LETTER IV. JAMES DODD TO ROBERT DOOLAN, ESQUIRE TRINITY COLLEGE, DUBLIN
HTEL DE BELLEVUE, BRUSSELS.
Dear Bob,--Here we are, living another kind of life from our old existence at Dodsborough! We have capital quarters at the "Bellevue,"--a fine hotel, excellent dinners, and, what I think not inferior to either, a most obliging Jew money-changer hard by, who advances "moderate loans to respectable parties, on personal security,"--a process in which I have already made some proficiency, and with considerable advantage to my outward man. The tailors are first-rate, and rig you out with gloves, boots, hat, even to your cane,--they forget nothing. The hairdressers are also incomparable. I thought, at first, that capillary attraction was beyond _me_; but, to my agreeable surprise, I discover that I boast a very imposing _chevelure_, and a bright promise of moustache which, as yet, is only faintly depicted by a dusky line on my upper lip.
It"s all nonsense to undervalue dress: I"m no more the same man in my dark-green paletot, trimmed with Astracan, that I was a month ago in my fustian shooting-jacket, than a well-plumed eagle is like a half-moulted turkey. There is an inseparable connection between your coat and your character; and few things so react on the morality of a man as the cut of his trousers. Nothing more certainly tells me this than the feeling with which I enter any public place now, compared to what I experienced a few weeks back. It was then half shame, half swagger,--a conflict between modesty and defiance. Now, it is the easy a.s.surance of being "all right,"--the conviction that my hat, my frock, my cravat, my vest, can stand the most critical examination; and that if any one be impertinent enough to indulge in the inquiry through his eye-gla.s.s, I have the equal privilege to return stare for stare, with, mayhap, an initiatory sneer into the bargain. By the way, the habit of looking unutterably fierce seems to be the first lesson abroad. The pa.s.sport people, as you land, the officers of the Customs, the landlord of your inn, the waiters, the railroad clerks, all "get up" a general air of sovereign contempt for everybody and everything, rather puzzling at first, but quite rea.s.suring when you are trained to reciprocity. For the time, I rather flatter myself to have learned the dodge well; not but, I must confess to you, Bob, that my education is prosecuted under difficulties. During the whole of the morning I "m either with the governor or my mother, sight-seeing and house-hunting,--now seeking out a Rubens, now making an excursion into the market, and making exploratory researches into the prices of fish, fowl, and vegetables; cheapening articles that we don"t intend to buy,--a process my mother looks upon as a moral exercise; and climbing up "two-pair," to see lodgings we have no intention to take: all because, as she says, "we ought to know everything;" and really the spirit of inquiry that moves her will have its reward,--not always, perhaps, without some drawbacks, as witness what happened to us on Tuesday. In our rambles along the Boulevard de Waterloo, we saw a smart-looking house, with an _affiche_ over the door, "A louer;" and, of course, mother and Mary Anne at once stopped the carriage for an exploration. In we went, asked for the proprietor, and saw a small, rosy-cheeked little man, with a big wig, and a very inquiet, restless look in his eyes. "Could we see the house?
Was it furnished?" "Yes," to both questions. "Were there stables?"
"Capital room for four horses; good water,--two kinds, and both excellent." Upstairs we toiled, through one _salon_ into another,--now losing ourselves in dark pa.s.sages, now coming abruptly to unlock-able doors,--everlastingly coming back to the spot we had just left, and conceiving the grandest notions of the number of rooms, from the manner of our own perambulations. Of course you know the invariable incidents of this tiresome process, where the owner is always trying to open impracticable windows, and the visitors will rush into inscrutable places, in despite of all advice and admonition. Our voyage of discovery was like all preceding ones; and we looked down well-staircases and up into skylights,--snuffed for possible smells, and suggested imaginary smoke, in every room we saw. While we were thus busily criticising the domicile, its owner, it would seem, was as actively engaged in an examination of _us_, and apparently with a less satisfactory result, for he broke in upon one of our consultations by a friendly "No, no, ladies; it won"t do,--it won"t do at all. This house would never suit;"
and while my mother stared, and Mary Anne opened wide her eyes in astonishment, he went on: "We "re only losing time, ladies; both your time and mine will be wasted. This is not the house for _you_." "I beg to observe, sir, that I think it is," interposed my mother, who, with a very womanly feeling, took a prodigious fancy to the place the moment she discovered there was a difficulty about it. The owner, however, was to the full as decided; and in fact hurried us out of the rooms, downstairs, and into the street, with a degree of haste savoring far more of impatience than politeness. I rather was disposed to laugh at the little man"s energetic rejection of us; but my mother"s rage rendered any "mirthful demonstration inopportune," as the French would say; and so I only exchanged glances with Mary Anne, while our eloquent parent abused the "little wretch" to her heart"s content. Although the circ.u.mstance was amply discussed by us that evening, we had well-nigh forgotten it in the morning, when, to our astonishment, our little friend of the Boulevard sent in his name, "Mr. Cherry," with a request to see papa. My mother was for seeing him herself; but this amendment was rejected, and the original motion carried.
