The orphans and servant-maids failed to
appreciate
his
flowery periods and emotional fervors.
flowery periods and emotional fervors.
Warner - World's Best Literature - v07 - Cic to Cuv
Hitherto when he
had strangers staying with him he took them another way, in
order that his parish might not be disgraced. Not only were the
walls of the house shining with whitewash, but the windows
were cleaned, a piece of white muslin curtain was pinned across
each, and a jug with a bunch of heather and wild flowers looked.
out smiling on the passers-by. The minister bent his steps to
the open door. He could see the two M'Lurg cows pasturing
placidly with much contented head-tossing on the roadside, while
a small boy sat above, laboring at the first rounds of a stocking.
From the house came the shrill voice of singing. Out of the
firwood over the knoll came a still smaller boy, bent double with
a load of sticks.
«<
In the window, written with large sprawling capitals on a
leaf of a copy-book under the heading Encourage Earnest
Endeavor," appeared the striking legend:-
SOWING & MENDING DUN
GOOD COWS MILK
STICKS FOR FIREWOOD CHEEP
NEW LAID EGGS
BY ELIZABETH MCLURG
The minister stood regarding, amazement on every line of his
face. Leeb came out singing, a neatly tied bundle of chip
made out of the dry débris of the saw-mill in her hand.
"Elizabeth," said he, "what is the meaning of this? "
"Will ye be pleased to step ben? " said Leeb. The minister
did so, and was astonished to find himself sitting down in a
spotless kitchen, the walls positively painfully white, the wooden
chairs scoured with sand till the very fibre of the wood was
blanched, and on a floor so clean that one might have dined off
it, the mystic whorls and crosses of whiting which connect all
good Galloway housekeepers with Runic times.
Before the minister went out of M'Lurg's Mill he had learned
the intentions of Leeb to make men of her brothers.
He said,
"You are a woman already, before your time, Elizabeth! "
which was the speech of all others best fitted to please Leeb
M'Lurg. He had also ordered milk and eggs for the manse to
## p. 4190 (#568) ###########################################
4190
S. R. CROCKETT
be delivered by Benny, and promised that his wife would call
upon the little head of the house.
As he went down the road by the loch-side he meditated, and
this was the substance of his thought:-"If that girl brings up
her brothers like herself, Tyke M'Lurg's children may yet be
ensamples to the flock. "
But as to this we shall see.
SAWNY BEAN; AND THE CAVE OF DEATH
From The Gray Man': copyright 1896, by Harper and Brothers
FOR
'OR a moment in the darkness I stood dazed, and my head
swam. For I bethought me of the earl's words, and I
knew that my fate stood upon tiptoe. For here in the
finding of this box lay all my life, and it might be my love
also. But again another thought crossed the first, damming
back and freezing the current of hot blood which surged to my
heart. The caird's words in the Grieve's kitchen came to me:-
"You will find the treasure of Kelwood in the cave of Sawny
Bean, in the head of Benanback over against Benerard. "
If this were to be, there was little doubt that we stood in in-
stant and imminent danger of our lives. Yet I could not bring
myself to leave the treasure. Doubtless I ought to have done
so, and hastened our escape for the sake of the girls. But I
thought it might be possible to convey the chest out, and so
bring both our quests to an end at once - that for the treasure
by the recovery of the box which had been lost and found and
lost upon the Red Moss, and that of vengeance by the certain
condemnation of the Auchendraynes upon Marjorie's evidence.
――――――――――
―
The next moment great fear took hold on me. All that I
had heard since my childhood about the Unknown who dwelt
upon the shore-side, and lived no man knew how, ran through
my mind, his monstrous form; his cloven feet that made steads
on the ground like those of a beast; his huge hairy arms, clawed
at the finger-ends like the claws of a bear. I minded me of the
fireside tales of the travelers who had lost their way in that
fastness, and who, falling into the power of his savage tribe,
returned no more to kindlier places. I minded also how none
might speak to the prowler by night or get answer from him;
how every expedition against him had come to naught, because
## p. 4191 (#569) ###########################################
S. R. CROCKETT
4191
that he was protected by a power stronger, warned and advised
by an intelligence higher than his own. Besides, none had been
able to find the abode or enter into the secret defenses where
lurked the Man-beast of Benerard.
And it was in this abode of death that I, Launce Kennedy,
being as I supposed in my sane mind, had taken refuge with
two women, one the dearest to me on earth. The blood ran
pingling and pricking in my veins. My heart-cords tightened
as though it had been shut in a box and the key turned.
Hastily I slipped down, and upon a pretext took the dominie
aside to tell him what it was that I had found.
"Ye have found our dead-warrant, then. I wish we had never
seen your treasures and banded boxes! " said he roughly, as if I
had done it with intent.
And in truth I began to think he was right. But it was
none of my fault, and we had been just as badly off in that
place if I had not found it.
After that I went ranging hither and thither among all the
passages and twinings of the cave, yet never daring to go very
far from the place where we were, lest I should not be able to
find my way back. For it was an ill place, where every step
that I took something strange swept across my face or slithered
clammily along my cheek, making one grue to his bone marrows.
I am as fond of a nimble fetch of adventures as any man, as
every believing reader of this chronicle kens well by this time.
But I want no more such experiences. Specially now that I am
become a peaceable man, and no longer so regardlessly forward
as I was in thrusting myself into all stirs and quarrels up to the
elbows.
Then in a little I went soft-footed to where Marjorie and
Nell had bestowed themselves. When I told them how we had
run into danger with a folly and senselessness which nothing
could have excused, save the great necessity into which by the
hellish fury of our enemies we had been driven, it was cheerful
to hear their words of trust, and their declaration that they could
abide the issue with fortitude.
So we made such preparations as we could-as preparing our
pistols and loosening our swords. Yet all had to be done by
touch in that abode of darkness and black unchristian deeds.
It was silent and eery in the cave. We heard the water lap-
ping further and further from us as it retreated down the long
## p. 4192 (#570) ###########################################
S. R. CROCKETT
4192
passage. Now and then we seemed to catch a gliff of the noise
of human voices. But again, when we listened, it was naught
but the wind blowing every way through the passages and halls
of the cave; or the echo of the wing-beatings of uncanny things
that battened in the roofs and crevices of the murtherous cavern
where we abode, unfathomed, unsounded, and obscure.
But we had not long to wait ere our courage and resolution
were tested to the uttermost. For presently there came to us
clearly, though faintly at first, the crying and baying of voices,
fearful and threatening: yet more like the insensate howling of
dogs or shut-up hounds in a kennel than human creatures. Then
there was empty silence, through which again the noise came in
gusts like the sudden deadly anger of a mob; again more sharp
and edged with fear, like the wailing of women led to their
unpitied doom. And the sound of this inhuman carnival, ap-
proaching, filled the cave.
The direful crying came nearer and nearer, till we all cow-
ered pale-faced together, save Marjorie alone-who, having been
as it were in hell itself, feared not the most merciless fiends
that had broken loose therefrom. She stood a little apart from
us, so far that I had not known her presence but for the
draught of air that blew inward, which carried her light robe
towards me so that its texture touched my face, and I was aware
of the old subtle fragrance which in happy days had turned my
head in the gardens of Culzean.
But Nell Kennedy stood close to me— so close that I could
hear her heart beating and the little sound of the clasping and
unclasping of her hands. Which made me somewhat braver,
especially when she put both her hands about my arm and
gripped convulsively to me, as the noises of the crying and
howling waxed louder and nearer.
"I am vexed that I flouted you, Launce! " she whispered in
my ear.
"I do not care what you said to Kate Allison. After
all, she is not such a truth-telling girl, nor yet very by-ordinary
bonny. "
I whispered to her that I cared not either, and that I was
content to die for her.
Thus we sat waiting. Suddenly there was a pause in the
noise which filled the cavern below. I thought they had discov-
ered us. But Marjorie moved her hand a little to bid me keep
## p. 4193 (#571) ###########################################
S. R. CROCKETT
4193
down. So very carefully I raised my head over the rock, so
that through the niche I could, as before, look down upon them.
The water-door of the cave was now entirely filled by a black
bulk, in shape like a monstrous ape. Even in the flickering light
I knew that I had seen the monster before. A thrill ran
through me when I remembered the Man-beast with which I
had grappled in the barn of Culzean the night I outfaced the
Gray Man. And now by the silence, and the crouching of the
horde beneath me, I learned also that their master had come
home. The thing stood a moment in the doorway as though
angered at something. Then he spoke, in a voice like a beast's
growl, things which I could not at all understand. Though it
was clear that his progeny did, for there ensued a rushing from
side to side. Then Sawny Bean strode into the midst of his
den. He stumbled, and set his foot upon a lad of nine or ten,
judging by the size of him, who sprawled in the doorway. The
imp squirmed round like a serpent and bit Sawny Bean in the
leg. Whereat he stooped, and catching the lad by the feet, he
dashed his head with a dull crash against the wall, and threw
him like a dead rabbit in the corner.
