Endymion - Benjamin Disraeli
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"I believe it is all true," whispered Lord Beaumaris to Sylvia, who had
really never heard of any of these gentlemen before, but looked most
sweet and sympathetic.
"He is a wonderful man--Mr. Waldershare," said Mr. Vigo to Rodney, "but
I fear not practical."
One day, not very long after his return from his travels, Waldershare
went to breakfast with his uncle, Mr. Sidney Wilton, now a
cabinet minister, still unmarried, and living in Grosvenor Square.
Notwithstanding the difference of their politics, an affectionate
intimacy subsisted between them; indeed Waldershare was a favourite of
his uncle, who enjoyed the freshness of his mind, and quite appreciated
his brilliancy of thought and speech, his quaint reading and
effervescent imagination.
"And so you think we are in for life, George," said Mr. Wilson, taking a
piece of toast. "I do not."
"Well, I go upon this," said Waldershare. "It is quite clear that Peel
has nothing to offer the country, and the country will not rally round a
negation. When he failed in '34 they said there had not been sufficient
time for the reaction to work. Well, now, since then, it has had nearly
three years, during which you fellows have done everything to outrage
every prejudice of the constituency, and yet they have given you a
majority."
"Yes, that is all very well," replied Mr. Wilton, "but we are the
Liberal shop, and we have no Liberal goods on hand; we are the party
of movement, and must perforce stand still. The fact is, all the great
questions are settled. No one will burn his fingers with the Irish
Church again, in this generation certainly not, probably in no other;
you could not get ten men together in any part of the country to
consider the corn laws; I must confess I regret it. I still retain my
opinion that a moderate fixed duty would be a wise arrangement, but
I quite despair in my time of any such advance of opinion; as for
the ballot, it is hardly tolerated in debating societies. The present
government, my dear George, will expire from inanition. I always told
the cabinet they were going on too fast. They should have kept back
municipal reform. It would have carried us on for five years. It was our
only _piece de resistance_."
"I look upon the House of Commons as a mere vestry," said Waldershare.
"I believe it to be completely used up. Reform has dished it. There are
no men, and naturally, because the constituencies elect themselves, and
the constituencies are the most mediocre of the nation. The House of
Commons now is like a spendthrift living on his capital. The business
is done and the speeches are made by men formed in the old school.
The influence of the House of Commons is mainly kept up by old social
traditions. I believe if the eldest sons of peers now members would
all accept the Chiltern hundreds, and the House thus cease to be
fashionable, before a year was past, it would be as odious and as
contemptible as the Rump Parliament."
"Well, you are now the eldest son of a peer," said Sidney Wilton,
smiling. "Why do you not set an example, instead of spending your
father's substance and your own in fighting a corrupt borough?"
"I am _vox clamantis_," said Waldershare. "I do not despair of its being
done. But what I want is some big guns to do it. Let the eldest son of
a Tory duke and the eldest son of a Whig duke do the same thing on
the same day, and give the reason why. If Saxmundham, for example, and
Harlaxton would do it, the game would be up."
"On the contrary," said Mr. Wilton, "Saxmundham, I can tell you, will be
the new cabinet minister."
"Degenerate land!" exclaimed Waldershare. "Ah! in the eighteenth
century there was always a cause to sustain the political genius of the
country,--the cause of the rightful dynasty."
"Well, thank God, we have got rid of all those troubles," said Mr.
Wilton.
"Rid of them! I do not know that. I saw a great deal of the Duke of
Modena this year, and tried as well as I could to open his mind to the
situation."
"You traitor!" exclaimed Mr. Wilton. "If I were Secretary of State, I
would order the butler to arrest you immediately, and send you to the
Tower in a hack cab; but as I am only a President of a Board and your
uncle, you will escape."
"Well, I should think all sensible men," said Waldershare, "of all
parties will agree, that before we try a republic, it would be better to
give a chance to the rightful heir."
"Well, I am not a republican," said Mr. Wilton, "and I think Queen
Victoria, particularly if she make a wise and happy marriage, need not
much fear the Duke of Modena."
"He is our sovereign lord, all the same," said Waldershare. "I wish he
were more aware of it himself. Instead of looking to a restoration to
his throne, I found him always harping on the fear of French invasion. I
could not make him understand that France was his natural ally, and that
without her help, Charlie was not likely to have his own again."
