“ His daughter,
and the heir of his kingdom,
hath
referred herself
Unto a poor but worthy gentleman: ”
Cymbeline.
When Alderman Van Beverout and Ludlow
drew near to the Lust in Rust, it was already dark.
Night had overtaken them, at some distance from the
place of landing; and the mountain already threw its
shadow across the river, the narrow strip of land
that separated it from the sea, and far upon the ocean
itself. Neither had an opportunity of making his
observations on the condition of things in and about
the villa, until they had ascended nearly to its level,
and had even entered the narrow but fragrant lawn
in its front. Just before they arrived at the
gate which opened on the latter, the Alderman paused,
and addressed his companion, with more of the manner
of their ancient confidence, than he had manifested
during the few preceding days of their intercourse.
“You must have observed, that
the events of this little excursion on the water,
have been rather of a domestic than of a public character;”
he said. “Thy father was a very ancient
and much-esteemed friend of mine, and I am far from
certain that there is not some affinity between us,
in the way of intermarriages. Thy worthy mother,
who is a thrifty woman, and a small talker, had some
of the blood of my own stock. It would grieve
me to see the good understanding, which these recollections
have created, in any manner interrupted. I admit,
Sir, that revenue is to the state what the soul is
to the body the moving and governing principle;
and that, as the last would be a tenantless house
without its inhabitants, so the first would be an
exacting and troublesome master without its proper
products. But there is no need of pushing a principle
to extremities! If this brigantine be, as you
appear to suspect, and indeed as we have some reason
from various causes to infer, the vessel called the
Water-Witch she might have been a legal prize had
she fallen into your power; bait now that she has
escaped, I cannot say what may be your intentions;
but were thy excellent father, the worthy member of
the King’s Council, living, so discreet a man
would think much before he opened his lips, to say
more than is discreet, on this or any other subject.”
“Whatever course I may believe
my duty dictates, you may safely rely on my discretion
concerning the the remarkable the
very decided step which your niece has seen proper
to take;” returned the young man, who did not
make this allusion to Alida without betraying, by the
tremor of his voice, how great was her influence still
over him. “I see no necessity of violating
the domestic feelings to which you allude, by aiding
to feed the ears of the idly curious, with the narrative
of her errors.”
Ludlow stopped suddenly, leaving the
uncle to infer what he would wish to add.
“This is generous, and manly,
and like a loyal lover, Captain Ludlow,”
returned the Alderman; “though it is not exactly
what I intended to suggest. We will not, however,
multiply words in the night air ha! when
the cat is asleep, the mice are seen to play!
Those night-riding, horse-racing blacks have taken
possession of Alida’s pavilion; and we may be
thankful the poor girl’s rooms are not as large
as Harlaem Common, or we should hear the feet of some
hard-driven beast galloping about in them.”
The Alderman, in his turn, cut short
his speech, and started as if one of the spukes of
the colony had suddenly presented itself to his eyes.
His language had drawn the look of his companion towards
la Cour des Fees; and Ludlow had,
at the same moment as the uncle, caught an unequivocal
view of la belle Barberie, as she moved before the
open window of her apartment. The latter was
about to rush forward, but the hand of Myndert arrested
the impetuous movement.
“Here is more matter for our
wits, than our legs;” observed the cool and
prudent burgher. “That was the form of my
ward and niece, or the daughter of old Etienne Barberie
has a double. Francis! didst thou not see
the image of a woman at the window of the pavilion,
or are we deceived by our wishes? I have sometimes
been deluded in an unaccountable manner, Captain Ludlow,
when my mind has been thoroughly set on the bargain,
in the quality of the goods; for the most liberal
of us all are subject to mental weakness of this nature,
when hope is alive!”
“Certainement, oui!”
exclaimed the eager valet “Quel malheur
to be oblige to go on la mer, when Mam’selle
Alide nevair quit la maison! J’etais
sur, que nous nous trompions,
car jamais la famille de Barberie
love to be marins!”
“Enough, good Francis; the family
of Barberie is as earthy as a fox. Go and notify
the idle rogues in my kitchen, that their master is
at hand; and remember, that there is no necessity
for speaking of all the wonders we have seen on the
great deep. Captain Ludlow, we will now join my
dutiful niece, with as little fracas as possible.”
