[Illustration: NO. 2.--THE "SNAP."]
[Illustration: NO. 3.--"NIPPERS."]
[Illustration: NO. 4.--THE "TWISTER"]
The "Snap" (No. 2) is the one which used to be the most approved of. It
consists of two loops, of which the smaller is slipped on the wrists of
the person to be arrested, the bars are then closed with a snap, and the
larger loop is held by the officer. The manner in which the "Twister"
(No. 4) was used savours very much of the brutal, and, indeed, the
injuries it inflicted on those who were misguided enough to struggle
when in its grasp caused its abolition in Great Britain.
Its simplicity and its efficacy, together with the cruelty, have
recommended it for use in those wild parts of South America where the
upholder of the laws literally travels with his life in his hands. It
consists of a chain with handles at each end; the chain is put round the
wrists, the handles brought together and twisted round until the chain
grips firmly. The torture inflicted by inhuman or inconsiderate officers
can easily be imagined. When we see the comparative facility with which
the detective slips the handcuffs on the villain in the last act of
Adelphi dramas, we are apt to be misled as to the difficulty which
police officers meet with in the execution of one of the most arduous
parts of their duty.
The English hand-cuffs (No. 1) are heavy, unwieldy, awkward machines,
which at the best of times, and under the most favourable circumstances,
are extremely difficult of application. They weigh over a pound, and
have to be unlocked with a key in a manner not greatly differing from
the operation of winding up the average eight-day clock, and fastened on
to the prisoner's wrists, how, the fates and good luck only know. This
lengthy, difficult, and particularly disagreeable operation, with a
prisoner struggling and fighting, is to a degree almost incredible. The
prisoner practically has to be overpowered or to submit before he can be
finally and certainly secured.
Even when handcuffed, we present to a clever and muscular ruffian one of
the most formidable weapons of offence he could possibly possess, as he
can, and frequently does, inflict the deadliest blows upon his captor.
Another great drawback is the fact that these handcuffs do not fit all
wrists, and often the officer is nonplussed by having a pair of
handcuffs which are too small or too large; and when the latter is the
case, and the prisoner gets the "bracelets" in his hands instead of on
his wrists, he is then in possession of a knuckle-duster from which the
bravest would not care to receive a blow.
On the occasion of my arresting one of the Russian rouble note forgers,
a ruffian who would not hesitate to stick at anything, I had provided
myself with several sized pairs of handcuffs, and it was not until I had
obtained the very much needed assistance that I was able to find the
suitable "darbies" for his wrists. We managed to force him into a
four-wheeler to take him to the police-station, when he again renewed
his efforts and savagely attacked me, lifting his ironed wrists and
bringing them down heavily on my head, completely crushing my
bowler hat.
[Illustration: NO. 5--"AMERICAN HANDCUFF" (OPEN).]
[Illustration: NO. 6--"AMERICAN HANDCUFF" (CLOSED).]
As the English handcuffs have only been formed for criminals who
submitted quietly to necessity, it was considered expedient to find an
instrument applicable to all cases. The perfected article comes from
America (Nos. 5 and 6), and, being lighter, less clumsy, and more easily
concealed, finds general favour among the officers at Scotland Yard. In
fact, such are its advantages that we must presume that it differs
considerably from the Anglo-Saxon "Hand-cop" and the somewhat primitive
article used upon the unwilling prophet of the Carpathian Sea. This and
the older kind, to which some of the more conservative of our detectives
still adhere, are the only handcuffs used in England.
[Illustration: No. 7--"LA LIGOTE."]
The ingenious detective of France, where crime and all its
appurtenances have reached such a state of perfection, is not without
his means of securing his man (No. 7). It is called "La Ligote" or "Le
Cabriolet." There are two kinds: one is composed of several steel piano
strings, and the other of whip-cords twined together, and they are used
much in the same way as the "Twister."
Any attempt to escape is quickly ended by the pain to which the officer
who holds the instrument can inflict by a mere turn of his hand. One
wrist only is under control, but as the slightest sign of a struggle is
met by an infliction of torture, the French system is more effective
than the English.
