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    left directions whither it should follow you in the forest . That letter anust have reported all about our departure and arrival—at least / the broad facts ; but as we have not yet had a line either from you or Julie , we are uncertain about your having received it . Sarah torments herself with the idea that you and Julie will be " uneasy . ; " or rather Julie , for she regards you as being above any weakness so unbusiness-like . "I do not believe , " she says about once a day , " that Mr . Markham would turn pale if he knew that he was going to be a bankrupt to-morrow ; but it is for Mrs . Markham that I feel . " And she imagines Julie as constantly solicitous as she is herself about Margaret—indeed about us all . Dear woman !

    Deprived of a life herself—one of those mournful , resigned negations , which are so common with you , she has thrown her whole soul into the care of Margaret . She loves her for her beau , ty , her courage , her success , —loves her for being so admired and so loved . It needed all Margaret's inflexible resolve to make her mother understand that they must part—that most estimable silk gown , fading and shrinking out of existence , seemed to feel that it must quite be cast off and laid aside if the sustaining Margaret were removed ; although I do think poor Mrs . Johnson now begins to look up to you as the Zeus of her system ; and to the wayward Julie as to a superior wisdom— " she has such a position now . "

    Yseult told you generally of our brief peril in the gulf . It is you know often stormy ^ but only once do ; I remember encountering so black and sudden a hurricane ; black as midnight—a thick , palpable midnight ; save when the lightning poured down , straight like a blinding cataract upon the boiling waves ; which shivered under the shock . Ifcopes and spars broke away like flower stalks . We had just overtaken Audley's yacht when it began ; and it seemed scarcely five minutes before it was daylight again , and we lay a maimed wreck , and the yacht was gone . We got them all , however ; with one exception , which Yseult could not tell , kn / inniin T Y » oi 7- /> nwf- vT-a-J- 4- / - \ lA Vtof \ M a -arava inot Tvnlli-nor r » flp Awm + TiA TPTRf » V . i 1 » \ J VAV % / i ¦ ¦ ¦ i ¦ —

    U % S \ sC * tlAD \ S J- JJ . W T K ? ±± \ J V T WW WAV * iXV ^ M I w . u f ^ . jj - ~ " - ~— " ~ ~— -. « . . . ~ w ~< -7 when I heard my own name called from the surface of the water . It was King ; his left arm round a spar , his right still helpless . The sound of my own name in his voice—the sight of him , in his helplessness , and even of the arm which Edwardes had crippled , roused a paroxysm of anger that I could not understand when I first looked back upon it , though now I do know why I resented his appeal to a common humanity , to rescue him partl y from the effects of his just retribution . Obeying a double impulse , I cried out to him , — " Sir , I detest you , and I despise you ; " and I held out my hand . He left his hold of the spar ; but instead of seizing my outstretched hand , he folded his unwounded arm over the other ; and , with a stedfast look at me , lay back against the wave that rose behind him , and disappeared . I could hardly have supposed that the fellow ' s countenance could have assumed so much dignity ; but it was an ending

    that redeemed much of his mean existence . Next week we take Margaret to Milan . The man with whom we shall place her is in some sort related to Giorgio , who will conduct us ; and under such influence , with the constant guard of the devoted Sarah , Margaret would be safe , even if she could not be her own guard . But the very storm and hideous ruin of that day could not shake her . I do not think that this is properly " firmness , " as we have called it—still leas the hardness of heart , which the perverse Julie calls it—but it is more like a farsightedness , which can look beyond the hour , and reposes independently to brief viccissitude . Besting , so to speak , on many waves , is not tossed about . Sarah could not conceal her terror , and almost remonstrated with fate for exposing her Margaret . Yseult , with that gentleness that makes us so surprised at her rare bursts of vehemence , lay perfectly still and placid . " I ' m not afraid , " she said ; " if we die , it will be together . "

    However , we reached Valperduta unharmed , unaltered from what we were at Marseilles . It was delicious indeed to witness Yseult's childlike interest and delight at all she saw , —her first landing " in Italy ! " her arrival at Valperduta over the unsubdued mountains , —her wonder at the magnificence of the house , its size , its picturesque position , its marble hall , its painted walls , —her unconcealed admiration for its majestic owner , and the still lovely Helen , with her dear counterfeits . At firstshe fearo d that she could not speak enough Italian , for she had forgotten that Helen was born her countrywoman ; and even Giorgio tries to break the ponderous song of his Italian tonguo into clipped English words , with that courtesy in which the Italians exceed all people on the face of the earth . So here we are , gradually getting " at home , " Ysoult making herself the elder sister of Helen's dear young counterfeit , and ail or us anxiously awaiting Stanhope and Edwardes in the autumn .

    Since I have returned to Valperduta , I have , of course , been subject to endless examinations by Giorgio on the state of England ; and it ia curious to note the effect on his own mind . Ho will hardly believe any ill of England . Like many liberal Italians , ho is minutely familiar with her literature , hor history , hor institutions ; and regards her as a model in every tiling but music and painting . When I describe to him a political condition almost without that passion which all other nations call patriotism 1 —a society pharisaically " moral , " yet presenting the spectacles of London streets , and scourged by vices , and by sacrifices as bad as vices , —when 1 paint the corrupting devotion to the commercial idol of pro / it , —when I compare our enormous wealth with our hideous , unpitiod poverty , —when I oak , of what use is liberty , that ends only in " agitation , " or scientific

