No More Learning

His
thoughts too-at any rate his words-came slowly; and by
writing he gained time for the utterance of them.
Philip has been accused of indolence. As far as the body
was concerned, such an accusation was well founded. Even when
young he had no fondness, as we have seen, for the robust and


## p. 11795 (#425) ##########################################

WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT
11795
chivalrous sports of the age. He never, like his father, con-
ducted military expeditions in person. He thought it wiser to
follow the example of his great-grandfather, Ferdinand the Cath-
olic, who stayed at home and sent his generals to command his
armies. As little did he like to travel,- forming too in this
respect a great contrast to the Emperor. He had been on the
throne before he made a visit to his great southern capital,
Seville. It was a matter of complaint in Cortes that he thus
withdrew himself from the eyes of his subjects. The only sport
he cared for-not by any means to excess— was shooting with
his gun or his crossbow such game as he could find in his own
grounds at the Wood of Segovia, or Aranjuez, or some other of
his pleasant country-seats, none of them at a great distance from
Madrid. On a visit to such places, he would take with him as
large a heap of papers as if he were a poor clerk earning his
bread; and after the fatigues of the chase, he would retire to his
cabinet and refresh himself with his dispatches.
It would indeed be a great mistake to charge him with slug-
gishness of mind. He was content to toil for hours, and long
into the night, at his solitary labors. No expression of weari-
ness or of impatience was known to escape him. A characteristic
anecdote is told of him in regard to this. Having written a
dispatch, late at night, to be sent on the following morning, he
handed it to his secretary to throw some sand over it. This
functionary, who happened to be dozing, suddenly roused himself,
and snatching up the inkstand, emptied it on the paper. The
King, coolly remarking that "it would have been better to use the
sand," set himself down, without any complaint, to rewrite the
whole of the letter. A prince so much addicted to the pen, we
may well believe, must have left a large amount of autograph
materials behind him. Few monarchs, in point of fact, have done
so much in this way to illustrate the history of their reigns.
Fortunate would it have been for the historian who was to profit
by it, if the royal composition had been somewhat less diffuse,
and the handwriting somewhat more legible.
Philip was an economist of time, and regulated the distribu-
tion of it with great precision. In the morning he gave audience
to foreign ambassadors. He afterwards heard mass. After mass
came dinner, in his father's fashion. But dinner was not an
affair with Philip of so much moment as it was with Charles.
He was exceedingly temperate both in eating and drinking; and


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11796
WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT
not unfrequently had his physician at his side to warn him
against any provocative of the gout,-the hereditary disease.
which at a very early period had begun to affect his health.
After a light repast he gave audience to such of his subjects as
desired to present their memorials. He received the petitioners
graciously, and listened to all they had to say with patience,—
for that was his virtue. But his countenance was exceedingly
grave, which in truth was its natural expression; and there was
a reserve in his deportment which made the boldest feel ill at
ease in his presence. On such occasions he would say, "Com-
pose yourself; "a recommendation that had not always the
tranquillizing effect intended. Once when a papal nuncio forgot,
in his confusion, the address he had prepared, the King coolly
remarked: "If you will bring it in writing, I will read it myself,
and expedite your business. " It was natural that men of even
the highest rank should be overawed in the presence of a mon-
arch who held the destinies of so many millions in his hands,
and who surrounded himself with a veil of mystery which the
most cunning politician could not penetrate.
The reserve, so noticeable in his youth, increased with age.
He became more difficult of access. His public audiences were
much less frequent. In the summer he would escape from them
altogether, by taking refuge in some one of his country places.
His favorite retreat was his palace monastery of the Escurial,-
then slowly rising under his patronage, and affording him an
occupation congenial with his taste. He seems, however, to have
sought the country not so much from the love of its beauties as
for the retreat it afforded him from the town. When in the
latter he rarely showed himself to the public eye, going abroad
chiefly in a close carriage, and driving late so as to return to
the city after dark.
Thus he lived in solitude even in the heart of his capital,
knowing much less of men from his own observation than from
the reports that were made to him. In availing himself of
these sources of information he was indefatigable. He caused a
statistical survey of Spain to be prepared for his own use. It
was a work of immense labor, embracing a vast amount of curi-
ous details, such as were rarely brought together in those days.
He kept his spies at the principal European courts, who furnished
him with intelligence; and he was as well acquainted with what
was passing in England and in France as if he had resided on
-


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WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT
11797
the spot. We have seen how well he knew the smallest details
of the proceedings in the Netherlands, sometimes even better
than Margaret herself. He employed similar means to procure
information that might be of service in making appointments to
ecclesiastical and civil offices.
In his eagerness for information, his ear was ever open to
accusations against his ministers; which, as they were sure to
be locked up in his own bosom, were not slow in coming to him.
This filled his mind with suspicions. He waited till time had
proved their truth, treating the object of them with particular
favor till the hour of vengeance had arrived. The reader will
not have forgotten the terrible saying of Philip's own historian,
"His dagger followed close upon his smile. "
Even to the ministers in whom Philip appeared most to con-
fide, he often gave but half his confidence. Instead of frankly
furnishing them with a full statement of facts, he sometimes
made so imperfect a disclosure that when his measures came to
be taken, his counselors were surprised to find of how much
they had been kept in ignorance. When he communicated to
them any foreign dispatches, he would not scruple to alter the
original, striking out some passages and inserting others, so as
best to serve his purpose. The copy, in this garbled form, was
given to the council. Such was the case with a letter of Don
John of Austria, containing an account of the troubles of Genoa,
the original of which, with its numerous alterations in the royal
handwriting, still exists in the archives of Simancas.
But though Philip's suspicious nature prevented him from
entirely trusting his ministers,- though with chilling reserve he
kept at a distance even those who approached him nearest,― he
was kind, even liberal, to his servants, was not capricious in his
humors, and seldom if ever gave way to those sallies of passion
so common in princes clothed with absolute power. He was
patient to the last degree, and rarely changed his ministers
without good cause. Ruy Gomez was not the only courtier
who continued in the royal service to the end of his days.
Philip was of a careful, or to say truth, of a frugal disposi-
tion, which he may well have inherited from his father; though
this did not, as with his father in later life, degenerate into par-
simony. The beginning of his reign, indeed, was distinguished
by some acts of uncommon liberality. One of these occurred at
the close of Alva's campaigns in Italy, when the King presented


