De Brooke

“ Assuming one of those habitual smiles under which he could so well disguise his real sentiments, he begged De Brooke to moderate his impetuosity, doubtless naturally to be expected from one so situated, but which he could assure him, as far as himself was concerned, he could not indulge without injustice. ”

“ It may easily be imagined that such reflections, impressed on the mind of De Brooke since his last interview with his father, were of a nature too poignant for time even to ameliorate,—leaving him the prey of a gloom and despondence more than seemed natural to one who, from habitual cheerfulness of temper and elasticity of spirit, had ever before possessed, in a degree uncommon even in youth, the happy art of dissipating anxieties and forgetting cares. ”

“ During this ill-judged speech of De Brooke, the injured pride and mortification it provoked in Mrs. Arden were never to lose their impression.
To be placed, in the sphere of fashion, below the level of one so inferior to her as she considered Mrs. De Brooke, born and bred in rank and amid splendour, the daughter and favoured child of the highly distinguished Sir Aubrey,—gathering at length her suspended articulation, she exclaimed, "'Tis from my father I take my degree; 'tis as the daughter of the great, the wise, the respected Sir Aubrey I receive suffrage. ”

“ De Brooke, who was far from discerning the interested motives which swayed them, or the object aimed at by the whole family of which the young Blake was heir, viz, that of obtaining for him the hand of Oriana in marriage; overlooking, in the blindness of their ambitious views, the extreme youth of the parties; so desirable in many respects did this alliance with the De Brooke family appear to the Blakes, in the survey of their views for the attainment of their favourite end. ”

“ To De Brooke the intelligence proved a real affliction. The amiable qualities of his mother, and the tender care bestowed by her upon his infancy, were indelibly engrafted on his heart.
There was another, a constant companion and participator in the feelings of De Brooke—a humble friend—one who, in bearing testimony to his mother's virtues, dropped with him the tear, also, of gratitude, respect and affection to her memory—a negro servant, who, shortly after breathing the day in his native southern clime, was destined, with his sable mother, to be transported to the West India islands ”

“ Thus the daughter of Sir Aubrey De Brooke fixed his attention, even some years before he asked permission to address her; who, wishing an establishment of her own, was the more willing to profit by so advantageous a settlement, and enter into the views of her father. The courtship was but the affair of a moment; and De Brooke, her brother, justly concluded it to be a match formed solely upon interested motives—avarice on the one hand, and ambition on the other. ”

“ Arden and Mrs. De Brooke were never seen in each other's company, nor were they ever seen to meet at private parties; giving rise to the animadversions of a vain and invidious world, rarely sympathising with neglected virtue, but ever flowing on with the stream of prosperity and grandeur.
The select and respectable acquaintance that had before attached themselves to Mrs. De Brooke, began by degrees to drop their visits, and often to her courteous rencontre gave but an ungracious return. ”

“ Talents prompted by zeal and activity can seldom remain long unnoticed, and particularly when fortune lends her aid to place them in a conspicuous light. Thus the father of De Brooke became distinguished, no less by his intrepidity than by his counsel: considered as one of the most experienced generals of the day, fame and honour attended him. The friend of his sovereign, the favourite at court, his interest and influence were unbounded. ”

“ Because of his very candour, because, so to speak, of what he looked like, this was to some extent true of Rupert Brooke. Age, in time, scrawls our very selves upon our faces. Fast-locked the door of our souls may be, but the key hangs in the porch. But youth and delightful manners may be a mask concealing gravity and deep feeling. And what is one's remembrance of that serenely eager, questing face, stilled, as it were, with the phantom of a smile that might have lingered in the countenance of the Sphinx in her younger days, but that of the very embodiment of youth? ”

“ De Brooke sighed deeply, and mournfully paced his narrow chamber, giving vent to that aching void of which the heart is so sensible, when it has bid a long and last adieu to a well-tried, confidential, and beloved friend! ”