Ludlow eagerly accepted the invitation,
and instantly followed the dogmatical and seemingly
unmoved Alderman towards the dwelling. As the
lawn was crossed, they involuntarily paused, a moment,
to look in at the open windows of the pavilion.
La belle Barberie had ornamented la
Cour des Fees, with a portion of that
national taste, which she inherited from her father.
The heavy magnificence that distinguished the reign
of Louis XIV. had scarcely descended to one of the
middling rank of Monsieur de Barberie, who had consequently
brought with him to the place of his exile, merely
those tasteful usages which appear almost exclusively
the property of the people from whom he had sprung,
without the encumbrance and cost of the more pretending
fashions of the period. These usages had become
blended with the more domestic and comfortable habits
of English, or what is nearly the same thing, of American
life an union which, when it is found, perhaps
produces the most just and happy medium of the useful
and the agreeable. Alida was seated by a small
table of mahogany, deeply absorbed in the contents
of a little volume that lay before her. By her
side stood a tea-service, the cups and the vessels
of which were of the diminutive size then used, though
exquisitely wrought, and of the most beautiful material.
Her dress was a negligee suited to her years; and her
whole figure breathed that air of comfort, mingled
with grace, which seems to be the proper quality of
the sex, and which renders the privacy of an elegant
woman so attractive and peculiar. Her mind was
intent on the book, and the little silver urn hissed
at her elbow, apparently unheeded.
“This is the picture I have
loved to draw,” half-whispered Ludlow, “when
gales and storms have kept me on the deck, throughout
many a dreary and tempestuous night! When body
and mind have been impatient of fatigue, this is the
repose I have most coveted, and for which I have even
dared to hope!”
“The China trade will come to
something, in time and you are an excellent judge
of comfort, Master Ludlow;” returned the Alderman.
“That girl now has a warm glow on her cheek,
which would seem to swear she never faced a breeze
in her life; and it is not easy to fancy, that one
who looks so comfortable has lately been frolicking
among the dolphins. Let us enter.”
Alderman Van Beverout was not accustomed
to use much ceremony in his visits to his niece.
Without appearing to think any announcement necessary,
therefore, the dogmatical burgher coolly opened a door,
and ushered his companion into the pavilion.
If the meeting between la belle Alida
and her guests was distinguished by the affected indifference
of the latter, their seeming ease was quite equalled
by that of the lady. She laid aside her book,
with a calmness that might have been expected had
they parted but an hour before, and which sufficiently
assured both Ludlow and her uncle that their return
was known and their presence expected. She simply
arose at their entrance, and with a smile that betokened
breeding, rather than feeling, she requested them
to be seated. The composure of his niece had the
effect to throw the Alderman into a brown study, while
the young sailor scarcely knew which to admire the
most, the exceeding loveliness of a woman who was always
so beautiful, or her admirable self-possession in
a scene that most others would have found sufficiently
embarrassing. Alida, herself, appeared to feel
no necessity for any explanation; for, when her guests
were seated, she took occasion to say, while busied
in pouring out the tea
“You find me prepared to offer
the refreshment of a cup of delicious bohea.
I think, my uncle calls it the tea of the Caernarvon
Castle.”
“A lucky ship, both in her passages
and her wares! Yes, it is the article you name;
and I can recommend it to all who wish to purchase.
But niece of mine, will you condescend to acquaint
this commander in Her Majesty’s service, and
a poor Alderman of her good city of New-York, how long
you may have been expecting our company?”
Alida felt at her girdle, and, drawing
out a small and richly-ornamented watch, she coolly
examined its hands, as if to learn the hour.
“We are nine. I think it
was past the turn of the day, when Dinah first mentioned
that this pleasure might be expected. But, I should
also tell you, that packages which seem to contain
letters have arrived from town.”
This was giving a new and sudden direction
to the thoughts of the Alderman. He had refrained
from entering on those explanations which the circumstances
seemed to require, because he well knew that he stood
on dangerous ground, and that more might be said than
he wished his companion to hear, no less than from
amazement at the composure of his ward. He was
not sorry, therefore, to have an excuse to delay his
inquiries, that appeared so much in character as that
of reading the communications of his business correspondents.
Swallowing the contents of the tiny cup he held, at
a gulp, the eager merchant seized the packet that Alida
now offered; and, muttering a few words of apology
to Ludlow, he left the pavilion.
