Page images
PDF
EPUB

A FRENCH PRISONER.

315

was a poor Frenchman, who, having escaped from one of the prisons, had wandered about a country of which he knew nothing, for four days and nights, with no money, no means of assuaging the cravings of nature, but rather avoiding every one, notwithstanding his destitution, from the dread that the succour he might seek would presently be converted, into severer penalties than he had yet experienced.

Commiserating the poor creature as he did, Elliston knew not how to proceed, or into what serious dilemma he might bring himself, by sheltering an escaped prisoner of war. He at least determined not to abuse the rights of confidence-in other words, to maintain strictly the rules of dramatic justice, and entitle himself to the applause of his own conscience.

Desiring the poor Frenchman to lie snug in the field from which he had just crawled, (like the great Monmouth, with a few peas only in his pocket,) Elliston and his friend drove back to a neighbouring village, where purchasing a couple of loaves, a little bacon, and a bottle of wine, he returned to the spot where the famishing foreigner lay concealed.

The wretched creature (who, in his days of plumage, would scarcely have been a match for "Captain Weazel,") having long since given himself up for lost, now began to blubber in tears of gratitude, and express his battements du cœur in as much pantomime as his weakness would permit.

316

MELODRAMATIC EFFECT.

The evening was fast closing in, but the weather warm and lovely, and Elliston, teeming with melodramatic fervour, hurried the trembling refugee to a low copse below the brow of a contiguous dell, and boxing him snugly in a heap of furze, completely obscured from the public eye, spread before him the restoratives he had just obtained.

The little Frenchman's head peeping from his prickly nest-the bread and bacon-the bottle of "neat wine," and the true stage importance in which, no doubt, Elliston had fully invested himself, must have represented a most characteristic picture. Elliston, of course, delivered a speech or two, more apposite to the occasion than intelligible to his listener; and dropping, at the same time, a small sum of money into the lap of the nidulated man of war, commended him to the caprice of Fortune, who sometimes, when in a pleasant mood, exerts herself in extraordinary means, for the benefit of the most insignificant of her votaries.

CHAPTER XIII.

Elliston's meditations in Dove Dale-Arrives at an inn-Hob and knob with the landlord-A terrible adventure-Increasing horror-Our hero in great disgrace-His neighbour's wifeMr. Thomas Hill-Miss Pope retires from the stage-A letter of Mrs. Clive-A royal command-Miss Pope's terror at playing Mrs. Heidelberg before the king Her letter to Lord Harcourt-Mrs. Jordan-Elliston's letter to his wifeGlasgow-Elliston's adventure with a Scotch gentlemanStrollers-Anecdotes respecting them.

HAVING still considerable leisure at his disposal, Elliston felt no inclination for an immediate return to London. The weather continued unusually fine, and autumn had descended on the romantic district of Derbyshire in that fulness of grace, which equally distinguishes this season of the year, by the richness of aspect as by the abundance of its bounty.

It was just at this time, also, that Elliston had received a letter from his wife, written in that truly affectionate and sensible tone, which the present moment was so well calculated to assist, in the generosity of its purpose. Full of affection, but not

318

MEDITATIONS IN DOVE DALE.

unmixed by well-directed reproof, Elliston read over sundry times its unanswerable contents, till a temper of sentimentality crept over him, not unusual to such constitutions as his, which they who are subject to them, would be fain persuaded are of a very intrinsic nature.

A pseudonymous self-examination took possession of him; and as he wandered this morning along the declivous paths of Dove Dale, he pondered awhile on the home-truths that had just been presented to him; and having arraigned some of those infirmities, to which we have had occasion frequently to allude, with the impartiality of Rousseau himself, and rhapsodized aloud to no inconsiderable effect, he came to the conclusion that he was about one of the most worthless fellows in his Majesty's dominions.

Having done so much-he considered that he had done quite enough. Confession is certainly one half of amendment; and as this half he had so liberally satisfied, the remaining took no part at all in this act of sentiment, but, like a man who had compounded with his creditors, he opened a fresh ledger and felt himself at once at liberty to run in debt, at the first convenient opportunity.

Elliston arrived on the following day at Derby; and the odour of yesterday being still powerful upon him, he avoided what is called the head inn; and after a short reconnoitre, entered a smaller

SCENE AT AN INN.

319

house of entertainment on the verge of the town, where he determined to take up his quarters for the night. Here he soon ingratiated himself with his landlord-a habit he delighted to indulge in; and having despatched a hasty repast, invited his newfound friend to partake the bottle which had been just set before him.

The said landlord was nearly as bulky as the tun of Heidelberg; and as it would require consequently about as much to fill him, Elliston conceived he might have made too unremunerating an engagement; but as this personage was really a merry fellow, and a bit of a wag, Elliston did not despair of his own capacity, at least, in a bibulous acceptation.

He soon discovered, however, the poor man had more wives than he knew what to do with; for although, not to perplex the reader, he had but one, yet was she one too many, so that the present moment was in fact, the first he had had for many a day, for the manifestation of that thorough good humour so natural to him.

Though in the presence of his landlord, Elliston soon found he had calculated without his host; for the good man's volubility was of that extent, that he fairly chattered our hero dumb, who had as much chance with him in the race, as sound with light. But as our traveller could not consent entirely to renounce the hero, he at least took the lead in the

« PreviousContinue »