w doubtless posted at frequent intervals. So I stopped where I was and sat down quietly on a rock for a few minutes to recover my breath, for I had been pretty badly shaken and winded by my numerous tumbles.
As soon as I felt better I got up again, and taking very particular care where I was treading, advanced on tiptoe with a delicacy that Agag might have envied. I had taken about a dozen steps when all of a sudden the railings loomed up in front of me through the mist.
I put my hand on the top bar, and then paused for a moment listening breathlessly for any sound of danger. Except for the faint patter of the rain, however, everything was as silent as the dead. Very carefully I raised myself on the bottom rail, lifted my legs over, one after the other, and then dropped lightly down on to the grass beyond.
As I did so a man rose up suddenly from the ground like a black shadow, and hurling himself on me before I could move, clutched me round the waist.
"Got yer!" he roared. Then at
--are depicted with kindlinessbut sincerity.
The horizon, however, grows dark, and from 1846 the new peer ofFrance notes the gradual tottering of the edifice of royalty.The revolution of 1848 bursts out. Nothing could be morethrilling than the account, hour by hour, of the events of thethree days of February. VICTOR HUGO is not merely a spectatorof this great drama, he is an actor in it. He is in thestreets, he makes speeches to the people, he seeks to restrainthem; he believes, with too good reason, that the Republic ispremature, and, in the Place de la Bastille, before theevolutionary Faubourg Saint Antoine, he dares to proclaim theRegency.
Four months later distress provokes the formidable insurrectionof June, which is fatal to the Republic.
The year 1848 is the stormy year. The atmosphere is fiery, menare violent, events are tragical. Battles in the streets arefollowed by fierce debates in the Assembly. VICTOR HUGO takespart in the mêlée. We witness the scenes with him; he p
"
"Oh!" From the Columbine broke a cry of warning and swift dismay. "Don't you dare speak my name, sir--don't you dare!"
Fell assented with a chuckle, and subsided.
Ansley regarded his two companions with sidelong curiosity. He could not recognize Columbine, and he could not tell whether Fell were speaking of the scarf and jewels in jest or earnest. Such historic things were not uncommon in New Orleans, yet Ansley never heard of these particular treasures. However, it seemed that Fell knew their companion, and accepted her as a fellow guest at the Maillard house.
"What are you doing out on the streets alone?" demanded Fell, suddenly. "Haven't you any friends or relatives to take care of you?"
Columbine's laughter pealed out, and she pressed Fell's arm confidingly.
"Have I not some little rights in the world, monsieur?" she said in French. "I have been mingling with the dear crowds and enjoying them, before I go to be buried in the dull splendours of the rich man's hou
he had come to Fair Oaks some fifteen years previous to this time, dressed in deep mourning, accompanied by her infant son, about three years of age, and it was generally understood that she was distantly related to Mr. Mainwaring. She was a strikingly handsome woman, with that type of physical beauty which commands admiration, rather than winning it; tall, with superb form and carriage, rich olive skin, large dark eyes, brilliant as diamonds and as cold, but which could become luminous with tenderness or fiery with passion, as occasion required. To those whom she sought to entertain she could be extremely charming, but to a few even of these, gifted with deeper insight than the others, it seemed that beneath that fascinating manner was a dangerous nature, a will that would brook no restraint, that never would be thwarted; and that this was, in reality, the power which dominated Fair Oaks.
After years of mysterious seclusion, however, the beautiful home of Hugh Mainwaring, while maintaining its usual r
ll, so still, indeed,that it was possible to follow the flight of a gnatby the buzzing of its wings. On our left loomedthe gorge, deep and black. Behind it and infront of us rose the dark-blue summits of themountains, all trenched with furrows and coveredwith layers of snow, and standing out against thepale horizon, which still retained the last reflec-tions of the evening glow. The stars twinkledout in the dark sky, and in some strange way itseemed to me that they were much higher thanin our own north country. On both sides of theroad bare, black rocks jutted out; here and thereshrubs peeped forth from under the snow; butnot a single withered leaf stirred, and amid thatdead sleep of nature it was cheering to hear thesnorting of the three tired post-horses and theirregular tinkling of the Russian bell.[1]
[1] The bell on the duga, a wooden arch joining theshafts of a Russian conveyance over the horse's neck.
"We will have glorious weather to-morrow,"I said.
