1827.] 



Domestic and Foreign. 



87 



' conducts himself towards Paul with into- 

 lerable hauteur, and addresses Paul's sister 

 in a style not at all agreeable to him. On 

 Paul's invitation, they walk down to the 

 shore, to give themselves a little " breath- 

 ing" with their swords, but are interrupted 

 before much mischief ensues. This Lord 

 Dalveen is quite a personage of romance 

 Paul himself, indeed, bedevilled self- 

 willed in his pursuits, and daring in accom- 

 plishing them ; a very Lovelace among 

 women, and a Paladin among fighters. 

 Paul's mother played false to her husband 

 with Lord Dalveen's father ; and both Paul 

 and his sister bear a family resemblance to 

 my Lord. In America, Paul had imbibed, 

 high notions of independence and the rights 

 of men ; and his own haughty spirit led 

 him to a belief in the " dispensing power " 

 of genius, and a clear conviction of his own 

 title to its rights. He came home with a 

 thorough contempt for all distinctions of 

 birth, and the exclusions of rank. Lord 

 Dalveen, though himself professing to de- 

 spise, and actually trampling upon all dis- 

 tinctions, feels with full force the advan- 

 tages of his own superiority in rank, though 

 property he has but little ; his family having 

 been ruined by taking part with the Stuarts, 

 and himself wearing a coronet only by 

 courtesy. Paul and he are .perpetually 

 meeting, and perpetually at daggers-draw- 



, ing. As much in defiance of Paul, as in 

 fondness for the sister, Lord Dalveen lays 

 a plan for carrying her off. He employs 

 the crew of a pirate vessel most of whom 

 are known to Paul. The Captain takes 

 the Lord's money, seizes the lady, and puts 

 to sea without my Lord. This produces 

 another encounter ; and Paul is actually 

 carried before a magistrate : who, indignant 

 at the scandal of a peasant boy, a miserable 

 plebeian, measuring swqrds with a peer, 

 orders him on board the tender a very 

 common summary penalty in the hands of 

 magistrates in those days. 



This is the event which explodes the 

 combustible materials of the hero. His 

 sister is betrayed by a lord he demands 

 satisfaction of that lord and for his pre- 

 sumption, is ignominiously consigned by a 

 magistrate to a ship of war, to serve be- 

 fore the mast. His high spirit cannot 



/ brook the treatment : he escapes from the 

 officers of justice, and flies to America. 

 From America he speedily returns with a 

 sloop of war under his command, commis- 

 sioned by the insurgent Americans, and 

 prepares to lay waste the shore of his na- 

 tive district, the bay of Solway. He ac- 

 tually burns Whitehaven ; and effects a 

 landing in St. Mary's Isle to seize the Earl 

 of Selkirk, meaning to make use of him as 

 an hostage. The Earl is fortunately from 

 home ; but the crew proceed to the castle 

 to seize the family plate, and Paul has some 

 difficulty in preventing further excesses. He 

 engages an English vessel in the bay, and 

 sinks her. Quickly after he is joined by a 



French frigate, of which he takes the com- 

 mand, as commodore, and fights the memo- 

 rable battle with the Serapis, commanded 

 by Captain Pearson, and takes her. On 

 board the Serapis was Dalveen, and Paul 

 and he again tilt at each other. 



Flushed with triumph, he goes now to 

 Paris is welcomed by Franklin and La 

 Fayette ; is presented to the king and queen 

 honoured, feted, courted and petted by 

 lords and ladies ; and recommended by 

 Franklin for the command of the French 

 fleet. Foiled in his proudest hopes, by the 

 intrigues of courtiers, he suddenly quits 

 Paris for America where again the jea- 

 lousy of the Americans excludes him from 

 any distinguished appointment. He is use- 

 ful, however, to Washington in an engage- 

 ment ; and again encounters Dalveen. 

 Washington, after the battle, commissions 

 him to negotiate for assistance with some 

 Scotch settlers in a remote district, where 

 he finds his sister invested with authority 

 over the settlement, served like a queen, 

 with a guard of three hundred men at her 

 devotion. She mocks his proposals, and 

 sharply reproaches him for fighting against 

 his country. Here too again he finds Dal- 

 veen, who had come to offer his repentance, 

 and claim the heroine's hand. She re- 

 fuses ; some attempt at violence follows on 

 the part of Lord Dalveen, and he escapes 

 from her defenders with difficulty. 



Now change we the scene, and find Paul 

 in the service of Russia, rear-admiral of the 

 fleet destined to aid Suwarrow in the taking 

 of Ockazow. His division of the fleet cap- 

 tures several of the enemy's ships ; and by 

 his suggestions and activity, he materially 

 assists in storming the town. In Ockazow, 

 the Vizier himself commands. He is taken, 

 and proves to be Dalveen again. The com- 

 mander-in-chief, Prince Nassau, is jealous 

 of Paul, and takes no notice of him in his 

 despatches, which he forwards to the Em- 

 press by Paul. To him also Suwarrow en- 

 trusts his despatches, but he does Paul full 

 justice. The Empress receives him witli 

 distinction, and confers on him the order 

 of St. Anne, and the rank of full admiral ; 

 but the jealousies of the Scotch officers in 

 her service, three hundred of whom tender 

 their resignation, induce her to recommend 

 him to go to France, with an assurance of 

 the punctual remittance of his pay. 



He lands at Havre, in the heat of the 

 revolution ; and, being recognized by a 

 mob of raving women, he is, on the spot, 

 named Deputy for Havre. In Paris, he 

 several times narrowly escapes amid the 

 clash of parties. Here, once more, he 

 meets with Lord Dalveen, himself a de- 

 puty, and here ends Dalveen's career 

 stabbed by the dagger of a girl in a fit of 

 jealous revenge. And here also, at last, 

 disgusted by scenes of turbulence and blood- 

 shed ; driven from his native and his adopt- 

 ed country; envied by competitors, and 

 deserted by employers ; treated by some as 



