_ CHAPTER XXIII
LETTER FROM ALFRED TO CAROLINE
"MY DEAR CAROLINE,
"I am going to surprise you--I know it is the most imprudent thing a story-teller can do to give notice or promise of a surprise; but you see, I have such confidence at this moment in my fact, that I hazard this imprudence--Whom do you think I have seen? Guess--guess all round the breakfast-table--father, mother, Caroline, Rosamond--I defy you all--ay, Rosamond, even you, with all your capacity for romance; the romance of real life is beyond all other romances--its coincidences beyond the combinations of the most inventive fancy--even of yours, Rosamond--Granted--go on--Patience, ladies, if you please, and don't turn over the page, or glance to the end of my letter to satisfy your curiosity, but read fairly on, says my father.
"You remember, I hope, the Irishman, O'Brien, to whom Erasmus was so good, and whom Mr. Gresham, kind as he always is, took for his porter: when Mr. Gresham set off last week for Amsterdam, he gave this fellow leave to go home to his wife, who lives at Greenwich. This morning, the wife came to see my honour to speak to me, and when she did see me she could not speak, she was crying so bitterly; she was in the greatest distress about her husband: he had, she said, in going to see her, been seized by a press-gang, and put on board a tender now on the Thames. Moved by the poor Irishwoman's agony of grief, and helpless state, I went to Greenwich, where the tender was lying, to speak to the captain, to try to obtain O'Brien's release. But upon my arrival there, I found that the woman had been mistaken in every point of her story. In short, her husband was not on board the tender, had never been pressed, and had only stayed away from home the preceding night, in consequence of having met with the captain's servant, one of his countrymen, from the county of Leitrim dear, who had taken him home to treat him, and had kept him all night to sing 'St. Patrick's day in the morning,' and to drink a good journey, and a quick passage, across the salt water to his master, which he could not refuse. Whilst I was looking at my watch, and regretting my lost morning, a gentleman, whose servant had really been pressed, came up to speak to the captain, who was standing beside me. The gentleman had something striking and noble in his whole appearance; but his address and accent, which were those of a foreigner, did not suit the fancy of my English captain, who, putting on the surly air, with which he thought it for his honour and for the honour of his country to receive a Frenchman, as he took this gentleman to be, replied in the least satisfactory manner possible, and in the short language of some seamen, 'Your footman's an Englishman, sir; has been pressed for an able-bodied seaman, which I trust he'll prove; he's aboard the tender, and there he will remain.' The foreigner, who, notwithstanding the politeness of his address, seemed to have a high spirit, and to be fully sensible of what was due from others to him as well as from him to them, replied with temper and firmness. The captain, without giving any reasons, or attending to what was said, reiterated, 'I am under orders, sir; I am acting according to my orders--I can do neither more nor less. The law is as I tell you, sir.'
"The foreigner bowed submission to the law, but expressed his surprise that such should be law in a land of liberty. With admiration he had heard, that, by the English law and British constitution, the property and personal liberty of the lowest, the meanest subject, could not be injured or oppressed by the highest nobleman in the realm, by the most powerful minister, even by the king himself. He had always been assured that the king could not put his hand into the purse of the subject, or take from him to the value of a single penny; that the sovereign could not deprive the meanest of the people unheard, untried, uncondemned, of a single hour of his liberty, or touch a hair of his head; he had always, on the continent, heard it the boast of Englishmen, that when even a slave touched English ground he became free: 'Yet now, to my astonishment,' pursued the foreigner, 'what do I see?--a freeborn British subject returning to his native land, after an absence of some years, unoffending against any law, innocent, unsuspected of all crime, a faithful domestic, an excellent man, prevented from returning to his family and his home, put on board a king's ship, unused to hard labour, condemned to work like a galley slave, doomed to banishment, perhaps to death!--Good Heavens! In all this where is your English liberty? Where is English justice, and the spirit of your English law?'
"'And who the devil are you, sir?' cried the captain, 'who seem to know so much and so little of English law?'