"Well, as you admire pretenders, George, I wish you were in my shoes
this morning, for I have got one of the most disagreeable interviews on
hand which ever fell to my lot."
"How so, my dear uncle?" said Waldershare, in a tone of sympathy, for he
saw that the countenance of Mr. Wilton was disturbed.
"My unhappy ward," said Mr. Wilton; "you know, of course, something
about him."
"Well, I was at school and college," said Waldershare, "when it all
happened. But I have just heard that you had relations with him."
"The most intimate; and there is the bitterness. There existed between
his mother Queen Agrippina and myself ties of entire friendship. In her
last years and in her greatest adversity she appealed to me to be the
guardian of her son. He inherited all her beauty and apparently all her
sweetness of disposition. I took the greatest pains with him. He was at
Eton, and did well there. He was very popular; I never was so deceived
in a boy in my life. I though him the most docile of human beings, and
that I had gained over him an entire influence. I am sure it would have
been exercised for his benefit. In short, I may say it now, I looked
upon him as a son, and he certainly would have been my heir; and yet
all this time, from his seventeenth year, he was immersed in political
intrigue, and carrying on plots against the sovereign of his country,
even under my own roof."
"How very interesting!" said Waldershare.
"It may be interesting to you; I know what it cost me. The greatest
anxiety and sorrow, and even nearly compromised my honour. Had I not
a large-hearted chief and a true man of the world to deal with, I must
have retired from the government."
"How could he manage it?" said Waldershare.
"You have no conception of the devices and resources of the secret
societies of Europe," said Mr. Wilton. "His drawing-master, his
fencing-master, his dancing-master, all his professors of languages, who
delighted me by their testimony to his accomplishments and their praises
of his quickness and assiduity, were active confederates in bringing
about events which might have occasioned an European war. He left me
avowedly to pay a visit in the country, and I even received letters from
him with the postmark of the neighbouring town; letters all prepared
beforehand. My first authentic information as to his movements was to
learn, that he had headed an invading force, landed on the shores which
he claimed as his own, was defeated and a prisoner."
"I remember it," said Waldershare. "I had just then gone up to St.
John's, and I remember reading it with the greatest excitement."
"All this was bad enough," said Mr. Wilton, "but this is not my sorrow.
I saved him from death, or at least a dreadful imprisonment. He was
permitted to sail to America on his parole that he would never return
to Europe, and I was required, and on his solemn appeal I consented, to
give my personal engagement that the compact should be sacred. Before
two years had elapsed, supported all this time, too, by my bounty, there
was an attempt, almost successful, to assassinate the king, and my ward
was discovered and seized in the capital. This time he was immured, and
for life, in the strongest fortress of the country; but secret societies
laugh at governments, and though he endured a considerable imprisonment,
the world has recently been astounded by hearing that he had escaped.
Yes; he is in London and has been here, though in studied obscurity,
for some little time. He has never appealed to me until within these
few days, and now only on the ground that there are some family affairs
which cannot be arranged without my approval. I had great doubts
whether I should receive him. I feel I ought not to have done so. But I
hesitated, and I know not what may be the truth about women, but of this
I am quite sure, the man who hesitates is lost."
"How I should like to present at the interview, my dear uncle!" said
Waldershare.
"And I should not be sorry to have a witness," said Mr. Wilton, "but it
is impossible. I am ashamed to say how unhinged I feel; no person, and
no memories, ought to exercise such an influence over one. To tell you
the truth, I encouraged your pleasant gossip at breakfast by way of
distraction at this moment, and now"----
At this moment, the groom of the chambers entered and announced "His
royal highness, Prince Florestan."
Mr. Wilton, who was too agitated to speak, waved his hand to Waldershare
to retire, and his nephew vanished. As Waldershare was descending the
staircase, he drew back on a landing-place to permit the prince to
advance undisturbed. The prince apparently did not observe him, but when
Waldershare caught the countenance of the visitor, he started.
CHAPTER XLI
"I know, sir, you are prejudiced against me," said Prince Florestan,
bowing before Mr. Wilton with a sort of haughty humility, "and therefore
I the more appreciate your condescension in receiving me."