[Illustration: NO. 8.--"MEXICAN HANDCUFF."]
[Illustration: No. 9.--"LA POUCETTE."]
The Mexican handcuff (Nos. 8 and 9) is a cumbersome and awkward article,
quite worthy of the retrograde country of its origin.
[Illustration: NO. 10.--"LA CORDE."]
No. 10 shows an effective method of handcuffing in emergencies. The
officer takes a piece of whipcord and makes a double running knot: he
ties one noose round the wrist of the prisoner, whose hand is then
placed in his trousers pocket, the cord is lashed round the body like a
belt, and brought back and slipped through the noose again. The prisoner
when thus secured suffers no inconvenience as long as he leaves his hand
in his pocket, but any attempt to remove it would cause a deal of
suffering.
[Illustration: NO. 11.--"MENOTTE DOUBLE."]
No. 11 is another handcuff of foreign make, and is merely used when a
raid is about to be made, as it allows to a certain extent the use of
the hands. It is useful for prisoners who are being conveyed by sea.
[Illustration: NO. 12.--"EASTERN HANDCUFF."]
No. 12 is mostly used in Eastern Europe.
My personal experience of handcuffs is small, because I dislike them,
for in addition to their clumsiness, I know that when I have laid my
hands upon my man, it will be difficult for him to escape.
My intimate knowledge of all kinds of criminals in all kinds of plights
justifies me in saying that when they see the game is up they do not
attempt resistance. The only trouble I have had has been with
desperadoes and old offenders, men who have once tasted prison-life and
have a horror of returning to captivity.
Expert thieves have been known to open handcuffs without a key, by means
of knocking the part containing the spring on a stone or hard substance.
It will be remembered that when the notorious criminal "Charles Peace"
was being taken to London by train, he contrived, although handcuffed,
to make his escape through the carriage window. When he was captured it
was noticed that he had freed one of his hands.
I was once bringing from Leith an Austrian sailor who was charged with
ripping open his mate, and as I considered that I had a disagreeable
character to deal with, I handcuffed him. Naturally, he found the
confinement irksome, and on our journey he repeatedly implored me to
take them off promising that he would make no attempt to escape. The
sincerity of his manner touched me and I released him, very fortunately
for myself, for I was taken ill before reaching London, and, strange as
it may appear, was nursed most tenderly by the man who had ripped a
fellow mate.
In Belgium the use of handcuffs by police officers is entirely
forbidden. Prisoners are handcuffed only on being brought before the
_Juge d'Instruction_ or _Procureur du Roi_, and when crossing from court
to court. Women are never handcuffed in England, but on the Continent it
is not an uncommon occurrence.
Regarding handcuffs generally, in my opinion not one of the inventions I
have mentioned now in use is sufficiently easy of application. What
every officer in the detective force feels he wants is a light, portable
instrument by means of which he can unaided secure his man, however
cunning and however powerful he may be. I myself suggest an application
which would grip the criminal tightly across the back, imprisoning the
arms just above the elbow joints. Such an instrument would cause him no
unnecessary pain, while relieving officers from that part of their duty
which is particularly obnoxious to them, viz., having a prolonged
struggle with low and savage ruffians.
I cannot refrain from relating a piquant little anecdote told to me by a
French colleague, who had occasion to make an arrest, and came
unexpectedly on his man. Unfortunately he was unprovided with handcuffs
and was somewhat at a disadvantage, but being a quick-witted fellow, he
bethought himself of an effectual expedient. Taking out his knife he
severed the prisoner's buttons which were attached to his braces, thus
giving the man occupation for his hands and preventing a rapid flight. I
am indebted to M. Goron, Chief of the Detective Department in Paris, and
other colleagues for some of the specimens here reproduced by me.
* * * * *
_The Family Name._
From the French of HENRI MALIN
[Illustration]
I.
One afternoon, Mons. Sauvallier received from his younger son--a
lieutenant in garrison at Versailles--the following letter:
"Versailles, May 25, 1883.
"MY DEAR FATHER,
"A terrible catastrophe has befallen me, one which will be a blow to you
also. I am writing about it, because I dare not face you; I deserve
never to see you again!