Until now, the commander of the Coquette
had not spoken. Wonder, mingled with indignation,
sealed his mouth, though he had endeavored to penetrate
the veil which Alida had drawn around her conduct and
motives, by a diligent use of his eyes. During
the first few moments of the interview, he thought
that he could detect, in the midst of her studied calmness,
a melancholy smile struggling around her beautiful
mouth; but only once had their looks met, as she turned
her full, rich, and dark eyes furtively on his face,
as if she were curious to know the effect produced
by her manner on the mind of the young sailor.
“Have the enemies of the Queen
reason to regret the cruise of the Coquette?”
said la Belle, hurriedly, when she found her glance
detected; “or have they dreaded to encounter
a prowess that has already proved their inferiority?”
“Fear, or prudence, or perhaps
I might say conscience, has made them wary;”
returned Ludlow, pointedly emphasizing the latter word.
“We have run from the Hook to the edge of the
Grand Bank, and returned without success.”
“’Tis unlucky. But,
though the French escaped, have none of the lawless
met with punishment? There is a rumor among the
slaves, that the brigantine which visited us is an
object of suspicion to the Government?”
“Suspicion! But I
may apply to la belle Barberie, to know whether the
character her commander has obtained be merited?”
Alida smiled, and, her admirer thought, sweetly as
ever.
“It would be a sign of extraordinary
complaisance, were Captain Ludlow to apply to the
girls of the colony for instruction in his duty!
We may be secret encouragers of the contraband, but
surely we are not to be suspected of any greater familiarity
with their movements. These hints may compel
me to abandon the pleasures of the Lust in Rust, and
to seek air and health in some less exposed situation.
Happily the banks of the Hudson offer many, that one
need be fastidious indeed to reject.”
“Among which you count the Manor House of Kinderhook?”
Again Alida smiled, and Ludlow thought it was triumphantly.
“In your images of the future?”
said the young man, observing she hesitated.
Alida laughed downright. But,
immediately recovering her self-command, she replied
“Not so fancifully. My
knowledge of the beauties of the house of Mr. Van
Staats, is confined to very unpoetical glimpses from
the river, in passing and repassing. The chimneys
are twisted in the most approved style of the Dutch
Brabant, and, although wanting the stork’s nests
on their summits, it seems as if there might be that
woman’s tempter, comfort, around the hearths
beneath. The offices, too, have an enticing air,
for a thrifty housewife!”
“Which office, in compliment
to the worthy Patroon, you intend shall not long be
vacant?”
Alida was playing with a spoon, curiously
wrought to represent the stem and leaves of a tea-plant.
She started, dropped the implement, and raised her
eyes to the face of her companion. The look was
steady, and not without an interest in the evident
concern betrayed by the young man.
“It will never be filled by
me, Ludlow;” was the answer, uttered solemnly,
and with a decision that denoted a resolution fixed.
“Hush!” whispered the
other, rising and standing for a moment in an attitude
of intense expectation. Her eye became brighter,
and the bloom on her cheek even deeper than before,
while pleasure and hope were both strongly depicted
on her beautiful face “Hush!”
she continued, motioning to Ludlow to repress his
feelings. “Did you hear nothing?”
The disappointed and yet admiring
young man was silent, though he watched her singularly
interesting air, and lovely features, with all the
intenseness that seemed to characterize her own deportment.
As no sound followed that which Alida had heard or
fancied she had heard, she resumed her seat, and appeared
to lend her attention once more to her companion.
“You were speaking of mountains?”
she said, scarce knowing what she uttered. “The
passage between the bays of Newburgh and Tappan, has
scarce a rival, as I have heard from travelled men.”
“I was indeed speaking of a
mountain, but it was of one that weighs me to the
earth. Your inexplicable conduct and cruel indifference
have heaped it on my feelings, Alida. You have
said that there is no hope for Oloff Van Staats; and
one syllable, spoken with your native ingenuousness
and sincerity, has had the effect to blow all my apprehensions
from that quarter to the winds. There remains
only to account for your absence, to resume the whole
of your power over one who is but too readily disposed
to confide in all you say or do.”
La belle Barberie seemed touched.
Her glance at the young sailor was kinder, and her
voice wanted some of its ordinary steadiness, in the
reply.
