The Plague, Pestilence & Apocalypse MEGAPACK™

by Robert Reed

  the country,” said Ryland, “to lay so much stress upon words and

  frippery; it is a question of nothing; of the new painting of carriage-

  pannels and the embroidery of footmen’s coats .”

  Yet could England indeed doff her lordly trappings, and be con-

  tent with the democratic style of America? Were the pride of ances-

  try, the patrician spirit, the gentle courtesies and refined pursuits,

  splendid attributes of rank, to be erased among us? We were told that

  this would not be the case; that we were by nature a poetical people,

  a nation easily duped by words, ready to array clouds in splendour,

  and bestow honour on the dust . This spirit we could never lose; and

  it was to diffuse this concentrated spirit of birth, that the new law

  was to be brought forward . We were assured that, when the name

  and title of Englishman was the sole patent of nobility, we should

  all be noble; that when no man born under English sway, felt an-

  other his superior in rank, courtesy and refinement would become

  the birth-right of all our countrymen . Let not England be so far dis-

  graced, as to have it imagined that it can be without nobles, nature’s

  true nobility, who bear their patent in their mien, who are from their

  cradle elevated above the rest of their species, because they are bet-

  ter than the rest . Among a race of independent, and generous, and

  well educated men, in a country where the imagination is empress of

  men’s minds, there needs be no fear that we should want a perpetual

  succession of the high-born and lordly . That party, however, could

  hardly yet be considered a minority in the kingdom, who extolled

  the ornament of the column, “the Corinthian capital of polished

  society;” they appealed to prejudices without number, to old attach-

  ments and young hopes; to the expectation of thousands who might

  one day become peers; they set up as a scarecrow, the spectre of all

  that was sordid, mechanic and base in the commercial republics .

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  The plague had come to Athens . Hundreds of English residents

  returned to their own country . Raymond’s beloved Athenians, the

  free, the noble people of the divinest town in Greece, fell like ripe

  corn before the merciless sickle of the adversary . Its pleasant places

  were deserted; its temples and palaces were converted into tombs;

  its energies, bent before towards the highest objects of human ambi-

  tion, were now forced to converge to one point, the guarding against

  the innumerous arrows of the plague .

  At any other time this disaster would have excited extreme com-

  passion among us; but it was now passed over, while each mind

  was engaged by the coming controversy . It was not so with me;

  and the question of rank and right dwindled to insignificance in my

  eyes, when I pictured the scene of suffering Athens . I heard of the

  death of only sons; of wives and husbands most devoted; of the

  rending of ties twisted with the heart’s fibres, of friend losing friend,

  and young mothers mourning for their first born; and these moving

  incidents were grouped and painted in my mind by the knowledge

  of the persons, by my esteem and affection for the sufferers . It was

  the admirers, friends, fellow soldiers of Raymond, families that had

  welcomed Perdita to Greece, and lamented with her the loss of her

  lord, that were swept away, and went to dwell with them in the un-

  distinguishing tomb .

  The plague at Athens had been preceded and caused by the con-

  tagion from the East; and the scene of havoc and death continued

  to be acted there, on a scale of fearful magnitude . A hope that the

  visitation of the present year would prove the last, kept up the spirits

  of the merchants connected with these countries; but the inhabitants

  were driven to despair, or to a resignation which, arising from fa-

  naticism, assumed the same dark hue . America had also received the

  taint; and, were it yellow fever or plague, the epidemic was gifted

  with a virulence before unfelt. The devastation was not confined to

  the towns, but spread throughout the country; the hunter died in the

  woods, the peasant in the corn-fields, and the fisher on his native

  waters .

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  A strange story was brought to us from the East, to which little

  credit would have been given, had not the fact been attested by a

  multitude of witnesses, in various parts of the world . On the twen-

  ty-first of June, it was said that an hour before noon, a black sun

  arose: an orb, the size of that luminary, but dark, defined, whose

  beams were shadows, ascended from the west; in about an hour

  it had reached the meridian, and eclipsed the bright parent of day .

  Night fell upon every country, night, sudden, rayless, entire . The

  stars came out, shedding their ineffectual glimmerings on the light-

  widowed earth . But soon the dim orb passed from over the sun,

  and lingered down the eastern heaven . As it descended, its dusky

  rays crossed the brilliant ones of the sun, and deadened or distorted

  them . The shadows of things assumed strange and ghastly shapes .