"I have no wish to refer to the past," said Mr. Wilton somewhat sternly.
"You mentioned in your letter that my co-operation was necessary with
reference to your private affairs, of which I once was a trustee, and
under those circumstances I felt it my duty to accede to your request. I
wish our communication to be limited to that business."
"It shall be so strictly," said the prince; "you may remember, sir, that
at the unhappy period when we were deprived of our throne, the name
of Queen Agrippina was inscribed on the great book of the state for a
considerable sum, for which the credit of the state was pledged to her.
It was strictly her private property, and had mainly accrued through
the sale of the estates of her ancestors. This sum was confiscated, and
several other amounts, which belonged to members of our house and to our
friends. It was an act of pure rapine, so gross, that as time revolved,
and the sense of justice gradually returned to the hearts of men,
restitution was made in every instance except my own, though I have
reason to believe that individual claim was the strongest. My bankers,
the house of Neuchatel, who have much interested themselves in this
matter, and have considerable influence with the government that
succeeded us, have brought things to this pass, that we have reason to
believe our claim would be conceded, if some of the foreign governments,
and especially the government of this country, would signify that the
settlement would not be disagreeable to them." And the prince ceased,
and raising his eyes, which were downcast as he spoke, looked Mr. Wilton
straight in the face.
"Before such a proposal could even be considered by Her Majesty's
Government," said Mr. Wilton with a reddening cheek, "the intimation
must be made to them by authority. If the minister of your country has
such an intimation to make to ours, he should address himself to the
proper quarter, to Lord Roehampton."
"I understand," said Prince Florestan; "but governments, like
individuals, sometimes shrink from formality. The government of my
country will act on the intimation, but they do not care to make it an
affair of despatches."
"There is only one way of transacting business," said Mr. Wilton
frigidly, and as if, so far as he was concerned, the interview was
ended.
"I have been advised on high authority," said Prince Florestan, speaking
very slowly, "that if any member of the present cabinet will mention in
conversation to the representative of my country here, that the act of
justice would not be disagreeable to the British Government, the affair
is finished."
"I doubt whether any one of my colleagues would be prepared to undertake
a personal interference of that kind with a foreign government," said
Mr. Wilton stiffly. "For my own part, I have had quite enough of such
interpositions never to venture on them again."
"The expression of feeling desired would involve no sort of engagement,"
said the imperturbable prince.
"That depends on the conscience of the individual who interferes. No
man of honour would be justified in so interposing if he believed he was
thus furnishing arms against the very government of which he solicited
the favour."
"But why should he believe this?" asked the prince with great calmness.
"I think upon reflection," said Mr. Wilton, taking up at the same time
an opened letter which was before him, as if he wished to resume the
private business on which he had been previously engaged, "that your
royal highness might find very adequate reasons for the belief."
"I would put this before you with great deference, sir," said the
prince. "Take my own case; is it not more likely that I should lead that
life of refined retirement, which I really desire, were I in possession
of the means to maintain such a position with becoming dignity, than if
I were distressed, and harassed, and disgusted, every day, with sights
and incidents which alike outrage my taste and self-respect? It is not
prosperity, according to common belief, that makes conspirators."
"You _were_ in a position, and a refined position," rejoined Mr. Wilton
sharply; "you had means adequate to all that a gentleman could desire,
and might have been a person of great consideration, and you wantonly
destroyed all this."
"It might be remembered that I was young."
"Yes, you were young, very young, and your folly was condoned. You
might have begun life again, for to the world at least you were a man of
honour. You had not deceived the world, whatever you might have done to
others."
"If I presume to make another remark," said the prince calmly, but pale,
"it is only, believe me, sir, from the profound respect I feel for you.
Do not misunderstand these feelings, sir. They are not unbecoming the
past. Now that my mother has departed, there is no one to whom I am
attached except yourself. I have no feeling whatever towards any other
human being. All my thought and all my sentiment are engrossed by my
country. But pardon me, dear sir, for so let me call you, if I venture
to say that, in your decision on my conduct, you have never taken into
consideration the position which I inherited."
"I do not follow you, sir."
