LOVE'S PROVOCATIONS. From Hogg's Instructor. BEING EXTRACTS TAKEN, IN THE MOST UNMAN- BY CUTHBERT BEDE, B. A. PROVOCATION THE FIRST. one who was so polite; and I should have acted I NEVER was so provoked in all my life-nev-me safe to a cab, and (at my request) tell the er! I don't know what "the Provocations of Madame Palissy" may have been, but I am quite confident that they could have been nothing to mine. To think that dear Walter should have behaved to me so! Could anything have been more provoking! I am sure that "Fox's Martyrs," whom papa has in his study, could not have had that to try them, though they seem to have gone through a good deal, poor things! I think it will comfort me if I write down some of my provocations, and make a confidante of my Diary. So, now for a plunge into this cold paper; it may brace me up for new exertions. When Mrs. Trotman sent to invite us to her evening party, mamma and papa were unfortunately engaged to dine at the Brums', who live two doors from us, in Uppington Square; and of course they would not hear of my going to Mrs. Trotman's by myself. Then Fred, though he is a very good brother in most things, yet does not always think of his sister as he ought to do; and so, when I told him of my dilemma, he pretended that he could not help me out of it, for that he too was going out to dinner (he called it 'a spread'), with some other young men who were in chambers, and that he would see the Trotmans anywhere, first, before he was going to waste his evening by making himself a wallflower in their rooms!' for, unfortunately, Fred is not so fond of dancing as some one I could mention, who can waltz-oh! like a duck! So mamma said that she should write to decline the invitation; and I was so provoked, for I knew that he would be there, and I had set my heart upon going. to say before Frederick that Mr. Vernon was very handsome, Fred said, in his rude, brotherly way, and that, that the "feller (as he called him) was like a wax gent in a barber's window;" I got Madge to meet him to see what she would think of him, (though I cautioned her that she must be sure and not fall in love with him), and Madge agreed with me, that Mr. Walter Vernon was quite fascinating. On that evening, dear Walter's attentions to me were marked with such empressement, that I could not but perceive that his heart was mine-as, it is vain to deny, mine was his-even from that delicious hour when we stood with wet feet under the dripping tent at Chiswick! But, as some poet very justly and sweetly observes, "the course of true love never doth run smooth;" and though dear Walter was, I am sure (and so Madge says), all that any parents could desire for their daughter; yet, somehow, after that first evening, both papa and mamma seemed to grow less fond of him, and did not ask him to our house quite so often as a certain But what will not the ingenuity of love ac-person could wish. And when one day I ventured complish? I said to mamma-to whom I had not breathed a word about expecting to meet Mr. Vernon (dear Walter) at the party-"I'll write the note for you, ma', dear; if it goes this as to the place where he said his rooms were, in And then I at once put on evening, it will do." my bonnet (the very one in which dear Wal- Bryanston Square, he only hired the door-bell, ter first saw me at the Chiswick Flower Show, and had his letters directed there;" and that he and about which he made such delightful speech-"believed he was a humbug;" and that " es), and away I flew to the other side of the haps his father lived in a castle in Ayrshire" (I square to see if Madge and Nelly Winny had al- knew what he meant); and that "his talk about so got an invite to the Trotmans. For Madge and his connections in the north, and his great expecI had grown up from childhood together, had tations, was all a chouse." Of course, I told Mr. been at the same school-had never quarrelled Frederick, that if he could not boast another per-except, indeed, a little tiff about that hand-son's good looks, he might at least try to emulate some Captain Wilton, who used to stare at us so, that person's good manners; and that he never when we were in the school-pew at church-and heard Mr. Vernon make use of such vulgar exIpressions, or indulge in such ill-natured and we have always told each other our secrets. had confided to her all about dear Walter, from groundless remarks; and that I dare say, when the very first day that I met him (which was Mr. Vernon came into his property, no one would the flower-show day), when it poured so with sooner pay court to him than Mr. Frederick ! rain, and he made way for me inside the tent, Of and afterwards offered me his umbrella. course, I ought to have behaved civilly to any per But when I told my troubles to Madge, she gave me the very best advice: for she said that I could still love dear Walter in secret, and that papa and mamma perhaps only seemed to be reluctant, in order that Mr. Vernon might think their daughter was not to be easily gained, and so might propose the sooner. And then (dear girl!) she got her mamma to ask him to their house; and there he became introduced to other people, who asked him to their houses; and as these were places where we visited, I met him frequently. I had contrived to know that he would be at the Trotmans, so I thought that Madge might be able to help me in my