After about five minutes" interview, we were alarmed by a sudden noise and violent cries; and on rushing from the drawing-room, I just caught sight of Mr. Cherry making a flying leap down the first half of the staircase, while my father"s uplifted foot stood forth to evidence what had proved the "vis tergo." His performance of the next flight was less artistic, for he rolled from top to bottom, when, by an almost preternatural effort, he made his escape into the street. The governor"s pa.s.sion made all inquiries perilous for some minutes; in fact, this attempt to make "Cherry-bounce," as Cary called it, seemed to have got into his head, for he stormed like a madman. At last the _causa belli_ came out to be, that this unhappy Mr. Cherry had come with an apology for his strange conduct the day before,--by what think you? By his having mistaken my mother and sister for what slang people call "a case of perhaps,"--a blunder which certainly was not to be remedied by the avowal of it. So at least thought my father, for he cut short the apology and the explanation at once, ejecting Mr. Cherry by a more summary process than is recognized in the law-courts.
My mother had hardly dried up her tears in crying, and I mine in laughing over this strange incident, when there came an emissary of the gendarmerie to arrest the governor for a violent a.s.sault, with intent, &c. &c, and it is only by the intervention of our Minister here that bail has been accepted; my father being bound to appear before the "Court of Correctional Police" on Monday next. If we remain much longer here, we are likely to learn something of the laws, at least in a way which people a.s.sure you is always most indelible,--practically. If we continue as we have commenced, a little management on the part of the lawyers, and a natural desire on the part of my father to obtain justice, may prolong our legal affairs far into the spring; so that we may possibly not leave this for some months to come, which, with the aid of my friend, Lazarus Simrock, may be made pleasurable and profitable.
[Ill.u.s.tration: 058]
It"s all very well to talk about "learning French, seeing galleries and studying works of art," my dear Bob, but where"s the time?--that"s the question. My mother and the girls poach my entire morning. It"s the rarest thing in the world for me to get free of them before five o"clock; and then I have just time to dash down to the club, and have a "shy" at the cart before dinner. Smart play it is, sometimes seventy, ay, a hundred Naps, on a game; and such players too!--fellows that sit for ten minutes with a card on their knee, studying your face, watching every line and lineament of your features, and reading you, by Jove,--reading you like a book. All the false air of ease and indifference, all the brag a.s.surance you may get up to conceal a "bad hand," isn"t worth sixpence. They laugh at your puerile efforts, and tell you "you are voled" before you"ve played a card. We hear so much about genius and talent, and all that kind of thing at home, and you, I have no doubt, are full of the high abilities of some fellowship or medallist man of Trinity; but give _me_ the deep penetration, the intense powers of calculation, the thorough insight into human nature, of some of the fellows I see here; and for success in life, I "ll back them against all your conic section and x plus y geniuses, and all the double first cla.s.ses that ever breathed. There"s a splendid fellow here, a Pole, called Koratinsky; he commanded the cavalry at Ostrolenca, and, it is said, rode down the Russian Guard, and sabred the Imperial Cuira.s.siers to a man. He"s the first cart and piquet player in Europe, and equal to Deschapelles at whist. Though he is very distant and cold in his manner to strangers, he has been most kind and good-natured to me; has given me some capital advice, too, and warned me against several of the fellows that frequent the club. He tells me that he detests and abhors play, but resorts to it as a distraction. "Que voulez-vous?"
said he to me the other day; "when a man who calls himself Ladislaus Koratinsky, who has the blood of three monarchs in his veins, who has twice touched the crown of his native land, sees himself an exile and a "proscrit," it is only in the momentary excitement of the gaming-table he can find a pa.s.sing relief for crushing and withering recollections."
