"Then thy wife will be the only honest matter in thy possession,
Colonel - at least since I have known you," replied the Duke.
"Why, truly, your Grace may speak your pleasure on that point. It is
chiefly your business which I have done of late; and if it were less
strictly honest than I could have wished, the employer was to blame as
well as the agent. But for marrying a cast-off mistress, the man
(saving your Grace, to whom I am bound) lives not who dares propose it
to me."
The Duke laughed loudly. "Why, this is mine Ancient Pistol's vein," he
replied.
- - "Shall I Sir Pandarus of Troy become,
And by my side wear steel? - then Lucifer take all!"
"My breeding is too plain to understand ends of playhouse verse, my
lord," said the Colonel suddenly. "Has your Grace no other service to
command me?"
"None - only I am told you have published a Narrative concerning the
Plot."
"What should ail me, my lord?" said the Colonel; "I hope I am a
witness as competent as any that has yet appeared?"
"Truly, I think so to the full," said the Duke; "and it would have
been hard, when so much profitable mischief was going, if so excellent
a Protestant as yourself had not come in for a share."
"I came to take your Grace's commands, not to be the object of your
wit," said the Colonel.
"Gallantly spoken, most resolute and most immaculate Colonel! As you
are to be on full pay in my service for a month to come, I pray your
acceptance of this purse, for contingents and equipments, and you
shall have my instructions from time to time."
"They shall be punctually obeyed, my lord," said the Colonel; "I know
the duty of a subaltern officer. I wish your Grace a good morning."
So saying, he pocketed the purse, without either affecting hesitation,
or expressing gratitude, but merely as a part of a transaction in the
regular way of business, and stalked from the apartment with the same
sullen gravity which marked his entrance. "Now, there goes a scoundrel
after my own heart," said the Duke; "a robber from his cradle, a
murderer since he could hold a knife, a profound hypocrite in
religion, and a worse and deeper hypocrite in honour, - would sell his
soul to the devil to accomplish any villainy, and would cut the throat
of his brother, did he dare to give the villainy he had so acted its
right name. - Now, why stand you amazed, good Master Jerningham, and
look on me as you would on some monster of Ind, when you had paid your
shilling to see it, and were staring out your pennyworth with your
eyes as round as a pair of spectacles? Wink, man, and save them, and
then let thy tongue untie the mystery."
"On my word, my Lord Duke," answered Jerningham, "since I am compelled
to speak, I can only say, that the longer I live with your Grace, I am
the more at a loss to fathom your motives of action. Others lay plans,
either to attain profit or pleasure by their execution; but your
Grace's delight is to counteract your own schemes, when in the very
act of performance; like a child - forgive me - that breaks its
favourite toy, or a man who should set fire to the house he has half
built."
"And why not, if he wanted to warm his hands at the blaze?" said the
Duke.
"Ay, my lord," replied his dependent; "but what if, in doing so, he
should burn his fingers? - My lord, it is one of your noblest
qualities, that you will sometimes listen to the truth without taking
offence; but were it otherwise, I could not, at this moment, help
speaking out at every risk."
"Well, say on, I can bear it," said the Duke, throwing himself into an
easy-chair, and using his toothpick with graceful indifference and
equanimity; "I love to hear what such potsherds as thou art, think of
the proceeding of us who are of the pure porcelain clay of the earth."
"In the name of Heaven, my lord, let me then ask you," said
Jerningham, "what merit you claim, or what advantage you expect, from
having embroiled everything in which you are concerned to a degree
which equals the chaos of the blind old Roundhead's poem which your
Grace is so fond of? To begin with the King. In spite of good-humour,
he will be incensed at your repeated rivalry."
"His Majesty defied me to it."
"You have lost all hopes of the Isle, by quarrelling with Christian."
"I have ceased to care a farthing about it," replied the Duke.
"In Christian himself, whom you have insulted, and to whose family you
intend dishonour, you have lost a sagacious, artful, and cool-headed
instrument and adherent," said the monitor.
"Poor Jerningham!" answered the Duke; "Christian would say as much for
thee, I doubt not, wert thou discarded tomorrow. It is the common
error of such tools as you and he to think themselves indispensable.
As to his family, what was never honourable cannot be dishonoured by
any connection with my house."