dilemma. and had each told each other that we looked lovely, we went down into the drawing-room, to wait for Mrs. Whinney; and there was Madge's brother, Mr. Joseph, dressed (according to rather a vulgar expression of Fred.'s) "to within an inch of his life." I had quite forgotten that he was going with us; indeed, I don't suppose that I had even given the creature a thought; for, if there ever was a goose in the world, it is Mr. Joseph Whinney! -a shallow, soft-headed, effeminate creature- he quite provokes me, I declare! And Unfortunately, Madge was taking her harp- though we have known each other all our lives, lesson from signor Pussigutti, and I was obliged and I am so intimate with his sisters, yet that is to wait half an hour (quite that!) before the signor no reason why he should pester me with his at(who speaks such good English!) would go, and tentions-which I never shall return, and never allow me to unbosom myself. Indeed, I was so encourage-never, I am sure." anxious to know if Madge was going, that I was "So glad you are going to the Trotmans, obliged to make her tell me that—though I had Miss Mary," said Mr. Joseph, in his silly, simperto interrupt her harp-lesson; much to the annoying way; "because your step suits mine so well, ance of Signor Pussigutti, for she was just in the and I want to dance with you a great deal this middle of his "Potpourri," and delicate Variations evening." on "Polly put the Kettle on." But at last the lesson came to an end, and Signor Pussigutti took his delicate Variations to some one else; and we went up to Madge's own room, where we could have a nice chat, and see her new barège dress; and I told her what a pucker I was in about the Trotmans, and that she must join me in asking her mamma to take pity upon me, by offering to chaperone me. Mrs. Whinney, who had always been very kind to me, at once granted my petition, and wrote to mamma, begging her to let me accompany Madge and Nelly to the Trotmans, under her chaperonage. Much to my joy, my generalship was quite successful, for the ladymother consented to let me go; and, not to keep any one sitting up for me at home, it was agreed that I should dress at Mrs. Whinney's, and stay and sleep with Madge. And the wretch took out some tablets (fancy a man carrying tablets!) and asked me to tell him all the dances for which I was disengaged. But Madge, who knew I was looking forward to dance with dear Walter all the evening, told Mr. Joseph to put up his tablets, and not make a monopoly of any young lady; and the dear girl gave me a kiss, as she whispered in my ear: You had better dance once or twice with Joe, because if you were to dance with no one else than the one you wish, you might be talked about, Miss Polly." So I made Mr. Joseph happy (he said so at least), by promising him the first set, and perhaps another; reserving all the delightful valses and polkas for - somebody! As soon as we had got to the Trotmans, I, of course looked about for Mr. Vernon, but he had not yet come; so I was glad to occupy the time, I waited with great impatience for the evening which had otherwise been wasted, by at once givof the party, and prevailed upon mamma to let ing my hand to Mr. Joseph for the first set of quame have a new dress one of the sweetest white drilles, which were then being formed. Just muslins I ever saw, with a Valenciennes fall, and when Mr. Joseph was pastorale-ing in the most bows of cerise ribbon. I also decided to wear the grotesque way, dear Walter came-looking so same colored ribbons in my hair, as it would show handsome, and such a contrast to the wretch who dear Walter that I remembered what he had said was then capering in front of me. He entered the about them on a previous occasion. Quite acci-room with the Madder Brown girls. I found afdentally I met him in the Park-where I was in the habit (at least, ever since I had known dear Walter) of taking a morning walk regularly on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, at eleven o'clock; and I told him that we should meet at the Trotmans; and he said that he should count the minutes till then, etc., etc. I told him that I should do the ditto ditto, etc., etc. Well! at last the evening came; my things were taken across to Mrs. Whinney's, and I followed them. I dressed along with Madge and Nelly, and we had their maid Julie all to ourselves - which is so nice! and I wish mamma would let me have a proper maid, instead of having to put up with our housemaid Sarah, who is always sticking pins into me, and pulls my hair about terribly; whereas Julie always understands the present fashion, and can make one's hair go as far again-I really never thought my poor wig could have been made so much of! When we were quite dressed, and had given one final good look at ourselves in the cheval glass, terwards, that Mr. and Mrs. Brown had asked him to take a seat in their carriage, as they call that vehicle of theirs; and, in the most provoking way, he either could n't, or would n't, see me, although my cough became very troublesome, and I am sure he must have heard me. But the Madder Brown girls had got hold of him, and they carried him off to the other drawing-room, where I could hear them giggling with that silly laugh of theirs. They had been making up to him very fiercely for a fortnight past; in fact, as soon as they had heard of his great expectations