The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 06, No. 38, December, 1860

"But time calls me to Clapton. I quit you abruptly till to-morrow: when, if I do not tear the nonsense I have been writing, I may perhaps increase its quantity. Signora Cynthia is in clouded majesty. Silvered with her beams, I am about to jog to Clapton upon my own stumps; musing, as I homeward plod my way.–Ah! need I name the subject of my contemplations?

"Thursday.

"I had a sweet walk home last night, and found the Claptonians, with their fair guest, a Miss Mourgue, very well. My sisters send their amities, and will write in a few days.

"This morning I returned to town. It has been the finest day imaginable; a solemn mildness was diffused throughout the blue horizon; its light was clear and distinct rather than dazzling; the serene beams of an autumnal sun! Gilded hills, variegated woods, glittering spires, ruminating herds, bounding flocks, all combined to enchant the eyes, expand the heart, and 'chase all sorrows but despair.' In the midst of such a scene, no lesser sorrow can prevent our sympathy with Nature. A calmness, a benevolent disposition seizes us with sweet, insinuating power. The very brute creation seem sensible of these beauties. There is a species of mild chearfulness in the face of a lamb, which I have but indifferently expressed in a corner of my paper, and a demure, contented look in an ox, which, in the fear of expressing still worse, I leave unattempted.

"Business calls me away–I must dispatch my letter. Yet what does it contain? No matter–You like anything better than news. Indeed, you have never told me so; but I have an intuitive knowledge upon the subject, from the sympathy which I have constantly perceived in the tastes of Julia and Cher Jean. What is it to you or me,

"If here in the city we have nothing but riot;If the Spitalfield weavers can't be kept quiet;If the weather is fine, or the streets should be dirty;Or if Mr. Dick Wilson died aged of thirty?

"But if I was to hearken to the versifying grumbling I feel within me, I should fill my paper, and not have room left to intreat that you would plead my cause with Honora more eloquently than the enclosed letter has the power of doing. Apropos of verses, you desire me to recollect my random description of the engaging appearance of the charming Mrs.–. Here it is at your service.

"Then rustling and bustling the lady comes down,With a flaming red face and a broad yellow gown,And a hobbling out-of-breath gait, and a frown.

"This little French cousin of our's, Delarise, was my sister Mary's playfellow at Paris. His sprightliness engages my sisters extremely. Doubtless they tell much of him to you in their letters.

"How sorry I am to bid you adieu! Oh, let me not be forgot by the friends most dear to you at Lichfield. Lichfield! Ah, of what magic letters is that little word composed! How graceful it looks, when it is written! Let nobody talk to me of its original meaning, 'The Field of Blood'! Oh, no such thing! It is the field of joy! 'The beautiful city, that lifts her fair head in the valley, and says, I am, and there is none beside me.' Who says she is vain? Julia will not say so,–nor yet Honora,–and least of all, their devoted

"John André."

It is not difficult to perceive in the tone of this letter that its writer was not an accepted lover. His interests with the lady, despite Miss Seward's watchful care, were already declining; and the lapse of a few months more reduced him to the level of a valued and entertaining friend, whose civilities were not to pass the conventional limits of polite intercourse. To André this fate was very hard. He was hopelessly enamored; and so long as fortune offered him the least hope of eventual success, he persevered in the faith that Honora might yet be his own. But every returning day must have shaken this faith. His visits were discontinued and his correspondence dropped. Other suitors pressed their claims, and often urged an argument which it was beyond his means to supply. They came provided with what Parson Hugh calls good gifts: "Seven hundred pounds and possibilities is good gifts." Foremost among these dangerous rivals were two men of note in their way: Richard Lovell Edgeworth, and the eccentric, but amiable Thomas Day.