## p. 11798 (#428) ##########################################

11798
WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT
that commander with a hundred and fifty thousand ducats,
greatly to the discontent of the Emperor. This was contrary to
his usual policy. As he grew older, and the expenses of govern-
ment pressed more heavily on him, he became more economical.
Yet those who served him had no reason, like the Emperor's
servants, to complain of their master's meanness.
It was
observed, however, that he was slow to recompense those who
served him until they had proved themselves worthy of it. Still
it was
a man's own fault, says a contemporary, if he was not
well paid for his services in the end.
one particular he indulged in a most lavish expenditure.
This was his household. It was formed on the Burgundian
model, the most stately and magnificent in Europe. Its pecul-
iarity consisted in the number and quality of the members who
composed it. The principal officers were nobles of the highest
rank, who frequently held posts of great consideration in the
State. Thus the Duke of Alva was chief major-domo; the Prince
of Eboli was first gentleman of the bedchamber; the Duke of
Feria was Captain of the Spanish Guard. There was the grand
equerry, the grand huntsman, the chief muleteer, and a host of
officers, some of whom were designated by menial titles, though
nobles and cavaliers of family. There were forty pages, sons
of the most illustrious houses in Castile. The whole household
amounted to no less than fifteen hundred persons. The King's
guard consisted of three hundred men; one-third of whom were
Spaniards, one-third Flemings, and the remainder Germans.
The Queen had also her establishment on the same scale.
She had twenty-six ladies-in-waiting, and among other function-
aries, no less than four physicians to watch over her health.
The annual cost of the royal establishment amounted to full
two hundred thousand florins. The Cortes earnestly remonstrated
against this useless prodigality, beseeching the King to place
his household on the modest scale to which the monarchs of Cas-
tile had been accustomed. And it seems singular that one usually
so averse to extravagance and pomp should have so recklessly
indulged in them here. It was one of those inconsistencies which
we sometimes meet with in private life, when a man habitually
careful of his expenses indulges himself in some whim which
taste, or as in this case, early habits, have made him regard
as indispensable. The Emperor had been careful to form the
household of his son, when very young, on the Burgundian model;


## p. 11799 (#429) ##########################################

WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT
11799
and Philip, thus early trained, probably regarded it as essential
to the royal dignity.
It was a capital defect in Philip's administration that his love
of power and his distrust of others made him desire to do every-
thing himself,-even those things which could be done much
better by his ministers. As he was slow in making up his own
opinions, and seldom acted without first ascertaining those of his
council, we may well understand the mischievous consequences
of such delay. Loud were the complaints of private suitors, who
saw month after month pass away without an answer to their
petitions. The State suffered no less, as the wheels of govern-
ment seemed actually to stand still under the accumulated press-
ure of the public business. Even when a decision did come, it
often came too late to be of service; for the circumstances which
led to it had wholly changed. Of this the reader has seen more
than one example in the Netherlands. The favorite saying of
Philip, that "time and he were a match for any other two," was
a sad mistake. The time he demanded was his ruin. It was in
vain that Granvelle, who at a later day came to Castile to assume
the direction of affairs, endeavored in his courtly language to
convince the King of his error; telling him that no man could
bear up under such a load of business, which sooner or later must
destroy his health, perhaps his life.
THE SPANISH MOORS PERSECUTED INTO REBELLION
From the History of Philip II. )
THE
HESE impolitic edicts [forbidding the importation of African
slaves by the Moors, and the possession of arms except
under license] were but preludes to an ordinance of so
astounding a character as to throw the whole country into a
state of revolution. The apostasy of the Moriscoes,- or to speak
more correctly, the constancy with which they adhered to the
faith of their fathers,-gave great scandal to the old Christians,
especially to the clergy; and above all to its head, Don Pedro
Guerrero, archbishop of Granada. This prelate seems to have
been a man of an uneasy, meddlesome spirit, and possessed of a
full share of the bigotry of his time. . While in Rome, shortly
before this period, he had made such a representation to Pope
Pius the Fourth as drew from that pontiff a remonstrance, ad-
dressed to the Spanish government, on the spiritual condition of