“That power has then been weakened?”
“You will despise me, if I say no; you
will distrust me, if I say yes.”
“Then silence seems the course
best adapted to maintain our present amity. Surely
I heard a blow struck, lightly, on the shutter of that
window?”
“Hope sometimes deceives us.
This repeated belief would seem to say that you expect
a visiter?”
A distinct tap on the shutter confirmed
the impression of the mistress of the pavilion.
Alida looked at her companion, and appeared embarrassed.
Her color varied, and she seemed anxious to utter something
that either her feelings or her prudence suppressed.
“Captain Ludlow, you have once
before been an unexpected witness of an interview
in la Cour des Fees, that has,
I fear, subjected me to unfavorable surmises.
But one manly and generous as yourself can have indulgence
for the little vanities of woman. I expect a visit,
that perhaps a Queen’s officer should not countenance.”
“I am no exciseman, to pry into
wardrobes and secret repositories, but one whose duty
it is to act only on the high seas, and against the
more open violators of the law. If you have any
without, whose presence you desire, let them enter
without dread of my office. When we meet in a
more suitable place, I shall know how to take my revenge.”
His companion looked grateful, and
bowed her acknowledgments. She then made a ringing
sound, by using a spoon on the interior of one of the
vessels of the tea equipage. The shrubbery, which
shaded a window, stirred; and presently, the young
stranger, already so well known in the former pages
of this work, and in the scenes of the brigantine,
appeared in the low balcony. His person was scarcely
seen, before a light bale of goods was tossed past
him, into the centre of the room.
“I send my certificate of character
as an avant-courier;” said the gay dealer in
contraband, or Master Seadrift, as he was called by
the Alderman, touching his cap, gallantly, to the
mistress of la Cour des Fees, and then,
somewhat more ceremoniously to her companion; after
which he returned the goldbound covering to its seat,
on a bed of rich and glossy curls, and sought his
package. Here is one more customer than I bargained
for, and I look to more than common gain! We have
met before, Captain Ludlow.”
“We have, Sir Skimmer of the
Seas, and we shall meet again. Winds may change,
and fortune yet favor the right!”
“We trust to the sea-green lady’s
care;” returned the extraordinary smuggler,
pointing, with a species of reverence, real or affected,
to the image that was beautifully worked, in rich
colors, on the velvet of his cap. What has been
will be, and the past gives a hope for the future.
We meet, here, on neutral ground, I trust.”
“I am the commander of a royal
cruiser, Sir:” haughtily returned the other.
“Queen Anne may be proud of
her servant! but we neglect our affairs.
A thousand pardons, lovely mistress of la Cour
des Fees. This meeting of two rude
mariners does a slight to your beauty, and little credit
to the fealty due the sex. Having done with all
compliments, I have to offer certain articles that
never failed to cause the brightest eyes to grow more
brilliant, and at which duchesses have gazed with many
longings.”
“You speak with confidence of
your associations, Master Seadrift, and rate noble
personages among your customers, as familiarly as if
you dealt in offices of state.”
“This skilful servitor of the
Queen will tell you, lady, that the wind which is
a gale on the Atlantic, may scarce cool the burning
cheek of a girl on the land, and that the links in
life are as curiously interlocked as the ropes of
a ship. The Ephesian temple, and the Indian wigwam,
rested on the same earth.”
“From which you infer that rank
does not alter nature. We must admit, Captain
Ludlow, that Master Seadrift understands a woman’s
heart, when he tempts her with stores of tissues gay
as these!”
Ludlow had watched the speakers in
silence. The manner of Alida was far less embarrassed,
than when he had before seen her in the smuggler’s
company; and his blood fired, when he saw that their
eyes met with a secret and friendly intelligence.
He had remained, however, with a resolution to be
calm, and to know the worst. Conquering the expression
of his feelings by a great effort, he answered with
an exterior of composure, though not without some
of that bitterness in his emphasis, which he felt
at his heart.
“If Master Seadrift has this
knowledge, he may value himself on his good fortune;”
was the reply.