He could be in all the highest circles here. The greatest among the n.o.bles are constantly begging and entreating him to come to their houses, but he sternly refuses. "Let me know one family," says he, "one domestic circle, where I can go uninvited, when I will,--where I can repose my confidence, tell my sorrows, and speak of my poor country; give me one such, and I ask for no more; but as for dukes and grand seigneurs, princesses and d.u.c.h.esses, I"ve had but too much of them." I a.s.sure you, Bob, it "s like a page out of some old story of chivalry to listen to him. The splendid sentiments, the glorious conceptions, and the great plans he has for the regeneration of Europe; and how he abhors the Emperor of Russia! "It"s a "duel mort entre Nicholas et moi,""
said he to me yesterday.
"The terms of the conflict were signed on the field of Ostrolenca; for the present the victory is his, but there is a time coming!" I have been trying all manner of schemes to have him invited to dine with us. Mother and Mary Anne are with me, heart and hand; but the governor"s late mischances have soured him against all foreigners, and I must bide my time. I feel, however, when my father sees him, he"ll be delighted with him; and then he could be invaluable to us in the way of introductions, for he knows every crowned head and prince on the Continent.
After dinner, pretending to take an evening lesson in French, I"m off to the Opera. I belong to an omnibus-box,--all the fast fellows here,--such splendid dressers, Bob, and each coming in his brougham. I"m deucedly ashamed that I"ve nothing but a cabriolet, which I hire from my friend Lazarus at twelve pounds a month. They quiz me tremendously about my "rococo" taste in equipage, but I turn off the joke by telling them that I"m expecting my cattle and my "traps" from London next week. Lazarus promises me that I shall have a splendid "Malibran" from Hobson, and two grays over by the Antwerp packet, if I give him a bill for the price, at three months; and that he"ll keep them for me at his stables till I "m quite ready to pay. Stickler, the other job-master here, wanted the governor"s name on the bills, and behaved like a scoundrel, threatening to tell my father all about it It cost me a "ten-pounder" to stop him.
After the theatre we adjourn to Dubos"s to supper, and I can give you no idea, Bob, of what a thing that supper is! I remember when we used to fancy it was rather a grand affair to finish our evening at Jude"s or Hayes"s with a vulgar set-out of mutton-chops, spatchc.o.c.ks, and devilled kidneys, washed down with* that filthy potation called punch. I shudder at the vile abomination of the whole when I think of our delicate lobster en mayonnaise^ or crouton aux truffes, red partridges in Rhine wine, and maraschino jelly, with Mot frapp to perfection. We generally invite some of the "corps," who abound in conversational ability, and are full of the pleasant gossip of the stage. There is Mademoiselle Lonine, too, in the ballet, the loveliest creature ever was seen. They say Count Maerlens, aide-de-camp of the King, is privately married to her, but that she won"t leave the boards till she has saved a million,--but whether of francs or pounds, I don"t remember.
When our supper is concluded, it is generally about four o"clock, and then we go to D"Arlaen"s rooms, where we play chicken-hazard till our various houses are accessible.
I "m not much up to this as yet; my forte is cart, at which I am the terror of these fellows; and when the races come on next month, I think my knowledge of horseflesh will teach them a thing or two. I have already a third share in a splendid horse called Number Nip, bred out of Barnabas by a Middleton mare; he"s engaged for the Lacken Cup and the Salle Sweepstakes, and I "m backing him even against the field for everything I can get. If you "d like to net a fifty without risk, say so before the tenth, and I "ll do it for you.
So that you see, Bob, without De Porquet"s Grammar and "Ollendorff"s Method," my time is tolerably full. In fact, if the day had forty-eight hours, I have something to fill every one of them.
There would be nothing but pleasure in this life, but for certain drawbacks, the worst of which is that I am not alone here. You have no idea, Bob, to what subterfuges I "m reduced, to keep my family out of sight of my grand acquaintances. Sometimes I call the governor my guardian; sometimes an uncle, so rich that I am forced to put up with all his whims and caprices. Egad! it went so far, f other day, that I had to listen to a quizzing account of my aunt"s costume at a concert, and hear my mother shown up as a _prcieuse ridicule_ of the first water. There"s no keeping them out of public places, too; and how they know of all the various processions, Te Deums, and the like I cannot even guess. My own metamorphosis is so complete that I have cut them twice dead, in the Park; and no later than last night, I nearly ran over my father in the Alle Verte with my tandem leader, and heard the whole story this morning at breakfast, with the comforting a.s.surance that "he "d know the puppy again, and will break every bone in his body if he catches him." In consequence of which threat, I have given orders for a new beard and moustache of the Royal Albert hue, instead of black, which I have worn heretofore. I must own, though, it is rather a bore to stand quietly by and see fellows larking your sister; but Mary Anne is perfectly incorrigible, notwithstanding all I have said to her. Cary"s safety lies in hating the Continent and all foreigners, and that is just as absurd.
