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to leave it doubtful who sent the money, had cost Carlino much time and contention of mind, but nevertheless his finesse was yet to turn against himself.

The answer to this epistle was not long in coming this time, and we may trust the reader for guessing the tenor of its contents. Only it did not come alone, but with a letter of thanks addressed directly to the Baron, in which much gratitude was expressed for the two hundred francs he had so kindly advanced. Victorine had taken it for granted, from the largeness of the sum, that it must come from the Baron.

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It was scarcely a fair proceeding," resumed the Baron," especially as the first notion of sending her money came from me. And then why does she plague me with her thanks ? "

"I suppose I did not make it clear who sent the money," said Carlino; "nay, to tell the truth, I know I did not."

"And why, pray?" asked the Baron. "I was afraid Mademoiselle Victorine would refuse the money if she knew it came from me. . . . ."

"And so I broadly intimated that it came from my master," said the Baron, finishing the sentence for Carlino.

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"No, I hinted nothing of the kind," protested Carlino. "I only told Mademoiselle Victorine to consider the money as an advance of her wages."

But I know that she can cook tolerably well, and what she does not know she can learn while we are here. Then I can cook, and can assure Monsieur that between us, Monsieur shall not starve for want of good meals. Besides, Mademoiselle Victorine is a capital needlewoman, and can look after Monsieur's linen;" and as a clincher, Car-torted the Baron, "that it came from the lino wound up his peroration with," she is so good and so miserable!"

The Baron allowed himself to be persuaded, and by the post of the same day, Carlino had the satisfaction of informing Victorine of the scheme he had contrived for her, and of its full success with his master. "After all," he wrote in conclusion, "the condition of a cook is as honourable as that of a lady's maid, or rather, as my former master used to say, all conditions are alike honourable when honourably discharged. So I hope you will have no objection to our cooking in partnership for our master." Then he added in a P. S., "Here enclosed are two bank-notes for a hundred francs each: consider them as an advance on your wages, which will help you to keep your mother comfortable for the present, and also to pay for some lessons in cooking." The wording of this P. S., so as

"Which was tantamount to saying," re

I see

giver of the wages, that is, from me.
you are not the fellow-countryman of Mac-
chiavelli for nothing, but your macchiavel-
lism shall not avail you much this time.
Since I am to have the benefit of this good
action, I mean Mademoiselle Victorine's
thanks, it is only just and right that I should
deserve them."

And so Carlino's scheme was defeated, and he had to take back his two hundred francs. After all it is not probable that his macchiavellism lowered him much in his master's estimation.

It was now the middle of August, and the heat tremendous, but far from being incommoded by it, Baron Gaston rather enjoyed it. One night, let us premise that he had never gone to bed in a more hopeful frame of mind, forming all sorts of plans for the future, devising alterations in the castle, in one word talking like one who has an in

"The thunder, haven't you heard the thunder? It burst right over my bed see if the coverlid is not on fire." He looked aghast as he spoke, and his hair stood on end with terror.

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definite lease of life; well, one night Car- the first two hours, ending in a torture of lino was scared out of his sleep by a great unprecedented violence. The pain, vague cry from his master. Carlino slept on a and general at first, or only momentarily camp-bed in the dining-room, close to the circumscribed and shifting its place, ended door of the Baron's bed-room, with the as usual by localizing itself in a very small door open between the two rooms. In a compass, not above the size of half-a-crown, twinkling he had lighted a candle, and was and then the agony of agonies ensued. It by his master's bedside. "What is the was fearful to hear the poor sufferer's cries, matter, Monsieur ? " fearful to see him writhe and twist and bound from his couch, like an adder trod upon. No sedatives were of any avail, the utmost devotion could bring no relief. Such was the intensity of the spasm that he could not bear to be spoken to, nor even endure that Carlino should approach his bed, but by insensible degrees and with the gentlest circumspection. Carlino, who had never seen him half so bad, and who felt he could do him no good, had no other resource but that of tears. The violence of the attack only began to abate towards five o'clock in the afternoon-it had lasted seven hours. By six it was entirely over, its disappearance coinciding with the bursting forth at last of the long-threatening storm. appalling one it was, the sky a continuous sheet of fire, thunder-clap succeeding thunder-clap without intermission, and accompanied by floods of rain. Carlino sat up all night by his master's bedside, who was so exhausted as scarcely to be able to ask

There is not the least trace of fire," said Carlino after examining the bedclothes; "I have heard no noise whatever;" and then opening a window he added, "The stars are shining bright, not a cloud in the sky. You must have been dreaming, sir."

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"It was no dream, I can tell you; I saw as plainly as I see you a ball of fire rush along and fall on my bed, I heard the crash, I felt the shock."

