Hamley

“ Hamley. 'Now, I don't sew much. I live alone a great deal. You see, both my boys are at Cambridge, and the squire is out of doors all day long—so I have almost forgotten how to sew. I read a great deal. Do you like reading?'
'It depends upon the kind of book,' said Molly. 'I'm afraid I don't like "steady reading," as papa calls it.'
'But you like poetry!' said Mrs. Hamley, almost interrupting Molly. 'I was sure you did, from your face. Have you read this last poem of Mrs. Hemans? ”

“ Of what use had been all his struggle and his pain since that last day in Hamley—his dark fighting days in the desert with Lacey and Mahommed, and his handful of faithful followers, hemmed in by dangers, the sands swarming with Arabs who feathered now to his safety, now to his doom, and his heart had hungered for what he had denied it with a will that would not be conquered? ”

“ I do not know whether it was Edward’s own ambition or his proud father’s wishes that had led him to attend the Hamley assemblies. I should conjecture the latter, for Edward had of himself too much good taste to wish to intrude into any society. In the opinion of all the shire, no society had more reason to consider itself select than that which met at every full moon in the Hamley assembly-room, an excrescence built on to the principal inn in the town by the joint subscription of all the county families. ”

“ In Hamley to-day! He closed his eyes, a tremor running through his body; and then, with an effort which stilled him to peace again, he moved forward, and was greeted by Ebn Ezra, from whom the third member of the little group had now drawn apart nearer to the acacia-tree, and was seated on a rock that jutted from the sand. "What is it?" David asked.
"Wouldst thou not sleep, Saadat? Sleep is more to thee now than aught thou mayst hear from any man. To all thou art kind save thyself." ”

“ Almost any one could have given it to him, and he had a temptation to seek that society which was his the evening before; but he remembered that she was occupied where he could not reach her, and here was Hylda, from whom he had been estranged, but who must surely have seen by now that at Hamley she had been unreasonable, and that she must trust his judgment. So absorbed was he with self and the failure of his speech, that, for a moment, he forgot the subject of it, and what that subject meant to them both. ”

“ But if the work is not quite complete, little remains to be added to it, and that little has been distinctly reflected into our minds. We know that Roger Hamley will marry Molly, and that is what we are most concerned about. Indeed, there was little else to tell. Had the writer lived, she would have sent her hero back to Africa forthwith; and those scientific parts of Africa are a long way from Hamley; and there is not much to choose between a long distance and a long time. ”

“ Hamley, and she was uncertain as to how far her father was acquainted with them; so she did not like to question him too closely; nor was he a man to be so questioned as to the domestic affairs of his patients. ”

“ Hamley, how very clever he really is. Besides, I would rather he was weak than wicked. Weak people may find themselves all at once strong in heaven, when they see things quite clearly; but I don't think the wicked will turn themselves into virtuous people all at once.'
'I think I've been very weak, Molly,' said Mrs. ”

“ Hamley, stroking Molly's curls affectionately. 'I've made such an idol of my beautiful Osborne; and he turns out to have feet of clay, not strong enough to stand firm on the ground. And that's the best view of his conduct, too!'
What with his anger against his son, and his anxiety about his wife: the difficulty of raising the money immediately required, and his irritation at the scarce-concealed inquiries made by strangers as to the value of his property, the poor squire was in a sad state. He was angry and impatient with every one who came near him ”

“ Osborne Hamley who writes poetry?'
'Yes. He is not quite so handsome now; but he was a beautiful boy. Roger was never to be compared with him.'
'No; he is not handsome. And yet I like his face. I can see his eyes. They are grave and solemn-looking; but all the rest of his face is rather merry than otherwise. It looks too steady and sober, too good a face, to go tempting his brother to leave his lesson.'
'Ah! ”

