Elmina

“ FALCÃO, CHRISTOVÃO DE SOUSA (? 1512–1557) , Portuguese poet, came of a noble family settled at Portalegre in the Alemtejo, which had originated with John Falcon or Falconet, one of the Englishmen who went to Portugal in 1386 in the suite of Philippa of Lancaster. His father, João Vaz de Almada Falcão, was an upright public servant who had held the captaincy of Elmina on the West African coast, but died, as he had lived, a poor man. ”

“ The West India soldier has the same rations as the European soldier, and a West India regiment requires, man for man, exactly the same amount of transport as a European regiment." The 42nd, therefore, was to be landed and taken to the front, while the 1st West India Regiment was to remain at Cape Coast Castle and Elmina as a reserve. Afterwards, when the transport failed, it was found that the West India soldier could do the work of the European on half rations, and carry his own supplies as well. ”

“ Elmina, where they carry on a considerable trade for slaves.
The principal places of trade for negroes, are Bonny and Calabar. The town and trade of Bonny, I have already described. That of Calabar is nearly similar. The natives of the latter are of a much more delicate frame than those of the Windward and Gold Coasts.
The natives of Angola are the mildest, and most expert in mechanicks, of any of the Africans. Their country is the most plentiful of any in those parts, and produces different sorts of grain, particularly calavances, of which they seem, when on ship-board, to be extremely fond. ”

“ The lady herself is the most beautiful woman ever seen by man in Erin."
After Trembling had disappeared from the church, the son of the king of Emania said to the other kings' sons: "I will have that lady for my own."
They all said: "You didn't win her just by taking the shoe off her foot; you'll have to win her by the point of the sword; you'll have to fight for her with us before you can call her your own."
"Well," said the son of the king of Emania, "when I find the lady that shoe will fit, I'll fight for her, never fear, before I leave her to any of you." ”

“ With a single bound Irene reached the prostrate form. Her small hand fell heavily on Elaine's white, quivering shoulder.
"Ellie, Ellie, look at me," she said; "I want to see your face! I want to see the truth in your eyes!"
With a groan Elaine obeyed the imperious mandate of the sharp, young voice. She raised her head and looked into Irene's clear, searching eyes with a woful, white, white, face, on which the very agonies of death could not have written such despair.
"Irene, my love, my darling, do not curse me," she moaned. "It is true! I am your wretched mother!" ”

“ Elmo, I never have loved—do not—and never can love you!' You are too truthful; your lips can not dissemble. I know you do not want to love me. Your reason, your conscience forbid it; you are struggling to crush your heart. You think it your duty to despise and hate me. But, my own, Edna—my darling! my darling! you do love me! You know you do love me, though you will not confess it! My proud darling!"
He drew the face tenderly to his own, and kissed her quivering lips repeatedly, and at last a moan of anguish told how she was wrestling with her heart. ”

“ Elmer take me. Elmer, loving as Valentino, crushing me to him with Dougstrong arms, hot as flame, Elmer.
Through the dream she is stitching white fingers beckon. The white tulle shines too bright. Red hands clutch suddenly out of the tulle, she cant fight off the red tulle all round her biting into her, coiled about her head. The skylight's blackened with swirling smoke. The room's full of smoke and screaming. Anna is on her feet whirling round fighting with her hands the burning tulle all round her.
Ellen stands looking at herself in the pierglass in the fitting room. ”

“ Elmira helped in that. There is always a relief to the soul in bringing it into intimate association with the uniformity of nature. Elmira, bending over the bed of herbs, with the sweet breath of them in her nostrils, gained a certain quiet in her unrest of youth and passion. It was as if she kept step with a mightier movement which tended towards eternity. She had persisted, in spite of Lawrence's entreaties, in her determination that he should cease all attention to her. ”

“ When you meet [Pg 117] strange men on the mountains and they say to you politely, “May I ask your name?” do you answer, “Why, I am Ellen”?’ I had forgotten that I had said that. I suppose I did look young, with my hair down and my brown dress that’s so much too short for me. ‘I came back to find a wonderful little girl; where is she?’ I answered,—and my heart was beating at my boldness,—‘She grew up while you were away.’ ‘Oh, Ellen, Ellen!’ he said to me, ‘those were the longest weeks in all the life I’ve lived, and it’s strange it should have been your aunt’s house that I should have come to. ”