"Led astray by a companion, I have been gambling on the Bourse, and am
involved in yesterday's crash, in which so many fortunes have been
suddenly swamped.
"I scarcely dare to tell you how much I have lost. Yet I _must_ do so,
for the honour of the Sauvalliers is concerned. Alas! you will be all
but ruined!
"I owe the sum of four hundred and sixty-eight thousand francs. Oh! what
a miserable wretch I am!
"When I found that the smash was inevitable I went mad, and entered my
room with the intention of putting an end to my wretched existence. But
more sober thoughts prevailed: I changed my mind. I had heard that
officers were being recruited for Tonquin, and I determined to volunteer
for this service. My suicide would not have bettered matters; it would
rather have left an added blot upon our family name. Out there, at all
events, my death may be of use; it will cause you no shame, and may
perhaps move you to a little compassion for your guilty, but most
unhappy and despairing son, who suffers agonies at thought of the
trouble he has brought upon you, and who now bids you an
eternal farewell!
"CAMILLE SAUVALLIER."
Mons. Sauvallier, who had been a widower for several years past, was one
of the most respected business-men of Paris, the owner of a foundry, a
judge of the Tribunal of Commerce, and an officer of the Legion of
Honour. He had two sons: Camille, the lieutenant: and August, an artist
of some originality, who was the husband of a charming wife, and the
father of a little six-year-old maiden named Andrée. Mons. Sauvallier
had always deterred his sons from embarking in trade. He had shrunk from
exposing them to the ups and downs of business life, its trying
fluctuations, its frequent cruel mischances. He had arranged that at his
death his estate should be realized: he did not wish the business to be
sold outright, in case it should pass into the hands of strangers who
might sully the hitherto unblemished name of Sauvallier.
And now, in spite of all his precautions, a disaster greater than any he
had dreamed of had overwhelmed him.
[Illustration: "HE ROSE WITH DIFFICULTY."]
Leaning back wearily in his arm-chair, with haggard eyes he re-read his
son's letter, in order to assure himself that he was not dreaming. Yes!
It was too true! Camille had ruined, perhaps dishonoured, him! It
seemed as though the objects that surrounded him--the very walls and
furniture--were no longer the same! As one staggering beneath a too
heavy burden, he rose with difficulty, his limbs stiff, yet his whole
frame agitated; then he sank back into his chair, with two big tears
flowing down his cheeks.
By hook or by crook he _must_ procure the sum, and the debt should be
paid to-morrow. It would be a difficult task. The wealth of the
manufacturer consists of material and merchandise. Would so hurried a
realization yield the necessary amount? He could not tell. Again, when
this debt was paid, would he be able to fulfil his engagements?
Bankruptcy stared him in the face. A Sauvallier bankrupt? An officer of
the Legion of Honour, a judge of the Tribunal of Commerce, insolvent?
Never! He would die first!
But before it came to that, he would try every expedient: he would
strain every nerve.
So all night long the poor man planned and calculated, and in the
morning, with heavy heart, proceeded to put his plans into effect.
He visited his numerous friends and told them of his trouble, which
elicited much sympathy. In order to help, some made large purchases of
him, paying ready money, others advanced or lent him money. All day
until the evening he was running about Paris collecting cheques,
bank-notes, and orders.
[Illustration: "HE NOW BROUGHT THE SUM THUS GAINED."]
In the evening, as he sat down to ascertain the result of the day's
efforts. Auguste came in with his wife and Andrée. To help his father,
the artist had parted with some of his pictures at a sacrifice, and he
now brought the sum thus gained.
Andrée, unconscious of the trouble of her elders, began to play with her
"Jéanne," a doll nearly as big as herself, which her grandfather had
given her some time previously, and which she loved, she said, "as her
own daughter."
But the child soon observed the sadness of her parents and her dear
grandfather, and she looked with earnest, inquiring gaze from one to the
other, trying to discover what was amiss. She saw her father lay down
his pocket-book, she watched her mother place upon the table her
bracelets, necklaces, ear-rings, and rings, while Mons. Sauvallier
thanked them with tears in his eyes. With a very thoughtful, serious
expression on her little face, the child turned towards her doll,
embraced it with the emotional fervour of a last adieu, then carried it
to her grandfather, saying, in sweet, resigned tones: "Take it,
grandpapa! You can sell her, too."