Carlino did not choose to dispute the point further, and applied himself instead to soothe his master's agitation, in which he so far succeeded that the Baron again dropped asleep, when Carlino crept cautiously back to his own bed.

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Apprised in the morning of the incident of the night, the doctor paid the Baron an early visit, questioning him minutely, and wearing a graver face than was warranted by the relation of a dream. The Baron complained of a very strange feeling of anxiety, as though something was about to happen to him, with besides painful twitches and twinges all through his body, even in those parts which had long lost all sensibility. The doctor advised him not to get up, and forbade the douches, at least for the present. A more unwelcome order could not have fallen on the Baron's ear; to interrupt the water-cure was to take from him his last anchor of hope. The air is full of electricity," said the doctor, "a storm is impending, and I do not at all wonder in the over-sensitive state of your nerves they should have given you warning, some hours beforehand, of what is coming." In fact, huge white clouds were rising up from behind the mountains, and that ominous stillness pervaded the air which is the forerunner of some great convulsion of nature. From the kind of symptoms complained of by his master, Carlino dreaded that he was about to have one of his fits of excruciating pain. Nor had he long to remain in suspense. A short time after the doctor's visit the attack came on, bearable for

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An

for a sip of water. Towards morning he had some hours of broken sleep.

From that terrible day might be dated a rapid and continual regression for our patient; not only did he lose in less than a week all that he had gained in ten, -renewed strength, better appetite, sounder sleep, &c., but in many points he was now far worse than when he came. His strength, for instance, had considerably declined, and the condition of his hands and arms was decidedly impaired from what it was at Paris, and was impairing every day. The doctor persisted in his veto, nay, gave it clearly to be understood that he should not authorize the resumption of the watercure short of certain contingencies, which were not likely to arise.

Carlino one morning found his master in tears, bitter, desolate tears. "I weep over my last poor illusion," said the Baron, as soon as the paroxysm allowed him to speak. "You remember my showing you my hands not six weeks ago, and my triumph at being almost able to close my fist? Look at them now - they are straight open, and no effort of my will can so much as bend the first joint of even my little finger, motion and sense of touch alike gone, wooden hands and arms. All is dead in me but my head; it would be a real mercy to strike it off, and

be done with it. If you loved me wisely | colour it, all this beauty is a mockery and you would put an end to me, Carlino." an insult. Let us go to Paris. My dingy And, seeing poor Carlino's consternation, rooms in the Rue Madame will be a fitter he added, "Oh! if you could understand all my misery! But you cannot; oh! why was I born? why was I born?"

For the two or three next days he scarcely spoke, or even raised his eyes. They were riveted on the ground, he seemed lost in a brown study. All Carlino's ingenious devices to draw him out of his gloomy reflections, to find some interest or diversion, were unavailing. "Thank you for your good intentions," he would say, "but I have sunk so low that even your affection, your great and noble affection, finds no responsive chord in my heart. Leave me quiet. I am solving a great problem."

He said one evening, rousing himself from a long reverie, “ Carlino, take me back to Paris, render me this last service."

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Never do you mind why," replied the Baron. "Invalids past hope are apt to have presentiments, or fancies, if you like that better. Take me back to Paris."

"It is for Monsieur to order, and for me to obey,” said Carlino; "but Monsieur will allow me to say that he will find the apart ment in the Rue Madame very close and dingy in comparison with these gay rooms, this beautiful view, and this fine air."

preparation for another abode far more dingy and cold and narrow."

Carlino made a last effort. Convinced that if his master were allowed to resume his water-cure he would remain at Divonne, and his hopes again revive, Carlino went to the doctor, and besought him, if the thing were possible, besought him with tears, to recall his veto, or at least fix a period, not too far off, for its withdrawal. But his prayers were of no avail. The doctor pleaded his responsibility, and was immovable.

So there was nothing for it but to pack and go. They went. Of what use to describe that journey? It was as trying and cumbrous, and fraught with as many difficulties as had been that from Paris to Geneva. Only this time the Baron seemed to be little or not at all discomposed by that exposure to the public gaze, which he had felt so keenly on the previous occasion. It might be that he was too much absorbed to take much notice of the gaping crowd, or that he looked down upon them from the height of one of those resolutions in the face of which everything below seems small and insignificant.