## p. 11800 (#430) ##########################################

11800
WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT
the Moriscoes. Soon after, in the year 1567, a memorial was
presented to the government, by Guerrero and the clergy of his
diocese, in which, after insisting on the manifold backslidings of
the "New Christians," as the Moriscoes were termed, they loudly
called for some efficacious measures to arrest the evil. These
people, they said, whatever show of conformity they might make
to the requisitions of the Church, were infidels at heart. When
their children were baptized, they were careful, on returning
home, to wash away the traces of baptism; and after circumcis-
ing them, to give them Moorish names. In like manner, when
their marriages had been solemnized with Christian rites, they
were sure to confirm them afterwards by their own ceremonies,
accompanied with the national songs and dances. They con-
tinued to observe Friday as a holy day; and what was of graver
moment, they were known to kidnap the children of the Christ-
ians and sell them to their brethren on the coast of Barbary,
where they were circumcised, and nurtured in the Mahometan
religion. This last accusation, however improbable, found credit
with the Spaniards, and sharpened the feelings of jealousy and
hatred with which they regarded the unhappy race of Ishmael.
The memorial of the clergy received prompt attention from
the government, at whose suggestion, very possibly, it had been
prepared. A commission was at once appointed to examine into
the matter; and their report was laid before a junta consisting
of both ecclesiastics and laymen, and embracing names of the
highest consideration for talent and learning in the kingdom.
Among its members we find the Duke of Alva, who had not yet
set out on his ominous mission to the Netherlands. At its head
was Diego de Espinosa, at that time the favorite minister of
Philip.
The man who was qualified for the place of grand inquisitor
was not likely to feel much sympathy for the race of unbelievers.
It was unfortunate for the Moriscoes that their destinies should
be placed in the hands of such a minister as Espinosa. After
due deliberation, the junta came to the decision that the only
remedy for the present evil was to lay the axe to the root of it;
to cut off all those associations which connected the Moriscoes
with their earlier history, and which were so many obstacles in
the way of their present conversion. It was recommended that
they should be interdicted from employing the Arabic either in
speaking or writing, for which they were to use only the Cas-
tilian. They were not even to be allowed to retain their family


## p. 11801 (#431) ##########################################

WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT
11801
names, but were to exchange them for Spanish ones. All writ-
ten instruments and legal documents, of whatever kind, were
declared to be void and of no effect unless in the Castilian. As
time must be allowed for a whole people to change its language,
three years were assigned as the period at the end of which this.
provision should take effect.
They were to be required to exchange their national dress for
that of the Spaniards; and as the Oriental costume was highly
ornamented, and often very expensive, they were to be allowed
to wear their present clothes one year longer if of silk, and two
years if of cotton, the latter being the usual apparel of the
poorer classes.
The women, moreover, both old and young, were
to be required, from the passage of the law, to go abroad with
their faces uncovered, a scandalous thing among Mahometans.
Their weddings were to be conducted in public, after the
Christian forms; and the doors of their houses were to be left
open during the day of the ceremony, that any one might enter
and see that they did not have recourse to unhallowed rites.
They were further to be interdicted from the national songs and
dances with which they were wont to celebrate their domestic
festivities. Finally, as rumors - most absurd ones had got
abroad that the warm baths which the natives were in the habit
of using in their houses were perverted to licentious indulgences,
they were to be required to destroy the vessels in which they
bathed, and to use nothing of the kind thereafter.
These several provisions were to be enforced by penalties of
the sternest kind.
Such were the principal provisions of a law, which for cruelty
and absurdity has scarcely a parallel in history. For what could
be more absurd than the attempt by an act of legislation to
work such a change in the long-established habits of a nation,—
to efface those recollections of the past to which men ever cling
most closely under the pressure of misfortune,- to blot out by
a single stroke of the pen, as it were, not only the creed but
the nationality of a people,-to convert the Moslem at once both
into a Christian and into a Castilian? It would be difficult to im-
agine any greater outrage offered to a people than the provision.
compelling women to lay aside their veils,-associated as these.
were in every Eastern mind with the obligations of modesty;
or that in regard to opening the doors of the houses, and expos-
ing those within to the insolent gaze of every passer; or that in
-


## p. 11802 (#432) ##########################################

11802
WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT
relation to the baths, so indispensable to cleanliness and com-
fort, especially in the warm climate of the south.
But the masterpiece of absurdity, undoubtedly, is the stipula-
tion in regard to the Arabic language; as if by any human art
a whole population, in the space of three years, could be made
to substitute a foreign tongue for its own; and that too under
circumstances of peculiar difficulty, partly arising from the
total want of affinity between the Semitic and the European lan-
guages, and partly from the insulated position of the Moriscoes,
who in the cities had separate quarters assigned to them in the
same manner as the Jews, which cut them off from intimate
intercourse with the Christians. We may well doubt, from the
character of this provision, whether the government had so much
at heart the conversion of the Moslems as the desire to entangle
them in such violations of the law as should afford a plausible.
pretext for driving them from the country altogether. One is
strengthened in this view of the subject by the significant reply
of Otadin, professor of theology at Alcalá, who, when consulted
by Philip on the expediency of the ordinance, gave his hearty
approbation of it by quoting the appalling Spanish proverb,
"The fewer enemies the better. " It was reserved for the imbe-
cile Philip the Third to crown the disasters of his reign by the
expulsion of the Moriscoes. Yet no one can doubt that it was a
consummation earnestly desired by the great body of the Span-
iards; who looked, as we have seen, with longing eyes to the
fair territory which they possessed, and who regarded them with
the feelings of distrust and aversion with which men regard
those on whom they have inflicted injuries too great to be for-
given.
•
―――
On the appointed day the magistrates of the principal tribu-
nals, with the corregidor of Granada at their head, went in
solemn procession to the Albaicin, the quarter occupied by the
Moriscoes. They marched to the sound of kettle-drums, trumpets,
and other instruments; and the inhabitants, attracted by the noise.
and fond of novelty, came running from their houses to swell
the ranks of the procession on its way to the great square of
Bab el Bonat. This was an open space of large extent, where
the people of Granada in ancient times used to assemble to cele-
brate the coronation of a new sovereign; and the towers were
still standing from which the Moslem banners waved, on those
days, over the heads of the shouting multitude.
As the people


