1827.] 



Domestic and Foreign. 



199 



and delighted witnesses of his courage, his own 

 troops, Passepartout and his soldier?, and myself, 

 all saw and felt no doubt alike. But there was 

 one among us yet who felt herself at that moment 

 as alone in life, and whose heart appeared to be 

 pierced by the stroke so steadily aimed at her 

 lover's. She had force to fly to the spot, suc,h 

 force as makes the body writhe when severed from 

 existence. She reached her lover, wild, scream, 

 ing, and exhausted. He had fallen to the ground, 

 and with out-stretched arms he received the beau- 

 teous form which sunk upon his, to staunch with 

 senseless weight his wide and gushing wound. I 

 was in a moment one of the group that surrounded 

 this pair, of whom we could scarcely imagine which 

 was the nearer to death. 



The mixed feelings of grief, astonishment, and 

 horror, agitated every by-stander around me, but 

 in addition to these I had to suffer that wild and 

 still incredulous conviction that made me certain of 

 the fact discovered to me, but doubtful of my own 

 intellect. 



The female before me was, i saw it, the Cagot 

 girl. Her dress, her height, her whole appear- 

 ance left no possibility of doubt, but her form of 

 symmetry, her face of beauty, how could these be 

 there? and when, with a convulsive spasm, she 

 tore open the firm-clasped capulet, and exposed 

 her neck and heaving, bosom, what was my amaze- 

 ment to see, instead of the gross deformity I had 

 in fancy loathed, perfection that might invite a 

 sculptor's hand, and make his heart thrill as he 

 gazed. 



I hastily threw her cloak and hood over this rich 

 field of beauty, which I felt to be already violated 

 by the rude yet admiring stare of the astonished 

 observers. 



Reuben Apsley, ly the author of Bram- 

 lletye House, fyc. 3vols. 12mo. 1827. Sir 

 Walter Scott must learn to bear a rival near 

 the throne. His cotemporaries are already 

 beginning to pay a divided allegiance. They 

 think, and apparently with justice, Horace 

 Smith is second, and only second, to the once 

 sole monarch. What another generation may 

 think of either, we have scarcely any crite- 

 rion for determining ; since, even as cotem- 

 poraries, we see the most admired produc- 

 tions through a glass darkly. 



Reuben Apsley exists, through the first 

 half of the book as a person at a distance, 

 operating remotely upon the movements of 

 others, without being himself conspicuous on 

 the scene. He is represented successively as 

 a boy at school, as a youth at the university, 

 and as an inmate at the house of his uncle 

 Goldingham, a retired London citizen, and 

 preserves through all these changes the same 

 unobtrusive aspect. 



Mr. Goldingham was a tallow and hemp 

 merchant, in the grumbling times of James 

 II. All his enterprises had been successful, 

 and had gradually swelled his fortune to a 

 bulk, which, from the variety of his invest- 

 ments, and the alarming condition of public 

 affairs, occasioned its owner incessant and 

 peace-destroying fears. He resolves there- 

 fore to exchange his exchequer bonds, and 

 India stock, into a solid estate in land ; and, 



washing himself quite clean of London smoke, 

 becomes a constituent portion of a neigh- 

 bourhoodMr. Goldingham of Goldingham 

 Place the fortunate correspondence of name 

 being the influencing motive for the purchase. 

 So many ' dirty acres' were attached to 

 this place,' besides illimitable wealth re- 

 ported to be still lodged in paper securities, 

 that his welcome reception in the neighbour- 

 hood was general, although one or two fine 

 ladies took fright at the name of tallow- 

 merchant, and betook themselves to tbeir 

 salts at his approach. Traps were at first 

 laid for detecting his city-breeding ; but he 

 triumphantly and dexterously evaded them 

 all. He is, indeed, the very beau-ideal of 

 a London merchant of the old school, and a 

 gentleman recognising those self-same prin- 

 ciples which, in the best acceptation of the 

 term, constitute the gentleman of every pe- 

 riod, integrity, self-possession, boldness, 

 politeness, gentleness, generosity. 



This person is Reuben's uncle and guardian. 

 Reuben's parents were supposed to have pe- 

 rished on their voyage to India. Years had 

 elapsed without any tidings of their destiny } 

 and Reuben was regularly installed at Gold- 

 ingham Place, as his uncle's heir, when sud- 

 denly Monmouth's invasion threw all the 

 west into disorder. 



A detachment from the rebel army, headed 

 by a college acquaintance of Reuben's, was 

 one morning observed by the young gentle- 

 man, riding up to his uncle's house. He 

 walks forward to meet them, and recognizes 

 his friend, who, alighting from his horse, 

 takes his arm, and informs him, that the sole 

 purpose of their visitation was to relieve his 

 uncle of some cannon, which were mounted 

 on two towers in the grounds. Reuben 

 sagely surmises that it will be better to re- 

 move the cannon, without troubling Mr. 

 Goldingham for an acquiescence, which he 

 might deern it bis duty to withhold. The 

 men set to work at dismantling the towers of 

 the peteraroes, and their commander employs 

 the interval in bringing over Reuben to the 

 same desperate cause, and succeeds ; but 

 Reuben, nevertheless, considerate for his un- 

 cle's neck, while putting his own into jeo- 

 pardy, takes care the whole transaction shall 

 be witnessed by one of the domestics, who is 

 charged to testify to his uncle's entire inno- 

 cence. 



After the battle of Sedgemoor, he becomes 

 a proscribed fugitive, roosting in trees, bur- 

 rowing in holes, and starving on whortle-ber- 

 ries, beleaguered by dogs and soldiers, and 

 nearly done out of life by these and similar 

 harassings. After long brooding over his 

 desperate condition, he comes to the resolu- 

 tion of seeking his uncle's house again ; and 

 accordingly turning thitherward his midnight 

 and stealthy steps, he learns, indirectly, from 

 a wayfaring man, that Goldingham Place is 

 actively beset by soldiers, on suspicion of its 

 affording an asylum to the traitor nephew, 

 and of course is no safe retreat for him. 

 Daylight is at hand, and shelter must be 



