Devereux — Complete

A Change in Conduct and in Character: our evil Passions will some- times produce good Effects; and on the contrary, an Alteration for the better in Manners will, not unfrequentl...

The Hero acquits himself honourably as a Coxcomb.--A Fine Lady of the Eighteenth Century, and a fashionable Dialogue; the Substance of fashionable Dialogue being in all Centurie...

The Hero in London.--Pleasure is often the shortest, as it is the earliest road to Wisdom, and we may say of the World what Zeal-of- the-Land-Busy says of the Pig-Booth, “We esc...

Love; Parting; a Death-Bed.--After all human Nature is a beautiful Fabric; and even its Imperfections are not odious to him who has studied the Science of its Architecture, and...

Reflections.--A Soiree.--The Appearance of one important in the History.--A Conversation with Madame de Balzac highly satisfactory and cheering.--A Rencontre with a curious old...

MY grandfather, Sir Arthur Devereux (peace be with his ashes!) was a noble old knight and cavalier, possessed of a property sufficiently large to have maintained in full dignity...

“YOU are ruining the children, my dear Sir William,” said my gentle mother, one day when I had been particularly witty; “and the Abbe Montreuil declares it absolutely necessary...

A CHANGE IN CONDUCT AND IN CHARACTER: OUR EVIL PASSIONS WILL SOMETIMES PRODUCE GOOD EFFECTS; AND ON THE CONTRARY, AN ALTERATION FOR THE BETTER IN MANNERS WILL, NOT UNFREQUENTLY,...

THE Abbe was now particularly courteous to me. He made Gerald and myself breakfast with him, and told us nothing was so amiable as friendship among brothers. We agreed to the se...

WE were all three (my brothers and myself) precocious geniuses. Our early instructions, under a man like the Abbe, at once learned and worldly, and the society into which we had...

THREE days after the arrival of St. John, I escaped from the crowd of impertinents, seized a volume of Cowley, and, in a fit of mingled poetry and melancholy, strolled idly into...

A DAY or two after the conversation recorded in my last chapter, St. John, to my inexpressible regret, left us for London; however, we had enjoyed several conferences together d...

WE are under very changeful influences in this world! The night on which occurred the interview with Aubrey that I have just narrated, I was burning to leave Devereux Court. Wit...

I HASTENED home after my eventful interview with Isora, and gave myself up to tumultuous and wild conjecture. Aubrey sought me the next morning: I narrated to him all that had o...

MY uncle for several weeks had flattered himself that I had quite forgotten or foregone the desire of leaving Devereux Court for London. Good easy man! he was not a little distr...

THE HERO ACQUITS HIMSELF HONOURABLY AS A COXCOMB.--A FINE LADY OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY, AND A FASHIONABLE DIALOGUE; THE SUBSTANCE OF FASHIONABLE DIALOGUE BEING IN ALL CENTURIE...

THE next evening, when I was sitting alone in my room, the Abbe Montreuil suddenly entered. “Ah, is it you? welcome!” cried I. The priest held out his arms, and embraced me in t...

THE next morning I communicated to the Abbe my intention of proceeding to London. He received it with favour. “I myself,” said he, “shall soon meet you there: my office in your...

THE Abby disappeared! It is astonishing how well everybody bore his departure. My mother scarcely spoke on the subject; but along the irrefragable smoothness of her temperament...

I TOOK the first opportunity to escape from the good company who were so divided in opinion as to my mental accomplishments, and repaired to my mother; for whom, despite of her...

THE HERO IN LONDON.--PLEASURE IS OFTEN THE SHORTEST, AS IT IS THE EARLIEST ROAD TO WISDOM, AND WE MAY SAY OF THE WORLD WHAT ZEAL-OF-THE-LAND-BUSY SAYS OF THE PIG-BOOTH, “WE ESCA...

“WELL, Tarleton,” said I, looking round that mart of millinery and love-making, which, so celebrated in the reign of Charles II., still preserved the shadow of its old renown in...

THE next night, after the theatre, Tarleton and I strolled into Wills’s. Half-a-dozen wits were assembled. Heavens! how they talked! actors, actresses, poets, statesmen, philoso...

A LITTLE affected by the vinous potations which had been so much an object of anticipation with my companion, Tarleton and I were strolling homeward when we perceived a remarkab...

MR. FIELDING having twice favoured me with visits, which found me from home, I thought it right to pay my respects to him; accordingly one morning I repaired to his abode. It wa...

As I was riding with Tarleton towards Chelsea, one day, he asked me if I had ever seen the celebrated Mr. Salter. “No,” said I, “but I heard Steele talk of him the other night a...

ST. JOHN was now in power, and in the full flush of his many ambitious and restless schemes. I saw as much of him as the high rank he held in the state, and the consequent busin...

“Because I am not enough of the ‘pretty fellow;’ am tired of carrying hood and scarf, and sitting behind her chair through five long acts of a dull play; because I disappointed...

THE scenes through which, of late, I have conducted my reader are by no means episodical: they illustrate far more than mere narration the career to which I was so honourably de...

SIR WILLIAM’S letter was still fresh in my mind, when, for want of some less noble quarter wherein to bestow my tediousness, I repaired to St. John. As I crossed the hall to his...