The governor, it seems, is perpetually writing to Vickars, our member, about something for _me_. Now, I sincerely hope that he may not succeed; for I own to you that I do not antic.i.p.ate as much pleasure and amus.e.m.e.nt from either a "snug berth in the Customs" or a colonial situation; and after all, Bob, why should I be reduced to accept of either? Our estate is a good one, and if a little enc.u.mbered or so, why, we "re not worse off than our neighbors. If I must do something, I "d rather go into a Light Cavalry Regiment--such as the Eleventh, or the Seventeenth--than anything else. I say this to you, because your uncle Purcell is bent on his own plans for me, which would be nothing short of utter degradation; and if there"s anything low-bred and vulgar on earth, it"s what they call a "Profession." You know the old adage about leading a horse to the water; now I frankly declare to you that twenty shall not make me drink any of the springs of this knowledge, whether Law, Medicine, or Divinity lie at the bottom of the well.
It does not require any great tact or foresight to perceive that not a man of my "set" would ever know me again under such circ.u.mstances.
I have heard their opinions often enough on these matters not to be mistaken; and whatever we may think in Ireland about our doctors and barristers, they are what Yankees call "mighty small potatoes" abroad.
Lord George Tiverton said to me last night, "Why doesn"t your governor put you into "the House"? You"d make a devilish good figure there." And the notion has never left me since. Lord George himself is Member for Hornby, but he never attends the sittings, and only goes into Parliament as a means of getting leave from his regiment. They say he"s the "fastest" fellow in the service; he has already run through seventeen thousand a year, and one hundred and twenty thousand of his wife"s fortune. They are separated now, and he has something like twelve hundred a year to live on; just enough for cigars and brandy and water, he calls it. He"s the best-tempered fellow I ever saw, and laughs and jokes about his own misfortunes as freely as possible. He knows the world--and he"s not yet five-and-twenty--perhaps better than any man I ever saw. There is not a bill-discounter, not a betting-man, nor a ballet-dancer, he is not acquainted with; and such amusing stories as he tells of his London life and experiences. When he found that he had run through everything--when all his horses were seized at Ascot, and his house taken in execution in London, he gave a splendid _fte_ at Hornby, and invited upwards of sixty people down there, and half the county to meet them. "I resolved," said he, "on a grand finish; and I a.s.sure you that the company did not enjoy themselves the less heartily because every second fellow in my livery was a sheriff"s officer, and that all the forks and spoons on the table were under seizure. There was a "caption," as they term it, on everything, down to the footmen"s bag-wigs and knee-buckles. We went to supper at two o"clock; and I took in the d.u.c.h.ess of Allington, who a.s.suredly never suspected that there was such a close alliance between my drawing-room and the Queen"s Bench.
The supper was exquisite; poor Marriton had exhausted himself in the devices of his art, and most ingeniously intimated his appreciation of my situation by a plate of ortolans _en salmi, sauts la Fonblanque_,--a delicate allusion to the Bankrupt Commissioner. I nearly finished the dish myself, drank off half a bottle of champagne, took out Lady Emily de Maulin for the cotillon, and then, slipping away, threw myself into a post-chaise, arrived at Dover for the morning mail-packet, and landed at Boulogne free as William Tell, or that eagle which he is so enthusiastic in describing as a most remarkable instance of const.i.tutional liberty." These are his own words, Bob; but without you saw his manner, and heard his voice, you could form no notion whatever of the careless, happy self-satisfaction of one who calls himself irretrievably ruined.
From all that I have been jotting down, you may fancy the set I am moving in, and the cla.s.s with whom I a.s.sociate. Then there is a German Graf von Blumenkohl, and a Russian Prince Kubitzkoy, two tremendous swells; a young French Marquis de Tregues, whose mother was granddaughter, I believe, of Madame du Barri, and a large margin of inferior dons, Spanish, Italian, and Belgian. That your friend Jemmy Dodd should be a star, even a little one, in such a galaxy, is no small boast; and such, my dear Bob, I am bound to feel it. Each of these fellows has a princely fortune, as well as a princely name, and it is not without many a clever dodge and cunning artifice that, weighted as I am, I can keep pace with them. I hope you"ll succeed, with all my heart, for the scholarship or fellowship. Which is it? Don"t blame me for the blunder, for I have never, all my life through, been able to distinguish between certain things which I suppose other persons find no resemblance in. Thus I never knew exactly whether the word "people" was spelled "eo"
or "oe." I never knew the Derby from the Oaks, nor shall I ever, I"m certain, be able to separate in my mind Moore O"Ferral from Carew O"Dwyer, though I am confidently informed there is not a particle of similarity in the individuals, any more than in the names.