The rest stood for a moment aghast. But in a trice, and
without a single one so much as going to see if the boy were
dead or only stunned, the whole hornets' byke hummed again,
and the place was filled with a stifling smell of burning fat and
roasting victual, upon which I dared not let my mind for at
moment dwell.
When Sawny Bean came in, he had that which looked like a
rich cloth of gold over his arm-the plunder of some poor
butchered wretch, belike. He stood with his trophy, examining
it, before the fire. Presently he threw it over his shoulders
with the arms hanging idly down, and strode about 'most like a
play-actor or a mad person, but manifestly to his own great
content and to the admiration of his followers, who stood still
and gaped after him.
When he had satisfied himself with this, I saw him look
towards our place of refuge. A great spasm gulped my heart
when I saw him take the first step towards us, for I knew that
it was his forbidden treasure-house in which we lurked.
So I thought it had come to the bitter push. But something
yet more terrible than the matter of the boy diverted for the
moment the monster's attention. The lad whom he had cast to
VII-263
## p. 4194 (#572) ###########################################
4194
S. R. CROCKETT
the side had been left alone, none daring to meddle. But now,
as he passed him, Sawny Bean gave the body a toss with his
foot. At this, quick as a darting falcon on the stoop, a woman
sprang at him from a crevice where she had been crouching—at
least by her shape she was a woman, with long elf-locks twisting
like snakes about her brow. She held an open knife in her
hand, and she struck at the chieftain's hairy breast. I heard the
knife strike the flesh, and the cry of anger and pain which
followed. But the monster caught the woman by the wrist,
pulled her over his knee, and bent back her head. It was a
horrid thing to see, and there is small wonder that I can see it
yet in many a dream of the night. And no doubt also I shall
see it till I die. hear it as well.
―――
Then for a long season I could look no more. But when I
had recovered me a little, and could again command my heart
to look, I saw a great part of the crew swarm like flies, fetching,
carrying, and working like bees upon spilled honey, from the
corner where had been the bodies of the lad and the woman.
But it was not in the ordinary way that they were being pre-
pared for burial. In the centre of the cave was Sawny, with
some of the younger sort of the women pawing over him and
bandaging his wounded shoulder. He was growling and spitting
inarticulately all the time like a wildcat. And every time his
shoulder hurt him, as the women worked with it, he would take
his other hand and strike one of them down, as though it was
to her that he owed the twinge of pain.
Presently the monster arose and took the gold brocade again
in his hand. I thought that of a certainty now the time was
And I looked at Nell Kennedy.
come.
God knows what was in my eyes. My heart was like to
break. For the like of this pass was never man in. That I
should have to smite my love to the death within an hour of the
first kiss and the first owning of her affection!
But she that loved me read my thought in mine eyes.
She bared her neck for me, so that I could see its tender
whiteness in the flicker of the fire.
'Strike there," she said, "and let me die in your arms, who
are my heart's love, Launcelot Kennedy. "
I heard the Beast-man's step on the stair. I looked from Nell's
dear neck to her eyes and back again to her bosom.
I lifted my
hand with the steel in it, and nerved myself for the striking, for
## p. 4195 (#573) ###########################################
S. R. CROCKETT
4195
I must make no mistaking. And even in that moment I saw a
dagger also in Marjorie's hand.
Suddenly a tremendous rush of sound filled the cave. The
dagger fell from my hand, and Nell and I clasped one another.
The clamor seemed to be about us and all round us. Roaring
echoes came back to us. The bowels of the earth quaked. Yet
methought there was something familiar in the sound of it. I
turned me about, and there, standing erect with all his little
height, was the dominie. His cheeks were distended, and he
was blowing upon his great war-pipes such a thunderous pibroch
as never had been heard in any land since the pipes skirled on
the Red Harlaw.
What possession had come upon his mind I know not. But
the effect I can tell. The pack of fiends that caroused and slew
beneath stood stricken a moment, in amaze at the dreadful
incomprehensible sounds. Then they fled helter-skelter, yelly-
hooing with fear, down the narrow sea-way, from which the tide
had now fully ebbed. And when I looked over, there was not a
soul to be seen. Only over the edge of a caldron the body of
the murdered woman, or at least a part of it, lay—a bloody
incentive to haste out of this direful Cave of Death.
The dominie stepped down as though he had been leading a
march, strutting and passaging like the king's piper marching
about the banqueting-table at Holyrood. I declare, the creature
seemed fey. He was certainly possessed with a devil. But the
fearlessness of the man. won into our veins also. For with steel
or pistol in each of our hands we marched after him, ready to
encounter aught that might come in our way. Aye, and even
thus passed out of the cave, hasting down the long passage
without a quiver of the heart or a blenching of the cheek, so
suddenly and so starkly, by way of sudden hope, had the glorious
music brought the hot blood back to our hearts, even as it had
stricken our cruel foes with instant terror.
cave of Sawny Bean,
But when in the gray
Thus dry-shod we marched out of the
and not so much as a dog barked at us.
of a stormy morning we reached the cliff's edge, we heard inland
the wild voices of the gang yelling down the wind, as though
the furies of fear were pursuing them and tearing at their vitals.
What they expected I know not. But I guess that they must
have taken us for whatever particular devil they happened to
believe in, come to take them quick to their own place. Which,
## p. 4196 (#574) ###########################################
4196
S. R. CROCKETT
after all, could not be much worse than the den in which we
had seen them at their disport, nor could all the torturing fiends
of lowest hell have been their marrows in devilish cruelty.
So once more the world was before us, and strangely quiet it
seemed, as if we had died in stress and riot and been born again
into an uncanny quiet. There remained now for us only the
bringing to pass of righteous judgments upon the wicked ones
who had compassed and plotted all this terrible tale of evils.
These murders without end, the hellish cruelties and death-
breeding deceits, must not fall alone on the crazed outlaw and
his brood, for the chief criminals were those that were greater
than Sawny Bean and his merciless crew.
## p. 4197 (#575) ###########################################
4197
GEORGE CROLY
(1780-1860)
HE versatile Irishman George Croly turned to literature as his
means of livelihood when about thirty years old. He had
been educated in his native town of Dublin, where he had
graduated from Trinity College when only fifteen. Even thus early.
he had distinguished himself as a classical student and for grace in
extempore speaking. He next studied for the ministry, and in 1804
was ordained, and obtained a small curacy in the North of Ireland.
But George Croly had a great fund of ambition, which kept him
dissatisfied in this humble position. Hopes of preferment were several
times held out to him, but they all failed; and tired of disappoint-
ment, he gave up his curacy in 1810 and moved to London with his
mother and sisters. There he soon found an opening in journalism,
and became dramatic critic on the New Times, and a regular con-
tributor to the Literary Gazette and Britannia. He also wrote for
Blackwood's Magazine, and as fellow contributor met the young lady
whom he afterwards married.
In spite of his scholarship and great facility in expression, Croly's
cannot be called an original mind. His verse is mostly a reflection
of the literary influences he experienced. A certain exaggeration of
emotion, the romance of Byron and Moore then in highest favor,
appealed to him, and he emulated it in his most ambitious poems.
'Paris' (1815), although much weaker, strongly suggests 'Childe
Harold. ' Like Moore, his imagination delighted in Oriental color
and richness, and he often chose Eastern subjects, as in 'The Angel
of the World. '
The Traditions of the Rabbins' has been called an imitation of
De Quincey, and indeed a portion of it is wrongly included in the
collection of De Quincey's works. His Life and Times of George
IV. ' is more valuable as entertaining reading than for historical
significance. To religious literature he contributed a 'Commentary
on the Apocalypse,' and a book upon 'Divine Providence, or the
Three Cycles of Revelation. ' But although he loved literature and
had read extensively, Croly's appreciation of it seems to have been
entirely emotional. He could not analyze his impressions, and his crit-
ical work is vague enthusiasm rather than suggestive discrimination.
He essayed drama successfully. Catiline,' in spite of bombastic
reminiscences of Marlowe, has tragic strength and richly rhythmic
## p. 4198 (#576) ###########################################
4198
GEORGE CROLY
verse.
'Pride Shall Have a Fall,' a clever exposure of social weak-
nesses, was successfully given at the Covent Garden Theatre.
Although happy in authorship, Croly was anxious to resume his
clerical profession, and in 1835 gladly accepted the rectorship of St.
Stephen's Church, Walbrook, where a fashionable congregation ac-
corded him a great reputation for eloquence. He was less success-
ful in 1847, when appointed afternoon lecturer at the Foundling
Hospital.
The orphans and servant-maids failed to appreciate his
flowery periods and emotional fervors. He was evidently quite be-
yond them, and soon resigned in disgust at their ingratitude.