"'My name, if that be of any consequence, is Count Albert Altenberg.'
"'Well, Caroline, you are surprised.--'No,' says Rosamond; 'I guessed it was he, from the first moment I heard he was a foreigner, and had a noble air.''
"'Altenberg,' repeated the captain; 'that's not a French name:--Why, you are not a Frenchman!'
"'No, sir--a German.'
"'Ah ha!' cried the captain, suddenly changing his tone, 'I thought you were not a Frenchman, or you could not talk so well of English law, and feel so much for English liberty; and now, since that's the case, I'll own to you frankly, that in the main I'm much of your mind--and for my own particular share, I'd as lieve the Admiralty had sent me to hell as have ordered me to press on the Thames. But my business is to obey orders--which I will do, by the blessing of God--so good morning to you. As to law, and justice, and all that, talk to him,' said the captain, pointing with his thumb over his left shoulder to me as he walked off hastily.
"'Poor fellow!' said I; 'this is the hardest part of a British captain's duty, and so he feels it.'
"'Duty!' exclaimed the count--'Duty! pardon me for repeating your word--but can it be his duty? I hope I did not pass proper bounds in speaking to him; but now he is gone, I may say to you, sir--to you, who, if I may presume to judge from your countenance, sympathize in my feelings--this is a fitter employment for an African slave-merchant than for a British officer. The whole scene which I have just beheld there on the river, on the banks, the violence, the struggles I have witnessed there, the screams of the women and children,--it is not only horrible, but in England incredible! Is it not like what we have heard of on the coast of Africa with detestation--what your humanity has there forbidden--abolished? And is it possible that the cries of those negroes across the Atlantic can so affect your philanthropists' imaginations, whilst you are deaf or unmoved by these cries of your countrymen, close to your metropolis, at your very gates? I think I hear them still,' said the count, with a look of horror. 'Such a scene I never before beheld! I have seen it--and yet I cannot believe that I have seen it in England.'
"I acknowledged that the sight was terrible; I could not be surprised that the operation of pressing men for the sea service should strike a foreigner as inconsistent with the notion of English justice and liberty, and I admired the energy and strength of feeling which the count showed; but I defended the measure as well as I could, on the plea of necessity.
"'Necessity!' said the count: 'Pardon me if I remind you that necessity is the tyrant's plea.'
"I mended my plea, and changed necessity into utility--general utility. It was essential to England's defence--to her existence--she could not exist without her navy, and her navy could not be maintained without a press-gang--as I was assured by those who were skilled in naval affairs.
"The count smiled at my evident consciousness of the weakness of my concluding corollary, and observed that, by my own statement, the whole argument depended on the assertions of those who maintained that a navy could not exist without a press-gang. He urged this no further, and I was glad of it; his horses and mine were at this moment brought up, and we both rode together to town.
"I know that Rosamond, at this instant, is gasping with impatience to hear whether in the course of this ride I spoke of M. de Tourville--and the shipwreck. I did--but not of Euphrosyne: upon that subject I could not well touch. He had heard of the shipwreck, and of the hospitality with which the sufferers had been treated by an English gentleman, and he was surprised and pleased, when I told him that I was the son of that gentleman. Of M. de Tourville, the count, I fancy, thinks much the same as you do. He spoke of him as an intriguing diplomatist, of quick talents, but of a mind incapable of any thing great or generous. The count went on from speaking of M. de Tourville to some of the celebrated public characters abroad, and to the politics and manners of the different courts and countries of Europe. For so young a man, he has seen and reflected much. He is indeed a very superior person, as he convinced me even in this short ride. You know that Dr. Johnson says, 'that you cannot stand for five minutes with a great man under a shed, waiting till a shower is over, without hearing him say something that another man could not say.' But though the count conversed with me so well and so agreeably, I could see that his mind was, from time to time, absent and anxious; and as we came into town, he again spoke of the press-gang, and of his poor servant--a faithful attached servant, he called him, and I am sure the count is a good master, and a man of feeling. He had offered money to obtain the man's release in vain. A substitute it was at this time difficult to find--the count was but just arrived in London, had not yet presented any of his numerous letters of introduction; he mentioned the names of some of the people to whom these were addressed, and he asked me whether application to any of them could be of service. But none of his letters were to any of the men now in power. Lord Oldborough was the only person I knew whose word would be law in this case, and I offered to go with him to his lordship. This I ventured, my dear father, because I wisely--yes, wisely, as you shall see, calculated that the introduction of a foreigner, fresh from the continent, and from that court where Cunningham Falconer is now resident envoy, would be agreeable, and might be useful to the minister.