"I say nothing of Chiffinch," said Jerningham, "offended as he will be
when he learns why, and by whom, his scheme has been ruined, and the
lady spirited away - He and his wife, I say nothing of them."
"You need not," said the Duke; "for were they even fit persons to
speak to me about, the Duchess of Portsmouth has bargained for their
disgrace."
"Then this bloodhound of a Colonel, as he calls himself, your Grace
cannot even lay /him/ on a quest which is to do you service, but you
must do him such indignity at the same time, as he will not fail to
remember, and be sure to fly at your throat should he ever have an
opportunity of turning on you."
"I will take care he has none," said the Duke; "and yours, Jerningham,
is a low-lived apprehension. Beat your spaniel heartily if you would
have him under command. Ever let your agents see you know what they
are, and prize them accordingly. A rogue, who must needs be treated as
a man of honour, is apt to get above his work. Enough, therefore, of
your advice and censure, Jerningham; we differ in every particular.
Were we both engineers, you would spend your life in watching some old
woman's wheel, which spins flax by the ounce; I must be in the midst
of the most varied and counteracting machinery, regulating checks and
counter-checks, balancing weights, proving springs and wheels,
directing and controlling a hundred combined powers."
"And your fortune, in the meanwhile?" said Jerningham; "pardon this
last hint, my lord."
"My fortune," said the Duke, "is too vast to be hurt by a petty wound;
and I have, as thou knowest, a thousand salves in store for the
scratches and scars which it sometimes receives in greasing my
machinery."
"Your Grace does not mean Dr. Wilderhead's powder of projection?"
"Pshaw! he is a quacksalver, and mountebank, and beggar."
"Or Solicitor Drowndland's plan for draining the fens?"
"He is a cheat, - /videlicet/, an attorney."
"Or the Laird of Lackpelf's sale of Highland woods?"
"He is a Scotsman," said the Duke, - "/videlicet/, both cheat and
beggar."
"These streets here, upon the site of your noble mansion-house?" said
Jerningham.
"The architect's a bite, and the plan's a bubble. I am sick of the
sight of this rubbish, and I will soon replace our old alcoves,
alleys, and flower-pots by an Italian garden and a new palace."
"That, my lord, would be to waste, not to improve your fortune," said
his domestic.
"Clodpate, and muddy spirit that thou art, thou hast forgot the most
hopeful scheme of all - the South Sea Fisheries - their stock is up 50
per cent. already. Post down to the Alley, and tell old Mansses to buy
£20,000 for me. - Forgive me, Plutus, I forgot to lay my sacrifice on
thy shrine, and yet expected thy favours! - Fly post-haste, Jerningham
- for thy life, for thy life, for thy life!"[*]
[*] Stock-jobbing, as it is called, that is, dealing in shares of
monopolies, patent, and joint-stock companies of every
description, was at least as common in Charles II.'s time as our
own; and as the exercise of ingenuity in this way promised a road
to wealth without the necessity of industry, it was then much
pursued by dissolute courtiers.
With hands and eyes uplifted, Jerningham left the apartment; and the
Duke, without thinking a moment farther on old or new intrigues - on
the friendship he had formed, or the enmity he had provoked - on the
beauty whom he had carried off from her natural protectors, as well as
from her lover - or on the monarch against whom he had placed himself
in rivalship, - sat down to calculate chances with all the zeal of
Demoivre, tired of the drudgery in half-an-hour, and refused to see
the zealous agent whom he had employed in the city, because he was
busily engaged in writing a new lampoon.
CHAPTER XXXIX
Ah! changeful head, and fickle heart!
- PROGRESS OF DISCONTENT.
No event is more ordinary in narratives of this nature, than the
abduction of the female on whose fate the interest is supposed to
turn; but that of Alice Bridgenorth was thus far particular, that she
was spirited away by the Duke of Buckingham, more in contradiction
than in the rivalry of passion; and that, as he made his first
addresses to her at Chiffinch's, rather in the spirit of rivalry to
this Sovereign, than from any strong impression which her beauty had
made on his affections, so he had formed the sudden plan of spiriting
her away by means of his dependents, rather to perplex Christian, the
King, Chiffinch, and all concerned, than because he had any particular
desire for her society at his own mansion. Indeed, so far was this
from being the case, that his Grace was rather surprised than
delighted with the success of the enterprise which had made her an
inmate there, although it is probable he might have thrown himself
into an uncontrollable passion, had he learned its miscarriage instead
of its success.