Croly's poems and several other works, highly praised when they
appeared, have been nearly forgotten. His fame rests now upon his
fiction: Tales of the Saint Bernard,' 'Marston,' and 'Salathiel the
Immortal. ' The last especially, with the enduring fascination of the
Wandering Jew legend, is always interesting. It has been often said.
that no one else has told the story so well. All the romance-loving
side of Croly's nature comes out in the glowing descriptions of East-
ern scenery, and in the appeal to heroic sentiment. The fantastic
figure of Nero, ancient passions and vices, a spirit of former bar-
barity interwoven with ideality, the tragedy of unending human life,
are curiously impressed on the picturesque pages.
THE FIRING OF ROME
From Salathiel the Immortal'
NTELLIGENCE in a few days arrived from Brundusium of the
Emperor's landing, and of his intention to remain at Antium.
on the road to Rome, until his triumphal entry should be
prepared. My fate now hung in the scale. I was ordered to
attend the imperial presence. At the vestibule of the Antian
palace my careful centurion deposited me in the hands of a
senator. As I followed him through the halls, a young female
richly attired, and of the most beautiful face and form, crossed
us, light and graceful as a dancing nymph. The senator bowed
profoundly. She beckoned to him, and they exchanged a few
words. I was probably the subject; for her countenance, spark-
ling with the animation of youth and loveliness, grew pale at
once; she clasped both her hands upon her eyes, and rushed
into an inner chamber. She knew Nero well; and dearly she
was yet to pay for her knowledge. The senator, to my inquir
ing glance, answered in a whisper, "The Empress Poppæa. "
## p. 4199 (#577) ###########################################
GEORGE CROLY
4199
A few steps onward, and I stood in the presence of the most
formidable being on earth. Yet whatever might have been the
natural agitation of the time, I could scarcely restrain a smile at
the first sight of Nero. I saw a pale, undersized, light-haired
young man sitting before a table with a lyre on it, a few copies
of verses and drawings, and a parrot's cage, to whose inmate he
was teaching Greek with great assiduity. But for the regal fur-
niture of the cabinet, I should have supposed myself led by
mistake into an interview with some struggling poet. He shot
round one quick glance on the opening of the door, and then
proceeded to give lessons to his bird. I had leisure to gaze on
the tyrant and parricide.
Physiognomy is a true science. The man of profound thought,
the man of active ability, and above all the man of genius, has
his character stamped on his countenance by nature; the man of
violent passions and the voluptuary have it stamped by habit.
But the science has its limits: it has no stamp for mere cruelty.
The features of the human monster before me were mild and
almost handsome; a heavy eye and a figure tending to fullness
gave the impression of a quiet mind; and but for an occasional
restlessness of brow, and a brief glance from under it, in which
the leaden eye darted suspicion, I should have pronounced Nero
one of the most indolently tranquil of mankind.
He remanded the parrot to his perch, took up his lyre, and
throwing a not unskillful hand over the strings, in the intervals
of the performance languidly addressed a broken sentence to me.
"You have come, I understand, from Judea; - they tell me that
you have been, or are to be, a general of the insurrection;
you must be put to death; -your countrymen give us a great
deal of trouble, and I always regret to be troubled with them. -
But to send you back would only be encouragement to them, and
to keep you here among strangers would only be cruelty to you.
-
―――
I am charged with cruelty: you see the charge is not true. -
I am lampooned every day; I know the scribblers, but they must
lampoon or starve. I leave them to do both. Have you brought
any news from Judea? - They have not had a true prince there
since the first Herod; and he was quite a Greek, a cut-throat,
and a man of taste. He understood the arts. -I sent for you to
see what sort of animal a Jewish rebel was. Your dress is hand-
some, but too light for our winters. -You cannot die before sun-
set, as till then I am engaged with my music master. We all
――――
## p. 4200 (#578) ###########################################
4200
GEORGE CROLY
―――――――――
must die when our time comes. - - Farewell-till sunset may
Jupiter protect you! "
I retired to execution! and before the door closed, heard this
accomplished disposer of life and death preluding upon his lyre
with increased energy. I was conducted to a turret until the
period in which the Emperor's engagement with his music-
master should leave him at leisure to see me die. Yet there was
kindness even under the roof of Nero, and a liberal hand had
covered the table in my cell. The hours passed heavily along,
but they passed; and I was watching the last rays of my last
sun, when I perceived a cloud rise in the direction of Rome. It
grew broader, deeper, darker, as I gazed; its centre was suddenly
tinged with red; the tinge spread; the whole mass of cloud
became crimson: the sun went down, and another sun seemed to
have risen in his stead. I heard the clattering of horses' feet in
the courtyards below; trumpets sounded; there was confusion in
the palace; the troops hurried under arms; and I saw a squad-
ron of cavalry set off at full speed.
As I was gazing on the spectacle before me, which perpetu-
ally became more menacing, the door of my cell slowly opened,
and a masked figure stood upon the threshold. I had made up
my mind; and demanding if he was the executioner, I told him
"that I was ready. " The figure paused, listened to the sounds.
below, and after looking for a while on the troops in the court-
yard, signified by signs that I had a chance of saving my life.
The love of existence rushed back upon me. I eagerly inquired
what was to be done. He drew from under his cloak the dress
of a Roman slave, which I put on, and noiselessly followed his
steps through a long succession of small and strangely intricate
passages. We found no difficulty from guards or domestics.
The whole palace was in a state of extraordinary confusion.
Every human being was packing up something or other: rich
vases, myrrhine cups, table services, were lying in heaps on the
floors; books, costly dresses, instruments of music, all the append-
ages of luxury, were flung loose in every direction, from the
sudden breaking up of the court. I might have plundered the
value of a province with impunity. Still we wound our hurried
way. In passing along one of the corridors, the voice of com-
plaining struck the ear; the mysterious guide hesitated; I glanced
through the slab of crystal that showed the chamber within. It
was the one in which I had seen the Emperor, but his place
## p. 4201 (#579) ###########################################
GEORGE CROLY
4201
was now filled by the form of youth and beauty that had crossed
me on my arrival. She was weeping bitterly, and reading with
strong and sorrowful indignation a long list of names, probably
one of those rolls in which Nero registered his intended victims,
and which in the confusion of departure he had left open. A
second glance saw her tear the paper into a thousand fragments,
and scatter them in the fountain that gushed upon the floor.
I left this lovely and unhappy creature, this dove in the vul-
ture's talons, with almost a pang. A few steps more brought us
to the open air, but among bowers that covered our path with
darkness. At the extremity of the gardens my guide struck
with his dagger upon a door; it was opened: we found horses.
outside; he sprang on one; I sprang on its fellow; and palace,
guards, and death, were left far behind.
He galloped so furiously that I found it impossible to speak;
and it was not till we had reached an eminence a few miles
from Rome, where we breathed our horses, that I could ask to
whom I had been indebted for my escape. But I could not
extract a word from him. He made signs of silence, and pointed
with wild anxiety to the scene that spread below. It was of a
grandeur and terror indescribable. Rome was an ocean of flame.
Height and depth were covered with red surges, that rolled
before the blast like an endless tide. The billows burst up the
sides of the hills, which they turned into instant volcanoes,
exploding volumes of smoke and fire; then plunged into the
depths in a hundred glowing cataracts, then climbed and con-
sumed again. The distant sound of the city in her convulsion
went to the soul. The air was filled with the steady roar of the
advancing flame, the crash of falling houses, and the hideous
outcry of the myriads flying through the streets, or surrounded
and perishing in the conflagration.
Hostile to Rome as I was, I could not restrain the exclama-
tion: "There goes the fruit of conquest, the glory of ages, the
purchase of the blood of millions! Was vanity made for man? "
My guide continued looking forward with intense earnestness, as
if he were perplexed by what avenue to enter the burning city.
I demanded who he was, and whither he would lead me. He
returned no answer. A long spire of flame that shot up from a
hitherto untouched quarter engrossed all his senses. He struck
in the spur, and making a wild gesture to me to follow, darted
down the hill. I pursued; we found the Appian choked with
―――――――――――――――――
## p. 4202 (#580) ###########################################
4202
GEORGE CROLY
wagons, baggage of every kind, and terrified crowds hurrying
into the open country. To force a way through them was
impossible. All was clamor, violent struggle, and helpless death.
Men and women of the highest rank were on foot, trampled by
the rabble, that had then lost all respect of conditions. One
dense mass of miserable life, irresistible from its weight, crushed
by the narrow streets, and scorched by the flames over their
heads, rolled through the gates like an endless stream of black
lava.
We turned back, and attempted an entrance through the gar-
dens of the same villas that skirted the city wall near the Pala-
tine. All were deserted, and after some dangerous leaps over
the burning ruins we found ourselves in the streets. The fire
had originally broken out upon the Palatine, and hot smoke that
wrapped and half blinded us hung thick as night upon the
wrecks of pavilions and palaces: but the dexterity and knowledge
of my inexplicable guide carried us on. It was in vain that I
insisted upon knowing the purpose of this terrible traverse. He
pressed his hand on his heart in reassurance of his fidelity, and
still spurred on.