Mons. Sauvallier wept upon the neck of his little granddaughter,
murmuring, "You also, my angel? Oh, that miserable boy!"
II.
Thus Camille's debt was paid, and the honour of the Sauvalliers was
saved. But the father's fortune had gone!
He was able, however, to retain his business. He said to himself that he
must work still, in spite of his threescore years; that he must labour
incessantly, with the anxious ardour of those beginning life with
nothing to rely upon save their own exertions.
He reduced his expenses, gave up his own house and went to live with his
son, sold his carriage and horses, discharged his servants, and stinted
himself in every possible way. Auguste became his designer, Auguste's
wife his clerk. Each accepted his or her share of the burden bravely and
uncomplainingly, as an important duty which must at any cost be
accomplished.
The conduct of this old man, so jealous for his name, so upright, so
courageous in misfortune, excited profound sympathy. All who knew him
pitied him; orders flowed in, and soon a quite exceptional activity
pervaded the establishment from basement to roof, inspiring Mons.
Sauvallier with a little hope. But one persistent fear disturbed his
sleep, and troubled his waking hours. It was that some day he might hear
that Camille had been gambling again, and was once more in debt. He had
forbidden all mention of his erring son, but the thought of him was ever
present, and lay like an incubus upon his heart.
One year passed, then another. The foundry still flourished; work
positively raged therein. It had no rest; it also, as though endowed
with a conscience, did its duty nobly. Its furnaces glowed like ardent
eyes; its mighty puffing and snorting shook the ground: the molten
metal, red and fuming, flowed from its crucibles like blood from its
body. At an early hour of the morning was heard its piercing summons to
the work-people, and all the night long its glare illuminated the sky.
III.
The campaign of Tonquin was in full swing. In the midst of an unknown
country, harassed by innumerable difficulties, the French soldiers were
contending painfully with an irrepressible, ever-rallying foe. The
smallest success served to excite the popular patriotism, and all
awaited impatiently the tidings of a decisive victory.
One morning, Auguste, looking very pale, entered his father's office,
and handed him a newspaper. There, amongst "Latest intelligence," Mons.
Sauvallier read the following:--
[Illustration: "LEADING THEM ON TO THE ASSAULT."]
"From the camp entrenched at Dong-Song. February 12th, 1885.--To-day,
Captain Sauvallier attacked the enemy with extreme vigour, fought all
the day against considerable forces, and captured successively three
redoubts. In attacking the last of the three, his soldiers, overpowered
by numbers, were about to retreat; but, although seriously wounded in
the head and thigh, the gallant officer, borne by two men, succeeded in
rallying his company and leading them on to the assault. His conduct was
admirable, but his condition is hopeless. I have attached the cross to
his breast. This brilliant feat of arms will enable me to enter Lang-Son
tomorrow.--GENERAL BRIERE DE L'ISLE."
Upon reading these words, Mons. Sauvallier felt a strange emotion, in
which anguish mingled with joy. For a moment he was silent; then he said
to his son, "You think that it is he? He is, then, a captain?"
He read the despatch again, then murmured softly: "The cross! Condition
hopeless!" And a tear rolled down his cheek.
Two hours later the family received a formal intimation of Camille's
deed and state from the Minister of War, and on the following day all
the journals were praising Captain Sauvallier, son of the respected
founder, of Grenelle. And now they gave details. Camille, it appeared,
had been nominated captain a few months back. Throughout the campaign he
had distinguished himself by his imperturbable coolness under fire, and
reckless scorn of the death which he seemed to seek.
His act of heroic energy stirred the enthusiasm of Press and populace,
and the name of Sauvallier was on every lip. Camille's portrait appeared
in the shop-windows; the illustrated journals depicted him before the
redoubt, carried upon the shoulders of two men, his sword pointed
towards the enemy, encouraging his soldiers by his voice, gesture, and
look, his forehead bound with a handkerchief, and his face bleeding.