and his high connections in the North; and I could see that they were doing their best to cut me out, and get dear Walter for themselves - for they did not seem to be at all particular whether he chose Hyacinth or Rose; or, for the matter of that, both of them, if the laws had allowed him! Though I had told him that I should come early, and though he must have known that I was there, yet he never came to look for me all through the quadrille. So when the last figure easily risk this with him than any one else there; and, besides, he was such a goose that I did not care about deceiving him. So I not only danced with him nearly every dance, but I walked about, and sat on the stairs with him, and went into the little orangery, and kept up such a pleasant rattle all the while, that Mr. Joseph seemed perfectly transported, and I was even dreadfully afraid each time we went into the orangery, that he would take the opportunity and propose! Of course, Walter saw how engrossed I appeared with Mr. Joseph; and the first time that I allowed him to dance with me, he spoke to me about it; but I told him that Mr. Joseph Whin friend to me than the Miss Browns were to Mr. Walter Vernon; and that his flirtations had not escaped my notice. Walter seemed quite put about by what I said; and when I told him that I was engaged for every other dance before supper, he said that if he had known I should only have danced once with him, he would never have come; but that he must see if the Miss Browns would have pity on him. Of course I said that no doubt they would, they were such dear amiable girls! And then, whether it was to provoke me, or whether it was because those girls encouraged him, I don't know, but he went and flirted with them-oh! quite abominably!-and took no more notice of me than if I had not been in the room! was ended, I told Mr. Joseph (who must have found me very absent) that I would go into the next room to look for my fan. We went; and there was Walter, making himself very comfortable on a sociable with the Madder Brown girls, who looked quite elate with the conquest which (as they thought) they had effected. I thought Walter seemed rather abashed when he met my look, for he must have read there the reproof it was intended to convey; but he got up and offered me his seat, in his usual gentlemanly manner, and pretended to think that I had but just come; and when I told him that I had been there half an hour, as he might have seen, had he not been so much better engaged (I said this with such sar-ney was a very old friend of mine; a much older casm !) he looked quite penitent. Fortunately, we were then left comparatively alone, as the Madder Brown girls had been very reluctantly dragged to a portfolio of engravings by Mr. Joseph, so I told Walter that he appeared to have quite forgotten his old friends (I said this with such sarcasm!) for his new ones; and that his behavior was altogether very provoking. He looked at me so imploringly, and called me his own dearest Polly (I allow him to call me Polly when there is no one to overhear him, because all my most intimate friends call me so), and said that I was cruel to think he should ever care for the Miss Browns, and that he only came to the Trotmans on my account, and did not wish to speak to any one else all the evening. All this (and several et ceteras) he said in low, soft tones that were quite enchanting; so I brightened up, and told him that I would show my amiability by giving him my hand for the waltz which the band were just beginning to play. Saying this I stood up to take his arm, when Walter, looking very confused, said that he had promised to dance that waltz with Miss Brown. "And the dance after that ?" I asked." With Miss Rose Brown," he replied.-" Oh! indeed, sir!" said I, quite coldly; "I am really delighted to think that you have such an agreeable evening before you!"-"And so it will be, dear Polly," he whispered, "if you will make it so for me. Those two girls made me promise them, but as soon as I've done with them, I'll come to you; so, remember!" But I was determined to show Walter that I would remember, and that I was not to be put after the Madder Brown girls for nothing, so I placked up my spirit, and I told him that he was not the only person who had made their arrangements, and that after the two next dances I was engaged. And, as Mr. Joseph just then joined us, I at once put my arm in his, and told him to take me to his sister. I got Madge up into a corner, and I told her all about it; and she said (dear girl! she always gives me much good advice!) that my best plan would be to make Walter jealous, and bring him to his senses, and teach him to be properly attentive to one individual, and not to go flirting with every young lady that noticed him. I therefore determined to make Walter just a little bit jealous. Mr. Joseph seemed to me to be the very person who would require the least encouragement to offer me marked attentions; and, as I was on such intimate terms with his family I could more I intended, after supper, to make it up with him; but, till that time, I thought I would show Mr. Walter that I could be quite independent of him; so I encouraged Mr. Joseph, and made myself so agreeable to him-(the wretch !)