We now passed under the shade of an immense range of lofty
buildings, whose gloomy and solid strength seemed to bid
defiance to chance and time. A sudden yell appalled me. A
ring of fire swept round its summit; burning cordage, sheets of
canvas, and a shower of all things combustible, flew into the air
above our heads. An uproar followed, unlike all that I had ever
heard,—a hideous mixture of howls, shrieks, and groans. The
flames rolled down the narrow street before us, and made the
passage next to impossible. While we hesitated, a huge frag-
ment of the building heaved as if in an earthquake, and for-
tunately for us fell inwards. The whole scene of terror was
then open.
The great amphitheatre of Statilius Taurus had
caught fire; the stage with its inflammable furniture was intensely
blazing below. The flames were wheeling up, circle above circle,
through the seventy thousand seats that rose from the ground to
the roof. I stood in unspeakable awe and wonder on the side of
this colossal cavern, this mighty temple of the city of fire. At
length a descending blast cleared away the smoke that covered
the arena.
The cause of those horrid cries was now visible.
The wild beasts kept for the games had broken from their dens.
Maddened by affright and pain, lions, tigers, panthers, wolves,
## p. 4203 (#581) ###########################################
GEORGE CROLY
4203
whole herds of the monsters of India and Africa, were inclosed
in an impassable barrier of fire. They bounded, they fought,
they screamed, they tore; they ran howling round and round the
circle; they made desperate leaps upwards through the blaze;
they were flung back, and fell only to fasten their fangs in each
other, and with their parching jaws bathed in blood, died raging.
I looked anxiously to see whether any human being was
involved in this fearful catastrophe. To my great relief I could
see none. The keepers and attendants had obviously escaped.
As I expressed my gladness I was startled by a loud cry from
my guide, the first sound that I had heard him utter. He
pointed to the opposite side of the amphitheatre. There indeed.
sat an object of melancholy interest; a man who had either been.
unable to escape, or had determined to die. Escape was now
impossible. He sat in desperate calmness on his funeral pile.
He was a gigantic Ethiopian slave, entirely naked. He had
chosen his place, as if in mockery, on the imperial throne; the
fire was above him and around him; and under this tremendous
canopy he gazed, without the movement of a muscle, on the
combat of the wild beasts below: a solitary sovereign with the
whole tremendous game played for himself, and inaccessible to
the power of man.
I was forced away from this absorbing spectacle, and we
once more threaded the long and intricate streets of Rome. As
we approached the end of one of these bewildering passages,
scarcely wide enough for us to ride abreast, I was startled by
the sudden illumination of the sky immediately above; and ren-
dered cautious by the experience of our hazards, called to my
companion to return. He pointed behind me, and showed the
fire bursting out in the houses by which we had just galloped.
I followed on. A crowd that poured from the adjoining streets
cut off our retreat. Hundreds rapidly mounted on the houses
in front, in the hope by throwing them down to check the con-
ration. The obstacle once removed, we saw the source of
the light-spectacle of horror! The great prison of Rome was
on fire. Never can I forget the sights and sounds-the dismay
-the hopeless agony-the fury and frenzy that then over-
whelmed the heart. The jailers had been forced to fly before
they could loose the fetters or open the cells of the prisoners.
We saw those gaunt and woe-begone wretches crowding to their
casements, and imploring impossible help; clinging to the heated
## p. 4204 (#582) ###########################################
GEORGE CROLY
4204
bars; toiling with their impotent grasp to tear out the massive
stones; some wringing their hands; some calling on the terrified
spectators by every name of humanity to save them; some vent-
ing their despair in execrations and blasphemies that made the
blood run cold; others, after many a wild effort to break loose,
dashing their heads against the walls, or stabbing themselves.
The people gave them outcry for outery; but the flame forbade
approach. Before I could extricate myself from the multitude a
whirl of fiery ashes shot upwards from the falling roof; the walls
rent into a thousand fragments; and the huge prison with all
its miserable inmates was a heap of red embers.
Exhausted as I was by this restless fatigue, and yet more by
the melancholy sights that surrounded every step, no fatigue.
seemed to be felt by the singular being that governed my move-
ments. He sprang through the burning ruins,- he plunged into
the sulphurous smoke,- he never lost the direction that he had
first taken; and though baffled and forced to turn back a hun-
dred times, he again rushed on his track with the directness of
an arrow. For me to make my way back to the gates would be
even more difficult than to push forward. My ultimate safety
might be in following, and I followed. To stand still and to
move were equally perilous. The streets, even with the im-
provements of Augustus, were still scarcely wider than the
breadth of the little Italian carts that crowded them. They
were crooked, long, and obstructed by every impediment of a
city built in haste, after the burning by the Gauls, and with no
other plan than the caprice of its hurried tenantry. The houses
were of immense height, chiefly wood, many roofed with thatch,
and all covered or cemented with pitch. The true surprise is
that it had not been burned once a year from the time of its
building.
The memory of Nero, that hereditary concentration of vice,
of whose ancestor's yellow beard the Roman orator said, "No
wonder that his beard was brass, when his mouth was iron and
his heart lead," the parricide and the poisoner-may yet be
fairly exonerated of an act which might have been the deed
of a drunken mendicant in any of the fifty thousand hovels of
this gigantic aggregate of everything that could turn to flame.
We passed along through all the horrid varieties of misery,
guilt, and riot that could find their place in a great public
calamity: groups gazing in woe on the wreck of their fortunes,
-
## p. 4205 (#583) ###########################################
GEORGE CROLY
4205
rushing off to the winds in vapor and fire; groups plundering in
the midst of the flame; groups of rioters, escaped felons, and
murderers, exulting in the public ruin, and dancing and drink-
ing with Bacchanalian uproar; gangs of robbers trampling down
and stabbing the fugitives to strip them of their last means;
revenge, avarice, despair, profligacy, let loose naked; undisguised
demons, to swell the wretchedness of this tremendous infliction
upon a guilty and blood-covered empire.
Still we spurred on, but our jaded horses at length sank
under us; and leaving them to find their way into the fields,
we struggled forward on foot.
――――
A WIFE'S INFLUENCE
Α
URELIA - One hope there is, worth all the rest-Revenge!
The time is harassed, poor, and discontent;
Your spirit practiced, keen, and desperate,-
The Senate full of feuds,- the city vext
With petty tyranny- the legions wronged-
Catiline [scornfully]—
From Catiline >
―――
Aurelia
Catiline - Hear me, bold heart!
Yet who has stirred? Woman, you paint the air
With Passion's pencil.
Were my will a sword!
The whole gross blood of Rome
Could not atone my wrongs! I'm soul-shrunk, sick,
Weary of man! And now my mind is fixed
For Sylla: there to make companionship
Rather of bear and tiger-of the snake-
The lion in his hunger-than of man!
Aurelia I had a father once, who would have plunged
Rome in the Tiber for an angry look!
You saw our entrance from the Gaulish war,
When Sylla fled?
Catiline
My legion was in Spain.
Aurelia-We crept through Italy, a flood of fire,
A living lava, rolling straight on Rome.
For days, before we reached it, the whole road
Was thronged with suppliants-tribunes, consulars;
The mightiest names o' the State. Could gold have bribed,
We might have pitched our tents, and slept on gold;
## p. 4206 (#584) ###########################################
4206
GEORGE CROLY
But we had work to do! Our swords were thirsty.
We entered Rome as conquerors, in arms;
I by my father's side, cuirassed and helmed,
Bellona beside Mars.
Catiline [with coldness] –
Aurelia
―
The world was yours!
- Rome was all eyes; the ancient tottered forth;
The cripple propped his limbs beside the wall;
The dying left his bed to look, and die.
The way before us was a sea of heads;
The way behind a torrent of brown spears:
So, on we rode, in fierce and funeral pomp,
Through the long living streets, that sunk in gloom,
As we, like Pluto and Proserpina,
Enthroned, rode on-like twofold destiny!
Catiline [sternly, interrupting her]—
Those triumphs are but gewgaws. All the earth,
What is it? Dust and smoke. I've done with life!
Aurelia [coming closer and looking steadily upon him]—
Before that eve, one hundred senators
And fifteen hundred knights had paid in blood
The price of taunts, and treachery, and rebellion!
Were my tongue thunder, I would cry-Revenge!
Catiline [in sudden wildness]-
―
No more of this! In to your chamber, wife!
There is a whirling lightness in my brain,
That will not now bear questioning. -Away!
[Aurelia moves slowly towards the door.
Where are our veterans now? Look on these walls;
I cannot turn their tissues into life.
Where are our revenues- our chosen friends?
Are we not beggars? Where have beggars friends?
I see no swords and bucklers on these floors!