## p. 11803 (#433) ##########################################

WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT
11803
now gathered tumultuously around these ancient buildings, the
public crier from an elevated place read, in audible tones and in
the Arabic language, the royal ordinance.
one.
Some of the weaker sort gave way to piteous and passionate
exclamations, wringing their hands in an agony of grief. Oth-
ers, of sterner temper, broke forth into menaces and fierce invect-
ive, accompanied with the most furious gesticulations. Others
again listened with that dogged, determined air which showed
that the mood was not the less dangerous that it was a silent
The whole multitude was in a state of such agitation that
an accident might have readily produced an explosion which
would have shaken Granada to its foundations. Fortunately there
were a few discreet persons in the assembly, older and more
temperate than the rest, who had sufficient authority over their
countrymen to prevent a tumult. They reminded them that in
their fathers' time the Emperor Charles the Fifth had consented
to suspend the execution of a similar ordinance.
At all events,
it was better to try first what could be done by argument and
persuasion. When these failed, it would be time enough to think
of vengeance.
One of the older Moriscoes, a man of much consideration
among his countrymen, was accordingly chosen to wait on the
president and explain their views in regard to the edict. This he
did at great length, and in a manner which must have satisfied
any fair mind of the groundlessness of the charges brought
against the Moslems, and the cruelty and impracticability of the
measures proposed by the government. The president, having
granted to the envoy a patient and courteous hearing, made a
short and not very successful attempt to vindicate the course of
the administration. He finally disposed of the whole question
by declaring that "the law was too just and holy, and had been
made with too much consideration, ever to be repealed; and that
in fine, regarded as a question of interest, his Majesty estimated
the salvation of a single soul as of greater price than all the rev-
enues he drew from the Moriscoes. " An answer like this must
have effectually dispelled all thoughts of a composition such as
had formerly been made with the Emperor.
Defeated in this quarter, the Moriscoes determined to lay
their remonstrance before the throne. They were fortunate in
obtaining for this purpose the services of Don Juan Henriquez,
a nobleman of the highest rank and consideration, who had large


## p. 11804 (#434) ##########################################

11804
WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT
estates at Beza, in the heart of Granada, and who felt a strong
sympathy for the unfortunate natives. Having consented, though
with much reluctance, to undertake the mission, he repaired to
Madrid, obtained an audience of the King, and presented to him
a memorial on behalf of his unfortunate subjects. Philip received
him graciously, and promised to give all attention to the paper.
"What I have done in this matter," said the King, "has been
done by the advice of wise and conscientious men, who have
given me to understand that it was my duty. "
Shortly afterwards, Henriquez received an intimation that he
was to look for his answer to the president of Castile. Espinosa,
after listening to the memorial, expressed his surprise that a per-
son of the high condition of Don Juan Henriquez should have
consented to take charge of such a mission. "It was for that
very reason I undertook it," replied the nobleman, "as affording
me a better opportunity to be of service to the King. " "It can
be of no use," said the minister: "religious men have repre-
sented to his Majesty that at his door lies the salvation of these
Moors; and the ordinance which has been decreed, he has deter-
mined shall be carried into effect. "
Baffled in this direction, the persevering envoy laid his memo-
rial before the councilors of State, and endeavored to interest
them in behalf of his clients. In this he met with more success;
and several of that body, among whom may be mentioned the
Duke of Alva, and Luis de Avila the grand commander of Al-
cántara, whom Charles the Fifth had honored with his friend-
ship, entered heartily into his views. But it availed little with
the minister, who would not even consent to delay the execution
of the ordinance until time should have been given for further
inquiry; or to confine the operation of it at the outset to one or
two of the provisions, in order to ascertain what would probably
be the temper of the Moriscoes. Nothing would suit the peremp-
tory humor of Espinosa but the instant execution of the law in
all its details.
It was clear that no door was left open to further discussion,
and that under the present government no chance remained to
the unfortunate Moriscoes of buying off the law by the payment
of a round sum, as in the time of Charles the Fifth. All nego-
tiations were at an end. They had only to choose between im-
plicit obedience and open rebellion. It was not strange that they
chose the latter.