  The wild animals in the woods took fright at the unknown shapes

  figured on the ground. They fled they knew not whither; and the

  citizens were filled with greater dread, at the convulsion which

  “shook lions into civil streets;”—birds, strong-winged eagles, sud-

  denly blinded, fell in the market-places, while owls and bats shewed

  themselves welcoming the early night . Gradually the object of fear

  sank beneath the horizon, and to the last shot up shadowy beams

  into the otherwise radiant air . Such was the tale sent us from Asia,

  from the eastern extremity of Europe, and from Africa as far west

  as the Golden Coast . Whether this story were true or not, the ef-

  fects were certain . Through Asia, from the banks of the Nile to the

  shores of the Caspian, from the Hellespont even to the sea of Oman,

  a sudden panic was driven. The men filled the mosques; the women,

  veiled, hastened to the tombs, and carried offerings to the dead, thus

  to preserve the living . The plague was forgotten, in this new fear

  which the black sun had spread; and, though the dead multiplied,

  and the streets of Ispahan, of Pekin, and of Delhi were strewed with

  pestilence-struck corpses, men passed on, gazing on the ominous

  sky, regardless of the death beneath their feet . The christians sought

  their churches,—christian maidens, even at the feast of roses, clad

  in white, with shining veils, sought, in long procession, the places

  consecrated to their religion, filling the air with their hymns; while,

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  ever and anon, from the lips of some poor mourner in the crowd, a

  voice of wailing burst, and the rest looked up, fancying they could

  discern the sweeping wings of angels, who passed over the earth,

  lamenting the disasters about to fall on man .

  In the sunny clime of Persia, in the crowded cities of China,

  amidst the aromatic groves of Cashmere, and along the southernr />
  shores of the Mediterranean, such scenes had place . Even in Greece

  the tale of the sun of darkness encreased the fears and despair of

  the dying multitude . We, in our cloudy isle, were far removed from

  danger, and the only circumstance that brought these disasters at all

  home to us, was the daily arrival of vessels from the east, crowded

  with emigrants, mostly English; for the Moslems, though the fear

  of death was spread keenly among them, still clung together; that,

  if they were to die (and if they were, death would as readily meet

  them on the homeless sea, or in far England, as in Persia,)— if they

  were to die, their bones might rest in earth made sacred by the relics

  of true believers . Mecca had never before been so crowded with pil-

  grims; yet the Arabs neglected to pillage the caravans, but, humble

  and weaponless, they joined the procession, praying Mahomet to

  avert plague from their tents and deserts .

  I cannot describe the rapturous delight with which I turned from

  political brawls at home, and the physical evils of distant countries,

  to my own dear home, to the selected abode of goodness and love;

  to peace, and the interchange of every sacred sympathy . Had I never

  quitted Windsor, these emotions would not have been so intense;

  but I had in Greece been the prey of fear and deplorable change;

  in Greece, after a period of anxiety and sorrow, I had seen depart

  two, whose very names were the symbol of greatness and virtue .

  But such miseries could never intrude upon the domestic circle left

  to me, while, secluded in our beloved forest, we passed our lives

  in tranquillity . Some small change indeed the progress of years

  brought here; and time, as it is wont, stamped the traces of mortality

  on our pleasures and expectations . Idris, the most affectionate wife,

  sister and friend, was a tender and loving mother . The feeling was

  not with her as with many, a pastime; it was a passion . We had had

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  three children; one, the second in age, died while I was in Greece .

  This had dashed the triumphant and rapturous emotions of maternity

  with grief and fear . Before this event, the little beings, sprung from

  herself, the young heirs of her transient life, seemed to have a sure

  lease of existence; now she dreaded that the pitiless destroyer might

  snatch her remaining darlings, as it had snatched their brother . The

  least illness caused throes of terror; she was miserable if she were at

  all absent from them; her treasure of happiness she had garnered in

  their fragile being, and kept forever on the watch, lest the insidious

  thief should as before steal these valued gems . She had fortunately

  small cause for fear . Alfred, now nine years old, was an upright,

  manly little fellow, with radiant brow, soft eyes, and gentle, though

  independent disposition . Our youngest was yet in infancy; but his

  downy cheek was sprinkled with the roses of health, and his unwea-

  ried vivacity filled our halls with innocent laughter.

  Clara had passed the age which, from its mute ignorance, was

  the source of the fears of Idris . Clara was dear to her, to all . There

  was so much intelligence combined with innocence, sensibility with

  forbearance, and seriousness with perfect good-humour, a beauty so

  transcendant, united to such endearing simplicity, that she hung like

  a pearl in the shrine of our possessions, a treasure of wonder and

  excellence .