They were received in the Rue Madame by Victorine, who, telegraphed to in time The Baron was sitting by the open win- by Carlino, had taken possession of the dow, Carlino by his side. It was a calm apartment during the last forty-eight hours, September evening, all round passing love- had put it in order, lighted the fires, and ly to look upon. There was that mellow-prepared everything necessary for the travness of tints, the despair of painters, peculiar to the season. Autumn had begun its luxuriant patchwork of gold and purple on mountain and vale. The redbreast chased from the heights by the chilly nights had grown domestic, and uttered its silvery chirp near the house. The Baron contemplated the landscape with a look of scorn, and exclaimed, "I loathe this feast of nature; to me, for whom hope does not

ellers. Her new master hardly noticed her, and she with much discretion kept in the background. Indeed, the Baron's fatigue and exhaustion were so great, that he went immediately to bed, had a potage and two new laid eggs, and then said he would try to sleep. Carlino went to his bedside twenty times at least during the night, and always found him sleeping soundly.

THE economic and sanitary results obtained from the experimental sewage farm at Madras seem to be eminently satisfactory. The field chosen for the operations was an old swamp with a stiff clay subsoil, about the most unfavourable that could be selected for the purpose. The surface was levelled and protected from floods, and over an area of about two acres the sewage of the Perambore barracks and an adjacent village was conducted and distributed by means of an'

open earthenware conduit. The offensive smell is very soon lost, and the yield of grass and vegetables is wonderful. Guinea grass was produced at the rate of 88 tons of fresh grass, or 29 tons of hay per acre, and native vegetables grow most luxuriantly. The sanitary condition of the district has also been greatly improved, and the success of the system has been so marked that it has already been extended to two other districts of the city.

From The Spectator.
THE EMPEROR'S LETTER.

and which shall divide the Legislative Power between the two Chambers, and restore to the nation that portion of constituent power which it had delegated to me." His motive is explained as clearly as his act. The Constitution of 1852 "had, above all things, to provide the Government with the means of establishing authority and order," but now that successive changes have gradually created a constitutional system in harmony with the bases laid down in the plébiscite, it is important to replace all that refers to the preservation of legislative order within the domain of law." The Senate, therefore, "that grand body which contains

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THE Emperor of the French has accepted Constitutional Government. After his letter of the 21st inst., addressed to M. Ollivier, it is impossible for him to interfere again with the Parliamentary régime, except by an avowed coup d'état. The importance of this letter can scarcely be exaggerated, though it appears in this country almost to have escaped attention. Up to the date of its signature, Parliamentary government in France, although no doubt established and recognized, existed in fact only upon sufferance. The Emperor had at any moment the right to propose a Senatus-Consultum, so many brilliant men," is invited, that is, which, if accepted by the Senate, might ordered, to lend an efficacious concurmodify the Constitution in any direction he rence" to the new order of things, and the pleased. It was open to him, for example, Empire is finally transmitted into a parliato forbid Ministers to sit in the Chamber, mentary monarchy. The Emperor resigns or to declare them responsible only to him- his constituent power; the Senate becomes self, or to limit discussion, or to withdraw a House of Life Peers; and the Legislative the right of interpellation, or even, to put Body is at last authorized, not only to disthe most extreme case, to invest himself cuss, but, with the co-operation of the with Legislative power whenever the Cham-Senate, to change the Constitution. If the ber was not sitting. The Emperor, in fact, Senatus-Consultum fulfils this programme was, whenever supported by a Senate nomi- Parliament will be as absolute as in Engnated and paid by himself and selected land, and the régime which the Emperor has from among his warmest partizans, the real so scorned and derided for eighteen years, constituent power. That he would exercise which he has been believed to consider this authority was, of course, improbable; worse than either Republicanism or autobut the fact that he could exercise it, that a cracy, is re-established upon the ruins of letter of ten lines from him might break up the personal power. Of course it is open Parliamentary administration, encouraged still to Louis Napoleon to strike a coup every adversary of that régime. M. Rouher d'état, but so it is to any Sovereign in Euwas always intriguing, the majority in the rope, Queen Victoria included, and the Senate was always hoping, the courtiers right of demanding a plebiscitum is not were always whispering, there was au im- formally surrendered, but without a coup pression everywhere that the Sovereign d'état it would be nearly impossible to exermight like to have his hand forced, that cise it, for the grand spring of French AdParliament bored him with its chatter, and ministration when not under military coerthat he might be induced, if not to initiate, cion, the Ministry of the Interior, is in the at least to accept a movement of reaction. hands of the Constitutionalists. This impression was deepened by the conduct of several Senators, who threatened to forbid the Legislative Body to alter the mode of appointing Mayors, on the ground that this involved a constitutional change, and that the Senators were the guardians of the Constitution, and seriously embarrassed the Administration, more especially in domestic affairs. The Ministry was beginning to seem weak, always a dangerous attitude in France, when the Emperor, whether pressed by his Cabinet or of his own mere motion, intervened with his usual decision. He resigned with amazing frankness and completeness all that remained to him of his Dictatorship. Lay before me," he wrote to M. Ollivier, a Senatus-Consultum which shall firmly fix the fundamental dispositions derived from the plébiscite of 1852,