## p. 11805 (#435) ##########################################

11805
ANTOINE FRANÇOIS PRÉVOST D'EXILES
(1697-1763)
T IS difficult to regard the brilliant personality and erratic,
checkered career of the Abbé Prévost with respect or admi-
ration, even with allowance for the free spirit of the social
epoch in which he lived. Now praying and preaching as a fashion-
able ecclesiastic, now bearing arms as a soldier, now a professor of
theology or man of letters, and again wavering between the seclusion
of a monastery and the frivolities of a drawing-room, the Abbé's
personality seems a bundle of impulses and retractions. He is not
ill described by Dryden's characterization of
Buckingham as "everything by turns, and
nothing long. "

Prévost was born in Hesdin on the Ist
of April, 1697. A mere lad, he was sent
to Paris to study at the well-known Jesuit
school known as the Harcourt. He did not
persevere in it: he suddenly turned his
back upon classics and theology to turn sol-
dier in a royal regiment. He gave himself
up to the beginnings of a military life with.
a full measure of the youthful vivacity
hitherto repressed by ecclesiastical
roundings. But again was he unstable. The
war ended; and the soldier hastened back
sur-
ABBÉ PRÉVOST
to the amiable priests, who welcomed him as a prodigal son. He
resumed his courses of study, and a certain degree of enthusiasm
carried him this time as far as holy orders. This might surely be
taken as a final self-commitment. Not so with Prévost: he acknowl-
edged soon enough the error of even so formal a surrender of himself
to the religious vocation - for which indeed his gift was more than
doubtful. He returned to the army, to serve with activity and dis-
tinction. He had ample opportunity for being a gentleman of fash-
ion and elegance; and at this period of his life the charms of person
and manner which never left him were specially seductive, and in
whatever society he saw fit to amuse himself, a host of friends male
and female received his regard, enjoyed his gifts, and flattered his
vanity. He became perhaps as complete a type of the nominal clergy


## p. 11806 (#436) ##########################################

11806
ANTOINE FRANÇOIS PRÉVOST D'EXILES
of the period as the tableau of his day presents. It need hardly be
said that gallantry à la mode was no small fraction of his diversion.
It brought about another shifting of his environment.
An unhappy
love affair disturbed him, drove him to renounce the world once
more; and he entered the Church of the Benedictines of St. Maur.
There was a more becoming semblance of permanence in this renun-
ciation; for the following five or six years kept him absorbed in reli-
gion, an esteemed professor and a brilliant preacher. But in the
course of a few summers and winters, Prévost's everlasting hesitation
between secular and religious life urged him to a new abandonment
of the religious profession. A tangled affair with his ecclesiastical
superiors decided him. He fled to Holland to take up-as seriously
as he could take up anything-a new career, with which he had
already trifled effectively; the career of a man of letters.
Prévost was thirty-one years old when during this self-exile, in
Holland, England, and elsewhere, he fairly gave himself to writing;
pouring forth that mass of literary work, grave or frivolous, long
or short, now as author and now as translator, the products of which
are forgotten- with a single exception. He was still young; he
was blessed with a profound self-confidence; he was rich in the most
diverse experiences of human nature, and in the study of various
phases of society, French and foreign. He was a systematic student
with a retentive memory, an accomplished linguist, and having an
acquaintance with all forms of literature of a singularly practical sort.
So qualified, he makes letters his third or fourth profession. It has
been said of the abbé that the series of publications from his pen
which now followed was a kind of flood,- hitherto repressed to the
limit of any man's repression,-giving to the world at large every
sort of souvenir, adventure, and sketch of mankind and womankind,
in his brain during his vacillations and wanderings. It is unnecessary
to speak at this date of his compilations; to discuss his romances,
translations, polemics, his editorial labors, and his studies of special
topics, more or less clever or thorough. After doing much literary
work abroad, he returned in 1734 to Paris. Once more he renounced,
at least in name and garb, the world: he took the habit of a secular
priest, and became the almoner of the Prince de Conti for a time.
It can be easily understood that whatever advantages his roving
career had brought to him, they had not been permanent or substan-
tial. He had sufficient money, however, to buy a small property in
Saint Firmin, near Chantilly. There he spent what were to be the
last years of his life, in incessant literary composition and publica-
tion. There death came to him in 1763; came in a manner as curious
and dramatic as any he might have described in one of his fictions.
He was struck by a fit of apoplexy one day while walking in the
―――


## p. 11807 (#437) ##########################################

ANTOINE FRANÇOIS PRÉVOST D'EXILES
11807
forest of Chantilly. Ignorant peasants found him stretched at the
foot of a tree; a rural surgeon, whose ignorance was more than cul-
pable, under the impression that a crime had been committed, pro-
ceeded to an immediate autopsy, instead of merely bleeding the
unfortunate patient; and the luckless abbé died under the examina-
tion.
Of the two hundred works that Prévost left behind him, the
novelette 'Manon Lescaut' has alone survived. But it is enough to
perpetuate his name. It has taken a classical place in French liter-
ature; more than that, it has passed into the emotional literature of
the world, perhaps for as nearly all time as can be predicted for any
story. Not by virtue of great literary art in it, much less by any
ethical charm in its material, has the story lived. 'Manon Lescaut'
morally is always as repulsive a love story (though told with a grace
and skill that disguises offense) as it is pathetic. For the persons
in its drama no reader can have a sentiment of admiration. Their
history is the narrative of a young woman in whom frivolity is the
least of her shortcomings. The hero, her infatuated lover, is a young
man perverted by temperament and by a master-passion to the career
of a professional blackguard and debauchee. But through the tale
shines the light of such sincerity of feeling and of delineation, such
truth to human nature, and above all, such a glow of a love becom-
ing strangely disinterested and even purifying, that the characters
of the protagonists seem to us redeemed, and even glorified, by it.
Complete, tragic too, is their expiation. Literally a world lies be-
tween the gambling-houses in Paris, where Manon and Des Grieux
are habitués, and the sands of Louisiana, in which the transported
criminal scoops the shallow grave of her whom he has followed into
exile. The book is not a defiance to virtue. It is rather a lesson
drawn from vice and from weakness of human nature. Its force not
only lies in the simple straightforward treatment of character and
of situation in it, but in the fact that one is disposed to take it as a
confession, as something that is autobiographic; not merely a little
novel elaborated out of a man's imagination. There was a good deal
of the Chevalier des Grieux in Prévost's own self and career. In the
heroine is realized a French type such as no one else has as well
expressed; and as has been said by Saint Victor, the reader of
Manon's story is apt to make an exception of it from all works more
or less of the same complexion, inasmuch as he would not have her
other than she is. The story belongs in the class of such brief and
concentrated studies in weak and somehow pitiable human nature as
are Mérimée's 'Carmen' and 'Don José. ' It has been made the subject
of drama and opera, of statuary and of paintings innumerable; and
however we may repudiate the corruption of human nature which it