Twenty-four hours had passed over since he had returned to his own
roof, before, notwithstanding sundry hints from Jerningham, he could
even determine on the exertion necessary to pay his fair captive a
visit; and then it was with the internal reluctance of one who can
only be stirred from indolence by novelty.
"I wonder what made me plague myself about this wench," said he, "and
doom myself to encounter all the hysterical rhapsodies of a country
Phillis, with her head stuffed with her grandmother's lessons about
virtue and the Bible-book, when the finest and best-bred women in town
may be had upon more easy terms. It is a pity one cannot mount the
victor's car of triumph without having a victory to boast of; yet,
faith, it is what most of our modern gallants do, though it would not
become Buckingham. - Well, I must see her," he concluded, "though it
were but to rid the house of her. The Portsmouth will not hear of her
being set at liberty near Charles, so much is she afraid of a new fair
seducing the old sinner from his allegiance. So how the girl is to be
disposed of - for I shall have little fancy to keep her here, and she
is too wealthy to be sent down to Cliefden as a housekeeper - is a
matter to be thought on."
He then called for such a dress as might set off his natural good mien
- a compliment which he considered as due to his own merit; for as to
anything farther, he went to pay his respects to his fair prisoner
with almost as little zeal in the cause, as a gallant to fight a duel
in which he has no warmer interest than the maintenance of his
reputation as man of honour.
The set of apartments consecrated to the use of those favourites who
occasionally made Buckingham's mansion their place of abode, and who
were, so far as liberty was concerned, often required to observe the
regulations of a convent, were separated from the rest of the Duke's
extensive mansion. He lived in the age when what was called gallantry
warranted the most atrocious actions of deceit and violence; as may be
best illustrated by the catastrophe of an unfortunate actress, whose
beauty attracted the attention of the last De Vere, Earl of Oxford.
While her virtue defied his seductions, he ruined her under colour of
a mock marriage, and was rewarded for a success which occasioned the
death of his victim, by the general applause of the men of wit and
gallantry who filled the drawing-room of Charles.
Buckingham had made provision in the interior of his ducal mansion for
exploits of a similar nature; and the set of apartments which he now
visited were alternately used to confine the reluctant, and to
accommodate the willing.
Being now destined for the former purpose, the key was delivered to
the Duke by a hooded and spectacled old lady, who sat reading a devout
book in the outer hall which divided these apartments (usually called
the Nunnery) from the rest of the house. This experienced dowager
acted as mistress of the ceremonies on such occasions, and was the
trusty depositary of more intrigues than were known to any dozen of
her worshipful calling besides.
"As sweet a linnet," she said, as she undid the outward door, "as ever
sung in a cage."
"I was afraid she might have been more for moping than for singing,
Dowlas," said the Duke.
"Till yesterday she was so, please your Grace," answered Dowlas; "or,
to speak sooth, till early this morning, we heard of nothing but
Lachrymæ. But the air of your noble Grace's house is favourable to
singing-birds; and to-day matters have been a-much mended."
"Tis sudden, dame," said the Duke; "and 'tis something strange,
considering that I have never visited her, that the pretty trembler
should have been so soon reconciled to her fate."
"Ah, your Grace has such magic, that it communicates itself to your
very walls; as wholesome Scripture says, Exodus, first and seventh,
'It cleaveth to the walls and the doorposts.'"
"You are too partial, Dame Dowlas," said the Duke of Buckingham.
"Not a word but truth," said the dame; "and I wish I may be an outcast
from the fold of the lambs, but I think this damsel's very frame has
changed since she was under your Grace's roof. Methinks she hath a
lighter form, a finer step, a more displayed ankle - I cannot tell, but
I think there is a change. But, lack-a-day, your Grace knows I am as
old as I am trusty, and that my eyes wax something uncertain."
"Especially when you wash them with a cup of canary, Dame Dowlas,"
answered the Duke, who was aware that temperance was not amongst the
cardinal virtues which were most familiar to the old lady's practice.