The staff-captain a
ion, but a paraphrasethat they give. It may perhaps be thought that the present
translations go almost to the other extreme, and that a renderingof metre, line for line, and word for word, makes it impossibleto preserve the poetry of the original both in substance and insound. But experience has convinced me that it is not so, andthat great fidelity is even the most essential element of
success, whether in translating poetry or prose. It was thereforevery satisfactory to me to find that the principle laid down byme to myself in translating Schiller met with the very general,if not universal, approval of the reader. At the same time, Ihave endeavoured to profit in the case of this, the younger bornof the two attempts made by me to transplant the muse of Germanyto the shores of Britain, by the criticisms, whether friendly orhostile, that have been evoked or provoked by the appearance ofits elder brother.
As already mentioned, the latter contained the whole of thePoems of Schiller. It
clothes on a rock; further, a woman's scarf, a gown, a straw bonnet, the brig's caboose, and one of her masts high and dry, broken into several pieces. In another rocky cove, several rods from the water, and behind rocks twenty feet high, lay a part of one side of the vessel, still hanging together. It was, perhaps, forty feet long, by fourteen wide. I was even more surprised at the power of the waves, exhibited on this shattered fragment, than I had been at the sight of the smaller fragments before. The largest timbers and iron braces were broken superfluously, and I saw that no material could withstand the power of the waves; that iron must go to pieces in such a case, and an iron vessel would be cracked up like an egg-shell on the rocks. Some of these timbers, however, were so rotten that I could almost thrust my umbrella through them. They told us that some were saved on this piece, and also showed where the sea had heaved it into this cove, which was now dry. When I saw where it had come in, and in what
ing to act over again the whole scene of the deer-hunt, but Fru, that is to say, Lady Astrida, was too busy to listen, and broke in with, "Have they brought home the haunch?"
"Yes, Walter is bringing it. I had a long arrow--"
A stout forester was at this instant seen bringing in the venison, and Dame Astrida hastened to meet it, and gave directions, little Richard following her all the way, and talking as eagerly as if she was attending to him, showing how he shot, how Osmond shot, how the deer bounded, and how it fell, and then counting the branches of its antlers, always ending with, "This is something to tell my father. Do you think he will come soon?"
In the meantime two men entered the hall, one about fifty, the other, one or two-and-twenty, both in hunting dresses of plain leather, crossed by broad embroidered belts, supporting a knife, and a bugle- horn. The elder was broad-shouldered, sun-burnt, ruddy, and rather stern-looking; the younger, who was also the taller, was slightly ma
w doubtless posted at frequent intervals. So I stopped where I was and sat down quietly on a rock for a few minutes to recover my breath, for I had been pretty badly shaken and winded by my numerous tumbles.
As soon as I felt better I got up again, and taking very particular care where I was treading, advanced on tiptoe with a delicacy that Agag might have envied. I had taken about a dozen steps when all of a sudden the railings loomed up in front of me through the mist.
I put my hand on the top bar, and then paused for a moment listening breathlessly for any sound of danger. Except for the faint patter of the rain, however, everything was as silent as the dead. Very carefully I raised myself on the bottom rail, lifted my legs over, one after the other, and then dropped lightly down on to the grass beyond.
As I did so a man rose up suddenly from the ground like a black shadow, and hurling himself on me before I could move, clutched me round the waist.
"Got yer!" he roared. Then at
--are depicted with kindlinessbut sincerity.
The horizon, however, grows dark, and from 1846 the new peer ofFrance notes the gradual tottering of the edifice of royalty.The revolution of 1848 bursts out. Nothing could be morethrilling than the account, hour by hour, of the events of thethree days of February. VICTOR HUGO is not merely a spectatorof this great drama, he is an actor in it. He is in thestreets, he makes speeches to the people, he seeks to restrainthem; he believes, with too good reason, that the Republic ispremature, and, in the Place de la Bastille, before theevolutionary Faubourg Saint Antoine, he dares to proclaim theRegency.
Four months later distress provokes the formidable insurrectionof June, which is fatal to the Republic.
The year 1848 is the stormy year. The atmosphere is fiery, menare violent, events are tragical. Battles in the streets arefollowed by fierce debates in the Assembly. VICTOR HUGO takespart in the mêlée. We witness the scenes with him; he p
"
"Oh!" From the Columbine broke a cry of warning and swift dismay. "Don't you dare speak my name, sir--don't you dare!"
Fell assented with a chuckle, and subsided.
Ansley regarded his two companions with sidelong curiosity. He could not recognize Columbine, and he could not tell whether Fell were speaking of the scarf and jewels in jest or earnest. Such historic things were not uncommon in New Orleans, yet Ansley never heard of these particular treasures. However, it seemed that Fell knew their companion, and accepted her as a fellow guest at the Maillard house.