Mr. Day was a man whose personal charms were not great. Overgrown, awkward, pitted with the small-pox, he offered no pleasing contrast to the discarded André: but he had twelve hundred pounds a year. His notions in regard to women were as peculiar as his estimate of his own merit. He seems to have really believed that it would be impossible for any beautiful girl to refuse her assent to the terms of the contract by which she might acquire his hand. These were absurd to a degree; and it is not cause for surprise that Miss Sneyd should have unhesitatingly refused them. Poor Mr. Day was not prepared for such continued ill-luck in his matrimonial projects. He had already been very unfortunate in his plans for obtaining a perfect wife,–having vainly provided for the education of two foundlings between whom he promised himself to select a paragon of a helpmate. To drop burning sealing-wax upon their necks, and to discharge a pistol close to their ears, were among his philosophical rules for training them to habits of submission and self-control; and the upshot was, that they were fain to attach themselves to men of less wisdom, but better taste. Miss Sneyd's conduct was more than he could well endure, after all his previous disappointments; and he went to bed with a fever that did not leave him till his passion was cured. He could not at this time have anticipated, however, that the friendly hand which had aided the prosecution of his addresses was eventually destined to receive and hold the fair prize which so many were contending for.

Richard Lovell Edgeworth, the ambassador and counsellor of Mr. Day in this affair, was at the very moment of the rejection himself enamored of Miss Sneyd. But Edgeworth had a wife already,–a pining, complaining woman, he tells us, who did not make his home cheerful,–and honor and decency forbade him to open his mouth on the subject that occupied his heart. He wisely sought refuge in flight, and in other scenes the natural exuberance of his disposition afforded a relief from the pangs of an unlawful and secret passion. Lord Byron, who met him forty years afterwards, in five lines shows us the man: if he was thus seen in the dry wood, we can imagine what he was in the green:–"I thought Edgeworth a fine old fellow, of a clarety, elderly, red complexion, but active, brisk, and endless. He was seventy, but did not look fifty,–no, nor forty-eight even." He was in France when the death of his father left him to the possession of a good estate,–and that of his wife occurring in happy concurrence, he lost little time in opening in his own behalf the communications that had failed when he spoke for Mr. Day. His wooing was prosperous; in July, 1773, he married Miss Sneyd.

It is a mistake, sanctioned by the constant acceptance of historians, to suppose that it was this occasion that prompted André to abandon a commercial life. The improbability of winning Honora's hand, and the freedom with which she received the addresses of other men, undoubtedly went far to convince him of the folly of sticking to trade with but one motive; and so soon as he attained his majority, he left the desk and stool forever, and entered the army. This was a long time before the Edgeworth marriage was undertaken, or even contemplated.

Lieutenant André of the Royal Fusileers had a very different line of duty to perform from Mr. André, merchant, of Warnford Court, Throgmorton Street; and the bustle of military life, doubtless, in some degree diverted his mind from the disagreeable contemplation of what was presently to occur at Lichfield. Some months were spent on the Continent and among the smaller German courts about the Rhine. After all was over, however, and the nuptial knot fairly tied that destroyed all his youthful hopes, he is related to have made a farewell expedition to the place of his former happiness. There, at least, he was sure to find one sympathizing heart. Miss Seward, who had to the very last minute contended with her friend against Mr. Edgeworth and in support of his less fortunate predecessor, now met him with open arms. No pains were spared by her to alleviate, since she could not remove, the disappointment that evidently possessed him. A legend is preserved in connection with this visit that is curious, though manifestly of very uncertain credibility. It is said that an engagement had been made by Miss Seward to introduce her friend to two gentlemen of some note in the neighborhood, Mr. Cunningham and Mr. Newton. On the appointed morning, while awaiting their expected guests, Cunningham related to his companion a vision–or rather, a series of visions–that had greatly disturbed his previous night's repose. He was alone in a wide forest, he said, when he perceived a rider approaching him. The horseman's countenance was plainly visible, and its lines were of a character too interesting to be readily forgotten. Suddenly three men sprang forth from an ambush among the thickets, and, seizing the stranger, hauled him from his horse and bore him away. To this succeeded another scene. He stood with a great multitude near by some foreign town. A bustle was heard, and he beheld the horseman of his earlier dream again led along a captive. A gibbet was erected, and the prisoner was at once hanged. In narrating this tale, Cunningham averred that the features of its hero were still fresh in his recollection; the door opened, and in the face of André, who at that moment presented himself, he professed to recognize that which had so troubled his slumbers.