Mons. Sauvallier could not go out of doors without seeing his son's
presentment. From the news-stalls of the boulevards, the corners of the
streets, the publishers' shop-fronts, a ubiquitous Camille watched him
pass, and seemed to follow him with his eyes. Almost at each step the
father received congratulations, while complimentary letters and cards
covered his table to overflowing. But, alas! the telegrams which he
received daily from Tonquin left him little hope that he should ever
again behold in the flesh this dear son, of whom now he was so proud.
[Illustration: "HERE HE IS!"]
One morning, three months later, Mons. Sauvallier was at work in his
office, when the door opened softly, and disclosed Andrée's curly head.
The little one seemed in high spirits, her eyes sparkled with glee.
"See, grandfather, here he is!" she said, and led into the room Captain
Sauvallier.
Auguste and his wife followed the pair. Mons. Sauvallier, taken
completely by surprise, rose quickly from his chair, then stood
motionless, overcome by his emotion. He saw before him Camille, with the
scar upon his forehead, and the cross upon his breast--Camille, the hero
of the hour, who had shed such lustre upon the family name!
Timid and embarrassed, like a child who has been guilty of a fault,
Camille stood with bowed head, and when he saw how much his father had
aged, he knew that it was his conduct which had wrought the sad change,
and his contrition was deepened tenfold.
But as he was about to throw himself at his father's feet, Mons.
Sauvallier, with a sudden movement, clasped him to his breast,
exclaiming, in a voice full of tears, "No, Camille! in my arms! in
my arms!"
Father and son, locked together in closest embrace, mingled their sobs,
while Auguste and his wife, looking on, wept in sympathy.
The silence was broken by Andrée. The child had vanished for a moment,
but speedily reappeared, fondling her precious doll, which, it is
needless to say, had not been sold. Holding it out to the captain, she
said in her liveliest manner: "Here is Jeanne, uncle! You remember her?
Give her a kiss directly! Don't you think that she has grown?"
* * * * *
_The Queer Side of Things--Among the Freaks._
MAJOR MICROBE.
[Illustration]
"I've been in the show business now going on for forty-three years,"
said the Doorkeeper, "and I haven't yet found a Dwarf with human
feelings. I can't understand why it is, but there ain't the least manner
of doubt that a Dwarf is the meanest object in creation. Take General
Bacillus, the Dwarf I have with me now. He is well made, for a Dwarf,
and when he does his poses plastic, such as 'Ajax Defying the
Lightning,' or 'Samson Carrying off Delilah by the Hair,' and all the
rest of those Scripture tablows, he is as pretty as a picture, provided,
of course, you don't get too near him. He is healthy, and has a good
appetite, and he draws a good salary, and has no one except himself to
look after. And yet that Dwarf ain't happy! On the contrary, he is the
most discontented, cantankerous, malicious little wretch that was ever
admitted into a Moral Family Show. And he ain't much worse than an
ordinary Dwarf. Now, the other Freaks, as a rule, are contented so long
as they draw well and don't fall in love.
"The Living Skeleton knows that he can't expect to live long--most of
them die at about thirty-five--but, for all that, he is happy and
contented. 'A short life and a merry one is what I goes in for,' he
often says to me, and he seems to think that his life is a merry one,
though I can't myself see where the merriment comes in. So with all the
rest of my people. They all seem to enjoy themselves except the Dwarf.
My own belief is that the organ of happiness has got to be pretty big to
get its work in, and that there ain't room in a Dwarfs head for it
to work.
"I had a Dwarf with me once--Major Microbe is what we called him on the
bills, where he was advertised as the 'Smallest Man in the World,'
which, of course, he wasn't; but, then, every Dwarf is always advertised
that way. It's a custom of the profession, and we don't consider it to
be lying, any more than a President considers the tough statements lying
that he makes in his annual message. A showman and a politician must be
allowed a little liberty of statement, or they couldn't carry on their
business. Well, as I was saying, thishyer Major Microbe was in my show a
matter of ten years ago, when we were in Cincinnati, and he was about as
vicious as they make them. The Giant, who was a good seven-footer,
working up to seven and a half feet, as an engineer might say, with the
help of his boots and helmet, was the exact opposite of the Dwarf in
disposition. He was altogether too good-tempered, for he was always
trying to play practical jokes on the other Freaks. He did this without
any notion of annoying them, but it was injudicious; he being, like all
other Giants, weak and brittle.