## p. 11808 (#438) ##########################################

11808
ANTOINE FRANÇOIS PRÉVOST D'EXILES
paints in such uncompromising color, we lay down Prévost's little
book impressed by its truth and dramatic effectiveness to a degree
such as few stories of equally small compass give us, even in French
literature, always abundant in the impressive trifle. It has a far
deeper moral than the question of Byron's couplet: -
"Why did he love her? Curious fool, be still!
Is human love the fruit of human will? »
EXILE AND DEATH
From Manon Lescaut >
Α
FTER a passage of two months we at length reached the
banks of the desired river. The country offered at first sight
nothing agreeable. We saw only sterile and uninhabited.
plains covered with rushes, and some trees rooted up by the
wind: no trace either of men or animals. However, the captain
having discharged some pieces of artillery, we presently observed
a group of the inhabitants of New Orleans, who approached us
with evident signs of joy. We had not perceived the town: it is
concealed upon the side on which we approached it by a hill.
We were received as persons dropt from the clouds.
The poor inhabitants hastened to put a thousand questions
to us upon the state of France, and of the different provinces in
which they were born. They embraced us as brothers, and as
beloved companions, who had come to share their pains and their
solitude. We turned towards the town with them; but we were
astonished to perceive, as we advanced, that what we had hitherto
heard spoken of as a respectable town was nothing more than a
collection of miserable huts. They were inhabited by five or six
hundred persons. The governor's house was a little distinguished
from the rest by its height and its position. It was surrounded
by some earthen ramparts and a deep ditch.
We were first presented to him. He continued for some time
in conversation with the captain; and then advancing towards
us, he looked attentively at the women one after another; there
were thirty of them, for another troop of convicts had joined us
at Havre. After having thus inspected them, he sent for several
young men of the colony who were desirous to marry. He
assigned the handsomest women to the principal of these, and
the remainder were disposed of by lot. He had not yet addressed


## p. 11809 (#439) ##########################################

ANTOINE FRANÇOIS PRÉVOST D'EXILES
11809
Manon; but having ordered the others to depart, he made us
remain. "I learn from the captain," said he, "that you are
married; and he is convinced by your conduct on the passage
that you are both persons of merit and of education. I have
nothing to do with the cause of your misfortunes; but if it be
true that you are as conversant with the world and society as
your appearance would indicate, I shall spare no pains to soften
the severity of your lot, and you may on your part contribute
towards rendering this savage and desert abode less disagreeable
to me. "
I replied in a manner which I thought best calculated to con-
firm the opinion he had formed of us. He gave orders to have
a habitation prepared for us in the town, and detained us to
supper. I was really surprised to find so much politeness in a
governor of transported convicts. In the presence of others he
abstained from inquiring about our past adventures. The con-
versation was general; and in spite of our degradation, Manon
and I exerted ourselves to make it lively and agreeable.
At night we were conducted to the lodging prepared for us.
We found a wretched hovel composed of planks and mud, con-
taining three rooms on the ground, and a loft overhead. He had
sent there six chairs, and some few necessaries of life.
Manon appeared frightened by the first view of this melan-
choly dwelling. It was on my account, much more than upon
her own, that she distressed herself. When we were left to our-
selves, she sat down and wept bitterly. I attempted at first to
console her; but when she enabled me to understand that it was
for my sake she deplored our privations, and that in our common
afflictions she only considered me as the sufferer, I put on an air
of resolution, and even of content, sufficient to encourage her.
"What is there in my lot to lament? " said I: "I possess
all that I have ever desired. You love me, Manon, do you not?
What happiness beyond this have I ever longed for? Let us
leave to Providence the direction of our destiny; it by no means
appears to me so desperate. The governor is civil and obliging;
he has already given us marks of his consideration; he will not
allow us to want for necessaries. As to our rude hut and the
squalidness of our furniture, you might have noticed that there
are few persons in the colony better lodged or more comfortably
furnished than we are: and then you are an admirable chemist,"
added I, embracing her; "you transform everything into gold. "
XX-739