"You never will remember that I am the child of destiny," said Prince
Florestan. "That destiny will again place me on the throne of my
fathers. That is as certain as I am now speaking to you. But destiny for
its fulfilment ordains action. Its decrees are inexorable, but they are
obscure, and the being whose career it directs is as a man travelling
in a dark night; he reaches his goal even without the aid of stars or
moon."
"I really do not understand what destiny means," said Mr. Wilton.
"I understand what conduct means, and I recognise that it should be
regulated by truth and honour. I think a man had better have nothing to
do with destiny, particularly if it is to make him forfeit his parole."
"Ah! sir, I well know that on that head you entertain a great prejudice
in my respect. Believe me it is not just. Even lawyers acknowledge
that a contract which is impossible cannot be violated. My return from
America was inevitable. The aspirations of a great people and of many
communities required my presence in Europe. My return was the natural
development of the inevitable principle of historical necessity."
"Well, that principle is not recognised by Her Majesty's Ministers,"
said Mr. Wilton, and both himself and the prince seemed to rise at the
same time.
"I thank you, sir, for this interview," said his royal highness. "You
will not help me, but what I require will happen by some other means. It
is necessary, and therefore it will occur."
The prince remounted his horse, and rode off quickly till he reached
the Strand, where obstacles to rapid progress commenced, and though
impatient, it was some time before he reached Bishopsgate Street. He
entered the spacious courtyard of a noble mansion, and, giving his
horse to the groom, inquired for Mr. Neuchatel, to whom he was at
once ushered,--seated in a fine apartment at a table covered with many
papers.
"Well, my prince," said Mr. Neuchatel with a smiling eye, "what brings
such a great man into the City to-day? Have you seen your great friend?"
And then Prince Florestan gave Mr. Neuchatel a succinct but sufficient
summary of his recent interview.
"Ah!" said Mr. Neuchatel, "so it is, so it is; I dare say if you
were received at St. James', Mr. Sidney Wilton would not be so very
particular; but we must take things as we find them. If our fine friends
will not help us, you must try us poor business men in the City. We can
manage things here sometimes which puzzle them at the West End. I saw
you were disturbed when you came in. Put on a good countenance. Nobody
should ever look anxious except those who have no anxiety. I dare say
you would like to know how your account is. I will send for it. It is
not so bad as you think. I put a thousand pounds to it in the hope that
your fine friend would help us, but I shall not take it off again. My
Louis is going to-night to Paris, and he shall call upon the ministers
and see what can be done. In the meantime, good appetite, sir. I am
going to luncheon, and there is a place for you. And I will show you
my Gainsborough that I have just bought, from a family for whom it was
painted. The face is divine, very like our Miss Ferrars. I am going to
send the picture down to Hainault. I won't tell you what I gave for it,
because perhaps you would tell my wife and she would be very angry. She
would want the money for an infant school. But I think she has schools
enough. Now to lunch."
On the afternoon of this day there was a half-holiday at the office, and
Endymion had engaged to accompany Waldershare on some expedition. They
had been talking together in his room where Waldershare was finishing
his careless toilette, which however was never finished, and they had
just opened the house door and were sallying forth when Colonel Albert
rode up. He gave a kind nod to Endymion, but did not speak, and the
companions went on. "By the by, Ferrars," said Waldershare, pressing his
arm and bubbling with excitement, "I have found out who your colonel is.
It is a wondrous tale, and I will tell it all to you as we go on."
CHAPTER XLII
Endymion had now passed three years of his life in London, and
considering the hard circumstances under which he had commenced
this career, he might on the whole look back to those years without
dissatisfaction. Three years ago he was poor and friendless, utterly
ignorant of the world, and with nothing to guide him but his own good
sense. His slender salary had not yet been increased, but with the
generosity and aid of his sister and the liberality of Mr. Vigo, he was
easy in his circumstances. Through the Rodneys, he had become acquainted
with a certain sort of miscellaneous life, a knowledge of which is
highly valuable to a youth, but which is seldom attained without risk.
Endymion, on the contrary, was always guarded from danger. Through
his most unexpected connection with the Neuchatel family, he had seen
something of life in circles of refinement and high consideration, and
had even caught glimpses of that great world of which he read so much
and heard people talk more, the world of the Lord Roehamptons and the
Lady Montforts, and all those dazzling people whose sayings and doings
form the taste, and supply the conversation, and leaven the existence of
admiring or wondering millions.