“Much intercourse with the sex,
who are my best customers, has something helped me;”
returned the cavalier dealer in contraband. “Here
is a brocade, whose fellow is worn openly in the presence
of our royal mistress, though it came from the forbidden
looms of Italy; and the ladies of the court return
from patriotically dancing, in the fabrics of home,
to please the public eye, once in the year, to wear
these more agreeable inventions, all the rest of it,
to please themselves. Tell me, why does the Englishman,
with his pale sun, spend thousands to force a sickly
imitation of the gifts of the tropics, but because
he pines for forbidden fruit? or why does your Paris
gourmand roll a fig on his tongue, that a Lazzarone
of Naples would cast into his bay, but because he wishes
to enjoy the bounties of a low latitude, under a watery
sky? I have seen an individual feast on the eau
sucre of an European pine, that cost a guinea,
while his palate would have refused the same fruit,
with its delicious compound of acid and sweet, mellowed
to ripeness under a burning sun, merely because he
could have it for nothing. This is the secret
of our patronage; and as the sex are most liable to
its influence, we owe them most gratitude.”
“You have travelled, Master
Seadrift,” returned la Belle smiling, while
she tossed the rich contents of the bale on the carpet,
“and treat of usages as familiarly as you speak
of dignities.”
“The lady of the sea-green mantle
does not permit an idle servant. We follow the
direction of her guiding hand; sometimes it points
our course among the isles of the Adriatic, and at
others on your stormy American coasts. There
is little of Europe between Gibraltar and the Cattegat,
that I have not visited.”
“But Italy has been the favorite,
if one may judge by the number of her fabrics that
you produce.”
“Italy, France, and Flanders,
divide my custom; though you are right, in believing
the former most in favor. Many years of early
life did I pass on the noble coasts of that romantic
region. One who protected and guided my infancy
and youth, even left me for a time, under instruction,
on the little plain of Sorrento.”
“And where can this plain be
found? for the residence of so famous a
rover may, one day, become the theme of song, and is
likely to occupy the leisure of the curious.”
“The grace of the speaker may
well excuse the irony! Sorrento is a village
on the southern shore of the renowned Naples bay.
Fire has wrought many changes in that soft but wild
country, and if, as religionists believe, the fountains
of the great deep were ever broken up, and the earth’s
crust disturbed, to permit its secret springs to issue
on the surface, this may have been one of the spots
chosen by him whose touch leaves marks that are indelible,
in which to show his power. The bed of the earth,
itself, in all that region, appears to have been but
the vomitings of volcanoes; and the Sorrentine passes
his peaceable life in the bed of an extinguished crater.
’Tis curious to see in what manner the men of
the middle ages have built their town, on the margin
of the sea, where the element has swallowed one-half
the ragged basin, and how they have taken the yawning
crevices of the tufo, for ditches to protect their
walls! I have visited many lands, and seen nature
in nearly every clime; but no spot has yet presented,
in a single view, so pleasant a combination of natural
objects, mingled with mighty recollections, as that
lovely abode on the Sorrentine cliffs!”
“Recount me these pleasures,
that in memory seem so agreeable, while I examine
further into the contents of the bale.”
The gay young free-trader paused,
and seemed lost in images of the past. Then,
with a melancholy smile, he soon continued. “Though
many years are gone,” he said, “I can
recall the beauties of that scene, as vividly as if
they still stood before the eye. Our abode was
on the verge of the cliffs. In front lay the
deep-blue water, and on its further shore was a line
of objects such as accident or design rarely assembles
in one view. Fancy thyself, lady, at my side,
and follow the curvature of the northern shore, as
I trace the outline of that glorious scene! That
high, mountainous, and ragged island, on the extreme
left, is modern Ischia. Its origin is unknown,
though piles of lava lie along its coast, which seems
fresh as that thrown from the mountain yesterday.
The long, low bit of land, insulated like its neighbor,
is called Procida, a scion of ancient Greece.
Its people still preserve, in dress and speech, marks
of their origin. The narrow strait conducts you
to a high and naked bluff! That is the Misenum,
of old. Here Eneas came to land, and Rome
held her fleets, and thence Pliny took the water,
to get a nearer view of the labors of the volcano,
after its awakening from centuries of sleep. In
the hollow of the ridge, between that naked bluff
and the next swell of the mountain, lie the fabulous
Styx, the Elysian fields, and the place of the dead,
as fixed by the Mantuan. More on the height and
nearer to the sea, lie, buried in the earth, the vast
vaults of the Piscina Mirabile and the gloomy
caverns of the Hundred Chambers; places that equally
denote the luxury and the despotism of Rome.