-and I told Madge to hint to him that he had got Mr. Vernon for a rival. Mr. Joseph had already guessed this, but now that he knew it, his attentions to me were redoubled; and he marched me down to supper in the most glorified manner, and scowl. ed at Walter as though he was his personal enemy. Mr. Joseph had great opportunities of doing this, because Walter was sitting just opposite to us-with Hyacinth Brown, too! So Mr. Joseph took champagne with me, and gave me all the silliest mottoes out of those stupid bonbons, which I pretended to think were charming, and poked them into my glove, and said that I should keep them; which was of course, all fudge. And when Walter made me pull a cracker with him across the table, I let the motto fall into the trifle, and wouldn't read it, but said something very severe about "triflers." then, a ring had been put into the trifle, and Mr. Joseph found it in his plate, and gave it to me, saying something very stupid as he did so. And All this made Walter very angry; and I was therefore not surprised to hear afterwards, that when the ladies had left the gentlemen at the supper-table, he and Mr. Joseph had some high words together. Indeed, Walter told me as much himself, when he came to me after supper, and said that my friend Mr. Joseph Whitney had grossly insulted him, but that he had overlooked it, because Mr. Joseph was making himself tipsy by drinking too much champagne. I had half expected that this would be the case, because 1 saw Mr. Joseph was so excited that he did not forth signs of joy, the General, sitting abaft with lar seas; and twice subsequently he went a book in his hand, cried out unto us in the Hinde again, venturing in small ill-equipped vessels so often as we did approach within hearing, We of thirty or forty tons into the most dangerous are as near to heaven by sea as by land,' reiteraseas. These voyages were as remarkable for ting the same speech, well beseeming a soldier their success as for the daring with which they resolute in Jesus Christ, as I can testify that he The same Monday night, about twelve of the clock, or not long after, the frigate being a head of us in the Golden Hinde, suddenly her lights were out, whereof as it were in a moment we lost the sight; and withal our watch cried, "The General was cast away,' which was too was. true. So stirbt ein Held. It was a fine end for a mortal man. We will not call it sad or tragic, but heroic and sublime; and if our eyes water as we write it down, it is not with sorrow, but with joy and pride. were accomplished, and Davis's epitaph is written on the map of the world, where his name still remains to commemorate his discoveries. Brave as he was, he is distinguished by a peculiar and exquisite sweetness of nature, which, from many little facts of his life, seem to have affected every one with whom he came in contact in a remarkable degree. We find men, for the love of Master Davis, leaving their firesides to sail with him, without other hope or motion; and silver bullets were cast to shoot him in a mutiny; the hard rude natures of the mutineers being awed by something in his carriage which was not like that of a common man. He has written the account of one of his northern voyages himself; one of those, by the by, which the Hakluyt Society have mutilated; and there is an imaginative beauty in it, and a rich delicacy of expression, which is a true natural poetry, called out in him by the first sight of strange lands and things and people. "Thus faithfully," concludes Mr. Hayes (in some degree rising above himself,) "I have related this story, wherein some spark of the knight's virtues, though he be extinguished, may happily appear; he remaining resolute to a purpose honest and godly as was this, to discover, possess, and reduce unto the service of God and Christian piety, those remote and heathen countries of America. Such is the infinite bounty of God, who from every evil deriveth good, that fruit may grow in time of our travelling in these NorthTo show what he was, we should have preWestern lands (as has it not grown?), and the ferred, if possible, to have taken the story of crosses, turmoils, and afflictions, both in the pre-his expedition into the South Seas, in which, paration and execution of the voyage, did cor- under circumstances of singular difficulty, he rect the intemperate humors which before we was deserted by Candish, under whom he had noted to be in this gentleman, and made unsa-sailed; and after inconceivable trials, from vory and less delightful his other manifold vir- famine, mutiny, and storm, ultimately saved himself and his ship, and such of the crew as the image of God, so it pleased the Divine will had chosen to submit to his orders. But it is to resume him unto Himself, whither both his a long history, and will not admit of being and every other high and noble mind have al-mutilated. As an instance of the stuff of which ways aspired." tues. "Thus as he was refined and made nearer unto it was composed, he ran back in the black night in a gale of wind through the Straits of Such was Sir Humfrey Gilbert; we know Magellan, by a chart which he had made with the but little more of him, and we can only con- eye in passing up. His anchors were lost or jecture that he was still in the prime of his broken; the cables were parted. He could years when the Atlantic swallowed him. Like not bring up the ship; there was nothing for the gleam of a landscape lit suddenly for a it but to run, and he