I shake the State! I-what have I on earth
-
But these two hands? Must I not dig or starve? --
Come back! I had forgot. My memory dies,
I think, by the hour. Who sups with us to-night?
had strangers staying with him he took them another way, in
order that his parish might not be disgraced. Not only were the
walls of the house shining with whitewash, but the windows
were cleaned, a piece of white muslin curtain was pinned across
each, and a jug with a bunch of heather and wild flowers looked.
out smiling on the passers-by. The minister bent his steps to
the open door. He could see the two M'Lurg cows pasturing
placidly with much contented head-tossing on the roadside, while
a small boy sat above, laboring at the first rounds of a stocking.
From the house came the shrill voice of singing. Out of the
firwood over the knoll came a still smaller boy, bent double with
a load of sticks.
«<
In the window, written with large sprawling capitals on a
leaf of a copy-book under the heading Encourage Earnest
Endeavor," appeared the striking legend:-
SOWING & MENDING DUN
GOOD COWS MILK
STICKS FOR FIREWOOD CHEEP
NEW LAID EGGS
BY ELIZABETH MCLURG
The minister stood regarding, amazement on every line of his
face. Leeb came out singing, a neatly tied bundle of chip
made out of the dry débris of the saw-mill in her hand.
"Elizabeth," said he, "what is the meaning of this? "
"Will ye be pleased to step ben? " said Leeb. The minister
did so, and was astonished to find himself sitting down in a
spotless kitchen, the walls positively painfully white, the wooden
chairs scoured with sand till the very fibre of the wood was
blanched, and on a floor so clean that one might have dined off
it, the mystic whorls and crosses of whiting which connect all
good Galloway housekeepers with Runic times.
Before the minister went out of M'Lurg's Mill he had learned
the intentions of Leeb to make men of her brothers.
He said,
"You are a woman already, before your time, Elizabeth! "
which was the speech of all others best fitted to please Leeb
M'Lurg. He had also ordered milk and eggs for the manse to
## p. 4190 (#568) ###########################################
4190
S. R. CROCKETT
be delivered by Benny, and promised that his wife would call
upon the little head of the house.
As he went down the road by the loch-side he meditated, and
this was the substance of his thought:-"If that girl brings up
her brothers like herself, Tyke M'Lurg's children may yet be
ensamples to the flock. "
But as to this we shall see.
SAWNY BEAN; AND THE CAVE OF DEATH
From The Gray Man': copyright 1896, by Harper and Brothers
FOR
'OR a moment in the darkness I stood dazed, and my head
swam. For I bethought me of the earl's words, and I
knew that my fate stood upon tiptoe. For here in the
finding of this box lay all my life, and it might be my love
also. But again another thought crossed the first, damming
back and freezing the current of hot blood which surged to my
heart. The caird's words in the Grieve's kitchen came to me:-
"You will find the treasure of Kelwood in the cave of Sawny
Bean, in the head of Benanback over against Benerard. "
If this were to be, there was little doubt that we stood in in-
stant and imminent danger of our lives. Yet I could not bring
myself to leave the treasure. Doubtless I ought to have done
so, and hastened our escape for the sake of the girls. But I
thought it might be possible to convey the chest out, and so
bring both our quests to an end at once - that for the treasure
by the recovery of the box which had been lost and found and
lost upon the Red Moss, and that of vengeance by the certain
condemnation of the Auchendraynes upon Marjorie's evidence.
――――――――――
―
The next moment great fear took hold on me. All that I
had heard since my childhood about the Unknown who dwelt
upon the shore-side, and lived no man knew how, ran through
my mind, his monstrous form; his cloven feet that made steads
on the ground like those of a beast; his huge hairy arms, clawed
at the finger-ends like the claws of a bear. I minded me of the
fireside tales of the travelers who had lost their way in that
fastness, and who, falling into the power of his savage tribe,
returned no more to kindlier places. I minded also how none
might speak to the prowler by night or get answer from him;
how every expedition against him had come to naught, because
## p. 4191 (#569) ###########################################
S. R. CROCKETT
4191
that he was protected by a power stronger, warned and advised
by an intelligence higher than his own. Besides, none had been
able to find the abode or enter into the secret defenses where
lurked the Man-beast of Benerard.
And it was in this abode of death that I, Launce Kennedy,
being as I supposed in my sane mind, had taken refuge with
two women, one the dearest to me on earth. The blood ran
pingling and pricking in my veins. My heart-cords tightened
as though it had been shut in a box and the key turned.
Hastily I slipped down, and upon a pretext took the dominie
aside to tell him what it was that I had found.
"Ye have found our dead-warrant, then. I wish we had never
seen your treasures and banded boxes! " said he roughly, as if I
had done it with intent.
And in truth I began to think he was right. But it was
none of my fault, and we had been just as badly off in that
place if I had not found it.
After that I went ranging hither and thither among all the
passages and twinings of the cave, yet never daring to go very
far from the place where we were, lest I should not be able to
find my way back. For it was an ill place, where every step
that I took something strange swept across my face or slithered
clammily along my cheek, making one grue to his bone marrows.
I am as fond of a nimble fetch of adventures as any man, as
every believing reader of this chronicle kens well by this time.
But I want no more such experiences. Specially now that I am
become a peaceable man, and no longer so regardlessly forward
as I was in thrusting myself into all stirs and quarrels up to the
elbows.
Then in a little I went soft-footed to where Marjorie and
Nell had bestowed themselves. When I told them how we had
run into danger with a folly and senselessness which nothing
could have excused, save the great necessity into which by the
hellish fury of our enemies we had been driven, it was cheerful
to hear their words of trust, and their declaration that they could
abide the issue with fortitude.
So we made such preparations as we could-as preparing our
pistols and loosening our swords. Yet all had to be done by
touch in that abode of darkness and black unchristian deeds.
It was silent and eery in the cave. We heard the water lap-
ping further and further from us as it retreated down the long
## p. 4192 (#570) ###########################################
S. R. CROCKETT
4192
passage. Now and then we seemed to catch a gliff of the noise
of human voices. But again, when we listened, it was naught
but the wind blowing every way through the passages and halls
of the cave; or the echo of the wing-beatings of uncanny things
that battened in the roofs and crevices of the murtherous cavern
where we abode, unfathomed, unsounded, and obscure.
But we had not long to wait ere our courage and resolution
were tested to the uttermost. For presently there came to us
clearly, though faintly at first, the crying and baying of voices,
fearful and threatening: yet more like the insensate howling of
dogs or shut-up hounds in a kennel than human creatures. Then
there was empty silence, through which again the noise came in
gusts like the sudden deadly anger of a mob; again more sharp
and edged with fear, like the wailing of women led to their
unpitied doom. And the sound of this inhuman carnival, ap-
proaching, filled the cave.
The direful crying came nearer and nearer, till we all cow-
ered pale-faced together, save Marjorie alone-who, having been
as it were in hell itself, feared not the most merciless fiends
that had broken loose therefrom. She stood a little apart from
us, so far that I had not known her presence but for the
draught of air that blew inward, which carried her light robe
towards me so that its texture touched my face, and I was aware
of the old subtle fragrance which in happy days had turned my
head in the gardens of Culzean.
But Nell Kennedy stood close to me— so close that I could
hear her heart beating and the little sound of the clasping and
unclasping of her hands. Which made me somewhat braver,
especially when she put both her hands about my arm and
gripped convulsively to me, as the noises of the crying and
howling waxed louder and nearer.
"I am vexed that I flouted you, Launce! " she whispered in
my ear.
"I do not care what you said to Kate Allison. After
all, she is not such a truth-telling girl, nor yet very by-ordinary
bonny. "
I whispered to her that I cared not either, and that I was
content to die for her.
Thus we sat waiting. Suddenly there was a pause in the
noise which filled the cavern below. I thought they had discov-
ered us. But Marjorie moved her hand a little to bid me keep
## p. 4193 (#571) ###########################################
S. R. CROCKETT
4193
down. So very carefully I raised my head over the rock, so
that through the niche I could, as before, look down upon them.
The water-door of the cave was now entirely filled by a black
bulk, in shape like a monstrous ape. Even in the flickering light
I knew that I had seen the monster before. A thrill ran
through me when I remembered the Man-beast with which I
had grappled in the barn of Culzean the night I outfaced the
Gray Man. And now by the silence, and the crouching of the
horde beneath me, I learned also that their master had come
home. The thing stood a moment in the doorway as though
angered at something. Then he spoke, in a voice like a beast's
growl, things which I could not at all understand. Though it
was clear that his progeny did, for there ensued a rushing from
side to side. Then Sawny Bean strode into the midst of his
den. He stumbled, and set his foot upon a lad of nine or ten,
judging by the size of him, who sprawled in the doorway. The
imp squirmed round like a serpent and bit Sawny Bean in the
leg. Whereat he stooped, and catching the lad by the feet, he
dashed his head with a dull crash against the wall, and threw
him like a dead rabbit in the corner.