Nearer to the vast pile of castle, that is visible
so many leagues, is the graceful and winding Baiaen
harbor; and against the side of its sheltering hills,
once lay the city of villas. To that sheltered
hill, emperors, consuls, poets, and warriors, crowded
from the capital, in quest of repose, and to breathe
the pure air of a spot in which pestilence has since
made its abode. The earth is still covered with
the remains of their magnificence, and ruins of temples
and baths are scattered freely among the olives and
fig-trees of the peasant. A fainter bluff limits
the north-eastern boundary of the little bay.
On it, once, stood the dwellings of emperors.
There Cæsar sought retirement, and the warm springs
on its side are yet called the baths of the bloody
Nero. That small conical hill, which, as you
see, possesses a greener and fresher look than the
adjoining land, is a cone ejected by the caldron beneath,
but two brief centuries since. It occupies, in
part, the site of the ancient Lucrine lake. All
that remains of that famous receptacle of the epicure,
is the small and shallow sheet at its base, which is
separated from the sea by a mere thread of sand.
More in the rear, and surrounded by dreary hills,
lie the waters of Avernus. On their banks still
stand the ruins of a temple, in which rites were celebrated
to the infernal deities. The grotto of the Sybil
pierces that ridge on the left, and the Cumaean passage
is nearly in its rear. The town, which is seen
a mile to the right, is Pozzuoli a port
of the ancients, and a spot now visited for its temples
of Jupiter and Neptune, its mouldering amphitheatre,
and its half-buried tombs. Here Caligula attempted
his ambitious bridge; and while crossing thence to
Baiae, the vile Nero had the life of his own mother
assailed. It was there, too, that holy Paul came
to land, when journeying a prisoner to Rome.
The small but high island, nearly in its front, is
Nisida, the place to which Marcus Brutus retired after
the deed at the foot of Pompey’s statue, where
he possessed a villa, and whence he and Cassius sailed
to meet the shade and the vengeance of the murdered
Cæsar, at Philippi. Then comes a crowd of sites
more known in the middle ages; though just below that
mountain, in the back-ground, is the famous subterranean
road of which Strabo and Seneca are said to speak,
and through which the peasant still daily drives his
ass to the markets of the modern city. At its
entrance is the reputed tomb of Virgil, and then commences
an amphitheatre of white and terraced dwellings.
This is noisy Napoli itself, crowned with its rocky
castle of St. Elmo! The vast plain, to the right,
is that which held the enervating Capua and so many
other cities on its bosom. To this succeeds the
insulated mountain of the volcano, with its summit
torn in triple tops. ’Tis said that villas
and villages, towns and cities, lie buried beneath
the vineyards and palaces which crowd its base.
The ancient and unhappy city of Pompeii stood on that
luckless plain, which, following the shores of the
bay, comes next; and then we take up the line of the
mountain promontory, which forms the Sorrentine side
of the water!”
“One who has had such schooling,
should know better how to turn it to a good account;”
said Ludlow, sternly, when the excited smuggler ceased
to speak.
“In other lands, men derive
their learning from books; in Italy, children acquire
knowledge by the study of visible things:”
was the undisturbed answer
“Some from this country are
fond of believing that our own bay, these summer skies,
and the climate in general, should have a strict resemblance
to those of a region which lies precisely in our own
latitude;” observed Alida, so hastily, as to
betray a desire to preserve the peace between her
guests.
“That your Manhattan and Raritan
waters are broad and pleasant, none can deny, and
that lovely beings dwell on their banks, lady,”
returned Seadrift, gallantly lifting his cap, “my
own senses have witnessed. But ’twere wiser
to select some other point of your excellence, for
comparison, than a competition with the glorious waters,
the fantastic and mountain isles, and the sunny hill-sides
of modern Napoli! ’Tis certain the latitude
is even in your favor, and that a beneficent sun does
not fail of its office in one region more than in
the other. But the forests of America are still
too pregnant of vapors and exhalations, not to impair
the purity of the native air. If I have seen much
of the Mediterranean, neither am I a stranger to these
coasts. While there are so many points of resemblance
in their climates, there are also many and marked causes
of difference.”