"What are you doing out on the streets alone?" demanded Fell, suddenly. "Haven't you any friends or relatives to take care of you?"
Columbine's laughter pealed out, and she pressed Fell's arm confidingly.
"Have I not some little rights in the world, monsieur?" she said in French. "I have been mingling with the dear crowds and enjoying them, before I go to be buried in the dull splendours of the rich man's hou
he had come to Fair Oaks some fifteen years previous to this time, dressed in deep mourning, accompanied by her infant son, about three years of age, and it was generally understood that she was distantly related to Mr. Mainwaring. She was a strikingly handsome woman, with that type of physical beauty which commands admiration, rather than winning it; tall, with superb form and carriage, rich olive skin, large dark eyes, brilliant as diamonds and as cold, but which could become luminous with tenderness or fiery with passion, as occasion required. To those whom she sought to entertain she could be extremely charming, but to a few even of these, gifted with deeper insight than the others, it seemed that beneath that fascinating manner was a dangerous nature, a will that would brook no restraint, that never would be thwarted; and that this was, in reality, the power which dominated Fair Oaks.
After years of mysterious seclusion, however, the beautiful home of Hugh Mainwaring, while maintaining its usual r
ll, so still, indeed,that it was possible to follow the flight of a gnatby the buzzing of its wings. On our left loomedthe gorge, deep and black. Behind it and infront of us rose the dark-blue summits of themountains, all trenched with furrows and coveredwith layers of snow, and standing out against thepale horizon, which still retained the last reflec-tions of the evening glow. The stars twinkledout in the dark sky, and in some strange way itseemed to me that they were much higher thanin our own north country. On both sides of theroad bare, black rocks jutted out; here and thereshrubs peeped forth from under the snow; butnot a single withered leaf stirred, and amid thatdead sleep of nature it was cheering to hear thesnorting of the three tired post-horses and theirregular tinkling of the Russian bell.[1]
[1] The bell on the duga, a wooden arch joining theshafts of a Russian conveyance over the horse's neck.
"We will have glorious weather to-morrow,"I said.
The staff-captain a
ion, but a paraphrasethat they give. It may perhaps be thought that the present
translations go almost to the other extreme, and that a renderingof metre, line for line, and word for word, makes it impossibleto preserve the poetry of the original both in substance and insound. But experience has convinced me that it is not so, andthat great fidelity is even the most essential element of
success, whether in translating poetry or prose. It was thereforevery satisfactory to me to find that the principle laid down byme to myself in translating Schiller met with the very general,if not universal, approval of the reader. At the same time, Ihave endeavoured to profit in the case of this, the younger bornof the two attempts made by me to transplant the muse of Germanyto the shores of Britain, by the criticisms, whether friendly orhostile, that have been evoked or provoked by the appearance ofits elder brother.
As already mentioned, the latter contained the whole of thePoems of Schiller. It
clothes on a rock; further, a woman's scarf, a gown, a straw bonnet, the brig's caboose, and one of her masts high and dry, broken into several pieces. In another rocky cove, several rods from the water, and behind rocks twenty feet high, lay a part of one side of the vessel, still hanging together. It was, perhaps, forty feet long, by fourteen wide. I was even more surprised at the power of the waves, exhibited on this shattered fragment, than I had been at the sight of the smaller fragments before. The largest timbers and iron braces were broken superfluously, and I saw that no material could withstand the power of the waves; that iron must go to pieces in such a case, and an iron vessel would be cracked up like an egg-shell on the rocks. Some of these timbers, however, were so rotten that I could almost thrust my umbrella through them. They told us that some were saved on this piece, and also showed where the sea had heaved it into this cove, which was now dry. When I saw where it had come in, and in what
ing to act over again the whole scene of the deer-hunt, but Fru, that is to say, Lady Astrida, was too busy to listen, and broke in with, "Have they brought home the haunch?"
"Yes, Walter is bringing it. I had a long arrow--"
A stout forester was at this instant seen bringing in the venison, and Dame Astrida hastened to meet it, and gave directions, little Richard following her all the way, and talking as eagerly as if she was attending to him, showing how he shot, how Osmond shot, how the deer bounded, and how it fell, and then counting the branches of its antlers, always ending with, "This is something to tell my father. Do you think he will come soon?"
In the meantime two men entered the hall, one about fifty, the other, one or two-and-twenty, both in hunting dresses of plain leather, crossed by broad embroidered belts, supporting a knife, and a bugle- horn. The elder was broad-shouldered, sun-burnt, ruddy, and rather stern-looking; the younger, who was also the taller, was slightly ma