"My friend, Mr. Temple, who is as obliging and as much my friend now he is secretary to the great man as he was when he was a scrivening nobody in his garret, obtained audience for us directly. I need not detail--indeed I have not time--graciously received--count's business done by a line--Temple ordered to write to Admiralty: Lord Oldborough seemed obliged to me for introducing the count--I saw he wished to have some private conversation with him--rose, and took my leave. Lord Oldborough paid me for my discretion on the spot by a kind look--a great deal from him--and following me to the door of the antechamber, 'Mr. Percy, I cannot regret that you have followed your own independent professional course--I congratulate you upon your success--I have heard of it from many quarters, and always, believe me, with pleasure, on your father's account, and on your own.'
"Next day I found on my table when I came from the courts, the count's card--when I returned his visit, Commissioner Falconer was with him in close converse--confirmed by this in opinion that Lord Oldborough is sucking information--I mean, political secrets--out of the count. The commissioner could not, in common decency, help being 'exceedingly sorry that he and Mrs. Falconer had seen so little of me of late,' nor could he well avoid asking me to a concert, to which he invited the count, for the ensuing evening. As the count promised to go, so did I, on purpose to meet him. Adieu, dearest Caroline.
"Most affectionately yours,
"ALFRED PERCY."
To give an account of Mrs. Falconer's concert in fashionable style, we should inform the public that Dr. Mudge for ever established his fame in "
Buds of Roses;" and Miss La Grande was astonishing, absolutely astonishing, in "
Frenar vorrei le lagrime"--quite in Catalani's best manner; but Miss Georgiana Falconer was divine in "
O Giove omnipotente," and quite surpassed herself in "
Quanto O quanto e amor possente," in which Dr. Mudge was also capital: indeed it would be doing injustice to this gentleman's powers not to acknowledge the universality of his genius.
Perhaps our readers may not feel quite satisfied with this general eulogium, and may observe, that all this might have been learnt from the newspapers of the day. Then we must tell things plainly and simply, but this will not sound nearly so grand, and letting the public behind the scenes will destroy all the stage effect and illusion. Alfred Percy went to Mrs. Falconer's unfashionably early, in hopes that, as Count Altenberg dined there, he might have a quarter of an hour's conversation with him before the musical party should assemble. In this hope Alfred was mistaken. He found in the great drawing-room only Mrs. Falconer and two other ladies, whose names he never heard, standing round the fire; the unknown ladies were in close and eager converse about Count Altenberg. "He is so handsome--so polite--so charming!"--"He is very rich--has immense possessions abroad, has not he?"--"Certainly, he has a fine estate in Yorkshire."--"But when did he come to England?"--"How long does he stay?"--"15,000
l., no, 20,000
l. per annum."--"Indeed!"--"Mrs. Falconer, has not Count Altenberg 20,000
l. a year?"
Mrs. Falconer, seemingly uninterested, stood silent, looking through her glass at the man who was lighting the argand lamps. "Really, my dear," answered she, "I can't say--I know nothing of Count Altenberg--Take care! that argand!--He's quite a stranger to us--the commissioner met him at Lord Oldborough's, and on Lord Oldborough's account, of course--Vigor, we must have more light, Vigor--wishes to pay him attention--But here's Mr. Percy," continued she, turning to Alfred, "can, I dare say, tell you all about these things. I think the commissioner mentioned that it was you, Mr. Percy, who introduced the Count to Lord Oldborough."