"Was it canary, your Grace said? - Was it indeed with canary, that your
Grace should have supposed me to have washed my eyes?" said the
offended matron. "I am sorry that your Grace should know me no
better."
"I crave your pardon, dame," said the Duke, shaking aside,
fastidiously, the grasp which, in the earnestness of her exculpation,
Madam Dowlas had clutched upon his sleeve. "I crave your pardon. Your
nearer approach has convinced me of my erroneous imputation - I should
have said nantz - not canary."
So saying, he walked forward into the inner apartments, which were
fitted up with an air of voluptuous magnificence.
"The dame said true, however," said the proud deviser and proprietor
of the splendid mansion - "A country Phillis might well reconcile
herself to such a prison as this, even without a skilful bird-fancier
to touch a bird-call. But I wonder where she can be, this rural
Phidele. Is it possible she can have retreated, like a despairing
commandant, into her bedchamber, the very citadel of the place,
without even an attempt to defend the outworks?"
As he made this reflection, he passed through an antechamber and
little eating parlour, exquisitely furnished, and hung with excellent
paintings of the Venetian school.
Beyond these lay a withdrawing-room, fitted up in a style of still
more studied elegance. The windows were darkened with painted glass,
of such a deep and rich colour, as made the midday beams, which found
their way into the apartment, imitate the rich colours of sunset; and,
in the celebrated expression of the poet, "taught light to counterfeit
a gloom."
Buckingham's feelings and taste had been too much, and too often, and
too readily gratified, to permit him, in the general case, to be
easily accessible, even to those pleasures which it had been the
business of his life to pursue. The hackneyed voluptuary is like the
jaded epicure, the mere listlessness of whose appetite becomes at
length a sufficient penalty for having made it the principal object of
his enjoyment and cultivation. Yet novelty has always some charms, and
uncertainty has more.
The doubt how he was to be received - the change of mood which his
prisoner was said to have evinced - the curiosity to know how such a
creature as Alice Bridgenorth had been described, was likely to bear
herself under the circumstances in which she was so unexpectedly
placed, had upon Buckingham the effect of exciting unusual interest.
On his own part, he had none of those feelings of anxiety with which a
man, even of the most vulgar mind, comes to the presence of the female
whom he wishes to please, far less the more refined sentiments of
love, respect, desire, and awe, with which the more refined lover
approaches the beloved object. He had been, to use an expressive
French phrase, too completely /blasé/ even from his earliest youth, to
permit him now to experience the animal eagerness of the one, far less
the more sentimental pleasure of the other. It is no small aggravation
of this jaded and uncomfortable state of mind, that the voluptuary
cannot renounce the pursuits with which he is satiated, but must
continue, for his character's sake, or from the mere force of habit,
to take all the toil, fatigue, and danger of the chase, while he has
so little real interest in the termination.
Buckingham, therefore, felt it due to his reputation as a successful
hero of intrigue, to pay his addresses to Alice Bridgenorth with
dissembled eagerness; and, as he opened the door of the inner
apartment, he paused to consider, whether the tone of gallantry, or
that of passion, was fittest to use on the occasion. This delay
enabled him to hear a few notes of a lute touched with exquisite
skill, and accompanied by the still sweeter strains of a female voice,
which, without executing any complete melody, seemed to sport itself
in rivalship of the silver sound of the instrument.
"A creature so well educated," said the Duke, "with the sense she is
said to possess, would, rustic as she is, laugh at the assumed rants
of Oroondates. It is the vein of Dorimont - once, Buckingham, thine own
- that must here do the feat, besides that the part is easier."
So thinking, he entered the room with that easy grace which
characterised the gay courtiers among whom he flourished, and
approached the fair tenant, whom he found seated near a table covered
with books and music, and having on her left hand the large half-open
casement, dim with stained glass, admitting only a doubtful light into
this lordly retiring-room, which, hung with the richest tapestry of
the Gobelines, and ornamented with piles if china and splendid
mirrors, seemed like a bower built for a prince to receive his bride.