MY first proposal was to remove the patient, with all due care and gentleness, to a better lodging, and a district more convenient for the visits of the most eminent physicians....

SPINOZA is said to have loved, above all other amusements, to put flies into a spider’s web; and the struggles of the imprisoned insects were wont to bear, in the eyes of this g...

LOVE; PARTING; A DEATH-BED.--AFTER ALL HUMAN NATURE IS A BEAUTIFUL FABRIC; AND EVEN ITS IMPERFECTIONS ARE NOT ODIOUS TO HIM WHO HAS STUDIED THE SCIENCE OF ITS ARCHITECTURE, AND...

I SHUT myself up in the apartments prepared for me (they were not those I had formerly occupied), and refused all participation in my solitude, till, after an interval of some d...

BEFORE sunrise the next morning I had commenced my return to London. I had previously intrusted to the _locum tenens_ of the sage Desmarais, the royal gift, and (singular conjun...

To use the fine image in the “Arcadia,” it was “when the sun, like a noble heart, began to show his greatest countenance in his lowest estate,” that I arrived at Isora’s door. I...

THE day for the public solemnization of our marriage was at length appointed. In fact, the plan for the future that appeared to me most promising was to proffer my services to s...

MEN of the old age! what wonder that in the fondness of a dim faith, and in the vague guesses which, from the frail ark of reason, we send to hover over a dark and unfathomable...

MONTHS passed away before my senses returned to me. I rose from the bed of suffering and of madness calm, collected, immovable,--altered, but tranquil. All the vigilance of just...

IT is not my intention to write a political history, instead of a private biography. No doubt in the next century there will be volumes enough written in celebration of that era...

IT was a brilliant night at the theatre. The boxes were crowded to excess. Every eye was directed towards Lord Bolingbroke, who, with his usual dignified and consummate grace of...

THE ex-minister was received both at Calais and at Paris with the most gratifying honours: he was then entirely the man to captivate the French. The beauty of his person, the gr...

BOULAINVILLIERS! Comte de St. Saire! What will our great-grandchildren think of that name? Fame is indeed a riddle! At the time I refer to, wit, learning, grace--all things that...

I THINK it was the second day after this “feast of reason” that Lord Bolingbroke deemed it advisable to retire to Lyons till his plans of conduct were ripened into decision. We...

REFLECTIONS.--A SOIREE.--THE APPEARANCE OF ONE IMPORTANT IN THE HISTORY.--A CONVERSATION WITH MADAME DE BALZAC HIGHLY SATISFACTORY AND CHEERING.--A RENCONTRE WITH A CURIOUS OLD...

ON entering Paris, my veteran fellow-traveller took leave of me, and I proceeded to my hotel. When the first excitement of my thoughts was a little subsided, and after some feel...

THE Regent remained silent for a moment: he then said in an altered and grave voice, “_C’est bien, Monsieur_! I thank you for the distinction you have made. It were not amiss” (...

WHAT a singular scene was that private supper with the Regent of France and his _roues_! The party consisted of twenty: nine gentlemen of the court besides myself; four men of l...

I WENT a little out of my way, on departing from Paris, to visit Lord Bolingbroke, who at that time was in the country. There are some men whom one never really sees in capitals...

MYSTERIOUS impulse at the heart, which never suffers us to be at rest, which urges us onward as by an unseen yet irresistible law--human planets in a petty orbit, hurried foreve...

IT was certainly like entering a new world when I had the frigid felicity of entering Russia. I expected to have found Petersburg a wonderful city, and I was disappointed; it wa...

THE next day I dressed myself in my richest attire; and, according to my appointment, went with as much state as I could command to the Czar’s palace (if an exceedingly humble a...

IT was singular enough that my introduction to the notice of Peter the Great and Philip le Debonnaire should have taken place under circumstances so far similar that both those...

IT is a strange feeling we experience on entering a great city by night,--a strange mixture of social and solitary impressions. I say by night, because at that time we are most...

THE last accounts received of the Czar reported him to be at Dantzic. He had, however, quitted that place when I arrived there. I lost no time in following him, and presented my...

I ARRIVED at St. Petersburg, and found the Czarina, whose conjugal perfidy was more than suspected, tolerably resigned to the extinction of that dazzling life whose incalculable...

O EARTH! Reservoir of life, over whose deep bosom brood the wings of the Universal Spirit, shaking upon thee a blessing and a power,--a blessing and a power to produce and repro...

THE thorough and deep investigation of those principles from which we learn the immortality of the soul, and the nature of its proper ends, leads the mind through such a course...

POWERFUL, though not clearly developed in my own mind, was the motive which made me so strongly desire to preserve the _incognito_ during my interview with the Hermit. I have be...

AT night, and in the thrilling forms of the Catholic ritual, was Aubrey Devereux consigned to earth. After that ceremony I could linger no longer in the vicinity of the hermitag...

I ARRIVED in town, and drove at once to Gerald’s house. It was not difficult to find it, for in my young day it had been the residence of the Duke of------; and wealthy as I kne...

ALTHOUGH the details of my last chapter have somewhat retarded the progress of that _denouement_ with which this volume is destined to close, yet I do not think the destined rea...

IT happened unfortunately that the mission to------was indispensable. The slender accommodation of the tower forbade Gerald the use of his customary attendants, and the neighbou...