198 



Monthly Review of Literature, 



[AUG. 



along with the negroes, into a common 

 fraternity with ourselves. So he takes an 

 unwilling boy from the inn at Gedro, and 

 descends into the vale of Heas j and hav- 

 ing learnt from his guide the direction to 

 a Cagot hut on the hills, he dismisses him. 

 This hut belonged to a woman of the mise- 

 rable race, whom he had himself that 

 morning relieved at the inn where she 

 had presented herself at the door, not dar- 

 ing to go further, to purchase provisions, 

 or obtain alms. 



He is surprised that his unexpected pre- 

 sence excites confusion in the old woman's 

 hut ; and that, between herself and a 

 daughter one of the same miserable 

 pieces of deformity symptoms of alarm 

 are reciprocated, which indicate to his 

 penetration, proceedings of a clandestine 

 nature, rather than the stupid imbecility 

 he had been led to expect. He is ill, how- 

 ever, with a growing fever, and must be 

 taken in. His wants are kindly supplied ; 

 he is put to bed in an astonishingly com- 

 fortable room, and attended with steady, 

 but reserved assiduity by the old woman 

 and her daughter. His fever increases ; 

 he doses and watches by turns j and in 

 the middle of the night is startled, by 

 hearing two voices in the adjoining room ; 

 he gets curious peeps through a crevice, 

 or the door is a jar we forget which 

 beholds a gay Spanish gentleman and a 

 beautiful lady in deep discourse together, 

 and is thrown into a sea of conjectures 

 political intriguers ? lovers ? or both ? 

 JS T more sleep for him that night ; but 

 the lady and gentleman, alarmed by the 

 symptoms of vigilance in the sick man, 

 very soon withdraw, and the lady retreats 

 into an inner room of the hut. When the 

 morning comes he worries the poor cagot 

 girl, till he learns from her something of 

 the secret, though his disgust augments 

 every moment as he thinks of her defor- 

 mity, and goitred neck constantly avert- 

 ing his eyes and contrasts it with the 

 lovely form he had stealthily beheld the 

 night before. His curiosity only to be 

 gratified by the object of his aversion 

 becomes uncontrollable ; by degrees he 

 extracts from her some particulars, and at 

 last, after receiving the benefit of his 

 protection against an intruding visitor, 

 who insists on searching the lady's cham- 

 ber, her gratitude leads her to be more 

 explicit, and finally she promises the gen- 

 tleman himself shall visit him, and confirm 

 her account. 



The gentleman is Don Melchior, the 

 patriot. The ludy is a young French 

 woman, of ancient family, whohasfled from 

 her inflexible parents to marry him j and 

 in this cagot hut is keeping her conceal- 

 ment, and receiving his visits till the cere- 

 mony can be solemnized, which alone can 

 place her beyond the reach of parental 



power. They are still in peril, Don Mel- 

 chior's life at the momentary mercy of 

 the straggling parties of the faith, one of 

 whom a pretended patriot was watch- 

 ing his opportunity to assassinate him. 



The description of the various military 

 parties that moved or sojourned along the 

 hills and vallies, commanded by the Ca- 

 got's Hut, are very striking ; and a skir- 

 mish between the constitutionalists and 

 theiropponentsisspirhedly sketched. Mel- 

 chior, the patriot hero, the conqueror, is 

 moving along towards the hut, watched by 

 onr Englishman, and also by the Cagot 

 girl, deputed, as it seemed, by the lady 

 within. His own victorious bands at a 

 little distance are gazing on him too ; but 

 no one of all who watch the hero at that 

 moment, is near enough to prevent what 

 all too plainly see an assassin lurking in 

 the way side, and taking steady aim at his 

 bosom. 



Don Melchior came quickly on with light and 

 unsuspicious step, .and the firm, yet cautious tread 

 of the murderer fell unheard behind him, on the 

 mossy slope he traversed. The moment I per- 

 ceived his perilous situation I shouted with all my 

 might, at once to warn him, and scare the as- 

 sassin ; but he looked up towards me, and re- 

 turned the shout with a joyous expression, for the 

 welcome he supposed it to convey ; and the un- 

 ruffled assassin, only raised his arm the higher that 

 the blade it wielded might more steadily fall upon 

 his destined prey. 



Joined to my shout, a piercing scream burst 

 from the path close to my side, and the hood of 

 the Cagot girl hung floating from behind that 

 beauteous head, whose thick curled ringlets I 

 could not fail to recognise, as a light form bound- 

 ed past me. Don Melchior stood for a moment 

 transfixed by surprise, at the sounds of alarm, and 

 at the same instant Passepartout and his men, 

 catching the figures of the hero and his assassin, 

 which the rock had till then concealed, joined 

 in the loud and terrified signal which I and the 

 frantic girl had raised. Don Melchior, startled 

 and perplexed, just turned his head half round 

 when Sanchez, with one fierce exclamation, " We 

 have met!" plunged his murderous knife with a 

 downward slope, into the hero's side. Don Mel- 

 chior tottered from him, and was falling when I, 

 with an instinctive effort, raised my gun to my 

 shoulder, and having covered the villain, was in 

 the act of putting my finger to the trigger, when 

 a flash from Sarjeant Passepartout's carbine, ar- 

 rested the movement, and before the report reach- 

 ed my ear, the coward lay writhing on the earth 

 in the agonies of an immediate and far too easy 

 death. 



How often, in the course of this recital, have I 

 wished that my pen could fly across the page, and 

 trace, in words of flaming speed, thoughts and 

 events as rapid and as hot as the lightning. But 

 now I seem to wish a long and lingering pause : 

 for how describe the accumulated burst of feelings 

 which followed the assassin's stroke I " To fall 

 thus!" was, I believe, the bitter thought that 

 struck all those who saw and who could think. 

 The gallaut comrades of his glory, the astonished 