carried her safe through, moment by the lightning, these few scenes along a channel often not three miles broad, flash down to us across the centuries; but sixty miles from end to end, and twisting like the what a life must that have been of which this reaches of a river. For the present, however, was the conclusion! He was one of a race we are forced to content ourselves with a few which have ceased to be. We look round for sketches out of the north-west voyages. Here them, and we can hardly believe that the same is one, for instance, which shows how an Enblood is flowing in our veins. Brave we may glishman could deal with the Indians. Davis still be, and strong perhaps as they, but the had landed at Gilbert's Sound, and gone up high moral grace which made bravery and the country exploring. On his return, he strength so beautiful is departed from us for ever. found his crew loud in complaints of the thievish propensities of the natives, and urgent to have an example made of some of them. On the next occasion he fired a gun at them with blank cartridge; but their nature was still too strong for them. Our space is sadly limited for historical portrait painting; but we must find room for another of that Greenaway party whose nature was as fine as that of Gilbert, and who intellectually was more largely gifted. The latter was drowned in 1583. In 1585 John Davis แ Seeing iron," he says, "they could in no case left Dartmouth on his first voyage into the Po-forbear stealing; which, when I perceived, it did but minister to me occasion of laughter to see with infamy," went on, with such volunteers their simplicity, and I willed that they should as would follow him, in a poor leaky cutter, not be hardly used, but that our company should be more diligent to keep their things, supposing it to be very hard in so short a time to make them know their evils. Being on shore on the 4th day of July, one of them made a long oration, and then kindled a fire, into which with many strange words and gestures he put divers things, which we supposed to be a sacrifice. Myself and certain of my company standing by, they desired us to go into the smoke. I desired them to go into the smoke, which they would by no means do. I then took one of them and thrust him into the smoke, and willed one of my company to tread out the fire, and spurn it into the sea, which was done to show them that we did contemn their sorceries. It is a very English story-exactly what a modern Englishman would do; only, perhaps, not believing that there was any real devil in the case, which makes a difference. However, real or not real, after seeing him patiently put up with such an injury, we will hope the poor Greenlander had less respect for him than formerly. up the sea now called Davis's Straits, in com- In taking out Sir Edward Michellthorne to India, in 1604, he fell in with a crew of Japanese, whose ship had been burnt, drifting at sea, without provisions, in a leaky junk. He supposed them to be pirates, but he did not choose to leave them to so wretched a death, and took them on board, and in a few hours, watching their opportunity, they murdered him. As the fool dieth, so dieth the wise, and there is no difference; it was the chance of the sea, and the ill reward of a humane action-a melancholy end for such a man-like the end of a warrior, not dying Epaminondaslike on the field of victory, but cut off in some Leaving Gilbert's Sound, Davis went on to the north-west, and in lat. 63° fell in with a barrier of ice, which he coasted for thirteen days without finding an opening. The very sight of an iceberg was new to all the crew; and the ropes and shrouds, though it was mid-poor brawl or ambuscade. But so it was with summer, becoming compassed with ice, The people began to fall sick and faint-hearted-whereupon, very orderly, with good discretion, they entreated me to regard the safety of mine own life, as well as the preservation of theirs; and that I should not, through overbouldness, leave their widows and fatherless children to give me bitter curses. Whereupon seeking counsel of God, it pleased His Divine Majesty to move my heart to prosecute that which I hope shall be to His glory, and to the contentation of every Christian mind. all these men. They were cut off in the flower of their days, and few indeed of them laid their bones in the sepulchres of their fathers. They knew the service which they had chosen, and they did not ask the wages for which they had not labored. Life with them was no summer holiday, but a holy sacrifice offered up to duty, and what their Master sent was welcome. Beautiful is old agebeautiful as the slow-dropping mellow autumn of a rich glorious summer. In the old man, nature has fulfilled her work; she loads him with her blessings; she fills him with the fruits He had two vessels, one of some burthen, of a well-spent life; and, surrounded by his the other a pinnace of thirty tons. The re- children and his children's children, she rocks sult of the counsel which he had sought was, him softly away to a grave, to which he is folthat he made over his own large vessel to lowed with blessings. God forbid we should such as wished to return, and himself, "think-not call it beautiful. It is beautiful, but not ing it better to die with honor than to return the most beautiful. There is another life, DLXXXII. LIVING AGE. VOL. X. 10 |