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11810
ANTOINE FRANÇOIS PRÉVOST D'EXILES
"In that case," she answered, "you shall be the richest man
in the universe; for as there never was love surpassing yours, so
it is impossible for man to be loved more tenderly than you are.
by me. I well know," she continued, "that I have never mer-
ited the almost incredible fidelity and attachment which you have
shown for me. I have often caused you annoyances which noth-
ing but excessive fondness could have induced you to pardon. I
have been thoughtless and volatile; and even while loving you,
as I have always done to distraction, I was never free from a
consciousness of ingratitude. But you cannot believe how much
my nature is altered; those tears which you have so frequently
seen me shed since quitting the French shore have not been
caused by my own misfortunes. Since you began to share them
with me, I have been a stranger to selfishness: I only wept from
tenderness and compassion for you. I am inconsolable at the
thought of having given you one instant's pain during my past
life. I never cease upbraiding myself with my former incon-
stancy, and wondering at the sacrifices which love has induced.
you to make for a miserable and unworthy wretch, who could
not, with the last drop of her blood, compensate for half the tor-
ments she has caused you. "
Her grief, the language and the tone in which she expressed
herself, made such an impression that I felt my heart ready to
break within me. "Take care," said I to her, "take care, dear
Manon: I have not strength to endure such exciting marks of
your affection; I am little accustomed to the rapturous sensa-
tions which you now kindle in my heart. O Heaven! ” cried
I, "I have now nothing further to ask of you. I am sure of
Manon's love. That has been alone wanting to complete my
happiness; I can now never cease to be happy: my felicity is
well secured. "
"It is indeed," she replied, "if it depends upon me; and I well
know where I can be ever certain of finding my own happiness
centred. "
With these ideas, capable of turning my hut into a palace
worthy of earth's proudest monarch, I lay down to rest. Amer-
ica appeared to my view the true land of milk and honey, the
abode of contentment and delight. "People should come to New
Orleans," I often said to Manon, "who wish to enjoy the real
rapture of love! It is here that love is divested of all selfish-
ness, all jealousy, all inconstancy.
Our countrymen come here


## p. 11811 (#441) ##########################################

ANTOINE FRANÇOIS PRÉVOST D'EXILES
11811
in search of gold; they little think that we have discovered treas-
ures of inestimably greater value. "
We carefully cultivated the governor's friendship. He be-
stowed upon me, a few weeks after our arrival, a small appoint-
ment which became vacant in the fort. Although not one of
any distinction, I gratefully accepted it as a gift of Providence,
as it enabled me to live independently of others' aid. I took a
servant for myself, and a woman for Manon. Our little estab-
⚫lishment became settled: nothing could surpass the regularity of
my conduct, or that of Manon; we lost no opportunity of serv-
ing or doing an act of kindness to our neighbors. This friendly
disposition, and the mildness of our manners, secured us the
confidence and affection of the whole colony. We soon became
so respected that we ranked as the principal persons in the town
after the governor.
The simplicity of our habits and occupations, and the perfect
innocence in which we lived, revived insensibly our early feel-
ings of devotion. Manon had never been an irreligious girl,
and I was far from being one of those reckless libertines who
delight in adding impiety and sacrilege to moral depravity: all
the disorders of our lives might be fairly ascribed to the natural
influences of youth and love. Experience had now begun with
us to do the office of age; it produced the same effect upon us
as years must have done. Our conversation, which was generally
of a serious turn, by degrees engendered a longing for virtuous
love. I first proposed this change to Manon. I knew the prin-
ciples of her heart; she was frank and natural in all her senti-
ments, qualities which invariably predisposed to virtue. I said
to her that there was but one thing wanting to complete our
happiness: "It is," said I, "to invoke upon our union the bene-
diction of Heaven. We have both of us hearts too sensitive, and
minds too refined, to continue voluntarily in the willful violation
of so sacred a duty. "
I waited upon the governor, as I had settled with Manon, to
procure his consent to the ceremony of our marriage. I should
have avoided speaking to him or to any other person upon the
subject, if I had imagined that his chaplain, who was the only
minister in the town, would have performed the office for me
without his knowledge; but not daring to hope that he would do
so privately, I determined to act ingenuously in the matter.
The governor had a nephew named Synnelet, of whom he
was particularly fond. He was about thirty; brave, but of a


## p. 11812 (#442) ##########################################

11812
ANTOINE FRANÇOIS PRÉVOST D'EXILES
headstrong and violent disposition. He was not married. Manon's
beauty had struck him on the first day of our arrival; and the
numberless opportunities he had of seeing her during the last
nine or ten months had so inflamed his passion that he was abso-
lutely pining for her in secret. However, as he was convinced,
in common with his uncle and the whole colony, that I was mar-
ried, he put such a restraint upon his feelings that they remained
generally unnoticed; and he lost no opportunity of showing the
most disinterested friendship for me.
He happened to be with his uncle when I arrived at the
government house. I had no reason for keeping my intention a
secret from him, so that I explained myself without hesitation in
his presence.
The governor heard me with his usual kindness.
I related to him a part of my history, to which he listened with
evident interest; and when I requested his presence at the in-
tended ceremony, he was so generous as to say that he must
be permitted to defray the expenses of the succeeding entertain-
ment. I retired perfectly satisfied.
In an hour after, the chaplain paid me a visit. I thought he
was come to prepare me by religious instruction for the sacred
ceremony; but after a cold salutation, he announced to me in two
words that the governor desired I would relinquish all thoughts
of such a thing, for that he had other views for Manon.
"Other views for Manon! " said I, as I felt my heart sink
within me: "what views then can they be, chaplain? "
He replied that I must be of course aware that the governor
was absolute master here; that Manon, having been transported
from France to the colony, was entirely at his disposal; that
hitherto he had not exercised his right, believing that she was a
married woman; but that now, having learned from my own lips
that it was not so, he had resolved to assign her to M. Synnelet,
who was passionately in love with her.
My indignation overcame my prudence. I was so irritated.
that I ordered the chaplain instantly to quit my house, swearing
at the same time that neither governor, Synnelet, nor the whole
colony together, should lay hands upon my wife- or mistress if
they chose so to call her.
I immediately told Manon of the distressing message I had
just received. We conjectured that Synnelet had warped his
uncle's mind after my departure, and that it was all the effect
of a premeditated design. They were unquestionably the stronger
party. We found ourselves in New Orleans, as in the midst of