Such is the tale that is recorded of the supernatural revelation of André's fate. If it rested on somewhat better evidence than any we are able to find in its favor, it would be at least more interesting. But whether or no the young officer continued to linger in the spirit about the spires of Lichfield and the romantic shades of Derbyshire, it is certain that his fleshly part was moving in a very different direction. In 1774, he embarked to join his regiment, then posted in Canada, and arrived at Philadelphia early in the autumn of the year.

It is not within the design of this paper to pursue to any length the details of André's American career. Regimental duties in a country district rarely afford matter worthy of particular record; and it is not until the troubles of our Revolutionary War break out, that we find anything of mark in his story. He was with the troops that Carleton sent down, after the fall of Ticonderoga, to garrison Chambly and St. John's, and to hold the passage of the Sorel against Montgomery and his little army. With the fall of these forts, he went into captivity. There is too much reason to believe that the imprisonment of the English on this occasion was not alleviated by many exhibitions of generosity on the part of their captors. Montgomery, indeed, was as humane and honorable as he was brave; but he was no just type of his followers. The articles of capitulation were little regarded, and the prisoners were, it would seem, rapidly despoiled of their private effects. "I have been taken by the Americans," wrote André, "and robbed of everything save the picture of Honora, which I concealed in my mouth. Preserving that, I think myself happy." Sent into the remote parts of Pennsylvania, his companions and himself met with but scant measure of courtesy from the mountaineers of that region; nor was he exchanged for many long and weary months. Once more free, however, his address and capacity soon came to his aid. His reports and sketches speedily commended him to the especial favor of the commander-in-chief, Sir William Howe; and ere long he was promoted to a captaincy and made aide-de-camp to Sir Charles Grey. This was a dashing, hard-fighting general of division, whose element was close quarters and whose favorite argument was the cold steel. If, therefore, André played but an inactive part at the Brandywine, he had ample opportunity on other occasions of tasting the excitement and the horrors of war. The night-surprises of Wayne at Paoli, and of Baylor on the Hudson,–the scenes of Germantown and Monmouth,–the reduction of the forts at Verplanck's Ferry, and the forays led against New Bedford and the Vineyard,–all these familiarized him with the bloody fruits of civil strife. But they never blunted for one moment the keenness of his humanity, or warped those sentiments of refinement and liberality that always distinguished him. Within the limited range of his narrow sphere, he was constantly found the friend and reliever of the wounded or captive Americans, and the protector and benefactor of the followers of his own banner. Accomplished to a degree in all the graces that adorn the higher circles of society, he was free from most of their vices; and those who knew him well in this country have remarked on the universal approbation of both sexes that followed his steps, and the untouched heart that escaped so many shafts. Nor, while foremost in the brilliant pleasures that distinguished the British camp and made Philadelphia a Capua to Howe, was he ever known to descend to the vulgar sports of his fellows. In the balls, the theatricals, the picturesque Mischianza, he bore a leading hand; but his affections, meanwhile, appear to have remained where they were earliest and last bestowed. In our altered days, when marriage and divorce seem so often interchangeable words, and loyal fidelity but an Old-World phrase, ill-fashioned and out of date, there is something very attractive in this hopeless constancy of an exiled lover.

Beyond the seas, meanwhile, the object of this unfortunate attachment was lending a happy and a useful life in the fulfilment of the various duties of a wife, a mother, and a friend. Her husband was a large landed proprietor, and in public spirit was inferior to no country-gentleman of the kingdom. Many of his notions were fanciful enough, it must be allowed; but they were all directed to the improvement and amelioration of his native land and its people. In these pursuits, as well as in those of learning, Mrs. Edgeworth was the active and useful coadjutor of her husband; and it was probably to the desire of this couple to do something that would make the instruction of their children a less painful task than had been their own, that we are indebted for the adaptation of the simpler rudiments of science to a childish dress. In 1778 they wrote together the First Part of "Harry and Lucy," and printed a handful of copies in that largo black type which every one associates with the first school-days of his childhood. From these pages she taught her own children to read. The plan was communicated to Mr. Day, who entered into it eagerly; and an educational library seemed about to be prepared for the benefit of a far-away household in the heart of Ireland. But a hectic disorder, that had threatened Mrs. Edgeworth's life while yet a child, now returned upon her with increased virulence; and the kind and beautiful mistress of Edgeworthstown was compelled to forego this and every other earthly avocation. Mr. Day expanded his little tale into the delightful story of "Sandford and Merton," a book that long stood second only to "Robinson Crusoe" in the youthful judgment of the great boy-world; and in later years, Maria Edgeworth included "Harry and Lucy" in her "Early Lessons." It is thus a point to be noticed, that nothing but the res angusta domi, the lack of wealth, on the part of young André, was the cause of that series of little volumes being produced by Miss Edgeworth, which so long held the first place among the literary treasures of the nurseries of England and America. Lazy Lawrence, Simple Susan, and a score more of excellently conceived characters, might never have been called from chaos to influence thousands of tender minds, but for André's narrow purse.