"What do I mean by brittle? Why, I mean brittle and nothing else. It's a
good United States word, I reckon. Thishyer Giant's bones weren't made
of the proper materials, and they were always liable to break. He had to
take the greatest care of himself, and to avoid arguing on politics or
religion or anything like that, for a kick on the shins would be sure to
break one of his legs, which would lay him on the shelf for a couple of
months. As for his arms, he was for ever breaking one or two of them,
but that didn't so much matter, for he could go on the stage with his
arm in splints and a sling, and the public always supposed that he was
representing a heroic soldier who had just returned from the
battle-field.
[Illustration: "HE FOUND THE DWARF ASLEEP ON A BENCH."]
"One day the Giant put up a job on the Dwarf that afterwards got them
both into serious trouble. The Giant was loafing around the place after
dinner, and he found the Dwarf asleep on a bench. What does he do but
cover him up with a rug and then go off in search of the Fat Woman, who
was a sure enough Fat Woman, and weighed in private life four hundred
and nineteen pounds. The Giant was popular with the sex, and the Fat
Woman was glad to accept his invitation to come with him and listen to a
scheme that he pretended to have for increasing the attractions of Fat
Women. He led her up to where the Dwarf was asleep on the bench and
invited her to sit down, saying that he had arranged a cushion for her
to make her comfortable. Of course she sat down, and sat down pretty
solid, too, directly on the Dwarf. The Dwarf yelled as if he had room
for the voice of two full-grown men, and the Fat Woman, as soon as she
felt something squirming under her, thought that one of the boa
constrictors had got loose, and that she had sat down on it. So
naturally she fainted away. I came running in with one of my men as soon
as I heard the outcries, and after a while we managed to pry up the Fat
Woman with a couple of cart-rungs and get the Dwarf out from under her,
after which she came to in due time and got over her fright. But the
Dwarf was a good deal flattened out by the pressure, and I was afraid at
first that his ribs had been stove in. It turned out in the end that he
was not seriously injured; but he was in the worst rage against the
Giant that you can imagine, and would have killed him then and there if
he had been able to do it.
"I knew well enough that in course of time the Dwarf would get square
with the Giant, no matter how long it might take and how much it might
cost. He was as revengeful as a Red Indian. I warned the Giant that he
must keep a sharp look-out, or the Dwarf would do him a mischief; but he
said 'he calculated he was big enough to take care of himself, and that
he wasn't afraid of no two-foot Dwarf that ever breathed.' Of course,
this sounded brave, but my own belief is that the Giant was pretty badly
frightened. I noticed that he never allowed himself to be alone with the
Dwarf, and was always careful to mind where he stepped, so as not to get
tripped up by strings stretched across the path, or anything of that
sort. The Dwarf pretended that he had forgotten the whole business, and
was as friendly with the Giant as he had ever been; but I knew him well
enough to know that he never forgot anything, and was only waiting for
a chance.
[Illustration: "HIS HELMET HAD FALLEN INTO A TUB OF WATER."]
"Pretty soon little accidents began to happen to the Giant. One day he
would find that his helmet, which was made of pasteboard, had fallen
into a tub of water, and gone to everlasting jelly. This would oblige
him to show himself bare-headed, which took off several inches from his
professional height. Another day his boots would be in the tub, and he
wouldn't be able to get them on. I've seen him go on the stage in a
general's uniform with carpet slippers and no hat, which everyone knew
must be contrary to the regulations of the Arabian army, in which he was
supposed to hold his commission.
"One night his bedstead broke down under him, and he came very near
breaking a leg or so. In the morning he found out that someone had sawed
a leg of the bedstead nearly all the way through, and, of course, he
knew that the Dwarf had done it. But you couldn't prove anything against
the Dwarf. He would always swear that he never had any hand in the
accidents, and there was never any evidence against him that anybody
could get hold of. I didn't mind what games he played on the Giant as
long as the Giant wasn't made to break anything that would lay him on
the shelf, and I told the Dwarf that I was the last man to interfere
with any man's innocent amusements, but that in case the Giant happened
to break a leg, I should go out of the Giant and Dwarf business at once.
