Vivian Grey/Volume 3/Chapter 5.8
CHAPTER VIII.
When the walking party returned home, they found a crowd of idle domestics assembled opposite the house, round a group of equipages, consisting of two enormous crimson carriages, a britchka, and a large caravan, on all which vehicles the same coat of arms Avas most ostentatiously blazoned.
"Some great arrival!" said Miss Fane.
"It must be the singular party that we watched this morning in the bazaar," said Lady Madeleine. "Oh, Violet! I've such a curious character to introduce you to, a particular friend of Mr. Grey's, who wishes very much to have the honour of your acquaintance, Mr. Essper George.
"What an odd name! Is he an Englishman?"
"His appearance is still more singular than his title. You shall see him to-morrow."
"These carriages, then, belong to him?"
"Not exactly," said Vivian.
In an hour's time, the party again met at dinner in the saloon. By the joint exertions of Ernstorff, and Mr. St. George's servants, the Baron, Vivian, and the Chevalier de Bœffleurs, were now seated next to the party of Lady Madeleine Trevor.
"My horses fortunately arrived from Frankfort this morning," said the Baron. "Mr. St. George and myself have been taking a ride very far up the valley. Has your ladyship yet been to the Castle of Nassau?"
"I am ashamed to say we have not. The expedition has been one of those plans, often arranged, and never executed."
"Oh! you should go by all means; it was one of my favourite spots: I took Mr. St. George there this morning. The ruin is one of the finest in Germany, which, as your ladyship is well aware, is the land of ruins. An expedition to Nassau Castle would be a capital foundation for a pic-nic. Conceive, Miss Fane, a beautiful valley which was discovered by a knight, in the middle ages, following the track of a stag—how exquisitely romantic! The very incident vouches for its sweet seclusion. Cannot you imagine the wooded mountains, the old grey ruin, the sound of the unseen river? What more should we want, except agreeable company, fine music, and the best provisions, to fancy ourselves in Paradise?"
"You certainly give a most glowing description," said Miss Fane. "Why, Mr. Grey, this lovely valley would be a model for the solitude we were planning this morning. I almost wish that your Excellency's plan were practicable."
"I take the whole arrangement upon myself; there is not a difficulty. The ladies shall go on donkeys, or we might make a water excursion of it part of the way, and the donkeys can meet us at the pass near Stein, and then the gentlemen may walk; and if you fear the water at night, which is, perhaps, dangerous, why then the carriages may come round: and if your own be too heavy for mountain roads, my britchka is always at your command. You see there is not a difficulty."
"Not a difficulty," said Mr. St. George: "Madeleine, we only wait for your consent."
"Which will not be withheld a minute, Albert; but I think we had better put off the execution of our plan till June is a little more advanced. I must have a fine summer night for Violet."
"Well then, I hold the whole party present, engaged to follow my standard whenever I have permission from the high authority to unfold it," said the Baron, bowing to Lady Madeleine: "and lest, on cool reflection, I shall not possess influence enough to procure the appointment, I shall, like a skilful orator, take advantage of your feelings, which gratitude for this excellent plan must have already enlisted in my favour, and propose myself as Master of the Ceremonies." The Baron's eye caught Lady Madeleine's, as he uttered this, and something like a smile, rather of pity than derision, lighted up her face.
Here Vivian turned round to give some directions to an attendant, and to his horror, found Essper George standing behind his chair.
"Is there any thing your Highness wants?"
Essper was always particularly neat in his appearance, but to-day the display of clean linen was quite ostentatious; and to make the exposure still more terrific, he had, for the purpose of varying his costume, turned his Huzzar-jacket inside-out, and now appeared in a red coat, lined with green."
"Who ordered you here. Sir?"
"My duty."
"In what capacity do you attend?"
"As your Highness' servant."
"I insist upon your leaving the room directly."
Here Essper looked very suppliant, and began to pant like a hunted hare.
"Ah! my friend, Essper George," said Lady Madeleine, "are you there? What's the matter, is any one ill-treating you?"
"This then is Essper George!" said Violet Fane, "what kind of creature can he possibly be? Why, Mr. Grey, what's the matter?"
"I 'm merely discharging a servant at a moment's warning. Miss Fane; and if you wish to engage his constant attendance upon yourself, I have no objection to give him a character for the occasion."
"What do you want, Essper?" said Miss Fane.
"I merely wanted to see whether your walk this morning had done your Highness' appetite any good," answered Essper, looking very disconsolate; "and so I thought I might make myself useful at the same time; and though I don't bring on the soup in a cocked hat, and carve the venison with a couteau-de-chasse," continued he, bowing very low to Ernstoff, who standing stiff behind his master's chair, seemed utterly unaware that any other person in the room could experience a necessity; "still I can change a plate, or hand the wine, without cracking the first, or drinking the second."