“ CHAPTER IX.
"In vain to seek in man for more than man."
De Brooke, being an officer in the Guards, found himself under the necessity of fixing his residence in London—a circumstance he much regretted, and would have gladly avoided; as, by subjecting his conduct to the immediate inspection of Sir Aubrey, it greatly militated against the design he had formed of keeping his marriage, as long as it was possible, a secret. ”

“ As waters inundate the earth, so affliction in the shape of poverty, sickness, and imprisonment poured heavy upon the head of De Brooke and his partner; but when weighed against that greater one, the loss of that endearing, that amiable child, all their former sorrows appeared but as drops of rain amid the sunshine. ”

“ De Brooke, assuming courage, told her simple story, which, if not altogether approved of, yet did not, as she had anticipated, call forth any immediate animadversions. The lively gestures and looks of the young African having become his own intercessors, dictated by sensibility, and full of grace and candour, might have softened the breast of any, however repugnant to his caste or colour. ”

“ Sir Aubrey would at once throw up the business."
Dispiriting as was this language, yet the intelligence gained by De Brooke as to the place of his destination was by no means so. If he was doomed to no worse an exile than to Ireland he had no cause to complain; but ere he allowed himself to give way to exultation, the point in question demanded his serious attention. Dry and laconic in his speech as was the lawyer, he was entirely checked in his attempt of procuring from him further intelligence respecting the post allotted him by Government. ”

“ De Brooke exerted that fortitude, that noble energy of soul so peculiarly her own; it was upon such great and trying occasions that she manifested the superior usefulness of a religious education. The father's precepts, the mother's example, as impressed upon her heart and mind, gave sublimity and energy to her thoughts more than human, diffusing a holy trust in Providence over her affections, and beaming in heavenly lustre from eyes destined to behold scenes of the most touching, awful, and heart-rending description, connected and interwoven with the tenderest sympathies of her existence! ”

“ De Brooke, that they harboured not the slightest suspicion of any other sentiment prevailing in him for either Oriana or Rosilia than that which old acquaintance authorized.
On this account, Mrs. De Brooke, when employed in her household avocations, left the young people to amuse themselves together. The confidence she placed in Philimore gave her a satisfaction in affording her daughters an intercourse with one so moral and enlightened. ”

“ That you may the sooner be enabled to bury the past in oblivion, I pray Heaven to grant you a recompense of prosperity proportioned to your high deserts, in the better fortune awaiting you. And believe me sincere when I add, that not any of your friends rejoiced more truly than I did, when reading in the Gazette among the promotions the name of De Brooke. ”

“ De Brooke, and from which, much desiring an introduction, she has begged of me to afford it to her. Fearing that you might not approve," addressing himself to Mrs. De Brooke, "I could not altogether acquiesce with her wishes until I had apprized you of them. She is a woman of fortune," laying emphasis on the word fortune, as if to enforce the recommendation it gave her, "and as such frequents the best circles. She is one who improves upon acquaintance, rendering herself as agreeable in small parties, termed family ones, as in large entertainments and crowded rooms." ”

“ Tranquillity was restored to the country, but not to the mind of De Brooke; for another was come to rob him of his laurels! Thus, in his military career, as in every other circumstance of his life, misfortune seemed destined to pursue him! The means by which General Haughton conquered the rebels were those which had been foreseen by De Brooke as likely to prove effective, and which, had such devolved on him, might have been equally well performed. ”

“ De Brooke, "it is indeed to us a pleasing topic, and we much lament that it is so generally banished from society for details of comparatively little importance."
"It is indeed an observation but too true," replied the Doctor; "we rarely meet with those who take much delight in a religious conversation; those high and elevating subjects, so dear to the General and his worthy family,—those edifying topics that afford to us such solid enjoyment, are, unhappily, too much neglected by the many." ”