The splendid dress of the inmate corresponded with the taste of the
apartment which she occupied and partook of the Oriental costume which
the much-admired Roxalana had the brought into fashion. A slender foot
and ankle, which escaped from the wide trowser of richly ornamented
and embroidered blue satin, was the only part of her person distinctly
seen; the rest was enveloped, from head to foot, in a long veil of
silver gauze, which, like a feathery and light mist on a beautiful
landscape, suffered you to perceive that what it concealed was rarely
lovely, yet induced the imagination even to enhance the charms it
shaded. Such part of the dress as could be discovered was, like the
veil and the trowsers, in the Oriental taste; a rich turban, and
splendid caftan, were rather indicated than distinguished through the
folds of the former. The whole attire argued at least coquetry on the
part of the fair one, who must have expected, from her situation, a
visitor of some pretension; and induced Buckingham to smile internally
at Christian's account of the extreme simplicity and purity of his
niece.
He approached the lady /en cavalier/, and addressed her with the air
of being conscious, while he acknowledged his offences, that his
condescending to do so formed a sufficient apology for them. "Fair
Mistress Alice," he said, "I am sensible how deeply I ought to sue for
pardon for the mistaken zeal of my servants, who, seeing you deserted
and exposed without protection during an unlucky affray, took it upon
them to bring you under the roof of one who would expose his life
rather than suffer you to sustain a moment's anxiety. Was it my fault
that those around me should have judged it necessary to interfere for
your preservation; or that, aware of the interest I must take in you,
they have detained you till I could myself, in personal attendance,
receive your commands?"
"That attendance has not been speedily rendered, my lord," answered
the lady. "I have been a prisoner for two days - neglected, and left to
the charge of menials."
"How say you, lady? - Neglected!" exclaimed the Duke. "By Heaven, if
the best in my household has failed in his duty, I will discard him on
the instant!"
"I complain of no lack of courtesy from your servants, my lord," she
replied; "but methinks it had been but complaisant in the Duke himself
to explain to me earlier wherefore he has had the boldness to detain
me as a state prisoner."
"And can the divine Alice doubt," said Buckingham, "that, had time and
space, those cruel enemies to the flight of passion, given permission,
the instant in which you crossed your vassal's threshold had seen its
devoted master at your feet, who hath thought, since he saw you, of
nothing but the charms which that fatal morning placed before him at
Chiffinch's?"
"I understand, then, my lord," said the lady, "that you have been
absent, and have had no part in the restraint which has been exercised
upon me?"
"Absent on the King's command, lady, and employed in the discharge of
his duty," answered Buckingham without hesitation. "What could I do? -
The moment you left Chiffinch's, his Majesty commanded me to the
saddle in such haste, that I had no time to change my satin buskins
for riding-boots.[*] If my absence has occasioned you a moment of
inconvenience, blame the inconsiderate zeal of those who, seeing me
depart from London, half distracted at my separation from you, were
willing to contribute their unmannered, though well-meant exertions,
to preserve their master from despair, by retaining the fair Alice
within his reach. To whom, indeed, could they have restored you? He
whom you selected as your champion is in prison, or fled - your father
absent from town - your uncle in the north. To Chiffinch's house you
had expressed your well-founded aversion; and what fitter asylum
remained than that of your devoted slave, where you must ever reign a
queen?"
[*] This case is not without precedent. Among the jealousies and fears
expressed by the Long Parliament, they insisted much upon an agent
for the King departing for the continent so abruptly, that he had
not time to change his court dress - white buskins, to wit, and
black silk pantaloons - for an equipment more suitable to travel
with.
"An imprisoned one," said the lady. "I desire not royalty."
"Alas! how wilfully you misconstrue me!" said the Duke, kneeling on
one knee; "and what right can you have to complain of a few hours'
gentle restraint - you, who destine so many to hopeless captivity? Be
merciful for once, and withdraw that envious veil; for the divinities
are ever most cruel when they deliver their oracles from such clouded
recesses. Suffer at least my rash hand - - "
"I will save your Grace that unworthy trouble," said the lady
haughtily; and rising up, she flung back over her shoulders the veil
which shrouded her, saying, at the same time, "Look on me, my Lord
Duke, and see if these be indeed the charms which have made on your
Grace an impression so powerful."