“Teach us, then, what forms
these distinctions, that, in speaking of our bay and
skies, we may not be led into error.”
“You do me honor, lady; I am
of no great schooling, and of humble powers of speech.
Still, the little that observation may have taught
me, shall not be churlishly withheld. Your Italian
atmosphere, taking the humidity of the seas, is sometimes
hazy. Still water in large bodies, other than
in the two seas, is little known in those distant
countries. Few objects in nature are drier than
an Italian river, during those months when the sun
has most influence. The effect is visible in the
air, which is in general elastic, dry, and obedient
to the general laws of the climate. There floats
less exhalation, in the form of fine and nearly invisible
vapor, than in these wooded regions. At least,
so he of whom I spoke, as one who guided my youth,
was wont to say.”
“You hesitate to tell us of
our skies, our evening light, and of our bay?”
“It shall be said, and said
sincerely Of the bays, each seems to have
been appropriated to that for which nature most intended
it. The one is poetic, indolent, and full
of graceful but glorious beauty; more pregnant of
enjoyment than of usefulness. The other will,
one day, be the mart of the world!”
“You still shrink from pronouncing
on their beauty;” said Alida, disappointed,
in spite of an affected indifference to the subject.
“It is ever the common fault
of old communities to overvalue themselves, and to
undervalue new actors in the great drama of nations,
as men long successful disregard the efforts of new
aspirants for favor;” said Seadrift, while he
looked with amazement at the pettish eye of the frowning
beauty. “In this instance, however, Europe
has not so greatly erred. They who see much resemblance
between the bay of Naples and this of Manhattan, have
fertile brains; since it rests altogether on the circumstance
that there is much water in both, and a passage between
an island and the main-land, in one, to resemble a
passage between two islands in the other. This
is an estuary, that a gulf; and while the former has
the green and turbid water of a shelving shore and
of tributary rivers, the latter has the blue and limpid
element of a deep sea. In these distinctions,
I take no account of ragged and rocky mountains, with
the indescribable play of golden and rosy light upon
their broken surfaces, nor of a coast that teems with
the recollections of three thousand years!”
“I fear to question more.
But surely our skies may be mentioned, even by the
side of those you vaunt?”
“Of the skies, truly, you have
more reason to be confident. I remember that
standing on the Capo di Monte, which
overlooks the little, picturesque, and crowded beach
of the Marina Grande, and Sorrento, a spot that teems
with all that is poetic in the fisher man’s life,
he of whom I have spoken, once pointed to the transparent
vault above, and said, ’There is the moon of
America!’ The colors of the rocket were not more
vivid than the stars that night, for a Tramontana
had swept every impurity from the air, far upon the
neighboring sea. But nights like that are rare,
indeed, in any clime! The inhabitants of low
latitudes enjoy them occasionally; those of higher
never.”
“And then our flattering belief,
that these western sunsets rival those of Italy, is
delusion?”
“Not so, lady. They rival,
without resembling. The color of the etui, on
which so fair a hand is resting, is not softer than
the hues one sees in the heavens of Italy. But
if your evening sky wants the pearly light, the rosy
clouds, and the soft tints which, at that hour, melt
into each other, across the entire vault of Napoli,
it far excels in the vividness of the glow, in the
depth of the transitions, and in the richness of colors.
Those are only more delicate, while these are more
gorgeous! When there shall be less exhalation
from your forests, the same causes may produce the
same effects. Until then, America must be content
to pride herself on an exhibition of nature’s
beauty, in a new, though scarcely in a less pleasing,
form.”
“Then they who come among us
from Europe, are but half right, when they deride
the pretensions of our bay and heavens?”
“Which is much nearer the truth
than they are wont to be, on the subject of this continent.
Speak of the many rivers, the double outlet, the numberless
basins, and the unequalled facilities of your Manhattan
harbor; for in time, they will come to render all
the beauties of the unrivalled bay of Naples vain:
but tempt not the stranger to push the comparison
beyond. Be grateful for your skies, lady, for
few live under fairer or more beneficent But
I tire you with these opinions, when here are colors
that have more charms for a young and lively imagination,
than even the tints of nature!”
La belle Barberie smiled on the dealer
in contraband, with an interest that sickened Ludlow;
and she was about to reply, in better humor, when
the voice of her uncle announced his near approach.