Write to me when your match is over,--I mean your examination,--and say where you "re placed. I "ll take you against the field, at the current odds, in "fives."
And believe me, ever your attached friend,
J. Dodd.
LETTER V. KENNY DODD TO THOMAS PURCELL, ESQ.
HTEL DE BELLEVUE, BRUSSELS.
Dear Tom,--Yours did not reach me till yesterday, owing to some confusion at the Post-office. There is another Dodd here, who has been receiving _my_ letters, and I _his_, for the last week; and I conclude that each of us has learned more than was quite necessary of the other"s affairs; for while _he_ was reading of all the moneyed distresses and embarra.s.sments of your humble servant, _I_ opened a letter dated Doctors" Commons, beginning, "Dear sir, we have at last obtained the most satisfactory proofs against Mrs. Dodd, and have no hesitation in now submitting the case to a jury." We met yesterday, and exchanged credentials, with an expression of face that I"m sure "Phiz" would have given a five-pound note to look at. Peachem and Lockit were nothing to it. We agreed that either of us ought to leave this, to prevent similar mistakes in future, although, in my heart, I believe that we now know so much of each other"s affairs, that we might depute one of us to conduct both correspondences. In consequence, we tossed up who was to go. _He_ won; so that we take our departure on Wednesday next, if I can settle matters in the mean while. I "m told Bonn, on the Rhine, is a cheap place, and good for education,--a great matter as regards James,--so that you may direct your next to me there. To tell you the truth, Tom, I"m scarcely sorry to get away, although the process will be anything but a cheap one. First of all, we have taken the rooms for three months, and hired a job-coach for the same time. Moving is also an expensive business, and not over-agreeable at this season; but against these there is the setoff that Mrs. D. and the girls are going to the devil in expense for dress. From breakfast-time till three or four o"clock every day, the house is like a fair with milliners, male and female, hairdressers, perfumers, shoemakers, and trinket-men. I thought we"d done with all this when we left London; but it seems that everything we bought there is perfectly useless, and Mrs. D. comes sailing in every now and then, to make me laugh, as she says, at a bit of English taste by showing me where her waist is too short, or her sleeves too long; and Mary Anne comes down to breakfast in a great stiff watered silk, which for economy she has converted into a house-dress. Caroline, I must say, has not followed the lead, and is quite satisfied to be dressed as she used to be. James I see little of, for he "s working hard at the languages, and, from what the girls say, with great success. Of course, this is all for the best; but it"s little use French or even Chinese would be to him in the Customs or the Board of Trade, and it"s there I"m trying to get him. Vickars told me last week that his name is down on no less than four lists, and it will be bad luck but we "ll bit upon something. Between ourselves, I"m not over-pleased with Vickars.
Whenever I write to him about James, his reply is always what he"s doing about the poor laws, or the Jews, or the grant to Maynooth; so that I had to tell him, at last, that I "d rather hear that my son was in the Revenue, than that every patriarch in Palestine was in Parliament, or every papist in Ireland eating venison and guinea-hens. Patriotism is a fine thing, if you have a fine fortune, and some men we could mention have n"t made badly out of it, without a sixpence; but for one like myself, the wrong side of fifty, with an enc.u.mbered estate, and no talents for agitation, it"s as expensive as horse-racing, or yachting, or any other diversion of the kind. So there"s no chance of a tenant for Dodsborough! You ought to put it in the English papers, with a puff about the shooting and the trout-fishing, and the excellent neighborhood, and all that kind of thing. There "s not a doubt but it"s too good for any Manchester blackguard of them all! What you say about Tully Brack is quite true. The enc.u.mbrances are over eleven thousand; and if we bought in the estate at three or four, there would be so much gain to us. The "Times" little knew the good it was doing us when it was blackguarding the Irish landlords, and depreciating Irish property.
There"s many a one has been able to buy in his own land for one-fifth of the mortgages on it; and if this is n"t repudiation, it"s not so far off Pennsylvania, after all.