Buckingham did look; and the effect produced on him by surprise was so
strong, that he rose hastily from his knee, and remained for a few
seconds as if he had been petrified. The figure that stood before him
had neither the height nor the rich shape of Alice Bridgenorth; and,
though perfectly well made, was so slightly formed, as to seem almost
infantine. Her dress was three or four short vests of embroidered
satin, disposed one over the other, of different colours, or rather
different shades of similar colours; for strong contrast was carefully
avoided. These opened in front, so as to show part of the throat and
neck, partially obscured by an inner covering of the finest lace; over
the uppermost vest was worn a sort of mantle, or coat of rich fur. A
small but magnificent turban was carelessly placed on her head, from
under which flowed a profusion of coal-black tresses, which Cleopatra
might have envied. The taste and splendour of the Eastern dress
corresponded with the complexion of the lady's face, which was
brunette, of a shade so dark as might almost have served an Indian.
Amidst a set of features, in which rapid and keen expression made
amends for the want of regular beauty, the essential points of eyes as
bright as diamonds, and teeth as white as pearls, did not escape the
Duke of Buckingham, a professed connoisseur in female charms. In a
word, the fanciful and singular female who thus unexpectedly produced
herself before him, had one of those faces which are never seen
without making an impression; which, when removed, are long after
remembered; and for which, in our idleness, we are tempted to invent a
hundred histories, that we may please our fancy by supposing the
features under the influence of different kinds of emotion. Every one
must have in recollection countenances of this kind, which, from a
captivating and stimulating originality of expression, abide longer in
the memory, and are more seductive to the imagination, than ever
regular beauty.
"My Lord Duke," said the lady, "it seems the lifting of my veil has
done the work of magic upon your Grace. Alas, for the captive
princess, whose nod was to command a vassal so costly as your Grace!
She runs, methinks, no slight chance of being turned out of doors,
like a second Cinderella, to seek her fortune among lackeys and
lightermen."
"I am astonished!" said the Duke. "That villain, Jerningham - I will
have the scoundrel's blood!"
"Nay, never abuse Jerningham for the matter," said the Unknown; "but
lament your own unhappy engagements. While you, my Lord Duke, were
posting northward, in white satin buskins, to toil in the King's
affairs, the right and lawful princess sat weeping in sables in the
uncheered solitude to which your absence condemned her. Two days she
was disconsolate in vain; on the third came an African enchantress to
change the scene for her, and the person for your Grace. Methinks, my
lord, this adventure will tell but ill, when some faithful squire
shall recount or record the gallant adventures of the second Duke of
Buckingham."
"Fairly bit and bantered to boot," said the Duke - "the monkey has a
turn for satire, too, by all that is /piquante/. - Hark ye, fair
Princess, how dared you adventure on such a trick as you have been
accomplice to?"
"Dare, my lord," answered the stranger; "put the question to others,
not to one who fears nothing."
"By my faith, I believe so; for thy front is bronzed by nature. - Hark
ye, once more, mistress - What is your name and condition?"
"My condition I have told you - I am a Mauritanian sorceress by
profession, and my name is Zarah," replied the Eastern maiden.
"But methinks that face, shape, and eyes" - said the Duke - "when didst
thou pass for a dancing fairy? - Some such imp thou wert not many days
since."
"My sister you may have seen - my twin sister; but not me, my lord,"
answered Zarah.
"Indeed," said the Duke, "that duplicate of thine, if it was not thy
very self, was possessed with a dumb spirit, as thou with a talking
one. I am still in the mind that you are the same; and that Satan,
always so powerful with your sex, had art enough on our former
meeting, to make thee hold thy tongue."
"Believe what you will of it, my lord," replied Zarah, "it cannot
change the truth. - And now, my lord, I bid you farewell. Have you any
commands to Mauritania?"
"Tarry a little, my Princess," said the Duke; "and remember, that you
have voluntarily entered yourself as pledge for another; and are
justly subjected to any penalty which it is my pleasure to exact. None
must brave Buckingham with impunity."
"I am in no hurry to depart, if your Grace hath any commands for me."
"What! are you neither afraid of my resentment, nor of my love, fair
Zarah?" said the Duke.
"Of neither, by this glove," answered the lady. "Your resentment must
be a pretty passion indeed, if it could stoop to such a helpless
object as I am; and for your love - good lack! good lack!"
"And why good lack with such a tone of contempt, lady?" said the
Duke, piqued in spite of himself. "Think you Buckingham cannot love,
or has never been beloved in return?"