None of these incidents, however, had induced any change in the scheme
of his existence. Endymion was still content with his cleanly and airy
garret; still dined at Joe's; was still sedulous at his office, and
always popular with his fellow clerks. Seymour Hicks, indeed, who
studied the "Morning Post" with intentness, had discovered the name
of Endymion in the elaborate lists of attendants on Mrs. Neuchatel's
receptions, and had duly notified the important event to his colleagues;
but Endymion was not severely bantered on the occasion, for, since the
withdrawal of St. Barbe from the bureau, the stock of envy at Somerset
House was sensibly diminished.
His lodging at the Rodneys', however, had brought Endymion something
more valuable than an innocuous familiarity with their various and
suggestive life. In the friendship of Waldershare he found a rich
compensation for being withdrawn from his school and deprived of his
university. The care of his father had made Endymion a good classical
scholar, and he had realised a degree of culture which it delighted
the brilliant and eccentric Waldershare to enrich and to complete.
Waldershare guided his opinions, and directed his studies, and formed
his taste. Alone at night in his garret, there was no solitude, for he
had always some book or some periodical, English or foreign, with which
Waldershare had supplied him, and which he assured Endymion it was
absolutely necessary that he should read and master.
Nor was his acquaintance with Baron Sergius less valuable, or less
fruitful of results. He too became interested in Endymion, and poured
forth to him, apparently without reserve, all the treasures of his vast
experience of men and things, especially with reference to the conduct
of external affairs. He initiated him in the cardinal principles of the
policies of different nations; he revealed to him the real character
of the chief actors in the scene. "The first requisite," Baron Sergius
would say, "in the successful conduct of public affairs is a personal
acquaintance with the statesmen engaged. It is possible that events
may not depend now, so much as they did a century ago, on individual
feeling, but, even if prompted by general principles, their application
and management are always coloured by the idiosyncrasy of the chief
actors. The great advantage which your Lord Roehampton, for example, has
over all his colleagues in _la haute politique_, is that he was one of
your plenipotentiaries at the Congress of Vienna. There he learned to
gauge the men who govern the world. Do you think a man like that, called
upon to deal with a Metternich or a Pozzo, has no advantage over an
individual who never leaves his chair in Downing Street except to kill
grouse? Pah! Metternich and Pozzo know very well that Lord Roehampton
knows them, and they set about affairs with him in a totally different
spirit from that with which they circumvent some statesman who has
issued from the barricades of Paris."
Nor must it be forgotten that his debating society and the acquaintance
which he had formed there, were highly beneficial to Endymion. Under
the roof of Mr. Bertie Tremaine he enjoyed the opportunity of forming
an acquaintance with a large body of young men of breeding, of high
education, and full of ambition, that was a substitute for the society,
becoming his youth and station, which he had lost by not going to the
university.
With all these individuals, and with all their circles, Endymion was a
favourite. No doubt his good looks, his mien--which was both cheerful
and pensive--his graceful and quiet manners, all told in his favour,
and gave him a good start, but further acquaintance always sustained
the first impression. He was intelligent and well-informed, without any
alarming originality, or too positive convictions. He listened not only
with patience but with interest to all, and ever avoided controversy.
Here are some of the elements of a man's popularity.
What was his intellectual reach, and what his real character, it was
difficult at this time to decide. He was still very young, only on
the verge of his twentieth year; and his character had no doubt been
influenced, it might be suppressed, by the crushing misfortunes of his
family. The influence of his sister was supreme over him. She had never
reconciled herself to their fall. She had existed only on the solitary
idea of regaining their position, and she had never omitted an occasion
to impress upon him that he had a great mission, and that, aided by her
devotion, he would fulfil it. What his own conviction on this subject
was may be obscure. Perhaps he was organically of that cheerful and easy
nature, which is content to enjoy the present, and not brood over the
past. The future may throw light upon all these points; at present it
may be admitted that the three years of seemingly bitter and mortifying
adversity have not been altogether wanting in beneficial elements in the
formation of his character and the fashioning of his future life.