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ANTOINE FRANÇOIS PRÉVOST D'EXILES
11813
the ocean, separated from the rest of the world by an immense
interval of space.
In a country perfectly unknown, a desert,—
or inhabited, if not by brutes, at least by savages quite as fero-
cious, to what corner could we fly? I was respected in the
town, but I could not hope to excite the people in my favor to
such a degree as to derive assistance from them proportioned to
the impending danger: money was requisite for that purpose,
and I was poor. Besides, the success of a popular commotion
was uncertain; and if we failed in the attempt, our doom would
be inevitably sealed.
I revolved these thoughts in my mind; I mentioned them
in part to Manon; I found new ones, without waiting for her
replies; I determined upon one course, and then abandoned that
to adopt another; I talked to myself, and answered my own
thoughts aloud: at length I sunk into a kind of hysterical stupor
that I can compare to nothing, because nothing ever equaled it.
Manon observed my emotion, and from its violence judged how
imminent was our danger; and apprehensive more on my account
than on her own, the dear girl could not even venture to give
expression to her fears.
――――――
«<
After a multitude of reflections, I resolved to call upon the
governor, and appeal to his feelings of honor, to the recollection
of my unvarying respect for him, and the marks he had given
of his own affection for us both. Manon endeavored to dissuade
me from this attempt: she said, with tears in her eyes, You
are rushing into the jaws of death; they will murder you - I
shall never again see you-I am determined to die before you. "
I had great difficulty in persuading her that it was absolutely
necessary that I should go, and that she should remain at home.
I promised that she should see me again in a few moments.
She did not foresee, nor did I, that it was against herself that
the whole anger of Heaven, and the rabid fury of our enemies,
was about to be concentrated.
I went to the fort; the governor was there with his chap-
lain. I supplicated him in a tone of humble submission that I
could have ill brooked under other circumstances. I invoked his
clemency by every argument calculated to soften any heart less
ferocious and cruel than a tiger's.
The barbarian made to all my prayers but two short answers,
which he repeated over and over again. Manon, he said, was at
his disposal, and he had given a promise to his nephew. I was


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11814
ANTOINE FRANÇOIS PRÉVOST D'EXILES
resolved to command my feelings to the last: I merely replied
that I had imagined he was too sincerely my friend to desire my
death, to which I would infinitely rather consent than to the loss
of my mistress.
I felt persuaded, on quitting him, that it was folly to expect
anything from the obstinate tyrant, who would have damned
himself a hundred times over to please his nephew. However, I
persevered in restraining my temper to the end; deeply resolved,
if they persisted in such flagrant injustice, to make America the
scene of one of the most horrible and bloody murders that even
love had ever led to.
I was meditating upon this design on my return home, when
Fate, as if impatient to expedite my ruin, threw Synnelet in my
way. He read in my countenance a portion of my thoughts. I
before said he was brave. He approached me.
"Are you not seeking me? " he inquired. "I know that my
intentions have given you mortal offense, and that the death of
one of us is indispensable: let us see who is to be the happy
man. "
I replied that such was unquestionably the fact; and that noth-
ing but death could end the difference between us.
We retired about one hundred paces out of the town. We
drew: I wounded and disarmed him at the first onset.
He was
so enraged that he peremptorily refused either to ask his life or
renounce his claims to Manon. I might have been perhaps justi-
fied in ending both by a single blow; but noble blood ever vindi-
cates its origin. I threw him back his sword. "Let us renew
the struggle," said I to him, "and remember that there shall be
now no quarter. " He attacked me with redoubled fury. I must
confess that I was not an accomplished 'swordsman, having had
but three months' tuition at Paris. Love, however, guided my
weapon. Synnelet pierced me through and through the left arm;
but I caught him whilst thus engaged, and made so vigorous a
thrust that I stretched him senseless at my feet.
In spite of the triumphant feeling that victory, after a mortal
conflict, inspires, I was immediately horrified by the certain con-
sequences of this death. There could not be the slightest hope
of either pardon or respite from the vengeance I had thus in-
curred. I was so well aware of the affection of the governor
for his nephew that I felt perfectly sure my death would not be
delayed a single hour after his should become known. Urgent


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ANTOINE FRANÇOIS PRÉVOST D'EXILES
11815
as this apprehension was, it still was by no means the principal
source of my uneasiness. Manon, the welfare of Manon, the peril
that impended over her, and the certainty of my being now at
length separated from her, afflicted me to such a degree that I
was incapable of recognizing the place in which I stood. I re-
gretted Synnelet's death; instant suicide seemed the only remedy
for my woes.
However, it was this very thought that quickly restored me
to my reason, and enabled me to form a resolution. "What! "
said I to myself: "die, in order to end my pain? Then there is
something I dread more than the loss of all I love! No, let me
suffer the cruelest extremities in order to aid her; and when
these prove of no avail, fly to death as a last resource! "
I returned towards the town; on my arrival at home I found
Manon half dead with fright and anxiety; my presence restored
her. I could not conceal from her the terrible accident that had
happened. On my mentioning the death of Synnelet and my
own wound, she fell in a state of insensibility into my arms.