"He may have thought himself beloved," said the maiden; "but by what
slight creatures! - things whose heads could be rendered giddy by a
playhouse rant - whose brains were only filled with red-heeled shoes
and satin buskins - and who run altogether mad on the argument of a
George and a star."
"And are there no such frail fair ones in your climate, most scornful
Princess?" said the Duke.
"There are," said the lady; "but men rate them as parrots and monkeys
- things without either sense or soul, head or heart. The nearness we
bear to the sun has purified, while it strengthens, our passions. The
icicles of your frozen climate shall as soon hammer hot bars into
ploughshares, as shall the foppery and folly of your pretended
gallantry make an instant's impression on a breast like mine."
"You speak like one who knows what passion is," said the Duke. "Sit
down, fair lady, and grieve not that I detain you. Who can consent to
part with a tongue of so much melody, or an eye of such expressive
eloquence! - You have known then what it is to love?"
"I know - no matter if by experience, or through the report of others -
but I do know, that to love, as I would love, would be to yield not an
iota to avarice, not one inch to vanity, not to sacrifice the
slightest feeling to interest or to ambition; but to give up all to
fidelity of heart and reciprocal affection."
"And how many women, think you, are capable of feeling such
disinterested passion?"
"More, by thousands, than there are men who merit it," answered Zarah.
"Alas! how often do you see the female, pale, and wretched, and
degraded, still following with patient constancy the footsteps of some
predominating tyrant, and submitting to all his injustice with the
endurance of a faithful and misused spaniel, which prizes a look from
his master, though the surliest groom that ever disgraced humanity,
more than all the pleasure which the world besides can furnish him?
Think what such would be to one who merited and repaid her devotion."
"Perhaps the very reverse," said the Duke; "and for your simile, I can
see little resemblance. I cannot charge my spaniel with any perfidy;
but for my mistresses - to confess truth, I must always be in a cursed
hurry if I would have the credit of changing them before they leave
me."
"And they serve you but rightly, my lord," answered the lady; "for
what are you? - Nay, frown not; for you must hear the truth for once.
Nature has done its part, and made a fair outside, and courtly
education hath added its share. You are noble, it is the accident of
birth - handsome, it is the caprice of Nature - generous, because to
give is more easy than to refuse - well-apparelled, it is to the credit
of your tailor - well-natured in the main, because you have youth and
health - brave, because to be otherwise were to be degraded - and witty,
because you cannot help it."
The Duke darted a glance on one of the large mirrors. "Noble, and
handsome, and court-like, generous, well-attired, good-humoured,
brave, and witty! - You allow me more, madam, than I have the slightest
pretension to, and surely enough to make my way, at some point at
least, to female favour."
"I have neither allowed you a heart nor a head," said Zarah calmly. -
"Nay, never redden as if you would fly at me. I say not but nature may
have given you both; but folly has confounded the one, and selfishness
perverted the other. The man whom I call deserving the name is one
whose thoughts and exertions are for others, rather than himself, -
whose high purpose is adopted on just principles, and never abandoned
while heaven or earth affords means of accomplishing it. He is one who
will neither seek an indirect advantage by a specious road, nor take
an evil path to gain a real good purpose. Such a man were one for whom
a woman's heart should beat constant while he breathes, and break when
he dies."
She spoke with so much energy that the water sparkled in her eyes, and
her cheek coloured with the vehemence of her feelings.
"You speak," said the Duke, "as if you had yourself a heart which
could pay the full tribute to the merit which you describe so warmly."
"And have I not?" said she, laying her hand on her bosom. "Here beats
one that would bear me out in what I have said, whether in life or in
death."
"Were it in my power," said the Duke, who began to get farther
interested in his visitor than he could at first have thought possible
- "Were it in my power to deserve such faithful attachment, methinks
it should be my care to requite it."
"Your wealth, your titles, your reputation as a gallant - all you
possess, were too little to merit such sincere affection."
"Come, fair lady," said the Duke, a good deal piqued, "do not be quite
so disdainful. Bethink you, that if your love be as pure as coined
gold, still a poor fellow like myself may offer you an equivalent in
silver - The quantity of my affection must make up for its quality."