But that didn't scare him a particle. He knew that he was worth his
salary in any Dime Museum in America, and more than that, he had money
enough laid up in the bank to live on, assuming, of course, that he
could draw it out before the cashier should bolt to Canada with it. So
he was as independent as you please, and told me that if I chose to hold
him responsible for other people's legs he couldn't help it, and had
nothing to say about it.
"At that time I had a Female Samson. She wasn't the Combined Female
Contortionist and Strongest Woman in the World that is in my show at
present, but she was in about the same line of business. These Strong
Women are all genuine, you understand. You can embellish them a little
on the handbills, and you can announce that the cannon that the Strong
Woman fires from her shoulder weighs a hundred or two pounds more than
it actually weighs; but unless a Strong Woman is really strong and no
mistake, she might as well try to pass herself off as a Living Skeleton
or a Two-Headed Girl at once. The fact is, the great majority of Freaks
are genuine, and the business is a thoroughly honest one at bottom. Why,
if you told the exact truth in the handbills about every Freak in my
show, barring the Tattooed Girl and the Wild Man, they would still
constitute a good drawing attraction in any intelligent community.
"This Female Samson was a good sort of woman in her way, though she was
a little rough and a bit what you might call masculine in her ways. She
didn't like the Dwarf, and he didn't like her.
[Illustration: "SHE PULLED HIM OVER TO HER BY HIS COLLAR."]
"The Freaks were all at supper one night when the Dwarf said something
insulting to the Female Samson. He sat right opposite to her, and she
just reached across the table and pulled him over to her by his collar.
Then she stretched him across her lap and laid into him with her slipper
till he howled as if he was a small boy who had gone in swimming on
Sunday and his mother had just found it out. It wasn't so much the
slipper that hurt him, though the Female Samson put all her muscle into
the operation, but it was the disgrace of the thing; and when you
remember that the Dwarf was forty-two years old, you can understand that
he felt that the woman had taken a liberty with him. However, the next
day he seemed to have forgotten all about it, and when the Giant
reminded him of the circumstance, which he did every little while, the
Dwarf would grin and say that we must let the women do what they liked,
for they were a superior sort of being.
"One of the Female Samson's best feats was done in company with the
Dwarf and the Giant. She had a horizontal bar fixed on the stage, about
ten feet above the floor. On this bar she used to swing head downwards,
just hooking her knees around it, as all the trapeze artists do. It
looks sort of uncomfortable, but it is nothing when you are used to it.
I had a trapeze chap once who would often go to sleep that way in hot
weather. He said that all the blood in his body went into his head, and
that made him feel sleepy, while it cooled off his body and legs.
There's no accounting for tastes, but as for me, give me a good bed
where I can stretch out, and I'll never ask to sleep on a trapeze bar.
"As I was saying, the Female Samson would swing on this bar, and then
she would take the Dwarf's belt in her teeth and hold him in that way
for five minutes. There was a swivel in the belt, so that the Dwarf
would spin round while she was holding him, which he didn't like much,
but which pleased the public. After she had swung the Dwarf she would do
the same act with the Giant. She had to be very careful not to drop the
Giant, for he was terribly afraid of breaking a leg, being, as I have
said, particularly brittle; but she always said that he was as safe in
her teeth as he would be if he was lying in his bed.
"It must have been about a fortnight after the Dwarf was sat on by the
Fat Woman, and a week or more after he had been corrected in public by
the Female Samson, that we had an unusually large evening audience, and
everybody was in excellent spirits. The Female Samson had swung the
Dwarf in her teeth, and after she had let go of him he had climbed up on
a chair just behind her, and stood with his arms stretched out over her
and the Giant as if he was saying 'Bless you, my children,' which was a
regular part of the act, and never failed to bring him a round of
applause, and induce people to say, 'What a jolly little chap that Dwarf
is!' When the Female Samson had got a good grip of the Giant's belt, and
had raised him about five feet from the floor, the Dwarf leaned a
little bit forward and ran a pin into the Female Samson's ankle, or
thereabouts. Nobody saw him do it, but it was easy to prove it on him
afterwards, for he dropped the pin on the floor when he had finally got
through with it, and everybody recognised it as one of his scarf-pins.