“ Elsmere, what do you think of Aunt Ellen?’
Elsmere started, and could not help smiling into the young girl’s beautiful eyes, which were radiant with fun.
‘A most estimable person,’ he said. ‘Are you on good terms with her, Miss Rose?’
‘Oh dear, no!’ she said, with a little face. ‘I’m not a Leyburn; I wear aesthetic dresses, and Aunt Ellen has “special leadings of the spirit” to the effect that the violin is a soul-destroying instrument. ”

“ Edna Earl!—a puritanical fanatic! Nay, a Pharisee! A cold prude, a heartless blue! A woman with some brain and no feeling, who loves nothing but her own fame, and has no sympathy with your nature. St. Elmo, are you insane! Did you not see that letter from Estelle to your mother, stating that she, Edna, would certainly be married in February to the celebrated Mr. Manning, who was then on his way to Rome to meet her? ”

“ Ellen's eyes sought the window again.
"You are thinking that it is hardly possible," said John, with a smile.
"I suppose it is possible," said Ellen, "but——"
"But lovely as this world is, Ellie, man has filled it with sin, and sin has everywhere brought its punishment, and under the weight of both the earth groans. There will be no sin there; sorrow and sighing shall flee away; love to each other and love to their blessed King will fill all hearts, and His presence will be with them. ”

“ Hanging eagerly and anxiously on her reply, the professor murmured: "When, Elena? When?"
"When you desire, my husband. The fire of my life is burning very low."
"This is infamous!" cried Giuseppe del Giovine, in an outburst that shook him from head to foot, so intense was his emotion. "Elena, are you, too, insane? Do you realize what you are doing? Cannot you understand that Filippo is quite mad with his visions? Even if what he has dreamed could be possible, do you know that you have offered him your death? Elena, Elena, give me your life! Put yourself into my hands! I will cure you. ”

“ Elmo's noble career was blasted, and his most admirable character perverted; and I have hoped and believed that through your influence, my beloved pupil, he would be redeemed from his reckless course. My dear little Edna, you are very lovely and winning, and I believe he would love you as he never loved any one else. Oh! I have hoped everything from your influence! Far, far beyond all computation is the good which a pious, consistent, Christian wife can accomplish in the heart of a husband who truly loves her. ”

“ Bring some seats, Willis. Sit down here by me, Edna, and take off your bonnet, child, and let me see you. Umph! umph! Who'd have thought it? What a powerful handsome woman you have made, to be sure! to be sure! Well! well! The very saints up in glory can't begin to tell what children will turn out! Lean your face this way. Why, you a'n't no more like that little bare-footed, tangle-haired, rosy-faced Edna that used to run around these woods in striped homespun, hunting the cows, than I, Dorothy Elmira Wood, am like the Queen of Sheba when she went up visiting to Jerusalem to call on Solomon. ”

“ Lena would speak, but Erna stops her mouth with a kiss, takes the lamp and goes out. The scene is dark. Lena is barely distinguishable in her cozy corner. The brilliant moon shines through the bay window whenever it comes out from behind the clouds, which a strong wind chases across the sky. Lena finally appears in the stream of light. She feels along the table, then stops and sobs pitifully. She succeeds in finding the kitchen door, opens it, and stands in the flood of light from Bara’s lamp. Through the open door Bara is seen sitting with her elbows on the table and her face in her hands. ”

“ But when Eline looked amid the rare flowers and found a little purple star with heart of gold, she knew that it was a flower from the king’s garden, and she was glad that it could grow where all was rock before. There were great purple pansies, too, like thoughts from the palace in which Eline had lived.
Now it was that the children came to the temple to learn of Eline, and she taught them the wonderful truths which she knew; to them she told the wonderful things that have been and the more wonderful things [56] that may be, if men will only try to bring them about. ”

“ She has known life in its most cruel phases, and instead of hardening her, it has set her trying to save other people suffering. Then this nature position of which I told you; she graduated in the School of the Woods, before she secured that. The Bird Woman, whose work you know, helped her there. Elnora knows more interesting things in a minute than any other girl I ever met knew in an hour, provided you are a person who cares to understand plant and animal life. ”