The ravages of the insidious disease with which she was afflicted soon came to an end; and after a term of wedlock as brief as it was prosperous, Mrs. Edgeworth's dying couch was spread.–"I have every blessing," she wrote, "and I am happy. The conversation of my beloved husband, when my breath will let me have it, is my greatest delight: he procures me every comfort, and, as he always said he thought he should, contrives for me everything that can ease and assist my weakness,–

"'Like a kind angel, whispers peace,And smooths the bed of death.'"

Rightly viewed, the closing scenes in the life of this estimable woman are not less solemn, not less impressive, than those of that memorable day, when, with all the awful ceremonials of offended justice and the stern pageantries of war, her lover died in the full glare of noonday before the eyes of assembled thousands. He had played for a mighty stake, and he had lost. He had perilled his life for the destruction of our American empire, and he was there to pay the penalty: and surely never, in all the annals of our race, has a man more gallantly yielded up his forfeited breath, or under circumstances more impressive. He perished regretted alike by friend and foe; and perhaps not one of the throng that witnessed his execution but would have rejoicingly hailed a means of reconciling his pardon with the higher and inevitable duties which they owed to the safety of the army and the existence of the state. And in the aspect which the affair has since taken, who can say that André's fate has been entirely unfortunate? He drank out the wine of life while it was still sparkling and foaming and bright in his cup: he tasted none of the bitterness of its lees till almost his last sun had risen. When he was forever parted from the woman whom he loved, a new, but not an earthly mistress succeeded to the vacant throne; and thenceforth the love of glory possessed his heart exclusively. And how rarely has a greater lustre attached to any name than to his! His bones are laid with those of the wisest and mightiest of the land; the gratitude of monarchs cumbers the earth with his sepulchral honors; and his memory is consecrated in the most eloquent pages of the history not only of his own country, but of that which sent him out of existence. Looked upon thus, death might have been welcomed by him as a benefit rather than dreaded as a calamity, and the words applied by Cicero to the fate of Crassus be repeated with fresh significancy,–"Mors dortata quam vita erepta."

The same year that carries on its records the date of André's fall witnessed the death of a second Honora Edgeworth, the only surviving daughter of Honora Sneyd. She is represented as having inherited all the beauty, all the talents of her mother. The productions of her pen and pencil seem to justify this assertion, so far as the precocity of such a mere child may warrant the ungarnered fruits of future years. But with her parent's person she received the frailties of its constitution; and, ere girlhood had fairly opened upon her way of life, she succumbed to the same malady that had wrecked her mother.