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There will of course be much discussion as to the motives of the Emperor in making a concession so vast and so unexpected. It will be said that he was coerced, that he is giving his Ministers rope, that he has thought out some subtle and it may be treacherous design. We distrust all these explanations, which are at best deductions from the past history of a man whose mind is still an enigma. Napoleon was under no new coercion. While he was loyal to his Ministers they could hardly have resigned without putting themselves visibly in the wrong, and till they resigned he could have allowed the Constitution to remain intact. As for giving his Ministers rope, while he allowed them to do as they would they had rope enough; while as to the secret plan, it must be a plan for regaining power, and

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to part with prerogatives which legalized stituency to hear him to become the ruler almost any exertion of authority is a strange of France, the centre of all eyes, the source road by which to seek a Dictatorship for the of all political movement. From the day second time. Our own impression is that when the Senatus-Consultum is signed, M. the Emperor is honest; that he has been for Ollivier becomes the virtual ruler of the twelve months in contact with Parliamentary Empire, ruler with power to alter the mould government; and that he has found it much as well as superintend the casting, and M. less hard to endure than he expected. It Ollivier was a few years ago but an ordinary can do things, can pass laws, can control student. Any advance has become possible, the departments, can, above and before all, and we shall once more see the intellect maintain order in Paris. It will work, and of France throwing itself with passion into a régime which will work without crushing political effort, swarming upon the two him in its working seems to the Emperor roads, journalism and oratory, which in a fair régime. Ambition, in the ordinary Parliamentary France have always led to sense, the desire of power as power, can, it power. The full effect of the change will must be remembered, have little inflnence probably not be felt till the elections, over Napoleon. He has had it all in full which are, we may remark en passant, again measure for eighteen years, and has not en- postponed by the necessity of working out joyed it much. Over and over again he the new decree, for under the nominee has drunk of that maddening draught for system the Chamber is filled with local which all strong men occasionally thirst, notabilities, people with large fortunes, few power so perfect that, as in the East and brains, and an ambition entirely social, Russia, volition becomes executive. He people utterly unknown to France generally, has never, it is true, been able to give sen- and with an extraordinary proportion among tence of death by a wave of his hand; but them of semi-German names. It is not till an order to the Police has sufficed to send a dissolution to be followed by an election a foe to Cayenne. He has never made a without interference sets all ambition free, war by ringing a bell; but his single order, that we shall see the new men come up; in the very teeth of public opinion, hurled but France has never failed to respond to a France upon Austria and freed the Italian call of this kind, and even after a despotism people. He has drunk the cup of power to of eighteen years, a despotism, that is, the dregs, as he has the cup of luxury, and which covers the entire manhood of every sated and weary and over-experienced, man under forty, they will yet come up in he feels that if his life may but be easy and crowds. It is life which is revived in dignified, he has no wish to take up that France by this letter. As to its immediate burden again. Governing France is not result, it will not only release the Ministry such a luxury that a man who has tried it, from a secret fetter which has hitherto imhas succeeded in it, but is conscious that he peded action, but compel them to act with is not beyond the possibility of failure, a force which has hitherto been somewhat whose self-confidence in fact has been seri- wanting to their career. The nation will ously shaken, should plot to regain the look to them with undivided regard. Up power which he is even now abandoning. to this time, although the Emperor has been What the Emperor might do to save his to a wonderful degree withdrawn from the throne is another question; but his throne public eye men occupying themselves for the moment is safe, and with the throne with the Ministry, or even with individual he is content. He has little work, no re- Ministers, to an extent unknown since 1848 sponsibility, and an influence probably greater, if only from his hold over his own nominees, than that of any Minister in his own Cabinet. That is the kind of position old men love, and the Emperor, in experience at all events, if not in physique, is becoming old.

now,

Whatever his motive, the ultimate and immediate effects of his letter on France can hardly be doubted. The restoration of the highest power, the power of modifying the Constitution, to the Legislative Body will, as we believe almost instantly, but certainly after the next dissolution, revive political life in France. It is once more open to any man who can induce a con

the public has still always watched the Emperor as the ultimate depositary of power. He is so no longer. It is on the Cabinet that the policy of France will depend, from the Ministers that promotion will flow, in the Chamber and not in the Emperor's study that men will make themselves valuaable or feared. The worst features of the Imperial régime worst, we mean, as to its effect, not as to its motive-the suppression of individual genius until the only firstrate man admitted to the Tuileries was the Emperor himself, will come to an end, and France will again be full of those men whose brains, whatever their other defects, still seem so nearly to yield the ancient

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