The rest stood for a moment aghast. But in a trice, and
without a single one so much as going to see if the boy were
dead or only stunned, the whole hornets' byke hummed again,
and the place was filled with a stifling smell of burning fat and
roasting victual, upon which I dared not let my mind for at
moment dwell.
When Sawny Bean came in, he had that which looked like a
rich cloth of gold over his arm-the plunder of some poor
butchered wretch, belike. He stood with his trophy, examining
it, before the fire. Presently he threw it over his shoulders
with the arms hanging idly down, and strode about 'most like a
play-actor or a mad person, but manifestly to his own great
content and to the admiration of his followers, who stood still
and gaped after him.
When he had satisfied himself with this, I saw him look
towards our place of refuge. A great spasm gulped my heart
when I saw him take the first step towards us, for I knew that
it was his forbidden treasure-house in which we lurked.
So I thought it had come to the bitter push. But something
yet more terrible than the matter of the boy diverted for the
moment the monster's attention. The lad whom he had cast to
VII-263
## p. 4194 (#572) ###########################################
4194
S. R. CROCKETT
the side had been left alone, none daring to meddle. But now,
as he passed him, Sawny Bean gave the body a toss with his
foot. At this, quick as a darting falcon on the stoop, a woman
sprang at him from a crevice where she had been crouching—at
least by her shape she was a woman, with long elf-locks twisting
like snakes about her brow. She held an open knife in her
hand, and she struck at the chieftain's hairy breast. I heard the
knife strike the flesh, and the cry of anger and pain which
followed. But the monster caught the woman by the wrist,
pulled her over his knee, and bent back her head. It was a
horrid thing to see, and there is small wonder that I can see it
yet in many a dream of the night. And no doubt also I shall
see it till I die. hear it as well.
―――
Then for a long season I could look no more. But when I
had recovered me a little, and could again command my heart
to look, I saw a great part of the crew swarm like flies, fetching,
carrying, and working like bees upon spilled honey, from the
corner where had been the bodies of the lad and the woman.
But it was not in the ordinary way that they were being pre-
pared for burial. In the centre of the cave was Sawny, with
some of the younger sort of the women pawing over him and
bandaging his wounded shoulder. He was growling and spitting
inarticulately all the time like a wildcat. And every time his
shoulder hurt him, as the women worked with it, he would take
his other hand and strike one of them down, as though it was
to her that he owed the twinge of pain.
Presently the monster arose and took the gold brocade again
in his hand. I thought that of a certainty now the time was
And I looked at Nell Kennedy.
come.
God knows what was in my eyes. My heart was like to
break. For the like of this pass was never man in. That I
should have to smite my love to the death within an hour of the
first kiss and the first owning of her affection!
But she that loved me read my thought in mine eyes.
She bared her neck for me, so that I could see its tender
whiteness in the flicker of the fire.
'Strike there," she said, "and let me die in your arms, who
are my heart's love, Launcelot Kennedy. "
I heard the Beast-man's step on the stair. I looked from Nell's
dear neck to her eyes and back again to her bosom.
I lifted my
hand with the steel in it, and nerved myself for the striking, for
## p. 4195 (#573) ###########################################
S. R. CROCKETT
4195
I must make no mistaking. And even in that moment I saw a
dagger also in Marjorie's hand.
Suddenly a tremendous rush of sound filled the cave. The
dagger fell from my hand, and Nell and I clasped one another.
The clamor seemed to be about us and all round us. Roaring
echoes came back to us. The bowels of the earth quaked. Yet
methought there was something familiar in the sound of it. I
turned me about, and there, standing erect with all his little
height, was the dominie. His cheeks were distended, and he
was blowing upon his great war-pipes such a thunderous pibroch
as never had been heard in any land since the pipes skirled on
the Red Harlaw.
What possession had come upon his mind I know not. But
the effect I can tell. The pack of fiends that caroused and slew
beneath stood stricken a moment, in amaze at the dreadful
incomprehensible sounds. Then they fled helter-skelter, yelly-
hooing with fear, down the narrow sea-way, from which the tide
had now fully ebbed. And when I looked over, there was not a
soul to be seen. Only over the edge of a caldron the body of
the murdered woman, or at least a part of it, lay—a bloody
incentive to haste out of this direful Cave of Death.
The dominie stepped down as though he had been leading a
march, strutting and passaging like the king's piper marching
about the banqueting-table at Holyrood. I declare, the creature
seemed fey. He was certainly possessed with a devil. But the
fearlessness of the man. won into our veins also. For with steel
or pistol in each of our hands we marched after him, ready to
encounter aught that might come in our way. Aye, and even
thus passed out of the cave, hasting down the long passage
without a quiver of the heart or a blenching of the cheek, so
suddenly and so starkly, by way of sudden hope, had the glorious
music brought the hot blood back to our hearts, even as it had
stricken our cruel foes with instant terror.
cave of Sawny Bean,
But when in the gray
Thus dry-shod we marched out of the
and not so much as a dog barked at us.
of a stormy morning we reached the cliff's edge, we heard inland
the wild voices of the gang yelling down the wind, as though
the furies of fear were pursuing them and tearing at their vitals.
What they expected I know not. But I guess that they must
have taken us for whatever particular devil they happened to
believe in, come to take them quick to their own place. Which,
## p. 4196 (#574) ###########################################
4196
S. R. CROCKETT
after all, could not be much worse than the den in which we
had seen them at their disport, nor could all the torturing fiends
of lowest hell have been their marrows in devilish cruelty.
So once more the world was before us, and strangely quiet it
seemed, as if we had died in stress and riot and been born again
into an uncanny quiet. There remained now for us only the
bringing to pass of righteous judgments upon the wicked ones
who had compassed and plotted all this terrible tale of evils.
These murders without end, the hellish cruelties and death-
breeding deceits, must not fall alone on the crazed outlaw and
his brood, for the chief criminals were those that were greater
than Sawny Bean and his merciless crew.
## p. 4197 (#575) ###########################################
4197
GEORGE CROLY
(1780-1860)
HE versatile Irishman George Croly turned to literature as his
means of livelihood when about thirty years old. He had
been educated in his native town of Dublin, where he had
graduated from Trinity College when only fifteen. Even thus early.
he had distinguished himself as a classical student and for grace in
extempore speaking. He next studied for the ministry, and in 1804
was ordained, and obtained a small curacy in the North of Ireland.
But George Croly had a great fund of ambition, which kept him
dissatisfied in this humble position. Hopes of preferment were several
times held out to him, but they all failed; and tired of disappoint-
ment, he gave up his curacy in 1810 and moved to London with his
mother and sisters. There he soon found an opening in journalism,
and became dramatic critic on the New Times, and a regular con-
tributor to the Literary Gazette and Britannia. He also wrote for
Blackwood's Magazine, and as fellow contributor met the young lady
whom he afterwards married.
In spite of his scholarship and great facility in expression, Croly's
cannot be called an original mind. His verse is mostly a reflection
of the literary influences he experienced. A certain exaggeration of
emotion, the romance of Byron and Moore then in highest favor,
appealed to him, and he emulated it in his most ambitious poems.
'Paris' (1815), although much weaker, strongly suggests 'Childe
Harold. ' Like Moore, his imagination delighted in Oriental color
and richness, and he often chose Eastern subjects, as in 'The Angel
of the World. '
The Traditions of the Rabbins' has been called an imitation of
De Quincey, and indeed a portion of it is wrongly included in the
collection of De Quincey's works. His Life and Times of George
IV. ' is more valuable as entertaining reading than for historical
significance. To religious literature he contributed a 'Commentary
on the Apocalypse,' and a book upon 'Divine Providence, or the
Three Cycles of Revelation. ' But although he loved literature and
had read extensively, Croly's appreciation of it seems to have been
entirely emotional. He could not analyze his impressions, and his crit-
ical work is vague enthusiasm rather than suggestive discrimination.
He essayed drama successfully. Catiline,' in spite of bombastic
reminiscences of Marlowe, has tragic strength and richly rhythmic
## p. 4198 (#576) ###########################################
4198
GEORGE CROLY
verse.
'Pride Shall Have a Fall,' a clever exposure of social weak-
nesses, was successfully given at the Covent Garden Theatre.
Although happy in authorship, Croly was anxious to resume his
clerical profession, and in 1835 gladly accepted the rectorship of St.
Stephen's Church, Walbrook, where a fashionable congregation ac-
corded him a great reputation for eloquence. He was less success-
ful in 1847, when appointed afternoon lecturer at the Foundling
Hospital.
The orphans and servant-maids failed to appreciate his
flowery periods and emotional fervors. He was evidently quite be-
yond them, and soon resigned in disgust at their ingratitude.