WE SHALL RISE AGAIN

We know the spirit shall not taste of death:Earth bids her elements,"Turn, turn again to me!"But to the soul, unto the soul, she saith,"Flee, alien, flee!"And circumstance of matter what doth weigh?Oh! not the height and depth of this to knowBut reachings of that grosser element,Which, entered in and clinging to it so,With earthlier earthiness than dwells in clay,Can drag the spirit down, that, looking up,Sees, through surrounding shades of death and time,With solemn wonder, and with new-born hope,The dawning glories of its native clime;And inly swell such mighty floods of love,Unutterable longing and desire,For that celestial, blessed home above,The soul springs upward like the mounting fire,Up, through the lessening shadows on its way,While, in its raptured vision, grows more clearThe calm, the high, illimitable dayTo which it draws more near and yet more near.Draws near? Alas! its brief, its waning strengthUpward no more the fetters' weight can bear:It falters,–pauses,–sinks; and, sunk at length,Plucks at its chain in frenzy and despair.Not forever fallen! Not in eternal prison!No! hell with fire of painMelteth apart its chain;Heaven doth once more constrain:It hath arisen!And never, never again, thus to fall low?Ah, no!Terror, Remorse, and Woe,Vainly they pierced it through with many sorrows;Hell shall regain it,–thousand times regain it;But can detain itOnly awhile from ruthful Heaven's to-morrows.That sin is suffering,It knows,–it knows this thing;And yet it courts the stingThat deeply pains it;It knows that in the cupThe sweet is but a sup,That Sorrow fills it up,And who drinks drains it.It knows; who runs may read.But, when the fetters dazzle, heaven's far joy seems dim;And 'tis not life but so to be inwound.A little while, and then–behold it bleedWith madness of its throes to be unbound!It knows. But when the sudden stressOf passion is resistlessness,It drags the flood that sweeps away,For anchorage, or hold, or stay,Or saving rock of stableness,And there is none,–No underlying fixedness to fasten on:Unsounded depths; unsteadfast seas;Wavering, yielding, bottomless depths:But these!Yea, sometimes seemeth goneThe Everlasting Arm we lean upon!So blind, as well as maimed and halt and lame,What sometimes makes it see?Oppressed with guilt and gnawed upon of shame,What comes upon it so,Faster and faster stealing,Flooding it like an air or seaOf warm and golden feeling?What makes it melt,Dissolving from the earthiness that made it hard and heavy?What makes it melt and flow,And melt and melt and flow,–Till light, clear-shining through its heart of dew,Makes all things new?Loosed from the spirit of infirmity, listen its cry."Was it I that longed for oblivion,O wonderful Love! was it I,That deep in its easeful waterMy wounded soul might lie?That over the wounds and anguishThe easeful flood might roll?A river of loving-kindnessHas healed and hidden the whole.Lo! in its pitiful bosomVanish the sins of my youth,–Error and shame and backslidingLost in celestial ruth."O grace too great!O excellency of my new estate!"No more, for the friends that love me,I shall veil my face or grieveBecause love outrunneth deserving;I shall be as they believe.And I shall be strong to help them,Filled of Thy fulness with storesOf comfort and hope and compassion.Oh, upon all my shores,With the waters with which Thou dost flood me,Bid me, my Father, o'erflow!Who can taste Thy divineness,Nor hunger and thirst to bestow?Send me, oh, send me!The wanderers let me bring!The thirsty let me showWhere the rivers of gladness spring,And fountains of mercy flow!How in the hills shall they sit and sing,With valleys of peace below!"Oh that the keys of our hearts the angels would bear in their bosoms!For revelation fades and fades away,Dream-like becomes, and dim, and far-withdrawn;And evening comes to find the soul a prey,That was caught up to visions at the dawn;Sword of the spirit,–still it sheathes in rust,And lips of prophecy are sealed with dust.High lies the better country,The land of morning and perpetual spring;But graciously the warderOver its mountain-borderLeans to us, beckoning,–bids us, "Come up hither!"And though we climb with step unfixed and slow,From visioning heights of hope we look off thither,And we must go.And we shall go! And we shall go!We shall not always weep and wander so,–Not always in vain,By merciful pain,Be upcast from the hell we seek again!How shall we,Whom the stars draw so, and the uplifting sea?Answer, thou Secret Heart! how shall it be,With all His infinite promising in thee?Beloved! beloved! not cloud and fire aloneFrom bondage and the wilderness restoreAnd guide the wandering spirit to its own;But all His elements, they go before:Upon its way the seasons bring,And hearten with foreshadowingThe resurrection-wonder,What lands of death awake to singAnd germs of hope swell under;And full and fine, and full and fine,The day distils life's golden wine;And night is Palace Beautiful, peace-chambered.All things are ours; and life fills up of themSuch measure as we hold.For ours beyond the gate,The deep things, the untold,We only wait.

THE PROFESSOR'S STORY.

CHAPTER XXIII.

THE WILD HUNTSMAN

The young master had not forgotten the old Doctor's cautions. Without attributing any great importance to the warning he had given him, Mr. Bernard had so far complied with his advice that he was becoming a pretty good shot with the pistol. It was an amusement as good as many others to practise, and he had taken a fancy to it after the first few days.