"And very good qualities too!" said Miss Fane. "Come, Essper, you shall put your accomplishments into practice immediately, so change my plate."
This Essper did with the greatest dexterity and quiet, displaying at the same time a small white hand, on the back of which was marked a comet and three daggers. As he had the discretion not to open his mouth, and performed all his duties with great skill, his intrusion in a few minutes was not only pardoned but forgotten.
"There has been a great addition to the visitors to-day, I see," said Lady Madeleine: "pray who are the new-comers?"
"English," said the Chevalier, who, seated at a considerable distance from her ladyship, had not spoken a word during the whole dinner.
"I 'll tell you all about them," said the Baron. "This family is one of those, whose existence astounds the Continent much more than any of your mighty dukes and earls, whose fortunes, though colossal, can be conceived; and whose rank is understood. Mr. Fitzloora is a very different personage; for, thirty years ago he was a journeyman cotton-spinner: some miraculous invention in machinery entitled him to a patent, which has made him one of the most important landed-proprietors in Great Britain. He has lately been returned a member for a great manufacturing city; and he intends to get over the two first years of his parliamentary career, by successively monopolizing the accommodation of all the principal cities of France, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy; and by raising the price of provisions and post-horses through a track of five thousand miles. My information is authentic, for I had a casual acquaintance with him in England. There was some talk of a contract for supplying our army from England, and I saw Fitzloom often on the subject; I have spoken to him to-day. This is by no means the first of the species that we have had in Germany. I can assure you, that the plain traveller feels seriously the inconvenience of following such a caravan. Their money flows with such unwise prodigality, that real liberality ceases to be valued; and many of your nobility have complained to me, that, in their travels, they are now often expostulated with, on account of their parsimony, and taunted with the mistaken extravagance of a stocking-maker, or a porter-brewer."
"What pleasure can such people find in travelling?" wondered the honourable and aristocratic Mr. St. George.
"As much pleasure, and more profit, than half the young men of the present day. In my time, travelling was undertaken on a very different system to what it is now. The English youth then travelled to frequent, what Lord Bacon says are 'especially to be seen and observed—the Courts of Princes.' You all travel now, it appears, to look at mountains, and catch cold in spouting trash on lakes by moonlight. You all think you know every thing, none of you know any thing."
"But my dear Sir!" said the Baron, "although I willingly grant you, that one of the great advantages of travel is the opportunity which it affords us of becoming acquainted with human nature in all its varieties, as developed by different climates, different customs, different governments, and consequently of becoming enabled to form an opinion as to the general capabilities of man; and which knowledge is, of course, chiefly gained where human beings most congregate—great cities, and as you say, the Courts of Princes: still. Sir, we must also not the less forget, that one of the great benefits of travel is, that it enlarges a man^s experience, not only of his fellow-creatures in particular, but of Nature in general. And this not merely by enabling him to see a quantity and a variety of landscape, but by permitting him to watch Nature at various times and seasons. Many men pass through life without seeing a sunrise: a traveller cannot. If human experience be gained by seeing men in their undress, not only when they are conscious of the presence of others; natural experience is only to be acquired by studying Nature at all periods, not merely when man is busy, and the beasts asleep."
"But what 's the use of this deep experience of Nature? Men are born to converse with men, not with stocks and stones. He who has studied Le Sage, will be more happy and more successful in this world, than the man who muses over Rousseau."
"There I agree with you, Mr. Sherborne, I have no wish to make man an anchorite. But as to the utility, the benefit of a thorough experience of Nature, it appears to me to be evident. It increases our stock of ideas—"
"So does every thing."
"But it does more than this. Sir. It calls into being new emotions, it gives rise to new and beautiful associations; it creates that salutary state of mental excitement which renders our ideas more lucid, our conceptions more vivid, and our conclusions more sound. Can we too much esteem a study which, at the same time, renders our imagination more active, and our judgment more correct?"
"Well, Sir, there may be something in what you say, but not much."
"But my dear Sir," said Lady Madeleine, "if his Excellency will allow me to support an argument, which in his hands can require no assistance, do not you think that a full communion with Nature is calculated to elevate our souls, and purify our passions, to———"
"So is reading your bible, my dear. A man's soul should always be elevated; and his passions would then require little purification. If they are not, he might look at mountains for ever, but I should not trust him a jot more."