The ladies immediately fixed their surprised and inquiring eyes upon Mr. Alfred Percy--he seemed to grow in an instant several feet in their estimation: but he shrunk again when he acknowledged that he had merely met Count Altenberg accidentally at Greenwich--that he knew nothing of the count's estate in Yorkshire, or of his foreign possessions, and was utterly incompetent to decide whether he had 10,000
l. or 20,000
l. per annum.
"That's very odd!" said one of the ladies. "But this much I know, that he is passionately fond of music, for he told me so at dinner."
"Then I am sure he will be charmed to-night with Miss Georgiana," said the confidants.
"But what signifies that," replied the other lady, "if he has not--"
"Mr. Percy," interrupted Mrs. Falconer, "I have never seen you since that sad affair of Lady Harriot H---- and Lewis Clay;" and putting her arm within Alfred's, she walked him away, talking over the affair, and throwing in a proper proportion of compliment. As she reached the folding doors, at the farthest end of the room, she opened them.
"I have a notion the young people are here." She introduced him into the music-room. Miss Georgiana Falconer, at the piano-forte, with performers, composers, masters, and young ladies, all with music-books round her, sat high in consultation, which Alfred's appearance interrupted--a faint struggle to be civil--an insipid question or two was addressed to him. "Fond of music, Mr. Percy? Captain Percy, I think, likes music? You expect Captain Percy home soon?"
Scarcely listening to his answers, the young ladies soon resumed their own conversation, forgot his existence, and went on eagerly with their own affairs.
As they turned over their music-books, Alfred, for some minutes, heard only the names of La Tour, Winter, Von Esch, Lanza, Portogallo, Mortellari, Guglielmi, Sacchini, Sarti, Paisiello, pronounced by male and female voices in various tones of ecstasy and of execration. Then there was an eager search for certain favourite duets, trios, and sets of
cavatinas. Next he heard, in rapid succession, the names of Tenducci, Pachierotti, Marchesi, Viganoni, Braham, Gabrielli, Mara, Banti, Grassini, Billington, Catalani. Imagine our young barrister's sense of his profound ignorance, whilst he heard the merits of all dead and living composers, singers, and masters, decided upon by the Miss Falconers. By degrees he began to see a little through the palpable obscure, by which he had at first felt himself surrounded: he discerned that he was in a committee of the particular friends of the Miss Falconers, who were settling what they should sing and play. All, of course, were flattering the Miss Falconers, and abusing their absent friends, those especially who were expected to bear a part in this concert; for instance--"Those two eternal Miss Byngs, with voices, like cracked bells, and with their old-fashioned music, Handel, Corelli, and Pergolese, horrid!--And odious little Miss Crotch, who has science but no taste, execution but no expression!" Here they talked a vast deal about expression. Alfred did not understand them, and doubted whether they understood themselves. "Then her voice! how people can call it fine!--powerful, if you will--but overpowering! For my part, I can't stand it, can you?--Every body knows an artificial shake, when good, is far superior to a natural shake. As to the Miss Barhams, the eldest has no more ear than the table, and the youngest such a thread of a voice!"
"But, mamma," interrupted Miss Georgiana Falconer, "are the Miss La Grandes to be here to-night?"
"Certainly, my dear--you know I could not avoid asking the Miss La Grandes."
"Then, positively," cried Miss Georgiana, her whole face changing, and ill-humour swelling in every feature, "then, positively, ma'am, I can't and won't sing a note!"
"Why, my dear love," said Mrs. Falconer, "surely you don't pretend to be afraid of the Miss La Grandes?"
"You!" cried one of the chorus of flatterers--"You! to whom the La Grandes are no more to be compared--"
"Not but that they certainly sing finely, I am told," said Mrs. Falconer; "yet I can't say I like their style of singing--and knowledge of music, you know, they don't pretend to."