“ It is as if one approached the place of a god, is it not, Erna, only to think upon the possibilities of what is within us. How can I be content to become once more that which I have been, a creature as insensible to all this as the wolf that howls in the forest down there, and only cares for what he shall eat to-day? I am overwhelmed only to see how great and how noble are the things to which the soul of man may reach out."
Erna was silent a moment, impressed by his earnestness; then she shook herself and laughed.
"Hast thou then been a beast in the forest, or one of the wood-creatures?" ”

“ Elena's eyes filled with tears, as she answered reassuringly.
"You'll see mamma some day, Daria, if you're a very good girl; and meantime, you know, she would like you to learn your lessons, and be as obedient as possible to Var-Vara."
"Well, I do try, Elena, but she is so tiresome sometimes. She won't let me play with the village children! They're very nice, but she says they're peasants. I'm sure I try to remember what you teach me, though the things are so difficult. I'm not so very lazy, Elena!" ”

“ But that was last winter, and I have treated him as coldly as I possibly could ever since, for Ellie's sake."
"Diantha, you are taking more of this on yourself than you have any need to do; you have not helped Ellen to do wrong, and if you spoke once to this wicked soldier, it was but for the once. Purity does not consist in never being at fault, or knowing what temptation is, but it is to resist that which on reflection we know to be wrong. Ellen ought to understand this as well as you do, dear, for, oh, I have tried to train her aright. I love her as my own life. ”

“ Ellen unclosed her eyes and looked about her. She was in a wide gray country, such as she had never seen [53] before. Everything about her was gray, the trees, the grass, the streams and sky—everything; and not far away was a gigantic, shadowy gray castle.
Close to where the gander had alighted stood a little old woman with her hands clasped. She was looking at Ellen with wide, wondering eyes. Presently she came nearer, and timidly stretching out her hand she touched Ellen with her finger. "Are you real, or are you only a dream?" she asked.
"Why I'm real, of course," said Ellen. ”

“ The girl is Elenor Murray, who has grown
[Pg 62] To twenty-years, who looks that seventeen
When first he saw her. He remembers her,
And speaks of Alma Bell, that Alma Bell
Is kindred to him. Where is Alma Bell,
He has not heard about her in these years?
And Elenor Murray colors, and says: “Look,
There is a white cloud on the mountain top.”
And thus the talk commences.
Elenor Murray
Shows forth the vital spirit that is hers.
She dances on her toes and crows in wonder,
Flings up her arms in rapture. What a world
Of beauty and of hope! ”

“ She almost forgot what the morrow would bring, in the exquisite pleasure of the instant, and hung upon every word and look of her brother as if her life were there.
"And in a few weeks," said Ellen, at length, "you will be in our own dear sitting-room again, and riding on the Black Prince! and I shall be here! and it will be——"
"It will be empty without you, Ellie! but we have a friend that is sufficient; let us love Him and be patient."
"It is very hard to be patient," murmured Ellen. "But, dear John, there was something else you wanted me to do? what is it? ”

“ Clytemnestra.
Not so, not so. I will but pleasure thee.
Electra.
I answer then. And, mother, this shall be
My prayer of opening, where hangs the whole:
Would God that He had made thee clean of soul!
Helen and thou—O, face and form were fair,
Meet for men's praise; but sisters twain ye were,
Both things of naught, a stain on Castor's star.
And Helen slew her honour, borne afar
In wilful ravishment: but thou didst slay
The highest man of the world. And now wilt say
'Twas wrought in justice for thy child laid low
At Aulis? . . .Ah, who knows thee as I know? ”

“ Agnes followed the retreating form of Ellen with a long and wistful gaze, then turned with a sigh to collect the scattered articles of finery that strewed the room. "Happy Ellen!" said she to herself, "happy, beautiful Ellen! favoured by nature and fortune. Every desire of her heart is gratified. She moves but to be admired, flattered, and caressed. While I, a poor, dependent relative, am compelled to administer to her vanity and wait upon her caprices—oh! if I were only rich and beautiful like Ellen! ”