“ Two or three others also, of an address infinitely above the common, men of sense and erudition, afforded the De Brookes the pleasure of their neighbourly calls.
However such guests might diversify the pursuits of each day, in another point of view they might be found unprofitable, as injurious to the interests of their purse. Comparatively to those who thus courted their acquaintance, the De Brookes enjoyed easy circumstances; partners in affliction, in one common calamity, a nearer sympathy was induced than is found to exist between slight intimates. ”

“ Hopeless as seemed the term of their miseries, ever struggling with mortifications and trials, nothing remained but to live within the bounds of the most rigid self-denial and œconomy. De Brooke felt for Robert the truest affection, but under the circumstances above stated, he came to the decision of parting with him, and of paying off his wages from time to time as they could best afford the means. ”

“ We don't often meet people in this world who instantly recall the Golden Age and remind us that the Greek sculptors went to Life for their models. Even Henry James, in his essay on Brooke, not less in its translucency than five fathoms deep, seems to pause Prospero-like before that Ariel whom he had suddenly encountered in the beautiful setting of the Cambridge "backs." With the lingering gusto which an epicure lavishes on a rare old vintage he tastes—tastes again, and all but hesitates for words to express his precise and ultimate reaction ”

“ Be silent, Rosalind," said Caspar Brooke, in a deep tone of anger. But she raved on.
"Have I not been silent for years? And who is as faithful to you as I have been? It is easy to love a man who is innocent; but not a man who is guilty! Guilty or not—I do not care. It is you that I care for—and you may have as many sins as you please upon your soul—but they are nothing to me. I am past anything now but speaking the truth. Have you no pity for a woman to whom you are dearer than her own soul?" ”

“ Above all, Brooke's poems are charged with, and surrender the magic of what we call personality. They seem, as we read them, to bring us into a happy, instant relationship with him, not only ghostly eye to eye, but mind to mind. They tell more than even friendship could discover unaided. They share his secrets with the world—as if a boy had turned out the contents of his astonishing pockets just before going to bed. They share them, too, in that queer paradoxical fashion which makes a volume of poems a more secure refuge even than one's lawyer, one's doctor, or a priest. ”

“ If aught of anger from the father caused the son to shed a tear, retired and dismayed, Robert would silently give way to grief; and, on the contrary, if joy animated the young master, the same sentiment predominated in the servant. Thus, kindred in feeling, but never descending to familiarity, they grew to manhood. The black, in ever following the fortunes of De Brooke, was still, as we have already observed, closely attached to him on the shores of Portugal, an affectionate sharer in the grief he indulged in for the loss of the best of mothers. ”

“ As joys are increased by participation, so griefs are lightened, when they derive not their source from the severe stings of self-reproach. The wounds of De Brooke were hourly sharpened by the desire of deferring the disclosure from his amiable partner, of the entanglement of his affairs. ”

“ Indeed it may be that, however uncompromising the usages of time, every poet, every man in whom burns on a few coals of imagination, "dies young." But no other English poet of his age has given up his life at a moment so signal, so pregnant. This has isolated and set Rupert Brooke apart. No single consciousness can even so much as vaguely realise the sacrifice of mind and hope and aspiration, of life and promise, "lovely and of good report," which this pitiless and abominable war has meant to England and to the world. ”

“ The controversy was long and acrimonious, the only good result being that, through the researches of Brooke, Camden, and Vincent, the genealogies of the nobility were closely investigated, and the first attempt at a printed peerage was made. Brooke died 15 Oct. 1625, aged 73, and was buried in the church of Reculver, Kent. ”

“ All that I do is useless. I may lie and cheat and plot as much as I like, but all my schemes are in vain. I cannot hurt her, as she said: I cannot punish him: I have no power left. No power, no beauty, no will! Am I losing my senses, too, like Francis?" She shuddered at the thought. "Perhaps I am going mad—they have driven me mad, Caspar Brooke and his wife, between them—mad, mad, mad!—Oh, God," she said, with a long shivering sigh, "Oh, God, avert that doom! ”