"The woman would naturally have shrieked when she felt the pin, but she
had her mouth full of the Giant, and she couldn't do more than mumble a
little in a half-smothered sort of way. The Dwarf paid no attention to
that, but gave her another eye-opener with the pin. It went in about an
inch, judging from what the Female Samson said when she described her
sufferings, and it must have hurt her pretty bad; but she was full of
pluck and bound to carry out her performance to the end. She stood three
or four more prods, and then, not being able to stand it any longer
without expressing her feelings in some way, she unhooked one leg and
fetched the Dwarf a kick on the side of the head that reminded him that
it was about time for him to get into his own room and lock the door,
and convinced him that there ain't a bit of exaggeration in the tough
stories that they tell about the kicking powers of an army mule. The
kick sent the Dwarf clean across the platform, and the people, not
understanding the situation, began to cry 'Shame.' Whether this flurried
the Female Samson or not, or whether she lost her balance entirely on
account of having unhooked one leg, I don't know. What I do know is that
she slipped off the bar, and she and the Giant struck the floor with a
crash that would have broken planks, if it had not been that the
platform was built expressly to stand the strain of the Fat Woman.
"It wouldn't have been so bad if she had just dropped the Giant, and
hung on to the bar herself. In that case he would probably have broken
his left leg and arm and collar bone, just as he did break them, but his
ribs would have been all right. As it was, the Female Samson's head came
down just in the centre of him, and stove in about three-fourths of his
ribs. She wasn't hurt at all, for, being a woman, and falling on her
head, there was nothing for her to break, and the Giant was so soft that
falling on him didn't even give her a headache. When some volunteers
from the audience had picked up the Giant and put him on a stretcher and
carried him to the hospital, where the doctors did their best to mend
him, the Female Samson had a chance to explain, and the finding of a
long scarf-pin on the platform, just under the bar, was evidence that
she had told the truth, and corroborated the red stain on her stocking.
[Illustration: "IT TOOK FOUR MEN AND A POLICEMAN TO HOLD HER."]
"It took four men and a policeman to hold her, and get her locked up in
her room, she was that set on tearing the Dwarf into small pieces, and
she'd have done it too, if she could have got at him. He had sense
enough to see the situation, and to discharge himself without waiting
for me to discharge him. He ran away in the course of the night, and I
never saw him again. I don't think he ever went into another Dime
Museum, and I have heard that he got a situation as inspector of gas
meters, which is very probable, considering what a malicious little
rascal he was. Well, we have to deal with all sorts of people in our
business, and I suppose it's the same with you, though you haven't
mentioned what your business is. But you take my advice and steer clear
of Dwarfs. There ain't a man living that can do anything with them
except with a club, and no man likes to take a club to anything as small
as a Dwarf."
W. L. ALDEN.
* * * * *
_Lamps of all Kinds and Times._
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
* * * * *
_Two Styles: A Tale with a Moral._
[Illustration]
Uffizzi Robbinson was blessed with a very full rich, tenor voice but a
very empty purse and he stood in need of a HOLIDAY.
So he cut his hair & otherwise disguised himself & went off to Brighton,
and having hired a piano & boy took up his station on the front and
started in to make his fortune.
He sang song after song, all of them highly classical, in his most
approved style, but his audience being limited and critical, his
prospects looked gloomy.
A gentle hint from his boy set him thinking!! He DISAPPEARED!!! A shadow
on the blind gave the only indication of what he was doing!!
Until one evening he reappeared on the front in all the glories of
collar & banjo, sang vulgar comic songs in a vulgar comic manner to a
vast and appreciative audience and lived in clover for the rest of
the season.
* * * * *
End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Strand Magazine: Volume VII, Issue
37. January, 1894., by Edited by George Newnes
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