"But I am not carrying my affection to market, my lord; and therefore
I need none of the base coin you offer in change for it."
"How do I know that, my fairest?" said the Duke. "This is the realm of
Paphos - You have invaded it, with what purpose you best know; but I
think with none consistent with your present assumption of cruelty.
Come, come - eyes that are so intelligent can laugh with delight, as
well as gleam with scorn and anger. You are here a waif on Cupid's
manor, and I must seize on you in name of the deity."
"Do not think of touching me, my lord," said the lady. "Approach me
not, if you would hope to learn the purpose of my being here. Your
Grace may suppose yourself a Solomon if you please, but I am no
travelling princess, come from distant climes, either to flatter your
pride, or wonder at your glory."
"A defiance, by Jupiter!" said the Duke.
"You mistake the signal," said the 'dark ladye'; "I came not here
without taking sufficient precautions for my retreat."
"You mouth it bravely," said the Duke; "but never fortress so boasted
its resources but the garrison had some thoughts of surrender. Thus I
open the first parallel."
They had been hitherto divided from each other by a long narrow table,
which, placed in the recess of the large casement we have mentioned,
had formed a sort of barrier on the lady's side, against the
adventurous gallant. The Duke went hastily to remove it as he spoke;
but, attentive to all his motions, his visitor instantly darted
through the half-open window. Buckingham uttered a cry of horror and
surprise, having no doubt, at first, that she had precipitated herself
from a height of at least fourteen feet; for so far the window was
distant from the ground. But when he sprung to the spot, he perceived,
to his astonishment, that she had effected her descent with equal
agility and safety.
The outside of this stately mansion was decorated with a quantity of
carving, in the mixed state, betwixt the Gothic and Grecian styles,
which marks the age of Elizabeth and her successor; and though the
feat seemed a surprising one, the projections of these ornaments were
sufficient to afford footing to a creature so light and active, even
in her hasty descent.
Inflamed alike by mortification and curiosity, Buckingham at first
entertained some thought of following her by the same dangerous route,
and had actually got upon the sill of the window for that purpose; and
was contemplating what might be his next safe movement, when, from a
neighbouring thicket of shrubs, amongst which his visitor had
disappeared, he heard her chant a verse of a comic song, then much in
fashion, concerning a despairing lover who had recourse to a
precipice -
"But when he came near,
Beholding how steep
The sides did appear,
And the bottom how deep;
Though his suit was rejected,
He sadly reflected,
That a lover forsaken
A new love may get;
But a neck that's once broken
Can never be set."
The Duke could not help laughing, though much against his will, at the
resemblance which the verses bore to his own absurd situation, and,
stepping back into the apartment, desisted from an attempt which might
have proved dangerous as well as ridiculous. He called his attendants,
and contented himself with watching the little thicket, unwilling to
think that a female, who had thrown herself in a great measure into
his way, meant absolutely to mortify him by a retreat.
That question was determined in an instant. A form, wrapped in a
mantle, with a slouched hat and shadowy plume, issued from the bushes,
and was lost in a moment amongst the ruins of ancient and of modern
buildings, with which, as we have already stated, the demesne formerly
termed York House, was now encumbered in all directions.
The Duke's servants, who had obeyed his impatient summons, were
hastily directed to search for this tantalising siren in every
direction. Their master, in the meantime, eager and vehement in every
new pursuit, but especially when his vanity was piqued, encouraged
their diligence by bribes, and threats, and commands. All was in vain.
They found nothing of the Mauritanian Princess, as she called herself,
but the turban and the veil; both of which she had left in the
thicket, together with her satin slippers; which articles, doubtless,
she had thrown aside as she exchanged them for others less remarkable.
Finding all his search in vain, the Duke of Buckingham, after the
example of spoiled children of all ages and stations, gave a loose to
the frantic vehemence of passion; and fiercely he swore vengeance on
his late visitor, whom he termed by a thousand opprobrious epithets,
of which the elegant phrase "Jilt" was most frequently repeated.
Even Jerningham, who knew the depths and the shallows of his master's
mood, and was bold to fathom them at almost every state of his
passions, kept out of his way on the present occasion; and, cabineted
with the pious old housekeeper, declared to her, over a bottle of
ratafia, that, in his apprehension, if his Grace did not learn to put