  At the beginning of winter our Alfred, now nine years of age, first

  went to school at Eton . This appeared to him the primary step to-

  wards manhood, and he was proportionably pleased . Community of

  study and amusement developed the best parts of his character, his

  steady perseverance, generosity, and well-governed firmness. What

  deep and sacred emotions are excited in a father’s bosom, when he

  first becomes convinced that his love for his child is not a mere in-

  stinct, but worthily bestowed, and that others, less akin, participate

  his approbation! It was supreme happiness to Idris and myself, to

  find that the frankness which Alfred’s open brow indicated, the in-

  telligence of his eyes, the tempered sensibility of his tones, were not

  delusions, but indications of talents and virtues, which would “grow

  with his growth, and strengthen with his strength .” At this period,

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  the termination of an animal’s love for its offspring,—the true af-

  fection of the human parent commences . We no longer look on this

  dearest part of ourselves, as a tender plant which we must cherish, or

  a plaything for an idle hour . We build now on his intellectual facul-

  ties, we establish our hopes on his moral propensities . His weakness

  still imparts anxiety to this feeling, his ignorance prevents entire

  intimacy; but we begin to respect the future man, and to endeavour

  to secure his esteem, even as if he were our equal . What can a parent

  have more at heart than the good opinion of his child? In all our

  transactions with him our honour must be inviolate, the integrity of

  our relations untainted: fate and circumstance may, when he arrives

  at maturity, separate us for ever—but, as his aegis in danger, his

  consolation in hardship, let the ardent youth for ever bear with him

  through the rough path of life, love and honour for his parents .

  We had lived so long in the vicinity of Eton, that its population of

  young folks was well known to us . Many of them had been Alfred’s

  playmates, before they became his school-fellows . We now watched

  this youthful congregation with redoubled interest . We marked the

  difference of character among the boys, and endeavoured to read the

  future man in the stripling . There is nothing more lovely, to which

  the heart more yearns than a free-spirited boy, gentle, brave, and

  generous . Several of the Etonians had these characteristics; all were

  distinguished by a sense of honour, and spirit of enterprize; in some,

  as they verged towards manhood, this degenerated into presump-

  tion; but the younger ones, lads a little older than our own, were

  conspicuous for their gallant and sweet dispositions .

  Here were the future governors of England; the men, who, when

  our ardour was cold, and our projects completed or destroyed for

  ever, when, our drama acted, we doffed the garb of the hour, and

  assumed the uniform of age, or of more equalizing death; here were

  the beings who were to carry on the vast machine of society; here

  were the lovers, husbands, fathers; here the landlord, the politician,

  the soldier; some fancied that they were even now ready to appear

  on the stage, eager to make one among the dramatis personae of

  active life . It was not long since I was like one of these beardless

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  aspirants; when my boy shall have obtained the place I now hold,

  I shall have tottered into a grey-headed, wrinkled old man . Strange

  system! riddle of the Sphynx, most awe-striking! that thus man re-

  mains, while we the individuals pass away . Such
is, to borrow the

  words of an eloquent and philosophic writer, “the mode of existence

  decreed to a permanent body composed of transitory parts; wherein,

  by the disposition of a stupendous wisdom, moulding together the

  great mysterious incorporation of the human race, the whole, at one

  time, is never old, or middle-aged, or young, but, in a condition

  of unchangeable constancy, moves on through the varied tenour of

  perpetual decay, fall, renovation, and progression .”5

  Willingly do I give place to thee, dear Alfred! advance, offspring

  of tender love, child of our hopes; advance a soldier on the road

  to which I have been the pioneer! I will make way for thee . I have

  already put off the carelessness of childhood, the unlined brow, and

  springy gait of early years, that they may adorn thee . Advance; and I

  will despoil myself still further for thy advantage . Time shall rob me

  of the graces of maturity, shall take the fire from my eyes, and agility

  from my limbs, shall steal the better part of life, eager expectation

  and passionate love, and shower them in double portion on thy dear

  head . Advance! avail thyself of the gift, thou and thy comrades; and

  in the drama you are about to act, do not disgrace those who taught

  you to enter on the stage, and to pronounce becomingly the parts

  assigned to you! May your progress be uninterrupted and secure;

  born during the spring-tide of the hopes of man, may you lead up the

  summer to which no winter may succeed!

  CHAPTER V.

  Some disorder had surely crept into the course of the elements,

  destroying their benignant influence. The wind, prince of air, raged

  through his kingdom, lashing the sea into fury, and subduing the

  rebel earth into some sort of obedience .

  The God sends down his angry plagues from high,

  5

  Burke’s Reflections on the French Revolution.

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  Famine and pestilence in heaps they die.

  Again in vengeance of his wrath he falls

  On their great hosts, and breaks their tottering walls;

  Arrests their navies on the ocean’s plain,

  And whelms their strength with mountains of the main.6

  Their deadly power shook the flourishing countries of the south,

  and during winter, even, we, in our northern retreat, began to quake

  under their ill effects .