Croly's poems and several other works, highly praised when they
appeared, have been nearly forgotten. His fame rests now upon his
fiction: Tales of the Saint Bernard,' 'Marston,' and 'Salathiel the
Immortal. ' The last especially, with the enduring fascination of the
Wandering Jew legend, is always interesting. It has been often said.
that no one else has told the story so well. All the romance-loving
side of Croly's nature comes out in the glowing descriptions of East-
ern scenery, and in the appeal to heroic sentiment. The fantastic
figure of Nero, ancient passions and vices, a spirit of former bar-
barity interwoven with ideality, the tragedy of unending human life,
are curiously impressed on the picturesque pages.
THE FIRING OF ROME
From Salathiel the Immortal'
NTELLIGENCE in a few days arrived from Brundusium of the
Emperor's landing, and of his intention to remain at Antium.
on the road to Rome, until his triumphal entry should be
prepared. My fate now hung in the scale. I was ordered to
attend the imperial presence. At the vestibule of the Antian
palace my careful centurion deposited me in the hands of a
senator. As I followed him through the halls, a young female
richly attired, and of the most beautiful face and form, crossed
us, light and graceful as a dancing nymph. The senator bowed
profoundly. She beckoned to him, and they exchanged a few
words. I was probably the subject; for her countenance, spark-
ling with the animation of youth and loveliness, grew pale at
once; she clasped both her hands upon her eyes, and rushed
into an inner chamber. She knew Nero well; and dearly she
was yet to pay for her knowledge. The senator, to my inquir
ing glance, answered in a whisper, "The Empress Poppæa. "
## p. 4199 (#577) ###########################################
GEORGE CROLY
4199
A few steps onward, and I stood in the presence of the most
formidable being on earth. Yet whatever might have been the
natural agitation of the time, I could scarcely restrain a smile at
the first sight of Nero. I saw a pale, undersized, light-haired
young man sitting before a table with a lyre on it, a few copies
of verses and drawings, and a parrot's cage, to whose inmate he
was teaching Greek with great assiduity. But for the regal fur-
niture of the cabinet, I should have supposed myself led by
mistake into an interview with some struggling poet. He shot
round one quick glance on the opening of the door, and then
proceeded to give lessons to his bird. I had leisure to gaze on
the tyrant and parricide.
Physiognomy is a true science. The man of profound thought,
the man of active ability, and above all the man of genius, has
his character stamped on his countenance by nature; the man of
violent passions and the voluptuary have it stamped by habit.
But the science has its limits: it has no stamp for mere cruelty.
The features of the human monster before me were mild and
almost handsome; a heavy eye and a figure tending to fullness
gave the impression of a quiet mind; and but for an occasional
restlessness of brow, and a brief glance from under it, in which
the leaden eye darted suspicion, I should have pronounced Nero
one of the most indolently tranquil of mankind.
He remanded the parrot to his perch, took up his lyre, and
throwing a not unskillful hand over the strings, in the intervals
of the performance languidly addressed a broken sentence to me.
"You have come, I understand, from Judea; - they tell me that
you have been, or are to be, a general of the insurrection;
you must be put to death; -your countrymen give us a great
deal of trouble, and I always regret to be troubled with them. -
But to send you back would only be encouragement to them, and
to keep you here among strangers would only be cruelty to you.
-
―――
I am charged with cruelty: you see the charge is not true. -
I am lampooned every day; I know the scribblers, but they must
lampoon or starve. I leave them to do both. Have you brought
any news from Judea? - They have not had a true prince there
since the first Herod; and he was quite a Greek, a cut-throat,
and a man of taste. He understood the arts. -I sent for you to
see what sort of animal a Jewish rebel was. Your dress is hand-
some, but too light for our winters. -You cannot die before sun-
set, as till then I am engaged with my music master. We all
――――
## p. 4200 (#578) ###########################################
4200
GEORGE CROLY
―――――――――
must die when our time comes. - - Farewell-till sunset may
Jupiter protect you! "
I retired to execution! and before the door closed, heard this
accomplished disposer of life and death preluding upon his lyre
with increased energy. I was conducted to a turret until the
period in which the Emperor's engagement with his music-
master should leave him at leisure to see me die. Yet there was
kindness even under the roof of Nero, and a liberal hand had
covered the table in my cell. The hours passed heavily along,
but they passed; and I was watching the last rays of my last
sun, when I perceived a cloud rise in the direction of Rome. It
grew broader, deeper, darker, as I gazed; its centre was suddenly
tinged with red; the tinge spread; the whole mass of cloud
became crimson: the sun went down, and another sun seemed to
have risen in his stead. I heard the clattering of horses' feet in
the courtyards below; trumpets sounded; there was confusion in
the palace; the troops hurried under arms; and I saw a squad-
ron of cavalry set off at full speed.
As I was gazing on the spectacle before me, which perpetu-
ally became more menacing, the door of my cell slowly opened,
and a masked figure stood upon the threshold. I had made up
my mind; and demanding if he was the executioner, I told him
"that I was ready. " The figure paused, listened to the sounds.
below, and after looking for a while on the troops in the court-
yard, signified by signs that I had a chance of saving my life.
The love of existence rushed back upon me. I eagerly inquired
what was to be done. He drew from under his cloak the dress
of a Roman slave, which I put on, and noiselessly followed his
steps through a long succession of small and strangely intricate
passages. We found no difficulty from guards or domestics.
The whole palace was in a state of extraordinary confusion.
Every human being was packing up something or other: rich
vases, myrrhine cups, table services, were lying in heaps on the
floors; books, costly dresses, instruments of music, all the append-
ages of luxury, were flung loose in every direction, from the
sudden breaking up of the court. I might have plundered the
value of a province with impunity. Still we wound our hurried
way. In passing along one of the corridors, the voice of com-
plaining struck the ear; the mysterious guide hesitated; I glanced
through the slab of crystal that showed the chamber within. It
was the one in which I had seen the Emperor, but his place
## p. 4201 (#579) ###########################################
GEORGE CROLY
4201
was now filled by the form of youth and beauty that had crossed
me on my arrival. She was weeping bitterly, and reading with
strong and sorrowful indignation a long list of names, probably
one of those rolls in which Nero registered his intended victims,
and which in the confusion of departure he had left open. A
second glance saw her tear the paper into a thousand fragments,
and scatter them in the fountain that gushed upon the floor.
I left this lovely and unhappy creature, this dove in the vul-
ture's talons, with almost a pang. A few steps more brought us
to the open air, but among bowers that covered our path with
darkness. At the extremity of the gardens my guide struck
with his dagger upon a door; it was opened: we found horses.
outside; he sprang on one; I sprang on its fellow; and palace,
guards, and death, were left far behind.
He galloped so furiously that I found it impossible to speak;
and it was not till we had reached an eminence a few miles
from Rome, where we breathed our horses, that I could ask to
whom I had been indebted for my escape. But I could not
extract a word from him. He made signs of silence, and pointed
with wild anxiety to the scene that spread below. It was of a
grandeur and terror indescribable. Rome was an ocean of flame.
Height and depth were covered with red surges, that rolled
before the blast like an endless tide. The billows burst up the
sides of the hills, which they turned into instant volcanoes,
exploding volumes of smoke and fire; then plunged into the
depths in a hundred glowing cataracts, then climbed and con-
sumed again. The distant sound of the city in her convulsion
went to the soul. The air was filled with the steady roar of the
advancing flame, the crash of falling houses, and the hideous
outcry of the myriads flying through the streets, or surrounded
and perishing in the conflagration.
Hostile to Rome as I was, I could not restrain the exclama-
tion: "There goes the fruit of conquest, the glory of ages, the
purchase of the blood of millions! Was vanity made for man? "
My guide continued looking forward with intense earnestness, as
if he were perplexed by what avenue to enter the burning city.
I demanded who he was, and whither he would lead me. He
returned no answer. A long spire of flame that shot up from a
hitherto untouched quarter engrossed all his senses. He struck
in the spur, and making a wild gesture to me to follow, darted
down the hill. I pursued; we found the Appian choked with
―――――――――――――――――
## p. 4202 (#580) ###########################################
4202
GEORGE CROLY
wagons, baggage of every kind, and terrified crowds hurrying
into the open country. To force a way through them was
impossible. All was clamor, violent struggle, and helpless death.
Men and women of the highest rank were on foot, trampled by
the rabble, that had then lost all respect of conditions. One
dense mass of miserable life, irresistible from its weight, crushed
by the narrow streets, and scorched by the flames over their
heads, rolled through the gates like an endless stream of black
lava.
We turned back, and attempted an entrance through the gar-
dens of the same villas that skirted the city wall near the Pala-
tine. All were deserted, and after some dangerous leaps over
the burning ruins we found ourselves in the streets. The fire
had originally broken out upon the Palatine, and hot smoke that
wrapped and half blinded us hung thick as night upon the
wrecks of pavilions and palaces: but the dexterity and knowledge
of my inexplicable guide carried us on. It was in vain that I
insisted upon knowing the purpose of this terrible traverse. He
pressed his hand on his heart in reassurance of his fidelity, and
still spurred on.