"Why, that's true," said Miss Georgiana; "but still, somehow, I can never bring out my voice before those girls. If I have any voice at all, it is in the lower part, and Miss La Grande always chooses the lower part--besides, ma'am, you know she regularly takes '
O Giove omnipotente' from me. But I should not mind
that even, if she would not attempt poor '
Quanto O quanto e amor possente'--there's no standing that! Now, really, to hear that so spoiled by Miss La Grande--"
"Hush! my dear," said Mrs. Falconer, just as Mrs. La Grande appeared--"Oh! my good Mrs. La Grande, how kind is this of you to come to me with your poor head! And Miss La Grande and Miss Eliza! We are so much obliged to you, for you know that we could not have done without you."
The Miss La Grandes were soon followed by the Miss Barhams and Miss Crotch, and they were all "
so good, and so kind, and such dear creatures." But after the first forced compliments, silence and reserve spread among the young ladies of the Miss Falconers' party. It was evident that the fair professors were mutually afraid and envious of each other, and there was little prospect of harmony of temper. At length the gentlemen arrived. Count Altenberg appeared, and came up to pay his compliments to the Miss Falconers: as he had not been behind the scenes, all was charming illusion to his eyes. No one could appear more good-humoured, agreeable, and amiable than Miss Georgiana; she was in delightful spirits, well dressed, and admirably supported by her mother. The concert began. But who can describe the anxiety of the rival mothers, each in agonies to have their daughters brought forward and exhibited to the best advantage! Some grew pale, some red--all, according to their different powers of self-command and address, endeavoured to conceal their feelings. Mrs. Falconer now shone superior in ease inimitable. She appeared absolutely unconcerned for her own daughter, quite intent upon bringing into notice the talents of the Miss Barhams, Miss Crotch, the Miss La Grandes, &c.
These young ladies in their turn knew and practised the various arts by which at a musical party the unfortunate mistress of the house may be tormented. Some, who were sensible that the company were anxious for their performance, chose to be "
quite out of voice," till they had been pressed and flattered into acquiescence; one sweet bashful creature must absolutely be forced to the instrument, as a new speaker of the House of Commons was formerly dragged to the chair. Then the instrument was not what one young lady was
used to; the lights were so placed that another who was near-sighted could not see a note--another could not endure such a glare. One could not sing unless the windows were all open--another could not play unless they were all shut. With perfect complaisance Mrs. Falconer ordered the windows to be opened and shut, and again shut and opened; with admirable patience she was, or seemed to be, the martyr to the caprices of the fair musicians. While all the time she so manoeuvred as to divide, and govern, and finally to have every thing arranged as she pleased. None but a perfectly cool stander-by, and one previously acquainted with Mrs. Falconer's character, could have seen all that Alfred saw. Perhaps the interest he began to take about Count Altenberg, who was the grand object of all her operations, increased his penetration. While the count was engaged in earnest political conversation in one of the inner rooms with the commissioner, Mrs. Falconer besought the Miss La Grandes to favour the company. It was impossible for them to resist her polite entreaties. Next she called upon Miss Crotch, and the Miss Barhams; and she contrived that they should sing and play, and play and sing, till they had exhausted the admiration and complaisance of the auditors. Then she relieved attention with some slight things from Miss Arabella Falconer, such as could excite no
sensation or envy. Presently, after walking about the room, carelessly joining different conversation parties, and saying something obliging to each, she approached the count and the commissioner. Finding that the commissioner had finished all he had to say, she began to reproach him for keeping the count so long from the ladies, and leading him, as she spoke, to the piano-forte, she declared that he had missed such charming things. She
could not ask Miss Crotch to play any more till she had rested--"Georgiana! for want of something better, do try what you can give us--She will appear to great disadvantage, of course--My dear, I think we have not had
O Giove omnipotente."
"I am not equal to that, ma'am," said Georgiana, drawing back: "you should call upon Miss La Grande."
"True, my love; but Miss La Grande has been so very obliging, I could not ask--Try it, my love--I am not surprised you should be diffident after what we have heard; but the count, I am sure, will make allowances."