"But, Sir," continued the Baron, with unusual warmth; "I am clear that there are cases in which the influence of nature has worked what you profess to treat as an impossibility, or a miracle. I am myself acquainted with an instance of a very peculiar character. A few years ago, a gentleman of high rank found himself exposed to the unhappy suspicion of being connected with some disgraceful and dishonourable transactions, which took place in the highest circles of England. Unable to find any specific charge which he could meet, he added one to the numerous catalogue of those unfortunate beings who have sunk in society, the victims of a surmise. He quitted England; and disgusted with the world, became the profligate which he had been falsely believed to be. At the house of Cardinal ***, at Naples, celebrated even in that city for its midnight orgies, and not only for its bacchanal revels, this gentleman became a constant guest. He entered with a mad eagerness into every species of dissipation, although none gave him pleasure; and his fortune, his health, and the powers of his mind, were all fast vanishing. One night, one horrible night of frantic dissipation, a mock election of Master of the Sports was proposed, and the hero of my tale had the splendid gratification of being chosen by unanimous consent to this new office. About two o'clock of the same night, he left the palace of the Cardinal, with an intention of returning. His way on his return led by the Chiaja, which you, Mr. Sherborne, who have been in Naples, perhaps remember. It was one of those nights which we witness only in the South. The blue and brilliant sea was sleeping beneath a cloudless sky; and the moon not only shed her light over the orange and lemon treess, which, spring ing from their green banks of myrtle, hung over the water, but added fresh lustre to the white domes, and glittering towers of the city; and flooded Vesuvius and the distant coast with light, as far even as Capua. The individual of whom I am speaking, had passed this spot on many nights when the moon was not less bright, the waves not less silent, and the orange trees not less sweet; but to-night—to-night something irresistible impelled him to stop. What a contrast to the artificial light, and heat, and splendour of the palace to which he was returning. He mused in silence. Would it not be wiser to forget the world's injustice, in gazing on a moonlit ocean, than in discovering in the illumined halls of Naples, the baseness of the crowd which forms the world's power? To enjoy the refreshing luxury of a fanning breeze which now arose, he turned and gazed on the other side of the bay. Upon his right stretched out the promontory of Pausilippo; there were the shores of Baiæ. But it was not only the loveliness of the land which now overcame his spirit; he thought of those whose fame had made us forget even the beauty of these shores, in associations of a higher character, and a more exalted nature. He remembered the time when it was his only wish to be numbered among them. How had his early hopes been fulfilled! What just account had he rendered to himself and to his country—that country that had expected so much—that self that had aspired even to more!
"Day broke over the city, and found him still pacing down the Chiaja. He did not return to the Cardinal's Palace; and in two days he had left Naples. I can myself, from personal experience, aver that this individual is now an useful and honourable member of society. The world speaks of him in more flattering terms."
The Baron spoke with great energy and animation. Violet Fane, who had been very silent, and who certainly had not encouraged by any apparent interest the previous conversation of the Baron, listened to this anecdote with the most eager attention; but the effect it produced upon Lady Madeleine Trevor was most remarkable. At one moment Vivian thought that her ladyship would have fainted.
"Well!" said Mr. Sherborne, who first broke silence, "I suppose you all think I 'm wrong: I should like to hear your opinion, Mr. Grey, of this business. What do you think of the question?"
"Yes, pray give us your opinion, Mr. Grey," said Lady Madeleine with eagerness; as if she thought that conversation would give her relief. The expression of her countenance did not escape Vivian.
"I must side against you, Mr. Sherborne," said he; "his Excellency has, I think, made out his point. It appears to me, however, that there is one great argument in favour of a study of Nature, and, indeed, of travelling, which I think I have never seen used. It matures a man's mind, because it teaches him to distrust his judgment. He who finds that his preconceptions of natural appearances are erroneous, will in time suspect that his opinions of human nature may be equally incorrect; in short, that his moral conceptions may be as erroneous as his material ones."
"Well! I suppose I must give up. It 's very odd, I never form a hasty opinion, and yet I 'm sometimes wrong. Never above owning it though—never above owning it—not like the young men of the present day, who are so confoundedly addicted to every species of error, that, for my own part, whenever they seem to suspect that they're wrong, I'm always sure that they're right."
Here the party broke up. The promenade followed—the Archduke—his compliments—and courtiers—then came the Redoute. Mr. Hermann bowed low as the gentlemen walked up to the table. The Baron whispered Vivian that it was "expected" that they should play, and give the tables a chance of winning back their money. Vivian staked with the carelessness of one who wishes to lose. As is generally the case under such circumstances, he again left the Redoute a most considerable winner. He parted with the Baron at his Excellency's door, and proceeded to the next, which was his own. Here he stumbled over something at the doorway, which appeared like a large bundle. He bent down with his light to examine it, and found Essper George, lying on his back, with his eyes half-open. It was some moments before Vivian perceived he was asleep; stepping gently over him, he entered his apartment.