“ Roger Hamley is a man who will soon have an European reputation!"
"That's very possible, and yet it doesn't make any difference in my opinion. Molly Gibson is capable of appreciating him."
"She is a very pretty, good little country-girl. I don't mean to say anything against her, but—"
"Remember the Charity Ball; you called her 'unusually intelligent' after you had danced with her there. But, after all, we are like the genie and the fairy in the Arabian Nights' Entertainment, who each cried up the merits of the Prince Caramalzaman and the Princess Badoura."
"Hamley is not a marrying man." ”

“ I wonder if the people of Hamley will say ‘thee’ and ‘thou’ to me. I hope, I do hope they will.”
“Thee may be sure they will. They are no respecters of persons there. They called your husband’s father Robert—his name was Robert. Friend Robert they called him, and afterwards they called him Robert Denton till he died.”
“Will they call me Hylda?” she asked, with a smile. “More like they will call thee Friend Hylda; it sounds simple and strong,” he replied.
“As they call Claridge Pasha Friend David,” she answered, with a smile. “David is a good name for a strong man.” ”

“ In March 1854 Colonel (afterwards Sir) Richard Dacres [q. v.] , who commanded the artillery at Gibraltar, was given the command of the batteries of the first division in the army sent to Turkey. Hamley went with him as adjutant, and served throughout the war in the Crimea. At the Alma his horse was struck by a cannon-shot. At Inkerman his horse was killed, and he narrowly escaped being made prisoner. ”

“ To be 'nearly as good as Mrs. Hemans' was saying as much to the young ladies of that day, as saying that poetry is nearly as good as Tennyson's would be in this. Molly looked up with eager interest.
'Mr. Osborne Hamley? Does your son write poetry?'
'Yes. I really think I may say he is a poet. He is a very brilliant, clever young man, and he quite hopes to get a fellowship at Trinity. He says he is sure to be high up among the wranglers, and that he expects to get one of the Chancellor's medals. ”

“ I am truly glad to hear it. I always was fond of Osborne; and, do you know, I never really took to Roger; I respected him and all that, of course. But to compare him with Mr. Henderson! Mr Henderson is so handsome and well-bred, and gets all his gloves from Houbigant!'
It was true that they had not seen anything of Osborne Hamley for a long time; ”

“ But his desire of personal distinction caused him many mortifications. 'If I call myself a strategist, I ought to behave as such,' he had remarked some years before; and in that spirit, as soon as Wolseley arrived at Alexandria, Hamley submitted a plan of operations based on a landing in Aboukir Bay. In spite of objections made to it at the time, he was led to believe that it was going to be acted upon when Wolseley put to sea with the first division on the 19th. ”

“ So she thought in a tumultuous kind of way, sobbing till she was wearied out, and had to gain strength by being quiet for a time, to break forth into her passion of tears afresh. She had cast herself on the ground—that natural throne for violent sorrow—and leant up against the old moss-grown seat; sometimes burying her face in her hands; sometimes clasping them together, as if by the tight painful grasp of her fingers she could deaden mental suffering.
She did not see Roger Hamley returning from the meadows, nor hear the click of the little white gate. ”

“ Henry was a witness, almost a victim, of what is one of the most horrible crimes in history, in which queen-mother, king, and princes took part, and of which the Pope heartily approved; and living in an atmosphere of domestic treachery and murder, with a Reine Margot for a wife, and her mother and brothers, together with the infamous crew who formed their Court, for associates, it is astonishing that he should have preserved an ordinary share of the better feelings of humanity, and almost a miracle that he should have continued to show himself so manly and so sound of heart. ”

“ The Leaguers, disheartened by Henry's successes, are about to receive important succour. Count Egmont, marching from the Netherlands with a strong force of Spanish cavalry, was approaching Paris to join Mayenne, who hoped, thus reinforced, to attack the king with advantage. Henry met them both in the open field, and the incidents of the battle and its results make up the eighth canto. The well-known words of Henry to his soldiers are embodied in the poem:—
"'When the fight's hottest, look to my white plume! ”