With amiable and becoming diffidence Miss Georgiana was compelled to comply--the count was surprised and charmed by her voice: then she was prevailed upon to try "
Quanta O quanto e amor possente"--the count, who was enthusiastically fond of music, seemed quite enchanted; and Mrs. Falconer took care that he should have this impression left full and strong upon his mind--supper was announced. The count was placed at the table between Mrs. Falconer and Lady Trant--but just as they were sitting down, Mrs. Falconer called to Georgiana, who was going, much against her will, to another table, "Take my place, my dear Georgiana, for you know I never eat supper."
Georgiana's countenance, which had been black as night, became all radiant instantly. She took her mamma's place beside the count. Mrs. Falconer walked about all supper-time smiling, and saying obliging things with self-satisfied grace. She had reason indeed to be satisfied with the success of this night's operations. Never once did she appear to look towards the count, or her daughter; but assuredly she saw that things were going on as she wished.
In the mean time Alfred Percy was as heartily tired by the exhibitions of this evening as were many fashionable young men who had been loud in their praises of the performers. Perhaps Alfred was not however a perfectly fair judge, as he was disappointed in his own manoeuvres, not having been able to obtain two minutes' conversation with the count during the whole evening. In a letter to Rosamond, the next day, he said that Mrs. Falconer's concert had been very dull, and he observed that "People can see more of one another in a single day in the country than they can in a year in town." He was further very eloquent "on the folly of meeting in crowds to say commonplace nothings to people you do not care for, and to see only the outsides of those with whom you desire to converse."
"Just as I was writing this sentence," continues Alfred, "Count Altenberg called--how fortunate!--how obliging of him to come so early, before I went to the courts. He has put me into good humour again with the whole world--even with the Miss Falconers. He came to take leave of me--he is going down to the country--with whom do you think?--With Lord Oldborough, during the recess. Did I not tell you that Lord Oldborough would like him--that is, would find that he has information, and can be useful? I hope you will all see the count; indeed I am sure you will. He politely spoke of paying his respects to my father, by whom the shipwrecked foreigners had been so hospitably succoured in their distress. I told him that our family no longer lived in the same place; that we had been obliged to retire to a small estate, in a distant part of the county. I did not trouble him with the history of our family misfortunes; nor did I even mention how the shipwreck, and the carelessness of the Dutch sailors, had occasioned the fire at Percy Hall--though I was tempted to tell him this when I was speaking of M. de Tourville.
"I forgot to tell my father, that the morning when I went with the count to Lord Oldborough's, among a heap of books of heraldry, with which his table was covered, I spied an old book of my father's on the
arte of deciphering, which he had lent Commissioner Falconer years ago. Lord Oldborough, whose eye is quick as a hawk's, saw my eye turn towards it, and he asked me if I knew any thing of that book, or of the art of deciphering? Nothing of the art, but something of the book, which I recollected to be my father's. His lordship put it into my hands, and I showed some pencil notes of my father's writing. Lord Oldborough seemed surprised, and said he did not know this had been among the number of your studies. I told him that you had once been much intent upon Wilkins and Leibnitz's scheme of a universal language, and that I believed this had led you to the art of deciphering. He repeated the words 'Universal language--Ha!--then I suppose it was from Mr. Percy that Commissioner Falconer learnt all he knew on this subject?'
"'I believe so, my lord.'
"'Ha!' He seemed lost for a moment in thought, and then added, 'I wish I had known this sooner--Ha!'
"What these
Haes meant, I was unable to decipher; but I am sure they related to some matter very interesting to him. He explained himself no farther, but immediately turned away from me to the count, and began to talk of the affairs of his court, and of M. de Tourville, of whom he seems to have some knowledge, I suppose through the means of his envoy, Cunningham Falconer.
"I understand that a prodigious party is invited to Falconer-court. The count asked me if I was to be one of them, and seemed to wish it--I like him much. They are to have balls, and plays, and great doings. If I have time, I will write
to-morrow, and tell you who goes, and give you a sketch of their characters. Mrs. Falconer cannot well avoid asking you to some of her entertainments, and it will be pleasant to you to know who's who beforehand." _