I don"t quite approve of your plan for Ballyslevin. Whenever a property "s in Chancery, the best thing is to let it go to ruin entirely. The worse the land is, the more miserable the tenants, the cheaper will be the terms you "ll get it on; and if the boys shoot a receiver once or twice, no great harm. As for the Government, I don"t think they "ll do anything for Ireland except set us by the ears about education and church matters; and we "re getting almost tired of quarrelling, Tom; for so it is, the very best of dispositions may be imposed on too far!
Now, as to "education," how many amongst those who insist on a particular course for the poor, ever thought of stipulating for the same for their own children? or do they think that the Bible is only necessary for such as have not an independent fortune? And as to Maynooth, is there any man such a fool as to believe that 30,000 a year would make the priests loyal? You gave the money well knowing what for,--to teach Catholic theology, not to instil the oath of allegiance.
To expect more would be like asking a market-gardener to raise strawberries with fresh cream round them! The truth is, they don"t wish to advance our interests in England. They "re afraid of us, Tom. If we ever were to take a national turn, like the Scotch, for instance, we might prove very dangerous rivals to them in many ways. I "m sick of politics; not, indeed, that I know too much of what"s doing, for the last "Times" I saw was cut up into a new pattern for a polka, and they only kept me the supplement, which, as you know, is more varied than amusing. In reply to your question as to how I like this kind of life, I own to you that it does n"t quite suit me. Maybe I "m too old in years, maybe too old in my notions, but it does n"t do, Tom. There is an everlasting bowing and sc.r.a.ping and introducing,--a perpetual prelude to acquaintanceship that never seems to begin. It appears to me like an orchestra that never got further than the tuning of the instruments!
I "m sure that, at the least, I "ve exchanged bows and grins and leers with fifty gentlemen here, whom _I_ should n"t know to-morrow, nor do _they_ care whether I did or no. Their intercourse is like their cookery, and you are always asking, "Is there nothing substantial coming?" Then they "re frivolous, Tom. I don"t mean that they are fond of pleasure, and given up to amus.e.m.e.nt, but that their very pleasures and amus.e.m.e.nts are contemptible in themselves. No such thing as field-sports; at least, nothing deserving the name; no manly pastimes, no bodily exercises; and lastly, they all, even the oldest of them, think that they ought to make love to your wife and daughters, just as you hand a lady a chair or a cup of tea in our country,--a mere matter of course. I need not tell you that my observations on men and manners are necessarily limited by my ignorance of the language; but I have acquired the deaf man"s privilege, and if I hear the less, I see the more.
I begin to think, my dear Tom, that we all make a great mistake in this taste we"ve got into for foreign travel, foreign languages, and foreign accomplishments. We rear up our families with notions and habits quite inapplicable to home purposes; and we are like the Parisian shopkeepers, that have nothing on sale but articles of luxury; and, after all, we have n"t a genius for this trifling, and we make very ungraceful idlers in the end. To train a man for the Continent, you must begin early; teach him French when a child; let him learn dominoes at four, and to smoke cigars at six, wear lacquered boots at eight, and put his hair in paper at nine; eat sugar-plums for dinner, and barley-water for tea; make him a steady shot with the pistol, and a cool hand with the rapier; and there he is finished and fit for the Boulevard,--a nice man for the _salons_.
It is cheap, there is no doubt; but it costs a great deal of money to come at the economy. You "ll perhaps say that"s my own fault. Maybe it is. We "ll talk of it more another time.
I ought to confess that Mrs. D. is delighted with everything; she vows that she is only beginning to live; and to hear her talk, you "d think that Dodsborough was one of the new model penitentiaries. Mary Anne"s her own daughter, and she raves about princes and dukes and counts, all day long. What they "ll say when I tell them that we "re to be off on Wednesday next, I can"t imagine. I intend to dine out that evening, for I know there will be no standing the row!
The Amba.s.sador has been mighty polite and attentive: we dined there last week. A grand dinner, and fine company; but, talking French, and nothing but French, all the time, Mrs. D. and your humble servant were rather at a nonplus. Then we had his box at the opera, where, I must say, Tom, anything to equal the dancing I never saw,--indecency is no name for it.
Not but Mrs. D. and Mary Anne are of a contrary opinion, and tauntingly ask me if I prefer a "Tatter Jack Walsh," at the cross-roads, to Taglioni. As for the singing, it"s screeching,--that"s the word for it, screeching. The composer is one Verdi,--a fellow, they tell me, that cracks every voice in Europe; and I can believe it. The young woman that played the first part grew purple in the face, and strained till her neck looked like a half-unravelled cable; her mouth was dragged sideways; and it was only when I thought she was off in strong convulsions that the audience began to applaud. There"s no saying what their enthusiasm might not have been had she burst a blood-vessel.