“ In the camp Bourbon is hailed as king; in the city the Leaguers assemble to choose a monarch. Whilst they are occupied in their deliberations (in which Potier, a citizen, by his assertion of Bourbon's rights in the very presence of Mayenne, earns for himself an immortal niche in the poem) , they are startled by a sudden call to arms. Henry has chosen that moment to direct an assault upon the walls ”

“ It might be supposed that the solemn incidents, the celestial experience, and the divine counsel of the preceding canto would have fortified the king against such a disreputable device as that which the malignant Discord now had recourse to. She repairs to the temple of Love (which is full of allegorical personages) , and rousing the deity from his bed of flowers, enlists him in her cause. Delighted with a mission so completely suited to him, he flies at once to the plains of Ivry, near which Henry was hunting. Love "felt at sight of his victim an inhuman joy ”

“ Henry (so the voice says) is to beware of surrendering himself to his feeble reason. "God has made thee to love, not to comprehend Him; invisible to thine eyes, He is to reign in thine heart; He hates injustice, but pardons error, except voluntary error, which is punished."
The king is now conveyed to the regions of eternal sorrow. There, besides more allegorical personages suitable to the scene—such as Envy, Pride, and Ambition—he sees Jacques Clement, the murderer of Valois, still clutching his bloody knife. ”

“ While D'Aumale exhausts himself in vain efforts, the king's soldier fights calmly and dexterously, and, pressing on at the right moment, strikes down, with a mortal blow, the champion of the League. Extended on the sand, he still vainly menaces Turenne. His sword escapes from his hand; his looks grow wild with the horror of defeat; he raises himself, looks towards Paris, and falls dead. Mayenne, looking on, sees in the event the prognostication of his own approaching overthrow. ”

“ Frederick the Great specially admired the device of taking Henry to heaven and hell in spirit, in his sleep, rather than in the body, as Æneas and Ulysses went. "The single idea," says the admiring monarch, " of attributing to Henry's dream what he sees in heaven and hell, and what is prognosticated to him in the temple of Destiny, is worth the whole of the 'Iliad;' for the dream brings all which happens within the rules of reality, whereas the journey of Ulysses into hell is devoid of all the ornaments which might have given an air of truth to the ingenious fiction of Homer." ”

“ The respite has revived the courage of the Leaguers, but the king is impatient to finish his conquest. The fierce D'Aumale exhorts the garrison to sally and become the assailants. He tells them that "the Frenchman who awaits the attack is already half beaten;" but he fails to inspire them with his own courage, and at last issues alone from the gates to challenge a champion of the enemy. All Henry's chiefs are eager to meet him, but to the valiant Turenne is awarded the honour of the encounter ”

“ And all the rallying chiefs around him throng."
The Leaguers are repulsed. D'Aumale, trying to rally them, is in danger, when an unexpected auxiliary appears. Discord, "the daughter of Hell," arrives in person on the scene, and dreading the loss of so devoted an adherent of herself, covers him with her shield, and withdraws him within the walls of Paris. She then flies to Mayenne, and addressing him as "Thou, bred under my eyes, formed under my laws," bids him be of good cheer. ”

“ The poor woman did riot understand him. "Fie, fie!" he exclaimed; "there ought to be good faith where the life of a poor unfortunate like me is concerned." His appeals, in spite of her attempts to explain, grew more urgent, till at last Madame du Châtelet entered in a fury holding out the opened letter, which she called a proof of infamy. The unlucky Madame de Grafigny was quite overcome by these attacks ”

“ Again, Henry, like the Trojan hero, and like Ulysses, accomplishes the descent into hell, and, like Dante, visits heaven. The fight between Turenne and D'Aumale, which did not really happen, very much resembles that between Turnus and Æneas. Then there is a prophet and a palace of Destiny to connect, as Virgil's Sibyl does, the present of the poem with the future; there are personifications more or less fantastic, as personages having only such allegorical existence must be. Besides a palace of Destiny, there is a temple of Love, with its votaries ”