We now passed under the shade of an immense range of lofty
buildings, whose gloomy and solid strength seemed to bid
defiance to chance and time. A sudden yell appalled me. A
ring of fire swept round its summit; burning cordage, sheets of
canvas, and a shower of all things combustible, flew into the air
above our heads. An uproar followed, unlike all that I had ever
heard,—a hideous mixture of howls, shrieks, and groans. The
flames rolled down the narrow street before us, and made the
passage next to impossible. While we hesitated, a huge frag-
ment of the building heaved as if in an earthquake, and for-
tunately for us fell inwards. The whole scene of terror was
then open.
The great amphitheatre of Statilius Taurus had
caught fire; the stage with its inflammable furniture was intensely
blazing below. The flames were wheeling up, circle above circle,
through the seventy thousand seats that rose from the ground to
the roof. I stood in unspeakable awe and wonder on the side of
this colossal cavern, this mighty temple of the city of fire. At
length a descending blast cleared away the smoke that covered
the arena.
The cause of those horrid cries was now visible.
The wild beasts kept for the games had broken from their dens.
Maddened by affright and pain, lions, tigers, panthers, wolves,
## p. 4203 (#581) ###########################################
GEORGE CROLY
4203
whole herds of the monsters of India and Africa, were inclosed
in an impassable barrier of fire. They bounded, they fought,
they screamed, they tore; they ran howling round and round the
circle; they made desperate leaps upwards through the blaze;
they were flung back, and fell only to fasten their fangs in each
other, and with their parching jaws bathed in blood, died raging.
I looked anxiously to see whether any human being was
involved in this fearful catastrophe. To my great relief I could
see none. The keepers and attendants had obviously escaped.
As I expressed my gladness I was startled by a loud cry from
my guide, the first sound that I had heard him utter. He
pointed to the opposite side of the amphitheatre. There indeed.
sat an object of melancholy interest; a man who had either been.
unable to escape, or had determined to die. Escape was now
impossible. He sat in desperate calmness on his funeral pile.
He was a gigantic Ethiopian slave, entirely naked. He had
chosen his place, as if in mockery, on the imperial throne; the
fire was above him and around him; and under this tremendous
canopy he gazed, without the movement of a muscle, on the
combat of the wild beasts below: a solitary sovereign with the
whole tremendous game played for himself, and inaccessible to
the power of man.
I was forced away from this absorbing spectacle, and we
once more threaded the long and intricate streets of Rome. As
we approached the end of one of these bewildering passages,
scarcely wide enough for us to ride abreast, I was startled by
the sudden illumination of the sky immediately above; and ren-
dered cautious by the experience of our hazards, called to my
companion to return. He pointed behind me, and showed the
fire bursting out in the houses by which we had just galloped.
I followed on. A crowd that poured from the adjoining streets
cut off our retreat. Hundreds rapidly mounted on the houses
in front, in the hope by throwing them down to check the con-
ration. The obstacle once removed, we saw the source of
the light-spectacle of horror! The great prison of Rome was
on fire. Never can I forget the sights and sounds-the dismay
-the hopeless agony-the fury and frenzy that then over-
whelmed the heart. The jailers had been forced to fly before
they could loose the fetters or open the cells of the prisoners.
We saw those gaunt and woe-begone wretches crowding to their
casements, and imploring impossible help; clinging to the heated
## p. 4204 (#582) ###########################################
GEORGE CROLY
4204
bars; toiling with their impotent grasp to tear out the massive
stones; some wringing their hands; some calling on the terrified
spectators by every name of humanity to save them; some vent-
ing their despair in execrations and blasphemies that made the
blood run cold; others, after many a wild effort to break loose,
dashing their heads against the walls, or stabbing themselves.
The people gave them outcry for outery; but the flame forbade
approach. Before I could extricate myself from the multitude a
whirl of fiery ashes shot upwards from the falling roof; the walls
rent into a thousand fragments; and the huge prison with all
its miserable inmates was a heap of red embers.
Exhausted as I was by this restless fatigue, and yet more by
the melancholy sights that surrounded every step, no fatigue.
seemed to be felt by the singular being that governed my move-
ments. He sprang through the burning ruins,- he plunged into
the sulphurous smoke,- he never lost the direction that he had
first taken; and though baffled and forced to turn back a hun-
dred times, he again rushed on his track with the directness of
an arrow. For me to make my way back to the gates would be
even more difficult than to push forward. My ultimate safety
might be in following, and I followed. To stand still and to
move were equally perilous. The streets, even with the im-
provements of Augustus, were still scarcely wider than the
breadth of the little Italian carts that crowded them. They
were crooked, long, and obstructed by every impediment of a
city built in haste, after the burning by the Gauls, and with no
other plan than the caprice of its hurried tenantry. The houses
were of immense height, chiefly wood, many roofed with thatch,
and all covered or cemented with pitch. The true surprise is
that it had not been burned once a year from the time of its
building.
The memory of Nero, that hereditary concentration of vice,
of whose ancestor's yellow beard the Roman orator said, "No
wonder that his beard was brass, when his mouth was iron and
his heart lead," the parricide and the poisoner-may yet be
fairly exonerated of an act which might have been the deed
of a drunken mendicant in any of the fifty thousand hovels of
this gigantic aggregate of everything that could turn to flame.
We passed along through all the horrid varieties of misery,
guilt, and riot that could find their place in a great public
calamity: groups gazing in woe on the wreck of their fortunes,
-
## p. 4205 (#583) ###########################################
GEORGE CROLY
4205
rushing off to the winds in vapor and fire; groups plundering in
the midst of the flame; groups of rioters, escaped felons, and
murderers, exulting in the public ruin, and dancing and drink-
ing with Bacchanalian uproar; gangs of robbers trampling down
and stabbing the fugitives to strip them of their last means;
revenge, avarice, despair, profligacy, let loose naked; undisguised
demons, to swell the wretchedness of this tremendous infliction
upon a guilty and blood-covered empire.
Still we spurred on, but our jaded horses at length sank
under us; and leaving them to find their way into the fields,
we struggled forward on foot.
――――
A WIFE'S INFLUENCE
Α
URELIA - One hope there is, worth all the rest-Revenge!
The time is harassed, poor, and discontent;
Your spirit practiced, keen, and desperate,-
The Senate full of feuds,- the city vext
With petty tyranny- the legions wronged-
Catiline [scornfully]—
From Catiline >
―――
Aurelia
Catiline - Hear me, bold heart!
Yet who has stirred? Woman, you paint the air
With Passion's pencil.
Were my will a sword!
The whole gross blood of Rome
Could not atone my wrongs! I'm soul-shrunk, sick,
Weary of man! And now my mind is fixed
For Sylla: there to make companionship
Rather of bear and tiger-of the snake-
The lion in his hunger-than of man!
Aurelia I had a father once, who would have plunged
Rome in the Tiber for an angry look!
You saw our entrance from the Gaulish war,
When Sylla fled?
Catiline
My legion was in Spain.
Aurelia-We crept through Italy, a flood of fire,
A living lava, rolling straight on Rome.
For days, before we reached it, the whole road
Was thronged with suppliants-tribunes, consulars;
The mightiest names o' the State. Could gold have bribed,
We might have pitched our tents, and slept on gold;
## p. 4206 (#584) ###########################################
4206
GEORGE CROLY
But we had work to do! Our swords were thirsty.
We entered Rome as conquerors, in arms;
I by my father's side, cuirassed and helmed,
Bellona beside Mars.
Catiline [with coldness] –
Aurelia
―
The world was yours!
- Rome was all eyes; the ancient tottered forth;
The cripple propped his limbs beside the wall;
The dying left his bed to look, and die.
The way before us was a sea of heads;
The way behind a torrent of brown spears:
So, on we rode, in fierce and funeral pomp,
Through the long living streets, that sunk in gloom,
As we, like Pluto and Proserpina,
Enthroned, rode on-like twofold destiny!
Catiline [sternly, interrupting her]—
Those triumphs are but gewgaws. All the earth,
What is it? Dust and smoke. I've done with life!
Aurelia [coming closer and looking steadily upon him]—
Before that eve, one hundred senators
And fifteen hundred knights had paid in blood
The price of taunts, and treachery, and rebellion!
Were my tongue thunder, I would cry-Revenge!
Catiline [in sudden wildness]-
―
No more of this! In to your chamber, wife!
There is a whirling lightness in my brain,
That will not now bear questioning. -Away!
[Aurelia moves slowly towards the door.
Where are our veterans now? Look on these walls;
I cannot turn their tissues into life.
Where are our revenues- our chosen friends?
Are we not beggars? Where have beggars friends?
I see no swords and bucklers on these floors!
I shake the State! I-what have I on earth
-
But these two hands? Must I not dig or starve? --
Come back! I had forgot. My memory dies,
I think, by the hour. Who sups with us to-night?