I intended to have despatched this by to-day"s post, but it is Saint Somebody"s day, and the office closes at two o"clock, so that I "ll have to keep it over, perhaps till Sat.u.r.day, for to-morrow, I find, we "re to go to Waterloo, to see the field of battle. There"s a prince--whose name I forget, and, indeed, I could n"t spell, if I remembered it--going to be our "Cicerone." I "m not sure if he says he was there at the battle; but Mrs. D. believes him as she would the Duke of Wellington. Then there"s a German count, whose father did something wonderful, and two Belgian barons, whose ancestors, I "ve no doubt, sustained the national reputation for speed. The season is hardly suitable for such an excursion; but even a day in the country--a few hours in the fields and the free air--will be a great enjoyment James is going to bring a Polish friend of his,--a great Don he calls him,--but I "m so overlaid with n.o.bility, the Khan of Tartary would not surprise me now. I "ll keep this open to add a few lines, and only say good-bye for the present.
Sat.u.r.day.
Waterloo"s a humbug, Tom. I don"t mean to say that Bony found it so some thirty-odd years back, but such it now appears. I a.s.sure you they "ve cut away half the field to commemorate the battle,--a process mighty like slicing off a man"s nose to establish his ident.i.ty. The result is that you might as well stand upon Hounslow Heath or Salisbury Plain, and listen to a narrative of the action, as visit Waterloo for the sake of the localities. La Haye Sainte and Hougoumont stand, certainly, in the old places, but the deep gorge beside the one, and the ridge from whence the cannonade shattered the other, are totally obliterated. The guides tell you, indeed, where Vivian"s brigade stood, where Picton charged and fell, where Ney"s column halted, faltered, and broke; they speak of the ridge behind which the guard lay in long expectancy; they describe to you the undulating swell over which our line advanced, cheering madly: but it"s like listening to a description of Killarney in a fog, and being informed that Turk Mountain is yonder, and that the waterfall is down a glen to your right. One thing is clear, Tom, however,--we beat the French; and when I say "We," I mean what I say. England knows, and all Europe knows, who won the battle, and more"s the disgrace for the way we "re treated. But, after all, it"s our own fault in a great measure, Tom; we take everything that comes from Parliament as a boon and a favor, little guessing often how it will turn out. Our conduct in this respect reminds me of poor Jack Whalley"s wife. You remember Jack, that was postboy at the Clanbrazil Arms. Well, his wife one day chanced to find an elegant piece of white leather on the road, and she brought it home with her in great delight, to mend Jack"s small clothes, which she did very neatly. Jack set off the next day, little suspecting what was in store for him; but when he trotted about five miles,--it was in the month of July,--he began to feel mighty uneasy in the saddle,--a feeling that continued to increase at every moment, till at last, as he said, "It was like taking a canter on a beehive in swarming time;" and well it might, for the piece of leather was no other than a blister that the apothecary"s boy had dropped that morning on the road; and so it is, Tom. There"s many a thing we take to be a fine patch for our nakedness that"s only a blister, after all. Witness the Poor Law and the "c.u.mbrous Estates Court," as Rooney calls it. But I "m wandering away from Waterloo all this time. You know the grand controversy is about what time the Prussians came up; because that mainly decides who won the battle. I believe it"s nearly impossible to get at the truth of the matter; for though it seems clear enough they were in the wood early in the day, it appears equally plain they stayed there--and small blame to them--till they saw the Inniskillings cutting down the Cuira.s.siers and sabring all before them. They waited, as you and I often waited in a row, till the enemy began to run, and then they were down on them.
Even that same was no small help; for, by the best accounts, the French require a deal of beating, and we were dreadfully tired giving it to them! Sergeant Cotton, the guide, tells me it was a grand sight just about seven o"clock, when the whole line began cheering; first, Adam"s brigade, then Cooke"s battalion, all taking it up and cheering madly; the general officers waving their hats, and shouting like the rest. I was never able to satisfy myself whether we gained or lost most by that same victory of Waterloo; for you see, Tom, after all our fighting in Spain and Portugal, after all Nelson"s great battles, all our triumphs and votes of thanks, Europe is going back to the old system again,--kings bullying their people, setting spies on them, opening their letters, transporting the writers, and hanging the readers. If they "d have let Bony alone when he came back from Elba, the chances were that he "d not have disturbed the peace of the world. He had already got his bellyful of fighting; he was getting old, falling into flesh, and rather disposed to think more of his personal ease than he used to do. Are you aware that the first thing he said on entering the Tuileries from Elba was, "Avant tout, un bon dner"? One of the marshals, who heard the speech, whispered to a friend, "He is greatly changed; you "ll see no more campaigns." I know you "ll reply to me with your old argument about legitimacy and divine right, and all that kind of thing. But, my dear Tom, for the matter of that, have n"t I a divine right to my ancestral estate of Tullylicknaslatterley; and look what they "re going to do with it, to-morrow or next day! "T is much Commissioner Longfield would mind, if I begged to defer the sale, on the ground of "my divine right." Kings are exactly like landlords; they can"t do what they like with their own, hard as it may seem to say so.