    freedom of thought that onds in social nullification , thought'Without act , —he smiles , and tells me I am prejudiced , But , the next moment , he draws consolation from what I say , in thinking that , after all her degradations , Ital y ia not so very much worso off oven than boasted England .. " Our Pope , ho says , " can seize our papers and our persons ; but I do not think he so much enslaves our mimta as 7 / wwoniiin . I ' opo , la Bignora Grondi . We have our unhappinessos and our chainw ; but perhaps l \ f <> is not in such chains horo as in England . We arc a degraded nation , » ince wo are enslaved ; but patriotism still liven as a passion in our hearts ; and , perhaps , an Italian can better know what was moving itself in tlio lioart of a Hompdon or a Chatham than your most favourite electod Englishman of your own day . " And iio is right , bo fivr . Yet , I cannot justify the inaction of such men

    as he is- ^ men of great minds , who see their country enslaved , and yet who remain quiescent , content to cultivate themselves , £ fnd to preserve a freedom in the midst of slavery . Keeping alive , he says , the sacred fire of thought . ' ' And as , to quiescence , — -you in England—or , at least , they in ,-England , " —for he knows that I disclaim the land of the Collar and of Anti-Hampden , — " they in England are quiescent ; only their quiescence is not so perfect . We must wait on , while great minds work , till the world shall be ready for action again . " " Wait ! it is the German idea—the contemplative principle ; and when their time comes they are unable to act . "

    " We must wait until statesmanship , public opinion , science , and art , are all brought to an equal height , and a true direction can be given to act . " " And yet , " exclaimed Margaret , " would it not hasten the time , to carry art into the world , and there let it work its own influence in bringing on . the day when action can be better understood ?" " The world spoils it , " replied Giorgio . " Nothing strong is spoiled . The world kills bad art , and converts it into a manufacturing accessory , "I said ; "but true art can always sustain itself by the force of its own labour , and its own vitality . Margaret so far is right . If we all wait , as you teach , the world would never end with waiting . It is only by incessantly watching the moment to begin , that we can seize the first opportunity . "

    " Look there ! " said Giorgio . He pointed to the low wall at the end of the viotto in which we were sitting , separating the vineyard from the road . Standing on the other side of the wall were a young couple , whom I recognized at once : but lifted above the head of Lionardo , seated on one of his hands , while the other held it up for me to see , was a very young infant . " That , " said Giorgio , "is the answer . Let art go on ; let us who understand the mystery , keep alive the sacred fire . " Let

    those who have the strength , "—and he laid his paternal hand on Margaret ' s shoulder , —¦ " carry forth the sounds of truth into the ears of the world . Let native-born life like that , " pointing to the child , " still go on , where learning has not pestered it into pining . Let the world agitate , as it does in England , with its imperfect problems , the ferment saving it from death . Let all these things go on , and the day will come when the three elements , life , art , and science , shall understand one another . And on that day Anarch Custom , as you say , shall fall off his cruel throne , and the people shall be free . "

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    OPENING OJB" THE HAYMARKET . On Monday , Buekstone revealed the result of an active " recess , " and presented the Haymarket as an elegant and much improved house . These improvements I suppose he counted on as attractive enough for the first week , for his programme was specifically unattractive . Not being well , I seized hold of the excuse to stay away . But I did see two acts of the new Hamlet , which were enough to show that in Mr . George Vandenhoff we have an intelligent , graceful actor , who will be an Jinnense improvement on Mr . Barry Sullivan , and I dare say will be very effective in serious comedy . Hamlet he was not . Ho did what all the lCmnlets do—declaim instead of feel—and he did it in the old-established way . But his " reading" was that of a cultivated man , his bearing gracefully conventional , his person prepossessing , and his voice agreeable .

    Who says that Shalcspeare wont draw now-a-days ? Docs lie not reign supreme at Sadler ' s Wells ? Is not the Surrey triumphant with tho Tempest ? Does not the Haymarket give us liamlct ' f Have not the Princess ' s and the Mcurylebone each their Macbeth ? lieally , theatricals seem bursting into a new bloom of popularity ! Every whore there ia a " hit" of some kind or other . The last has been , that of Mrs . Wallne !; :, of whose performance another pen will write . Vivian .

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    LADY MACBETH AT THE MARYLEBONE . Pejicjeiving from tho advertisements that Mrs . « T . W . Wai lack had " achieved a triumphant success" ( that fine old conventional phrase !) , 1 went on Monday to the Marylobone . Mrs . Wallack is what would bo called a " Lady Macbeth-stylo of woman , " tall , majestic ! , and commanding . Her features are capable of great expression , her voice of modulation ; hor attitudes arc imposing , and hor reading of tho text good . Her greatest defect is being Mrs . Wallaclc , aa

    she has in some measuro formed herself upon her husband , not tho best model flho could have chosen . She is , however , tho best Lady Macbeth I have ever seen , as , notwithstanding a certain amount of mouthing' and rant , moro fitted for Eitzball than fcJha . kspea . ro , she Jinn much foniiniuo sweetness . An unpleasant urnwl in her tones reminded mo of Laura Addison , but her acting , in the first scene especially , was so wonfanly , and evinced so much tender pride- in Macbeth ' s success , that J have Hearcoly scon it equalled on tho stage .

    Mr . Wallaclc has a handsome faco , fino figure , dee ]) voice , and largo calves . TUo possession of thoso accessories constituted him as the hero of tho tragedy in the eyes of hi » principal audience , the pit and gallory , and they bravood and halloed till they were hoarse . Mr . H . Vandonhofr divi&ad ' Macdioff into two separate portions , playing tho first three acts in a jaunty Charles M . athows-liko style , the last two , after tho example of the renownedHides . Mr . Shakltvrs was the First Witch , and relieved the tedium of tho tragedy with many of tho buffooneries of the circus . Miss Gordon played Uccate , and sung Locko ' a inueio with spirit . 1 £ , H , Y .

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    OtfTdBfcfc 29 , 1853 . ] THE LEADER . 1051

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 29, 1853, page 1051, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2010/page/19/