They have their obligations and their duties; and if they fail in them, they come into the Enc.u.mbered Estates Court, just like us,--ay, and, just like us, they "take very little by their motion."
I know it"s very hard to be turned out of your "holding." I can imagine the feelings with which a man would quit such a comfortable quarter as the Tuileries, and such a nice place for summer as Versailles; Dodsborough is too fresh in my mind to leave any doubt on this point; but there "s another side of the question, Tom. What were they there for? You"ll call out, "This is all Socialism and Democracy," and the devil knows what else. Maybe I "ll agree with you. Maybe I "ll say I don"t like the doctrine myself. Maybe I "ll tell you that I think the old time was pleasantest, when, if we pressed a little hard to-day, why, we were all the kinder to-morrow, and both ruler and ruled looked more leniently on each other"s faults. But say what we will, do what we will, these days are gone by, and they "ll not come back again. There "s a set of fellows at work, all over the world, telling the people about their rights. Some of these are very acute and clever chaps, that don"t overstate the case; they neither go off into any flights about universal equality, or any balderdash about our being of the same stock; but they stick to two or three hard propositions, and they say, "Don"t pay more for anything than you can get it for,--that"s free-trade; don"t pay for anything you don"t want,--that"s a blow at the Church Establishment; don"t pay for soldiers if you don"t want to fight,--that "s at "a standing army;" and, above all, when you have n"t a pair of breeches to your back, don"t be buying embroidered small-clothes for lords-in-waiting or gentlemen of the bedchamber." But here I am again, running away from Waterloo just as if I was a Belgian.
When we got to Hougoumont, a dreadful storm of rain came on,--such rain as I thought never fell out of Ireland. It came swooping along the ground, and wetting you through and through in five minutes. The thunder, too, rolled awfully, crashing and cannonading around these old walls, as if to wake up the dead by a memory of the great artillery.
Mrs. D. took to her prayers in the little chapel, with Mary Anne and the Pole, James"s friend. Caroline stood with me at a little window, watching the lightning; and James, by way of airing his French, got into a conversation, or rather a discussion, about the battle with a small foreigner with a large beard, that had just come in, drenched to the skin. The louder it thundered, the louder they spoke, or rather screamed at each other; and though I don"t fancy James was very fluent in the French, it"s clear the other was getting the worst of the argument, for he grew terribly angry and jumped about and flourished a stick, and, in fact, seemed very anxious to try conclusions once more on the old field of conflict.
James carried the day, at last; for the other was obliged, as Uncle Toby says, "to evacuate Flanders,"--meaning, thereby, to issue forth into the thickest of the storm rather than sustain the combat any longer. When the storm pa.s.sed over, we made our way back to the little inn at the village of Waterloo, kept in the house where Lord Anglesey suffered amputation, and there we dined. It was neither a very good dinner nor a very social party. Mrs. D."s black velvet bonnet and blue ribbons had got a tremendous drenching; Mary Anne contrived to tear a new satin dress all down the back, with a nail in the old chapel; James was unusually grave and silent; and as for the Pole, all his efforts at conversation were so marred by his bad English that he was a downright bore. It is a mistake to bring one of these foreigners out with a small family party! they neither understand _you_ nor _you them_. Cary was the only one that enjoyed herself; but she went about the inn, picking up little curiosities of the battle,--old b.u.t.tons, bullets, and the like; and it was a comfort to see that one, at least, amongst us derived pleasure from the excursion.
I have often heard descriptions of that night march from Brussels to the field; and truly, what with the gloomy pine-wood, the deep and miry roads, and the falling rain, it must have been a very piteous affair; but for downright ill-humor and discontent, I "d back our own journey over the same ground against all. The horses, probably worn out with toiling over the field all day, were dead beat, and came gradually down from a trot to a jog, and then to a shamble, and at last to a stop.